weakned by Almighty Grace 2. It may come from Libertinism And these harden their Hearts in sinning by a mistaking the Gospel 1. Some vainly imagine as if God by Jesus Christ were made more reconcilable to Sin that it needs not so much to be stood upon nor need we to be so exact to keep such ado to mortify and subdue the Inclinations that lead to it They altogether run to the Comforts of the Gospel and neglect the Duties thereof Christ died for Sinners therefore we need not to be troubled about it Some actually speak out these things as if all the Mortification required were but to quell the Sense of Sin in the Conscience not to destroy the Power of Sin in their Hearts and if they can but believe strongly they are pardoned all is well If this were true then in the hardest Heart would be the best Faith for they have the least trouble about Sin and least Conscience of Sin This is to cry up the Merit of Christ to exclude the Work and Discipline of this Spirit yea to set the Merit of his Death against the End of it and so to set Christ against Christ. He bore our Sins He bore our Sins in his Body upon the Tree that we might be dead to Sin and alive to Righteousness to promote this Mortification that we speak of 2. Another Sort think such Discourses may be well spared among a Company of Believers and they need not this Watchfulness and holy Care especially against grievous Sins that they have such good Command of themselves that they can keep within Compass well enough 'T is well if you be come to this height of Christian Perfection that Temptations make none or no considerable Impression upon you But we must warn you and that of the most gross Sins Christ thought fit to warn his Disciples Luk. 21. 34. Take heed lest your Hearts be overcharged with Surfetting and Drunkenness and the Cares of this Life And the Apostle every where warns Christians of Malice of Hypocrisy of Envy of Lying of Evil-speaking 1 Thess. 4. 6. Take heed that you do not over-reach and defraud one another for God is the Avenger of all such But these Men would be fed with refined Strains of Contemplative Divinity and have no Sins reproved but such kind of Sins as would seem a Credit rather than a Disgrace like those Diseases that are incident only to the best Complections and Constitutions If you speak against something that may rather argue their Excellency than shame them of their Sin you shall be welcome This over-spiritual Preaching ends in an aery Religion Is Sin grown less dangerous or Men more skilful to avoid it than heretofore Certainly he that considers how many scandalous Professors there are that would be accounted the People of God hath no cause to think so If Paul saw need of Mortification 1 Cor. 9. 27. We are not more strong but more fool-hardy 3. A third Sort are such as think Believers are not to be scared with Threatnings but only oiled with Grace But then consider the words of Christ were to his Disciples And to whom did the Apostle Paul write to Believers questionless If you live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Rom. 8. 13. No part of the Spirit 's Discipline must be omitted If one end of Christ's coming was to verify God's Threatnings and that the Curse of the Law should not fall to the Ground surely there is use of Threatnings still 3. It may arise from another Cause that is the Passionateness of carnal Affections Men are so wedded to their Lusts they cannot leave them and so strangely besotted they are even ready to sit down and say they will venture their Souls rather than live a strict Life Is the pleasing of the Flesh so sweet to you or Hell so slight a Matter And will the Day of Judgment be so slubber'd over There is a raging Despair and there is a sottish Despair The raging Despair of a Cain Gen. 4. 13. My Evil is greater than can be born when we are ready to sink under the Burden of our Sins And a sottish Despair when we are not sound with God and loth to improve the Grace of the Redeemer but say There is no hope we will go on in the Imaginations of our own Heart Jer. 2. 25. There is no Hope it is an Evil and I must bear it If I be damned I cannot help it I must bear it as well as I can What! will you bear the Loss of Heaven the Wrath of the Almighty and Eternal God Surely you know not what Eternity means what Hell and Heaven means You will know when the Eyes that are now blinded by the delusions of the Flesh shall be opened when you shall see others sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and you shall be shut out Canst thou bear this If Rachel could not endure the want of Children and Iacob the supposed Loss of Ioseph when all his Sons and Daughters rose up to comfort him If Ahitophel could not endure the loss of his Credit in Counsel How wilt thou endure the Loss of thy Soul and the Glory of the Blessed to all Eternity When thou hast nothing to beguile thy Mind and thou art devested of all other Comforts and thou must feed upon this for ever So for the Pains of Hell Thou that canst not endure to be scorched a day or two in feaverish Flames or the Pain of the Stone or Gout when God arms the Humours of thine own Body against thee and canst not endure the Torment of an aking Tooth how canst thou endure the Wrath of an Eternal God Can your Hearts endure or your Hands be made strong in the Day that I will deal with you saith the Lord 2d Use is To perswade you not to neglect the Salt of the Covenant It may be fretting but it is healthful as the most salutary Medicines are usually most troublesom To help you to improve this kind of Argument which our Lord here useth 1. Consider There are but two Sorts of Men in the World and you are one of them There is no Neutral no middle State there are but two Principles that Men are influenced by the Flesh and the Spirit and there are but two Ends Men propound to themselves either the pleasing of the Flesh upon Earth or the enjoyment of God in Heaven And two Places they issue into Heaven or Hell The Scripture is peremptory and tells you who shall go to Heaven and who shall go to Hell Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Gal. 6. 8. He that soweth to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting Or consider that Prov. 14. 14.
think all their business is to get a Victory over their Consciences and though they do not deny their Lusts yet if they can be strongly perswaded that God will be merciful to them in Christ they shall not perish but obtain everlasting Life No we must obey we must deny our selves or else we do not trust Christ to bring us to Heaven in his own ways and methods but trust to some vain conceits of our own II. How this is to be understood That whosoever believeth since many other things are required of us as Repentance Mortification of Sin Self-denial new Obedience or Holiness Luk. 13. 5. Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish Mortification Rom. 8. 13. If ye live after the Flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the Body ye shall live Self-Denial Luke 14. 16. If any Man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother yea and his own Life also he cannot be my Disciple New Obedience or Holiness Heb. 12. 14. Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. I answer all Truths are not delivered in one place and therefore a solitary Faith will not bring us to Heaven but that which is seconded with other things But more distinctly I. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are connexed with it by the Ordination of God For every one that believeth Christ believeth the whole Gospel to be true Except against one part and you may except against all the rest Now it is evident in the Gospel that without Regeneration Repentance and Holiness no Man can be saved and see God therefore every one that believeth in Christ must trust him to obtain it in the way that he hath appointed and promised to give it 2. Faith is not required to exclude other things that are included in the nature of it or flow as genuine Effects from such a cause A purpose of Obedience is included in the Nature of Faith and actual Obedience is the fruit of it Every one that believeth Christ receiveth him in all his Offices therefore a purpose of Obedience is included in the nature of it and if Faith be sincere universal Obedience in Self-denial Mortification and our duty to God and Men will naturally be derived from it Therefore as he that is to entertain a King makes reckoning of his Train and that he will not come alone so every one of whom Faith in Jesus Christ is required must reckon that his Faith must be evidenced to be sincere by the Fruits of it III. Why is Faith required that we may receive Benefit by Christ For these Reasons 1. In respect of God 2. In respect of Christ. 3. In respect of the Creature 4. In respect of our Comforts 1. In respect of God that our Hearts may be possessed with a full apprehension of his Grace who in the new Covenant appeareth not as a revenging and condemning God but as a pardoning God This reason is rendred by the Apostle Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it might be of Grace The Law brought in the Terror of God by being the Instrument of revealing Sin and the punishment due thereunto ver 15. The Law worketh Wrath for where there is no Law there is no Transgression no such stinging sense of it but the Gospel brought in Grace The Law stated the Breach but the Gospel shewed the way of our Recovery And therefore Faith doth more agree with Grace as it makes God more amiable and lovely to us and beloved by us by the discovery of his Goodness and Grace The saving of Man by Christ that is by his Incarnation Life Sufferings Death Resurrection and Ascension do all tend to possess our Hearts with his abundant Grace To the same tend also his merciful Covenant gracious Promises and all the Benefits given to us his Spirit Pardon and Communion with God in Glory all is to sill our Hearts with a Sense of the Love of God And all this is no more than necessary for a guilty Conscience is not easily setled and brought to look for all kind of Happiness from one whom we have so much wronged Adam when once a Sinner was shy of God Gen. 3. 10. and Sin still makes us hang off from him Guilt is suspicious and if we have not one to lead us by the Hand and bring us to God we cannot abide his Presence For this End serveth Faith That Sinners being possest of the Goodness and Grace of God may be recovered and return to him by a fit Means In the new Covenant Repentance more distinctly respects God and Faith respecteth Christ Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Iesus Christ. Repentance respects God because from God we fell and to God we must return We fell from him as we withdrew our Allegiance and sought our Happiness elsewhere to him we return as our rightful and proper Happiness but Faith respects the Mediator who is the only Remedy of our Misery and the Means of our Eternal Blessedness He opened the way to God by his Merit and Satisfaction and actually bringeth us into this way by his renewing and reconciling Grace that we may be in a capacity both to please and enjoy God and that is the reason why Faith in Christ is so much insisted on as our Title and Claim to the Blessedness of the new Covenant It hath a special aptitude and fitness for our recovery from Sin to God because it peculiarly respects the Mediator by whom we come to him 2. With respect to Christ. 1. Because the whole Dispensation of Grace by Christ cannot well be apprehended by any thing but Faith partly because the Way of our Recovery is so supernatural strange and wonderful that unless we believe God's Testimony how can we be perswaded of it That the Carpenter's Son should be the Son of that great Architect and Builder who framed Heaven and Earth that Life should come to us by the Death of another that God should be made Man and the Judge a Party and he that knew no Sin be condemned as a Criminal Person that one crucified should procure the Salvation of the whole World and be Lord of Life and Death and have such Power over all Flesh as to give Eternal Life to whom he will Reason is puzsed at these things Faith can only unravel them Partly because the Comfort of the Promises is so rich and glorious and the Persons upon whom it is bestowed so unworthy that it cannot easily enter into the Heart of a Man that God will be so good and gracious to us 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the Heart of Man to conceive the Things God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore Sense and Reason could look for no such thing Faith is necessary and a strong Faith that it may work upon us These are things
not please you so much as when they desire you to teach them and instruct them in their Duty that they may not offend God and you When you ask temporal Things of God you do not sin for God hath given a Liberty to ask daily Bread but when you ask Grace that you may be free from Sin that you may not offend God or be a Scandal to the Gospel this is most pleasing to God When Solomon had asked Wisdom and not Riches and Honours the thing pleased the Lord. These Prayers are most acceptable to God they will bring their Answers with them then you set your Redeemer about his proper work for God sent him to bless you in turning every one of you from your Sins Nay if you beg only for Pardon and do not mind the Destruction of Sin you are no more willing to be saved than the Devils are Certainly the Devils are willing to be saved from the Wrath of God Every Creature seeks its own ease and they would be eased of their Torments Every one would have Eternal Life Evermore give us this Bread But you are unwilling to be saved upon Christ's Terms if you will not let him mortify your Lusts and submit to his Healing 3. If this be the Mediator's great Blessing to turn you from your Sins then it follows that those who have their Corruptions most mortified are the best Christians the Redeemer hath been at work in their Hearts and they have most of the Mediator's Blessing He is not the best Christian that hath the most plausible Gifts that can with Art and Parts best perform outward Duties that hath the strongest Memory clearest Apprehension readiest Elocution but he that hath an humble mortified holy pure and self-denying Spirit for this is a more weighty Point of Christ's undertaking to make you Holy Humble and Meek than to furnish you with Gifts and make you free in speech Again he is not the best Christian that hath most fanatical Raptures of Joy or pretended Admirations of Grace but he that is crucified to the World and hath felt the Power of Christ's Death Many who are not careful watchful and exact in their Conversations yet will pretend to live upon Christ and think they need not be so scrupulous to be troubled about their Sins These neglect the main End of Christ's coming which was to turn every one of us from our Iniquities 4. It shews the Necessity and Excellency of Holiness The Necessity of it will appear thus it is not only an Evidence of our Interest in the relative Priviledges such as Pardon Adoption and the like nor only necessary by way of Gratitude for Salvation received but it is necessary as a part of Salvation it self This is the Salvation the Blessing of the Redeemer this is the thing wherein he hath shewed his free Grace in that he hath purchased the Spirit to heal our Natures and restore the Image of God to us which was defaced by Sin Herein is Christ a Saviour in saving his People from their Sins and he hath saved us by washing us in the Laver of Regeneration And once more It is not only a main Part of our Salvation but a necessary Means to obtain the rest No obtaining Pardon without Conversion nor Heaven till Sin be quite done away 2dly The Excellency of Holiness appears For this End we are redeemed by Christ Luk. 1. 74 75. And renewed by the Holy Ghost Eph. 4. 24. Yea our everlasting Blessedness consists in the Perfection of Holiness Eph. 5. 27. 5. It informs us how much Christians are to blame that they improve their Christianity no more to get Power and Strength against Sin Christ consider him as a Prophet Priest or King doth still discover himself to be one that came to take away Sin As a Prophet he hath given us such a Doctrine as is fit for such an use Ioh. 17. 17. His Word is the best Glass wherein to see Corruption The highest Motives in the World are propounded to purge it out His Calls Promises and Threats are all to take away Sin And as a Priest he hath paid the Price that was necessary to preserve the Honour of God's Justice that there might be no stop in the way of that abundant Grace and that we may have the Gift of the Spirit 1 Ioh. 1. 7. Because his Blood was that meritorious Price that was shed that we might be turned from Sin and this Blood is pleaded before God He lives for ever to make Intercession for you that in all your Conflicts and Temptations you may have necessary strength against Sin As a King he doth powerfully by his Spirit maintain his Interest against the Devil World and Flesh and helps you to overcome Sin He is the Captain of your Salvation Yet lamentable it is to see what a poor cowardly Spirit is in most Christians how soon captivated with every slender Assault and petty Temptation and their Resolutions so soon shaken not so much for want of Strength as Sluggishness and Cowardise and want of Care Men spare their pains and then cry out they are impotent when there is such Grace provided in the Redeemer Like lazy Beggars that personate and act Diseases because they would not work they are not able to stand before the slightest Motions of Sin because they do not stir up themselves and improve the Grace they have or might have by Christ. Certainly idle Complaints of Sin will not become those that profess an Interest in Christ for his main great Undertaking which is by all Methods carried on still is the taking away Sin So much for the Information II. Take home with you this Truth in your Hearts That Christ's work is to turn you from Sin and it is the great Blessing we have from him in the New Covenant Then do not neglect this Work nor contemn this Blessing You know the Fault of those they made light of these things Especially do not resist this Work nor grieve the holy Spirit of Christ which would work it in you and quench not his sanctifying Motions rather deliver up your selves to all his healing Methods and be so far from resisting that you should improve the Power of his Grace every day He turns us indeed by way of Efficiency but we turn our selves by Submission to his blessed Motions He draws and we run after him Therefore every time Christ offers this saving Help thou art put to thy choice whether thou wilt have Christ or Sin to reign over thee Christ that doth it for thee must do it in thee Christ is the Author that turns but the Sinner is the Subject and he first works upon you and afterwards he works by you He converts you to God by the victorious Impressions of his Grace and afterwards ye through the Spirit do mortify the Deeds of the Body We cannot do it Christ must do it but he will do it in his own way He hath sanctified Ordinances to convey this to you
be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work And also to glorify him is their end and use Phil. 1. 21. 1 Cor. 10. 31. This is the Dedication by which a Christian becomes a spiritual and an holy Sacrifice unto God Now we must be sincere and real in this partly 1. Because the Truth of our dedication will be known by our use many give up themselves to God but in the use of themselves there is no such matter they carry it as though their Tongues were their own and had no Lord over them Psal. 12. 4. They speak what they please they use their Hearts as their own to think and covet what they please their Hands as their own to do what they please their Bodies as their own to prostitute them to all excess and filthiness and their Wealth and Strength and Time as their own either to spare it or lavish it according as their lusts guide and incline them No no a sincere Christian makes Conscience of his dedication to God the reality and sincerity of it is seen in the use of themselves and if he be tempted to do any thing contrary to this vow and dedication his Heart riseth against the Temptation 1 Cor. 6. 15. Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid In point of fidelity to God as we are in Covenant with him we must be careful that we employ and use what is God's for the Glory of God we must make conscience of alienating that that is sacred that that is the Lord's your thoughts your affections your time your strength do all belong to him 2. Because God will one day call us to an account Luk. 19. 23. He will demand his own with Usury We shall be called to a reckoning what we have done for God what part and portion he hath had in our time our strength our parts our interest therefore every prudent and wise Christian should himself keep a faithful and constant reckoning how he lays out himself for God for he must have a share in all things that we have or do 3. We must be very sincere in this because we are under the Eye and inspection of God who considers whose business we do his or our own Luk. 1. 75. That we should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our Life We are ever before him and though he doth not presently call us to an account yet many times now he punisheth us for our neglect and mindlessness of his Interest Ezek. 16. 8. Ye entred into a Covenant with me and became mine That was the reason of his Judgments against them When those that are his do not carry themselves as his when that that is Sacred is profaned by a common use then a Judgment is coming upon a Nation if dedicated to God and it warps from him or upon a Person if his ways be not upright with him II. The next thing I am to do is to prove that the grace of Mortification is the true Salt wherewith this Offering and Sacrifice should be seasoned There is some dispute what is meant by the Salt which Christ recommends to his Disciples and what was figured by the Salt in the Sacrifice whether Wisdom or Zeal in general it is the grace of the Holy Spirit by which Sin is subdued and prevented and the meaning suits exactly with the Emblem and representation For 1. Salt preserves Flesh from putrefaction by consuming that superfluous and excrementitious moisture which otherwise would soon corrupt and so the Salt of the Covenant doth prevent and subdue those Lusts which would cause us to deal unfaithfully with God Alas Meat is not so apt to be tainted as we are to be corrupted and weakned in our resolutions to God without the mortifying grace of the Spirit That which is lame is soon turned out of the way unless it be healed Heb. 10. 13. And nothing is so unstable and mutable as an unmortified Soul therefore we can never behave our selves as a Sacrifice and an offering to God unless we mortify our Members which are upon Earth inordinate Affections Covetousness and the like Col. 3. 5. In short the Flesh is that which is apt to be corrupted and therefore the grace that doth preserve us must be something that doth wean us from the interests of the Flesh and what is that but the mortifying Grace of the Holy Spirit The Apostle saith Eph. 6. 24. Grace be with all them that love the Lord Iesus in Sincerity or in Incorruption There are many crooked Lusts which are apt to corrupt us and withdraw our love to other things but when these are mortified and subdued that we may have a greater amplitude of affection towards God and Christ then we are said to love him in sincerity and in incorruption 2. Salt hath an acrimony and doth macerate things and pierce into them and so the grace of Mortification is painful and troublefome to the carnal nature how healthful and useful soever it be to the Soul no Question it is distasteful to curbe our Affections and govern our Hearts in the fear of God and to row against the stream of Flesh and Blood but yet it is wholesome it is a crucifying of the Flesh to handle it as Christ suffered on the Cross to give it Vinegar and Gall but yet this is necessary this is the thing which our Lord intends here in the Context that the Sacrifice must be consumed or macerated we either must suffer the pains of Hell or the pains of Mortification we must be salted with Fire or salted with Salt 'T is better to pass to Heaven with difficulty and austerity than to avoid these difficulties and run into Sin and so be in danger of eternal Fire The strictness of Christianity is nothing so grievous as the punishment of Sin The Philosophers when they speak of the nature of Man observe that in the concupiscible part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like moisture inclines to pleasure in the irrascible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like Cold inclines to fear this Salt is to fetch out both by checking our sensual inclination and also our worldly fears We must crucify the Flesh with the Fassions and Lusts thereof they that are Christ's have done so We should rather displease our selves and displease all the World than displease God or be unfaithful in our duty to Christ. No profit no pleasure or secular concernment is so necessary so comfortable so useful to us as Salvation 3. Salt makes things savoury so Grace makes us Savoury which may be interpreted with respect either to God or Man 1. Acceptable to God when seasoned with this Salt for God would accept of
the Law as a Rule of Obedience is impossible for a Creature To challenge such an Exemption in point of Right is to make our selves Gods To usurp it in point of Fact is to make our selves Devils It must be meant therefore either of the irritating or condemning Power of the Law If of the former as the Law by the rigid exacting of Obedience doth increase Sin rather than subdue it and maketh corrupt Nature spurn and rebel against it so it is the same with the former Motives but that is a more limited Sence Not under the Law may be expounded to be not under the condemning Power of it and so to be under the Law is opposed to be under Grace Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus There is a great Priviledge but what is the Qualification Who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That is obey the new Nature 2. A Periculo the Danger of not obeying the new Nature or walking after the Spirit 1. They lose their Advantage and receive one of God's Gifts in vain To receive objective Grace in vain aggravateth our Guilt Ioh. 3. 19. But to receive subjective Grace in vain doth more provoke God Objective Grace is that which is discovered in the Gospel subjective Grace is that which is found in the Heart of a Believer the internal Grace of the holy Spirit renewing the Heart Now to sin away this Advantage after we are made Partakers of it doth increase our Guilt surely therefore if we live in the Spirit we should walk in the Spirit Gal 5. 25. We should improve God's best Gifts or else the work of his Spirit is lost He loseth nothing but Corn Wine and Oil bestowed upon others but he hath bestowed the Sanctification of the Spirit upon you shall he lose the Glory of that also 2. The new Nature is exceedingly weakned and suffers loss if it be not cherished and obeyed The Church of Sardis is warned to prevent the dying of gracious Habits David speaketh as if the Work were to begin anew and his Restoring were a second Conversion Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within me The Principle of Grace being not adher'd to loseth much of Vigor and Power 3. When these Motions are not obeyed and this Power is not exercised God is provoked to withdraw the quickning Grace Though the Spirit here spoken of is the new Nature yet the Holy-Ghost is the Super-intendent of it and doth move guide direct and quicken by it The new Nature inclineth but he giveth Strength to its Motions Now the Spirit withdraweth when this Work is slighted and we wilfully run into Sin Psal. 51. 11. Take not thy holy Spirit from me 4. There is another Mischief his sanctifying Work is not only obstructed but his certifying and sealing Work is obscured and so our Day is turned into Night Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the Day of Redemption Use 1. It sheweth what Necessity there is that we should look after Conversion to God or a Work of Grace wrought in us by the holy Spirit for the Apostle supposeth they had the Spirit There is no walking without living for otherwise our Motions are but the Motions of Puppets not proceeding from internal Life but acted from Springs and Engines no subduing the Flesh without setting up an opposite Principle Therefore we must give up our selves to the Holy Spirit first to be sanctified then governed by him first renewed then guided ordered and directed by him in all our Actions and the Flesh dieth away insensibly 2dly Being renewed by the Holy-Ghost that is having our Minds enlightned and Hearts inclined we must obey this Inclination for Life is not given us that we may have it but that we may act by it and do things sutable to that Life which we have Grace is not a sluggish idle Quality but is always working and warring on the opposite Principle 3dly Though at first we are pester'd and encountred with the Lusts of the Flesh which divert us from God and Heavenly Things yet we should not be discouraged by every difficulty For Difficulties do but inflame a resolved Spirit as Stirring doth the Fire And besides though we do not wholly subdue the Lusts of the Flesh yet we shall not accomplish them and live in subjection to them but by degrees get power against them 4thly The carnal Life is not of one Sort. Some wallow in sensual Pleasures others have Head and Heart altogether taken up with the World and worldly things Now if God hath put a new Biass upon our Wills and Affections we must shew it forth by an Heavenly Conversation For they that mind earthly Things are carnal and the great Inclination of the new Nature is to carry us unto God and the Things of another World 2 Cor. 5. 5. 5thly They are much to blame that complain of Sin and will not take the Course to get rid of it by obeying the Instincts of the Holy-Ghost or the Motions of the new Nature The Lord's Spirit is a free Spirit Psal. 51. 12. And his Truth maketh us free John 8. 32. And we are interessed in this Liberty when born of the Spirit Let us be true to our Duty and we shall bless God for our Liberty rather than complain of our Bondage It is Laziness and Cowardise not to improve Grace which was given us for this use 6thly How much we are concerned in all Conflicts especially in those which allow Deliberation to take part with the Spirit and obey his Motions rather than to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh otherwise by Consent and upon Deliberation you are unfaithful to Christ and your own Souls Your Business is not to gratify the Flesh but to crucify it to over-rule Sense and Appetite and cherish the Life of Grace Galat. 5. 24. And surely when Conscience hath help to deliberate it is a greater Evil to resist it than when hurried by our own Passions 7thly It is of great Use and Profit to us to observe which Principle decayeth the Flesh or the Spirit for thereby we judge of our Condition both in order to Mortification and Comfort The Increase of the Flesh may be known 1. By your Backwardness to God Grace is clogged when you cannot serve Him with Sweetness and Delight Rom. 7. 18. 2. When the Heart groweth careless of Heaven and your Life and Love is more taken up about things present than to come Phil. 3. 18 19. The contrary is found when Grace is in vigor 2 Cor. 4. 18. Col. 3. 1 2. Secondly The Prevalency and Increase of the Spirit is known 1. By an humble Contentedness and Indifferency to Plenty Pleasures and Honours Phil. 4. 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to
one is infinite and he hath paid an infinite Price for thee purchased an infinite Happiness to thee His Love to thee was without measure and bounds so must thy Thankfulness be to him without stint and limit Though he died for others as well as thee yet thou art bound to love him no less than for thee alone he shed his whole Blood for thee and every Drop was poured out for thy sake 2. By a fiducial Owning and Appropriation challenging his Right in him So doth Thomas Joh. 20. 28. My Lord and my God Faith appropriates God to our own Use and Comfort The Devils know that there is a God and a Christ for they confessed Thou art Iesus the Son of the Living God But they can never say with Comfort My God and my Christ. This Application is the Ground of our Love to Christ and our Comfort in Christ. Our Love to Christ. Things that concern us affect us This is the quickning Motive to the spiritual Life Who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. And 1 Ioh. 4. 19. We love him because he loved us first A particular Sense and Experience of God's Love to our own Souls doth most quicken and awaken our Love to him again When we see that he hath thought of us and taken Care of our Salvation that our Names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life So for our Comfort in Christ. It is the Propriety a Man hath to any good thing that doth increase the Comfort of it It is a Misery to a Man to see others enjoy a Benefit which he hath as much need of as others and he can enjoy no part of it I may allude to that Prov. 5. 15. Drink Waters out of thine own Cistern and running Waters out of thine own Well The greater we know the Benefit the greater will be our Trouble to want it A poor Man that sees a large Dole given and Multitudes relieved and he can get nothing is the more troubled So here to see Christ ready to save Sinners and we have no Comfort by him is very afflicting Ephes. 1. 13. After ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation It is not sufficient to know that the Gospel is a Doctrine of Salvation to others but every one should labour by a due Application of the Promises to their own Hearts to find it to be a Doctrine of Salvation to themselves in particular The seeing of Meat though never so wholesom doth not nourish but the eating of it The beholding of Christ revealed in the Word as a Saviour in general is not sufficient to give full Comfort without applying him to be my Christ my Saviour my Redeemer We must make sure of our Share in this universal Good We read of Blood shed and Blood sprinkled Atonement made and Atonement received But no Man hath satisfying Comfort by the Blood of Christ till it be sprinkled upon his Heart and applied to him by the Spirit of God and thereby assured that it was shed for him 3. The next Ground of Comfort is That our Redeemer liveth This is true of Christ whether you consider him as God or as Man 1. As God So he is Co-eternal with the Father the First and the Last the Beginning of all things and the End of them So he saith not he hath or shall live but he liveth In my Flesh shall I see God He speaks of the Redeemer's Life without any distinction of Time past present or to come So that he is altogether with the Father and the Spirit from everlasting to everlasting one living God 2. As Man after his Resurrection Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen And have the Keys of Hell and of Death Now in this Sence I take it for his Life in Heaven after his Resurrection from the Dead and that is of great Comfort to us For the Apostle telleth us that If we were reconciled by the Death of Christ much more shall we be saved by his Life The Comfort is great that arises from the Life of the Redeemer 1. It is a visible Demonstration of the Truth of the Gospel in general and in particular of the Article of Eternal Life The Truth of the Gospel in general Acts 17. 31. Hath given Assurance that is a sufficient Evidence to induce a Belief of the Gospel in that he hath raised him from the Dead Christ came from Heaven as a faithful Witness to beget Faith as well as to give us Knowledge sealing his Testimony with unquestionable Proofs to make it the more sure and credible to us for he hath confirmed it by a Life of Miracles and chiefly by raising from the dead Himself and ascending visibly to Heaven His Resurrection from the dead is Proof enough to justify his Doctrine and to evidence the Certainty of his Testimony for God by his Divine Power would not countenance a Deceiver and raise him from the Dead and receive him into Glory with Himself Particularly it proves the State of unseen Glory Life and Immortality are more fully brought to light in the Gospel than by any other Means 2 Tim. 1. 10. By the Resurrection of Jesus Christ there is not only a clear Revelation of it but a full Confirmation because Christ is entred into the Glory that he spake of and promised to his Disciples He is gone before us into the other World that he may receive us unto himself and that we might with a more steady confidence wait for it in the midst of Fears and Uncertainties of the present Life 2. His Living after Death It was the solemn Acquittance of our Surety from the Sins imputed to him and a Token of the Acceptation of his Purchase when Christ rose again from the Dead our Surety was let out of Prison Isa. 53. 8. And it is a Ground of Confidence to us for when the Debtor sees the Surety walk abroad he may be sure the Debt is satisfied Therefore it is said Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our Offences and raised again for our Iustification Christ is sometimes said to rise from the Dead and sometimes to be raised from the Dead His taking up his Life again argued his Divine Power but as Man he was raised So it is said Heb. 13. 20. The God of Peace who brought again from the Dead our Lord Iesus Christ. God the Father brought him again from the Dead as an Evidence of full Satisfaction Our Surety did not break Prison but was solemnly brought forth The Disciples said Acts 16. 37 38 39. Let them come themselves and fetch us An Angel was sent from Heaven to roll away the Stone to shew that Christ had a solemn Release and Discharge 3. His Living implies his Capacity to intercede for us and to relieve us in all our Necessities Heb. 7 24 25. But this Man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priesthood Therefore he is able to save
think they deserve it would as much exalt them and advance them beyond the Line of their due Worth and Value The Apostle steereth a middle Course between both Extreams they are necessary not meritorious they go before Eternal Life not as a Cause but a Way for they are wrought in us by God and are Effects of the begun Salvation so that the good that we do is a part of the Grace that we have received a fruit of Regeneration For we are his Workmanship c. In the Words are two things I. The state of Believers For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus II. The End why we are brought into this Estate Unto good Works which c. I begin with the former and there note 1. God's efficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Workmanship 2. The Manner of his Efficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Created all proceedeth from the infinite creating Power of God 3. The meritorious Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Created in Christ Iesus From the whole Observe Doct. That those that are renewed and recovered out of the Apostacy of Mankind are as it were created a-new through the Power of God and Grace of the Redeemer I. Let us explain the Words of the Text. II. Prove it I. For Explication of what is here asserted three things must be explained 1. Our Relation to God 2. His way of Concurrence to establish this Relation 3. How far the Meditation of Christ is concerned in this Effect First Our Relation to God We are his Workmanship We are so two ways 1. By Natural Creation 2. By Supernatural Renovation 1. By Natural Creation Which giveth us some kind of Interest in him and hope of Grace from him As Psal. 119. 73. Thy Hands have made me and fashioned me give me Understanding that I may learn thy Commandments God is our Creator and the end of our Creation is to serve God therefore he gives some kind of encouragement to ask the Grace whereby we may serve him But the Apostle speaketh here not of the first Creation But 2. Of Regeneration or Renovation which is called a second or new Creation as 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creation hath passed upon him By the first Creation we are made Men by the second Holy Men. Holiness is a thing of God's making we are regenerated and sanctified by his Grace and made capable of doing good by his Spirit Now this new Workmanship bestowed on us implieth 1. A Change wrought in us so that we are other Persons than we were before as if another kind of Soul came to dwell in our Bodies This Change is represented in Scripture in such terms as do imply a broad and sensible difference between the two States that wherein we were before and that into which we are translated such a difference as is between Light and Darkness Eph. 5. 8. Life and Death 1 Joh. 3. 14. The new Man and the old Eph. 4. 22 24. We seem to be as it were Creatures transformed out of Beasts into Men instead of being governed by Sense and Appetite we are led by Reason and Reason is not only put into Dominion but Grace which is Reason sanctified directing and enclining us to live unto God 2. This Change is such as must amount to a new Creation There are some Changes which go not so far As 1. A Moral Change from Prophaneness and gross Sins to a more sober course of Life for there are some Sins which Nature discovereth and may be prevented by such Reasons and Arguments as Nature suggesteth Rom. 2. 14. This may be done by ordinary discretion and advisement But the new Creature signifies such a change whereby not only of Vitious we become Vertuous but of Carnal we become Spiritual Ioh. 3. 6. Man naturally enclineth to things pleasing to the Flesh and only seeketh savoureth and affecteth these things but in this Change the Spirit interposeth and maketh him Spirit Before Man only lived as a nobler and better natur'd Animal or living Creature and pleased himself that is his Flesh either in a grosser or more cleanly manner being ignorant mindless of God and another World But new Creatures become Spirit have a Spiritual Inclination cannot content themselves with an Happiness on this side God and Heaven Meer Humane Nature can never bring Men to this but only the Power of God 2. A Temporary Change as to fall into a sudden religious frame which is soon worn off as Ahab's Humiliation 1 Kings 21. 27. Or those That howled on their Beds c. Hos. 7. 14. Frighted into a little Religiousness in their Straits and deep Necessities like Ice in thawing Weather soft at top and hard at bottom Or those the Prophet speaketh of Jer. 34. 15. Ye were turned to Day and had done right but ye returned again and polluted my Name They seem to be changed a while from Evil to Good and then they change again from good to evil this will not amount to the new Creature for that is a durable thing 1 Iohn 3. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Seed remains 3. A Change of outward Form without a Change of Heart as when a Man changeth Parties in Religion and from an Oppressor becomes a Professor of a stricter Way No the Scripture opposeth this to the new Creature Gal. 6. 15. The new Creature lieth more in a new Mind new Will and Affection than in a new Form of Religion Lead is Lead still whatever stamp it beareth 4. A partial Change Men are altered in some things but the old Nature still remaineth their Religion is but like a new Piece in an old Garment the Heart is not new moulded so as to leave an Impression upon all our Actions The renewed are holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1. 15. 2 Pet. 3. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 17. They drive a new Trade for another World and set upon another Work to which they were Strangers before must have new Solaces new Comforts new Motives The new Creature is entire not half new half old but with many the Heart is like a Cake not turned 3. When thus new framed and fashioned it belongeth to God it hath special relation to him Iam. 1. 18. It must needs be so they have God's Nature and Life 1. Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. They are made like God bear his Image and Superscription it is a curious piece of workmanship in which God hath shewed his Wisdom Goodness and Power and so they are sealed and marked out for his peculiar Ones 2dly The Life of God that came from him and tendeth to him Others are alienated from the Life of God Eph. 4. 18. They recover it 1 Pet. 4. 6. His Spirit is a Principle of Life in them so that they are really alive to God and dead to Sin and the World 4. This Workmanship on us as new Creatures far surpasseth that
qualified for these Priviledges or he that thankfully and humbly accepts of the offered Saviour and consents to the Covenant made with God the Father Son and Holy Spirit he is washed from his Sins in the Blood of Christ reconciled adopted into God's Family and made an Heir according to the hope of Eternal Life Tit. 3. 7. This first Faith by which we believe and consent to the Covenant implieth both a dependance on God's Mercy and Christ's Merits and also a consent of Obedience or hearty Subjection to God 4. When we have consented to accept Christ and his Benefits and do give our selves to him then Works or new Obedience follow as necessary to continue our right to Pardon and Life For none have benefit by God's Covenant but those that keep his Covenant as well as make it and without this we cannot have Communion with God 1 John 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another Nor evidence the reality of our Faith and Repentance St. Paul was sent to Preach to the Gentiles That they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for Repentance Acts 26. 20. Besides we cannot preserve our claim and right if we do not still go on to do good 1 Tim. 6. 18. Ezek. 18. 24. When the Righteous turneth away from his Righteousness and committeth Iniquity shall he live all his Righteousness shall not be mentioned in his Trespasses that he hath trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned in them shall he die It is true of the Hypocrite without Scruple and of the real righteous Man if you suppose the one you may suppose the other Well these things must not be confounded nor opposed not confounded but we must distinctly consider what is proper to the Grace of God proper to the Merit of Christ proper to Faith proper to Works not opposed so as to make the one exclude the other As the Grace of God to exclude the Merit of Christ or serve instead of it nor the Merit of Christ his Blood and Righteousness to exclude Faith and Repentance nor be instead of them nor Faith to exclude good Works 5. All the applying Grace is from first to last wrought in us by the Spirit He doth renew and heal our Natures as coming to us from the Grace of God and Merits of Christ. Tit. 3. 5 6. According to his Mercy he saveth us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour By the Holy Spirit working in us habitual Grace and exciting it we believe repent obey do whatever is necessary to be done to obtain Eternal Life Therefore this must not be omitted but acknowledged as a great part of this Grace III. Use. To exhort us if we would shew our selves to be new Creatures indeed to be full of good Works The Arguments to move us are 1. It is a necessary fruit of inward Grace and so doth plainly shew that you are partakers of Heavenly Wisdom Iames 3. 17. The Wisdom which is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easy to be intreated full of Mercy and good fruits The carnal Worldling all his Wisdom is to grow rich to himself which indeed is but Folly Luke 12. 21. His business is to live to the Flesh Gal. 6. 8. He layeth out all his Strength Time and Care and Wealth for the feeding his own carnal Desires but the other soweth to the Spirit layeth out himself in works of Piety and Charity 2. External Acts which flow from an Internal Principle increase the Habit the more you do good the more you are inabled to do good as bodily Strength is increased by Exercise Why is the right Hand more agil stronger and bigger than the left it is oftner exercised and so fuller of Blood and Spirits So in Grace the more you act Faith the more is Faith increased Love groweth more fervent being kept in a constant Exercise and Hope more lively and affective Always Actions increase the Principles which did produce them partly of their own Nature 1 Iohn 2. 5. Whoso keepeth his Word in him verily is the Love of God perfected The more acts of Love he puts forth towards God the more doth his Love increase in him partly by Divine Reward Heb. 6. 10. He is not unrighteous to forget your labour of Love which ye have shewed towards his Name in that ye have ministred to the Saints and do minister God rewards them temporally 2 Cor. 9. 12. God is able to make all Grace abound towards you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may aboud to every good Work That is to give you to be liberal at all times And when he saith God is able it not only implieth that God is the Fountain of all Plenty and Sovereign Disposer of it and so hath power to make you the richer rather than the poorer by your Liberality to make every Alms you give like the Oil in the Cruse to multiply as you pour it out that there shall be enough for every Object and every Occasion but also he is sure to make it good for he quotes it again in the next Verse as it is written He hath dispersed abroad he hath given to the Poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever It is taken out of Psalm 112. where there are signal Promises of Wealth and Riches in the House of the liberal Alms-giver God rewards them eternally 2 Cor. 9. 6. He which soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly and he which soweth bountifully shall reap bountifully Now is the Seed-time hereafter is our Harvest and Crop we shall have a liberal reward from God in the general Resurrection God also rewards his obedient Servants Spiritually Internally and that not only with more Comfort and Peace but by increasing the Grace it self for God that punishes Sin with Sin doth reward Grace with Grace Wells are sweeter for draining on the other side a Key that is seldom turned rusts in the Lock An intermission of good Works makes us more unable and unready for them 3. It is a greater Honour to God John 15. 8. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much Fruit. Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the Fruits of Righteousness which are by Iesus Christ unto the Glory and praise of God 2 Thess. 1. 11 12. Wherefore we pray for you that our God would count you worthy of this Calling and fulfil all the good Pleasure of his Goodness and the work of Faith with Power that the Name of our Lord Iesus Christ may be glorified in you and you in him Christ's Religion is not a barren Religion but full of good Works It is a mighty credit to Religion in you that profess it when Goodness is the Constitution of your Hearts to do good the business of your Lives 4. It edifieth others and provoketh an holy Emulation Heb. 10. 24. Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to good Works We provoke them most by our Example when they are cold negligent and backward to Works of Piety and Mercy In all things we should be an Instance of Divine Vertues 5. This is the fruit which God expecteth from us that the Trees of Righteousness should bear the Fruits of Righteousness If we frustrate his expectation he will hew us down and cast us into the Fire Mat. 3. 10. Therefore good Works are not needless things The means to enable us are 1. Be sure that you are renewed The Dead cannot do the works of the Living Neither do Men gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figgs of Thistles Mat. 7. 16. Our first business is to look to our Conversion to God All outward Duties begin in the Heart they are valued no further than they come from it sanctified 2. Keep your Hearts under a Sence of God's Authority that you may feel something in your own Bosoms that may tell you you are bound to obey him and may plead God's right with you This is done by a frequent Meditation upon your Creation and Redemption Your Creation giveth God a full right to you and Redemption maketh it comfortable by both you see you are his Acts 27. 23. There stood by me this Night the Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve 3. You are intrusted with his Talents and of their improvement you must give an account Mat. 25. 14. A Lord called his Servants and delivered to them his Goods in order to Improvement 4. What encouragement we have from a gracious God and Covenant which takes not advantage of involuntary Weaknesses but accepteth their endeavours who sincerely do their best Mal. 3. 17. I will spare him as a Man spareth his Son that serveth him 5. Remember often your great obligation to God you can never do so much for him as he deserveth of you Psal. 116. 12. What shall I render to the Lord for all his Benefits towards me 6. Do all as in God's Eye and with a constant dependance upon him Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me Make him your Pay-master Governour and Judg and it will not only keep you sincere but diligent in good Works The work is not sincerely done when you look to Man nor throughly done Such have their reward only here Mat. 6. 7. Love your Work A little thing will stop him that doth it unwillingly Psal. 119. 47 48. I will delight my self in thy Commandments which I have loved And I will lift up my Hands to thy Commandments which I have loved 8. Account your selves much beholden to God that he will employ you in any Service for his Glory FINIS ERRATA PAge 5. line 3. for Condemned read Contemned P. 41. l. 18. f. Love r. Fear P. 79. l. 31. f. it r. the Promises P. 92. l. 24. f. that r. if P. 104. l. 8. f. Hearty r. Heart P. 125. l. 3. f. External r. Eternal P. 128. l. 26. after they were r. not P. 150. l. 17. after Obedience dele partly P. 168. l. 17. f. Conversations r. Consolations P. 181. l. 23. f. of Cognisance r. of our Cognisance P. 212. l. 33. after ever-blessed add Life P. 113. l. 17. f. overaweth r. outlaweth P. 252. l. 20. f. them r. him P. 167. l. 11. dele partly P. 289. l. 9. f. to evince r. towards its ruine Gal. 5. 24. Gen. 3. 7 10.
of our Desires And partly through Slavish Fear We hate those whom we fear A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty Creature We look upon him as one that will call us to an account for our Sins Now all these Reasons concur to shew us that till Sin be taken away we cannot love nor delight in God neither can God love us and delight in us God will not have Communion with us while we are in our Sins Christ when he came to bring us to God he came not to make any Change in God to make God less holy but to make us holy and amiable in his sight The reasonable Nature cannot digest this Conceit that the holy God should take Sinners into his Bosom without any change Would it become the Governour of the World to be indifferent to good and bad the holy God to be a Friend to Sinners The new Nature in us sheweth the contrary for that causes an abomination and abhorrence both of Impurity and the Impure As Lot's righteous Soul was vexed with the Sodomites And we are told Prov. 29. 27. An unjust Man is an Abomination to the Iust and he that is upright in the Way is Abomination to the Wicked If a Man be sanctified but in part he cannot delight in the wicked freely to converse with them He hath a Hatred not of Enimity so as to seek their Destruction not a Hatred opposite to good Will that is contrary to the Nature of Grace which is made up of Love but an Hatred of Abomination which is contrary to the Love of Complacency he cannot take any delight in him Now then without a manifest reproach to the Holy God we cannot imagine he should admit Sinners into an intimate Communion with him Thou hatest all the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. God said to the Prophet Ier. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou to them God will not return to us in our Sins but we must come off from our Sins to him 2. We are freed from the great Blemish of our Natures Sin defaced the Image of God in us Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God We lost not only the Favour of God but the Image of God the great Excellency of our Nature was eclipsed and defaced Now the Plaister will not be as broad as the Sore nor our Reparation by Christ correspondent to our Loss by Adam if our Nature be not healed and the Image of God restored in us If Adam had only left us guilty the Pardon of Sin had been enough but he conveyed an evil Nature and therefore we must be turned from our Sins as well as pardoned otherwise Christ would not restore all that Adam took away Psal. 69. 4. Is he a good Physician that takes away the Pain and leaves the great Disease uncured But Christ has procured the Favour of God for us and repaired the Image of God in us and therefore certainly put us into a way of Blessedness again Holiness was our Primitive Excellency and Amiableness 3. We are freed from that that is the great Burden of the Creature as well as his Blemish Whatever it be to the common Sinner that is no matter he hath no right thoughts of things and is besotted with his carnal choice for Sin is an Evil whether it be felt or no but the awakened Sinner is sensible not only of the Guilt of Sin but it is his greatest Burden that he should have a Nature inclines him to grieve and dishonour God Pharaoh could say Take away this Plague But a penitent broken-hearted Sinner cries Take away all Iniquity They desire a Change of this State by Regeneration Therefore the Promises of the Gospel considering a penitent Soul under such a Distress are suted to the Case 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness If you know what Sin is and penitently bemoan your selves to God you will be troubled with the Power and Pollution of it as well as the Guilt Mic. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He will turn again he will have compassion hewill subdue our Iniquities A Heart truly affected doth not only desire Pardon and Ease but Power against Sin A Man that hath his Leg broken would not only desire Ease of his pain but to have his Leg set right again A Leprous Condemned Malefactor desires not only to be freed from the Sentence of Condemnation but to be cured or his Pardon will do him no good Now surely it is a great Blessing to be turned from our Sins to be freed from that a penitent Soul finds to be so great a Burden and the Mediatour gives us a notable proof of his Love in it 4. Being turned from our Sins we are freed from the great bane of our Persons and all our happiness Sin is a Cursed Inmate it fires the Lodging where it is entertain'd and harboured unless speedily cast out of doors it involves us in the curse of the Law The wages of Sin is Death therefore Christ that he might free us from Misery doth first free us from Sin If pardon of Sin be a blessing certainly to be turned from Sin is a blessing for the one cannot be had without the other till you are turned from Sin you cannot be pardoned not justified till you are sanctified Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is the Man whose Sin is forgiven and whose Iniquity is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin in whose spirit there is no guile When God hath given us an holy sincere heart and turned us from our Sins then we have the Blessedness of Pardon There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We are freed from the condemning power of the Law when freed from Sin and all that Woe and Wrath that belongs to every Soul that doth evil By all these Considerations it appears how great a Blessing the turning us from Sin is in the privative notion that is the removal of so great an evil 2. Take Blessedness in the Positive Notion that is to enjoy a great Good and it will appear it is a blessed thing to be turned from our Sins 1. Because this is the matter of our Serenity Comfort and Peace here and the pledg and beginning of our eternal Felicity hereafter The Soul can never be setled in an holy Peace till it be turned from its Sins we can never find rest till we get out of Satan's yoke and get into Christ's blessed Liberty The fruit of Righteousness is Peace Isa. 32. 17. We are freed from those unquiet and troublesom thoughts wherewith others are haunted A wicked Man's Soul is in a mutiny one Affection wars against another and all against
Now wilt thou wait diligently till it be accomplished The Physician cures the Disease but the Patient must take the appointed Medicine you must not expect he should cure it and thou feel it not as it were by Spells and Charms without thee without putting thee to the Trouble of Physick Take up a Resolution to look after the Cure of thy Soul and observe the whole Progress of the Work and what a Wound is given to Sin in every Ordinance what in the Word what in the Lord's Supper how thy Resolution is strengthened against it how the carnal Nature wears off every day the Work is not perfect in an instant but he is still turning therefore when thou beginnest to be dead to Sin die more Ye are dead therefore mortify Christ hath perfectly bought off all Sin in every kind and degree should not we strive to have all that he hath purchased At least do not strengthen thy Bonds the Sin thou canst not avoid hate it and keep up the lively resistance still hear diligently pray earnestly watch narrowly and keep thy self from thy Sin do not only pare the Nails of it but cut off thy very right Hand and mortify and subdue it yet more and more that Christ may have his Conquest in thy Soul SERMON IV. 2 PET. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. IN these Words the Apostle extolleth the Grace of God towards us in the Gospel In them take notice of First The Means 2dly The End and Use of them 3dly The Method and Order in which this Effect is wrought in us First The Means whereby God conveys his Grace to us viz. The Promises of the Gospel which are set forth 1. By their Excellency Exceeding great and precious Promises 2. Their Freeness Are given to us 1. Their Excellency is set forth by two Adjuncts They are exceeding great and precious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The one noteth their Intrinsick Worth and Value they are exceeding great The other our Esteem of them they deserve to be precious to us 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so called from the Matter of them which are great and precious Gifts such as Pardon and Life begun in Sanctification and perfected in Glory 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 precious deserving and challenging our Esteem being so suitable to our Necessities and Desires Our Necessity ariseth from the fears of Misery so justly deserved Our Desires are after a proper Happiness which is only offered to us in the Promises of God not only as probable but as certain to be ours if duly qualified Now these Promises being so great and precious should attract us to all Purity and Holiness for what is greater and deserveth to be more esteemed by us than Remission of Sins and an Inheritance among the Sanctified 2. Their Freeness given made freely made good freely 2dly The End and Use of them That by these ye might be Partakers of the Divine Nature By the Divine Nature is not meant here the Essence of God but his communicable Excellencies or such Divine Properties as can be imparted to the Creature and these not considered in their absolute Perfection but as as they are agreeable to our present State and Capacity These are sometimes called the Image of God Col. 3. 10. The new Man which is renewed in Holiness after the Image of him that created him because they imply a Likeness to him And sometimes the Life of God Eph. 4. 18. Being alienated from the Life of God because it is a vital Principle And here the Divine Nature and that for two Reasons 1. Because these are communicated to us by God they are created in us by his Divine Power and therefore the Word Created is so often used on this Occcasion Eph. 2. 10. We are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature Creation is proper to God We have them by virtue of our Communion with him They flow from God as the Light doth from the Sun 2. Because by these Perfections we somewhat resemble God Therefore it is said 1 Pet. 2. 9. We shew forth his Praises 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Vertues or Divine Attributes his Wisdom Goodness Bounty Holiness for in these we most resemble him If you take in his Power there is some resemblance of that too as to the moral Exercise in taming our own Flesh mastering our Inordinate Lusts and Passions and vanquishing all Temptations This is a Spiritual Power and so spoken of Prov. 16. 32. He that is slow to Anger is better than the mighty and he that ruleth his Spirit than he that taketh a City And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Phil. 4. 13. To live above the Hopes and Fears of the World is a great Ability and Power And vanquishing the World is made the Fruit of the new Birth 1 Ioh. 5. 4. That which is born of God overcometh the World And in that place where the Spirit of a Christian is described 't is said to be a Spirit 2 Tim. 1. 7. of Love Power and of a sound Mind We conceive God to be a Spiritual Being of infinite Wisdom Goodness and Power To his Wisdom answereth the Spirit of a sound Mind to his Goodness a Spirit of Love and what is the Original and Pattern of the Spirit of Power the very Name discovereth namely God's own Power So all his Attributes leave their Impress upon us 3dly The Way Method and Order how we receive this Benefit of the Divine Nature Having first escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. As we dye to Sin the Divine Nature increaseth in us There is a putting off before there can be a putting on Eph. 4. 22 23 24. We put off the old Man which is corrupt by its deceitful Lusts. We begin the Work of Sanctification with Mortification in the first place and then proceed to the positive Duties of a new Life for the Plants of Righteousness will not thrive in an impenitent and unmortified Heart As the Corruption of Sin is driven out and expelled so the Divine Nature succeedeth Intus existens prohibet alienum these things are not consistent cannot be joyned together The Corruption that is in the World and the Divine Nature can no more agree than Darkness and Light Rom. 13. 12. But let us see how this Mortification is expressed 1. What is to be avoided 2. The Manner of shunning it 1. What is to be avoided The Corruption that is in the World through Lust. Observe Sin is called Corruption as often in Scripture because it is a blasting of our primitive Excellency and Purity Gen. 6. 12. All Flesh had corrupted his Way upon the Earth Psal. 14. 1. They are all corrupt and abominable that is degenerated
for the Spirit is our Sanctifier and he works by congruous means USES 1. Believe the Promises for they are most sure and certain God's Testimony of the good things he will bestow upon us cannot deceive us or beget a vain and uncertain Hope His Promise is a Testimony of his Will and against his Power nothing can stand There shall be a Performance of those things spoken of by the Lord Luk. 1. 45. 2. Esteem them Heb. 11. 13. These all dyed in Faith not having received the Promises but having seen them afar off and were perswaded of them and embraced them We can never embrace them till we are perswaded of their Truth But then consider their Worth Great is the Stupidity of those who are nothing taken with these things If a great Man ingages himself any way we make great reckoning of his Word and shall we not make great matter of the Word of God and esteem his Promises Esteem them so as to get them at any price Mat. 13. 46. Sell all for the Pearl of Price Esteem them so as to be contented with a mean Condition in the World Though God keeps us low it is enough to be made Partakers of his Holiness Heb. 12. 10. For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own Pleasure but he for our Profit that we might be Partakers of his Holiness Esteem them so as to perform the Duties required Psal. 119. 14. Esteem them so as to keep up your Rejoycing in Christ Phil. 3. 8 9 10. I count all things but Loss for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Iesus my Lord. And ver 3. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Iesus and have no Confidence in the Flesh. 3. Labour to improve the Belief of every Promise for the Increase of Holiness that we may be like God pure and holy as he is 2 Cor. 7. 1. Having therefore these Promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God SERMON V. MARK 9. 49. For every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt IN the Context you have a Caution which our Lord gives against Scandals and Offences given to others either by Defection from the Truth or by a sinful Conversation And 1. He intimates the Cause of these Scandals which is some beloved Lust and that is better mortified than satisfied There is something precious profitable and pleasant in our Opinion Estimation and Affection that calls us from God and the Duties we owe to him and apprehended by us as so necessary for us that we can no more spare it than a right Eye a right Hand or a right Foot 2. Our Lord compares the Loss of Satisfaction in such Lusts with the Danger of perishing for ever and shews that all things considered it were better to be deprived of this Profit Pleasure or Honour than to lose Eternal Life and run the hazard of Eternal Death Either that Pleasure or Lust must be denied or we perish for ever The right Hand must be cut off or else we shall be cast into Hell-Fire 3. Our Lord shews the Danger of perishing for ever amplified by a notable Description Their Worm never dyes and their Fire shall never be quenched The Scripture lisps to us in our own Dialect and speaks in such Notions we can best understand and therefore represents the State of the Damned by what is terrible to Sense By the Worm is meant the Anguish of Conscience by Fire the Wrath of God Memoria praeteritorum Sensus presentium Metus futurorum The Torment of the wicked arises partly from their own Consciences There is a vexing Remembrance of what is past their Folly in the neglect of Grace and there is a bitter Sense of that doleful State into which they have now plunged themselves and a Fear of what is yet to come Now beside this Remorse for their Folly there is also a Fire that shall never be quenched or the sharp Torments that are prepared for the wicked 4. Here is a Collation or Comparison of Opposites the Pains of Hell with the Trouble of Mortification First or last we must endure Troubles and Difficulties Now it is much more eligible to take Pains in the mortifying of Sin than to bear Eternal Pains in the punishment of it This is that which is exprest in the Text For every one shall be salted with Fire and every Sacrifice shall be salted with Salt In the Words 1. Observe a double Salting either with Fire or with Salt the one referring to one sort of People and the other to the other They agree in the common Nature for Salt is of a fiery Nature and apt to consume but they differ in the matter to be consumed Salt consumes the superfluous Moisture which is apt to cause putrefaction but the Fire consumes the Substance it self So that to be salted with Fire is to be given up to everlasting Destruction Fire consumeth all things and God is called a Consuming Fire to the wicked Heb. 12. 29. 2. Here is also an Allusion to Sacrifices for every Man that lives in the World must be a Sacrifice to God The Wicked are a Sacrifice to God's Justice but the Godly are a Sacrifice dedicated and offered to him that they may be capable of his Mercy The first are a Sacrifice against their Wills but the Godly are a free-will-Offering a Sacrifice not taken but offered Now the Law of all Sacrifices was that they were to be salted with Salt Levit. 2. 13. And every Oblation of thy Meat-Offering shalt thou season with Salt neither shalt thou suffer the Salt of the Covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy Meat-Offering with all thine Offerings thou shalt offer Salt Three times it is repeated there to shew that every Sacrifice must be salted That the Wicked the Objects of God's vindictive Justice are accounted Sacrifices is evident by Scripture When the Destruction of Moab is spoken of Isa. 34. 6. The Sword of the Lord is filled with Blood it is made fat with Fatness and with the Blood of Lambs and Goats and with the fat of the kidneys of Rams for the Lord hath a Sacrifice in Bozrah and a great Slaughter in the Land of Idumea So Ier. 46. 10. God threatens there that the Sword shall devour and be made drunk with their Blood For the Lord God of Hosts hath a Sacrifice in the North Country by the River Euphrates What is in these places called a Slaughter is also called a Sacrifice So when God intended a great Carnage of his Enemies he calls upon the Fowls of Heaven Ezek. 39. 17. Assemble your selves and come to my Sacrifice with an allusion to the Beasts offered in Sacrifice This may be gathered from the Signification of the Sacrifices the Burnt-Offerings especially which signified the Guilt of the Sinner the Death of Christ which is
Men and Angels and exposed us to an open Shame or hardens us in a dead careless Course Lusts let alone end in gross Sins and gross Sins in final Apostacy Love of Pleasure will end in Drunkenness or Adultery or the rage of unclean Desires or else in such a vain light frothy Spirit which is no way fit for Religion Envy will end in Mischief and Violence if not in Murder Iudas by his Covetousness was brought to betray his Master Gehazi was first surpriz'd with Covetousness then blasted with Leprosy and then became a Shame and Burthen to himself The Devil trieth by Lust to bring us to Sin and by Sin to Shame and by Shame to Horror and Despair But do the Children of God run into such notable Excesses and Disorders Yes when they let Sin alone discontinue the exercise of Mortification when they do not remember the Sacrifice must be salted with Salt Witness David who ran into Lust and Blood Witness Peter who ran into denying Christ with Oaths and Execrations Witness Solomon who ran into Sensuality and Idolatry And in all of us old Sins long since laid asleep may awake again and hurry us into spiritual Mischiefs and Inconveniencies if we make not use of this holy Salt 2. As to Punishment Sins prove mortal if they be not mortified Either Sin must dye or the Sinner There is an Evil in Sin and there is an Evil after Sin The Evil in Sin is the Violation of God's righteous Law the Evil after Sin is the just Punishment of it Eternal Death and Damnation Now those that are not sensible or will not be sensible of the Evil that is in Sin they shall be made sensible of the Evil that comes after Sin The unmortified Person spares the Sin and destroys his own Soul the Sin lives but he dies In the Prophets Parable to the King of Israel when he had let go the Syrian saith he Thy Life shall go for his Life So our Lives shall go for the Life of our Sins The End of these things is Death Rom. 6. 21. And The Wages of Sin is Death v. 23. But you will say What is this to a justified Person There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ. I answer You must take in all Those who are in Christ that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit they have the Salt of the Covenant But if you can suppose a justified Person to live after the Flesh you may suppose also a justified Person shall be condemned Eternal Death may be considered two ways either as to the Merit or as to the Event As to the Merit as an Evil which God hath appointed to be the Fruit of Sin or as to the Event an Evil that will certainly befall us A justified Person one that is really so may must fear it in the first Sence There is such a Connection between living in Sin and Eternal Punishment that he ought to represent the Danger to his Soul of living willingly and allowedly in his Sins that he may eschew it For this is nothing but a holy making use of the Threatnings or considering the Merit of Sin But as to the actual Event and perplexing Trouble that ariseth from the apprehension of it if his Sincerity be clear and unquestionable he must not fear it Now to make Application I. For the Reproof of those that cannot abide to hear of Mortification The Unwillingness and Impatience of this Doctrine may arise from several Causes 1. From sottish Atheism and Unbelief They despise all sober spiritual Counsel they make no Conscience of yeilding obedience to God Solomon tells us Prov. 19. 16 He that keepeth the Commandments keepeth his own Soul but he that despiseth his Way shall dye There are the different Issues of a strict Obedience and a slight vain Conversation And mark the Opposition of the two Tempers he that keeps the Commandments and he that despiseth his own Ways that is takes no heed to his Life and Actions to order them according to the Will of God He cares not whether he please or displease whether he honour or dishonour God but leaves the Boat to the Stream lives as his brutish Lusts incline him come of it what will come He despiseth his own Ways and so runs into Vanity Luxury Riot Fraud Injustice and all manner of Licentiousness Now no Man thus despiseth his own Ways but he despiseth other things which should be very sacred and of great regard and esteem with him He despiseth God and the Word of God and his own Soul Prov. 14. 2. He that walketh in his Uprightness fears God but he that is perverse in his Ways despiseth him He that makes Conscience of his Duty hath a high esteem of God he looks on his Authority as supreme his Power as infinite his Knowledge of all things exact his Truth in Promises and Threatnings as unquestionable his Holiness as immaculate his Justice as impartial and his Goodness exercised to us in sundry Benefits as rich and every way glorious Therefore he dare not but please God he hath such a deep reverence for him that he is always saying within himself What will the Holy and All-seeing God have done Or How can I do this Wickedness and Sin against God But now the careless and slight Person that takes no care to govern his Actions according to the Will of God hath contemptuous and slight thoughts of God as if he were a senslels Idol that took no notice of humane Affairs that sees not or would not punish the breaches of his Laws They also despise the Word of God Prov. 13. 13. He that despiseth the Word shall be destroyed but he that fears the Commandment shall be rewarded There are some gracious Hearts that stand in awe of the Word and though their Minds be never so much set upon a thing yet if a Commandment stand in the way it is more than if an Angel with a drawn Sword stood in the way to keep them back they dare not break through God's Hedge But now a carnal careless and unbelieving Wretch sets at nought all the Precepts Promises and Threatnings of God and can break with him for a trifle for a little vain delight and profit Nay further he despiseth his own Soul Prov. 15. 32. He that refuseth Instruction despiseth his own Soul He only cares for the Body but neglects his Soul scarce ever considers whether he has a Soul to save or a Soul to lose as if he counted all fabulous which is spoken of God and Immortality of the Day of Judgment or of Heaven and Hell Now it is in vain to speak to these to renounce and mortify their pleasing Lusts till their Atheism and Carelessness be cured And their Case is the more desperate because the Disease doth not lye in their Minds but in their Hearts and comes not so much from Opinion as Inclination A setled Opinion must be vanquish'd by Reason but a brutish Inclination must be
For Continuance in the new Covenant and delightful Obedience unto God The Remedy is not only suted to the Disease but the Duty to the Reward Our Duty is to know God and to love Him and our Reward is to see Him and be like Him 1 Ioh. 3. 2. There is a marvellous Sutableness between the End and Means Holiness and Happiness Conformity to God and our Communion with Him the Holiness required of us now and the Happiness we expect hereafter perfect Conformity and uninterrupted Communion And they differ only but as the Bud and the Flower the River and the Ocean Here it is begun hereafter perfected III. In the Application of his Grace to particular Believers he hath abounded towards us in all Wisdom and Prudence 1. In the Way God taketh to convert Souls to Himself there is a sweet Contemperation and Mixture of Wisdom and Power There is a Proposal of Truth and Good to the Understanding and the Will and by the secret Power of his Grace it is made effectual We are taught and drawn Ioh. 6. 44 45. No Man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him In the 45th vers And they shall be all taught of God Every Man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me There is opening of blind Eyes and the turning of an hard Heart Acts 26. 18. To open their Eyes and to turn them from Darkness to Light c. Eph. 1. 18. The Eyes of the Understanding being opened c. Col. 3. 10. Renewed in Knowledg Turning the Heart Acts 16. 29. God opened the Heart of Lydia Acts 11. 21. The Hand of the Lord was with him and a great Number believed and turned to the Lord. His Hand implieth his Power Thus God worketh strongly like Himself sweetly with respect to us that he may not oppress the Liberty of our Faculties Christ comes into the Heart not by Force but by Consent We are transformed but so as we prove what the Will of God is Rom. 12. 2. He draweth we run Cant. 1. 4. The Power of God and Liberty of Man do sweetly consist together As God is said to create in us a new Heart he is also said to give us a free Spirit Psal. 51. 10 12. Eph. 2. 10. We are said to be his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus unto good Works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them So he puts a new Heart and we are said to walk in his Ways Ezek. 36. 26 27. A new Heart will I also give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony Heart out of your Flesh and I will give you an Heart of Flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my Statutes and ye shall keep my Iudgments and do them Thus God sheweth forth the powerful Efficacy of his Grace and doth also win the Consent and good Liking of the Sinner he obtaineth his Effect and yet doth preserve the Liberty of Man's Nature and the Principles thereof It is not only Voluntas mota but mutata the Nature is changed and renewed 2 Cor. 3. 18. But we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2. In the perswasive and moral Way the Wisdom of God is seen as taking the most likely Course to gain the Heart of Man discovering Himself to us as a God of Love Kindness and Mercy Guilty Creatures stand aloof from a condemning God our Fear of his Justice maketh us run from him Gen. 3. 7 10. Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord. So all his Posterity forsake God and hate him But God though the Superior though the wronged Party maketh Offers of Peace and sheweth how willing he is to be reconciled to us Having first laid the Foundation in the highest Demonstration of Goodness that ever could come to the Ears of Man to hear of or enter into the Heart of Man to conceive namely in giving his Son to die for a sinful World 2 Cor. 5. 19 20. What more apt to make Man relent And then because Man had fallen from the Love of God to the Creature Ier. 2. 3. What Wisdom doth God shew not only in the Offers of Pardon but Eternal Life and Blessedness infinitely beyond the false Happiness which carnal Self-Love inclineth us to that it is a Shame and Disgrace to our Reason to think these things are worthy to be compared together What are all the Pleasures Profits and Honours we dote upon to the Pleasures at God's right-Hand the Riches of the Inheritance of the Saints and the Glory which cometh from God And therefore what more powerful Motive can be produced than this Blessed Immortality Indeed God is invisible and the Glory is to come and sensual Pleasures are at hand ready to be enjoyed But Faith checketh Sense Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the Evidence of Things not seen O the Wisdom of God in the Frame of the Gospel 2. In the Effect it self the new Creature which is the wisest Creature on this side Heaven To evidence this to you I shall shew you that all Wisdom and Prudence consisteth in three things 1. In fixing a right End 2. In the choice of apt and proper Means 3. In a dextrous effectual Prosecution of the End by those Means 1. In fixing and propounding to ourselves a right End A wise Man doth not mind Trifles but is conversant about Things of the greatest Reality Necessity and Excellency such are God and Heaven All other Wisdom will prove but Folly in the end Others disquiet themselves about a vain Show Psal. 59. 6. Poor silly Creatures cark and labour and turmoil to get together a few poor transitory Enjoyments where there is neither durable possession nor solid Satisfaction The Honours Pleasures and Riches of the World are but Pictures and Shadows of the true Honours the true Riches and Fulness of Joy at God's right Hand Surely he is a wise Man that chooseth God for his Portion and Heaven for his Home Prov. 15. 24. The Way of Life is above to the Wise to avoid Hell beneath He is wise and hath chosen the true Sort of living which mindeth the Salvation of his Soul and looketh after Eternal Life Surely this is above and beyond any Wisdom Man can pretend unto to be happy not for a while but for ever 2. In the Choice of apt and proper Means A Man is wise enough if he knows his Duty and the Way to Happiness God hath appointed us the Way wherein to walk to fear him and love him and keep his Commandments Deut. 4. 6. Keep these Statutes for this is your Wisdom Job 28. 28. The Fear of God that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil that is Understanding There is an Excellency in this sort of Life Prov. 12.
nor from the failings of a single Person conclude the whole Party 3. By imposing false Crimes Prov. 10. 18. He that uttereth a Slander is a Fool that is a wicked Person As Mephibosheth saith of Ziba 2 Sam. 19. 27. He hath slandered thy Servant unto my Lord the King The most godly and innocent Persons cannot escape the Scourge of the Tongue and unjust Calumnies II. The Hainousness of the Sin 1. In General that is evident from what is said already I shall urge two Arguments more 1. That Men shall be called to an account for these Sins as well as others they are not passed by in the Judgment Jud. 15. God will execute Iudgment upon all ungodly Sinners not only for their ungodly Deeds but for all their hard Speeches Now if injurious and contumelious Language come into the Judgment how should all beware of the least accession to this Guilt So 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. They speak evil of you who shall give an account to him that is ready to judg the Quick and the Dead The Mockers as well as Persecutors were to give a strict and sad Account It is no slight and light Sin to divulge and spread false Calumnies to hurt the Credit of our Brethren God takes notice of a Thought in our Heart against them a Word in our Mouths and will exact a strict Account thereof 2. It is the Property of a Citizen of Zion one that shall be not only accepted with God now but dwell with God for ever not to be given to Backbiting Psal. 15. 3. He that backbiteth not with his Tongue nor doth evil to his Neighbour That is that makes strict Conscience of Backbiting or Calumniating and abstaineth from doing any kind of Wrong or Reproach to his Neighbour 2. More particularly It is the more hainous 1. Partly from the Person against whom it is committed As suppose the Godly and Irreprovable for the main who by their Life and Conversation have the best right to Honour and Esteem to do it against them is most unjust Psal. 64. 3. They whet their Tongues as a Sword they shoot their Arrows even bitter Words that they may shoot in secret at the perfect suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not That is their Slanders and Calumnies are shot like poysoned Darts and Arrows secretly or clancularly without any desert or notice of the Party against whom they are intended Or else against Persons publickly employed and in the special Service of God as Magistrates Numb 12. 8. Were ye not afraid to speak against my Servant against Moses So in the Ministry 1 Tim. 3. 1. He must have a good Report from them without lest he fall into Reproach and the Snare of the Devil Against these it is not only unjust but noxious and hurtful to God's Service 2. From the Persons before whom the Slander is brought as suppose Kings and Princes so that they are deprived not only of private Friendships but the Favour and Countenance of these under whose Protection they have their Life and Service Thus Haman whispered against the Iews Esth. 3. 8. It is not for the King's profit to suffer them to live Doeg against the Priests Psal. 52. 1. Why boastest thou in Mischief O mighty Man The Goodness of God continueth for ever It is a strange matter of Pleasure and Joy to some Persons in Power to be able to mischief those that deserve it least God is eminently great and good This Sort of Pride is diametrically opposite to his Nature Alas To trouble a few Persons how irrational is it But such are our depraved Natures Some are never pleased with those things that alone veeld durable Pleasure but to be able with their Counsel as with one poysonous Vapour to blast a Multitude of innocent Persons 3. From the End of it If it be done with a direct Intention of hurting anothers Fame it is worse than if out of a rash Levity and Loquacity Some Men have no direct Intention of Mischief but are given to Tatling It is a great Sin in them and an unprofitable Mispence of Time but it is a greater in those that make it their Business to disgrace others or sow Discord These are the Bane of Human Society 4. From the Effect or great Hurt that followeth be it it Loss of Estate as in the Case of Mephibosheth or a general Trouble and Persecution on the People of God When their good Names are buried their Persons cannot long subsist afterward with any degree of Service And all this may be the Fruit of a deceitful Tongue The Use is To shew how good-natured Christianity is and befriendeth human Societies it condemneth not only Sins against God but Sins against our Neighbour It bindeth its Professors to the Practice of the Apostle Acts 24. 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are honest just good and true if there be any Vertue or any Praise think of these things The World hath taken up this Prejudice that Religion makes us ill-natur'd Of it self there is nothing more benign it only condemneth those that are good-natur'd to others but not to God Use 2d Let us not speak Evil of others behind their Backs but tell them their Faults plainly in Love and Wisdom nor encourage others in this Sin Prov. 25. 23. As the North Wind drives away the Rain so doth an angry Countenance a backbiting Tongue They that receive Tales and delight to hear other Mens faults encourage others in their Sin and are accessary to or Partakers of the Guilt It brings an evil Habit and Custom in our own Souls In short Let us keep up an humble Sense of our own Faults and looking at home it will not only divert us from slandering of others but make us compassionate towards them and breed Comfort in our own Souls SERMON XI GAL. 5. 16. This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. IN these Words Observe 1. A Duty enforced 2. The Consequent and Fruit of it 1. The Duty is to walk in the Spirit which is the sum of all Christian Piety 2. The Motive is taken from the consequent and fruit of it and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. Let us fix the Sense 1. For the Duty to walk in the Spirit Walking implyeth the tenour and course of our Actions in all which we should follow the direction and inclination of the Spirit But what is meant by the Spirit That it may be known both the contrary Principles must be explained together 1. Flesh is sometimes taken for the Body as Eph. 4. 29. For no Man yet ever hated his own Flesh it is brought as a reason why Husbands ought to love their Wives as their own Bodies ver 28. and Spirit is taken for the Soul Eccl. 12. 7. But this is not the Sense here for every Man hath Soul
and Body not the regenerate only and a Man is not only to look after the welfare of the Soul But his Body also it being the Instrument which it useth in its operations 2. The Spirit is sometimes put for Reason and the Flesh for sensual Appetite as Eph. 4. 23. And be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind And 1 Joh. 2. 16. The Lusts of the Flesh But this will not take in the whole Sense of this place for other faculties are corrupted besides the sensual Appetite and other Faculties must be renewed as well as the Understanding 3. There is another acceptation of Flesh and Spirit that is that Spirit signifieth the uncreated Spirit who is the Author of Grace As Joh. 3. 5. Except a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit Where Spirit is put for the Holy Ghost who immediately worketh Grace in us called therefore the Spirit of Sanctification as that Saving Grace which is the effect of his work is called the Sanctification of the Spirit And the opposite Principle Flesh signifieth the corrupt Nature of Man as Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh Corrupt Sinful inclined to earthly things Now though this would bear a good sense to interpret Flesh and Spirit of the Holy Ghost and Concupisence or natural Corruption for no question he concurreth to the mortifying of the old Man till Sin be wholly expelled Rom. 8. 23. and still doth quicken and excite the new Man to Action Gal. 4. 25. yet here the Apostle speaks of two inherent Principles 4. Therefore by Flesh and Spirit is meant the old Man and the new and so by Spirit is meant the renewed part or the new Man of Grace in the Heart Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That is there is a work of Saving Grace wrought in our Hearts by the Spirit of God which new Nature hath its Motions and Inclinations which must be obeyed and followed by us And by Flesh is meant inbred Corruption or the old Man which is corrupt with his deceivable Lusts Eph. 4. 22. Now then you see what it is to walk after the Spirit to direct and order our Actions according to the Inclinations of the new Nature 2. For the consequent and fruit of it and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. Here two things must be explained 1. The Lust of the Flesh. 2. Fulfil 1. For the Lust of the Flesh. By it is meant the inordinate Motions of corrupt Nature The Flesh doth not consider what is right and good but what is pleasing to the Senses and craveth their satisfaction with much importunity and earnestness to the wrong of God and our own Souls especially in Youth when the Senses are in Vigour and Lust and Appetite in their Strength and Fury And generally all carnal Men are govern'd by the Lusts of the Flesh called by the Apostle The Wills of the Flesh and the Mind Eph. 2. 3. By which the Heart is drawn from God to things Earthly and Carnal Well then by the Lusts of the Flesh are meant the Motions of inbred Corruptions 2. Ye shall not fulfil that is accomplish and bring into compleat act especially with deliberation and consent Mark he doth not say that the lusting of corrupt Nature shall be totally suppressed but it shall not be fulfilled The best of God's Children feel the Motions of the Flesh but they do not cherish and obey them The Lusts of the Flesh may be said to be fulfilled two ways 1. When the outward act is accomplished or when Lust hath conceiued and brought forth actual Sin Iam. 1. 15. Which may sometimes come to pass in the Children of God when they walk not in the Spirit or obey not the Motions and Directions of the renewed part This again may be done two ways either upon Surprize or Deliberation By way of Surprize Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon deliberation when Men plot and make provision to fulfil their Lusts contrary to the Apostles advice Rom. 13. 14. Make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof Thus it was with David in his great Sin and this doth mightily aggravate the offence and provoke the Lord against us 2. When for a continuance we obey the Flesh usually accomplish its Motions without Let and Restraint and with Love Pleasure and full consent of Will this is proper to the Unregenerate The Flesh doth reign over them as its Slaves this is spoken of Rom. 6. 12. Let not Sin reign in your mortal Body that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof Let is not have a Power over you as Slaves Well then the meaning is you will not abuse your Christian Liberty as an occasion to the Flesh or give up your selves to do that or seek that which the Flesh lusteth after Doct. The more Christians set themselves to obey the new Nature the more is the power of inbred Corruption mortified and kept under To understand this Point let me lay down these Propositions I. That there is a diversity of Principles in a Christian Flesh and Spirit 1. There is a good Principle called Spirit because the Spirit is the Author of it Ezek. 36. 26. A new Heart and a new Spirit will I put into you It is called also the Divine Nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. because it is made up of those gracious Qualities wherein we resemble God The Seed remaining 1 Joh. 3. 9. because it is not a transient operation but a permanent habit disposing and inclining the Soul to God and Heaven The new Man Eph. 4. 24. because we have it not by Nature but by Grace we are new formed to the Image of God Now the use of this Principle may be known partly by the manner how it is wrought in us and partly by the uses and ends for which it serveth 1. For the manner how it is wrought in us by the Spirit that is set forth Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Laws in their Mind and write them in their Hearts The directive and imperial Power of the Soul is sanctified and seasoned by Grace the Mind enlightned the Heart inclined The Mind is enlightned by the Knowledg of God's Will and the Heart inclined that we may delight to do his Will it is suited thereunto Therefore the New Creature doth both serve to direct us and so performeth the Office of a Guide and Leader to the Godly in all their Actions so far in Religion as God's Glory is concerned and also to move and excite us to that which is Good For the Spirit is willing though the Flesh is Weak Mat. 26. 41. 2. By its Uses and Ends. None of God's Gifts are given in vain The new Nature is the choicest Talent that the Sons of Men are intrusted withal Therefore it hath its Use and End which is to fit us for God and Heaven 1. It disposeth the Soul to a sincere Obedience to God as an inherent
abound and suffer need Heb. 13. 5. Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and be ye content with such things as ye have for he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee 2. When your Delight in God Heaven and Holiness is still kept up Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the Flesh do mind the things of the Flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit 3. When the Heart is kept in a preparation for the Duties of your heavenly Calling SERMON XII JOB 19. 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth THese words were spoken by Iob a Man for the present miserable and suspected by his Friends as one that neither feared God nor trusted in him Therefore to comfort himself in his Misery and to vindicate his Innocency he makes Confession of his Faith In this Confession you have the grand and most important Articles reckoned up 1. He doth solemnly declare and believe the promised Messiah to be his Saviour I know that my Redeemer liveth 2. His coming to Judgment and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth 3. The Resurrection of the dead with application to himself for he saith ver 26. And though after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God 4. And Lastly the beatifical Vision ver 27. Whom I shall see for my self and mine Eyes shall behold and not another though my reins be consumed within me We have to do with the first Article his belief of Salvation by the promised Messiah For I know that my Redeemer liveth I am not ignorant that this whole Context is carried to another sense not only by the Iewish Doctors but by some Christian Interpreters of good account whose Reasons consisting wholly in Grammatications I list not now to examine The common and received Sense seemeth to be better 1. Because these Words are ushered in with a solemn Preface containing in them some notable Truth Oh that my Words were now written Oh that they were printed in a Book Oh that they were graven with an Iron Pen and Lead in the Rock for ever For I know c. Surely such a passionate Preface will become no other matter so well as the great Mystical Truths of the Christian Faith 2. The Word Goel or Kinsman Redeemer will suit with no Person so well as Christ. 3. The rest of the Passages do not run smoothly unless they be accommodated to this Sense and that I take to be the most obvious Sense which the Words will best bear 4. Iob as it is clear by many Passages in this Book had often disdained all Hopes of being restored to any Temporal Happiness in this Life affirming that all his hope was gone that he was worse than a Tree cut down This is the drift and current of all his former Discourses 5. When he saith that he should see God in his Flesh and with the same Eyes he now had I cannot imagine why these Passages should be so emphatically spoken if he only intended in this Paragraph an hope of being restored to his Temporal Happiness Having premised this In the words observe 1. The causal Particle for giving thereby a reason why he would have his words so marked because of the excellency of the matter 2. The Article of Faith my Redeemer liveth 3. The manner how this Article is asserted and professed by Iob. 1. With certainty of perswasion I know 2. With Application and Appropriation My Redeemer For I know my Redeemer liveth All put together will yeild this point Doct. That it is a great comfort to the Saints in all their Afflictions to know that they have a Redeemer living in Heaven This is the first thing whereby Iob comforteth himself I. I shall consider the matter of the Comfort II. Shew you how it is applicable to all Afflictions I. The matter of the Comfort consists in four things 1. That there is a Redeemer 2. That he is their Redeemer 3. That he liveth 4. That they know this upon certain and infallible Grounds 1. That there is a Redeemer for he doth not say I know that my Creaton liveth but my Redeemer The Word is Goel The Septuagint render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that will deliver me Theodotion better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My near Kinsman liveth The Word properly signifies such an one as in regard of propinquity or neatness of Kindred had right to redeem a Mortgage or the like Engagement of Land or Livelyhood Lev. 25. 25 26. If thy Brother be waxen poor and hath sold away some of his Possession and if any of his Kin come to redeem it then shall he redeem that which his Brother sold. Or else to prosecute the Law against the Murderer of his Friend or Kinsman Numb 35. 19. 24. It is taken sometimes more largely for any Deliverer out of Thraldom or Avenger of wrong in general And so is in the old Testament applied to God or Christ to whom the term chiefly belongeth To God because of his powerful Providence and rescuing his People out of their Calamities Psal. 25. 22. Redeem Israel O God out of all his Troubles To Christ to whom it is most proper Isa. 59. 20. And the Redeemer shall come to Zion and to them that shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob which the Apostle applieth to Christ Rom. 11. 26. He then is the Redeemer and it implieth 1. That he is our Kinsman after the Flesh or by Incarnation 2. That he paid a price to God for us in his Passion 3. That he pursueth the Law against Satan and rescues us by his Power All which are notable grounds of Comfort For under the Law the Redemption of the Inheritance or the Person of the poor Brother sold was to be made by the next of Blood and that by the Male side not by the Mothers but by the Fathers side and he also was to be the Avenger of Blood 1. There is much comfort in this that Christ is our Kinsman Bone of our Bone and Flesh of our Flesh and therefore certainly will not be strange to his own Flesh. He did redeem us not only jure proprietatis by virtue of his Interest in us as our Creator but jure propinquitatis by virtue of his Kindred one of us of our Stock and Lineage the Son of Adam as well as the Son of God The Apostle tells us Heb. 2. 11. For he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one For which cause he is not ashamed to call them Brethren As the first Fruits offered to God were taken out of the same heap so he was of the same Mass with us Christ is not only Man but the Son of Man he might have been Man if God had created him out of nothing or he had brought his substance from Heaven But he is the Son of Man one descended of the Loins of Adam as we are even thus He that sanctifieth and they
is an Act of Reason as we are reasonable Creatures The natural Inclination of all Creatures is to preserve themselves but the Deliberate Will chuseth what the Understanding judgeth to be good all Circumstances considered The Inclination of Nature flees Death and Torments but Reason submitteth to it As for Instance A bitter Potion is against the Inclination of Nature for as we are living Creatures we would be put to no pain but the reasonable Creature by an elective Will takes that bitter Potion for Health Cutting off a gangreen'd Member is against the first Inclination of Man as a living Creature we submit to it as a reasonable Creature lest it corrupt the whole Body So in the Martyrs the Flesh could not but be against Sufferings being contrary to their well-being as living Creatures but the Spirit that is their Reason guided by Grace submitted to the greatest Torments for the Glory of God Thus the Lord Christ saith Let this Cup pass There was the inclination of an Innocent Nature declining so dreadful an Evil but yet it was his Meat and Drink to do his Fathers Will therefore not my Will but thine be done Others to the same purpose There were two things willed by Christ one was Bonum Naturae the good of Nature the other was the Glory of God with our Salvation And the first was desir'd but subordinately to the second So that the Lord Christ is a notable Pattern that our Appetites and Desires are not to be according to the Interests of the Flesh but for the Glory and Honour of God and the good of others The next Pattern we have is David a Man after God's own Heart in 2 Sam. 15. 25 26. Behold here am I let him do to me as seemeth good unto him What a meek submission was here to God's Pleasure resigning up his Person Crown and Estate to the wise and gracious disposal of God to receive a Benefit or Punishment as the Lord should determine David sets his Name to a Blanck and bids God write what he pleaseth It is hard for us to consent to known Articles but David wholly referreth himself unto God Let him do what seemeth good unto him So Abraham the Father of the Faithful how contentedly doth he speak and he thought no other but that Isaac the Son of the Promise should be sacrificed Gen. 22. 8. When his Son asked him Where 's the Burnt-Offering for Sacrifice and he answered My Son the Lord will provide an Offering and so they went on their way together When God declareth his Will not only contrary to our natural Affection but our gracious hopes when he taketh away Instruments upon whose Life his Glory seems to depend we have the same Answer God will provide The next shall be of Eli 1 Sam 1. 18. It is the Lord let him do whatsoever he pleaseth When the Sentence was past he humbly submitteth He doth not murmuringly say must I bear the punishment of my Sons Iniquity their Will is not in my power if they be wicked let them answer for it No It is the Lord and his Will must stand It is the Lord who is too just to do us wrong too good to do us hurt The next shall be the great Doctor of the Gentiles St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. 7 8 9. And for this I besought the Lord thrice He knocked thrice at the Throne of Grace as Christ praied thrice and Elijah praied thrice for Rain Well but the Lord made him no answer But my Grace is sufficient for thee The Thorn in the Flesh some painful Disease or Affliction must continue And what saith Paul Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my Infirmities that the Power of Christ may rest upon me therefore I take pleasure in Infirmities in Reproaches in Necessities in Persecutions for Christ's sake He doth entertain it with some kind of chearfulness and Thanksgiving if he may have Experience that the Grace and Power of Christ may rest upon him it is enough that God's Will is fulfilled though it be with our pain and loss Now let us Consider I. Wherein this submission consists II. Upon what Grounds we ought to submit I. Wherein this submission consists Negatively It is not to be insensible Godliness doth not teach Men Stoicism to harden themselves under the Rod of God The Lord complains of that Jer. 5. 3. I have stricken them but they have not grieved c. We must lay his Hand to Heart as well as his Word We are not to be like the Corner-Stone which bears the whole weight of the Building and feels nothing There are two extreams slighting the Hand of God or fainting under it Heb. 12. 5. and slighting is worse than the other There is no Patience where there is no sense and feeling Certainly there can be no improvement where there is not a feeling the Rod of God the strokes of his correcting Hand upon us But Affirmatively There is in it 1. A work of the Iudgment which subscribes to the Justice and Goodness of the Dispensation that it is just Dan. 9. 7. O Lord Righteousness belongeth unto thee but unto us confusion of Face It is a smart and dreadful Correction but the Lord is Righteous And to the Goodness of it Isa. 39. 8. Good is the Word of the Lord. Though it was a terrible Word yet the submission of a sanctified Judgment calls it good 2. The act of the Will is accepting of it Lev. 26. 41. If they shall accept of the punishment of their Sin There 's a consent and choice of the Will such a perfect correspondence between the Temper of a Gracious Heart and the Will of God they take it well and kindly from God that it is no worse as a Patient takes bitter Pills for his Good There are some kind of Reluctancies of Nature but their over-powering Judgment and Will doth approve and accept Afflictions are to be taken as a Potion not as a Drench not forced upon us whether we will or no we must accept of them take them down our selves it is a bitter Cup but it is of our Heavenly Physicians tempering Seneca a Heathen could say Deo non pareo sed assentio ex Animo I do not meerly submit to Divine Providence but consent to it A strange thing that a Heathen should say so It is good and so we accept it not barely out of Necessity and by a Patience per force but there is a willing submission to what the Lord ordereth concerning us 3. There 's a Command reached out over the Affections of Anger and Sorrow 1. Anger that we may not fret against the Lord Psal. 37. 1. Fret not thy self against evil doers Many times when words are kept in there 's a secret rising and swelling of Heart against God's Providence As an Oven stopped up is the hotter within So though it may be words do not break out yet the Heart boils riseth and dislikes God's dealing Psal. 62. 1. My Soul keep silence
in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Author Tit. 3. 5 6. Not by Works of Righteousness which ye have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Till we are in him and be one with him we have not this great Benefit 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature We are destitute of that Image of God wherein we were created and better we had never been born unless new-born 2. The Favour of God which is an immediate Consequent of his Image God delighted in Man as innocent but Man sinful is the Object of God's Wrath Loathing and Aversation Therefore Christ died to recover Man to the Love and Favour of God 2 Cor. 5. 14. To make peace between the offended Sovereign and Subject offending To interpose between God angry and Man guilty Now this Breach continueth till we are reconciled by Christ till we love God and are beloved by him And better we had been in a lower rank of Creatures than to continue under God's displeasure for the Misery of the Beasts dies with them Death puts an end to all their Pains at once but the Wrath of God not appeased by Christ continues on the Sinner for ever 3. Fellowship with God was lost by the Fall Man was driven out of Paradise and shut out of God's Presence by a flaming Sword Gen. 3. 24. the Emblem of his Wrath and all Entercourse was broken off But Christ came to open the Way by whom we have access unto God with boldness and confidence Eph. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need We need daily access to God we cannot live without him How can we look him in the Face with any Comfort when we have no Mediator we cannot have any serious thoughts of him without trembling 2. There is no removal of that Misery which we have incurred which is the Death and Curse wherein we are involved by Sin As long as the Curses of the Law stand in full force against us we can have no firm confidence if we look to time past there is a huge heap of Sins the least of which is enough to sink us into Hell if we look to time present our nature being not yet healed our Hearts swarm with divers Lusts and we are ready to sin again if to time to come Death Hell and Judgment affright us Christ findeth us where Adam left us in the High-way to Hell and Damnation Joh. 3. 18. Condemned already and to hope for any release unless it be upon God's Terms is to make him untrue and unjust Certainly God will not break his Word and disturb the order of his Covenant for your sakes Therefore how will you escape the Curse and Condemnation of the Law if Christ be not given to you 3. There is no obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness but only by Christ. Man was made for God and cannot be happy without him and he is most compleatly happy in the full Enjoyment of him Now there is no coming to that blessed State but by Christ. Ioh. 14. 6. He is the Way to the Father The most eminent Sence is with respect to our final Blessedness when we come into his immediate Presence So Ioh. 5. 11. This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son It is Christ alone that can put us in the way and bring us home to Eternal Bliss USE 1. Is to confute the Worlds Opinion who measure God's Love by outward things or worldly Felicity Alas The Love or Hatred of God is not known by these things Eccles. 9. 1 2. Neither can the Heart of Man be satisfied with them These things can give us a Belly-full but not a Heart-full Psal. 17. 14 15. Those that take up with the Creature never felt the weight of Sin are not serious in matters of Eternal Concernments The only true Happiness is in having God for our God Christ for our Redeemer the Spirit for our Sanctifier and Comforter Use 2. Is to excite us to bless God for Jesus Christ. The Apostle doth frequently in all his Groans and Afflictions Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord c. Blessed be God for the Grace of Iesus Christ whereby we have Pardon for what is past and Grace for the future to perform what God will accept So 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. God by Christ hath given us the Victory over Sin Death and Hell So should you especially in the Lord's Supper it is an Eucharist be thankful that God hath given Christ for us which is an unspeakable Gift And now he cometh to give him to you afford him an hearty welcome into your Souls as you take him and apply him by Faith and give up your selves to him as his Redeemed Ones You come to look upon Christ who made his Soul an Offering for Sin he is here represented as crucified before your Eyes and is by God specially offered to your acceptance and with him Pardon and Life You must be joyful and thankful for these great Gifts and Benefits so dearly bought so surely sealed so freely offered and in the sense of all this devote your selves to God Use 3. Make it your main Care to see if Christ be given to us Without him you cannot have any true Remedy against Evil nor any solid Hope of Good Certain it is that in our Natural Estate we were without him Is there a Change The two great Ends for which Christ came were to appease God and to be the Principle of a new Life Is Christ given for these Ends Have you received him Do not think Christ fell from Heaven into your Bosom whether you would or no. Did you ever feel your Misery without him and cry mightily to God Give me Christ or else I die and perish for ever I confess Conversion is not always evident in feeling but it is in the Effect and Fruit. What Fruits have you then abiding in you The great Fruit of Christ being given to you is the Spirit 's dwelling in you Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The great Work of the Spirit is to sanctify the Soul to the Service of him that redeemed us Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Clear this and the Cause is decided III. I come now to the third part of
it is yet the full Reward lieth in another World and the main Encouragements must be fetcht from thence There is an opposite Principle against it in the Heart which must always be curbed and suppressed and it meeteth with many Temptations from the Reproaches and Oppositions of those who like not this sort of Life The sensual and ungodly will use all Ways and Means to brand the Holy and Heavenly as an humorous Sort of Men and if their Hands be tied by the restraint of Laws and Government so that we are not exposed to Sufferings by their Violence yet we cannot but expect slanderous Abuses from them Now the Case being so the Motives must be sufficient to resist all the Temptations of this Life to keep us in the Love and Obedience of God to the end which the bare Sense of our Duty would hardly do in the midst of so many Temptations We are in an estate of Imperfection and Sense is very strong in us all and the Sufferings of the Obedient are very great that if we had not an eye to the Recompence of the Reward we could not so well deny our selves Let every Man consult his own Soul what would support him when all the World is against him and he is hooted at by the Clamours of the wicked Rabble and pursued with sharp Laws and exposed to great difficulties and hardships if he had no Life to live but this what would he do Besides it will not stand with the Goodness of God if you can suppose one that loves Goodness for Goodness sake and is so hardy as to contemn all his natural Interests that such a Man should be a Loser by his Faithfulness and Obedience to God and be made altogether miserable by his Duty without any Recompence 1 Cor. 15. 19. And upon another account his Goodness is engaged to take his Servants into his own blessed Presence for the prevailing Inclination of Holiness that is planted by his own hand in their Breath to love serve and see him is an earnest that we shall not always be thus imperfect for our Reward consisteth as of compleat Felicity so exact Holiness seeing God and being like unto him 1 Joh. 3. 2. We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is But suppose this were true that Vertue were a Reward to it self then what Provision is there made for the punishment of Vice Cannot it be said that they that addict themselves to that Course of Life are punished enough by doing so Alas wicked Men profess great Contentment in that Course of Life which they lead and would be glad of the News that they should have no other Punishment than to wallow in their Lusts. Nature teacheth us and the Practice of all Nations confirmeth it that Evils which consist in a breach of Duty must be punished with afflictive Evils painful to Nature Never such a Law-giver was heard of that would punish a Man for Robbery by causing him to commit Adultery And for Vertue though it hath a Beauty to draw our Love yet it cannot it self be its own price and recompence for Man is of such a Nature as he is still drawn on with the hope of some further good till he come to the enjoyment of the chiefest Good And so many are the Trials of the Righteous in this World that the Apostle telleth us We were of all Men most miserable if our hopes were only in this Life 1 Cor. 15. 19. The Calamities of the Good are as great a discouragement and offence as the prosperity of the Wicked therefore there is an estate of Life and Death to come Besides if Man be God's Subject employed by him in a Course of Duty and Service when his work is ended then must he look to receive his wages accordingly as he performed his Duty or faulted in it Now our work is not ended till this Life be over then God dealeth with us by way of recompence either in Pains or Joys Add further Reason will tell us that these Pains and Joys after Death should be everlasting that the recompence should last as long as Man lasts For Man as to his Soul is immortal and there is no change of Estate in the other World after our Trial is over and things of Religion become meer matter of Sense Certainly one that hath lived holily and is translated to Glory there is no Reason that he should afterwards be made miserable and the Punishment holdeth Conformity to the Reward Luk. 16. 26. Between us and you there is a great Gulph fixed so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from thence There is no changing of Estates or Places in the other World the Blessedness and Misery is Eternal Things to come would not considerably counter-ballance things present if there were not Eternity in the case 2. Conscience hath a sense of it and on the one hand standeth in dread of Eternal Death and on the other is cheared with the hopes of Eternal Life The first is proved Rom. 1. 32. and Heb. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 56. Men are afraid of Death not only as a natural Evil as it puts an end to present Comforts but as it is an entrance to an unknown Countrey What is the reason of the stings of Conscience which are never so sensible and quick as when Men approach near Death or behold themselves in some near danger What are these but presaging Fears that anticipate Miseries after this Life If the Soul were extinguished with the Body then troubles should in reason vanish but we find that this is the time when these Allarms are redoubled and these Tempests increase with violence On the other side there are Joys of the Spirit which are a taste and earnest of Eternal Life Eph. 1. 13. He hath given us the earnest of the Inheritance Good Men have so much of Heaven upon Earth as may assure them they may look for more this hath supported them in all their difficulties and labour Now if there were no such thing the wise and best Men that ever the World saw would be Liars or Fools Liars in pretending Comfort which they had not or Fools in being deceived by their own vain Imagination and in taking such pains in subduing the Flesh hazarding their Interests and performing their Duty upon the hopes of another World 3. Scripture if we will take God's Word for it is express Rom. 8. 13. Rom. 6. 21 22. and Gal. 6. 8. The present World is comprised in two Ranks either Sowing with the Flesh that is such who employ their labour to make Provision to gratify the Carnal Appetite or Sowing to the Spirit such as employ their Time and Study in advancing the work of the Spirit and they issue themselves into two States in the other World the State of Everlasting Perdition or Everlasting Life Thus do the Scriptures propound Good and
the Death incurred by Sin And how by him by his being a Propitiation that he speaks of there vers 10. We were in a State of Death when the Doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the Guilt and Power of Sin for while the Guilt and Tyranny of Sin remaineth we are said to be dead and strangers to the Life of God and we begin to live when first regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Now this we have not without Christ being a Propitiation for our Sins that is without doing something whereby God without any impeachment of his Honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind his Justice Holiness and Hatred of Sin being sufficiently demonstrated in the Sufferings of Christ. Now the Honour of his governing Justice being kept up his pardoning Mercy is the more freely exercised God may be propitious to Mankind and yet still be acknowledged as a sin-hating God 2. In regard of Efficacy Christ is a quickening Head or a life-making Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. Whatever Grace we have comes from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our Union with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature As soon as joyned to him as our Head this Grace is applied to us by his Spirit It is first applied by converting Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit and so we are fitted to every good Work Christ first applieth it in Conversion when he giveth us Repentance and a new Nature Acts 5. 31. And supplieth it by continual Influence Iohn 15. 5. We live on him as the Branch doth on the Root Now from hence we learn what a great Benefit renewing Grace is it is a Fruit of reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5. 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. God giveth Grace only as the God of Peace that is as pacified by Christ's Death The holy Spirit is the Gift of his Love and the Fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us First our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his Sacrifice and bloody Sufferings and then doth apply it by the Almighty Power of his Spirit and Christ is first our Ransom and then the Fountain of Life unto our Souls and so the Honour of our whole and entire Recovery is to be ascribed to our Redeemer When he satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he purchased a Power to change the Heart of Man and he purchased this Power into his own Hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. We should often think what a Foundation God hath laid for the Dispensation of his Grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite Love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he would shew forth his infinite Power in determining and changing the Heart of Man all the Persons concurred the Father purposing the Son by way of Redemption and Purchase the Holy Ghost by effective Power and all to bring back our Souls to God and to make us capable of serving and pleasing him it is surely a Workmanship of much cost Two Reasons why they are as it were created anew 1. Because of the Badness of our former Estate Ruinous and decayed Buildings are only to be thrown down to make way for a new Structure and House to stand in the same place Man naturally is a Creature in a State of Apostacy and Defection under a loss of Original Righteousness averse from God yea an Enemy to him prone to all Evil weak yea dead to all Spiritual Good And what must be done with such a Creature to bring him out of his Misery but wholly to new-mould him and make him that he may have a new Being and Life The Scripture represents Man as blind in his Mind 2 Pet. 1. 9. Perverse in his Will Zech. 7. 12. Rebellious in his Affections Eph. 2. 3. fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind What sound Part is there left in us to mend the rest If we will be brought home to God we must of sinful and polluted become clean and holy and Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. We must of carnal become spiritual and therefore we must be new-born new-made Ioh. 3. 6. That instead of minding the things of the Flesh we may mind the things of the Spirit we must of Wordly become Heavenly Now he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that frameth and createth us for this Heavenly State is God He that is the Framer and Maker of all things of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he createth us anew in Christ that we may look after Eternal Life The Heavenly Disposition wrought in us is a Pledge of it 2. From the Nature of God's Work which is not meerly by helping the Will but by giving us the Will it self or the Act of Volition of it not by curing the Weakness of it but by sanctifying it and taking away the Sinfulness of it and inclining it to himself If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment a little moral Perswasion and Excitation outward or inward by the Word and Spirit would serve the turn but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel She is not dead but sleepeth No the Scripture saith We are dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only necessary for facilitation that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good as a Horse is necessary that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties No 't is impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart that he contemns the World and seeks after Heavenly Things Nay he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please or a remote Power to do if we please but he giveth to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self and the Deed it self Thus is God's Operation set forth he reneweth the Faculties and exciteth the Act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious Influence Ezek. 36. 26 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency so that a Man may or may not then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion and God lose the Glory of his Grace and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man 's own Will God doth not give a power to repent and believe and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual but he giveth Faith it self and Repentance it self Faith is his Gift Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised to give Repentance