dying was after a sort all of us for in our Nature Hee made Himselfe one with us and had us all by name as a body unto Him and all our sinne He tooke as His owne having made Himselfe one mysticall Person with us Secondly you must know that CHRIST thus having us all with Him as members belonging to Him through the gift of His Father and having all our sinne made His He dyeth for us all and for the abolishing of all our sinnes so that we all lye dead with Him and out sinne is all crucified with Him for it beginneth not to be crucified when wee dye to it no here was the beginning of it Thirdly CHRIST lying dead with all His dead in Him having taken away the guilt and wrought the death of sin in all His or the death of all His members to sin CHRIST with His body being dead is raised and receiveth that treasury of supernaturall life which is to be derived in the order of it to all His so that CHRIST rising all of us rise in Him as our Head for the members have society in whatsoever is done in the Head 2 As a thing may be said to be in the cause of it so was all our resurrection in His which was to be the cause of all our resurrection As Adam and Eve were the cause of propagating a naturall life to all mankinde Fourthly CHRIST thus raised and made the conceptacle and fountaine of supernaturall life sendeth out His vitall influence into such as belong to Him 1 By faith giving them a being spirituall or an union in Him even as Adam gave a naturall being or participation of his substance unto his members 2 He doth send into them thus united with Him the Spirit of life from Himselfe that is the HOLY GHOST to dwell in them by the created gifts of grace which is life supernaturall They shall heare my voice who are dead that is they shall beleeve and they shall live 3 CHRIST doth successively perfect this life never leaving till He have in soule and body conformed us for our module to His blessed Soule and glorious body And these may serve to open this point of beliefe The difficulty of conceiving it commeth hence 1. That we know not how straitly and neerely we are united to Him for as all were within the loynes of Adam by the determinate Counsell of GOD to come from Him so all the Elect by GOD's predestination and donation were within CHRIST as one in Him and with Him 2. Wee are not able to see that vertue of His resurrection The use is first Vse to incite us to seeke to have our eyes opened that we may know the treasury of good things we have in CHRIST and the power which Hee hath put forth in us We should love CHRIST a thousand times more if wee knew feelingly what Hee were to us We are not able to see how we in the womb are formed how much more will our eyes dazle here further than GOD doth cleare them This also must make us hold to our head CHRIST even as we will have life in us get a member away from having communion with the Head it is presently livelesse having neither sense nor motion So in us with CHRIST We see whither we must have recourse for life Even to CHRIST Come to me and your soules shall live to GOD in our Nature looke at thy owne flesh in heaven and draw from it as a Conduit-pipe increase of grace sent thee from it by the Spirit which dwelleth with it Having forgiven you all trespasses Now he commeth to the order of our new quickening which hee setteth downe by three antecedents which made way to it 1 He pardoned our sinne 2 He crossed our Bill 3 He freed us from the power of Satan and all infernall spirits Before I enter them let this in generall be premised to cleare the text Suppose that we stood in great debt unto any say againe that he had to shew for all the debt under his owne hand Put the case thirdly that wee were cast into prison and in the custody of some Gaolour or any officers to that purpose If hee at whose suite wee are in hold be willing to set us free what doth he first he doth pardon the debt Secondly he doth Cancell our bills and bonds for he that keepeth our bonds seemeth not to forgive nor willing to let us goe otherwise than that he may have a saying to us when he pleaseth Thirdly he doth release his action and setteth him out of bands that held him and after all this dismisseth him to his liberty So here we are in for debt such debt as toucheth life it selfe the matter is under our owne confession the Divell holds us under chaines of darknesse GOD is willing to restore us to life 1 He pardoneth our faults 2 Rendeth the Articles of our confession 3 Taketh us out of their hands who were ministers of His justice in the close keeping of us This shall suffice to illustrate it in generall We see hence Doct. That in order of nature first we have pardon of sinne before wee have the life of grace begun in us there must be a removall of evill before there can be a conferring of good Thus in CHRIST Himselfe He was acquit from all our sinne which was upon Him before He was raised up yea if the least sinne of any of us who are His had beene unanswered Hee had not beene raised up and for this cause Rom. 4.25 The raising of CHRIST is said to be our justification that is God in raysing Him up did manifest that Hee was fully answered for all our sinnes so that we now are quit from all our sinnes in CHRIST our Head Even as if one lye sentenced a dead man for treason against the King he cannot have His life given him but pardon of his fault is first given So here answerably we are not restored to feele the life of God take place in us till our sins which caused our death are removed In a sinners restoring this is the order 1 God by faith setteth Him into CHRIST who is His righteousnesse in whom belongeth to Him forgivenesse 2 God when by beliefe He is in CHRIST doth pronounce Him just or acquit Him from sinne 3 The LORD doth send the Spirit of His Son into His heart This is the order in Nature though in time these things goe together This is to be noted against the Papists who when a sinner hath by deadly sinne lost the life of grace as they say though he after come to have never such love to God yet will not have the sinne forgiven till the Priest hath absolved him As if God did restore the life of grace before He gave the pardon of sinne This out of the order The words have foure things to be marked 1 Who forgiveth God the Father He raised up both CHRIST and us when He had forgiven 2 The manner of forgiving in
obedience which should of grace have that acceptance and the glorious fruit which followed upon them and therefore the Scriptures yea CHRIST Himselfe referres all those benefits to God's grace which upon the death of CHRIST are given us For it was the fatherly love of God which made Him pleased in the death of His Sonne and smell a savour of rest not that the merit of His death did extort so much derigore justiti◠And truly that the second Person should ever be so joyned to our Nature was unspeakable grace the Nature of Angels more excellent than ours found not this favour He tooke not the Angelicall Nature but the seed of Abraham If a King doe but light and rest Himselfe in some meane Cottage it is no small favour But for the immortall God to dwell by indissoluble bond of union personally in such an house of clay as our Nature is sinne excepted it is grace that cannot be comprehended The greater if we consider how that God full of all Majesty and glory by His incarnation thus dwelling in the forme of a servant did emptie Himselfe by vayling under this flesh the brightnesse of His glory We are then hence to learne Vse that all things must be ascribed to God's grace and with CHRIST to rest in this Father it hath pleased thee to give me CHRIST this or that benefit in CHRIST yea to doe all both in me and CHRIST my SAVIOUR to the glory of thy rich grace all must come hither God hath made me good in His eyes for this or that As for the Papists merit even in rigour of justice not onely in gracious fidelity it is prejudiciall to God's grace I think not to be found betweene the Father and the Sonne much lesse betwixt our God and us with whom it were woe if all our merits were not free mercies This in generall Now for the matter affirmed which first is the Qualification of the Person to be a Mediator 2. The work of mediation touching which 3. Things must bee opened 1 How wee are to conceive of the Person here spoken of in Him 2 What is meant by all fulnesse 3 What is meant by dwelling For the first he meaneth the beloved Sonne as Man as of the Person of CHRIST as incarnate the reason is because the Sonne of God absolutely considered as the second Person in Trinity hath all fulnesse not by voluntary dispensation but by naturall necessity in as much as the eternall Father never was nor could be without His eternall Sonne God with Himselfe this thing never was in the power of His free-will For the second you must know that there is in Christ His Person a three-fold fulnesse The first fundamentall the other two following as derived from it The first is the fulnesse of the divine Nature which doth personally dwell with that Man-hood in Christ whence it commeth to passe that this Man is truly called God that is the Man-hood taken into fellowship of the selfe-perfect and eternall Person of the Sonne of God so that it is become as a part of His Person The second fulnesse is the fulnesse of Office to which even Christ Man is called of being our Mediator Priest Prophet and King For in regard of his humane Nature now united to the second Person He is as Man called to be the Christ of God that is Anointed Thirdly the fulnesse of created or habituall graces wherewith the divine Nature doth fill the soule of Christ which are not the divine Properties but effects which the God-head worketh distinct from it as the soule giveth the body a life which is not the life wherewith the soule liveth for then when the body dieth the soule should die likewise but is an effect of it Now all of them may be here understood for they are all antecedent qualifications fitting him for this worke which in the next words is mentioned especially the first Now for the dwelling of all fulnesse in Christ Man the later two are in Him subjectively the former viz. the God-head doth dwell in Christ Man not as in the Saints 2 Cor. 6.23 I will dwel with you you are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the habitation of God of God by the Spirit the Temple of the HOLY GHOST which is onely a dwelling by relation of love and communion of the effects of it in grace nor yet as God dwelleth in the glorified Saints 1 Cor. 15. when God shal be all in al which is likewise a dwelling together in regard of aboundant love manifested in the gift of glory nor any such simple cohabitation but it dwelleth with this man-hood as with a Nature which is taken to Vnity of Person in the Sonne of God and so is through grace become of the substance of the second Person So that He is now as truly said to be Man also as before He was said to be God only Now then the summe is Christ as Man or the Manhood of Christ hath the second Person of Trinity God with the Father and Spirit dwelling personally in it So that this Man-hood is essentially and substantially coupled with the Deity in unity of one selfe perfect and eternall Person Secondly it is anointed with fulnesse of Office and of Created gifts that Christ God-man that every way filled might be a fit Person to work our reconciliation following and to be an Head replenishing His Church which went before First then from the matter we see what an all-sufficient Head we have Looke to thy Nature in heaven Such a man as hath Plenitudinem Potestatis in regard of office full of all habituall graces which our nature can receive farre above all Angels yea full of that never drying Fountaine of life grace and glory it being taken into one Person with God neither could he else bee an Head quickening His Church He that must fill all the blessed Angels and all the redeemed peculiar people of God had need to have the Fountaine of life residing in him Which doth both refute that presumptuous usurpation of the man of sinne Vse 1 I meane the Pope in challenging to be an head of all the visible Church whereas Christ could not be our Head were He not God as well as Man As also it teacheth us our duty Vse 2 both whither to run for supply even hither to the Well-head of grace and life all fulnesse is in Him that we might draw from Him grace plenteously grace heaped on grace Oh blessed are those streames of grace which have this Head of living waters to feed them As likewise it teacheth where to offer prayse for the measure of grace we have received we should be affected as receivers in thankfulnesse to GOD in humility towards men For what have wee that wee have not received Lastly this is very comfortable for if there be such a fulnesse in CHRIST then what though there be abundance of sinne in us and guiltinesse yet there is a fulnesse in Him to remove it and take it away
Whosoever and whatsoever teacheth Christ teacheth the mystery of the Gospell and whosoever teacheth not Christ teacheth not the Gospell Of Christ he saith that He is among us for so should the particle 〈◊〉 be here rendred as it is immediately before among the Gentiles For by the Gospell we have communion with God and with Christ His Sonne Observe hence Doct. That CHRIST dwelleth in His members in all true believers He lives in them He dyneth and suppeth and lodgeth with us we see and heare and feele we taste and eate Him How glorious then is the Gospell by which Iesus Christ is communicated with us and how glorious is the Church even the assembly of GODS people among whom CHRIST the Sonne of GOD dwelleth For better cleering of this point I will shew you what it is to have CHRIST dwelling in us viz. When He doth exist after another manner then He did before when there are other effects then there were before when He doth shew Himselfe kinde and favourable when He doth manifest His comfortable presence as he did in the Temple It is seene in foure particulars 1 When as He commeth into the heart to be there He is united unto it and made one with it 2 He continues in the heart where once he begins to dwell and that is the reason why we continue in the state of grace 3 He delighteth in us he delighteth to dwell in the place where He dwelleth For a man cannot properly be said to dwell in a place except he delight to dwell there A man may be in a prison all his life long yet cannot be said to dwell there because he hath no delight to be there he would not be there if he could choose 4 He is said to dwell in us because he is so operative there he worketh efficaciously in all the parts and faculties of the soule He dwells in the soule as fire in the iron He is in every part thereof If it be objected how can Christ so dwell in us Object seeing He is in heaven and we on earth He dwelleth in us as the Sunne in the house Answ by his influence of grace into our hearts so that though He be absent yet He dwells there By these effects Christ discovereth Himselfe to be in us But what doe the Saints get by His comming Quest Many speciall priviledges and benefits come thereby Answ as 1 Where CHRIST dwels He makes that person glorious He fills his heart with glory and this I take out of Psal 24.7 Be ye lift up ye everlasting deeres that the King of glory may come in Where CHRIST comes into the heart Hee comes as a King of glory Hee comes not as a man that is glorious who keepes his glory to himselfe but He communicates His glory to us And herein is the difference betwixt CHRIST and an earthly Prince When a Prince comes into a house the house is the same still he keepes his glory to himselfe But where Christ comes He changes the heart he alters the house He makes that glorious He beautifies and decks the soule with such excellencies as makes us seeme glorious to our selves and appeare so to others So Moses face did shine because God did communicate His glory to him now that outward glory was a type of this inward glory which Christ communicates to the soule of him in whom He dwells Where Christ comes in He ruleth and governeth the soule He guides the spirit where he dwells He keepes the heart in order He keepes the understanding will and affections in obedience and this I take also out of Psal 24. Be yee lift up yee everlasting doores speaking of the soule For Christ where He comes He comes like a King He ruleth as a King He brings His kingdome with Him As Sathan rules in the children of disobedience so CHRIST ruleth in the children of obedience He guides and orders the spirit the right way 3 Where Christ enters in and dwells He refresheth the heart He comforts the heart He brings a great deale of joy with Him So saith the Prophet Esay Chap. 57. Esay 57. â—â— Thus saith the High and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is Holy I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of contrite ones Here are two benefits layd downe To refresh To give life He doth refresh the spirit of the humble that is when the spirit is drooping and the heart is made sadde and dejected meditating upon nothing but feares and dangers then Christ comes into the heart and calmes all sets all at rest brings tranquillity and refresheth the soule even as a man that feareth death is refreshed when a pardon commeth He fills the heart with joy where He comes as the Sunne doth bring light where ere it is present and no more can a man have Christ in his heart without joy then he can have the Sunne without light For He brings matter of joy with Him He brings salvation with Him as when He came home to Zaccheus He said Luke 19. this day is salvation come to thy house and it Christ so say to any man He brings matter of great joy Again when he comes He brings the spirit of joy called the refore the joy of the Holy Ghost for where the Holy Ghost is He is full of joy Againe where He comes He brings His kingdome with Him and that conlists of joy Rom. 14.17 4 Where Christ dwells He gives life He makes them living men for He dwelleth in His Saints as the Vine in the 〈◊〉 and every man that is in Him is a branch in the Vine All the properties of life we have from Him our sense and motion is from Him in Him we live and moove and have our being from Him is our life derived He that hath the Son hath life 1 Ioh. 5 1â— For as the old Adam did communicate corruption to us to make us active in sinne So the second Adam doth communicate grace and life to all that are borne of Him and therefore is called the quickning spirit For as a man doth then live when his soule comes into his body So doth the soule then live when CHRIST comes into the soule and therefore He is sayd to be the Resurrection and the Life for where He is there is Life 5 The last benefit is Defence Hee defends those in whom He dwels He is a buckler to them He preserves them from all crosses at the least from the evill of them And herein is the difference betwixt CHRIST and other Inhabitants Other Inhabitants are defended by their houses but Hee the Inhabitant defends the house And good reason for though He dwell in our hearts yet Psal 90.1 He is our Habitation This is excellently expressed Esa 4.5 6. Vpon all the glory shall be defence that is upon all the people that are glorious
expoundeth the other as a more knowne and frequent phrase in Saint Paul's Epistles for so I take it as if he should say my meaning is by body of sins the flesh the originall corruption in which is all kinde of sin or the body of sins of the flesh that is of the flesh or native corruption which is a whole body of sinfull members the corruption originally and principally seated in the soule is called by the name of flesh because the soule most manifests it selfe in the flesh the soule being incarnate after a fort and living more in the flesh than in it selfe For the life of naturall man is little but sensuality and the Scripture maketh the heart of man the Seat of the soule because the soule in regard of his action is rather naturall than animall For as a man extremely loving here or there liveth in the person loved more than in himselfe so the foule fallen from God is wedded in such impotent sort to the love of its owne flesh that it liveth there altogether Lastly by Circumcision of Christ Note that this phrase may be taken actively and passively passively Christ's circumcision is that Circumcision with which Christ the eight day as circumcised Actively that Circumcision wherewith Christ doth circumcise in others and this is here meant Now this is the meaning You have beene circumcised in CHRIST insomuch as you have put off that frame of sin in which are many distinct kindes of sin I meane the flesh or originall corruption with which as a most filthy rayment your soules were sometimes clothed and this not by vertue of legall Circumcision or any outward act whereof man is Minister but by vertue of that powerfull Circumcision wherewith CHRIST circumciseth These words first in generall lay open Doct. In what standeth our spirituall Circumcision viz. in putting off all our corruptions our corrupt confidence the rebellion of our wills the disordered frame of our affections Wee saith Saint Paul are the Circumcision in the heart Phil. 3. â— who rejoyce in CHRIST IESUS and have no confidence in the flesh this depravation of our Nature is the fore-skin of the heart in the removall whereof standeth this Circumcision Let us then all seek to be thus circumcised Vse many yea who amongst the old people would not run unto the Circumcision of the flesh carefully procure that as wee doe the Baptisme of water to which it answereth But few of them and few of us seeke this inward Circumcision without which the other is nothing not the Circumcision wich is open in the flesh but that which is secret in the heart is it which God requireth which hath praise with Him If they that wanted Circumcision outward were cut off in Israel from their people what shall be done with us if we get not this Circumcision inward without which none pleaseth God This in generall for having told them that they were circumcised he doth tell them in what the matter of Circumcision standeth Now in particular first observe hence Doct. That the soule of the naturall man is clad with sinne putting off you know doth imply that there is some thing as apparell upon him who is said to put off And truly so they are for what is in the naturall minde but ignorance unbeliefe curiosity pride What in the will but wicked propensity to evill aversenesse and crossenesse to good yea rebellion against light What in all the affections but inordinacie What in his eyes but uncleannesse revenge His eares but itching after vanity His tongue but rottennesse This maketh the Prophet say Psal 73.6 7. That Pride compasseth about the wicked man as a chaine and violence doth cover him as a goodly garment And looke as the body is so covered that it cannot be seene for the rayment on it So wicked men are so wrapped about with sin that the beautifull worke of God in mans soule cannot be discerned for it yea as men thinke their apparell an ornament so doe sinners their sin The use of this is to warne us of our misery Vse to see a poore Snake goe in filthy tottered rags all stinking loathsomely is a pittifull spectacle But if we could see with what menstruous garments all thy soule is covered every faculty being cladde with ungodlinesse unrighteousnesse intemperancy it is farre more woefull Wherefore weigh this and begin to put off looking to Iesus these filthy rags Oh you that will not let the least moth lye on your bodily garment doe suffer with patience your soules to goe thus filthily attyred yea begin betime for to make thee unready asketh time So this garment of sin cleaveth unto thee and hangeth so fast on that were not God with us in this businesse we might sooner put off our selves then these sinfull qualities so firmely they cleave to us The Christians when baptised did in those primitive times lay aside their old cloths as testifying and speaking by this action that they had put off these rags of sinfull lusts with which formerly their soules had been clothed In putting off the body Observe then That we must foregoe not some part of our corruption but the whole frame of it Doct. Wee are in other places called to put off the old man marke the whole man to shew that our leaving off corruption must not be by halves but entirely old things are gone in CHRIST all are new we must when we come by faith to CHRIST forgoe all our old corruption Such as are all over filthily apparelled they will desire to have all new all or none for some old and some new doe worse then all old but if the garment bee so woven that one cannot put off one part but all will follow then needs it must be that either all of it be put off or none at all So it is in this body of sin it doth goe so together that he that putteth one member off truely he putteth off all other likewise and therefore Saint Iames saith he that liveth in sin against one commandement he breaketh all that is hee hath in his soule that corruption which inclineth to breake every one he is not mortified to the sin against any one that is not mortified to every one The body of darknesse which is in the night upon the first rising of the Sun is in some degree all at once scattered So this whole body of spirituall darknesse when the Sun of righteousnesse getteth up in our hearts is at once all in some degree dispersed But you will say happily Object we have much sinne hanging about us and some corruptions more strongly then other 1 We are sayd to put it off Answ because we have begun to doe it through the grace of Christ 2 Because we desire further to doe it through Christ strengthening us 3 We know that Christ our sanctifier will abolish all the reliques which still hang with us We must not therefore thinke because we have not perfectly for the degree put off all
we have and when we are to demand this or that how should we look back to this Gospell sealed unto us in baptisme And seeing baptisme is but a seale of other matters let us not content our selves with baptisme alone but make sure we have the things which it serveth to confirme Men that have evidences of house and land they looke not much at their deeds about it but they hold the land it selfe and occupy that carefully Wee contrarily stand upon the seale but let the heavenly estate confirmed be where it will 2 Hence may be inforced upon men what is their estate if they have received baptisme as well inward as outward then as the Apostle saith know you not that you are dead with Christ through baptisme If they are not dead with Him they have but the baptisme of water which is nothing before GOD Circumcision nor uncircumcision are any thing with Him but a new Creature Now hee commeth to a second benefit wee have in Christ the benefit of a spirituall resurrection and new life in whom yee have beene raised up as they had beene circumcised for though this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in whom may agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which baptisme yet it is fitly reduced to the more remote antecedent Christ and to begin a new benefit opposite to that former in whom wee have beene circumcised For the intent of this Scripture is to set out Christ and the benefits we have in Him not to describe the vertue of baptisme which is onely named here so farre forth as it serveth to note the manner after which Christ wrought in us the former benefit of our circumcision from sin And if he had broke off the subject of his speech thus in which baptisme he would have named Christ in the end of the verse not Him as having reference to a plaine antecedent and whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the next verse belongeth hither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this verse for these two seeme but a repetition of this matter with some application and amplification of it make it therefore agree with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 buried with him in whom also ye are raised up The benefit is 1 Propounded in this verse 2 Applyed more at large verse 13 14. In propounding it 1 We have set downe our refurmetion it selfe in Christ 2 The manner of working it by saith For as the body liveth formally or is raysed from death to life by the guift of life created in it So the soule dead in sin is formally made alive when fayth is created in it Secondly you have fayth described from the efficient cause the potent action of God which raysed Him from the dead in whom yee are raysed The summe In whom or in which CHRIST yee are raysed up with Him the life of fayth being created in your dead soules by that omnipotent efficacy of God by which Christ being now dead for us all was raysed up First then this being the scope to make us cleave to Christ thus You must not goe from him in whom you bave beene raysed up to a new heavenly life But in CHRIST you are raysed up Therefore let none beguile you with deceits which are not after Him The second part is here the conclusion in the eight verse before Doctr. Observe hence That to consider of our first resurrection which we have through Christ is a forcible motive to make us cleave to Him If Saint Peter sayd whither shall we goe thou hast the words of life eternall how much more may we say how should we start from thee Lord thou hast raysed us up when wee were dead How did Lazarus thinke you and others whom Christ raysed up love Him and rest in Him when thus bodily life was againe given them though they were within a while to dye againe But how much more would it bind us to Christ if wee saw how Hee hath raised our soules being dead with such a resurrection as that they shall never dye againe When the Galathians were so fledge after their legall ceremonies Saint Paul thus reasoneth Did you receive the spirit by the ministery of the law or by the hearing of faith preached as if hee would set downe this for a ground that is to be held unto which doth bring us the quickning spirit how then is CHRIST to bee rested on from whom as the fountaine all spirituall life floweth unto us Now our resurrection may bee considered two wayes 1 As wrought in our head 2 As applyed actually in us As wee in regard of our naturall life may bee considered First as we have this life in our roote in our Parents in whom we are seminali ratione as an eare of Corne is in the seede Secondly our life may bee considered as now in us received from them Now when they are sayd to be raysed up in Christ it may be understood both wayes both in regard of their resurrection as it was made in Christ the head of them and as it was in part applyed in them for all the resurrection we have in Christ not yet received we have it by faith hid in Him even the resurrection of our bodyes We may hence then see what maketh the Papists Vse and all sorts of carnall Gospellers so fall from Christ even this they know not or consider not who when they were dead in their sins did rayse them up if they ever had felt that CHRIST had done thus much for them they would never doubt His alsufficiency but waite upon Him to accomplish their salvation We see in Patients which have deadly sicknesses if a Physitian doe when they were given over even then rid their disease away in part and make them pretty well will they thinke of looking to another or be desyrous to joyne others with Him who hath alone almost done all the cure So betweene our soules and Christ Let us then consider what we have had wrought in us through Christ Vse it will so confirme us that hell gates shall not make us leave Him Againe if thou worke not upon thy heart the feeling of the benefits thou hast through Him thou shalt cleave as weakely by Him as if he had never done ought for thee Here in particular are three things to be opened 1 That who so is truely in CHRIST is risen againe 2 That our soules are raysed from death to life by faith 3 That the omnipotent power of GOD is the worker of fayth Of each of these a little 1 As Adam was a roote of death to all that were his neither were they borne of him sooner then mortality did seise on them So Christ is a roote of resurrection 1 Cor. 15.22 As in Adam all dye so in CHRIST shall all be made alive For we must not think that when Christ was raysed it was no more then when Lazarus or some other private person was raysed but His rising was all our resurrections in as much as it
was in the name of us all and had in it a seed-like vertue to worke the resurrection of us all Hence it commeth that we no sooner come to be in Him but the power of His resurrection is felt of us making us rise to newnesse of life 2 Cor. 5.17 In Christ all things are new Whosoever have learned CHRIST as the truth is in Him have so learned Him as they are dead to sinne the life of the old man is killed and they are alive in the life of grace For looke as a member truly by inward ligaments knit with a living head hath life in it so wee when we come to bee in Christ raysed up and living to God in life glorious we cannot but live in Him Wherefore how woefull is the state of many that professe Christ yet live in ignorance Vse know not what a resurrection meaneth are dead while they live in all kinde of fin and wantonnesse these never were in Christ but like as glasse eyes are set in the body or wooden legges which being by outward meanes joyned to it doe not receive life and sense with other members Wee never knew communion with him who is the quickning spirit if we be dead in our sins 2 Observe What it is that maketh us rise to new life Doct. viz. faith on Christ We are sayd to live by faith because after some sort it is life but most properly it bringeth life into us He that believeth hath everlasting life fully in Christ his head inchoative or imperfectly in himselfe For as in bodily death the reuniting of the soule with it doth make it rise againe and become a living body so faith as a spirituall vinculum tying God who is the soule of our soules againe unto them they which before were dead are anew quickened Thus then as an instrumentall cause of our conjunction with God in Christ who is our life it may be sayd to quicken us or rayse us up though further faith it selfe may bee conceived as a part of this life For as the soule died in falling into ignorance of God estranged from the life of GOD through ignorance in them Ephes 4.18 so comming by faith to know God it beginneth to live Ioh. 17.3 hence to know God in Christ faith being an affianced knowledg is life everlasting This then is the first thing which God worketh in us as the beginning and instrumentall cause of our other following life even as in our waking from our naturall sleepe which is a shaddow of death first the eyes open and then our senses and motions doe come fully to us in their order So in awaking from this sleepe of sin first the eye of faith lookes up to GOD and that invisible world then our life returneth more fully the spirit of God from Christ working it in us Marke then hence Vse that all such beliefes as make not new creatures are not sound faith toward CHRIST the reason is playne a true faith bringeth Christ to live in us Now as a quickning soule cannot returne into the dead body of it but there will be new life So Christ that quickning spirit cannot returne to live in a dead soule but needs it must bee raysed up Wherefore if wee feele no life but that we brought from our mothers wombe let us cast downe our selves we have not yet truly believed and we see how our faith doth not shut out good life as the Papists slander us but bringeth it forth as an effect which cannot be severed Finally Vse hence men may assure themselves of the truth of their faith if they bee renewed in life The last thing here to be noted is Doctr. That the omnipotent action of God which raysed Christ from the dead is it that begetteth faith in us Eph. 1.19 It is called the exceeding greatnesse of His power toward us which believe according to the working of His mighty power Faith is the eye of the soule by which we looke upon CHRIST it is the hand by which we receive all good from Christ Now if a man be borne blind or borne without a hand an eye that seeth but these aspectable creatures and discerneth not distinctly but things at hand a hand that cannot reach an ell or two from us yet all the world cannot supply these nor no power but His onely that created the body how much lesse then shall any power bee able to give us that eye which looketh within the vayle that hand which claspeth Christ in heaven but only the Almighty power of God But what Object doth that power that raysed Christ rayse us up Yea that power though daily continued Answ as the Lord creating Adam and Eve with the law of propagating all the race of mankind did by that power which created and coupled them after a sort make all mankinde though the Father and Son and spirit doe still worke in continuing that first power put forth So here GOD raysing Christ up in whom we all were that he might be a roote and fountayne of supernaturall life to us all that power may be sayd fitly to rayse us all Wherefore let us learne to admire and give glory to GODS power which worketh our fayth Vse 1 if we saw a man raysed from the dead ô how would we speake of such a wonderous power but this is the same that raised Christ from the dead which raiseth us to believe If we creepe up from some deadly sicknesse we tell what a power of God it was to rayse us But when our soules creepe out of darknesse and death to believe on the living God it is as nothing with us This teacheth us whither we must fly for the strengthening and susteyning of our fayth even to this power Vse 2 the same power that made all things upholdeth all things He that knoweth how all the considence of his heart is set upon himselfe and the creature how his reason and senses and his own inclination which is not quieted but in outward meanes how Sathan and the course of this world resist us in believing he cannot but confesse it is the Lords power that first brought him to it and that must keepe his faith from fayling Lastly we see hence how wide they are Vse 3 who never felt any want of such a power who thinke of fayth as a thing they have alwayes had since they came to reason Yea Papists that if GOD offer hold it in the power of man to believe when God sheweth the promise and inlighteneth the mind VERSE 13. And yee which were dead in sinnes and in the uncircumcision of your flesh hath Hee quickened together with Him forgiving you all your trespasses NOw he commeth to repeate this benefit insisting more largely upon it and first he setteth downe the state of them before they were quickened Secondly the quickning of them Thirdly the manner of the action the order in which he quickened them which standeth in a threefold antecedent in nature before
this their restoring to life The first is pardon of sin The second is cancelling the obligation against them The third is the setting them free from those jaylors and executioners in whose keeping they were The two first are in this thirteenth verse the latter in the end of the thirteenth verse and in the other two following The first of the antecedents in the end of the thirteenth verse The second in the fourteenth verse The third in the fifteenth verse To returne to the thirteenth verse And first in genenerall from this his Commoration in this benefit wee note Doct. That our quickning in CHRIST is such a benefit which we must not quickly have done with and lightly passe over The Apostle cannot move from this till hee have dwelt a while upon it and amplified and enforced on them the consideration of it So it is we lend it little thought but the more is our fault we should when wee thinke on God's benefits in Christ make a stand and dwell upon them that so we might be more affected 2 Marke What Ministers must doe Doct. viz. they must amplifie to their people the benefits bestowed on them how often doth Moses this in Deutr. For 1 It is for the honour of God that His benefits should be set forth 2 It edifieth others and gaineth glory to God while they are to know the things bestowed on them and they are by this meanes wrought unto thanksgiving Againe wee are like children wee know not the worth of those great things wherewith GOD hath enriched us As a young childe that hath great patrimonies and priviledges doth not to any purpose conceive the worth of them yea we are as forgetfull as the eaten bread is quickly forgotten And beside a benefit while enjoyed groweth no dainties with us in all these regards we must use this practise of the Apostle If men have outward commodities and abilities and gifts of any kinde they know them too well even till they be proud of them but in heavenly things it is quite otherwise Now for their condition it is described from the state of death You when you were dead 2. The kinde of death viz. in sin 1. Actuall in trespasses 2. Originall in uncircumcision of heart which is set downe by a Synecdoche or Metonymie of the signe for the thing signified Outward Circumcision put for outward and inward which is more emphatical when they were so dead that inwardly and outwardly they did lye in evill the meaning is when you were utterly dead in soule mortall in body subject to eternall damnation by reason of your actuall transgressions and original corruption You then He quickened that is GOD the Father out of the Verse before with His CHRIST First then observe That we are by nature dead to God the same is Eph. 2.1 We are not like a man in a sleepe nor like the Samaritan greatly wounded but we are starke dead in regard of the life of GOD. Rom. 5. he saith Wee are of no strength not of feeble strength and the naturall man is often so called My Sonne was dead and is alive let the dead bury their dead A man is every way by nature dead his body is mortall in dying from his birth eternall death of soule and body hangeth over him His soule is quite dead for God in regard of His presence of sanctifying grace going from a man he dyeth in soule As the soule going from the body the naturall life is extinct But it may be said Object why man hath some reliques of knowledge Againe some of the Heathen have excelled in vertuous actions without grace Every knowledge is not the life of God strictly so called Answ but that knowledge which affecteth the heart to follow God to trust in Him love Him They that know thee will trust in thee otherwise the divels doe know God in their kinde 2 The knowledge of man is able to make him unexculable onely not able to make him alive according to GOD for these Heathens vertues they were but pictures without the soule and life of vertue in them splendida peccata good trees they were not and therefore their fruit could not be good all is not gold that glisters This then confuteth all doctrines of free-will Vse 1 or of any power in man which holpen a little can helpe it selfe Dead men have nothing in them to help themselves toward this world so it is with us toward the other Yea we see hence that it is not suggestions to the minde nor exhortations that will doe it we doe but tell a dead man a tale and all in vaine till God create a new light in the minde and take away the heart of stone and give us tender new hearts let us confesse our utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impotencie and inability and give glory to God Hence must be enforced to the natural man what is his estate dead in his soule Vse 2 hee heareth not the thunder of GOD's Law nor His sweet promises he seeth no heavenly thing neither GOD nor any spirituall matter hee tasteth no relish in any meat of the soule he speaketh not a word powdred with grace hee stirreth not hand nor foot to that which is good Oh the world is full of these ghosts twice dead as Saint Iude speaketh yea the relikes of this spirituall death hangeth about us all Marke from this that we who are alive through grace Vse 3 must not associate our selves with those that are meere naturall men for we see that no living thing can abide that which is dead the beasts will start at a dead carrion our dearest friends we put from us when dead but alas the LORD's children now can goe hand in hand with such who have not a sparke of grace in them Oh this death is not terrible we are al so much in it that we see not the filthinesse of it As a blacke hue among the Black-moores is not reproachfull So dead ones with us whose graces are ready to dye agree well enough In sinnes Observe Doct. That sinne both originall and actuall is the death of the soule Mors animae peccatum Our sin in which we are borne and live is the death of our soules and the demerit of further death Death it is to death it goeth Now what is death is it not the absence of life the soule being gone with the entrance of corruption And what is sinne Is it not the absence of saving knowledge righteousnesse and holinesse with the corruption of the minde will affections so that the spirituall stinch of it streameth out at the eye lust at the eare itching after vanity at the mouth rottennes is the best I mean unfruitfull speech sometime bitternesse Looke as holinesse is the beginning of life everlasting which goeth on till it end in glory so is sin the death of the soule which doth if the grace of CHRIST heale it not never stay till it come to everlasting damnation As for sinfull actions they
withdrawen from CHRIST So that as a Wife yeelding her love and conjugall benevolence to another cleaveth no longer to her husband is one flesh no more with him So a soule bestowing the religious adoration of it here or there doth joyne it selfe with the thing so worshipped and leaveth God This is to be marked against them that are reconcilers Vse 1 that thinke why may they not doe thus and thus and yet cleave to CHRIST well enough yea this doth detect the wicked judging of Papists that will perswade us that this leadeth us unto CHRIST to go to Saints and that honouring them in religious manner we honour Christ in them 2 We must keepe onely to God in Christ Thus much from this that these religiously worshipping Angells held not Christ For understanding the verse We must open some conclusions concerning the head and Naturall body 1 The head is the supreame part in a humane body from which commeth outward direction and inward influence of sense and motion into every member So Christ hath both the soveraignty of outward directing and by his powerfull influence he quickeneth and mooveth all that are his 2 No member hath any thing from the head which is not by joynts and sinewes coupled to the head and by the same bands and joynts furnished from the head So we have nothing from CHRIST till by faith and love we are knit with Him and His body and by the same 〈◊〉 furnished from Him with spirituall grace and heavenly nutriment 3 We must know that the soule from the head doth 〈◊〉 forth a nutritive faculty a vitall faculty which nourisheth and augmenteth every member as the nature of it requireth The first continueth as long as life augmentation till wee come to that perfection of growth which nature affordeth Being come to this augmentation ceaseth about thirty sixe yeares So the quickning spirit from Christ our head doth by all holy meanes nourish every believer and make him grow as his condition requireth and that till he come to be a perfect member of one perfect man in Iesus Christ 4 The last thing to be marked is that a Naturall body groweth up in every part proportionably the hand for a hand the legge with the growth of a legge the toe with the growth of a toe So here all the body thus coupled furnished and wrought upon with the quickning spirit groweth to that perfection in every member which Christ hath appointed The summe is They keepe not to Christ who is an all sufficient head by whose efficacy all that believe on Him being coupled to Him receive all grace needfull and take encrease growing up till they come to perfection with such a growth which God Himselfe causeth in them That wee have not many but one head Doct. not holding the head not Christ and Saint Peter the Scripture knoweth but one head neither was any of His Apostles a head of the Churches for all had alike and the chiefe authority Now if any were a head above others He must have the chiefe alone no other having it with Him thus the Pastor that succeeded Peter at Rome should have beene head over Saint Iohn the Evangelist who lived long after Peter But we neede no better argument then this in the Text. If CHRIST be one head and it is monstrous for a body to have two then the Church hath no other But CHRIST is the head and for one body to have two is monstrous therefore the Church hath no other then Christ The Papists say that a ministeriall and secondary head may be with a principall and it is not monstrous As there may bee a Viceroy under a King yea they say it maketh with the union of the Church to have a visible head and doth no more derogate from Christs glory in being our head then when men are called lights GODS Apostles foundations from Christ who is called the light GOD the foundation the Apostle of our profession For answer First this distinction of a secondary ministeriall head it is contradictory for it is such an essentiall property of a head to be principall and have rule that what is not thus is not a head 2 Who ever heard of any secondary head in a naturall body without deformity now it is a naturall body with which CHRIST doth compare Himselfe in this respect 3 That which is a ministeriall head must doe the worke of a head but that none can doe The worke is double internall or externall influence regiment or direction Of the first it is granted for the other of regiment the Scripture denyeth it to any but CHRIST the Prince of Pastors leaving to all other a power ministeriall onely to serve the Churches as superior unto them Againe the truth is no direction which is dependent is the direction of a head as the hand leading and drawing up the foote directeth it but is not a head to it because the direction of the hand commeth from the principality of the head reported unto it As for those instances First a Viceroy is in a body politique but CHRIST in calling Himselfe a head of his body doth draw the comparison from a body Naturall Againe the proportion is not kept for to have a Viceroy under a King in some Province is one thing but to have a head under a head is another For a head is to the body as a King to the kingdome Now to have another King in a kingdome under the Chiefe is a thing unheard of The union of the Church the Scripture teacheth to depend on CHRIST and His spirit not on a visible head Yea the Grecians continew to this day their rent from the Church and all for the pride of this head Men have many names properly attributed to them and these above repeated but improperly but the names of head and husband the Scripture and all sound antiquity appropriate unto Christ Kings may suffer men to be called Noble Wise Rich but to be called Kings within His Kingdome is not permitted for there is nothing more derogatory from the glory of his Crowne so here c. Let us then cleave to this head CHRIST IESUS Vse and renounce such most lewd usurpation as is detected in the Pope Woe to that body which hath a third thing thrust in betwixt the head and it so that they meete not to close each to the other So it is with the Papists for betwixt Christ and them the Pope hath thrust in so that their immediate conjunction with Christ is hindered and his beneficiall influence intercepted Oh how absurd is it that any but Christ should bee thought head of the Church It is as if the King should put his Queene under the power of a Subject or a mans wife should be made an underling to a servant which never was the Apostles themselves though in their message from Christ they might command the Church in His Name yet in regard of their persons they were under the Churches as a servant who
under the government of a flagitious servant such as the Papists grant Popes may be Let us therefore take heed that while we set up other heads then Christ over the Churches we doe not reject this glorious Head Iesus Christ from ruling over us as the Israelites when they refused that Aristocraticall governement in which God ruled and would have a King like other Nations the Lord chargeth them not only to have cast off Samuell but himselfe and what is more foolish then to thinke it needfull to have a visible universall high Priest on earth because CHRIST is in heaven invisible to us touching His corporall presence should the people of Israell have erected another High Priest to themselves when Aaron was at any time in the Holy of Holies where he was not visible to them so we stand here below in the entry our High Priest is but gone into the Holiest Sanctuary and we though His Divine nature be with us will set up another Sooner shall the heaven have two Suns then the Church two heads and though metaphorically one may be said to be the Head of a Church for the name of God Himselfe is thus Communicable yet in proper analogy none can be so termed For then the Church might be said His body properly which is such sacriledge as He I thinke in whose forehead blasphemy is written dare scarce commit A double head and a double husband become not the Church the latter is not for her honesty the former fitteth not to decency Thus much who is over us 2 Marke from this Observ that He is called the Head of His Church what neere compassionate and beneficiall superiority or authority that is which Christ hath over His Church He is the Lord of all Creatures yea the hellish fiend must bow the knee to Him But He is not an head to every creature if we take it in that proper analogicall accommodation which the Scripture looketh to in this terme The head hath the highest place and power in the body but yet it is so intimately conjoyned with every member so amiable and beneficiall a superiority that the like cannot in nature be shewen For first looke at the head it is by sinewes and other ligaments straitely conjoyned to every member so is Christ through the spirit of faith coupled with us Secondly from this union the head commeth to have a sense if any part be disturbed so hath Christ He knoweth how to compassionate our infirmities Saul Saul why persecutest thou Me Thirdly the head what ever it hath hath in a sort for the good of the body The perfect comlinesse of the head is the ornament of that body whereof it is the head the body being but a deformed trunke if the head be remooved Againe the sense and motion which are originally in the head as a fountaine they are derived from it to every member Fourthly The head giveth full direction to the other members So Christ is our glory He quickeneth us He giveth us direction both inward and outward We see then that His superiority He hath is most intimate fellow-feeling and commodious unto us Which first doth let us yet farther see what cause we have of thankesgiving who are come into His kingdom Vse 1 who is rather an head unto us then a King over us as the head is to the body To have a powerfull wise King is a great guift but to have one who is rather Pater then Rex Patriae is greater but to have one who should so affect his subjects as to condole with the poorest of them this were a miracle This must breed willing subjection to CHRIST our Lord Vse 2 looke at the members of the body doe they feele it a burthen to doe that which the head directeth to This must strengthen our affiance towards CHRIST Vse 3 that He will not faile to take notice of our griefes to succour and direct us That is a blockish head which can goe on in a Stoicall dedolency when the members are ill affected yea it must assure us that we shall have direction and protection from him Marke Obs 3 Who they are that have Christ so neere so beneficiall to them viz. the Church that is such only who are truely faithfull who shall one day be presented glorious in the heavens such as shall at length have salvation by Him There are in the visible Church many who are by outward profession members of Christ but if they have not learned Christ as the truth is in Christ they shall be found not to be of His body though they seeme so a while A glasse eye may be so set into the head that one would take it verily to be a naturall part of the head yet it hath but an externall insition which art affordeth and is nothing lesse then the naturall eye So many are externally by the Sacrament and externall profession tyed to Christ which are not native members and have no spirituall combination with Him Nay if like some temporisers thou dost get some quicknance of the spirit of Christ yet not such as purifieth the heart bringeth thee above all things to rejoyce in Christ Iesus thou art not of His body nor a true member having Him thy head but art like a wenne or warte mole or such like thing which hath a life in the body but is no member of it Wherefore as you would have any benefit by Christ Vse labour to come into this body not to be as wennes and wooden legges but to be living members such as have Christ living in you teaching you by His spirit to thinke speake and doe all things it is good being members of good Corporations which have good endowments priviledges and Charters but there is not a body like to this which hath all the unsearchable riches of IESUS CHRIST given it in which onely there is salvation That nothing is betwixt Christ and His body Obs 4 and that all the Church is his body and every one in the Church a member of the body not a substitute head unto it Where then shall we find the Pope let him take heed least while he strive to be a secondary head he doe not deprive himselfe of roome in the body out of which there is no salvation I know a Papist will say that the Pope as he is referred unto Christ is a member of the body but as he is referred to men subjected to him he is a head under Christ Answer that every one is a member we reade it and therefore beleeve that any one is a head to all but Christ we reade it not and therefore reject it Beside it is likely that betwixt Christ and the visible Church Saint Peter should have come in thus God is Christs head Christ of the Spirits with Him and Saint Peter and his successors the Churches head but this is no where found yea the contrary God over Christ Christ over the Church the Churches above Cephas Objection Emperours are
savoring of the flesh 6 Whatsoever is meerely grounded on tradition and what is carnall and sensuall in GODS service is contrary to Christ Verse 9. 1 THis must make us rest in CHRIST onely as all sufficient that we know Him GOD blessed for ever 2 All the fulnesse of GOD is communicated with CHRIST as man the whole entyre Nature of GOD. 3 Not created gifts or miraculous effects of the divine nature are united with Christ man but the deity it selfe the fulnesse of it 3 The same singular Nature is in all the three persons 5 The manner of GODS dwelling in CHRIST man is personally so as that GOD the Sonne is thereby become personally man Verse 10. 1 CHrist man doth send out all the streames of grace and good things to all His members in that the fountaine dwelleth in Him 2 Being in CHRIST we receive all kinde of graces and benefits that wee lacke nothing 3 The dignity of CHRIST who is all to us is this that He is the chiefe above all the creatures Verse 11. 1 AN excellent meane to hold us fast to Christ is to remember what great evil of sin He hath subdued for us 2 Christ hath given us a spirituall Circumcision 3 No outward action of the hand of man reacheth to the clensing of the soule 4 Sin and grace is to the soule as apparell is to the body 5 Spirituall circumcision standeth in putting off all our corruptions 6 The soule of the naturall man is clad with sinne 7 Wee must forgoe not some part of our corruption but the whole body of sinne 8 Our masse of corruption containeth many sinnes 9 IESUS CHRIST it is who worketh in us this spirituall circumcision Verse 12. 1 VVHat Circumcision was to the old people that Baptisme is to us 2 From our union with CHRIST dead and buried we come to have the body of sinne crucified 3 GOD doth unite us with CHRIST even by our Baptisme 4 To consider of our resurrection which we have through CHRIST is a forcible motive to make us cleave to Him 5 Faith on Christ maketh us rise to new life 6 The omnipotent action of God which raised Christ from the dead is it that begetteth faith in us Verse 13. 1 OVr quickning in CHRIST is such a benefit which we must not quickly have done with and lightly passe over 2 Ministers must amplifie to their people the benefits bestowed on them 3 Sinne both originall and actuall is the death of the soule 4 The life of a naturall man is even a death in trespasse 5 Our course in actuall sin doth sinke us deeper and deeper in death 6 We are farre from being prepared to receive the grace shewed us by God when we are quickened to beleeve 7 The way to bring men to acknowledgement of GOD's grace with thankfulnesse is to make them see what they were when God first shewed it 8 All beleevers have a new life in and through Christ 9 In order of nature first we have pardon of sinne before we have the life of grace begun in us 10 God the Father Son and Spirit doe properly forgive sinne 11 God's pardon is of meere grace to us 12 We must remember what God hath done for us while we shew to others the things bestowed on them 13 The grace of God in forgiving our sinnes is exceeding large Verse 14. 1 NOt onely our sin which is our debt is answered but whatsoever may shew any thing against us is done away in Christ 2 By Christ the ceremoniall Law is taken away 3 The Iewish ceremonies as they were purely legall were as bills testifying the debt of the people before God 4 Christ by suffering on the crosse hath abolished these things Verse 15. 1 GOd doth set us free from the power of Satan before we are made alive in Christ 2 God in Christ hath crucified and disarmed Satan 3 Christ in His death made a scorne of all the power of darknesse and exposed them to open shame Verse 16. 1 VVE must not make account of mens sinister judgements as any way giving place unto them 2 To put no difference in meats for conscience sake or religious respect is no sinne 3 Such as doate upon Mosaicall rites are ready to condemne such as are not done right in them Verse 17. 1 THe legall ceremonies were shadowes of that is done in Christ and His Church Verse 18. 1 FAlse teachers are led with a spirit of arrogancie which maketh them usurpe judgement over others 2 The naturall man doth judge and condemne what doth not agree with him 3 Our softnesse and pusillanimity doth make us subject too much to take to heart mens sinister judgements 4 Wicked deceivers will seeme to stand for vertue and challenge those that are truly godly as wanting it 5 Adoration of Angels and Saints masketh under the vizor of holinesse 6 All religious worship of Saints or Angels is unchristian 7 The property of a seducer is to speake that he knoweth not 8. The cause of vouching and diving into hidden things is Pride Verse 19. 1 LOoking to the creatures for helpe and grace doth make us fall from Christ 2 We have not many but one Head 3 In Christ mysticall there is nothing but the Head giving growth and the body receiving growth 4 For the whole multitude of beleevers there is sufficiency in Christ 5 Before we can take spirituall growth in Christ we must be knit to Him 6 Every true beleever groweth up in Christ not stands at a stay 7 It is God who maketh us as begin so grow in grace Verse 20. 1 CHRIST by His death hath freed us from the Ceremonies of the Law 2 True Christians must not live in that Christ dyed to take away 3 Gods children live out of the world while in it Verse 21.22 1 MEn are exact in outward observancies who know not the power of godlinesse 2 Hard to forgoe old rites to which we are accustomed 3 Bodily observancies profit nothing 4 We are not to give credence to any thing not taught in God's Word Verse 23. 1 VIce and error may have a shew of truth and vertue 2 Will-worship hath a plausible shew of wisdom 3 Lowlinesse of minde argueth wisdome 4 False teachers will make a shew of humility 5 To keepe the body in subjection argueth wisdome 6 False teachers make shew of mortification 7 Exercises much regarded with men are of no esteeme with God 8 Bodily externall things are not of worth with God The end of the Doctrines A COMMENTARY VPON THE SECOND Chapter of Saint PAUL to the Colossians COLOS. Chap. 2. VER 1. VERSE 1. For I would yee knew what great fighting I have for your sakes and for them of Laodicea and for as many as have not seene my Person in the flesh WE have had from the three and twentieth Verse of the former Chapter from the end of it a digression the summe whereof consisteth in declaring Paul's calling Secondly his executing this calling Vers 28 29.
therefore we have not put off all for we have parted with all though not wholly totum exuimus corpus sed non totaliter The ayre in the morning hath put off all her sable weeds that darknesse which in the night did cladde her but not altogether for it is cleere and cleere till Noone-tyde so here c. The use is to stirre us up with honest hearts to renounce all corruption Vse 1 Many doe by piece-meale part with their evills retayning the love of some though they seeme to leave other one will not part with lustfull affections another will keepe covetousnesse yea some put off the outward actions but never care for putting off their corrupt qualities which are rooted in their spirits 2 In the second place hence assure thy selfe that thou art in Iesus Christ if thou puttest off this body lovest no evill though sin hang about thee every where yet thou lovest and likest none of it but holdest CHRIST thy sanctifier and cryest to be uncladde and freed from all this body of death 3 Of sinnes not sin Observe hence Doct. How our masse of corruption conteyneth in it many kindes of sinne Even as the body naturall is not all one kind of member but hath great variety So this body of corruption therefore he calleth it a body of sins of many sins being as so many members in it ignorance unbeliefe irreligiosnesse pride wrath covetousnesse untruth Ephes 2.1 hence it is that the Apostle sayth the Ephesians were dead in sinnes and trespasses and the old man is sayd to be corrupted through deceivable lusts Eph. 4.22 that is so corrupted as that now he expresseth the image of divers lusts as he was formerly created after the image of GOD or else through lusts of many kindes And from hence it commeth that our native corruption doth bring such variety of fruites as are mentioned Galath 5.19 20.21 Adultery fornication uncleanenesse wantonnesse idolatry withcraft hatred debate c. and observed in experience because it is a body which hath divers members the which bring forth divers operations Which must make us both grow up in acknowledging our naturall misery Vse and to magnifie the grace of the LORD IESUS CHRIST who hath healed us of so many corruptions as have formerly had dwelling in us to take from us one sicknesse is mercy but when a man is a very body of diseases hath every member filled with infirmity then to cure him is much more And let such know who are not yet in CHRIST Vse 2 they are a lumpe of all sinnes what though all appeare not that is because the Lord doth restraine them for else we should not live together men would be woolves to men yet though the fruite appeare not the rootes are within us By the circumcision of Christ Observe hence Doct. Who it is that worketh this inwardly in us Iesus Christ He and none but Hee can remoove the filthy lusts in which the heart is wrapped as Saint Iohn spake of His Baptisme hee baptised with water but Christ baptised with the spirit and Saint Peter saith 1 Pet. 3.21 Not the baptisme which is the washing of the flesh saveth but in that a good conscience maketh request to God by the resurrection of Iesus Christ Saint Paul saith hee that planteth and watereth is nothing in regard of force which doth reach unto the soule it selfe This must be distinctly taught that we may avoyd the Papish snare and that we may glory fie God in ascribing to Him intyrely such workes as these are which are no more communicable with men then to create out of nothing another World VERSE 12. In that yee are buried with Him through baptisme in whom yee are also raised up together through the faith of the operation of GOD which raised Him from the dead NOw he commeth to the third thing buryed with Him in baptisme or by baptisme this is the modus action is and agreeth with those words you have beene circumcised in Him how being buryed with Him in baptisme It openeth both the manner and may be as a proofe thus Such as are dead and buryed to sin in Christ they have put off all the body of sinne But you have beene buryed with CHRIST by baptisme First then from the context we see Doct. that what circumcision was to the old people that is baptisme to us for he saith thus much you have beene circumcised in being baptised though in circumstantiall things these disagree as in the sexe receiving the Sacrament there men onely here women In the matter signified Christ to come in the degree of grace given In the externall rite yet the substance of the thing signified manner of receiving generall ends they conspire Hence we may have a ground and warrant to proove the baptisme of infants lawfull and warrantable by the Word of God Vse For circumcision being administred to infants in the time of the old Testament there is no reason why baptisme succeeding it should not bee administred to them in the time of the Gospell The second thing is Doct. that from our union with Christ dead and buryed we come to have the body of sinne crucified and put away from us This is thus gathered he saith they were circumcised that is had the body of sin put off them while they were together buried with Christ which baptisme signifieth and sealeth up in them from this then we come to put off sins that we are set into Christ dying and buryed for the abolishing of sin and hence Rom. 6. Saint Paul sheweth that we cannot live in sin as formerly we did and have to doe with it because we are dead to it being set into Christ dying and that by baptisme The reason is because that Christ hath by his death killed the sin of all that belong to Him and therefore such as are set into His death they cannot but feele the death of this body of sins which before lived in them Even as when Adam sinned and dyed to the life of God all of us in him are dead and so soone as we come actually to be members of him we feele the effect of Adams death even this that being dead to the life of God we lye in the spirituall death of ignorance and lusts So CHRIST the second Adam He dying to abolish sin even that He might be the death of sin in all His members and lying buried under it that He might so abolish it as never to rise againe Briefly then Adam a roote of mankind finning brought death upon all His. 1. By bringing imputation of sin 2. Extinction of the life of grace 3. A propagation of death in sin and trespasse Christ standeth as a second Adam in the persons of all given Him to be His members and having their sin imputed to Him 1 He doth take away the guilt of it 2 Dyed to sin and lay under it in our nature that we by vertue thereof might dye to it the omnipotent spirit of
Christ working through that death in the behalfe of all His the death of the creature so farre forth as by the just judgement of God it hath a power through Sathans working to draw us from God to it selfe 3 A death of our corruption Galath 6.15 By the Cxosse of Christ the world is crucified to me and I to it that is by Christ crucified Briefly as Adam becomming mortall and dying to this mortall life wee all so soone as wee are borne members of Him are mortall and tend to death by force of that mortality in the roote of us So Christ dying spiritually to this world and the sin of all us His members that thus they might be abolished we so soone as by faith we are made His members or are borne of Him we begin to dye spiritually till in death we are fully mortified by vertue of that radicall death in Christ our Saviour who dying according to his flesh did so worke by His omnipotent spirit that as the guilt was at once remooved so the life of it was mortified that it lost the raigne and was successively to be abolished in the being of it in all those who by faith should come to be engrafted into him or all those who should spiritually descend from Him 4 Lastly He brought into our nature supernaturall life that so He in our nature might propagate it to all who were His. The use hereof is to stirre us up above all things to seeke with Saint Paul Vse 1 that we may know what is the power of His death the communion of His sufferings while I feele my selfe made like to Him in dying to this world and sin for by this we know that we are untied to Him suffering and dead to sin and this world while we feele our selves by virtue thereof in like case as I know my communion with Adam that I dyed in him while I see my selfe mortall hastening every day to death as he is dead The Lord Iesus make the scales fall off our eyes that we may see the vertue of His most powerfull death toward all that are His. This also letteth us see what we must doe when this world and the things of it are forcible upon us Vse 2 when our hearts feele the life of sin strongly making to them come to Christ dying speake to Him Thou Lord hast crucified this world thou hast overcome the strength of it thou didst dye not regarding the allurements of it why doe I feele it have so mighty a hand over me even bewitching me as it were at the sight of it So when I feele my sin stirring lively in the lawes of it then to fly hither Lord thou dying hast beene the death of the sin of thy people why doe I who am in thee find it stirre as if it never had received wound The more we get to see our selves in Christ dying for the abolishing of all our sins the more we shall feele them wasting in us Let us give glory to this glorious death which maketh us all to dye Vse 3 As in the naturall body kill the head and all the members dye after so here c. This sheweth us why it is that sin liveth in so many men in the world Vse 4 even from this that they are not engrafted into Christ and so doe not partake of the influence of that spirituall life which from Christ the head floweth into all His members Buryed with Him in baptisme you have put off your sins being set into Him dying and buryed ingrafted with Him buryed in or by your baptisme Observe hence Doct. God doth unite us with Christ even by our baptisme the Lord doth by baptisme signifie to us and confirme thus much yea worke it as by an instrument namely the putting His Christ crucified upon us and our ingrafting into Him dying and rising Rom. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For first by baptisme is sealed our communion w th Christ dying and rising secondly our communion in the effects which are mortification and vivification but yet wee must not think though God useth outward baptisme of His minister that this ministeriall action bringeth forth grace as the Papists doe who hold that God doth so use the ministeriall baptisme that He lifteth up that action as an instrumentall cause to worke grace so that it neither commeth solely from God nor yet immediately For this must be held that the power and act of producing grace is only and immediately from God There are two sorts of instruments some worke somthing with the Principall worker others doe not operari aliquid but ad aliquid they worke to something but not any thing having force to cause that whereto they worke such are Gods meanes which He useth and coordeyneth with him selfe in working of all such things which are not wrought but onely by power omnipotent thus he healed the blind with clay and spittle thus He overthrew the walls of Iericho with the blowing of Rams hornes But one may say this is absurd Object to use meanes which shall doe nothing doth any man doe thus Men use meanes which worke something in that they doe with them Answ because their force doth not reach alone to the effect they intend without the helpe of the meanes concurring with them but Gods force being alsufficient it is not absurd for Him to take to Him selfe such instruments in giving grace which are of no force to produce it especially when hereby he exerciseth our obedience faith c. He that planteth and he that watereth is nothing 1 Cor. 3.7 in regard of working in the soule that they tend to the Gospell is sayd to be the power of GOD to salvation Rom. 1.16 because through GOD it is powerfull who accompanyeth it immediately and enty rely working faith by it Yet Papists will not say that the Preachers syllables are elevated by GOD to rayse up the dead in sinnes and trespasses This then is to be firmely held that GOD useth baptisme of engrafting us with Christ and mortifying and quickning us in Him Vse yet the baptisme of water doth not conteyne any force nor is not lifted up to any such agency whereby grace is properly produced But it may be asked Quest how we are set into Christ with baptisme when none must be baptised but those if they be adulti who have faith in appearance and so are already in Him Things are sayd to be done when they are manifested and done in a further degree then before they were Answ thus the believer baptised is by baptisme manifested to be so before the Church yea often to Himselfe the more plentifull grace of God comming into Him while he useth it faithfully and his faith being more strengthened the union is more confirmed The use is to stirre us up that we would looke backe to our baptisme Vse which sealeth unto us so great matters if we have sealed bonds we will have them sometime read to us that we may know what
dead in Christ from these why as if yee lived in the world No they cannot live in that which their head is dead to How can we that are dead to sinne live yet therein and therefore he saith as if you lived in the world for hee knew it was impossible for true believers to live unto the fashions of the world either in regard of civill duties or religious ordinances the children of God being set into Christ have presently wrought in them a death of their sinfull and sensuall life It is mortally wounded at the first though it liveth in us long after yea though the Lords children doe not often perceave it for many a man goeth awhile with his death and yet discerneth not till sometime after that he is deepely wounded Even as we our selves feele nothing lesse when we come into the world then that we are dead in our Father Adam and yet with our nativity entereth mortality which never resteth till we are utterly extinct by death The use is to reproove us who live in sinne after the fashion of the world Vse we have forgotten to what we dyed in Christ As if yee lived in the world Observe hence Doct. That Gods children live out of the world while they are in it this maketh CHRIST say they are not of the world for though they are in it for place yet their affection and conversation is in heaven and hence it is Phil 3 2â— that the Church is called by the name of heaven in some propheticall Scriptures and this is here taught while he saith as if yee lived in the world insinuating that it could not be that they lived in the world for they are called out of the world to a heavenly hope and to bee of another body even of that Corporation whereof CHRIST is the head So that as a Townsman in the Vniversity if he be taken to be a Scholars servant though he live in the towne he is no longer of it as who is gone from them and belongeth to another body So it is here Wherefore Conforme not your selves to the fashions of the world you are pilgrims forreyners Vse sojourners at the most here is not the place of your aboad And how farre they are from knowing CHRIST and the power of His death whose life is altogether carnall whose conversation doth not so much as smell of Heaven may hence be convinced to them VERSE 21. Touch not taste not handle not Now he commeth to lay downe more distinctly these rites enjoyned them from Pharisaicall seducers and he doth unfold it by a mimeticall expressing the charge that these false teachers gave Touch not taste not handle not O take heed you know all the old people were tyed from the eating and touching of many things as upon the touch whereof they were uncleane God out of His most wise pleasure annexing a legall uncleannesse unto them as the touching of a dead body of a garment spotted with leprosie of one troubled with a bloudy issue c. Now the Divell that soweth tares did by some pharisaicall spirits which so received Christ that they would still hold the Law he did set on foot by these amongst the Gentiles that unlesse they kept the Law they could not be saved this occasioned the first Councell about some eighteene yeares after CHRIST'S death and within some yeares after this occasioned the Apostle to write that Epistle to the Galathians the same kinde of men began to vent the same wares amongst the Colossians and gave them these caveats Touch not taste not handle not 1 Observe from this practice of theirs Doct. How exact and precise men are in their outward observancies who know not the power of godlinesse It is the Property of all pharisaicall spirits that care not for the great things of the Law and the true spirituall obedience of it they will tithe mint and cummine precisely wash hands and cups their hearts being all foule and full of lusts For looke as idle bodies which will not follow due labour they will go with their tales as a Pedler with his packe from one to another yea their fingers shall goe and their feet shall speake they will occupie themselves busily in that which is superfluous So here when men will not exercise themselves in the power of godlinesse it is strange how they will abound in c. This may be seene in the Church of Rome who not knowing the powerfull ordinances of God have turned all into such dumbe shewes as are the Masse their Precessions c. as full of superfluous observations as emptie of substance To teach us how to know these spirits Vse 1 he that stands precisely on every little trifle is at least halfe a Pharisie Wee must take occasion by them to be precise in the least points of spirituall obedience and not to stand so nicely on externall rites and empty shadowes those that doe diligently looke to themselves this way have no leasure and lesse affection to follow such bawbles Even as a man seriously occupied hath no fancie to dally and sport as others will who have little to doe So here Who more in heavenly labour than Saint Paul Hee laboured through the grace of GOD in Him more abundantly than they all who more despised those kinde of Iewish legall rites who cryeth them downe as beggarly things which profit nothing 2 Marke in this their enforcing these things Doctr. What a hard thing it is to forgoe such old rites to which we are accustomed these had beene brought up in them and had seene no other and loe they will not part with them no not when GOD will have them cease and CHRIST nailes them to the crosse Nay they are more fond on them than before for such is the malice of our wils that when GOD will not then commonly we will like those Israelites when they should have gone up to bid battell to the Canaanites discouraged with the Spies they murmured and refused when GOD would have them go backe into the wildernesse and not goe on against them then they would have no nay to battell they would to die for it Besides as in other things man taketh on like a god so in affecting a kinde of immutability which maketh him hee will not be beaten off that whereunto he hath beene accustomed thus it is in opinion likewise that one is bred up in is often maintained too too stiffely the first things make the deepest impressions Let a false tale get the start and come the first to us truth spoken in the second place is lesse beleeved Wherefore let us take heed Vse and not thinke therefore things must stand because they have beene so since our knowledge and long before but let us see how all customes agree with GOD's Word and will and so accordingly be affected to them If this had beene a good reason These Mosaicall rites have ever beene observed since we can remember any thing yea by all our ancestours these
excellencie of it appeares in two particulars 1 In regard of the difficulty thereof had the Lord sent CHRIST to have beene a King over us or a Ruler among us what a comfort had it beene Should a King send one of his favourites to a poore creature in prison how would it comfort him but to send his sonne hee would thinke it unspeakable and transcendent love The LORD IESUS hath done much more than this He came down from heaven where He sate at the right hand of God and is now blessed for ever he suffered here by most wicked wretches the cursed death of the Crosse that Blessednesse it selfe should be accursed that Life it selfe should dye that Glory it selfe should be ashamed that Happinesse should become misery Nay yet to goe further that He should be content to lose for a time the sense and feeling of the love of His Father not onely to forsake His being but thus to be tormented for a company of traytors He that bare up the whole frame of heaven was scarce able to beare the burthen of our sins but was even crushed under the waight thereof in that Hee was forced to cry My God my God Psal 22.1 why hast thou forsaken me 'T is true as He was a Son Hee was alwayes beloved but as He was a surety He was not so if this be most free love and large grace judge you 2 Adde to this the good of the worke it is that which gives good to all other goods so that without this we never had enjoyed any good truely good There are two things that hinder our good 1. The poyson of sin that defiles us and poisons all the creatures 2. The just anger of God for our sinne and that curseth all had not CHRIST dyed these would never have beene removed Consider the unworthinesse and basenesse of those for whom Hee dyed Reas 3 Wee dye because of some worth in a man or some benefit formerly received from him but CHRIST dyed for sinners for enemies to Him traytors against Him this is the wonder the miracle of all mercies I may say of CHRIST what Saul of David Who findes his enemie and stayes him not but who findes his enemy and dyeth for him Had He dyed for Angels it had beene no great wonder but for a Son to dye to redeeme a slave to pardon a traytor to free a rebell this is unspeakable To shew the abundance of grace Reas 4 Where sin aboundeth grace aboundeth much more Rom. 6.2 To shew us presidents of mercy Reas 5 as Saint Paul saith of himselfe Here we have matter of admiration Vse and daily remembrance Oh suffer not this kindnesse to slip out of your minde that a company of miscreant wretches should be beloved saved and a Sonne slaine reason cannot reach it religion doth not desire it nature doth not require it nay justice doth not exact it only love hath done it Oh with David call earnestly upon thy soule to praise the Lord Psal 103.1 Praise the Lord O my soule againe and againe awake O my soule and praise the Lord when we have done what we can it is not enough oh that we could doe more when we have done what we can call upon the Angels for help Praise the Lord all yee Angels and hoasts of the Lord. Let a poore soule goe aside and thinke with himselfe Good Lord how comes this that the Lord Iesus should dye for me if it had beene a creature or an Angell that had done it it had not beene so much but a Son the beloved Sonne of God to doe all this heaven and earth Angels and men can never sufficiently admire this If this be so Vse 2 that God's love is so great to us Brethren what will ye doe now for God I will say nothing your hearts shall speake Hath CHRIST done thus for me then I will labour to walke answerably to his love and in some measure worthy thereof that 's the right use Had a man but common reason or good nature in him he must needs thinke it a vile thing to be a traytor againe to that God that hath beene so mercifull to him Be not content sometimes when the fit takes to stumble upon a good dutie but thinke all too little for Him that thought not His heart bloud too little for you be frequent in prayer and abound in holy duties live no more to your selves but to CHRIST CHRIST dyed for us But wherefore that we should live in sinne still No but that wee should dye to sin and live hence-forth not to our selves but to Him Nay saith he the love of CHRIST constraines mee Most mercy requires most duty the greatest kindnesse asketh the greatest thankfulnesse at the hand of the receiver It was that which Moses pressed upon the children of Israel to remember alwayes to praise the Lord for His goodnesse that had so miraculously delivered them from the hand of the Aegyptians and carryed them thorow the red Sea Oh how much more should we praise Him for this that He not onely redeemed us from Aegypt but from Hell not onely from Pharaoh but from Satan therefore above all admire this and yeeld your soules and bodies and all you have wholly to the service of the Lord when any temptation violently presseth in upon you speake to your hearts and tell them as sometime the Apostle Paul did the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Know yee not that your bodies are the temples of the HOLY GHOST which is in you and that you are not your owne as who should say ye know it full well that ye are not your owne ye were bought at a deare rate even with the bloud of CHRIST why then doe you follow sinne and serve your lusts for shame away with this ill dealing and give every man his owne let GOD have His and the Divell his downe with this hatred and Pride send them packing to the Divell from whence they came and resolve to say thus if sinne presse in upon you I am not mine owne the Lord hath bought all and therefore Hee shall have all Say to Satan I am pressed to serve the King I have received presse-money at the hands of the Lord Iesus Christ therefore be gone Imitate Him Vse 3 Love your enemies doe good to them that hate you Not to despaire of Gods grace for others without Vse 4 who yet are enemy-like affected toward Him To assure us that Hee will not faile us Vse 5 till Hee hath brought us to salvation now we are friends who when we were enemies did reconcile us Now for the Particulars in this benefit repeated 1 He setteth downe the fact of reconciling us 2 The instrument in the body of His flesh that is His humane Nature a Synechdoche Heb. 5.7 In the dayes of His flesh He offred up strong cryes to God For this our Nature is an instrument personally united wherein the second Person worketh and by which as by a conduit Hee conveyeth
our spirituall life 3 The manner by death 4 The end of this our reconcilement that Hee may present you holy c. that is Pure for holinesse is nothing but an universall godly purenesse then negatively by denying any remainder of spot or corruption inherent which dwelleth in us From the end marke thus much Obs That every one who is come to finde sinne forgiven in Christ shall one day be made glorious before Him This is thus gathered Christ doth reconcile us to God to this end that Hee may present us glorious before Himselfe Now either Christ must be frustrate of His purpose for which He spendeth no lesse than His bloud or else all true beleevers reconciled to God through Christ His bloud for this purpose shall obtaine this end in due season Which is so certaine that Saint Paul doubteth not to affirme according to the propheticall manner Such whom He hath justified He hath glorified because hee hath begun it in the worke of grace and will not leave till He have set them with Christ glorious in the Heavens See Ephes 5.26 27. Christ gave Himselfe for His Church that He might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word that Hee might present it to Himselfe a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish If we buy a thing at a deare rate for this or that purpose will wee when the thing is bought and paid for not use it to that end it must bee because wee were not provident enough to see the best use our after-thoughts proving wiser or because some difficulty commeth betwixt us which we cannot overcome or that we are inconstant or that we did purpose it not absolutely but conditionally which condition was out of our hand in the power of another But for inconstancie impotencie or improvidence who dare ascribe them to the only wise eternall and unchangeable God Would a man with all his substance procure himselfe contracted with purpose of mariage and when he had brought it hither thus dearely leave her then and not take her to house Shall God with His bloud bring us to be contracted to Him by faith get His Fathers liking through Him and shall Hee not when the Father and all is pleased take us home to dwell with Him where He is This shall suffice to shew the truth of it Now for the manner of it Thou must know then that for good purpose it is an ancient custome that Contracts goe before mariages both to trie the constancie of the couple to encrease their mutuall desires after a certaine time thus passed they are publikely presented one before the other and the man taketh the woman home to house Thus it is with the Lord Iesus He is contracted to us but yet to trie us how we will hold to Him and because our wedding garments are but in making He stayeth till He come to Iudgement and then all being finished we shall bee presented before Him and bee taken to house even those heavenly mansions with Him for ever VERSE 23. If ye continue grounded and stablished in the faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospell whereof yee have heard and which hath beene preached to every creature which is under heaven whereof I Paul am a Minister THere followeth now an exhortation to perseverance delivered conditionally If yee continue c. Where first it may be demanded whether we be not reconciled to God absolutely and freely without any condition of persevering Whereunto I answer that if you looke to the cause of our reconciliation we are reconciled freely and absolutely by the bloud of Christ not by any thing in us past present or to come and our reconciliation hath alwayes perseverance joyned with it But if you looke to the proofe and triall of it whereby we know who is reconciled and who is not then reconciliation hath with it a condition of persevering and continuing that is no man is reconciled but he continueth So that perseverance is a condition not causing reconciliation but proving it Observe hence Obs Whosoever is partaker of the benefit of reconciliation by Christ must persevere founded and established c. and whosoever continueth not but is removed from the hope of the Gospell hath no portion in this reconciliation by Christ Mat. 24.13 He that continueth to the end shall be saved To him that overcommeth I will give a crowne of life Rev. 1.10 As the Israelites that desired to turne backe into Aegypt though they came out of it with joy and gladnesse never entered into the Land of Canaan yea Gen. 15.17 Lot's wife that did but looke back with a minde set upon the riches and pleasures of Sodom is left as a fearefull example unto all revolters Let us therefore cast our accounts before-hand and beware that wee bee not removed from our profession But what need we to be admonished or exhorted hereunto Object when it is certaine all that are truly reconciled shall continue for whom He loveth He loveth to the end and it is not possible that the Elect should be seduced Matth. 24. This doctrine of the certainty of our continuing Answ and this exhortation thereunto have good agreement among themselves for He that hath ordained we shall not fall away hath also appointed the meanes whereby we are kept from it whereof this exhortation is a Principall Our dayes are numbered shall we not therefore seeke to prolong our life by food and rayment or shall we therefore cast our selves into the fire or water because we cannot dye before our time God hath promised never to destroy the world againe by water but that there shall be seed-time and harvest to the end of the world shall we not therefore sow nor reape our corne When Saint Paul was in danger of shipwracke the Lord promised by an Angell Act. 27.31 That not a man among them should be lost yet when the marriners would have left the ship hee cried out except these men stay yee cannot be safe Now two things are requisite to make us continue viz. 1 A stedfast purpose of heart to cleave to God Act. 11.23 2 A diligent constant and religious use of the meanes Who so observeth these two things shall never fall contrariwise who so faileth in either of these can have little hope to persevere For first what likelihood he shall continue who hath not so much as resolved with himselfe so to doe And secondly how little worth such a resolution is without a carefull use of the meanes may appeare by the example of S. Peter who having a strong resolution not to deny CHRIST yet fell into it for want of using the meanes in a very grosse and shamefull manner And this resolution and use of the meanes is that in effect which the Apostle teacheth and requireth in the two words following where he shewes the cause and meanes