Christ he doth all gratis he sells not his medicines though they be of infinite value but freely gives them Isai. 55. 1. He that hath no money let him come if any be sent away 't is the rich Luk. 1. 53. not the poor and needy those that will not accept their remedy as a free gift but will needs purchase it at a price Ninthly and Lastly None rejoyces in the recovery of souls more than Christ doth O it is unspeakably delightful to him to see the efficacy of his blood upon our souls Isai. 53. 11. He shall see the travail of his soul i. e. the success of his death and sufferings and shall be satisfied when he foresaw the success of the Gospel upon the world it 's said Luk. 10. 21. In that hour Jesus rejoyced in spirit and thus you see there is no Physician like Christ for sick souls The Uses of this Point are For Information and Direction First From hence we are informed of many great and necessary truths deducible from this as Inference 1. How inexpressible is the grace of God in providing such a Physician Inference 1. as Christ for the sick and dying souls of Sinners O blessed be God that there is Balm in Gilead and a Physician there that your case is not as desperate forlorn and remediless as that of the Devils and damned is There is but one case excepted from cure and that such as is not incident to any sensible afflicted soul Mat. 12. 31. and this only excepted all manner of sins and diseases are capable of a cure Though there be such a disease as is incurable yet take this for thy comfort never any soul was sick i. e. sensibly burthened with it and willing to come to Jesus Christ for healing for under that sin the will is so wounded that they have no desire to Christ. O inestimable mercy that the sickest sinner is capable of a perfect cure There be thousands and ten thousands now in Heaven and earth who said once never was any case like theirs so dangerous so hopeless The greatest of sinners have been perfectly recovered by Christ 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 11. O mercy never to be duly estimated Inference 2. What a powerful restraint from sin is the very method ordained Inference 2. by God for the cure of it Isai. 53. 5. by his stripes we are healed The Physician must dye that the Patient might live no other thing but the blood the precious blood of Christ is found in Heaven or earth able to heal us Heb. 9. 22. 26. This blood of Christ must be freshly applied to every new wound sin makes upon our souls 1 John 2. 1 2. every new sin wounds him afresh opens the wounds of Christ anew O think of this again and again you that so easily yield to the solicitations of Satan is it so cheap and easie to sin as you seem to make it Doth the cure of souls cost nothing True it is free to us but was it so to Christ No no it was not he knows the price of it though you do not hath Christ healed you by his stripes and can you put him under fresh sufferings for you so easily Have you forgot also your own sick days and nights for sin that you are careless in resisting and preventing it Sure 't is not easie for Saints to wound Christ and their own souls at one stroke if you renew your sins you must also renew your sorrows and repentance Psal. 51. Title 2 Sam. 12. 13. you must feel the throes and pains of a troubled Spirit again things with which the Saints are not unacquainted of which they may say as the Church Remembring my affliction the Wormwood and the Gall my soul hath them still in remembrance Lam. 3. 19. Yea and if you will yet be remiss in your watch and so easily incur new guilt though a pardon in the blood of Christ may heal your souls yet some Rod or other in the hand of a displeased Father shall afflict your bodies or smite you in your outward Comforts Psal. 89. 32. Inference 3. If Christ be the only Physician of sick souls what sin and folly is it for men to take Christs work out of his hands and attempt Inference 3. to be their own Physicians Thus do those that superstitiously endeavour to heal their souls by afflicting their bodies not Christs blood but their own must be the Plaister and as blind Papists â—…o many carnal and ignorant Protestants strive by confession restitution reformation and a stricter course of life to heal those wounds that sin hath made upon their souls without any respect to the blood of Christ but this course shall not profit them at all It may for a time divert but can never heal them the wounds so skinned over will open and bleed again God grant it be not when our souls shall be out of the reach of the true and only remedy Inference 4. How sad is the case of those souls to whom Christ hath not Inference 4. yet been a Physician They are mortally wounded by sin and are like to dye of their sickness no saving healing applications having hitherto been made unto their souls and this is the case of the greatest part of mankind yea of them that live under the discoveries of Christ in the Gospel which appears by these sad symptoms First In that their eyes have not yet been opened to see their sin and misery in which illumination the cure of souls begins Act. 26. 18. to this day he hath not given them Eyes to see Deut. 29. 4. but that terrible stroke of God which blinds and hardens them is too visibly upon them mentioned in Isai. 6. 9 10. no hope of healing till the sinners Eyes be opened to see his sin and misery Secondly In that nothing will divorce and separate them from their lusts a sure sign they are not under Christs cure nor were ever made sick of sin O if ever Christ be a Physician to thy soul he will make thee loath what now thou lovest and say to thy most pleasant and profitable lusts get ye hence Isai. 30. 22. till then there is no ground to think that Christ is a Physician to you Thirdly In that they have no sensible and pressing need of Christ nor make any earnest enquiry after him as most certainly you would do if you were in the way of healing and recovery These and many other sad symptoms do too plainly discover the disease of sin to be in its full strength upon your souls and if it so continue how dreadful will the issue be See Isai. 6. 9 10. Inference 5. What cause have they to be glad that are under the hand and Inference 5 care of Christ in order to a cure and who do find or may upon due examination find their souls are in a very hopeful way of recovery Can we rejoyce when the strength of a natural disease is broken and
spiritualiter per ipsum regeneratos Sicut deâ—…ictum Ade non nocet nisi suis in eo quod sui sunt Sic nec gratia Christi prodest nisi suis in eo quod sui sunt as the Condemnation of the First Adam passeth not to us except as by generation we are his so grace and remission pass not from the Second Adam to us except as by regeneration we are his Adams Sin hurts none but those that are in him and Christs blood profits none but those that are in him how great a weight therefore doth there hang upon the effectual application of Christ to the Souls of men and what is there in the whole world so awfully solemn so greatly important as this is Such is the strong consolation resulting from it that the Apostle in this context offers it to the believing Corinthians as a superabundant recompence for the despicable meanness and baseness of their outward condition in this world of which he had just before spoken in ver 27 28. telling them though the world contemned them as vile foolish and weak yet of God Christ is made unto them wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption In which words we have an Enumeration of the chief priviledges of believers and an Account of the method whereby they come to be invested with them First Their priviledges are enumerated namely wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption mercies of 1. Quatuor Christo â—…logia hic adscribit quae totam ejus virtutem quicquid ab ipso bonorum recipimus complectuntur Calv. in loc inestimable value in themselves and such as respect a fourfold misery lying upon sinful manâ—… viz. Ignorance guilt pollution and the whole 〈◊〉 of miserable consequences and effects let in upon the nature of men yea the best and holiest of men by sin Lapsed man is not only in deep misery but grossly ignorant both that he is so and how to recover himself from it Sin hath left him at once senseless of his state and at a perfect loss about the true remedy To cure this Christ is made to him Wisdome not only by improvement of those treasures of wisdome that are in himself for the benefit of such souls as are united to him as an head consulting the good of his own members but also by imparting his wisdome to them by the Spirit of illumination whereby they come to discern both their sin and danger as also the true way of their recovery from both through the application of Christ to their souls by faith But alas Simple illumination doth but increase our burden and exasperate our misery as long as sin in the guilt of it is either imputed to our persons unto condemnation or reflected by our consciences in a way of accusation With design therefore to remedy and heal this sore evil Christ is made of God unto us righteousness compleat and perfect righteousness whereby our obligation to punishment is dissolved and thereby a solid foundation for a well settled peace of conscience firmly established Yea but although the removing of guilt from our persons and consciences be an inestimable mercy yet alone it cannot make us compleatly happy for though a man should never be damned for sin yet what is it less than an hell upon earth to be under the dominion and pollution of every base lust it's misery enough to be daily defiled by sin though a man should never be damned for it To compleat therefore the happiness of the redeemed Christ is not only made of God unto them Wisdome and righteousness the one curing our ignorance the other our guilt but he is made Sanctification also to relieve us against the dominion and pollution of our corruptions he comes both by water and by blood not by blood only but by water also 1 Joh. 5. 6. purging as well as pardoning how compleat and perfect a cure is Christ But yet something is required beyond all this to make our happiness perfect and entire wanting nothing and that is the removal of those doleful effects and consequents of sin which notwithstanding all the forementioned priviledges and mercies still lye upon the souls and bodies of illuminated justified and sanctified persons For even upon the best and holiest of men what swarms of vanity loads of deadness and fits of unbelief do daily appear in and oppress their souls to the imbittering of all the comforts of life to them And how many diseases deformities pains oppress their bodies which daily moulders away by them till they fall into the grave by death even as the bodies of other men do who never received such priviledges from Christ as they do For if Christ be in us as the Apostle speaks Rom. 8. 10. the body is dead because of sin Sanctification exempts us not from mortality But from all these and whatsoever else the fruits and consequences of sin Christ is Redemption to his people also this seals up the sum of mercies this so compleats the happiness of the Saints that it leaves nothing to desire These four wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption take up amongst them all that is necessary or desirable to make a soul truly and perfectly blessed Secondly we have here the method and way by which the Elect come to be invested with these excellent priviledges 2. the account whereof the Apostle gives us in these words Who of God is made unto us in which expression four things are remarkable First That Christ and his benefits go inseparably and undividedly together 't is Christ himself is made all this unto us we can have no saving benefit separate and apart from the person of Christ many would willingly receive his priviledges who will not receive his person but it cannot be if we will have one we must take the other too yea we must accept his person first and then his benefits as it is in the marriage Covenant so 't is here Secondly That Christ with his benefits must be personally and particularly applied to us before we can receive any actual saving priviledge by him he must be made unto us i. e. particularly applied to us as a sum of money becomes or is made the ransome and liberty of a Captive when it is not only promised but paid down in his name and legally applied for that use and end when Christ dyed the ransome was prepared the sum laid down but yet the elect continue still in sin and misery notwithstanding till by effectual calling it be actually applied to their persons and then they are made free Rom. 5. 10 11. reconciled by Christs death by whom we have now received the attonement Thirdly That this application of Christ is the work of God and not of man Of God he is made unto us the same hand that prepared it must also apply it or else we perish notwithstanding all that the father hath done in contriving and appointing and all that the son hath done in executing and accomplishing the
is one of the Articles or Conditions of our peace with God Isai. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon But it 's manifest in many of us that we are no enemies to sin we secretly indulge it what bad names soever we call it by we will commit ten sins to cover one we cannot endure the most serious faithful seasonable private tender and necessary reproofs of Sin but our hearts swell and rise at it sure we are not reconciled to God whilest we embrace sin his enemy in our bofoms 5. Evidence We love not the Children of God nor are reconciled to them that bear his Image and how then can we be reconciled 5. Evid to God 1 Joh. 5. 1. He that loveth him that begat loveth them also that are begotten what at peace with the father and at War with the children It cannot be do not some that hope they have made their peace with God hate revile and persecute the Children of God Surely in that day we are reconciled to the Lord we are reconciled to all his people we shall then love a Christian as a Christan and by this we know we are passed from death to life 6. Evidence Lastly How can any man think himself to be reconciled to God who never closed heartily with Jesus Christ by 6. Evid faith who is the only dayes-man and peace-maker the alone mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and man This is a sure truth that all whom God accepts into favour are made accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. If any man will make peace with God he must take hold of his strength accept and close with Christ who is the power of God or he can never make peace Isai. 27. He must be made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2. 13. But alas both Christ and faith are strangers to many souls who yet perswade themselves to be at peace with God O fatal mistake 3. Use of Exhortation Lastly This point deserves a close vigorous application 3. Use. in a threefold exhortation First To Christs Ambassadors who treat with Souls in order to their reconciliation with God Secondly To those that are yet in their enmity and unreconciled state Thirdly to those that have embraced the terms of peace and submitted to the Gospel overtures First To the Ambassadors of reconciliation God hath put a 1. great deal of honour upon you in this high and noble imployment great is the dignity of your office to some you are the savour of death unto death and to others the savour of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. But yet the Duty is no less than the dignity O what manner of men should we be for judgement seriousness affections patience and exemplary holiness to whom the management of so great a Concern betwixt God and man is committed First for Judgment and prudence how necessary is it in so weighty and difficult a business as this He had need be a man of wisdom that is to inform the ignorant of the nature and necessity of this great work and win over their hearts to consent to the Articles of peace propounded in the Gospel that hath so many subtil temptations to answer and so many intricate cases of conscience to resolve There are many strong holds of Satan to be battered and many stout and obstinate resistances made by the hearts of sinners which must be overcome and he had need be no Novice in religion to whom so difficult a province is committed Secondly Let us be Serious in our work as well as judicious Remember O ye Ambassadors of Christ you bring a message from the God of heaven of everlasting consequence to the souls of men The eternal decrees are executed upon them in your Ministry to some you are the savour of life unto life and to some the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. Heaven and hell are matters of most awful and solemn Consideration O what an account have we also shortly to give unto him that sent us These are matters of such deep Concernment as should swallow up our very spirits the least they can do is to compose our hearts unto seriousness in the management of them Thirdly Be filled with tender affections toward the souls Vide Bowles pastor Evang. p. 136. of men with whom you treat for reconciliation you had need be men of bowels as well as men of brains you see a multitude of poor souls upon the brink of eternal misery and they know it not but promise themselves peace and fill themselves with vain hopes of heaven and is there a more moving melting spectacle in the world than this O think with what bowels of Commiseration Moses and Paul were filled when the one desired rather to be blotted out of Gods Book and the other to be accursed from Christ than that Israel should not be saved Exod. 32. 33. and Rom. 9. 3. Think how the Bowels of Christ yearned over Jerusalem Matth. 23. 37. and over the multitude Matth. 9. 36. Let the same mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus Fourthly Be patient and long-suffering towards sinners such is the value of one soul that it 's worth waiting all our days to save it at last the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. The Lord waits with patience upon sinners and well may you Consider your selves how long was God treating with you ere you were won to him Be not discouraged if success presently answer not expectation Fifthly and Lastly be sure to back your Exhortations with drawing examples else you may preach out your last breath before you gain one soul to God The Devil and the Carnal hearts of your hearers will put hinderances enough in the way of your labours don't you put the greatest of all your selves O study not only to preach exactly but to live exactly let the misplacing of one action in your lives trouble you more than the misplacing of words in your discourses this is the way to succeed in your Embassy and give up your account with joy Secondly The exhortation speaks to all those that are 2. yet in a state of enmity and unreconciled to God unto this day O that may words might prevail and that you would now be intreated to be reconciled to God! The Ambassadors of peace are yet with you the treaty is not yet ended the Master of the house is not yet risen up nor the door of mercy and hope finally shut hitherto God hath waited to be gracious O that the long-suffering of God might be your salvation a day is hasting when God will treat
hold of us no vital act of faith can be exercised till a vital principle be first inspired of both these bonds of Union we must speak distinctly and first of the first Christ quickening us by his Spirit in order to our Union with him of which we have an account in the Scripture before us You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins in which words we find these two things noted Viz. 1. The infusion of a vital principle of grace 2. The total indisposedness of the subject by nature First The infusion of a vital principle of grace you hath he quickened These words hath he quickened are a supplement 1. made to clear the sense of the Apostle which else would have been more obscure by reason of that long Parenthesis betwixt the first and the fifth verses for as the * Illud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 regitur à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 5. est igitur hoc loco hyperbaton synchysis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae est species 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cujus quidem anomaliae causa est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 interjectio sententiae prolixioris Piscator Pooles Synop. learned observe this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you is governed of the verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath he quickened verse 5. so that here the words are transposed from the plain grammatical order by reason of the interjection of a long sentence therefore with good warrant our Translators have put the verb into this first verse which is repeated verse the fifth and so keeping faithfully to the scope have excellently cleared the Syntax and order of the words Now this verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath he quickened imports the first vital act of the spirit of God â—…or his first enlivening work upon the soul in order to its Union with Jesus Christ for look as the blood of Christ is the fountain of all merit so the Spirit of Christ is the fountain of all spiritual life and until he quicken us i. e. infuse the principle of the divine life into our souls we can put forth no hand or vital act of faith to lay hold upon Jesus Christ. This his quickening work is therefore the first in order of nature to our Union with Christ and fundamental to all other acts of grace done and performed by us from our first closing with Christ throughout the whole course of our obedience and this quickening act is said verse the fifth to be together Ex Christo conjuâ—…cto nobiscum ut capite cum membris profluunt in nos omnia beneficia in quorum numero est vivificatio Rolloc in Loco with Christ either noting as some expound it that it is the effect of the same power by which Christ was raised from the dead according to Eph. 1. 19. or rather to be quickened together with Christ notes that new spiritual life which is infused into our dead souls in the time of our Union with Christ for it is Christ to whom we are conjoyned and united in our regeneration out of whom as a fountain all spiritual benefits flow to us among which this vivification or quickening is one and a most sweet and precious one Zanchy Bodius and many others will have this quickening to comprize both our justification and regeneration and to stand opposed both to infernal and spiritual death and it may well be allowed but it most properly imports our regeneration wherein the Spirit in an ineffable and mysterious way makes the soul to live to God yea to live the life of God which was before dead in trespassis and sins in which words we have Secondly In the next place the total indisposedness of 2. the subjects by nature for as it is well noted by a * Non vocat hic semi mortuos aut aegrotos ac infirmos sed prorsus mortuos omni fa ultatebene cogitandi aut agendi destituti Rolloc in Loc. learned man The Apostle doth not say of these Ephesians that they were half dead or sick and infirm but dead wholly altogether dead destitute of any faculty or ability so much as to think one good thought or perform one good act you were dead in respect of condemnation being under the damning sentence of the Law and you were dead in respect of the privation of spiritual life dead in opposition to Justification and dead in opposition to regeneration and sanctification and the fatal instrument by which their Souls dyed is here shewed them you were dead in or by trespasses and sins this was the Sword that kill'd your souls and cut them off from God Some do curiously distinguish betwixt trespasses and sins as if one pointed at original the other at actual sins but I suppose they are promiscuously used here and serve to express the cause of their ruine or means of their spiritual death and destruction this was their case when Christ came to quicken them dead in sin and being so they could not move themselves towards Union with Christ but as they were moved by the quickening Spirit of God Hence the observation will be this Doct. That those Souls which have Union with Christ are quickened with a Supernatural principle of life by the Spirit of God in order Doct. thereunto The Spirit of God is not only a living Spirit formally considered but he is also the Spirit of life effectively or causally considered and without his breathing or infusing liâ—… into our souls our Union with Christ is impossible It is the observation of learned Camero that there must be Observandum est unionem unitionem inter se disserre unio est rerum actus qui formae rationem habet nempe actus rerum unitarum quâ unitae sunt unitio autem actus significat causâ—… efficientis c. Camero de Eccles p. 222. an Unition before there can be a Union with Christ. Unition is to be conceived efficiently as the work of Gods Spirit joyning the believer to Christ and Union is to be conceived formally the joyning it self of the persons together we close with Christ by faith but that faith being a vital act presupposes a principle of life communicated to us by the Spirit therefore it 's said Joh. 11. 26. whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye the vital act and operation of faith springs from this quickening Spirit so in Rom. 8 1 2. the Apostle having in the first verse opened the blessed estate of them that are in Christ shews us in the second verse how we come to be in him The Spirit of life saith he which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death There is indeed a quickening work of the Spirit which is subsequent to regeneration consisting in his exciting recovering and actuating of his own graces in us and from hence is the liveliness of a Christian and there is a quickening act of the Spirit in our
cannot believe till God hath opened your eyes to see your sin your misery by sin and your remedy in Jesus Christ alone you find this act of the Spirit to be the first in order both of nature and time and introductive to all the rest Acts 26. 18. To turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God As faith without works which must be a consequent to it is dead so faith without light which must be an Antecedent to it is blind faith is the hand by which Christ is received but knowledge is the eye by which that hand is directed Well then hath God opened your eyes to see sin and misery in another manner than ever you saw it before for certainly if God have opened your eyes by saving illumination you will find as great a difference betwixt your former and present apprehensions of sin and danger as betwixt a painted Lion upon the wall or sign post and the real living Lion that meets you roaring in the way Secondly Conviction is an Antecedent to believing where this goes not before no faith can follow after the Spirit first convinces of sin then of righteousness Joh. 16. 8. So Mark 1. 15. repent ye and believe the Gospel believe it O man that breast of thine must be wounded that vain and frothy heart of thine must be pierced and stung with conviction sense and sorrow for sin thou must have some sick days and restless nights for sin if ever thou rightly close with Christ by faith 't is true there is much difference found in the strength depth and continuance of conviction and spiritual troubles in converts as there is in the labours and travailing pains of women but sure it is the child of faith is not ordinarily born without some pangs Conviction is the application of that light which God makes to shine in our minds to our particular case and condition by the conscience and sure when men come to see their miserable and sad estate by a true light it cannot but wound them and that to the very heart Thirdly Self-despair or a total and absolute loss in our selves about deliverance and the way of escape either by our selves or any other meer creature doth and must go before faith So it was with those believers Acts 2. 37. men and brethren what shall we do they are the words of men at a total loss it is the voyce of poor distressed souls that saw themselves in misery but knew not saw not nor could devise any way of escape from it by any thing they could do for themselves or any other creature for them and hence the Apostle uses that emphatical word Gal. 3. 23. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. shut up to the faith i. e. as men besieged and distressed in a garrison in time of a storm when the enemy pours in upon them through the breaches and over-powers them there is but one sally-port or gate at which they can escape and to that they all throng as despairing of life if they take any other course Just so do mens convictions besiege them distress them beat them off from all their holds and intrenchments and bring them to a pinching distress in themselves shutting them up to Christ as the only way of escape Duties cannot save me reformation cannot save me nor Angels nor men can save me there is no way but one Christ or Condemnation for evermore I thought once that a little repentance reformation restitution and a stricter life might be a way to escape wrath to come but I find the bed is too short and the covering too narrow all is but loss dung dross in comparison with Jesus Christ if I trust to those Aegyptian reeds they will not only fail me but pierce and wound me too I see no hope within the whole Horizon of sense Fourthly Hence come vehement and earnest crys to God for faith for Christ for help from heaven to transport the soul out of this dangerous condition to that strong rock of salvation to bring it out of this farious stormy Sea of trouble where it 's ready to wreck every moment into that safe and quiet harbour Christ. O when a man shall see his misery and danger and no way of escape but Christ and that he hath no ability in himself to come to Christ to open his heart thus to receive him but that this work of faith is wholly supernatural the operation of God How will the soul return again and again upon God with such crys as that Mark 9. 24. Lord help my unbelief Lord enable me to come to Christ give me Christ or I perish for ever what profit is there in my blood why should I dye in the sight and presence of a Saviour O Lord it is thine own work and a most glorious work reveal thine arm in this work upon my soul I pray thee give me Christ if thou deny me bread give me faith if thou deny me breath it 's more necessary that I believe than that I live O Reader reflect upon the days and nights that are past the places where thou hast been conversant where are the bed-sides or the secret corners where thou hast besieged heaven with such crys if God have thus inlightned convinced distressed thy soul and thus set thee a mourning after Christ it will be one good sign that faith is come into thy soul for here are certainly the Harbingers and fore runners of it that ordinarily make way for faith into the souls of men Secondly If you would be satisfied of the sincerity and truth 2. Mark of your faith then examine what Concomitants it is attended with in your souls I mean what frames and tempers your souls were in at that time when you think you received Christ. For certainly in those that receive Christ excepting those into whose hearts God hath in a more still and insensible way infused faith betime by his blessing upon pious education such concomitant frames of Spirit may be remarkt as these following First The heart is deeply serious and as much in earnest in this matter as ever it was or can be about any thing in the world This you see in that example of the Jaylor Acts 16. 29. he came in trembling and astonished it is the most solemn and important matter that ever the soul had before it in this world or ever shall or can have how much are the hearts of men affected in their outward straits and distresses about the concernments of the body their hearts are not a little concern'd in such questions as these What shall I eat what shall I drink where withal shall I and mine be fed and cloathed but certainly the straits that souls are in about salvation must be allowed to be greater than these and such questions as that of the Jaylors Sirs what must I do to be saved make deeper impressions upon the heart than what shall I eat or drink Some indeed
have their thoughts sinking deeper into these things than others these thoughts lye with different degrees of weight upon men but all are most solemnly and awfully concerned about their condition all frothiness and frolicks are gone and the heart settles it self in deepest earnest about its eternal state Secondly The heart that receives Jesus Christ is in a frame of deep humiliation and self-abasement O when a man begins to apprehend the first approaches of grace pardon and mercy â—…y Jesus Christ to his soul a soul convinced of its utter unworthiness and desert of hell and can scarce expect any thing else from the just and holy God but damnation how do the first dawnings of mercy melt and humble it O Lord what am I that thou shouldest feed me and preserve me that thou shouldest but for a few years spare me and forbear me but that ever Jesus Christ should love me and give himself for me that such a wretched sinner as I should obtain Union with his person pardon peace and salvation by his blood Lord whence is this to such a worm as I and will Christ indeed bestow himself upon me shall so great a blessing as Christ ever come within the arms of such a soul as mine will God in very deed be reconciled to me in his son what to me to such an enemy as I have been shall my sins which are so many so horrid so much aggravated beyond the sins of most men be forgiven me O what am I vile dust base wretch that ever God should do this for me And now is that Scripture indeed fulfill'd and made good Ezech. 16. 63. That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Thus that poor broken-hearted believer stood behind Christ weeping and washing his feet with tears as one quite melted down and overcome with the sense of mercy to such a vile sinner Luke 7. 38. Thirdly The soul that receives Jesus Christ is in a weary Condition restless and full of disquietness neither able to bear the burden of sin nor knowing how to be discharged from it except Christ will give it ease Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me that is believe in me you that are weary and heavy laden if they do not look into their own souls they know there 's no safety and if they do there 's no comfort O the burdensome sense of sin overweighs them they are ready to fail to sink under it Fourthly The soul that rightly receives Christ is not only in a weary but in a longing condition never did the hart pant more earnestly for the water-brooks never did the hireling desire the shadow never did a condemned person long for a pardon more than the soul longs after Jesus Christ. O said David that one would give me of the waters of the well of Bethlehem to drink O saith the poor humbled sinner that one would give me of the open'd fountain of the blood of Christ to drink O for one drop of that precious blood O for one encouraging smile from Christ O now were ten thousand worlds at my command and Christ to be bought how freely would I lay them all down to purchase him but he is the gift of God O that God would give me Christ if I should go in raggs and hunger and thirst all my days in this world Fifthly The soul in the time of its closing with or receiving Christ is in a state of conflict it hangs betwixt hopes and fears encouragements and discouragements which occasion many a sad stand and pause in the way to Christ sometimes the number and nature of its sins discourage it then the riches and freeness of the grace of Christ erects his hopes again there 's little hope saith unbelief nay it 's utterly impossible saith Satan that ever such a wretch as thou shouldst find mercy now the hands hang down O but then there 's a necessity an absolute necessity I have not the choice of two but am shut-up to one way of deliverance others have found mercy and the invitation is to all that are weary and to all that are athirst he saith he that cometh to him he will in no wise cast-out now new hopes inspire the soul and the hands that did hang down are again strengthned These are the Concomitant frames that accompany faith Lastly Examine the Consequents and effects of Faith if you 3. Mark would be satisfied of the truth and sincerity of it and such are First Evangelical meltings and ingenuous thawings of the heart under the apprehensions of grace and mercy Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn Secondly Love to Christ his ways and people Gal. 5. 6. Faith worketh by love i. e. it represents the love of God and then makes use of the sweetness of it by way of argument to constrain the soul to all acts of obedience wherein it may testifie the reality of its love to God and Christ. Thirdly Heart purity Acts 15. 9. purifying their hearts by faith it doth not only cleanse the hands but the heart no principle in man besides faith can do this morality may hide corruption but faith only purifies the heart from it Fourthly Obedience to the commands of Christ Rom. 16. 26. the very name of faith is call'd upon obedience for it accepts Christ as Lord and urges upon the soul the most powerful arguments in the world to draw it to obedience In a word let the poor doubting believer that questions his faith reflect upon those things that are unquestionable in his own experience which being well considered will greatly tend to his satisfaction in this point It 's very doubtful to you whether you believe but yet in the mean while it may be past doubt being a matter of clear experience that you have been deeply convinced of sin struck off from all carnal props and refuges made willing to accept Jesus Christ upon what terms soever you might enjoy him you doubt whether Christ be yours but it 's past doubt that you have a most high and precious esteem of Christ that you heartily long for him that you prize and love all whether persons or things that bears his image that nothing in the world would please your hearts like a transformation into his likeness that you had rather your souls should be fill'd with his Spirit than your houses with Gold and Silver 'T is doubtful whether Christ be yours but it 's past doubt that one smile from Christ one token of his love would do you more good than all the honours and smiles of the world and nothing so grieves you as your grieving him by sin doth you dare not say that you have received him nor can you deny but that you have had many sick days and nights for him that you have gone into many secret places with
mercy God now beseeches you will you not yield to the intreaties of your God O then what wilt thou say for thy self when God will not hear thee when thou shalt intreat and cry for mercy Which brings us to the Motive 3. Consider the sin and danger that there is in refusing or Motive 3. neglecting the present offers of Christ in the Gospel and surely there is much sin in it the very malignity of sin and the summ of all misery lyes here for in refusing Christ First you put the greatest contempt and slight upon all the Attributes of God that it is possible for a creature to do God hath made his justice his mercy his wisdome and all his attributes to shine in their brightest glory in Christ never was there such a display of the glory of God made to the world in any other way O then what is it to reject and despise Jesus Christ but to offer the greatest affront to the glory of God that it is possible for men to put upon him Secondly you hereby frustrate and evacuate the very design and importance of the Gospel to your selves you receive the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. as good yea better had it been for you that Christ had never come into the world or if he had that your lot had fallen in the dark places of the earth where you had never heard his name yea good had it been for that man if he had never been born Thirdly hereby a man murthers his own soul. I said therefore unto you that you shall dye in your sins for if ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. unbelief is self-murther you are guilty of the blood of your own souls life and salvation was offered you and you rejected it yea Fourthly The refusing of Christ by unbelief will aggravate your damnation above all others that perish in ignorance of Christ. O 't will be more tolerable for heathens than for you the greatest measures of wrath are reserved to punish the worst of sinners and among sinners none will be found worse than unbelievers Secondly To Believers this point is very useful to perswade 2. them to divers excellent duties among which I shall single out two principal ones Viz. 1. To bring up their faith of acceptance to the faith of assurance 2. To bring up their conversations to the principles and rules of faith First You that have received Jesus Christ truly give your selves no rest till you are fully satisfied that you have done so acceptance brings you to heaven hereafter but assurance will bring heaven into your souls now O what a life of delight and pleasure doth the assured believer live what pleasure is it to him to look back and consider where once he was and where now he is to look forward and consider where he now is and where shortly he shall be I was in my sins I am now in Christ I am in Christ now I shall be with Christ and that for ever after a few days I was upon the very brink of hell I am now upon the very borders of heaven I shall be in a little while among the innumerable company of Angels and glorified Saints bearing part with them in the Song of Moses and of the Lamb for evermore And why may not you that have received Christ receive the comfort of your union with him there be all the grounds and helps to assurance furnisht to your hand there is a real union Viget apâ—…d nos spei immobilis virtus firmitas Cypr. Sermone de patientia betwixt Christ and your souls which is the very groundwork of assurance you have the Scriptures before you which contain the signs of faith and the very things within you that answer those signs in the word So you read and so just so you might feel it in your own hearts would you attend to your own experience The spirit of God is ready to seal you 't is his office and his delight so to do O therefore give diligence to this work attend the study of the Scriptures and of your own hearts more and grieve not the holy Spirit of God and you may arrive to the very desire of your hearts Secondly Bring up your conversations to the excellent principles and rules of faith As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him Col. 2. 6. live as you believe you received Christ sincerely in your first close with him O maintain the like seriousness and sincerity in all your ways to the end of your lives you received him intirely and undividedly at first let there be no exceptions against any of his commands afterward you received him exclusively to all others see that you watch against all self-righteousness and self-conceitedness now and mingle nothing of your own with his blood whatever gifts or enlargements in duty God shall give you afterwards You received him advisedly at first weighing and considering the self-denying terms upon which he was offered to you O shew that it was real and that you see no cause to repent the bargain whatever you shall meet with in the ways of Christ and duty afterwards Convince the world of your constancy and chearfulness in all your sufferings for Christ that you are still of the same mind you were and that Christ with his cross Christ with a prison Christ with the greatest afflictions is worthy of all acceptation as you have received him so walk ye in him let him be as sweet as lovely as precious to you now as he was the first moment you received him yea let your love to him delights in him and self-denyal for him increase with your acquaintance with him day by day 4 Use of Direction 4. Use. Lastly I will close all with a few words of direction to all that are made willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ and sure it is but need that help were given to poor Christians in this matter it is a time of trouble fear and great temptation mistakes are easily made and of dangerous consequence attend heedfully therefore to a few directions Direction 1. First In your receiving Christ beware you do not mistake Direct 1. the means for the end many do so but see you do not Prayer Sermons Reformations are means to bring you to Christ but they are not Christ to close with those duties is one thing and to close with Christ is another thing if I go into a Boat my design is not to dwell there but to be carried to the place whereon I desire to be landed So it must be in this case all your Duties must land you upon Christ they are but means to bring you to Christ. Direction 2. Secondly See that you receive not Christ for a present shift Direct 2. but for your everlasting portion many do so they will enquire after Christ pray for Christ cast themselves in their
capistratus er at a mute muzzled as the word signifies by the clear testimony of his own conscience these accusations are the second work or office of conscience and they make way for the third namely Thirdly The sentence and condemnation of Conscience and truly this is an insupportable burthen the condemnation 3. of conscience is nothing else but its application of the condemning sentence of the Law to a mans person the Law curseth every one that transgresseth it Gal. 3. 10. conscience applys this curse to the guilty sinner So that it sentences the sinner in Gods name and authority from which there is no appeal the voice of conscience is the voice of God and what it pronounces in Gods name and authority he will confirm and ratifie 1 Joh. 3. 20. if our hearts i. e. our consciences condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things this is that torment which no man can endure See the effects of it in Cain in Judas and in Spira 't is a real foretast of hell torments this is that worm that never dyes Mark 9. 44. For look as a worm in the body is bred of the corruption that is there so the accusations and condemnations of conscience are bred in the soul by the corruption and guilt that is there as the worm in the body preys and bites upon the tender sensible inward parts so doth conscience touch the very quick This is its third effect or work to sentence and condemn and this also makes way for a fourth namely Fourthly To upbraid and reproach the sinner under his misery 4. and this makes a man a very terrour to himself to be pittied in misery is some relief but to be upbraided and reproached doubles our affliction you know it was one of the aggravations of Christs sufferings to be reproached by the tongue of his enemies whilest he hanged in torments upon the cursed tree but all the scoffs and reproaches the bitter jeers and Sarcasâ—…s in the world are nothing to these of a mans own conscience this will cut to the very bone O when a mans conscience shall say to him in a day of trouble as Reuben to his afflicted brethren Gen. 42. 22. Spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child and ye would not hear therefore behold also his blood is required So conscience Did I not warn you threaten you perswade you in time against these evils but you would not hearken to me therefore behold now you must suffer to all eternity for it the wrath of God is kindled against thy soul for it this is the fruit of thy own wilful madness and obstinacy Now thou shalt know the price of sinning against God against light and conscience O this is terrible every bite of conscience makes a poor soul to startle and in a terrible fright to cry Oh the worm Oh the bitter foretast of Hell a wounded spirit who can bear This is a fourth wound of conscience and it makes way for a fifth for here it is as in the pouring out of the vials and the sounding of those woe-trumpets in the Revelation one woe is past and another cometh After all these deadly blows of conscience upon the very heart of a sinner comes another as dreadful as any that is yet named and that is Fifthly The fearful expectations of wrath to come which 5. it begets in the soul of a guilty sinner of this you read Heb. 10. 27. a fearful looking for of Judgement and fiery indignation and this makes the stoutest sinner quail and faint under the burthen of sin For the tongue of man cannot declare what it is to lye down and rise with those fearful expectations the case of such sinners is somewhat like that which is described in Deut. 28. 65 66 67. The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life in the morning thou shalt say Would God it were evening and at even thou shalt say Would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear c. Only in this it differs in this Scripture you have the terrours of those described whose temporal life hangs in doubtful suspense but in the persons I am speaking of it is a trembling under the apprehensions and expectations of the vengeance of eternal fire Believe it Friends words cannot express what those poor creatures feel that lye down and rise under these fears and frights of conscience Lord what will become of me I am free among the dead yea among the damned I hang by the frail thred of a momentany life which will and must break shortly and may break the next moment over the everlasting burnings no pleasant bread is eaten in these days but what is like the bread of condemned men And thus you see what the burden of sin is when God makes it to bear upon the consciences of men no burden of affliction is like it losses of dearest relations sorrows for an only son are not so pungent and penetrating as these For First No creature enjoyment is pleasant under these inward troubles in other troubles they may signifie something to a mans relief but here they are nothing the wound is too deep to be healed by any thing but the blood of Jesus Christ Conscience requires as much to satisfie it as God requires to satisfie him When God is at peace with thee saith Conscience then will I be at peace with thee too but till then expect no rest nor peace from me all the pleasures and diversions in the world shall never stop my mouth go where thou wilt I will follow thee like thy shadow be thy portion in the world as sweet as it will I will drop in Gall and Wormwood into thy cup that thou shalt tast no sweetness in any thing till thou hast got thy pardon These inward troubles for sin alienate the mind from all former pleasures and delights there 's no more taste or savour in them than in the white of an Egg. Musick is out of tune all instruments jarr and groan Ornaments have no beauty what heart hath a poor creature to deck that body in which dwells such a miserable soul to feed and pamper that carcass that hath been the souls inducement to and instrument in sin and must be its companion in everlasting misery Secondly These inward troubles for sin put a dread into death beyond whatever the soul saw in it before Now it looks like the King of terrours indeed you read in Heb. 2. 15. of some that through fear of death are all their life long subject to bondage O what a lively comment is a soul in this case able to make upon such a Text they would not scare at the pale horse nor at him that sits on him though his name
be called death if it were not for what follows him Rev. 6. 8. but when they consider that hell follows they tremble at the very name or thoughts of death Thirdly Such is the nature of these inward troubles of spirit that they swallow up the sense of all other outward troubles alas these are all lost in the deeps of soul sorrows as the little rivulets are in the vast Sea he that is wounded at the heart will not cry Oh at the bite of a Flea and surely no greater is the proportion betwixt outward and inward sorrows a small matter formerly would discompose a man and put him into a fret now ten thousand outward troubles are lighter than a feather For saith he why doth the living man complain am I yet on this side eternal burnings O let me not complain then whatever my condition be have I losses in the world or pains upon my body alas these are not to be named with the loss of God and the feeling of his wrath and indignation for evermore Thus you see what troubles inward troubles for sin be Secondly If you ask in the second place how it comes 2. How souls are supported under such troubles to pass that any soul is supported under such strong troubles of Spirit that all that feel them do not sink under them that all that go down into these deep waters of sorrow are not drowned in them The Answer is First Though this be a very sad time with the soul much like that of Adam betwixt the breach of the first Covenant and the first promise of Christ made to him yet the souls that are thus heavy laden do not sink because God hath a most tender care over them and regard to them underneath them are the everlasting arms and thence it is they sink not were they left to grapple with these troubles in their own strength they could never stand but God takes care of these mourners that their Spirits do not fail before him and the souls that he hath made I mean those of his Elect whom he is this way preparing for and bringing unto Christ. Secondly The Lord is pleased to nourish still some hope in the soul under the greatest fears and troubles of Spirit though it have no comfort or joy yet it hath some hope in the bottom and that keeps up the heart the afflicted soul doth in this case as the afflicted Church Lam. 3. 29. he putteth his mouth in the dust if yet there may be hope he saith its good for a man to hope and quietly to wait for the salvation of God there are usually some glimmerings or dawnings of mercy through Christ in the midnight darkness of inward troubles non dantur purae tenebrae in hell indeed there is no hope to enlighten the darkness but it is not so upon earth Thirdly The experiences of others who have been in the same deeps of trouble are also of great use to keep up the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est primum picturae lineamentum sumitur hic pro exemplo ut viderent quid sibi spâ—…randum sit 〈◊〉 domino gratiam esse uberiorem ac potentiorem peccatoâ—… quis qui credit diffidereti sibi paratam esse veniam Poli Synops in Loc. above water The experience of another is of great use to prop up a desponding mind whilest as yet it hath none of its own and indeed for the support of souls in such cases they were recorded 1 Tim. 1. 16. For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting for an encouraging pattern an eminent precedent to all poor sinners that were to come after him that none might absolutely despair of finding mercy through Christ. You know if a man be taken sick and none can tell what the disease is none can say that ever they heard of such a disease before it 's exceeding frightful but if one and another it may be twenty come to the sick mans bedside and tell him Sir be not afraid I have been in the very same case that you now are and so have many more and all did well at last why this is half a cure to the sick man So it is here a great support to hear the experiences of other Saints Fourthly As the experiences of others support the soul under these burdens so the riches of free grace through Jesus Christ uphold it 't is rich and abundant Psal. 130. ult plenteous redemption and 't is free and to the worst of sinners Isa. 1. 18. and under these troubles it finds it self in the way and proper method of mercy for so my Text a Text that hath upheld many thousand drooping hearts states it all this gives hope and encouragement under trouble Fifthly Lastly Though the state of the soul be sad and sinking yet Jesus Christ usually makes haste in the extremity of the trouble to relieve it by sweet and seasonable discoveries of his grace cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses in the Mount of the Lord it shall be seen It is with Christ as it was with Joseph whose bowels yearned towards his brethren and he was in pain till he had told them I am Joseph your brother This is sweetly exhibited to us in that excellent parable of the Prodigal Luke 15. when his Father saw him being yet a great way off he ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him mercy runs nimbly to help when souls are ready to fail under the pressure of sin And thus you see both how they are burthened and how upheld under the burthen Thirdly If it be enquired in the last place why God makes the burden of sin press so heavy upon the hearts of poor 3. Why doth God make the burden of sin lie so heavy upon the souls of some sinners sinners 't is answered First He doth it to divorce their hearts from sin by giving them an experimental taste of the bitterness and evil that is in sin mens hearts are naturally glewed with delight to their sinful courses all the perswasions and arguments in the world are too weak to separate them and their beloved lusts The morsels of sin go down smoothly and sweetly they roll them with much delectation under their tongues and it is but need that such bitter potions as these should be administred to make their stomachs rise against sin as that word used by the Apostle in 2 Cor. 7. 11. signifies in that ye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 indignatio stomochatio Leigh's Critica in verb. sorrowed after a godly sort what indignation it wrought it notes the rising of the stomach with rage a being angry even unto sickness and this is the way the best and most effectual way to separate the soul of a sinner from his Lusts for in these troubles conscience saith as it is in
to perswade us to believe Joh. 15. 26. or external namely the preaching of the Gospel by Commissionated Embassadors who in Christ's stead beseech men to be reconciled to God i. e. to come to Christ by faith in order to their reconciliation and peace with God But all means and instruments employ'd in this work of bringing men to Christ entirely depend upon the blessing and concurrence of the Spirit of God without whom they signifie nothing how long may Ministers preach before one soul come to Christ except the Spirit co-operate in that work Now as to the manner in which men are perswaded and their wills wrought upon to come to Christ I will briefly note several acts of the Spirit in order thereunto First There is an illustrating work of the Spirit upon the minds of sinners opening their eyes to see their danger and misery Till this be discovered no man stirs from his place 't is sense of danger that rouzes the secure sinner that distresses him and makes him look about for deliverance crying What shall I do to be saved and 't is the discovery of Christs ability to save which is the ground and reason as was observed above of its motion to Christ. Hence seeing the Son is joyned with believing or coming to him in John 6. 40. Secondly There is the Authoritative call or commanding voice of the Spirit in the Word a voice that 's full of awful majesty and power 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. This call of the Spirit to come to Christ rolls one great block namely the fear of presumption out of the souls way to Christ and instead of presumption in coming makes it rebellion and inexcusable obstinacy to refuse to come This answers all pleas against coming to Christ from our unworthiness and deep guilt and mightily encourages the soul to come to Christ whatever it hath been or done Thirdly There are soul-encouraging conditional promises to all that do come to Christ in obedience to the Command Such is that in my Text I will give you rest and that in John 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out and these breathe life and encouragement into poor souls that hang back and are daunted through their own unworthiness Fourthly There are dreadful threatnings denounced by the Spirit in the Word against all that refuse or neglect to come to Christ which are of great use to engage and quicken souls in their way to Christ Mark 16. 16. He that believes not shall be damned Dye in his sins John 8. 24. The wrath of God shall remain on him John 3. ult Which is as if the Lord had said Sinners don't dally with my Christ don 't be alwayes treating and never concluding or resolving for if there be Justice in heaven or Fire in hell every soul that comes not to Christ must and shall perish to all eternity upon your own heads let the blood and destruction of your own souls be for ever if you will not come unto him Fifthly There are moving and working examples set before souls in the Word to prevail with them to come alluring and encouraging Examples of such as have come to Christ under deepest guilt and discouragement and yet found mercy 1 Tim. 1. 15 16. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief howbeit or nevertheless for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting Who would not come to Christ after such an example as this And if this will not prevail there are dreadful examples recorded in the Word setting before us the miserable condition of all such as refuse the calls of the Word to come to Christ 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. By which also he went and preached to the spirits which are in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah The meaning is the sinners that lived before the Flood but now are in hell clapt up into that prison had the offers of grace made them but despised them and now lye for their disobedience in prison under the wrath of God for it in the lowest hell Sixthly and Lastly There is an effectual perswading overcoming and victorious work of the Spirit upon the hearts and wills of sinners under which they come to Jesus Christ. Of this I have spoken at large before in the fourth Sermon and therefore shall not add any thing more here This is the way and manner in which souls are prevailed with to come to Jesus Christ. Thirdly In the last place if you enquire why Christ makes his invitations to weary and heavy laden souls and to 3. no other the answer is briefly this First Because in so doing he follows the Commission which he received from his Father for so you will find it runs in Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tydings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound You see here how Christs Commission binds him up his Father sent him to poor broken hearted sinners and he will keep close to his Commission He came not to call the righteous but sinners i. e. sensible burthened sinners to repentance Matth. 9. 13. I am not sent saith he but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel Thus his Instructions and Commission from the Father limit him only to sensible and burthened souls and he will be faithful to his Commission Secondly The very order of the Spirits work in bringing men to Christ shews us to whom the invitations and offers of grace in Christ are to be made For none are convinced of righteousness i. e. of the compleat and perfect righteousness which is in Christ for their Justification until first they be convinced of sin and consequently no man will or can come to Christ by faith till convictions of sin have awakened and distressed them John 16. 8 9. This being the due order of the Spirits operation the same order must be observed in Gospel offers and invitations Thirdly It behoves that Christ should provide for his own glory as well as for our safety and not expose that to secure this but save us in that way which will bring him most honour and praise And certainly such a way is this by first convincing humbling and burthening the souls of men and then bringing them to rest in himself Alas Let those that never saw or felt the evil of sin be told of rest peace and pardon in Christ they will but despise it as a thing of no value Luke 5. 31. The whole
need not a Physician but those that are sick Bid a man that thinks himself sound and whole go to the Physician and he will but laugh at the motion If you offer him the richest composition he will refuse it slight it and it may be spill it upon the ground ay but if the same man did once feel an acute disease and were made to sweat and groan under strong pains if ever he come to know what sick dayes and restless nights are and to apprehend his life to be in eminent hazard then messengers are sent one after another in post-haste to the Physician then he begs him with tears to do what in him lyes for his relief he thankfully takes the bitterest potions and praises the care and skill of his Physician with tears of joy and so the Patients safety and the Physicians honour are both secured So is it in this method of grace The Uses follow Inference 1. Use. If sin-burthened souls are solemnly invited to come to Inference 1. Christ Then it follows that whatever guilt lye upon the Conscience of a poor humbled sinner 't is no presumption but his duty to come to Christ notwithstanding his own apprehended vileness and great unworthiness Let it be carefully observed how happily that universal particle all is inserted in Christs invitation for the encouragement of sinners Come unto me All ye that labour q. d. let no broken-hearted sinner exclude himself whenas he is not by me excluded from mercy my grace is my own I may bestow it where I will and upon whom I will 'T is not I but Satan that impales and incloses my mercy from humbled souls that are made willing to come unto me he calls that your presumption which my invitation makes your Duty But I doubt my case is excepted by Christ himself in Matth. Object 1. 12. 31. where blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is exempted from pardon and I have had many horrid blasphemous thoughts injected into my soul. Art thou a burdened and heavy laden soul If so thy case is not in that or any other Scripture exempted from mercy Sol. for the unpardonable sin is alwayes found in an impenitent heart as that sin finds no pardon with God so neither is it followed with contrition and sorrow in the soul that commits it But if I am not guilty of that sin I am certainly guilty of many Object 2. great and heinous abominations of another kind too great for me to expect mercy for and therefore I dare not go to Christ. The greater your sins have been the more need you have to go to Jesus Christ. Let not a Motive to Christ be made Sol. an Obstacle in your way to him Great sinners are expresly called Isa. 1. 18. great sinners have come to Christ and found mercy 1 Cor. 6. 7. And to conclude it 's an high reproach and dishonour to the blood of Christ and mercy of God which flowes so freely through him to object the greatness of sin to either of them Certainly you have not sinned beyond the extent of mercy or beyond the efficacy of the blood of of Christ but pardon and peace may be had if you will thus come to Christ for it Oh but it 's now too late I have had many thousand calls by the Gospel and refused them many purposes in my heart 3. Obj. to go to Christ and quenched them my time therefore is past and now 't is to no purpose If the time of grace be past and God intends no mercy for thee how comes it to pass thy soul is now filled with trouble Sol. and distress for sin Is this the frame of a mans heart that is past hope Do such signs as these appear in men that are hopeless Beside the time of grace is a secret hid in the breast of God but coming to Christ is a duty plainly revealed in the Text and why will you object a thing that is secret and uncertain against a duty that is so plain and evident Nor do you your selves believe what you object for at the same time that you say your seasons are over it is too late you are notwithstanding found repenting mourning praying and striving to come to Christ. Certainly if you knew it were too late you would not be found labouring in the use of means Go on therefore and the Lord be with you 'T is not presumption but obedience to come when Christ calls as here he doth Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Inference 2. Hence it follows That none have cause to be troubled when God makes the souls of their friends or relations sick with the Inference 2. sense of sin It was the saying as I remember of Hierom to Sabinian Nothing said he makes my heart sadder than that nothing can make thy heart sad 'T is matter of joy to all that rightly understand the matter when God smites the heart of any man with the painful sense of sin of such sickness it may be said This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God Yet how do many carnal relations lament and bewail this as a misery as an undoing to their friends and acquaintance as if then they must be reckon'd lost and never till then that Christ is finding and saving them O if your hearts were spiritual and wise their groans for sin would be as musick in your ears When they go alone to bewail their sin you would go alone also to bless God for such a mercy that ever you should live to such a happy day you would say now is my friend in the blessed pangs of the new birth now is he in the very way of mercy never in so hopeful a condition as now I had rather he should groan now at the feet of Christ than groan hereafter under the wrath of God for ever O Parents beware as you love the souls of your Children that you don't damp and discourage them tempt or threaten them divert or hinder them in such cases as this lest you bring the blood of their souls upon your own heads Inference 3. It also follows from hence That those to whom sin was never Inference 3. any burthen are not yet come to Christ nor have they any interest in him We may as well suppose a Child to be born without any pangs or throes as a soul to be born again and united to Christ without any sense or sorrow for sin I know many have great frights of conscience that never were made duly sensible of the evil of sin many are afraid of burning that never were afraid of sinning Slight and transient troubles some have had but it 's vanisht like an early cloud lickt up like a morning dew Few men are without checks and throbs of conscience at one time or other but instead of going to the Closet they run to the Ale house or Tavern for a cure If their sorrow for sin
had been right nothing but the sprinkling of the blood of Christ could have appeased their consciences Heb. 10. 22. How cold should the consideration of this thing strike to the hearts of such persons Methinks Reader if this be thy case it should send thee away with an aking heart Thou hast not yet tasted the bitterness of sin and if thou do not then shalt thou never taste the sweetness of Christ his pardons and peace Inference 4. How great a mercy is it for sin-burthened souls to be within the Inference 4. sound and call of Christ in the Gospel There be many thousands in the Pagan and Popish parts of the world that labour under distresses of conscience as well as we but have no such reliefs or means of peace and comfort as we have that live within the joyful sound of the Gospel If the conscience of a Papist be burdened with guilt all the relief he hath is to afflict his body to quiet his soul a penance or pilgrimage is all the relief they have If a Pagan be in trouble for sin he hath no knowledge of Christ nor notion of a satisfaction made by him The voice of nature is Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul The damned endure the terrible blows and wounds of conscience for sin they roar under that terrible lash but no voice of peace or pardon is heard among them It is not come unto me ye that labour and are heavy laden but depart from me ye cursed Blessed are your ears for you hear the voice of peace you are come to Jesus the Mediator and to the blood of sprinkling O you can never set a due value upon this priviledge Inference 5. How sweet and unspeakably relieving is the closing of a burdened Inference 5. soul with Jesus Christ by faith 'T is rest to the weary soul. Soul troubles are spending and wasting troubles The pains of a distressed conscience are the most acute pains A poor soul would fain be at rest but knows not where he tryes this duty and that but finds none at last he falls into the way of believing he casts himself with his burden of guilt and fear upon Christ and there is the rest his soul desired Christ and rest come together till faith bring you to the bosome of Jesus you can find no true rest the soul is rolling and tossing sick and weary upon the billows of its own guilt and fears Now the soul is come like a Ship tossed with storms and tempests out of a raging Ocean into the quiet harbour or like a lost Sheep that hath been wandring in weariness hunger and danger into the fold Is a soft bed in a quiet chamber sweet to one that is spent and tired with travel Is the sight of a shoar sweet to the shipwrackt Mariner that looks for nothing but death much more sweet is Christ to a soul that comes to him pressed in conscience and broken in spirit under the sinking weight of sin How did the Italians rejoyce after a long dangerous voyage to see Italy again Crying with loud and united voices which made the very heavens ring again Italy Italy But no shoar is so sweet to the weather-beaten passenger as Christ is to a Italiam Italiam lâ—…to clamore salutant Virg. broken-hearted sinner this brings the soul to a sweet repose Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest and this endears the way of faith to their souls ever after Inference 6. Learn hence the usefulness of the Law to bring souls to Jesus Inference 6. Christ. It 's utterly useless as a Covenant to justifie us but exceeding useful to convince and humble us It cannot relieve or ease us but it can and doth awaken and rouze us it 's a fair glass to shew us the face of sin and till we have seen that we cannot see the face of Jesus Christ. The Law like the Fiery Serpents smites stings and torments the conscience this drives us to the Lord Jesus lifted up in the Gospel like the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness to heal us The use of the Law is to make us feel our sickness this makes us look out for a Physician I was alive once without the Law saith Paul but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. 9. The hard vain proud hearts of men require such an hammer to break them to pieces Inference 7. It 's the immediate duty of weary and heavy laden sinners to Inference 7. come to Christ by faith and not stand off from Christ or delay to accept him upon any pretence whatsoever Christ invites and commands such to come unto him 't is therefore your sin to neglect draw back or deferr whatever seeming reasons and pretences there may be to the contrary When the Jaylor was brought where I suppose thee now to be to a pinching distress that made him cry Sirs what must I do to be saved the very next counsel the Apostles gave him was Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 30 31. And for your encouragement know he that calleth you to come knows your burden what your sins have been and troubles are yet he calls you if your sin hinder not Christ from calling neither should it hinder you from coming He that calls you is able to ease you to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. Whatever fulness of sin be in you there is a greater fulness of saving power in Christ. Moreover he that calls you to come never yet rejected any poor burdened soul that came to him and hath said he never will Joh. 6. 37. He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out Fear not therefore he will not begin with thee or make thee the first instance and example of the feared rejection And Lastly Bethink thy self what wilt thou do and whither wilt thou go in this case if not to Jesus Christ Nothing shall ease or relieve thee till thou dost come to him Thou art under an happy necessity to go to him With him only is found rest for the weary soul. Which brings us to the third and last Observation Doct. 3. Doct. 3. That there is rest in Christ for all that come unto him under the heavy burden of Sin REST is a sweet word to a weary soul all seek it none but believers find it We which have believed Non dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingressi sumus sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingredimur significans initia quietis fideles nunc habere plenam quietem suo temporâ—… consecuturos Pareus in loc saith the Apostle do enter into rest Heb. 4. 3. he doth not say they shall but they do enter into rest noting their spiritual rest to be already begun by faith on earth in the tranquillity of conscience and shall be consummated
Sermon 10. MAT. 9. 12. But when Jesus heard that he said unto them Text. Wherein the general Exhortation is enforced by one Motive drawn from the first Title of Christ. They that be whole need not a Physician but they that be sick HAving opened in the former discourses the nature and method of the Application of Christ to sinners it remains now that I press it upon every soul as ever it expects peace and pardon from God to apply and put on Jesus Christ i. e. to get union with him by faith whilst he is yet held forth in the free and gracious tenders of the Gospel to which purpose I shall now labour in this general Use of Exhortation in which my last Subject engaged me wherein divers Arguments will be further urged both from The 1. Titles and of Jesus Christ. 2. Priviledges The Titles of Christ are so many Motives or arguments fitted to perswade men to come unto him Amongst which Christ as the Physician of Souls comes under our first Consideration in the Text before us The occasion of these words of Christ was the call of Matthew the Publican who having first opened his Heart next opened his House to Christ and entertains him there this strange and unexpected change wrought upon Matthew quickly rings in all the Neighbourhood and many Publicans and Sinners resorted thither at which the stomachs of the proud Pharisees began to swell from this occasion they took offence at Christ and in this verse Christ takes off the offence by such an answer as was fitted both for their conviction and his own vindication But when Jesus heard that he said unto them The whole have no need of a Physician but they that be sick He gives it saith one as a reason why he conversed so much with Publicans and Sinners and so little among the Pharisees because there was more work for him men set up where they think Trade will be quickest Christ came to be a Physician to sick souls Pharisees were so well in their own conceit that Christ saw he should have little to do among them and so he applied himself to those who were more sensible of their sickness In the words we have an account of the temper and state both Of 1. The secure and unconvinced Sinner 2. The humbled and convinced And 3. Of the Carriage of Christ and his different respect to either  1. First The secure sinner is here described both with respect to his own apprehensions of himself as one that is whole and also by his low value and esteem for Christ he sees no need of him the whole have no need of the Physician 2. Secondly The Convinced and Humbled Sinner is here also described and that both by his state and condition he is sick and by his valuation of Jesus Christ he greatly needs him they that be sick need the Physician 3. Thirdly We have here Christs carriage and different respect to both the former he rejects and passeth by as those with whom he hath no concernment the later he converses with in order to their cure The words thus opened are fruitful in observations I shall neither note nor insist upon any beside this one which fuits the scope of my Discourse viz. DOCT. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Physician for sick souls The world is a great Hospital full of sick and dying souls Doct. all wounded by one and the same mortal weapon sin Some are senseless of their misery feel not their pains value not a Physician others are full of sense as well as danger mourn under the apprehension of their condition and sadly bewail it The merciful God hath in his abundant compassion to the perishing world sent a Physician from Heaven and given him his Orders under the Great Seal of Heaven for his Office Isai. 61. 1 2. which he opened and read in the audience of the people Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tydings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted c. He is the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations he is Jehova Rophe the Lord that healeth us and that as he is Jehovah Tzidkenu the Lord our righteousness The Brazen Serpent that healed the Israelites in the Wilderness was an excellent Type of our Great Physician Christ and is expresly applied to him John 3. 14. he rejects none that come and heals all whom he undertakes but more particularly I will First Point at those Diseases which Christ heals in sick souls and by what means he heals them Secondly the excellency of this Physician above all others there is none like Christ he is the only Physician for wounded souls First We will enquire into the Diseases which Christ the Physician cures and they are reducible to two heads 〈◊〉 viz. 1. Sin and 2. Sorrow First The disease of sin in which three things are found exceeding burthensome to sick souls 1. The Guilt of sin all cured by this Physician and how 2. The Dominion 3. The Inherence First The guilt of sin this is a mortal wound a stab in 1. the very heart of a poor sinner 'T is a fond and groundless distinction that Papists make of sins Mortal and Venial all sin in its own nature is mortal Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death yet though it be so in its own nature Christ can and doth cure it by the Soveraign Balfom of his own precious blood Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace This is the deepest and deadliest wound the soul of man feels in this world what is guilt but the obligation of the soul to everlasting punishment and misery It puts the soul under the sentence of God to eternal wrath the condemning sentence of the great and terrible God than which nothing is found more dreadful and insupportable put all pains all poverty all afflictions all miseries in one Scale and Gods condemnation in the other and you weigh but so many Feathers against a talent of Lead This Disease our great Physician Christ cures by Remission which is the dissolving of the obligation to punishment the loosing of the soul that was bound over to the Wrath and Condemnation of God Coll. 2. 13 14. Heb. 6. 12. Micah 7. 17 18 19. this remission being made the soul is immediately cleared from all its obligations to punishment Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation all Bonds are cancelled the guilt of all sins is healed or removed original and actual great and small This cure is performed upon souls by the blood of Christ nothing is found in Heaven or earth besides his blood that is able to heal this disease Heb. 9. 22. Without shedding of blood there is no remission nor is it any blood that will do it but that only which dropt from
the wounds of Christ Isa. 53. 5. By his stripes we are healed his blood only is innocent and precious blood 1 Pet. 1. 19. blood of infinite worth and value the blood of God Act. 20. 28. blood prepared for this very purpose Heb. 10. 5. this is the blood that performs the cure and how great a cure is it for this cure the souls of Believers shall be praising and magnifying their great Physician in Heaven to all eternity Rev. 1. 5 6. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood c. to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Secondly The next evil in sin cured by Christ is the dominion 2. of it over the souls of poor sinners Where sin is in dominion the soul is in a very sad condition for it darkens the Understanding depraves the Conscience stiffens the Will hardens the Heart misplaces and disorders all the Affections and thus every faculty is wounded by the power and dominion of sin over the soul. How difficult is the cure of this disease it passes the skill of Angels or men to heal it but Christ undertakes it and makes a perfect cure of it at last and this he doth by his Spirit As he cures the guilt of sin by pouring out his blood for us so he cures the dominion of sin by pouring out his Spirit upon us Justification is the cure of guilt Sanctification the cure of the dominion of sin For First As the Dominion of sin darkens the understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. so the spirit of holiness which Christ sheds upon his people cures the darkness and blindness of that noble faculty and restores it again Eph. 5. 8. they that were darkness are hereby light in the Lord the anointing of this Spirit teacheth them all things 1 John 2. 27. Secondly As the dominion of sin depraved and defiled the Conscience Tit. 1. 15. wounded it to that degree as to disable it to the performances of all its Offices and Functions so that it was neither able to apply convince or tremble at the word So when the Spirit of holiness is shed forth O what a tender sense fills the renewed Conscience for what small things will it check smite and rebuke how strongly will it bind to duty and bar against sin Thirdly As the dominion of sin stiffned the Will and made it stubborn and rebellious so Christ by sanctifying it brings it to be pliant and obedient to the will of God Lord saith the sinner what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. 6. Fourthly As the power of sin hardneth the Heart so that nothing could affect it or make any impression upon it when sanctification comes upon the soul it thaws and breaks it as hard as it was and makes it dissolve in the breast of a sinner in godly sorrow Ezec. 36. 26. I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh It will now melt ingenuously under the threatnings of the word 2 Kings 22. 19. or the strokes of the Rod Jer. 31. 18. or the manifestations of grace and mercy Luke 7. 38. Fifthly As the power of sin misplaced and disordered all the affections so sanctification reduces them again and sets them right Psal. 4. 6 7. And thus you see how sanctification becomes the rectitude health and due temper of the soul so far as it prevails curing the diseases that sin in its dominion filled the soul with True it is this cure is not perfected in this life there are still some grudgings of the old diseases in the holiest souls notwithstanding sin be dethroned from its dominion over them but the cure is begun and daily advances towards perfection and at last will be compleat as will appear in the cure of the next evil of sin namely Thirdly The Inherence of sin in the soul this is a sore disease the very core and root of all our other complaints 3. and ayles This made the holy Apostle bemoan himself and waile so bitterly Rom. 7. 17. because of sin that dwelt in him and the same misery is bewailed by all sanctified persons all the world over 'T is a wonderful mercy to have the guilt and the dominion of sin cured but we shall never be perfectly sound and well till the existence or indwelling of sin in our natures be cured too When once that is done then we shall feel no more pain nor sorrows for sin and this our great Physician will at last perform for us and upon us but as the cure of guilt was by our Justification the cure of the dominion of sin by our Sanctification so the third and last which perfects the whole cure will be by our Glorification and till then it is not to be expected For it 's a clear case that sin like Ivy in the old Walls will never be gotten out till the Wall be pulled down and then it 's pulled up by the roots This cure Christ will perform in a moment upon our dissolution For 't is plain First That none but perfected souls freed from all sin are admitted into Heaven Eph. 5. 27. Heb. 12. 23. Rev. 21. 27. Secondly 'T is as plain that no such personal perfection and freedom is found in any man on this side death and the grave 1 Joh. 1. 8. 1 Kings 8. 46. Philip. 3. 12. a truth sealed by the sad experience of all the Saints on earth Thirdly If such freedom and perfection must be before we can be perfectly happy and no such thing be done in this life it remains that it must be done immediately upon their dissolution and at the very time of their glorification as sin came in at the time of the union of their souls and bodies in the womb so it will go out at the time of their separation by death then will Christ put the last hand to this glorious work and perfect that cure which hath been so long under his hand in this world and thenceforth sin shall have no power upon them it shall never tempt them more it shall never defile them more it shall never grieve and sadden their hearts any more henceforth it shall never cloud their evidences darken their understandings or give the least interruption to their communion with God when sin is gone all these its mischievous effects are gone with it So that I may speak it to the comfort of all gracious hearts according to what the Lord told the Israelites in Deut. 12. 8 9. to which I allude for illustration of this most comfortable truth Ye shall not do after all the things that ye do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you Whilst you are under Christs cure upon earth but not perfectly healed your understandings mistake your thoughts wander your affections are dead your communion
with God is daily interrupted but it shall not be so in Heaven where the cure is perfect you shall not know love or delight in God as you do this day for you are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you and so much as to the diseases of sin and Christs method of curing them Secondly As sin is the disease of the Saints so also is Sorrow The best of Saints must pass through the vally of 2â—… Bacha to Heaven How many tears fall from the Eyes of the Saints upon the account of outward as well as inward troubles even after their reconciliation with God Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God Acts 14. 22. It would be too great a digression in this place to note but the more general heads under which almost infinite particulars of troubles and afflictions are found It shall suffice only to shew that whatever distress or trouble any poor soul is in upon any account whatsoever if that soul belong to Jesus Christ he will take care of it for present and deliver it at last by a compleat cure First Christ cures troubles by sanctifying them to the souls of his that are under affliction and makes their very troubles medicinal and healing to them Trouble is a Scorpion and hath a deadly sting but Christ is a wise Physician and extracts a Soveraign Oyl out of this Scorpion that heals the wound it makes By affliction our wise Physician purges our corruptions and so prevents or cures greater troubles by lesser inward sorrows by outward ones Isai. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin Secondly Christ cures outward troubles by inward consolations which are made to rise in the inner man as high as the waters of affliction do upon the outward man 2 Cor. 1. 5. One drop of spiritual comfort is sufficient to sweeten a whole Ocean of outward trouble It was an high expression of an Nihil Corpus sent it in nervâ—… cum Anima sit in Coelo afflicted Father whom God comforted just upon the death of his dear and only Son with some clearer manifestations of his love than was usual O said he might I but have such consolations as these I could be willing were it possible to lay an only Son into the grave every day I have to live in this world Thus all the troubles of the world are cured by Christ John 16. 33. In the world ye shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace Thirdly Christ cures all outward sorrows and troubles in his people by death which is their removal from the place of sorrows to peace and rest for evermore Now God wipes all tears from their eyes and the days of their mourning are at an end they then put off the Garments and Spirit of mourning and enter into peace Isai. 57. 2. they come to that place and state where tears and sighs are things unknown to the Inhabitants one step beyond the state of this mortality brings us quite out of the sight and hearing of all troubles and lamentations These are the diseases of souls sin and sorrow and thus they are cured by Christ the Physician Secondly Next I shall shew you that Jesus Christ is the only Physician of souls none like him for a sick sinner and this will be evident in divers respects First None so wise and judicious as Jesus Christ to understand 2. and comprehend the nature depth and danger of soul diseases O how ignorant and unacquainted are men with the state and case of afflicted souls but Christ hath the tongue of the Learned that he should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary Isai. 50. 4. He only understands the weight of sin and depth of inward troubles for sin Secondly None so able to cure and heal the wounds of afflicted souls as Christ is he only hath those medicines that can cure a sick soul. The blood of Christ and nothing else in Heaven or Earth is able to cure the mortal wounds which guilt inflicts upon a trembling Conscience let men try all other receipts and costly experience shall convince them of their insufficiency Conscience may be benummed by stupefactive medicines prepared by the Devil for that end but pacified it can never be but by the blood of Christ Heb. 16. 22. Thirdly None so tender hearted and sympathizing with sick souls as Jesus Christ he is full of bowels and tender compassions to afflicted souls he is one that can have compassion because he hath had experience Heb. 5. 2. If I must come into the Chirurgeons hand with broken bones give me such a one to choose whose own bones have been broken who hath felt the anguish in himself Christ knows what it is by experience having felt the anguish of inward troubles the weight of Gods wrath and the terrors of a forsaking God more than any or all the sons of men this makes him tender over distressed souls Isai. 42. 3. A bruised reed he will not break and smoaking flax he shall not quench Fourthly None cures in so wonderful a method as Christ doth he heals us by his stripes Isai. 53. 5. The Physician dyes that the Patient may live his wounds must bleed that ours may be cured he feels the smart and pain that we might have the ease and comfort No Physician but Christ will cure others at this rate Fifthly None so ready to relieve a sick soul as Christ he is within the call of a distressed soul at all times Art thou sick for sin weary of sin and made truly willing to part with sin Lift up but thy sincere cry to the Lord Jesus for help and he will quickly be with thee when the Prodigal the embleme of a convinced humbled sinner said in himself I will return to my Father the Father ran to meet him Luke 15. 20. he can be with thee in a moment Sixthly none so willing to receive and undertake all distressed and afflicted souls as Jesus Christ is he refuses none that come to him Joh. 6. 37. He that cometh unto me I will in no wayes cast out whatever their sins have been or their sorrows are however they have wounded their own souls with the deepest gashes of guilt how desperate and helpless soever their case appears in their own or others Eyes he never puts them off or discourages them if they be but willing to come Isai. 1. 18 19. Seventhly None so happy and successful as Christ he never fails of performing a perfect cure upon those he undertakes never was it known that any soul miscarried in his hands John 3. 15 16. other Physicians by mistakes by ignorance or carelesness fill Church-yards and cast away the lives of men but Christ suffers none to perish that commit themselves to him Eighthly none so free and generous as
effect of pure grace done for his own name sake Isai. 43. 25. discharging us without any satisfaction at all by us there is much grace in that and providing a surety for us every way able to pay our debt there is more grace in that 'T is the gracious act of God in and through Christ the satisfaction of Christ is the procuring cause of our remission and so God declares himself just in the remission of our sin Rom. 3 25. Gracious is the Lord and righteous Psal. 116. 5. Justice and mercy meet here and embrace each other in whom saith the Text we have remission no other price could purchase this priviledge Micah 6. 6 7. not rivers of Oyl or humane Blood And this gracious act of God discharges the pardoned soul both from guilt and punishment guilt is nothing else but the force and power that is in sin to oblige the sinner to undergo the penalty due to sin Therefore sinners are said to be guilty of Hell-fire Mat. 5. 22. Guilty of eternal judgement Mark 3. 29. to be under the judgement of God Rom. 3. 19. Remission takes away both guilt and punishment together it takes away all guilt Acts 13. 38 39. and all punishment And so much of the first thing to be opened namely what the remission of sin is Secondly Now that this remission of sin is the priviledge of Believers is most apparent for all the causes of remission are in conjunction to procure it for them The love of God which is the impulsive cause of pardon the blood of Christ which is the meritorious cause of pardon and saving faith which is the instrumental cause of pardon do all cooperate for their remission as is plain in the Text. Besides all the promises of pardon are made to them Jer. 31. 34. Micah 7. 18. and Lastly All the signs of pardon are sound in them and in them only that love God Luk. 7. 47. mercisulness to others Mat. 6. 14. a blessed calmness and peace in the Conscience Rom. 5. 1. So that it is a truth beyond controversie that all that are in Christ are in a pardoned state Secondly Next I will shew you that the Pardon of Believers 2. is the purchase of the blood of Christ nothing but the blood of Christ is a price equivalent to the remission of sin for this blood was innocent and untainted blood 1 Pet. 1. 19. the blood of a Lamb without spot This blood was precious blood blood of infinite worth and value the blood of God Acts 20. 28. it was prepared blood for this very purpose Heb. 10. 5. prepared by Gods eternal appointment prepared by Christs miraculous and extraordinary production by the operation of the Spirit prepared by his voluntary sequestration or sanctification of himself to this very use and purpose The blood of Jesus is not only innocent precious and prepared blood but it is also blood actually shed and sacrificed to the justice of God for the expiation of guilt and procurement of our discharge Isai. 53. 5. To conclude the severe justice of God could put in no exception against the blood of Christ 't is unexceptionable blood being as before was noted untainted by sin and dignified above all estimation by the person whose blood it was Justice required no less and could demand no more and this is the price at which our pardons are purchased and without which no sin could be pardoned for without shedding of blood such blood as this there is no remission Heb. 9. 22. Thirdly The last thing to be opened is That God hath 3. manifested the riches of his grace in the remission of our sins so speaks the Apostle Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound And 1 Tim. 1. 14. The grace of our Lord viz. in the pardon of sin was exceeding abundant Which will appear if we bring our thoughts close to the matter in several particulars First From the nature of the mercy which is the richest of all mercies except Christ the purchaser of it no mercy sweeter than a pardon to a condemned sinner No pardon like Gods pardon to a man condemned at his Bar all the goodness of God is made to pass before our eyes in his pardoning acts of grace Exod. 33. 19. Secondly The very riches of grace must needs be in the pardon of sin if we consider the method in which pardons are dispensed which is as the Text speaks through his blood Herein God commends his love to us Rom. 5. 8. he commends it more than if he had pardoned sin without such a sacrifice for then he had only displayed his mercy but not caused Mercy and Justice to meet and triumph together Thirdly The riches of his grace shines forth in the peculiarity of the mercy Remission is no common favour it was never extended to the fallen Angels nor to the far greater part of the children of men but only to a little flock a small remnant of mankind Luke 12. 32. Joh. 17. 9. Fourthly The riches of grace are manifested in remission if we consider the subjects of this priviledge who are not only equally plunged into sin and misery with others by nature Eph. 2. 3. but many of the Lords pardoned ones are actually guilty of deeper-died abominations than many unpardoned ones in the civilized world are defiled with To me saith Paul the greatest of sinners one that was before a blasphemer a persecutor c. yet to me is this grace given I obtained mercy 1 Tim. 1. 15. and such were some of you but ye are justified 1 Cor. 6. 11. Yea God singles out the most base despised poor and contemptible ones among men to be the subjects of this glorious priviledge 1 Cor. 1. 26. You see your calling brethren c. Fifthly More of the riches of grace still appears if we view the latitude and extent of this act of grace Oh how innumerable are our transgressions Who can understand his errors Psal. 19. 12. Yet the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin 1 Joh. 1. 7. Small and great sins open and secret sins old and new sins all pardoned without exception O the riches of grace O the unsearchable goodness of God! With the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his Iniquities Psal. 130. 7 8. Sixthly and lastly The riches of Grace shine forth in the irrevocableness and perpetuity of remission as grace pardons all sins without exception so the pardons it bestows are without revocation The pardoned soul shall never come into condemnation Joh. 5. 24. As far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Psal. 103. 10. The East and West are the two opposite points of Heaven which can never come together neither shall the pardoned soul and its sins ever meet any more Thou hast cast saith Hezekiah all my sins behind thy back The penitent Believer sets his sins
before his face but the merciful God casts them all behind his back never to behold them more so as to charge them upon his pardoned people And thus you see what the pardon of sin is what the price that purchaseth pardon is and what riches of grace God manifesteth in the remission of Believers sins which were the things to be explained and opened in the Doctrinal part The improvement of the whole you will have in the following Uses Inference 1. If this be so that all Believers and none but Believers receive Inference 1. the remission of their sins through the riches of grace by the blood of Christ What a happy condition then are Believers in Those that never felt the load of sin may make light of a pardon but so cannot you that have been in the deeps of trouble and fear about it those that have been upon the rack of an accusing and condemning Conscience as David Heman and many of the Saints have been can never sufficiently value a pardon Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Psal. 32. 1 2. or O the blessednesses and felicities of the pardoned man as the Hebrew sounds Remission cannot but appear the wonder of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercies if we consider through what difficulties the grace of God makes way for it to our souls what strong bars the love of God breaks asunder to open our way to this priviledge for there can be no pardon without a Mediator no other Mediator but the Son of God the Son of God cannot discharge our debts but by taking them upon himself as our surety and making full payment by bearing the wrath of God for us and when all this is done there can be no actual pardon except the spirit of grace open our blind eyes break our hard hearts and draw them to Christ in the way of believing And as the mercy of remission comes to us through wonderful difficulties so it is in it self a compleat and perfect mercy God would not be at such vast expence of the riches of his grace Christ would not lay out the invaluable treasures of his precious blood to procure a cheap and common blessing for us Rejoyce then ye pardoned souls God hath done great things for you for which you have cause to be glad Inference 2. Hence it follows That interest in Christ by faith brings the Inference 2. Conscience of a Believer into a state of rest and peace Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God I say not that every Believer is presently brought into actual peace and tranquillity of Conscience there may be many fears and much trouble even in a pardoned soul but this is an undoubted truth that faith brings the pardoned soul into that condition and state where he may find perfect rest in his Conscience with respect to the guilt and danger of sin The blood of Christ sprinkles us from an evil that is an accusing condemning Conscience We are apt to fear that this or that special sin which hath most terrified and affrighted our Consciences is not forgiven but if there be riches enough in the grace of God and efficacy enough in the blood of Christ then the sins of Believers all their sins great as well as small one as well as another without limitation or exception are pardoned For let us but consider if God remits no sin to any man but with respect to the blood of Christ then all sins are pardoned as well as any one sin because the dignity and desert of that blood is infinite and as much deserves an universal pardon for all sins as the particular pardon of any even the least sin Moreover remission is an act of Gods Fatherly love in Christ and if it be so then certainly no sin of any Believer can be retained or excluded from pardon for then the same soul should be in the favour of God so far as it is pardoned and out of the favour of God so far as it is unpardoned and all this at one and the same instant of time which is a thing both repugnant to it self and to the whole stream of the Gospel To Conclude what is the design and end of remission but the saving of the pardoned soul But if any sin be retained or excluded from pardon the retaining of that sin must needs irritate and void the pardon of all other sins and so the acts of God must cross and contradict each other and the design and end of God miscarry and be lost which can never be So then we conclude faith brings the believing soul into a state of rest and peace Inference 3. Hence it also follows That no remission is to be expected by any Inference 3. soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ no Christ no pardon no faith no Christ. Yet how apt are many poor deluded souls to expect pardon in that way where never any soul yet did or ever can meet it Some look for pardon from the absolute mercy of God without any regard to the blood of Christ or their interest therein we have sinned but God is merciful Some expect remission of sin by vertue of their own duties not Christs merits I have sinned but I will repent restore reform and God will pardon but little do such men know how they therein diminish the evil of sin undervalue the justice of God slight the blood of Christ and put an undoing cheat upon their own souls for-ever to expect pardon from absolute mercy or our own duties is to knock at the wrong dore which God hath shut up to all the world Rom. 3. 20. Whilst these two principles abide firm that the price of pardon is only in the blood of Christ and the benefit of pardon only by the application of his blood to us this must remain a sure conclusion that no remission is to be expected by any soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance restitution and reformation are excellent duties in their kind and in their proper places but they were never meant for saviours or satisfactions to God for sin Inference 4. If the riches of grace be thus manifested in the pardon of sin Inference 4. how vile an abuse is it of the grace of God to take the more liberty to sin because grace abounds in the pardon of it Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Will no cheaper stuff than the grace of God serve to make a cloak for sin O vile abuse of the most excellent thing in the whole world did Christ shed his blood to expiate our guilt and dare we make that a plea to extenuate our guilt God forbid If it be intolerable ingratitude among men to requite good with evil sure that sin must want a name bad enough to express it which puts the greatest
from God Hab. 1. 13. Heb. 12. 14. The enmity of our nature perfectly stopped up our way to God Col. 1. 21. Rom. 8. 7. by reason hereof fallen man hath no desire to come unto God Job 21. 14. The Justice of God like a flaming Sword turning every way kept all men from access to God and lastly Satan that malicious and armed adversary lay as a Lyon in the way to God 2 Pet. 5. 8. Oh with what strong bars were the gates of Heaven shut against our souls The way to God was chained up with such difficulties as none but Christ was able to remove and he by death hath effectually removed them all the way is now open even the new and the living way consecrated for us by his blood The death of Christ effectually removes the guilt of sin 1 Pet. 2. 24. washes off the filth of sin 1 John 5. 6. takes away the enmity of nature Col. 1. 20 21. satisfied all the demands of justice Rom. 3. 25 26. hath broken all the power of Satan Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. and consequently the way to God is effectually and fully opened to Believers by the blood of Jesus Heb. 10. 20. Secondly The blood of Christ purchaseth for Believers their right and title to this priviledge Gal. 4. 4 5. But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of Sons i. e. both the relation and inheritance of sons There was value and worth enough in the precious blood of Christ not only to pay all our debts to justice but over and above the payment of our debts to purchase for us this invaluable priviledge We must put this unspeakable mercy of being brought to God as my Text puts it upon the account and score of the death of Christ. No Believer had ever tasted the sweetness of such a mercy if Christ had not tasted the bitterness of death for him The use of all you will have in the following Deductions of truth Deduction 1. Great is the preciousness and worth of souls that the life of Christ should be given to redeem and recover them to God As God laid out his thoughts and counsel from eternity upon them to project the way and method of their salvation so the Lord Jesus in pursuance of that blessed design came from the bosom of the Father and spilt his invaluable blood to bring them to God No wise man expends vast sums to bring home trifling commodities How cheap soever our souls are in our estimation 't is evident by this they are of precious esteem in the eyes of Christ. Deduction 2. Redeemed souls must expect no rest or satisfaction on this side Heaven and the full enjoyment of God the life of a Believer in this world is a life of motion and expectation they are now coming to God 1 Pet. 2. 4. God you see is the centre and rest of their souls Heb. 4. 9. As the Rivers cannot rest Feâ—…ti nos ad te inquietum est cor nostrum doâ—…ec requiescat in te Aug. Confess lib. 1. cap. 1. till they pour themselves into the bosom of the Sea so neither can renewed souls find rest till they come into the bosom of God There be four things which do and will break the rest and disturb the souls of Believers in this world afflictions temptations corruptions and absence from God if the three former causes of disquietness were totally removed so that a Believer were placed in such a condition upon earth where no affliction should disturb him no temptation trouble him no corruption defile or grieve him yet his very absence from God must still keep him restless and unsatisfied 2 Cor. 5. 6. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Deduction 3. What sweet and pleasant thoughts should all Believers have of death When they dye and never till they dye shall they be fully brought home to God Death to the Saints is the dore by which they enter into the enjoyment of God the dying Christian is almost at home yet a few pangs and agonies more and then he is come to God in whose presence is the fulness of joy I desire saith Paul to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1. 23. It should not scare us to be brought to death the King of terrors so long as it is the office of death to bring us to God That dreaming opinion of the soul sleeping after death is as ungrounded as it is uncomfortable the same day we loose from this shore we shall be landed upon the blessed shore where we shall see and enjoy God for ever O if the friends of dead Believers did but understand where and with whom their souls are whilst they are mourning over their bodies certainly a few believing thoughts of this would quickly dry up their tears and fill the house of mourning with voices of praise and thanksgiving Deduction 4. How comfortable and sweet should the converses and communication of Christians be with one another in this world Christ is bringing them all to God through this vale of tears they are now in the way to him all bound for Heaven going home to God to their everlasting rest in glory every day every hour every duty brings them nearer and nearer to their journeys end Rom. 13. 11. Now saith the Apostle is our salvation nearer than when we believed O what manner of heavenly communications and ravishing discourses should Believers have with each other as they walk by the way O what pleasant and delightful stories should they tell one another about the place and state whither Christ is bringing them and where they shall shortly be What ravishing transporting transforming visions they shall have that day they are brought home to God how surprizingly glorious the sight of Jesus Christ will be to them who died for them to bring them unto God How should such discourses as these shorten and sweeten their passage through this world strengthen and encourage the dejected and feeble minded and exceedingly honour and adorn their profession Thus lived the Believers of old Heb. 11. 9 10. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God But alas most Christians are either entangled in the cares and troubles or so ensnared by the delights and plasures which almost continually divert and take up their thoughts by the way that there is but little room for any discourses of Christ and Heaven among many of them but certainly this would be as much your interest as your duty When the Apostle had entertained the Thessalonians with a lovely discourse of their meeting the Lord in the air and
they live so securely and pleasantly as they do in a state of so much danger and misery 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. The God of this world blinds the eyes of them that believe not Thirdly You have seen what the life of the unregenerate is and what maintains that life in the next place I shall 3. give you evidence that this is the life the generality of the world do live a life of carnal security vain hope and false joy this will evidently appear if we consider First The activity and liveliness of mens spirits in pursuit of the world O how lively and vigorous are their hearts in the management of earthly designs Psal. 6. 4. Who will shew us any good The world eats up their hearts time and strength Now this could never be if their eyes were but opened to see the danger and misery their souls be in how few designs for the world run in the thoughts of a condemned man O if God had ever made the light of conviction to shine into their Consciences certainly the temptations would lye the quite contrary way even in too great a neglect of things of this life but this briskness and liveliness plainly shews the great security which is upon most men Secondly The marvellous quietness and stillness that is in the thoughts and consciences of men about their everlasting concernments plainly shews this to be the life of the unregenerate how few scruples doubts or fears shall you hear from them how many years may a man live in carnal families before he shall hear such a question as this seriously propounded What shall I do to be saved There are no questions in their lips because no fear or sense of danger in their hearts Thirdly The general contentedness and profest willingness of carnal men to dye gives clear evidence that such a life of security and vain hope is the life they live Like sheep they are laid in the grave Psal. 49. 14. O how quiet and still are their Consciences when there are but a few breaths more between them and everlasting burnings Had God opened their eyes to apprehend the consequences of death and what follows the pale Horse Rev. 6. 8. it were impossible but that every unregenerate man should make that bed on which he dies shake and tremble under him Fourthly and Lastly The low esteem men have for Christ and the total neglect of at least the meer trifling with those duties in which he is to be found plainly discovers this stupid secure life to be the life that the generality of the world do live for were men sensible of the disease of sin there could be no quieting them without Christ the Physician Phil. 3. 8. All the business they have to do in this world could never keep them from their knees or make them strangers to their Closets all which and much more that might be said of like nature gives too full and clear proof to this sad assertion that this is the life the unregenerate world generally lives Fourthly In the last place I would speak a few words to 4. discover the danger of such a life as hath been described to which purpose let the following brief hints be minded seriously First By these things souls are inevitably betrayed into Hell and eternal ruine this blinding is in order to damning 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded those that are turned over into eternal death are thus generally mop't and hoodwinkt in order thereunto Isai. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Secondly As damning is the event of blinding so nothing makes Hell a more terrible surprise to the soul than this doth by this means the wrath of God is felt before its danger be apprehended a man is past all hope before he begins to have any fear his eternal ruine like a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall cometh suddenly at an instant Isa. 30. 13. And as it damns surely and surprizingly so Thirdly Nothing more aggravates a mans damnation than to sink suddenly into it from amidst so many hopes and high confidence of safety for a man to find himself in Hell when he thought and concluded himself within a step of Heaven O what a Hell will it be to such men the higher their vain hopes lifted them up the more dreadful must their fall be Mat. 7. 22. And as it damns surely surprizingly and with highest aggravations So Fourthly This life of security and vain hope frustrates all the means of recovery and salvation in the only season wherein they can be useful and beneficial to us by reason of these things the word hath no power to convince mens Consciences nothing can bring them to a sight and sense of their condition therefore Christ told the self-confident and blind Jews Mat. 21. 21. That the Publicans and Harlots go into the kingdom of God before them and the reason is because their hearts lye more open and fair to the strokes of conviction and compunction for sin than those do who are blinded by vain hopes and confidences Inference 1. Is this the life that the unregenerate world lives then it is not to be wondered at that the preaching of the Gospel hath so Inference 1. little success who hath believed our report saith the Prophet and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Isai. 53. 1. Ministers study for truths apt to awaken and convince the Consciences of them that hear them but their words return again to them they turn to God and mourn over the matter we have laboured in vain and spent our strength for nought and this is the cause of all security and vain hopes bar fast the dores of mens hearts against all the convictions and perswasions of the word the greater cause have they to admire the grace of God who have or shall find the convictions of the word sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit to whose hearts God brings home the Commandment by an effectual application Inference 2. If this be the life of the unregenerate world what deadly enemies Inference 2. are they that nourish and strengthen the groundless confidences and vain hopes of salvation in men This the Scripture calls the healing of the hurt of souls slightly by crying peace peace when there is no peace Jer. 6. 14. the sowing of Pillows under their arm holes Ezech. 13. 18. that they may lye soft and easie under the Ministry and this is the Doctrine which the people love but O what will the end of these things be
and what an account have those men to give to God for the blood of those souls by them betrayed to the everlasting burnings Such flattery is the greatest cruelty those whom you bless upon earth will curse you in Hell and the day in which they trusted their souls to your conduct Inference 3. How great a mercy is it to be awakened out of that general sleep and security which is fallen upon the world You cannot estimate Inference 3. the value of that mercy for it is a peculiar mercy O that ever the Spirit of the Lord should give thy soul a jog under the Ministry of the word startle and rouse thy Conscience whilst others are left snoring in the deep sleep of security round about thee when the Lord shall deal with thy soul much after that rate he did with Paul in the way to Damascus who not only saw a light shining from Heaven which those that travelled with him saw as well as he but heard that voice from Heaven which did the work upon his heart though his Companions heard it not Besides it is not only a peculiar mercy but it is a leading introductive mercy to all other spiritual mercies that follow it to all eternity if God had not done this for thee thou hadst never been brought to faith to Christ or Heaven for from this act of the Spirit all other saving acts take their rise so that you have cause for ever to admire the goodness of God in such a favour as this is Inference 4. Lastly Hence it follows that the generality of the world are in the direct way to eternal ruine and whatever their vain confidences Inference 4. are they cannot be saved Narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Hear me all you that live this dangerous life of carnal security and vain hope whatever your perswasions and confidences are except you give them up and get better grounds for your hope you cannot be saved For First Such hopes and confidences as yours are directly contradictory to the established order of the Gospel which requires repentance Acts 5. 31. faith Acts 13. 39. and regeneration John 3. 3. in all that shall be saved and this order shall never be altered for any mans sake Secondly If such as you be saved all the threatnings in Scripture must be reversed which lie in full opposition to your vain hopes Mark 16. 16. John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 8 9. either the truth of God in these threatnings must fail or your vain hopes must fail Thirdly If ever such as you be saved new conditions must be set to all the promises for there is no condition of any special promise found in any unregenerate person Compare your hearts with these Scriptures Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6. Psal. 24. 4. Psal. 84. 11. Gen. 17. 1 2. Fourthly If ever such a hope as yours bring you to Heaven then the saving hope of Gods elect is not rightly described to us in the Scriptures Scripture hope is the effect of regeneration 1 Pet. 1. 3. and purity of heart is the effect of that hope 1 John 3. 3. Nay Fifthly The very nature of Heaven is mistaken in Scripture if such as you be Subjects qualified for its enjoyment for assimilation or the conformity of the soul to God in holiness is in the Scripture account a principal ingredient of that blessedness by all which it manifestly appears that the hopes of most men are vain and will never bring them to Heaven The Twenty first SERMON Sermon 21. Doct. 2. That there is a mighty efficacy in the Word or Law Doct. 2. of God to kill vain Confidence and quench carnal Mirth in the hearts of men when God sets it home upon their Consciences THe weapons of the word are not carnal but mighty 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. In the opening of this point I shall 1. Demonstrate the efficacy of the word or Law of God 2. Shew wherein the efficacy thereof lies 3. From whence it hath all this mighty power and efficacy First I shall give you some demonstrations of the mighty power and efficacy that there is in the word or Law of God 1. which will appear with fullest evidence First From the various subjects upon whom it works the hearts and Consciences of men of all orders and qualities 1. have been reached and wounded to the quick by the two-edged sword of Gods Law Some among the great and honourable of the earth though indeed the fewest of that rank have been made to stoop and tremble under the word Act. 24. 16. Mark 6. 20. 1 Sam. 15. 24. the wise and learned of the world have felt its power and been brought over to imbrace the humbling and self-denying ways of Christ Acts 17. 34. Thus Origen Hierom Tertullian Bradwardine and many more came into Canaan laden with Egyptian Gold as one speaks i. e. they came into the Church of God abundantly enriched and furnished with the learned arts and sciences devoting them all to the service of Christ Yea and which is as strange the most simple weak and illiterate have been wonderfully changed and wrought upon by the power of the word the testimonies of the Lord make wise the simple Men of weak understandings in all other matters have been made wise to salvation by the power of the word Mat. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 27. Nay the most malicious and obstinate enemies of Christ have been wounded and converted by the word 1 Tim. 1. 13. Act. 16. 24. Those that have been under the prejudice of the worst and most idolatrous education have been the subjects of its mighty power Act. 19. 26. To conclude men of the most profligate and debauched lives have been wonderfully changed and altered by the power of the word 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. Secondly The mighty efficacy of the Law of God appears in the manner of its operation which works suddenly strikes like a Dart through the hearts and Consciences of men Act. 2. 37. a wonderful change is made in a short time and as it works quickly and suddenly so it works irresistibly with an uncontrouled power upon the spirits of men 1 Thes. 1. 5. Rom. 1. 16. Let the soul be armed against conviction with the thickest ignorance strongest prejudice or most obstinate resolution the word of God will wound the breast even of such a man when God sends it forth in his authority and power Thirdly The wonderful power of the Law or word of God is evidently seen in the strange effects which are produced by it in the hearts and lives of men For First It changes and alters the frame and temper of the mind it moulds a man into a quite contrary
temper Gal. 〈◊〉 1. 23. He which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed thus a Tyger is transformed into a Lamb by the power of the word of God Secondly It makes the soul upon which it works to forgo and quit the dearest interest it hath in this world for Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 7 8 9. riches honours self righteousness dearest relations are denied and forsaken reproach poverty and death it self are willingly imbraced for Christs sake when once the efficacy of the word hath been upon the hearts of men 1 Thes. 1. 6. Those that were their companions in sin are declined renounced and cast off with abhorrence 1 Pet. 4. 3 4. In such things as these the mighty power of the word discovers it self Secondly Next let us see wherein the efficacy of the word upon the souls of men principally consisteth and we find 2. in Scripture it exerteth its power in five distinct acts upon the soul by all which it strikes at the life and kills the very heart of vain hopes For First It hath an awakening efficacy upon secure and sleepy sinners it rouzes the Conscience and brings a man to a sense and feeling apprehension Eph. 5. 13 14. the first effectual jog or touch of the word startles the drousie Conscience A poor sinner lies in his sins as Peter did in his Chains fast asleep though a Warrant were signed for his Execution the next day but the Spirit in the word awakens him as the Angel did Peter and this awakening power of the word is in order both of time and nature antecedent to all its other operations and effects Secondly The Law of God hath an enlightning efficacy upon the minds of men 't is eye-salve to the blinded eye Rev. 3. 18. a light shining in a dark place 2 Pet. 1. 19. a light shining into the very heart of man 2 Cor. 4. 6. When the word comes in power all things appear with another face the sins that were hid from our eyes and the danger which was concealed by the policy of Satan from our souls now lie clear and open before us Eph. 5. 8. Thirdly The word of God hath a convincing efficacy it sets sin in order before the soul Psal. 50. 21. as an Army is drawn up in exact order so are the sins of nature and practice the sins of youth and age even a great and terrible Army is drawn up before the eye of the Conscience the convictions of the word are clear and full 1 Cor. 14. 24 25. the very secrets of a sinners heart are made manifest his mouth is stopt his pleas are silenced his Conscience yields to the charge of guilt and equity of the sentence of the Law So that the soul stands mute and self-condemned at the Bar of Conscience it hath nothing to say why the wrath of God should not come upon it to the uttermost Rom. 3. 19. Fourthly The Law of God hath a soul-wounding an heart-cutting efficacy it pierces into the very soul and spirit of man Act. 2. 37. When they heard this they were pricked at their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we do A dreadful sound is in the sinners ears his soul is in deep distress he knows not which way to turn for ease no Plaister but the blood of Christ can heal these wounds which the word makes no outward trouble affliction disgrace or loss ever touched the quick as the word of God doth Fifthly The word hath a heart-turning a soul converting efficacy in it 't is a regenerating as well as a convincing word 1 Pet. 1. 23. 1 Thes. 1. 9. The Law wounds the Gospel cures the Law discovers the evil that is in sin and the misery that follows sin and the Spirit of God working in fellowship with the word effectually turns the heart from sin And thus we see in what glorious acts the efficacy of the word discovers it self upon the hearts of men and all these acts lie in order to each other for until the soul be awakened it cannot be enlightned Eph. 5. 14. till it be enlightned it cannot be convinced Eph. 5. 13. Conviction being nothing else but the application of the light that shines in the mind to the Conscience of a sinner till it be convinced it cannot be wounded for sin Act. 2. 37. and until it be wounded for sin it will never be converted from sin and brought effectually to Jesus Christ and thus you see what the power of the word is Thirdly In the last place it will concern us to enquire whence the word of God hath all this power and it is 3. most certain that it is not a power inherent in it self nor derived from the instrument by which it is managed but from the Spirit of the Lord who communicates to it all that power and efficacy which it hath upon our souls First Its power is not in or from it self it works not in a Physical way as natural agents do for then the effect would alwayes follow except it were miraculously hindred but this spiritual efficacy is in the word as the healing vertue was in the waters of Bethesda John 5. 4. An Angel went down at a certain season into the Pool and troubled the water whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had It is not a power naturally inherent in it at all times but communicated to it at some special seasons how often is the word Preached and no man awaked or convinced by it Secondly The power of the word is not communicated to it by the instrument that manageth it 1 Cor. 3. 7. Neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth Ministers are nothing to such an effect and purpose as this is he doth not mean that they are useless and altogether unnecessary but insufficient of themselves to produce such mighty effects it works not as it is the word of man 1 Thes. 2. 13. Ministers may say of the ordinary as Peter said of the extraordinary effects of the Spirit Acts 3. 12. Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this or why look ye so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk If the effects of the word were in the power and at the command of him that preacheth it then the blood of all the souls that perish under our Ministry must lye at our door as was formerly noted Thirdly If you say whence then hath the word all this power Our answer is it derives it all from the Spirit of God 1 Thes. 2. 13. For this cause thank we God without ceasing Literâ jubetur spiritu donaâ—…r Aug. Ep. 157. because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God
needs be satisfied that Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him which is the sixth Lesson Believers are taught of God Lesson 7. Every man that cometh to Christ is taught of God that it can never reap any benefit by the blood of Christ except he have union with the person of Christ 1 Joh. 5. 12. Eph. 4. 16. Time was when men fondly thought nothing was necessary to their salvation but the death of Christ but now the Lord shews them that their union with Christ by faith is as necessary in the place of an applying cause as the death of Christ is in the place of a meritorious cause the purchase of salvation is an act of Christ without us whilst we are yet sinners the application thereof is by a work wrought within us when we are believers Col. 1. 27. In the purchase all the elect are redeemed together by way of price In the application they are actually redeemed man by man by way of power Look as the sin of the first Adam could never hurt us unless he had been our head by way of generation so the righteousness of Christ can never benefit us unless he be our head in the way of regeneration In teaching this Lesson the Lord in mercy unteaches and blots out that dangerous principle by which the greatest part of the Christianized world do perish viz. that the death of Christ is in it self effectual to salvation though a man be never regenerated or united unto him by saving faith Lesson 8. God teaches the soul whom he is bringing to Christ that whatsoever is necessary to be wrought in us or done by us in order to our union with Christ is to be obtained from him in the way of prayer Ezek. 36. 37. And it is observable that the soul no sooner comes under the effectual teachings of God but the spirit of prayer begins to breath in it Acts 9. 8. behold he prayeth those that were taught to pray by men before are now taught of the Lord to pray to pray did I say yea and to pray fervently too as men concerned for their eternal happiness to pray not only with others but to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret for their hearts are as bottles full of new wine which must vent or break Now the soul returns upon its God often in the same day now it can express its burthens and wants in words and groans which the spirit teacheth they pray and will not give over praying till Christ come with compleat salvation Lesson 9. Ninthly All that come to Christ â—…e taught of God to abandon their former wayes and companions in sin as ever they expect to be received unto mercy Isai. 55. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Sins that were profitable and pleasant as the right hand and right eye must now be cut off Companions in sin who were once the delight of their lives must now be cast off Christ saith to the soul concerning these as he said in another case John 18. 8. if therefore ye seek me let these go their way and the soul saith unto Christ as it is Psalm 119. 115. depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God and now pleasant sins and companions in sin become the very burthen and shame of a mans soul objects of delight are become objects of pity and compassion no endearments no union of blood no earthly interests whatsoever are found strong enough to hold the soul any longer from Christ nothing but the effectual teachings of God is found sufficient to dissolve such bonds of iniquity as these Lesson 10. Tenthly All that come unto Christ are taught of God that there is such a beauty and excellency in the wayes and people of God as is not to be matcht in the whole world Psal. 16. 3. When the eyes of strangers to Christ begin to be opened and enlightned in his knowledge you may see what a change of judgement is wrought in them with respect to the people of God and towards them especially whom God hath any way made instrumental for the good of their souls Cant. 5. 9. they then called the spouse of Christ the fairest among women the convincing holiness of the Bride then began to enamour and affect them with a desire of nearer conjunction and communion we will seek him with thee with thee that hast so charged us that hast taken so much pains for the good of our souls now and never before the righteous appeareth more excellent than his Neighbour Change of heart is always accompanied with change of judgement with respect to the people of God thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 33. washed the Apostles stripes to whom he had been so cruel before The godly now seem to be the glory of the places where they live and the glory of any place seems to be darkned by their removal As one said of holy Mr. Barrington Methinks the Town is not at home when Mr. Barrington is out of Town they esteem it a choice mercy to be in their company and acquaintance Zech. 8. 23. we will go with you for we have heard that God is with you no people like the people of God now as one said when he heard of two faithful friends utinam tertius essem O that I might make the third Whatever vile or low thoughts they had of the people of God before to be sure now they are the excellent of the earth in whom is all their delight the holiness of the Saints might have some interest in their Consciences before but they never had such an interest in their estimations and affections till this Lesson was taught them by the Father Lesson 11. Eleventhly All that come to Christ are taught of God that whatever difficulties they apprehend in Religion yet they must not upon pain of damnation be discouraged thereby or return back again to sin Luke 9. 62. No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God plowing work is hard work a strong and steady hand is required for it he that plows must keep on and make no balks of the hardest and toughest ground he meets with Religion also is the running of a Race 1 Cor. 9. 24. there is no standing still much less turning back if ever we hope to win the prize The Devil indeed labours every way to discourage and daunt the soul by representing the insuperable difficulties of Religion to it and young beginners are but too apt to be discouraged and fall under despondency but the teachings of the Father are encouraging teachings they are carried on from strength to strength against all the oppositions they meet from without them and the many discouragements they find within them to this conclusion they are brought by the teaching of God we must have Christ we must get a pardon we must strive for salvation let the difficulties troubles and sufferings in
to be led by the spirit ver 18. to be in the spirit and the spirit to dwell in them Rom. 8. 9. And so much of the first thing to be opened viz. what we are to understand by the giving of the spirit Secondly In the next place we are to enquire and satisfie 2. our selves how this giving of the spirit evidently proves and strongly concludes that souls interest in Christ unto whom he is given and this will evidently appear by the consideration of these five particulars First The spirit of God in believers is the very bond by which they are united unto Christ if therefore we find in our selves the bond of union we may warrantably conclude that we have union with Jesus Christ this is evidently held forth in those words of Christ Joh. 17. 22 23. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me 't is the glory of Christs humane nature to be united to the God-head this glory said Christ thou gavest me and the glory thou gavest me I have given them i. e. by me they are united unto thee and how this is done he sheweth us more particularly I in them there is Christ in us viz. mystically and thou in me there is God in Christ viz. Hypostatically so that in Christ God and believers meet in a blessed union 't is Christs glory to be one with God 't is our glory to be one with Christ and with God by him but how is this done certainly no other way but by the giving of his Spirit unto us for so much that phrase I in them must needs import Christ is in us by the sanctifying spirit which is the bond of our union with him Secondly The Scripture every where makes this giving or indwelling of the spirit the great mark and tryal of our interest in Christ concluding from the presence of it in us positively as in the Text and from the absence of it negatively as in Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Jude ver 19. sensual not having the spirit this mark therefore agreeing to all believers and to none but believers and that alwayes and at all times it must needs clearly inferr the souls union with Christ in whomsoever it is found Thirdly That which is a certain mark of our freedom from the Covenant of works and our title to the priviledges of the Covenant of grace must needs also inferr our Union with Christ and special interest in him but the giving or indwelling of the sanctifying spirit in us is a certain mark of our freedom from the first Covenant under which all Christless persons still stand and our title to the special priviledges of the second Covenant in which none but the members of Christ are interested and consequently it fully proves our Union with the Lord Jesus This is plain from the Apostles reasoning Gal. 4. 6 7. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. The spirit of the first Covenant was a servile spirit a spirit of fear and bondage and they that were under that Covenant were not Sons but Servants but the Spirit of the New Covenant is a free ingenuous spirit acting in the strength of God and those that do so are the Children of God and Children inherit the blessed priviledges and royal immunities contained in that great Charter the Covenant of Grace they are heirs of God and the evidence of this their inheritance by vertue of the second Covenant and of their freedom from the servitude and bondage of the first Covenant is the spirit of Christ in their hearts crying Abba father So Gal. 5. 18. if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the Law Fourthly If the eternal decree of Gods electing love be executed and the vertues and benefits of the death of Christ applyed by the spirit unto every soul in whom he dwelleth as a spirit of sanctification then such a giving of the spirit unto us must needs be a certain mark and proof of our special interest in Christ but the decree of Gods electing love is executed and the benefits of the blood of Christ are applyed unto every soul in whom he dwelleth as a spirit of sanctification This is plain from 1 Pet. 1. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ where you see both Gods election executed and the blood of Jesus sprinkled or applyed unto us by the spirit which is given to us as a spirit of sanctification There is a blessed order of working observed as proper to each person in the Godhead the Father electeth the Son redeemeth the spirit sanctifieth The spirit is the last efficient in the work of our salvation what the Father decreed and the Son purchased that the Spirit applyeth and so puts the last hand to the compleat salvation of believers And this some Divines give as the reason why the sin against the spirit is unpardonable because he being the last agent in order of working if the heart of a man be filled with enmity against the spirit there can be no remedy for such a sin there is no looking back to the death of Christ or to the Love of God for remedy this sin against the spirit is that obex infernalis the deadly stop and bar to the whole work of salvation oppositely where the spirit is received obeyed and dwelleth in the way of sanctification into that soul the eternal love of God and inestimable benefits of the blood of Christ run freely without stop or interruption and consequently the interest of such a soul in Jesus Christ is beyond all dispute Fifthly The giving of the spirit to us or his residing in us as a sanctifying spirit is every where in Scripture made the pledge and earnest of eternal salvation and consequently must abundantly confirm and prove the souls interest in Christ Eph. 1. 13 14. In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance c. So 2 Cor. 1. 22. who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts And thus you have the point opened and confirmed The Use of all followeth Use. Use. Now the only Use I shall make of this point shall be that which lyeth directly both in the eye of the Text and of the design for which it was chosen namely by it to try and examine the truth of our interest
life be prolonged for a season it lives in believers still but not upon the provision they willingly make to fulfil the Lust of it Rom. 13. ult The design of every true believer is co incident with the design of the spirit to destroy and mortifie corruption they long for the extirpation of it and are daily in the use of all sanctified means and instruments to subdue and destroy it the workings of their corruptions are the afflictions of their souls Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and there is no one thing that sweetens the thoughts of death to believers except the sight and full enjoyment of God more than their expected deliverance from sin doth Evidence 5. Where ever the spirit of God dwelleth in the way of sanctification in all such he is the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered where ever he is poured out as the spirit of grace he is also poured out as the spirit of supplication Zech. 12. 10. his praying and his sanctifying influences are undivided There is a threefold assistance that the spirit gives unto sanctified persons in prayer he helps them before they pray by setting an edge upon their defires and affections he helps them in prayer by supplying matters of request to them teaching them what they should ask of God he assisteth them in the manner of prayer supplying to them suitable affections and helping them to be sincere in all their desires to God 't is he that humbles the pride of their hearts dissolves and breaks the hardness of their hearts out of dcadness makes them lively out of weakness makes them strong he assisteth the spirits of believers after prayer helping them to faith and patience to believe and wait for the returns and answers of their prayers O Reader reflect upon thy duties consider what spirituality sincerity humility broken-heartedness and melting affections after God are to be found in thy duties is it so with thee or dost thou shuffle over thy duties as an interruption to thy business and pleasures are they an ungrateful task imposed upon thee by God and thy own conscience are there no hungerings and thirstings after God in thy soul or if there be any pleasure arising to thee out of prayer is it not from the ostentation of thy gifts if it be so reflect sadly upon the carnal state of thy heart these things do not speak the spirit of grace and supplication to be given thee Evidence 6. Where ever the spirit of Grace inhabits there is an heavenly spiritual frame of mind accompanying and evidencing the indwelling of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace by the mind understand the musings reasonings yea and the cares fears delights and pleasures of the soul which follow the workings and meditations of the mind as these are so are we if these be ordinarily and habitually taken up and exercised about earthly things then is the frame and state of the man carnal and earthly the workings of every creature follow the being and nature of it if God Christ Heaven and the world to come engage the thoughts and affections of the soul the temper of such a soul is spiritual and the spirit of God dwelleth there this is the life of the regenerate Phil. 3. 20. our conversation is in Heaven and such a frame of heart is life and peace a serene placid and most comfortable life no pleasure upon earth no gratifications of the senses do relish and savour as spiritual things do Consider therefore which way thy heart ordinarily works especially in thy Solitudes and hours of retirement these things will be a great evidence for or against thy soul. David could say how precious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the summ of them if I should count them they are more in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139. 17 18. Yet it must be acknowledged for the relief of weaker Christians that there is great odds and variety found in this matter among the people of God for the strength steadiness and constancy of a spiritual mind results from the depth and improvement of sanctification the more grace still the more evenness spirituality and constancy there is in the motions of the heart after God The minds of weak Christians are more easily entangled in earthly vanities and more frequently diverted by inward corruptions yet still there is a spiritual pondus inclination and bent of their hearts towards God and the vanity and corruption which hinders their communion with him is their greatest grief and burthen under which they groan in this world Evidence 7. Those to whom the spirit of grace is given they are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the Sons of God sanctified souls give themselves up to the government and conduct of the spirit they obey his voice beg his direction follow his motions deny the solicitations of the flesh and blood in obedience to him Gal. 1. 16. and they that do so they are the sons of God 't is the office of the spirit to guide us into all truth and 't is our great duty to follow his guidance Hence it is that in all enterprizes and undertakements the people of God so earnestly beg direction and counsel from him Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness saith David make thy way straight before my face Psal. 8. 5. they dare not in doubtful cases lean to their own understandings yea in points of duty and in points of sin they dare not neglect the one or commit the other against the convictions and perswasions of their own consciences though troubles and sufferings be unavoidable in that path of duty when they have ballanced duties with sufferings in their most serious thoughts the conclusion and result will still be it is better to obey God than man the dictates of the spirit rather than the counsels of flesh and blood But before I leave this point I reckon my self a debtor unto weak Christians and shall endeavour to give satisfaction to some special doubts and fears with which their minds are ordinarily entangled in this matter for it is a very plain case that many souls have the presence and sanctification of the spirit without the evidence and comfort thereof Divers things are found in believers which are as so many fountains of fears and doubts to them And First I greatly doubt the spirit of God is not in me Obj. 1. saith
heart Thirdly The crucifixion of the flesh doth not consist in the cessation of the external acts of sin for in that respect the lusts of men may dye of their own accord even a kind of natural death The members of the body are the weapons of unrighteousness as the Apostle calls them age or sickness may so blunt or break those weapons that the soul cannot use them to such sinful purposes and services as it was wont to do in the vigorous and healthful season of life not that there is less sin in the heart but because there is less strength and activity in the body Just as it is with an old Soldier who hath as much skill policy and delight as ever in military actions but age and hard services have so infeebled him that he can no longer follow the camp Fourthly The crucifixion of sin doth not consist in the fevere castigations of the body and penancing it by stripes fasting and tiresome pilgrimages This may pass for mortification among Papists but never was any lust of the flesh destroyed by this rigour Christians indeed are bound not to indulge and pamper the body which is the instrument of sin nor yet must we think that the spiritual corruptions of the soul â—…eel those stripes which are inflicted upon the body see Col. 2. 23. 't is not the vanity of superstition but the power of true religion which crucifies and destroys corruption 't is faith in Christs blood not the spilling of our own blood which gives sin the mortal wound Secondly But if you enquire what then is implied in the Posit 2. mortification or crucifixion of sin and wherein it doth consist I answer First It necessarily implies the souls implantation into Christ and union with him without which it is impossible Errant in ipsa natura mortificationis Christianae nam corporis afflictionem injuriam reputant pro vera mortificatione cum illa non ad carnem praecipue aut inferiorem animae partem sed ad mentem voluntatem maximè pertineat Davenant in Coloss. 256. that any one corruption should be mortified they that are Christs have crucified the flesh the attempts and endeavors of all others are vain and ineffectual when we were in the flesh saith the Apostle the motions of sin which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Rom. 5. 7. sin was then in its full dominion no abstinence rigour or outward severity no purposes promises or solemn vows could mortifie or destroy it there must be an implantation into Christ before there can be any effectual crucifixion of sin what Believer almost hath not in the days of his first convictions tryed all external methods and means of mortifying sin and found it in experience to be to as little purpose as the binding of Sampson with green Wit hs or Cords But when he hath once come to act faith upon the death of Christ then the design of mortification hath prospered and succeeded to good purpose Secondly Mortification of sin implies the agency of the spirit of God in that work without whose assistances and aids all our endeavours must needs be fruitless of this work we may say as it was said in another case Zech. 4. 6. not by might noâ—… by power but by my spirit saith the Lord. When the Apostle therefore would shew by what hand this work of mortification is performed he thus expresseth it Rom. 8. 13. if ye through the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live the duty is ours but the power whereby we perform it is Gods the spirit is the only successful Combatant against the lusts that war in our members Gal. 5. 17. 't is true this excludes not but implies our endeavours for it is we through the spirit that mortifie the deeds of the body but yet all our endeavours without the Spirits aid and influence avail nothing Thirdly The crucifixion of sin necessarily implies the subversion of its dominion in the soul a mortified sin cannot be a reigning sin Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Two things constitute the dominion of sin viz. the fulness of its power and the souls subjection tâ—… it As to the fulness of its power that rises from the suitableness it hath and pleasure it gives to the corrupt heart of man it seems to be as necessary as the right hand as useful and pleasant as the right eye Mat. 5. 29. but the mortified heart is dead to all pleasures and profits of sin it hath no delight or pleasure in it it becomes its burthen and daily complaint Mortification presupposes the illumination of the mind and conviction of the conscience by reason whereof sin cannot deceive and blind the mind or bewitch and ensnare the will and affections as it was wont to do and consequently its dominion over the soul is destroyed and lost Fourthly The crucifying of the flesh implies a gradual weakning of the power of sin in the soul. The death of the Cross was a slow and lingering death and the crucified person grew weaker and weaker every hour so it is in the mortification of sin the soul is still cleansing it self from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. And as the body of sin is weakned more and more so the inward man or the new creature is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 16. for sanctification is a progressive work of the spirit and as holiness increases and roots it self deeper and deeper in the soul so the power and interest of sin proportionably abates and sinks lower and lower until at length it be swallowed up in victory Fifthly The crucifying of the flesh notes to us the Believers designed application of all spiritual means and sanctified instruments for the destruction of it there is nothing in this world which a gracious heart more vehemently desires and longs for than the death of sin and perfect deliverance from it Rom. 7. 2â—… the sincerity of which desires doth accordingly manifest it self in the daily application of all Gods remedies such are daily watching against the occasions of sin Job 31. 1. I have made a Covenant with mine eyes more than ordinary vigilancy over their special or proper sin Psal. 18. 23. I kept my self from mine iniquity earnest cries to Heaven for preventing grace Psal. 19. 13. keep back thy Servant also from presumptuous sins let them not have dominion over me deep humbling of soul for sins past which is an excellent preventive unto future sins 2 Cor. 2. 11. in that he sorrowed after a Godly sort what carefulness it wrought care to give no furtherance or advantage to the design of sin by making provision for the flesh to fulfill the Lusts thereof as others do Rom. 13. 13 14. willingness to bear the due reproofs of sin Psal. 141. 5. Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness these and such like means of
Med. Consider what the damned suffer for those sins which the devil now tempteth you to commit it hath deprived them of all Med. 5. good all outward good Luke 16. 25. all spiritual good Mat. 25. 41. and of all hope of enjoying any good for ever And as it hath deprived them of all good so it hath remedilesly plunged them into all positive misery Misery from without the wrath of God being come upon them to the uttermost and misery from within for their worm dieth not Mark 9. 44. The memory of things past the sense of things present and the fearful expectations of things to come are the nibblings and bitings of the worm of conscience at every bite whereof damned souls give a dreadful shriek crying out O the worm the worm Would any man that is not forsaken by reason run the hazard of those eternal miseries for the brutish pleasures of a moment 6. Med. Bethink your selves what inexcusable hypocrisie it will be in Med. 6. you to indulge your selves in the private satisfaction of your lusts under a contrary profession of Religion You are a people that profess holiness and professedly own your selves to be under the Government and Dominion of Christ and must the worthy Name of Christ be only used to cloak and cover your lusts and corruptions which are so hateful to him God forbid You daily pray against sin you confess it to God you bewail it you pour out supplications for pardoning and preventing grace are you in jest or earnest in these solemn duties of Religion Certainly if all those duties produce no mortification you do but flatter God with your lips and put a dreadful cheat upon your own souls Nay do you not frequently censure and condemn those things in others and dare you allow them in your selves What horrid hypocrisie is this Christians are dead to sin Rom. 6. 2. Dâ—…ad to it by profession dead to it by obligation dead to it by relation to Christ who died for it and how shall they that are so many ways dead to sin live any longer therein O think not that God hates sin the less in you because you are his people nay Ipsa delicta peccata fidelium odio sunt displicent Deo sed odio simplici non redundanti in personam Davenant in Col. 1. 10. that very consideration aggravates it the more Amos 3. 2. 7. Med. Consider with your selves what hard things some Christians have chosen to endure and suffer rather than they would defile Med. 7. themselves with guilt and shall every small temptation insnare and take your souls Read over the Eleventh Chapter to the Hebrews and see what the saints have endured to escape sin no torments were so terrible to them as the displeasure of God and woundings of conscience and did God oblige them more by his grace and favour than he hath obliged you O Christians how can you that have found such mercies mercies as free pardons as full as ever any souls found show less care less fear less tenderness of grieving God than others have done Certainly if you did see sin with the same eyes they saw it you would hate it as deeply watch against it as carefully and resist it as vigorously as any of the Saints have done before you 8. Med. Consider with your selves what sweet pleasure rational Med. 8. and solid comfort is to be found in the mortification of sin 'T is not the fulfilling of your lusts can give you the thousandth part of that comfort and contentment that the resistance of them and victory over them will give you Who can express the comfort that is to be found in the chearing testimony of an acquitting and absolving conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. Remember what satisfaction and peace it was to Hezekiah upon his supposed death-bed when he turned to the wall and said Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa. 38. 3. 4. Use for Examination In the next place this point naturally puts us upon the Examination and trial of our own hearts whether we Use 4. who so confidently claim a special interest in Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts and because two sorts of persons will be concerned in this Triall viz. the weaker and the stronger Christians I shall therefore lay down two sorts of Evidences of Mortification one respecting the sincerity and truth the other respecting the strength and progress of that work in confirmed and grown Christians and both excluding false pretenders First There are some things that are Evidential of the truth and sincerity of Mortification even in the weakest Christians as First True tenderness of conscience in all known sins one as well as another is a good sign sin hath lost its Dominion in the soul O 't is a special mercy to have a heart that shall smite and reprove us for those things that others make nothing of to check and admonish us for our secret sins which can never turn to our reproach among men this is a good sign that we hate sin as sin however through the weakness of the flesh we may be ensnared by it Rom. 7. 15. What I hate that I do Secondly The sincere and earnest desires of our souls to God in prayer for heart-purging and sin-mortifying grace is a good sign our souls have no love for sin Canst thou say poor believer in the truth of thy heart that if God would give thee thy choice it would please thee better to have sin cast out than to have the world cast in that thy heart is not so earnest with God for daily bread as it is for heart-purging grace this is a comfortable evidence that sin is nayled to the Cross of Christ. Thirdly do you make conscience of guarding against the occasions of sin Do you keep a daily watch over your hearts and senses according to 1 John 5. 18. Job 31. 1. This speaks a true design and purpose of Mortification also Fourthly do you rejoyce and bless God from your hearts when the providence of God orders any means for the prevention of sin Thus did David 1 Sam. 25. 33. And David said to Abigail Blessed be the Lord God of Israel which sent thee this day to meet me and blessed be thy advice and blessed be thou which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood and from avenging my self with my own hand Fifthly In a word though the thoughts of death may be terrible in themselves yet if the expectation and hope of your deliverance from sin thereby do sweeten the thoughts of it to your souls it will turn unto you for a testimony that you are not the servants and friends of sin And so much briefly of the first sort of Evidences Secondly There are other signs of a more deep and through Mortification of sin in more
only that which is first and best in every kind is the rule and measure of all the rest 'T is the height of Saints ambition to be made conformable to Christ Phil. 3. 10. Christ hath a double perfection a perfection of being and a perfection of working his life was a perfect rule no blot or error could be found therein for he was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners and such an High-Priest became us as the Apostle speaks Heb. 7. 26. The conformity of professors to Christs example is the test and measure of all their graces the nearer any man comes to this pattern the nearer he approaches towards perfection Seventhly The Christians imitation of Christ under penalty of losing his claim to Christ necessarily implies sanctification and obedience to be the evidences of our justification and interest in Christ assurance is unattainable without obedience we can never be comfortable Christians except we be strict and regular Christians Gal. 6. 16. As many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Israel of God A loose and careless conversation can never be productive of true peace and consolation 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoicing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the world Let men talk what they will of the immediate sealings and comforts of the spirit without any regard to holiness or respect to obedience Sure I am whatever delusion they meet with in that way true peace and consolation is only to be expected and found here The fruit of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever We have it not for our holiness but we always have it in the way of holiness And so much of the first particular namely what the imitation of Christ implies and comprizes in it Secondly In the next place we are to enquire in what 2. things all that profess Christ are obliged to the imitation of him or what those excellent graces in the life of Christ were which are propounded as patterns to the Saints The life of Christ was a living law all the graces and Quid vobis cum virtutibus qui virtutem Christi ignoratis Ubinam quaeso vera prudentia nisi in Christi doctrina Ubi vera temperantia nisi in Christi vita Ubi vera fortitudo nisi in Christi passione Bernard vertues of the Spirit were represented in their glory and brightest luster in his conversation upon earth never man spake as he spake never any lived as he lived we beheld his glory saith the Evangelist as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth John 1. 14. But to descend to the particular imitable excellencies in the life of Christ which are high patterns and excellent rules for the conversations of his people we shall from among many others single out the ten following Particulars which we are obliged to imitate Pattern 1. And first of all the purity and holiness of the life of Christ is proposed as a glorious pattern for the Saints imitation 1 Pet. 1. 15. As he which hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in every creek and turning of your lives There is a twofold holiness in Christ the holiness of his nature and the holiness of his practice his holy being and his holy working this obligeth all that profess interest in him to a twofold holiness viz. holiness in actu primo in the principles of it in their hearts and holiness in actu secundo in the practice and exercise of it in their conversations 't is very true we cannot in all respects imitate the holiness of Christ for he is essentially holy proceeding by nature as a pure beam of holiness from the Father and when he was incarnate he came into the world immaculate and pure from the least stain of pollution therefore it was said Luke 1. 25. That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God in this we can never be like Christ in the way of our production for who can bring a clean thing out of that which is unclean not one The Lord Jesus was also efficiently holy i. e. he makes others holy therefore his sufferings and blood are called a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness i. e. to cleanse other mens souls Zech. 13. 1. in this Christ also is inimitable no man can make himself or others holy That 's a great truth though it will hardly go down with proud nature minus est te fecisse hominem quam sanctum we may sooner make our selves to be men than to be Saints Beside Christ is infinitely holy as he is God and there are no stints or measures set to his holiness as Mediator John 3. 34. for God giveth not the spirit by measure unto him But notwithstanding these excepted respects the holiness of Christ is propounded as a pattern for our imitation six ways First He was truly and sincerely holy without fiction or simulation and this appeared in the greatest trial of the truth of holiness that ever was made in this world John 14. 30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me when he was agitated and shaken with the greatest temptations no Galaxia est maxima frequentia minimarum stellarum quae prae exiguitate ad nostrum aspectum distinctè pervenire nequâ—…unt ut caeterae stellae atque ita inter se lumen commiscent confundunt Conimb de Meteor cap 2. dregs appeared he was like pure fountain-water in a Crystal Glass The hypocrite makes shew of more holiness than he hath but there was more holiness in Christ than ever appeared to the view of men We may say of the way of Christ what the Philosopher saith of the milky way in the Heavens that those faint streams of light which we see there are nothing else but the reflection of innumerable Stars which shine there though they be invisible to us there was much inward beauty in him and so there ought to be in all his followers our holiness like Christs must be sincere and real Eph. 4. 24. shining with inward beauty towards God rather than towards men Secondly Christ was uniformly holy at one time as well as another in one place and company as well as another he was still like himself an holy Christ one and the same tenour of holiness ran thoughout his whole life from first to last so must it be with all his people holy in all manner of conversation Christians look to your copy and be sure to imitate Christ in this write fair after your Copy let there not be here a word and there a blot one part of your life heavenly and pure and another earthly and dreggy or as one expresses it
boundaries must be preserved p. 467 Grace the riches of it in remission p. 302 Grace the vile abuse of it taxed p. 306 Grieving the Spirit the sin of Believers p. 411 Guilt incurred in times of tentation p. 560 Guilt only relieved by blood of Christ. p. 208 H. HAbits of Grace inspired not acquired p. 96 Habitude of faith to Gospel terms p. 121 Happy estate of pardoned souls p. 303 Happiness of Saints above all men p. 338 Harmony of the Spirits motions p. 412 Habits of grace how assisted p. 469 Hell torments how aggravated p. 187 Heart its deceitfulness opened p. 369 Heavenly mindedness what it infers p. 418 Heaven no Heaven to the unregenerate p. 440 Heavenly mindedness connotes grace p. 453 Honour of religion on what it depends p. 482 Hour of death by what sweetned p. 483 Holiness of Christ our pattern p. 501 Holiness of Christ sixfold p. 502 Humility of Christ exemplary p. 512 Hypocrisie wherein it lies p. 490 Hypocrites are twice dead p. 536 Husband none like Christ. p. 255 I. IGnorance the cause of security p. 351 Ignorance twofold p. 420 Immortality the priviledge of grace p. 37 Impossibility of coming without drawing p. 70 Imputed righteousness vindicated p. 130 Illumination antecedent to faith p. 147 Implantation into Christ necessary p. 461 Impossibility of salvation to some p. 395 Inoffensive life of Christ. p. 511 Joy of Saints a rational joy p. 331 Inexcusableness of Christ-despisers p. 19 Infusion of spiritual life instantaneous p. 101 Inability of nature to produce grace p. 105 Inheritance of Saints how secured p. 178 Interest in Christ how evinced p. 180 Invitations of Christ to weary souls p. 198 Inherence of sin when and how cured p. 220 Inferiour things should not satisfie Saints p. 243 Interest in Christ the ground of peace p. 204 Inward troubles infest the best hearts p. 325 Inability to return to God discovered p. 337 Influence of Christs death into our glory p. 340 Ineffectualness of the word a sore judgement p. 365 Indisposedness of man to come to Christ. p. 394 Incongruity of carnal ways to Saints p. 448 Instrumentality for service whence p. 480 Insupportableness of affliction to some p. 482 Imitation of Christ how necessary p. 497 Imitation of Christ what it compriseth ibid. Improve Christ to your own rest p. 214 Justification evidenced by sanctification p. 500 Justice unsatisfied bars Heaven p. 337 K. KEep the evil of sin in your eye p. 488 Keep the sufferings of Christ before you ibid. Keep the sufferings of the damned before you p. 490 Knowledge of spiritual things twofold p. 139 Knowledge of interest a ground of peace p. 289 Knowledge spiritual excellent p. 397 Knowledge of the creatures vanity p. 485 Knowledge aggravates sin three ways p. 557 Knowledge secures none from Hell p. 559 Knowledge improved against Knowledge p. 579 L. LAw its efficacy on the Conscience p. 185 Lamentations for the unregenerate p. 537 Learned men why Christless p. 395 Leadings of the Spirit what p. 419 Lessons twelve taught by God p. 378 Life spiritual what it is p. 95 Life spiritual its excellency p. 96 Life spiritual still growing p. 98 Life spiritual in all the faculties p. 100 Life Natural Political Theological p. 108 Life of Believers how comfortable p. 296 Liberty purchased by Christ p. 323 Liberty of six sorts p. 328 Liberty of Believers wonderful p. 329 Liberty of Believers its properties p. 330 Liberty must be maintained p. 333 Liberty a motive to come to Christ p. 334 Loveliness of Christ in all respects p. 255 Longing to be with Christ its ground p. 285 Love of Christ wonderful p. 280 Loveliness of creatures derivative p. 250 Lovely nothing is so in opposition to Christ p. 251 M. MAnner of the Spirits work various p. 413 Marks of right inward troubles p. 191 Marks of saving faith p. 149 Marks of the new creature p. 451 Matter of duty no evidence of grace p. 412 Means of mortification p. 462 Mediums of communion with Christ p. 172 Mediocrity in outwards eligible p. 477 Meeting of Saints in Heaven joyful p. 339 Meltings in duty twofold p. 421 Memory of sins past how revived p. 185 Method of cure a restraint from sin p. 225 Mercy to be under Christs cure p. 227 Mercies of two sorts p. 233 Mercy Christ is the mercy of mercy evidenced in twelve respects p. 23â—… Mercies derive their sweetness 〈◊〉 and durableness from Christ p. 215 Mercy not to be expected out of Christ p. 241 Ministry removed a sore judgement p. 49 Ministers obliged to faithfulness ibid. Ministers unduely treated p. 58 Ministers must mind their own estates p. 59 Mirth of unregenerate groundless p. 548 Mind influenced by God p. 392 Mortification painful work p. 463 Motions of sin in the best Saints p. 325 Motives to faith p. 153 Motives ten to inflame desires p. 272 Motives six to come to Christ p. 307 Mortification proves interest in Christ p. 458 Mortification what it imports p. 459 Mortification why called crucifying p. 463 Mortification the method of salvation p. 466 Mortification requires affliction p. 474 Motives to imitate Christ p. 521 Mysterious way of regeneration p. 99 N. NAtures pride in what discovered p. 81 Natures current cross to Christ p. 80 Natural and spiritual affections hâ—… they may be distinguished p. 421 National rejection of Christ dangerâ—… p. 268 Necessity of divine teachings p. 390 Necessity of mortification p. 465 Necessity of the new Creature p. 439 New creature consists in two things p. 405 New creature proves interest in Christ p. 429 New creature why grace is so called ibid. New creation in what it resembles the old opened in many respects p. 430 New Christians are so in three respects p. 432 New creature exceeding beautiful p. 434 New creature its designation p. 4â—…5 New creature immortal and how so p. 497 New creature its heavenly tendency p. 437 New creature its activity p. 438 New creature in whom undiscernible p. 447 Number of real Christians small p. 475 O. OBedience the end of spiritual life p. 101 Obedience whence its excellency p. 102 Obedience of Christ our pattern p. 504 Obedience to the law as our rule p. 324 Object formal of faith what it is p. 118 Obstacles to glory how removed p. 340 Object of faith must be determinate p. 194 Objections against believing answered p. 200 Occasions not to be given to corruption p. 474 Occasions of sin must be cut off p. 485 Offers of Christ what they include p. 155 Offer of Christ intire and compleat p. 122 Offer of Christ in what manner p. 123 Offices of Christ how suitable p. 253 Opinions about faith divers p. 132 Opposition of Satan to the Gospel why p. 333 Operations of the Gospel various p. 360 Opposition of flesh and spirit what p. 424 Opposition to sin twofold p. 468 Opinions justly rejected p. 477 Ornaments of nature what and how to be denied for Christ p. 81 Ordinances why to