is first impressed on the mind hence flowes out pleasant obedience and full of love hence all the affections and the whol body with its members learn to give a willing obedience and submit unto God whereas before they resisted him being under the standerd of Satan This Obedience tho imperfect yet hath a certain if I may so say imperfect perfection It s universal three manner of wayes 1. in the subject 2. In the Object 3. In the duration the whole man subjected to the whole Law and that constantly and perseveringly The first universality is the cause of the other because it s not in the tongue alone or in the hand c. but has its root in the heart therefore doth not wither as the grasse or flower lying on the superfice of the earth but it flourishes because rooted and therefore it embraces the whole Law because it arises from a reverence it has for the Lawgiver himself Reverence I say but tempered with Love hence it accounts no Law nor command little or of small value which is from God because he is great and highly esteemed by the pious heart No command hard tho contrary to the flesh because all things are easie to Love there is the same authority in all as St. Iames divinely argues And this Authority is the golden chain of all the commandments which if broke in any link all falls a pieces That this three fold perfection of obedience is not a picture drawn by fancy is evident in David Psal. 119. where he subjects himself to the whole Law His feet v. 105. his mouth v. 13. his heart v. 11. the whole tenor of his life v. 24. He subjects himself to the whole law v. 6. and he professes his constancy therein in v. 16. and 33. teach me the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end According to the foreknowledge of God the Father The exactest knowledge of things is to know them in their causes it is then an excellent thing and worthy of their endeavours that are most desirous of knowledge to know the best things in their highest Causes and the happiest way of this knowledge is to possess those things and to know them in Experience to such the Apostle here speaks and sets before them the excellency of their spiritual condition and leads them to the causes of it Their Estate is that they are sanctified and justified the nearest cause of both these is Iesus Christ he is made unto them both Righteousness and Sanctification the sprinkling of his blood purifies them from guiltines and quickens them to obedience Now followes to consider the appropriateing or applying Cause the Holy and holy making or sanctifying Spirit the Author of their selecting from the world and effectual calling unto grace The source of all the appointing or decreeing Cause is God the Father for though they all work Equally in all yet in order of working we are taught thus to distinguish and particularly to ascribe the first work of Eternal Election to the first Person of the blessed Trinity In or through Sanctification for to render it Elect to the sanctification is strained so then I conceive this Election is their Effectual Calling which is by the working of the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 26.27.28 where Vocation and Election are used in the same sense Ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise after the flesh c. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to condemn the wise 't is the first act of the decree of Election the beginning of its performance in these that are Elected and 't is in it self a real seperating of men from the profane and miserable Condition of the world and an appropriating and consecrating of a man unto God and therefore both in regard of its relation to Election and in regard of its own nature it well bears that name Rom. 8.28.30 Act. 2.47 13.48 Ioh. 15.19 Sanctification in a narrower sense as distinguished fâ—om Iustification signifieth the inherent holiness of a Christian or his Inclinement and Innablement to obedience mentioned in this verse but 't is here more large and so extends with the whole work of Renovation and is the severing and seperating of men to God by his holy Spirit drawing them unto him and so it comprehends Justification as here and the first working of faith by which the soul is justified through its apprehending and applying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of the spirit The Word calls men externally and by that Eternal calling prevails with many to an External receiving and professing of Religion but if it be left alone it goes no further it is indeed the means of sanctification and effectual calling Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth But this is doth when the spirit that speaks in the Word works in the heart and causes it to hear and obey The Spirit or Soul of a man is the chief and first subject of this work and 't is but slight false work that begins not there but the Spirit here is rather to be taken for the Spirit of God the Efficient then the Spirit of man the Subject of this sanctification And therefore our Saviour in that place prayes to the Father that he would sanctifie his own by that truth and this he doth by the concurrence of his Spirit with that word of truth which is the life and vigour of it and makes it prove the power of God unto salvation to them that believe 't is a fit means in it self but 't is then a prevailing meanes when the Spirit of God brings it in to the heart 't is a Sword and sharper then a two edged Sword fit to divide yea even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit But this it doth not without it be in the Spirits hand and he applyes it to this cutting and dividing The word calls but the Spirit Drawes not sever'd from that word but working in it and by it 'T is a very difficult work to draw a Soul out of the hands and strong chains of Satan and out of the pleasing Entanglements of the world and out of its own natural perversness to yield up it self unto God to deny it self and live to him and in so doing to run against the main stream and the current of the ungodly world without and Corruption within The strongest Rhetorick the most moving and persuasive way of discourse is all too weak the tongue of Men and Angels cannot prevail with the soul to free it self and shake off all that deteins it although it be convinced of the truth of those things that are represented to it yet still it can and will hold out against it and say non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris The hand of Man is too weak to pluck any soul out of the croud of the world and set it in amongst the select number of Believers Only the Father of Spirits hath absolute command of Spirits viz. the Souls of Men
as to be scorn'd out of it being so honourable and happy and the day is at hand wherein those that scoffe you would give much more than all that the best of them ever possess'd in the world to be admitted into your number Seeing you have purifi'd your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit Here is 1. The chief seat or subject of the work of sanctification the Soul 2. The subordinate means Truth 3. The Nature of it obeying of truth 4. The chief worker of it The Holy Spirit For the first 'T is no doubt a work that goes through the whole man renews and purifies all Heb. 10.22 2 Cor. 7.1 But because it purifies the soul therefore 't is that does purifie all There begins impurity Mat. 15. not onely evil thoughts but all evill actions come forth from the heart which is there all one with the soul and therefore this purifying begins there makes the tree good that the fruit may be good 't is not so much externall performances that are the difference of Men as their inward temper we meet here in the same place and all partake of the same word and prayer But how wide a difference is there in Gods eye betwixt an unwash'd profane heart in the same exercise and a soul purified in some measure in obeying the truth and desirous to be further purified by further obeying it 2. That which is the subordinate means of this purity is the Truth or the word of God it is truth and pure in it self and begets truth and purity in the heart by teaching it concerning the holy and pure nature of God shewing it and his holy will which is to us the rule of purity And by representing Jesus Christ unto us as the fountain of our purity and Renovation from whose fulness we may receive grace for grace 3. The nature of this work that wherein the very being of this purifying consists is the Receiving or Obeying of this Truth So Gal. 3.1 Where 't is put for right believing The chief point of obedience is believing the proper obedience to Truth is to give credit to it and this divine belief doth necessarily bring the whole soul into obedience and conformity to that pure Truth which is in the word and so the very purifying and renewing of the soul is this obedience of faith as unbelief is its cheif impurity and disobedience therefore Act. 15.9 faith is said to purifie the heart 4. The chief worker of this sanctification is the Holy spirit of God they are said here to purifie themselves For 't is certain and undeniable that the soul it self doth act in believing or obeying the truth but not of it self it is not the first principle of motion They purifie their souls but 't is by the spirit They doe it by his enlivening power and a purifying vertue recevied from him Faith or obeying the truth works this purity But the Holy Ghost works that faith as in the forecited place God is said to purifie their hearts by faith Verse 8. He doth that by giving them the Holy Ghost The truth is pure and purifying yet can it not of it self purifie the soul but by the obeying or believing it and the soul cannot obey or believe but by the spirit which works in it that faith and by that faith purifies it and works Love in it ' it s the Impurity and Earthliness of Mens minds that is the great cause of disuâ—ion and disaffection amongst them and of all their striâ—es Iam. 4.1 This spirit is that fire that refines and purifies the soul from the dross of earthly desires that possess it and sublimates it to the love of God and of his Saints because they are his and are purified by the same spirit T is the property of fire to draw together things of the same kind the outward fire of Enmities and persecution that are kindled against the godly by the world doth some-what and if it were more considered by them would do more in this knitting their hearts closer one to another but it is this inward pure and purifying fire of the Holy Ghost that doth most powerfully unite them The true reason why there is so little truth of this Christian mutuall Love amongst those that are called Christians is because there is so little of this purifying Obedience to the truth whence it flowes Faith unfeigned would beget this Love unfeigned men may exhort to them both but they require the hand of God to work them in the heart Verse 23. Being borne again not of Corruptible seed But of Incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE two things that make up the Apostles Exhortation are the very summe of a Christians duty to walk as obedient children towards God and loving brethen one towards another And that it may yet have the deeper impression he here represents to them anew that new birth he mentioned before by which they are the children of God and so brethren We shall first speak of this Regeneration And then of the Seed This is the great dignity of believers that they are the sons of God Io. 1.12 and the great Evidence of the love of God that he hath bestow'd this dignity on them 1 Io. 3.1 For they are no way needfull to him he had from Eternity a Son perfâ—ctly like himself the character of his person and one Spirit proceeding from both and there is no Creation neither the first nor the second can add any thing to those and their happiness 't is most true of that blessed Trinity Satis amplum alter alterj Theatrum sumus But the gracious purpose of God to impart his goodness appears in this that he hath made himself such a multitude of sons not onely Angels that are so called but man a little lower than they in nature yet dignified with this name in his Creation St. Luke 3.38 Which was the Son of Adam which was the son of God He had not onely the Impression of Gods footsteps as they speak which all the Creatures have but of his Image and most of all in this is his rich Grace magnified that sin having defac'd that Image and so degraded Man from his honour and devested him of that title of sonship and stampt our polluted nature with the marks of vileness and bondage yea with the very Image of Satan Rebellion and Enmity against God that out of Mankind thus ruin'd and degenerated God should raise to himself a new Race and Generation of sons For this designe was the word made flesh Io. 1. The son made Man to make men the sons of God and 't is by him alone we are restor'd to this they that receive him receive with him and in him this priviledge Verse 12. And therefore 't is a sonship by Adoption and is so called in scripture in difference from his Eternall and Ineffable Generation who is and that was the onely begotten son of God yet that we may
it shall appear in its full brightnesâ— at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The peculiar treasure of a Christian being the Grace that he receives from Heaven and particularly that Soveraign Grace of Faith whatsoever he can be assur'd will better him any way in this he will not only bear it patiently but gladly imbrace it Rom. 5.3 Therefore the Apostle sets this before his Brethren in those words of this verse where is 1. The Worth and Excellency of Faith 2. The usefulness of Temptations in relation to it The trial of Faith is call'd more precious a work of more worth then the tryal of Gold because Faith it selfe is of more value then Gold the Apostle chuses this comparison as fitting his purpose for both for the Illustration of the worth of Faith and likewise the use of Temptations representing the one by Gold and the other by the trying of Gold in the Fire The worth of Gold is 1. Real the purest and preciousest of all mettals having many excellent properties beyond them as they that write of the nature of Gold observe 2. Far greater in the Esteem and Opinion of Men. See how Men hurry up and down over Sea and Land unwearied in their pursuit with hazard of life and often with the loss of Uprightness and a good Conscience and not only thus Esteem it in it self but make it the Rule of their Esteem one of another valuing Men less or more as they are more or less furnish't with it and we see at what a height that is for things we would commend much we borrow its name to them viz. Golden Mediocrity and that Age which they would call the best of all they name it the Golden Age and as Seneca observes describing heavenly things as Ovid the Suns Pallace and Chariot still Gold is the word for all And the Holy Scriptures descending to our reach do set forth the Riches of the new Ierusalem by it Rev. 21. And the Excellency of Christ. Cant. 5.11.14 And here the preciousness of Faith whereof Christ is the Object is said to be more precious then Gold I will not insist in the parallel of Faith with Gold in the other Qualities of it as that it is pure and sollid as Gold And that ' it s most ductile and malleable as gold beyond all other mettals it plies any way with the Will of God But then Faith truly Enriches the soul And as Gold Answers all things so Faith gives the Soul propriety to all the rich Consolations of the Gospel to all the promises of Life and salvation to all needful Blessings it draws vertue from Christ to strengthen it self and all other Graces And thus 't is not onely precious as Gold but goes far above the Comparison 't is more precious yea much more precious 1. in its Originall the other is dig'd out of the bowels of the Earth but the Mine of this Gold is above it comes from Heaven 2. In its Nature answerable to its Originall it is Immateriall Spirituall and pure we refine Gold and make it purer but when we receive Faith pure of it self we mix dross with it and make it Impure by the allay of Unbelief 3. in its Endurance flowing from the former it perisheth not Gold is a thing in it selfe Corruptible and perishing and to particular owners it perisheth in their loss of it being depriv'd of it any way Other Graces are likewise tryed in the same Furnace but Faith is named as the Root of all the rest Sharp afflictions give a Christian a tryal of his Love to God whether it be single and for himself or not for then it will be the same when he strikes as when he Embraces and in the fire of affliction will rather grow the hotter and be more taken off from the world and set upon him Again the Grace of Paâ—ience is put particularly upon triall in distresses but both these spring from Faith for Love rises from a right and strong belief of the Goodness of God and patience from a persuasion of the Wisdom and Love of God and the truth of his promises He hath said I will not fail thee And that we shall not be tempted above our strength and he will give the Issue Now the belief of those Causes patience The triall of faith worketh Patience Iam. â— 3 For therefore doth the Christian resigne up himselfe and all that concerns him his triall the measure and length of them all unto Gods dispose because he knowes that he is in the hands of a wise and loving Father Thus the trial of those and other particular Graces doe still resolve into this and are compris'd under it the triall of Faith This tryal as 〈◊〉 of Gold may be for a 〈◊〉 â—old end 1 for Experiment of the truth and pâ—reness of a Christians faith 2. for râ—fining it yeâ— more and to raise it to a higher pitch or degree of pâ—reness 1. The furnace of Affliction shows upright â—eal Faith to be such indeed remaining stâ—ll the same even in the fire the same thaâ— it was undiminished as good Gold 〈◊〉 none of its quantity in the fire Doubtless many are deceiv'd in time of ease and prosperity with imaginary Faith and Fortitude so that there may be still some doubt while a Man is under set with outward helps as Riches Friends Esteem c. whether he leanes upon those or upon God who is an Invisible support though stronger then all that are visible and is the peculiar and alone stay of Faith in all Conditions But when all these outward props are pluckt away from a Man then it will manifest whether something else upholds him or not for if there be nothing else then â—e falls but if his mind stand firm and unremoved as before then 't is evident he laid not his weight upon these things he had them about him but was built upon a foundation though not seen which is able alone to stay him although he be not only frustrated of all other supports but beatâ—n upon with stormes and tempests as our Saviour sayes the house fell not because it was founded upon a rock Mat. 7.25 This testified the truth of Davids Faith who found it staying him upon God when there was nothing else near that could do 't I had fainted unless I had believ'd Psa. 27.13 So in his strait 1. Sam. 30.6 Where it s said that David was greatly distressed but he encouraged himself in the Lord his God Thus Psa. 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and portion for ever The Hearts naturall strength of spirit and Resolution may beaâ— up under outward weakness or the failing of the flesh but when the Heart it self fails that is the strength of the flesh what shall strengthen it nothing but God who is the strength of the heart and its portion for ever Thus Faith worketh alone when the Case suites that of the Prophets Haback â— 17 Although the fig
the safe possession of perfect happiness when the soul shall be out of the reach of all Adversaries and adverse Accidents no more subjected to those Evils that are its own properly namely the Conscience of Sin and fear of Wrath and sad Defections nor yet subject to those other Evils it endur'd by Society with the body outward distresses and Affliction Persecutions Poverty diseases c. 'T is call'd Salvation of the soul not excluding the body from the society of that Glory when it shall be rais'd and reunited to the Soul but because the soul is of it self an Immortall substance and both the more Noble part of Man and the prime subject both of Grace and glory and because it arrives first at that blessedness and for a time leaves the body in the dust to do homage to its Originall therefore it is only named here but Jesus is the Saviour of the body too and he shall at his coming change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body The End End or Reward for it is both It s the End either at which Faith aimes or wherein it Ceaseth it s the Reward not of their Works nor of Faith as a work deserving it but as the Condition of the New Covenant which God according to the tenour of that Covenant first works in his own and then Rewards as if it were their work And this Salvation or Fruition of Christ is the proper Reward of faith which Believes in him unseen and so obtains that happy sight 't is the proper work of faith to believe what thou seest not and the Reward of faith to see what thou hast believed This is the Certainty of their Hope that 't is as if they had already receiv'd it if the promise of God and the merit of Christ hold good then they that believe in him and Love him are made sure to salvation The promises of God in Christ are not yea and nay but they are in him yea and in him Amen sooner may the Rivers run back-ward and the course of the Heavens change and the frame of nature be dissolv'd then any one soul that is united to Jesus Christ by Faith and Love can be sever'd from him And so fall short of salvation hoped for in him and this is the matter of their rejoycing Ye Rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable The naturall Man sayes the Apostle receiveth not things of God for they are foolishness unto him and he adds the Reason why he cannot know them for they are spiritually discern'd he hath none of that faculty by which they are discern'd there is a vast disproportion betwixt those things and Natures highest Capacity it cannot work beyond its Sphere Speak to the Naturall Man of the matter of Spirituall grief the sense of Guiltiness and the Apprehension of Gods displeasure or the hiding of his favour and the Light of his countenance from the soul these things stirre not him he knows not what they mean Speak to him again of the Peace of Conscience and sense of Gods Love and the Joy that arises hence He is no less stranger to that As our Saviour speaks mourn to him and he laments not pipe to him and he dances not Mat. 11. but as it there follows there is a wisdom in those things though they seem Folly and Non-sense to the foolish world and this wisdom is justified of her own Children Having said somewhat allready of the Causes of this spirituall Joy the Apostle speaks of here It remains now that we consider those two things 1. How Joy ariseth from those Causes 2. the Excellency of this Joy as 't is here express'd There is here a sollid sufficient Good and the heart made sure of it being partly put in present possession of it and in a most certain Hope of all the rest And what can be more required to make it joyfull Jesus Christ the treasure of all blessings received and united to the soul by Faith and Love and Hope Is not Christ the Light and Joy of the Nations such a light as Abraham at the distance of many ages of more then two thousand years yet saw by faith and seeing Rejoyced Besides this brightness that makes light a joyfull object Light is often in Scripture put for Joy Christ this Light brings Salvation with him He is the Sun of Righteousness and there is healing under his wings I bring you said the Angel good tydings of great Ioy that shall be to all people And their Song hath in it the matter of that Joy Glory to God in the Highest peace on Earth and good will toward Men. But to the end we may Rejoyce in Christ we must find him ours otherwise the more Excellent he is the more Cause hath the heart to be sad while it hath no portion in him my spirit hath Rejoyced saith the Blessed Virgin in God my Saviour Thus 1. Ioh. 1.3 Having spoken of our Communion with Christ he adds these things I write that your Ioy may be full Faith worketh this Joy by uniteing the Soul to Christ and applying his merites and from that application arises the pardon of sin and so that load of misery which was the great Cause of Sorrow is removed and so soon as the Soul finds it selfe lightned and unloaded of that burden that was sinking it to Hell it cannot chuse but leap for Joy in the Ease and Refreshment it finds Therefore that Psalm that David begins with the doctrine of the Pardon of Sin he Ends it with an Exhortation to Rejoyceing Blessed is the Man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Psal. 32.1 Thus he begins but he ends vers 11. Be glad in the Lord and Rejoyce ye Righteous and shout for joy all ye that are â—pright in heart S. Peter speaks to his hearers of the Remission of sins Act. 2.38 and verse 41. 't is added they received his words Gladly and our Saviour joynes these two together be of good Comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Thus Isaiah 61.1 Good tidings of Liberty to Captives is proclaimed and a notable change there is of their Estate Who mourn in Zion Giving them beauty for ashes the Oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the Spirit of Heaviness Think with what Joy the long imprison'd debter drown'd in debt recâ—â—ves a full Discharge and his Liberty or a condemned Malefactor the news of his Pardon and this will somewhat resemble it but yet fall far short of the joy that Faith brings by bringing Christ to the Soul and so forgiveness of sins in him But this is not all This Believing Soul is not only a debter acquitted and set free but Enrich'd besides with a new and great Estate not onely a pardon'd Malefactor but withall highly preferr'd and advanc'd to honour having a Right by the promises to the unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Apostle speaks and is receiv'd into favour with God and unto the Dignity of Sonship taken from the dunghill
nothing but holiness and urges it most pressingly upon all that receive it This is the very life of divine Faith touching the Mysteries of Salvation firmly to believe their Revelation by the Spirit of God this the Word it selfe testifies as we see and it is really manifest in it it carries the lively stamp of divine Inspiration but there must be a spirituall Eye to discern it he that is blind knows not that the Sun shines at noon but by the report of others but they that see are assur'd they see it and assur'd by no other thing but by its own Light To ask one that is a true Believer how know you the Scriptures to be divine is the same as to ask him how know you Light to be Light The Soul is nothing but Darkness and blindness within till that same spirit that shines without in the Word shine likewise within it and Effectually make it Light but that once done then is the word Read with some measure of the same spirit by which it was written and the Soul is ascertain'd that it is divine as in bodily fight there must be a meeting of inward Light Viz. the visuall spirits with the outward Object The spirit of God within brings Evidence with it and makes it self discernable in the word this all arguments all Books and study cannot attain unto it is given to believe No Man knows the things of a Man but the spirit of Man 1. Cor. 2.11 But how holds that here for if a Man speak out the things that are in his spirit then others may know them But the Apostle's aime is there to conclude that the things of God even such as were Revealed in his Word could not be known but by his own spirit ' it s so though Revealed yet they remain still unreveal'd till the spirit teach within as well as without Because intelligeable by none but by those that are the private Scholers and Hearers of the holy Ghost the author of them and because there are so few of these therefore there is so little reall Believeing amongst all the noise and profession that we make of it who is there if you will believe them that Believes not and yet truely there is too much Cause to continue the Prophets regret who hath believed our Report Learn then to suspect your selves and to finde out your own Unbelief that you may desire this Spirit to teach you inwardly those great Mysteries that he outwardly Reveals and Teaches by his Word Make use of that promise and press the Lord with it They shall be all taught of God But 2. There is here the Matter of this Doctrine which we have in three severall Expressions 1. That which is Repeated from the foregoing Verse 't is the Doctrine of Salvation that 's the end of it and 2. The Doctrine of sufferings and glory of Christ as the means 3. The Doctrine of Grace the spring of both And 1. Salvation the onely true Doctrine of true happiness which the wisest of naturall Men have grop't and sought after with much earnestness but with no success they had no other then the dark Moon light of Nature and that is not sufficient to find it out onely the Sun of Righteousness shining in the Sphere of the Gospel brings Life and Immortality to Light 2. Tim. 1.10 No wonder that naturall Wisdom the deepest of it is far from finding out the true method and way of cure seeing it cannot discover the disease of miserable Mankind Viz. the sinfull and wretched Condition of nature by the first Disobedience Salvation expresses not only that which is Negative but Implies likewise positive and perfect Happiness thus forgiveness of sins is put for the whole nature of Iustification frequently in scripture 't is more easy to say of this unspeakable Happiness what it is not then what it is there is in it a full and final freedom from all Annoyance all tears are wip'd away and their fountain dryed up all feeling and fear or danger of any the least evil either of sin or punishment banish'd for ever no Invasions of Enemies no robbing nor destroying in all this holy Mountain no voice of complaining in the streets of the new Jerusalem here 't is at the best but interchanges of Mornings of joy with weeping of sad evenings but there there shall be no Light no need of Sun nor Moon For the glory of the Lord shall lighten it and the Lamb shall be the Light thereof Well may the Apostle as he doth here throughout this Chap. lay this Salvation to Counter ballance all sorrows and Persecutions and whatsoever hardships can be in the way to it The soul that is perswaded of this in the midst of Storms and Tempests enjoys a Calme Triumphs in Disgraces grows Richer by all its Losses and by Death it self attaines this Immortall life Happy are they that have their eye fixed upon this Salvation and are longing and waiting for it that see so much of that brightness and Glory as darknâ— all the lusture of Earthly things to them and makes them trample upon those things which formerly they admir'd and doted on with the rest of the foolish world Those things we account so much of are but as rotten wood or Glow-wormes that shine onely in the night of our Ignorance and Vanity so soon as the Light beam of this Salvation enters into the soul it cannot much esteem or affect any thing below it and if those glances of it that shine in the Word and in the Soul of a Christian be so bright and powerfull what then shall the full sight and real possession of it be The worker of this Salvation whom the Prophets and Apostles make the summe of all their doctrine is Jesus Christ and the summe of that work of Redemption as we have it here is his Humiliation and Exaltation His Sufferings and the Glory that followed thereupon now though this serve as an Encouragement to Christians in their Sufferings that this is the way by which their Lord went into his Glory and is true also of Christ mysticall the Head with the Members as the scriptures often teach us Yet I conceive 't is here mainâ—ly intended as a summary of the work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ relateing to the salvation mention'd Verse 10. And as the Cause for the Effect so 't is put for it here The Prophets enquired and prophecied of that Salvation How By searching out and foretelling the Sufferings and Glory of Christ His sufferings then and his after Glories are our Salvation His sufferings is the purchace of our Salvation and His Glory is our assurance of it He as our head having Triumph'd and being Crown'd makes us likewise sure of Victory and Triumph Having entered possession to glory makes our Hope certain this is his prayer that where he is there we may be also and this his own assertion the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them Ioh. 17.22 24. this is
awak'd to seek diligently after Jesus and not to rest till they find him they 're well enough without him it suffices them they hear there is such a one but they ask not themselves is he mine or no But sure if that be all not to doubt the Bruites believe as well It were better out of all question to be labouring under doubtings if it be a more hopeful condition to find a Man groaning and complaining than speechless and breathless and not stirring at all There be in Spiritual doubtings two things their is a sollicitous care of the Soul concerning its own estate and diligent inquiry into 't and that is laudable being a true work of the spirit of God but the other thing in them perplexity and distrust that arises from darkness and weakness in the soul as where there is a great deal of smoak and no clear flame it argues much moysture in the matter yet it witnesseth certainly that there is fire there and therefore dubious questioning of a Man concerning himself is a much better evidence than that senseless deadness that most take for believing Men that that know nothing in sciences have no doubts he never truly believ'd that was not made first sensible and convinc'd of unbelief This is the Spirits first errand in the World to convince it of sin and the Sin is this that they believe not If the Faith that thou hast grew out of thy natural heart of it self 't is but a Weed be sure the right plant of Faith is alwayes set by Gods own hand and 't is watered and preserv'd by him because expos'd to many hazzards he watches it Night and Day Isa. 27.3 I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day Again how impudent is it in the most to pretend believing while they wallow in Profaness if Faith unite the soul unto Christ certainly it puts it into participation of his Spirit for if any Man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his sayes St. Paul This faith in Christ bring us into Communion with God Now God is light says St. Iohn and therefore inferrs if we say we have fellowship with God and walk in darkness we lie and do not the truth The lie appears in our practise an unsuitableness in our carriage as he said of him that sign'd his Verse wrong fecit solaecismum manu But there be imaginary Believers that are a little more refin'd that live after a blameless yea and a Religious manner for there outward and yet are but appearances of Christians have not the living work of Faith within and all these exercises are dead works in their hands Amongst these some may have such motions within themselves as may deceive themselves as well as their outward deportment deceives other some transient touches of desire to Christ upon the unfolding of his excellencies in the Preaching of the word and upon some conviction of their own necessity and conceive some joy upon thoughts of apprehending him and yet all this proves but an evanishing fancy an embracing of a shaddow And because Men that are thus deluded meet not with Christ indeed do not really find his sweetness therefore within a while they return to the pleasure of sin and their latter end proves worse than their beginning their hearts could not possibly be stedfast because there was nothing to fix them on in all that work wherein Christ himself was wanting But the truly believing Soul that is brought unto Jesus Christ and fastened upon him by Gods own hand abides stay'd on him and departs not And in these the very belief of the things that are spoken concerning Christ in the Gospel the perswasion of Divine truth is of a higher nature than the common consent that they call Historical another knowledge and evidence of the mysteries of the Kingdom than natural Men can have this is indeed the ground of all the very thing that causes a Man rest upon Christ when he hath a perswasion wrought in his heart by the Spirit of God that Christ is an able Redeemer a sufficient Saviour able to save all that come to him Then upon this the heart resolves upon that course seeing I am perswaded of this that whoso believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life as here it is shall not be confounded I am to deliberate no longer this is the the thing I must doe to lay my soul upon him upon one that is an Almighty Redeemer And it does so Now these first actings of Faith have in themselves an evidence that distinguishes them from all that 's counterfeit a light of their own by which the soul wherein they are may discern them and say this is the right work of Faith especially when God shines upon the Soul and clears it in the discovery of his own work within it And further they may find the influence of Faith upon the affections purifying them as our Apostle sayes of it Act. 15.9 Faith knits the heart to a holy Head a pure Lord the spring of purity and therefore cannot chuse but make it pure it is a beam from heaven that raises the mind to a Heavenly temper Although there remaines of sin in a believing soul yet 't is a hated wearysome guest there 't is not there as its delight but as its greatest grief and malady that it is still lamenting and complaining of and had rather be rid of than gain a World Thus 't is purified from affecting sin So then where these are a Spiritual apprehension of the Promises and a cleaving of the Soul unto Christ and such a delight in him as makes sin vile and distastful that the heart is set against it and as the Needle touch'd with the Loadstone is still turn'd towards Christ and lookes at him in all estates The Soul that is thus dispos'd hath certainly Interest in him and therefore ought not to affect an humour of doubting but to conclude that how unworthy soever in it self yet being in him it shall not be ashamed not only it shall never have cause to think shame of him but all its just cause of shame in it self shall be taken away it shall be cover'd with his Righteousness and appear so before the Father Who must not think if my sins were to be set in order and appear against me how would my face be fill'd with shame Though there were no more if some thoughts that I am guilty of were laid to my charge I were utterly sham'd and undone Oh! Nothing in my self but matter of shame but yet in Christ more matter of glorying who endured shame that we might not be ashamed We cannot distrust our selves enough nor trust enough in him Let it be right Faith and there is no excess in believing Though I have sinn'd against him and abus'd his goodness yet I will not leave him for whether should I go he and none but he hath
Apostles both for his Graces and his failings Eminent in zeal and courage and yet stumbling oft in his forwardness and once grosly falling and these by the Providence of God being recorded in Scripture give a check to the excess of Rome's conceit concerning this Apostle Their extolling and exalting him above the rest is not for his cause and much less to the honour of his Lord and Master Jesus Christ for he is injured and dishonoured by it but 't is in favour of themselves as Alexander distinguished his two friends that the one was a friend of Alexander the other a friend of the King That preferment they give this Apostle is not in good will to Peter but in the desire of Primacy But whatsoever he was they would be much in pain to prove Rome's right to it by succession And if ever it had any such right we may confidently say it has forfeited it long ago by departing from St. Peters footsteps and from his faith and retaining too much those things wherein he was faultie namely His uâ—willingness to hear of and consent to Christs sufferings his Master spare thy selfe or far be it from thee in those they are like him for thus they would disburden and exempt the Church from the cross from the real cross of afflictions instead of that have nothing but painted or carved or guilded Crosses these they are content to embrace and Worship too but cannot endure to hear of the other instead of the Cross of Affliction they make the Crown or Mitre the badge of their Church and will have it known by Prosperity and outward Pomp and so turn the Church Militant into the Church Triumphant not considering that it is Babilons voice not the Churches I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow Again his saying on the Mount at Christs Transfiguration when he knew not what he said 'T is good to be here So they have litle of the true glory of Christ but the false glory of that Monarchy on their seven hills 't is good to be here say they Again in their undue striking with the Sword not the Enemies as he but the faithful Friends and Servants of Jesus Christ but to proceed We see here S Peters Office or Title An Apostle not Chief Bishop Some in their glossing have been so Impudent as to add that beside the Text. Though Chap. 5.4 He gives that Title to Christ alone and to himself only fellow Elder and here not Prince of the Apostles but An Apostle restored and reestablished after his fall by repentance and by Christ himself after his own Death and Resurrection Ioh. 21. Thus we have in our Apostle a singular instance of humane frailty on the one side and of the sweetness of Divine grace on the other Free and rich grace it is indeed that forgives and swallowes up multitudes of sins of greatest sins not only sins before Conversion as to S. Paul but foul offences committed after Conversion as to David and to this Apostle not only once raising them from the dead but when they fall stretching out the same hand and raising them again and restoring them to their Station and comforting them in it by his free Spirit as David prayes Not only to cleanse polluted clay but to work it into Vessels of honour yea of the most defiled shape to make the most refined Vessels not vessels of honour of the lowest sort but for the highest and most honourable Services vessels to bear his own precious Name to the Nations making the most unworthy and the most unfit fit by his grace to be his Messengers Of Iesus Christ. Both as the beginning and end of his Apostleship as Christ is called Alpha and Omega Rev. 2.11 Chosen and called by him and called to this to Preach him and salvation wrought by him Apostle of Iesus Christ. Sent by him and the Message no other but his Name to make that known Anâ— what this Apostleship was then after some extraordinary way befitting these first times of the Gospel That is Now the Ministry of the word in Ordinary and therefore an imployment of more difficulty and excellency then is usually conceiv'd by many not only of those that look upon it but even of those that are exercised in it to be Ambassadourâ— for the greatest of Kings and upon no mean imployment that great treaty of peace and reconcilement betwixt him and mankind 2 Cor. 5.20 This Epistle is directed to the Elect who are described here By their Temporal and by their Spiritual conditions The first hath very much dignity and comfort in it but the other hath neither but rather the contrary of both and therefore the Apostles intent being their comfort he mentions but the one in passing to signifie to whom particularly he sent his Epistle But the other is that which he would have their thoughts dwell upon and therefore prosecutes it in his following discourse and if we look to the order of the words their temporal condition is but interjected for 't is said to the Elect first and then To the Strangers scattered c. And he would have this as it were drown'd in the other according to the foreknowledge of God the Father That those dispersed Strangers that dwelt in the Countries here named were Iews appears if we look to the foregoing Epistle where the same word is used and expresly appropriated to the Iews S Iam. 1.1 And Gal. 2. S Peter is called An Apostle of the Circumcision as exercising his Aposteship most towards them and there is in some passages of the Epistle somewhat that though belonging to all Christians yet hath in the strain and way of expression a particular fitness to the believing Iews as being particularly verified in them which was spoken of their Nation Chap. 2. v. 9.10 Some argue from the Name Strangers that the Gentiles are here meant which seems not to be For Proselyte Gentiles were indeed called strangers in Ierusalem and by the Iews But were not the Iewes Strangers in these Places Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia Not strangers dwelling together in a prosperous flourishing condition as a well planted Colonie but Strangers of the dispertion scattered too and fro and their dispersion which was partly first by the Assyrian Captivity and after that the Babylonish and by the Invasion of the Romans and it might be in these very times increased by the believing Iews flying from the hatred and persecution that was raised against them at home These places here mentioned through which they were dispersed are all in Asia So Asia here is Asiae the lesser Where it s to be observed that some of these who heard S Peter Act. 2. are said to be of those regions And if any of those then converted were amongst these dispersed the Comfort was no doubt the more grateful from the hand of the same Apostle by whom they were first converted but this is only conjecture Tho Divine truths are to be received
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
to work on them as he pleaseth and where he will This powerful this sanctifying Spirit knowes no Resistance works sweetly and yet strongly it can come in to the heart whereas all other speakers are forc'd to stand without That still voice within perswades more then all the lowd crying without as he that is within the house though he speak low is better heard and understood then he that shouts without doors When the Lord himself speaks by this his spirit to a Man selecting and calling him out of the lost world he can no more disobey then Abraham did when the Lord spoke to him after an extraordinary manner to depart from his own Country and Kindred Gen. 12.4 Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him There is a secret but very powerful vertue in a word or look or touch of this spirit upon the soul by which 't is forced not with a harsh but a pleasing violence and cannot chuse but follow it not unlike that of Elija's Mantle upon Elisha 1 Kin. 19.19 How easily did the Disciples forsake their callings and dwellings to follow Christ. The spirit of God drawes a Man out of the world by a sanctfied Light sent into his mind discovering to him 1. How base and false the sweetness of sin is that withholds men and amuses them that they return not and how true and sad the bitterness is that will follow upon it 2. Setting before his eyes the free and happy condition the glorious liberty of the Sons of God the riches of their present enjoyment and their far larger and assured hopes for afterwards 3. Making the beauty of Jesus Christ visible to the soul which straight way takes it so that it cannot be stayed from coming to him though its most beloved friends most beloved sins lye in the way and hang about it and cry will you leave us so It will tread upon all to come within the embracements of Jesus Christ and say with St. Paul I was not disobedient to or unperswaded by the heavenly Vision 'T is no wonder that the Godly are by some called singular and precise they are so Singular a few selected ones pickt out by Gods own hand for himself Psal. 4.3 Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Therefore saith our Saviour the world hates you because I have chosen you out of the world For the world lyes in unholiness and wickedness is buried in it And as living men can have no pleasure amongst the dead neither can these Elected ones amongst the ungodly they walk in the World as warily as a Man or Woman neatly apparel'd would doe amongst a multitude that are all sullied and bemired Endeavour to have this sanctifying spirit in your selves pray much for it for his promise is past to us that he will give this holy spirit to them that ask it and shall we be such fools as to want it for want of asking when we find heavy setters on our souls and much weakness yea aversness to follow the voice of God calling us to his obedience then pray with the Spouse Draw me She cannot go nor stirre without that drawing and yet with it not only goes but runs We will run after thee Think it not enough you hear the word and use the outward Ordinances of God and profess his Name for many are thus called and yet but a few of them are chosen There is but a small part of the world outwardly called in comparison of the rest that is not so and yet the number of true Elect is so small that it gains the number of these that are called the name of many They that are in the visible Church and partake of external vocation are but like a large list of names as in civil elections is usual out of which a small number is chosen to the dignity of true Christians and invested into their priviledge some men in nomination to Offices or employments think it a worse disapointment and disgrace to have been in the list and yet not chosen them if their names had not been mention'd at all certainly 't is a greater unhappines to have been not far from the Kingdom of God as our Saviour speaks and miss of it then still to have remained in the furthest distance to have been at the mouth of the Haven the fair Havens indeed and yet driven back and Shipwrackt your labour is most preposterous you seek to ascertain and make sure things that cannot be made sure and that which is both more worth and may be made surer then them all you will not endeavour to make sure Hearken to the Apostles advice and at length set to this in earnest to make your calling and Election sure make sure this Election as 't is here for that 's the Order your effectual calling sure and that will bring with it assurance of the other the eternal Election and love of God towards you which follows to be considered According to the foreknowledge of God the Father Known unto God are all his works from the beginning saith the Apostle Iames Act 15.18 He sees all things from the beginning of time to the end of it and beyond to all Eternity and from all Eternity he did foresee them but this foreknowledge here is peculiar to the Elect Verâ—a sansus in sacra scriptura connotant affectus as the Rabbins remark so in man Psal. 66. if I see Iniquity and in God Psal. 1. ult Amos 3.2 and in that speech of our Saviour relating it as the terrible doom of Reprobates at the last day Depart c. I know you not I never knew you so St. Paul Rom. 7.15 and Bezâ— observes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Greeks sometimes taken for deceâ—â—ere judicare thus some speak to cogâ—osce upon a business so then this foreknowledge is no other but that Eternal love of God or decree of Election by which some are appointed unto life and being foreknown or elected to that end they are predestinate to the way to it Rom. 8.29 'T is most vain to Imagine a foresight of faith in men and in the vieu of that as the Condition of Election it self to have chosen them for 1. Nothing at all is futurum or can have that imagined futurition so to speak but as it is and because 't is decreed by God to be and therefore as before the Apostle St. Iames sayes known to God are all his own works therefore because his works in time and his purpose from Eternity 2. 'T is most absurd to give any reason of Divine will without himselfe 3. This easily solves all that difficulty that the Apostle speaks of and yet he never thought of such a solution but runs high for an answer not to satisfie cavilling reason but to silence it and stop its mouth For thus the Apostle Argues Rom. 9.19 20. Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will
flesh and dwelt amongst Men in a Tabernacle like theirs and suffered death in the flesh that he who was Lord of Life hath freed us from the sentence of Eternal Death that he broke the bars and chains of Death and rose again that he went up into Heaven and there at the Fathers right hand sits in our flesh and that glorified above the Angels This is the great Mistery of Godliness And a part of this Mistery is that he is Believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3.16 This Natural Men may discourse of and that very knowingly and give a kind of natural Credit to 't as to a History that may be true but firmly to believe that there is divine Truth in all these things and to have a perswasion of it stronger then of the very things we see with our eyes such an assent as this is the peculiar work of the spirit of God and is certainly saving Faith The Soul that so believes cannot chuse but Love 't is commonly true the Eye is the ordinary door by which Love enters into the Soul and it is true in this Love though t is denied of the Eye of sense yet you see 't is ascrib'd to the Eye of Faith though you have not seen him you Love him because you believe Which is to see him spiritually Faith indeed is distinguish'd from that Vision that is in Glory but it is the Vision of the Kingdom of Grace 't is the Eye of the New Creature that quicksighted Eye that pierces all the Visible Heavens and sees above them that looks to things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 And is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 that sees him that is invisible v. 27. 'T is possible that one may be much Lov'd upon the report of their worth and Vertues and upon a Picture of them lively drawn before sight of the party so commended and represented but certainly when they are seen and found answerable to the former it raises the Affection that it first begun to a far greater height We have the report of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the Gospel yea so clear a description of him that it gives a picture of him and that together with the Sacraments are the only lawful and the only lively pictures of our Saviour Gal. 3.1 Now this Report Faith believes and beholds this picture and so lets in the Love of Christ to the Soul but further it gives a particular experimental knowledge of Christ and acquaintance with him It causes the Soul find all that is spoken of him in the Word and his beauty there represented to be abundantly true makes it really taste of his sweetness and by that possesses the heart more strongly with his Love perswading it of the truth of those things not by reasons and arguments but by an Inexpressible kind of Evidence that they only know that have it Faith perswades a Christian of these two things that the Philosopher gives as the causes of all Love Beauty and Propriety the Loveliness of Christ in himself and our interest in him The former it effâ—ctuaâ—s not only by the first apprehending and believing of those hâ—s Excellencies and Beauty but by frequent beholding of him and Eyeing him in whom all Perfection dwells and looks so ofâ— on him till it sets the very Impression of his Image as it were upon the Soul that it can never be blotted out and forgot The latter it doth by that particular Uniting Act which makes him our God and our Saviour Ye Love The distinctions that some make of Love need not be taken as of differing kinds but different actings of the same Love by which we may try our so much pretended Love of Christ which in truth is so rarely found There will then be in this Love if it be right these three qualities Goodwill Delight and Desire 1. Goodwill earnest wishing and as we can promoting Gods Glory and stirring up others so to do They that seek more their own things then the things of Jesus Christ more their own Praise and Esteem then His are strangers to this divine Love-For it seeks not her own things This bitter Root of self-love is most hard to pluck up this strongest and sweetest Love of Christ alone doth it actually though gradually This Love makes the Soul as the lower Heaven slow in its own motion most swift in the motion of that first that wheels it about so the higher degree of Love the more swift It Loves the hardest tasks And greatest difficulties where it may perform God service either in doing or in suffering for him It is strong as death and many waters cannot quench it The greater the task is the more real is the testimony and expression of Love and therefore the more acceptable to God 2. There is in true Love a complacency and delight in God A Conformity to his will Loving what he Loves and studious of his will ever seeking to know more clearly what it is that is most pleasing to him contracting a likeness to God in all his actions by conversing with him frequent contemplating of God and looking on his beauty as the Eye lets in this Affection so it serves it constantly and readily looks that way that Love directs it thus the soul that is possess'd with this Love of Jesus Christ hath its eye much upon him thinks often on his former sufferings and present Glory the more it lookes upon Christ the more it loves and still the more it loves the more it delights to look upon him 3. There is in true Love a Desire for 't is but small beginnings and tastes of his Goodness that the soul hath here therefore 't is still looking out and longing for the day of Marriage the time is sad and wearisome and seems much longer then it is while 't is deteind here I desireâ— to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ. God is the Sum of all things lovely thus excellenâ—ly Greg. Nazian expresseth himself Ovat 1. If I have any Possessions Health Credit Learning this is all the contentment I have of them that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ who is totus dâ—sâ—derâ—bilis totuâ— desiderabile And this Love is the sum of all he requires of us 't is that which makes all our meanest Services acceptable and without which all we offer to him is distasteful God doth not only deserve our Love by his matchless Excellency and Beauty but by his Matchless Love to us and that is the strongest Loadstone of Love He hath loved me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 How appears that in no less then this he hath given himself for me Certainly then there is no other Character of our Love then this to give our selves to him that hath so loved us and given himself for us This affection must be bestowed somewhere there is no Man but hath some prime choyce somewhat that is the predominant delight of his soul will it
not then be our wisdom to make the worthiest choyce seeing it is offered us and is extream folly to reject it Grace doth not pluck up by the roots and wholly destroy the natural passions of the mind because they are distempered by sin that were an extreme remedy to Cure by killing and heal by cutting off no but it corrects the distemper in them it dries not up this main stream of Love but purifies it from the Mud it is full of in its wrong Course or calls it to its Right Channel by which it may run into Happiness and empty it selfe into the Ocean of goodness The Holy Spirit turns the love of the soul towards God in Christ for in that way only can it apprehend his Love so then Jesus Christ is the first Object of this divine Love he is Medium unionis through whom God conveys the sense of his Love to the soul and receives back its Love to him And if we will consider his incomparable Beauty we may look on it in the holy Scriptures particularly in that divine song of Loves Wherein Solomon borrowes all the beauties of the Creatures dips his pencill in all their severall Excellencies to set him forth unto us who is the chief of ten Thousands There is an inseparable intermixture of Love with Belief and a pious Affection receiving divine Truth so that in effect as we distinguish them they are mutually strengthened the one by the other and so though it seem a Circle 't is a divine one and falls not under censure of the School's Pedantry If you ask how shall I do to Love I Answer Believe If you ask how shall I believe I Answer Love Although the Expressions to a carnall mind are altogether unsavoury by gross mistaking them yet to a Soul taught to Read and Hear them by any measure of that same Spirit of love wherewith they were penn'd they are full of heavenly and unutterable sweetness Many Directions and means of begetting and increasing this Love of Christ may be here offered but they that delight in number may multiply them but sure this One will Comprehend the greatest and best part if not all of them Believe and you shall Love Believe much and you shall Love much labour for strong and deep persuasions of the glorious things that are spoken of Christ and this will command Love Certainly did Men indeed believe his worth they would accordingly Love him for the Reasonable Creature cannot but affect that most which it firmly believes to be worthy of affection O this mischief of Unbelief is that which makes the heart cold and dead towards God Seek then to believe Christs Excellency in himselfe and his Love to us and our interest in him and this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it ascend in a Sacrifice of Love to him Many Signes likewise of this Love may be multiplied according to the many fruits and workings of it but in them all it self is its own most infallible Evidence When the soul finds that all its Obedience and endeavour to keep the Commands of Jesus Christ which himself makes its Character do flow from Love then it is true and sincere For do or suffer what you will withour Love all passes for nothing All are Cyphers without it they signifie nothing 1. Cor. 13. This is the Message of the Gospell and that which the Ministry aimes at and therefore the Ministers ought to be Suitors not for themselves but for Christ to Espouse souls to him and to bring in many hearts to Love him And certainly this is the most compendious way to perswade to all other Christian duties this is to converse with Jesus Christ and therefore where his Love is no other incentive will be needfull For Love delights in the presence and converse of the party Loved If we are to perswade to duties of the second Table the summe of those is Love to our Brethren resulting from the Love of Christ which diffuseth such a sweetness into the soul that its all Love and meekness and Gentleness and long suffering If times be for suffering Love will make the soul not onely bear but welcome the bitterest afflections of life and the hardest kinds of death for his sake In a word there is in Love a sweet constraint or tying of the heart to all Obedience and Duty The Love of God is requisite in Ministers for their preaching of the word so our Saviour to St. Peter Iohn 21.15 Peter lovest thou me then feed my lambs It is requisite for the people that they receive the Truth in the Love of it and that Christ preach'd be Entertain'd in the soul and Embrac'd by Faith and Love You that have made choyce of Christ for your Love let not your hearts slip out to renew your wonted base familiarity with Sin For that will bring new bitterness to your souls and at least for some time will deprive you of the sensible favour of your beloved Jesus delight alwayes in God and give him your whole heart for he deserves it all and is a satisfying good to it the largest heart is all of it too strait for the riches of consolation that he brings with him seek to Increase in this Love for tho its at first weak yet Labour to find it daily rise higher and burn hotter and clearer and consume the dross of Earthly desires Receiving the end of your Faith Although the soul that Believes and Loves is put in present possession of God as far as it is Capable in its sojourning here yet it desires a full Enjoyment which it cannot attain to without Removing hence While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord saith the Apostle And because they are assur'd of that happy Exchange that being united and freed of this body they shall be present with the Lord and that having his own word for 't that Where he is they shall be also this begets such an assured Hope as bears the name of possession Therefore its said here Receiveing the end of your faith This Receiveing likewise flows from Faith Faith apprehends the present Truth of the divine Promises and so makes the things to come present and Hope looks out to their after Accomplishment which if the promises be true as Faith averrs then Hope hath good reason firmly to expect it This desire and Hope are the very wheels of the Soul that carry it on and Faith the common Axis on which they rest In the words there are two things 1. The good hoped for in Christ so Believed on and Loved 2. The assuredness of the Hope it selfe yea as sure as if it were already accomplished As for the good hoped for it consists 1. In the nature of it Viz. The Salvation of their Soul 2. in a Relative Property of it the End of their Faith The nature of it is Salvation and Salvation of the soul it imports full deliverance from all kind of misery and
constrained semblances of reconcilement are but a false healing do but skin it over and therefore usually it breaks forth worse again How few are there that have truly maliceless hearts and find this intire upright affection towards their Brethren meeting them in their whole Conversation this Law of love deeply impress'd on their hearts and from thence express'd in their words and actions and that is unfeigned love as real to their Brethren as to themselves 2. It must be pure from a pure heart this is not all one with the former as some take it 'T is true doubleness and hypocrisie is an impurity and a great one but all impurity is not doubleness one may really mean that friendship and affection he expresses and yet it may be most contrarie to that which is here requir'd because impure such a brotherly Love as that of Simeon and Levi brethen in Iniquity as the expressing them brethren Gen. 49. is taken to mean When hearts are cemented together by impurity it selfe by ungodly conversation and society in sin as in uncleanness or drunkenness c. This is a swinish fraternity and friendship that is contracted as it were by wallowing in the same mire call it good fellowship or what you will all the fruit that in the end can be expected out of unholy friendliness and fellowship in sinning together is to be tormented together and add each to the torment of another The mutual Love of Christians must be pure arising from such causes as are pure and spiritual from the sense of our Saviour's Command and of his example For he himself joynes that with it A new Commandment give I you saith he that as I have loved you so you also love one another They that are indeed Lovers of God they are united by that their hearts meet in him as in one center They cannot but love one another where a godly Man sees his Fathers Image he is forc'd to love it he he loves those he perceives Godly so as to delight in them because that Image is in them and those that appear destitute of it he loves them so as to wish them partakers of that Image And this is all for God he loves Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum That is he loves a friend in God and an Enemy for God And as the Christians love is pure in its Cause so in its Effects and Exercise his society and converse with any tends mainly to this that he may muâ—ually help and be helpt in the knowledge and love of God desires most that he and his brethren may joyntly mind their journey heavenwards and further one another in their way to the full Enjoyment of God And this is truly the love of a pure heart that both begins and ends in God Fervently Not after a cold indifferent manner Let the Love of your Brethren be as a fire within you consuming that selfishness that is so contrary to it and is so natural to Men let it set your thoughts on work to study how to do others good let your love be an active Love intense within you and extending it selfe in doing good to the souls and bodies of your Brethren as they need and you are able Alium re alium concilio alium gratiâ as Sen. de benef Lib. 1. cap. 2. It is selfe-love that contracts the heart and shuts out all other Love both of God and Men save only so far as our own Interest carries and that is still self-love But the Love of God dilates the heart purifies Love and extends it to all Men but after a special manner directs it to those that are more peculiarly beloved of him and that is hero the particular love required Love of the Brethren In this is Implied our Obligation to it after a special manner to love those of the houshold of faith because they are our Brethren This concludes not only as Abraham said that there ought to be no strife but it binds most strongly to this sincere and pure and fervent love and therefore the Apostle in the next Verse repeats expresly the Doctrine of the mysterious New-birth and explains it more fully which he had mention'd in the entrance of the Epistle and again referr'd to it Verse 14 17. There is in this fervent Love sympathy with the griefs of our Brethren desire and endeavour to help them bearing their Infirmities and recovering them too if it may be raising them when they fall admonishing and reproving them as is needful sometimes sharply and yet still in Love Rejoycing in their good in their Gifts and Graces so far from envying them that we be glad as if they were our own there is the same blood running in their veins you have the same Father and the same spirit within you and the same Jesus Christ the head of that glorious fraternity the first born among many Brethren of which the Apostle saith Eph. 1.10 that he hath recollected into one all things in heaven and in earth The word is gathered them into one head And so suits very fitly to express that our union in him in whom sayes he in that same Epistle c. 4.16 The whole body is fitly compacted together and addes that which agrees to our purpose that this body grows up and edifies it selfe in love All the members receive spirits from the same head and are useful and serviceable one to another and to the whole body Thus these Brethren receiving of the same spirit from their head Christ are most strongly bent to the good one of another If there be but a thorn in the Foot the Back boweth the Head stoops down the Eyes look the Hands reach to it and endeavour its help and case In a word all the members partake of the good and evil one of another Now by how much this body is more spiritual and lively so much the stronger must the union and love of the parts of it be each to other You are brethren by the same new birth and born to the same Inheritance and such an one as shall not be an Apple of strife amongst you to beget debates and contentions No 't is enough for all and none shall prejudge another but you shall have joy in the happiness one of another seeing you shall then be perfect in love all harmony no difference in judgement nor affection all your harps tun'd to the same new Song which you shall sing for ever let that love begin here which shall never end And this same union I conceive is likewise pressed in the first words of the verse seeing you are partakers of that work of sanctification by the same word and the same spirit that works it in all the faithfull and by that are called and incorporate into that fraternity therefore live in it and like it You are purified to it therefore love one another after that same manner purely Let the profane world scoffe that name of Brethren you will not be so foolish
of the honour of the only begotten Sons on whom they have believed made by him Kings and Priests unto God the father then sure they have other thoughts it makes them no more envy but pity the ungodly and account all their pomp and all their possessions what it is indeed no other but a glistering misery and themselves happy in all estates to say with David The lines have fallen to me in a pleasant place I have a goodly heritage Makes them digest all their sufferings and disgraces with patience yea with joy and think more of praising than complaining of shewing forth his honour who hath so honoured them especially considering the freeness of his grace that it was that alone maâ—e the difference calling them altogether undeservedly from that same darkness and misery in which unbelievers are deservedly left Now the third thing here to be spoken to is the end of their calling to shew his praise c. And the more to prize the reasonableness of that their happy estate to which God hath exalted them it is express'd in other termes which therefore we will first consider and then the end To magnifie the grace of God the more we have here 1. Both the termes of this motion or change from whence and to what it is 2. The principle of it the calling of God From darkness There is nothing more usual not only in divine but in humane writings than to borrow outward sensible things to expresse things intellectual and amongst such expressions there is none more frequent than that of Light and darkness transfer'd to signifie the good and evil estate of Man as sometimes for his outward prosperity or adversity but especially for things proper to his mind the mind is called Light because the Seat of Truth and Truth is most fitly called Light being the chief beauty and ornament of the rational world as Light is of the visible And as the Light because of that its beauty is a thing very refreshing and comfortable to them that behold it as Salomon sayes 't is a pleasant thing to see the sun So is Truth a most delightfull thing to the soul that rightly apprehends it This may hely us to conceive of the Spiritual sense in which it is here taken The estate of Lost Mankind is indeed nothing but darkness being destitute of all Spirituall truth and comfort and tending to utter and everlasting darkness And it is so because by sin the soul is separate from God who is the first and highest light that primitive truth as he is light in himself As the Apostle 8. Iohn tells us God is light and in him there is no darkness at all expressing the excellency and purity of his nature so he is light relatively to the soul of Man Psa. 27. the Lord is my light sayes David And the soul being made capable of divine light cannot be happy without it give it what other light you will still 't is in darkness so long as 't is without God being the peculiar light and life of the soul. And as truth is united with the soul in apprehending it and light with the visive faculty so that the soul may have God as its light it must of necessity be in union with God Now sin hath broke that union and so cut off the soul from its light and implung'd it into spiritual darkness Hence all that confusion and disorder in the soul which is ever the companion of darkness Tohu vahohu as at first when darkness was on the face of the deep Being ignorant of God and of our selves it followes that we love not God because we know him not yea though we think it a hard word we are haters of God for not only doth our darkness import Ignorance of him but an enmity to him because he is light and we are darkness And being ignorant of our selves not seeing our own vileness because we are in the dark we are pleas'd with our selves and having left God do love our selves in stead of God Hence are all the wickednesses of our hearts and lives which are no other but in place of obeying and pleasing God a continual Sacrificing to those Gillulim those base dunghill Gods our own lusts For this the Apostle gives as the root of all those evils 2 Tim. 3.2 covetous boasters c. Because in the first place lovers of themselves therefore proud c. And lovers of pleasures more than of God and this self-love cannot subsist without gross ignorance minds so darkned that we cannot withal see what we are For if we did it were not possible but we would be far of another mind very far out of loving and liking with our selves Thus our souls being filled with darkness are likewise full of uncleaness as that goes along too with darkness they are not only dark as dungeons but withall filthy as they use to be so Eph. 4.18 understandings darkned alienated from the life of God And therefore Ver. 19. give themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleaness with greediness They have no light of solid comfort Our great comfort here is not in any thing present but in hope now being without Christ and without God we are without hope Eph. 2.12 And as the estate from whence we are called by grace is worthily called Darkness so that to which it calls us deserves as well the name of Light As Christ likewise that came to work our deliverance is frequently so call'd in Scripture Io. 1. c. Not only in regard of his own nature being God equal with the father and therefore light as he is God of God and therefore Light of light But relating to Men Iohn 1.4 that life was the light of Men. as he is stiled the word and the wisdom of the father not only in regard of his own knowledge but as revealing him unto us Iohn 1.18 1 Cor. 1.24 Compared with Ver. 30. And stiled by Malachy the sun of righteousness Now the sun is not only a Luminous body but a Luminary giving light unto the world Gen. 1. He is our light oppos'd to all kind of darkness to the dark shaddow 's of the ceremonial Law which possibly is here meant as a part of that darkness from which the Apostle Writes that these Jews were delivered also by the knowledge of Christ When he came the day broke and the shaddowes flew away To the darkness likewise of the Gentiles superstitions and Idolatries therefore these two are joyned by old Simeon a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of his People Israel And to all that believe of both he is Light oppos'd to the Ignorance and slavery and misery of their natural estate teaching them by his Spirit the things of God and reuniting them with God who is the light of the Soul I am sayes he the light of the World he that followes me shall not walk in darkness And it is that mysterious Union of the Soul with God in Christ which
they that are Strangers to it begin to discern it any thing right they cannot chuse but love it and where it begets not love yet it silences Calumny or at least convinces its falshood The goodness or beauty of a Christian's Conversation consisting in that Symmetry and Conformity to the word of God as its rule he ought diligently to study that rule and to square his wayes by it not to walk at random but to apply that rule to every step at home and abroad and to be as careful of the beauty of his wayes to keep that unspotted as those Women are of their faces and attire that are most Studious of comliness But so far are we that call our selves Christians from this exact regard of our Conversation the most part not only have many four spots but they themselves and all their wayes nothing but defilement all one spot as our Apostle calls them blots are they and spots 2 Pet. 2.13 and even they that are Christians indeed yet not so watchful and accurate in all their wayes as becomes 〈◊〉 staining their holy Profession either with Pride or Coveteousness or contentions or some other such like uncomeliness Let us therefore resolve all more to study this good and comely conversation the Apostle â—ere exhorts to that it may be such as becometh the Gospel of Christ as St. Paul desires his Philippians And if you live amongst profane Persons that will be to you as the unbelieving Gentiles were to these believing Jewes that lived amongst them traducers of you and given to speak evil of you and of Religion in you trouble not your selves with many apologies and clearings when you are evil spoke of but let the â—â—act of your life answer for you your honest and blameless conversation that will be the shortest and realest way of confuting all obloquies as when one in the Schools was proving by a sophistical Argument that there could be no 〈◊〉 the Philosopher answered it fully and shortly by rising up and walking If thou would'st pay them home this is a kind of revenge not only allowed thee but recommended to thee be aveng'd on evil speakings by well doing shame them from it It was a King that said it was Kingly to do well and be ill spoke of Well may Christians acknowledge it to be true when they consider that it was the lot of their King Iesus Christ And well may they be content seeing he hath made them likewise Kings as we heard V. 9. to be conform to him in this too this Kingly way of suffering to be unjustly evil spoken of and still to go on in doing the more good alwayes aiming in so doing as our Lord did at the glory of our Heavenly Father that is the 3 d. thing That they may glorifie God He sayes not they shall praise or commend you but shall glorifie God What way soever this time this day of Visitation be taken the effect it selfe is this they shall glorifie God 't is this the Apostle stills holds before their eye and that upon which a Christian doth willingly set his eye and keep it fixed on it in all his wayes he doth not teach them to be sensible of their own esteem as it concerns themselves but only as the glory of their God is interess'd in it were it not this a generous minded Christian could set a very light rate upon all the thoughts and speeches of Men concerning him whether good or bad and could easily drown all their mistakes in the Conscience of the favour and approbation of his God 't is a small thing for me to be judged of Man or the day of Man he that judgeth me is the Lord. Man hath a day of judging but it and his judgment with it soon passes away but God hath his day and stand his sentence abideth for ever as the Apostle there adds as if he should say I appeal to God But considering that the Religion he professes and the God whom he worships in that Religion are wrong'd by those reproaches and that the calumnies cast upon Christians reflect upon their Lord this is the thing that makes him sensible he feels on that side only the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me sayes the Psalmist And this makes a Christian desirous even to Men to vindicate his Religion and his God without regard to himself because he may say the reproaches of them that reproach only me have fallen upon thee This is his intent in the holiness and integrity of his life that God may be glorified this is the Axis about which all this good conversation moves and turnes câ—nâ—inually And he that forgets this let his conversation be never so plausible and spotless knows not what it is to be a Christian. As they say of the Eagles who try their young ones whether they be of the right kind or no by holding them before the Sun and if they can look stedfastly upon it they own them if not they throw them away this is the true evidence of an upright and real Christian to have a stedfast eye on the glory of God the father of Lights In all Let God be glorified sayes the Christian and that suffices that 's the summe of his desires far from glorying in himself or seeking to raise himself for he knows that of himself he is nothing but by the free grace of God he is what he is whence any glorying to thee rottenesse and dust sayes St. Bern. whence is it to thee if thou art holy Is it not the holy spirit that hath sanctified thee If thou couldest work miracles though they were done by thy hand yet it were not by thy power but by the power of God To the end that my glory may sing praise unto thee sayes David Psa. 30. Whether his tongue or his soul or both What he calls his glory he shews us and what use he hath for it namely to give the Lord glory to sing his praises and that then it was truely Davids glory when 't was so employ'd in giving glory to him whose peculiar due glory is What have we to do in the world as his creatures Once and again his creatures his new creatures created unto good works but to exerise our selves in those and by those to advance his glory That all may return to him from whom all is as the rivers run back to the Sea from whence they came Of him and through him and therefore for him are all things says the Apostle They that serve base Gods seek how to advance and agrandize them The covetous Man studies to make his Mammon as great as he can all his thoughts and pains run upon that service and so the voluptuous and ambitious for theirs And shall not they that profess themselves the servants of the only great and the only true God have their hearts much more at least as much possess'd with desires of honouring and exalting him should not this be their predominant
both it and your selves when you silence it in your Families Obs. 2. The Apostle having spoken of subjection to publick Authority addes this of subjection to private Domestick Authority 't is a thing much of concernment the right ordering of Families for all other Societies Civil and Religious are made up of these Villages and Cities and Churches and Commonwealths and Kingdomes are but a Collection of Families and therefore such as these are for the most part such must the whole Societies predominantly be one particular House is but a very small part of a Kingdom yet the wickedness and lewdness of that House be it but of the meanest in it of Servants one or more though it seem but a small thing yet goes in to make up that heap of sin that provokes the wrath of God and drawes on publick Calamity And this particularly when it declines into disorder proves a publick evil when Servants grow generally corrupt and disobedient and unfaithful though they be the lowest part yet the whole Body of a Commonwealth cannot but feel very much the evil of it as a Man does when his Legs and feet grow diseas'd and begin to fail him We have here 1. Their Duty 2. The due extent of it 3. The right Principle of it Be subject 1. Keep your Order and Station under your Masters and that with fear and inward reverence of mind and respect to them that is the very Life of all Obedience Then their Obedience hath in it diligent doing and patient suffering Both these are in that word be subject do faithfully to your utmost that which is concredited to you and obey all their just Commands for Action indeed goes no further but suffer patiently even their unjust Rigours and severities And this being the harder part of the two and yet a part that the Servants of those times bore many of them being more hardly and slavishly us'd than any with us especially those that were Christian Servants under unchristian Masters therefore the Apostle insists most on this and this is the extent of the Obedience here requir'd that it be to all kind of Masters not to the good only but the evil not only to obey but to suffer and suffer patiently and not only deserv'd but even wrongful and unjust punishment Now because this particular concerns Servants Let them reflect upon their own carriage and examine it by this Rule and truly the greatest part of them will be found very unconform to it being either closely fraudulent and deceitful or grosly stubborn and disobedient abusing the lenity and mildness of their Masters or murmuring at their just severity so far are they from the patient endurance of the least undue word of reproof much less of sharper punishment either truly or in their opinion undeserv'd And truly if any that profess Religion dispence themselves in this thy mistake the matter very much for it tyes them more whether Children or Servants to be most submissive and obedient even to the worst kind of Parents and Masters alwayes in the Lord not obeying any unjust Command though they may and ought to suffer patiently as it is here their unjust reproofes or punishments But on the other side this does not justify nor at all excuse the unmerciful Austerities and unbridled Passion of Masters 't is still a perversness and crookedness in them as the word is here and must have its own Name and shall have its proper reward from the Soveraign Master and Lord of all the World 2. There is here also the due extent of this Duty Namely to the Froward 'T is a more deformed thing to have a distorted crooked mind or a froward spirit than any crookedness of the Body How can he that hath Servants under him expect their Obedience when he cannot command his own Passion but is a slave to it And unless much Conscience of Duty possess Servants more than is readily to be found with them it cannot but work a Master into much disaffection and disesteem with them when he is of a turbulent Spirit a troubler of his own House embittering his affairs and Commands with rigidness and Passions and taking things readily by that side that may offend and trouble him thinking his Servant slights his call when he may as well think he heard him not and upon every light occasion real or imagin'd flying out into reproachful speeches or proud threats contrary to the Apostle St. Pauls rule which he sets over against the Duty of Servants Eph. 6. Forbearing threatning knowing that your Master also is in Heaven and that there is no respect of Persons with him think therefore when you shall appear before the Judgment Seat of God that your carriage shall be examin'd and judg'd as theirs and think that we regard those differences much of Masters and Servants but they are nothing with God they evanish Consider who made thee to differ might he not have made your Stations just contrary with a turn of his hand and made thee the Servant and thy Servant the Master But we willingly forget those things that should compose our minds to humility and meekness and blow them up with such fancies as please and feed our natural vanity and make us some body in our own account However that Christian Servant that falls into the hands of a froward Master will not be beaten out of his Station and Duty of Obedience by all the hard and wrongful usage he meets withal but will take that as an opportunity of exercising the more Obedience and Patience and will be the more cheerfully Patient because of his Innocency as the Apostle here exhorts Men do indeed look sometimes upon this as a just plea for impatience that they suffer unjustly which yet is very ill Logick for as he said would any Man that frets because he suffers unjusty wish to deserve it that he might be patient Now to hear them they seem to speak so when they exclaim that the thing which vexeth them most is that they have not deserv'd any such thing as is inflicted on them truly desert of punishment may make a Man more silent upon it but innocency right considered makes him more Patient guiltiness stops a Mans mouth indeed in suffering But sure it doth not quiet his mind on the contrary it is that which mainly disturbs and grieves him 't is the sting of suffering as sin is said to be of Death and therefore when that is not the pain of the sufferings cannot but be much abated by it Yea the Apostle here declares that to suffer undeservedly and withal patiently is glorious to a Man and acceptable to God It is commendable indeed to be truly patient even in deserved sufferings but the deserving them tarnishes the lustre of that Patience and makes it look more constrain'd-like which is the Apostles meaning preferring it much before spotless suffering and that is indeed the true glory of it that it pleaseth God so that it is render'd in
still cleave to sin and love sin better than him that suffered for it But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply humbled in the sense of sin come to this depth of consolation and try it that you may have experience of the sweetness and â—iches of it study this point throughly and you will find it answer all and quiet your consciences Apply this bearing of sin by the Lord Jesus for you for it is publish'd and made known to you for this purpose this is the genuine and true use of it as of the Brazen Serpent not â—emptily to gaze on the Fabrick of it but to cure those that look'd on it when all that can be said is said against you ' its true may you say but it is satisfied for he on whom I rest made it his and did bear it for me The person of Christ of more worth than all Men yea than all the creatures and therefore his life a full ransome for the greatest offender And for outward troubles and sufferings which were the occasion of this Doctrine in this place they are all made exceeding light by the removal of this great pressure Let the Lord lay on me what he will seeing he hath taken off my sin and laid that on his own Son in my stead I may suffer many things but he hath bâ—rn that for me which alone was able to make me miserable And you that have this perswasion how will your hearts be taken up with his love Who thus lov'd you as to give himself for you and by interposing himself to bear off from you the stroke of everlasting death and that encountered all the wrath due to us and went through with that great work by reason of his unspeakable love Let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to go down from the cross That we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousnesse The Lord doth nothing in vain hath not made the least of his work to no purpose in wisdom hath he made them all sayes the Psalmist and that is not only in regard of their excellent frame and Order but of their end which is a chief Point of Wisdom so then to the right knowledge of this great work put into the hands of Jesus Christ it is of special concern to understand what is this end This is the thing thâ—t his wisdom and love aim'd at in that great undertaking and therefore will be our truest wisdom and the truest evidence of our reflex Love to intend the same thing that in this the same mind may be in us that was in Christ Iesus in his suffering for us and for this very end is it express'd In this there are 3. Things 1st What this death and life is 2. The intendment of it in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. 3. The effecting of it by them Whatsoever this is sure 't is no small change that bears the Name of the great and last natural change that we are subject to a death and then another kind of life succeeding to it and in this the greatest part are mistaken that they take any light alteration in themselves for true conversion There be a World deluded with superficial Moral changes in their Life some rectifying of their outward actions and course of Life and somewhat too in the temper and habitude of their mind far from reaching the bottom of Natures wickedness and laying the axe to the root of the Tree 't is such a work as Men can make a shift withal by themselves but the Renovation that the Spirit of God worketh is like himself so deep and through a work that it is justly called by the Name of the most substantial works and productions a new birth and more than that a new Creation and here a Death and a kind of life following it This death to sin supposes a former living in it and to it and while a Man is so he is said indeed to be dead in sin and yet withal this is true that he lives in sin as the Apostle joynes the expressions speaking of Widowes she that lives in pleasures is dead while she liveth So Eph. 2. dead in trespasses and sins and he addes wherein ye walked which imports a life such an one as it is and more expresly Verse 3. We had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh Now thus to live in sin is call'd to be dead in it because in that condition Man is indeed dead in respect of that Divine Life of the Soul that happy being which it should have in Union with God for which it was made and without which it had better not be at all For that Life as it is different from its natural being and a kind of Life above it so it is contrary to that corrupt being and life it hath in sin and therefore to live in sin is to be dead in it being a deprivement of that Divine being that Life of the Soul in God in comparison whereof not only the base life it hath in sin but the very natural life it hath in the Body and the Body by it is not worthy the Name of Life You see the Body when the threed of its union with the Soul is cut becomes not only straightway a motionless lump but within a little time a putrified noysome Carcase and thus the Soul by sin is cut off from God who is its life as is the Soul of the Body it hath not only no moving faculty in good but fills full of rotteness and vileness as the word is Psal. 14. they are gone aside and become filthy The Soul by turning away from God turns filthy yet as a Man thus Spiritually dead lives naturally so because he acts and spends that Natural life in the wayes of sin he is said to live in sin yea there is somewhat more in that expression than the mere passing of his life in that way for in stead of that happy life his Soul should have in God he pleases himself in the miserable life of sin that which is his death as if it were the proper life of his Soul that natural propension he hath to sin and the continual delight he takes in it as in his Element and living to it as if that were the very end of his being In that estate his Body nor his mind stirreth not without sin setting aside his manifest breaches of the Law those actions that are evidently and totally sinful his natural actions his eating and drinking his religious actions his Praying and hearing and Preaching are sin at the bottom and generally his heart is no other but a forge of sin every imagination every fiction of things framed there is only evil continually or every day and all the day long 't is his very trade and Life Now in opposition to this life of Sin living in it and to it a Christian is said to dy to sin to be cut off or separated from it In