had sayd doe not mistake me it is a great priviledg to have the law fulfilled for you but it is not by your owne strictness and zeale and though some of you goe further then others yet none of you can attaine the fulfilling of the law that way for all are come short Rom. 3. But it is those that walk after the spirit that is those that seeke it in a way of faith in another not in themselves those that seeke it according to the principles and directions of the Gospell Now because I know this Exposition is harsh to many of you Though I exclude not the other therfore I shall endeavour to shew you three things First I will proove clearly out of the Scriptures That flesh is so understood that this is the meaning Secondly I will give you a reason why that is the cheife meaning Thirdly I shall give you a few Reasons why the Apostle saith that they that walk according to the Covenant of Works walk according to the flesh and they that goe according to the way of faith walk according to the spirit Concerning the First that flesh is often taken 1. prooved by Scriptures clearly in this sence I will give you some places of Scripture Gal. 3. 3. This I would learn of you received you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Are ye so foolish that having begun in the spirit are you now made perfect in the flesh We see in Chap. 1. They are called to the grace of Christ through the Gospell Gospell principles were rightly and savingly practised among them and after there came some among them that perverted them and sayth he are ye so foolish that having begun in the spirit and have had Christ crucyfied among you that now you will be made perfect by the flesh That now you will goe and seeke justification by your owne works and goe about to keep the law c. Another place is in Phillip 3. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh and then he speakes of the priviledges of an Israelite and if you looke further Vers 7. I count all these loss that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine owne righteousness which is of the law but that which is of the faith of Christ So by flesh he meanes the righteousnesse of the law which he throwes away for the righteousnesse which is of faith Take another place Rom. 10. 5. Compared with Rom. 6. 14. Sayth the Apostle sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace When you were under the law and walked after the flesh sin had dominion over you and you obeyed it Here is a paralell place for sayth the Apostle When you were in the flesh the motions of sin by the law did Work in your Members When you were in the flesh that is when you were under the law then the motions of sin did work But now sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law you are not in the flesh you doe not walk according to the flesh And that I suppose is the meaning of that Scripture 2 Pet. 2. 10. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly and to reserve the wicked to be punished but cheifly those that walk after toe flesh in the lusts of uncleanness Now if you take walking after the flesh for sinfull wayes it would be the same as if he had said there are diverse people that walk wickedly but cheifly they that walk after the flesh for all people naturolly walk after the flesh but these were a peculiar people that the Lord would bring judgements on and they walked according to the flesh Who were they They were most of them Jewes they were Adams Sons that walked in the old Covenant cheifly they that walk according to the flesh that is the meaning of it or else he would not have said according to the flesh for every man naturally walks according to the flesh So in this text Who walke not according to the flesh but according to the spirit and in the 8 Verse of this Chapter They that are in the flesh cannot please God Now I shall open that by another Scripture Heb. 11. 5. Where it is said that Henoch pleased God We read of Henoch Gen. 5. 24. That he Walked with God he walked not according to the flesh now sayth the Apostle without faith it is impossible to please God now he that walks in the flesh cannot please God Why so He that goes not in the way of faith by Jesus Christ he cannot please God By beleiving I please God by walking in the obedience of faith to God I and my works please God Now to please implies one that was offended before all my doing cannot please God but my beleiving presenting to God a perfect righteousnesse by faith pleaseth God and then all my works are accepted There are two words for it in the Originall One signifies to please one that hath been offended another is pleasingnesse with one that hath not offended as my child pleaseth me though he have not offended me but the other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you breifly some Scriptures to shew you that flesh is taken in this sence Now the maine reason of it why I beleive this It is the scope of this Epistle to be the cheife meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the cheife drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speake without disparagement there is nothing more methodically layd downe and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the spirit The reason is because there is so great affinity 3. Why walking after the Law is called walking after the flesh and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and doe his best according to the law and not by the Gospell he shall be sure to walk 1. They are taken one for another in Scripture sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinfull and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so neare that people were ready to speake non-sence that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no sayth he sin is
plant Christ and the principles of Christ in their hearts and I feare that there is not one in ten but will miscarrie in the remooving as you find it often with your Trees when you remove and transplant them I say abundance of those Professors will come to nothing for when the feare of Hell and damnation is gone from their conscience when the Whip is gone they will turne the grace of God into Wantonnesse Nay some will turne downe right Enemies and persecuters of the Gospell as the Pharisees and of those that would come in in all probabilitie in removing and translating them from the law to the Gospell there is not one in ten but would turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and there goes all their Religion The way to Heaven is narrow our Lord Christ saith and I think it will be found far more narrow then we conceive of it Therfore as another godly man sayth we are exceedingly mistaken in judging of Professors we looke upon them and those that begin to amend from their sins we call them Professors But this Professors to be judged by their principles is the true way of judging that there are but two roots in the World the old Adam and the new Adam There are but two Covenants Sinai and Jerusalem there are but two wayes of walking after the flesh and after the spirit after the law and after the Gospell Now I judge him to be a Saint and a beleiver and God calls and ownes him as a Saint though he be weake and be not so glorious in the eye of the World as many formall Professors yet if I see any principles of the Gospell in him if there be a little of Christ in him in power though it be but in a little measure and he can pray but little and he cannot keepe fasting dayes and dayes of Humiliation so plausibly as many that make a Trade of it in this Cittie yet if that prayer and repeating and reading and hearing or preaching or whatsoever it be if it flow from the Lord Jesus Christ as a naturall man knowes naturall things soone Saint knowes another the spirit of God knowes the things of God It is true we all of us have a great deale of flesh The best have somwhat of old Adam in them and there is somewhat of good old Adam as well as of corrupted Adam but surely we ought not to conceive him to be a Saint let him be never so glorious in the eye of the World and in the performance of duties if there be not somwhat of Christ in him You may see a poore despicable creature and see a great deale of Christ in him and on the other side you may see great Professors that are Ringleaders of others and yet there is not a jot of Christ in them but all is old Adam scrued up in his brave parts and all is but Flesh a little more Resined and he that is Flesh and all that is Flesh cannot inherite the Kingdome of God Looke to your selves seriously especially you that are most emynent that think best of your selves that are ancient Professors unless you look to your selves you may take a great deale of pains and when all comes to all after all your praying fasting and repeating and preaching you may be found to be nothing in the world but men that walk according to the Flesh that is according to the refined and well educated principles of old Adam you may be Ishmaeils and be built upon Mount Sinai when all is done Therfore I say we may hence learne to judg How to judg who are Saints and who not rightly of Persons who are Saints and who are not who are the Children of God and who are not For in most things we doe not judg rightly we doe not judg as God judgeth We usually judg of men and things according to naturall wisdome or according to some distinctions and desinitions that we have of things in that naturall divinitie we have As for instance If a man leave his drunkennesse and whordome and come up to some kind of holinesse in his lips in appearance if he come to heare Sermons and repeat them and pray a little in his Familie that man we call a Saint a godly man and it may be he may be so and it may be not so Now the way that God judgeth of all men is as they are the Children oyther of the old or of the new Adam and not according to such a proportion of strictness in their lives for the Pharisees went beyond many weak Professors in common righteousnesse And this should be a mayne ground of our Ground of fellowship with others communion and fellowship and delight in others whether in Churches or otherwise It should not be grounded on this if such a man be of my opinion in such things if he agree with me he is for me and another that agrees with another he is for him These kind of communions will proove nothing but faction in the end But the true communion is when Saints together keepe fellowship Church fellowship or other upon spirituall grounds That is when Christ in his soule and Christ in myne close together this is the maine ground that makes communion and fellowship whatsoever comes in besides that is additionall but if there be a communion of people without this I say it will proove but faction but walking according to the Flesh I should shew now what course we should take to bring our selves to spirituall walking And Secondly what they should doe that God hath brought up in some measure to this condition But I must leave that till God give another opportunitie SERMON IIII. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THERE were three Lessons that the Lord did Teach us from these words The First is implied in the begining of the Verse that Every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly that All those that rightly beleive in Christ have in them a righteousnesse perfectly to fulfill it And Thirdly that Those that thus beleive and have this great priviledg for it is the Foundation of all others they are knowne or described by this they walk not after the Flesh but after the spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at larg and prooved it to you and came to make one Use of it That from hence we may learne how to judg of Use How to judge who are Saints and who are not Persons how to judg of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kind of holynesse they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by eyther as they walk according to the Flesh or according to the spirit For I told you there be diverse Profesors among
us that it may be are emynent in the eye of the World before men yet when all coms to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the World but a walking according to the Flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of old Adam But I shall goe on a little further Therfore in the next place the Question will be how shall I know whether I walk according Use 2. How to know whether we walk according to the spirit to the flesh or according to the spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the spirit I will only give you a few expressions of it I will not say signes for it may be you could not all beare that word and these expressions are most of them layd downe in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be men that walk according to the spirit or no. First you shall find in Rom. 6. that those that 1. Such are dead to sin are under grace or that walk according to the spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousnesse And there are many expressions of the same thing in diverse phrases As in Vers 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the bodie of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou doest not serve sin Then it is sayd in Vers 11. That those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in Vers 12. Sin shall not raigne in their Mortall bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in Vers 13. Yeild not your members as instruments of unrighteousnesse And in Vers 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are diverse expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the State of thy soule I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this that those that walk according 1. Sin is dead in respect of guilt to grace and according to the spirit sin is dead in them That is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they doe see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousnesse in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemne them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neyther can see it for these things are spirituall Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rouling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his Service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the spirit let him be weake or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and beleives in him therfore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth 2. Sin is dead in respect of the power to us as I understand that a beleiver being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himselfe and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therfore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and finds lusts to rise in his soul he sayth as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hands of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospell let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be layd in the Grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himselfe dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions 3. They are more holy then others here in Rom. 6. We gather this that surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I doe not say there is no sin in them for then we should lye as John sayth but certainly there is a power in their soules against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best morall men in respect of the exactest men in the World that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Yee are dead to sin and sin shall not reigne and have dominion over you and you shall not yeild your members as instruments to sin Shall we turne all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holynesse and power against sin that they had not before Therfore saith he VVhat 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 looke a little upon my owne soule or appeale to you take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walke 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 looke upon himselfe what he is now since he hath knowen a little of Christ and hath knowen that he is a justified Person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeale
men are so flesh and fleshly in their principles and actions that there is nothing of the spirit of God in them So it is principally to be taken here Though for the former two I may say this that as farr as a Saint either in the measure of his graces or in his actions is Fleshly he minds Fleshly things but a man that is wholly fleshly wholly minds Fleshly things And so much concerning the first Question The second thing is what is meant here by the Quest 2. VVhat meant by the things of the flesh and of the spirit things of the Flesh and by the things of the spirit If you remember what I have told you of Flesh before you will understand much what is meant by the things of the Flesh I told you Flesh was old Adam both in his good and in his evill pure Adam and corrupt Adam and every thing that came from him or every thing that leads to him that was Flesh So the things of the flesh are these things and all opportunities belonging to them in generall But that you may understand it a little better I will shew you what the holy Ghost calls these things of the Flesh and the things of the spirit that so by the Scriptures you may understand Scriptures We will put them both together the one will open the other to you In 1 Cor. 2. 11. There you shall see the things of the flesh are called the things of a man For what man knoweth the 1. The things of the flesh are the things of a man things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him The things of a man The things of the Flesh are the things of a man that is proper to a man as man Therefore Mark 8. 32. They are called The things that be of men The things of the Flesh are called the things that men deal about the things that men as men naturally deale about and look after the things of men But the things of the spirit of God in that 1 Cor. 2. You have diverse expressions The things of the spirit of them Vers 9. They are the things that Eye hath not seen nor Eare heard nor hath entred The things that eye hath not seen c. into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him What are these things These glorious things that no carnall man hath ever seene or 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 Vers 10. They are deepe because no carnall man can reach them and in Vers 11. They are called the things of God And in Vers 12. The things that are freely given to us of The deep things of God God And in Vers 14. They are called the things of the spirit of God The things of the spirit of God are foolishnesse 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 Things of the flesh are seen the things that are seene and the things of the spirit are called the things that are not seene the one are said to be temporall and the other eternall The things of the Flesh are temporall things that may be seene that is not so much seene with the eyes of the body but he meanes that a man every carnall man may perceive and understand them All the things of old Adam a meere narurall man is able to comprehend them but the other things are things that are not seene that is that eye hath not seene nor eare beard 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 seene of them but God reveales them to the least Babe of his owne Kingdome In Collos 3. 1. 2. You have another description for you may put these together and so the better understand They are things on Earth Things of the spirit above them In Vers 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 sence 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 himselfe calls it Earthly I am from the Earth I speake earthly he is from above he speaks Heavenly and spiritually It was Earthly in comparison of Christ though there was some Gospell 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 Philip. 3. 7. there is another large description Gaine and losse 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 losse I account them losse saith Paul Now the things of the Spirit were those things that Paul desired to win and to gaine in the Things behind and before verses following That I may gaine Christ and his righteousnesse And a little further you shall see Paul calls the things of flesh the things behind and the things of the spirit the things before And in verse 19. the things of the flesh he calls them earthly things They mind earthly things and so by contraries the other things are heavenly I can not open every perticular expression only I would point out the descriptions to you as the holy-Ghost layes them downe 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
a man Now this is an impure heart an impure conscience And to the pure every thing is pure but to the impure every thing is defiled That is when a man hath an impure conscience that is not washed effectually by the bloud of Christ through the power of the holy Ghost then his meat and his drinke and his bed and his recreations every thing defiles him every lawfull thing defiles him as well as unlawfull Now then thou mayst reason thus if I have seene God I have a pure heart What is that I have no more conscience of sinne That is I finde an exceeding great power of the Spirit that makes my conscience cleane that notwithstanding my frailties there is no guilt lying or soaking in my Conscence That is one thing The second expression there you shall see afterwards verse 10. that they are said to be sanctified sanctification in this place is not meant as you usually take sanctification that is for mortification and vivification as we say the killing of sin and the quickning of grace though that may be called sanctification too But sanctification in this place is in the same sense as I said before when the conscience is washed and cleansed from the guilt of sin as it is interpreted in the third expression in verse 2â— Let us draw neare with a true heart in the full assurance of faith having our hearts sprinkled that is our consciences sprinkled having our hearts sprinkled from an evill conscience and our bodies washed with pure water An evill Conscience is an unbelieving Conscience for evill in the New Testament is ordinarily taken for unbeliefe Take heed saith the Apostle least there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe to draw back from the living God That evill conscience Judas had and Saul had For sin did lye on their consciences and was not washed Now saith he Let us draw neare with full assurance Full assurance is opposed to an evill Conscience and that cannot be if you take sanctification in that sense that you use to take it Now that is one thing wherever God manifests himselfe and reveals his glory in his Son to the Soule he gives that man a pure heart a good conscience he washeth that mans conscience by the bloud of his Son that is his Spirit applies the vertue of the bloud of his Sonne to our Soules and Consciences to make them pure and peaceable 2ly a pure heart for there are but two ways in 2 Aheart cleansed from the power of sin generall that it is taken in Scripture a pure heart is a heart cleansed also from the power of sinne that is a pure heart And indeed both are comprehended here in one word because wheresoever the one is the other is also For it is impossible for a man to have his Conscience made truly peaceable by the bloud of Christ but it will be made pure and holy also Therefore in that place in Heb. 12. VVithout holinesse it is impossible to see God I suppose it is meant of Personall holinesse of Reformation and amendment of life and not of the imputed holinesse of Christ and the washing of the conscience as I said before But you will say if it be so then no man can see Object God till he go to Heaven for no man is free from sinne in this World There are many Answers that godly men give to this Objection that I cannot stand on It is ture there is sinne and corruption left in the Answ Saints yet they are said to be a pure People People Saints pure notwithstanding the remainder of corruptions 1 They grow purer every day Simile of a pure language to have pure hearts Why Because they are growing every day purer and purer that is the reason they are purified As a godly man compares them to a Well when you throw dirt or any thing into a standing poole it makes it fouler and fouler but throw it into a Well and it workes it out it bubbles and is never quiet till all be out So the Saints have pure hearts because however foule things are working and stirring in them yet they are still stirring against them and get ground of them though they be not pure that is quite free from sinne yet they are purer every day then other Then some say and they say truly that a man 2 The streame of the heart is pure hath a pure heart though there be corruption there when the streame of the heart the very streame of the heart is pure and holy Some conceive and those godly men as I told you before that there is a coare in the heart of a godly man that is pure and holy without sinne Which godly men take to be that that is meant by Spirit so frequently in Scripture saith the Apostle I serve God in my Spirit Rom. 1. And I pray God to preserve your soule and body and spirit 1 Thess 5. And that Spirit they take to be the quintessence of the soule somthing more inward then the Soule There is somthing in a pure heart that opposeth sinne and opposeth temptation there is some non ultra in the heart of a godly man Sinne gets the advantage over his eyes and over his hand and over his tongue but there is a baracado in his heart that it can goe no farther As you see betweene two Women chiding and striving who shall have the last word and one replyes and the other replyes and at last one hath the last word So there is somthing in the heart of a godly man that will have the last word As in a naturall man sinne hath the last word saith an Hypocrite I have a mind to over reach my Neighbour in such a bargaine thou wert not best to doe it saith enlightned conscience thou hearest the Preacher and hearest the Scripture say the contrary But I am resolved to doe it saith the Hypocrite then I will trouble thee saith the conscience Now there is no sinne that a Saint doth fall into but there is a coare in him that goes beyond As you see in an Onion you may pull off one scale and then another and another and at last you may come to the coare and can goe no farther Such a thing there is in a Saint this is that that is called the spirit the streame and quintessence of the Soule is holy and though there be corruption there yet there is something that is pure and holy and that coare will eat out the rest in time As to give you but one instance more looke upon your hearts as I speak and see how they agree with it take any corruption that a Saint falls into throughout the yeare there are many chidings and brawlings betweene grace and corruption I will have my will sayth corruption I will be vaine and fine and finer then my Neighbours saith grace I will not have it so But I will saith corruption I will have my will but if you
I shall open to you which is Vse 2. Tryall if we have seen God aâ—ight the maine shall be to shew you a way how you may know whether ever you have thus seene God it is an ordinary phrase in John his Epistles such a man hath not seene God He that hates his Brother hath not seene God And the seeing of God even in this world is the glorious priviledge that the Saints have Men usually say that the Saints have every thing here that they shall have in Heaven but only the beatificall vision but truly they have here the beatificall vision they doe see God as truly though not so fully as they shall in Heaven Therefore you may know whether you be of those that have this great priviledge that you have seen God if you have you are truly humbled that will follow for the right sight of God makes a man By our humiliation cry out VVoe is me for I am undone Now the question will be whether this grace be wrought in our hearts in yours and mine whether we be rightly humbled And that you may know by two ways in generall The one by your carriage towards God True humiliation may be knowne The other by your carriage to your Brethren You may know it by your carriage to God in these five things First in respect of Gods justifying grace Secondly in respect of his truths that are made By our carriage to God knowne to you Thirdly in respect of his commandements that are laid upon you Fourthly in respect of his corrections Fifthly In respect of his mercies Now to open these to you I say that every Saint that is truly humbled By humiliation I told you I meane not a preparatorie humiliation as some In our Justification of our Divines say or an after humiliation but the grace of humiliation that is alway in every Saint and that grows more and more as other graces as meeknesse and joy and love and goodnesse and the like now to know whether you be thus humbled The first question will be whether ever God hath brought thee to submit to the righteousnesse of 1. By submitting to the righteousnes of Christ Christ for justification That is the first and the chiefest thing as it is in Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousnes and going about to establish their own righteousnes they have not submitted to the righteousnesse of God Now whether hath the Lord ever brought thee to a full despaire of ever being justified in the sight of God or of getting any favor from him or of salvation by any good that is in thee or hath been done by thee or any hope that thou shalt have any good or doe any good I say that if thou be truly humbled thou art brought to that And I say this is the first and chiefest thing Because that a man is more prone to his own righteousnesse such as it is then to his sin a man sticks closer to his owne righteousnes then to his sin for it is an easier thing to bring twenty men from their sins then one man from his righteousnesse Why man is naturally prone to cleave to his owne righteousnesse Simile The ground is this because it is that liquor that was first put into us the liquor that is put into a vessell first that sticks longer and hath a deeper impression and keeps the tast longer if it be Vinegar or VVine or any thing that is put in a new barrell Now God made us first righteous afterwards we sought out many inventions after we fell therefore it is more naturall to us to be righteous in some fashion with some fashioned righteousnesse such as it is then to be sinfull And a man sticks closer to his righteousnesse and is more troubled with it and more endangered by it a thousand fold then by his sinns For truly sinne is nothing but a feaverish distemper in a man he is many times Sin what drawn to drunkennesse and to whoredome but take a carnall man when he is best his owne man he approoves righteousnesse better then sinne so that we may see it is righteousnesse he aimes at and he will commend a Preacher that would have him leave sinne rather then one that will help him on in it so that its a principle more rooted in mans heart to be righteous then to be sinfull but it is not the righteousnesse of Christ remember that it is but that a man would get up he would repaire that shattered and torne righteousnesse that once was in him by Adam that a man is more prone to though by sinne by a feaverish distemper he is oft carried from that but none are so farre carried but he followes it in some measure and in a great measure Now the question is whether the Lord hath wholly brought thee from that righteousnesse to submit To be content with the righteousnes of another wholly to the righteousnesse of another That is the first expression whereby I shall demonstrate it Whether a man be brought wholly from his owne righteousnesse to submit wholly to the righteousnesse of another that is to the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ now in Heaven If thou art come to this then thou art an humbled man For it is a great point of humilitie for at man to stoop to another ro be beholding to another for a thing when he thinks that he hath one that is good of his owne Now for me to leave my owne righteousnesse and to goe and seeke a righteousnesse only in Jesus Christ and to walke in that all the dayes of my life and to live upon that righteousnesse this shews that a man hath a humble heart let the world say what it will here is the maine point of humiliation in this world It is not whining and crying and howling wicked men and proud men may doe this and be roaring and damning themselves and the like the Devill may doe so that hath no true humiliation But here is true humiliation for a man to deny his owne righteousnesse and to embrace humbly the righteousnesse that is in Jesus Christ I say to be content wholly and fully with it That as one godlie man saith God at the first put a great stock of righteousnesse in Adams hand to Simile trade with he made him a righteous man and when Adam fell God tooke away his stock and God said he should never trade and set up shop more God had a way indeed to doe him good but he should never set up shop againe We would set up shop and trade as Adam did there is no man in the world though his righteousnesse be never so little but he would rather goe with that portion of a righteousnesse of his owne then submit to the glorious righteousnesse of the Lord Jesus Therefore I say this is it whether the Lord hath brought thy Spirit to be humble that thou art content to be a foole
not beleive in Judea and that my service for Jerusalem may be accepted of the Saints For Jesus Christs sake pray for me VVhy He was going to Jerusalem to carry money to the poore A man would think that they should be beholding to him that Paul a Preacher would come and bring it himself but I beseech you for Christs sake pray that the Saints may accept of my service O God give Parliament men and great ones that they may be Willing to doe for the Saints and to pray to God for the Saints acceptance It is a great matter for the Saints to accept the service of the Saints The Thirteenth thing to know a humble heart 13. He rejoyceth at the growth of grace in others by in his demeanour to the Saints is this he rejoyceth much that grace grows in others though it doe not in himselfe and he rejoyceth in the good that is done by others though he can doe none himselfe Paul 2 Cor. 4. 13. I rejoyce that ye be honourable though we be beggars A humble heart rejoyceth though he be the least of Saints yet to see such people grow and to have full grace and to thrive accordingly a proud heart will murmur and it is a signe of a cursed heart that doth not rejoyce in the good that is done by another it is a cursed hellish disposition in Numb 11. We read how diverse did Prophesie in the Campe and they come to Moses and desire him to forbid them O say they looke yonder he is turned Preacher now O sayth Moses I would that all Gods people did prophesie Now there are such a generation of men among us that will not indure that any good should be done but by themselves and if a poore man goe out of my Parish to another place for the good of his soul I must envie the man because he would get more good and others that have been trades-men though they be men of parts and breeding in the Army and elsewhere yet if they have not the languages though they teach the people gloriously yet we must crie them downe as Aereticks whereas if God will doe good by using such we should rejoyce if I rejoyce not in the good that is done by another in this Congregation or in the Armie or any where as much as if it were done by my selfe I am a cursed proud man Let us think of that Another thing which I spake of before is that 14. He can love though he be not loved a humble heart he can love though he be not loved As Paul sayth Though the more I love you the lesse â— be loved of you There is none but a humble heart that can love when it is not loved Lastly and so to make an end of this text the 15. He measures not himselfe by himselfe demeanour of a humble heart to the Saints it is seen in this he dares not measure himself by himself nor compare himself with himself You shall find that word 2 Cor 10. 12. VVe dare not make our selves of the number or compare our selves with some that commend themselves but they measuring themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves are not wise Man naturally is the best judge of himselfe only every man hath abundance of self-love whereby every man thinks in every poynt better of himself then he is and they think themselves the wisest people in the World and that other people have no braines and so measure themselves with themselves Or rather thus I have observed in proud hearted professors to their ruyne unlesse God work a myracle that doe not approove their hearts to God nor to the generality of the Saints but measure themselves by themselves they are good because they think they are good or else they will have two or three fawning flatterers by them that shall commend them though all the VVorld condemne them yet if they approove them and commend them they care not Thereupon I have knowne some that have lost all their reputation with all the Saints excepting only two or three that would call black white and white black You shall have a great man when he hath done an action he will goe to his Chaplaine and say is not this well done and it may be he will flatter him in it We are all subject to this it is not peculiar to one alone We should make use of some friends when we have done an action that should be joynt judges in it and if they entertaine it for good we should account it so or else not for a World and if these condemne us we should hold our selves condemned but beware of setting a few creatures like our selves to be judges but to approve our selves before the Lord and before the Generation of Saints And so you have heard the demeanour of the Saints that they are humble in their carriage towards God and towards sinners and towards Saints And so much for this text Mount Sion OR The Priviledge and Practice OF THE SAINTS By WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at ALHALLOWS Great in LONDON HEB. 12.22 But yee are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living GOD c. GAL. 4.26 But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all LONDON Printed in the Yeare 1649. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THE maine 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 doe 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 speake Now in this 8th Chapter the Apostle drawes this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have sayd 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 sayth they are those Who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And he gives a reason of it in Vers 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 Vers 3. For what the law could not doe in that it was weake through the flesh God sending his owne son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have sayd thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because sayth he that God hath sent his son in the
matter of practice a man that beleives in Jesus Christ he walks more strictly then any Pharisee can for he looks not only what is lawfull but what is convenyent he walks by a more sublime excellent rule A Pharisee looks only what is lawfull and what is not lawfull but a Christian he looks what is exact and expedient take any man that knows what it is to be justified by Christ and that man goes a thousand fold further then another for a man that would be saved by his owne fulfilling of the law if he cannot come up to the law he will bring the law downe to him As a man that hath a heavie Burthen if it be too heavie for him he will cast off some of it so when a man goes about to keep the law and finds it too heavie for him he will throw away some and cut out a part and make a carnall gross law and endeavour to keep that Now a man that is justified by Christ he knowes that the law must be satisfied and so he takes it in the purest spiritualitie and goes to Christ Jesus and he hath satisfied all So much breifly for the second lesson Now I shall enter a little upon the third as sat as the Lord shal give strength time Those that beleive and have this great priviledg which is the Foundation of all others to have the law perfectly fulfilled for them in Christ they are here described to be such as walke not according to the flesh but according to the spirit So in the third place take this doctrine or lesson that They and they only that walk not according Doct. 3. They only that have Christ to fulfill the law for them walk according to the spirit to the flesh but according to the spirit are partakers of this priviledg to have the benefite of the righteousnesse of Christ to fulfill the law of God for them I say they and they only have it for it excludes all other The Scripture doth not only set it downe positively as it sayth Goe baptize all Nations in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therfore we may conclude thence that we may baptize those that are Disciples but from that place to gather this doctrine that they and they only are to be baptized cannot be right but here I say it is they and they only Why so Because we see after those that walke according to the flesh shall die the righteousnesse of the law is not fulfilled for them for then they should never die nor be damned They that walke after the spirit and they only have this priviledg Now the maine businesse that I shall endeavour at this time will be onely to open to you these two words What it is to walke And what is meant by flesh and what by spirit For if we understand what it is to walke acording to the flesh we shall easily understand what it is to walk according to the spirit Concerning the former word to walk I shall To walk what say but little because you understand it To walk is a generall word in this place it is of a great extent and comprehends a mans whole course and way and practice A man who goes or converseth whose course and way is according to the flesh whatsoever that flesh is as we shall see afterwards such a man walks Therfore it is oft set downe in Scripture by severall expressions They that are after the law and they of the concision c. Put what words you will so they be generall enough they whose thoughts and words and courses are that way they are they that are said to walk There are three words in the Originall for walking and of those three the word here is of the largest extent To walke according to the flesh what is the meaning of that I shall be a little larger in the opening of this I will not trouble you with the various acceptations of the word flesh You know there is a litterall sence of it and by a Synechdoche it is put for the whole person soule and body and there is a Metonimicall acception of flesh I will give them a heart of flesh It is called flesh for softnesse and there is a Metaphoricall acception of flesh a borrowed kind of speech and so it is to be understood in this place Now to open this to you I shall shew you First in generall what is meant by flesh Secondly particularly what is meant by flesh By flesh therefore in generall you are to understand Flesh what meant by it in this place and the like every thing let it be what it will be that is against Jesus Christ or his spirit or his worship or any thing else that belongs to it any thing that is not of faith or of Christ it is flesh in generall Let me speake more plainly any thing that is of Old Adam is flesh whether it be good or evill and any thing that is of and from the new Adam that is spirit Now you Two things from old Adam know we receive two things from Old Adam some naturall morall good some reliques of that that he had the fulness of and we receive evill when he was corrupted Now both these take them in the largest extent they are both called flesh in Scripture whatsoever is of and comes from Old Adam is called flesh therfore flesh in many places in the New Testament it is the very same with the Old Man and you have them taken promiscuously Our old man is crucified Rom. 6. And in another place Those that are Christs have crucified the flesh not only the corruption or evill that Originall sin as we say that is within us but whatsoever of the Image of the old man is upon us whatsoever we have had whether it be good or evill from the old man And indeed in the New Testament it is more frequently taken for the morall good of Old Adam then the evill though it be taken for both yet I say most frequently the good of Old Adam especially the wisdome of Old Adam The wisdome of the flesh is enmitie to God Rom. 8. As in the New Adam the Lord Jesus Christ the wisdome of the holy Ghost is a most excellent peice so the wisdome of Old Adam is the unhappiest and most miserable thing of all That you may understand this you must conceive Two principles whence all men work that all the principles of this World I meane of all mankind all their motions and actions doe wholly spring and flow from two rootes two principles as the Heathen Phylosophers sayd in another sence they held that all this world did rise from two beginnings from two beeings from two principles there was one good and another evill that set all things on worke so all things in every man in this World the principles and motions and actions and thoughts and inclinations and wisdome and reasoning and
doing whatsoever is within or without man it springs from one of these two rootes that is it is either from Old Adam I meane not nature in you but it flowes from Adam that was once in Paradise or else from the New Adam Christ Jesus For there were but two men that ever in the World were publique persons that were the Fountaine of the Only two publike persons the two Adams principles and proceedings of mankind Adam in Paradise naturall Adam and the Lord Jesus Christ the spirituall Adam All mankind was made after the Image of the first Adam We have borne the Image of the earthly Adam 1 Cor. 15. And indeed all the Saints shall beare the Image of the Heavenly Adam too hereafter at the least Now both these Adams are as two springs in a hill conveying their streames to two rivers they are springs from whence arise all the thoughts and imaginations and actions and proceedings all the wisedome and righteousnesse whatsoever is in us it springs eyther from the second Adam the Lord Jesus planted in the soule or else it flowes from Old Adam from naturall Adam that is in us Therfore they are called the roots the Lord Jesus is called the roote of Jesse Why so Because all the new creation all the worke of grace all the principles and thoughts and actions of a Saint so farr as they are of grace they rise from the new Adam the Lord Jesus Christ Therfore I say to understand this a little in generall before I goe further A man that walks according to the flesh who is he A man that walks according to any thing of Old Adam whether it be good or evill And usually in the new Testament it is taken for the good 1 Cor. 1. There flesh is taken for the good of old Adam when a man walks according to the wisdome of Adam according to naturall wisdome and according to the righteousnesse of Old Adam that is done by us or when we walke according to the sins and lusts and corruptions of Adam for both are put together and all makes but flesh and whole flesh strives against whole spirit Now I say take it in a generall sense to walke after the flesh is not only to walk sinfully and carnally but when a man walks though devoutly and righteously in the eye of the World yet if it be after the principles of Old Adam if he doe not walke by a principle planted in him from the new Adam the Lord Jesus Christ all this is but flesh Now then for a man to walk according to the To walk according to the Spirit what spirit What is that All his principles spring from the root of Jesse from the spirit of the Lord Jesus all his actions are upon another ground Now I say all the principles and actions of every man and woman in the World springs from one of these Therefore it is convenient and necessary that you consider how the two Adams are the two springs of all mankind the two pillars as it were upon which God hath layd all mankind and all that is done in the World and those that walk after the one walk after the flesh and those that are after the other walk after the spirit So much in generall Now more particularly by walking after Three things meant by walking according to the flesh the flesh in this place there are Three things meant The first thing meant by walking after the flesh according as most of our godly and learned translate 1. To walk according to the corruption of nature it is when a man walks according to the dicttates and suggestions of corrupt nature So flesh is taken for Originall sin that is that corruption of nature that is prone to every evill and that is an enemy to all good So a man that walks according to the flesh is when the course and bent of a mans soule and life goes after sin though he doe some good sometimes yet when his course is that way that is his continuedness and contentednesse is after sin this is to walk after the flesh First when it is his continued course for walking is not a step or a leape or a stride but walking is a thing of many paces So it is called a goeing from iniquitie to iniquitie Rom. 6. And then there is in walking contentedness and sweetness a man is not sayd to walke when he is tyred or when he goes in danger but walking it is pleasant to all young and old So when he saith they that walk according to the flesh that is not only when men are overtaken by lusts and sin but people that in their ordinarie course goe with a great deale of contentment in evill wayes But though this be true that this is comprehended Which is not the mayne scope here in walking after the flesh yet this is very lame and short of the full and whole meaning of this place I say it is not the maine nor cheife meaning of this place it is not primarily nor principally meant this is a truth and it will follow as a necessary consequence as I shall shew anon and I doubt not but the Apostle meanes it when he sayth we walk not according to the flesh because in Rom. 6. He takes a great deale of paines in that poynt but I think this is not the cheife meaning My Reasons are these First because I find that the very scope of this 1. The Apostles scope is otherwise learned Epistle is different if not almost contrarie to this his scope is not to quarrell with them for want of doing good works and for walking in sinfull works but the scope of it is to beat them off from their owne works and to bring them to Christ and therfore he sayth Abraham was justified without works he all along disparageth their works as they did them Therfore I think he doth not goe so farr from his text or from his scope as to make this the maine businesse their sanctification or holiness the not walking in evill or the walking in good works Secondly this cannot be the cheife scope of 2. These things must follow which are contrary to the Gospell the place because if you take these words They that walk after the flesh in this sence that is those that follow sinfull courses if you take them so that none but such as walk holily have a right to Jesus Christ and his righteousnesse Or if you take them in this sence that they only that walk in a holy life can come to know that they have the righteousnesse of Christ fullfilling the law for them neyther of these can hold For the first that no man can have to doe with 1. That none have to doe with Christ but those that walk holily Christ or his righteousnesse but that man that walks according to the spirit that walks in a holy way and not in sinfull courses this is contrarie to the streame
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 Vers 26. And there is also a triumphing over all our spirituall enemies Vers 31. What shall we say then if God be for us who can be against us c. And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his owne 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 Sayth the Apostle Vers 18. I neckon 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 Christ Jesus 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 seperate 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 soule 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 find none of these kind of things in his soule So much concerning that Use In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone Vse 3. Tryall of our actions whereby you may trie and judg of mens persons so hereby also you may trie 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 only are Saints who walk according to the spirit let the World judg 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 those are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may trie 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 doe for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot doe it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the maine rule by which I am to judg of my actions it is this not to judg of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargment in them as we call it but we are to judg of our actions cheifly 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 sinfull Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1. Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from naturall wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c. it is but flesh and Whatsoever is borne of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is deare 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 borne of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God But you will say cannot the actions that proceed Quest from the principles of naturall Adam be pleasing to God Every man knowes that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of naturall 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 naturall wit and doe other Excercises and doe them finely cannot they be pleasing to God No this is a certaine rule that there is nothing Answ Nothing that comes from naturall Adam pleaseth God that comes from flesh from a principle of old Adam whither it be naturally good or evill there is nothing whether from pure Adam or 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 least he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the curse came upon him And in reference to this you shall find 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 maine curse of old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord sayd that Adam should Adam to dye as a publick person die for sin conceive not that the meaning is only that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soule and body for ever in Hell that is not the only meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publike person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appoynted thee to be the spring and Foundation of all mankind and every man in the World is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousnesse and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happinesse and thy posteritie 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 sayth God thou shalt die I made thee a happie creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy selfe and thy posterity as a publike person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousnesse thy soule and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as thou art a publike man soule and body flesh and bone all that is in the and all that comes from thee shall die this is that great curse that God laid on him a curse of a great extent Therefore I say whatsoever now ariseth from All that springs from old Adam condemned the Sons of Adam that springs from old Adam be it good or evill it is condemned to die it must die it cannot please God As Adam when he had eaten the forbidden fruit the Lord set an Angell with a Sword
proud that you cannot rule your hearts but you are lifted up with pride when you have done duties it is because every fine thing you doe from old Adam makes you proud you take all in the bulke and consider not whence you doe things you consider not how much of the old Adam or of the new there is in your Prayers and Duties Therfore let this be an universall eternall rule to know the worth of all your services and actions by whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever of my Preaching and of your praying and lending and giving and of your publike actions if it be not from a spirituall principle from Jesus Christ according to the Gospell planted in you it is of old Adam and it is condemned labour to leave that I shall conclude with one Word more and Vse 4. To expect the fulfilling of Prophesies and promises that is this that this beeing so that this is to walk according to the spirit Then we should long very much for the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises that God hath made unto us concerning the latter times There is no Saint almost now that I know but expects glorious times only one Saint thinks that the glory of the Saints shall be in this thing and another in that thing but every Saint expects continually the fulfilling of those Prophesies and promises set downe in the latter end of the Revelations and they are glorious ones whatsoever the meaning of them is and I think the cheife thing there promised which shall be the height of our happinesse that the new Jerusalem shall come downe from Heaven mistake me not though it be a consequent yet it is not cheifly and properly such a way of government this or that or the other way though it be true that Government will follow upon it yet if the meaning of it were only to reforme our Churches though that were a blessing or that Christ should come and reigne here temporally and give us Inheritances and riches and the like truly a Saint would not long much for these things But the New Jerusalem shall come downe from Heaven and abundance of blessings that shall goe along with it What is that The meaning of New Jerusalem comming downe from Heaven what it is we shall have the light of the Gospell clearly revealed unto us and we shall have Gospell principles fully put into our soules which by Antichrist by Babilon we have been seduced of these thirteene or fourteene hundred yeares For that was the mischeife of Antichrist he hath kept us all his reigne under the old Testament with Altars and Sacrifices and Preists and I know not what every thing just as they used under Moses and we are not wholly gone out of Antichrist yet But the Lord will send a light into our hearts to know the truth in the power and spirit and to square our hearts to it For that is new Jerusalem if you compare it with Heb. 12. where the holy Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is clearly opposite to Mount Sinai So compare it with Gal. 4. he tells us that Jerusalem which is above us is Mother of us all that is the Covenant of grace and the principles thereof in the soules of men Therefore I wish that the Lord would set your hearts and mine a longing after that that we may have more of the spirit of the Gospel and of the Principles of the New Testament in us and then for matter of Government of Churches those things would follow For to set up Government and Discipline before this comes into the soule truely it is to build Castles in the ayre for let a man take us and frame us in the Independent or Presbyterian way in what way he will unlesse the Principles of Jesus Christ in the Gospel be spiritually planted it will be a fleshly Independent and a fleshly Presbyterian service Therefore labour chiefly for that and pray the Lord to fulfill that and then your Government whatsoever it shall be God will reveale it more fully People are now generally going to build and order Churches and I know not what unlesse the spirit of the New Testament governe in the New Testament it is a vaine thing thing for if wee have our former fleshly hearts that walke according to the Law and according to the flesh all the Government in the World will never doe us good because God hath cursed Flesh and it will never be regulated and brought to good And this also should move us exceedingly to Upon what ground to long for the comming of Christ long for the comming of Jesus Christ to glory for his comming to us or our comming to him and the reason of that you shall have in 1 Cor. 15. 49. a glorious word that hath dwelt much in my thoughts I told you the reason why every man must dye a naturall death because of that absolute grand curse that Adam did fall in as a publick person and we being from him we must dye Now here is the comfort of it a blessed word it is As we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare also the Image of the heavenly that is when the redemption of our bodies comes at the day of Christ then as we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall beare the Image of the heavenly We have borne hitherto and doe beare the Image of naturall Adam we are all his Sons and Daughters just like him in our wisedome and understandings and bodies and soules poore earthly creatures naturall fraile creatures we are and by that curse that was layd upon him we must all dye and lay downe these earthly Tabernacles these earthly creatures must be dissolved As we have borne the Image of the earthly not onely as we have borne the Image of old Adam sin and wickednesse and pride and frowardnesse so now we shall beare the Image of the new not onely in respect of grace and holinesse and righteousnesse that if I be in him all those corruptions of nature shall out and I shall have a new nature That is true but that is not all but as I wholly beare the Image and shape of old Adam his body and soule and senses and all those must dye so when these bodies shall be raised we shall as absolutely and largely beare the Image of the new Adam the Lord Jesus in our body and senses and all our whole man soule and body in respect of substance as well as quality we shall beare the Image of the second dam as lively and in as large an extent as ever wee bore the Image of the earthly Adam Therefore that is a Not onely sinfulnesse but earthynesse troubles a Christian great comfort I will tell you why because it is not onely the sinfulnesse of a Christian that troubles him but his earthinesse so many distempers and troubles that it is a misery the spirit is willing but the flesh
evill thought shee what kind of good and evill shee goes to this sublime conceit and so was lost Now sayth Paul I am afraid of you least the Devill should beguile you so I am loath to offend you for I had rather win 4. To het the comfort of our priviledges you or else I could instance in twenty or forty conceits and distinctions of things Ideas that are above the simplicity of the Gospell and that is enough to make us leave them because they are above the simplicity of the Gospell and the excellency of the Gospell is not in those Ideas but in knowing the power of plaine things as the death of Jesus Christ Every man in Jerusalem knew the death of Christ but to know the power of that death keepe close to the simplicity of the Gospell Another thing is this you that have knowne a little of the spirit of God and have inlarged hearts and enlightned eyes Let not God rest till thou find the comfort and power of what thou knowest O we know that the righteousnesse of the law by Christ is fulfilled in us and the like but we have not the full comfort of such a truth and many others We know Christ hath paid our debt and that we are one with him as he is one with the Father but we have not the power and the comfort of these things Beloved for thy comfort know that Paul in a Pauls condition sort was in thy condition Phil. 3. Not as though I had attained or apprehended but I would apprehend him of whome I am apprehended and I would know the vertue of his death and the power of his Resurrection Paul saw something that he did not fully apprehend but he would feele more of the power of Gospell spirituall truthes and if he saw that he wanted it much more we O doe not content your selves to have an old frozen knowledge of Gospell truths whereby you are able to proove that men are legallists and that men are under Mount Sinai and yet have cold and frozen hearts cold truths without life therefore thinke of minding God of this Then lastly labour to take heed that you be 5. Not to fall back from the light of the Gospell not by any meanes bewitched so as to fall back from that little light in the Gospell that you have received it is an easie thing so to doe I doe beleive and it is my comfort and will be when I am farr from this place that the Lord hath enlightened diverse of you to know the Gospell to know Jesus Christ a little clearer Now I know not whaâ— the Lord may doe for you but I say it is wonderous easie you may under one quarter of a yeares fleshly Preaching lose that that you have been under two or three yeares Preaching a getting I have knowne after a quarter of a yeares buylding up of my soule in the knowledg of Christ and the setling of my faith and assurance I have heard one Sermon that hath routed and dasht all that work in my soule Therefore I beseech you beware faith is a tender thing especially the light we have that is but very weake and very tender therefore sayth Paul Who hath bewitched you you foolish Gallatians before whome Jesus Christ hath been lively painted As the word signifies Christ was drawne lively before the Gallatians and yet they did fall If Paul that was an Apostle and had the spirit of God in such a measure laying open the spirit of Christ and yet his people did goe back to Moses and to Sinai the Lord help and uphold us Therfore stand fast in your liberty in Jesus Christ This is all in short I have to say to you for that I hope you will lay up these words Now I have a few words of advice and counsell Vse 5. How those that walk after the flesh may come to walk spiritually to those poor souls that do yet in a great measure walk according to the flesh in one fashion or other Their religion is a fleshly Religion from old Adam and according to the law in a great measure Now the Question is what shall they doe that they may be spirituall Christians that they may walke according to the spirit I will only name a few things 1. Study the difference between the two Testaments The first is this I would desire you to endeavor to studie much the difference between the two Testaments the new and the old I meane not the two Bookes but the two Testaments that we read of in Heb. 8. Heb. 9. Whereof the one is faulty and the other is excellent the one is done away the other remaines Studie the difference between them for thereby you lay the foundation of your Gospell happinesse for there is the misery of many Professors and will be their misery if they should live a thousand yeares they jumble both Testaments without knowledge and distinction and so they will never be better Another thing that I would exhort you to is 2. To prize the spirit this to prize the spirit of Christ more then you doe There is nothing in the Gospel but it is a Mystery you cannot know it but by the spirit and there is no duty in the Gospell to be done that can be done but by the power of the spirit We may doe many things in the law by the strength of old Adam in the Gospell we can doe nothing but the spirit is all And that is the reason I think for I speake according to the grace given me why people now are left so bare and poore and confused and know not which way to goe or what to doe they doe not prize the spirit of God Many men extoll Learning mightily and it is Learning extolled to the disparagement of the spirit accounted almost Heresie to commend the spirit of God There are many men I and many Professors that doe not love to heare a man in a few modest words to commend the spirit of God but all must be by studie and reading and learning and for the spirit of God it is a plaine meere Cypher and there is an end But my life on it if I had a hundred I would say so they shal be beholding to the spirit of God and extoll him before they be taught spiritually they shall be willing to lay downe all their learning as I have seene a learned godly man of late even with the Plow-boy I do not say but that learning is good for some Learning of what use it is uses and God may blesse it to help a man to expresse what he knowes the better but as I told you Adam must die he cannot by it come to know one jot of the spirituall meaning of God in the Gospell or one jot of power or assurance to be happie or to doe any thing for God towards this all learning is not worth a straw therefore labour to extoll the spirit And
read one single Scripture it may be I have a book that will point out halfe a dozen Scriptures to open one Scripture by And it may be I have some books that take 3. To presse Scriptures on the soule some Scripture and presse it upon my soule as Doctor Prestons and other godly books But to take books and say Jerome thinks this and Austin that and fill our heads with notions they blind us that we cannot see the will of God Therefore in reading of Scriptures there should Difference in the learning of Christians and others be this difference from our reading of other Books I meane in respect of age When we are Children and young we use not Spectacles it may be at twenty or thirty or fourty yeares old we can read without Spectacles but when we come to fifty or sixty then we can see nothing but through Spectacles It should be just contrary with us when we are Christians When we are young we usually never read the Word of God but through the Spectacles of mens glosses but when we are older Christians and stronger Saints we should learne to read better without Spectacles wee should daily make lesse use of Mens Books and more of Gods Book That whereas before a man turned over twenty Authors upon a point Now he can goe humbly to God with his Bible and without Spectacles he can see what the will of God is Therefore lay aside Spectacles sometimes and onely take the spirit of God and compare Scipture with Scripture that you may come to know the mind of Christ Shall I name one thing more If you would 5. To be borne againe come to be spirituall Gospel-Saints you must be borne againe you must be borne from above A Gospell-profession is Jerusalem from above and there are none that can come into Jerusalem that is from above but those that are borne from above Therefore marke our Saviours reasoning John 3. Nicodemus asks Christ which was the way to Heaven And he tells him Verily thou must be borne againe or thou must be borne from above or else thou canst not see it Nichodemus wonders why hee must be borne from above saith he Shall I goe into my Mothers belly c. Saith Christ marvell not wonder not why should he not wonder at such a strange speech Here is the reason That which is borne of flesh is flesh therefore think it not strange that I say thou must be borne againe So I say whatsoever you do by the power of nature by your owne wisedome by your owne righteousnesse or your owne strength all comes but to this but to flesh and whatsoever comes of flesh is flesh Flesh cannot bring out the spirit no more then a thorne can bring out Grapes as Christ speak Therefore wonder not that thou must be borne from above that is thou must have the Lord from above to beget thee againe You have every one been borne once you must be borne once more you must have a new creation in you the Lord must create new strange properties and dispositions that no flesh and blood is able to comprehend Lastly take the councell of the Holy Ghost 6. To pray for the spirit of wisedome and revelation and that is in Ephes 1. 16 As Paul prayed for them so doe thou pray for thy selfe and there is all the reason in the World that thou shouldest I cease not sayth he to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give to you the spirit of wisedome and revelation in the knowledge of him Pray for the spirit of wisedome and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Sleight not these words because some wicked men abuse them and others reproach them but because Paul saith so pray that the Lord would give thee the spirit of wisedome and revelation So much concerning the directions I had to give you There is one word of Information and with Vse 6. The true ground of persecutions and divisions that I will conclude From what I have said before concerning the flesh and the spirit learne this instruction more hence to see what is the true ground of all persecution nay even of all the divisions that are among us Men may pretend what they will and deceive themselves but all the strife and persecution in the World is meerly between the flesh and the spirit between the old and the new Adam There are two Princes in this World and these are contrary the one to the other The flesh lusteth against the spirit Old Adam seeks to get up and the new Adam will have him downe Therefore you shall have these two in every Towne in one Church in one Family in one soule and wheresoever they are the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary Are contrary what is that That is there is no true contrariety between any things in the World but between the old Adam and the new between the flesh and the spirit Now by Flesh I meane not onely corruption but whole flesh fleshly wisedome The wisedome of old Adam is enmity against the wisedome of the new the righteousnesse of old Adam is quite contrary to the righteousnesse of the new this is the cause of persecution Let people pretend what they will you shall see godly men persecuted you may see Christ in their soules as clearly as the Sun and people keep a coile about Independency and Presbytery but the truth is it is old Adam in those that persecute and the new Adam in the other a man with one eye may see it There are many pretences but all the strife is between the old Adam and the new For to give a little illustration take Gospell godly Saints that have the spirit of God in them they agree well enough they will not strive sometimes they may differ a little but for the generality they live well enough together nay take some Gospell Saints that are filled with the spirit of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ in these times and in this City which is the center of all division and they cannot attest divisions they cannot make a partie and give rayling for rayling and strife for strife they cannot but love their enemies and bless them that blaspheme them As James sayth Whence come all wars You think they come from your zeale for your way and yours for your way but it is from your lusts The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh It is from old Adam And I was going to say but I will but name it Cause of Saints weakness This is the cause also of the weaknesse generally that is among you It is not wickednesse that troubles a Saint but weaknesse it is not positive ills but weaknesse And whence is this weaknesse Because he walks after the flesh The spirit is powerfull but the
flesh is weake As the Scripture saith Their horses are flesh and not spirit so I may say your Prayers are flesh and not spirit and it may be my Preaching and it may be our endeavours to resist sin But as farr as they are flesh they are weak enough But where the spirit is there is power I can doe all things sayth Paul I can preach the Gospell from Jerusalem to Illyricum and I shall come to you in the fulnesse of Christ A man would think he had been mad but it was the strength of his spirit A poore weake Christian he doth nothing but wish and would and confesseth his sins to day and falls into it againe to morrow and then confesseth againe and when will it once be O Jerusalem But the Gospel is the power of God to Salvation and all the principles of it are powerfull and all the precepts of it have a power through the Knowledg of Christ no ground of licentiousnes spirit for a man to keepe and observe them Men talk that the learning of Christ and the knowledg of the Gospell is to make men loose and lycencious It is true carnall vayne hearts the better any thing is the worse they be but assure your selves concerning true Saints it is false for the only way to be lively and lustie and fruitfull in good is to know Christ more according to the Gospell Let men please themselves and say so as long as they will they shall be but poore old barren creatures You will be wishing but you shall never overcome your sins I have knowne some Saints that by the knowledge of Jesus Christ have had power to subdue those sins and to bring them under that before they never so much as hoped to bring under in this World yet the power of Christ hath brought them under when all their fastings and humiliations would never doe it when they were in that way without the cleare knowledg of Christ but when they have come to Christ they have found it done In 2 Pet. 3. You shall find there men that were carnall men that were as Doggs that returned to their Vomit yet the common knowledg of Jesus Christ did make them cleane from the pollutions of the World and did give them power against their sins what then will the spirituall effectuall knowledge of Christ doe Therefore never entertaine any prejudice against Christ or against his Gospell or against his spirit and his wayes for if there be any power in this World it is there All the rest is but a flourish but a shew of mortification when the heart is as full of lusts as a Toad is of Poyson There is no true mortification or holinesse but what comes from Christ and his holy spirit SERMON VI. Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh doe minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit IN the former Verse you remember how I shewed you that there was a great priviledge to Scope of the words all true Beleevers which indeed is the cheife of all Priviledge for it is the inlet of all mercies and the principall deliverance from all evills It is conteined in the beginning of Verse 4. That the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us In the latter end of the Verse I shewed the persons more largely described to whom this priviledge doth belong that is Not those that walke after the flesh but those that walke after the spirit And I have as God enabled me opened the meaning of that to you what it was to walk after the Flesh and what to walke after the spirit Now the Apostle in this fifth Verse goes forward a little more particularly to discover those that have a right to this priviledge by drawing one thing from another The maine was They walke not after the flesh but after the spirit I but that is a generall word and how shall we know that Saith he you shall know that also by this They that are after the flesh doe minde fleshly things and they that are after the spirit doe mind spirituall things You shall know whether you have the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled in you if you walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And you shall know that also by your minding by the frame of your mindes if you walke after the flesh you will minde fleshly things if you walke after the spirit you will minde spirituall things And then he goes on to prove that also as we see oft in Scripture as in 1 John 5. where one thing is made the marke of another by a gradation there are five or six things and one thing proves another We know that we are the children of God if we keep his Commandements and we know we keepe his Commandements by another thing and wee know that by another thing So that I say the scope of the Apostle is to cleare unto the Saints their right and title to this great priviledge and also withall to convince those that are carnall that they are without it and to shew them their great miserie in being so for you shall see after how as he discovers them so also he shews their misery he saith they are enmity to God and they that walke after the flesh must dye c. Now that we may goe on breifly to handle this a little to you you may take the Doctrine as it lyes here in the words for I will not nor need not frame it otherwise That Those that are after the flesh doe minde the Doct. They that are after the flesh doe mind the things of the flesh things of the flesh Onely remember what I said before for it is of great concernment for that great priviledge depends upon this If you have the righteousnes of the Law fulfilled in you you must be those that walke according to the spirit and not according to the flesh And then would you know that Saith the Apostle Those that are after the Flesh doe minde the things of the Flesh and those that are after the spirit the things of the spirit so let that be the Doctrine or Lesson I will give you but two short words to prove this to you and then to open it as God shall helpe us The first thing to prove it is this that it must Reas 1. Every thing works according to its principle be so because that every thing in the World in all the creation of God doth act according to the nature of its principle from whence it flowes As Saint James saith Jam. 3. 11 12. Doth a Fountaine send forth from the same place sweet water and bitter Can a Fig-tree my Brethren beare Olive-berries or can a Vine beare Figs You know that a Fig-tree beares Figs and a Vine-tree beares Grapes an Apple-tree beares Apples and a Peare-tree Peares and every Tree and every thing will work according to its principle Make the tree
Old and new the Apostle We know no man after the flesh yea though we have knowne 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 Therfore in the Acts the Athenians desired to know that new strange doctrine that Paul brought What was this new doctrine Only 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 built up 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 The things of the world and of the Lord. cares for the things of the world but the unmarried for the things of the Lord. Philip. 2. 20. The things of the flesh are called our owne 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 find a Professor in a multitude that will naturally and freely care for the state of others of the Saints The things that are a mans owne and that are Jesus Christs For saith he All seeke their owne and not the things that are Jesus Christs all seeke their owne things the things that make for old Adam that make for the Flesh and for mans selfe Joh 6. 27. the things of the Flesh are called meat that perisheth and the things of the Spirit meat endureth to everlasting life Luk. 10. 41. they are called many things perishing and induring meat and the things of the spirit are called one thing Martha Martha thou art cumbred about many Many and one thing things for indeed there are many distracting businesses in the things of the world therefore in Mat. 13. when the seed was sowen among thornes it is said the deceitfulnesse of riches and pleasures and the lusts of other things who knowes how many it may be a thousand two thousand other things the things of the flesh are endlesse 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 Trouble and peace 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 Vaine and excellent thy day the things that belong to thy peace In Jerem. 2. 8. they are called things that doe not profit vaine 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 Philip. 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 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 the things of the flesh Thus much in generall according to the description The things of the flesh in perticular of the things of the flesh in Scripture But now in perticular I will summe up the things of the Flesh or of old Adam one or other of which Fleshly men doe wholly mind to these three heads The first is to establish their owne righteousnesse 1. To establish mans owne righteousnesse by the law to procure to themselves justification by their works This is the master-peice of old Adam for I told you that man is more prone to this then to sinne though he be prone to that also and old Adam works stronger towards his righteousnesse such as it is in a forbidden way then to sinne Therefore it is said Rom. 10. 3. They being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse went about to establish their owne righteousnesse went about to establish their owne righteousnesse He speaks there of the Jewes The word in the originall is they went to make it stand just as a tottered house that every blast is ready to throw downe and it must be underpropped on this side on that side to keepe it up So every fleshly man in the world this is halfe his worke to make the Babel of his owne righteousnesse to stand he is alway peicing and patching and doing some good worke he is wishing and woulding or in one fashion or other to make up a good estate against the latter day Therefore that was the question Act. 2. and Luke 3. and it is the grand question of all mankind What shall we doe to be saved and we see when they came to Christ it was alway with this Master what shall I doe to be saved As if he had said I know it must be by doing and I am willing to goe about it to frame some kinde of righteousnesse or other Therefore in Joh. 6. say they What shall we doe to work the works of eternall life saith Christ This is the worke 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 mind and cast projects and wayes to procure righteousnesse to themselves or justification to their soules any other way then only by the Lord Jesus Christ Men may be as it were drunke sometimes and mind neither heaven nor hell but there is no fleshly carnall man when he is his owne man but he thinks there is some good worke or other that he must doe either giving or lending or building an Almes-house or giving to the poore or somewhat to get him a righteousnes 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 dye it was the first and the greatest curse that ever was in the world when God said to old Adam he must dye it is a generall rule all old Adam must dye either thou must get that peice of old Adam that is in thee to dye or thou shalt dye with it one of the two Then another thing that is
heare not Many times a man heares a sound and is neare enough yet hearing he heares not so it is with many among us the Lord pittie them my heart is readie to burst every day more and more to consider and think of it hearing they heare not all the yeare long there is not one notion or exhortation from the word that sticks on their soules the reason is they mind not they mind the things of the Flesh they are feeding some lust they are providing for some fancie or when they are best they are contemplating to set up a way of justification by works and all because they mind not these things Therefore saith the Lord I say 1. Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth I may well say so of diverse among us heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his Masters crib but Israelld oth not know my people doth not consider Heare O Heavens and hearken O Earth As if he had said I expect that Heaven should heare and that Earth should heare as soone as this people and yet there is nothing further from hearing then Heaven and nothing dulier then the Earth and yet the Prophet would Preach to Heaven and Earth before he would to this dull peoplo and saith he The Oxe and the Asse know their owners but my people have not knowne me Why They doe not consider they doe not mind So you doe not mind what we spake before that you that are drunkards and Whoremongers and Swearers that wast your Estates and soules and bodies in the service of the Devill that you are under the curse of God and must perish that there is nothing that you doe that is pleasing to God till you be borne againe did you ever mind these things and lay them to heart Did you ever say yonder man speaks really and tells us the truth But you goe home when Sermon is done and say there was a great Company a throng and he Preached a little too long and we must goe to him againe after Dinner and so you mind not the Lord Jesus pittie you that is the reason that you are ignorant and will be World without end because you mind not spirituall things And this is the reason also why you have carnall VVhy people care not for Gods Ordinances people that care not for the ordinances of God they care not to use those meanes of grace that the poor Saints doe why they mind not spirituall things they are like Gallio he cared not for those things he was busie about naturall things It is likely he was a wise judicious man but he cared not for these things So to heare Sermons or discourses or conference of thy Neighbors or at thy table of spirituall things thou art like Gallio thou carest not for them and therefore thou respectest them not Therfore desire the Lord to put his Law in thy mind O! the maine misery of a man is in his mind the man is nothing but his mind in a manner the maine happinesse of a man is in his mind if the Law of God be there Therefore before ever thou canst have thy heart good or thy wishes or prayers good thou must get a good mind desire God to put his Law in thy mind for there is the first and maine worke So also for the poore Saint this is the reason VVhy the Saints take injuries patiently why the people of God are so weaned from the world those that are spirituall Christians you can easily cozen and cheat them and take away all from them and they beare it very well Why so they mind not earthly things fleshly things Let the Devill come with all the policie and power of hell to cheat them in spirituall things to take away their peace and crack their communion with God they will see be wise and resist but come and cheat them in worldly things poore creatures they are quiet and part with them as it is the manner of many of you that are rotten Professors and self-seekes you make it a trade to abuse them but they are quiet they mind spirituall things As a cut-purse that comes into your shop and a man minds other things he may easily steale So the poore Saints are made poore and suffering because they mind God and heavenly things or else I tell you if their minds were not imployed elsewhere a Saint could be as cunning and as wise and worldly as thou but thou mayst easily steale any thing from him and cheat and cozen him because his mind is upon other things it is upon heaven and those blessed things Therefore learne that one thing learne to understand that the maine of thy happinesse or misery is in thy mind beg of the Lord to give thee a good mind to write his Law in thy mind without knowledge the mind is not good Therefore when the Lord gave the people of Israell up it is said the misery came upon their minds blindnesse of heart is hapned to Israell that is blindnesse of mind there was the maine And there is the excellency of the Saints When Paul saw nothing but flesh yet he rejoyced in God in the law of his mind therefore look on it as the fountaine of all good and evill if thy mind be fleshly and carnall thou wilt mind fleshly things and love fleshly things and walke fleshly but if the Lord sanctifie thy mind the Lord will give thee sanctified affections SERMON VII Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh doe minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit IN the former Verse I told you The scope of the Apostle the Apostle holds forth unto us a great priviledge the greatest that I know that a man can have that the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us For it doth protect a man from all evills for all evill is founded upon this that a man hath not a righteousnesse to fulfill the law and he that hath this priviledg it doth lead him to the enjoyment of all good for if a man hath a righteousnesse to fulfill the law then there is nothing that can keepe the Creature from a full enjoyment of his Creator Now this priviledg being so great the Apostle shews us who they are that are Partakers of it who have the actuall enjoyment of it for the worst Fleshly carnall man may come to be a Partaker but he shewes who are for the present and saith he they are those that walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is a sure way to know and distinguish them but it is a generall way and therefore the Apostle drawes downe some particulars from this generall that are more known and easie to be discerned As in 1 Joh. 5. 1. You shall see there
c. The Lord helpe thee to looke to this SERMON VIII Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh doe minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit I Have spoken of these words in generall and now I will according to the strength that God shall give me speak of them a little in partiticular that seeing those that enjoy this great priviledg to have the law fulfilled in them are those that walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit That we may find whether we walke after the flesh or after the spirit I would urge it a little further and that according to the Apostles method He pitcheth upon the mind and the mind not simply considered but as it is acting and setting forth the mind in minding therefore as he takes the chiefest facultie to judge the rest by so I will take the chiefest act in that facultie that so you may judge of the rest by that one and so keep to the Apostles method Now the chiefest act of the mind doubtlesse The chiefe act of the mind is the reasoning part of the mind There are many acts in the mind as it understands it thinks it imamagines but especially the reasoning part It belongs to the mind to reason concerning things and reason is the chiefest part and is called and accounted by Schollers the chiefest part of man and therefore they say that man is a reasonable creature Now I say if we will find out by the Scriptures what we are whether we be according to the flesh or according to the spirit for there is the hinge of it we must examine it by the mind not by the mind simply as it is a faculty but the mind acting and exercising And if we speak of the exercise of it let us take the reasoning part of it that is he best part for of all the acts of the mind the reasoning is the strongest and that that most immediatly flowes from the understanding therefore if the reasoning of the soule be carnall the whole soule is so and if the reasoning of it be spiritual the whole soule is spiritual that was one thing that did move me to pitch upon that it being the chiefest Besides I find that the Apostle in 1 Cor. 5. 16. How Paul distinguisheth Saints and others he distinguisheth those that walke according to the flesh from those that walke according to the spirit by the reasoning part for saith he Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have knowne Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more We doe not saith he henceforth walke according to the flesh and we know it by our knowledge we do know things not according to the flesh but according to the spirit if Christ himselfe were here we would not looke upon him with a fleshly eye What this knowledge is you may see in the verses before For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge we thus reason that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose againe We know saith he that we are spirituall and not fleshly by our judging of things by our reasoning of things for thus we judge or thus we reason that if one man dyed for all that is did dye for others then surely we all are dead And we reason further that if one man did dye for us and we are suffered to live we should imploy our life not for our selves but for him that dyed for us This kind of reasoning we have that walke after the Spirit and not after the Flesh therefore I will pitch upon that And the rather because the Lord hath been pleased for ends best knowne to him to keep that in my mind and to fix it so on my thoughts that I could not passe it by and I usually judge in such cases that God doth often doe it for your sakes And therefore according to this method wee shall observe this Doctrine or this lesson that Doct. Carnall men guided by fleshly reasoning Those that are according to the flesh or that walke according to the flesh are swayed and guided by fleshly reasonings and those that are according to the Spirit are swayed and ruled by spirituall reasonings True Gospell Beleivers are ruled and swayed with spirituall reasonings and all carnall fleshly men are ruled by carnall fleshly reasonings For such as the mind is so is the whole man and if your reasoning be right then I dare say that all the acts of your mind are right for that is the cheifest you may judge of all the acts of your mind by your reasoning and therefore we cull out that for the triall of the rest I say carnall men are swayed and led with fleshly reasonings and spirituall men with spirituall reasonings And this is the most distinguishing Character that I know in the Booke of God betweene a Christian and another man And as the Lord presents it unto me I shall a little open unto you these termes reasoning spirituall reasoning and fleshly reasoning That you may understand these you must conceive that there are three sorts of mindes in the World and therefore there be three sorts of reasonings Three sorts of minds For our Reasonings are according as the minde is There is first a corrupt mind as you have it 1. Corrupt Ephes 4. The old man that is corrupt that is to speake in your language or according to your thoughts a sinfull mind a mind that is exercised about sinfull things When a mans mind is an evill one simplie evill Secondly there is a naturall mind 1 Cor. 2. at 2. Naturall the latter end it is called there the naturall man where I would have you observe by the bye that the mind is called the man there the naturall man that is the naturall mind The naturall man knoweth not the things of God that is the naturall mind for a man is denominated by his excellentest part which is his mind as I told you before And there is also the spirituall mind which is 3. Spirituall called there the spirituall man The spirituall man judgeth all things that is the spirituall mind judgeth all things for it is the mind properly that doth judge and the man is said to judge because he hath the mind or the mind is in the man according Three sorts of reasonings to these three sorts of minds flow forth sorts of reasonings One is corrupt reasoning and that is when men 1. Corrupt doe reason meerly sinfully according to that in 1 Cor. 15. The Apostle useth their carnall phrase Let us eate and drinke for tomorrow we shall die Now here was a kind of reasoning in this here was an argument to morrow we expect to die that is shortly therefore let us
So the reasonings of the soule are the chiefest weapons of the minde because I told you that these they doe 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 naturall way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essentiall to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two leggs and that a horse hath foure but by his essence he is a rationall creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godlines and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an hypocrite yet be a carnall man Why Because he may doe good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnall reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantiall things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavor to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to passe for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spirituall men are swayed 3. How it comes that Saints are guided by spirituall reason with spirituall reasons How comes it to passe that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in generall 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 By the spirit 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 doe mind spirituall things because it is the spirit that doth worke them to mind spirituall things yee would never mind spirituall 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 doe good or draw him from evill But you will say how doth the Spirit doe this Beloved I told you heretofore that I doe not approove of those that doe endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soule as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the soules of poore people for thou knowest not how a Child is formed in the VVombe 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 soule which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not doe this untill he hath done that which hath brought forth a deale of curiositie and needlesse distinctions troubling the People of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth it without curiositie not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spirituall Creation 1. By a creation he doth make a Caeation in the soule which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in the 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 soule 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 soule and his mind for where as in one place it is said What will it availe a man to get the World and loose his soule in another it is loose himselfe So as my soule is my selfe 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 mind new affections and new powers in thy soule Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into the soule that whereas thou hast an under standing and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an under standing that will mind More then new qualities in Saints Heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whiter there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never Reade in the Scripture where he will worke 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 spirituall man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not looke upon things as we doe we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon rhe inward man or the new craature Now we looke 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 beare with me a little I doe find in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spirituall 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 A Saint made spirituall how 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 Sobrietie 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 withall the Lord creates some things that were never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the the faith of the Gospell There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospell to beleive in another to renounce his owne righteousnesse this was not in Adam because it was point-blanke contrary to his owne condition for he was to have righteousnesse in himselfe 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 thinke that Gospell-goodnesse is a peice of the new man which was not in Adam Some thing in Saints that was not in Adam as to doe good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drinke to a thirstie Enemy When one is wicked and
it be rough for me every day to dispute with my carnall heart and not only carry on good but deny my selfe in good upon spirituall reason this is a warrefare but the end is life and it is peace too This is a hard worke you will say and therefore we will take the easiest and smallest worke Beloved I say there is more ease and sweetnesse and contentednesse in going on in the wayes of God spiritually upon spirituall reasons an hundred fold than in the other for the other will be rough and God hath cast it so God hath put a curse upon all Old Adam he curseth it with death and therefore he must dye that walks carnally and that is the reason all your naturall thoughts and actions are so bitter God hath cursed them they must dye and now all the wayes of Holinesse have enough to induce thee to endeavour to walke holily as one saith the gleanings of the Saints are better than the harvest of the wicked men if there were no Hell nor Heaven hereafter but only the wicked to have the pleasures of sinne here and the Saints to have the consolations of the Spirit dwelling in them it is more an hundred fold the one is nothing but crackling of Thornes under a Pot and the end is smoake and stinke and the other is sweet here and in the end blessed eternally if it were not suppose though the way to Heaven be bitter here yet it is sweet in the End and the way of the world sweet here and bitter in the end yet you should choose holinesse as a Philosopher said if a man were to take a bitter and sweet thing which were he best to take first saith he to take the sower or the evill first and the sweet for the hope of the good to come will sweeten the present evill but when a man hath the good first the feare of the evill to come will marre al but therefore seeing there is a reward in the way in Holinesse as well as in the end for holinesse it should move us to labour after holinesse THE TABLE A Abraham ABraham juflified how page 231 Absurd Absurd what 369 Act The cheife act of the mind 358 See Reasoning Action Actions carnall denominate men 323 Adam Two things from Adam 252 The best have somwhat of old Adam 270 All from old Adam condemned 28â— Somthing in Saints that was not in Adam 405 See please Adoption Spirit of adoption 280 Affliction Carriage of a humble heart in affliction 124 Ten Instances of the carriage of a humble heart in afflictions 126 See fire All Christ died not for all 107 Saints willing to know all Gods truthes 110 Amiable Sight of God to Saints amiable 16 Another Saints content with the righteousnesse of another 102 Antinomians Antinomians who Apprehensions Sight of God knowne by our apprehensions 31 Apprehensions of God how to trie them 40 See cleare pretious perpetuall Assurance Assurance in the apprehensions of Saints 32 Assurance wanting to ordinary Professors why 106 B Beleivers Beleiving None satisfie the law but Beleivers 249 Spirituall reasoning in Beleiving 363 See righteousnesse Blind Mind of a Carnall man blind 349 Bondage Spirit of bondage what 280 Books three uses of other books besides the Scriptures 311 Borne againe He that will see God must be borne againe 62 To be borne againe what 69 To labour to be borne againe 312 Bribe God such a Lawgiver as cannot be brided 209 C Change A true sight of God changeth men 54 Carnall Men meerly carnall are called flesh 323 See actions Christ Saving sight of God only in Christ 11 A Saint in the worst condition repents not of taking Christ 137 The law fulfilled by Christ 210 Motive to come to Christ 214 Invitation to come to Christ 381 See example father comming meeke lycenciousnesse rule unyon Cleare Apprehensions of God cleare to Saints 31 Coach-man The mind the coach-man of the soule 347 Coare The coare of a naturall mans heart fleshly 335 Commands A proud heart dissobeys Gods commands 117 A proud heart wearie of Gods commands 118 Who offer violence to Gods commands 119 A Saint in affliction neglects not Gods commands 142 Comfort The godly more carefull of benefite then comfort in afflictions 142 why Saints have comfort in the worst condition 371 Comming Upon what ground to long for Christs comming 292 Communion Communion with sinners wherein forbidden 169 Condemne See Adam Condiscend A humble Saint will condiscend to the weake 186 Conscience Conscience purified what 49 Consolation consolations of the spirit 409 Conversation Vnnecessary conversation with sinners forbidden 171 Constant Sight of God in this World not constant 17 Ground of Saints constancy 369 Conviction Conviction of the spirit 409 Correction Wicked men see not God in corrections 96 Corporeall Corporeall sight of God 4 Corrupt corruption Saints pure notwithstanding their corruptions 52 Corruption how discovered 149 Saints called fleshly because of their corruptions 322 Mind corrupted 360 Reasoning corrupted 361 Covenant Saints stick close to the covenant in afflictions 143 Covenant in man to keepe Gods law 208 Ishmael and Isaac types of the Covenants 266 See workes Creation Sight of God in works of creation 4 New creation by the spirit 403 Creature Creatures resemblances of spirituall things 55 Curse Sin a curse in Hell 288 D Darknesse Satans Kingdome darknesse 64 Naturall principles darke 377 Day See son of man Death die Hypocrites why â—oth to die 38 Why godly men die 287 Carnall reasoning brings death 413 See sin works Deliberation Deliberation wherein excluded 215 Deliverance Saints desire somthing more then deliverance 140 Discretion Sadnesse of Christians in Discretion 74 Devill see God Divinity Divinitie mistaken 289 Doing No man can fulfill the law by doing 212 Spirituall reasoning in doing 365 Draw How God drawes mens hearts 92 Dutie In what duties we may converse with sinners 170 Men proud of duties why 290 E Earthly earthlynesse Wicked men live on earthly things 72 Earthlynesse troubleth Christians 294 Things of the flesh things on earth Enjoy see God Envie Prosperity of the wicked not to be envied 73 Escape No escape from Gods law 209 Eve How the DEVILL tempted Eve 302 Evill Fountaine of evill in the soule 412 Example Christs example to be looked on 242 Excercise Excercise of spirituall reasoning by the spirit 410 Extoll see learning F Face Christ the face of God 11 Saints live by seeing Gods face 72 Faculties Naturall faculties corrupted by sin 378 Faith Faith the life of it 237 Justification known by faith 258 Fall Not to fall from the liberty of the Gospell 304 Father The Father shews Christ 13 Christ shews the Father 14 Fellowship Fellowship of Saints whence 59 Ground of fellowship with others 272 Few Few shall be saved 267 Flesh Flesh what meant by it 252 Walking according to the flesh what 255 Why walking after the law is after the flesh 265 Not to use liberty for the flesh 298 VVho mind the things of the flesh
to you whether you doe not feele a strange power in your soules 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 emynent power A poore Saint that sees another tugging and striveing and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knowes that there is a sweet power in his soule that pulls downe the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man sayth there is as much difference between a man that walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the spirit as betweene 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 sayle and sit downe and it is gone he goes with winde and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a child and speake loving and plaine words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the bowling and roaring and crying of another a whole Yeare together cannot doe It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walke 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 looke 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 downe 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 soule that will not out Therefore sayth 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 finde the fruits of walking Fruits of walking according to the spirit according to the spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set downe in this Eighth to the Romanes When a man walks according to the spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it a spirit of adoption whereby we crie abba Father As many as A spirit of adoption are led by the spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but ye have received the spirit of adoption wherby we crie abba Father That is one fruit of it as soone 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 soule like a slave just as you may conceive of a Spirit of bondage what man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a crust of bread and he feares whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soule in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alway in feare of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he feares that he shall proove an hypocrite and the like Now sayth the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the spirit of adoption whereby we crie abba Father That is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving Child to his deare Father there is a boldnesse a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetnesse c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and mopeing and howling and crying thou commest short of walking according to the spirit for thy soule would be alway full of sweetnesse in the greatest affliction if there were a spirit of adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though their would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetnesse and joy That is one thing Againe another fruit and consequent of it is Raysing up of the spirit that the spirit of God beares witnesse with our spirits that we are the Children of God If thou wilt be lead by the spirit and walk after the spirit the spirit of God will witnesse with thy spirit that thou art the Child of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the spirit of God will rayse up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the Child of God for the spirit of a man knowes the naturall 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 hee rayseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the Childe of God that as before by my owne spirit I was able to know whether I were poore or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated So now my spirit is raysed by the spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my selfe spiritually and look upon my selfe as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this in a spirituall way Thirdly here is another expression of it and An earnest hope that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I find and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvailed at it and the reason is because they have not the spirit of adoption and walk not fully according to the spirit therfore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the primitive times Sayth the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not only they but we our selves which have the first fruits of the spirit we groane within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodie The meaning is there is no man knowes what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to looke for it and expect it The word in the Originall is as one sayth as a woman looks for deliverance when her paines are on her O! she would faine be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his freind out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he faine would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walke according to the spirit to see Jesus