of God in his word but to the eye of a believer beholding God and every part of his revealed will in Christ all is alike In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God That was spoken of Christ now the Believer alwayes beholding God in Christ which is his originall word and the Scripture only Christ written out in the Spirit doth behold God in his originall and in his written word in every part of it one so that every part is of like beauty and pretiousnesse to the soule of a believer Having opened my selfe thus farre I shall doe it farther and declare that to have any hope left to live as sinfull nature pleases casting the revealed word of God behind their backs and under a notion of redemption to deny the Redeemer to talk of free-grace and to trample grace under foote to deny the Lord that bought them in walking as doe others that know not Christ This is so far from entring into my thoughts from that freedome I have pleaded for all this time that if I should name this and call it darknesse I should call it Aegyptian darkenesse so farre from freedome that it is bondage beyond expression The second of the Ephesians sets it out best in these termes The power of the Prince of the Aire ruling in the children of disobedience But that freedome I plead for is the power of the Lord of glory ruling by his Spirit in his children of light and life My aime is not to take away that holy just and good law of God out of the conscience of a believer but as God doth with his people in the new Covenant and in Christ the mediator of it establish them in a better covenant Heb. 8. upon better promises so would I only hold out the matter of the law taken out of the hand of Moses which was but a servant and established in the heart of Christ which is the Son and by the Son in the spirit of light and life written in the heart and conversation of every believing soule And lesse then this I thinke is not in the covenant of the Almighty when he convenants to put his law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts For my authority in this I shall say as the Apostle Paul in the 3d of Rom. the last vers when in the greatest part of the chapter he hath pleaded this very cause that I doe he concludes in these words Doe we then make void the law through faith God forbid Yea we establish the law So that it is cleare the law of life that makes us free from the law of sin and death which is Christ living by his Spirit in the conscience is not to make void but to establish upon better promises from a law of death to be a law of life Thus much in generall But more particularly I lay downe this as my light that the law is now in the Spirit in the Gospel for a believer to walk by the law is made Gospel as Christ is made flesh the Gospel is both a perfect law of life and righteousnesse of grace and truth why should we separate that which God hath in his free-grace joyned together namely Law and Gospel in one under the government that is given to the childe Jesus Nor is the holinesse or sanctification that God lookes for in his believing Saints such as is falsehood by the law or outward command but by the preaching of faith by which the spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a Believer and makes him the very law of Commandements in himselfe and his heart the very two Tables of Moses And though the law be a beame of Christ in substance and matter yet we are not to live by the light of one beame now when the Son of righteousnesse is risen himselfe that was a fitter light for those who lived in the regions of the shadow of death it is with the law now or light of righteousnesse as it was with the light in the creation when that which was scattered was gathered into one body of light So Christ now being revealed holinesse and righteousnesse as well as grace and love is revealed in him and and gathered up in him The word is now flesh and dwels amongst us and we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten sonne full of truth as well as grace is in substance by the Spirit set downe 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. verses There is the vaile taken away in turning to the Lord. There is Christ held forth to be the Spirit and the spirit of liberty to his people but observe the fruits of this liberty it is from sinne not to sinne but we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the spirit so it is in the margine Thus is Christ that Sunne to us which warmes us in the very shining upon us the Believer works walks and lives under the Gospel as beholding his perfect redemption wrought in Christ and so brings forth the power of this redemption and salvation through the spirit of Adoption freely working to the praise of his free-grace and freely obeying from the life of this redemption doing every thing in love because of his love shed abroad in our hearts and neither taking in judgements hell or damnation nay not heaven or glory to force on the worke or quicken the duty but doing all from the spirit of life in Christ Jesus except when corruption or temptation hindereth the freenesse and spiritualnesse in the duty A Spirit at this pitch is Christ and his beloved both met in his garden of spices and by feeding on the honey in the honey-combe Christ fils the soule with himselfe and delights himselfe in that fulnesse that is himselfe So the soule in communion with Christ in the Spirit sees it selfe compleat in Christ so joyes in its Masters joy alwayes satisfying it selfe in that love that is Christ himselfe and is able to trumpet out its glory to the world My beloved is mine and I am his This is Christ and his office branches setting about God alwayes feeding on the banquet of love and fitting under the benner of love God beholding every elect soule in Christ the soule beholds God in Christ and Christ beholds himselfe and all his in God and this vision in one spirit swallowes up all into one God beholds every elect soule as Christ Christ beholds every branch in him as of him beholding us in that glory we shall have with him when he appeares in his fulnesse of glory and the believing soule in the Spirit beholding its justification sanctification and redemption and Christ one in eternall love the soule is in this light transformed into this love that is God himselfe so sees nothing of God but what is all God such a soule knowes no divided Christ
reason is this To give the World a true discovery of my spirit and light in those things which I count weighty and every truth of them to be of more concernment then a thousand Worlds I cannot tell the thoughts of men concerning my selfe nor will presume to take the place of God to judge the thoughts of any but this I can truly tell that in the following truths I have clearely opened my heart to the view of every Reader and have faithfully given to the World what light God hath given to me in those maine truths and fundamentalls of salvation in which my soule lives and what I can cheerefully dye in the next moment This is all I shall say I blesse the Lord I am single hearted in this worke let men judge of me and it according to to their light I have no other end then this That the eternall loving kindnesse and free grace of God may be lifted up in the World and that all his people may know how good a God hee is I confesse these truths of God were in my soule like new Wine in old Bottles my flesh could imprison them no longer and now they are abroad give me leave Reader with them to give thee a word of caution If thou beest spirituall and understandest these truths of God in the spirit and findest them sweet then blesse the Lord let thy heart praise him and thy eye be singly set on him overlooke the creature wholy unlesse it be to glory in the Lord that hath magnified his free grace to so weake a one as my selfe is I acknowledge the truths to be Gods and revealed by his spirit of truth so that the beauty of them must center no where but in him but all the failings and weaknesses from first to last are mine the fruits of my flesh and darknesse I beseech you let God have his due glory though you blame me for my failings let not my weaknesses prejudice any soule against the precious truths of God I trust there is nothing but what are truths of God though weakly managed and if any one amongst those many thousands more descerning eyes then mine shall finde out any thing that is not so I trust if in a spirit of love and meeknesse it be made knowne to me I shall blesse God for that soule and honour his truth by acknowledging my owne errours And to the scorner I shall onely say this I wish you could singly scorne me in it and not God then would your sinne be the lesse and so would my sorrow too for God hath carried me above your scornes and were not your sinnes increased by it the care of either side would be but very small Let me deale plainely with you you wrong your selves not me for I can both live and dye full of joy and rest in the love of God though you shall please your selves in scorning and deriding me and all the returne I shall make to this will be to pity your darknesse and to pray the Lord to give you the light of his spirit by which you may truly know him and Jesus Christ which he hath sent and then I know you will be new creatures I shall hold you no longer in the porch but open every doore of the house that you may both read and see the truths of God made knowne by his spirit to the weakest and one as unworthy as any of his Servants Rob Tichbourne The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke LOVE to all SAINTS shews union with Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another John 13.35 What Christ hath borne for Saints they shall never beare themselves For as many as are of the workes of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to doe them But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith And the law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christs then are yee Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.10 11 12 13.28 29. Gods Children have his Spirit to walk and work in For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage again to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba-Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8.14 15 16. Gods love giveth Saints to know they shall appeare like Christ Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God Therefore the world knows us not because it knew not him Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is 1 John 3.1 2. Christ is the foode of living soules I am that bread of life John 6.48 Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba-Father Gal. 4.5 6. Saints are compleate before God in their union with Christ For in him dwels all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him Coloss 2.9 Free-grace in God justifieth redeemeth through Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 Christ and the new creature are unseparable Therefore if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sunne I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 No man exceedes another in excellency but by received mercies For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4.7 None but God can be a proper subject for a Saint to glory in He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. part of the 30. vers Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory
the bare law of Commandement could not raise mee up to holy walking For flesh which was my owne strength that was weake but God having made up that in his Son Now sayes hee the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And shewes in the 5th verse what it is to walke after the flesh and what after the spirit and in the 6. verse tells us flesh and spirit is the way of life and death but in the 9th verse he shewes who are in the Spirit namely those in whom the spirit of God dwels And sayes plainly that those which have not the Spirit are none of Christs And in the two next verses shewes if Christ lives in a soule by his Spirit then the body of sinne dyes There is a reigning power indeed the whole body of sin killed by the Spirits dwelling and reigning in a Saint and now all the action and motion of such a soule is from God The soule now in all its wants can have accesse to God through Christ in the spirit as in Ephes 2.18 and in Ephes 3.16 17 18. Ephes 2.18 Ephes 3.16 17 18. John 17.38 39. By the spirit in the inward man the soule is an established soule and a knowing soule and so is enabled to act for God in the Spirit John 7.38 39. There is a promise to believing soules of being so filled with the Spirit that there shall be flowings forth Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water And this saith the 39th verse is spoken of the spirit which they that believe in him should receive Now what is the end of this fulnesse of the Spirit but that it should rule and reigne in a Saint and that a Saint should walke and act in it In Rom 6.14 There is a promise sin shall not have dominion over the Saints and the reason is given because saith he you are not under the law but under grace Christ is your sanctification and his spirit of grace shall deliver you from the dominion of sin In 1 Cor. 2.14 15. There a Saints knowledge is spiritual and so dstinguished from the world and this spirituall knowledg living in action in a Saint We shall finde in 1 Cor. 12.11 in the former part of the Chapter the Apostle speaks of spiritual gifts acting diversly in severall Saints but all these workings are from one and the same Spirit so as it is the Spirit that doth all in the Saints In 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. There is a soule made light by having the vaile taken from its eyes and in that light beholding God saith the Text is changed into his Image Now marke it all this is by the spirits living in a soule A soule living upon God in the spirit hath the vaile taken away and lives in a glorious vision of God by which the soul is changed into the Image of God and this is by the Spirit of the Lord saith the end of the 18. Verse And so in 2 Cor. 5.14 15 16 17. There is a new creature made by the love of Christ which constrained the soul from the powerfull operation of the Spirit wherefore henceforth saith he wee know no man no not Christ himselfe after the flesh No How then Why in the spirit that spirit that sheddes the love of Christ in our hearts and thereby constâ—aines us to live in him that died for us and in whom wee are dead to the flesh but alive in the spirit And thus the Spirit acts the new creature So in Gal. 5.16 17 18 22 25. Verses There is an exhortation to walke in the spirit by which a saint is delivered from obedience to the lusts of the flesh though the flesh lusteth against the spirit yet saith the 18. Verse If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the Law and in the 22. Verse shewes the fruits of the Spirit and concludes in the 25. Verse If you live in the spirit then walke in the spirit making all a Saints life and action to be in the spirit I will only touch one particular of the life of a Saint out of this generall namely his worship and shew you how all that is in the Spirit for a Saint worshiping God in the Spirit take first John 4.23 24. Which is our Saviours Answer to the woman of Samarias Question in the 20 Verse she as one without the Spirit questions about the places of worship going as far as an eye of nature could carry her to externalls but the Lord Christ in the 21 Verse tells her Woman the houre cometh when neither in this mountaine nor in Jerusalem shall yee worship the father your light is onely in externalls and you worship you know not what and then preaches himselfe to her Salvation is of the Jewes as if he had said God will have his people onely worship him and that in the Spirit for the time comes and now is when the true worshipers shall worship God in the spirit and gives the reason of it for saith he God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth This truth is very fully confirmed in Phil 3.3 false teachers in the foregoing Chapter would have brought the Saints under the law of works a gaine and the yoake of circumcision but the Apostle in this 3. Verse tell us those are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit As if the Apostle had said these false teachers endeavour to bring you under a formall worship and to make you debtors to the law of worâ—s againe But we are above it and we are to live in the Spirit and to worship in the Spirit in the 1 Pet. 2.5 There the Apostle tells you who they be that are sit for communion with God they be living stones alive in the Spirâ—t and acting in the Spirit to offer up spirituall sacrificâ— to God by Jesus Christ I but when is a man a living stone fit to offer up the sacrifice sâ—e that in 1 Joh. 2.27 But the anâ—inting whâ—ch yee have received of him abides in you and the same anointing teacheth you all thinâ—s and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you yee shall abide in him Then is a man a visible Saint a living stone fiâ— to worship God and to have communion with him when he hath received the Vnction of the Spirit by which he is taught of God to woâ—ship in the Spirit and in truth This truth is not taught of man but of God and therefore it abides in him thus you see he that worships God truly worships him in the Spirit What a Spirituall Saint is What a Saint is not First he is more than a Morall-man he that is lesse than a morall-man is a beast and he that is at the heigh of a morall-man is but meerly a man a fine civiliz'd peice of clay loving himselfe and therefore doth â—ot devoute another because
one dyed for all then were all dead I dyed to sinne in Christ and if now I live it should not be to my selfe but to Christ 2 Cor. 5.14 15. And to this the love of Christ constraines me For sayes he This I know who ever is in Christ is a new creature Olde things are passed away and behold all things are become new vers 17. And therefore saith he what ever is sinne is the old man and of this he cries out as the Apostle in Rom. 7. O wretched man that I am the law of my flesh rebels against the law of my minde Sin hath lesse entertainment no where then where the love of God by his Spirit dwels perfect love shuts out feare saith the Text and perfect love kils corruption Love to Christ kils and buries sin when legal fear only layes it in a swound it lives againe and possibly kils the legall soule at last but this spirituall man he keepes nothing to himselfe but carries all to God and Christ he lives only in God and Christ and when he finds corruption in himselfe he presently by the spirit layes it downe at the feete of Christ and tels him my glory saith he is to live in thee and what ever is thine and thy glory is to live in mee and in the death of my corruptions Oh then be zealous of thy glory thou hast taken the guilt and punishment of all my corruptions from me Is it not also for thy glory to take the reigne and the power of them from me too Yes saith Christ and I will make my promise good Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace True Lord sayes the soule and I believe it that to live under grace is the only way to keepe sin under me Thus a spirituall soule having a sight of his sinnes of all men hath least feare in point of condemnation because this soule is filled with the perfect love of God which casts out feare but the in-being of this love of God in a soule makes as little love to all the profers of sin as it hath feare of the condemnation of it Sin in all its temptations hath the soonest denyall from such a soule of any for he answers sin thus Sin sayes he The love of Christ constrains me to hate thee This soule tels sin he will but lose his labour in tempting him for sayes he I am not at my owne disposing I have given my selfe up to Christ already and Christ hath taken possession of me and lives in me by his Spirit and for thy temptations I shall carry them to Christ and sure I am thou canst not live in his presence he hath overcome thee for me and he will destroy thee in me Thus the spirit changes a soule from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan unto God and is made to live in this light which is the light of Gods reconciled countenance in the face of Christ And in this vision of God and Christ the soule is changed into the image of Christ from glory to glory even as by the Spirit 2 Cor. 3d. last This spiritual man as he lives upon God in the spirit so he worships God in the Spirit he knowes neither the Mount nor Hierusalem as his place to worship in he only knows Christ as the proper medium to worship God in and he knowes not Christ after the flesh neither but after the spirit his feasting is with God and upon God he knowes no formes or figure nor externals to make him a rest of he can only rest in the bosome of God and Christ he knowes no fellowship but with the Father and the Son as hee enjoyes God and Christ in Saints so hee hath sweete fellowship with them God is both the light and the life of his worship he makes God his way and his end in his worship This is a Dove that can rest no where but in the Arke Church-fellowship to him without Christ is no more then a selected piece of the darke world the Ordinances if Christ be not in them is to him but as the grave When Christ was risen all his enquiries are where is he whom my soule loves Shew me Christ in a Saint Christ in a Church and Christ in an Ordinance and then you shew me my life and upon this ground I can live and dye with you saith hee This soule can measure all men and things by Christ but Christ by nothing but himselfe that Spirit of Christ which dwelleth in him and thus you have some weake discourses of a spirituall Saint This exhorts Saints to live in the spirit upon God and Christ and to act from the endowings of that spirit as the image of God and Christ It is very plaine it is the interest and priviledge of Gods children to live on himselfe in the Spirit and from that life spiritually to make all its motions Oh why will you live out of God! did you ever finde any beloved like this beloved Did you sinde any thing that is all but God Why God is willing you should live upon all his all and be filled with his fulnesse O come my beloved eate of my banquet of love Drinke O drinke abundantly and be satisfied saith Christ All our sadnesse and complainings arise from our living out of God be it what ever it can be that is the most like God yet if it be not naked and clearly God the soule will be complaining of wants 'T is not duties Church-fellowship Ordinances or any thing that we conceive or propose to our selves which can of themselves give the soule rest it is only a living in and upon God in the spirit Oh let us stand in that liberty with which Christ hath made us free we can stand in none but in Christ and that is the freenesse of grace that we should stand for ever spotlesse and blamelesse in the sight of God through him Again This should stirre up Saints to act in God we have no cause now to act doubtingly If Christ be our strength the Spirit will teach us to pray and to crye Abba-Father for hee is our Father Is corruption too strong for us it is not too strong for Christ we should lay it at his feete And now tell mee believing soule canst thou that livest in the love of Christ live in sin No sayes the soule sin is for the love of it slaine in me by what law even the law of love living by the Spirit in me It is impossible sayes such a soule that I that am dead to sinne should live unto it My life sayes he is hid with Christ in God And it is not I that live now but Christ he lives in me Christ lives and I dye sayes the soule I that is all I my righteousnesse as well as my unrighteousnesse If I mistake not this is the strongest argument against a Saints living in sin that can be why a Saint
or parted God every tittle of revealed truth which is Christ written out by the Spirit it is all God and Christ in one and this Spirit that reveales Christ to the world in the word and to the believer in his soule this Spirit is God too that so all within the soule is God all about the soule is God and all comes from the soule is God and this is the freedome the believer in his conscience hath from the law in the letter it is not destroyed but established It is taken out of the hand of Moses the servant and put into the hand of Christ the Sonne it is not made void but fulfilled for us and in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Now behold the Law in its glory changed from law to Gospel from letter to spirit from Moses to Christ from death to life from an angry God to a loving Father as it is Gospel so it is Spirit 't is Christ yea it is God himselfe On the glory of that Law which is God not only declaring the mind will of God but in the spirit of love filling the soule with strength to obey from whence we find Christ in the Gospel calling upon those that love him to keepe his Commandements God Christ and the Spirit being in the Law it becomes the law of life when the law had in it but a naked demonstration what a Creator might justly require of a fallen creature but gave no strength it is held forth under the termes of the law of sinne and death by which it had not that glory to invite a poore soule to looke on it because the soule could see nothing but its death in it but as Christ being made under the law to redeem them that were under the law hath satisfied his and our Father fully in it for us so hee hath turned this law into his law of love into Gospel into Spirit into himselfe and his Father Now this law hath that beauty which allures and takes every beleeving soule nature turned into grace it is now meate and drinke to a believer to doe the will of God in the Spirit First This will let us truly to understand who they be that be Antinomians Those that deny the Law if I may judge I should say it is those that would keepe it in the hand of the servant out of the Sonne what can be a greater denying of it then to keepe it in the Letter out of the Spirit to rob it of that glory which is God and Christ in the Spirit What soule dare put it selfe under the Law out of Christ when in so doing it makes it selfe a debter to the whole law And as the Apostle in Gal. 3.10 11. sayes So many as are under the workes of the law are under the curse of the law and under that law which can never justifie before God Now to keepe the law in such a state as this is will make every soule shun it not daring to come under it as seeing nothing but death in it Sathan is the soules greatest enemy in darkning it with legall principles that it sees not Christ so are those the greatest enemies to the holy just and good law of God that would pul that nature of Christ in his Spirit from it and leave it still the law of the letter in the hand of Moses when God and Christ hath made it Gospel-law the law of love in the Spirit The law may here complain as the Spouse did of those watch-men that rent her vaile those that rend Christ from the law rend the beautifull vaile the glory of the law from it These holds forth the law dead like Lazarus in the grave stinking and those that follow it weeping Or as Pharoah to the children of Isael doubling the tale of bricks and giving no straw what glory is there in this But those that hold out the Law in the Spirit holds it not only forth as a law that lives but a law that gives life so farre from requiring the tale of bricke to be doubled and give no straw that in every duty it brings Christ in whence we are able to doe all things This makes it plainely appeare who they be which deny the law and may justly be distinguished by the name of Antinomians Againe this exhorts Saints that seeing it is part of the redemption of the blood of Christ That no law but the law of love the spirit of life in Christ should rule or reigne in the conscience of a believer To take the counsell of the Apostle in Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled againe with the yoake of bondage God hath not given nor Saints received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but the pirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father This is the life of our lives to live in the spirit It is the great promise of the Gospel to give the Spirit This would I know when doth the soule feast but when God spreads tables of love and in the Spirit bids us eate my beloved eate abundantly and be satisfied Nature teaches the outward man to stand for liberty oh then what should grace doe how should this stirre us up to stand for that liberty which is our life loose this and loose all your spirituall life in a moment doe but once looke on the law out of Christ and it will be with us as those in 2 Cor. 3.15 But even to this day when Moses is read the vaile is upon their hearts This vaile will be a vaile of darknesse that the soule shall not see Christ in propriety in any of his offices benefits or merits If any or all these be deare oh then stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ bath made us free This is that freedome the Sonne hath made which is freedome indeed But if the Sonne make us not free then are we bond men to eternity If thy heart be hard looke on him whom you have piereed and then shall it be evangelically melted If sinne sting thy conscience looke on him that is is lifted up which the brazen Serpent typified this is our freedome and Christs prerogative the governement is on his shoulders he is that King and his Spirit that Law which is only to reigne in the conscience of his people Why should not our soules count deare of that which is so deare to Christ and all his people This is that glory Christ will not give to another therefore this is that glory wee should only give to Christ Oh then admire and extoll for ever this glory of the riches of the free-grace of God in Christ that hath freely given this state of grace this glorious state to us that were by nature the children of wrath as well as others It doth not yet appear what we shall be so that more glory shall be then is yet revealed but our soules must confesse that
the fruit can be no other then the tree is and it is the darknesse of that flesh which is in Saints that keeps them from a cleare discerning of that truth and makes them smile when the world smiles on them and be sad when the world frownes on them Vanity could not unsettle our spirits if vanity were not in them It is that vanity which is in our flesh that puts a value upon the vanity that is in the world but truly it is our exceeding shame that having the Lord to glory in we should glory in any thing but the God of our salvation and having so sure and abiding glory that any frownes from vanity should make the least damp upon our glory Saints are of an eternall glory and substance and therefore should not labour for nor glory in any thing but what is sutable that which will abide for ever and upon this consideration the whole World that lumpe of vanity is cut off at once it withers in the using and certainly dyeth either before or with our flesh it is not able to satisfie either out soules or bodies therefore unworthy to be laboured or contended for by any but especially by Saints that have God to live and delight in Againe the Wise mans discovery is that all things under the Sunne is vanity Carries along with it this counsell that we should use the world as if we us'd it not i. value it no higher then vanity let it be so in our eye and hearts let Gods end in creating of the world be our end in using of it He made the World to serve man and man only to serve himselfe so may we use all things not sinfull moderately and with thankesgiving making the whose Creation our servants and our foot-stoole so that in all and with all we serve our God and live in his bosome of love which is so bright a glory that it swalloweth up all the glory of the World and makes that something or nothing meerly as God appeares in them or not in them God is so perfect a glory that he makes the darkest lanthorn of the creature when he appeares in it to shine glorious and when he withdrawes his presence the Lanthorn is dark again sutable to its owne nature this should the world be in a Saints eye what of God is in the whole or any part of the creation embrace that keep close to that lift up his name his power and his glory in all so use the world as to lift up God above it My meaning is this use all power all place all honours and interest among the sonnes of men to lift up the Name of God This is a pretious spirit indeed that can despise the worlds glory when Gods glory goeth not with it and can rejoyce in the worlds reproaches when in that he may more advance the glory of his God this is to use the world as if we used it not to take it up and lay it downe onely as it may serve the highest end of our Being the lifting up of the glory of our God If there were any thing but vanity in the world I verily perswade my selfe it should have been part of the Saints portion but as it is it is too low a Region for the Saints to live in God giveth full blessings to his children and therefore hath given himselfe to be his peoples inheritance hath done them no injury in binding up the whole world under vanity for it is not their portion it is at most but their Wildernesse footstoole Christ is their Rock of Ages Heaven their more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Saints would soon have low thoughts of the world if their hearts were lifted up to their interest the King and Kingdome of glory it will then appeare that we used it as if we used it not that when we have it it is no part of our life and glory so when it is gone we have no want of it for God is our all and we have at all times all in God It is not the creature which is vanity that maketh a Saints joy but God in the creature and if that vanity vanish away yet the comfort doth not because that is bound up in God who liveth for ever God doth often vary in his dispensations to his children but not in his love which is their life though in reference to the world he leads them through good and bad reports through ficknesse and health high and low honorable and dishenorable esteem of the world yet in all this his eternall love is alwayes the same and Saints knowing this are as full of life and joy in the one condition as in the other because God and his love is their life and joy in all conditions And hence it comes that Saints use the world with so much slightnesse because not any of their life and interest is bound up in it if the Gourd be green and flourish yet God and not that is their life and glory if the Gourd wither and die yet they doe not for they have lost nothing in the Gourds being nothing because God who is all is their all Oh that the Spirit did live more in Saints then should we live more in God and lesse in the world then should wee truly use the world as if we used it not This truth doth also shew us the glorious interest of Saints that have a God to live and glory in though there be vanity in all things under the Sunne Sure it could not but be amazement to that Tyrant to behold the 3 children in the fiery furnace and not consumed And were it well considered it would be as great an amazement to the world to see Saints full of rest joy and peace in their spirits though the world be full of changes and altogether vanity Put these together and we shall finde the cause to be one and the same in Daniel 3. verse 25. The Text telleth us That foure men walked in the midst of the fire and the form of the fourth is like the Sonne of God The Text gives us the reason why the fire could not consume them according to its own nature because the presence of God was there the reason is the same though the Saints have their being among the vanities under the Sunne yet they have their reall being and their life in the bosome of God and his Spirit lives in their bosome so that it is his presence which makes that rest joy and peace that is in their soules A Rock that giveth forth water in a dry and long Wildernesse hath its double beauty such is God to his children in this wildernesse of vanity he is Rock and Water of life both and such as experiment him can tell they have meat to eat such as the world kowes not of and when the world shall be forced to confesse that their food is buskes and not enough neither then can such as have an interest in God
discerne nor savour the things of God Thirdly when God brings in the wil of his people to his own will there he changes the objects and the affections of such soules so that the will chuseth God and his will as its centre to rest in That which the Apostle in the third to the Colossians begin exhorts to God by his Spirit works in and enables the soule to it is That such as are risen with Christ should seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God that our affections should be there because Christ that is our life is there Now when Gods Spirit commeth and possesseth any soule it sets upon this work immediatly carries the soule upward above the world shewes it God and Christ the love of God in Christ shewes it its glorious union with God and Christ here and in glory to all eternity darkens all the world by revealing but one glimpse of this more exceeding and eternall weight of glory and in changing the object the affections soon alter This more exceeding glory carries away the soules love from the world of perishing glory When the Prodigall but considered the fulnesse of bread in his fathers house he soon resolved to leave his empty Trough of Huskes and his swinish company but surely when hee had been embraced in his Fathers Armes and tasted the love in his Fathers bosome when hee had possession of what hee longed for and was in the vision of his Fathers kindnesse and glory hee then quite forgot the Swine and the huskes his affections and wishes did not then runne to obtain enough of them no the object was changed and the affections with it and having been taken up into his Fathers glory he doth not chuse to goe backe and feed with swine any more now he chuseth to centre in God Thus doth God bring in all his prodigals when they have tasted the worlds perishing love then by his Spirit hee makes known his eternall love to them when they have tryed trusted and looked upon the world so long till they finde it empty then he by his Spirit shews them his own fulnesse when they have had the pleasure of sinne for a season and the bitternesse of sinne hath seased upon them with the visage of eternity then God by the same Spirit makes known himself to be a God of grace that pardons freely nothing to move him but his own love and how great that love it he makes manifest by a crucified JESUS and now sayes the soule I know where to centre where to sit downe where to give up my self even into the bosome of Gods love This is Gods way of conquering the soules and wils of his people He alters the object that alters the affections and centres the will in God the object is according to the eye if the eye bee flesh it discernes no object but in the flesh so if the eye be spirituall it spiritualizes every object the Spirit of God enquires for God in all it sees and where God is made the onely object there he is sure to gain the affections for he hath all love and lovelinesse in himselfe and the affections being taken the will goes where ever they go he that lives in love hath his wil in that he loves not in himselfe so the soule that hath his affections drawne into God by his love made known unto it in the Spirit hath no will in it selfe but in God in whom it lives by love Thus God doth sweetly gain and win into himselfe the will of his people by revealing the glory of his grace and love to them in the Spirit till by that Spirit they make choyce of God to give up their wills unto and say as Christ their head Not my will but thy will be done Fourthly God when he gathers in the will of his people to his owne will he gives in higher and fuller joyes and contentments into their soules then ever they had at any time or in all times and things before The Prophet David in Psalm 4. latter end given in light in these truths vers 6. There be many sayes he that say Who will shew us any good Now mark his answer in the same vers Lord list thou up the light of thy countenance upon us As if hee had said doe they enquire for any good Lord doe thou but smile upon us looke graciously on us and there is all good in that nay in vers 7. he tels us his experience of it Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more then in the time that their corne and their wine encreased This speakes to the very thing here is a time of more fuller joy and gladnesse in the heart of Gods people then under the enjoyments of the World for I judge the termes of Corne and Wine comprehends the whole but observe when is that time why when the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance when God by his Spirit makes knowne himselfe to be their Father in Christ then is the soule filled with gladnesse but in the last verse observe the effects of this upon Davids soule I will lay me downe in peace for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety As if he had said I will now resigne all up to thee and take my peace in thee and expect my safety from thee thou hast so filled my soule with thy joyes that I cannot leave thee but leave my selfe with thee continue but to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and then leade me where thou wilt and doe with mee what thou wilt for I will lay all downe before thee my will and my wayes thou shalt be my peace and my safety Observe the working of the Spirit of God in the Apostle Paul's spirit when God had brought over Paul's will to his to goe upon hard and suffering work such a work as he was told he should meete with sufferings in Acts 21. When hee would needs goe to Jerusalem Agabus the Prophetesse prophesies to him that the Jewes should binde him and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles And in vers 10 11 12. The people besought him not to goe up to Jerusalem but in vers 13. he answers them what meane you to weepe and to breake my heart for I am not only ready to be bound but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus As if he had said you only with a fleshly eye looke at the difficulty of the worke you know not the inwaâ—d supply of joy in God that I have to doe this and the whole wâ—ll work of God doe you thinke God is a hard task-master to command bricke and give no straw Doe you thinke the work God gives is more then the strength he gives If so you are mistaken for I am supplyed with joyes and in comes of God not only to goe through binding worke but also dying worke for Christ I goe in Gods strength to doe his
in 2 Cor. 4.7 God dispenses his Gospel by earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us As if he had said Wee bring you the revelation of the free grace of God in the letter but that is the furthest that such earthly vessels as we can goe and God intends to use us no further that the glorious revelation of of this in the Spirit might appear to be the excellency of his power exceedingly beyond the power of the weak iustruments he uses if you observe it he is carefull in keeping the glory in the hands of God so as hee might make God the onely subject of his glory 2 Cor. 10.17 But be that glories let him glory in the Lord and to this end the Apostle makes his prayers for the Ephesians in the third Chapter verse 16. That he would grant them according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inward man He had preached Christ to them in the letter but he knowing that not to be enough he prayes the Lord to powre on them his rich and glorious Spirit that they might be filled with his glory and strengthened in the inward man according to the riches of his glory so that still God himselfe is the only subject of his peoples glory The practice of this is very eminently seen in the Apostle Paul Phil. 3.7.8 But what things were gain to me those I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things do count them but dung that I may win Christ In the foregoing verses he tels us what it was that he had counted gain gloried in his being circumcised the eighthday of the stock of Israel so on these were such things as were without God but when God had once made himself known to him in Christ then he had found God only to be a proper subject of glory and the Apostle doth acknowledge it For sayes he all that I had before it was but as dung compared with God and Christ for glory as dung to be abhorred in the presence of God though in the 4. verse he tels us If any other man thinketh he bath whereof hee might trust in the flesh I more And all this more is but losse and dung where God appeares to him in Christ the scales were then off his eyes and he could distinguish of glory in its proper subject namely God in Christ so that all along we finde the Apostle the same onely glorying in the Lord. To back this wee shall finde him of the same Spirit Coloss 2.9 10. For in him dwelleth all the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily and ye are compleat in him which is the head of all Principalities and Powers He sets up the glory of God in Christ before the Colossians for them to glory in As if hee had said your onely true glory lies in your union with Christ for the fulnesse of the God head is bodily in him and that is the onely true subject of glory for your glory is as you are compleat in him united to him then is God your glory and you have a proper subject to glory in he is the head of all principality and power and this is your glory to glory in this your head And in Col. 3.3 4. For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God when Christ who is your life shall appeare then shall yee also appeare with him in glory Mark it hee strips them wholly of any glory in themselves For ye are dead that is without any beauty glory or excellency in your selves no more then dead persons have but your life of glory is with Christ in God so that when Christ appeares in glory you as in union with him shall appeare with him in glory therefore you have nothing else to glory in or to glory of but that your life is hid with Christ in God so that God is the onely subject of your glory And upon this account the holy Ghost puts a Behold a marke of excellency glory upon the love of God in making us his sonner in that first Epistle of John chap. 3. v. 1. This love of God it is God himselfe the perfe ion of glory therefore worthy the beholding Thus we see al along that the Prophets Apostles and all the servants of God make God the only subject of their glory these Texts of Scripture I thinke make up ful proofe to the first general observation the general scope of all Scripture comes into this truth therefore I cannot expect it to be denyed by any that know and acknowledge God and his Word The second generall observation is this That in God there is fulnesse of glory for all his people Or thus That in God is bound up all the fulnesse of his peoples glory this wil be in word I thinke denyed by none but indeed it is denyed by all such as seeke something else to glory in beside the Lord Nay many times without and against the Lord therefore this truth as the other I shall endeavor to prove from the nature of God and the declared experiences of his people First from the nature of God God is such an infinite glory in himselfe that no flesh can behold his glory and live Nor bath ony seme the Father at any time but the Sonne and those to whom the Sonne hath revealed him God is too bright a glory for a created being to see immediately therefore free-grace made Christ a Mediator to make known and discover God in his glory to his people and through this glasse Saints with open face beholding the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image 2 Cor. 3. Iast I know not how better to expresse the nature of God then thus That hee is the first the fulnesse and the all of all true glory and excellency If you call mercy justice holinesse righteousnesse purity power infiniteness eternity to be glory This is God all this is God and God is all this and more then all that man can comprehend much lesse declare he is the first and the fulnesse and the all of all this there is not a glimps of glory but it is a beame of God all vessels of glory receive what they have from him hee is that fulnesse which filleth all things with himselfe the whole created being speakes nothing more plaine then this the infinite fulnesse of glory that is in the Creator And the holy Ghost by John in his Revel 21. Ch. 23. vers speaking of the glory of the new Jerusalem hath these words And the City had no neede of the Sunne neither of the Moone to shine in it for the glory of God did lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Whether this new Jerusalem be looked upon in
the type or the things typified yet it holds forth this that God is the glory of it God in Christ the light thereof Exceeding much may be written upon this head but I hope this little will fully satisfie all but Atheists That God is the first fulnesse and all of all glory But what advantage this is to Saints how their glory is in God is next under consideration And for this first consider the prayer of our Saviour to his Father and our Father in John 17.24 Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the World And in vers 22. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them This is truly the end for which Christ was given of the Father that in him namely Christ the people of God might be made partakers of his glory Christ prayes according to the will of God that God would perfect in his elect body the worke of his Mediatorship namely that God and his people might have full communion in that glory which Christ had with the Father before the World was vers 5. For I conceive that to be the glory which Christ cals my glory that to which he was ascending Our Saviour seemes to make these the grounds of this prayer I in them and thou in me vers 23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them therefore let them behold my glory i. Let them be filled with thy self for thou art my glory For there is no other way of beholding God the glory of Christ but by being made partakers of God and filled with his fulnesse There is another full Text to this purpose in Rom. 8.17 And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ Marke it first every childe of God is an heir 2. God himselfe is the inheritance of all his Children heirs of God but how doe Saints enjoy this their inheritance namely God the Text tels us joyntly with Christ we are joynt-heirs of God with Christ So that God communicates himselfe in his glory to Saints as to Christ Saints full of God as Christ their elder Brother is This is as full a proofe as words can make That in God there is fulnesse of glory for his people because himselfe is the inheritance of his people which Saints enjoy as fellow heirs with Christ having their lives bound up with God in Christ their glory appeares with Christ in God the experience of this made the Apostle to glory in Phil. 1.21 For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine The free-grace and eternall love of God in Christ is my life wherefore to dye to this body wil be my gaine for I am an heir of God with Christ my glory is with God and were I out of the body I should be fully in God so againer in glory but whether to live or dye God in Christ is all my glory And the same Apostle in Phil. 4.4 gives this exhortation Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and againe I say rejoyce Be glad and glory in the Lord surely he had found fulnesse of glory in God otherwise he would never have given such an exhortation as this to rejoyce and rejoyce alwayes speake this that there is alwayes fulnesse of joy and glory in God for his people The Saints of olde living upon God could glory in tribulation that is in God though under tribulations as Shadrach Meshech and Abednego in the fiery Furnace Daniel in the Lions Den Paul and his fellow prisoner in the Stocks when as their stripes were sore And as the same Apostle in Rom. 8. latter end though under tribulations distresses persecutions famine nakednesse perill sword and killings all the day long yet under all these more then Conquerours through the love of God So that it appeares clearly a Saints glory is in God because when hee enjoyes God in his love he is more then a Conquerour over all afflictions more because God is his glory and that glory is greater then all the trouble of the World It must needs be great and communicable glory that can keep the head above water and the soul from being overwhelmed by that sea of afflictions which is before expressed And thus we see God is fulnesse of glory for all his people and I am confident the experiences of Gods people in these dayes can produce a numberlesse number of testimonies to this truth I shall adde no more but leave the Reader to reade the makings forth of the glory of God upon his own soule the sum of all is this that in the Lord is all glory therefore he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. But if any shall say I am not edified by this generall theame of glory in God for his people to glory in shew me the particulars of this glory in which the people of God may and doe singly glory in God To this I answer I will tell you what God hath shewed mee but it is only himselfe that can shew it you by his Spirit for his glory is too great to be beheld in any light but his owne and to such as God gives the light of his Spirit it will appeare in these particulars following wherein Saints may and doe in all their glory glory singly in the Lord. The first particular is this The originall full and eternall love of God to all his Elect in Christ A soul that glories in God upon this consideration may glory singly in God and will tell you God is the original of love for God is love he is Alpha Omega the beginning and the end Nay his love is as himselfe from all eternity without beginning and without end this soul wil tel you Gods love is full for the fulnesse of all that is lovely proceeds from it he is the first of love for he is the first in love he loved us first and his originall love is the womb of our love we love him because he loved us first It is this originall love of God which conceived and brought forth heires of love Christ the eldest Brother is the gift of this love and this originall love is so full that it makes every childe a joynt heire with Christ and this love so eternall that the inheritance is as eternall as God himselfe for God in the fulnesse of his love is his Childrens eternall inheritance this soule will tell you all I have and am to all eterninity which hath life and glory in it is the effects and workings of this original ful and eternal love of God the state of Innocency the restoration and redemption of grace the beauty of the first Adam before his fall and the perfection of the second Adam all but that proceeds of this originall love of God Ephes 2.4 5. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even
when we were dead in sinnes hath quickened us together with Christ Marke it it is love in God which is the originall of life in Saints it must needs be full love that should give life to soules dead in sinnes and it must be eternall love because it gives eternall life for it quickens soules together with Christ to live because he lives John 14.19 Now sayes this soule I thus glory singly in Christ which you cannot in any thing besides That holy and divine love is originally in God love in all the dimentions of it is lovely and ful of glory how ful of glory must it then needs be In the original of it which is God The Ocean Sea is the glory of all waters so is love in God the original glory of all love Now says the soul give mee leave to glory in my God as the God of love who is the eternal fountaine of love to whom I never went to in Christ but I found love and this I finde love in God is that which assures mee and carries me to him and truly ever since I have knowne him in Christ I have found him a God of love and his bosome of love a place of rest it is ful love I never wanted any thing when I lay downe to rest in it it is unchangeable love at no time a bed of thornes This love of God is so ful of glory in the enjoyment of it that it is the glory of all I doe enjoy it is Gods love in every mercy that makes it a mercy where Gods love is not the glory is departed from that thing Love in God is love in the original of it and there is heights depths breadths and lengths of love such heights as none can out-reach none can love more then God for he is the original of love or is originally love in him are breadths of love enough for all soules to spread themselves on to satisfaction and yet breadths of love to spare yea in him are depths of love as deepe as eternity Original love no soule can fathom its bottome or beginning it is such a deepe so firmly fixed it cannot be shaken to all eternity This love of God is not only the rivers of the waters of life but also such a deepe as can never be drawn dry I and it is lengths of love too love without end he cals it lengths because he cannot tel how long it exceeds both measure and expression this is all the account can be given of the length of it it is Gods love and God is love so that what God is that is this love now he that can measure God may measure love this is love singly in God so in God as in none besides God the fruits and effects of this love wil appear in the next particular but as love is originally fully and eternally in God so is God the only subject of his peoples glory wherefore he that glories of love let him glory in the Lord. The next particular is this The freenesse of Gods grace That grace is free none wil appeare so ignorant as to deny for the nature of the thing confirms it it could nor be grace were it not free but if that should not be understood yet the fruits and workings of Gods grace wil demonstrate it to be free-grace in al the operations of it from first to last And first Let us looke into predestinating and choosing grace Eph. 1.4 5. According as he hath chosen us in him in Christ before the foundation of the world having predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his will Marke how free-grace runnes through and gathers up this whole worke predestinated and chosen the very termes speaks freenesse but sayes the Text this is in Christ and this makes it still free-grace for Christ is wholly without our reach in our selves but that which puts all out of doubt is this the Text speaks plainly this worke is according to the good pleasure of his will God doth all in and by the freenesse of his owne grace nothing to move him but his owne bowels It is the Apostles argument upon this very question Rom. 9.18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy and whom he will he hardneth That is as I understand the scope of the holy Ghost in this place God chooseth whom he pleaseth in his free-grace to make them vessels of mercy in union with Christ and the others hee chooseth to leave in the first Adam dead in sinnes and trespasses If you aske me the reason of this I will answer you with the Apostles argument in vers 21. Hath not the Potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessell to honour and another to dishonour That I mention it for is to prove the freenesse of Gods choosing and electing grace and to that end it is a very ful Scripture for if you observe one clause in it it makes God to be as free in the vessels of honour as in the vessels of dishonour that is the same lump it is out of one and the same lump of clay that God doth both Now it must needes be free-grace that makes vessels of mercy to be filled with the riches of his glory out of the same lump that others remaine vessels of dishonor Thus Gods grace is free in choosing his owne vessels whom hee will fill with the fulnesse of his grace and glory to all eternity Secondly The grace of God is free in the calling of his chosen vessels out of themselves into himself Whom he predestinates before all time he cals in the fulnesse of his owne time and both in his free-grace Ephes 2.5 is a full proofe of this Even when wee were dead in sinnes hath quickened us together with Christ by grace yee are saved It is this free-grace of God that runs through the whole matter of salvation observe but the time of calling and it will appeare to be free-grace in God that cals even when dead in sinnes What could here move God but his owne free-grace the soule is dead there is no beauty in a dead soule to allure a living God nay dead in sinnes can this move a holy God to call such a soule to lye downe in his bosome No that which moves God is in himselfe the freenesse of his owne grace and the fulnesse of his owne bowels of love God can worke from himselfe to man though there be nothing in man to invite but to distast God and this is the glory of his free grace he cals a Moses out of Pharoah's Court a Saul out of the Sect of the Pharisees even when his heart was posting with his commission to persecute the Saints and by this call doth not only change his name from Saul to Paul but his spirit from a persecuter to a Preacher of Christ crucified What doth this prove but that God is free in his
not made with hands but eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 This wil be lasting glory when as the longest day the worldlings glory lives is but till the earthly tabernacles bee dissolved their joy and glory amounts to no more then the crackling of thornes under a pot it is certainly perishing because it is not God himselfe It were well if Saints did not suck in too much of this perishing glory But there is another glory which Saints too often sit down in and too much make their boasts of which is short of the true subject of glory even GOD himselfe And that is Circumcision and Uncircumcision Paul Apollo and Cephas externals formes outsides somethings in the way of God when they should only glory in the end God himselfe a soule that truly lives in God submits to all the will of God and walkes in all the wayes of God revealed to it by the Spirit but lookes upon them all as below his rest Hee can fixe and glory in none but God himselfe it pleaseth God through meane things to make known himselfe to his people and to have communion with his people in but hee contrives and makes up the salvation the life rest and glory of his people in his owne eternal love and free-grace and would not have his people lye downe in the streames but passe through them into the Ocean of his owne bosome of love and free-grace it wil be a smal advantage when Christ comes to make up his jewels for any soule to say I was of this Church or of that known by this name or the other Circumcised or not circumcised availes not at that day Christ lookes for the new creature his owne image the worke of the eternal love and free grace of God in every soule The glory of that day will be God is mine and I am his His free-grace is my salvation and my salvation is the worke and fruits of his owne eternal love and free-grace Therefore sayes the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Let no man glory in man for all things are Gods whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are Gods and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods Glory not in man nor any thing comes by man all these are yours in that great gift the Lord Jesus Christ glory in him then you have a right subject for your glory namely God Paul and Apollo is yours to use but not to glory in Christ and God in Christ is the only centre for a Saint to rest and glory in Oh then away with any lower glory then the Lord himselfe hee is a never failing glory at his right hand are glories for evermore In the 21. of Revel 23. The glory of God is the light of the new Jerusalem and the Lamb is the light thereof It is only God in Christ that is the glory of heavenly soules therefore let such soules glory in nothing else It is very unbecoming the heires of Canaan to take up their glory in the Wildernesse provision much lesse to hunger after the Onyons of Aegypt It is not huskes with Swine but bread in our Fathers house that is our portion as children then surely our glory should be in God and in Christ the bread of life all lower glories are the sin and shame of Saints and when Gods people doe take up lower glories it pleaseth the Lord in much mercy to take away those dung glories that his people may be ashamed to glory in any thing but himselfe who is the everlasting God in as much as the riches of the eternal love and free-grace of God hath made himselfe the inheritance of his people and their glory It is not presumption but true interest and duty for every Saint in point of glory to overlooke al of this side God himselfe and not to rest but in the eternal original love and free-grace of God I shall conclude with this cordial truth to all the people of God Your real and proper glory can never be taken from you because 't is God himselfe the World may hate and persecute Saints because of this but they shall never be able to strippe us of our glory it may be they thinke to doe it when they shal scatter Churches and Saints from one another but this is their darkenesse they know not Saints proper glory God himselfe is their glory he is the glory of all Church-fellowship and communion with Saints Worldlings are mistaken if thy thinke to put out this glory though God doth many times make use of meanâ—s in which hee makes knowne himselfe yet hee is not bound up to meanes If the men of the World could so scatter Saints as they should never see the faces one of another more yet by this they cannot hinder them from seeing the face of God in Christ and this is Saints glory It is an unexpressable glory that our glory is in God and that God himselfe is his peoples glory though the malice of men seems to be boundlesse yet certainly their power is bounded they are in fetters and chaines before they come to their owne home though they may perfectly envy yet they cannot in the least disappoint or destroy Saints in their glory God can in a moment unpower and destroy them but they can never un-God him they cannot diminish his original eternal love and free-grace and rich mercy they cannot make him unjust or unfaithful nay they shal feele that he is both They cannot strip God of his holinesse righteousnesse purity power perfection infinitenesse and eternity therefore they cannot strippe Saints of their glory because God in all this and all he is is his peoples glory Saints have this glory above a dying World therefore above the reach of dying men Oh then Saints rejoyce in the Lord alwayes glory in God who is fulnesse of glory let the World see we have meate to eate which they know not of and a God to glory in which they can never hinder us of Let them see that wee are already risen with Christ into his glory and do know that if these earthly Tabernacles were dissolved nothing could hinder us of the ful enjoyment of our God in glory who is our God and our glory so that the Spirit of God hath imprinted in our hearts and lives this precious exhortation He that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord. CHAP. XIIII Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory in it 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. verses 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sin is the Law 57. But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ THE subject-matter of this whole Chapter is Death and the Resurrection from the Dead The generall scope of these three verses is Death and that under a two-fold consideration Death in its strength with its
sting and Death under victory bereaved of its sting Death is a generall subject it concernes all flesh for it reacheth puts a period to all flesh truly as this other Scriptures holds it forth it is a very weighty subject and is worthy of the most serious meditations and considerations of all dying flesh that is in this life but clay wals and prisons to immortal soules such fraile buildings Death shal certainely cracke and leave in the grave til they be crumbled to dust from whence they were taken but the weight of Death lies not barely in this as it puts a period to the being and breathing of all flesh but in the sting of death which is sin and the strength of sin which is the law and under these considerations the Apostle takes it in this Scripture and in vers 55. puts a holy triumphing question O Death where is thy sting Not that hee was ignorant what was the sting of Death for in the very next verse he tels us what is the sting of Death and the strength of that sting but hee puts the question to let Death know that in the free-grace of God through Jesus Christ he had victory over him As if he had said Death I know that sinne is thy sting and the law is the strength of sinne but this I know in the Spirit of God that Christ hath born my sins fulfilled the law and satisfied divine justice for my soule so that now Death thou hast no sting in thee for me Christ in taking sin from me hath taken thy sting from thee so that now Thanks be to God which giveth me victory through my Lord Jesus Christ I can with glory put this question to thee O Death where is thy sting Death shal certainly sit in the bosome looke in the face and close the eyes of all flesh but whether in this presence Death appeares a friend or an enemie whether with or without his sting this is the great maine thing to be enquired after to be resolved in this the soule must look up to Christ behold Death first in him To be more distinct upon this weighty subject take some particular heads and observations from the words First That union with Christ gives Death to sinne gives satisfaction to the law and victory over Death The Apostle doth acknowledge that sin is the sting of Death and that the law is the strength of sin but notwithstanding hee blesseth God for victory over Death through our Lord Jesus Christ so as that which giveth victory over Death must be the death of sin and the satisfaction of the law and that is saith the Text our Lord Jesus Christ union with propriety and interest in Christ Christ by dying for his elect body did not only save them from their sinnes in being made sinne for them 2 Cor. 5. last and redeemed them from the curse of the law being made a curse for them Gal. 3.13 But did thereby give us victory over Death Christ by taking away sin bereaves Death of his sting by which Christ conquers Death for all that have union with him and interest in him so that through Christ that loved us wee are conquerours over Death Death where it hath no sting can have no victory but the death of sinne is victory over Death Christ he overcomes sinne and Death by dying he dyes for his people and his conquest over Death was for them for whom he dyed so that a believing soule looking upon Death through Christ doth triumph as the Apostle here O death where is thy sting And doth with Christ reigne over Death as an enemie destroyed and put under his feete vers 25 26. The believing soule in its union with Christ is above Death as Christ is above it not but that the bodies of Saints shall for a time sleepe in the grave but Death being without its sting is in that but a servant to put Gods children to bed for a time till corruption shall have put on incorruption and mortality hath put on immortality and then shall be brought to passe the saying that is written Death is swallowed up in victory The 2d. Observation is this That such as dye not in union with Christ they dye under the sting and victory of Death Death is as I may say death only in the sting when the sting appeares in Death then and then only hath death a grim countenance it is sinne that puts the terrour into Death but when the sting of sinne was taken away the Apostle could glory in and over Death but to Christ lesse soules Death comes in its full power It is appointed for all men once to dye and after death to come to judgement Now to a Christ-lesse soule death and sin appeares together and the sting of Death which is sin will goe along with the soule to judgement this makes death to be dreadfull to such poore soules and here Death is not a servant to lay the body to sleepe but a Jayler to bring soule and body in sinne before the just and righteous Judge to a soule out of Christ it is death to thinke of appearing before a righteous and holy God but when Death comes and the soule must certainly appeare before this tribunall this is death indeed a thousand deaths in one to such a soule it is death to live because the sentence will be goe you cursed this shall be your curse you shall live for ever out of the presence and glorious enjoyment of the everliving holy glorious God the sting of death is sinne Where death and sinne meets in one soul there death stings to death and then it is truly death because it hath its sting and there sinne hath its strength the law of God to accuse and the curse of that law to condemne to all eternity thus is Death in strength to Christ-lesse soules soules not in union with Christ I intend not in this meditation to take in all the parts of this subject for then I should be very large Nor shall I in this place take into consideration how Christ hath delivered his people from sinne and the curse of the law though both are proper to this Scripture because I have done it in some other parts of this booke I shall take that for granted and confine my meditations to that which I judge to be chiefe upon the Apostles spirit in this Scripture which is namely this The glory and excellency of Saints as we may glory in and triumph over Death through our Lord Jesus Christ First a Saint through Christ may glory over death in the very nature of it Death here is no death the sting being taken away it hath as it were lost its nature it is changed it is not what it was at first it is the nature of Death to devoure and destroy that appeares by the sting which is sin but through Christ Death is bereaved of this power having lost its sting in stead of a destroyer
it becomes a servant not only to God but to Saints also Death is through Christ a servant to all Saints to waite on them till they have finished their worke on Earth in the will of God and then layes them to rest in the dust It waits till all the worke be done and then doth its worke in the appointment of God resting the weary body from its labours cracking the clay walls that the thirsting soule may meete its Beloved in perfection of glory so meet as never to part more but to be for ever with the Lord to behold the love of God in glory and be for ever swallowed up in the glory of that love Death which in it selfe is grim and frightfull is through Christ to a Saint welcome and pleasing because it comes without a sting and hath no other businesse but to serve Gods end in freeing both soule and body sets the foule free from the body of death and the body from a weary and toilesome life Death is but a sleep in which the body lyes till at the glorious appearance of Christ it riseth incorruptible the nature of death is through Christ but to be our Fathers messenger to bring us home that we may see his reconciled face in glory and enjoy the mansions prepared for us that wee may tast the love of his heart know him in himselfe reape the full harvest of all our hopes possessing glory above the life of faith our feasting in heaven will be fruitions not a crown of glory in promise only but in possession the joyes the hopes the desires of a gracious soule in all his life is by death brought in at once the joy of this soule is that the day drawes nigh in which the body shall be dissolved and it shall be with Christ It hopes to meete its beloved in perfect glory and never part more it desires to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and in all this death is through Christ a servant to a Saints death hath all its poyson in its sting and Christ taking away the sting from death hath quite changed the nature of it Death with its sting kils where it conquers but Death without its sting only changes the body of Saints from wormes to cold clay So Job hee waited all the dayes of his appointed time till his change came by death Saints change their place but not their company whereas before they lived in God now they live with God Saints on earth have communion with God and Christ in the Spirit and Saints in heaven have the same company but in greater glory Death changes our place of communion but not those wee have communion with Saints on Earth live upon love tokens from God and Christ sent to them by the Spirit but in Heaven upon the originall and fulnesse of all that love here by the Spirit we read the love and kindnesse of God and Christ in a Covenant of free-grace and many gracious promises but in heaven we taste of love in the fountaine in the very bosome of God and Christ to all eternity here wee glory that glory waits for us in heaven there our glory is to be swallowed up into glory and to be made glorious in the fulnesse of that glory In this Saints glory over the nature of death it doth not kill them but change them from a cloudy to a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as for the bodies of Saints it may be said of them as Christ did of the Rulers daughter shee is not dead but sleepeth Death changes them in this their sleep is something longer then at other times yet they are not dead but sleepe for Christ is the life of Saints And because Christ lives they live also John 14.19 Their clay is colder in this sleepe then in others and by degrees crumbles into dust here is a change indeed and it is no more for this corruptible must put on incorruptible and this mortality must put on immortality and then it will fully appeare that death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 53 54. The nature of Death is changed by Christs taking the sting away from being the King of terrours it becomes the messenger of glad tidings Death is now so free from terrours that it brings tidings of the greatest joy to Saints it tels the Spouse of Christ she shall goe and be for ever in her beloveds armes Your wildernesse days are accomplished in which you went many times to the Watchmen to enquire for your Beloved and you found them in the darke as well as your selfe but now you shall finde your Beloved and be filled with his love and live in the light of the Lord for ever Death tels the children of God hee is come to fetch them home to their Fathers house yea to their Fathers Kingdome in which they shall all reign with him They shall be as children under-age no longer they shall now possesse the mansions prepared from eternity to eternity not only have all teares wiped from their eyes but to live for ever in the beholding and enjoying perfection of glory Death brings glad tidings both to body and soule it tels the body head you shall ake no more stomacke you shall be sicke no more heart you shall tremble and be affraid no more flesh you shall bleed and smart no more I am come to put an end to all these feares and troubles God will looke you up in the cabinet of the earth that you may there sleep in peace till Christ raise you incorruptible and carry you into glory And to the soule sayes Death you shall have no more time for sinne and vanity perfect holinesse to eternity shall now swallow you up I come only to put an end to sinning dayes you shall now groane under sinne no more that body which held you and was subject to temptations shall now goe to sleepe in the dust till the tempter be chained up in eternall darkenesse in stead of mourning under sin you shall now for ever glory over sin your feares shall end so shall your faith for in stead of the evidence of things not seene you shall both see enjoy the heighths breadths depths and lengths of the love grace kindnesse faithfulnesse and glory of that God you have believed in Feare not me sayes Death I come from your Father so as you mâ—y be sure I have no commission to hurt you Christ your beloved Huâ—band Brother Head and Redeemer tooke care that I should not be able to hurt you for he tooke my sting from me before I should come unto you I am come without a sting to tell you God and Christ loves you but that is not all my errand they love you so well that they can suffer you no longer to be out of the full enjoyment of their love and I am sent to cracke the clay walls which is your prison that you may flye home and be at rest there your rest
God which to a spirituall eye carry their owne beauty but you will finde them without art not adorned with humane learning and so without beautie to a fleshly eye I know you will wonder what I meane to appeare in Print especially in these times when plaine truths from the most of men will finde nothing else but plaine scorne most men having sight but on one side and their stomacks so full of crudities that they cannot beare but vomit up with scorne in the face of him that brings them even saving truths besides you will thinke I cannot bee ignorant but to know that my name will prejudice these truths unto many that live by fancie more then Faith such as will cavill with all truth that comes by a hand they like not and have little other groūds for the truth they take up but that they come by such hands that they at present fancie I confesse I cannot make my selfe so ignorant as not to understand these things nor is it my designe by appearing in Print to make my felfe publike for I expect by it to be the derision of most men nor doe I Print because I thinke the Presse wants worke for I am throughly convinced that much evill hath over spread this Land by those many unsauory Pamphlets and those rending dividing principles which have this way been spread abroad by which the members of Christ have beene scandalized rent and divided and have almost made themselves a pray to the Wilde Boares and the subtle Foxes which have no higher ends but to destroy the tender Vines The reasons why I chuse to render my selfe to the Worlds scorne in this matter and manner are these First In satisfying my conscience in obedience to God in some Scripeures set upon my spirit by himselfe I trust when as my flesh and spirit did contend about this matter And the first is this Freely yee have received freely give Though this was spoken first to the Apostles yet I thinke it doth not exclude any but include every Saint and Disciple of Christ to be free in the giving forth of their knowledge experience and injoyment of God in Christ by his spirit to the World And this is my case What I give I have freely received from the Lord in secret when no eye but his did see me I doe acknowledge it is the free grace of God that makes knowne any title of truth to me and if my heart deceive me not it is the manifesting of his free grace that is my designe in giving forth freely as I receive I shall I trust with much more ease beare the reproaches of the World then I could a concealement of the love of God in Christ In another Scripture I finde that light is not to be put under a bushell but to be held forth that according to its nature it may lighten others and because what Saints have they have received and every talent is to bee improved to the Masters use and the standing rule to Gods people that all things be done to edification and that most which may edifie most therefore in obedience to these Scriptures God hath moulded me into his will and I doe freely cast my selfe upon his love and power to beare up my spirit to carry me through good and evill reports and I hope shall ever esteeme of the Worlds scornes as not worthy of thoughts in that day when God shall manifest his will and worke to me A second reason why I thus appeare is That I might be a Christian Servant to fellow Saints God is as free in giving as he is in saving he gives what hee pleaseth how he pleaseth when he pleaseth and by whom hee pleaseth this I have in some measure experimented of God and thinke it my duty to be a servant to God and to fellow Saints to bring unto them what I have received from him When Saints reveale their knowledge and experience of God they doe thereby confirme strengthen and build up one another in their most holy Faith I know no higher worke that Saints on earth have then this and were it more in practice I doe verily beleeve that the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse would be more transparent but in stead of serving one another this way in the spirit of God we are devouring and destroying one another by an evill spirit of lying and slaundering fomenting unchristian and needlesse jealousies one of another this is either in the beginning or the end of most mens discourses of their printings and it hath beene where I am sure it ought not to be in mens Preachings these tares which the evill man hath sowne amongst the good seed have exceedingly scandalized the Gospell of Christ with the professours thereof and if God delight in this generation hee will exceedingly humile us under this very thing in stead of crucifying Christ in one another Saints should be servants to carry Christ to each other I meane their light in Christ and their experiences of the love faithfulnesse and holinesse of God this would increase love to God and his people in stead of devouring beget imbracings into the bosome and armes of love and faithfulnesse not to bely and scandalize but to honour and vindicate every childe of God A third reason that moves in me is this To stir up those many thousands which this Land affords that are abundantly more able to take up this necessary worke Truly it is sad to see how frothy and light things doe take up the spirits of able and godly men when as this onely thing necessary is as it were quite forgotten not onely dead but buried out of sight I doe beleeve these last seven yeares have brought forth as little of this fruit as any seven yeares before in which men did complaine they durst not send truths abroad least so doing should confine them to prisons had the seven yeares liberty the Presse hath had beene improved in this through the blessing of God it might have left such monuments of God in the World as after ages might have blessed him for I doe beleeve Satan hath hindred much of this worke from appearing by the scandall and reproach of the World which is usually cast upon it truly I found it a very hard thing to get over but when God gave me to understand that The good and comfort of one soule was of greater weight then the reproach of all the World I was immediatly carryed above that temptation and I here mention it to stirre up others to the same worke for doubtlesse God hath many thousand poore Saints in this Kingdome which will gladly gather up those pearles of Divine truths which the Swine of the World trample under their feet if but one soule blesse God in truth for the revealing of these truths though many thousand prophane ones should scorne me to my face yet I shall not lose my end nor repent for my reproaches if God be honoured by them My last
the man that is not discerned or not esteemed nay very naturall relations upon this account come to be forgotten O the hideous effects of these fleshly wayes which destroyes all that is good of outward and inward man O that the streames of our contentions might be turned and our strivings to exceed may bee built upon a better foundation then a bare form of godlinesse even upon the power of godlinesse let us strive to exceed in holinesse and humility who shall be most like to our head and be made most conformable to the death of Christ A fine piece of Nature may talke up much of Christ and contend much for Gospel-formes but it is onely the workings of the Spirit by which a soul doth live up much of Christ Circumcision or uncircumcision it avails nothing but the new creature and it is spirituall worship that God requires John 4.24 John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth And in Rom. Rom. 8.14 8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sonnes of God This Spirit discovers the mind of God to his people in every form he would have them to receive but it also carries the soule through and above every forme to live upon God himselfe Gal. 5.22 23. and in the power of godlinesse Gal. 5.22.23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnes faith meeknes temperance and so forth And in the 25 verse If you live in the Spirit also walk in the Spirit It is not a bare talking either of Form or Spirit but a living up to God in the Spirit the fruits of which is love and so forth ambition to exceed in these fruits of the Spirit is that which God will own and crown it is safe and sweete diving into these deepes these be heights and breadths and depths and lengths indeed but God is to be found in them all so that there is no feare of miscarying but empty formes without God become our ruine I may truly say with the Prophet that we give our money for that which is not bread when we spend the zeale of our spirits in contending for formes of godlinesse I shall ever account best of that which leaves most of God and least of selfe behinde it And truly my experience tels me that when my thoughts and affections have travelled most through this pleasant path of God in the Spirit and the power of godlinesse this hath been the effect of it God hath in a good measure dispossessed the old man in me and giuen possession to the new man the Lord Jesus Now this experience begets this advice that our hearts and affections should be more pitched upon the power of godlinesse and doubtlesse wee shall finde that power in it as to engage our affections one to another by which the world will know us to be Christs Disciples And lastly this may comfort us when we consider those that hate us purely for godlinesse-sake looke upon them under this consideration they are not Christs Disciples nor can they in such a worke be owned or helped by him They may boast of their horse-men and Chariots but all their strength is weakenesse for they engage without God nay they engage against God and that makes them lighter then vanity and Saints in their sufferings are followers of Christ and contend in his might God is his peoples strength and their portion for ever Let us love our brethren then and not feare our enemies Love to God and Saints and suffering for the spirituality and the power of godlinesse are two undeniable witnesses that we are Disciples and followers of Christ CHAP. II. What Christ hath born for Saints they shall never bear themselves Gal. 3.10 11 12 13 28 29. For as many as are of the workes of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to doe them But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith And the law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And if yee be Christs then are ye Abrahams seede and heirs according to promise THe generall scope of the Apostle in these verses The scope I humbly conceive to be this namely to empty the creature of all hopes or possibility ever to attain a happy and blessed condition in it selfe out of Christ in which worke he strips the soule of all externall priviledges and dutieâ— in point of Justification and then makes Jesus Christ to be all in all to every redeemed soule The former part of this tenth verse is a positive conclusion that whoever is under the workes of the law for life is also under the curse of the law for death that is he which chooseth to be approved and justified in the fight of God from the workes of his owne hands and heart The sense must also be condemned before God in the failings and imperfections of those workes The latter part of this verse is a full proofe to the position laid downe in the former part of it If all things in the booke of the Law be not done and fulfilled then the curse of the Law attends and seizes upon every such soule as would live by the works of the Law Deutr. 27.26 Deut. 27.26 Cursed be he that confirmes not all the words of this law to doe them That soule which would fetch life from the workes of the law must performe all or hee loseth all hee hath done and his eternall soule with his dying duties The observations which I have received from hence is this That God hath not made a separation of the workes of the law from the curse of the law Observ 1 to that soule which would live by them And if God hath not man cannot this is that state of bondage spoken of in Gal. Gal. 4.9.23.30 31. 4.9.23.30 31. Those are children of the free woman whom Christ hath made free If the Sonne have made you free you are free indeed And those are children of the bond-woman that are obliged to any thing that is holy in their owne strength without Christ There is no soul free from these bonds but those which are bound up in the armes and cords of Christs love and this is the redemption which Christ made of his elect body when hee was in the flesh made under the law to redeeme them that were under the law to the adoption of Sonnes Gal. 4.4 5. Christ
answer to those Jewes which thought themselves not to be under bondage because they were Abrahams seede in the flesh our Saviour tels them this externall interest did not make them free-men For sayes hee notwithstanding this you are under sinne Vers 34. Who ever commits sinne is the servant of sinne and your fleshly interest in Abraham doth not acquit you from the bonds and servitude of sinne but if the Sonne have made you free then are you free indeed As if Christ had said Abraham could not beare your sins and the wrath of God due to them for you and therefore you are in bondage still but what the Son bears he makes them perfectly free from for whom he beares it Christ came to save those that were lost And he tels us when he gave up the ghost upon the Crosse that the worke was finished And in John 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth Joh. 17.4 I have finished the worke thou gavest mee to doe Christ tels his Father that he had lost no glory in sending him upon the worke of Redemption for says he I have finished that worke thou gavest me to doe which was to worke out a perfect Redemption for his people Isa 61.1 To give liberty to the captive and to open the prison doores Isa 61.1 If this bee a truth as doubtlesse it is that what-ever Christ hath borne for a believer that a believer is fully redeemed from then it will be worthy a Saints best serious consideration in searching the Scriptures and in the Spirit giving eare to heare and heart to consider what they say Christ hath borne for us First I finde by that 2 Cor. 5.21 that Christ hath born sinne for us For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him The text speaks in the abstract He was made sinne for us There cannot be a fuller expression there is the act God making Christ to be sinne for us or taking all sinne off from us and laying it upon him as was typified under the law in the Scape-goate which went into the Land of Forgetfulnesse Now the issue and effect of this act followeth in the Text That we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him This expression is as full as the former the holy Ghost expresseth the sinner for whom Christ was made sinne to be as fully acquitted from sinne as Christ is made sinne Marke the words made the righteousnesse of God in him so perfectly righteous that God ownes the soule as one with himselfe righteous as being one with Christ who is the righteousnesse of God Now the soule that is thus righteous must needs be acquitted from all finne the righteousnesse of God and the condemnation for sinne is as light and darknesse which cannot be together in one soule If Christ once come into a soule and tels that soul by his Spirit that he hath borne all its sins and so makes the soule to believe in the free grace of God and to rest upon Christ as his righteousnesse that soule is as fully in the fight of God acquitted from sin as Christ was by God made sinne for it This soule stands before God compleate in Christ not having spot nor wrinckle in it All that can be said is said in this That soule for whom Christ was made sin is thereby made the righteousnesse of God in him So that Christ having borne the sinne the soule never more beares that in his owne person before God but doth alwayes stand both before the throne of justice the throne of grace as fully cloath'd with Christ his righteousnesse as Christ upon the Crosse was with his sinne Isa 53.6 The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all Iniquity is one with sin here now then read this truth with an eye and heart of faith that what Christ hath borne for us we are fully delivered from and then will the glory of free grace be lifted up and our soules made to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory in believing Secondly Christ hath fulfilled the Law and borne the curse of it for his people Gal. 4.4 5. Christ was made under the law to redeeme his people from all that in the law which was weight and burthen from the curse of the law Gal. 3.13 From the reigning and condemning power of it he hath satisfied and keeps the law fully for us In Gal. 4.5 6. there Christ hath redeemed us to the liberty of sons the spirit of adoption reigning in our consciences and conversations above the letter of the law so that in Rom. 8.2 3 4. There the Apostle tells us That by vertue of the law of the spirit of life in his union with Christ Jesus hee had freedome from the law of sin and death That law of commandement by which sinne revived and the soule dyed he was delivered from by the spirit of life in Christ Jesus For sayes he what the law could not enable the soule to doe because of the weakenesse of the flesh that did God by sending his Sonne in the flesh and for sinne condemned sinne in the flesh that is condemned our sinnes and satisfied his law and justice for them all in the death of Christ So that now the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled by Christ for us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit The law was fulfilled and had its accomplishment in Christ that is the law in the letter and the soule now through union with Christ is taken up to live in the law of the spirit of life that is the spirit of God lives in the soule and is a law and a life to it not only teaching but leading the soule into all truth it is the law of the spirit and so the law of life it is the law of love and so the law of life Nay it is God himselfe displaying his love and reigning by his Spirit in the souls and consciences of his people and so it is the law of the spirit of life and all this to the soules of his people in Christ Jesus Gal. 5.18 But if yee be led by the Spirit yee are not under the law A soul which lives not and acts not upon Christ in the Spirit so farre as as he doth not he is under the law of sinne and death in all hee doth but it is a certaine deliverance from the law of the flesh in our conversations and the law of the letter in our consciences is to be ledde by the spirit of Christ and to walke in that spirit Ephes 5.8 9. For yee were sometimes darknesse Ephes 5.8 9. but now are yee light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruits of the Spirit is in all goodnesse c. They were never without the letter yet sometimes darke saith the Text but the light of the Lord in which the redeemed of Christ should walke
for us who hath dyed that we might live and whose love is so great that hee cannot live in heaven without us Father I will that those which thou hast given me be with me where I am saith Christ in Iohn 17. If we thus looke on Christ and value him whence is it that we so easily grieve him Ingenuous nature teaches this to be tender of offending them we value and put a price upon their love Doth not grace exceede nature in this Surely it doth Oh then let our lives speak our loves to Christ and our value of him this is the language of the Spouse I charge you O yee daughters of Jerusalem that yee stirre not up nor awake my love till he please Cant. 2.7 Love and value of Christ wrought this frame of spirit in the Spouse she was tender of the pleasure of Christ and improves all her interest among the daughters that Christ might rest his pleasure Is not the Spouse here a type of a godly soule that hath interest in Christ If so then sure her spirit should be ours if we value Christ it will make us tender that he rest his pleasure it is but equall Christ should have rest in us for hee hath travailed for us and trod the wine-presse of his Fathers fury alone Now tell mee Saints doe you thinke Christ can rest and take pleasure in our bosomes when they are so full of worldly love and carnall aimes and ends with pursuites answerable doe we esteeme of Christ when we make him such a bed to lye in can we say we love and value him when we entertaine those in our hearts with him that crucified him namely our lusts Is this entertainment and company for the Prince of glory Oh if wee prize and value Christ that will be only deare to us which is deare to him his rest and his pleasure will be our rest and our joy and what ever wounds Christ will wound us That soule which sees its interest in Christ and values that beholds Christ upon the crosse wounded and bleeding for his sinnes and is so affected with that kindnesse of Christ that when ever hee sees Christ bleed afresh with any fins committed by him the soule is as it were in Christs roome hee is then crucified not to satisfie for his sin for that he sees is fully done by Christ for him and could never have been done but by Christ but the reflection of love and the value of Christ wounds this soule cleane through Christ sayes such a soule travelled as low as Hell to redeeme me for there I was by nature The first Adam left me there and the second Adam only plucked me out and in this travell he sweate drops of water and blood hee tore his way through his owne bowels to redeeme my soule he puts his owne robe of righteousnesse on me and never leaves this pursu it of love till he bring mee into his Fathers and his owne glory and I can never sin against lesse love then this Oh this value of Christ it makes a gracious soule exceeding tender of any thing that may displease Christ whom his soule loveth An experienced soule in the wayes of Christ will tell you it is the hardest travel that ever it went to step a step in the ways of sin after it hath apprchended the love of Christ been taught by the spirit to value that love and I believe if Sathan could speak truth he would confesse it to be the hardest work he hath to draw a soule that beholds Christs love and values that love in any soule Therefore as the only remedy against sin eye Christ love value him But Saints if we thus value Christ as our life and our all whence is it that in time of distresse we seek reliefe of broken cisterns and forsake the fountain of life my meaning is this When under a weake or a wounded state by sin we flye to duties for relief and not to Christ to renew the graces of Christ in us and not to eye our interest in Christ as hee is the gift of free-grace this is an undervaluing of Christ who in Prov. 3.18 is said to be a tree of life those graces you would live on is the fruits of this tree and are only fruits of life as they flow from interest communion with this tree of life doe but consider the folly of our spirits when wee flie from Christ to duties and to the stirring up of gifts and graces in us for our reliefe in such a state for fallen man is a creature that can act no grace in himselfe and grace without the breathings of Christ is as dead as man no grace can act it selfe Take our Saviours testimony to this truth in John 15.4 5. Abide in me and I in you as the branches cannot be are fruit of it selfe except it abide in the Vine no more can yee except you abide in me I am the Vine yee are the branches hee that abides in me and I in him the same brings forth much fruit for without me you can doe nothing Our Saviour in this maine point thinkes it not enough in the comparison he made to shew fully how that all the acts of life in us flows from himself which is our life But he concludes in these plain words without me sayes he you can doe nothing The Spouse of Christ in Cant. 4. last she honors Christ in believing this truth for she cals for the Spirit of Christ to blow upon her garden of spices that they may flow forth The spices here are the graces of a Saint and it is the breathings of Christ in the Spirit that gives them all life no grace hath life in it selfe nor can it act it selfe but Christ he is the life and the motion of every grace as hee is the soule it lives in It is a mistaking Christ and an undervaluing of him when we goe to duties that they may carry us and commend uâ— to God Christ is the only way to God and it is hee only that carries us as living soules to duties and through duties in and by his owne Spirit The Apostle knew this well enough when he made that prayer Coloss 1.11 Be yee strengthened with all might according to his glorious power In verse 10. he makes this petition That ye might walke worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitfull in every good worke and encreasing in the knowledge of God Hiâ— desire was that the Colossians should live up to Jesus Christ and walke worthy of the Lord. Walking is an act of life and this hee knew was out of themselves and not in any of their externall priviledges or advantages whatsoever therefore he seconds it with this petition That ye might be strengthned with all might according to his glorious power The Apostle here speaks his experience for in another place he doth acknowledg that he did all things through Christ that strengthned him And he prayes here
and Christ is in the Spirit now to enjoy God in his originall love with Christ in all hee is as the fruits of this love this is our life and this can only be in the Spirit Oh then it concerns us to plead our interest as children for the spirit of Adoption as it is in Rom. 8.14 15 16. It is the breathings of the Spirit which makes dead bones to live Ordinances and soules will be both dead without Christ in the Spirit it is expedient to goe sayes Christ to send the comforter and it is as needfull that he give the Spirit without it we can never have fellowship with the Father nor the Sonne in whom only our joy our life and our glory will be full In this Spirit only can wee live upon Christ as hee is the bread of life and our bread of life CHAP. VI. Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage Gal. 4.5 6. To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes And because yee are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba-Father THE Apostle Paul in almost this whole Epistle makes it his businesse and designe to discover to Saints their liberty in Christ and as it appeares by the Apostles writing to them in the foregoing chapter and in this These Saints to which he did more particularly write lay under legall principles and moved with legal spirits now for a remedy of this to them and all Saints after them in these two verses the Apostle holds forth Christ under a double capacity namely Justification and Sanctification to the Believer And in both a perfect freedome from the law so far as it is freedome to be delivered from it The first of these two verses holds out Christ justifying of his people in the redemption of his blood from what ever the law could accuse them of or charge upon them The latter verse holds forth the fruits of this redemption or indeede a part of this redemption it selfe Namely this That because we are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father Either of these two parts are worthy a Saints study and admiring for ever I shall lay the foundation of what shall follow in this Point Namely that it is part of the Redemption of the bloud of Christ to a believer that no law should command or rule in the conscience or spirit of a believer but the Law of love the spirit of Adoption is here given forth to that very end that in it the soule may keep its communion close with God and Christ and be alwayes able to cry Abba Father In the proofe of this we must consider the first and second Adam as wee were in the first Adam we lay under a law of Creation and a Covenant of workes as creatures to obey our Creator and in obeying to have life doe and live but transgresse and die In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death But in the second Adam the Lord Christ the Covenant we are under is not of workes but of grace the law is not in the letter but in the spirit not written in Tables of stone but in the hearts of his people by his Spirit as appeares clearely where the Covenant of Free-Grace is recorded as in Jer. 31.33 34. and in Heb. 8.10 In both places God doth not only covenant to be our God reconciled to us not imputing sin and iniquity to his people any more but also to put his Law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts so that this way he will teach and rule in the hearts of his people under that covenant of which Christ is the Mediator God is a Spirit and when he promiseth to write his law in our hearts wee must understand him thus the workings of his spirit in the hearts of his people Letter shall be turned into spirit Christ shall be a King as well as a Saviour and as a spirituall King so his law and his government spirituall that the Lord Christ and his Father may appeare one in this great engagement of teaching and ruling in the hearts of his people by the Spirit let us looke into Christs promise Joh. 14.15 16 17.26 Jo. 16.13 14. Here the Lord Christ promiseth to performe that Office of his intercession to God for us that he would make good his owne covenant and give his spirit to comfort lead and guâ—de the soules of his people Now the making good of Gods covenant and the efficacy of Christs intercession for this spirit to rule in the hearts of his people every soule in its owne particular can best cleare up the faithfulnesse of God and Christ But the Apostle Paul in the power of the spirit sets it out at large in Rom. 8.2 3 4 5.9 10 11.14 15.26 27. Observe the exprestious of the holy Ghost in the second verse For the law of the â—pirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 〈…〉 is mention of a double law and as distinct each from other as life and death the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death I looke on these two as that which depends on the two Covenants that of Workes and that of Grace or as it is else-where expressed the Law of the first and second husband which is the first and second Adam Now whilst the first Adam is alive in the conscience the conscience is kept under his law which is thus the law of sin and death as it makes known sin and the wages of sin which is death but sin saith the Text is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and in Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And then in Rom. 7. beginning the Apostle saith this law hath dominion over the conscience so long as the first husband lives From these places I judge I am not mistaken in the interpreting the law of sin and death but that the holy Ghost clearly meanes that law of Creation doe and live or the bare Letter of command in the conscience Only let us consider what is meant by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which I understand thus That through that union the soule of a believer hath with Christ it is made spirituall Christ in his Kingly Office in throned in the conscience and the the soule resting in the bosome of Christ as a dutifull Spouse in the bosome of her beloved husband and his law is the law of the spirit of life that law which is life it selfe and turnes letter into spirit One thing more I would explaine my self in that is how I understand the holy Ghost in this freedome that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made to a believer from the law of sin and death by the spirit of life I understand Christ
in the spirit Now the freedome the Lord Christ hath made for the soules of believers from this law of Creation under the Covenant of workes It is double Namely from the condemning power the ruling or reigning power of the law in the conscience Of the first of these there is the least scruple and not being so fully within that I desire to hold to I shall wave it and keep only to the latter Namely how Christ hath freed the. Believer in his conscience from the ruling or reigning power of the law of creation in the letter only For light in this consider the 4th verse of Rom. 8. and so forward taking in the latter part of the 3. verse it wil appeare to be the designe of God in sending Christ in the the flesh that Christ in the Spirit might rule in the soules and spirits of his people God sending his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh that the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is to walke after the rule which is not the flesh but the Spirit and so goes on to shew the difference betweenâ— flesh and spirite making it all along a part of our redemption in Christ to live in the Spirit making the Spirit our light and our life our rule and our strength In Rom. 8.14 There the Apostle speaks plainly and makes it a demonstration of our sonne ship to be ruled by the Spirit For as many as are ledde by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God Hee speakes in verse 16. following of the seale of the Spirit But here he speaks distinctly of the ruling power of the Spirit that hath power of a man to lead the man as it pleaseth and that is the terme here sonnes of God led by the Spirit of God that this Spirit is sufficient to rule the consciences of believers wee may plainly see in Rom. 6.14 Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace I know not what can be more plaine then this here is a promise sinne shall not have dominion over us And the reason given is that part of the redemption of Christ to the soule of a believer from the ruling power of the law to the ruling power of the spirit of grace Marke the inference therefore sinne shall not have dominion over you because sinne shall not find you under the ruling power of the law in your conscience which affords no stâ—ength against it but sinne shall finde you under the law of the spirit of grace which is in Christ the law of life to the soule and death to sinne therefore sinne and death shall be swallowed up of victory in you by the spirit of Christ as it was for you in the death of Christ Sinne hath its repulse in the soule from the change of the law that rules the law of sinne and death turned into the law of spirit and life I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith the Apostle I am not delivered from the dominion of sinne because I have the light of the law of creation to discover sinâ— but I am under the law of the spirit of life and grace not only to discover but to destroy sinne Sin hath not dominion because that which opposes it is Christ not I. Thus I have endeavoured to let you understand that light God hath given mse in this part of the redemption of his blood for his Sonne to deliver us from the ruling power of any law in our consciences but the law of love in the spirit of life But that I may be rightly understood I desire you to remember a clause that I laid down in the beginning where I endeavored to open these verses the clause is this That the Believer in the blood and spirit of Christ hath a perfect freedome from the law so farre as it is freedome to be delivered I laid it so downe that I might have here roome to distinguish betweene the ruling power of the law and the matter and substance of the law In the first sense the ruling power of the Law I doe really believe from what hath beene delivered already and some further reasons that I shall discover That the conscience of a believer is by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sinne and death But for the second part the matter or substance of the law which I take to be the whole revealed will of God and is in its utmost power and purity written in the heart of every believer Not only the whole revealed will of God in his word made flesh and dwelling among us but made Spirit and dwelling in us Thus to give you a little light I shall be more full in what followes give me leave to adde some further reasons to prove the former thing As first If the law in the letter be the rule in the conscience of a Believer then Moses not Christ must be the King for sayes the Text Moses was faithfull in his house as a servant but Christ as the sonne Moses may rule till Christ comes but as Christ had none to help him in the work of redemption no more will he in the work of ruling Secondly If Moses be to rule where Christ hath redeemed where is the making good of Gods Covenant to write his law in our hearts what benefit in the promise of the comforter that spirit of truth to lead into all truth Thirdly If the law rule and Moses be King the strength must be in our selves to obey for neither Moses nor the law in the letter can give any strength If either could Christ hath dyed in vaine and if strength be in our selves then Gods designe in sending Christ is lost which is to justifie his people freely by his grace so as there may be no roome for flesh to boast in not the law of works but the law of faith to be pleaded as appears in that third chapter to the Romans Lastly If the Law be to rule in the spirits of Gods people then obedience to that law must quiet satisfie the hearts of Gods people Now as the Apostle in Gal. 3.2 This only would I learne of you Received yee the Spirit by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith So say I and appeale to the consciences and experience of every Saint that tasts the joyes of life in God received it you by the the workes of the Law or in the seale and workings of the spirit of life in which you are freed from the law of sinne and death So I shall come to that second part the matter and substance of the law Under this comprehend the whole revealed will of God in his word but to distinguish betweene that part of Gods word more distinctly known by the ten commandements from any other part of the revealed will
the law of God though with the flesh the law of sinne The Lord Christ he ruled and governed in the mind of Paul and he doth acknowledge it for he thankes God through Jesus Christ he served the law of God with his minde and so beares witnesse to this truth that where Christ commands and governes there Gods law is obeyed And the same Apostle in the next chapter Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death As if he had said I was in bondage under the law of sin in the condemning and the reigning power of it till Christ came to command in my soule by his Spirit and then I found deliverance so that now I can say It is not I but Christ that lives in mee The olde man the law of sinne was in command till Christ came but now we that were sometimes darkenesse are made light in the Lord and that light is the light of life and the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts is both roote strength to a new life So the same Apostle I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Though the new creature be a worke too hard for my flesh yet it is not too hard for Christ in the Spirit Nay it is the certaine and the constant worke of the Lord Jesus to make the new creature Hee is made to us of God Sanctification as truly as Redemption so this is an undeniable truth That if any man be in Christ he is a new creature In this meditation there is much to informe us exceeding usefull for a christians knowledge As first it informes all of the holinesse and purity of God that though his grace call pitty and pardon the worst of sinners yet his purity will imbosome no soule but in Christ and in Christ he makes them new creatures The Lord Christ himselfe tels us in one Text That no man commeth to the Father but by him And this Text tels us That if any man be in Christ he is a new creature So that such souls as come and lye downe in the bosome of God come through Christ in whom they are made new creatures as God in himselfe is that perfection to whom there can be no addition so he is that perfect purity which cannot have communion with any impure thing God is that light which discovers all darkenesse and that fire which burneth up all drosse so that if filth approach his presence his light discovers it it cannot be hid from him all thoughts and things are alwayes naked before his presence and his fire consumes it for God out of Christ is a consuming fire truly he knows not God which saith in his heart that God and Belial may live together Our God is a God of glory and the glorious God he is not a God which hath eyes and seeth not eares and heareth not hands and handleth not exclude sinne and then there is nothing he is not he is the all of all the first the fountaine and the fulnesse of all but sinne so that God is so infinitely pure that he is all but what is impure hee is pure in the fountaine and the fountaine of purity Purity flowes only from God and that only returnes to God nothing but purity can dwell in God for God is pure And if thus then secondly this informes us of the riches of Gods free-grace which hath not only given us a justifying but also a sanctifying Jesus That Christ should not only deliver his Elect from the condemning power but also from the reigning power of sin not only deliver from the justice of God in satisfying Justice for them but so carrying them in his owne righteousnesse into the bosom of God where he biddeth them all eate my beloved feed abundantly and be satisfied A Saints life is bound up in God his blessednesse is to have communion with God Now considering the purity of God and the impurity of fallen man if free-grace had not made Christ our way and our Sanctification as our Redemption we could never have been blessed in communion with God If the bosome of God be a place of rest If the love of God be the foode of eternall life If that glory at Gods right hand be more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Oh then what riches is that riches of free-grace which hath given all this freely and Jesus Christ in whom wee have these and all the fulnesse of glory not only freely but full and that to all eternity If this be the fruit of grace then surely it must be rich glorious grace the fountaine must needs be precious the streames are so full of glory If we be saved sanctified and glorified meerely by grace then it must be rich grace that gives forth so richly to all eternity Thirdly this informes us of the sad and miserable condition of prophane carnal wretches the fruit of such lives tels us plainly that Christ is none of their roote The fruits of darknesse are discovered by the light but cannot be the proceeding or issue of the light The flesh hath workes as proper to it and floweth as naturally from it as any the Spirit hath And the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. Ephes 5.8 9. Gal. 5.17 to the end doth discover both the rootes and the fruits of flesh and Spirit which are as clearely to be distinguished between as light and darknesse and is in no nearer union then the seede of the Serpent and the seede of the woman If any man be in Christ he is a new creature olde things are passed away behold all things are become new Truly this is but sad tidings for such poore soules that are yet old creatures not yet renewed in the spirit of their minds It speaks very loud and plainly to them that they are not yet united to Christ for were they in him he would soon make them new creatures The Apostle Paul in Ephes 4.17 18 19. speaking of the Gentiles Walking in the vanity of their minds having their understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance and blindnesse of their hearts who being past feeling had given themselves over unto all lasciviousnesse to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse In vers 20. But ye have not so learned Christ As if hee had said such a life as that is the proper fruit of a naturall condition a man out of Christ for Christ he teacheth no such things but on the contrary as in verse 22 23 24. of that Chapter Christ he teacheth To put off concerning the former conversation the olde man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse It is sad indeed for poor soules to gather that which sinne and Sathan is the roote and to please it selfe
with that which is sweet only to the pallat but bitter in the belly and carries a curse with it where ever it goes Now this is the sad condition of Christlesse soules such poore wretches as have given over themselves to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse these poor soules walke according to the course of the world and the power of the Prince of the Aire the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience fulfilling the lusts and the desires of the flesh Ephes 2.2 3. And if this be not a miserable condition I know not what can make up misery As it is the blessing of Heaven to live in Christ and Christ in us so it is the misery of Hell upon earth to be fulfilling lusts and the desires of the flesh in which the poore soule is ruled by the Prince of the aire led captive by Sathan at his will This is the sad condition of prophane carnall Christ-lesse soules such as are not new creatures For if any man be in Christ he is a new creature Fourthly This informes us of the desperate wickednesse and hypocrisie of those wretches which with their lips lay claime to Christ and free-grace and yet are not new creatures but make a profession of Christ to be a protection covering of the old man in them this is the growing and thriving sinne of these last and evill times which wee are fallen into If the single witnesse of the lip may be taken Christ had never more followers then in these our dayes but this is a truth so pretious and of so great a consequence that it well deserveth two witnesses I meane the life as well as the lip Our Saviour tels us at the time of his being upon earth of many belly and eye-followers that he had such as followed him for the loaves and to see the miracles that he did but for lip followers of Christ I believe our present age out-strips all that went before it and as the Lord Christ did discover the hypocrisie that was in the former so doe I verily believe he will this generall profession of him in our dayes God hath gone a great way in this worke already and I verily believe the earth-quake we are in will not cease till God have perfected this good work he hath begun men deceive themselves when they entitle their wickednesse to Christ he is too bright a glory to be vail'd over and too clear a light to be deceived by any darkenesse profession cannot dazell the eyes of perfection Christ is perfect and can discerne and discover the secret hypocrisie of the heart mans eyes may be deceived with a bare profession but when Christ is intitled to a lye as the God of truth he is engaged to discharge himselfe of those branches which are only in him by profession and so leave them to a withering state as being without the sap of life And that I think is the meaning of our Saviour in Joh. 15.2 Every branch in me meaning Christ that beareth not fruit he meaning God taketh away That is Christ hath many which profess him and bring not forth the fruit of union with him which is the new creature and them God to clear up his owne power and purity takes away as if the Lord had said the evill heart of man thinkes to hide the olde man of sinne under a profession of mee but if you looke into the fruits and lives of such men you will find them only branches in profession which in the fittest time for lifting up the power and purity of God God will take away and Christ will discharge himselfe of them The holy Ghost methinkes is very full to this purpose in 1 Cor. chap. 3. vers 11 12 13. For other foundation can no man lay then that is laid which is Christ Now if any man build on this foundation gold silver precious stone wood hay stubble Every mans workes shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans worke of what sort it is Every man would be saved and there is no foundation which is or can be laid but Christ this is a generall rule Now upon the foundation some lay gold and precious stones others lay wood hay and stubble the former have Christ in truth the latter only in profession But Christ hee deales with all alike hee is resolved to make all manifest and therefore hee brings all to the fire by which gold appeares to bee gold silver to be silver and precious stones to bee such because they abide the fire And this fire makes wood hay and stubble to appeare to be such because the fire consumeth them If wee understand here by fire the fire of affliction and persecution why under that sence the truth will stand firme for such as have not learned truths as they are in Jesus will deny truths and Jesus too if affliction come Unfound profession is soone burnt up in the fire of persecution it is too hot a fire for wood hay or stubble to contend with Wood may last longer then hay or stubble but all the time it lasts it consumes It is not like gold and silver that is refined and made more pure then it was before it came into the fire Not like that seede which had only the shallow rooting of profession that withered so soone as the scorching beames of the Sunne came upon it The Apostle had more then naked profession Rom. Chapter 8. the latter end when under this fire of persecution Killed all the day long and counted as sheepe for the slaughter Yet hee professed in all his sufferings Hee was more then a Conquerour through Christ that loved him Hee was true gold indeed that was a gaine by this fire and what ever is but bare profession will soon consume when it commeth to this fire And truly God is now shaking not only the Earth but the Heavens also not only carnall wretches but even all professors and this shaking will shake off all that are not one with Christ This shaking is that those which cannot bee shaken may appeare to remaine But I rather thinke by fire here is meant the fire of the Spirit those bright beames of the glorious presence of GOD. As if the LORD should say You wood hay and stubble that build by profession upon my Christ and deceive the World by your formes empty of the power of Godlinesse you shall know that Christ is the only and proper foundation for gold silver and precious stones to build upon And I am resolved to make a discovery of the difference betweene them and you I will powre out my Spirit and that precious fire will enflame their love and your hatred to Christ Saints and truth That light shall try and discover your darkenesse for till that light appeares your darkenesse will be taken for light but when that light doth appeare it will discover your darkenesse in hating
the light Bare formall profession is so true an enemie to nothing as to spirituall light and an empty form enraged against nothing more then the power of godlinesse and therefore God makes tryall of all professing and professors by the powrings forth of his Spirit Truly if God did not looke that such as worship him should worship him in spirit truth he might have worshippers all the world over If the spirit and power of godlinesse were not the distinguishing character between professors Christ would have all to follow him and Saints and truth none to oppose them but when the Spirit of truth gathers up Saints into truths as they are in Jesus above this or the other naked forme and into the power of godlinesse bringing forth the fruits of holinesse then not only carnall wretches but also naked formall professors rise up against them and thus by this fire of the Spirit God doth discover all professors that build upon this foundation the Lord Jesus whether they be gold silver and precious stones or whether they be wood hay or stubble by their abiding or consuming Truly formes or no formes can give no good testimony to this new creature I judge of form no form as the Apostle of circumcision and uncircumcision that they avail nothing but the new creature And I believe as the power of godlinesse shall encrease the contendings in the world about formes will decrease that I am troubled at is this when men are rigidly zealous for formes yet then negligent of the power of godlinesse in themselves and opposite to it in others especially if they differ in formes which makes it evidently to appeare that their forme is their God and they have no God but forme And on the other side it is as sad if not more sad to behold such as pretend to higher communion with God then others have which walke in the use of formes and yet in their lives as loose as vaine and as empty of God as those which have nothing but forme That I contend for is the power of godlinesse and I would all the contentions in the world were swallowed up in this namely who should live up most of Christ to exceede each other in the power of godlinesse this contention would kill none but our lusts love to Christ Saints and truths would live indeed and 't would be our life to live in this love But there is another sort of people in the world which this truth informes us of that is such as talke much of the grace of God and yet turne that grace into wantonnesse such wretches did never spiritually understand this Text That who ever is in Christ is a new creature Nor doe they consider how they engage the purity of Christ to discover their impurity The Apostle Paul in Rom. 6. makes it matter of abhorrency to continue in sinne upon this consideration because grace did abound in God and truly God doth more abhorre to own them under a notion of grace be not deceived God is not mocked he will make his word appear truth against all the wretches in the world they shall know that such as are in Christ they are new creatures I have heard it reported that there be some which deny the Scriptures That which is understood by the titles of the old and new Testament to be the word of God I can say no such thing knowingly but sure I am that many thousands which acknowledge it with their lips deny it with their lives and that in this one Text That if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature for they will lay claime to the one and deny the other talke of their interest in saving grace but deny his sanctifying grace Such wretches as these bring an evill report upon the Gospel of Christ and the Christ of the Gospel The Gospel of Christ it is glad tidings being the proclaiming of Christ crucified as the gift of free-grace for poore sinners Now when such as hate to be reformed talke of the free-grace of God they put dishonour upon it and a stumbling-blocke before weake Christians It makes them stagger at grace to see grace-lesse men professe it and grace in truth hath harder thoughts of many and is lesse esteemed of because of this false profession of grace and I feare me it makes poore legall soules to make a God of their duties when they see these vilde creatures to abuse the grace of God I know not what is more vilde then this to live in sinne under a profession of grace These are seared consciences indeed that can sinne and name it grace and then call the God of truth to witnesse to that lye nay to make God himselfe a lyar for he saith who ever is in Christ is a new creature but they say they are in Christ and yet are olde creatures God will unmaske this hypocrisie and prove himselfe the God of truth Christ hath no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse such as are in Christ their fellowship is with the Father with the Son such as have fellowship with Christ are those that live in Christ and Christ in them that live by the faith of the Sonne of God and in the spirit of the holy God so that they are changed into the image of God This is the new creature this is the gracious soule indeed such as have the power of their lives It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that knoweth my Fathers will and doth it saith Christ 'T is grace in truth and act that consists with union and communion with Christ if in Christ then a new creature and all profession of grace without the new creature will appeare our owne fancy of grace and not the grace of God in truth for that alwayes produceth the new man If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Lastly This informes Saints indeed of their duty and priviledge for truly it is both and it is this That wee live to no other end but to live up Christ who is our life and if Christ be our life then we are new creatures and the life of the new creature is to live up Christ which is its life Children of the day should walke as such in the light of the Lord in the power and might of his Spirit It is the Apostles exhortation in Gal. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walke in the Spirit As if hee had said it is not only our businesse as Saints to live in the joyes of God but also to live up the God of our joyes not only to live upon God in the Spirit but to walke with God in the Spirit that is in the fruits of the Spirit for that is the Apostles subject in the verses just before this Christ is a living Christ he appeare where ever he is The Apostle James in his 2d chap. vers 17. tels us that faith
As if the Lord Christ had said My work and will is bound up in God and it is my joy and content to be doing his worke and fulfilling his will And in the fifth of John verse 30. I seek not my own will but the will of my Father which hath sent me I pursue the businesse that I came about to perfect the will of him I came from from John 6.38 For I came downe from heaven not to doe my owne will but the will of him that sent me so that in all these Scriptures it appeares that Christ owneth nor doth no will but the will of God Now as it was the Lord Christs work to doe the wil of God in all things so is it Saints duty in conformity to Christ their Head to be willing and doing no other will but the will of God If the Lord Christ will allow in himselfe no other will but the will of God then certainly he will not doe it in his members it is both the duty and priviledge of Saints to be made conformable to Christ their Head As the branches in the vine receive that sap which cometh from the root and bringeth forth such fruit as that fap produceth so is it with Saints united to Christ they have their lise and fruit from union and he owneth them to be united to him that heare the word of God and doe it Luke 8.21 This is so cleare a truth so much of God in it that I cannot doubt but it carries its proofe and commission with it into the bosomes of all such as owne God and Christ so that the improving will be more edifying then the proving Therefore confider the second head namely That so farre as Christ liveth in any soule it is the dâ—sire of such a soul that the whole will of God and no other but the will of God may be done in all times and things What Christ is in himself that he is in his members he is in himself one with the wil of God so where Christ lives in any soule so much Christ so much onenesse with and conformity to the will of God Such a soul speaks in Christs strength and so speakes Christs language to God Not my will but thy will be done There is in the best of Saints on earth as in Paul a double Law one in the members and another in the minde one of the flesh and another of the spirit but as that Apostle Rom. 7. last Through Christ he served God with the mind Where Christ possesseth there God is obeyed if he lives and reignes in any soule that soule so farre knowes no will to obey but the will of God and if any part of that man know any other will it is the fleshly part which Christ hath not fully subdued to himself but where Christ liveth there he suffers no other will but the will of God to beare rule And as the fire of Gods Spirit doth consume the lusts of the flesh in Saints so doth the will of such Saints runne more and more into the wil of God they are lost unto themselves and found in God they will and doe every day lesse of Selfe and more of God they are crucified with Christ to the world and the world to them and the life that they then live is by the faith of the Son of God in conformity to the will of God Christ makes the desires shapes and formes the will in such soules as he lives in to God and God is sure to have that which Christ new makes For it is his businesse to doe his Fathers worke When ever Christ new makes or makes the new creature in any soule his end is to make for God and to lift up his own name in lifting up God for he telleth us in the 17. of John verse 21 22. That himselfe and his Father are one and as there is but one will in God and Christ so there is onely that one will in every soul that Christ powerfully liveth in so farre as he doth live in it by his Spirit For it is the property of the Spirit as fire to burn up and consume all but substance what ever is drosse is consumed where that holy fire comes now all flesh and selfe is drosse both in will and work and that the Spirit burnes up and leaves nothing remaining in such a soule where it liveth so farre as it hath overcome but the substantial and holy wil of God And from hence it is that any soul comes to be changed in its desires because it is changed in it selfe or more properly out of it selfe from flesh to spirit from selfe to Christ from its own wil to the wil of God But now if any shall object and say This is a hard saying who can beare it This makes Christianity to be such a burthensome thing as the world reports it to be that a man must be alwayes crossing and denying himselfe of any will or content of his own so as by this rate the way to heaven is to have no pleasure upon earth To this I answer It is ignorance of God and his wayes that makes this objection this sounds like the answer of Nieodemus to our Saviour in the third of John verse 4. when Christ had been shewing him the necessity of regeneration and spake in the Spirit to him of being born again he understood not the Spirit and as he understood him so answered him in the flesh How can a man be born when he is old Can he enter the second time into his mothers womb and be born Christ spake in the Spirit but Nicodemus understood him onely in the flesh and therefore judgeth it hard or impossible that there should be a regeneration or new birth though Christ had told him the necessity of it So doe all that are ignorant of God and his wayes thus conclude of him as they understand him so that when he speakes in the Spirit and they understand him in the flesh they conclude according to the light they are under that what is impossible with man is so with God to them because they have no other knowledge of God but in the flesh But let such as are spirituall consider First God gives what he commands and then commands what he gives God that commands to be worshipped and obeyed in spirit gives his Spirit to worship and obey him in God is no hard master he takes not up where he layes not down he covenants freely and makes it fully good to put his law in the inner parts of his people and to write it in their hearts Jerem. 31.33 And to give them his Spirit of truth to dwell with them and be in them and to teach them all things John 14.17.26 Now none but a fleshly understanding can condemne God for a hard master and his will swallowing up our will to be a joylesse comfortlesse burthensome thing when as hee gives his Spirit to doe that in us which hee requires of
this was not Gods wil Haman hee designes according to his will but it being without God observe the fulnesse of his disappointment and the Justice of God returned into his own bosome In Esther 6. Esther 7. and vers 10. of Chap. 6. The King asketh Haman what should be done to the man the King would honour Doubtlesse Haman thought the King meant himselfe and therefore makes him this answer in verse 8. Let the royall apparrel be brought which the King useth to weare and the horse that the King rideth upon and the Crowne royall which is set upon his head and let his apparell horse be delivered to the hands of one of the Kings most noble Princes that they may array the man withall whom the King delights to honour and bring him on horse-backe through the streets of the City and proclaim before him thus shall be done to the man whom the King will honour It appeares cleare by this counsell that selfe was in his heart but observe in vers 10. the miserable disappointment of this proud selfish man Then the King said unto Haman make hast take the Apparell and the Horse as thou hast said and doe even so to Mordecai the Jew that sitteth at the Kings gate let nothing faile of all that thou hast spoken First Haman is disappointed in that he is not the man Secondly To aggravate his misery Mordecai whom he hated he is the man for whom hee had beene inventing death and dishonour God makes him the instrument to invent honours and to compleat this miserable disappointment Haman himselfe must be the Kings servant to honour Mordecai whom hee hated we see by Hamans answers to the King what proud and selfish men seeke after but their wils being out of God the higher they clime the lower they fall and the greater their expectations be the fuller of misery is their disappointment Yet the justice of God left not this proud cruel man but brought him to be hanged upon the Gallowes of fifty cubits high which he had in his wil appointed for Mordecay This is the fruit of having our wils out of Gods wil So Jonah his wil was the gourd should continue but that was not Gods wil therefore dye it must now how doth this disquiet the man even so much that he seemes to justifie his anger there was no cause of his discontent but that his wil was not in Gods wil. Secondly This doth informe us whence this rest and quiet that is in the bosomes of Gods people doth arise namely in this that their wils are in Gods wil therefore when God declares his wil under any dispensation in the World they are at rest for the appearance of his wil makes their rest all things besides this brings disquietments upon the spirit but when the wil of God appeares it silences all disputes and quiets all thoughts in the heart of him that hath given up his wil to Gods wil this soule doth not quarrel with but kisseth the feete of God when the wil of God lays it there it is in spirit at rest upon a sicke bed because of the wil of God there Disappointments in the outward man do not cease upon this man to disturbance because the wil of God is in them and that is his rest he is best at rest in that wherein he seeth most of Gods wil discovered to him what ever it be in its owne nature this soule can say with David when Gods wil appeares in it It is good for me I have beene afflicted and makes this the discovery of the good and evil of all he meddles with namely the wil of God If Gods wil appeare in it he acknowledgeth it to be good but if he see not that he cannot own it as his good or any thing for him to rest in for he rests only in God and it is nothing but the appearance of Gods wil that makes his Spirit at rest under every dispensation of God and from thence this soule hath a quiet being But againe This truth doth informe us as Saints of our duty to enquire after Gods will in all we doe or require others to doe The will of Christ was that the will of God should be done so is the wil of Saints in conformity to the wil of Christ their head and if to be done then surely to be known Nay Saints ought to doe nothing before they know the wil of God in it If this rule were observed there would not be so much doing and undoing as this uncertaine age affords If God led men into what they doe hee would so owne them that they should not be ashamed of it this is the true reason why men doe and ondoe because in what they doe they seeke their owne wils not Gods wil but hee that hath given up his wil to Gods wil before hee works he will see Gods wil this is the true reason why the men of this World with all their power and policy cannot make Saints worship as they doe the unknowne God or at least wise in such a manner as they know not whether it be the wil of God or no. I say this is the reason because they are bound up in the wil of God so that they cannot worship any unknowne God nor the God they know in any manner but what he makes known to them to be his wil that they should worship him in If men be truly zealous for the worship of God it can goe no farther then this That such as know him and his wil should worship him according to his wil made knowne to them for any thing else cannot be the true worship of the true God Now such as know God and his wil in truth the spirit of truth they are a willing people to worship God according to his wil made known to them by his Spirit in which they worship him If this were seriously considered in the Spirit of God it would appear to be the beauty of Saints not to act before light to know Gods wil and so to doe it therefore Saints should be teaching one another in the Spirit but not to force any where the Spirit hath not taught then there is no neede of forcing for the Spirit of God that teacheth doth also leade his people into obeying of his truths and wil. The Saints in truth speak thus in the spirit of truth to God Not my will nor the will of any man or men but thy will be done Therefore Lord shew me thy wil and it sufficeth he that rules should enquire after the will of God to rule by and he that is ruled for the will of God to be the rule of his obedience Oh that our Rulers did enquire after and finde out this rule to rule by Then would righteousnesse flourish in the Land as a greene Bay-tree and the branches of it would cover the Land with that much desired peace It is the want of this which makes the want of peace did
of that power beyond and contrary to that end hee received it for Otherwise the impositions upon the people of God in the matters of their God and the persecution of them for not obeying men rather then God would finde no footing in the World If pride in men doe not make them act further then they have received Rule and Commission from God his people would not complaine as they doe at the Throne of Grace for being persecuted because the Rule of God is That every man be fully perswaded in his own bosome for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.5.23 But the proud man puts forth his power beyond the bounds which God hath set him and is so cruell that he cannot heare the cryes of the poore people of God which onely plead for Christian forbearance and doe professe in singlenesse of heart as in the presence of God they are ready to obey their commands to the utmost so farre as God shall fully enlighten and perswade them it is his will so that in what they doe they may not sinne through unbeliefe And sure I am nothing but pride and cruelty can stop an eare to these cryes How ugly now must pride needs look to the eye of a godly soul And how doth such a soule observe the folly and cruelty of pride This should make every soule exceeding earnest at the Throne of Grace that the Lord would by the fire of his own holy Spirit destroy the lust of pride in them It is the throne of the Devill O beseech the Lord to destroy that throne it is the very flames of hell in the soule O begge of the Lord to quench them and wholly to extinguish them by his Spirit Pride in the Soule is the Devils Banner of defiance against God O be earnest with the Lord of Hosts to make himselfe in thee a Conquerour over this lust Where pride reignes God abhorres where that is King Christ is an enemy O therefore implore the power of Heaven to keep this under to destroy it and root it out of all its strong holds in the soule All the Devils in Hell without the soule are more easie enemies then pride within the soule that man is a perfect slave which hath pride for his Master and untill the Sonne and Spirit make a soule free it will never bee free indeed We should be therefore often with God beseeching him that Christ may live in us by his Spirit to make us free from the sinne and slavery of pride That soule which begges of God the death of pride in it selfe hath a promise attending its petition for it is according to the will of God God having declared himselfe an enemy to pride O that all Saints were like God in this open declared enemies to pride in themselves and others improving all their interest at the throne of Grace that God would destroy this peece of Selfe and Satan root and branch out of the Soule that neither Fruit nor Branch may ever grow upon it more Againe From this discovery of a proud man in his principles and practises I have learned thus much That if ever I should be called to put power into the hands of any man or men and to entrust all those liberties which I could commit to trust into such hands I would make this a generall rule of all men to avoid a proud man for I would never trust a foole with power nor a cruel man with my liberties and I am sure a proud man is both these so that surely that person or Nation shal never but be miserable that committeth power and trust into such hands such men as single persons are the burthen of a Land but put power in their hands and they will be so farre as their power will reach the ruine of that Land Though men as Gods instruments give a proud man his power yet he soone forgets that he hath received the power by which he differs and so Tyrant like makes use of his power to plucke downe them that set up him and to sacrifice those rights and liberties which he is intrusted to preserve to his own pride this I am sure he can never be true to me that is faulty to God but a proud man is so because in substance he denyes God to be the originall of his power for did he acknowledge himself to receive that by which he differs he would never be proud of his debt and his duty nor use his power contrary to or beyond the rule of God who gives both rule and power It is the humble heart which only hath a hand fit to put power into and to intrust any thing that is deare and precious withal because there is acknowledgements in receiving that wherein it differs this man is most like to be a faithfull Steward to give an account of his trust for he acknowledgeth himselfe to be a Steward a Trustee or indeed a trusted servant for the good and happinesse of them that have trusted him the weight of his work sanctified by the Spirit of God keeps this man humble It is this humble man which will be a blessing to them that trust him Hee that God makes humble is a sit man to make honourable and by putting trust in such hands will Nations and Kingdoms be made happy And now I must crave leave to be plain and single hearted with men in power only in asking them the Apostles questions Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received Have you more power then others yet remember you have received that power from God as the fountaine from men as the streames and it is onely in what you have received by which you differ from other men and pray remember this your account will be as great as your power because your power is received Let me begge you to consider what is Gods end and mans end in trusting you and putting power into your hands Gods end is his owne glory that you should lift up his Name in all you doe defend his people with all your power to be a defence to all that is praise-worthy and a terrour only to evil doers to make his will your worke not your owne wills a law his Word and Spirit your rule his single glory your end the people of the Covenant of his free-grace your beloved ones that you should establish righteousnesse justice and judgement in the Land which will be the firme end and lasting pillars of peace this is Gods end in giving you power and according to these ends will God have from you an account of your using that power hee hath committed to you and that you have received from him Mans end in putting power into your hands is their owne good that you should by that power defend them in all just and righteous wayes maintaine to them their proprieties and not to diminish but encrease their just liberties such in which all just men may be
happy and no sort of men enabled by your authority to intrench upon or violate the peacefull rights and liberties of others You that are trusted by the whole should have no squint eyes nor ceasing of hands when you give forth your blessings but carry the whole in your hands heart and eye you should be as Melchisedech without Father and Mother related to no party but the whole This is man's end in committing that to your trust which is in their power to commit to trust now who ever casts up this account will finde no cause to be proud of his employment or his power but to lye low at the feete of God for his continuall presence that you may have the strength of Christ to discharge this duty and trust received for nothing lesse will carry any soule wel through his worke The discharge of this trust wil be judged by an impartial Judge before whom all things are naked such as God shall acquit may walk and lye down in peace but if God charge any soule of misusing and abusing this received trust and power it wil be with such a soule as with Belieshazar when he perceived the hand-writing upon the wall his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loynes were loosed and his knees smote one against another Yea and conscience will be wounded too that which none can beare will be the weight to presse downe such a miserable soule I judge no persons nor shall I entee into particulars only professe my sadnesse to heare so many complaine some for want of justice others of injustice most men say the eye is not single it is devided into parties so that the whole is neglected all mens mouths are opâ—n and God hath at one time or other made them to discover their hearts but when they rip up 't is some for Paul and others for Apollo and a third for Cephas when intruth all should be for Christ it is this division of the flesh which divides the Land and sowes seedes of warre to destroy this and after Generations if the Lord prevent not by the powrings forth of his Spirit to unite us again in that common roote and head of all Saints the Lord Jesus Christ The Magistrates worke as I humbly conceive to effect this happy union is this singly to eye Christ so as to give forth their power for protection to all that in the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse doe live up his Image leaving Christ his own Throne the consciences of his people this so farre as I can see is according to the trust committed both by God and man I thinke the want of peace doth arise from the want of this righteousnesse justice and judgement to runne downe in the Land and till God give this Spirit and practise amongst his people I shall have but little hopes of lasting Peace for sure I am what ever Peace shall be made upon other terms the foundation will be too weake to beare its burthen so that the building cannot long stand I thinke this is the controversie God hath with all the Nations of the Earth at this day and till God have his will we shall not have peace Oh that all which desire peace would take Gods way to establish it Peace is the common theame of all men but this way of God to it is the practise of very few if any this Peace to some and warre to others protection to some and destruction to others of the people of God is mans peace not Gods for Christ takes care of the whole body the hand and foote as well as the eye and that peace which man makes without God God can and will soone destroy by or without man and if men should prove false to that trust they have received from God and man yet God will never faile his people nor be faithlesse to his Covenant they shall finde him his peoples God not protecting part only but the whole and when men act according to what they have received from God they will doe so too Such as have the present trust have another weighty consideration lyes upon them seriously and in the feare of God consider how many times God hath given you your lives when you have been appointed by men to be a sacrifice to their lusts and in the will and end of these designes the knife hath oftentimes been almost at your very throats when you have not seen nor known it but the All-seeing eye of God hath discovered and his all-powerfull armes prevented for the most pâ—rt in the very nicke of time when cruelty thought to have effected his ends to have made glad their hearts with washing their hands in your blood These life savâ—ng kindnesses of God sure will make deepe impressions upon graciou and nâ—enuous spirits but this is not all you have yet â—urtâ—er to consider how many thousands of those which chose trusted you with their lives temporall liberties and estates have to maintaine you in being for these ends spent their estates denyed themselves of their liberties and have lost their lives Oh looke upon the cripled limbs the bleeding wounds the Widowes and the Fatherlesse Rachel weeping for her children because they are not I have told you before what is the end of aâ—l this both in God and man many thousands have given you their lives already and others goe on still in this selfe denying worke and all they cry for is this that the living may have their just rights liberties and priviledges for which ends only thâ—y have called you and put power into your hands and have obeyed your call to take up arms in which they have laid downe their lives and doe daily drop away that you may be preserved to make good these ends and in them to be a blessing to this bleeding and distressed Land You have had the prayers of Gods people for you at the Throne of grace take heede you returne them not evill for good For if these prayers be once turned against you they will soone overturne you I cannot tell what to call this faithfulnesse kindnesse from God and man to you it is so great but sure I am where it finds unfaithfulnesse in any it will beget a heavy account remember this you act upon received power and must give an account of your Steward-ship the longest day is hard by in a little time death will close your eyes and then you can be no longer Stewards that by which you differ now will leave you then your bones and dust will not be known in the grave from others But you may remember in the beginning I told you that this Scripture by its double question did speak properly to two grand lusts peevish repining as well as pride and I promised to enquire after them both and to apply the Apostles questions by way of answer to them to define a peevish repining heart and spirit I shall do
that glories glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth This Scripture is a full proofe to the thing in hand both in the Negative and in the Affirmative First in the Negative not to glory in any thing out of God or besides God not in Wisdome Power Riches or any other thing of that nature any thing below God himself is too low for the people of God to glory in if you will glory here is a subject fit for your glory namely God to understand and know him to bee the Lord which exercises loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth he that truly knowes God may glory in God who is the onely fit object of glory God is so glorious that hee makes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise weak things the mighty and despised things to bring to naught things that are Therefore wisdome power riches nobility in the world are not proper subjects for a Saint to glory in no God is the onely and single vubject of his peoples glory and when you finde them glorying it is in the Lord as in the 30. verse of this chapter the Apostle glories in this that through the freegrace of God Christ is made to his people wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption his glory is in God and Christ Christ as the gift and God as the giver Christ made of God and so forth This is my glory Gods wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Christ is all this to Saints of the free grace of God Therefore be that glories let him glory in the Lord. His selfe is nothing but Christ as the gift of God his All and his Glory So the same Apostle in Galat. 6.15 God forhid that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Hee tels them there be such which make a fair shew in the flesh that would have them to be circumcised that they might not suffer persecution But sayes the Apostle tell not me of these poore low shifts or glory for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision not uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new creature And in another place Christ in us the hope of glory I can glory in none of these empty outsides and shadowes of things it is the new Creature Christ in me the crosse of Christ the redemption of free grace the eternall love of God that I can glory in or make the subject of my glory as in that most remarkable place Eph. 2.8 9. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Mark it and we shall find here is a sure provision to keep all the glory upon Gods head so that who ever glories must glory in God Why because the whole matter of salvation comes of by and from the free grace of God yea even faith the hand that layes hold of the free grace of God is also the gift of Gods free grace worke selfe is wholly excluded because God will have no flesh to boast or glory in his sight or in any thing but himselfe Therefore God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sinnes hath quickned us together with Christ therefore it is by grace that we are saved He loved us when we lay in our blood when no eye pitied us his love is first to us and from hence he makes a covenant of free grace to be our God and that we shall be his people that he will put his law in our hearts and teach his people by his own Spirit What doth all this prove but thus much That God alone is and ought to be the onely subject of his peoples glory and we shall find the Apostle Paul in this first of the Ephesians not onely in the precept but in the practice of this thing blessing of God and glorying in God in the third verse Blessed be the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ Observe it he blesses and glories in God he mentions nothing to glory in but God in Christ God in himselfe when he speaketh of chusing electing love and glory he doth it in Christ verse 4. Chosen us in him before the foundation of the world and so forward in the fifth verse Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his will verse 6. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us acceptable in the beloved And in the seventh verse according to the riches of his grace verse 8. wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdome and prudence Thus the Apostle spends the whole chapter in declaring the glory of the full love and free grace of God to his in Christ he is in a very glorious frame of spirit full of glory and blessing but God is the subject of all his glory and blessing So we may find him in his triumphing Chariot That Rom. 8. verse 1. No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit in which there is freedome from the law of sinne and death 33. Nothing to be laid to the charge of Gods elect which God justifies and that nothing can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Gods love is the subject the Apostle glories in it was the love of God and so everlasting unchangeable love it was justification by the free grace of God therefore above condemnation Mark it God is the subject of his glory God justifies and God loves So in Rom. 11. latter end O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out For of him and to hins and through him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen The Apostle finds all to be in God and God the onely subject for him to glory in and give glory to What ever God doth himselfe is the glory of all his workes and God is a depth of riches wisdome and knowledge he is unsearchable in his judgements and his wayes are so full of glory that man cannot trace them he is so pure a glory that he can bee discerned by no light but his own 2 Cor. 2.14 But the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned God is so greaâ— a glory that he darkens all glory besides himselfe so that nothing but himselfe can be a discovery of himselfe and this the Apostle declares as the glory of God he is an unsearchable and more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Therefore sayes hee
hath laid the bodies of Saints in the dust there is the end of his office and when the grave hath swallowed up the corruption of those bodies then its worke is done too but then Christ hath an eternall wo ke in his hands to raise it a spirituall body that the fulnesse of his redemption may be made up so as that soule and body both may be filled with the fulnesse of his redemption and in this worke Christ commands both death and grave to give up their dead bodies and then he spirits his owne sutable to that eternall life which they are to possesse The Scripture tels us That Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 That is Christ is first in the resurrection but so as hee is the first fruits a testimony of resurrection to all that sleepe and in Rom. 8.11 the Apostle telleth us That the same power which raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodies by his Spirit So in 1 Thes 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trumpe of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first I mention these Scriptures to shew the victory that Saints have in Christ over death and grave and to me they give full satisfaction and ample proofe in them to the thing in hand that neither death can hurt nor grave hold so much as the body of a Saint in Christ but on the contrary that the very bodies of Saints have victory over death in dying and that Saints have exceeding cause to glory over death under this consideration as well as all or any of the former I shall next take into consideration in some few particulars the benefits and advantages that believing Saints through Christ have by death both in our soules and bodies I will begin with the bodies First Death freeth us from all the naturall infirmities and diseases of our bodies One complaines that winde makes a torturing tumult all his body over the bowels and the body full and they fill the head so that there is no free part Another he complains that fluxe of water hath filled his veins chil'd his bloud and num'd his joynts so that aches are in all his bones A third complains that gravell lyeth in his reines teares his kidneyes and stops his bladder so that his whole life is as it were upon the torturing racke there be many more complainers besides these which goe from man to man to make their moane and begge their help for a little ease though but for a little time which sometimes they finde but often returne from fellow-creatures as miserable as they came but when Death comes without his sting he makes a perfect cure of all sorrowes and paine for ever among creatures wee seeke ease with teares but death hee brings full and lasting ease and wipes away all teares from our eyes Death puts an end to hunger and thirst to cold and nakednesse to labour and wearinesse in short to all wants and to all woes the grave is quiet it is the only piece of quiet earth that man can meete withall though a little above the grave on the earth there be cryings out and complainings yet the grave is quiet nothing can disturb the rest and quiet of that bed it is not capable of disturbance therefore exceeding usefull to rest in this I assure you is a greater benefit then all the living World enjoyes beside Crownes have their crosses States their crackes all persons and things their wants every person state condition and thing under the sinne wrapped up in vanity all wants are buried no where but in the grave of death The body of man never bids adiew to all want til it be embraced in the arms of death and laid to rest in that quiet center of the earth but when death comes without its sting it brings this certaine benefit and advantage with it A second benefit and advantage of the body of Saints in death without its sting is this It takes from the worlds scorne and cruelty When the bodies of Saints are in the grave Worldlings must seeke some other object for their slander scorn or cruelty they will finde no sap or moisture in the dust of Saints to feede these lusts withall the derision and persecution of Gods deare Saints on Earth is the pastime and practise of sinning soules like the flye that sports it selfe about the candle till shee have burnt her wings but God hath his time to ease his people of this burthen and if not before yet certainly and fully when death comes is this worke effected Saints whilst they live in the bodie are with their spirits above the worlds scornes and cruelties but when death comes then the body gets beyond them too so that here is another benefit in death it freeth them from the scorns of fools and the cruelty of cruell men The wicked worldlings counts a Saint to be the only troubler of the people and place wherein hee lives but when death comes to a Saint he is very willing to leave the world their portion and their elbow-roome hee is not desirous to trouble them any longer all he desires is a little earth to lye downe to sleepe in and that the world is content withall wishing that al the rest were there too this is a benefit which a Saint with submission to the wil of God desires many an houre before it comes he is as willing to be at home in his owne inheritance as the worldling is to have him out of his now death crownes these longing in Saints and brings in the harvest of many prayers which the spirit hath made for this very thing so that in these and many more particulers is death beneficial and advantageous to the body of Saints But I shal mention two generals in which death without its sting is through Christ exceeding advantagious and benificous to the soules of beleeving Saints First It delivers them from a body of sinne a place of temptations and darknesse which is the whole complaint of Saints whilst they are in the flesh the Apostle Paul complaines of the Law in his members which rebelled against the Law of his minde and of the body of death how often doth the Prophet David pray to be kept from temptations and to be inlightned in his darknesse that God would shew him the way he should walke in and make his pathes straight Saints desire to be uncloathed of the body of flesh because they are capable of sinning in that body any it is a body which tempts to sinne and in which the soule is under much darknesse And therefore groanes within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body 8. Rom. 23. It is very sweet to bee delivered from temptations that they get not the upper hand so as to lead the soule captive at their will