please as shape a Coat for the Moon So also the necessity of the obedience of Mankind to the Moral Law 'T is as inseparable as it s very being it being impossible to receive a being and not with it a bond of obligation Men when they sin spurn not only against Moses but against very Nature He that owns the ground owns the Fruit also We are not our own in any of our actions And how easie a way Men have to choak temptations to Atheisme Let them take leave to deny Moses and trample him under-foot yet in their Souls they finde written in very legible Letters every Commandment of this Law 't was born with them and suckt from Natures own instruction Why then should they suspect the Law of Moses and think it a trick foysted upon them to deprive them of their pleasures Nature bearing witness that Moses is no Deceiver Finally How inexcusable Men are that live in such an Age wherein they have both these Laws One to confirm the other Two witnesses if both accuse us at the last Day how shall we escape condemnation Manifold are the uses this written Law of God doth serve unto Some common to the Elect and Reprobate Viz. to shew the excellency of Man's Nature before the Fall when he had power perfectly to keep it and the excellency of that supernatural condition in the life to come when there shall be the same yea a more glorious power and the corruption of our present condition how short we come of due perfection and the Lord 's right notwithstanding to require perfect obedience of us and to punish us for default in the least point It serves also to illustrate the Law of Nature obtenebrated by the Fall the Law of incorrupted Nature being the same in substance with the Decalogue also to discover and convince all Men of sin and their obnoxiousness to eternal Death to be a Bridle to restrain them from gross sins and finally Men are taught thereby what a one God is and how he ought to be worshipped either proper and peculiar to the Elect it serves as a guide to point thèm to Christ the Mediator and to kindle a desire in them to seek eternal righteousness and salvation by him and when they are in Christ to be a Rule of Thankfulness for the Redemption purchased by him Every Man should be thankful in the best manner he can for a benefit received What better Rule can a Christian have than that which God hath made He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with the Lord thy God Micah 6. 8. Tit. 2. 11 12. Qu. Why have you dwelt so long upon this point Answ To work in you whose dwelling the Lord is a detestation of the Antinomian Errours Many have cut off some uses of the moral Law or falsly glossed upon it but few would ever wholly abrogate it but this unhappy Sect. Like Nero who wished Rome had but one Neck that he might cut it off at one blow So these would deal with this Law of Moses It follows not the Gospel is come in therefore the Law must go out Hagar so long as she is obedient may dwell in Abraham's House To make it clear to you that the decalogue pertains to Christians consider 1. That it is confirmed by Christ 2. Commanded to Christians by the Apostle 3. Established by the Gospel how it teacheth Christ to be the end of the Law and that Justification cannot be had without that perfect righteousness which the Law requires or satisfaction for unrighteousness and that Men ought to study and endeavour it and that the observation of it is a testimony of our communion with God that he dwelleth in us and we in him as you heard in a former discourse Obj. Christians are not justified by the Law neither do they receive the promise by it therefore it pertains not at all to them Ans The consequence is false unless they could prove there were no other necessary uses of the Law but we have shewed many and there 's a number more Obj. 2d If believers are not under the Law but under Grace to them the Law doth not pertain but the former is true Ergo the latter Ans 'T is a fallacy termed from ambiguous or that which may be taken more wayes than one Not to be under the Law is not to be freed from it as a rule of life for we are inclined and disposed by God's free Spirit to the willing obedience of it but to be delivered from the burden of the Law exacting in our own Persons perfect obedience as necessary to life and from the malediction of it due to disobedience these we are freed from by Christ To be under grace is to be justified and regenerate Obj. Christians are mortified and dead to the Law Ans The same fallacy and the same solution Believers are moreover freed from that irratation to sin which is effected in unregenerate Men by the Law Obj. 4th But now we are delivered from the Law that being dead wherein we were held Ans The same again and the Apostle opens his meaning in the words that follow declaring our manumission from the servitude of the Law from its rigorous exaction and curse and that we have a spirit of ingenuity to obey willingly Obj. 5. Gospel-Ministers are Ministers of the Spirit not of the Letter Ans The meaning is no more but this that their Ministry is more efficacious than the Ministry of the Old Testament Obj. 6. If the Law pertain to Christians then they are under the curse of it but the latter is false Ergo the former Answ The meaning of those words of the Apostle upon which the consequence of the Connexion is grounded is plainly this that they that think Righteousness to come by the works of the Law and promise themselves Eternal life thereby are under the curse of it Obj. Christians are no longer under a School-Master Ans 1. The place is impertinent for it speaks of the Ceremonial Law mainly if not only 2. If at all of the moral the consequence is denyed for though they be not under a School-Master as the faithful under the Old Testament were yet it follows not that obligation to obedience is taken away Obj. 8. Christians are redeemed from the Laws subjection Ans Not simply as if they owed no more obedience but so far forth that they are not bound to a perfect fulfilling of it but that unfeigned assent and consent shall be accepted Obj. 9. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free Ans From the Ceremonial Law Obj. 10. Against Spiritual Men there is no Law Ans To hold their Consciences under guilt yet they must be taught their duty by this holy and just and good Law Obj. 11. The Law is not made for a righteous Man Ans The meaning is
all fulness with marrow What is Wines on the Lees what are all earthly royal dainties to these rich graces and Divine special favours and blessings offered and bestowed and participated of in the Sacraments At which sumptuous and delicious banquet every worthy receiver that has made due preparation by self examination is or should be much affected and ravished As the Divine Poet was who thus expresseth himself First as to the manner of Importation and submission Herb. H. Com. Not in rich Ornament or fine Aray Nor in a Wedge of Gold Thou who for me wast sold To me dost now thy self convey For so thou should'st without me stil have been Leaving within me Sin But by the way of nourishment strength Thou creepest into my Breast Making thy Way my Rest And thy small quantities my length Which spread their Forces into every part Meeting Sins force and art Yet can these not get over to my Soul Leaping the Wall that parts Our Souls and fleshly Hearts But as the out-works they may controll My Rebel-flesh and carrying thy Name Affright both sin and shame Only thy grace which with these Elements comes Knoweth the ready way And hath the Privy Key Op'ning the Souls most subtile Roomes While those to Spirits refin'd at Door attend Dispatches from their Friend Give me my Captive Soul or take My Body also thither Another life like this will make Them both to be together Before that Sin turn'd Flesh to stone And all our Lump to leaven A fervent sigh might well have blown Our innocent Earth to Heaven For sure when Adam did not know To sin or sin to smother He might to Heav'n from Paradise go As from one Room to another Thou hast restor'd us to this ease By this thy Heavenly blood Which I can go to when I please And leave the Earth to their food When he was pleased to go to this Heavenly Banquet and he was so pleased as oft as might be and so should every godly Christian hear him warbling this Divine Rapture Idem the Banquet Welcome sweet and sacred cheer Welcome deer With me in me live and dwell For thy neatness passeth sight Thy delight Passeth Tongue to taste or tell O what sweetness from the Bowl Fills my Soul Such as is and makes Divine Is some Star fled from the Sphere Melted there As we Sugar melt in Wine Or hath sweetness in the Bread Made a head To subdue the smell of Sin Flow'rs and gums and powders giving All their living Lest the Enemy should win Doubtless neither Star nor Flower Hath the Power Such a sweetness to impart Only God who gives perfumes Flesh assumes And with it perfumes my heart But as Pomanders and sweet Wood Still are good Yet being bruised are better sented God to shew how far his love Could improve Here as broken is presented c. Let the wonder of this pitty Be my ditty And take up my lines and life Hearken under pain of Death Hands and breath Strive in this and love the strife Nor found he this food beyond all degrees of comparison nourishing and strengthning but he feeleth it also most effectually healing Physick as appeares by what he speaks to his pratling Conscience which call'd every fair look sowl every sweet Dish sower If thou persist I will tell thee That I have Physick to expell thee And the Receipt shall be My Saviours Blood when ever at his board I do but taste it straight it cleanseth me And leaves thee not a Word No not a Tooth or Nail to scratch And at my actions carp or catch Here is therefore no such provision of food no such sumptuous fair in any House as this Solomon's so much admired was as Husks yea and stark hunger compared to this and each of the Houshold fares alike And they have both Dinner and Supper every Day of the same delicates that which Matthew calls a Dinner Luke calls a Supper And they are called upon to feed heartrly Eat O Friends Drink yea drink abnndantly O well-beloved Nor are there any such fellow-Commoners to Dine and Sup with any where as here These are all Noble Honourable Persons The choicest and most excellent Kings and Priests A chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood a Holy Nation a peculiar People Yea the King of Kings and Lord of Lords Dines and Sups with them Mephibosheth thought it no small honour that David set him among them that did eat at his own Table How great honour must it then be to sit at Christs Table who is David's Lord And to increase their comfort they have assurance of the same Session with him in the Kingdome of Glory I appoint you saith he a Kingdome as my Father hath appointed me that ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdome Nor are there any such servitures in any House as in this to wit the Holy Angels Are they not all Ministering Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall he Heirs of Salvation There are that make them both Cooks and Butlers that dress and dish up and bring in the provision of this continual Feast attend at Table and Minister Cups of Consolation And moreover wait upon every Member of this Family when they go abroad about the works of their Callings and in all the changes of their life who have care of them besides this common attendance a peculiar Guardian of Angels from their new birth at least as some probably gather from sundry Scriptures Nor are there any such Vessels in any House to serve up the Meat and Drink in as are in this The Dishes Spoons Covers and Bowles belonging to the Sanctuary were all of pure Gold so were all the Vessels of the pure Table All the drinking Vessels of King Solomon were of Gold and all the Vessels of the House of the forrest of Lebanon were of pure Gold At that Royal Feast which Ahasuerus made to all his Princes and Servants That lasted an hundred and fourscore Days They gave them Drink in Vessels of Gold The Vessels of this House wherein the Saints dwell and wherein they have their Meat and Drink served up are much more precious than the Gold that perisheth which is corruptible how pure soever even great and precious promises in which are contained all the choicest Viands that Earth and Heaven can yield both for the nourishment of Soul and Body For Godliness is profitable for all things having the promise of the Life that now is and that which is to come Nor are there any such Seats to rest both Souls and Bodies on in taking repast in any House as in this Kings have had their Seats for themselves and by them for their Children and Favorites on which they sate down to eat meat they were terrestrial these coelestial places We read of the great King sitting at his Table with his Spouse
longest to be freed from it It 's Grace certainly that makes thee able to discern so hidden and close a Corruption and to hate it And as sense and feeling is a certain sign of a living Man as was now said So thy sense of hypocrisie with a hatred of it is a sure note and token of thy sincerity So that thou art not in the Flesh but in the Spirit Nor matters it so much what evil motions thou findest in thy self as how thou standest affected to them There are and will be filthy scums rising up in thy heart continually while thou livest here But while thou castest it off as it riseth by confession and self-condemnation it shall never hurt thee God will not condemn but absolve and acquit thee of it Thou mayest and oughtest to take comfort in the allowance of the Law of God in thy judgment and in thy will consenting to do it having an unfeigned desire purpose and endeavour to please God and to do his will this being the work of God's sanctifying Spirit and a special fruit of Christ's purchase as real comfort therefore herein as if thou wast perfect in obedience For if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a Man hath nor shall he be rejected for that he hath not In this God's choicest Servants have comforted themselves against all their imperfections and falls and failings Obj. But I question the truth of my desires Answ That thou need'st not do as long as thou esteemest God's grace and favour above all things Seeking by prayer and other means every Day to grow less sinful and more holy and mournest for thy Daily miscarriages lamenting after the Lord. Obj. But my Conscience condemns me for an Hypocrite Ans O spiteful bitter thought bitterly spiteful thought Thou hast reason to discredit thy Conscience if it be opposite to the Word of God and not to regard it against the Word of God If our heart condemn us God is greater than our heart and knoweth all things He knowes the way thou takest that it is right And his word which is the Judge of Conscience hath given Sentence on the right side And therefore thou art bound in this case to check and condemn thy Conscience for troubling thee causlesly So did David and Job Let me give thee one caution take heed of making inherent Grace the only and chief ground of thy comfort Though it is indeed the only evidence of thy title to comfort For in so doing thou shalt commit two great evils one against thy self in leaning upon a bruised Reed for thine own Spirit may fail thee and be overwhelmed and thy heart may reproach thee another against the Lord making an Idol of that gift of his which cannot be so trusted in without sin Rely more upon God's Grace without thee than that which is within thee Yet cherish also inherent Holiness as thy only evidence of Life Eternal and the beginning of it Finally give not credit to thy misgiving heart that would perswade thee thou hast no assurance that God is thy Habitation For thou hast that degree of assurance which is necessary to the beeing of Grace the lowest degree of certainty which is in every true believer consisting in an application of adherence Whereby the Soul of a penitent sinner casts it self upon Jesus Christ with a resolved humble recumbency cleaving to him as the Ivy doth to the Oak Eagle to the Carkass goes out of it self renouncing its own Merits and relying upon the Person and Merits of Christ his active and passive obedience for forgiveness of sins and for Life and Salvation This is the act of Faith and every one that thus receiveth him with an Obediential affiance knows that and that through him dwelling in his heart he hath his dwelling in God You therefore as yet that have not any comfortable assurance cease hence-forth to doubt and fear and assay to joyn your selves with them that have with whom we are next to deal as Saul assayed to joyn himself to the Disciples at Jerusalem Who will not at all as they were awhile of him be afraid of you but receive you joyfully into their blessed Society And when thou hast told despair Divine Herbert's strange story Say to it as he doth Hark Despair away THE FOURTH SERMON HAving dealt with those of this Divine Houshold that have as yet no comfortable assurance that the Lord is their Habitation we proceed to deal with them that have higher degrees of assurance which carry sensible comfort with them one is the Application of Experience when a Christian discerns in himself Divine impressions effects of regenerating Grace two or three whereof we will mention The prime and most general is a real change of the whole Man from evil to good This is a sure evidence of our being in Christ If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature old things are past away all things are become new Whoever is changed in all his senses motions and affections speeches and actions is certainly ingrafted into the Body of Christ by his spirit The substance of the Soul and Body is the same the qualities and operations altered Another is walking in the light as God is the light Living and conversing following that light of God which is conferred upon us by Grace evidenceth us to be partakers of the Divine Nature Purifying our selves as he is pure Hereby we know we have fellowship one with another God with us and we with him that he dwells in us and we in him Love to the Brethren Christ's whole spiritual kindred who are knit to him to the bond of Faith and among themselves by that of love another infallible note We know that we have passed from Death to Life because we love the Brethren When a Christian's faith in lively exercise reflects upon its own acts receptive of Christ and operative by him having withall a sanctified Conscience witnessing sincerity in the actings he gathers by discourse and reasoning his own spiritual estate as Paul did Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdome but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in the World and now abundantly to you-ward Such an application of experience had Thomas upon his Faith not quite exquisit before but very weak was raised and renewed by beholding touching and feeling The other application is that of evidence when the testimony of God's spirit comes and concurs with ours when we finde the Holy Ghost in us not only as a seal imprinting the graces of Christ upon our Souls nor only as an earnest giving us the first Fruits and as it were handle of Heaven Those holy and Heavenly Gift conferred in this life being a pledg of the perfection which shall be in the next but
hypocrites have been conversant in them even afflicting their souls and fasting frequently and praying on such Days very servently And this is that which God's Ministers are bound to press upon Men that are in a natural condition to do matter of duty to set themselves as objects of the spirit of God attending upon Divine Ordinances As a neglected Courtier sets himself in the Kings sight standing and waiting where he usually passeth and there humbly faces him It is observed that the Spirits out-goings are only upon such as face him He goes right on and turns not as he goes They must do as Esther did who esteemed her self as lovely as she could in the Kings sight set her self in the best dress she had as an object of the Kings call and see what good success she had by so doing Qu. How far doth nature qualifie her self for grace when she reacheth forth her abilities as far as she can Answ 1. Morally God took occasion from Ahab's humiliation to spare his life when upon hearing of Elijah's words he rent his cloaths put Sack-cloath upon his flesh and fasted and lay in Sack-cloth and went softly seest thou saith God unto the Prophet how Ahab humbleth himself before me because he humbleth himself before me I will not bring the evil in his Days So he took occasion from what those noble Bereans did in bringing their Bodies to publick Assembly takeing the heads of Paul's Sermons and examining the Notes they had taken by the Scriptures to work effectual faith in them 2. Passively a Man makes himself an object of the grace Life a handle for the Spirit to lay hold upon when he harps upon the string of his misery Cries out of his sin implores mercy and waits for grace in the use of means And it is not only possible that he may be translated out of the state of nature into the state of grace but probable he shall be so The Gospel being the market of grace he that goes to buy there without Money it 's probably he may be furnished to his mind As they that lay at the Pool of Bethesda waiting for the moving of the Water were in fair probability to be healed of their Diseases The Scribe that answered discreetly was not far from the Kingdom of God If there be no certainty of obtaining saving grace yet this should not discourage any natural Man from doing their utmost for the obtaining of it no more than the Husband-man is discouraged from Plowing Sowing because he is not certain he shall have his seed again No more is the Merchant sure he shall have his Ship come home laden with goods yet he ventures and so do all that trade for earthly commodities The Argument or motive to pains-taking from a peradventure or may be hath a force in it 2 Tim. 2. 25 26. Dan. 4. 27. Joel 2. 14. Zeph. 2. 3. They that neglect to use the means are sure to perish and such are most Men in these last Days who embezzel Nature's abilities make her poorer than she is strip her naked even of common Principles Sensual livers that drown all in Belial manners and having stifled Conscience give themselves over to work all uncleanness with greediness live as if they had no God to serve no soul to save or as if their souls served only as the souls of Swine to keep their Bodies from putrifying They that are less licentious and lead a civil life are generally prodigiously sloathful work not at all or not with half their might as if grace and glory were not worth the while to labour for Now them that are such we command and exhort to be impatient of a natural condition to look upon grace as lovely and the Mother of delights Herb. Ch. the Foil If we could see below The Spheer of Virtue and each shining grace As plainly as that above doth show This were the better Skie the brighter place God hath made Stars the foyle To set off Virtues Griefs to set off sinning Yet in this wretched World we toyle As if Grief were not foul nor Virtue winning Thus saith the Lord God O ye House of Israel let it suffice you of all your abominations It is now even time to turn over a new leaf Let possibility and probability put you upon straining your selves with all your strength for the improving of Nature in her abilities and prove me now herewith saith the Lord. If so the common grace I have given you to actuate nature I will not also add sanctifying saving Grace Yea let me assure you that if you finde in your selves a valuing of an estate of Grace in your selves above all earthly things and a vehement and constant desire to have admission into God's Grace and savour and that not only for the benefit and comfort it brings with it but for the beauty and excellency it brings with it also at least you would and wish heartily that it were the ground of your desire and if withall your purpose and resolution be to persevere in the use of all the means appointed to bring you to this estate God hath begun a work of Grace in your Souls which he will perfect and you are in the number of those thrice happy People whose habitation the Lord Jehovah is With whom we are next to deal And first with those whose habitation God is sure enough but they have no comfortable assurance that he is so Cannot say as David here in my Text He is my refuge I say they are not comfortably assured for there are none whose habitation the Lord is are utterly without all assurance Certainly the Lord is theirs that he dwells in them and they in him but many of them know not that they have this knowledge and some of them deny it yea conceive and conclude that they are out of God and as far from him as Hell from Heaven That it 's possible for Men to know a thing and not to know they know it yea to deny that they know it appears by these words of Thomas in the name of all his fellow Disciples to our Saviour who had assured him that Whither he went they knew and knew the way Lord we know not whither thou goest and how can we know the way They knew both but they knew not that they knew either And that Men in the state of Grace and abiding in God may be so far from any sensible and comfortable assurance of their interest in God of his love and favour towards them that they may seem to be assured of the contrary apprehend him as their mortal Enemy appeares by those words of Job He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me Mine Enemy sharpeneth his Eyes upon me Wherefore hidest thou thy face and holdest me for thine Enemy Now the Grounds and Reasons why many precious Souls have such doubts and feares and are apt to pass such a sad conclusion
quite cut off from the spiritual communion with Christ the true foundation of life and grace Or if they have brought forth any fruit at any time materially good the root and manner and end have been all naught stark naught worse than naught They never did any thing for God in obedience and out of love to him or with an intent to honour and please him thereby Take them at the best and it may be said of them what was said of Israel Israel is an empty Vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself They have been self-seekers and selfdependers and self-ascribers in all that ever they have seemed to do for God Answ To this Objection I have these two things to say 1. That it is possible for a Man to be in God and yet to see no goodness at all in himself nothing but evil nothing at all to commend him to God nothing but what may make him odious in his sight The Centurion saw nothing of worth in himself why Christ should come to him or he to Christ Though others thought him to be a worthy Man and so reported him to be to Christ And Christ himself gives testimony not only he had true faith but a great measure of it I have not found so great faith no not in Israel No more did the Woman of Canaan see any goodness in her self she confesseth her self to be an unclean Person but Christ both graceth and gratifieth her gives a very high commendation of her Heroical Faith And what goodness saw Paul in himself when he said I am a carnal Man sold under sin Hear the Confession of our Holy Mother and all her Genuine Children We are all an unclean thing all our righteousness is as filthy rags We acknowledge that our Persons and all our actions even the most praise worthy of them namely those wherewith we did thy service are all contaminated with abominable filth 2. That it is an Argument of true goodness to see little goodness much evil in thy self If thou canst and dost bewail the absence of that the presence of this findest a disallowance and deep detestation of it in thy heart and makest continual resistance against it Mourning for the want and absence of a friend argues truth of affection and love to him Thou wouldst not couldst not grieve because thou art not good if there were not in thee a love of goodness And the sight of so much sin in thy Soul proves thee to have light in it For whatsoever doth make manifest is Light And thy sensibleness of the burden of thy sins tells thee that thou livest much more thy stirring and strugling to be rid of them and the War thou makest against them A dead man can neither feel nor stir nor strive there is therefore spirit in thee as well as flesh For the Flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that ye cannot do the things that ye would Every new Man is two Men. The two Armies in the Shulamite maintain civil broyles within her as the two Babes did in Rebecca's Womb. This Combate with Corruption may comfort thee Though still I must grant that as there is natural life and conscience in the wicked so common Grace may strive uneffectually in them And the Spirit in the Godly does conquer their reigning sin as well as strive but not all their infirmities Saint Paul doth comfort himself with this raising up his Soul even to an holy insultation and triumphing For after he had described the two contrary principles the Combatants within him the unregenerate and regenerate part and the combate or conflict it self between them That hindering from the evil which he would do and putting him upon the evil he would not do This disapproving and hating the evil which he did and approving the good which he did not he comforts himself in this that he consented to the Law of God delighted in it that to will to keep it perfectly was present with him and although he found a foyl given to the new man captivated which makes him make a miserable out-cry Wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death that is tyed to me and which I am compelled to carry about with me tired with the luggage and poysoned with the stench Yet through the Grace of God in Jesus Christ I am filled with comfort rejoyce and triumph as more than a Conqueror I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of Sin I bless God for his Grace in Christ who doth not impute this corruption unto me to condemnation But still that it is only sins of infirmity and not such as are inconsistent with spiritual life which were in Paul and are in all the Godly So though thou seest nothing but Flesh in thy self if a Man may believe thee yet thou walkest not after it for though thou walkest in the Flesh yet thou dost not fulfill the lusts of the flesh followest not with consent the motions of thy own natural corruption Thou sowest not to the Flesh taking no other care but to please thy carnal appetite but on the contrary thou sowest to thy Spirit imploying thy care and labour in obedience to the motions of the Holy Spirit that thy will is to do so thou canst say in sincerity and this may be thy rejoycing as it was Paul's Obj. But I am full of hypocrisie which Paul was free from all the signes of hypocrisie that I finde in the Bible I finde in my self not one sign of sincerity Answ What the Apostle saith of Sin in general If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves may be said of this sin of hypocrisie if we say we have no hypocrisie the truth of Grace is not in us Obj. But it 's said of Israelites indeed that there is no guile in them And they only are blessed in whose Spirit there is no guile therefore I have cause to conclude my self cursed Answ These places must be understood as those where it is said Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin and his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God They also do no iniquity The meaning is they give not themselves over to sin they sin not with full consent they fall not into the purpose though sometimes into the act of Sin Sin reigns not in their mortal Bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof It hath not Dominion over them Obj. But this Sin of Hypocrisie Reignes in me Answ But that it doth not is evident by this because thou discernest it and art so troubled with it complainest to God and Men of it and judgest thy self for it and hatest it
also as a joyful witness both clearing our evidences and opening our minds to discern them The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Sons of God Hereby we come to have boldness confidence and a perspicuous manifestation of Divine love shed abroad in our heart and certain knowledge and full assurance of knowledge and hope of Faith Let us draw near with all full assurance of Faith The word imports a carrying on with full Saile like a Ship that hath Wind and Tyde and all the Sailes spread to the Wind. Those three parts of God's Kingdome Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost are consequents and effects of these three Applications The first namely that of adherence hath Wind and Tide against it The second hath Wind carrying it on but without Tide The third hath both Wind and Tide and all the affections like spread Sailes filled with the Gales of the Spirit causing joy unspeakable and full of Glory In the Church of Rome this Doctrine of full assurance is cryed down and an impossibility of attaining it by any ordinary Christians asserted and the main reason they render for the Confirmation of this Doctrine especially as to the subjective certainty of perseverance whereof Paul speaks when he saith I am sure that nothing shall be able to separate us from the Love of God in Jesus Christ Is the mutability of Man's will but the assurance of Christians depends not upon Man's mutable but upon the immutable will of God and upon his infallible truth who hath promised to keep them whom he receives in him by his strongest power if there can be conceived any degree in Omnipotency we are kept by the Guard of God's Power through Faith unto Salvation They askt what ground hath any ordinary Christian for special faith when there is no special promise nor any Divine testimony by audible Voice such as some choice Persons have had as Gen. 15. 1. Mat. 9. 2. Luk. 5. 20. 47. 48. 23. 42. 43. They are answered we will not contend about bare words whether it be better called special faith or assurance gathered from two promises the one in Scripture the other in our hearts so participating of Faith for that is our sence of special Faith but as to the matter 1. There are general promises with a command to apply them 2. Special Faith is gathered by argumentation thus whoever hath God's Spirit confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God that Man dwelleth in God But so have I so do I therefore I dwell in God 3. Sacraments give ground for special Faith wherein is made special application to the receivers 4. The Spirit is given for this end to believers as a seal and earnest and witness to assure them that God is their Habitation and Salvation And that it 's possible for a Christian in ordinary course to attain this grace if he do what in him lyeth We have God's express promise to this purpose Thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and Redeemer and a charge is laid upon every Christian to make his calling sure and not to come without full assurance when they draw nigh to him in Prayer and other duties of his Worship Let us draw neer him in full assurance of Faith And we have the experience of God's People in all ages for it And though they that profess they had it as Job David Paul were rare Persons Yet the Faith of the meanest Christian is of the same Nature with theirs though not in the same degree This is the Doctrine of the reformed Churches who yet deny not the difficulty of attaining the highest degree and that very few there are that attain it and fewer that have it at all times alike nor any in that perfection but that there is some mixture of doubting And this is one sign of the truth and goodness of it when it is attained with difficulty and assaulted with infidelity For there are many whom Satan and their own heart have deluded in this point who are strongly perswaded that God is theirs never doubted of their interest in him make no question but the Lord is their Habitation who entered not in by the Door never received the spirit of bondage to fear have no fear of offending God no care to please him but live in known sin against the light of knowledge and checks of Conscience which evinceth them to be in the gall of bitterness Now these who in their own conceits have taken up their dwelling in God like those buyers and sellers that took up their seats in the Temple without the Warrant against the consent of the Owner of that House must be dealt with by the Ministers of Christ as those Intruders by Christ were driven out with a scourge And as Nehemiah dealt with Tobiah who had got a Chamber in the Court of the House of God who cast both him and his stuff out of it Avoid prophaneness come not here nothing but holy pure and clear or that which groaneth to be so may enter or abide one Moment at his peril To you who can prove your assurance that you are in God to be of God by the qualification of your Persons as having formerly been humbled for your living without God in the World and at present humble your selves to walk with your God and resolve so to do to the end of your life Unto you I am sent with a manifold Word of Exhortation 1. To prize this as the greatest blessing and rejoyce in it more than in all other blessings and accordingly to praise God for it that he hath given you to know that he is your Habitation Lifting up the Light of his Countenance upon you and giving you Eyes to see that Light There be many that say who will shew us any good Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon us Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time when their Corn and Wine increased because thy loving kindness is better than life my Lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live Because thou hast caused me to feel the effects of thy Grace at full even as the Sun shooteth out his Beames at Mid-Day And because I finde this to be the life of my life without which every Day would be more bitter to me than Death Therefore for this above all Mercies will I bless thee every Day and I will praise thy Name for ever 2. To hold fast what you have and be alway adding to it as worldly Men do by their Earthly substance How oft are Christians exhorted to hold fast every good spiritual thing that they have gotten Hold fast as with Tooth and Nail the faithful Word The pure and sincere Doctrine of the Gospel against those Gain-sayers that would snatch it from you and not only the matter but the forme
underneath you and you shall be able both to do and suffer all things through him that strengthneth you Upon all these and many more accounts Ascribe the strength unto God his excellency is over Israel and his strength is in the Heavens The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his People Blessed be God From the third property of your Habitation Viz. Largeness Learn rightly to conceive of this property holding forth the infiniteness immensness and omnipresence of God being without quantity and measure every where both within and without the World filling all places with his essence as the whole Soul is said to be in the whole Body and in every part of it so is God whole and wholly in every part of the World Behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee His greatness is unsearchable infinite and incomprehensible The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Can any hide himself in secret Places that I shall not see him saith the Lord Do not I fill Heaven and Earth Yea and Hell too If I make my Bed in Hell behold thou art there This must teach us to banish all gross conceits of God out of our mind and to detest the making any Picture of him by which he is denyed to be incomprehensible and to see him though invisible to be present with you where ever you are his Eye beholding whatsoever you are doing This Consideration filled David's heart with shame and sorrow for his sin and made it to lye so heavy upon his Conscience I have done this evil in thy sight All my care was to be secret to hide my sin from the Eyes of Men but all this while thine Eye was upon me There is no Man but would be restrained from many sins if they knew of any body that was by them to see what they did The Murderer Adulterer are brought in by Job imboldening themselves No Eye shall see me As if he had said if they knew there was any Eye to see them they durst not do it Moreover in all their Meditations Contemplations of God take as full a view of him as you can Hear him saying behold me behold me Especially take notice of the largeness and greatness of his goodness and bounty All the dimensions of its breadth length depth and heighth with admiration O how great is thy goodness which thou hast for them that fear thee As high as the Heaven is above the Earth as the space is between the East and West I will mention the loving kindness of the Lord his great goodness the multitude of his mercies And labour for largeness of heart in some sort answerable From the rest of the properties of this your habitation and from all the furniture in it and from each of the conveniencies belonging to it I shall leave you to gather comforts and duties in abundance having this one thing only more to do Namely to acquaint you with some of the Statutes Lawes and Ordinances of the House and earnestly to press upon you the Observation of them by promises and penalties annexed The general Laws of this House binding all that live in it are partly natural and partly supernatural The natural are Ten in Number called in Scripture Ten Words and some where One Word The Divine Law teaching and commanding Moral good and forbidding evil known by the Name of Moses Law Uttered and promulgate with God's own Mouth by his immediate Voice delivered in Fire and therefore termed a Fiery Law in the hearing of all Israel Afterwards written with his own Finger by a mere and miraculous divine Operation in Two Tables of Stone to signifie the perpetual use and continuance of it to the end of the World and so published and committed to the Church for all Ages as the Moral Law for Obedience to God our Soveraign Lord and King This self same Law did God engrave in Man's heart even when he created him For that before the written Law of Moses there was an unwritten Law of Nature must needs be granted because needs must they be bound to God who had their Beeing from him Nor could they have sinned against him if they had had no Law from him For where no Law is there is no transgression Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the Law But sin Men did all this space of time and were punished with a witness Witness Cain the old World Sodom Onan and innumerable of others and they were punished for the sins forbidden in Moses Law and the Apostle expresly teacheth that the Gentiles who never had the written Law of Moses had their Natural Law even this Law though less perfect imprinted in their Souls by which they were instructed and bound to do well and debarred from doing evil which are the two properties of all Lawes And these two properties called The work of the Law written in their Hearts they shewed their Conscience bearing witness their Hearts accusing or excusing one another The Conscience being but a correspondency and relation of a Man's Spirit unto the Law to bind or unbind condemn or absolve him Moreover the good Laws the Heathen made to punish the evils forbidden and to draw People to practice the good commanded in the Law of Moses and the endeavour of many of them to act accordingly argues the Unity of both Laws The reason of which unity is the unchangeableness of God who is alway the same Qu. What need was there of the repetition and renovation of this Law Or if there was need Why was it not sooner Answ To the former Branch though Nature brought the same things yet it did it very weakly and many conclusions were obliterated and others much obscured and all Mens hearts were weakly drawn to obey this Law very strong to obey the Law of sin And although the Law of Nature could scarce never have been extinguished in Principles and Grounds yet it might and was and would have been more in Applications Men took evil for good and good for evil and grew more and more vain in their imaginations To the latter Branch Man's heart was not after his Fall throughly humbled but thought his own reason sufficient for his Guide therefore God would leave the World a while to try them and let them see their own weakness Besides sin was not come quickly to such a pitch and height as afterward it did and yet we finde that God did by peece-meal and occasionally teach them this Law presently and almost equipollently before its solemn Proclamation The Unity of these two Laws lets you see as the constancy and Immutability of your God who is not as other Law-givers who build and pull down and whom a Man knows as well how to
use of lawful things 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. 1 Thes 5. 5 6. Luke 21. 34. 2. Filial fear of God Pro. 14. 16. Rom. 14. 16. 16. 6. Psal 4. 4. 130. 4. Gen. 20. 11. Psal 36. 1. Jer. 32. 42. 3. Remembrance of God's Judgments Mat. 24. 37 38 42. Es 47. 8 9. Rev. 3. 3. Luke 21. 34 35 c. 1 Cor. 10. 15. 12. especially of the last Judgment 2. Cor. 5. 10. There are other notable helps Viz. Growing in knowledge a blind Man is unfit to make a Watch-man A spirit of mistrust-fulness a Master that mistrusts a Servant will watch to catch him Living under a powerful Ministry a Trumpet continually sounding is a good meanes to keep a Man from sleeping Desiring Friends to admonish you when ever you nod They that are inclined to sleep mortally are desirous that others should pinch them to keep them waking Sobriety and temperance in eating and drinking A Drunkard will make an ill Watch-man If you will know what are the signs of a truly watchful Christian they are such as these He discovers the secret windings and turnings of his own heart the least stirring there and much more if the Fire of any Lust begin to kindle there If there be any Fray there he presently stifles it And if need be he calls for help If any good news comes he takes present notice of it and makes it known Psal 66. 16. No blessing of God towards himself or the Church that he does not take thankful notice of If there be Lightning or Thunder or any dreadful Apparition of God's judgment he trembles at it loves and delights in the Morning light And for that reason feares not Death the immediate antecedent of it Qu. Are all of God's holy houshold alway thus waking and watching Ans The Holy Spouse of Christ acknowledgeth that there was a time when she slept having eaten and drank largely of her heavenly Husbands blessings She began to remit her Zeal and neglect the works of Faith and Love Wanting the pretence of her Husband and being pressed with the remnants of the Flesh she gave Eare to carnal ease and security occasioned further hereunto by the time of the Night and by the weather which was Rainy that is by ignorance and errour prevailing and by the opposition and persecution of Enemies Her sleep was neither that dead sleep that all Men are in by nature nor that judicial sleep the spirit of slumber a farther degree of that natural sleep to which God gives up some as a Seal of their desperate condition but it was a sleep arising from the reliques of natural corruption unsubdued prevailing over the regenerate part yet was her heart all this while awake I sleep but my heart waketh Though she had a little laid aside her divine thoughts and meditations yet she still kept the eye of Faith open and the eare of her Heart attentive When the Lord had returned Thus the wise Virgins slumbered and slept but they had their Lamps burning by them which the foolish had not Their hearts waked Mat. 25. 5. They were provided in them with instructions in faith and piety and with the gift of the spirit which is the Oyl that alway burneth in all good hearts howsoever not alwayes in actual exercise But O! the dreadful danger that good Christians are in when it is not so through the letting down of their spiritual watch and giving way to sluggishness there being no sin no temptation no judgment but a secure drowsie Christian is open for Which is the reason of so often inforcing watchfulness by the spirit of God in the Scriptures And therefore I beseech you suffer a word of exhortation to the next special duty incumbent upon all whose habitation the Lord is Namely to be always working God will not have one idle or sloathful Person in his House Every one must have a particular honest Calling The Light of Nature taught the Heathens this as appeares by Pharaoh's question to Joseph's Brethren What is your occupation Gen. 47. 3. And the Marriners to Jonas What is thy occupation Forty Years was Moses a Courtier and Forty Yeares more a Shepheard that great Men may not be ashamed of honest Vocations the greatest that ever have been content to take up with mean Trades The contempt of honest Callings in those that are well born argues pride without wit How constantly did Moses stick to his Shepherds Hook and yet a Man of great learning excellent spirit good education I presume all you that dwell in God are in lawful Callings wherein you may be serviceable to the Church or Common-wealth or private Families In these the Apostle forbids you to be sloathful Not sloathful in business To be sloathful is to be loath to work willing and desirous to shift it off Pro. 21. 25. 24. 23. To be negligent in working taking up more time than needs or not to endeavour to do it well Not to be sloathful is to be ready and forward to be employed Esay 6. 8. and to be diligent and expeditious and industrious to do business in the best manner Gen. 31. 6. That every Christian Man and Womans duty is to be thus employed continually appears because God prohibits sloathfulness and commands diligence Heb. 6. 12. Pro. 6. 9. Gen. 3. 19. Mark 13. 34. 1 Thes 4. 11. Curseth sloathfulness and blessed diligence Pro. 10. 47. 23. 21. 24. 30. to the end Jer. 48. 10. Pro. 13. 11. 28. 19. Eccl. 5. 12. Mat. 25. 16 17 21 23. O that every one would look upon idleness and sloth as a great sin as theft 2 Thes 3. 10 11 12. Prodigality Pro. 18. 9. Sodomy a sin that disposeth a Man to all manner of sin and which shall be punished with the vengeance of Eternal Fire Mat. 25. 26 30. And Heathens and Bruits shall rise up in Judgment against idle sloathful Christians You therefore that are sure you dwell in God take heed of damping your assurance and blurring your evidence by giving the least way to idleness or sloathfulness in your Callings Are you Magistrates be continually imploying and applying your power and authority to the uttermost for the ends for which God hath given it to you Rom. 13. 4. 1 Tim. 2. 2. 2 Chr. 19. 6. to the end Consider God's wrath declared against you if you be slothful to execute Judgment even upon your dearest Relations that deserve it In the example of Eli 1 Sam. 3. 13 14. On the other side the pleasure he will take in you and delight to do you good if you be faithful and severe Jer. 22. 15 16. Numb 25. 11 12 13. 2 King 10. 30. If you be Ministers let the weightiness of the work and glorious reward promised to laboriousness therein and the Plagues threatned against loyterers move you 1 Cor. 4. 2. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 4. 1 2. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Es 58. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. Dan. 12. 3. Jer. 1. 1. 1 Cor. 9. 16. If you
believers and those that are regenerate by God's spirit apply themselves to the obedience of the Law without constraint or terrifying having the habit of righteousness and holiness in themselves as an inward and living Law They have no need of the horror and constraint of it and also being justified by Christ they are freed from the condemnation of it seeing that a Soveraign pardon stayeth and endeth all Actions and Condemnations grounded upon the Law Great Houses with the Gardens Orchards Parks and Grounds belonging to them have their bounds and limits made by Walls Pales and Hedges That great glorious House which Ezekiah saw in a Vision had its limit This is the Law of the House upon the top of the Mountain the whole limit thereof round about shall be most Holy God is said to have determined the bounds of all Mens Habitations upon Earth The Ten Commandments of the Moral Law are the Bounds Walls Pales and Hedges set round about the House wherein you that are Saints on Earth inhabit beyond which you may not pass but must keep within this compass As the Waters dwelling within the great Channel have their bounds which they are commanded to keep and forbidden to transgress pass or go over I establish saith God to Job my Decree upon it speaking of the Sea break up for it my Decreed place set Bars and Doors to it Figurative terms to express the concavities wherein the Sea is enclosed and said hitherto shalt thou come and no further and here shall thy proud Waves be stayed You are commanded in like manner to keep within the bounds of your Decreed place and you are bound to keep within them under a greater penalty than that which was laid upon Shimei when he was confined to his House by Solomon and to the City of Hierusalem the Walls whereof were his utmost limits The King sent and called for Shimei and said unto him build thee an House in Hierusalem and dwell there and go not forth thence any whether For it shall be that on the Day thou goest out and passest over the Brook Kidron that thou shalt surely dye Abide within So long as you do so you abide with God Cursed be the Man whose Heart departeth from the Lord. As a Bird that wandereth from her Nest so is a Man that wandereth from his place Thou hast rebuked the proud that are cursed who do erre from thy Commandements Thou hast trodden down all them that erre from thy Statutes Take heed Brethren lest there be in any of you an evil Heart of unbelief in departing from the living God Every Sin small and great is a transgression of the Law Exceeds the bounds which God by his Law hath appointed unto Men for the moderating regulating of their thoughts words and actions And every transgression and disobedience every commission and omission received a just recompence of reward If at any time through frailty or violence of temptation you pass these bounds If at any time said I Alass who doth not every Day both in thought word and deed There is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sinneth not In many things we offend all David a Man after God's own heart passed these bounds oft through infirmity once most abominably Well consider what is to be done after such excursions Consider your wayes in your hearts Bend your minds very diligently weigh ponder think seriously with your selves what you have done Most Men are guilty of this neglect No Man repenteth of his wickedness saying What have I done Remember this and shew your selves Men bring it again to mind O ye Transgressors Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God Be ashamed and confounded to have been found out of the bounds of your House Then shalt thou remember thy ways and be ashamed What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed Let it not be said of you as of the generality of the Jewes in Jeremyah's time Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination Nay they were not at all ashamed neither Let the review remembrance and thought of every ordinary sinful digression by rash anger or any bitter expression against Wife Husband Childe Servant Neighbour by vain empty idle unprofitable conference at any time by intemperance in Eating or Drinking though never so little beyond necessity or honest delight making you unfit for divine service in either of your Callings by immoderate sleeping or not being up as early for God as for your selves or spending more time in dressing your Bodies than your Souls by wanton glances of your Eyes or lusting after strange Flesh or abusing the lawful duty of Marriage by envying and grieving at the outward welfare of others or discontentment with your own health wealth credit or carking distrustful caring for to morrow or hasting to be rich by passing rash censure upon the spiritual estate of others or speaking of their faults and follies with mirth by silence at the unsavory speeches of any or conniving at their miscarriages not reproving them at least by discountenance for fear of giving them offence by having too great a hankering of heart after things not evil in themselves Tobacco Hunting Hawking Angling Gameing though not for gain but sport by suffering buying and selling thoughts and vile distractions to have incursions and lodging within you in holy Duties Let the thoughts I say of these and numberless other sinful digressions fill your Souls with shame and blushing ing and sinful abhorrence Much more if you call to mind grosser crimes Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes and doings that were not good and shall loath your selves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations Nor let your shame for taking so many steps out of your Heavenly Fathers House or sense of selfloathsomeness hinder your return thither but say as that unclean spirit for it is lawful and stands with godliness honesty and reason to learn of an enemy I will return unto my House from whence I came out And as that penitent Wife that had stept aside from her Husband I will go and return unto my first Husband for then was it better with me than now So did the Prodigal resolve to do I will arise and go to my Father and say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and before thee O Israel return unto the Lord thy God for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity Go and knock at the Door of Divine Mercy confess your folly accusing and judging your selves Surely it is meet to be said unto God who hath revealed himself not only in his Law by commanding and threatning but also in his promises of grace to comfort and encourage by the remission of sins so the Italian reads the word following I