you are called to Libertie but use it not as an occasion for the flesh That is take not occasion from your liberty to live more sinfully to say you are made free and others are tyed by the Law and therefore you will live more carelesly and loosely and sinfully take heed and beware of that There were some it seemes I am sure there are some now that all the liberty and freedome they heare off from the Gospel or by getting off from the Law it is nothing in the World but that they may goe on more in sin and enjoy their lusts more freely this is to pervert the Gospel And what the end of these people shall be you The danger of abusing gospel-liberty may see in 2 Pet. 1. and in the Epistle of Jude They are appointed to damnation And their damnation slumbereth and sleepeth not That is they are going on amaine they are going faster towards Hell then any Drunkard or Whormonger A Malefactor never goeth so fast to death as these doe to destruction when all the knowledge of liberty that they have is onely to give occasion to provide more for their lusts then before Let us consider and take heed of that Another thing is seeing you have liberty by 2. Not to use liberty for the offence of our Brethren walking according to the spirit for where the spirit is there is freedome that is certaine use it not for the offence of your Brethren As some there are that when they heare they are free are ready to say I care not what all the World say I know this is not a sin and therefore I will doe it Beloved that is farr from walking worthy according to the Gospel I became all things saith Paul to all men that I might win some I am under the Law to them that are under the Law and without Law to them that are without Law I became all things to all men that I might gaine some So we must not please our selves but one another for edification Rom. 15. and condescend to them of low sort Rom. 12. Who is weake saith the Apostle and I am not weake If thou see a man under the Law fumbling and wallowing upon Mount Sinai without the knowledge of the Gospel despise him not and say he is a Legallist and what have we to doe with him but endeavour to frame thy heart and thy language and carriage so suitable to him that thou mayst win upon him and so with others This is the language of the Gospell and the true way of the spirit of God when a man knowes his freedome and yet he becomes all things to all men that he may doe them good There is one word that I thinke is the word and will of God and I desire that thou mayst take it so and carry it with thee A second thing that I advise you to that are 2. To walke humbly spirituall that the Lord hath revealed a little of the Gospel to it is this that you would endeavour to walk humbly O walk humbly Why so I will tell you why because a man when he is under Because of the abundance of revelations in the Gospell the law he shall be twenty yeares striving for a little knowledge or grace and shall hardly get them but as soone as ever a man comes rightly to Christ and to know him then there is such a flood of grace and such abundance of Revelations it is the Scriptures word there is such abundance of manifestations of GOD and of the Image of GOD when they begin to come in that it is a hard thing then to keepe the soule downe for spirituall things when they come in rightly when the Floud-gates are open they come in as Waves one upon the back of another For spiritull Gospell truths multiplie in the soule a thousand fold one lesson from another and one Scripture opens another and then there is no end and then it is hard to keepe the soule humble Therfore in 2 Cor. 12. When Paul was wrapt into the third Heavens because of the abundance of Revelations that he had seene for he had seen and heard things that he could not utter and speake to others he was readie to be proud to be lifted up and least he should be so God sent a Messenger of Satan to buffet him It implies it was a hard thing for Paul the Apostle when abundance of Revelations came into his soule not to be lifted up And this spoyles some honest hearts I hope they are so and that God will bring them home that having been kept bare of food as some Souldiers that went to releive Glocester when they came home to the Cittie they killed themselves with eating full and good food So when poore soules have gone upon the bare Mountaines of Sinai and then have come to the Pastures of righteousnesse they goe so greedily and are so taken that if God be not wonderfull mercifull they will be undone by being lifted up Therfore beware of this learne from Pauls example to seeke to the Lord to keep your hearts humble A third thing is this endeavour to walk simplie 3. To walk simply I meane to keepe to the simplicity of the Gospell The Gospell though there be glorious mysteries in it to feed the soule yet notwithstanding it is a plaine simple thing Now here the Devill endeavours to undoe soules as it is ordinary in this City when men come once to understand a little of the Gospell and to tast the sweetnesse of it The Devill makes men sublimate Religion into notions the Devill screws them up to sublimate all Religion into notions to cleave a haire and Religion will be all in Ideas and conceits of the nature of God and of the creature Whereas the Gospell is a plaine thing Paul desired to know the death of Christ and the power of his Resurrection And Paul teacheth Servants how to obey their Masters and Masters how to carry themselves to their Servants and VVives to their Husbands and such simple plaine things Now these things are accounted nothing that is the Reason that many among us they doe more and more loose the Word of God unlesse it be about some sublime notions If a Minister be upon such poynts some high Ideas for they feed upon such that is worth the while but if a Minister speake of things that concerne their calling or their sex and condition that is plaine it hath no tast in it no more then the white of an Egg. It is a hard thing to keepe to the simplicity of the Gsopell As the Devill tempted our first Parents God gave Adam and Eve sufficient knowledge to doe his How the Devill tempted Eve will and they had sufficient naturall knowledge for they Named all the Creatures yet notwithstanding shee musts neds goe from the simplicity of Gods will and be curious and shee must know good and evill there was the distinction good and
done with Secondly that The Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true believers Thirdly that True believers are they who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second that The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something farther to what I said if God will The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in every The righteousness of the Law fulfilled in every true believer not personally true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himselfe that can say the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the Law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason but by our union with Christ that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousnesse to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to in wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by vertue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousnesse of the law through Christ The weakest Saint in Christ hath satisfied the Law is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every penny worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poore Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the weeke and all the yeare long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devill to arrest him for one penny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law And that is the reason also that the Apostle In Christ we are saved by Gods righteousnesse as well as mercy three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousnesse of God he saith not by the mercie of God though that be true there is infinite mercie but saith he that God might declare his righteousnesse in Christ to save us It is a mercifull thing for God to give us Christ and to give us hearts to know that Christ and to believe in that Christ it is infinite unspeakable mercie But now that wee are in Christ and united to him as there was mercie so it is righteous and just with God to save us because we are righteous persons Mistake me not I say every poore Saint through Christ is a righteous person a just man I say in and through Christ he hath taken away all our sins and forgiven all our iniquities Coll. 2. So that when God saves believers he doth not only save them out of mercie but out of righteousness he can doe no otherwise therefore it is three times over his righteousness his righteousness his righteousness Rom. 3. And that is a blessed word in Heb. 12. Yee are come to the spirits of just men made perfect I doe not conceive that it is spoken of the spirits of men in heaven as many doe and no wonder they mistake for I did so for many yeares That place it looks so like heaven that I tooke it for heaven it self Yee are come unto mount Sion to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne and to the spirits of just men made perfect A man would think it were heaven it self it is called heaven but it is nothing in the world but the glorious estate of the Saints in Jesus Christ under the new Testament as you may see afterwards Therefore as Christ saith let this word sink into your hearts that if thou be a right believer thou art as perfectly just and righteous through Jesus Christ as if thou hadst never sinned against the law of God not by thy own righteousnesse but by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ For what can be said more saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled He doth not say we have a peice of it but it is fulfilled that is to a jote or tittle the law cannot say black is thine eye because Christ hath paid and done all that it can demand Now to give you a word or two of the grounds or reasons to help you to believe this truth to shew you how it comes about It comes about three wayes I meane it will be cleare to you three wayes if you consider three things First You must consider that Jesus Christ Reas 1. Christ a publike person which is our suretie he was sent of the Father out of his love as a publike person to fulfill the law of God by doing and suffering as a publike person There is much comfort in that Beloved you can never throughly understand your justification unlesse you study the first Adam what kind of person Adam was as you may see in Rom. 5. Now the Lord Jesus he came as a publike person and he was delivered for our offences as it is said Rom. 3. ult he did die for our sinnes That is one thing Now the second thing that demonstrates this to 2. From the union between Christ and believers us is besides his dying and that as a publike person there is a union made between every poore believer and Christ as really as between Christ and his Father Indeed it is called in Scripture a marriage because as in a marriage all the wealth of the husband is the wives it becomes hers and shee hath a right to it after marriage So all that is in Christ becomes ours by this union But it is a more reall union a closer union by far then that of marriage it is compared to the union between the members and the head Now by this union that you may read of in Joh. 17. all that is ours becomes Christs and all that is Christs becomes ours There are two things Then thirdly we finde that God the father to 3. God the Father is satisfied which appeares whom the debt was owing and whose law this was that we must satisfie he acknowledgeth satisfaction And what can we have more God the father acknowledgeth
that in Scripture is so called when men are said to be humble it is a grace that is never away from a Saint we should be cloathed with it as Peter saith I am to speake of it in that sence it is the gracious lowly spirituall humble frame of heart that is in a Saint and is in no wicked man nor can be as I shall shew afterwards Secondly when I am speaking that the sight of God in Christ humbleth the soule you must not 2 Other meanes of humiliation excluded mistake here and thinke that I exclude other meanes inferiour meanes For I told you before as God shews himselfe by any meanes by any creature by any providence or any way So he may so shew himself that way that he may humble you in that way Therefore you must not say that therefore we speake against meanes because I say the sight of God doth humble a Saint for I exclude not other meanes Thirdly and in a speciall manner take notice 3 Sight of God doth humble occasionally that this sight of God the seeing God of as Saints doe see him doth not properly humble the soule of a man but occasionally as it were It doth it not properly because you know that in Heaven when we shall be in Heaven we doe not read that we shall then be humbled We shall then be in a state of glory every way and yet we shall see God there more then ever we did before But beloved the sight of God humbleth us here occasionally that is by reason of the frailtie and corruption that is upon us Just as the Law made Paul to sinne more Rom. 7. Sinn taking occasion by the Law So I say because we are fraile and weake and vile and sinfull every apprehension of a glorious and great and powerfull God abaseth and humbleth us as in Luke 5. 8. when Peter saw a little of God in Christ working a myracle for I told you God many wayes by any meanes can reveale himself to the soule of a Saint saith he Lord depart from me I am a sinfull man Peters heart was taken downe and he was amazed to see the glory of God and why so because he considered he was a sinfull man that threw him downe and humbled him Now these three things being laid downe before-hand I shall briefly in a word prove this lesson Job 42. 5 6. when Job had seen God it humbled him I have heard of thee by the hearing of the eare but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhorre my selfe and repent in dust and ashes So likewise Peter Luke 22. 61 62. Peter having a glance of Christ Christ looked on him and he seeing his Master looke on him he went out and wept bitterly Paul having seene the Lord he was stricken downe from his Horse and cried Lord what wilt thou have me to doe though God manifested himselfe variously and their humiliation is variously exprest and set forth in Scripture yet it is but one and the same thing so it holds true that this sight of God doth truly humble the soule I shall in the next place shew you two things First I shall give you some reasons to prove that it is so And secondly shew you somewhat why it is so Concerning the first I shall give you but these two or three reasons First of all I finde clearly in Scripture that God Reas 1. All graces wrought by seeing of God works all graces in the soules of his Saints by beholding him I say I find clearly in Scripture that every grace that is wrought in the heart of a Saint is wrought by beholding God in Christ and if every other grace be wrought thus why not this As for instance First for holines take it in a general sence 2 Cor. 3. Holinesse ult VVe all with open face behold as in a glosse the glory of the Lord in Jesus Christ We behold the glory of God as in a glasse and are changed into the same image that is we are made like unto Jesus Christ holy as he is holy we are changed from glory to glory that is by beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ we are made holy And then you shall see for patience that comes into the soule by beholding God in Christ as Patience you shall have it Heb. 11. 27. It is said that Moses he endured and feared not the wrath of the King he endured as seeing him who is invisible How did Moses endure all the threatnings of Pharaoh The Lord revealed himselfe to his Soule and by the grace of God the Lord wrought him to a patiently bearing of all his threatnings So Stephen in Act. 7. He saw Jesus Christ sit at the right hand of glory and then he did quietly fall on his knees to pray for his enemies when they were stoning him to death So also for faith how wil you have faith see in Heb. Faith 12. 2. Looking to Jesus the author and sinisher of our faith We have not faith of our selves neither can we make a faith of our selves but by beholding of Christ the Lord works faith in our hearts to receive Wisdome him So also I might shew of wisdom and of strength as you may see Isa 45. 23 24. an observable place Strength Christ would have them to looke upon him Looke to me and be saved surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousnes and strength Christ bids them looke to him and then they shall crie out they have strength Nay in Joh. 1. 12. you shall see that all graces are put together VVe beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten Sonne of God and out of his fullnesse we all receive grace for grace By beholding the glory of God in Jesus Christ we receive grace for grace that Jesus Christ hath we have it as they say the Paper receives the print from the Presse Now beloved if this be the ordinary way in Scripture to beget all other graces in the soule then why not the way to humble the soule before God Only with this difference which is worth your Difference in the working of humiliation and other graces observing that every other grace is wrought in the soule by a kinde of assimilation but this is wrought in a contrary way I mean thus by beholding the strength of God in Jesus Christ my soule is made strong by beholding the wisedome of God in Christ I am made wise by beholding the holinesse of God in Jesus Christ I am made holy But now of this humiliation it is not so by beholding the holinesse and power or strength or any thing else in God humiliation does not rise by assimulation by making me like but every thing in God dasheth a man and makes him nothing in his owne eyes Thus the sight of God works it Besides I finde in Scripture that every thing that is in God if I may so speake is of a humbling
not beleive in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be accepted of the Saints For Jesus Christs sake pray for me VVhy He was going to Jerusalem to carry money to the poore A man would think that they should be beholding to him that Paul a Preacher would come and bring it himself but I beseech you for Christs sake pray that the Saints may accept of my service O God give Parliament men and great ones that they may be Willing to doe for the Saints and to pray to God for the Saints acceptance It is a great matter for the Saints to accept the service of the Saints The Thirteenth thing to know a humble heart 13. He rejoyceth at the growth of grace in others by in his demeanour to the Saints is this he rejoyceth much that grace grows in others though it doe not in himselfe and he rejoyceth in the good that is done by others though he can doe none himselfe Paul 2 Cor. 4. 13. I rejoyce that ye be honourable though we be beggars A humble heart rejoyceth though he be the least of Saints yet to see such people grow and to have full grace and to thrive accordingly a proud heart will murmur and it is a signe of a cursed heart that doth not rejoyce in the good that is done by another it is a cursed hellish disposition in Numb 11. We read how diverse did Prophesie in the Campe and they come to Moses and desire him to forbid them O say they looke yonder he is turned Preacher now O sayth Moses I would that all Gods people did prophesie Now there are such a generation of men among us that will not indure that any good should be done but by themselves and if a poore man goe out of my Parish to another place for the good of his soul I must envie the man because he would get more good and others that have been trades-men though they be men of parts and breeding in the Army and elsewhere yet if they have not the languages though they teach the people gloriously yet we must crie them downe as Aereticks whereas if God will doe good by using such we should rejoyce if I rejoyce not in the good that is done by another in this Congregation or in the Armie or any where as much as if it were done by my selfe I am a cursed proud man Let us think of that Another thing which I spake of before is that 14. He can love though he be not loved a humble heart he can love though he be not loved As Paul sayth Though the more I love you the lesse â— be loved of you There is none but a humble heart that can love when it is not loved Lastly and so to make an end of this text the 15. He measures not himselfe by himselfe demeanour of a humble heart to the Saints it is seen in this he dares not measure himself by himself nor compare himself with himself You shall find that word 2 Cor 10. 12. VVe dare not make our selves of the number or compare our selves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise Man naturally is the best judge of himselfe only every man hath abundance of self-love whereby every man thinks in every poynt better of himself then he is and they think themselves the wisest people in the World and that other people have no braines and so measure themselves with themselves Or rather thus I have observed in proud hearted professors to their ruyne unlesse God work a myracle that doe not approove their hearts to God nor to the generality of the Saints but measure themselves by themselves they are good because they think they are good or else they will have two or three fawning flatterers by them that shall commend them though all the VVorld condemne them yet if they approove them and commend them they care not Thereupon I have knowne some that have lost all their reputation with all the Saints excepting only two or three that would call black white and white black You shall have a great man when he hath done an action he will goe to his Chaplaine and say is not this well done and it may be he will flatter him in it We are all subject to this it is not peculiar to one alone We should make use of some friends when we have done an action that should be joynt judges in it and if they entertaine it for good we should account it so or else not for a World and if these condemne us we should hold our selves condemned but beware of setting a few creatures like our selves to be judges but to approve our selves before the Lord and before the Generation of Saints And so you have heard the demeanour of the Saints that they are humble in their carriage towards God and towards sinners and towards Saints And so much for this text Mount Sion OR The Priviledge and Practice OF THE SAINTS By WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at ALHALLOWS Great in LONDON HEB. 12.22 But yee are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living GOD c. GAL. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1649. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THE maine drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth justification by faith or by free grace without the works of the law And in Chap. 7. The Apostle doth answer an objection For they might say what then shall we doe with the law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for sinners and Saints to make of the law of which I shall not now speake Now in this 8th Chapter the Apostle drawes this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have sayd it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he sayth they are those Who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And he gives a reason of it in Vers 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in Vers 3. For what the law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh God sending his owne son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have sayd thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because sayth he that God hath sent his son in the
the transgression of the law So that a man that walks according to the law and not according to the way of the Gospell in spight of his heart he shall walk according to the flesh that is according to the lusts of nature he can never walk holily let him doe what he can A second reason why it is called flesh is in allusion 2. In allusion to the allegorie Gal. 4. to the two Sons of Abraham as we see in Gall. 4. 22. The Apostle there speaking of these two Covenants he sayth Abraham had two Sons â—he one by a bond-maid the other by a free Woman But hee who was of the bond-woman was borne afâ—er the flesh but he of the free Woman was by promise which things are an allegorie or a comparison â—r these are the two Covenants the one from Mount Sinai which gendereth to Bondage which is Agar â—r this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her Children But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all He is proving that the old Covenant was to be done away Agar was to be throwen out with her Children He prooves that those two Sons of Abraham Ishmaell and Isaak were types of the two Covenants that Ishmaell and Isaak Types of the two Covenants God made with mankind the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of grace Now the Covenant of Works he compares to Ishmaell that was borne after the flesh as other Children were Abraham went in to Hagar and she conceived and bare a Child as other Women But Isaak was not borne after the flesh all Fleshly wayes could not produce Isaak he was a Child of promise and the spirit of God breathing in the promise and working mightily in Abraham and Sarah Isaak was produced This is an allegorie there is a great Mysterie that you think not of when you read of Ishmaell and Isaak By Ishmaell is meant the Covenant of works and the principles of it and the practicioners of it and they walk according to the flesh as Ishmaell did and by Isaak is meant the Covenant of grace and those that goe that way are Children of promise as Isaak was So God hath set this comparison and I conceive the Apostle alludes to it and calls it a walking according to the Flesh As if he had sayd thou shalt never have this righteousnesse by walking in the way of thy Father Ishmaell by Mount Sinai in Arabia by walking in the law to turne away the wrath of God but if thou wilt get this righteousnesse thou must walk according to the spirit thou must get the spirit and be a Child of promise The third and last reason that I shall give why it is called walking according to the Flesh is because of weaknesse for Flesh is put for weaknesse as the Scripture sayth They are Flesh and not spirit that is they are poore weak things so those that walk in that way in the way of the law they are weak creatures there is nothing but wishing and woulding and covenanting and promising and protesting and vexing and fretting but there is no strength Now one Saint that is truly planted in Christ and the Gospell hath truely taken place in his heart he hath more strength then five hundred of the other Sayth Paul I can doe all things I can want and I can abound I can goe to Prison freely I can rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourne with them that mourne Because the spirit that dwells in Christ and works effectually the same spirit dwells in us and works in us Therfore that is the meaning of it they that walk after the Flesh that is they that goe after the law they are weake they tugg and are never the nearer Heaven and if they should live a thousand yeares they would be no better but wishers and woulders and say I have a good desire to doe as the Preacher sayth but I have no power Let me conclude with one word of Use from all this that hath been sayd which I hope you Vse That few shal be saved will consider of From this Doctrine thus opened you may hence see the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ verified and made good that few shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Doubtless Paul did not looke on sinners and Saints as we doe we account every Professor let his principles be what they will eyther from the first or second Adam if he begin to leave sin and to performe duties we account him a good man But the Lord when he comes to judge he will looke further and examine us and will I feare find abundance that shal never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven even of those that follow good old Adam I meane there are abundance of Professors that have left corrupt Adam in his grosnesse and follow good old Adam that is a sprig from that they will abstaine from sins and they will performe duties and they will doe no wrong and all is but old Adam still Now good or bad if it be old Adam it must perish the bond Woman must be cast out Therfore you that are Professors looke to your selves for the Lords sake I am mistaken if there be not many hundreds of us that will be found the Sons of Ishmaell at the last day many that make a great Profession and many that make a greater profession then others that are honest spirituall Saints before the World before men for when a man goes to keep the law every light that comes into his soule intends his resolution every thing intends it in that course he is in and he may goe to the highest and be the greatest Professor and be ready for all duties and yet be found a stranger to Jesus Christ therfore look to your selves I remember Mr. Belton that blessed man he divides the World for the fowness of them that shall be saved sayth he the greatest part of the World two or three parts of it are most intire Heathens In Europe here we have the most part Papists and but a few that are Protestants and among those parts there are few that profess Religion and among those that profess Religion there are very few that doe it in truth as another godly man sayth take a multitude of Professors that have been bred under the law that have been bred on Mount Sinai take a Congregation of such Professors as there be many such in Many legall Professors miscarry in their transplanting England and let the Gospell come and be Preached rightly among them to translate them let a Minister of the Gospell come and say there is no damnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and you are justified freely and Christ hath fulfilled the law and all is cleare whereas before there were feares least they were not righteous and they did work hard now let a man labour to draw them to the Gospell and to
plant Christ and the principles of Christ in their hearts and I feare that there is not one in ten but will miscarrie in the remooving as you find it often with your Trees when you remove and transplant them I say abundance of those Professors will come to nothing for when the feare of Hell and damnation is gone from their conscience when the Whip is gone they will turne the grace of God into Wantonnesse Nay some will turne downe right Enemies and persecuters of the Gospell as the Pharisees and of those that would come in in all probabilitie in removing and translating them from the law to the Gospell there is not one in ten but would turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and there goes all their Religion The way to Heaven is narrow our Lord Christ saith and I think it will be found far more narrow then we conceive of it Therfore as another godly man sayth we are exceedingly mistaken in judging of Professors we looke upon them and those that begin to amend from their sins we call them Professors But this Professors to be judged by their principles is the true way of judging that there are but two roots in the World the old Adam and the new Adam There are but two Covenants Sinai and Jerusalem there are but two wayes of walking after the flesh and after the spirit after the law and after the Gospell Now I judge him to be a Saint and a beleiver and God calls and ownes him as a Saint though he be weake and be not so glorious in the eye of the World as many formall Professors yet if I see any principles of the Gospell in him if there be a little of Christ in him in power though it be but in a little measure and he can pray but little and he cannot keepe fasting dayes and dayes of Humiliation so plausibly as many that make a Trade of it in this Cittie yet if that prayer and repeating and reading and hearing or preaching or whatsoever it be if it flow from the Lord Jesus Christ as a naturall man knowes naturall things soone Saint knowes another the spirit of God knowes the things of God It is true we all of us have a great deale of flesh The best have somwhat of old Adam in them and there is somewhat of good old Adam as well as of corrupted Adam but surely we ought not to conceive him to be a Saint let him be never so glorious in the eye of the World and in the performance of duties if there be not somwhat of Christ in him You may see a poore despicable creature and see a great deale of Christ in him and on the other side you may see great Professors that are Ringleaders of others and yet there is not a jot of Christ in them but all is old Adam scrued up in his brave parts and all is but Flesh a little more Resined and he that is Flesh and all that is Flesh cannot inherite the Kingdome of God Looke to your selves seriously especially you that are most emynent that think best of your selves that are ancient Professors unless you look to your selves you may take a great deale of pains and when all comes to all after all your praying fasting and repeating and preaching you may be found to be nothing in the world but men that walk according to the Flesh that is according to the refined and well educated principles of old Adam you may be Ishmaeils and be built upon Mount Sinai when all is done Therfore I say we may hence learne to judg How to judg who are Saints and who not rightly of Persons who are Saints and who are not who are the Children of God and who are not For in most things we doe not judg rightly we doe not judg as God judgeth We usually judg of men and things according to naturall wisdome or according to some distinctions and desinitions that we have of things in that naturall divinitie we have As for instance If a man leave his drunkennesse and whordome and come up to some kind of holinesse in his lips in appearance if he come to heare Sermons and repeat them and pray a little in his Familie that man we call a Saint a godly man and it may be he may be so and it may be not so Now the way that God judgeth of all men is as they are the Children oyther of the old or of the new Adam and not according to such a proportion of strictness in their lives for the Pharisees went beyond many weak Professors in common righteousnesse And this should be a mayne ground of our Ground of fellowship with others communion and fellowship and delight in others whether in Churches or otherwise It should not be grounded on this if such a man be of my opinion in such things if he agree with me he is for me and another that agrees with another he is for him These kind of communions will proove nothing but faction in the end But the true communion is when Saints together keepe fellowship Church fellowship or other upon spirituall grounds That is when Christ in his soule and Christ in myne close together this is the maine ground that makes communion and fellowship whatsoever comes in besides that is additionall but if there be a communion of people without this I say it will proove but faction but walking according to the Flesh I should shew now what course we should take to bring our selves to spirituall walking And Secondly what they should doe that God hath brought up in some measure to this condition But I must leave that till God give another opportunitie SERMON IIII. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THERE were three Lessons that the Lord did Teach us from these words The First is implied in the begining of the Verse that Every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly that All those that rightly beleive in Christ have in them a righteousnesse perfectly to fulfill it And Thirdly that Those that thus beleive and have this great priviledg for it is the Foundation of all others they are knowne or described by this they walk not after the Flesh but after the spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at larg and prooved it to you and came to make one Use of it That from hence we may learne how to judg of Use How to judge who are Saints and who are not Persons how to judg of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kind of holynesse they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by eyther as they walk according to the Flesh or according to the spirit For I told you there be diverse Profesors among