in every providence and such as lay open to every Ordinance I say practical experiences of the power of Gods grace O what can the grace of God do Nay Christians what is it that the grace of God cannot do That grace that could send Christ out of his eternal mansion in the bosom of his Father what cannot that grace do for thee That grace that can empty as it were the Second person of the Trinity of his glory doest thou think that this grace cannot empty thy heart of sin That grace that can fill the Covenant with such a fulness of Blessings Poor worm doest thou think that this grace cannot fill thy heart with Blessings I pray Christians do but consider what the Apostle saith in the 19 and 20 verses of this Chap. And what is says he the exceeding greatness of his power to us ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power If thy heart be hard and be fixed within thee so that thou doest oppose the work of Faith he will work this work of faith with power if it be exceeding hard there is exceeding power that the grace of God has the command of if thou beest exceeding weak there is exceeding grace that hath the dispose of exceeding power ay if thou beest exceeding unworthy there is exceeding grace that can exceedingly overlook all thy unworthiness Now Christians practical experiences of the power of grace under the ministration of the Gospel is a great Spiritual Blessing We have heard much of the grace of God of the respective persons of the blessed Trinity what has this grace done for thy Soul Art thou able to set to thy Seal that there is an exceeding power in the grace of the Father and an exceeding power in the grace of the Son if thou hast not as yet experienced it truly if there be but some beginnings of the power of God and the finger of God hath but been upon thy heart though in lesser power if there be exceeding power wanting that exceeding power shall not always be suspended Practical experiences of the exceeding mighty power of God is that which is a great Spiritual Blessing which we are blessed with in Christ Jesus and for the illustration of this do but compare this power if thou needest as much exceeding power to raise up thy Soul from any Spiritual Death or Deadness as Jesus Christ stood in need of to raise him from the dead that shall be at the dispose of grace that shall be imployed by grace and therefore he adds in the next verse which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead That power that raised the Son of man from the dead and that power that set the Son of man at his own right hand in Heavenly places thou Christian shalt have experience of it and this is the Spiritual Blessing wherewith thou art blessed in Christ Jesus Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Christ that is he hath Blessed us with a Right to an universal and unbounded experience of the power of his grace in all cases 9. But the last that I shall mention is this He hath blessed us with all Spiritual blessings that is an universal subjection of all our Spiritual Enemies under us And I think this may be lookt upon as a great Spiritual Blessing It is true indeed my friends all things are put under the feet of Jesus Christ but all things are not yet put under our feet But that you may see the reason of this great priviledge how grace hath laid it in Christ do but observe those passages that you have in v. 21 22 23. of this Chapter at the 20 verse and hath set him at his own right hand in heavenly places far above all principalities and might and dominion and every name that is named both in this World and also in that which is to come And as if these two words could not comprehend all the Apostle adds in general and hath put all things under his feet All things that are enemies to our Spiritual Interest all things that are Enemies unto our purification unto our sanctification unto our inlightning and strengthening and unto any or all of our Spiritual blessings He hath put all things under his feet Obj. Ay but what is all this to us you will say Ans Therefore I pray observe what he says further He hath put all things under his feet with a direct subserviency unto his Church Verse 22. and hath put all things under his feet and hath given him to be the head over all things to the Church head over all principalities over all the powers of darkness over all our Enemies in hell and over all our Spiritual Enemies here on Earth and that unto his Church and People which he calls his Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all Now my friends this is a great Spiritual blessing and that the Spirit is concerned in this is evident I pray do but observe a passage of the Apostle in his Epistle to the Romans chap. 8. verseâ— 11. compared with Verse 2. at the 11th verse If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodys by his Spirit that dwelleth in you I apprehend that this hath not relation primarily or principally to the last Resurrection of the Body but even to a Spiritual deliverance and freedom of the Body from the remains of the law of sin death which yet abide in it says the Apostle If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in your mortal bodys then you shall be quickened your mortal bodys shall be disposed and influenced so by that Spirit that they shall be readier than now they are to serve the graces of your Souls according to the dictates of the Spirit of Jesus Christ and my reason for this Interpretation is this the Apostle in the conclusion of the former Chapter had been crying out verse 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death which he had confessed had too long lodged in his members in the former part of the Chapter Now in verse 2. of this Chap. he says But the law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death where is the law of sin It is in my body says the Apostle but says he the law of the Spirit of life hath made me free upon this Hypothesis the Apostle doth conclude in verse 11. That if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us then shall our mortal bodies be quickned and disposed also unto Spiritual service and if you do but observe it the Apostle in the Conclusion of this discourse gives such an exhortation tending to this purpose that
they would not yield up their members as instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin why so because the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in your mortal bodies and therefore says he don't yield your members don't yield your hands and don 't yield your tongues and don 't yield your ears nor don 't yield any of your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto Sin because the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in your mortal bodies and thus now I have taken notice of these diverse Spiritual blessings which the Apostle doth here instance in by way of illustration of this great Gospel mystery of grace and that is that God hath blessed every Christian with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus I will wave the reasons and I will also wave the resolve of other inquiries that might be made and wrap up all in these three or four inferences VSE 1 First Is it so my friends that Christians are blessed with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus Then Christians should be always Spiritual in Christ Jesus Shew me your blessings Sirs let it appear that your blessings are not like the blessings of the men of this world Nay nor only confined to the blessings that the hypocrites of this world have received from God don't shew me your gifts in prayer but let your graces be discovered in your praying Christians you should be Spiritual in all manner of conversation why because God hath blessed you in Christ Jesus with all Spiritual blessings for a man that pretends to this blessedness for such a one to be carnal for such a one to be earthly minded for such a one to be proud for such a one to be debauched in his Spirit and Principles and Practices how unbecoming is this to so great a pretence as you all make If I should come to you one by one and say to you friend don't you hope that God hath blessed you with all Spiritual blessings in Christ what means then this formality in duty this is not to be Spiritual What means this anger passion upon every provocation this does not argue that you are blessed with a Spirit of meekness why my friends if you be blessed with all Spiritual blessings then I pray let all your Spiritual blessings appear more or less in your whole conversation for a professor that pretends to be so blessed for him to be formal in his Prayer and for him to be dead and dull in Duty for him to be light and vain and frothy in his Conversation this is not like one that is blessed with all Spiritual blessings Christians the inference is natural if you be blessed with all Spiritual blessings then shew forth all your Spiritual blessings in all your duties be Spiritual in every thing The Apostle has a parallel expression to this wherein he gives us an account of his conversation in the 3 Phil. 20. For our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ that is the first inference VSE 2 The 2d is this Has God blessed us with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Then let those that pretend to a being thus blessed by the God and Father of Jesus Christ glorify the God Father of Jesus Christ with all their blessings Glorify him not only with what you have received but also upon the whole of the blessings that are to be received Christians you may rejoyce in what is in the hand of Christ for you as well as in what is in your own hearts I am persuaded that Adam was as perfect as God can make a creature out of Christ and yet you see no sooner doth the Woman come and tell him that the fruit is pleasant and fair but he takes it eats and so destroys all surely Christians you may rejoice in that little you have but you may more rejoice in that great deal that Christ hath for you you have received a little from and by Christ ay but Christ hath received a great deal more for you and therefore balance all your secular wants and secular troubles with this that you are blessed with unseen blessings It was Christs advice to his disciples to lay up treasure in Heaven it is the practice of the grace of God the grace of God hath done that which Jesus Christ advised his disciples and hearers to do What has he done Why he hath laid up treasure where neither moth can corrupt nor Thieves break through and steal And therefore rejoice glorify God for and in the view under the sense and apprehension of what you are blessed with in Christ I will freely say this one thing if I would choose of the two what to rejoice in I had rather rejoice in what I am blessed with in Christ Jesus then in all the gifts and graces that I have in my own heart and I think 't is safest to do so But then VSE 3 Thirdly Has God blessed you with all Spiritual Blessings in Christ Jesus Then never confine and limit your expectations from God or from Jesus Christ This naturally follows for why should a Christian that hath liberty to expect all content himself with less Christians should say upon every receipt Lord here is not all and be at him for more wait still upon Christ for more Cry still unto Christ for more and say Lord here is not all This is not all of the Spiritual Blessings that the Father have blessed me withal in thy self This is not all and therefore under your fullest receipts still Christians wait for more has the grace of God been so abundant as to bless you with all and will you shew so little grace as to be contented with a little I do not like neither I am perswaded does God like the tempers of most Professors which is a modest I call it a modest because 't is so generally apprehended but it is a sinful modest contentedness with a little if God give you any thing bless God for a little but never be satisfied with a little but ever and anon come to the Throne of grace and say Father here is not all in my heart that thou hast blessed me withal in Christ Come to the Lord Christ and say Lord here is not all the Father trusted thee withal for my Soul here is not all the faith all the love all the meekness c. But I am blessed with all Spiritual Blessings I say Christians having received a little be still pressing after more But then VSE 4 Fourthly and lastly Hath God blessed you with all Spiritual blessings in Christ Then Christians in the midst of all your wants and in the midst of all your straits be you still pressing after a more true and genuine improvement of all your Spiritual blessings If God hath blessed you with all Spiritual blessings in Christ then labour you under Christ to be Spiritual blessings unto others have you not
but that it should be holy and without blemish God chose us that we might be holy and without blame and Jesus Christ has such a Love to us even as the Father has that we should be holy and without blame and my Friends the Spirit is all one with the Father and the Son Does the Father choose us and does the Son give himself for us that we might be so then comes the Spirit and resolves that he will make us so and therefore you shall find the Apostle in his Epistle to the Galatians giving us an account of the fruits of the Spirit in the fifth Chapter at the 18 verse if so be ye be led by the Spirit ye are not under the Law And then as to the energy the workings of the Spirit why says he in the 17 verse The Spirit lusteth against the flesh The fleshly part in us is an unbelieving part that is against living out of our selves upon Christ ay but the Spirit that works contrary unto these natural lustings and natural workings of the flesh for says the Apostle v. 22. The fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith c. By comparing these passages together you may raise this observation that even as the Father and the Son are concerned for our practical as well as personal holiness so also is the Spirit he lusts and he works and he strives and he never leaves lusting and striving and working against the flesh until he have brought forth these fruits of Love Joy Peace and Long-suffering and Gentleness and goodness and Faith c. So that this is the first particular God has chosen us unto personal and practical holiness and if you do observe it this Spiritual Blessing is also ensured unto us in Christ with all the contents of it and with all the proper effects of it May a Poor Creature say But how shall I come to attain to this And what security can I have of it Why says he according as he hath chosen us in him he hath Blessed us in him according as he hath chosen us in him and now says he he hath Blessed us with all Spiritual Blessings in him But then 2. The Second Blessing that the Apostle takes notice of is the great Spiritual Blessing of Adoption which doth not only discover a Relation to God but also a sutable frame and a sutable becoming sense of the Relation a sense of it and a frame comporting and complying with it This you have an account of in the 5 verse Having predestinated us to the Adoption of Children to himself c. I pray do but observe what the Apostle here doth discover concerning the Nature of this it is the Adoption of Children to himself The God and Father of our Lord Jesus hath ensured our Adoption with all the Priviledges with all the Blessed consequents of it unto us in Christ Jesus 'T is the God and Father of Christ Jesus and he that is so is in Christ Jesus a God adopting us unto himself by Jesus Christ This you shall find the Scripture frequently making mention of says the Apostle to the Romans We have not received the Spirit of Bondage but the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of Sons and what is the proper work of the Spirit of Adoption You shall find what it is Rom. 8.15 Ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Says the Apostle ye are Sons ay but the Sonship is managed by the Spirit ye are not only Sons but the Spirit witnesseth with your Spirits that ye are so and that is his proper work and what is the issue of that Why says he ye cry Abba Father you may go to God in your distresses and you may go to God under your Temptations and you may go to God as the God and Father of Jesus Christ under all your straits and troubles and under all your Spiritual wants and you may say unto him Father hear and Father help Says the Apostle ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear Indeed under the Law when they were under the Power of the Spirit of Bondage they stood at a distance from God they were under fear but now says the Apostle ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father It is as natural a Priviledge to a Child of God and it is as Natural Language to gracious hearts to cry Abba Father as it is for a Child to cry to his Father Father or Mother ye have received the Spirit of Adoption says he and the same thing you have the Apostle giving us an account of Gal. 4. v. 4 5. God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Why what then That we might receive the Adoption of Sons and because ye are Sons says he God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father I would only observe this to you which it may be is not so obvious to every apprehension Compare but these two Scriptures together and you shall find that in the one he is the Spirit of Adoption as he is the Fathers Spirit and in the other he is the Spirit of Adoption as he is the Spirit of the Son for saith he he has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father The Spirit of the Lord Jesus the same Spirit that influenced the Humane Nature and in which Jesus Christ always prayed to God as a Father and always walked with God under all variety of providences as with a Father the same Spirit he hath sent forth and this same Spirit that cryed Abba Father in Christ crys Abba Father also in Christians 3. The third Spiritual Blessing that the Apostle makes mention of in this Chapter is an universal acceptance of Christians in all cases notwithstanding all disobligements one would wonder that a child should sin and though the sin be rejected yet the child stand still in a state of acceptation though the Father scourge the Child yet he doth not unchild the Child This you have an account of verse 6. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved I pray do but observe it There is nothing that a Christian can propose to himself there is no case that the Devil and the world can expose a Christian to but the Christian is still accepted in Christ Jesus and that notwithstanding all his fears and under all his Jealousies and in the face of all his conscience accusations and his own self-condemnations yet the Child is accepted the Christian is accepted who hath made us says he accepted in the beloved my friends this is a great Spiritual Blessing indeed There are many that have their hearts greatly concerned and their Spirit wonderfully
squander among the People and here were two or three and there was another two or three or it may be more in a company that skulkt away from his force and cruelty into by ways and by places endeavouring to shift for themselves and save their lives I pray do but observe now how the Lord comes upon Edom that was the Off-spring of Esau Jacobs Brother in the 10. v. of that prophecy for thy violence against thy Brother Jacob shame hath covered thee and thou shalt be cut off for ever Lord might Edom say didst not thou say thou wouldst utterly destroy this People from the Earth and I will hiss for the Assyrian and Lord hast thou not said that Assyria is the rod of thine anger in thy hand well my Friends notwithstanding all that could be objected in a way of reason see how God treats with Edom v. 1.4 neither shouldst thou have stood in the cross way to cut off those of his that did escape c. This I only produce to discover to you the severity of Gods threatning against those that offer disturbance and discouragement to his People in their weakest capacities and conditions The like you may observe in the Revelations and in the other passages of the New Testament but I will not any further proceed upon that so that you see I have opened a further reason of the Lords special care and tender regard that he hath over his own People 4. The greatest promises lay hold upon those that are in the meanest condition upon those that are in the poorest weakest unlikeliest condition Be not discouraged Christian at the unlikeliness that is upon thy Soul as to the grouth of grace though your grace be little and your discouragements great yet let me tell you there are greater promises in the word proportionally considered made to you than to others I pray observe what the Psalmist say's in the 72. Psa 16. v. There shall be a handful of Corn in the Earth upon the top of the Mountain the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon and they of the City shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth They are in a prosperous condition shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth those that prosper in seculars or in temporals they shall not lose their blessing but shall flourish like the Grass of the Earth but says he there shall be at that time when these things shall be there shall be a People that shall be cast into the World as a handful of Corn that is cast upon the top of the Mountain alas what can you expect from a handful of Corn that is cast upon the top of a mountain but that it should be withered and dried up why because there want Earth and Soil to nourish it and the spirit of the Earth to maintain it therefore it cannot be expected that it should come to any maturity Yet says the Lord when they of the City shall flourish like the Grass then the handful of Corn that is upon the top of the Mountain that is exposed to wind and weather the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon they shall grow like the Cedars in Lebanon so that you see my Friends those that are unlikely those that are meanest that are but as a handful of Corn cast upon the Mountains yet I tell you you are under as great a promise as any under their greatest external flourishing they of the City shall flourish as the Grass of the Earth but those that are cast upon the Mountain shall shake like Lebanon Appl. And there are three Inferences that I shall desire to manage and so conclude the first shall be in relation to those that are the least Christians the second shall have relation to those of a bigger size and the third Inference shall have relation to those that are neither great nor little Christians but no Christians at all VSE 1 to those that are least they are grains but they are the least grain my meaning plainly is this and I think it is the meaning of the Holy Ghost those that have least grace and those that have least gifts those that have done least for God and those that have enjoyed least of God those that have observed least of Gods goings in his Sanctuary that have experienced least of Gods workings upon their Spirits my design Christians is principally upon you and therfore I shall say three or four things particularly to you and the first is this be not discouraged at your littleness of grace if there be but truth of grace There were many when the second Temple was built and they saw it did not amount to the glory of the first Temple they fell a weeping and were greatly discouraged and God was fain to raise them up a Prophet on purpose to bear up their spirits O there was not that Gold there was not that outward Glory and Splendor that there was upon the first Temple that was destroyed and God raised them up a Prophet and what says the Prophet to them says he You saw the Glory of the former Temple and I tell you says he that the Glory of the latter Temple shall be greater than the Glory of the former They were discouraged at the plainness and meanness of the building and of the furniture and adorning of the Temple nay says God if that be the thing do not trouble your selves about it So I say my Friends you may take an estimate of others Hearts and compare others Hearts with yours and you fall a murmuring and discouragement seizes upon you nay but let me say to you in the name of the Lord if there be but a little grace be not discouraged at the littleness of it you have reason to be humbled that it is no more that is very true but yet you have no reason to be discouraged because there is a little and the Lord hath commanded me to tell you that it lay in his power and within the reach of his grace to make the glory of that little grace that is in your Heart far exceed the Glory of that great deal that you observe to break forth in the Hearts of others and therefore be not discouraged I shall urge this under these two considerations 1. Thou seest it may be what is in thy heart but thou doest not know what is in Christs hand for thy heart Thou seest what comes out of Christs hand to thy heart but thou doest not see what remains in Christs hand for thee therefore be not discouraged because it is little I pray do but observe a passage in Zach. 12.8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem And he that is feeble among them That is he that hath little Courage little spirit little strength the word signifies he that is so feeble that he is faln amongst them faln among the Croud by reason of his feebleness he that is feeble among them At that day shall be as David