in the midst of all thy corruptions if thou didst know it it would engage thee to joy and to every thing that is Holy and Good the Lord set it home to the hearts of his people and teach them to apply it to their own Souls in secret And then Secondly USE 2. 2. I say to you all from hence All of you learn what need there is of getting an interest in Jesus Christ for that is the end of my Sermon To perswade you to see the need that you have of getting an interest in Jesus Christ. Would you know why I wil tel you Al the sins that you commit as you wil commit sins every day you live but all the sins that you commit are all writ down in Gods Book he numbers your steps though you number them not your selves he hath your iniquities in a Bag and the day is coming when he wil cal every one of you to an account and now Friends what if you have not a Daies-man or a Mediator to appear for you I remember Ely said Oh my Sons if men sin against men men shal speak for them but who shall speak betwixt the Soul and God So you have committed innumerable sins and your own hearts and Consciences tel you more than any man can charge you with How wil you do to appear before God What if you have not a Mediator the Lord Jesus that is a Propitiation for our sins What a woful case are you in Take heed you do not imbrace a Cloud but study Christ and get found Faith in him and if Christ be yours you are secure but look to it or your case is dangerous I dare not stay you any longer The Lord give us understanding in all things FINIS THE HIGH PRIVILEDG Of all True BELIEVERS To be the SONS of GOD. Opened in a Sermon at Suttons Hospital Novemb. 12. 1654. John 1.12 13. But as many as received Him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that beleeve in his Name Which were Born not of Blood Nor of the will of the Flesh Nor of the will of Man But of God THe dependance of the Words stands thus First You have in the beginning of the Chapter a most glorious Description of Jesus Christ both of his person and of his Natures and of his Office under the Name of the Light that inlighteneth every one that cometh into the World Then Secondly You have a description of his Entertainment in the World when this great Lord submitted to this work and manifested himself What was his entertainment First He came into the world and though the world were made by him Yet the world would not know him he came amongst his own that is his own nation and kinred who had been instructed about a Messiah that was to come and had long prayed for him Oh! that he would bow the Heavens and come down amongst us he came amongst them and they would none of him they would not receive him Truly this is the ordinary lot of Jesus Christ wheresoever he cometh but yet there were a remnant that did receive him and shal receive him even those that belong to the Covenant of Grace And what get they by it That Remnant that handful that do receive Christ make the best bargain that ever was made in the world As many as did receive him to them he gave this priviledg that they should become the Sons of God and so here you have the comprehension of all the happiness that Beleevers do receive by Jesus Christ they are made the Sons of God so that the Text hath two things in it First 1. Here is the Means whereby Souls are made partakers of Christ that is upon receiving of him that is the means and condition or instrument All that receive him which is interpreted in the next words even they who believed in him Believing in Christ and Receiving Christ is al one This though it be a Doctrine of wonderfull comfort I shall speak nothing of it but of the second That is 2. The benefit that they all receive who do partake of Christ what they get by him They all of them have this priviledg or Prerogative That they are made the Sons of God and so without any more preparation to the Text or explication for the Doctrine I will explain in the handling of it I say without any more preface I lay you down this Doctrine Doct. That al who believe in Jesus Christ are made the Sons of God the Children of God And that you may receive this with better attention I will to make you the better understand the Lord's scope answer a Question that is this Quest. You say it is very cleer in the Scriptures that al Beleevers are made the Children of God that is one of their Priviledges but what is the reason that no more is named but that one They are Justified they are Sanctified they have the Promises they are Reconciled they have a thousand excellencies in this world yet here is none named but only this they are made Sons Why is no other named but this Answ. I Answer plainly and it will be of great use to understand it namely that though somtimes in the holy Scriptures our Sonship is but one of our Priviledges yet very frequently in the Scripture all that Beleevers do obtain from Christ in this world and the world to come here and to eternity all is comprehended in this one That they are made the Children of God Really you wil see it as cleer as the Sun presently that God comprehends all other priviledges in this one that he that hath this one he that is made the Son of God he hath all other that can be imagined or that you can find any Speech of in al the Book of God so great is this And I wil give you a little light about it and then you wil receive the Doctrine I hope with the more attention and with the more desire to see your own Interest in it You shal see and observe it as a general that very frequently when the Lord describeth the Covenant of Grace the new Covenant what he wil be to his people in the new Covenant he is very frequent in the setting down of this I wil be their Father saith he and they shall be my Sons and Daughters I know not how often the whol Covenant of Grace is expressed in that word I wil be their Father they shal be my Children but very cleerly you shal see it if you turn to Ephes. 1.5 where the Apostle doth bless the Lord for all the abundant Grace that is manifested to us in Christ there he sets it down in this one expression having predestinated us to the adoption of Children What is al that Al the Graces al the Good that we enjoy from Christ you have it in this one Sentence God predestinated us to the adoption of Children he hath done all when he hath
done that And therefore upon that very account it is that you shall see in Rom. 8.23 where the Apostle speaks there of the Groaning of the Saints the rest of the Creatures groan al the Saints groan for the glorious coming of Jesus Christ To what end saith he That we might receive the Adoption that is the perfecting of our Sonship Now we have Heaven it self when we have but our Sonship made that is plain and you wil see it still plainer in the Epistle to the Galatians Chap. 4 and the beginning the Apostle there speaking of Christs coming as our Surety When the fulness of time was come the Lord sent his Son Jesus Christ made of a Woman under the Law and made him a Curse To what end that we might receive the adoption of Children there is all But that the time would prevent me having many things to deliver I might go on to shew you more Scriptures that fully prove this truth That to be made a Son of God is to have the comprehension of all that is obtained by Jesus Christ so that this is no smal Theam that I am entred upon and I hope if the Lord help me but to make it out to you in this hours discourse you will before you part conclude they are happy men that have gotten an interest in Christ by Faith This premised now I come to the demonstration of the Doctrine That all who have really accepted of Christ for their Savior they are all of them made the Sons of God that is the Doctrine Now to explain it You must know that God is said to have Sons or to be a Father in the Scripture in many senses I may bring them all to these two heads for my purpose 1. Sometimes the Lord is said in a Metaphorical sense to be a Father in divers cases and yet he is not properly a Father he neither hath the bowels of a Father to those whom he cals Sons in that sense nor have they the bowels of Children who cal him Father in that sense for all the whol Creation he is the Father of them all in that respect That their being is from him and their dependance upon him and the like But then Secondly 2. God is said to have Sons properly and I explain when I say properly I mean Sons so that really he is a Father to them hath the heart of a Father the bowels of a Father whatsoever is desirable in a Father and they on the other side properly are his Children in being unto him what Children are unto a Father Now in this sense God is said in the Scripture to have Sons two waies two sorts of Sons The one is 1. Natural Begotten by him in which begetting or generation his own essence is communicated that as we beget a man so in that begetting God may be said to beget a God or a Person that hath the essence of God this is one sense and in this sense he hath no Son but our Lord Jesus Christ who was eternally begotten by him and is God over all blessed forever and it is blasphemy for any but Christ Jesus to challenge to be the Son of God in that sense and therefore the Scribes and Pharisees were right when they told Christ he did blaspheme because he called himself the Son of God they were right I say thus far that had not Christ been the begotten Son of his Father and so had the same nature he had blasphemed in calling himself Gods Son in that sense But then Secondly 2. But God hath other Sons to whom he is properly a Father and those are by Adoption which you frequently read of in the Scriptures especially of the new Testament where all Saints and Beleevers have the Adoption are the adopted Sons and Daughters of God Thus I have brought you to it that Beleevers are the adopted Sons and Daughters of God concerning which I shal the Lord assisting me in the Doctrinal part open these three things to you and the other shall be the Application so far as the Lord shall help me in the compass of the time Three things in the Doctrinal part The first is 1. What this means what it is to be an adopted Son of God Secondly 2. How this priviledg of being made the Son of God by Adoption is wrought that you may see it is not a Fancy I wil shew you how it is wrought and brought about and by it those that will be willing and Faithfull may be able to judg of their own condition whether they are the adopted Children of God or not And then Thirdly 3. I wil shew you in somwhat a more general way What this adoption or being made an adopted Child of God what infinite priviledges it doth comprehend in it For the first 1. What it is to be adopted What is Adoption I Answer Indeed the word was never used in the old Testament and the reason is because that adoption it was not then known though there was somthing like it but in the Roman Empire which was at the height when Christ and his Apostles lived there the thing that we cal Adoption was as wel known as almost any thing that belonged to the government of the Empire the Nature the Laws of it the Duties of it too they were all stated that our Lawyers have not more cleer Evidences how to set out things that belong to our Law now than in the Empire of Rome they were acquainted with the whole Laws and Manner and way of adoption and so because it is of so exceeding great use to shadow out the unexpressable benefits that we have by Christ the Lord was pleased if I may so say to adopt into the Covenant of Grace And amongst the Romans Adoption it was after this manner It was the taking of a Person or Persons who had no natural right to any inheritance a taking them into a Lawful right there are various descriptions of it amongst the Romans but the best of them is this A lawful act imitating nature whereby a Person or Persons who have no natural right to an inheritance are taken in into a lawful right and it was done after this manner in a few words for commonly none but Princes or Senators or great Persons did ever adopt any but this was the way When there was an agreement made betwixt the Persons that did adopt and the Person to be adopted for they never adopted those that were unwilling to it but when there was an agreement it should be so the adopter did carry the Person before the Judges or into some publick and Lawful Assembly and there before them al called the Party Son This is my Son and from that day forward he was his Son to all rights and purposes in the Roman Laws as much as if he had begotten him as you will hear more before I have done my discourse thus it was amongst them Now accordingly if you wil know in the Gospel
himself there he reckons up Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Lands and all that he hath This is a third Branch of Self Fourthly 4. There is another that is as much Self as any of these and that is that that we cal religious Self and by that you are to understand our performance of holy Duties our Vertues our Righteousness any thing that seems to be spiritual and good and moral in us this you shal find a notable passage about in Phillip 3. where the Apostle there saith of true Beleevers saith he We are the Circumcision that do worship God in the spirit but we put no confidence in the flesh we regard nothing of the flesh and saith he if there be any man that might have any confidence in the flesh I as much as any mark his words I much more than any What flesh doth he mean mark what follows I was an Hebrew of the Hebrews of the Tribe of Benjamin by my Religion a Pharisee touching the righteousness of the Law I was altogether unblameable here was his self Now this was his flesh so that the Religion the Honesty the Conversation agreeable to the Law that Paul makes a part of himself and cals it his flesh Now concerning these four for yet I have not done explaining this first part what I mean by Self concerning all these four both our Lusts and our natural endowments and our worldly interest and our Religion you must take these three corrollaries to understand them all three things that I would add The first is 1. That al these are but one and the same self pray mark me all these are but one self only As the Sea which is but one yet it is called the Brittish Sea as it toucheth upon England or Scotland It is called the German Sea as it washeth the German shoar and a great way off it is called the Ethiopique Sea as it washeth there but all is but one Sea so all is but one wretched self though we call it a sinful self as self applies it self to Lusts cal it worldly self as self applies it self to wealth or riches or honor and cal it religious self as self applies it self to the Law of God or to God in any such like but all is but one self all is but one and the same man in all these And Secondly Another thing that I would have you know about them all four is this 2. That though all these are in every natural man yet commonly there is but one of them that is predominant and all the other are subordinate unto it As for example Some men make their Lusts their known Lusts their predominant self and unto that Reason and Wil and Father and Mother and Children and Law and Duties and all shal be subordinate because this is the Lord paramount In some others it may be the world is the paramount Oh! and then unto that all their other Lusts and all their Religion likewise shal be subordinate It may be in another his Religion is the predominant his Honesty his righteousness his holy performances that is his great predominant and then unto that all the other shal be subordinate Commonly there is but some one of them that carries the Chair that sits upon the Throne and al the rest are underlings to that Thirdly and that which I most of all would have you mark and weigh concerning them all is this and I beseech you weigh my words 3. That in all these the heart is equally wicked in every one of them the heart is as bad and as far from God in the one as it is in the other I mean plainly thus That man that sets up his Lusts suppose his Whore suppose his Pride suppose any known wickedness sets up that to be the great good that pleaseth him that man is no more wicked his heart is no more wicked in that than another man that maketh Mammon his God the gathering of wealth or the maintaining of his honor and neither of these are more wicked than he that maketh his righteousness his own religious performances his God because for though these may seem strange yet if you wil wait you will find it to be good Divinity though in all these self is the end and all these are used but as means in the one of them I make use of the Devil to serve my self in another I make use of the world to serve my self in another I make use of God to serve my Self but whosoever I make use of it is my self that I set in the Throne my own Ease my own Wil my own Good my own Happiness Now then here is the result whatsoever a poor lost sinner doth make his portion before he come to be reconciled to God in Christ whatsoever it is that he maketh his portion or placeth his happiness in that our Lord means by self and there you have the first thing explained that I intended to handle What is meant by our Self that must be denied all that we make our portion be it our Lusts be they our natural abilities be they our worldly interests be they our religious Vertues Duties Righteousnesses they are all alike when the heart sodders with them or rests in them all these make up that self that must be denied That is the first Secondly The second thing that is to be explained is 2. What it is to deny a mans self he that will follow Christ must deny himself What is that I answer First 1. In general as I hinted before it must be a total denyal it is such a denial of a mans self as must be a total abrenunciation it must not be to put off the skin the Serpents skin and leave the Body or to cut off a Joynt and leave the Trunk but the whole man all the comprehension of this must be abhominated and renounced by that self-denial that the Lord here means But what is it you wil say Wherein stands it That I shal labor to cleer to you as wel as I can 1. Negatively I wil shew what it is not And then 2. Positively I wil shew you what it is 1. What it is not First 1. By denying a mans self the Lord means not that we should counterfeit our selves to be other than we are as Jeroboam's Wife denied her self to be Jeroboam's Wife by faining her self to be another Woman than she was The Lord means not that he that is a proud man should say I am not a proud man or he that is a rich man should say I am not a rich man or he that is a proper man should say I am not a proper man or he whose name is John or Thomas should say I am not that man that is not the meaning that he should counterfeit or feign himself to be another than he is Nor Secondly which it may be you think most probable by denying a mans self is this meant 2. That a man must wholly be
rid of al these things that that man that denies himself must wholly part with all his corruptions and part with the powers and faculties of his soul or the accomplishments of them or part with all his Estate his Wife and Children or part with his morral Duties and Religion that is not the meaning neither and that that is not the meaning I prove thus to you First 1. Some of these things are things we must not part with the Lord forbids us to part with them If God have bestowed upon any man a good Wife or Children or Memory Understanding Learning Wealth Honor or Abilities or Honesty and Righteousness the Lord commands them not to part with these these are things that God may be served with and must be served with therefore that cannot be the meaning Nay 2. The worst of them none of them can be parted with while we live in this world though we would never so fain part with them totally no man upon earth can part with all his corruptions If there be any man can say he hath no sin in him that man rather hath no Grace in him St. John saith that man that saith he hath no sin in him lyeth and the truth of God is not in him therefore that cannot be the meaning What is it then I answer and I humbly crave your attendance and weighing of these things because your everlasting welfare must be measured out by this you wil know your spiritual interest in Christ by it I answer then 2. That this same denial of our selves this total renunciation of our selves it comprehends these four things in it and these four things do constantly meet in every soul that doth deny it self First of all 1. All these things that I have spoken of we do totally and absolutly renounce them all from being any part of our portion that whereas before all our good lay in some of these things that if you would ask any man what he is worth What are you and what are you worth he must tel you I am worth a thousand pound a year or I am worth as much as my Wife and Children my Wit my Parts my Learning my Education my good name my honest Conversation Look what worth there is in all these so much I am worth and this was all his portion but now when the soul cometh to Christ it totally renounceth all these to be nothing at all to him in the point of a portion if he be the Lords and I shal shew you good reason for it by and by God willing I wil shew you a notable instance of it in the Apostle Paul in that forenamed Phillip 3. where he saith I think if any man might Glory in the flesh I might Glory as much as any and there he reckons up his Religion his Birth his Education his Learning his Righteousness and the like and saith he these things were gain to me they were my portion that if you had asked Paul Paul what are you What am I as good a man as you I hope Wherein lies your goodness I am a Jew an Hebrew a Benjamite a Pharisee a Scholler an honest man one that is unblameable in my whol conversation This was my gain saith Paul but after that Paul was called to Christ he did profess al that was his gain before it was now Dogs meat to him shipwracked his Learning abided with him stil and his wealth and his wit or any thing he had it stil but it was all rubbish now he did lay no worth in the world upon it he had no portion now but the favor of God in Christ Jesus that was his wealth but now for all these things what use soever he might make of them they were nothing not one penny to him in the point of a portion This is the first thing that is an ingredient into this same self-denial that when the soul cometh to Christ it is unloosed and set loose from all these things as they gave any support to the soul to breed a good esteem in it of its own happiness That is the first The Second thing that maketh up this self-denial is 2 That as the Soul doth renounce all these from being a portion so as in any of these there is any thing found that stands in opposition to Christ or hath any enmity against Christ so far the soul totally doth not only throw it aside as a worthless thing but opposeth it as a deadly thing it casteth it aside as an enemy Before in the other it throws it aside as a useless thing but here it throws it aside as an enemy when it hath any opposition or enmity against Christ Jesus or the waies that Christ would have his people walk in that is plain both by many Scriptures that you shal see the Servants of God when they come to deny themselves they say to their Lusts get you hence to their Idolatry to their wicked waies they throw them out to the Moles and the Bats they mortifie them they crucifie them they put off the old man with all the Lusts that are contrary to Christ their carnal reason that stands in enmity against Christ According I say as there is any thing in them that bears opposition to Christ Jesus and the waies of holiness so far the soul renounceth them as an enemy if ever they deny themselves because as you shal hear in the Reason Christ Jesus alone is the great good of that soul that denies it self A Third thing that maketh up this self-denial is 3. That all these four or any thing that may fal under any one of them so far as they ever stand in competition with Christ and the things of Christ so far the soul totally abandons them likewise totally abandons them all according as they stand in competition with Christ Jesus and that our Lord means when he saith That a man must hate his Father and Mother and Wife and Children Certainly the Lord doth not mean that we should hate them simply No but when they come to stand in competition with Christ's excellence or providence or things fall out so that I must either renounce these or I must withdraw from Christ I cannot serve Christ and enjoy them too therein I totally renounce them all and this you shall understand thus Our Savior Christ saith a man then denies Christ though he have never so good an opinion of Christ if yet when he comes to that exigent that either he must leave Christ or leave the world or leave his wealth if he leave Christ for his wealth sake then he denies Christ so Christ saith by the same reason when I leave my life leave my wealth leave my Wife my Children my Name my Credit my wil my Duties when these stand in competition with Christ then I deny them all then that soul may truly be said to deny them as I pray take an instance or two of it that you may see what I mean
therfore that is the best matrimonial life Therefore the Lord say I who knew what learning what wisdom what friends what Phylosophy what Policy what any thing might advance men to he out of them al shews the living by faith to be the way how they should live in this world who are as dear to him as the apple of his own eye and to a sober heart more needs not be said to make him think it an excellent thing Secondly as it is excellent because of Gods choyce so It is the honorablest life that can be there is no life in this world so honorable as the life of faith First It is wonderfully honorable to God when his redeemed ones have their whol livelihood from him without hanging upon every hedg but to acknowledg the Lord I to tel every body where they come I have not one comfort in a child nor in a wife nor in a penny nor in a garment nor in a dish of meat but I receive it from the hand of God by vertue of my faith here God is lifted up in al his administrations And as it is honorable to God so It is most honorable to us for in truth if we were independent that is if we needed no dependance upon any we must be Gods our selves and no man would put his foot under another mans table as we use to say that hath one of his own To live dependantly upon another man that can live independantly of himself takes off from his nobleness but if we must live dependantly then surely it is more honorable and noble to depend upon the head than the foot He that hath not learned to live by faith upon God he lives in part upon skins of beasts upon the world upon the excrements of the world he lives I mean upon poor ragged beggerly creatures one man saith to Gold thou art my hope another man loads himself with thick clay wel this is a poor low thing in comparison of depending upon him more immediately that hath incomprehensible glory it is ignoble Thirdly In this world it is the easiest life I will speak it I humbly bless the Lord that I have any experience of it in my own soul but I dare speak it as Divine Truth to live by faith is the easiest life under Heaven Do not mistake me I mean not it is easiest learned that a man may learn it with a wet finger Oh! it is a hard trade to learn and this may be one motive it is not easily gotten but my meaning is that when once the soul hath learned it that it be but a Master of this Trade that it can say I have learned to live by faith no man under Heaven lives or can live so easie a life as a Beleever may Why Because the life of faith wil never leave any thing upon my care but to walk humbly and thankfully with my God it leaves the providing for my body and soul and posterity and for the disposing of them al and for al my affairs it leaves it at Gods doors laies it to him and to me leaves nothing but to take the Book find my duty bend the knee and for all the successes faith leaves it quietly to the Lord and is not this a sweet life We that are Parents know by reason of our carnality what a hard thing it is when we have a company of poor children to provide for in a confused World when all we have may be swept away and others to have great trading and yet our Ships miscarry how we shal pay all our engagements we know not but if once the soul have faith it directs him to leave al to the wise and gracious God and my self to acquiess in his will I repeat it again and I pray if you be not satisfied in it now study it and I wil be bound to recant it as the saying is at Pauls Cross whensoever you wil if ever man can come out and say the life of faith is an uncomfortable life no it is the sweetest life of all Oh! that God would perswade you to study it it is the easiest life Come into a family and tell me who lives the easiest life the Father or the Child the Child hath food the Father provides it the Maid cooks it he hath cloaths his Father buys him them the Taylor makes them and the child goes to school and never thinks what will become of him when his cloaths are worn out and his linnen spent he leaves all to his Father And then again I tel you It is the best life because in truth it is the surest life for that man or woman that will trust God and wil study to live according to the rule of faith I speak it with reverence they have a statute upon al that God is worth that they shal be provided for they have a statute upon his All-sufficiency I am a God all-sufficient walk before me I will be a horn of strength I will never leave thee nor forsake thee a statute upon his Wisdom Power Goodness Faithfulness what God is and hath he hath engaged to the soul that wil trust in him It is an old saying of a Poet That it is an uncertain Estate though it may be great if it cannot be built upon It is an uncertain estate to depend upon Cables and Anchors if it come home it is well but it cannot be built upon and somtimes they stand in need of an Insuring Office but how justly I dispute not But lastly This Art when once the soul hath learned it it will deliver a man from all base and unworthy means it wil deliver the soul from all base and unworthy means in any kind whatsoever because if he have God in his Word what need he shirk and shift or do any thing that is base when he hath such a rock such a livelihood for his soul as faith As now I wil give you but an instance The Apostle Paul when he was in prison at Rome he conceived he might have gone out by giving the Captain of the Guard some money but Paul scorned to give a penny when he was at Philippi put in prison in the stocks the Magistrates came and bid him come out he scorned to go out some might have said you may provoke them I care not he had God on his side Never did any one so much study to get an Office or Lordship or an encrease of his Estate that they may say there is that boy or girl provided for let them go where they wil their portion lies by me this is not so comfortable as to study this Doctrine That that life that you live in the flesh you live by the Son of God that this life of faith may be on your part your principal delight Now then the Last part of my Sermon which I come to is But how should we do this Attainable it is and in some degree all Gods people have it but what course