stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate
for himself every Principle is for Operation The eye for seeing and the ear for hearing so grace is for work Now I say Christ hath begun a good work in you be you then at his work daily and finish it As it was with Christ the Head so should it be with all his members I have finished the work which thou gavest me Joh. 17. 4. to do The Apostle speaking to the Saints that had grace begun in them saith he As you have yielded your members servants Rom. 6. 19. to uncleanness and to iniquity Even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness Peter writing to them saith The time past of our life may 1 Pet. 4. 3. suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles Sirs before you had grace you served sin and having grace will you not stir up your selves to serve Jesus Christ Your so long service to sin should set a keen edg upon you to serve Jesus Christ You live in Times and Places wherein men have so much work of their own to do that Christ is neglected and few men walk with God or act for God Some take mens Examples for patterns and copies and content themselves to do as others do Others are apt to put off Christ with desires but serve Satan indeed Others are catching at comforts and promises but neglect Precepts the Commands of God are tedious and burthensom to them Surely then you in whom the work of grace is begun it stands you upon to be at work for God whilst others shut up shop and are Bankrupts you should drive on a Trade for him 1. For he hath set you up again he hath underlaid and stockt you with Principles of Action he hath put you into a way of doing and given you wheels to move upon he hath made you Wings to fly Object Many excuse their negligence by pretending inability How often do Saints put a fine dress upon their laziness Alas I am nothing of my self except God give me an heart and strength what can I do Without me saith Christ ye can John 15. 5. do nothing Answ Do not deceive your selves God will not be mocked 1. The words of Christ have this meaning without me that is separate from me ye can do nothing that is till you are planted in me Now you say you are planted in Christ and therefore your excuse is but a lye This expression of Christ speaks no more but this that till you be knit to Christ you are but dead and barren Branches as Christ explains himself As the branch cannot bring forth fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in Vers 4. me Now you say you are knit and united to Christ and therefore away with these couzening vizors and palliations If you are not yet in Christ then confess it if you say you are in Christ then say not you can do nothing 2. The regenerate have a power to Act for God and to do work for Christ First Else there is no specifical difference between a man regenerate and unregenerate if both were without strength Secondly We should not have as much benefit by the second Adam as we had by the first Adam The first would have communicated his Power to do good and being corrupted doth communicate Power to do evil Therefore much more by Christ have we a Power to act for God in our measure Thirdly If you are in Christ you are living Branches vital Members and all life is a Power to act Fourthly What is grace but a repairing of that Holiness and Image of God which we lost in Adam But that was a Power to do what God required therefore so far as that Image is renewed so far there is a Power And therefore Saints Act for Jesus Christ I say you have wings and therefore fly upon action soar up a lost in Service for Jesus Christ God hath given you feet and therefore run the way of his Commandments God hath said to you as Peter did to the man that was Act 3. lame from his mothers Womb In the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk and your feet and ancle-bones received strength And therefore God expects that you should be upon employment for him If you say It is true we have habitual grace a new frame of heart but we must have assisting grace and influence else we can do nothing the work is hard and we cannot act without new breathings I say Let the duty be to nature impossible yet the Lord is at hand to help even when there is no strength He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he Isa 40. 29. increaseth strength You know how the Israelites pleaded impossibilities and then the Lords anger rose when they were ready to enter Canaan If you had no Christ no Spirit no Promise to assure you to help you might then let fall Duties and cease to action and say 't is impossible I should ever overcome such sins or attain such a measure of grace or bear the Cross or do any thing But when Promises to assure you and Christ and Spirit to breathe upon you are at hand now to plead impossibility is to reproach the Lord If you were under the Law you might plead this but under Grace 't is horrible to make this excuse Remember therefore Gideon and Sampson and David who went out in the Name and Spirit of the Lord and they were helped 3. Know this that the more difficult any work or duty is the more sweetness shall you find in it if you break through it He that overcomes shall eat of the hidden Manna Have you not found your selves dead to Prayer yet you fell to it and then would not but have took the season for a world The husbandman that hath laboured eats afterward of his 2 Tim. 2. 6. fruit You plead the difficulty of a Christian life and therefore taste not the sweetness of it If you can do no more than what is easie and pleaseth self the Lord will never let you taste the sweetness of pleasing him 4. What do you mean to be Like whom Christ teacheth you to breathe out this Prayer Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven Do you look for Heaven and will you not act as they do in Heaven whom do you make your patterns If you are not like Heaven you are Bastards not Sons I am sure Angels are content to come out of Heaven to do the work of God nay the Lord Christ himself came down from Heaven and was made lower than the Angels to do the Work of God and shall your hands shrink at it or will you think your selves too good to do it You have here the noblest patterns and most unparallel'd Copies to write after Like whom then do you mean to be Will you draw back from Angels work from the work the Son of God was
doing When Ananias and Saphira sold their Acts 5. 9. possession and kept back part of the price saith Peter How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord Whether these did purposely go about to tempt the Spirit or no is questioned if so then it was an intentional and direct tempting of the Spirit However though they did not intend it yet 't was an interpretative tempting of the Spirit that is it is called a tempting of the Spirit and taken to be such because it was such a fact as they could do no more who had intended to tempt the Spirit But how was the Spirit of God tempted in this Act of theirs The act did tend though it may be they did not intend it I say the act did tend to this to make a tryal whether the Spirit knew their fraud or not and knowing of it whether he would punish it Their act spake in this language as if themselves had said Can it be that the Spirit should know or find out our deceit And so the meaning of Peters words How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord is this How is it that ye have Deodat in loc agreed together to make a prophane tryal whether he knew your fraud or no As if by this secret and fraudulent conveyance you would try or make an experience whether the spirit were privy to your deceit or no. Thus Sirs when men sin in secret they tempt Gods Knowledg it may be not of set-purpose but their actions tend to it Is Gods eye upon us can we not sin but God must know it can we be no-where out of his Presence Their actions behind the curtain put God to the tryal whether he seeth them or no. Hypoorites tempt Gods Knowledg they do as it were make a tryal whether the beams of his Knowledg reach the dark center of their hearts and his eyes read their cunning ends and self-designs to play the Hypocrites and carry on private Interests under the veil of profession what is it but to try whether they cannot hide their plots from God But oh fools for doth the influence of the Sun and Stars pierce down into the deep bosom of the earth and there beget mettals and minerals and shall not Gods Knowledg much more reach the heart of man The Lord knows the thoughts Psal 94. 11. of man that they are vanity 5. They tempt God who without a call cast themselves into danger to make tryal whether God can or will deliver them Scripture teacheth us that when danger is upon us we may hope well relying on God for help but we must not cast our selves rashly into danger that God may help we may trust God in difficulties that he will help but we must not throw our selves into difficulties expecting God to help This was Satans method of tempting Christ he would have had Mat. 4. 5 6. Christ to cast himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple that is throw himself into danger and try whether God would not preserve him For it is written saith he he shall Psal 91. 11 12. give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone But saith Christ Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is by casting thy self without a call into danger for Satan though he alledged Scripture yet hides some words which shew the meaning of it The Psalmist says He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways and what are thy ways but actions agreeable to thy calling and thy duty And thus he shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways that is in those courses that are appointed thee of God But these words To keep thee in all thy ways the Devil leaves them out and clips the sentence and therefore Christ tells him It is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God that is by going out of our way and casting our selves into danger without a call and then say the Lord will deliver us It had been contrary to Christs way and his duty to have thrown himself down from the Pinnacle of the Temple he had gone out of his way had he done so Sirs when we go out of Gods precincts we go out of Gods protection a King undertakes the safety of his Subjects whilst they travel within due hours and keep the Kings high-way else not so hath God promised to preserve us and his Angels to take charge over us while we hold his way If a man should throw himself into a deep River where in an ordinary way he could not but be drowned and say God is able to preserve me and make me swim out you will say he is a mad-man his faith is frenzy and 't is a most horrid and prodigious tempting of God So they tempt God that engage themselves to afflictions to poverty loss of estate without a call and therefore they that suffer must be sure they have a good ground and a good cause and truth of their side else they sinfully tempt God to provide for them Hitherto I refer wilful and indiscreet marriages when persons neither of whom have any competent subsistence shall marry together they know not how to live and maintain themselves and yet say God will provide this is to tempt God they cast themselves into the disaster of irremediable poverty and into the deep gulph of a thousand sorrows and temptations and yet say God will provide what is this but a sottish and sinful tempting of the Lord God So they that expose themselves to the occasions and temptations of sin saying God will keep them from sin these tempt God As servants that will venture to live in Papists houses and say God will preserve us from contagion or when servants cast themselves into a prophane family and say God I hope will not suffer me to be the worse for it or when serious christians shall make choice to tye themselves in marriage to prophane and carnal persons or when a man shall engage himself to sinful company and say Though they be naught God will keep me and take care of me all these tempt God as if a man should throw himself into the fire and say I shall not burn God will keep me or as if a man should run himself into an house where the plague is and say God will keep me from infection 6. God is tempted when we are not satisfied with his revealed will sufficiently made known to us but require further arguments and so put him to the tryal And thus we may tempt God in point of Doctrine when we will not sit down content I say with the revealed will of God when we refuse to believe that which is testified to be his Will but require more arguments thereof as of a matter still
Christ Jesus Christ doth all in us acting and referring all our actions to the glory of his Father as Christ did so must the Christian his center must be the bosom of God all his actions and sufferings must be pure and referred to the glory of God his intentions must look only upon God his desires must be only to please God his care only to follow God his contentment wholly in God Thus I say his thoughts his designs his works must bear the Image of Jesus Christ he must do all of God all to God and all for God 3. We must imitate Jesus Christ in self-denial 4. We must imitate Jesus Christ in accepting humiliations and sufferings If any man will be my disciple let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me The Apostle also who is but the eccho of Christ resounds the same lesson when he saith That Jesus Christ suffered for us and that 1 Pet. 2. 21. we must imitate him leaving us an example that we should follow his steps After this surely we cannot in reason find any thing hard for if Christ from his birth to his death hath espoused sufferings and embraced the cross Wherefore should we refuse being his Children to live and dye as he did For as the Christian must be the Image of Christ so he must bear with Jesus Christ all sorts of commotions and pains humiliations and sufferings that our life may be an express Image of his life which appeared always in desertions lowness and sufferings so ours must be but the same state of sufferings when he calls us thereunto 5. Imitate Jesus Christ in love the love of a Christian must be the same with that of Jesus Herein appears the great difference between Christian vertues and Moral or Humane For instance The love that God requires of a Christian must not be 1. That of a Pagan who loves them that love him 2. Nor that of a Politician who loves according to his humour or interest 3. Nor that of a Jew who loves not but out of an hope of reward promised or a fear of judgments The love of a Christian must be the same with that of Jesus Christ that is he must love with the same love wherewith Jesus loves he must love with the love of Jesus as he must live the life of Jesus Walk in love as Jesus Christ hath John 13. 34. loved you I give you saith Christ a new Commandment that ye love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOV To love is no new Commandment this law was imprinted in our hearts from the beginning of the world but the manner of loving is new that is to love by the same love wherewith Jesus loved us Now thus must we love we must love with a new love the new love of Jesus hath made it a new Commandment Oh! how great is this love how pure how free from all self-interest how strong and powerful since it is the same love that made Jesus to be born and dye for us even then when we were his enemies and sin reigning in us And therefore we must love our enemies with the love of Jesus Christ we must love our enemies with the same love wherewith Christ loved us when we were his enemies And therefore we must pray for enemies for so did Christ for his Father forgive them so did Steven Lord lay not this sin to their charge 3. Christians are in Christ Jesus as in the conserving and supporting cause of their graces The Saint is in Christ much like as the accident is in its subject for as Accidentis esse est inesse the Being of an accident consists in its being in the Subject so the very being of a Christian lyeth in his being in Christ he lives and his graces live while he is in Christ he is lost and all his graces are lost if he be once separated from Christ Abide in me and I in you as the branch John 15. 4. cannot bear fruit of it self except it abide in the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me Sirs Are ye in Christ be sure you keep in him then for out of him ye dye and give up the ghost as the fish dyes out of the water and the coal dyes out of the fire so grace dyes and expires out of Jesus Christ 4. This expression In Christ Jesus All that will live godly in Christ Jesus speaks subjection to Christ We cannot be in Christ but we must be in him as our Head and Sovereign we are in him as Regnum in Rege as the Commonwealth is in a King that is in the Power of a King and as the members are in the head under its Regency to be ruled by its Influence and Authority so are we in Christ we are in him that we may be under him to be ruled and guided by him The Son of God hath infinite rights to VS and we have infinite obligations to him which the shortness of our days will not give us leave sufficiently to admire nor the weakness of our spirits to comprehend The law of subjection to Christ is fundamental and belongs to the constitution of Gods spiritual Kingdom for government in the very essence of it is an order of superiority and subjection the constitution of government lyes in determining the person that shall govern and the parties that shall be governed so the constitution of this Divine and Spiritual Kingdom of God is in his appointment of the Soveraignty of Christ and the Subjection of Man to him Soveraign and Subjects are the essential or integral parts which give essence to government and constitute its being and existence to obey is the essence of Subjects this subjection is the very essence of the Church and so of the Christian Our subjection to Christ consists 1. In an act of Honour and Adoration 2. In an act of Oblation 1. In an act of honour and adoration The Lord Christ the Son of God is infinitely adorable and we are obliged to honour and adore him with so much necessity that the very Devils and Damned are forced in some way to do it To form this Act we must acknowledg Jesus Christ the Son of God both God and Man we must regard him as our Soveraign and Redeemer as the cause and principle of all our happiness we must annihilate our selves before him and humble our selves even to the bottom of our souls we must accept him as our God King and All. 2. Another act of subjection to Jesus Christ is an act of Oblation whereby the soul offers her self wholly to Jesus Christ and renouncing her self resigns into his hand all that she is all the power that she hath over her self over all her actions over all things and to make her self more the servant to Jesus in a perfect condition she renounceth her own liberty and all the use she can make thereof giving it up into the hands of the Son of God of whom she