and grace for grace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. one grace for another The latter for the former for having mentioned the fulness of Christ he saith That not one but many graces are drawn and derived from him not one but many graces the first whereof is the cause of the second the second of the third and the third of the fourth and so along always the latter is given for the former till all the gifts of grace being compleated beatitude it self is at last perfected Not as if more grace were given for the right use of grace for that were to take us off from Christ to our selves whereas 't is the Apostles scope to fix us wholly on Christ but the Condition and Nature of Saving-grace which is such Vt prima Trahat alteram that the first draws the second they are as it were so concatenated as one Ring in a chain draws another and for the former that is given the latter is given that is God because he hath given the one will give the other such is the Order and Method he observes he give grace for grace that is where he finds one grace he gives another and where he finds some he gives more Or Grace for Grace i. e. Gratiam super Gratiam grace upon grace i. e. abundance of grace having scarce received one but presently receive another and after that another which Musculus saith the Hebrews express 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle shews it in Rom. 8. 30. From the fulness of Christ we have received the grace of our Calling and upon our calling the grace of Pardon and Justification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Justification the grace of Adoption and Sanctification here 's grace upon grace and upon our Adoption the grace of Glory and Salvation still grace upon grace as the Apostle expresseth it in Ephes 1. 3 4 c. We shall now give you the Reasons of the Point why it is that where there are beginnings of true grace though never so weak God makes rich additions of more grace And Reas 1. Because grace in a Saint is God's own child the infant grace is the Spirits little babe begot in the Womb of the soul by the Spirit the soul is the Mother of it and the Spirit is the Father of it Now you know a Father is very tender of his young babe he takes it up in his Arms and looks upon it he reads his own Image in it and puts it in his bosom he handles it as gently as ever he can and preserves it from the least harm So when the Infant-grace is born in the soul the Spirit is very tender of his young babe he makes wondrous much of it and is as Preservative of its life as ever he can As you may see in Paul he had been in sore pangs of Travel three days and three nights together and the child Grace was newly born and see what care the Spirit had of it said he to Annanias Arise do not stay saith he but Acts 9. 11. arise and go into the street which is called Straight and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth The child Grace as soon as it was born began to cry and the Spirit presently takes care of it 1. The Spirit when the soul is brought to bed and safely delivered of her Man-child Grace sets the little babe to nurse and provides suck for it and gives it the Breasts of the Ordinances as the Apostle saith And I brethren could not speak 1 Cor. 3. 1 1 Pet. 2. 2. unto you as unto spiritual but as unto babes in Christ I have fed you with milk And in 1 Pet. 2 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby A babe when 't is new-born must have milk which is the most nutritive food in the world so must the little new creature when it is born it must have milk and therefore the Spirit provides it for him The Ordinances are the Breasts and the Ministers are the Nurses which give it suck As the Apostle saith We were gentle among you even as a nurse cherisheth 1 Thes 2. 7. her children 2. The Spirit dades his little child Grace and teacheth it to go As God saith When Israel was a child I loved him Hos 11. 1. Verse 3. and called my son out of Egypt I taught Ephraim also to go taking them by their arms And therefore are we said to be led by the spirit and to walk Rom. 8. 14. in the spirit 3. The Spirit teacheth his little child Grace to speak as a Father you know takes up his little one upon his knee and teacheth him to Articulate words and to call Dad so doth the Holy Spirit teach the child Grace to cry Abba Gal. 4. 6 Father Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba Father Reas 2. Where there are beginnings of true grace God makes rich Additions of more grace because such is the Lords noble Nature that he loves to be giving To give is an Act Dare honestum quid est Recipere utile Dans exercet Actum Monestum Accipere utilem Agit ille hic patitur potius for a Prince rather for a God poor men receive rich men give Subjects receive Princes give Creatures receive the Creator gives The more noble and eminent natures are the more they give and the less they receive The heavenly bodies glance their light and dart their influences upon the Earth below but receive nothing from the Earth To give is an Act of perfection to receive is a note of imperfection were we not imperfect we need not be receiving He that gives imitates God who gives and receives not again because he wants not any thing And therefore it was a saying of Christ It is more blessed to give than to receive Acts 20. 35. It is a part of Gods Beatitude that he is all things and hath all things to give that he can give and not be beholden to receive that he is an overflowing Sea always pouring out his gifts and golden streams upon the Creature When he hath given thee grace he hath more grace still to give And being a God and not man he gives continually to give he makes his continued Act He 'l never cease giving to his Saints not only in this life but in the life to come he will be giving out unto his Saints eternally As the Sun is always giving out its heat and virtue to the World so will God be always giving out his sweetness to his Saints throughout Eternity So that he that hath grace shall have more grace he that hath it in the bud and in the beginning shall have it in the perfection fear not poor creature if thou art always wanting God will be always giving and being a God
we all fell so in Christs standing we all stand the Lord Jesus having stood they cannot fall because by virtue of his standing they have the eternal Presence of the Holy Ghost I say the ground is Christs standing for though there are many reasons why the Saints shall not fall from Christ as the immutable love of God the Covenant of Grace the spirit of Grace and the Intercession of Jesus Christ yet all these are bottomed upon Christs standing and fulfiling the first Covenant For therefore is the Covenant of grace unchangeable and the federal love of God to us in that Covenant immutable and the dwelling of the spirit eternal and the sealing of the spirit indelible because built upon the unchangeable Priesthood of Jesus Christ such a Priest as stood and finished the work so stood as to satisfie Justice and vanquish Satan And the Intercession of Jesus Christ in Heaven for us is built upon the standing and perseverance of Jesus Christ had not Christ stood his Intercession had not now been standing had he fell that had fell to the ground also had he fell the Holy Ghost had not been given Hence it is that the Covenant of grace reigns to life Rom. 5. 21. eternal Hence it is that they who receive Christ shall be sure to Vers 27. reign with him Hence it is that our Justification by Christ is not a tottering or fallible Justification that may be lost but a Justification Vers 18. unto life In a word hence it is that the Spirit when he comes he comes to dwell and abide in Believers Rom. 8. 11. He is called the spirit that abides for ever And now I am returned where I began Saints your perseverance is certain in it self though not perhaps to you because in Jesus Christ you have not only the graces of Christ but the spirit of Christ the spirit dwelling and abiding in you 1. The spirit knits the soul to the Lord and never suffers that Love-knot to be untied again This knot the spirit makes is stronger than the Gordian-knot which cannot only not be loosed but cannot be cut asunder The Gordian-knot Alexander the Great when he could not loose it cut it asunder but this knot whereby the Saints are tyed to Christ 't is such a knot as can neither be untied nor cut asunder 2. When the poor soul is careless of himself the spirit keeps him he sleeps and the spirit sits by him The wise virgins took a nap as well as the foolish they fell into a sleep of carnal security but the spirit watcht by them and awaked them 3. When the poor soul is weak the spirit helps him 4. When the froward soul offers to run from the Lord the Spirit follows him Jonah run from God but the Spirit follows him into the Sea and into the Whales belly and there he prayeth and looks again toward the holy Temple Is not this your wonder 5. When the unkind soul grieves the spirit yet the spirit still keeps the house and will not depart from him and so not suffer the soul wholly to depart from the Lord When David sinned and defiled himself he grieved the spirit he polluted the house and yet the spirit would not leave the house the spirit stai'd to keep grace alive in the embers and to blow it again into a new flame at Nathans Sermon Vse 10. You to whom God hath given grace the beginnings of grace here 's a great deal of work for you to do 1. Give the Lord the Honour of his grace And now the Lord knows I know not to whom I speak The Lord knows who are his Some that make the least appearance may have the greatest grace and some that cast the greatest lustre may have no grace a slight Impression upon the soul among men goeth for grace But you that have searched your hearts and found the pearl there give the Lord the Honour of his grace that ever he should plant such a flower in your bosoms For the last end of all the Elect is to admire and honour the riches of Gods grace Eph. 1. 5 6. Beloved This is Heavens work Oh! learn this song before you go thither which none learn but the redeemed and sealed Rev. 14. 3. of the Lord. The Lord in all his dealings with his people seeks lastly to bring about the glory of his grace 1. He leaves them a long time in their graves of sin before he gives them the resurrection of grace that they live like other men wallow in sin as other men which is strange that he that loved them so long should leave them so long to be as bad as any yet this he doth because it makes for the praise of his grace Eph. 2. 2 4 7 8 verses And this doth so confound Gods People that they wish not only Heaven but Earth and Ages to come may record this love 2. Out of men fallen he picks out usually the poorest and the vilest The younger Brother most despised and least respected in a Family and leaves the elder Jacob have I loved Rom. 9. 11 13. 1. Cor. 1. 26. Esau have I hated This is strange that the Lord should chuse thus but this he doth to blur the Glory of all the World 3. The Lord leaves many wants in his People under which they sit sighing and sometime very long Sometimes he takes away those feelings those enlargements they had hides his face from them that if ever he returns in love his grace may be the sweeter and last the longer 4. Sometimes he refuseth to hear their Prayers that when he doth answer them at last his free-grace may be adored and cryed up 5. Sometimes he humbleth them with vexing sins and pricking distempers and it is to advance grace 2. Cor. 12. 7 9. 6. In a word you shall find the Lord so strangely carrying on matters as if he did not love nor care for his people against the hair and grain of their desires and when all comes to winding up 't is to advance grace All a mans good days and bad days all Gods frowns and smiles all the Lords food and physick all God cares for works and plots for 't is to do his people no more hurt than this To advance his grace in them and by them All his hewings and hammerings of you his knocking you a pieces and new melting and new casting of you 't is that you may be vessels of his glorious grace that you may be able to live in the Air of Gods grace to suck in and breathe out grace and let all the powers of Hell seek to blur it yet grace shall conquer Who would not be under grace Oh poor creature Satan is tempting sin vexing yet grace must reign 2. Act for Jesus Christ Do the work of Christ and finish it Christ gives grace because he hath given work for grace to do Christ sets up a work in you that he may do work by you
stands for nothing before God and Christ without the other Spiritual sins are the souls poyson the souls death and there is no carnal sin could reign in us were it not held up by some spiritual sin spiritual sin is the root upon which all carnal sins grow Spiritual sins are the Devils sins he cannot act bodily and fleshly sins he can be no drunkard nor adulterer he is a spirit and sins as a spirit so are those sins we speak of proper to the souls nature that is a spirit as self-love hatred of God Idolatry error in the mind and understanding admiring of our selves seeking our own glory pride unbelief fears cares desires These are spiritual wickednesses by these are we set farthest from God nay by these we become Anti-Gods and are the very pictures of the Devil he cannot be a drunkard or adulterer but he can be proud and envious and malicious and contentious and self-seeking and vain-glorious and in these we play the Devils And therefore I say our Mortification must be inward it must fall upon our inward and spiritual man of sin within us And therefore by Mortification we understand not only corporal austerities such as affect the sense as macerations fastings and other external exercises which rob the sense of what is most agreeable to it which though they be good and sometimes necessary yet are not the principal but we intend I say inward Mortification whereby a man purifies his heart annihilates the sources within drys up the fountains and pulls up the inward roots of vice he dyes to himself kills the seeds of self-love though hid in every thing gets victory over himself and his inclinations his principal care is to annihilate his reason and understanding his will his intentions his desires his propensities as far as they are corrupted chusing in all things that which is most pure And now he becomes most conformable to the spirit and purity of Jesus Christ And therefore to this he wholly addicts himself herein he is very vigilant he knows it generally as a maxim that the more the heart of man is filled with the creatures and the love and regard of himself the more he is separated from God void of his spirit and true virtue 2. To imitate Jesus Christ is not only to do what is good but to do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Men will be doing good actions they cannot help it they have so much light and are so inwardly convinced but we must remember that our actions must be so done as to be Christian and worthy the Son of God They must be holy and to be holy they must be accomplish'd in the spirit and by the principle of grace i. e. the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Jesus Our actions to be Christian must be done in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ that is Christ must do them in us the spirit of Christ must act them in us we must do all with the very heart of Jesus Christ you know all our good actions are nothing without the heart My son give me thy heart Now the heart from which we do them must be the very heart of Christ in us Thus Paul gives witness of himself God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in Phil. 1. 8. the bowels of Jesus Christ So if you reprove sinners if you tell others their faults if you do works of mercy you must do all in the bowels of Jesus Christ So then it is not enough barely to do what the Son of God hath done we may deceive our selves herein believing we do much when we do nothing of value because Jesus Christ being man as we are and conversing among them no doubt but we may find some conformity and resemblance to him even among the wicked in the common states of men Many suffer and are oppressed many poor and humbled many sequester themselves from the pomp of the Court and live in the obscurity of a retired life many fast and pray and do almost all the outward actions that the Son of God did upon the earth He was man as we are we are men as he was he did good we do some good this is no imitation of him The reason is because it is not enough to do what he did but we must do it with the spirit in the disposition and by the sacred principle that he operates This few persons mind it is not enough to do but we must do it by a principle of grace not of general grace comprised under the common name we give to all the gifts of God but of grace which gives us Christ communicates to us his spirit and puts us into the holy disposition of his soul and doing all things by this principle we imitate the Son of God so far that our natural and common actions are withdrawn from their meanness and are of great account with God as being operated by the same principle and with the same dispositions of the Son of God Herein appears the great difference between Christian virtues and moral or humane A man that hath refined principles and perfections and acts according to them may be called good but a man that is in Christ is a new creature and hath another goodness a new goodness and his actions are conformable to this new Being and life To difference Christian virtues from Moral we must be one with Christ and consequently must not operate but with him for this cause he gives us his spirit whereby we act or he acts in us It follows they are not so much our virtues our graces as these of Jesus in us The spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ in all his services looked upon the Will of God the glory of his Father I seek John 5. 30. John 6. 38. John 8. 49 50. John 7. 18. not mine own will but the will of him that sent me I came down from heaven not to do mine own will but the will of him that sent me And again I honour my father I seek not mine own glory He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory but he that seeketh his glory that sent him as Christ did the same is true and no unrighteousness is in him You see what Christ aimed at and which way his spirit and disposition looked out in all his actions the will of his Father the glory of his Father and in pursuit of that doth what is most contrary to his own interests conceals nothing though it cost him never so dear to declare it his Fathers honour only sate upon his spirit Now if you would truly and rightly imitate Jesus Christ you must not only be found doing good but you must do it in the spirit and disposition of Jesus Christ Thou must not honour thy self nor seek it from others you must not attend your own advantages somewhat of glory or profit to your selves but labour only the bringing honour to God If we imitate
his voice to the great World and the Rocks rend Thunder is the voice of God to the great World and in what Majesty doth he express himself to all Creatures below in that voice As there be Thundrings without so there be Thundrings within In great Majesty doth Christ speak to the soul sometimes Ask your Consciences else ask Faelix the Jaylour and Cain else yea ask your Father Adam else what a case were all these in when Christ did but reason with them Yea I ask you Hypocrites if any here is not the way of Christ full of Majesty What means those loads that gather about your hearts and that fearfulness which surpriseth you Thou dost but touch the mountains and they smoke saith the Psalmist so God doth but touch your Consciences and they smoke he doth but whisper within and your spirits fly about every where into the fingers into the face and up into the head and the heart within beats for want of them ready to swoon away Ask wounded spirits whether Gods Word be not full of Majesty Twenty years time not enough to heal the wound of a word of Gods mouth Oh the Majesty of that word Look upon the whole Creation upon the Earth upon the Sea upon the Heavens do they not all-speak the Majesty of Christ God is mightier than the noise of many waters yea than the Mighty waves of the Sea The tossings rollings and roarings of the Sea Do they not speak loudly the Majesty of Christ But ah sinner The tossings rollings and roarings of a troubled soul speak the Majesty of Christs word much more Knowing therefore the terrour of the Lord we perswade men 2. Kingdoms have Supremacy This is Basis Majestatis Christ is a great King over all as the Psalmist titles him Psal 29. God hath set Christ over all so should we as God hath set him so do you over all in all things Now self-denyal is an excellent means that Christ may Reign Thou must deny thy Kingdom that Christ may have his you must lay down your Crowns at his feet that he may wear his Crown upon his Head And this is a sweet Testimony of Grace in the heart if the heart can endure Tribulation that Christ may Reign If it can suffer all things that Christ may do all things if it can lye low that Christ may be exalted when we are most annihilated our Lord and his Mysteries are most admired Sixthly They know thankfully The beams of Knowledg that shine into them melt them into pangs of Thankfulness that they should have the Honour and Happiness to know those things that they know They would not be without Christ whom they know not for a thousand Worlds They would not be without the miracles of love and peace and pardon in Christ which they have and know for all the Worth of India They count themselves to have been no better than brutes and beasts all the time they were without the Knowledg of those Divine Rarities which now they lay up so close in their hearts They adore God that they should know and see those saving secrets which are hid from the eyes of so many round about them Seventhly The true Knowledg of spiritual things doth spiritualize True Knowledg of Religion makes a man Religious Religion in Scripture is called Godliness Without controversie great is the Mystcry of godliness that is The principles of 1 Tim. 3. 15. Christian Religion Godliness is great gain i. e. Christianity The Christian Religion is great gain Thus the Truths themselves are called Godliness Why so Because the true Knowledg of them begets an inward godliness As Religion it self is called Faith and the grace in the soul is also called Faith Why so To shew that Faith begets Faith that is the Truth revealed begets Faith and must be received by Faith Therefore one word includes both the Object the thing believed and likewise the Disposition of the soul to that Object So Religion is called Godliness because the true Knowledg of it begets Godliness Oh! See then what makes a true Christian What when a man nakedly believes Divine Truths When he knows the Principles of Faith doth that make him a true Christian No But when Religion makes him Religious when these Tit. 1. 1. Truths work Godliness for Religion is a truth according to godliness Where the Truths of Religion are embraced there is Godliness with them A man cannot embrace Religion in Truth but he must be godly because Religion is Godliness so it is called for that it tends to beget all Piety and Virtue and Godliness in the heart And therefore if the Mysteries of Heaven work not Godliness a man hath but an Humane Knowledg of Divine things When Lucius a bloody Persecutor offered to confess his Faith hoping thereby to gain an opinion that he was Orthodox Russin Hist Eccles l. 2. c. 6. Moses a Religious Monk refused to hear him saying The eye might sometimes judg of one's Faith as well as the Ear and that whosoever lived as Lucius did could not believe as a Christian ought A man knows no more of Christ than he is sanctified he knows no more of Divine things than he esteems and affects he knows no more of the Mysteries of Heaven than he brings the whole inward frame to be like the things He that saith 1 John 2. 4. I know God and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him No doubt but Hophni and Phineas being Priests had a literal Knowledg of God yet being prophane they are said expresly not to have known him They were sons of Belial they knew 1 Sam. 2. 12. not the Lord. Eighthly If we know God aright we know God in us for we come to know God savingly by Regeneration and so by little and little we come to know God in us knowing in our selves those Divine perfections which the Holy Ghost attributes to God We know the Holiness of God by the Beam of Holiness which he hath irradicated into our hearts We know the love of God by the working of love in us towards him and towards his Saints We know hatred of sin in God by knowing in our selves an hatred of sin we know the Mercy of God by finding in our selves an Image of his Mercy towards our Enemies As Christ saith Be ye merciful as your heavenly Fathers is merciful Luk 6. 36. And it is a clear case We could never know in God Truth Justice Goodness were we not in some measure true just and good it being natural for Man to judg of others according to that which he knows in himself The spirit makes me to know Omnipotency in God through the great Power which he shews in me mortifying me and making me alive The spirit makes me know Wisdom in God by the Wisdom which I get through his Holy Spirit he makes me know Justice in God because he justifieth me in Christ he makes me know Truth
which are wonderful Thy testimonies are wonderful therefore doth my soul Psal 119. 129. keep them There is peace that passeth all understanding joy unspeakable and full of glory There we have the ways of his Wisdom and his dealings with the Saints which are wonderful as Job saith Things too Job 42. 3. wonderful for me which I knew not To bring us to life by death to glory by shame to perfect his work in abasement to bring it low that he may raise after But how may we know these Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven 1. You must use all means you must read and hear and discourse you must study the things of God and converse with the Saints to whom God hath revealed these Mysteries The Ministry of the Word is the golden pipe through which these Divine Mysteries flow down into your Knowledg And then meditate of these things till the heart be warmed fasten your thoughts on them every day It is your Wisdom to spend consideration on them Oh that my people were wise that they would consider their latter end I say it is your wisdom to consider the Excellency of these Mysteries of Religion the Beauty of them in themselves the fruit and sweetness of them in this world and in the world to come An ingredient in the use of means after this Knowledg is that you must search for it The promise of finding Knowledg is only to such as search for Knowledg It is such a precious treasure that it lyeth deep in the bowels of Scripture Thou Prov. 2. 4. shalt find wisdom if thou seekest her as silver and searchest for her as for hid treasures There are two places two veins especially where wisdom is to be found there is the Book of Gods Word and the Book of Gods Works the Book of Scripture and the Book of Providence In these two Books we are to search and study out the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven The Word reveals them the hand of Providence doth dispense them The Word unfolds them Providence makes all things to further them in the soul And let me tell you One great means to irradiate your Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven is to know that Mystery of sinfulness that is in you and that Mystery of misery that lieth upon you It is not to be conceived as Jeremy saith How deceitful the heart is and how desperately wickea what a depth of corruption lyeth there The cursed and woful state we are in by nature is not to be conceived Man's apprehension is too little to take in all the Dimensions of it to lye under the eternal wrath of God what head can comprehend it VVhat created soul can fathom in her widest thoughts the wrath of an infinite God Who can tell what Hell is And how hot the fire is which Gods Almighty wrath hath kindled to all eternity As eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for those that love him so neither hath eye seen nor ear heard nor can the heart of man conceive those depths and treasures of misery that men are in by nature Here we may cry out Oh the depths Therefore the more transparent Knowledg we have of the Mystery of Corruption and of the dreadful misery we are in by sin the more we shall wonder at the unparalell'd goodness of God in the Mystery of our salvation the one will sharpen the appetite of the other Truly Sirs if you are yet in the state of sin consider how little there is between you and eternal Death you are ready to drop into Hell immediately and irrecoverably Did these things sit sadly and seriously upon your spirits how would it advance the Knowledg of the Mysteries of Heaven 2. That you may know the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven bring Humility and self-denial Humble reason and make her give place to Faith for the humility we here speak of is a Denial of our own Parts and Wits though they be never so capacious In this case the Intellectus must be rasa tabula I say the understanding must be as a Table scraped all the Writings and Notions of humane Wit and Reason must be scraped out It must be like the Wax that hath no Character that it may receive the Impression of the Seal That which reason should do in supernatural things is to stoop to Faith to believe the things of God upon the sole Authority of God Here it is the greatest reason to yield to Faith In Divine Mysteries Faith is the reason of reason and the highest reason is to yield to God that hath revealed them And therefore Faith stands with the greatest reason that can be for is it not the greatest reason in the world to believe him that is Truth it self Reason it self saith It is the greatest reason to believe God who is the first Truth 3. Wait upon the spirit Give the spirit that Honour to reveal these Mysteries to you For your eyes are blind you have an inward darkness upon you the Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit takes away the Vail from our souls The Jews had a Vail of types and shadows thrown over the things themselves now I say Our Gospel takes away the Vail from the things but the spirit must take away the Vail from our hearts In Nature there is need of a double light that we may behold Objects 1. A light someness upon the Object it self through the Medium and therefore men cannot see in the night because the air which is the Medium is dark 2. A light besides in the Organ that is the eye and therefore blind men cannot see in the day because though the Sun shines and things may be seen in themselves yet they want a light in the eye So though the former darkness which lay upon the Mysseries of Heaven be taken away those legal shadows and curtains are removed and the Sun of the Gospel shines full upon our faces yet we are blind within there lyeth an inward darkness upon our faculty and the spirit must open our eyes and give us a vital light to joyn with the outward light 4. Send up your prayers to Heaven The holy Vapours of Prayer ascending the spirit comes down in showres upon the soul The earth must send up Vapours before the Clouds can give down rain And therefore Paul prays for the Ephesians That God would give them the spirit of Wisdom and Revelation Eph. 1. 17 18. that the eyes of their understanding being enlightned they might know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints 5. He that would find the knowledg of Divine Mysteries must seek it with a sanctified mind That which enables us to know and understand aright the things of God must be a living principle of Holiness in us As Plotinus saith The eye cannot behold
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a Reprobate mind Vse 8. Try your graces Gifts will not save you see that you have not the gift of Knowledg but the grace of Knowledg not the gift of Prayer but the grace of Prayer See that you have not good parts but parts in Christ as our Lord said Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken Luk. 10. 42. from her No man hath good parts till he hath part in Christ Would you try your graces know then 1. Grace acts inwardly It works upon the heart upon the vitals it works upon the subject it is in as physick works upon Nature so doth grace it works upon the very nature and constitution 2. It acts Divinely it doth all for God and for Divine ends He that hath the gift of Prayer prays for himself that he may shew himself as David said to King Achish Thou shalt 1 Sam. 28. 2. know what thy servant can do But he that hath the grace of Prayer prayeth for God he doth not only pray to God but for God that he may have more of God and less of himself more communion with God less communion with himself he that hath the grace of Prayer prays for grace He that hath the grace of patience suffers Divinely because God will have him suffer as David said concerning Shimei Let him alone saith he for God hath bid him curse David 2 Sam. 16. 10. He that hath the Grace of Obedience obeys Divinely he acts with Divine raptures of love to God and zeal for his Glory 3. It acts universally As the Sun being in the Heavens runs its course over all the World so the soul that is fixed in an Heaven of grace runs its course and motion through all the Commandments As the Apostles being universal pastors were not fixed to any place but went Preaching the Gospel all the world over so those that are universal Saints limit and fix themselves to no Commandment but travel over all the world of Gospel-precepts Vse 9. This speaks admirable comfort to many sorts of men who start up doubts and scruples against themselves and follow the scent of them too far so as to hinder them in the way of believing Dub. 1. Saith a doubting soul I am a poor man and despised in the world and will the Lord reveal his Mysteries of Heaven to me Will the Lord look upon me Sol. And why not upon thee Though the Lord be high yet he looks low He humbleth himself to behold the children of men 1. The Lord will not despise thee in that thou art poor because 't is the condition himself hath put thee in Now the Lord doth never despise his own work he despiseth Satans work and Mans work which is sin but he doth never despise his own work he that made thee poor will not despise thy poverty Thou canst not be worse than a beggar a blind beggar we count a beggar to be in a low condition but a blind beggar that cannot see to work for his living we count him very low and yet Christ gives grace to such Mark 10. 47 He was blind and yet he saw Christ by Faith for as soon as ever he heard it was Jesus He cryed out Jesus thou Son of David i. e. the Messiah have mercy on me Christ Jesus before he came at him sent his spirit to teach him to say Jesus thou Son of David Christ Jesus came by that way on set-purpose to reveal himself to the poor beggar 2. Thy Saviour was poor and therefore no marvel if the poor be saved He that made Christ poor will make the poor Christians 3. To chuse God will reveal his Mysteries to the poor rather than to the rich not that he doth despise riches but because the rich despise him they are proud of their riches and think that God is engaged to save them above others because they are great above others They that are rich in estate are rich in conceit Dub. 2. But I have but an ordinary Trade and will the Lord give grace to me Sol. Why not to thee The Lord had as leif Trade with thee as with any other The Apostles many of them were but Fishermen and yet the Lord Christ caught them in his Net his spirit mov'd upon their Waters and took them out of the depths of sin and revealed the glories of Heaven to them so as to none ever before or after them A Fisherman is as ordinary a Trade as any in the World and yet Christ preferred them above all the World and made them the greatest men in Heaven and Earth for himself sits next the Father and the Apostles next him Dub. 3. But I am a Servant an Apprentice I am an Handmaid whose work is the meanest drudgery in the house and will the Lord reveal to me the Mysteries of Heaven Sol. And why not to thee especially if thou art humble If thy Master trust thee with his Estate and Cash will not God trust thee with his Jewels and Graces God is an humble God and will sit with the servant at the lower end of the Table as well as with the Master at the upper end of the Table Nay with God all are round Tables there 's no upper end he respects not the Master more than the Servant in matters Eph. 6. 9. of grace Thou sayest I am but a servant I sit not down with my Master at Table I wait So doth Free-grace it waits too Thy condition is not so low but Free grace goeth lower God waits to be gracious Isa 30. 18. Dogs are lower than Servants and yet Christ gives grace to Dogs to the Woman of Canaan whom he called a Dog Oh woman great is thy Faith The Children of Israel were but Servants and Bondmen in Egypt and yet God appeared to them not to Pharaoh Thou dost the basest service in the house and they made Brick and yet God appeared to them not to Pharaoh Joseph was but a servant and yet how familiar was God with him It is worth your noting Joseph was a Servant all along A servant to his Brethren they sold him as his Masters into Egypt He was a servant in Potiphar's house and yet God reveals his Presence to him there When his Mistris tempted him saith he How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God A man may be a servant to men and yet not a servant to his lusts and then God appears to thee Joseph when he was cast in the Prison was worse than a servant and yet God was with him there God keeps company with Joseph from service to prison and gives him favour in the Jaylours eyes and he trusts him with all his Prisoners When men have command over their lusts God gives them command over men Dub. 4. But yet saith a soul I am a foolish man an unlearned man and will the Lord reveal his Mysteries to me Sol. And why not to thee The Lord loves to be
he is not weary or remiss in any of his Acts. He takes more pleasure in giving than thou canst in receiving such is his Noble and Princely spirit To give is as it were an Act connatural to him an eternal Act he gave his Essence to his Son from all eternity and John 5. 26. John 3. 16. Rom. 8. 32. in time gave his Son to lost Sinners see he loves to give and with his Son will give us all things Reas 3. To him that hath grace God gives more because he knows there he shall not bestow his grace in vain he shall have fruit from his Plantation the grace he sows there will return him a crop Oh how happy a thing is it to have a soul seasoned with true grace The person gains and God himself is a gainer by such an one the poor soul gains by it for he that hath true grace shall have more and God gains by it for the more grace God gives such an one the more fruit shall God have from such an one and that 's the Lords delight it is the vine-dressers delight to see his Vines which he plants and prunes deckt with grapes It is the Husbandmans delight to walk and see his Field which he tilled cloathed with stately Corn Now God is an Husbandman as Christ saith I am John 15. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 9. the true vine and my Father is the husbandman And ye are Gods husbandry Saints it doth delight God to see his Vines full of grapes and to see his Field clad with fruit ye are his Field ye are his Vines ye must be always bearing because he is always watering The gardener delights to Water those herbs that will grow and yield him profit he bestows no drops upon the Flowers that are dead and wither'd 'T is so with God Every branch that beareth fruit saith John 15. 2. Christ he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit here 's the reason of it he that hath grace and bears some fruit God will give him more grace that so God may have more fruit Reas 4. Because it is his design to perfect his Saints and the work of grace in his Saints he means to make every one of them as Holy as Adam was in Paradise God doth not mean that we should come short in Christ of what we were in Adam Christ Jesus came in place to repair us up all that we lost in Adam and more than that all only Adam was made perfect at once and we are perfected by degrees but this is no disadvantage to us for Adam was made perfect at once but he lost it as soon he lost it at once and we are not made perfect at once but by degrees but we shall never lose it As a Limner that intends a curious picture at first makes but a rude Draught and lays his dark Colours but then by degrees he comes over with his beauteous and bright Colours and draws out the perfect proportion of a curious piece So God that glorious Artist in repairing man intends some stately piece he hath in his thoughts the Idaea of some glorious piece Indeed 't is Jesus Christ that stands by him after whom he means to draw man's picture As a Limner that seeth a beauteus person draws his picture whilst he is in the room with him and takes it wondrous lively because he hath him before him So God the Father hath Jesus Christ the beauty of Heaven and Earth before him and looking upon Christ draws every Saints picture and will make his Saints exactly like to Christ every Saint shall be Christs perfect picture And therefoe he that hath grace be it never so small shall have more nay shall have all because God intends to make his Saints perfect in Christ Jesus We shall now make some Improvement of this Point And in the first place Vse 1. This shines with excellent comfort upon the weak Saints upon you that complain you are but weak Christians and you cannot match others in performances you cannot do as others can and if we do believe we believe but little and if we do love Jesus Christ we love him but little To you to you I say if you have the least drop of true grace God will give you more and you shall have abundance Do you believe but a little Be of good comfort you shall believe a great deal Do you repent but a little you shall have given you a greater store of repentance Canst thou pray but a little canst thou but scarce pray It shall be given thee to pray mightily to pray down mountains and strong sins I pray you consider these things 1. Though thou hast but little grace yet thy little may be true grace Thou art suspicious of thy self and art wont to say Surely if my grace were true it would be more than it is it is so little that I cannot think it is true grace But I say unto thee though thou hast but little yet thy little may be true grace as a little piece of gold is true gold Object 1. Oh! But I enjoy rich means of grace I lye down in the fatting pastures of the Gospel which would in a short time plump up the weakest grace if it were true I sit daily under the nourishing showres of the Word and yet my grace is but little and therefore I fear me is not true Answ The Disciples sate under the most powerful Ministry that ever was under the droppings and the honey-dews that fell from Christs lips Never man spake as the spake He was the Prince of Preachers that had the tongue of the learned To be with him was to be in Heaven upon Earth They saw his wondrous miracles every day and conversed with Christ himself his lips did drop the choicest fatness and yet under all these golden shrowres they had but a little Faith For the Lord Christ upon an occasion saith unto them Why are Matth. 8. 26. ye fearful oh ye of little faith Object 2. But I cannot trust God for the smallest matters Food and Raiment are the smallest matters and he that cannot trust God in the least matters I fear me hath a faith less than nothing Answ The Disciples of Jesus Christ had many experiences of God Providence and Provision for them they went about with Christ from place to place and though they had no victuals yet they found victuals every where they saw so many thousands sed with so few loaves and yet they were Mat. 6. 30 31. troubled What shall we eat what shall we drink and wherewith shall we be cloathed Thus thou seest thy little grace may be true grace 2. God will own thy little grace thy grace though it be never so little yet he will own it As you may see in Rev. 3. 8 where writing to the Church of Philadelphia saith Christ Thou hast a little strength and hast ept my word She had but a little strength and Christ takes
in unto you to take off your thoughts from the present duty He will let your thoughts wander in Prayer upon good things that you may be never the better for that Prayer And he will raise up good and holy motions in you whilst you are hearing a Sermon that they might divert your thoughts from the present Sermon Here our deceitful hearts will be ready to think that those come from the Spirit of grace oh cunning Devil but the truth is they come from Satan for the Spirit of God hath no such office to draw away mens minds from hearing the word nor to trouble mens minds in prayer with thoughts impertinent 6. Satan makes choice of such instruments to tempt by as are likely to be most effectual Thus you know he did Gen 3. 6. 1 Reg. 21. Job 2. 9. overcome Adam by Eve his second self Again thus he tempted Ahab by Jezzabel a prevailing instrument And thus he tempted Job by his wife and thus he tempted Christ Matth. 16. 22. 23. by Peter and therefore said Christ to Peter Get thee behind me Satan Satan can make use of our friends to do us hurt by He tempts not only by himself but by instruments and not only by such as are at a distance from us but by those who are nearest in relation and by those most He can make a friend a child a wife instrumental for our ruine As Saul married his Daughter to David that she might be a snare to him 1 Sam. 18. 21. 6. Satan tempts us by our own selves He makes use of our own reason or understanding to deceive our selves he draws reason out of our own bowels to destroy us and here you have the first particular where you find how busie Satan is and how skilful an artist Satan is to undermine us he is a very intelligent creature 2. Satan is armed with malice against souls That 's a reason 2 Particular Psal 41. 7. that sets him upon devising devices against us As David saith All that hate me whisper together against me against me do they devise my hurt And in another place While Psal 31. 13. they took counsel together against me they devised to take away my life So that hatred and malice is the root of plotting and evil devices against one When we hate one and bear him ill will then we set upon devices against him Now Satan is full of malice against God and then against the Church and People of God 1. His malice against God To tempt men is a pleasure to his malice thinking himself by this means somewhat revenged of God As he that defaceth the picture of his enemy when he cannot come at his person easeth his spleen a little so the Dog gnaws the stone that cannot reach the thrower so Satan makes it his work to raze Gods Image out of man because he cannot reach God himself 2. Satan is boundless in his malice against Gods People and against the Church of God Therefore saith Paul God is 1 Cor. 10. 13. faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted namely by Satan above that you are able As if he had said Satan would with all his heart lay more upon you than you are able to bear Satan would break your backs if he were let alone but God will not suffer it Observe here these four things 1. Satans extream malice is seen in tempting us against God and in tempting God against us He doth not only tempt us to sin against God that were malice enough but when we little think of it when we are asleep or in our business he is trying and tempting God against us O extream malice Thus God himself acknowledgeth in Job Thou movedst Job 2. 3. me against him to destroy him without cause Pure malice stirreth up Satan against the People of God though he always pretends somewhat in them yet the cause is in himself and therefore Satan hath two names in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a tempter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 slanderer or accuser noting his two special works Temptation Accusation He solicites good men to do evil against God hence he hath his name the tempter and he solicites God to conceive evil of good men and hence he hath his name the slanderer or accuser 2. When Satan cannot obtain against us by one means he endeavours it by another He will not give off for the loss of one game he is not wont to give his cause over for lost because he cannot carry it at first he will try and try again As it was with Balaak when he sent for Balaam to curse the Numb 23. 27. people and saw the business did not prosper Balaam could not curse them he brought him to another place Come faith he I pray thee I will bring thee to another place peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence though you could not do it in one place you may in another Satan if he cannot work his will one way will try a second or third and observe that when Satan tryeth a second means after a first he tryeth a way more probable and efficacious for his ends than the former 3. When a weaker will not do it he provides stronger means As God in punishing or chastising sinners when a lesser Judgment will not humble them he sends a greater God comes not only with another but with sorer Judgments I F ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me then I will punish ye seven Lev. 26. 18. times more for your sins So Satan if you will not hearken unto him in one temptation he will tempt you seven times more and seven times stronger as he did Job Job 2. 5. Job 1. 14 15 16 19. Before he got leave to touch Jobs cattel and goods and to touch Jobs Children Sons and Daughters here was one greater than the former for a mans children are more than all that he hath in the world besides A mans children are himself in every child is the Father multiplied the child is the Fathers bowels and therefore this affliction reached to the very bowels of Job Then after all this he gets leave to smite Jobs body Put forth thine hand now and touch his bone and his Chap. 2. 5. flesh and he will curse thee to thy face And this is greater still than the former Jobs children were near to him but himself was nearer and therefore said Satan Touch his bone and his flesh that is afflict his body the bone and the flesh are the two chief parts the material parts of the body of them the whole Fabrick doth consist The bone is as the stone or Timber in this house and the flesh is as the Lime and Morter filling of it up Touch this faith Satan and here he aims at sore affliction for if he had said only thus Touch his flesh that might have been made affliction great enough But
when he saith Touch his bone and his flesh he aims at deep affliction Touch him so as that his very bones may shatter that the very pillars may shake Touch him so as that the pain and distemper may sink into his very bones into his marrow the bone it self is a part without feeling yet to touch the bone impotts the greatest pain that can be felt 4. Satan if he prevails at the first on-set in the beginning of a temptation he drives on furiously and takes advantage to rout the whole soul As a Troop of Horse that having once broke the rank goeth on fiercely hoping thereby to rout the whole body so doth Satan you may see it in the pitcht battel which he sought with Peter Peter you know goeth after Jesus to the high priests Palace there Peter unawares doth as it were draw out into the field Well the Devil resolves to enter into Battalia with him Simon Simon saith Christ Behold Satan hath desired to have you that Lnk. 22. 31. he may sift you as wheat And there he doth first skirmish with Peter and sends out a Damsel against him Thou also Matth. 26. 69. 70. wast with Jesus of Galilee but he denied before them all saying I know not what thou sayest Here she breaks the rank and gets in upon Peter and what doth Satan do now He drives on furiously takes the present advantage and sends another maid and she chargeth him more strongly for she saith to them that were there This Vers 71. fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth Mark ye this fellow and she saith it unto them that were there round about him A worse charge than the former And again he denieth with an oath But Satan follows on still and now draws up Vers 72. Vers 73. his whole body against Peter After a while came unto him they that stood by a stronger multitude still and said unto Peter Surely thou also art one of them for thy speech bewrayeth thee Vers 74. Then began he to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And now he routs Peter and disperseth all his forces for saith the Text He began to curse and to swear saying I know not the man And here you have a second particular Satan is armed with malice against souls Thirdly Satan is armed with pride As David saith The 3 Particular Psal 10. 2. wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor Let them be taken in the device they have imagined Fourthly and lastly Another reason that helps Satan on well 4 Particular in his devices is because he hath a large conscience Indeed he hath no conscience Satan hath conscience of sin but he makes no conscience of sin he hath conscience of sin that is smiting him with sense of guilt but he makes no conscience of sin and therefore can do any thing As a man that makes nothing of sin to swear nor lye he may carry on any design he may grow rich Now the Devil is such he will swear and dissemble and lye and therefore may carry any design on foot He did lye to Eve in paradise and he was a lying spirit in the mouth of Gen. 3. 5. 1 King 22. 22. Ahabs Prophets Vse 1. The first Vse is this If Satan be so learned and exquisite an artist in the Trade of deceiving souls then let us not be ignorant of his devices as the Apostle saith but be fore-warn'd and fore-arm'd In the handling of this Vse I shall discover Satans plots and temptations Satan doth tempt men First Before conversion Secondly Satan tempts men in conversion And thirdly Satan tempts men after conversion 1. Satan tempts men before conversion that they may not be converted First To delay their repentance till they be sick When we are sick then we will repent Pain and weakness of body is no advantage to repentance and returning unto God it unfits the soul for action Hence observe what the Apostle James saith when he reckons up the several conditions of the Saints Is any among you afflicted let him pray he speaks Jam. 5. 13 14. that in general but saith he Is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he had said a sick man can hardly pray for himself Is any among you afflicted let him pray In afflictions a man can pray for himself But is any sick among you Let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him As if he should say a sick man cannot pray for himself he hath enough to do to wrestle with his pain and conflict he hath need to call others to pray for him A diseased body unfits the mind for holy duties and therefore sick Hezekiah's praying Isa 38. 14. is called chattering like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter The pain of his body wrought such a disquietness and uncomposedness upon his spirit that he could not pray but chatter or like a crane or a swallow so did I chatter that is I Annotat. could not speak but sigh and groan or I was so full of pain that my Prayers were very quick and short not sentences but words not words but syllables not plain syllables but chatterings How pitiful then are they mistaken who put off repentance till their bodies be in pain till they are sick or weak They do it upon this ground because when the body is sick they think repentance is easie It is quite otherwise And therefore did Satan aim to make Job sick Satan was Job 2. 5. confident to trouble the mind of Job by casting Darts and Diseases into his body by making Job sick he hoped to make Job blaspheme and curse God Touch his bone and his flesh and he will curse thee to thy face If Satan thought by pain and sickness to make Job blaspheme God Dost thou think that pain will be an advantage to thee to turn to God It is said in Revelations at the pouring out of the fourth Chap. 16. 9. vial when they were scorcht with great heat they blasphemed God and they repented not to give him glory Let wicked men be scorcht with a feaver or with a pestilence or sickness and 't is the way to make them blaspheme God and therefore 't is a woful thing to put off repentance to a pained body pain in its own nature fits us rather to blaspheme and fly upon God than fly to God Never think it is one thing what God may make use of but do you never think to have help for the cure of your souls by the diseases of your bodies Usually we find that either sick persons repent not or theirs is but a sickly repentance Indeed a long and lingering sickness may do much there is a time wherein the understanding may act deliberately and the work may be digested but a short sickness and a short repentance such as it is I
that is that Jam. 2. 19. there is one God and tremble Answ 2. And observe it in that the Devil tempts thee that there is no God should be a means and argument to thee to believe more certainly that there is a God Satan would keep you from believing that which he cannot but believe And this should be a strong argument to make us believe that there is a God for were there no God the Devil would never tempt to think that there is a God 3. Another temptation to men in conversion is this My heart is hard I cannot repent of sin I cannot be sorry for my sins Oh! you must venture your soul upon Jesus Christ for free pardon and justification you must take Christ and he will give you a soft heart he will give you repentance unto life Acts 5. 31. You must take Christ for pardon and for repentance also that you may be pardoned Quest But may I before I repent take hold of Christ for pardon May one that cannot repent lay holy and lean upon Christ Answ 1. There 's difference between one that cannot repent but would 2. And one that doth not repent and will not cares not to repent 1. He that doth not repent and will not he may not take hold of Christ nor lay claim to him 2. But he that cannot repent but would he may lay hold of Christ that he may repent and he will go to Christ nothing shall stave him off to fetch repentance from him I say he may go to Christ for repentance See how David did do so Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me There are two snares and nets which the Devil sets for people 1. One is that they hope to be saved by Christ and never care to be humbled nor to be sanctified and in this the prophane are caught 2. Another snare which Satan layeth is to make men labour for Humiliation Holiness Mortification Obedience and not labour to believe and in this well-meaning people are caught For the first First They that hope to be saved by Christ and never care First snare to be humbled nor to be sanctified these are sadly in Satans snare he holds them deadly for Faith which justifieth makes holy though it doth not justifie by its holiness Faith makes thee a new creature that Faith is none of Gods making that doth not make thee a new man And therefore it was the speech of Francis Spira in his desertion and anguish of spirit Pag. 114. I will not saith he derogate from the certainty of saving-faith and the promises of the Gospel for they are most sure but yet take heed of relying on that faith that works not a holy and unblamable life worthy of a Believer believe me quoth he it will fail I have tryed it and therefore he much commended to them the Epistles of Peter which press sanctity and chastity Secondly The other snare which Satan layeth is to make men Second snare dig and labour in the Mines of Humiliation and Holiness and subduing their sins and not take pains to believe 1. Here 's labour in vain for that which can never bring thee Christ nor salvation and that Satan knows and therefore puts men on it to make them spend time and pains to no purpose he puts them in a way where Christ is not that they may not find Christ where he is As Rahab sent the men of Josh 2. 5 6. Jericho away towards Jordan to seek for the spies when she hid them in the stalks of flax So Satan sends men a travelling after Christ over Hills and Dales over the hills of Duty and high strains of Holiness and days of Humiliation And therefore as Christ said to Martha so say I to these Ye are careful about many things how to subdue your sins and be humbled for them but one thing is needful that is to come to Christ and believe in him do this and you shall be saved 2. When ye have believed and received Christ then you shall be able to do all things then you shall have 1. Mortification and Victory over your lusts 2. Sanctification and Ability to duty and not before These be the Births of believing you must believe before you can have these As a woman must be married to a man before she can have lawful children by him Were it not a simple thing for a woman to expect children legitimate by a man and then she would marry him As absurd it is to expect First to have legitimate graces in the soul and then to believe to be sanctified and get victory over sin and then to believe in Christ for Faith which doth espouse thee to Christ is the cause of all true Mortification and Holiness as marriage is of children As the Apostle tells you Ye are married to another even to him who is raised from Rom. 7. 4. the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God Christ is as it were the Father of all our graces of him we received grace for grace and when he hath married us to himself he begets them in us Of his grace he conveys grace to us and he never doth it but by our Faith in him for it is by Faith that he lives in us and we in him and holiness is the means by which Christ after he is believed in brings them that believe in him to salvation And this removes that objection that troubles many repentance Act. 2. 38. and conversion is requited to pardon of sin Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy Ghost Again Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may Act 3. 19. be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Once more For him hath God exalted Act. 5. 31. with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins How then shall I believe his promise of mercy to the pardon of my sins that cannot clear my Conversion to my Conscience None can enter into the Kingdom of God except they be born again of the John 3. 3. Rom. 8. 13. spirit If I live after the slesh I shall dye Here are two questions consounded they must be distinguished and taken asunder 1. What manner of persons they be whom God admits into Heaven 2. What manner of persons may receive Christ unto Justification of life For the first 1. God indeed receives none into Heaven but those on whom he hath written the golden Characters of sanctification And now brethren I commend you to God and to the word of Act. 20. 32. his grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified For the second who may receive Christ 2. I say
of his grace but also his spirit and life in the same manner as we say the members move not themselves nor live but by the life of their head So that to live christianly it is not enough to say that we must be in grace but we must live in the spirit and life of Jesus Forasmuch as we are one with Christ we must live his life and be acted and guided by his Spirit That life of Union which makes us one with him causes us to live in his spirit and life Not I but Christ Jesus Gal. 2. 20. lives in me And therefore the life of a Christian is the life of God himself who lives in us by his Son Whence it follows that as the Father lives in the Son and the Son in the Father so we live in Jesus and Jesus in us and because Jesus lives in us the Father also lives in us as you may find in Job 14. 23. If any man love me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him 3. This expression in Christ Jesus speaks causality because all that live godly are in Christ Jesus as the effect in its cause they have all their Being of grace from Jesus Christ I say they are in Christ as the effect in its cause They are in Christ Jesus as 1. In the efficient cause 2. In the exemplary cause 3. In the conserving and supporting cause of all their graces 1. They must be in Christ as in the efficient cause of all their graces For God in giving us Christ in our nature makes him thereby the principle of a new life in us and wills that as himself is the principle of the life of his Son in eternal generation so his Son should be the principle of our life in the new Regeneration of our souls with the washing of Eph. 5. 26. John 5. 21. water by the word As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickneth them even so the Son quickneth whom he will whether dead in their graves or dead in their sins And again As the Father hath life in himself so hath he given the Son to Vers 26. have life in himself i. e. to give life to others 2. The godly are in Christ as their exemplary cause They form up themselves to him Men cannot be godly unless they make Christ their Samplar so that to live godly in Christ Jesus is to act and live like unto Jesus Christ to make him the Idaea of our graces and the partern of our life All that wear the name of godly upon them are obliged to imitate Jesus Christ The greatest honour we can give him is to conform our selves to his life and intentions to imitate Jesus Christ maintains our adherence to him I beseech you observe it we adhere no longer to Christ than we are like him and we are not in him if we do not imitate him Our life then must be a lively Image of the life of Jesus Christ The first use a Christian is to make is to look upon the Son of God as the Prototype and Exemplar of his life and actions to express and represent him as it were to the life As the Son of God is the Image and Resemblance of his Father so must the Christian be of the Son We must be by grace what Jesus is by nature the Son of God is the true life and true model of our life Our interior and exterior life then must imitate and regard the exercises of the soul of Jesus Christ and the actions of his sacred life What Paul saith in another case As we have born the 1 Cor. 15. 49. image of the earthly Adam so shall we also bear the image of the heavenly i. e. of Christs glory when we come to glory so as we have born the Image of Adam imitating him by sin and following him by our own inclinations we must also bear the Image of Jesus Christ copying out his life and actions God gave us a Law as a Rule of life but he gives us a living Law a living Rule and form of life in Christ and shews us in him the manner of conversation that we must follow to live christianly that is to live a new life My Beloved we should never have understood the dimensions of life as it lyeth in the law had we not seen it acted in Christ Jesus By looking on and taking some measure of the excellent life of Jesus Christ we come to know what the life of holiness is that is commanded in the law And observe it The Lord Christ came not only to set himself before us to imitate him but to give us a grace and power to imitate him and put on his likeness As Paul saith I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me Consider it seriously Many because they lean upon Christ for pardon and upon his righteousness alone for salvation believe lustily that they are in Christ Jesus But ye are not in Christ till ye live his life your vital imitation of Christ speaks your Vnion to Christ if you are not like him you do not live in him To imitate Christ 1. We must shun all manner of sin for he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 22. And again 't is said of him Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth And 't is said there That he left us an Vers 21. example that ye should follow his steps who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth So then here lies our imitation of Christ that as he had no sin so we must strive to have no sin in us And my Beloved to what end are we religious and pray and put on a devout form upon our selves if we favour our sins in us To pray against sin and yet indulge sin us is to play the greatest hypocrites to pray like Christ and not live like Christ is the rankest dissimulation And that you may put your selves into a perfect resemblance of Jesus Christ you must mortifie nature in you for Christ was pure in his nature he was not only free from acts of sin but had an unstained nature and therefore to be like Christ you must get all stains of sin out of your nature you most mortifie the Spirit and Inclinations of Adam in you you must root out of the foundation of your soul I say you must put out of the very foundation of your Being all hidden principles all oppositions inclinations and customs contrary to holiness And therefore Mortification which is in a manner lost among Christians must be both inward and outward nay chiefly of the inward man The keen edg of Mortification must fall directly upon the root the nature of man the heart and spirit of Adam in us And therefore though to abstain from gross sins makes a fair and goodly shew in the flesh yet 't is insignificant and
live godly in Christ Jesus they derive it from him and direct it to him they breath for him and bring forth all their actions for him for this is essential to an Evangelical life to do all in the strength of Christ as their root and to do all for Christ as their end And if this be a godly life to live to Christ then let us so think of him and so do that from henceforth our hearts and mouths may neither speak nor think but of him that all things else may be of no savour to us that nothing enter our spirit which resenteth not the Spirit and Odour of Jesus Christ and respires not his honour and glory I say let us be vigilant and faithful to do and desire nothing but the honour of Christ to regard nothing but his pleasure and glory so as to have no eyes but for Jesus no more life but what is consecrated to the honour of his Soveraignty and Greatness Vse We have shewed you what a godly life is and how you may attain a godly life Let us now stir you up to attain this godly life 1. Let me take St. Pauls word to Timothy that which he recommends to him is Piety Exercise thy self unto godliness 1 Tim. 4. 7. Truly all virtues are good and all suitable to the state of a Christian the acquisition and practise of them all useful and necessary but he would have his prime and chief care be To exercise thy self unto godliness for godliness is the Ornament and Mistress of all other virtues it leads us to God and makes use of all virtues to conduct us thither and having no Object but God teaches us the worship and honour that we must render to him and like a good mistress puts us into a ready and easie practise of virtues and entertains us in the exercise of actions that honour God and are acceptable to him 2. Godliness is profitable as Paul saith in the same place Bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable to all 1 Tim. 4. 8. things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come True godliness is one of the principal foundations on which Christian perfection stands and is supported In the conduct of men all actions and exercises of their life are ruled according to the Piety and as we commonly say according to the Devotion they have If their Piety be not well-laid the rest of the Christian life will be unconstant and its exercises very uncertain and superficial as we see in the devotion of many which is only in the exterior Who as the Apostle saith having the form of godliness deny and despise the power thereof In such souls we see nothing solid nothing but inconstancy in their lives imperfection in their actions disquiet disturbance and adherence to several creatures in their spirits a small blast of adversity over-turns them Object But it is an hard thing to be godly we have Satan opposing us and he is too hard for us besides our own corruptions and strong temptations Answ While we strive to be godly we may safely expect the Presence of God he is never wanting to those that seek after him and never fails those that engage in his quarrels As he who plots sin shall be sure to find Satan standing at his right hand so he that pursues after God and Holiness shall find God nearer to him than he is to himself God hath not forsaken the earth but as he sustains the whole universe much more those who are seeking grace and participation of himself Are you then striving to be godly and aiming at a Divine life His almighty arms will bear you up and he 'l cherish you with his own goodness Wheresoever God beholds any breathings after himself he gives life to them as those which are his own breath in them where there is any serious and sober resolution against sin any real motion towards God there 's the blessing of heaven in it He that planted it will also water it and make it to bud and blossom and bring forth fruit Object But a godly life is an afflicted life Answ You have heard that grace in us is the life of Jesus in us We ought then to know what his life was The life of Jesus is Divinely Humane and Humanely Divine he is God and Man and therefore lives a life Divine and a life Humane As God he lives the life of God in the bosom of his Father a life of Glory Power and Majesty As Man he lived the life of Man in lowness humiliation in impotence in sufferings so that at the same he is living in the bosom of his Father and dying on the arms of the Cross There he reigns and governs and judges all the world here he is accused and accursed condemned and crucified at the same instant he is in the exaltation and greatness of his Majesty and in the lowness and humiliation of our Humanity Such also ought the Christian life to be on the one side it is great seeing grace makes us the Children of God elevates and unites us to God On the other side the same life is obscured dejected wholly in the spirit of humiliations and privations for grace cannot reign in the soul without operating therein annihilation death and humility Again The Saint by his Union to the Son of God is raised Eph. 2. 6. up and made to sit in heavenly places in Jesus Christ And at the same time the life of a Christian is exposed here to Temptations derided by men and condemned by the world at the same time it is in the greatest cherishing of God and under the fiercest agitation of the Cross So that an afflicted godly life should be no wonder being compared with the life of Christ Besides God enlightens the soul by grace 't is granted but 't is in annihilation he upholds her but 't is in confounding her he unites her to him but it is in separating her sometimes from himself and she remains separated from God as long as she remains upon earth While we are in the body we are absent from the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 6. so she is at once united and separated Again This is the Conduct of God over his Church If we reflect upon the highest works we shall find he puts not on the Ornament of Grace he lays not the foundation of her estate but in lowness his grace his gifts his spirit and his communications When did he come down from heaven and give her his law with such appearance of glorious Majesty as never the like was but when he had brought her into a wilderness When the Lord Christ instituted the Sacraments which are Conduit-pipes to convey his graces to his Church he chose bread water such things as are mean little or nothing esteemed among men In the Birth of the Church he took the Cross for the Throne of his Empire a Calvary for his Seat-Royal he rejected an estate by Poverty Sufferings and Martyrdom and at this day he doth the same in the Regency of his Church And according to Gods proceedings in the Conduct of his Church is likewise his carriage in the sanctification and government of our souls he leads them by the Cross he retires from them he hides himself he leaves them in privations he humbles them annihilates them smites them overthrows them Whereby is discovered how they are as I think deceived who in their devotions and religious exercises seek resentments enjoyments content and satisfaction and would know and feel the excellency and elevations of grace I call it a deceit as I suppose for Christian grace consists chiefly in privations in lowness in rigours and that is it they stand most in fear of and avoid But as the life of Jesus began in poverty and ended on the Cross so a perfect Christian who would live a life of grace must resolve to walk among Thorns to bear privations and sustain desertions for the Cross and Thorns are things proper to Christian-grace and to the love of Jesus Let us not so much seek after assurance of heaven as a thing to come as after heaven it self present in us For where Heaven comes into a heart it will bring its own light comfort and assurance along with it Get Heaven into your soul and you will easily have the assurance of Heaven Let us have a fire in a room and we shall quickly have the light and warmth of it there also Men seek the assurance of Heaven as a thing to come but neglect the present power and possession of Heaven it self in their souls Oh! let us get the Sun it self into us and then we shall not be without its shine and smiles within us FINIS Books Printed for and are to be Sold by Tho. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel PResent State of New-England Burges's Husbandmans Companion Burges's Englands Bond. Adams's Catechism Survey of Quakerism A view of Antiquity by J. Honner Abyssus Mali or Man's Corruption by Nature by W. G. England's present and most great incumbent Duty by Robert Perrott The Ark of the Covenant opened or a Treatise of the Covenant of Redemption Janewayes Life Meads Almost Christian Mr. Cawtons Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Vincent and Mr. Hurst Phelpes Caveat against Drunkenness Wadsworths last Warning unto secure Sinners Kidder on the Sacrament Wells Funeral Sermon by Mr. Tho. Watson Mr. Wadsworths Funeral Sermon Preached by Mr. Bragg Bishop Reynholds Meditations on the Fall and Rising of St. Peter Practical Divinity of the Papists proved to be destructive unto Christianity and Mens souls Burroughs's four Treatises Dr. Collins on the Canticles