Spirit be put upon him I answer Christ is both God and Man Christ as God gives the Spirit to his humane nature so hee communicates his Spirit the Spirit is his Spirit as well as the Fathers the Spirit proceeds from them both Christ as man receives the Spirit God the Father and the Son put the Spirit upon the man-hood of Christ so Christ both gives and receives the Spirit in diverse respects as God hee gives and sends the Spirit the spiration and breathing of the Spirit is from him as well as from the Father but as man he received the Spirit And this is the reason of it next under the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Christ the mediator was to be the spring and originall of all comfort and good therefore Christs nature must not onely be sanctified and ordained by the Spirit but he must receive the Spirit to inrich it for whatsoever is wrought in the creature is by the Spirit whatsoever Christ did as man he did by the Spirit Christs humane nature therefore must be sanctified and have the Spirit put upon it God the Father the first person in Trinity and God the Son the second they worke not immediately but by the Holy Ghost the third person therefore whatsoever is wrought upon the creatâ—re it comes from the Holy Ghost immediately so Christ received the Holy Ghost as sent from the Father and the Son Now as the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son so he workes from the Father and the Son he sanctifieth and purifieth and doth all from the Father and the Son and knits us to the Father and the Son to the Son first and then to the Father therefore it is said The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost because all the communion we have with God is by the Holy Ghost all the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost and all the communion that God hath with us and wee with God is by the Holy Ghost for the Spirit is the bond of union betweene Christ and us and betweene God and us God communicates himselfe to us by his Spirit and we communicate with God by his Spirit God doth all in us by his Spirit and we doe all backe againe to â—od by the Spirit Because Christ as a Head as the second Adam was to be the root of all that are saved as the first Adam was the roote of all that are damned he was therefore to receive the Spirit and to have it put upon him in a more excellent and rich manner for wee must know that all things are first in Christ and then in us God chose him first and then he chose us God singled him out to be the Saviour the second Adam and he cals us in Christ. God justified Christ from our sinnes being our Surety taking our sinnes upon him we are justified because hee by his resurrection quit himselfe from the guilt of our sinnes as having paid the debt Christ is the first fruites of them that rise againe we rise againe because he is risen Christ first ascended we ascend in Christ. Christ is first loved we are loved in the Beloved Christ is first blessed we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in Iesus Chrest So whatsoever is in us we have it at the second hand we have the Spirit in us but he is first in Christ God hath put the Spirit in Christ as the spring as the second Adam as a publike person that should receive the Spirit for us all he is first in all things Christ must have the preheminence he hath the preheminence in all both before time in time and after time in election in whatsoever is done here in this world and in glorification all is first in Christ and then in us he is the elder Brother We must understanding this to give Christ his due honour and respect and to know whence we have all we have Therefore the Spirit is said here first to be put upon Christ. Wee have not the Holy Ghost immediately from God but we have him as sanctifying Christ first and then us and whatsoever the Holy Ghost doth in us he doth the same in Christ first and hee doth it in us because in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 14. Christ saith He shall take of mine whatsoever the Holy Ghost works in us hee takes of Christ first How is that Thus The Holy Ghost comforts us with reasons from Christ he dyed and hath reconciled us to God therefore now God is at peace with thee Here the Holy Ghost takes a ground of comfort from the death of Christ. When the Holy Ghost would raise a man up to holinesse of life he tels him Christ thy Saviour and Head is quickned and is now in Heaven therefore we ought to rise to holinesse of life If the Holy Ghost be to worke either comfort or grace or any thing he not onely doth the same thing that he did first in Christ but hee doth it in us by reasons from Christ by grounds fetched from Christ the Holy Ghost tells our soules that God loves Christ first and he loves us in Christ and that we are those that God gave Christ for that we are those that Christ makes intercession for in Heaven the Holy Ghost witnesseth to us the love of the Father and the Sonne and so hee fetcheth from Christ whatsoever he works And hence the worke of the Holy Ghost is distinguished from illusions and delusions that are nothing but franticke conceits of comfort that are groundlesse The Holy Ghost fetcheth all from Christ in his working and comfort and he makes Christ the patterne of all for whatsoever is in Christ the Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of Christ workes in us as it is in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 1.13 it is said of his fullnesse we receive grace for grace that is grace answerable to his grace There are three things that we receive answerable to Christ by the Spirit We receive grace that is the favour of God answerable to the favour God shewes his Son he loves his Son he is gratiously disposed to him and he loves us So grace habituall wee have grace in us answerable to the grace in Christ wee have love answerable to his love patience answerable to his Patience Obedience and Humility answerable to that in Christ the Spirit workes a conformity to Christ in all things Likewise in the third place the Spirit assures us of the same priviledges that issue from grace Christ is a Son the Spirit tells us wee are sons Christ is an heire the Spirit tells us wee are heires with Christ Christ is the King of Heaven and Earth the Spirit tells us that wee are Kings that his riches are ours thus wee have grace for grace both favour and grace in us and priviledges issuing from grace we have all as they are in Christ. Even
consider how the Law of the Spirit of life is in Christ what it doth in him and then how it is derivatively in us First of all we must know this for a ground whatsoever is done to us is done to Christ first and whatsoever wee have Christ hath it first Therefore life is first in Christ and then in us Resurrection first in Christ and then in us Sonne-ship first in Christ and then in us Justification from our sins first in Christ he is freed from our sinnes and then in us Ascension first in Christ and then in us Glory in heaven first in Christ and then in us We have nothing in us but it is derived from Christ therefore this being layd as a ground we must consider how the Spirit of life works in Christ what it doth in Christ and then what it doth as it is in us for whatsoever Christ hath it is not onely for himselfe but for us What doth it in Christ The Spirit of life in Christ first of all it did quicken and sanctifie his humane nature that nature that Christ pleased to take upon him it stopped sinne it made a stop of originall sinne in sanctifying that blessed masse out of which his body was made for the foundation of his obedience actuall that it was so holy it was hence that his nature was purified by the Holy-Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin the foundation that his death and sufferings was satisfactory and acceptable it was that his holy nature was sanctified by the Spirit of God So the first worke of the Spirit of life in the Sonne of God it was to sanctifie and quicken that blessed masse that he tooke upon him And the Spirit of life that quickned and sanctified our nature in Christ did likewise ennoble our nature for even as a base woman is ennobled when she is taken in marriage with a great man shee hath his dignity accounted hers so our nature by the Spirit being sanctified is knit into the union of person with Christ that our nature and the second Person make one Christ so our nature by the Spirit is ennobled by this union And also inriched it with all grace that our nature is capable of for the nature of Christ had this double prerogative above ours First of all that blessed masse of flesh it was knit to be one person with God and then that nature was inriched and ennobled with all graces above ours And this the Spirit of life did to Christ himselfe to his humane nature that he tooke upon him that hee might be a publicke Person For God the second Person tooke not upon him any mans particular person of Peter or Paul or Iohn for then there should have beene distinct persons one person should have dyed and another rise but hee tooke our nature into his Person so that the same Person that did dye was God though he dyed in our nature that he might be a publicke Person So we must consider Christ sanctifying our nature that he might sit and sanctifie all our persons But did the Spirit of life doe nothing else but sanctifie and inrich the humane nature of Christ with grace Yes for the Spirit of life in Christ did sanctifie him for his Sacrifice as he saith Iohn 17. in that blessed prayer I sanctifie my selfe for them it prepared him for his death and made him a fit Sacrifice When he entred upon his calling he had more of the Spirit the Spirit of life as it were was increased For it is no heresie to thinke that the gifts of Christ for the manifestation of them were increased For in every state he was in hee was perfect and when he set upon his Office and was baptised hee was fuller of the Holy-Ghost as it were there was a fuller manifestation then before when he did not set upon his Office openly In his death what did the Spirit of life then It supported him in his very death for there was an union of the Spirit when there was a separation of his soule and body there was not a separation of the union That which gave dignity and strength and value and worth to his death it was the Spirit though there was a suspending of the comfort a while yet there was no separation of the union but I speake no more of that being not especially meant here But especially in his Resurrection which we are now to thinke of by reason of the day and it is not amisse to take all occasions especially then the Spirit of life that had sanctified Christ and quickened him and inriched his nature and supported him and done all that Spirit of life quickened the dead body of Christ And he was mightily declared to be the Sonne of God by the Spirit of sanctification Rom. 1.4 by his Resurrection from the dead The Spirit of life raised him from the dead and put an end to all that misery that he had undergone before for our sakes For untill his resurrection there was as it were some conflict with some enemies of Christ either with Satan or the world or with death it selfe he lay under death three dayes untill Christs body was raised our enemies were not overcome Gods wrath was not fully satisfied it was not declared to be satisfied at least for he being our surety till he came out of the grave we could not know that our sinnes were satisfied for But now when the Spirit of life in Christ comes and quickens that body of his in the grave and so doth justifie us as it is Ro. 4. He dyed for our sinnes and rose againe for our justification that is by the Spirit of life in Christ quickning his dead body hee declared that we are fully discharged from our sinnes because he was fully discharged from our sinnes being our surety hee shewed by his Resurrection that he was fully discharged from all that he tooke upon him When a man comes out of prison that is a surety his very comming out of prison shewes that he hath a full discharge of all the debt hee undertooke to pay so the Spirit of life raising Christs body the third day manifestly declared that the debt he tooke on him was fully discharged and so as he dyed for sinne to satisfie Gods Justice for them so hee rose againe for our justification to shew that hee had a full discharge for all Now since the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath quickned his body the soule may make a bold demand to God as it is in 1 Pet. 8. It may make that demand Rom. 8. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is Christ that dyed nay rather that is risen againe and ascended into heaven and makes intercession for us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people it is God that justifieth who shall condemne our sinnes Christ hath taken our sinnes upon him and satisfied divine
children keepe your selves from Idols How doth this depend upon the other Thus will you goe to Idols flocks and stones devises of mens braine for supply of grace and comfort Christ whom God hath sent hee is come into the world He is God and eternall life God hath given eternall life and this life is in his Son therefore why should you goe to Idols What is the ground of Popish Idolatries and abhominations they conceive not aright of the fulnesse of Christ wherefore he was ordained and sent of God for if they did they would not goe to Idols and Saints and leave Christ. Therefore let us make this use of it goe out of Christ for nothing If we want favour goe not to Saints if we want instruction goe not to traditions of men he is a Prophet wise enough and a Priest full enough to make us accepted of God if we want any grace hee is a King able enough rich enough and strong enough to subdue all our rebellions in us and hee will in time by his Spirit overcome all Stronger is he that is in us then he that is in the world The spirit in the world the Divell and divellish minded men they are not so strong as the Spirit of Christ For by little and little the Spirit of Christ will subdue all Christ is a King goe not out of him therefore for any thing Babes keepe your selves from Idols you may well enough you know whom to goe too Therefore let us shame our selves is there such a store-house of comfort and grace every way in Christ Why are wee so weake and comfortlesse Why are we so dejected as if we had not such a rich husband All our husbands riches are ours for our good we receive of it in our measure why doe wee not goe to the Fountaine and make use of it Why in the middest of aboundance are we poore and beggerly Heere we may see the misery of the world Christ is a Prophet to teach us the way to Heaven but how few be there that will be directed by him Christ is a King to subdue all our spirituall and worst enemies to subdue those enemies that Kings tremble at to subdue death to subdue the feare of judgement and the wrath of God and yet how few will come under his government Christ is the light of the world yet how few follow him Christ is the way yet how few tread in his steps Christ is our wisdome and our riches yet how few goe to him to fetch any riches but content themselves with the transitory things of this life Men live as if Christ were nothing or did nothing concerne them as if he were a person abstracted from them as if he were not a Head or Husband as if he had received the Spirit only for himselfe and not for them wheras all that is in Christ is for us I beseech you therefore let us learne to know Christ better and to make use of him Againe if Christ hath the Spirit put upon him for us all then in our daily slips and errors make this use to offer Christ to God with this argument take an argument from God himselfe to binde him God will bee bound with his owne arguments we cannot binde him with ours but let us goe to him and say Lord though I be thus and thus sinnefull yet for Christ Iesus sake thy servant whom thou lovest and hast put thy Spirit upon him to be a Priest and to make intercession for me for his sake pardon for his sake accept Make use of Gods consecration of Christ by the Spirit to God himselfe and binde him with his owne Mediator and with his owne Priest of his owne ordaining thou canst not Lord refuse a Saviour and Mediator of thine owne sanctified by thine own Spirit whom thou hast set apart and ordained and qualified every way for this purpose let us goe to God in the Name of this Mediator Jesus Christ every day and this is to make a good use of this That God hath put his Spirit upon him But to make a use of Tryall how shall wee know that this comfort belongs to us that Christ hath the Spirit put upon him for us or no whether he be ordained a King Priest and Prophet for us That which I said before will give light to this we must partake of the same Spirit that Christ hath or else wee are none of his members as we partake of his name so we must also of his annoynting thereupon we are called Christians because we partake of the annoynting and Spirit of Christ and if we have the Spirit of Christ it will worke the same in us as it did in Christ it will convince us of our owne ill of our rebellions and cursed estate and it will convince us likewise of the good we have in him And then he is a Spirit of union to knit us to Christ and make us one with him and thereupon to quicken us to leade us and guide us and to dwell in us continually to stirre up prayers and supplications in us to make us cry familiarly to God as to a Father to comfort and support us in all our wants and miseries as he did Christ to helpe our infirmities as the Apostle at large in Rom. 8. sets downe the excellent office of the Holy Ghost what he doth in those that are Christs Let us therefore examine our selves what the Spirit doth in us if Christ bee set apart to redeeme us as a Priest Surely all his offices goe together he doth by the same Spirit rule us Rev. 1. He hath washed us in his blood and made us Kings and Priests Whosoever he washeth in his blood he maketh him a King and a Priest he makes him by the power of his Spirit able to rule over his base corruptions we may know then whether we have benefit by Christ by his Spirit not onely by the Spirit witnessing that we are the Sonnes of God but by some arguments whereby the Spirit may witnesse without delusion for though the Spirit of Christ tells us that we are Christs yet the proofe must bee from guiding and leading and comforting and conforming us to Jesus Christ in making us Kings and Prophets enlightning our understandings to know his will and conforming us to be like him The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of power and strength it will enable us to performe duties above nature to overcome our selves and injuries it vvill make us to vvant and to abound it vvill make us able to live and to dye as it enabled Christ to doe things that another man could not doe So a Christian can doe that and suffer that that another man cannot doe and suffer because he hath the Spirit of Christ. At the least whosoever hath the Spirit of Christ he shall finde that Spirit in him striving against that which is contrary and by little and little getting ground where there is no conflict there is
no Spirit of Christ at all I will not be large in the point onely I speake this by way of tryall to know whether wee have the Spirit of Christ in us or no if not we have nothing to doe with Christ For Christ saves us not as he is out of us onely Christ was to doe something of himselfe that wee have no share in onely the good of it is ours hee was to redeeme us by his blood to bee a Sacrifice the title to Heaven and salvation was wrought by Christ out of us but there is somewhat that he doth not onely for us but hee works in us by his Spirit that is the fitting of us for that he hath given us title too and the applying of that that he hath done for us Whosoever therefore hath any benefit by Christ he hath the Spirit to apply that to himselfe and to fit and qualifie him to be a member of such a Head and an heire of such a Kingdome whosoever Christ works any thing for he doth also worke in them there is a Spirit of application and that spirit of application if it be true it is a Spirit of sanctification and renovation fitting us every way for our condition Let us not abuse our selves as the world commonly doth concerning Christ they thinke God is mercifull and Christ is a Saviour Jt is true but what hath he wrought in thee by his Spirit hast thou the Spirit of Christ or else thou art none of his Romans 8. Where ever Christ is he goes with his Spirit to teach us to apply what Christ hath done for us and to fit us to bee like him Therefore let those that live in any sinnes against conscience thinke it a diabollicall illusion to thinke God and Christ is mercifull I but where is the worke of the Spirit All the hope thou hast is onely that thou art not in Hell as yet for the time to come but for the present I dare not say thou hast any thing to doe with Christ when there is nothing of the Spirit in thee the Spirit of Christ conformes the Spouse to bee like the husband and the members to be like the Head therefore begg of Christ that hee would annoint himselfe King in our hearts and Prophet and Priest in our hearts to doe that that he did to know his will as a Prophet to rule in us as a King and to stirre up prayers in us as a Priest to doe in some proportion that that he doth though it bee in never so little a measure for wee receive it in measure but Christ beyond measure wee must labour for so much as may manifest to us the truth of our estate in Christ that we are not dead but living branches Now Christ gives and conveyes his Spirit especially and most of all since his ascention and sitting at the right hand of God for after his resurrection he declared his victory over all his enemies and therefore was able to give the Spirit without opposition and upon his resurrection death and hell and the anger of God were overcome and our sinnes were satisfied for now Christ was Head indeed having trod all his enemies under his feete now he was enabled to give the Spirit but upon his ascention into Heaven and his sitting there he was more enabled for even as the Sunne being so high above the Earth doth convey his light and heate and influence upon the inferiour bodies So Christ being so highly advanced is fitter to infuse his Spirit and grace heere below since his exaltation therefore the Church is fuller of grace and grace hath beene more spread and diffused since the ascention of Christ then before and the Evangelist gives it as a reason The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not ascended intimating that after his ascention there was a more full portion of the Spirit given God being fully appeased by the death of Christ and Christ staying the advantage that was fittest to give the Spirit now God the Father gives the Spirit with the Sonne so in both regards there was a greater fullnesse of the Spirit Therefore the Prophets speaking of the times of Christ especially of his exaltation shew that then they should be filled with the Spirit that the Spirit should be povvred out upon all flesh more aboundantly then before And that is the reason that the Apostles so differed from themselves before and after Christs ascention what a wondrous alteration was there Peter before hee flies even at the voice of a maide and they were full of contention and vaine glory but after we see when the Spirit the Holy Ghost came downe after Christs ascention into Heaven how couragious and valarous they were that they accounted it a matter of glory to suffer any thing and indeed we have more or lesse valour and courage the more of lesse Spirit we have now they having received more abundance of Spirit hereupon they were more couragious and undaunted at one time then another and this abundance of the Spirit comes especially since Christs advancement But how or by what meanes doth Christ give his Spirit to us This Spirit that is so necessary for us it is given by the ministery of the Gospell which is the ministery of the Spirit received ye the Holy Ghost by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith preached when the love of God in Christ and the benefits by Christ are layed open in the preaching of the Gospell to us God gives his holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Now God in Christ would save us by a triumphant and abundant love and mercy and the Spirit of God never goes but where there is a magnifying of the love and mercy of God in Christ therefore the ministery of the Gospell which onely discovers the amity and love of God to man-kinde being now reconciled in Christ it is accompanyed with the Spirit to assure us of our part and portion in those benefits for the Spirit is the fruit of Gods love as well as Christ Christ is the first gift and the Spirit is the second therefore that part of the word that discovers Gods exceeding love to man-kinde leaving Angells when they were fallen in their cursed estate and yet giving his Sonne to become man and a curse for us the discovery of this love and mercy of God and of his Son Christ to us is joyned with the Spirit for by the Spirit we see our cursed estate without the love and mercy of God in Christ and likewise we are convinced of the love of God in Christ and thereupon we love God againe and trust to his mercy and out of love to him performe all chearfull obedience whatsoever we doe else if it be not stirred by the Spirit apprehending the love of God in Christ it is but morallity A man shall never goe to Heaven but by such a disposition and frame and temper of soule as is wrought by the Holy Ghost
but they either resist them or quench them and wrong and grieve the Spirit as Saint Paul saith Greive not the Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption Ephes. 5. Men speake or doe somewhat that grieves the Spirit of God in them their conscience being enlightned by the Spirit tels them that they have done that which is naught yet notwithstanding for this or that advantage to please this or that company they will speake or doe that which is ill and then the Spirit that was given in some measure before is grieved at this carnall and sinnefull liberty Therefore if yee would be guided by the Spirit of Christ take heed of all these and of such like courses Another meanes whereby we may come to obtaine the Spirit is Prayer to bee guided by the Spirit of Christ next to Christ himselfe our Saviour is the most excellent thing in the world therefore it is worth the begging and getting Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Insinuating that wee can aske nothing greater then the Spirit A man that hath a sanctified judgement next the forgivenesse of his sins through Christ hee begs nothing more then the Spirit to witnesse the favour of God in Christ and to fit him for other favours especially to fit us for the world to come God can give nothing greater nor we can beg nothing greater if wee have sanctified judgements then the Spirit of God therefore let us have a high esteeme of the holy Spirit of the motions of it and out of an high esteeme in our hearts beg of God the guidance of the Spirit that he would leade us by his Spirit and subdue our corruptions that wee may not bee lead by our owne lusts and so consequently by Satan that leads us by our owne lusts in the way that leads to perdition So much for that I will put my Spirit c. And he shall shew judgement to the Gentiles After Christ was fully furnished as he was furnished with the Spirit of God and with a commission from Heaven from Father Sonne and Holy Ghost having this high commission and gifts for it by the Spirit he fals upon his office presently we are never fit for any thing till wee have the Spirit and when we have the Spirit it is active and vigorous and working He shall shew judgement to the Gentiles What is meant by judgement here By judgement is meant lawes hee shall declare his lawes his truth and together with declaring the truth of the Gospell which is his Evangelicall law hee shall declare it in the soule and bow the neck of the inward man to the obedience of this his judgement Christ then by himselfe and his Apostles and Ministers shall declare his truth which is the scepter of his governement to the Gentiles and not onely declare it as Princes doe their lawes by Proclamations and Statutes c. but hee shall declare it to the heart by his Spirit Now in the hebrew language ordinarily wise governement is called judgement hee shall declare judgement that is his manner of governement he shall declare it by his Spirit and cause our Spirits to submit to it And indeed grace is called judgement in the phrase of Scripture the grace of sanctification because it is agreeable to judgement to Gods law it is agreeable to it and wrought by it in the soule and it is the best judgement for grace whereby the soule is subject to the judgement and law and rule of God it must needs be the best judgement because it is agreeable to Gods judgement grace judgeth aright of things and subdues all things the affections and inward man to it selfe But why is the word of God called judgement It is called so frequently in the Psalmes and in other places of Scripture because the truth of God shewes what God doth judge Judgement is originally in God who is the first truth and the first good the first truth judgeth best of truthes what is light and what is darkenesse what is truth and what is error what is good and what is ill what is safe and what is dangerous all will grant that God is the first light and the firâ—t truth therefore hee doth originally judge of the difference of things for even as in the creation he put an eternall difference betweene light and darkenesse and severed things that were in the confuseâ— Chaos and established an orderly world that Heaven should be above and earth below that one thing should be above another and all in judgement So in the governing of man-kinde he shewes his judgement by his word and that word shewes how God judgeth of things Lawes shew judgement what is to be done and what is not to be done The Gospell shewes Gods judgement what he will have us beleeve and hope for and how wee must carry our selves in way of thankefullnesses if we doe this then the Gospell the word of God judgeth what shall become of us wee shall be saved if we doe the contrary the word againe judgeth what our state shall be wee shall be damned so it is called judgement because it judgeth what is good and what is ill and because it determineth what shall become of us if we obey or disobey Hereupon it is that the word of God is a glasse wherein we may see our owne condition infallibly what will become of us the Word of God judgeth thus he that lives in such and such sinnes shall come to this end God will inflict these and these judgements upon him Iudgement in the first place is you shall doe this and this because it is good Iudgement in the second place is because you have not done this this shall befall you so the Evangelicall judgement of the Gospell is this He that repents and beleeves shall not perish but have everlasting life but he that armes and furnisheth his heart to rebellion he shall perish in his sinnes He that believeth not is condemned allready the wrath of God hangs over his head So from this that Gods truth is called judgement we may know how to judge of our selves even as God judgeth in his Word wee may see our owne faces and conditions there hee that is a man of death may see it in the Word and he that is appointed for happinesse may there see his condition Againe not onely the Word of God the Gospell which is out of us in the booke of God is called judgement but the worke of God in the soule Sanctification is called judgement hence we may observe what is the most judicious course in the world the most judicious frame of soule when it is framed to the judgement and truth of God being the first truth When a man is sanctified and set in a holy frame it is from a sanctified judgement the flesh is subject to the Spirit heere is all in a gratious
that it may be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh For before wee come to heaven Christ must not onely be bone of our bone c. that is in his Incarnation but wee must be bone of his bone c. that is wee must have natures like Christ not onely flesh and blood for so a reprobate hath flesh and blood as Christ hath but wee must have his Spirit altering and changing our nature that instead of a proud disobedient rebellious nature now it must be a holy and humble and meeke nature together with humane frailty for that we carry about with us then the Spirit of life derived from Christ makes us bone of his bone For indeed in his humane nature being bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh hee made us bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh he became man that we might partake of the divine nature being partakers of the divine Spirit So that now the Spirit of life in Christ when we are knit to him is a Spirit of sanctification altering our natures and working in our hearts a disposition like Christs that wee judge as Christ judgeth and chuse as Christ chuseth and ayme at Gods glory as Christ did For there is the same mind in us that was in Christ Philip. 2. In our proportion growing still more and more to conformity with Christ till we be in heaven till Christ be all in all 1 Cor. 15. When he will change our nature to be holy as his owne Besides this liberty from sinne and death in this life there is a glorious liberty and freedome thaâ— we have by the Spirit of Christ when we are dead for then the Spirit of life that raised Christs dead body will raise our bodies and that Spirit of Christ that raiseth his body and raiseth our soules in this world from sinne to beleeve in him will raise our dead bodies The same vertue and power that workes in Christ workes in his members this is called The glorious libertie of the Sonnes of God Then wee shall be freed indeed not onely from the law of sinne but from sinne it selfe and not onely from the law of death but death it selfe and wee shall live forever with the Lord. Christ then shall be all in all by his Spirit Christ will never leave us till hee have brought us to that glorious freedome wee are freed already from sinne and death he hath set us in heavenly places together with himselfe now In faith we are there already but then wee shall be indeed Thus you see how we come to have the law of the Spirit of life in Christ to free us from the law of sinne and death and all the passages of it You see here that there is law against law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against the law of sinne and death I beseech you consider that God hath appointed law to countermand law the Spirit of Christ to overcome sinne in us not onely in justification but in sanctification oh let us therefore comfortably thinke there is a Law above this Law I have now cold dead base affections but if I have the Spirit of Christ he can quicken and enliven me hee will not onely pardon my sinne but by the Law of his Spirit direct guid and command me a contrary way to my lusts And this is an Art of spirituall prudence in heavenly things whensoever wee are beset with dangers to set â—reater then that against it The Devill is an Angell but we have a guard of Angels about us The Devill is a Serpent but we have a braâ—en Serpent that cures all the stings of that Serpent We have Principalities and Powers against but we have greater Principalities and Poâ—ers for us The Law of life against the law of sinne and death We have a law of our lusts tyrannizing over us and enthralling us it is true but then there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to overcome and subdue that law of our lusts if so be that wee use the prerogatives wee have if we use faith and goe to God and Christ in whom are all the treasures of grace Hee is the treasury of the Church of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace Are we troubled with any corruptions goe to the Spirit of liberty in Christ and desire him to set us at liberty from the bondage and thraldome of our corruptions And remember what Christ hath done for us and where hee is now in heaven let us raiâ—e our thoughts that wee may see our selves in heaven already that wee may be ashamed to defile our bodies and soules with the base drudgery of sinne and Satan that are sanctified in part in this world and shall be glorified in heaven Certainely faith would raise our soules so we betray our selves when being once in the state of grace we are inâ—hralled basely to any sinne For sinne shall not have dominion over you because you are under grace saith the Apostle Being under grace if wee doe 〈◊〉 use our reasoning and use faith and exercise the grace we have given us wee cannot be in thrall to corruptions Wee shall have remainders to trouble us put not to 〈◊〉 and reigne and domineere For sinne 〈◊〉 beares â—way but when wee betray our selves and either beleeve not what Christ hath done for us or else exercise not our faith A Christian is never overtaken basely but when hee neglects his priviledges and prerogatives and doth not stirre up the grace of God in him Learne this then when we are troubled with any thing set Law against Law set the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ against all oppositions whatsoever and let the temptation â—â—e where it will let it lie in justificatiâ—â— as when wee are tempted by Satan to despaire for sinnes for great sinnes oh but then consider the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ hath freed me from the law of sinne and of death Christ was made sinne to free me â—rom sinne Consider that Christ was God-man hee satisfied divine Justice the blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sinne though they be as red as crimson Thus set Christ against our sinnes in justification when the guilt of them â—â—oubles our soules And so likewise when wee are set on by base lusts set against them the power of Christ in sanctification What 〈◊〉 I now a member of Christ one that professeth my selfe to be an heire of heaven there is a Spirit of life in Christ my head there is a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ that is there is a commanding power in his Spirit and that Spirit of his is not onely in the head but in the members If I goe to him for grace I may have grace answerable to the grace that is in him grace that will strengthen me with his power be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Ephes. 6.
calls his body broken the bread of life Why because it was the body of the Sonne of God who is life Iob 6. All life comes from God Now Christ taking our nature upon him his death is a quickning death and by reason of the union with the divine nature now it is the body of God broken and the blood of God shed for us there is our comfort and hee was declared to be so by his Resurrection that declared that he was God and that hee was freed from our sinnes Powerfull must that Saviour needs be that was so strong in his very death when his very body was broken and his blood let out then hee did worke the foundation of all comfort for then hee satisfied the wrath of God Christ was strongest when hee was weakest The Resurrection was but a declaration of the worth of that hee had done Now in the Sacrament wee have Communion with Christ dying especially as his body is broken and his blood shed for that is the foundation of all comfort by his Resurrection And because the Spirit of life was in Christ and did quicken his body while hee was alive and was a Spirit of life even when hee dyed and gave worth and excellency to his death therefore when wee take the Communion wee ought not to meditate meerely of the death of Christ as his blood was shed and his body broken but of the death of such a person as had the Spirit of life in him as was God and man and so set the excellency of his person against all temptations whatsoever Set the excellency of Christ so abased his body broken and his blood shed against all temptations if it be the greatest the wrath of God upon the conscience yet when conscience thinkes this God the party offended gave his owne Sonne to be Incarnate and the Spirit of life in him did quicken mans nature and in that nature did die for satisfaction now God will be satisfied by the death of such a Surety as his owne Sonne so that the excellency of the Person having the Seale of God upon him For him hath God the Father sealed doth wondrously satisfie conscience in all temptations whatsoever What need a man feare death and damnation and the miseries of this life and Satan what are all if God be appeased and reconciled in Christ then a man hath comfort and may thinke of all other enemies as conquered enemies Now we cannot thinke of the death of Christ who was a quickening Spirit but wee must thinke of the death of an excellent person that gave worth to his death to be a satisfactory death for us Therefore let us receive the Communion with comfort that as verily as Christ is mine so his quickening Spirit is communicated to me and whatsoever he hath is mine If I have the field I have the Pearle in it his obedience his victory over death his Sonship is mine his sitting in heaven is for me he sits there to rule me while I am on earth and to take me up to himselfe when I am dead all is for me when wee have Communion with Christ wee have communion with all Therefore the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus when I am one with him it quickens mâ— and frees me from the law of sinne and death FINIS SAINT PAULS CHALLENGE In one Sermon By The late learned and reverend Divine RICH. SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Mr of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at GRAYES-INNE PSAL. 27.3 Though an Host should encampe against me my heart shall not feare though warre should rise against me In this will I be confident LONDON Printed by E. P. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1638. SAINT PAVLS CHALLENGE ROM 8.30 What shall wee then say to these things If God be for us who can be against us THE words are a glorious conclusion and triumph of faith the conclusion upon all the former particulars in the Chapter and the foundation of all the comforts that follow after to the end of the Chapter They are as the center of the Chapter all the beames of heavenly comfort in this divine Chapter they meete as it were in one in this short clause What shall we say then to these things c. In the words briefly there is first a question What shall we say to these things And then a triumph If God be with us who can be against us It is a question answered with another question What shall wee say to these things He answers it with another question If God be with us who can be against us What shall we say to these things To these things before mentioned If wâ—e be in Christ there is no condemnation to us if wee be led by the Spirit if we be heires of heaven and fellow heires with Christ if we suffer with him if we have the spirit of prayer to helpe our infirmities in the worst conditions if all creatures groane with us and if all worke for our good if God from all eternity hath written our names in heaven by election and separated us from the rest of the world in vocation and hath sanctified and justified us and will after glorifie us what shall wee say to these things The heart of man is full of doubtings and misgiving full of thoughts According to the multitude of my thoughts thy comforts refreshed my soule a multitude of thoughts and a multitude of comforts there is comfort after comfort because there are thoughts after thoughts and surmises after surmises There is no wast comfort set down in this Chapter and when he hath set down all he comes and concludes in a triumphant manner What shall wee say to these things He propounds the quaere to himselfe he catechiseth his own heart and others if these things be so what can be sayd against them Surely the unbeleeving doubting darke rebellious heart of man hath many things to say against divine truths for though divine truths be lighter then the Sunne and there is no greater evidence of any thing in the world yet they find no place in the unbeleeving heart Let God say what he will the doubting heart is ready to gain-say it but these truths are so pregnant and cleare that it is a wonder that any thing should be said against them What shall we say to thâ—se things Againe he meanes what comfort can you have more what can you desire more what can be said more what use will you make of all that hath beene said what will you sucke out of it If all this be true that hath beene spoken before that a Christian is so elevated above the common condition if God love him from everlasting in election and to everlasting in glorification if in the middle time all shall worke for the best what comfort can the heart of man desire more and what use can you make of this for courage and for comfort for the time to come these things are implyed in this
downe the glorious condition of the Church in this world in part yet the desire of the Church rests not in any condition here therefore it is carried to the consummation and perfection of all There shall be a kind of new world at the conversion of the Iewes but when the Church is under that blessed condition yet it is under desires still of farther perfection till an end be made of all things Therefore this saying here Come hath reference to the future state of the Church All the desires of the Church are restles till the consummation of all things in the latter comming of Christ. It carries all before it in a desire Come Lord therefore to call the Iewes Come Lord to confound Antichrist which must be before that for the Iewes wil never come in till the scandal of Idolatry be removed when all this is fulfilled then come Lord to make an end of this sinful world As it is with a river it carryes all before it till it discharge it selfe into the Ocean where it is swallowed up so it is with the desires of a Christian they carry all in the meane time between heaven and them in a streame and never rest â—â—ll they be swallowed in heaven it selfe and â—â—e second comming of Christ to finish 〈…〉 s and then is the period of all happinesse and â—he accomplishment of all promises when Christ shall come to be glorious in his Saints The words they are as it wâ—re â—n eccho aâ— answere backe againe of the Bride the Spouse of Christ unto his promise of his comming which he makes twise in this Chapter in ver 7. Behold I come quickly and in ver 12. Behold I come quickly and he comes not empty handed My rewardâ— is with me Now the Church here ecchoes backe againe Christ saith I come and the Spirit and the Bride say come The words containe the most heavenly desire that can be of the most excellent personage in this world the Queene the Bride of Christ and it is a desire to the most excellent person absolutely Christ himselfe a desire of his comming and it is stirred up by the most excellent Spirit the holy Spirit of God for the meaning of the words is this The Spirit and the Bride say Come not as distinct and severed but the Bride by the Spirit saith Come the Holy Ghost in the Bride as it is Rom. 8.26 Wee know not what to pray but the Spirit makes intercession How is that The Spirit makes intercession by making us make intercession for what Christ doth the Spirit causeth us to do for there is one Spirit in Christ and us So the Bride by the motion of the holy and blessed Spirit say Come The order of our discourse upon these words shall be this First to speake of the person wishing and her condition The Bride And then of the desire of this excellent personage the Bride And then of the mooving cause that stirres up the Bride to desire the comming of Christ First for the person the Bride The Church is sometime compared to a woman for weakenesse sometimes to a wife for faithfulnesse to her Husband and Christ sometimes to a Bride because she is contracted to Christ in this world sometimes to a mother for her fruitfulnesse sometimes to a Virgin for her chastity here to a Bride because this life is but the time of Contract but the consummation of the marriage shall be in heaven Now this contract between the Church and Christ and betweene every particular soule and Christ for both are the bride of Christ. Even as it is the same soule that is in the little finger and in all the whole body the same soule enlivens both so it is the same Spirit in the Bride in generall and in every particular Christian therfore the Bride is both every particular Christian the whole Church Now the contract that is made betweene the soule and between the Church Christ it is by the Spirit of God which knits the soule to Christ and Christ to the soule And for this end that Christ might be a Husband and contract this Bride to himselfe in our nature he married our nature that he might marry our persons There is a three-fold degree of union An union of Nature An union of Grace An union of Glory The union of nature was then Christ tooke our nature upon him The union of grace is when we take his nature when wee partake of the divine nature The union of glory is when we shall all be in heaven The first is for the second and the second for the third Christ became bone of our bone in nature that we might be bone of his bone with him in grace and so perfectly one with him in glory We see the Bride that is the Person Here I might take occasion to speak of the sweet comfort that issues from this that the second Person in the Trinity should dignifie us so much as to take us to unity with and contract us to himselfe but I will not speak much of this point having spoken more at large of it out of the Canticles If marriage be honorable what is this marriage and contract which is indeed the patterne of all other others are but shadowes to this Hence comes the sweet security peace of the Church from this contract between Christ and it for all our debts are discharged by this he tooke upon him our sins And then the Church hath interest in him and all his in this contract and marriage which is to be consummate all that he is hath is the Churches All is yours because you are Christs What a large comfort is this if we had hearts to consider of it and to improove it his grace serves for the Church Of his fulnesse wee receive grace for grace So wee may say of all the priviledges that Christ hath they are first in him and then in the Church the Church shines in his beames And as it is matter of wondrous comfort so it is likewise matter of more speciall comfort in case of infirmities The Church is a woman therefore the weaker vessell Now God that bids us beare with the woman as the weaker vessell to honour her with the honour of gentle usage for that honor is meant he that teacheth man his duty will he not performe it himselfe to beare with his Church as the weaker vessell Especially when it is the condition of the marriage Hosea 2. I will marry thee to me in mercy wee may clayme mercy as a part of our dowry by Christ pardoning mercy forbearing pittying mercy we make not use of this comfort when we are discouraged But this teacheth us likewise how to carry our selves to Christ as we should doe chastly to take heed how we judge of things we must keep our judgements chast A Christian hath not liberty to ryot in his opinion to run at randome to see what 〈◊〉
Spirit in the Spouse saith Come The Spirit doth all as the soule doth all in the body it acts it and leads it and comforts it and gives beauty to it so the Spirit first knits Christ and us together there is the same Spirit in Christ the head and in the Church there is one common Spirit in head and members And when it hath done so it acts and leads and sanctifies and purifies the Church it acquaints the Church with the good things that God hath given her acquaints her with the deepe meaning of God the love of God in Christ it acquaints God with our desires hee knowes our meaning in our prayers and we know his meaning it acquaints us with the state we shall have after and assures us of it It is the earnest of the Inheritance the Spirit and the graces of it are not onely the earnest but a part of that Inheritance a part of heaven where our bodies shall be spirituall not that they shall turne to be spirits but they shall be ruled wholy by the Spirit as the soule rules the body As it is in a river it is impossible that the streame should run higher then the spring-head from whence it comes so it is impossible that our desires should rise higher then the spring from whence they come the desires of nature cannot goe higher then nature the desires of the flesh are fleshly but spirituall desires as they spring from heaven they have a noble originall and head so they carry to heaven againe Therefore as the Spirit comes from God the Father and the Sonne so it carries us backe againe to the Father and the Sonne as it comes from heaven so it carries to heaven back againe That is one way to know whether our desires be spirituall or no our desire of death and of the comming of Christ if it be from wearisomnesse of life and from afflictions in the world so nature may desire I were better be dead then to be thus as Ionas wished death and the children of Israel and Elias in a passion oh that I were dead c. but if those desires spring from the Spirit then they come from heaven from the consideration of the excellency of the state wee shall have there that it shall be better with us and that death is but a darke passage to a glorious condition We may know our desires are spirituall from the rise of them if they come from spirituall and holy and heavenly considerations the Spirit doth all in the Spouse that is holy and Spirituall Therefore let us give entertainment to the Spirit of God and be where we may have further and further communion with the Spirit in spirituall Ordinances The preaching of Gods holy Word though it be meanely esteemed by the world it is the Ministerie of the Spirit in the hearing of it the Spirit is given if we would have the Spirit let us attend upon the Ministerie of the Spirit And let us study Christ and make him all in all Saint Paul questions with the Galathians saith hee I would know of you how came ye by the Spirit by hearing of Christs Gospel or of the Law preached No it was by the Gospel so that not onely the Ministerie in generall but the Evangelicall Ministerie that unfolds Christ and the infinite love of God in Christ the excellent condition we have in this world and look for in the world to come the Spirit is effectuall with these thoughts to make us holy and heavenly The Law beats downe but the Gospel especially these Evangelicall truths make us spirituall Therefore wee should be willing to heare spirituall points There are a company of men that love to heare curious and nice points and if a Minister be quaint anâ— satyricall and unfold points sutable to their apprehension they can digest this but come to speake of things above nature of Christ and the benefits by him they are spirituall they are remote and transcendent above their nature that they cannot relish them But he that hath the Spirit of Christ of all points there are none to those that unfold Christ and the benefits by him the glory that wee hope for by him in another world And let us not grieve the Spirit but give way to his motions The Spirit is now among us in his Ordinance knocking at our hearts and desiring entertainement let us give way and not quench the good motions that hee stirres up and the Spirit shall be given more and more to us The Holy-Ghost is given to them that ebey him And let us beg the Spirit God will give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Luk. 11. As if hee should say the Spirit is the best thing that God can give you that are evill can give good things to your children but your heavenly Father hath one good thing instead of all he will give his Spirit Therefore when wee find our hearts dead and dâ—ll and earthly and base-minded thinke thus Alas I am a lump of flesh now where is the Spirit of God certainely if I had the Spirit in me I could not be as I am If we love our soules we will take this course wee trifle with Religion else God doth all by the Spirit the Spirit is Christs Vicar here is no need of a Ministeriall head betweene the Spouse and Christ the Spirit and the Spouse are so neere together there is such a conjunction betweene Christ and his Church that where the Spirit is hee stirres up desires of his comming Onely let us attend upon the meanes and Ordinances that hee hath left in his Church And let us consider wee are not for this life we are not to live here alway the child in the wombe is not for that life and when it is in the world it is not for this life there is a third life that we are for An imperfect state rests not till it come to perfection our best is behind let those that are naught feare the second comming of Christ. Let Herod and Iudas and the beast of Rome feare that shall be cast into the burning lake Let Felix tremble the corrupt Judge and all that live in corrupt courses But wee that professe our selves to be Christians and hope for better things in another world let us labour to banish base feares and to this end let us labour to be spirituall and not to be lead by the flesh Whosoever is Christs hath the Spirit of Christ or else he is none of his as it is sweetly and largely and heavenly prooved Rom. 8. We have nothing to doe with Christ unlesse we have his Spirit to stirre up motions and desires of better things then this world can afford FINIS DAVIDS CONCLVSION OR THE SAINTS RESOLVTION In one Sermon By the late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grays-Inne Ieremy 30.21 Who is this that ingageth his heart to approach
servant to do our worke for us to suffer for us to beare the burthen of our sinnes upon the tree to become our husband to bestow his riches upon us to raise us to the same condition with himselfe and withall to be such a one as God hath chosen out to love and delight in as the best object of his love and most capable of it and for us not to solace and delight our selves in him that God delights in when God delights in him for our sake God loves and delights in him for the worke of salvation and redemption by his blood and shall not wee love and imbrace him for his love which is for our good What good hath God by it but onely the glory of his mercy in saving our soules through Christ Therefore if God love him for the good he doth to us much more should we love him for the fruit of it that wee receive our selves It should shame us therefore when we finde dullnesse and coldnesse upon us that wee can heare of any thing better then of Christ and arguments concerning Christ are cold to us alas where is our love and joy and delight and when we can make no better but a carnall use of the incarnation and other benefits by Christ we should therefore desire God to shed the love of Christ into our hearts more and more that we may feele in our soules the love that hee beares to us and may love God and Christ againe for that that hee hath done for us Hence we have also a ground of estimation of Christians to be excellent persons doth God valew poore sinfull soules so much as to give Christ for them to become a Saviour doth he delight in Christ for giving himselfe for them and shall not we love one another whom God and Christ so loves But if God love and delight in those that are in Christ with the same love and delight that he hath in him how shall I know that I am in Christ and that God thus delights in me Briefly a man may know that hee is in Christ if he find the Spirit of Christ in him for the same Spirit when Christ tooke our nature that sanctified that blessed masse wherof he was made when there was an union betweene him and the second person the same Spirit sanctifies our soules and bodies there is one Spirit in the head and in the members therfore if we find the Spirit of Christ in us we are in Christ and he in us Now this Spirit is renewing Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature all is new old things are done away the old manner of language the old disposition old affections old company all old things are past all is new and if a man be a new creature hee hath right and title to the new heaven and new earth let us examine the worke of grace in us if there be no change in us we have no present interest in Christ we have to do with him because he is still woing us to be in him but as yet we have no title to him The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight the Spirit that makes us new creatures and stirres us up to behold this servant it is a transforming beholding if wee looke upon him with the eye of faith it will make us like Christ for the Gospell is a mirrour and such a mirrour that when we looke into it and see our selves interessed in it wee are changed from glory to glory a man cannot looke upon the love of God and of Christ in the Gospell but it will change him to be like God and Christ for how can we see Christ and God in Christ but we shall see how God hates sin and this will transforme us to hate it as God doth who hated it so that it could not bee expiated but with the blood of Christ God-man so seeing the holinesse of God in it it will transforme us to be holy when we see the love of of God in the Gospell and the love of Christ giving himselfe for us this will transforme us to love God when wee see the humility and obedience of Christ when we looke on Christ as Gods chosen servant in all this and as our surety and head it transformes us to the like humility and obedience those that find not their dispositions in some comfortable measure wrought to this blessed transformation they have not yet those eyes that the Holy Ghost requireth here Behold my servant whom I have chosen my Beloved in whom my soule delighteth I will put my Spirit upon him Now wee come to the qualification of Christ for his calling in these words I will put my Spirit upon him that is I will cloath him with my Spirit I will put it as it were upon him as a garment Now there were divers degrees of Christs receiving the Spirit at severall times for hee was conceived by the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost did sanctifie that blessed masse whereof his body was framed in the wombe of the Virgin he was quickned in the wombe in his conception by the Holy Ghost and he was graced by the Holy Ghost and led by the Spirit in all things before his Baptisme but afterward when he came to set upon his office to be the Prophet and Priest and King of his Church that great office of saving mankind which he did not solemly set upon till hee was thirty yeares old then God powred upon him a special portion of the Spirit answerable to that great calling then the Spirit lighted upon him Christ was ordained to his office by the greatest authority that ever any was ordained from the beginning of the world for at his Baptisme when he was ordained and set apart to his office there was the Father from heaven uttered an audible voice This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased and there was Christ the partie baptized and installed into that great office then there was the Holy Ghost in the forme and shape of a Dove it being a matter of the greatest consequence that ever was in the world greater then the Creation it was fit it should be done with the greatest authority and so it was the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost being present at the admission of Christ into his office this is especially here intended though the other bee included I will put my Spirit vpon him that is I will annoint him as it is in Isaiah 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith Christ because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke to binde up the broken hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives to open the prison for them that are bound to proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord that is the yeare of Iubile for that was a Type of Christ to preach the Gospell deliverance to all that are in captivity servitude and thraldome under Satan and sin this was
accomplished when Christ at his Baptisme entred upon his office God put his Spirit upon him to set him apart to ordaine him and to qualifie him with abundance of grace for the worke for there are these three things especially meant by putting the Spirit upon him separation or setting apart and ordaining and inriching with the gifts of the Spirit When any one is called to great place there is a setting apart from others and an ordaining to that particular and a qualifying if it be a calling of God he qualifies where he ordaines alwaies But Christ had the Spirit before what doth he meane then when hee saith hee will put the Spirit upon him now I answer he had the Spirit before answerable to that condition he was in now hee received the Spirit answerable to that condition hee was to undertake he was perfect then for that condition now he was to be made perfect for that office he was to set upon he was alway perfect hee had abundance of Spirit for that estate hee was in but now he was to enter upon another condition to preach the Gospell to be a Prophet and after to be a Priest therefore he saith now especially I will put my Spirit upon him Now this putting of the Spirit it is expressed in Isaiah 61. and other places by Annointing There were three sorts of persons that were annointed before Christ Prophets Priests and Kings now Christ was to bee a Prophet a Priest and a King therefore hee was to be annointed with the Spirit to enable him to these three offices I might here take occasion to enlarge my selfe in the offices of Christ but I will onely speake of them as the Text ministreth just occasion There are three maine defects in man since the fall There is ignorance and blindnesse There is rebellion in the will and affections And in regard of his condition by reason of the sinnes of nature and life a subjection to a cursed estate to the wrath of God and eternall damnation Now answerable to these three grand ills whosoever shall bee ordained a Saviour must provide proportionable remedies for these hereupon comes a threefold office in Christ that is ordained to save man to cure this threefold mischiefe and maladie As we are ignorant and blind he is a Prophet to instruct us to convince us of the ill state we are in and then to convince us of the good hee intends us and hath wrought for us to instruct us in all things concerning our everlasting comfort he is such a Prophet as teacheth not onely the outward but the inward man hee openeth the heart he teacheth to doe the things he teacheth men teach what we should doe but they teach not the doing of them he is such a Prophet as teacheth us the very things hee teacheth us to love and to obey c. And answerable to the rebellion and sinfulnesse of our dispositions he is a King to subdue whatsoever is ill in us and likewise to subdue all opposite power without us by little and little hee will trample all enemies under his feete and under our feete too ere long Now as we are cursed by reason of our sinfull condition so hee is a Priest to satisfie the wrath of God for us he was made a curse for us he became a servant that being so hee might die and undergoe the cursed death of the crosse not onely death but a cursed death and so his blood might be an attonement as a Priest So answerable to the three fold ill in us you see here is a threefold office in Christ. Now Christ performes these three offices in this order First of all he is a Prophet when he was baptised the Spirit was put upon him as in Isaiah 61. To preach deliverance to the captives First he preached wherefore he came into the world why God sent him and discovered to the world the state they were in and when he had preached as a Prophet then as a Preist he dyed and offered himselfe a Sacrifice After death his Kingly office was most apparent For then he rose againe as a triumphant King over death and all our enemies and ascended in his triumphant chariot to Heaven and there he sits gloriously as a King in his throne at the right hand of God so that how ever at his Baptisme and before when he was sanctified in his mothers wombe he was both King Priest and Prophet yet in regard of the order of manifestation he manifested himselfe first to be a Prophet secondly a Priest and thirdly to be a King For his Kingly office brake foorth but seldome in the time of his abasement sometimes it did to shew that he was ruler and commander of Earth and Sea and Divels and all he wrought miracles but the glorious manifestation of his kingly office it was after his resurrection Now the fundamentall the chiefe office to which he was annoynted by the Spirit upon which the rest depends it was his Priestly office for wherefore was his teaching but to instruct us what he must doe and suffer for us and what benefit we have by his Sacrifice reconciliation with God and freedome from the wrath of God and right unto life everlasting by his obedience to the cursed death of the crosse And how comes he to be a King to rule over us by his holy Spirit and to have a right unto us But because as a Priest hee dyed for us first He washed us with his blood he purged us with his blood and then he made us Kings and Priests Rev 1. All other benefits came from this he washed our soules in his blood first whatsoever wee have from God is especially from the great worke of Christ as a Priest abasing himselfe and dying for us and thereupon hee comes to bee a Prophet and a King thus we see the order of Christs offices how they come to be fruitfull to us the rest especially by vertue of his priestly office Note this by the way Christs priestly office includes two branches his sacrificing himselfe for us a Priest was to offer Sacrifice and to pray for the people our Saviour Christ did both in the daies of his humiliation in his prayer in Ioh. 17. there as a Priest he commends his sacrifice to God before he died and now he is in Heaven making intercession for us to the end of the world he appeares for us there We see then to what purpose God put the Spirit upon Christ to enable him to be a Prophet a Priest and a King and thereupon to take away those mischiefes and evills that wee were subject and inthralled too so that we have a supply for all that may any way abase us and cast us downe in the all sufficiency that is in Christ Jesus who was annoyntâ—d with the Spirit for this end It may be objected Christ was God himselfe hee had the Spirit and gives the Spirit therefore how could the
as in the first Adam we receive of his emptinesse curse for curse ill for ill for his blindnesse and rebellion wee are answerable wee are borne as hee was after his fall so in the second Adam by his Spirit we receive grace for grace Hence issues this that our state now in Christ is farre more excellent then our state in Adam was How doth it spring hence Thus Christ is God-Man his nature was sanctified by the Spirit hee was a more excellent person he gives and sends the Spirit Adam was onely a meere man and therefore his goodnesse could not be so derived to his posterity For how ever the Holy Ghost was in Adam yet the Holy Ghost did not so fill him he was not so in him as in Christ the Holy Ghost is in Christ in a more excellent manner for Christ being equall with God he gave the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost comes from Christ as God now the second Adam being a more excellent person wee being in Christ the second Adam we are in a more excellent and in a more safe estate we have a better keeper of our happinesse then Adam he being a meere man he could not keepe his owne happinesse but lost himselfe and all his posterity though he were created after the Image of God yet being but a meere man hee shewed himselfe to be a man that is a changeable creature but Christ being God and man having his nature sanctified by the Spirit now our happinesse is in a better keeping for our grace hath a better spring the grace and sanctification wee have it is not in our owne keeping it distills into us answerable to our necessities but the spring is indeficient it never failes the spring is in Christ. So the favour that God beares us it is not first in us but it is first in Christ God loves him and then he loves us he gives him the Spirit and us in him Now Christ is the keeper both of the love of God towards us and the grace of God whatsoever is good he keeps all for us he receives all for himselfe and for us he receives not only the Spirit for himselfe but he receives it as Mediator as Head for we all of his fullnesse receive grace for grace he receives it as a fountaine to diffuse it I say this shewes us our happy and blessed condition in Jesus Christ that â—ow the grace and love of God and our happinesse and the grace whereby we are sanctified and fitted for it it is not in our owne keeping originally but in our head Christ Iesus These bee comfortable considerations and indeed the life and soule of a Christians life and comfort if we conceive them aright they will quicken us to obedience and wee shall know what the Gospell is To come to make some use of it I might observe this that none should take that office upon them to which they are not called of God nor qualified by his Spirit especially Ministers because Christ did not set upon his office till the Spirit was put upon him the Spirit must inable us and fit us for every thing but I leave that and come to that which concernes us all First then hath God put the Spirit upon Christ as the Evangelist saith in Ioh. 3.34 Hee whom God hath sent that is Christ hee speaketh the word of God For God gives him not the Spirit by measure God doth not stand measuring grace out to Christ but hee powers it out upon him full measure running over because he receives it not for himselfe alone but for us we receive the Spirit by measure Eph. 4.7 According to the measure of the gift of Christ Christ gives us all a measure of sanctifying knowledge and of every grace till wee grow to be a perfect man in Christ. Therefore it is called the first fruits of the Spirit as much as shall fit us for Heaven and grace sufficient though it be not that measure wee shall have hereafter or that wee would have here Christ had a full measure the fullnesse of a fountaine diffusive not onely abundance for himselfe but redundance and overflowing for the good of others hee being the head of the Church not onely a head of eminence but of influence to bestow and convey all grace in him to all his members proportionable to the service of every member therefore he received not the Spirit according to measure that is sparingly but it was showred upon him hee was filled and cloathed with the Holy Ghost Is it so Let us labour then to see whereto have supply in all our wants wee have a full treasury to goe to all treasure is hid in Christ for us what a comfort is this in any thing we want If wee want the favour of God goe to his beloved Christ desire God to love us in his Beloved and to accept us in his gracious Son in him whom he hath made his servant and annoynted with his Spirit for that purpose If we want particular graces goe to the well-head Christ consider of Christ now filled for us as it was in Aaron the oyle that was powred on Aarons head ran downe to his beard and to the skirts of his cloathing the meanest parts of his garment was bedewed with that oyle so the graces of Gods Spirit powred upon our head Christ our Aaron our high Priest runne downe upon us upon all ranckes of Christians even upon the skirts the weakest and the lowest Christians every one hath grace for grace we all partake of the oyle and annoynting of our spirituall Aaron our High Priest If wee want any thing therefore let us goe to him I can doe all saith S. Paul in Christ that strengtheneth me goe to him for patience for comfort for every thing because God hath put his Spirit upon him to supply all our wants he hath the oyle of gladnesse above his fellowes but for his fellowes Psal. 45. he hath the oyle of grace more then any but it is not onely for him but for us all Therefore let us have comfortable meditations of the fullnesse of Christ and make use of it all this is for me in Col. 2. S. Paul sets it out in him the fulnesse of the God-head dwells personally for that is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and it followes after in him wee are compleate Wherefore is all the fullnesse that is in him to shew that in him we are compleate so in 1 Iohn 5.20 to shew how the spirits of the Apostles agree in this saith he wee know that the Sonne of God is come in the flesh and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Sonne Iesus Christ This is true God and eternall life Christ is true God and eternall life for us all for our comfort We know that the Sonne of God is come and hath given us an understanding c. Little
perswading the soule first of the love and favour of God in Christ. What are all our performances if they be not out of love to God and how shall we love God except we be perswaded that hee loves us first therefore the Gospell breeds love in us to God and hath the Spirit together with it working a blessed frame of sanctification whereby we are disposed to every good duty Therefore if we would have the Spirit of God let us attend upon the sweete promises of salvation upon the doctrine of Christ for together with the knowledge of these things the Holy Ghost slides and insinuates and infuseth himselfe into our soules Therfore the Ministers of the Gospell should be much in laying open the riches of God in Christ in unfolding Christ all other things will follow as S. Paul in 2 Tit. 12. The grace of God hath shined hath appeared gloriously teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live holily and soberly in this present world where the grace and love of God is perswaded and shed into the soule all will follow What is the reason that former times were called darke times and so they were the times of Popery a darke age Christ was vailed the Gospell was vailed there was no preaching of salvation by Christ alone people were sent to stocks and stones and to Saints and instead of the word they were sent to legends and such things Christ was obscured thereupon they were darke ages those ages wherein the Spirit of God is most is where Christ is most preached and people are best alway where there is most Spirit and they are most joyfull and comfortable and holy where Christ is truly layd open to the hearts of people the peaching of meere morallity if men be not carefull to open Christ to know how salvation is wrought by Christ and how all good comes by Christ it will never make a man perfectly good and fit him for Heaven it may make a man reforme many abuses like a Phylosopher which hath its reward and respect amongst men but nothing to give comfort at the houre of death and the day of judgement onely that whereby the Spirit is conveyed is the knowledge and preaching of Christ in his state and offices Againe the Spirit of Christ is given in obedience to this Gospell Acts 5.32 Hee gives the Holy Ghost to them that obey him Now there is the obedience of faith and the obedience of life when the soule is wrought to obedience to beleeve and to be directed by God then the Holy Spirit is given in a further measure still the Holy Ghost is given to them that obey to them that doe not resist the Spirit of God for in the Ministery of the Gospell the Spirit is given in some degree to reprobates it is offered it knockes at the hearts of the vilest persons that lives in filthy and false courses of life whose tongues and bodies are all instruments of an unsanctified soule to offend God they have gracious motions offered them but then they doe not obey them therefore the Spirit seizeth not upon them to rule in them they have the Spirit knocking upon them he doth not dwell in them and take up his lodging in them The Spirit is given to them that obey the sweet motions of it Now who is it that heares the blessed word of God the blessed tidings of salvation but he hath sweete motions of the Spirit to be in love with God and the mercy of God and to hate sinne a little for a time then presently upon it corruption joynes and and swels against those motions and they onely rest in the bare motion and never come to any perfection This is the state of reprobates in the Church they have many motions by the Holy Ghost but their hearts are not subdued to obedience not to constant obedience Therefore if wee would have the Spirit of Christ let us labour to subject our selves unto it when we have any good motion by the Ministery of the Word or by conference or by reading of good things as holy things have a savour in them the Spirit breathes in holy exercises Oh give way to the motions of Gods Spirit we shall not have them againe perhaps turne not backe those blessed messengers let us entertaine them let the Spirit dwell and rule in us it is the most blessed lodger that ever we entertained in all our lives If wee let the Spirit guide and rule us it will leade us and governe and support us in life and death and never leave us till it have raised our bodies the Spirit of Christ in us at length will quicken our dead bodies Rom. 8. it will never leave us till it have brought us to Heaven This is the state of those that belong to God that give way to the motions of Gods Spirit to rule and guide them therefore if we would have the Spirit of Christ let us take heed of rebelling against it This is the state of many of us the Lord be mercifull to us and cure us that we doe not onely not receive the motions of the Spirit deepely into us but if they bee such a crosse us in our pleasures and profits though the Word and Spirit joyne together there is a rising of the proud spirit of man against so much of the Spirit and the motions of it and against such parts of the Word as crosseth us this will bee laid heavy to our charge one day that wee would bring the Spirit of God to our corruptions and not bring our hearts to Gods Spirit and hereupon be those phrases in the Scripture of tempting the Spirit Ananias and Saphira tempted the Spirit that is when men will doe that which is naught and try whether God will forgive them and put it off or no how many are there that tempt the Spirit that put it off perhaps I shall have the like motions another time I shall have better occasion when I can gaine no more when I can have my pleasures no more thus men resist the Spirit as Saint Stephen saith that is when the Spirit discovers to them what they should beleeve and what they should doe and they see it crosseth their resolution to be naught heereupon they resist the worke of the Spirit that else would close with their soules and sanctifie them and fit them for Heaven if they would give way to it And there is a quenching of the Spirit that is when men have sweet motions of the Spirit and presently by some ill language or course of life they defile their vessels and quench the sweet motions of the Spirit Let us take heed of all these of tempting of resisting and quenching the Spirit For undoubtedly living in the bosome of the Church we have many heavenly motions especially those that have so much goodnesse in them as to attend upon Gods ordinances they have those motions at those times that they never have after perhaps
the Sonne of God by the resurrection from the dead the Angells from Heaven brought witnesse of him he was witnessed by all kinde of persons on earth yea by the divels themselves so hee is Sealed and authorized every way by all kinde of witnesses to be a Mediator This is set out in other phrases in the Scripture In Psal. 2. This my Son have I set upon my holy hill of Sion and Rom. 3. toward the latter end Whom God hath set forth to bee a propitiation God hath set him forth as the Shew-bread was set out under the Law And then againe in another place Whom hee hath sent and in 1. Cor. 1.30 Hee is made of God unto us Wisedome c. Hee is made of God that is he is Sealed appointed authorized by God for that purpose So you see why Christ is said to be Sealed especially because hee is authorized by God the Father made sent set forth whom the Father hath Sealed that is the party offended by our sinnes he hath Sealed and authorized Christ to be a Mediator If this be so let us learne this use of it to blesse God the Father as well as Christ Blessed bee the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and Blessed bee Christ for him hath the Father Sealed by the Spirit The blessed Trinity have all a hand in our salvation And then againe consider if wee despise Christ whom we despise we despise the Father that hath Sealed him it is a weighty matter Reade the second Psalme and you shall see there what it is to despise Christ not to kisse the Sonne that is when God hath annointed and set forth a Saviour and Sealed him and authorized him by all the testimonies that can be to be a Mediator not to receive him for our King for our Priest and Prophet it is a rebellion not against Christ onely but against the Father who hath Sealed him And likewise it serveth wonderfully to strengthen our faith when we goe to God for forgivenesse of sinnes offer him his owne broad Seale offer to him Christ a Mediator authorized by himselfe Lord I am thus and thus a sinner but notwithstanding thou hast sent thy blessed Sonne and set him forth to be a Saviour for mee and him I offer to thee thou canst not deny or refuse thy owne Sealed Mediator and Redeemer if hee had beene a Mediator of my owne appointing and of my owne sealing it were another matter but I offer thy owne Mediator looke on the death of him whom thou hast Sealed to bee my intercessour It is a wondrous prevailing argument with God hee cannot denie that which he hath devised himselfe him whom hee chose before all worlds for this great office But how shall I know whether hee be Sealed for my good or no saith the soule that heares this we heare much of an authorized Saviour of an authorized Mediator to be All-sufficient but what is that to mee Why for whom is he Sealed is he Sealed for Angels or for men and amongst men is he Sealed for holy men or sinners I come not to seeke or to save whole men or men that never were lost no he came to seeke and to save men but they are lost men sick men and it is a faithfull saying and worthy of all meanes to be imbraced that Christ came into the world to save sinners saith blessed Paul therefore he is Sealed to save thee if thou art a sinner to save thee if thou wilt receive him and thou art bound to receive him under paine of the punishment of rebellion Is it not rebellion not to receive a Magistrate whom the Prince hath authorized under his broad Seale it is another manner of matter not to receive Christ it is a greater sinne then to sinne against the Law for if a man sinne against the Law there is the Gospell to helpe him but if a man sinne against the Gospell there is not another Gospell to helpe him now to refuse Christ offered in the Gospell is a sinne against the Gospell where then can there bee hope of salvation salvation it selfe cannot save him that will not bee saved that refuses the remedy Sealed by God the Father the party offended who can heale him that casts downe the Potion that is brought to heale him that refuseth the Physitian that comes to cure him I say hee is Sealed to save thee if thou wilt be saved if thou wilt receive him receive him not onely to be thy Saviour but to be thy King to rule thee and thy Prophet to teach and instruct thee as we shall see afterwards But to cleare this a little better we must know that there are three distinct sealings There is God sealing of Christ which I have unfolded to you And there is our sealing of God that is our sealing of Gods truth And then againe there is Gods sealing of us by his Spirit And these follow one the other Why hath God sealed Christ but that wee hereupon should be stirred up to believe and to receive Christ and so by consequence to seale that God is true in sending such a blessed Mediator as St. Iohn saith He that believes in the Sonne hath set to his seale that God is true God hath sealed him that we by receiving him should seale Gods truth Beloved God comes to us for our testimonialls for our hands and seals Oh how wondrously doth God condescend to weake man He hath sealed Christ for the office of a Mediator and he offers him unto us and he comes to us likewise that we would set to our seales too that Christ is the Sonne of God he counts it not sufficient that he hath sealed him himselfe but he will have us seale too and we seale him when we receive him he that receives him hath set to his seale that God is true he that doth not receive him he makes God a lyar saith Saint Iohn And what comes of this when wee receive Christ and set to our seale that God in the promise of salvation by Christ is true Then we having honoured him he honours us by sealing us by his Spirit as the Apostle saith Ephes 1. In whom after ye beleeved yee were sealed So when we beleeve and set to our seale that God is true God seales us by his Spirit after yee beleeved you were sealed But what is this seale of the Spirit whereby God seals us after we beleeve I answer God seales us when hee sets the stampe of his Spirit upon us when the worke and witnesse of his Spirit is wrought in us For as in a seale the wax hath all in it â—he whole likenesse of the Jmage that is in the seale So the soule that is sealed by the Spirit hath the likenesse of the Spirit of Christ stamped on it God imprints in their spirits the likenesse of his Sonne that is to say he makes â—hem loving soules humble soules obedient as Christ was in all things patient meeke c. you may see
in the spirit of a beleeving man an expression of the Spirit of Christ so that if you would see Christ in his excellencies looke on the spirit of a true Christian there you shall see a resemblance of Christ Jesus not perfectly but in some comfortable measure you shall see the very Image of Christ you shall see how full of love he is how patient in crosses how humble how meeke how obedient to God in all things both in a passive and active obedience This is the stampe of the Spirit when a man beleeves God honours him by setting his Image on him And yet this is not all besides this wee are sealed with the witnesse and comfort of the Spirit as well as with the worke of the Spirit the Spirit of God sweetly witnessing that we are the sons of God and this sweet witnesse of the Spirit especially comes after wee have honoured God by beleeving in temptation when we are able to hold out and say as Iob said Though he kill me yet wil I trust in him so when we can after conflicts of doubting and dispaire say though he kill me yet will I trust in him I will set to my seale that he is true well will you so God to honour such a soule seales him to the day of redemption that is he gives to the soule of such a one a sweet evidence and testimony that hee is the Son of God And this seale of the Spirit is double not only done by the witnesse and worke of the Spirit inwardly which I have shewed but likewise the Spirit doth seale them outwardly inabling them to make an outward confession of Christ and his Truth and therefore in Reve. 14. Christians are said to be Sealed in the forehead that is as they are marked and singled out in ill times to be such as God hath set his speciall favour upon so they are Sealed with a spirit of boldnesse willingly and with forwardnesse to confesse the truth of Christ in ill times Now to apply it to our purpose wouldest thou know whether thou be such a one for the present as for whom Christ is Sealed a Mediator Examine first of all whether thou hast put to thy Seale that God is true by receiving and beleeving Christ and the promise of Salvation through him if thou hast done so then thou wilt finde another Seale from God even the worke of the Spirit in sanctifying of thee and conforming of thee to the Image and likenesse of Christ and thou wilt finde the witnesse and comfortable testimony of the Spirit in telling thee that thou art the Sonne of God and withall thou wilt have a spirit of boldnesse and readinesse and forwardnesse to confesse Christ thou wilt not care for al that the world saith but wilt if neede be stand to the profession of Religion to the death If thou canst finde this in thy selfe undoubtedly thou art not onely such a one as Christ came to Seale but for the present thou mayest be assured that thou hast interest in this Mediator Sealed by God for that purpose Thus you see that here is food that endures to everlasting life which is Christ and the benefits wee have by him you see that that blessed meate is attaineable because he is willing to give it for he is become Man for that purpose he is able to give it for he is God as well as Man and he hath aurhority to give it for God the Father hath Sealed him and fitted him for that office If we receive him he will Seale us with his blessed Spirit that is the same Spirit that furnished Christ with grace that sanctified him in the wombe will sanctifie all those that are his members will worke a likenesse and conformity in them to his blessed Image for the same Spirit that was in the naturall Sonne is in all the adopted Sonnes of God And he will likewise give us the comfortable evidence and assurance that we are the Sons of God furnish us with boldnesse and resolution to professe Christ in all times Let me then I beseech you come againe to re-enforce this exhortation Take heed you refuse not Christ consider with what authority he comes he is Sealed it is no presumption therefore to receive him though you be never such sinners to receive him I meane not onely to be a Priest to reconcile you to God but to be a King to rule you and a Prophet to instruct you by his Spirit to receive him on this manner is no presumption to receive him indeed as a Saviour but to neglect him as King to refuse to come under his government is great presumption but to receive whole Christ is obedience and faith and no presumption nay if you doe not receive him you sinne damnably you commit the greatest sinne that can be He came to save all that will come under his blessed government that will kisse the Sonne Whosoever will let him come and drinke of the waters of lâ—fe all the good promised by Christ is promised upon our receiving of him upon the obedience of our Faith there is nothing required but a will to imbrace him and to be under his government there is no exception made of sinnes or persons or times At what time soever a sinner repents whatsoever sinner whatsoever time or whatsoever the sinnes bee if he repents Christ is ready to receive him If you pretend your unworthinesse and want of excellencies hee takes away that objection Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden Come buy without money and here in the text the Sonne of man shall give it and what so free as guift If you pretend you have sinned since your calling and that you have sinned against conscience and knowledge and therefore now you have no further hope of Christ remember that Paul 2. Cor. 5. speakes to the Corinthians that were in the state of grace I beseech you to be reconciled to God and in Ieremy 3. Returne againe you Backesliding Israel and I will heale your Backeslidings and againe will a man receive a wife that hath played the harlot and broken the band of marriage Yet returne O house of Israel and I will receive you Therefore runne not away from God though thou hast sinned after thou art in the state of grace come againe J beseech you still Christ is to be received the doore of grace is alwayes held open and the golden scepter continually held out as long as we live in this world But yet it is not good to neglect the time of grace receive Christ presently deferre not to come under his governement and receive him wholy or else there is no receiving of him at all And to presse this a little further I beseech you consider that if you leave not your sinfull courses and come under the blessed governement of Christ if you receive not this Sealed King this Sealed Priest and Prophet this Sealed Mediator whom God hath Sealed and sent unto you
for salvation there is not any thing in the world that will one day more torment you then your refusall of him O that we should ever live to heare of salvation so freely offered and of a Saviour so authorized yet notwithstanding that we should respect our sinnes more then our soules and because we could not have him to bee our Saviour except wee came under his governement and bee ruled by him as a King we refused him wholy altogether Indeed if we might have had salvation by him and the forgivenesse of sinnes and withall have remained under the rule and sway of our owne lusts and beene led by them we would have beeene contented to have had him but rather then we would leave our blasphemous our uncleane inujurious and covetous courses of life wee were content to let Christ goe if hee would O that we should reject this Sealed Saviour O that we should refuse salvation offered on such loving termes when God was so loving as to Seale and authorize his Sonne when the Sonne was so loving as to give himselfe when he was Sealed to refuse this and that for such base respects will certainely one day when the conscience is wakened proove the greatest torment that can be See how the Apostle notably enforceth this in the second of the Hebrewes if so be they did not escape that despised Moses Law How shall we escape if wee neglect so great salvation hee doth not say how shall we escape if we oppose Christ if we raile on him if wee despise his Image in his children as many cursed wretches doe but how shall we escape if we doe but neglect so great salvation so witnessed and authorized with all the signes so offered and tendered with all the termes of love that may be And therfore if there be any heere that have lived in sinfull courses and have a purpose to breake them off that are weary of the governement of their lusts and of Satan that rules them by their lusts for all are under one governement or other either under the Sealed governement of Christ or under the base governement of Satan that tends to damnation O leave it and come under this Governour Sealed by God the Father authorized from Heaven by the blessed Trinity by miracles and by all the arguments that can be come under his blessed governement and you shall doe well God the Father the partie offended with your sinnes he hath Sealed him and he cannot refuse a Mediator of his owne Sealing And doe not say your sinnes have beene thus and thus for consider what were these parties that he offers himselfe to heere that he saith to Labour for the meate that endures to everlasting life were they not cursed Hypocrites that followed him for the loaves and yet he saith to them Labour for the meate that endures c. I am Sealed even for your salvation if you will come out of your hypocrisie and be ruled by me therefore let none stand out from comming under the governement of Christ for hee offers mercy you see heere to the worst of men even to cursed hypocrites And to conclude with a word of comfort if there be any poore distressed soule frighted in conscience with the sight of his sinnes and Satans temptations O let such consider the love of God in Christ Satan pictures out God as a terrible Judge and so he is indeed to men that goe on in their sinnes a consuming fire but art thou weary of thy courses art thou willing to come under a better covenant let not Satan abuse thee by setting God before thee as a terrible Judge and Christ as one that would not save thee no come in kisse the Son for him hath the Father Sealed Sealed for thee if thou bee weary of thy sinnes inforce not upon thy soule any unwillingnesse to be in God wherefore doth God stoope so low and labour by all these arguments heere as that Christ is the Sonne of man and that hee shall give it you and that the Father hath Sealed him for that end wherefore is all this but to shew his willingnesse to receive thee wherefore hath the Father Sealed Christ but in love to thee Come in therefore and then if you will seale to this truth if you will beleeve and cast your selves on Gods gratious promise even against doubting and distrust you shall finde God sealing you by his Spirit you shall finde his Spirit witnessing to your spirits that you are the sonnes of God Heere then you see is sure footing for poore doubting soules to fasten upon God the Father the party offended hath Sealed his Sonne hath authorized him to save thee if thou repent and come in what are all thy sins and unworthinesse to Christ God-man Sealed and authorized by the Father who is the partie offended if thou art willing to come in bring all thy sins and oppose them to Christ God-man Sealed by the Father and they will vanish as a cloud But as I said before if thou wilt not come in and accept of this Saviour if thou wilt not submit thy selfe to his governement thou sealest thy damnation Thus you see I have unfolded this blessed portion of Scripture Christ Jesus and all the prerogatives and benefits that come by him is the food that endureth to everlasting life you see the arguments our blessed Saviour useth to enforce us to Labour after this food it is food it is food that endures it is food that endures to everlasting life and he will give it for him the Father hath Sealed and authorized so to do he is both the gift and the giver both the food and the inviter to the food both the Priest and the Sacrifice Labour therefore after this food There is an objection which I will briefely answer and so end Labour after it why Christ will give it if he will give it why must wee labour after it and if we must labour for it how doth he give it how can these two guift and labour stand together I answer very well Christ will give himselfe and forgivenesse of sinnes and life everlasting and yet we must labour too But wee must know for what we must labour we must not labour for any merit to the title unto Heaven and happinesse Christ indeed gives that But labour in the use of all good meanes to get knowledge and faith to receive this gift to get the knowledge of Christ what he is in his natures and offices what he hath promised what he hath done and what he hath suffered what the intent of the Gospell is what the Giver is and what the authority is that his Father hath given him this requires labour it is a labour to crack the shell to understand the letter of the Scripture to know what the gift and what the giver is And it is likewise a labour to get faith to receive this gift to get the soule emptied of all selfe-confidence of all worth in it selfe and
the immediate fore-runner of Christ was greater then all that were before him yet he saith the least in the Kingdome of Heaven is greater then be not in grace but in prerogative in regard of the revelation and manifestation of more things For Iohn Baptist died before he saw the death and resurrection and ascention of Christ accomplished before he was glorified Therefore in regard of these prerogatives the least in the Kingdome of Heaven that is in the Church of the New Testament is greater then he It is a rule that the least of the greater is greater then the greatest of the lesse Iohn was greater then the greatest of them that were before him but lesser then the least of those that were after him Then Christ commends Iohn from the efficacie of his Ministery From the daies of Iohn Baptist untill now the Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force so you see how the words depend upon the former For the points wee are to consider in them First here you have the state of the Church in the New Testament It is a Kingdome and the Kingdome of Heaven together with the quality of the meanes whereby it comes to be a Kingdome the meanes of grace the Gospell The Gospell and the people that are wrought on by the Gospell in the New Testament they are both called the Kingdome of Heaven Then secondly here is set downe the affection of those people that seeke this Kingdome at that time and so forward to the end of the world the disposition of the persons is they are violent The third is the issue or successe of this eagernesse and violence though the manner be violent yet the successe is good the violent take it by force The fourth is the date or time when it begins and how long it continues it beares date from the preaching of Saint Iohn Baptist to the end of the world untill now that is to the end of the world as it was said till now in the Evangelists time so posterity may say untill now from the first comming of Christ till his second comming while there is a Gospell preached which is the Ministerie of the Spirit the Spirit will bee working and there are such glorious things in the Gospell that there will bee violence offered so while there is a people to bee gathered and a Gospell to be preached to gather them and a Spirit that workes by that Gospell there will be violence in the Church offered to the meanes of salvation First The state of the Church together with the meanes the Gospell preached it is called The Kingdome of Heaven Besides others there are three maine significations of these words The Kingdome of Heaven First the famous leading proper signification is the state and place where God himselfe and his people are most glorious The Kingdome of Heaven all the other significations end in that But secondly because all that shall come into that glorious Kingdome they must bee Kings here first in the state of the kingdome of grace which consists in righteousnesse peace and joy in the Holy Ghost in the graces and comforts of the Spirit therefore the state of grace comes to have the name too of The Kingdome of Heaven And thirdly because grace in this world cannot be attained without an order and meanes and dispensation from God hereupon the dispensation of the meanes whereby we come to have grace is also called The Kingdome The unfolding the mysteries of salvation in the Gospell is called the Kingdome of God As Christ saith The Kingdome of God shall bee taken from you that is the preaching of the Gospell therefore the Gospell is called the Gospell of the Kingdome and the Word of the Kingdome because by this Word wee come to have grace and by grace glory there is no glory without grace and no grace without the Word one makes way for another The preaching of the Gospell doth cause a Church which is the Kingdome of Christ wherein hee rules by the Scepter of his Word by which Word Christ and all his riches and glory and prerogatives are unfolded and thereby grace is wrought and grace leades to glory This connexion and subordination is to bee observed First for the conviction of those who doe not indeed belong to the Kingdome of Heaven every man is ready to talke of the Kingdome of Heaven and the glory there I but there is a subordination of grace and of the meanes of grace how standest thou affected to the meanes of salvation to the Word of the Kingdome the Word of life The Word of reconciliation for it hath the name from all the excellencies to which it brings us to shew that as we valew life a Kingdome reconciliation and all that is good so we must valew this Gospell or else it is a presumptuous confidence if the priviledges of grace and glory belong to us wee must come to them by these steps those that regard not the Gospell and meanes of salvation they have nothing to do with grace nor glory they are hereby convinced of arrogant folly Againe it is a ground to comfort weake Christians that regard the meanes of salvation and yet feare their falling away be of good comfort whosoever thou art God hath knit and linked these together all the power of earth and hell cannot breake one linke of this chaine conscionable attending upon the meanes and grace and glory will go together Therefore hold on attend upon the meanes of salvation and waite with comfort The Gospell of the Kingdome will bring thee to grace and grace though it be but an earnest but a little measure will bring thee to glory Where God hath begun a good worke he will finish it he will second one benefit with another diligent attending on the meanes with grace and grace with glory In Scripture works have their denomination from that they aime at as the Apostle saith Yee have crucified the old man and yee are crucified with Christ because yee are in doing it and ye shall do it perfectly so we are Saints because wee shall be so we are Kings now because we are in part so and we shall be so fully hereafter so grace is called the Kingdome of Heaven because it is the undoubted way to the Kingdome of Heaven and glory God would helpe our faith by the very title for wee are not elected to the beginnings onely of glory but to the perfection as it is excellently set downe Ephes. 1. We are elected to glory by meanes and beginnings therefore undoubtedly we may hope for the accomplishment when we see the beginnings Why is the state of grace and the meanes of grace and glory it selfe called the Kingdome of Heaven Answ. Because they are all of and from Heaven the one is in Heaven the Kingdome of glory and the other the Kingdome of the Word here and truth and grace which
are by it are from Heaven the truth we have and grace from the truth come from Heaven yea and Christ the Author of all is from Heaven and they all leade to Heaven Which should teach us with what minds to converse in the hearing and reading of these things with heavenly affections And it shewes likewise why worldlings and base people are no more affected with the things of the Gospell because it is the Kingdome of Heaven If it were of the world we should have it sought with eagernesse enough though it were a lesse matter then a Kingdome but it is a Kingdome of Heaven remote from flesh and blood there must be a new Spirit to worke a new sight and a new taste to worke a change in the heart of man and then he shall know the things of the Kingdome of Heaven He must come out of the world that will see this Kingdome as in Reve. 18. Come out of Babylon A man must come out of Antichrists Kingdome to see the basenesse of it he cannot see it in the middest of it so we must come out of the world if we would see the glorious Kingdome of Christ it is a heavenly Kingdome Therefore the greatest potentates of the world must abase themselves there is no greatnesse in the world can helpe them to this heavenly Kingdome But why should the Gospell and the state of the Church in the New Testament bee called the Kingdome of Heaven and receive the date now was it not the Kingdome of Heaven before J answer it is the manner of the Scripture to give titles to things from the glorious manifestation of them things are said to bee when they are gloriously manifested The Mystery of Christ is said to be revealed now in the time of the Gospell it was knowne before to Adam and Abraham and the rest but now there was a more apparent glorious manifestation of it therefore now the manifestation of Christ and the good things by him they are called a Kingdome before it was kept inclosed in the pale of the Iewish Church it was vailed under Types it was hid in promises that were darke and obscure but when Christ came all was taken off and Christ was unvailed It is said in the Gospell The Holy Ghost was not given yet because Iesus was not yet glorified The Holy Ghost was given before but not so fully and plentifully So there was a state of Heaven before men were saved before the comming of Christ But it was not called the Kingdome of Heaven it was not a state of liberty and freedome from the bondage of ceremonies c. And there is reason that there should be violence offred to this state and meanes and grace wrought by it it is a Kingdome it is no great wonder that a Kingdome should suffer violence especially such a Kingdome as the Kingdome of Heaven What is in a Kingdome There is first of all freedome from slavery and danger a Kingdome is an independent state there is none above it he that is a King is free independent and supreame Then againe a Kingdome is a full state there is aboundance and plenty of people and good things in a Kingdome Againe in a Kingdome there is glory and excellency where is it to be had else all the glory and sufficiency and contentment that Earth can afford Now in that the state of the Church by reason of the glorious Gospell is called a Kingdome First it is a free state as indeed the Word doth make us free from former bondage In particular the Gospell of Christ it frees us from Jewish bondage and from all kind of bondage spirituall If the Sonne make you free yee are free indeed A Christian is above all he is over sin and Satan and the Law he is free supreame and independent all are under him A Christian as a Christian he is under none but Christ under no creature The spirituall man judgeth all things yet hee himselfe is judged of no man I speake not of civill differences But as a Christian is a member of Christ and a citizen of the Kingdome of Heaven he hath a kind of independent state his conscience is onely subject to God and Christ but all earthly things he commands they are under him And 2. the staâ—e of a Christian is a full state God is his Christ is his All things are his so much as shall serve to bring him to Heaven that which is truly good is directly his and indirectly all other things are made his by Christ who hath the authority and power and strength of a King to command all things to worke together for his good death and sinne and all that befalls him are thus his And then he hath a spirit of contentment in the want of good and of patience in the suffering of ill that he can doe all things as St. Paul saith through Christ that strengtheneth him What he wants in outward things he can fetch supply from the promises of the Gospell he can fetch supply from Christ and from the state to come and what he wants in other things he hath in grace which is better 3. It is a state likewise of glory and excellency but it is a spirituall glory and therefore it consists together with outward basenesse and meanenesse it is a glorious state to be the Sonne of God to be heires of Heaven heires of all things in Christ by the Spirit of Christ in him he rules over all How glorious is the Spirit of God in a Christian in the time of temptation and affliction when he hath a Spirit ruling in him that is stronger then the world and all oppositions whatsoever The state of a Christian is glorious even in this world in the beginnings of it What then is the glory that is to be revealed on the Sonnes of God in the day of revelation It cannot enter into our thoughts it is above our expression nay it is above our imagination and conceit Thus you see there is great cause why the Kingdome of Heaven should suffer violence When Crownes and Kingdomes are laid open to people with hope of getting them especially such a one as the Kingdome of Heaven is it is no wonder if there be violence offered to get them The next thing is the affection of those that seeke after this Kingdome it is violent The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence How doth the Kingdome of Heaven the Gospell and meanes of grace suffer violence First because when these good things were revealed by Iohn Baptist and then by Christ and after by the Disciples and Apostles many thronged into the Church which is the gate of the Kingdome of Heaven they all pressed to be of the Church to heare the Word of God They hung as it were upon the word of Christ upon his mouth they pressed so that they trod one upon another and it
leave it shortly here he found it and here he must leave it in spight of his heart ere long and all is but vanity in the censure of him that knew all things the best of any man even Salomon that had gone thorow the variety of all things And oft times they misse of that they labour for They doe not rest that they get in hunting they hunt after preferment and after riches but oft times they doe not enjoy them and if they doe they get the curse of God with them and ere long they are stripped of all but here is that that may strengthen our indeavours The Kingdome of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it it is not an indeavour that is lost Then againe this shewes that the state of true Christians is different from the state of persons that are carried to good things but not violently The violent take it he surprizeth the city at the last he laies his siege and will not remoove till death he will not give over till he have it he will have it or he will dye in the businesse and so at last he obtaines his desire The sluggish carelesse man he goes a little way As Agrippa said to Paul he was almost perswaded to be a Christian so it is with such men in some things they will be Christians but there they are at a stand they will go no farther and so all they have done is to no purpose The sluggard desireth and wisheth but his soule hath nothing A sluggish cold lazie Christian he looseth all his paines If a man be to goe ten miles and goe but nine and there sit downe he shall never come to his journies end If a man will give but 7 or 8. shillings for that which is worth 10. he shall goe without it Grace and Glory are set at this price there is required such strength of labour and indeavour and violence therefore without this a man shall never attaine it unlesse he stretch himselfe to such a pitch He shall never come to the end of his Faith the salvation of his soule to the high calling of God in Christ Iesus The sluggard wisheth and gets nothing the reason is because he is a sluggard because he will not strive but the striver gets the fort and hath all in it and is a man made for ever The sluggard thinkes himselfe wiser then many men that can give a reason The sluggish discreete Christian I warrant you he hath reasons for what he doth It is not good to be too earnest it will incurre the disfavour of such a man or such a man J shall bee accounted so and so for my paines But a wise man he seeth the excellency of the things and he knowes that his courses and his conscience will justifie him at the last and therefore he goes on what ever comes of it God is not so weary of these precious things these precious jewels of grace and glory as to force them upon us Is the Kingdome of Heaven such a sleight thing that it should be obtruded to us whether we will or no Shall we thinke to have it when our hearts tell us wee esteeme other things betâ—er No there are none ever come to Heaven but their hearts are wrought to such an admiration of grace and glory that they undervalue all things to it therefore there is no hope for any to obtaine it but he that takes it by violence We see Moses esteemed the basest thing in the Church better then the greatest excellencies in the world that men are so violent after he esteemed the very afflictions of Gods people better then the treasures and pleasures of sinne for a season nay then the pleasures of a Court. When men shall esteeme the base things of the world above all the treasures of Heaven above the state of Christianity they have no hope of comming there they may pretend God is mercifull and Christ dyed c. I but whosoever he brings to salvation he workes such a sence of misery in them and such an apprehension of grace and of the meanes of grace that there is an undervaluing of all other things God will not bring them to Heaven that shall not glorifie him when they come there and how shall they glorifie him here or there when they value the world and these base things that they must leave behind them more then the things of Heaven This is the reason that few are saved because they content themselves with easie dull and drowsie performances and never consider with what proportion they are carried to things when they had rather loose the advantage of that which will bring everlasting good to their soules then loose the petty commodities of this world and yet think themselves good Christians what a delusion is this It is the violent only that are successefull they take it by force I but what if the opposition grow more and more Then the grace of God and courage will grow and increase more and more As Luther said well the more violent the adversaries were the more free and bold was he So the more the enemies rage the more the spirit of grace growes in Gods people it inceraseth by opposition As Noahs Arke the higher the waters were the nearer still it was carried to Heaven So we are nearer to God and nearer to the Kingdome of Heaven the more opposition swells and rages True courage growes with opposition As the Palme-tree riseth up against the burden that presseth it downe so the divine spirit being a heavenly thing and all opposition below of the Divell and divellish minded men being but earthly what are they to the divine Spirit which sets us on and encourageth us They cannot quell it but the Spirit growes more and more in opposition The Apostles they ran all from Christ when he was to be crucified they had but a little measure of the Spirit but when the Holy Ghost was shed more plentifully on them they beganne to stand couragiously for the cause of Christ when there was more opposition the Spirit grew more and more till they sealed the Truth with their blood Therefore though opposition of enemies and their fury and rage grow let us know whose cause we mannage and with what assurance of successe the violent at length shall take it by force Let us meditate upon this that successe is tyed to violence therefore when you pray to God if he seeme to deny your request offer violence wrastle with him let him not goe without a blessing when he seemes to be an enemy as sometimes he doth to try our strength we must use an holy violence when we are dull and not fit to pray nor fit for holy things Let us stirre up the Spirit of God in us and labour to get our of that estate let us use violence and violence will overcome at the last A man that hath the Spirit of
sanctified judgement and a mighty power to raise the soule to cast it selfe so upon Gods mercy in Christ. So that besides the obtaining saluation by Christ there must be a grace to apply it and this faith doth Faith is said to doe that that Christ doth because faith layes hold upon Christ what faith doth Christ doth and what Christ doth faith doth therefore it hath the same actions applyed and given to it that Christ hath Faith is said to save us you know it is Christ that saves us but faith layes hold on Christ that saves us faith purgeth the heart and overcomes the world Christ by his Spirit doth all this but because faith wrought by the Spirit is such a grace as layes hold on the power of Christ it goes out of it selfe to Christ therefore what Christ doth faith is said to doe So then the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ not onely freed Christ himselfe by his Resurrection but likewise by the same power whereby hee raysed himselfe he rayseth our hearts to beleeve what hee hath done both in his state of humiliation and exaltation and makes all that Christ did ours The Spirit of life in Christ Iesus working faith in us and by faith other graces doth free us from the Law of sinne and death Christ doth it and faith doth it and grace which issues from faith doth it subordinately Christ doth it by way of merit and by his Spirit working faith in us to lay hold upon whatsoever Christ hath done or suffered as if we had done it our selves so it frees us from the law of sinne and death because it layes hold of the freedome wrought by Christ for us But besides and next to faith there is a Spirit of sanctification by which we are free from the commanding law of sinne and death But to cleare all this consider there is a freedome in this life and in the life to come from sinne and from death A freedome in this life in calling in justification in sanctification and in the life to come a freedome of glory There is a freedome in effectuall calling by the minâ—sterie of the Gospel the Gospel being preached unfolded faith is wrought whereby wee know what Christ hath done for us and wee see a better condition in Christ then we are in by nature seeing by the Spirit of God the cursed estate wee are in we are convinced of sinne in our selves and of the good that is in Christ and hereupon wee are called out of the thraldome wee are in by nature by the Spirit of Christ and the Word of God unfolding what our condition is for man by nature having selfe-love in him and that selfe-love being turned the right way he begins to thinke I doth the Word of God say I am a slave to sinne and damnation the Word of God can judge better then my selfe and then the Spirit of God sets it on with conviction that undoubtedly this is true And together with the cursed kingdome and slavery that I am under there is discovered a better state in Christ for the Gospel tells us what we are in Christ freed from hell and death and heires of heaven oh the happy estate of a Christian to be in Christ The Gospel with the Spirit discovering this a man is called out of the cursed estate he is in by nature to the fellow-ship of Christ by faith which is wrought in this calling so that now he comes to be a member of Christ by faith so that whatsoever Christ hath or is or hath done or suffered it is mine by reason of this union with him by faith which is the grace of union that knits us to Christ and the first grace of application So there is the first degree of liberty and freedome wrought by the Spirit of God together with the Gospel in effectuall calling The second is in justification that faith and beleefe in Christ that was wrought in effectuall calling it frees me from the guilt of my sinnes For when the Gospel in effectuall calling discovers that Christ is such a one and that there is such an estate in Christ and there is faith wrought in me then that faith layes hold upon the obedience of Christ to be mine For Christ in the Gospel offers his obedience to be mine as if I had done it in mine own person whatsoever Christ did or suffered is mine for he is made of God to be Wisedome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption to be all in all the Gospell sets him forth to be so Now faith laying hold of Christ to be made of God all in all obedience righteousnesse c. whatsoever is needfull hereupon this faith justifies me hereupon I come to be free from the guilt of my sinnes because my sinnes were laid upon Christ Christs death was the death of a surety it was as if I had dyed my selfe and more firme thus I come to be free in justification for what my surety hath done I have done Againe there is a freedome in sanctification that is when a man beleeves that Christ is his and that his sufferings are his then the same Spirit that discovers this to be mine it workes a change and alteration in my nature and frees me from the dominion of sinne The obedience of Christ frees me from the condemnation of sinne and the Spirit of sanctification frees me from the dominion of sinne This is the freedome of sanctification which faith layes hold on Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his Christ as a head derives to me the holy Spirit to sanctifie my nature and of his fulnesse we receive grace for grace so the Spirit of sanctification in Christ frees me from the dominion of sinne and death It is said here that by Christ we have spirituall liberty and freedome not from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and of death It is one thing to be freed from sinne and death and another thing to be freed from the law of them for wee are not indeed freed from sinne and death but from the law of sinne and death that is from the condemning power of sinne that though sinne be in us yet it doth not condemne us and though we die yet the sting is pulled out death is but a passage to a better life So I say in Justification wee are freed from the condemning power of sinne and in sanctification from the commanding power of sinne When we are knit once to Christ we have the obedience of Christ ours in justification and the holinesse of Christ is derived to us as from the head to the members in sanctification and so we are freed from the law of sin To understand this a little better the same Spirit that sanctified the naturall body the humane nature of Christ wherby he became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh the same Spirit doth sanctifie the mysticall body of Christ
and in Christ I can doe all things by his Spirit though in my selfe I can doe nothing And so in deadnesse and desolation of Spirit when the soule is cast downe with discomfort let us thinke with our selves the Spirit of life in Christ is a quickening Spirit if I can beleeve in Christ he hath freed me from the guilt of sinne and hee hath by his Spirit given me some little inlargement from the dominion of my corruptions why should I be cast downe I am an heire of heaven ere long Satan shall be trodden under my feet ere long I shall be free from the spirituall combate and conflict with sinne that I am now encountred with therefore I will comfort my selfe I will not be cast downe overmuch In the houre of death let us make use of this freedome of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus from the law of sinne and death When the time comes that there must be a separation of soule and body oh let us thinke with our selves Now I must dye yet Christ hath dyed and I must dye in conformity to my head and here is my comfort the Law of the Spirit of life hath freed me from the law of death it hath freed me from spirituall and eternall death So that now through Christ death is become friendly to me death now is not the death of me but death will be the death of my misery the death of my sinnes it will be the death of my corruptions death now will be the death of all that before troubled me but death will be my birth day in regard of happinesse Better is the day of death then the day of birth When a man comes into this life he comes into misery but when he dies hee goes out of misery and comes to happinesse so that indeed wee never live till we dye wee never live eternally and happily till then for then wee are freed from all misery and sinne Blessed are they that dye in the Lord they rest from their labours they rest from the labours of toyle and misery they rest from the labours of sinne from all labours whatsoever Blessed are they that dye in the Lord and of all times then blessed more blessed then before they rest from their labours and then begins their happinesse that shall never end So you see what comfort a Christians soule sprinkled with the blood of Christ may have if it goe to God in Christ and begge of Christ to be set at liberty from all enemies to serve God in holines and righteousnesse I speake too meanely when I say the Law of the Spirit of life hath fâ—â—ed us from 〈◊〉 and death this is not all the Spirit of life not onely frees us from ill but advanceth us to the contrary good in every thing wherein this freedome is For we are not onely called out of misery but to a Kingdome wee are not onely freed from sinne but intitled to heaven in justification and in sanctification we are not onely freed from corruption but inabled by the holy Spirit of liberty to run the wayes of Gods Commandements and make them voluntary to serve God chearefully zealous of good workes wee are not onely freed from the command and condemnation of sinne and â—he rigour of the Law but we have contrary dispositions ready and willing and voluntary dispositions wrought by the Spirit of Christ to every thing thâ—â—â—s good And so wee are not onely free from death and misery for so things without life are they suffer no misery but wee are partakers of everlasting life and glory the liberty of glory Gods benefits are compleat that is not onely priuative freeing us from ill but positive implying all good because God will shew himselfe a God he will doe good things as a God fully For the Law of the Spirit of life not onely frees us from the law of sinne and of death but writes the Law of God in our hearts he not onely frees us from the law of death but advance us to everlasting life to the glorious life we have in heaven to live for ever with the Lord oâ— happy condition of a Christian if wee could know our happinesse Let us often meditate deepely of Christ and of our selves in him let us see all our ill in him and all our good in him see death overcome and sinne overcome by his death hee being made a curse for us see the Law overcome hee being made under the Law for us when the wrath of God vexeth and terrifieth us see it upon him Hee sweat water and blood in the Garden It made him crie out My God my God why â—ast thou forsaken me See all that may trouble us in him as our Surety And all the good wee hope for see it in Christ first whatsoever he hath in his naturall body it is for his mysticall body for hee gave his naturall body for his mysticall God in the world to humble us exerciseth us with troubles and calamiâ—ies as he did Christ wee must be conformable to our heâ—d but consider the poyson and sting of all ills wee need to feaâ—e is swallowed up and taken away by Christ. And as I said let us see all our good in him wee are sonnes in him raysed 〈◊〉 him blessed in him set in heavenly places with him and shall be follow-heires and Kings with him for wee are his members his Spouse the wife shall enjoy the same condition as the husband whatsoever hee hath she shall have What a comfortable estate is this I we can feare no ill nor want no good whatsoever hee hath it is for us hee was borne for us hee dyed for us hee is gone to heaven for us for us and our good hee did and suffered all these things We cannot exercise our thoughts too much in these meditations The Lords Supper is a Sacrament of union and communion hence it hath its name and by receiving the Sacrament our Communion and union with Christ is strengthned What a comfort then is it to thinke if I have fellowship with Christ it is sealed by the Sacrament when I take the Bread and Wine at the same time I have communion with the Body and Blood of Christ shed for my sinnes and as Christ himselfe was freed from my sinnes imputed to him and by his Resurrection declared that hee was freed so surely shall I be freed from my sinnes So that this Communion taking the Bread and Wine it seales to us our Communion and fellowship with Christ and thereupon our freedome from sinne and from the Law and sets us in a blessed and happy estate Wee should labour therefore by all meanes to strengthen our union and Communion with Christ and amongst the rest reverently and carefully attend upon this blessed Ordinance of God for the body of Christ broken doth quicken us because it is the body of the Sonne of God My flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed and hee
to send us to heaven and make us partakers of that we desire most First wee desire that God will be with us here and secondly that we may be with God in heaven they make Gods children partakers of their desires by killing of them Let Tyrants and all persons that have a malignant disposition to the Church of God and are armed with power let them doe their worst the cause must stand impregnable Christ will have a Church and Kingdome in the world and their spirits will be impregnable against them they may kill them but they cannot hurt them they may kill them but they cannot kill their courage As we see in the Martyres there was the Spirit of God in them above all the dealings of of the persecutors there was a fire of Gods Spirit in them above all outward fire whatsoever You see it must be taken for granted that the Church of God and every particular Christian hath many enemies against them as it is Psal. 129. From my youth up saith the Church they have fought against me but they have not prevayled From my youth up from Abel to the last Saint that shall be in the world there will be alway some against Gods people yet their comfort is that none shall be against them to prevaile either over the Spirit of God in them or over the cause that they manage First of all you see then that the state of a Christian in this world is an impregnable state and a glorious condition Here is glory upon glory from this clause to the end of the Chapter If God be with us who shall be against us If God gave his Sonne for us shall hee not with him give us al things else there is another glorious speech Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people another glorious triumphant speech another glorious speech Who shall separate us from the love of God founded in Christ Hee loves Christ first and us in Christ as members and as he loves him eternally so he loves us eternally too Therefore you see every way the state of a Christian is a glorious condition Who can be against us You see the state of Gods people it is an impregnable and glorious condition Then by this meanes those that are strange Paradoxes to flesh and blood yet they agree in a Christian. He is never alone when hee is alone God is with him the Father Son and Holy-Ghost are with him Angels are with him God is not only with him but his guard is with him and Gods Spirit is with him and in him victoriously both in grace and comfort Christ saith to his Disciples when they thought to leave him alone saith hee you cannot leave me alone My Father is with me and Saint Paul towards his latter end that had deserved so well of the Christian world All forsooke me saith he but the Lord forsooke me not but delivered me out of the mouth of the Lion So a Christian is not alone hee is not left to the mercy of his enemies but God is with him and who shall be against him to prevayle over him Againe though a Christian be a worme a person trampled upon for so the Church is the most afflicted part of man-kind yet Feare not thou worme Jacob. The world accounts them as wormes and they account themselves so they are trodden on as wormes they are wormes upon earth yet they have a glorious head in heaven and a glorious guard about them strange things agree in a Christian therefore let us not stumble though wee see not these things presently the life of a Christian is a mysterie Againe hence we see that a Christian profession to be a sound Christian to have true faith in Christ to be one with Christ and to be taken out of the state of nature this condition and the happinesse of it it hath the strongest foundation of any life in the world Christianity is founded upon the strongest and the greatest reasons that can bee Faith stands with the greatest reason that a thing can doe Why The comfort of a Christian is that he hath no enemy that shall prevaile over him and what is the ground of that God is with him God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Faith is that that layes hold upon that presence and promise and covenant of God and is not faith well bottomed A Christian that carries himselfe valiantly and couragiously is not his course grounded on sound reason Is not God with him God the Father is his father God the Son is his Redeemer God the Holy Ghost is his Comforter There is no other men that have strong reason for their course for that choise that they make of their Religion and of their wayes they prove but fooles in the conclusion onely the sound Christian that by the Spirit of God hath his eyes open to see the cursed estate he is in by nature and what it is to be in Christ and by a Spirit of faith is made one with Christ hee is the truely wise man in his faith and affiance that the world mockes at that hee hath no common supports in the world which hee cares not for if God be on his side hee cares not what man can doe against him as it is Psal. 118. you see on what ground it is founded God is with him and none can be against him Let us labour to lay up these principles wee worke according as our principles are Principles are the foundation of all conclusions that arise from them As our grounds are so are we in our faith and working and grace and comfort every way if wee have rotten principles if the grounds of our comfort bee rotten our course will be rotten and uncomfortable in the conclusion Let us build upon the Rocke to be well bottomed and founded that our principles and grounds bee strong and that they be so to us for what if God be with his if he be not so to us Let us labour to lay up sound grounds Grounds have influence into the whole course of our lives this one Text hath influence into all the parts of our lives in doing in suffering in all conditions I know not a more pregnant fruitfull principle in the Scripture than this If God be with us who can be against us It is like a pearle little in quantity few in words but strong in sence large in the fruit that issues from it Therefore as wee may carry pearles or precious things wheresoever we go because there is a great deale of worth in them and they be small in quantity so wee may carry this principle with us let us bee sure to lay it up and make use of it There be these two That there is a God and that God is with his children and so with his children that hee will subvert and overthrow all their enemies and all their plots and endevours a principle of wonderfull comfort If
pretend we desire Christ to Come and yet notwith standing we are carelesse of getting knowledge and of purging our soules of growing in grace carelesse of being such as Christ may delight to come unto This carelessenesse of fitting and preparing our selves shewes that wee doe but in hypocrisie speake the words when we have no such thing in our hearts Those that desire the Kingdome of Christ and the happy condition of Christians in another world they desire the way of it here that is by fitting and preparing themselves for that estate and indeed it will worke those effects as it is Tit. 2. and other places what is the motive there to live a holy and righteous and sober life Looking and waiting for the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ. There he inserts a holy life betweene the two commings of Christ shewing that the beleeving the end of both will worke this effect in the change of our lives To be sober to our selves and just to others and holy to God The grace of God hath appeared that is in the first comming of Christ teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts c. and then looking forward still for the second comming of Christ. So that he beleeves that the grace of God hath appeared in saving our soules by the death of Christ in his first comming and hee that beleeves that hee will come to be glorious after in his second comming certainely he will live justly and soberly and righteously in this present world he will fit himselfe for that estate that hee professeth to desire Let us trie our selves by these evidences in some measure and not thinke our state good till wee can say from our hearts Come But are Christians alwayes in this state of soule that they can say Come I answere they are alway in some degree fitting themselves for Christ but notwithstanding they are not alway so exact and watchfull that they could wish that he should come at this time Take the comparison from a wife a spouse she heartily desires the comming home of her husband yet perhaps sometimes things may not be in so good order as to wish that he were here now nay I have not yet prepared This is the state of careles Christians that have soundnesse of grace and yet are carelesse they desire the comming of Christ and they love the glory of the life to come and indeavour weakely for it yet they are so carelesse some corruption hanges on them that they have not so mortified and subdued as they should doe they are not yet so fitted as they should be Therefore God often rouseth such by afflictions and other courses in this world to weane them more from the love of the world and to prepare us because we are sloathfull and carelesse to prepare our selves So I say that somtimes the best Christians sometimes may be more indisposed then at others by reason of security growing on our soules so weake are we and beset with temptations therefore let none be over-much discouraged with that but let us strive as the Church here to be in such an estate as we may alway say Come Well upon tryall if wee find our selves not so disposed as we should how shall wee carry our selves that we may say Come Let us labour to purge our selves by mortification more more he that hath this hope purgeth himselfe And let us endure Gods purging of us and justifie Gods purging of us by afflictions and thinke that God hath this ayme certainely this is to make me more heavenly minded to rayse my affections up I will therefore beare the anger of God I have deserved it and he hath holy ends in it to make me partaker of his righteousnesse Let us purge our selves by grace and endure the course that God takes to purge us by daily crosses for God aymes by it to weane us more and more from the world And let us labour daily more and more to unloose our hearts from the things below Those that would remoove a Tree they loosen it from the roote of it so our affections are rooted to earthly things therefore wee should labour to loose them daily more and more by the consideration of the uncertainety and vanity of all things they are not that that will sticke to us and give us content when wee shall stand in most need of them here we must leave the things of the world as wee find them here we must part with them Therefore wee should labour to unloose our hearts and to plant and set and pitch them where they may be safe and swallowed up in better things And to this end often meditate of the excellency that shall be in the second comming of Christ oh the glorious time then See the meanes how the Church comes to be stirred up here to say Come Christ saith before that he was the Roote of David the bright morning Starre he sets out himselfe gloriously and the gloriousnesse of that time then the Church hearing what the excellency of that state will â—e then and the excellency of Christ the Church hath desires sutable to those manifestations Therefore let us meditate of the state of the Church what it will be and of the excellâ—â—cy and glory of Christ when heâ— shall comâ— to be glorious in his Saints what a happy condition it will be and to feed our meditations let us be oft in hearing and reading of these things If wee hope for any thing to come in this world as if a young heirâ— that shall have great possessions the more he growes towards yeeres the more hee thinks I shall have this mannor and that hee thinkes of the possessions hee hath so a Christian the nearer hee growes to heaven the more hee thinkes upon and talkes and is willing to heare of that condition that hee shall have The more we are in meditation and to helpe meditation the more we are in thinking and speaking and conferring of these things what will befall us ere long if we be Gods the more our affections will be raised up as we see in the Spouse here upon the manifestation of thâ— excellency of Christ comes this desire after the comming of Christ. This is one reason of the deadnesse of our hearts wee doe not awaken them with such holy thoughts as we should and wee are not under those meanes as wee might oft times There cannot be any thing more â—weet and powerfull to drawe up our soules then meditation in this kind Againe that we may be able to say come let us labour to be more and more spirituall that the holy Spirit may rule our spirits then the spirit is alwayes for Come Nature saith not come because it is above nature I meane nature not corrupt â—aith not Come It is a hidden secret to nature nature saith slay still it hath no desire to it the flesh is contrary altogether but the
we look for the Saviour who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body according to his mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe So you see the blessed Apostle led with the same spirit as the man of God here he considers not what men do he fetcheth not the rules of his life from the example of the great ones of the world or from multitude these are false deceiving rules but he fetcheth the rule of his life from the experimentall goodnesse he had found by a contrary course to the world Let the world take what course they will it is good for me to draw neare to God I might adde a little further that The course and corrupt principles of the world are so far from shaking a child of God that they settle him They stir up his zeale the more As we say there is an antiperistasis an increasing of contraries by contraries as we see in winter the body is warmer by reason that the heat is kept in springs are warmer in winter because the heat is kept in So the spirit of God in the hearts of his children works boyles when it is invironed with contraries it gathers strength and breaks out with more zeale as David Psal. 119. when he see men did not keep Gods law we see how he complaines to God It is time Lord for thee to work Indeed it is the nature of opposition to increase the contrary those that have the spirit and grace of God in truth they gather strength by opposition Therefore the use we are to make of it is to discerne of our selves of what spirit wee are what principles we lead our lives by whether by examples of greatnesse or multitude or such like it is an argument wee are led by the spirit of the world and not by the spirit of God Gods children as they are severed from the world in condition they are men of another world so they are severed from the world in disposition in their course and conversation therefore from these grounds their course is contrary to the world But it is good for me But is not in the originall it is And it is good for me but the other is aimed at the sense is But it is good for me to draw neere to God and so it is in the last translation Thus you see what way we have made to the words I do but touch these things and it was necessary to say something of them because the words are a triumphant Conclusion upon the former premises And in the words in generall observe this first of all that God by his spirit inableth his children to justifie wisdome by their owne experience To make it good by their owne experience It is good for me to draw neere to God And this is one reason why God suffers them to be shaken and then in conflict to recover that after recovery they may justifie the truth nihil tam certum c. nothing is so certaine as that that is certaine after doubting nothing is so fixed as that that is fixed after it hath been shaken as the trees have the strongest roots because they are most shaken with winds and tempests Now God suffers the understanding that is the inward man of the best men to bee shaken and after settles them that so they may even from experience justifie all truths that they may say it is naught it is a bitter thing to sinne Sathan hath abused mee and my owne lust abused me and intised mee away from God but I see no such good thing in sinne as nature perswaded me before As travellers will tell men you live poorely here in such a country you may do wondrous well there you shall have plenty and respect and when they come there and are pinched with hunger and disrespect they come home with shame enough to themselves that they were so beguiled So it is with Gods children sometimes he suffers them to bee foyled and lets them have the reines of their lusts awhile to taste a little of the forbidden tree that after they may say with experience it is a bitter thing to forsake God it is better go to my former husband as the Church saith in Hosea when God took her in hand a little sinne will be bitter at the last So the prodigall he was suffered to range till he was whipped awhile and then he could confesse it was better to bee in his fathers house God suffers his children to fall into some course of sinne that afterward by experience they may justifie good things and be able to say that God is good And the judgement of such is more firme and doth more good than those that have beene kept from sincking at all God in his wise providence suffers this We should labour therefore to justifie in our owne experience all that is good What is the reason that men are ashamed of good courses so soon It may be they are perswaded a little to pray and to sanctifie the Lords day to retire themselves from vanity and such like I but if their judgements be not setled out of the book of God and if they have not some experience they will not maintaine this therefore they are driven off Now a Christian should be able to justifie against all gainsayers whatsoever can bee said by his owne experience That to read the book of God and to heare holy truths opened by men led with the spirit of God it is a good thing I find Gods spirit sanctifie me by it To sanctifie the Lords day I find good by it by experience That where there is the communion of Saints holy conference c. I can justifie it if there were no Scripture for it I find it by experience to bee a blessed way to bring me to a heavenly temper to fit mee for heaven So there is no good course but Gods children should be able both by Scripture and likewise by their owne experience to answer all gainsayers when either their owne hearts or others shall oppose it he may bee able to say with the holy man here it is no matter what you say It is good for me to draw neere to God So much for the generall To come more particularly to the words It is good for me to draw neare to God HEre you have the justification of piety of holy courses which is set downe by drawing neare to God And the Argument whereby it is justified It is good This glosse put upon any thing commends it to man for naturally since the fall there is so much left in man that hee drawes to that which is good but when he comes to particulars there is the errour hee seekes heaven in the way of hell he seekes happinesse in the way of misery he seekes light in the way of darknesse and life in the way and path of death his lusts so hurry him
and carry him the contrary way but yet there is left this generall foundation of Religion in all men as the heathen could say naturally all men from the principles of nature draw to that which is good Here religious courses are justified and commended from that which hath the best attractive and most magnetticall force It is good to draw neere to God Good hath a drawing force for the understanding that shewes and discovers but the will is the cheife guide in man and answerable to the discovery of good or ill in the understanding there is a prosecution or aversation in the will which is that part in the soule of man that cleaves to good discovered To unfold the words a little It is good To draw neere to God who is the chiefe good It is good in quality and good in condition and state It is good in quality and disposition for it is the good of conformity for the understanding creature to draw neare to God the Creator who hath fitted the whole inward man to draw neare to conforme to him And then it is good in condition for it is his happinesse to do so the goodnesse of the creature is in drawing neare to God The nearer any thing is to the principle of such a thing the better it is for it the nearer to the Sunne the more light the nearer to the fire the more heat the nearer to that which is goodnesse it selfe the more good the nearer to happinesse the more happy therefore it must needs be the happinesse of condition to draw neare to God So you see what is meant when he saith here it is good It is a pleasing good conformable to Gods will he commands it and it is for my good likewise it advanceth my condition to draw neare to God To draw neare what is it to draw neare to God wee shall see by what it is to go from God God is every where wee are alwayes neare to God Whither shall I go from thy presence If I go to hell thou art there c. saith the Psalmist God is every where indeed in regard of his presence power disposing providence but then there is a gracious presence of God in the hearts of his children And there is a strange presence of God to Christ the presence of Vnion which makes the humane nature of Christ the happiest creature that ever was being joyned by a hypostaticall Vnion to the second person but wee speak not of that nearnesse here There is a gracious nearenesse when the spirit of God in the spirits of those that belong to God sweetly inlargeth and comforts and supports and strengthneth them working that in them that hee works in the hearts of none else for instance The soule is in the whole man it is diffused over all the members it is in the foot in the eye in the heart and in the braine but how it is in all these It is in the foot as it moves it it is in the heart as the principle of life it is in the braine and understanding using and exercising his reasoning understanding power so that though all the soule be in the whole man yet it is otherwise in the braine than in the rest so though God bee every where yet hee is otherwise in his children than in others he is in them graciously and comfortably exercising his graces in them and comforting them hee is not so with the rest of the world you see how God is present every where and how hee is graciously present with his So answerable wee are faid to be neare to God we are neare him in what state soever we are but then there is a gracious nearnesse when our whole soule is neare to God as thus when our understandings conceive aright of God as it is said of the young man in the Gospell when hee began to speak discreetly and judiciously Thou art not farre from the Kingdome of God when men have a right conceit of divine truths they are not farre from the Kingdome of God when there is clearnesse of judgement to conceive aright Those that have corrupt principles are farre off if the understanding bee corrupt all the rest will go astray there is the first nearnesse when the judgement is sanctified by the spirit to conceive aright Then againe there is a nearnesse when we not only know things aright but mind them when the things are present to our minds when God is in our thoughts David saith of the wicked man God is not in his thoughts When we mind and think of God and heavenly things they are neare to us and wee to them For the soule is a spirituall essenâ—e it goes every where it goes to heaven and is present with the things it minds wee are nearer to God and heavenly things when wee mind them and think on and feed our thoughts on them Againe wee are neare them when our wills first make choyce of the better part with Mary when upon discovery of the understanding the will chuseth deliberatly upon consideration followes the determination and chusing of the will and upon choice cleaving which is another act of the will when it chuseth that which is spiritually best every way best for grace and condition then it cleaves to it As it is said of Ionathan his heart did cleave â—o David so the woman cleaves to her husband as Saint Paul speaks when the will chuseth and cleaves to that which is good then there is a drawing neare And likewise when the affections are carried to God as their object then there is a drawing neare to God when our love imbraceth God and heavenly things for love is an affection of union it makes the thing loved and he that loveth to be one it is the primary the first borne affection of the soule from which all other affections are bred when we love God we desire still further and further communion with him And where there is love if we have not that wee love then the soule goes forth to God in desire of heavenly things the heart pants after God as the Hart doth after the rivers of waters and after holy things wherein the spirit of God is effectuall And when we have it in any measure then the soule shewes a sweet enlargement of joy and delight in God Thus when we judge aright of and mind heavenly things and make choyce of them and cleave to God with all our affections of love and joy and delight when these are carried to God and heavenly things then we draw neare to him And especially when the inward man is touched with the spirit of God even as the Iron that is touched with the Load-stone though it be heavy of it selfe it will go up so when the inward man is touched by the spirit of God with a spirit of faith which is a grace by which we draw neare to God with trust for
of the excellency of spirituall things then spirituall practice will follow And undoubtedly the reason of the prophane conversation of the world it comes from hidden atheisme that men make no better choyce than they do that they draw not neare to God let them say what they will it proceeds from hence I prove it thus when men are convinced of good things they will do good for conviction is the ground of practise and when men do not take good courses it is because they are not convinced of the best things Therefore men that sweare and blaspheme that are carnall bruit persons at that time Atheisme rules in their hearts that they beleeve not these things in the book of God to be true Can the swearer beleeve that God will not hold him guiltlesse that takes his name in vaine that a curse shall follow the swearer and the whoremonger that whoremongers and adulterers God will judge and so the covetous and extortioners they that raise themselves by ill means shall not enter into the Kingdom of heaven can men beleeve this and live in the practise of these sinnes if they did beleeve these things indeed as the word of God sets them downe if they did beleeve that sin were so bitter and so soule a thing as the word of God makes it certainly they would not therefore it comes from a hidden Atheisme Indeed there is a bundle of Atheisme and infidelity in the heart of man and we cannot bewaile it too much In the best there are some remainders of it as this holy man so foolish was I and as a beast before thee when he thought of his doubting of Gods providence Therefore considering that the cause of all ill practise is that we are not spiritually convinced of the contrary that sinne is a naughty and bitter thing nor are wee sufficiently convinced of the best things let us labour more and more to be soundly convinced of these things Now nothing will do this but the holy Ghost as yee have it Iohn 16. Christ promiseth to send the Comforter the holy Ghost and he shall convince the world of sinne that is hee shall so set sin before the eyes of mens soules that they shall know there is no salvation but in Christ hee shall convince them of unbeliefe that horrible sinne they shall have it presented so to them that they shall beleeve presently upon it This the holy Ghost must do But the holy Ghost doth it in the use of meanes therefore it must be our wisdome to heare and pray and meditate much that God would vouchsafe his spirit to perswade us to convince our understanding to convince us of all our false reasonings against good things that there may not a vile imagination rise in our hearts contrary to divine principles It is good to draw neare to God therefore it is good to come to the Sacrament which is one way of drawing neare to God Let us be so convinced of it that it is not only a necessary but a comfortable and sweet duty to have communion with God for will we suffer for Christ if wee will not feast with him What shall wee say of those therefore that are so farre from drawing neare to God when they have these opportunities that they turne their backs They cleane thwart this blessed man here he saith It is good for me to draw neare to God nay say they it is good for mee to have nothing to do with God nor Christ no not when he comes to allure mee Now hee is come neare us indeed that wee might come neare him because wee were strangers to God and could not draw neare to him simply considered God became man Emmanuel God with us that he might bring us to God Christ is that Iacobs ladder that knits heaven and earth together Christ God and man knits God and man together this was the end of his incarnation and of his death to make our peace to bring those neare that were strangers nay enemies before and of our part and portion in the benefit of his death we are assured in the Sacrament Therfore let us draw neare to our comfort with chearefulnesse for his goodnesse that we have these opportunities Let us draw neare to God to have our faith strengthned and our commuion with him increased Only let us labour to come with cleane hearts God will be sanctified in all that come neare him Let us know that we have to deale with a holy God and with holy things and therefore cast aside a purpose of living in sinne let us not come with defiled hearts for then though the things be holy in themselves they are defiled to us let us come with a resolution to renew our covenant and come with rejoycing that God stoups so low to use these poore helps that in themselves are weak yet by his blessing they are able greatly to strengthen our Faith FINIS KING DAVIDS EPITAPH OR An Epitome of the life and death of King DAVID In three Sermons By The late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grays-Inne Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered from our enemies might serve him in holinesse and righteousnesse before him all the dayes of our lives 2 Sam. 14.14 For we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground LONDON Printed by E. P for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford KING DAVIDS EPITAPH Acts 13.36 For David after in his owne Generation he had served the Counsell or will of God he fell asleep and was laid to his Fathers and saw corruption THe words are part of a Sermon of blessed Saint Paul wherein he proves out of the old Testament Psal. 16. that David prophesied of Christ and not of himselfe David saw corruption but hee of whom David spake saw no Corruption therefore David was not the Messias He shewes that the things there spoken do no way agree to David but to the Messias who saw no corruption For David after hee had served his owne Generation fell asleep and saw corruption In generall observe this One of the best wayes to understand the Scriptures is to compare the old Testament and the new together That which was spoken and fore-told of Christ in the old Testament and fulfilled in the New that must needs bee true Christ is the true Messias why It was fore-told so of him in the old Testament and accomplished in the new therefore Christ is the true Messias comparing the prophesie and the event together For the old and new Testament make up but this syllogisme He that should be so and so as was prophesied Born of a Virgin that should come at such a time in the later end of Daniels weeks c. he is the true Messias But Christ was such a one hee was borne of a Virgin came at such a time he saw no corruption for hee rose the third day therefore Christ
his life was not unfruitfully and wickedly spent but he served the Counsell of God that had planted and placed him there in the world for that purpose Why hath God planted us here in the Paradise of the Church that we should not bee barren trees or bring forth ill fruit but that wee should serve him and bee fruitfull in our places This word service is a harsh word and such a thing as proud spirits could never digest Why did the Divells fall they would be in a state independent and not under others they would have their owne courses and therefore the Scripture saith they kept not their owne standing God set them in one course and they swelled and would not keep it The particular is not set downe in Scripture but they kept not their owne standing Neither the Divell who is a proud creature nor men led with the spirit of the Divell can indure service every man would be a God to himselfe to be guyded by his owne lewd will and lusts and God knowes they are blind guides and we shall know it to our cost if wee have not a better guide when the will of God is revealed therefore wee must have a care to serve it Now to serve implies two things especially an action and a reference of that action to the will of another that is service as I said before to do a thing and to do in obedience for if a man do never so many things if it be not in obedience to the will of another it is no service he serves himselfe so to serve God is when we know the will of God to do accordingly and to do it because it is the will of God then it is service or else it is a work indeed done but no service or obedience All obedience is with looking to the will and pleasure of another that hath authority to direct us and then we serve the revealed will of God when the whole inward and outward man is fashioned and framed to that when there is a measuring of both together as when wee obey the directions when wee tremble at the threatnings when wee imitate the examples of holy writ when we are raised up with the comforts when answerable to every divine truth there is an answerable disposition of soule when there is a sweet harmony betweene Gods truth and our inward and outward man Rom. 6. We must be cast into the mold of the word as a thing when it is molded in another frame it carries the print of the frame or mold so wee serve the will and word of God when we are molded answerable to that will Now more particularly this service of the will of God It is either immediate inward service of the will of God or outward service Inward service is the obedience of the first Commandement when upon the konwledge of God wee set him up in our soules and cleave to him in our affections of trust and joy and love and delight to give him the supremacie of all these then we serve him with inward worwip and service and this indeed is to set the Crowne upon Gods head and to make him King and God in our hearts he must have the prime of our inward service when we love God above all and feare him above all and delight in him above all cleave to him when all things else faile us this is the immediate service of God in our hearts when wee give God his owne in our hearts Hence comes all other service whatsoever or else it is but the eye-service that is not enlivened with the inward worship of God Now besides this inward there is a service of God that comes from this inward service which is of the outward man that is when we pray to God and that requires our words when we praise God in thanksgiving when we come to heare the word and to receive the Sacrament and so all outward holy actions are the service of God and are drawne from the inward immediate worship of God that I spake of before Besides these which come more immediatly from a sanctified spirit there is a service of God that is the obedience of the second Table when we do good to men with an eye to serve God as we say there is an elicite proper service of God a cōmanded service of God cultus imperatus All duties to men are a service of God when wee do them as commanded of God as because I love God therfore I honour my parents and Magistrates and therfore I will not commit adultery as Ioseph shall I do this and offend God So the Scripture alleageth reasons out of the first Table when wee are tempted to sinnes against the second Table and then the duties of the second Table are a worship and service of God when they are commanded by the first And this is the difference betweene a meere formall man and a Christian in his outward performances a Civil man is altogether for the second Table but hee hath not his rise from the first hee gives every man his due c. but it is not in obedience to God because God hath commanded him to do it but because he sees it is a deformed thing to bee unjust out of the light of nature hee condemnes the sinne but not out of religious respects it is not a service of God all this while I but when it is from love to God when that great command thou shalt love God above all sets him upon this then all the duties hee performes to man are a service of the will of God for God commands them Even the basest works are a service of God when they are done in obedience to God as Saint Paul tels them in Collos. 3. and Ephes. 6. the poore servant serves the Lord Christ when a poore servant is at his work imployed in the businesse of man poore common things yet hee serves the Lord all the while For God hath set him in that calling and he doth the second Table in obedience to the first and he serves men those that are his governors with an eye to the great Governour and Master that is above all that will reward them for their poore service however their Master reward them Ephes. 6. This is to serve the will of God then to yeeld to him the immediate service of the soule and the outward expressions of it and to go thorow all other duties as they spring from the first then wee are molded as I said before answerable to the word of God To apply this to our blessed man David and then to make use of it to our selves Thus did David serve the will of God in his time for you may see what he was hee is anatomised and laid open to our eyes in the Psalmes you may see his care of serving God in his 〈…〉 See how he cleaved to God in his 〈◊〉 in Psal.
David in his Generation served the Counsell or Will of God Now to make a perfect discourse of it wee will speak something of his end He fell a sleep and was gathered to his Fathers and saw Corruption HE fell asleep that is he died for sleep in Scripture it is a middle phrase appliable to good and bad for wicked men in Scripture are said to sleep and good men are said to sleep Only the difference is as the persons are for the sleep of wicked men it is like the sleep of a male factor before his execution that is oft-times tripped in his sleep or like the sleep of a man in sicknesse or in a mad fit his sleep doth but concoct the malignant humour and after he wakes he rageth three times more than he did before So the sleep the death of a carnall wicked man it is but a preparation to his execution it is but the sleep of a distempered man that wakes with more horrour and terrour and rage than ever before indeed properly the death only of the godly is a sleep But to observe something first briefly in generall We see here is a time of dying as well as 〈◊〉 a time of living There is a time to serve God in living and there is a time to yeeld our soules to him as well as a time to serve God in doing the actions and functions of this life Which should teach us this not to fix our thoughts too much on life As there is a time for all things to the living so there is a time to cease to live and therfore to use the world with moderation as though wee used it not knowing that the fashion of the world passeth away It should teach us to serve God as well in living as in dying And it should teach us to do all the good wee can while wee have time David served God while hee lived and hee served God in dying because his death was in obedience but as I said before after death properly there is no service of God but a receiving of wages therefore let us serve God while we live while we have time because there is a time when night will come the night of sicknesse and of death and then no man can work if he would never so faine He fell asleep Why did he not die before hee served God a great while hee did not die when he was first a good man God will have his Children serve out their Generation They must serve out their time As soone as ever we beleeve we have right to heaven but God will have us beare the burthen of the day awhile to bring others to heavn with us to go before others in the example of a godly life to gaine as many as we can To trie the truth of our graces before wee come to heaven whether they be true or no that they may be true tried graces And he will have us perfect before we come to so holy a place hee will have us grow in grac as Ahasueros his wife 's were to bee perfumed and prepared before they came to him It is a holy place that wee hope for a holy condition therfore he will have us by little and little be fitted by the spirit of God Many such reasons there be why God in heavenly wisdome will have us go on here a time before wee come to heaven though as soone as we beleeve we are in the state of salvation as Christ said to Zacheus This day is salvation come to thine house Therefore let us not repine that God will have us live Indeed as soone as a Christian hath faith he hath life in patience and death in desire for hee is impatient to want his crowne oh but here is the time of service and when he considers the eternity of the reward hee shall have after he will bee glad to serve God and he will be ashamed that he can do it no more When hee knowes hee shall have an eternall weight of glory for a little service then hee will deny his lusts and pleasures to serve God in the place hee lives in whether hee be Magistrate or Minister whatsoever to undergo the burden of a little service Againe in that it is said here Then he fell asleep not before till he had served the counsell of God God hath alotted a man a time He hath set him a glasse that must be runne he hath given him a part to act and hee cannot be taken away till that be done hee can never fall asleep till hee have served the counsell of God As it is said in the Gospell concerning our Saviour Christ his houre was not yet come They have laid wait for him but his houre was not come so there may be many snares laid for the children of God by Sathan and his instruments but till their houre bee come all the Divells in hell nor all the Divells instruments on earth cannot shorten a mans life one minute of an houre for hee shall fall asleep when he hath served the counsell of God when he hath done all that God will have him to do Therefore it is ground of resolution let us go on in our places and callings undantedly and wisely too not to tempt God to rush into dangers but I meane without base feare and distrust for wee must serve God to day and to morrow and then wee shall be sanctified Wee must serve God the appointed time that hee will have us to live here and then wee shall fall asleep and not before no creature hath power over the life of man to shorten his dayes The next thing wee will observe from the nature of sleep is that The death of the godly is a sleep in respect of refreshing Sleep doth refresh and repaire and as it were recreate and make a man anew Sleep and rest it is the blessed ordinance of God it is an excellent thing to repaire man so after death nature shall be repaired better we shall rise fresher as it is Psal. 17. ult when I arise I shall bee satisfied with thine image wee shall rise refreshed better than wee lay downe So that as we go to bed then to sleep to cut off all cares so when wee rest in death all cares and feares and terrours all annoyances are cut off Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord they rest from their labours insinuating that there is no rest before for to a man that knowes that this world is a work-house and his life a service to God hee thinkes of no rest till he be in his grave so death it is a sleep in regard of that rest Wee rest from the labour of sinne wee rest from the wearisome labour of the body from the labour of afflictions and oppressions from the molestations of other men among whom we live every way this life is tedious and
2 67. R Reason Different conclusion of Gods Word and carnall Reason 2 135 Redemption Gods love greater in Redemption then in Creation 1 12 26. Reflect Man can Reflect upon his actions 1 100. Repentance Late Repentance seldome true 1 92. Benefit of lively Repentance 1 95. See Sinne. Reproach Reproach not to be regarded 1 â—45 Resolution Ground of Resolution 2 219. Riches To carrie our selves answerable to our Riches 1 48. Rule Properties of a Rule appliable to Gods Word 2 190. Rule how to bee applied in particular actions 2 194. See Word S Salvation Christ as man chosen to Salvation 1 19. Saints To delight in the communion of Saints 2 225. Sanctuarie Benefit of entring Gods Sanctuary 2 135. Satan When we are under Satan 2 10. Scripture How to understand the Scripture 2 164. Sealing Seâ—ling of Christ what 1 201. What use to make of Christs Sealing 1 204. How to know Christ is Sealâ—d for our good 1 205 209. Sealing threefold 1 206. Sealing of thâ— Spirit what 1 207. Servant Service Christ a Servant how 1 7. Comfort that Christ was a Servant 1 17. To offer Christ in our Service to God 1 20. Danger of deferring Gods Service 2 184. God the object of our Service 2 186. Service what 2 188 203. Common actions a Service of God how 2 â—12 Qualification of our Service of God 2 214. See Life Shaken Gods children Shaken why 2 141. Secret Secret will of God no rule 2 190. Security Security a forerunner of judgement 1 119. Sight Sin takes away the Sight of it selfe 2 21. Sinne. The hurt we have by Sin 1 90. Particular Sins foreshewing judgements 1 121. Naturally we are under Sin 2 5. Sin threefold Ibid. Justice of God to give men up to Sin 2 8. Misery to be under Sin 2 9. Fruit of thraldome to Sin 2 16 Men not given up to all Sinne alike 2 22. Wee should see death in our Sins 2 28. See Generality Death Leprosie Iudgement Sleepe The death of the godly a Sleepe 2 220. Society Society with carnall men to be avoided 1 151. Soule The Soule chiefly to bee cared for 2 228. Spirit How to know wee have the Spirit 1 30. Degrees of receiving the Spirit 1 32. The Spirit put on Christ how 1 33. Spirit given and received by Christ how 1 38. Three things wee receive by the Spirit 1 42. How Christ gives the Spirit 1 55. Spirit in Christ how 2 36. Meanes to get the Spirit 2 123. See Ascention Gospell Stirre See Hold. Strength God the Strength of a Christian 2 79. Successe Succession Christians indeavours Successefull 1 255. There is a Succession of men 2 172. Sufferings Service of God in our sufferings 2 209 214. Supply Our Supply whence it is 1 46. T Table Service of God in obeying the second Table 2 205 207. Tast. Tast a most necessary sence 1 193. Temptation Comfort in Temptation 2 53. Thankefull See Popery Thraldome See Sin Time Times Time when especially to bee improved 1 129. Why to make use of Time 2 173. How our Times both miserable and happie 2 177. To serve God our whole Time 2 183. Gods children must serve their Time 2 218. Every mans Time allotted by God 2 219. Tirannie Tirannie of sin 2 19. V Vaine-glory Vaine-glory why to bee avoided 1 72. Valew Ground whence to Valew Christians 1 30. By what God Valews his children 2 167. Violence Violent Violence offered the Kingdome of Heaven how 1 233. Christians disposition Violent how 1 235. Ground of this Violence â— 236 To judge our estate by our Violence 1 â—41 Violence after outward things 1 242. Violent onely take Heaven 1 251. Freedome of grace inforceth Violence 1 253. Holy Violence hopefull 1 254 Pretious things require Violence 1 259. Exhortation to holy Violence 1 61. Gospell in Luthers time imbraced with Violence why 1 265. How to get holy Violence 1 271. See Wisedome Vnderstandings How to use our Vnderstandings 1.102 Vnfruitfullnesse Vnfruitfullnesse a forerunner of judgement 1 126 Vs. All good in Christ before in Vs 1 40. How the Spirit takes from Christ and gives to Vs 1 41. How the Spirit is put on Christ for Vs 1 50. What Christ did was for Vs 2 41. W Washings Washings in the Law what they signified 1 295. Watchfullnesse Watchfullnesse when requisite 1 130. Will. Will of Christ to give himselfe 1 119. Will of God knowne and not done aggravates sin 2 201. Will-worship Will-worship why forbidden 2 189. Winde Wicked men blowne away as with a Winde 1 317. VVisedome What violence may stand with VVisedome 1 244. VVisedome in man corrupted 2 21. VVisedome justified by whom 2 140. VVord Spirit given in the Ministery of the VVord 1 55. Written VVord the rule of our service 2 189. VVorld Businesse of the VVorld hinders consideration 1 104. VVorldly things to be neglected why 1 171. Christians rule of life not from the VVorld 2 138. Ill courses of the VVorld settle Gods children 2 139. VVorship Prayer put for all Gods VVorship 1 304. FINIS 1 Tim. 3.15 2 Tim. 1.14 Scope of the words Christ promised in the old testament 1 To stablish faith in other promises 2 To comfort them against their owne unworthinesse 2 Cor. 1.19 The word Behold used 1 To shew Christ as present 2 To take their mindes off from their miseries 3 To raise their mindes from earthly things Christ a servant 1 By Condition 2 By Office In respect oâ— God 1 Pet. 3.18 In respect of us Gods love to us 1 In the person thus abased Phil. 2. 4. Conjunctions wonderfull Christs abasemeâ—t tâ—e greaâ—est 2 Whence Christ was so abased Gods love in Redemption greâ—ter then in Creation 3 The fruit of Christs abaâ—ement Matter of wondâ—rment in the worke of Redemption Christ a servant by way of excellencie Vse Seeing Christ was a servant wee should bee humble Vse 2. Comfort that Christ became a servant Christ chosen of God Christ chosen to his office Christ as maâ— chosen to salvation To reâ—t in Gods choice To offer Christ to God in our services Take heed of neglecting Christ. Christ beloved of God 1 As God 2 As Man 3 As Mediator 4 In regard of the execution of his office Quest. Answ. God loves Christ mysticall Comâ—ort Gods love to us grounded on Christ. God loves the worke of our redeâ—ption Comfort in our daily approach to God To stirre us up to deligâ—t in Christ. On what 〈◊〉 to valâ—w Chrâ—stians We may know we are in 〈◊〉 1 I we have his Spirit How to know we have the Spirit Degrees of Christs receiving the Spirit What is meant by putting the Spirit on Christ Three sorts of persons annointed Three maine defects in man Supplied in Christ. In what order Câ—riâ—t performes his offices Chriests priâ—stly office the principall Object Answ. How Christ both gives and receives the Spirit All 〈◊〉 in Christ then 〈◊〉 How the Spirit takes of Christ and gives to us Three things
arguments heere in the text for J will draw no other inforce what I have said before J have shewed you what this labour is and rules how you may know whether you rightly labour for this food or no Now to inforce this act consider first the necessity of that our Saviour here injoynes us too it is food It is a strange thing that persons should perswade themselves that they are Christians and yet goe from day to day without refreshing themselves with Christ and with the meditation of the blessed estate they are in by him both in respect of this world and that which is to come without getting strength from Christ against tentations and against corruptions Christ is foode and the promises and prerogatives we have by him are food wee should labour after it every day feede on it every day If a man should aske a man in his calling why doe you take such paines Morning and Evening rising early and going to bed late Hee would answer it is to get bread it is to get food to maintaine my family So should it bee our answer to any that wonder why wee take such paines for our soules why wee labour so after Christ Oh remember we take paines for life to get and mainetaine life and what is so necessary as life And if life bee so necessary food which preserves it must be necessary we see the Patriarks for food left their country and the poore Aegyptians sold themselves and their cattell and all to get food to keepe life We famish eternally except we feed on Christ except we have so much Faith as makes us one with him except by Faith we digest him and get nourishment and streâ—gth from him it will appeare to be so when it is too late ere long nothing in the world will relish us and then if we have not Christ and the things of another life to relish us what will become of us J beseech you consider what opinion and judgement wee shall have ere long of these earthly things and of the better things of another world at the houre of death our judgements will be convinced that the things of Heaven are the best things and if it bee true that they will bee so then why is it not true that they are so now Labour to have the same judgement now With the necessity our blessed Saviour joyneth the excellency of this food It is foode that endures to everlasting life Christ and the good things we have by him are of equall extent and of equall time with our soules if wee labour for earthly things we labour after that which is of shorter continuance then our soules we may out-live our happinesse and what a miserable state is that But if we labour for the food that endures to everlasting life our happinesse is of the same continuance with our soules and that is onely true happinesse If there were such a Tree upon the Earth now as there was in Paradice a Tree of life that whosoever should taste of the fruit of it should live though but on the Earth here to enjoy his sensuall pleasures Oh what would not men give for a little fruit of that Tree though it were to redeeme a little time and to lengthen out a fading base life on earth but much more to live for ever Here is food that endures to everlasting life to such a life as is heavenly and glorious Now blessed be God that since we are cast out of the first Paradice by sinne that now in our relapsed estate God is so mercifull to us as to provide another manner of Tree of life that in Paradice was but a typicall Tree the true Tree of life is Christ and whosoever feeds on him shall not perish but have everlasting life certainely if we beleeved this it could not be but it would wondrously see us on to labour after this meate because it is not onely food that tends to the preservation of life but to life everlasting to a life that endures as long as our soules And let us know that if wee doe not labour for this meate that brings to this life looke what degree of excellency we have had in the ranke of the creatures the same degree we shall have in misery for as the Angels in the degree of excellency were the most excellent creatures but being fallen they are in the same degree of misery that they were in happinesse and are now the most accursed creatures of all others So man as he is a most excellent creature if he feed on the food that endures to everlasting life so if like Nebuchadnezar he fâ—red as a beast on earthly things and forget his soule and affections which are made to close and feede on Christ and better things he shall have the same degree of misery that he hath in happinesse even next to the Divells the most wretched creature that can be What if a man were clad as Aaron was in all his pontificality in his Priestly robes What if hee should feed deliciously every day as Dives what and if he had the wisedome of Salomon the strength of Samson what and if he had all the kingdomes of the world if he have not the food that endures to everlasting life he should bee stripped of all these ere long it is onely Christ and the good things that are to bee had in him and by him that continue everlastingly This should inforce us to labour after this food in the use of all good meanes and before J leave the point consider the reality the truth of these heavenly things of these things wee have by Christ the second Adam all things else are shadowes The food that nourisheth the body it is not food in comparison of that earthly kingdomes are not kingdomes in respect of that earthly sonneship is not sonneship to that earthly riches they are nothing they are vanity in comparison of that earthly inheritance is no inheritance in comparison of the inheritance we have by Christ all other things are but titles of things they are but empty things there is a reality in Christ a truth in the kingdome of grace Alas what is riches what are pleasures what are honours what is sonneship what are all earthly things in comparison of the soule which is an immortall a spirituall an eternall substance they are but shadowes those things that are of equall extent and continuance with the soule and not onely of equall extent but that raise the soule to have communion with God in Heaven with the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost there is the reality there is the truth if we will have the truth of things I am that bread saith Christ afterward in this Chapter and my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drinke indeed as if other meat and other drinke refreshed not indeed but were onely shadowes of things Labour therefore for this meate and certainely if so be the Spirit of God once convince your judgements that
these things which I say are true both for the necessity and excellency of this foode they will be effectuall to stirre you up to labour more after this foode that endures to everlasting life So much for that Which the Sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father Sealed To come now to the possibility of attaining this food which is the third argument our blessed Saviour useth to enforce upon us this injunction to labour for the food that endures to everlasting life Hope stirreth up endeavour as we see in marchandizing though when wee venter beyond the seas we commit all to winde and water as they say and it is doubtfull what the issue may be yet we hope and that sets us on worke So the poore Husbandman but that he hopes to have a comfortable issue to have a harvest he would never set himselfe to worke Now heere is hope and hope on a better ground a great deale for hee that makes other things successefull he hath given Christ for this purpose and Christ you see heere hee gives himselfe which the Sonne of man shall give you Heere is all that we may ground and found our hope upon heere is will heere is power and here is authority to give it Heere is will Christ will give it why because he is the Sonne of man What use is there of these words in this place why doth he not say which the Sonne of God shall give you O the Sonne of God without the Sonne of man is indeed a Fountaine of good things but he is a sealed Fountaine alas of no comfort our comfort is in Emanuell God-Man all our comfort is to be brought back to God from whom we fell in Paradise and we must bee brought backe againe to God by God but unlesse God had become man man had never come backe againe to God therefore all the union and communion we have with God it depends on this first union of Christ with our nature that the Sonne of God became the Sonne of man as Saint Austine saith for now the next union that we become the Sons of God it comes from this that God became man and therefore he saith heere the Sonne of man shall give it you you need not climbe up to Heaven to fetch this food that endures to everlasting life for the Sonne of God is come downe from Heaven to Earth to take the nature of man and in that to die in that to satisfie Gods wrath and so to become this blessed and everlasting food The Sonne of man the second Adam as by one man we all come to misery so by the second Adam by man wee are restored to a blessed condition againe therefore he saith heere the Sonne of man because in the humane nature all our salvation was wrought indeed the worth and efficacie of our salvation comes from the divine nature but it was wrought in mans nature the divine nature could not worke it alone But I will not dwell on this The Sonne of man shall give it you you neede not feare it God is become man on purpose to give it you we may now boldly go to a Mediator which is made bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh wee should have feared and trembled if hee had onely beene God but now all grace and comfort is hid in this nature of ours in Christ if Christ had not tooke this poore wretched nature of ours upon him it had beene a hatefull nature to God God hated the nature of man but now because the Sonne of God is become the Sonne of man our nature is become lovely in the eyes of God and not onely lovely but it is filled in him with all grace and of his fullnesse wee receive grace for grace Hee will give it therefore because he is the Sonne of man Heere is will I but what power and strength hath he to give it He is so the Sonne of man as that hee is also the Sonne of God therefore we are said Acts 20. to bee redeemed with the blood of God Christ by his eternall Spirit by his God-head offered himselfe a Sacrifice for sinne so that he can give it because he is God But what authority hath he He is Sealed to doe it that 's the third that is he hath authority for authority is here expressed by Sealing Now Christ is said to be Sealed first because there is the impression of God upon him even as the seale imprints in the wax the likenesse of that which is in it so God hath imprinted in Christ his owne likenesse he is the Image of God for Christ as he is God is the character of his Father and his humane nature is likewise as like God as nature can expresse we saw saith the Apostle his glory the glory as of the onely begotten Sonne of God we saw a kinde of divinity in him as much as humane nature could receive the likenesse of God sparkeled in him therefore hee is said to be Sealed but that is not all nor the principall here meant Againe secondly the use of a seale is to appropriate and distinguish from other things so Christ is Sealed that is God hath appropriated him to be his owne Sonne and to be a Mediator of his owne appointing and hath distinguished him from all others by a blessed annointing and qualification of him above all he is as Saul amongst the rest higher then all he is as Aaron annointed with the oyle of gladnesse but above his fellowes and yet for his fellowes from him distills the blessed ointment of grace it is powred on his head first and descends from him downe to all the skirts of his garment to all his members So heere is in this Sealing likenesse distinction and appropriation But especially by Sealing heere is meant authority for a thing sealed is not onely to distinguish and appropriate to a mans use but to authorize also as a Magistrate that hath the Kings broad Seale he is authorized so Christ he hath Gods Seale God hath authorized him to be a Mediator and as hee was fore-ordained before all worlds as the Apostle Peter saith to be the head of them that should be saved and to be their Mediator so when the fullnesse of time was come when he came in the flesh hee was authorized by the greatest testimony that ever was by the blessed Trinity God the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost at his Baptisme This is my beloved Sonne heare him saith a voice from Heaven there was the Father the Sonne in the voice the Holy Ghost in the Dove there was the whole Trinity so he was authorized from Heaven And then he was authorized by his miracles God gave him power to worke those workes which none could doe but a Mediator therefore he saith if you beleeve not me yet beleeve me for my workes sake He was authorized also by his Resurrection as the Apostle saith in Rom. 1.4 He mightily declared himselfe to be