Saints that they may be more serious in their duties 2. The other evil in a slight and formal Communion with God in Duties is unthankfulness Duties of godliness are not only a debt to God but a reward to us Therefore in slightness there is not only unfaithfulness but unthankfulness Both the Majesty and Mercy of God is despised and can God be well pleased with such things 3. There is a third evil in a slight Communion with God in Duties and that is unfruitfulness we get nothing from God in duties we pray slightly and therefore get nothing by Prayer we hear the word slightly and therefore profit not by it Now that the Lord may cure his people of this slightness of heart and make their graces grow he useth this dispensation to leave them in want of assurance 6. God increaseth his Saints graces by terrors within he not only suspends their comforts but afflicts their souls he writes bitter things against them 1. These rowse them up to seek God They that see themselves lost will find a way to God They that have Hell-fire burning in them will value Heaven and pardon and the least drop of Gods love Oh! now promises are precious and Gods love neglected is now sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb Now they cry Come Lord Jesus come quickly 2. These fright them out of their dreams and carnal slumbers as the cry made at midnight that the Bridegroom cometh awoke the virgins out of their sleep Among the other diseases of the soul Divine desertions cure deadness and dulness of heart Sometimes living men are in a lifeless state their hearts are so benummed that they seem to lye among the dead They can hear the word carelesly and sleep out whole Sermons there is no vigour nor activity in their graces at home and therefore the Lord hangs their souls over the mouth of Hell and makes them drink of that red wine the dregs whereof the wicked of the earth shall Psal 75. 8. wring out and drink them that by this strong potion he may rowse them up and quicken their dull and drowsy spirits 3. These terrors work them more closely to Christ And for this cause God gives his People sad visions of sin and wrath he shakes the soul with Earth-quakes that she may stand faster upon her true Basis and Foundation These storms make their hearts gather in to Christ That I may be found in him saith Paul The soul must have some dry land to stand upon and when the flood of Gods terrors overflow the soul then she flyeth to Christ as Noah's Dove to the ark 7thly The Lord increaseth grace in his Saints by afflictions he makes them by marring them Divine Wisdom works by contraries he makes them shine brighter by their Eclipses and clears up their light by darkness Schola crucis Schola lucis And truly It is the property of true-born grace to grow the greater by the cross As the laurel tree is not smitten Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 55. nor blasted with lightning no more is heaven-born grace hurt by any afflictions but much bettered by them 1. God increaseth his Saints graces by sharp sicknesses by diseases unto death i. e. this startles mightily Oh Lord thou didst surprize me unprovided and if thy hand had cut me off with that disease my soul had been cut off from heaven for ever This enters deep upon the soul and strikes terrour upon the heart the Lord I hope shall never find me so again This stirs up thankfulness to the Lord that hath not only in this tryal saved me from the grave but also from Hell 2. Sicknesses deaden the Saints to the world They that in sicknesses are always leaving the world learn to dye unto the world They have death always in their eye They see themselves still upon the borders of the grave They are ever and anon lanching in eternity and this makes grace grow 3. Sicknesses are searchers Thou enquirest after mine iniquity Job 10. 6. saith Job and searchest after my sin When God smites our bodies he searcheth our hearts and makes enquiry in our lives and now saith the soul Let us search and try Lam. 3. 40. our ways When God is searching VS it is high time for VS to search our selves and this also makes grace to grow 4. Sicknesses dig Wells of godly sorrows in the heart They are as it were Gods Mattocks and Spades whereby he delves deep into the center of the heart and digs Wells of repentance which send forth streams of confession of sin which before would not run because they had no vent being covered and stopt with the earth of lust and hardness and worldliness upon them but now they find a passage When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roaring all the Psal 32. 3. 4. 5. day long for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moysture is turned into the drought of summer I acknowledged my sin unto thee and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin 2. By poverty and narrowness of estate Many men must Aquilone maxime gaudent densiores ab afflatucjus laetioresque materiae firmioris Plin. Nat. Hist l. 17. c. 2. Jer. 6. 22. be kept short and bare that they may thrive in grace Pliny saith That trees generally like best that stand to the North-wind It causeth them to spread thick and more flourishing and makes the Timber more strong and solid The Lord threatneth the Jews with a people from the North-Countrey the Chaldean Army which should carry them captive into Babylon The North wind winnowed them and fanned all their Idolatry They flourished gallantly in Religion after the North wind had blown upon them 1. The cold blasts of poverty correct pride and moderate high thoughts Make a man poor and you make him humble Pride is an absolute enemy to grace and prosperity is the seminary of pride The North-wind of poverty cools the courage and tames the spirits of men and now they know God and themselves Their Plumes fall and now they will digest a reproof and sit upon even ground with the lower Saints When the world frowns upon them they seek the smiles of God before they were too high for him 2. Poverty teacheth them to pray they can now fall upon their knees those that never called upon God learn now to visit the Throne of grace and cry Lord Give us this day our daily bread Nay they long for the spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father Nay those that have prayed in their fulness now pray feelingly They can go to God in sense of wants before they did not hear nor feel their own Prayers In their prosperity they did not care what Prayers they put off God with Now they set the highest rate upon Prayer for they are fain to live upon Prayer An hungry belly makes a Saint hungry after Ordinances and after Gods Presence When a mans debts and poverty make
and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
quicken and stir up their appetite that they may have an edg upon their spirits to the Ordinances And thus though under many fears and much doubting yet grace increaseth in them for as a lively and quick appetite to the Ordinances is a sign of growth so it is a means of the growth of grace 4. The Lord increaseth grace in his people by the communion of Saints It is not good saith God for man to be alone As man is a sociable creature so grace loves company nay grace needs company and society Exhort one another daily saith the Apostle while it is called to day Travellers are sensible how dangerous it is to ride alone Who knows what or whom they may meet with in the way Communion of Saints is a Divine Ordinance Grace cannot thrive well without it and we must not think to grow in grace when we will live without an Ordinance In Communion there is Communication in the Communion of Saints there is a Communication of Graces and Experiences and Influences There cannot be a building unless there be a meeting of stones Saints together In the Communion of Saints there is a bearing up of one another As in a Fabrick one stone holds and bears up another Bear you one anothers burdens and so fulfil the law of Gal. 6. 2. Christ In the Communion of Saints there is a praying for one another Pray one for another And what an help is this to the Jam. 5. 16. growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a telling of one another their faults an opening of the wound that it may let out Matth. 18. 15. the corrupt matter a friendly conviction to nip the sin in its bud that it may go on no further and doth not this contribute much to the growth of grace In the Communion of Saints there is a mutual mourning over 2 Cor. 12. 21. one another a shedding of tears for one another which falling like dew cannot but moisten and mollisie the withering herb and repair decaying grace Tell me Doth not this advance the work In the Communion of Saints there is a restoring of one another a setting of bones that are out into joynt again like curious and tender Chyrurgeons with gentle handling of the diseased party not roughly but by putting him to as little pain as may be for so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies If any be overtaken Gal. 6. 1. in a fault Restore him with the spirit of meekness And doth not this help to perfect grace wonderfully In the Communion of Saints there is a consolation of repenting sinners a providing of Cordials for lapsed souls that faint under the sense of their sins an Application of comforts to them under their grief and shame Forgive him saith the 2 Cor. 2. 7 8. Apostle and comfort him lest perhaps such an one should be swallowed up with over much sorrow confirm your love toward him And tell me how Doth not this cheer up grace exceedingly This is another means whereby God furthers grace in his People the Communion of Saints And are ye not now ashamed of your selves that you use this Ordinance no more among you Do you not find your graces to wither in you for want of it There are strong Saints and there are weak Saints and the weak ones should receive quicknings from the Benign influence of the stronger As Pliny tells us of a Territory in Africk Nat. Histor l. 18. c. 22. in which a City called Tacape is situate I say in this Territory as he tells us in his time there stood a mighty great Date-tree having under it growing an Olive under which there is a Fig-tree and that over-spreads a Pomgranate-tree under the shade whereof there is a Vine Every one of these saith he live joy and thrive under the shade of each other Such is the Communion of Saints rightly planted a company of precious Trees where the Olive grows under the Date-tree the Fig-tree under the Olive the Pomgranate under the Fig-tree and the Vine under the Pomgranate the weak Saints under the shadow of the stronger 5. By want of assurance I say the Lord quickens his peoples graces by withdrawings of his Presence and interpositions of black darkness They lye out in a night of sad fears and wants of assurance Not that God delights in these Methods but he is fain to do so the necessities of his Saints call for it otherwise they would be stark naught They would forsake God if God did not forsake them for a while For 1. Did they always enjoy Gods smiles they would grow fearless of God Fear of God is a great preservative of grace and antidote against sin Now fearlesness of God is a distemper which the Saints are apt to grow into As children are wont to grow sawcy and irreverent when their Father dandles them too much upon the lap of familiarity and therefore he is fain sometimes by his frowns and distance to take down their spirits So though God be a Father yet he will be feared Serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce with trembling Psal 2. 11. And therefore to correct the sinful boldness of his Children and cause them to stand in awe of him he sometimes shuts in his favour and takes state by concealing himself as the Persian Kings shunned familiarity and were seldom seen that they might be the more honoured The fear of God is one of the main pillars of his Throne and so far as he is not our fear he is not our God And therefore to advance his fear in the hearts of his people he withdraws his face and where fear grows grace grows For the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom i. e. the chief or principal part of our wisdom The Saints fear of God keeps them from Apostacy I will put my fear in their hearts that they shall never depart from me and to quicken their fear they shall sometimes feel his absence 2. The Lord leaves his people in wants of assurance to cure them of slightness of heart There is a trifling disposition in the hearts of Saints they are apt to be superficial in their ways and this God visits upon them They dally with duties do them as if they did them not without heart in a lazy and liveless manner you are in an evil frame of heart when you can do the weighty things of God with slightness There are three evils in a slight and formal Commnnion with God 1. Vnfaithfulness A slothful servant is an unfaithful servant He that is faithful doth his masters work with all his might And certainly a slight communion with God speaks a slight love to God Where then there is idleness and indisposedness God comes in a way of anger to whip up the slothful and unfaithful spirit and this stirs up grace Negligence and dallying with duties would kill grace and therefore it is a mighty mercy of God to shadow himself from his
therefore bear them with willingness and patience 2 Cor. 4. 16. gain if he tempts you by losses your loss is your gain your wants will be your riches your outward poverty will be your spiritual wealth what you lose one way you 'l get another what you lose in the flesh you 'l get in the spirit Though the outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day saith Blessed Paul the soul grows new as the body by pressures grows old Afflictions may make thy outward face look withered and aged but thine inward man grows young and vigorous by them It is good for me saith David that I have been afflicted Now then bring your heart to this and bear all the temptations of the Lord with willingness and patience Vse 10. See God on the top of every trial or temptation God saith the Text did tempt Abraham you will say God tempted Abraham by word of mouth by an express command Is God wont to tempt and try men thus in these days I answer no you heard that God doth tempt and try men two manner of ways 1. Immediately by himself thus he tempted Abraham thus was Christ led by the Spirit to be tempted in the wilderness 2. Mediately by means and instruments by Satan sometimes by wicked men other times yea by Saints also sometimes as the Lord Christ was tempted by Peter when he spake of his sufferings Be it far from thee Lord this shall not be unto Matth. 16. 22. Job 2. 9. thee And Job was tempted by his own dear wife Curse God and dye And this is the Order of God at this day you see the means the instruments of temptation but though God be not seen yet he stands upon the top of every temptation no wheel moves in the world but by the direction and counsel of the first mover There is a concatenation of causes and God is at the upper end of the chain and nothing can be done by any link of the chain of second causes without the first cause In the fourth to the Hebrews there it is said that Jesus Christ Vers 15. was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Mark it his Temptations were in all points like ours Temptations may be taken 1. For sufferings Or 2. For temptation to sin as having a power or causality moving us thereunto As for Christs sufferings they were exactly like unto ours To that end he took a Body and Soul and in his state of humiliation lay actually under them and felt them As for temptation to sin that is inward and outward Inwardly indeed he was not tempted but outwardly he was by men and devils more than ever man was and was tempted to the same kind of sins at least some of them which we being tempted to commit yet he never sinned Now the Apostle tells you there that he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities We have not an High priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Nay because he was tempted like as we are he cannot but be touched with the feeling of our infirmities that is he cannot but be inwardly affected with the sense of our temptations Sirs your temptations touch him the temptations that you feel touch him his very bowels are full of the feeling of your infirmities he is acted with mercy and compassion towards you and he would have man to know it That which is the object of his compassion is our infirmities that is sins of the soul and pains of the body but chiefly sin infirmity here is sin and punishment sin and suffering which makes our case very miserable Some will think that Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sins others will think Christ is not touched with the feeling of my sorrows but ye are mistaken poor souls ye are mistaken saith the Apostle we have an High priest that is touched with the feeling of our infirmities with the sense and feeling of both of your sin and guilt of your sorrows and sufferings Whatever troubles you troubles Christ and the reason why he is so sensible of our sad conditions is because he was tempted in all points like unto us Christ as God is infinitely merciful but he became man tempted man that he might be sensible of our infirmities with our own humane affections that he might pity man with the affections of a man with such affections as we are wont to pity one another and therefore he was not only man but a tempted man because experimental knowledg and practical sense is the most effectual Hearken then you tempted souls how deeply is Christ touched with the feeling of your infirmities who was himself a tempted man as ye are he was in all points tempted like unto us This is that wonderful way which God by his profound Wisdom contrived to make his mercy greater and in some sort more than infinite he would have a kind of knowledg of mans infirmities which as God and Infinite he could never have AN ACCOUNT OF MANS TEMPTATIONS Psalm LXXIX 41. Yea they tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel THIS Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exhortative and Instructive 1. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Suasive and Exhortative in the first verse Give ear O my people to my law encline your ears to the words of my mouth 2. The Psalm is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Instructive and Teaching I say for their choice Instruction and gathered out of the Records of Gods Providence towards his own people the Jews at the second verse I will open my mouth in a parable I will utter dark sayings of old which we have heard and known and our Fathers have told us We will not hide them from Vers 3. 4. their children shewing to the generations to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he hath done c. And that which the Psalmist would instruct them in is to obey God and adhere to him in dependance and subjection And not to be as their Fathers a stubborn and Vers 8. rebellious generation that set not their heart aright and whose spirit was not stedfast with God He warns them against Rebellion because their Ancestors and Fathers sinned at that rate and were severely punished by God Where you may observe by the way Observ That to say our Fore-fathers did thus and thus therefore so will we is no good argument Shall we be wiser than our Forefathers yes that you must or else you may smart for it The Holy Ghost here tells them that they must not be as their Fathers no sirs you must be better than your Forefathers the Light of the Gospel should make you far better and time should make you better and experience should make you better the example of Fore-fathers is not to be followed except wherein they followed the Lord.
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate