God Now the natural man is not able to judge of things above the principles of Nature The Apostle tells us No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a Map or short Abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the Spirit so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 14 15. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God And again he saith The wisdome of the Spirit is but foolishness to the naturall man And why so because saith he Spiritual things are spiritually discerned that is they are to be understood in a spiritual sense to which mans carnal reason cannot reach But now saith he the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are onely known by the Spirit 't is the Spirit of all Truth that leads into all Truth Then 't is not all Maximes and Rules 't is not Sy 〈…〉 gistical Reasonings and Disputes 't is not Books an◠Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of Truth but it is the work of the Spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and form without but a quickning Spirit within us Yet 6. We are taught that there is a most profound spiritual reasoning in godliness and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soul The minde of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the minde or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soul according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as 't is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and falls short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darkness and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in its height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the Spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreme and the sublimest reason is in godliness because in it is the greatest clearness certainty and light The Apostle calls it Demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spiritual reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a taste of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of Christs Friends then come and eat of this honey and drink of this wine yea eat and drink abundantly O beloved Here thou mayest eat and not 〈…〉 et here thou mayest drink and not be drunken the more thou earest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more wilt thou thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and content To conclude Thou mayest finde much of Christ in this Book but see whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine own heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Ink may be written upon the Table of thy soul by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the Service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THe main drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Justification by Faith or by Free-grace without the works of the Law And in Chap. 7. the Apostle doth answer an Objection for they might say What then shall we do with the Law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the Law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for Sinners and Saints to make of the Law of which I shall not now speak Now in this eighth Chapter the Apostle draws this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have said it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of Hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he saith they are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And he gives a reason of it in ver 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in ver 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have said Thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because saith he that God hath sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh like one of us and he hath fulfilled the law of God and condemned sin therefore there is no sin to condemn us nor no jot of the law that is not fulfilled therefore we are just and righteous and clear There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for God hath sent his Son to condemn sin c. Now in the fourth Verse it is more particularly expressed That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit I shall not orderly go over to shew the Coherence distinctly as I might but briefly as I can come to those Lessons that the Lord is to teach us That the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. There are in the words two things Here is a great Priviledge as any can be to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us And here are secondly the parties that have the benefit of this Priviledge Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Concerning the Priviledge to understand the words a little That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us That the law might be fully satisfied in point of righteousness that the law might have such a righteousness which indeed the law requires that it might have a full and compleat righteousness in us So that briefly these are the Lessons which I shall open from hence which I desire
London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappy graceless childe then a man can call himself fool and be angry with himself and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourn for sin you think there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flaws in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flaws of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horrour in your souls and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sins and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chinks in a wall we think to dawb up the flaws and cracks of justification this way Whereas we should look on justification as a thing intire in the hands of Christ that we have nothing to do in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that we have in it is onely by faith as Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousness of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to do for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth at the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianity I have seen people quarrel with themselves and complain O I have a hard heart and I desire the Preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weakness you will go and confess your sins and strive to break your hearts and mourn for your worldliness and your pride and frowardness and yet it will not do but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to go and reform to morrow and to turn over a new leaf to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as Cash in the cupboard not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will finde your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to pieces when you have done the least evil against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know those things that now you know not nor cannot know Therefore labour to learn that lesson it is one of the greatest Mysteries in the world and that is the reason that carnal people carp at these things What greater Mystery then for me being a just and righteous man through Christ yet to be so sinful that I can say there is none more sinful and yet I am as righteous as Abraham or Paul in respect of the righteousness of Christ I have as large a share as Abraham or Paul and yet I am full of sin A Christian knows this and he knows how it is so Well that is one lesson consider of it that you may know where to plant your justification upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ The Lord teach it to you and me Secondly if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in all that are believers through Jesus Christ Then all you that are Saints all you that believe in Jesus Christ labour to see the glorious condition that you are in that you may be able to reflect upon your selves not according to what you are out of Christ but what you are considered to be as Members of Jesus Christ as united to Jesus Christ Therefore you shall have Paul and it doth me good to see his spirit he never reckons himself as in himself but as in Jesus Christ I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can do this and that and all in Christ So I must never conceive of God out of Christ nor of my self out of Christ I must never conceive of my self and Christ as two but I should endeavour clearly and constantly that whatsoever good there is in Christ it is mine as if it were in mine own person And so we should have our spirits raised above the temptations of the world and above the afflictions of the world and above corruptions It is a pitiful thing to see poor Professors there is not one of many but they are ordinarily below temptations and they lye under burdens and are below their sins nay there are many Professors that are more sad and drooping then carnal people Surely this was not the way of those Saints that we reade of in the New Testament they had glorious spirits how do you think else they could go to the Stocks and to Prisons and from one Compter to another and have their spirits so raised and yet sometimes were to die the next morning for ought they knew Your spirits will never be heightned and raised to live the life of Paul by beholding any thing that is in you personally in your possession but what you are by relation and marriage to Christ Reckon your selves dead with Christ and so conceive I am a just man I was bound once to the law of God a terrible law and there are thousands in Hell paying the debt and cannot pay it and yet I have paid every farthing and the law cannot ask me more I have offered a perfect righteousness and I am now sitting at Gods right hand in Heaven by my union with Jesus Christ This is the life of faith that we may be able to triumph over all these things below from our justification as Paul doth Rom. 8. It is God that justifieth and who shall condemn Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus shall tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or peril
waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body The meaning is there is no man knows what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to look for it and expect it The word in the Original is as one saith as a woman looks for deliverance when her pains are on her Oh! she would fain be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his Friend out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he fain would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walk according to the Spirit to see Jesus Christ come and to enjoy that glory that is to be revealed There are many more expressions there that are the fruits of it as the spirit of supplication ver 26. and there is also a triumphing over all our spiritual enemies ver 31. What shall we say 〈…〉 God be with us who can be against us c And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things And then there is also a patient suffering of all afflictions saith the Apostle ver 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed And then there is lastly an absolute eternal union with Jesus Christ in respect of his love I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor any thing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These are the expressions of the fruits of the Spirit of God in the Soul when men walk according to the Spirit when they walk according to grace Take a man that walks according to the flesh or according to the law you shall finde none of these kinde of things in his soul So much concerning that Use Vse 3. In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone whereby you may try and judge of mens persons so hereby also you may try your services and actions I say this is a rule whereby you may come to know what your services are what worth is in them For as they onely are Saints who walk according to the Spirit let the world judge how they will and those that walk carnally according to the flesh according to the law are not Saints so I say those actions or services of ours that proceed from the spirit of God they are only pleasing to God and those that proceed from the flesh from Old Adam they are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may try our services and actions as well as our persons for there is the same reason for both in all my actions all that I expect from them is that they be pleasing to God that is the end of all that we do for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot do it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the main Rule by which I am to judge of my actions it is this not to judge of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargement in them as we call it but we are to judge of our actions chiefly if not principally by the principle that they flow from if it be the weakest and meanest action if it be the least sigh or prayer if it proceed from the New Adam the Lord Jesus it is sweet and pleasing to God it is an acceptable sacrifice But if it be the most glorious thing in the world if it proceed from Old Adam not only from sinful Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1 Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from natural wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c it is but flesh and whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is dear so flesh is flesh that is it is a filthy abominable thing to God as it is in this Chapter They that walk according to the flesh cannot please God So that that is born of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God Quest But you will say Cannot the actions that proceed from the principles of natural Adam be pleasing to God Every man knows that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of natural Adam As a man may pray meerly by a naturall wit and bravely to please man and to please himself and he may Preach by a natural wit and do other Exercises and do them finely cannot they be pleasing to God Answ No this is a certain rule that there is nothing that comes from flesh from a principle of Old Adam whether it be naturally good or evil there is nothing whether from pure Adam or from corrupt Adam that is pleasing to God The reason is this Because as it is Gen. 3. 5. that when Adam sinned against God you know his punishment was that he should die he was not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit lest he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the Curse came upon him and in reference to this you shall finde those phrases in this Epistle Whosoever walks according to the flesh shall die whosoever walks as Old Adam is in the state of the old Curse He shall die and O miserable man who shall deliver me from this body of death He calls it a body of death alluding to the main Curse of Old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord said that Adam should die for sin conceive not that the meaning is onely that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soul and body for ever in Hell that is not the onely meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publick person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appointed thee to be the Spring and Foundation of all Mankinde and every man in the world is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousness and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happiness and thy posterity that thou mayest derive a principle to them to be like thee in good and to be pleasing to me But when Adam sinned now saith God thou shalt die I made thee a happy Creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy self and thy posterity as a publick person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousness thy soul and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as
instruments to sin Shall we turn all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holiness and power against sin that they had not before therefore saith he What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me look a little upon my own soul or appeal to you Take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walk according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him look upon himself what he is now since he hath known a little of Christ and hath known that he is a justified person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeal to you whether you do not feel a strange power in your souls killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an eminent power A poor Saint that sees another tugging and striving and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knows that there is a sweet power in his soul that pulls down the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man saith There is as much difference between a man thaâ— walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the Spirit as between a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the Sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sail and sit down and it is gone he goes with wind and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a childe and speak loving and plain words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the howling and roaring and crying of another a whole year together cannot do It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walk according to the Spirit thou art dead to sin that is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst look upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it down thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soul that will not out Therefore saith the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall find the fruits of walking according to the Spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set down in this 8th to the Romans When a man walks according to the Spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it A Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father That is one fruit of it as soon as a man comes to walk according to the Spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soul like a slave just as you may conceive of a man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a Crust of bread and he fears whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soul in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alwayes in fear of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he fears that he shall prove an hypocrite and the like Now saith the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father that is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving childe to his dear Father there is a boldness a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetness c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and moping and howling and crying thou comest short of walking according to the Spirit for thy soul would be alway full of sweetness in the greatest affliction if there were a Spirit of Adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though there would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetness and joy That is one thing Again another fruit and consequent of it is that the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God If thou wilt be led by the Spirit and walk after the Spirit the Spirit of God will witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the Spirit of God will raise up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the childe of God for the spirit of a man knows the natural things of a man and no more but the Spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the childe of God that is he raiseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the childe of God that as before by my own spirit I was able to know whether I were poor or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated so now my spirit is raised up by the Spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my self spiritually and look upon my self as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this is a spiritual way Thirdly here is another expression of it and that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I finde and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvelled at it and the reason is Because they have not the Spirit of Adoption and walk not fully according to the Spirit therefore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the Primitive times Saith the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not onely they but we our selves which have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves
heard or understood any thing of them that God hath prepared for them that love him They are as we see there afterwards clearly the things of the Spirit of God They are called the deep things of God ver 10. they are deep because no carnal man can reach them and in ver 11. they are called the things of God and in ver 12. The things that are freely given to us of God And in ver 14. they are called the the things of the Spirit of God The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to him In 2 Cor. 4. ult there you shall have both these things described for in that we shall have a little light from that description of it the things of the flesh are called there the things that are seen and the things of the Spirit are called the things that are not seen the one are said to be temporal and the other eternal The things of the flesh are temporal things that may be seen that is not so much seen with the eyes of the body but he means that a man every carnal man may perceive and understand them All the things of Old Adam a meer natural man is able to comprehend them but the other things are things that are not seen that is that eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath entred into the heart of man Therefore Christ in Mat. 11. 25. saith I thank thee O heavenly Father that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to babes What were these things the things of the spirit of God they are the things that are hid from the wise and prudent of the world they are not possible to be seen of them but God reveals them to the least babe of his own kingdome In Coloss 3. 1 2. you have another description for you may put these together and so the better understand them In ver 2. the things of the flesh are called things on earth and the things of the Spirit are called the things that are above The things of the flesh are the things that are beneath as it were things on the earth that is though in Old Adam there be many excellent things you must not conceive Earth here in a gross sense there is fine refined wisdome and understanding and prudence which the spirit of God usually slights and despiseth Where is the wise and the disputer c. notwithstanding all Old Adam is but earthly all the spirituality as it were of Old Adam are but things on the earth It is no wonder they are called things of the Earth when the Doctrine and Preaching of John Baptist he himself calls it Earthly I am from the earth I speak earthly He is from above he speaks heavenly and spiritually It was earthly in comparison of Christ though there was some Gospel in it Much more earthly is all the devotion and Religion and what is best in fleshly man that hath nothing in him but Old Adam In Phil. 3. 7. there is another large description of these things The things of the flesh there they are those things that Paul once accounted gaine to him and those things that Paul now accounted losse to him see there what those things are those excellent fine things the things of the flesh a man while he is in the flesh accounts them gaine a great gaine to him he lives by his wit and his wisedome and it is a mighty gaine to him to increase and build up old Adam in him But when a man comes to spirituall things he accounts all these things loss I account them loss saith Paul Now the things of the spirit were those things that Paul desired to win and to gain in the verses following That I may gain Christ and his righteousness and a little further you shall see Paul calls the things of the flesh the things behinde and the things of the Spirit the things before And in ver 19. the things of the flesh he calls them earthly things They minde earthly things and so by contraries the other things are heavenly I cannot open every particular expression onely I would point out the descriptions to you as the Holy Ghost layes them down In 2 Cor. 5. there the things of the flesh are called old things and the things of the Spirit are called new things for saith the Apostle We know no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet know we him so no more therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away all the things of the Flesh are old things the things of the Spirit of God are new things Therefore in the Acts the Athenians desired to know the new strange doctrine that Paul brought What was this new doctrine Onely the things concerning the Spirit of God the other things are old things Gal. 2. 18. there the things of the flesh are described to be the things that Paul destroyed and the things of the Spirit the things that Paul sought to build up 1 Cor. 7. 32 33. the things of the flesh are called the things of the world but the things of the Spirit are called there the things of the Lord The married cares for the things of the world but the unmarried for the things of the Lord. Phil. 2. 23. the things of the flesh are called our own things and the things of the Spirit are called the things of Jesus Christ Saith the Apostle I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your state Mark that expression it is well worth observing in these self-seeking times We may well say so now if Paul said so then I have no man like minded who will naturally care for your estate A man can hardly finde a Professor in a multitude that will naturally and freely care for the state of others of the Saints for saith he All seek their own and not the things that are Jesus Christs all seek their own things the things that make for old Adam that make for the Flesh and for mans self Joh. 6. 27. the things of the Flesh are called meat that perisheth and the things of the Spirit meat that endureth to everlasting life Luke 10. 41. they are called many things and the things of the Spirit are called one thing Martha Martha thou art cumbred about many things for indeed there are many distracting businesses in the things of the world therefore in Mat. 13. when the seed was sown among thorns it is said the deceitfulness of riches and pleasures and the lusts of other things who knows how many it may be a thousand two thousand other things the things of the Flesh are endless but the things of the Spirit are called one thing the ruinous building of old Adam is going into a thousand pieces but there is but one Jesus Christ and in the things of Jesus Christ there is a greater union then in the things of the
Flesh and old Adam In Luke 19. they are called the things of trouble and the things of the Spirit the things that belong to our peace O that thou hadst known in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace In Jer. 2. 8. they are called things that do not profit vain things and the things of the Spirit in Phil. 1. 10. they are called excellent things That ye may be able to know the things that are excellent that is the things of the Spirit of God And to conclude this Phil. 4. 8. speaking of the things of the Spirit saith he Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report these things do These are the things of the Spirit of God Then impure things dishonest things dishonourable things unjust things unlovely things these are things of the flesh Thus much in general according to the description of the things of the Flesh in Scripture But now in particular I will sum up the things of the Flesh or of old Adam one or other of which fleshly men do wholly minde to these three Heads 1. The first is to establish their own righteousness by the law to procure to themselves justification by their works This is the Master-piece of old Adam for I told you that man is more prone to this then to sin though he be prone to that also and old Adam works stronger towards his righteousness such as it is in a forbidden way then to sin Therefore it is said Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousness went about to establish their own righteousness He speaks there of the Jews The word in the Original is they went to make it stand just as a tottered house that every blast is ready to throw down and it must be underpropped on this side and on that side to keep it up so every fleshly man in the world this is half his work to make the Babel of his own righteousness to stand he is alway piecing and patching and doing some good work he is wishing and woulding or in some fashion or other to make up a good estate against the latter day Therefore that was the question Acts 2. and Luke 3. and it is the grand question of all mankinde What shall we do to be saved and we see when they came to Christ it was alway with this Master what shall I do to be saved As if he had said I know it must be by doing and I am willing to go about it to frame some kinde of righteousness or other Therefore in Joh. 6. say they What shall we do to work the works of eternall life saith Christ This is the work of God to believe he takes them off Now this is one thing whereby you may know what it is to be a fleshly man and to minde fleshly things when people minde and cast projects and wayes to procure righteousness to themselves or justification to their souls any other way then onely by the Lord Jesus Christ Men may be as it were drunk sometimes and minde neither Heaven nor Hell but there is no fleshly carnal man when he is his own man but he thinks there is some good work or other that he must do either giving or lending or building an Alms-house or giving to the poor or somewhat to get him a righteousness But remember thou art a carnal man and all thy minding and all thy thoughts this way are but according to the flesh and those that are after the flesh must die It was the first and the greatest Curse that ever was in the world when God said to old Adam he must die it is a general rule all old Adam must die either thou must get that piece of old Adam that is in thee to die or thou shalt die with it one of the two 2. Then another thing that is called the things of the Flesh it is Carnal Priviledges either men that are fleshly minde their justification out of Christ or else their Carnal Priviledges I told you before that those are called Flesh saith the Apostle If any might I may glory in the flesh What is that I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews c. and so the Jews in Mat. 3. Joh. 8. and 2 Cor. 11. they were apt as to stablish their own righteousness so to glory in their priviledges We are the children of Abraham we were never slaves or servants We have not their priviledges to glory in yet this is a main piece of old Adam a great part of the things of the flesh outward priviledges let them be Church-priviledges or what you will when people rejoyce and minde and contemplate outward priviledges and do not regard the inward power nor what is in and through and by them this is but flesh I fear you will not bear with me you will account me your enemy for telling you the truth but I am perswaded there are many among us that talk of Churches and Government and Ordinances and Priviledges and yet all is but flesh and you cannot well judge of them by their strictness in it for flesh will go as strictly in its way as the Spirit but it is to be feared that divers build of it and glory in it and it is a great part of their Religion I warn you in love to look to it and if those Priviledges were taken away as Christ took away the priviledge of being the children of Abraham from the Jews such people would be poor carnal people Take heed of it and let him that glories glory in the Lord. 3. Thirdly and lastly the things of the flesh for all old Adam is included in these three things that fleshly men minde is to fulfill their lusts which are many to make provision for the flesh Rom. 13. that is to be casting how to feed one lust or other Now if you would know what those lusts are in particular though in a sort it be general you have it in 1 Joh. 2. 16. saith he All that is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life These are the lusts of the world all the lusts in the world may be reduced it seems to those three heads so I say these are the fleshly things that all carnall people minde all their thoughts throughout the year every one runs either in stablishing their own righteousness or in glorying and contemplating their outward priviledges or in projecting for the fulfilling of some lust or other thus they spend their whole life these are the things of the flesh that carnall men minde Now the other the things of the Spirit that are contrary to these you may comprehend them all in these words that is 1. They are either the things of Faith 2. Or else their Hope and Happiness in Jesus Christ 3. Or else their Obedience to the will of Christ All the
I told you that these they do come immediately from it The third thing was that the reasoning is the chief character of a man as reason in a man considered in a natural way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essential to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two legs and that a horse hath four but by his essence he is a rational creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godliness and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an Hypocrite yet be a carnal man Why Because he may do good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnal reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantial things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavour to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to pass for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spiritual men are swayed with spiritual reasons How comes it to pass that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in general certainly it is only by the same spirit of God for I must advance the spirit still not in opposition to the Scriptures mistake me not for the spirit takes of the things of Christ and in the Scriptures sheweth you them but it is the spirits teaching you And therefore it is said they are after the spirit that do minde spiritual things because it is the spirit that doth work them to mind spiritual things ye would never mind spiritual things else All the learning in the World and all the wit in the World will never teach a man to make one sincere Argument to do good or draw him from evil But you will say how doth the Spirit do this Beloved I told you heretofore that I do not approve of those that do endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soul as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the souls of poor people for thou knowest not how a child is formed in the wombe how his eye is made and how his nose is made And how are we able to discover how the Spirit of God works grace in the soul which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not do this until he hath done that which hath brought forth a deal of curiosity and needless distinctions troubling the people of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth without curiosity not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spiritual Creation he doth make a Creation in the soul which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in a Pew that Creature that old Creature cannot reach the spirit of God It cannot be mended for we have hearts of stone that will not be cobled nor mended but taken out wholly our natures are so naught that they cannot be mended but God comes and by his holy spirit makes a new Creature in the soul As man is said to be a man and hath not his denomination from the grosser part as his Legs or the like but from the more noble part his soul and his minde for where as in one place it is said What will it avail a man to get the World and lose his Soul in another it is lose himself So as my soul is my self So there is an old man not according to outward age but according to the inward Now he makes thee a new Creature not new Legs and Hands but new minde new affections and new powers in thy soul Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into ths soul that whereas thou hast an understanding and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an understanding that will minde heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whether there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never read in the Scripture where he will work new qualities but a new man we are created a new creature Now that is the way and therefore if ever thou wilt be a spiritual man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new Creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not look upon things as we do we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon the inward man or the new Creature Now we look without saith Paul my inward man gaineth dayly If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Beloved that ye may understand this bear with me a little I do finde in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spiritual and holy two wayes One is by renewing a man to that which he was in old Adam Secondly by creating things in him that were never there before And we have these two expressions in Scripture Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and created unto good works So that a Saint he is made up unto that condition two wayes either God hath renewed in him those things he had in Adam or else God hath created in him that which was never there before As for instance God revealeth in him sobriety and continuance and the like these things were in Adam and now when a man is made a Saint they are renewed only upon a new foundation And withal the Lord creates something that was never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the faith of the Gospel There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospel to believe in another to renounce his own righteousness this was not in Adam because it was point-blank contrary to his own condition for he was to have righteousness in himself and to renounce it was contrary to his condition Now God creates such a faith in us And Beloved there is another thing and it may be there are many things more I have had many thoughts of it with submission to the godly and wise I think that Gospel goodness is a piece of the New man which was not in Adam as to do good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drink to a thirsty Enemy When one is wicked and ungodly and doth deal despightfully with us as Christ saith then to do him good and bless when he curseth and pray for him that injureth us Beloved this is Gospel-goodness I have had many thoughts of it had I time to prove that this Gospel goodness is a piece of the New creature that was not in old Adam There was goodness in
Adam but not this as for instance there are divers things we finde among Professors that in the last day will be found to be nothing but the old Adam but Ishmaels that are humbled to the height and ye shall see in them a great deal of diligence in Gods service but where will you finde a Professor one of 500. and I speak with the least that you may clearly reade Gospel-goodness in him that you may say yonder is a man that if you curse him he will love you and if you do him hurt and that despitefully he will pray for you It is an easie thing to kindle a brand that hath been once lighted to do that which Adam did but to do this is a higher matter As man was created after the Image of God so the Creatures in a sort were created after the image of man now as in Creatures in a Dog there is love and the like But where is there a creature that if you do him mischief will not endeavour to do you the like again or at least wise run away But where is a piece in the old Creation that doth love his Enemies And whereas it is said Adam was created after the Image of God and God loves his Enemies I answer God then in that Covenant was not in a disposition to love his Enemies but to hate his Enemies and sinners and curse them and damn them but now in Jesus Christ he loves his Enemies and therefore according to his minde he revealed to Adam it was not so and many other reasons I had but this I present to you with submission I do not speak curiosities but I finde and see very little of this scarcely any there was a candid goodness in the Primitive Church which is not now to be which is not now to be found now nothing but biting and tearing and devouring one another well there is one word he doth it by a spirittal Creation Then Secondly he brings the soul to this way of spiritual reasoning by spiritual illumination he created faculties before and now he casteth in Light as he did in the old Creation you know he made Heaven and Earth in the lump and then said Let there be Light Now that is the reason when the Gospel is preached and there is the spirit of God going with the Word and thou art dark and canst not receive this light the new Creature is not framed in thee if thou hast no eyes thou canst not see and if a man have eyes he cannot see in a dark room Now when the new man is made then the Lord sends in light and it is not every light for there are many Lights a blinde man as it were an Hypocrite hath them but it is a powerful Light that God puts in for we do finde that there is a kinde of Light in Hypocrites but yet there is no power in them there is not Light to bring them to such kinde of reasoning as will bring them to any good or from any evil they will talk of Drunkenness and Whoredome and the like but have not power to bring them off from any of these things indeed a Saint may be overcome of his Lusts that war in his members but there is a Law in his minde that is there is a Light that is like unto a Law that hath power in it that he seeth Christ doing them away I am sorry I have not time to open this unto you further but remember it Thirdly the Lord will do it by suggestion that is the spirit of God puts light into the soul he puts a measure of light to dwell in every new creature and that powerfully But because the way of the saints are so dark in this World and thorow so much difficulty the spirit of God prompts a Saint alwayes when he is at a loss As among Schollars we shall see sometimes a man is almost born down and then another giveth him an Argument or Distinction to help him and then he carries it and so the flesh hath reason and arguments as we are going along and now though there be a measure of light a stock of light dwelling in us yet we are nonplussed by the flesh and then the spirit of God suggesteth somewhat to us and we are carried thorow as you have it in Mat. 20. When you are brought before Governours it is not you that speak but the spirit of God that prompteth you Fourthly the spirit doth it by conviction that is another way we have it Joh. 16. saith Christ when I go I will send my spirit and my spirit shall convince the World of sin reprove you have it he shall convince the World of sin of righteousness and Judgement The word signifies when he saith the spirit will convince that is by way of Argument the meaning is that in every carnal mans heart there are arguments against faith and for his own destruction and strong ones too And when we preach to you ye bring reason against reason and so go away unconvinced unconverted but the spirit will convince you that is he will bring such strong arguments as Doctor PRESTON saith from Heaven that will convince you As when a stronger man cometh he disarmeth the other as before we thought godliness nothing but Heresie and Puritanism and the like but now the Spirit convinceth you you see this is the onely way and out of this way I shall never see God and the like 5. Another way I find the spirit doth it by is commemoration by minding us of what we have heard of somthing we have known before it it is our remembrancer Therefore saith Christ I will send my Spirit and he shall bring to your remembrance what you have heard not that you shall remember a whole Sermon and Repeat it every word but thus it is he will either suggest thoughts we never had before or bring to our remembrance a word we have heard of such a preacher in such a place or read in such a place or thought in such a walke or the like and so setteth on and carrieth on the worke 6. And he doth it by consolation he is the Comforter the consolation of the spirit Beloved this is certaine that ye know trouble of minde exceedingly hinders the acts of reason That is the reason men are mad because some fumes rise up in the braine and trouble the minde that they cannot reason but are mad Beloved our troubles of minde and soule they are like fumes that come up into the braine and distract us A spirituall man is many times as it were a distracted man there are so many sumes such horrour and guilt that he is almost stark mad he can talke of naturall things but in spirituall things he is as it were mad the Chaine of spirituall reason is broken and now the spirit is the Comforter and he quiets the the spirits and when a man is in a quiet temper the disease is gone and the reason