unto him there is a non-appearance of the deadnesse and damnednesse of a mans estate and condition that walks in that way and therefore it seems to him to be a right way and a way of life and there is great hope in him that he shall live for evermore and many men do walk in that way and therefore it seems to him to be a right way and a way of life it seems right to a man but the end thereof is death And this is the First thing wherein this liveliness consists The non-appearance of a mans dead and damned estate 2. Secondly It consists in Performance he is able as he conceives to do the duties that God commands he hath wisdom and ability at home to go about his Affairs he hath understanding and supply at home he hath life and sufficiency to go about these and these duties and performances let the Law tell him he must be sober he hath life to avoid the Ale-house and if he commit a Drunken Act he would have you think he hath grace to be sorry for it and let a man tell him he is a dead man he hath no grace in him no life in him he will tell you he doth thus and thus he hears Gods Word and he Prayes to God and he Trusts in God and he Believes in God your telling of him this doth not kill his heart he thinks he is alive for all this nay let the Law of God come and tell him He is a dead man for all his doing this will not kill him neither so long as the Lord himself doth not open his eyes and clear his eye-sight and discover his sins and convince his Conscience though the Law say he is a dead man and a damned man this doth not kill him he can wait upon God and perform these and these duties Then let the Law of God say He is a dead man for all this he must deny himself why so he will I confesse Lord I am an unrighteous man a wretched man a sinful creature and all my righteousnesse is as menstruous raggs and now he thinks all is well but the Law of God hath not yet come home unto him and shewed him his heavie estate but he is alive in regard of the performance of the duty and thinks verily he hath life at home in him whereas if the Law of God did come home and charge his estate upon him and shew him what obedience the Law requires what severity and truth in the inward parts it would break a mans heart and kill him notwithstanding all performances but in the mean time that a mans heart is not killed and the Law hath not given him his deaths VVound he thinks he is alive Cry aloud saith God lift up thy voice like a Trumpet shew my people their Transgressions and the house of Israel their sins Isai 58.1 there the Lord looks upon the people as dead wretched sinners and abominable people but yet notwithstanding they thought they were alive in performances as we may see vers 2. Yet they seek me daily and delight to know my wayes even as a Nation that did righteously and had not forsaken the Statutes of their God they ask of me the Ordinances of Justice they draw near to me saying We have fasted and thou regardest it not We see here they take delight in approaching unto God they take delight in Gods Ordinances and seek God early they can do thus and thus and are alive in all performances but that man whole spirit the Law hath pulled down and the Lord hath convinced him of his infinite inability to perform the Law he cannot see any liveliness in him unto any performance Let any duty come it kills his heart I should now hear the VVord of God but my heart is unprepared and my ear uncircumcised and I cannot hear aright Let an opportunity be offered to Pray it kills his heart I should now call upon the Name of the Lord but I have such a cursed heart I cannot Pray I cannot speak one right word before God Let an occasion be offered of holy Conference it kills his heart Alas saith he I want pure language my tongue was never touched with a coal from the Altar my lips have not ability to drop forth savoury speeches I am not able to speak one syllable aright to Gods glory it kills his heart he sees no life at all in him unlesse he can have life from without and ability from without he is dead all is nothing to him the law hath taken away the livelinesse that was in him But he that is not humbled by the Law he is alive he hath life in himself it is nothing with him to Pray and go to Church and hear Gods Word it is nothing but thrusting to do the duty he hath life in him to do duties and wait upon God in his Ordinances but when the Law comes home to him it plainly lets him see that he hath no life in himself to do any good he must seek for life and abibility from without else he is a dead man he can do nothing in this case David in this case cannot look up Mine iniquities are gone over my head I cannot look up Psal 40. Moses he is a man of uncircumcised lips and cannot speak unto Pharaoh Paul cannot do any thing that is good In me dwelleth no good thing Rom. 7. And so for the rest of Gods people when the Law hath killed them and laid them dead in regard of any performance they must have life from without there is no life at home no grace at home no understanding at home they must go out for all but a carnal man he is alive unto all performances Many a man is like unsavoury Salt good for nothing but to throw upon the dunghil He never received the Holy Ghost and yet he will be inducted into a Living and take a Pastoral Charge upon him as if he were able to perform the Duty of a Minister and take the Charge of Souls upon him So Ananias will be a Husband and Sapphira a VVife Athalia vvill be a Queen and Nimrod a King and Abimilech a Judge they are alive to discharge all these Duties thus men are alive the Law of God hath not killed their hearts and pulled down their spirits it hath not made it appear unto them what wretched cursed Creatures they are This is the Second thing wherein this Liveliness consists Thirdly This Livelinesse consists in a presumptuous hope he conceives that he is justified before God and that God will not damn him but forgive him his sins There is nothing can make a mans heart more full of life than to think that he is righteous before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him there is nothing can make a man more alive then this If they think they are justified before God they have then a lively hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be God saith the Apostle even the
labour to strengthen all the good things that are in us that our faith we think we have to shew for heaven may be a strong faith and that our hope may be a strong hope that we may purifie our selves by it and that the fear of God may be a strong fear to make us depart from hell beneath so that our desires may be strong to the throne of grace and our endeavours strong against our corruptions and our care conscience strong from day to day to do the works of God The second Use is an Use of direction what we are to do to strengthen Vse 2 the good things that are in us And first Let us labour to have all the powers of our souls strengthened by the strengthening the powers of the soul I mean this you know that divine operations are above nature above the reach of the powers of our souls naturally Now if we would be strong to doe the works of God and divine things we must get our hearts to be raised and lifted up to an higher strain to a sublimer pitch as it is said of Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 17. His heart was lifted up in the ways of God That is his heart was strengthened to walk in the wayes of God and now his heart was lifted up the Text shewes he did great matters he could restore the worship of God and make the Priests and Levites doâ— their duties he could doe admirable things for the glory of God Now his heart was lifted up above the reach of nature so we should labour to have all the powers of our souls lifted up to God we are not converted to God unless God hath raised up our minds and wills and affections as it is said God raised up Judges to deliver Israel from their enemies The meaning is they were no more able to deliver them then other people but God raised up their spirits and lifted them up that they were able to goe about the function God had set them in So Jer. 51.11 before God had raised up the spirits of the Medes they were a weak people they durst not meddle with Babylon but when God had raised up their spirits and lifted them up to an higher pitch of courage and strength they were not only able to goe against them but to overcome them so before God raise up our minds to an higher pitch we are not able to know God aright we are not able to doe good and mortifie sin and be crucified to the world we are not not able to goe about these things but when God hath raised up our hearts and the powers of our souls we can then goe about them as the water is not able to boil the meat of it self but let the fire come and raise the water to an higher pitch to a seething quality now it is able to boil the meat so it is with a mans heart therefore we should labour earnestly with God in the use of all good means that we may get the powers of our souls raised and lifted up on high that they may be able to reach the works of God and attain unto them And first labour to have strong minds and understandings I do not mean strong literal knowledge for with a little of that a man may have strong love to God and zeal to his glory as we may see in the book of Martyrs Elizabeth Sackwell and Katharine Hurst and others they were marvellous ignorant when they were asked what a Sacrament was and how many there were they could not tell and yet were admirable Martyrs and sealed to Gods truth according to that knowledge they had and laid down their lives for the Gospel though they had not this knowledge therefore I mean not that though that be be very good and without some literal knowledge the mind cannot be good a man may have literal knowledge without spiritual but not spiritual without literal therefore it is good but that is not it therefore we must labour to have strong spiritual understandings that we may understand spiritually the things of God as David saith Psal 119.34 Give me understanding and I shall keep thy Law as who should say if ever any man doth sin against thy Law it is because he doth not understand himself therefore you see how eager he is that God would give him understanding that he might understand his wayes and understand what his will is that so he might do it that he might understand it savingly powerfully and deliver his Law into his heart God delivers his Law into every mans heart but saith he grant me thy Law graciously he prays that God would not only deliver his Law to his understanding but in a gracious manner a man never sins against God but his understanding is deceived when we are proud we are deceived for we think too well of of our selves when we are worldly we are deceived for we think the world is better then it is so when we are dead to good duties we are deceived for we look upon Gods wayes and ordinances as if they were not such admirable things it is through the deceitfulness of our understandings that we give way to sin Now if our understandings were strengthened we should be fenced against the deceivableness of sin that when the Devil comes with his delusions and the temptations of the flesh with false colours to put us upon sin the understanding would be strong and see the weakness of all such reasons every man follows reason reason is a strong thing and leads all the world no man doth any thing but he hath some reason for it the worldly man hath some though not true reason why he is so carnal he is afraid he shall not know how to live therefore we should be earnest with God to strengthen our understandings that we may see the baseness and beggery and folly of all such vile reasons as these if the understanding were sound it were a marvellous strong thing A wise man is strong yea a man of knowledge encreaseth strongly Prov. 24.5 Therefore I say we should labour to have sound understandings that God would give us to know his Word as it is and to look upon things as they are that the world may not seem to be otherwise then it is and our names and credit or any thing in the world may not seem to be more beautiful then they are that we may look upon things in their own colours that we may have light if we had the light that comes from above we should be marvellous strong as Paul saith Let us put on the Armour of light So Heb. 10.32 saith he After you were enlightned you endured a great fight of affliction When they had true light come into their hearts that they durst not be impatient then though they had mighty afflictions upon them they endured them they had light come in they could not rise up against God if our knowledge were strong
opening of the hellish sink of sin that is in your hearts be you willing to hear it and let us do it 't is true we must be ready to poure in Oyle into every bruised spirit but first we must come with the hammer of the Law to breake and then bind up let me tell you as many as go on in your sins and are yet without Christ let me tell you what your condition is be it known from the Lord whatsoever you may think you are in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity hell is moved for your coming and the pit is digged for such as you are you are under the wrath of heaven and though God be gracious and full of mercy yet he will never save those that disobey him and stand out against his Holy and Heavenly Word though Christ died for sinners yet he is a stumbling block and a rock of offence to those that are disobedient and stumble at the Word 1 Pet. 2.8 Whatsoever you may think of your selves and do not think of these things but suffer the world and your pleasures to take up your mindes think of it what a woefull case you are in know that the great God of Heaven and Earth hath bitter things against you and you shall heare it with both eares when it is too late there is no mercy but for them that repent and forsake their sins there is no Kingdome of Heaven for you you have no hope the Devils and you have one hope What turned so many Angels of Heaven into Hell was it not sin you have that very sin upon you you do not see your misery but if your eyes were open and would but heare what God saith you would loath your selves in dust and ashes and your knees would knock together for anguish of heart What no conversion yet no new creatures yet then no Christ no Heaven no Happiness what a woful thing is this I beseech you think of it and apply it and tell your soules either sin must down or else no Heaven to be looked for either I must be an holy man either God will give me grace and holinesse here or else I shall never see his face with comfort hereafter either I must have my life changed and my conversation made spiritual and godly by Jesus Christ or else I do but deceive my own soul to think of any happinesse this is certaine therefore do not think lightly of any sin there is no sin so small but is able to damn thy soul unlesse thou embrace the Gospel and the Kingdome of God If it were possible that thou never hadst sinned but one sin that one sin will damn thee unlesse thou be a new creature and by Faith embrace the Son of God thou canst not be saved there is no sin so small but the wrath of God from Heaven is revealed against it if people did but see their sins like so many Devils if they did but once see these Cockatrices stings if people were but affected with their estates and conditions something might be said but unless mens sins be laid before their eyes and charged upon their souls what hope have we to do them any good Thirdly this is for comfort to those that are humbled such as have had the Law come unto them and hath knocked them off that they have nothing to trust to and they see what miserable creatures they are look up and hear what the Gospel saith the Gospel of God sheweth mercy freely to be had and delivers promises freely to be apprehended and doth proffer eternal life without money or moneys worth though a man be never so vile and wretched if you see your misery you have Davids own argument go and use it Psal 25.16 Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am desolate and afflicted all the Saints of God have no other argument but this in begging of mercy as who should say I am a miserable creature no grounds whereupon to expect any mercy I am a desolate afflicted undone man in my self all my hope is in thee go to God and lie at his gate and plead this argument submitting to the Gospel Have mercy on me O Lord for I am desolate and afflicted and here now comes in effectual calling when the Law hath shewed a man his wretched estate and his blindness and nakedness and captivity if the Lord do mean any mercy to a man here comes in his effectual calling 2 THES 2.14 Whereunto he called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ I Have spoken already of the prepatory work that goes before Effectual Calling the next thing I am to speake of is the parts of Effectual Calling and they are two First the offering of Christ and his merits the objective propounding of Christ and his benefits when Christ comes and offers himself to a man in the Gospel he came to his own John 1.11 but his own received him not he came and offered himself to them I am the way the truth and the light I am the Messias and the Saviour of the world and I have eternal life and here I am take me and all with me this is the first thing in Effectual Calling the objective propounding of Christ to a man The second thing is the receiving of Christ not only the offering of Christ to a man for so he offers himself to those that are not of God even to all but in Effectual Calling as there is an offer on Gods side so there is a reflection on Gods side as many as received him c. John 1.12 they received him these two now make up Effectual Calling the offering of Christ and the receiving of him when Christ calls a man to him and he answers to his call thus you see the parts of Effectual Calling First to speak of the first the objective propounding of Christ and all the things of Christ to a man and this hath two degrees like the morning light that hath two parts the dawning of the day and the Sunnes arising so there are two parts in this objective propounding of Christ to the soul the first is that general propounding of him to every creature now the soul thinks what to every creature then it is propounded to me as well as to any body else but the effectualness of this call is that it breeds the seeds of grace in a man it breeds saving desires and saving longings and saving and kindly mournings for the want of this sweet good when it sees such an excellent good and a possibility of it and that it is propounded to every creature then the soule thinks I may be one as well as any body else and so the soul longs after it The second thing is the personal propounding of this to those that have these seeds of Grace the first was general to one as well as to another but now this is to this mans
then the sincere they may multiply duties as well as the other for the things done but here is the thing a wicked man doth duties heartlesly unaffectionately but a child of God doth them sincerely and willingly and le ts out his heart and affections upon them all God loves a chearful giver 2 Cor 9.10 He loves a giver that gives with all his affections so he loves a chearful comer to Church that is glad to hear a Sermon and his heart leapes to hear the Word of God and he is affected with it he loves a chearful praying one that in prayer poures out his soul before him he loves a chearful comer to the Sacrament that delights to shew forth the Lords death till he comes God doth not love a man unlesse he doth this with all his affections as it is said it is good to be zealous in a good matter the worship and Commandments of God are good matters now it is good to be zealous in these matters nay to have the creame and flower and chief of our affections set upon these things we are acquainted with the wayes and histories of grace and we can speak thereof but it doth not sink down into our hearts it doth not warme us nor put any heat into our souls we are not quickened and moved by these things we know Gods attribute his power and wisdome and mercy and justice c. But none sink down into our hearts they affect us not as they ought to do where are our affections in prayer We pray and come to Church and to the Lords Table but where are our affections in all these things The Lord cares not for these services that have not affections to spice them and sweeten them and beautifie them the Lord loves when a man serves him with all his heart when the will hangs off it is base service and the Lord regards it not as the Lord loves that we that are Ministers should preach with a ready minde 1 Pet. 5.2 That we should preach with gracious affections and be affected in the Pulpit and desire from the bottome of our souls to do good to the people and yearne over the people the Lord loves these things when we do them willingly and heartily so he delights in people when they heare and call upon his Name with affection when we go about Gods Commandments as a Bear to the stake God abhors it may be God commands a man to do such a thing he doth it but it is hard saith he when money is to be fetched out of his purse for good duties it is hard saith he and when he must go against the wicked and pull the ill will of the Countrey upon him may be he doth it but it is hard the Lord distasts this the Lord loves a chearful giver and a chearful worker a chearful Minister and chearfull people now if faith comes into the soul it will not only work obedience but chearful obedience and from the bottome of the heart Secondly true obedience makes a man resigne himself to God it makes a man to be altogether at Gods dispose I am thine saith David he looked upon himself as if he were altogether at Gods dispose as if he were his and not his own You are not your own saith the Apostle you are bought with a price 1 Cor. 2 6. So that is true obedience when a man gives up himself to God many will do things that God commands but they know not how to do them with resignation to be altogether at Gods dispose they love to be called Gods servants but they will be only retainers as many will get to be servants to some Gentleman but it is only for their own advantage to save their purses to have the Gentlemans countenance these will not dwell with the Gentleman but in their own houses and when he hath some great strangers at a Feast or when he rides abroad in state then they will attend upon him but yet they will live at home and be their own men so most people are but the Lords retainers this is no obedience at all it is none of faiths obedience Thirdly true obedience puts forth all a mans strength to God Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strengh Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his Holy Name Psal 103. True obedience lets forth all that is in a man to Christ Mat. 4.20 When Christ called Simon and Andrew they flung away their nets and followed him it was all the living they had and yet they flung away all to follow him so when he spake to Matthew a Publican faith came no sooner into his soul but he followed him presently Mat. 9.9 Though it was a rich office he was a Knight by his place as Cicero speaks it was worth five hundred pounds a yeare of our money yet as soone as ever Christ called him he left his place and went after Christ so when a man will part with purse and friends and all he hath and fling all at Gods foot and give up all to him this is true obedience now if we have not this we have not faithful obedience THE KILLING POVVER OF THE LAW Rom. 7.9 For I was once alive without the Law but when the Commandment came Sin revived and I died IN these words the Apostle shewes Two things First What a jolly man he thought himself to be whilst he was a Pharisee before the Lord wrought upon him by the Law Secondly What a miserable wretched creature he saw himself to be when the Lord took him in hand and discovered his sins unto him before the Law came home unto him and convinced his Conscience he thought himself to be alive but when the Commandment came Sin revived and he died 1. In the former we may observe Two things First The jolliness of the Apostle he thought himself to be alive I was alive without the Law I was a Pharisee and thought my self to be alive I fasted twice a week and prayed every day and made long Prayers each day when he considered how he walked thus in all the Ordinances of God he thought if this was not to be alive he knew not what it was to be alive I was alive once without the Law Secondly We have here the cause why he had this good conceit of himself it was because he was without the Law the law of God had not convinced him it had not discovered his miserable and wretched estate unto him though he had some understanding in the literal sense of the Law yet the Law was not yet come home unto him he was as yet without the Law and that was the reason of that good conceit he had of himself he did esteem himself to be alive And then again in the latter part When the Commandment came Sin revived but I died There we may also observe Two things First
The Law shewed him what a wretched estate and condition he was in for all his self-conceitednesse sin revived and I died Though I thought before I was alive yet when the Commandment came sin revived and I died I saw I was a dead man when the Lord took me in hand to deal with me and let me see how my case stood before him Howsoever I thought my self to be in a good case before now I saw I was but a dead man I did not see such evil and such a masse of corruption before but when the Lord discovered my self unto my self and when I saw the Spiritualnesse of the Law then I saw that sin was alive in me and I died when I saw how I ought to behave my self in my affections and in my inward man then sin revived and I for my part was a dead man I was fain to come down from those high conceits and imaginations I had before Secondly We have here the Cause why he was thus brought down it was because of the Commandment of God which came home unto him the Law of God came home unto his Conscience and discovered unto him how it was with him and it made him to shake in the apprehensions of his own estate that he was but a dead man and that he had gone to Hell and perished everlastingly if he had continued in that estate and condition I intend at this time to treat of the former part Without the Law I was once alive And here Two things must be opened First what doth the Apostle mean by without the Law Secondly What doth he mean when he saith I was once alive 1. For the First When the Apostle saith he was without the Law he doth not mean simply that he did think himself without the Law that is without the binding Authority of the Law for so no reasonuble creature is yea indeed no creature at all is without the Law of God for there is a Law of Obedience imposed upon all the Creatures and the unreasonable Creatures do keep the Law that is imposed upon them by God and howsoever reasonable Creatures depart from this Law and break it yet they are under the binding power of this Law therefore the Apostle doth not thus mean that he was without the Law therefore we must know that to be without the Law is taken Four wayes First To be without the Law is meant to be without the promulgation and publishing of the Law and so the Heathen only are said to be without the Law as we may see Rom. 2.12 there the Heathen are said to be without the Law that is without the promulgation of the Law it was published only to the Jewes upon Mount Sinai and so Paul was not without the Law Secondly It is taken in regard of the literal knowledge of the Law and so ignorant people are said to be without the Law of God they know not the Law of God and in this sense Paul was not without the Law he was trained up in the Law he was learned in the Law for he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel Acts 22.3 so that he had the logical meaning of the Law and was able to speak of the points of Religion better then a thousand millions of carnal men he had the literal knowledge of the Law Thirdly It is taken in regard of the moral Obedience to the Law and so wicked men are said to be without the Law as we may see 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law is not given to a Righteous man but to the Lawless and Disobedient wicked men are lawless they live as if there were no Law Drunkards and Prophane persons as they are said to live without God in the world so they are said to live without the Law as if there were no Law to bind them they are people that are not to be held within any compass they take notice of no command to rule in their hearts and rectifie their lives and in this sense Paul was not without the Law neither for he lived after the most strict and exact Sect of the Pharisees Phil. 3.4 5. If any man think he hath whereof he may trust in the flesh I much more circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the Law a Pharisee He was one that fasted and curbed himself yea he kept two Fasts a week as those Pharisees did that were of the better rank he Prayed daily and performed the duties of Religion and there was no outward Ordinance of the Law which he performed not he was one that was conformable to the letter of the Law according as he understood the Law he was Morally Obedient to the Law he was no extortioner nor unjust person no he did the works of the Law and those things contained in the Law nay there was no body that could challenge him with any blame none that were familiar with him could say any thing to tax him withal when he was in his ignorance and blindness therefore in this sense he was not without the Law Fourthly Therefore in the Fourth place we are said to be without the Law in regard of the spiritual sense of the Law and so Paul was without the Law he did not clearly understand the divine and spiritual sense of the law he did not see the glory and the beauty of the Law of God how it did discover all the breaches of Righteousness how it reached to all the inward parts how contrary the Law of God was to all his nature thus Paul understood not the spiritual nature of the Law he had not the spiritual understanding of the Law and thus he was without the Law 2. Now for the other words I was alive once 1. It is meant here spiritually towards God he doth not mean naturally for he was alive naturally both before and after the commandment came but the meaning is he did not think himself to be such a wretched cursed creature as he was he thought he had the fear of God in him and true Obedience in him he thought he had a spiritual kind of life as we may see Rom. 6.11 Ye are dead saith the Apostle to sin but are alive to God in Jesus Christ And Rom. 7.13 Give not your members as weapons unto sin but give your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead i.e. As those that have the pure and spiritual life of grace in them So Luke 15.24 This my son was dead and is alive again that is spiritually alive again he was a dead creature he was departed from his Father which is the fountain of life he was dead in sins and trespasses he was a dead man but now he is alive again he hath spiritual life again 2. To be alive is taken to be conceitedly so alive in his own conceit he hath no true life in him yet he doth imagine that he hath life in him he
committed against this made sin appear unto him in the very life of it therefore in the 13. vers of this Chapter the Apostle saith Sin that it might appear sin wroughâ— death in me that sin might be out of measure sinful by the commandment that is when the commandment comes and is manifested to the soul it makes the life of sin appear the life of sin is then manifested the Law of God like a glasse doth shew the life of the Commandment and the very nature of all sinning and transgressing Now before the Law came thus home unto him he could not thus see sin he could say he was a sinner and had committed these and these sins But what these sins were and the exceeding sinfulnesse of these sins he did not see that He had a dead kind of picture of his sins before but the life thereof was not manifested but the Law of God did make his sin revive and made him see his sins in the life of them 2. Secondly There is the life of Irritation as I may so call it or of itching and egging a man This is another life of sin whereby it is full of Operation and Working in the Soul The Operation of a thing is the life of a thing Now before the Commandment came sin seemed dead it wrought indeed many evils in him but he did not think his heart had been so full of life and so full of activity against Gods Law and commandments Sin seemed to lye dead before but now when the Commandment came and set upon his heart and began to charge him with better Obedience now his heart grew itching and marvellous full of life unto lust Hereupon sin egged him the more on to lust It is like water when a man goes about to stop it it runs the more violently So it is with sin in the heart the more the Law of God goes about to stop it and hinder it the more eager it is and the more full of life and working as the Apostle speaks vers 8. Without the Law sin was dead there was no such working of sin in my mortal body then but vvhen the Commandment came vvhen the Lavv vvas charged upon my heart then sin took occasion hereby to be the more violent and vvork in me all manner of Concupiscence before I committed sin vvithout any check I had vain thoughts and foolish courses and many a lust in my soul and I vvent to it as if it had been a good thing not as if it had been evil But vvhen the Lavv of God came to shevv me the slacknesse of my Obedience and to controle me and convince me and to stop the course of sin it vvrought all manner of Concupiscence in me it vvrought before in Paul for it vvrought all his security and all his hardnesse of heart and all his vain thoughts and imaginations but this vvas but a dead kind vvorking in comparison of that which it wrought after the commandment came There are none that have such active Rebellions against the Law and Commandment of God as those to whom the Law comes it eggs a man forward and makes him itch unto Rebellion If a man had asked Paul before whether he had such a divelish heart against God he saw no such matter he never meant God any hurt when he went on in his course he thought not that he was so stubborn and Rebellious he did not feel this stubbornnesse and rebellion But when the Law came once it shewed him the venome and cursed nature of his sins 3. The Third life of sin is the worst of all and that is the life of Imputation for here sin is so full of life that it is not only able to discover unto him that he is a sinful wretch and an abominable creature but to bind him over to wrath and send him to Hell and everlasting destruction Now it is the Law of God that discovers this life of sin before the Law comes a man hath many vain hopes that God is merciful and Christ died for sinners and that God will forgive him his sins he doth not see the imputation of sin the imputation of sin lying upon the Soul is not clearly discovered before the Law come for where there is no Law there is no imputation of sin Rom. 5.13 there saith the Apostle Vnto the time of the Law was sin in the world but sin is not imputed while there is no Law Before the Law is charged upon the heart the heart never dreams of the imputation of sin as if he should answer for sin and be damned for sin for ever He thought the contrary before but now the Law discovers the life of sin unto him and sin revives and appears to have life to damn him for evermore Sin now appears to have life to cast him off from God and to bind him over to Everlasting vengeance Thus it was with Paul when the Commandment came sin revived I saw sin was alive indeed and I saw the life of Aggravation I saw the hellish nature of sin it was painted out to the full I saw the life of Irritation I saw the infinite egging and itching of sin how it did work in me I saw the life of imputation how all my sins were imputed unto me and did all lye upon my conscience and so sin revived that is the meaning Now for the meaning of the Second word I dyed that is I saw I was a dead man I saw plainly and clearly that I was but a dead man I thought I was alive before because I did good duties and walked in the Ordinances of God and I thought that I might go for a Christian and Servant of God as well as another I did not think I was a dead man I thought I had some goodnesse in me some hope of eternal life in me I did not conclude that I was a dead man But when the Law of God humbled me and discovered my estate plainly unto me then I saw I was a dead man indeed my heart failed me and the livelyness that was in me before departed from me I saw I was a dead man and had not the Spirit of Christ come and quickned me I had been a dead man to all eternity I now saw that sin began to revive in me and I began to be a dead man Thus we see the meaning of the words Now the Theame I propounded to you was this namely how the Lord converts the will and the first work that prepares a man hereunto is the work of pulling down the vvill and the pulling down of a mans heart for the will of a man is full of obstinacy full of livelinesse against the truth and commandment of God full of livelinesse in sin and conceives it self to be in a better estate and condition and so the will is obstinate still Now when it pleaseth God to convert a man first he pulls down the will of a man and pulls down his spirit now here is
Christians 3 This shews reason why we doe not receive good by the Sacrament Reasons why men do not receive good by the Sacrament 73 1 Because they come not with lively sense of their wants 2 Without true repentance 74 3 Without faith 4 They do not seek to God to blesse the Sacrament to them 75 5 They doe not behave themselves well at it 6 Do not afterwards examine what good is got by it 7 If they get good they do not interpret it to be by the goodness of God in the Sacrament 8 They do not stir up the Sacraments that they formerly pertook of 76 Doct. A child of God cannot fall from Grace 77 which is 1 Not from any thing in himself 1 Because the best is bid to look on himself as one that may fall into any sin in himself 78 2 Because they are bidden to feare themselves 78 3 To take heed that they do not fall away totally 4 Because they are commanded to grow in grace 79 5 Because examples of Apostates are propounded for the Saints to take warning by 6 Because people of God are fain to pray God to keep them 7 Because no grace received can hold out without continuall influences from heaven 80 But 2 from the meer favour and goodness of God 81 Qu. What is it that doth and shall ever remain in a believer 82 Ans 1. An anointing from the holy one for 1 A child of God if he sinne cannot carry it away as others 83 2 cannot stand it out as others do 2. Lusting against every known sin 84 For 1 He never sins but against his standing purpose 2 Against the study and composure of his heart 3 Something or other breaks the fulness of the voluntariness of it 1 Ignorance 2. Inconsideration 3 Passion 4 Violent temptation 4 Cannot make a trade of sin 85 5 Hath an apness to rise again 3 A tender disposition to look after God 86 For 1 he cannot lie down in spirituall distempers 2 He hath a feeling of his hardness 3 He cannot be so secure as to forget God 4 A love to the Image mercy holiness goodness and Ordinances of God 5 A disposition to check and chide his soul for sin 87 6 The habit of grace Use 1. For confutation of those that hold falling from grace 88 2 For comfort to people of God against fears temptations persecutions 3 Labour to make sure that we be godly Doct. A particular Church may perish 89 Four notes of a true Church that may be lost 1 Sincere preaching of the Gospel 90 2 True and sincere use of the Sacraments 92 3 Sincere profession of the Word of God 93 4 True discipline Seven marks of a fall Church 94 1 Antiquity 2Vniversality 3 Succession of Pastors 4Vnity 5 Miracles 6 Pomp 7 Outward prosperity 95 Reas 1. because the Church is Catholick not tied to any place 96 2 God needs no place or person 3 No particular Church hath a promise of continuance Use 1. To confound the Church of Rome 2 To warn all particular Churches 97 Doct. The second Covenant requires works Works necessary 98 1 By necessity of presence 2 By necessity of inseparable effects 3 By necessity of signs 99 4 By necessity of commandement 5 By necessity of end 1 to glorifie God in the world 2 to do good unto others 3 to purifie our selves 4 to qualifie us for heaven 5 to proportion our reward 100 6 By necessity of thankefulness 101 Use 1. See how the Papists wrong us by accusing us to be against good works 2 Let Ministers call on people to have a working faith 3 This discovers them to be graceless who do not follow Christ in doing good 4 Be exhorted to good works Mot. 1. Good works are signs of our condition and state 1 Of election 2 Effectuall calling 3 Justification 4 Adoption 5 Of our love to God 103 2 The reason why we pray no better is because we are not abundant in good works 3 They would chear us in an evill day 4 The want of them the cause of temporal judgments 104 Doct. The covenant of grace requires perfect works ibid Not a perfection of degrees but of sincerity Difference between Legall and Evangelicall perfection 105 1 The law requires performances as well as the will and desire 2 The perfection of the Law stands on quantities as well as qualities 3Vpon full measure whether a man have power or no. 4 Admits no failings 106 5 Makes nothing of repentance Doct We should labour to be perfect Reas 1. From the nature of God 107 2 Because God hath commanded us to be sincere 3 Because God knows our hearts 4 God will let down the Covenant no lower 5 All Gods Saints have been perfect Use 1. To reprove the want of uprightness 108 2 To humble the people of God 109 3 To exhort us to be upright Mot. 1 God delights only in an upright heart 2 This is the total sum of all that God requires p. 110 3 The least grace with uprightness is better then all the goodly performances in the world 4 God will bear with grievous faults where there is uprightness 5Vprightness will help us to profit by all ordinances 111 6 Is most excellent ground of comfort 7 Will make us and our posterity blessed 112 Use 4 For examination Signs of uprightnesse 1 An upright man is universal in regard of all Gods commands 2 In regard of all graces 3 Of all places and company 113 4 Of all times 5 Of all his parts understanding will memory c. 114 6 Of all conditions 115 7 Of all relations 116 8 Of all the circumstances of his actions 117 Doct. As we must be perfect so we must be perfect before God 118 1 Not so as God should approve our works in strict justice But 2 On account of his mercy in Jesus Christ Reas 1 Because God hath so commanded 2 Otherwise a man hath no faith 119 3 This is the end of Christs redemption 4 This is the end of election 5 Because God will search us out 120 6 God only doth esteem of the worth of holiness c. Use 1 To condemn the ceremonious devotion of many 2 For humiliation 121 3 For exhortation to be upright Doct. God will search whether we be perfect 122 Difference between Gods searching and mans 1 Mans searching may be without finding 2 Hath ignorance foregoing 3 Is properly so called 4 Is necessary for knowledge 5 Is for himself 123 God searcheth five wayes 1 By his own spirit 2 By the spirit of man 3 By conscience 4 By his word 124 5 By his providence Whereby God discovers mens secret works 1 By letting his people suspect men 125 2 By letting his people injure wicked men 3 By guiding his Ministers to home preaching 4 By their own lusts and corruption 126 5 By persecution Reas 1 It is Gods prerogative to teach us 2 God will have hypocrites discovered 127 3 It is for Gods glory to search men out
any sin and corruption but if he hath not these he can never get up again as the Apostle saith Heb. 12.12 13. lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees and make strait paths for your feet c. as who should say if you will strengthen your feeble knees then though they be lame they will rather be healed then turned out of the way but if you let your feeble knees be weak still then if you have any lameness or any distemper you will be turned out of the way but if you strengthen your feeble knees when you have been lame and have any distemper you will rather be healed then turned out of the way You shall see when Israel were without the true God and were distempered they were Idolators and all manner of wickedness was grown upon them now when God would have Asa purge out these abuses see how he calls upon him 2 Chron. 15.7 be strong c. now in the words following we may see Asa did strengthen himself and reformed all the abuses and set up the worship of God and went on admirably in that work now he had gotten strength Reas 5 Lastly If we have not strength we can never do any thing God bids us with ease but if we have strength we may not only do what God bids us but do it with ease as when a man hath a strong memory he can get two or three leafes by heart with ease he hath it presently another that hath a weak memory will be conning and conning it I know not how long and as fast as he remembers one thing he forgets another he hath much ado to get it so if a man have a strong judgement and understanding though he meet with an hard word or passage he will understand it and pick out the meaning whereas one of a weak understanding may be studying all the dayes of his life and yet never apprehend it so when a man hath got spiritual strength he can do what God bids him do and leave what God bids him leave with ease he may pray and humble and deny himself with ease and lay those lusts aside which before he had as live have parted with his blood as parted with them when a man is strong in his love to God and strong in the consideration of Gods goodness and mercy he can do these things with ease my yoak is easie saith Christ and my burthen is light whereas to a natural man it is the heaviest yoak and burthen in the world for a man to be tied to abstain from all vanity from all vile passions and inordinate affections from all sinful pleasures and covetous desires it is a burthen intollerable for a natural man it is because of his weakness but now a gracious heart that hath gotten spiritual strength can do it and do it with ease Vse 1 The first Use is to condemn those that have no strength at all that are not capable of this Exhortation we cannot say strengthen the good things that are in you because they have no good things in them at all they have nothing of saving grace and of the covenant of life wrought in them they have nothing but the common graces that may be in a reprobate as Paul saith Rom. 8.7 of the carnal mind it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be it cannot be subject there is no strength of grace there is strength enough but it is let out upon the world may be they have strong parts and gifts but there is no strength to this duty to be subject to the Law of God he is not able to do it as Christ saith of the corrupt tree it cannot bring forth good fruit it hath as much strength to suck from the earth and to bud and blossome and bring forth fruit and as much fruit as a good tree but it cannot bring forth good fruit so a natural man thinks as much and speaks as much and eats and drinks and sleeps as much as a godly man doth and goes about the business of his calling and hears the word of God may be and prayes as often as a godly man doth but he is not able to bring them to a good end to do them well he hath no strength at all as Christ saith to the Scribes and Pharisees how can ye escape the wrath to come they had great parts and strength in other matters but to escape hell and shun the wrath to come they had no strength to do that they were as weak as water there what a woful thing is this when a man hath no strength to overcome his sins and deny himself when men â—ave eyes full of Adultery and cannot cease from sin 2 Pet. 2.14 this is a miserable condition for a man to be in Secondly This may condemn those that though they have some good things in them yet they do not strengthen them that are of the strain of the Church of Sardis that let their graces dye and decay and go down the wind and perish and consume they suffer a consumption in their graces rather then watch and strengthen the things that are in them what a lamentable thing is this though our faith be never so weak we are hardly able to lay hold upon one promise and when we study to find sign of conversion in us we can hardly find any and yet notwithstanding people will not strengthen their faith and other graces Let us not deceive our selves if we be Christians let us shew it by the strength that is in us for if we be true Christians we must be able Christians to do all the works of God able to fight against our corruptions able to do good duties able to obey the Gospel he that hath the least strength of true saving grace is able to be upright in all his wayes he is able to observe all the commandements of God in some measure he is able to carry himself uprightly against every evil way in one word he is able to keep all the word of God in some measure he that hath but the least strength of grace is able to do this as the Lord saith Rev. 3.8 of the Church of Philadelphia though she had but a little strength yet she kept the very word of God a little strength of saving grace will make a man do more then the whole world can do it is able to make a man reach above all the reach of nature and all natural parts and morality and civility and all the fair carriages that ever were it is able to go beyond all there is more wisedom in the least degree of saving grace then in all the Politicians in the world and more knowledge in the least fool in Christs school then in all the wise men under heaven I mean true saving knowledge therefore let us not deceive our selves but as we desire to be able to say that we are true Christians let us
Jesus Christ nor in the Covenant of grace and mercy but was in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity The fourth Use is for examination To examine our selves whither we be upright or no and this is a very necessary Use because those that are not sincere are most subject to think they are sincere and they that are sincere indeed are most afraid they are not sincere Therefore first Consider A sincere man is universal in regard of all the commandements of God he doth set himself in all his wayes to obey God in all his statutes as we may see Psal 119 6. This is an upright man that hath respect to all Gods commandements but a false-hearted man may be he will do something he will pick and choose and take what he likes of the commandments of God some things he will doe others he will not doe he cannot be gotten to stoop to all Gods holy will he will never yield to that may be he will not commit adultery but then he will drinke horribly may be he will not swear but then he will lye if he be good in one thing he will not be good in another if he be diligent in his particular calling he will be negligent in his general calling he will not be holy and strict and one that doth walk in Gods holy Laws a true upright man doth not deal with the commandements of God as the swine doth with the pease-cods that will squeeze them and then leave the rest but an upright man digests all the commandments of God Secondly An upright man he is universal in all graces he is a man of all graces for why is God said to be the God of all grace but in respect that his people have all graces in them and he is the Author of all 2 Cor. 8.7 the Apostle saith therefore as you abound in every grace c. As who should say if you be sincere for so it is in the next verse c. you do not shew your selves to be sincere in your love to God and his Church unless you abound in this grace and that grace and all the graces of Gods holy spirit so that a man must have all graces that is upright there must be none wanting he must have the whole image of God he must have the whole new cloathing he must be a new creature he must be endued with all the cluster of graces Eph. 5.9 And as the Apostle speaks 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7. you may see there how all graces are concatenated and linked together that if a man have one he must have all suppose a man should have faith if he should not adde to his faith vertue what would his faith do him good he is never the nearer his faith cannot save him he must adde to it vertue and when a man hath faith if he have not knowledge what is zeal without knowledge the Apostle preacheth the doctrine of reprobation against the Jews for their zeal when they had not knowledge a man cannot be really vertuous unless he hath knowledge and doth it with wisedom and discretion now if a man had faith and all other vertues and were not temperate he were a very beast and if a man had all these and had not patience a man cannot possess his soul though a man hath faith yet without patience he cannot inherit the promises so that you see an upright man is one that hath all graces so that a man that hath not all the graces of Gods spirit if he want one he hath never a one of them and thus it is with every man that is not right though he may have admirable qualities and endowments of Gods blessed spirit yet if he have not all he is not upright but now an upright man hath all the graces of Gods spirit 't is true some of Gods children are more eminent in one grace and some in another but every child of God hath all the graces of Gods spirit if a man want one he cannot have another Thirdly An upright man is universal in regard of place he is not onely good among good company but good also among bad company he is good out of the Church as well as in the Church and good at home as well as in the streets among such and such he is good abroad as well as in his own Town as you may see Psalm 16.8 I have alwayes set God before mâ—ne eyes an upright man wheresoever he is he sets God before his eyes that he may not provoke him nor offend him The upright dwell in his presence Psalm 140.13 you wil say may be they goe an hundred miles off but wheresoever they go they dwell in his presence and this makes him good in all places now a rotten-hearted man may be he will be good in the Church but leaves his Religion at the Church doore may be he will be good abroad but he will neglect his own family or if he be honest and well ordered while he is in his own Parish yet let him go abroad a far off into another Town where no body knows him may be there he will flie out you shall see many a professor that joyns himself to the people of God at home and will be drunk abroad these are false and unsound hearts that are not good in all places if they be godly openly they are not so secretly thus it is with wicked and ungodly men if they come among good people they will not for shame drinke nor swill nor swear nor speake against goodness but if they be among wicked people they will side with them and may be gird at the Saints of God and give them back blows just as it is with water put it into a Tub it will have the shape of a Tub put it into a Beaker it will have the shape of a Beaker it still fashions it self according to the vessel into which it is put but an upright man is like a solid thing that keeps its own figure he is the same in all places Fourthly An upright man is universal in regard of time he is good at all times Psal 106.3 Blessed is he that keeps judgement and righteousness at all times not as though a childe of God may not fall fearfully many times but it is against the absolute bent of his heart and care and study of his soul a Divine sets it out by a spring between a couple of hills it will alwayes run it will either run thorough those lets that stop it or else it will run over those lets it cannot cease running if it be a living spring so a godly sincere heart is good at all times now an unsound Christian that never had the true grace of life in his heart he will not be good at all times he will be good by fits and turns when he is smitten at a Sermon when he is under the rod under a cross then he will fall soul with
him crying and roaring and made him glad to go to their houses whom before he had persecuted and scorned and afterwards he told him that he was a chosen vessel so the Lord dealt with the jaylor he rent and tore him and burst him in peices as if all the devils in hell were about him and afterwards he saith Believe in the Lâ—rd Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Act. 16.26 But you will say there are some in Scripture are related not to have any such work Lidia she heard Paul preach and the Lord opened her heart at first and was a convert presently Act. 6.14 So it was with Cornelius and his company Peter opened his mouth and preached to them and while he yet spake the holy Ghâ—sâ— fell on them all Act. 10.24 Therefore it seems all mens conversions and callings home are not ushered by this legal work I answer This is a poore Argument that because the Scripture doth not say this work of the Law did not go before therefore it did not go before a man cannot make such an inference because the Scripture doth not repeate it it is sufficient that the Scripture hath related it in other places how the Lord brings his people home and what method he useth in doing them good first he useth the work of the Law and then of the Gospel the Lord sets it down in other places and therefore though he omits it here it doth not follow there was no such thing in Lidia and Cornelius and I will prove there was in both places that there was a preparatory work in Lida is plaine by two Arguments for the Scripture sheweth that before this evangelical work came she was a worshipper of God before noting there was something went before this opening of her heart there was a work of the Law before for this was the first work of the Gospel when God opened her heart another Argument is in the 13 ver where it is said that Lidia before she heard this Sermon resorted to Paul to the Rivers side to pray therefore it is a plaine sign that she was wrought upon by a preparatory work before Paul converted her and wrought upon her by the Gospel And then for Cornelius and his friends for Cornelius himself it is a plaine case that he was wrought upon before the Holy Ghost fell upon him for in the beginning of the Chapter it is said he was a devout man one that called upon God and set times apart extraordinarily to seek God before the Holy Ghost fell upon him and no question it was so with his kinsfolks for whom did he call to meet with Peter at this Sermon but those that he had been conversant with therefore it is likely they were wrought upon before as well as Cornelius otherwise he would have had little hope to get them thither well then the first thing we have proved that God doth thus prepare his people legally before he doth effectually call them Now we come to the second thing why God thus and the first Reason is because God will declare and shew forth his justice for as God did shew forth his justice in the Redemption of his people so he will also in the application of this Redemption shew some part of his justice in the Redemption of the World he poured forth the full viols of it he required full satisfaction of the Lord Jesus now he will not let justice be utterly swallowed up of mercy when he comes to apply this but justice shall shew his face and they shall come to see what Christ hath done for them and miseries he hath waded through for a man he shall see that God is a just and righteous God that hates sinne and abhors iniquity what a consuming fire he is against them that disobey him the Lord makes his justice appeare in the application of Redemption you see how he takes up his people upon Mount Ebal and delivers the curses of the Law and makes his own people to say Amen and subscribe to them Deut. 27.26 Here he delivers the curses and makes proclamation of his justice and saith he I will have all the people say Amen he will have all lye a bleeding under this curse and marke what Moses saith in the first verse of the next Chapter it shall come to passe if thou wilt hearken to the voyce of the Lord he will set thee up above all nations here comes in a fine Sunshiny day afterwards the Lord will have his people see his justice and what it is to be delivered from sinne the Lord will make them see that he is a just and righteous God and that there is no sinning against him there is no living in his sight no entring into his Kingdom without righteousness I must be a new creature else I shall be consumed he chargeth these things upon the soul and that soundly too because now he will lay down the foundation of a godly life the soul shall have need of this point as long as he lives to remember that God is a righteous God he hath found him to be a just God against sinne though he be a gracious and merciful God to them that truly repent and set themselves to obey his Name yet the soul seeth there is no living in sinne no following after a mans own lusts and the soul never loseth this for though the soul many times through temptations may be carried away yet he shall never be under that former blindness he was in never so ignorant of God never think so meanly and ignominiously of God as he did in his unregeneracy he still knows that God is a severe God and there is no expecting of mercy at his hands without holinesse and righteousnes if God should smother up the work all at first justice would not be seen as we see it is among men suppose a base fellow hath wronged a noble man may be the noble man means to pardon him but yet he will have him smart for it and feele and know what it is to displease and wrong and impeach such a great man as he So if the Lord should smother up the business presently as soon as ever he sends the word to a man presently convert a man and pardon him and give him true and saving faith justice would not be seen and therefore the Lord first tramples upon a mans neck and shews him his filthiness and casts him out of the Camp as the Lord said concerning Mirian she is unclean carry her out of the Camp so the Lord flings a person forth like a cursed damned creature as if he would take him by the heeles and fling him down to hell and never look upon him and then he takes him in thus the Lord tells his people Isa 45.21 There is none but me a just God and a Saviour first he makes them see that he is a just God and then he makes them see that he is their Saviour and Redeemer
presently take a plaister and so recovers him For comfort to all those that are the Lords though it be a poor faith a poor hope that flowes from possibility only yet I tell you that even believers may have need sometimes to have resort unto it for how often hath the Devil been let loose upon poor souls even those that are of God as sometimes he doth tempt them to presumption that so they may neglect their watch over themselves so it is his practice to drive us from one extreame to another and hurry us to despair and urge upon us that we have no faith we have no grace and are as sure to be damned as if we were in hell already David Psal 31.22 seems to be out of all hope to be saved as if he were utterly undone the servants of light many of them have found this too too true how fearfully they have been perplexed and galled in minde seeking release but could finde none and pronouncing against themselves bitter things as if they had nothing of God in them the devil dazling their eyes that they cannot see and putting out of their minds all the sweet passages of the Gospel and preaching nothing but the terrible passages of the Law he that doubts is damned and he that wavers is like a wave of the sea and he urgeth them with every vain thought with every omission with every failing and every sin they have committed it is strange to see how some of Gods own people have reasoned against themselves as if all the devils logick were in them and all mercy were gone thus the devil sometimes deals with Gods people that they cannot tell where to hold they can see nothing to give any comfort or stay they are ready to let go all and give over all hope now what an excellent thing is this if a man have this hope that he may be never driven from God that there is eternal life and forgivenesse in him and all these things are attainable I tell you it is a great help to a man when he can say with the Church Joel 2.13 Who can tell whether the Lord will turn and leave a blessing behind him a man that hath but this hope in him it will never let him go off from God and be quite overcome by Satan so that though it be but a poor thing yet it is worth a Kings ransome in time of trouble To shew unto us how God doth work this hope and he works it first by rooting out of the heart all vaine hopes and bringing in a better hope as the Apostle speaks Heb. 7.19 The Law made nothing perfect when God brought in Christ he brought in a better hope when God brings Christ to the soul he brings a better hope into the soul the soul before had a vaine hope he prayed and came to Church and was civil and well brought up and had many good gifts and many terrours and affrightments all these are nothing but legal works a man can never have hope in this but when God brings in a better hope he throws out all the other he shoots his Law like a great Ordnance into the soul and strikes him dead and makes him see there is no hope all his vaine hopes are nothing and still the soul will be gathering false hopes and returning to them but the Lord throws them out still and puts in a better hope By setting a look upon the Gospel as the Gospel tenders this to every creature to one as well as to another so the Lord puts a particular look upon the Gospel as Peter said to the lame man look upon me and this made him expect to receive an alms from him Acts 3.4 5. So the Lord makes a man look upon the Gospel to minde the Gospel and regard and take notice of it what it saith for people let these things slip but when God works this hope in the soul he makes a man to mind the Gospel and makes as if it looked at him and so he comes to have sound hope in the Gospel as a beggar when a Gentleman puts his hand into his purse though he sees nothing yet he thinks he will give him something so the Lord puts his hand into his purse as it were he lays his hand upon mercy and lets the soul see him tendring of mercy and this makes him hope he shall have mercy he casts a look upon him and so affects and draws the soul and he finds the Lord moving the soul and inclining the heart and weaning the soul from the world and quickning him to seek after the things that are above By removing of all impossibilities that lie upon the soul you know there is abundance of impossibilities that appear as for a man to live in his sinnes a man then hath no heart to Christ no heart to heavenly things no mind to pray and to strict courses it is impossible for a man in this case ever to attaine these things when he hath no heart to them now the Lord takes away that impossibility and makes the soul see it is possible to attain these things therefore there is a kinde of seed of regeneration going along with this 1 Pet. 1.3 as there is a seed before regeneration it self before that hope that proceeds from justifying faith so these seeds of regeneration are before this hope I now speak of the soul hath something wherby it seeth a possibility and the Lord shews him a way of recovery and sets up a standard to guide him in the way and takes away all impediments that hinder him in the way and now the soul seeth it is possible to attain unto these things If we have any such hope as this let us not labour to diminish it but let it grow in us it is an excellent mercy of God to begin this hope if we have the least crevis or cranny of it let us make much of it let us tender it cherish it for it will help us to pray and seek God and let go our corruptions it will enable us to do many things when a man hath gotten this hope once therefore if we have it let us put it on as the Apostle saith if you mean to go to heaven you shall be sure to meet with blows therefore you should have your helmet on the devil will say have you any hope to go to heaven having such a vile cursed heart you were better give all over for your betters have missed it now we had need of this hope to be nourished and cherished in us nay though a man hath never so much faith he should cherish this more and more But how shall a man cherish it I answer first look to the power of God do not say how shall I be able to do this and that how shall I get my lusts to be mortified and how shall I get my heart to submit to God but look unto the
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead So these men have a hope that makes them lively and full of life as a poor man that hath some grounded hope of an Earthly inheritance it makes the heart lively Poverty deads the heart he that hath nothing to maintain himself and those that belongs unto him it deads his heart but if he hath some hopes of an hundred pound a year and his hope is grounded if he hath sure hope of it and he makes no doubt of it it makes his heart full of life so when a man doth believe that he is in a good case that he is delivered from death that he is in the estate of grace when he hath some probability that God hath justified him from sin this breeds an hope in him of an eternal Inheritance and this hope the consideration of it makes the soul full of life There is nothing can make a man more lively then a hope that he is justified before God and that God will not impute his sins unto him Now when a carnal man conceives he is righteous before God and that God will forgive him his iniquities that God will not damn him nor count him a dead and a damned man so long as a man doth imagine this he must needs be a lively man he is alive in his own apprehension nay all the delights in the world cannot make a man so full of life as this hope It is not mens following their pleasure that makes their hearts so full of life as to have hope that the Lord doth not account them dead men that they are justified men and righteous men that they have salvation to shew for Heaven and eternal happinesse to shew for that they shall go to heaven But if now the Law were charged upon a man if he knew that he were a dead man a damned man it would pluck down his spirits and make his spirits dead for all his pleasures It is the conceit that men are Justified that makes them so full of life so long as the Law doth not come home to a man and point him out in his colours and make it appear to him that he lyeth under the wrath of Almighty God that the Lord doth account him an abominable wretched Creature so long as he doth not apprehend this especially if he have any good Gifts and Parts and Qualities and Moral Obedience to the Law doing good Duties and a general laying hold upon the Promises and a hope they belong to him this makes him alive Phil. 3.9 Paul when he was a Pharisee and did Moral Duties and performed Moral Obedience to the Law of God he thought he had Righteousnesse of his own he calls it there his own Righteousnesse he so apprehended of himself now this is that which makes men alive when they conceive that they have some Religion and some Grace You shall have many men and women that hate the Servants of God and yet think they are godly men and have Grace and Life in them We may see it Acts 13.50 there it is said that the Jews stirred up certain devout and honourable women and raised Persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them out of their Coasts Though they hated Paul and Barnabas yet they are said to be devout and honourable women They imagined they were very Devout they conceived they were Religious How many men and women are there that think they are Righteous and they will do many Duties and take many good Courses in so much that it would pity a man to think they should go to hell they will be very Zealous they will be very Earnest against Drunkennesse and cry out against the abominations of the times they are marvellous Devout and Godly and yet a man that is Devout and Godly in truth and in deed they cannot abide him but hate him Now if the Law should come home unto them and discover how indeed it is with them it would humble their souls and pull down their spirits and make them dead so that this presumptuous hope that men are in good terms with God and that God will be merciful to them and forgive them their sins this makes them to be alive 2. We come now to the Second thing and that is the Effect of this Liveliness what Effects it works in the heart And the Effects of this Liveliness are Four 1. First It makes them sound and heart-whole like a Boyl unlaunced it is yet sound The true sight of sin and wrath of God in the soul is able to break the heart of any man it is able to dead his spirit and kill all the Livelinesse that is in him and make him have little life to go on as he doth But so long as the Law of God is not come home to a man though he have no Title to Heaven though Hell be the Portion of his Cup yet he is as sound as can be as heart-whole as may be Let carnal comfort come he can take it let pleasures come he is able to delight himself therewith and go on in his course as if he ailed nothing Prov. 18.14 the Wise man saith The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear When the Lord comes to wound a mans heart with the sight of his sins and the fearful condition he is in what a cursed creature he is having no Mercy and being out of Christ having no Pardon no Grace no Holinesse but lyeth under the Curse of God If the Law thus come home and wounds his Conscience he is not able to bear it this man let carnal Comforts come he is not able to take them it kills the heart Look as it is with the Stomack if it can take meat and digest it it must needs be alive for if the Stomack be dead it can digest nothing So for the Taste If a mans Palat and all the instruments of the taste be dead he takes no delight in any meats So there is a kind of soundness in the Soul that is the reason why a man can delight in carnal pleasures in Drinking and Sporting and in Profit and Gain There is a kind of soundness and liveliness in the Heart the heart is not yet broken If the Law come and take the Hearts life away this will pull down the Heart it will make a mans heart even break it will pull down his spirit But a man whom the Law hath not yet humbled and shewed him his damned estate his heart is yet whole and sound When the Law of God had but a little killed Ahabs heart you might see it in his very gate he went softly he could not tread so confidently upon the ground as he was wont to do it tamed his very steps it is wonderful how his heart was broken it appeared in his very going up and
it it hath this starting-hole that Christ dyed for sinners discover plainly that he is a dead man he hath these starting-holes he hopes he shall have peace and he hopes he is not so vile before Almighty God and he hopes he hath better righteousnesse then you would bear him down with and so he hath an evasion to get out but when the law comes and shuts him up this will tame him As we use to tame Lions and Bears and such like fierce and cruel creatures by shutting of them up so the Lord tames the heart of a poor creature when he would pull him down he shuts him up and layes him in the prison and in the Gaole and he hath no way to get out he is a dead man and there is no way to get out no evasion to escape but still he is a dead man and a damned man he cannot open his mouth any more Ezek. 16.63 That thou mayest remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God The law indeed works thus in the Regenerate though the Lord be pacified towards them yet they shall never open their mouths never cavil against Gods precepts more never be so brisk any more But so long as a man is in his sins the law doth not only convince him that he is dead in himself but that he is also dead towards God that God accounts him a dead man that God is not pacified towards him but he lies under the wrath of God and this pulls him down and stops his mouth A carnal mans mouth will not be stopped but he will have some thing to say some vain hope or confidence or other some pleading or excusing or other His mouth will never be stopped till the law of God comes and when that comes that will stop his mouth and make it appear that he is guilty before God Rom. 3.19 the Apostle saith Now we know that whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law that every mouth might be stopped and all the world may be culpable before God But before the law comes a mans mouth will not be stopped Gen. 20.3 God came to Abimilech by night and said Thou art but a dead man because of the woman which thou hast taken for she is a mans Wife He was a dead man but he little thought it he would not believe that he was a dead man As the Text there speaks of temporal death So it is true of the other carnal men are indeed dead men but they will not believe that they are dead men and damned men they hope for mercy and cry peace peace to their souls but when the law comes that knocks off all mens hopes and layes them for dead in Gods account 3. Thirdly This deadnesse I here speak of it consists in regard of all manner of doing when the law of God hath charged it self upon the conscience and discovered to a man that he is a dead and a damned man It makes it now appear unto him that he is utterly unable to do any thing he is in the depth of misery and he is unable to cry mercy aright he is not able to make a prayer no more then a dead man he seeth he can no more keep a Sabbath as he ought than a dead man So for any duty of Religion he seeth he hath no more life to do it then a dead man hath to do the actions of the living as the Apostle speaks Gal. 2.19 I am dead to the Law that I might live unto God God made Saint Paul alive unto him but first he charged his law upon his conscience and made him seem to be a dead man to the law That he had no life or actity to do any thing pleasing to God but when the Lord made him alive to himself then he could do something nay he was able to do all things through the Lord Jesus Christ that strengthned him But in himself both still and before he was altogether dead to the law of God so that when the law comes and shews a mans estate unto him it shews him his utter inability to the performance of any good duty The Pharisee will to the Temple as well as the Publican Saul will Sacrifice as well as Samuel Prophane people will take up the Ordinances of God as if they had life to go through them as well as the people of God But when the law comes it plainly convinceth a man it makes him feel and understand that he hath no activity or life to perform any thing pleasing to Almighty God a dead man can do nothing he is cut off from all the actions of the living dead men they cannot devise ought they cannot purpose ought they cannot work ought So when the Law of God is charged upon a man and shews him that he is but a dead man and a damned man now he seeth he can as well create a world as make a prayer he can as well remove a Mountain as do any thing acceptable to God Such a man will say I am a dry tree and cannot grow I am lost in the wildernesse of sin and cannot get out again Thus we see wherein this deadnesse consists 2. Now I come to shew you the Effects if this deadnesse how it pulls down the heart this will pull down the heart of a man marvellously when the Law chargeth this upon him that he is but a dead man though the will of man be infinitely unruly it is wild it is like the mad man in the Gospel that the Divel was in no man was able to bind him no Chains were able to hold him no Creature could tame him Mark 5.34 So it is with the will of an unregenerate man his will is marvellous wild he breaks all bonds and snaps all cords in pieces and casts off the yoak from him Let God bid him do this he will not do it let him be in a good mood he is presently out of it again let him be convinced of his vain hopes and let him see what a wretched Creature he is he will have vain hopes again his will is infinitely unruly and desperately wild the very Divel in hell hath the rule of it it is full of life against God and his Commandments and will never yield while the world stands till now the Lord comes with his Law and shews a man that he is a dead man and a damned man and shews him that he is under the wrath of God the Law is able to do this as the Apostle speaks Rom. 4.15 The Law causeth wrath It makes a man appear to lye under the wrath of God under Gods everlasting displeasure and in the mouth of hell and damnation and if God be not merciful to him and more merciful then to a world of men he seeth he is a dead man utterly lost and undone for ever now this will
for Christ the reason is their hearts are full already People count their profits and pleasures and lusts and vanities and delights their Jewels a man must be poor before he will part with his Jewels but if a man be throughly pinched with poverty he will part with his old Gold and Rings and Jewels and all but he will never part with his Jewels till he be forced to it by extremity So all the lusts of the heart all the things of the world that the mind and affections run upon men account them their Jewels and they will not part with them till they be pinched with poverty Thus it was with the Jaylor Acts 16.30 when he was pinched with this poverty he cryes out Men and brethren what shall I do to be saved when his heart was pinched with this poverty he was content to part with any thing he was willing to do any thing to hearken to any terms that he might have mercy So that it is necessary for a man to have all these Privations wrought in his heart and be made poor else he will never take Christ upon those terms whereupon he is offered Secondly Suppose a man should conceive worth to be in Christ suppose he should put a great price upon him yet if a man be not under these Privations if he be not pinched with poverty with Spiritual need and want he will never use all means for the attaining of the Kingdom of God He will never betake himself to all those courses that God hath commanded himselfe to be sought in It was need that made Ahab send up and down all Countries and Soiles for water it was need that made the rich Women of Shunem to hazard her life and her family and houshold in a forraign Country she would not have gone a mile of that Journey but for her poverty as Divines use to speak Let two men go to the market the one hath need the other hath not he that hath need will go whatsoever the weather be though the weather be never so foul he will go bread he wants and bread he must have and bread he will have and if he cannot have it at an easie rate he will part with any thing he will pawn his very cloaths from his back for it Why Because he and his Wife and his Children want it But the other he will go according as he likes the weather if the weather be answerable to his mind it may be he will go and it may be not and when he is there it may be he will buy and it may be not according as the price goeth because he hath no need of it So it is in Grace let two men be called upon to seek out for Grace one doth not feel any great need he is not pinched with the want of Faith and Repentance and Pardon and Peace of Conscience though he want these yet he is not pinched with the want his heart is yet full he is not yet come to this Spiritual poverty It may be he will come to a Sermon it may be not it may be he will part with a Lust and it may be not it is according as the bargain pleaseth him he will never use all means nor take up all courses that are prescribed But a man that is ready to starve for want of Christ as Sisera said Give me drink or else I perish so give me Christ or else I perish This man will take any course use any means he must have Christ and will have him when he comes to the Word Christ he wants and Christ he will have and must have all Sermons and all hearing are but as Oile to the fire they do but pinch his Soul so much the more till Christ comes he must have Christ in his Ordinances because he is sensible of his Spiritual poverty So that it is he which is lost that will be found it is he which is a captive that will be freed it is he that is blind that must have his sight and it is he that is naked that must be cloathed he that lies under these woful Privations he must have the form he looks after it he cannot be without it Thus we see that Privation is necessary for Religion the true life of Religion can never come into a man till he be layed under all these woful Privations we read of in Scripture But now here is a Question which will arise which those that are godly would be glad to have resolved and that is this Whether these Privations that the Apostle here speaks of makes a man the formal Object of mercy Saint Paul was alive once before the Law came but when the Law came and was charged upon his Conscience it deprived him of his livelynesse and made him a dead man I dyed saith he Now the Question is this Whether is such a man the formal Object of mercy When the Law hath deprived a man of his conceited riches and made him a poor man and hath proclaimed him a bank-rupt and a begger and made him a captive that he is not able to stir one foot he is not able so much as to think a good thought but he lyeth under wrath and is not able to get out Whether is such a man the formal Object of mercy I mean whether is he such a one as the Gospel hath promised deliverance unto When a man by the Law is made a dead Creature and is altogether deprived of life and health he hath no life actually and there is no life actually to be had for him for so the law leaves him without any hope of getting any life Whether is this man the formal Object of mercy whether is he such a one as the Gospel doth make promise to of quickning and enriching and gathering and finding and saving and comforting and the like whether is this man the formal Object of mercy Every man is the Object of mercy but whether hath this man got those properties that belong to the actual Object of mercy The reason why I propound this Question is this Because the Scripture seems to make such a one the formal Object of mercy such a one as mercy is promised to such a one as the Gospel looks upon as the proper and actual Object of mercy for the Gospel is said to quicken the dead and to give them life it is the Letter that killeth and the Spirit that giveth life 2 Cor. 3.6 It giveth life to him that was before a dead man to him that was killed by the letter So for poverty Luk. 4.18 To the poor the Gospel is preached the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me that I should heal the broken hearted and preach deliverance to the Captives and recovering of sight to the blind So that when the Law hath made a man a poor man and hath stripped him of all his conceited riches
hardnesse of heart again so that such a man is not the formal Object of Mercy 2. Again We see many though they be wrought upon thus by the Law and their Eyes be enlightned and their Consciences awaked and they see that they are in a wretched and damned estate yet they scrape together a company of vain hopes and so heal themselves again VVhen they have been terrified by the Law they seek presently for Promises and how they may get up again and they would fain get up and they lye at catch at every Sermon and at every Chapter and at every Word which a good man speaks and if they can get any hold they catch at it and so get up again and go on And when they have got a little comfort and think they shall do well they are as carelesse and as stubborn and as secure as ever they were they may go on in the profession of Religion but yet their latter end is worse than their beginning The unclean Divel may be cast out but the Devil transforms himself into an angel of light and enters into them and they go on in doing good duties but they never have the power of Religion Again Thirdly Many that are humbled by the Law they run away and never come to Christ as Judas when he saw he was condemned he went and hanged himself Matth. 27 3 5. Some expound it of Christ when he saw Christ was condemned but others expound it of himself when Judas saw himself was condemned and that seems to be the meaning of the place for Christ was not condemned nor so much as accused there came not any witnesse against him till Judas had hanged himself as we may see if we read that Chapter But whether that be the meaning or no this is true and certain he saw he was a dead mâ—â— he saw he lay under the guilt of his sins and he despaired of Mercy and went and hanged himself Again Lastly If such a man were the Object of Mercy then all the damned in Hell were the formal Objects of Mercy for there is never a man in Hell but the Law hath its work to the uttermost upon him it can work a man no lower it can sink a man no deeper it can make a man no more miserable then those that are in Hell Now if a dead man by the Law should be the formal Object of mercy then the damned in Hell should be the formal Object of mercy which cannot be for from thence there is no Redemption Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Divel and his angels Matth. 25. there is no quenching of that fire So that we see the legal killing of the Law doth not make a man the formal Object of mercy But yet such a man hath a great deal of advantage he is before a world of other men that live secure if men were in this estate they were in a thousand times more likelyhood to be saved If I could hear of people that were gastered and cast down by the Law that saw themselves without Christ and without Mercy in the power of Satan and in the bond of iniquity if they cryed out I am a dead man and a damned man if I dye now at this present I shall go to Hell if People were in this estate and condition there were more hopes of them a thousand times there is no hope of people that do live secure in their sins so long as the Trumpet of the Law hath not sounded in their ears so long as the Hammer of the Law hath not sounded upon their hearts there is no hope of mercy for them Therefore now for the clearing of this a little more let me shew you First What it is to be dead according as the Gospel makes a man to be a dead man Secondly What is the difference between Legal Privation and Evangelical and when these Privations are Evangelical and put a man under the actual title to Mercy under an actual interest in the Promises Thirdly VVhat Use we are to make of it For the First VVhat it is to be Evangelically dead To be Legally dead is not to be half a quarter so much dead as to be Evangelically dead so as the Gospel makes a man dead before it quickens him VVhen a man is Evangelically dead it makes him more dead by a thousand degrees then all the Law in the world can make him it makes him more dead by odds when a man is Legally dead and sees himself to be a damned creature and whereas he hoped to have mercy he seeth now he hath none and whereas he hoped to go to Heaven he now seeth the Gates are shut against him and whereas he hoped he had some good in him now he sees he hath nothing in him a man would think this were a dead man but his livelinesse is only in a swound the Law lying upon him will not let his livelinesse appear and if the Law should lye upon him for ever it would never let his livelinesse actually appear but yet he is not throughly dead all this while as for example 1. Self-conceitednesse it is not deaded when a man is killed by the Law you would think his conceitednesse were gone he was conceited he was a good Christian but now he sees no such matter he was conceited before that he would repent and God would be merciful to him but now he seeth he is utterly deprived of mercy and lies under the wrath of God you would think now that all his conceitedness was gone but it is but only in a swound all this while he lies for dead as it were but he is not dead So take a man that is in Hell all his good conceits of mercy and of himself and his profits and pleasures and vanities and delights they are all gone now What doth Pride profit me What good do Riches do me What have all my Pleasures and Delights done me good All my labour is vanity and all my delights folly one would think all his conceits were clean gone but they are only in a swound If a damned man were out of Hell if the Lord should take off the lash of his Law from him he would have as good a conceit of his Profits and Pleasures and Riches again as ever he had and he would have his carnal Reasons against the strictnesse of Religion again as rife as ever he had they are only laid in a swound indeed there they shall lie a man can never get up again because the Law lies continually upon him he is continually under the lash of the Law and the Law holds this picture before his eyes and shews him his damned estate ann condition but upon such a supposition that he might come out of Hell his conceits would rise up again Prov. 5.12 13. Solomon there brings in a man wrought upon by the Law the Law discovered him to be a dead man How have I hated instruction and despised
correction and have not obeyed the voice of them that taught me nor inclined my eare to them that instructed me His carnal Reasons are now all gone they are in a swound they were true Instructions that I have hated they were true Reports that I have despised and they were base and damned Courses which I have followed How have I lived One would think all his foolish conceits now were gone they are in a swound indeed and cannot get up But the Gospel will give a man his deaths wound a man can never have that good conceit of himself he had before nor of his lusts and vanities and profits and delights his self-conceitednesse hath now got his deaths wound Secondly For self-confidence when the Law hath humbled a man his self-confidence is only in a swound when he lyeth in Hell under the lash of the Law he seemeth to have no power in himself no life or activity to any duty He sees that he is poor and weak and rotten and wretched A poor creature he is he seeth it plainly and all his self-confidence seems to he gone but yet there is a great deal of self-confidence actually in Hell for though they are in Hell yet they think if they were alive again what they would do I would hear the Word and call upon God I would repent and not live in sin and not do as I have done they think they would do thus and thus as it was with Divâ—s Luke 16.30 I have five brethren saith he if one should come to them from the dead they would repent and not come where I am If they knew but as much as I know they would repent I am sure if they were in my case they would if they were in hell where I am if they knew how certain it is that they shall come to hell where I am when they die unlesse they do repent at the preaching of the Prophets and hearken to the voice of Gods-Ministers and yield and submit to God they would do it I would if it were my case This is self-confidence for self-confidence is only laid asleep in Hell and it cannot rise again It is true the Law may dead a man and give him three deaths wounds There are Three Wounds that the Law gives a man First It makes it appear that a man is worthy of death the Law makes him see his guiltinesse Secondly The Law pronounceth upon a sinner the sentence of death as Paul saith of a natural death I received the sentence of death 2 Cor. 1.9 that is I was a dead man I took my self to be a dead man So the Law doth make a man to be a dead man it pronounceth the sentence of death upon him it doth not only make it appear that he is worthy of death for so it may do and yet he may have hope of mercy but it makes a man receive the sentence of death and to be a dead man If a man be once condemned if the sentence of death be passed upon him then he is without hope that the Judge will save him because the sentence of condemnation is passed upon him A man may see himself worthy of death and yet hope for mercy Rom. 1.31 Therefore the Law doth pronounce the sentence of death upon him and makes a man in a second degree dead Nay Thirdly The law makes a man see there is no hope of return as it is with a dead man when a man is truly dead there is no return from death there is no rising again as the Wise-man speaks of the strange women Prov. 2.18 19. Surely her house tendeth to death and her paths unto the dead they that go unto her return not again neither take they hold of the wayes of life Here the Wise-man sets forth the infinite misery and damnable estate of such a creature and the irrecoverableness of such a person without the extraordinary mercy of God Ordinarily such persons are seldom or never brought to repentance ordinarily they are irrecoverable So the Law makes a man see he is guilty of death and it passeth the sentence of condemnation upon him and it makes him see there is no repeal of that sentence thus the law leaves him Now a man would think Can a man be more dead then thus How can a man be more dead Yet he may be a thousand times more dead for the livelynesse of a man is but in a swound all this while a man cannot be brisk and peark and self-conceited he is now laid in a swound but is not stark dead But when a man comes to be Evangelically dead he is more dead a great deale And I will shew you it in these three things 1. First He is most dead that is hardest to recover Now when a man is legally dead it is easie to recover that man let but the lash of the law be taken off let but God let him alone and the profits and pleasures of the world will make him alive again his friends and vanities and delights will put life into him again it is an easie matter to recover this man but let a man be evangelically dead when the Gospel hath deaded a man he is a thousand times more dead and a great deal harder to recover nothing can recover that man but Christ let all the profits in the world come they cannot chear him without Christ if the devil should come and put into his minde all good conceits and the good opinion of the world If the Ministers should tell him he is in a good estate they cannot quicken his heart he is dead still he is harder a thousand times to be revived then the other as the Apostle saith Col. 3.2 3. Set your affections on things that be above not on things that are on earth for ye are dead and your life is hid in Christ The Gospel hath made you dead and you cannot be revived by any thing but Christ your life is hid with Christ do not you set your affections on things that are below they can never put life into you therefore let not them take up your minds and affections any more for your life is in Christ alone 2. Secondly He is most dead that life it self cannot make alive When a man is but legally dead the law hath made him a dead man and killed him and shewed him he is a damned creature this man let him have but a little life or any thought of life come into him let him have any affections towards God any seeming desires it will make him think I am alive But if the Gospel once have made a man a dead man life it self cannot quicken him Christ himself cannot make this man a live man in himself though life come into him and though he hath life from God yet he himself is dead I am dead through the law saith Paul that I might live unto God thus I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and that life I now live
could see an honest life and conversation whither he had pleased God saith he I communed with my spirit and made diligent search Psal 77.6 How have I pleased God and followed God what manner of life have I led he ransacked all his life and conversation and would be glad to see he had done the things pleasing to God it would be more comfort then if all the Angels in heaven had spoken comfort so temptations or afflictions may be upon us that we would be glad to see signs and tokens of Gods favour in sanctifying our hearts and making us to be obedient to his will and tremble at his word and if we cannot see these things woe unto us 1 Tim 6.19 charge them that be rich in the world that they be not high-minded c. So we do not know what times may come we had need lay a good foundation for comfort against the time to come and charge rich men that they be rich in good works charge all Christians all that desire to stad in the evil day to be rich in good works and abound in them and lay up in store a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal life Lastly Consider that your want of obedience and good works is the cause of all Gods temporal judgements why God doth stop the bottles of Heaven and turns the Earth into dust and parcheth our Corn we see God hath begun the plague among us in the principal place of the Kingdom wherefore is all this see what the Prophet saith Jer. 3.3 therefore have the showers been withholden because you have been wicked thou hast an whores forehead and refusest to be ashamed thy carelesseness and barrenness under the means of grace thy impenitency and hardness of heart these have caused the showers to be withholden and have made God to deny the former and latter rain The second point is this As the Covenant of grace requires works so it requires perfect works he tells the Church of Sardis that he looks for works and perfect works but cannot find them so that the second Covenant requires perfect works But you will say how can that be Paul himself that was as forward a man and had as perfect works as any man yet he confesseth he was not perfect Phil. 3.12 so likewise here we know but in part 1 Cor. 13.10 perfection is not yet come in the world to come it may come Heb 12. there we read of the spirits of just and perfect men then men are made perfect but they are not perfect in this life I answer 't is true therefore there is a double perfection First A perfection of degrees to be perfectly perfect and so no man can be perfect by any perfection inherent indeed the Covenant of works requires this perfection but the Covenant of grace doth not indeed when we come to glory there shall be this perfection but not in this life in this life the Lord only subdues our sins but casts them not into the bottom of the Sea til the life to come therefore this perfection cannot be looked for upon earth Therefore secondly There is another perfection and that is a perfection by way of sincerity and uprightnesse Job 1.1 Job was a perfect and upright man Now this perfection differs from the other five wayes the perfection God requires in the Gospel from that in the Law First The Law stands upon performances as well as the will and desire and a man is not perfect unlesse he perform all as well as desire to doe it But now the perfection of the Gospel is without these performances indeed that man labours for as many performances as he can but it may be onely by desires Rom. 7.18 Paul was perfect by Evangelical Perfection he was upright before God yet he could not reach performances no he had a will to be good he did unfeignedly desire to be godly and serve God in every thing unfeignedly endeavouring after godly courses yet could not attain to that which he did desire So it was with Nehemiah and all the good people of God Nehem. 1.11 O Lord I beseech thee let thine ear be attentive to the prayers of thy servants who desire to fear thy name He could hardly say that he did perform it but he did desire it he could hardly say he did love and obey God and doe his will but this he would say he did desire to doe it and unfeignedly desire it as Solomon saith Prov. 21.21 He that followeth after righteousnesse and mercy findeth life He doth not say he that reacheth it he cannot reach it may be but he that followeth after it shall have life it is a sign that he hath the life of justification and that he shall have the life of glory Secondly The perfection of the Law it stands upon quantities as well as upon qualities truth it is not satisfied though a man be never so truly holy and religious unless man hath quantities and is so much holy But now the perfection of the Gospel indeed it will have as much quantity as a man can but yet it will stand with truth though a man hath not that quantity of humiliation and self-denial and power against sin yet if he have it in truth he is Evangelically perfect in some measure he is sincere and upright before God as Solomon saith of his Father 1 Kings 13.6 Mâ— Father had great mercy according as he walked before thee in truth He doth not say he walked before thee in legal perfection he was perfectly righteous but he was truly righteous he was humble in truth and godly in truth and zealous in truth he had none of all these things to the utmost yet he walked before thee in truth So Josh 24.14 Fear the Lord and serve him in sincerity and truth He doth not say serve him as if you should doe every thing he commands but doe it in truth and sincerity Now sincerity is when there is no commandement but a man sets himselfe to doe it there is no sin but he labours to avoid it and there is no right manner but he sets himself to doe it in the right manner to his power this is the perfection of the Gospel Thirdly The perfection of the Law stands upon full measure whether a man have power or no that is nothing to the purpose the law will have all holiness and righteousness whether a man hath power or no But now the perfection of the Gospel by way of sincerity it looks at what measure God hath given and bestowed and no more but what God hath given and enabled a man to doe as you may see the Lord doth not require the gain of ten talents when he gave but five nor the gain of five when he gave but two the widows two mites were accepted and taken for a good and sincere gift because she gave all that she had Luke 21.4 as the Apostle
speaks 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing minde it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that a man hath not The law will have perfection whether a man hath power or no or else it will damn a man but in the Gospel a man may say as Peter to the lame man Silver and gold have I none but such as I have that give I thee Lord such a memory and such parts and gifts have I not but such as I have that give I thee according to that measure of knowledge I have according to that grace I have I will give it thee If a man can say thus he is accepted not according to that he hath not but according to that he hath as it was in the law of Moses Levit. 5.6 7. A trespasse-offering should be a lamb or a kid but if a man were not able to give that then two turtle doves or two young pigeons if he be not able to give that let him give two or three handfuls of fine flowre Levit. 5.11 So Levit. 14.20 Let him give according as he can get he shall be accepted according to that This is the perfection of the Gospel according to the help and assistance God gives a man and according to the means God affordâ— a man it shall be accepted Fourthly The perfection of the law admits of no failings if a man fails no matter though it be out of infirmity the law condemns him the law requires perfection without failings but the perfection of the Gospel by way of sincerity admits of failings as the best gold hath his allowances so it is with a true Christian he may be sincere and upright though he hath a thousand failings as it is said of David 1 Kings 15.5 He did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord in all things but onely in the matter of Uriah That indeed would not stand with sincerity his sincerity was quite in a swoun then that could not stand with sincerity if he had gone on to sin in that fashion he could not have been sincere but in all other things he did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord. You will say he had a thousand failings yet saith the Text they all stood with sincerity he numbred the people and God was mightily angry with him and you know how unjust he was in the matter of Zibah and Mephibosheth you know how he told a lye to Abimelech and was the occasion of the death of the Priests of the Lord you know how he counterfeited himself mad and he had horrible disorders in his family and had lost the power of controul over his children were not these horrible failings and what a company of Wives and Concubines had he yet all these stood with sincerity because they were either done out of ignorance or want of due consideration sometimes or through humane frailty and infirmity or through violence of temptation contrary to his constant course and intendment and purpose they might all stand with sincerity and an upright heart according to the perfection of the Gospel Fifthly The perfection of the Law makes nothing of repentance if you break the commandements of God if you shed tears of blood and repent your heart out what cares the law the law will have perfect obedience or else to hell you shall But now in the perfection of the Gospel repentance is a great matter nay if a man be never so vile and wretched if yet he humble himselfe before God and be unfeignedly sorry for sinning against God this is a great matter this man is an upright man that is unfeignedly humbled and abased before God The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart thou shalt not despise This is the voyce of the Gospel So Ezek. 18.21 If the wicked will turn from all his sins and do that which is lawful and right he shall surely live he shall not die As it is Job 23.27 28. He looked upon men and if any said I have sinned he will deliver his soule from going down into the pit In the Gospel a man is an upright man if he come before the throne of grace with shame and confusion of face for all his sins with unfeigned sorrow that he hath broken Gods Covenant if he hath never so many failings if he set himselfe to please God and when he fails he repents and humbles himself before God this man hath the perfection of the Gospel Thus we see the meaning of the words Perfect before God The point of Doctrine is this That every man is to labour to be perfect that is the thing that God will require and enquire after at the last day whether we be upright You see this 1 Cor. 5 7 8. and so likewise in other places of Scripture The first Reason is from the nature of God with whom we have to doe Reason 1 he is upright therefore it concerns us to labour to be like him he himselfe is an upright God and there is no unrighteousness in him his wayes are perfect and his judgments are truth therefore if a man be not perfect he cannot be like him Mat. 5.48 Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect we know his spirit is the spirit of truth himselfe is the God of truth his Son is the way the truth and the life he is the faithful witness and as God is upright so he looks that his servants should shew what Master they serve that they may make it appear that their Master is an upright Master Psalm 92. ult to shew forth that the Lord is upright This is our duty God is upright and Christ is upright and therefore we should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 22. Secondly God hath commanded us to be sincere though he remit from the first Covenant of absolute and perfect righteousness and holiness without sin ye he will have his people truly fearing him and hating sin universal in obedience that they shall be from the bottome of their hearts followers of him therefore this stung David to the heart when he committed sin O thought he Thou desirest truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 As who should say thou lookest into the heart thou requirest truth of thy servants O what a false heart have I had in this businesse God hath many worshippers in this world such as they are but God cares for none but such as deale faithfully in his Covenant as Christ speaks John 4.24 Thirdly God knows our hearts therefore though we serve him and do duties to him though we call upon his name hear his Word come to his Table observe his Sabbaths keep his Ordinances yet if we doe not doe these things in truth his eyes are ever upon our bosomes he casts his eyes upon the secrets of men if our hearts be rotten and proud and vaine and loose and filthy if our hearts be not of a right frame all is nothing
light of the Sun and all is gone in the same moment so it is with this new Creature and the Spirit of God he doth dwell in the soul as the Sun in the Air his presence warms the soul and quickens the soul and inables a man to good and gives a principle of life and enables to all actions that are good therefore how should all Gods people carry themselves towards this Spirit They should have a care that they quench him not nor go against him in any particular The Third Vse is for all Gods people in whom God hath wrought this blessed work the Spirit of God hath regenerated and begotten them again I say to all such persons Let them endear this Spirit of God let them not grieve or offend or displease him seeing he is such a gracious worker in them Ephes 1.13 The Apostle makes this very Inference in whom after ye believed ye were sealed by the holy Spirit of Promise that is whereby you were Regenerated Regeneration is the first seal of the Spirit whereby he seals Gods good will to a man Now hath the Spirit of God sealed you Then do not grieve him nor cause him to take any indignation against you for though he will never depart from them whom he hath made new Creatures yet notwithstanding he may hide his face for a time if we displease him Yea Consider Will any natural Child willingly displease his loving Father The Spirit of God is our Father therefore we should have respect to him Again This should be a Motive to Gods people to be willing to do any thing for God because he hath made them as David saith Psal 100.3 This very Consideration That God hath made us and re-made us he hath done that for us that all our own wits could never have done that the whole world hath not the like the Lord gener-ally lets the whole World sink in ruine and damnation should be a Motive to you to be willing to serve him gladly and to call upon his Name to be ready prest to execute any of his Commands to enter into his presence upon all occasions seeing it is he that hath made us and not we our selves To them that are Vnregenerated Here we see where to have Regeneration it is only in God and in the Spirit of God to renew a man and make a man up again As David prayed when he had the Spirit Lord take not thy holy Spirit from me Psal 51.11 So when a man hath not the Spirit of God he should pray to God Lord Give thy holy Spirit to me and send down thy holy Spirit into my heart that may work this work in me But it may be many of you will think that you expect this and desire it and wish it and use some means I Answer Then shew it by thy coming unto God for it from day to day will any man say That Noah did expect that God should deliver him from the Deluge if he had not took that course which God appointed If he had not built an Ark certainly we may justly say That he did not look that God would deliver him Therefore it is said of Noah That as he did expect that God should keep him so being warned of God he built an Ark c. Heb. 11.7 So when a man shall say That he looks that God should deliver him from his natural estate and condition that God should renew him by his Grace and goodness yet if a man will not prepare an Ark if when a man is Commanded and directed by God what to do yet he will not come to God to do that which should be done for him these men do but deceive their own souls and treasure up indignation against themselves I remember the story of Moses Exod. 14. when the Children of Israel were in Pi-hahiroth and the Egyptians were behind them and the Mountains were on the side that they could not pass and the Sea was before them and there was notable crying out Oh! that God would deliver them now they were dead men the Egyptians were come out to destroy them the Mountains were on the side and the Sea before them Now mark what an Answer God gives to their cry cause the people to go forward you keep a crying to me I pray go forward you are not yet at the red sea but go to the red sea and when you are there then cry to me you are idleing and lazing and mistrusting me though the red Sea be before them yet cause them to come thither and when they are there then cry for help to me So thou sayest thou desirest that God would Regenerate thee and quicken thee and turn thy heart and vouchsafe thee his holy Spirit do you so I say it is very well the thing is very good but if the desire be sincere you will take that course God bids you art thou come to the utmost difficulty Are not many things to be done which thou refusest to do Must thou not seek God more and more carefully Go forward go forward if thou meanest to have help and aid from God otherwise it is in vain if thou wouldst go on in the wayes of God and do what God Commands thee thou shouldst be quickened and renewed Fourthly Another Vse is for Examination To examine our selves whether the Word of God hath wrought this for us yea or no. And the first sign is this If thou beest born again if thou hast this new Nature then it is natural to thee to do good duties to follow good courses and to yield obedience to the commandements of God it is not enough for a man to do good duties a natural man an unregenerate man may do them but whether is it natural to thee A proud man may do the actions of humility a proud man may pull off his Hat and give the time of the day and speak meanly of himself a proud man may suffer another to do him wrong and put up base language he may do these things but the man is a proud man still he hath no humble nature but the question is whether it be thy nature to do this May be thou dost these things for fear or some by-respects A worldly man may speak of heavenly things but is thy nature heavenly A man may think of God but is thy nature godly Here is the thing If a man be regenerate there is Grace got into a mans Nature Jer. 31.33 When God Regenerates his people he saith He will write his laws in their inward parts he doth not only say they shall do these duties but their very hearts shall carry them their very hearts shall go to a Sermon their very souls shall go about the duties of God as it is with the fire water may heat but not by nature but it is the nature of fire to heat So if a man be Regenerate it is natural to him to do good duties Rom. 2.14 A man
by nature may do the things commanded in the Law but here is the question Whether he doth them with this new nature this heavenly nature The old creature may hear and pray and be sober and moral for by nature the Heathen did the things contained in the Law But if a man be Regenerated as he doth the things contained in the Law and Gospel so he doth them with a new nature as Deut. 5.29 when the Children of Israel had spoken admirable speeches All that the Lord saith to us we will do they made goodly professions now mark what God saith Oh that there were an heart in this people to keep my commandments As who should say These are very good words and I know that you think what you speak but Oh that this were written in your hearts that this were natural to you this will not hold your hearts are not carried this way Secondly If the Spirit of God hath Regenerated a man then the heart begins to be a good soyl for Grace and the heart begins to be sutable so that the heart is fit for Grace A natural heart is not a proper soyl for Grace As if a man should bring a Plant from Spain and set it here in England it cannot thrive unlesse a man meet with a soyl that is fit for it So Grace if it come into the heart and the heart is not a soyl for it it can never thrive there unlesse the heart be Regenerated and unlesse there be a new nature There may be admirable things in a natural man excellent good purposes and resolutions God may come to him as a Passenger that lodgeth for a night but he is gone the next morning he may come as a sojourner to endure for a while but here is no dwelling for him these resolutions and purposes and desires cannot last long that heart will squander them away it is like the putting of a new piece into an old garment Matth. 9.16 When a man puts a new piece into an old garment a fine new purpose into an old heart a new good desire into an old mind the rent will be worse for that man will return back again and will have his lusts and will be worse then he was before for the heart is not able to hold these 't is true in the best hearts of Gods people is a great deal of unnatural soyl for Grace but there is some of this good new soyl that Grace now can hold and shall hold so that the gates of Hell shall not prevail it is not for any goodnesse of the heart but for the goodnesse of Grace in the heart there may be transient acts of goodnesse in a wicked man as Prayer and such-like transient acts but when the transient act is done there is a conclusion but nature is permanent and an enduring thing it is not only to come to Prayer and then be dead to come to a Sermon and then be dead but it is a permanent thing a man is godly between Prayer and Prayer and the religious between Sermon and Sermon and in all his wayes he sets himself to be good and well disposed all his dayes God complains against those that give him transient acts of goodnesse Oh Ephraim what shall I do to thee that art as a morning cloud c Thirdly If the Spirit of God hath made a man a new nature then he cannot live in sin As the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 Joh. 3.9 He that is born of God sinneth not c. he is born of God and it is against his nature to go on in sin a man cannot go against his nature 't is true a man for a little time may go against his nature as Moses though his nature was mild and meek yet he was transported very much Hear ye rebels and shall I bring water out of this rock He was carried away in his passion but he could not hold on in that strain for it was against his nature so if a man be overcome with any other sin yet when a man is renewed as a Spring clears it self of the mud so this new nature is so opposite and contrary to sin that he cannot go on in sin Fourthly If the Spirit of God hath wrought this work in thee Then it is pleasant to thee to do the will of God Look what a man is naturally inclined to it is marvellous pleasant to him to follow it As for example If a mans nature be gluttonous how pleasing is it for him to satisfie his Appetite And if a mans nature be given to Intemperance how pleasing is Excess unto him And if a mans nature be proud how pleasing is it to be flattered and spoken fair to be reverenced and respected at every word A man loves these things a life because they suit with his nature So if a man have a new nature and partakes of the divine nature how pleasing will Prayer be And how pleasing will the Word be how pleasing will Counsels and Exhortations be how pleasing to be corrected and reproved for sin How sweet are thy words unto my mouth saith the Prophet David Psal 119.103 As our Saviour saith Joh. 4.34 It is my meat and drink to do his Will that sent me So I have longed for thy Commandments saith David I have loved to know wherein I might glorifie thee and be serviceable to thee Now when it is irksom for a man to obey he cannot abide strictness and preciseness and be counts it a disgrace to him to deny himself in such a thing and be goeth to duty like a Bear to the Stake and he hath no forwardnesse it is a sign he hath no new nature Fifthly If a man be born again Grace will get the upper hand when a man meets with lusts and concupiscence of Soul though they may exceedingly bear a man down for a time and transport a man beyond himself yet in the end Grace will have the victory and prevail 1 Joh. 5.4 He that is born of God overcomes the world all temptations of the world all pul-backs and draw-backs he that is born of God he will have the mastery so 1 Joh. 5.18 the Apostle saith The wicked oâ—e cannot touch a man that is born of Godâ— that is with a deadly touch as he toucheth wicked men he toucheth wicked men so as he infects them and poysons them and carries them away Sixthly He that is born of God he is one that lâ—ves the Children of God If there be any Saint in the parish any Child of God there is his affection and bowels most I speak of spiritual affections for otherwise Grace doth not take away nature but set it up having refind it But I speak of spiritual love if a man be born of God himself he loves all others that are born of God 1 Joh. 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and he that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten If