Angels could not reach this This Redemption and Cleansing was precious and would have ceased for ever But this Blood is the Ransome this Blood cleanseth and so perfectly that it shall not appear not only to mens eyes but also Gods peircing Eye Sinners quite your own righteousness why defile ye your selves more When your eyes are opened ye will find it so here is washing apply your selves to this Fountain And if ye do indeed so if ye expect cleansing from Jesus Christ I pray you return not to the puddle Ye are not washen from sin to sin more and defile your self more If ye think ye have liberty to do so ye have no part in this Blood SERMON XI Isai 1. 16. Wash ye make you clean put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes cease to do evil c. THere are two evils in sin one is the Nature of it another the Fruit and sad Effect of it In it self it is filthiness and contrair to Gods Holiness and abasing of the immortal soul a spot in the face of the Lord of the Creatures that hath far debased him under them all Though it be so unnatural to us yet it is now in our fallen estate become as it were natural so that men agree with it as if it were sunk and drunk into the very soul of man The other is the guilt and desert of punishment and obligation to it All man hate this but they cannot hold it off They eat the Tree and Fruit of Death they must eat Death also They must have the wages of sin who have wrought for it Now the Gospel hath found a remedy for lost man in Jesus Christ He comes in the Gospel with a twofold blessing a twofold vertue a pardoning vertue and a sanctifying vertue VVater and Blood 1 Jo. 5. 6. He comes to forgive sin and to subdue sin To remove the guilt of it and then the self of it Gods appointment had inseparably joyned them And Christ came not to dissolve the Law but to establish it If he had taken away the punishment and left the sin in its being he had weakened the Law and the Prophets That conjunction of sin and wrath which is both by divine appointment and suitable also unto their own natures must stand that Divine Justice may be intire And therefore he that comes to redeem us from the curse of the Law hath also this Commission to redeem from sin and all transgressions of the Law Rom. 11. 26. and Gal. 3. 13. He that turns away the wrath of God from men turns also ungodliness from them which provoked his wrath And so he is a compleat Redeemer and a compleat Redeemer he had not been otherwayes If he had removed Wrath only and left us under the bondage of sin it had not been half redemption he that commits sin is the servant of sin But this is perfect freedom and liberty to be made free from sin for it was sin that subjected us to wrath and so was the first Tyrant and the greatest The Gospel then comes with a joyful sound unto you but many of you mistake it and apprehends it to be a Doctrine of Liberty and Peace and that unto sin But if it were so it were no joyful sound If there were proclaimed a liberty to all men to do as they list no punishment no wrath to be feared I would think that Doctrine no glade news it were but the perpetuating of the bondage of a reasonable soul But this is glade news a delivery and freedom proclaimed in the Gospel but what Not unto sin but from sin and this is to be free indeed We ought more to Jesus Christ for this then for redemption from Wrath because sin is a greater evil then wrath Yea wrath were not so if sin were not Therefore he exhorts to wash and wash so that they may make clean Take Jesus Christ for Justification and Sanctification imploy both the Water and the Blood that he hath come with But because all men pretend a willingness to have Christ their Saviour and their sins pardoned through his Blood who notwithstanding hate to be reformed and would seek no more of Christ Therefore he branches out that part of the Exhortation in several particulars All men have a general likeing of remission of sins but renouncing of it is to many a hard Doctrine they would be glade that God put their evils out of his sight by passing them by and forgetting them But they will not be at the pains of putting away their evils from his sight And therefore the Gospel which comprehends these two united is not really received by many who pretend to be followers of it This is his Command that ye believe Some pretend to obey this and yet hath no regard of that other part of his Will even their Sanctification And therefore their Faith is dead it is a fancy If ye did indeed believe and receive Christ for pardon of sin it were noâ— possible but your Souls would be ingaged and constrained to indeavour to walk in all well-pleasing But it is an evident token of one that is not washed from his sin and believes not in Christ if he conceive within his heart a greater latitude and liberty to walk after the flesh and be imboldened to continue in sin because of his Grace and Mercy And yet such are the most part of you Upon what ground do ye delay repentance Upon what presumption do ye continue in your sins and puts over the serious study of holiness till a more fit time Is it not from an apprehension of the Grace and Mercy of God that ye think ye may return any time and be accepted and so ye may in the mean time take as much pleasure in sin as ye can seing ye may get leave also for Gods Mercy I pray you consider that you have never apprehended Gods Mercy aright ye are yet in your sins and certainly as yet are not washed from them Put away the evil c. When the Spirit convinces a Soul he convinces a man not only of evil doings but of the evil of his doings Not only of sin but of the sinfulness of sin And not only of those actions which are in themselves sinful but also of the iniquity of Holy things I think no man will come to wash in Christs Blood till this be discovered If he see much wickedness many evil doings yet he will labour to wash away these by his own tears and repentance and well doing As long as he hath any good Actions as Prayers Fasting and such like he will cover his evil doings by them He will spread the skirts of such righteousness over his uncleannesse and when he hath hid it from his own eyes he apprehends that he hath hid it from Gods also He will wash his bloody hands with many Prayers and thinks they may be clean enough We see blasphemers of Gods Name use to joyn a prayer for forgivenesse
the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh to God All the Sacrifices and Shadows that were under the Law did but point at this perfect Ransom and the way of accesse to God through a Mediator was not so clear but now the matter is made as hopeful as is possible the partition wall of the Lawes curses the hand-writting against us is removed one the Crosse the enmity slain the distance removed by the Blood of the Crosse being partly filled up by his descent into our Nature partly by his lower descent in our Nature to suffer Death And this is the savoury Oblation that we have to present to God and may have boldness to come nigh because of it And when once our accesse is made by the Blood of Jesus Christ then we are called and allowed to come still nigher to cleave and adhere to him as our Father to pray unto him to walk with him Then we should converse as Friends and Familiars together then draw nigh to his Light for Illumination and to him as the Fountain of Life for quickening to place our delight and desire in him to forsake all other things even our Wills and Pleasures and to lose them that they may be found in his to converse much in his Company and be often in Communication with him and Meditation upon him This is the very designe and substance of the Gospel it holds forth the way of making up the breach between Man and God of bringing you nigh who are yet afar off and nearer who are near hand Oh let us hearken to it SERMON VI. Prov. 27. 1. Boast not thy self of to morrow for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth THere are some peculiar Gifts that God hath given to man in his first Creation and endued his Nâ—ture with beyond other living Creatures which being rightly ordered and improved towards the right Objects do advance the Soul of man to a wonderful height of Happinesse that no other sublunary Creature is capable of But by reason of mans fall into sin these are quite disordered and turned out of the right Channel And therefore as the right improvement of them would make man happy so the wrong imployment of them loadens him with more real misery then any other creature I mean God hath given to man two notable Capacities beyond other things one is to know and reflect upon himself and to consider what conveniency is in any thing towards himself what goodnesse or advantage redounds to himself from them and in that reflection and comparison to enjoy what he hath Another is to look forward beyond the present time and as it were to anticipat and prevent the slow motions of time by a kind of foresight and providence In a word he is a Creature framed unto more understanding then others and so capable of more joy in present things and more foresight of the time to come He is made mortal yet with an immortal Spirit of an immortal capacity that hath its eye upon the morrow upon eternity Now herein consists either mans Happinesse or Misery how he reflâ—cts upon himself and what he chooseth fâ—r the matter of his Joy and Gloriation and what providence he hath for the time to come If those be rightly ordered all is well but if not then woe unto him there is more hope of a beast then of him Mans Nature inclines to boasting to glorying in something and this ariseth from some apprehended excellency or advantage and so is originated in the understanding power of man which is far above beasts Beasts find the things themselves but they do not they cannot reflect upon their own enjoyment of them And therefore they are not capable of such pleasure for the more distinct knowledge of things in relation to our selves the more delight ensueth upon it Many Creatures have singular qualities and vertues but they are nothing the happier For they know them not and have no use of them but are wholly destinated to the use of man who therefore is only said to enjoy them because he only is capable of joy from them And this I suppose may give us a hint at the absolute incomprehensible Blessedness self-complacency and delight of God It cannot but be immeasurably great seing the knowledge of himself and all creatures is infinite he comprehends all his own Power and Vertue and Goodness And therefore his Delight and Rejoycing is answerable There is a glorying and boasting then that is good which man is naturally framed unto And this is that which David expresses Psa 34. 2. My Soul shall make her boast in God And Psal 44. 8. In God we boast all the day long and praise thy name for ever When the Soul apprehends that All-sufficiency and self-sufficient fulnesse of God What infinite Treasures of Goodnesse and Wisdom and Power are in him and so how sutable and covenient he is to the condition of the Soul What a sweet correspondence there is between his fulnesse and our emptinesse His Mercy and our Misery His Infinitenesse and our unsutablenesse that there is in him to fill and overflow the Soul The apprehension of this cannot but in a manner perfume the Soul with delight You find how the senses are refreshed when they meet with their sutable Object How a pleasant smell refresheth the â—ent How lively and beautifull colours are delightful to the eye But much more here God is the proportioned Object of the immortal Spirit he corresponds to all its capacities and fills it with unconceivable sweetness But my beloved boasting and glorying in him ariseth not only from the proportionableness and conveniency of him to our Spirits but this must be superadded propriety in him Things are loved because excellent in themselves or because they are our own But we boast in nothing we glory in nothing but because it is both excellent in it self and ours besides It is the apprehended interest in any thing makes the Soul rise and lift up it self after this manner to have such a one to be ours such a Lord to be our God one so high and sublime one so universally full to be made over to thee Here is the immediate rise of the Souls Gloriation And truely as there is nothing can be so sutable a portion so there is nothing that can be so truely made ours as God Of all things a believer hath there is nothing so much his own as God nothing so indissolubly tyed unto him nothing so inseparably joyned See Pauls Triumph upon that account Rom. 8. Nothing can truely be said to be the Souls own but that which is not only Coaetaneous with it that survives mortality and the changes of the Body But likewise is inseparable from it What a poor empty sound is all that can be spoken of him till your Souls be once possessed of him It cannot make your hearts leap within you but it cannot but excite and stirre up a Believers heart Now there
may sin no more but break off their sins It is indeed impossible for a man to amend his ways till he be pardoned for his sin stands betwixt him and God God is a consuming fire the guilt of it hinders all meeting of the Soul with God at least all influence from him But when an open Door is made in Christ that men may come and Treat with God notwithstanding of rebellions and have the Curse relaxed O now he may go about his Duty comfortably Am I escaped from Hell why should I any more walk in the way to it And now he hath the Spiriâ— given for the asking There are some Cessations from sin that are not real forsakings of it and ceasings from it You know men will abstain from Eating for a season that they may be made ripe for it another time Some do not cease from sin but delayes it only they put it not away but put it off only for another time till a fitter occasion and opportunity And this is so far from ceasing from it that it is rather an deliberat choice of it and Election of conveniency for it There may be some pure and simple ceasings from sin meer abstinence or rather meer absence of sin for a season that is not ceasing from doing evil The Christians ceasing hath much Action in it It is such a ceasing from doing evil that it is a putting away of evil It hath the Soul and Spirit joyned in that Cessation Sin requires violence to put it out where it hath haunted it is an intruding Guest and an usurping Guest It comes in first as a supplicant and beggar prays for a little lodging for a night and promises to be gone the temptation speaks but for a little time even the present time for a little one it seeks but litle at first least it be denyed but if once it be received into the Soul it presently becomes Master and can command its own time and its abode Then ye will not so easily put it out as ye could hold it out for it is now joyned with that wicked desperat party within you the heart and these united Forces are too strong for you According as a lust is one with a mans heart or hath nearer connexion with his heart and Soul it is the worse to put away for will ye drive a man from himself it is the cuting off an right hand or plucking out of an right eye To make a man cease from such evils it requirs that a stronger power be within him then is in the world Men may cease for a time for want of occasions or temptations to sin when there is no active principle in them restraining or keeping their Soul from such sins as appears after when no sonner occasion is offered but they run as the Horse to his course or the Stone falleth downward they conceive Fire as easily as dry Stubble That is not Christian ceasing which is that which the Soul argues it self to from grounds of the Gospel Should I who am dead to sin live any longer therein This is a principle of Cessation and this is true liberty when the Soul can abstain from present temptations upon such grounds and perswasions of the Gospel then it is really above it self and above the world then hath it that true victory Many men cease only from sin because sin ceases from them they have not left it but it hath left them The old man thinks himself a changed man because he wallows not in the lusts of the flesh as in his youth But alas no thanks to him for that he hath not ceased from his lusts but temptations to him or power and ability in him to follow them hath ceased there is no change in his Spirit within for he can talk of his former sins with pleasure he continues in other evils as bad but more suitable to his age In a word he is so inwardly that if he were in his body and occasions offering as before he would be just the same Some again cease from some evils from some principles but alas they are no Christian principles VVhat restrains the multitude of Civilians from grosse scandals Is it any thing but affectation of a good Name and report in the world Is it not fear of reproach or censure Is it not because possibly they have no particular inclination to sueh evils And yet there are many other evils of the heart al 's evil though more subtill that they please themselves in as Pride Covetousnesse Malice Envie Ambition c. VVhat shall all your abstinence be accompted of when it is not love to Jesus Christ or hatred of sin that principles it It is not the outward abstinence that will commend you Such it is as the principles of it are And these only are the true Christian principles of Mortification love of Jesus Christ which constrains men to live no more to themselves but to be new Creatures 1 Cor. 5. 14 15. And hatred of sin in its Nature as sin A Christian should have a mortal hatred at it as his mortal enemy It is not Christianity to abstain from some fleshly lusts if ye consider them noâ— as your Souls enemies 1 Pet. 2. 11. Ye that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97. 10. These are chained together Davids hatred was a Soul hatred an abhorency Psal 119. 163. I hate and abhore lying it is like the natural Antipathies that are among Creatures The Soul hates not only the person of it but the nature of it also Men often hate sin only as it is circumstantiate but Christian hatred is a hatred of the Nature like the deadly feuds which are enimities against the kind and name I will put enimity between thy seed c. It is a perfect hatred Psal 139. 22. And so it cannot endure any sin because all is contrary to Gods Holinesse and offensive to his Spirit I would think it easier to forsake all evil and cease from doing any evil I mean presumptuously with a willing minâ— and endeavour then indeed to forsake one for as long as ye entertain so many lusts like it they shall make way for it It were easier to keep the whole Commandments in an Evangelical sense then indeed to keep any one for all of theâ— help another and subsist they cannot one with out another so that ye take a foolish course whâ— go about particular reformations Ye scandalous sinners professe that ye will amend the particular fault ye are guilty of and in the meaâ— time ye take no head to your Souls and Lives Therefore it shall be either in vain or not acceptable How pleasant a life would Christians have if they would indeed be perswaded to be altogether Christians The halfing of it neither pleaseth God nor delights you Iâ— keeps you but in continual torment between God and Baal your own lusts usurpe over you and that of Christ in you challenges the Supremacy so ye are as-men under two Masters