the first was there is no power of hell can dissolve it He suffered once to bring us once unto God never to depart again as he suffered once for all so we are brought once for all We may be sensibly nearer at one time than another but yet we can never be separate nor cut off being once knit by Christ as the bond of our Union Neither Principalities nor Powers c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God because it holds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Being put to death in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit The true life of a Christian is to eye Christ every step of his life both as his rule and as his strength looking to him as his pattern both in doing and suffering and drawing power from him for going through both for the look of Faith doth that fetches life from Jesus to enable it for all being without him able for nothing Therefore the Apostle doth still set this before his Brethren and here having mentioned his suffering in general the condition and end of it he specifies the particular kind of it that which was the utmost put to death in the flesh and then adds this issue out of it Quickned by the Spirit The strongest engagement and the strongest encouragement he our head crowned with Thorns and shall the body look for Garlands We redeemed from hell and Condemnation by him and can any such refuse any Service he calls them to they that are washt in the Lambs blood will follow him wheresoever he goes and following him through they shall find their Journeys end overpay all the troubles and sufferings of the way These are they said he to Iohn which came out of great tribulation tribulation and great tribulation yet they came out of it and glorious too arrayed in long white robes The scarlet Strumpet as follows in that Book died her Garments red in the blood of the Saints But this is their happiness that their Garments are washt white in the blood of the Lamb. Once take away sin and all suffering is light now that is done by this his once suffering for sin they that are in him shall hear no more of that as condemning them binding them over to suffer that wrath that is due to sin Now this puts an invincible strength into the Soul for all other things how hard soever Put to death This tâ—e utmost point and that which Men are most startled at to die and a violent death put to death and yet he hath led in this way who is the Captain of our Salvation In the flesh Under this second his humane Nature and Divine Nature and power are differenced Put to death in the flesh a very fit expression not only as is usual taking the flesh for the whole Manhood but because death is most properly spoken of that very person or his flesh the whole Man suffers death a dissolution or taking a pieces and the Soul suffers a separation or dislodging but death or the privation of life and sense particularly to the flesh or body but the Spirit here opposed to the flesh or body is certainly of a higher Nature and Power than is the Humane Soul which cannot of it self return and reinhabit and quicken the body Put to Death His death was both voluntary and violent that same power that restored his life could have kept it exempted from death but the design was for death he therefore took our flesh to put it off thus and offered it up as a Sacrifice which to be acceptable must of necessity be free and voluntary and in that sense he is said to have died even by that same Spirit that here in opposition to death is said to quicken him Heb. 9. 14. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot unto God They accounted it an ill boding sign when the Sacrifices came constrainedly to the Altar and drew back and on the contrary were glad in the hopes of success when they came chearfully-forward but never Sacrifice came so willingly all the way and from the first step knew whether he was going Yet because no other Sacrifice would serve he was most content Sacrifices and burnt Offerings thou didst not desire Then said I loe I come c. Was not only a willing Sacrifice as Isaac bound peaceably and laid on the Altar but his own Sacrificer the Beasts if they came willingly yet offered not themselves but he offered up himself and thus not only by a willingness far above all those Sacrifices of Bullocks and Goats but by the eternal Spirit offered up himself Therefore he says in this regard I lay down my life for my sheep it is not pull'd from me but I lay it down and so it is often exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he died and yet this suites with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 put to death yea it was also expedient to be thus that his death should be violent and so the more penal carry the more clear expression of a punishment and such a violent death as had both ignominy and a Curse tyed to it and this inflicted in a judicial way though as from the hands of Men most unjustly that he should stand and be Judged and Condemned to Death as a guilty Person carrying in that the Persons of so many that should otherwise have fallen under Condemnation as indeed guilty he was numbred with transgressors as the Prophet hath it bearing the sins of many Thus then there was in his Death external violence joyned with internal willingness But what is there to be found but Complications of Wonders in our Lord Jesus O! high inconceivable mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh nothing in this World so strange and sweet as that conjuncture God Man humanitas Dei what a strong Foundation of Friendship and Union betwixt the Persons of Man and God that their natures met in so close embraces in one Person And then look on and see so poor and despised an outward condition through his life yet having hid under it the Majesty of God all the brightness of the Fathers Glory And this the top of all that he was put to Death in the flesh the Lord of life dying the Lord of Glory cloathed with shame But it quickly appeared what kind of Person it was that died by this he was put to Death indeed in the flesh but quickned by the Spirit Quickned He was indeed too great a morsel for the Grave to digest for all its vast craving mouth and devouring appetite crying give give yet forced to give him up again as the fish that Prophet who in that was the figure of him the Chains of that Prison are strong but he was too strong a Prisoner to be held by them as our Apostle hath it in his Sermon that it was not possible that he should be kept by them They thought all was sure when they had rolled to the Stone and
main subject and scope in the foregoing Discourse that death was before called a suffering in the flesh which is in effect the same and therefore though the words may be drawn another way yet its strange that Interpreters have been so far wide of this their genuine and agreeable sense and almost all of them taken in some other intendment To be judged in the flesh In the present sense is to die to sin or that sin die in us and it s thus exprest 1. Suitably tably to the nature of it it is to the flesh a violent death and it is according to a Sentence judicially put against it that guilty and miserable life of sin is in the Gospel adjudged to death there that arrest and sentence is clear and full Rom. 6. 6 c. 8. 13. That sin must die that the Soul may live it must be crucified in us and we to it that we may partake of the Life of Christ and Happiness in him And this is called to be judged in the flesh to have this sentence executed 2. The thing is the rather spoke here under the term of being judged in counter-ballance of that Judgment mentioned immediately before v. 5. The last Judgment of quick and dead wherein they that would not be thus judged but mockt and despised those that were shall fall under a far more terrible Judgment and the sentence of a heavy death indeed everlasting death though they think they shall escape and enjoy liberty in living in sin And that to be judged according to men is I conceive added to signifie the connaturalness of the life of sin to man 's now corrupt nature That men do judge it a death indeed to be severed and pulled from their sins and that a cruel death and the Sentence of it in the Gospel a heavy Sentence a hard Saying to a carnal Heart that he must give up with all his sinful delights must die indeed in self-denial must be separated from himself which is to die if he will be joyned with Christ and live in him Thus men judge that they are judged to a painful death by the Sentence of the Gospel although it is that they may truely and happily live yet they understand it not so They see the death the parting with sin and all its pleasures but the life they see not nor can any know it till partaking of it it is known to him in whom it is it is hid with Christ in God And therefore the opposition here is very fiâ—ly thus represented that the death is according to men in the flesh but the life is according to God in the Spirit As the Christian is adjudged to this death in the flesh by the Gospel so he is lookt on and accounted by carnal men as dead for that he enjoyes not with them what they esteem their life and think they could not live without it one that cannot carrouse and swear with prophane Men is a silly dead Creature good for nothing and he that can bear wrongs and love him that injured him is a poor spiritless fool hath no mettal nor life in him in the World's account thus is he judged according to men in the flesh he is as a dead man but lives according to God in the Spirit dead to men and alive to God as ver 2. Now if this life be in thee it will act all life is in motion and is called an act but most of all active is this most excellent and as I may call it most lively life it will be moving towards God often seeking to him making still towards him as its principle and fountain holy and affectionate thoughts of him sometimes on one of his sweet attributes sometimes on another as the Bee amongst the Flowers And as it will thus act within so outwardly laying hold on all occasions yea seeking out ways and opportunities to be serviceable to thy Lord employing all for him commending and extolling his goodness doing and suffering chearfully for him laying out the strength of desires and parts and means in thy station to gain him Glory If thou be alone then not alone but with him seeking to know more of him and be made more like him if in company then casting about how to bring his name in esteem and to draw others to a love of Religion and Holiness by Speeches as it may be â—it and most by the true behaviour of thy carriage Tender over the Souls of others to do them good to thy utmost thinking each day an hour lost when thou art not busie for the honour and advantage of him to whom thou now livest thinking in the Morning now what may I do this day for my God How may I most please and glorifie him and use my strength and wit and my whole self as not mine but his and then in the evening reflecting O Lord have I seconded these thoughts in reality what glory hath he had by me this day whither went my thoughts and endeavours what busied them most have I been much with God have I adorned the Gospel in my converse with others And if finding any thing done this way to bless and acknowledge him the spring and worker of it If any step aside were it but to an appearance of evil or if any fit season of good hath escapt thee unprofitably to check thy self and to be grieved for thy sloth and coldness and see if more love would not beget more diligence Try it by sympathy and antipathy which follows the nature of things as we see in some Plants and Creatures that cannot grow cannot agree together and others that do favour and benefit mutually If thy Soul hath an aversion and reluctancy against holiness this is an evidence of this new Nature and Life Thy heart rises against wicked ways and speeches oaths and cursings and rotten communication yea thou canst not endure unworthy discourses wherein most spend their time findest no relish in the unsavory societies of such as know not God canst not sit with vain persons but findest a delight in those that have the image of God upon them such as partake of that Divine Life and carry the evidences of it in their carriage David did not disdain the fellowship of the Saints and that was no disparagement to him he implies in the name he gives them Psal. 16. The excellent ones the Magnifick or Noble and that word is taken from one that signifies a robe or noble Garment so he thought them Nobles and Kings as well as he and had robes royal and therefore Companions of Kings A spiritual eye looks on spiritual dignity and esteems and loves them that are born of God how low soever be their natural birth and breeding The Sons of God have of his Spirit in them and are born to the same inheritance where all shall have enough and they are tending homewards by the conduct of the same Spirit that is in them so that there must be amongst them a
or Sign hanging out that tells a vain Mind lodges within 2. Of excessive costliness which both argues and â—â—eds the Pride of the Heart and defrauds if not others of their dues yet the poor of thy charity which in God's sight is a due debt too and far more comfort shall thou have on thy death Bed to remember such a time in stead of Lace on my own Cloaths I helped a naked back to cloathing I abated somewhat of my former superfluities to supply the Poors necessities sweeter this than to remember that I could needlesly cast out many pounds to serve my Pride rather than give a penny to relieve the Poor As conscientious Christians will not exceed in the thing it self so in as far as they use lawful Ornament and Comeliness they will do it without bestowing much either diligence or delight on the business To have the mind taken and pleas'd with such things is so foolish and childish a thing that if most might not find it in themselves they would wonder at many others of years and common wit And yet truely 't is a Disease that few escape 't is strange upon how poor things Men and Women will be vain and think themselves some body not only upon some comeliness in their face or feature which though poor yet is a part of themselves but of things meerly without them that they are well lodged or well mounted or well apparell'd either richly or well in fashion light empty minds as bladders blown up with any thing and they that perceive not this in themselves are most drown'd but such as have found it out and abhor their own follies are still hunting and following themselves in these to beat them out of their hearts and to shame them from such fopperies The Soul fallen from God hath lost its true worth and beauty and therefore it basely descends to these mean things to serve and dress the body and take share with it of its unworthy borrow'd Ornaments hath lost and forgotten God and seeks not after him knows not that he is the alone Beauty and Ornament of the Soul Ier. 2. 32. his Spirit and the Graces of it its rich attire as here particularly specified in one excellent Grace and holds true in the rest The Apostle doth indeed expresly on purpose check and forbid vanity and excess in apparel and excessive delight in lawful decorum but his prime end is to recommend this other Ornament of the Soul The hidden man of the heart 'T is the thing the best Philosophy aim'd at as some of their choice men do express it to reduce men as much as may be from their Body to their Soul but this is the thing that true Religion alone doth effectually and throughly from the pampering and feeding of a Morsel for the Worms to the nourishing of that immortal being infus'd into 't and directs it to the proper nourishment of Souls the Bread that came down from Heaven Io. 6. 27. So here the Apostle pulls off from Christian Women their vain outside Ornaments but is not this a wrong to spoil all their dressing and fineness No he doth but this to send them to a better Wardrobe there 's much profit in the change All the Gold and other riches of the Temple figuring the Excellent Graces of Christians of Christ indeed first as having all fullness in himself and furnishing them but secondarily of Christians as the living Temples of God so the Church all glorious but within and the embroidery the variety of Graces the lively colours of other Graces shining best on the dark ground of Humility Christ delights to give much Ornament to his Church commends what she hath and adds more Cant. 1. 10. 11. The particular Grace he recommends is particularly suitable to his subject in hand the conjugal duty of Wives nothing so decoring their whole carriage as this meekness and quietness of Spirit but it is withal the comeliness of every Christian in every estate 't is not a Womans Garment or Ornament improper for Men there is somewhat as I may say of a particular cut or fashion of it for Wives towards their Husbands and in their domestick Affairs but Men all Men ought to wear of the same stuff yea so to speak of the same piece for it is in all one and the same Spirit fits the stoutest and greatest Commanders Moses a great General and yet no less great in this Virtue the meekest Man on Earth Nothing more uncomely in a Wife than an uncomposed turbulent Spirit that is put out of frame with every trifle and inventive of false causes of disquietness and fretting to it self And so of a Husband and of all an unquiet passionate Mind lays it self naked and discovers its own deformity to all The greatest part of things that vex us are not from their Nature or weight but the unsettledness of our Minds How comely is it to see a composed firm Mind and Carriage that is not lightly moved I urge not a Stoical stupidness but that in things that deserve sharp reproof the Mind keep in its own Station and Seat still not shaken out of it self as the most are that the Tongue utter not unseemly rash words nor the Hand act any thing that discovers the mind hath lost its command for the time but truly the most know so ill how to use just anger upon just cause that it is easier and the safer extream not to be angry but still calm and serene as the upper Region not the place of continual tempest and storms as the most are let it pass for a kind of sheepishness to be meek 't is a likeness to him that was a Sheep before the shearers not opening his Mouth 't is a Portion of his Spirit The Apostle commends his exchange of Ornaments from two things 1. Incorruptible and therefore fits an incorruptible Soul Your varieties of Jewels and Rich Apparel are perishing things you shall one day see an heap made of all and that all on a slame and in reference to you they perish sooner when death strips you of your nearest Garment your flesh all the other that were but loose upper Garments above it must off too it gets indeed a covering to the Grave but the Soul is left stark naked if no other Cloathing be provided for it for the Body was but borrowed then it is denuded of all But spiritual Ornaments and this here amongst them remain and are incorruptible they neither wear out nor out of fashion but are still the better for the wearing and shall last Eternity and shine there in full lustre And 2dly because the opinion of others is much regarded in matter of Apparel and 't is most for that we use Ornament in it he tells us of the account of this Men think it poor and mean nothing more expos'd to contempt than the Spirit of Meekness mere folly with Men that 's no matter this overweighs all their disesteem 't is
Fountain of Harmony it cuts the sinews and strength of Prayer makes breaches and gaps as wounds at which the spirits fly out as the cutting of a vein by which as they speak it bleeds to death When the Soul is calm and compos'd it may behold the Face of God shining on it and they that pray together should not only have hearts in tune within themselves in their own frame but tun'd together especially Husband and Wife that are one they should have hearts consorted and sweetly tun'd to each other for prayer So the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matt. 18. 19. And 't is generally true that all unwary walking in a Christian wrongs their communion with Heaven and casts a damp upon their Prayers clogs the Wings of it these two mutually help one another Prayer and holy Conversation the more exactly we walk the more fit for prayer and the more we pray the more enabled to walk exactly and 't is a happy lâ—â—e to find the correspondence of these two calling on the Lord and departing from iniquity Therefore that you may pray much live holily and that you may live holily be much in prayer surely such are the heirs of Glory and this is their way to it Verse 8. Finally be ye all of one mind having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous HEre the particular Rules the Apostle gives to several Relations fall in again to the main current of his general Exhortation that concerns all us Christians The return of his discourse to this universality is express'd in that finally and the universality of these duties all 'T is neither possible nor convenient to descend to every particular but there is suppos'd in a Christian an ingenuous and prudent spirit to adapt those general Rules to their particular Actions and Conversation squaring by them before hand and examining by them after and yet herein the most fail hear these as general discourses and let them pass so apply them not or if they do 't is readily to some other but they are address'd to all that each one may regulate himself by them and so these Divine Truths as a well drawn Picture looks particularly upon every one amongst the great Multitude that look upon it And this one Verse hath a cluster of five Christian Graces or Vertues That which is in the middle as the stalk or root of the rest Love and the other growing out of it two on each side Vnanimity and Sympathyâ— on the one and Pity and Courtesie on the other but we shall take them as they lie Of one mind This doth not only mean Union in Judgment but it extends likewise to Affection and Action especially in so far as they relate to and depend upon the other And so I conceive it comprehends in its full latitude an harmony and agreement of minds and affections and carriage in Christians as making up one body and a serious study of preserving and increasing that agreement in all things but especially in spiritual things in which their Communion doth primely consist And because in this the consent of their Judgments in matters of Religion is a prime point therefore we will consider that a little more particularly And First What it is not 1. 'T is not a careless indifferency concerning those things not to be troubled about them at all nor to make any judgment concerning them this is not a loving agreement arising from oneness of spirit but a dead stupidity arguing a total spiritlessness as the agreement of a number of dead bodies together which indeed do not strive and conâ—â—st that is they move not at all and that is they live not So that concor'd in things of Religion that iâ— a not considering them nor acting of the mind about them is either the fruit and sign of gross ignorance or irreligion they that are wholly ignorant of spiritual things are content you determine and impose upon them what you will as in the dark there is no difference nor choice of colours they are all one But 2. which is worse in some this peaceableness about Religion is from an universal unbelief and inaffection and that sometimes comes of the mâ—ch search and knowledge of debatâ—s and controversies in Religion men having so many disputes about Religion in their Heads and no Life of Religion in their Hearts fall into a conceit that all is but juggling and the easiest is to believe nothing and these agree with any or rather with none sometimes 't is from a prophane supercilious disdain of all these things and many therebe of these of Gallio's temper that care for none of these things and that account all Questions in Religion as he did but matter of Words and Names And by this all Râ—ligions may agree together but it were not a natural Union by the active heat of the Spirit but a confusion rather by the want of it not a knitting together but a freezing together as cold congregates all how heterogeneous soever Sticks and Stones and Water but heat makes first a separation of different things and then unites those that are of the same Nature And to one of these two is reducible much of the common quietness of Peoples Minds about Religion all that implicite Romish agreement that they boast of what is it but a brutish ignorance of spiritual things authoriz'd and recommended for that very purpose and amongst the learned of them as many idle differences and disputes as among any 'T is an easie way indeed to agree if all will put out their eyes and follow the blind guiding of their Judge of controversies this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their great device for Peace to let the Pope determine all Iâ— all will resolve to be cozen'd by him he will agree them all as if the Consciences of Men should only find Peace by being led by the nose at one man's pleasure a way the Apostle â—aul clearly renounces 2 Cor. 1. 24. Not for that we have Dominion over your Faith but are helpers of your joy for by Faith ye stand And though we have escaped this yet much of our common union of minds I fear is from no other than the aforementioned causes want of knowledge and want of affection to Religion You that boast you live conformably to the Appointments of the Church and none hears of your noise we may thank the ignorance of your minds for that kind of quietness but this requir'd unanimity is another thing and before I unfold it I shall premise this That although it be very difficult and it may be impossible to determine what things are alone â—undamental in Religion under the notion of difference intended by that word yet it is undoubted that there be some Truths more absolutely necessary and therefore accordingly more clearly revealed than some others there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great things of the Law and so of the Gospel And though no part of Divine
painful diseases that either quickly cut the thread of Life or make their aged bones full of the sins of their youth Take what way you will there is no place nor condition so senc'd and guarded but publick calamities or personal griefs find away to reach us Seeing then we must suffer however this kind of suffering to suffer for righteousness is far the best what he said 〈◊〉 of doing ill we may well say of suffering ill if it must be 't is best to be for a Kingdome And those are the terms on which Christians are called to suâ—â—er for righteousness if we will reign with Christ certain 〈…〉 sâ—ffer with him and if we do suffer with hi◠〈…〉 we shall reign with him And therefoâ—◠〈…〉 are happy But 〈…〉 suffering for righteousness only with relation to 〈◊〉 Apostle's present reasoning his conlusion he establishâ— 1. From the favour and protection of God 2. From the nature of the thing it self Now we would consider the consistence of this supposition with those reasons 1. The Eyes of the Lord being on the righteous for their good and his Ear open to their Prayer how is it that for all that favour and inspection they are so much expos'd to suffering and even for the regard and affection they bear towards him suffering for righteousness these seem not to agree well yet they do 'T is not said that his Eye is so on them as that he will never see them afflicted nor have them suffer any thing no but this is their great priviledge and comfort in suffering that his gracious Eye is then upon them and sees their trouble and his Ear towards them not so as to grant them an exemption for that they will not seek for but seasonable deliverance and in the mean while strong support as is evident in that 34th Psalm If his Eye be always on them he sees them suffer often for their afflictions are many ver 19. and if his Ear be to them he hears many sighs and cries press'd out by sufferings and they are content this is enough yea better then not to suffer they suffer and often directly for him but he sees it all takes perfect notice on 't therefore 't is not lost And they are forc'd to cry but none of their cries escape his Ear he hears and he manifests that he sees and hears for he delivers them and till he does he keeps them from being crush'd under the weight of the suffering he keeps all his bones not one of them is broken He sees yea appoints and provide these conflicts for his choicest Servants he sets his Champions to encounter the malice of Satan and the World for his sake to give proof of the truth and the strength of their love to him for whom they suffer and to overcome even in suffering He is sure of his design'd advantages out of the sufferings of his Church and Saints for his name he loses nothing nor they lose nothing but their Enemies when they rage most and prevail most are ever the most losers his own glory grows and his peoples graces grow yea their very number grows and that sometimes most by their greatest sufferings It was evident in the first Ages of the Christian Churches where were the glory of so much invincible love and patience if they had not been so put to it 2. For the other that the said following of good would preserve from harm it speaks truly the nature of it what 't is apt to do and what in some measure it often doth but the considering the nature of the World its enmity against God and Religion that strong poyson in the Serpents Seed it is not strange that it often proves otherwise that notwithstanding the righteous carriage of Christians yea even because of it they suffer much 't is a resolv'd case all that will live godly must suffer Persecution it meets a Christian in his entry to the way of the Kingdome and goes along all the way no sooner begin thou to seek the way to Heaven but the World will seek how to vex and molest thee and make that way grievous if no other way by scoffs and taunts as bitter blasts to destroy the tender blossom or bud of Religion or as Herod to kill Christ newly born you shall no sooner begin to enquire after God but twenty to one they will begin to enquire if thou art gone mad but if thou knowest who 't is whom thou hast trusted and whom thou lovest this is a small matter what though it were deeper and sharper sufferings yet still if you suffer for righteousness happy are you Which is the Second thing was proposed and more particularly imports that a Christian under the heaviest load of sufferings for righteousness is yet still happy notwithstanding these suffering 2dly That he is happier even by these sufferings And 1. All the sufferings and distresses of this World are not able to destroy the Happiness of a Christian nor diminish it yea they cannot at all touch it 't is out of their reach If it were built on worldly enjoyments then worldly deprivements and sufferings might shake it yea might undo it when those rotten stoups fail that which rests on them must fall he that hath set his heart on his riches a few hours can make him miserable 't is almost in any bodies power to rob him of his Happiness a little slight or disgrace undoes him or whatsoever the Soul fixes on of these moving unfixed things pluck them from it and it must cry after them ye have taken away my God's But the Believer's happiness is safe out of shot he may be impoverished and imprison'd and tortur'd and kill'd but this one thing is out of hazard he cannot be miserable still in the midst of all these subsists a happy Man If all Friends be shut out yet the visits of the Comforter may be frequent bringing him glad tydings from Heaven and communing with him of the love of Christ and solaâ—ing him in that 'T was a great word for a Heathen of his false 〈◊〉 kill me they may but they cannot hurt me how much more confidently may the Christian say so banishment he â—ears not for his Country is above nor death for that sets him home into that Country The believing Soul having hold of Jesus Christ can easily despise the best and the worst of the World and give a defie to all that 's in it can share with the Apostle in that which he gives I am perswaded that neither death nor life shall separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. Yea what tho' the frame of the World were a dissolving and salling a pieces this happiness holds and is not stir'd by it for 't is in that Rock of Eternity that stirs not nor changes at all Our main work truly if you will believe it is this to provide this immoveable happiness that amidst all changes and losses and sufferings
to say with him in the Gospel Soul take thine ease thou hast much Goods laid up for many years c. though warn'd by his short ease there and by many watch words yea by daily experience that days may come yea one day will where fear and trouble shall rush in and break over the highest Tower of Riches that there is a day call'd the Day of Wrath wherein they profit not at all thus Men seek Safety in Greatness or Multitude or supposed Faithfulness of Friends seek by any means to be strongly underset this way to have many and powerful and confident Friends But wiser mâ—n perceiving the unsafety and vanity of these and all external things have cast about for some higher Course they see a necessity of retiring a Man from externals that do nothing but mock and deceive most those that trust most to them but they cannot well tell whither to direct him the best of them bring him into himself and think to quiet him so but the Truth is he finds as little there nothing truly strong enough within him to hold out against the many sorrows and â—ears that still from without do assault him so then though 't is well done to call off a a Man from outward things as moving Sands that he build not on them yet 't is not enough done for his own spirit is as unsettled a piece as is in all the World and must have some higher strength than its own to fortifie and fix it This is the way that is here taught fear not c. but sanctifie the Lord c. and if you can attain this latter the former will follow of it self 1. Generally God taking the place formerly possess'd by things full of motion and unquietness solids and establishes the Heart 2. Particularly Consider 1. Fear of him 2. Faith in him His Fear turns other fears out of doors no room for them where this great Fear is and being greater than they all yet disturbs not as they do yea brings as great quiet as they brought trouble 't is an ease to have but one thing for the heart to deal withal for many times the multitude of carnal fears is more troublesome than their weight as flies that vex most by their number Again This fear is not a terrible apprehension of God as an Enemy but a sweet composed reverence of God as our King yea as our Father very great but no less good than great so highly esteeming of his favour as fearing most of all things to offend him in any kind especially if the Soul have been formerly either under the lash of his apprehended displeasure or on the other side have had some sensible tastes of his love and hath been entertained in his Banqueting-House where his Banner over it was Love Faith carries the Soul above all doubts that if sufferings or sickness or death come nothing can separate it from him this suffices yea what though he may hide his face for a time the hardest of all yet no separation His Children fear him for his Goodness are afraid to lose sight of that or prejudge themselves of any of its influences desire to live in his favour and then for other things they are not much thoughtful 2. Faith sets the Soul in God and if there be not safety where is it rests on those perswasions it hath concerning him and that interest it hath in him Believes that he sits and rules the Affairs of the World with an all-seeing Eye and all-moving Hand the greatest Affairs surcharge him not and the very smallost escape him not orders the march of all Armies and the events of Battels and yet thou and thy particular condition slips not out of his view the very hairs of thy head are numbred are not all thy steps and the hazards of them known to him and all thy desires before him doth he not number thy wandrings every weary step thou art driven to and put thy tears in his Bottle thou mayest assure thy self that however thy matters seem to go all is contriv'd to subserve thy Good chiefly thy chief and highest Good there is a regular Motion in them though the Wheels do look to run cross all those things are against me said old Iacob and yet they were all for him In all estates I know no hearts ease but to believe to sanctifie and honour thy God in resting on his Word if thou art perswaded of his Love sure that will carry above all distrusting fears if thou art not clear in that point yet depend and resolve to stay by him yea to stay on him till he shew himself unto thee thou hast some fear of him thou canst not deny it without gross injury to him and thy self wouldst willingly walk in all well-pleasing unto him well then who is among you that feareth the Lord though he see no present light yet let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Press this upon thy Soul for there is not another charm for all its fears and unquiet therefore repeat it still with David sing this still till it be stilled chide thy distrustful heart into believing why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me hope in God for I shall yet praise him though I 'm all out of tune for the present never a right string in my Soul yet he will put to his hand and redress all and I shall yet once again praise and therefore even now I will hope 'T is true God is a safe shelter and refuge but he is holy and holy Men may find admittance and protection but can so vile a sinner as I look to be protected and taken in under his safe guard Go try knock at his Door and take it not on our word but on his own it shall be opened to thee and once thou shall have a happy life on 't in the worst times Faith hath this priviledge never to be asham'd it takes Sanctuary in God and sits and sings under the shadow of his wings as David speaks Ps. 63. Whence the unsettledness of minds in trouble when 't is near but because they are far off from God the heart shak't as the leaves of the Tree with the wind no stability of Spirit God not sanctified in it and no wonder for not known Strange the ignorance of God and the precious Promises of his word the most living and dying strangers to him when trouble comes have not him a known refuge but are to begin to seek after him and to enquire the way to him cannot go to him as acquainted and ingaged by his own covenant with them others have empty knowledge and can discourse of Scripture and Sermons and Spiritual Comforts and yet have none of that fear and trust that quiets the Soul notions of God in their heads but God not sanctified in their hearts If you will be advised this is the way to have a high and strong spirit indeed
and walking And without this good Conscience and Conversation we cut our selves short of other Apologies for Religion whatsoever we say for it one unchristian action will disgrace it more than we can repair by the largest and best framed Speeches on its behalf Let those therefore that have given their names to Christ honour him and their holy profession most this way speak for him as occasion requires why not providing with meekness and fear as our Apostle hath taught but let this be the main defence of Religion live like it and commend it so Thus all should do that are called Christians adorn that holy Profession with holy Conversation but the most are nothing else but spots and bloâ—s some wallowing in the mire and provoking one another to uncleanâ—ess Oh! the unchristian Life of Christians an Evil to be much lamented more than all the Troubles we sustain But these indâ—ed do thus deny Christ and declare that they are not his So many as have any realiâ—y of Christ in you be so much the more holy the more wicked the rest are strive to make it up and to honour that name which they disgrace and if they will reproach you because ye walk not with them and cast the mire of false reproaches on you take no notice but go on your way it will dry and easily rub off be not troubled with misjudgings shame them out of it by your blamless and holy carriage that will do most to put lies out of countenance however if they continue impudent the day is at hand wherein all the Enemies of Christ shall be all cloathed over and covered with shame and they that have kept a good Conscience and walked in Christ shall lift up their faces with joy 2dly There is an intrinsecal good in this goodness of Conscience that sweetens all sufferings as follows Verse 17. 17. For it is better if the will of God be so that ye suffer for well-doing then for evil-doing A Necessity of suffering in any way wherein ye can walk if ye chuse the way of wickedness you shall not escape suffering so And that suppos'd this is by far the better to suffer in well-doing and for it than to suffer either for doing evil or simply to suffer in that way as the Words run 1. The way of the ungodly not exempt for suffering even in present setting aside the judgement and wrath to come often from the hands of men whether justly or unjustly and often from the immediate hand of God always just both in that and the other causing the Sinner to ear of the Fruit of his own ways When prophane ungodly men offer violences and wrongs one to another in this God is just against both in that wherein they themselves are both unjust they are both rebellious against him and so though they intend not his quarrel he means it himself sets them to lash one another As the wicked profess their combined enmity against the Children of God yet they are not always at peace amongst themselves They often revile and desame each other so 't is held up on both sides whereas the godly cannot hold them game in that being like their Lord who when he was reviled reviled not again Besides although the ungodly flourish at sometimes yet they have their days of suffering are subject to the common miseries of the life of Man and the common calamities of evil times the Sword and Pestilence and such like publick judgements Now in what kind soever it be that they suffer they are at a great disadvantage compared with the godly in their sufferings Here impure Consciences may lie sleeping while they are at ease themselves but when any great trouble comes and shakes them then readily the Conscience begins to awake and busle and proves more grievous to them than all that comes on them from without When they remember their despising the ways of God neglecting him and holy things whence they are convinc'd how that comfort might be reapt in these days of distress this cuts and galls them most looking back at their licentious prophane ways each of them strikes to the heart As the Apostle calls sin the sting of death so is it of all sufferings and the Sting that strikes deepest into the very Soul no stripes like those that are secretly given by an accusing Conscience A sad condition to have from thence the greatest anguish where the most comfort should be expected to have thickest darkness whence they should look for most light Men that have evil Consciences love not to be with them are not much with themselves as St. Augustine compares them to such as have shrew'd Wives love not to be at home but yet outward distress sets a Man inward as foul weather drives him home and there where he should find comfort he is met with such accusations as are like a continual dropping as Solomon speaks of a contentious Woman It is a most wretched estate to live under sufferings or afflictions of any kind and a stranger to God then a Man hath God and his Conscience against him that should be his solace in times of distress being knocked off from the comforts of the World whereon he rested and having no Provision of spiritual comfort within nor expectation from above But the Children of God in their sufferings especially such as are for God can retire themselves inwards and rejoyce in the testimony of a good Conscience yea the Possession of Christ dwelling within them All the trouble that befalls them is but as the ratling of Hail upon the Tiles of the House to a man that is sitting within a warm Room at a rich Banquet such is a good Conscience a Feast yea a continual Feast The Believer looks on his Christ and in him reads his deliverance from condemnation and that is a strong Comfort a Cordial that keeps him from fainting in the greatest distresses The Conscience gives this testimony that sin is forgiven raises the Soul above inward sufferings Tell the Christian of loss of Goods or Liberty or Friends or Life he answers all with this Christ is mine and my sin is pardoned That 's enough for me What would I not have suffered to have been delivered from the wrath of God if any suffering of mine in this World could have done that now that is done to my hand All other sufferings are light they are light and but for a moment one thought of Eternity drowns the whole time the World's endurance which is but as one instant or twinkling of an eye betwixt eternity before and eternity after how much less is any short life and a small part that is spent in sufferings though it were all sufferings without interruption which yet it is not when I look forward to the Crown all vanishes and I think it less than nothing Now these things the good Conscience speaks to the Christian in his sufferings therefore certainly his choice is best that provides it
he still asks what you mean by this those things answer not me do ye think I can find Comâ—â—â—â— in them so long as my sin is unpardon'd and there is a 〈◊〉 of Eternal Death standing above my head I feel even an impress of somewhat of that hot Indignation some flashes of it flying and lighting upon the face of my Soul and how can I take pleasure in these things you speak of And though I should be sensless and feel nothing of this all my life yet how soon shall I have done with it and the delights that reach no further and then to have Everlasting burnings Eternity of wrath to enter to how can I be satisfyed with that estate All you offer a Man in this posture is as if ye should set dainty fair and bring musick with it to a Man lying almost pressed to death under great weights and ye bid him eat and be merry but lift not off his pressure you do but mock the Man and add to his misery On the other side he that hath got but a view of his Christ and reads his own pardon in Christs sufferings he can rejoyce in this in the midst of all other sufferings and look on death without apprehension yea with gladness the sting is out Christ hath made all pleasant to him by this one thing that he suffered once for sins Christ hath perfum'd the Cross and the Grave and made all sweet The pardoned Man finds himself light skips and leaps and through Christ strengthning him he can encounter with any trouble If you think to shut in his Spirit within outward sufferings it is now as Sampson in his strength able to carry away the Gates on his back that you would shut one withal yea can submit patiently to the Lords hands in any correction Thou hast forgiven my sin therefore deal with me as thou wilt all is well 1. Learn to consider more deeply and esteem more highly of Christ and his suffering to silence our grumbling at our petty light crosses for so they are in comparison of his will not the great odds of his perfect Innoâ—ency and oâ— his nature and measure of his sufferings will not the sense of that Redemption of our Souls from death by his death will none of these nor all of them argue us into more thankfulness and love to him and patience in our tryals Why will we then be called Christians it is impossible to be fretful and malecontent with the Lord 's dealing with us in any kind till first we have forgot how he dealt with his dearest Son for our sakes But these things are not weigh'd by the most we hear and speak of them but our hearts receive not the impressions of them therefore we repine against our Lord and Father and drown a hundred great blessings in any little touch of trouble that befalls us 2. Seek surer interest in Christ and his suffering than the most either have attained or are aspiring to otherwise all that is here suffered will not ease or comfort thee any thing in any kind of suffering no though thou suffer for a good cause even for his cause still this will be an extraneous foraign thing to thee to tell thee of his sufferings will work no otherwise with thee than some other common story And as in the day of peace thou regardest it no more so in the day of thy trouble thou shalt receive no more comfort from it Other things you esteemed shall have no comfort to speak to you though you persue them with words as Solomon says of the poor Man's friends yet they shall be wanting to you And then you would sure find how happy it were to have this to turn you to that the Lord Jesus suffered for sins and for yours and therefore hath made it a light and comfortable business to you to undergo momentary passing sufferings Days of tryal will come do you not see they are on us already Be perswaded to turn your eyes and desires more towards Christ. This is the thing we would still press the support and happiness of your Souls lyes on it But you will not believe it Oh! that ye knew the comforts and sweetness of Christ. Oh that one would speak that knew more of them were you once but entered into this knowledge of him and the virtue of his sufferings you would account all your days but lost wherein you have not known him and in all times your hearts would find no refreshment like to the remembrance of his love Having somewhat considered these sufferings as the Apostles Argument for his present purpose Now to take nearer notice of the particulars by which he illustrates them as the main point of our Faith and Comfort Of them here two things 1. Their Cause 2. Their Kind Their Cause both their meriting cause and their final cause 1. What in us procured these sufferings unto Christ. 2. What those his suffering procured unto us Our guiltiness brought suffering upon him and his suffering brings us unto God 1. The evil of sin hath the evil of punishment inseparably ty'd to it We have a natural obligation of obedience unto God and he justly urges it so that where the command of his Law is broke the Curse of it presently followeth And though it was simply in the Power of the supream Lawgiver to have dispensed the infliction yet having in his Wisdom purposed to be known a just God in that way following forth the tenor of his Law of necessity there must be a suffering for sin Thus the Angels that kept not their Station falling from it fell into a Dungeon where they are under chains of darkness reserved to the Iudgement of the Great day and Man fell under the sentence of Death But in this is the difference betwixt Man and them they were not of one as parent or common root of the rest but each one fell or stood for himself alone so a part of them only perisht but Man fell altogether so that not one of all the Race could escape condemnation unless some other way of satisfaction be found out And here it is Christ suffered for sins the just for the unjust Father says he I have glorified thee on Earth In this Plot indeed do all the Divine Attributes shine in their full infinite Mercy and immense Justice and Power and Wisdom Looking on Christ as ordained for that purpose I have found a Ransom says the Father one fit to redeem Man a Kinsman one of that very same Stock the Son of Man one able to redeem Man by satisfying me and fullfilling all I lay upon him my Son my only begotten Son in whom my Soul delights And he is willing undertakes all says loe I come c. We are agreed upon the way of this Redemption yea upon the Persons to be redeemed it is not a roving blind Bargain a price paid for we know not to whom Hear his own words Thou hast given the Son
before thee as a Saviour to believe on that so he may be thy Saviour why wilt thou not come unto him why resuseth thou to believe art thou a sinner art thou unjust then he is fit for thy case he suffered for Sins the Iust for the Vnjust Oh but so many and so great sins yea is that it it is true indeed and good reason thou think so But 1. Consider if they be excepted in the Proclamation of Christ the Pardon that comes in his Name if not if he make no exception why wilt thou 2. Consider if thou wilt call them greater than this Sacrifice he suffered Take due notice of the greatness and worth 1. Of his Person and thence of his Sufferings and thou wilt not dare to say thy sin goes above the value of his suffering or that thou art too unjust for him to justifie thee be as unrighteous as thou canst be art thou convinced of it then know that Jesus the Just is more Righteous than thy unrighteousness And after all is said that any sinner hath to say they are yet without exception blessed that trust in him That he might bring us to God It is a chief Point of Wisdom to proportion means to their end therefore the all-wise God in putting his only Son to so hard a task had a high end in this and this was it That he might bring us unto God In this three things 1. The Nature of this good nearness unto God 2. Our deprivement of it by our own sin 3. Our restorement to it by Christs sufferings 1. God hath suited every Creature he hath made with a convenient good to which it tends and in the obtainment of which it rests and is satisfied Natural bodies have each their own natural place whether if not hindred they move uncessantly till they be in it and there declare by resting there that they are as I may say where they would be Sensitive Creatures are carried to seek a sensitive good as agreeable to their rank and being and attaining that aim no further Now in this is the Excellency of Man he is made capable of a Communion with his Maker and because capable of it is unsatisfied without it The Soul a Being cut out so to speak to that largeness cannot be fill'd with less though he is fallen from his right to that good and from all right desire of it yet not from a capacity of it no nor from a necessity of it for the answering and filling of his capacity Though the Heart once gone from God turns continually further away from him and moves not towards him till it be renewed yet ever in that wandering it retains that natural relation to God as its Center that it hath no true rest elsewhere nor cannot by any means find it It is made for him and is thereâ—ore still restless till it meet with him It is true the Natural Man takes much pains to quiet his Heart by other things and digests many vexations with hopes of contentment in the end and accomplishment of some design he hath but still they misgive Many times he attains not the thing he seeks but if he do yet never attains the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it only learns from that to desire something farther and still hunts on after a fancy drives his own shadow before him and never overtakes it and if he did yet it s but a shadow and so in running from God besides the sad end he carries an interwoven punishment with his sin the natural disquiet and vexation of his Spirit fluttering too and fro no rest for the sole of his foot The matters of unconstancy and vanity covering the whole Face of the Earth We study to abase our souls and to make them content with less than they are made for yea we strive to make them carnal that they may be pleased with sensible things and in this men attain a brutish content for a time forgetting their higher good but certainly we cannot think it sufficient and that no more were to be desired beyond Ease and Plenty and Pleasures of Sense for then a Beast in good Case and a good Pasture might contest with us in point of Happiness and carry it away for that sensitive good he enjoys without sin and without the vexation that is mixt with us all These things are too gross and heavy The Soul the immortal Soul descended from Heaven must either be more happy or remain miserable The highest increated Spirit is the proper Good the Father of Spirits that pure and full good raises the Soul above it self whereas all other things draw it down below it self So then its never well with the Soul but when it is near unto God yea in its union with him married to him and mismatching it self elsewhere it hath never any thing but shame and sorrow All that forsake thee shall be ashamed Jer. 17. says the Prophet and the Psalmist Psal. 73. They that are far off from thee shall perish And this is indeed our natural miserable condition and is often exprest this way or estrangedness and distance from God Eph. 2. Gentiles far off by their profession and Nation but both Jews and Gentiles far off by their natural Foundation and both brought near by the blood of the new Covenant and that is the other thing here implied that we are far off by reason of sin otherways there were no need of Christ especially in this way of suffering for sin to bring us unto God The first because of Gods command sin broke off Man and separated him from God and ever since the Soul remains naturally remote from God 1. Under a sentence of Exile pronounced by the Justice of God condemned to banishment from God who is the life and light of the Soul as it is of the Body 2. It 's under a flat impossibility of returning by it self And that in two respects 1. Because of the guiltiness of sin standing betwixt as an unpassable Mountain or Wall of separation 2. Because of the Dominion of sin keeping the Soul captive still drawing it further off from God increasing the distance and the enmity every day Nor in Heaven nor under Heaven no way to remove this enmity and make up this distance and return Man to the Possession of God but this one by Christ and him suffering for sins He endured the Sentence pronounced against man yea even in this particular Notion of it one main ingredient in his suffering was a forsaking to sense that he cried out of And by suffering the Sentence pronounc'd he took away the guiltiness of sin he himself being spotless and undefiled for such an High Priest became us the more defiled we were the more need of an undefiled Priest and Sacrifice and he was both Therefore the Apostle here very fitly mentions this qualification of our Saviour as necessary for reducing us unto God the Iust for the Vnjust so taking on him and taking away the
sealed it that then the Grave had indeed shut her mouth upon him it appeared a done business to them and lookt very compleat-like in his Enemies eyes and very desperate like to his Friends his poor Disciples and Followers were they not near the point of giving over when they said This is the third day c. And we thought this had been he that should have delivered Israel And yet he was then with them who was indeed the Deliverer and Salvation of Israel that rolling of the Stone to the Grave was as if they had rolled it towards the East in the night to stop the rising of the Sun the next Morning much further above all their Watches and power was this Sun of Righteousness in his rising again That body that was enâ—omb'd was united to the Spring of Life the Divine Spirit of the Godhead that quickened it Obs. 1. Thus the Church which is likewise his Body when it seems undone is brought to the lowest Posture yet by vertue of that mystical Union with Jesus Christ as his Natural Body by personal Union with his Deity shall be preserved from destruction and shall be delivered and raised in due time Yet as he was nearest his exaltation in the lowest step of his Humiliation so is it with his Church when things are brought to the most hopeless appearance then shall light arise out of darkness Cum duplicantur lateres venit Moses Therefore as we ought to seek more humble Sense of Sions distress so withal not to let go this hope that her mighty Lord will in the end be glorious in her deliverance and all her sufferings and low estate shall be as a dark Soil to set off the lusture of her restorement when the Lord shall visit her with Salvation As in the rising of Jesus Christ his Almighty Power and Deity was more manifested than if he had not died and therefore we may say confidently with the Psalmist to his Lord Psal. 71. Thou which hast shewed me greâ—t and sore troubles shall quicken me again and shall bring 〈◊〉 up from the depths of the Earth thou shalt increase my greatness and comfort me on every side Yea the Church comes more beautiful out of the deepest distress let it be oâ—erwhelmed with waves yet it sinks not but rises up as only washt And in this confidence we ought to rejoyce even in the midst of our sorrows and though we live not to see them yet even in beholding afar off to be gladed with the great things the Lord will do for his Church in these later times he will certainly make bare his holy Arm in the Eyes of the Nations and all the ends of the Earth shall see the Salvation of our God His King that he hath set on his holy Hill shall grow in his Conquests and Glory and all that rise against him shall he break with a Rod of Iron He was humbled once but his glory shall be for ever as many were astonished at him his Visage being mar'd more than any Man they shall be as much astonished at his Beauty and Glory so shall he sprinkle many Nations and Kings shall shut their mouths at him According as here we find that remarkable evidence of his Divine Power in rising from the dead put to death in the Flesh but quickened by the Spirit 2. Thus a believing Soul at the lowest when to its own sense it is given over unto death and swallowed up of it as it were in the Belly of Hell yet look up to this Divine Power him whose Soul was not left there will not leave thine there Yea when thou art most sunk in thy sad apprehensions and far off to thy thinking then is he nearest to raise and comfort thee as sometimes it grows darkest immediately before day Rest on his power and goodness which never failed any that did so It is he as David says that lifts up the Soul from the Gates of Death 3. Would any of you be cured of that common Disease the fear of Death look this way and you shall find more than you seek you shall be taught not only not to fear but to love it Consider 1. His Death He died by that thou that receivest him as thy life maist be sure of this that thou art by that his death freed from the second death and that 's the great Point let that have the name which was given to the other the most terrible of all terrible things and as the second death is removed this death that thou art to pass through is I may say beautified and sweetned the ugly Visage of it becomes amiable when ye look on 't in Christ and in his death that puts such a pleasing comeliness upon it that whereas others fly from it with affrightment the Believer cannot chuse but embrace it longs to lie down in that Bed of Rest since his Lord lay in it and hath warmed that cold Bed and purified it with his fragrant Body 2. But especially looking forward to his return thence quickened by the Spirit this being to those that are in him the certain pledge yea the effectual Cause of that blessed Reâ—urrection that is in their hopes there is that Union betwixt them that they shall rise by the communication and vertue of his rising not simply by his Power so the wicked to their grief shall be raised but they by his life as theirs Therefore is it so often re-iterated Io. 6. where he speaks of himself as living and Life-giving Bread to Belivers adds I will raise them up at the last day This comfort we have even for the house of Clay we lay down and for our more considerable part our immortal Souls this his death and rising hath provided for them at their dislodging entring into that Glory where he is Now if these things were lively apprehended and laid hold on Christ made ours and the first Resurrection manifest in us quickened by his spirit to newness of life certainly there would not be a more wellcome and refreshing thought nor a sweeter discourse to us than that of death and no matter for the kind of it were it a violent death so was his Were it that we account most judgement like amongst diseases the plague was not his death very painful and was it not an accursed death and by that curse endured by him in his is not the Curse taken away to the Believer Oh! how wellcome shall that day be that day of Deliverance to be out of this woâ—ful Prison I regard not at what Door I go out at being at once freed from so many deaths and set in to enjoy him who is my life Verses 19 20 21. 19. By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison 20. Which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight souls were saved by water 21. The like figure
long time hearers of the Gospel whereof Baptism is the seal and most of us often at the Lord's Table What hath all this done upon us ask within are your hearts changed is there a new Creation there where is that spiritual minâ—â—dness are your hearts dead to the World and 〈◊〉 and alâ—ve to God your Consciences purged from dead works What mean you is not this the end of all the ordinances to make all clean and to renew and make good the Conscience to bring the Soul and your Lord into a happy amity and a good correspondence that it may not only be in speaking terms but often speak and converse with him may have liberty of answering and demanding as this Word hath both That it may speak the language of faith and humble obedience unto God and he may speak the language of peace to it and both the language of the Lord each to other That Conscience alone is good that is much busied in this work in demanding and answering that speaks much with it self and with God this is both the sign that it is good and the means to make it better That Soul will doubtless be very wary in its walk that takes daily account of it self and renders up that account unto God it will not live by guess but readily examin each step before hand because it is resolved to examin all after will consider well what it should do because it means to ask over again what it hath done and not only to answer it self but to make a faithful report of all unto God to lay all before him continually upon tryal made tell him what is in any measure well done as his own work and bless him for that and tell him too all the slips and miscarriages of the day as our own complaining of our selves in his presence and still intreating free pardon and more wisdom to walk more holily and exactly and gaining even by our failings more humility and more watchfulness If you would have your Consciences answer well they must enquire and question much both before hand whether is this I purpose and go about agreable to my Lord's will will it please him ask that more and regard that more than this that the most fâ—llow will it please or profit my self fits that my own humour And not only the bulk and substance of thy way and actions but the manner of them how thy heart is set sâ— think it not enough to go to Church or to pray but take heed how yea hear consider how pure he is and how piercing his eye whom thou servest Then after again think it not enough I was praying or hearing or reading it was a good work what need I question it further No but be still reflecting and asking how it was done how have I â—heard how have I prayed was my heart humbled by the discoveries of sin from the Word was it refresht with the promises of grace did it lye level under the word to receive the stamp of it was it in prayer set and kept in a holy bent towards God did it breath forth real and earnest desires into his ear or was it remiss and roving and dead in the service So in my Society with others in such and such Company what was my time and how did I follow it did I seek to honour my Lord and to edifie my Brethren by my carriage and speeches or did the time run out in trifling vain discourse when alone what 's the carriage and walk of my heart where it hath most liberty to move its own pace is it delighted in converse with God are the thoughts of heavenly things frequent and sweet to it or does it run after the earth and the delights of it spinning out it self in impertinent vain Contrivances The neglect of such inquiries is that which entertains and increases the impurity of the Soul so that Men are afraid to look into themselves and to look up to God But Oh! what a foolish course is this to shift off that which cannot be avoided in the end answer must be made to that all-seeing Judge with whom we have to do and to whom we owe our accompts And truly it would be seriously considered what makeâ— this good Conscience that makes an acceptable answer unto God That appears by the opposition not the puting away the filth of the flesh then it is the puting away of Soul â—ilthiness so then its the renewing and purifying of the Conscience that makes it good pure and peaceable In the purifying it may be troubled which is but the stirring in cleansing of it which makes more quiet in the end as Physick or the launcing of a sore and after it is in some measure cleansed it may have fits of trouble which yet still add further purity and further peace so there is no hazard in that work but all the misery is a dead security of the Conscience remaining filthy and yet unâ—tirred or after some stirring or pricking as a wound not thoroughly cured skin'd over which will but breed more vexation in the end it will fester and grow more difficult to be cur'd and if it be cur'd it must be by deeper cutting and more pain than if at first it had endured a thorough search O My Brethren take heed of sleeping unto death carnal â—ase resolve to take no rest till you be in the Element and place of Soul rest where solid rest indeed is rest not till you be with Christ though all the World should offer their best turn them by with disdain if they will not be turned by throw them down and go over them and upon them you have no rest to give me nor will I take any at your hands nor from no creature no rest for me till I be under his shaddow who endured so much trouble to purchase my rest and having found him may sit down quiet and satisfied and when the World makes boaâ—t of their highest contents I will 〈◊〉 them all with this own Word my beloved is mine and I am his Towards God The Conscience of 〈◊〉 is never right at peace in it self till it be rightly perswaded of peace with God which while it remains â—ilthy it cannot be for he is holy and iniquity cannot dwell with him what Communion betwixt light and darkness so then the Conscience must be cleansed e're it can look upon God with assurance and peace This cleansing is sacramentally performed by Baptism effectually by the Spirit of Christ and the blood of Christ and he lives to impart both Therefore here is mention'd his resurrection from the dead as that by virtue whereof we are assured of this purging and peace Then can it in some measure with confidence answer Lord though polluted by former sins and by sin still dwelling in me yet thou seest that my desires are daily more like my Christ I would have more love and zeal for thee more hatred of sin that can answer with St. Peter
not through fire and water yea through death it self yea were it through many deaths to go after him 2. Consider as its due so it is made easie by that his suffering for us our burden that pressed us to hell taken off is not all as nothing that is left to suffer or do our Chains that bounds us over to eternal Death being knock'd off shall we not walk shall we not run in his ways Oh! think what that Burden and Yoke was he hath eased us of how heavy how unsufferable it was and then we shall think what he so truly says that all he lays on is sweet his yoke easie and his burden light Oh! the happy change rescued from the vilest slavery and called to conformity and Fellowship with the Son of God 2. The Nature of this Conformity to shew the nearness of it is exprest in the very same terms as in the pattern it is not a remote resemblance but the same thing even suffering in the flesh But that we may take it right what suffering is here meant it is plainly this ceasing from sin so suffering in the flesh here is not the enduring of afflictions which is a part of a Christians Conformity with his head Christ Rom. 8. But this is a more inward and spiritual suffering it is the suffering and the dying of our Corruption the taking away the life of sin by the death of Christ and that death of his sinless flesh works in the Believer the death of sinful flesh that is the Corruption of his Nature which is so usually in Scripture called flesh Sin makes Man base drowns him in flesh and the lusts of it makes the very Soul become gross and earthly turns it as it were to flesh so the Apostle calls the very Mind that is unrenewed a carnal mind Rom. 8. And what doth the mind of a Natural Man hunt after and run out into from one day and year to another is it not on things of this base World and the concernment of his flesh What would he have but be accommodated to eat and drink and dress and live at ease he minds earthly things savours and relishes them and cares for them examin the most of your pains and time and your strongest desires and most serious thoughts if they go not this way to raise your selves and yours in your Worldly condition yea the highest projects of the greatest natural Spirits are but earth still in respect of things truly spiritual all their State Designs go not beyond this poor life that perishes in the flesh and is daily perishing even while we are busiest upholding it and providing for it present things and this lodge of clay this flesh and its interest take up most of our time and pains the most yea all till that change be wrought the Apostle speaks of till Christ be put on Rom. 13. put ye on the Lord Iesus Christ and then the other will easily follow that follows in the Words make no provision for the flesh to fullfil it in the lusts thereof Once in Christ and then your necessary general care for this natural life will be regulated and moderated by the Spirit And for all unlawful and enormous desires of the flesh you shall be rid of providing for these instead of all provision for the life of the flesh in that sense there is another guest and another life for you now to wait on and furnish for in them that are in Christ that flesh is dead they are frâ—ed from its drudgery he that hath suffered in the flesh hath rested from sin Ceased from sin â—e is at rest from it a Godly Death as thâ—y that die in the Lord rest from their labours he that hath suffered in the flesh and is dead to it dies indeed in the Lord rests from the base turmoil of sin it is no longer his Master As our sin was the cause of Christs death his death is the death of sin in us and that not simply as he bear a moral pattern of it but the real working cause of it hath an effectual influence on the Soul kills it to sin I am crucified with Christ says S. Paul Faith so looks on the death of Christ that it takes the impression of it sets it on the heart kills it unto sin Christ and the Believer do not only become one in law so as his death stands for theirs but are in nature so as his death for sin causes theirs to it Rom. 6. 3. This suffering in the flesh being unto death and such a death Crucifying hath indeed pain in it but what then it must be so like his and the believer like him in willingly enduring it all the pain of his suffering in the flesh his love to us digested and went through it so all the pain to our nature in severing and pulling us from our beloved sins and our dying to them if his love be planted in our hearts that will sweeten it and make us delight in it love desires nothing more than likeness and shares willingly in all with the party loved and above all love this Divine Love is purest and highest and works strongliest that way takes pleasure in that pain and is a voluntary death as Plato calls love it is strong as death makes the strongest body fâ—ll to the ground so doth the love of Christ make the activest and liveliest sinner dead to his sin And as death fevers a Man from his dearest and most familiar friends thus doth the love of Christ and his death flowing from it fever the heart from its most beloved sins I beseech you seek to have your hearts set against sin to hate it to wound it and be dying daily to it Be not satisfy'd unless ye feel an abatement of it and a life within you disdain that base service and being bought at so high a rate think your selves too good to be slaves to any base lust you are called to a more excellent and more honourable service And of this suffering in the flesh we may safely say what the Apostle speaks of the sufferings with and for Christ that the partakers of these sufferings are co-heirs of glory with Christ if we suffer thus with him we shall also be glorified with him if we die with him we shall live with him for ever 3. The actual improvement of this Conformity Arm your selves with the same Mind or thoughts of this Mortification Death taken Naturally in its proper sense being an intire privation of life admits not of degrees but this figurative death this Mortification of the flesh in a Christian is gradual in so far as he is renewed and is animated and acted by the Spirit of Christ he is throughly mortified for this death and that new life joyned with it and here added ver 2. go together and grow together but because he is not totally renewed and there is in him of that corruption still that is here called flesh therefore is
this great task to be gaining further upon it and overcoming and mortifying it every Day and to this tend the frequent Exhortations of this Nature Mortifie your members that are on the earth So Rom. 6. Likewise reekon your selves dead to sin and let it not reign in your mortal bodies Thus here Arm your selves with the same Mind or with this very thought Consider and apply that suffering of Christ in the flesh to the end that you with him suffering in the flesh may cease from sin Think it ought to be thus and seek that it may be thus with you Arm your selves There is still fighting and sin will be molesting you though wounded to death yet will it struggle for life and seek to wound its enemy will assault the graces that are in you Do not think if it be once struck and you have a hit near to the heart by the Sword of the Spirit that therefore it will stir no more No so long as you live in the flesh in these bowels there will be remainders of the life of this flesh your natural corruption Therefore ye must be Armed against it Sin will not give you rest so long as there is a drop of blood in its vein one spark of life in it and that will be so long as you have life here This old Man is stout and will fight himself to death and at the weakest it will rouze up it felt and act its dying Spirits as Men will do sometimes more eagerly then when they were not so weak nor so near death This the Children of God often find to their grief that corruptions which they thought had been cold dead stir and rise up again and set upon them A â—assion or Lust that after some great stroke lay along while as dead stirred not and therefore they thought to have heard no more of it though it shall never recoverfully again to be lively as before yet will revive in such a measure as to molest and possibly to foyl them yet again Therefore is it continually necessary that they live in Arms and put them not off to their dying day till they put off the body and be altogether free of the flesh you may take the Lord's promise for victory in the â—nd that shall not fail but do not promise your self ease in the way for that will not hold if at somtimes you be at under give not all for lost he hath often won the Day that hath been foiled and wounded in the fight but likwise take not all for won so as to have no more conflict when sometimes you have the better as in particular battels be not desperate when you loose nor secure when you gain them when it is worst with you do not throw away your Arms nor lay them away when you are at best Now the way to be armed is this the same mind how would my Lord Christ carry himself in this case and what was his business in all places and Companies was it not to do the will and advance the glory of his Father If I be injured and reviled consider how would he do in this would he repay one injury with another one reproach with another reproach No being reviled he reviled not again Well through his strength this shall be my way too Thus ought it to be with the Christian framing all his ways and words and very thoughts upon that model the mind of Christ and to study in all things to walk even as he walked 1. Studying it much as the reason and rule of Mortification 2. Drawing from it as the real Cause and Spring of mortification The pious Contemplation of his Death will most powerfully kill the love of sin in the Soul and kindle an ardent hatred of it The Believer looking on his Jesus crucified for him and wounded for his transgressions and taking in deep thoughts of his spotless Innocency that deserved no such thing and of his matchless love that yet endured it all for him then will he think shall I be a friend to that which was his deadly enemy shall sin be sweet to me that was so bitter to him and that for my sake shall I ever have a favourable thought or lend it a good look that shed my Lord's blood shall I live in that for which he died and died to kill it in me Oh! let it not be To the end it may not be let such really apply that Death to work this on the Soul for this is always to be added and is the main indeed by holding and fastning that Death close to the Soul effectually to kill the effects of sin in it to stiâ—â—e and crush them dead by pressing that death on the heart looking on it not only as a most compleat model but as having a most effectual vertue for this effect and desiring him intreating our Lord himself who communicates himself and the vertue of his death to the Believer that he would powerfully cause it to flow to us and let us feel the vertue of it It s then the only thriving and growing life to be much in the lively Contemplation and Application of Jesus Christ to be continually studying him and conversing with him and drawing from him receiving of his fullness grace for grace Wouldest thou have much power against sin and much increase of holiness let thine eye be much on Christ set thine heart on him let it dwell in him and be still with him When sin is like to prevail in any kind go to him tell him of the insurrection of his enemies and thy inability to resist and desire him to suppress them and to help thee against them that they may gain nothing by their stirring but some new wound If thy heart begin to be taken with and move towards sin lay it before him the beams of his love shall eat out that fire of these sinful lusts Wouldest thou have thy Pride and Passions and love of the World and self love kill'd go suit for the vertue of his death and that shall do it seek his Spirit the Spirit of Meekness and Humility and Divine Love Look on him and he shall draw thy heart heavenwards and unite it to himself and make it like himself And is not that the thing thou desirest Verses 2 3. Ver. 2. That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God 3. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles when we walked in lasciviousness lusts excess of Wine revellings banquetings and abominable idolatries THE Chains of sin are so strong and so fastened on our Nature that there is in us no power to break them off till a mightier and stronger Spirit than our own come into us The Spirit of Christ dropt inâ—o the Soul makes it able to break through an host and leap over a Wall as David speaks of himself furnisht with
heart and so though I have used it sometime it s still unprofitable and uncomfortable to me although it be so yet hold on give it not over or need I say this to thee though it were referr'd to thy self wouldest thou forsake it and leave off then what wouldest thou do next for if no comfort in it far less any for thee in any other way If tentation should so far prevail with thee as to try intermission either thou wouldest be forced to return to it presently or certainly wouldest fall into a more grievous condition and after horrours and lashings must at length come back to it again or perish for ever Therefore however it go continue praying strive to believe that love thou canst not see for where sight is abridg'd there it is proper for faith to work if thou canst do no more lie before thy Lord and look to him Lord here I am thou maist quicken and revive me if thou wilt and I trust thou wilt but if I must do it I will lie at thy feet my life is in thy hand and thou art goodness and mercy while I have breath I will cry or if I cannot cry yet I will wait on and look to thee One thing forget not that the ready way to rise out of this sad yet safe estate is to be much in viewing the Mediator and interposing him betwixt the fathers view and thy Soul Some that do orthodoxly believe this to be right yet as often befals us in other things of this kind they do not so consider and use it in their necessity as becomes and therefore fall short of comfort he hath declared it no Man comes to the Father but by me How vile soever put thy self under his robe and into his hand and he will lead thee in to the Father and present thee acceptable and blameless The Father shall receive thee and declare himself well pleased with thee in his well beloved Son who hath covered thee with his righteousness and brought thee so Cloathed and set thee before him 3. The third thing is the reason binding on these The end of all things is at hand This is needful often to be remembred for even believers too readily forget it and it s very sutable to the Apostles foregoing discourse of Judgement and to his present exhortation to sobriety and watchfulness unto prayer even the general end of all at hand though since the Apostle writ this many Ages are past For 1. The Apostles usually speak of the whole time after the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh as the last time for that two double Chiliads of years past before it the one before the other under the Law and in this third it is conceived shall be the end of all things And the Apostles seem by divers expressions to have apprehended it in their days not far off So St. Paul 1. Thess. 4. 17. We which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds As not impossible that it might come in their time which put him upon some explication of that correction of their mistakes in his next Epistle to them wherein notwithstanding he seems not to assert any great tract of time to interveen but in that time great things were first to come 2. However this might always have been said in respect of succeeding Eternity the whole duration of the World is not considerable and to the eternal Lord that made it and hath appointed its period a thousand years are as one day We think a thousand years a great matter in respect of our short life and more through our short sightedness that look not through to eternal life but what is the utmost length of time were it millions of years to a thought of eternity We find much room in this earth but to the vast heavens it is but as a point Thus that which is but small to us a field or little inclosure a Fly had it skill would divide it into vinces in proportion to it self 3. To each man the end of all things is even after our measure at hand for when he dies the World ends for him Now this consideration fits the Subject and presses it strongly seeing all things shall be quickly at an end even the frame of Heaven and Earth why should we knowing this and having higher hopes lay so much out of our desires and endeavours upon these things that are posting to ruine it s no hard notion to be sober and watchful to prayer to be trading that way and seeking higher things very moderate in these seeing they are of so short a date and as in themselves and their utmost term so more to each of us particularly who are so soon cut off and flee away why should our hearts cleave to those things from which we shall so quickly part and if we will not freely part and let go we shall be pulled away and pull'd with the more pain the closer we cleave and faster we are glued to them This the Apostle St. Paul casts in seasonably though many think it not seasonable at such times when he is discoursing of a great point of our life marriage to work Christian minds to a holy freedom both ways whether they use it or no not to view it nor any thing here with the World's Spectacles that make it look so big and so fixed but to see in the stream of time as passing by and no so great matter the fashion of this World passeth away as a pageant or shew in a Street going through and quickly out of sight what became of all the marriage Solemnities of Kings and Princes of former Ages that they were so taken up with in their time when we read of them described in History they are as a night dream or a day fancy that passes through the wind and vanishes Oh! foolish man that hunts such poor things and will not be called off till death benight him and his great work not done yea not begun no nor seriously thought of your Buildings your Trading your Lands your Matches and Friendships and Projects when they take with you and your hearts are after them say but for how long all these their end is at hand therefore be sober and watch unto prayer learn to divide better more hours for it and fewer for them your whole heart for it and none of it for them seeing they will fail you so quickly prevent them come free lean not on them till they break and you fall into the pit 'T is reported of one that hearing that 5th of Genesis read so long lives and yet the burden still they died Enoch lived 905 and he died Seth 912 and he died Methuselah 969 and he died took so deep the thought of death and eternity that it changed his whole frame and set him from a voluptuous to a most strict and pious course of life how small a word will do much when God sets it into
the heart But sure this one thing would make the Soul more calm and sober in the pursuit of present things if their term were truly computed and considered How soon shall youth and health and carnal delights be at an end how soon shall State craft and King-craft and all the great Projects of the highest Wits and Spirits be laid in the dust This casts a damp upon all those fine things but to a Soul acquainted with God and in affection removed hence already no thought so sweet as this helps much to carry it chearfully through wrestlings and difficulties through better and worse they see Land near and shall quickly be at home that 's the way The end of all things is at hand an end of a few poor delights and the many vexations of this wretched life an end of tentations and sins the worst of all evils yea an end of the imperfect fashion of our best things here an end of prayer it self to which succeeds that new Song of endless praises Verse 8. And above all things have fervent charity among your selves for charity shall cover the multitude of sins THE Graces of the Spirit are an entire frame making up the new Creature and none of them can be wanting therefore the Doctrine and Exhortation of the Apostles speak of them usually not only as inseparable but as one But there is amongst them all none more cemprehensive than this of Love insomuch that St. Paul calls it the fullfilling of the Law love to God the sum of all relative to him and so likewise is it towards our Brethren Love to God is that which makes us live to him and be wholly his that which most powerfully weans us from this World and causeth us delight in communion with him in holy Meditation and Prayer Now the Apostle adding here of the duty of Christians to one another gives this the prime yea the sum of all Above all have fervent love Concerning this Consider 1. The Nature of it 2. The Eminent Degree of it 3 The Excellent Fruit of it 1. It is an union therefore called a bond or chain that links things together 2. 'T is not a meer external union that holds in customs or words or outward carriage but an union of hearts 3. 'T is here not a natural but a spiritual supernatural union it is that mutual love of Christians as Brethren There is a common benevolence and good-will due to all but a more particular uniting affection interchangeably one amongst Christians The Devil being an Apostate Spirit revolted and separated from God doth naturally project and work division This was his first exploit and still his grand design and business in the World he first divided Man from God put them at an enmity by the first Sin of our first Parents and the next we read of in their first Child was enmity against his Brother so Satan is called by our Saviour justly a liar and a murderer from the beginning murdered man by lying and made him a murderer And as the Devil's work is Division Christ's work is Union he came to dissolve the works of Satan by a contrary work he came to make all Friends to recollect and reunite all Men to God and Man to Man and both those unions hold in him by vertue of that marvellous union of Natures in his Person and that Mysterious Union of the Persons of Believers with him as their Head so the word Eph. 1. 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To unite all in one head Thus his great project in all this he died and suffered for and this he prayed for Iohn 17. and this is strong above all ties natural or civil union in Christ this they have that are indeed Christians this they pretend to have if they understood it that profess themselves Christians If natural friendship be capable of that expression one spirit in two bodies Christian union hath it much more really and properly for there is indeed one Spirit more extensive in all the Faithful yea so one Spirit that it makes them up into one body more intensive they are not so much as divers bodies only divers members of one body Now this love of our Brethren is not another from the love of God 't is but the streaming forth of it or the reflex of it Jesus Christ sending in his Spirit into the heart unites it to God in himself by love which is all indeed that loving of God supreamly and entirely with all the mind and soul all the combined strength of the heart and then that same love first wholly carried to him is not divided or impared by the love of our Brethren 't is but dilated and derived from the other he allows yea commands yea causes that it stream forth and act it self toward them remaining still in him as in its source and center beginning at him and returning to him as the Beams that diffuse themselves from the Sun and the Light and Heat yet are not divided or cut off from it but remain in it and by emanation issue from it Loving our Brethren in God and for him not only because he commands us to love them and so the Law of Love to him ties us to it as his Will but because that love of God doth naturally extend it self thus and acts thus in loving our Brethren after a Spiritual Christian manner we do even in that love our God Loving of God makes us one with God and so gives us an impression of his divine bounty in his Spirit and his love the proper work of his Spirit dwelling in the Heart enlarges and dilates it as self-love contracts and streightens it so that as self-love is the perfect opposite to the love of God it is likewise so to brotherly-love shuts out and undoes both and where the love of God is rekindled and enters the Heart it destroys and burns up self love and so carries the affection up to himself and in him forth to our Brethren This is that bitter root of all enmity in man against God and amongst Men against one another Self Man's Heart turned from God towards himself and the very work of renewing Grace is to annual and destroy Self to replace God in his Right that the Heart and all its Affections and Motions be at his dispose so that instead of self-will and self-love that rul'd before now the Will of God and the Love of God commands all And where it is thus there this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this love of our Brethren will be sincere Whence is it that Wars and Contests and mutual Disgracings and Despisings abound so but that men love themselves and nothing but themselves or in relation to themselves as it pleases or is advantageous to them that 's the Standard and Rule all is carried by interest so thence are striâ—es and defamings and bitterness against one another but the Spirit of Christ coming in undâ—es all selfishness And now according to God what he