Jesus is not held forth in the Law for the law is not of faith Life by Christ Jesus is not held forth in the law but the man that doth it shall live in them So that the law is not able to bring us to CHRIST but the law was our Schoolemaster untill CHRIST And therefore sayes the Apostle before CHRIST came the Saints were under the law as under a Tutor or Governour but when the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons and being sonnes he hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne c. So that CHRIST being come we are no longer under a Schoolemaster but being sonnes have the spirit of CHRIST JESUS now to be our guide Whereas before the Saints were under the Law as a guide as a Schoolemaster untill Christ But this will more cleerly appear if you looke upon the Covenant that GOD made with them of old And this was the Covenant that God made with them that they should observe all the lawes and all the Statutes and judgements that God had given them which are set downe in the 20.21.22 and 23. Chapters of Exodus in which iâ— set downe besides the ten precepts that were afterward written upon tables of stone Divers other Lawes and Ordinances and then in the 3. vers of the 24 chapter it is said Moses came and told the people all the Words of the LORD and all the judgements and all the people answered with one voice and said all that the Lord hath said we will doe and then verse 4. it is said Moses wrote all these words of the Lord and Moses offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace-offerings and took the Booke of the Covenant and read in the audience of the people and they said all that the Lord hath spoken will we doe and be obedient And Moses took the blood and sprinked on the people and said behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with us concerning all these words so that this was the Coveant that God then made with his people as appeares also Exod. 34.27 28. Where the first Tables being broken Moses goes up againe to mount Sinai the Lord there making a recapitulation of those things in the forementioned Chapters he saies againe to Moses after the tenor of these words I have made a Covenant with Israel and Moses wrote upon the Tables the Words of the Covenant the ten Commandments which Moses the man of God who also faithfull in all his house againe presses upon the people all along his whole fifth Book called Deuteronomie declaring from the Lord the blessings and cursings that did attend the fulfilling and breaking of it So that this was the Covenant and this was the rule by which they were to walke but most Peculiarly the ten precepts are said to be the covenant Exod. 34.28 as in the forementioned place though yet the rest of the statutes and laws and judgements were not excluded so that this is evident that this is the covenant that God made with his people when he tooke them by the hand and led them out of Eâ—â—pt and according to this rule they were to walke in which was sett before them life and death blessings and cursâ—ings But this letme adde that though the Saints were under this covenant vntill Christ yet besides this they were under a covenant or a promise of free grace too which way given to Abraham in that promise In thy seede shall all the nations of the earth be blessed which all the Saints vnder the law beleeved for saies the Apostle The law which was four hundered and thirtie yeers after could not disanull it And therefore the Saints vnder their Ceremonies saw a Christ then although but darkly and in a figure as Heb. 9.9 yet all the Saints had an eye vnto the Lord Iesus though yet vntill the coming of Christ they were still held vnder the law being then vnder that covenant though now the Lord hath made a new covenant with his people since the comming of Chirst in the flesh as we find Ier 31.32.33.34 which is quoted by the Apostle Hob. 8. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the House of Israel not according to the Covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to leade them out of Egypt to wit the Covenant before mentioned which my Covenant they brake although I was an husband unto them saith the Lord but this shall be the Covenant that I will make with them saith the Lord. And surely this is a new Covenant not according to the tenor of the old Covenant but a new Covenant established upon better promises Heb. 7.11 and 8.6 and therefore sayes the Author to the Hebrewes God finding fault he sayes behold the dayes come wherein I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel Heb. 8.8 And verse 13. In that he saith a new covenant he hath made the first old Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away So then it is not according to the old covenant But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those dayes faith the Lord I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more every man his brother and every man his neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their iniquities and I will remember their sin no more This is the new covenant and this is a glorious new covenant indeed And should I here go about to hold forth the glory of it though but in some perticulars and shew wherein it excels the former covenant having that in it which never any former covenant had this beings new covenant It would swell into a large volume but because I am but answering of this quaeric Whether the Law were given for a Rule I shall here speak but to that onely thus that it was unto the Israelites before the comming of Christ for they were then under that covenant though now God hath made 3 new covenant with his people and they are not under the old that being as the Holy Ghost sayes vanished away and so all that are in Christ Jesus are under a new covenant according to which they are to walk which comes nothing short of but farre exceeds in holinesse and spiritualitie the old covenant and as many as walk according to this rule of the new covenant in Christ Jesus peace be on them and mercy and upon all the Israel of God But this let me adde That though the Saints be now freed from that
increase So thine inperfections must decrease and thy Christ in thee must increase And as the house of David must growe stronger and stronger and the house of Saul weaker and weaker So in thee the Spirit must grow stronger and stronger but the flesh must grow weaker weaker even till the flesh be utterly overcome and mortalitie be swallowed up of life But then 5. Though you were once in continuall feare and under a Spirit of bondage yet now have you continuall peace and joy in the Holy Ghost for you have not received the Spirit of bondage under which you were while you were in the bonds of Satan chains of darknes I say you have not received that spirit of bondage to fear again but you have received the Spirit of Son-ship wherby you seeing God as a reconciled Father do now serve him without fear I mean slavish feare such feare as may in the least trouble or distract your hearts with terrour or horrour for that is contrary to the Spirit of Son-ship And Low can you now feare that in the Spirit behold the Fathers countenance as being reconciled by the Lord Jesus unto him no you cannot for 6. You that were all your life time subject to bondage even to the law and sinne and Satan before the comming of the Lord Iesus into your soules are now freed from it and are now in the glorious light and libertie of the Sons of God in Iesus Christ and now feare I meane slavish is cast away not but that there remains still a sweet feare a filiall feare a feare of love but this is not a trouble but a solace to your souls for it proceeds from sweetnesse and ends in sweetnes it proceeds from love and ends in love The discoveries of love to thee draw it as an effect of love from thee so all slavish or perplexing feare is banished now that thou art in the glorious Kingdom of God in Iesus Christ 7 Vse An exhortaâ—ion to the Saints to walke in the sight of Iesus Christ and in the light in the purity in joy of the Spirit for thou art brought into a kingdome of glory being brought unto the Lord Iesus and in this thou hast all the priviledges that the most inlarged heart can thinke upon and these are your happinesses who are dead to the Law and married to the Lord Iesus And now 7. Vse ANd lastly Is it so that the Saints by the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus have obtained this glorious freedom these glorious priviledges is it thus that the Saints of God have the Spirit of Iesus Christ then here may be a use of sweete exhortation unto them a four fold exhortation 1. Alwayes to be taking sweet views of the Lord Iesus 2. To walke in the glorious light of the Spirit 3. To walke in the puritie of the Spirit and to be fruitfull through the Spirit 4. To walke in the joyes of the Spirit and to rejoyce evermore But 1. You that are Saints seeing you have obtained this freedome the text holds forth by Iesus Christ in whom you have such glorious priviledges Be exhorted to be alwayes taking a view of Iesus Christ and contemplating of that which Christ hath done for you and though yet you know but little be exhorted to know more and to grow in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ Paul counts all things but drosse and dung for the excellencie of the knowledge of Iesus Christ so do you It is your onely happinesse It is life eternall and therefore hee that knowes most of Christ let him improve all the strength of Christ that is given unto him in the use of all the meanes God hath for that end given to us to know more O let it be your continuall exercise to study the Lord Iesus and to meditate of the Lord Iesus let him be your meditation day and night Let the Lord Iesus alway be in your heart when you lie downe and when you rise up in your going out and comming in In all your discourses let the Lord Iesus be held forth when ever you have opportunitie especially those which are cald to the ministerie and have opportunities according to their calling to speake in publicke being made overseers of a flocke be alwayes I say holding forth the Lord Iesus Christ and the knowledge of the Lord Iesus unto the people for how are they said to be ministers of the Gospel and ministers of Christ that are not continually preaching Christ but as too many doe spend the time in which they should preach Christ in discoursing of points of controversie and of the Civil Law and discoursing of the lawfullnesse of war and the like never holding forth the knowledge of Christ or but seldome I doe not nor cannot object against the lawfulnesse of such discourses but I covet to have more of Christ held forth and to have the Lord Jesus set up in the hearts of all And therefore let this exhortation be acceptable to all strive to know more of the Lord Jesus to know him in every particular Dive into and take a view of all his glories and as you have opportunitie hold them forth to others but especially his death Paul makes that as if it were the summe of all the Gospel he was to hold forth Christ crucified and therefore he tells us that he desires to know nothing and glory in nothing but a crucified Christ 1 Cor 2.2 Gal. 6.14 And O how many and how sweet are the benefits of the Crosse and death of Christ take a veiw of this in the text how upon the crosse he took away the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us and freed us from the curse of the law being made a curse upon the Crosse for us Oh therefore grow in the knowledge of a Christ crucified And in a word grow in all the knowledge of of Christ know him in his death and the fellowship of his suffering and the power of his resurrection know him in his union with thee and relations to thee c. And still so prefer the knowledge of Christ above all other knowledge as with the holy Apostle and the holy martyr to cry out I desire to know none but Christ none but Christ And 2. As you that are Saints are to be exhorted to be alwayes veiwing of your Saviour and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ so having his Spirit poured upon you you are now to walk in the glorious light of the Spirit that it may appear that you are children of the light for this is your priviledge that ye are now light in the Lord the Lord Iesus is your light and your Sun Oh therefore let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in heaven shine you amidst a crooked and perverse generation although the blinde world walkes in darknesse yet do you walke in the light in the
or the new man is holy and pure and senceare Ye the Apostle tells us verse 24. it is Created according to the Image of God in Righteousnesse and true holinesse Let those therefore that thus despise the law and therefore take libertie to walke after the flesh to fulfill the deceitfull lusts of the old man know that they deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ and if they so continue they have no part in him Therefore I would beseech these persons seriously to consider and deeply to pensitrate in their thoughts 1. That the Law is an expresse character of the Glory of God It had such a glory in it as made Meses the minister thereof his face to shine even by reason of that glory that is in it and can you have low thoughts of it 2. The law is Holy Just and and good and dare you slightly to esteeme of it 3. It was the delight of all the Saints since God gave it by the hand of Moses It was their meditation day and night and sweete as honey unto them yee sweeter then the hony combe and how then can you undervalue it And Lastly it is that that shines gloriously in the Lord Jesus and that which he fulfilled in every tittle of it For he came not to destroy the Law but to perfect it to fulfill it perfectly that in his Righteousnesse who fulfilled the Righteous law all those that doe belong unto him and are drawne by a supernaturall worke of God in their spirits to beleeve in him may be presented without spot and wrincle before God! O therefore have high thoughts of it and set it up in your hearts and let it be the sweet subject of your meditations day and night as it is in the Lord Iesus as it is in him fulfilled for you if you doe belong unto him and as it shall be satissied also by the Spirit who are his And though you cannot now attaine to walke in the puritie of it and the perfection of it here yet you shall be perfect in the spirit when you are unclothed of this earthly house and cloathed upon with the house which is from heaven when that which is perfect is come and that which is in part shall bee done away So leaving these men in these contemplations I come to the next use And 2. Vse To discover the sad condition of all that walâ—e after the flesh Vse 2 IT serves to discover and lay open the sad condition of those that walk after the flesh that spend their daies in vanity their yeers in folly I say in folly for so I may call the best actions greatest wisdome and accutest parts of naturall men For it is all foolishnesse with God This point I say informes them of their sad condition and truely it is very sad and dolefull of what degrees soever they are but before I declare it let me Characterize some few particular degrees of them that they may behold their owne image and be afraid that so if it may be they may bee wonne to come to the Lord Jesus that they may walke after the Spirit The severall degrees are these 1. Art thou such a one as walkest in such practises as these adultery fornication uncleannesse laciviousnesse idolatrie witchcraft hatred variance emulation wrath strife sedition heresies envyings murder Drunkennesse revellings such like and wallowest in these practises as Swine wallowes in the mire with a kinde of pleasing contentment Then thou art one that walkest after the flesh But 2. Some may please themselves and think that because they are not notoriously such persons therefore they are not such as walk after the flesh but again Dost thou minde the things of the flesh Art thou taken up with carnal contentments and carnall pleasures And though thou scornest the vile and filthy practises of some and dost not walk in those wayas that are notoriously evill and base in the eyes of men yet if thou delightest altogether in carnall things and when thou hast thy honours and a high esteem amongst men and delicious fare and pompous apparell and fleshly pleasures and things succeed according to thy minde then thou art where thou wouldest be and art like a worm alwayes crawâ—ing upon the earth and creeping upon dunghils never mounting up higher nor having all thy delights and thy joyes nor placing thy affections on the things above nor dost by faiths Eagle-eye pierce the heavens and see him that is invisible as Moses did and dost not behold the Lord Jesus as thy treasure there that there thine heart might be also dost not behold him there as having taken thy nature upon him and having in it by crucifying of it and shedding his blood washed away thy sins and is raised up again that thou mightest be raised also unto newnesse of life and to live together with him in glory Now I say if this be thy condition that thou dost not behold these glories to the joy of thy soul and placest not thy delights here but mindest the things of the flesh only then thou still walkest after the flesh Rom. 8.5 For they sayes the Apostle that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit But then 3. But dost thou go yet further And dost not onely despise fouler and grosser sinnes But dost in some sort see a vanitie in all the creatures under heaven and canst finde no contentment in them and therefore labourest and seekest by thine own strength to finde out a way to please God that so thou mayest obtain the favour of God and therefore endeavourest to walk innocently towards all men and though thou failest in many things yet thou thinkest by thy good meanings to please God so though thou canst not do as others do yet thou pleasest thy self in this estate and thinkest it is good But this is still to walk after the flesh for here 's no Christ no spirit in all this Again 4. Although thou goest further then all this and dost not onely mean well but as thou mayest think do well too and art strict in observing the Law to thy power and art frequent in performing of duties and observing fasts and in giving largely to the poore yet all these things and many more mayest thou do and that out of a zeale toward God and yet thou still walkest after the flesh For Matth. 5 20. our Saviour tels them That except their righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees they should not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Though the Pharisees did strictly observe the law were frequent in performance of duties made long prayers fasted twice a weeke and were liberall to the poore c. And the Apostle Paul Rom. 10.4 tells us of the of the Iewes that hee could beare them record and they had a zeall of of God Though not according to knowledge for saies he they being ingnorant of the