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
of sins you shall be set at liberty I say all hypocrisie springs from some want of this Divine light The young man saw some worth in Christ but not enough and therefore forsook Christ A man may see the Lord Jesus in the letter of the Scripture which though it be necessary to the saving Knowledg of Christ yet to see the Lord Jesus no otherwise than in the letter by the strength of Fancy and Understanding this is no saving Knowledg of Jesus Christ Between the palpable ignorance of Christ without the Gospel and the saving Knowledg of Christ in the Gospel there is this middle Knowledg of Christ which is literal whereby a man doth see yet in seeing seeth not Now saving Illumination 1. It is a peculiar Illumination The greatest Scholar that ever lived never had one such thought or apprehension of the Lord and the things of the Lord as the Saints have To them the Lord reveals some things that the wisest in the world never knew 2. It is a glorious and shining Illumination 1. They behold a Glory in Christ's person the Lord reveals his hidden glory to them such as never entred into their hearts before or into the minds of other men which though others may talk and discourse of yet they cannot see it in that manner as they do It is therefore called a marvelous light In John 1. 14. They saw Christ vailed in our Humane Nature and darkned under the Cloud of a mean condition And yet they beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the John 1. 14. father The Jews saw the same Christ yet could not see the same Glory in him 2. They behold a glory in the holiness and graces of Jesus Christ his graces strike a Majesty of him in their hearts Oh that I were like him 3. They behold a glory in his Covenant and Promises Oh that all those promises might be made good to me this is all my desire 4. They behold a glory in all the Ordinances of Christ Oh Psal 63. 1. Vers 2. God! my soul thirsteth for thee To see thy power and thy glory so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary How amiable Psal 84. 1. Vers 10. are thy Tabernacles Oh Lord of hosts A day in thy court is better than a thousand Oh the fellowship of Saints Oh the lustre and beauty of his Sabbaths 5. They behold a glory in the Commands and Will of Christ Oh if once I could in every thing give content to his heart Such a soul had rather lose all than cross his Will in a small thing he seeth a glory in the least truth 6. They see a glory in all his Dispensations Have I but a little estate This is the allowance he provides for me I am less than the least of all thy mercies His glory therefore appears that I have a bit of bread to eat 7. They behold a glory in the Cross of Christ glory in all their sufferings I am not worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the Treasures of Egypt We shall find a false heart ever fall short here 3. It is a soul-humbling Illumination One every way so fit and suitable to them according to all their wants and woes so far in Splendour and Majesty surpassing their unworthiness and yet laying his greatness flat at the feet of their necessities and miseries that when the soul doth see it it usually fills the head and heart and eyes with tears Oh that I have despised him so glorious Acts 2. 36 37. 4. It is an endearing and attractive Illumination Sinners may like Balaam see the glory of the Tents of Israel and the Star of Jacob but they esteem him not in all his glory Many reprobates under a lively Ministry may see some glory in Christ and in his Saints to think them the happy men yet not esteem of him in all his glory The damned in Hell see a glory in Christ else they would never grieve for the loss of him yet they cannot love him nor rejoyce in his glory But the light the Saints have of him makes Christ transcendent in their eyes and precious in their hearts they esteem him beyond ten thousand Worlds 3. But yet further The secret Gospel-hypocrites have not hearts effectually to use and improve the means unto salvation Salvation is the great end they would have but they come short in the use of means they draw not the Arrow to the head they drive not home enough in the use of means The closest hypocrites discover themselves in an ineffectual use of the means unto salvation Men out of the Church they perish because they have no remedy no saving means to help But why do those perish that are within the Church Is it because there is no remedy No but because they do not use the remedy Is it because they want means No but because they do not effectually improve the means Here they fall short herein they discover themselves Sirs There is a Spirit of sloath and slumber which the Lord ever leaves the best hypocrite unto The last Enemy God conquers in a man is his sloath Now this hangs upon the most refined hypocrite to the end he will Act but 't is remisly in order to salvation he 'l not act at all or will not act throughly In the Parable of the Talents one of the servants was cast Matth. 25. 24 25. away Why so because he had no Talent No but because he had no mind nor list to use his Talent he was idle and did not make his gain out of it to attain his end And therefore the Lord saith unto him Thou wicked and sloathful Vers 26. servant My Beloved all the Ordinances of God and all that time we have under them are Talents Now wherein do hypocrites fail There is a secret gain of Ordinances which hypocrites regard not Why have many souls set a great price upon Christ and yet have lost him and gone without him Because like indifferent chapmen they have had a desire to the Commodity but have been loth to be at the full cost for him The Lord sets before you the highest and most glorious end but 't is through many difficulties that we must arrive at it now there being a spirit of Security and sloth within and those dfficulties without a hypocrite sits down and rests under the shadow of his negligence and saith 'T is hard and because he cannot do so he hopes 't is but an infirmity and God will accept of his desires And here he perisheth The Israelites you know were bound for Canaan they aimed at it but when their spies had told them of the difficulties their spirits sunk within them only Caleb and Joshuah had upright hearts and followed the Lord fully These spiritual merchants do prize and earnestly desire the Treasures of Heaven here 's their end But to be at the cost to
his voice to the great World and the Rocks rend Thunder is the voice of God to the great World and in what Majesty doth he express himself to all Creatures below in that voice As there be Thundrings without so there be Thundrings within In great Majesty doth Christ speak to the soul sometimes Ask your Consciences else ask Faelix the Jaylour and Cain else yea ask your Father Adam else what a case were all these in when Christ did but reason with them Yea I ask you Hypocrites if any here is not the way of Christ full of Majesty What means those loads that gather about your hearts and that fearfulness which surpriseth you Thou dost but touch the mountains and they smoke saith the Psalmist so God doth but touch your Consciences and they smoke he doth but whisper within and your spirits fly about every where into the fingers into the face and up into the head and the heart within beats for want of them ready to swoon away Ask wounded spirits whether Gods Word be not full of Majesty Twenty years time not enough to heal the wound of a word of Gods mouth Oh the Majesty of that word Look upon the whole Creation upon the Earth upon the Sea upon the Heavens do they not all-speak the Majesty of Christ God is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the Mighty waves of the Sea The tossings rollings and roarings of the Sea Do they not speak loudly the Majesty of Christ But ah sinner The tossings rollings and roarings of a troubled soul speak the Majesty of Christs word much more Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. Kingdoms have Supremacy This is Basis Majestatis Christ is a great King over all as the Psalmist titles him Psal 29. God hath set Christ over all so should we as God hath set him so do you over all in all things Now self-denyal is an excellent means that Christ may Reign Thou must deny thy Kingdom that Christ may have his you must lay down your Crowns at his feet that he may wear his Crown upon his Head And this is a sweet Testimony of Grace in the heart if the heart can endure Tribulation that Christ may Reign If it can suffer all things that Christ may do all things if it can lye low that Christ may be exalted when we are most annihilated our Lord and his Mysteries are most admired Sixthly They know thankfully The beams of Knowledg that shine into them melt them into pangs of Thankfulness that they should have the Honour and Happiness to know those things that they know They would not be without Christ whom they know not for a thousand Worlds They would not be without the miracles of love and peace and pardon in Christ which they have and know for all the Worth of India They count themselves to have been no better than brutes and beasts all the time they were without the Knowledg of those Divine Rarities which now they lay up so close in their hearts They adore God that they should know and see those saving secrets which are hid from the eyes of so many round about them Seventhly The true Knowledg of spiritual things doth spiritualize True Knowledg of Religion makes a man Religious Religion in Scripture is called Godliness Without controversie great is the Mystcry of godliness that is The principles of 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christian Religion Godliness is great gain i. e. Christianity The Christian Religion is great gain Thus the Truths themselves are called Godliness Why so Because the true Knowledg of them begets an inward godliness As Religion it self is called Faith and the grace in the soul is also called Faith Why so To shew that Faith begets Faith that is the Truth revealed begets Faith and must be received by Faith Therefore one word includes both the Object the thing believed and likewise the Disposition of the soul to that Object So Religion is called Godliness because the true Knowledg of it begets Godliness Oh! See then what makes a true Christian What when a man nakedly believes Divine Truths When he knows the Principles of Faith doth that make him a true Christian No But when Religion makes him Religious when these Tit. 1. 1. Truths work Godliness for Religion is a truth according to godliness Where the Truths of Religion are embraced there is Godliness with them A man cannot embrace Religion in Truth but he must be godly because Religion is Godliness so it is called for that it tends to beget all Piety and Virtue and Godliness in the heart And therefore if the Mysteries of Heaven work not Godliness a man hath but an Humane Knowledg of Divine things When Lucius a bloody Persecutor offered to confess his Faith hoping thereby to gain an opinion that he was Orthodox Russin Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 6. Moses a Religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judg of one's Faith as well as the Ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not believe as a Christian ought A man knows no more of Christ than he is sanctified he knows no more of Divine things than he esteems and affects he knows no more of the Mysteries of Heaven than he brings the whole inward frame to be like the things He that saith 1 John 2. 4. I know God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him No doubt but Hophni and Phineas being Priests had a literal Knowledg of God yet being prophane they are said expresly not to have known him They were sons of Belial they knew 1 Sam. 2. 12. not the Lord. Eighthly If we know God aright we know God in us for we come to know God savingly by Regeneration and so by little and little we come to know God in us knowing in our selves those Divine perfections which the Holy Ghost attributes to God We know the Holiness of God by the Beam of Holiness which he hath irradicated into our hearts We know the love of God by the working of love in us towards him and towards his Saints We know hatred of sin in God by knowing in our selves an hatred of sin we know the Mercy of God by finding in our selves an Image of his Mercy towards our Enemies As Christ saith Be ye merciful as your heavenly Fathers is merciful Luk 6. 36. And it is a clear case We could never know in God Truth Justice Goodness were we not in some measure true just and good it being natural for Man to judg of others according to that which he knows in himself The spirit makes me to know Omnipotency in God through the great Power which he shews in me mortifying me and making me alive The spirit makes me know Wisdom in God by the Wisdom which I get through his Holy Spirit he makes me know Justice in God because he justifieth me in Christ he makes me know Truth
of life or spirit of lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gen. 2. 7. and man became a living soul So when thou lyest dead before the Lord without any life or breath of Prayer in thee thou canst not so much as breathe before him he 'l breathe a Soul of Prayer into thee he 'l put breath into thee as he did into Acts 9. 11. Saul Behold he prayeth saith God 2. Sometimes a man sends a gift to one that never asked him for it so doth God sometimes send his gifts of grace to them that never ask for it he gives them before they ask it Opposers and Persecutors are said to be the greatest Sinners yet saith Christ upon the Cross Father forgive them they know not what they do he spake it of those that put him to Death Some might have said Lord they are opposers of thee even to the Death be it so saith Christ I have mercy for opposers too and for persecutors too Father forgive them they know not what they do But Lord they do not beg for pardon wilt thou give such a kindness to them that ask not for it They do not acknowledg their fault if thou wilt shew mercy to them stay till they acknowledg their fault and be humbled and ask pardon nay saith Christ I will prevent poor sinners with my love Though they do not ask forgiveness yet I beg forgiveness Father forgive them But Lord these are great sinners and less mercy would serve the turn forgiveness is a great mercy no saith Christ no mercy less than forgiveness will serve the turn they 'l be never the better for any mercy without forgiveness therefore they shall have it Father forgive them but forgiveness is a great mercy be it so saith Christ I know what I do I have great mercy the greatest mercy for the greatest sinners and because they cannot ask it I will ask it for them Father forgive them Vse 6. Wo to you Professors that have not true grace from Matth 13. 12. Luk. 8. 18. them shall be taken away even that which they have Luke saith From them shall be taken that which they seem to have For if we speak of true grace they have not grace only seem to have it They seem to be holy and their seeming holiness shall be taken from them They seem to believe and their seeming Faith shall be taken from them They seem to repent and their seeming Repentance shall be taken from them They Matth. 13. 20. seem to joy in Christ and in Mercy and the Promises but their seeming joy shall be taken from them The spirit doth but assume them he doth not inform them nor enliven them As the dead bodies which Angels assume for a time they seem to live and talk and eat and drink but when the Angel leaves them because they were not the Angels proper bodies they vanish away and lose that life they did seem to have So the Spirit of God doth assume and act the souls of many men in the Church for a time to do service for God by them and all that while they pray and preach and hear and walk up and down in Duty out of one Duty into another and the Spirit leaves them because he did but assume them and then they drop down dead as indeed they are and always were Thus the Spirit did assume Judas for a time Judas was but a dead man in soul all the time he was with Christ only the Spirit of God assumed him and acted him and he followed Christ and went about Preaching the Gospel with the other Disciples but when the Spirit left him he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver that was his proper work and despaired and dyed Vse 7. This should put the Saints upon a serious Tryal of their graces The Point tells you that where there are beginnings of true grace God will make rich Additions of more grace Oh then try what grace yours is if it be true grace God will give more grace As the Apostle saith He that hath begun a good work in you will perfect it If it be a good work God will perfect it he will cherish his own work Sirs God will not nurse up a spurious seed Bastard grace whereof he is not the Father Oh! then all you that would taste comfort from this Point try your graces The Evangelical Hypocrite is he I aim at There is Gospel-Hypocrisie so I call it for where the Gospel comes there are two sorts of Persons that walk beside it 1. Some directly oppose the Doctrine of it and those are Justitiaries that set up their own Righteousness as the Jews Rom. 9. 31 32. did And therefore it is said That Christ came to his own and his John 1. 11. own received him not And such are the Papists at this day who are justly by our Divines said to answer to the Jewish Pharisees These are Christian Pharisees they receive Christ in Name but set up their own Righteousness and will be justified by their own Works and saved by their own Merits 2. Others there are that receive the Gospel and so decry all their own Righteousness and cry up Christ they see nothing in themselves and look for all from Christ renouncing their own Righteousness and resting upon Christ alone for salvation These are of divers sorts 1. Some receive Christ with an Historical lifeless Faith they believe in Christ but will not part with their sins they gladly embrace Christ as a Saviour but oppose Holiness and will not change their lives and because Christ came into the World to save sinners they take liberty to sin and hope to be saved as well as any These are those we call our large Protestants who are as great Enemies to Christ as Papists are The Papists persecute the true Christians in the Point of Doctrine and these Enemies within us persecute the true Christians in Point of Holiness The Papists they will be saved by works without Faith these will be saved by Faith without works These are spots in our feasts The Epistles of James and John were written as Antidotes against this kind of poyson And Jude writes against these men ungodly men turning the Vers 4. grace of God into lasciviousness Arguing from mercy to liberty which is the Divils Logick Continuing in sin that grace may abound And my Beloved in this lyeth the very form of an Evangelical Hypocrite in denying his own Righteousness to establish his sin he will advance Christ to advance his lust Dub. But how can open sinners keep their lusts live in visible prophaneness and yet believe in Christ Sol. Because the Gospel brings the sweetest and highest Consolations along with it And therefore every man under sense of sin will fly thither for Sanctuary and hide himself under the Canopy of the Gospels mercy A man that travels under the fiery Beams of the Sun in an hot day the cool shadow of a Tree is very
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
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