the branches yet the rootes are so fastened to the joynts and intralls of the wall that till the stones be puld all asunder it will not be quite rooted out As that house wherein there was a fretting and spreading Leprosie though it might bee scrap'd round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it was broken downe so originall concupiscence cleaveth so close to our nature that though we may bee much repair'd yet corruption will not leave us till our house be dissolved As long as Corne is in the field it will have refuse and chaffe about it as long as water remaines in the Sea it will retaine it saltnesse till it be defecated and clensed in its passage into the Land and so is it with the Church while it is in the world it will have the body of sinne about it it will bee beset with this Sinne. In the Apostle it is for this reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sinne a sinne that will not be cast off that doth easily occupate and possesse all our members and faculties a man may as easily shake off the skin from his backe or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himselfe of this evill inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us and dwelling in us But it may be objected Doth not the Apostle say that by being baptized into Christ or planted into the likenesse of his death our old man is crucified the body of sinne is destroyed we are freed from sinne as a woman is from a dead husband we have put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision made without hands that is by Baptisme and the Spirit Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say He that is borne of God that is he that is Regenerate by Water and the Spirit sinneth not neither can sinne To this I answer in generall with the same Apostle If we say wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us More particularly wee must distingvish both of Death and of sinne There is a twofold Death an Actuall or Naturall Death when the essentiall parts of a living Creature are taken asunder and the whole dissolved and a Virtuall or Legall Death when though the party bee naturally Alive yet hee is Dead in Law and that notes two things First a designation unto a certaine Death at hand and ready to bee executed Secondly a disabilitie unto many purposes which lay before in the mans power as a man condemn'd though hee have his life out of indulgence for a short space yet hee is then set apart and appointed for death and in the very sentence disabled to order or dispose of any thing which was then his owne When a woman is divorced for adultery from her husband though she bee Alive naturally yet Legally and to the purpose of marriage she is Dead to her husband so that though shee should live in the same house yet she should have nothing to doe with his bed or body And thus the Apostle speaketh of sinfull Widowes that they are Dead while they Live 1. Tim. 5. 6. In sin likewise we may consider The guilt of it whereby it makes us accursed and the dominion of it wherewith it bringeth us into bondage in these two principally consists the life and the strength of sinne which it hath from the Law Now by being baptized into Christ wee are delivered from the Law Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 25. First from the covenant of the Law Christ hath put an utter period to the Law quoad officium Iustificandi hee is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Wee are righteous now by Grace and Donation not by nature or operation by the righteousnesse of God not that whereby God is righteous but that which God is pleased to give us and stands in opposition to a mans owne righteousnesse which is by working Secondly from the Rigor of the Law which requires perfect and perpetuall obedience Gal. 3. 10. Though the Gospell command holinesse Matth. 5. 48. and promise it Luk. 1. 74. and worke it in us Tit. 2. 10. 11. yet when the Conscience is summon'd before God to bee justified or condemned to resolve upon what it will stand to for its last triall there is so much mixture of sinne that it dares trust none but Christs owne adequate performance of the Law this is all the salvation the maine charter and priviledge of the church Wee are not therefore rigorously bound either to a full habituall holinesse in our persons which is supplied by the merit of Christ nor to a through actuall obedience in our services which are covered with the Intercession of Christ. Wee are at the best full of weakenesse many remnants of the old Adam hang about us this is all the comfort of a man in Christ that his desires are accepted God regards the sincerity of his heart and will spare his failings even as a man spareth his Sonne that desires to please him but comes short in his endeavours that he will not looke on the iniquitie of his holy things but when he fals will pitty him and take him up and heale him and teach him to goe thus wee are delivered from the rigour of the Law which yet is thus to be understood That though wee bee still bound to all the Law as much as ever under perill of sinne for so much as the best come short of fullfilling all the Law so much they sinne yet not under paine of Death which is the rigour of the Law And therefore Thirdly wee are delivered from the Curse of the Law from the vengeance and wrath of God against sin Christ was made a curse for us Lastly from the Irritation of the Law and all compulsorie and slavish obedience we love by Christ all the principles and grounds of true obedience put into vs. First knowledge of Gods will the spirit of Revelation wisedome and spirituall understanding Secondly will to embrace and love what wee know Thirdly strength in some measure to performe it And by these meanes the Saints serve God without feare with delight willingnesse love liberty power the Law is to them a new Law a Law of liberty a light yoke the Commandements of God are not grievous to them Being thus Dead to the Law we are truly Dead to sinne likewise and sinne to us but not universally Dead in regard of its strength but not in regard of its beeing To apply then the premisses Sin is Dead naturally quoad Reatum in regard of the gvilt of it that is that actuall guilt of sin wherby every man is borne a child of wrath and made obnoxious to vengeance is done quite away in our regeneration and the obligations cancell'd Col. 2. 14. Secondly sinne is Dead Legally
the Saints perfect and testifie of some that they served God with their whole heart yet that is onely in opposition to Corde duplici a double heart denoting such an integrity onely as doth not admit a purposed division of the heart betweene God and sinne Therefore wee meete still with exhortations to grow and abound and with promises of bringing forth more fruite and mention of proceeding from faith to faith and from glory to glory and of supplies of the spirit and growing to the measure of the stature of Christ and the like expressions all which denote the admixture of Impotencie in the best And this Impotencie is so great that of themselves they can never doe any thing but returne to their wonted coldnesse and dulnesse againe for it is nor their having of Grace in them barely which makes them strong but their Communion and fellowship with Christs fulnesse I am able to doe all things through Christ that strengthens me The branch can beare no fruite nor preserve or ripen that which it hath but by its unity with the roote light continues not in the house but by its dependance on the Sunne shut out that all the light is presently gone Take water away from the fire and its nature will be presently stronger then the heate it borrowed and suddenly reduce it to its wonted coldnesse So wee can doe nothing but by the constant supplies of the Spirit of Christ he that begins must finish every good worke in vs Phil. 1. 6. He that is the Author must be the finisher of our faith too Heb. 12. 2. Without him we cannot will nor doe any good Phil. 2. 13. Without him when we have done both we cannot continue but shall faint in the way His Spirit must lead us Rom. 8. 14. Esai 40. 11. His arme must heale and strengthen us Hos. 11. 3. Ezek. 34. 16. Aâ—… we have received him so we must walks in him without him wee cannot walke Col. 2. 6. God is the God of All Grace to him it bolongeth not onely to call but to perfect not onely to perfect but to strengthen stablish settle us 1. Pet. 5. 10. Secondly this Impotencie is seene in this that the good things they doe cannot fully please God by themselves but stand in neede of further purification from Christ and pardon from God Even when wee are Children we must be spared and borne withall Mal. 3. 17. Deut. 1. 31. The use which we should make of this point is first to keepe us Humble in regard of this thorne in our flesh which disables us to doe any good and when wee have done our uttermost yet still makes us unprofitable servants Lay together these considerations First remember the long time that thou wert utterly barren and didst live nothing but a life of sinne how much of the flowre of thine age hath bin dedicated unto Satan and thine owne lusts how thy childhood youth hath beene all vanity and why thinke we did God require the first fruits in the Law but to shew that wee were all his and therefore that he ought to have the first and best of our life devoted unto him and submitted unto his yoke Secondly consider even now when thou art at best that thou art not sufficient of thy selfe to thinke a good thought that in thee that is in thy flesh in thee from thy selfe dwelleth no good thing the originall of all the good thou dost is without thee By the Grace of God thou art what thou art and all thy sufficiency is in his Grace Thirdly when this Grace doth call knocke quicken put thee onto any good how averse and froward how dull indirigible undocile is thy evill heart like a filly Lambe never findes the way it selfe and when it is led is every step ready to stoppe and to start aside Fourthly when it prevailes to set thee indeede a worke how exceedingly dost thou faile in the measure of thy duties How little growth in strength How litle improvement in spirituall knowledge or experience How much wearinesse and revolting of heart How evill and unprofitable hath thy life beene in comparison of those worthies whom thou shouldest have followed and in proportion to those meanes of grace which thou hast had Fifthly in thy progresse How often hast thou stumbled How many notorious and visible sinnes even in great Characters have oftentimes stained if not thy profession by a publike scandall yet thy soule in private by a consciousnesse unto them And how thinke wee did Davids murther and adultery pull downe the pride of his heart when ever it offered to rise in any Heavenly action Secondly in this point it will bee needefull to give direction in a case of dayly occurrence what a man should doe when he findes his naturall impotencie dead him in Spirituall workes when he findes stupiditie benumbdnesse of spirit and many defects which hee cannot overrule nor subdue in Gods service whether it were not better to for beare the very dutie then to grieve the spirit with undue performances To this I answere First omit not the dutie though thou art never so ill affected for that is to give place to the Divell and to yeeld to the flesh and the Divell is pleased either way when by his allurements he can perswade us to evill and when by discomforts hee can discourage us from good Besides by doing spirituall things a man growes more spirituall and gathers strength even in the action as water which comes hard at first flowes very plentifully after it hath beene a little drawne They that beginne in teares may end in ioy David began to pray with no comfort much sore vexation and weakenesse of spirit under the sense of Gods heavie displeasure and yet hee ends with much faith peace and triumph The Lord hath heard my supplication the Lord will receive my prayer Let all mine enemies be ashamed c. Psal. 6. 1 2 3 8 9 10. Secondly take Saint Pauls advice to stirre up the gift that is in thee awaken revive thine owne spirit by communing and debating with thine owne heart by consulting with God in his Word diligent acquaintance and right knowledge of his Will by fruitefull and seasonable conference borrowing light from thy brothers candle rebuking or rectifying thy selfe by his example this is that which the Scripture cals whetting the Law upon one another Deut. 6. 7. By renewing thy Covenant comming afresh to the Fountaine of Grace which is in Christ As iron is quickned by the Loadstone and the Earth moves swiftest when it is neerest to its place so the Soule approaching neerer to Christ renewing repentance recounting errors reviving covenants dedicating it selfe afresh to his service must needes be much sharpned and encouraged anew Thirdly when thou canst not doe a thing with life yet doe it with obedience when not in Comfort yet with feare and trembling when not as thou wert wont yet as thou art able God loves to bee sought when hee hides Tell me
with his skirt doth touch fl◅sh shall it be uncleane saith the Lord in the Prophet and the Priest answered no. But if one who is uncleane by a dead body touch any of these shall it be uncleane and the Priest answered it shall be uncleane So is this people and so is this nation before mee saith the Lord and so are all the workes of their hands before me they are uncleane They thinke because they are the seed of Abraham and dwell in the land of promise and have my worship and oracles and sacrifices not in their hearts but only in their lips and hands which are but the skirts of the soule that therefore doubtlesse they are cleane but whatever they are before themselves in their owne eyes and estimation yet before me neither the priviledge of their persons Abrahams seede nor the priviledge of their nation the land of promise nor the priviledge of their meere outward obedience the workes of their hands nor the priviledge of their ceremonies and worship that which they offer before me can doe them any good but they and all they doe is uncleane in my sight Offerings and sacrifices in themselves were holy things but yet unto them saith the Lord to a revolting and disobedient people they shall be as the bread of mourners that is uncleane and the Prophet elsewhere intimate the reason I hate I despise your feast dayis I will not smell in your solemne assemblies though yee offer me your meate offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts Your burnt offerings arae not acceptable nor your sacrifices sweete unto me Though the things done be by institution Gods yet the evill performance of them makes them Ours that is sinfull and uncleane Mercie it selfe without Faith which ought to be the roote of all obedience is a sinfull mercy mercy in the thing but sinne to the man Sixthly the sway and bias of selfe-love and particular ends When a mans disposition lookes one way and his ends carry him another that motion is ever a sinfull motion because though it be sutable in outward conformity to the Rule yet it is a Dead motion like that of puppets or manimate bodies which have no principle of motion in themselves but are carried about by the spring or weight which hangs unto them for a mans ends are but his weights and so the Obedience which comes from them is but a Dead obedience which the Apostle makes the attribute of sinfull workes and Saint Iames of a diabolicall saith The act of Iehu in rooting out the house of Ahab and the Priests of Baal was a right zealous action in it selfe and by God commanded but it was a meere murther as it was by Iehu executed because hee intended not the extirpation of idolatry but onely the erecting and establishing of his owne throne To preach the Word is in it selfe a most excellent worke yet to some there is a Reward for it to others onely a Dispensation as the Apostle distinguisheth and he gives us as there so else where the reasons of it drawne from the severall ends of men some preach Christ out of envie and others out of good will To give good counsell for the prevention of approching danger is a worke of a noble and charitable disposition as we see in Ionathan towards David but in Amaziah the priest of Bethel who disswaded Amos from preaching at the Court because of the kings displeasure and the evill consequences which might thereupon ensue of all which himselfe was the principall if not sole author this was but a poore curtesie for it was not out of love to the Prophet but onely to bee ridde of his preaching To seeke God to returne to enquire early after him to remember him as a Rocke and Redeemer are in themselves choice and excellent services but not to doe all this out of a straight and stedfast heart but out of feare onely of Gods sword not to doe it because God commands them but because he slayes them this end makes all but lying and flatterie like the promises of a boy under the rod. To feare God is the conclusion of that matter and the whole dutie of man but not to feare the Lord and his Goodnesse but to feare the Lord and his Lions as the Samaritans did this is indeede not to feare the Lord at all Lastly the very Antipathie of sinnes must necessarily keepe a man from many For there are some sinnes so dissident and various that they cannot consist together in the practice of them Though the same Roote of originall corruption will serue for both yet the exercises of them are incompatible As the same roote will convey sap to several boughes which shall beare fruits so different as could not grow out of the same branch The Apostle gives a distinction of spirituall and fleshly filthinesse betweene many of which there is as great an opposition as betweene flesh and spirit Ambition pride hypocrisie formality are spirituall sins drunkennesse uncleannesse publike sordid notorious intemperance are fleshly sinnes and these two sorts cannot ordinarily stand together for the latter will speedily blast the projects disappoint the expectations wash of the dawbe and varnish which a man with much cunning and paines had put on Pilat and Herod did hate one another and this one would haue thought should haue advantaged Christ against the particular malice of either of them against him as in a case something paralell it did Saint ' Paul when the Pharises and Sadduces were divided but their malice against Christ being not so well able to wreake it selfe on him during their owne distances was a meanes to procure a reconciliation more mischievous then their malice Ephraim against Manasseh and Manasseh against Ephraim but both against Iuda one sinne was put out to make the more roome for another Many men have some master sinne which checks and abates the rest The ancient Romans were restrain'd from Intemperance Iniustice violence by an extreame affection of glorie and an universall soveraigntie As many times men cure heates with heates and one flux of blood with another so some sins though not cur'd are yet forborne upon the predominancy of others The Pharises hated Christ and feared the people and many times this feare restrain'd the manifestatiō executiō of the other The Third and last Exception is this Vnregenetate men of a more calme and civill temper may conceive themselves delivered from the raigne of sinne because they have many conflictes with it and reluctancies against it and so afford not such a plenarie and resolved Obedience to it as so absolute a power requireth To this I answere That this is no more sufficient to conclude an overthrow of the raigne of sinne then the sudden mutinie of Cesars souldiers which hee easily queiled with one brave word could conclude the nullifying of
thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkenesse be as the noone day then thy waters shall not lye unto thee that happinesse which it falsly promiseth unto other men it shall performe unto thee And so much be spoken touching the great disproportion between the Soule of man and the Creature in regard of the Vanitie of it The next disproportion is in their Operation They are vexing and molesting things Rest is the satisfaction of every Creature all the rovings and agitations of the Soule are but to find out something on which to rest and therefore where there is Vexation there can be no proportion to the soule of man and Salomon tels us That All things under the Sunne are full of labour more then a man can utter He was not used as an Instrument of the Holy Ghost to speake it onely but to trie it too the Lord was pleased for that very purpose to conferre on him a confluence of all outward happinesse and inward abilities which his very heart could desire that he at last might discover the utter insufficiency of all created Excellencies to quiet the Soule of man But if we will not beleeve the Experience of Salomon let us beleeve the authority of him that was greater then Salomon who hath plainely compar'd the things and the cares of the earth to Thornes which as the Apostle speakes Pierce or bore a man thorough with many sorrowes First They are Wounding Thornes for that which is but a pricke in the flesh is a wound in the spirit because the spirit is most tender of smart and the wise man cals them Vexation of spirit The Apostle tels us they beget many sorrowes and those sorrowes bring death with them If it were possible for a man to see in one view those oceans of bloud which have been let out of mens veines by this one Thorne to heare in one noise all the groanes of those poore men whose lives from the beginning of the world unto these dayes of blood wherein we live have been set at sale and sacrificed to the unsatiable ambition of their bloody rulers to see and heare the endlesse remorse and bitter yellings of so many rich and mighty men as are now in hell everlastingly cursing the deceite and murther of these earthly Creatures it would easily make every man with pitty and amazement to beleeve that the Creatures of themselves without Christ to qualifie their venome and to blunt their edge are in good earnest Wounding Thornes Secondly they are Choaking Thornes they stifle and keepe downe all the gratious seeds of the word yea the very naturall sproutings of noblenesse ingenuity morality in the dispositions of men Seed requires emptinesse in the ground that there may be a free admission of the raine and influences of the heavens to cherish it And so the Gospell requires nakednesse and poverty of minde a sense of our owne utter insufficiencie to our selves for happinesse in which sense it is said that the poore receive the Gospel But now earthly things meeting with corruption in the heart are very apt First To Fill it and secondly To Swell it both which are conditions contrary to the preparations of the Gospell They Fill the Heart First with Businesse Yokes of oxen and farmes and wives and the like contentinents take up the studies and delights of men that they cannot finde out any leisure to come to Christ. Secondly They Fill the Heart with Love and the Love of the world shuts out the Love of the father as the Apostle speakes When the Heart goes after covetousnesse the power and obedience of the word is shut quite out They will not do thy words saith the Lord to the Prophet for their heart goeth after their covetousnesse A deare and superlative Love such as the Gospell ever requires for a man must love Christ upon such termes as to bee ready without consultation or demurre not to forsake onely but to hate father and mother and wife and any the choisest worldly endearments for his Gospels sake I say such a Love admits of no Corrivalty or competition And therfore the love of the world must needs extingvish the love of the word Lastly they fill the heart with feare of forgoing them and feare takes of the heart from any thoughts save those which looke upon the matter of our feare when men who make Gold their Confidence heare that they must forsake all for Christ and are sometimes haplie put upon a triall they start aside choose rather securely to enjoy what they have present hold of then venture the interuption of their carnall contentments for such things the beauty where of the Prince of this world hath blinded their eyes that they should not see For certainly till the minde be setled to beleeve that in God there is an ample recompence for any thing which wee may otherwise forgoe for him it is impossible that a man should soundly embrace the love of the truth or renounce the love of the world Secondly as They Fill so they Swell the Heart too and by that meanes worke in it a contempt and disestimation of the simplicity of the Gospell We have both together in the Prophet According to their pasture so were they Filled they were filled and their heart was Exalted therefore have they forgotten me Now the immediate child of Pride is selfe-dependence and a reflection on our owne sufficiencie and from thence the next issue is a contempt of the simplicity of that gospell which would drive us out of our selves The Gentiles out of the pride of their owne wisedome counted the Gospell of Christ foolishnesse and mocked those that preached it unto them and the Pharisees who were the learned Doctors of Ierusalem when they heard Christ preach against earthlie affections out of their pride and covetousnesse Derided him as the Evangelist speakes Nay further they stifle the seeds of all noblenesse ingenuity or common vertues in the lives of men from whence come oppression extortion bribery cruelty rapine fraud iniurious treacherous sordid ignoble courses a very dissolution of the Lawes of nature amongst men but from the adoration of earthly things from that Idol of covetousnesse which is set up in the heart Thirdly they are Deceitfull Thornes as our Saviour expresseth it Let a man in a tempest go to a thorne for shelter and he shall light upon a thiefe in stead of a fence which will teare his flesh in stead of succouring him and doe him more injury then the evill which he fled from and such are the Creatures of themselves so farre are they from protecting that indeed they tempt and betray us The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the Clefts of the Rockes thou that sayest in thine heart Who shall bring me downe I will bring thee downe saith the Lord to Edom. Lastly they are vanishing Thornes nothing so apt nothing so easie to catch fire and be
side Love of lusts and pride of heart can never consist with obedience to the word Nehem. 9. 16. Ier. 13. 17. 43. 2. Thirdly converting and saving knowledge is not of our owne fetching in or gathering but it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Doctrine that comes unto us and is brought by that sacred blast of the spirit which bloweth where he lifteth We doe not first come and are then taught but first we are taught and then we Come Ioh. 6. 45. Esai 55. 5. 65. 1. we must take heed of attributing to our selves boasting of our owne sufficiencies congtuities preparations concurrencies contributions unto the word in the saving of us Grace must prevent follow assist us preoperate and cooperate Christ must be All in All the Author and the Finisher of our faith of our selves we can doe nothing but disable our selves resist the spirit and pull downe whatever the word doth build up within us Ever therefore in humility waite at the poole where the spirit stirres Give that honour to Gods ordinances as when hee bids thee doe no great thing but onely wash and be cleane heare and beleeve beleeve and be saved not stoutly to cast his Law behinde thy backe but to humble thy selfe to walke with thy God and to see his name and power in the voyce which cryes unto thee Fourthly though sinne seeme dead to secure civill morall superstitiously zealous men in regard of any present sense or sting yet all that while it is alive in them and will certainely when the booke shall be opened either in the ministry of the word to conversion or in the last judgement to condemnation reviue againe All these points are very naturall to the Text but I should be too long a stranger to the course I intend if I should insist on them I returne therefore to the maine purpose Here is the state of sinne sinne revived the Guilt of sinne I died the Conviction of it by the spirit bringing the spirituall sense of the Commandement and writing it in the heart of a man and so pulling him away from his owne Conclusions The Doctrines then which I shall insist on are these two First the spirit by the Commandement convinceth a man to be in the state of sinne Secondly the spirit by the Commandement convinceth a man to be in the state of death because of sinne To convince a man that he is in the state of sinne is To make a man so to set to his owne seale and serious acknowledgement to this truth That he is a sinner as that withall he shall feele within himselfe the qualitie of that estate and in humility and selfe-abhorrencie conclude against himselfe all the naughtinesse and loathsome influences which are proper to kindle and catch in his nature and person by reason of that estate and so not in expression onely but in experience not in word but in truth not out of feare but out of loathing not out of constraint but most willingly not out of formality but out of humility not according to the generall voyce but out of a serious scrutinie and selfe examination loade and charge himselfe with all the noisomenesse and venome with all the dirt and garbage with all the malignitie and frowardnesse that his nature and person doe abound withall even as the waves of the sea with mire and dirt and thereupon justifie almighty God when he doth charge him with all this yea if he should condemne him for it Now we are to shew two things First that a meere naturall light will never thus farre convince a man Secondly that the spirit by the Commandement doth Some things nature is sufficient to teach God may be felt and found out in some fence by those that ignorantly worship him Nature doth convince men that they are not so good as they should be the Law is written in the hearts of those that know nothing of the letter of it Idlenesse beastiality lying luxury the Cretian poet could condemne in his owne countrey-men Drinking of healths ad plenoscalices by measure and constraint condemn'd by Law of a heathen prince and that in his luxurie Long haire condemn'd by the dictate of nature and right reason and the reason why so many men and whole nations notwithstanding use it is given by Saint Hierome Quia à natura deciderunt sicut multis alijs rebus comprobatur And indeede as Tertullian saith of womens long haire that it is Humilitatis suae sarcina the burden as it were of their Humility so by the warrant of that proportion which Saint Paul allowes 1. Cor. 11. 14. 15. We may call mens long haire Superbiae suae sarcinam nothing but a clogge of pride Saint Austin hath written three whole chapters together against this sinfull custome of nourishing haire which hee saith is expressely against the precept of the Apostle whom to vnderstand otherwise then the very letter sounds is to wrest the manifest words of the Apostle unto a perverse construction But to returne these Remnants of nature in the hearts of men are but like the blazes and glimmerings of a candle in the socket there is much darknes mingled with them Nature cannot throughly convince 1. Because it doth not carry a man to the Roote Adams sinne concupiscence and the corrupted seeds of a fleshly minde reason conscience will c. Meere nature will never Teach a man to feele the waight and curse of a sinne committed aboue five thousand yeeres before himselfe was borne to feele the spirits of sinne running in his bloud and sprouting out of his nature into his life one uncleane thing out of another to mourne for that filthinesse which he contracted in his conception Saint Paul professeth that this could not bee learned without the Law 2. Because it doth not carry a man to the Rule which is the written Law in that mighty widenesse which the Prophet David found in it Nature cannot looke upon so bright a thing but through vailes and glosses of its owne Evill hateth the light neither commeth to the light cannot endure a through scrutinie and ransacking left it should be reproved When a man lookes on the Law through the mist of his owne â—…usts he cannot but wrest and torture it to his owne way Saint Peter gives two reasons of it because such men are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. Pet. 3. 16. 1. Vnlearned men namely in the mysterie of Godlinesse have not been taught of God what the truth is in Iesus till that time a man will never put off his lusts but defend them and rather make crooked the rule coine distinctions and evasions upon the law it selfe then judge himselfe and give glory to God 2. Fickle unstable men men apt to be tossed up and downe like empty clouds with every blast never rooted nor grounded in the love of the truth unstedfast in the Covenant of God that lay not hold on it
that original righteousnes which he at the first put into him and appointing him to bee the head and fountaine of all mankind not only in nature but in foro-too in regard of legall proceeding with-held from him and his seed that Gift which was freely by him in the Creation bestowed and willfully by Adam in the fall reiâ—…cted and adjudg'd this miserie upon him that hee should passe over to all his posterity the immediate fruit of his first prevarication which was originall sinne contracted by his owne default and as it were issuing out of his willfull disobedience upon him because they all were in him interessed as in their head and father in that first transgression Thus have I at large opened those many great evils which this sinne hath in it that life of concupiscence which the Apostle here speaketh of I cannot say of it as the Romane Epitomizer of his Historie Iâ—… brevit abella totanteius imagiâ—…m amplexâ—… suâ—… that in a small compasse I have comprized the whole Image of old Adam but rather cleane contrary In amplatabull non dimidiam eius imaginem amplexus sum The halfe of this sinne hath not all this while beene described unto you Now therefore to conclude this Argument wherein I have been the larger both because of the necessarinesse of it that we may know whither to rise in our humiliations for sinne and because it is the principall sâ—…ope of the Apostle in the place and serves most abundantly to shew our owne everlasting insufficiency for happinesse in our selves we see by these things which have been discovered in this sin at what defiance we ought to stand with the doctrine of those men first who mince and qualifie and extenuate this sinne as the Papists doe making it the smallest of all sinnes not deserving any more of Gods wrath then onely a want of his beatificall presenâ—…e and that too without any paine or sorrow of minde which might be apt to grow from the apprehension of so great a losse nay not onely denying it after Baptisme to bee a sinne but onely the seed of sinne an evill disease langvor tyranny and impotency of nature but that even in the wicked themselves concupiscence is rather imputed for sinne then is really and formally sinne notwithstanding it be forbidden in the Commandement and upon these presumptions reviling the doctrine of the Reformed Divines for exaggerating this sinne as that which overspreadeth in its beeing all our nature and in its working all our lives Secondly of those who heretofore and even now deny any sinfulnesse either in the privation of the Image of God or in the concupiscence and deordination of our nature It was the doctrine of the Pelagians in the primitive times that mans nature was not corrupted by the fall of Adam that his sinne was not any ground to his posterity either of death or of the merit of death that sinne comes from Adam by imitation not by propagation That Baptisme doth not serve in Infants for remission of sinne but onely for adoption and admission into Heaven that as Christs righteousnesse doth not profit those which beleeve not so Adams sinne doth not prejudice nor injure those that actually sinne not That as a righteous man doth not beget a righteous Childe so neither doth a sinner beget a Childe guilty of sinne That all sinne is voluntary and therefore not naturall That Marriage is Gods ordinance and therefore no instrument of transmitting sinne That concupiscence being the punishment of sinne cannot bee a sinne likewise These and the like Antitheses unto Orthodox Doctrine did the Pelagians of old maintaine And as it is the policy of Satan to keepe alive those heresies which may seeme to have most reliefe from proud and corrupted reason and doe principally tend to keepe men from that due humiliation and through-conviction of sinne which should drive them to Christ and magnifie the riches of Christs Grace to them there are not wanting at this day a broode of sinfull men who notwithstanding the evidence of Scripture and the consent of all Antiquitie doe in this Point concurre with those wicked Heretikes and deny the originall corruption of our nature to bee any sinne at all but to be the work of Gods owne hands in Paradise nay deny further the very imputation of Adams sinne to any of his posterity for sinne And now because in this point they doe expressely contradict not onely the Doctrine of holy Scriptures the foundation of Orthodox Faith the consent of Ancient Doctors and the Rule of the Catholike Church but in no lesse then foure or five particulars doe manifestly oppose the doctrine of the Church of England in this Point most evidently delivered in one article for the Article saith Man is Gone from originall righteousnesse they say Man did not goe away from it but God snatched it away from man the Article saith that by Originall sinne Man is enclined unto evill and calleth it by the name of concupiscence and lust they say that Originall sinne is onely the privation of righteousnes and that concupiscence is a concreated and originall condition of nature the Article saith that the flesh lusteth alwayes contrary to the spirit they say in expresse termes that this is false and that the flesh when it lusteth indeed doth lust against nothing but the spirit and that the Apostle in that place meant onely the Galatians and not all spirituall or regenerate men the Article saith that this lust deserveth Gods wrath and condemnation they say that it doth not deserve the hatred of God and lastly the Article saith that the Apostle doth confesse that concupiscence and lust hath of it selfe the nature of sinne they say that it is not properly either a sinne or a punishment of sinne but onely the condition of nature in all these respects it will be needfull to lay downe the truth of this great Point and to vindicate it from the proud disputes of such bold Innovators And first let us see by what steps and gradations the Adversaries of this so fundamentall a doctrine which as Saint Austin saith is none of those in quibus optimi fidei Catholicae defensores salvâ fidei compage inter se aliquando 〈◊〉 consonant wherein Orthodox Doctors may differ and abound in their owne sense doe proceed to denie the sinfulnesse of that which all Ages of the Church have called Sinne. First they say That the Sinne of Adam is not any way the sinne of his posterity that it is against the nature of sinne against the goodnesse wisedome and truth of God against the rule of Equitie and Iustice that Infants who are Innocent in themselves should bee accounted Nocent iu another therein taking away Baptisme for remission of sinnes from Infants who being not borne with guilt of Adams sinne stand yet in no neede of any purgation Secondly they say that though
equall and uniforme to all the Law It esteemeth all Gods precepts concerning al things to be right it hateth euery false way Whereas the other is onely in some particulars reseruing some exceptions from the generall rule and framing to it selfe a latitude of holinesse beyond which in their conceits is nothing of realitie but onely the fictions and chimaeraes the more abstract notions and singularities of a few men whose end is not to serve God but to be unlike their neighbours I deny not but that as oftentimes it falleth out in ill affected bodies that some one part may be more disordered and disabled for seruice then others because ill humors being by the rest rejected doe at last settle in that which 〈◊〉 â—…aturally weakest so in Christians likewise partly by the temper of their persons partly by the condition of their liues and callings partly by the pertinacious and more intimate adherence of some close corruption partly by the company and examples of men amongst whom they liue partly by the different administration of the spirit of grace who in the same men bloweth how and where he listeth it may come to passe that this uniformitie may bee blemished and some actions be more corrupt and some sinnes more predominant and untamed in them then others Yet still I say Renewing Grace doth in some measure subdue all and at least frame the heart to a vigilancie ouer those gaps which lie most naked and to a tendernes to bewaile the incursions of sin which are by them occasioned Thirdly that which riseth from Renewing Grace is constant growes more in old age hath life in more abundance proceedeth from a heart purged and prepared to bring forth more fruite where as the other growes faint and withers an hypocrite will not pray alwaies a torrent will one time or other dry vp and putrifie Water will mooue vpward by art till it be gotten levell to the spring where it first did rise and then it will returne to its nature againe So the corrupt hearts of naturall men how euer they may fashion them to a shew of holinesse so farre forth as will 〈◊〉 even to those ends and designes for which they assum'd it yet let them once goe past that and their falling downe will make it appeare that what ever motions they had screwed up themselves unto yet still in their hearts they did bend another way and did indeed resist the power of that grace whose countenance they affected Euen as Scipio and Annibal at Scyphax his table did complement and discourse and entertaine one another with much semblance of affection whereas other occasions in the field occurring made it appeare that euen at that time their hearts were full of reuenge and hostility Lastly that which riseth from Renewing Grace is with delight and much complacencie because it is naturall to a right spirit it desires nothing more then to haue the law of the flesh quite consum'd whereas the other hath paine and disquietnesse at the bridle which holds it in and therefore takes all advantages it can to breake loose againe For while naturall men are tampering about spirituall things they are out of their element it is as offensiue to them as aire is to a fish or water to a man Men may peradventure to coole and clense themselves step a while into the water but no man can make it his habitation a fish may friske into the aite to refresh himselfe but he returnes to his owne element wicked men may for varietie sake or to pacifie the grumblings of an unquiet conscience looke sometimes into Gods law but they can never suffer the word to dwell in them they are doing a worke against nature and therefore no marvell if they finde no pleasure in it nay they doe in their hearts wish that there were no such law at all to restraine their corrupt desires that there were no such records extant to be produced against them at the last and as soone as any occasions call them unto sensuall and sinfull delights they stealâ—… away the law from their owne consciences they suppresse and imprison the truth in unrighteousnesse they shut their eyes by a voluntary and affected ignorance that they may more securely and without checke or perturbation resigne themselves to their owne waies Secondly a deepe desperate hypocriticall affectation of the credit of Christianitie and of the repute and name of holinesse like that of Iehu Come â—…ce my zeale for the Lord of Hoasts And this is so farre from pulling downe the raigne of sinne that it mightily strengthens it and is a sore provocation of Gods jealousie and revenge The Prophet compares hypocrites to a deceâ—…tfull Bow which though it seeme to direct the arrow in an even line upon the marke yet the unfaithfulnesse thereof carries it at last into a crooked and contrarie way And a little after we finde the similitude verified Israel shall crie unto me my God we know thee Here seemes a direct ayme at God a true profession of faith and interest in the covenant but obserue presently the deceitfulnesse of the Bow Israel hath cast off the thing that is good though he be well contented to beare my name yet he cannot endure to beare my yoke though he be well pleased with the priviledges of my people yet he cannot away with the tribute and obedience of my people and therefore God rejects both him and his halfe services The enemie shall pursue him They haue sowed the winde and they shall reape the whirle winde saith the Lord in the same Prophet My people are like a husbandman going over plowed lands and casting abroad his hands as if he were sowing seed but the truth is there is nothing in his hand at all but winde nothing but vaine semblances and pretences the profession of a leedsman but the hand of a sluggard and now marke what an Harvest this man shall have That which a man soweth that also shall he reape he sowed the wiâ—…de and he shall imhâ—…rit the windâ—… as Salomon speakes Yet you may observe that there is some diffâ—…rence As in Harvest ordinarily there is an increase hee that sowes a Pecke may haply reape a Quaâ—…ter so the hypocrite here sowes winde but he reapes a whirle winde he sowed vanitie but he shall reape furie for the furie of the Lord is compar'd to a whirle winde God will not be honored with a lie shall a man lie for God This argument the Apostle useth to proove the Resurrection because else saith he we are found false witnesses of God and God doth not stand in neede of false witnesses to justifie his power or glory Why takest tâ—…ou my Word into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed We reade that in one of the States of Greece if a scandalous man had lighted upon any wholsome counsell for the honor and advantage of the countrie yet the Common-weale rejected it as from him and
from the arâ—…e did direct it to sometimes by an externall cause a bâ—…ke meeting and turning the course ever by an internall the sway and corrective of the Bias which accompanies and slackens the impressed violence throughout all the motion So is it in the turning of a man from sinne A naturall man goes on with a full consent of heart no bias in the will or affections to moderate or abate the violence only sometimes by chance he meetes with a convicted judgement or with a naturall conscience which like a banke turnes the motion or disappoints the heart in the whole pleasure of that sinne but in another where haplie he meetes with no such obstacle he runnes his full and direct course But now a spirituall man hath a Bias and Corrective of Grace in the same facultie where sin is which doth much remit the violence and at length turne the course of it And this holdes in every sin because the Corrective is not casuall or with respect onely to this or that particular but is firmely fix'd in the parts themselves on which the impressions of sinne are made Thirdly they differ in the manner or qualities of the conflict For first a naturall conflict hath ever Treacherie mixed with it but a Spirituall conflict is faithfull and sound throughout and that appeares thus A Spirituall heart doth ever ground its fight out of the Word labors much to acquaint it selfe with that because there it shall have a more distinct view of the enemy of his armies holdes supplies traines weapons strategems For a spirituall heart sets it selfe seriously to fight against every method deceite armor of lust as well against the pleasures as the guilt of sinne But a naturall heart hath a secret treacherie and intelligence with the enemy and therefore hates the light and is willingly ignorant of the forces of sinne that it may have that to alledge for not making opposition There is in every naturall man in sinning a disposition very suteable to that of Vitellius who used no other defences against the ruine which approached him but onely to keepe out the memory and report of it with fortifications of mirth and sottishnesse that so he might be deliver'd from the paines of preserving himselfe Thus the naturall conscience finding the warre against sinne to be irkesome that it may bee deliver'd from so troublesome a businesse labours rather to stifle the notions to suppresse and hold under the truth in unrighteousnesse to strive resist dispute with the spirit to be gladly gull'd and darkened with the deceites of sinne then to live all its time in unpreventable and unfinishable contentions Secondly a naturall conflict is ever particular and a spirituall universall against All sin because it proceedeth from hatred which is ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speakes against the whole kinde of a thing A naturall man may be angry with sinne as a man with his wife or friend for some present vexation and disquietnesse which it brings and yet not hate it for that reacheth to the very not being of a thing And for a naturall man to have his lusts so overcome as not at all to be would doubtlesse be unto him as painefull as mutilation or dismembring to the naturall bodie and therefore if it were put to his choice in such termes as might distinctly set forth the painefulnesse and contrarietie of it to his present nature he would undoubtedly refuse it because he should be destitute of a principle to live and move by and every thing naturally desires rather to move by a principle of its owne then by violent and forraigne impressions such as are those by which naturall men are moved to the wayes of God And therefore the naturall conscience doth ever beare with some sinnes if they be small unknowne secret or the like and hearkens not after them But the spirit holdes peace with no sin fights against the least the remotest those which are out of sight Paul against the sproutings and rebellions of naturall Concupiscence David against his secret sinnes as Israel against Iericho and Ai and those other cities of Canaan it suffers no Accursed thing to be referâ—…ed it slayes as well women and children as men of warre lest that which remaines should be a snare to deceive and an engine to induce more The naturall conscience shootes onely by aime and levell against some sins and spares the rest as Saul in the slaughter of the Amalekites But the spirituall shootes not onely by levell against particular notorious sinnes but at randome too against the whole army of sinne and by that meanes doth peradventure wound and weaken lusts which it did not distinctly observe in it selfe by complaining unto God against the bodie of sinne by watching over the course and frame of the heart by acquainting it selfe out of the Word with the armour and devices oâ—… Satan c. The opposition then betweene the naturall conscience and sinne is like the opposition betweene fire and hardnesse in some subjects the conflict betweene the spirituall conscience and sinne is like the opposition betweene fire and coldnesse Put mettall into the fire and the heat will dissolve and melt it but put a bricke into the fire and that will not melt nor soften because the consistencie of it doth not arise Ex causâ frigidà but siccâ but put either one or other into the fire and the coldnesse of it will be removed and the reason is because betweene fire and hardnesse there is but a particular opposition in some cases namely where a thing is hard out of a dominion of cold as in mettals not out of a dominion of dry qualities as in bricke and stones but betweene fire and coldnesse there is an universall opposition So a naturall conscience may peradventure serve to dissolve or weaken in regard of outward practice some sinnes but never All whereas a spirituall reacheth to the remitting and abating every lust because the one is onely a particular the other an universall opposition Thirdly the naturall conscience fights against sinne with fleshly weapons and therefore is more easily overcome by the subtiltie of Satan such as are servile feare secular ends carnall disadvantages generall reason and the like but the spirituall conscience ever fights with spirituall weapons out of the Word Faith Prayer Hope Experience Watchfulnesse Love godly Sorrow Truth of heart c. Fourthly they differ in their Effects First a natural conflict consists with the practice of many sinnes unquestioned unresisted but a spirituall changeth the course and tenor of a mans life that as by the remainders of the flesh the best may say We cannot doe the things which we would So by the first fruits of the spirit and the seede of God it may be truely said They cannot sinne For though they doe not attaine a perfection in the manner yet for the generall current and course of their living it is without eminent
he must come And now when we have Christ how carefull should we be to keepe Him how tender and watchfull over all our behaviours towards Him lest Hee be grieved and depart againe The Spirit of the Lord is a delicate spirit most sensible of those injuries which his friends doe him Let us therefore take heede of violating afflicting discouraging grieving this Spirit which is the bond of all our union and interest with Christ in any of those his sacred breathings and operations upon the Soule But when He teacheth let us submit and obey receive the beleefe and the love of His Truth when He promiseth let us neither distrust nor despise but embrace as true and admire as pretious all the offers which He makes to us when Hee contends with our lusts in His Word and secret suggestions let him not alwayes strive but let us give up our fleshly affections to bee crucified by Him when Hee woes and invites us when Hee offers to lead and to draw us let us not stop the eare or pull away the shoulder or draw backward like froward children or cast cold water in the face of Grace by thwarting the motions and rebelling against the dictates thereof but let us yeeld our selves unto Him captivate all our lusts and consecrate all our powers and submit all our desires to His rule and government and then when Hee hath beene a Spirit of union to incorporate us into Christs Body and a Spirit of unction to sanctifie us with His Grace Hee will undoubtedly bee a Spirit of comfort and assurance to seale us unto the day of our full redemption THE LIFE OF CHRIST PHILIP 3. 10. That I may know Him and the Power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings THe purpose of the Apostle in this place is to arme the church of the Philippians against those false Iudaizing Teachers that Confounded Christ and Moses Circumcision and the Gospell together This he doth by Arguments Personall from men and by arguments reall from the matter it selfe Arguments Personall are first from the disposition quality End of those false teachers whom he describes ver 3. They are evill trees and therefore no great heed to be given to the fruits they beare to the doctrines they obtrude They are Dogs uncleane beasts that barke onely for their bellies and doe not onely barke but watch their times to bite too They are Euill workers though they come like fellow workers with Christ pretending much strictnes in the edification of the Church yet indeed their businesse is only to pull downe and to pervert They are the Concision where the Apostle by an Iâ—…onicall paranomasia shewes the end of their doctrines They preach indeed Circumcision but their businesse is schisme and Concision In the Law it was Circumcision Gods ordinance but now being by Christ abolished it is nothing at all but a bare Concision or cutting of the flesh and will in the Event prove a rent and schisme in the Church The Second personall Argument is taken from the Apostles owne condition who neither by nature nor Education was an enemie to legall Ceremonies who in all points had as great reason to vindicate the Law and to boast in fleshly priuiledges as any of those False Teachers ver 4. He was by nature an Israelite of the whole bloud as well as they by Education of the strictest sect of all a pharise by custome and practice a persecutor of the Church under that very name because the law he had been bred under was engdanger'd by that new way and in his course of life altogether unblameable in regard of legall Obedience and observations and lastly in his opinions touching them he counted them gainfull things and rested upon them for his salvation till the Lord opened his eyes to see the light of the Glorious Gospell of God in the face of Iesus Christ. The arguments from the matter are first from the Substance of which Circumcision was the shadow Wee are the Circumcision who worship God in the spirit and reioyce in Christ Iesus c. Vers. 3. They boast in the flesh they have a Concision but we are the Circumcision because we have the fruite and Truth of Circumcision the spirituall worship of God which is opposite to externall Ceremonies Ioh. 4. 23. Secondly from the plenitude and all sufficiencie of Christ which stands not in neede of any legall accession to peece it out and this the Apostle shewes by his owne practise and experience What things were 〈◊〉 to me those I counted losse for Christ because they were things that kept him from Christ before and he repeats the same words Confidently againe that he might not to be thought to have spoken them unaduisedly or in a heate yea doubtles and I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things As a merchant in a tempest is contented to Suffer the losse of all his goods to redeeme his life or rather as a man will be content to part with all his owne beggerly furniture for a Iewell of greate value Math. 13. 44. Onely here wee are to note that the Apostle did not suffer the losse of them quoad Substantiam in regard of the Substance of the duties but quoad qualitatem et officium Iustificandi in regard of that dependance and Expectation of happines which he had from them before Neither did he onely Suffer the losse of them as a man may doe of things which are excellent in themselves and use as a merchant throwes his wares out of the ship when yet he dearly loves the and delights in theÌ„ but he shews what estimation he had of them I count them dung that I may win Christ I Count them then filthy carrion so the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth that is thrown out to dogs things which dogs such as he describes these false teachers to be may delight in but the spirit of God in a sincere hart cannot relish nor sauor in comparison of Christ. And may be found in him when I shall appeare before the face of God or may finde in him All that I loose for him that is a most plentifull recompence for any legall commodities which I part from for his sake not Having mine owne righteousnesse c. Here the Apostle distinguisheth of a twofold Righteousnesse Legall which is a mans owne because a man must come by it by working himselfe Rom. 10. 5. And Evangelicall which is not a mans owne but the righteousnes of God Rom. 3. 21. 22. Freely given to us by grace through Christ. That I may know Him c. That I may have the Experience of his Grace and mercy in Iustifying me frely by faith through the vertue of his suffrings and resurrection Here then we have these two things set down first the Pretiousnesse secondly the nature of
services 246 In the best there is a partiall impotency 250 What a man should doe when he finds himselfe disabled and deaded in good workes 253 2. It is an estate of extreme enmitie against God and his waies 255 How the spirit by the Commandement doth convince men to be in the state of sinne 258 The spirit by the commandement convinceth men to bee under the guilt of sinne 260 There is a naturall conviction of the guilt of sinne and 260 There is a spirituall and evangelicall conviction of the guilt of sinne 261 What the guilt and Punishments of sinne are 262 ROM 6. 12. Sinne will abide in the time of this mortall life in the most Holie 273 Our death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne of it 275 Difference betweene the regall and tyrannicall power of Sinne. 277 Whether a man belong unto Christ or sinne 279 Sinne hath much strength from it selfe 282 from Satan and the world 285 from us 285 What it is to obey sinne in the lusts thereof 286 Whether sinne may Raigne in a regenerate man 288 How wicked men may be convinc'd that sinne doth raigne in them Two things make up the raigne of sinne 1. In sinne power 290 2. In the sinner a willing and vncontroled subiection 290 Three exceptions against the evidence of the raigne of sinne in the wicked 291 1. There may be a raigne of sinne when it is not discerned 292 Whether small sinnes may raigne 293 Whether secret sinnes may raigne 294 Whether sins of ignorance may raigne 295 Whether naturall concupiscence may raigne 296 Whether sinnes of omission may raigne 296 2. Other causes besides the power of Christs Grace may worke a partiall abstinence from sinne and conformitie in service 1. The power of restraining grace 298 Differences between restraining and renewing Grace 2. Affectation of the credit of godlinesse 302 3. The Power of pious education 304 4. The legall power of the word 305 5. The power of a naturall illightned Conscience 305 6. Selfe love and particular ends 307 7. The antipathy and contradiction of sinnes 309 3. Differences betweene the conflicts of a naturall and spirituall conscience 1. In the Principles of them 310 2. In their seates and stations 313 3. In the manner and qualities of the conflict 314 4. In their effects 316 5. In their ends 317 Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man 317 2. COR. 7. 1. The Apostles reasons against Idolatrous communion 321 The doctrine of the pollution of sinne 322 The best workes of the best men mingled whith pollution 325 The best workes of wicked men full of pollution 237 What the pollution of sinne is 328 The properties of the pollution of sinne 1. It is a deepe pollution 329 2. It is an universall Pollution 330 3. It is a spreading Pollution 330 4. It is a mortall Pollution 332 Why God requireth that of us which he worketh in us 335 How promises tend to the dutie of cleansing ourselves 1. Promises containe the matter of rewards and so presuppose services 337 2. Promises are efficient causes of purification 1. As tokens of Gods love Love the ground of making fidelity of performing Promises 338 2. As the grounds of our hope and expectations 340 3. As obiects of our faith 342 4. As the raies of Christ to whom they lead us 345 5. As exemplars patterns and seeds of puritie 346 3. Many promises are made of purification itselfe 347 Rules directing how to use the Promises 1. Generall Promises are particularly and particulars generally appliable 350 2. Promises are certaine performances secret 352 3. Promises are subordinated and are performed with dependence 357 4. Promises most usefull in extremities 359 5. Experience of God in some promises confirmeth faith in others 360 6. The same temporall blessing may belong to one man onely out of providence to another out of promise 361 7. Gods promises to us must be the ground of our prayers to him 364 ROM 7. 13. The Law is neither sinne nor death 368 The Law was promulgated on Mount Sina by Moses onely with Evangelicall purposes 371 God will doe more for the salvation then for the damnation of men 372 The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men 385 The Law is not given to iustifie or save men 386 The Law by accident doth irritate and punish or curse sinne 386 The Law by itselfe doth discover and restraine sinne 387 Preaching of the Law necessary 388 Acquaintance with the Law strengthens Humility Faith Comfort Obedience 392 The third Treatise The Life of Christ. 1. IOH. 5. 12. ALL a Christians excellencies are from Christ. 400 1. From Christ wee have our life of righteousnesse 401 Three Offices of Christs mediatorship His Payment of our debt 401 Purchase of our inheritance 401 Intercession 401 Righteousnesse consisteth in remission and adoption 402 By this Life of righteousnesse we are delivered from 1. Sinne. 403 2. Law as a Covenant of righteousnesse Law full of Rigor Curses Bondage 2. From Christ we have our life of holinesse 407 Discoveries of a vitall operation 407 Christ is the Principle of our holinesse 409 Christ is the patterne of holinesse 410 Some workes of Christ imitable others unimitable 410 Holinesse beares conformity to Christs active obedience 412 How we are said to be holy as Christ is holy 413 Holinesse consists in a conformitie unto Christ. Proved from 1. The ends of Christs comming 415 2. The nature of holinesse 416 3. The quality of the mysticall body of Christ. 418 4. The vnction of the Spirit 418 5. The summe of the Scriptures 419 The proportions betweene our holinesse and Christs must be 1. In the seeds and principles 419 2. In the ends Gods glory the Churches good 420 3. In the parts 4. In the manner of it Selfe-deniall 421 Obedience 422 Proficiencie 423 What Christ hath done to the Law for us 423 We must take heed of will-holinesse or being our owne Rule 425 Christs life the Rule of ours 427 3. From Christ wee have our life of glorie 429 The attributes or properties of our Life in Christ 1. It is a hidden life 432 2. It is an abounding life 437 3. It is an abiding life 438 No forrsigne assult is too hard for the life of Christ 439 Arguments to reestablish the heart of a repenting sinner against the terror of some great fall from 1. The strength of Faith 442 2. The love and free grace of God 446 3. Gods Promise and covenant 448 4. The obsignation of the spirit 449 5. The nature and effects of Faith 449 THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE AND VEXATION OF THE SPIRIT By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock 1631. Christian Reader Importunitie of Friends hath over-rul'd me to this Publication and importunitie of businesse crossing me in the putting of these pieces together hath made
heart upon thine Asses for the desire of Israel is upon thee Why should a Kings heart be set upon Asses so may I say why should Christians hearts be set upon earthly things since they have the desires of all flesh to fix upon I will conclude with one word upon the last particu lar How to use the Creatures as Thornes or as vexing things First Let not the Bramble be King Let not earthly things beare rule over thy affections fire will rise out of them which will consume thy Cedars emasculate all the powers of thy Soule Let Grace sit in the throne and earthly things be subordinate to the wisdome and rule of Gods Spirit in thy heart They are excellent servants but pernicious Masters Secondly Be arm'd when thou touchest or medlest with them Arm'd against the Lusts and against the Temptations that arise from them Get faith to place thy heart upon better promises enter not upon them without prayer unto God that since thou art going amongst snares he would carry thee through with wisedome and faithfulnesse and teach thee how to use them as his blessings and as instruments of his glory Make a covenant with thine heart as Iob with his eyes have a jealousie and suspicion of thine evill heart lest it be surpriz'd and bewitched with finfull affections Thirdly touch them gently doe not hug love dote upon the Creature nor graspe it with adulterous embraces the love of mony is a roote of mischiefe and is enmity against God Fourthly use them for Hedges and fences to relieve the Saints to make friends of unrighteous Mammon to defend the Church of Christ but by no meanes have them In thy field but onely About it mingle it not with thy Corne least it choake and stifle all And lastly vse them as Gedeon for weapons of Iust revenge against the enemies of Gods Church to vindicate his truth and glory and then by being wise and faithfull in a little thou shalt at last be made ruler over much and enter into thy Masters Ioy. FINIS THE SINFVLNES OF SINNE Considered in the State Guilt Power and Pollution thereof By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE SINFVLNESSE OF SINNE ROM 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sinne revived and I died WEE have seene in the foriner Treatise that man can finde no Happinesse in the Creature I will in the next place shew That he can find no happinesse in Himselfe It is neither about him nor within him In the Creature nothing but vanitis and vexation in Himselfe nothing but Sinne and Death The Apostle in these words sets forth three things First The state of Sinne Sinne Revived Secondly the Guilt of Sinne I Died or found my selfe to be a condemn'd man in the state of perdition Thirdly the evidence and conviction of both When the Commandement came which words imply a conviction and that from the spirit First a conviction for they inferre a conclusion extremely contradictory to the conclusions in which Saint Paul formerly rested which is the forme of a conviction Saint Pauls former conclusion was I was alive but when the commandement came the conclusion was extremely contrary I Died. Secondly It was a spirituall conviction For Saint Paul was never literally without the Law but the vaâ—…le till this time was before his eyes he is now made to understand the Law in its native sense and compasse the Law is spiritual v. 14. and he is enabled to discerne it spiritually Absurd is the Doctrine of the Socinians some others That unregenerate men by a meere natur all perception without any divine superinâ—…us'd light they are the words of Episcopius and they are wicked wordes may understand the wholâ—… Law even all things requisite unto faith godlines Foolishly confounding and impiously deriding the spirituall and divine sense of holy Scriptures with the grammatical construction Against this we shall need use no other argument then a plaine Syllogisme compounded out of the very words of Scripture Darknesse doth not comprehend light Ioh. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 men are Darkenesse Eph. 5. 8. 4. 17. 18. Act. 26. 18. 2. Pâ—…t 1. 9. yea Held under the power of darkenesse Col. 1. 13. and the word of God is light Psal. 119. 105. 2. Cor. 4. 4. therefore unregenerate men cannot understand the â—…d in that spirituall compasse which it carries There is such an asymmetry and disproportion betweene our understandings and the brightnesse of the word that the Saints themselves have prayed for more spirituall light and vnderstanding to conceive it That knowledge which a man ought to have for there is a knowledge which is not such as it ought to be doth passe knowledge even all the â—…ength of meere naturall reason to attaine unto peculiar to the sheep of Christ. Naturall men have their principles vitiated their faculties bound that they cannot understand spirituall things till God have as it were â—…nplanted a â—…ew understanding in them framed the heart to attend and set it at liberty to see the glory of God with open face Though the vaile doe not keepe out Grammaticall construction yet it blindeth the heart against the spirituall light and beauty of the Word We see even in common sciences where the conclusions are suteable to our owne innate and implanted notions yet he that can distinctly construe and make Grammar of a principle in Euclide may be ignorant of the Mathematicall sense and use of it much more may a man in divine truths bee Spiritually ignorant even where in some respect hee may be said to know For the Scriptures pronounce men ignorant of those things which they see and know In divine doctrine obedience is the Ground of knowledge and Holinesse the best qualification to understand the Scriptures If any mâ—…n will doe the will of God he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God The 〈◊〉 will he teach his way and â—…eale his secret to them that feare him to babes to those that conforme not themselves to this evill world To understand then the words we must note first that there is an opposition between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two Clauses in the Text Once and When the Commandement came It is the conceite of some that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man not intending at all to shew the fleshlinesse and adherency of corruption to the holiest men but the necessitie of righteousnesse by Christ without the which though a man may when once the Commandement comes and is fully revealed will good hate sinne in sinning doe that which he would not
humanity I must change natures with fierce and bloody Creatures that are not capeable of pitty before I can do such facts as these Is thy servant a Dog Yes and worse then a dog when pride ambition selfe-projections the probabilities and promises the engagements and exigencies of a Kingdome shall enliven and rouse up that originall inhumanitie that is in a man he will then be not a Dog onely but a Woolte and a Lyon I will not denie thee I will dye for thee though all should be offended because of thee yet will I never be offended They were the words of a great Disciple Alas Peter thou knowest not thine owne hearâ—… 't is but like a quiet Sea when the winde the Temptation shall blow thou wilt quickly be troubled and finde an alteration thy tyde will turne and an ebbe of thy zeale will follow Who could have expected or feared adulterie from such a man as David after such communion with God Impatiency from such a man as Ieremie after such revelations from God Idolatry from such a man as Salomon after so much wisedome from God Fretfulnesse and frowardnesse of spirit in such a man as Ionah after such deliverances from God Fearefulnesse in such a man as Abraham after so much protection from God Cursing from such a man as Iob after so much patience and experience from God O in such examples learne thy selfe and feare thyself The Disciples could say Master is it I that shall betray thee Peter did not aske Master is it 〈◊〉 â—…or Iohn Master is it Thomas but every one Is it I True indeed I have a deceitfull flesh a revolting heart a Traytor in my bosome It may as soone bed as another man If anyone fall Restore him with the spirit of meeknesse saith the Apostle considering thy self that is doe not rejoyce against thy brother nor insult over him doe not despise him in thy heart nor exalt thy self thou art of the same mould thou hast the same principles with him that God which hath forsaken him may forsake thee that temptation which hath overcome him may happen unto thee that enemy which hath sifted him may winnow thee and therefore in his fall learne compassion towards him and jealoufie to thy selfe Restore him and consider thyselfe Fifthly consider the temptations that arise from this sinne the daylie and hourly sollicitations wherewith it setteth upon the soule to unsettle it in good and to dispose it unto evill Satan is emphatically in the Scripture cald a Tempter and yet as if his were but halfe-temptations S. Iames saith that a man is indeed tempted by his owne lusts when he is drawne away and enticed First drawne away from God out of his sight and presence and then sollicited unto euil either evill simplie or evill concomitantly in doing good duties formally blindly unzealously unconstantly unspiritually If a man shoote an arrow against a rock it may be broken but it cannot enter no more can Satans temptations preuaile against the Soule without something within to give them admittance Therefore though he tempted Christ yet he prevailed not and our Saviour gives the reason He hath nothing in me nothing to receive his darts But now in us the flesh holdes treacherous compliancie with Satan and the world and is ready to let them in at every assault This is a great part of the cunning of wicked Angels to engage and bribe over a mans owne concupiscence to their party Seed will never grow into a living Creature without a wombe to foster it there must be 〈◊〉 cordis as well as Seminarium Hostis the conception of the heart as the temptation of Satan Temptations may vex but they cannot corrupt us without our owne sinnefull entertainement as a chaste woman may be sollicited by some base ruffian but yet no whit in danger while shee retaines her chastitie It may grieve her but it cannot defile her Many points of temptation the Divell can compasse alone Suggestions perswasions arguments instigations injections of blasphemous or Atheisticall notions but all these are at the worst but as the violence of a man that ravisheth a Virgin If wee can wholly keepe in our hearts from affording their embraces and accepting the offers of Satan if wee can with all the strength of our soule cry out like the Ravished woman in the Law they are the sinnes of Satan and not ours But here is the miserie Satan knowes how ouâ—… tyde stands he searcheth out our dispositions and thereunto sorteth his temptations and taketh ingredients of our own to temper with them and to sweeten them As Agrippina when she poisoned her husband Claudius temper'd the poison in the meaâ—…e which he most delighted in One man hath lust and wit Satan tempteth him to scorne and slight the humility of the waies of God and the simplicitie of the Gospell another hath lust and monie Satan tempteth him to pride and oppression to earthly mindednesse and trust in his strong tower another hath lust and poverty Satan tempteth him to murmuring discontent rebellion another hath lust and youth Satan tempteth him to vanitie and intemperance another hath lust and learning Satan tempteth him to vaine-glory and ambition There is in every man much need of spirituall wisedome to observe where hee lies most obnoxious where Satan doth most plant his forces and direct his attempts and ever to apply our strongest watch our most importunate prayers to those gapps of our calling which are most naked to those lusts in our nature which are most predominant Sixthly consider the War and Rebellion of this sin I find a Lawin my members warring against the law of my mind The flesh lusteth against the spirit Fleshly lusts warre against the soule Which passages are not so to bee understood as if when lust doth fight it fights against nothing but the spirit but yet it may be so dishartned and crush'd that it shal not alwaies rebell which is the late wretched and ignorant glosse of our new Pelagians who expressely contrary to the doctrine of S. Paul and the Articles of the Church of England with the Harmony of other Reformed Churches deny the sinfulnes of originall concupiscence or that it alwayes lusteth against the spirit but the meaning of them is that while wee are in the Militant Church we shall have hourely experience of this traytor in our bosome and whensoever we go about any spiritual worke this evill will be present with us and fight against us And this warre is not at a distance but it is an intimate and close contrariety in the same part like the combate betweene heate and cold in the same water no roome nor space to hold a Mediatour or to entertaine a Treaty or to shift and evade the conflict The same soule that commands obedience doth it selfe resist it In the same minde the wisedome of the flesh which is sensuall and divelish fighting against the wisedome of the spirit which is
meeke and peaceable In the same will a delight in the Law of God and yet a bias and counter-motion to the law of sinne In the same understanding a light of the Gospell and yet many relikes of humane principles and fleshly reasonings much ignorance of the purity excellency and beauty of the wayes of God In the same heart singlenesse and sensiblenesse of sinne and yet much secret fraud and prevarication hardnesse and dis-apprehension of sin and wrath In the same affections love of God and love of the World feare of God and feare of men trust in God and doubting of his favour Lord I beleeve helpe thou mine unbeliefe was the cry of the poore man in the Gospell and such must bee the complaints of the best of us Lord I will helpe thou mine unwillingnesse Lord I heare thee helpe thou my deafenesse Lord I remember thee helpe thou my forgetfulnesse Lord I presse towards thee helpe thou my wearinesse Lord I rejoyce in thee helpe thou my heavinesse Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee helpe thou my strangenesse Lord I love and delight in thy Law helpe thou my failings Such tugging is there of either nature to preserve and improve it selfe Iacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the birth contention for the birth-right contention with an Angell for the blessing contention for his wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typicall man his name was Israel and he was a patterne to the Israel of God We must be all men of contention wrestlers not onely with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our elder brother Esau with the lusts and frowardnesse of our owne hearts The Thiefe on the Crosse was a perfect embleme of the sinne of our nature he was naild hand and foot destin'd unto death utterly disabled from any of his wonted outrages and yet that only part which was a little loose flies out in reviling and reproaching Christ Our old man by the mercy of God is upon a Crosse destin'd to death disabled from the exercise of that wonted violence and dominion which it used and yet so long as there is any life or strength left in him hee sets it all on worke to revile that blessed spirit which is come so neere him The more David prevailes the more Saul rageth and persecuteth him As in the wombe of Tamar there was a strife for precedencie Zarah thrust out his hand first and yet Pharez goâ—… foâ—…th before him so in a Christian many times the 〈◊〉 thruâ—… out the hand and begins to worke and presently the flesh growes sturdie and boisterous and gets first into the action A man sets himselfe to call upon God lifts up his hand with the skarlet thred the blood of Christ upon it is in a sweete preparation to powre out his complaints his requests his praises to his father and ere he is aware pride ln the excellencie of Gods gifts or deadnesse or worldly thoughts intrude themselves and justle-by Gods spirit and cast a blemish upon his offring A man is setting himself to heare Gods word begins to attend and rellish the things that are spoken as matters which doe in good earnest concerne his peace begins to see a beauty more then ordinary in Gods service an excellencie with David in Gods Law which hee considered not before resolves hereafter to love frequent submit beleeve prize it more then he had ever done presently the flesh sets up her mounds her reasonings her perverse disputes her owne principles her shame her worldlinesse her want of leisure her secular contentments and so resists the spirit of God and rejects his counsell I have enough already what needs this zeale this pressing this accuratenesse this violence for heaven strive wee what wee can our infirmities will encompasse us our corruptions will bee about us But yet Beloved as in a pyramide the higher you goe the lesse compasse still you finde the body to bee of and yet not without the curiositie and diligence of him that fram'd it so in a Christian mans resurrection and conversation with Christ in heaven the neerer he comes to Christ the smaller still his corruptions will bee and yet not without much spirituall industry and christian art A Christian is like a flame the higher it ascends the more thinne purified and azurie it is but yet it is a flame in greene wood that wants perpetuall blowing and encouragement A man sets himselfe with some good resolution of spirit to set forward the honor in questioning in discovering in shaming in punishing within the compasse of his owne calling and warrant the abuses of the times in countenancing in rewarding in abetting and supporting truth righteousnes his flesh presently interposeth his quiet his security his relations his interests his hopes his feares his dependencies his plausibility his credit his profit his secular provisoes these blunt his edge upbraid him with impoliticknes with malecontentednes with a sullen cynicall disposition against men and manners and thus put I know not what ill favor'd colours upon a good face to make a man out of love with an honest busines In a word good is before me the glory the service the waies of God I see it but I cannot love it I love it but I cannot doe it I doe it but I cannot finish it I will but yet I rebell I follow and yet I fall I presse forward and yet I faint and flagge I wrestle and yet I halt I pray and yet I sinne I fight and yet I am Captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me I watch my heart and yet it runnes away from me God was at first the Author of nothing but peace within me what envious man hath sowed this warre in my bowels Let the Apostle answer this question saith Saint Austen By one man sinne entred into the world That which I would be I am not and that which I hate I am O wretched man in whom the Crosse of Christ hath not yet worne out the poysonous and bitter tast of that first tree It is the patheticall complaint of Bonifacius in the same Father How doth the Apostle even breake with complaining of this rebellious and captivating power of originall concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me though hee were delivered from the damnation yet hee was not delivered from the miserie of this sinne which must necessarily arise from the stirrings and conflicts of it Though lust in the regenerate bee not damnable because albeit it bring forth sinne yet it doth not finish and consummate it for it is broken off by repentance and disabled by the power of Christs spirit yet it is still miserable because it disquieteth the spirituall peace and tranquillity of the soule But there is no great danger in the warre if the enemie bee either foolish or
It was not any accident or externall temptation which was the roote and ground of these my sinnes but I was a transgressour from the wombe I had the seedes of adultery and murder sowne in my very nature and from thence did they breake forth in my life When men shall consider that in their whole frame there is an universall ineptitude and indisposition to any good and as large a forwardnesse unto all evill that all their principles are vitiated and their faculties out of joynt that they are in the wombe as Cockatrice egges and in the conception a seed of â—…pers more odious in the pure eyes of God then Toads or Serpents are in ours this will keepe men in more caution against sinne and in more humiliation for it Lastly from the consideration of this sinne we should be exhorted unto these needfull duties First to much iâ—…alousie against our selves not to trust any of our faculties alone nor to be too confident upon presumptions or experiences of our owne strength â—…ob would not trust his eies without a covenant nor David his mouth without a bridle so strangely and unexpectedly will nature breake out if it feele it selfe a little loose as may cost a man many a cry and teare to set himselfe right againe Though a Lyon seeme never so tame though the Sea seeme never so calme give them no passage keepe on the chaine look still to the Bulwarkes for there is a rage in them which cannot be tamed Venture not on any temptation bee not confident of any grace received so as to slacken your wonted zeale count not your selves to have apprehended any thing forget that which is behinde presse forward to the price that is before you and ever suspect the treacherie and tergiversation of your owne hearts Ioseph flung out and would not trust himselfe in the company of his mistresse He hearkened not to her to lye by her or to bee with her company might easily have kindled concupiscence a little of Satans blowing might have carried the fire from one sticke unto another David would have no wicked thing in his house nor in his sight sinne is a plague hee knew how full of ill humours and seeds of alike evill his heart was how apt to catch every infection that came neere it and therefore he tooke care to decline the very objects and examples of sinne God would not suffer any people or monuments of Idolaters to bee spared lest they should prove temptations and snares to his owne people and their hearts should runne after the like sinnes Keepe thine heart saith Salomon with alâ—… diligence never let thine eye bee off from it hide the word and the spirit alwayes in it to watch it for there is an adulterer ever at hand to steale it away Therefore the Lord would have the Israelites binde Ribbands upon their Fringes and the Law on the Posts of their dores that by those visible remembrancers their mindes might be taken off from other vanities and the obedience of the Law more reviv'd within them And Salomon alluding to that custome shewes the vse and the fruites of it Bind them saith he continually upon thine heart and tye them about thy necke make the Law of God thy continuall ornament when thou goest it shall leade thee when thou sleepest it shall keepe thee when thou awakest it shall talke with thee in all thy wayes and conditions it shall be thy safegard thy companion and thy comfort Secondly To warre and contention against so strong and so close an enemie Our flesh is our Esau our elder brother and we must ever be wrestling with it The flesh and the spirit are contraries one will ever be on the prevailing side and the flesh is never weary nor out of work to improve its owne part therefore the spirit must bee as studious and importunate for the Kingdome of Christ. But you will say To what end serves any such combate it is impossible to vanquish or to ouercome lust The Divell may bee put to flight there is hope in a conflict with him but lust may be exasperated by contention it cannot bee shaken of To this I answer in the generall first that it is our dutie to fight with sinne and it is Christs office and promise to overcome it Wee must performe that which hee requireth of us and trust him with that which hee promiseth unto us Besides by this meanes the bodie of sinne is first weakened though not quite destroi'd For as in the Leviticall Law when a spreading leprosie was in a house the walls were first scraped round about the dust throwne out new stones and new morter put to the old materials and then last of all the house upon the uncureablenesse of it was broken quite downe and dissolved so in our present leprous and corrupted condition wee are to deface to weaken to scrape of what wee can of the body of sinne and leave the rest for God to doe when hee shall be pleased to dissolve us Secondly It is by this meanes captivated likewise though like the Gibeonites and the Moabitish maides it bee not slaine yet it is kept under and subdued Thirdly however by this meanes it is discover'd and it is a good part of warre to know the latitude of an enemies strength to prie into his stratagems and contrivances For the knowledge of sinne will make us more earnest in mourning for it more importunate in our prayers against it more humble in our consessions of it more unquiet till wee be acquitted by the blood of Christ and his spirit from it more urgent to lay hold upon the victories and promises of Christ against it This is the sum of all and a most sufficient encouragement The grace of Christ in us will weaken much the grace and favour of Christ unto vs will forgive the rest and the power of Christ at the last will annihilate all Thirdly To patience and constancy in this spirituall combate Wee are beset and compassed about with our corruptions the sinne hangs on with much pertinacy and will not be shaken of therefore there is neede of patience to runne the race that is set before us to doe the whole will of God to hale perpetually our clog after us to pull on and drive forward a backsliding and a revolting heart to thrust still before us a swarme of thoughts and affections through so many turnings and temptations as they shall meet withall When the spies returned from the holy Land they disheartned the people because they had seen giants the sonnes of Aâ—…ak so when the spirit of man considers I am to enter upon a combate that admits no treatie of peace or respite with an old man full of wisedome furnished with a whole Armorie of weapons and with all the succors and contributions which principalities and powers and spirituall wickednesses can bring in an enemie full of desperate rebellion and unwearied rage
matter of which is commanded may yet be made in the doing of them evill when that due respect and conformitie which the Law wherein it is commanded requireth is not observed If a man build a wall with pâ—…etence to keepe out the Sea or an enemy and yet leave a wide gap and entrance open to admit them though hee who sees nothing but firme wall may admire the worke yet he who viewes the whole will but deride it so though a maâ—… doe very much though hee proceede so farre as to offer up the children of his body and bestow mountaines of cattell upon God and his service yet omitting righteousnesse and iustice and humiliation before God though to men it may seeme very specious yet unto God it is both abominable and ridiculous As a piece of silver or gold may be shaped into a vessell of dishonor which shall be destin'd unto â—…ordid and uncleane uses so may a worke be compounded of choyce ingredients the materials of it may be the things which God himselfe requires and yet serving to base purposes and directed to our owne ends it may stinke in the nostrils of God and bee by him reiected as a vessell in which there is no pleasure A cup of cold water to a prophet as a prophet shall bee rewarded when a magnificent almes with a pharises trumpet shall be rejected As a small thing which the righteous hath so a small thing which the righteous giveth is better then great riches of the ungodly Fourthly wee are to note what things are requisite unto the doing of a thing so as that it may bee an Act of obedience and thereupon acceptable unto God First then it must have a new principle the Spirit of Christ and the Law of the Spirit of Life and Faith purifying the Conscience from dead workes Secondly in regard of the manner it must bee done with the affection of a childe not out of bondage but in love 2. Tim. 1. 7. In voluntary service and resignation of all the members unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. 19. In universall respect to all the Commandements Psal. 119. 128. In obedience to God the Law-giver for he never obeyes the Law even when he doth the workes therein contained but when hee doth it with all submissiue and loyall affections towards him that commands it Iam. 2. 10 11. this onely is to live unto God and to bring forth fruite unto him Thirdly it must be directed unto holy ends and those are principally foure to which others are to be subordinate but not repugnant First the glory of God we must bring forth fruit and finish our workes and doe all that we have to doe with respect unto his glory Ioh. 15. 8. Ioh 17. 4. 1. Cor. 10. 31. Secondly the Edification Service comfort of the Church that nothing redound to their offence but to their profit and salvation 1. Cor. 10. 3â—… 33. Col. 1. 24. 2. Tim. 2. 10. 2. Cor. 1. 6. Thirdly the Credit honour and passage of the Gospell that it may be furthered and not evill spoken of 2. Cor. 6. 3 4. 1. Cor. 9. 19. 23. Phil. 1. 12. Fourthly a mans owne salvation that he be not after all his paines a cast-away but that he may save himselfe 1. Cor. 9. 27. 1. Tim. 4. 16. 1. Pet. 1. 9. Fourthly all the meanes unto that end must be regular and sutable Evill must not be done to bring good about Rom. 3. 8. and all the circumstances which accompany the action must be right too For as in the body there is not onely requir'd beauty but order and proportion Let the face be of never so delicate and choice complection yet if any part be mis-plac'd it will cause a notable deformitie and uncomelinesse to it so in duties an excellent worke may be so mis-plac'd or mis-tim'd or attended with such incongruous and unsutable circumstances as that it may prove rather a snare of Satan then a fruit of the Spirit Lastly to make it completely acceptable It must passe through the Incense and Intercession of Christ who as he doth by his Merits take away the Guilt of sinne from our persons so by his Intercession he hideth the pollution and adherencie of sinne that is in our services and so giveth us accesse and maketh all our duties acceptable by him to God Ephes. 2. 18. 1. Pet. 2. 5. He hath made us to be priests unto God and our Prayers and good workes as spirituall sacrifices come up before God But it is not sufficient that there be a Priest and an offering except there be an Altar too upon which to offer it for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the offering Now Christ is the Altar which sanctifieth all our spirituall sacrifices Their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar and they shall come up with acceptance on mine Altar Esai 56. 7. 60. 7. These things being thus premised we conclude first A wicked man cannot doe those things at all which are so essentially and inherently good as that the very opâ—… operatum or doing of them is from the spirit of Christ as to love God to trust him and depend upon him for as there are some things in nature which cannot be counterfeited or resembled the shape of a man may bee pictur'd but the life cannot nor the reason nor any thing that doth immediately pertaine to the Essence of man so there are some things in grace which cannot by hypocrisie be done neither in the thing it selfe nor in the manner of doing it because sincerity spiritualnesse and filiall respects belong to the very substance and matter of the duety Secondly other workes whose Goodnesse doth not cleave necessarily to the doing of them but to the manner of doing them wicked men may performe but then they doe them onely ethically and in conspectu hominum with relation to men and manners not spiritually as unto God nor in obedience or respect to him For first the Spirit of Grace is Christs spirit Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. and our flesh is quite contrarie unto it Gal. 5. 17. and none have this spirit but they who have fellowship with the father and the sonne and are united unto him 1. Ioh. 4. 13. none of which dignities belong to wicked men Secondly every thing that is spirituall is vitall for the spirit quickneth the spirit of Holinesse never comes but with a Resurrection Rom. 1. 4. Ro. 8. 10 11. 2. Cor. 3. 6. and therefore he is called the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. but now as the persons of wicked men so their workes are all dead Heb. 9 14. and therfore not being done spiritually obedientially impossible it is that they should in any sense please God Rom. 8. 8. whos 's pure eyes can endure nothing which beareth not in some though most remote degree proportion to his most holy nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. But it may be objected doth God use to doe good to those that hate him and that even for
strong nor our hearts endure in the day when hee will have to doe with us How can wee choose but send forth an Embassage especially since he is not a great way off as it is in the Parable but standeth before the dore and is nigh at hand and will not carry an embassage of repentance to give up our armour to strip and judge our selves to meete him in the way of his judgements to make our selves vile before him and be humbled under his mighty hand and sue forth conditions of peace to meete him as the Gibeonites did Iosua and resolve rather to be his servants then to stand out against him This is certaine God is comming against his Enemies his attendants Angels and his weapons fire And if his patience and forbearance make him yet keepe a great way off that hee may give us time to make our peace O let the long suffering of God draw us to Repentance least wee treasure up more wrath against our selves Consider the great aggravation of that spirituall Iezabels sinne I gave her space to repent of her fornications and she repented not Consider that the long suffering of God is Salvation and therefore let us make this use of it Labour to bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse The last thing in this first point proposed was How the spirit by the Commandement doth thus convince men to be in the state of sinne To this I answere briefly First by quickning and putting an edge upon the Instrumentall cause the sword of the Spirit For the word of it selfe is a dead letter and profiteth nothing it is the spirit that puts life and power into it I am full of power by the Spirit of the Lord to declare unto Iacob his transgressions saith the Prophet Mic. 3. 8. As the Spirit is a Spirit of life so hath he given to the Word to be a Word of life quicke and powerfull Phil. 2. 16. Heb. 4. 12. Secondly by writing it in the heart casting the heart into the mould of the Word and transforming the spirit of man into the image of the Word and making it as it were the Epistle of Christ bending and framing the heart to stand in awe of Gods Word for writing his Law and putting his feare into the heart is the same thing with God In which respect amongst others men are said to bee Sealed by the Spirit because that Spirituall Holinesse which is in the Word is fashioned in the hearts of the Saints as the image of the seale is in the waxe As the light of the Sunne doth by reflection from the Moone illighten that part of the earth or from a glasse that part of a roome from which it selfe is absent So though the Church bee here absent from the Lord yet his Spirit by the Word doth illighten and governe it It is not the Moone alone nor the glasse alone nor yet the Sunne without the Moone or the glasse that illightneth those places vpon which it selfe doth not immediately shine but that as the principall by them as the instruments so the Spirit doth not and the Word cannot alone by it selfe convince or convert but the Spirit by the Word as its sword and instrument So then when the Spirit turnes a mans eyes inward to see the truth of the Word written in his owne heart makes him put his Seale unto it frameth the will to search acknowledge and judge the worst of its selfe to subscribe unto the righteousnesse of God in condemning sinne and him for it to take the office of the Word and passe that sentence upon it selfe which the Word doth then doth the Word spiritually Convince of sinne Which should teach us what to look for in the ministry of the word namely that which will Convince us that which puts an edge upon the Word opens the heart makes it burne namely the spirit of Christ for by that only we can be brought unto the righteousnesse of Christ we are not to despise the ordinances in our esteeme when we find them destitute of such humane contributions and attemperations which we haply expected as Naaman did the waters of Iordan for though there bee excellent use of Humane learning when it is sanctified for opening the Word as a baser colour is a good ground for a better yet it is the Word alone which the Spirit worketh by the flesh and fleshly accessions of themselves profit no more nor adde no more reall vertue or lustre to the Word then the weedes in a field do unto the Corne or then the ground colour doth unto the beautie of that which is put upon it We should therefore pray for the Spirit to come along with his Word It is not enough to be at Bethesda this house of mercie and grace unlesse the Angell stirre and the Spirit move upon these waters It is Hee that must incline and put the heart into the Word or else it will remaine as impotent as before But of this point also I have spoken at large upon another scripture Having then thus shewed at large that the Spirit by the Commandment convinceth men to be in the state of sin both Actuall and Originall imputed and inherent what kinde of state that is A state of Impotencie and Enmity How it doth it by quickning the Word and opening the heart Now we are very briefly to open the second point That the Spirit by the Commandment convinceth a man to be under the guilt of sin or in the state of death because of sinne I died for which we must note First that there is a two fold Guilt First Reatus Concupiscentia which is the meritoriousnesse of punishment or liablenesse unto punishment which sinne brings with it and Reatus personae which is the actuall Obligation and obnoxiousnesse of a person vnto punishment because of sinne Now in as much as nature is not able to discover without the Spirit the whole malignity and obliquity that is in sinne therefore it cannot sufficiently convince of the Guilt of sinne which is a Resultancie therefrom and is ever proportionable thereunto In which respect the Iudgements of God are said to be unsearchable Rom. 11 33. And the wicked know not whither they goe 1. Ioh. 2. 11. cannot have any full and proportionable notions of that wrath to come which their sinnes carry them unto Secondly wee may note that there is a Twofold Conviction of this Guilt of sinne A naturall Conviction such as was in Cain Iudas Spira and other despairing men which ariseth from two grounds First the Present sense of Gods wrath in the first fruits thereof upon their consciences which must perforce beare witnesse to Gods â—…ustice therein and this is that which the Apostle calls Torment 1. Ioh. 4. 18. which though it may arise from naturall principles for wee know even heathens have had their Laniatus and Ictus as the Historian speakes their scourges and rendings of Conscience yet is it
his government For when we mention uncontrolednesse as an argument of sins Raigne we meane not that a bare naturall Conviction which the Apostle cals an Accusation which imports a former yeelding to the lust and no more but that a spirituall expostulation with a mans owne heart ioyned with true repentance and a sound and serious Lusting against the desires and commands of the flesh are the things which subdue the raigne of sinne The whole state then of this point touching the Roialtie of siâ—…ne will be fully opened when we shall have distinctly unfolded the Differences betweene these Two Conflicts with sinne the Conflict of a naturall Accusing Conscience and the Conflict of a spirituall Mourning and Repenting Conscience First they Differ in the Principles whence they proceede The one proceeds from a spirit of feare and bondage the other from a spirit of love and delight An unregenerate man considers the state of sinne as a kingdome and so he loves the services of it and yet he Considers it as Regnum sub graviore regno as a kingdome subiect to the scrutinies and enquiries of a higher kingdome and so he feares it because the Guilt thereof and day of accompts affrights him so that this Conflictâ—…iseth â—…iseth out of the Compulsion of his Iudgement not out of the propension of his will not from a desire to be Holy but onely to be safe and quiet he abhorreth the thoughts of God and his Iustice whereas the faithfull hate sinne with relation to the purity and righteousnesse of God desire to walke in all well pleasing towards him hunger after his grace are affected with indignation selfe-displicencie and revenge against themselves for sin mourne under their corruptions bewaile the frowardnesse of their slipperie and revolting hearrs set a watch and spirituall iudicature over them crie out for strength to resist their lusts and prayse God for any grace power discipline severitie which he shewes against them In one word a naturall conscience doth onely shew the danger of sinne and so makes a man feare it but a Spirituall conscience shewes the Pollution of sinne the extreme contrarietic which it beares to the love of our heart the rule of our life the Law of God and so makes a man hate it as a thing contrary not only to his happinesse but to his nature of which he hath newly beene made partaker A dogge will be brought by discipline to for beare those things which his nature most delights in not because his ravine is changed into a better temper but the following paines makes him abstaine from the present baite so the conflict of the faithfull is with the unholynesse of sinne but the conflict of other men is onely with the Guilt and other sensuall incommodities of sinne And though that may make a man forbeare and returne yet not unto the Lord They have not cryed unto me saith the Lord with their heart when they howled upon their beds Their prayers were not cries but howlings brutish and meere sensuall complaints because they proceeded not from their hearts from any inward and sincere affection but onely from feare of that hand whith was able to cast them upon their beds As a sicke man eates meat not for love of it which he takes with much reluctancie and disrellish but for feare of death which makes him force himselfe a. Saul said to Samuel against his will whereas a healâ—…y man eates the same meate with hunger and delight so a naturall conscience constraines a man to doe some things which his heart never goes along with onely to avoide the paine which the contrary guilt infers In a Tempest the marriners will cast out all their wares not out of any hatred to the things for they throw over their very hearts into the Sea with them but because the safety of their lives and preservation of their goods will not stand together not sub intuitu mali sed minâ—…ris boni not under the apprehension of any evill in the things but onely as a lesser good which will not consist with the greater and therefore they never throw them over but in a Tempest whereas at all other times they labour at the pumpe to exonerate the ship of the water which settles at the bottome not onely for the danger but stinch and noysomnesse of it too Thus a Naturall conscience throwes away sinne as wares and therefore never forbeares it but in a Tempest of wrath and sense of the curse and quickly returnes to it againe but a spirituall conscience throwes out sinne as corrupt and stinking water and therefore is uniformely disaffected to it and alwayes laboureth to be delivered from it A scullion or colliar will not dare handle a coale when it is full of fire which yet at other times is their common use wheras a man of a more cleanly education as he will not then because of the fire so not at any time because of the foulnesse so here a Naturall conscience for forbeares sinne somtimes when the guilt and curse of it doth more appeare which yet at other times it makes no seruple of but a Spirituall conscience abstaines alwayes because of the basenesse and pollution of it The one feares sinne because it hath fite in it to burne the other hates sinne because it hath filth in it to pollute the Soule Secondly these conflicts differ in their seates and stations The naturall Conflict is in severall faculties as between the understanding and the will or the will and the affections and so doth not argue any universall renovation but rather a rupture and schisme a confusion and disorder in the soule But a spirituall conflict is in the same facultie will against will affection against affection heart against heart because sinne dwels still in our mortall body Neither doe the spirit and the flesh enter into covenant to share and divide the man and so to reside asunder in severall faculties and not molest one anothers governement there can be no agreement betweene the strong man and him that is stronger Christ will hold no treatie with Beliall he is able to save to the uttermost and therefore is never put to make compositions with his enemie he will not disparage the power of his owne Grace so much as to entertaine a parlie with the flesh So then they fight not from severall forts onely but are â—…ver struggling like Esau and Iacob in the same wombe They are contrary to one another saith the Apostle and contraries meete in the same subject before they exercise hostility against one another Flesh and spirit are in a man as light and darkenesse in the dawning of the day as heate and cold in warme water not severed in distinct parts but universally interweav'd and coexistent in all There is the same proportion in the naturall and spirituall conflict with sinne as in the change of motion in a bowle A Bowle may be two wayes alter'd from that motion which the impressed violence
comprehending the head and the members in the unitie of one body So then every Promise carrying us to that Vnitie which we have with Christ by his spirit who is therefore call'd a spirit of Adoption because he vesteth us with the sonneship of Christ and a spirit of holinesse and renovation because he sanctifieth us by the resurrection of Christ doth thereby purifie us from dead workes and conforme the members to the Head building them up in an holy Temple and into an habitation of God through that spirit by whom we are in Christ. In one word Our interest in the Promises is grounded upon our being in Christ and being one with him and our being in him is the ground of our purification Every branch in me that bringeth forth fruite my father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruite And in this respect the promises may be said to purifie as still carrying us to our interest in Christ in whom they are founded Fifthly and lastly the Promises are causes of our purification as Exemplars patterns and seeds of purity unto us For the Promises are in themselves Exceeding great and pretious Every Word of God is pure and tryed like gold seven times in the fire it is right and cleane and true and altogether righteous and therefore very lovely and attractive apt to sanctifie and cleanse the soule Sanctifie them by thy truth saith Christ thy Word is truth and againe Now ye are cleane through the Word which I have spoken unto you For the Word is Seed and seede a similates earth and dirt into its owne pure and cleane nature So by the Word there is a trans-elementation as it were and conforming of our foule and earthie nature to the spiritualnesse of it selfe Therefore the Apostle useth this for an argument why the regenerate cannot siâ— namely in that universall and complete manner as others doe because they have the seed of God abiding in them that is his Word Spirit and Promises abating the strength of lust and swaying them to a contrary point For thus the Word of promise makes a mans heart to argue Hath God of meere Grace made assurance of so pretious things to me who by nature am a filthy and uncleane Creature obnoxious to all the curses and vengeance in his booke Hath he wrought so great deliverance and laid up such unsearchable riches for my soule and should I againe breake his Commandements and joyne in the abominations of other men Would he not be angry till he had consumed me so that there should be no escaping Should I not rather labour to feele the comforts and power of these Promises encouraging mee to walke worthy of so great meroy and so high a calling to walke meete for the participation of the Inheritance of the Saints in light Shall I that am reserv'd to such honour live in the meane time after the lusts of the Gentiles who have no hope Hath God distinguished me by his Spirit and Promises from the world and shall I confound my selfe againe Shall I requite evill for good to the hurt of mine owne soule These and the like are the reasonings of the heart from the beauty and purity of the Promises Thirdly and lastly Promises are Arguments to inferre our Purification because in many of them that is the very Matter of which they consist and so the power and fidelity of God is engag'd for our Purification I will clense them from all their iniquity whereby they haue sinned against me saith the Lord. And againe I will sprinkle cleane water vpon you and you shall be cleane from all your filthinesse and from all your idoles will I clense you c. And againe They shall not defile themselues any more with their idoles nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will save them and I will cleanse them And againe I will heale their backeslidings I will Love them freely The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion purge the bloud of Ierusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Iudgement and by the spirit of burning Which Promises bringing along the fidelity and power of God to our faith doe settle our hearts amidst all the corruptions and impotencies of our nature When the conscience is once throughly acquainted with the sight of its owne foulnesse with the sense of that life and power which is in concupiscence it findes it then a great difficultie to rest in any hope of having lusts either subdued or forgiuen The Psalmist when his sore ranne and ceased not refused to be comforted thought himselfe cast out of Gods fauour as if his mercies were exhausted and his promises come to an end and his compassions were shut up and would shew themselves no more Therefore in this case the Lord carries our Faith to the consideration of his Power Grace and Fidelity which surpasseth not onely the knowledge but the very coniectures and contrivances of the hearts of men The Apostle saith That Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the Spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead That Spirit which raised Him from the dead is therefore called a spirit of Holinesse because the sanctifying of a sinner is a resurrection and requires the same power to effect it which raised Christ from the dead When Saint Paul had such a bitter conflict with the thorne in his flesh the vigor and stirrings of concupiscence within him he had no refuge nor comfort but onely in the sufficiencie of Gods grace which was able in due time to worke away and purge out his lusts And the prophet makes this an argument of Gods great power above all other Gods that he subdueth iniquities and blotteth out transgressions Though wee know not how this can be done that such dead bones soules that are even rotten in their sinnes should be cleansed from their filthinesse and live againe yet he knowes and therefore when wee are at a stand and know not what to doe to Cure our lusts then wee may by faith fix our Eyes upon him whose grace power wisedome fidelity is all in these his promises put to gage for our purification Thus wee see how promises in generall doe worke to the Cleansing of us from filthinesse of flesh and spirit The same might at large be shewed in many particulars I will but name those in the words before the Text to which it referres The Lord promiseth to Dwell in us as in spirituall Temples and this proves that wee ought to keepe our selues Cleane that wee may be fit habitations for so Dovelike and pure a spirit Flee forâ—…ication saith the Apostle why know you not that your bodie is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you therefore glorifie God in your bodies and spirits for they are Gods And againe If any man defile the Temple of God
to the Soule a Spirit of Adoption and of a sound minde which sayes unto the Soule that God is our Salvation settles the heart to rest and cleave unto Gods Promises teâ—…ifies seales secures certifies our inheritance unto us Secondly to stoppe the mouth and drive out of Gods presence and leave utterly unexcusable that a man shall have nothing to alledge why the curse should not be pronounced against him but shall in his conscience subscribe to the righteousnesse of Gods severity In stead whereof we have in Christ a free approach into Gods presence words put into our mouthes by the spirit of supplications to reveale our requests to debate and plead in Gods Court of mercy to cleere our selves from the accusations of Sathan to appeale from them to Christ and in him to make this just apologie for our selves I confesse I am a grievous sinner and there is not a Soule in Heaven Christ onely excepted which hath not beene so though I the chiefe of all In Law then I am gone and have nothing to answere there but only to appeale to a more mercifull Court But this I can in truth of heart say that I deny my owne workes that I bewaile my corruptions that the things which I doe I allow not that it is no more I that doe them but sinne that dwelleth in me that I am truly willing to part from any lust that I can heartily pray against my closest corruptions that I delight in the Law of God in mine inner man that I am an unwilling captive to the Law in my members that I feele and cry out of my wretchednesse in this so unavoydable subjection that I desire to feare Gods Name that I love the Communion of his Spirit and Saints and I know I have none of these affections from nature in that I agree with Sathan these are spirituall and heavenly impressions and where there is a piece of the spirit where there is a little of heaven that will undoubtedly carry the soule in which it is to the place where all the Spirit is If God would destroy me hee would not have done so much for my Soule he would never have given me any dramme of Christs Spirit to carry to hell or to be burnt with me No man will throw his jewels into a sinke or cast his pearles under the feete of swine certainely God will send none of his owne graces into Hell nor suffer any sparkle of his owne holynesse and divine nature to be cast away in that lake of forgetfulnesse If He have begun these good works in me He will fiâ—…sh them in his owne time and I will waâ—…e upon him and expect the Salvation of the Lord. Thirdly to terriâ—… and 〈◊〉 the Soule with a fearefull expectation of fiery 〈◊〉 and execution of the curse In stead whereof the soule is calm'd with a spirituall serenity and peace which is the beginning of Gods Kingdome armed with a sweete securitie and Lion-like boldnesse against all the powers and assaults of Men or Angels crowned and refreshed with the joy of Faith with the first fruites of the Spirit with the clusters of the Heavenly Canaan with the earnest of its inheritance with the prefruition and preapprehension of Gods presence and Glory This is the Life of Righteousnesse which we have from Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Redemption and deliverance from sinne and the Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priviledge right and interest in the purchased possession Secondly He that hath the Sonne hath Life in regard of Holinesse as he hath received Christ Iesus the Lord so he walketh in Him we are in Him created or raised up from the first death unto good workes that we should walke in them Of our selves we are without strength without love without life no power no liking no possibilitie to doe good not any principle of Holynesse or Obedience in us It is Hee that strengthens that winnes that quickens us by His Spirit to His Service Wee should here consider Holinesse something more largely and shew when good workes are Vitall and so from Christ and when onely mortall earthly and upon false principles and so from our selves But having done this before in the doctrine of the raigne of sinne I will onely name some other discourses of a Vitall Operation and so proceede First Life hath ever an Internall principle a seede within it selfe a naturall heate with the fountaine thereof by which the body is made operative and vigorous and therefore in living Creatures the heart first liveth because it is the forge of spirits and the fountaine of heate So Holynesse which comes from Christ beginnes within proceedeth from an ingraffed and implanted seede from the feare of God in the heart and the Law put into the inner man The Conscience is cleansed the spirit of the minde is renewed the delights and desires of the heart are changed the bent and bias of the thoughts are new set Christ is formed and dwelleth within the whole man is baptized with the Holy Ghost as with fire which from the Altar of the heart where it is first kindled breaketh out and quickneth every facultie and member Fire when it prevailes will not be hidde nor kept in Secondly Life hath ever a nutritive appetite ioyned with it and that is most set upon such things as are of the same matter and principles with the nature nourished so where a man is by the spirit of Christ quickned unto a Life of Holynesse he will have a hungring thirsting and most ardent affection to all those sincere uncorrupted and Heavenly Truths which are proportionable to that Spirit of Christ which is in him Thirdly Life is Generative and Communicative of it selfe all living Creatures have some seminarie of generation for propagating their owne kinde so that spirit of Holynesse which wee have from Christ is a fruitfull spirit that endeavours to shedde multiply and derive himselfe from one unto another Therefore he descended in fiery tongues to note this multiplying and communicating property which he hath The tongue is a member made for Communion and nothing so generative of it selfe as fire They that feared the Lord spake often to one another saith the Prophet Many people shall gather together and say come yee and let us goe to the Mountaine of the Lord c. Lastly where there is perfect life there is sense too of any violence offered to it so where the Spirit of God is will bee a tendernesse and griefe from the sinnes or temptations which doe assault him As that great sinne which the Scripture calls blaspheming of the Holy Ghost and despighting of the Spirit of Grace is after a more especiall manner called the sinne against the Holy Ghost as being a sinne which biddeth open defiance to the Truth Grace Life and Promises which
that Spirit revealeth and confirmeth unto us so every smaller sinne doth in its manner and measure grieve this spirit even as every distemper in the body doth bring paine in some measure unto the naturall soule A living member is sensible of the smallest pricke whereas a body in the Grave is not pained nor disaffected with the weight and darknesse of the earth the gâ—…awing of wormes the stinch of rotteâ—…nesse nor any violences of dissolution because the principle ofsense is departed so though wicked men lie in rotten and noysome lusts have the guilt of many millions of sinnes like so many rockes and mountaines of Lead on their soules doe dayly cut and teare themselves like the Lunaticke in the Gospell yet they feele nothing of all this because they have no spirit of life in them whereas another in whom Christ is formed would bee constrain'd with teares of blood and most bitter repentance to wash the wound of spirit which but one of those fearefull oathes or uncleane actions which the others multiply and wallow in with delight would make within them Now Hee who hath the Sonne hath holynesse upon two grounds according to that double relation which Holinesse hath unto Christ. For it respecteth Him as the Principle and Fountaine from whence it comes and as the rule or patterne unto which it answeres Holynes is called the Image of God now as the face is both the Fountaine of that Image or species which is shed upon the glasse and likewise the exact patterne and example of it too so Christ is both the Principle of Holinesse by whom it is wrought and the Rule unto which it is proportioned First Christ is the Principle and Fountaine of Holinesse as the head is of sense or motion from him the whole body is joyned together and compacted and so maketh encrease and edification of it selfe in Love The oyntment ran downe from Aarons head unto the skirts of his garment to note the effusion of the spirit of Holinesse from Christ unto his lowest members Ye have received an unction from the holy One saith the Apostle What this influence of Christ into his members is wee shall more particularly open in the consequent parts of this discourse Secondly Christ is the Rule and Patterne of holinesse to his Church Our Sanctification consisteth onely in a conformitie unto his wayes For more distinct understanding of which point we must note first that Christ had severall waies and workes to walke through Sometimes we finde him walking to Golgotha and the Garden which was the worke of his merit and passion Sometimes to the Mount with Peter Iames and Iohn which was the worke of his glory and trans-figuration Sometimes upon the sea and through the midst of Enemies which was his worke of power and miracles Sometimes in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes which was his worke of government guidance and influence on the Church Lastly we finde him going about and doing good submitting himselfe unto his parents going apart by himselfe to pray and in other the like workes of his ordinary obedience Secondly of these workes of Christ we must note that some are uncommunicable others communicable Vncommunicable are first his workes of Merit and Mediation There is but one Mediator betweene God and man the man Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which a man may be saved but the name of Christ. There is no Redemption nor intercession to bee wrought by any man but by Christ. None have to doe with the Censer to offer incense who have not to doe with the Altar to offer Sacrifice Secondly his worke of Governement and Influence into the Church his dispensing of the spirit his quickning of his Word his subduing of his enemies his collecting of his members are all personall Honours which belong unto Him as Head of the Church Those which are Communicable and wherein wee may be by his Grace made partakers are such as either belong to the other life or to this In the other life our Bodies shall bee made Conformed to the transfigured and Glorious body of Christ when Hee appeareth wee shall be made like unto Him by the power whereby Hee subdueth all things unto Himselfe Here some are againe extraordinarily Communicable being for ministery and service not for sanctity or Salvation Such were the miraculous workes of the Apostles which were unto them by way of priviledge and temporary dispensation granted Others ordinarily and universally to all his members So then it remaines that our formall and complete Sanctification consists in a Conformitie to the wayes of Christs ordinary Obedience The whole Life of Christ was a Discipline a Living Shining and exemplary Precept unto men a Visible Commentary on Gods Law Therefore wee finde such names given unto Him in the Scriptures as signifie not onely Preeminence but exemplarynesse A Prince a Leader a Governour a Captaine an Apostle and high Priest a chiefe Sheepeheard and Bishop a Forerunner or Conduct into Glory a Light to the Iewes a Light to the Gentiles a Light to every man that entereth into the World All which titles as they declare his Dignitie that He was the first borne of every Creature so they intimate likewise that Hee was proposed to be the Author and Patterne of Holynesse to his people All other Saints are to be imitated onely with limitation unto Him and so farre as they in their conversation expresse his Life and Spirit Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ. But we must 〈◊〉 pinne our obedience to the example of any Saint lest we happen to stumble and breake our bones as they did Wherefore are the falls and apostacies the errors and infirmities of holy men in Scripture registred Certainely the Lord delighteth not to keepe those sinnes upon record for men to gaze on which himselfe hath put behinde his owne backe and wiped out of the booke of his owne remembrance Hee delighteth not in the dishonour and deformities of his worthies But they are recorded for our sakes set up for landmarks to warne euery man to take heed of adventuring on any mans authority upon those rockes where such renowned and noble Saints have before miscarried Children of light indeed they are but their light is like the light of the Moone subject to mixtures wainings decayes eclipses Christ onely is the Sunne of righteousnesse that hath a plenitude indeficiencie unerring holinesse which neither is deceived nor can deceive Now further this conformity unto Christ must be in all his obedience First in his actiue obedience unto the Law Learne of me saith he for I am meeke and lowly I have given you an Example that you should doe as I have done unto you The action was but temporarie and according to the custome of the place and age but the affection was universall the humility of his heart Let the same minde saith the Apostle be
unto Christs First it must have the same principle and seedâ—… with Christs namely his Spirit As in Christ there were two natures so in either nature there was Holynesse after a severall manner In his Divine nature he was holy by essence and underivatively in His humane by consecration and unction with the Spirit and in this wee are to beare proportion unto him Our holynesse must proceede from the same Spirit whereby he was sanctified onely with this difference The Spirit of Holynesse was Christs Inrâ—… proprio by vertue of the by postaticall union of the humane nature with the divine in the unitie of his person By meanes whereof it was impossible for the humane nature in him not to bee sanctified and filled with Grace But to us the Spirit belongs by an inferior union unto Christ as our Head from whom it is unto us derived and dispensed in such proportions as Hee is in mercy pleased to observe towards his members But yet though wee have not as Hee a plenitude of the Spirit yet wee have the same in Truth and substance with Him As it is the same light which breaketh forth in the dawning of the day and inhereth in the Glorious body of the Sunne though here in fulnesse and there but in measure So the Apostle saith we are all changed into the same Image with Christ by the Spirit of our God And he that is ioyned unto the Lord is one spirit and that there is but one Body and one Spirit betweene Christ and his members Secondly our Holynesse must bee conformable to Christs in the Ends of it First the Glory of God Father saith hee I have gloryfied thee on earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest me to doe Wherein there are three notable things for our imitation First that God must first give us our workes before we must doe them We must have his warrant and authoritie for all we doe If a man could bee so full of selfe-zeale if I may so call it of irregular and unprescribed devotion as to offer rivers of oyle or mountaines of cattell or the first borne of his body for the sinne of his soule should neglect and macerate his body and dishonour his flesh into the gastlynesse and image of a dead carcasse yet if the Lord have not first shewed it nor required it of him it will all prove but the vanitie and pride of a fleshly minde Secondly as wee must doe nothing but that which God requires and gives us to doe so we must therein aime at his Glory as his Authoritie must bee the ground so his Honour must be the End of all our workes and thirdly God is never glorified but by finishing His workes To beginne and then fall backe is to put Christ to shame Secondly all Christs workes were done for the good of the Church He was given and borne for us He was made sinne and curse for us For our righteousnesse and redemption he came and for our expediencie he returned againe When the Apostle urgeth the Philippians not to looke to their owne things but every man also on the things of others hee presseth them with this argument Let the same minde bee in you which was in Christ Iesus Hee thought it no robbery to be equall with God and therefore to him there could be no accession all that he did was for his Church and this Saint Paul sealeth with his owne example If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I ioy and reioyce with you all And else where I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more aboundantly I love you the lesse I beloved Onely here is the difference Christs obedience was meritorious for the redemption of His Church ours onely ministeriall for the edification of the Church we doe all things saith the Apostle for your edification When the Apostle saith I fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ for his Bodies sake which is the Church We are not to conceive it in our adversaries glosse that it was to merit expiate satisfie for the Church but only to benefit and edifie it Let him expound himselfe The things which happened vnto mee namely my bonds in Christ have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospell and againe I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the Salvation not which my sufferings merit but which is in Christ Iesus To note that the sufferings of the Saints are ministerially serviceable to that Salvation of the Church unto which the sufferings of Christ are alone meritorious and availeable Thirdly our holinesse must bee Proportionable to Christs in the parts of it It must be universall the whole man must bee spiritually formed and organiz'd unto the measure of Christ. Every part must have its measure and every ioynt its supply Holynesse is a resurrection all that which fell must be restored and it is a generation all the parts of him that begetteth must be fashioned The God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit soule and body may bee preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Lastly our Holinesse must bee proportion ed unto Christ in the manner of working I shall observe but three particulars of many First it must be done with selfe-denyall He that will follow Christ must deny himselfe Christ for us denyed himselfe and his owne will His naturall love towards his owne life yeelded to his mercifull love towards his members not as I will in my naturall desire to decline dissolution but as thou wilt in thy mercifull purpose to save thy Church Many men will be content to serve God as long as they may with all advantage themselves but to serve him and deny themselves is a worke which they have not learned Ephraim loveth to treade out the corne saith the Prophet You know the mouth of the Oxe was not to be muzled that trod out the corne he had his worke and reward together But plowing is onely in hope for the present it is a hungry and a hard worke So saith he while Ephraim may serve me and himselfe make religion serve his other secular purposes he will be very forward but when he must plow that is serve in hope of a Harvest but in paine for the present hee hath an easier plow going of his owne as it followes ye have plowed wickednesse Secondly it must bee done in obedience unto God Christ emptied himselfe and became obedient It was his meate and drinke to doe the Will of his Father even unto that bitter worke of his Passion he was annointed with the oyle of gladnesse to note that though as made of a woman partaker of the same passions and naturall affections with us hee did decline it and shrinke from it yet as made under the Law hee did most voluntarily
Hee shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his Glorious bodie When Hee comes we shall meete him and be ever with him Hee is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God and therefore to his Kingdome and our Kingdome His by personall proprietie and hypostaticall union ours by his purchase and merit and by our mysticall union and fellowship with him He is gone to prepare a place for us In Earth Hee was our suretie to answere the penaltie of our sinnes and in Heaven He is our Advocate to take seifin and possession of that Kingdome for us Our Captaine and Forerunner and high Priest who hath not onely carried our names but hath broken off the vaile of the Sanctuary and given us accesse into the Holyest of all And hee that hath the Sonne hath this life alreadie in three regards First in pâ—…etio he hath the price that procured it esteemed his It was bought with the pretious blood of Christ in his Name and to his use and it was so bought for him that he hath a present right and claime unto it It is not his iâ—… Reversion after an expiration of any others right there are no leaseâ—… nor reversions in Heaven but it is his as an inheritance is the heires after the death of the Ancestor who yet by minoritie of yeeres or distance of place may occupie and possesse it by some other person Secondly Hee hath it in promisso He hath Gods Charter his Assurance sealed with an oath and a double Sacrament to establish his heart in the expectation of it By two immutable things faith the Apostle namely the Word and the Oath of God wherein it was impossible for him to he we have strong consolation and great ground of hope which hope is sure and stedfast and leadeth us unto that place which is within the vaile whither Christ our Forerunner is gone before us Thirdly He hath it in primitijs in the earnest and first fruites and hansell of it in those few clusters of grapes and bunches of figges those Graces of Christs Spirit that peace comfort serenitie which is shed forth into the heart already from that Heavenly Canaan The Holy Spirit of Promise is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption or full fruition and Revelation of our purchased possession to the prayse of his Glory The Graces of the Spirit in the soule are as certaine and infallible evidences of Salvation as the day starre or the morning aurora is of the ensuing day or Sunne-rising For all spirituall things in the Soule are the beginnings of Heaven parcels of that Spirit the fulnesse and residue whereof is in Christs keeping to adorne us with when he shall present us unto his Father But this Doctrine of the Life of Glory is in this life more to be made use of then curiously to bee enquired into O then where the Treasure is let the heart be where the body is let the Eagles resort if wee are already free men of heaven let our thoughts our language our conversation our Trading be for Heaven Let us set our faces towards our home Let us awake out of sleepe considering that now our salvation is neerer then when we first beleeved If wee have a hope to be like him at his comming let us purifie our selves even as hee is pure since there is a price a high calling a crowne before us let us presse forward with all violence of devotion never thinke our selves farre enough but prepare our hearts still and lay hold on every advantage to further our progresse Since there is a rest remaining for the people of God let us labour to enter into it and to hold fast our profession that as well absent as present we may be accepted of him Secondly since we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Let us feele the burden of our fleshly corruptions and groane after our redemption Let us long for the revelation of the Sonnes of God and for his appearing as the Saints under the Altar How long Lord Iesus Holy and Iust. Thirdly let us with enlarg'd and ravish'd affections with all the vigor and activitie of enflamed hearts recount the great love of God who hath not onely delivered us from his wrath but made us Sonnes married his owne infinite Maiestie to our nature in the unitie of his Sonnes person and made us in him Kings Priests and Heires unto God Beloved what manner of Love How unsearchable How bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehensions of Men or Angels is the Love of God to us saith the Apostle that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Lastly if God will glorifie us with his Life hereafter let us labour as much as wee can to glorifie Him in our lives here It was our Saviours argument who might have entered into Glory as his owne without any such way of procurement if his owne voluntarie undertaking the office of Mediator had not concluded him Glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the World was for I have gloryfied thee on Earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe If we are indeede perswaded that there is laid up for us a Crowne of righteousnesse we cannot but with Saint Paul resolve to fight a good fight to finish our course to keepe the faith to bring forth much fruite that our Father may be glorified in us And now having unfolded this threefold Life which the faithfull have in Christ wee may further take notice of three attributes or properties of this life both to humble and to secure us and they are all couched in one word of the Apostle your life is hid with Christ in God It is in Christs keeping as in the hands of a faithfull depositary and it is a Life in God a full Life a derivation from the Fountaine of Life where it is surer and sweeter then in any Cisterne Here then are three properties of a Christians Life in Christ first Obscuritie secondly Plentie thirdly safetie or Eternitie First it is an obscure life a secret aâ—d mysterious life so the Apostle calleth Godlynesse a Mysterie As there is a mysterie of iniquitie and the hidden things of uncleannesse so there is a Mysterie of Godlynesse and the hidden man of the heart The Life of Grace first is hidden totally from the wicked A stranger doth not intermeddle with a righteous mans joy The naturall man knoweth not any things of Gods spirit Saint Peter gives the reason because he is blinde and cannot see a farre off Now the things of God are deepe things and high things upward they have too much brightnesse and downeward they have too much darknesse for purblinde
God beleeve and all this strength and comfort is thine leane not upon thine owne wisedome trust not thine owne righteousnesse arrogate nothing to thy selfe but impotencie to good no strength of thy selfe but against thy selfe and Gods Grace no power but to resist and withstand the Spirit But rest only upon the Promises and Power of Him who is Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of thy Faith Who is a Head to take care of his weakest members When thou art as weake as a worme in thine owne sense yet feare not O worme Iacob be not dismaide O Men of Israel saith the Lord for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will helpe thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse that is with the strength of my Truth and Promises How shall I give thee up Ephraim It is spoken to backsliding Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim That is How shall I make mine owne Church as the cities of Sodome My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together and marke the reason of all I am God and not man Though you are Men subject to many changes and miscarriages yet I am not a Man that I should repent of my goodnesse and therefore I will not turne to destroy Ephraim But now as men who looke upon the Sunne when they looke downward againe upon darker objects can scarse see or distinguish any thing so ought it to bee with us our looking up unto God should make us see nothing in ourselves but matter to be humbled by and driven backe unto him againe If once the strong man beginne to glorie in his strength or the wise man in his wisedome If our prosperity and security make us resolve with David that we shall never be moved If because we finde our corruptions wounded and mortified wee beginne to insult over them more with our pride then with our faith How easie and just is it with God to let in Satan upon us to remove his hand from under us to overshadow and withdraw His countenance from us to set on our very wounded corruptious upon us to burne up our citie and peradventure to plunge us in the guilt of some such fearefull sinnes as at the very names and first suggestions whereof wee would haply before have beene startled and amazed Alas what are wee to David and Peter to Salomon and Hezekiah men of such dayly communion and intimate acquaintance with the Almightie And yet notwithstanding what fearefull testimonies have they left upon record for all posteritie to take notice what a fraile and inconstant creature man is when once Gods Spirit departs from him That the strength of the greatest champions in the Church of God is but like the strength of Sampson of whom in all his great exployts the Scripture saith that The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and when hee was overcome that the Lord was departed from him We should therefore labour to rejoyce in the Lord with trembling to worke out our salvation with feare to pray that wee may be delivered from our selves and from the traines of Satan that wee may never know by our owne fearefull experience into what an incredible excesse of sinning our flesh though otherwise mortified would breake forth if God should a little subduct his hand and give us over a while to the violence of our owne passions to the treacherie of our owne hearts Wee should be very watchfull and cautious against our selvees that wee presume not to sinne because Grace hath abounded How shall wee that are dead to sinne live any longer therein saith the Apostle What a monstrous perverting of the grace and mercie of God is this to build straw and stubble upon so pretious a foundation Surely wee would esteeme that man prodigiously foolish and contumelious unto nature who should spend his time substance and industrie to finde out a perverse philosophers stone that should turne all the gold it touched into lead or drosse how injurious then and reprochfull are they to the grace of God who extract their owne presumptions out of His mercie and turne the redundancie of divine Grace into an advantage and priviledge of sinning As if Gods mercie had no other use then a dogges grasse or a drunkards vomit or a Papists confession to his Priest to absolve us for some sinnes that there might be roome made for more Surely Grace teacheth men to make other conclusions from Gods mercie Deale bouâ—…tifully with thy seruant that I may keepe thy Word was Davids inference from Gods favour And Saint Paul assures us that none but hard and impenitent hearts despise the goodnesse and riches of Gods patience and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead them to repentance It is the worke of grace to re-imprint the image of God in us to conforme us unto Christ to bend and incline the heart to a Spirituall delight in the Law to remoove in some measure the ignorance of our mindes that wee may see the beautie and wonders of Gods Law and the difficultie and frowardnesse of the fleshly will against grace that Gods Commands may not be grievous but sweete unto us These are the branches and properties of that Life which we have from Christ. And wee have them from Him at the Sonne as a middle person betweene us and his Father First because the Sonne hath His Fathers Seale Hath Iudgement Power libertie to dispose of and dispense Life and Salvation to whom He will Labour for the Meate that endureth unto Eternall Life which the Sonne of Man shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed Secondly because the Son is in his Fathers bosome hath His heart His eare His affections and therefore He is heard alwayes in whatsoever Hee desireth for any of His members and this interest in His Fathers Love was that by which He raised Lazarus unto Life againe Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the greatest gift which the Father ever gave unto the World Hee cannot denie Life where He hath given the Sonne He cannot with-hold silver where Hee hath given gold and Diamonds If He spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things Now our life is conveyed from Christ unto us First by Imputation of His merit whereby our persons are made righteous and acceptable unto God Secondly by Infusion or communion with His Spirit which sanctifies our nature and enables us to doe spirituall services For though we exclude workes from Iustification formally considered yet we require them of every Iustified man neither doth any Faith Iustifie but that which worketh by Love though it justifie not under that reason as a working Faith but under that relative office of receiving and applying Christ. Thirdly by
the Word of faith and with the spirit of faith Beeyee not slothfull saith the Apostle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Lastly we must doe with faith as men doe with pretious things Try it and put it to the touchstone that wee may prove whether it be truly valuable and unfeigned because there is much counterfeite faith as there is false money and deceitfull jewels and wilde herbes in the field which very neerely resemble those that are right and pure This is an argument which hath been much travail'd in by men of more learning and spirit and therefore I will but touch upon it by considering foure principall effects of this Grace The first is a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith the heart assenteth unto for according as is the evidence and pretiousnesse of the thing beleeved such is the measure of our love unto it For saving faith is an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divels which is with trembling and horror and that delight is nothing else but a kind of rellish and experience of the goodnesse of that truth which we assent unto Whereupon it necessarily followes even from the dictate of nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him comfort and delight that from this assent must arise a love of those truths whence such sweetnesse doth issue By the first act of faith we apprehend God a reconcileable God by the second a reconciled God for faith shewes us Gods love to us in Christ proposeth him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and thereby begetâ—…eth in us a love unto Christ againe and this love is a sincere uncorrupted immortall love a conjugall and superlative love nothing must be loved in competition with Christ every thing must be rejected and cast away either as a snare when hee hates it or as a Sacrifice when he calles for it Therefore God required the neerest of a mans blood in some cases to throw the first stone at an Idolater to shew that no relations should preponderate or over-sway our hearts from his love Christ and earthly things often come into competition in the life of a man In every un just gaine Christ and a bribe or Christ and cruelty in every oth or execration Christ and a blasphemy in every sinfull fashion Christ and a ragge or Christ and an excrement in every vaine-glorious affectation Christ and a blast in every intemperancy Christ and a vomit a stagger a shame a disease O where is that faith in men which should overcome the world and the things of the world Why should men delight in any thing while they live which when they â—…e on their death beds a time speedily approching they shall never bee able to reflect on with comfort nor to recount without amazement and horror Certainely he that fosters any Dalila or darling lust against the will and command of Christ well may hee delude himselfe with foolish conceits that hee loves the Lord Iesus but let him be assured that though he may be deceived yet God will not bee mocked not every one that faith Lord Lord shall bee accounted the friends of Christ but they who keepe his Commandements The second effect of faith is Assiance and Hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in due time performe what in his word hee hath promised I haue set life and death before you saith Moses to the people That thou maist love the Lord thy God and that thou maist obey his voice and that thou maist cleave unto him c. Wee are confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst wee are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. When once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest claime and propriety unto them and that to be at last actually performed not by a man who may be subject both to unfaithfulnesse in keeping and disability in performing his promises but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by word and oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doâ—… what hee hath purposed or promised Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and all sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such Promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-concurrencie as in it selfe utterly impotent and to the fullfilling of such a worke as is to be by Gods owne omnipotencie effâ—…cted altogether irrequisite and resolving in the midst of temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that hee who hath promised will certainly bring it to passe A third effect of faith is ioy and peace of Conscience Being justified by faith wee haue peace with God The God of peace fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing The mind is by the rellish and experience of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a Dead peace which is onely an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming man on the top of a mast but such a peace as a man may by afyllogisme of the practicall judgement upon right examination of his owne interest unto Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often haue an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but there is a great difference For there is but a dore betweene a wicked man and his sinne which will certainely one day open and then sinne at the doore will fly upon the Soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sin there is a wall of fire and an immoveable impregnable fort even the merits of Christ the wicked mans peace growes out of Ignorance of God the Law himselfe but a righteous mans peace growes out of the knowledge of God and Christ. So that there are two things in it Tranquillity it is a quiet thing and serenitie it is a cleare and distinct thing However if a faithfull man have not present peace because peace is an effect not of the first and direct but of the second and reflexive act of faith yet there is ever with all faith the seed of peace and a resolution to seeke and to sue it out The last effect of faith which I shall now speake of is fructification faith worketh by love And it worketh first Repentance whereby we are not only to understand griefe for sinne or a sense of the weight and guilt of it which is onely a legall thing if it proceed no farther and may goe before faith but hatred of sinne as a thing contrary to that new spirit
and unitie of natures with him in his spirit and having this Spirit of Christ He thereby worketh in us the will and the deed and thus our sealâ—… is put unto Gods covenant and wee have a constat of it in our selves in some measure whereas jnfidelitie makes God a lyer by saying either I looke for life some other way or I have nothing to doe to depend on Christ for it though God have proposed Him as an all-sufficient Saviour Now then when man hath experience of Gods working this will in him when he findes his heart opened to attend and his will ready to obey the call when hee is made desirous to feare Gods Name and prepared to seeke His face ready to subscribe and beare witnesse to all Gods wayes and methodes of saving That Hee is righteous in His Iudgements if He should condemne wonderfull in His patience when He doth forbeare mighty in His power wisedome and mercie when Hee doth convert unsearchable in the riches and treasures of Christ when he doth Iustifie most holy pure and good in all His commands the soveraigne Lord of our persons and lives to order and dispose them at His will on the sense and experience of these workes doth grow that conclusion and resolution to cleave to Christ. Lastly because this act of Faith is our dutie to God As we may come to Christ because we are called so wee must come because wee are commanded For as Christ was commanded to save us so we are commanded to beleeve in Him From these and the like considerations ariseth a purpose to rely on Christ. But yet still this purpose at first by the mixture of sinne the pragmaticalnesse and importunitie of Satan in tempting the unexperience of the heart in trials the tendernesse of the spirit and fresh sight and reflexion on the state of sinne is very weake and consisteth with much feare doubts trepidation shrinking mistrust of it selfe And therefore though all other effects flow in great measure from it yet that of comfort and calmenesse of spirit more weakly because the heart being most busied in sprituall debatements prayers groanes conflicts struglings of heart languishing and sighing importunities of spirit is not at leisure to reflect on its own translated condition or in the seeds time of teares to reape a harvest of Ioy. As a tree new planted is apt to be bended at every touch or blast of winde or children new borne to crie at every turne and noyse so men in their first conversion are usually more retentive of fearefull then of more comfortable impressions The last act then of Faith is that reflexive act whereby a man knoweth his owne Faith and Knowledge of Christ which is the assurance of faith upon which the joy and peace of a Christian doth principally depend and hath its severall differences and degrees according to the evidence and cleerenesse of that reflection As beautie is more distinctly rendered in a cleere then in a dimme and disturbed glasse so is comfort more distinct and evident according to the proportions of evidence and assurance in faith So then to conclude with this generall rule according as the habits of faith are more firme and radicated the acts more strong constant and evident the conquests and experiences more frequent and successefull so are the properties more evident and conspicuous For the measure and magnitude of a proper passion and effect doth ever follow the perfection of the nature and cause whence it proceedes And therefore every man as he tenders either the love and obedience he owes to God or the comfort he desires in himselfe to enjoy must labour to attaine the highest pitch of Faith and still with Saint Paul to grow in the knowledge of him and his resurrection and sufferings So then upon these premises the heart is to examine it selfe touching the truth of faith in it Doe I love all divine truth not because it is proportionable to my desires but conformable unto God who is the Author of it Can I in all estates without murmuring impatiencie or rebellion cast my selfe upon Gods mercie and trust in Him though He should kill me Doe I wholly renounce all selfe confidence and dependance all worthinesse or concurrence of my selfe to righteousnesse Can I willingly and in the truth and sinceritie of my heart owne all shame and condemnation and acquit God as most righteous and holy if He should reject me Doe I not build either my hopes or feares upon the faces of men nor make either them or my selfe the rule or end of my desires Doe I yeeld and seriously endeavour an universall obedience unto all Gods law and that in the whole extent and latitude thereof without any allowance exception or reservation Is not my obedience mercenarie but sincere Do I not dispense with my selfe for the least sprigges of sinne for irregular thoughts for occasions of offence for appearances of evill for motions of concupiscence for idle words and vaine conversation for any thing that carries with it the face of sinne And when in any of these I am overtaken doe I bewaile my weaknesse and renew my resolutions against it In a word when I have impartially and uprightly measured mine owne heart by the rule doth it not condemne mee of selfe-deceite of hypocrisie of halting and dissembling of halfing and prevaricating in Gods service I may then comfortably conclude that my Faith is in some measure operative and effectuall in mee Which yet I may further trie by the nature of it as it is further expressed by the Apostle in the Text That I may know him Here we see the nature of faith is expressed by an act of knowledge and that act respectively to justification limited to Christ This is eternall Life to know thee and him whom thou hast sent where by knowledge I understand a certaine and evident assent Now such assents are of two sorts some grounded upon the evidence of the object and that light which the thing assented unto doth carrie and present to the understanding as I assent to this truth that the Sunne is light by the evidence of the thing it selfe and this kinde of assent the Apostle contradistinguisheth from faith by the name of sight Others are grounded upon the authoritie or authenticalnesse of a narrator upon whose report while wee rely without any evidence of the thing it selfe the assent which we produce is an assent of faith or credence Now that Faith is a certaine assâ—…nt and that even above the certaintie of meere naturall conclusions is on all hands I thinke confessed because how ever in regard of our weaknesse and distrust wee are often subject to stagger yet in the thing it selfe it dependeth upon the infallibilitie of Gods owne Word who hath said it and is by consequence neerer unto him who is the fountaine oâ—… all truth and therefore must needes more share in the properties of truth which are certainty and evidâ—…nce then any proved
by meere naturall reasons and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspition hesitaâ—…cie â—…ubitation in the opinion of schoolâ—…men themselves Now then in as much as we are bound to yeeld an evident assent unto divine truths necessary hereunto it is that the undâ—…rstanding bee convinc'd of these two things First that God is of infallible authoritie and cannot lye nor deceive which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned Secondly that this authoritie which in faith I rely upon is indeede and infallibly Gods owne authoritie The meanes whereby I come to know that may bee either extraordinary as revelation such as was made by the Prophets concerning future events or else ordinary and common to the faithfull This the Papists say is the authoritie of the Church Against which if one would dispute much might bee said Briefly granting first unto the Church a ministeriall introductory perswasive and conducting concurrence in this worke pointing unto the starre which yet it selfe shineth by its owne light reaching forth and exhibiting the light which though in it selfe visible could not bee so ordinarily to mee uâ—…lesse thus presented explaning the evidence of those truths unto which I assent for their owne intrinsecall certainâ—…y I doe here demaund how it is that each man comes to beleeve The Colliar will quickly make a wise answere as the Church beleeves But now how or why doth the Church beleeve these or these truths to bee divine Surely not because the Church hath so determined our Saviour Himselfe would not be so beleeved If I beare record of my selfe my record is not true Well then the Church must needes beleeve by the spirit which leads it into all truth And what is the Church but the Bodie of Christ the congregrtion of the faithfull consisting of divers members And what worke is that whereby the Spirit doth illuminate and raise the understanding to perceive aright divine truth but onely that Oyntment which dwelleth in you saith the Apostle whereby Christs sheepe are enabled to heare His voyce in matters of more Heavenly and fundamentall consequence and to distinguish the same from the voyce of strangers Now have not all the faithfull of this unction Doth it not runne downe from the head to the skirts of the garment Are wee not all a royall Priesthood and in both these respects annointed by the Spirit And having all the Spirit though in different measures and degrees is it not in congruitie probable that we have with Him received those vivificall and illightning operations which come along with him Capable is the poorest member in Christs Church being growne to maturitie of yeeres of information in the faith Strange therefore it is that the Spirit not leaving mee destitute of other quickning graces should in this onely leave my poore soule to travell as farre as Rome to see that by a candle or rather by an ignis fatuus which himselfe might more evidently make knowne unto me For the Spirit doth beget knowledge We have received the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God And againe Hereby we know that wee dwell in Him and Hee in us because Hee hath given us of His Spirit And againe Hereby we know that Hee abideth in us by the Spirit which Hee hath given us Especially since wee must take even the determinations of the Church and Pope though they were infallible in themselves at second hand as they passe through the mouth of a Priest whose authoritie being not infallible nor apostolicall but humane impossible it is not but that he may misreport His holy Father and by that meanes misguide and delude an unsetled soule Againe I demaund How doth it appeare unto mee that the Iudgment of the Church is infallible when it alone is the warrant of my Faith That this is it selfe no principle nor to the light of naturall reason primo intuitâ—… manifest ex evidentia terminorum is most certaine For that this company of men should not erre when other companies of men may erre cannot possibly be immediateâ—…y and por se evident since there must first needs apriori be discovered some internall difference betweene those men from whence as from an antecedent principle this difference of erring or not erring must needes grow Now then I demand what is that whereby I doe assent unto this proposition in case it were true That the Church cannot erre The Church it selfe it cannot be since nothing beares record of it selfe and if it should the proofe would be more ridiculous then the opinion being but idem peridem and petitio quaestionis Above the Church a Priori there is not any light but the scriptures and the spirit Therefore needs by these must I assent unto that one proposition at least And if unto that by these why then by the same light may I not assent unto all other divine truths since evident it is that the same light which enables me rightly to apprehend one object is sufficient also to any other for which a lesser light then that is presumed to suffice So then a true faith hath its evidence and certainty grounded upon the Authoritie of the word as the instrument and of the spirit of God raising and quickning the soule to attend and acknowledge the things therein revealed and to set to its owne seale unto the truth and goodnesse of them But how doe I know either this word to be Gods Word or this spirit to bee Gods spirit since there are sundry false and lying spirits I answer first ad Hominem there are many particular Churches and Bishops which take themselves to be equally with Rome members and Bishops of the universall Church How shall it invincibly appeare to my Conscience that other Churches and Bishops all save this onely doe or may erre and that this which will have me to beleeve her infallibility is not her selfe an hereticall and revolted Church This is a question controuerted By what autority shall it be decided or into what principles á priori resolved and how shall the evidence of those principles appeare to the Conscience That the Popes are successors of Peter in his see of Rome that they are doctrinall as wel as personall successours that Peter did there sit as moderator of the Catholike Church that his infallibility should not stick to his chaire at Antioch as well as to that at Rome that Christ gave him a principality jurisdiction and Apostleship to have to himselfe over all others and to leave to his successors who though otherwise privat men and not any of the pen-men of the holy Ghost should yet have after him a power over those Apostles who survivd Peter as it is manifest Iohn did That the scripture doth say any title of all this that the traditions which do say it are a divine word are al controversed points and though there be sorceries more then enough
even as a nurse her infant Secondly Holynesse must needes consist in a Conformitie unto Christ if wee consider the nature of it Wee are then Sanctified when wee are re-endued with that Image of God after which we were at first created Some have conceived that we are therefore said to bee created after Gods Image because wee were made after the Image of Christ who was to come but this is contradicted by the Apostle who saith that Adam was the figure of Christ and not Christ the patterne of Adam yet that created Holynesse is renewed in us after the Image of Christ. As we have borne the image of the earthly Adam who was taken out of the Earth an image of sinne and guilt So wee must beare the Image of the Heavenly Adam who is the Lord from Heaven an Image of Life and Holynesse We were predestinated saith the Apostle to be conformed unto the Image of the Sonne Conformed in his Nature Holynesse in His End Happynesse and in the way thereunto Sufferings We all saith he beholding with open face as in a glasse that is in Christ or in the face of Christ the Glory of God are changed into the same Image with Christ He the Image of his Father and we of Him from glory to glory that is either from glory inchoate in obedience and grace here for the Saints in their very sufferings are glorious and conformable to the Glory of Christ The Spirit of Glory is upon you in your reproaches for Christ unto Glory consummate in Heaven and Salvation here after or from glory to glory that is Grace for Grace the Glorious Image of Gods Holynesse in Christ fashioning and producing it selfe in the hearts of the faithfull as an Image or species of light shining on a glasse doth from thence fashion it selfe on the wall or in another glasse Holynesse is the Image of God now in an Image there are two things required First a similitude of one thing unto another Secondly A Deduction derivation impression of that similitude upon the one from the other and with relation thereunto For though there bee the similitude of snow in milke yet the one is not the image of the other Now then when an image is universally lost that no man living can furnish his neighbour with it to draw from thence another for himselfe there must be recourse to the prototype and originall or else it cannot bee had Now in Adam there was an universall obliteration of Gods Holy Image out of himselfe and all his posteritie Vnto God therefore Himselfe wee must have recourse to repaire this Image againe But how can this be The Apostle tels us that He is an Inaccessible an unapproachable God no man can draw neere him but hee will be licked up and devoured like the stubble by the fire and yet if a man could come neere him as in some sense he is not farre from every one of us yet He is an Invisible God no man can see Him and live no man can have a view of his face to new draw it againe Wee are all by sinne come short of His Glory as impossible it is for any man to become holy againe as it is to see that which is invisible or to approch unto that which is Inaccessible except the Lord be pleased through some vaile or other to exhibite His Image againe unto us and through some glasse to let it shine upon us we shall be everlastingly destitute of it And this Hee hath beene pleased to doe through the vaile of Christs flesh God was manifested in the flesh in that flesh He was made visible and we have an accesse into the Holyest of all through the vaile that is to say Christs flesh in that flesh He was made accessible By Him saith the Apostle wee have an accesse unto the Father He was the Image of the Invisible God He that hath seene Him hath seene the Father For as God was in him reconciling the World unto Himselfe so was Hee in Him revealing Himselfe unto the World No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father Hee hath revealed Him Thirdly consider the quality of the mysticall body It is a true rule That that which is first and best in any kinde is the rule and measure of all the rest And therefore Christ being the first and chiefest member in the Church He is to bee the ground of conformitie to the rest And there is indeede a mutuall suteablenesse betweene the Head and the Members Christ by compassion Conformable to His Members in their infirmitie We have not an high Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities And the members by communion conformable to Christ in His Sanctity Both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one Fourthly Holynesse in the Scripture is called an Vnction All the vessels of the Tabernacle were sanctified by that Holy Vnction which was prescribed Moses Ye have received an ointment saith S. Iohn which teacheth you all things It is an oyntment which healeth our wounds and cleanseth our nature mollyfieth our Consciences and openéth our eyes and consecrateth our persons unto royall sacred and peculiar services Now though Christ were annointed with this Holy Oyle above his fellowes yet not without his fellowes but all they are by his unction sanctified Light is principally in the Sunne and sappe in the roote and water in the Fountaine yet there is a derivation a conformitie in the beame branches and streames to their originals Onely here is the difference in Christ there is a fulnesse in us onely a measure and in Christ there is a purenesse but in us a mixture Fifthly and lastly Christ is the Summe of the whole Scriptures and therefore necessarily the Rule of Holynesse For the Scripture is profitable to make a man perfect and to furnish him unto all good workes Saint Paul professeth that he with-held nothing which was profitable but delivered the whole Counsell of God and yet elsewhere we finde the Summe of his preaching was Christ crucified and therefore that which the Scripture calles the writing of the Law in our hearts it calles the forming of Christ in us to note that Christ is the summe and substance of the whole Law Hee came to men first in his Word and after in his Body fulfilling the types accomplishing the predictions performing the commaunds remooving the burdens exhibiting the precepts of the whole Law in a most exemplarie and perfect conversation Now for our further applycation of this Doctrine unto use and practise we may hence first receive a twofold Instruction First touching the proportions wherein our holynesse must beare conformitie unto Christ for conformitie cannot be without proportion Here then we may observe foure particulars wherein our holynesse is to bee proportionable