what can that man feare that is thus transacted transplanted united to God drawne up into God in whom all selfe and flesh and carnall ends 2 Cor. 12.9 is perished dead and buried and he made a new man in Christ rissen in and with Christ Here is the man is here spoken of Here is the boldnesse of a Saint No marvell all the world nor all the fluctuation of and in the world cannot disturbe this mans Spirit for he is above all aloft he is in the bosome of Christ Oh dearest friends this life is a hidden thing and you that injoy it know it and none else I know your experiences of this life farre exceed what ever my tongue can expresse when men have imprisoned you and thinke they have overcome you then are you most at liberty When they have brought you to poverty then have they most in richt you when ye die ye live when you have all things then have you nothing 2 Cor. 6.10 when you have nothing then have you all things Phil. 3.8 you are so taken up with Christ that all below Christ is as drosse and dung Gal. 6.14 and you say with Paul God forbid that I should rejoyce in any thing save in the Crosse of Christ by whom the world is crucified unto mee and I unto the world While you are with Christ what can hurt you all the troubles in the world sease no more on you then water on a Ducks back While the world is reviling you are singing while the world is imprisoning you are imbracing While the world is hating and persecuting you are loving While the world is casting you off for sects and scismaticks you are in your injoyings While the world smites Christ is kissing such a mysterious hidden secret is the life of a saint that it befooles all the world When the world thinks they deserve their hatred they love and pittye them while you think they look upon you they looke above you their eye is not upō their opposers but what they injoy from Christ they are of more noble higher spirits then to fasten their eyes so low as upon their opposers I professe when God brought mee of from one condition of boldnesse to another but especially when hee fetcht mee off from legall and pharisaicall boldnesse in so much that I saw that all boldnesse which had its rise and birth in self from self and to self it must bee confounded and I came to see that all true boldnesse must run out from the very heart and loves of Christ it must bee from a spirit fild with such royall noble divine bloud as none but the sonnes of God pertake of and then I saw the world was of a bloud so low and base that it cannot bee sensible what this life is The second thing we would come to shew is wherein this boldnesse dothcōsist A soule thus made one with God made righteous by God in the injoyment of God and by the righteousnesse of God revealed in us he is bold in these three regards First He is bold with God Secondly He is bold in declaring for God Thirdly He is bold in undergoing any thing laid upon him by God First He is bold with God he is free and familiar with God There is such intimate communion between Christ and him that he can freely and with a sonlike spirit and affection ask any thing of God his enjoyments embolden him For he sees God so unbosome himself to him that his very heart is not too much for him Hee asks not as a servant with slavish fear but as a sonne as seeing all his inheritance is in God He knowes what ever is in God in Christ is as freely his as they are Christs he hath as true right to them as Christ Hee layes claime to all the beawties and glories of Christ to all the riches life and treasures in Christ as his owne proper portion He does not aske with a daunted fearfull spirit he approaches into his very Bosome to his very Heart and what ever is there hee knows is his owne to aske and injoy and this he does freely fully he layes claime to all Divine loves And by this injoyment he makes returnes of loves all the loves his heart can hold shall all run out to God againe by this very imbracement he comes to act in God and God in him And I pray you observe this and think of it when you do not see mee The very injoyment of God carries over your spirits all you are to God to give up your selves to him you will not stand upon such needlesse questions Whether saints are bount to duty they by that very act of injoying God make themselves over to God to be acted and ruled by God their owne will ceases and Gods will is become one with theirs and theirs with his you cannot chuse but love act for God for you are with God in God Friends I hope some of your spirits doe eccho to these truthes and finde them true by your injoyments in some degree Doe not thinke that this is the life you must look for only hereafter when you are come to Heaven after this life I tell you this life is now and I verily beleeve the time is coming that saints shall come to see this life made good to them and in them more and more Object But it may be some will say you speak of a very high life is it possible that such poore Creatures such poore Wormes as we are should be so imbraced by the Eternall God How comes this to passe Answer Answ In three regards the Saints have experience of these things First In regard they know they have a propriety in him Secondly In regard they have knowledge in experience of recourse to him Thirdly of a constant familiarity with him First They have a knowledge of propriety in him they know that God hath made himselfe their Father and they his sons this makes them bold who can be more bold with a Father then his sonnes Though Abraham be ignorant of us yet thou art our Father Isal 63.16 behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God They know God does not cast them off because of their sins this does not make them no sons but they look upon God as an infinite gracious loving Father They have experience that coming to their Father is a meanes to purifie their hearts and if they stand off till they have clensed thēselves this has been a means to throw them more into sin and though they have sinned yet they throw themselves into his armes they have experience that he dos not upbraid them for coming to him in asking themselves how durst they aproach to him being so defild with sin But they finde that bringing their hearts to him is the only way to cleanse themselves they finde such loves in the bosome of the Father such bowels to pardon such embracements that they know no
way in all the world comparable to this to breake their hearts and to make them throw sin far away Time was when they said true it is Christ calls and invites mee to come but I am so defiled so sinfull I dare not come I will reforme my life and get more power against sin and then I may goe with boldnes But this soule who hath injoyed the loves of God so sweetly so intimately he findes this is the way to remaine foule still And though hee might refraine sin yet he was not purged from sin This end and that end wrought with him something from self and to self but sin as sin was as strong as ever But he found this way the only way to heale sinne and get a new heart a new nature viz. to throw himself upon his Father into his Fathers armes Though Abraham be ignorant of us Isai 63.16 yet thou art our Father And this going to God frees us from our sinnes and nothing else To say I am legall and I am full of corruption I am weake and I can doe nothing all this while we stand at a distance and weaken our selves more We are not free we are lockt up in our selves and strive by our own strength But if you would be holy throw your selves into the loves of God this very injoyment will give you an inlarged a free and broken heart then sin will be hated from a new nature God dos not say I love you if you be holy but I love you to make you holy Beloved this is the new covenant that the Gospell holds out to us and herein lies the power of the Gospell to make of unrighteous righteous to work by love not by constraint Men that never had experience of this life they lay Lawes and Constraints upon men to duty and know not the power of love When the Prodigall had but a resolution to throw himself upon his fathers loves you see how he was received No sooner dos God open his heart to a poore sinner but he sees the everlasting roling bowels of a Father toward him and then they interchange loves and bowels Hos 11.8 That their repentings are kindled together Ier. 31.22 I doe earnestly remember him still my bowels are troubled for him Jer. 3.22 Bowels role towards one another and then the poore sinners come to see their own names writ in their own hearts that before was writ in the heart of God And see his dearest loves have ever been toward them for good He sees now he was not excluded from God because he had departed away from him and blacksliden but was the rather cald to come to him because hee had blackslided and defiled himselfe Jer. 3.22 As Jer. 3.22 Returne ye backsliding children and I will heale your backslidings Behold we come unto thee for thou art the Lord our God He has experience that he had laine long striving against sin but found no power from a right ground from a right principle But when he it may be after many years striving with his lusts to subdue them and bring them under he resolved at last to goe to God and said Lord here is my heart as bad as can be the more I strive with it the worse it is I have striven long and cannot conquer one sinne but Lord doe thou now take it doe with it what thou will all this while I was asham'd to come to thee my heart was so bad now I commit it to thee and then hee found a subdued heart and never before So long as I look upon my obedience and my conformity and when I see a want I hold off from God this breedes obstructions between the soule and God Your praying and your duties and your obedience doe declare that you live in God and not that they may bring you to God Brethren this is the way have you finned and falen from God stay not but returne to God then he will heale your backsliding Stay not as men usually doe till your selves have healed your own backslidings and then you will beleeve This way doth never rightly overcome the heart but be ye weake Christian or be ye strong try this way and you shall find a wonderfull change in your spirits you may draw nigh to God with boldnesse the way stands open God never chid a soule that throwes it self upon him Againe this often recourse to and familiarity with God it makes a man rightly to understand God to know his very nature men that live out of God mistake God they judge otherwise of his nature then it is Saints by injoying God they know God what a God of sweetnesse and loves he is how free in communicating of himselfe what an unchangable God he is how ready to receive a sinner what loves run from him into them when once they are come in to him though God frowne they know his nature is nothing but unchangeable loves however he deales with them in his Providence they know all his wayes are wayes of love to them He cannot hate them nor doe any thing as a fruite of hatred They understand God they know his wayes with his Saints though he kill them yet will they trust in him Isai 55. Though in externall Providence hee seemes to frowne yet they know what 's in his heart they take all in good part their Father doth unto them This is that which raises up their hearts to a holy boldnesse of spirit What ever men intends they know God smiles what ever his providences are they know his loves are constant unchangable This makes their hearts rejoyce and triumph to live above though the body be under sufferings yet their spirit is free walkes up and downe in loves is compassed about with joyes swallowed up in GOD and lives amongst Divine Crownes If a man have no experience of these things he lives darkly mournfully he measures God by himself if men be angry he thinks God is angry if providence change they think God changes and this raises not but overwhelmes the spirit of a man this sinks his spirit for he judges God like himselfe but what sayes God are my wayes as your wayes and my thoughts as your thoughts Isai 55. As high as the Heavens are above the Earth so high are my thoughts above your thoughts and my wayes above your wayes Secondly they are bold for God ye never see any principle but it works sutable to itself so the Saints have a principle from God which qualifies them so that they can stand for God 1. In suffering for him if it be his will they shall suffer losses ignominy derision yea Death it self they have a principle from God will beare them out Look upon Paul what a spirit had he when they told him of bonds Acts. 21.13 what meane ye to weepe and breake my heart for I am ready sayes he not only to be bound but to die for the name of the Lord
power of God he lives in another Region hath a contrary life he is elemented in Divine loves partakes of the Divine nature 2 Peter 1.4 and lives in the divine glory These words we have now read they are an affirmation of a saints priviledge and of a Saints property All soules which are brought home to God that live with God this is their priviledge they are made righteous by God made righteous by Justification a righteousnes held out to them and also made righteous by the glory and righteousnesse of God in them and such a man cannot chuse but bee bold for such a God And not only bold in opposition to wicked men because they flee when none pursueth Psal 53.5 and feare where no feare is but the highest resemblance of the highest creature is too low to set out what such a mans boldnesse is in God and for God and therefore you see the Holy Ghost makes use of the choyfest of all the creatures for courage and boldnesse to set out the temper of a saint when he lives in God and God in him nay the highest and most raised sublimity in the creature is too low to set out the lowest acts of a saints spirit I may draw one point from the former words of wicked mens feare because it leads to unfold the other points concerning a righteous mans boldnesse The wicked flees when none pursueth Doct. The Doctrine That man that lives without God although made by God he is so far a man of feare and not of faith But I shall let that goe and come to the words intended There is not onely a difference in the spirits of wicked and righteous men but a direct opposition the one acts all together downe-ward to the earth to self to carnall low and base ends the other acts all-together upward to God to heaven to self denyall to high and pure ends Doct. First observe That the people of God are a righteous people They are righteous not only in regard of Justification that is a righteousnesse held forth and made out to us but also in regard of that you call sanctification that is a righteousnesse revealed in us and this is peculiarly a saints priviledge He not onely lives under life but he lives in life is life it selfe I confesse it is a great and precious priviledge to live under life to have and use Ordinances but to have them and not live by them nay to have them and not to haue lives above them this is below a saints priviledge the world hath thus much priviledge But the saints they use not onely the Ordinances but they are a meanes to put them into life to make them one with life they know what the Anoninting is what the unction of the Father is But now if you aske me what is mēant by a righteous man Ans Some take it to be meant of Christ himselfe The righteous are as bold as a Lyon that is say they Christ for he onely is righteous and not any man therefore he is cald the Lyon of the tribe of Judah Revel 5.5 But my light sayes this a discription of a saints spirit for there is nothing can be said of Christ but may all so be said of Saints as saints for he lives in the same life with Christ in the same region in the same glory nay he lives in the same Soveraignty and authority is Christ a sonne and heire of his fathers glory So are all Saints they partake of the same sonship the same inheritance is Christ a King so are the Saints partakers of the same Kingship Hath he put downe all rule and all authority and subjected all his enemies under his feer so have the Saints so farre as they live with and in Christ they set their foot upon all their lusts upon all the world they are conquerers over Death and Hell they have set their foot upon the very neck of Sathan I know beloved there be degrees to this life there is a dying before we come to this life but this is certaine as a Saint comes up to this life so he puts downe Principalities and Powers when he lives as a saint he puts downe all rule and all authority that before he was subjected to and captivated under And the very matter of Christs glory the same for nature and kind though not for degrees in this life is a Saints portion Doct. The 2. Observation these words hold forth is from this expression of boldness the righteous are bold Doct. That the people of God are a bold people full of courage Doct. The 3 Doctrine Men and women must of necessity be made righteous by Christ before they can be bold and conragious for Christ All other boldnesse is a false deceiving boldnesse except it proceed from hence in that we are freed set at liberty made righteous by Christ many are bold t is true but t is no true boldnesse t is a presumptuous boldnesse there is a naturall boldnesse and there is a legall boldnesse and there is a pharisaicall boldnesse boldnesse of divers kinds but this true reall unconquerable undeceaveable boldnesse is only to be had and injoyed in the life of Christ being made righteous by him not only by a righteousnesse made out to us but by a righteousnesse revealed in us The next Observation is from the resemblance here used The righteous are as bold as a Lyon T is a comparison taken from the highest and choysest of all Creatures for undaunted boldnesse and courage in that hee fears no creature nothing can turne him out of his way the holy Ghost upon every occasion when he would set out the property and priviledges of Saints he still chuses the choysest of all the creatures to set it out by to set out of what a high choise and raised spirit a Saint is off as he is a Saint the high frame of a Saints spirit that lives with Christ is not to be set out by the choisest of all the creatures and that may be next the point Doct. Doctrine That the highest of creatures is too low to declare the glory of a Saints spirit T is impossible by the choisest of all creatures by the perfection of all creatures to make it out to men in the full glory beawty excellency thereof He that injoyes it knowes it best but he is not able to comprehend it for he is comprehended by it And therefore he himself is not able to make it out to the full but is swallowed up by it These pointes the words hold forth to us but I shall not handle them severally but we will rather chuse to gather the full sence of them all in one conclusion viz. Doct. That Soules made righteous by God are in the injoyment of God transcen dently bold Here are 3 conclusions in one 1. Here is Saints are made righteous 2. Saints thus made righteous they are bold 3. They are transcendently bold For the opening this
pearles and diamonds this soule discovers experiences worth all the world he sells all that he hath to purchase this field where these jewells are Matth. 13.46 But he that reasons himselfe to rest he is not satisfied nor content though he saith he is for he sees no loves no joyes no gatherings no riches in these conditions he longs to have the conditions changed if he could he longs not for the experiences of the condition But the other sayes let me have those sweet experiences and then any condition for those experiences are my riches my life I am now in a gathering way now I see my riches come in instead of envying and wishing for others conditions thou wouldst say no conditions like mine no riches like these riches no credit like this credit what to lie in the very bosom and heart of of Christ That whether he continue poverty or remoove it honnor or remove it so that I may have my joyes my experiences the injoyment of my God for therein is my rest For this man a Saint is contented with God and not with something done by God but with God in all conditions As we may look upon the Spouse in the Cant. let her be buffeted so she may but have her beloved she cares not Cant. 5.7 she will through all for him the reasō is tell him I am sick of love if she have not her beloved give her what you will riches honour parts ordinances oh she cryes out what means all these things you mistake my disease I am sick of love If you be content what means this wishing and woulding what meanes this picking and chusing your conditions what meanes so much envy of others conditions if you see them but before you Does a man that has a thousand pounds that has pearls and diamonds envie him that has but a peny or pibble stones t is never seene Therefore wee may conclude thou hast no Pearles no treasure thou hast not found the field wherein is the pearls thou hast not found God in health and God in sicknesse God in riches and God in poverty and God in parts and God in want of parts and God in all I pray observe this nothing contents the soule but that which answers the soule in all conditions in all its wants riches honour beawty c. doe not answer the soules wants without God be in them it must be something sutable to the soules nature that must be Godlike and spirituall else it will not feed the soule these terrene things feed but sense not saints A child delights not to play but with children not with old men so the soule delights not to play with creatures which are all below God but it loves God and delights in God in the loves and imbraces of God aud God delights in the imbraces of saints their imbraces are mutuall Take this as another consectory from this Doct. Is a saints rest satisfaction in the injoying of God then ti 's not not a sessation of any outward accommodation can cease a saints content and satisfaction for his joy his rest lives when all outward comforts dies As Habac. 3.17 Allthough the figtree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vine the labour of the Olive shall faile and the fields shall yeeld no meat the flock cut off from the fold and their should be no heard in the stalles Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation The Lord God is my strength Againe If so farre as a spirit is content and at rest it s so farre like God then those that professe themselves sonnes and daughters of God and are not content they are not like God they are not sonnes and daughters of God they are not the Image and off-spring of God for those that are Gods sonnes and borne of God they are like God hold forth Gods Image and so farre as we come short of this wee hold forth the Divells image and we are no farther to account our selves the sonnes of God then as wee are begotten of God and so far as we are content with God and God in all things Else we are begotten of the will of man and of the will of flesh and not of the will of God Againe dos this contentation of a Saint give him abilitie to be in a gathering way in all conditions then those that thrive not by all conditions so farre they are no Saints but they are in a scattering undoing way they are scatterers and losers in all condititions because they injoy not God Contentation with God is our greatest gaine and the reason is because this fixes a mans heart to his own portion which is God alone and so farre as we run out from God to the creature for content so farre we run out to strange women to commit adultery and play the harlots as Jer. 3. shewes Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers Jer. 3.1 yet retutne againe unto me saith the Lord. Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her hushand so have you dealt treacherously mith me oh house of Israel All things but God is strange women Againe is he that is content with God free from the combustion of opposition then we gather further that no condition is crosse to this spirit we commonly cry out of crosses from men from friends from enemies crosses by Kings and crosses by Parliaments and why is all this crosses in a Presbiterian way and crosses in an Independent way and why the reason is because our spirits are not laid levell to all conditions to see all conditions equall to him that lives with and in God truly friends think of this seriously our crosses are not without but all our crosses are from within we have wills of our own which crosses and dashes against Gods will in our conditions and hence is the crosse for were my will and the conditions sutable and laid levell here would be no crosse And hence it is we are so unquiet the working of our wills and conditions being so thwart and contrary that they cast up fome mire and dirt and hence it is that we are so unstable we are not fixed but carried up and downe with every wind of doctrine hence it is that so far as we are content with any thing below God we are lyable to the change and confusion of the nature of all things See then friends wherein a saints content and rest lies t is God in friends God in relations God in all outward accommodations you see allso how great a good and benefit arises from this life When they faile God stands we are free from the combustion of opposition that man has no crosse no cōditiō is rough to him ye are in a gathering way ye shall grow rich your heart shall be fixt and not carried away with every wind of doctrine and opinion Lastly this fixes your heart fast to your own portiō which is God himself And those rich injoyments of his glorious outgo-ings Psal 68.24 they have seen thy goings o God even the goings of my God and my King even in the Sanctuary FINIS