ready to serve the Lord of Hosts against his enemies as hee saith Isay 1. Ah I will be avenged on mine enemies Indeed here God shewes his patience and our long life that we thinke a great favour It is a treasuring up of wrath against the day of wrath and then when Gods wrath comes at the day of Judgement when God hath forsaken sinfull men when God the Judge of all hath said depart ye cursed no creature shall minister them the least comfort the Sunne shall shine upon them no more the earth shall beare them no longer as wee see Dives hee had not a drop of water to comfort him in those flames therefore if wee be not at peace with the Lord of Hosts every creature is ready to be in armes against us As for the Devils they will be ready to be tormentors they that are incentives to sinne will be tormentors for sinne afterwards As for the Church what comfort can a wicked man looke for from the Church whom he hath despised and whose Ministery he hath rejected And for the damned spirits they are all in that cursed condition with himselfe therefore Where shall the ungodly appeare ere long whence shall hee hope for comfort neither from God nor Angels nor Devils nor wicked men nor good men none of them all will yeeld him a dram of comfort Let us not therefore delude our selves but get into Christ get into the Arke in time that when any publike calamity shall come wee may be safe in Christ if wee be at peace with God by repentance of sinnes and by faith in Christ every thing will minister thoughts of comfort to us we cannot thinke of God but as our Father of Christ as our Redeemer and reconciler that hath brought God and us together the Holy-Ghost takes upon him the terme of a comforter for such Angels they are ministring Spirits as for the Church it selfe Gods people they all have a common stocke of prayers for us every one that saith Our Father thinks of us and all other things they are at peace with us as Iob saithâ— The stones in the street nay the stone in a mans body the terrible pangs that comes from that disease they have a blessing upon them in the greatest extremities a soule that is at peace with God however God doe not deliver him from the trouble yet he delivers and supports him in the trouble and as the troubles increase so his comforts increase and the very troubles themselves are peace with him all worke for the best to them that love God And in the greatest confusions and tumults of States yet the righteous is affraid of no ill tydings Psal. 112. Because his heart is fixed upon Gods love in Christ. The wicked when warre and desolation and signes of Gods anger appeare from heaven they shake as the trees of the Forrest as a wicked Ahaz Isay 7. as Belshazzer when there is but a feare of trouble how did he know that the hand-writing was against him it was nothing but this naughty conscience hee knew not what it was till it was expounded so when any troubles comes upon wicked men their consciences upbraâ—d them with their former life their knees knocke together and they grow pale as Belshazzar oh the misery of a man that hath not made his peace with God in the evill day and the comfort of a man that hath there is the difference betweene godly and ungodly man consider them in calamities the one is at peace with God in the middest of all calamities and troubles nay as I said even troubles themselves are peaceable to him Yea when death comes which is the upshot of all the sting of it is taken away and it is for our greatest good he that hath made his peace with God hee can say with old Simeon Lord now let thy servant depart in peace for mine eyes have seene thy salvation mine eyes have seene Christ with the eye of â—aith he is willing to yeeld his soule to God because he is at peace with God their graves are their beds and their soules rest with God they dye in peace and commend their soules to God as to a faithfull Creator with a great deale of confidence as Saint Paul saith I have fought the good fight I have kept the faith I have runne my race henceforth is reserved for me a Crowne of righteousnesse and not for me onely but for all those that love the blessed and glorious appearing of Christ oh the comsort of a gracious soule in the houre of death that hath made its peace with God when the King of feares death shall looke with a gastly terrible looke upon men that have not made their peaâ—e but to the other it is the end of misery the in let to eternall happinesse Blessed are those that dye in the Lord in the peace of the Lord They rest from their labours from the labour of sinne of callings of afflictions there is no resting till then Saint Paul himselfe was troubled with the remainders of sinne with afflictions and troubles of his calling but blessed are they that dye in the peace of God in Christ they rest from their labours And after death what comfort are those in that have made their peace with God in Christ then their Saviour is to be their Judge hee that makes intercession for them in heaven will be their Judge and will the head give sentence against the members the Husband against the Wife and Spouse oh no therefore the godly have comfortable and sweet thoughts of those blessed times that astonisheth wicked men they have a glorious expectation of the times to come they cannot thinke of death and judgement when their soules are in a good frame without much comfort Lift up your heads for your redemption drawes neere Therefore let us not conceive sleightly of this peace it is not a freedome from petty ills and an advancement to a little good but it is a freedome from ills that are above nature from the wrath of God before which no creature can stand no not the Angels themselves from hell and damnation the curse of God from the Kingdome of Satan it is a freedome from that condition that all the powers of the world shall tremble at how can they stand before the Anger of God and it is an advancement to the greatest good a freedome from bondage an advancement to Son-â—hip therefore let us have high thoughts of this peace as the Angels had when they sang Glory to God on high on earth peace Good will towards men Divers Copies have it otherwise On Earth peace to men of good will some have it Good will towards men the sence is not much different Peace on earth To men of Gods good will of Gods good pleasure that God hath a pleasure to save or good will towards men of Gods good pleasure Peace on earth to men of Gods good will
us take heed that we defile not this flesh of ours this nature of ours What is this flesh of mine taken into unitie with the second Person Is this flesh of mine now in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God And shall I defile this flesh of mine that I professe to be a member of Christ Shall I make it the member of an harlot Shall I abuse it as intemperate persons doe Let us honor our nature which Christ hath so honoured and let us take a holy kind of state upon us to thinke our selves too good since God hath so advanced our nature to abaâ—e it to the service of sinne Likewise it should teach us to stoupe to any service of Christ or our brethren What did the love of God draw him into the Wombe of the Virgin Did it draw him to take my nature and flesh on him And shall I thinke much to be serviceable to my poore brethren for whom God was made flesh and not onely so but was crucified Such thoughts will take downe such proud conceits as enter into our hearts when we are about any worke of charitie for the members of Christ. Shall I have base conceits of any man whose flesh Christ hath taken especially when I see any goodnesse in him let me abase my selfe to any worke of charitie Take heed of pride God himselfe emptied himselfe and wilt thou be full of pride He became of no reputation and wilt thou stand upon termes of credit He tooke upon him the forme of a servant and wilt thou be altogether a Lord and King in thy affections not serve thy brethren Did Christ doe this that thou shouldest be a proud person He came to expiate thy pride Away with thy proud conceits If thou be too proud to follow and imitate humble men yet thinke not thy selfe too good to imitate an humble God There is no spirit more opposite to the spirit of a Christian then a spirit swelling and lift up that thinkes it selfe too good to be abased in the service of others that carries it selfe loftily A proud spirit is most opposite to the Spirit of God that became man to expiate this pride of ours and to worke our salvation in this flesh of ours Of all sinnes let us take heed of this Diabolicall Satanicall sinne let us be abased for Christ that was abased for us and as he left his Heaven to doe us good he left Heaven it selfe so let us if we have a conceited heaven and happinesse in our selves leave it and become base and low to doe any good we can Shall he stoupe and bend to us from Heaven to Earth and conceale his Majestie not to be known to be as he was and shall not wee stoupe one to another to doe good and come downe from our conceited excellencie Here we have a ground likewise not to envie the blessed Angels their greatnesse nay here we have that wherein we are above the Angels themselves for he tooke not upon him the nature of Angels but he was God manifest in our flesh Christ marryed our nature to himselfe out of his love that he might marry us to himselfe by his Spirit and now by our union with Christ we be neereâ— him then the very Angels are The Angels are not the Spouse of Christ but now by reason of his taking our nature we are kinne to Christ he is bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh and wee are bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh We are the Body Christ is the Head We are neere to Christ then the very Angels No wonder then if those blessed Spirits daily prie into this Great Mysterie Lastly let us labour that Christ may be manifested in our particular flesh in our persons As he was God manifest in the flesh in regard of that blessed Masse he tooke upon him so we would every one labour to have God manifest in our flesh How is that We must have Christ as it were borne in us formed in us as the Apostle speakes Certainely the same Spirit that sanctified Christ doth sanctifie every member of Christ and Christ is in some sort begotten and conceived and manifested in every one that is a Christian. We must labour that Christ may be manifest in our understandings in our affections that he may be manifest to us and conceived as it were in us as S. Pauls phrase is That the life of Christ may be made manifest in our mortall flesh The life and Spirit of Christ must be manifest in every true Christian and their flesh must be sanctified by the same Spirit that Christs flesh was sanctified withall As Christs flesh was first sanctified and then abased and then glorious so the flesh of every Christian must be content to be abased as the flesh of Christ was to serve Christ to be conformable to Christ in our abased flâ—sh And let us not make too much of this flesh of ours that shall turne to rottennesse ere long it must be gracious sanctified flesh as Christs was and then glorious flesh Christ must be manifest in our flesh as he was in his owne that when a man sees a Christian he may see Christ manifest in him But how shall I come to have Christ manifest in my flesh my heart is not fit to conceive Christ in there is nothing in it but deadnesse and darknesse and dulnesse and rebellion Even as the Virgin Mary she conceived Christ when she yeelded her asâ—ent When the Angell spake to her what sayth she presently Be it as thou hast sayd let it even be so she yeelded her assent to the Promise that she should conceive a Sonne So when the Promises are â—â—â—tered to us of the forgivenesse of sinnes of salvation by Christ as soone as ever we have a spirit of Faith to yeeld our assent Let it be so Lord as thou hast promised thou hast promised forgivenesse of sinnes Let it be so thou hast promised favour in Christ Let it be so As soone as the heart is brought to yeeld to the gracious Promise then Chrâ—st is conceived in the heart Even as Christ was conceived in the Wombe of the Virgin when she yeelded her assent to beleeve the Promise so Christ is in every mans heart to sanctifie it to rule it to comfort it as soone as this consent is wrought we should labour therefore to bring our hearts to this So much for this Because it is of great consequence and the leading Mysterie to all that followes I have been somewhat the longer in unfolding these words God manifest in the flesh Iustified in the Spirit These words are added to answer an objection that may rise from the former He was God manifest in the flesh he veiled himselfe he could not have suffered else when he tooke upon him to be the Mediator he must doe it in abased flesh If Christ being God had not abased himselfe he should never
Divine Power so he will justifie his Mysticall Body and as he hath conquered in his owne person so he will by his Spirit conquer for his Church And as he will overcome for his Church so he will overcome in his Church stronger is he that is in the Church in you then he that is in the World and Gods children will be triumphant though they may be discouraged in respect of the present carriage of things yet the Spirit that is in them above the World will gather strength by little and little and it will appeare at length notwithstanding present discouragements undoubtedly the best things will have a true lustre and glory at length how-ever they seeme to be carryed for the present You see as Christ hath justified himselfe to be the true Messias and as he hath justified himselfe so he will justifie all his there is the same reason for both For our further instruction and comfort let us consider that in regard of God likewise we shall be justified from our sinnes in our consciences here and at the Day of Judgement before Angels and Devils and men As Christ was justified from our sinnes himselfe and he will justifie every one of us by his Spirit his Spirit shall witnesse to our Soules that we are justified and likewise his Spirit shall declare it at the Day of Judgement it shall be openly declared that we are so indeed There is a double degree of justification one in our conscience now another at the Day of Judgement Then it shall appeare that we have beleeved in Christ and are cleansed from our sinnes when we shall stand on the right hand of Christ â—s all that cleave to Christ by faith then it shall appeare that by him we are justified from all our sinnes whatsoever Againe Christ was justified in the Spirit Then hence we may learne our dutie we ought all of us to justifie Christ. To whom is Christ justified by the Spirit onely to his owne Church and Children not to the reprobate World We may know that we are members of Christ if wee be of the number of those that justifie Christ. How doe we justifie Christ We justifie Christ when from an inward worke of the Spirit we feele and acknowledge him to be such an one as he is Christ is God Now when we relie upon him as our Rock in all temptations we justifie Christ to be so when we kisse the Sonne with the kisses of faith of subjection of obedience of reverence and love this is to justifie Christ to be the Sonne of God as it is Psal. 2. Kisse the Sonne lest he be angry Those that in temptation are to seeke for their comfort they doe not justifie Christ they doe not live as if he were a Saviour not as if he were a God in temptations to despaire they justifie not Christ. Those that have Christ illuminating their understandings to conceive the Mysteries of Religion they justifie Christ to be the Prophet of his Church because they feele him enlightning their understandings Those that find their consciences pacified by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ they justifie him to be their Priest for they can oppose the bloud of Christ sprinkled on their hearts to all the temptations of Satan and to the risings of their owne doubting conscience their hearts being sprinkled with the bloud of Christ they can goe to God and the bloud of Christ speakes for them Peace it pleads Mercie Mercie Thus we justifie Christ as a Priest when we rest in his Sacrifice and doe not with Papists runne to other Sacrifices this is not to justifie Christ To justifie Christ God-man is to make him a perfect Mediator of intercession and redemption to make him all in all They doe not justifie Christ that thinke God was made man to patch up a salvation that he must doe a part and we must merit the rest oh no take heed of that account all our obedience and all that is from us as menstruous clothes not able to stand with the Justice of God In a word we justifie and declare and make good that he is our King and put a Kingly Crowne upon his head when we suffer him to rule us and to subdue our spirits and our rebellions when we cherish no contrarie motions to his Spirit when we rest in this World and not traditions but stoupe to the Seepter of Christs Word this is to justifie him as a King Thus we should labour to justifie and declare to the World the excellencie and power of Christ in our hearts that we may make Religion lovely and make it be entertained in the World because we shew it to be an excellent powerfull thing Let us examine our hearts whether we thus justifie Christ or no that by our carriage towards him we make it good that he is such an one as the Scripture sets him forth to be In particular we justifie him that he rose from the dead when we beleeve that we are freed from our sinnes our Suretie being out of Prison We justifie him as ascended into Heaven when we have heavenly affections and when we consider him as a publike person gone to Heaven in our name We justifie him as sitting at the right hand of God when we mind the things that are above and not that are here below or else we denie these things wee beleeve them not we justifie them not when our conversations are not answerable to the things we beleeve If we be the children of Wisedome undoubtedly we shall justifie Wisedome If we be the members of Christ we shall justifie our Head if wee be his Spouse we shall justifie our Husband Let us examine our selves that we doe in this kind and never thinke our state good till we can justifie Christ. In the next place for our direction as Christ justified himselfe by his Spirit by his Divine Power so let us know that it is our dutie to justifie our selves to justifie our profession justifie all Divine Truth Let us make it good that we are the Sonnes of God that we are Christians indeed not onely to have the name but the annointing of Christ that we may cleare our Religion from false imputations or else instead of justifying our profession we justifie the slanders that are against it The World is readie to say None are worse then Christians and their Religion is all but words and shewes and formes Shall wee justifie these slanders No let us by the Spirit of God justifie our Religion let us shew that Religion is a powerfull thing and so indeed it is For Divine Truth when it is imbraced and knowne it alters and changeth the manners and dispositions it makes of Lions Lambes it makes our natures mild and tractable and sweet it rayseth a man from Earth to Heaven Let us justifie this our Religion and profession against all gainesayers whatsoever Wisedome is justified
what manner of men ought we to be in holy conversation We should keepe our selves unspotted of the wicked world Shall we thinke to have communion and fellowship with Christ in glory when we make the members of Christ the members of Harlot when we make our tongues instruments of blaspheming God and Christ as a company of vile wretches that will come to the Ordinances of God and yet have not overcome their Atheisticall nature so much as to leave their swearing and filthy courses Doe we think to have communion with Christ in glory and not get the victorie over these base courses Doe we professe our selves to be Christians and live like Pagans Hath God such need of people to fill heaven with that he will have such uncleane persons Shall we have such base thoughts of heaven No beloved these things must be left if ever upon good ground we will entertaine thoughts of fellowship in this glory There is a new Heaven and a new Earth for the new creature and onely for such Let us not delude our selves there must be a correspondence betweene the Head and the members not onely in glory but in grace and the conformitie in grace is before the conformitie in glory Will God overturne his methode and order for our sakes No No all that come to Heaven he guides them by his Spirit here in grace and then he brings them to glory He gives gâ—ace and glory and no good thing shall be wanting to them that leade a godly life but first grace and then glory Therefore let not the Devill abuse us nor our owne false hearts to pretend a share in this glory when we finde no change in our selves when we finde not so much strength as to get the victorie over the base and vile corruptions of the world The Apostle from this ground inferres mortification of our earthly members You are risen with Christ your life is hid with Christ in God and we are dead with Christ Therefore we ought to mortifie all sinfull lusts For the soule being finite it cannot be carryed up to these things that are of a spirituall holy and divine consideration but it must dye in its love and affection and care to earthly things and sinfull courses Therfore let us never thinke that we beleeve these things indeed unlesse we finde a disposition by grace to kill and subdue all things that are contrarie to this condition Though somewhat there will be in us to humble us or else why are Precepts of Mortification given to them that were Saints alreadie but that there is somewhat will draw us downe to abase us But this is no comfort to him that is not the child of God that lives in filthie courses that he might easily command him selfe in let him abandon the name of a Christian he hath no interest to the comfort of this that Christ is received up to glory Againe the Mysterie of Christs Glory it tends to godlinesse in this respect to stirre us up to heavenly-mindednesse The Apostle doth divinely force this in the fore-named place Coloss. 3.1 If ye be risen with Christ seeke the things that are above From our communion with Christ rising and ascending into Heaven and sitting there in glory he forceth heavenly mindednesse that our thoughts should be where our Glory is where our Head and Husband is and certainely there is nothing in the world more strong to enforce an heavenly mind then this to consider where we are in our Head Christ our Head and Husband is taken up into glory there is our Inheritance there are a great many of our fellow brethren there is our Countrey there is our happinesse We are for Heaven and not for this world this is but a passage to that glory that Christ hath taken up for us and therefore why should we have our minds groveling here upon the Earth Certainely if we have interest in Christ who is in glory at the right hand of God it is impossible but our soules will be raysed to heaven in our affections before we be there in our bodies All that are Christians they are in heaven in their spirit and conversation before-hand our heavy dull earthly soules being touched by his Spirit they will ascend up The Iron when it is touched with the Loadstone though it be an heavy body it ascends up to the Loadstone it followes it The Sunne it drawes up vapours that are heavy bodies of themselves Christ as the Loadstone being in Heaven he hath an attractive force to draw us up There is not the earthliest disposition in the world if our hearts were as heavy as Iron if we have communion with Christ and have our hearts once touched by his Spirit he will draw us up though of our selves we be heavy and lumpish This meditation that Christ our Head is in glory and that we are in heaven in him and that our happinesse is there it will purge and refine us from our earthlynesse and draw up our Iron heavy cold hearts It is an argument of a great deale of Atheisme and infidelitie in our hearts as indeed our base nature is prone to sinke downe and to be carryed away with present things that professing to beleeve that Christ is risen and ascended into heaven and that he is there for us yet that we should be plodding and plotting altogether for the Earth as if there were no other heaven as if there were no happinesse but that which is to be found below There is nothing here that can satisfie the capacious nature of man therefore we should not rest in any thing here considering the great things that are reserved for us where Christ is in glory Therefore when we finde our soules falling downe of themselves or drawne downeward to base cares and earthly contentments by any thing here below let us labour to rayse up our selves with such meditations I know not any more fruitfull then to consider the glory to come and the certainetie of it Christ is taken into glory not for himselfe onely but for all his for Where I am sayth he it is my will that they be there also Christ should lose his prayer if we should not follow him to Heaven it is not onely his prayer but his will and he is in Heaven to make good his will The Wills of men may be frustrate because they are dead but he lives to make good his owne will and his will is that we be where he is Now if a man beleeve this can he be base and earthly-minded Certainely no Where our treasure is our hearts will be there also by the rule of Christ where the body is the Eagles will resort if we did make these things our treasure we would mount above earthly things there is nothing in the world would be sufficient for us if we had that esteeme of Christ and the glory where Christ is as we should and might have And it is
the soule being the most excellent thing in the world it is fit it should be set on the excellentest duty man being in such an excellent condition being heire of heaven and having an understanding soule it is fit the most excellent part of the most excellent creature should be set upon the most excellent object Now the most excellent part of the soule is the understanding it kindles all the affections and leades all the rest therefore let us take some time to meditate and thinke of these things What we are by nature and the misery we are exposed to by sinne that whatsoever we have more then hell is more then we deserve and then withall thinke what we are advanced to in Christ what we are freed from that cursed condition and what we shall be freed from the sting of death and all that wee feare for the time to come thinke of what we are freed from and what we are advanced to and by whom by God becomming man a mysterie that might nay that doth ravish the very Angels themselves God-man now in heaven making good what he did on earth by his Intercession and then the ground of all the infinite love and mercy and bounty of God to poore distressed man The thought of these things will inflame the heart now they never worke upon the heart thorowly till they end in admiration and indeed the Scripture sets it downe in termes of admiration So God loved the world So how So as I cannot tell how I cannot expresse it and What love hath God shewed us that we should be called the sonnes of God And then the fruits that we have by this Incarnation of Christ and by his death they are admirable Peace that passeth understanding joy unspeakable and glorious so that the mysterie is wonderfull and the dignity wonderfull and the fruits the comfort and peace and joy wonderfull every thing is an object of admiration therefore when wee thinke and meditate of these things let us never end till our soules be wound up to admiration of the excellent love of God Wee wonder at things that are new and rare and great is there any thing more new and rare then that that never was the like for God to become man Is there any thing more excellent then the benefits wee have by Christ becomming man to free us from so great misery and to advance us to so great happinesse If any thing be an object of admiration surely it must be this Therfore the Apostle doth well to give all the dimensions to the love of God in Christ height and breadth and depth and length it is a love passing knowledge Eph. 3. What good will come by this When the soule is thus exercised then it will be fit to glorifie God when it is in this frame it will thinke it selfe too good for any base service of sinne Eagles will not catch at flies when the soule is lift up to consider Gods love and mercy in Christ will it be catching at every base thing in this world No it will not the soule never sinnes but when it looseth this frame to have a judgement sutable to things when our judgement and affections are lost of the best things then comes in a judgement and affection to other things as better so losing that frame the soule should be in we fall to the creature to commit spirituall fornication with that Let us labour to keepe our soules in this temper begin every day with this meditation to thinke what we were what we are now in Christ what we shall be and by what glorious meanes all this was wrought that so the soule may be warmed with the love of God in Christ this frame of spirit will not suffer the soule to sinne to stoope to base sinfull lusts Now to helpe this in the next place begge of God the spirit of revelation to discover to us these things in their owne proper light for they are spiritually discerned Now the Spirit knowes the brest of God what the love of God is to every one in particular and he knowes our hearts too Therefore the Apostle desires of God the Spirit of wisedome and revelation to discover these things to us not onely that they are truths but that they are truths to us for unlesse we know these things belong to us in particular wee cannot glorifie God as wee should they are in themselves glorious things to heare of Gods mercy in Christ of God becomming man to heare of Kingdomes and Crownes oh but when there is a spirit of appropriation to make these our owne that God in Christ loves us Who loved me and gave himselfe for me Gal. 2. then the soule cannot but breake forth with the Angels here Glory to God on high therefore begge the Spirit to reveale to us our part and portion that he would shew his face to us that he is to us a Father in Christ surely in hearing meditation and prayer c. wee shall finde a secret whispering and report from heaven that God is our Saviour and that our sinnes are forgiven especially when wee stand in most need of this comfort let us therefore begge of God to take away the vayles of Ignorance and Unbeleefe and openly to reveale his Fatherly bowels and tender mercy to us in Christ to discover to us in particular more and more our interest in the same by his Spirit that onely knowes the secret of our hearts and being above our hearts can settle our doubts onely the Spirit can doe it for as God onely works salvation so the Spirit only can seale to our soules our salvation this is one excellent way to helpe us to glorifie God And adde this as motive as a plea not to move God so much as to move and to satisfie our hearts and to strengthen our faith that it is the end of our lives and the pitch of our desires to glorifie God therefore we desire God to reveale himselfe so farre to us to be our Father in Christ that we may glorifie him surely it is a forcible plea God will doe that that is suteable to his end He hath made all things for his owne glory especially the worke of Redemption in Christ is for the glory of his rich mercy and we desire the sense of his mercy and love for this end that we may be fitter to glorifie God it is a prevailing argument fetched from Gods owne end And let us labour daily more and more to see the vanity of all things in the world put the case we have honours and large possessions in the world that we wanted nothing if this were severed from Gods love in Christ for life everlasting what comfort could wee have in this especially at the houre of death let us see therefore the vanity and emptinesse of all things else out of Christ and the good we have by Christ what all will be ere long the daily
this Spirit that worketh this in us and assures us of Gods good pleasure it alters and changeth our dispositions that wee shall have a good pleasure in God for there is a mutuall good pleasure God hath a good pleasure in us as his and we have a good pleasure in God wrought by the Spirit the Spirit not onely witnesseth but worketh this sweet and gracious disposition to God God delights in us and we in God God delights in the Church above all things the Church is his wife and Spouse his body his friends his children and those that have the Spirit of God delight in them too Psal. 16 All my delight is in the excellent and Pro. 8. My delight is in the Sonnes of men saith Christ which he shewed by taking the base nature of man upon him so all that have the Spirit of Christ delight in the Church and people of God All my delight is in the Saints on earth God saith his delight is in his Church Hos. 2. So all that have the Spirit of God they delight in the people of God God delights in obedience more then Sacrifice Gods people that he delights in they yeeld their bodies and soules a Sacrifice to God Rom. 12. They will seeke out what is well pleasing and acceptable to God God accepts them in Christ and he is acceptable to them in Christ Iesus and they seeke out what pleaseth him and is acceptable to him as the sonnes of Isaac sought out what might please their old father what he could relish so Gods children seeke out what duties God relisheth best Thanksgiving is a Sacrifice with which God is well pleased is it so then they will seeke out that that may please him God by his Spirit will worke in them a disposition to please him in all things therefore the people of God are said to bee a voluntary free people zealous of good workes being set at liberty the Spirit infusing and conveying the love and good pleasure of God in Christ to them it sets their wils at liberty to devise to please God in all things they have as David prayes Psal. 51. A free Spirit As God not out of any respect from us but freely from his owne bowels loved us and gave Christ to us and delighted in us so the soule freely without any base respects loves God againe Those therefore that doe duties for base aymes and forced as fire out of a flint not as water out of a spring that duty comes not naturally and sweetly from them God hath no pleasure in them because they have none in God but the good they doe is extorted and drawne from them Let us try our selves therefore if wee have tasted Gods good will towards us we will have a good pleasure to him againe whatsoever is Gods pleasure shall be our pleasure what pleaseth him shall please us If it please him to exercise us with crosses and afflictions and losses what pleaseth God shall please me for when he hath once loved me freely in Christ every thing that comes from him tastes of that free love if hee correct me it is out of free love and mercie all the wayes of God are mercy and truth his way of correction and sharp dealing it is a way of love and free mercy therefore if it please him it shall please me my will shall be his will Againe if wee finde the free love of God to us in Christ it will quicken us to all duties and strengthen us in all conditions but these evidences shall suffice let us search our hearts how we stand affected to God and to the best things wee delight in them if God delight in us And if wee doe not find our selves yet to be the people of Gods delight towards whom God hath thoughts of love as the Prophet speaks what shall we doe Attend upon the meanes of salvation the Gospell of peace and reconciliation and wayte the good time and doe not stand disputing this is that that hinders many their disputing and cavilling that perhaps God hath not a purpose to save me and that the greatest part of mankind goe the broad way c. Leave disputing and fall to obeying God hath a gracious purpose to save all that repent of their sinnes and believe in Christ this is Gospell I will leave secret things they belong to God revealed things belong to me I will desire of God his Spirit to repent of my sinnes and to believe and cast my selfe in the armes of his mercy in Christ and then let God doe as hee please if I perish I will perish in the armes of Christ let us labour to bring our hearts to waite in the use of the means for Gods good Spirit to inable me to see my state by nature and to get out of it by casting my selfe upon Gods love in Christ. And object not the greatnesse of any sinne to hinder the comfort of Gods mercy it is a free mercy the ground of it is from himselfe and not from thee It was free to Manasses that had sinned no man more being a King and being the sonne of a good father his sinnes spread further then ours can doe answerable to the greatnesse of his person being an infinite and free mercy it extends to the greatest sinners let no man pretend any sinne or unworthinesse if he seriously repent if any sinne or unworthinesse could keepe it backe it were something but it is a free mercy and love from Gods owne bowels in Christ. And consider how God offers this in the Gospel and layes a command it is thy duty to have a good conceit of God in Christ We ought not to suspect a man that is an honest man and will God take it wel at our hands to suspect him that he is so and so he maks a shew of his love mercy in Christ but perhaps he intends it not put it out of question by believing if thou have grace to believe the mercy of God in Christ thou makest thy selfe a member of Christ and an heire of heaven thou questionist whether thou bee one that Christ dyed for or no believe in him and obey him and thou puttest that question out of question thou doubtest whether God love thee or no cast thy self upon the love of God in Christ and then it is out of question whosoever hath grace to cast himselfe upon the free love of God he fulfils the covenant of grace stand not disputing and wrangling but desire grace to obey and thâ—n all questions concerning thy eternall estate are resolved all is cleare If these things will not move you then let all men know that live in a sinfull condition that they had better have lived in any part of the world then in these glorious times and places of light for when they heare the love of God in Christ laid open to them if they will come in and receive Christ and cast themselves
his example it is not prevalent unlesse wee can say as the Apostle to the Corinthians here for your sakes Againe for your sakes not for himselfe he became not poore to make himselfe richer hee did not merit for himselfe what neede hee for by vertue of the union of the humane nature with the God-head heaven was due to him at the first moment as soone as hee was borne what should hinder him had he any sin of his own No there was nothing to keepe him from heaven and all the joy that could be in respect of himself but he had our salvation to worke he had many things to do and suffer and therefore of his infinite goodnesse he was content that that glory that was due to him should be stayed he became a servant to appease his Fathers wrath for us and procure heaven for us for us men for us sinners as it is in the ancient Creed and as the Prophet saith to us a Child is borne to us a Sonne iâ— given for us he was borne for us he was given for us he lived for us he died for us he is now in heaven for us he humbled himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse to a cursed death Therfore when we heare of Christs poverty let us think this is for me not for himselfe this will increase our love and our thankfulnes to him Againe it was for us for mankinde not for Angels for when they fell they continue in that lapsed state for ever this advanceth Gods love to us more then to those noble creatures the Angels who remaine in their cursed condition to all eternity The end of Christs becomming poore That wee through his poverty might bee made rich How are wee made rich by the poverty and abasement of Christ By the merit of it and by efficacy flowing from Christ for by the merit of Christs poverty there issued satisfaction to divine justice and the obteyning of the favour of God not onely for the pardon of our sins but favour and grace to bee entituled to life everlasting and then by efficacy we are enriched by the power of his spirit who altereth and changeth our natures makes them like to the divine nature But more particularly what be the riches that we have by the poverty of Christ First our debt must be paid before wee could bee enriched wee are indebted for our soules and bodies wee did owe more then wee were worth we were under Sathans kingdome therefore Christ discharged our debt There is a double debt that he discharged the debt of obedience the debt of punishment Christ satisfied both for the debt of obedience he fulfilled the law perfectly and exactly for us and for the debt of punishment hee suffered death for us and satisfied divine justice so by his poverty wee are made rich by way of satisfaction for our debts And not onely wee are made rich by Christ paying of our debts but he invests us into all his owne riches he makes us rich partly by imputation partly by infusion By imputation his righteousnesse and obedience is ours his discharge for our debts is imputed to us and likewise his righteousnesse for the attaining of heaven he having satisfied for our sinnes God is reconciled to us and thereupon we are justified and freed from all our sinnes because they are punished in Christ for the justice of God cannot punish one sin twise so we come to bee reconciled because we are justified and we are justified from our sins because Christ as a surety hath discharged the full debt And hence it is that wee are freed from all that is truely ill from the wrath of God and eternall damnation and freedome from the greatest ill hath respect of the greatest good for what had we beene if we had lien under that cursed condition But Gods workes are compleat hee workes like a God therefore we are not onely freed from evill in justification but intitled to heaven and life evelasting And then he makes us rich by infusion of his holy Spirit by working all needfull graces of sanctification in us for by the vertue of Christs death the spirit is obtained and by the spirit our natures are changed so wee have the riches of holinesse from Christ the graces of love of contentment of patience courage c. of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace grace answerable to the grace that is in him the same spirit that sanctified his humane nature and knit it to his divine it sanctifieth his members and makes them rich in grace and sanctification which is the best riches Then againe wee are rich in prerogatives we are the sonnes of God by adoption what love saith the Apostle hath the Father shewed that wee should be called the sonnes of God and this wee have by the poverty of Christ whatsoever Christ is by nature we are by grace he is the Sonne of God by nature we are his sonnes by grace and being sons we are heires heires of heaven and heires of the world as much as shall serve for our good all things are ours by vertue of our adoption because we are Christs and Christ is Gods there is a world of riches in this to be the sonnes of God And what a prerogative is this that we have liberty and boldnesse to the throne of grace as it is Ephes. 3. that wee have boldnesse to appeare before God to call him Father to open our necessities to fetch all things needfull to have the eare of the King of heaven and earth to be favourites in the court of heaven every Christian may now goe boldly to God because the matter of distance our sinnes which make a separation betweene God and us they are taken away and the mercy of God runs amaine to us our nature in Christ standing pure and holy before God And then wee have this grand prerogative that all things shall turne to the best to us what a priviledge is this that there should be a blessing in the worst things that the worst things to a child of God should bee better then the best things to others that the want and poverty of a Christian should be better then the riches of the world because there is riches hid in his worst condition condition Moses esteemed the rebuke of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt A crosse or the want of any blessing sanctified is better then the thing enjoyed that hath not Gods blessing with it a Christian is so rich that â—ee is blessed in his very afflictions and sufferings it is a greater prerogative to have ill turned to our good then not to have the ill at all It is an argument of greater power and of greater goodnesse that God should turne the greatest ills the greatest wrongs and discomforts to the greatest good as he doth to his children for by them hee
holy Apostle hath expressions sutable a full heart breeds full expressions As no man went beyond S. Paul in the deepe conceit of his owne unworthinesse and of his state by nature so there was no man reached higher in large and rich thoughts and expressions of the excellencie of Christ and the good things we have by him as we see here setting forth the excellencie of the Ministeriall Calling being to deale with Gods Truth towards Gods people he sets forth Evangelicall Truth gloriously here Without controversie great is the Mysterie of Godâ—linesse God manifest in the flesh c. In these words then there is a Preface and then a particular explication there is the Fountaine or Spring and the streames issuing from it the Root and the Branches there is as it were a Porch to this great House Great Buildings have faire entrances so this glorious description of the Mysteries of the Gospel it hath a faire Porch and entry to it Without controversie great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse Then the Fabrick it selfe is parcelled out in six particulars God manifest in the flesh Iustified in the Spirit Seene of Angels Preached unto the Gentiles Beleeved on in the World Received up to Glorie First for the Preface whereby he makes way to rayse up the spirit of Timothie and in him us unto a reverent and holy attending to the blessed Mysteries that follow Without controversie great is the Mysterie of Godlinesse In this Preface there is first the thing it selfe Godlinesse Then the description of it it is a Mysterie And the adjunct it is a great Mysterie And then the seale of it it is a great Mysterie without all controversie by the confession of all as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies there are none that ever felt the power of godlinesse but they have confessed it to be a great Mysterie Godlinesse is a Mysterie and a great Mysterie and it is so under the seale of publike confession to observe somewhat from each of these Godlinesse Godlinesse is either the Principles of Christian Religion or the inward disposition of the soule towards them the inward holy affection of the soule the word implyeth both for Godlinesse is not onely the naked Principles of Religion but likewise the Christian affection the inward bent of the soule sutable to Divine Principles there must be a godly disposition carrying us to godly Truths That Godlinesse includes the Truths themselves I need goe no further then the connexion In the last words of the former Verse The Church is the Pillar and ground of Truth and then it followes Without controversie great is the Mysterie he doth not say of Truth but of Godlinesse in stead of Truth he sayth Godlinesse The same word implyes the Truths themselves and the affection and disposition of the soule toward them Truths to shew that both must alway goe together Wheresoever Christian Truth is knowne as it should be there is a supernaturall Light it is not onely a godly Truth in it selfe but it is embraced with godly affections These blessed Truths of the Gospel they require and breed a godly disposition the end of them is godlinesse they frame the soule to godlinesse Thus we see the Truths themselves are godlinesse carrying us to God and holinesse that I need not much stand on But that there must be an affection answerable and that this Truth breeds this is a little to be considered Why is Religion it selfe called Faith and the grace in the soule also called Faith To shew that Faith that is the Truth revealed as we say the Apostles Faith it breeds Faith and must be apprehended by Faith therefore one word includes both the object the thing beleeved and likewise the disposition of the soule to that object So here godlinesse is the thing it selfe the Principles of Religion and likewise the disposition of the soule that those Truths worke where they are entertained as they should be Hence followes these other Truths briefely First of all that no Truth breeds godlinesse and pietie of life but Divine Truths for that is called godlinesse because it breeds godlinesse all the devices of men in the world cannot breed godlinesse all is superstition and not godlinesse that is not bred by a Divine Truth Againe hence in that Divine Truth is called Godlinesse it shewes us if we would be godly we must be so from reasons of Christianitie not as I said by framing devices of our owne as gracelesse foolish men doe as we see in Poperie it is full of Ceremonies of their owne devising but if we will be godly it must be by reasons and motives from Divine Truth that breeds godlinesse It is but a bastard godlinesse a bastard Religion that is from a good intention without a good ground therefore the word implyes both the Tenent the Doctrine and the frame of Soule answerable to that Doctrine Good Principles without an impression of it on the soule is nothing it 〈◊〉 but helpe us to be damned and godlinesse without a frame of doctrine is nothing but superstition godlinesse in doctrine frames the soule to godlinesse in conversation There are many that out of a naturall superstition which is alway accompanied with a poysonfull malicious disposition against the Truth of God they will have devices of their owne and those they will force with all their power but if we will be godly it must be from reasons fetched from Divine Truth Againe hence we may fetch a rule of discerning when we are godly what makes a true Christian When he nakedly beleeves the grounds of Divine Truth the Articles of the Faith when he can patter them over doth that make a true Christian No but when these Truths breed and worke godlinesse for Religion is a Truth according to godlinesse not according to speculation onely and notion Wheresoever these fundamentall Truths are embraced there is godlinesse with them a man cannot embrace Religion in truth but he must be godly A man knowes no more of Christ and divine things then he values and esteemes and affects and brings the whole inward man into a frame to be like the things if these things worke not godlinesse a man hath but a humane knowledge of divine things if they carry not the Soule to trust in God to hope in God to feare God to embrace him to obey him that man is not yet a true Christian for Christianitie is not a naked knowledge of the Truth but Godlinesse Religious Evangelicall Truth is Wisedome and Wisedome is a knowledge of things directing to practise A man is a wise man when he knowes so as to practise what he knowes the Gospel is a Divine Wisedome teaching practise as well as knowledge it workes godlinesse or else a man hath but a humane knowledge of divine things Therefore he that is godly he beleeves aright and practiseth aright he that beleeves ill can never live well for he hath no foundation he makes an Idoll
1. and Ephes. 3. he prayes for the Spirit of revelation that God would vouchsafe that Spirit to take away the veile of ignorance and unbeleefe from our soules that we may see and as it is Ephes. 3. that we may comprehend the height and breadth and length and depth and all the dimensions of Gods love in Christ. This must be done by the Spirit of God for as S. Paul divinely reasons in 1 Cor. 2. Who knowes the things of God but the Spirit of God Therefore wee must plow with Gods Heyfer if we would know the things of the Spirit we must have the same Spirit Now the Spirit doth not onely teach the Truths of the Gospel but the application of those Truths that they are ours this Truth of the Gospel is mine the Sacrament seales it to me The preaching of the Word takes away the veile from the things and the Spirit takes away the veile from our soules It is the office of the Spirit to take the veile off the heart and to lighten our understandings and likewise to be a Spirit of application to us in particular It is to â—o purpose to know that these things are Mysteries unlesse they be for us and for our good that we know Christ is ours and that God is reconciled to us Therefore saith the Apostle hee hath given us the Spirit to know the things that are given us of God in particular So the Spirit doth not onely bring a blessed Light to the Scriptures and shew us the meaning in generall but it is a Spirit of application to bring home those gracious promises to every one in particular to tell us the things that are given us of God not onely the things that are given to the Church but to us in particular For the Spirit of God will tell us what is in the brest of God his secret good will to the Church he loves the Church and he loves thee sayth the Spirit therefore he is called an earnest and a seale in our hearts because he discovers not onely the Truth at large but he discovers the truth of Gods affection in all the priviledges of the Gospel that they belong to us What a blessed discovery is this that not onely reveales Divine Truths to us but reveales them so to us that we have our share and interest in them Therefore whensoever we take the Booke of God into our hands when we come to heare the Word beg of God the Spirit My House sayth God shall be called the House of Prayer not onely the House of Hearing of Divine Truths but the House of Prayer In the use of meanes we must looke up to God and Christ it is impudencie and presumption to come to these things without lifting up our soules to God Therefore there is so little profit under these glorious Mysteries because there is so little prayer lifting up the heart to God We should goe to Christ that opens and no man shuts and shuts and no man opens he hath the Key of David goe to him therefore that he would both open the Mysteries and open our hearts that they may close with them In Revel 5. Saint Iohn wept when the Booke with seven Seales could not be opened he wept that the Prophesie was so obscure that it could not be understood but then Christ takes the Booke and opens it So when we cannot understand divine Mysteries let us groane and sigh to Christ he can open the Booke with seven Seales and he layes open all the Mysteries as farre forth as it concernes us to know Gods children grieve when things are not discovered to them There is a contrarie disposition in Gods people to carnall Papists they vex that Mysteries should be discovered Gods people grieve that they are not discovered enough they make a perverse use of this divine Truths are Mysteries therfore they may not be published to people nay divine truths are Mysteries therefore they must be unfolded Hence comes the necessity of the Ministery for if the Gospel be a Mysterie that is a hidden kind of knowledge then there must be some to reveale it God hath therfore stablished an Office in the Church with which he joynes his owne sacred Spirit that both Ordinance and Spirit joyning together the veile may be taken off How can they understand without a Teacher And To us is committed the dispensation to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ sayth S. Paul Therefore there is this Ordinance to unfold these depths as much as may serve for us Prophane people they thinke they know enough they need not be taught as if this were a shallow Mysterie or none at all It argues a prophane and naughty heart not to attend upon all sanctified meanes all is little enough And sometimes God will not grant his Spirit in one meanes because hee will make us goe to another and from that â—o another and runne thorow all He denyes his Spirit of purpose in hearing because he will have us to read and denyes it in that because he will have us conferre and practise the Communion of Saints and all little enough to apprehend this glorious excellent Mysterie A man may know a prophane heart therefore by despising the improovement of any meanes of knowledge It is a Mysterie therefore Gods people desire to have it taught Againe if we would understand these Mysteries let us labour for humble spirits for the Spirit workes that disposition in the first place The humble God will teach Psal. 25. the humble that will depend upon his teaching Now this kind of humilitie here required it is a denyall of our owne wits though they be never so capacious for the things of the world We must be content to become fooles that wee may be wise wee must denie our owne understandings and be content to have no more understanding in Divine things then wee can carry out of Gods Booke then wee can be taught by Gods Word and Ordinances This humilitie we must bring if wee will understand this Mysterie And bring withall a serious desire to know with a purpose to be molded to what we know to be delivered to the obedience of what wee know for then God will discover it to us Wisedome is easie to him that will Together with prayer and humilitie let us but bring a purpose and desire to be taught and we shall find divine wisedome easie to him that will None ever miscarry in the Church but those that have false hearts they have not humble and sincere hearts willing to be taught For if they have that then God that hath given this sinceritie and will this resolution that they will use the meanes and they will be taught hee will suit it with Teachers God usually suites men with Teachers fit for their dispositions Let a man have a naughtie heart and he shall find flatterers to build him up in all violent and naughtie courses God in judgement
for God to be included in the Wombe of a Virgin for happinesse it selfe to become a Curse for him that hath the Riches of all in him to become poore for our sakes for him that ever enjoyed his Fathers presence to want the beames of it for a time that he might satisfie his Fathers justice and undergoe his wrath for our sinnes here is a matter of wonderment indeed And shall we thinke so great a Mysterie as this was for small purpose That the great God should take upon him a Piece of Earth That he should become a poore and weake man The immortall God to take upon him our flesh and to dye That he whom Heaven and Earth cannot comprehend should be inclosed in the Wombe of a Virgin For him to be so abased as there was never any abasement like unto Christs because of the greatnesse of his Person If Angels had done so alas they were inferiour creatures they were servants to God but for the Sonne of God to take our nature when it was so low for so excellent a Person to be abased so low There was none ever suffered that that God in our flesh suffered For as communion with his Father was sweeter to him then to all men besides so for him to want communion with his Father upon the Crosse when he cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me It was the greatest abasement to him being the most sensible of it therefore there was no suffering like that of Christs And shall we thinke so great a matter was for small purpose for little sinnes or for few sinnes onely Oh no it was to give a foundation to our Faith in all extremitie of temptations to stay our Conscience in the guilt of great and crying sinnes Oh despaire not despaire not this Great Mysterie the Apostle speakes of for the great God to become man it was for great sinnes that where Sinne hath abounded Grace might super-abound God intended in this to set downe the accusing Conscience to quiet and still it God is offended it is true but God manifest in the flesh hath made reconciliation and satisfaction Hee was a Sacrifice for sinne and God will answer God God the Sonne will answer the displeasure of God the Father because he is appointed to this Office by him He is set forth as it is Rom. 3. to be the propitiation Therefore in all risings of Conscience in the time of trouble in the houre of death let us remember this Great Mysterie God manifest in the flesh Gods purpose in this was to triumph as it were over all the clamours of Conscience whatsoever over all things that Satan object what he will here is a shield put into the hand of Faith to beat back all his fierie darts God in the Covenant of Grace which is founded in Christ in God in our nature doth intend to be gracious to sinners It is a greater Mysterie then that of the Creation For God there did good to a good man he made Adam good and continued him good while he stood but after the fall God intended to rayse up the doubting unbeleeving soule against the greatest ills of sin and despaire and against all objections for sinne whatsoever from the greatnesse of sin either naturall or actuall It is the glory of God in the Gospel to glorifie his mercy and goodnesse in prevailing and triumphing over the greatest ills that can be Now he is good to sinners and to great sinners so that if there be Faith wrought by the Spirit of God raysing up our soules to lay hold of this God manifest in the flesh let us not be discouraged with any sin our sinnes are but the sinnes of men but God manifest in the flesh was made a Sacrifice for our sinnes and hath given a price answerable What temptation will not vanish as a cloud before the wind when we see Gods love in sending his Sonne and Christs love in taking our nature on him to reconcile us by the Sacrifice of his bloud Therefore let us treasure up this comfort it is a Spring of comfort a Well of consolation as the Scripture speaks therefore let us such comâ—ort out of this Brest of consolation We may turne over things now in the time of peace with ease but in the time of temptation when the soule is touched with guilt and Satan plyes us with temptations the soule will have no rest but in an infinite ground of comfort The soule is prone naturally to mis-give and to forecast the worst and to conceive hardly of God in the time of temptation as an enemie and Satan is then busie about nothing so much as that we should have hard conceits of God and to make us forget the maine end of the great worke of our Redemption which is to undermine our unbeleefe by all meanes by setting before the soule such grounds as the most unbeleeving heart in the world if it did consider of would fasten and lay it selfe upon Therefore let us labour to cherish at such times especially large thoughts of the infinite goodnesse and mercie of God and of the love of Christ condescending so low as to be manifest in the flesh for our sakes It is a point of wondrous comfort that now in CHRIST JESUS God becomming man we can in him break through the justice of God For as I said when Conscience is awaked there are other manner of conceits of God then when it is sleepie and drowsie A sleepie Christian hath a sleight conceit of God as if he as little thought of his sinnes as he doth himselfe Oh but when Conscience is awaked and when we are drawne from the pleasures of sinne and they from us and Conscience hath nothing to doe but to looke upon God and upon the time to come which is eternity then if there be not somewhat for Conscience to oppose that is equall to the justice of God if there be not somewhat about us to cloath us and arme us to passe thorow the justice what will become of us Therefore it is a fruitfull consideration that God was manifest in our flesh and that to give satisfaction to God that so Conscience might have full satisfaction This teacheth us what we should doe when we find any trouble rise in our Conscience for sins and unworthinesse Cast our selves upon God in our flesh God that became flesh for us and dyed for us let us stay our selves there I am unworthy a lumpe of sinne there is nothing in me that is good Oh but I have all in Christ he is righteousnesse for me he hath abundance for me his fulnesse is for me Therefore you have it Coloss. 2.16 The fulnesse of the God-head dwells in him bodily To what purpose is this fulnesse in him He shewes in the words following In him wee are compleate Suppose in our selves we be sinners and weake that we are as ill as sinne or the Devill
and watchfully carefully and soberly as becommeth Christians every way So much for that I proceed to the next words Seene of Angels The word is not altogether so fitly translated For it is more pregnant then it is here rendred He was seene It is true but he was seene with admiration and wonderment of Angels he was seene as such an object presented to them should be seene and seene with wonderment it implyes the consequence of sight sight stirres up affection it stirres up the whole soule therefore it is put for all the rest They saw him with wonderment For was it not a wonder that God should stoupe so low as to be shut up in the straits of a Virgins Wombe that Christ should humble himselfe so low to be God in our flesh Was not here exceeding wondrous love and mercie to man kind to wretched man having passed by the glorious Angels that were fallen And exceeding wisedome in God in satisfying his justice that he might shew mercie It was matter of admiration to the Angels to see the great God stoupe so low to be cloathed in such a poore nature as mans that is meaner then their owne This doubtlesse is the meaning of the Holyâ—Ghost they saw it with admiration And because he was their Head as the second Person and they were creatures to attend upon Christ their sight and wonderment must tend to some practise sutable to their condition Therefore they so see and wondred at him as that they attended upon Christ in all the passages of his humiliation and exaltation in his â—ife in his Death in his Resurrection and Ascension They saw him so as they were witnesses of him to men they gave testimonie and witnesse of him so that it is a full word in the intention of the Holy-Ghost Indeed not onely the Angels but all gave witnesse of him from the highest Heavens to Hell it selfe all witnessed Christ to be the true Messias In his Baptisme there was the Trinitie the Father in a Voyce from Heaven the Holy-Ghost in the shape of a Dove He had the witnesse of Angels of men of all rankes Iewes and Gentiles men and women yea the Devils themselves oft times confessed him in the Gospel He was witnessed of all rankes they saw him and gave evidence and testimonie of him that he was the true Messias he was seene of Angels To declare this a little more particularly The Angels knew of Christs comming in the flesh before it was for what the Church knew the Angels knew in some measure When God made the Promise of the Promised Seed the Angels knew of it And in Daniel the Angel speakes of the 70 Weekes therefore before his Incarnation they knew of him But now they saw him with wonderment in our flesh now they had an experimentall knowledge of him For the Angels besides their naturall supernaturall knowledge they have an experimentall knowledge that is daily encreased in them in the Church they see somewhat to admiration continually in the Church in the Head and in the members They knew of the Incarnation of Christ before you know the Angel brought the newes of it before-hand to the Virgin Mary The Angels attended upon Christ from his very infancie the Angels ministred to him in his temptation before his death they comforted him in the Garden he was made lower then the Angels in some sort as it is in Psal. 8. for they came to comfort him he was so low that he had the comforting of Angels Then they saw when he was buried they rolled away the stone By the way in generall it is the Angels office to remoove impediments that hinder us from Christ. A Christian shall have Angels to remoove the stones the hinderances that are betweene Heaven and him rather then they shall be any impediment to his salvation Then wheu he rose there were Angels one at the head and another at the feet and they told Mary that he was risen And then at his Ascension the Angels told the Disciples that Christ should come againe You have the Storie of it at large in the Gospel how from the Annuntiation of his Conception to his Ascension they saw him and attended on him and witnessed of him As soone as ever he waâ— borne when they appeared to the Shepheard what a glorious Hymne they sang Glorie to God on high Peace on Earth Good will to men How joyfull were they of the Incarnation of Christ and the great Worke of Redemption wrought thereby And as I sayd they did not onely see these things but they wondred at the love and mercie and wisedome of God in the Head and members of the Church as we see in diverse places in 1 Pet. 1.12 Wee preach the Gospel which things the Angels desire to looke into The very Angels desire to prie and looke with admiration into the wondrous things of the Gospel So in Ephes. 3.10 To the intent that unto Principalities and Powers in heavenly place might be made knowne by the Church the manifold wisedome of God There is somewhat done by Christ by his Incarnation and Resurrection and Government of his Church that the very Angels looke into and wonder at the manifold wisedome of God in governing his Church his wisedome in electing them and after in restoring mankind And in his manner of dispensation to the Iewes first by ceremonies and then after by the Bodie it selfe Christ in the flesh There is such a World of Wonders in the Governmenâ— of the Church such manifold wisedome that the very Angels themselves looke upon this with admiration and wonder and with great dâ—lâ—ght Shall Angels see and wonder at these things At the love and mercie and wisedome of God in governing his Church in joyning together things iâ— râ—concilable to mans apprehension infinite justice with infinite mercie in Christ that Gods wrath and justice should be satisfied in Christ and thereby infinite mercie shewed to us Here are things for Angels to wonder at ' Shall they wonder at it and joy and delight in it and shall we slight those things that are the wonderment of Angels There are a companie of prophane spirits I would there were not too many among us that will scarce vouchsafe to looke into these things that have scarcely the Booke of God in their Houses They can wonder at a Storie or a Poem or some frothie Device at base things not worthie to be reckoned of But as for the great Mysteries of Salvation that great Worke of the Trinitie about the Salvation of Man-kind they tush at them they slight them they never talke seriously of these things except it be as it were with a gracelesse grace of slighting and scorne they account it a disparagement to be serious in these things they make no Mysteries of that which the glorious creatures the Angels themselves looke upon and prie into even with admiration But it is not to be
conceived of the prophanenesse and poyson that is in mans nature against Divine Truths as I shall shew afterwards how it slights the meanes of its owne salvation and stands wondering at baubles and trifles and so men waste away their precious time in admiration of that which is nothing but vanitie of vanities whereas we should take up our time in studying these transcendent things that goe beyond the capacitie of the very Angels yet these things we dally and trifle withall Againe from hence that Christs was seene and attended on and admired by Angels there is a great deale of comfort issueth to us it is the ground of all the attendance and comfort that we have from the Angels For this is a Rule in Divinitie that there is the same reason of the Head and of the members both Head and members are one Therefore what comfort and attendance Christ had who is the Head the Church which is his Body hath the same onely with some difference they attended upon him as the Head they attend upon us as the members they attended upon him immediatly for himselfe they attend upon us for his sake For whatsoever we have of God we have it at the second hand we receive Grace for Grace of Christ we receive attendance of Angels for the attendance they yeelded to Christ first they attend upon us by his direction and commission and charge from him so we have a derivative comfort from the attendance of Angels upon Christ but surely whatsoever they did to him they doe to us because there is the same respect to Head and members Therefore the Devill did not mistake he was right in that when he alledged out of the Psalme He shall give his Angels charge over thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone He was right in that applying it to Christ For how-ever it be true to Christians yet it is true to Christ too it is true to the members as well as the Head and to the Head as to the members for He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all one as the Apostle sayth one Christ. Now the care of Angels concerning Christ and his Church it was shadowed out in Exod. 25. and 26. There the Mercie-Seate which covered the Arke wherein the Law was upon the Mercie-Seat there were two Cherubins counter viewing one another and both pryed to the Mercie-Seat they shadowed out the Angels that looke on the Mercie-Seat Christ for he is the Mercie-Seat that covers the Law and the Curse in whom God was mercifull to us There they looke upon that with a kind of wonderment and attendance which S. Peter alludes unto in that place Iâ—to which Mysteries the very Angels prie And so in the Veile of the Tabernacle the Veile had round about it Pictures of Cherubins What did that shaddow out unto us The multitude of Cherubins and Seraphins and Angels that attend upon Christ and his Church So he was seene and attended on by Angels and it belongs to all that are his as you have it Heb. 1. They are ministring spirits for the good of the heires of salvation They that serve the King serve the Queene too Christ is the King of his Church and the Church is the greatest Queene in the World they attend upon her nay Christ hath made us with himselfe Kings Now what a King is that that hath a Guard of Angels As they guarded and attended upon Christ so they guard and attend all that are his as you have it excellently in Dan. 7.10 There are thousand thousands of Angels about the Throne continually All this is for our comfort because we are one Mysticall body with him You have in Iacobs Ladder a notable representation of this Iacobs Ladder it reached from Earth to Heaven and that pointed to Christ himselfe who is Emanuel God and man who brought God and man together He was a Mediator betweene both and a friend to both He was that Ladder that touched Heaven and Earth and joyned both together Now it is said the Angels ascended and descended upon that Ladder so the Angels descending upon us is because they ascend and descend upon Iacobs Ladder first that is upon Christ. All things are yours sayth the Apostle What be those God is ours the Spirit is ours Heaven is ours the Earth is ours Afflictions Life Death Paul Apollo the Angels themselves all is ours Why Ye are Christs that is the ground So it is a spring of comfort to consider that Christ was seene and admired and attended by Angels they are ours because we are Christs Let us consider what a comfort it is to have the attendance of these blessed Spirits for Christs sake And hence we have the ground of the perpetuitie of it that they will for ever be attendants to us because their love and respect to us is founded upon their love and respect to Christ. When favour to another is grounded upon a sound foundation when the favour that a King or a great person beares to one is founded in the love of his owne sonne he loves the other because he loves his sonne whom the other loves so it is perpetuall and sound because he will ever love his sonne The Angels will for ever love and honour and attend us why for what ground have they respect to us at all It is in Christ whose members and Spouse we are So long as the Church hath any relation to Christ so long the Angels shall respect the Church but the Church hath relation to Christ for ever therefore the respect that the blessed Angels have to Christ and to the Church it is for ever and for ever Well let us thinke of this so as to make use of it that now in Christ we have the attendance of Angels We doe not see them as in former time before Christs Incarnation it is true because now since Christ is come in the flesh the Government of Christ is spirituall and we are not supported with those glorious manifestations but they are about us in an invisible manner We have Elizeus Guard about us continually but we see them not There were more apparitions in the infancie of the Church because the dispensation of Christ to the Church was according to the weake state of the Church But now Christ is come in the flesh and received up in glory and there is more abundance of Spirit wee should be more spirituall and heavenly minded and not looke for outward apparitions of Angels but be content that we have a Guard of them about us as every Christian hath Despise not saith Christ these little ones thâ—y are about Christians and about little ones little in yeeres little in esteeme for their Angels c. It is a strange thing they are Gods Angels but they are theirs for their service Their Angels behold the face of your heavenly Father So that Christs Angels are our Angels they
are Angels even of children of little ones Nay let a man be never so poore even as Lazarus he shall have the attendance of Angels in life and death There is no Christian of low degree of the lowest degree that shall thinke himselfe neglected of God for the very Angels attend him as we see in Lazarus there is a generall commission for the least the little ones Likewise it may comfort us in all our extremities whatsoever in all our desertions the time may come beloved that we may be deserted of the world and deserted of our friends we may be in such straits as we may have no body in the world neere us Oh but if a man be a true Christian he hath God and Angels about him alway A Christian is a King he is never without his Guard that invisible Guard of Angels What if a man have no body by him when he dies but God and his good Angels to carry his soule to Heaven is he neglected Every Christian if he hath none else with him he hath God the whole Trinitie and the Guard of Angels to helpe and comfort him and to convey his soule to the place of happinesse Therefore let us never despaire let us never be disconsolate whatsoever our condition be we shall have God and good Angels with us in all our straits and extremities Goe thorow all the passages of our life we see how readie we are to fall into dangers In our infancie in our tender yeeres we are committed to their custodie after in our dangers they pitch their Tents about us as it is Psal. 34. The Angels of the Lord pitch their Tents about those that feare the Lord. In our conversion they rejoyce There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of a sinner At the houre of death as we see in Lazarus they are readie to convey our soules to the place of happinesse Lazarus soule was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome At the Resurrection they shall gather our dead bodies together it is the office of the Angels In Heaven they shall prayse and glorifie God together with us forever for Christ shall come with a multitude of heavenly Angels at the Day of Judgement when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints then we shall for ever glorifie God Saints and Angels together in Heaven Therefore in Heb. 12.22 it is said We are come to the innumerable multitude of Angels What is the meaning of that That is now in the New Testament by our communion with Christ we have association with the blessed Angels innumerable companie of Angels sayth the Holy-Ghost there we have association with them even from our infancie till we be in glory Indeed they are as Nurses They shall carry thee that thou dash not thy foot against a stone as it is Psal. 91. they keepe us from many inconveniencies But you will say Gods children fall into inconveniencies how then are they attended by Angels I answere First of all Gods Angels preserve those that are his from many inconveniencies that they know not of And certainely we have Devils about us continually and there is a conflict betwixt good Angels and Devils about us continually And when we doe fall into any inconvenience it is because we are not in our way if we goe out of our way they have not the charge over us they are to keepe us in our wayes And if they keepe us not from dashing our foot against a stone if they keepe us not from ill yet they keepe us in ill and deliver us out of ill at length for they deliver us not onely from evill that we fall not into it but they keepe us in ill and deliver us out of ill nay and by ill if we suffer in the custodie of Angels any inconveniencie it is that we may be tryed by it that we may be exercised and bettered by it There is nothing that falls out to Gods children in the world but they gaine by it whatsoever it is This therefore doth not prejudice the attendance of Angels Therefore let us comfort our selves in all conditions for our selves and for the State put ease it be brought to a very small number that the enemies were thousands more then wee many thousands and millions yet if we be in the Covenant of Grace and in good tearmes with God we have more for us then against us we shall have Angels fight for us You know Elisha's servant when he saw a multitude of enemies his eyes were opened to see a companie of Angels and sayth the Prophet there are more for us then against us So let us be to the eye of the world never so few and never so weake let us but have Elisha's eye the eye of Faith and we shall have his Guard about us alway and about the Common-wealth this should comfort us But then we must learne this dutie not to grieve these good Spirits As it is wondrous humilitie that they will stoupe to be servants to us that are of a weaker baser nature then they so it is wondrous patience that they will continue still to guard us notwithstanding we doe that that grieves those good spirits one motive to keepe us in the way of obedience that we doe not grieve those blessed spirits that are our Guard and attendance Let us consider when we are alone it would keepe us from many sinnes no eye of man seeth I but God seeth and conscience within seeth and Angels without are witnesses they grieve at it and the Devils about us rejoyce at it These meditations when we are sollicited to sinne would withdraw our minds and take up our hearts if we had a spirit of faith to beleeve these things Let us learne to make this use likewise to magnifie God that hath thus honoured us not onely to take our nature upon him to be manifest in the flesh but also to give us his owne attendance his owne Guard a Guard of Angeâ—s Indeed we are in Christ above Angels advanced higher then Angels what cause have we to prayse God How are we advanced above them We are the Spouse of Christ and so are not Angels they are under Christ as a Head of government and a Head of Influence they have strength and confirmation from Christ he is not a Head of redemption but of confirmation to them Saint Paul calls them elect Angels that stand they stand by Christ they have good by him but they are not the Spouse of Christ we are the Spouse and members of Christ He hath honoured our nature more then the Angelicall he did not take upon him the nature of Angels but of men and as he hath advanced us above Angels so his dispensation is that those glorious creatures should be our attendants for our good and they distaste not this attendance And this is that we should know what care God hath over us and
what love he beares us that he hath honoured us so much that creatures of a more excellent ranke then we are even the Angels should be serviceable to us in Christ And all is that we should be full of thankfulnesse But you will say What need the Guard or attendance of Angels to Christ or to us to Head or members considering that God is able to guard us with his Almightie Power It is true The creatures that God hath ordained in their severall rankes they are not for any defect in God to supply his want of power but further to enlarge and demonstrate his goodnesse He is the Lord of Hosts therefore he will have Hosts of creatures one under another and all serviceable to his end His end is to bring a companie to salvation to a supernaturall end to happinesse in the world to come and he being Lord of all he makes all to serve for that end He could doe it of himselfe but having ordained such rankes of creatures he makes all to serve for that end for the manifestation of his power and of his goodnesse not for any defect of strength in himselfe He could doe all by himselfe he could have beene content with his owne happinesse and never have made a World but he made the World to shew his goodnesse and love and respect to mankind So he will have Angels attend us though he watch over us by his owne providence this takes not away any care of his but hee shewes his care in the attendance of Angels and other creatures he useth them to convey his care and love to us But you will say How can the Angels helpe our soules any kind of way they may helpe our outward man or the State where we live but what good doe they to the inward man I answer The inward man is especially subâ—ject to the Spirit of Christ it is God that bowes the necke of the inward man But yet notwithstanding if the Devils can suggest sinne Angels are as strong as Devils and stronger and wiser too they are wiser then the Devill is malicious and stronger then the Devill is powerfull Whatsoever they can doe in evill the good Angels can in good Therefore no question but they suggest many thoughts that are good they are not onely a Guard about us but they are Tutors to teach and instruct us they minister good thoughts and stirre up good motions and suggestions They worke not upon the heart of man immediatly to alter and change it that is proper to God but by stirring up motions and by way of suggestion as the Devils doe in ill so they in good Therefore it is sayd they comforted our blessed Saviour which I suppose was more then by their presence So they comfort Gods children by presenting to their thoughts wee know not how the manner is mysticall it is not for us to search into that good motions by stirring up to good onely the altering and changing of our dispositions that is proper to the holy Spirit of God Let us often thinke of this what a glorious head we have for whose sake the Angels attend upon us in all estates whatsoever even till wee come to heaven And this should stirre us up to labour to bee made one with Christ all the good we have any way is by the interest we have in Christ first he holds it in Capite if we have not a being in our head Christ we can challenge nothing in the world no attendance of Angels for the Angels are at variance with us out of Christ we see presently after the fall the Cherubin was set with his sword drawne to keep the entrance of Paradise from whence Adam was shut to shew that presently upon the fall there was a variance and a mighty distance betweene the Angels and vs. But now the Angels no longer shut Paradise no they accompany us in the wildernesse of this world to the heavenly Canaan to Paradise they go up and downe Iacobs Ladder they attend upon Christ and for his sake they are ministering spirits for the comfort of the elect so that all things are reconciled now in Christ both in heaven and earth Angels and men It should stirre us up to get interest in Christ so that we may have interest in all these excellent things that first belong to Christ and then to us Whatsoever is excellent in Heaven or Earth belongs to the King of all which is Christ and to the Queene of all the Church and the time will come that there will be no excellencie but Christ and his Church All whatsoever is in the world is nothing it will end in Hell and desperation all other excellencies whatsoever This should teach us likewise to carry our selves answerable to our condition to take a holy state upon us we should think our selves too good to abase our selves to sinne to be slaves to men to flesh and blood be they what they will be to the corruptions and humours of any man since we have Angels to attend upon us we are Kings and have a Kingly Guard it should move us to take a holy state upon us it should force a carriage sutable to Kings that have so glorious attendance Undoubtedly if we had a spirituall eye of Faith to beleeve and to know this answerable to the things themselves and their excellencie it would worke a more glorious disposition in Christians then there is to carry our selves as if we were in Heaven before our time Oh that we had cleare eyes answerable to the excellencie of the priviledges that belong to us Againe it should teach us not to despise the meanest Christians seeing Angels despise not to attend on them Shall we disdain to relieve them that the Angels doe not disdaine to comfort To comfort and relieve one another it is the worke of an Angel Shall any man thinke himselfe too good to helpe any poore Christian Oh the pride of mans nature when the more glorious nature of the Angels disdaine not to be our servants and not onely to great and noble men but to little ones even to Lazarus What a devillish qualitie is envie and pride that stirres us up to disdaine to be usefull one to another especially to those that are inferiours We know it was the speech of wicked Cain Am I my brothers keeper Shall I stoupe to him Flesh and blood begins to take state upon it Alas if Angels had taken state upon them where had this attendance bin The Devils that kept not their first standing being proud spirits they disdained the calling they had the good Angels humble themselves God himselfe as it is Psal. 113. disdaines not to looke on things below When the great God became man shall we wonder that Angels should attend upon the nature that God hath so honoured What a devillish sinne then is envie and pride and disdaine Let these considerations move us to be out of
in this place Preaching goes before Beleeving Therfore the Gospel unfolded is called the Word of Faith because it begets Faith God by it works Faith and it is called the Ministerie of Reconciliation because God by it publisheth recoÌ„ciliation As preaching goes before beleeving so it is the blessed instrument by reason of the Spirit accompanying of it to worke Faith In the Ministerie of the Gospel there is not only an unfolding of the excellent things of Christ but there is grace given by the Spirit to beleeve And herein this publication proclamation differs from all other publications in the world men may publish proclayme what they would have but they cannot give hearts to beleeve it but in the blessed promulgation and publishing of Divine Truths there is the Spirit of God accompanying it to work what it publisheth it opens the Riches of Christ and offers Christ and Christ is given to the heart with it it publisheth what is to be beleeved and known and it alters our courses together with it there goes a power the Spirit cloathing the Ordinance of Preaching to doe all Therefore it is called the Ministery of the Spirit why because what is published in the preaching of the Word to those that belong to God it hath the Spirit to convey it to the soules of Gods people Therefore he sayth here first preached and then beleeved Therefore those that are enemies to this Ordinance of God they are enemies of the Faith of Gods people and by consequent enemies of the salvation of Gods people But the more the proud and haughty Atheisticall heart of man riseth against it the more we should thinke there is some divine thing in it it must needs be excellent because the proud heart of man stomacks it so much we see here it is the meanes to worke Faith Therefore as we esteeme Faith and all the good we have by it let us be stirred up highly to prize aâ—d esteeme of this Ordinance of God So much for the coherence or connexion Preached to the Gentiles and then Beleeved on in the World For the word themselves we see here first that Christ as he must be unfolded in preaching so he must be beleeved on Because the dispensation Ministeriall is not enough unlesse there be an applying grace in the heart and that is a spirit of Faith whose propertie is to make peculiar that that is offered There is a vertue of application in this grace of Faith where there is a giving there must be a receiving or else the gift is uneffectuall Christ is the Garment of the Soule he is the foundation and food c. As I said before he is our Husband we must give our consent beleeving is a spirituall marriage in marriage there must be a consent this consent is Faith that makes up the Bond betweene Christ and the beleeving soule Therefore of necessitie there must be Faith all else without beleeving in Christ is nothing Faith is the meanes of making Christ our owne and no other thing whatsoever The Papists have ridiculous meanes that they understand not themselves nor any body else they make the Sacrifice of the Masse a meanes to apply Christ and other courses but the Ministeriall meanes to apply Christ is the preaching of the Gospel and Faith that is wrought by the Ministerie of the Gospel and there is no other way of application by the Masse or any such thing Christ without Faith doth us no good in Heb. 4. The Word that they heard did not profit them because it was not mingled with Faith The Word of God the Gospel it is the power of God to salvation but it is to all that beleeve whatsoâ—ever good Christ doth to us he doth it by Faith It is a rule in Divinitie and it is to purpose in the deciding some controversies that a spirituall benefit not knowne and applyed is a nullitie because God intends all whatsoever we have to be opened to us and applyed that he might have the glory and we the comfort We see the excellencie and necessarie use of this Grace of Faith How is Christ to be beleeved on We must rest upon no other thing either in our selves or out of our selves but Christ onely In Poperie they have many other things to rest on their Faith being corrupt all their obedience likewise is corrupt that springs from it They dishonor Christ to joyne any thing in the world with him The Apostle is wondrous zealous in this to have nothing joyned with Christ as in Galat. 5. If ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing onely Christ must be beleeved on in matter of salvation And whole Christ must be received beleeving is nothing but a taking or receiving of Christ as a Lord and as a Saviour as a Priest to redeeme us by his blood and Christ as a King to governe us we must take whole Christ. Wâ— see what manner of Faith is in most men that snatch out of Christ what they lift to serve their owne turne as he dyed for their sinnes so they are glad of him but as he is a Lord and King to rule and governe them so they will have none of him but turne the grace of God into wantonnesse But Christ as we must rest and rely on him onely so we must receive him and beleeve on him wholly Now Faith lookes upon Christ as the maine object of it as it justifieth the same Faith it looks upon the whole Word of God as a Divine Truth revealed but for the maine worke of it it looks upon Christ Christ is the Jewel that this Ring of Faith doth inclose and as the Ring hath the value from the Jewell so hath Faith from Christ. In the maine point of justification and comfort Faith layes hold upon Christ for mercie for the distressed afflicted soule it looks first of all to comfort and peace and reconciliation therefore it lookes first to him that wrought it that is Christ. Now the same Faith that doth this it beleeves all Divine Truths the Threatnings and Precepts c. Faith chuseth not its object to beleeve what it lists but it carryes the soule to all Divine Truths revealed but when we speake of justifying Faith then Christ and the Promises and the mercy of God in Christ is the first thing that the soule lookes unto Christ is the first object of Faith before any benefit or gift that we have from him first we must receive Christ before we have any grace or favour or strength from him And a sanctified soule lookes first to Christ to the love of Christ to the person of Christ and then to his goods and riches As one that is marryed she regards first the person of her Husband and then lookes to the enjoyment of his goods and inheritance and Nobilities or else it is no better then a Harlots love So Faith lookes to the person first it knits
then any other Truth as the worke in Redemption is more glorious so the Divine grace and vertue in the soule that makes use of this which is Faith it must be more excellent then all other Graces whatsoever And as it must be God that must save and redeeme us so it must be God that must peswade the heart of this as Christ who is God must performe the worke of Redemption so it must be God the Holy-Ghost that must perswade the heart that God loves it so much and raise the heart to apprehend it and make use of it no lesse power will doe it Let us I say have great conceits of this excellent grace of Faith All men have not Faith it is a rare grace a rare jewell When Christ comes shall he find Faith in the world Certainely it is a Mysterie for a man to beleeve in Christ for a naturall man to be brought to rely upon Christ To you it is given to beleeve sayth the Apostle he might well say it is given it is no ordinarie gift neyther Therefore let us pray with the Disciples Lord increase our Faith and with the poore man in the Gospel Lord I beleeve helpe my unbeleefe The next thing I will touch shall be this That Faith is put here for all graces Here in these six Clauses of this great Mysterie of Godlinesse there is onely this one that is within us God manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit seene of Angels preached to the Gentiles received up in glory these are all without us but this one beleeved on in the world that is onely within us and it is set downe in stead of all and indeed so it is for it drawes all other graces after it it enlivens and quickens the soule it is the spriâ—g of spirituall life in us it is the first grace of all There are some degrees of the Spirit perhaps before it but all graces have their quickening from Faith it infuseth supernaturall vigour into all the parts and powers of the soule and into all graces whatsoever Where Christ is beleeved on in the world all followes love and patience and courage and fortitude whatsoever as we see in Heb. 11. By Faith they had a good report they had a good report for patience and for courage and other good workes but all these came from Faith therefore by Faith they had a good report Therefore the acting of all other Graces it comes from Faith By Faith Enoch walked with God by Faâ—th Noah and Moses did so and so signifying that Faith is the ground of all Faith it fetcheth spirituall life from Christ for all whatsoever is good it knits us to the spring of life Christ it is the grace of union Even as Satan by unbeleefe did infuse all his poyson at the first for by making our first Parents stagger in the Word of God came sinne so by Faith all obedience comes all have their rising and beginning from Faith As it drawes spirituall life from Christ so the encouragements are by Faith to all other graces whatsoever for patience and love c. Faith must set before them the object and the reasons from the glory to come from the love of God in Christ when Faith propounds all this then it stirres and quickens all graces Faith yeelds strong reasons and discourse to stirre us up to whatsoever is necessarie Why do I hope for the glory to come I beleeve it first Why doe I love God I beleeve he is my Father in Christ all have strength from Love and that from Faith unlesse I beleeve that God loves me in Christ I cannot love him unlesse I love him I can expresse no vertue for him no patience no good worke so it puts life into all therefore it is here put for all beleeved on in the World It should stirre us up to make much of this Faith above all graces to desire it And being a Mystery and so excellent a grace we had need to discerne whether we have it or no therefore I will touch a few evidences some of them out of the Text. First if you beleeve it comes usually after Preaching We see here Preached to the Gentiles and then Beleeved on in the World Whence came thy Faith If not by the Ordinance of God thou mayest expect it to be a bastard Faith it hath not a right beginning especially if it be joyned with contempt of Gods Ordinance it is no Faith but a presumptuous conceit Preaching and Beleeving here goe one after another Therefore examine how thy Faith was wrought in thy heart Againe as I sayd Faith being a Mysterie in regard of such a world of opposition betweene the heart of man and Christ Satan helping the unbeleeving heart here must needs be a strife and conflict with Faith Therefore those men that never had conflict with their owne unbeleeving heart that never had conflict with Satans temptations they never had Faith for it is a Mystery to have Faith it is with opposition and conflict no grace hath the like conflict and opposition from Satan for Satan aymes in all sinnes to shake our Faith and affiance in Gods love As God aymes at the strengthening of Faith above all so the Devill hates it above all and in all temptations whatsoever he aymes to shake our Faith at the last Therefore there must needs be opposition to our selves and our owne doubting nature and to Satans temptations and to the course of things that sometimes are cleane opposite to a man for a sinner to beleeve the forgivenesse of sinnes for a miserable man to beleeve glory in the world to come for a dying man to beleeve life eternall for a man tumbled into the Grave to beleeve that he shall rise from the dead if there be no conflict with these things so opposite to Faith there is no Faith Then againe in the third place it is the spring of all obedience the Apostle calls it the obedience of Faith Rom. 1. All preaching is for the obedience of Faith obedience of Faith brings obedience of life and conversation Examine thy selfe therefore by the course of thy obedience by that that comes from Faith see what it workes in thy soule in thy life and conversation And here I might be very large for where Faith is First of all after it hath beene a meanes to justifie to lay hold upon the all-sufficient righteousnesse of Christ to stand betweene God and us to cloath and cover our soules then it pacifieth the conscience Being justified by Faith we have peace with God through Iesus Christ our Lord. Faith hath a quieting power it quiets the soule because it propounds to the soule a sufficient satisfaction in God-man it propounds to the soule Christ sealed by God the Father having done all that is necessary to salvation it sets downe the soule for he was God and therefore able and man and therefore willing to save Faith
into Heaven so it shall be with us the same body that suffers any thing for Christ the same body that dies the same Body shall rise and be assumed to glory Hence likewise we have a ground of patience in all our sufferings from another reason not from the order but from the certaintie of glory Shall we not patiently suffer considering the glory that we shall certainely have If we suffer with him wee shall be glorified with him Who will not be patient a while that hath such glory in his eye Therefore let us looke upon the glory of Christ in all our sufferings whatsoever What made Moses and all the Saints in all times to be so patient They had an eye this way What made Steven not onely patient but glorious His face shone as the face of an Angel he looked on Iesus Christ and saw him sitting at the right hand of God What made the Martyrs not onely patient but triumphant in all their sufferings They had an eye of Faith to see Christ sitting in glory and to see themselves in Heaven glorious in Christ and not onely to see themselves glorious in Christ but in themselves afterwards Wee are not onely glorious in our Head but we shall be our selves where he is Taken up in glory And let it stirre us up likewise not to be ashamed of Religion and to stand out in good causes for Christ and the Church He is not ashamed to be called our Brother no not after his Resurrection Goe tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father He was not ashamed of it when he began to be in the state of glory he is not ashamed of our nature now to take it up into Heaven he is not ashamed to owne us here and at the Day of Judgement to set us at his right hand And shall we now for feare of men for feare of shame for any base earthly respect be ashamed of our glorious Head Doe we beleeve that we have a Head that is glorious in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God that ere long will come to judge the quike and the dead and shall we be ashamed to hold out the profession of Religion for a scorne for a word for a frowne Where is the Spirit of glory the Spirit that should be in Christians that hope to be glorious He that is ashamed of me here saith Christ I will be ashamed of him at that great Day How can we thinke that Christ will owne us when we will not owne Religion here When we are ashamed to stand for him shall we thinke to stand at his right hand All base carnall Atheisticall spirits that are afraid of disgrace of displeasure of losse of any thing but of him they should be afraid of let them know there is no comfort for them in Christs exaltation For if they had any communion with Christ he would infuse another manner of spirit into them Let us therefore stand for Christ we have a glorious Head a glorious hope a glorious Inheritance And let us goe on with incouragement in good duties with a Spirit of Faith for wherefore is Christ in Heaven but to rule his Church by his Spirit To leade captivitie captive and to give gifts to men Let us therefore goe on with confidence that Christ from Heaven will give us his Spirit to subdue our corruptions He is in Heaven to rule his Church and what is his Kingdome but the subduing of our spirits by his Spirit to be more humble and more holy and gracious every way Let us not thinke that our corruptions will be too hard for us but goe on in a Spirit of Faith That Christ that dyed for us as a Priest he will rule us as a King and if we be true to our owne soules we shall have strength to sustaine us he sits in Heaven to rule us by his gracious Spirit Let us not despaire though we carry this and that corruption about us we shall by little and little overcome all he will lead captivitie captive and overcome all in us as he did in his own person he that overcame for us will overcome in us if there be a Spirit of Faith to depend upon him Againe this Mysterie is a Mysterie of Godlinesse it tendeth to and enforceth godlinesse and holinesse of life Christ received up to glory You see then our flesh is in Heaven Christ hath taken into Heaven the pledge of our flesh and given us the pledge of his Spirit It was a dignifying of our nature that God should be manifest in our flesh that that was an abasing to him as God was an honour to our nature the Incarnation of Christ it was the beginning of his abasement in regard of his God-head for the God-head to be clouded under flesh but it was a dignifying of the humane nature that it should be graffed into the second Person And is it not a greater honour to our nature that now in Christ it is gone to Heaven and is there above Angels Our nature in Christ rules over all the world And wherefore is all this As it is for wondrous comfort so for instruction to carry our selves answerable to our dignitie What! hath God taken our nature upon him to the unitie of the second Person and exalted and honoured and enriched it Is he likewise gone to Heaven in our nature and is there above all Principalities and Powers all the Angels in Heaven attend upon him And shall we debase and dishonour our nature that is so exalted Let it worke upon us to carry our selves in a holy kind of state Shall we defile our selves with sinfull courses make our selves baser then the Earth we tread on worse then any creature for a man without grace is next to the Devill in miserie if God be not mercifull to him If God have thus honoured our nature above all created excellency whatsoever shall not this stirre us up to a correspondent carriage It is oft pressed by the Apostle that we walke worthy of our calling And indeed let us oft consider to what great matters we are called for the life of Heaven it must be begun upon Earth Whosoever hath this hope to be glorious with Christ in Heaven it purgeth him it frames him to be like the state he hopes for and he that hath not a care to sute and fit his carriage and disposition to the state he beleeves it is an emptie hope he deludes himselfe Whosoever shall be glorious with Christ in Heaven is also glorious now there is a Spirit of Glory resting upon them that is Grace Grace makes them glorious Those that have not a Spirit of Glory that is a Spirit of Grace to fashion and conforme them in some measure to be like Christ by little and little they have no right nor interest in the state of Glory that shall be revealed after Is Christ taken up to glory and for us as well as for himselfe
to be an Host of Angels Beloved we have need of such comforts and let it not seeme slight unto us to heare of Angels because we see them not It is a thing forgotten of us too much why are we so cold and dead and dull and distrustfull in dangers wee forget our strength and comfort this way There is now at this time an earthly Host against the Church men led with antichristian spirits Let us comfort our selves we have an heavenly Host with us as Elizeus said to his servant there are more with us then against us If God see it good this outward Host of Heaven the Sun the Moon and Starres hee can make them fight for his Church as in Sisera's case But there is another Host that see the face of God that is that observe and wait on his will and command wee have an heavenly Host within the heavens that having a command from God can come downe quickly for the defence of the Church and for every particular Christian not onely one Angell that is but an opinion that every one hath his Angell but even as God sees good one or two or more a multitude an Host of Angels God useth Angels not for any defect of power in himselfe to doe things that hee must have such an Host but for the further demonstration of his goodnesse he is so diffusive in goodnesse he will have a multitude of creatures that they may be a meanes to diffuse his goodnesse Angels to the Church and the Church to others it is for the spreading of his goodnesse for hee is all in all in himselfe Let it take impression in us that we have such glorious creatures for our service We see here this Host of heavenly Angels they attend upon the Lord of Hosts at his birth for Christ is the Creator of Angels the Lord of them not onely as God but as Mediator As God he is the Creator of Angels as Mediator hee is the head of Angels Col. 1.16 It was fit therefore that an Host of Angels should attend upon the Lords of Angels It was for the honour of Christ. God would let the world know although they heeded it not there was no such thought in Augustus Court at that time that there was an excellent glorioâ—s person borne into the world God himselfe tooke our nature Christ Emanuel though he were neglected of the world and faine to lye in a manger yet God tooke better notice of him then so heaven tooke notice of him when earth regarded him not therefore God to shew that he had another manner of respect and regard to Christ then the world had he sends a multitude an Host of heavenly Angels to celebrate the nativity of Christ. There is much solemnity at the birth of Princes and God that is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords he makes a solemnity likewise at the birth of his Sonne the greatest solemnity that ever was an Host of heavenly Angels but these things I doe but touch And suddenly there was c. Suddenly in an unperceivable time yet in time for there is no motion in a moment no creature moves from place to place in a moment God is every where Suddenly it not only shewes us somwhat exemplary from the quick dispatch of Angels in their businesse we pray to God in the Lords prayer Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven that is willingly suddenly cheerefully But also it serves for comfort if we be in any sudden danger God can dispatch an Angell a multitude of Angels to encampe about us suddenly therefore though the danger be present c the Devill present and devilish minded men present to hurt us God hath a multitude an Host of Angels as present to defend us nay as himselfe is every where so in the middest of his Church he is present more then Angels can be he is not onely among us but he is in us by his Spirit to comfort and strengthen us therefore let us stirre up the Spirit of God in us in all difficulties and dangers whatsoever considering we have such grounds of comfort every way What is the use and end of this glorious apparition in regard of the poore shepherds to confirme their faith and in them ours for if one or two witnesses confirme a thing what shall a multitude doe If one or two men confirme a truth much more an Host of heavenly Angels Therefore it is base infidelity to call this in question that is confirmed by a multitude of Angels and to comfort them likewise in this Apparition we see by the way that for one Christian to confirme an Angelicall worke for one man to discourage another it is the worke of a Devill when Christ was in his agony the Angels appeared to comfort him wee may take notice how willing and ready these glorious Spirits were to attend upon our blessed Saviour Iesus Christ in all the passages from his Incarnation to his glory we see they appeared here at his Incarnation they ministred unto him after his temptation at his Resurrection then they were ready to attend him and at his Ascension they were ready then but oh the welcome when he entred into Heaven There was the glorious imbracings when all the Host of heaven entertained him at his Ascension In the garden as I said they comforted him let us imitate them in this blessed worke if there be any in distresse that need comfort and confirmation we love examples of great noted persons here you have an example above your selves the example of Angels who to confirme and comfort the poore Shepherds appeare in an host 〈◊〉 multitude of heavenly Angels The Angels as they attend upon Christ so for his sake they attend upon us too for he is that Iacobs Ladder Iacobs Ladder you know stood upon the earth but it reached to Heaven and the Angels went up and down upon the Ladder that is it is Christ that knits heaven and earth together God and man and the Angels by Christ have communion and fellowship with us as I noted out of the place Heb. 12.22 Wee are come to an innumerable company of Angels so that they attend upon us for Christs sake whose members we are they attend upon Christ mysticall as well as Christ naturall For they are ministring Spirits for the sakes of them that shall be saved Heb. 1. And therefore in our childhood and tender yeeres they have the custody of us committed to them as Christ saith Their Angels behold the face of God and in our dangers they pitch their Tents about us and at our death they carry our soules to the place of happinesse as they carryed Lazarus soule into Abrahams bosome and at the resurrection they shall gather our dead bodies together so that as they never left our blessed Saviour from his birth to his Ascension so they alwayes attend upon his members his Spouse for
his sake we have communion with the blessed Angels These things may be of some use but it is not that I mainly intend thus much for the Apparition Now the celebration is a Multitude of the heavenly Host praising God The word signifies singing as well as praise it implies praise expressed in that manner and indeed praising God it is the best expression of the affection of joy The Angels were joyfull at the birth of Christ their Lord. Joy is no way better expressed then in praising God and it is pitty that such a sweet affection as Joy should runne in any other streame if it were possible than the praising of God God hath planted this affect on of joy in the creature and it is fit hee should reape the fruit of his owne garden it is pitty a cleare streame should run into a puddle it should rather runne into a garden and so sweet and excellent affection as Joy it is pitty it should be imployed otherwise then in praising God and doing good to men They expresse their joy in a sutable expression in praising God the sweetest affection in man should have the sweetest imployment the sweetest imployment that joy can have is to be inlarged in love to praise God and for Gods sake to doe good to others See here the pure nature of Angels they praise God for us we have more good by the Incarnation of Christ then they have yet notwithstanding such is their humility that they come downe with great delight from heaven and praise and glorifie God for the birth of Christ who is not theirs but our Redeemer Some strength they have there is no creature but hath some good by the Incarnation of Christ to the Angels themselves yet however they have some strength from Christ in the increase of the number of the Church yet he is not the Redeemer of Angels in some sort he is the head of Angels but he is our Redeemer To us a child is borne to us a Sonne is given And yet see their nature is so pure and so cleare from envie and pride that they even glorifie God for the goodnesse shewed to us meaner creatures then themselves and they envie not us though we be advanced by the Incarnation of Christ to a higher place then they For beloved the very Angels have not such affinity to Christ in this as wee they are not the Spouse of Christ they make not up mysticall Christ the Church doth the Church is the Queene as Christ is the King of all it is married to Christ Angels are not and yet although they see us advanced in diverse respects above them yet they are so pure and free from envie that they joyne in praising God here in love to us Let us labour therefore for dispositions Angelicall that is such as may delight in the good of others and in the good of other meaner then our selves And learne this also from them shall they glorifie God for our good especially and shall we be dull and cold in praising God on our owne behalfe Shall they come suddenly from heaven and cheerefully and willingly and to praise God for his goodnesse to us and shall we be frozen and cold in this duty that is for our good more especially I hasten to that that followes What is the matter of their celebration and gratulation Glory to God in the highest In earth peace Good will towards men There is some difference in the readings some copies have it On earth peace to men of good will to men of Gods good will and so they would have it two branches not three if the word be rightly understood it is no great matter First the Angels begin with the maine and chiefe end of all it is Gods end it was the Angels end and it should be ours too Glory to God on high Then they wish the chiefe good of all that whereby we are fitted for the maine end Peace God cannot be glorified on earth unlesse there be peace wrought for man else conceives God as an enemy by this Peace we are fitted to glorifie God if wee find reconciliation with God through Iesus Christ then the sence of Gods love in the worke of reconciliation will enflame our hearts to glorifie God therefore next to the glory of God they wish Peace on earth Then thirdly here is the ground of all happinesse from whence this peace comes from Gods good will from his good pleasure or free Grace To men of Gods goodwill So if we goe back againe The good will and pleasure of God is the cause and ground of peace in Christ and peace in Christ puts us into a condition and stirs us up to glorifie God so we see there is an order in these three To begin with the first Glory to God in the highest The Angels those blessed and holy Spirits they begin with that which is the end of all It is Gods end in all things his owne glory he hath none above himselfe whose glory to ayme at And they wish Glory to God in the highest Heavens Indeed he is more glorified there then any where in the world it is the place where his Majestie most appeares and the truth is we cannot perfectly glorifie God till we be in heaven there is pure glory given to God in Heaven there is no corruption there in those perfect soules there is perfect glory given to God in heaven Hâ—re upon earth God is not glorified at all by many The whole life of many being nothing but a dishonouring of God by abusing his ordinances trampling upon his Church and children by slighting his word and Sacraments there is little honour given to God in the world but only by a few whom he intends to glorifie for ever and indeed if we will glorifie God here we must raise our thoughts to heaven at that time raise them above the world to heaven where we shall for ever glorifie him where we shall joyne with the blessed Saints and Angels and sing holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts c. In the meane time let me adde this by the way that in some sort we may glorifie God more on earth then in heaven It may seeme a Paradox but it is true that is thus here upon earth we glorifie God in the middest of enemies he hath no enemies in heaven they are all of one spirit here upon earth we live not onely among Devils but among men led with the spirit of the Devill where God is dishonoured and if here we take Gods side and the truth and Gospels side and stand for Gods cause in some sort we honour God more here then we are capable to doe it in heaven where there is no opposition In this respect let us be encouraged to glorifie God what we can here for if we begin to glorifie God here it is a signe we are 〈◊〉 number that he intends to glorifie with him forever
that have dispositions like them will study how this blessed truth may be promoted and propagated and spread even over the world therefore wee should labour every one to spread the glorious Gospell of Christ especially those that are Ministers whose office it is to unfold and open the unsearchable riches of Christ. Againe we glorifie God in Christ when wee see such glory and mercy of Christ as it doth transforme us and change us and from an inward change we have alway a blessed disposition to glorifie God as I shewed out of 1 Cor. 3. This is the difference betweene the glasse of the Gospell and the glasse of the Law and of the creatures In the Law we see the beames of the Justice of God Cursed is every one that continueth not in all c. and the beames of his power and goodnesse in the creature but it doth not change and transforme us to be good and gracious but when wee see the glory of God of his goodnesse and infinite mercy shining in the face of Iesus Christ for wee dare not looke upon God immediatly it changeth the soule to be gracious like unto Christ therefore if wee find that the knowledge of God in Christ hath changed our dispositions it is a signe then we give glory to God indeed for to glorifie God is an action that cannot proceed but from a disposition of nature that is altered and changed the instrument must be set in tune before it can yeeld this excellent Musicke to glorifie God as the Angels doe that is all the powers of the soule must be set in order with grace by the Spirit of God if the meditations and thoughts of the Gospell have altered our dispositions to love God and that that pleaseth God to doe good to men to delight in goodnesse it is a signe we are instruments in tune to glorifie God and that we have an apprehension of the love and mercy of God in Christ as we should for it hath a transforming power to worke this The grace of God will teach us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live holily When the grace of God that is the free love of God in Christ in the forgiving our sinnes and advancing us to heaven hath this effect in our soules it is a signe wee have a true notion and apprehension of the excellency and eminency of Gods grace otherwise if we turne the grace of God into wantonnesse to make the benefits by Christ a pretence and covering for our wicked and loose lives we know not what it is to glorifie God but though in words we say Glory be to God yet in our lives we denie it as the Apostle saith The Hypocrites in Isay 66.5 they had good speeches in their mouthes saith God heare the Word of the Lord ye that tremble at his Word your brethren that hated you and cast you out for my name sake said Let the Lord be glorified so you shall find those that are opposers and persecutors and haters of sinceritie will sing Gloria Patri God be glorified but what good will this doe them if they have diabolicall satanicall dispositions if they be like the Devill in opposing the truth and hating that that is good The Devils in the Gospell could glorifie God for their owne ends We know that thou art the Sonne of God so Devils incarnate can come to Church and receive the Sacraments and seeme to praise God oh but there must be a change for to glorifie God is a work of the whole man especially of the Spirit All that is within me praise his holy name It came from the heart roote of a sanctified judgement out of grounds why we doe it The wish of the Angels here Glory to God on high it came from a good ground because they knew God is to be glorified in Christ for judicious phrases are founded upon truths so there must be a sanctified judgement to be the ground of it and the affections must be in tune answerable to those truths then we are sit to glorifie God and all this is by the power of the Gospell transforming us Againe we glorifie God when we take to heart any thing that may hinder or stoppe or eclipse Gods truth and obscure it when it workes zeale in us in our places as farre as we can when it affects us deepely to see the cause of Religion hindred any way if there be any desire of glorifying God there will be zeale the heart will move with a kind of indignation when God is dishonoured and his truth eclipsed with false doctrine or by ill practice it cannot be otherwise it is out of the nature of the thing it selfe therefore those that either are instruments of stopping or obscuring the truth or causing it to be reproached by their wicked lives or if they be not instruments yet they doe not take it to heart when they see God dishonoured surely they can speake little comfort to themselves they have neither Angelicall nor Evangelicall dispositions for if they had the knowledge of the Gospell it would worke this is in them Againe if we apprehend this glorious Mysterie of Christ in the Gospel aright it will work in us a glorious joy for joy is a disposition especially that fits us to glorifie God then we are fit to glorifie God when our hearts are enlarged with joy when we thinke of God in Christ when we thinke of the Day of Judgement when we thinke of heaven when we can thinke of hell with joy as being subdued and blesse God for Christ when we can thinke of all that is opposite as conquered in Christ so that our joy is enlarged in the apprehension of our owne blessed condition it is a good signe we are in a disposition to glorifie God but I will not enlarge my selfe further in this point This being so excellent a duty to which wee are stirred by the Angels Glory to God on high c. what are the maine hindrances of it that we give not God more Glory The maine hindrances are a double vayle of Ignorance and Unbeleefe that we doe not see the glorious light of God shining in Iesus Christ or else if we doe know it we doe not beleeve it and thereupon instead of that blessed disposition that should be in the soule there comes an admiration of carnall excellencies a delighting in base things This Ignorance is partly from the darknesse of our owne hearts being overcast sometimes that such great things are too good to be true our hearts have a hell of unbeleefe in them And sometimes the policy of Satan who casts dust in our eyes and labours that wee may not see the glory of God in the Gospell 2 Cor. 4. The God of this world hath blinded their eyes c. Ignorance arising from within or without is a great cause why we do not see the excellencies of God therefore no wonder if where the Gospell is not
thoughts of that will be a good meanes for we must empty our selves of that we are that we may be filled with that we are not and we must daily consider the emptinesse of the creature wherewith we labour to support our selves For when men have no goodnesse in themselves they will have an excellency in the creature therefore when wee see our selves out of Christ to be nothing but fuell for Gods vengeance and see that the creature can afford us nothing but vexation these thoughts that these things are so and out of experience will make us draw neere to God upon all occasions it will make us glorifie him and abase our selves what made Iob abase himselfe and glorifie God when he drew neere to God and God drew neere to him I abhorre my selfe and so we see in Abraham Let us draw neere to God upon all occasions in the Word and Prayer and in the Sacrament and this will make us see our owne nothingnesse and Gods greatnesse for that is the way to honour him to see his greatnesse and a nothingnesse in the creature that all things in him are so excellent and out of him nothing and worse then nothing Now wee are to draw neere to God in the Sacrament and the neerer to God the more we honour him who honours God most surely Christ because he is so neere him being God and man in one Person and next to him the blessed Angels glorifie God they are neere him therefore in Isay 6. they cover their faces it being impossible for the creature to comprehend the great Majestie of God and they cover their feet in modesty the neerer we draw to God in the meditation and consideration of his excellencie in the ordinances the more humble and abased wee shall be in our selves and the more we shall honour God seeing his excellency especially of his love So next to the Angels the Saints All thy workes praise thee Psal. 145. They give matter and occasion but Thy Saints blesse thee If it were not for a few Saints on earth though all the workes of God are matter of praise they could not praise God Thy Saints blesse thee and the neerer we come to God the fitter we are for this Now there is a wondrous neere comming to God in the Sacrament if we come prepared we come to have communion and strengthening in Christ he is both the Inviter and the Feast it selfe we come to be made one with him bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh therefore if wee come prepared this is the way to bring us to a disposition to glorifie God you see here the wondrous infinite love of God in the Sacrament to stoupe so low to his creature to strengthen our faith by giving us these things God had beene good to us whether he had given us his Oath and his Seale or no but he knowes we are weake and unbeleeving and doubting therefore to helpe us he hath given us not onely his promise but his Oath and besides his Oath hee hath given us signes and Seales here is wondrous mercy Let us be encouraged to come in and admire the love of God not onely in giving his Sonne Christ for us but in affording us other meanes to strengthen our faith Let none be discouraged in the sight and sense of their owne sinnes but let them come in and they shall glorifie God the more where sinne hath abounded in their sence and feeling there grace shall more abound And those that have beene good and have slipped any way let them consider Gods infinite love in Christ it is not a Cisterne but a Spring Gods mercy in Christ and the blood of Christ is a Fountaine opened for Iudah c. that is it serves not for our first conversion onely but every day upon every occasion when we have made any breach with God we may come and wash in that Bath Christs blood The blood of Christ purgeth it is in the present tense it runnes continually in the vigour of it There is a spring of corruption in us there is a Spring of mercy in God there is a Spring of Christs blood that hath a perfect efficacy to wash our soules Therefore if we have not yet beene converted and humbled and cast downe â—or our sinnes let us now come in and give God the glory of his mercy and if we have fallen againe consider there is a Fountaine opened for Iudah and Ierusalem to wash in and let us come and renew our repentance and faith at this time Peace on Earth The same holy affection in the Angels that moved them to wish God to have his due of glory from the creature it moves them to wish peace to men likewise to shew this by the way that There can be no true zeale of Gods glory but with love to man-kind They were not so ravished with the glory of God as to forget poore man on earth oh no they have sweet pure affections to man a poorer creature then themselves Therfore let them that are injurious and violent in their dispositions and insolent in their carriage never talke of glorifying God when they despise and wrong men there are some that overthrow all peace in the earth for their owne glory but he that seekes Gods glory will procure peace what he can for they goe both together as we see here Glory to God in the highest peace on earth Now their end of wishing peace upon earth it is that men might thereby glorifie God that God being reconciled and peace being stablished in mens consciences they might glorifie God hence observe this likewise that We cannot glorifie God till we have some knowledge of our peace with him in Christ. We must have the first act to cast our selves upon Gods mercy in Christ and adhere and cleave to that mercy and then we shall feele so much comfort as shall make us glorifie God though we may question it in desertion sometimes here the Angels intending that God should have glory of all they wish peace on earth in the consciences of men especially The reason is peace comes from righteousnesse Christ is first the King of righteousnesse and then King of peace righteousnesse causeth peace now unlesse the soule be assured of righteousnesse in Christ it can have no peace what saith the Virgin Mary My soule doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour she begins with magnifying the Lord but what was the ground she rejoyced in God as a Saviour therefore she magnified him so in the Lords Prayer wee say Our Father which is a word of the Covenant of grace when the soule conceives of God as a gracious Father reconciled in Christ and then comes Hallowed be thy Name insinuating that till we know in some measure God to be our Father we cannot with a gracious spirit say Hallowed be thy Name for can we heartily wish for the manifestation of the glory of
him that we thinke is our enemy and him that wee have no interest in his greatnesse and goodnesse the heart of man will never doe it therefore God must first speake peace to the soule the Angels knew that well enough and then we are fit to glorifie God Peace on Earth What is peace It is the best thing that man can attaine unto to have peace with his Maker and Creator Peace in generall is a harmony and an agreement of different things This peace here you may know what it is by the contrary as the Apostle saith Ephes. 1.10 the word there is very significant Anakephaliosis there is a recapitulation or gathering all to a head in Christ out of Christ there is a division a separation and a skattering a breach that is five-fold First there is a skattering and a division from God the Fountaine of good with whom we had communion in our first creation and his delight was in his creature we lost that blessed communion and our sinnes have separated betweene God and us as the Prophet saith Then there is a separation betweene the good Angels and us for they being good subjects tak part with their Prince and therefore joyne against Rebels as we areâ— hence it is that upon the sight of Angels the very hearts of good men have sometimes beene stricken considering that there is no very good termes betweene us and the Angels till we come to Christ againe Then there is a division and skattering between man man no common Spirt of God will keep men together till they be in Christ as it is said God sent an evill spirit a spirit of division betweene the men of Sichem so since the fall there is an ill spirit of division among men till the Gospell againe bring peace especially there is no sound peace betweene men in the state of nature and others that are Gods children nor with the ordinances of God for men apprehend the ordinances of God as enemies the word cuts and lanceth him it is as the sentence of a Judge to condemne him therefore he feares and trembles at the powerfull opening of the word The ordinance of God speakes no comfort to a carnall man he is as Ahab he never had a word of peace from the Prophet the word alway speakes ill to him he is under the Law and it speakes nothing but terrour and curses to him And then there is a division and separation betweene a man and the creature which is ready to be in armes against any man that is in the state of nature to take Gods quarrell as we see in the plagues of Egypt and other examples if God doe but give them leave they presently make an end of sinfull man and they would glory in it too to serve their Creator it is part of their vanity to be subject to wicked men they have no peace with the creature And they have no peace with themselves they speake peace to themselves but alas God speaks none to them they make a Covenant with death and hell but death and hell make no Covenant with them so it is a forced sleepy peace it is a dead slâ—ep the peace they have it is but adâ—ersion to othâ—r things they 〈…〉 selves and the warre the 〈…〉 themselves and 〈…〉 â—â—uce that they take up for a time when God opens their conscience there is a hell in their hearts and soules that when it is loosed makes them to suffer a hell upon earth they enter into the paines of hell before their time so there is no peace to the wicked at all there is since the fall a separation betweene God and man betweene Angels and man betweene man and the creatures betweene man and himselfe Now Christ at his comming taking our nature upon him brings all into one againe hee brings God and man together againe by offering himselfe a Sacrifice by making full satisfaction to the Justice of God and sinne which is the cause of his displeasure being taken away God being gracious and mercifull his mercy runnes amaine on us sinne onely separates between God and us and that Christ takes away therefore he is called by Saint Paul Christ our peace Ephes. 2. and the Prince of peace he was qualified to be our peace hee was a friend to both parties having marryed our nature of purpose that hee might in our nature bring God and us together as it is 1 Pet. 3.18 Hiâ— whole worke was to bring us backe againe to God from whom wee fell at the first Then if wee be at peace with God all other peace will follow foâ— good subjects will be at peace with rebels when they are brought in subjection to their King and all joyne in one obeâ—ience therefore the Angels are brought to 〈◊〉 againe by Christ. And so for men there is a spirit of union betweene them the same spirit that knits us to God by faith knits us one to another by love And we have peace with the creature for when God who is the Lords of Hosts is made peacefull to us hee makes all other things peaceable The Heathen could say Tranquillus Deus tranquidat omnia when God is at peace he makes all so So there is peace in our owne hearts we are assured by the Spirit of God that he is our Father he seales it to our conscience by his Spirit because the blood of Christ is set on by the Spirit of God and not by our owne so that now God and we are brought to one and Angels and we and all other things therefore now the Angels say Peace on earth when Christ was borne Now we will shew that this blessed peace in all the branches of it is founded in Christ Christ is the cause and the foundation of it for though these words were spoken at the Incarnation of Christ yet wee referre them to the whole worke of his Mediator-ship in the state of his abasement and his state of exaltation our peace is wholly founded upon him for he was borne and became man and became sinne that is a Sacrifice for sinne for us he became a curse for us to stablish a peace and to satisfie Gods anger and then hee rose againe to shew that he had fully satisfied God anger and that peace was fully established therefore the holy Ghost was sent after the Resurrection as a testimony that God was appeased and now in heaven he is ever there as a Priest to make Intercession for us so that Christ is our peace from his Incarnation to his death from thence to his Resurrection and Ascension and Intercession all peace with God with Angels and with creatures is stablished in Christ And why in Christ Christ is every way fitted for it for he is the Mediator betweene God and man therefore by office he is fit to make peace betweene God and man he is Emanuel himselfe God and man in one nature
salvation Therefore labour to have this peace on earth or else we can never glorifie God on earth and if we glorifie him not on earth we shall never doe it in heaven But to come to some tryals whether we have this peace made or no whether we can say in spirit and truth there is a peace established between God and us For a ground of this that may lead us to further tryall know that Christ hath reconciled God and us together not only by obtaining peace by way of satisfaction but by way of application also whom he dyed for to obtaine peace he gives a spirit of application to improve that peace to improve Christ the Prince of peace as their owne for there is a mutuall commerce betweene God and man who is an understanding creature and there is nothing that God doth for man if we looke to the generall and head of benefits but there is somewhat in man wrought by the Spirit to answer it againe God is reconciled to man in Christ man must be reconciled to God in Christ in 2 Cor. 5. God was in Christ reconciling the world when hee was on the Crosse God was there reconciled in Christ. Is that all no God by us intreates you to be reconciled to God A strange condescending that God should intreate us to be good to our owne soules by his Ministers We intreate you to be reconciled that is to accept of the reconciliation wrought by Christ and to lay aside all weapons of rebellion whereby you fought against God in the course of your vanity wee beseech you to be reconciled and to repent because the Kingdome of God is at hand so that except there be reconciliation wrought by a spirit of application on mans part it is not sufficient that God is reconciled in Christ because God will alway have a reflex act from man as he chooseth man so man by grace chooseth him as he loves and delights in man so he will have man by a spirit of sweetnesse delight in him againe above all the world Whom have I in heaven but thee so there is some what wrought by the Spirit to God againe Why should God be at good termes with us but to enjoy the friendship of his poore creature unlesse therefore there be a gracious disposition wrought in the creature to looke backe to love and delight in God as God doth in him there is no actuall reconciliation there must be a forcible application by the Spirit if God should not give a spirit of application as well as Christ obtaine heaven for us those that are in the Covenant of grace should not be stablished but God by this meanes brings them so neare that he loving them loves them for ever and they have an everlasting Covenant and an everlasting union The carnall heart of man is a poysonfull thing and hates God naturally it wishes that there were no God to judge him he may thinke well of God for the good things of this life but when he thinkes of God as a Judge to cast him into hell he wisheth with all his heart oh that there were no God that I might have my full of the pleasures of sinne Now the soule when it is at peace with God when God by his Spirit speakes to the soule and saith I am thy salvation thy sinnes are forgiven thee and as Christ to the good Theefe on the Crosse This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise when he whispers to the soule thou art mine and I am thine then the soule becomes sweet and peaceable to God againe and studies to advance the glory of Gods mercy by all meanes and to advance the Gospell of peace it becomes friendly to God To come to some more familiar evidences whether wee be at peace with God and whether we have the comfort of this peace stablished by Christ or no. Those that are reconciled one to another have common friends and common enemies if therefore there be peace betweene God and us it is so with us we love all where we see any evidence of Gods love we love Christians as Christians and whom God loves not we love not what God hates we hate in our selves and others wee hate corruptions in our selves and others though we love their persons Another evidence of peace made in Christ betweene God and us is a boldnesse of spirit and acquaintance with God Acquaint thy selfe with God and be at peace with him Iob 22. A Christian being at peace with God in Christ Iesus he goes boldly to the Throne of grace in all his necessities as a poore child goes boldly to his father and moves the bowels of his father by his petitions When two Kingdomes are at peace there is trading set up afresh againe so when God is at peace with the soule there is a heavenly intercourse and trading set up there is no man that is at peace with God but hee calls upon God in his person in his family he sets up the woship of God there he labours to bring all to God that he can hee thinkes it the most gainefull trade in the world In the want of grace and spirituall comfort he goes to the Fountaine of grace and improves that blessed prerogative we have by peace in Christ those that have not the Spirit of God to improve it in Communion and trading with God it is a signe there is no peace strangenesse shewes that there is no peace Alas how strangely doe many walke towards God that from Sunday to Sunday skarce lift up their hearts to heaven for a blessing but walke in the strength of their owne mother-wit and support themselves with the successe of second causes and blesse themselves they are strangers from the God of peace let us take notice of this and account it a great prerogative that wee may goe to God with boldnesse that it is not now as it was in Paradise there is no Angell with a sword to shut us from heaven but now there is an entrance to the Throne of grace we may goe boldly in the name of Christ to offer our selves and all our indeavours A Christian that hath made his peace with God will never allow himselfe in any sin against conscience because he knowes sinne is odious in it selfe loathsome to God and hurtfull to his soule therefore he will not be in league with any sinfull unjust course what to be in league with God and to be at peace with that that God hates more then the Devill himselfe hee hates sinne more then the Devill for he hates him for sinne therefore a man that allowes himselfe in knowne sinnes there can be no peace betweene God and him as he saith why doe you talke of peace as long as the witchcrafts and whoredomes of Iesabel remaine a man that lives in sinnes against conscience that is an open swearer an unjust person that cares not by what meanes he advanceth himselfe
what doth he talke of peace with God when hee is in league with Gods enemy therefore though such men out of the hardnesse of their hearts which are harder then the nether milstone and God seales them up under a hard heart to damnation except some terrible judgement awake them force a peace upon themselves they ought to speake none and they shall find it to their cost ere long therefore let us examine our owne hearts how we stand affected to any sinfull course There may be infirmities and weakenesses hang upon the best that are besides their purposes and resolutions but for a man resolvedly to set himselfe in an ill way how can he be at peace with God and with Satan at the same time let us take notice of these things and not daube with our owne consciences Againe where there is a true peace established there is a high esteeme of the Word of peace the Gospell of reconciliation as St. Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation those that find this peace there is stirred up by the Spirit in their breasts a high esteeme of the ordinance of God as being the word of their peace how come we to have peace betweene God and us is it not by opening the riches of Gods love in Christ in the Scriptures Therefore saith the Scripture blessed are the feet of them that bring glad tidings the meanest part of their body their feete are blessed therefore those that have despicable conceits of the Ministrie of the Word and place their happinesse in depraving the labour and paines of that office and calling it is a signe they have prophane hearts for whosoever hath had any grace wrought by the word of reconciliation and of peace they will highly esteeme it and respect them for their office sake it cannot be otherwise Lastly those that have found peace â—are peaceable it is universally true God doth make an impression of the same disposition in us to others we apprehending God in Christ to be peaceable to us wee are peaceable to others therefore in Isay 11. The knowledge of God in Christ it alters and changeth mens dispositions it makes Wolves and Lions to be of a milder disposition and temper harsh proud sturdy dispositions they never felt peace and mercy themselves therefore they are not ready to shew it to others In the nature of the thing it selfe it is impossible for the soule to apprehend peace in the love of God and not to have the disposition wrought upon to shew what it hath felt let us thinke of these and such like evidences daily to keepe our hearts from speaking false peace The greatest danger in the world in this regard is in the Church for people under the Gospell speake false peace to themselves there is a spirit of delusion that carries them along to their death and deceives them also in death and so they are in hell before they be aware and then too late they see that they were never in good tearmes with God in all their life because they looked on Christ making peace without any consideration of the spirit of application There must be a sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our soules to make it our owne We are come to the blood of sprinkling it is not the blood of Christ that makes our peace onely as blood but as it is sprinkled by the hand of faith that is as the Iâ—ope that sprinkled the blood of the Sacrifice upon the people We must not thinke to have any good by the blood of Christ when we want the blood of sprinkling that is this particular faith Christ loved me and hath chosen me and I choose him and love him againe and so goe with boldnesse to God as a Father unlesse there be this passage of the soule betweene God and us let us not talke of peace for if we might have good by Christ without a spirit of application and if there were not a necessity of sprinkling the blood of Christ upon our soules by faith all the world should be saved In the next place to give a few directions to maintaine this peace actually and continually every day To walke with God and to keep our daily peace with God it requires a great deale of watchfulnesse over our thoughts for he is a Spirit over our words and actions watchfulnes is the preserver of peace where there is a great distance betweene two that are at peace it is not kept without acknowledgement of that distance and without watchfulnesse it is not here as it is in a peace that is betweene two Kings that are coordinate one with another but it is a peace betweene the King of heaven and Rebels that are taken to be subjects therefore we must walke in humble low tearmes humble thy selfe and walke with thy God we must watch over our carriage that we doe not grieve the Spirit of God for then how-ever the first peace stablished in conversion should be never taken away yet God interdicts our comfort wee cannot daily enjoy our daily peace without watchfulnesse but God suffers our knowledge and our former illumination to lasâ— our conscience and to be more miserable in our inward man than a carnall man that never had sight of goodnesse oh the misery of a man that is fallen into ill tearmes with God that had peace before of all men such a man hath most horrour till he have made his peace againe watchfulnesse will prevent this And because it is a difficult thing to maintaine tearmes of peace with God in regard of our indisposition we fall into breaches with God daily therefore wee should often renew our covenants and purposes every day And if wee have fallen into any sinne let us make use of our great peace-maker Christ who is in heaven to make peace betweene God and us let us desire God for his sake to be reconciled unto us for God is in Christ reconciling us unto him still the fruit of Christs death remaines still let us desire him to testifie it unto us by his holy Spirit And take that direction of the Apostle in Philip. 4. When we find any trouble in the world not to trouble our selves over-much In nothing be carefull c. No shall we cast away all care Cast your care upon God let your requests be made knowne to God with thankesgiving let your prayers be made to God and let him have his tribute of thankesgiving for what you have received already What then The peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keepe and preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Iesus perhaps we shall not have what we pâ—ay for when we have made our requests knowne to God if wee have not that we pray for presently yet we shall have the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keepe our hearts and mindes therefore when any thing troubles us let
us consider there is peace made betweene God and us and put up our requests in the Name of Christ and wee shall finde that peace that passeth understanding Againe if we would maintaine thâ—s peace let us be alway doing some-what that is good and pleasing to God in the same Chapter Phil. 4.8 Finally Brethren whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure c. Think of these things and what then The God of peace shall be with you The peace of God and the God of peace shall be with you there must be a thinking of whatsoever is good the thoughts must be exercised that way and there must be a practice of that we thinke of this is one meanes to maintaine this peace with God The very Heathen had this reward of God I meane in this life that when they did good to their Country and one to onother they had content of conscience they had a peace sutable For in this world there is a sutable pleasure of conscience contentment upon every thing that is good God rewards it in this world for as the heat followeth the fire alway naturally it cannot be without heat so the thinking and practising of that which is good especially when it is joyned with some opposition of corrupt nature when the light of nature is above the corruption of nature If a man be a Pagan he shall have this reward in this world a kind of inward peace for we see how comfortably they speake sometimes upon some notable performance for then Country Now the God of peace will be with us much more when we have laid the foundation of our peace aright in the mercy of God in Christ besides what is reserved heaven and happines in this world we shall find the peace of God in the doing that which is good As for those that live in the Church and are not yet in the state of grace that have lived wicked lives let them consider that yet the day of grace continues as yet the Scepter of mercy is held forth in the Ministery there is a day of Jubily for them to returne from their former captivity let them not abuse the patience of God and thinke to doe it afterward for that is the way to harden the heart more and more And this Scripture puts an effectuall argument into the hearts of all that are in ill termes with God that have not made their peace or that have had peace and have broken it here is an effectuall way of pleading with God Glory to God on high c. If the soule can say I consider my folly and madnesse in running into sinne thou mightest justly damne me if thoâ— wouldst it is thy mercy I am not sent to hell oh but thou shalt have the greater glory if I find mercy therefore that I may say Glory to God on high let me finde peace on earth speake peace by thy Spirit to my soule say I am thy salvation â— This was the end of thy sending of Christ the end of Creation the end of Providence all to bring thee glory thou mightest have the glory of thy Justice to damne me oh but it will be the glory of thy mercy to save me that as my sins have abounded so thy glory shall more abound Oh Lord extend the bowels of thy mercy will not the Lord be jealous of his glory when you alleage it certainely he will you see the Angels here crie Glory to God on high peace on earth the way to bring peace is to alleadge the glory of Gods mercy in Christ it is a prevailing way Now to stirre us up more and more to search the grounds of our peaceâ— I beseech you let us consider the fearefull estate of a man that hath not made his peace with God how-ever Christ have dyed that will not serve the turne but if Christ be food if he be not eaten if he be a garment and not be put on if Christ be a foundation if we doe not build on him what benefit is it to us Therefore those that have not been brought by the Spirit of God to communion with Christ alas they are under the wrath of God however God doth use them as Princes doe Traytors in the Tower he gives them the liberty of the prison yet the sentence of death is not revoked all the delights of a Prisoner in the Tower doth not content him he knowes he is in ill tearmes with his Prince so till wee have made our peace with God by hearty confession of our sinnes by shaming of our selves by a particular faith beleeving the forgivenesse of our sinnes and a resolution against all sinne for the time to come alas wee have not sued out our pardon all our delights are but as those of a prisoner in the Tower Therefore aske thy soule hast thou sued out thy pardon is there reconciliation wrought betweene God and thee and accounts made even If we confesse and forsake our sinnes we shall find mercy it is the Word of the God of heaven who is truth it selfe he hath pawned his fidelity and truth on it to forgive us if wee confesse hee is content to be thought unjust and unfaithfull if he doe not forgive if wee ingenuously without all guile of spirit lay open our sinnes and take shame to our selves If wee doe not make our peace with God what a case are we in God himselfe ere long will appeare our enemy Christ whom we thinke will save us will be our Judge and a terrible Judge the Lambe will be angry Who shall cover us from the wrath of the Lambe we thinke of Christ as an innocent meeke Lambe onely that will not be angrie The rebellious Kings and Potentates that â—ight against Christ and his Church they thinke to trample on Christ and his Gospell but the time will come when they shall desire the mountaines to cover them and if his wrath be kindled Psal. 2. Who shall abide it hee speakes there of Christ Happy are they that trust in him As for the Holy-Ghost how can they looke for comfort from him they have grieved him therefore hee will grieve their conscience The Holy-Ghost as he is the God of all comfort and consolation so he is the ground of all terrour to wicked men when he hath knocked at their hearts by the ministery of his Word to open and to let him in but they would not And the Angels are ready executioners of Gods vengeance upon any occasion and others creatures wayte but for a command from God to execute his wrath upon sinners the heavens are ready to raine upon them as in the flood and the earth is ready to swallow them as it did Corah the beasts that carry us the creatures wee use waite for a command from God to destroy us our meate to choake us the ayre to infect us the water to drowne us they are all
at the birth of Christ Good will to men All these agree very well Châ—â—sts free grace and faith For what wee have by grace wee have onely by Christ because he hath given satisfaction to Gods Justice that so grace may be conveyed and derived unto us without prejudice to any other Attribute in God and then the imbraceing power and grace in us is faith so these three agree I say whatsoever wee have from Gods free love now wee have it in Christ the free love of God is grounded in Christ wee in our selves especially considered in the corrupt masse cannot bee the object of Gods love God cannot looke upon us but in him the best beloved first therefore all is Christ in the carriage of it wee are elected in Christ called in Christ justified by Christ sanctified by the Spirit of Christ glorified in Christ We are blessed with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ. This is my beloved Sonne I am well pleased in him it is the same word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In whom I delight Isay 42. Out of which the Father takes his speech This is the Sonne I delight in Now all Gods delight is first fixed in his Sonne and in us because we must have communion with the Sonne so the first object of Gods free love is Christ and then he lookes upon us in him The Trinity have a wondrous complacencie in looking upon mankind now in Christ God loves us as redeemed by Christ Christ loves us as electeâ— by the Father and given by the Fathers choyce to him to redeeme the Holy Ghost hath a speciall liking to us as seeing the love of the Father in chusing us and of the Son in redeeming us And surely if wee would see likewise those sweet interviewes of God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost it should be our maine delight too to see how God hath chosen us and given us to Christ to save how Christ hath redeemed us from this very respect that the Father hath chosen us and given us to him as it is in Iohn 17. Thine thâ—y were thou gavest them me and how the Holy Ghost is a spirit of communion the Communion of the Holy Ghost that hath communion with the Father and the Son and issueâ— and proceedes from them both how he witnesseth this love to our soules and applies it to us the Holy Ghost applies all the Father decreed and ordained all the Sonne workes and dispenseth all the consideration of the point is wondrous comfortable Whatsoever good will the Father hath to us it is as we are in Christ. And why in Christ Because Christ is the first thing that God can love hee is the onely begotten Sonne of God whosoever is loved to glory in a spirituall order is loved in the first beloved Christ is loved of God as the character of his owne image the Sonne represents the Father he is loved of God as Mediator by office so God lookes upon us in Christ as the Sonne of his love so he is called by Saint Paul Coloss. 1. Then if we consider our selves this must bee so alas we are not objects of Gods love in our selves nor cannot be but in some other that is loved first for what are we and what is the glory to which God loves us To love such as wee to such glory and to free us from such misery due it must be by another foundation then our selves therefore Gods good pleasure is founded upon his Son Christ this is a cleare point the Scripture beates much upon it hee is our elder brother and wee must bee conformed to him To make some use of it First of all then we see here that all that are not in Christ lye open to the vengeance and wrath of God his good wil towards men is only in Christ. Againe if all Gods good will and pleasure be in Christ as our high Priest without whom we can offer no sacrifice as wee know whatsoever was not offered by the high Priest it was abhominable Therefore wee should looke to God in Christ love God in Christ performe service to God in Christ pray to God in Christ give thanks to God in Christ desire God in Christ to to make all things acceptable for Christs sake because it is in Christ that God hath any good will and pleasure to us It is a point of marvellous comfort that Gods love and good pleasure is so well founded as in Christ he loves Christ eternally and sweetly and strongly is not Gods love to us the same doth he not love us with the same love that hee loves his Son he loves his mysticall body with one love that is Christ head and members Iohn 17. That the love thou bearest to me may bee in them what a sweet comfort is this God loves Christ and me with one love he loves me strongly and sweetly and constantly as hee doth his owne Sonne his love to me is eternall because the foundation of it is eternall it is founded upon Christ. The love of a Prince if it be founded on a Favourite he loves dearely must needs be firme and strong Now Gods love to Christ is ardent and strong and sweet as possibly can be conceived therefore it is so to us his good will to us being founded on Christ. Why should a believer feare that God will cast him away he will as soone leave his love to his owne Sonne as to us if we continue members of his Sonne it is an undefeasable love it is a point of wondrous comfort What shall separate us saith the Apostle Rom. 8. from the love of God founded in Christ neither things present nor things to come nor life nor death nor any thing many things may sever the soule and body but there is nothing in the world but sinne that shall sever either soule or body from the love of God in Christ because both body and soule are members of Christ therefore let us treasure it up as a point wondrous comfortable To come to an use of tryall how shall wee know wither Gods good will be to us in Christ or no how shall I know that he loves my person that I am in the state of grace and love with him The Holy Ghost must ascertaine this for as the worke of salvation was so great that onely God could satisfie God so the doubts of mans heart and the guilt of his conscience when it is upon him and the feare of Gods wrath upon just guilt is such that God must assure him that God is reconciled to him God the Sonne must reconcile God the Father and God the holy Ghost must seale and ascertaine this to the soule The soule will never bee quiet before it see and know in particular God reconciled in Christ the Spirit that is God that is above conscience must seale it to the Soule being above conscience he can set downe and quiet our conscience Now
upon him and be ruled by him and they will not it shall be easier for Sodome and Gomorrha for Jewes and Turkes and Pagans and those that worship Devils then for us for when God offers his free love and mercy in Christ if we will entertaine it and we will none of it then justice alone shall not condemne us but mercy shall condemne us wee will none of mercy There is not the worst man but would have pardoning mercy hee is content to have God pardon his sinne but hee will not take the whole mercy and love of God in Christ curing healing mercy there are those that live in filthy courses in prophanenesse in swearing c. it is food to them to be malicious to deprave the best things Serpents feed on poyson They are content to have their sinnes pardoned if God will let their filthy nature alone their poysonfull blasphemous disposition that exalts it selfe against God and let them goe on in their course they will have one mercy but not another but wee shall never be saved without entire mercy healing as well as pardoning whom God loves hee doth not onely pardon their sinnes but heales their nature and makes it like unto Christs holy and pure Those that have not the Spirit in them desiring altering and changing and healing grace as well as pardoning grace they are hypocrites Let us remember this especially because it is most usefull and most men are deceived in this they thinke oh God is mercifull and his love is free in Christ and though I be unworthy yet God will have mercy upon me but hast thou a secret desire to partake of Gods whole mercy and love to make thee good as well as to make thee his sonne and intitle thee to heaven to have thy nature altered to see the deformity of sinne and the beauty of grace if thou hadst rather to have the Image of God upon thee more then any favour in the world that thou hadst rather be free from the bondage of sinne then any other deliverance if it be thus thy state is good To hasten considering Gods free love opened now in Jesus Christ I beseech you let us study Christ and labour to get into Christ daily more and more that wee may be members of Christ and desire God daily more and more to reveale himselfe in Christ to us that we may see his face in Christ that wee may know him in the sweet relations hee hath put on him in the Gospell To know God in generall as a Creator and doing good c. the Heathens did that by the light of nature but we should labour to â—ee him in the face of Christ that is to see him appeased and loving us wishing us well concerning eternall glory that must be by the light of the Gospell and by the Spirit therfore in hearing of the Word and reading and meditating desire God above all to reveale by his Spirit his gracâ—ous face in Christ that in Christ we may see him as a Father as a Husband as a Friend in those sweet relations of love that he hath taken upon him It should be our daily desire of God to manifest his love more to us in Christ Iesus then in any other fruits of his love for there be common fruits as to give us health and friends and liberty and quiet governement which are great favours that we see denyed to many nations oh but the soule that is touched with the spirit of God and the sence of his owne condition by nature is thus disposed Lord I desire that thou wouldest shew the fruits of thy love to me but I desire not so much those common fruits that the reprobates may have as well as I oh shew me by thy holy spirit that thou hast a particular and peculiar love to me in Christ and for this end give me grace to know the mistery of Christ more and more the mystery of my naturall corruption that knowledge that may drive me to make much of thy love and grace in Christ. Now the Spirit that knowes the deepe things of God the depth of Gods love to any one in particular and the depth of our hearts if we begge the Spirit to reveale the good pleasure of God to us in time God will shew unto our soules that he delights in us and that he is our salvation this shewes that the soule is an excellent temper that it sets a right price and value on things that it prizeth Gods favour above all things that is the nature of faith for what is faith onely to believe in generall that Christ dyed c No but to esteeme Gods love better then all the world for Gods love is entire in pardoning and curing too by this the soule is raysed up to esteeme the love and mercy of God in pardoning and healing sinne above life it selfe Psal. 63. Thy loving kindnesse is better then life To conclude all with this one motive the loving kindnesse of God when wee have it once it is no barren complementall kindnesse it is a loving kindnesse that reacheth from everlasting to everlasting from Gods love in chusing to his love in glorifying us it is a love that reacheth to the filling of nature with all the happinesse it is capable of In this world in all misery one beame of Gods loving kindnesse will scatter all clouds whatsoever what raised the spirit of Daniel in the Lions Den of the three young men in the middest of the Furnace of St. Paul in the Dungeon the beames of Gods love in Christ brake into the prison into the Dungeon a few beames of that will enlarge the heart more then any affliction in the world can cast it downe It is excellent that Moses saith Deut. 33. The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush c. You know that God appeared in the bush when it was flaming the flaming bush shewed the state of Israel in the middest of the Furnace of persecution yet notwithstanding the bush was not consumed why because the good will of God was in the bush so let us be in any persecution put case wee bee like Moses bush all on fire yet the fire shall not consume nor hurt us why the good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush is with us in Isai 43. I will bee with thee in the fire and in the water not to keepe thee out but I will be with thee in it so that in the greatest persecutions that can be in the fiery tryall as Saint Peter cals it the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will bee with us so that wee shall not be consumed though we bee in the fire afflicted but not despaire why the good pleasure of God dwels in the bush in the Church in the middest of afflictions and persecutions hee is with us who can bee miserable that hath the presence of God the favour and good will of God
drawes them nearer to himselfe Hereupon the Apostle saith all things are yours things present and things to come c. reductively they are ours God turnes them to our good he extracts good to us by them all good things are ours in a direct course and other things by an over-ruling power are deduced to our good contrary to the nature of the things themseluâ—s What did I say all things are ours yea God himselfe is ours and he hath all things that hath him that hath all things now in Christ God himselfe is become ours all things are yours you are Christs and Christ is Gods and Rom. 5.10 we rejoyce in God as ours if God be ours his al sufficiency is ours his power is ours his wisdome all is ours for our comfort Againe for glory the riches of heaven which are especially here meant for how ever the riches of heaven be kept for the time to come yet faith makes them present when by faith wee looke upon the promises we see our selues in heaven not onely in Christ our head but in our own persons because we are as sure to bee there as if we were there already but for the joyes of heaven they are unutterable the Apostle calls them Ephes. 3.8 unsearchable riches eye hath not seene nor eare hath heard or hath entred into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him there shall be fulnesse of glory in soule and body both shall be conformable to Christ. At the right hand of God there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Nay the first fruits the earnest the beginnâ—ngs of heaven here are unsearchable to humane reason the riches of Christs righteousnes imputed to us the glorious riches of his Spirit in inward peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the comfort and inlargement of heart in al conditions it is peace that passeth understanding and joy unspeakeable and glorious it is not only unsearchable to humane reason but Christians themselves that have the Spirit of God in them cannot search the depth of them because wee have the spirit but in measure we see then what excellent riches wee have by the poverty of Christ. Was there no other way to make us rich but by Christs becomming poore God in his infinite wisedome ordeyned this way he thought it best wee may rest in that but besides to stay our mindes the better we were to be restored by a way contrary to that we fell wee fell by pride wee must be restored by humility wee would bee like GOD GOD to expiate it must become like us and take our nature and suffer in it Then againe God would restore us by a way sutable to his own excellency every way wherein no Attribute of his might be a looser he would bring us to riches and friendship with him by a way of satisfaction to his justice that wee may see his justice shine in our salvation though indeed grace and mercy triumph most of all yet notwithstanding justice must bee fully contented There was no other way wherein wee could magnifie so much the unsearchable and infinite wisedome of God that the Angels themselves prie into whereby justice and mercy seeming contrary Attributes in God are reconciled in Christ by infinite wisedome justice and mercy meeâ—e together and kisse one another justice being satisfied wisedome is exalted but what set wisedome on worke the grace and love and mercy of God to devise this way to satisfie justice it could not have beene done any other way for before we could be made rich God must be satisfied reconciliation supposeth satisfaction and there could bee no satisfaction but by blood and there could bee no equall satisfaction but by the blood of such a person as was God Therefore Christ must become poore to make us rich because there must bee full satisfaction to divide justice and all his precious poverty before his death his incarnation his want his being a servant c. all was part of his generall humiliation but it was but to prepare him for his last worke the upshot of all is death which was the worke of satisfaction Againe all the inherent part of our riches infused into our nature it comes by the Spirit of God now the Spirit of God had not beene sent if God had not beene satisfied and appeased first because the holy Ghost is the gift of the Father and the Son he comes from both therfore there must be satisfaction and reconciliation before the Holy Ghost could be given which inricheth our nature immediately the immediate cause of sending the Holy Ghost it is Christs comming in our nature Now if God had not beene satisfied in his justice he would never have given the Holy Ghost which is the greatest gift next to Christ therefore Christ became poore to make us rich that wee might have the Holy Ghost shed in our hearts Now al these riches that we have by Christ it supposeth union with him by faith as the riches of the wife supposeth marriage union is the ground of all the comfort we have by Christ our communion springs from union with him which is begun in effectuall calling as soone as we are taken out of old Adam and ingrafted into him all becomes ours Christ procures the spirit the spirit workes faith faith knits us to Christ and by this union we have communion of all the favours of this life and the life to come therefore I say all is grounded upon union by the grace of faith Christ married our nature that we might be married to him by his spirit and untill there be a union there is no derivation of grace and comfort The head onely hath influence to the members that are knit unto it therefore Christ 〈◊〉 our nature that he might not onely be a head of eminency as he is to Angells but a head of influence Now there must be a knitting of the members to the head before any spirits can bee derived from the head to the members therefore the Apostle saith that Christ is our riches but it is as he is in us To whom God would make knowne what is the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles Christ in you the hope of glory Christ is all to us but it is as he is in us and we in him we must be in him as the branches in the Vine and he in us as the Vine in the branches so Christ is the hope of glory as he is in us We must labour therefore by faith to heâ— made one with Christ before we can think of the settings with comfort And when by faith we are made one with Christ then there is a spirituall communion of all things Now upon our union with Christ it is good to think what ill Christ hath taken upon him for me and then to thinke my selfe freed from it because Christ
the more we shall attaine this Therefore let us labour that Christ may be all in all in us that as the soule doth act the body so the Spirit of Christ may act us that Christ may speake in us and think in us and love in us by his Spirit that he may dwell in us and joy and hate in us by his Spirit that we may put off our selves and our carnall affections and the Spirit of the world and that we may put on Christ and be clothed with him that we may say with S. Paul I live not but Christ lives in me by his Spirit whence was Paul stirred up to that Oh saith he Christ loved me and gave himselfe for me Gal. 2. The grace of Christ stirred him up Christ loved me and gave himselfe for me and by his Spirit he witnesseth to my soule that he did so Therefore the life that I live is by the Spirit of Christ Christ lives in me But to come to the particular duty whereunto the grace and example of Christ should stir us up to be like him that is in kindnesse and mercy and bounty to the poore Saints for that is the scope of the Apostle here in this and the next Chapter You know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ who though he was rich he became poore c. Wherfore doth the Apostle bring all this To move them to the duty of bounty and liberality This duty it is legall from the example of Christ it is a thing that hath much equity in it and it is enough to a Christian heart that hath the love of God to put him in minde of the grace of God to him you need not beat upon him or presse him further then thus You know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ remember you are a Christian you have felt the experience of Gods love in Christ every man will judge of the equity that we should therefore be gracious and kinde and loving to others in imitation of Christ because he hath beene so to us Wherein stands the equity First it may appeare in this if we consider in how neere a relation those that need our help are to us and likewise to Christ. First what is their relation to us Not only that they are our flesh for so are all men but they are heires of the same salvation bought with the death of the same Christ such as Christ feeds with his owne body and blood such as he clothes with his owne righteousnesse they are fellow members with us fellow heires of Heaven and members of Christ such as he died for to redeeme with the price of his owne blood there is an undeniable equity if we consider their condition their relation to Christ and to us Againe there is a marvellous binding equity to see the grace of God to us in particular Christ became poore to make us rich in grace here and in glory hereafter and shall not I out of my riches give somewhat to the poore Is it not equall Christ from Heaven came in my nature and flesh to visit me as it is in the Song of Zachary The day spring from on high hath visited us and shall not I visit Christ in his members He came from Heaven to Earth to take notice of my wants and miseries to doe and suffer that that I should have done and suffered he feeds me with his body and blood that is with his satisfaction to Divine justice by his death and shall not I feed his poore members Christ clothes me with his righteousnesse and shall not I cloth Christ in his poore members In the consideration of these things the Spirit of God will be effectuall to stir us up to this marvellous neglected duty of kindnesse and mercy to those that stand in need And because Christ is our paterne herein let us labour to imitate Christ in the manner of releeving and shewing kindnesse and communicating to others that we may doe it as CHRIST hath done How is that First Christ prevented us when we never desired him so we should prevent others Sometimes the modesty of those that want is such that they will not lay open their wants we should see it and prevent it he gives too late oft times that gives to a man that asks him Therefore herein let us imitate Christ to consider of the miseries of others he looked on and considered the miseries of mankinde and it drew him from Heaven to the Virgins wombe from thence to the Crosse to the grave even as low as Hell in his preventing love and mercy Therefore when wee see any need especially if there be any worth in them in any kinde let us not stay till it be wrested from us by intreaty for it is dearely bought oft times that comes that way but prevent them in mercy as Christ hath done to us Secondly what Christ did for us he did marvellous chearfully and readily oh what a desire he had to eate his last Passeover a little before he was crucified With a desire have I desired to eat this passeover with you he was chearfull in it he had a great desire to doe us good and as he saith Ioh. 4. when his disciples put him in mind of eating when he had not eat in a long time before saith he It is meat and drink to me to do the will of my Father so whatsoever we do to others we should do it chearefully and readily as he did Againe whatsoever Christ did for us he did it out of love and grace and mercy he did it inwardly from his very bowels so when we do aâ—ny thing for others we should not onely doe the deed but doe it from an inward principle of love and mercy Therefore the Scripture phrase is powre out thy bowels and saith S. Iohn if a man see his brother in need and pretend he loves God and yet relieves him not how is there bowels in such a man and so in Micah 6. He hath shewed thee oh man what is good to love mercy not onely to be mercifull to do works of mercy but to love it to do what we do out of love and affection and powre out thy heart to thy flesh as it is in I say to give the heart and affection when we do any thing or else we may give with the hand and denie with the heart A man may give a thing so untowardly that one may see it comes against his heart and will Therefore let us labour to doe that we doe with our whole man especially from our heart and affection and bowels It is said of Christ in the Gospell when he saw the people in misery his bowels yearned within him the workes of grace and mercy in Christ they came from his bowels first Let us worke our hearts to pitie and love and mercy first that it may come from the soule as well as from the outward man Againe Christ
afflictions as to grace and glory God hath set us apart to beare such a share and portion of troubles in this world to suffer as well as to do From my youth up saith the Church they have afflicted me the plowers have plowed upon my backe and made long â—urrowes that is from the infancy of the Church in all the growth of it this hath beene the state of the Church for the most part to be afflicted and poore And indeed if we looke to our selves by reason of the remainder of our corruptions it is needfull it should be so God in wisdome sees it fit it should be so that wee should bee afflicted and poore because he sees that we can hardly digest any flourishing condition in this world It is as strong waters to a weaâ—e stomacke how ever strong waters intoxicate them not to make them drunke yet they weaken the braine so how ever a good condition in the world doth not altogether besot men yet it weakens them without a greaâ— measure of faith and makes them forget God and the condition of worldly things how empty and vaine they are and forget themselves and their owne mortality and forget others what respect is due to them as if the world were made only for them to tosse and tumble in at their pleasure to have all at their will as if other men were scarce men to them You see when men are trusted with great matters they deale with other men as if they were not men as if all were made for their pleasure This is the nature of man in great eminency it sets up its owne desire for a god as if all other were beasts and base and nothing It is a piâ—ifull thing to consider what our nature is in this kind Nay take the best Hezekiah in his prosperitie he would needs shew his treasures to the king of Babylon a faire bootie for him you know what it cost him afterward Naturally we are prone to outward carnall excellency too too much God knowes it well enough David would be numbâ—ing the people that he might be conceited what a goodly number he had to fight against his enemies God punished him you see in that kinde he tooke away that people that he made his confidence God deales thus with his children in this world because he sees a disposition in them that cannot digest and mannage and overcome prosperity they cannot command it as they should do but are slaves to their own lusts though they have a good measure of grace We are prone to surfeit of the things of this life and God is forced as it is in Psal. 119. of very faithfulnesse thou hast corrected me God of very faithfulnesse because he will be true to our souls and save them he is forced to diet us and to keep us short of the things of this life to take away matter of pride and matter of conceitednesse in carnall excellencies to make us know our selves and him and the world what it is the vanity of the world and worldly things You see then God hath some cause to do it And we may justifie God when he any way abaseth us in this world he knowes what hee hath to do with us let us leave that to him so he save our soules and sanctifie them and delight in us to heaven and happinesse if his pleasure be to diet us in this world in regard of riches and greatnesse that he do not answer our desires but keepe us under hatches let us leave it to his will he knowes what to do with us as the Physitian knowes better what concernes the sicke than the sick doth Therefore let us take in good part the wise dispensation of God But why doth he joyne afflicted and poore together Because poverty is affliction and because affliction goes with poverty poverty brings affliction it brings abasement with it and it is an affliction it selfe For the poore man is trod on at all hands men go over the hedge where it is lowest it is an affliction and it goes with affliction Therefore the Apostle S. Paul Philip. 4. he joynes them together I have learned to want and to be abased Why Because a man that is in want in the world is usually abased every man scornes him that is in want they looke haughty and high over a man that hath any use of them so that affliction and poverty usually go together Those that God doth abase in this kinde let them consider that it is no otherwise with them than it hath beene with Gods people before and let them labour for true riches take advantage from their outward estate to be rich in a better way In the next place we may observe hence that God sanctifies outward affliction and poverty to helpe inward poverty of spirit Poverty in outward condition helpes poverty in the inward disposition In their state and condition is implyed their disposition poore for condition and likewise in inward disposition for that is implied here The Prophet doth not meane he will leave poore people that shall onely be poore for we see a world of poore and proud A man as he goes along in the streets shall heare a company of poore that are the greatest rebels in the world against God that blaspheme and sweare that raile against Magistrates and Governouâ—s they are the most unbroken people in the world the poorest and beggerliest the refuse of mankinde as they are in condition so they are in disposition The Scripture speakes here of Gods poore not of the divels poore such as are poore every way outwardly inwardly and have their poverty as a just punishment of their wicked lives and continue in that wicked life having it not sanctified to them to make them desire better riches Doth God esteeme such poore No but such poore and afflicted as together with the meanenesse of their outward condition have it sanctified to them so as they grow to be low and poore in their owne esteeme of themselves they grow to inward poverty of spirit and so to seeke to God to seeke for better riches to be rich in faith as the Scripture speakes especially such and only such are here meant So then marke the point here that God sanctifies affliction and poverty for the inward good of the soules of his children This is the reason of it outward poverty and affliction takes away the fuell that feeds pride that is an opposite to spirituall poverty and humility and sight of our wants that which pride feedes upon it is some outward thing some outward excellency that the flesh takes occasion by to swell to over-weene it selfe and to over-looke all others now when the fuell is taken away the fire goes out when the fodder and nourishment is taken away those wanton steeds you know that grew fierce with pampering they grow more tractable so it is with the nature of man take away
almost to skin and bone but why That having made it poore there may be a spring of better blood and spirits Let us take no offence therefore at Gods dispensation either towards others or our selves if we finde him by his holy Spirit sanctifying that outward condition to a holy inward bent and disposition of soule to God-ward It is a happy affliction and poverty and abasement whatsoever it be that drawes us neerer to God in whom we have more supply then we can have want in the world God never takes away any thing froÌ„ his children in this world but he gives them more in better things that is alway his course the poore receive the Gospell the Gospell is preached to them and they receive it those that by their outward abasements are brought to a sight of their spirituall wants and thereupon to hunger after Christ. Againe in that this outward poverty helpes to inward poverty of the soule outward afflictions helpe the inward disposition hence we see likewise this truth that Providence is serviceable to predestination and election God in election hath a purpose to call us out of the world to save our soules Providence that is a generall government of all things in the world Election is in order to salvation he hath chosen us to a supernaturall end and fits us for it by calling and sanctification Now how doth providence serve the decree of election Thus whom God purposeth to save to bring to an end above nature he directs providence so that all things shall serve for that end therefore he incourageth them with outward things or takes outward things from them in his providence as may serve his purpose in election to save their soules He hath a purpose to save them therefore providence workes all things for their good Rom. 8.28 All things by the over-ruling providence of God are serviceable to a higher degree of love that God beares to his children to serve his purpose to bring them to Heaven Thereupon comes the dispensation of riches or poverty honour or abasement he takes liberty for outward things concerning this life to give or take them as they may serve the spirituall and best good of his children Therefore Gods children when they see God intends their good in taken away the things of this life in letting them blood as it were for their health they should blesse God as well for taking as for giving as Iob did And there is as great mercy and love hid in taking away blessings as in conveighing of them I will leave and afflicted and poore people In the Originall it is poore and milde and gentle poverty of estate and poverty of spirit the disposition of soule come almost in one word and indeed in Gods children they are joyned together for he sanctifies all dispensations and carriages of himselfe towards them When God hath a purpose to save a man every thing shall helpe him homeward And it is not a better outward argument to know a mans state in grace then to see how the carriage of things serve Gods purpose to doe good to his soule when we our selves are bettered in our inward man by whatsoever befals us God complaines of the Iewes they were as reprobate silver because hee had melted them and they were never a whit the better they were like drosse consumed in the melting Gods children are as gold refined those that find themselves refined and bettered it is an evidence that they are Gods because there is a providence serving their spirituall good directing all things to that end But from their condition we come to the disposition implyed inward and spiritual poverty Now this poverty is not a meere want of grace to be poore in spirit is not to bee poore of that spirit or to bee of a poore spirit to be of a poore spirit is to have no goodnesse no worth at all but to be of a dejected base mind Gods children are not so ther are none more couragious then they when they are called to it It is not this poverty of spirit to have no goodnesse at all But to be poor in spirit is a state and disposition of soule that hath some goodnesse wherein they see a want of further goodnesse they have so much goodnesse and worth as to see an unworthinesse in themselves and a greater worthinesse out of themselves They are sensible of their own want and see they have not meanes of supply in themselves and they see an all-sufficiency out of themselves in God in Christ they see a necessity of dependance for supply out of themselves in their whole condition till they come to Heaven In a word this poverty is a sight of our owne nothingnesse in our selves and besides that our owne inability and a sight of sufficiency out of our selves and a desire of it and likewise a hope of supply from thence which hope carries us to endeavour and to waiting till we he have supply This will better appeare if we distinguish of this poverty in spirit by the two degrees of it There is a poverty of spirit before we are in the state of grace before we are in CHRIST and a poverty after The poverty before we are in the state of grace is when God by his Spirit together with this word and worke of correction doth open the eyes of our soules to see what we are by nature what we are in our selues It is a worke of Gods convincing Spirit to give us a true view into our owne condiâ—ion and with the sight to worke a sense and â—rom a sight and sense and thorow conviction comes a wondrous abasement and a desire to be otherwise then we are There is some hope in spirituall poverty in Gods children before their conversion which stirs them up to look upon Christ and to the mercy of God in Christ and this stirs â—hem up to begge and to use all meanes and at length God is gracious and answers all the desires of their soules This is before they were in grace for before a Christian is a sound Christian hee must be driven out of himselfe Naturally we are prone to cleave to something either out of our selves or in our selves and we must be fired out by a sight and sense of the misery we are in Wee see God hath taken this course alway in Scripture This course he tooke with Adam hee cites him arraignes him condemnes him he lets him see what a miserable creature he was as no man on earth was ever so miserable till he felt the sweetnesse of the promised seed He that had been in so great happinesse as he was to have his conscience so galled as his was afterward to feele such misery for the present as he did he must needs be very miserable as indeed he was the most miserable man that ever was since his time It is the greatest unhappinesse for a man to have beene
Fabrick as we say when there is an errour in poverty of spirit at the first when the work of humiliation is not kindly wrought hence is the defect in all the whole carriage of a Christian. The foundation of Gods building lies low he digs deepe God layes his foundation oft times as low as Hell it selfe in a manner He brings his children to see that that hee meanes they shall never feele to see his wrath against fin that so he may build upon this foundation For Christianity it is an excellent frame it is a frame for eternity a building for ever therefore it must have a sure foundation which must be laid in humiliation and poverty of spirit An errour in the first digestion is not amended in the second if that be not good the rest are naught if there be not sound humiliation nothing will bee sound afterward Therefore we should desire that God by his spirit would helpe us more and more to know what we are in our selves that we may get to be what we are in Christ. But there is a continuall frame and disposition of soule which is a poverty in spirit that accompanies Gods children all the dayes of their life till they be in heaven till they enjoy that riches that is laid up there for them and that is especially here meant And indeed it is an ingredient into all the passages of salvation For in justification there must be a poverty of spirit to make us see that there is no righteousnesse in our selves or that can come from us that is able to stand against the Law and against the justice of God all is defiled and spotted and unanswerable And upon this poverty and apprehension of what is detective in our selves comes an admiration of that righteousnesse of God in Christ for it is of Gods devising and of Gods approving and of Gods working Christ being God and man to force us every day to renew our right iâ— the righteousnesse of Christ and to be found in him There is such a poverty of spirit as to account all losse and drosse and nothing to bee willing to part withall to bee found in Christ not having our owne righteousnesse but that which is of God in Christ as Paul divinely speakes Phil. 3. So it is necessary in that maine passage of justification to bee poore in spirit that is to see a deâ—ectâ—in our owne righteousnesse to stand opposâ—â—e to Gods justice who is a consuming fiâ—eâ— it is reâ—â—isite in regard of our daily living by saith injustification In the whole course of sanctification there must of necessity bee poverty of spirit that is a sense that wee have no sanctifying grace of our selves but wee must fetch it from the fulnesse of Christ whose fulnesse is for us of his fulnâ—sse wee receive grace for grace The ground of this is that now in the covenant of grace al is of grace both in justification and sanctification all is of grace nothing but grace God hath set himselfe to get the glory of his free grace and mercy now in Iesus Christ. Therefore as our salvation is wrought out of us altogether by our surety the second Adam Christ so our righteousnesse is altogether out of our selves whereby wee appeare righteous before God It is his and given to us by marriage being one with him his righteousnesse is ours And likewise in him wee have the principle of all grace he is the principle of our life the root and foundation of spirituall life and sanctification Without mee you can doe nothing So that in Christ we have all that concernes our spirituall life in sanctification and justification because it is a state of grace Adam had it in himselfe though God at the first clothed him with his image yet not withstanding he had not such a necessity as we have to goe to Christ for all but now in the second Adam Christ we must fetch grace for every thing from him Therefore there must be poverty in regard of out knowledge we have no spirituall knowledge of our selves and poverty in regard of our affections wee have no joy no peace no comfort of our selves no delight in good things nor no strength to them we have all from Christ. By grace saith the Apostle I am what I am as if grace had given him his being his forme as we say Indeed so it doth grace gives a Christian his forme and being his worke and his working for all working is from the inward being and form of things By grace wee are what we are in justification and worke what we work in sanctification it is by what we have freely from Christ therfore in that respect there must be poverty of spirit Nay I say more in every notion when wee are in the state of grace and have had the beginnings of the new creature in us there needs poverty of spirit in regard of our owne inability to performe every action For even as it is in our forme the life and soule there is a need of it in every moving and stirring so there is a need of the spirit of grace which is as the forme and life and being of a Christian to every holy action In him we live and move and have our being saith the Apostle In him that is in God reconciled to Christ we have not only our being that is our forme but in him we live and move to every particular act We are no wiser in particular things then God makes us on the sudden the wiâ—est man will be a foole if God leave him to his owne wit We are no stronger in every particular act that needs strength then God supplies us with spirituall strength We are no holier then God by his Spirit shines on us and raiseth our soules in particular actions So that it is not only necessary that we have grace at the first to make us Christians but we must have a perpetuall regiment of the Spirit from whence we must have an influence to every particular act Though we have grace yet we cannot bring forth that grace to act without new grace Even as trees though they be fitted to beare fruit as the Vine c. yet without the influence of the Heavens they cannot put forth that fitnesse in fruit so though we be fitted by the Spirit of God yet we cannot put it forth to particular acts when occasion serves without the influence of Heaven to promote and further that grace and applying our spirits to every holy action by removing the impediments that would hinder it adding new supply and strength to helpe grace If the temptations bee too strong as sometimes they are former grace will not serve without a new supply of strength As he that may carry a lesser burthen cannot carry a greater without new strength so in every temptation there is required more strength then the former and in every new action there is required
not only a continuance of grace but a fresh supply of stronger grace And for want of this the best of Gods Saints have fallen foulely Though they have had grace in them yet notwithstanding the Spirit hath left them to themselves in regard of new supply because they have beene conceited they have not beene poore enough in spirit As Peter he was conceited of his owne strength Though all men forâ—ake thee yet I will not This conceit moved God â—n mercy as well as in justice to leave him to â—imselfe that by his fall he might learne to stand another time and not trust his owne strength The â—est of us all I say when there is any thing to bee done we had need of a fresh influence of grace and a fresh light to shine upon us It should force perpetuall poverty of spirit to see the want that is in our selves and the supply that is out of our selves and to make use of that by going out of our selves and making towards him in whom is all our supply In all our communion wee have with God which is the happinesse of our estate this frame and disposition of soule to bee poore in spirit it is necessary in every act Even in our very prayers for grace we are so void of it that wee want ability to call for what we want We must have that from the Spirit not only grace but that disposition of soule which carries us to God a spirit fitting us to pray that must bee also given us wee know not what to call for Wee of our selves are so poore that wee not only want grace and ability to action but we have not ability to aske but Gods spirit must dictate our prayers and give us motions and make us sensible of our wants and must inable our faith to cherish those graces and make us goe out of our selves even in our very prayers What a state is this then Had wee not need to bee poore in spirit all our life time that have not so much as ability to goe out of our selves for supply from another but that must come from Christ too As S. Augustin who was a great advancer of the grace of GOD and an abaser of man he had indeed S. Pauls spirit saith hee wee should boast and glory of nothing because nothing is ours We have need of this poverty of spirit in the whole tenure of our Christian life Againe in the actions of this life how pitifully doe wee miscarry because we thinke wee have wit and strength enough and set upon things in our owne wit and strength we speed â—nd have successe answerable Where the beginning is confidence the end is shame of any businesse even of this life What is the reason that oft times the great and weighty businesses of this life have not answerable successe Many times it falsout so as one said of generall Councels they seldome were successefull because men come with confidence and wit for victory rather then truth Certainly there is lesse successe in great matters because men come with selfe confidence Therefore it is a good signe that God meanes to blesse great businesses when hee puts it into the hearts of those that are agents in them to seeke him in the affaires of this life We must bee poore in spirit to see that the carriage and successe comes from him Well so it is iâ— suffering likewise wee cannot suffer the least crosse of our selves but with murmuring and repining without strength from him When Moses came to the waters of strife Moses spirit was discovered hee could not endure the harshnesse and rebellion of the people A Christian comes sometimes to such opposition that his spirit is moved and he discovers much corruption It is so with the best men even Moses a meek man when he had such temptations and provocations it moved him Wee must labour to get a greater spirit then our owne to have the spirit of God to work this spirituall poverty in us This poverty of spirit as we call it is spirituale vacuum spirituall emptinesse You know in Philosophy there is nothing empty in the world but it is filled either with aire or some kind of body and to avoide the enemy of nature emptinesse things will change their seat heavie things will goe upward and things that are above will comâ— below to avoid emptinesse that is contrary to â—â—ture there being a fulnesse of things with one bodie or other so I say spirituall poverty it is aâ— emptying of the soule which of force alway brings better things in Wheresoever this emptying of the soule is this making of our selves poore it is upon good ground by this course it is alwaies such a vacuum and emptinesse of one thing as brings in another better The soule can never be altogether empty when winde and vaine stuffe is out then comes better things in which S. Paul cals the fulnesse of God he prayes and wishes that they might be filled with the fulnesse of God then comes fulnesse of knowledge and understanding and fulnesse of affection and fulnesse of contentment and complacency in the will and all the soule hath an answerable fulnesse to the proportion of the emptying it selfe of it selfe In the next place let us come to discover this disposition of poverty of spirit where it is And then shew some helpes to it First to discover where this blessed frame of soule is Surely those that are thus poore in spirit they are full of prayer The poore man speakes supplications as the Wiseman saith that is his dialect The poore man is much in prayer he that is poore in spirit is much in supplication for prayers they are the Ambassadours of the poore soule to God to supply it with the riches of his grace Therefore where there is no prayer there is no sense of poverty but there is a Laodicean temper as if they were rich enough You have a company of men they say they cannot pray privately their spirits are barren They intimate much pride of spirit for if a man be sensible of his wants you need not supply him with words If a poore tenant come to a Land-lord and find he hath a hard bargaine let him alone for telling his tale I warrant you he will lay open the state of his wife and children and the ill yeare he hath had he will be eloquent enough Take any man that is sensible of his wants and you shall not need to dictate words to him There is no man that hath a humble and broken heart though he be never so illiterate but he will have a large heart to God in this kinde Againe there is a care of using all meanes Where poverty is there will bee a making out of our selves unto places where GOD bestowes any riches They that are poore and have no victuals at home they will goe to market rather than they will starve and those that find
in themselves want of grace and comfort surely they will goe out of themselves they will goe to Gods market they will attend upon the meanes He that is like to be arrested for debt and hath nothing at home it is time for him to seeke abroad for supply so when a man is poore spiritually ready to bee snared and catched in every thing for want of spirituall grace he will labour for strength in the use of all means Therefore those that are of a Laodicean stamp that thinke there is too much preaching and too much hearing and too much reading and what need all this adoe Alas they were never humbled they were never sensible of their state by nature nor are not yet in the state of grace for the soule of a true Christian is alway in the state of spirituall poverty as that it relisheth spirituall meanes and is not fed with husks A soule that is spiritually poore will dâ—scerne in the use of means this is flourishing this is for the eare this is conceits alas it comes for food for supply A poore soule that findes the want of grace and strength and comfort it judgeth of the meanes by what it findes there will be a use of all meanes and likewise some ability to taste where there is true poverty of spirit Againe where this inward poverty of spirit is it will make Gods children wondrous thankfull and thankful for a little grace A poore man that is sensible of his poverty will be more thankfull for a penny then another man for a pound that hath money of his owne A soule that sees the want of grace and withall sees the excellency of grace is thankfull to God that hee will worke any thing in such a poore defiled soule as hee is that hee will worke any good motions any good affections any degree of faith that he will give him any assurance of salvation Oh hee thinkes what a good God is this Hee breakes out with the Apostles Peter and Paul that had both beene sinners themselves and found grace oh they were much in thankefulnesse Blessed be God the father of our Lord Iesus Christ c. A thankfull soule is a poore soule and a poore soule is alway a thankfull soule Hee that is poore hee knowes hee hath little and deserves little therefore knowing that hee deserves nothing he is thankfull for and content with any thing a humble man is alway thankfull and that is the reason that GOD may have his glory from him hee is forced sometimes to humble and abase him hee should have no sacrifice from him else A proud man a conceited man so dotes upon his owne worth hee forgets the giver he makes himselfe an idoll to him therefore such they are usurpers of what they have they enter upon GODS blessings not considering from whom they have them nor for what end they have them They deny God his tribute of thankfulnesse because they are proud but a man that is poore in spirit he enters upon all by title of gift and receives all from God in the forme of a poore man therefore whatsoever hee hath hee returnes thankes for it againe An unthankfull soule therefore is a proud soule a thankfull soule is an humble abased soule alway and the more humble and empty the soule is the more thankfull it is for every degree of grace and comfort Againe a soule that is thus disposed that is poore in spirit it is willing to resigne it selfe to Christs governement with selfe-denyall of any thing it is able to doe of it selfe it is ready to say Lord I have neither wit of mine owne to governe my selfe nor any strength and ability of mine own therefore I put my selfe upon thy government I desire to follow thy light and to goe on in thy strength There is alway a resignation to Christs government and that in feare and trembling for whom we resigne our selves unto surely wee will have a care not to displease them A dependant life is alway an awfull life for when a man hath resigned himselfe to the governement of another and knowes hee must depend upon him hee will have a care not to displease such an one for hee thinkes if I displease him hee will withdraw his maintenance and countenance from me and then what am I so the soule that thinkes it hath all from God and from the spirit of Christ it resignes it selfe to the spirit of Christ and withall it is wondrous fearefull not to grieve and displease the Spirit for hee thinkes with himselfe my life is but a dependant life my graces are but dependant let God but withdraw the beames of his Spirit and I sinke let him withdraw his comfort and his strength what am I nothing but darkenesse and deadnesse and confusion Those therefore that give not themselves up to Christs governement but are governed by rules of policy by the example of others and have base dependance upon others they know not what spirituall poverty is they see there is a sufficiency in themselves to rule and governe themselves as if Christs wisedome were not sufficient they are not so disposed as the Apostle requires they worke not out their salvation with feare and trembling because God gives the will and the deed The meaning is this wee should worke out our salvation with a holy feare and trembling a jealous feare a sonne-like feare lest we displease God why he gives both the will and the deed hee gives both the will to doe good and when he hath done that he gives the ability of the deed it selfe We cannot doe any thing therefore we had need to walke in an awfull condition and not displease him in any thing lest he withdraw the assistance of his Spirit and leave us to our selves and then we shall fall to his dishonour to the discredit of religion to the wasting of our own comfort and the advantage of Sathan This is the temper of a man that is poore in spirit he gives himselfe up to Christs government and depends upon it and thereupon he is wondrous fearefull to displease him in any thing There are a company that know not what belong to this that hope to be saved by Christ and yet they will grieve the Spirit they will venture into any place upon any sight into any company but if ever they had beene acquainted with the government of Christs Spirit they would know what it was to grieve the Spirit and the Spirit would grieve them too it is a signe they have not the Spirit of God because he doth not check them when they have done Therefore your adventurous carelesse persons that are indifferent for all things for all companies and places that do not watch over themselves and over their words and carriages they have not this poverty of spirit for then they would know what it were to displease God in any thing to walke and to speak loosely because hereby they grieve the spirit and
would presently finde either want in grace or comfort There is not one of many that are acquainted with the nature of this spirituall communion with Goâ— and therefore they doe not enjoy the happinesse that those doe who are thus qualified that are poore in spirit Againe a man that is poore in spirit is very tractable as it is in Esay A Child shall lead them The Lamb and the Lion shall feed together c. and a Child shall lead them that is such an one you shall lead him with any counsell let the person be never so meane having smarted for his sins and his owne counsell and wayes a child shall lead him that is any man shall lead and move him to that which is good he stands not upon termes And alway hee that is poore in spirit hee is no upbraider of other mens wants he is more sensible of his owne then that he sees in other men hee is not prone to upbraid and object against them their wants and conditions hee is so taken up with the sense of his owne And lastly he that is poore in spirit is humbled in himselfe for spirituall wants not so much for outward things but because he hath not a large heart to God because he findes impatience because he finds not that heavenly mindednesse and strength to goe through the duties that God requires that his flesh is so backward these things abase him and bring him on his knees and not so much outward things and answerably hee lookes for spirituall supply When a man is humble and poore in spirit he is not abased with any outward thing that that he would have is mercy and grace The Apostle when hee would pray for all happinesse to the Churches he prayes for grace mercy and peace for as they are more sensible of their spirituall wants so they are carryed in their desires after that that may give them satisfaction that way Let us labour to bring out soules to this blessed temper to bee poore in spirit the happy temper that our Saviour began his preaching withall the first thing that he fals upon is Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven But before I come to any directions for the getting this spirituall poverty we must know and premise this caution that wee must not be so poore in spirit as to deny the worke of grace in our hearts It is one thing to bee poore in spirit and to see our wants and it is another thing to bee unthankfull and unkinde to deny the worke of grace and so to gratifie Satan wee must not give false witnesse against our selves and so deny the worke of Gods Spirit in us it is not poverty but darknesse of spirit we are not acquainted with that grace that God hath enriched us with Therefore where the soule is in a right temper there is a double eye one to see the defects and the staines of those graces we have to see what we are wanting in of what we should be and to see how our graces are stained and that there is a mingling of our corruptions with them The viewing with the one eye that wee have any grace that should make us cheerfull and thankefull and comfortably goe on considering that there are some beginnings that God will perfect for hee never repents of his beginnings And then a sight of the want and of the staines of those graces that we mingle our corruptions with them that workes againe this poverty of spirit to go still out of our selves to desire grace to purge and cleanse our selves more and more Therefore I beseech you let us remember that that we doe not unthankfully deny the worke of grace and thinke that to be poverty of spirit as some do out of covetousnesse because they have not that they would have they think they have nothing at all that is a spirituall covetousnesse But let us be wise to discerne what God hath wrought in our hearts what he hath done for and in our soules A holy man you shall have him much in mourning and complaining but it is of himselfe not of God as if God were wanting to him you shall have a holy man in a perpetuall kinde of despaire but it is in himselfe he hopes in God still Remember this caution that as wee complaine so let us be sure it be of our selves alway justifie God in his mercy and if we despaire let us despaire of our selves that we can do nothing of our selves but be sure to maintaine all we can the hope of Gods rich mercy in Christ. Now having premised this caution The way to come to spirituall poverty among many others is First to bring our selves into the presence of God to the presence of greater lights then our own men that think themselves some body when they are alone yet when they consider God sees them whose eyes are a thousand times brighter then the sun then they learne to abhor themselves in dust and ashes as we see Iob did when God talked with him when he saw God and Abraham when he talked with God he accounts himselfe dust and ashes Let us bring our selves into the presence of God consider his holinesse his justice And withall let us bring our selves to greater lights then our owne that is oft come into the company of those that have greater grace then our selves The Starres give no light when the Sunne is up the Starres are somebody in the night but they are nothing in the day and those that are conceited of their owne excellencies when they come into the presence and company and converse with those that are better then themselves their spirits fall downe they are abased It is a good course therefore not to love alway to be best in the company as it is some mens vanity because they will be conceited of their owne worth but to present our selves before God in his ordinances and present our selves in communion and fellowship with others that are greater and richer in grace then our selves and so we may see our owne wants This is one directâ—on to get spirituall poverty Againe that we may come to be poore in spirit let us consider what we are that we are creatuâ—es the terme whence creation begins is just noâ—hing it is so in the creatures in the world God made all of nothing and is it not so in the new creature much more Therefore if I will be anything in my selfe as of my selfe surely I must looke to be no creature of Gods making for grace is Gods creature therefore it must rise of nothing there must be a sight of our owne nothingnesse Indeed a Christian in himselfe is nothing now in the state of grace whatsoeâ—er he is for grace or glory it is out of himselfe hee hath nothing in himselfe as of himselfe all that he hath he hath from Christ. He is poore in himselfe
but he hath riches enough in Christ if he see his owne poverty He is a sinner in himselfe but he hath righteousnesse enough in Christ if he see his sins Let us know that this is a qualification to interest us in the good that is in Christ we renew our right in Christ no otherwise then we renew the sense of our owne poverty and want Would we see all in Christ that we have riches and wisdome and happinesse and favour and life and all in him With the same spirituall eye of the soule let us see that we have nothing in our selves for I can no otherwise renew that right and interest I have in Christ but by renewing this sight we altogether shine in the beames of our Husband The consideration of this will be a meanes to worke our care and endeavour towards it that we are creatures new creatures and therefore we must rise of nothing in our selves and we must be maintained and supported by the new Adam the second Adam and have fresh grace from him continually we move and live in him as I said before Againe that we may be poore in spirit helpe our selves with presenting to our selves abasing emptying considerations What be they Among the rest reflect our mindes back to what we were before God shewed mercy upon us how unprofitably we spent our dayes what a deale of good we left undone that we might have done For the present consider the imperfections that hang upon us whereby we even defile the best performances that come from us let us have in the eye of our foule presented our speciall corruptions for the present For the time to come let us present to our soules what will become of us ere long that for outward things that nature is prone to be highly conceited of they shall lye in the dust these bodies of ours must lye low in the dust all other things must be taken from us and we from them we know not how soone let us oft think and consider of the vanity of all things what will all things be ere long They must all come to nothing the fire will consume all that is glorious in the world there will be no excellency but the excellency of Christ and his church and children and thinke of the day of Iudgment what will stand for currant then thinke of the time of our dissolution how we shall apeare before Christ what we have in us that will give us confidence at that day and time to looke upon him with comfort that those thoughts of the time to come of death and Iudgment and eternity may not be frighfull to us The consideration of these things will make us to looke about us and make us indeed poore in spirit Especially let us consider what our profession requires of us not by the law let that goe but what in the covenant of grace we should be are not it will shame the best of us Alas how much good might we have done that we have not How have we failed in bringing honour and credit to our profession How barren have wee beene in good works How unwatchfull over our thoughts and speeches whereby we have stained our religion and our consciences and grieved the Spirit of God Let us consider how short we are of that we might have beene and this will bring inward shame and confusion of spirit from whence this temper of poverty of spirit comes Consider of these things and enlarge them in your owne meditations There is not a more fruitfull spending of our thoughts next to the consideration of Christ and the riches we have in him then to consider what we are in our selves that we may be in a perpetuall disposition of soule fit to receive the good that is to be had in Christ. Two graces are the maine graces that must go along with us all the dayes of our lives this grace to go out of our selves and another grace to go to another that is better then our selves in whom lyes our happinesse That we may go out of our selves and the creature and all that is in the creature poverty of spirit is necessary to see that there is not that in our selves that will yeeld a foundation of comfort and poverty of spirit sees that there is not that that we possesse in the creature that will stand out The creature that is a particular good for a particular case to supply a particular want and but for a time it is fading and outward but the comfort we must have it must be spirituall and universall to give contentment to the soule The consideration of these things will force us to go out of our selves this poverty of spirit that wee have not enough to make us happy The Heathen men by the use of discretion and knowledge had so much to see that there is nothing in the world to make man happy the negative part they knew well enough but there must be another grace to carry us to a possitive happinesse where that lyes and that is the grace of trust that followes I will leave in the middest of thee an afflicted and poore people that shal be disposed and prepared by their outward poverty to inward spirituall poverty to go out of themselves to Christ to trust in him And they shall trust in the name of the Lord. This is the carriage of these poore and afflicted people They shall trust in the name of the Lord. God hath no delight in afflicting his children he joyes and delights in the prosperity of his children it is our sinfull nature that forceth him to afflict us that he may weane us from the world because we are prone to surfeit upon things here below All that God doth is that we may trust in him which we would never doe unlesse he did afflict us and make us poore in spirit but when we are afflicted and poore in spirit and have nothing at home we will make out abroad as people in necessity will doe supply must be had either at home or from without and when the soule is beaten and driven out of it selfe which requires much ado then we are fit for this blessed act here spoken of to trust in the name of the Lord. And the one is an evidence of the other How shall wee know that we are sufficiently humbled and made poore in spirit when we trust in the name of the Lord. In the unfolding of these words take these for grounds which I will but name First that naturally every man will have a trust in himselfe or our of himselfe Secondly that God is the trust of the poore man what he wants in himselfe he hath in God God is the Rock or the Castle to which he retires he hath supply in him The third is that God is trusted as he is knowne They shall trust in the name of the Lord. For God can be no otherwise trusted then he
I will trust him for a shilling He that pretends he will trust God God will save me God is mercifull and yet notwithstanding will not trust him for common things it is an abusive delusion and flatering of his owne soule in vaine there is no such trust in him because he that trusts God for the maine will trust him for the lesse Therefore true trust is for all things he that trusts God for forgivenesse of sinnes which is the maine and hath wrestled with God for the forgivenesse of sinnes and found peace with God there he will easily wrestle in other baser and lesse temptations As God saith to Iacob Thou art Israel thou hast prevailed with God and shalt prevaile over men so a true Christian that in the grand point of forgivenesse of sinnes when his conscience is surprized with the feare of Gods wrath hath gotten assurance of the pardon of his sinnes when hee is to set upon other lesser temptations he overcomes them easily Therefore a Christian will trust God as for forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting so with his good name Oh will some say you will be reported of thus thus he cares not he knowes the cause is just he will trust his good name with God Who will bring a mans righteousnesse forth cleare as the noone day as David speakes He that will not trust God with his good name is of a base spirit and feare of disgrace keepes many men from many just actions He that truly trusts God will trust him with the righting of his cause hee will not pull Gods office out of his hands he will not revenge himselfe but he will trust God God certainly will right me first or last he will only use the legall meanes and that quietly But a man that is not acquainted with the Spirit of God is presently moved with revenge and hath not learned to overcome himselfe in this conflict A man hath gone indeed very far in religion that can conquer himselfe in this conflict that can trust his cause with God when he is wronged and overcome by might c. So our Saviour Christ committed his cause to him that was able to judge righteously Every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ hee when hee was reviled retorted not againe but committed the cause to him that was able to judge righteously Shall I be able to commit my soule to God in the houre of death and shall I not in case of revenge be able to commit my case to God when I have done that that peaceably I may doe I may suspect that I am but yet an hypocrite I have not true trust in God Againe he that hath learned truly to trust God for the grand maine matters he will trust him likewise with his posterity with his children without using indirect meanes to make them rich as if they could not be blessed unlesse they have such a portion put into their hand when we dye as 〈◊〉 God had not stock enough for them for the Earth is thâ— Lords and the fulnesse therof And he is the God of the faithfull and of their seed Is he so Then let us labour to leave our children in covenant leave them in a gracious frame and state of soule that they may be Gods children and then wee leave them rich for we leave them God alsufficient to be their portion Therefore those that pretend I do this but for my posterity and children when they are unjust and unconscionable in their getting they make this defence for their unbeliefe if they had true faith as they trust God with their soules as they pretend at least so they would with their children and posterity Againe he that trusts God truly will trust God with his gifts with the distribution of his almes with parting with that hee hath for the present when hee sees it like seed cast upon the water When seed is cast upon the water we are like never to se ti againe Oh but saith the Wise man Cast thy bread upon the water and thou shall see it after a certaine time He that hath learned to trust God will beleeve this though he cast away his bounty yet he hath cast it upon God and Christ that will returne it againe he knowes he doth but lend to the Lord. Therefore those that thinke their bounty and almes and good deeds to bee lost because they see not a present returne a present crop of that seed they have not a Spirit of trust in God for he that hath will endeavour to be rich in good workes nay he will account it a spâ—ciall favour a grâ—ater favour to have a heart to doe good then to have meanes A reprobate may have meanes abundance to doe good but only a childe of God hath a heart to doe good and when he hath gotten a large and gracious heart to doe good it pleaseâ—h him then he sees he hath an evidence that he is the childe of God he knowes he shall not lose a cup of cold water not the least thing that he doth in the name of Christ The apprehension of this should make us more fruitfull and abound in the worke of the Lord. It is for want of trust and faith that we are so barren as we are in good workes Againe he that will trust God with the greatest matters will trust God with his wayes for direction he will not trust his owne wit and wisdome but God God shall be wise for him â—e will fâ—llow Gods directions and whatsoever â—s contrary to Gods direction hee will not doe hee will acknowledge God in all his wayes Prov. 3.5 Acknowledge God in all thy wayes acknowledge him to be thy guide thy defender thy light to direct thee acknowledge him to be able and willing to give thee successe acknowledge God in all thy wayes and consultations and when we have especially any great matters in hand Oh I beseech you let us learne to acknowledge God What is it to acknowledge him To go to him for direction and protection in doing our duty that we seeke to him for strength and for successe this is to acknowledge God in our wayes What makes men so unfortunate and successelesse in their consultations Because they are so faithlesse they doe not acknowledge God in their wayes but trust too much to seeming things and appearance of things they are carried too much with that Though things seeme to go never so well yet let nothing make us give over to acknowledge God nay when things are never so ill let us acknowledge God for God can set all streight and at rights again Alas what a small matter is it for him that rules Heaven and Earth and turnes this great wheele of all things to turne the lesser wheeles to order lesser businesses and bring them to a happy issue and conclusion It is but a little matter with his command seeing he rules all things it is but trusting in him
upon thee from my mothers breast forsake me not in mine old yeares in my gray haires when my strength faileth me Thus we may gatheâ— upon God from former experience that God will not now forsake us because we have had experience of his kindnesse in former times he hatâ— beene my God from my childhood therefore hâ— will be now This is a good argument becausâ— God is as he was he is the same he is never drawn drie Where he loves he loves to the end Where he begins he will end therefore this should strengthen our faith to gather experience from formeâ— things Thus David alledgeth the Lion and the Beare and so S. Paul he hath delivered me therefore he will deliver me It is ordinary with the Saints of God Againe if we would trust in God labour every day to bee acquainted with God in daily prayer in hearing and reading and meditation We trust friends with whom we are much acquainted and those that are not acquainted with God in that communion that belongs to Christians that doe not often talk with God by prayer and meditation when they go to God in extremity what wil God say to them Vpon what acquaintance You are strangers to me and I will be a stranger to you and Wisdome it selfe will laugh at their dectructâ—on Pro 1. when they will force acquaintance upon God when they have use of him and never care for him in the time of peace Therefore if we would trust God and go to God boldly as who is there here now that will not have need of him Wee have need of him continually but sometimes more than others therefore I say let us be acquainted with him that we may after trust him Those that have not the care to be acquainted with God either they have not the heart to go to God or if they have they have but a cold answer but indeed for the most part they have no heart to go to God for their hearts misâ—give them and tell them they have beene carelesse of God they have neglâ—cted God therefore God will not regard them Goe â—o the gods ye have trusted as it is Iudges 10. Answerable to our care beloved in the time of peace will our comfort be when we are in trouble Therefore I beseech you let us remember this as one meanes to strengthen our trust our daily acquaintance with God and acquaint our selves so with him as to keepe him our friend not to offend him for if we offend him we shall not trust him A galled conscience is afraid of God as a sore eye is of light A comfortable conscience is from a conscience to please God This is our boldnesse and confidence saith Paul that we have laboured to keep a good conscience that we may have him our friend Againe let us labour to exercise our trust upon all occasions for things that are exercised are the brighter and the stronger Let us inure our selves to trust in God for all things and to trust him with all things with our bodies with our soules with our estates with our children with our wayes with our good name with our credit and reputation with all as I said before in the signes of trust Faith it growes in the exercise as we see Psal. 62. A Psalme expressing Davids trust in God and the conflict with his soule in trusting he begins yet my soule waits upon the Lord c. And in verse 2. I shall not be greatly moved saith he but when he had gone on and exercised his faith still then he saith in verse 6. He is my Rock and my Saviour and defence I shall not be moved He that at the beginning saith I shall not greatly be moved afterward working upon his heart and soule and exercising his faith saith I shall not be moved he is my Rock my Saviour and defence Faith it is the Engine by which wee doe all by which we prevaile with God and overcome the world and all the snares on the right hand and on the left it is that whereby we doe all therefore we had need to keepe it in exercise and inure it that we may have it to manage and use upon all occasions It is not enough â—o have faith in us but we must live by it it must not only live in us but we must live by it this is another way to strengthen this faith and assurance and trusting in God The next is to practise that I spake of in the forenoone to grow poore in spirit for they shall trust in the name of the Lord. Let us labour more and more to see our owne wants A Christian should have a double eye one to looke to himselfe and his owne wants to bee abased another eye to Gods promise to Gods nature to trust in God and thus wee should passe our dayes the more we can empty our selves the more wee shall bee filled with God We see here in the Text the way to trust in God to be poore in spirit The reason is in nature whosoever is not poore in himselfe and sees a necessity hee will never go out of himselfe for he hath some other supply Therefore if we would learne to trust in God we must learne to empty our selves of all selfe-confidence by observing our weaknesse and wants by taking notice not so much of our graces as of our wâ—nts When Moses came from the Mount his face shone he knew not of it all the world about him knew it besides himselfe but he observed it not saith the Scripture Lo when a Christian considers not specially in temptations to pride what he hath but what he wants how little good hee hath done how many evill thoughts and actions have passed from him how short he is in fruitfulnesse and thankfulnesse to God this is the way to trust in GOD for then wee will keepe close to GOD when wee doe see our owne weaknesse And let us labour to have a spirit of sanctification to have our soules more and more renewed to trust in God or else all other courses are nothing for when it comes to particulars if the soule be not sanâ—tified there is no correspondencie and harmony betweene it and God How can an unsanctified soule close with a holy God Therefore we must labour to be good and to do good as the Apostle Peter saith To commit our soules to God in doing good Let us labour to bee good to get grace and then there will be a harmony a connaturalnesse betweene a holy God and a holy soule and then we shall trust and rely upon him easily Where there is not grace in the heart subduing corruptions when it comes to particulars whether to trust in God or man then the soule will rebell and scorne as it were trusting in God iâ— will go to wits to friends to favours and other helpes Let a man be never such a scholler of never so great parts when
of wonder 1 65 To learne of the Angels to wonder 1 97 World What meant by world 1 144 For whose sake the world stands 2 85 Wrath. How to oppose Christ to the wrath of God 1 62 FINIS Ephes 3.8 Eccles. 12.11 Heb. 5.12 The scope of the words The words divided Godlinesse what Divine Truth onely breedâ— goodnesse From what reasons we must be godly True Christian who Divine Truth Wisedome Mysterie what 1 1 That that was secret 2 2 That the reason of it is hid 3 3 That is conveyed by outward things Ephes. 5. Christian Religion a Mysterie Bâ—anches of Religion Mysteries Ephes. 5. Mark 4. The Gospel a Mysterie 1 1 Because it was hidden Gen. 3. 1 Cor. 2. 2 2 Revealed to few 3 3 Hid from carnall men 4 4 It is revealed but in part 5 5 In regard of what we shall know Question Answer Every Grace a Mysterie Faith Reformation All in Christ Mysteries The Church mysticall Simile Coloss. 3. Vse 1. Religion why persecuted Simile Vse 2. How to carry our selves in Religion Rom. 11. At the Sacrament In hearing the Word 1 Cor. 11. Application to the Feast of Christs Nativitie Vse 3. To blesse God for these Mysteries Vse 4. Not to set on Mysteries with humane parts Simile Vse 5. Mysterie of Religion aboâ—â— Reason Question Answer What use Reason hath in Religion Simile Reason must sâ—oupe to Faith Vse 6. Not to despaire of learning Religion Matt. 11. Psal. 19. Vse 7. To take heed of slighting Divine Truths Question How to know this Mysterie Answer 1 1 By Prayer Tit. 2. Necessitie oâ— depending on Gods Spirit Psal. 119. Ephes. 1. Ephes. 3. 1 Cor. 2. The Spirit teacheth to apply Truths Necessitie of Prayer Revel 5. Difference in mens dispositions to Gods Mysteries 2 2 Humilitie Psal. 25. 3 3 Purpose to know and obey 4 4 To avoyd passion and prejudice Simile Luke 16. Act. 23. Mysterie of iniquitie Question Answer Poperie a mysterie why Rev. 7. â—â—lius secund Question Answer How it is a Mysterie of iniquitie Why God sufâ—ers the Mysterie of iniquitie Godlinesse a great Mystery 1 1 In regard of the originall 2 2 The end 3 3 The manner of publishing 4 4 The worke of it 5 5 The parts of it 6 6 Those that knew it not 1 Cor. 2. 7 7 Because it makes us great What makes Times and persons great To prize Religion 8 8 Comparatively great Vse 1. How to be affected with this great Mysterie How to have large apprehensions of this Mysterie 1 1 To see the depth of our coâ—â—uptionâ— 2 2 Meditation of this great mysterie How to â—â—â—se to wonder at worldly things Esay 9.6 Rev. 7. Vse 2. Love and endeavour to learne it The mysterie of Godlinesse without controversie Object Answer Religion a Mysterie because opposed The Gospel without controversie 1 1 In it selâ—e 2 2 To Gods children Question Answer Whence staggering comes Thucydides Livie Vse 1. Men live as if Gospell were no Truth Simile Simile Vse 2. What Truths to be accounted Catholike Vse Of our affections and carriage to the Gospel Affâ—ctions why planted in man All knowledge not saving condemnes God manifest in the flesh Christ the scope of the Scriptures Why the Iewes understood not the Scriptures What meant by God here Question Answer Second Person incarnate why What meant here by flesh What infirmâ—tâ—es Christ tooke Question Answer Heb. 2. Heb. 4. Obâ—ect Answer Christ pitties our miseries from experience In that Christ tooke our nature thence comes 1 1 The enriching of it Coloss. 2. 2 2 The ennobling of it 3 3 The enabling of it 4 4 That what Christ did in our natuâ—e God did it 5 5 Our union with Christ. Three unions 6 6 The sympathie betweene Christ and us 7 7 The efficacie of what Christ did Vse 1. Christ tooke our flesh for great purpose Greatnesse of Christs abasement Comfort against despaire Rom. 3. All objections how answered How Satan presents God in temptation Comfort when Conscience is awaked What to doe in trouble of Conscience Coloss. 2.16 Oppose Christ to the wrath of God Whence we have communion with the Trinitie Satan transformes God and Christ to men Esay 9.6 Ground of boldnesse to God Simile Exod 33. Christs incarnation matter of wonder Vse 2 Ground noâ— to defile our nature Vse 3. To stoupe to serve Christ and our brethren Grounds against pride Vse 4. Not to envie Angels Question Answer How Christ may be manifest in us Object Answer When Christ is conceived in the heart Iustified in the Spirit Mis-conceits of Christ in the World Iustified what it is God a Spirit 1 1 For puritie 2 2 Strength Spirit how taken in Scripture 1 1 For the nature of God Iohn 4. 2 2 For the Divine Nature of Christ. Rom. 1.4 1. Pet. 3.18 3 3 For the third Person in Trinitie God-head appeared in Christs abasement Christ at the lowest did the greatest works Christ justified 1 1 In regard of God 2 2 In regard of men By overcomming the Devill By healing the outward and inward man Object Answer To whom Christ is justified Iohn 1.14 Matth. 16. Christ justified himselfe 1 1 To strengthen our Faith 2 2 To stop the mouthes of gaine-sayers Vse 1. Christ will justifie himself at length Simile Comfort in disgraces Simile Object Answer Afflâ—ctions conforme us to Christ. Psal. 37. Not to take scandall at the Churches afflictions Christs worke in the aflâ—ctions of the Church Vse 2 Christ by his Spirit will overcome in his Church We shall be justified of God Iustification double Vse 3. To justifie Christ. Question Answer How we justifie Christ. 1 1 As God Psal. 2. 2 2 As a Prophet 3 3 As a Priest 4 4 As a King In his Resurrection Question Answer How to justifie our profession Christians doe things above other men Some Christians worse then Pagans Meere civill men who 2 Tim. 3. Great power to make a Christian. Ephes. 1. Faith in temptation Seene of Angels what Sight put for 1 1 Wonderment 2 2 Attendance 3 3 Witnesse Angels knew Christs Incarnation before hand Knowledge of Angels Matth. 4. Psal. 8. Angels office 1.12 3.10 Vse 1 Angels wonderment should teach us Vse 2. Of Comfort Cherubins what they signified Exod. 25. Exod. 26. Mercie-Seat a Type of Christ. 1 Pet. 1.12 Exod. 16. Heb. 1. Iacobs Ladder what it figured Ground of Angels attendance on us Why Angels appeare not now Comfort in affliction Angels care in our infancie In danger Ioy at our conversion They carry our soules to Heaven Heb. 12.22 Communion with Angels Psal. 91. Object Answer Conflict betweene good and evill Angels Guard of Angels Not to grieve the good Angâ—ls To blesse God for their protection Wherein we are advanced above Angels Benefit of Angâ—ls by Christ. Object Answer Why God useth service of Angels Object Answer Good motions stirred in us by good Angels