is first impressed on the mind hence flowes out pleasant obedience and full of love hence all the affections and the whol body with its members learn to give a willing obedience and submit unto God whereas before they resisted him being under the standerd of Satan This Obedience tho imperfect yet hath a certain if I may so say imperfect perfection It s universal three manner of wayes 1. in the subject 2. In the Object 3. In the duration the whole man subjected to the whole Law and that constantly and perseveringly The first universality is the cause of the other because it s not in the tongue alone or in the hand c. but has its root in the heart therefore doth not wither as the grasse or flower lying on the superfice of the earth but it flourishes because rooted and therefore it embraces the whole Law because it arises from a reverence it has for the Lawgiver himself Reverence I say but tempered with Love hence it accounts no Law nor command little or of small value which is from God because he is great and highly esteemed by the pious heart No command hard tho contrary to the flesh because all things are easie to Love there is the same authority in all as St. Iames divinely argues And this Authority is the golden chain of all the commandments which if broke in any link all falls a pieces That this three fold perfection of obedience is not a picture drawn by fancy is evident in David Psal. 119. where he subjects himself to the whole Law His feet v. 105. his mouth v. 13. his heart v. 11. the whole tenor of his life v. 24. He subjects himself to the whole law v. 6. and he professes his constancy therein in v. 16. and 33. teach me the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end According to the foreknowledge of God the Father The exactest knowledge of things is to know them in their causes it is then an excellent thing and worthy of their endeavours that are most desirous of knowledge to know the best things in their highest Causes and the happiest way of this knowledge is to possess those things and to know them in Experience to such the Apostle here speaks and sets before them the excellency of their spiritual condition and leads them to the causes of it Their Estate is that they are sanctified and justified the nearest cause of both these is Iesus Christ he is made unto them both Righteousness and Sanctification the sprinkling of his blood purifies them from guiltines and quickens them to obedience Now followes to consider the appropriateing or applying Cause the Holy and holy making or sanctifying Spirit the Author of their selecting from the world and effectual calling unto grace The source of all the appointing or decreeing Cause is God the Father for though they all work Equally in all yet in order of working we are taught thus to distinguish and particularly to ascribe the first work of Eternal Election to the first Person of the blessed Trinity In or through Sanctification for to render it Elect to the sanctification is strained so then I conceive this Election is their Effectual Calling which is by the working of the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 26.27.28 where Vocation and Election are used in the same sense Ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise after the flesh c. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to condemn the wise 't is the first act of the decree of Election the beginning of its performance in these that are Elected and 't is in it self a real seperating of men from the profane and miserable Condition of the world and an appropriating and consecrating of a man unto God and therefore both in regard of its relation to Election and in regard of its own nature it well bears that name Rom. 8.28.30 Act. 2.47 13.48 Ioh. 15.19 Sanctification in a narrower sense as distinguished fâ—om Iustification signifieth the inherent holiness of a Christian or his Inclinement and Innablement to obedience mentioned in this verse but 't is here more large and so extends with the whole work of Renovation and is the severing and seperating of men to God by his holy Spirit drawing them unto him and so it comprehends Justification as here and the first working of faith by which the soul is justified through its apprehending and applying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of the spirit The Word calls men externally and by that Eternal calling prevails with many to an External receiving and professing of Religion but if it be left alone it goes no further it is indeed the means of sanctification and effectual calling Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth But this is doth when the spirit that speaks in the Word works in the heart and causes it to hear and obey The Spirit or Soul of a man is the chief and first subject of this work and 't is but slight false work that begins not there but the Spirit here is rather to be taken for the Spirit of God the Efficient then the Spirit of man the Subject of this sanctification And therefore our Saviour in that place prayes to the Father that he would sanctifie his own by that truth and this he doth by the concurrence of his Spirit with that word of truth which is the life and vigour of it and makes it prove the power of God unto salvation to them that believe 't is a fit means in it self but 't is then a prevailing meanes when the Spirit of God brings it in to the heart 't is a Sword and sharper then a two edged Sword fit to divide yea even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit But this it doth not without it be in the Spirits hand and he applyes it to this cutting and dividing The word calls but the Spirit Drawes not sever'd from that word but working in it and by it 'T is a very difficult work to draw a Soul out of the hands and strong chains of Satan and out of the pleasing Entanglements of the world and out of its own natural perversness to yield up it self unto God to deny it self and live to him and in so doing to run against the main stream and the current of the ungodly world without and Corruption within The strongest Rhetorick the most moving and persuasive way of discourse is all too weak the tongue of Men and Angels cannot prevail with the soul to free it self and shake off all that deteins it although it be convinced of the truth of those things that are represented to it yet still it can and will hold out against it and say non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris The hand of Man is too weak to pluck any soul out of the croud of the world and set it in amongst the select number of Believers Only the Father of Spirits hath absolute command of Spirits viz. the Souls of Men
make Christ once the Medium our pure Redeemer and through him as clear transparent Glass the beams of Gods favourable Countenance shine in upon the soul the Father cannot look upon his wellbeloved son but graciously and pleasingly God lookes on us out of Christ sees us rebels and fit to be condemn'd we look on God as being just and powerfull to punish us but when Christ is betwixt God looks on us in him as justified and we look on God in him as pacified and see the smiles of his favourable countenance Take Christ out all is terrible interpose him all is full of peace Therefore set him always betwixt and by him we shall believe in God The warrant and ground of believing in God by him is this that God rais'd him from the dead and gave him glory which evidences the full satisfaction of his death and in all that work both in his humiliation and exaltation standing in our room we may repute it his as ours if all is payed that could be exacted of him and therefore he set free from death then are wee acquitted and have nothing to pay If he was rais'd from the dead and exalted to glory then so shall we he hath taken possession of that glory for us and we may judge our selves possessed in it already because he our head possesseth it And this the last words of the Verse confirm to us in meaning this to be the very purpose and end for which God having given him to death raised him up and gave him glory it s for this end expressly that our faith and hope might be in God The last end is that we may have life and glory through him the nearer end that in the mean while till we attain them we may have firme belief and hope of them and rest on God as the giver of them and so in part enjoy them before hand and be upheld in our joy and conflicts by the comfort of them and as St. Steven in his vision faith doth in a spirituall way look through all the visible heavens and see Christ at the Fathers right hand and is comforted by that in the greatest troubles though it were amidst a showre of stones as he The comfort is no less than this that being by faith made one with Christ his present glory wherein he â—its at the Fathers right hand is assurance to us that where he is we shall be also Verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned Love of the brethren see that ye Love one another with a pure heart fervently JEsus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 'T is a known truth and yet very needful to be often represented to us that Redemption and holiness are undivided Companions yea that we are redeem'd on purpose for this End that we should be Holy The pressing of this we see is here the Apostles scope and having by that reason enforc'd it in the general he now takes that as concluded and confess'd and so makes use of it particularly to exhort that main Christian Grace of brotherly love The Obedience and holiness mention'd in the foregoing Verses comprehends the whole duties and and frame of a Christian life towards God and Men and having urg'd that in the general he specifies this Grace of mutual Christian Love as the great Evidence of their sincerity and the truth of their Love to God for Men are subject to much hypocrisie this way and deceive themselves if they find themselves diligent in religious Exercises they scarce once ask their hearts how they stand affected this way Namely in love to their Brethren They can come constantly to the Church and pray it may be at home too and yet cannot find in their hearts to forgive an Injury As forgiving Injuries argues the truth of Piety so 't is that which makes all converse both sweet and profitable and besides it Graces and commends Men and their holy profession to such as are without and strangers to it yea even to their Enemies Therefore is it that our Saviour doth so much recommend this to his Disciples and they to others as we see in all their Epistles He gives it them as the very badge and Livery by which they should be known for his followers by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another And St. Paul is frequent in exhorting and extolling this Grace Rom. 12.10 13.8 1 Cor. 1.13 Gal. 5.13 Eph. 4.2 and in many other places Colloss 3.14 he calls it the bond of perfectness that Grace which unites and binds all together Our Apostle here and often in this and the other Epistle and that beloved Disciple St. Iohn who leaned on our Saviours brest drunk deep of that spring of Love that was here and therefore it streams forth so abundantly in his writings they contain nothing so much as this divine Doctrine of Love We have here 1. The due Qualifications of it· 2. A Christians Obligation to it The Qualifications are three Namely sincerity purity and fervency The sincerity express'd in the former clause of the Verse unfeigned Love and repeated again in the latter part that it be with a pure heart as the purity is in fervency It appears that this dissimulation is a disease that is very incident in this particular The Apostle St. Paul hath the same word Rom. 12.9 And the the Apostle St. Iohn to the same sense 1 Ioh. 3.18 That it have that double reality which is opposed to double dissembled love that it be Cordial and Effectual that the professing of it arise from truth of affection and as much as may be be seconded with action that both the heart and the hand may be more the seal of it than the tongue Not Court-holy water an empty noise of Service and affection that fears nothing more than to be put upon tryal Although thy Brother with whom thou conversest cannot it may be see through thy false appearances he that commands this Love looks most within seeks it there and if he find it not there hates them most that most pretend it so that art of dissembling never so well studied cannot pass in this Kings Court to whom all hearts are open and all desires known When after Variances Men are brought to an agreement they are much subject to this rather to cover their remaining malices with superficial verbal forgiveness than to dislodge them and free the heart of them this is a poor self deceit as the Philosopher said to him that being ashamed that he was espyed by him in a Tavern in the outer Room withdrew himself to the inner he called after him that 's not the way out the more you go that way you will be the further within it When hatreds upon admonition are not thrown out but retire inward to hide themselves they grow deeper and stronger than before and those
house of God with the voice of Ioy. This is that happy circle wherein the soul moves the more they love it the more they shall tast of this goodness and the more they taste the more they shall still love and desire it But observe if ye have tasted that the Lord is gratious then desire the milk of the Word This is the sweetness of the word that it hath in it the Lords graciousness gives us the knowledge of his love this they find in it that have Spiritual life and senses and those senses exercis'd to discern good and evil and this engages a Christian to further desire of the Word These are fantastical deluding tastes that draw Men from the writen Word and make them expect other Revelations This graciousness is first conveyed to us by the Word there we tast it and therefore there still we are to seek it to hang upon those breasts that cannot be drawn dry there the love of God in Christ streames forth in the several promises the heart that cleaves to the word of God and delights in it cannot but find in it daily new tastes of his goodness there it reads his love and by that stirs up his own to him and so growes loves every day more than the former and thus is tending from tastes to fulness 'T is but little we can receive some drops of joy that enter into us but there we shall enter into joy as vessels put into a Sea of happiness Verse 4 5. 4. To whom coming unto a living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and pretious 5. Ye also as lively Stones are built up a Spitual House an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. THe spring of all the dignities of a Christian and therefore the great motives of all his duties is his near relation to Jesus Christ. Thence it is that the Apostle makes that the great subject of his Doctrine both to represent to his distress'd Brethren their Dignity in that and to press by it the necessary duties he exhorts unto Having spoke of their Spiritual life and growth in him under the resemblance of natural life he prosecutes it here by another comparison very frequent in the Scriptures and therefore makes use in it of some passages of those Scriptures that were Prophetical of Christ and his Church Though there be here two different similitudes yet they have so near Relation one to another and meet so well in the same subject that he joynes them together and then illustrates them severaly in the following Verses a Temple and a Priesthood comparing the Saints to both The former in these words of this Verse We have in it 1. The nature of the building 2. The materials of it 3. The structure or way of building it 1. The nature is a spiritual building Time and place we know receiv'd their being from God and he was Eternaly before both therefore stiled by the Prophet the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity but having made the World he fills it though not as contain'd in it and so the whole frame of it is his Palace or Temple but after a more special manner the higher and statelier part of it the highest Heaven Therefore call'd his holy place and the habitation of his holiness and glory and on earth the houses of his Publick Worship are called his houses especially the Jewish Temple in its time having in it such a relative typical holiness which others have not but besides all these and beyond them all in excellency he hath a house wherein he dwells more peculiarly than in any of the rest even more than in Heaven taken for the place only and that is this spiritual building And this is most suitable to the nature of God as our Saviour sayes of the necessary conformity of his Worship to himself God is a spirit and therefore will be worshipped in spirit and in truth So it holds of his house he must have a Spiritual one because he is a spirit So Gods Temple is his People And for this purpose chiefly did he make the world the heaven and the earth That in it he might raise this spiritual building for himself to dwell in for ever to have a number of his reasonable creatures to enjoy him and glorifie him in eternity and from eternity he knew what the demensions and frame and materials of it should be The continuance of this present world as now it is is but for the service of this work like the scaffolding about it and therefore when this Spiritual building shall be fully compleated all the present frame of things in the world and in the Church it self shall be taken away and appear no more This building is as the particular designing of its materials will teach us the whole invisible Church of God and each good man is a stone of this building but as the nature of it is spiritual it hath this priviledge as they speak of the soul that ' it s tota in toto tota in quâlibet parte as the whole Church is the spouse of Christ and each believing soul hath the same title and dignity to be called so thus each of these stones is called a whole Temple Temples of the holy Ghost though taking the temple or building in a compleater sense they are but each one a part or a stone of it as here it is express'd The whole excellency of this building is compris'd in this that 't is called spiritual differencing it from all other buildings and preserving it to them and because he speaks immediately after of a Priesthood and sacrifices it seems to be call'd a spiritual building particularly in opposition to that material Temple wherein the Iews gloried which was now Null in regard of its former use and was wholly after destroyed But when it stood and the legal use of it stood in fullest vigour yet in this still it was inferiour that it was not a spiritual house made up of living stones as this but of a like matter with other earthly buildings The spiritual house is the palace of the great King of his temple The Hebrew word for palace and temple is one Gods temple is a palace and therefore must be full of the richest beauty and magnificence But such as agrees with the nature of it a spiritual beauty In that Psalm that wishes so many prosperities one is that their daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace thus is the Church that is called the Kings daughter Psa. 45. but her comliness is invisible to the World She is all glorious within through sorrowes and Persecutions she may be smoaky and black to the World's eye as the tents of Kedar but in regard of Spiritual beauty she is comely as the Curtains of Salomon and in this the Jewes Temple resemble it right which had most of its riches and beauty in the inside Holiness
equally from every Minister alike yet it must be acknowledged that there is something we know not what to call it more acceptable reception of those who at first were the means of bringing men to God then others like the opinion some have of Physitians whom they love The Apostle comforts these strangers of this dispersion by the spiritual union which they obtained by Effectual calling and so calls off their eyes from their outward dispersed and dispised condition to look above that as high as the spring of their happiness the free love and Election of God Scattered in the Countries and yet gathered in Gods Election chosen or pickt out Stangers to men amongst whom they dwelt but known and foreknown to God removed from their own Country to which men have naturally an unalterable affection but made heirs of a better as followes verse 3.4 And having within them the evidence both of Eternal Election and that expected salvaâ—ion the Spirit of holiness verse 2. At the best a Christian is bâ—t a Stranger here set him where you will as our Apostle teacheth after and 't is his priviledge that he is so and when he thinks not so he forgets and disparages himself and descends far below his quallity when he is much taken with any thing in this place of his Exile But this is the wisdom of a Christian when he can solace himself against the meaness and any kind of discomfort of his outward condition with the comfortable assurance of the love of God that he hath called him to holiness given him some measure of it and an endeavour after more and by this may he conclude that he hath ordained him unto salvation if either he is a Stranger where he lives or as a stranger deserted of his friends and very near stript of all outward comforts yet may he rejoyce in this that the Eternal unchangable Love of God that is from Everlasting to Everlasting is sealed to his soul O what will it avail a man to be compassed about with the favour of the world to sit unmolested in his own home and possessions and to have them very great and pleasant well moneyed and landed and befriended and yet estranged and sever'd from God not having any token of his special Love To the Elect The Apostle here denominates all the Christians to whom he writes by the condition of true Believers calling them Elect and sanctified c. And the Apostle St. Paul writes in the same stile in his Epistles to the Churches not that all in these Churches were such indeed but because they professed to be such and by that their profession and Calling as Christians they were obliged to be such and as many of them as were in any measure true to that their Calling and profession were really such Besides it would seem not unworthy of Consideration that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians and the number of true believers usually greater in the Churches in those Primitive times then now in the best reformed Churches because there could not then be many of them that were from their Infancy bred in the Christian Faith but for the greatest part were such as being of years of discretion were by the hearing of the Gospel converted from Paganisme and Iuduisme to the Christian Religion first and made a deliberate choise of it to which there were at that time no great outward Encouragements and therefore the lesse danger of multitudes of hypocrites which as Vermine in Summer breed most in the time of the Churches Prosperity Tho no Nation or Kingdom had then universally received the faith but rather hated and persecuted it yet were there even then amongst them as the writings of the Apostles testifie false Brethren and inordinate walkers and men of corrupt minds earthly minded and led with a spirit of envy and contention and vainglory Howsoever the question that is moved concerning the necessary qualifications of all the members of a true visible Church can no way as I conceive be decided from the Inscriptions of the Epistle but eertainly they are useful to teach Christians and Christian Churches what they ought to be and what their holy profession requires of them and sharply to reprove the gross unlikeness and inconformity that is in the most part of man to the description of Christians As there be some that are too strait in their Judgement concerning the being and nature of the visible Church so certainly the greatest part of Churches are too loose in their practice From the dissimilitude betwixt our Churches and those we may make this use of reproof That if aâ— Apostolical Epistle were to be directed to us it behoved to be Inscribed to the Ignorant prophane maliâ—ious c. As he who at the hearing of the Gospel read said Either this is not the Gospel or we are not Christians So either these Charâ—cters given in the Inscription of these Epistles are not true Characters or we are not true Christians Verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinckling of the blood of Iesus Christ. IN this verse we have their Condition and Causes of it Their Condition Sanctified and Iustified the former expressed by Obedience the latter by sprinkling of the blood of Christ. The Causes 1 Eternal Election 2. The Execution of that Decree Their Effectual Calling which I conceive is meant by Election here the selecting them out of the World and joyning them to the fellowship of the Children of God so Ioh. 15.19 The former Election particularly ascribed to God the Father the latter to the Holy Spirit And the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God is here the cause of their Justification and so the whole Trinity concurring dignifie them with this their Spiritual and happy estate First I shall discourse of these seperately and then of their Connection 1. Of the state it selfe and first of Iustification tho named last This sprinkling has respect to the Rite of the Legal Purification by the sprinkling of Blood and that appositely for these Rites of sprinkling and Blood did all point out this Blood and this Sprinkling and exhibited this true ransome of souls which was only shadowed by them As the use and end of Sprinkling was Purification and Expiation because sin merited death and that the pollutions and staines of human nature was by sin Such is the pollution that it can be no manner of way washt off but by Blood Heb. 9. â—2 Neither is there any Blood able to purge from sin except the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ which is called the blood of God Act. 20.28 That the stain of sin can only be washt off by Blood inâ—imates that it merits Death And that no Blood but that of the Son of God can do it intimates that this stain merits Eternal Death and it had been our portion except the death of the Eternal Lord of life had freed
Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God Who can conceive whence this should be that any man should believe unless it be given him of God and if given him then it was his purpose to give it him and if so then is it evident that he had a purpose to save him and for that end he gives faith not therefore purposes to Save because Man shall believe 4. This seems cross to these Scriptures where they speak of the subordination or rather Coordination of those two as here Foreknown and Elect not because of Obedience or sprinkling or any such thing but to Obedience and sprinkling which is by faith So he predestinated not because he foresaw Men would be conform to Christ but that they might be so as Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and the same order Act. 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church dayly such as should be saved and 13.48 And as many as were ordained to Eternal life believed This Foreknowledge then is his Eternal and Unchangable Love and that thus he Chuseth some and rejecteth others is for that great End to manifest and magnifie his Mercy and Justice but why he appointed this Man for the one and the other for the other made Peter a vessel of this mercy and Iudas of wrath this is even so because it seemed good to him This if it be harsh yet is Apostolick Doctrine Hath not the Potter saith St. Paul power over the same Lump to make one Vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour This deep we must admire and alwayes in considering it close with this O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God Now the Connexion of these we are for our profit to take notice of that effectual Calling is inseparably tyed to this Eternal Foreknowledge or Election on the one side and Salvation on the other These two links of the chain are up in Heaven in Gods own hand but this middle one is let down to earth into the hearts of his Children and they laying hold on it hath sure hold on the other two for no power can sever them and therefore the reading the characters of Gods Image in their own souls those are the counterpain of the golden characters of his Love in which their names are written in the Book of Life Their believing writes their names under the promises of the revealed Book of Life the Scriptures and so ascertains them that the same names are in the secret Book of Life that God hath by himself from Eternity So finding the stream of grace in their hearts tho they see not the Fountain whence it flowes nor the Ocean into which it returns yet they know that it hath its source and shall return to that Ocean which ariseth from their Eternal Election and Salvation and shall empty it selfe into Eternity of happiness Hence much joy ariseth to the Believer this tye indissolvable as the Agents are the Father the Son and the Spirit So Election and Vocation and Sanctification and Iustification and Glory and therefore in all conditions they may from the sence of the working of the Spirit in them look back to that Election and forward to that Salvation but they that remain unholy and dissobedient have as yet no evidence of this Love and therefore cannot without vain presumptions and self delusion Judge thus of themselves that they are within the peculiaâ— Love of God but in this Let the Righteous be glad and let them shout for joy all that are upright in heart 'T is one main point of happiness that he that is happy doth know and judge himselfe to be so this being the peculiar good of a reasonable creature 't is to be enjoyed in a Reasonable way 't is not as the dull resting of a Stone or any other natural body in its natural place but the knowledge and consideration of it is the fruition of it the very relishing and tasting its sweetness The perfect blessedness of the Saints is abiding them above but even their present condition is truly happy tho incompleatly and but a small beginning of that which they expect and this their present happiness is so much the more the more clear knowledge and firm perswasion they have of it 't is one of the pleasant fruits of the Godly to know the things that are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Therefore the Apostle to comfort his dispersed Brethren sets before them a description of that excellent Spiritual Condition to which they are called If they be inseparably linkt together then by any one of them a man may lay hold upon all the rest and may know that his hold is sure and this is that way wherein we may attain and ought to seek that comfortable assurance of the Love of God Therefore Make your Calling sure and by that your Election for that being done this follows of it self We are not to pry immediately into the Decree but to read it in the performance though the Mariner sees not the Pole-star yet the Needle of the Compass that points to it tells him which way he sails thus the heart that is touched with the Loadstone of Divine Love trembling with godly fear and yet still looking towards God by fixed believing it points at the Love of Election and tells the soul that its courss is heavenward towards the Haven of Eternal rest He that Loves may be sure he was loved first and he that chuses God for his delight and Portion may conclude confidently that God hath chosen him to be one of those that shall enjoy him and be happy in him for ever for that our Love and Electing of him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of his Love shining upon us Find thou but within thee Sanctification by the Spirit and this argues necessarily both Justification by the Son and the Election of God the Father 1 Ioh. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit 'T is a most strange demonstration ab Effectu reciproco He Called those he hath Elected he Elected those he Called where this sanctifying Spirit is not there can be no perswasion of this Eternal Love of God they that are Children of disobedience can conclude no otherwise of themselves but that they are the Children of wrath Although from present unsanctification a Man cannot inferre that he is not Elected for the Decree may for part of a Mans life run as it were under-ground Yet this is sure that that estate leads to death and unless it be broken will prove the black line of reprobation A man hath no Portion amongst the Children of God nor can read one word of Comfort in all the Promises that belongs to them while he remains unholy Men may please themselves in prophane Scoffing at the Holy Spirit of Grace but let them withal know this that that Holy Spirit
apparent of Eternal flames 'T is an Everlasting Inheritance too but so much the more fearful being of Everlasting Misery or so to speak of Immortal Death and we are made sure to it they who remain in that Condition cannot lose their Right although they gladly would escape it they shall be forâ—'d to enter Possession But 't is by a new and supernatural Birth that men are both freed from their Engagement to that woful Inheritance and invested into the Rights of this other here mentioned as full of happiness as the former is miserable Thefore are they said here to be begotten again to that lively Hope God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath begotten us again And thus are the Regenerate the Children of an Immortal Father and so entituled to an Inheritance of immortality if Children then Heirs heirs of God This Sonship is by Adoption in Christ therefore added joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 we Adopted and He the only begotten Son of God by an Eternal Ineffable generation And yet this our Adoption is not a meer extrinsecal denomination as is adoption amongst Men but accompanied with a real Change in those that are adopted a new Nature and Spirit infus'd into them by reason of which as they are Adopted to this their Inheritance in Christ they are likewise begotten of God and born again to it by the Supernatural work of Regeneration They are like their heavenly Father they have his Image renewed on their Souls and their Fathers Spirit They have and are acted and led by it This is that great Mistery of the Kingdome of God that puzled Nicodemus it was darkness to him at first till he was instructed in that Night under the covert whereof he came to Christ. Nature cannot conceive of any Generation or birth but that which is within its own compass only they that are partakers of this Spiritual Birth understand what it means to others it is a Ridle an unsavory unpleasant subject 'T is sometime ascribed to the subordinate means to Baptism called therefore the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 To the Word of God Iam. 1.18 It s that Immortal Seed whereby we are born again by the Ministers of this Word and the seals of it as 1 Cor. 4.15 For though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers For in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel As also Gal. 4.19 But all those have their vigour and efficacy in this great work from the Father of Spirits who is their Father in their first Creation and Infusion and in this their Regeneration which is a new and second Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Divines have reason to inferre from the Nature of Conversion thus exprest that Man doth not bring any thing to this work himself 't is true he hath a will as his natural Faculty but that this Will Embraces the offer of Grace and turns to him that offers it is from Renewing Grace that sweetly and yet strongly strongly and yet sweetly inclines it I. Nature cannot raise it selfe to this more then a man can give natural being to himselfe 2. 'T is not a superficial change 't is a new life and being A moral man in his changes and Reformations of himselfe is still the same man though he Reform so far as Men in their ordinary phrase call him quite another Man yet in truth till he be born again there is no new nature in him The Slugard turns on his bed as the door on the hinges sayes Solomon Thus the Natural man turns from one custome and posture to another but never turns off But the Christian by vertue of this new birth can say indeed ego non sum ego I am not the same man I was You that are Nobles aspire to this honourable Condition add this Nobleness to the other for it far surpasses it make it the Crown of all your honours and advantages And you that are of mean birth or if you have any Crack or stain in your birth the only way to make up and repair all and truly to Enoble you is this to be the Sons of a King yea of the King of Kings and this Honour have all his Saints To as many as received him he gave this priviledge to be the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 Vnto a lively Hope Now we are the Sons of God saith the Apostle 1 Ioh. 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be These Sons are Heirs but all this lifetime is their underage yet even then being partakers of this New Birth and Sonship they have Right to it and in the assuronce of that Right this Living Hope As an Heir when he is Capable of those thoughts hath not only Right of Inheritance but may rejoyce in the hope he hath of it and please himself in thinking on 't but hope is said to be only of an uncertain good true in the world's phrase 't is so for their Hope is conversant in uncertain things or in things that may be certain after an uncertain manner all their woldly Hopes are tottering built upon sand and their Hopes of Heaven are but blind and groundless Conjectures but the Hope of the Sons of the Living God is a living Hope That which Alexander said when he dealt liberally about him that he left hope to himself the Children of God may more wisely and happily say when they leave the hot pursuit of the world to others and despise it their Portion is Hope the thread of Alexanders life was â—ut off in the midst of his Victories and so all his Hopes evanished but their hope cannot dye nor disapoint them But then it s said to be Lively not only Objectively But Effectively Enlivening and Comforting the Children of God in all Distresses Enabling them to encounter and surmount all difficulties in the way And then it is formally so it cannot fail dyes not before accomplishment Worldly Hopes often mock Men and so cause them to be ashamed and Men take it as a great blot and are most of all ashamed of those things that discover weakness of judgment in them now worldly Hopes doe thus they put the fool upon a Man when he hath judged himself sure and laid so much weight and expectation on them then they break and foyl him they are not Living but Lying Hopes and dying Hopes they die often before us and we live to bury them and see our own own Folly and Infelicity in trusting to them but at the utmost they dye with us when we dye and can accompany us no further But this Hope answers Expectation to the full and much beyond it and deceives no way but that happy one of far exceeding it A living Hope living in Death it selfe The World dare say no more for its devise but dum spiro spero but the Children of God can add by vertue of this living Hope dum exspiro
he forget who he is and by what means he attain'd to be what he is therefore the Apostle persuading his Brethren no holiness puts them in mind of this as the strongest incentive not onely have you the Example of God set before you as your father to beget in you the love of holiness being your liveliest resemblance of him and the justice of God as your Judge to argue you into a pious fear of offending him but Consider this that he is your Redeemer he hath bought out your liberty from sin and the world to be altogether his and think on the price laid down in this Ransome and these out of question will prevaile with you We have here The evil dissuaded from viz. A vain Conversation 2. the dissuasion it self 1. 't is called Their vain Conversation 2. Receiv'd by tradition from their fathers By this I conceive is not onely understood the superstitions and vain devices in Religion that abounded amongst the Jews by tradition of which our Saviour often reproved them while he was conversant amongst them as we find in the Gospel and all this was mean't Verse 14. by the Lusts of their former ignorance but generally all the corrupt and sinfull customes of their lives for it seems not so pertinent to his purpose exhorting to Holiness of life to speak of their superstitious Traditions as their other sinfull habitudes which are no less hereditary and by the power of Example traditionall which by reason of their common Root in Mans sinfull nature do so easily pass from parents to Children Nature making their Example powerfull and the Corruption of Nature giving iâ— most power in that which is Evill And this is the rather mention'd to take away the force of it and cut of that influence which it might have had into their mindes there is a kind of Conversation that the authority of your fathers pleads for but Remember that it is that very thing from which you are delivered and called to a new estate and form of life and have a new patterne set before you instead of that corrupt Example 'T is one great Errour not onely in Religion and manners but even in humane science that Men are ready to take things upon trust unexamin'd from these that went before them partly out of easiness and sparing the paines of triall partly out of a superstitious overesteem of their Authority but the chief Reason why corruptions in Religion and practice of preceeding ages take so much with posterity is that before mention'd the universal sympathy and agreement that those evils have with the corrupt Nature of Man The Prophet Ezekiel observes this particularly in the Jewes Chap. 20. Verse 24. That their eyes were after their Fathers Idols Contrary to Gods express forewarning Verse 18. This was the great quarrel of the Heathens against the Christian Religion in the Primitive times that it was new and unknown to their Fathers and the ancient Writers of those times are frequent in shewing the vanity of this exception particularly Lactantius Instit. lib. 2. cap. 7 8. The same prejudice doth the Church of Rome sing over continually against the Reform'd Religion where was it before Luther c. But this is a foolish and reasonless diversion from the search of Truth because Errour is more at hand or from the entertaining it being found because falshood is in possession As in Religion so in the course and practise of Mens lives the stream of sin runs from one age into another and every age makes it greater adding somewhat to what it receives as Rivers grow in their course by the accession of Brookes that fall into them and every Man when he is born falls like a drop into this main current of Corruption and so is carried with it down and this by reason of its strength and his own nature which willingly dissolves into it and runs along with it In thiâ— is manifest the power of Divine Grace in a Mans Conversion that it severs him so powerfully from the prophane World and gives him strength to run contrary to the great current of wickedness that is round about him in his Parents possibly and in his Kindred and Friends and in the most of Men that he meets withal The voice of God that powerful word of Effectual calling that he speaks in to the heart makes a Man break through all and leave all to â—ollow God as Abraham did being called out from his kindred and Fathers house to journey towards the Land that God had promis'd him And this is that which is spoke to the Church and to each believing soul by the spirit of God Forget also thine own People and thy Fathers house so shall the King greatly delight in thy beauty regard not what others think though thy nearest friends but study only to please him and then thou shalt please him indeed do not deform thy face with looking out a squint to the custom of the World but look straight forward on him and so thou shalt be beautiful in his eyes When God calls a Man in a remarkable manner his prophane Friends are all in a tumult what needs this to be more precise then we and all your Neighbours But all this is a confused noise that works nothing on the heart that the Lord hath touched it must follow him though by trampling upon friends and kindred if they lye in the way we see how powerfully a word from Christ drew his Disciples to leave all and follow him The Exhortation is against all sinful and unholy conversation by what Authority and Example soever recommended to us the Apostles Reasons in those words are strong and pressing there is one express'd in the very Name he gives it 't is vain Conversation The mind of Man the Guide and source of his actions while it is Estranged from God is nothing but a forge of vanities the Apostle St. Paul speaks this of the Gentiles that they became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned Rom. 1.21 Their great Naturalists and Philosophers not excepted and the more they strove to play the wise men the more they befool'd themselves thus likewise Eph. 4.17 and thus the Lord complains by his Prophet of the extream folly of his People Isay. 44.20 and by Ieremy that their bearâ—s are lodges of vain thoughts and these are the true cause of a vain Conversation The whole course of a Mans life out of Christ is nothing but a continual trading in Vanity running a Circle of toyle and labour and reaping no profit at all This is the vanity of every natural Mans Conversation that not only others are not benefited by it but it is fruitless to himself there arises to him no solid good out of it That is most truly vain that attains not its proper end Now all a Mans endeavours aiming at his satisfaction and Contentment that Conversation that gives him nothing of that but removes him further from it is justly called
constrained semblances of reconcilement are but a false healing do but skin it over and therefore usually it breaks forth worse again How few are there that have truly maliceless hearts and find this intire upright affection towards their Brethren meeting them in their whole Conversation this Law of love deeply impress'd on their hearts and from thence express'd in their words and actions and that is unfeigned love as real to their Brethren as to themselves 2. It must be pure from a pure heart this is not all one with the former as some take it 'T is true doubleness and hypocrisie is an impurity and a great one but all impurity is not doubleness one may really mean that friendship and affection he expresses and yet it may be most contrarie to that which is here requir'd because impure such a brotherly Love as that of Simeon and Levi brethen in Iniquity as the expressing them brethren Gen. 49. is taken to mean When hearts are cemented together by impurity it selfe by ungodly conversation and society in sin as in uncleanness or drunkenness c. This is a swinish fraternity and friendship that is contracted as it were by wallowing in the same mire call it good fellowship or what you will all the fruit that in the end can be expected out of unholy friendliness and fellowship in sinning together is to be tormented together and add each to the torment of another The mutual Love of Christians must be pure arising from such causes as are pure and spiritual from the sense of our Saviour's Command and of his example For he himself joynes that with it A new Commandment give I you saith he that as I have loved you so you also love one another They that are indeed Lovers of God they are united by that their hearts meet in him as in one center They cannot but love one another where a godly Man sees his Fathers Image he is forc'd to love it he he loves those he perceives Godly so as to delight in them because that Image is in them and those that appear destitute of it he loves them so as to wish them partakers of that Image And this is all for God he loves Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum That is he loves a friend in God and an Enemy for God And as the Christians love is pure in its Cause so in its Effects and Exercise his society and converse with any tends mainly to this that he may muâ—ually help and be helpt in the knowledge and love of God desires most that he and his brethren may joyntly mind their journey heavenwards and further one another in their way to the full Enjoyment of God And this is truly the love of a pure heart that both begins and ends in God Fervently Not after a cold indifferent manner Let the Love of your Brethren be as a fire within you consuming that selfishness that is so contrary to it and is so natural to Men let it set your thoughts on work to study how to do others good let your love be an active Love intense within you and extending it selfe in doing good to the souls and bodies of your Brethren as they need and you are able Alium re alium concilio alium gratiâ as Sen. de benef Lib. 1. cap. 2. It is selfe-love that contracts the heart and shuts out all other Love both of God and Men save only so far as our own Interest carries and that is still self-love But the Love of God dilates the heart purifies Love and extends it to all Men but after a special manner directs it to those that are more peculiarly beloved of him and that is hero the particular love required Love of the Brethren In this is Implied our Obligation to it after a special manner to love those of the houshold of faith because they are our Brethren This concludes not only as Abraham said that there ought to be no strife but it binds most strongly to this sincere and pure and fervent love and therefore the Apostle in the next Verse repeats expresly the Doctrine of the mysterious New-birth and explains it more fully which he had mention'd in the entrance of the Epistle and again referr'd to it Verse 14 17. There is in this fervent Love sympathy with the griefs of our Brethren desire and endeavour to help them bearing their Infirmities and recovering them too if it may be raising them when they fall admonishing and reproving them as is needful sometimes sharply and yet still in Love Rejoycing in their good in their Gifts and Graces so far from envying them that we be glad as if they were our own there is the same blood running in their veins you have the same Father and the same spirit within you and the same Jesus Christ the head of that glorious fraternity the first born among many Brethren of which the Apostle saith Eph. 1.10 that he hath recollected into one all things in heaven and in earth The word is gathered them into one head And so suits very fitly to express that our union in him in whom sayes he in that same Epistle c. 4.16 The whole body is fitly compacted together and addes that which agrees to our purpose that this body grows up and edifies it selfe in love All the members receive spirits from the same head and are useful and serviceable one to another and to the whole body Thus these Brethren receiving of the same spirit from their head Christ are most strongly bent to the good one of another If there be but a thorn in the Foot the Back boweth the Head stoops down the Eyes look the Hands reach to it and endeavour its help and case In a word all the members partake of the good and evil one of another Now by how much this body is more spiritual and lively so much the stronger must the union and love of the parts of it be each to other You are brethren by the same new birth and born to the same Inheritance and such an one as shall not be an Apple of strife amongst you to beget debates and contentions No 't is enough for all and none shall prejudge another but you shall have joy in the happiness one of another seeing you shall then be perfect in love all harmony no difference in judgement nor affection all your harps tun'd to the same new Song which you shall sing for ever let that love begin here which shall never end And this same union I conceive is likewise pressed in the first words of the verse seeing you are partakers of that work of sanctification by the same word and the same spirit that works it in all the faithfull and by that are called and incorporate into that fraternity therefore live in it and like it You are purified to it therefore love one another after that same manner purely Let the profane world scoffe that name of Brethren you will not be so foolish
know that this divine adoption is not a mere outward Relative Name as that of men The sonship of the Saints is here and often elsewhere in scripture express'd by new Generation and new birth They are begotten of God Io. 1.13 1. Io. 2.29 There is a new being a spirituall life communicated to them they have in them of their Fathers spirit and this is derived to them through Christ and therefore called his spirit Gal. 4.6 They are not onely accounted of the family of God by Adoption but by this new birth they are indeed his Children partakers of the divine nature as our Apostle expresseth it Now though it be easie to speak and hear the words of this Doctrine yet the truth it self that is in it is so high and mysterious that it is altogether impossible without a portion of this new nature to conceive of it Corrupt nature cannot understand it what wonder that there is nothing of it in the subtilest Schooles of Philosophers when a very doctor in Israel mistook it grossely Io. 3. It is indeed a great mystery and he that was the sublimest of all the Evangelist and therefore call'd the Divine the soaring Eagle as they compare him he is more abundant in this subject than the rest And the most profitable way of considering this Regeneration and Sonship is certainly to follow the light of those holy writings and not to jangle in disputes about the order and manner of it of which though somewhat may be profitably said and safely Namely so much as the scripture speaks yet much that is spoke of it and debated by many is but an useless expence of time and paines What those previous dispositions are and how far they go and where is the march or point of difference betwixt them and the infusion of spirituall life I conceive not so easily determinable If Naturalists and Physicians cannot agree upon the order of â—ormation of the body's parts in the womb how much less can we be peremptory in the other If there be so many wonders as indeed there be in the naturall structure and frame of Man how much richer in wonders must this divine and supernaturall Generation be see how David speaks of the former Psal. 14.15 Things spirituall being more refin'd than Materiall things their workmanship must be far more wonderfull and curious But then it must be with a spirituall eye There is an unspeakable lustre and beauty of the new Creature by the mixture of all divine Graces each setting off another as so many rich severall colours in embroidery but who can trace that invisible hand that works it so as to determine of the order and to say which was first which second and so on whether Faith or Repentance and all Graces c. This is certain that these and all graces doe inseparably make up the same work and are all in the new formation of every soul that is born again If the wayes of Gods universall providence be untraceable then most of all the workings of his Grace in a secret unperceivable way in this new birth He gives this spirituall being as the dew which is silently and insensibly formed and this Generation of the sons of God compar'd to it by the Psalmist they have this originall from heaven as the dew Io. 3.3 Except a man be born from above he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And 't is the peculiar work of the spirit of God as he himself speaks of the dew to Iob. Iob. 38.28 hath the Rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of the dew The sharpest witts are to seek in the knowledge and discovery of it as Iob speaketh of a way that no fowl knoweth and which the vultures eye hath not seen Iob. 28.7 To contest it much how in this Regeneration he works upon the will and renews it is to little purpose providing this be granted that it is in his power to Regenerate and Renew a Man at his pleasure And how is it possible not to grant this unless we will run into that Error to think that God hath made a Creature too hard for himself to Rule or hath willingly exempted it and shall the works of the Almighty and of all others especially this work wherein he glories most fail in his hand and remain Imperfect shall there be any abortive births whereof God is the father shall I bring to the birth sayes he and not cause to bring forth No no sinner so dead but there is vertue in his hand to revive out of the very stones Tho the most impenitent hearts are as stones within them yet he can make of them children to Abraham He can digg out the heart of stone and put a heart of flesh in its place otherwayes he would not have made such a promise Io. 1.13 Not of flesh nor of the will of Man but of God If his soveraigne will is not a sufficient principle of this Regeneration why then sayes the Apostle St. Iames Of his own will begat he us and he addes the subordinate Cause by the word of truth which is here called the Immortall seed of this new birth Therefore 't is that the Lord hath appointed the continuance of the Ministry of this word to the end that his Church may be still fruitfull bringing forth sons unto him That the Assemblies of his people may be like flocks of sheep coming up from the washing none harren amongst them Though the Ministers of this word by reason of their employment in dispensing it have by the Scriptures the Relation of Parents imparted to them which is an exceeding great dignity for them as they are called co-workers with God And the same Apostle that writes so calls the Galatians his little Children of whom he travell'd in birth again till Christ were formed in them and the Ministers of God have often very much pain in this travel yet the priviledge of the Father of spirits remains untouched which is effectually to beget again these same Spirits which he creates and to make that seed of the word fruitful that way where and when he will The Preacher of the Word be he never so powerful can cast this seed only into the Ear his hand reaches no further and the hearer by his attention may convey it into his head but 't is the Supream Father and Teacher above that carries it in to the heart the only soyl wherein it proves lively and fruitful One Man cannot reach the heart of another how should he then renew its fruitfulness If natural births hath been alwayes acknowledged to belong to Gods prerogative Psal. 127.3 Lo Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward And so Iacob answered wisely to his Wife 's foolish passion am I in Gods stead how much more is this new birth wholly dependant on his hand But though this word cannot beget without him yet 't is by this Word that he begets and ordinarily not