in you which was in Christ that is have the same judgement opinions affections compassions as Christ had As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation Secondly in his passive obedience though not in the end or purposes yet in the manner of it Runne with patience saith the Apostle the race which is set before you looking vnto Iesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame c. If the head be gotten through a strait place all the members will venture after Therefore since Christ hath gone through shame contradiction death to his glory let us not be wearied nor faint or despaire in our mindes The head doth not thinke all its worke ended when it is gotten through it selfe but taketh care and is mindefull of the members that follow Therefore the Apostle cals our sufferings A fulfilling or making up of the sufferings of Christ. The Resolution of all is briefely this We must follow Christ in those things which hee both did and commanded not in those things which he did but not commanded But heere it may be objected Christ was Himselfe voluntarily poore Hee became poore for our sakes and he commanded poverty to the young man goe sell all that thou hast and give it to the poore Is every man to be herein a follower of Christ To this I answere in generall that poverty was not in Christ any act of Morall Obedience noâ—… to the yong man any command of Morall Obedience First for Christs poverty we may conceive that it was a requisite preparatorie act to the worke of redemption and to the magnifying of his spirituall power in the subduing of his enemies and saving of his people when it appeared that thereunto no externall accessions nor contribution of temporall greatnesse did concurre And secondly for the command to the yong man it was meerely personall and indeede not so much intending obedience to the letter of the precept as triall of the sinceritie of the mans former profession and conviction of him touching those misperswasions and selfe-deceits which made him trust in himselfe for righteousnesse like that of God to Abraham to offer up his Sonne which was not intended for death to Isaake but for tryall to Abraham and for manifestation of his faith It may be further objected How can wee bee Holy as Christ is Holy First the thing is impossible and secondly if we could there would be no neede of Christ if we were bound to bee so Holy righteousnesse would come by a Law of workes To this I answere the Law is not nullyfied nor curtall'd by the mercy of Christ we are as fully bound to the obedience of it as Adam was though not upon such bad termes and evill consequences as he under danger of contracting sinne though not under danger of incurring death So much as any justified person comes short of complete and universall obedience to the Law so much hee sinneth as Adam did though God be pleased to pardon that sinne by the merit of Christ. Christ came to deliver from sinne but not to priviledge any man to commit it though hee came to be a curse for sinne yet Hee came not to be a Cloake for sinne Secondly Christ is needefull in two respects First because we cannot come to full and perfect obedience and so His Grace is requisite to pardon and cover our failings Secondly because that which wee doe attaine unto is not of or from our selves and so his spirit is requisite to strengthen us unto his service Thirdly when the Scripture requires us to be Holy and perfect as Christ and God by as we understand not equalitie in the compasse but qualitie in the Truth of our Holynesse As when the Apostle saith That we must love our neighbour as our selves the meaning is not that our love to our neighbour should be mathematically equall to the love of our selves for the Law doth allow of degrees in Love according to the degrees of relation and neerenesse in the thing loved Doe good unto all men specially to those of the houshold of Faith Love to a friend may safely bee greater then to a stranger and to a wife or childe then to a friend yet in all our love to others must be of the selfe same nature as true reall cordiall sincere solid as that to our selves Wee must love our neighbour as wee doe our selves that is unfainedly and without dissimulation Let vs further consider the Grounds of this point touching the Conformitie which is betweene the nature and spirituall life of Christians and of Christ because it is a Doctrine of principall consequence First this was one of the Ends of Christs comming Two purposes He came for A restitution of us to our interest in Salvation and a restoring our originall qualities of Holynesse unto vs. Hee came to sanctifie and cleanse the Church that it should be Holy and without blemish unblameable and unreproveable in his sight To Redeeme and to purifie his people The one is the worke of his Merit which goeth upward to the Satisfaction of his Father the other the worke of his Spirit and Grace which goeth downeward to the Sanctification of his Church In the one He bestoweth his righteousnesse upon us by imputation in the other He fashioneth his â—…mage in us by renovation That man then hath no claime to the payment Christ hath made nor to the inheritance Hee hath purchased who hath not the Life of Christ fashioned in his nature and conversation But if Christ be not onely a Saviour to Redeeme but a Rule to Sanctifie what use or service is left unto the Law I answere that the Law is still a Rule but not a comfortable effectuall delightfull rule without Christ applying and sweetning it unto us The Law onely comes with commands but Christ with strength love willingnesse and life to obey them The Law alone comes like a Schoolemaster with a scourge a curse along with it but when Christ comes with the Law He comes as a Father with precepts to teach and with compassions to spare The Law is a Lion and Christ our Sampson that slew the Lion as long as the Law is alone so long it is alive and comes with terrour and fury upon every Soule it meetes but when Christ hath slaine the Law taken away that which was the strength of it namely the guilt of sinne then there is honie in the Lion sweetnesse in the duties required by the Law It is then an easie yoke and a Law of libertie the Commandements are not then grievous but the heart delighteth in them and loveth them even as the honie and the honie combe Of it selfe it is the cord of a Iudge which bindeth hand and foote and shackleth unto condemnation but by Christ it is made the cord of a man and the band of Love by which He teacheth us to goâ—…
thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkenesse be as the noone day then thy waters shall not lye unto thee that happinesse which it falsly promiseth unto other men it shall performe unto thee And so much be spoken touching the great disproportion between the Soule of man and the Creature in regard of the Vanitie of it The next disproportion is in their Operation They are vexing and molesting things Rest is the satisfaction of every Creature all the rovings and agitations of the Soule are but to find out something on which to rest and therefore where there is Vexation there can be no proportion to the soule of man and Salomon tels us That All things under the Sunne are full of labour more then a man can utter He was not used as an Instrument of the Holy Ghost to speake it onely but to trie it too the Lord was pleased for that very purpose to conferre on him a confluence of all outward happinesse and inward abilities which his very heart could desire that he at last might discover the utter insufficiency of all created Excellencies to quiet the Soule of man But if we will not beleeve the Experience of Salomon let us beleeve the authority of him that was greater then Salomon who hath plainely compar'd the things and the cares of the earth to Thornes which as the Apostle speakes Pierce or bore a man thorough with many sorrowes First They are Wounding Thornes for that which is but a pricke in the flesh is a wound in the spirit because the spirit is most tender of smart and the wise man cals them Vexation of spirit The Apostle tels us they beget many sorrowes and those sorrowes bring death with them If it were possible for a man to see in one view those oceans of bloud which have been let out of mens veines by this one Thorne to heare in one noise all the groanes of those poore men whose lives from the beginning of the world unto these dayes of blood wherein we live have been set at sale and sacrificed to the unsatiable ambition of their bloody rulers to see and heare the endlesse remorse and bitter yellings of so many rich and mighty men as are now in hell everlastingly cursing the deceite and murther of these earthly Creatures it would easily make every man with pitty and amazement to beleeve that the Creatures of themselves without Christ to qualifie their venome and to blunt their edge are in good earnest Wounding Thornes Secondly they are Choaking Thornes they stifle and keepe downe all the gratious seeds of the word yea the very naturall sproutings of noblenesse ingenuity morality in the dispositions of men Seed requires emptinesse in the ground that there may be a free admission of the raine and influences of the heavens to cherish it And so the Gospell requires nakednesse and poverty of minde a sense of our owne utter insufficiencie to our selves for happinesse in which sense it is said that the poore receive the Gospel But now earthly things meeting with corruption in the heart are very apt First To Fill it and secondly To Swell it both which are conditions contrary to the preparations of the Gospell They Fill the Heart First with Businesse Yokes of oxen and farmes and wives and the like contentinents take up the studies and delights of men that they cannot finde out any leisure to come to Christ. Secondly They Fill the Heart with Love and the Love of the world shuts out the Love of the father as the Apostle speakes When the Heart goes after covetousnesse the power and obedience of the word is shut quite out They will not do thy words saith the Lord to the Prophet for their heart goeth after their covetousnesse A deare and superlative Love such as the Gospell ever requires for a man must love Christ upon such termes as to bee ready without consultation or demurre not to forsake onely but to hate father and mother and wife and any the choisest worldly endearments for his Gospels sake I say such a Love admits of no Corrivalty or competition And therfore the love of the world must needs extingvish the love of the word Lastly they fill the heart with feare of forgoing them and feare takes of the heart from any thoughts save those which looke upon the matter of our feare when men who make Gold their Confidence heare that they must forsake all for Christ and are sometimes haplie put upon a triall they start aside choose rather securely to enjoy what they have present hold of then venture the interuption of their carnall contentments for such things the beauty where of the Prince of this world hath blinded their eyes that they should not see For certainly till the minde be setled to beleeve that in God there is an ample recompence for any thing which wee may otherwise forgoe for him it is impossible that a man should soundly embrace the love of the truth or renounce the love of the world Secondly as They Fill so they Swell the Heart too and by that meanes worke in it a contempt and disestimation of the simplicity of the Gospell We have both together in the Prophet According to their pasture so were they Filled they were filled and their heart was Exalted therefore have they forgotten me Now the immediate child of Pride is selfe-dependence and a reflection on our owne sufficiencie and from thence the next issue is a contempt of the simplicity of that gospell which would drive us out of our selves The Gentiles out of the pride of their owne wisedome counted the Gospell of Christ foolishnesse and mocked those that preached it unto them and the Pharisees who were the learned Doctors of Ierusalem when they heard Christ preach against earthlie affections out of their pride and covetousnesse Derided him as the Evangelist speakes Nay further they stifle the seeds of all noblenesse ingenuity or common vertues in the lives of men from whence come oppression extortion bribery cruelty rapine fraud iniurious treacherous sordid ignoble courses a very dissolution of the Lawes of nature amongst men but from the adoration of earthly things from that Idol of covetousnesse which is set up in the heart Thirdly they are Deceitfull Thornes as our Saviour expresseth it Let a man in a tempest go to a thorne for shelter and he shall light upon a thiefe in stead of a fence which will teare his flesh in stead of succouring him and doe him more injury then the evill which he fled from and such are the Creatures of themselves so farre are they from protecting that indeed they tempt and betray us The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the Clefts of the Rockes thou that sayest in thine heart Who shall bring me downe I will bring thee downe saith the Lord to Edom. Lastly they are vanishing Thornes nothing so apt nothing so easie to catch fire and be
the Divell threaten Demas with persecuâ—…ion and presently hee forsakes the fellowship of the Apostles and imbraceth this present world And as it was heretofore so is it still If a mans heart be not set on God and taught to rest upon his providence to answer all Satans promises with his All-sufficiencie to reward vs and all his threatnings with his All-sufficiency to protect us how easily will promises begvile and threatnings deterre unstable and earthly minds Let the Divell tell one man All this will I give thee if thou wilt speake in a Cause to pervert judgement how quickly will men create subtilties and coine evasions to rob a man and his house even a man and his inheritance Let him say to another I will doe whatsoever thou sayst unto me if thou wilt dissemble thy conscience divide thy heart comply with both sides keepe downe the power of godlinesse persecute zeale set up will-worship and superstiâ—…ions how quickly shall such a mans religion bee disgviz'd and sincerity if it were possible put to shame If to another thou shalt by such a time purchase such a Lordship out such a neighbour swallow up such a prodigall if thou enhance thy rents enlarge thy fines set unreasonable rates upon thy Farmes how quickly will men grinde the faces of the poore and purchase ungodly possessions with the blood of their tenants If to another beware of laying open thy conscience of being too faithfull in thy Calling too sâ—…rupulous in thy office least thou purchase the dis-favour of the World lest the times cloud overthee and frowne upon thee lest thou be scourged with persecuted names and make thy selfe obnoxious to spies and censures how will men be ready to start backe to shrinke from their wonted forwardnesse to abate their former zeale to coâ—…ple in with and connive at the corruptions of the age in one Word to tremble when Ephraim speakes and not to tremble when God speakes So hard is it when the heart is wedded to earthly things and they are gotten into a mans bosome to beare the assaults of any temptation Lastly this comes from the just and secret wrath of God giuing men over to the deceitfulnesse of sinne and to the hardnesse of their owne hearts to beleeve the lies and allurements of Satan because they rejected the counsell of God and the love of his truth before In the influences of the Sunne we may observe that the deeper they worke the stronger they worke the beames nearer the Center meeting in a sharper point doe consolidate and harden the very Element so the Creatures by the justice of God when they meete in a mans Center reach as farre as his heart doe there mightily worke to the deceiving and hardning of it the eye nor any other outward sense can finde no more in the Creature then is really there it is the heart which mis-conceives things and attributes that Deity and worth to them which the senses could not discover If men then could keepe these things from their spirits they should ever conceive of them according to their owne narrow being and so keepe their hearts from that hardnesse which the Creatures destitute of Gods blessing doe there beget and so worke in the soule a disposition suteable to Satans temptations Secondly a Heart set upon any lust is unfit likewise to beare any affliction The Young man whose heart was upon his riches could not endure to heare of selling all and entring upon a poore and persecuted profession First Lusts are choice and dainty they make the heart very delicate and nice of any assaults Secondly they are very wilfull and set upon their owne ends therefore they are expressed by the name of concupiscence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wills of the flesh and wilfulnesse is the ground of impatiency Thirdly they are naturall and move strongly to their owne point they are a Body and our very members no marvell then if they be sensible of paine from afflictions which are contrary unto nature The stronger the water runnes the more will it roare and some upon any opposition lust is like a furious beast enrag'd with the affliction the chaine that binds it Fourthly Lusts are very wise after a fleshly and sensuall manner and worldly wisedome is impatient of any stoppage or prevention of any affliction that crusheth and disappoints it Therefore the Apostle doth herein principally note the opposition betweene heavenly and carnall wisedome that the one is meeke peaceable and gentle the other divelish and full of strife Fifthly Lusts are proud especially those that arise from abundance of the Creature and pride being set upon by any affliction makes the heart breake forth into impatience debates and stoutnesse against God a proud heart growes harder by afflictions as Metals or Clay after they have past thorow the furnace It is said of Pharaoh that he did not set his heart to the Iudgements of God but exalted himselfe against his people Pride grew stronger by Affliction Besides pride in earthly things swallowes up the very expectation of Afflictions and therefore must needs leave the heart unprepared against them Sixthly Lusts are rooted in self-selfe-love and therefore when Christ will have a man forsake his lusts he directs him to denie himselfe Now the very essence of Afflictions are to be grievous and adverse to a mans selfe Seventhly Lusts are contentious armed things and their enmity is against God and therefore utterly unfit to accept of the punishment of sinne and to beare the â—…ndignation of the Lord or to submit unto any afflictions Eighthly Lusts resist the truth set up themselves against the Word and thereby utterly disable men to beare Afflictions for the Word sanctifies and lightens all Affliction the Word shewes Gods moderation and intention in them an issue out of them the benefits which will come from them the supplies of strength and abilities to beare them the promises of a more abundant exceeding weight of glory in comparison whereof they are as nothing Lastly if wee could conceive some Afflictions not contrary to lust yet Afflictions are ever contrary to the provisions of lust to the materials and instruments of lusts such as are health pleasure riches honours c. And in all these respect a Heart set upon lust is weakened and disabled to beare Afflictions Secondly when the Heart is set upon the Creature it is utterly disabled in regard of its active strength made unfit to doe any duty with that strength as Gods requires First because Bonum fit ex causâ integrâ A good duty must proceede from an entire Cause from the whole heart Now lust divides the Heart and makes it unstedfast and unfaithfull unto God There is a twofold unstedfastnesse one in degrees another in objects the former proceeds from the remainders of corruption and therefore is found in some measure in the best
allurements no hopes no feares no promises no instructions able to startle to awaken to melt or shape it to a better image without the immediate omnipotency of that God which melts the mountaines and turnes stones into sonnes of Abraham Full of Impenitencie not led by the very patience and long-suffering of God noâ—… allured by the Invitations and enteaâ—…ies of God to returne to him not perswaded by the fruitlesnesse and emptinesse of all sinnefull lusts to forsake them Full of â—…llr it is bound up riveted fast into the heart of a 〈◊〉 and there from childish folly growes up to wise and sober folly as I may so speake till the heart bee changed into a cell of darknesse Full of madnesse and â—…age in â—…dnen is in the hearts of men while they lieu all the creatures in the world are not able to cure it Full of Infidelity A Heart that departs from God undervalews his pretious promises mistrusts his power In one word ful of all pollution and uncleannesse that Forge where all sins are framed in secret intents desires purposes lusts and from whence it springeth forth into the life the flames of it breaking out into the tongue and into every other member in adulteries murthers thefts blasphemies and every wicked word and worke Looke into the will and you shall finde it First full of Disability unto any good It cannot hearken nor be subject unto the law of God But there may be weaknesse where yet there is a good will and affection not so here it is Secondly full of loathing and aversation It cannot endure to heare or see any thing that is good casts it behind the back and turnes away the shoulder from it But there may be a particular nausea or lothing of a thing out of some distemper and not out of antipathy a man may loath the sight of that in a disease which at another time he loves But the will doth not sometimes loath and sometimes love but Thirdly it is full of enmity against that which is good It lookes upon it as a base thing and so it scornes it and it lookes on it as an adverse thing and so sets up resolutions to withstand it and it looks upon it as an unprofitable thing and so slights and neglects it But enmity is seldome so rooted but that it may bee overcome and a reconciliation wrought not so here the fleshly will may be crucified it will never be reconcil'd for Fourthly it is full of 〈◊〉 and contrariety which is a Twisted enmity as I may so speake which cannot be broken One contrarie may expell another but it can never reconcile it The flesh will never give over the combate nor forbeare its owne contumacie and resolutions to persist in evill Looke into the memorie and you shall finde it very unfaithfull to retaine good very tenacious to hold anyevill It is like a leaking vessell le ts out all that is pure and retaines nothing but mud and dregs The Lord made great promises to the people of Israel to bring them into the holy land began to fulfill them in wonders in terrible wonders in mercies in multitudes of mercies and nothing fo fit to make impressions on the memorie as promises miracles and multiplied deliverances and yet as if they meant to contend with God which should be the greatest the wonder of his goodnesse or the wonder of their unthankfulnes all this was not long a wearing out for it is said They did soone forget it all Look into the whole man and you shall finde him full of perturbation and disorder A man cannot trust any member he hath alone without Iobs covenant without Davids bradle to keepe it in If thou hast occasion to use thine eye take heed unto it It is full of the seeds of adultery pride envie wrath covetousnesse there are Lusts of the eye If to use thy tongue Trust it not alone set a dore before thy lips there is a Hell within thee that can set it all on fire that can fill it with rotten and stinking communication there is blasphemy persecution theft murther adultery curses revilings clamors bitternesse crimson and hellish fierie and brimstone abominations in that little member able to set the whole frame of nature on fire about the eares of ungodly men If to use thy hands or feete looke unto them there are seeds of more sins theft bribery murther adultery what not then there are joynts or sinewes in those members If to use thine eare be slow to hear take heed how you heare it is easily open to vanitie lies slanders calumniations false doctrines trashie and emptie doctrines Thus all over we finde a Body of sinne And which is yet more strange this sinnefulnesse cleaves not to our members onely but runnes over with a prodigious exuberancie into our very excrements and adjacents Absolom proud of his haire Iezabel proud of her paint Herod proud of his robes and though the word beâ—… a sword and a fire yet it cannot cut of noâ—… melt away any of this pride till Absoloms haire become his halter till Iezabels paint be washed of with her owne blood and vermin make the robes of Herod baser then a menstruous cloath or a beggers rags Thus we see how universala corruption originall sinne is Therefore in Scripture the whole man is called flesh because in carnall works we worke secundum hominem when wee are carnall wee walke as men as our Saviour saith of the Divell when hee speaketh a lie hee speaketh De suo of his owne according to his owne nature so when men walke after the flesh they worke of their owne they walke according to themselves For of our selves we can doe nothing as the Apostle speakes but onely sinne when wee doe any good it is by the grace of God but lusts which are the fountaine of evill are all our owne God gave the Heathen over to the lusts of their own hearts and every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his owne lust and enticed So then wee are all over flesh The minde a fleshly minde the will a fleshly will the affections and lust all fleshly So that as the Aposile saith of the Body many members but one ' Body so we of originall sinne many lusts but one body therefore the Apostle caâ—…s it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the singular number sinne upon which excellent is the observation of the Author of the booke De Duplici Martyrio among Saint Cyprians workes plus est tollere peccatum quam peccata It is more difficult to root out this sinning sinne then to overcome many actuall Secondly consider the closenesse and adherency of this sinne It cleaves as fast to our nature as Blacknesse to the skinme of an Ethiopian that cannot possibly bee washt off As fast as Ivie to a wall it is the similitude of Epiphanius though a man may lop and shorten
the branches yet the rootes are so fastened to the joynts and intralls of the wall that till the stones be puld all asunder it will not be quite rooted out As that house wherein there was a fretting and spreading Leprosie though it might bee scrap'd round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it was broken downe so originall concupiscence cleaveth so close to our nature that though we may bee much repair'd yet corruption will not leave us till our house be dissolved As long as Corne is in the field it will have refuse and chaffe about it as long as water remaines in the Sea it will retaine it saltnesse till it be defecated and clensed in its passage into the Land and so is it with the Church while it is in the world it will have the body of sinne about it it will bee beset with this Sinne. In the Apostle it is for this reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sinne a sinne that will not be cast off that doth easily occupate and possesse all our members and faculties a man may as easily shake off the skin from his backe or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himselfe of this evill inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us and dwelling in us But it may be objected Doth not the Apostle say that by being baptized into Christ or planted into the likenesse of his death our old man is crucified the body of sinne is destroyed we are freed from sinne as a woman is from a dead husband we have put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision made without hands that is by Baptisme and the Spirit Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say He that is borne of God that is he that is Regenerate by Water and the Spirit sinneth not neither can sinne To this I answer in generall with the same Apostle If we say wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us More particularly wee must distingvish both of Death and of sinne There is a twofold Death an Actuall or Naturall Death when the essentiall parts of a living Creature are taken asunder and the whole dissolved and a Virtuall or Legall Death when though the party bee naturally Alive yet hee is Dead in Law and that notes two things First a designation unto a certaine Death at hand and ready to bee executed Secondly a disabilitie unto many purposes which lay before in the mans power as a man condemn'd though hee have his life out of indulgence for a short space yet hee is then set apart and appointed for death and in the very sentence disabled to order or dispose of any thing which was then his owne When a woman is divorced for adultery from her husband though she bee Alive naturally yet Legally and to the purpose of marriage she is Dead to her husband so that though shee should live in the same house yet she should have nothing to doe with his bed or body And thus the Apostle speaketh of sinfull Widowes that they are Dead while they Live 1. Tim. 5. 6. In sin likewise we may consider The guilt of it whereby it makes us accursed and the dominion of it wherewith it bringeth us into bondage in these two principally consists the life and the strength of sinne which it hath from the Law Now by being baptized into Christ wee are delivered from the Law Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 25. First from the covenant of the Law Christ hath put an utter period to the Law quoad officium Iustificandi hee is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Wee are righteous now by Grace and Donation not by nature or operation by the righteousnesse of God not that whereby God is righteous but that which God is pleased to give us and stands in opposition to a mans owne righteousnesse which is by working Secondly from the Rigor of the Law which requires perfect and perpetuall obedience Gal. 3. 10. Though the Gospell command holinesse Matth. 5. 48. and promise it Luk. 1. 74. and worke it in us Tit. 2. 10. 11. yet when the Conscience is summon'd before God to bee justified or condemned to resolve upon what it will stand to for its last triall there is so much mixture of sinne that it dares trust none but Christs owne adequate performance of the Law this is all the salvation the maine charter and priviledge of the church Wee are not therefore rigorously bound either to a full habituall holinesse in our persons which is supplied by the merit of Christ nor to a through actuall obedience in our services which are covered with the Intercession of Christ. Wee are at the best full of weakenesse many remnants of the old Adam hang about us this is all the comfort of a man in Christ that his desires are accepted God regards the sincerity of his heart and will spare his failings even as a man spareth his Sonne that desires to please him but comes short in his endeavours that he will not looke on the iniquitie of his holy things but when he fals will pitty him and take him up and heale him and teach him to goe thus wee are delivered from the rigour of the Law which yet is thus to be understood That though wee bee still bound to all the Law as much as ever under perill of sinne for so much as the best come short of fullfilling all the Law so much they sinne yet not under paine of Death which is the rigour of the Law And therefore Thirdly wee are delivered from the Curse of the Law from the vengeance and wrath of God against sin Christ was made a curse for us Lastly from the Irritation of the Law and all compulsorie and slavish obedience we love by Christ all the principles and grounds of true obedience put into vs. First knowledge of Gods will the spirit of Revelation wisedome and spirituall understanding Secondly will to embrace and love what wee know Thirdly strength in some measure to performe it And by these meanes the Saints serve God without feare with delight willingnesse love liberty power the Law is to them a new Law a Law of liberty a light yoke the Commandements of God are not grievous to them Being thus Dead to the Law we are truly Dead to sinne likewise and sinne to us but not universally Dead in regard of its strength but not in regard of its beeing To apply then the premisses Sin is Dead naturally quoad Reatum in regard of the gvilt of it that is that actuall guilt of sin wherby every man is borne a child of wrath and made obnoxious to vengeance is done quite away in our regeneration and the obligations cancell'd Col. 2. 14. Secondly sinne is Dead Legally
meeke and peaceable In the same will a delight in the Law of God and yet a bias and counter-motion to the law of sinne In the same understanding a light of the Gospell and yet many relikes of humane principles and fleshly reasonings much ignorance of the purity excellency and beauty of the wayes of God In the same heart singlenesse and sensiblenesse of sinne and yet much secret fraud and prevarication hardnesse and dis-apprehension of sin and wrath In the same affections love of God and love of the World feare of God and feare of men trust in God and doubting of his favour Lord I beleeve helpe thou mine unbeliefe was the cry of the poore man in the Gospell and such must bee the complaints of the best of us Lord I will helpe thou mine unwillingnesse Lord I heare thee helpe thou my deafenesse Lord I remember thee helpe thou my forgetfulnesse Lord I presse towards thee helpe thou my wearinesse Lord I rejoyce in thee helpe thou my heavinesse Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee helpe thou my strangenesse Lord I love and delight in thy Law helpe thou my failings Such tugging is there of either nature to preserve and improve it selfe Iacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the birth contention for the birth-right contention with an Angell for the blessing contention for his wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typicall man his name was Israel and he was a patterne to the Israel of God We must be all men of contention wrestlers not onely with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our elder brother Esau with the lusts and frowardnesse of our owne hearts The Thiefe on the Crosse was a perfect embleme of the sinne of our nature he was naild hand and foot destin'd unto death utterly disabled from any of his wonted outrages and yet that only part which was a little loose flies out in reviling and reproaching Christ Our old man by the mercy of God is upon a Crosse destin'd to death disabled from the exercise of that wonted violence and dominion which it used and yet so long as there is any life or strength left in him hee sets it all on worke to revile that blessed spirit which is come so neere him The more David prevailes the more Saul rageth and persecuteth him As in the wombe of Tamar there was a strife for precedencie Zarah thrust out his hand first and yet Pharez goâ—… foâ—…th before him so in a Christian many times the 〈◊〉 thruâ—… out the hand and begins to worke and presently the flesh growes sturdie and boisterous and gets first into the action A man sets himselfe to call upon God lifts up his hand with the skarlet thred the blood of Christ upon it is in a sweete preparation to powre out his complaints his requests his praises to his father and ere he is aware pride ln the excellencie of Gods gifts or deadnesse or worldly thoughts intrude themselves and justle-by Gods spirit and cast a blemish upon his offring A man is setting himself to heare Gods word begins to attend and rellish the things that are spoken as matters which doe in good earnest concerne his peace begins to see a beauty more then ordinary in Gods service an excellencie with David in Gods Law which hee considered not before resolves hereafter to love frequent submit beleeve prize it more then he had ever done presently the flesh sets up her mounds her reasonings her perverse disputes her owne principles her shame her worldlinesse her want of leisure her secular contentments and so resists the spirit of God and rejects his counsell I have enough already what needs this zeale this pressing this accuratenesse this violence for heaven strive wee what wee can our infirmities will encompasse us our corruptions will bee about us But yet Beloved as in a pyramide the higher you goe the lesse compasse still you finde the body to bee of and yet not without the curiositie and diligence of him that fram'd it so in a Christian mans resurrection and conversation with Christ in heaven the neerer he comes to Christ the smaller still his corruptions will bee and yet not without much spirituall industry and christian art A Christian is like a flame the higher it ascends the more thinne purified and azurie it is but yet it is a flame in greene wood that wants perpetuall blowing and encouragement A man sets himselfe with some good resolution of spirit to set forward the honor in questioning in discovering in shaming in punishing within the compasse of his owne calling and warrant the abuses of the times in countenancing in rewarding in abetting and supporting truth righteousnes his flesh presently interposeth his quiet his security his relations his interests his hopes his feares his dependencies his plausibility his credit his profit his secular provisoes these blunt his edge upbraid him with impoliticknes with malecontentednes with a sullen cynicall disposition against men and manners and thus put I know not what ill favor'd colours upon a good face to make a man out of love with an honest busines In a word good is before me the glory the service the waies of God I see it but I cannot love it I love it but I cannot doe it I doe it but I cannot finish it I will but yet I rebell I follow and yet I fall I presse forward and yet I faint and flagge I wrestle and yet I halt I pray and yet I sinne I fight and yet I am Captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me I watch my heart and yet it runnes away from me God was at first the Author of nothing but peace within me what envious man hath sowed this warre in my bowels Let the Apostle answer this question saith Saint Austen By one man sinne entred into the world That which I would be I am not and that which I hate I am O wretched man in whom the Crosse of Christ hath not yet worne out the poysonous and bitter tast of that first tree It is the patheticall complaint of Bonifacius in the same Father How doth the Apostle even breake with complaining of this rebellious and captivating power of originall concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me though hee were delivered from the damnation yet hee was not delivered from the miserie of this sinne which must necessarily arise from the stirrings and conflicts of it Though lust in the regenerate bee not damnable because albeit it bring forth sinne yet it doth not finish and consummate it for it is broken off by repentance and disabled by the power of Christs spirit yet it is still miserable because it disquieteth the spirituall peace and tranquillity of the soule But there is no great danger in the warre if the enemie bee either foolish or
Law for Lawes are made to binde and hold men fast and therefore the Apostle cals lust a Law because it commands and holds under all our members to the obedience of it Therefore wicked men are call'd the Servants of sinne and the best of us are Captives that is unwilling servants Which notes such a strength of sinne as cannot ex toto be altogether withstood So much flesh and uncircumcisednesse as a man hath in him so much disabilitie likewise hath he to withstand sinne In the wicked it hath an absolutenesse an universall and uncontroled power First they cannot but sinne they can doe nothing but sinne Without faith it is impossible to please God and to the impure and uncleane every thing is uncleane His mercies cruell his prayers abomination his offerings the sacrifice of fooles Secondly if they seeme to forsake any sinne 't is not of hatred to that as a sinne for he that said Thou shalt not commit adultery said also Thou shalt not kill but it is because they preferre others before it A man that hath many concubines may so dote upon some particulars as that the rest haply may goe untouch'd or but cursorily saluted and yet that is no argument of hatred to them but of preferring the others So a mans hart may be so takē up with the pursuit of some Herodias some darling lust as that others may seeme utterly neglected and scorn'd when the truth is The hart that playes the adulterer with any sin doth indeed hate none Thirdly if by the power of the Word they be frighted from the sinne they most love yet lust will carry them to it againe as a Sow returneth to the mire or a man to his wife Fourthly if they should be so fir'd and terrified away that they durst never actually returne againe yet even then lust will make them wallow in speculatiue uncleannesse their thoughts their delights their sighs their byas would still hanker the other way As lust may dog and pester and overtake a holy man that hates it and yet hee hates it still so the Word may frightand drive a wicked man from the sinne hee loves and yet still hee loves it Fifthly this sinne as it keepes men in love with all sinne so it keepes men off from all good duties It is as a chaine upon all our faculties an iron gate that keepes out any good thought or poysons it when it comes in In the faithfull themselves likewise it is exceeding strong by antiperistasis from the Law to deceive captivate sell as a slave to make him doe that which he hated and allowed not and not doe that which he would and lov'd It may seeme a paradoxe at the first but it is a certaine truth Originall sinne is stronger in the faithfull then those very Graces which they have received Vnderstand it thus A man giveth to a prodigall sonne a great portion into his owne hands and then gives over the care of him and leaves him to himselfe iin this Case though the money of it selfe were sufficient to keepe him in good quality yet his owne folly and the Crowes that haunt the carkasse those sharking companions that cleave to him will suddenly exhaust a great estate So if the Lord should give a man a stocke of Grace as much as David or Paul had and there stop and furnish him with no further supplyes but give over the care and protection of him his lusts are so strong and cunning as they would suddenly exhaust it all and reduce him to nothing For this is certaine that to be preserved from the strength of our owne lusts we have not onely use of the good graces which God hath given us already per modum principij inhaerentis but of a continued support and under propping per modum principij adsistentis of those daily succours and supplies of the Spirit of Grace which may goe before us and leade into all truth and teach us the way which we are to walk in which may stil say to our lusts in our bosome as he did to Satan at the right hand of Iehoiada The Lord rebuke thee that may still whisper in our eares that blessed direction This is the way walke in it Though a man were able to devoure as much at one meale as was spent upon Bel the Idoll yet he would quickly perish without further supplyes so though a man should have a great portion of Grace and then be given over to himselfe that would not preserve him from falling againe Grace in us is but like the putting of hot water into cold it may warme it for the time but the water will reduce it selfe to its wonted temper cold is predominant even when the water scalds with heate but that which keepes water hot is the preserving of fire still about it so it is not the Graces which the best of us receive if God should there stop and leave us to them and our selves together that would overcome sinne in us but that which preserves us is his promise of never failing us of putting under his hand of renewing his mercies daily to us of healing our back slidings of following us with his goodnes mercy all the dayes of our life of keeping us by his power unto saluation through faith that same which Fulgentius excellently calls Iuge Auxilium the daily ayde and supply of Grace For Grace doth not onely prevent a wicked man to make him righteous but followes him least hee become wicked againe not onely preuent him that is fallen to rayse him but follow him after he is risen that he fall not againe Consider further what a multitude and swarme of lusts and members this body of sinne hath and how they concurre in the unitie of one body too For this is worth the nothing that sometimes they are cald in the singular number sinne to note their unitie and conspiration and sometimes in the plurail number lusts and members to note their multitudes and serviceablenesse for severall purposes And what can bee stronger then an Army consisting of multitudes of men and weapons reduc'd all to a wonderfull unitie of mindes ends and order So then both in regard of its regall authoritie of its edicts and lawes of government of its multitude of members and unitie of body originall sinne must needs be very strong Ninthly consider the madnesse of this sinne The heart of man saith Salomon is full of evill and madnesse is in his heart while he lives Insania is a generall word and hath two kinds or species of madnesse in it madnesse or unsoundnesse in passions which is furor rage and fiercenes and madnesse or unsoundnesse in the Intellectuals which is Amentia folly or being out of ones right mind And both these are in originall sinne First it is full of fiercenesse rage precipitancy when ever it sets it selfe on worke the driving thereof is like the driving of Iehu very furious This disposition
Adams sinne may be thus farre said to be unto posterity imputed as that by reason of it they become obnoxious unto Death namely to an eternall dissolution of body and soule without any reunion and an eternall losse of the divine vision without any paine of sense yet that death which to Adam in his person was a punishment is not so to his posteritie but onely the condition of their nature Thirdly they say that that which is called originall sinne is nothing else at all but onely the privation of originall righteousnesse and that concupiscence was 〈◊〉 contracted and brought upon nature by sinne but was originally in our nature suspended indeede by the presence but actuated by the losse of that righteousnesse Fourthly they say That that Privation was not by man contracted but by God inflicted as a punishment upon Adam from whom it comes but onely as a condition of nature unto us that man in his fall and prevarication did not Throw away or actually shake off the Image of God but God pull'd it away from him which if God had not done it would have remained with him notwithstanding the sinne of the first fall Fifthly they say That in as much as the privation of originall righteousnesse was a punishment by God upon Adam justly inflicted and by Adam unto us naturally and unavoidably propagated It is not therefore to be esteem'd any sinne at all neither for it can God justly condemne any man nor is it to be esteem'd a punishment of sinne in us though it were in Adam because in us there is no sinne going before it of which it may bee accounted the punishment as there was in Adam but onely the condition of our present nature Lastly they say that Adam being by God deprived of originall righteousnesse which is the facultie and fountaine of all obedience and being now constituted under the deserved curse all the debt of legall obedience wherein he and his posteritie in him were unto God obliged did immediately cease so that whatsoever outrages should after that have beene by Adam or any of his children committed they would not have beene sinnes or transgressions nor involv'd the Authors of them in the guilt of iust damnation That which unto us reviveth sin is the new covenant because therein is given unto the law new strength to command and unto us new strength to obey both which were evacuated in the fall of Adam Vpon which premises it doth most evidently follow that unlesse God in Christ had made a covenant of grace with us anew no man should ever have beene properly and penally damned but onely Adam and he too with no other then the losse of Gods presence For â—… Hell and torments are not the revenge of Legall but of Evangelicall disobedience not for any actuall sinnes for there would have beene none because the exaction of the Law would have ceased and where there is no Law there is no transgression not for the want of righteousnesse because that was in Adam himselfe but a punishment and in his posteritie neither a sinne nor a punishment but onely a condition of nature not for habituall concupiscence because though it be a disease and an infirmitie yet it is no sinne both because the being of it is connaturall and necessary and the operations of it inevitable and unpreventable for want of that bridle of supernaturall righteousnesse which was appointed to keepe it in Lastly not for Adams sinne imputed because being committed by another mans will it could bee no mans sinne but his that committed it So that now upon these premises we are to invert the Apostles words By one man namely by Adam sinne entered into the world upon all his posterity and death by sinne By one man namely by Christ tanquam per causam sine quâ non sinne returned into the world upon all Adams posteritie and with sinne the worst of all deaths namely hellish torments which without him should not haue beene at all O how are wee bound to prayse God and recount with all honour the memorie of those Worthies who compiled Our Articles which serue as a hedge to keepe out this impious and mortiferous doctrine as Fulgentius cals it from the Church of England and suffers not Pelagius to returne into his owne country There are but three maine arguments that I can meet with to colour this heresie and two of them were the Pelagians of old First that which is naturall and by consequence necessarie and unavoidable cannot be sinne Originall sinne is naturall necessarie and unavoidable therefore it is no sin Secondly that which is not voluntarie cannot be sinfull Originall sinne is not voluntarie therefore not sinfull Thirdly no sinne is immediatly caused by God but originall sinne being the privation of originall righteousnesse is from God immediately who pull'd away Adams righteousnesse from him Therfore it is no sinne For the more distinct understanding the whole truth and answering these supposed strong reasons give me leave to premise these observations by way of Hypothesis First there are Two things in originall sinne The privation of righteousnesse and the corruption of nature for since originall sinne is the roote of actuall and in actuall sinnes there are both the omission of the good which we ought to exercise and positive contumaâ—…ies against the Law of God therefore a vis formatrix something answerable to both these must needs be found in originall sinne This positive corruption for in the other all agree that it is originall sinne is that which the Scripture cals flâ—…sh and members and law and lusts and bodie and Saint Austin vitiousnesse inobedience or inordinatenesse and a morbid affection Consonant whereunto is the Article of our Church affirming that man by originall sinne is farre gone from righteousnesse which is the privation secondly that thereby he is of his owne nature enclined unto evill which is the pravitie or corruption and this is the doctrine of many learned papists Secondly the Law being perfect and spirituall searcheth the most intimate corners of the soule and reduceth under a law the very rootes and principles of all humane operations And therefore in aâ—… much as well being is the ground of well working and that the Tree must be good before the fruite therefore wee conclude that the Law is not onely the Rule of our workes but of our strength not of our life only but of our nature which being at first deliver'd into our hands entire and pure cannot become degenerate without the offence of those who did first betray so great a trust committed unto them Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God Exâ—…ni valdâ—… tuo with all thy might saith the Law it doth not only require us to love but to have mindes furnish'd with all strength to love God so that there may be life and vigoâ—… in our obedience and love of him The Law requires no
more love then strength therefore if it did not of us require strength to love but onely suppose it it could require no love neither for the Apostle tels us that by nature we are without strength So that if the meaning of the Law be onely this Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all the strength which thou hast and not this Thou shalt love him with all the strength that I require thee 〈◊〉 have and that I at first gave thee so that the strength and faculty as well as the love and duty may câ—…dere sub prâ—…cepto fall under the command the meaning of the Law would amount but to this Thou shalt not or needest not to love the Lord thy God at all because thou hast no strength so to doe and art not to be blamed for having none Thirdly it is not the being voluntary or involuntâ—… that doth make a thing sinfull or not sinfull but being opposite to the Rule which requires complete strength to serve God withall Now all a mans strength is not in his will the understanding affections and bodie have their strength which failing though the will bee never so prompt yet the worke is not done with that perfection which the Law requires yet withall wee are to note in this point two things First That originall sinne is â—…do voluntarie too because brought in by that will which was originally ours for this is a true rule in divinity Voluntas capitis totius naturae voluntas reputatur that Adams will was the will of all mankind and therfore this sinne being voluntarie in him and hereditarie unto us is esteemed in some sort voluntary unto us too Secondly that a thing may be voluntarie two wayes First efficienter when the will doth positively concurre to the thing which is done Secondly Deficienter when the will is in fault for the thing which is done though it were not done by it selfe For wee must note that all other faculties were at first appointed to be subject to the will were not to move but upon her allowance and conduct and therefore when lust doth prevent the consent and command of the will it is then manifest that the will is wanting to her office for to her it belongs to suppresse all contumacie and to forbid the doing of any illegall thing And in this sense I understand that frequent speech of Saint Austen That sinne is not sin except it be voluntarie that is sinne might altogether be prevented if the will it selfe had its primitive strength and were able to exercise uprightly that office of government and moderation over the whole man which at first it was appointed unto Which thing the same Father divinely hath expressed in his confessions What a monstrous thing is this saith he that the minde should command the body and be obeyed and that it should command it selfe and bee resisted His answer is The will is not a totall will and therefore the command is not a totall command for if the will were so throughlie an enemie to lust as it ought to be it would not be quiet till it had dis-throned it These things being premised wee conclude That as our nature is universally vitiated and defil'd by Adam so that pollution which from him wee derive is not onely the languor of nature the condition and calamitie of mankinde the wombe seed fomenter formative vertue of other sins but is it self truly and properly sin or to speak in the phrase of the Church of England hath of it selfe the nature of sin First where there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transgression there is sin in this sin there is more for there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rebellion and antipathie against the whole Law therefore concupiscence is sin Secondly That which inferres death and makes men naturally children of wrath is sinne but lust and fleshly concupiscence reviving bringeth death and wrath therefore it is sinne Thirdly where there is an excesse of sinne that thing must needs be sinfull but concupiscence by the commandement is exceeding sinfull ergo Fourthly that which is hatefull is evill and sinfull for God made all things beautifull and good and therefore very lovely but concupiscence is hatefull what I hate that I do Fifthly that which quickneth to all mischiefe and indisposeth to all good must needs be sinfull as shee that tempteth and solliciteth to adulterie may justly be esteem'd a harlot but concupiscence tempteth draweth enticeth begetteth conceiveth indisposeth to good and provoketh to evill therefore it is sinne Sixthly that which is hellish and divelish must needs be sinnefull for that is an argument in the Scripture to prove a thing to be exceeding evil but concupiscence is even the Hell of our nature and lusts are divelish Therefore they are sinfull too Nemo se palpet saith Saint Austen desus Satanas est de Deo beatus Let no man sooth or flatter himselfe his happinesse is from God for of himselfe he is altogether diuelish Seventhly that which was with Christ crucified is sinne for hee bore our sinne is his body upon the tree but our flesh and concupiscence was with Christ crucified They that are Christs have crucified the flâ—…sh with the affections and lusts Therefore it is sin Lastly that which is washed away in Baptisme is sinne for Baptisme is for remission of sinnes but concupiscence and the body of sinne is done away in Baptisme Therefore it is sinne And this is the frequent argument of the ancient Doctors against the Pelagians to prove that infants had sinne in their nature because they were baptized unto the remission of sinnes To give some answer then to those pretended reasons To the first wee confesse that nothing can bee toto genere Necessarie and yet sinfull neither is originall sinne in that sort necessary to the nature in it selfe though to the nature in persons proceeding from Adam it be necessarie For Adam had free will and wee in him to have kept that originall righteousnesse in which wee were created and what was to him sinfull was to us likewise because wee all were one in him Wee are then to distingvish of naturall and necessarie for it is either primitive and created or consequent and contracted necessity the former would indeed void sin because God doth never first make things impossible and then command them but the latter growing out of mans owne will originally must not therefore nullifie the Law of God because it disableth the power of man for that were to make man the Lord of the Law To the second three things are to be answer'd First The sinfulnesse of a thing is grounded on its disproportion to the Law of God not to the will of man Now Gods Law sets bounds and moderates the operations of all other powers and parts as well as of the wil. And therfore the Apostle complaines of his sinfull concupiscence even when his wil was in a readines to desire
childe may be borne a king and be crowned in his cradle so sinne in the wombe may raigne And indeed Concupiscence is of all other the sinning sinne and most exceeding sinfull So that as there is virtually and radically more water in a fountaine though it seeme very narrow then in the streames which flow from it though farre wider because though the streames should all dry up yet there is enough in the fountaine to supply all againe so the sinne of nature hath indeed more fundamentall foulâ—…nesse in it then the actuall sinnes which arise from it as being the adulterous wombe which is ever of it selfe prostituted to the injections of any diabolicall or worldly temptations and greedy to claspe cherish and organize the seeds of any sinne So that properly the raigne of sinne is founded in Lust for they are ouâ—… lusts which are to be satisfied in any sinfull obedience All the subsidies succours contributions which are brought in are spent upon Lust and therefore not to mourne for and bewaile this naturall concupiscence as David and Paul did is a manifest signe of the raigne of lust For there is no medium if sin which cannot be avoided be not lamented neither it is undoubtedly obeyed The last Question is Whether sinnes of omission may be esteemed raigning sinnes To which I answere That the wicked in Scripture are Character'd by such kinde of sinnes Powre out thy vengeance upon the heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not upon thy name The wicked through the pride of his heart will not seeke after God God is not in all his thoughts There is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land I was an hungred and you gave me no meate thirsty and you gave me no drinke a stranger and you tooke me not in c. As in matters of governement a Princes negative voyce whereby he hinders the doing of a thing is oftentimes as great an argument of his royalty as his positive commands to have a thing done nay a Prince hath power to command that to be done which he hath no power to prohibite as Iosias commanded the people to serve the Lord So in sinne the power which it hath to dead and take off the heart from Christian duties from Communion with God from knowledge of his will from delight in his word from mutuall Edification from a constant and spirituall watch over our thoughts and wayes and the like is a notorious fruit of the raigne of sinne So then as he said of the Romane Senate that it was an assembly of kings so we may say of sinfull lusts in the heart That they are indeed a Throng and a people of kings The second Exception where with the more moderate sort of unregenerate men seeme to shift off from themselves the charge of being subject to the raigne of sinne is that sinne hath not over them an universall dominion in as much as they abhorre many sinnes and doe many things which the rule requires All these things saith the young man in the Gospell have I done from my youth And Hazael to the Prophet Is thy servant a dog to rip up women and dash infants to piâ—…ces He seemed at that time to abhorre so deteâ—…able facts as the Prophet foretold Come saith Iâ—…hu and see my zeale for the Lord of hoasts Ahab humbled himselfe Herod heard Iohâ—… gladly and did many things the foolish virgins and apostate abstained from many pollutions of the world and from such abstinencies and performances as these men seeme invincibly to conclude that they are not under an universall raigne of sinne For clearing this Exception we must know that there are other causes besides the power and kingdome of the spirit of Christ which may worke a partiall abstinence in some sins and conformitie in some duties First the Power of a generall restraining Grace which I suppose is meant in Gods with-holding Abimelech from touching Sarah As there are generall Gifts of the Spirit in regard of illumination so likewise in order to conversation and practice It is said that Christ beholding the young man Loved him and that even when he was under the raigne of Covetousnesse He had nothing from himselfe worthy of love therefore something though more generall it was which the spirit had wrought in him Suppose we his ingenuitie moralitie care of Salvation or the like As Abraham gave portions to Ishmael but the inheritance to Isaac so doth the Lord on the children of the flesh and of the bond woman bestow common gifts but the Inheritance and Adoption is for the Saints his choisest Iewels are for the Kings Daughter There is great difference betwixt Restraining and Renewing Grace the one onely charmes and chaines up sinne the other crucifies and weakens it whereby the vigor of it is not withheld onely but abated the one turnes the motions and streame of the heart to another channell the other keepes it in bounds onely though still it runne its naturall course the one is contrarie to the Raigne the other onely to the Rage of sinne And now these graces being so differing needs must the abstaining from sinnes or amendment of life according as it riseth from one or other be likewise exceeding different First that which riseth from Renewing Grace is Internall in the disposition and frame of the heart the law and the spirit are put in there to purifie the Fountaine whereas the other is but externall in the course of the life without any inward and secret care to governe the thoughts to moderate the passions to suppresse the motions and risings of lust to cleanse the conscience from dead workes to banish privie pride speculative uncleannesse vaine emptie impertinent unprofitable desires out of the heart The Law is Spirituall and therefore it is not a conformity to the letter barely but to the Spiritualnesse of the Law which makes our actions to be right before God Thy Law is pure saith David therefore thy Servant loveth it And this spiritualnesse of obedience is discerned by the Inwardnesse of it when all other respects being removed a man can be Holy there where there is no eye to see no object to move him none but onely hee and the Law together When a man can be as much grieved with the sinfulnesse of his thoughts with the disproportion which he findes betweene the Law and his innerman as with those evils which being more exposed to the view of the World have an accidentall restraint from men whose ill opinious we are loth to provoke when from the Spirituall and sincere obedience of the hart doth issue forth an universall Holinesse like lines from a center unto the whole circumference of our lives without any mercenary or reserv'd respects wherein men oftentimes in steade of the Lord make their owne passions and affections their ends or their feares their God Secondly that which riseth from Renewing grace is
but Gods Love and Mercy is the onely reason of making promises The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor choose you saith Moses to Israel because ye were more in number then any people but because the Lord Loved you that is the ground of making the promise and because he would keepe the oath which he had sworne to your fathers that was the ground of performing his promise For thy Words sake and according to thine owne heart saith David hast thou done all these great things According to thine owne heart that is ex mero motâ—… out of pure and unexcited love thou didst give thy Word and Promise and for thy Word sake thou hast performed it not for any thing that was in mee for whâ—… am â—… O Lord or what is my house hast thou brought me hitherto Thou wilt performe saith the Prophet the Truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworne unto our fathers from the dayes of old Why Truth to Iacob and Mercy to Abraham We must note the promise after a sort began in Abraham therefore he is call'd the Father of the Faithfull and when God makes a promise it is onely out of Mercie but the Promise was continued unto â—…a cob who being Abrahams seede was an heiâ—…e of the Promise and so the inheritance which was out of mercy given unto Abraham did out of Truth and fidelitie descend unto Iacob the seede of Abraham and therefore we shall finde Covenant Mercy and Oath ioyned together in the Scripture to note unto us both the ground of making the Covenant Mercy and the ground of performing the Covenant made the Truth and Fidelity of God Thy God shall keepe unto thee the Covenant and the Mercy which he sware unto thy fathers saith Moses To performe the Mercy promised to our fathers and to re member his holy Covenant The oath which he sware to ouâ—… father Abraham c. saith Zachary in his song Thâ—… wee see that the Promises are the tokens and fruits oâ—… Gods meere Love And in that regard they are apt to cleanse or to moue us to any dutâ—…e which God requires of us For Love and mercy being by faith apprehended are strong arguments to love and feare God againe is love him because he loved us and they shall feare thâ—… Lord and his goodnesse the goodnesse of the Lord begetteth feare and that is all one as to cleanse and purifie for the feare of the Lord is cleane and pure There is an uncleane feare like that of the Adulteresse who feareth her husband lest hee should returne and deprehend her in her falsenesse to him but the true feare of the Lord is cleane like that of a chaste spouse who feareth the departure of her Love There are none so destitute of humanity as not to answere Love for Love Secondly Promises are the Efficient causes of our Purification as they are The grounds of our Hope and expectations Wee have no reason to Hope for any thing which is not promised or upon any other conditions then as promised Hope is for this reason in Scripture compared to an Anker both sure and stedfast because it must have something of firmenesse and stabilitie to fasten upon before it can secure the Soule in any tempest To hope without a promise or upon any promise otherwise then it stands is but to let an Anker hang in the water or catch in a Wave and thereby to expect safetie to the Vessell This argument the Apostle useth why we should not cast away our confidence or slacken our hope because there is a Promise which by patience and doing the Will of God we may in due time receive and which is a firme foundation for our Confidence to â—…est upon So Abraham is said to have beleeved against hope in hope that hee should be the father of many nations and the ground of that hope is added According to that which was spoken to that word of Promise â—…o shall thy seâ—…de be And else where he is said to have looked for a City which had foundations that is a Citie which was built upon the Immutable stabilitie of Gods â—…ath and Promise Thus we see Promises are the grounds of our Hopâ—… and Hopâ—… is of a cleansing nature The Grace of God saith the Apostle teacheth as to deny 〈◊〉 and worldly lusts and to live â—…oberly righteously and Godly in this present World the reason whereof is presently enforced Looking for that blessed Hope and the Glorious appearing of the great God And againe He that hath this hope in him saith S. Iohn namely to bee like him at his comming Purifieth himselfe even as He is Pure Hee that hopeth to be fully like Christ hereafter and to come to the measure of the stature of his fulnesse will labour to his uttermost to bee as he was in this World For a man hopes for nothing de futuro which he would not presently compasse if it were in his power No man is to bee presum'd to Hope for the whole who hates any part or to expect the fulnesse who rejects the first fruites of the Spirit He that loveth not his brother whom hee hath seene how can hee love God whom he hath not seene That is He that cannot endure nor looke on that little glimpse and ray of Holynesse which is in his brother in one of the same passions infirmities and corruptions with himselfe will much lesse be able to abide the light of the Sonne of righteousnesse and that most orient spotlesse and vast Holynesse which is in him The same reason holdes here he that cannot endeavour to purifie himselfe here doth never truely hope to be like Christ hereafter He that directs his course towards Yorke can never bee presumed to hope that hee shall by that journey get to London when he knowes or might easily be informed that it is quite the other way And the truth is no wicked man hath any true or aâ—… saint Peter calâ—… it lively Hope to come to Heaven Blind presumptions ignorant wishings and wouldings hee may have but no true Hope at all For that ever supposeth some knowledge and preapprehension of the Goodnesse of that which is Hoped for and there is nothing in Heaven which wickedmen do not hate as very evill to them the Presence of the most Holy God the purity and brightnesse of his Glory the Company of Christ Iesus and his Saints c. If they might be suffered first to have a view of it and see what is there doing what Divine and Holy imployments take up all the thoughts desires and powers of the blessed company there they would abhorre no place more Hope begets Love whom having not seene ye love saith the Apostle Hope to bee like Christ hereafter will worke a love and desire to expresse so much as wee can of his Image here Hee that longs for a thing will take any present
Loved us when wee were his enemies and enemies we were not but by wicked workes Now then if wicked workes could not prevent the Love of God why should wee thinke that they can nullyfie or destroy it If His Grace did prevent sinners before their repentance that they might returne shall it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish If the masse guilt and greatnesse of Adams sinne in which all men were equally sharers and in which equalitie God looked upon us with Love and Grace then which sinne a greater I thinke cannot be committed against the Law of God If the bloody and crimsin sinnes of the unconverted part of our life wherein we drew iniquitie with cordes of vanitie and sinne as it were with cart-ropes If neither iniquitie transgression nor sinne neither sin of nature nor sinne of course and custome nor sinne of rebellion and contumacie could pose the goodnesse and favour of God to us then nor intercept or frustrate his Counsell of loving us when wee were his enemies why should any other sinnes overturne the stability of the same love and counsell when we are once his Sonnes and have a spirit given us to bewaile and lament our falls I cannot here omit the excellent words of P Fulgentius to this purpose The same Grace saith he of Gods Immutable Counsell doth both beginne our merit unto righteousnesse and consummate it unto Glorie doth here make the will not to yeelde to the infirmitie of the flesh and doth hereafter free it from all infirmitie doth here renew it Continuo Iuvamine and elsewhere Iugi auxilio with an uninterrupted supportance and at last bring it to a full Glory Secondly Gods Promise flowing from this Love and Grace An everlasting Covenant will I make saith God and observe how it comes to be everlasting and not frustrated or made temporary by us I will not turne away from them saith the Lord to doe them good True Lord wee know thou dost not repent thee of thy Love but though thou turne not from us O how fraile how apt are wee to turne away from thee and so to nullifie this thy Covenant of mercie unto our selves Nay saith the Lord I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall not depart from me So elsewhere the Lord tels us that his Covenant should be as the water of Noah the sinnes of men can no more utterly cancell or reverse Gods Covenant of mercie towards them then they can bring backe Noahs flood into the World againe though for a moment he may bee angry and hide His face yet His mercie in the maine is great and everlasting The Promises of God as they have Truth so they have Power in them they doe not depend upon our resolutions whether they shall bee executed or no but by Faith apprehending them and by Hope waiting upon God in them they frame and accommodate the heart to those conditions which introduce then Execution God maketh us to doe the things which He commandeth we do not make Him to doe the things which He promiseth Tee are kept saith the Apostle by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation Faith is first by Gods Power wrought and preserved It is the Faith of the operation of God namely that powerfull operation which raised Christ from the dead and your Faith standeth not in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God And then it becomes an effectuall instrument of the same power to preserve us unto Salvation They shall be all taught of God and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee There is a voluntarie attendance of the heart of man upon the ineffable sweetnesse of the Fathers teaching to conclude this point with that excellent and comfortable speech of the Lord in the prophet I the Lord change not therefore ye Sonnes of Iacob are not consumed It is nothing in or from your selves but onely the immutabilitie of my Grace and Promises which preserveth you from being consumed Thirdly the Obsignation of the Spirit ratifying and securing these promises to the hearts of the faithfull for the spirit is the hansell earnest and seale of our Redemption and it is not onely an obsignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto redemption arguing the certainty of the end upon condition of the meanes but it is an establishing of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too into Christ as a meanes unto that end so that from the first fruites of the Spirit a man may conclude his interest in the whole at last as Saint Paul from the resurrection of Christ the first fruites argueth to the finall accomplishment of the resurrection Fourthly the nature and effects of Faith whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever and to give them a Being and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule even when they have not a Being in themselves Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come and the evidence and demonstration of things not seene which our Saviours words doe more fully explaine He that drinketh my blood hath eternall Life and shall never thirst Though Eternall Life bee to come in regard of the full fruition yet it is present already in regard of the first fruites of it And therefore wee finde our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee are blessed when men shall hate you c for great is your reward in Heaven Which inference could not be sound unlesse that future medium were certaine by the Power of Faith giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie For it is the priviledge of Faith to looke upon things to come as if they were alreadie conferr'd upon us And the Apostle useth the like argument Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace This were a strange inference in naturall or civill things to say you shall not die because you are in health or you shall not be rejected because you are in favour But the Covenant of Grace being seall'd by an Oath makes all the grants which therein are made irreversible and constant So that now as when a man is dead to the Being of sinne as the Saints departed this life are the Being of sinne doth no more trouble them nor returne upon them so when a man is dead to the dominion of sinne that dominion shall never any more returne upon him Consider further the formall effect of Faith which is to unite a man unto Christ. By meanes of which vnion Christ and we are made one Bodie for He that is joyned to Christ is one and the Apostle saith that He is the Saviour of his Bodie and then surely of every member of his Bodie too for the members have all care one
tasting no sense that is the instrument of so neere a union as that So then as the motion of the mouth in eating is not in the nature of a motion any whit more excellent then the motion of the eye or foote or of it selfe in speaking yet in the instrumentall office of life and nourishment it is farre more necessarie So though Faith in the substance of it as it is an inherent qualitie hath no singular excellencie above other graces yet as it is an instrument of conveying Christ our spirituall Bread unto our soules and so of assimilating and incorporating us into Him which no other Grace can doe no more then the motion of the eye or foote can nourish the body so it is the most pretious and usefull of all others It may be objected doe not other graces joyne a man unto Christ as well as Faith Vnion is the proper effect of Love therefore wee are one with Christ as well by loving Him as by beleeving in Him To this I answere that Love makes onely a morall union in affections but Faith makes a mysticall union a more close and intimate fellowship in nature betweene us and Christ. Besides Faith is the immediate tie betweene Christ and a Christian but love a secondary union following upon and grounded on the former By nature we are all enemies to Christ and His Kingdome of the Iewes minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us therefore till by Faith wee are throughly perswaded of Christs Love to us we can never repay Love to Him againe Herein is Love saith the Apostle not that wee loved God but that Hee loved us and sent His Sonne 1. Ioh. 4 10. Now betweene Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us One with Christ we have knowne and beleeved the Love that God hath to us ver 16. And hence it followes that because by Faith as Hee is so are wee in this world therefore Our love to Him is made perfect and so wee love Him because Hee first loved us vers 19. So that we see the union we have with Christ by Love presupposeth the Vnitie wee have in Him by Faith so Faith still hath the preeminence The second office wherein consists the excellencie of Faith is a consequent of the former namely to justifie a man for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unitie of Christ and into the fellowship of His Merits God is alone well pleased in Christ and till a man be a member of His Bodie a part of His fulnesse hee cannot appeare in Gods presence This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken or taken of from the Communion of His naturall body Ioh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to bee betweene Him and His mysticall Members So that now as in a naturall bodie the member is certainely fast to the whole so long as the bones are firme and sound so in the mysticall where the body is there must every member be too because the bones must not be broken asunder If then Christ goe to Heaven if Hee stand unblameable before Gods justice we al shal in him appeare so too because his bones cannot be broken That which thus puts us into the Vnitie of Christ must needs Iustifie our persons and set us right in the presence of God and this is our Faith The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Iustification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace The first on Gods part that it might bee of Grace The second on the part of the promise that the promise might be sure to all the seede Rom. 4. 16. First Iustification that is by Faith is of meere Grace and favour no way of worke or merit For the Act whereby Faith Iustifies is an act of humility and selfe-dereliction a holy despaire of any thing in our selves and a going to Christ a receiving a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiencie so that as Marie said of her selfe so we may say of Faith The Lord hath respect unto the lowlynes of his grace which is so farre from looking inward for matter of Iustification that it selfe as it is a worke of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere doth not justifie but onely as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it selfe emptie If it bee full before it must let all that goe ere it can take hold on any other thing So Faith being a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1. 12. must needes suppose an emptinesse in the soule before Faith hath two properties as a Hand To worke and to receive when Faith purifies the heart supports the droaping spirits worketh by love carries a man through afflictions and the like these are the workes of Faith when Faith Accepts of righteousnesse in Christ and receives Him as the gift of His Fathers Love when it embraceth the promises a farre of Heb. 11. 13. and layes hold on Eternall Life 1. Tim. 6. 12. This is the receiving act of Faith Now Faith justifies not by working lest the effect should not bee wholly of Grace but partly of Grace and partly of worke Ephesians 2. 8 9. but by bare receiving and accepting or yeelding consent to that righteousnesse which in regard of working was the righteousnesse of Christ Rom. 5. 18. and in regard of disposing imputing appropriating unto us was the righteousnesse of God Rom. 3. 21. 1. Cor. 1 30. Phil 3. 9. To make the point of Iustification by the receiving and not the working of Faith plaine let us consider it by a familiar similitude Suppose a Chirurgian should perfectly cure the hand of a poore man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him for any worke when he hath so done should at one time freely bestow some good almes upon the man to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure and at another time should set the man about some worke unto the which likewise the former cure had enabled him and the worke being done should give him a reward proportionable to his labour I demaund which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength hee restored or the free bestowing of an equall gift unto the receiving whereof likewise he himselfe gave abilitie Any man will easily answere that the gift was a worke of more free grace then the reward though unto both way was made by His owne mercifull cure for all the mercy which was shewed in the cure was not able to nullifie the intrinsecall proportion which afterwards did arise betweene the worke and the reward Now this is the plaine difference betweene our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries in the point of Iustification They say we are justified by Grace and yet by workes because
principall discovery that Faith makes in Christ and that it fixeth upon is His love to us and this is a most soveraigne and superlative love Herein saith the Apostle God commended God heaped together His Love toward us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Secondly Faith having thus revealed to our hearts the Love of God in Christ doth kindle in them a reciprocall Love towards Christ againe working in us the same minde that is in Christ Phil. 2. 5. and enflaming our spirits to a retribution of Love for Love We have beleeved the Love that God hath to us saith the Apostle and therefore saith he we love Him because He loved us first 1. Ioh. 4. 16 19. Thus Faith worketh Love But now thirdly there is a further power in Faith for it doth not onely work Love but it worketh by Love as the text speakes that is it maketh use of that Love which it hath thus kindled as of a goad and incentive to further obedience for that Love which we repay unto Christ againe stirreth us unto an intimate and Heavenly communion with Him unto an entire and spirituall conformitie unto Him And the reason is because it is a conjugall Love and therefore a fruitefull love for the end of marriage is fructification Yee are become dead to the Law saith the Apostle by the body of Christ that yee should be married to another even to Him who is raised from the dead and the end of this spirituall marriage is added That we should bring forth fruite unto God which is presently after expounded That wee should serve in newnesse of Spirit Rom. 7 4 6. If a man Love mee saith our saviour he will keepe my Words and this obedience is the childe of Faith as it is set downe in the same place yee shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you and immediately upon this Faith it followes He that bath my Commandements and keepeth them hee it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my selfe unto Him Ioh. 14. 20. 21 22 23. In which place there are these things of excellent observation First the noble objects that Faith doth contemplate even the excellencie of Gods Love unto us in Christ. You shall know that I am in my Father in His bosome in His bowels in His dearest affection One with Him in mercie in counsell in power That He and I both goe one way have both one decree and resolution of Grace and compassion towards sinners And that you are in mee your nature in me your infirmities in me the punishment of your sinnes upon me that I am bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh that you are in my heart and in my tenderest affections that you were crucifiâ—…a together with me that you live togâ—…ther with 〈◊〉 that you sit together with mee in Heavenly places that â—… died your death that you rose my resurrection that I pray your prayers that you were my righteousnesse and that I am in you by my merits to justifie you by my Grace and Spirit to renew and purifie you by my Power to keep you by my wisedome to leade you by my Communion and Compassion to share with you in all your troubles these are the mysteries of the Love of the Father and the Sonne to us Now this Love kindleth a Love in us againe and that Love sheweth it selfe in two things First in having the Commandements of Christ that is in accepting of them in giving audience unto them in opening our eyes to see and our hearts to entertaine the wonders of the Law And secondly in keeping of them in putting to the strength of our Love for Love is as strong as Death it will make a man neglectfull of his owne life to serve and please the person whom he loves that so wee may performe the duties which so good a Saviour requires of us And now as our Love was not the first mover we loved Him because He loved us first So neither shall it be the last as the Father and the Son did by their first Love provoke ours so will they by their second Love reward ours And therefore it sollowes He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him This is not ment of a new Love but of a further declaration of their former Love namely in a more close and familiar communion and Heavenly cohabitation with them wee will come unto Him and make our abode with Him we will shew Him our face we will make all our goodnesse to passe before Him wee will converse and commune with His Spirit we will Suppe with Him we will provide Him a feast of fatted things and of refined wine wee will open the breasts of consolation and delight Him with the aboundance of Glory Excellent to the purpose of the present point is that place of the Apostle 2. Cor. 5. 14 15. The Love of Christ saith he constraineth us that is either Christs Love to us by Faith apprehended or our Love to Christ by the apprehension of His Love wrought in us doth by a kinde of sweete and lovely violence winne and overrule our hearts not to live henceforth unto our selves but unto Him that died for us and rose againe and the roote of this strong perswasion is adjoyned namely because wee thus â—…udge because we know and beleeve that if one died for all then all are dead to the guilt and to the power of sinne and ought to live a new life conformable to the resurrection of Christ againe Therefore in two paralell places the Apostle useth promiscuously Faith and a new Creature In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new creature The reason of which promiscuous acceptation the Apostle renders the inseparable union between faith and renovation If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Secondly Faith gives us all good things requisite to our condition Adam was created Lord of his fellow inferiour Creatures invested with proprietie to them all In his fall hee made a forfeiture of every good thing which God gave him In the second Covenant a reconciliation being procur'd Faith entitling a man to the Covenant doth likewise re-invest him with the Creatures againe All things saith the Apostle are yours and hee opens the title and conveyance of them you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3. 23. So elsewhere hee saith that the living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy that is not onely the possession but the use of the things 1. Tim. 6. 17. where by all things wee may understand first the libertie and enlargement of Christians as it stands in opposition to the pedagogie and discipline of Moses Law which distinguished the Creatures into cleane and
the Word of faith and with the spirit of faith Beeyee not slothfull saith the Apostle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Lastly we must doe with faith as men doe with pretious things Try it and put it to the touchstone that wee may prove whether it be truly valuable and unfeigned because there is much counterfeite faith as there is false money and deceitfull jewels and wilde herbes in the field which very neerely resemble those that are right and pure This is an argument which hath been much travail'd in by men of more learning and spirit and therefore I will but touch upon it by considering foure principall effects of this Grace The first is a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith the heart assenteth unto for according as is the evidence and pretiousnesse of the thing beleeved such is the measure of our love unto it For saving faith is an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divels which is with trembling and horror and that delight is nothing else but a kind of rellish and experience of the goodnesse of that truth which we assent unto Whereupon it necessarily followes even from the dictate of nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him comfort and delight that from this assent must arise a love of those truths whence such sweetnesse doth issue By the first act of faith we apprehend God a reconcileable God by the second a reconciled God for faith shewes us Gods love to us in Christ proposeth him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and thereby begetâ—…eth in us a love unto Christ againe and this love is a sincere uncorrupted immortall love a conjugall and superlative love nothing must be loved in competition with Christ every thing must be rejected and cast away either as a snare when hee hates it or as a Sacrifice when he calles for it Therefore God required the neerest of a mans blood in some cases to throw the first stone at an Idolater to shew that no relations should preponderate or over-sway our hearts from his love Christ and earthly things often come into competition in the life of a man In every un just gaine Christ and a bribe or Christ and cruelty in every oth or execration Christ and a blasphemy in every sinfull fashion Christ and a ragge or Christ and an excrement in every vaine-glorious affectation Christ and a blast in every intemperancy Christ and a vomit a stagger a shame a disease O where is that faith in men which should overcome the world and the things of the world Why should men delight in any thing while they live which when they â—…e on their death beds a time speedily approching they shall never bee able to reflect on with comfort nor to recount without amazement and horror Certainely he that fosters any Dalila or darling lust against the will and command of Christ well may hee delude himselfe with foolish conceits that hee loves the Lord Iesus but let him be assured that though he may be deceived yet God will not bee mocked not every one that faith Lord Lord shall bee accounted the friends of Christ but they who keepe his Commandements The second effect of faith is Assiance and Hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in due time performe what in his word hee hath promised I haue set life and death before you saith Moses to the people That thou maist love the Lord thy God and that thou maist obey his voice and that thou maist cleave unto him c. Wee are confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst wee are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. When once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest claime and propriety unto them and that to be at last actually performed not by a man who may be subject both to unfaithfulnesse in keeping and disability in performing his promises but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by word and oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doâ—… what hee hath purposed or promised Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and all sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such Promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-concurrencie as in it selfe utterly impotent and to the fullfilling of such a worke as is to be by Gods owne omnipotencie effâ—…cted altogether irrequisite and resolving in the midst of temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that hee who hath promised will certainly bring it to passe A third effect of faith is ioy and peace of Conscience Being justified by faith wee haue peace with God The God of peace fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing The mind is by the rellish and experience of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a Dead peace which is onely an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming man on the top of a mast but such a peace as a man may by afyllogisme of the practicall judgement upon right examination of his owne interest unto Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often haue an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but there is a great difference For there is but a dore betweene a wicked man and his sinne which will certainely one day open and then sinne at the doore will fly upon the Soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sin there is a wall of fire and an immoveable impregnable fort even the merits of Christ the wicked mans peace growes out of Ignorance of God the Law himselfe but a righteous mans peace growes out of the knowledge of God and Christ. So that there are two things in it Tranquillity it is a quiet thing and serenitie it is a cleare and distinct thing However if a faithfull man have not present peace because peace is an effect not of the first and direct but of the second and reflexive act of faith yet there is ever with all faith the seed of peace and a resolution to seeke and to sue it out The last effect of faith which I shall now speake of is fructification faith worketh by love And it worketh first Repentance whereby we are not only to understand griefe for sinne or a sense of the weight and guilt of it which is onely a legall thing if it proceed no farther and may goe before faith but hatred of sinne as a thing contrary to that new spirit
loved the World that He gave His Son Herein is Love not that we loved Him but that Hee loved us and sent His Son The love must needs go before the gift because the gift is an effect a token a testimonie of the Love Christ first loved the Church before He gave Himselfe for it Now then if the first Love of God to man was not procured merited or excited by Christ Himselfe as Mediator but was altogether absolute much lesse doth the Love of God ground it selfe upon any thing in us The whole series of our Salvation is made up without respect to any thing of ours or from us He Loved us without cause or ground in our selves For we Love Him because He first loved us He elected us of meere grace without cause or ground from our selves There is a remnant saith the Apostle according to the Election of grace and if of grace then is it no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace Hee called us without Intuition of any thing in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle not according to our owne workes but according to His purpose and grace He called us with an Holy calling He Iustified us without any ground in or from our selves frely by his grace when we were enemies and ungodly persons He saveth us without any ground in and from our selv's By grace ye are sav'd through faith that not of your selvs ' There is nothing in us of which wee may boast in the matter of Salvation and therefore there is nothing in us which should make us despaire or flie from God for all the gradations and progresses of our Salvation are alone from His Grace Secondly because there is an All-sufficiencie in the righteousnesse and merits of Christ To cleanse all sin To consummate all our saluation to subdue all our enemies To answere all our objections to silence all challenges and charges that are laid against us Thirdly because of the manifold experiences which many other grievous sinners have found of the same love and All-sufficiencie When Faith lookes upon a converted Manasse upon a thiefe translated into paradise upon a persecutor turned into an Apostle and when it considers that God hath a residue of spirit still that the blood of Christ is an inexhausted fountaine and that these spectacles of Gods compassion are in the Scriptures exhibited that wee through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and that God in them did shew forth all long suffering for a patterne to those who should after beleeue in Him It then makes a man reflect inward upon himselfe and resolve to trie that gate at which they have entered before Fourthly because there is a generalitie and unlimitednesse in the Invitation unto Christ. Come unto mee all that are wearie Let every one that will come There is in Christ erected an Office of Salvation a Heavenly Chancerie of equitie and mercie not onely to moderate the rigor but to reverse and revoke the very acts of the Law Christ is set foorth or proposed openly as a Sanctuarie and ensigne for the natious to flie unto and He hath sent His Ambassadors abroad to warne and to invite every man As a Fountaine is open for any man to drinke and a schoole for any man to learne and the Gate of a Citie for any man to enter and a Court of Equitie for any man to relieve himselfe so Christ is publikely and universally set forth as a generall refuge from the wrath to come upon no other condition then such a will as is nor onely desirous to enjoy His mercie but to submit to His Kingdome and glorifie the power of His Spirit and Grace in new obedience Fifthly because God Himselfe workes the worke and the will in us For in the new Covenant God workes first In the first Covenant man was able by his created and naturall strength to worke his owne condition and so to expect Gods performance But in the New as there is difference in the things covenanted then only righteousnesse and Salvation now remission of sinnes and adoption in the meanes or intermediate causes which are now Christ and His righteousnesse and Spirit in the stability that a perishable this an eternall and finall Covenant that can never be changed in the conditions there legall obedience heere only faith and the certaine consequent thereof repentance So likewise is there difference in the manner of performing these conditions for now God Himselfe beginnes first to worke upon us and in us before we move or stirre towards Him Hee doth not onely commaund us and leave us to our created strength to obey the Command but He furnisheth us with His owne Grace and Spirit to fulfill the Commaund and when He bids us come unto Him He doth likewise draw us unto Him In this Covenant the first Treatie is betweene God and Christ. For though the Covenant be betweene God and us yet the negotiation and transaction of it is betweene God and Christ who was a suretie of the Covenant for us For first God in His decree of Love bestowed us upon Christ. Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me we were chosen in Him wee to be members in Him and He to be a Head and Fountaine unto us of all grace and glorie For God had committed unto Him an Office of power to redeeme His Church and He received a Commandement from His Father to finish the worke of mediation Secondly being thus made Christs partly by the gift of Gods eternall Love partly by Christs owne voluntarie susception of that Office whereby He was to be a Head and Captaine of Salvation to His Members God in due time reveales Himselfe His Name Power and Covenant unto us I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest mee and this is the tender of the Covenant and beginning of a Treaty with us And here God beginnes to worke in us for though the Covenant be proposed under a condition yet God gives us as well the condition as the Covenant Our Faith is the operation of God and the work of his Power that which he requires of us He doth bestow upon us and here the first worke of God is spiritual and heavenly teaching The second is the terminus or product of that teaching our learning which I call Gods worke not as if we did nothing when we are said to learne and to come unto Christ but because all that we doe is by the strength and grace which from Him we receive wee come unto Christ as a childe may be said to come unto his mother or nurse who holds him at a distance from her selfe and drawes him neerer and neerer when she cals him Thus as we were made Christs by donation Thou gavest them me so after likewise by incorporation
condemne But it may here further be objected How can I beleeve under the weight of such a finne Or how is Faith able to hold mee up under so heavie a guilt I answere the more the greatnesse of siâ—…ne doth appeare and the heavier the weight thereof is to the Soule there is the Grace of God more aboundant to beget Faith and the strength of Faith is prevalent against any thing which would oppose it To vnderstand this we must note that the strength of Faith doth not arise out of the formall qualitie thereof for Faith in it selfe as a habit and endowment of the Soule is as weake as other graces but onely out of the relation it hath to Christ. Faith denotates a mutuall Act betweene us and Christ and therefore the Faith of the patriarcheâ—… is expressed in the Apostle by saluting or embracing they did not onely claspe Christ but he them againe So that the strength of Faith takes in the strength of Christ because it puts Christ into a man who by his Spirit dwelleth and liveth in us And here it is worth our observing that the reason why the house in the parable did stand firme against all tempests was because it was founded upon a Rocke Why may not a weake superstruction ofrotten and inconsistent materials bee built upon a sound foundation As a strong house fals from a weake foundation may not in like manner a weake house by a tempest fall from a strong foundation Surely in Christs Temple it is not as in ordinary materiall buildings In these though the whole frame stand upon the foundation yet it stands together by the strength of the parts amongst themselves and therefore their mutuall weaknesse and failings do prejudice the stabilitie of the whole But in the Church the strength of Christ the foundation is not an immanent personall fixed thing but a derivative and an effused strength which runnes through the whole building Because the foundation being a vitall foundation is able to shed forth and transfuse its stability into the whole structure What ever the materials are of themselves though never so fraile yet being once incorporated in the building they are presently transformed into the nature and firmenesse of their foundation To whom comming as unto a living stone saith Saint Peter ye also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house to note unto us the transformation and uniformitie of the Saints with Christ both in their spirituall nature and in the firmenesse and stabilitie of the same More particularly the strength of Faith preserues us from all our spirituall enemies From the Divell Hee that is begotten of God keepeth himselfe and the wicked one toucheth Him not Above all take the shield of Faith by which you shall be able to quench all the furie darts of the wicked From the World This is the victorie which overcommeth the World even our Faith From our fleshly corruptions The Heart is purified by Faith The Law of the Spirit of Life in Iesus Christ that is the Law of Faith hath made mee free from the Law of Sinne that is the Law of the members or fleshly concupiscence And all this is strengthened by the Power of God not by Faith alone are we kept but yee are kept saith Saint Peter By the power of God through Faith unto Salvation and that not such a Power as that is wherewith he concurreth in the ordinarie and naturall operations of the Creature which proportioneth it selfe and condescendeth unto the exigencie of second causes failing where they faile and accommodating the measure of his agencie to those materials which the second causes have supplyed as we see when a Childe is borne with fewer parts then are due to naturall integrity Gods concurrence hath limited it selfe to the materials which are defective and hath not supplyed nor made up the failings of nature but that power whereby hee preserves men unto Salvation doth prevent bend and carry the heart of man which is the secondary agent unto the effect it selfe doth remove every obstacle which might endanger his purposâ—… in saving the Creature and maketh his people a willing people But you will say Faith is indeede by these meanes stronger then sinne when it worketh but not when it sleepeth and the working of Faith being dependant upon the faculties of the Soule which are essentially mutable and incostant in operation must needes bee uncertaine too that sinne though it bee sarre weaker then Faith may yet when by our security Faith is fallen asleepe surprize and kill it even as Iaâ—…l a weake woman upon the same advantage killed Sisera a strong Captaine But though Faith fleepe yet Hee that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleepe and we are kept not onely by Faith but by His Power which Power worketh all our workes for us and in us giveth us both the Will and the Deede the Gift of continuing in His Feare and the Will so to continue The heart of the king saith Salomon that is the most soveraigne unconquerable peremptorie and unsubjected will in the World is in the Hand of God even as clay in the hand of the Potter So that though our hearts in regard of themselves bee not onely at large and indeterminate to any Spirituall operations but have an extreme reluctancie to all the motions of Gods Spirit yet considering their subordination to Gods mercifull purposes to the Power of His Grace to His Heavenly Call according unto purpose to the exceeding greatnesse and working of his mighty Power manifest it is that they are vndeclinable mightily by a hidden wonderfull most effectuall power yea by an Omnipotent facilitie and yet most sweetly and connaturally moved unto Grace They are all the frequent words of Holy Austin that Champion of Grace whose unvaluable industry in that behalfe all after ages have admired but hardly paralell'd Now then for the further establishing the heart of a man seriously and searchingly humbled with the sense and consciousnesse of some great relapse for what I shall say can yeeld no comfort to a man in an unrelenting obdurate and persisting apostafie Let him consider the safety and firmenesse of his life in Christ upon these grounds First Gods Eternall Love and free Grace which is towards us the Highest linke of Salvation both in order of time nature and causalitie Whom He predestinated those also He called and whom He called those He Iustified and whom Hee Iustified those also Hee glorified It is not those He will glorifie but hath glorified To note that glorification is linked and folded up with justification and is present with it in regard of their Eternall coexistencie in the predisposition and order of God though not in effectu operis in actuall execution Now this Eternall Love and Grace of God is not founded upon reasons in the Object for He Iustified and by consequence loved the ungodly He
grace enables us to worke we say we are justified freely not by the workes of grace but by the grace which bestowes our Iustification and therewith our strength of working unto us For surely Gods free grace is more magnified in giving us undeservedly both righteousnesse and workes then in giving us workes to deserve our righteousnesse Secondly Iustification by Faith doth make the promise sure to all the seede If unto a begger should bee proposed some excellent benefit upon condition to performe some acceptable and perfect service unto the personne that offers it whom yet it would bee impossible to please by working without some exact abilitie for the dutie required the man might easily doubt of the certaintie of the benefit because his performance of the condition requir'd is uncertaine but if the same benefit should bee proposed upon no other act on his part requir'd then onely the acknowledgement of his owne want and the willing acceptance of the thing offered a man could not bee unsure of it So if the Lord should propose righteousnesse oâ—… salvation to a man upon condition of his morall obedience mans corruptions are so many and his abilities so weake his enemies so potent and his heart so treacherous to comply with them that the promise cannot bee made sure to him upon the concurrence of his owne workes But when there is nothing required of a man but to cleave to Christ nothing but to relinquish his owne endeavours and to accept the helpe of a sure Saviour and to rely upon the sure mercies of David this must needes make our righteousnesse and salvation to be as certaine as is the value of the merits or fidelitie of the promise on which we rely If there bee nothing requisite to the firmenesse and consistencie of a house but onely to be put upon the foundation then the house must needs be as sure as the foundation if there bee nothing requisite to the safenesse of a mans money or writings but to put them in a closet or boxe the things must needes be as safe as the place into which they are put so since nothing else is required to make our salvation sure but onely to rest upon Christ who is a safe foundation to his Church Math. 16. 18. and a certaine Treasure Col. 3. 3. Faith which alone puts us into him doth therewithall make our Salvation sure unto us Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect and pretious there is both our foundation and our Treasure now the safety which Faith brings from hence is this He that beleeveth shall not be confounded or put to shame in the Prophet it is shall not make hast 1. Pet. 2. 6. both words expresse safetie For a man to rely upon another for any good thing and at last to faile in his expectation this must needes shame him in the disappointment of his hopes but when the hopes of a man are grounded upon the unsearchable riches and the unfaileable promise and the immutable truth power and goodnesse of God impossible it is that the faith of such a man should shame or deceive him When a man is secure and certaine of any good thing he is contented to waite the season of it David by Gods promise and unction was certaine of the kingdome and therefore he would not take away the life of Saul when it was in his power but waited till the time of his death by God appointed should come 1. Sam. 26. 9 10 11. but when a man is unconsident of a thing hee is ready to snatch at every probabilitie to make use of every occasion that happens to further his desires If I should see two men going towards the Court in competition for some office or preferment and should observe the one to ride night and day in full speede to deny himselfe the comforts of the way and to expresse much impatiencie and indignation at every stoppage that met him the other to take time and leisure to rely upon the former promises of the prince or the prevalencie of some honourable friends and to laugh at the gredinesse of his competitor I should easily conclude that the hopes of that man were greater whose hast as lesse for when a man hath a thing already in promise and that from the hands of a man of whose power and fidelitie he hath infallible assurance he is not over vehement for performance but willingly attends the times and good pleasure of his friend Now this is the businesse of faith to give a being to the things we hope for and though in themselves they bee a farre of and out of sight yet to make them subsistent and at hand in the promise even within the reach and embracement of Faith Heb. 11. 1 13. So that Faith doth therefore keep a man from greedinesse and precipitancie in his pursuite and from confusion and shame in his hopes of good because it sees them as safe certain in the power and promises of Christ as if they were already made good unto him So then to conclude this point Faith being the onely Grace wherein is magnified the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods favour and wherein is secured his promise to all the seede It must needes bee the fittest grace for a mercifull Iustification The third office of Faith is having put us into Christ and Iustified us by him to give us together with Him all other things which is the conviction that the Apostle makes Rom. 8. 32. If Hee have given us Christ how shall He not with Him freely also giue us all things These All Things are of two sorts First All graces Secondly All secular good things Saint Peter puts them together and shewes how they runne from Christ to us through Faith as the pipe His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertaine to Life and Godlynesse and that through the knowledge that is the Faith of him that hath called us to glorie and vertue 2. Pet. 1. 3. First all Graces Faith is the first Grace in a Christian Soule and the spring of the rest This is the maine businesse of that excellent chapter Heb. 11. to shew how Faith was the master wheele in the lives and actions of those holy men whose renowne is there upon record The Apostle tels us that Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. where by Love we may understand either generally the universall habit of all other operative graces and then the sense is that Faith doth as it were actuate and animate all other habits of grace and apply them to their severall workes Or rather particularly that Love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and then the method and meaning of the place is this First Faith shewes us the great Love of God in Christ The life that I live saith the Apostle I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave Himselfe for me Gal. 2. 20. where we see the
of holinesse and grace which in Christ wee haue receiued For as sense of sin as a cursed thing which is legall humiliation doth arise from that faith whereby wee beleeve and assent to the truth of God in all his threatnings which is a legall faith so the Abominating of sinne as an uncleane thing and contrary to the image and holinesse of God which is evangelicall repentance doth arise from evangelicall faith whereby we look upon God as most mercifull most holie and therefore most worthie to bee imitated and served Secondly Renovation and that two fold First inward in the constitution of the heart which is by faith purified Secondly outward in the conversation and practice when a man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and as he hath received the Lord Iesus so walketh in him Now in all our obedience wee must observe these three Rules First that binding power which is in the law doth solely depend upon the authority of the Lawgiver who is God Hee that customarilie and without care of obedience or feare of displeasure or antipathy of spirit breaks any one Commandement ventures to violate that authority which by one and the same ordination made the whole law equally binding by consequence is habitually in praeparatione animi a transgressor of the whole Law And therefore Obedience must not bee partiall but vniversall as proceeding from that faith which hath respect equally to all Gods will and lookes upon him as most true and most holy in all his commands Secondly As God so his Law is a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires an inward universality of the subject as well as that other of the Precepts which wee walke by I meane such a spiritual and sincere obedience of the hart as may without any mercenary or reserv'd respects uniformely sway our whole man unto the same way and end Thirdly In every Law all matter Homogeneall and of the same kind with the particular named every sprig seede originall of the Dutie is included as all the branches of a tree belong unto the same stock And by these rules wee are to examine the truth of our obedience Before I draw downe these premises to a particular Assumption and Applycation I must for Caution sake premise that faith may be in the heart either habitually as an actus primus a forme or seede or principle of working or else actually as an actus secundus a particular Operation and that in the former sense it doth but remotely dispose and order the soule to these properties but in the later it doth more visibly and distinctly produce them So then according as the heart is deaded in the exercise of Faith so doe these properties thereof more dimly appeare and more remisly worke Secondly we must note that according as faith hath severall workings so Satan hath severall wayes to assault and weaken it There are two maine workes of Faith Obedience and Comfort to purifie and to pacifie the heart and according unto these so Satan tempts His maine end is to wrong and dishonour God and therefore chiefly hee labours to disable the former vertue of Faith and tempts to sinne against God But when hee cannot proceede so farre hee labours to discomfort and crush the spirits of men when hee prevailes in the former he weakens all the properties of Faith when in the later onely he doth not then weaken all but onely intercept and darken a Christians peace For understanding this point we must note that there are many acts of faith Some direct that looke outward towards Christ others reflexive that looke inward upon themselves The first act of faith is that whereby a man having beene formerly reduced unto extremities and impossibilities within himselfe lookes upon God as Omnipotent and so able to save as mercifull and in Christ reconcileable and so likely to save if he be sought unto Hereupon growes a second act namely a kinde of exclusive resolution to be thinke himselfe of no new wayes to trust no inferiour causes for salvation or righteousnes to sell all to count them all dung not to consult any more with flesh or blood but to prepare the heart to seeke the Lord To resolve as the Lepers in the famine at Samaria not to continue in the state he is in nor yet to returne to the Citie to his wonted haunts and wayes where he shall be sure to perish and from this resolution a man cannot by any discomforts bee removed or made to bethinke himselfe of any other new way but onely that which hee sees is possible and probable and where he knowes if he finde acceptance hee shall have supplyes and life enough and this act may consist with much feare doubt and trembling The Syrians had food and Samaria had none therefore the Lepers resolve to venture abroad Yet this they cannot doe without much doubting and distrust because the Syrians whom they should meete with were their enemies However this resolution over-rul'd them because in their present estate they were sure to perish in the other there was roome for hope and possibilitie of living and that carried them co Esters resolution If we perish we perish such is the Act of Faith in this present case It is well assured that in the case a man is in there is nothing but death to bee expected therefore it makes him resolve to relinquish that It lookes upon God as plenteous in power and mercie and so likely to save and yet it sees him too as arm'd with Iustice against sinne as justly provoked and wearied in his patience and therefore may feare to bee rejected and not saved alive Yet because in the former state there is a certainty to perish in the later a possibility not to perish therefore from hence ariseth a third act a conclusive and positive purpose to trust Christ. I will not onely deny all other wayes but I will resolve to trie this way to set about it to go to him that hath plenty of redemption and Life If I must perish yet He shall reject me I will not reject my selfe I will goe unto Him And this act or resolution of faith is built upon these grounds First because Gods Love and free Grace is the first originall mover in our salvation If God did beginne His worke upon prevision of any thing in and from our selves we should never dare to come vnto Him because wee should never finde any thing in our selves to ground His mercie towards us upon But now the Love of God is so absolute and independant that it doth not only require nothing in us to excite and to cal it out but it is not so much as grounded upon Christ himselfe I speake of His first Love and Grace Christ was not the impulsive cause of Gods first Love to mankinde but was Himselfe the great gift which God sent to men therein to testifie that Hee did freely love them before God so