are enlightned by his vvisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting vvith manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore vvho by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the vvofull bondage of the Law of sin of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us vvhat vvee cannot now doe and vvhips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath and as many as are of the workes of the Law are under the curse Sinne is a vvorse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Upon sinne necessarily follows misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace From death and therein from all miseries O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then let the Lavv doe his vvorst we are not under the Law but under Grace The case therefore is altered betwixt the Law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our vvork it is our School-master to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemne us it is a friendly guide to set us the vvay towards heaven Let sin joyn his forces together vvith the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his owne Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let death joyn his forces vvith them both vve are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death What can vve therefore fear vvhat can vve suffer vvhiles Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches our strength our glory our salvation our all he is all to us and all is ours in him From these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall vvherewith vve are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our ways and vvorking secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mis-laying thy claime to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our owne and onely will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane convciances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcells doe lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fancied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heyres as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Commonwealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertaine sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other retch the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordred humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heire and according to the high expression of the holy ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-harted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great now mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our owne how can we goe lesse when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poore comfort to us if by vertue of this union wee could only lay claime to all earthly things alas how vaine and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the meane while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we
a greater never allowed as good neither had so much as that toleration ever been if the hard-heartednesse and cruelty of that people had not enforced it upon Moses in a prevention of further mischief 〈◊〉 what place can this finde with a God in whom there is an infinite tendernesse of love and mercy No time can be any check to his gracious choice the inconstant mindes of us men may alter upon sleight dislikes our God is ever himself Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever with him there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning Divorces were ever grounded upon hatred No man saith the Apostle ever yet hated his owne flesh much lesse shall God do so who is love it self His love and our union is like himself everlasting Having loved his own saith the Disciple of Love which were in the world he loved them to the end He that hates putting away can never act it so as in this relation we are indissoluble Can they have received that bread which came down from heaven and that flesh which is meat indeed and that bloud which is drink indeed can their souls have digested it by a lively faith and converted themselves into it and it into themselves and can they now think it can be severed from their own substance Can they finde themselves truly ingraffed in the tree of life and grown into one body with that heavenly plant and as a living branch of that tree bearing pleasant and wholesome fruit acceptable to God and beneficiall to men and can they look upon themselves as some withered bough fit onely for the fire Can they find themselves living stones surely laid upon the foundation Jesus Christ to the making up of an heavenly Temple for the eternall inhabitation of God and can they think they can be shaken out with every storm of Temptation Have these men ever taken into their serious thoughts that divine prayer and meditation which our blessed Redeemer now at the point of his death left for an happy farewell to his Church in every word whereof there is an heaven of comfort Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve in me through their word That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may bee one with us And the glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me Oh heavenly consolation oh indefeasible assurance what roome can there be now here for our diffidence Can the Son of God pray and not be heard For himselfe hee needs not pray as being eternally one with the Father God blessed for ever he prays for his his prayer is That they may be one w th the Father him even as they are one They cannot therefore but be partakers of this blessed union and being partakers of it they cannot be dissevered And to make sure work that glory which the Father gave to the Son of his Love they are already through his gracious participation prepossessed of here they have begun to enter upon that heaven from which none of the powers of hell can possibly eject them Oh the unspeakably happy condition of beleevers Oh that all the Saints of God in a comfortable sense of their inchoate blessednesse could sing for joy and here before-hand begin to take up those Hallelujahs which they shall ere long continue and never end in the Chore of the highest Heaven Having now taken a view of this blessed union in the nature and resemblances of it it will be time to bend thine eyes upon those most advantageous consequents and high priviledges which doe necessarily follow upon and attend this heavenly conjunction Whereof the first is that which we are wont to account sweetest Life Not this naturall life which is maintained by the breath of our nosthrils Alas what is that but a bubble a vapour a shadow a dreame nothing as it is the gift of a good God worthy to be esteemed precious but as it is considered in its own transitorinesse and appendent miseries and in comparison of a better life not worthy to take up our hearts This life of nature is that which ariseth from the union of the body with the soul many times enjoyed upon hard tearms the spirituall life which we now speak of arising from the union betwixt God and the soul is that wherein there can be nothing but perfect contentment and joy unspeakable and full of glory Yea this is that life which Christ not only gives but is he that gave himself for us gives himselfe to us and is that life that he gives us When Christ which is our life shall appeare saith the Apostle And Christ is to me to live and most emphatically I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee Lo it is a common favour that in him we live but it is an especiall favour to his own that he lives in us Know you not your own selves saith the Apostle how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobates and wheresoever he is there he lives we have not a dead Saviour but a living and where he lives he animates It is not therefore Saint Pauls case alone it is every beleevers who may truly say I live yet not I but Christ liveth in mee now how these lives and the authors of them are distinguished is worth thy carefullest consideration Know then my son that every faithfull mans bosome is a Rebeccaes womb wherein in there are twins a rough Esau and the seed of promise the old man and the new the flesh and the spirit and these have their lives distinct from each other the new man lives not the life of the old neither can the old man live the life of the new it is not one life that could maintain the opposite struglings of both these Corrupt nature is it that gives and continues the life of the old man It is Christ that gives life to the new we cannot say but the old man or flesh is the man too For I know saith the chosen Vessell that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing but the spirituall part may yet better challenge the title For I delight in the Law of God after the inward man That old man of ours is derived from the first Adam as we sinned in him so hee liveth in us The second Adam both gives and is the life of our regeneration like as he is also the life of our glory the life that follows our second resurrection I am saith he the resurrection and the life What is it then whereby the new creature lives surely no other then the Spirit of Christ that alone is it that gives beeing and life to the renued soule Life is no
regenerate soul hath an inherent justice or righteousnesse in it self He that is righteous let him be righteous still saith the Angel But at the best this righteousness of ours is like our selves full of imperfection If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand So then hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous but by pardon and indulgence because the righteousnesse he doth is weak and imperfect he that is made righteousnesse is perfectly righteous by a gracious acceptation by a free imputation of absolute obedience Wo were us if wee were put over to our own accōplishments for Cursed is every one that cōtinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them and If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Lo if there be truth in us we must confesse we have sinne in us and if we have sin we violate the Law and if we violate the Law we lye open to a curse But here is our comfort that our surety hath paid our debt It is true we lay forfaited to death Justice had said The soul that sinneth shall die Mercy interposeth and satisfies The Son of God whose every drop of bloud was worth a world payes this death for us And now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercessiō for us Our sin our death is laid upon him and undertaken by him He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him and with his stripes we are healed His death his obedience is made over to us So then the sin that we have committed and the death that we have deserved is not ours but the death which he hath endured and the obedience that he hath performed is so ours as he is ours who is thereupon made of God our righteousnesse Where now are those enemies of grace that scoffe at imputation making it a ridiculous paradox that a man should become just by another mans righteousnesse How dare they stand out against the word of truth which tels us expresly that Christ is made our righteousnesse What strangers are they to that grace they oppugn How little do they consider that Christ is ours his righteousnesse therefore by which we are justified is in him our own Hee that hath borne the iniquitie of us all hath taught us to call our sinnes our debts those debts can be but once paid if the bounty of our Redeemer hath staked down the sums required and cancelled the bonds and this payment is through mercy fully accepted as frō our own hands what danger what scruple can remain What doe we then weak souls tremble to think of appearing before the dreadfull tribunall of the Almighty we know him indeed to be infinitely and inflexibly just we know his most pure eyes cannot abide to behold sin we know wee have nothing else but sinne for him to behold in us Certainly were we to appear before him in the meer shape of our own sinfull selves we had reason to shake and shiver at the apprehension of that terrible appearance but now that our faith assures us we shall no otherwise bee presented to that awfull Judge then as cloathed with the robes of Christs righteousnesse how confident should we be thus decked with the garments of our elder brother to carry away a blessing whiles therefore we are dejected with the conscience of our own vilenesse we have reason to lift up our heads in the confidence of that perfect righteousnesse which Christ is made unto us and we are made in him At the barre of men many a one is pronounced just who remains inwardly foule and guilty for the best of men can but judge of things as they appear not as they are but the righteous Arbiter of the world declares none just whom he makes not holy The same mercy therefore that makes Christ our righteousnesse makes him also our sanctification of our selves wretched men what are we other at our best then unholy creatures full of pollution and spirituall uncleannesse it is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthinesse of our flesh and spirit and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy stil neither can there be anything more abhorring from his infinite justice and holinesse then to justifie those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions Certainly they never truly learnt Christ who would draw over Christs righteousnesse as a case of their close wickednesses that sever holinesse from justice and give no place to sanctification in the evidence of their justifying Never man was justified without faith and wheresoever faith is there it purifieth and cleanseth But besides that the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully though gradually within us That he may sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word his holinesse is mercifully imputed to us That he may present us to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that wee should bee holy and without blemish so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection is abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his When therefore we look into our bosomes we finde just cause to bee ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when vve east up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours vvee have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the conscience of our own vilenesse and to look God in the face with an awfull boldnesse as those vvhom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one Redemption vvas the great errand for vvhich the Sonne of God came down into the vvorld and the vvorke vvhich hee did vvhiles hee vvas in the vvorld and that vvhich in vvay of application of it hee shall bee ever accomplishing till he shall deliver up his Mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father in this he begins in this he finishes the great businesse of our salvation For those who in this life
and counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing how had I in some sort done despight unto the spirit of grace yet even then in despight of all my most odious unworthinesse didst thou spread abroad thine arms to receive me yea thou openedst thine heart to let me in O love passing not knowledge onely but wonder also O mercy not incident into any thing lesse then infinite nor by any thing lesse comprehensible But oh dear Lord when from the object of thy mercy I cast mine eyes upon the effects and improvement of thy divine favours and see what thy love hath drawn from thee towards the sons of men how am I lost in a just amazement It is that which fetcht thee down from the glory of the highest heavens from the bosome of thine eternall Father to this lower world the region of sorrow and death It is that which to the wonder of Angels cloathed thee with this flesh of ours and brought thee who thoughtst it no robbery to be equall with God to an estate lower then thine own creatures Oh mercy transcending the admiration of all the glorious spirits of heaven that God would bee incarnate Surely that all those celestiall powers should be redacted to either worms or nothing that all this goodly frame of creation should run back into its first confusion or be reduced to one single atome it is not so high a wonder as for God to become man those changes though the highest that nature is capable of are yet but of things finite this is of an infinite subject with which the most excellent of finite things can hold no proportion Oh the great mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels Those heavenly spirits had ever since they were made seen his most glorious Deity and adored him as their omnipotent Creator but to see that God of spirits invested with flesh was such a wonder as had been enough if their nature could have been capable of it to have astonished even glory it self And whether to see him that was their God so humbled below themselves or to see humanity thus advanced above themselves were the greater wonder to them they onely know It was your foolish misprison O ye ignorant Listrians that you took the servants for the Master here onely is it verified which you supposed that God is come down to us in the likenesse of man and as man conversed with men What a disparagement doe wee think it was for the great Monarch of Babylon for seven years together as a beast to converse with the beasts of the field Yet alas beasts and men are fellow-creatures made of one earth drawing in the same ayre returning for their bodily part to the same dust symbolizing in many qualities and in some mutually transcending each others so as here may seem to bee some tearms of a tolerable proportion sith many men are in disposition too like unto beasts and some beasts are in outward shape somewhat like unto men But for him that was and is God blessed for ever eternall infinite incomprehensible to put on flesh and to become a man amongst mē was to stoop below al possible disparities that heaven and earth can afford Oh Saviour the lower thine abasement was for us the higher was the pitch of thy divine love to us Yet in this our humane condition there are degrees One rules and glitters in all earthly glory another sits despised in the dust one passes the time of his life in much jollity and pleasure another wears out his days in sorrow and discontentment Blessed Jesu since thou wouldst be a man why wouldst thou not be the King of men since thou wouldst come down to our earth why wouldst thou not enjoy the best entertainment that the earth could yeeld thee Yea since thou who art the eternall Son of God wouldst be the son of man why didst thou not appear in a state like to the King of heaven attended with the glorious retinue of blessed Angels O yet greater wonder of mercies The same infinite love that brought thee down to the form of man would also bring thee down being man to the form of a servant So didst thou love man that thou wouldst take part with him of his misery that he might take part with thee of thy blessednesse thou wouldst be poor to enrich us thou wouldst be burdened for our ease tempted for our victory despised for our glory With what lesse then ravishment of spirit can I behold thee who wert from everlasting cloathed with glory and majesty wrapped in rags thee who fillest heaven and earth with the majesty of thy glory cradled in a manger thee who art the God of power fleeing in thy mothers arms from the rage of a weak man thee who art the God of Israel driven to be nursed out of the bosome of thy Church thee who madest the heaven of heavens busily working in the homely trade of a foster-father thee who commandest the Devils to their chains transported and tempted by that foul spirit thee who art God all-sufficient exposed to hunger thirst wearines danger contēpt poverty revilings scourgings persecution thee who art the just Judge of all the world accused and condemned thee who art the Lord of life dying upon the tree of shame and curse thee who art the eternall Son of God strugling with thy Fathers wrath thee who hadst said I and my Father are one sweating drops of bloud in thine agony and crying out on the Crosse My God my God why hast thou forsaken me thee who hast the keys of hell and of death lying sealed up in another mans grave Oh Saviour whither hath thy love to mankinde carried thee what sighs and groans and tears and blood hast thou spent upon us wretched men How dear a price hast thou paid for our ransome What raptures of spirit can be sufficient for the admiration of thy so infinite mercy Be thou swallowed up O my soul in this depth of divine love and hate to spend thy thoughts any more upon the base objects of this wretched world when thou hast such a Saviour to take them up But O blessed Jesu if from what thou hast suffered for me I shall cast mine eyes upon what thou hast done for my soul how is my heart divided betwixt the wonders of both and may as soon tell how great either of them is as whether of them is the greater It is in thee that I was elected from all eternity and ordained to a glorious inheritance before there was a world we are wont O God to marvell at and blesse thy provident beneficence to the first man that before thou wouldst bring him forth into the world thou wert pleased to furnish such a world for him so goodly an house over his head so pleasant a Paradise under his feet such variety of creatures round about him for his subjection and attendance But how should I magnifie thy mercy who before
have peace at the last ransack them thoroughly not contenting your selves with a perfunctory and fashionable over-sight which will one day leave you irremediably miserable but so search as those that resolve not to give over till you finde these gracious dispositions in your bosomes which I have here described to you so shall we be and make each other happy in the successe of our holy labours which the God of heaven blesse in both our hands to his own glory and our mutuall comfort in the day of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ Amen THE CHRISTIAN THE Christian is a man and more an earthly Saint an Angel cloathed in flesh the onely lawfull image of his Maker and Redeemer the abstract of Gods Church on earth a modell of heaven made up in clay the living Temple of the holy Ghost For his disposition it hath in it as much of heaven as his earth may make room for He were not a man if he were quite free from corrupt affections but these he masters and keeps in with a strait hand and if at any time they grow resty and headstrong he breaks them with a severe discipline and will rather punish himself then not tame them Hee checks his appetite with discreet but strong denials and forbears to pamper nature lest it grow wanton and impetuous He walks on earth but converses in heaven having his eyes fixed on the invisible and enjoying a sweet communion with his God and Saviour Whiles all the rest of the world sits in darknesse he lives in a perpetuall light the heaven of heavens is open to none but him thither his eye pierceth and beholds those beams of inaccessible glory which shine in no face but his The deep mysteries of godlinesse which to the great Clerks of the world are as a book clasped and sealed up lye open before him fair and legible and whiles those book-men know whom they have heard of hee knowes whom he hath beleeved He will not suffer his Saviour to be ever out of his eye and if through some worldly interceptions he lose the sight of that blessed object for a time he zealously retrives him not without an angry check of his own mis-carriage and is now so much the more fixed by his former slackning so as he will henceforth sooner part with his soul then his Redeemer The tearmes of entirenesse wherein he stands with the Lord of life are such as he can feel but cannot expresse though hee should borrow the language of Angels it is enough that they two are one spirit His reason is willingly captivated to his faith his will to his reason and his affections to both He fears nothing that he sees in comparison of that which he sees not and displeasure is more dreadfull to him then smart Good is the adequate object of his love which he duly proportions according to the degrees of its eminence affecting the chiefe good not without a certaine ravishment of spirit the lesser with a wise and holy moderation Whether he do more hate sin or the evil spirit that suggests it is a question Earthly contentments are too mean grounds whereon to raise his joy these as hee baulks not whē they meet him in his way so he doth not too eagerly pursue he may taste of them but so as he had rather fast then surset He is not insensible of those losses w ch casualty or enmity may inflict but that w ch lyes most heavily upon his heart is his sin This makes his sleep short troublesome his meals stomacklesse his recreations listlesse his every thing tedious till he finde his soul acquitted by his great Surety in heaven which done he feels more peace and pleasure in his calm then he found horrour in the tempest His heart is the store-house of most precious graces That faith whereby his soul is established triumphs over the world wvether it allure or threaten and bids defiance to all the powers of darknesse not fearing to be foiled by any opposition His hope cannot be discouraged with the greatest difficulties but bears up against naturall impossibilities and knows how to reconcile contradictions His charity is both extensive and fervent barring out no one that bears the face of a man but pouring out it self upon the houshold of faith that studies good constructions of men and actions and keeps it self free both from suspicion and censure Grace doth not more exalt him then his humility depresses him Were it not for that Christ who dwels in him he could think himself the meanest of all creatures now he knows he may not disparage the Deity of him by whom he is so gloriously inhabited in whose only right he can be as great in his own thoughts as he is despicable in the eyes of the world He is wise to God-ward however it be with him for the world and well knowing he cannot serve two masters he cleaves to the better making choice of that good part which can never be taken from him not so much regarding to get that which he cannot keep as to possesse himself of that good which he cannot lose He is just in all his dealings with men hating to thrive by injury and oppression and will rather leave behinde something of his own then silch from anothers heap Hee is not close-fisted where there is just occasion of his distribution willingly parting with those metals which he regards onely for use not caring for either their colour or substance earth is to him no other then it self in what hiew so ever it appeareth In every good cause hee is bold as a Lion and can neither fear faces nor shrink at dangers and is rather heartned with opposition pressing so much the more where he findes a large door open and many adversaries and when he must suffer doth as resolutely stoop as he did before valiantly resist He is holily temperate in the use of all Gods blessings as knowing by whom they are given and to what end neither dares either to mis-lay them or to mis-spend them lavishly as duly weighing upon what tearms he receives them and fore-expecting an account Such an hand doth he carry upon his pleasures and delights that they run not away with him he knows how to slacken the reins without a debauched kind of dissolutenesse and how to straiten them without a sullen rigour He lives as a man that hath borrowed his time and challenges not to be an owner of it caring to spend the day in a gracious and well-governed thrift His first mornings task after he hath lifted up his heart to that God who gives his beloved sleep shall be to put himself into a due posture wherein to entertain himself and the whole day which shall be done if he shall effectually work his thoughts to a right apprehension of his God of himself of all that may concern him The true posture of a Christian then is this He sees still heaven open to him and beholds