have things clearer yet viz. that Union with Christ is sufficient to make up Union with the Father and consequently he that sinnes against Christ must needs sinne against the Father Would you I say have it clearer then go on to the 10th verse Beleevest thou not that I am in the Father and the Father in me The words that I speak unto you I speak not of my self as if he should say The Father speaks them as well as I nay The Father that dwelleth in me he doth the works too and then he proceeds Beleeve me Philip that I am in the Father and the Father in me Plainet words then these surely cannot be used to assert the Point in hand That sins against Christ are sins against the Father My next work must be to prove that they are sins against the holy Ghost likewise and then I have done in point of proof To evidence this clearly and plainly I suppose we take it for granted that the holy Ghost and the holy Spirit are all one that being granted me as a Suppositum not so much as disputed by your selves Let me put you in minde of some Texts of Scripture wherein the same actions being spoken of you shall finde are in one place implied or expressed plainly to be sins against God by which I understand to be meant the Father in another place they are termed sins against Christ by which name we understand the Sonne and in a third place sins against Gods holy Spirit by which 't is already supposed we mean and understand the holy Ghost These Scriptures being produced and asserting the thing in hand I suppose I have gained the Cause Compare then these three Scriptures together Numb 21.5 1 Cor. 10.9 Isa 63.10 Let us look first upon Num. 21.5 The people of Israel it should seem were in great affliction they wanted bread and water and their soul lothed the Manna they call it this light bread Being in this distresse and affliction it is said expresly They spake against God and against Moses saying Wherefore have ye brought us up out of Aegypt to die in the Wildernesse for there is no bread neither is there any water and our soul loatheth this light bread here you see plainly the Israclites sinne of murmuring under this affliction is said expresly to be against God They murmured against God and against Moses by which word God I hope you will give me leave to understand the Father and never trouble your selves with much scruple or dissatisfaction in the businesse Let us now go to the next Scripture which ye shall finde 1 Cor. 10.9 Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents The Question will be how it appears that the same sin is spoken of in both places To make this sure I must turn you back to Numb 21.6 again which tels us that God for their sin of murmuring immediatly before sent fiery Serpents among the people and they died Now reade the verse I have quoted out of the Corinthians Neither let us tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroied of Serpents Do you desire I should argue now Is it not plain that that which was called murmuring against God in the Book of Numbers is called tempting of Christ in the Epistle to the Corinthians For what did the Lord send fiery Serpents among the people for murmuring against God For what were they destroied of Serpents for tempting of Christ These then were both one unlesse you understand any other destruction of Serpents to be intended by St Paul then this which was by the biting of the fiery Serpents mentioned in the Book of Numbers My proofs touching Father and Sonne I have done with My next labour must be touching the holy Spirit or holy Ghost as we call him For this view my third Text Isa 63.10 where the Prophet having in the verse before mentioned the gracious and generall loving kindenesse of the Lord toward his people in the daies of old sets down in the next words in the beginning of the 10th verse the general demeanour and carriage of the Israelites his people toward God And what was their carriage 'T was sad I confesse I fear ours is so too They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit Their general posture of actions against God is termed here you see a rebelling and vexing his holy Spirit certainly if all their wicked actions come under this expression then this action likewise of murmuring against God or tempting of Christ being one of their actions must needs do so too And now I think I have gained my cause Having done with my proof let me now treat with you a little you that have sin'd so often against the motions of Gods Spirit and therein in some sense troden under foot the Son of God for Gods sake What do ye think of your selves have ye done well think ye thus at one blow as it were to strike Father Son and holy Ghost in the face Is this recompence for his mercies in sending Jesus Christ to shed his bloud for your sins a fair recompence to the Father Is it equal that such a Lex Talionis should be returned to the Son that we should thus grieve and vex the holy Spirit Certainly if there be any fear of God before out eyes the doing of these things cannot rightly please our hearts But because ye are so hardened in your wickednesse and rebellions against him who will either glorifie you if ye willingly submit to him or torment you for ever if still ye persist be ye under what Form or Administrations ye will For I love not to flatter you in your imaginary shadowâ— taken up of your own heads nor do I place godlinesse or wickednesse in externall Forms but rather in submitting or walking contrary to Christ Let me presse you a little eagerly to consider what ye are doing when ye are sinning against the motions workings and pleadings of Gods good Spirit striving within you as doubtlesse sometimes he doth or else things go very sadly with you Be as merry as ye will Shall I minde you in one word what ye do ye sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at once ye do in a sense as I told you tread under foot the bloud of Jesus Christ the Son of God for this treading things under foot what is it 't is an expression whereby we signifie our scorning and lothing of a thing as when we say If I could I would tread thee under my foot My Brethren my brethren what do ye lesse when ye do so resist the motions of Gods good Spirit that ye cannot endure to hear him speak to you Nay how many are there who when the Spirit of God would pleade with them and reason them into godlinesse or into the omission of this or that or the other particular sin as of whoredom jeering at good things drunkennesse covetousness or the like presently they take the first
offend I will not eat a bit of flesh as long as the world lasts Beloved we use to say when we are averse to a thing Before I will doe such a thing I will never eat bit of bread such a kinde of zeale and such a kinde of expression may you imagin St Pauls to have been in his resolution of not sinning against Christ and yet how many are there that make no bones of this but let them take heed that God make not their bones and their hearts into the bargain ake for it Sure I am the new converts in the second of the Acts were pricked to the very heart at this very consideration see the place Acts 2.37 You may observe St Peter ver 14. beginning to preach his first Sermon after the ascension his first work is to take off a mistake a misapprehension from the people touching themselves These men are not drunken as ye suppose At ver 22. his Sermon begins to pinch close for he speakes plainely Ye men of Israel heare these words Jesus of Nazareth a man approved of God among you by miracles wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as ye your selves know Ver. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slaine He followes this argument close all along heightning the sinne by the consideration of Gods exalting of Christ and in ver 36. he puts Gods goodnesse to Christ and their wickednesse against Christ both together and with this as with a great and irresistible hammer God pricks their hearts in Peters Ministry yea he breaks them all to pieces for see ver 37. Now when they heard this they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe When they heard this that the same Jesus whom they had crucified was exalted by God to be Lord and Christ when they heard this and that they had thus sinned against their Lord their Christ their King this oh this pricked them to the quick this shivered them all to pieces this divided betwixt the joynts and marrow it broke downe all opposition Men and brethren what shall we doe such wretches such vile creatures as we are never were in the world What! is that Jesus that we have crucified is he our Christ our Lord have we thus wronged him thus dealt with him Woe umo us that we have sinned Thus you see how farre this consideration strikes terror here it did strike terror into their hearts may it not strike terrour into yours for know assuredly that that same Jesus the motions of whose spirit or of Gods Spirit you have stood out against I suppose you look upon it as all one for he and the Father are one is that very Jesus whom God hath exalted-heretofore yea and will exalt him again and he will make him actually both Lord and King in all the souls of his people and over all the world and this is he whom ye sinne against whom in a spirituall sense ye crucifie againe as it were even the Lord of glory nay let me go further with you and drive you up closer I must tell you that whilest ye rebell against the workings of the Spirit of God ye do at once sinne against Father Sonne and holy Ghost all at one stroake as I may say A time bath been and that in my dayes when a mans naming the sinne against the holy Ghost in the Pulpit would have made many a heart to tremble I am sure it made mine tremble when I was a boy and minded nothing but pastime and pleasure but though I tell you and I shall make it appear that in resisting the motions of Gods Spirit ye have sinned against Father Sonne and holy Ghost and that your actions especially in some have entrenched and bordered much upon the chanell of such actions as do leade directly to the grand sinne the unpardonable sinne even the sinne against the holy Ghost which you know Christ saith shall never be pardoned in this world nor in the world to come yet who trembles whose heart quakes nay do we not mock at fear and have not some sucked in such principles that doe utterly overturne all shaking all trembling either at the apprehension of their sinnes or of Gods judgements due to them for their sinne My friends for as yet I am no mans declared enemy in the world do not I tell you the truth Do not your hearts and consciences bear me witnesse and witnesse for me If so though you are so hardened that ye cannot cry out What shall we do Yet God hath so softned my heart towards you that I cannot but ask What ye will do Will ye go on I trust in God your hearts will not let you say We will go on and we will do what seemeth good in our own eyes and as for these words which thou hast spoken to us in the name of the Lord we will not hear thee No will ye not Are ye resolved thus if you are I will break your resolutions if I can and rather then suffer you to runne on thus headlong into your destruction I will kindle a fire in your very bones I will vex your very souls and bring you with David to cry out as he Psa 6. My bones are vexed O Lord yea my soul is vexed but thou O Lord how long Consider then in the fear of God what I assert what I insist upon viz. That he that sinnes against the strivings of Gods good Spirit sinnes against Father Sonne and holy Ghost That he sins against the Father is evident 1. From those words which Christ useth Joh. 15.23 24. He that hateth me hateth my Father also If I had not done among them the works which none other man did they had not had sinne but now they have both seen and hated both me and my Father also Would you have a clearer Text He that hates the Son hates the Father by the same argument He that sins against the Sonne sins against the Father and indeed he and the Father are one or else Union with Christ would not be enough to make Christs poor ones one with the Father but that this is sufficient you may most remarkably see from that heavenly piece of Scripture Joh. 14. from v. 7. to the middle of the 11. verse If saith Christ ye had known me ye should have known my Father also and from henceforth ye know him and have seen him The Disciples stumbled at this but Philip particularly saith to him Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us Christ seems to stumble at them as much as they at him for he speaks to Philip as in their stead Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Philip He that hath seen me hath seen the Father and how saist thou then Shew us the Father Would ye
that thou maist be rich and white raiment that thou maist be cloathed and that the shame of thy nakednesse doc not appeare and annoint thine eyes with eye salve that thou maist see Being such sinners such lukewarme professors how suitable is it that we should be put in minde of afflictions and of the chastenings of the Lord especially if he shall be pleased to rebuke and chasten us in love To conclude How exactly seasonable and agreeable is the exhortation to repentance immediately before my Text be zealous therefore and repent How doth the fire of Gods judgements and his late judgements of fire conspire as it were to set on this Exhortation to repentance but if Jesus Christ doe not set it on too by his own powerfull spirit all is to no purpose But for this end I hope we shall finde Jesus Christ knocking at the doores of our soules as heretofore he did at the hearts of the Laodiceans and happy are we if we heare him knocking and open our doore for if any man heare his voice and open his doore Christ will come in to him and will sup with him and he with Christ Behold I stand at the doore and knock this is my Text and you see how I am come to it be pleased to observe in it First A note of preparation Behold Secondly A declaration of an action which Christ did to this Church of the Laodiceans he stood at their doores and knocked The note of preparation fixeth us upon two Considerations First That the thing which followes after it is worth the marking and therefore Mr. Perkons calls it a note of Attention Pareus to the like purpose saith thus Ecce ex itantis particula pulsat aures corda ut dict is attendant This behold saith he is a particle of stirring up it forcibly strikes upon the eares and heart that they should attend to those things that are spoken both agree in one that the words of Christ here spoken werr diligently to be headed by the Laodiceans for they were written to them and that they are diligently to be heeded by us likewise for I suppose we take it for granted that they are written for our instruction Oh then let 's heare him let 's heare him pity it is we should turne the deafe care upon him for ever we have refused him enough already have we not aske your owne consciences commune with your owne hearts upon the point and be still and I am confident they must say they will say we have we have refused him enough but shall we refuse him still is that fit is it reasonable What shall we keepe Jesus Christ out of doores though perhaps his head be fiâ—led with dew and his locks with the drops of the night shall we let him knock till his heels ake as we say nay till his heart ake rill his provocations arise to such a height that he will be gone and leave us hath Christ deserved this of our soules or doe our soules stand in no more need of Christ then thus to serve him thus to set him packing with a construction of unkindenesse that we would not so much as open doores to him Doth this sound well or will it sound well in our eares to be charged with this at the day of judgement Is it well for Christ or well for us or well for any but particularly is it well for our Children that we should be so disobedient so gainsaying so mad not well for Christ sure for what friend can but take it unkindly to be so dealt with Not well for us neither for being so dealt with what can we expect but that Christ being thus denied thus refused thus driven away as I may say he should resolve to doe with us since the times of the Gospel as God did in the old Testament before the times of the Law My spirit shall not alwayes strive with man In a word what can we looke for but that he should call no more knock no more waite no more and then may we not justly say unto our souls Woe unto us for we have exceedingly sinned When Christ was dealt unkindely with by the Spouse Cant. 5. Consider the passage and you will see how nearly it concerneth us you will finde what pains it cost the Spouse before she and her Beloved met again At the 2d verse we finde she sleepeth but my heart awaketh saith she that 's well her awaking heart heard the voice of her Beloved It is the voice of my Beloved that knocks saying Open to me my Sister my Love my Dove my Vndefiled Oh how sweet are these words how heavenly these transactions how ravishing are these passages to such as understand them and the loving kindenesse of Jesus Christ in them Well Christ doth not only knock and call and it may be these or such like were the words which Jesus Christ used to the Church of the Laodiceans notwithstanding their wickednesse and indeed I am apt to think so by an inclination of my spirit which seems rationally to leade me this way and that is the reason that whensoever I shall have ended my Sermons upon this Text I shall follow them with these words of Christ in this 5th of Cant. v. 2. and the middle part only and then return to this 3â— of Revelations and the residue of this 20th verse But this by the way To return where I was Jesus Christ doth not only knock and call as I said for he would fain come in but he reasons the case and pleads for entrance Open open my Beloved for my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night as much as if Jesus Christ should have spoken in other words thus Pray thee my Spouse my Love my Sister my Undefiled my Dove my Delight my any thing my every thing that is delectable and sweet to me Pray thee open door thou little thinkest what pains I have taken to come to thee to night Alas I am wet I do not say all over but my head is filled with dew and my locks are full likewise of the drops of the night thou knowest not but I may catch cold with thy staying Open quickly my dear sweet friend my Sister my Love if thou lovest me that am thy husband open and let me stay no longer Well you see the plea but doth it prevail a man would think it should 't is strange it should not but it doth not The Spouse reasons Christ away and in reasoning him away reasons her self into sorrow as you may see by what follows Jesus Christ being dealt unkindely with withdraws himself and it gone the Spouse then gets up when 't was too late it seems that he had pleaded so long that she was just rising as I may say when he was going It seems likewise that directly at parting he spake a word for a farewell that pierced her to the very heart and soul it may be 't was no more then in