be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt Serm. 6 7. pag. 104. On 2 Thess. 3. 5. And the Lord direct your Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ. Serm. 8. pag. 142. On Ephes. 1. 8. Wherein he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence Serm. 9. pag. 157. On Mat. 27. 46. And about the ninth hour Iesus cried with a loud voice saying Eli Eli lama sabacthani that is to say My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Serm. 10. pag. 175. On Rom. 1. Part of the 29 30 Verses Whisperers Backbiters Serm. 11. pag. 192. On Gal. 5. 16. This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh. Serm. 12. pag. 207. On Job 19. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth Serm. 13. pag. 231. On 1 Tim. 6. 8. And having Food and Raiment let us be therewith content Serm. 14. pag. 247. On Eccles. 9. 11. I returned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Understanding nor yet Favour to Men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to them all Serm. 15. pag. 269. On Acts 21. 14. And when he would not be perswaded we ceased saying The Will of the Lord be done Serm. 16. pag. 262. On John 3. 16. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting Life Serm. 17. pag. 323. On Deut. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this Day Life and Good Death and Evil. Serm. 18. pag. 345. On Mat. 7. 12. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that Men should do unto you do ye even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets Serm. 19 20. pag. 371. On Ephes. 2. 10. For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk them SERMON I. PSAL. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile THE Title of this Psalm is A Psalm of Instruction and so called because David was willing to shew them the way to Happiness from his own Experience Surely no Lesson is so needful to be learned as this We all would be happy The Good and Bad that do so seldom agree in any thing yet agree in this A desire to be happy Now happy we cannot be but in God who is the Only Immutable Eternal and Alsufficient Good which satisfies and fills up all the capacities and desires of our Souls And we are debarr'd from access to him by Sin which hath made a breach and separation between him and us and till that be taken away there can be no converse and Sin can only be taken away by God's Pardon upon Christ's Satisfaction God's Pardon is clearly asserted in my Text but Christ's Satisfaction and Righteousness must be supplied out of other Scriptures as that 2 Cor. 5. 19. God was in Christ reconciling the World to Himself not imputing their Trespasses to them Where the Apostle clearly shews that not-imputing Transgressions is the effect of God's Grace in Christ. And we do no wrong to this Text to take it in here for the Apostle citing this Scripture Rom. 4. 6 7. tells us that David describeth the blessedness of the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth Righteousness without works when he saith Blessed are they whose Iniquities are forgiven whose Sin is covered blessed is the Man to whom the Lord will not impute Sin In the words you have 1. An Emphatical setting forth of a great and blessed Priviledg that is Pardon of Sin 2. A Description of the Persons who shall enjoy it In whose spirit there is no Guile The Priviledg is that I shall confine my thoughts to It is set forth in three Expressions Forgiving Transgression Covering of Sin and not imputing Iniquity The manner of speech is warm and vehement and it is repeated over again Blessed is the Man I shall shew what these three Expressions import and why the Prophet doth use such vehemency and emphatical inculcation in setting forth this Priviledg 1. Whose Transgression is forgiven or who is eased of his Transgression Where Sin is compared to a burden too heavy for us to bear as also it is in other Scriptures Mat. 11. 28. Come to me all ye that are weary and heavy laden 2. Whose Sin is covered alluding to the covering of filth or the removing of that which is offensive out of sight As the Israelites were to march with a paddle tied to their arms that when they went to ease themselves they might dig and cover that which came from them Deut. 23. you have the Law there and the reason of it ver 14. For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy Camp therefore shall thy Camp be holy that he see no unclean thing in thee and turn away from thee And then the third expression is To whom the Lord imputeth no Sin that is doth not put Sin to their account Where Sin is compared to a Debt as it is also in the Lord's Prayer Mat. 6. 12. Forgive us our Debts as we also forgive our Debtors Thus is the Act set forth The Object of Pardon about which it is conversant is set forth under divers Expressions Iniquity Transgression and Sin As in Law many words of like import and signification are heaped up and put together to make the Deed and Legal Instrument more comprehensive and effectual I observe it the rather because when God proclaims his Name the same words are used Exod 34. 7. Taking away Iniquity Transgression and Sin Well we have seen the meaning of the Expression Why doth the holy Man of God use such vigor and vehemency of inculcation Blessed is the Man and again blessed is the Man partly with respect to his own case David knew how sweet it was to have Sin pardoned he had felt the bitterness of Sin in his own Soul to the drying up of his Blood and therefore he doth express his sense of Pardon in the most lively terms Blessed is the Man whose Iniquity is forgiven c. And then partly too with respect to those for whose use this Instruction was written that they might not look upon it as a light and trivial thing but be throughly apprehensive of the worth of so great a Priviledg Blessed happy thrice happy they who have obtained Pardon of their Sins and Justification by Jesus Christ. The Doctrine then which I shall insist upon is this That it is a great Degree and Step towards yea a considerable Part of our Blessedness to obtain the Pardon of our Sins by Christ Iesus I shall evidence it to you by these three Considerations 1. I
the Conscience and the Conscience against all But where the Heart is framed to the obedience of God's Will there is Peace Pax est tranquillitas ordinis when all things keep their place as in an accurate orderly Life they do Gal. 6. As many as walk according to this Rule Peace and Mercy be upon them and the whole Israel of God There is Peace for there is an harmonious Accord between God and them and between them and themselves Psal. 119. 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law not only Peace but great Peace a Peace that passeth all understanding Whilst we are in our Sins there is ever a fear of the War which is between God and us and there is a War in our selves Conscience disallowing our practices and our practices disliking the conduct of Conscience so that there is no peace to the Wicked But when the Lord Jesus hath taken us in hand and begun to cure us and frame us aright and shew us his wonderful Grace in turning us from our Sins here is matter provided for Serenity and Peace 2. It is the pledg of our eternal Felicity hereafter For Heaven is the perfection of Holiness or the full fruition of God in glory Now when the Mediator begins to take away Sin he blesses you for the Life is then begun which shall be perfected in Heaven Unless it be begun here it will never be perfected there For without Holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But if it be begun it will surely be perfected there for blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The vision and fruition of God is begun here the Spirit of Holiness is the earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1. 13 14. O what Blessedness is it then to have the new heart planted into us by Christ and to live the new Life It is the Beast about you that delights in the momentany base dreggy Pleasures of Sin But when Christ hath turned you from your Sins you are blessed indeed you are in the way to Blessedness and you shall be blessed for ever he gives Peace as a Pledge of Happiness and Eternal Glory III. I shall prove that this is the Mediator's Blessing 1. Let me lay down this that those Blessings that are most proper to the Mediator are spiritual Blessings We forfeited all by Sin but especially the Grace of the Spirit whereby we might be made serviceable to God Other Mercies run in the Channel of common Providence but spiritual Blessings are the discriminating Graces and Favours that are given us by the Mediator Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly Places Christ came not to distribute Honours and Greatness and worldly Riches to his Followers but to turn away every one of us from our Sins to reduce us to God that we may love him and be beloved of him He came as a spiritual Saviour to give us Grace rather than temporal Happiness Most Men have a Carnal Iewish Notion of Christ they would have a temporal Safety and Happiness they would have Deliverance from Affliction rather than Deliverance from Sin To be delivered from every evil Work is more than to be delivered from the Mouth of the Lion This is most proper to the Mediator 2 Tim. 4. 18. A sanctified Use of Troubles is more than an Exemption from them a carnal Man may have Exemption from them but not a sanctified Use of them Poverty Lameness Blindness are not as bad as Ignorance unruly Lusts and Want of Grace Moral Evils are worse than Natural Daniel was cast into a Lion's Den you would think that was a Misery but it was a greater Misery when Nebuchadnezzar was thrust out among the Beasts being given up to a brutish Heart Exemption from Trouble may be hurtful to us but Deliverance from Sin is never hurtful to us Among the spiritual Blessings we have by the Mediator Conversion from Sin to God is the chiefest we have on this side Heaven That it was the main Part of Christ's Undertaking I shall prove by Scripture and Reason For Scripture the Text is clear for it for thus the Apostle interprets the Covenant-Blessing In thy Seed shall all Nations of the Earth be blessed viz. God hath sent him to bless you wherein in turning every one of you from your Sins He shall be called Iesus Mat. 1. 21. for he shall save his People from their sins not only from the Guilt but the Power of Sin not only from the Evil after Sin but the Evil of Sin it self Denominatio est à majori the Name is taken from what is chiefest And so when he is promised to the Iews The Redcemer shall come out of Sion and he shall turn away Ungodliness from Iacob There is his principal Work 1 John 3. 5. Christ came to take away Sin and in him is no Sin He means not only the condemning Power but the Power of it in the Heart for he is pleading Arguments for Holiness why Believers should not run into Sin which is a Transgression of the Law One is from the Undertaking of Christ he came to take away Sin and from the Example of Christ In him is no Sin he plainly means the Power of Sin 2. Now to give you some Reasons why this is the chief Benefit most eyed by Christ and should be most regarded by us 1. Christ's Undertaking was principally for the Glory of God All the Promises are in him Yea and Amen to the Glory of God And it should not be a Question which should have the precedence the Glory of God or our Good Christ came to promote God's Glory and that must have the precedence of our Benefit Now then the abolishing the Guilt of Sin doth more directly respect our Interest and Good but the abolishing the Power of Sin or the turning and cleansing the Heart from it doth more immediately respect the Glory of God and our Subjection to God Therefore Christ would not only pacify the Wrath of God but his chief Work that doth mostly concern the Glory of God was to heal our evil Natures and prevent Sin for the time to come 2. To be turned from Sin is to be freed from the greatest Evil. For Pardon gives us an Exemption from Punishment which is a natural Evil but Conversion gives us freedom from our naughty Hearts which is a moral Evil and certainly Vice is worse than Pain and Sin than Misery Besides Sin is the Cause of all Evil and the taking away the Cause is more than ceasing the Effect 3. This hath nearer Connection with the Life of Glory Pardon only removes the Impediment but the sanctifying and healing of our Natures is the beginning of the Life of Glory and Introduction into it Pardon removes our Guilt which hinders our Happiness therefore Divines say Justification is Gratia removens prohibens that that removes the Impediment but the sanctifying
think all their business is to get a Victory over their Consciences and though they do not deny their Lusts yet if they can be strongly perswaded that God will be merciful to them in Christ they shall not perish but obtain everlasting Life No we must obey we must deny our selves or else we do not trust Christ to bring us to Heaven in his own ways and methods but trust to some vain conceits of our own II. How this is to be understood That whosoever believeth since many other things are required of us as Repentance Mortification of Sin Self-denial new Obedience or Holiness Luk. 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mortification Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Self-Denial Luke 14. 16. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple New Obedience or Holiness Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. I answer all Truths are not delivered in one place and therefore a solitary Faith will not bring us to Heaven but that which is seconded with other things But more distinctly I. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are connexed with it by the Ordination of God For every one that believeth Christ believeth the whole Gospel to be true Except against one part and you may except against all the rest Now it is evident in the Gospel that without Regeneration Repentance and Holiness no Man can be saved and see God therefore every one that believeth in Christ must trust him to obtain it in the way that he hath appointed and promised to give it 2. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are included in the nature of it or flow as genuine Effects from such a cause A purpose of Obedience is included in the Nature of Faith and actual Obedience is the fruit of it Every one that believeth Christ receiveth him in all his Offices therefore a purpose of Obedience is included in the nature of it and if Faith be sincere universal Obedience in Self-denial Mortification and our duty to God and Men will naturally be derived from it Therefore as he that is to entertain a King makes reckoning of his Train and that he will not come alone so every one of whom Faith in Jesus Christ is required must reckon that his Faith must be evidenced to be sincere by the Fruits of it III. Why is Faith required that we may receive Benefit by Christ For these Reasons 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of Christ. 3. In respect of the Creature 4. In respect of our Comforts 1. In respect of God that our Hearts may be possessed with a full apprehension of his Grace who in the new Covenant appeareth not as a revenging and condemning God but as a pardoning God This reason is rendred by the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace The Law brought in the Terror of God by being the Instrument of revealing Sin and the punishment due thereunto ver 15. The Law worketh Wrath for where there is no Law there is no Transgression no such stinging sense of it but the Gospel brought in Grace The Law stated the Breach but the Gospel shewed the way of our Recovery And therefore Faith doth more agree with Grace as it makes God more amiable and lovely to us and beloved by us by the discovery of his Goodness and Grace The saving of Man by Christ that is by his Incarnation Life Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension do all tend to possess our Hearts with his abundant Grace To the same tend also his merciful Covenant gracious Promises and all the Benefits given to us his Spirit Pardon and Communion with God in Glory all is to sill our Hearts with a Sense of the Love of God And all this is no more than necessary for a guilty Conscience is not easily setled and brought to look for all kind of Happiness from one whom we have so much wronged Adam when once a Sinner was shy of God Gen. 3. 10. and Sin still makes us hang off from him Guilt is suspicious and if we have not one to lead us by the Hand and bring us to God we cannot abide his Presence For this End serveth Faith That Sinners being possest of the Goodness and Grace of God may be recovered and return to him by a fit Means In the new Covenant Repentance more distinctly respects God and Faith respecteth Christ Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. Repentance respects God because from God we fell and to God we must return We fell from him as we withdrew our Allegiance and sought our Happiness elsewhere to him we return as our rightful and proper Happiness but Faith respects the Mediator who is the only Remedy of our Misery and the Means of our Eternal Blessedness He opened the way to God by his Merit and Satisfaction and actually bringeth us into this way by his renewing and reconciling Grace that we may be in a capacity both to please and enjoy God and that is the reason why Faith in Christ is so much insisted on as our Title and Claim to the Blessedness of the new Covenant It hath a special aptitude and fitness for our recovery from Sin to God because it peculiarly respects the Mediator by whom we come to him 2. With respect to Christ. 1. Because the whole Dispensation of Grace by Christ cannot well be apprehended by any thing but Faith partly because the Way of our Recovery is so supernatural strange and wonderful that unless we believe God's Testimony how can we be perswaded of it That the Carpenter's Son should be the Son of that great Architect and Builder who framed Heaven and Earth that Life should come to us by the Death of another that God should be made Man and the Judge a Party and he that knew no Sin be condemned as a Criminal Person that one crucified should procure the Salvation of the whole World and be Lord of Life and Death and have such Power over all Flesh as to give Eternal Life to whom he will Reason is puzsed at these things Faith can only unravel them Partly because the Comfort of the Promises is so rich and glorious and the Persons upon whom it is bestowed so unworthy that it cannot easily enter into the Heart of a Man that God will be so good and gracious to us 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the Things God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore Sense and Reason could look for no such thing Faith is necessary and a strong Faith that it may work upon us These are things
shall shew what Necessity lies upon us to seek after this Pardon 2. Our Misery without it 3. I shall speak of the annexed Benefits and our Happiness if once we attain it 1. The Necessity that lies upon us being all guilty before God to seek after our Justification and the Pardon of our Sins by Christ. That it may sink the deeper into your minds I shall do it in this Scheme or Method First a reasonable Nature implies a Conscience a Conscience implies a Law a Law implies a Sanction a Sanction implies a Judge and a Judgment-day when all shall be called to account for breaking the Law and this Judgment-day infers a Condemnation upon all Mankind unavoidably unless the Lord will comprimize the matter and find out some way in the Chancery of the Gospel wherein we may be relieved This way God hath found out in Christ and being brought about by such a mysterious Contrivance we ought to be deeply and thankfully apprehensive of it and humbly and broken-heartedly to quit the one Covenant and accept of the Grace provided for us in the other 1. A Reasonable Nature implies a Conscience for Man can reflect upon his own Actions and hath that in him to acquit or condemn him accordingly as he doth good or evil 1 Iohn 3. 20 21. Conscience is nothing but the Judgment a Man makes upon his Actions morally considered the good or the evil the Rectitude or Obliquity that is in them with respect to Rewards or Punishment As a Man acts so he is a Party but as he reviews and censures his Actions so he is a Judge Let us take notice only of the condemning part for that is proper to our Case After the Fact the Force of Conscience is usually felt more than before or in the Fact because before through the Treachery of the Senses and the Revolt of the Passions the Judgment of Reason is not so clear I say our Passions and Affections raise Clouds and Mists which darken the Mind and do incline the Will by a pleasing Violence but after the evil Action is done when the Affection ceaseth then Guilt flasheth in the face of Conscience As Iudas whose Heart lay asleep all the while he was going on in his villany but afterwards it fell upon him Thou hast sinned in betraying innocent Blood When the Affections are satisfied and give place to Reason that was before condemned and Reason takes the Throne again it hath the more force to affect us with Grief and Fear whilst it strikes through the Heart of a Man with a sharp sentence of Reproof for obeying Appetite before Reason Now this Conscience of Sin may be choak'd and smother'd for a while but the Flame will break forth and our hidden Fears are easily revived and awakened except we get our Pardon and Discharge A Reasonable Nature implies a Conscience 2. A Conscience implies a Law by which Good and Evil are distinguished for if we make Conscience of any thing it must be by virtue of some Law or Obligation from God who is our Maker and Governour and unto whom we are accountable and whose Authority giveth a force and warrant to the Warnings and Checks of Conscience without which they would be weak and ineffectual and all the Hopes and Fears they stir up in us would be vain Fancies and fond Surmises I need not insist upon this a Conscience implies a Law The Heathens had a Law because they had a Conscience Rom. 2. 15. Which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another They have a Conscience doth accuse or excuse doth require according to the tenor of the Law So when the Apostle speaks of those Stings of Conscience that are revived in us by the approach of Death he saith 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law Those Stings which Men feel in a death-threatning Sickness are not the Fruits of their Disease but justified by the highest Reason they come from a Sense of Sin and this Sense is strengthned and increased in us by the Law of God from whence Conscience receives all its force 3. A Law implies a Sanction or a Confirmation by Penalties and Rewards for otherwise it is but an arbitrary Rule or Direction which we might slight or disregard without any great loss or danger No the Law is armed with a dreadful Curse against all those that disobey it There is no dallying with God he hath set Life and Death before us Life and Good Death and Evil Deut. 30. 15. Now the Precept that is the Rule of our Duty and the Sanction is the Rule of God's Process what God will do or might do and what we have deserved should be done to us The one shews what is due from us to God and the other what may justly be expected at God's hands therefore before the Penalty be executed it concerns us to get a Pardon The Scripture represents God as angry with the Wicked every day standing continually with his Bow ready with his Arrow upon the String as ready to let fly with his Sword not only drawn but whetted as if he were just about to strike if we turn not Psal. 7. 11 12 13. 4. A Sanction implies a Iudg who will take cognizance of the keeping or breaking of this Law for otherwise the sanction or penalty were but a vain scare-crow if there were no person to look after it God that is our Maker and Governour is our Judg. Would he appoint penalties for the breach of his Law and never reckon with us for our offences is a thought so unreasonable so much against the sense of Conscience against God's daily Providence against Scripture which every-where in order to this to quicken us to seek forgiveness of Sins represents God as a Judg. Conscience is afraid of an invisible Judg who will call us to account for what we have done The Apostle tells us Rom. 1. ult the Heathen knew the Iudgment of God and that they that have done such things as they have done are worthy of death And Providence shews us there is such a Judg that looks after the keeping and breaking of his Law hath owned every part of it from Heaven by the Judgments he executes Rom. 1. 18. The Wrath of God is reveal'd from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteousness of Men hath owned either Table by punishing sometimes the Ungodliness and sometimes the Unrighteousness of the World nay every notable breach by way of Omission or Commission the Apostle saith every Transgression and every Disobedience these two words signifie Sins of Omission or Commission it hath been punished and God hath owned his Law that it is a firm authentick Rule And the Scripture also usually makes use of this Notion or Argument of a Judge to quicken us to look after the pardon of our Sins Act. 10. 42
43. And he hath commanded us to preach and testify to the People that it is he that was ordained of God to be the Iudge of the quick and dead To Him give all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of Sins So Acts 3. 19 20 21. Surely we that are to appear before the Bar of an Impartial Judge being so obnoxious to him for the breach of his holy Law what have we to do but to make supplication to our Judge and prevent Execution by a submissive asking of a Pardon and accepting the Grace God hath provided 5. A Iudge implies a Iudgment-day or some Time when his Justice must have a solemn Trial when he will reckon with the lapsed World He reckons sometimes with Nations now for Ungodliness and Unrighteousness by Wars and Pestilence and Famine He reckons with particular Persons at their Death and when their Work is done he pays them their Wages Heb. 9. 27. It is appointed for all Men once to dye and after that the Iudgment But there is a more general and final Judgment when his Justice must have a solemn Tryal which is in part evident in Nature for the Apostles did slide in the Christian Doctrine mostly by this means into the Hearts of those to whom they preached Acts 24. 25. He reasoned of Righteousness Temperance and Iudgment to come The particularity of it belongs to the Gospel-Revelation but Nature hath some kind of Sense of it in it self and they are urged to repent because God hath appointed a Day wherein he will judge the World in Righteousness by the Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead Acts 17. 31. God judgeth the World in Patience now but then in Righteousness when all things shall be reviewed and every thing restored Vertue to its publick Honour and Vice to its due Shame 6. If there be a Solemn Iudgment-day when every one must receive his final Doom this Judgment certainly infers a Condemnation to a fallen Creature unless God set up another Court for his Relief for now Man is utterly disinabled by Sin to fullfil the Law and can by no means avoid the Punishment that is due to his Transgression I shall prove this by three Reasons The Law to fallen Man is Impossible the Penalty is Intolerable and the Punishment for ought yet appears if God do not take another Course is Unavoidable 1. The Duty of the Law is impossible The Apostle tells us what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the weakness of our flesh It could not justify us before God it could not furnish us with any Answer to his Demands when he shall call us to an Account Man is mightily addicted to the Legal Covenant therefore it is one part of a Gospel-Minister's work to represent the Impossibility of ever obtaining Grace or Life by that Covenant Man would stick to the Law as long as he can and will patch up a sorry Righteousness of his own some few superficial things He makes a short Exposition of the Law that he may cherish a large Opinion of his own Righteousness and curtails the Law of God that the Ell may be no longer than the Cloth and brings it down to a poor contemptible thing requiring a few external superficial Duties of Men. We read often of being dead to Sin and to the World it is as certainly true we must be dead to the Law Now how are we dead to the Law the Scripture tells us in one place that through the Law we are dead to the Law and in another place that we are dead to the Law through the Body of Christ The first place is Gal. 2. 19. Through the Law I am dead to the Law Men are apt to stand to the Legal Covenant and have their Confidence in the Flesh to place their Hopes of acceptance with God in some few external things which they make their false Righteousness For the carnal World as it cryes up a false Happiness as its God so Men have a false Righteousness which is their Christ. Now through the Law they are dead to it How The Law supposeth us as innocent and requires us to continue so Cursed is every one that continues not in every thing c. Suppose a Man should exactly fulfill it afterwards yet the paying of new Debts will not quit old Scores And then we are dead to the Law by the Body of Christ Rom. 7. 4. By the crucified Body of Christ by which he hath merited and purchased a better Hope and Grace for us Well the Duty is impossible 2. The Penalty is intolerable for who can stand when God is angry Ezek. 22. 14. Can thine Heart endure or can thine Hands be strong in the Day that I shall deal with thee We that cannot endure the pain of the Gout or Stone how shall we endure the eternal Wrath of God It is surely a very dreadful thing to fall into the Hands of that living God that lives for every to punish the Transgressors of his Law 3. The Punishment is unavoidable unless Sin be pardoned and you submit to God's way for I would ask you what Hope can you have in God whose Nature ingageth him to hate Sin and whose Justice obligeth him to punish it 1. Whose Nature ingageth him to hate Sin and Sinners Hab. 1. 13. He is of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity I urge this for a doubleReason partly because I have observed that all the Security of Sinners and their Neglect of seeking after Pardon by Jesus Christ it comes from their lessening thoughts of God's holiness and if their Hearts were sufficiently possessed with an awe of God's unspotted Purity and Holiness they would more look after the Terms of Grace God hath provided Psal 50. 21. Thou thoughtest I was altogether such an one as thy self Why do Men live securely in their Sins and do not break off their evil Course They think God is not so severe and harsh and so all their Confidence is grounded upon a Mistake of God's Nature and such a dreadful Mistake as amounts to a Blasphemy Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thy self The other Reason is this partly because I observe the bottom Reason of all the Fear that is in the Hearts of Men is God's Holiness 1 Sam. 6. 20. Who is able to stand before this holy God And Who would not fear thee for thou art holy Rev. 15. 4. We fear his Power why because it is set on work by his Wrath. We fear his Wrath why because it is kindled by his Justice and Righteousness We fear his Righteousness because it is bottom'd and grounded upon his Holiness and upon the Purity of his Nature 2. His Justice obligeth him to punish Sin that the Law might not seem to be made in vain It concerns the Universal Judge to maintain the Reputation of
the Wound that was in a fair way of healing and willingly relapse into the Sickness he was almost recovered from with so much ado Sure this shews our first Consent was not real and sincere And then Christ will be no Advocate for them that continue in their Sins Our God is a God of Salvation we cannot enough speak of his saving Mercy But he will wound the Head of his Enemies and the hairy Scalp of such an one as goeth on still in his Trespasses Psal. 68. 20 21. 2. Daily Prayer This was spoken unto at the Close of the first Sermon Mat. 6. 12. Our Lord hath taught us to pray for we make but too much work for pardoning Mercy every day Every day forgive us our Trespasses To day in one of the Petitions is common to all that follow as we beg daily Bread we must beg daily Pardon daily Grace against Temptations Under the Law they had a Lamb every Morning and every Evening offered to God for a daily Sacrifice Numb 28. 4 5 6. We are all invited to look to the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sins of the World Surely we have as much need as they more Cause than they because now all is clear and openly made known unto us God came to Adam in the cool of the Day he would not let him sleep in his Sins before Night came he comes and rouseth his Conscience and then gives out the Promise of the Seed of the Woman that should break the Serpent's Head In Reconciliation with God let not the Sun go down upon God's Wrath Eph. 4. 26. A Man should not sleep in his Anger nor out of Charity with Man surely we should make our Peace with God every day If a Man under the Law had contracted any Uncleanness he was to wash his Cloaths before Evening that he might notly a Night in his Uncleanness We should daily earnestly come to God with this Request Lord pardon our Sins But what must those that are already adopted into God's Family and taken into his Grace and Favour daily pray for Pardon of Sin Though upon our first Faith our State be changed and we are indeed made Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Life by Faith in Christ Jesus yet he that is clean need wash his Feet We contract a great deal of sinful defilement and pollution by walking up and down here in a dirty World and we must every day be cleansing our Consciences before God and begging that we may be made Partakers of this Benefit III. The third thing is our Recovery out of greivous Lapses and Falls In them there is required a particular and express Repentance And Repentance and Faith must be carried with respect to those four things are in Sin Culpa the Fault Reatus the Guilt Macula the Stain and Blot and Poena the Punishment You know the Law supposeth a righteous Nature that God gives to Man therefore in Sin there is a Stain or Blot defacing God's Image The Precepts of the Law require Duty so it is Culpa a criminal Act the Sanction of the Law as threatned makes way for Guilt as executed calls for Punishment you see how it ariseth 1. For the Fault in the Transgression of the Law or the criminal Action See that the Fault be not continued Relapses are very dangerous A Bone often broken in the same place is hardly set again God's Children are in danger of this before the Breach be well made up or the Orifice of the Wound be soundly closed as Lot doubled his Incest and Samson goes in again and again to Dalilah But in wicked Men frequently as that King sent Fifty after Fifty and nothing would stop him There is an express forsaking of Sin required of us otherwise it would abolish all the Difference between the Renewed and the Carnal 2. The Guilt continues till serious and solemn Repentance and Humiliation before God and suing out our Pardon in Christ's Name 1 Iohn 1. 9. He speaks of Believers If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and to cleanse us from all Unrighteousness There must be a solemn humbling for the Sin and then God will forgive us Suppose a Man forbear the Act and never commit it more as Iudah forbore the Act after he had comitted Incest with Tamar but it seems he repented not till she shewed him the Bracelets and the Staff yet with serious remorse we must beg our Peace humbly upon the account of our Mediatour Therefore something must be done to take away the Guilt 3. There is the Blot or evil Inclination to sin again The Blot of Sin in general is the defacing of God's Image but in particular Sins it is some weakning of the Reverence of God A Man cannot venture to act a grievous wilful Sin but there is a violent Obstruction of the Love of God A Brand that hath been in the Fire is more apt to take Fire again the evil Influences of the Sin continue Now the Root of Sin must be mortified it is not enough to forbear or confess a Sin but we must pull out the Core of the Distemper before all will be well As Ionah he repented of his Tergiversation and forsaking his Call The fault was not repeated he goes to Nineveh and does his duty yet the core of the Distemper was not taken away for you read of him Ion. 4. 2. Was not this my saying when I was yet in my Country therefore I fled before unto Tarshish for I knew thou wert a gracious God and repentest thee of the evil ....... On the contrary Peter fell into a grievous Sin denying his Lord and Master with Oaths and Execrations but afterwards Iohn 21. 15. Christ trys him Jesus saith to Simon Peter Lovest thou me more than these pointing to the rest of his Disciples Peter had been bragging Matth. 26. 33. Though all Men forsake thee yet I will not forsake thee Now when he was foiled tho he had wept bitterly for his Fault Christ tries if the Cause be removed Lord saith he thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee But he doth not say now more than these The Root of the Distemper was gone Peter is grown more modest now than to make Comparisons 4. There is the Punishment Now we must deprecate Eternal Punishment and bless God for Jesus Christ who hath delivered us from Wrath to come But as to temporal Evils God hath reserved a Liberty in the Covenant to his Wisdom and fatherly Justice to inflict temporal Punishments as he shall see good If they break his Statutes and keep not his Commandments then will he visit their Transgression with the Rod and their Iniquity with Stripes Psal. 89. 32 33. Nevertheless my loving-kindness I will not utterly take from them nor suffer my Faithfulness to fail If Iudgment begin at the House of God what shall become of the Sinner and Ungodly The Righteous are recompensed upon Earth partly to increase
Love to Mankind God so loved the World 2. The way which God took to recover our lapsed condition or the Effect and Fruit which flows from this Fountain that he gave his only begotten Son 3. The end of it that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life Where take notice of 1. The Qualification or the free and easy condition put upon Men in the Gospel that whosoever believeth in him 2. The benefit that resulteth to us expressed Negatively and Affirmatively should not perish but have everlasting Life First The rise and beginning of all is God's unconceivable Love God so loved the World Where observe 1. The Object the World 2. The Act Loved 3. The Degree So loved 1. The word by which the Object is expressed is the World which noteth Mankind in its corrupt and miserable State 1 Ioh. 5. 19. The whole World lies in Sin The World is an Heap of Men who had broken God's Law forfeited his Love and Favour they neither loved nor feared God but were unthankful and unholy yet this World God loved 2. The Act He loved The Love of God is twofold the Love of Benevolence and the Love of Complacence 1. The Love of Benevolence is the Pity and Compassion of God towards Man lying in Sin and Misery This is understood in this place as also in Tit. 3. 4. The Kindness and Love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared 2. The Love of Complacence 〈◊〉 he loveth us when he hath made us lovely In which Sence it is said Psal. 11. 7. The Righteous God loveth Righteousness Joh. 16. 27. The Father himself loved you because ye loved me This belongeth not to this place 3. The Degree So loved He doth not tell you how much but leaveth it to your most solemn raised Thoughts It is rather to be conceived than spoken of and admired rather than conceived Observe from the Words That the Beginning and first Cause of our Salvation is the meer Love of God The outward Occasion was our Misery the inward moving Cause was God's Love 1. Love is at the Bottom of all We may give a Reason of other Things but we cannot give a Reason of his Love God shewed his Wisdom Power Justice and Holiness in our Redemption by Christ. If you ask why he made so much ado about a worthless Creature raised out of the Dust of the Ground at first and had now disorder'd himself and could be of no use to him We have an Answer at hand Because he loved us If you continue to ask But why did he love us We have no other Answer but because he loved us for beyond the first Rise of things we cannot go And the same Reason is given by Moses Deut. 7. 8. The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor chuse you because you were more in number than any People for ye were the fewest of all People but because the Lord loved you that is in short He loved you because he loved you The same Reason is given by our Lord Jesus Christ Mat. 11. 26. Even so Father for so it seemed good in thy Sight All came from his free and undeserved Mercy higher we cannot go in seeking after the Causes of what is done for our Salvation 2. The most remarkable Thing that is visible in the Progress and Perfection of our Salvation by Christ is Love And it is meet that the Beginning Middle and End should suit Nay if Love be so conspicuous in the whole Design and Carrying on of this blessed Work it is much more in the Rise and Fountain God's great End in our Redemption was the Demonstration of his Love and Mercy to Mankind yea not only the Demonstration but the Commendation of it That is the Apostle's word Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his Love to us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us A thing may be demonstrated as real that is not commended or set forth as great God's Design was that we should not only believe the Reality but admire the Greatness of his Love Now from first to last Love is so conspicuous that we cannot overlook it Light is not more conspicuous in the Sun than the Love of God in our Redemption by Christ. 3. If there were any other Cause it must be either the Merit of Christ or some Worthiness on our part 1. The Merit of Christ was not the first Cause of God's Love but the Manifestation Fruit and Effect of it The Text telleth he first loved the World and then gave his only begotten Son It is said 1 Ioh. 3. 16. Hereby perceive we the Love of God because he laid down his Life for us Look as we perceive and find out Causes by their proper Effects so we perceive the Love of God by the Death of Christ. Christ is the principal Means whereby God carrieth on the Purposes of his Grace and therefore is represented in Scripture as the Servant of his Decrees 2. No Worthiness in us For when his Love moved him to give Christ for us he had all Mankind in his prospect and view as lying in the polluted Mass or in a State of Sin and Misery and then provided a Redeemer for them God at first made a perfect Law which forbad all Sin upon pain of Death Man did break this Law and still we break it day by day in every Sin Now when Men lived and went on in Sin and Hostility against God he was pleased then to send his Son to assume our Nature and die for our Transgressions Therefore the giving of a Redeemer was the Work of his free Mercy Man loved not God yea was an Enemy to God when Christ came to make the Atonement 1 Ioh. 4. 10. Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins Col. 1. 21. And you that were sometimes alienated and Enemies in your Minds by wicked Works yet now hath he reconciled We were sensless of our Misery careless of our Remedy so far from deserving that we desired no such matter God's Love was at the beginning not ours USE 1. Is to confute all Misapprehensions of God It is the grand Design of Satan to lessen our Opinion of God's Goodness So he assaulted our first Parents as if God notwithstanding all his Goodness in their Creation was envious of Mans Felicity and Happiness And he hath not left off his old wont He seeketh to hide God's Goodness and to represent him as a God that delighteth in our Destruction and Damnation rather than in our Salvation as if he were inexorable and hardly entreated to do us good And why That we may stand aloof from God and apprehend him as unlovely Or if he cannot prevail so far he tempteth us to poor unworthy mean thoughts of his Goodness and Mercy Now we can notobviate the Temptation better than by due reflections on his Love in giving his Son for the World
his personal Subsistence which is by way of Filiation or being eternally begotten in the Divine Essence So great was our Misery that no less Remedy would serve the turn and so great God's Mercy that he with-held him not from us Doct. The greatest Manifestation of God's Love to the Sons of Men is the giving his only begotten Son to be their Redeemer and Saviour There is a twofold giving of Christ. 1. He is given for us 2. He is given to us 1. He was given for us when he was sent into the World to become Bone of our Bone and Flesh of our Flesh and to die for our Sins This is spoken of Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all 2. He is given to us when we have a special Interest in him and a Participation of his Benefits 1 Cor. 1. 30. Christ Iesus is made of God to us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption He is given for us as he took our Nature he is given to us as he dwelleth in our Hearts by Faith He is given for us as he undertook the Work of our Redemption he is given to us as he accomplisheth and brings about our Conversion to God and applying to us the Benefits of his Purchase I shall speak of both I. As he is given for us it mightily bespeaketh the Love of God and his Care of our Salvation In Creation God made us after his own Image and Likeness In Redemption his Son came in the similitude and likeness of sinful Flesh. In Creation the Angels were dignified above us but not in Redemption Heb. 2. 16. He did not redeem the Apostate Angels In short this was the most convenient Way for God to bring about the Purposes of his Grace towards Man for these Reasons 1. That our Faith might be more certain by the appearing of the Son of God in our Nature by his dying rising again from the Dead and ascending into Heaven and so giving a sensible Proof of our whole Religion 1. By appearing in Human Nature he had opportunity of conversing with Men to convince them of the gracious Will of God and teach them Obedience to him not only by his Doctrine but his Example and securing the Truth of both by the many Miracles which he wrought in the days of his Flesh. Ioh. 6. 27. Him hath the Father sealed that is owned acknowledged demonstrated that whatever he did or said was the Will and good Pleasure of God 2. By his dying he satisfied the Justice of God and so maketh a way for the Course of his Mercy to us that we might obtain Release and Pardon of all our Sins and Transgressions against the Law of God Rom. 3. 25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God c. 3. His rising again from the Dead was a visible Satisfaction to the World that his Sacrifice was accepted Rom 4. 15. Who was delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Iustification The unbelieving World by that supreme Act of Power have no reason to stand out against his Faith and Doctrine 4. By his ascending into Heaven the Truth of Eternal Life was more confirmed for thereby he gave us a real Demonstration of that Glory which he spoke of and promised to his Disciples and Followers 1 Pet. 1. 21. God raised him from the Dead and gave him Glory that your Faith and Hope might be in God He himself is entred into that Happiness and we shall follow him 2. That our Hope might be more strong and lively being built upon the Example of Christ and his Promises to us The Example of Christ is of great Support to us in all our Troubles for if we fare as he fared in this World we shall fare as he fareth in the World to come Therefore we are said to be begotten to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the Dead 1 Pet. 1. 3. That is have a Ground of Hope and chearful Assurance as he by by his Sufferings came to his Reward and Crown so shall we obtain the matter of his Promises 1 Ioh. 2. 25. And this is the Promise which he hath promised even Eternal Life Joh. 12. 26. If any Man serve me let him follow me and where I am there shall also my Servant be If any Man serve me him will my Father honour 3. That our Love to God may be more fervent If God had saved us some other way the Salvation had been something less for according to the degrees of the Gift so is our Obligation Now God would oblige us at the highest rate and therefore he gave his only begotten Son to die for us It is said He spared not his own Son Rom. 8. 32. There is a twofold not sparing either in a way of impartial Justice or in a way of transcendent Bounty the last is chiefly intended in that place though the other not altogether excluded He delivered him up to die for our sakes Now surely this should gain much upon us when God thought nothing too good to part with for our Salvation 4. It makes our Obedience more ready for Jesus Christ came to live by the same Law that we were bound to Gal. 4. 4. When the Fulness of Time was come God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Yea to obey God at the dearest Rates Heb. 5. 8 9. Though he were a Sen yet learned he Obedience by the Things which he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of Eternal Salvation unto all them that obey him He submitted unto and performed the whole Law his Obedience cost him dear since an ignominious and shameful Death was a part of it II. God that gave Christ for us giveth him also to us and with him the Benefits of Pardon Reconciliation Adoption and Right to Eternal Life if we be duly qualified The Offer is made in the Gospel on our part there is required only a thankful acceptance of Christ on his own Terms This also is the greatest Gift for the other is in order to this and this is the compleating of it and applying it for our Comfort I shall prove it by three Reasons 1. Without Christ there is no Recovery of what we lost 2. No Removal of that Misery we incurred 3. No Obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness 1. No Recovery of what we lost What did we lose by the Fall The Image and Favour of God and Fellowship with God 1. The Image of God was defaced by Sin Man abode not in the honour of his Creation but became as the Beasts that perish Now the Restitution of this great Gift we only have by Christ who is the Pattern and Author of it The Pattern 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as
with carnal Delights but the virtue of that Opium will be soon spent All those Joys are but stollen Waters and Bread eaten in secret a poor sorry Peace that dares not come to the Light and endure the Trial a sorry Peace that is soon disturbed by a few serious and sober thoughts of God and the World to come but when once Sin is pardoned then you have true Joy indeed Be of good Cheer thy Sins be forgiven thee Mat. 9. 2. Then Misery is pluckt up by the Roots Comfort ye comfort ye my People Why Her Iniquity is forgiven Isa. 40. 1 2. And we joy in God Rom. 5. 11. as those that have received the Atonement The Lord Jesus hath made the Atonement but when we have received the Atonement then we joy in God then there is matter for abundant Delight when the Love of God is shed abroad in our Hearts by the Holy-Ghost given unto us 3. When we are pardoned then we are capable of Eternal Happiness Pardon of Sin is Gratia removens prohibens that Grace that removes the Impediment that takes the Make-bate out of the way removes that that hinders our Entrance into Heaven Sanctification is the beginning but till we are pardoned there can be no Entrance into Heaven now this removes the Incapacity I observe Remission of Sins is put for all the Priviledge-Part as Repentance for the Duties Acts 5. 31. Him hath God exalted to give Repentance and Remission of Sins There are two Initial Benefits Repentance as the Foundation of the new Life and Remission of Sins as the Foundation of all our future Mercies There are two chief Blessings offered in the New Covenant Pardon and Life Reconciliation with God and the everlasting Fruition of Him in Glory and the one makes way for the other Acts 26. 28. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Satan to God that they may receive Remission of Sins and an Inheritance among the Saints When we are pardoned then we are capable to look for the blessed Inheritance the Impediment is taken out of the way that excludes from it And thus you see the Blessedness of the Man whose Transgression is forgiven whose Filth is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin A Word of Application 1. Let us bless God for the Christian Religion Where this Priviledge is discovered to us in all its Glory and that upon very commodious terms fit to gain the Heart of Man and to reduce him to God Mic. 7. 18. Who is a God like unto thee among all the Gods pardoning the Transgressions of thine Heritage The Business of Religion is to provide sufficiently for two things which have much troubled the considering Part of the World a suitable Happiness for Mankind and suitable means for the expiation of Sin Happiness is our great desire and Sin is our great burden and trouble Now these are fully made known and discovered to us by the Christian Faith The last is that we are upon The Way how the grand Scruple of the World may be satisfied and their guilty Fears appeased And that we may see the Excellency of the Christian Religion above all Religions in the World it offers Pardon upon such terms as are most commodious to the Honour of God and most satisfactory to our Souls that is upon the account of Christ's Satisfaction and our own Repentance without which our Case is not compassionable The first I will chiefly insist on The Heathens were mightily perplexed about the way how God could dispense with the Honour of his Justice in the Pardon of Sin That Man is God's Creature and therefore his Subject that he hath exceedingly failed and faulted in his Duty and Subjection to him and is therefore obnoxious to God's just Wrath and Vengeance are Truths evident in the light of Nature and common Experience And therefore the Heathens had some Convictions of this and saw a need that God should be atoned and propitiated by some Sacrifices of Expiation and the nearer they lived to the Original of this Tradition and Institution the more burdened and pressing were their Conceits and Apprehensions thereof But in all their cruel Superstitions there was no rest of Soul they knew not the true God nor the proper Ransom nor had any sure way to convey Pardon to them but were still left to the Puzzle and Distraction of their own Thoughts and could not make God merciful without some diminution of his Holiness and Justice nor make him just without some diminution of his Mercy Somewhat they conceived of the Goodness of God by his continuing forfeited Benefits so long God left them not without a Witness But yet they could not reconcile it to his Justice or Will to punish Sinners And all their Apprehensions of the Pardon of Sin were but Probabilities and what was wrought to procure Merit was ridiculous or else barbarous and unnatural giving their First-born for the Sin of their Soul Mic. 6. 7. And all those Notions they had about this apprehended Expiation were too weak to change the Heart or Life of Man or to reduce him to God Come we now to the Iews The Iews had many Sacrifices of God's own Institution but such as did not make the Comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9. 9. And the Ransom that was to be given to provoked Justice was known but to a few They saw much of the Patience and Forbearance of God but little of the Righteousness of God and which was the great Propitiation Till God set forth Iesus Christ to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the Forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be just and the Iustifier of him that believes in Iesus Rom. 3. 25 26. Their Ordinances and Sacrifices were rather a Bond acknowledging the Debt or presignifying the Ransom that was to be paid and their Sacrifices did rather breed Bondage and their Ordinances were called an Hand-writing of Ordinances that were against them The Redemption of Souls was then-spoken of as a great Mystery but sparingly reveal'd Psal. 49. 3 7. My Mouth shall speak of Wisdom and the Meditation of my Heart shall be of Understanding I will incline mine Ear to a Parable I will open my dark Sayings upon the Harp What was that Wisdom What was that dark Saying The Redemption of Souls is precious it ceaseth for ever As it lies upon meer Man's hand none can give a Ransom for his Brother Eternal Redemption by Christ was a dark Saying in those days only they knew no meer Man could do it And in more early times in Iob's time he was an Interpreter One of a Thousand that could bring this Message to a distressed Sinner that God had found out a Ransom This Atonement then that lies at the bottom of Pardon of Sin was a rare thing in those days Let us bless
of our Desires And partly through Slavish Fear We hate those whom we fear A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty Creature We look upon him as one that will call us to an account for our Sins Now all these Reasons concur to shew us that till Sin be taken away we cannot love nor delight in God neither can God love us and delight in us God will not have Communion with us while we are in our Sins Christ when he came to bring us to God he came not to make any Change in God to make God less holy but to make us holy and amiable in his sight The reasonable Nature cannot digest this Conceit that the holy God should take Sinners into his Bosom without any change Would it become the Governour of the World to be indifferent to good and bad the holy God to be a Friend to Sinners The new Nature in us sheweth the contrary for that causes an abomination and abhorrence both of Impurity and the Impure As Lot's righteous Soul was vexed with the Sodomites And we are told Prov. 29. 27. An unjust Man is an Abomination to the Iust and he that is upright in the Way is Abomination to the Wicked If a Man be sanctified but in part he cannot delight in the wicked freely to converse with them He hath a Hatred not of Enimity so as to seek their Destruction not a Hatred opposite to good Will that is contrary to the Nature of Grace which is made up of Love but an Hatred of Abomination which is contrary to the Love of Complacency he cannot take any delight in him Now then without a manifest reproach to the Holy God we cannot imagine he should admit Sinners into an intimate Communion with him Thou hatest all the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. God said to the Prophet Ier. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou to them God will not return to us in our Sins but we must come off from our Sins to him 2. We are freed from the great Blemish of our Natures Sin defaced the Image of God in us Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God We lost not only the Favour of God but the Image of God the great Excellency of our Nature was eclipsed and defaced Now the Plaister will not be as broad as the Sore nor our Reparation by Christ correspondent to our Loss by Adam if our Nature be not healed and the Image of God restored in us If Adam had only left us guilty the Pardon of Sin had been enough but he conveyed an evil Nature and therefore we must be turned from our Sins as well as pardoned otherwise Christ would not restore all that Adam took away Psal. 69. 4. Is he a good Physician that takes away the Pain and leaves the great Disease uncured But Christ has procured the Favour of God for us and repaired the Image of God in us and therefore certainly put us into a way of Blessedness again Holiness was our Primitive Excellency and Amiableness 3. We are freed from that that is the great Burden of the Creature as well as his Blemish Whatever it be to the common Sinner that is no matter he hath no right thoughts of things and is besotted with his carnal choice for Sin is an Evil whether it be felt or no but the awakened Sinner is sensible not only of the Guilt of Sin but it is his greatest Burden that he should have a Nature inclines him to grieve and dishonour God Pharaoh could say Take away this Plague But a penitent broken-hearted Sinner cries Take away all Iniquity They desire a Change of this State by Regeneration Therefore the Promises of the Gospel considering a penitent Soul under such a Distress are suted to the Case 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness If you know what Sin is and penitently bemoan your selves to God you will be troubled with the Power and Pollution of it as well as the Guilt Mic. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He will turn again he will have compassion hewill subdue our Iniquities A Heart truly affected doth not only desire Pardon and Ease but Power against Sin A Man that hath his Leg broken would not only desire Ease of his pain but to have his Leg set right again A Leprous Condemned Malefactor desires not only to be freed from the Sentence of Condemnation but to be cured or his Pardon will do him no good Now surely it is a great Blessing to be turned from our Sins to be freed from that a penitent Soul finds to be so great a Burden and the Mediatour gives us a notable proof of his Love in it 4. Being turned from our Sins we are freed from the great bane of our Persons and all our happiness Sin is a Cursed Inmate it fires the Lodging where it is entertain'd and harboured unless speedily cast out of doors it involves us in the curse of the Law The wages of Sin is Death therefore Christ that he might free us from Misery doth first free us from Sin If pardon of Sin be a blessing certainly to be turned from Sin is a blessing for the one cannot be had without the other till you are turned from Sin you cannot be pardoned not justified till you are sanctified Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is the Man whose Sin is forgiven and whose Iniquity is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin in whose spirit there is no guile When God hath given us an holy sincere heart and turned us from our Sins then we have the Blessedness of Pardon There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We are freed from the condemning power of the Law when freed from Sin and all that Woe and Wrath that belongs to every Soul that doth evil By all these Considerations it appears how great a Blessing the turning us from Sin is in the privative notion that is the removal of so great an evil 2. Take Blessedness in the Positive Notion that is to enjoy a great Good and it will appear it is a blessed thing to be turned from our Sins 1. Because this is the matter of our Serenity Comfort and Peace here and the pledg and beginning of our eternal Felicity hereafter The Soul can never be setled in an holy Peace till it be turned from its Sins we can never find rest till we get out of Satan's yoke and get into Christ's blessed Liberty The fruit of Righteousness is Peace Isa. 32. 17. We are freed from those unquiet and troublesom thoughts wherewith others are haunted A wicked Man's Soul is in a mutiny one Affection wars against another and all against
no Sacrifice without it Not that he tasted of their Meat-offerings or did eat the Fat or Flesh of Bulls and Goats and drink their Blood and so would have it seasoned for his Pallate and Appetite it is not so to be understood but in Types as well as in Similitudes there is a condescension to our sense and apprehension of things That that is salted is savoury therefore God would note his acceptation of our persons and services this way By nature we are all odious unsavoury and distasteful to God by reason of Sin Psal. 14. 3. They are all become filthy there is none that doth good no not one in the Hebrew it is putrified stinking like corrupt and rotten Flesh. We must be salted and seasoned by the Grace of Christ and so we become amiable and acceptable in the sight of God The more upright we are the more he delighteth in us 2. To Men the more we are thus salted and mortified the more shall we do good to others Our Lord tells his Disciples Mat. 5. 13. Ye are the Salt of the Earth but if the Salt lose its savour wherewith shall it be salted it is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of Men. This is spoken to the Disciples as Disciples not as Apostles and publick Persons It is a mistake to think that only Ministers are the Light of the World and the Salt of the World No all Christians must shine as lights in the midst of a crooked and perverse Generation all Christians must be as the Salt of the Earth Christ's whole Sermon contains general Duties and the Disciples were not yet sent abroad as Apostles nor ever heard of such a Commission or that their Master would send them abroad for the proselyting the World to the Kingdome of God that was done afterwards Chap. 10. and therefore here he speaks to Christians as Christians Now they are said to be Salt even as they season all those among whom they live A Christian is never savoury in his Conversation with others till he hath Salt in himself then all his actions are seasoned with Grace and beget a remembrance of God then his words are seasoned with Grace and do good to others The Apostle saith Eph. 4. 29. Let no corrupt Communication come out of your Mouths that rotten and corrupt Communication which vents it self in slandering rayling ribaldry foolish jesting at holy things lyes cursing and the like all these come from a corrupt Heart as a stinking Breath argues rotten Lungs These want the Grace of Mortification so are all sapless Spirits that cannot speak any thing of God seriously but in their most serious discourse are as fresh as Water But go among the mortified and you receive the savour of good things from them you have not only savoury Prayers and savoury Sermons but savoury Conferences and Discourses Col. 4. 6. Let your speech be alway poudered with Salt that is do not speak idely much less profanely but in an edifying manner Now Christians ought to take heed they do not lose their savouriness for then they do not please God nor profit Man and are fit for nothing but the Dunghil Thus I have proved the second thing that the Grace of Mortification is the true Salt that seasons Christians III. There is a Necessity of this Salt in all those that have entered into Covenant with God and have dedicated and devoted themselves to him 1. By our Covenant Vow we are bound to the strictest Duties and that upon the highest Penalties The Duty to which we are bound is very strict We have answered God in all the demands of his Covenant 1 Pet. 3. 21. For Baptism saveth as the answer of a good Conscience towards God The Lord demands and puts in effect this Question Will you die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness this is the tenour of the Baptismal Covenant that is so often so solemnly renewed at the Lord's Supper and you are to reckon your selves Rom. 6. 11. to be dead unto Sin and alive unto Righteousness through Christ Iesus our Lord reckon your selves that is in Vow and Obligation And the Penalty is very high Heb. 10. 26. that we sin wilfully so that our admission into Christ's Family will be in vain yea to our further ruine If you do not stand to the Covenant if you keep Sin still alive and add Fuel to the Flames 2. The Abundance of Sin that yet remains in us and the marvellous activity of it in our Souls we cannot get rid of this cursed Inmate till our Tabernacle be dissolved and this House of Clay tumbled into the Dust. Paul groaned sorely under it Oh wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death Rom. 7. 24. And it is called Sin that doth easily beset us Heb. 12. 10. Well then since Sin is not nullified it must be mortified It works it wars there is a marvellovs activity in it it is very active and restless Rom. 7. 8. Sin wrought in me all manner of concupiscence he means sinful nature And the Apostle Iames tells us Iam. 4. 5. The Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy there is not a sleepy but a stirring Principle always inclining us to evil and hindring that which is good Sin doth not only make us a little flexible and yeelding to Temptations but doth hurry us and impel us thereunto It is a Law warring in our Members that brings us into Captivity to Sin Rom. 7. 23. Corrupt Nature is not a tame thing that works not till it be irritated by the suggestions of Satan or temptations of the World but is like a living Spring that pours out Water of its own accord it will not let us alone the Heart of Man is evil continually and so it always hinders us from that that is good Rom. 7. 21. When I would do good evil is present with me it blunts the edge of our Affections it seeks to weaken our purposes by unbelieving thoughts or drawing us away from God by the lure of some sensitive delight in stealing our Hearts from him in the very duties and solemn addresses we make to him distracting our minds with thoughts of the World and the Pomp and Glory thereof and so turns our very Duties into Sin and makes us lose the comfort and sweetness of them it blasts and perverts our most sincere endeavours Well then without this Salt of the Covenant if this be so what shall we do have we not need to keep humble and watchful if Sin be stirring we must be stirring against it and improve the grace of the Holy Spirit upon the account of Christ's Death and use all good means that it may be subdued in us 3. Consider the sad consequences of letting Sin alone both either as to further Sin or Punishment 1. As to further Sin For Christ speaks here of Scandals If Lust be not mortified it grows outragious it has foil'd us before God
God and the everlasting Fruition of Him By a wonderful Exchange he taketh our evil things upon Himself that he might bestow his good things upon us and took from us Misery that he might convey to us Felicity Application First by way of Information 1. How different are they from the Spirit of Christ that can brook God's Absence without any remorse or complaint Christ cried with a loud voice My God my God why hast thou forsaken me These go on securely never observe God's Accesses and Recesses when the Comforts of his Spirit and the Communications of his Grace are wholly suspended and with-holden from them they never lay it t Heart Stupid and insensible Creatures It is all one to them whether God go or come whether He manifest Himself propitious to them or his Face be hidden from them They take up with the vain delights of the present World Micah shewed more respect to his Idols than they do to God Iudg. 18. 24. Ye have taken away my Gods and what have I more And do you ask What aileth thee When God is gone they are not troubled The Christians wept when Paul said Ye shall see my Face no more Acts 20. 25. And will ye not mourn and lament your Loss when God hideth his Face and shutteth up Himself in a Vail and Cloud of Displeasure Much of serious Christianity lies in an Observation of God's coming and going and a sutable Carriage Mat. 9. 15. A serious Christian will be affected with the Loss of comfort and quickning and lament after a withdrawn God 2. It informeth us of the Grievousness of Sin It is no easy matter to reconcile Sinners to God It cost Christ a Life of Sorrows and afterwards a painful and an accursed Death and in that Death Loss of actual Comfort and an amazing Sense of the Wrath of God We make a Mock of Sin jest and sport away our Souls but Christ found it hard Work to save them and recover them to God When you make Sin a light matter you slight the Sufferings of Christ. O therefore take heed you do not break with God for every Trifle 3. The Greatness of our Obligation to Christ who omitted no kind of Sufferings which might conduce to the Expiation of Sin He exchanged his Heaven for a kind of Hell to do you good the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily and therefore he had a Heaven upon Earth If one could say Anima iusti Coelum est because Heaven is begun there in Peace of Conscience and Joy in the Holy Ghost How was it with Christ This Heaven he wanted for a while felt no Comfort yea he was amazed at the sence of God's Wrath due to Sinners therefore it was said in the Type of him The pains of Hell got hold upon me Psal. 116. 3. Oh let this excite us to love Christ that you may count nothing too dear for him 4. The Infiniteness of God's Mercy who appointed such a degree of Christ's Sufferings as in it he gives us the greatest ground of Hopes to invite us the more to submit to his Terms There is nothing standeth in the way but our own impenitence and unbelief Now God is so amply satisfied shall we deprive our selves of Eternal Blessedness This is the worst Cruelty and Hatred to our own Souls SERMON X. ROM 1. part of the 29th and 30th Verses Whisperers Backbiters THe Context sheweth how corrupt and miserable Man's Nature is without Christ his Heart was first withdrawn from God and then became a Sink of loathsom Sins and Vices Therefore the Apostle telleth us how after Men were false to God how little they were true to themselves whether considered singly and apart or as to Commerce and Society singly and apart defiling themselves with uncleanness of all sorts as to Commerce and Humane Society full of Malice and Contention which sometimes goeth as far as Blood at other times sheweth it self in falseness and baseness of Disposition generally in Self-Love and Detraction from others Of all Judgments Spiritual Judgments are the sorest When God leaveth Mankind to its own degeneracy and corruption and one great Branch of this corruption is Detraction which venteth it self either by Whispering or Backbiting So it is in the Text Whisperers Backbiters These two words agree that they both wound the Fame of our Neighbour and they both do it behind his Back or in his absence But they differ 1. In that whispering doth it secretly and closely but backbiting openly The one being privy the other open Defamation and are like Theft and Rapine what Theft and Robbing are to our Goods the same are Whispering and Backbiting to our good Names 2. Whispering tendeth to breed strife among our Friends or to disgrace us to some who are well conceited of us but backbiting to our general disgrace before all the World or amongst whomsoever The one seeketh to deprive us of the good will of our Friends the other to destroy our Service But however they agree and differ they are often conjoyned in Scripture 2 Cor. 12. 20. I fear lest when I come among you I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not lest there be Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings Tumults The Apostle foresaw it as too probable that neither of them would be much pleased with their meeting together nor he with the Corinthians when he should find them corrupted with Partialities and Divisions nor the Corinthians with him when he should be forced to inflict censures upon them for their Factions and Emulations too much bewrayed by their backbitings and whisperings against each other So here in the Text they are conjoyned Whisperers Backbiters when the Apostle speaketh of the reigning Sins among the Gentiles Doct. One great Sin wherein the corruption of Humane Nature bewrayeth it self is Detraction or depriving others of a good Repute Here I shall shew I. What is Detraction II. The Hainousness of the Sin I. What it is 1. The Nature of it 2. The Kinds of it First The Nature of it in general It is an unjust violation of an others Fame Reputation or that good Report which is due to him God that hath bidden me to love my Neighbour as my self doth therein bid me to be tender not only of his Person and Goods but of his good Name And indeed one Precept is a Guard and Fence to another I cannot be tender of his Person and Goods unless I be tender of his Fame For every Man liveth by his Credit and therefore certainly this is 1. A Sin against God 2. A wrong to Men. 3. It proceedeth from evil Causes 1. It is a Sin against God who hath forbidden us to bear false Witness against our Neighbour and to speak evil of others without a cause Eph. 4. 31. Let all evil speaking be far from you by evil speaking is meant there disgraceful and contumelious Speeches whereby we seek
to stain the Reputation of others 2. It is a wrong to Man because it robbeth him of his good Name which is so deservedly esteemed by all that would do any thing for God in the World Prov. 22. 1. A good Name is rather to be chosen than great Riches and loving Favour rather than Silver and Gold The meaning is in order to Service and as it more nearly respects both Life and Livelyhood So Eccles. 7. 1. A good Name is better than precious Oyntment Their Oyntments were reckoned by those Oriental People amongst their most precious Riches and Treasures yet a good name is preferred before them which inferreth this Conclusion that the Man himself should prize it so for he that is lavish of his Fame is not usually over-tender of his Conscience Therefore as he himself should not prostitute his good Name so others should not blast it and blemish it for it is a greater Sin than to steal the best Goods which he hath and it is such an evil as scarce admits any sound Restitution for the imputation even of unjust Crimes leaveth a Scar though the Wound be healed 3. The causes it proceedeth from They are these 1. Malice and Ill-will which prompteth us to speak falsly of others so to make them odious or do them wrong or hurt Now to hate our Brother in our Heart is no way consistent with that Goodness and Charity which the impression of the Love of Christ should beget in us The Apostle saith 1 Pet. 4. 8. Above all things have fervent Charity among your selves for Charity shall cover a multitude of Sins If nothing but Love and servent Love will restrain us surely where hatred is allowed Men care not what they think or speak or do against others Now as there is a Brotherly Love due to our Fellow Saints so there is a Love due to all Men. 2 Pet. 1. 7. I am to hate no Man but to seek their good There is a twofold Hatred the Hatred of Offence and Abomination and the Hatred of Enmity The Hatred of Offence which is opposite to the Love of Complacency may be justified as to the Wicked Prov. 29. 27. An unjust Man is an Abomination to the Iust and he that is upright in the way is an Abomination to the Wicked But then we should first and most abominate our selves for Sin this very hatred and abhorrence should begin at Home and we should be most odious to our selves for Sin for we know more Sin by our selves than we can do by an other But for the other Hatred the Hatred of Enmity which is opposite to the Love of Benevolences that should be quite banished out of the Heart of a Christian. And it is not enough for God's People to keep themselves free from Hatred and Malice against one another but against all Men. Tit. 3. 2. Put them in mind to speak evil of no Man to be no Brawlers but gentle shewing all Meekness to all Men For we our selves were sometimes disobedient c. If this old Hatred were gone a multitude of Offences would be covered 2. It comes from uncharitable Credulity whereby Men easily believe a false report and so propagate and convey it to others Jer. 26. 10. I have heard the defaming of many report say they and we will report it All my Familiars watched for my halting c. The Prophet complaineth Many and those no mean ones have I heard reproaching and taunting me so that he was a Terrour to himself and to all his-Friends Many had combined by false suggestions and malicious informations against him to work his ruine If any will raise a report tending to the discredit of another some will foster it and it loseth nothing in the carriage till by additions and misconstructions it groweth to a downright and dangerous Infamy 3. It comes through rashness and unruliness of Tongue some Men never learned to bridle their Tongues and the Apostle Iames telleth us that therefore their Religion is vain Jam. 1. 26. Till we make Conscience of these evils as well as others we content our selves with a partial Obedience and therefore cannot be Sincere But many never set themselves to learn this part of their Duty and therefore divulge a Report before they try it or receive any just proof of it Possibly it may not come from downright Malice but their Tongues hang too loose without the coercion and just restraint of Grace and so they either report false things or speak Truth to an evil end Prov. 11. 13. A Tale-bearer revealeth secrets but he that is of a faithful Spirit concealeth the matter Whisperers must be talking and be it true or false out it comes Certainly it is a Sin as long as you knew it not to be true or if you do when you have no warrantable call to mention it To reveal Secrets which you may conceal without wrong to God or your own Consciences or the common Good or the Good of your Neighbour is Loquacity or the Sin of Idle and impertitent Talkativeness the Disease of a Whisperer and Tale-Bearer 4. It comes from carnal Zeal which is nothing else but Passion for our different Interests and Opinions The bitter Envying which the Apostle speaketh off Iam. 3. 14. hath made mad work in the World as to Strifes and Confusions and Quarrels and Bloodsheds and Persecutions But usually it venteth it self in evil speaking for the Apostle maketh Backbitings and Whisperings the fruits of Swellings and Tumults 2 Cor. 12. 20. Oh what false and lying Tales are there carried to and fro that a Man knoweth not what or whom to belive So many Lies walk under the disguise of Religion that not to credit them or countenance the Report seemeth a decay of Affection but surely not to Religion but only the Interest of a Faction But a Question ariseth Is all speaking evil of another unlawful Answ. I cannot say so but yet it is hard to keep it from Sin 1. He that doth it without just cause is plainly a Detractor and so a grievous Sinner before God You may impose and impute false Crimes upon others which is properly called Slander and God thereby convinceth the Professor of the true Religion to be an Hypocrite Psal. 50. 20. Thou fittest and speakest against thy Brother and slanderest thy own Mothers Son God doth not only reject the Liars for Hypocrites but also the Backbiters and Slanderers Those that allow themselves in the frequent practice of this Sin what hopes can they have of acceptance with God since he hath entred his plea against them For the Act to be sure is sinful there can be no other end in it but the wronging of our Brothers Fame and Reputation to his loss and hurt The Nature of the thing sheweth it 2. He that doth but speak what he hath heard from others without any Assertion or Asseveration of his own as not knowing the Truth of the report can hardly be excused from Sin For if without just
and Body not the regenerate only and a Man is not only to look after the welfare of the Soul But his Body also it being the Instrument which it useth in its operations 2. The Spirit is sometimes put for Reason and the Flesh for sensual Appetite as Eph. 4. 23. And be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind And 1 Joh. 2. 16. The Lusts of the Flesh But this will not take in the whole Sense of this place for other faculties are corrupted besides the sensual Appetite and other Faculties must be renewed as well as the Understanding 3. There is another acceptation of Flesh and Spirit that is that Spirit signifieth the uncreated Spirit who is the Author of Grace As Joh. 3. 5. Except a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit Where Spirit is put for the Holy Ghost who immediately worketh Grace in us called therefore the Spirit of Sanctification as that Saving Grace which is the effect of his work is called the Sanctification of the Spirit And the opposite Principle Flesh signifieth the corrupt Nature of Man as Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh Corrupt Sinful inclined to earthly things Now though this would bear a good sense to interpret Flesh and Spirit of the Holy Ghost and Concupisence or natural Corruption for no question he concurreth to the mortifying of the old Man till Sin be wholly expelled Rom. 8. 23. and still doth quicken and excite the new Man to Action Gal. 4. 25. yet here the Apostle speaks of two inherent Principles 4. Therefore by Flesh and Spirit is meant the old Man and the new and so by Spirit is meant the renewed part or the new Man of Grace in the Heart Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That is there is a work of Saving Grace wrought in our Hearts by the Spirit of God which new Nature hath its Motions and Inclinations which must be obeyed and followed by us And by Flesh is meant inbred Corruption or the old Man which is corrupt with his deceivable Lusts Eph. 4. 22. Now then you see what it is to walk after the Spirit to direct and order our Actions according to the Inclinations of the new Nature 2. For the consequent and fruit of it and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. Here two things must be explained 1. The Lust of the Flesh. 2. Fulfil 1. For the Lust of the Flesh. By it is meant the inordinate Motions of corrupt Nature The Flesh doth not consider what is right and good but what is pleasing to the Senses and craveth their satisfaction with much importunity and earnestness to the wrong of God and our own Souls especially in Youth when the Senses are in Vigour and Lust and Appetite in their Strength and Fury And generally all carnal Men are govern'd by the Lusts of the Flesh called by the Apostle The Wills of the Flesh and the Mind Eph. 2. 3. By which the Heart is drawn from God to things Earthly and Carnal Well then by the Lusts of the Flesh are meant the Motions of inbred Corruptions 2. Ye shall not fulfil that is accomplish and bring into compleat act especially with deliberation and consent Mark he doth not say that the lusting of corrupt Nature shall be totally suppressed but it shall not be fulfilled The best of God's Children feel the Motions of the Flesh but they do not cherish and obey them The Lusts of the Flesh may be said to be fulfilled two ways 1. When the outward act is accomplished or when Lust hath conceiued and brought forth actual Sin Iam. 1. 15. Which may sometimes come to pass in the Children of God when they walk not in the Spirit or obey not the Motions and Directions of the renewed part This again may be done two ways either upon Surprize or Deliberation By way of Surprize Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon deliberation when Men plot and make provision to fulfil their Lusts contrary to the Apostles advice Rom. 13. 14. Make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof Thus it was with David in his great Sin and this doth mightily aggravate the offence and provoke the Lord against us 2. When for a continuance we obey the Flesh usually accomplish its Motions without Let and Restraint and with Love Pleasure and full consent of Will this is proper to the Unregenerate The Flesh doth reign over them as its Slaves this is spoken of Rom. 6. 12. Let not Sin reign in your mortal Body that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof Let is not have a Power over you as Slaves Well then the meaning is you will not abuse your Christian Liberty as an occasion to the Flesh or give up your selves to do that or seek that which the Flesh lusteth after Doct. The more Christians set themselves to obey the new Nature the more is the power of inbred Corruption mortified and kept under To understand this Point let me lay down these Propositions I. That there is a diversity of Principles in a Christian Flesh and Spirit 1. There is a good Principle called Spirit because the Spirit is the Author of it Ezek. 36. 26. A new Heart and a new Spirit will I put into you It is called also the Divine Nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. because it is made up of those gracious Qualities wherein we resemble God The Seed remaining 1 Joh. 3. 9. because it is not a transient operation but a permanent habit disposing and inclining the Soul to God and Heaven The new Man Eph. 4. 24. because we have it not by Nature but by Grace we are new formed to the Image of God Now the use of this Principle may be known partly by the manner how it is wrought in us and partly by the uses and ends for which it serveth 1. For the manner how it is wrought in us by the Spirit that is set forth Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Laws in their Mind and write them in their Hearts The directive and imperial Power of the Soul is sanctified and seasoned by Grace the Mind enlightned the Heart inclined The Mind is enlightned by the Knowledg of God's Will and the Heart inclined that we may delight to do his Will it is suited thereunto Therefore the New Creature doth both serve to direct us and so performeth the Office of a Guide and Leader to the Godly in all their Actions so far in Religion as God's Glory is concerned and also to move and excite us to that which is Good For the Spirit is willing though the Flesh is Weak Mat. 26. 41. 2. By its Uses and Ends. None of God's Gifts are given in vain The new Nature is the choicest Talent that the Sons of Men are intrusted withal Therefore it hath its Use and End which is to fit us for God and Heaven 1. It disposeth the Soul to a sincere Obedience to God as an inherent