I will avoid that which is evil do that which is good And mark it this is more natural to man then sin it is more natural to man to be righteous then to be sinfull because he was righteous before he was sinful The liquor that is put first into a vessel the vessel keeps the taste of that longer then of any that is put into it afterwards Now God at first made man righteous and man is more apt to fall to that kinde of righteousness then to any sin And this is the great misery of people every one in some fashion or other this is his business he goes about to fulfill the law of God in his own person and there you shall have one praying and another crying and another keeping so many fasts and dayes of humiliation upon humiliation and the end of all is if men had eyes to see it his endeavour is to fulfill the law of God he endeavours to scrape and to get up a righteousness to pay the law of God You cannot conceive and comprehend how subject you and I are to this misery and how this is in your very bones as it were and I fear truly it is the greatest part of your Religion and the most of your Profession is nothing but to endeavour to get a righteousness to fulfill the law of God though some do it in a closer finer way then others Now I beseech you consider this word lay down this throughly in your hearts that it is a vain thing so to do and who would go about a vain thing a thing that he shall never bring to perfection For it is not every paltry righteousness that can fulfill the law of God It is not ten thousand fastings that can fulfill the law of God it is not praying in your family three times a day that can fulfill the law I speak not against these things in their right way and course but all will not do in this respect for if you fail but once if you miss but one farthing you are gone if you have but one bad thought in all your life you are lost Therefore I would have you despair of getting by your own doing and suffering any righteousness to fulfill the law of God never go about it No wise man will go and build a Castle in the Aire It is reason and argument enough in any naturall business to make a man desist to tell him it is a vain thing it is a work that will never come to perfection therefore desist and give over and think of some other course Why should we not prevail in spiritual things as well as in natural Let every man lay down this for a certain truth for a certain conclusion in his Soul That I were as good be a sinner as a righteous man in my own person in respect of fulfilling the law I am sure I shall never do it but as a Snow-ball the more it is rolled the bigger it grows so the more you go on and endeavour to get a righteousness to fulfill the law the farther off you will be for as I said if you fail but once you are guilty of all And as you cannot reach it by doing so not by suffering for what men have mist in doing they shall be suffering to all eternity in Hell but the law is so holy and God is so glorious whose law you have broken that when you have suffered millions yet the debt will be still unpaid Therefore who would be so mad as Paul calls the Galatians mad Galatians Who hath bewitched you it is a kinde of madness for any man to attempt in his own person by doing or suffering to fulfill the righteousness of the law or to justifie and save his Soul You will say We grant it is true and therefore the Papists are much to blame that labour to be justified by their works They are so and so are many others much to blame besides them and blessed is that man or woman among you whosoever it be that doth not in some measure in his own person endeavour to make up his own righteousness It is a thing that sticks nearer to you then you are aware of though it may be at sometimes you see Christ and justification by him clearly yet at other times you know how many pangs and how many secret glances we have at our justification by our own works take notice of the vanity of this That is one word Vse 2. Me-thinks this should move you above all things in the world if it were considered and oh that the Lord would be pleased yet to open your eyes while it is called to day I say this should be one of the greatest motives in the world to come to Jesus Christ to get into Christ to receive Jesus Christ and in him as I shall shew after you shall have a righteousness that hath fulfilled the law Let every man say I see here is law that God hath laid upon me I am subject to it and this law must be fulfilled there is no help for it every man is bound to it he must have a righteousness to satisfie the law Heaven and earth shall pass away rather then that shall not be Now there are but three wayes to fulfill it Either in mine own person here or to suffer for ever in Hell or else to believe in and receive another that may do it for me Now we neither our by doing or suffering can get such a righteousness that is clear therefore there is but one way that is in Jesus Christ there is a perfect righteousness in him he hath fulfilled the law get into him and be one with him and then we shall be able to say perfectly with Paul That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that believe and are in Jesus Christ There is but that one way now when there is but one way me-thinks there needs no deliberation or consultation In worldly things when there are divers wayes and courses that a man may take he will consult with his friends which to take this or that or the other but when there is but one way there needs no consultation So if there were two or three or many wayes to Heaven we might consult which way to take if there were as many wayes as you imagine and make in your own heads if Antinomianism were the onely way or Presbyterians or Independents were the onely way men might demurre but in Gods language there is but one way and that is the Way the Truth and the Life Jesus Christ is the way go out of that and you wander for ever he is the onely sacrifice miss that and there is no more sacrifice for sin There is but this one thing necessary there is no other way in the world but Jesus Christ there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved Therefore we should do in our condition just as a man that were fallen into a
acceptation of flesh a borrowed kinde of speech and so it is to be understood in this place Now to open this to you I shall shew you First in general what is meant by flesh Secondly particularly By flesh therefore in general you are to understand in this place and the like every thing let it be what it will be that is against Jesus Christ or his Spirit or his Worship or any thing else that belongs to it any thing that is not of faith or of Christ is it flesh in general Let me speak more plainly Any thing that is of Old Adam is flesh whether it be good or evil and any thing that is of and from the New Adam that is Spirit Now you know we receive two things from Old Adam some natural moral good some reliques of that that he had the fulness of and we receive evil when he was corrupted Now both these take them in the largest extent they are both called flesh in Scripture whatsoever is of or comes from Old Adam is called flesh therefore flesh in many places in the New Testament it is the very same with the old man and you have them taken promiscuously Our old man is crucified Rom. 6. And in another place Those that are Christs have crucified the flesh not onely the corruption or evil that Original sin as we say that is within us but whatsoever of the image of the old man is upon us whatsoever we have had whether it be good or evil from the old man And indeed in the New Testament it is more frequently taken for the moral good of Old Adam then the evil though it be taken for both yet I say most frequently the good of Old Adam especially the wisdom of Old Adam The wisdom of the flesh is enmity to God Rom. 8. as in the New Adam the Lord Jesus Christ the wisdom of the holy Ghost is a most excellent piece so the wisdome of Old Adam is the unhappiest and most miserable thing of all That you may understand this you must conceive that all the principles of this world I mean of all Mankinde all their motions and actions do wholly spring and flow from two roots two principles as the Heathen Philosophers said in another sense they held that all this world did rise from two Beginnings from two Beings from two Principles there was one good and another evil that set all things on work so all things in every man in this world the principles and motions and actions and thoughts and inclinations and wisdome and reasoning and doing whatsoever is within or without man springs from one of these two roots that is it is either from Old Adam â— mean not nature in you but it flows from Adam that was once in Paradise or else from the New Adam Christ Jesus for there were but two men that ever in the world were publick persons that were the Fountain of the principles and proceedings of Mankinde Adam in Paradise natural Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ the Spiritual Adam All Mankinde was made after the Image of the first Adam We have born the image of the earthly Adam 1 Cor. 15. and indeed all the Saints shall bear the image of the heavenly Adam too hereafter at the least Now both these Adams are as two Springs in a hill conveying their streams to two rivers they are springs from whence arise all the thoughts and imaginations and actions and proceedings all the wisdome and righteousness whatsoever is in us it springs either from the second Adam the Lord Jesus planted in the Soul or else it flows from Old Adam from natural Adam that is in us therefore they are called the roots the Lord Jesus is called the root of Jesse Why so because all the new Creation all the work of grace all the principles thoughts and actions of a Saint so far as they are of grace they rise from the New Adam the Lord Jesus Christ Therefore I say to understand this a little in general before I go further A man that walks according to the flesh who is he A man that walks according to any thing of Old Adam whether it be good or evil And usually in the New Testament it is taken for the good 1 Cor. 1. there flesh is taken for the good of Old Adam when a man walks according to the wisdome of Adam according to natural wisdome and according to the righteousness of Old Adam that is done by us or when we walk according to the sins and lusts and corruptions of Adam for both are put together and all makes but flesh and whole flesh strives against whole Spirit Now I say take it in a general sense to walk after the flesh is not onely to walk sinfully and carnally but when a man walks though devoutly and righteously in the eye of the world yet if it be after the principles of Old Adam if he do not walk by a principle planted in him from the New Adam the Lord Jesus Christ all this is but flesh Now then for a man to walk according to the Spirit What is that All his principles spring from the root of Jesse from the Spirit of the Lord Jesus all his actions are upon another ground Now I say all the principles and actions of every man and woman in the world springs from one of these therefore it is convenient and necessary that you consider how the two Adams are the two Springs of all Mankinde the two pillars as it were upon which God hath laid all Mankinde and all that is done in the world and those that walk after the one walk after the flesh and those that are after the other walk after the Spirit So much in generall Now more particularly by walking after the flesh in this place there are three things meant The first thing meant by walking after the flesh according as most of our godly and learned translate it is when a man walks according to the dictates and suggestions of corrupt nature So flesh is taken for Original sin that is that corruption of nature that is prone to every evil and that is an enemy to all good So a man that walks according to the flesh is when the course and bent of a mans soul and life goes after sin though he do some good sometimes yet when his course is that way that is his continuedness and contentedness is after sin this is to walk after the flesh First when it is his continued course for walking is not a step or a leap or a stride but walking is a thing of many paces So it is called a going from iniquity to iniquity Rom. 6. And then there is in walking contentedness and sweetness a man is not said to walk when he is tired or when he goes in danger but walking it pleasant to all young and old So when he saith they that walk according to the flesh that is not onely when men are overtaken by lusts and sin
heard or understood any thing of them that God hath prepared for them that love him They are as we see there afterwards clearly the things of the Spirit of God They are called the deep things of God ver 10. they are deep because no carnal man can reach them and in ver 11. they are called the things of God and in ver 12. The things that are freely given to us of God And in ver 14. they are called the the things of the Spirit of God The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to him In 2 Cor. 4. ult there you shall have both these things described for in that we shall have a little light from that description of it the things of the flesh are called there the things that are seen and the things of the Spirit are called the things that are not seen the one are said to be temporal and the other eternal The things of the flesh are temporal things that may be seen that is not so much seen with the eyes of the body but he means that a man every carnal man may perceive and understand them All the things of Old Adam a meer natural man is able to comprehend them but the other things are things that are not seen that is that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of man Therefore Christ in Mat. 11. 25. saith I thank thee O heavenly Father that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes What were these things the things of the spirit of God they are the things that are hid from the wise and prudent of the world they are not possible to be seen of them but God reveals them to the least babe of his own kingdome In Coloss 3. 1 2. you have another description for you may put these together and so the better understand them In ver 2. the things of the flesh are called things on earth and the things of the Spirit are called the things that are above The things of the flesh are the things that are beneath as it were things on the earth that is though in Old Adam there be many excellent things you must not conceive Earth here in a gross sense there is fine refined wisdome and understanding and prudence which the spirit of God usually slights and despiseth Where is the wise and the disputer c. notwithstanding all Old Adam is but earthly all the spirituality as it were of Old Adam are but things on the earth It is no wonder they are called things of the Earth when the Doctrine and Preaching of John Baptist he himself calls it Earthly I am from the earth I speak earthly He is from above he speaks heavenly and spiritually It was earthly in comparison of Christ though there was some Gospel in it Much more earthly is all the devotion and Religion and what is best in fleshly man that hath nothing in him but Old Adam In Phil. 3. 7. there is another large description of these things The things of the flesh there they are those things that Paul once accounted gaine to him and those things that Paul now accounted losse to him see there what those things are those excellent fine things the things of the flesh a man while he is in the flesh accounts them gaine a great gaine to him he lives by his wit and his wisedome and it is a mighty gaine to him to increase and build up old Adam in him But when a man comes to spirituall things he accounts all these things loss I account them loss saith Paul Now the things of the spirit were those things that Paul desired to win and to gain in the verses following That I may gain Christ and his righteousness and a little further you shall see Paul calls the things of the flesh the things behinde and the things of the Spirit the things before And in ver 19. the things of the flesh he calls them earthly things They minde earthly things and so by contraries the other things are heavenly I cannot open every particular expression onely I would point out the descriptions to you as the Holy Ghost layes them down In 2 Cor. 5. there the things of the flesh are called old things and the things of the Spirit are called new things for saith the Apostle We know no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet know we him so no more therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away all the things of the Flesh are old things the things of the Spirit of God are new things Therefore in the Acts the Athenians desired to know the new strange doctrine that Paul brought What was this new doctrine Onely the things concerning the Spirit of God the other things are old things Gal. 2. 18. there the things of the flesh are described to be the things that Paul destroyed and the things of the Spirit the things that Paul sought to build up 1 Cor. 7. 32 33. the things of the flesh are called the things of the world but the things of the Spirit are called there the things of the Lord The married cares for the things of the world but the unmarried for the things of the Lord. Phil. 2. 23. the things of the flesh are called our own things and the things of the Spirit are called the things of Jesus Christ Saith the Apostle I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state Mark that expression it is well worth observing in these self-seeking times We may well say so now if Paul said so then I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate A man can hardly finde a Professor in a multitude that will naturally and freely care for the state of others of the Saints for saith he All seek their own and not the things that are Jesus Christs all seek their own things the things that make for old Adam that make for the Flesh and for mans self Joh. 6. 27. the things of the Flesh are called meat that perisheth and the things of the Spirit meat that endureth to everlasting life Luke 10. 41. they are called many things and the things of the Spirit are called one thing Martha Martha thou art cumbred about many things for indeed there are many distracting businesses in the things of the world therefore in Mat. 13. when the seed was sown among thorns it is said the deceitfulness of riches and pleasures and the lusts of other things who knows how many it may be a thousand two thousand other things the things of the Flesh are endless but the things of the Spirit are called one thing the ruinous building of old Adam is going into a thousand pieces but there is but one Jesus Christ and in the things of Jesus Christ there is a greater union then in the things of the
you have it 2 Cor. 5. I judge no man according to the flesh If Christ Jesus were here again I would not look on him according to the flesh Now when he saith They minde the things of the flesh this is the meaning of it that is they judge of things in an earthly Fleshly way they judge of the worth of things by the fleshliness not by the spiritualness of them A godly man doth not so all that he accounts of in the world are the things of God and of the Spirit were it not for that this world would be a Hell to him and he judgeth of every man as he hath the Spirit of God he accounts of him as without that not worth any thing a carnal man judgeth of things carnally as they are fleshly and carnal and as old Adam is set up so he judgeth by carnal arguments of spiritual things Thus I have as briefly as I could opened the meaning of it I will onely at this time name one Use and leave the rest till God give another opportunity You have heard what it is to be after the flesh and what the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit are and what it is to minde the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit for we may judge of the one by the other Vse 1. Now the Lesson or the Use as we call it is this Hence we may learn and see what the reason is why divers people notwithstanding all the means used even among us in this place and in other places why they cannot come to understand any thing of Heavenly things of spiritual things What is the reason Because they minde them not and why do they not minde them Because they are fleshly I have wondred oft times and I do believe in my Conscience that had I been here but a Twelve-moneth and had taken any Natural thing under Heaven had I read a Lecture of Philosophy or of Logick or any thing in your Trades or State-business there are none either great or small but could have given some account what the man had said and yet there are some among you that though we have been speaking to you as the Lord hath enabled us almost these two years yet you are as ignorant and as unknowing in any thing that hath been said as if you had been asleep or had been in your graves all this while It is a wonderful thing that no word should stick nothing in the world of all that hath been said If we should ask some among us do you remember any one passage or any one thing that the Preacher hath spoken of these two yeares they remember not one word What is the reason You did not mind it that is the meaning of that word Seeing they see not and hearing they heare not that was the plague upon that people in Isaiah When a mans minde is taken up with other things a man may ride by the door and one may say did you see such a man he came by your eye I saw him not saith he seeing he saw not his eye was on him but his mind was not he was thinking seriously somthing else so hearing they heare not Many times a man heares a sound and is neare enough yet hearing he heares not so it is with many among us the Lord pitty them my heart is ready to burst every day more and more to consider and think of it hearing they hear not all the year long there is not one notion or Exhortation from the Word that sticks on their souls the reason is they minde not they minde the things of the flesh they are feeding some lust they are providing for some fancy or when they are best they are contemplating to set up a way of Justification by works and all because they minde not these things Therefore saith the Lord Isa 1. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth I may well say so of divers among us Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth As if he had said I expect that Heaven should hear and that Earth should hear as soon as this people and yet there is nothing further from hearing then Heaven and nothing duller then the Earth and yet the Prophet would Preach to Heaven and Earth before he would to this dull people and saith he The Ox and the Ass know their owners but my people have not known me Why They do not consider they do not minde So you do not minde what we spake before that you that are Drunkards and Whoremongers and Swearers that waste your Estates and Souls and Bodies in the service of the Devil that you are under the Curse of God and must perish that there is nothing that you do that is pleasing to God till you be born again did you ever minde these things and lay them to heart Did you ever say Yonder man speaks really and tells us the truth But you go home when Sermon is done and say There was a great Company a Throng and he Preached a little too long and we must go to him again after dinner and thus you minde not the Lord Jesus pity you that is the reason that you are ignorant and will be world without end because you minde not spiritual things And this is the reason also why you have carnal people that care noâ— for the Ordinances of God they care not to use those means of grace that the poor Saints do why they minde not spiritual things they are like Gallio he cared not for those things he was busie about natural things It was likely he was a wise judicious man but he cared not for these things So to hear Sermons or Discourses or Conference of thy Neighbours or at thy Table of spiritual things thou art like Gallio thou carest not for them and therefore thou respectest them not Therefore desire the Lord to put his law in thy mind O the maine misery of a man is in his minde the man is nothing but his mind in a manner the maine happiness of a man is in his minde if the law of God be there Therefore before ever thou canst have thy heart good or thy wishes or Prayers good thou must get a good mind desire God to put his law in thy minde for there is the first and main work So also for the poore Saint this is the reason why the people of God are so weaned from the world those that are spirituall Christians you can easily cozen and cheat them and take away all from them and they bear it very well Why so they mind not earthly things fleshly things Let the Devill come with all the policie and power of Hell to cheat them in
thou art a publick man soul and body flesh and bone all that is in thee and all that comes from thee shall die This is that great Curse that God laid on him a Curse of a great extent Therefore I say whatsoever now ariseth from the sons of Adam that springs from Old Adam be it good or evil it is condemned to die it must die it cannot please God As Adam when he had eaten the forbidden fruit the Lord set an Angel with a Sword to keep the Garden that he should come in no more Just so now since Adams fall the Lord hath set a Sword as it were to keep men from all the Principles of Adam that those things shall never please God any more Or I may say of it as Joshua speaks of Jericho when he had pulled down and destroyed it Cursed be the man that buildeth this City any more So when God pulled down Adam for sin the Lord laid that Curse upon him that he should never be a blessing that way any more God would never look on him or any thing that should come from him any more God would bethink himself of another way but that way he would not meddle with But now this is our fault we are still going to build Jericho again we are every man more apt to righteousness then to sin such a righteousness as it is we are apt to go and build up the ruines of Old Adam when we go about the service of God and to do any thing for him Or as the people of Israel Deut. 1. God bids them Arise and go into Canaan and then they would not but by and by they would go and then God tells them they should never go So the time was that we might have gone the way of Old Adam when God made him righteous if we had continued so it had been well and the more we had endeavoured to be righteous that way the more blessed we had been But now we are fallen and God hath cursed Adam to die now any one that goes that way is cursed that goes about to repair those old ruines no saith God do not now anger me in seeking to be holy in that way as Old Adam was We must labour now to go a new way and get the New Adam Jesus Christ into our souls This is the reason why as it is clear in 1 Cor. 15. men must die why godly men must die as well as the wicked It is appointed to all men to die Why so The reason is this Because God in Paradise condemned old Adam wholly to die therefore Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God no piece of old Adam therefore he being a publick person and we in him that Curse must be fulfilled and we must die All that belongs to old Adam must die one time or other Nolens volens Therefore as we bear the Image of old Adam though we have some beginnings of new Adam yet because we have the disposition of old Adam I speak not of sin but of natural Adam we are earthly as Adam was therefore we must lay down this flesh and body because of that great Curse in Paradise that Adam should die and all that are of him Quest But you will say Why then doth not corruption that is a part of old Adam die in the wicked in Hell You say whole Adam corrupt Adam and natural Adam must die Now the wicked in Hell they have sin and corruption world without end for Cain is a Murtherer and Judas is a Traytor to this time Answ It is true that corrupt Adam in the Saints must die but that comes not by the curse but it is by Christ and is a blessing and that corrupt Adam sinful Adam lives for ever in them in Hell it is a part of the Curse for to live in sin is to die properly Now in that we shall have this flesh and blood dissolved and shall have natural wisdome and the like all dashed out therein we are common with them that is of the Curse though God after by an after-game as we may speak with reverence turned it to a blessing But for the dying of corruption in us that is the blessing of Jesus Christ and no curse It is a curse to live in sin therefore though Adam be wholly to dye yet the wicked continue in sin World without end even in Hell I mean there are the sins of the heart at the least And in those places of the New Testament I conceive the holy Ghost alludes to this as that in Rom. 8. They that walk after the flesh shall dye Why doth he not say the plague of God shall come on them but they shall dye It is as if he had said doe you not remember that God threatened a curse in Paradise to flesh and he that walks after that shall dye for God hath said Flesh and Adam shall dye And so Rom. 7. Who shall deliver me from this body of death that is from this body that God hath condemned to dye Therefore I say whatsoever spirngs in us and comes from us from old Adam it is a dead thing that God cursed even in paradice and therfore cannot be acceptable to him Take the best piece of old Adam and offer it to God and it is as that strange fire that Nadab and Abihu offered it cannot please God Let me give you one chief instance that makes my heart bleed when I think of it That thing that you call Divinity or those that you call Divines they are good words of themselves for John is called the Divine but that which you call Divinity which is the great Idol of the World it is nothing but old Adam a kind of godliness learned in a naturall way a man learned after the old Adam as we learn Logick or other things in the Universities and such a one comes and scatters this among people and this you call Divinity and he is a Divine and yet this is abominable to God And that is the reason why there are many Divines that preach excellently and yet God curseth it Why It is old Adams wisedome and invention and brave parts but God curseth the soule he curseth that Fig tree that it shall bring forth no more O Beloved that we would not suffer our selves as Children I had almost said as fooles to be carried on wheeling in a Profession of Religion and to think it enough to carry it plausibly in duties in observing Fast-dayes and dayes of Humiliation c. But that thou and I may be content to let all the Professors in the Town to go before us that way let them be more gallant Professors in outward performances in all they do let it be thy care and mine to glean the Spirit of God after them let people say there is such a man made such a brave piece of work and such a man prayed excellent well and prayed so long let us pass by these things and if I
can do a little from the Spirit of Jesus Christ and if God will frame my heart from the Lord Christ and his Spirit to speak a few words to my Father this is all I care for And so for other things Therefore I beseech you let this sink into you That makes you proud that you cannot rule your hearts but you are lifted up with pride when you have done duties it is because every fine thing you do from old Adam makes you proud you take all in the bulk and consider not whence you do things you consider not how much of the old Adam or of the new there is in your Prayers and duties Therefore let this be an universal eternal rule to know the worth of all your services and actions by whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever of my Preaching and of your praying and lending and giving and of your publick actions if it be not from a Spiritual Principle from Jesus Christ according to the Gospel planted in you it is of old Adam and it is condemned labour to leave that Vse 4. I shall conclude with one word more and that is this That this being so that this is to walk according to the Spirit Then we should long very much for the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises that God hath made unto us concerning the latter times There is no Saint almost now that I know but expects glorious times onely one Saint thinks that the glory of the Saints shall be in this thing and another in that thing but every Saint expects continually the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises set down in the latter end of the Revelations and they are glorious ones whatsoever the meaning of them is and I think the chief thing there promised which shall be the height of our happiness that the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven mistake me not though it be a consequent yet it is not chiefly and properly such a way of Government this or that or the other way though it be true that Government will follow upon it yet if the meaning of it were onely to Reform our Churches though that were a blessing or that Christ should come and reign here temporally and give us Inheritances and Riches and the like truly a Saint would not long much for these things But the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven and abundance of blessings that shall go along with it What is that The meaning of it is we shall have the light of the Gospel clearly revealed unto us and we shall have Gospel-principles fully put into our souls which by Antichrist by Babylon we have been sednced of these thirteen or fourteen hundred years For that was the mischief of Antichrist he hath kept us all his reign under the Old Testament with Altars and Sacrifices and Priests and I know not what every thing just as they used under Moses and we are not wholly gone out of Antichrist yet But the Lord will send a light into our hearts to know the truth in the power and to square our hearts to it For that is New Jerusalem if you compare it with Heb. 12. where the holy Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is clearly opposite to Mount Sinai So compare it with Gal. 4. he tells us that Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all that is the Covenant of grace and the principles thereof in the souls of men Therefore I wish that the Lord would set your hearts and mine longing after that that we may have more of the spirit of the Gospel and of the Principles of the New Testament in us and then for matter of Government of Churches those things would follow For to set up Government and Discipline before this comes into the soule truely it is to build Castles in the ayre for let a man take us and frame us in the Independent or Presbyterian way in what way he will unlesse the Principles of Jesus Christ in the Gospel be spiritually planted it will be a fleshly Independent and a fleshly Presbyterian service Therefore labour chiefly for that and pray the Lord to fulfil that and then your Government whatsoever it shall be God will reveale it more fully People are now generally going to build and order Churches and I know not what unlesse the spirit of the New Testament govern in the New Testament it is a vain thing for if we have our former fleshly hearts that walke according to the law and according to the flesh all the Government in the World will never doe us good because God hath cursed flesh and it will never be regulated and brought to good And this also should move us exceedingly to long for the comming of Jesus Christ to glory for his comming to us or our comming to him and the reason of that you shall have in 1 Cor. 15. 49. a glorious word that hath dwelt much in my thoughts I told you the reason why every man must dye a naturall death because of that absolute grand curse that Adam did fall in as a publick person and we being from him we must dye Now here is the comfort of it a blessed word it is As we have born the image of the earthly so we shall bear also the image of the heavenly that is when the redemption of our bodies comes at the day of Christ then as we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly We have born hitherto and do beare the Image of naturall Adam we are all his Sons and his Daughters just like him in our wisdom and understandings and bodies and soules poore earthly creatures naturall frail creatures we are and by that curse that was layd upon him we must all dye and lay downe these earthly Tabernacles these earthly creatures must be dissolved As we have born the Image of the earthly not only as we have born the Image of old Adam sin and wickednesse and pride and frowardnesse so now we shall bear the Image of the new not only in respect of grace and holinesse and righteousnesse that if I be in him all those corruptions of nature shall out and I shall have a new nature That is true but that is not all but as I wholly beare the Image and shape of old Adam his body and soule and senses and all those must dye so when these bodies shall be raised we shall as absolutely and largely beare the Image of the new Adam the Lord Jesus in our body senses and all our whole man soule and body in respect of substance as well as quality we shall bear the Image of the second Adam as lively and in as large an extent as ever wee bore the Image of the earthly Adam Therefore that is a great comfort I will tell you why because it is not onely the sinfulnesse of a Christian that troubles him but his earthinesse so many distempers and troubles that it is a