of Gods love he wil interpret every thing wel that God doth to him and he will then trust him and then fear him when he is but perswaded of his love and therefore learn this Lesson here is love indeed here is love the like was never heard of that the Lord should rear poor Worms and let such a work pass upon them to make them the Sons of God That is one collection that therefore the love of God is wonderful great unto those that do beleeve in him And Secondly I have but one Collection more that I will give you at this time and that is this 2. Hence it follows That they who beleeve in Jesus Christ are exalted to the highest dignity that any Creature is capable of that as here is a magnifyng of Gods love to them so here is a magnifying of their State That I hence collect that there are no People under the Heavens Nay let me ad not in the Heavens there are no Creatures so highly exalted as Beleevers and why Because they are the Sons and Daughters of God not in a name only not metaphorically as all the Creatures are but really God hath the heart the Bowels of a Father to them and they the hearts of Children Yea the State Adoption of Children the greatest exaltation that is in this world I remember what David said when some of his Courtiers came to him told him of Sauls good opinion of him to give him his Daughter and wished him to be thankful for it Oh! but saith he is it a smal thing in your eyes for a man of so mean a stock as I am to be made the Son in law of a King So if there be any Beleever here that thy heart tels thee that thou acceptest of Christ to be thy Savior that his Spirit hath laid hold upon thee Is it a smal thing in thy eyes that thou art really the Child of God Is there any thing in Heaven and Earth to compare with it I remember David in 1 Chron. 17. when he had Nathan came to him with a message from God and told him to this purpose saith he I wil raise up thy Child after thee and I will set him upon thy Throne and I wil be his Father and he shal be my Son and thus I wil do to thee David could not hold but runs and sits him down reverently before the Lord Oh Lord saith he who am I What comparison is there Wilt thou be my Father and the Father of my Child Is it true Lord Can this be Oh! it so amazed him that God should be his Father Oh! could we think of it I beseech you tel me to which of the Angels said God at any time thou art my Son he saith to the poorest Beleever in the world thou art my Son It is not only a name that expresseth good wil but a state and condition that the Lord hath set him in so that I dare boldly say I will draw to a Conclusion with it but I would have you study it when you are at home I dare boldly affirm that the meanest Beleever though as we say in the Country he go with his Flail or a Rake or as you wil say in the City he carries the Tankard the meanest Beleever that hath Christ for his Lord and Savior he is exalted to a higher condition than Ahasuerus was when he was made the Emperor of a hundred twenty seven Provinces for let them take al the Pomp Wealth State that is in this world let them have it all if they have not Christ God looks upon them as Satans slaves and over a few daies they wil perish among the Dogs I mean among the Devils be base and be miserable for ever wheras the poorest servant of God that believeth in Christ the Lord tenders him as his first born O! I would fain if it were Gods wil that Gods People would lay this to heart it would comfort them against all the Scorns and Reproaches of the world It is with many of Gods People as it was with Christ when he was upon Earth when he was called King How was he jeered for it Art thou a King saith Pilat when he had a seamless Coat on and bound with Halters belike you are a King So they are ready to jeer the Children of God belike you are the Childrdren of God I let them scorn I have read of Princes that when for some ends they could be strangers from their own Countries a while they could bear the Scorns and Jeers of People but when I am at home I am known what I am So a poor Child of God may say I go in a russet Coat and have never a penny of Mony in my purse and undergo many afflictions and troubles Wel but God is my Father and the very thought of the dignity that God hath exalted him to will make him quietly and contentedly undergo all the afflictions of this world These are but general Collections had I time to enter into the Particulars to shew what Gods Children by Adoption are delivered from Sin and the Law and what they are instated into under his Family under his Provision Protection and the like truly I might set that before you that if a man could hold to it by Faith and the Lords spirit help him to apply it to his heart he would live comfortably here al his daies FINIS FAITH THE ONLY MEANS Spiritually to FEED on CHRIST Opened in a Sermon at Mary le Bow November 12. 1654. JOHN 6.53 54 55 56. Then said Jesus unto them Verily verily I say unto you Except ye Eat the Flesh of the Son of Man and drink his Blood ye have no Life in you Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life and I will raise him up at the last day For my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed He that eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood dwelleth in me and I in Him I Read all these verses because they all hold out one and the same Doctrine though in a little different phrases That you may the better understand the scope of our blessed Savior in these words know that the occasion of it was this Christ having the day before fed the Bodies of many thousands who attended upon his ministry The rumor of this flying abroad the next day great multitudes thronged after him again and Christ knowing what lay at the bottom of the heart told them plainly they sought him for carnal ends because they had eat of the Loaves and were filled but that was not the end of his coming into the world to fil their Bellies No there was better food that he was willing to give all that had an appetite after it and thereupon that I may not stay you fals into a most divine discourse of his own being sent out of the bosome of his Father to be the Bread of life to al who did thirst
know not how often in this one Chapter eating drinking is interpreted by Beleeving and Beleeving in a Metaphor is nothing but Eating Drinking therefore my work shal be God willing to explain this know then in general that this great Grace of Faith whereby Souls partake of Christ it is in the true nature of it nothing but an accepting or receiving of Jesus Christ to be that unto us which God sent him to be for poor sinners the Scripture is most cleer in 1 John 12. As many as received him he gave them power to become the Sons God even they that beleeved in him So that to receive Christ is to believe in him now the receiving of Christ being a spiritual act of the soul wherin the understanding and the wil must both have a share it hath pleased the Lord I beseech you mark it it hath pleased the Lord to set out this one act of Beleeving by abundance of Metaphors in the Scripture similitudes taken from the Body and every one of them being rightly interpreted wil cleerly set out the nature of Faith and what the Soul doth when it beleeveth in Christ as I wil give you but a tast because it is but one only that I mean to open and that is in my Text Somtimes 1. Beleeving it is very often set forth by Coming Come unto me He that cometh unto me I will not cast him out that is to Beleeveâ— Now Coming therein is a figure an expression taken from an act of our Body of our Feet wherein there are alwaies these three things 1. There is the place from which we go 2. There is the place to which we go 3. There is the way and means in which and by which we go Now these interpreted would cleerly shew you what the Soul doth in Beleeving So likewise 2. To look up to Christ that as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness that whosoever looked upon it was cured so Christ is lifted up that we may look upon him Now that very act of the eye to look to an Object for such an end being rightly interpreted would cleerly shew you what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ. And so 3. To stay upon him or to lean upon him which is a Metaphor taken from the Body that reposeth it self upon somewhat to uphold it when it wants strength of its own now this being discovered would cleerly shew you what the Soul of man doth when it believeth in Christ. 4. Now among many of these Metaphors this Text of John's pitcheth upon this especially of eating Christ and drinking which is the action of our mouth and stomach wherby our life comes to be maintained by our Food and there is in this of eating and drinking so cleer a demonstration what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ and how it may discover whether men do beleeve or no that you cannot desire a cleerer than this is if God do but vouchsafe the ful understanding of it That then which I have laid out for a part of this afternoon's work is to shew you wherin the eating drinking of our food doth shadow out Beleeving in Jesus Christ to eternal life though I have but now brought you to that which I would endeavor a little more fully to discover to you Would you know then wherein the Holy Ghost maketh the comparison to stand for I dare not go to ad the study of our own brains but wherein the Scripture makes these to answer one another eating and drinking food for bodily life and Beleeving in Christ for spiritual life wherein do they answer I answer in these six things some of them I shall not need to stay upon for if I should stay upon all I should not have time to cleer the rest but in six things do the eating and drinking of our food answer our laying hold upon Jesus Christ by Faith and I wil desire you to mark them because it is the foundation of a great tryal of your spiritual estate The first 1. That the Lord when he first created man with a living Soul with a life this life of man is not able to nourish it self to preserve it self in being nor to strengthen it self when it is any waies impaired but God hath appointed that which is food such creatures as have suitable spirits in them to the life of man that mans life under God lies in these and cannot be preserved without them but it is the meat and drink as the ordinary expression is it is the food and the nourishment the means wherby the life of man is preserved in a man and give him all other things in the world let Angels attend him Princes wait upon him let all that God hath given to the whole Creation be bestowed upon him keep food from him and the man dies he doth not live though it is true we live not by Bread only but God can preserve it otherwise but in the ordinary proceedings of God take away food and you take away life you need no other weapon mans life the nourishment of mans life is food that is one Now answerable to this for our spiritual life it is laid up and to be found wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ in his flesh and his blood but you must know it is his flesh and blood prepared that look as other meat Bread must be broken and ground and baked and so made fit for mans use before he partakes of it so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ was ground was broken by the passion and sufferings he underwent for our sins and by vertue of his dying communicated it to us his flesh and blood hath merited life satisfied wrath and in Christ and Christ alone lies all the spiritual life of his people and can be had no where else Give him all the obedience that ever mortal man had give him the righteousness of the Holy Angels in Heaven give him all that a mans Tongue can speak of or his Pen write down he is a dead man if he have not the Lord Jesus Christ to be his life it self Our life is hid in Christ as the Apostle saith there is the treasury of it There is the first that as our humane life lies in Gods disposing I mean by his so ordering it in our food so our spiritual life lies only in Jesus Christ. That is one Secondly these three first I wil be very brief in The second branch is this 2. That look as God in nature hath planted in every man because his life is the most excellent thing skin for skin and all that a man hath he wil give for his life therfore God hath planted in man a more vehement appetite and desire after food then after any thing else in the world and if he be put to it that the choyce must be made it may be he would not part with any thing that he thinkes is sutable to him but if
should all joyne together to put out their utmost skil they could not make such a conjunction between Christ and the soul as beleeving doth but yet I wil tell you thus far not by any virtue that God hath put in faith but as it is the hand whereby we receive the holy Spirit for by the Spirit we receive faith and this holy Spirit that takes Christ and gives him to us and takes us and gives us to Christ this holy Spirit in a way utterly unknown to us and no waies to be understood in this world makes us one with Christ. There is the fifth And then the sixth and last is this 6. That look as in our food when the food is prepared and we have an appetite to it and the stomach receives it and works upon it and it becomes one with us then by vertue of that by the strength of that food are we enabled to live as men if we have wasted our spirits if our healths are decayed here is strength to be added if we have work to do we are thereby enabled to do it to go through what belongs to us by the power that comes in Gods way of ordering it by the power that comes and is added to us So it is here in our spiritual life that when once the Lord brings the Soul to value Christ as that wherein his life lies to have a desire after him above all goods in the world to come to have Christ incorporated into us by the power of the Spirit then do we come from hence by the Covenant of Grace the operation of â—he Holy Ghost according to Gods dispensation to his People to receive such a supply of his Spirit as we are enabled to walk as those that are alive unto God through Jesus Christ only add this difference for I wil shew you how the preheminence lies in our spiritual eating with this difference that whereas our outward food never gives life to those that want it but by the blessing of God only repairs it in those that have it now this spiritual eating of Christ doth not only maintain life in those that are alive but it raiseth them up from the very dead it gives life and that moment that the Lord enables the soul to hunger after him and rest upon him in that moment is the life of Jesus Christ conveyed to him And this is the first part to let you see that eating and drinking it is nothing but beleeving in Christ and the resemblance of them stands in these things as I have opened to you and now the second which I wil be but brief in because I would not stay you long nor be hindred from the Application of it the second thing I promised is 2. A little to discover what the benefit is that we partake of by eating and drinking the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ What do we get by it For answer We can easily say when men are extolling the good cheer they have been at at any Feast or Banquet where luxury is set out What get you by it a feeding of our Bodies that wil return to clay is al that a man gets by it Now what is gotten by this eating and drinking of Jesus Christ Oh! could I but in a few words open to you what our Lord hath said of it saith he 1. He that eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood he shal have everlasting life There is the first benefit What means he by that life That is not this poor frail momentary life that we live though this be the purchase of Christ to Beleevers but he shall have First 1. The life of pardon that whereas all of us are dead under the guilt of sin dead in Law liable to wrath they are pardoned men if once they beleeve in Christ. 2. Whereas they were dead likewise under the dominion of sin and were strangers to the life of God the Lord Jesus infuseth a principle of a new spirituall life into them and such inward qualities and holiness that enables them to live the life of God that life that is of the same kind that Christ himself lives his life a holy spiritual life that alas if I could open it to you and you understand it it would make you conclude that there is no such life in any creature to be found as the life that every soul lives that laies hold upon Christ I and then he adds 3. This life is an everlasting life that is as our Savior expresses it saith he Your Fathers did eat Manna that is as the Scripture saith Angels Food not that Angels eat any meat but if they did eat any food it would be Manna Your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead but he that eateth upon me lives for ever It is not such a poor momentary life as this is but a life that wil last to all eternity this is the Benefit Nay mark some other expressions that come in here together 2. He shal never hunger nor thirst more That wil explain wel what the Lord means by saying an everlasting life they shal never hunger nor thirst What is that He means not that they shal never desire more of Christ No there is a two fold hunger and thirst 1. There is such a hunger and thirst as riseth out of sweetness that because the honey is good they would have more of it because the Wine is good therefore the Drunkard saith I wil sip again where the content of it makes them desire more of it This hunger all the People of God have because they find contentment in Christ therefore they desire more of him But then 2. There is another hunger and thirst which is deadly which will kill a man unless it be supplied which our Savior explains in his discourse with the Woman of Samaria He that drinketh of that Water shall thirst again that is if he have not a supply he will be in as dead a condition as he was in before if he be not supplied But now he that eateth and drinketh of the meat and drink that he prepares though there wil be a sweet hunger to make him desire more yet there wil be such a life and stock of life within that til eternity have end they shal never be destitute of meat So here is a benefit a life everlasting that they shal never hunger nor thirst Nay he explains it yet a little higher in the words I have read the one is saith he 3. Whosoever doth thus eat and drink and thus cometh to me I wil in no wise cast off What is that though it may be he may think himself the most unworthy and say Lord here is meat indeed Lord ever more give us of this meat But who am I that I should come I am the unworthiest wretchedest vilest of all Nay let him be never so unworthy in himself never so vile I wil in no wise cast him out if he come to me for God my Fathers
of Application is come the making himself over to them in the consideration or notion of an elder Brother and so they really by their conjunction with him partake of it There is the second work 3. There is the work of the Holy Ghost and til that likewise be past over the Soul never is any man made the Son of God The Holy Ghost and his work is so eminent and apparent that he is called the Spirit of Adoption that when the Lord gives his Spirit unto his Children he cals it by the Spirit of Adoption because it is the great Office of the Spirit to make that great work of Adoption Quest. Now what is the Holy Spirit 's work about it Answ. I Answer It stands in three things and you wil see them all cleer in Scripture and I hope I shal have some time for the Application for I go it over as fast as I can the Holy Ghosts work in making us the Sons of God stands in three things as it is cleer in the Scripture The one is 1. When the acceptable time is come that the Lord means to make a Soul that is by nature a Child of wrath to become the Child of God He sends the Spirit of Jesus Christ into that Soul to be a band of union betwixt Christ and that soul that whereas Christ is to be applied to them as a Brother and they to be mystically united unto him the holy Spirit takes this Office upon himself to come and dwel in the heart as a band of union betwixt Christ and them that Christ and they should never more be separated and this work of the pouring out of the Spirit into the Soul to take possession of him for Christ and to give the possession of Christ unto him the Spirit being the band of it this is the first work of the Spirit as he is the Spirit of Adoption There is one The second work of the Spirit is this 2. That when the holy Spirit comes to make Christ and us one he as the elder Brother and we as his Brethren inseparably united to him whereas he findeth us enemies hateful hating that would rather be united to Harlots to the Creature to any thing the Spirit of God works a Child-like heart in them framing and molding their Spirits that for the time to come they calling God Father as they have warrant to do they likewise shall be made Sons even in the frame and bent of their spirits which is very excellently expressed in the very next words to my Text wherein it is said He gave them this Prerogative that they should become the Sons of God which were born saith he mark not of Blood nor of the wil of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God Now no longer shal flesh and blood sway them but being born of God the Spirit of God gives a new birth and a new life now they come to have the hearts of Children that as nature hath planted in the heart of a Child toward the Parent Honor and Love and Reverence and Obedience where sin hath not utterly perverted it this is the natural genius of a Child to his Father So the Spirit of God molds and frames the Soul and this the Scripture signifies when it saith Because you are Sons God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts whereby now we can cry Abba Father now the hearts of them shal stand to God and be carried to him in Faith and Prayer as the hearts of Children are naturally carried to their Parents That is the second thing And then the third and last work of the Spirit and so you have all this indeed as plain before you as I can set it out briefly the Third Work is this 3. This Holy Spirit even as it is the Spirit of Adoption doth not only unite them to Christ and frame a sutable disposition in them towards God and Christ But it abides in them upon all need to witness to their Spirits that this is their condition to give not only the Seal of it by changing their hearts but by giving them the comfort of it as they need it in their necessities which the Apostle expresseth in those words it is in Rom. 8. And the same Spirit witnesseth to our spirits that we are Gods Children it carries our hearts to God and testifies to the Soul that God is their Father There is the second Now I have been larger in that because in truth the world doth not ponder these things nay few of Gods own Children do ever consider what a strange work it is that none but the blessed Trinity can undertake and each of them have their distant work in it of bringing a poor Child of Wrath to become the Child of God That is the second You hear now what Adoption is and how it is wrought Now the third thing in the Doctrinal part and then I hasten to the Application is Wel What are the benefits of it Now what are the benefits of our Adoption That when the Lord hath took this strange course and brought about this strange work Wherein doth the worth of this Priviledg stand I answer You wil receive a great deal of light of it at least it wil help you to remember it and understand it the better if I do illustrate it by the practice that was amongst the Romans So their Adoption and the Roman Adoption had three things in it it carried three things as all learned men that have read their Stories and Laws do know The first is 1. When a man was Adopted into a Family the Family of a Caesar or the great men by his Adoption he was cut off from the Family from which he sprung by his natural birth cut off from it not simply but from whatsoever was base or unworthy in that Family that if his Father were a Slave and himself by his birth a Slave it was hereditary to him or if any blot or infamy stuck upon his family whatsoever it was the Adopting of this Person into another Family wholly cut him off from al the base ignominious slavish bondage and dangers which belonged to the Family from which he sprung by his natural birth That was the first The second was 2. That by his Adoption he was taken as belonging to the Family into which he was Adopted as much as if he had been begotten by him he was to have by the Laws of the Empire the same respect from his adopted Father the same provision the same protection the same immunities whatsoever that his own begotten Son might claim by nature from the Roman Laws the adopted Child was instituted in them all And Thirdly 3 By his Adoption he had the same right to the inheritance that the begotten Child had if there were no other begotten Children the whol Inheritance sel to the Adopted Child if there were another begotten Child though beloved the Adopted shared with him in it Look how
Sense what is Adoption I describe it thus It is a gracious Sentence of God the Father who cals sinners if Beleevers his Sons for Christ's sake I give you this short description That it is a gracious Sentence of God the Father whereby he doth call Beleevers though sinners yet he cals them his Sons for Christs sake the very Scripture language We are called Sons but yet I think a little plainer take this It is a gracious work of God whereby he doth take poor sinners who beleeve in Christ into that Glorious Condition of being his own Children All this will by and by be more plain when I come to shew you what it comprehends in it but the Lord of his free Grace when he hath brought home a Soul to make it accept of Christ to be its Savior then doth he how unworthy soever that Wretch be he takes him into the condition of his own Children That is the first and I am the shorter in it because the next wil explain it more The second Question is this 2. What is this work of Adopting or how is it done and therein I humbly crave your best attention because I know to you that are the Lords I am opening the most glorious Priviledg that Christ Jesus hath bought with his blood for you and it wil be wel worth your understanding how we that are Children of Wrath come to be made the Children of God I Answer you then First 1. In general The Adopting of a Soul to be a Child of God is so high a work that the whol Trinity the Father the Son the Holy Ghost every one of the three Persons have their distinct work in Adopting a poor Sinner to be the Child of God nor is any man upon Earth ever made the Child of God til al those three works of the Trinity have passed upon him so great a matter is it to be made Gods Child And this wil I open to you in the second place 2. What the several works of the blessed Trinity are in making a poor unworthy sinner to become the Child of God First 1. The work of the Father God the Father what is his work in our Adoption It stands in two things you will find them cleerly if you do but study the Scriptures The first is 1. From all Eternity the Lord did choose them to be his Children that when he did first pitch upon them if I may speak of any thing that is first which is eternal but when the Lord pitched upon poor Creatures and chose them to life he chose them to be his Children as you have it in Ephes. 1. verse 5. He hath predestinated us to the Adoption of Children that although he himself had a naturally and only begotten Son every way pleasing and delightful to him yet besides this only begotten Son would he have other Children who with that Son should enjoy him and serve him and under that notion he chose to make them his Children Not only so but 2. When he gave them to Christ which was likewise a work from all Eternity When the Lord gave these to Jesus Christ whom he chose to be Sons he gave them to him under the notion of Brethren These are to be thy Brethren I give them to thee to compleat the work which I have chosen them to which is to be my Sons and therefore it is said in that place of the Hebrews That because the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood that is those that the Lord had chosen and looked upon as Children he that was their Surety must partake of Flesh and Blood So there is the Fathers work that from all Eternity he taketh a poor Creature and saith This shal be my Son and he gives him to his Son Christ These I give as thy Brethren to thee to bring them to the enjoyment of me There is the work of the Father this I hope is plain Then Secondly 2. There is a work of Jesus Christ What is that The work and Office of Jesus Christ in the point of Adoption that likewise stands in two things The First is 1. He was to purchase their Sonship for them for though the Father would give it them freely it should cost them nothing yet Christ being made their Surety he must purchase it for them so that the Lord although he was the Heir of all things yet he condescends by his own Blood by his own Sufferings by himself being made a Curse He condescends to purchase adoption for those that were given him to bring to life This is plain in Gal. 4. where iâ— is said When the fulness of time was come God sent his own Son born of a Woman made under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons that our Adoption as it flows from Christ is the price of his Blood that is one of the works that Christ doth The second is this 2. That when the acceptable hour is come that the Lord is pleased to bring a Sinner home to Christ Christ is applied to him as a Brother that when they are brought to Christ by Faith Christ cometh to be applied to them as their elder Brother not only as a Redeemer that hath satisfied God and purchased for them but when he is made over to them he is made over to them in his Sonship as wel as in the rest of his works so that as our justification ariseth from Christs righteousness being applied to us so our Sonship arising from Christ as the Son being the only begotten Son of God and our elder Brother is applied to us Yea I tel you this application of Christ in his Sonship to the Saints is so neer and so close that although he be the only begotten Son of God the first born the Heir of all things yet by vertue of his application unto Beleevers they likewise come to be called by God himself his first born These are high things but the Scripture is cleer in them for so you read it in the latter end of Heb. 12.23 where it is said that we are come to the new Jerusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and to the Congregation of the first born whose names are written in Heaven that all they that are called home to Christ by reason of their conjunction to their elder Brother they are the first born of God and the Lord speaks thus of all his Saints in that place of Exod. in that sense I am speaking Go saith he to Pharoah tel him Israel is my Son What Son My first born he is my first born because Israel was comprehended in Christ and Christ looked upon as his Brother Israel is Gods first born So here are two of the works of the Trinity in our Adoption the work of the Father in chusing us to it and giving us to Jesus Christ as his Brethren the work of the Son is in purchasing this great priviledg by his Blood and when the time
choyce be made all shal goe so he may have food the strongest appetite after any thing in the world is after food insomuch as therefore the Lord uses ordinarily to expresse the highest desires of the soule that man can put out in any kind he uses to expresse them by hungering and thirsting which is nothing but the appetite that men have after food so that living men out of a desire of that which is sutable to their life have a vehementer desire after that then they have after any thing else in the world So the Lord plants in any soul to whom Christ is life for I speak not of those who are meerly dead though I shall have occasion afterwards to shew you that Christ gives life to the dead but I say to those to whom Christ is life there is nothing in the world found in them after which their desires are so mighty so vehement so constant so unsatisfied with any thing else in the world no such appetite is in the soul of a man as the party that partakes of spiritual life hath after Jesus Christ as the heart after the rivers of waters as the hungry man after his food all kind of such things are expressed in the longing desires that the soul of a man that hath an interest in Christ hath after Jesus Christ lay up these by you till I come to apply them but yet I am not come to the main things wherein the comparison holds thirdly There is a third thing which is between eating and drinking and beleeving and that is this 3. That look as it is in our bodily life our natural life that as there is no such vehement appetite after any thing as after food when we want it so there is no such satisfaction in any thing as there is to be had in sutable things that when a hungry man is satisfied with food there is the quiet of his outward life then all vehemency all pains all angers all longings till he hath more need doth cease for you know such is our life that one meales meat will not serve it but for a little while but when hunger is raised and food administred then is the desire quieted So now when the Lord Christ hath life prepared in him and raised up in the soul a desire after him when that soul findeth him when he can find that Christ owneth him or intimates to it that he accepts it it is satisfied as with marrow and fatness no joy no delight no content in the world pleaseth the Soul so as to say this one thing I have found Christ Jesus and have an interest in him All these are main but the three last are most ful to my purpose and therefore I hasten to them Fourthly then and that which I think is one of the greatest of all the rest thus it is 4. That look as it is in our food pray mark it look as it is in our food for the body let the food be never so excellent never so wel Cooked never so freely conferred we never so freely invited let al be set out that is imaginable that food never nourisheth me or any other until it come to be incorporated within me that when a man his food come to be made one one mass I wil not say transubstantiated but translated and changed into the same substance with himself never doth it become food to him til then Take a man set him before all the dainties let him smel to them put them in his mouth nay if you can imagine it he may swallow them down and they pass through him if they be not incorporated into him that the flesh of the beast he eateth turns to his flesh or to be made fit for his blood it is no food to him though all the delicates of the world be set upon a Table and say here is enough to satisfie a thousand men not one bit of them is fit for me except it be so changed that it becometh one mass with me this we all know in our natural food Now herein lies the answerableness so it is with Christ it is Jesus Christ that is prepared the Lord hath prepared and put the vertue into him that it is enough to serve all the world if the Lord be pleased to bestow it upon the world but no man ever comes to have spiritual life from Christ till Christ become one with him and he become one with Christ It is Christ in you that is the hope of Glory and this our Savior expresseth in the very Text saith he He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood I dwel in him and he dwels in me that they are made one really only with this difference it remember it indeed our food for our body we and our food are made of one substance but there the food is turned into our substance that if it were not the flesh of a Beast turned into my flesh if it were not the blood of a Bird that is turned into my blood and so it leaves its own nature and is changed into my nature but this is different in our spiritual eating for here instead of Jesus Christ being changed into our nature we by feeding upon him are changed into his nature made partakers of the divine nature and there is a mystica I spiritual union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and us whereby we cease to be what we were in regard of our corrupt being and now come to be changed into his spiritual being but notwithstanding a union and conjunction there must be or else the Lord Christ never profits This is so plain that I hope I need say no more about it that is the fourth Lay up these for these wil be for tryal before I dismiss you Then fifthly the fifth thing wherein the comparison lies is this 5. That look as the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath in nature given such a Power to our stomach our appetite to receive it and our stomach to digest it that all the art in the world hath not the power or skil to come and make the food that is an extraneous thing another thing from it to fit it so and prepare it so that it shal be fit to become one with me no art in the world can do it like that of the stomach the power that God hath given to nature we know if we should take our meat and boyl it upon the hottest fire it can never prepare it so as the heat of a mans stomach can do it God hath given this peculiar faculty and power to the stomach thus to make our meat sutable for us so it is with the grace of God beyond all other graces and works of all the creatures yea of the Angels he hath given that power to the souls acepting of Christ and consenting to Christ that power to unite Christ and the soul together that is not elsewhere found in all the world for all Gods creatures if they
had a little Oyl in the bottom of a Cruse and a handful of meal in the bottom of a Barrel and she and her Son did live upon it for as many years as the Famine lasted I warrant you that poor Woman would not have taken a hundred pound for it So that poor soul that can say I bless God he hath raised me up from my low condition and I have abundance of the world about me but I know Christ is more dear to me than all the world I know my prayers are to him for life and I hang upon him as wel as I can for life and look for it no where else and I dayly apply my heart to him in that poor measure his Spirit enables me I tel thee poor soul he hath given thee Jehoiakims portion and the richest food for manna was Angels meat this the Angels nay pardon me God never created any creature in the world to tast of this but every poor soul how wretched soever that lives upon Christ feeds upon â—t I pray meditate upon this at home and the Lord help you to ruminate upon this in secret Is it so Lord that the poor soul that casts himself upon Christ is thus made one with him Surely I wil never take care how it is in the world with me God hath provided wel for me my Lot is fallen in a very good place And Lastly USE 3. For Exhortation I shal make but one Use and that shal be in the very words of our blessed Savior when he begins this Doctrine in this John 6. ver 27. when they came and flocked after him for the Loaves saith Christ to them Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endures to eternal life This Counsel of Christ I would a little press to you though I borrow half a quarter of an hour forgive me for it is for your good First saith Christ 1. You seek me for the loaves labor not for that Friends we are all cumbred as our Saviour said to Martha in Luke 10. the latter end Martha Martha thou art carefull and cumbred about many things So we are cumbred all of us about many things some of us are cumbred how to get more wealth some of us cumbred how to dispose of the wealth we have got we are cumbred about our places offices and these worldly things hurry us up and down we can hardly come into any place but all the peoples talk is no body is at leisure but full of business and what is it for the meat that perisheth all that thou laborest for is perishing perishing money pershing wealth perishing honor perishing profit alas Freind in a very few daies all that thou laborest for wil not be worth one penny at least to thee and but over a little time to no body else perishing things not worth your seeking the Lord knows they are not they that the world comes in most upon and all that their hearts can wish comes in with ease it is not one hours content it is but meat that perisheth but now labour saith he for the meat that endures to eternall life here is meat worth your labouring for I appeal to all your consciences that have heard the Sermon whether this meat be not worth the labouring for whether to get an interest in Christ to hunger after him to long for him to rely upon him Is not this worth the seeking Oh! seek it and to encourage you 2. I wil tel you what our Savior adds in verse 27. Labor for that meat that endures to everlasting life saith he the Son of man he gives it you that is you have no promise if you labor for the things of this world How many are those that toyl and moyl and cark and care most for the world and it wil not come upon them many a man sits up late and riseth early and manages his business discreetly and yet it wil not come but God hath engaged himself by a Promise that he that seeks the bread of life shal have it that if thou canst but pour out thy soul Lord leave me not destitute of Christ he wil not deny the Son of man to thee But lest some-body should further add Give it me Why should he give it me What is there in me that the Son of man should be given me Why should I think the Lord Christ would give me this food If I ask that he ads For him hath God the Father Sealed that is I came into the world under a sealed Office to do the wil of my Father and the work that my Father hath sealed to me made my work to do is To give eternal life to those that seek it He can as wel deny himself and deny that he is sent from God and his Office as to deny the bread of life to a soul that unfainedly labors for it Wil not this do it The Lord bless it and give you to consider what I have said and win all our hearts to study that Jesus Christ may be more in our thoughts FINIS SELF-DENIAL Opened in a SERMON At St. Mary Spittal March 26. 1649. Matth. 16 14 and so forward Then said Jesus unto his Disciples if any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his Life shal lose it And whosever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul THe occasion of this speech of our Savior was this he had a little before told his Disciples what great things he was shortly to suffer at Jerusalem whereupon Simon Peter begins to rebuke his Master for admitting of such a Melancholly thought Far be it from thee to imagine that God will ever suffer thee to undergo such sad things as these are Master pitty thy self if there be any danger take a course to avoid it Our Savior therefore replies to Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me this is nothing but the savor of the things of the world that makes thee give me this wicked counsel having rebuked Peter he turns to al his Disciples and utters this speech that I have read wherein our Lord strikes at the Root of that which made Peter give him that carnal counsel for the Lord knew it was nothing but unmortified self in Peter and he wel saw that it would bring the like bitter fruits in all in whom it was not Crucified and therupon gives them that counsel that is contained in those three verses that I have read to you wherein there are these two things First 1. Here is a Lesson necessarily to be practised by all Christs Disciples in these words If any man wil be my Disciple Let him deny himself Take up his Cross And follow me that is the Lesson Secondly 2. Here is
of men when therefore the Lord saith that al are dead til Christ cometh certainly there is another Life besides that life that natural men enjoy Fourthly and lastly Abundantly in the Scripture wil you find this proved that upon the souls accepting of Christ they are said to be quickned They who were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned Read but the ten first verses of the 2d of the Ephesians and I know not how many other places there are Ye were dead ye were such but he hath quickned you and he that beleeveth in me saith Christ to Martha in John 11.25 though he were dead he shall live and living once he shal never die Doest thou beleeve this Then Christ being the Root of a Life it being the end of his undertaking that his people might have life and all men being dead before they come to him and quickned to life upon the receiving of him certainly then there is a life that they who have any interest in Christ do live which others are strangers from And let this suffice for the first And beloved though I shal not apply this alone yet I would count it a great fruit of this daies meeting if the very notion of it might but stick upon your hearts it would be of admirable consequence that if al of you would go home and say Certainly whatsoever I may think of my self if I be in Christ there is another life than that which I live yet and as you will hear if it please God a better life another manner of life than this is But that for the first The Second which it may be you wil more long for for I suspect not that you wil doubt the truth of the first is What is this Life what is it Now remember I taught you in one of my Preparatory Conclusions That it is not to be understood of this world and therefore pray expect not any cleer opening of it what it is but only so far as the Lord hath taught me out of his Word I shal communicate to you I wil give you this Description of it and then I will open it more expresly as I go along The Life that al Beleevers have from Christ it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon their union with him Pray mark it I shall make this plainer by and by I say That the Life of Christ that al the Saints partake of it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon the souls union with him Where there are these two things a little to be cleered First That all who do receive Christ are united to him and that is the foundation of their Life The Second is That upon their union they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of this righteousness is their life That is that I mainly intend to cleer That they are al united to him the Scripture is abundant in the proof of it It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory and we are one with him and he with us and he dwells in us by his spirit c. therefore it is cleer that we are united to him made one and this union it is nothing but the Lord Jesus sending his spirit into the soul as a band to knit him and them together that he be made their Root and Stock Now that I will not treat of because the very handling of it it is not only a great Mystery but it would take up more time than is to be allowed for the Sermon But Secondly Upon their Union with Christ they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of his Righteousness is our Life Mark I pray this because I hope it will give you some Light into this great Work for if you be Gods People I am only making you to see what your spirits are what your blood is what your pulse is and I shal speak of nothing but the things that are in you if you be the Lords I say The participation of Christs Righteousness that is our Life To this purpose be pleased to observe this one rule and mark it in your reading of the Scriptures of the new Testament especially How that Righteousness and Death are the two things that are opposed one to another Death and Righteousness That look as soon as ever man was a sinner he was a dead man presently he was dead under the sentence of Death In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and not dead only under the Sentence but dead as his sin deprived him of Gods Image Now as it is sin that is our Death so it is Righteousness that is our Life not our own which the Scripture disclaims but the Righteousness of Christ and you shal find several times in Rom. 5. where the Apostle compares the Death by Adam and the Life by Christ ordinarily he useth this expression That As sin reigned unto Death so righteousness by Christ unto Life stil opposing them our Death is sin our Life is righteousness I know the time will prevent me if I should stay upon that But therefore I wil proceed to that that I aim at the Righteousness of Christ the participation of Christs Righteousness You wil say What mean you by that I mean plainly this That our spiritual Death it hath two Branches that Tree of Death that deadly Stock hath two Branches and we are said to be spiritually dead in a two-fold respect The one is We are dead as we are under the sentence of Condemnation and that is our death of guilt being bound over by the righteous Judgment of God to make him amends for the injury we have done him and that sentence of condemnation is our death that is one branch in regard of our guilt The other branch of our spiritual death is Our state of death we are in as being deprived of the image of God wherein we were made and not only deprived of it but have contrary principles in al the faculties of the soul carrying us constantly to the things that are opposite to him In these two respects are all men and women in the world dead til Christ finds them Now Jesus Christ answerable to this hath a two-fold righteousness the participation whereof is our life First He hath a Righteousness of his Obedience which is inherent only in himself but is bestowed upon us imputed to us reckoned to us and by that righteousness performed by Christ and inherent in him and reckoned to us by the righteous sentence of God he delivereth us from the death that we are under the death of our condemnation under the sentence of death and so the Apostle expresseth it cleerly in Col. 2.12 13. Ye saith he who were dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened How forgiving you your trespasses In that place the pardoning and removing of our trespasses is the chief thing that is the quickning there intended So there is one a righteousness of Christ performed in our name accepted by God