at the birth of Christ Good will to men All these agree very well Châ—â—sts free grace and faith For what wee have by grace wee have onely by Christ because he hath given satisfaction to Gods Justice that so grace may be conveyed and derived unto us without prejudice to any other Attribute in God and then the imbraceing power and grace in us is faith so these three agree I say whatsoever wee have from Gods free love now wee have it in Christ the free love of God is grounded in Christ wee in our selves especially considered in the corrupt masse cannot bee the object of Gods love God cannot looke upon us but in him the best beloved first therefore all is Christ in the carriage of it wee are elected in Christ called in Christ justified by Christ sanctified by the Spirit of Christ glorified in Christ We are blessed with all spirituall blessings in heavenly things in Christ. This is my beloved Sonne I am well pleased in him it is the same word there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In whom I delight Isay 42. Out of which the Father takes his speech This is the Sonne I delight in Now all Gods delight is first fixed in his Sonne and in us because we must have communion with the Sonne so the first object of Gods free love is Christ and then he lookes upon us in him The Trinity have a wondrous complacencie in looking upon mankind now in Christ God loves us as redeemed by Christ Christ loves us as electeâ— by the Father and given by the Fathers choyce to him to redeeme the Holy Ghost hath a speciall liking to us as seeing the love of the Father in chusing us and of the Son in redeeming us And surely if wee would see likewise those sweet interviewes of God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost it should be our maine delight too to see how God hath chosen us and given us to Christ to save how Christ hath redeemed us from this very respect that the Father hath chosen us and given us to him as it is in Iohn 17. Thine thâ—y were thou gavest them me and how the Holy Ghost is a spirit of communion the Communion of the Holy Ghost that hath communion with the Father and the Son and issueâ— and proceedes from them both how he witnesseth this love to our soules and applies it to us the Holy Ghost applies all the Father decreed and ordained all the Sonne workes and dispenseth all the consideration of the point is wondrous comfortable Whatsoever good will the Father hath to us it is as we are in Christ. And why in Christ Because Christ is the first thing that God can love hee is the onely begotten Sonne of God whosoever is loved to glory in a spirituall order is loved in the first beloved Christ is loved of God as the character of his owne image the Sonne represents the Father he is loved of God as Mediator by office so God lookes upon us in Christ as the Sonne of his love so he is called by Saint Paul Coloss. 1. Then if we consider our selves this must bee so alas we are not objects of Gods love in our selves nor cannot be but in some other that is loved first for what are we and what is the glory to which God loves us To love such as wee to such glory and to free us from such misery due it must be by another foundation then our selves therefore Gods good pleasure is founded upon his Son Christ this is a cleare point the Scripture beates much upon it hee is our elder brother and wee must bee conformed to him To make some use of it First of all then we see here that all that are not in Christ lye open to the vengeance and wrath of God his good wil towards men is only in Christ. Againe if all Gods good will and pleasure be in Christ as our high Priest without whom we can offer no sacrifice as wee know whatsoever was not offered by the high Priest it was abhominable Therefore wee should looke to God in Christ love God in Christ performe service to God in Christ pray to God in Christ give thanks to God in Christ desire God in Christ to to make all things acceptable for Christs sake because it is in Christ that God hath any good will and pleasure to us It is a point of marvellous comfort that Gods love and good pleasure is so well founded as in Christ he loves Christ eternally and sweetly and strongly is not Gods love to us the same doth he not love us with the same love that hee loves his Son he loves his mysticall body with one love that is Christ head and members Iohn 17. That the love thou bearest to me may bee in them what a sweet comfort is this God loves Christ and me with one love he loves me strongly and sweetly and constantly as hee doth his owne Sonne his love to me is eternall because the foundation of it is eternall it is founded upon Christ. The love of a Prince if it be founded on a Favourite he loves dearely must needs be firme and strong Now Gods love to Christ is ardent and strong and sweet as possibly can be conceived therefore it is so to us his good will to us being founded on Christ. Why should a believer feare that God will cast him away he will as soone leave his love to his owne Sonne as to us if we continue members of his Sonne it is an undefeasable love it is a point of wondrous comfort What shall separate us saith the Apostle Rom. 8. from the love of God founded in Christ neither things present nor things to come nor life nor death nor any thing many things may sever the soule and body but there is nothing in the world but sinne that shall sever either soule or body from the love of God in Christ because both body and soule are members of Christ therefore let us treasure it up as a point wondrous comfortable To come to an use of tryall how shall wee know wither Gods good will be to us in Christ or no how shall I know that he loves my person that I am in the state of grace and love with him The Holy Ghost must ascertaine this for as the worke of salvation was so great that onely God could satisfie God so the doubts of mans heart and the guilt of his conscience when it is upon him and the feare of Gods wrath upon just guilt is such that God must assure him that God is reconciled to him God the Sonne must reconcile God the Father and God the holy Ghost must seale and ascertaine this to the soule The soule will never bee quiet before it see and know in particular God reconciled in Christ the Spirit that is God that is above conscience must seale it to the Soule being above conscience he can set downe and quiet our conscience Now
upon him and be ruled by him and they will not it shall be easier for Sodome and Gomorrha for Jewes and Turkes and Pagans and those that worship Devils then for us for when God offers his free love and mercy in Christ if we will entertaine it and we will none of it then justice alone shall not condemne us but mercy shall condemne us wee will none of mercy There is not the worst man but would have pardoning mercy hee is content to have God pardon his sinne but hee will not take the whole mercy and love of God in Christ curing healing mercy there are those that live in filthy courses in prophanenesse in swearing c. it is food to them to be malicious to deprave the best things Serpents feed on poyson They are content to have their sinnes pardoned if God will let their filthy nature alone their poysonfull blasphemous disposition that exalts it selfe against God and let them goe on in their course they will have one mercy but not another but wee shall never be saved without entire mercy healing as well as pardoning whom God loves hee doth not onely pardon their sinnes but heales their nature and makes it like unto Christs holy and pure Those that have not the Spirit in them desiring altering and changing and healing grace as well as pardoning grace they are hypocrites Let us remember this especially because it is most usefull and most men are deceived in this they thinke oh God is mercifull and his love is free in Christ and though I be unworthy yet God will have mercy upon me but hast thou a secret desire to partake of Gods whole mercy and love to make thee good as well as to make thee his sonne and intitle thee to heaven to have thy nature altered to see the deformity of sinne and the beauty of grace if thou hadst rather to have the Image of God upon thee more then any favour in the world that thou hadst rather be free from the bondage of sinne then any other deliverance if it be thus thy state is good To hasten considering Gods free love opened now in Jesus Christ I beseech you let us study Christ and labour to get into Christ daily more and more that wee may be members of Christ and desire God daily more and more to reveale himselfe in Christ to us that we may see his face in Christ that wee may know him in the sweet relations hee hath put on him in the Gospell To know God in generall as a Creator and doing good c. the Heathens did that by the light of nature but we should labour to â—ee him in the face of Christ that is to see him appeased and loving us wishing us well concerning eternall glory that must be by the light of the Gospell and by the Spirit therfore in hearing of the Word and reading and meditating desire God above all to reveale by his Spirit his gracâ—ous face in Christ that in Christ we may see him as a Father as a Husband as a Friend in those sweet relations of love that he hath taken upon him It should be our daily desire of God to manifest his love more to us in Christ Iesus then in any other fruits of his love for there be common fruits as to give us health and friends and liberty and quiet governement which are great favours that we see denyed to many nations oh but the soule that is touched with the spirit of God and the sence of his owne condition by nature is thus disposed Lord I desire that thou wouldest shew the fruits of thy love to me but I desire not so much those common fruits that the reprobates may have as well as I oh shew me by thy holy spirit that thou hast a particular and peculiar love to me in Christ and for this end give me grace to know the mistery of Christ more and more the mystery of my naturall corruption that knowledge that may drive me to make much of thy love and grace in Christ. Now the Spirit that knowes the deepe things of God the depth of Gods love to any one in particular and the depth of our hearts if we begge the Spirit to reveale the good pleasure of God to us in time God will shew unto our soules that he delights in us and that he is our salvation this shewes that the soule is an excellent temper that it sets a right price and value on things that it prizeth Gods favour above all things that is the nature of faith for what is faith onely to believe in generall that Christ dyed c No but to esteeme Gods love better then all the world for Gods love is entire in pardoning and curing too by this the soule is raysed up to esteeme the love and mercy of God in pardoning and healing sinne above life it selfe Psal. 63. Thy loving kindnesse is better then life To conclude all with this one motive the loving kindnesse of God when wee have it once it is no barren complementall kindnesse it is a loving kindnesse that reacheth from everlasting to everlasting from Gods love in chusing to his love in glorifying us it is a love that reacheth to the filling of nature with all the happinesse it is capable of In this world in all misery one beame of Gods loving kindnesse will scatter all clouds whatsoever what raised the spirit of Daniel in the Lions Den of the three young men in the middest of the Furnace of St. Paul in the Dungeon the beames of Gods love in Christ brake into the prison into the Dungeon a few beames of that will enlarge the heart more then any affliction in the world can cast it downe It is excellent that Moses saith Deut. 33. The good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush c. You know that God appeared in the bush when it was flaming the flaming bush shewed the state of Israel in the middest of the Furnace of persecution yet notwithstanding the bush was not consumed why because the good will of God was in the bush so let us be in any persecution put case wee bee like Moses bush all on fire yet the fire shall not consume nor hurt us why the good pleasure of him that dwelt in the bush is with us in Isai 43. I will bee with thee in the fire and in the water not to keepe thee out but I will be with thee in it so that in the greatest persecutions that can be in the fiery tryall as Saint Peter cals it the good will of him that dwelt in the bush will bee with us so that wee shall not be consumed though we bee in the fire afflicted but not despaire why the good pleasure of God dwels in the bush in the Church in the middest of afflictions and persecutions hee is with us who can bee miserable that hath the presence of God the favour and good will of God
his example it is not prevalent unlesse wee can say as the Apostle to the Corinthians here for your sakes Againe for your sakes not for himselfe he became not poore to make himselfe richer hee did not merit for himselfe what neede hee for by vertue of the union of the humane nature with the God-head heaven was due to him at the first moment as soone as hee was borne what should hinder him had he any sin of his own No there was nothing to keepe him from heaven and all the joy that could be in respect of himself but he had our salvation to worke he had many things to do and suffer and therefore of his infinite goodnesse he was content that that glory that was due to him should be stayed he became a servant to appease his Fathers wrath for us and procure heaven for us for us men for us sinners as it is in the ancient Creed and as the Prophet saith to us a Child is borne to us a Sonne iâ— given for us he was borne for us he was given for us he lived for us he died for us he is now in heaven for us he humbled himselfe to death even to the death of the Crosse to a cursed death Therfore when we heare of Christs poverty let us think this is for me not for himselfe this will increase our love and our thankfulnes to him Againe it was for us for mankinde not for Angels for when they fell they continue in that lapsed state for ever this advanceth Gods love to us more then to those noble creatures the Angels who remaine in their cursed condition to all eternity The end of Christs becomming poore That wee through his poverty might bee made rich How are wee made rich by the poverty and abasement of Christ By the merit of it and by efficacy flowing from Christ for by the merit of Christs poverty there issued satisfaction to divine justice and the obteyning of the favour of God not onely for the pardon of our sins but favour and grace to bee entituled to life everlasting and then by efficacy we are enriched by the power of his spirit who altereth and changeth our natures makes them like to the divine nature But more particularly what be the riches that we have by the poverty of Christ First our debt must be paid before wee could bee enriched wee are indebted for our soules and bodies wee did owe more then wee were worth we were under Sathans kingdome therefore Christ discharged our debt There is a double debt that he discharged the debt of obedience the debt of punishment Christ satisfied both for the debt of obedience he fulfilled the law perfectly and exactly for us and for the debt of punishment hee suffered death for us and satisfied divine justice so by his poverty wee are made rich by way of satisfaction for our debts And not onely wee are made rich by Christ paying of our debts but he invests us into all his owne riches he makes us rich partly by imputation partly by infusion By imputation his righteousnesse and obedience is ours his discharge for our debts is imputed to us and likewise his righteousnesse for the attaining of heaven he having satisfied for our sinnes God is reconciled to us and thereupon we are justified and freed from all our sinnes because they are punished in Christ for the justice of God cannot punish one sin twise so we come to bee reconciled because we are justified and we are justified from our sins because Christ as a surety hath discharged the full debt And hence it is that wee are freed from all that is truely ill from the wrath of God and eternall damnation and freedome from the greatest ill hath respect of the greatest good for what had we beene if we had lien under that cursed condition But Gods workes are compleat hee workes like a God therefore we are not onely freed from evill in justification but intitled to heaven and life evelasting And then he makes us rich by infusion of his holy Spirit by working all needfull graces of sanctification in us for by the vertue of Christs death the spirit is obtained and by the spirit our natures are changed so wee have the riches of holinesse from Christ the graces of love of contentment of patience courage c. of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace grace answerable to the grace that is in him the same spirit that sanctified his humane nature and knit it to his divine it sanctifieth his members and makes them rich in grace and sanctification which is the best riches Then againe wee are rich in prerogatives we are the sonnes of God by adoption what love saith the Apostle hath the Father shewed that wee should be called the sonnes of God and this wee have by the poverty of Christ whatsoever Christ is by nature we are by grace he is the Sonne of God by nature we are his sonnes by grace and being sons we are heires heires of heaven and heires of the world as much as shall serve for our good all things are ours by vertue of our adoption because we are Christs and Christ is Gods there is a world of riches in this to be the sonnes of God And what a prerogative is this that we have liberty and boldnesse to the throne of grace as it is Ephes. 3. that wee have boldnesse to appeare before God to call him Father to open our necessities to fetch all things needfull to have the eare of the King of heaven and earth to be favourites in the court of heaven every Christian may now goe boldly to God because the matter of distance our sinnes which make a separation betweene God and us they are taken away and the mercy of God runs amaine to us our nature in Christ standing pure and holy before God And then wee have this grand prerogative that all things shall turne to the best to us what a priviledge is this that there should be a blessing in the worst things that the worst things to a child of God should bee better then the best things to others that the want and poverty of a Christian should be better then the riches of the world because there is riches hid in his worst condition condition Moses esteemed the rebuke of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Aegypt A crosse or the want of any blessing sanctified is better then the thing enjoyed that hath not Gods blessing with it a Christian is so rich that â—ee is blessed in his very afflictions and sufferings it is a greater prerogative to have ill turned to our good then not to have the ill at all It is an argument of greater power and of greater goodnesse that God should turne the greatest ills the greatest wrongs and discomforts to the greatest good as he doth to his children for by them hee
have beene put to death Satan and his instruments would never have medled with him therefore God being veiled in the flesh being clouded with our flesh and infirmities thereupon the World had a misconceit of him He was not generally thought to be what hee was indeed he appeared to be nothing but a poore man a debased dejected man a persecuted slandered disgraced man in the World he was thought to be a Trespasser It is no matter what he appeared when hee was veiled with our flesh he was justified in the Spirit to be the true Messias to be God as well as man Iustified It implyes two things in the phrase of Scripture A freedome and clearing from false conceits and imputations and declared to be truly what he was to be otherwise then he was thought to be of the wicked World When a man is cleared from that that is layd to his charge hee is justified when a man is declared to be that he is then he is said to be justified in the sense of the Scriptures Wisedome is justified of her children that is cleared from the imputations that are layd upon Religion to be mopish and â—oolish Wisedome is justified that is cleared and declared to be an excellent thing of all her children So Christ was justified hee was cleared not to be as they took him and declared himselfe to be as he manifested himselfe a more excellent person the Sonne of God the true Messias and Saviour of the World In the Spirit That is in his God-head that did shew it selfe in his life death in his resurrection and ascension the beames of his God-head did sparkle out though he were God in the flesh yet he remained God stil was justified to be so in the Spirit that is in his divine Power which is called the Spirit because the spirit of any thing is the quintessence strength of it God hath the name of Spirit from his purity and power and vigour So God is a Spirit that is God is pure opposite to grosse things earth and flesh and God is powerfull and strong The Horses of the Aegyptians are flesh and not spirit that is they are weake a spirit is strong so much spirit so much strength So by the puritie and strength of the Divine Nature Christ discovered himselfe to be true God as well as true man The word Spirit is taken in three senses especially in the Gospel It is taken for the whole nature of God God is a Spirit sayth Christ to the woman of Samaria the very nature of God is a Spirit that is active and subtile opposite to meanenesse and weakenesse Then againe Spirit is taken more particularly for the Divine Nature of Christ as it is Rom. 1.4 Of the Seed of David according to the flesh but declared mightily to be the Sonne of God with power according to the spirit of sanctification or holinesse by the resurrection from the dead The opposition shewes that Spirit is taken there for the Divine Nature of Christ. He had spoken in the Verse before concerning his humane nature he was made of the Seed of David according to the flesh and it followes declared to be the Sonne of God according to the spirit of holinesse by the resurrection from the dead and so likewise in 1 Pet. 3.18 He was put to death in the flesh â—ut quickned in the spirit He was put to death in his humane nature out quickned and raysed as he was God The Spirit is taken likewise for the third Person in the Trinitie the Holy-Ghost the holy Spirit And indeed whatsoever God the Father or God the Sonne doth graciously to man it is done by the Spirit For as the holy Spirit is in the order of the Persons so he is in the order of working the Father workes from himselfe the Sonne workes from the Father the holy Spirit from them both the holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Sonne as a common Principle Therefore sometimes the Father is sayd to rayse Christs Body by his Spirit Christ is sayd to do things by the Spirit Here in this place it is especially to be understood of Christs Divine Nature not excluding the Holy-Ghost For as the Holy-Ghost in the Incarnation sanctified his flesh the second Person tooke flesh but the third Person sanctified it so in the Resurrection of Christ the second Person that raysed it selfe up but yet it was by the Holy-Ghost too So when there is mention here of Christ justified by the Spirit that is by his God-head and by the Holy-Ghost which he alway used not as an instrument for the Holy-Ghost is a common Principle with himselfe one with himselfe of equall dignitie onely differing in the order of Persons Whatsoever Christ did he did with the Spirit that must not be excluded Christ was as well justified in the Spirit as God as manifest in our nature to be man And this was in the time of his abasement in the greatest extremitie of abasement there was somewhat that came from Christ to justifie him that he was the Sonne of God the true Messias there is no part of his abasement but some beams of his God-head did breake forth in it He was made flesh but he tooke upon him the flesh of a Virgin Could that be otherwise then by the Spirit to be borne of a Virgin she remaining a Virgin When he was borne he was layd in a Manger indeed there was God in the low estate of the flesh I but the Wisemen worshipped him and the Starre directed them there he was justified in the Spirit He was tossed when he was asleepe in the Ship but he commanded the Winds and the Waves He wanted Money to pay Tribute as he was abased but to fetch it out of a Fish there he was justified the one was an argument of his povertie and meanenesse but the other was an argument that hee was another manner of person then the World tooke him for that he had all the creatures at his command He was apprehended as a Male-factor but he struck them all down with his word Whom seeke yee Come to the greatest abasement of all when he was on the Crosse he hung betweene two Theeves I but he converted the one of them When the Theefe had so much discouragement to see his Saviour hang on the Crosse yet hee shewed such power in that abasement that the very Theefe could see him to be a King and was converted by his Spirit He did hang upon the Crosse but at the same time there was an Eclipse the whole World was darkned the Earth trembled the Rocks brake the Centurion justified him Doubtlesse this was the Sonne of God He was sold for thirtie pence but he that was sold for thirty pieces did redeeme the whole World by his bloud Nay at the lowest degree of abasement of all when he struggled with the wrath of God and wat
of all her children Let us justifie our Religion and profession by maintaining it and standing for it and expresse in our lives and conversations the power of it How shall this be The Text sayth by the Spirit For as Christ justified himselfe that is declared himselfe to be as he was by his Spirit so every Christian hath the Spirit of Christ or else he is none of his and by this Spirit of Christ he is able to justifie his profession not onely to justifie Christ to be the true Head c. but all things he doth must be done by the Spirit or not at all For as Christ when he became man and was in the World he did all by the direction of the Spirit He was led into the Wildernesse by the Spirit he taught by the Spirit the Spirit that sanctified him in the Wombe guided him in all his life so a Christian is guided by the Spirit God doth all to him by the Spirit he is comforted and directed and strengthned by the Spirit and he againe doth all to God by the Spirit he prayes in the Spirit and sighes and groanes to God in the Spirit he walkes in the Spirit he doth all by the Spirit Therefore by the Spirit let us justifie and declare our selves what we are that there is somewhat in us above nature that we have love above carnall men and patience and meekenesse above the abilitie and capacitie of other men We justifie our profession when we do somewhat more then nature or when we doe common ordinarie things in a spirituall holy manner Religion is not a matter of forme but of Spirit Let us not shew our Religion onely by word but by the fruits of the Spirit by love and mercie and meekenesse and zeale when occasion serves The whole life of a Christian as farre as he is a Christian it gives evidence that he is a Christian the whole life of a carnall formall man evidences that he is not a Christian because he hath nothing in him above other men as our Saviour Christ sayth What peculiar thing doe ye to distinguish your selves from other men So let us aske our selves We professe our selves to be the children of God the Heires of Heaven What peculiar thing doe we How doe we justifie our selves A true Christian can answer I can justifie it by the Spirit I finde I doe things from other Principles and motives and inducements then the World doth who onely respect tearmes of Civilitie and aymes of the World or to content the clamour of conscience but I finde I doe things out of assurance that I am the child of God and in obedience to him Let us see what peculiar thing we doe Alas I cannot but lament the poore profession of many How doe they justifie their profession How doe they make good that they have the Spirit of God raysing them above other men when they live no beâ—ter then Pagans nay not so well under the profession of the Gospel and Religion Would Pagans live as many men doe Did they not keepe their words better Were they so loose in their lives and conversations and so licentious Would they sweare by their gods idly Most of our ordinarie people are worse then Pagans Where is the justifying of Religion If Turks and Heathens should see them they would say You talke of Religion but where is the power of it If you had the power of it you would expresse it more in your fidelitie and honestie and mercie and love and sobrietie The Kingdome of God that is the manifestation of the Government of Christ it is not in word but in power Therefore let us labour to justifie that we are subjects of that Kingdome by the power of it Meere civill persons the Apostle sayth of them 2 Tim. 3. they are such as have a forme of Godlinesse but denie the power of it All that rabblement that he names there they have a forme A forme is easie but the power of it is not so easie Therefore let us justifie our Religion by our conversation Let us justifie the Ordinances of God the preaching and hearing of the Word of God by reverence in hearing it as the Word of God and labour to expresse it in our lives and conversations or else we thinke it nothing but the speech of man Let us justifie the Sacrament to be the Scale of God by comming reverently to it and by finding our Faith strengthened by it So labour to justifie everie Ordinance of God from some sweet comforts that wee feele by them and then we shew that wee are true members of CHRIST that we are like CHRIST who justified himselfe in the Spirit Beloved it is a great Power that must make a true Christian no lesse then the Power of the Spirit that raysed Christ from the dead as it is Ephes. 1. Saint Paul prayes that they might fâ—ele the Power that raysed Christ from the dead It is no lesse power for Christ to shine in our darke hearts then to make light to shine out of darknesse Now what power is in the lives of most men The power that raysed Christ from the dead Certainely no. What power is there in hearing the Word when many are so full of prophanenesse that they altogether neglect it What power is there now and then to speake a good word or now and then to doe a slight action Is this the power that raysed Christ from the dead when by the strength of nature men can doe it There must be somewhat above nature to justifie a sound spirituall Christian We must have something to shew that we have our spirits raysed up by the Spirit of Christ to justifie our profession in all estates In prosperitie to shew that we have a Spirit above prosperitie that we are not proud of it Then in adversitie then we justifie that we are Christians by a Spirit that is above adversitie that we doe not sinke under it as a meere naturall man would doe when we have learned Saint Pauls Lesson in all estates to be content In temptation we justifie our Christian profession by arming our selves with a Spirit of Faith to beat backe the fierie darts of Satan When all things seeme contrarie let us cast our selves by a Spirit of Faith upon Christ that argues a powerfull worke of the Spirit when we can in contraries beleeve contraries Thus let us shew that we are Christians that we have somewhat in us above nature that when the course of nature seemes to be contrary yet we can looke with the eye of Faith through all discouragements and clouds and can see God reconciled in Christ that will justifie us to be sound Christians Therefore let us labour not onely for slight outward performances that are easie for any to doe but by an inward frame of soule and by a carriage and conversation becomming our Profession that we may walke worthy of our Profession fruitfully
drawes them nearer to himselfe Hereupon the Apostle saith all things are yours things present and things to come c. reductively they are ours God turnes them to our good he extracts good to us by them all good things are ours in a direct course and other things by an over-ruling power are deduced to our good contrary to the nature of the things themseluâ—s What did I say all things are ours yea God himselfe is ours and he hath all things that hath him that hath all things now in Christ God himselfe is become ours all things are yours you are Christs and Christ is Gods and Rom. 5.10 we rejoyce in God as ours if God be ours his al sufficiency is ours his power is ours his wisdome all is ours for our comfort Againe for glory the riches of heaven which are especially here meant for how ever the riches of heaven be kept for the time to come yet faith makes them present when by faith wee looke upon the promises we see our selues in heaven not onely in Christ our head but in our own persons because we are as sure to bee there as if we were there already but for the joyes of heaven they are unutterable the Apostle calls them Ephes. 3.8 unsearchable riches eye hath not seene nor eare hath heard or hath entred into the heart of man to conceive the things that God hath prepared for them that love him there shall be fulnesse of glory in soule and body both shall be conformable to Christ. At the right hand of God there is fulnesse of joy and pleasures for evermore Nay the first fruits the earnest the beginnâ—ngs of heaven here are unsearchable to humane reason the riches of Christs righteousnes imputed to us the glorious riches of his Spirit in inward peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost the comfort and inlargement of heart in al conditions it is peace that passeth understanding and joy unspeakeable and glorious it is not only unsearchable to humane reason but Christians themselves that have the Spirit of God in them cannot search the depth of them because wee have the spirit but in measure we see then what excellent riches wee have by the poverty of Christ. Was there no other way to make us rich but by Christs becomming poore God in his infinite wisedome ordeyned this way he thought it best wee may rest in that but besides to stay our mindes the better we were to be restored by a way contrary to that we fell wee fell by pride wee must be restored by humility wee would bee like GOD GOD to expiate it must become like us and take our nature and suffer in it Then againe God would restore us by a way sutable to his own excellency every way wherein no Attribute of his might be a looser he would bring us to riches and friendship with him by a way of satisfaction to his justice that wee may see his justice shine in our salvation though indeed grace and mercy triumph most of all yet notwithstanding justice must bee fully contented There was no other way wherein wee could magnifie so much the unsearchable and infinite wisedome of God that the Angels themselves prie into whereby justice and mercy seeming contrary Attributes in God are reconciled in Christ by infinite wisedome justice and mercy meeâ—e together and kisse one another justice being satisfied wisedome is exalted but what set wisedome on worke the grace and love and mercy of God to devise this way to satisfie justice it could not have beene done any other way for before we could be made rich God must be satisfied reconciliation supposeth satisfaction and there could bee no satisfaction but by blood and there could bee no equall satisfaction but by the blood of such a person as was God Therefore Christ must become poore to make us rich because there must bee full satisfaction to divide justice and all his precious poverty before his death his incarnation his want his being a servant c. all was part of his generall humiliation but it was but to prepare him for his last worke the upshot of all is death which was the worke of satisfaction Againe all the inherent part of our riches infused into our nature it comes by the Spirit of God now the Spirit of God had not beene sent if God had not beene satisfied and appeased first because the holy Ghost is the gift of the Father and the Son he comes from both therfore there must be satisfaction and reconciliation before the Holy Ghost could be given which inricheth our nature immediately the immediate cause of sending the Holy Ghost it is Christs comming in our nature Now if God had not beene satisfied in his justice he would never have given the Holy Ghost which is the greatest gift next to Christ therefore Christ became poore to make us rich that wee might have the Holy Ghost shed in our hearts Now al these riches that we have by Christ it supposeth union with him by faith as the riches of the wife supposeth marriage union is the ground of all the comfort we have by Christ our communion springs from union with him which is begun in effectuall calling as soone as we are taken out of old Adam and ingrafted into him all becomes ours Christ procures the spirit the spirit workes faith faith knits us to Christ and by this union we have communion of all the favours of this life and the life to come therefore I say all is grounded upon union by the grace of faith Christ married our nature that we might be married to him by his spirit and untill there be a union there is no derivation of grace and comfort The head onely hath influence to the members that are knit unto it therefore Christ 〈◊〉 our nature that he might not onely be a head of eminency as he is to Angells but a head of influence Now there must be a knitting of the members to the head before any spirits can bee derived from the head to the members therefore the Apostle saith that Christ is our riches but it is as he is in us To whom God would make knowne what is the riches of this mystery among the Gentiles Christ in you the hope of glory Christ is all to us but it is as he is in us and we in him we must be in him as the branches in the Vine and he in us as the Vine in the branches so Christ is the hope of glory as he is in us We must labour therefore by faith to heâ— made one with Christ before we can think of the settings with comfort And when by faith we are made one with Christ then there is a spirituall communion of all things Now upon our union with Christ it is good to think what ill Christ hath taken upon him for me and then to thinke my selfe freed from it because Christ
happie for his former happinesse makes his present unhappinesse more sensible When God had prepared him thorowly then he raised him up with the promised seed God deales as he dealt with Eliah first hee casts him downe with earthquakes and stormes and then he comes in a stiller voice It is for that end that Iohn Baptist comes before Christ to levell all to cast downe the Mountaines and fill up the valleyes for all must bee laid flat to Christ we must lay our selves at his feet and be content to be disposed of by him before we know what belongs to being in Christ there must be poverty of spirit antecedent therefore We see this lively set out in the Prodigall sonne that while he had any thing in the world to content him he never lookes homeward but when he saw such an emptinesse in all things he met with that he could not be satisfied with husks then he began to think of going home and that there was some hope he had a father that would receive him I will be short in this because the other is mainely intended If we would know and discerne by some evidences whether we have beene poore in spirit in this preparative poverty or no. Let us consider what we have judged of our condition by nature whether ever we have beene convinced of the ill condition we are in for if there be not conviction of sinne there will not be conviction of righteousnesse as you have it Iohn 16. There are three workes of the Spirit to convince of sin of righteousnesse and of judgment of spirituall government The Spirit before it convinceth us that we have the righteousnesse of Christ and convinceth us of the necessity of government and holy life in Christ which is called there Iudgement he convinceth of sin which is an antecedent worke Let us examine our selves whether the Spirit have had such a worke or no. Where this conviction and poverty is a man sees an emptinesse and vanity in all things in the world whatsoever but in Christ. And there is a desire of the grace and favour of God above all things Aske a poore man what he would have he would haue that that may supply his poverty and want Aske a man that is spiritually poore before he be in Christ what would you have Oh mercy and pardon offer him any thing else in the world it contents him not but that will content him the sense and perswasion of Gods love and mercy in Christ Iesus Where this poverty of spirit is there will be a wondrous earnestnesse after pardon and mercy and after grace to be in an other condition a man will labour even as for life If you come to a poore man that labours for his living and aske him why doe you labour so he will wonder at your idle question I may starve else he will say A man that is spiritually poore and sees what a state he is in he labours in the use of meanes to have an inward sense of Gods love to finde some beginnings of the new creature to finde a change to be otherwise then he is he sees he must perish else there is a prizing and estimation in him of mercy and pardon above all things in the world and a making after it It is alway joyned likewise with a wondrous abasing of himselfe he thinks himselfe not worth the ground he goes on till God hath mercy on him in Iesus Christ. This is not so sensible in those that are brought up in the Church or that have religious thoughts put into them continually in both kindes both concerning their owne estate by nature and withall concerning grace and mercy in Christ. Therefore grace is instilled into them by little and little and the change is not so sensible But where the conversion is anything sudden from an ill course of life to a better God workes such a poverty of spirit before he bring a man to Christ. In Mat. 5. it is the beginning of all happinesse the blessednesse that leads to the rest Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the kingdome of Heaven And indeed those that are poore in spirit are blessed though they have not yet the sense of Gods love so much as they desire for this drawes on all the rest as I shall shew afterwards To be poore in spirit therefore is to see that we have no good in our selves that we are beggers and bankrupts and have no meanes to pay or satisfie and this stirs up desire and the use of meanes and all the qualifications that follow there Hungring and thirsting after righteousnesse and mourning and meeknesse For this will follow a man that is poore in spirit say what you will to him he is so tractable and meeke let God doe what he will with him so he give him grace if he will cast him downe so be it What shall we doe to be saved Implying a plyablenesse to take any course he is willing to do or to suffer anything And indeed there must be such a poverty of spirit before we can beleeve in Christ whereby we may be convinced of our debts and of our unability to pay those debts and our misery that we are in danger to be cast into eternall bondage for them there must be this before for else we will never repaire to Christ nor Gods mercy in him The full stomack despiseth an hony combe we will not relish Christ nor value him as we should Then againe without this we will not be thankfull to God as we should be who is thankfull to God but he that sees before what need he stands in of mercy and of every drop of the blood of Christ And then we will not be fruitfull for who is so fruitfull a Christian as hee that is thankfull and this depends upon the other A Christian that was never truly cast downe and laid low by the spirit of bondage he is a barren Christian the other having tasted of the love of God in Christ the very love of Christ constraines him and he studies to be abundant in the worke of the Lord as S. Paul saith and every way to shew forth the vertues of him that hath caâ—led him out of darkenesse into marvellous light Againe this is the ground when men are not sufficiently humbled before that they fal away dangerously it is the ground of apostacy because they did not feele the smart of sin He that hath smarted for his estate before knowes what it is to be in such a condition he will be loth ever to come into the prison againe Therefore the ground of carefull walking is a sense of our unworthinesse and misery the more we are donvinced of this the more carefull and watchfull wee will bee that we never come into that cursed condition againe And indeed it is an errour in the foundation which is not mended in the
and praying to him and then using the meanes with dependance upon him Let us therefore acknowledge God this way by committing our wayes and affaires to him Wee need knowledge and strength and a comfortable issue for all that is necessay in our affaires let us acknowledge God and fetch all these from him Well the last thing that wee have any use of trusting God withall is when we are dying to trust our soules to commit them to God and yeeld them up to him our depositum to lay it with him He that hath inured himselfe to trust God all his life and to live by faith he will be able at length with some comfort to dye by faith Hee that hath trusted God all his life with all things that God hath trusted him he can easily trust God with his soule and he that hath not inured himselfe to trust God in this life undoubtedly he will never trust God with his soule when he dies it is but a forced trust Thus you see in all the passages of our lives we must learne to trust God and to make use of God for God is so abundant that hee is never drawne dry he joyes when he is made use of it is an honour to him Let us try our selves by that I have said whether we truly trust God or no let us not deceive our owne soules but labour to trust God for all things Let it be our daily practise in the use of meanes look to the course that he prescribes us and then looke up to him for strength and blessing and successe This ought to be the life of a Christian Oculus ad Coelum as they say of the Governour of a Ship he hath his hâ—nd to the Sterne and his eye to the Pole-star to be directed by that so the life of a Christian he must have his hand to the sterne he must be doing that that God prescribes him and hee must have his eye to the Starre to be guided in his course by Gods direction he that doth not this knowes not what it is to trust in God How shall we bring our soules to this so necessary a duty Indeed it is a very hard matter we know what it is to live by our wits by our wealth by our lands but what it is to live by faith in depending upon God few soules are acquainted with that Therefore in the first place learne to know God you see here we must trust in his name We know men by their names God and his name are all one his name is himselfe and himselfe is his name Therefore let us learne to know God as he hath discovered himselfe know him in his workes but especially in his word know him by that worke is he hath discovered himselfe in his word Let us know his promises and have them in store for all assaies whatsoever promises fâ—r grace and for direction in this world God will not faile us nor forsake us he will be in all extremities with us In the fire and in the water and the promises of issue All things shall work for good to them that love God and the promise of his Spirit He will give his holy Spirit to them that ask him Besides particular promises a world of them in Scripture let us know God in these promises they are our inheritance our portion And if we should go to God and not be acquainted with these he will aske us upon what ground How shall wee bee able to go to God But when we have his promise we may say boldly with the Psalmist Lord remember thy promise wherein thou hast caused thy servant to trust We may put God in remembrance not that he forgets but he will have us mindfull of what he promiseth and put him in minde Aâ—d it is an evidence to our soules that he will grant any thing when we have faith to put him in minde of his promise Lord remember thy promise wherin thou hast caused thy servant to trust Lord thou canst not deny thy word and thy truth and thy selfe and they promise and thy name by which thou hast made thy selfe knowne Thus we should know God in his word as it is Psal. 9. They that know thy name will trust in thee oh Lord. We never trust a man till we know him and those that are not good we say they are better knowne then trusted but the more we know God the more we shall trust him And know him in his speciall Attributes that the word sets him out in besides the promises that we may know that he is able to make good all these promises and then wee shall trust him What are those Attributes He hath made himselfe knowne to be All-sufficient what a world of comfort is in that He saith to Abraham I am God All-sufficient walk before me and be perfect take thou no thought for any other thing I am God All-sufficient There is in him whatsoever may be for an object of trust he is All-sufficient he hath power our trust is in the name of the Lord that made Heaven and Earth There is a consideration to strengthen faith there is power enough we beleeve in a God that made Heaven and Earth and there is will to helpe us he is our God and there is skill to helpe us as S. Peter saith he knowes how to deliver it is his practise he hath used it from the beginning of the Chuâ—ch and will to the end hee knowes how to deliver them to protect and stand by them he hath power and will and skill to doe it And then againe he is every wheâ—e he is such a Castle and Tower and defence we have him neere us in all times he is a present helpe in trouble as it is Psal. 46. what an object of trust is here if we had buâ— faith to make use of it Let us therefore know God in his word in his Attributes and this will bee a meanes to strengthen trust as it is Psal. 36. How sweet is thy goodnesse therefore shall the sonnes of men trust under the shaddow of thy wings Why come we under the shaddow of Gods wing Because his goodnesse is sweet he is a fit object for trust The things of this world the more wee know them the lesse we trust them for they are but vaine but there is such infinitenesse in God that the more we know him the more we shall trust him therefore let us grow in the knowledge of Gods word and truth And adde experimentall knowledge it helpes trust marvellously the experience of others and our owne experience when wee see God hath helped his Church in all times especially when they have sought him by fasting and prayer Our Fathers trusted in thee and were not confounded Psalme 22. Therefore if we trust in thee we shall not be confounded So for our owne experience Thou hast beene my God from my mothers wombe I have depended
of Gods glory 6 6 When it works a glorious joy The hinderances of Gods glory 1 1 Ignorance 2 2 Vnbeleefe 3 3 Too much light When wee thinke our sins greater then Gods mercy Doting on outward things How to come to glorifie God Meditations of Gods mercy in Christ. Ephes. 3. Question Answer The benefit of this meditation 2 2 Begge the spirit of revelation Gal 2. To glorifie God the end of our life 3 3 See the vanity of all things else Draw neere to God Application to the Sacrament Esay 6. Psal. 145. They that glorifie God also love men We cannot glorifie God till we know we are at peace with him Whence peace comes Peace what Ephes. 1.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Out of Christ a separation 1 1 Betweene man and God 2 2 Betweene man and Angels 3 3 Betweene man and man 4 4 Betweene man and other creatures 5 5 Betweene man and himselfe Christ our peace Ephes. 2. Esay 9.7 Peace founded on Christ. Question Answer Why peace is wrought by Christ. 1 1 In regard of God 2 2 In respect of us 3 3 In regard of Christ. Simile No entercourse with God without Christ. Meditate of this peace Question Answer Why is it said peace on earth How to know God and we are at peace 1 1 If God be reconciled to us we are reconciled to him 2 Cor. 5.19 Man naturally hates God 2 2 Gods friends and enemies are ours 3 3 Boldnesse of spirit Iob 22. Acquaintance with God 4 4 Hatred of knowne sins 5 5 High esteeme of the Gospell 2 Cor. 5. 6 6 Peaceablenes with others Isay 11. Danger of false peace Necessitie of application How to maintaine this peace Watchfulnes 2 2 Renewing our Covenant 3 3 Prayer to God Phâ—lâ—p 4. 4 4 Good imployment Philip. 4.8 Motive to unregenerate men to get peace To stirre us up to search the grounds of this peace 1 1 The danger without it In respâ—ct of God 2 2 Christ. Psal. 2. 3 3 The Holy-Ghost 4 4 Creatures Esay 1. 5 5 Devils 6 6 The Churchâ—â— 7 7 Damned spirits Exhortation to make our peace Happinesse of him that is at peace with God Afflictions sanctified to those that are at peace with God Difference of men in trouble Psal. 112. Confidence of Christianâ— in death Comfort after death Peace comes from grace Gods good pleasure to men To love mankind Gods good will the gâ—ound of all good Gods love independent Deut. 7.8 Covenant of grace Foundation of the covenant free Rom. 8. All good by Christ free To empty our selves Gods free love onely in Christ. Iohn 17. Why Godâ— love to us is in Christ. Col. 1. Vse The misery of man out of Christ. To looke to God in Christ in what we do Gods love in Christ ground of comfort Rom 8. How to know Gods love to us The Holy Ghost testifies Gods love The Spirit alters mans disposition to delight in God Psal. 16. Hos. 2. Rom. 12. Psal. 51. Love of God quickeneth to dutie Direction to those that find not God love to them Greatnesse of sin hinders not Gods love To have a good conceit â—o God Danger of neglecting Gods offer Mistake in aâ—plying Gods mercy Study Christ daily Beg the Spirit of revelation Psal 63. Gods love fruitfull Deut. 33. Isay. 43. Simile Scope of the words Examples forcible Example more prevalent then precepts Doct. 2. Christ was rich Riches what Psal. 24. Christ God before he was man Arius Phil. 2.6 Christ a Mediator from the beginning Simile Quest. Answ. Our Mediator must be God 1 1 For the greatnesse of the ill wee were in 2 2 In regard of the good wee have by him Doct. 2. Christ became poore 1 1 He tooke our natuâ—e 2 2 Our nature fallen 3 3 Our condition 4 4 Our misery 5 5 Our sinnes How farre Christ tooke our sinnes Simile Simile Particulars of Christs poverty Iohn 4. Aggravation of Christs poverty Christs riches vailed in his poverty Simile Christ no begger Bellarmine Doct. 3. Christs Poverty our riches Not for himselfe Not for Angells Christs poverty to make us rich Quest. Answ. Quest. Answ. What riches we have by Christ. 1 1 Our debts discharged We are rich by imputation By infusion In prerogatives Adoption Liberty to the throne of grace Ephes. 3. All things turned to good Rom. 5.10 Riches of glory Ephes. 3.8 First fruits of glory Quest. Answ. We are inriched by Christs poverty 1 1 Because wee fell by pride 2 2 We must be restored by satisfaction Else we could not have the spirit No riches by Christ without union Colos. 1.27 Freedom from evill by Christ. Conveyance of all good Object Answ. Christians richâ—s hidden Object Answ. Christians riches chiefly spirituall Christ provides for his Want of outward comforts supplied Simile Christians rich in promises Christians have a rich pawne Poverty a part of our riches Vse 1. A Christians state in contraries Greatnesse of Christs love Bernard How to bee thankefull to Christ. If we be rich by Christs poverty much more by his riches Rom. 5.10 Not to despise men for poverty Heb. 11.38 Christ came not to purchase outward riches Digression concerning the feast of Christs Nativitâ— 1 1 They are not our owne Luke 16. 2 2 They are not true riches 1 1 They make not a man better Simile 2 2 A man out-lives them Simile 3 3 They are not proportionable to the soule From what ground to esteeme our selves and others Our own fault if we want spirituall riches To examine what riches we have from Christ. Christians are rich and know it not Rev. 2. Why Christians are so poor in grace Quest. Answ. How to improve the riches by Christ. 1 1 Humility 2 2 See the excellency of grace 3 3 Know Christs riches for us 4 4 To make use of them for our selves To make good use of recreations Whence to esteeme of our priviledges All our riches from Christs grace Grace what it is Christ a joynt cause of our salvation Chrysost. How to think of the â—ersons in Trinity Revel 5.6 Christ the meritorious cause of grace Christs abasement voluntary All we have of Christ is by grace Foure descents of grace We are justified by grace how meant Grace twofold Simile Iohn 17. How to value blessings Christs grace fruitfull Simile How to know we are in Gods favour Not to despaire Christs grace is free Doct. 5. Grace may be knowne What knowledge this is It requires good diligence Cause of doubting Assurance of salvation no enemy to good workes Titus 2.11.12 Luke 7.47 The Gospell forceth strictnesse of life Doct. 6. The example of Christ should move us to good Christs example our pâ—tern Quest. How profit by Christs example Answ. 1 1 The consideration of Christs mercy Simile 2 Cor. 3 18. Why conversion wrought by the Gospell not by the Law 2 2 Converse with those that
beset of Devils then he triumphed when he was visibly overcome then invisibly he overcame he was an invisible Conqueror when he was visibly subdued For did he not on the Crosse satisfie the wrath of God and by enduring the wrath of God free us from it and from Satan Gods Gaoler and reconcile us by his bloud The chiefe workes of all were wrought in his chiefe abasement At length he died and was buried I but he that died rose againe gloriously therefore he was mightily declared to be the Sonne of God by raysing himselfe from the dead That was the greatest abasement when he lay in the Grave and especially then he was justified by his Resurrection from the dead and his Ascension in his state of Glorification especially So if we goe from Christs birth to his lowest degree of abasement there was alway some manifestation of his justification by the Spirit He was justified in a double regard In regard of God he was justified and cleared from our sinnes that he tooke upon him He bore our sinnes upon the Tree and bore them away that they should never appeare againe to our discomfort He was made a Curse for us How came Christ to be cleared of our sinnes that lay upon him When by the Spirit by his Divine Nature he raysed himselfe from the dead so he was justified from that that God layd upon him for he was our Suretie Now the Spirit raysing him from the dead shewed that the Debt was fully discharged because our Suretie was out of Prison All things are first in Christ and then in us he was acquitted and justified from our sinnes and then we And then he was justified by the Spirit from all imputations of men from the mis-conceits that the World had of him they thought him to be a meere man or a sinfull man No he was more then a meere man nay more then a holy man he was God-man Whence were his Miracles Were they not from his Divine Power He overcame the Devill in his temptations Who can overcome the Devill but he that is the Sonne of God He cast out the Devils and dispossest them with his Word All the enemies of Christ that ever were at length he conquered them and so declared himselfe mightily to be as he was the Sonne of God He healed the outward man and the inward man by his Divine Power he caused the spirituall as well as the bodily eyes to see the dead to live and the lame to goe c. Whatsoever he did in the bodie he did in the soule likewise in those excellent Miracles he was justified and declared to be the Sonne of God especially in his Resurrection and Ascension and daily converting of soules by his Ministerie all being done by his Spirit which is his Vicar in the World ruling his Church and subduing his enemies so that he was every way justified in the Spirit to be God to be the true Messias prophesied of and promised to the Church Therefore he was justified in his Truth that all the Promises were true of him and in his faithfulnesse that he was faithfull in performing the Promises he made he was justified in his goodnesse and mercy and all those attributes he was justified in the Spirit But you will say it seemes he was not justified in the Spirit There are many Heretikes that thinke not Christ to be God that take not Christ to be so glorious as he is I answer when we speake of the justifying of Christ it is meant to those that have eyes to see him to those that shut not their eyes hee was justified to be so great as he was to those whose eyes the god of the world had not blinded to all that were his as it is excellently set downe Iohn 1.14 The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glorie as the glorie of the onely begotten Sonne of the Father full of Grace and Truth We beheld his glorie we did others did not take notice but they were those whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded the malicious Scribes and Pharises that sinned against the Holy-Ghost and would never acknowledge Christ an ignorant people that had not Faith nor the Spirit of God He was justified by the Spirit of God to all that had spirituall eyes to see and take notice of his course as S. Iohn sayth in one of his Epistles What we have seene and heard and our hands have handled the Word of Life that we declare to you So that he was God manifest in the flesh and he shewed himselfe to be the Word of Life to those that were his Apostles and Disciples and those that were converted by him As we see S. Peter when he had felt his Divine Power upon his heart by his Preaching Lord sayth he thou hast the words of eternall life whither shall we goe He felt the Spirit in his preaching And so another time S. Peter in Matth. 16. he confessed him to be the Sonne of the living God You see to whom he was justified and declared to be the true Messias to be God as well as man by his Spirit The reason why he justified himselfe to be so it was the more to strengthen our Faith all his Miracles were but so many sparkles of his Divine Nature so many expressions of his Divine Power And after he was raysed from the dead at his Ascension and sending of the Holy-Ghost he shewed his Divine Power more gloriously and all to strengthen the Faith of the Elect and to stop the mouthes of all impudent rebellious persons For considering that he wrought such Miracles that he raysed men from the dead and raysed himselfe considering that he called the Gentiles and converted the World by the Ministerie of weake men he shewed that hee was more then a man Well to make some use of this that Christ was Iustified in the Spirit Then first of all Christ will at length justifie himselfe this is a ground of Faith How-ever he be now as a Signe set up that many speake against and contradict yet the time will come when he will gloriously justifie himselfe to all the World Now some shut their eyes willingly and the opposites of Christ seeme to flourish yet Christ will be justified by his Spirit to all his Elect in every Age especially in the Resurrection For when he shall come and appeare to be glorious in his Saints it will appeare who he is indeed Now he suffers many to tread upon his Church and he suffers many Heretikes to denie him sometimes in one nature sometimes in another and so to offend against him but the time will come that he will trample all his enemies under his feet he will be justified by his Spirit that is our comfort There are many Schismatikes and Heretikes and Persecutors but Christ will be justified at length the Kingdomes of the Earth
Divine Power so he will justifie his Mysticall Body and as he hath conquered in his owne person so he will by his Spirit conquer for his Church And as he will overcome for his Church so he will overcome in his Church stronger is he that is in the Church in you then he that is in the World and Gods children will be triumphant though they may be discouraged in respect of the present carriage of things yet the Spirit that is in them above the World will gather strength by little and little and it will appeare at length notwithstanding present discouragements undoubtedly the best things will have a true lustre and glory at length how-ever they seeme to be carryed for the present You see as Christ hath justified himselfe to be the true Messias and as he hath justified himselfe so he will justifie all his there is the same reason for both For our further instruction and comfort let us consider that in regard of God likewise we shall be justified from our sinnes in our consciences here and at the Day of Judgement before Angels and Devils and men As Christ was justified from our sinnes himselfe and he will justifie every one of us by his Spirit his Spirit shall witnesse to our Soules that we are justified and likewise his Spirit shall declare it at the Day of Judgement it shall be openly declared that we are so indeed There is a double degree of justification one in our conscience now another at the Day of Judgement Then it shall appeare that we have beleeved in Christ and are cleansed from our sinnes when we shall stand on the right hand of Christ â—s all that cleave to Christ by faith then it shall appeare that by him we are justified from all our sinnes whatsoever Againe Christ was justified in the Spirit Then hence we may learne our dutie we ought all of us to justifie Christ. To whom is Christ justified by the Spirit onely to his owne Church and Children not to the reprobate World We may know that we are members of Christ if wee be of the number of those that justifie Christ. How doe we justifie Christ We justifie Christ when from an inward worke of the Spirit we feele and acknowledge him to be such an one as he is Christ is God Now when we relie upon him as our Rock in all temptations we justifie Christ to be so when we kisse the Sonne with the kisses of faith of subjection of obedience of reverence and love this is to justifie Christ to be the Sonne of God as it is Psal. 2. Kisse the Sonne lest he be angry Those that in temptation are to seeke for their comfort they doe not justifie Christ they doe not live as if he were a Saviour not as if he were a God in temptations to despaire they justifie not Christ. Those that have Christ illuminating their understandings to conceive the Mysteries of Religion they justifie Christ to be the Prophet of his Church because they feele him enlightning their understandings Those that find their consciences pacified by the obedience and sacrifice of Christ they justifie him to be their Priest for they can oppose the bloud of Christ sprinkled on their hearts to all the temptations of Satan and to the risings of their owne doubting conscience their hearts being sprinkled with the bloud of Christ they can goe to God and the bloud of Christ speakes for them Peace it pleads Mercie Mercie Thus we justifie Christ as a Priest when we rest in his Sacrifice and doe not with Papists runne to other Sacrifices this is not to justifie Christ To justifie Christ God-man is to make him a perfect Mediator of intercession and redemption to make him all in all They doe not justifie Christ that thinke God was made man to patch up a salvation that he must doe a part and we must merit the rest oh no take heed of that account all our obedience and all that is from us as menstruous clothes not able to stand with the Justice of God In a word we justifie and declare and make good that he is our King and put a Kingly Crowne upon his head when we suffer him to rule us and to subdue our spirits and our rebellions when we cherish no contrarie motions to his Spirit when we rest in this World and not traditions but stoupe to the Seepter of Christs Word this is to justifie him as a King Thus we should labour to justifie and declare to the World the excellencie and power of Christ in our hearts that we may make Religion lovely and make it be entertained in the World because we shew it to be an excellent powerfull thing Let us examine our hearts whether we thus justifie Christ or no that by our carriage towards him we make it good that he is such an one as the Scripture sets him forth to be In particular we justifie him that he rose from the dead when we beleeve that we are freed from our sinnes our Suretie being out of Prison We justifie him as ascended into Heaven when we have heavenly affections and when we consider him as a publike person gone to Heaven in our name We justifie him as sitting at the right hand of God when we mind the things that are above and not that are here below or else we denie these things wee beleeve them not we justifie them not when our conversations are not answerable to the things we beleeve If we be the children of Wisedome undoubtedly we shall justifie Wisedome If we be the members of Christ we shall justifie our Head if wee be his Spouse we shall justifie our Husband Let us examine our selves that we doe in this kind and never thinke our state good till we can justifie Christ. In the next place for our direction as Christ justified himselfe by his Spirit by his Divine Power so let us know that it is our dutie to justifie our selves to justifie our profession justifie all Divine Truth Let us make it good that we are the Sonnes of God that we are Christians indeed not onely to have the name but the annointing of Christ that we may cleare our Religion from false imputations or else instead of justifying our profession we justifie the slanders that are against it The World is readie to say None are worse then Christians and their Religion is all but words and shewes and formes Shall wee justifie these slanders No let us by the Spirit of God justifie our Religion let us shew that Religion is a powerfull thing and so indeed it is For Divine Truth when it is imbraced and knowne it alters and changeth the manners and dispositions it makes of Lions Lambes it makes our natures mild and tractable and sweet it rayseth a man from Earth to Heaven Let us justifie this our Religion and profession against all gainesayers whatsoever Wisedome is justified
what love he beares us that he hath honoured us so much that creatures of a more excellent ranke then we are even the Angels should be serviceable to us in Christ And all is that we should be full of thankfulnesse But you will say What need the Guard or attendance of Angels to Christ or to us to Head or members considering that God is able to guard us with his Almightie Power It is true The creatures that God hath ordained in their severall rankes they are not for any defect in God to supply his want of power but further to enlarge and demonstrate his goodnesse He is the Lord of Hosts therefore he will have Hosts of creatures one under another and all serviceable to his end His end is to bring a companie to salvation to a supernaturall end to happinesse in the world to come and he being Lord of all he makes all to serve for that end He could doe it of himselfe but having ordained such rankes of creatures he makes all to serve for that end for the manifestation of his power and of his goodnesse not for any defect of strength in himselfe He could doe all by himselfe he could have beene content with his owne happinesse and never have made a World but he made the World to shew his goodnesse and love and respect to mankind So he will have Angels attend us though he watch over us by his owne providence this takes not away any care of his but hee shewes his care in the attendance of Angels and other creatures he useth them to convey his care and love to us But you will say How can the Angels helpe our soules any kind of way they may helpe our outward man or the State where we live but what good doe they to the inward man I answer The inward man is especially subâ—ject to the Spirit of Christ it is God that bowes the necke of the inward man But yet notwithstanding if the Devils can suggest sinne Angels are as strong as Devils and stronger and wiser too they are wiser then the Devill is malicious and stronger then the Devill is powerfull Whatsoever they can doe in evill the good Angels can in good Therefore no question but they suggest many thoughts that are good they are not onely a Guard about us but they are Tutors to teach and instruct us they minister good thoughts and stirre up good motions and suggestions They worke not upon the heart of man immediatly to alter and change it that is proper to God but by stirring up motions and by way of suggestion as the Devils doe in ill so they in good Therefore it is sayd they comforted our blessed Saviour which I suppose was more then by their presence So they comfort Gods children by presenting to their thoughts wee know not how the manner is mysticall it is not for us to search into that good motions by stirring up to good onely the altering and changing of our dispositions that is proper to the holy Spirit of God Let us often thinke of this what a glorious head we have for whose sake the Angels attend upon us in all estates whatsoever even till wee come to heaven And this should stirre us up to labour to bee made one with Christ all the good we have any way is by the interest we have in Christ first he holds it in Capite if we have not a being in our head Christ we can challenge nothing in the world no attendance of Angels for the Angels are at variance with us out of Christ we see presently after the fall the Cherubin was set with his sword drawne to keep the entrance of Paradise from whence Adam was shut to shew that presently upon the fall there was a variance and a mighty distance betweene the Angels and vs. But now the Angels no longer shut Paradise no they accompany us in the wildernesse of this world to the heavenly Canaan to Paradise they go up and downe Iacobs Ladder they attend upon Christ and for his sake they are ministering spirits for the comfort of the elect so that all things are reconciled now in Christ both in heaven and earth Angels and men It should stirre us up to get interest in Christ so that we may have interest in all these excellent things that first belong to Christ and then to us Whatsoever is excellent in Heaven or Earth belongs to the King of all which is Christ and to the Queene of all the Church and the time will come that there will be no excellencie but Christ and his Church All whatsoever is in the world is nothing it will end in Hell and desperation all other excellencies whatsoever This should teach us likewise to carry our selves answerable to our condition to take a holy state upon us we should think our selves too good to abase our selves to sinne to be slaves to men to flesh and blood be they what they will be to the corruptions and humours of any man since we have Angels to attend upon us we are Kings and have a Kingly Guard it should move us to take a holy state upon us it should force a carriage sutable to Kings that have so glorious attendance Undoubtedly if we had a spirituall eye of Faith to beleeve and to know this answerable to the things themselves and their excellencie it would worke a more glorious disposition in Christians then there is to carry our selves as if we were in Heaven before our time Oh that we had cleare eyes answerable to the excellencie of the priviledges that belong to us Againe it should teach us not to despise the meanest Christians seeing Angels despise not to attend on them Shall we disdain to relieve them that the Angels doe not disdaine to comfort To comfort and relieve one another it is the worke of an Angel Shall any man thinke himselfe too good to helpe any poore Christian Oh the pride of mans nature when the more glorious nature of the Angels disdaine not to be our servants and not onely to great and noble men but to little ones even to Lazarus What a devillish qualitie is envie and pride that stirres us up to disdaine to be usefull one to another especially to those that are inferiours We know it was the speech of wicked Cain Am I my brothers keeper Shall I stoupe to him Flesh and blood begins to take state upon it Alas if Angels had taken state upon them where had this attendance bin The Devils that kept not their first standing being proud spirits they disdained the calling they had the good Angels humble themselves God himselfe as it is Psal. 113. disdaines not to looke on things below When the great God became man shall we wonder that Angels should attend upon the nature that God hath so honoured What a devillish sinne then is envie and pride and disdaine Let these considerations move us to be out of
when he was to ascend triumphantly to Heaven the greatest Gift he could give was some to be Prophets some Apostles some Teachers for the building up of the Bodie of Christ till we all meet a perfect man in Christ. I will send them Pastours according to my owne heart sayth God Ier. 3. It is a Gift of all Gifts the Ordinance of Preaching God esteemes it so Christ esteemes it so and so should wee esteeme it And to adde this further to cleare it from whatsoever may rise up in any mans mind doe but consider in experience where Gods sets up his Ordinance how many soules are converted some are savingly cast downe and then raysed up againe their lives are reformed they walke in the light they know whither they goe they can give an account of what they hold the state of those that live under the Ordinance of God is incomparably more lightsome and comfortable and glorious then those that are in the darke that want it If we had no other argument experience is a good argument Where doth Poperie and prophanenesse reigne most In those places where this Ordinance of God is not set up for Poperie cannot endure the breath of the Gospel Thus we see the necessitie and benefit of Preaching But then in the next place this Preaching it must be of Christ Christ must be preached But must nothing be preached but Christ I answer nothing but Christ or that that tends to Christ if we preach threatnings it is to cast men downe that we may build them up if a Physician purge it is that he may give Cordials whatsoever is done in preaching to humble men it is to rayse them up againe in Christ all makes way for Christ. When men are dejected by the Law we must not leave them there but raise them up againe what ever we preach it is reductive to Christ that men may walke worthy of Christ. When men have beene taught Christ they must be taught to walke worthy of Christ and of their calling that they may carry themselves fruitfully and holily and constantly every way sutable for so glorious a profession as the profession of Christian Religion is The foundation of all these duties must be from Christ the graces for these duties must be fetched from Christ and the reasons and motives of a Christians conversation must be from Christ and from the state that Christ hath advanced us unto the prevailing reasons of an holy life are fetched from Christ. The grace of God hath appeared sayth S. Paul it hath shined gloriously teaching us to denie all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly and righteously and holily in this present evill world So that Christ is the maine object of preaching This made S. Paul when he was among the Corinthians to professe no knowledge of any thing but of Christ and him crucified to esteeme and value nothing else he had Arts and Tongues and parts he was a man excellently qualified but he made shew of nothing in his preaching and in his value and esteeme but of Christ and the good things we have by Christ. Now Christ must be preached wholly and onely we must not take any thing from Christ nor joyne any thing to Christ. The Galatians did but beleeve the necessitie of Ceremonies with Christ and the Apostle tells them Yee are fallen from Christ. It is a destructive addition to adde any thing to Christ Away with other satisfaction the satisfaction of Christ is enough away with merits the merits of Christ are all-sufficient away with merit of works in matter of salvation Christs righteousnesse is that that we must labour to be found in and not in our owne all is but dung and drosse in comparison of the excellent righteousnesse we have in Jesus Christ. You must heare and we must preach all Christ and onely Christ. S. Paul sayth he was jealous with a holy jealousie over those he taught why Lest Satan should beguile them and draw them from Christ to any other thing Why is the Church of Rome so erroneous but because she leaves Christ and cleaves to other things Therefore we must labour to keepe chaste soules to Christ and those that are true Preachers and Ambassadours and Messengers they must be jealous with a holy jealousie over the people of God that they looke to nothing but Christ. Christ must be preached But to whom To the Gentiles Here lyes the Mysterie that Christ who was manifest in the flesh justified in the Spirit c. should be preached to the Gentiles What were the Gentiles Before Christs time they were Dogges in our Saviour Christs censure Shall I give the Childrens Bread to Dogges Before Christs time they sate in darknesse and in the shadow of death Before Christs time they were the halt and the lame that He the great Feast-maker sent to bid come in they were aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel without Christ without God in the world without God because they were without Christ. It is not to be imagined in what misery the poore Gentiles were before the comming of Christ except some few Proselytes that joyned themselves to the Iewish Church for the Gentiles worshipped Devils What were all their gods but Devils They were under the Kingdome of Satan when the Gospel came to be preached among them they were translated out of the Kingdome of Satan into the blessed and glorious Kingdome of Christ Coloss. 1. Yet we see here notwithstanding they were such kind of people the Mysterie of the Gospel is preached to these to the Gentiles It was such a Mysterie as that S. Peter himselfe although he were acquainted with it oft times by Christ and he might reade of it in the Prophets yet notwithstanding he was to be put in mind of it Act. 10. when he was to goe to Cornelius he saw a Vision full of Beasts and a Voice saying Kill and eate and indeed the Gentiles were little better then Beasts they were esteemed so before they had the Gospel and the preaching of it to them you see it was a Mysterie to S. Peter himselfe But why did God suffer the Gentiles to walke in their owne wayes as the Apostle saith Act. 14.16 Why did he neglect and over-looke the Gentiles and suffer them to goe on in their owne wayes so many thousand yeeres before Christ came were they not Gods creatures as well as the Iewes I answer this is a Mysterie that God should suffer those wittie people that were of excellent parts to goe on in their owne wayes But there was matter enough in themselves we need not call God to our Barre to answer for himselfe they were malicious against the Light they knew they imprisoned the light of nature that they had as it is Rom. 1. they were unfaithfull in that they had therefore besides that it is a Mysterie God may well be excused Doe but looke to the judgement that
meerely with the Word and with suffering their weapons were nothing but patience and Preaching offering the Word of Christ to them and suffering indignities as S. Austin sayth the World was not overcome by fighting but by suffering So the Lambes overcame the Lyons the Doves overcame the Birds of prey the Sheep overcame the Wolves I send you sayth Christ as Sheepe among Wolves and how by nothing but by carrying a Message and suffering constantly and undauntedly for going with their Message for they had cruell bloody Lawes made against them that were executed to the utmost yet by these meanes they overcame by Preaching and sealing the Truth that they taught by suffering a strange kind of conquest The Turks conquer to their Religion but it is by violent meanes it is a Religion of blood but here as I sayd meanenesse overcame greatnesse ignorance overcame learning simplicity overcame pride basenesse overcame glory a Mysterie in this respect Againe if wee consider the Truth that they taught being contrarie to the nature of man contrarie to his affections to enforce selfe-denyall to men that naturally are full of selfe-love that make an Idoll of their wit and will for them to come to be taught to be fooles in respect of wit and to resigne up their wills to the will of another for these men to beleeve things that are above beleefe to carnall men as St. Austin observes it was the wonder of the world what a kind of doctrine was this to win such entertainment in the world as it did yet it did make men denie themselves denie their wits their wills their goods their lives Therefore in this respect it was a great Mysterie that Christ should be beleeved on in the World Againe if we consider another circumstance it addes to the Mysterie that is the suddennesse of the conquest the world was conquered to the Faith and obedience of Christ. In a short time after Christ one man S. Paul spread the Gospel almost all the world over he conquered almost all the world he spread the savour of the Gospel like Lightning suddenly and strongly because there was an Almighty Power and Spirit accompanying the glorious Gospel and thereupon it came to be thus effectuall with the world Againe it is a wonder in respect of Christ whom the world beleeved on What was Christ Indeed he was the Sonne of God but he appeared in abased flesh in the forme of a servant he was crucified and for the proud world to beleeve in a crucified Saviour it was a Mysterie Lastly it is a great mysterie especially in respect of Faith it selfe Faith being so contrarie to the nature of man For the heart of man where Faith is wrought to go out of it selfe and to embrace a beginning and Principle and rising of life from another to seeke justification and salvation by the righteousnesse and obedience of another for the proud heart of man to stoupe to this to acknowledge no righteousnesse of its owne to stand before the Tribunall of God but to have all derived from Jesus Christ to fetch forgivenesse of sins out of the death of another to wrap it selfe in the righteousnesse and obedience of Christ given of God for it the heart of man without a supernaturall worke of the Spirit to subdue it will never yeeld to this because proud flesh and bloud will alway have somewhat in it selfe to dote upon and to set it out before God and when it finds nothing in it selfe then it despaires for the heart of man thus to goe out of it selfe and rely onely upon the righteousnesse of Christ not having its owne righteousnesse this is the greatest Mysterie Especially for a guiltie Soule that hath its eyes opened to discerne of its owne estate for a conscience awakened to trust in God being a holy God a just God for these two to meet together God and a doubting galled misgiving conscience fore-casting the worst for such a conscience to find peace by this act of Faith casting it selfe upon Christ this is more then can be done by any power of nature There is somewhat in nature for all legall obedience man naturally hath some seedes to love his Parents to hate Murther and the like but to go out of himselfe and cast himselfe upon Gods love and mercy in Christ there is no seeds of this in nature but all against Faith in Christ oft times when a man is cast downe all in the world seemes to make against him and then for a man to have his heart raysed up by an Almightie power to beleeve certainely this must be a Mysterie I say when all makes against him his Conscience makes against him and the Judgement of God against him and Satans temptations against him all the frame of things present seemes to be against him God himselfe oft times seemes to be against him to be an offended God justly offended with his sinnes for the soule in this case to cast it selfe upon God in Christ there must needs be a hidden and excellent deepe worke on the soule This is the greatest Mysterie the greatest difficultie is in this branch considering how contrarie to the heart of man Faith is Let us take heed of shallow conceits of Faith as if it were an easie common universall grace to beleeve No beloved it is a supernaturall powerfull worke Saint Paul sets it out divinely and largely in Ephes. 1.18 Hee calls it the Mightie power of God it requires not onely a Power but an Almighty Power to rayse the heart of man to beleeve For even as the worke of Redemption by Christ is a greater worke in it selfe then the worke of Creation so also the worke of Conversion though they be all one to an infinite Power yet the thing it selfe is more difficult to make the heart of man to beleeve then to make a world of nothing for when God made the world there was nothing to oppose there he had to doe with simple nothing but when God comes to make the heart beleeve he findes opposition and rebellion he finds man against himselfe he finds the heart and conscience against it selfe he finds opposition from Satan that helps mans distrustfull heart then all meet together afflictions the sense of Gods anger and mans guiltie conscience now to make such a man beleeve is more then to create a world And as God shewed more power so he shewed more mercy in the worke of Redemption then in the Creation In the Creation there he did good to a good man Adam was created good and he should had he stood have continued in a good condition but in the worke of Redemption God doth good to evill men God transcends in his love because the glory of his mercie reignes in the worke of Redemption so that the power and wisedome and mercie being greater in the worke of Redemption it requires a more super-natural power in the soule to apprehend this
into Heaven so it shall be with us the same body that suffers any thing for Christ the same body that dies the same Body shall rise and be assumed to glory Hence likewise we have a ground of patience in all our sufferings from another reason not from the order but from the certaintie of glory Shall we not patiently suffer considering the glory that we shall certainely have If we suffer with him wee shall be glorified with him Who will not be patient a while that hath such glory in his eye Therefore let us looke upon the glory of Christ in all our sufferings whatsoever What made Moses and all the Saints in all times to be so patient They had an eye this way What made Steven not onely patient but glorious His face shone as the face of an Angel he looked on Iesus Christ and saw him sitting at the right hand of God What made the Martyrs not onely patient but triumphant in all their sufferings They had an eye of Faith to see Christ sitting in glory and to see themselves in Heaven glorious in Christ and not onely to see themselves glorious in Christ but in themselves afterwards Wee are not onely glorious in our Head but we shall be our selves where he is Taken up in glory And let it stirre us up likewise not to be ashamed of Religion and to stand out in good causes for Christ and the Church He is not ashamed to be called our Brother no not after his Resurrection Goe tell my brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father He was not ashamed of it when he began to be in the state of glory he is not ashamed of our nature now to take it up into Heaven he is not ashamed to owne us here and at the Day of Judgement to set us at his right hand And shall we now for feare of men for feare of shame for any base earthly respect be ashamed of our glorious Head Doe we beleeve that we have a Head that is glorious in Heaven sitting at the right hand of God that ere long will come to judge the quike and the dead and shall we be ashamed to hold out the profession of Religion for a scorne for a word for a frowne Where is the Spirit of glory the Spirit that should be in Christians that hope to be glorious He that is ashamed of me here saith Christ I will be ashamed of him at that great Day How can we thinke that Christ will owne us when we will not owne Religion here When we are ashamed to stand for him shall we thinke to stand at his right hand All base carnall Atheisticall spirits that are afraid of disgrace of displeasure of losse of any thing but of him they should be afraid of let them know there is no comfort for them in Christs exaltation For if they had any communion with Christ he would infuse another manner of spirit into them Let us therefore stand for Christ we have a glorious Head a glorious hope a glorious Inheritance And let us goe on with incouragement in good duties with a Spirit of Faith for wherefore is Christ in Heaven but to rule his Church by his Spirit To leade captivitie captive and to give gifts to men Let us therefore goe on with confidence that Christ from Heaven will give us his Spirit to subdue our corruptions He is in Heaven to rule his Church and what is his Kingdome but the subduing of our spirits by his Spirit to be more humble and more holy and gracious every way Let us not thinke that our corruptions will be too hard for us but goe on in a Spirit of Faith That Christ that dyed for us as a Priest he will rule us as a King and if we be true to our owne soules we shall have strength to sustaine us he sits in Heaven to rule us by his gracious Spirit Let us not despaire though we carry this and that corruption about us we shall by little and little overcome all he will lead captivitie captive and overcome all in us as he did in his own person he that overcame for us will overcome in us if there be a Spirit of Faith to depend upon him Againe this Mysterie is a Mysterie of Godlinesse it tendeth to and enforceth godlinesse and holinesse of life Christ received up to glory You see then our flesh is in Heaven Christ hath taken into Heaven the pledge of our flesh and given us the pledge of his Spirit It was a dignifying of our nature that God should be manifest in our flesh that that was an abasing to him as God was an honour to our nature the Incarnation of Christ it was the beginning of his abasement in regard of his God-head for the God-head to be clouded under flesh but it was a dignifying of the humane nature that it should be graffed into the second Person And is it not a greater honour to our nature that now in Christ it is gone to Heaven and is there above Angels Our nature in Christ rules over all the world And wherefore is all this As it is for wondrous comfort so for instruction to carry our selves answerable to our dignitie What! hath God taken our nature upon him to the unitie of the second Person and exalted and honoured and enriched it Is he likewise gone to Heaven in our nature and is there above all Principalities and Powers all the Angels in Heaven attend upon him And shall we debase and dishonour our nature that is so exalted Let it worke upon us to carry our selves in a holy kind of state Shall we defile our selves with sinfull courses make our selves baser then the Earth we tread on worse then any creature for a man without grace is next to the Devill in miserie if God be not mercifull to him If God have thus honoured our nature above all created excellency whatsoever shall not this stirre us up to a correspondent carriage It is oft pressed by the Apostle that we walke worthy of our calling And indeed let us oft consider to what great matters we are called for the life of Heaven it must be begun upon Earth Whosoever hath this hope to be glorious with Christ in Heaven it purgeth him it frames him to be like the state he hopes for and he that hath not a care to sute and fit his carriage and disposition to the state he beleeves it is an emptie hope he deludes himselfe Whosoever shall be glorious with Christ in Heaven is also glorious now there is a Spirit of Glory resting upon them that is Grace Grace makes them glorious Those that have not a Spirit of Glory that is a Spirit of Grace to fashion and conforme them in some measure to be like Christ by little and little they have no right nor interest in the state of Glory that shall be revealed after Is Christ taken up to glory and for us as well as for himselfe
not only meditation of these things that will cause us to be heavenly-minded but Christ as a Head of influence in Heaven conveyes spirituall life to draw us up When I am ascended I will draw all men after me There is a vertue from Christ that doth it there is a necessitie of the cause and consequence as well as strength of reason and equitie there is an influence issuing from Christ our Head to make us so indeed therefore those that are otherwise they may thanke themselves The best of us indeed have cause to be abased that we betray our comfort and the meanes that we have of raysing up our dead and dull hearts for want of meditation Let us but keepe this Faith in exercise that Christ is in Heaven in glory and we in him are in Heaven as verily as if we were there in our persons as we shall be ere long and then let us be uncomfortable and base and earthly-minded if we can To conclude all As the soule of man is first sinfull and then sanctified first humble and then raysed so our meditations of Christ must be in this order first thinke of Christ as abased and crucified for the first comfort that the soule hath is in Christ manifested in the flesh before it come to received up into glory Therefore if we would have comâ—ortable thoughts of this Christ received up in glory thinke of him first manifest in the flesh let us have recourse in our thoughts to Christ in the Wombe of the Virgin to Christ borne and lying in the Manger going up and downe doing good hungring and thirsting suffering in the Garden sweating water and blood nayled on the Crosse crying to his Father My God my God why hast thou forsaken me finishing all upon the Crosse lying three dayes in the Grave have recourse to Christ thus abased and all for us to expiate our sinne he obeyed God to satisfie for our disobedience Oh here will be comfortable thoughts for a wounded soule pierced with the sense of sinne assaulted by Satan To thinke thus of Christ abased for our sinnes and then to thinke of him taken up into glory In the Sacrament our thoughts must especially have recourse in the first place to Christs Body broken and his blood shed as the Bread is broken and the Wine poured out that we have benefit by Christs abasement and suffering by satisfying his Fathers wrath and reconciling us to God Then thinke of Christ in Heaven appearing there for us keeping that happinesse that he hath purchased by his death for us and applying the benefit of his death to our soules by his Spirit which he is able to shed more abundantly being in that high and holy place Heaven for the Spirit was not given in that abundance before Christ was ascended to glory as it hath beene since In this manner and order we shall have comfortable thoughts of Christ. To thinke of his glory in the first place it would dazle our eyes it would terrifie us being sinners to thinke of his glory being now ascended but when we thinke of him as descended first as he sayth Who is he that ascended but he that descended first into the lower parts of the Earth So who is this that is taken up in glory is it not he that was manifest in our flesh before This will be comfortable Therefore let us first begin with Christs abasement and then we shall have comfortable thoughts of his exaltation These points are very usefull being the maine grounds of Religion having an influence into our lives and conversations above all others other points have their life and vigour and quickning from these grand Mysteries which are the food of the soule Therefore let us oft feed our thoughts with these things of Christs abasement and glory considering him in both as a publike person the second Adam and our Suretie and then see our selves in him and labour to have vertue from him fitting us in body and soule for such a condition The very serious meditation of these things will put a glory upon our soules and the beleeving of them will transforme us from glory to glory FINIS ANGELS Acclamations OR THE NATIVITY of CHRIST celebrated by the heavenly Host. BY The late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne ISAI 9.6 To us a Child is borne to us a Sonne is given 1 PET. 1.12 Which things the Angels desire to looke into LONDON Printed by E. P. for N. Bourne at the Royall Exchange and Rapha Harford at the gilt Bible in Queenes head Alley in Pater-noster Row 1638. ANGELS ACCLAMATIONS LUKE 2.13 14. And suddenly there was with the Angell a multitude of the heavenly Host praising GOD and saying Glory to GOD in the highest and on earth peace Good will towards men THE Words are few and pregnant very precious having much excellency in a little quantity The Heavens never opened but to great purpose when God opens his mouth it is for some speciall end and when the Angels appeared it was upon some extraordinary occasion This was the most glorious Apparition that ever was setting aside that that was at Christs Baptisme when the Heavens opened and the Father spake and the Holy-Ghost appeared in the likenesse of a Dove upon the head of Christ when all the Trinity appeared but there was never such an apparition of Angels as at this time and there was great cause for there was never such a ground for it whether we regard the matter it selfe the incarnation of Christ there was never such a thing from the beginning of the World nor never shall be in this World for God to take mans nature on him for Heaven and Earth to joyne together for the Creator to become a creature Or whether we regard the benefit that comes to us thereby Christ by this meanes brings God and man together since the fall Christ is the accomplishment of all the Prophesies of all the promises they were made in him and for him therefore he was the expectation of the Gentiles Before he was borne he was revealed by degrees First generally The seed of the woman c. Then more particularly to Abraham and his seed and then to one Tribe Iudah that hee should come of him then to one family the house of David and then more particularly a Virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne and the place Bethlehem till at the last Iohn Baptist pointed him out with the finger Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Even as after midnight the Sun growes up by little and little till his beames stâ—â—ke forth in the morning and after it appeares in glory so it was with the Sunne of Righteousnesse as he came nearer so hee discovers himselfe more gloriously by degrees till hee was borne indeed and then you see here a multitude of Angels
his sake we have communion with the blessed Angels These things may be of some use but it is not that I mainly intend thus much for the Apparition Now the celebration is a Multitude of the heavenly Host praising God The word signifies singing as well as praise it implies praise expressed in that manner and indeed praising God it is the best expression of the affection of joy The Angels were joyfull at the birth of Christ their Lord. Joy is no way better expressed then in praising God and it is pitty that such a sweet affection as Joy should runne in any other streame if it were possible than the praising of God God hath planted this affect on of joy in the creature and it is fit hee should reape the fruit of his owne garden it is pitty a cleare streame should run into a puddle it should rather runne into a garden and so sweet and excellent affection as Joy it is pitty it should be imployed otherwise then in praising God and doing good to men They expresse their joy in a sutable expression in praising God the sweetest affection in man should have the sweetest imployment the sweetest imployment that joy can have is to be inlarged in love to praise God and for Gods sake to doe good to others See here the pure nature of Angels they praise God for us we have more good by the Incarnation of Christ then they have yet notwithstanding such is their humility that they come downe with great delight from heaven and praise and glorifie God for the birth of Christ who is not theirs but our Redeemer Some strength they have there is no creature but hath some good by the Incarnation of Christ to the Angels themselves yet however they have some strength from Christ in the increase of the number of the Church yet he is not the Redeemer of Angels in some sort he is the head of Angels but he is our Redeemer To us a child is borne to us a Sonne is given And yet see their nature is so pure and so cleare from envie and pride that they even glorifie God for the goodnesse shewed to us meaner creatures then themselves and they envie not us though we be advanced by the Incarnation of Christ to a higher place then they For beloved the very Angels have not such affinity to Christ in this as wee they are not the Spouse of Christ they make not up mysticall Christ the Church doth the Church is the Queene as Christ is the King of all it is married to Christ Angels are not and yet although they see us advanced in diverse respects above them yet they are so pure and free from envie that they joyne in praising God here in love to us Let us labour therefore for dispositions Angelicall that is such as may delight in the good of others and in the good of other meaner then our selves And learne this also from them shall they glorifie God for our good especially and shall we be dull and cold in praising God on our owne behalfe Shall they come suddenly from heaven and cheerefully and willingly and to praise God for his goodnesse to us and shall we be frozen and cold in this duty that is for our good more especially I hasten to that that followes What is the matter of their celebration and gratulation Glory to God in the highest In earth peace Good will towards men There is some difference in the readings some copies have it On earth peace to men of good will to men of Gods good will and so they would have it two branches not three if the word be rightly understood it is no great matter First the Angels begin with the maine and chiefe end of all it is Gods end it was the Angels end and it should be ours too Glory to God on high Then they wish the chiefe good of all that whereby we are fitted for the maine end Peace God cannot be glorified on earth unlesse there be peace wrought for man else conceives God as an enemy by this Peace we are fitted to glorifie God if wee find reconciliation with God through Iesus Christ then the sence of Gods love in the worke of reconciliation will enflame our hearts to glorifie God therefore next to the glory of God they wish Peace on earth Then thirdly here is the ground of all happinesse from whence this peace comes from Gods good will from his good pleasure or free Grace To men of Gods goodwill So if we goe back againe The good will and pleasure of God is the cause and ground of peace in Christ and peace in Christ puts us into a condition and stirs us up to glorifie God so we see there is an order in these three To begin with the first Glory to God in the highest The Angels those blessed and holy Spirits they begin with that which is the end of all It is Gods end in all things his owne glory he hath none above himselfe whose glory to ayme at And they wish Glory to God in the highest Heavens Indeed he is more glorified there then any where in the world it is the place where his Majestie most appeares and the truth is we cannot perfectly glorifie God till we be in heaven there is pure glory given to God in Heaven there is no corruption there in those perfect soules there is perfect glory given to God in heaven Hâ—re upon earth God is not glorified at all by many The whole life of many being nothing but a dishonouring of God by abusing his ordinances trampling upon his Church and children by slighting his word and Sacraments there is little honour given to God in the world but only by a few whom he intends to glorifie for ever and indeed if we will glorifie God here we must raise our thoughts to heaven at that time raise them above the world to heaven where we shall for ever glorifie him where we shall joyne with the blessed Saints and Angels and sing holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts c. In the meane time let me adde this by the way that in some sort we may glorifie God more on earth then in heaven It may seeme a Paradox but it is true that is thus here upon earth we glorifie God in the middest of enemies he hath no enemies in heaven they are all of one spirit here upon earth we live not onely among Devils but among men led with the spirit of the Devill where God is dishonoured and if here we take Gods side and the truth and Gospels side and stand for Gods cause in some sort we honour God more here then we are capable to doe it in heaven where there is no opposition In this respect let us be encouraged to glorifie God what we can here for if we begin to glorifie God here it is a signe we are 〈◊〉 number that he intends to glorifie with him forever
The verbe is not set downe here whether it should be Glory is given to God or whether by way of wishing Let glory be given to God or by way of prediction or prophesie for the time to come glory shall be to God from hence to the end of the world the verbe being wanting all have a truth For first it cannot be a wish unlesse it were a positive doctrinall truth that all glory is due to God in the Incarnation of Christ and because all glory is due to him thereupon comes the ground of wishing and of prayer Let God be glorified why because it is due if it were not a positive doctrinall truth there could be no foundation to raise a wish or a prayer for what is a prayer but the turning of a promise or truth into a prayer and what is praise but the turning of a truth into praise so it is a doctrinall truth First that God is to be glorified especially in Christ and in Christ in this particular in the Incarnation of Christ. And it is a wish for the time to come let him be glorified and a prediction God shall be glorified in the Church hee shall alway have some to glorifie him for Christ and especially for his Incarnation Glory to God on high Glory is excellency greatnes and goodnes with the eminency of it so as it may be discovered There is a fundamentall Glory in things that are not discovered at all times God is alwayes glorious but alas few have eyes to see it but here I take it for the excellency and eminency of the goodnesse and greatnesse of God discovered and taken notice of In the former part of the Chapter Light is called the glory of the Lord Light is a glorious creature nothing expresseth glory so much as light it is a sweet creature but it is a glorious creature it carries it's evidence in it selfe it discovers all other things and it selfe too So excellency and eminency will discover it selfe to those that have eyes to see it and being manifested and withall taken notice of is glory In that the Angels begin with the glory of God I might speake of this doctrine that The glory of God the setting forth of the excellencies and eminencies of the Lord should be the end of our lives the chiefe thing we should ayme at The Angels here begin with it and wee begin with it in the Lords prayer hallowed bee thy name it should be our maine imployment Of him and by him are all things therefore to him be glory Rom. 11. Therefore wee should give God that which is his owne Thine is the glory as it is in the conclusion of the Lords Prayer but this being a generall point I will passe it by and come to the particular in which 〈◊〉 will more comfortably appeare as this glory shines in Christ in the Incarnation of Christ there is matter of glorifying God both the Angels and men And here I doe not take the Incarnation of Christ abstractively from other things in Christ ' But I take the Incarnation of Christ as a foundation prerequisite to all the other good we have by Christ glory to God on high now Christ is borne why only that he is borne No but by reason of this Incarnation there is a union of the two natures God and man so that by the Incarnation now Christ is man and holy man the humane nature in Christ is pure and holy being sanctified by the Spirit and united to God now Christ being not onely man but pure man and God-man God taking our nature to the unitie of his person hence it is that he comes to be qualified for all that he did and suffered after it was from hence that they had their worth What was the reason that his being made a curse and to dye for us should be of such worth It came from a person that was God-man nay so neere is the manhood to God that what the manhood did God did because the person was God the second person taking the nature of man and what he suffred in his humane nature God suffred according to mans nature hence comes that phrase of the communication of properties whatever was done or suffred in mans nature God did as a Mediator God did it in that nature thereupon comes the price of it thus the Incarnation is a pre-requisite foundation to all other benefits by Christ therefore take it conjoyned his Incarnation and his death and resurrection and ascention and all Well then The incarnation of Christ together with the benefits to us by it that is Redemption Adoption c. It is that wherein God will shew his glory most of all That is the doctrinall truth the glory excellency of God doth most shine in his love mercy in Christ. Every excellency of God hath its proper place or Theatre where it is seene as his power in the Creation his Wisedome in his Providence and ruling of the world his Justice in hell his Majestie in heaven but his Mercy and kindnesse his bowels of tender mercy doe most of all appeare in his Church among his people God shewes the excellency of his goodnesse and mercy in the Incarnation of Christ and the benefits we have by it many Attributes and excellencies of God shine in Christ as His truth All the promises of God are yea and Amen in Christ there is an accomplishment of all the promises And then his wisedome that hee could reconcile Justice and Mercy by joyning two natures together this plot was in heaven by God the Father the Sonne and the Holy-Ghost the Trinity that God and man should be joyned together to joyn and knit two Attributes seeming contrary Justice and Mercy to reconcile man by reconciling Justice and Mercy and by such an excellent way that God should become man Emanuel this was a great wisedome to reconcile Justice and Mercy by such a Person as should satisfie Justice and give way to Mercy that is by Christ. God will lose none of his Attributes his Justice must be satisfied that his Mercy might be manifested the wisdome of God found out that way it is a plot the Angels study in Likewise here is Justice Justice fully satisfied in Christ he became our Surety who is God as well as man if no creature can satisfie God God can when the second Person tooke our nature and was our Surety and dyed for us here was the glory of his Justice And of his holinesse that hee would be no otherwise satisfied for sinne it was so foule a thing that to shew his hatred of it he punished it in his owne Sonne when he became our Surety How holy and pure is God that is what a separation is there in the nature of God from sin considering that he so punished it in his Son our Surety that he made him crie out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me We
what doth he talke of peace with God when hee is in league with Gods enemy therefore though such men out of the hardnesse of their hearts which are harder then the nether milstone and God seales them up under a hard heart to damnation except some terrible judgement awake them force a peace upon themselves they ought to speake none and they shall find it to their cost ere long therefore let us examine our owne hearts how we stand affected to any sinfull course There may be infirmities and weakenesses hang upon the best that are besides their purposes and resolutions but for a man resolvedly to set himselfe in an ill way how can he be at peace with God and with Satan at the same time let us take notice of these things and not daube with our owne consciences Againe where there is a true peace established there is a high esteeme of the Word of peace the Gospell of reconciliation as St. Paul calls it 2 Cor. 5. He hath committed to us the word of reconciliation those that find this peace there is stirred up by the Spirit in their breasts a high esteeme of the ordinance of God as being the word of their peace how come we to have peace betweene God and us is it not by opening the riches of Gods love in Christ in the Scriptures Therefore saith the Scripture blessed are the feet of them that bring glad tidings the meanest part of their body their feete are blessed therefore those that have despicable conceits of the Ministrie of the Word and place their happinesse in depraving the labour and paines of that office and calling it is a signe they have prophane hearts for whosoever hath had any grace wrought by the word of reconciliation and of peace they will highly esteeme it and respect them for their office sake it cannot be otherwise Lastly those that have found peace â—are peaceable it is universally true God doth make an impression of the same disposition in us to others we apprehending God in Christ to be peaceable to us wee are peaceable to others therefore in Isay 11. The knowledge of God in Christ it alters and changeth mens dispositions it makes Wolves and Lions to be of a milder disposition and temper harsh proud sturdy dispositions they never felt peace and mercy themselves therefore they are not ready to shew it to others In the nature of the thing it selfe it is impossible for the soule to apprehend peace in the love of God and not to have the disposition wrought upon to shew what it hath felt let us thinke of these and such like evidences daily to keepe our hearts from speaking false peace The greatest danger in the world in this regard is in the Church for people under the Gospell speake false peace to themselves there is a spirit of delusion that carries them along to their death and deceives them also in death and so they are in hell before they be aware and then too late they see that they were never in good tearmes with God in all their life because they looked on Christ making peace without any consideration of the spirit of application There must be a sprinkling of the blood of Christ on our soules to make it our owne We are come to the blood of sprinkling it is not the blood of Christ that makes our peace onely as blood but as it is sprinkled by the hand of faith that is as the Iâ—ope that sprinkled the blood of the Sacrifice upon the people We must not thinke to have any good by the blood of Christ when we want the blood of sprinkling that is this particular faith Christ loved me and hath chosen me and I choose him and love him againe and so goe with boldnesse to God as a Father unlesse there be this passage of the soule betweene God and us let us not talke of peace for if we might have good by Christ without a spirit of application and if there were not a necessity of sprinkling the blood of Christ upon our soules by faith all the world should be saved In the next place to give a few directions to maintaine this peace actually and continually every day To walke with God and to keep our daily peace with God it requires a great deale of watchfulnesse over our thoughts for he is a Spirit over our words and actions watchfulnes is the preserver of peace where there is a great distance betweene two that are at peace it is not kept without acknowledgement of that distance and without watchfulnesse it is not here as it is in a peace that is betweene two Kings that are coordinate one with another but it is a peace betweene the King of heaven and Rebels that are taken to be subjects therefore we must walke in humble low tearmes humble thy selfe and walke with thy God we must watch over our carriage that we doe not grieve the Spirit of God for then how-ever the first peace stablished in conversion should be never taken away yet God interdicts our comfort wee cannot daily enjoy our daily peace without watchfulnesse but God suffers our knowledge and our former illumination to lasâ— our conscience and to be more miserable in our inward man than a carnall man that never had sight of goodnesse oh the misery of a man that is fallen into ill tearmes with God that had peace before of all men such a man hath most horrour till he have made his peace againe watchfulnesse will prevent this And because it is a difficult thing to maintaine tearmes of peace with God in regard of our indisposition we fall into breaches with God daily therefore wee should often renew our covenants and purposes every day And if wee have fallen into any sinne let us make use of our great peace-maker Christ who is in heaven to make peace betweene God and us let us desire God for his sake to be reconciled unto us for God is in Christ reconciling us unto him still the fruit of Christs death remaines still let us desire him to testifie it unto us by his holy Spirit And take that direction of the Apostle in Philip. 4. When we find any trouble in the world not to trouble our selves over-much In nothing be carefull c. No shall we cast away all care Cast your care upon God let your requests be made knowne to God with thankesgiving let your prayers be made to God and let him have his tribute of thankesgiving for what you have received already What then The peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keepe and preserve your hearts and minds in Christ Iesus perhaps we shall not have what we pâ—ay for when we have made our requests knowne to God if wee have not that we pray for presently yet we shall have the peace of God that passeth all understanding shall keepe our hearts and mindes therefore when any thing troubles us let
this Spirit that worketh this in us and assures us of Gods good pleasure it alters and changeth our dispositions that wee shall have a good pleasure in God for there is a mutuall good pleasure God hath a good pleasure in us as his and we have a good pleasure in God wrought by the Spirit the Spirit not onely witnesseth but worketh this sweet and gracious disposition to God God delights in us and we in God God delights in the Church above all things the Church is his wife and Spouse his body his friends his children and those that have the Spirit of God delight in them too Psal. 16 All my delight is in the excellent and Pro. 8. My delight is in the Sonnes of men saith Christ which he shewed by taking the base nature of man upon him so all that have the Spirit of Christ delight in the Church and people of God All my delight is in the Saints on earth God saith his delight is in his Church Hos. 2. So all that have the Spirit of God they delight in the people of God God delights in obedience more then Sacrifice Gods people that he delights in they yeeld their bodies and soules a Sacrifice to God Rom. 12. They will seeke out what is well pleasing and acceptable to God God accepts them in Christ and he is acceptable to them in Christ Iesus and they seeke out what pleaseth him and is acceptable to him as the sonnes of Isaac sought out what might please their old father what he could relish so Gods children seeke out what duties God relisheth best Thanksgiving is a Sacrifice with which God is well pleased is it so then they will seeke out that that may please him God by his Spirit will worke in them a disposition to please him in all things therefore the people of God are said to bee a voluntary free people zealous of good workes being set at liberty the Spirit infusing and conveying the love and good pleasure of God in Christ to them it sets their wils at liberty to devise to please God in all things they have as David prayes Psal. 51. A free Spirit As God not out of any respect from us but freely from his owne bowels loved us and gave Christ to us and delighted in us so the soule freely without any base respects loves God againe Those therefore that doe duties for base aymes and forced as fire out of a flint not as water out of a spring that duty comes not naturally and sweetly from them God hath no pleasure in them because they have none in God but the good they doe is extorted and drawne from them Let us try our selves therefore if wee have tasted Gods good will towards us we will have a good pleasure to him againe whatsoever is Gods pleasure shall be our pleasure what pleaseth him shall please us If it please him to exercise us with crosses and afflictions and losses what pleaseth God shall please me for when he hath once loved me freely in Christ every thing that comes from him tastes of that free love if hee correct me it is out of free love and mercie all the wayes of God are mercy and truth his way of correction and sharp dealing it is a way of love and free mercy therefore if it please him it shall please me my will shall be his will Againe if wee finde the free love of God to us in Christ it will quicken us to all duties and strengthen us in all conditions but these evidences shall suffice let us search our hearts how we stand affected to God and to the best things wee delight in them if God delight in us And if wee doe not find our selves yet to be the people of Gods delight towards whom God hath thoughts of love as the Prophet speaks what shall we doe Attend upon the meanes of salvation the Gospell of peace and reconciliation and wayte the good time and doe not stand disputing this is that that hinders many their disputing and cavilling that perhaps God hath not a purpose to save me and that the greatest part of mankind goe the broad way c. Leave disputing and fall to obeying God hath a gracious purpose to save all that repent of their sinnes and believe in Christ this is Gospell I will leave secret things they belong to God revealed things belong to me I will desire of God his Spirit to repent of my sinnes and to believe and cast my selfe in the armes of his mercy in Christ and then let God doe as hee please if I perish I will perish in the armes of Christ let us labour to bring our hearts to waite in the use of the means for Gods good Spirit to inable me to see my state by nature and to get out of it by casting my selfe upon Gods love in Christ. And object not the greatnesse of any sinne to hinder the comfort of Gods mercy it is a free mercy the ground of it is from himselfe and not from thee It was free to Manasses that had sinned no man more being a King and being the sonne of a good father his sinnes spread further then ours can doe answerable to the greatnesse of his person being an infinite and free mercy it extends to the greatest sinners let no man pretend any sinne or unworthinesse if he seriously repent if any sinne or unworthinesse could keepe it backe it were something but it is a free mercy and love from Gods owne bowels in Christ. And consider how God offers this in the Gospel and layes a command it is thy duty to have a good conceit of God in Christ We ought not to suspect a man that is an honest man and will God take it wel at our hands to suspect him that he is so and so he maks a shew of his love mercy in Christ but perhaps he intends it not put it out of question by believing if thou have grace to believe the mercy of God in Christ thou makest thy selfe a member of Christ and an heire of heaven thou questionist whether thou bee one that Christ dyed for or no believe in him and obey him and thou puttest that question out of question thou doubtest whether God love thee or no cast thy self upon the love of God in Christ and then it is out of question whosoever hath grace to cast himselfe upon the free love of God he fulfils the covenant of grace stand not disputing and wrangling but desire grace to obey and thâ—n all questions concerning thy eternall estate are resolved all is cleare If these things will not move you then let all men know that live in a sinfull condition that they had better have lived in any part of the world then in these glorious times and places of light for when they heare the love of God in Christ laid open to them if they will come in and receive Christ and cast themselves
world he is worthy of all praise and honour we should honour the Father and honour the Sonne and the holy Spirit that applyes the good we have by Christ to us When we glorifie God let us glorifie Christ too Who together with the Father is to be glorified because it was his grace to give him selfe he made himselfe poore for us We cannot honour the Father more then by honouring the Sonne for God the Father will be seene in his Sâ—nne as the Apostle saith In Christ we behold the glory of God therefore what he saith of Christ here tends to the glory of the Father Christ not only as God is gracious and was willing to the woâ—k of salvation but as the meritorious cause of the grace of his Father for grace should not have beene derived to us from the Father unlesse first it had beene seated on Christ in our nature and in him derived to us The worke of salvation as it is from Christ so it is from the grace of Christ therefore it was free and voluntary what so free as grace Therefore Christs abasement and poverty it was meerely voluntary if it had not beene voluntary it had not beene meritorious and satisfactory It was a free-will offering it was of grace not forced and commanded without his owne consent it was meerely of grace for our good and salvation that we might have the more comfort it was a free-will offering He seemed as man to decline death to shew the truth of his manhood but when againe he considered wherefore his Father sent him Not my will but thine be done and with joy With a desire have I desired to eat my last Passeover with you and I have a baptisme and how am I payned till I bee baptized with it How ever to shew the truth of his manhood he feared Death yet when he considered what he was sent for it was with a resignation to the Divine Nature so it was a free-will offering and a sacrifice of a sweet smel to God the Father Therefore when wee thinke of Christ let us thinke of no thing but grace or when we think of Heaven or of any blessing by Christ al comes under the notion of grace because all comes from meere favour There are foure descents of grace First grace as it is in God and Christ in their owne breasts the favour of God resting in his own bosome And then this grace and favour shewed in grace that is in habituall grace in bestowing grace upon our natures to sweeten and sanctifie it to fit it for communion with God And then actuall grace the movings of the Spirit to every good worke to every action of grace And then every gift of God every blessing as a grace because it riseth from grace as we say of the gifts of a great person this is his grace or favour so every good thing we have is a grace It is the favour of God in Christ that sweetneth all let us labour to see grace in all especially the fundamental grace the favour of God and of Christ the cause of all And let us see any grace in us as from that grace and every good act wee doe a grace from meere favour and every blessing wee have is a grace if our hearts be good as the Apostle cals the Macedonians benevolence a grace every thing that is good is a grace Therefore not unto us not unto us but unto thy name be the glory both of thy favour and of al that comes from it all that we have is sweet because it issues from grace The favour in the thing is better then the thing it selfe as we say of gifts we care not for the gift but for the love of him that gave it so the good things that we have are not so sweet as the favour of him that gives it when we deserve not so much as daily bread but that also is of grace The sourse and spring of all that is in us is free grace in the breast of God and Christ. In the controversie between us and the Papists when we say we are justified by grace we must not understand it of inherent grace whereby our natures are sanctified and that but in part but it is meant of the free grace and mercy of God in Christ and the free grace of Christ in his owne breast Let us take heed that we build not our justification and salvation upon a false title the title is the grace of Christ and of God the Father Now the grace we have in Christ in the breast of God is either the good will of God whereby he is disposed to give Christ and to doe all good to us there is no cause of that at all Christ as God joynes with the Father in that grace which is Amor benevolentiae the grace of good will Christ as Mediator is the effect of that grace But then there is the grace of complacency whereby God delights in us this is bestowed upon the creature in effectuall calling then God shewes the grace of delighting in us ingrafting us into Christ by faith for though before all worlds God had a purpose to doe good to us yet that is concealed till we beleeve As water that runs under ground it is hid a long time till it break out suddenly and then we discover that there was a streame runne under ground as Arethusa and other Rivers so it is with the favour of God from eternity it runnes under ground till we be called we see not Christs good wil to us but when we beleeve become one w th Christ God lookes upon us with the love of complacency with the same love wherewith he loves Christ because we are in Christ as it is in Iohn 17. I in them and they in me God loves the head and members with the same love Christ as God was freely disposed to choose men but Christ as Mediator continues this favour and mercy of God when we are grafted into him to shine on us continually It is this second that we must labour for as a fruit of the first Let us labour not only to know that there was an eternall love of God to some that are his but labour by faith in Christ to know that he shines upon us in Christ and all other graces within us and all other gifts are from this first grace therefore they have the name Why doe we call Faith Hope and Love graces but because they issue from the mercy and favour and love of God in Christ and as I said before why doe we call any benefit we have a grace because it comes from grace all good things have the terme of grace on them to shew the Spring from whence they come I will not enter into dispute with points of Popery that stincks now in the nostrils of every man that hath but the use of ordinary reason it is so full of folly and blasphemy
consideration of this till we feele our hearts warmed If one passe through the Sunne shine it doth not much heat but if the Sunne beat upon a thing there will be a reflection of heat so let us stay upon this consideration of the infinite love and mercy of Christ to us wretches and this warming the heart it will transforme us to the likenesse of Christ as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3.18 We all as in mirrour beholding the Glory of God he meanes the glory of Gods mercy in Christ We are transformed and changed from glory to glory from one degree of grace to another The serious consideration of the love and mercy of God in Christ it is a wondrous sweet thing and it hath a transforming power with it And that is the reason why the Gospell converts men and not the Law The Law never converts a man but together with the Spirit it will cast him downe but the Gospell which is the promulgation of grace and mercy to penitent sinners that confesse their sinnes and forsake them and come under a new government of grace the publishing of this hath the spirit of grace with it to worke conversion therefore it is called the ministery of the Spirit because the Spirit goes with the doctrine of grace to change us and make us gracious to perswade us that God loves us and to stir us up to performe all duties in that sweet affection that God requires in the Gospell the affection of love Therefore if we bee or ever were converted it is this way our hearts are wrought on by the consideration of the love and mercy of God in Christ so that love begets love and mercy begets a sweetnesse in us to God againe In the nature of the thing it cannot be otherwise when the soule stands convinced of the sweet mercy of God in Christ and of the sweet love of Christ who being God became man to take our nature and suffer the punishment that was due to us and is now in Heaven appearing and making intercession for us it cannot bee but the soule will be stirred up to a desire of conformity to this blessed Saviour Therefore let us let goe all disputing of election concerning Gods decree and let us doe our duty and depend upon God in the use of the meanes Let us labour to see the love of God in Christ and that will put all questions out of question though in some cases we must labour to know how to vindicate the truth but when it comes to our owne particular lay other things aside let us doe our duty in the use of meanes and thinke of the end of the Gospell of the end of Christs incarnation and death namely to reveale the bowels of Gods mercy to sinners and then we shall finde the intendment of all working upon us that God had an eternall purpose to save us Againe if we would make good use of the example of Christ we must converse with those that have the Spirit of Christ in them as Christ is in every good Christian and see what lovely things the Spirit of Christ discovers in them that will have a transforming power likewise And certainly next to the meditation of Christ and the excellencies that are in him I know no way more effectuall then holy communion with those that are led with the Spirit of Christ when we see the sweet fruit of it in others It hath beene a meanes sanctified to do a great deale of good to many those that delight not in it they never knew what the likenesse of Christ meant for those that desire to be like to Christ they love the shining of Christ in any In these carelesse times all companies are alike one with another indeed when mens callings thrust them upon it they must be allowed to converse with all men but in familiar and intimate society those that doe not make choise of those that finde some worke of grace on their hearts by the Spirit of God they may well doubt of their condition for grace it will make us love the like As we see creatures of the same kind they love and company one with another Doves with Doves and Lambes with Lambes so it must bee with the children of God or else we doe not know what the Communion of Saints meanes which indeed is a thing little understood in the world These times of security are times of confusion affliction will make us know one another better Againe if we would make use of the example of Christ let us put cases some times to our selves what Christ would doe or not doe in such a case I professe my selfe to be a member of Christ to bee one with him and hee one with mee Would CHRIST bee cruell if hee were on earth would he sweare and looke scornefully upon others would he undermine others and cover all with a pretence of justice Oh no it is the Devils worke to doe so If we be not members of Christ woe unto us and if we be doe such courses suit with such a neerenesse to Christ Either let us be religious to purpose or else disclame all for it is better a great deale never to owne religion then to owne it and to live gracelesse lives under the profession of Christ. Now to stir us up to expresse Christ in our lives and conversations Let us consider The more like we are to Christ the more he delights in us for every one delights in those that are like them and what a sweet state is it for God and Christ to delight in us â—od the Father will delight in us because we are like the Son of his delight whom doth God delight most in In his owne blessed Sonne and who come neerest in his delight to his Sonne Those that expresse him in their lives and conversations The more like we are to Christ the more like we shall be one to another As if there be one Statue or Picture or Effigies that is set for the first sample the neerer the rest come to that the more like they are one to another so I say the neerer Christians come to the first paterne of goodnesse Christ himselfe who is Gods master-piece as it were that which he glories in the more we come to be like one another and love and joy one in another What is the sweet communion that we shall have one with another for ever in Heaven Is it not that the Spirit shall be all in all in every one and each shall looke upon another as perfect in grace and love and so shall solace and delight themselves first in God and Christ and then in one another admiring and reverencing the graces and sweetnesse one of another This is the very joy of Heaven it selfe and it is the Heaven upon Earth when we can joy and solace our selves one in another as we are good Now the neerer wee come to Christ who is the Image of God
shall see afterwards of some then he hath of others and he loves some to eternall life and not others I will leave in the middest of thee an afflicted and poore people refusing others God will leave some he will purge away others as he saith in the verse before I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountaine he will take away them but I will leave in the middest of thee c there is a difference All are not alike as the Proverbe is as white lines upon a white stone that we cannot see a difference It is not alike with all men for we see a difference in this world but not much here because Gods government is vailed it will appeare at the last day and whatsoever appeares at the last day it had a ground before There is a difference in regard of grace and inward qualification and in regard of the care of God Even as there is a difference in the creatures there be precious stones and common stones and in plants there be fruitfull trees and barren trees and as there is a difference likewise in the living creatures so among men there is a difference The next thing is that God will have some in the worst times He will have some in all times that are his a remnant as he saith here The remnant of Israel shall doe no iniquity and as in the Text. I will leave in the middest of thee an afflicted and poore people c. GOD will have alway some that are his in the World For it is an Article of our faith Wee beleeve the holy Catholike Church there must not be an Article of faith and no object to beleeve If there bee saith to beleeve a thing there must be somewhat to be beleeved if I beleeve that at all times there shall be an holy Catholike Church there must be such a Church in the world that is the object of my beleefe or else there were no foundation for that Article of faith therefore there must alway be a Church to the end of the world sometimes more sometimes fewer even as the discovery of Christ is From whence comes the abundance of the Spirit the Spirit followes the manifestation of the knowledge of Christ who is the Head of the Church then is the Church most glorious when the riches of Christ are more gloriously discovered Those times wherein there is most discovery of Christ and the mercy and love of God in him there are more elect of God in those times then in other There will be alway a Church in the world that is the object of our beleefe what is the meaning of it I beleeve that in all times to the end of the world there will be a company of people spread over the world gathered out of the rest of mankinde whom Christ hath knit to himselfe by faith and themselves together in a holy spirit of love of which copany â—I beleeve my selfe to be one therefore there must be such a company or else there would be faith without an object of faith which were a great absurdity in Divinity and reason too Then againe the world should not stand were it not for a company in the world that are his for what are others A company of swearers and blasphemers prophane persons belly-gods ambitious bubbles that care for nothing but the vanities of the world what glory hath God by them What tribute do they give to God What credit to religion They are the shame of the times they are such as pull Gods vengeance upon the times and places they live in Such is the ill disposition and poysonfull nature of men if they have not the Spirit of God that God would not indure the world to stand a moment unlesse there were some to with-hold his wrath to be objects of his love and to stay his hand and when they are all gathered there shall be an end of this wretched and sinfull world some there must be while the world endures and for their sakes God continues the world Those that keepe Gods wrath from the world are those that are his and till all those be gathered the world shall stand There shall alway be some It is a point not altogether fruitlesse it yeelds some comfort to know that when we are taken hence others shall stand up when we are gone the Church shall not dye with us Is not that a comfort when a Christian yeelds his soule to God to think yet God will have a Church and people if not among us yet in some other part of the world he will have some that shall glorifie him in this world that shall adorne and beautifie religion and shall for ever be glorified with him in Heaven till he hath made an end of these sinfull dayes It is some comfort I say that goodnesse shall live after us that the Gospell shall continue after us There shal be a posterity to the end of the world that shall stand for the truth and cause of God The world was not nor ever shal be so bad but God hath had and will have a party in the world that shall stand for him and he for them Now the children of God as they know God hath a purpose to glorifie them world without end so they have a desire that God may be glorified world without end and from this desire comes joy when they thinke that there will be a people one earth to glorifie God still when they are taken hence for it is a disposition wrought from Gods peculiar love to wish that God may ever have his praise here in the world while it is a world and for ever in the world to come therefore it is a comfort to them to think that God will alwayes have a Church But these are but a few called by Esay a remnant A remnant according to election as it is Rom. 11. A handfull in comparison of the world yet they are a world in respect of themselves for they are a world taken out of the world but compared with the rest of mankinde they are but as a few grapes after the vintage as the gleanings after the harvest one of a City and two of a Tribe The Prophets every one of them have speciall phrases to let out the fewnesse of those that God hath a speciall care of he cals them in the next verse the remnant of Israell God will have some continually but those are but a few that are his his flock is but a little â—â—ocke It is a point not mainly aimed at here but it is very usefull Is there but a few but a remnant in all times Am I one of those What have I to evidence to me that I am of that little flock that is Christs What have I in me to evidence that God hath set his stampe
almost to skin and bone but why That having made it poore there may be a spring of better blood and spirits Let us take no offence therefore at Gods dispensation either towards others or our selves if we finde him by his holy Spirit sanctifying that outward condition to a holy inward bent and disposition of soule to God-ward It is a happy affliction and poverty and abasement whatsoever it be that drawes us neerer to God in whom we have more supply then we can have want in the world God never takes away any thing froÌ„ his children in this world but he gives them more in better things that is alway his course the poore receive the Gospell the Gospell is preached to them and they receive it those that by their outward abasements are brought to a sight of their spirituall wants and thereupon to hunger after Christ. Againe in that this outward poverty helpes to inward poverty of the soule outward afflictions helpe the inward disposition hence we see likewise this truth that Providence is serviceable to predestination and election God in election hath a purpose to call us out of the world to save our soules Providence that is a generall government of all things in the world Election is in order to salvation he hath chosen us to a supernaturall end and fits us for it by calling and sanctification Now how doth providence serve the decree of election Thus whom God purposeth to save to bring to an end above nature he directs providence so that all things shall serve for that end therefore he incourageth them with outward things or takes outward things from them in his providence as may serve his purpose in election to save their soules He hath a purpose to save them therefore providence workes all things for their good Rom. 8.28 All things by the over-ruling providence of God are serviceable to a higher degree of love that God beares to his children to serve his purpose to bring them to Heaven Thereupon comes the dispensation of riches or poverty honour or abasement he takes liberty for outward things concerning this life to give or take them as they may serve the spirituall and best good of his children Therefore Gods children when they see God intends their good in taken away the things of this life in letting them blood as it were for their health they should blesse God as well for taking as for giving as Iob did And there is as great mercy and love hid in taking away blessings as in conveighing of them I will leave and afflicted and poore people In the Originall it is poore and milde and gentle poverty of estate and poverty of spirit the disposition of soule come almost in one word and indeed in Gods children they are joyned together for he sanctifies all dispensations and carriages of himselfe towards them When God hath a purpose to save a man every thing shall helpe him homeward And it is not a better outward argument to know a mans state in grace then to see how the carriage of things serve Gods purpose to doe good to his soule when we our selves are bettered in our inward man by whatsoever befals us God complaines of the Iewes they were as reprobate silver because hee had melted them and they were never a whit the better they were like drosse consumed in the melting Gods children are as gold refined those that find themselves refined and bettered it is an evidence that they are Gods because there is a providence serving their spirituall good directing all things to that end But from their condition we come to the disposition implyed inward and spiritual poverty Now this poverty is not a meere want of grace to be poore in spirit is not to bee poore of that spirit or to bee of a poore spirit to be of a poore spirit is to have no goodnesse no worth at all but to be of a dejected base mind Gods children are not so ther are none more couragious then they when they are called to it It is not this poverty of spirit to have no goodnesse at all But to be poor in spirit is a state and disposition of soule that hath some goodnesse wherein they see a want of further goodnesse they have so much goodnesse and worth as to see an unworthinesse in themselves and a greater worthinesse out of themselves They are sensible of their own want and see they have not meanes of supply in themselves and they see an all-sufficiency out of themselves in God in Christ they see a necessity of dependance for supply out of themselves in their whole condition till they come to Heaven In a word this poverty is a sight of our owne nothingnesse in our selves and besides that our owne inability and a sight of sufficiency out of our selves and a desire of it and likewise a hope of supply from thence which hope carries us to endeavour and to waiting till we he have supply This will better appeare if we distinguish of this poverty in spirit by the two degrees of it There is a poverty of spirit before we are in the state of grace before we are in CHRIST and a poverty after The poverty before we are in the state of grace is when God by his Spirit together with this word and worke of correction doth open the eyes of our soules to see what we are by nature what we are in our selues It is a worke of Gods convincing Spirit to give us a true view into our owne condiâ—ion and with the sight to worke a sense and â—rom a sight and sense and thorow conviction comes a wondrous abasement and a desire to be otherwise then we are There is some hope in spirituall poverty in Gods children before their conversion which stirs them up to look upon Christ and to the mercy of God in Christ and this stirs â—hem up to begge and to use all meanes and at length God is gracious and answers all the desires of their soules This is before they were in grace for before a Christian is a sound Christian hee must be driven out of himselfe Naturally we are prone to cleave to something either out of our selves or in our selves and we must be fired out by a sight and sense of the misery we are in Wee see God hath taken this course alway in Scripture This course he tooke with Adam hee cites him arraignes him condemnes him he lets him see what a miserable creature he was as no man on earth was ever so miserable till he felt the sweetnesse of the promised seed He that had been in so great happinesse as he was to have his conscience so galled as his was afterward to feele such misery for the present as he did he must needs be very miserable as indeed he was the most miserable man that ever was since his time It is the greatest unhappinesse for a man to have beene
Fabrick as we say when there is an errour in poverty of spirit at the first when the work of humiliation is not kindly wrought hence is the defect in all the whole carriage of a Christian. The foundation of Gods building lies low he digs deepe God layes his foundation oft times as low as Hell it selfe in a manner He brings his children to see that that hee meanes they shall never feele to see his wrath against fin that so he may build upon this foundation For Christianity it is an excellent frame it is a frame for eternity a building for ever therefore it must have a sure foundation which must be laid in humiliation and poverty of spirit An errour in the first digestion is not amended in the second if that be not good the rest are naught if there be not sound humiliation nothing will bee sound afterward Therefore we should desire that God by his spirit would helpe us more and more to know what we are in our selves that we may get to be what we are in Christ. But there is a continuall frame and disposition of soule which is a poverty in spirit that accompanies Gods children all the dayes of their life till they be in heaven till they enjoy that riches that is laid up there for them and that is especially here meant And indeed it is an ingredient into all the passages of salvation For in justification there must be a poverty of spirit to make us see that there is no righteousnesse in our selves or that can come from us that is able to stand against the Law and against the justice of God all is defiled and spotted and unanswerable And upon this poverty and apprehension of what is detective in our selves comes an admiration of that righteousnesse of God in Christ for it is of Gods devising and of Gods approving and of Gods working Christ being God and man to force us every day to renew our right iâ— the righteousnesse of Christ and to be found in him There is such a poverty of spirit as to account all losse and drosse and nothing to bee willing to part withall to bee found in Christ not having our owne righteousnesse but that which is of God in Christ as Paul divinely speakes Phil. 3. So it is necessary in that maine passage of justification to bee poore in spirit that is to see a deâ—ectâ—in our owne righteousnesse to stand opposâ—â—e to Gods justice who is a consuming fiâ—eâ— it is reâ—â—isite in regard of our daily living by saith injustification In the whole course of sanctification there must of necessity bee poverty of spirit that is a sense that wee have no sanctifying grace of our selves but wee must fetch it from the fulnesse of Christ whose fulnesse is for us of his fulnâ—sse wee receive grace for grace The ground of this is that now in the covenant of grace al is of grace both in justification and sanctification all is of grace nothing but grace God hath set himselfe to get the glory of his free grace and mercy now in Iesus Christ. Therefore as our salvation is wrought out of us altogether by our surety the second Adam Christ so our righteousnesse is altogether out of our selves whereby wee appeare righteous before God It is his and given to us by marriage being one with him his righteousnesse is ours And likewise in him wee have the principle of all grace he is the principle of our life the root and foundation of spirituall life and sanctification Without mee you can doe nothing So that in Christ we have all that concernes our spirituall life in sanctification and justification because it is a state of grace Adam had it in himselfe though God at the first clothed him with his image yet not withstanding he had not such a necessity as we have to goe to Christ for all but now in the second Adam Christ we must fetch grace for every thing from him Therefore there must be poverty in regard of out knowledge we have no spirituall knowledge of our selves and poverty in regard of our affections wee have no joy no peace no comfort of our selves no delight in good things nor no strength to them we have all from Christ. By grace saith the Apostle I am what I am as if grace had given him his being his forme as we say Indeed so it doth grace gives a Christian his forme and being his worke and his working for all working is from the inward being and form of things By grace wee are what we are in justification and worke what we work in sanctification it is by what we have freely from Christ therfore in that respect there must be poverty of spirit Nay I say more in every notion when wee are in the state of grace and have had the beginnings of the new creature in us there needs poverty of spirit in regard of our owne inability to performe every action For even as it is in our forme the life and soule there is a need of it in every moving and stirring so there is a need of the spirit of grace which is as the forme and life and being of a Christian to every holy action In him we live and move and have our being saith the Apostle In him that is in God reconciled to Christ we have not only our being that is our forme but in him we live and move to every particular act We are no wiser in particular things then God makes us on the sudden the wiâ—est man will be a foole if God leave him to his owne wit We are no stronger in every particular act that needs strength then God supplies us with spirituall strength We are no holier then God by his Spirit shines on us and raiseth our soules in particular actions So that it is not only necessary that we have grace at the first to make us Christians but we must have a perpetuall regiment of the Spirit from whence we must have an influence to every particular act Though we have grace yet we cannot bring forth that grace to act without new grace Even as trees though they be fitted to beare fruit as the Vine c. yet without the influence of the Heavens they cannot put forth that fitnesse in fruit so though we be fitted by the Spirit of God yet we cannot put it forth to particular acts when occasion serves without the influence of Heaven to promote and further that grace and applying our spirits to every holy action by removing the impediments that would hinder it adding new supply and strength to helpe grace If the temptations bee too strong as sometimes they are former grace will not serve without a new supply of strength As he that may carry a lesser burthen cannot carry a greater without new strength so in every temptation there is required more strength then the former and in every new action there is required
hee comes to any shift if hee have not grace in him he will disdâ—ine out of pride of spirit as every man naturally is deepely proud to relye upon conscience and upon the truth and promises of the word and upon such termes these be weake things no he will stirâ—e Hell rather and Earth and all meanes he accounts it greatnesse that he can doe so It is only the holy man that will â—leave fast to God and to his truth and word for he relisheth it the Spirit that penned the Scriptures and the promises it rules in his heart and therefore he relisheth them Oh these promises are sweet And as he can trust the promises so he can trust God because as I said before he is acquainted with him Where there is not a gracious heart there will never be a beleeving trusting heart There is in God infinitenesse of wayes of supply let us labour therefore for a prudent heart to learne the skill of fetching out of God for all necessities As our want is so let us fetch supply from some Attribute of God and some promise answerable This is the wisdome of the Saints of God are we in extremity then vvith Iehoshaphat say We know not Lord what to do but our eyes are toward thee Are we perplexed that we want wisdome Then go to God who is infinitely wise consider him so for he is fit for the soule nay he exceeds all the maladies and wâ—â—ts of the soule there is not only abundance in God but redundance and overflowing abâ—ndance therefore there wants but skill to make use of what is in him for our turne Are we wronged go to God that judgeth righteously consider him in that relation as a God to whom vengeance belongeth Are we overpowered Go to God that made Heaven and Earth to the Almighty God Are we troubled with the sense of sin Go to God that is the father of all mercy and God of all comfort Are we cast downe and no man regards us Goe to God that stiles himselfe the comforter of the abject This is the skill that faith learnes not only in grosse to thinke of God but to think of God answerable to all occasions as indeed there is somewhat in God to satisfie the soule in all extremities whatsoever I beseech you let us learne to doe thus What a happy condition is he in that hath learned to inure his soule to trust in God for the removall of all ill and for the obtaining of all good he is sure of all For God is a Sunne and a Shield a Sunne for all that is good and a Shield to defend us from all ill hee is so to all that trust in him he is a buckler and an exceeding great reward he is a Buckler to award and shield ill from us and an exceeding great reward for all that is good therefore in how happy a condition is the soule that is acquainted with this blessed exercise of trusting and beleeving in God It is a state wherein we shall be kept from all ill I meane from the ill of ills not from the ill of sense but from the ill of ills and from the poyson of all ill Whatsoever ill we endure there shall be comfort mixed with it and it is better to have it then the comfort what a comfort is this they that trust in the Lord shall want nothing that is good He that trusts in the Lord is as a Tree planted by the River side Ier. 17. He shall alway have his leafe flourishing and beare fruit because he is at the Well-head He that hath the Spring can never want water and he that is in the Sunne can never want lighâ— he that is at the great feast can never want provision he that hath learned to trust in God and can improve what is in him what can he want Oh it is the scarcenesse of oâ—r faith that we want comfort as our faith is so is our comfort and if we could bring a thousand times larger faith to graspe the promises we should carry away larger comfort and strength FINIS Imprimatur Tho Weekes Ianuary 12. 1637. THE TABLE A Abasement GReatnesse of Christs abasement part 1. pag. 57 His Godhead appeared in it 1 73 203 Abasement sanctified whence 2 101 Considerations to abase us 2 130 Adam Adams sinne what 1 154 Redemption exceeds our estate in Adam 1 223 Adoption Adoption by Christ 2 20 Affections Affections why planted in man 1 49 See mystery and Gospell Affliction afflicted Afflictions conforme us to Christ 1 82 2 95 Christ works in the afflictions of his Church 1 83 How Christ rules in afflictions 1 183 Church afflicted why 1 186 God appeares in the night of afflictions 1 205 To whom afflictions are sanctified 1 276 See Angels All. In necessity we must give to all 2 74 Angels Angels not to enuy them 1 76 Angels knew the incarnation of Christ before hand 1 95 The office of Angels Ibid. Angels attendance whence it is 1 101 Why Angels appeare not now 1 102 Comfort in afflictions from their attendance 1 103 Communion with Angels 1 104 Conflict betweene good and evill Angels Ibid. Not to grieve the Angels 1 105 Wherein wee are advanced above Angels 1 106 Good motions stirred in us by Angels 1 108 Why God useth the ministery of Angels 1 107 208 Angels our enemies when 1 109 Angels description 1 111 Angels office double 1 112 Guard of Angels comfortable 1 207 Christs poverty not for Angels 2 17 See Host Church Application Meanes of Popish application ridiculous 1 141 Application necessary 1 268 See Faith Preaching Apostacie Apostacie the ground of it 2 112 Apostle Apostles their priviledge 1 125 Ascension Circumstances of Christs ascension 1 168 Ascension of Christ a mystery 1 170 Assurance Assurance no enemy to good works 2 58 Attributes Attributes of God in Christ 1 221 B Begger CHrist was no begger when he was on earth 1 15 Beginning Christ a Mediatour from the beginning 2 8 Believed Christ believed on how 1 145 Encouragements to believe from Christ 1 154 Blessings Blessings how to be valued 2 50 We defile our selves in blessings 2 101 Body The same body that suffers shall bee glorified 1 187 Boldnesse Boldnesse to God the ground of it 1 64 Boldnesse of spirit an evidence of peace 1 264 C Care GOd hath a care of his 2 88 Instances of Gods care 2 89 Catholique What to be accounted catholique 1 47 Chearefull We must do good to others chearefully 2 70 Cherubin Cherubins what they signifie 1 99 Christ. Christ the scope of the Scriptures 1 50 Christ when conceived in the heart 1 69 Motives to get into Christ 1 109 No entercourse with God without Christ 1 259 Gods love onely in Christ 1 286 And why 286 Misery of men out of Christ Ibid. How to be thankfull to Christ 2 31 A Christian hath all from Christ 2 129 See Mystery Mercy-seat Preaching Faith Peace
have his Spirit 3 3 Put case what Christ would doe Motives to follow Christs example Gal. 2. The example of Christ doth stir up to liberality and bounty The equity of the duty on this ground 1 1 Their relation to us 2 2 The grace of God to us To imitate Christ in the manner of doing good to others 1 1 Speedily 2 2 Cheerfully 3 3 Inwardly Micah 6 4 4 That it is ours 5 5 Seasonably Comfort of works of mercy before death 1 1 An argument of faith 2 2 The benefit of others prayers 3 3 Wâ— see it well bestowed 6 6 Constantly Caution to give with discretion Psal. 112. Quest. Answ. In necessity we must give to all But especially to the good Salvian Object Answ. Those that give not to Christians would not to Christ himself Matth 25. Object Answ. Liberality provides for posterity Psal. 112. It makes comfortable in death Negligence of duties troubles at death Contents of the prophesie Scope of the Text. Parts of the Text. Obser. There is a difference of people Observ. 3. God will have some in the worst times Reas. It is an Article of our faith Reas. 2. The world should not stand else Vse Comfort that God shall have a Church after we are gone Goâ—s children but few Rom. 11. Vse To examin eâ—f we be of those few Vse 2. Thankfulnesse Observ. God hath a speciall care of those that are his Instances of Gods care Rev. 7. Ezek. 9.4 Mal 3. Object Answ. Gods children suffer sometimes in common judgements Comfort against â—l times Quest. Answ. Promises and prophesies performed by degrees Vers. 13. Doct. Gods Church and Children afflicted in this world Act. 9. Reas. 1. To conforme us to Christ. Reas 2 We cannot beaâ—e prosperity Simâ—le Psal. 119. Vse To justifie God in our abasement Why he joyns afflicted and Poore Phil. 4. Doct. Outward poverty sanctified helps poverty of spirit What poore here meant Reas. 1. Poverty and affliction takes away the fuell of pride Simile Afflictions bring us to God Vse 1. The poysonfull nature of man that defiles it selfe in blessings Vse 2. Abasements sanctified come from Gods love Vse 2 To examine if crosses humble us Simile Vse 3. Not despise the poore Simile Observ. Providence serves predestination Vse â—o bâ—esse God for taking as wâ—ll as for gâ—ving Spirituall poverty What it is not What it is 2 2 Degrees of this poverty Before we are in Christ. Instances of this poverty Adam Prodigall Evidences of this preparative poverty 1 1 Conviction of our naturall condition Iohn 16. 2 2 Sight of emptinesse in all things 3 3 Desire of grace châ—â—fly 4 4 Earnestnesse 5 5 Abasing himselfe Matth. 5. Necessity of this poverty of spirit 1 1 Else we will not repaire to Christ. 2 2 Not thankfull 3 3 Not fruitfull 2 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 15. 4 4 The want of it the ground of apostacy 5 5 It is the cause of all miscarriage 2 2 Spirituall poverty after conversion In all passages of our life 1 1 In justification Phil. 3. 2 2 In sanctification Iohn 1. 2 Cor. 15. Poverty of spirit needfull to every holy action Simile Reason of the fals of Gods children Wee cannot pray for grace of ourselves Augustin Spirituâ—ll poverty needfull in actions of this life Spirituall poverty in suffering Signes of poverty of spirit 1 1 Prayer 2 2 Vse of meanes 3 3 Thankfulnâ—â—se 4 4 Selfe-denyall Feare of offending God 5 5 Tractable 6 6 Vpbraids not others 7 7 Most humbled for spirituall wants Vse To labour for spirituall poverty Caution Not to deny the worke of grace How to come to spirituall poverty To come into Gods presence 2 2 Consider we are creatures A Christian hath all from Christ. 3 3 Present to our selves abasing considerations 1 1 For the time past 2 2 For the present 3 3 For the time to come What our profession requires Two graces alwayes requisite Observ. God is trusted as knowne Observ. God must be trusted in Faith the nature of it What means by trust here God how conceived the object of trust Evidence of trust in God 1 1 A care to please him 2 2 Vse of means 3 3 It quiets the soule Psal. 43. How faith quiets the Soule Psal. 112. Faith keepes outbase feares 5 5 A relying on God without meanes Esay 50.10 6 6 To trust God for all things 1 1 With good name 2 2 To right his cause 3 3 With posteâ—ity Psal 24. 4 4 With good Workes 5 5 With direction of our wayes Pro. 3.5 6 6 With our souls at the houre of death How to come to trust in God To learne to know God In his word Psal 9 In his attributes Psal. 46. Psal. 36. Experimentall kâ—owledge Psal. 22.4 5 Psal 71. 2 2 To be acquainted with God Pro. 1. Iudges 10. 2 Cor. 1. Heb. 13. 3 3 To exercise trust upon all occasions Psal. 62. Verse 6. 4 4 To be pooâ—e in spirit 5 5 Get sanctification 6 6 Prudence Ier. 17.