delight is with the sons of men as Solomon witnesseth of her And S. Iames bids us pray for her If any man want Wisdom let him ask it of God So that when the Prophet Baruch saith No man knoweth her way nor thinketh on her path is as much as if he should say No man by the Natural Spirit of a man can reach so far But S. Peter faith that we have precious promises of being made partakers of the Divine Nature And our Blessed Saviour argueth thus in the 11th of S. Luke If so be that men being evil know how to give good gifts to their children How much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him But what Shall therefore every one that saith Lord Lord or that can repeat their Pater noster receive the Holy Spirit of Wisdom No in no wise Only they that do the will of my Father which is in Heaven saith our Saviour If I encline to wickedness in my heart saith the Psalmist the Lord will not hear my prayer And indeed the old blind Poet could see so far into Divinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that obeys God God hears him So that we see that the foundation or beginning of this great work of Wisdom is that which the present Text points at viz. The fear of God The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom The words are plain and without ambiguity In the English especially The Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not of so a determinate sense but that it may signifie the principal the first best or chiefest of Wisdom as well as the beginning of Wisdom But the latter I take to be the better if not the only sense For Fear hath torment saith the Apostle but perfect love casteth out fear Wherefore this Fear is not the choicest or chiefest of true Wisdom But if we compare this place with its parallel we shall yet more plainly see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies merely a beginning or entrance Prov. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The entrance or first impenetration into Wisdom is the fear of God For the word comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to boar or pierce So that it is evident that the English Translation is the only sense of this place of Scripture In the handling whereof I will endeavour these two things 1. To shew somewhat more largely out of other places of Scripture the truth of this present Text That the Fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom 2. Why there is no other entrance than this into true Wisdom THE former is manifest out of many places of Scripture 1. Ecclesiastie 4. 17. For first she will walk with him by crooked wayes and bring him unto fear and dread and torment him with her discipline until she have tryed his soul and have proved him by her judgments Then will she return the streight way unto him and comfort him and shew him her secrets and heap upon him her treasures of Knowledge 2. Also Esai 66. at the beginning of the Chapter Thus saith the Lord The heaven is my throne and the earth is my foot-stool Where is that house that you will build unto me And where is that place of my rest Presently after he subjoineth To him will I look even to him that is of a poor and contrite spirit and trembleth at my words He therefore that fears the Lord shall become the Temple of God And it should seem no strange thing to us being the Apostle makes mention of the same more than once or twice Know you not that your bodies are the Temples of the Holy Ghost in the first Epistle to the Corinthians And in the same Epistle Know you not that you are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you Now what Benefit accrues to us by being the Temple of God we may gather by the nature and use of these Material Temples these Temples made with hands In these we know amongst the Heathen were the Initiations into the Mysteries of whatsoever Deity the place was Consecrate to But we need not straggle We see the use of outward Temples dayly here among our selves They are for Prayers Hymns and for Instruction out of the Word of God the literal Word of God in a gross material Temple Therefore in analogy in the Temple of our Souls and Spirits shall the essential word the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Eternal Word of God or God himself teach and instruct us And who teacheth like him as is said in Iob. There was so great Vertue in the very presence of the Person of Socrates as you may see in Plato that his Scholars profited very much merely by being in the same Room with him though he spake not unto them How much more shall they profit with whom the Spirit of Christ abideth as in his own proper House and Temple With what joy and admiration shall they be taken when in the Synagogue of their Hearts he shall stand up and read as in that Synagogue at Nazareth He hath sent me that I should heal the broken-hearted that I should preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind When he shall begin to say This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears Then shall all the powers and faculties of a mans Soul bear him witness and wonder at the gracious words that proceed out of his mouth Such a Teacher shall all such have that truly fear God 3. Again That Wisdom is usherd in by terrour fear and horrour seems to be the subject of the 29th Psalm The voice of the Lord is upon the waters the God of glory maketh it to thunder the Lord is upon the great waters Now that Waters are an Emblem of the moveable and tumultuous flowings of the Earthly Nature that Learned Iew doth teach us when as he calls the Waters of Edom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Waters towards which the King of Egypt made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the Platonists make but a sliding passing dream of corporeal and sensible things saying of them that they do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That they slide continually from the true essence by perpetual flowing So the Soul being united cum rebus fluxis caducis dissolved as it were and incorporate after a manner into their Watery nature and lost amongst it The mighty energy of the All-powerful Voice of God or Word of God doth operate upon these Waters for the producing of Light in them as in the first Creation And according to this Analogy speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. But to proceed further in the Psalm The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars yea the Lord breaketh the cedars of Lebanon The voice of the Lord maketh
that Tyrannick Prince that rules in the Sons of Disobedience he shall be excluded from the everlasting light of God and his Holy Truth And thus briefly under one we have seen how we are said to deceive our selves and the way to escape this self-deceit God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness shine in our hearts and give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ that we may walk before him in the truth of Life To Him with the Father and the Blessed Spirit c. DISCOURSE VII PROV xv 15. All the dayes of the afflicted are evil but a good conscience is a continual feast THE Text is a description of the estate of the wicked man and the righteous man Which will be more evident if we consult with the Septuagints Translation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. The eyes of the wicked continually expect evil but the Godly or good men are alwayes at rest Here do the LXX Interpreters express plainly that opposition of those persons and of their conditions Vngodly and good or godly unquietness of mind and perpetual rest As I pronounced concerning this Text at first that it is a description of the opposite conditions of those ever opposite off-springs of God and the Devil the Sons of Christ and the Sons of Belial the Children of Light and the Children of Darkness This Sense have the LXX put upon this portion of Scripture though the words themselves answer not so fitly to the Hebrew Text. To devise the occasion of their variation would be more easie though curious than profitable I intend not to mispend time or abuse your attention with the husks of words or fruitless discourse of Translations I will follow Symmachus in the first part of the Verse exactly answering to the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 All the dayes of the poor are evil in the second part the Hebrew it self But a good heart is a continual feast or as the words will bear He that hath a good heart feasts continually Now therefore that this Poverty is not to be understood of outward poverty is plain out of the Text. Continual feasting and constant poverty or affliction are contrary So that we must either exclude the poor man from having a good Heart and Conscience whereby all sorrow is dispell'd and continual joy and chearfulness obtained or else if he hath these joyes make him rich in outward wealth But sith the poor upright honest man through the continual comfort of his own good Conscience Dives like fares deliciously every day though poor in estate then surely none of his dayes are evil though he poor outwardly in them all So that this present Text is to be understood of an inward kind of poverty that makes a mans life full of evil and misery This evil poverty and miserable want is described in the Revelation of S. Iohn Ch. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not how thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked I counsel thee to buy of me gold tryed in the fire that thou mayst be made rich and white rayment that thou mayst be clothed and that thy filthy nakedness do not appear and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayst see Here 's good store of penury a wardrobe of want want of Money want of Clothes to cover their shame want of Eye-sight to be able to do that which is but a misery to go from door to door to beg But hear what 's said Verse 21. To him that overcometh will I give to sit with me in my Throne even as I overcame and sit with my Father in his Throne See what a change From a Begger to a King from a Dunghil to a Throne from a blind Wretch to a Judge upon a Throne that shall discern the right that shall judge the Twelve Tribes of Israel He that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man We have by this time plainly seen what this poor man is whose dayes are said all to be full of evil That he is one that wants those white Robes which is the Righteousness of the Saints wants that old precious coin whose image and superscription is Righteousness and true Holiness the figure of Christ the Son of God the express Portraiture of his Father He wants his Eye-sight the true Spiritual Wisdom holy Discretion the sense of Spirits and discovery of the mysterious working of that Prince of Darkness and Deceit He 's plainly destitute though not of the necessaries of this Life yet of that main one and only necessary thing as our Saviour calls it that better part that Mary chose and could not be taken from her Virtus nec eripi nec surripi◠potest Nor force nor fraud can deprive a man of that inward good And now I have described this poor man I think it is not hard to prove that all his dayes are evil By how much better the Soul is than the Body by so much worse are the Defects of the Soul than those of the Body 1. Is an Vlcer or Wound grievous in the Body Much more grievous is it then in the Soul or Spirit The Spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded Spirit who can bear Prov. 18. 14. 2. Is Blindness or Darkness an horrid thing to the Body then is Ignorance much more to the Soul As may appear from that excellent description of this AEgyptian darkness in the Book of Wisdom Chap. 17. When the unrighteous people thought to have thy holy people in subjection they were bound with the bands of darkness and long night and being shut up under the roof did lye there to escape the eternal providence But now that we think not only of outward darkness in the Air see what followes And while they thought to be hid in their dark sins they were scattered abroad in the dark covering of forgetfulness fearing horribly and troubled with visions For the den that hid them kept them not from fear But the sounds that were about them troubled them and terrible visions and horrible sights did appear No power of the fire might give light neither might the clear flames of the stars lighten the dreadful night And a few Verses after For it is a fearful thing when malice is condemned by her own testimony and a conscience that is touched doth ever forecast cruel things Thus having their eyes closed in misty sleep it doth not secure them from the trouble of fear For they that endure this intolerable night breath'd out of the dungeon of Hell as they sleep the same sleep so are they in like manner tortured with the same monstrous visions sounding for fear and perplexity of Spirit as is largely described in that Chapter But that this evil condition may appear more evil I will set the contrary by it God is light and in him
more particular degrees of their Progress And 6. What welcome they find at their Journeys end 1. The Country through which they travel is expresly set down in the Psalm Ver. 6. Who going through the valley of Baca make it a well which is ordinarily interpreted the Valley of Tears Which though it has a sad Appellation yet bears with it a good Omen according to that in 126 Psalm They that sow in tears shall reap in joy But Baca signifying also a Mulberry-Tree some would have it denominated from thence and also that it is so described to set out the sterility and dryness of the Soil as if as well the passage to as the place where the House of God is situated were all dry ground For such indeed is Mount Sion it self as its very name also imports which signifies aridity or ficcity Which any one will admit to bear without forcing an important signification who reflects on that Philosophical Aphorism Anima sicca anima pura or Anima sicca sapientissima And David whose mind was so hugely taken up with the projecting for a place for the House of God Psalm 132. ver 3 4 5. I will not come into the tabernacle of my house nor go up into my bed I will not give sleep to mine eyes or slumber to mine eye-lids until I find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Iacob immediately in the following Verse he in the Spirit of Prophecy delivers this great Arcanum Lo saith he we heard of it at Ephratah but we found it in the fields of the wood The common rumour indeed and conceit was that it should be built in Ephratah that is in regione frugiferâ in a fat rich fertile Soil but we find it in the fields of the wood in loco non tam culto nec amoeno as Calvin notes in a dry barren mountainous place indeed on Mount Moriah which some would have so called as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alluding to that in the Canticles as if it were a Myrrhiferous Mountain And such Wood indeed is a special demonstration of a dry and barren Ground which is congenerous with the signification of Mount Sion as also with what is observable in Philadelphia a type of the best State of the House of God in a collective sense it was placed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a region dry barren and burnt up with heat As David professeth that the Zeal of Gods House had even eaten him up or consumed him But as the outward man perisheth the inward man is renewed day by day But we had got to our Journeys-end the place of Gods House before we were well entred into our Journey That which I would observe is That the Region through which we pass to this State which is called the Holy Temple or House of God is no Ephratah it is not a Country of green Fields rich Pastures and rank Flowry Meadows but it is the Valley of Baca a dry barren Soil far from being fat fulsom and luscious And therefore all the self-favouring sweetnesses and caressings of this Terrestrial Body or Carnal Personality are driven far from this Region with all that false Wisdom or Prudence which arises from the Flesh or from corrupt Reasonings touching the Sovereign Goodness of God the doctrine of Love being abusable to the corruption of Life as well as the doctrine of Faith if men wander out of the Valley of Baca into Fools-Paradises made by their own Carnal Phansie and Reason And this for the present shall serve briefly for the Description of the Country through which these Travellers to the House of God pass 2. Now how well they are provided for their Iourney is intimated also in this Psalm and mainly it is in three things Knowledge Faith and Sincerity Knowledge Namely of the wayes of God that they are to walk in Ver. 5. Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee in whose heart are thy wayes For so that Translation of the Psalms which is appointed by our Church to be read every day has it and that that Pronoun This is understood as if it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do not doubt and therefore rightly expressed in this Translation Who have the Journey they are to take the wayes and passages predelineated as it were in their hearts which denotes the best kind of Knowledge even that which is accompanied with Affection and hearty Conviction And surely it is not for nought that the Spirit of God so frequently in Scripture names the Heart for the chief seat of Wisdom which is yet the less marvellous considering that the Wisdom which the Scripture driveth at is Practical Wisdom Moral or Divine wherein the Heart is much concerned And the sense and touch of those Truths must pass the Heart as the Colours do the Eye before the Mind can give a steady assent to them For what the Eye is in reference to Colours that is the Heart in reference to the discrimination of Moral Good and Evil. And for this reason it is that as Seeing is attributed to the Eye so is Vnderstanding to the Heart so frequently in the Scripture The thing is so plain I need alledge no places Out of the Heart proceed evil thoughts saith our Saviour and consequently good ones too For the Heart is the Fountain of the Life and Spirits and according as they are so are our Imaginations whether sleeping or waking such our Ideas thoughts and propensions to belief especially in matters of Life whether Natural or Divine And therefore we must be very careful how we let our pragmatical light-minded Reason make laws of Life for us while our Hearts have not undergone the due measures of Purification because the thoughts and imaginations of our Hearts will certainly impose upon that Mercurial Faculty till the Soul be made more judiciously discerning in vertue of her Purity But our safest way is with these Travellers in the Valley of Baca to have Gods ways written in our Hearts for a Map to guide us by To the Law and to the Testimony If they speak not according to this word there is no light in them Whatever private suggestions arise in us and how featly soever managed by that slight Advocate carnal or unregenerate Reason we are to guide our Life by the Commandments of Christ whom God has exhibited to the World as our infallible Guide confirming his Authority and Doctrine by Signs and Miracles and by such wonderful Prophecies as it were madness in any man to prefer his own corrupt Reasonings imposed upon by an unsanctify'd Heart before those Divine Oracles and unerring Laws of Life which are given unto us by the Son of God so declared and manifested to the World The first requisite point therefore which is Knowledge is an hearty admittance of those Laws of Life which are prescribed us by Christ and his Apostles to take up these for Principles to walk by and not what our own self-favouring
He has no room for them I therefore leave him to disgorge himself They are too great for him though he phansies them too little And intùs existens prohibet extraneum He is too full of his own Supper So that he has no stomach nor appetite nor the least relish or conceiving of Christs Supper But whatever it is to him I will endeavour to raise some apprehension of it in us if I may by any means speak that which may prove profitable unto us There must be some near affinity and likeness betwixt that which is nourished and the nutriment it receiveth Mans Body cannot be fed with Stones or Metals but with Plants and Living Creatures their Flesh and Substance being near enough the Nature of our Bodies which are of the like nature with other Animals and Plants Our Souls I mean alwayes of the Regenerate or we our selves for 't is all one have our birth and being of the will of God Iohn 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his name which were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God viz. of the will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being to be repeated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And certainly the very depth or essential bottom and centre of the new Creature is the Divine Will a Will raised up in the Soul of man perfectly answerable to the Will of God though not so absolutely powerful This is the very new Birth and the new Creature This is Christ in us and we in him And he that is thus in Christ he is a new Creature He that is not thus never knew Christ unless according to the Flesh. When I say the Divine Will is the very inward Essence or Heart of the new Creature I mean not any desire toward God and his outward Service or to Knowledge of him and his works or the beautifying and adorning a mans Soul with Moral Vertues but a full and absolute Resignation of a mans self unto the Will of God our Desires not at all circuling into our selves For it is a sign then that they sprung from our selves But our Desire and Will being melted as it were into one Will with God and desiring nothing but for God and because God desires it and wills it Then shall not our Natural Will be the First mover in our desire of Knowledge or of Vertue or of Power or whatever is desirable but the Divine Will in us shall will all this for God as He is in man that is freely and without all Hypocrisie or Self-love This is the very Root of the new Birth This is the Divine Life And whatsoever is not of this is either but Natural or Devilish This is the new Creature the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Plant of Gods own planting whose will is in the Law of the Lord and in that Law doth he exercise himself both day and night This is the Lamp of God the Eye of God fixt in the Soul of man that loaths all Objects represented to it that arise from the will of the Flesh or the false hypocritical suggestions of mans heart but has its whole lust and desire after the Will of God hungers and thirsts meerly after it This is that that turns away at our Prayers and Praises at our Fasts and Alms-deeds at our Censuring and Conferring at our Zeal and Devotion viz. as often as they are foul'd and beslutted with the filth of our own Wills and Self-ingagements either of temper of body or temporal projects This is that righteous man that hateth lying and before whom the wicked man is loathsome and comes to shame Prov. 13. We having therefore thus found out the Nature and Constitution of the New Creature the Regenerate Soul it is no wonder to us to find out the proper food of it The first Adam is of the Earth Earthly and therefore feeds of Earthly Food The second Adam viz. the new Creature is not of the Earth but of the free Heavenly Substance born of the Will of God and therefore he breaths no other Air sucks in no other Life or Food than the Free Will of God This is that that satisfies and this alone can satisfie And now we have found the Food of the Regenerate Soul it will not be hard to find out the Poyson If the Will of God be the Souls Sustenance then our own Will be it to us as sweet as it can be it is our Poyson and Destruction It is a Cup of deadly Wine of which by how much more deep every man drinks by so much more is he made stupid and sensless as concerning the Godly Life till he be even perfectly dead drunk and do 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that Phrase of Plotinus is lye in the very dirt These things are safelier felt then spoken However it will not be amiss a little by way of Analogy to open the nature of that Spiritual Food mentioned in the Text My meat is to do the will of him that sent me The Soul set on fire by the Will of God and become one Divine Flame must as our Natural Flame be kept alive by motion and agitation The Will of God is the Pabulum of this Flame but if it continue flaming it must act and move within at least and without as oft as occasion permits or requires otherwise it will be suffocate and extinct But we need not dwell so low as upon inanimates Let 's see what is Food in reference to that which has Life Health growth strength sweetness of taste and satisfying the stomach these belong to the Food of the Body Let 's see if we can find these in the Will of God in reference to the Regenerate Soul 1. Health Prov. 3. 7 8. Be not wise in thine own eyes fear the Lord and depart from evil i. e. think not that the lust desire and determination of thine own Carnal and unregenerate mind is the best but abstain from that which it longs after and fear thou God i. e. adhere to that which he has revealed to thee to be his Will fear to transgress his Law It shall be health to thy navel and marrow to thy bones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet the Law of God is no charm to cure the body but it must do it by making the Soul first healthful But to dispatch this Truth in a word What is the disease or languishment of the Soul but Sin What is Sin but velle contra ac Deus vult Wherefore He that wills as God wills so long as he continues so is safe from Sin the disease of the Soul This Diet-drink will not only keep the Regenerate Soul in health but even metamorphoze Satan himself into a Saint When as Self-will and the feeding on our own Desires will so decay the constitution and complexion of the soundest
conceive not that the Spirit of God writes in Lawyers lines a little in a great deal but a great deal in a little I could travel further in this seeming Digression upon the Apostles words and yet bring all home at the last but I will rather pull in the reins and put on strait to the place I left If then without Hearing at least in some sense or other no Faith without Faith no Calling upon God without Calling upon God no Salvation without Salvation from the Old Man and his deceitful Iust no Regeneration then surely it is very requisite that we give heed to the Word and hearken to it and dispose our selves aright for the receiving of it as the necessary Seed for our New Birth and Holy Regeneration According to this Analogy of calling the Word Seed the Auditors or Disciples of them that teach the Word are called Children as begotten of their Spiritual Parents by the effusion of this Seed of the Word So amongst the Hebrews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sons of the wise men are as much as the Disciples or those that hear and are instructed of the wise men and so filii Prophetarum And accordingly S. Paul Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travel in birth again till Christ be formed in you Ep. to Philemon ver 10. I beseech thee for Onesimus whom I have begotten in my bonds But we commonly take this expression to be metaphorical and the truth of every thing we ground in Sense and make account there is no generation but of Natural Bodies which we may touch and see making thus the visible World the idea and paradigm of better Essences and like Epicureans or Saducees we make nothing of invisibles or at least not conceiving aright of them set them in the scale of Truth at least a staff lower But if we could conceive that the spirit or life of every thing is the thing and that we look upon to be but the tabernacle or husk of it or any wise the vehicle or receptacle of it and not the thing it self We might very easily conceive that this Regeneration is as true and real generation as is in visible Nature and there is as it were rather a succession of a new Lord in this outward fabrick of our Bodies than the old new-clad with superficial accidentary habits Can the fig-tree my brethren bring forth olives either a vine figs So can no fountain make salt water and sweet So new actions in transient evolution must have a new centre or bottom of Essence which is the heart of life which is the being of every living creature Now the evolved life of man consists in this in knowledge or apprehension of things and a lively sympathy and antipathy with them whereby he doth either desire or abhor from them And if all the knowledge of these things which he now is perswaded of together with desire and abhorrency sympathy and antipathy fear or hope of future matters the memory of things past the sense of things present were utterly taken from him where would he be Or how would he feel out himself or find out himself This would be but turning man to destruction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They would thus become a sleep a sleep that they sleep that descend into the chambers of darkness and whom God hath covered in the grave And in some sence those words of Iob are excellent O that thou wouldst hide me in the grave and keep me secret till thy wrath were past and wouldst give me time and remember me Thou shalt call me I shall answer thee thou lovest the work of thine own hands When this death is perfected in which there is no life but only a sense that we are utterly dead to all things then God makes a new man contrary to that of the Devils framing and inspires a new Life and a new Breath and loves this work of his own hands Thou turnest man to destruction again thou sayest return ye sons of men So then if this be destruction and death then must a new sense and apprehension of things new sympathy and antipathy new embracing and abhorrency be a new life a new generation a new creature Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature Old things are passed away behold all things are become new Here is plainly a new species to speak in the Language of Philosophy For to distinguish species by outward figure and colour befits Children rather and Painters than Men of Understanding and true Philosophers The true and real inward difference betwixt a Stone Plant Brute and Man is that the second exceeds the first by the spirit of Vegetation the third the second by Sensation and the fourth the third by Reason And that a Regenerate man differs intrinsecally from a Natural man is that his sympathy sense and knowledge is in the life of the Spirit of God and the others in the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. So then the life of evolution or transient action in our Souls being utterly other from the Natural mans surely the original or centre of life is now quite another And here is generation of life ab intimo as deep as understanding can conceive of or apprehension penetrate to If then this Seed of the Word be of such efficacy that it beget a man into a new species even into the beautiful Image of Christ and that hereby we be linked into such Noble Kindred as to have to our Fathers such as are the Sons of God by Regeneration being born of God first themselves and so begetting Children in Christ. Otherwise they fling but Seed as Gardeners and Husbandmen do and that that grows is nothing like him that casts it Moreover we our selves being able after full age in the strength of Christ to propagate the lovely Image of the Life of God surely it should be a sufficient incitement to receive the Word with as much eagerness as the dry womb of the Earth doth the refreshing Rain after a long drought 3. But as the Word is Seed to beget so it hinders not but that it may be nourishment for the conservation and increase of that which is brought forth 1 Pet. 2. 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby 1 Cor. 3. I could not speak unto you brethren as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as unto babes in Christ I gave you milk to drink and not meat for you were not yet able to bear it There 's Milk and Meat Iohn 6. And Iesus said unto them I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst There 's Bread and Drink But this was such Bread as the Pharisees ill Stomachs could not digest neither as yet can they Is not this Iesus the son of Ioseph whose father and mother we know How then saith he I came down from Heaven
possessions He that overcomes shall be clothed in white shall feed of the hidden manna Not as the Children of Israel in the Wilderness who lived of Manna so many years and then perished I am the bread of life saith our Saviour your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead But this is the bread that cometh down from Heaven that he that eateth of it should not dye John 6. 48 49 50. and Ver. 32 33. Moses gave you not bread from Heaven but my Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven For the bread of God is he that cometh down from Heaven and giveth life unto the world Now what Life is this A vertuous honest Life a Life devoid of filthy lusts of base concupiscence of envy hatred and bitterness of idolatrous self-love for self-love is perfect idolatry Or is it an hypocritical false ungodly Life not escap'd the corruption of the Flesh that is by lust Surely it is the former or else our Heavenly Father instead of Bread giveth us a Stone which no Natural Father would do to his Son He therefore that lives not an honest godly and upright Life hath not been at this doal of Heavenly Bread and is but as one that dreameth he eateth and he eateth not as the Prophet Esay speaketh but when he waketh he is hungry and dreameth that he drinketh but when he waketh his soul is faint But he that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst saith our Blessed Saviour So here 's Meat Drink and Clothes sufficient if we perform the condition of overcoming Now overcoming presupposeth a fight and fighting an Adversary And God knows we have enough and strong ones too The three Captains of them be these the Flesh the World and the Devil To whom we are sworn Enemies from our very Baptism I am sure they are to us from the very beginning of the World I will briefly tell you a way to foyl them and so conclude the First part of my Text. Sobriety and Temperance will overcome the Flesh. Humility and Lowliness of mind will defeat the World Self-denyal which is the blessed Cross of Christ will keep off all the pestilent plots and devices the Devil can frame against us The Apostle doth harness us very surely and strongly for this great conflict Ephes. 6. Take unto you the whole armour of God that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having finished all things stand fast Stand therefore having your loins girt with verity and having on the breast-plate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace Above all taking the shield of Faith wherewith you may quench all the fiery darts of the wicked And take the helmet of Salvation and the sword of the Spirit that is the word of God Here 's compleat furniture for a Christian Souldier only he sets down no Back-piece because he intends not we should ever run away But he commends to us above all the shield of Faith which if we hold fast and become not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cowardly Souldiers such as cast away their Shield and take themselves to flight he warrants it of such proof as no shaft or brand of Hell can enter it What great deeds have been done and brave atchievments wrought by this Armature the Apostle in his Epistle to the Hebrews at the 11th Chapter doth largely discourse and at last more roundly and summarily conclude thus What shall I say more for the time would be too short for me to tell of Gideon of Barak and of Sampson and of Iephte also of David and Samuel and of the Prophets Which through Faith subdued kingdoms wrought righteousness obtained promises stopped the mouth of lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword of weak were made strong waxed valiant in battle turned to flight the armies of the aliens All these exploits are done by keeping fast the shield of Faith which is a sure Trust and Perswasion that God is able and ready to fight on our side The want of this Faith is that which makes the Devils Camp so victorious against us We are loth to believe that God can or will enable us to resist unto Blood even unto the effusion of that wicked Life and mortification of all Fleshly-mindedness But this is required and if we will believe that God would as heartily have it done as he doth plainly command it it would be done in good time Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the crown of life Rev. 2. If we dye with him then shall we also live with him For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Rom. 6. 5. THUS we have seen the evil afflicted case of him that is destitute of the true riches of the mind Temperance Piety Wisdom and all other Vertues as also the way to attain unto those durable riches and affluency of all good I will now go on to the Second part of my Text viz. A good Heart or a good Conscience is a continual Feast The Heart is the seat of Conscience i. e. of Desire or bent of Will and Knowledge Knowledge of things Moral or Divine So in Scripture we have oft mention of a wise and understanding Heart And surely if a man observe in Moral and Pious matters a man communeth with his Heart and discovereth deceit and hypocrisie there as he doth incongruities and falsities in his Brain where imagination is placed in Natural and Mathematical Theories Conscience therefore is nothing but the Censure of the Soul upon the guize of the Heart accusing or excusing its drifts intentions and acts And is called quiet or troubled Not that that light is alwayes so but that it causeth such a perturbation in the Spirit of man conscious to it self of evil committed Or otherwise thus Conscience is the impression of the true light of things Moral or Divine upon the Heart where Will and Intention and Motion of Life is As Reason Natural is the impression of the clear light of Truth in Natural Theories These true lights never vary but the impressions are more or less perfect sometime plainly false as the image of the Sun in the water when it appeareth broken or of a long form or in a mist when it appears red Hence is falshood and correction of falshood both in Heart and Brain For the clearer and more exact impression confuteth the imperfect if displaced or confirmeth it if only dim before But that common and vulgar apprehension of Conscience such as every man conceives when the word is named shall be sufficient for my Discourse And this is nothing but a certain disposition or condition of mind from the knowledge or remembrance of its acts and intentions which if they be represented as good simple and sincere Ioy and Rest follows if otherwise Disturbance
Regeneration of the inward Spirit to a new life from the very heart And again Col. 3. 9 10 11. Lie not one to another seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Where there is neither Greek nor Iew circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond nor free but Christ is all and in all This New Creature then is nothing but the Image of God in the Soul of man So witness both these Texts The new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness After God that is according to God or like him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the image of him that created him This New Creature is the likeness of God And the likeness of God as both these places evidently shew doth consist in Knowledge Righteousness and true Holiness The very same that Plato speaks at once in his Theatetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be like God is to become holy just and wise But because most men even the Old Adam in us take themselves to be holy just and wise It will be seasonable here to see what Justice Wisdom and Holiness this is that is in the New Creature And who can tell it so well as he that is it Matth. 5. 21 22. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment And whosoever shall say to his brother Racha shall be in danger of the council But whosoever shall say Thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire Ver. 27 28. Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time Thou shalt not commit adultery But I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart Ver. 33 34 37. Again ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time Thou shalt not forswear thy self but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths But I say unto you swear not at all But let your communication be yea yea nay nay for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil Ver. 38 39. Ye have heard that it hath been said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth But I say unto you that ye resist not evil Ver. 43 44. Ye have heard that it hath been said Thou shalt love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy But I say unto you Love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you Behold the exact and unblameable Righteousness that is in the Regenerate Soul far above the doctrine or thoughts of the Pharisees External Righteousness in the Outward man or to be internally just as far as corrupt reason suggests is but filthy raggs in respect of this Righteousness that Christ requires of us and the New Creature doth bring with it once grown up to its due stature in us Let every man examine himself by this rule And as this Iustice is far above I sometime contrary to the Justice of the Natural man for with him to hate his enemy to recompence evil with evil is just so the Holiness is far transcending the Holiness of the Scribes and Pharisees and Zelotical Ceremonialists For all Outward Ceremonies of Time or Place or Gestures or Vestments Rites or Orders they are all but Signs and Shows but the Body is Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Lastly that the Natural man phansie not himself wise as who is not of all precious things the most forward to appropriate that to himself that he phansie not himself wise before he be holy and just let him examine his Wisdom in the third Chap. of S. Iames's Ep. Ver. 13 14 15 16 17. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts glory not and lie not against the truth This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual devilish For where envying and strife is there is confusion and every evil work But the wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie The Righteousness then of the New Creature is a Righteousness far above the Letter of Moses's Law though exactly performed It s Holiness more resplendent than the Robe of Aaron and all his Priest-like Attire or whatsoever Ceremonies else God hath instituted or Man invented It s Wisdom far above all the thin-beaten subtleties of the disputacious Schools without contention or bitter contradiction And they that walk according to this rule This upright rule of everlasting Righteousness Peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace be on them or Peace is on them For the Verb is not exprest in the Greek Peace certainly is on them they having obtained the true Righteousness whose very Essence is Peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Peace of the Soul as the Pythagoreans have well defined it And how can there not but be Peace when they that cause tumult and rebellion in the Soul are dead Pride is dead Covetousness is dead Anger is dead Malice Hatred and Envy and Lust all dead and buried in the true Christian Baptism None left now but Reasons Liege Subjects The whole man now is but an Habitation of the Deity the Temple of God an Instrument for the Holy Ghost to work his Will by This is the Kingdom of God in us the Kingdom of Peace and Righteousness the Kingdom of Joy and Triumph in the Holy Ghost This is the Rule of Christ in us who is the Prince of Peace And they that are thus guided and ruled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Peace on them The inward Peace is on them they are at Peace with God and their own Conscience And God give them also Peace with men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let no man molest me let no man trouble me for I bear in my Body the marks of the Lord Iesus saith S. Paul in the following Verse The Apostles desire is but equal For why should any man afflict this peaceable generation of men Certainly it is either out of Ignorance or Malice whosoever do it Pray rather even for the outward Peace of this true Ierusalem They shall prosper that love thee For these indeed are the true Inhabitants of Salem whose Head or King is Melchizedek King of Righteousness and therefore King of Salem that is King of Peace This is as the Text doth plainly speak The Israel of
in and drown the Soul and choak all Life of Vertue and Goodness This is that great Deity of the Heaten This is the Idol of the Daughters of Moab whose stay and confidence is in this visible World whose joy and pleasure is in the Life of the Flesh. I will conclude with the Conclusion of the Psalmist Save us O Lord our God and gather us from among the Heathen to give thanks unto thy holy name and to triumph in thy praise Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting and let all the people say Amen Praise ye the Lord. DISCOURSE XV. COL iii. 1. If you then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God THIS Text contains in it that precious mystery of the internal or inward Resurrection of Christ in our Hearts or Souls which is the chief if not only saving Knowledge of that part of our Christian Religion For alas Beloved what will that outward Resurrection of our Saviour according to the flesh profit us though we have the History of it never so accurately nay though we had seen it with our own eyes We may lye in the grave of sin our selves for all that We may sink like a dead stone into the bottomless pit and have our portion with the damned Devils who have an Historical Faith of all the passages of Christs doings or sufferings here on Earth it may be better than our selves And those wicked Souldiers that watched his Sepulchre were perfectly convinced that he had escaped the jawes of Death But what was this to them who were yet dead in their trespasses and sins Surely nothing at all And as little is it to us Beloved if we be dead in sin and have not risen from the strong holding bands of iniquity and vanity Wherefore it is not enough to say Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification and so to imagine his Resurrection to be our raising from wickedness and corruption But we our selves also really and in truth are to rise from the grave of sin by the power of the enlivening Spirit of Jesus Christ. And whether we be thus risen indeed or no this present Text of Scripture will teach us If you be risen with Christ seek those things or you do seek those things which are above For the Greek Text will bear both senses I will first briefly run through the Sense of the words and then raise such Doctrines and Uses as shall most naturally flow from the Text and shall be most profitable for the promotion of that main work of our Salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If then you be risen with Christ That is If you be risen in your Souls as Christ in Body rose from the grave If your Souls have scaped the bands of the Spiritual Death which is the nature and life of Sin for that maketh us truly dead unto Righteousness and unto God as Christs Body broke from the Prison of the Sepulchre Then you seek those things that are above It must needs be understood of the Resurrection of the Soul from Sin because the Apostle did not Preach to dead men departed this Life once and again clothed with this Fleshly Tabernacle but to men who were alwayes alive from their first being born into this visible World In vain then had he taught them a sign of that which he knew would never come to pass till the Colossians were past his Preaching to to wit at the last day the time of the Resurrection of our Bodies And according to this manner doth the Apostle speak also of the Crucifixion of Christ making the outward Passion and Death of Christ a sign or resemblance of something in our Souls viz. our dying to Sin as here he hath made his Resurrection an emblem of our rising to Righteousness Rom. 6. 2 c.. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein Know you not that all we that have been baptised into Iesus Christ have been baptised into his death We are buried then with him by baptism into his death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father so we also should walk in newness of life For if we be grafted with him into the similitude of his death even so shall we be into the similitude of his resurrection Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin The Apostle there plainly compares our dying to Sin to the Crucifixion of our Saviour and that as he dyed on the Cross Corporally so we ought to crucifie the body of Sin in us by the power of God in our Spirits Thus have we good warrant from the example of the Apostle to look upon the Mystery of Christianity with Spiritual eyes The Birth the Death the Resurrection and Ascension of our Saviour Bodily have their similitude Spiritually in our Souls The Birth of Christ a resemblance of Christs being born in us Gal. 4. 19. My little children of whom I travail in the birth again till Christ be formed in you His Death of our dying to Sin as I have already declared Or of Christs being dead in us For we are also said to crucifie Christ by our ungodliness and by extinguishing his Spirit of power and illumination in us Heb. 6. 4. For it is impossible that they which were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted of the good word of God and of the powers of the world to come If they fall away that they should be renewed by repentance seeing they have crucified again to themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame Crucified again For verily Beloved from our very youth up we have laid dead the Son of God the suggestions of the Holy Life in our Consciences But yet it pleaseth God to raise his Son in us and recover him to Life by the Preaching of the powerful Messengers of God and the secret working of his Holy Spirit upon the Heart And here is Christ risen as it were from the grave But if we by loose and negligent courses destroy this Life of Christ in us and extinguish the Spirit of God in our Souls then do we crucifie the Son of God afresh and shame the profession of Regeneration and the Spirit of God and the true and living Christianism by our open revolting from the living God and taking part with the wicked of this World and their ungodly and sensual courses But now as Christ is thus in a Spiritual manner killed and crucified so when he is in us restor'd to Life it must needs be fittingly termed his Resurrection from Death And according to this sense may those words of my Text be understood also If you be risen with Christ That is If your Souls have become living