Devil and Apostate spirits are perpetually active and busie in promoting the Concernments of the Kingdome of Darkness And therefore doubtless He whom God hath made the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls can never be so regardless of his Office nor so careless of his Flock and tender Lambs committed to his charge as to suffer those cruel Wolves to prey upon them at pleasure and to have no pity at all for them nor to extend his watchful Providence over them whom once he vouchsafed to redeem with his own precious bloud No certainly he that waded through so many difficulties and agonies for us in the daies of his Flesh he that bore our griefs and carried our sorrows he that was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities that sweat drops of bloud in the Garden and was nailed to the Cross for us in Golgotha He cannot so easily forget those whom he hath so dearly bought nor suffer all that power which God hath invested him with for the good of his Church to lie by him idle and unimployed But to the end that there might not be the least ground of Suspicion or Distrust left in the minds of men concerning this particular Christ after his Ascension into Heaven thought good to give us a sensible demonstration both of his Kingly Power and of his watchful Care and Providence over his Church that he would not leave them orphans and destitute of all assistence by sending down his Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost in a visible and miraculous manner upon his Disciples Acts 2. 32. This Jesus hath God raised up of which we are all Witnesses Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted and having received of the Father the Promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear And verily if there had been no news heard of our Lord and Saviour Christ after he ascended above the Clouds out of his Disciples sight no real and visible Demonstration of his Existence Power and Providence over his Church the distrustful hearts of men would have been too prone to suspect that the pretence of an invisible Kingdome at God's right hand above had been no better then a mere Dream an aiery and phantastick Notion and they would have been too ready to have called in question the truth of all his other Miracles his Resurrection and Ascension witnessed onely by his own Disciples and to have surmised those several Apparitions of his that we reade of after his Death had been nothing else but Spectres or Phantasms like the vulgarly-believed Apparitions of the Ghosts of men in Aiery bodies But the sensible and miraculous Pouring out of the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples after his Ascension into Heaven was a palpable Confirmation of all Christ's other Miracles of the Validity of his Meritorious Death and Passion of the Truth of his Resurrection and Ascension and gives most comfortable assurance to all Believers to the World's end that though his Bodily presence be withdrawn from them yet he hath not left his Church utterly forlorn and destitute of all assistence but that his Spirit the Holy Comforter continueth to be present amongst them as his Vicegerent and to assist them for all the holy purposes of the Gospel to the World's end Now the principal Effects of Christ's holy Spirit which are to be hoped for and expected by every true Believer and private Christian are comprised by the Apostle under Three Heads here in the Text as consisting in a Threefold Victory over a Threefold Enemy The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1. A Victory over Sin as that which is the Cause of Death 2. A Victory over the Law as that which aggravates the Guilt and exasperates the Power of Sin 3. Lastly A Victory over Death the Fruit and Consequent of Sin FIRST therefore There is a Victory over Sin to be obtained in and through Christ. Some there are that will acknowledge no other Victory over Sin but an External one that whereby it was conquered for us by Christ upon the Cross sixteen hundred years since where he spoiled Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it Col. 2. 15. and where he redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Gal. 3. 13. And doubtless this was one great end of Christ's coming into the world to make a Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Sins of mankind Not onely that he might thereby put a period to those continually-repeated and ineffectual Sacrifices of brute Beasts and the Offering of the bloud of Bulls and Goats that could not take away Sin nor propitiate the Divine Majesty but also that he might at once give a sensible Demonstration both of God's high Displeasure against Sin and of his Placableness and Reconcilableness to Sinners returning to Obedience and therefore to that end that the Despair of Pardon might not hinder any from Repentance and Amendment of Life promulgate free Pardon and Remission of Sins through his Bloud to all that should repent and believe the Gospel But it is a very unsound and unwholsome Interpretation of this Salutary Undertaking of Christ's in the Gospel as if the ultimate End and Design of it were to procure Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment onely to some particular persons still continuing under the Power of Sin and to save them at last in their Sins also that is with a mere outward and carnal Salvation it being a thing utterly impossible that those Undefiled Rewards of the Heavenly Kingdome should be received and enjoyed by men in their Unregenerate and unrenewed Nature For what is this else but to make Christ the grand Patron of the Kingdome of Darkness and to suppose God to be such a Being as may be bribed and corrupted by Sacrifice and Intercession to a partial Connivence and fond Indulgence of men in their Sins to all Eternity Or else to insinuate that there is no other Evil at all in Sin but onely in respect of that outward Punishment consequent upon it which is to destroy the Nature and Reality of Sin and to make it nothing but a mere Name or Phancy as if Good and Evil Just and Unjust as some Philosophers dreamed were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely had no Reality in Nature but depended onely upon Arbitrary Laws enforced by Outward Punishments or mere Opinion and so were onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Democritus expressed it mere Factitious things or else 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fictitious and Imaginary Either of which opinions if they were true then indeed Remission of Sin and Exemption from Punishment would quite take away all the Evil of Sin But if Sin be not a mere Name or Phancy but that which hath a Real and
Vulgar minds and make more palpable impressions on them and be alwaies of more present and ready use then any Philosophical Reasons and Demonstrations And the Scripture is herein very harmonious and agreeable to itself both in the Old and New Testament for as in the one it makes the original of Death's entrance into the world to be the Sin and Disobedience of the First Adam who was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the earth earthy so in the other it attributes the recovery of Life and Immortality to the meritorious Obedience of the Second Adam that was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Lord from heaven heavenly who by his Death vanquished destroyed Death For as Sampson who was a Type of our Saviour when he was besieged by the Philistines in the City Gaza Judges 16. rose up at midnight and pulled up the Gates of the City and the Posts and laying them upon his shoulders carried them up to the top of the Hill in like manner Christ our Lord when he was environ'd and encompass'd by Death after he had been awhile detain'd under the custody thereof he ascended victoriously out of the Power of the Grave and carried the Gates of Hell and Death upon his Shoulders along with him triumphantly into Heaven he slighted and dismantled that mighty Garrison whose Walls were stronger then Brass and Gates harder then Adamant that it should no longer be a Prison with doors and barrs to shut up those that believe in him but an open and free passage and a broad High-way to Life and Immortality He is the Resurrection and the Life John 11. 25. and he that believeth in him though he were dead yet shall he live For he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore even he hath the Keys of Hell and of Death Revelat. 1. 18. But that which I chiefly aim at at this time concerning Jesus his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven is this That by and after it he was made Lord and Christ King and Saviour and Sovereign of his Church Not but that Christ's Humanity was alwaies hypostatically united to the Divinity but because the Oeconomical Kingdome of Christ as Mediatour according to the Scripture-calculation seems not to commence till after his state of Humiliation was over and so begins its Epocha from Christ's Resurrection or his Exaltation to sit at God's right hand in heaven Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. Acts 5. 31. Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a Tree him hath God exalted on his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour c. Philip. 2. 9. Who humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross Wherefore hath God highly exalted him and given him a Name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow c. and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father And that Article of our Creed concerning Christ's sitting at God's right hand in Heaven signifies thus much unto us That Christ after his Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven hath all Power given him both in Heaven and in Earth all things being made subject to him excepting him onely that hath put all things under him He being for the Comfort of his Church and Members here upon Earth according to his Humanity made God's Vicegerent and seated in his Father's Throne and having a Mediatorious Kingdome bestowed upon him that shall continue till he hath put down all Authority and Power and hath subdued all his Enemies under his feet and then hath delivered up this Oeconomical Kingdome to God the Father that God may be all in all And this is an unspeakable Consolation that Christian Religion affords to us and a most gracious Condescension of the All-wise God That forasmuch as we that dwell in these houses of Clay are so far removed from the pure and abstracted Deity and so infinitely disproportioned unto it that there should be such a contrivance as this set on foot That we should have one of our own Flesh and Bloud that was in all things tempted like unto us and had experience of all our difficulties and calamities who demonstrated his infinite love to us in laying down his Life for us and therefore we cannot doubt but hath a most tender Sympathy and fellow-feeling with us in all our infirmities I say that we should have such a one exalted to God's right hand and invested with all Authority and Power both in Heaven and in Earth that he might administer all things for the good of his Church and Members and supply them in all their wants and necessities Which consideration must needs be farre more comfortable chearing and reviving to every true Christian then it was to the Sons of Jacob when they went down to Egypt to buy Corn and provision for their necessities to think that Joseph their Brother was made Ruler over all the Land And yet notwithstanding this is wholly eluded and evacuated by those high-flown Spiritualists of these latter times that slight and reject the Letter of the New Testament as a mean and carnal thing and will acknowledge no other Death and Resurrection of Christ no other Ascension and Sitting at God's right hand nay no other Day of Judgement nor Resurrection of the Body but what is Mystical and Allegorical Whereby they do not onely impudently slurre the Gospel according to the History and the Letter in making it no better then a Romantical Legend or a mere Aesopick Fable that contains a good 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Moral under it but also plainly defeat the Counsel of God against themselves and mankinde by antiquating Christianity and bringing in instead thereof old Paganism again disguised under a few canting Phrases of Scripture-language For though Moses had a Veil over his face though there were many obscure Umbrages and Allegories in the Law the Children of Israel being then not able to bear the brightness of that Evangelical Truth that shined under them yet now under the Gospel we do all with open face behold as in a Glass the glory of the Lord nakedly represented to us being changed into the same image from glory to glory But to let pass these and still to improve our former Meditation further Let us in the next place consider that Christ who received all this Power after his Resurrection and Ascension did not receive it in vain and to no purpose either taking no notice of our humane transactions here below as having removed his Pavilion too farre into those Regions of Light and Glory from us or else remaining notwithstanding an idle Spectator and no way concerning or interesting himself in the Issues of our humane affairs Which will be so much the more improbable if we consider what the Scripture and experience tell us that the
Intrinsecal Evil in it greater then that of Outward Punishment then certainly it cannot be so transcendent a Happiness as some men carnally conceit to have an Impunity in Sinning to all Eternity that th◠Accomplishment thereof should be thought the onely fit Undertaking for the Son of God to engage in and that which would deservedly entitle him the Saviour of Mankinde For that of Socrates in Plato must then needs be true Tò 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That in those which are not incorrigible and incurable it is the greatest Evil that can possibly befall them to continue in Wickedness unpunished and the greatest Kindness that they can receive by the lesser Evil of Punishment and Castigation to be cured of the greater Evil of Sin For as the same Philosopher speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chastisement and Correction is the natural Remedy and Cure of Wickedness which our Saviour confirms when he saith As many as I love I rebuke and chasten and sure the Remedy is not worse then the Disease Wherefore it was so farre from being the Ultimate End of Christ's undertaking to die for Sin that men might securely live in it that on the contrary the Death of Christ was particularly intended as an Engine to batter down the Kingdom of Sin Satan and to bring men effectually unto God and Righteousness as the Scripture plainly witnesseth 1 Pet. 2. 24. His own self bare our Sins in his Body on the Tree that we being dead to Sin might live to Righteousness The Death of Christ conducing to this great End not onely as it was Exemplary and Hieroglyphically instructed us that we ought to take up our Cross likewise and follow our crucified Lord and Saviour suffering in the Flesh and ceasing from Sin but also as it doth most lively demonstrate to us God's high Displeasure against Sin and the malignant Nature of it that could not otherwise be expiated then by the Bloud of that innocent and immaculate Lamb the onely-begotten Son of God and lastly as the Hope of Pardon and free Remission of Sin in the Bloud of Christ for the truly Penitent might invite and animate men to chearful vigorous endeavours against Sin Others there are that tell us there is indeed something farther aimed at in the Gospel besides the bare Remission of Sins but that it is nothing else but the Imputation of an External Righteousness or another's Inherent Holiness which is so completely made ours thereby to all intents and purposes as if we our selves had been really and perfectly righteous and this upon no other Condition or Qualification at all required in us but onely of mere Faith scrupulously prescinded from all Holiness and Sanctification or the laying hold and apprehending onely as they use to phrase it of this External and Imputed Righteousness that is the merely believing and imagining it to be ours Which kind of Faith therefore is but the Imagination of an Imagination or of that which really is not and as Pindar calls Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very Dream of a Shadow For though this be pretended by some to be spoken onely of Justification as contradistinct from Sanctification the latter of which they conceive must by no means have any Conditional Influence upon the former yet it is plain that it will unavoidably extend to the taking away of the Necessity of Inherent Righteousness and Holiness and all Obligation to it upon which very account it is so highly acceptable because under a specious shew of Modesty and Humility it doth exceedingly gratify mens Hypocrisie and Carnality For he that is thus completely Justified by the Imputation of a mere External Righteousness must needs have ipso facto a Right and Title thereby to Heaven and Happiness without Holiness for Rom. 8. 30. Whom he justifieth them he also glorifieth Neither can any thing be required inherently in them where all Inherency is perfectly supplied by Imputation And though it be pretended that Sanctification will spontaneously follow after by way of Gratitude yet this is like to prove but a very slippery hold where it is believed that Gratitude it self as well as all other Graces is already in them by Imputation Neither can it be reasonably thought that true Holiness should spring by way of Gratitude or Ingenuity from such a Principle of Carnality as makes men so well contented with a mere Imaginary Righteousness But this Opinion as it makes God in Justifying to pronounce a false Sentence and to conceive of things otherwise then they are and to doe that which himself hath declared to be abominable to Justifie the wicked in a forensick sense and as it is irreconcileable to those many Scriptures that assure us God will render to every man according to his Works so it also takes away the Necessity of Christ's Meritorious and Propitiatory Sacrifice for the Remission of Sins for where a complete Righteousness is imputed there is no Sin at all to be pardoned And lastly it vainly supposes Righteousness and Holiness to be mere Phantastical and Imaginary things for otherwise it were no more possible that a Wicked man should be made Righteous by another's Righteousness imputed then that a Sick man should be made Whole by another's imputed Health If a Brother or Sister be naked and destitute of daily food and one of you say unto them Depart in peace be you warmed and be you filled notwithstanding you give them not those things which are needful for the body what doth it profit James 2. 15 16. Even so what doth it profit my Brethren if a man say he hath Faith or Imputed Righteousness and have not Works that is Real and Inherent Righteousness or Inward Regeneration can such a Faith that is Imagination or Imputation save him Certainly no more then mere words can clothe a naked mans Back or feed a hungry mans Belly or warm and thaw him whose Bloud is frozen and congealed in his veins Nay it is no more possible for a man to be made Holy then to be made Happy by mere Imputation which latter few men would be contented withall and were it not for their Hypocrisie they would be as little contented with the former and it would as little please them to be Opinione tantùm Justi as Opinione tantùm Beati to use Tully's expressions against the Epicureans Nay since it is most certain that the greatest part of our Happiness consisteth in Righteousness and Holiness it will unavoidably follow that if we have no other then an Imputative Righteousness we can have no other then an Imputative Happiness and a mere Imaginary Heaven which will little please us when we feel our selves to be in a true and real Hell But it is not our Intention here to quarrel about Words and Phrases as if Christ's meritorious Satisfaction might not be said to be Imputed to those that Repent and Believe the Gospel for Remission of Sins much less to deny what the Holy Scripture plainly asserts True
Soul yet it has no just Title much less a Right of Inheritance in it For Sin is but a Stranger and Foreiner in the Soul an Usurper and Intruder into the Lord's Inheritance Sin it is no Nature as S. Austin and others of the Fathers often inculcate but an adventitious and extraneous thing and the true and ancient Nature of the Soul of Man suffers violence under it and is oppressed by it It is nothing else but the Preternatural state of Rational Beings and therefore we have no reason to think it must needs be perpetual and unalterable It is a strange thing that a jarring Instrument by the hand of a skilful Musician should ever be set in tune again Doubtless if an Instrument of Musick were a Living thing it would be sensible of Harmony as its proper state and abhorre Discord and Dissonancy as a thing preternatural to it The Soul of Man was Harmonical as God at first made it till Sin disordering the Strings and Faculties put it out of tune and marr'd the Musick of it but doubtless that Great Harmostes that tunes the whole World and makes all things keep their Times and Measures is able to set this lesser Instrument in Tune again Sin is but a Disease and Dyscrasie in the Soul Righteousness is the Health and natural Complexion of it and there is a Propension in the nature of every thing to return to its proper state and to cast off whatever is heterogeneous to it And some Physicians tell us that Medicaments are but subservient to Nature by removing obstructions and impediments but Nature it self and the inward Archoeus released and set at liberty works the Cure Bodies when they are bent out of their Place and violently forced out of the natural Position of their Parts have a Spring of their own and an inward strong Propension to return to their own natural Posture which produceth that Motion of Restitution that Philosophers endeavour to give a reason of As for example Air may be forced into much a lesser room then it would naturally expand itself into but whilst it is under this Violence it hath a Spring or strong Conatus to return to its proper state of which several ingenious Observations have been lately published by a Learned hand Now Sin being a Violent and preternatural state and a Sinner's returning to God and Righteousness being Motus Restitutionis Liberationis whereby the Soul is restored to its true Freedome and ancient Nature why should there not be such an Elater or Spring in the Soul quickened and enlivened by Divine Grace such a natural Conatus of returning to its proper state again Doubtless there is and the Scripture seems sometimes to acknowledge it and call it by the name of Spirit when it speaketh of our free acting in God's waies from an inward Principle For the Spirit is not alwaies to be taken for a Breath or Impulse from without but also for an inward Propension of the Soul awakened and revived in it to return to its proper state as it is Intellectual and then to act freely in it according to its ancient Nature For if the Spirit were a mere External Force acting upon the Soul without the concurrence of an Innate Principle then to be acted by the Spirit would be a state of Violence to the Soul which it could not delight alwaies to continue under whereas the state of the Spirit is a state of Freedome and not of Violence as the Apostle witnesseth when he calls it the Freedome of the Spirit It is the Soul 's acting from an inward Spring and Principle of its own Intellectual nature not by a mere outward Impulse like a Boat that is tugged on by Oars or driven by a strong blast of Wind. Wherefore the Soul 's returning from Sin to Righteousness which is its Primitive Nature must needs have great advantages it going on Secundo flumine according to the genuine Current of its true Intellectual nature and having besides the assistence of a gentle Gale of the Divine Spirit from without to help it forwards Why should it be thought so great an impossibility for men willingly to doe that which is agreeable to the Laws of Goodness since this is the genuine Nature of the Soul when once it is freed from mistakes and encumbrances from that which is heterogeneous and adventitious to it that cloggs it and oppresses it and every Life and Nature acts freely according to its own Propensions Why should it seem strange that the Superiour Faculties of the Soul should become predominant since they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a Lordly nature and made to rule and the Inferiour Faculties of a servile Temper and made to be subject Why should it seem impossible for Equity Light and Reason to be inthroned in the Soul of Man again and there to command and govern those exorbitant Affections that do so lawlesly rebel against them For if some grave Commanders and Generals have been able by the Majesty of their very looks to hush and silence a disorderly and mutinous Rout of Souldiers certainly Reason re-enthroned in her Majestick Seat and re-invested with her ancient Power and Authority which is natural and not usurped would much more easily be able to check and controll the tumultuous Rabble of Lusts and Passions in us Doubtless God hath no other Design upon us in Religion and the Gospel of his Son then what is for our good and to restore us to the Rectitude and Perfection of our own Beings Wherefore he seeks to redeem and call off our Affections from the perishing Vanities of this World which being so infinitely below us do debase and pollute our Spirits wherefore he would not have us to addict ourselves wholly to the Gratifications of our lower Faculties which are but the Brute in us but he would have the Best in us to be uppermost the Man to rule the Brute and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that that is of God in us to rule our Manly and Rational Faculties He would not have us Narcissus-like to be alwaies courting our own Shadow in the Stream for according to the ancient Democritical Philosophy this whole visible World is nothing else but mere extended Bulk and hath nothing Real in it but Atomes or Particles of a different Magnitude diversely placed and agitated in a continual Whirlpool But all the Colour Beauty and Varnish all that which charms and bewitches us in these Objects without us is nothing but the Vital Sensations and Relishes of our own Souls This gives all the Paint and Lustre to those Beauties which we court and fall in love withall without us which are otherwise as devoid of Reality and as Phantastical as the Colours of the Rainbow So that this Outward World is not unfitly compared to an inchanted Palace which seems indeed mighty pleasing and ravishing to our deluded Sense whereas all is but imaginary and a mere prestigious Shew Those things which we are enamoured with thinking