comes into the minde and as the Philosopher said ye know in naturall things a man can reason when he is not troubled so it is in the spiritual 7. Another way is by Sanctification by the Spirit he is the Spirit of Sanctification it makes the soul holy it takes away lust and sin from the soul This I finde in Mat. 6. 22 23. I would open that place but cannot therefore pray consider saith Christ The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light He doth oppose singleness unto evil if thine eye be single that is if thy eye be purged from all guile that there is no sin there not when a man hath one eye to God and the other to sin to the world but if thy eye be evil that is sinful then thy whole body is full of darkness Therefore blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 8. Well lastly there is another way there are divers more but I will name but one more and that is The Spirit of God doth teach the Saints thus to reason by exercising that is helpeth them to exercise and improve that light that they have There is a little light natural light and there is a kinde of spiritual light that an hypocrite hath but the Spirit of God doth not help him to improve that light and therefore that light dieth he blows not up the fire you know men come to reason by reasoning and exercise of reason makes men rational I mean makes them know how to reason Now hypocrites do not thus as you may see Rom. 1. there they knew God and because they glorified him not as God they became vain in their imaginations or in their reasonings as it is in the Original God gave them up to a reprobate minde because they glorified not God Vse Beloved I have three or foure uses but I feare I shall not reach them all I am overloath to tire you and my self Therefore I will conclude with one word and that is this That from hence from this that hath been said you may see what is the Fountain of all goodness and of all evil in the soul 1. Of all good as I have at large lookt upon it but can but touch Take any good and you shall see it is carried on by spiritual reasoning as take Faith Abraham reasoned He that gave him a Son at a hundred years old could raise him up again Take your Consolation it comes out by spiritual reasoning take Paul and Silas they were in prison and ready to be brought out the next day to die now one would think they were mad there to sing but they did it upon spiritual reasons for they accounted themselves blessed to suffer for Christ and if they die they shall then be with Christ for hating of evil you shall see whence is it as pulling out the right eye or cutting off the right hand that is one would think a most unreasonable thing but Christ giveth a reason for it It is better to go into Heaven it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire So a Saint can reason spiritually and thus he loves the Saints and hates sin and denieth himselfe and performeth every dutie he so reasoneth that it is the blessed will of God he should do it 2. And so for evill whence comes sin from vanity of the minde whence comes persecution they think they do God good service there is reason it is a good thing to suppress these Schismaticks say some and to have Conformity and be all of one minde and to banish them and let them all go whence is this it is either from corrupt or natural reason And so when men hear the Word of God and forget it they like it well as a man doth that sees his face in a glass but they go away and forget it and whence is it why James tells you Deceive not your selves Deceiving your selves the word in the Original is by false reasonings A man hears the Word and thinks surely I am in this evil condition and I am out of the way and I must look after Christ and the like but afterwards comes natural reason saying these are but new denies and what is become of our fathers and the like Beloved all good is carried into the soul upon the wings of spiritual reason and all evil upon natural and corrupt reason and therefore I conclude all beseeching you that you would study and endeavour to get up your souls and your conversations accordingly to be swayed and carried on by a spiritual minde by spiritual reasoning for here we speak of your Consciences not of your lives so much as of your hearts and mindes And that you may so do take the Motive which follows in the Text which I did purpose had God given me strength and time to open but take it in the gross For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Be perswaded to go home and pray the Lord to create this in you yea and enlighten you For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Two things I have here to say To be carnally minded is death you must expound it by the other that oposeth it its contrary to life and peace it is death and trouble and the other is life and peace Death and trouble if thou wilt be a carnal man and go on so there is nothing in all thy course but death and trouble that is there is death at the end of it Remember that the end of thy Journey is death Remember as the Apostle saith Phil. 3. They minde earthly things and I write weeping that their end is destruction It is a fine thing to be carried all our life long from one carnal thing to another and provide for my Honour and Wealth and Preferment and the like and do this and that good action upon carnal reasons and with a carnal eye but God hath put a sad end to it it is Death And now the other it is Life eternal life though it be rough for me every day to dispute with my carnal heart and not onely carry on good but deny my self in good upon spiritual reason this is a warfare but the end is life and it is peace too This is a hard work you will say and therefore we will take the easiest and smallest work Beloved I say there is more ease and sweetness and contentedness in going on in the wayes of God spiritually upon spiritual reasons an hundred-fold then in the other for the other will be rough and God hath cast it so God hath put a Curse upon all Old Adam he curseth it with death and therefore he must die that walks carnally and that is the reason all your natural thoughts and actions are so bitter God hath cursed them they must die and now all the wayes of Holiness have enough to induce thee to endeavour to walk holily as one saith The gleanings of the Saints are better then the harvest of the wicked men if there were no Hell nor Heaven hereafter but onely the wicked to have the pleasures of sin here and the Saints to have the Consolations of the Spirit dwelling in them it is more an hundred-fold the one is nothing but crackling of thorns under a pot and the end is smoke and stink and the other is sweet here and in the end blessed eternally if it were not suppose though the way to Heaven be bitter here yet it is sweet in the end and the way of the world sweet here and bitter in the end yet you should choose Holiness as a Philosopher said If a man were to take a bitter and sweet thing which were he best to take first saith he to take the sowre or the evil first and the sweet for the hope of the good to come will sweeten the present evil but when a man hath the good first the fear of the evil to come will marre all but therefore seeing there is a reward in the way in Holiness as well as in the end for Holiness it should move us to labour after Holiness FINIS
God Now the natural man is not able to judge of things above the principles of Nature The Apostle tells us No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a Map or short Abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the Spirit so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 14 15. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God And again he saith The wisdome of the Spirit is but foolishness to the naturall man And why so because saith he Spiritual things are spiritually discerned that is they are to be understood in a spiritual sense to which mans carnal reason cannot reach But now saith he the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are onely known by the Spirit 't is the Spirit of all Truth that leads into all Truth Then 't is not all Maximes and Rules 't is not Sy 〈…〉 gistical Reasonings and Disputes 't is not Books an◠Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of Truth but it is the work of the Spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and form without but a quickning Spirit within us Yet 6. We are taught that there is a most profound spiritual reasoning in godliness and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soul The minde of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the minde or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soul according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as 't is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and falls short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darkness and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in its height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the Spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreme and the sublimest reason is in godliness because in it is the greatest clearness certainty and light The Apostle calls it Demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spiritual reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a taste of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of Christs Friends then come and eat of this honey and drink of this wine yea eat and drink abundantly O beloved Here thou mayest eat and not 〈…〉 et here thou mayest drink and not be drunken the more thou earest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more wilt thou thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and content To conclude Thou mayest finde much of Christ in this Book but see whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine own heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Ink may be written upon the Table of thy soul by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the Service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THe main drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Justification by Faith or by Free-grace without the works of the Law And in Chap. 7. the Apostle doth answer an Objection for they might say What then shall we do with the Law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the Law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for Sinners and Saints to make of the Law of which I shall not now speak Now in this eighth Chapter the Apostle draws this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have said it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of Hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he saith they are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And he gives a reason of it in ver 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in ver 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have said Thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because saith he that God hath sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh like one of us and he hath fulfilled the law of God and condemned sin therefore there is no sin to condemn us nor no jot of the law that is not fulfilled therefore we are just and righteous and clear There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for God hath sent his Son to condemn sin c. Now in the fourth Verse it is more particularly expressed That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit I shall not orderly go over to shew the Coherence distinctly as I might but briefly as I can come to those Lessons that the Lord is to teach us That the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. There are in the words two things Here is a great Priviledge as any can be to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us And here are secondly the parties that have the benefit of this Priviledge Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Concerning the Priviledge to understand the words a little That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us That the law might be fully satisfied in point of righteousness that the law might have such a righteousness which indeed the law requires that it might have a full and compleat righteousness in us So that briefly these are the Lessons which I shall open from hence which I desire
the Spirit of God as long as they do so they shall never know the will of God We are not debtors to the flesh but we must be debtors to the Spirit if we will have one true thought of Jesus Christ O praise the Spirit and prize the Spirit If you have any thought of Christ thank the Spirit if you have any glimpse of him in your souls worth any thing praise the Spirit That is the reason that the Saints in the Book of God speak not of the Spirit of God without some special Epithite of Commendation Guide me by thy HOLY Spirit and saith another thy BLESSED Spirit and thy GRACIOVS Spirit and the Spirit of GRACE faith another They never speak of it without some word that shewed their love to it and high esteem of it When the Lord shall come and his Spirit shall be advanced in the hearts of men we shall have glorious times and never before that and those times will come I remember Calvin on those Prophesies in Isaiah and Joel The SVN shall be darkened and the MOON shall be turned into blood in that day Saith he the meaning is all the excellency that a man naturally hath his Learning and Endowments in the dayes of the Gospel when the Spirit shall come with his light when God shall exalt the Spirit The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood Men shall not so much esteem Learning from Books but learned and great men and Scholars shall come to one Classis and one Rank and Form with simple people all waiting on God by his Word through the Spirit A man can take his Boy from School that hath his Latine and Greek and send him to the University and he assures himself that he shall be as good a Minister as his other Son that it may be hath served the Spirit seven years this is our way and a hundred more whereby we basely slight and disdain the Spirit of God and do not honour him and therefore he will not honour us 3. If ever you will be true Gospel-Saints you must suffer your selves to be led by the Spirit of God That phrase you finde oft in Rom. 8. Gal. 5. If you live in the Spirit Walk in the Spirit Be led by the Spirit We are not complementary to commend the Spirit of God c. but give it scope to lead us You must heed more what the Spirit of God saith to you and what he works on you If there come a place of Scripture in your minde hear and consider whether the Spirit of God hath not put it in thy minde and would have thee study it and would have thee compare Scriptures And when thou comest to do any action whatsoever not so much to advise with this man or that man but what saith the Spirit I mean according to the light of the Scriptures hearken to that more then what all the world saith Therefore I have known some men that in their whole lives have often mâ—st the will of God in circumstantial things usually it may be for a year or two or three and they have mist it again in another thing and in another thing and when they have examined how this comes about they can say If they had hearkned to the Spirit they had not done so but they hearkned to men and so went against the dictates of the Spirit in their Conscience they would hear what this man said and what the other man did But now the Spirit will say to them You see I would have shewed you the right way but you would not give me scope but made a cypher of me And for my one particular I do not yet see how I should ever have mist the will of God since I knew him if I had hearkned to the Spirit of God if I had but observed so much light as the Spirit had put into my heart Now we ballance the Spirit with this mans example and with the other mans opinion and so come home by Weeping Cross Therefore give scope to the Spirit I mean not against the Word or above the Word but still I mean the Spirit of God working according to the Scriptures and no otherwise 4. Another thing and a special one is I wish you for the Mysteries of the Gospel to study the Scriptures in the simplicity of them without the glosses of men for a man in extremity must do that that a man that is not in extremity would not do We have brought our selves in such slavery to men that we must take that course that another sober man should not I mean thus when ever we go to look for any truth of God for the will of God we have notions in our mindes beforehand according to the times and places we live in As concerning Baptism what need I go to the Scriptures saith one we have it in such and such mens Writings and so we forestall the will of God that we are blinded and cannot see it Therefore if you will see the will of God I wish you for a while to look on the naked Scriptures And for my part I know but three uses to be made of other Books 1. As first there is this use of Books you have Books that will read the Scriptures in divers languages and shew the Originall and open the tongues now when I see a word in English and doubt of the meaning of it then I will go to the Greek or Hebrew as God hath endowed me with knowledge 2. Then there is another use of Books when I reade one single Scripture it may be I have a Book that will point out halfe a dozen Scriptures to open one Scripture by 3. And it may be I have some Books that take some Scripture and presse it upon my soule as Doctor Prestons and other godly Books But to take Books and say Jerome thinks this and Austin that and fill our heads with notions they blind us that we cannot see the will of God Therefore in reading of the Scriptures there should be this difference from our reading of other Books I mean in respect of age When we are Children and young we use not Spectacles it may be at twenty or thirty or fourty yeares old we can reade without Spectacles but when we come tofifty or sixty then we can see nothing but through Spectacles It should be just contrary with us when we are Christians When we are young we usually never read the word of God but through the Spectacles of mens glosses but when we are older Christians and stronger Saints we should learne to read better without Spectacles we should daily make lesse use of Mens Books and more of Gods Book That whereas before a man turned over twenty Authors upon a point Now he can go humbly to God with his Bible and without Spectacles he can see what the will of God is Therefore lay aside Spectacles sometimes and only take the spirit of God and compare Scripture
I told you that these they do come immediately from it The third thing was that the reasoning is the chief character of a man as reason in a man considered in a natural way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essential to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two legs and that a horse hath four but by his essence he is a rational creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godliness and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an Hypocrite yet be a carnal man Why Because he may do good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnal reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantial things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavour to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to pass for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spiritual men are swayed with spiritual reasons How comes it to pass that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in general certainly it is only by the same spirit of God for I must advance the spirit still not in opposition to the Scriptures mistake me not for the spirit takes of the things of Christ and in the Scriptures sheweth you them but it is the spirits teaching you And therefore it is said they are after the spirit that do minde spiritual things because it is the spirit that doth work them to mind spiritual things ye would never mind spiritual things else All the learning in the World and all the wit in the World will never teach a man to make one sincere Argument to do good or draw him from evil But you will say how doth the Spirit do this Beloved I told you heretofore that I do not approve of those that do endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soul as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the souls of poor people for thou knowest not how a child is formed in the wombe how his eye is made and how his nose is made And how are we able to discover how the Spirit of God works grace in the soul which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not do this until he hath done that which hath brought forth a deal of curiosity and needless distinctions troubling the people of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth without curiosity not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spiritual Creation he doth make a Creation in the soul which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in a Pew that Creature that old Creature cannot reach the spirit of God It cannot be mended for we have hearts of stone that will not be cobled nor mended but taken out wholly our natures are so naught that they cannot be mended but God comes and by his holy spirit makes a new Creature in the soul As man is said to be a man and hath not his denomination from the grosser part as his Legs or the like but from the more noble part his soul and his minde for where as in one place it is said What will it avail a man to get the World and lose his Soul in another it is lose himself So as my soul is my self So there is an old man not according to outward age but according to the inward Now he makes thee a new Creature not new Legs and Hands but new minde new affections and new powers in thy soul Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into ths soul that whereas thou hast an understanding and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an understanding that will minde heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whether there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never read in the Scripture where he will work new qualities but a new man we are created a new creature Now that is the way and therefore if ever thou wilt be a spiritual man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new Creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not look upon things as we do we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon the inward man or the new Creature Now we look without saith Paul my inward man gaineth dayly If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Beloved that ye may understand this bear with me a little I do finde in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spiritual and holy two wayes One is by renewing a man to that which he was in old Adam Secondly by creating things in him that were never there before And we have these two expressions in Scripture Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and created unto good works So that a Saint he is made up unto that condition two wayes either God hath renewed in him those things he had in Adam or else God hath created in him that which was never there before As for instance God revealeth in him sobriety and continuance and the like these things were in Adam and now when a man is made a Saint they are renewed only upon a new foundation And withal the Lord creates something that was never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the faith of the Gospel There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospel to believe in another to renounce his own righteousness this was not in Adam because it was point-blank contrary to his own condition for he was to have righteousness in himself and to renounce it was contrary to his condition Now God creates such a faith in us And Beloved there is another thing and it may be there are many things more I have had many thoughts of it with submission to the godly and wise I think that Gospel goodness is a piece of the New man which was not in Adam as to do good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drink to a thirsty Enemy When one is wicked and ungodly and doth deal despightfully with us as Christ saith then to do him good and bless when he curseth and pray for him that injureth us Beloved this is Gospel-goodness I have had many thoughts of it had I time to prove that this Gospel goodness is a piece of the New creature that was not in old Adam There was goodness in
Lessons that the Lord did teach us from these words The first is implied in the beginning of the Verse That every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly That all those that rightly believe in Christ have in them a righteousness perfectly to fulfull it And Thirdly That those that thus believe and have this great priviledge for it is the foundation of all others they are known or described by this They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at large and proved it to you and came to make one Use of it Vse 1. That from hence we may learn how to judge of persons how to judge of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kinde of holiness they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by either as they walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit For I told you there be divers Professors among us that it may be are eminent in the eye of the world before men yet when all comes to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the world but a walking according to the flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of Old Adam But I shall go on a little further Vse 2. Therefore in the next place the Question will be How shall I know whether I walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the Spirit I will onely give you a few Expressions of it I will not say signs for it may be you could not all bear that word and these expressions are most of them laid down in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be the men that walk according to the Spirit or no. First you shall finde in Rom. 6. that those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness And there are many expressions of the same thing in divers phrases as in ver 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the Spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou dost not serve sin Then it is said in ver 11. that those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in ver 12. Sin shall not reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in ver 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness And in ver 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are divers expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the state of thy Soul I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this That those that walk according to grace and according to the Spirit sin is dead in them that is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they do see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousness in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemn them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neither can see it for these things are spiritual Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of Old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rolling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the Spirit let him be weak or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and believes in him therefore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth to us as I understand that a believer being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himself and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therefore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and findes lusts to rise in his soul he saith as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospel let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be laid in the grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himself dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions here in Rom. 6. we gather this That surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I do not say there is no sin in them for then we should lie as John saith but certainly there is a power in their souls against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best moral men in respect of the exactest men in the world that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Ye are dead to sin and Sin shall not reign and have dominion over you and you shall not yield your members as
instruments to sin Shall we turn all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holiness and power against sin that they had not before therefore saith he What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me look a little upon my own soul or appeal to you Take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walk according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him look upon himself what he is now since he hath known a little of Christ and hath known that he is a justified person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeal to you whether you do not feel a strange power in your souls killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an eminent power A poor Saint that sees another tugging and striving and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knows that there is a sweet power in his soul that pulls down the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man saith There is as much difference between a man thaâ— walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the Spirit as between a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the Sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sail and sit down and it is gone he goes with wind and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a childe and speak loving and plain words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the howling and roaring and crying of another a whole year together cannot do It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walk according to the Spirit thou art dead to sin that is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst look upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it down thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soul that will not out Therefore saith the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall find the fruits of walking according to the Spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set down in this 8th to the Romans When a man walks according to the Spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it A Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father That is one fruit of it as soon as a man comes to walk according to the Spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soul like a slave just as you may conceive of a man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a Crust of bread and he fears whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soul in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alwayes in fear of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he fears that he shall prove an hypocrite and the like Now saith the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father that is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving childe to his dear Father there is a boldness a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetness c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and moping and howling and crying thou comest short of walking according to the Spirit for thy soul would be alway full of sweetness in the greatest affliction if there were a Spirit of Adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though there would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetness and joy That is one thing Again another fruit and consequent of it is that the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God If thou wilt be led by the Spirit and walk after the Spirit the Spirit of God will witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the Spirit of God will raise up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the childe of God for the spirit of a man knows the natural things of a man and no more but the Spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the childe of God that is he raiseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the childe of God that as before by my own spirit I was able to know whether I were poor or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated so now my spirit is raised up by the Spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my self spiritually and look upon my self as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this is a spiritual way Thirdly here is another expression of it and that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I finde and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvelled at it and the reason is Because they have not the Spirit of Adoption and walk not fully according to the Spirit therefore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the Primitive times Saith the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not onely they but we our selves which have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves
waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body The meaning is there is no man knows what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to look for it and expect it The word in the Original is as one saith as a woman looks for deliverance when her pains are on her Oh! she would fain be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his Friend out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he fain would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walk according to the Spirit to see Jesus Christ come and to enjoy that glory that is to be revealed There are many more expressions there that are the fruits of it as the spirit of supplication ver 26. and there is also a triumphing over all our spiritual enemies ver 31. What shall we say 〈…〉 God be with us who can be against us c And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things And then there is also a patient suffering of all afflictions saith the Apostle ver 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed And then there is lastly an absolute eternal union with Jesus Christ in respect of his love I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor any thing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These are the expressions of the fruits of the Spirit of God in the Soul when men walk according to the Spirit when they walk according to grace Take a man that walks according to the flesh or according to the law you shall finde none of these kinde of things in his soul So much concerning that Use Vse 3. In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone whereby you may try and judge of mens persons so hereby also you may try your services and actions I say this is a rule whereby you may come to know what your services are what worth is in them For as they onely are Saints who walk according to the Spirit let the world judge how they will and those that walk carnally according to the flesh according to the law are not Saints so I say those actions or services of ours that proceed from the spirit of God they are only pleasing to God and those that proceed from the flesh from Old Adam they are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may try our services and actions as well as our persons for there is the same reason for both in all my actions all that I expect from them is that they be pleasing to God that is the end of all that we do for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot do it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the main Rule by which I am to judge of my actions it is this not to judge of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargement in them as we call it but we are to judge of our actions chiefly if not principally by the principle that they flow from if it be the weakest and meanest action if it be the least sigh or prayer if it proceed from the New Adam the Lord Jesus it is sweet and pleasing to God it is an acceptable sacrifice But if it be the most glorious thing in the world if it proceed from Old Adam not only from sinful Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1 Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from natural wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c it is but flesh and whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is dear so flesh is flesh that is it is a filthy abominable thing to God as it is in this Chapter They that walk according to the flesh cannot please God So that that is born of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God Quest But you will say Cannot the actions that proceed from the principles of natural Adam be pleasing to God Every man knows that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of natural Adam As a man may pray meerly by a naturall wit and bravely to please man and to please himself and he may Preach by a natural wit and do other Exercises and do them finely cannot they be pleasing to God Answ No this is a certain rule that there is nothing that comes from flesh from a principle of Old Adam whether it be naturally good or evil there is nothing whether from pure Adam or from corrupt Adam that is pleasing to God The reason is this Because as it is Gen. 3. 5. that when Adam sinned against God you know his punishment was that he should die he was not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit lest he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the Curse came upon him and in reference to this you shall finde those phrases in this Epistle Whosoever walks according to the flesh shall die whosoever walks as Old Adam is in the state of the old Curse He shall die and O miserable man who shall deliver me from this body of death He calls it a body of death alluding to the main Curse of Old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord said that Adam should die for sin conceive not that the meaning is onely that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soul and body for ever in Hell that is not the onely meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publick person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appointed thee to be the Spring and Foundation of all Mankinde and every man in the world is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousness and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happiness and thy posterity that thou mayest derive a principle to them to be like thee in good and to be pleasing to me But when Adam sinned now saith God thou shalt die I made thee a happy Creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy self and thy posterity as a publick person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousness thy soul and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as
can do a little from the Spirit of Jesus Christ and if God will frame my heart from the Lord Christ and his Spirit to speak a few words to my Father this is all I care for And so for other things Therefore I beseech you let this sink into you That makes you proud that you cannot rule your hearts but you are lifted up with pride when you have done duties it is because every fine thing you do from old Adam makes you proud you take all in the bulk and consider not whence you do things you consider not how much of the old Adam or of the new there is in your Prayers and duties Therefore let this be an universal eternal rule to know the worth of all your services and actions by whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever of my Preaching and of your praying and lending and giving and of your publick actions if it be not from a Spiritual Principle from Jesus Christ according to the Gospel planted in you it is of old Adam and it is condemned labour to leave that Vse 4. I shall conclude with one word more and that is this That this being so that this is to walk according to the Spirit Then we should long very much for the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises that God hath made unto us concerning the latter times There is no Saint almost now that I know but expects glorious times onely one Saint thinks that the glory of the Saints shall be in this thing and another in that thing but every Saint expects continually the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises set down in the latter end of the Revelations and they are glorious ones whatsoever the meaning of them is and I think the chief thing there promised which shall be the height of our happiness that the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven mistake me not though it be a consequent yet it is not chiefly and properly such a way of Government this or that or the other way though it be true that Government will follow upon it yet if the meaning of it were onely to Reform our Churches though that were a blessing or that Christ should come and reign here temporally and give us Inheritances and Riches and the like truly a Saint would not long much for these things But the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven and abundance of blessings that shall go along with it What is that The meaning of it is we shall have the light of the Gospel clearly revealed unto us and we shall have Gospel-principles fully put into our souls which by Antichrist by Babylon we have been sednced of these thirteen or fourteen hundred years For that was the mischief of Antichrist he hath kept us all his reign under the Old Testament with Altars and Sacrifices and Priests and I know not what every thing just as they used under Moses and we are not wholly gone out of Antichrist yet But the Lord will send a light into our hearts to know the truth in the power and to square our hearts to it For that is New Jerusalem if you compare it with Heb. 12. where the holy Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is clearly opposite to Mount Sinai So compare it with Gal. 4. he tells us that Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all that is the Covenant of grace and the principles thereof in the souls of men Therefore I wish that the Lord would set your hearts and mine longing after that that we may have more of the spirit of the Gospel and of the Principles of the New Testament in us and then for matter of Government of Churches those things would follow For to set up Government and Discipline before this comes into the soule truely it is to build Castles in the ayre for let a man take us and frame us in the Independent or Presbyterian way in what way he will unlesse the Principles of Jesus Christ in the Gospel be spiritually planted it will be a fleshly Independent and a fleshly Presbyterian service Therefore labour chiefly for that and pray the Lord to fulfil that and then your Government whatsoever it shall be God will reveale it more fully People are now generally going to build and order Churches and I know not what unlesse the spirit of the New Testament govern in the New Testament it is a vain thing for if we have our former fleshly hearts that walke according to the law and according to the flesh all the Government in the World will never doe us good because God hath cursed flesh and it will never be regulated and brought to good And this also should move us exceedingly to long for the comming of Jesus Christ to glory for his comming to us or our comming to him and the reason of that you shall have in 1 Cor. 15. 49. a glorious word that hath dwelt much in my thoughts I told you the reason why every man must dye a naturall death because of that absolute grand curse that Adam did fall in as a publick person and we being from him we must dye Now here is the comfort of it a blessed word it is As we have born the image of the earthly so we shall bear also the image of the heavenly that is when the redemption of our bodies comes at the day of Christ then as we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly We have born hitherto and do beare the Image of naturall Adam we are all his Sons and his Daughters just like him in our wisdom and understandings and bodies and soules poore earthly creatures naturall frail creatures we are and by that curse that was layd upon him we must all dye and lay downe these earthly Tabernacles these earthly creatures must be dissolved As we have born the Image of the earthly not only as we have born the Image of old Adam sin and wickednesse and pride and frowardnesse so now we shall bear the Image of the new not only in respect of grace and holinesse and righteousnesse that if I be in him all those corruptions of nature shall out and I shall have a new nature That is true but that is not all but as I wholly beare the Image and shape of old Adam his body and soule and senses and all those must dye so when these bodies shall be raised we shall as absolutely and largely beare the Image of the new Adam the Lord Jesus in our body senses and all our whole man soule and body in respect of substance as well as quality we shall bear the Image of the second Adam as lively and in as large an extent as ever wee bore the Image of the earthly Adam Therefore that is a great comfort I will tell you why because it is not onely the sinfulnesse of a Christian that troubles him but his earthinesse so many distempers and troubles that it is a
misery the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake there is so much weaknesse and earthinesse and frailty somtimes a mans heart is right for God yet his head akes or his stomack is full of wind or he is weary and wants sleep there is some frailty or other This is all earthly Adam all this shall be gone and this kind of body and soul shall be altered and changed to the Image of the blessed second Adam we shall put off our earthiness as well as our sinfulness and have his blessed compleat image Now how glorious that shall be as you never saw the first Adam but onely by hear-say and by reading the word of God so you have not seen the second Adam but you may partly know by the manifestation of his glory on earth you have heard much of his glory We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God we shall then see him Phil. 3. 19. Our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies He meanes vile not onely in respect of sinfulness but of dustiness of earthyness and weakness that they may be like his glorious body according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe that is according to his usuall manner of working he can doe what he will in Heaven and Earth We cannot conceive what an image we shall have upon our bodies and souls but according to his wisdome and mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things he will do it Therefore let me tell you this I finde few or none that have those lively expectations in these times of that glory that is to be revealed that the Saints of old had See how they speak of it What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God but yet it doth not appear what we shall be for we shall be like him and Gird up the loyns of your mindes be sober and watch for the glory that shall be revealed The Saints heretofore more then half their hearts were in Heaven beforehand that is the meaning of that Our conversation is in heaven Just as you see men that go a long journey or as you see people that have been plundered that are returning to their own homes their conversation is there half a year before their hearts and their thoughts are there and they wish they were there and are thinking what they will do and what they will be when they come there So Our conversation is in heaven the Saints do so long after the glory that is to be revealed in the day of Adoption and Redemption of our bodies that the most part of them is there already Now we do not consider of this because the New Jerusalem is not yet come into our hearts we have not that Gospel-temper and frame of spirit that the Saints had before That which remains is a little to shew you what your duty is that the Lord hath brought up to walk according to the Spirit And two or three words I have to shew you how you should every one endeavour to attain to it or to attain it more and more But I shall leave that till the Afternoon SERMON V. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit IT is the foundation of all our happiness to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us for thereby we are exempted from all misery freed from all our enemies and thereby we are made capable to enjoy all happiness and blessedness for all the misery that man suffers here and hereafter is because he hath not a righteousness to fulfil the law And therefore whatsoever man or woman it is that the Lord hath bestowed this great priviledge upon they must needs be in a blessed condition Now that we may know whether we are of that number the Apostle tells us that they that have this priviledge they walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit which was the last thing I was upon I told you what was meant by walking after the flesh and what by walking after the Spirit I gave the Reasons of it and made two or three Uses There are two things remain which I shall endeavour to speak of at this time Vse 4. of Exhortation First you that have received the Spirit of God and in some measure do walk according to the Spirit not according to the flesh that the New Jerusalem from Heaven is in some measure come into your hearts I will give you a few Exhortations from the Lord how you should carry your selves That is the first thing I shall do and that shall be in four or five short words 1. The first is this that the Lord having called you to this glorious free estate to this free condition that you would take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonness as many do And by that I mean but two things 1. That you would take heed of using your liberty as an occasion to the flesh 2. Of using your liberty so as to give offence to your Brethren or indeed to any I say first beware of using your liberty for an occasion to the flesh That you shall have Gal. 5. 13. For brethren saith the Apostle you have been called to liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another The Apostle shews them in that Epistle the glorious condition and estate that they were in through grace and here in this Verse there are two things that he tells them the one is implied it is worth observing ye are called to liberty that is there is a freedome there is a liberty in the Gospel in divers things that did seem to be sinful when ye were under the law or else what sense can you make of this Ye are called to liberty onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh For we finde that the people under the law either they made the law stricter or looser then it was And there is no man in the world that walks according to the law but he makes many laws to himself that Christ hath not made Now when the Gospel comes in clearly all those laws that you made of your own head vanish Ye are called to liberty that is you see more freedome you are not bound to every thing that before you were Before you must not smile it was a sin if you seemed to laugh or smile and a hundred such things Now you are called to liberty but use it not as an occasion for the flesh that is take not occasion from your liberty to live more sinfully to say you are made free and others are tyed by the law and therefore you will live more carelesly and loosely and sinfully take heed and beware of that There were
with Scripture that you may come to know the mind of Christ Shall I name one thing more If you would come to be spirituall Gospel-Saints you must be born again you must be born from above A Gospell profession is Jerusalem from above and there are none that can come into Jerusalem that is from above but those that are borne from above Therefore marke our Saviours reasoning Jehn 3. Nicodemus asks Christ which was the way to Heaven And he tells him Verily thou must be born again or thou must be born from above or else thou canst not see it Nicodemus wonders why he must be born from above saith he Shall I go into my Mothers belly c. Saith Christ marvell not wonder not why should he not wonder at such a strange speech Here is the reason That which is born of flesh is flesh therefore think it not strange that I say thou must be born again So I say whatsoever you do by the power of nature by your own wisedome by your own righteousness or your own strength all comes but to this but to flesh and whatsoever comes of flesh is flesh flesh cannot bring out the spirit no more then a thorn can bring out grapes as Christ speaks Therefore wonder not that thou must be born from above that is thou must have the Lord from above to beget thee again You have every one been born once you must be born once more you must have a new creation in you the Lord must create new strange properties and dispositions that no flesh and blood is able to comprehend Lastly take the counsell of the Holy Ghost and that is in Ephes 1. 16. As Paul prayed for them so do thou pray for thy self and there is all the reason in the world that thou shouldest I cease not saith he to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give to you the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of him Pray for the spirit of wisedome and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Slight not these words because some wicked men abuse them and others reproach them but because Paul saith so pray that the Lord would give the spirit of wisdome and revelation So much concerning the Directions I had to give you Vse 6. There is one word of Information and with that I will conclude From what I have said before concerning the flesh and the Spirit learn this Instruction more hence to see what is the true ground of all Persecutions nay even of all the Divisions that are among us men may pretend what they will and deceive themselves but all the strife and persecution in the world is meerly between the Flesh and the Spirit between the Old and the New Adam There are two Princes in this World and these are contrary the one to the other The flesh lusteth against the Spirit Old Adam seeks to get up the New Adam will have him down Therefore you shall have these two in every Town in one Church in one Family in one Soul and wheresoever they are the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary Are contrary what is that that is there is no true contrariety between any things in the world but between the Old Adam and the New between the flesh and the Spirit Now by Flesh I mean not onely corruption but whole flesh fleshly wisdome The wisdome of the Old Adam is enmity against the New the righteousness of Old Adam is quite contrary to the righteousness of the New this is the cause of persecution Let people pretend what they will you shall see godly men persecuted you may see Christ in their Souls as clearly as the Sun and people keep a coyle about Independency and Presbytery but the truth is it is Old Adam in those that persecute and the New Adam in the other a man with one eye may see it There are many pretences but all the strife is between the Old Adam and the New For to give a little illustration take Gospel godly Saints that have the Spirit of God in them they agree well enough they will not strive sometimes they may differ a little but for the generality they live well enough together nay take some Gospel Saints that are filled with the Spirit of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ in these times and in this City which is the Centre of all Division and they cannot attest divisions they cannot make a Party and give railing for railing and strife for strife they cannot but love their enemies and bless them that blaspheme them As James saith Whence come all wars You think they come from your zeal for your Way and yours for your Way but it is from your lusts The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh it is from Old Adam And I was going to say but I will but name it This is the cause also of the weakness generally that is among you It is not wickedness that troubles a Saint but weakness it is not positive ills but weakness And whence is this weakness because he walks after the flesh the Spirit is powerful but the flesh is weak As the Scripture faith Their horses are flesh and not spirit so I may say Your Prayers are flesh and not spirit and it may be my Preaching and it may be our endeavours to resist sin But as far as they are flesh they are weak enough but where the Spirit is there is power I can do all things saith Paul I can preach the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum and I shall come to you in the fulness of Christ A man would think he had been mad but it was the strength of his spirit A poor weak Christian he doth nothing but wish and would and confesseth his sins to day and falls into it again to morrow and then confesseth again and When will it once be O Jerusalem but the Gospel is the power of God to salvation and all the principles of it are powerful and all the precepts of it have a power through the spirit for a man to keep and observe them Men talk that the learning of Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel is to make men loose and licentious It is true carnal vain hearts the better any thing is the worse they be but assure your selves concerning true Saints it is false for the onely way to be lively and lusty and fruitful in good is to know Christ more according to the Gospel Let men please themselves and say so as long as they will they shall be but poor old barren creatures you will be wishing but you shall never overcome your sins I have known some Saints that by the knowledge of Jesus Christ have had power to subdue those sins and to bring them under that before they never so much as hoped to bring under
things of the Spirit are comprehended in these three First the things of Faith They minde the things of the Spirit that is they alway minde and study how to believe in Jesus Christ and how to lay firmer and righter hold of him how they may know him more distinctly and hold him more firmly and get fuller assurance this is their work 2. Or they are exercised about the things of Hope that is they are contemplating and rejoycing in their Happiness by Christ how their persons are justified and their sins pardoned and the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them and all in Heaven and Earth bestowed on them As Paul saith Phil. 3. this is our Religion we glory in the flesh as if not but we rejoyce in Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh but we rejoyce in Jesus that is in all the happiness we have in Jesus Christ 3. Or thirdly and lastly the things of the Spirit are the will of God or the Commands of Jesus Christ they alway study how they may obey and fulfill the good and acceptable and perfect will of God So that a Saint if he be spiritual he is alway either acting his Faith and increasing and strengthning that or he is contemplating his Happiness in Jesus Christ or studying which way to glorifie God to know what part of the will of God he knows not and to study what part of the will of God he knows and remembers this is his exercise And let this suffice to shew what the things of the flesh and what the things of the Spirit are Now the third question briefly is What is meant by the minding of the things of the Flesh and the things of the Spirit 1. You must under stand first that the meaning is not as though a man might not think upon fleshly things for a spiritual Saint oft thinks upon fleshly things in a spiritual manner as to consider his sins to bewail and to mourn for them and he may minde earthly worldly things to provide things honest to provide for his Family as the Apostle saith he may think of his business Therefore the Holy Ghost here doth not use the word Frounesis but Frounena Frounesis signifies prudence or discretion or providence in business he doth not use that lest we should think that the Holy Ghost forbids to provide to be mindful and careful of worldly business but Frounena that signifies a further thing as I shall shew presently 2. Now then you must understand this also that when the Apostle saith they minde the things of the flesh the word doth not onely signifie the understanding but it signifies all the affections also I could give you divers places of Scripture where this word is set downe to expresse the working of any affection in the soul Therefore the meaning is not only of the mind that studies but his affections his will the way of his delight his joy is in earthly things his care is after fleshly things But in particular there are these four or five things implied in the word when they are said to mind the things of the flesh The first is that the very care of his heart as I told you before is Fleshly and carnall A Christian hath outward worldly things in an outward room and Jesus Christ next his heart There is saith one godly man a closet in the heart of a Saint only to entertaine Jesus Christ which the Scripture calls the spirit frequently I worship God in my spirit Rom. 1. And in 1 Thes 5. That ye may be sanctified in your spirit That is in the very coare and quintessence of the soul Now a godly man may have many hurries of wordly things and lusts cross and come through but the coar of his heart is for God and for Holiness Therefore saith Paul Rom. 7. I serve the law of the flesh with my members and the law of Christ with my mind That is inwardly with the care of my heart I shewed the meaning of that word before I shall not now go further in that Secondly a man is said to minde wordly things when a man not only thinks of worldly and fleshly things but savours of worldly and Fleshly things therefore the same word Frounena that is here minding is oft read to savour As in the Speech of Christ to Peter thou savourest the things of the world thou hast a smack of it thou hast a relish of carnall things So then to mind fleshly things is when a man not only thinks of them and considers them but when a man finds most joy and rast and delight in such kind of things But a Fleshly man about worldly or carnal or if you will about sinful businesse O there he is as a fish in the water there he is his own man he is well but put him about any spirituall thing let him come to learne a little for his soul or let his Neighbour come to teach him and admonish and reprove him he is upon thornes then he hath no tast of it at all now if thou be a fleshly man thou mindest fleshly things that is thou doest not only in thy understanding consider of them but thy soul relisheth them there thou art thy owne man when thou art in the middest of the world and the flesh and earth and hell therefore look to thy self Thirdly to mind fleshly things is when the streame the main of the soul goes upon fleshly earthly carnall things when the things of God are but by businesse to a man It is no so in a spirituall man 1 Cor. 7. He useth the world as if he used it not he mindes little of the world as little as may be but the main stream of his soul is upon Jesus Christ there he exerciseth himself day and night as David speaks Fourthly when a man doth study and plod continually upon worldly things upon fleshly carnal things When a man takes care for so the word is used oft in Scripture as it is used Rom. 14. 6. If any man doth observe a day or care for a day Curare diem as we reade it in the Latine if one observe it and another will not or will not regard it When a man observes and regards and takes care and studies and plods for earthly fleshly things this is to minde Fleshly things Therefore in Phil. 4. 7. saith the Apostle I am glad that your care is renewed towards me saith Beza It is more then care there is a kinde of sollicitude it is addicere animam it is a word that signifies when a man addicts him when he is given wholly to a thing when a man is addicted and gives his minde wholly to the world to fulfill his lusts or to enjoy his pleasures this is to minde Fleshly things Then Fifthly and lastly it is when a man doth judge of things according to the Flesh Non est cogitare c. To minde is not onely to think of it but to judge of things As
Adam but not this as for instance there are divers things we finde among Professors that in the last day will be found to be nothing but the old Adam but Ishmaels that are humbled to the height and ye shall see in them a great deal of diligence in Gods service but where will you finde a Professor one of 500. and I speak with the least that you may clearly reade Gospel-goodness in him that you may say yonder is a man that if you curse him he will love you and if you do him hurt and that despitefully he will pray for you It is an easie thing to kindle a brand that hath been once lighted to do that which Adam did but to do this is a higher matter As man was created after the Image of God so the Creatures in a sort were created after the image of man now as in Creatures in a Dog there is love and the like But where is there a creature that if you do him mischief will not endeavour to do you the like again or at least wise run away But where is a piece in the old Creation that doth love his Enemies And whereas it is said Adam was created after the Image of God and God loves his Enemies I answer God then in that Covenant was not in a disposition to love his Enemies but to hate his Enemies and sinners and curse them and damn them but now in Jesus Christ he loves his Enemies and therefore according to his minde he revealed to Adam it was not so and many other reasons I had but this I present to you with submission I do not speak curiosities but I finde and see very little of this scarcely any there was a candid goodness in the Primitive Church which is not now to be which is not now to be found now nothing but biting and tearing and devouring one another well there is one word he doth it by a spirittal Creation Then Secondly he brings the soul to this way of spiritual reasoning by spiritual illumination he created faculties before and now he casteth in Light as he did in the old Creation you know he made Heaven and Earth in the lump and then said Let there be Light Now that is the reason when the Gospel is preached and there is the spirit of God going with the Word and thou art dark and canst not receive this light the new Creature is not framed in thee if thou hast no eyes thou canst not see and if a man have eyes he cannot see in a dark room Now when the new man is made then the Lord sends in light and it is not every light for there are many Lights a blinde man as it were an Hypocrite hath them but it is a powerful Light that God puts in for we do finde that there is a kinde of Light in Hypocrites but yet there is no power in them there is not Light to bring them to such kinde of reasoning as will bring them to any good or from any evil they will talk of Drunkenness and Whoredome and the like but have not power to bring them off from any of these things indeed a Saint may be overcome of his Lusts that war in his members but there is a Law in his minde that is there is a Light that is like unto a Law that hath power in it that he seeth Christ doing them away I am sorry I have not time to open this unto you further but remember it Thirdly the Lord will do it by suggestion that is the spirit of God puts light into the soul he puts a measure of light to dwell in every new creature and that powerfully But because the way of the saints are so dark in this World and thorow so much difficulty the spirit of God prompts a Saint alwayes when he is at a loss As among Schollars we shall see sometimes a man is almost born down and then another giveth him an Argument or Distinction to help him and then he carries it and so the flesh hath reason and arguments as we are going along and now though there be a measure of light a stock of light dwelling in us yet we are nonplussed by the flesh and then the spirit of God suggesteth somewhat to us and we are carried thorow as you have it in Mat. 20. When you are brought before Governours it is not you that speak but the spirit of God that prompteth you Fourthly the spirit doth it by conviction that is another way we have it Joh. 16. saith Christ when I go I will send my spirit and my spirit shall convince the World of sin reprove you have it he shall convince the World of sin of righteousness and Judgement The word signifies when he saith the spirit will convince that is by way of Argument the meaning is that in every carnal mans heart there are arguments against faith and for his own destruction and strong ones too And when we preach to you ye bring reason against reason and so go away unconvinced unconverted but the spirit will convince you that is he will bring such strong arguments as Doctor PRESTON saith from Heaven that will convince you As when a stronger man cometh he disarmeth the other as before we thought godliness nothing but Heresie and Puritanism and the like but now the Spirit convinceth you you see this is the onely way and out of this way I shall never see God and the like 5. Another way I find the spirit doth it by is commemoration by minding us of what we have heard of somthing we have known before it it is our remembrancer Therefore saith Christ I will send my Spirit and he shall bring to your remembrance what you have heard not that you shall remember a whole Sermon and Repeat it every word but thus it is he will either suggest thoughts we never had before or bring to our remembrance a word we have heard of such a preacher in such a place or read in such a place or thought in such a walke or the like and so setteth on and carrieth on the worke 6. And he doth it by consolation he is the Comforter the consolation of the spirit Beloved this is certaine that ye know trouble of minde exceedingly hinders the acts of reason That is the reason men are mad because some fumes rise up in the braine and trouble the minde that they cannot reason but are mad Beloved our troubles of minde and soule they are like fumes that come up into the braine and distract us A spirituall man is many times as it were a distracted man there are so many sumes such horrour and guilt that he is almost stark mad he can talke of naturall things but in spirituall things he is as it were mad the Chaine of spirituall reason is broken and now the spirit is the Comforter and he quiets the the spirits and when a man is in a quiet temper the disease is gone and the reason