to the Soule a Spirit of Adoption and of a sound minde which sayes unto the Soule that God is our Salvation settles the heart to rest and cleave unto Gods Promises teâ—…ifies seales secures certifies our inheritance unto us Secondly to stoppe the mouth and drive out of Gods presence and leave utterly unexcusable that a man shall have nothing to alledge why the curse should not be pronounced against him but shall in his conscience subscribe to the righteousnesse of Gods severity In stead whereof we have in Christ a free approach into Gods presence words put into our mouthes by the spirit of supplications to reveale our requests to debate and plead in Gods Court of mercy to cleere our selves from the accusations of Sathan to appeale from them to Christ and in him to make this just apologie for our selves I confesse I am a grievous sinner and there is not a Soule in Heaven Christ onely excepted which hath not beene so though I the chiefe of all In Law then I am gone and have nothing to answere there but only to appeale to a more mercifull Court But this I can in truth of heart say that I deny my owne workes that I bewaile my corruptions that the things which I doe I allow not that it is no more I that doe them but sinne that dwelleth in me that I am truly willing to part from any lust that I can heartily pray against my closest corruptions that I delight in the Law of God in mine inner man that I am an unwilling captive to the Law in my members that I feele and cry out of my wretchednesse in this so unavoydable subjection that I desire to feare Gods Name that I love the Communion of his Spirit and Saints and I know I have none of these affections from nature in that I agree with Sathan these are spirituall and heavenly impressions and where there is a piece of the spirit where there is a little of heaven that will undoubtedly carry the soule in which it is to the place where all the Spirit is If God would destroy me hee would not have done so much for my Soule he would never have given me any dramme of Christs Spirit to carry to hell or to be burnt with me No man will throw his jewels into a sinke or cast his pearles under the feete of swine certainely God will send none of his owne graces into Hell nor suffer any sparkle of his owne holynesse and divine nature to be cast away in that lake of forgetfulnesse If He have begun these good works in me He will fiâ—…sh them in his owne time and I will waâ—…e upon him and expect the Salvation of the Lord. Thirdly to terriâ—… and 〈◊〉 the Soule with a fearefull expectation of fiery 〈◊〉 and execution of the curse In stead whereof the soule is calm'd with a spirituall serenity and peace which is the beginning of Gods Kingdome armed with a sweete securitie and Lion-like boldnesse against all the powers and assaults of Men or Angels crowned and refreshed with the joy of Faith with the first fruites of the Spirit with the clusters of the Heavenly Canaan with the earnest of its inheritance with the prefruition and preapprehension of Gods presence and Glory This is the Life of Righteousnesse which we have from Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Redemption and deliverance from sinne and the Law and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Priviledge right and interest in the purchased possession Secondly He that hath the Sonne hath Life in regard of Holinesse as he hath received Christ Iesus the Lord so he walketh in Him we are in Him created or raised up from the first death unto good workes that we should walke in them Of our selves we are without strength without love without life no power no liking no possibilitie to doe good not any principle of Holynesse or Obedience in us It is Hee that strengthens that winnes that quickens us by His Spirit to His Service Wee should here consider Holinesse something more largely and shew when good workes are Vitall and so from Christ and when onely mortall earthly and upon false principles and so from our selves But having done this before in the doctrine of the raigne of sinne I will onely name some other discourses of a Vitall Operation and so proceede First Life hath ever an Internall principle a seede within it selfe a naturall heate with the fountaine thereof by which the body is made operative and vigorous and therefore in living Creatures the heart first liveth because it is the forge of spirits and the fountaine of heate So Holynesse which comes from Christ beginnes within proceedeth from an ingraffed and implanted seede from the feare of God in the heart and the Law put into the inner man The Conscience is cleansed the spirit of the minde is renewed the delights and desires of the heart are changed the bent and bias of the thoughts are new set Christ is formed and dwelleth within the whole man is baptized with the Holy Ghost as with fire which from the Altar of the heart where it is first kindled breaketh out and quickneth every facultie and member Fire when it prevailes will not be hidde nor kept in Secondly Life hath ever a nutritive appetite ioyned with it and that is most set upon such things as are of the same matter and principles with the nature nourished so where a man is by the spirit of Christ quickned unto a Life of Holynesse he will have a hungring thirsting and most ardent affection to all those sincere uncorrupted and Heavenly Truths which are proportionable to that Spirit of Christ which is in him Thirdly Life is Generative and Communicative of it selfe all living Creatures have some seminarie of generation for propagating their owne kinde so that spirit of Holynesse which wee have from Christ is a fruitfull spirit that endeavours to shedde multiply and derive himselfe from one unto another Therefore he descended in fiery tongues to note this multiplying and communicating property which he hath The tongue is a member made for Communion and nothing so generative of it selfe as fire They that feared the Lord spake often to one another saith the Prophet Many people shall gather together and say come yee and let us goe to the Mountaine of the Lord c. Lastly where there is perfect life there is sense too of any violence offered to it so where the Spirit of God is will bee a tendernesse and griefe from the sinnes or temptations which doe assault him As that great sinne which the Scripture calls blaspheming of the Holy Ghost and despighting of the Spirit of Grace is after a more especiall manner called the sinne against the Holy Ghost as being a sinne which biddeth open defiance to the Truth Grace Life and Promises which
by better promises and therefore respect none of the wages of Lust consider that God is the Fountaine of life that thou hast more and better of it in him then in the Creatures that when thou wantest the things of this life yet thou hast the promises still and that all the offers of lust are not for comforts but for snares not for the use of life but for the provisions of sin and there is more content in a little received from God then in whole treasures stollen from him and all sinfull gaine is the robbing of God Fourthly for the law of lust setup the law of the spirit of life in thy heart It is a royall Law and a Law of liberty whereas lust is a law of death and bondage and where the spirit comes a man shall be set free from the law of sinne and of death Keepe thy selfe alwayes at home in the presence of Christ under the eye and government of thy husband and that will dash all intruders and adulterers out of countenance Take heed of quenching grieving stifling the Spirit cherish the motions thereof stirre up and kindle the gifts of God in thee labour by them to grow more in grace and to have neerer communion with God the riper the Corne growes the looser will the chaffe be and the more a man growes in grace with the more ease will his corruptions be sever'd and shaken off Fifthly when lust is violent and importunate First be thou importunate and vrgent with God against it too when the Messenger of Satan the Thorne in the flesh did buffet and sticke fast unto S. Paul hee reiterated his prayers unto God against it and proportion'd the vehemency of his requests to the violence and urgency of the enemy that troubled him and he had a comfortable answer My Grace is sufficient for thee sufficient in due time to cure and sufficient at all times to forgive thy weakenesse In the Law if a ravisht woman had cried out shee was esteemed innocent because the pollution was not voluntary but violent And so in the assaults of lust when it useth violence and pursues the soule that is willing to escape and flye from it if a man with-hold the embraces of his owne will and cry out against it if he can say with Saint Paul It is no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me though in regard that the flesh is something within himselfe he cannot therefore be esteemed altogether innocent yet the Grace of God shall bee sufficient for him Secondly when thou art pursued keepe not Lusts counsell but seeke remedy from some wise and Christian friend by communicating with him and disclosing thy case unto him sinne loves not to bee betrayde or complained on mutuall confession of sinne to those who will pray for a sinner and not deride him or rejoyce against him is a meanes to heale it Thirdly when thou art in a more violent manner then usuall assaulted by sinne Humble thy selfe in some more peculiar manner before God and the more sinne cries for satisfaction denie it and thy selfe the more as Salomon saith of children so may I say of lusts Chastice and subdue thy lusts and regard not their crying Sixthly cut off the materials and provisions for lust weane thy selfe from earthly affections love not the World nor the things of the World desire not anything to consume upon thy lusts pray for those things which are convenient for thee turne thy heart from those things which are most likely to seduce thee possesse thy heart with a more spirituall and abiding treasure hee who lookes stedfastly upon the light of the Sunne will be able to see nothing below when he lookes downe againe and surely the more a man is affected with heaven the lesse will he desire or delight in the world Besides the provisions of sinne are but like full pastures that doe but fatten and prepare for slaughter Balaam was in very good plight before able to ride with his two servants to attend him but greedinesse to rise higher and make provision for his ambitious heart carried him upon a wicked businesse made him give cursed counsell against Israel which at length cost him his owne life Lastly for the instruments of lusts make a covenant with thy members keep a government over them bring them into subjection above all keepe thy heart establish the inward government for nothing can be in the body which is not first in the heart keepe the first mover uniforme and right all other things which have their motions depending there must needs be right too Having thus opened at large the life and state of originall sinne it remaines in the last place to shew how the spirit by the commandement doth convince and discover the life of actuall sinne in omitting so much good in committing so much evill in swarving and deviating from the rule in the manner and measure of all our services And this it doth by making us see that great spiritualnes and perfection that precise universall and constant conformitie which the Law requires in all we doe Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Perfection and perpetuitie of obedience are the two things which the Law requires Suppose we it possible for a man to fulfill every tittle of the Law in the whole compasse of it and that for his whole life together one onely particular and that the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from it being for one onely time excepted yet so rigorous and inexorable is the Law that it seales that man under the wrath and curse of God The heart cannot turne the thoughts cannot rise the affections cannot stirre the will cannot bend but the Law meets with it either as a Rule to measure or as a Iudge to censure it It penetrates the inmost thoughts searcheth the bottome of all our actions hath a widenesse in it which the heart of man cannot endure They were not able to endure saith the Apostle the things which were commanded and Why tempt you God saith Saint ' Peter to those that preached Circumcision and put a yoake upon the brethren which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare Circumcision it selfe they were able to beare but that yoke which came with it namely the Debt of the whole Law was by them and their fathers utterly unsupportable For this very cause was the Law published that sinne might thereby become exceeding sinfull that so Gods grace might bee the more magnified and his Gospell the more accepted Let us in a few words consider some particular aggravations of the life and state of actuall sinne which the spirit by the Word will present unto us First in the least sinne that can bee named there is so much life and venome as not all the concurrent strength of those millions of Angels one of whom was
matter of which is commanded may yet be made in the doing of them evill when that due respect and conformitie which the Law wherein it is commanded requireth is not observed If a man build a wall with pâ—…etence to keepe out the Sea or an enemy and yet leave a wide gap and entrance open to admit them though hee who sees nothing but firme wall may admire the worke yet he who viewes the whole will but deride it so though a maâ—… doe very much though hee proceede so farre as to offer up the children of his body and bestow mountaines of cattell upon God and his service yet omitting righteousnesse and iustice and humiliation before God though to men it may seeme very specious yet unto God it is both abominable and ridiculous As a piece of silver or gold may be shaped into a vessell of dishonor which shall be destin'd unto â—…ordid and uncleane uses so may a worke be compounded of choyce ingredients the materials of it may be the things which God himselfe requires and yet serving to base purposes and directed to our owne ends it may stinke in the nostrils of God and bee by him reiected as a vessell in which there is no pleasure A cup of cold water to a prophet as a prophet shall bee rewarded when a magnificent almes with a pharises trumpet shall be rejected As a small thing which the righteous hath so a small thing which the righteous giveth is better then great riches of the ungodly Fourthly wee are to note what things are requisite unto the doing of a thing so as that it may bee an Act of obedience and thereupon acceptable unto God First then it must have a new principle the Spirit of Christ and the Law of the Spirit of Life and Faith purifying the Conscience from dead workes Secondly in regard of the manner it must bee done with the affection of a childe not out of bondage but in love 2. Tim. 1. 7. In voluntary service and resignation of all the members unto righteousnesse Rom. 6. 19. In universall respect to all the Commandements Psal. 119. 128. In obedience to God the Law-giver for he never obeyes the Law even when he doth the workes therein contained but when hee doth it with all submissiue and loyall affections towards him that commands it Iam. 2. 10 11. this onely is to live unto God and to bring forth fruite unto him Thirdly it must be directed unto holy ends and those are principally foure to which others are to be subordinate but not repugnant First the glory of God we must bring forth fruit and finish our workes and doe all that we have to doe with respect unto his glory Ioh. 15. 8. Ioh 17. 4. 1. Cor. 10. 31. Secondly the Edification Service comfort of the Church that nothing redound to their offence but to their profit and salvation 1. Cor. 10. 3â—… 33. Col. 1. 24. 2. Tim. 2. 10. 2. Cor. 1. 6. Thirdly the Credit honour and passage of the Gospell that it may be furthered and not evill spoken of 2. Cor. 6. 3 4. 1. Cor. 9. 19. 23. Phil. 1. 12. Fourthly a mans owne salvation that he be not after all his paines a cast-away but that he may save himselfe 1. Cor. 9. 27. 1. Tim. 4. 16. 1. Pet. 1. 9. Fourthly all the meanes unto that end must be regular and sutable Evill must not be done to bring good about Rom. 3. 8. and all the circumstances which accompany the action must be right too For as in the body there is not onely requir'd beauty but order and proportion Let the face be of never so delicate and choice complection yet if any part be mis-plac'd it will cause a notable deformitie and uncomelinesse to it so in duties an excellent worke may be so mis-plac'd or mis-tim'd or attended with such incongruous and unsutable circumstances as that it may prove rather a snare of Satan then a fruit of the Spirit Lastly to make it completely acceptable It must passe through the Incense and Intercession of Christ who as he doth by his Merits take away the Guilt of sinne from our persons so by his Intercession he hideth the pollution and adherencie of sinne that is in our services and so giveth us accesse and maketh all our duties acceptable by him to God Ephes. 2. 18. 1. Pet. 2. 5. He hath made us to be priests unto God and our Prayers and good workes as spirituall sacrifices come up before God But it is not sufficient that there be a Priest and an offering except there be an Altar too upon which to offer it for it is the Altar which sanctifieth the offering Now Christ is the Altar which sanctifieth all our spirituall sacrifices Their sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar and they shall come up with acceptance on mine Altar Esai 56. 7. 60. 7. These things being thus premised we conclude first A wicked man cannot doe those things at all which are so essentially and inherently good as that the very opâ—… operatum or doing of them is from the spirit of Christ as to love God to trust him and depend upon him for as there are some things in nature which cannot be counterfeited or resembled the shape of a man may bee pictur'd but the life cannot nor the reason nor any thing that doth immediately pertaine to the Essence of man so there are some things in grace which cannot by hypocrisie be done neither in the thing it selfe nor in the manner of doing it because sincerity spiritualnesse and filiall respects belong to the very substance and matter of the duety Secondly other workes whose Goodnesse doth not cleave necessarily to the doing of them but to the manner of doing them wicked men may performe but then they doe them onely ethically and in conspectu hominum with relation to men and manners not spiritually as unto God nor in obedience or respect to him For first the Spirit of Grace is Christs spirit Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. and our flesh is quite contrarie unto it Gal. 5. 17. and none have this spirit but they who have fellowship with the father and the sonne and are united unto him 1. Ioh. 4. 13. none of which dignities belong to wicked men Secondly every thing that is spirituall is vitall for the spirit quickneth the spirit of Holinesse never comes but with a Resurrection Rom. 1. 4. Ro. 8. 10 11. 2. Cor. 3. 6. and therefore he is called the spirit of life Rom. 8. 2. but now as the persons of wicked men so their workes are all dead Heb. 9 14. and therfore not being done spiritually obedientially impossible it is that they should in any sense please God Rom. 8. 8. whos 's pure eyes can endure nothing which beareth not in some though most remote degree proportion to his most holy nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. But it may be objected doth God use to doe good to those that hate him and that even for
services 246 In the best there is a partiall impotency 250 What a man should doe when he finds himselfe disabled and deaded in good workes 253 2. It is an estate of extreme enmitie against God and his waies 255 How the spirit by the Commandement doth convince men to be in the state of sinne 258 The spirit by the commandement convinceth men to bee under the guilt of sinne 260 There is a naturall conviction of the guilt of sinne and 260 There is a spirituall and evangelicall conviction of the guilt of sinne 261 What the guilt and Punishments of sinne are 262 ROM 6. 12. Sinne will abide in the time of this mortall life in the most Holie 273 Our death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne of it 275 Difference betweene the regall and tyrannicall power of Sinne. 277 Whether a man belong unto Christ or sinne 279 Sinne hath much strength from it selfe 282 from Satan and the world 285 from us 285 What it is to obey sinne in the lusts thereof 286 Whether sinne may Raigne in a regenerate man 288 How wicked men may be convinc'd that sinne doth raigne in them Two things make up the raigne of sinne 1. In sinne power 290 2. In the sinner a willing and vncontroled subiection 290 Three exceptions against the evidence of the raigne of sinne in the wicked 291 1. There may be a raigne of sinne when it is not discerned 292 Whether small sinnes may raigne 293 Whether secret sinnes may raigne 294 Whether sins of ignorance may raigne 295 Whether naturall concupiscence may raigne 296 Whether sinnes of omission may raigne 296 2. Other causes besides the power of Christs Grace may worke a partiall abstinence from sinne and conformitie in service 1. The power of restraining grace 298 Differences between restraining and renewing Grace 2. Affectation of the credit of godlinesse 302 3. The Power of pious education 304 4. The legall power of the word 305 5. The power of a naturall illightned Conscience 305 6. Selfe love and particular ends 307 7. The antipathy and contradiction of sinnes 309 3. Differences betweene the conflicts of a naturall and spirituall conscience 1. In the Principles of them 310 2. In their seates and stations 313 3. In the manner and qualities of the conflict 314 4. In their effects 316 5. In their ends 317 Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man 317 2. COR. 7. 1. The Apostles reasons against Idolatrous communion 321 The doctrine of the pollution of sinne 322 The best workes of the best men mingled whith pollution 325 The best workes of wicked men full of pollution 237 What the pollution of sinne is 328 The properties of the pollution of sinne 1. It is a deepe pollution 329 2. It is an universall Pollution 330 3. It is a spreading Pollution 330 4. It is a mortall Pollution 332 Why God requireth that of us which he worketh in us 335 How promises tend to the dutie of cleansing ourselves 1. Promises containe the matter of rewards and so presuppose services 337 2. Promises are efficient causes of purification 1. As tokens of Gods love Love the ground of making fidelity of performing Promises 338 2. As the grounds of our hope and expectations 340 3. As obiects of our faith 342 4. As the raies of Christ to whom they lead us 345 5. As exemplars patterns and seeds of puritie 346 3. Many promises are made of purification itselfe 347 Rules directing how to use the Promises 1. Generall Promises are particularly and particulars generally appliable 350 2. Promises are certaine performances secret 352 3. Promises are subordinated and are performed with dependence 357 4. Promises most usefull in extremities 359 5. Experience of God in some promises confirmeth faith in others 360 6. The same temporall blessing may belong to one man onely out of providence to another out of promise 361 7. Gods promises to us must be the ground of our prayers to him 364 ROM 7. 13. The Law is neither sinne nor death 368 The Law was promulgated on Mount Sina by Moses onely with Evangelicall purposes 371 God will doe more for the salvation then for the damnation of men 372 The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men 385 The Law is not given to iustifie or save men 386 The Law by accident doth irritate and punish or curse sinne 386 The Law by itselfe doth discover and restraine sinne 387 Preaching of the Law necessary 388 Acquaintance with the Law strengthens Humility Faith Comfort Obedience 392 The third Treatise The Life of Christ. 1. IOH. 5. 12. ALL a Christians excellencies are from Christ. 400 1. From Christ wee have our life of righteousnesse 401 Three Offices of Christs mediatorship His Payment of our debt 401 Purchase of our inheritance 401 Intercession 401 Righteousnesse consisteth in remission and adoption 402 By this Life of righteousnesse we are delivered from 1. Sinne. 403 2. Law as a Covenant of righteousnesse Law full of Rigor Curses Bondage 2. From Christ we have our life of holinesse 407 Discoveries of a vitall operation 407 Christ is the Principle of our holinesse 409 Christ is the patterne of holinesse 410 Some workes of Christ imitable others unimitable 410 Holinesse beares conformity to Christs active obedience 412 How we are said to be holy as Christ is holy 413 Holinesse consists in a conformitie unto Christ. Proved from 1. The ends of Christs comming 415 2. The nature of holinesse 416 3. The quality of the mysticall body of Christ. 418 4. The vnction of the Spirit 418 5. The summe of the Scriptures 419 The proportions betweene our holinesse and Christs must be 1. In the seeds and principles 419 2. In the ends Gods glory the Churches good 420 3. In the parts 4. In the manner of it Selfe-deniall 421 Obedience 422 Proficiencie 423 What Christ hath done to the Law for us 423 We must take heed of will-holinesse or being our owne Rule 425 Christs life the Rule of ours 427 3. From Christ wee have our life of glorie 429 The attributes or properties of our Life in Christ 1. It is a hidden life 432 2. It is an abounding life 437 3. It is an abiding life 438 No forrsigne assult is too hard for the life of Christ 439 Arguments to reestablish the heart of a repenting sinner against the terror of some great fall from 1. The strength of Faith 442 2. The love and free grace of God 446 3. Gods Promise and covenant 448 4. The obsignation of the spirit 449 5. The nature and effects of Faith 449 THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE AND VEXATION OF THE SPIRIT By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock 1631. Christian Reader Importunitie of Friends hath over-rul'd me to this Publication and importunitie of businesse crossing me in the putting of these pieces together hath made
gives an excellent reason in the same place No man can by any meanes redeeme his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the Redemption of their Soule is Pretious And secondly it may teach them as not to Trust so not to Swell with these things neither It is an argument of their windinesse and emptinesse that they are apt to make men swell whereas if they cannot change a haire of a mans head nor adde an inch to his stature they can much lesse make an accession of the least dramme of merit or reall value to the owners of them And surely if men could seriously consider That they are still members of the same common bodie and that of a twofold body a civill and a mysticall body and that though they haplie may bee the more honorable parts in one body yet in the other they may be the lesse honorable that the poore whom they despise may in Christs body have a higher roome then they as the Apostle saith Hath not God chosen the poore in this world Rich in faith Iam. 2. 5. I say if men could compare things rightly together and consider that they are but the greater letters in the same volume and the poore the smaller though they take up more roome yet they put no more matter nor worth into the word which they compound they would never suffer the tympanie and inflation of pride or superciliousnesse of selfe-attributions or contempt of their meaner brethren to prevaile within them Wee see in the naturall body though the head have a Hat on of so many shillings price and the foot a Shooe of not halfe so many pence yet the head doth not therefore despise the foot but is tender of it and doth derive influence as well unto that as to any nobler part and surely so should it be amongst men though God have given thee an Eminent station in the body cloath'd thee with purple and scarlet and hath set thy poore neighbour in the lowest part of the body and made him conversant in the dirt and content to cover himselfe with leather yet you are still members of the same common body animated with the same spirit of Christ moulded out of the same dirt appointed for the same inheritance borne out of the same wombe of natural blindnesse partakers of the same great and pretious promises there was not one price for the Soule of the poore man and another for the rich there is not one table for Christ's meaner guests and another for his greater but the faith is a Common faith the salvation a Common salvation the rule a Common rule the hope a Common hope one Lord and one Spirit and one Baptisme and one God and Father of all and One foundation and One house and therefore wee ought to have Care and Compassion one of another Secondly consider that Goodnesse and value which is fix'd to the being of the Creature implanted in it by God and the institution of nature and even thus we shall finde them absolutely unable to satisfie the desires of the reasonable and spirituall soule God is the Lord of all the Creatures they are but as his severall monies he coin'd them all So much then of his Image as nay Creature hath in it so much value and worth it carries Now God hath more communicated himselfe unto man then unto any other Creature in his Creation we finde man made after the similitude of God and in his restauration we finde God made after the similitude of man and man once againe after the similitude of God And now it is needlesse to search out the worth of the Creature Our Saviour will decide the point What shall a man gaine though he winne the whole World and lose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule To which of the Creatures said God at any time Let us create it after our image of which of the Angels said He at any time Let us restore them to our image againe there is no Creature in heaven or earth which is recompence enough for the losse of a Soule Can a man carrie the world into hell with him to bribe the flames or corrupt his tormentors No saith the Psalmist His glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. but can hee buy out his pardon before he comes thither no neither the Redemption of a Soule is more pretious vers 8. we know the Apostle counts all things Dung Phil. 3. 8. and will God take dung in exchange for a soule Certainely Beloved when a man can sow grace in the furrowes of the field when he can fill his barnes with glory when he can get bagges full of salvation when he can plow up heaven out of the earth and extract God out of the Creatures then he may bee able to finde that in them which shall satisfie his desires But till then let a man have all the exquisitest Curiosities of nature heap'd into one vessell let him be moulded out of the most delicate ingredients and noblest principles that the world can contribute let there be in his body a concurrency of all beauty and feature in his nature an Eminence of all Sweetnesse and ingenuity in his minde a conspiration of the politest and most choice varieties of all kinde of learning yet still the spirit of that man is no whit more valueable and pretious no whit more proportionable to Eternall Happinesse then the soule of a poore and illiterate begger Difference indeed there is and that justly to bee made betweene them in the eyes of men which difference is to expire within a few yeeres and then after the dust of the beautifull and deformed of the learned and ignorant of the honorable and base are promiscuously intermingled and death hath equall'd all then at last there will come a day when all mankinde shall be summon'd naked without difference of degrees before the same tribunall when the Crownes of kings and the shackles of prisoners when the robes of princes and the ragges of beggers when the gallants braverie and the peasants russet and the statists policie and the Courtiers luxurie and the schollers curiosity shall be all laid aside when all men shall be reduc'd unto an equall plea and without respect of persons shall bee doom'd according to their workes when Nero the persecuting emperor shall be throwne to Hell and Paul the persecuted Apostle shall shine in glory when the learned Scribes and Pharises shall gnash their teeth and the ignorant and as they terme them cursed people shall see their Saviour when the proud antichristian prelates that dyed their robes in the bloud of the Saints shall be hurried to damnation and the poore despised martyrs whom they persecuted shall wash their feet in the bloud of their enemies when those puntoes and formalities and cuts and fashions and distances and complements which are now the darling sinnes of the upper
the branches yet the rootes are so fastened to the joynts and intralls of the wall that till the stones be puld all asunder it will not be quite rooted out As that house wherein there was a fretting and spreading Leprosie though it might bee scrap'd round about and much rubbish and corrupt materialls removed yet the Leprosie did not cease till the house with the stones and timber and morter of it was broken downe so originall concupiscence cleaveth so close to our nature that though we may bee much repair'd yet corruption will not leave us till our house be dissolved As long as Corne is in the field it will have refuse and chaffe about it as long as water remaines in the Sea it will retaine it saltnesse till it be defecated and clensed in its passage into the Land and so is it with the Church while it is in the world it will have the body of sinne about it it will bee beset with this Sinne. In the Apostle it is for this reason call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an encompassing sinne a sinne that will not be cast off that doth easily occupate and possesse all our members and faculties a man may as easily shake off the skin from his backe or poure out his bowels out of his body as rid himselfe of this evill inhabitant It is an evill that is ever present with us and dwelling in us But it may be objected Doth not the Apostle say that by being baptized into Christ or planted into the likenesse of his death our old man is crucified the body of sinne is destroyed we are freed from sinne as a woman is from a dead husband we have put off the body of the sinnes of the flesh by the Circumcision made without hands that is by Baptisme and the Spirit Doth not the Apostle Saint Iohn say He that is borne of God that is he that is Regenerate by Water and the Spirit sinneth not neither can sinne To this I answer in generall with the same Apostle If we say wee have no sinne we deceive our selves and there is no truth in us More particularly wee must distingvish both of Death and of sinne There is a twofold Death an Actuall or Naturall Death when the essentiall parts of a living Creature are taken asunder and the whole dissolved and a Virtuall or Legall Death when though the party bee naturally Alive yet hee is Dead in Law and that notes two things First a designation unto a certaine Death at hand and ready to bee executed Secondly a disabilitie unto many purposes which lay before in the mans power as a man condemn'd though hee have his life out of indulgence for a short space yet hee is then set apart and appointed for death and in the very sentence disabled to order or dispose of any thing which was then his owne When a woman is divorced for adultery from her husband though she bee Alive naturally yet Legally and to the purpose of marriage she is Dead to her husband so that though shee should live in the same house yet she should have nothing to doe with his bed or body And thus the Apostle speaketh of sinfull Widowes that they are Dead while they Live 1. Tim. 5. 6. In sin likewise we may consider The guilt of it whereby it makes us accursed and the dominion of it wherewith it bringeth us into bondage in these two principally consists the life and the strength of sinne which it hath from the Law Now by being baptized into Christ wee are delivered from the Law Rom. 6. 14. Gal. 3. 25. First from the covenant of the Law Christ hath put an utter period to the Law quoad officium Iustificandi hee is the end of the Law for righteousnesse Wee are righteous now by Grace and Donation not by nature or operation by the righteousnesse of God not that whereby God is righteous but that which God is pleased to give us and stands in opposition to a mans owne righteousnesse which is by working Secondly from the Rigor of the Law which requires perfect and perpetuall obedience Gal. 3. 10. Though the Gospell command holinesse Matth. 5. 48. and promise it Luk. 1. 74. and worke it in us Tit. 2. 10. 11. yet when the Conscience is summon'd before God to bee justified or condemned to resolve upon what it will stand to for its last triall there is so much mixture of sinne that it dares trust none but Christs owne adequate performance of the Law this is all the salvation the maine charter and priviledge of the church Wee are not therefore rigorously bound either to a full habituall holinesse in our persons which is supplied by the merit of Christ nor to a through actuall obedience in our services which are covered with the Intercession of Christ. Wee are at the best full of weakenesse many remnants of the old Adam hang about us this is all the comfort of a man in Christ that his desires are accepted God regards the sincerity of his heart and will spare his failings even as a man spareth his Sonne that desires to please him but comes short in his endeavours that he will not looke on the iniquitie of his holy things but when he fals will pitty him and take him up and heale him and teach him to goe thus wee are delivered from the rigour of the Law which yet is thus to be understood That though wee bee still bound to all the Law as much as ever under perill of sinne for so much as the best come short of fullfilling all the Law so much they sinne yet not under paine of Death which is the rigour of the Law And therefore Thirdly wee are delivered from the Curse of the Law from the vengeance and wrath of God against sin Christ was made a curse for us Lastly from the Irritation of the Law and all compulsorie and slavish obedience we love by Christ all the principles and grounds of true obedience put into vs. First knowledge of Gods will the spirit of Revelation wisedome and spirituall understanding Secondly will to embrace and love what wee know Thirdly strength in some measure to performe it And by these meanes the Saints serve God without feare with delight willingnesse love liberty power the Law is to them a new Law a Law of liberty a light yoke the Commandements of God are not grievous to them Being thus Dead to the Law we are truly Dead to sinne likewise and sinne to us but not universally Dead in regard of its strength but not in regard of its beeing To apply then the premisses Sin is Dead naturally quoad Reatum in regard of the gvilt of it that is that actuall guilt of sin wherby every man is borne a child of wrath and made obnoxious to vengeance is done quite away in our regeneration and the obligations cancell'd Col. 2. 14. Secondly sinne is Dead Legally
Precept for such Anger as is required of us by way of duty the Sun may safely go down upon nor is it a pardon for anger whē we fal into it to take of the inordinatenes of it but it is a speech by way of concession or unavoidable supposition It cannot bee but that the Saints themselves upon severall occasions and provocations will be overtaken with anger but yet though their infirmity break forth into the passiō let not pride self love harden that passion into a habit let them be wary that the flame grow not upon them to set them on fire Give no place to the Divell The longer a man continues in anger the more roome the Divel hath to get in upon him enrage him Anger is the kernell and seed of malice if it be let lie long in the heart that is so fertile a soile and Satan so diligent a waterer of his owne plants that it will quickly grow up into a knottie and stubburne hatred Wee read of hatreds which have runne in the bloud and have been entaild Hereditarie malice as the Historian cals it Hatreds which have surviv'd the parties and discover'd themselves in their very funerals Hatreds which men have bound upon their posterity by oaths as Hasdrubal took a solemne oath of Hanibal that he should be an irreconcileable enemie to Rome And what doe all such expressions import but that there is a boundlesse frenzy in the flesh of men a fiercenesse which no lawes can tame and that there is enough of it in the best men to breake out into implacable affections if grace and prayer and watchfulnesse doe not prevent it Fourthly in Afflictions paines of body temptations of spirit abridgement of estate trials in reputation and favour or the like looke by all meanes unto thy heart take heede of these seedes of rage and madnesse which are in thee Never more time to looke to thy mounds to repaire thy bulwarks then when a tempest is upon thy sea Have you seene a beast breake his teeth upon the chaine that bindes him or a Dog poure out his revenge upon the stone that did hurt him then have you seene some darke shadowes of that fiercenesse and furie that is apt to rise out of the hearts of men when Gods hand lies close upon them When thou hearest of the strange impatiencie of Ionah at the beating of the Sun upon his head unto whom yet it was a mercy beyond wonder that he did now see the sunne when thou hearest of those deepe expostulations of David with God Hath he forgotten to be gracious forgotten his promises forgotten his truth forgotten his power and mercy and shut up all his kindenesse in displeasure When thou hearest of the impatiencies of Iob a man yet renowned for his patience expostulating and charging God Is it good for the◅ that thou should'st oppresse When thou hearest of those deepe curses of ◅eremie against the day of his birth of those froward expostulations and debates of the people of Israel with Moses of Moses with God Why hast thou evill entreated this people why hast thou sent me O then reflect upon thy selfe and be afraid of thine owne evill heart which is farre more likely to breake out against God then any of those were And for a remedie or prevention hereof keepe in thy sight the historie of thy sinnes make them as hainous to thine owne view as they are in their own nature The way not to rage against afflictions is to know our selves aright that will make us confesse unto God with Ezra let our calamities be what they will That the Lord hath punish'd us lesse then our iniquities have deserved The way to beare the hand of God with patience and with acceptance is to confesse our sinnes and to be humbled for them If their uncircumcised hearts bee humbled and then they accept of the punishment of their iniquities saith the Lord noting thus much that the sight of our sin and humiliation for it makes a man willing to submit to Gods chastisements Wherefore doth a living man complaine a man for the punishment of his sins there are three strong reasons together why we ought not to murmur in our afflictions First Wee are men and what an impudence is it for the clay to swell against the potter that form'd it and complaine why hast thou made me thus Secondly wee are sinners all the punishments wee suffer are our owne the wages of our iniquities and what a madnesse is it to complaine against the justice of our Iudge Thirdly wee are living men and therefore God hath punished us lesse then our sinnes deserve for the wages of sinne is death and what ingratitude is it to repine at mercifull and moderated punishments but yet such is the frowardnesse of our nature that wee are very apt thus to murmur what is the cure and remedy of this evill affection Let vs search and try our waies saith the Church and turne to the Lord our God the more wee grow acquainted with our sinnefull estate and marveilous provocations with the patience and promises of God the more we shall justifie God and waite upon him the more wee shall judge our selves lesse then the least of Gods mercies and forbearances I will beare the indignation of the Lord saith the Church againe in the same case I will not repine nor murmure at his dealing with me I will acknowledge that righteousnesse belongeth unto him and confusion unto me and the ground of this resolution is the sense of sinne Because I have sinned against him I have pressed and wearied and grieved and vexed him with my sinnes without any zeale or tendernesse of his glory but he hath visited me in judgement and not in fury in wrath he hath remembred mercy and not quite consumed me as he might have done he hath not dealt with me after my sinnes nor rewarded me according to mine iniquities he hath spared me as a sonne when I dealt with him as a traytor and hee will pleade my cause and bring me forth to the light and revenge my quarrell against those which helped forward my affliction Thus we see the way not to rage against Afflictions is to understand and be sensible of the foulenesse of our sinnes Otherwise pride and madnesse will undoubtedly shew themselves in our Afflictions What desperate and horrible rage did the heart of Pharaoh swell into when in the middest of those fearefull Iudgements hee hardned his heart and exalted himselfe against the people of God and trampled upon them and did not set his heart unto the iudgement but threatned and drave out M◅ses and Aaron from his presence and pursued them with finall and obdurate malice through the midst of that wonderfull deliverance The like example we see in that impatient and fretfull reply of Iehoram king of Israel in the great famine This euill is of the Lord what should I
his government For when we mention uncontrolednesse as an argument of sins Raigne we meane not that a bare naturall Conviction which the Apostle cals an Accusation which imports a former yeelding to the lust and no more but that a spirituall expostulation with a mans owne heart ioyned with true repentance and a sound and serious Lusting against the desires and commands of the flesh are the things which subdue the raigne of sinne The whole state then of this point touching the Roialtie of siâ—…ne will be fully opened when we shall have distinctly unfolded the Differences betweene these Two Conflicts with sinne the Conflict of a naturall Accusing Conscience and the Conflict of a spirituall Mourning and Repenting Conscience First they Differ in the Principles whence they proceede The one proceeds from a spirit of feare and bondage the other from a spirit of love and delight An unregenerate man considers the state of sinne as a kingdome and so he loves the services of it and yet he Considers it as Regnum sub graviore regno as a kingdome subiect to the scrutinies and enquiries of a higher kingdome and so he feares it because the Guilt thereof and day of accompts affrights him so that this Conflictâ—…iseth â—…iseth out of the Compulsion of his Iudgement not out of the propension of his will not from a desire to be Holy but onely to be safe and quiet he abhorreth the thoughts of God and his Iustice whereas the faithfull hate sinne with relation to the purity and righteousnesse of God desire to walke in all well pleasing towards him hunger after his grace are affected with indignation selfe-displicencie and revenge against themselves for sin mourne under their corruptions bewaile the frowardnesse of their slipperie and revolting hearrs set a watch and spirituall iudicature over them crie out for strength to resist their lusts and prayse God for any grace power discipline severitie which he shewes against them In one word a naturall conscience doth onely shew the danger of sinne and so makes a man feare it but a Spirituall conscience shewes the Pollution of sinne the extreme contrarietic which it beares to the love of our heart the rule of our life the Law of God and so makes a man hate it as a thing contrary not only to his happinesse but to his nature of which he hath newly beene made partaker A dogge will be brought by discipline to for beare those things which his nature most delights in not because his ravine is changed into a better temper but the following paines makes him abstaine from the present baite so the conflict of the faithfull is with the unholynesse of sinne but the conflict of other men is onely with the Guilt and other sensuall incommodities of sinne And though that may make a man forbeare and returne yet not unto the Lord They have not cryed unto me saith the Lord with their heart when they howled upon their beds Their prayers were not cries but howlings brutish and meere sensuall complaints because they proceeded not from their hearts from any inward and sincere affection but onely from feare of that hand whith was able to cast them upon their beds As a sicke man eates meat not for love of it which he takes with much reluctancie and disrellish but for feare of death which makes him force himselfe a. Saul said to Samuel against his will whereas a healâ—…y man eates the same meate with hunger and delight so a naturall conscience constraines a man to doe some things which his heart never goes along with onely to avoide the paine which the contrary guilt infers In a Tempest the marriners will cast out all their wares not out of any hatred to the things for they throw over their very hearts into the Sea with them but because the safety of their lives and preservation of their goods will not stand together not sub intuitu mali sed minâ—…ris boni not under the apprehension of any evill in the things but onely as a lesser good which will not consist with the greater and therefore they never throw them over but in a Tempest whereas at all other times they labour at the pumpe to exonerate the ship of the water which settles at the bottome not onely for the danger but stinch and noysomnesse of it too Thus a Naturall conscience throwes away sinne as wares and therefore never forbeares it but in a Tempest of wrath and sense of the curse and quickly returnes to it againe but a spirituall conscience throwes out sinne as corrupt and stinking water and therefore is uniformely disaffected to it and alwayes laboureth to be delivered from it A scullion or colliar will not dare handle a coale when it is full of fire which yet at other times is their common use wheras a man of a more cleanly education as he will not then because of the fire so not at any time because of the foulnesse so here a Naturall conscience for forbeares sinne somtimes when the guilt and curse of it doth more appeare which yet at other times it makes no seruple of but a Spirituall conscience abstaines alwayes because of the basenesse and pollution of it The one feares sinne because it hath fite in it to burne the other hates sinne because it hath filth in it to pollute the Soule Secondly these conflicts differ in their seates and stations The naturall Conflict is in severall faculties as between the understanding and the will or the will and the affections and so doth not argue any universall renovation but rather a rupture and schisme a confusion and disorder in the soule But a spirituall conflict is in the same facultie will against will affection against affection heart against heart because sinne dwels still in our mortall body Neither doe the spirit and the flesh enter into covenant to share and divide the man and so to reside asunder in severall faculties and not molest one anothers governement there can be no agreement betweene the strong man and him that is stronger Christ will hold no treatie with Beliall he is able to save to the uttermost and therefore is never put to make compositions with his enemie he will not disparage the power of his owne Grace so much as to entertaine a parlie with the flesh So then they fight not from severall forts onely but are â—…ver struggling like Esau and Iacob in the same wombe They are contrary to one another saith the Apostle and contraries meete in the same subject before they exercise hostility against one another Flesh and spirit are in a man as light and darkenesse in the dawning of the day as heate and cold in warme water not severed in distinct parts but universally interweav'd and coexistent in all There is the same proportion in the naturall and spirituall conflict with sinne as in the change of motion in a bowle A Bowle may be two wayes alter'd from that motion which the impressed violence
comprehending the head and the members in the unitie of one body So then every Promise carrying us to that Vnitie which we have with Christ by his spirit who is therefore call'd a spirit of Adoption because he vesteth us with the sonneship of Christ and a spirit of holinesse and renovation because he sanctifieth us by the resurrection of Christ doth thereby purifie us from dead workes and conforme the members to the Head building them up in an holy Temple and into an habitation of God through that spirit by whom we are in Christ. In one word Our interest in the Promises is grounded upon our being in Christ and being one with him and our being in him is the ground of our purification Every branch in me that bringeth forth fruite my father purgeth that it may bring forth more fruite And in this respect the promises may be said to purifie as still carrying us to our interest in Christ in whom they are founded Fifthly and lastly the Promises are causes of our purification as Exemplars patterns and seeds of purity unto us For the Promises are in themselves Exceeding great and pretious Every Word of God is pure and tryed like gold seven times in the fire it is right and cleane and true and altogether righteous and therefore very lovely and attractive apt to sanctifie and cleanse the soule Sanctifie them by thy truth saith Christ thy Word is truth and againe Now ye are cleane through the Word which I have spoken unto you For the Word is Seed and seede a similates earth and dirt into its owne pure and cleane nature So by the Word there is a trans-elementation as it were and conforming of our foule and earthie nature to the spiritualnesse of it selfe Therefore the Apostle useth this for an argument why the regenerate cannot siâ— namely in that universall and complete manner as others doe because they have the seed of God abiding in them that is his Word Spirit and Promises abating the strength of lust and swaying them to a contrary point For thus the Word of promise makes a mans heart to argue Hath God of meere Grace made assurance of so pretious things to me who by nature am a filthy and uncleane Creature obnoxious to all the curses and vengeance in his booke Hath he wrought so great deliverance and laid up such unsearchable riches for my soule and should I againe breake his Commandements and joyne in the abominations of other men Would he not be angry till he had consumed me so that there should be no escaping Should I not rather labour to feele the comforts and power of these Promises encouraging mee to walke worthy of so great meroy and so high a calling to walke meete for the participation of the Inheritance of the Saints in light Shall I that am reserv'd to such honour live in the meane time after the lusts of the Gentiles who have no hope Hath God distinguished me by his Spirit and Promises from the world and shall I confound my selfe againe Shall I requite evill for good to the hurt of mine owne soule These and the like are the reasonings of the heart from the beauty and purity of the Promises Thirdly and lastly Promises are Arguments to inferre our Purification because in many of them that is the very Matter of which they consist and so the power and fidelity of God is engag'd for our Purification I will clense them from all their iniquity whereby they haue sinned against me saith the Lord. And againe I will sprinkle cleane water vpon you and you shall be cleane from all your filthinesse and from all your idoles will I clense you c. And againe They shall not defile themselues any more with their idoles nor with their detestable things nor with any of their transgressions but I will save them and I will cleanse them And againe I will heale their backeslidings I will Love them freely The Lord will wash away the filth of the daughters of Sion purge the bloud of Ierusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of Iudgement and by the spirit of burning Which Promises bringing along the fidelity and power of God to our faith doe settle our hearts amidst all the corruptions and impotencies of our nature When the conscience is once throughly acquainted with the sight of its owne foulnesse with the sense of that life and power which is in concupiscence it findes it then a great difficultie to rest in any hope of having lusts either subdued or forgiuen The Psalmist when his sore ranne and ceased not refused to be comforted thought himselfe cast out of Gods fauour as if his mercies were exhausted and his promises come to an end and his compassions were shut up and would shew themselves no more Therefore in this case the Lord carries our Faith to the consideration of his Power Grace and Fidelity which surpasseth not onely the knowledge but the very coniectures and contrivances of the hearts of men The Apostle saith That Christ was declared to be the Sonne of God with power according to the Spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead That Spirit which raised Him from the dead is therefore called a spirit of Holinesse because the sanctifying of a sinner is a resurrection and requires the same power to effect it which raised Christ from the dead When Saint Paul had such a bitter conflict with the thorne in his flesh the vigor and stirrings of concupiscence within him he had no refuge nor comfort but onely in the sufficiencie of Gods grace which was able in due time to worke away and purge out his lusts And the prophet makes this an argument of Gods great power above all other Gods that he subdueth iniquities and blotteth out transgressions Though wee know not how this can be done that such dead bones soules that are even rotten in their sinnes should be cleansed from their filthinesse and live againe yet he knowes and therefore when wee are at a stand and know not what to doe to Cure our lusts then wee may by faith fix our Eyes upon him whose grace power wisedome fidelity is all in these his promises put to gage for our purification Thus wee see how promises in generall doe worke to the Cleansing of us from filthinesse of flesh and spirit The same might at large be shewed in many particulars I will but name those in the words before the Text to which it referres The Lord promiseth to Dwell in us as in spirituall Temples and this proves that wee ought to keepe our selues Cleane that wee may be fit habitations for so Dovelike and pure a spirit Flee forâ—…ication saith the Apostle why know you not that your bodie is the Temple of the holy Ghost which is in you therefore glorifie God in your bodies and spirits for they are Gods And againe If any man defile the Temple of God
that Spirit revealeth and confirmeth unto us so every smaller sinne doth in its manner and measure grieve this spirit even as every distemper in the body doth bring paine in some measure unto the naturall soule A living member is sensible of the smallest pricke whereas a body in the Grave is not pained nor disaffected with the weight and darknesse of the earth the gâ—…awing of wormes the stinch of rotteâ—…nesse nor any violences of dissolution because the principle ofsense is departed so though wicked men lie in rotten and noysome lusts have the guilt of many millions of sinnes like so many rockes and mountaines of Lead on their soules doe dayly cut and teare themselves like the Lunaticke in the Gospell yet they feele nothing of all this because they have no spirit of life in them whereas another in whom Christ is formed would bee constrain'd with teares of blood and most bitter repentance to wash the wound of spirit which but one of those fearefull oathes or uncleane actions which the others multiply and wallow in with delight would make within them Now Hee who hath the Sonne hath holynesse upon two grounds according to that double relation which Holinesse hath unto Christ. For it respecteth Him as the Principle and Fountaine from whence it comes and as the rule or patterne unto which it answeres Holynes is called the Image of God now as the face is both the Fountaine of that Image or species which is shed upon the glasse and likewise the exact patterne and example of it too so Christ is both the Principle of Holinesse by whom it is wrought and the Rule unto which it is proportioned First Christ is the Principle and Fountaine of Holinesse as the head is of sense or motion from him the whole body is joyned together and compacted and so maketh encrease and edification of it selfe in Love The oyntment ran downe from Aarons head unto the skirts of his garment to note the effusion of the spirit of Holinesse from Christ unto his lowest members Ye have received an unction from the holy One saith the Apostle What this influence of Christ into his members is wee shall more particularly open in the consequent parts of this discourse Secondly Christ is the Rule and Patterne of holinesse to his Church Our Sanctification consisteth onely in a conformitie unto his wayes For more distinct understanding of which point we must note first that Christ had severall waies and workes to walke through Sometimes we finde him walking to Golgotha and the Garden which was the worke of his merit and passion Sometimes to the Mount with Peter Iames and Iohn which was the worke of his glory and trans-figuration Sometimes upon the sea and through the midst of Enemies which was his worke of power and miracles Sometimes in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes which was his worke of government guidance and influence on the Church Lastly we finde him going about and doing good submitting himselfe unto his parents going apart by himselfe to pray and in other the like workes of his ordinary obedience Secondly of these workes of Christ we must note that some are uncommunicable others communicable Vncommunicable are first his workes of Merit and Mediation There is but one Mediator betweene God and man the man Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which a man may be saved but the name of Christ. There is no Redemption nor intercession to bee wrought by any man but by Christ. None have to doe with the Censer to offer incense who have not to doe with the Altar to offer Sacrifice Secondly his worke of Governement and Influence into the Church his dispensing of the spirit his quickning of his Word his subduing of his enemies his collecting of his members are all personall Honours which belong unto Him as Head of the Church Those which are Communicable and wherein wee may be by his Grace made partakers are such as either belong to the other life or to this In the other life our Bodies shall bee made Conformed to the transfigured and Glorious body of Christ when Hee appeareth wee shall be made like unto Him by the power whereby Hee subdueth all things unto Himselfe Here some are againe extraordinarily Communicable being for ministery and service not for sanctity or Salvation Such were the miraculous workes of the Apostles which were unto them by way of priviledge and temporary dispensation granted Others ordinarily and universally to all his members So then it remaines that our formall and complete Sanctification consists in a Conformitie to the wayes of Christs ordinary Obedience The whole Life of Christ was a Discipline a Living Shining and exemplary Precept unto men a Visible Commentary on Gods Law Therefore wee finde such names given unto Him in the Scriptures as signifie not onely Preeminence but exemplarynesse A Prince a Leader a Governour a Captaine an Apostle and high Priest a chiefe Sheepeheard and Bishop a Forerunner or Conduct into Glory a Light to the Iewes a Light to the Gentiles a Light to every man that entereth into the World All which titles as they declare his Dignitie that He was the first borne of every Creature so they intimate likewise that Hee was proposed to be the Author and Patterne of Holynesse to his people All other Saints are to be imitated onely with limitation unto Him and so farre as they in their conversation expresse his Life and Spirit Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ. But we must 〈◊〉 pinne our obedience to the example of any Saint lest we happen to stumble and breake our bones as they did Wherefore are the falls and apostacies the errors and infirmities of holy men in Scripture registred Certainely the Lord delighteth not to keepe those sinnes upon record for men to gaze on which himselfe hath put behinde his owne backe and wiped out of the booke of his owne remembrance Hee delighteth not in the dishonour and deformities of his worthies But they are recorded for our sakes set up for landmarks to warne euery man to take heed of adventuring on any mans authority upon those rockes where such renowned and noble Saints have before miscarried Children of light indeed they are but their light is like the light of the Moone subject to mixtures wainings decayes eclipses Christ onely is the Sunne of righteousnesse that hath a plenitude indeficiencie unerring holinesse which neither is deceived nor can deceive Now further this conformity unto Christ must be in all his obedience First in his actiue obedience unto the Law Learne of me saith he for I am meeke and lowly I have given you an Example that you should doe as I have done unto you The action was but temporarie and according to the custome of the place and age but the affection was universall the humility of his heart Let the same minde saith the Apostle be
unto Christs First it must have the same principle and seedâ—… with Christs namely his Spirit As in Christ there were two natures so in either nature there was Holynesse after a severall manner In his Divine nature he was holy by essence and underivatively in His humane by consecration and unction with the Spirit and in this wee are to beare proportion unto him Our holynesse must proceede from the same Spirit whereby he was sanctified onely with this difference The Spirit of Holynesse was Christs Inrâ—… proprio by vertue of the by postaticall union of the humane nature with the divine in the unitie of his person By meanes whereof it was impossible for the humane nature in him not to bee sanctified and filled with Grace But to us the Spirit belongs by an inferior union unto Christ as our Head from whom it is unto us derived and dispensed in such proportions as Hee is in mercy pleased to observe towards his members But yet though wee have not as Hee a plenitude of the Spirit yet wee have the same in Truth and substance with Him As it is the same light which breaketh forth in the dawning of the day and inhereth in the Glorious body of the Sunne though here in fulnesse and there but in measure So the Apostle saith we are all changed into the same Image with Christ by the Spirit of our God And he that is ioyned unto the Lord is one spirit and that there is but one Body and one Spirit betweene Christ and his members Secondly our Holynesse must bee conformable to Christs in the Ends of it First the Glory of God Father saith hee I have gloryfied thee on earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest me to doe Wherein there are three notable things for our imitation First that God must first give us our workes before we must doe them We must have his warrant and authoritie for all we doe If a man could bee so full of selfe-zeale if I may so call it of irregular and unprescribed devotion as to offer rivers of oyle or mountaines of cattell or the first borne of his body for the sinne of his soule should neglect and macerate his body and dishonour his flesh into the gastlynesse and image of a dead carcasse yet if the Lord have not first shewed it nor required it of him it will all prove but the vanitie and pride of a fleshly minde Secondly as wee must doe nothing but that which God requires and gives us to doe so we must therein aime at his Glory as his Authoritie must bee the ground so his Honour must be the End of all our workes and thirdly God is never glorified but by finishing His workes To beginne and then fall backe is to put Christ to shame Secondly all Christs workes were done for the good of the Church He was given and borne for us He was made sinne and curse for us For our righteousnesse and redemption he came and for our expediencie he returned againe When the Apostle urgeth the Philippians not to looke to their owne things but every man also on the things of others hee presseth them with this argument Let the same minde bee in you which was in Christ Iesus Hee thought it no robbery to be equall with God and therefore to him there could be no accession all that he did was for his Church and this Saint Paul sealeth with his owne example If I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith I ioy and reioyce with you all And else where I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more aboundantly I love you the lesse I beloved Onely here is the difference Christs obedience was meritorious for the redemption of His Church ours onely ministeriall for the edification of the Church we doe all things saith the Apostle for your edification When the Apostle saith I fill up that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ for his Bodies sake which is the Church We are not to conceive it in our adversaries glosse that it was to merit expiate satisfie for the Church but only to benefit and edifie it Let him expound himselfe The things which happened vnto mee namely my bonds in Christ have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the Gospell and againe I endure all things for the Elects sake that they may also obtaine the Salvation not which my sufferings merit but which is in Christ Iesus To note that the sufferings of the Saints are ministerially serviceable to that Salvation of the Church unto which the sufferings of Christ are alone meritorious and availeable Thirdly our holinesse must bee Proportionable to Christs in the parts of it It must be universall the whole man must bee spiritually formed and organiz'd unto the measure of Christ. Every part must have its measure and every ioynt its supply Holynesse is a resurrection all that which fell must be restored and it is a generation all the parts of him that begetteth must be fashioned The God of peace sanctifie you throughout and I pray God that your whole spirit soule and body may bee preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ. Lastly our Holinesse must bee proportion ed unto Christ in the manner of working I shall observe but three particulars of many First it must be done with selfe-denyall He that will follow Christ must deny himselfe Christ for us denyed himselfe and his owne will His naturall love towards his owne life yeelded to his mercifull love towards his members not as I will in my naturall desire to decline dissolution but as thou wilt in thy mercifull purpose to save thy Church Many men will be content to serve God as long as they may with all advantage themselves but to serve him and deny themselves is a worke which they have not learned Ephraim loveth to treade out the corne saith the Prophet You know the mouth of the Oxe was not to be muzled that trod out the corne he had his worke and reward together But plowing is onely in hope for the present it is a hungry and a hard worke So saith he while Ephraim may serve me and himselfe make religion serve his other secular purposes he will be very forward but when he must plow that is serve in hope of a Harvest but in paine for the present hee hath an easier plow going of his owne as it followes ye have plowed wickednesse Secondly it must bee done in obedience unto God Christ emptied himselfe and became obedient It was his meate and drinke to doe the Will of his Father even unto that bitter worke of his Passion he was annointed with the oyle of gladnesse to note that though as made of a woman partaker of the same passions and naturall affections with us hee did decline it and shrinke from it yet as made under the Law hee did most voluntarily
eyes to apprehend Secondly It is hid in some sort from the faithfull themselves First under the prevalencie of their corruptions and adherencie of concupiscence as Corne under a heape of chaffe or a wall under the Ivie or mettall under the rust which overgrowes it Secondly under the winnowings and temptations of Satan As in sifting of Corne the branne being lightest gets upmost so when Satan disquiets the heart that which is finest and should most comfort will sinke and bee out of sight Thirdly under spirituall desertions and trials as in an Eclipse when the face of the Sunne is intercepted the Moone looseth her light so when God who is our light hideth his Countenance from us no marvell if we can discover no good nor comfort in our selves Secondly the life of glorie is much more obscure and secret for notwithstanding the first fruites and inchoations thereof bee in this life begun in the peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost as in an Eclipse of the Sunne some dimme glimpses doe glance from the edges of the interposed body yet in regard of the plenarie infusion of glorious endowments and those prerogatives of the flesh which belong unto it at the redemption of the bodie it is a hidden mysterie It is a light which is onely sowed for the righteous though we expect a revelation of it yet now it is but as corne in the ground covered over with much darknesse Now we are Sonnes saith Saint Iohn we have Ius ad rem right unto our Life and Crowne already but we are in a farre countrie like the prodigall absent from the Lord and therefore It doth not yet appeare what we shall be we can no more distinctly understand the excellencie of our inheritance by these seales and assurances which ratifie our right thereunto then one who never saw the Sunne could conjecture the light and lustre thereof by the twinckling of a litle starre or the picture thereof in a table Onely this wee know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like unto him not onely in true holynesse for so we are like him now wee are already created after him in righteousnesse and true holynesse but in full holynesse too we shall be filled with all the fulnesse of God as the same Apostle speakes Such a fulnesse as shall satisfie us when I awake I shall bee satisfied with thy likenesse Therefore the last day is by an emphasis called a Day of redemption First in regard of the manifestation and Revelation thereof The Lord shal then appeare and bee revealed from Heaven all those curtens shall bee drawne those vailes betweene us and our Glory those skinnes with which the Arke is overlaid shall be torne and removed our sinnes our earthly condition our manifold afflictions the seeming povertie and foolishnesse of the ordinances shall be all laid aside and then wee shall see our Redeemer not as Iob did from a dunghill nor as Moses through a Cloude but we shall know even as we are knowne Here then wee see one of the maine reasons why wicked men despise religion and abominate the righteous as signes and wonders to bee spoken against They judge of Spiritual things as blind men do of colors These are hidden mysteries to them no marvell if they count it a strange thing and a very madnesse that others runne not to their excesse But our comfort is that our hope is Germen a growing thing a stone full of eyes a hidden Manna sweete though secret a new name which though no other man can know yet he that receiveth it is able to reade And this is the reason too why the Saints themselves are not enough affected with the beautie of Holynesse because it is in great part hidden even from them by corruptions and admixture of earthly lusts Lift up your heads saith our Saviour for your redemption draweth nigh noting unto us that so long as the thoughts and affections of men are downeward their redemption is out of their sight Open thou mine eyes saith David that I may behold the wondrous things out of thy Law I am a stranger on earth O hide not thy Commandements from me When a man makes himselfe a stranger unto earthly things and setteth not any of his choisest affections and desires on them he is then qualified to see those mysteries and wonders which are in the Law If there were no earth there would bee no darknesse for the shadow of the earth is that which makes the night and the bodie of the earth which absenteth the Sunne from our view It is much more certaine in spirituall things the light of Gods Word and Graces would not bee eclipsed if earthly affections did not interpose themselves This is the reason why men goe on in their sinnes and beleeve not the Word because they have a vaile over their eyes which hides the beautie of it from them Who hath beleeved our report or to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed saith the Prophet intimating unto us that the Word will not be beleeved till it bee revealed The Lord opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto Pauls preaching As soone as the vaile is taken away by Christ and the Truth Goodnesse and beautie of the Gospell discover'd there is immediately wrought a cleare assent and subscription in the minde an earnest longing and desire in the heart a constant purpose and resolution in the will to forsake all things as dung in comparison of that excellent knowledge As in the discoverie of mathematicall conclusions there is such demonstrative and invincible evidence as would make a man wonder he had not understood them before so in the discoveries of Grace unto the Soule the Spirit doth so throughly convince a man that hee wonders at his former stupiditie which never admired such things before Againe the faithfull are here to be directed in this state of obscuritie how to carry themselves under those corruptions temptations desertions which here hide the brightnesse and beautie of their life from them First above all preserve sinceritie in the heart There is nothing in us so perfect so contrarie to our corruptions as sinceritie that will ever bee to the soule in the midst of darknesse as a chinke in a Dungeon through which it may discerne some glimmerings of light whereas without it all other shewes and pretences are but like windowes fastned upon a thicke wall onely for uniformitie in the building though they seeme specious to the beholder without yet inward they transmit no light at all because they are laid over an opace body Secondly foster not temptations doe not pleade nor promote the Divels cause set not forward thine enemies suggestions Though it bee our dutie to have our sinnes alwayes before us so it bee upon the suggestion and proposall of Gods Spirit yet we must turne our eyes from our very sinnes when Sathan displayes them Christ will be confessed but hee forbids the
of â—…ther else the Bodie of Christ would be a mangled and a maimed thing and not as Saint Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulnesse of Him that filleth all in all In the Body of Christ there is a supply to every joynt a measure of every part an edification and growth of the whole compacted body from Him who is equally the Head to all Being thus united unto Christ first the Death and Merit of Christ is ours whatsoever Hee really in His humane nature suffered for sinne wee are in moderated Iustice reputed to have suffered with Him The Apostle saith that we were crucified and dead with Christ and that as truely as the hand which steales is punish'd when the backe is beaten and surely if a man were crucified in and with Christ by reason of His mysticall communion with him then he was crucifi'd as Christ for al 〈◊〉 which should otherwise have laine upon him Hee was not in Christ to cleanse some sinnes and out of him to beare others himselfe For the Apostle assures us that the Merit of Christ is unconfined by any sinne The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sinne As Saint Ambrose said to Monica the mother of Austen when with many teares she bewailed her sonnes unconversion Non potest tot lacrymarum filius perire that is that it could not be that the Sonne of so many teares should perish so may I more certainely say to any Soule that is soundly and in truth humbled with the sense of any grievous relapse non potest tot lacrymarum frater perire It cannot bee that the brother of so many teares and so pretious blood which from Christ trickled downe with an unperishable soveraigntie unto the lowest and sinfullest of his bodie should perish for want of compassion in Him who felt the weight of our sufferings or for want of recovery from him who hath the fulnesse of Grace and Spirit Secondly the Life of Christ is ours likewise Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle Now the Life of Christ is free from the power and the reach of death If death could not hold Him when it had Him much lesse can it reach or overtake Him having once escaped Hee died once unto sinne but Hee liveth unto God likewise saith Saint Paul reckon you your selves to be dead unto sinne but alive unto God and that through or in Iesus Christ by whom wee in like manner are made partakers of that Life which Hee by rising againe from the Grave did assume as we were by AdaÌ„ made obnoxious to the same death which heby failing did incurre and contract For Christ is the second Adam and as wee have borne the Image of the earthly in sinne and guilt so must we beare the Image of the Heavenly in Life and righteousnesse and that which in us answereth to tâ—…e Resurrection and Life of Christ which Hee ever liveth is our holynesse and newnesse of life as the Apostle plainely shew's to note that our Renovation likewise ought to be perpetuall and constant not fraile and mutable as when it depended upon the life of the first Adam and not of the second Thirdly the Kingdome of Christ is ours also Now His Kingdome is not perishable but eternall a Kingdome which cannot be shaken or destroyed as the Apostle speakes Heb. 12. 28. Fourthly the Sonneship and by consequence â—…tance of Christ is ours I speake not of His personall Sonneship by eternall generation but of that dignitie and honour which He had as the first borne of every Creature and Heire of all things That Sonneship which Hee had as Hee was borne from the Dead Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee namely in the Resurrection in which respect He is called the first borne and the first begotten of the Dead In this dignitie of Christ of being Heires and a kinde of first borne unto God doe wee in our measure partake for wee are called the Church of the first borne and a kinde of first fruites of His Creatures For though those attributes may be limited to the Iewes in regard of precedencie to the Gentiles yet in regard of the inheritance which was usually and properly to descend to the first borne they may bee applyed to all for of all beleevers the Apostle saith If you are Sonnes then are ye heires Coheires with Christ. We hold in chiefe under his guardianship and protection as his sequele and dependant Now from hence our Saviours argument may bring much comfort and assurance The Sonne abideth in the house for ever and the House of God is His Church not in Heaven onely but on Earth likewise as the Apostle shewes Fifthly Christs victories are ours Hee overcame the World and Temptations and Enemies and Sinnes for us And therefore they shall not bee able to overcome Him in us Hee is able to succour them that are tempted Hee who once overcame them for us will certainely subdue them in us Hee that will overcome the last Enemie will overcome all that are before for if any be left the last is not overcome Lastly we have the benefit of Christs Intercession I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not It is spoken of a saving Faith as the learned prove at large And I have shewed before that particular promises in Scripture are universally applyable to any man whose case is paralell to that particular If then Peters 〈◊〉 did not by reason of this prayer of Christ overturne his Salvation or bring a totall deficiencie upon his faith why should any man who is truely and deepely humbled with the sense of relapse or consciousnesse of some sinne not of ordinary guilt or dayly incursion but indeede very hainous and therefore to be repented of with teares of blood yet why should he in this case of sound humiliation stagger in the hope of forgivenesse or mistrust Gods mercie since a greater sinne then Peters in the grosse matter of it can I thinke hardly be committed by any justified man These are the comforts which may secure the Life of Christ in a lapsed but repenting sinner the summe of all is this Since we stand not like Adam upon our owne bottome but are branches of such a Vine as never withers Members of such a Head as never dies sharers in such a Spirit as cleanseth healeth and purifieth the heart partakers of such promises as are sealed with the Oath of God Since we live not by our owne life but by the Life of Christ are not ledde or sealed by our owne spirit but by the Spirit of Christ doe not obtaine mercie by our owne prayers but by the Intercession of Christ stand not reconciled unto God by our owne endevours but by the propitiation wrought by Christ who loved us when wee were enemies and in our blood who is both willing and able to save
us to the uttermost and to preserve his owne mercies in us to whose office it belongs to take order that none who are given unto him be lost undoubtedly that Life of Christ in us which is thus underpropped though it be not priviledg'd from temptations no nor from backeslidings yet is an abiding Life He who raised our Soule from death will either preserve our feete from falling or if we doe fall will heale our backflidings and will save us freely Infinitely therefore doth it concerne the Soule of every man to bee restlesse and unsatisfied with any other good thing till he find himselfe entitled unto this happy Communion with the Life of Christ which will never faile him As all the Creatures in the world so man especially hath in him a twofold desire a desire of perfection and a desire of perpetuitie a desire to advance and a desire to preserve his Being Now then till a mans Soule after many rovings and inquisitions hath at last fixed it selfe upon some such good thing as hath compasse enough to satiate and replenish the vastnesse of these two desires impossible it is for that Soule though otherwise filled with a confluence of all the glory wealth wisedome learning and curiositie of Salomon himselfe to have solid contentment enough to withstand the feares of the smallest danger or to outface the accusations of the smallest sinne Now then let us suppose that any good things of this World without the Life of Christ were able to satisfie one of these two desires to perfect and advance our nature though indeede it bee farre otherwise since without Christ they are all but like a stone in a Serpents head or a Pearle in an Oyster not our perfections but our diseases like Cleopatra her pretious stone when she wore it a Iewell but when she dranke it an excrement I may boldly say that as long as a man is out of Christ he were better be a begger or an idiote then to bee the steward of riches honours learning and wisedome which should have beene improv'd to the Glory of Him that gave them and yet to bee able to give up at that great day of accompts no other reckoning unto God but this Thy riches have beene the authors of my covetousnesse and oppression thy honours the steppes of my haughtinesse and ambition thy learning and wisedome the fuell of my pride But now I say suppose that nature could receive any true advancement by these things yet alas when a man shall beginne to thinke with himselfe may not God this night take me away like the foole in the Gospell from all these things or all these from mee May I not nay must I not within these few yeeres in stead of mine honour be laid under mens feete In stead of my purple and scarlet be cloathed with rottennesse In stead of my luxurie and delycacies become my selfe the foode of wormes Is not the poore soule in my bosome an immortall soule Must it not have a being as long as there is a God who is able to support it And will not my bagges and titles my pleasures and preferments my learning and naturall endowments every thing save my sinnes and mine adversaries and mine owne Conscience forsake mee when I once enter into that immortalitie When a man I say shall beginne to summon his heart unto such sad accompts as these how will his face gather blacknesse and his knees tremble and his heart be even damp'd and blasted with amazement in the middest of all the vanities and lyes of this present world What a fearefull thing is it for an eternall soule to have nothing betweene it and eternall misery to rest upon but that which will moulder away and crumble into dust under it and so leave it alone to sinke into bottomlesse calamitie O Beloved when men shall have passed many millions of yeeres in another world which no millions of yeeres can shorten or diminish what accession of comfort can then come to those glorious joyes which we shall bee filled with in Heaven or what diminution or mitigation of that unsupportable anguish which without ease or end must bee suffered in Hell by the remembrance of those few houres of transitorie contentments which we have here not without the mixture of much sorrow and allay enjoyed What smacke or rellish thinke you hath Dives now left him of all his delicacies or Esau of his pottage What pleasure hath the rich foole of his full Barnes or the young man of his great possessions What delight hath Iezabel in her paint or Ahab in the Vineyard purchased with the innocent blood of Him that owned it How much policie hath Achitophel or how much pompe hath Herod or how much rhetoricke hath Tertullus left to escape or to bribe the torments which out of Christ they must for ever suffer O how infinitely doth it concerne the Soule of every man to finde this Life of Christ to rest upon which will never forsake him till it bring him to that day of Redemption wherein he shall be filled with blessednesse infinitely proportionable to the most vast and unlimited capacities of the Creature And now when we can secure our Consciences in the inward true and spirituall renovation of our heart in this invincible and unperishable obsignation of the spirit who knitteth us as really though mistically unto Christ as his sinewes and joynts do fasten the parts of his sacred body together how may our heads bee crowned with joy and our hearts sweetly bathe themselves in the perfruition and preoccupation of those rivers of glory which attend that Spirit wheresoever he goeth Many things I know there are which may extremely disharten us in this interim of mortalitie many things which therein encounter and oppose our progresse The rage malice and subtilty of Satan the frownes flatterles threates and insinuations of this present World the impatience and stubbornnesse of our owne flesh the struglings and counterlustings of our owne potent corruptions the daily consciousnesse of our fall's and infirmities the continuall entercourse of our doubts and feares the ebbing and languishing decaying and even expiring of our Faith and Graces the frequent experience of Gods just displeasure and spirituall desertions leaving the Soule to its owne dumpes and darknesse Sometimes like froward children we throw our selves downe and will not stand and sometimes there comes a tempest which blowes us downe that we cannot stand And now whither should a poore Soule which is thus on all sides invitoned with feares and dangers betake it selfe Surely so long as it lookes either within or about it selfe no marvell if it be ready to sinke under the concurrent opposition of so many assaults But though there be nothing in thee nor about thee yet there is somthing above thee which can hold thee up If there be strength in the merit life kingdom victories Intercession of the Lord Iesus If there be comfort in the Covenant Promises and Oath of
His Life and Intercession applying His merits unto us and presenting our services unto His Father as lively sacrifices cleansed from those mixtures of deadnesse and corruption which as passing from us did cleave unto them Having thus unfolded our Life by Christ wee are in the last place to inquire into that Proprietie which wee have unto Christ which is the ground of the Life wee receive from Him For one thing cannot bee the principle and seede of Life unto another except there be some union and fellowship which may be the ground of the conveyance and this is that which the Text call's the having of Christ which is the same with that of Saint Iohn To as many as received Him He gave power to be called the Sonnes of God So then there must bee a mutuall Act Christ exhibiteth Himselfe unto us and wee adhere and dwell in Him whereby there is wrought a Vnitie of will 's a Confederacie of affections a Participation of natures a concurrence to the making up of the same bodie so that Christ accounteth Himselfe incomplete without His Church This union of the faithful to Christ being one of those deepe things of God which are not discernable without the Spirit is yet set forth unto us in the Scriptures under sundrie vulgar and obvious similitudes which I will but touch upon It is first set forth by the expression of a Bodie consisting of diverse members Rom. 12. 4 5. 1. Cor. 12. 12. 13. Eph 1. 22 23. In which places the purpose of the Apostle is to shew how the proportion that is betweene Christ and His Church answereth to that relation which is betweene the members of a Body and the Head For as in the naturall Body all the members are joyned by nerves and vitall ligatures unto the Head from whence they receive their strength and sensation and doe by vertue of that union to the Head retaine a fellowship and communion amongst themselves So is it betweene Christ and His Church Every member of the true and mysticall Body of Christ is by a secret knot of his Spirit so fastned unto him and so compacted with the other members by that which every joynt supplieth as that the whole world of Elect from Christ the Head and first borne of the Creatures uâ—…to the lowest and meanest of all His members doe make up but one Body unto which Christ by being the Head hath these principall relations First He is the principle of all Spirituall Influences as the Head of naturall All the Grace in us is but an overflowing and measure from His fulnesse Secondly He is the principle of all governement and direction all the wisedome and prudence of the Church is from Him He is the everlasting Counsell or the Light that inlightneth every man that commeth into the world the power and the wisedome of God unto us Thirdly He is conformable to the members for Christs Church is no monster and maketh them conformable unto Him Hee to us in our infirmities tempted in all things as we are and we to Him in His holynesse He that Sanctifieth and they that are Sanctified are all of one Now as in a body wee resolve the whole into no parts but those which are integrall and proper to it in the nature of a living and organicall Body namely the members though many things else are in the Body yet nothing belongs integrally unto it but the members So many men are in the Body of Christ onely by an externall and sacramentall admission or by some false and presumptuous perswasions and professions as wennes or excrements in the naturall body they doe no services they exercise no vitall and spirituall functions but rather cumber and infest the members Secondly this union is compar'd unto a building or house Eph. 2. 20. 21. 1. Tim. 3. 14. 1. Pet. 2. 5. whose stones are knitte together by the juncture and bond of Love and are firmely grounded upon the Elect pretious and sure foundation who as He doth by His power uphold all things so much more those that are built upon Him Now as in a structure the stones cannot subsist in the building by any qualities or inherent vertues of their owne but onely by that direct and perpendicular dependence and subsistence which they have upon the foundation so in the Church no graces no carvings no inherent excellencies doe hold men up but onely that full and sole reliance and subsistence of the Soule upon Christ. If a man have any other bottome that holds him up if he be not even and full upon Christ if hee be not in all things levelled and proportioned unto him by the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets which is therefore likewise called a foundation because by it wee are set right upon Christ who is the Foundation of foundations as the Scripture spcakes Hee cannot abide in the building for ever the wall and the foundation must all have the same center and there must bee the same propensions and affections in us which were in Christ His Rule must be ours and His Ends ours and His Will ours If there be any such exorbitancies and swellings out as make the heart have quite another point and center to move to other grounds to fixe upon if men will despise the Word will not be par'd and regulated to the foundation but will trust in oppression and perversenesse and stay on that this iniquitie will at length prove a breach which commeth suddenly at an instant Thirdly this union is coÌ„par'd to an ingrafture of a branch in a tree whereby the juice and nourishment of the stock is conveyed and the branch thereby quickned to bring forth fruite Where by the way it is worth our noting that the Church is most vsually in this particular compared to a Vine and the branches of a Vine to note that there is nothing of worth or expectation in Christians but their fruite A man cannot make a pinne to fasten in a wall of the branch of a vine An unfruitefull Christian is the most unprofitable Creature that is there are no secondarie uses which can mediate as I may so speake for a dead vine to keepe that from the fire either it must be for fruite or for fuell to all other purposes it is utterly improper and unprofitable Now wee must observe that a Branch may bee in a Tree two wayes First by a meere corporeall adherencie or continuation with the stocke by cleaving and sticking to the bodie of the Tree and so every dead branch is in the Tree as well as those that live but this alone is not that which our Saviour requires for such branches the husbandman will cut off and cast 〈◊〉 fire Secondly by a reall participation of the life sappâ—… and influences of the roote which unto the former sort of branches though offered yet is not received because of the inward deadnesse and indisposition that is in it thus it is betweene Christ
and Christians That which makes us to be in Christ after any kinde of way is Faith And according to the differences of Faith are these differences of being in Christ to bee discerned Saint Iames makes mention of a dead Faith when men are in Christ by some generall acknowledgement by externall profession by a partiall dependence comming to Him only as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in His service not by any particular and willing attraction of those vitall influences those working principles of grace and obedience which are from him shed abroad upon true beleevers And this is the semi-conversion and imperfect renovation of many men whereby they receive from Him onely generall light of truth and common vertues which make them visibly and externally branches in Him But Saint Paul makes mention of a lively operative unfained faith which in true beleevers draweth in the power of Christs death and the vertue of His resurrection unto the mortification of sinne and quickning of Spirit and bringing forth fâ—…uite unto God and this onely is that which is the ground of our life from Him The Life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Lastly this Vnion unto Christ is compared unto Marriage Psal. 45. Eph. 5. 32 whereby the Church hath a right and proprietie created to the body name goods table possessions purchases of Christ and doth reciprocally become all His resigning its will wayes desires unto His governement Now for the discovery of this we may consider either the essentials or the consequents of marriage The former hath for the genuâ—… the most generall requisite consent and that must have these differencies and restrictions First it must bee a mutuall consent for though Christ declare His good will when He knocketh at our doores and beseecheth us in the ministry of His Word yet if we keepe our distance reject His tokens of Love and Favour and stop our eares to His invitations there is then no covenant made this is but a wooing and no marriage Secondly it must bee a present consent and in words de prâ—…senti or else it is onely a Promise but no Contract Many men like Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but live their owne lives would faine belong to Christ at the last and have nothing to doe with Him ever before would have Him out of neede but not at all out of love and therefoâ—… for the present they put Him off Many other suiters they have whom they cannot deferre or denie till at last peradventure Hee grow jealous and wearie departs from them and turnes unto those who will esteeme Him worthy of more acceptation Seeing you put the Word from you faith the Apostle and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall Life Lo wee turne unto the Gentiles Thirdly it must be free and unconstrained for compulsion makes it a ravishment and not a marriage They who must be but one Bodie ought first to agree in the same free and willing resolution Many men when God slayes them will enquire earely after Him when Hee puts them upon a racke will give a forced consent to serve Him when Hee sends His Lions amongst them will send for His Priests to instruct them how to worship Him but this is onely to flatter with their lippes that they may escape the present paine like the howling devotion of some desperate Mariner in a storme not at all out of cordiall and sinceere affection wicked men deale no better with God then the froggs in the fable with the blocke which was throwne in to be their king When He makes a noyse and disturbes their peace when He falls heavie upon them they are sore affrighted and seeme to reverence His Power but if He suffer their streame to bee calme about them and stir not up His wrath they securely dance about Him and re-assume their wonted loosenesse Fourthly it must be without errour for hee that erres cannot consent If a woman take her selfe upon some absence of her husband to be now free from him and conceive him dead and thereupon marry againe if it appeare that the former husband is yet living there was a mistake and error in the person and so a nullity in the contract So if a man mistake himselfe judge himselfe free from his former tie unto sinne and the Law and yet live in obedience to his lusts still and is not cleansed from â—…is filthinesse he cannot give any full consent to Christ who â—…ill have a chaste spouse without adulterers or corrivals Lastly It must be an universall and perpetuall consent for all time and in all states and conditions This is a great difference betweene a wife and a strumpet A wife takes her husband upon all tearmes his burdens as well as his goods his troubles as well as his pleasures whereas a strumpet is onely for hire and lust when the purse is emptied or the body wasted the love is at an end So here He that will have Christ must have Him All for Christ is not divided must entertaine Him to all purposes must follow the Lambe wheresoever He goeth must leave Father Mother Wife Children his owne life for Christ must take as well His Yoake as His Crowne as well His Sufferings as His Salvation as well His Grace as His Mercie as well His Spirit to leade as His Blood to redeeme He that will be his owne Master to doe the workes of his owne will must if hee can bee his owne Saviour too to deliver his soule from the wrath to come The consequents and intendments of marriage are two Convictus Proles First mutuall societie Christ and a Christian must live together have intimate and deare acquaintance with each other the spirit of a Christian must solace it selfe in the armes and embracements in the riches and lovelinesse of Christ in his absence and removes long after Him in His presence and returnes delight in Him and entertaine Him with such pure affections and Heavenly desires as may make him take pleasure in His Beautie Secondly there must be a fruitfulnesse in us we must bring forth unto God Christ will not have a barren Spouse every one that loveth Him keepeth His Commandements Now then in one word to unfold the more distinct qualitie of this our union to Christ wee may consider a threefold unitie Of Persons in one nature of natures in one Person of natures and Persons in one qualitie In the first is one God In the second is one Christ. In the third is one Church Our union unto Christ is the last of these whereby Hee and we are all spiritually united to the making up of one mysticall Body The formall reason or bond of this union is the Spirit of Christ by which as by immortall and abiding seede we are begotten a new unto Christ. For He being the
he must come And now when we have Christ how carefull should we be to keepe Him how tender and watchfull over all our behaviours towards Him lest Hee be grieved and depart againe The Spirit of the Lord is a delicate spirit most sensible of those injuries which his friends doe him Let us therefore take heede of violating afflicting discouraging grieving this Spirit which is the bond of all our union and interest with Christ in any of those his sacred breathings and operations upon the Soule But when He teacheth let us submit and obey receive the beleefe and the love of His Truth when He promiseth let us neither distrust nor despise but embrace as true and admire as pretious all the offers which He makes to us when Hee contends with our lusts in His Word and secret suggestions let him not alwayes strive but let us give up our fleshly affections to bee crucified by Him when Hee woes and invites us when Hee offers to lead and to draw us let us not stop the eare or pull away the shoulder or draw backward like froward children or cast cold water in the face of Grace by thwarting the motions and rebelling against the dictates thereof but let us yeeld our selves unto Him captivate all our lusts and consecrate all our powers and submit all our desires to His rule and government and then when Hee hath beene a Spirit of union to incorporate us into Christs Body and a Spirit of unction to sanctifie us with His Grace Hee will undoubtedly bee a Spirit of comfort and assurance to seale us unto the day of our full redemption THE LIFE OF CHRIST PHILIP 3. 10. That I may know Him and the Power of His Resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings THe purpose of the Apostle in this place is to arme the church of the Philippians against those false Iudaizing Teachers that Confounded Christ and Moses Circumcision and the Gospell together This he doth by Arguments Personall from men and by arguments reall from the matter it selfe Arguments Personall are first from the disposition quality End of those false teachers whom he describes ver 3. They are evill trees and therefore no great heed to be given to the fruits they beare to the doctrines they obtrude They are Dogs uncleane beasts that barke onely for their bellies and doe not onely barke but watch their times to bite too They are Euill workers though they come like fellow workers with Christ pretending much strictnes in the edification of the Church yet indeed their businesse is only to pull downe and to pervert They are the Concision where the Apostle by an Iâ—…onicall paranomasia shewes the end of their doctrines They preach indeed Circumcision but their businesse is schisme and Concision In the Law it was Circumcision Gods ordinance but now being by Christ abolished it is nothing at all but a bare Concision or cutting of the flesh and will in the Event prove a rent and schisme in the Church The Second personall Argument is taken from the Apostles owne condition who neither by nature nor Education was an enemie to legall Ceremonies who in all points had as great reason to vindicate the Law and to boast in fleshly priuiledges as any of those False Teachers ver 4. He was by nature an Israelite of the whole bloud as well as they by Education of the strictest sect of all a pharise by custome and practice a persecutor of the Church under that very name because the law he had been bred under was engdanger'd by that new way and in his course of life altogether unblameable in regard of legall Obedience and observations and lastly in his opinions touching them he counted them gainfull things and rested upon them for his salvation till the Lord opened his eyes to see the light of the Glorious Gospell of God in the face of Iesus Christ. The arguments from the matter are first from the Substance of which Circumcision was the shadow Wee are the Circumcision who worship God in the spirit and reioyce in Christ Iesus c. Vers. 3. They boast in the flesh they have a Concision but we are the Circumcision because we have the fruite and Truth of Circumcision the spirituall worship of God which is opposite to externall Ceremonies Ioh. 4. 23. Secondly from the plenitude and all sufficiencie of Christ which stands not in neede of any legall accession to peece it out and this the Apostle shewes by his owne practise and experience What things were 〈◊〉 to me those I counted losse for Christ because they were things that kept him from Christ before and he repeats the same words Confidently againe that he might not to be thought to have spoken them unaduisedly or in a heate yea doubtles and I count all things but losse for the Excellency of the knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things As a merchant in a tempest is contented to Suffer the losse of all his goods to redeeme his life or rather as a man will be content to part with all his owne beggerly furniture for a Iewell of greate value Math. 13. 44. Onely here wee are to note that the Apostle did not suffer the losse of them quoad Substantiam in regard of the Substance of the duties but quoad qualitatem et officium Iustificandi in regard of that dependance and Expectation of happines which he had from them before Neither did he onely Suffer the losse of them as a man may doe of things which are excellent in themselves and use as a merchant throwes his wares out of the ship when yet he dearly loves the and delights in theÌ„ but he shews what estimation he had of them I count them dung that I may win Christ I Count them then filthy carrion so the word signifies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 garbage and filth that is thrown out to dogs things which dogs such as he describes these false teachers to be may delight in but the spirit of God in a sincere hart cannot relish nor sauor in comparison of Christ. And may be found in him when I shall appeare before the face of God or may finde in him All that I loose for him that is a most plentifull recompence for any legall commodities which I part from for his sake not Having mine owne righteousnesse c. Here the Apostle distinguisheth of a twofold Righteousnesse Legall which is a mans owne because a man must come by it by working himselfe Rom. 10. 5. And Evangelicall which is not a mans owne but the righteousnes of God Rom. 3. 21. 22. Freely given to us by grace through Christ. That I may know Him c. That I may have the Experience of his Grace and mercy in Iustifying me frely by faith through the vertue of his suffrings and resurrection Here then we have these two things set down first the Pretiousnesse secondly the nature of
principall discovery that Faith makes in Christ and that it fixeth upon is His love to us and this is a most soveraigne and superlative love Herein saith the Apostle God commended God heaped together His Love toward us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Secondly Faith having thus revealed to our hearts the Love of God in Christ doth kindle in them a reciprocall Love towards Christ againe working in us the same minde that is in Christ Phil. 2. 5. and enflaming our spirits to a retribution of Love for Love We have beleeved the Love that God hath to us saith the Apostle and therefore saith he we love Him because He loved us first 1. Ioh. 4. 16 19. Thus Faith worketh Love But now thirdly there is a further power in Faith for it doth not onely work Love but it worketh by Love as the text speakes that is it maketh use of that Love which it hath thus kindled as of a goad and incentive to further obedience for that Love which we repay unto Christ againe stirreth us unto an intimate and Heavenly communion with Him unto an entire and spirituall conformitie unto Him And the reason is because it is a conjugall Love and therefore a fruitefull love for the end of marriage is fructification Yee are become dead to the Law saith the Apostle by the body of Christ that yee should be married to another even to Him who is raised from the dead and the end of this spirituall marriage is added That we should bring forth fruite unto God which is presently after expounded That wee should serve in newnesse of Spirit Rom. 7 4 6. If a man Love mee saith our saviour he will keepe my Words and this obedience is the childe of Faith as it is set downe in the same place yee shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you and immediately upon this Faith it followes He that bath my Commandements and keepeth them hee it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my selfe unto Him Ioh. 14. 20. 21 22 23. In which place there are these things of excellent observation First the noble objects that Faith doth contemplate even the excellencie of Gods Love unto us in Christ. You shall know that I am in my Father in His bosome in His bowels in His dearest affection One with Him in mercie in counsell in power That He and I both goe one way have both one decree and resolution of Grace and compassion towards sinners And that you are in mee your nature in me your infirmities in me the punishment of your sinnes upon me that I am bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh that you are in my heart and in my tenderest affections that you were crucifiâ—…a together with me that you live togâ—…ther with 〈◊〉 that you sit together with mee in Heavenly places that â—… died your death that you rose my resurrection that I pray your prayers that you were my righteousnesse and that I am in you by my merits to justifie you by my Grace and Spirit to renew and purifie you by my Power to keep you by my wisedome to leade you by my Communion and Compassion to share with you in all your troubles these are the mysteries of the Love of the Father and the Sonne to us Now this Love kindleth a Love in us againe and that Love sheweth it selfe in two things First in having the Commandements of Christ that is in accepting of them in giving audience unto them in opening our eyes to see and our hearts to entertaine the wonders of the Law And secondly in keeping of them in putting to the strength of our Love for Love is as strong as Death it will make a man neglectfull of his owne life to serve and please the person whom he loves that so wee may performe the duties which so good a Saviour requires of us And now as our Love was not the first mover we loved Him because He loved us first So neither shall it be the last as the Father and the Son did by their first Love provoke ours so will they by their second Love reward ours And therefore it sollowes He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him This is not ment of a new Love but of a further declaration of their former Love namely in a more close and familiar communion and Heavenly cohabitation with them wee will come unto Him and make our abode with Him we will shew Him our face we will make all our goodnesse to passe before Him wee will converse and commune with His Spirit we will Suppe with Him we will provide Him a feast of fatted things and of refined wine wee will open the breasts of consolation and delight Him with the aboundance of Glory Excellent to the purpose of the present point is that place of the Apostle 2. Cor. 5. 14 15. The Love of Christ saith he constraineth us that is either Christs Love to us by Faith apprehended or our Love to Christ by the apprehension of His Love wrought in us doth by a kinde of sweete and lovely violence winne and overrule our hearts not to live henceforth unto our selves but unto Him that died for us and rose againe and the roote of this strong perswasion is adjoyned namely because wee thus â—…udge because we know and beleeve that if one died for all then all are dead to the guilt and to the power of sinne and ought to live a new life conformable to the resurrection of Christ againe Therefore in two paralell places the Apostle useth promiscuously Faith and a new Creature In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new creature The reason of which promiscuous acceptation the Apostle renders the inseparable union between faith and renovation If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Secondly Faith gives us all good things requisite to our condition Adam was created Lord of his fellow inferiour Creatures invested with proprietie to them all In his fall hee made a forfeiture of every good thing which God gave him In the second Covenant a reconciliation being procur'd Faith entitling a man to the Covenant doth likewise re-invest him with the Creatures againe All things saith the Apostle are yours and hee opens the title and conveyance of them you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3. 23. So elsewhere hee saith that the living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy that is not onely the possession but the use of the things 1. Tim. 6. 17. where by all things wee may understand first the libertie and enlargement of Christians as it stands in opposition to the pedagogie and discipline of Moses Law which distinguished the Creatures into cleane and
by meere naturall reasons and the assent produced by it is differenced from suspition hesitaâ—…cie â—…ubitation in the opinion of schoolâ—…men themselves Now then in as much as we are bound to yeeld an evident assent unto divine truths necessary hereunto it is that the undâ—…rstanding bee convinc'd of these two things First that God is of infallible authoritie and cannot lye nor deceive which thing is a principle by the light of nature evident and unquestioned Secondly that this authoritie which in faith I rely upon is indeede and infallibly Gods owne authoritie The meanes whereby I come to know that may bee either extraordinary as revelation such as was made by the Prophets concerning future events or else ordinary and common to the faithfull This the Papists say is the authoritie of the Church Against which if one would dispute much might bee said Briefly granting first unto the Church a ministeriall introductory perswasive and conducting concurrence in this worke pointing unto the starre which yet it selfe shineth by its owne light reaching forth and exhibiting the light which though in it selfe visible could not bee so ordinarily to mee uâ—…lesse thus presented explaning the evidence of those truths unto which I assent for their owne intrinsecall certainâ—…y I doe here demaund how it is that each man comes to beleeve The Colliar will quickly make a wise answere as the Church beleeves But now how or why doth the Church beleeve these or these truths to bee divine Surely not because the Church hath so determined our Saviour Himselfe would not be so beleeved If I beare record of my selfe my record is not true Well then the Church must needes beleeve by the spirit which leads it into all truth And what is the Church but the Bodie of Christ the congregrtion of the faithfull consisting of divers members And what worke is that whereby the Spirit doth illuminate and raise the understanding to perceive aright divine truth but onely that Oyntment which dwelleth in you saith the Apostle whereby Christs sheepe are enabled to heare His voyce in matters of more Heavenly and fundamentall consequence and to distinguish the same from the voyce of strangers Now have not all the faithfull of this unction Doth it not runne downe from the head to the skirts of the garment Are wee not all a royall Priesthood and in both these respects annointed by the Spirit And having all the Spirit though in different measures and degrees is it not in congruitie probable that we have with Him received those vivificall and illightning operations which come along with him Capable is the poorest member in Christs Church being growne to maturitie of yeeres of information in the faith Strange therefore it is that the Spirit not leaving mee destitute of other quickning graces should in this onely leave my poore soule to travell as farre as Rome to see that by a candle or rather by an ignis fatuus which himselfe might more evidently make knowne unto me For the Spirit doth beget knowledge We have received the spirit which is of God that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God And againe Hereby we know that wee dwell in Him and Hee in us because Hee hath given us of His Spirit And againe Hereby we know that Hee abideth in us by the Spirit which Hee hath given us Especially since wee must take even the determinations of the Church and Pope though they were infallible in themselves at second hand as they passe through the mouth of a Priest whose authoritie being not infallible nor apostolicall but humane impossible it is not but that he may misreport His holy Father and by that meanes misguide and delude an unsetled soule Againe I demaund How doth it appeare unto mee that the Iudgment of the Church is infallible when it alone is the warrant of my Faith That this is it selfe no principle nor to the light of naturall reason primo intuitâ—… manifest ex evidentia terminorum is most certaine For that this company of men should not erre when other companies of men may erre cannot possibly be immediateâ—…y and por se evident since there must first needs apriori be discovered some internall difference betweene those men from whence as from an antecedent principle this difference of erring or not erring must needes grow Now then I demand what is that whereby I doe assent unto this proposition in case it were true That the Church cannot erre The Church it selfe it cannot be since nothing beares record of it selfe and if it should the proofe would be more ridiculous then the opinion being but idem peridem and petitio quaestionis Above the Church a Priori there is not any light but the scriptures and the spirit Therefore needs by these must I assent unto that one proposition at least And if unto that by these why then by the same light may I not assent unto all other divine truths since evident it is that the same light which enables me rightly to apprehend one object is sufficient also to any other for which a lesser light then that is presumed to suffice So then a true faith hath its evidence and certainty grounded upon the Authoritie of the word as the instrument and of the spirit of God raising and quickning the soule to attend and acknowledge the things therein revealed and to set to its owne seale unto the truth and goodnesse of them But how doe I know either this word to be Gods Word or this spirit to bee Gods spirit since there are sundry false and lying spirits I answer first ad Hominem there are many particular Churches and Bishops which take themselves to be equally with Rome members and Bishops of the universall Church How shall it invincibly appeare to my Conscience that other Churches and Bishops all save this onely doe or may erre and that this which will have me to beleeve her infallibility is not her selfe an hereticall and revolted Church This is a question controuerted By what autority shall it be decided or into what principles á priori resolved and how shall the evidence of those principles appeare to the Conscience That the Popes are successors of Peter in his see of Rome that they are doctrinall as wel as personall successours that Peter did there sit as moderator of the Catholike Church that his infallibility should not stick to his chaire at Antioch as well as to that at Rome that Christ gave him a principality jurisdiction and Apostleship to have to himselfe over all others and to leave to his successors who though otherwise privat men and not any of the pen-men of the holy Ghost should yet have after him a power over those Apostles who survivd Peter as it is manifest Iohn did That the scripture doth say any title of all this that the traditions which do say it are a divine word are al controversed points and though there be sorceries more then enough
in the Church of Rome yet I doubt whether they have yet enough to conjure themselves out of that circle which the agitation of these questions doe carry them in But secondly there are sundry lights there is light in the Sunne and there is light in a blazing or falling starre How shall I difference these lights will you say surely I know not otherwise then by the lights themselves undoubtedlie the spirit brings a proper distinctive uncommunicable Majesty and luster into the soule which cannot be by any false spirit counterfeited and this spirit doth open first the eie and then the Word and doth in that discover not as insit as veritatis those markes of truth and certainty there which are as apparant as the light which is without any other medium by it selfe discerned Thus then we see in the general That saving faith is an assent created by the word spirit We must note further that this knowledge is two fold first Generall mentall spâ—…culative and this is simply necessary not as a part of saving faith but as a medium degree passage thereunto For how can men beleeve without a teacher Secondly particular practicall Applicative which carries the soule to Christ and there â—…ixeth it â—…o whom shall wee go thou hast the words of eternall life wee beleeve and are sure that thou art that Christ. I know that my Redeemer liveth That yee being rooted and grounded in Love may be able to comprehend and to know the Love of Christ. I live by the faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave himselfe for me By his knowledge shall my righteous servant iustifie many This saving knowledge must bâ—…e commensurate to the object knowne and to the ends for which it is instituted which are Christ to be made ours for righteousnesse and salvation Now Christ is not proposed as an object of bare and naked truth to bee assented unto but as a Soveraigne and saving truth to do good unto men He is proposed as the Desire of all flesh It is the heart which beleeves With the heart man beleeveth unto righteousnesse and Christ dwelleth by faith in the heart If thou beleevest with all thine heart thou maist be bapâ—…ized And the hâ—…art doth not onely looke for truth but for goodnesse in the objects which it desireth for an allsufficiencie and adequate ground of full satisfaction to the appetites of the soule such a compasse of goodnesse as upon which the whole man may test and relie and unto the which he may have a personall propriety hold-fast and possession So then in one word faith is a particular assent unto the truth and goodnes of God in Christ his sufferings and resurrection as an allsufficient and open treasurie of righteousnesse and salvation to every one which comes unto them and thereupon a resolution of the heart there to fixe and fasten for those things and to looke no further Now this faith is called knowledge First in regard of the principles of it The word and spirit both which produce faith by a way of conviction and manifestation Secondly in regard of the ground of beleeving which is the knowledge of Gods will revealed for none must dare demand or take any thing from God till hee have revealed his will of giving it He hath said must be the ground of our faith Thirdly in regard of the certainty and undoubtednesse which there is in the assent of faith Abraham was fully perswaded of Gods pow'r and promise now there is a twofold certainty a certainty of the thing beleeved because of the power and promise of him that hath said it and a certainty of the minde beleeving The former is as full and sure to one beleever as to any other as an Almes is as certainly and fully given to one poore man who yet receives it with a shaking and Palsie hand as it is to another that receives it with more strength But the mind of one man may bee more certaine and assured then another or then it selfe at some other time sometimes it may have a certainty of evidence assurance and full perswasion of Gods goodnesse sometimes a certainty onely of Adherence in the midst of the buffets of Satan and some strong temptations whereby it resolveth to cleave unto God in Christ though it walke in darkenesse and have no light Fourthly and lastly in regard of the last Reflexive Act Whereby we know that we know him and beleeve in him And yet both this and all the rest are capable of grow'th as the Apostle here intimates we know heere but in part and therefore our knowledge of Him may still increase The heart may have more plentifull experience of Gods mercie in comfotting guiding defending illightning sanctifying it which the Scripture cals the learning of Christ and thereupon cannot but desire to have more knowledge of Him and Communion with Him especially in those two great benefits His Resurrection and sufferings And the power of His resurrection The Apostles desire in these words is double First that he may finde the workings of that power in his soule which was shewed in the resurrection of Christ from the Dead that is the Power of the Spirit of Holynesse which is the mighty principle of Faith in the heart That Spirit of Holynesse which quickned Christ from the Dead doth by the same glorious power beget Faith and other graces in the Soule It is as great a worke of the Spirit to forme Christ in the heart of a sinner as it was to fashion Him in the wombe of a virgin Secondly that He may feele the resurrection of Christ to have a Power in Him Now Christs resurrection hath a twofold Power upon us or towards us First to apply all His merits unto us to accomplish the worke of His satisfaction to declare his conquest over death and to propose himselfe as an All-sufficient Saviour to the faithfull As the stampe addes no vertue nor matter of reall value to a piece of gould but onely makes that value which before it had actually applyable and currant So the resurrection of Christ though it was no part of the price or satisfaction which Christ made yet it was that which made them all of force to His members Therefore the Apostle saith that Christ was Iustified in Spirit In His Death Hee suffered as a malefactor and did undertake the guilt of our sinnes so farre as it denotes an obligation unto punishment though not a meritoriousnesse of punishment but by that Spirit which raised Him from the Dead Hee was Iustified Himselfe that is He declared to the world that Hee had shaken of all that guilt from Himselfe and as it were left it in His Grave with His Grave clothes For as Christs righteousnesse is compared to a robe of triumph so may our guilt to a garment of Death which Christ in His Resurrection shooke all of to note that Death