feeding containes in it a conversion of the meat into the thing nourished so as that which we feed upon it becomes our selves it is all one with our selves in time it is so digested and turned into our nature that every part hath sucked in its owne nourishment every part hath received something of that which was inwardly received This hath been anciently observed this is somewhat more then receiving Christ by faith for when we apply every word to our selves and make Christ ours that is receiving him to be ours yet it is a further worke to be conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ in every thing to be confirmed and established in the Promises and to be quickned by them to be terrified by threatnings and to stand in awe of every word of God and to be bowed to an inward subjection to Christ day by day by the word we receive this is a further mighty worke of grace If therefore hee be a Christian that by the Word and Ordinances he receives he is fashioned and made conformable to Christ meek and righteous and lowly and holy as he is and willing to do any good Office for the Church of God and goe up and down doing good and needs no further motion this way but as Christ moves him it is a signe that he feeds upon Christ Christ is turned into his nature or which is more his nature is rather turned into the nature of Christ the nourishment being so strong makes us become such as he is in this world Now when we are conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Ordinances that we partake in it is an evident sign that we there feed upon him And therefore try your selves by this signe of sanctification if you live you feed on Christ and except you so doe you have no life in you so then consider do I feed upon the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood and do I finde a spirituall appetite to the Lord Jesus raised up in my soule and do I find any spiritual refreshment and strength by that which I do partake in and that which I so find sweetnesse in I apply it to my own estate and convey it into the inward part of my heart that I may be able to drink it up as my lot and portion And do I by this strength of grace grow like to Christ and do I more adorn the Gospell of Christ this is an evident signe you live for you feed upon spirituall food which is an argument of spiritual life no man can feed upon spirituall food but he that lives and such a life as hee lives in Christ Let a man come to the Word without an appetite to it and when he comes find no nourishment nor refreshment in it and applyes nothing as is said to him but let such and such looke to it he never hears profitably that doth not particularly apply that which he heares and if he apply it he rather stormes at it it is an evident argument that such a man hath no life in him at all Not that you should here look at the naturall body and blood of Christ for that were a Canaball eating and drinking That which the Church of Rome puts upon the Church of God at this day but our Saviour tells you the meaning of this place It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing had a company of Roman Souldiers fallen upon Christ and either out of wrath against him or love to themselves had pulled him in peeces and eaten him goblet by goblet it had profitted them nothing had men eaten the reall body of Christ and drunk up his blood and joyned with others in so doing and left none of him al this had profited them nothing nay it profits nothing for the Capernites aske the question How can this man give us his flesh to eat it is an hard saying they thought it incredible v. 5.2 they would think it a savage bruitishnesse to fal upon him in that manner and therefore our Saviour so confesseth that it is no part of his meaning that they should eate and drinke his reall body and blood but hee meanes the breathing of the spirit in the Ordinances if you can rellish Note this and feed upon that and grow to be such as Christ was in this world that was the meate and drinke of his soule if you grow humble and meek and be transformed into the spirit of Christ if you see your spirits conformable to the will of Christ it is a signe of the life of holinesse in your soules which God hath given you through Christ A third effect of the life of sanctification 3 Signe is growth for that which lives growes till it come to its full perfection so in all naturall Growth in grace vegitative or sensitive life if it live it growes till it come to its full maturity when it comes to its full vigour and strength it may decay and stand at a stay but a Christians life never comes to that till it come to the life of glory to the full measure of the stature of Christ In this life we cannot come to that but therefore it is that we grow to the end of our dayes and then are forthwith translated to immortallity ye desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 and 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and God hath given us Ministers to teach and instruct us till we all grow to be perfect in Christ Jesus Eph. 4.11 12 13. Col. 2.19 Increase with the increasings of God with divine and inlarged and spirituall increasing so doth the body of Christ grow and all the members of it they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ So that this is a third effect of life if a man can find his heart to grow Quest But doth not many a Christian stand at a stay and sometimes grow backward and fall from their first love fall from the fruitfullnesse and goodnesse and rootednesse in Christ though not wholly cut off yet falling from the firmenesse in grace and the power of grace and from fruitfullnesse and the abundance of the worke of righteousnesse Answ It is true many a soule doth so for a while but if so bee that God doe give a Christian man not to grow we must not say therefore he doth not live not but that a man for a time may be weake as a living man in sicknesse may be very weake his spirit faile and his strength faile and his worke and imployment fails him and he can do nothing neither eate nor drink no not so much as leane upon a staffe but may lye bed-rid but yet such a man feeles a sensible distemper of his body and he ceaseth not to use the best means he can and so in the end he comes to grow and recovers his first love againe in some measure some also there are that by sinfull lusts waste instead of
give where and to whom he will 3 And for a third ground why eternall life cannot bee given by any but by Christ is taken from the invincible difficulty of the passage to eternall life from the hand of death and the grave there is no redemption What man is he that can deliver his soule from the hand of the grave Psal 49. And if the soule be severed from the body no man can quicken his owne soule that is beyond the power and reach of the creature death is the passage to eternall life and this passage is of invincible difficulty for a man to dye and then to translate himselfe from death to life is far beyond the capacity of the creature and therefore saith our Saviour I am the resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 and hee speakes of it formally and properly as if he should say being risen from the dead my selfe I rise my selfe and therefore raise up others also so that if you looke at the invincible difficulty of it you shall see that it onely is the Lord Jesus that can give eternall life it is a signe of an hypocrite when with Simon Magus we thinke this gift may be bought with money Reas 2 It is taken from the good pleasure of the Father whom it hath pleased that in Christ all fulnesse of life should dwell Col. 1.19 And when he which is our life shall appeare wee shall appeare with him 1 Cor. 1.30 And therefore since God hath concluded and shut up all the springs of life in Christ and out of Christ there is nothing but death the good pleasure of the Father hath determined this point that he having given us this eternall life in his Son there is no deriving life from any fountaine but only from the Son Vse If upon our having or not having of Christ depends our having or not having of life then from hence you see an evident ground of triall of every one of our estates whether we be alive or dead would any man know whether he have or not have life consider then whether you have or not have Christ And from hence you may discerne three grounds of triall to discerne whether we have Christ or no. First consider what it is to have a Christ Secondly what it is to have the Son Thirdly what signes there be of life and hereby wee shall have direction whether we have Christ or no and by this we may informe our selves aright in this particular This point containes in it the pith and marrow of Christianity so far as any comfort of it may redound to us First then let us consider what signes the Holy Ghost hath given us of our having of Christ We are said to have Christ four wayes in Scripture First by the honour or service or worship of him Secondly in some sense wee are said to have Christ by purchase Thirdly by way of Covenant Fourthly by way of free acceptance when God offers him First a man is said to have God or to have Christ that worships him and the very worshipping of him is the having of him so you read Exod. 20.3 Thou shalt have no other gods but me it is the expresse words of the Commandement And by having of God there he meanes thus much Thou shalt worship no other gods but me worship me and thou hast me worship any other and thou hast another god and not me So have the Lord Jesus Christ by worshipping of him and you have him fully Psal 45.10 11. He is the Lord thy God and worship thou him implying that as God hath set over his Son to us to be our Lord so we must receive accept and worship him this is that which Moses and the people of Israel sung He is my God and is become my salvation Exod. 15.2 He is my God and he is my Fathers God and therefore I will exalt him So that to set up and exalt God in our hearts and lives and to worship him is all one this sets up the Lord to worship him is to be our God Now a little better to understand this point that you may conceive what this worship of Christ is you are to conceive that worship is performed to Christ in minde in heart in life both in our obedience that wee performe in our life in suffering and patience which wee yeeld to God in our lives by all this we worship Christ and so have him 1 Part of the worship of Christ viz. in the mind and judgement First in our mindes we then indeed worship Christ when we have him in high estimation The worship and honour that we owe to Christ is to have him in high esteem Cant. 5 10. She the Spouse there may well call him her beloved Christ is my Christ when he is to me the chiefest of ten thousand Psal 89.6 Who among the sonnes of the mighty can be likened to the Lord. And Exod. 15.11 Who is a God like unto thee When the soule of a man doth esteem of Christ above all other things in the world when there is nothing that the soule so prizes as the Lord Jesus Christ then the soul hath him and herin lies the difference between spiritual earthly things you have an high esteem of an earthly thing and yet have it not a man may highly prize a good bargain and yet have it not but no man sets an high price upon Christ but hee that hath him spirituall things we wholly neglect untill we have them and when we have them then there oisn-thing with us comparable to them untill a man have his portion in the word of God it is but a thing of small value to him and so the Spirit of Gods grace and the blood of Christ untill a man have it it is but a light vaine thing to him yea till he have the Lord Jesus himselfe no spirituall thing is of any value with him but so soone as ever the heart begins to prize Jesus Christ as the chiefest of all the blessings that ever God bestowed upon the sonnes of men and if the soule thinke To prize Christ is to worship him that had he but his part in Christ he were the happiest man in the world in thus prizing him he worships him and in worshipping him hee hath him Now you must conceive that all worship stands in advancing another with the debasing of our selves we humble our selves that we may advance another Now if our debasement to them be such as is not compatible to a creature as when we subject our heart and spirits to them this is divine honour Now that soule that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as the highest in his owne esteem he debases himself to the dust in his spirit before him John 1.27 It is the speech of John Baptist speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ He that commeth after me is preferred before me whose shooe latchet I am not worthy to loose This is a true worshipping of Christ when in
a pleasant place if we have him for our portion we have enough therein the soul is fully satisfied and if we have lost him we chiefly mourne for that our chiefest care is to get him and we mourne most bitterly for want of him Zach. 12.10 and we make it our desire cheifely to have him and then we truly have him when we so set him up in our hearts we may affect many earthly blessings and want them as gold and silver and friends and health and yet want them all but no man desires Christ thus but he hath him I meane if he desire him as his cheifest good the having of any blessing doth not so rejoyce his heart nor the want of it so afflict him such a soul hath Christ Object But the church in Cant. 3.1 she wanted Christ and yet earnestly desired him therefore a soul may have a strong desire to Christ and yet be without him how can she be said not to finde Christ and yet to have him Ans She could neither have loved him nor have sought him nor have so known the worth of him if he had not loved her first and if she in some measure had not had him But when she saith she found him not the meaning is not in that feeling and comfort not in that measure she sought for not in that life and power her soul desired she sought him by night in a dark time but though she wanted the comfort of Christ in his ordinances as she then desired yet she had Christ and had true fellowship with him else she could never have so loved him for she saith she sought him whom her soul loved Christ when more truely worworshiped and this is indeed so much the more truer worship of him when it is so hearty in our Judgments we prize him as the chiefest blessing in heaven and in earth and in our hearts we so affect him and cleave unto him so now on the contrary let the same heart look into it selfe and in comparision of Christ he not only in his Judgement basely esteemes of himselfe but in our affections we look at our selves as loathsome in comparison of Christ This you shall finde to be true the more the heart doth inwardly love Christ the lesse we do love our selves so when God revealed himselfe to Job he cryed out I am vilde Job 40.4 and then he abhors himself and repents in dust and ashes There is no soul that hath any high esteeme of God or any strong affection to him but the more highly and deeply he affects him the more he disaffects himselfe and loathes himselfe as unmeet to come into the presence of the Lord when as Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord sitting upon the cherubins he cryed out woe is me I am undone for I am a man of uncleane lips c. Esa 6.5.6 Sweetest frame of Spirit this shal you ever finde to be the frame of the spirit of a christian the more deeply he affects Christ the more inwardly he loaths himself he looks at himselfe as fit rather to be swallowed up of Judgment then capable of any mercy not only greive for his sin against Christ or not only the more fear his sin Note or the more be ashamed of his sin by how much the more he sees the glory of Christ but he so much the more loathes himself as one cleane out of heart he abhors himself as an unclean abominable thing that if he could go out of himselfe and be severed from his own soul he would never own himself more and therefore Christ puts self denial for a principall part of his worship Luk. 9.23 this very denial of our selves is a worship of Christ hereby we so affect Christ that we are quite out of conceit and love of our selves And so loath our selves for our sins as they make us unmeet to be joyned to so glorious an head as christ and then indeed we have him 3 3. Part of the worshiping of Christ A third part of this worship of him is in our life And in our life we worship Him by obedience in doing his will and by patience in suffering his will or any thing comfortably for his sake Vniversall obedience Hearty obedience is a true and sincere and reall signe of this worship of Christ and true sincere obedience to him is a true having of him This is first when a man hath such respect to all the Commandements of God as that there is none of them but he greatly delights in it Psal 119.6 then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect to all thy Commandements He lookes at them all with such respect as the Commandements of a great God he respects them all as Gods Commandements When as a man is willing to take up every Commandement of Christ he submits to them all every one And which is more as he hath respect to all Gods Commandements so he hath respect to all Gods Commandements in all his wayes there is a double universality of obedience and they both hold forth this truth it brings into subjection every thought and Imagination to the will of Christ 2 Cor. 10.9 now this is a marvellous subjection that a man is not to dare to allow himselfe in so much as a thought unlesse it be in a way of obedience to the will and Word of God unlesse a thought be suitable to the will of Christ and allowable to the word of Christ hee dare not accept it when a man hath such a professed subjection to Christ that as he respects every Commandement of God so he would not be at his owne choyce in so much as in any one thought and this is such solid and compleate worship of Christ as that a greater honor cannot be don to him Math. 4.10 him only shalt thou serve he will not allow himselfe in one evill thought much lesse will he allow himselfe to speak evill words or least of all to do this or that evill in the sight of God so that this is the worship of him when we subject all the passages of our heart and life to his will we serve the Lord and not man Col. 3.23.24 we do not any thing in our callings but we do it in obedience to Christ and according to the rules of Christ and for the glory of Christ and this is the service we do to Christ not a passage in our whole life but we desire to have respect to all Gods Commandements and this is a right and true having of him And as it is thus for our obedience in doing his will so is it for our patience in suffering his will there is a glorious worship given to Christ in patience when as if so be it be the will of God to call us to suffer we lay our hands upon our mouthes and sit down and quiet our selves in this that it is the will of Christ it should be so and being for the
to be the Lords and offer themselves up to him and when God requires it of us we yeeld our selves to him and desire God to be a God to us then he is our God and we are his people by way of Covenant 2 Cor. 8.5 They gave themselves first to the Lord and then unto us by the will of God when we have bestowed our selves upon God he is not wanting to receive us to bee his people Now for further opening of this It was said this Covenant was made with God by way of sacrifice Psal 50.5.7 that was according to the sacrifice which the people of God did solemnly offer before God of which you read Exod. 24.3 to the end of the eighth ver Moses told the people the words of the Lord and the people answered with one voyce and said All the words which the Lord hath said wee will heare it and doe it They promise themselves to be an obedient people to God what ever he commands them that will they hear and that will they do And on the other side Moses tooke the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it upon the people and by this meanes they did passe into Covenant with God It implyes thus much when we come to make a Covenant with God we professe our selves as guilty of death and therefore look up to Christ desiring that his death might be imputed to us and we thereupon offer our selves soules and bodies to bee obedient to God to the death onely we require this back againe of God that as we give up our selves a sacrifice to him so that the Lord Jesus Christ might be imputed unto us and the blood of Christ and the life of Christ might be communicated to us his life of righteousnesse and holinesse and of eternal glory all that life that is in Christ might become ours this doth God require of them and this is to make a Covenant with God by way of sacrifice for the Burnt-offering vers 5. was a Type of Christ the Meat-offering was a Type of the peoples giving up themselves to God and this is to make a Covenant by sacrifice we confesse we deserve death but for time to come we desire to give up our selves to do and suffer his will onely we desire that the blood of Christ might be sprinkled upon our souls and that we might live in his sight Now those that have thus made a Covenant with God hee calls them his people and Saints Thus you see what it is and wherein this Covenant stands sometimes some branch of this is expressed in other Covenants God promises to Abraham that he will be a God to him that is he will not only be a good Father to him nor only a good Master or Tutour nor only a good King nor a good Phisitian but what soever is good that is in God and it is but a drop but a sparke of the well-spring of life in him all the goodnesse that is dispersed in the creature flowes from him there is goodnesse in a good Father or Magistrate or Minister or Friend but when God undertakes to bee a God to us he promises to be to us whatsoever is good in the creature a good Father a good Friend a good Phisitian whatever is good for soule and body he will bee all in all to us and that partly in his owne person and partly in so ordering matters Extent of the Covenant on Gods part that all those things wherein his goodnesse is communicated he will so dispose them that we shall see a goodnesse of God in them all we shall see the presence and goodnesse of God in all the blessings we partake in this world he will be whatsoever is needfull for us in every kind and though any meanes should faile yet God will not faile us this do we desire of God God a fountain of goodnes to his when we desire him to be our God God is an heape and fountaine of goodnesse and he undertakes so to be us Now as wee expect this from God that he would be a God to us so we desire also and offer our selves back again to God to be obedient to his will and to waite upon him for all that which he hath promised us to expect it and to waite for it And when we undertake to be obedient to him not that we promise it in our owne names and for our owne parts but in the behalfe of every soule that belongs to us as wee desire a blessing upon all that belongs to us so we offer up our selves to God and our wives and children Extent of the Covenant on our part and servants and kindred and acquaintance and all that are under our reach either by way of subordination or co-ordination so farre as in our power we may reach either by Commandement or counsell we do as much as in us lyes promise to God that we and our housholds wil serve the Lord Josh 24.15 hee and his houshold that is his children and servants and all that are bought with mony they will all serve the Lord this they offer to God as a Father in a family he and his so much as he is able will prevaile with them to keep Gods Commandements and God will be a God to them all a Father and Master a Magistrate and Minister Husband Friend and Phisitian and all and whatsoever is good thus you see how God comes to be ours by way of Covenant For further clearing of this poynt there is a three-fold Covenant Covenant three fold wherein God doth bind himselfe to his people and we back again to him according as there is among the reasonable creatures 1 The first is Between Prince and People so the high Priest made a Covenant between him and between all the people and between the King that they should be the Lords people and such a Covenant there is usually in all well governed Common-wealths unlesse the King comes in by way of Conquest and Tyranny but in well settled Common-wealths there is a Covenant and Oath between Prince and People 2 There is a Covenant between Man and Wife of which it is said Prov. 2.17 Which forsaketh the Guide of her Youth and forgetteth the Covenant of her God These are all called the Covenant of God he is a party in the Covenant ever 3 Another is an Oath or a Covenant of God to passe betweene Friend and Friend such was the Covenant between Jonathan and David 1 Sam. 20.16 Now there is a certain Covenant between God and his people in al these that look what a King requires of his People or the people of a King the very same doth God require of his people and the people of God that offers himself to be a God to his people that is a Governor a Provider for and a protector of his people to fight their Battels for them and to guide and rule them in peace and justice and the people undertake to be
a woman in true conjugall affection looke at no more but at the very bare man True love to Christ wherein it is if there be true love in her towards him she is content to have him though she have nothing else but his person so if our hearts be truly set upon Christ we are content to have him though wee should never see good day with him though wee should never see peace of conscience with him though no comfort of grace in him yet would the soule say that is truely affected to Christ give me Christ and I have enough who or what is there besides Christ What is there Why there is variety of excellent graces But whom have I in earth but thee As if ye should put all other things in comparison against or with Christ they are nothing to him then surely you have Christ But how much will this discord from the fellowship of Christ the Sonnes and Daughters of men who when they see the costlinesse of the wayes of Christ they will neither seeke after Christ nor his benefits But as for pardon of sin as it passeth all understanding so it passeth their desires And for peace of conscience they hope they have a good conscience or if not they doe not search to know it and as for the graces of the spirit and subduing of lusts they have a good hope and beleive as well as the best And for the Kingdome of glory they hope if God grant them mercy they shall come to heaven at the last These men are far from having the Lord Jesus and life in him they are so far off from seeking the Sonne as that they do not so much as seek those mercies and benefits which in Christ are conveyed to their soules they neither have him nor none of his They say to the Almighty depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy law Job 21.14 of such God saith They would have none of me Psal 81.11 not only have him but none of him that is nothing that was his not any saving benefit of his the world we would have but none of those choyce and heavenly blessings of Christ no pardon of sin no peace of conscience no care of Christianity or faithfull Ministery no feare of God nor keeping of his Commandements deare hearts for us how shall we ever conceive that ever we should have life in Christ when we doe not so much as desire the very benefits of Christ which yet a man may desire and loose all too and when a man hath not so much as an affection to the things of Christ it is very dangerous But secondly when a man is in this case that there is a desire in a man after the benefits of Christ more then after Christ himselfe all this while you want that sincerity upon which Christ wil give us a comfortable meeting and speake peace to our soules we are not yet come to that condition as in which he wil say My wel-beloved thou art all faire and there is no spot in thee he yet sees not a true conjugall affection in us towards him so as that though we should never finde grace nor glory by him yet he is the chiefe desire of our soules Suppose a woman should see a man that hath a desire after her but he chiefly aimes at her estate to provide for himselfe and looks no further wonder not if she should say to him You seek not me but mine she may wel rid her hands of him in such a case and truly so is the case here between us the Lord Jesus so long as he findes that we come to him and seek and pray and wrastle and what would we have Oh pardon of sinne and peace of conscience and power of grace to be but as other Christians are that we could pray and beleeve as they doe and finde such comfort as they have and this is the thing that the soule is chiefly set upon now all this while that we come thus to Christ we must not think that Christ is to blame if he tarry a little longer then we expect for we may seek him and not finde him because we seeke not so much him as his benefits and the rich treasures of grace and mercy and peace that are layed up in him without measure the greatest part of the world doe not love their soules nor the Lord Jesus so wel as to love him for his grace and goodnesse sake but yet among better men there is a world of selfe love many a man would have his sinne pardoned because he would have his conscience at quiet we may thanke our selves for such affections as these not but that such affections may spring from the grace of God for men by nature never dreame of such things as these be but yet though such affections may spring from the grace of God yet you shall ever finde such soules to detaine the grace of God in unrighteousnesse and out of selfe love use them all to their owne ends and looke not that God may be glorified in and by them nor that his wil be done but oh that the soule might have peace and that sinne might be pardoned and there it rests When our desires is chiefly set upon spirituall gifts if wee loose much comfort and fellowship with Christ that else we might have had we must not marvell at it for our desires are set not chiefly upon Christ but upon the things of Christ our desire is not after the person but after the goods and benefits of Christ Observe the Apostles expression Rom. 8.32 He hath given us his owne Sonne he doth not say he that hath given us peace and pardon of sinne will not he give all other things also Or wil not he give us Christ He reasons not from Christs benefits to Christ but thus he reasons He that hath given us his owne Sonne will with his Sonne and after his Sonne give us all other things At the second hand comes in all these benefits of pardon of sinne and strength of grace and power against our lusts c. these things come in as attendants upon the former and therefore if God give us first to looke at Christ that in him we have life of justification and sanctification and consolation eternall glory peace and grace and all then we have him and life in him else we may have the outward comforts but stand long enough at Christs Bed-chamber doore before he let us in Let it therefore be a word of direction and exhortation to every soul that desires to have that truth of life and peace and grace wrought in his heart that wil never dye have you respect chiefly to the Lord Jesus Christ and long and seeke more after him then after all Spirituall blessings and much more above all worldly blessings If you shall therefore refuse Christ because you thinke he is but a melancholly person you wil never have him if you stand upon
such terms if you wil not have him unlesse he be thus and thus qualified then let him alone never talke of him rest not in looking after any of his benefits it is a good thing to looke for such benefits as accompany Christ but rest not there content not your selves in such wrastlings never thinke you are of a right spirit and that you have a lively life and such as by which you shall maintaine constant fellowship with God unlesse you finde your hearts longing after Christ My soule is a thirst for the living God Psal 42.1 2. Let your hearts be chiefly set upon him for his owne sake you can tell what it is to set your affections more upon a person then upon their estate and you must know that your affections are more set upon Christ then upon any benefit he hath unlesse you finde Christ more then his gifts you shall finde little peace in your way you must see that all even the worst of his things are beautifull and comly and is more to be desired then Gold is sweeter then the Honey or the Honey-combe he that thus hath the Sonne he hath life the Sonne of God God and Man as he is our Son and our Saviour let the desire of your soule be unto him and your affections run out after him be you for him and then he wil be for you Hos 3.2 3 4. Stand not so much upon this what Christ wil be for you but be sure that you be for him let friends and all goe and be sure you be only for him Though Christ love us first yet he wil make us no assurance of his love to us till he see us love him and if we chuse him first before and above all his benefits then we shall have him make him then your assurance and your Kingdome shall not be shaken thinke not that he wil make you a feoffement before you be married to him but we must be content to come to him and take him as he is and stand upon no conditions with him You must not looke for assurance of Christs benefits till you have himselfe and if you chuse him then you shall have assurance to your soules that he hath chosen you first you cannot aske more then hee wil give but first you must have himselfe he wil give you a kingdome but you must first be a little flocke all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Thus chuse him above all his benefits and you shall have him and life in him SERMON V. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life FRom the second part of the words He that hath the Sonne there are three sorts of Heads of notes drawne One is already handled to wit That such as have the Sonne they have not so much nor doe so much stand upon nor so much desire the benefits of the Sonne as the Sonne himselfe This is the Spirituall life of a Christian while some men labour more for Spirituall gifts then for Christ himselfe the true Christian is only for him and let his gifts goe we now come to the second head of notes from the word SONNE A man is said to have the Sonne when he hath the spirit of the Son A man is said to have Christ when he hath the Spirit and therefore you may read 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and the Lord is that Spirit viz. He had spoken before of a Spirit of righteousnesse and of the Spirit of grace dispensed in the Ministery of the Gospel now the Lord is the Spirit not only so called because he is the Giver of that Spirit and Grace but also as there is a secret fellowship between Christ and the Spirit so that have one and you have both have not the Spirit of Christ and you have none of Christ Rom. 8.9 If a man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And notable to this purpose is that in Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts and verse â— He redeemed them which were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Implying that to whomsoever Christ came for into the World to save and redeeme all those have fellowship with the Son and into all their hearts he hath shed abroad the spirit of the Son So that look how Christ is and was in this world so are we in the world hee that hath the Sonne hath the spirit of the Son Now that I may the better open this point unto you because it is of speciall use for our direction in a Christian course There is a Threefold spirit of a Son A threefold spirit dispensing himself three wayes and bestowing a threefold gift upon us which gives us the Lord Jesus Christ to be ours and us to him to be his First A spirit that doth knit us to the Lord Jesus Christ and him to us Secondly A spirit of liberty Thirdly A spirit of prayer These three the Holy Ghost takes special notice of in this case First The spirit of God wheresoever it is shed abroad in any member of Christ it doth make us one with the Lord Jesus it unites us into one fellowship of nature a likenesse in affection and disposition and a likenesse in all the graces of God as John 17.21 our Saviour prayes the Father that all those whom he had given him might bee one with him as thou and I art one thou in me by thy spirit and I in thee by the same spirit and this spirit is such as makes not onely mee one with thee but them also one with mee and they also in like sort one with another it makes us and Christ us it were one Hence it is that as soone as we receive him we of his fullnesse receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 There is a conformity between Christ and us one and the same Image stamped upon us both Rom. 8.29 a like in grace a like in affection and in continuance of affection a like in every thing For a little further clearing of the point The same spirit of Christ being shed abroad into the heart of every one that hath Christ doth worke a threefold conformity or likenesse betweene Christ and us First A threefold conformity between Christ and his A likenesse in Nature Secondly A likenesse in Offices Thirdly In Estate both of humiliation and exaltation And all this is done by the mighty power of the spirit of Christ First For the Nature of Christ by the precious promises of God which are made unto us The first Conformity and which the Holy Ghost doth apply to us We are made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 There is a likenesse and a participation of the divine nature and we are made partakers of the like grace in Christ Jesus and that grace for grace
themselves Note this and what a grief it is to them to see this and that duty neglected in the family and they are very free to God But afterwards when they come to be Free men and are for themselves that they may now have as much liberty as they will pray when they will and take what time they will to instruct those that are about them which time they wanted when they were servants and which they then mourned under And yet whereas then they would serve God with much freedome and liberty of spirit were then free from the law of sinne and free for any duty There is now a secret kind of bondage come upon them their hearts is more imbondaged and insnared and imcombred and intangled and so dutyes come not to be performed either with that constancy and care or not with that inlargement of heart as they were when they were servants And therefore that is the reason why the Apostle bids them not bee over-ready to challenge freedom But this shewes you that there is a marvellous liberty even in those that are servants they are free from the service of men in their hearts and consciences and then most at liberty to serve God when they are most bound to serve men yet in their hearts and consciences they are free from their service they are not bound in conscience to doe any thing but what is the will of God and this is a marvellous great freedom that a man is not bound to become a slave to other mens wil and to do as other men do he is not bound to do any thing that is unlawfull and this is a spirit of liberty that makes even a servant to have a spirit of freedome he is a Free-man his heart is free to Gods Service and this is from nothing else but from this spirit of a sonne a spirit of liberty Now on the contrary side as by this spirit of liberty a Childe of God is free from the feare of sinne so he hath a certaine kinde of priviledge of peace in his soule and of freenesse and readinesse to every Christian duty and also he hath a certaine priviledge of dominion over all the Creatures It is the nature and proper definition of liberty Freedome from evil and liberty unto the enjoyment of some good things it sets me free from sinne and gives me liberty and peace of conscience from the same Spirit of the Lord Jesus it sets me at liberty to run the way of Gods Commandements Psal 119.32 And Gods people are a willing people Psal 110.3 This is indeed a spirit of liberty it inlarges me to dominion over men no Creature in heaven or in earth but a Christian is able to rule him to his owne advantage a Christian servant wil turne his Masters government to his advantage and so all his enemies tyranny he will be sure to be better by them all and he wil grow and thrive in his spirit by all the dangers and evils that can befall him in this world I know not in what better to instance then in that of Gen. 25.23 The Oracle of God said to Rebecca the elder shall serve the younger And this is a thing in much dispute among Divines wherein this was ever made good and say That Esau was never a servant to Jacob for you shall finde in the 32. and 33. Chapters of Genesis that Jacob uses this word My Lord Esau and beseeches his Lordship to goe before and his servant would follow after and so it stood in their outward condition And Divines say Though the promise be true of the persons both seperate from the Wombe yet the service was not so But we need not straighten our selves for the explication of it for Esaus Lording and domineering over Jacob was as serviceable to Jacobs spirit as if he had layed aside his state and come and served Jacob and kept his Sheep the bitternesse of Esau against him did him more reall service then all the service of all Iacobs servants could reach him Whence was it that Iacob went a Pilgrimage from his Fathers house and that in a strange Country God so prospered him that whereas he went out but with his staffe in his hand he returned back againe with two bands or two droves And whence was it that Iacob made such a solemne Vow to God and kept it in so much faithfulnesse that if God would keepe him in that journey God should be his God for ever Did not all this come from the rage and wrath of Esau towards him Esau did him that good service and when he came back againe and heard newes that Esau came out with foure hundred men against him and thought to come to spoyle them all what a marvellous service was this to Iacob as you may read Chap. 32. from 9. to the end Esau by this meanes set him on wrastling with God by prayer and therefore wrastles with God all that night and so wrastles that God changes his name upon it Thou shalt not be called Jacob a wrastler but Israel a Prevailer thou hast prevailed with God and thou shalt prevaile with men And now he is past the worst with his Brother and when he meets him expresses much naturall affection and is marvellous glad to see him and offers to help him to drive his flocks to shew you that the very emulation and envie and cruelty and ragings of the enemies of Gods Servants even when they are most incensed against them and most tread them down and insult over them then they doe them the greatest service that is possible to be done through the mighty power of the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ that turnes all into contraries that even when men doe most domineere over them then they doe them the best service Looke as it was with the Tyrants of Syria and Aegypt that made waste of Gods people It is a notable speech that in Dan. 11.35 36. It is to purge them and to cleanse them and make them white A Scullion in the Kitchin when he scoures his Pewter when he first takes it in hand you would thinke he would quite spoile it but he but scoures and cleares it up and makes it more bright then it was before the end of all is but to take away the filth and to make it cleare and bright And so an Huswife that takes her linning she Sopes it and bedawbs it and it may be defiles it with dung so as it neither looks nor smels wel and when she hath done she rubs it and buckes it and wrings it and in the end all this is but to make it cleane and white and truly so it is here when as Tyrants most of all insult over Gods people and scoure them and lay them in Lee or Dung so as the very name of them stinks yet what is this but to purge them and to make them white and it is a great service they doe to the people of God in so
doing and this is a great measure of liberty that a Childe of God can tell how to make an advantage of all the afflictions he meets with in this world these things doe but serve his turne and afterward he wil say he could have missed none of them so that this is a second worke of the spirit of the Sonne it is a spirit of liberty Onely take this word for a Conclusion And that is thus much Examine now and try whether you have the Son or no which you may know by your having or not having the spirit of the Son Say then have you the spirit of the Son viz. have you that spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes you to be of one and the same nature with him of the same Offices and same Estate with him can you find this in truth and that with comfort and honesty you may reason this is the frame of my spirit such is the Spirit of Christ And such is the spirit of the godly and if in any thing you faile your spirit is against it do you find that you are in some measure invested with a royall spirit that you can over-come your selves and the temptations of this world and are you able to offer up spirituall sacrifice to God of prayer and praises And doe you finde a spirit of Prophesie shed abroad into you that makes you sensible of and privie to the secret paths of God Doe you finde that Christ was most glorious when he was most humbled and so are you and when you enjoy outward blessings your hearts are not puffed up with them these are not the goodly stones that your hearts and eyes are set upon but you have greater matters then these to minde then I say it is the very Spirit of Christ that makes you to dye with Christ as well as Christ to dye for you he may dye for many men but he only dyes with those that are brought on to the fellowship of his grace if a Spirit of Christ so knit you together that he is yours and you are his then you have the Sonne because you have the spirit of the Sonne because you are sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts but now if there be no proportion no conformity to Christ in holinesse and righteousnesse not patient and meek as he is And though we be not such yet we allow our selves in not being such and are ever and anon starting aside from him And if we have not his Offices nor rule over our lusts nor over the world and we can neither pray nor prophesie and shew forth no spirituall life in our lives cannot deny our selves that wee may shew forth the hidden man of the heart then consider that for the present we have not yet Christ because we have not the spirit of Christ And also if we be not yet free from the fear of death And take no care to be free from the dominion and power of sinne but sinne hath still a power over us like a law and are not yet free from the service of men but as our Masters and Governours say so it must be if we yet know not how to rule men for our own advantage we have not yet received the spirit of Christ wee cannot tell how to serve our Masters with liberty of spirit we know not how to make advantage of them SERMON VI. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life IT now remaines that we come to shew what it is to have the Sonne by a spirit of prayer but of this we shal have further occasion to speak in the 14 15 and 16 verses and therefore we shall leave it now and speak to it then You may remember we said there was three notes to discern whether we had the Son no. The first was if we desired not Christ for his benefits but cheifly for himselfe The second was If we have received the spirit of the Sonne We now come to speake of a third signe a point more easie to be gathered then the former but though most common yet not to be neglected but being well applyed will bee of speciall use to the edification and salvation of the hearers for every truth in his place is divine and precious The third signe He that hath the Sonne hath him for his Prince And therefore the next note is this He that hath the Son he hath him not only for a Saviour but for his Lord and the Prince A point which upon sundry occasions hath been touched but now to speake of it more fully There is no man that hath the Son but as he hath him for his Saviour so he hath him for his Prince Acts 3 3â— Him hath God exalted with his right hand whom they slew a Prince and a Saviour so that he that hath Christ hath him not only as a Saviour but as a Prince to whomsoever he is a Saviour to them he is also become a Prince it were a wonderfull dishonour to him to save them whom he doth not rule to save them from the power of the grave and to leave them still in their sinnes and unbroken off from their evill wayes it were much dishonor to him It is a dishonour to parents to have children and to have them untaught and unmannerly And God hath given the life blood of his owne Son to purchase us unto himselfe and therefore he would not onely save us but rule us or else we shall never have him for our Saviour So that here is two points to be opened Point 1 First Hee that hath the Sonne hath him for his Saviour Point 2 Secondly Hee that hath the Sonne hath him also for his Lord. It is an usuall saying every man would have Christ for a Saviour but rare are those that will have him for their Ruler and Governour But though the saying be true in respect of the common conceit of men yet in truth I say they are but rare Christians that wil have him for a Saviour so far off are they from desiring him as their Lord. For two things there be that goe to the having of Christ for a Saviour To have Christ for a Savior requires two things First He that will have Christ for a Saviour must look up to him for salvation in all his wayes and distresses we have other Saviours but not him if we looke for salvation else-where Esa 40.22 Look unto me all ye ends of the earth and be ye saved there is no God nor Saviour besides me therefore look to me and be ye saved So that if a man wil have God for his Savior he must look to him from one end of the earth to the other we are at the utmost corner of the earth and if we will be saved we must looke up to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation as David looked towards the Temple at Jerusalem for salvation
so they who look towards the Lord Jesus for salvation may be saved in what place soever they are waite for salvation from him and long for salvation by him and look not to any means but so far as they are guided and ordered by him and in whatsoever distresses you are whether in conscience or in distresse through bodily sicknesse or pennury or imprisonment yet look to me and bee yee saved You may read the like in Esa 8.17 I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the House of Israel and will looke for him The Prophet at that time saw the Church and Common-wealth of Israel much distempered and in much distresse both in regard of sinne and misery Now for him to look for or expect such Princes as might reforme it in the Commonwealth or such Priests as might reforme things amisse in the Church it had been a vain thing for they were all bent to backsliding till the wrath of God burst out and took hold upon them but though there was no hope in any of the Princes nor Priests yet I will waite upon the Lord that hideth his face from the House of Jacob and will look for him Though God suffer all things to go to wrack and ruine yet I will waite for him and look for salvation from him and by him so that suppose God should hide his face from any soul of us that we lye in darknes and in the shaddow of death or if that we should see our selves in distresse of the outward man or see Church or Commonwealth in many sinfull distempers it is not now for a man to look about him hither or thither for help and succor but to the holy one of Israel And this is indeed to have him for a Saviour he that hath him for a Saviour waites for him in all distresses So Esa 17.7 the time will come when God will gather his people unto him as the gleanings of berryes when they shall be left like the shaking of an Olive tree two or three berryes in the top of the uppermost bough four or five in the outmost fruitfull branches saith the Lord. Now at that time shall a man looke to his maker and his eyes shall have respect to the holy one of Israel Which shewes you that those who are Gods gleaned ones from the World that are brought on to fellowship with Christ in the Election and Salvation these are they who look to their Maker and their eyes are unto him the holy one of Israel And so God is said to be not because he is so in himselfe but because he makes Israel his holy one and therefore his eyes hath respect unto him you know in the cast of an eye wee shew respect when the creature lookes after this and that in the World and fastens and sets his eye upon any thing there he hath no respect to the holy one of Israel but to the Creature only but when the Creature being conscious of his owne insufficiency to help it selfe by any meanes it selfe can use but hath respect to the holy God that makes Israel holy and is acknowledged of Israel to be holy this is indeed to have God for our Saviour and so he is to all such as are gathered together unto him This is livelily exprest in the example of good Jehoshaphat 2 Chron. 20.3 he sought the Lord and in the audience of the people he made a solemne prayer to God and concludes with this in the latter end of the twelfth verse We know not what to say or to doe but our eyes are unto thee Now this having our eyes upon him in time of distresse whether of Warre or Pestilence or famine or anguish of conscience or poverty and yet we have our eyes towards the Holy one of Israel we know not what to doe and our power wil not reach us any helpe without Gods blessing no not in outward things but our eyes are unto him this argues that surely Iehoshaphat had the Lord for his Saviour because he had such respect unto him Notable is that expression Psal 121.1 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hils from whence commeth my help it commeth even from the Lord. The Lord dwelt upon mount Zion and mount Moriab there he manifested himselfe in his Ordinances and therefore he put not his confidence in the vallies and pits of the City but in him that dwels in the hils and lookes for salvation from thence as he expounds himselfe in the next words My help commeth even from the Lord So then if so be that we doe indeed look up unto the Lord for salvation and for help and preservation and deliverance and restoring of any comfort wee have been deprived of sometimes justly and sometimes unjustly whatsoever our condition be if in all our distresses we can looke up unto him and our hearts waite for salvation wholly from him This argues that we have him for our Saviour because we have such respect unto him and elsewhere we looke not though we may use lawfull means yet our eyes are not upon the meanes but we looke a great deal further no further expect deliverance from any means then we see the Holy one of Israel the God of our salvation expressing and revealing himselfe in the meanes And to adde this one instance more of Ionah Chap. 4. one that went away from God and was unwilling to be directed by God and therefore he was over-whelmed in the Sea because he would not be ruled and bowed to the will of the Lord Jesus and therefore God sent forth the most unruly Creature that God hath set aside the Devils in Hell and it may be they have a hand in it too in raising the horrible tempest that raged against them and when Ionah was cast out the most unruly Creature a Whale meets with this unruly Prophet of God and swallowed him up that he thought himselfe in the belly of Hell Now when God had in some measure broken his heart and in the Whales belly begins to consider how unrulily he had dealt with God and said Chap. 4. he said I am cast out of thy sight yet will I looke againe towards thy holy temple Implying that though he had been most unruly and of a good man the most of all you read of yet when he saw God for his unrulinesse meet him with such affictions yet when he said he was cast out of his sight yet I will looke again towards thy holy temple How could he tell which way the Temple stood when he was in the Whales belly yet his heart was towards the Temple which was a type of Christ he in his heart had respect to the place where the Temple stood and therein he shewed his respect to Christ and so having respect unto him he had him as his Saviour most unruly Ionah yet he having respect to Christ as his Saviour he is delivered and saved so that you see he that hath Christ as a
Sonne he hath him as a Saviour aad those that have him for a Saviour they waite on him and only look for salvation from him There is a second duty for every man to performe that hath Christ for his Saviour and that is he doth not only looke for salvation from him when he stands in need of it as we daily doe for Salvation is deliverance out of danger and preservation in a good estate and he lookes for all salvation from him Psal 3. last Salvation belongs to God and though many means may be used yet it is the Lord and his mercy and blessing that saves and delivers and nothing else and Gods servants they know it But there is a second duty in having Christ for a Saviour and that is in looking up to Christ and cleaving to him and not only desiring salvation from him from all our distresses Christ a Saviour from sin as well as from distresse but salvation also from all our sins and he that hath Christ for a Saviour he from would be saved from all his sins as well as from all his miseries Act. 5.31 God hath appointed him a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance to Israel and forgivenesse of sinnes there is therefore this salvation to be had in Christ not only deliverance out of the hands of dangers but from the hands of all our sins and rebellions and to be saved from them by turning from them and repenting of them and we desire not only forgivenesse of them but salvation from them to be saved from our stubborne spirits and saved out of our covetousnesse and wantonnesse and worldlinesse and carnall vanity of heart and life that we are subject to to be saved from the vaine fashions and in all these we looke for salvation from Christ we desire to be saved not only from all our distresses but especially from the sinfull distempers of our soules It is a notable Psalme the 130.1 If thou Lord should marke iniquity who should stand but there is forgivenesse with thee that thou mayest be feared I waite for the Lord my soule doth wait and in his word doe I hope My soule waiteth for the Lord more then they that watch for the morning Let Israel waite for the Lord for with him is mercy and plenteous redemption and he shall redeeme Israel from all his iniquities ver 7 8. and he is therefore called Iesus Matth. 1.21 And notable is that expression Hos 14.2 Take away all our iniquities and receive us graciously so will we give thee thankes Thus they desire salvation from all their iniquities and not so much salvation in the pardon of all their iniquities for there is more in it then forgivenesse of sinne but a turning them from them they desire both pardoning and healing and God so understood them as appeares by vers 4. God answers them That he would pardon them and heale them he wil remove them all away from them not an hoofe be left behind but all taken away There is a generation of men that are marvellous unwilling to yeeld to this so that you see it is an ordinary thing for men to say they have Christ for a Saviour but it is a rare thing to be so indeed you know how affectionate our Saviours speech is Matth 23.37 O Ierusalem Ierusalem how often would I have gathered thee under my wing of salvation but y u would not be gathered The body of the Church of God though some was gathered yet others of them would not be gathered and if it was thus with Jerusalem it is no wonder if you read the like of Babilon Ier. 51.9 We would have healed Babel but she would not be healed God sent his Church and kept it there seventy yeares among them that some of them at least might imbrace the salvation of God but she would not be healed we have used the best meanes we could to heale her but it wil not be she wil not be healed of us and therefore let us be going home againe God would not send his Church among them for nothing but he lookes for some fruits among them but since either none were gathered or so few as that they were not a considerable number therefore God will send his people home againe when they say Let us breake their bonds asunder and cast their cords from us then God will take no further paines Psal 2.3 It is a notable place that in Ier. 2.25 God cals upon his people most affectionately that they would be healed but they snuffe up their iniquities as the wind and like unto wilde Asse colts would be at liberty and take pleasure in their running at random and God said With-hold thy foot from being unshod and thy throat from thirsting after such vanities An hard matter to be willing to be saved by Christ but thou sayest desperately There is no hope I have loved strangers and after them will I goe What a marvellous speech is this in Gods own Servants when God would with-hold them from running for salvation elsewhere and from such other sins as they thirsted after no there is no hope but the course they had taken they would take and no meanes should save or draw them from their haunts so that you see it is no easie matter for a man to be willing to be saved by Christ and though many would be saved by him yet few there be that would looke for all salvation from Christ and are not willing to be saved from all their sins but are willing to keep some sins still alive in their soules Are they not ready in their hearts to say as they said Matth. 8.29 Art thou come to torment us before the time It was when Christ came to save two men from the possession of a Legion of Devils the men spoke it though the Devils acted it in them so when Christ comes to bring salvation it is a torment to our soules the two witnesses vexed men and they came but to save men it is a torment to men to have sinne pulled out of their soules as you read Act. 16.19 When the Apostles had cast out of the maide the spirit of Divination when their Masters saw that the hope of their gaine was gone they were in a rage and caused them to be stoned and left them for dead now when men take it ill that they should be saved or are loath that their children or servants should be saved take it ill that they dare no more lye and sweare and couzen and buy and sell on the Sabbath day and such and such a gaine is thereby lost and this they cannot endure it is a dangerous signe of an ill heart and therefore however it is an usuall saying that every man wil have Christ for a Saviour and yet if in truth we consider it I assure you in plaine English we wil not be saved that is our resolution when it comes to the point It is an use of Triall that we
are upon in this Discourse and therefore to proceed to the next part of the point those that have Christ for a Saviour they have him aso for a Prince Act. 5.31 God hath appointed him for a Prince Christ saveth as a Prince and a Saviour If you wil have him for a Saviour you must have him for a Prince resigne up your selves you and yours to be guided and governed by the Lord Jesus though you have never so many strong oppositions yet it must be so Isa 9.6 Vnto us a Childe is given unto us a Sonne is borne How shall I know that Christ is borne for me and this Son is given to me Why by this The government shall be upon his shoulders if the Sonne be given thee then thou art wholly governed by him and if thou beest so then he is borne and given to thee and thou shalt call his name Wonderfull If you can behold a wonderfull glorious Majesty in Christ and he to whom he is given they shall acknowledge him their Counsellour the Prince of their peace and to whom soever he is given the government of him is upon their shoulders know therefore whether he be your governour or no. Christ our Prince in two things And two things there be in having Christ for our Prince to open them plainly to you First when you resign up your selves to be wholly ruled by him in all your paths so as that you leane not to your selves not so much as in one thought but all your thoughts stand in subjection to his will 2 Cor. 10.4 5. The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God to cast downe every high imagination and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ God leaves us not one thought free nor are we willing to have our thoughts free Prov. 12.15 The thoughts of the righteous are right that is they come from a right rule the Word of God and aime at a right end the glory of God not a man that hath his part in the Lord Jesus but his thoughts are right Object You say But who hath his thoughts so rectified and set upon the Lord Jesus but he hath many vaine and covetous and proud and stubborne thoughts Who can say I have kept my heart cleane who can say that every thought in him is subdued to the obedience of Christ Answ It is true that you object for Jer. 4.14 It is a complaint and an earnest speech O Ierusalem wash thy heart from thy wickednesse that thou mayest be saved how long shall thy vaine thoughts lodge within thee So that you see a man that would have salvation by Christ he must be content to subject all his thoughts to Christ and not leave one vaine thought to lodge within him It is true Sathan may cause them to flutter in his mind Simile but he must give them no entertainment it is one thing to have a sturdy Begger that comes to the doore to rush into my house before I be aware and enforce and another thing to bid him welcome and to bid him stay and lodge there all night and to make provision for him so it may be there is many a proud rebellious thought rushes in and cals for this and that and wil be served in this and that and every faculty and part Rebellious thoughts and member must bestirre it selfe to satisfie such a thought and all must be as this thought will and sometimes scars all the house puts the whole man to agitation to consider what to doe to give it content yet they who have Christ for their Saviour they will looke to him for salvation from such sturdy thoughts as these be they will not suffer them to lodge there but get them out againe and are not at quiet but the whole man is disturbed till they be dislodged and cast out againe so they who have the Lord Jesus for their Saviour they must not give lodging to a vaine thought much lesse to a malicious and proud and desolate thought or any other wicked thought whatsoever It is true indeed there is no Christian man but he wil have vaine thoughts come in upon him but you shall observe this difference First a man that hath not Christ for his Prince Christians differenced by their thoughts he hath not one good thought comes in his minde or if it doe he doth not give it lodging there all or every imagination of his heart is evil and that continually the Originall is Omne figmentum the whole frame of a mans heart the bent and scope of his thoughts the whole suggestion of them first and last not a good thought comes in him Many a man wil say it is very fitting and meet it should be so that one day wee should turne home to God but not to give entertainment to him at this time but let him come another time and then he shall have lodging and so we deale with all good thoughts that God suggests into our hearts we like good thoughts well and sometimes we are loath to give them offence but yet are not willing to give them entertainment but are more willing to be shut of them and to turn them out of doores but a godly man if a good motion come into him it is most welcome to his soule and he entertaines it with the gladnesse of his spirit he sees it is of God his heavenly Father and he lodges it in his heart and conscience and affection and rejoyces in it and desires after it and cherisheth it and is loath to part with such thoughts when he is gotten into such a good frame Now I say therefore this is a difference a carnall man never gives entertainment to a good thought nor doe his thoughts ever aime at good ends they never goe higher then himselfe and therefore never could good thought finde lodging in him out againe it is thrust sometimes somewhat courteously sometimes discourteously but however there it must not lodge there is a world of matter to quench and damp it and to use meanes to be shut of it but it is not so with a true Christian he entertaines Christ as his Prince and he wil have every thought in him to be set upon him if a wicked thought come into a carnall mans heart it is naturall to him it takes place and is suffered to lodge there anger rests with him all night and he suffers the Sunne to goe downe upon his wrath Ephesians 4.26 27. The Devill lodges there and there hee may rest and he never takes paines to be cleansed of those evill thoughts and he cares not how long they are there But if a godly man have a wicked thought come upon him he stirres up all the faculties of his soule and the graces of the Spirit against it and doth what he can to expell and banish it and if he cannot prevaile then he wil call for aide from his Prince from
the sword of the Spirit whereby Kings are bound in chaines and Lords in Iron bonds and such honour have all the Saints he would have all the Saints of God to invest themselves with this honour that they might speake of such glorious excellent things as their words might be like to a two-edged sword to cut asunder the hearts of great Princes to bring Kings and great Lords in chaines of horrour and anguish of soule and conscience such chaines as out of which there is no redemption but by the high words of the Saints by the high promises of God to speake peace to the soules of Princes but let the high threatnings of God be in their mouthes the high Commandements of God in their mouthes and those wil binde Kings in chaines and Lords in fetters of Iron and then let the high promises of God the spirituall promises of grace be in their mouthes to set Princes at liberty and to teach their Senatours wisedome A strange kind of combination in the Spirit of grace wrought in such hearts they can call upon their hearts to be lifted up to the high things of God nothing then too great for them to exercise themselves in no Mercies nor Judgements too great no not the unsearchable counsell of God the depths of the Mysteries of God nothing is too high for them it will be prying and looking into the secret counsells of God and yet both together with most modesty when the soule is most lifted up in the wayes of God yet at the same time he lookes at himselfe as nothing and yet notwithstanding so far forth as God will be pleased to reveale it to him hee will bee searching into the deepe things of God and yet all this will hee doe with a very modest spirit Thus you have seene six combinations severally of the gracious affections that are not to bee found in nature no not set upon civill objects much lesse upon spirituall but upon civill objects they cannot be so combined together Seventhly The seventh combination of graces there is another combination of vertues strangely mixed in every lively holy Christian And that is Diligence in wordly businesses and yet deadnesse to the world such a mystery as none can read but they that know it For a man to rise early and goe to bed late and eate the bread of carefullnesse not a sinfull but a provident care Diligence in worldly busines and yet dead to the world and to avoid idlenesse cannot indure to spend any idle time takes all opportunities to be doing something early and late and looseth no opportunity go any way and bestir himselfe for profit this will he doe most diligently in his calling And yet bee a man dead-hearted to the world the diligent hand maketh rich Prov. 10.4 and you read of the godly woman that she riseth while it is yet night Prov. 31.27 And of this ye read Prov. 15.13 and 18 19.27 Now if this be a thing which is so common in the mouth of the holy ghost and you see was the practice of the greatest women then upon the earth the greatest Princes in those times the more gracious the more diligent and laborious in their callings you see it will well stand with the life of grace very diligent in worldly businesse And yet notwithstanding the very same souls that are most ful of the worlds businesses the more diligent they be in their callings yet the same persons are directed to be dead with Christ Col. 3.1 2 3. Set not your affections upon things below but on things that are above for we are dead with Christ Meaning dead to all these earthly things and all the comforts here below they are not our life but our life is hid with Christ in God and therefore to this world are we dead And Paul therefore so speakes of it Gal. 6.14 The world is crucified to me and I unto the world the very same men that are so crucified to the world yet the spirits of those men though their affections be in heaven yet their labours are in the earth Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven but our imployments is here upon the earth diligently taking paines in our callings ever very busie in outward imployments Observe the Ante learne her wayes and be wise Prov. 6. be busie like Antes morning and evening early and late and labour diligently with their hands and with their wits and which way soever as may be the best improvement of a mans tallent it must be imployed to the best advantage and yet when a man hath laboured thus busily yet his heart and mind and affections are above he goes about all his businesse in obedience to Gods Commandement and he intends the glory of God and he thereby sets himselfe and his houshold at more liberty for the service of God in their places and so though hee labour most diligently in his calling yet his heart is not set upon these things he can tell what to doe with his estate when he hath got it Say not therefore when you see two men labouring very diligently and busily in the world say not here is a couple of worldlings for two men may do the same businesse and have the same successe and yet a marvellous difference between them the heart of the one may be dead to these things he looks at them as they be indeed but crums that fall from the childrens table he lookes not at them as his cheifest good but the bread of life the spirituall food of his soule that is the thing which he cheifly labours after another man places his happinesse and felicity in them and makes them his cheifest good and so there is a manifest difference between them So then you see seven combinations of graces that are in the life of holinesse and all of singular use in this kind Eightly the last vertue is a single one and that is love of enemyes Love of Enemies I say unto you love your enemies Matth. 5.44 that you may be the children of your heavenly Father Love your enemies This very grace whereby we doe love our enemyes it hath a contrary worke to nature for naturally this we shall finde to be the frame of our hearts towards our enemies we are cold and undisposed to doe any good office unto them very hard and cold and frozen towards them Those who are our enemies we take no pleasure in them but now in such a case as this the love of a Christian will come and warme the heart and thaw this cold frostinesse that is in our soules whereas before a man was cold toward his Enemies his heart now begins to reflect upon him in pitty and compassion and instead of hardnesse his heart now melts and is made soft within him to see what ill measures it could have put upon its enemies But on the contrary side the same hatred in a man that is towards his enemyes it makes a man of an hot
use this two-edged sword of the spirit to all those ends by which we come to be made perfect unto salvation and this is the scope of the spirit of God in Scripture Reason 1. Why they are written to such as beleeve As they serve for those benefits so also for those ends It is taken from the little use which unbeleevers will make of these writings till they come on to beleeving so little that were it not for some beleevers among them whom God had respect unto none of all the Apostles would have vouchsafed to have written any one Epistle to any unbeleever of any Town or Assembly none of them all writes to any but to such as beleeve on the name of the son of God had there been any benefit likely to be expected from unbeleeving Nations some or other would have written to them but from first to last look over them all and observe them whether they be written to particular persons or to particular Congregations or to Churches or Nations they are all written to such as beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus For it is with the Apostles writings as the Apostle sometimes speakes of prophesie or miracles miracles are for them that beleeve not but prophesie for them that beleeve he doth not deny but prophesie is for them that beleeve not but he speaks by way of opposition to miracles miracles are rather for them that beleeve not and he would have beleevers know it is rather for them to attend unto prophesie then unto miracles so that this is the poynt Observe it as a just ground of the Apostles dealing in these writings Because of the little use that unbeleevers will make of them Take you men that beleeve not and let them read the Word of God over again and againe and yet they receive little instruction from what they read little admonition little stirred up to any goodnesse And you shal not at all find any blessing no saving gift of God can be wrought in the heart without faith and because faith comes not by reading but by hearing therefore the Apostle writes not to them that beleeve not but to such as are beleevers If ever God had intended that the reading of these writings had been effectual to the begetting of faith surely he would have followed them with mighty works as he blessed the preaching of the Gospel in the primitive times with miraculous workes but you shal not read in any Scripture that ever God so farre blessed the Word read to any man or that he ever wrought a miracle to confirme the Word read where the word hath been taught God magnified it much in the first publishers of it til the whole world was convicted And had God been pleased at any time to thinke that these writings should be effectual to convert men to grace surely it had been a notable meanes for the Apostles to have sent sundry Epistles to many Churches to whom they should never personally come But this was their care to goe all over the world to preach here and there all the world over round about the world as much as in them lay which they needed not to have don in case the sending of an Epistle would have served the turne Notable is that speech and famous in this kind Rom. 10.14 to 17. Faith comes by hearing c. So that in very truth because the Apostles did not see of what use their writings might bee to any unbeleevers because all the work that reading could reach unto could not reach to beget and worke saving faith which is the principall scope of preaching therefore they did never addresse themselves to write any of their Epistles to any unbeleever but onely to such as beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus Object You say But sometimes God hath been pleased to blesse in old time the reading of the Word to the conversion of soules and therefore why may we not expect the like blessing upon the reading of the Gospell in these dayes as well as the Law in former times in Deut. 31.11 12 13. A place much stood upon in this case it was commanded there that the people should come up to Jerusalem and there the Law should be read before them vers 11. that they may heare and learne and feare verse 12. and their children that knew not the Lord may learne to feare the Lord their God Where you see God blessed the reading of the Law not only for the benefit of them that knew it before but their children also that knew not any thing may learn to feare the Lord And if God did so blesse the reading of the Law in former times as a notable instrument to bring on them to beleeve that never knew any thing of Gods word before Surely one would expect that the Gospel which of the two is rather the ministration of the spirit then of the letter or then the Law that it should be as mighty this way for the begetting of Gods fear in men as ever the Law was Answ You shal not read that this was the benefit or blessing that God did accompany the Law withal in ordinary reading of the same But this was a solemn reading once in seven yeares and no oftener or once in fifty years It was a reading at the feast of Tabernacles in the yeare of solemnity as verse 10 11 to 13. In a time of solemne release that was once every seven yeares And what was the reason that then it should have such a more then ordinary blessing Why this year of Release was the acceptable year of the Lord which typed out to them the year of release by the Lord Jesus Christ For he was crucified in one of these seventh years Note this In the year of Jubilee And to make it a type and shadow of what benefit we should have by reading the Word when we should be released from our sinnes by faith in his blood In that solemne reading God gave a more then ordinary blessing to little children those poore ignorant things that usually come to the Congregation and heare much but learn little yet even they in the year of Release when the time comes that God would shadow out to them their release by Christ even then little children that know not any thing shal get some knowledge and fear of God by hearing of those words then read so that it was such a reading as was upon such a solemne year of release as typed out Christs Redemption to shew you that men that are come to a yeare of release from all their sins by Christ they shall heare and know and though they know nothing before now they shall never read but with some profit and some growth in Gods feare And another answer may be this That when he there speakes of reading he speakes not of bare reading reading is some times put for all that expounding and applying that did ordinarily accompany their reading at such a time
for it was at the same feast that Nehemiah speakes chap. 8. last It is said chap 8.4 to 8. there was a Pulpit of Wood and in vers 8. it is said They did read distinctly in the Law and caused the people to understand the meaning of it so that it was not a meere outward and bare reading of the letter but an opening of the sence and such a kinde of applying it to the hearts of the people that the people went away much rejoycing because they understood the Law that was read unto them and many of them could not but joy and rejoyce in it as you see from vers 8. to the end of the 12th and when they had so done the people went away rejoycing and he said to them Goe your way home eate the fat and drinke the sweet c. vers 10. So that this you shall finde to be true that God hath either never so farre forth blessed the reading of the Word as to bring on unbeleevers to Christ either never or if he have it is at some solemne extraordinary feast once in seven or once in fifty yeares which was their great Jubilee to make knowne to his Church what in after times it should be when they knew Christ Vse It may serve first to let us see a reason why so many Writings of godly men to so good purpose and by such holy men and so effectually by many have so little prevailed against the Papists and Hereticks in any kinde a man would wonder to read so many Writings of so many holy men and to see so few of the Church of God brought on to God by this meanes Why what 's the reason surely it is no wonder the Apostles themselves though they should never prosper in writing to men that beleeved not but to such as beleeved that they might have joy in beleeving they knew reading would not prevaile It is true it may be some meanes of conviction and leaving men without excuse and their Writings have not been in vaine to establish them in the truth that beleeved it before and for satisfying the judgements of them that are studious in the truth to seeke out the truth of Gods will but for men that are unbeleevers and setled in the dreggs thereof never any Writer in England France or Germany did any good some have come over that have pretended that this and that mans learned Writings hath been of much help to them but those who have professed such conviction have been but meer counterfeits and deluders of the State and did it only to provide for their honour and credit here in this Country and as little hath been done by the Writings of godly men against the adversaries in this kinde So in very deed The bane of congregations that have no meanes of preaching if you shall looke at all the good that hath been done by reading in poore Congregations that have had no meanes of preaching the people are as ignorant as those that never heard of the name of Christ as empty of faith and of the knowledge of Christ and of every grace of his as those that never heard of them Object But you say This is marvellous uncharitable to say that they who have but reading fall short of faith in Christ and of the fruits of faith that accompany salvation Ans Whether is it more uncharitablenesse to let such as live under such meanes know their danger that they might come to salvation then to flatter them with a false opinion of their owne safety to speake peace to them and yet they to live without God in the world Gods people are in an unsafe condition without God while they are without a teaching Priest 2 Chron. 15.3 A long time they had been without God why had they not the Word of God read in their Synagogues Doe you thinke Ieroboams Priests did not read the Law Was there no mention of the Law of God among them Had they not so much forme of godlinesse as to read the writings of the Law Yes sure their Civill Law in which their civill Government stood and by which they executed Justice was the Law of Moses and did they not then understand the letter of the Law doubtlesse these bookes being their Law they were knowne among the body of the people and what did the Priests if they did not read the bookes of the Law were they only to offer sacrifice to the Calves I doubt not the people did not doe it neither was it usuall to offer any of their Oblations in their Synagogues but at Dan and Bethel only and therefore they were not wanting to heare the Prophets read and yet notwithstanding all that reading it is said Israel hath a long time been without God they had a Priest to read but not a Priest to teach and so were without God and without the Law that is the sentence God gives of the people at that time and thinke not that God was uncharitable in so speaking of them for God expresseth his love in shewing the people their dangerous estate Ioh. 15.14 15. Quest But is it not said Act. 15.21 Moses of old time hath in every City them that preach him being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day and is not then the reading of him preaching Answ It implyes that when he is read he is preached for every Sabbath day when they read the Law they gave the sence and meaning of it that shewes what diligence the Priests did use when they did read they gave the sence and wisely applyed it to the edification of the people and not that reading was all the preaching they had or that this was any preaching that they only read the Word of God for if they had but Moses read and not preached they were then without the Law and without God in the world And you know what God himselfe threatens Amos 8.11 12 13. That he would send a famine of hearing the Word never was there a famine of reading the Word since there was any face of a Church at all but a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord that men should goe farre from sea to sea and from place to place to heare it but should not heare it And by that meanes the young men and the faire virgines should perish for thirst and none to satisfie them with the Word and those who were able to stirre would goe farre and neare to heare the Word and yet should not finde it and so shall perish for want of that knowledge of it which doth accompany salvation so then marvaile not that the Holy Ghost saith these things I write unto you that beleeve to Beleevers only was this written Note the Miserable case of Congregations that have but bare reading Wonder not then if so little good be done among the Papists or in any other Churches where there is only bare reading make account of it as the Lord saith My people are then destroyed for want
Gods people Mighty power in the Scriptures preached First For Preaching there is a mighty power in the Scriptures preached for he writes these things that they may be preached and to be read and to make use of them in conference and meditation and in them all there is a mighty power But first for preaching Rom. 1.16 17. The Gospell is the power of God to salvation for therein is the righteousnesse of God revealed from faith to faith By the Gospel of God preached the Righteousnesse of God is revealed from faith to faith to lead on beleevers to beleeve and not to rest growing in beleeving til they reach unto salvation it is the mighty power of God to salvation to every one that beleeves such an one while he lives shall be of the thriving hand in faith And when the Apostle prayed so earnestly night and day to come againe to the Thessalonians Doth hee not therein imply though there may be a mighty power in the word read to increase faith where it is already wrought yet his personal presence would helpe it much more whether by conference or by preaching and therefore he prayes much to see them again An evident argument though the word read may be of much use to establish us yet much more the personal persence and conference and preaching of the Gospel of Christ else that prayer of his had been something impertinent Conference And so secondly for conferring of the Scriptures you know when the two Disciples were doubtful whether that was the Christ or no Luke 24.21 our Savior doth not only reprove them for that doubtfulnesse but he begins at Moses and opened to them the things written in the Prophets till in the end their hearts glowed and burned within them and that was a furtherance of their faith for then they presently ran to Jerusalem and then they do not say we trusted this was he but they say the Lord is risen indeed In very truth without any further dissention never distrusted it more he is risen indeed so that there is a mighty power in the word confered upon in private conference and therefore they doubt no more of it So that the word opened by way of conference made their hearts to burn within them they do not call it preaching but rather a private conference an applying the Scripture to this point they stood need to be instructed in and they go away with ful resolution the Lord is risen indeed And you know the mighty power and use of the conference of Phillip with the Eunuch upon that conference the Eunuch beleeved and was baptized Acts 8.37 So that take the word preached and there is a mighty power of God in it to lead a Christian man from faith to faith And take the Gospell of God and conferre about it and it is a mighty power to increase faith that beleevers may beleeve Reading the word Thirdly And so it is for the word read another kind of dispensing this word that is a special end of it that by reading you might beleeve on the name of the Sonne of God that is the next use of the Scripture they which do read shal by reading finde their hearts confirmed and established in the faith John 20.30 31. There is a mighty power of God that accompanies the word of God read to strengthen men in the faith that such as beleeve already may beleeve more and bee established in their perswasion of the truth of God Fourthly If you shal examine the things that you have heard Examination of things heard that is another use of the Scriptures an examination of what you heare goe home and consider whether the things that have been taught were true or no whether agreeable to the holy Scriptures or no for a Preacher speaks not the expresse words of the Scripture but comments and explications of the Scriptures and therefore examine whether that which is delivered be agreeable to the Scriptures which are alledged for to prove the doctrine We must make use of the Scripture as a rule to measure all the Sermon by we heare whether it be of just length and breadth of Gods word or no as the ballance of the Sanctuary the two testaments be and when you weigh what is said then you are confirmed and established in it Now this kind of making use of the Scriptures to examine what you hear it is of special use to helpe forward the faith of such as do beleeve yea and which is more it may bring on men to beleeve which it may be never did beleeve before mightily stirred before but beleeved not til they goe home and searched the Scriptures seeing that which is spoken to be fully agreeable to the word of God they have been brought on wonderfully to beleeve famous is that of the Bereans Acts 17.11 12. they heard the word and what he spake they received it gladly they thought he spoke well but they searched daily to see whether those things which were spoken were so or no therefore see the blessing of God upon it vers 12. many of them beleeved they received the word with reverence and did not cavell at it but heard it patiently and when they came at home conferred about it and when upon examination they saw it was according to the Scriptures of the holy Prophets when they saw that what Paul preached was suitable to Moses and the Prophets the blessing of God was great upon them for the number of them that beleeved was not a few to shew you that a man that hath heard the word and hath been stirred with what he heard if he shal go home and consider and weigh well and see how one thing bears witnesse to another Note this so as that the word preached opens the word written and the word written confirmes the word preached then though before he was doubtfull as sometimes a godly mans heart may faile him in applying the word to himselfe as Jacobs heart failed and he beleeved not yet when he considered it and saw what tokens of love was sent him and laid circumstances together then his spirit revived So a man heares much and some thing pertinent to him yet his heart may faile him and may have much adoe to gather any comfort out of it but when he considers things more privately and searches the Scriptures upon examination Repetition of the word blessed many a man beleeves the word which before he was doubtful of Repetition and examination of the word is marvellously blessed by God to this end to helpe forward our faith it is of good use both to beginne and to increase faith sometimes to worke it where it was heretofore wanting much more to increase it where it was begun before and therefore as we were begotten by the immortall Word of God so no Word of God being dispensed in any Ordinance of God none of them but are of mighty use for the supplying our defects of faith
yours untill he blesse Magistrates give Ministers a doore of utterance that they may speake savingly and powerfully to the soules of their Hearers so as that as it were you may weary God and prevaile with him to arise and give you your desire Wherefore is it thinke you that Christ calls prayer knocking but for this very end to manifest unto us that when we continue praying we continue knocking and we make as a loud noyse at Heaven gates as any man that knocks at your house doores and God so esteemes the nature of prayer Matth. 7.7 For to him that knocketh it shall bee opened So that if God doe but give us hearts to knock and to be instant and constant in prayer for that is knocking if we be fervent and persevering in prayer and spring from our feeling and sence of want of the blessing and what comfort it would be to us to obtaine it and give him no rest untill we receive at his hands what we aske of him to him that thus knocketh it shall be opened So did the Woman of Syrophenitia she knockt hard at our Saviours doore of mercy have pitty have mercy upon me and when at the first Christ answers her not a word she then cryes out againe Lord helpe me and when thereupon he tells her he was not sent to her but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Did shee then leave off No she would not be put off when he then told her it was not meet to take the childrens bread and to cast it to doggs Shee said Truth Lord but yet the doggs eate the crumbs that fall from the table Why then saith our Saviour be it unto thee even as thou wilt Like as a man that is weary of a Petitioner As if he should say Why if thou beest so importunate that thou wilt have no deniall if it must be so why goe thy way and be it unto thee even as thou wilt And when God gives us so to pray as not to give over we may know for a certaine God intends to give us a gracious answer in all the desires of our soules and this is to pray according to Gods will Now to speake of the second part of the Doctrine and that is the reason why a prayer thus made is ever granted pray well and speed well Reas 1 First because in praying according to Gods will God doth but fulfill his owne will in fulfilling yours as this is the will of God that all those things that are lawfull for us to aske and expedient for us it is his will that wee should pray for them it is Gods will that we should pray with submission to Gods will that we should pray humbly and feelingly and constantly now if we have prayed according to the will of God then his will must needs be done and his will is that now our wills should be fulfilled This reason is taken from the faithfulnesse of God in the promise and from the suitablenesse of Gods will to ours when we so pray Reas 2 Secondly It is taken from the mighty power of the name of Christ whensoever we use his name in prayer not in lip labour but when we pray in sence of our owne unworthinesse and in some measure of Childe-like confidence the prayers that we now make is the prayer of Christ and him the Father heareth alwaies Jo. 11.42 Now if Christ give us to use his name looke whatever petition we put up and use his name in it it is now the prayer of Christ for looke as if any of you should send your childe or servant to any of your neighbours to desire such or such a favour from them you send them but the petition is yours they desire it in your name and if you send him and bid him use your name and then you are sure it will be granted and if he should deny your childe or servant of such a petition that he askes in your name in denying him he denies you so that God cannot deny the petition you aske in Christs name for him he heareth alwayes and all such petitions he hath promised to heare The word of promise you heard before and it is full to this purpose Joh. 16.23 Verily verily I say unto you He takes his owne truth to witnesse it as a solemne asseveration Whatsoever ye shall aske the Father in my name he will give it you And therefore Aske in my name that you may receive If therefore the Lord Jesus Christ doe but give us this encouragement that we faithfully give up our selves to become his and in sence of our owne unworthinesse to aske any thing at Gods hands And we come to the Father as being set a worke by Christ and beseech him to answer us in this and that mercy and cannot give over till he receive our prayers and reach us an answer of them then the promise stands good Aske and you shall receive Reas 3 Thirdly It is taken from Gods acceptance not only of Christ but of the Spirit the Holy Ghost also for that is much to be considered for there is no prayer that is so wrought in this sort nor any prayer thus put up in sence and feeling and breathing of the Spirit in the name of Christ but it is the prayer of the Holy Ghost himselfe and God that knowes the meaning of the Spirit he hearkens to all the requests of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 27. The Spirit it selfe makes intercession for us so that these prayers are not only received and gratified because they are put up in the name of Christ but also because the Spirit it selfe makes intercession for us according to the will of God and God knowes the meaning and voyce of his owne Spirit God knowes that without this we could never be fervent for any spirituall blessing according to the will of God our dead hearts would soone make dead worke of it if there were no spirit in our prayer but our owne if our flesh be weake we shall soone have done and therefore when God sees us pray thus feelingly are not willing to leave him til he answer us in our desires then God knowes there is a mighty power of a spirit that speaks in us and God cannot deny the intercession of his spirit And further to strengthen this point Christ himselfe tels us that he will pray in our behalves for us for the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe sits at Gods right hand making intercession for us John 16.26 At that day yee shall aske in my name and I say not unto you that I will pray the father for you for the father himselfe loveth you because you have loved me c. And the Apostle sweetly expresseth how the Lord Jesus prayes for us Rom. 8.34 Who is he that condemned it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen againe who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us so that the Lord Jesus Christ takes
petitions and the having of them all fulfilled To open this point unto you And because John doth gather this from the end of his own writing for hee saith hee wrote these things onely to them that beleeve in the name of the Sonne of God for this end That they might beleeve on his name Therefore let me shew you first how these two great benefits confidence and certainty of hearing and having our petitions doth both spring and arise from what is here taught us First Which is the foundation of all the rest 1 John 3.1 speaking of Adoption saith he Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed on us that we should be called the Sons of God he doth stand and wonder at the marvellous and incredible love of God that he should vouchsafe to stoop so low and honour us so much debase himself and lift us up not only stoop so low as to behold low things are on earth Psal 113. but so low as to take up such earth-worms as we be from the Dung-hill and set us among the Princes of the people ver 5 6 7 8. he not only beholds them with an eye of providence but his people with an eye of fatherly compassion and lifts us up to become sonnes and daughters to himselfe and helps us to beleeve it that we are so This is the first ground of the certainty and confidence of the hearing of our petitions if once we may come to be certaine that we are the sonnes of God upon which occasion a great part of this Epistle is spent this is the first ground and these the Apostle is wont to joyne together as the ground of all comfort in this kinde Gal. 4.5 6. Rom. 8.15 so that to be perswaded or to grow confident that we are the children of God will be a good foundation to the certainty of the hearing and granting of our Petitions To whom may a Son come for any blessing but to a Father and what makes him more confident of speaking and acceptance then this principle that he knowes he is the childe of such a Father as is willing and able to help him Secondly another principle in this Epistle tending to build up this certainty and confidence is not only our adoption but likewise Christs advocation 1 Io. 2.1 2. If any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous Advocate what What is it to be an Advocate To be an Advocate is to plead on our behalves with the Father for the granting and answering of our Petitions for the pardoning and healing of all our transgressions and the performing to us and giving of us all the good things we stand in need of whether we aske them or aske them not but especially there is no Petition we put up but Christ takes it at our hands and puts it up in such forme to his heavenly Father as that by and through him it is accepted As a man retaines an Advocate in a Court he brings him his cause rudely drawne so as it would be rejected in the Court but his Advocate puts it into such a forme as is agreeable to the Law and sutable to the order of the Court so as it findes free acceptance So we put up our Petitions rudely and many times farre short of that frame which God especially lookes for from his servants hands but Christ takes them at our hands and puts them into forme and so preferres them to his heavenly Father and so as from thence we have good occasion and good ground of confidence and certainty that whatever we put up in any measure according to Gods will being presented to our Advocate to our heavenly Father shall be accepted Thirdly The Attonement or propitiation that our Saviour makes to our blessed Father spoken of in the same place 1 Ioh. 2.2 Attonement or propitiation the thing is this That whereas many a servant of God might feare his Petitions would never be granted because he hath been so sinfull before God and hath so many wayes dishonoured God that he knowes not however God should heare such an unworthy creature as he is Now the Apostle sets forth in this Epistle the Lord Jesus Christ as our Attonement that if we come to our Advocate and say We have such Suits and Petitions to put up to our heavenly Father but we have so displeased him that we thinke he will never regard us Why saith the Apostle If any man sinne we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins and therefore for our owne hearts though we have just cause of discouragement in regard of our sins yet we have a propitiation an attonement he makes intercession for us as an Advocate but you say God will not heare him for such sinners as we be Yes he makes propitiation or attonement that we perish not by our sins nor that they should hinder Gods acceptance of us or granting our desires ver 7. of the first chap. and so here is a third ground-worke of our confidence and certainty of our desires Fourthly There is another and that is the annoyntment that we have received from him by which we know all things 1 Joh. 2.20 implying that though we be dark in our owne mindes and dead and straight in our owne spirits and doe not know what the Lord or Christ hath done for us Why yet we have received an unction from the Lord Iesus who will tell us what he hath done for us As a mans Advocate will send his Clyent word of all things how they goe in the Court about his businesse that he may know how farre he hath proceeded and where they stick So the Lord Jesus Christ he is the holy one there spoken of You have received an unction from him he sends downe his holy Spirit into your hearts and lets you see and know all the petitions and requests that God grants you you shall no sooner have a petition granted but you shall have it certified to you by this unction of the holy one whereby you know you have them granted and for whose sake it is that they are granted by this unction you know all things pertinent to life and godlinesse And this is that which the Apostle Paul speakes 2 Cor. 2.12 God sends forth his owne Spirit into our hearts to let us know so much and this is a marvellous point that the Holy Ghost gives us to know all things that are done in Heaven for us and how farre God hath accepted us Further If you be inquisitive to know why the Spirit of God doth certifie the soule of this First the Spirit certifies us of this that surely our Petitions are heard and granted because he hath given us an heart to pray he hath helped us to pray we could never have prayed fervently and feelingly unlesse the Holy Ghost had helped us we know we have straight hearts and if we therefore come and
pour out our souls to God in any spirituall affection then we know we have this unction the Holy Ghost came and opened our mouthes and healed our lips and made us pray affectionately and feelingly and that is a great light to the hearing of our petitions for a prayer well made is never ill heard and therefore you know what is said Psalm 10.17 Thou preparest the heart to pray and thou hast heard the desire of the poor How shall a poor Christian know that his desire is heard Why thou hast prepared the heart to pray If God prepare our hearts then he will cause his eare to heare these alwaies accompany one another That is something that this unction doth it works in all our hearts to pray according to Gods will and to pray in the name of Christ and so satisfies us Secondly This Spirit of God that we receive from the holy one it is also a spirit of faith that inwardly perswades us that God hath indeed heard us and that he will doe for us whatsoever we desire and will sometimes evidently beare witnesse of it to the heart of a man Maâ— 11.24 What thing soever ye desire when ye pray beleeve that ye shall receive them and ye shall have them We must beleeve that what we have said to God he will certainly doe it and the spirit of faith will come and say to the heart God in heaven saith Amen to it he gives out a fâ—at let it be done Psal 6.8 David was in a grievous affliction both in bodily affliction and spirituall desertion as in the beginning of the Psalme He cryed out day and night God had forsaken him and his soule was sore vexed but thou O Lord how long c. And now away from me all ye mine enemies for the Lord hath heard my petition and he will accept me so that even while he is in bitter complaints and grievous mourning while he is yet speaking this unction comes and reveales to him Gods acceptance of him and therefore now he encourages himselfe and casts a defiance upon all the troubles of his soule he lookes at them all as vanishing away like snow before the Sun and now he comforts himselfe therein And this oftentimes and usuall when the soule makes use of Gods Ordinances and Priviledges which himselfe hath granted that surely God hath heard our requests he never refuseth to grant that prayer which he stands to heare for this purpose is that you read of the good woman Hannah 1 Sam. 1.15 to 18. Ely suspected she was in some distemper but saith she I have poured out my soule before the Lord. She prayed feelingly and fervently and faithfully not words but her soule before the Lord she had prayed with her whole heart and her soule did raise up it selfe heaven-ward the strength of her desire was set upon that and he then said The Lord give thee favour in his eyes and grant thy request which was as if this answer had come from heaven for God doth reveale himself in his Ordinances She looked at him as the high Priest and so a Type of the Messiah and she tooke it as a voyce from heaven and the text saith She went home and looked no more sad God hath set it on and spoken comfort to her heart so as that her faith was established she saw the voyce of God in it and went home resolved upon it and takes such encouragement to her selfe from thence as to feare no more in that kinde When Gods spirit gives us to pray affectionately and to beleeve confidently then we know we have our petitions we are perswaded of it But besides this cofident perswasion this followes there is another worke of faith and that is a constant wrastling against all discouragements that falls between our requests and the accomplishment of our petitions Famous is that story of the woman of Syrophenicia Matth. 15. from 23. to 29 you know the manifold discouragements she met with she prayes and at first God gives her no audience answers her not a word she prayes againe and then he gives her a deniall to grant her any such request and tells her plainly It is not sutable to his calling and therefore he may not apply himselfe unto her yet she is not discouraged with this which is very much but she followes him still and though yet reproached and called a dogge yet she is not discouraged but out of the word of reproach gathers some hope of comfort if she be a dogge why then let her have that which belongs to doggs let her have but the crums that fall from the childrens table Shee is not discouraged with all the difficulties that lay in her way nothing shall cut her off from importunity and when he could forbeare no longer he then tells her O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt To shew you that if the Holy Ghost doe but give a Christian soule so much resolution and confidence as not to give over praying till God be pleased to give over answering It is a good signe this spirit of faith will certainly prevaile at length All things are possible to them that beleeve and not only possible but certaine Thirdly There is a third worke of this Spirit and that is this it workes as it is a spirit of hope and that moves a man to waite upon God that though God should tarry long and he should pray heartily for such and such requests to be granted in such a case as this our spirits would be sad and uncomfortable and give over and be ready to say Wherefore should I waite on the Lord any longer as that prophane Prince said 1 King 6. last having been long prest with Famine he in the end burst forth with this This evill is of the Lord why should we waite on him any longer our foolish hearts soone grow impatient and we cannot dance after attendance upon God and therefore in this case though flesh and bloud be short winded and soone weary yet the truth is this unction when it workes in us a spirit of hope it still waites upon God it sets it selfe to waite upon him and is very well contented to stay Gods leisure though he should tarry very long Psal 62.1 Psal 130.4 5. and 2 last he sets both morning and evening watch for him and he is well contented to waite for him and Psal 123.1 2 3. Our eyes waite upon the Lord our God so that when God gives us a spirit of waiting then doth he certainly seale up unto us the granting of our petitions for when a man attends at the Court for an answer upon his petition if the King bid him attend it is a good signe he meanes to grant him his request else he would have rejected it but a wise Prince if he see a man come in good sort and desire a reasonable request of him that such a thing is according to his Princely will and he bids
him to attend and stay there a signe he meanes to take it into consideration at least and good hopes it will be accepted Now God consults with no body but if he give us a heart to waite and stay assure your selves he meanes not to send you empty away but it is an undoubted argument he will give us an answer because thou canst thus waite upon him Fourthly There is a fourth worke of this unction and it tends marvellously to the speeding of our requests and that is that which you read Psal 145.19 He will fulfill the desires of them that feare him Doest thou finde that the Lord hath wrought a spirit of feare in thy heart so as that thou walkes awfully before him and in the feare of his name goes about every duty and in his feare dependest upon him and endeavourest to approve thy selfe before him truly he will assuredly fulfill the desires of them that feare him when we reverence him in his Ordinances pray with reverence and in an holy feare Psal 2.11 Them that goe about holy duties in a reverent and holy feare doe all things in the feare of the Lord he hath a spirit of power to prevaile with God this is such a feare as whereby a man keeps Covenant with God and consequently prevailes with God to keep Covenant with them Jer. 32.40 This feare is it which makes us keep Covenant with God this feare of God alwaies keeps possession for God so as that we dare not doe that which is unlawfull we dare not sinne against God nor performe good duties carelesly and fearelesly for the feare of God bowes us to goe about holy duties in an holy and reverent manner and blessed is that man that so feareth alwaies If therefore God take from us a wanton and wilde heart a loose and unreverent heart and worke in us an awfull reverent feare of his name in every duty of his service and our owne callings that keeps us from departing from God and it keeps God from departing from us that we alwaies have him neare at hand to heare all the desires of them that feare him It is that spirit of which you read spoken of concerning our Saviour in which he shall prosper in all the workes of his hands Esa 11.2 The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him c. A spirit of power and of the feare of the Lord and that shall make him quick of understanding and so shall prosper which is a blessing promised our Saviour Esa 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to griefe but the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand This is the end of this blessing when God puts us to griefe and humiliation and so workes in us the feare of his great name which ever accompanies those dispensations then the worke of the Lord prospers in our hands If God give us a Spirit of his holy feare in any duty we goe about then it will assure us that God will heare our desires Fifthly But yet further there is a spirit of obedience which doth marvellously seale up unto us the hearing and granting of all our prayers and petitions 1 Joh. 3.22 Whatsoever we aske we receive of him because we keepe his Commandements and doe those things which are pleasing in his sight It is of necessary use that when God gives us hearts to listen to every word of his mouth he will then listen to the desires of our soules Prov. 28.8 The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord but the desires of the righteous are his delight and he that turneth away his care from hearing the Law his prayer shall be abominable But if a man lend a listening eare to Gods Law it makes his prayer acceptable hearken to the Lord and the Lord wil hearken to you else not It is to this purpose what you read Judg. 9. latter end of the seventh verse Hearken unto me that God may hearken unto you If God gave them hearts to hearken to what he spake to them in Gods name then God will hearken to them If we speake and doe as Eli taught Samuel to say Speake Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 3.10 If we come before God with such a resolution that whatever God speakes to us we will heare it and doe it we shall finde this upon it whatsoever we speake to God he will answer us and worke it for us so that an obedient Christian is a powerfull petitioner he is powerfull in prayer And this we may attaine to by making use of this holy Epistle of John that is written to all that beleeve on the name of Christ this is a fourth direction that Iohn gives us in this Epistle whereby you see how mighty this same Epistle is to satisfie and fill our hearts with fulnesse of joy Reas The reason of this confidence springs from the promises and the discerning of them clearly to belong to us now all these things discover to us many promises confidence springs partly from Gods nature and partly from Gods promise and partly also from our owne experience and these are the staffe of our confidence and from hence it is that we grow to see many promises belong to us we see the nature of God become fatherly to us and we from hence in time gather many experiences of Gods acceptance of us and this strengthens our confidence in his hearing of our petitions Our Adoption assures us of Gods nature to be ours whereby God takes us to be his Children and he is one that is full of grace and goodnesse nothing is wanting on his part he is a Father to us and that is a great matter And in regard that Christ is our Advocate and Attonement he brings all the promises to us which in Christ are all yea and amen 2 Cor. 1 20. And this holy Spirit of God gives us experience of all that goodnesse that is in God and the truth in his promises yea and it gives us experience in this also that he that hath given us his owne Sonne will not be give us all things else Rom. 8.32 He gives us Election Redemption fatherly Adoption and effectuall Vocation to the wayes of his grace and so he gives us experience of the greatest matters and from hence we know that he will not deny us smaller things as victory against the remnant of our corruptions the greatest part of them is scattered before the staffe and strength of them already broken and we now conflict but with remnants of corruption But now when the Holy Ghost saith we know this it goes farre for confidence and faith springs from the testimony of him that speakes or from the nature of him upon whom we trust but knowledge doth not so much spring from the testimony of any either God or man but is commonly gathered from sence and experience and experience is both a ground of confidence and knowledge and hence comes the knowledge of all
doe enjoy this life of holinesse In the sixth place you shall have modesty mixed with much magnanimity Modesty mixed with magnanimity which is rarely found in men indued only with Morrall or Civill gifts but in nature the more modest the lesse magnanimous But a Christian the more modest he is the more magnanimous look at Paul and touching the righteousnesse which is of the Law he is indued with many carnall priviledges according to the Law but now all these are but losse and drosse and dung that he might win Christ all his good parts of nature and all his common gifts of grace yet all of them but drosse and dung this was the modest spirit of Paul a man who sometimes saith of himselfe He was not inferiour to the very chief Apostles 2 Cor. 12.11 yet againe saith he I am nothing there is his magnanimity When he is opposed and vilified by the false Apostles what hath Paul forgot his modesty now that he knowes not how to submit himselfe nor to compare himselfe with his equals No but though chiefe of the Apostles yet am I nothing He lookes at every thing he had as nothing This I am but yet I am nothing He sometimes calls himselfe the least of all the Apostles 1 Cor. 15.9 10 and yet other whiles not inferiour to the very chiefe of them Sometimes he calls himselfe the least of all Saints Eph. 3.8 and yet sometimes not inferiour to the very chiefe Apostles and this he had learned he had been instructed thus to deny himselfe he desired that he might know nothing but Christ and him crucified See the noble spirit of this selfe-deniall servant of God sometimes whey the Magistrates had done him wrong see then how he stands upon his priviledges he complaines they had beaten him a Roman being uncondemned Act. 16.9 and when they heard this they would have sent him away privately nay let them come and fetch him out See now a man of a great and magnanimous spirit though a man as fit to put up wrongs as any man yet when he sees the glory of God is interested in his person and his calling or his cause is called in question then he knowes how to stand upon his worth and if in such a case he sustaine open wrong then he will plead the liberty of a Subject whereas at another time he would have done more to a farre lesse man then a Magistrate He is become all things to all men that he might save some every way so gentle that you may turn him about your hand any way but else he wil stand upon his worth and not inferiour to the very chief Apostles those that are greatest and chiefest such who seemed to be pillars he is not inferiour to any of them the greatest of them all equall to the best of them if not before them all and yet laboured more then they all 1 Cor. 15. last to shew you the marvellous modesty of the spirit of grace a work incompattible to nature but is found only in a spirit of holinesse and there only they are combined together in the same person at the same time and in the same businesse with the same breath he can tell you He is not inferiour to the very chief Apostles and yet I am nothing Notable is that expression of David to this purpose My eyes are not lofty nor my heart haughty but I have behaved may selfe as a weaned childe Psal 131.1 2 Now you would thinke if a man were such a weaned humble creature he could not tell how to speake nor to take any great things in hand but when he comes to speake to that Psal 24.7 opened you shall marke the frame of his spirit Psal 24.7.9 Stand open ye everlasting doores and be ye lift up ye everlasting gates that the King of glory may come in When he lookes at earthly things yea the best of them his heart is so weaned from them that he knowes not how to have an high thought weaned even from a Kingdome as a childe from the breast and yet the same soule that is thus weaned and thus meane in his owne eyes when he comes to spirituall matters it is wonder to see the height of his spirit these things are too low and too shallow for him hee knowes not how to close with nor to content himselfe with such poore things as these be Crownes and Scepters and Dignities his heart was weaned from them all all of them things too low and too meane for him to be exercised about now be ye lift up ye gates and he meanes the heart and conscience of a man the affection of his soul lift up these to the wayes of God he would now be of an higher straine so that a man would wonder at this though the matter be great and high every way farre above all earthly things yet notwithstanding he lookes at them all as matters fit for his heart to be raised up unto he lookes at the favour of God and the blood of Christ and pardon of sinne the Kingdome of glory he lookes at all these high matters as fit objects for his heart to be set upon His eyes were not haughty and he did not exercise himselfe in great matters concerning earthly things and yet was it not a great matter to be King of Israel yet is it not a greater matter to be the Sonne of God then to be the Son in Law to a King but his eyes are not haughty he doth not exercise himselfe in such things as these be but yet he exerciseth himselfe in greater matters then these things are and therfore when as Christian men are thought to be of shallow weake spirits and know not how to carry on end matters in this world yet when they come to spirituall matters there they can tell how to set their hearts a work about such matters about the inheritance of the Kingdome of Heaven about the favour of God and the light of Gods countenance these be great matters when they come to have the eye of God upon them they can looke for the glory of his presence and the fellowship of the Angels and they can discourse and tell you of great blessings that God hath layed up for them in Christ then they can exercise their hearts in such great matters Psal 149.6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouthes what a strange speech is there Psal 149.6 expounded for a man that sometimes said Great matters are too high for him yet now as it is in the Originall High things the high glorious things of God the great things of God the magnanimous things of God the high praises of God the high Majesty of God the high praises and thanksgiving of God let them be in their mouthes the mighty power of God let that be in their lips and a two-edged sword in their hands Hee speakes of a word of Prophesie and instruction to the people the word is called