God Now the natural man is not able to judge of things above the principles of Nature The Apostle tells us No man knows the things of a man but the spirit of man which is in him 1 Cor. 2. 11. The things of man are all created things man is therefore said to be as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a little world or an Epitome or Compendium wherein all created things are described as in a Map or short Abridgement Now the principle of reason in mans heart is able to search out the hidden things of nature But this large principle of man is too narrow to search into the things of the Spirit so saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 11 12 14 15. The things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God The Spirit searcheth the deep things of God And again he saith The wisdome of the Spirit is but foolishness to the naturall man And why so because saith he Spiritual things are spiritually discerned that is they are to be understood in a spiritual sense to which mans carnal reason cannot reach But now saith he the spirituall man discerneth all things so that divine things are onely known by the Spirit 't is the Spirit of all Truth that leads into all Truth Then 't is not all Maximes and Rules 't is not Sy 〈…〉 gistical Reasonings and Disputes 't is not Books an◠Treatises 't is not all Systems and Bodies of Divinity that can reveal the secret mysteries of Truth but it is the work of the Spirit for the mystery of Christ is not meerly letter and form without but a quickning Spirit within us Yet 6. We are taught that there is a most profound spiritual reasoning in godliness and that it is the highest act of the minde which is the highest faculty of the soul The minde of a Saint is Gods Throne and the motions of the minde or the reasonings thereof is nothing but Christ swaying the soul according to his good pleasure It 's true that reason as 't is in man is a most imperfect and weak light and falls short of the light of God being depraved and mixt with much darkness and so is unsuitable to judge divine things but reason considered in its height and excellency is no other then Jesus Christ and the Spirit then so much as reason hath of the light of God so much it hath of Jesus Christ Then the most excellent the most supreme and the sublimest reason is in godliness because in it is the greatest clearness certainty and light The Apostle calls it Demonstration now divine reason is demonstration which is an evidencing of things by the clearest surest and most irresistible light that can be Now Christ is this spiritual reason for saith the Apostle that which manifests is light Eph. 5. 13. And what is that light but Christ and his Spirit Thus I have given thee a taste of things to set an edge to thy appetite that thou mayest make a fuller meal of Divine Dainties by reading the ensuing Treatise where thou hast a Table richly spread Now if thou art one of Christs Friends then come and eat of this honey and drink of this wine yea eat and drink abundantly O beloved Here thou mayest eat and not 〈…〉 et here thou mayest drink and not be drunken the more thou earest the stronger will thy appetite be and the more thou drinkest the more wilt thou thirst and yet with the greatest saturation and content To conclude Thou mayest finde much of Christ in this Book but see whether thou canst finde much of him also in thine own heart Now that these things which are here written with Paper and Ink may be written upon the Table of thy soul by the finger of the Spirit is the prayer of him who is Thine in the Service of Christ John Robotham Octob. 24. 1650. SERMON I. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THe main drift of the Apostle in this Epistle is to hold forth Justification by Faith or by Free-grace without the works of the Law And in Chap. 7. the Apostle doth answer an Objection for they might say What then shall we do with the Law if it cannot justifie us There the Apostle tells us that though the Law cannot justifie us yet there are many blessed uses both for Sinners and Saints to make of the Law of which I shall not now speak Now in this eighth Chapter the Apostle draws this conclusion from what he had said before There is therefore from what I have said it is evident that there is no condemnation there is no damnation there is no danger of Hell to them which are in Christ Jesus Now he opens who those are he saith they are those who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And he gives a reason of it in ver 2. why there is no damnation to those people For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the law of sin and of death Now he amplifies that in ver 3. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh As if he should have said Thus it comes about that we are now free from the law and that there is no damnation to us because saith he that God hath sent his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh like one of us and he hath fulfilled the law of God and condemned sin therefore there is no sin to condemn us nor no jot of the law that is not fulfilled therefore we are just and righteous and clear There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for God hath sent his Son to condemn sin c. Now in the fourth Verse it is more particularly expressed That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit I shall not orderly go over to shew the Coherence distinctly as I might but briefly as I can come to those Lessons that the Lord is to teach us That the Righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us c. There are in the words two things Here is a great Priviledge as any can be to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us And here are secondly the parties that have the benefit of this Priviledge Those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Concerning the Priviledge to understand the words a little That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us That the law might be fully satisfied in point of righteousness that the law might have such a righteousness which indeed the law requires that it might have a full and compleat righteousness in us So that briefly these are the Lessons which I shall open from hence which I desire
but people that in their ordinary course go with a great deal of contentment in evil wayes But though this be true that this is comprehended in walking after the flesh yet this is very lame and short of the full and whole meaning of this place I say it is not the main nor chief meaning of this place it is not primarily not principally meant this is a truth and it will follow as a necessary consequence as I shall shew anon and I doubt not but the Apostle means it when he saith We walk not according to the flesh because in Rom. 6. he takes a great deal of pains in that point but I think this is not the chief meaning My Reasons are these First because I finde that the very scope of this learned Epistle is different if not almost contrary to this his scope is not to quarrel with them for want of doing good works and for walking in sinful works but the scope of it is to beat them off from their own works and to bring them to Christ and therefore he saith Abraham was justified without works he all along disparageth their works as they did them Therefore I think he doth not go so far from his text or from his scope as to make this the main business their sanctification or holiness the not walking in evil or the walking in good works Secondly this cannot be the chief scope of the place because if you take these words They that walk after the flesh in this sense that is those that follow sinful courses if you take them so that none but such as walk holily have a right to Jesus Christ and his righteousness Or if you take them in this sense that they onely that walk in a holy life can come to know that they have the righteousness of Christ fulfilling the law for them neither of these can hold 1. For the first that no man can have to do with Christ or his righteousness but that man that walks according to the Spirit that walks in a holy way and not in sinful courses this is contrary to the stream of the Gospel Why Because the Gospel all along offers Christ to sinners to the chief of sinners to aliens and to the ungodly 2. Then again if this were so sanctification should be before justification a man must be holy before he should be justified As for the latter sense to wit that the Apostle should mean this that no man can know any other way that the righteousness of Christ did belong to him but onely by not walking after the flesh or by walking after the Spirit this cannot be neither for however we may know a little in a way of sense by our walking yet the main way to know our justification is the same way that we come by justification for Faith is the evidence of things not seen The main evidence whereby I know I am justified is because the word of faith saith so the word tells me and faith evidenceth it that faith that I believe by it shews me that I believe Therefore though I be inconstant in my way of grace that to sense shews me a little yet it doth not solely and chiefly and primarily So that this is the substance of it that that sense which godly reverend men give of this place it is true but it is not all nor the first and the chief part of the meaning of it Secondly flesh in the Scriptures and so here and in divers other places it may be understood concerning the Priviledges those various Prerogatives and Priviledges that the people of God the Israelites had in a natural fleshly way from generation to generation Being born of such Parents of such Tribes they had such priviledges belonging to them they had the Oracles and the Covenants and the Tables c. and this is called flesh and I doubt not but the Apostle had this in his eye Saith he The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us that walk not after the flesh As if he had said Do not think because you are of the seed of Abraham or because you have the Covenants and Circumcision and that you are born of such Parents that therefore you shall the sooner have this priviledge to have the law fulfilled take heed of that for now it springs from another root and it comes now in a Spiritual and not in a fleshly way as it did before for they had their mercies generally in the Old Testament according to the flesh that is by generation Isaac as he was Abrahams Son and Jacob his Son c. but now it is in a spiritual way Now that flesh is so taken in Scripture I will give you that one place in Phil. 3. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh saith Paul If any man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh I more What doth he mean by flesh here He tells you Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the Tribe of Benjamin an Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting the Church touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless As if he had said I had all the priviledges if any man might boast in the flesh I might I am an Hebrew of the Hebrews a Gentleman of the best descent c. So in 2 Cor. 11. 18. Seeing that many glory after the flesh I will glory also ye suffer fools gladly Wherein any is bold I am bold also Are they Hebrews so am I. Are they Israelites so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham so am I. They had priviledges being Israelites more then other people and this is called flesh So I am confident that the Apostle had this in his eye in a special manner when he saith They that walk not according to the flesh And you shall finde that they attributed all priviledges to them because they were Israelites as you see in Mat. 3. say they We are the children of Abraham Saith John Baptist Ye are a generation of Vipers And so in Joh. 8. say they We are free men we are the sons of Abraham saith Christ Ye are of your father the Devil See the Gospel takes away that fleshliness and puts all in another stream and course and way The Apostle aims at that here when he saith Those that walk not according to the flesh As if he had said You shall never have this righteousness to satisfie the law the sooner because you are the Sons of Abraham no more then if you were Scythians or Barbarians Thirdly and lastly the main and chief meaning of this place is this though the other be included when the Apostle saith Those that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit By flesh here the Apostle means walking according to the old Covenant according to the Covenant of Works in the way of the law and by Spirit is meant walking in the way of faith
instruments to sin Shall we turn all this into speculation No certainly there is some eminent reall holiness and power against sin that they had not before therefore saith he What pleasure had you in those things whereof ye are now ashamed those sins that you committed before you are now ashamed of them And let me look a little upon my own soul or appeal to you Take any man or woman that understands what it is to be under the law what it is to walk according to the Covenant of works and according to the flesh and what covenants and resolutions and promises and fastings he had and let him look upon himself what he is now since he hath known a little of Christ and hath known that he is a justified person and that he is dead to the law and the like I appeal to you whether you do not feel a strange power in your souls killing and subduing sin that you never imagined before or almost hoped to have There are some Saints that I know that when they came to know a little of Jesus Christ they have found a power to subdue their sins that they did not hope for in their other condition they were so strong it is an eminent power A poor Saint that sees another tugging and striving and wrastling and bustling with his corruptions he knows that there is a sweet power in his soul that pulls down the highest and proudest imaginations As a godly man saith There is as much difference between a man thaâ— walks after the flesh according to the law and he that walks according to the Spirit as between a man that is in a great Lyter or in a great Boat that is fast upon the Sand and there are it may be a dozen or twenty men tugging and striving to get it off and yet it sticks and another man that is in a Boat upon the water and needs onely to hoist sail and sit down and it is gone he goes with wind and tide So a man that walks according to grace he can go as a childe and speak loving and plain words to his Father and get power over his sins that all the howling and roaring and crying of another a whole year together cannot do It is so and all you that know what grace is know it That is one thing therefore consider this if thou walk according to the Spirit thou art dead to sin that is in respect of the condemnation and guilt of it thou hearest that Christ hath fulfilled the law and that sin is done away And secondly in respect of the power of it thou canst look upon it as a dying gasping thing that must die and thou canst tread on it through the death of Christ Thirdly thou findest no lust so strong in thy soul but thou canst ordinarily bring it down thou canst bring it to the obedience of Jesus Christ another man may throw his cap at his sins and be wishing and woulding all the year long but there are strong lusts in his soul that will not out Therefore saith the Apostle when you walked according to the law the motions of sin brought forth fruit unto death inevitably it will be so Then further you shall find the fruits of walking according to the Spirit I will but name them to you and wish you to consider of them You have many set down in this 8th to the Romans When a man walks according to the Spirit you shall see this is one fruit of it A Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God for ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father That is one fruit of it as soon as a man comes to walk according to the Spirit he hath not a spirit of bondage any more What is that It is nothing but this a temper of soul like a slave just as you may conceive of a man that is taken Prisoner in Turkie what temper he is of he is glad of a Crust of bread and he fears whipping and beating and it may be killing such is the temper of a mans soul in a spirit of bondage when one is in such a temper that he is alwayes in fear of being whipped and scourged and he hath hard thoughts of God and he fears that he shall prove an hypocrite and the like Now saith the Apostle we have not that spirit but we have the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father that is there is a sweet temper such as is in a loving childe to his dear Father there is a boldness a love and delight and rejoycing and a sweetness c. This is one fruit of it therefore as far as thou art under horrour and moping and howling and crying thou comest short of walking according to the Spirit for thy soul would be alway full of sweetness in the greatest affliction if there were a Spirit of Adoption and under the worst sins thou doest commit though there would be sorrow yet thou wouldest be full of sweetness and joy That is one thing Again another fruit and consequent of it is that the Spirit of God bears witness with our Spirits that we are the children of God If thou wilt be led by the Spirit and walk after the Spirit the Spirit of God will witness with thy spirit that thou art the childe of God What is that the meaning of it is this as I understand the Spirit of God will raise up my spirit to be able to see and know that I am the childe of God for the spirit of a man knows the natural things of a man and no more but the Spirit of God witnesseth with my spirit that I am the childe of God that is he raiseth up my spirit whereby I may see and know that I am the childe of God that as before by my own spirit I was able to know whether I were poor or rich whether I were sick or well whether I were beloved or hated so now my spirit is raised up by the Spirit of God I am able to reflect upon my self spiritually and look upon my self as beloved and chosen and holy and called and justified and this is a spiritual way Thirdly here is another expression of it and that is an earnest hope or expectation of the glory that is to be revealed I finde and observe little of that to be in Professors and I have oft marvelled at it and the reason is Because they have not the Spirit of Adoption and walk not fully according to the Spirit therefore they are not filled with those expectations and those earnest desires that the Saints were ordinarily in the Primitive times Saith the Apostle in this Chapter The creature groaneth and desires to be delivered and not onely they but we our selves which have the first-fruits of the Spirit we groan within our selves
Adam but not this as for instance there are divers things we finde among Professors that in the last day will be found to be nothing but the old Adam but Ishmaels that are humbled to the height and ye shall see in them a great deal of diligence in Gods service but where will you finde a Professor one of 500. and I speak with the least that you may clearly reade Gospel-goodness in him that you may say yonder is a man that if you curse him he will love you and if you do him hurt and that despitefully he will pray for you It is an easie thing to kindle a brand that hath been once lighted to do that which Adam did but to do this is a higher matter As man was created after the Image of God so the Creatures in a sort were created after the image of man now as in Creatures in a Dog there is love and the like But where is there a creature that if you do him mischief will not endeavour to do you the like again or at least wise run away But where is a piece in the old Creation that doth love his Enemies And whereas it is said Adam was created after the Image of God and God loves his Enemies I answer God then in that Covenant was not in a disposition to love his Enemies but to hate his Enemies and sinners and curse them and damn them but now in Jesus Christ he loves his Enemies and therefore according to his minde he revealed to Adam it was not so and many other reasons I had but this I present to you with submission I do not speak curiosities but I finde and see very little of this scarcely any there was a candid goodness in the Primitive Church which is not now to be which is not now to be found now nothing but biting and tearing and devouring one another well there is one word he doth it by a spirittal Creation Then Secondly he brings the soul to this way of spiritual reasoning by spiritual illumination he created faculties before and now he casteth in Light as he did in the old Creation you know he made Heaven and Earth in the lump and then said Let there be Light Now that is the reason when the Gospel is preached and there is the spirit of God going with the Word and thou art dark and canst not receive this light the new Creature is not framed in thee if thou hast no eyes thou canst not see and if a man have eyes he cannot see in a dark room Now when the new man is made then the Lord sends in light and it is not every light for there are many Lights a blinde man as it were an Hypocrite hath them but it is a powerful Light that God puts in for we do finde that there is a kinde of Light in Hypocrites but yet there is no power in them there is not Light to bring them to such kinde of reasoning as will bring them to any good or from any evil they will talk of Drunkenness and Whoredome and the like but have not power to bring them off from any of these things indeed a Saint may be overcome of his Lusts that war in his members but there is a Law in his minde that is there is a Light that is like unto a Law that hath power in it that he seeth Christ doing them away I am sorry I have not time to open this unto you further but remember it Thirdly the Lord will do it by suggestion that is the spirit of God puts light into the soul he puts a measure of light to dwell in every new creature and that powerfully But because the way of the saints are so dark in this World and thorow so much difficulty the spirit of God prompts a Saint alwayes when he is at a loss As among Schollars we shall see sometimes a man is almost born down and then another giveth him an Argument or Distinction to help him and then he carries it and so the flesh hath reason and arguments as we are going along and now though there be a measure of light a stock of light dwelling in us yet we are nonplussed by the flesh and then the spirit of God suggesteth somewhat to us and we are carried thorow as you have it in Mat. 20. When you are brought before Governours it is not you that speak but the spirit of God that prompteth you Fourthly the spirit doth it by conviction that is another way we have it Joh. 16. saith Christ when I go I will send my spirit and my spirit shall convince the World of sin reprove you have it he shall convince the World of sin of righteousness and Judgement The word signifies when he saith the spirit will convince that is by way of Argument the meaning is that in every carnal mans heart there are arguments against faith and for his own destruction and strong ones too And when we preach to you ye bring reason against reason and so go away unconvinced unconverted but the spirit will convince you that is he will bring such strong arguments as Doctor PRESTON saith from Heaven that will convince you As when a stronger man cometh he disarmeth the other as before we thought godliness nothing but Heresie and Puritanism and the like but now the Spirit convinceth you you see this is the onely way and out of this way I shall never see God and the like 5. Another way I find the spirit doth it by is commemoration by minding us of what we have heard of somthing we have known before it it is our remembrancer Therefore saith Christ I will send my Spirit and he shall bring to your remembrance what you have heard not that you shall remember a whole Sermon and Repeat it every word but thus it is he will either suggest thoughts we never had before or bring to our remembrance a word we have heard of such a preacher in such a place or read in such a place or thought in such a walke or the like and so setteth on and carrieth on the worke 6. And he doth it by consolation he is the Comforter the consolation of the spirit Beloved this is certaine that ye know trouble of minde exceedingly hinders the acts of reason That is the reason men are mad because some fumes rise up in the braine and trouble the minde that they cannot reason but are mad Beloved our troubles of minde and soule they are like fumes that come up into the braine and distract us A spirituall man is many times as it were a distracted man there are so many sumes such horrour and guilt that he is almost stark mad he can talke of naturall things but in spirituall things he is as it were mad the Chaine of spirituall reason is broken and now the spirit is the Comforter and he quiets the the spirits and when a man is in a quiet temper the disease is gone and the reason
that our souls may feed upon First that The law requires of every man a righteousness to fulfill it Or that Every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfil the law of God Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That is one thing The second Lesson will be this that The law is perfectly fulfilled or satisfied in all true Believers And thirdly that All those that are true Believers or that have these Priviledges they are those that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit These are the three Lessons I shall speak of I say first The law requireth a righteousness from every man to fulfill it Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That is the first thing The grounds of that are these I shall but touch them Reas 1. Because that God made man man was his creature and the Lord was his Soveraign and when God made all Creatures you know he made laws for them he made a law for the Sun and Moon and Stars c. and every thing goes according to the law that God determined for it Now when God made man who was but his Creature though he were a more excellent Creature he made a law for him this blessed law of God which is in his Book here the Covenant of Works as it was sometimes called therefore as all other Creatures were bound to go in their course and keep their peculiar laws that God laid on them so man also was bound to keep the law of God that God made for him Reas 2. Another thing is this that besides the Soveraignty of God that might impose a law upon him there was secondly a Compact between God man and so there was a kind of bargain for God laid that law upon man and Adam as a publick person he undertook to keep that law by a contract or bargain If God as it were had had no right before to lay it on him yet now man undertook it by way of bargain to keep the law of God Adam first did it and might have done it and afterwards the people of Israel profess to do it All these words we will do we will keep them That is another Reason whereby it appears that every man and woman in the world is bound to fulfill the law of God Reas 3. Another thing is this if you consider what there is that might free a man from keeping a law that is laid upon him you shall see that there are none of those things that can help him in this As First of all our Laws many times are Repealed and that Law that a man was bound to keep a few years ago he is bound to protest against now as the Service-book the Common-Prayer c. there is that penalty now for using it as there was for not using it a few years since Now it is not so with the law of God Heaven and earth shall pass away but one jot or tittle of the law shall not pass That law is an eternal law there is no repealing of it Then secondly you know Judges and Law-givers among men may be corrupted and bribed and may be brought to dispense with their own Laws nay sometimes to go against their own laws but God is a just God and when his own Son the Son of his love did take upon him to be born under the law and to be a Surety for man he endured the smart of the law and was dealt with as if he had been another Then thirdly there is no evasion or escaping among men there is If a man break the Law and go into another Country he is clear and free but here is no escaping one cannot go away Whither shall I go from thy presence saith David Psal 139. where shall I hide my self from thee A man can go no where but the law of God will be on him So that every man and woman in the world are still bound to fulfill the whole law of God or to get a righteousness a perfect righteousness to satisfie the law of God Now there are but three wayes in the world to fulfill the law of God First Either a man must do it in his own person as most men do besides Papists more or less they will go and do their best and do the good leave the evil and perform duties and they think by their doing to keep the law Or else secondly by suffering that is partly in this world and afterwards in Hell for that is the business of Hell for Hell is nothing but the place where people are fulfilling the law of God What doth Cain and other wretches do in Hell They are paying the debt fulfilling the law of God to eternity by suffering because they did not fulfill it by doing while they were here That is the reason that they are in Hell for ever because they can never pay the debt therefore they must abide there for ever for if it could be supposed that they could give a compleat righteousness that might satisfie the law they should stay in Prison no longer they should be in Hell no more Then thirdly there is another glorious way that is in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ he hath kept the law and perfectly fulfilled it now a man by believing in Jesus Christ and by being united to him and married to him that in his own person hath fulfilled the law being married to him whatsoever he hath is yours and whatsoever he hath done it is as if it had been done by you all shall be imputed to you and so the law of God may be fulfilled in you perfectly and you shall never go to Hell and have nothing to do or to suffer in that kinde This being premised briefly the Use of this may be twofold Vse 1. To shew you what a vain and foolish thing it is for a man to go about to keep the law of God in his own strength or in his own person for you to think to save your Souls or to fulfill the righteousness of the law by your own doings Beloved it is a great matter to bring poor sinners to be awakened to see their sins or to break off their course in sin for there are many Drunkards and Swearers and jeerers of Religion and Prophaners of the Lords day that sit as sots all the year and are never awakened but generally when men are awakened out of their sins this is the resolution of all mankinde of every man none excepted unless God have mercy on him he is ready to say I see I am in a damnable way and thâ—s course will bring me to Hell by the grace of God I wil turn over a new leaf and now I will hear Sermons I was wont to jeer at them and I will get me a Practice of Piety or some other good Book I will have prayers in my house and I will be drunk no more and swear no more I will be a new man
he grounds his Saintship and his justification upon his holiness Now Beloved this is it that I would desire the Lord to bring you and me to to know that I am a just man onely by the righteousness that is in Christ that the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ and not partly by him and partly by me but onely and perfectly by him and I am called just but onely as or because I am united to him that hath gotten a perfect righteousness for me Then let me build my Justification upon that onely and not upon what I am not upon my temper or upon my graces or my gifts or the like take heed of that but let it be built wholly upon Jesus Christ his death and resurrection He was delivered for our offences and rose again for our justification Let us build upon that that we may come to this temper once to have our justification in a stock clearly in Jesus Christs hands that when we do good we may not imagine that we are a jot the more justified or when we fall or fail in good we may not conceive that we are a jot less justified then before that though one day we have our hearts inlarged to do good and to do more good in one day then it may be we did in a moneth before yet this goes not to the stock of my justification I am not one jot the more justified and sometimes God leaves the flesh and the remnants of sin that foil us and I will mourn for it and be humbled for it as a transgression against my father but I am not a jot more unjustified then I was before in the sight of God in regard of the Covenant of works that Christ hath fulfilled So thus I would have you do as your Merchants and Tradesmen in your City you have a certain Stock that you lock it may be in an iron Chest and that stock is the quick as you call it and you have besides so many pounds or so many hundreds that you turn and wind about through all the year as you have occasion but from the stock the quick you will not lay any thing out of that you will not touch that but lay out in expences and winde and turn the rest Just so I would have it with you that seeing justification is onely built on Christ and I have the word of faith to certifie me of it and the Spirit of faith to shew it me within I would not have my good or evil to be an ingredient into that but leave that as a stock clearly in the hands of Jesus Christ Or as we see a maid or woman that spins she holds one hand steady and turns about the wheel with the other so our justification we should hold it steady for it is not built at all upon any thing that is in us but let us turn and winde the rest that is Sanctification we must strive against sin and mourn for it but leave justification wholly to Christ for it is not built on me but is onely by the death and resurrection of Christ Therefore as Christ saith Luk. 18. when we have done all the good we can say we are unprofitable servants I have not gotten one farthing to day nor in all my life to help to fulfill the law of God or to help to my justification that is onely in the hands of Christ that is my quick my cash my stock and when thou failest and seest lusts and pride and wantonness arise in thee say this hath no influence to hinder my justification it is no ingredient into that that is built upon another thing it is wholly in Christ and his righteousness he hath fulfilled the law and I am just by marriage and by union with him Therefore I will go and take my sins and mourn for them desire God to cleanse me from them but I must hold the quick still hold justification untouched and unshaken and unmoveable in the hands of Jesus Christ I shall leave the inlargement of this and other things till the Afternoon SERMON II. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere are three Lessons that we should learn from these words The first is implied That the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God That we have already done with Secondly That the Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Believers Thirdly That true Believers are they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second That the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something further to what I said if God will The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in every true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himself that can say the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousness to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to us wisdome righteousness sanctification and redemption then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by virtue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousness of the law through Christ is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every peny-worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poor Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the week and all the year long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devil to arrest him for one peny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law and that is the reason also that the Apostle three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousness
London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappy graceless childe then a man can call himself fool and be angry with himself and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourn for sin you think there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flaws in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flaws of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horrour in your souls and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sins and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chinks in a wall we think to dawb up the flaws and cracks of justification this way Whereas we should look on justification as a thing intire in the hands of Christ that we have nothing to do in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that we have in it is onely by faith as Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousness of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to do for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth at the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianity I have seen people quarrel with themselves and complain O I have a hard heart and I desire the Preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weakness you will go and confess your sins and strive to break your hearts and mourn for your worldliness and your pride and frowardness and yet it will not do but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to go and reform to morrow and to turn over a new leaf to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as Cash in the cupboard not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will finde your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to pieces when you have done the least evil against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know those things that now you know not nor cannot know Therefore labour to learn that lesson it is one of the greatest Mysteries in the world and that is the reason that carnal people carp at these things What greater Mystery then for me being a just and righteous man through Christ yet to be so sinful that I can say there is none more sinful and yet I am as righteous as Abraham or Paul in respect of the righteousness of Christ I have as large a share as Abraham or Paul and yet I am full of sin A Christian knows this and he knows how it is so Well that is one lesson consider of it that you may know where to plant your justification upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ The Lord teach it to you and me Secondly if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled in all that are believers through Jesus Christ Then all you that are Saints all you that believe in Jesus Christ labour to see the glorious condition that you are in that you may be able to reflect upon your selves not according to what you are out of Christ but what you are considered to be as Members of Jesus Christ as united to Jesus Christ Therefore you shall have Paul and it doth me good to see his spirit he never reckons himself as in himself but as in Jesus Christ I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can do this and that and all in Christ So I must never conceive of God out of Christ nor of my self out of Christ I must never conceive of my self and Christ as two but I should endeavour clearly and constantly that whatsoever good there is in Christ it is mine as if it were in mine own person And so we should have our spirits raised above the temptations of the world and above the afflictions of the world and above corruptions It is a pitiful thing to see poor Professors there is not one of many but they are ordinarily below temptations and they lye under burdens and are below their sins nay there are many Professors that are more sad and drooping then carnal people Surely this was not the way of those Saints that we reade of in the New Testament they had glorious spirits how do you think else they could go to the Stocks and to Prisons and from one Compter to another and have their spirits so raised and yet sometimes were to die the next morning for ought they knew Your spirits will never be heightned and raised to live the life of Paul by beholding any thing that is in you personally in your possession but what you are by relation and marriage to Christ Reckon your selves dead with Christ and so conceive I am a just man I was bound once to the law of God a terrible law and there are thousands in Hell paying the debt and cannot pay it and yet I have paid every farthing and the law cannot ask me more I have offered a perfect righteousness and I am now sitting at Gods right hand in Heaven by my union with Jesus Christ This is the life of faith that we may be able to triumph over all these things below from our justification as Paul doth Rom. 8. It is God that justifieth and who shall condemn Who shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus shall tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or peril
or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed tribulation and hunger and famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerors saith Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neither death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachi it is said that in the time of the Gospel they shall tread their enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory As if he had said You that have received Jesus Christ I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory He jeers the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven it is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us victory for the present I have already over come Hell and Death and the Devil for all hangs on the law the law is Gods Writ and the Devil is Gods Sergeant that executes that Writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled Death and Hell and the Devil have nothing to do with me So in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification And then it follows Chap. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoice in tribulation and affliction Why because we are justified by Christs death and resurrection O what kinde of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this world under our feet the evils of this world and the comforts of the world How should we insult and triumph over the Devil and over Death and Hell for all their power as I said is from the law and if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled then all our enemies are subdued and all is clear Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no natural inbred hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full enjoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance between the Creatures and God whether Men or Devils Now then if I can say though I be a sinful man yet Jesus Christ hath fulfilled the law the law hath a full righteousness to a farthing then I know I am one with God he is wholly for me and I for him and all the enemies of my Salvation are conquered Now if the Lord would open your eyes to understand the hope of your calling the glorious condition you are brought into you would not walk so weakly and poorly and sadly and dejectedly that every thing should cast you down but you would go on and trample all the world under your feet we should be above men and Devils and the world and every thing if we did but understand to what a glorious estate God hath called us in this world through Jesus Christ Therefore a man reflecting upon his justification as he may look upon himself and account himself something so he may account Death and Hell and all subdued and he may account that the law cannot demand a farthing of him That whereas the breach of the law kept us from communion with God that being taken away we are as righteous as if we had never fallen O glorious condition There Paul Eph. 1. he prayes that they might know the riches and hope of their calling that is that they might understand what this glorious calling is that God hath called us to That is a second Lesson we should learn hence First seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us we should learn how to build our Justification aright how to lay the foundation of it And secondly we should endeavour to get our spirits raised like people that are freed from the law Vse 3. Thirdly and there I shall end for this time being freely and fully justified by the grace of Jesus Christ this should follow to any one that understands it that therefore we should study and learn to conform our selves in our hearts and lives out of love to the will of God There comes in holiness and there it comes in amain and never before all before is nothing but bungling but then it comes rightly We should I say conform our selves to the Example and to the Rule of Jesus Christ in his Gospel And that you may understand that you must know that every man in this world hath a rule to walk by And there are but three great Rules and all men do and must conform to one of these three for there is no man that doth an action but it is in reference to a Rule 1. Now you have one Rule in 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the lusts of your former ignorance which shews that once they did conform themselves they did fashion themselves unto their lusts but saith he now God hath justified you you must not conform your selves to your lusts Most of mankinde make their lusts their rule which the Prophet calls in Scripture to do that which is right in their own eyes to do what is their minde what they like in their own minde and as that worthy Dr. Preston saith they think when they are in their beds what place they shall go to and where they shall spend their time and when they are up they do that which is right in their own eyes what they have a lust to when they have a lust to be drunk they will be drunk when they have a lust to be filthy they will be filthy when they have a lust to be idle or a lust to be malicious against their neighbours they will be so So that the stirrings of their lusts are their rule and their whole life
is nothing but a transforming them from one lust another Saith Peter you must not do so but as obedient children if God have justified you if Christ have fulfilled the law perfectly for you that you dare Sin and Hell and Satan and tread all under feet doth it become you to fashion your hearts and lives to your lusts Is that a good rule no you must not do so 2. Another Rule is this world Rom. 12. 2. Be not conformed to this world It is the Copy of many men the Looking-glass that they dress themselves by every day how to square it in the world how to keep their port with their Neighbours and Gentlemen they converse with and with great men that have command of them and with their fellow-Officers c. And so women how they may go brave as their Neighbours do and get credit in their eyes So most people their main Rule is they care not whether it please God and conform them to his Son at all so they can keep correspondency with the world now you must not do so for they are yet in their sins poor wretches therefore let them conform to their lusts and they that are of the world let them conform to it but 3. Since God hath redeemed you from the wicked world by the blood of his Son and hath brought you to this condition and bestowed glorious and unspeakable Priviledges on you you should conform your selves to the Image and Example of Jesus Christ and to the Rules of Jesus Christ in the New Testament in all your actions and wayes You cannot write without looking on your Copie the best Saint cannot write one line without viewing and looking on his Copy for every letter For all your actions you are to have two things in your eye that you may do the action right and carry your selves right 1. Either eye Jesus Christ and his Example how would Christ have done if he had been here what did Christ do in the like case in the Gospel So by eying that there will be a power as in Jacobs sheep by beholding the rods the Spirit of God will convey a power looking upon the picture that is before us that is Jesus Christ to transform us into his likeness Or 2. Think of the Rules of Jesus Christ the Rules of the New Testament this blessed Word Have frequent recourse to the Spiritual Rules of the New Testament that should be your Copy When any case comes follow not your lusts and act not according to the wisdome of the flesh to say this or that I will do but consider what is your Rule you walk by another Rule What have I to do what such a man and such a man doth but what is my Rule how must I carry my self As for instance when you come among people that rejoice for any mercy what is the Rule Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep It may be a man hath received great unkindness and is wrong'd by him that he hath been most kinde to of all the men of the world and yet he proves most ungrateful if a man should go to flesh and blood he would hate and abhor him and not indure him man in his best naturals would not bear it he would not bear ungratefulness and wrong but labour to requite it But what is the Rule The Lord is good to the wicked and unthankeful therefore Lend freely looking for nothing again Presently God will bring a Spiritual Rule to your minde and God will give you power to do it And so suppose a man should charge and challenge you with a debt and would you pay such a debt you perhaps know no such thing and are perswaded of the contrary What now You know what most men think I will never pay him I were a fool if I should give away my estate and be a beggar when I have done but what is the rule If thine enemy sue thee at the law and take away thy cloke give him thy coat also A Christian comes to this law he consults not with flesh and blood when a case comes but he thinks what is the rule in this case But all the misery is you will be fingering with justification which you should leave alone upon Christs death and refurrection you should be working out your holiness every day that should be your way God will bring it in So when a woman is putting on her clothes and making her fine clothes and thinks to be as fine as her neighbours she should think but what is my Rule Not to conform my self to others in embroidered hair and fine apparel and gold but with the ornament of a meek spirit So you have the New Testament full for every case there is something that will direct and lead you that thereby you may conform to Jesus Christ I give you but general instances if God open your eyes to see your glorious condition in the New Testament you must resolve on this to walk according to the copy and the rules of it that in any case you may ask What is my rule as I am a Christian as I am a free man one with God that I may walk by it Now I exhort you to this because if a thousand Devils should preach in stead of men and tell you what the Torments of Hell are all would not be so great a motive by half to walk holily as to tell you that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled by Christ that you are righteous and just and all your sins are done away by Christ Therefore O love him and live to him comform to your copy Let your Neighbours conform to their copy to the World and others conform to their lusts as too many do but do you conform to Jesus Christ Think what would Christ do if he had my opportunity what would he have taken in hand And whatever occasion you have with God or man ask What is my rule in the New Testament and conform to that Blessed is the man or woman to whom God gives a heart so to do There remains one word more of this and the third Lesson which is the principal thing the description of those persons that have this Priviledge They walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit But because the time is gone and my strength also I shall leave that till God give another opportunity SERMON III. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere were three Lessons that we may learn from these words The first is implied namely That the righteousness of the law must be fulfilled by every man Or Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God And Secondly That the Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Believers And Thirdly That true Believers are they who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We were the last time
upon the second we have proved it and opened the Point and have made some use of it First that from hence we may learn where our justification lieth and whereon it is built not upon any thing in us or done by us but only upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ Secondly hence all that are Saints all that believe in Jesus Christ should labour to see the glorious condition they are in by Christ Thirdly we should learn being justified freely and fully by the grace of Jesus Christ to conform our selves in our hearts and lives to the Example of Jesus Christ and to his Rules in the Gospel Vse 4. I shall adde but one word more from this Lesson that is that seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them that believe you may hence see that none are further from Antinomianism then those that are true believers those that are godly Saints You have a great stir concerning Antinomians what they should be it is one that is against the law that is the signification of the Greek word Now the question is Who is most against the law of God I do not deny but there are some and they may be called Antinomians though we should not miscall people yet they deserve it But now a Saint that is in Christ he is not an Antinomian he is not against the law because he hath satisfied the law Every man must pay the law and they that would fulfill the law with their own righteousness they do the law wrong they that do most here and they that suffer most in Hell they can never satisfie the law But a Christian hath satisfied the law because he hath given it a perfect righteousness Now if a man should owe Ten thousand pounds and he had but Fifty shillings a year coming in and it may be one year he payes ten shillings another year he payes a Noble and another year three pence yet he payes as well as he can But now suppose there come a Surety and he payes the whole Ten thousand pound and he saith to the Creditor You shall be paid no more by three pences but you shall receive the whole sum what do you think is not that better So there are none that satisfie the law so roundly and fulfil it so perfectly as he that relinquisheth all that is in him and layes hold on Jesus Christ and in him payes God to a farthing Therefore when Paul is proving strongly that we are justified by Christ and not by the law saith he We take not away the law but we establish the law This is a better way of fulfilling the law then any other All the damned men in Hell and all the Pharisees on Earth cannot satisfie the law so well as one poor sinner that believes in Jesus Christ And so for matter of practice a man that believes in Jesus Christ he walks more strictly then any Pharisee can for he looks not only what is lawful but what is convenient he walks by a more sublime excellent rule A Pharisee looks only what is lawful and what is not lawful but a Christian he looks what is exact and expedient Take any man that knows what it is to be justified by Christ and that man goes a thousand-fold further then another for a man that would be saved by his own fulfilling of the law if he cannot come up to the law he will bring the law down to him As a man that hath a heavy burthen if it be too heavy for him he will cast off some of it so when a man goes about to keep the law and findes it too heavy for him he will throw away some and cut out a part and make a carnal gross law and endeavour to keep that Now a man that is justified by Christ he knows that the law must be satisfied and so he takes it in the purest spirituality and goes to Christ Jesus and he hath satisfied all So much briefly for the second Lesson Now I shall enter a little upon the third as far as the Lord shall give strength and time Those that believe and have this great Priviledge which is the foundation of all others to have the law perfectly fulfilled for them in Christ they are here described to be such as walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit So in the third place take this Doctrine or Lesson Doct. 3. That they and they onely that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit are partakers of this Priviledge to have the benefit of the righteousness of Christ to fulfill the law of God for them I say they and they onely have it for it excludes all other The Scripture doth not onely set it down positively as it saith Go baptize all nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therefore we may conclude thence that we may baptize those that are disciples but from that place to gather this Doctrine That they and they onely are to be baptized cannot be right but here I say it is they and they onely Why so because we see after those that walk according to the flesh shall die the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled for them for then they should never die nor be damned they that walk after the Spirit and they onely have this Priviledge Now the main business that I shall endeavour at this time will be onely to open to you these two words What iâ— is to walk And what is meant by flesh and what by Spirit For if we understand what it is to walk according to the flesh we shall easily understand what it is to walk according to the Spirit Concerning the former word to walk I shall say but little because you understand it To walk is a general word in this place it is of a great extent and comprehends a mans whole course and way and practice A man who goes or converseth whose course and way is according to the flesh whatsoever that flesh is as we shall see afterwards such a man walks Therefore it is oft set down in Scripture by several expressions They that are after the law and they of the concision c. Put what words you will so they be general enough they whose thoughts and words and courses are that way they are they that are said to walk There are three words in the Original for walking and of those three the word here is of the largest extent To walk according to the flesh what is the meaning of that I shall be a little larger in opening of this I will not trouble you with the various acceptations of the word flesh You know there is a literal sense of it and by a Synecdoche it is put for the whole person Soul and Body and there is a Metonymicall acceptatoin of flesh I will give them a heart of flesh it is called flesh for softness and there is a Metaphorical
or in the way of the Gospel or in the way of Christ There be divers expressions in Scripture that help us to understand it as Rom. 4. 14. it is called They that are of the law that is those that walk according to the law In Gal. 3. there are two or three phrases Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith The walking according to the Spirit is the hearing of faith and it is twice there they that are of faith they that are of faith To be of faith and to walk according to the Spirit is the same to be of the law or of circumcision is to walk according to the flesh In Rom. 10. 5. The righteousness which is of the law saith on this wise The righteousness of the law that is the way of the law that Scripture sets out the way of those that walk according to the Covenant of Works now the way of the law is the same as walking after the flesh and faith he The righteousness of faith saith on this wise that is the grace of the Gospel or the way of faith So the meaning is this we hear of a glorious priviledge that the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us and there is no man in the world can get it by his own works or in reference to the Covenant of works no not Abraham himself but it is meerly by Jesus Christ Therefore if any of you think to have this righteousness fulfilled in him and go in the old way to Mount Sinai to the Covenant of Works he is deceived he shall never have it but by walking according to the Spirit no man can enjoy this priviledge by a Covenant of works by their own doing by seeking to fulfil the law of God by their own righteousness but they that walk after the Spirit as if he had said Do not mistake me it is a great priviledge to have the law fulfilled for you but it is not by your own strictness and zeal and though some of you go further then others yet none of you can attain the fulfilling of the law that way for all are come short Rom. 3. But it is those that walk after the Spirit that is those that seek it in a way of faith in another not in themselves those that seek it according to the principles and directions of the Gospel Now because I know this Expositions is harsh to many of you though I exclude not the other therefore I shall endeavour to shew you three things First I will prove clearly out of the Scriptures that this is the meaning Secondly I will give you a Reason why that is the chief meaning Thirdly I shall give you a few Reasons why the Apostle saith that they that walk according to the Covenant of works walk according to the flesh and they that go according to the way of faith walk according to the Spirit Concerning the first that flesh is often taken clearly in this sense I will give you some places of Scripture Gal. 3. 3. This I would learn of you Received you the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith Are ye so foolish that having begun in the Spirit are you now made perfect in the Flesh We see in Chap. 1. they are called to the grace of Christ through the Gospel Gospel principles were rightly and savingly practised among them and after there came some among them that perverted them and saith he Are ye so foolish that having begun in the Spirit and have had Christ crucified among you that now you will be made perfect by the flesh that now you will go and seek justification by your own works and go about to keep the law c. Another place is in Phil. 3. 4. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh and then he speaks of the priviledges of an Israelite and if you look further ver 7. I count all these loss that I may win Christ and be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the law but that which is of the faith of Christ So by the flesh he means the righteousness of the law which he throws away for the righteousness which is of faith Take another place Rom. 10. 5. compared with Rom. 6. 14. saith the Apostle Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law but under grace When you were under the law and walked after the flesh sin had dominion over you and you obeyed it Here is a parallel place for saith the Apostle When you were in the flesh the motions of sin by the law did work in your members When you were in the flesh that is when you were under the law then the motions of sin did work but now sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law you are not in the flesh you do not walk according to the flesh And that I suppose is the meaning of that Scripture 2 Pet. 2. 10. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly and to reserve the wicked to be punished but chiefly those that walk after the flesh in the lusts of uncleanness Now if you take walking after the flesh for sinful wayes it would be the same as if he had said There are divers people that walk wickedly but chiefly they that walk after the flesh for all people naturally walk after the flesh but these were a peculiar people that the Lord would bring judgements on and they walked according to the flesh Who were they They were most of them Jews they were Adams sons that walked in the old Covevenant chiefly they that walk according to the flesh that is the meaning of it or else he would not have said according to the flesh for every man naturally walks according to the flesh So in this Text Who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit and in ver 8. of this Chapter They that are in the flesh cannot please God Now I shall open that by another Scripture Heb. 11. 5. where it said that Enoch pleased God We reade of Enoch Gen. 5. 24. that he walked with God he walked not according to the flesh now saith the Apostle Without faith it is impossible to please God now he that walks in the flesh cannot please God Why so He that goes not in the way of faith by Jesus Christ he cannot please God By believing I please God by walking in the obedience of faith to God I and my works please God Now to please implies one was offended before all my doing cannot please God but my believing presenting to God a perfect righteousness by faith pleaseth God and then all my works are accepted There are two words for it in the Original one signifies to please one that hath been offended another is pleasingness with one that hath not offended as my childe pleaseth me though he have not offended me but the
other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you briefly some Scriptures to shew you that the flesh is taken in this sense Now the main Reason of it why I believe this to be the chief meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the chief drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speak without disparagement there is nothing more methodically laid down and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the Spirit The Reason is Because there is so great affinity and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and do his best according to the Law and not by the Gospel he shall be sure to walk sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinful and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so near that people were ready to speak non-sense that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no faith he sin is the transgression of the law So that a man that walks according to the law and not according to the way of the Gospel in spight of his heart he shall walk according to the flesh that is according to the lusts of nature he can never walk holily let him do what he can A second Reason why it is called flesh is in allusion to the two Sons of Abraham as we see in Gal. 4. 21. The Apostle there speaking of these two Covenants he saith Abraham had two sons the one by a bond-maid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise which things are an allegory or a comparison for these are the two Covenants the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all He is proving that the old Covenant was to be done away Agar was to be thrown out with her children He proves that those two Sons of Abraham Ishmael and Isaac were types of the two Covenants that God made with mankinde the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace Now the Covenant of Works he compares to Ishmael that was born after the flesh as other children were Abraham went in to Hagar and she conceived and bare a childe as other women but Isaac was not born after the flesh all fleshly wayes could not produce Isaac he was a childe of Promise and the Spirit of God breathing in the promise and working mightily in Abraham and Sarah Isaac was produced This is an Allegory there is a great Mysterie that you think not of when you reade of Ishmael and Isaac By Ishmael is meant the Covenant of Works and the principles of it and the practitioners of it and they walk according to the flesh as Ishmael did and by Isaac is meant the Covenant of Grace and those that go that way are children of the promise as Isaac was So God hath set this Comparison and I conceive the Apostle alludes to it and calls it a walking according to the flesh As if he had said Thou shalt never have this righteousness by walking in the way of thy father Ishmael by Mount Sinai in Arabia by walking in the law to turn away the wrath of God but if thou wilt get this righteousness thou must walk according to the Spirit thou must get the Spirit and be a childe of promise The third and last Reason that I shall give why it is called walking according to the Flesh is because of weakness for flesh is put for weakness as the Scripture saith They are Flesh and not Spirit that is they are poor weak things so those that walk in that way in the way of the law they are weak creatures there is nothing but wishing and woulding and covenanting and promising and protesting and vexing and fretting but there is no strength Now one Saint that is truly planted in Christ and the Gospel hath truly taken place in his heart he hath more strength then five hundred of the other Saith Paul I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can go to prison freely I can rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn Because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ and works effectually the same Spirit dwells in us and works in us Therefore that is the meaning of it They that walk after the flesh that is they that go after the law they are weak they tug and are never the nearer Heaven and if they should live a thousand years they would be no better but wishers and woulders and say I have a good desire to do as the Preacher saith but I have no power Vse Let me conclude with one word of Use from all this that hath been said which I hope you will consider of From this Doctrine thus opened you may hence see the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ verified and made good that few shall enter into the kingdome of Heaven Doubtless Paul did not look on sinners and Saints as we do we account every Professor let his principles be what they will either from the first or second Adam if he begin to leave sin and to perform duties we account him a good man But when the Lord comes to judge he will look further and examine us and will I fear finde abundance that shall never enter into the kingdome of Heaven even of those that follow good old Adam I mean there are abundance of Professors that have left corrupt Adam in his grossness and follow good old Adam that is a sprig from that they will abstain from sins and they will perform duties and they will do no wrong and all is but old Adam still Therefore you that are Professors look to your selves for the Lords sake I am mistaken if there be not many hundreds of us that will be found the Sons of Ishmael at the last day many that make a great Profession and many that make a greater Profession then others that are honest spiritual Saints before the world before men for when a man goes to keep the law every light that comes into his
soul intends his resolution every thing intends it in that course he is in and he may go to the highest and be the greatest Professor and be ready for all duties and yet be found a stranger to Jesus Christ therefore look to your selves I remember Mr. Bolton that blessed man he divides the World for the fewness of them that shall be saved saith he the greatest part of the World two or three parts of it are most intire Heathens In Europe here we have the most part Papists and but a few that are Protestants and among those parts there are few that profess Religion and among those that profess Religion there are very few that do it in truth as another godly man saith take a multitude of Professors that have been bred under the law that have been bred on Mount Sinai take a Congregation of such Professors as there be many such in England and let the Gospel come and be Preached rightly among them to translate them let a Minister of the Gospel come and say there is no damnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and you are justified freely and Christ hath fulfilled the law and all is clear whereas before there were fears lest they were not righteous and they did work hard now let a man labour to draw them to the Gospel and to plant Christ and the principles of Christ in their hearts and I fear that there is not one in ten but will miscarry in the removing as you finde it often with your Trees when you remove and transplant them I say abundance of those Professors will come to nothing for when the fear of Hell and damnation is gone from their Conscience when the Whip is gone they will turn the grace of God into wantonness Nay some will turn down-right enemies and persecutors of the Gospel as the Pharisees and of those that would come in in all probability in removing and translating them from the law to the Gospel there is not one in ten but would turn the grace of God into wantonness and there goes all their Religion The way to Heaven is narrow our Lord Christ saith and I think it will be found far more narrow then we conceive of it Therefore as another godly man saith we are exceedingly mistaken in judging of Professors we look upon them and those that begin to amend from their sins we call them Professors But this is the true way of judging that there are but two Roots in the world the Old Adam and the New Adam there are but two Covenants Sinai and Jerusalem there are but two wayes of walking After the flesh and after the Spirit after the Law and after the Gospel Now I judge him to be a Saint and a Believer and God calls and owns him as a Saint though he be weak and be not so glorious in the eye of the world as many formal Professors yet if I see any principles of the Gospel in him if there be a little of Christ in him in power though it be but in a little measure and he can pray but a little and he cannot keep Fasting dayes and dayes of Humiliation so plausibly as many that make a trade of it in this City yet if that prayer and repeating and reading and hearing or preaching or whatsoever it be if it flow from the Lord Jesus Christ as a natural man knows natural things so one Saint knows another the Spirit of God knows the things of God It is true we all of us have a great deal of flesh and there is somewhat of good old Adam as well as of corrupted Adam but surely we ought not to conceive him to be a Saint let him be never so glorious in the eye of the world and in the performance of duties if there be not somewhat of Christ in him You may see a poor despicable creature and see a great deal of Christ in him and on the other side you may see great Professors that are Ringleaders of others and yet there is not one jot of Christ in them but all is Old Adam screwed up in his brave parts and all is but flesh a little more refined and he that is flesh and all that is flesh cannot inherit the kingdome of God Look to your selves seriously especially you that are most eminent that think best of your selves that are ancient Professors unless you look to your selves you may take a great deal of pains and when all comes to all after all your praying and fasting and repeating and preaching you may be found to be nothing in the world but men that walk according to the flesh that is according to the refined and well educated principles of Old Adam you may be Ishmaels and be built upon Mount Sinai when all is done Therefore I say we may hence learn to judge rightly of persons who are Saints and who are not who are the children of God and who are not For in most things we do not judge rightly we do not judge as God judgeth We usually judge of men and things according to natural wisdome or according to some distinctions and definitions that we have of things in that natural divinity we have As for instance If a man leave his drunkenness and whoredome and come up to some kinde of holiness in his life in appearance if he come to hear Sermons and repeat them and pray a little in his Family that man we call a Saint a godly man and it may be he may be so and it may be not so Now the way that God judgeth of all men is as they are children either of the Old or of the New Adam and not according to such a proportion of strictness in their lives for the Pharisees went beyond many weak Professors in common righteousness And this should be a main ground of our communion and fellowship and delight in others whether in Churches or otherwise It should not be grounded on this If such a man be of my opinion in such things if he agree with me he is for me and another that agrees with another he is for him These kinde of Communions will prove nothing but Faction in the end But the true Communion is when Saints together keep Fellowship Church-fellowship or other upon Spiritual grounds that is when Christ in his Soul and Christ in mine close together this is the main ground that makes Communion and Fellowship whatsoever comes in besides that is additional but if there be a Communion of people without this I say it will prove but Faction but walking according to the flesh I should shew now what course we should take to bring our selves to Spiritual walking And secondly what they should do that God hath brought up in some measure to this condition But I leave that till God give another opportunity SERMON IV. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THere were three
Lessons that the Lord did teach us from these words The first is implied in the beginning of the Verse That every man is bound to get him a righteousness to fulfill the law of God And Secondly That all those that rightly believe in Christ have in them a righteousness perfectly to fulfull it And Thirdly That those that thus believe and have this great priviledge for it is the foundation of all others they are known or described by this They walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit The two former I have finished I entred upon the third the last day I opened it at large and proved it to you and came to make one Use of it Vse 1. That from hence we may learn how to judge of persons how to judge of those that are Saints and those that are not Saints not according to some kinde of holiness they may come up to but according to the principles they walk by either as they walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit For I told you there be divers Professors among us that it may be are eminent in the eye of the world before men yet when all comes to all their fasting and praying and preaching and repeating c. will be found to be nothing in the world but a walking according to the flesh that is according to the refined well educated principles of Old Adam But I shall go on a little further Vse 2. Therefore in the next place the Question will be How shall I know whether I walk according to the flesh or according to the Spirit How shall I know whether I be one of those that walk according to the Spirit I will onely give you a few Expressions of it I will not say signs for it may be you could not all bear that word and these expressions are most of them laid down in this Chapter and hereabout whereby you may have a guess of it whether you be the men that walk according to the Spirit or no. First you shall finde in Rom. 6. that those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit sin is destroyed in them they are dead to sin and alive to righteousness And there are many expressions of the same thing in divers phrases as in ver 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin If thou be a man that walkest according to the Spirit thou canst say the body of sin is destroyed and thou dost not serve sin Then it is said in ver 11. that those that are under grace they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God that is another expression And in ver 12. Sin shall not reign in their mortal bodies that they should obey it in the lusts thereof And in ver 13. Yield not your members as instruments of unrighteousness And in ver 14. Sin shall not have dominion over them So there are divers expressions of one and the same thing Now from all for I cannot open them particularly how much is held forth in each of these expressions but to help thee to see a little the state of thy Soul I would gather these three things from all these expressions there is I say meant by them these three things The first thing is this That those that walk according to grace and according to the Spirit sin is dead in them that is they are dead in respect of the guilt of sin they do see and understand in some measure that Jesus Christ by his death hath abolished and destroyed and done away all their sins in respect of the guilt of them they are not under the law in that respect They see that there is a full righteousness in Jesus Christ that hath satisfied the law and so their sins are done away that they shall never condemn them This is one thing Now a man that walks according to the flesh he sees not that neither can see it for these things are spiritual Now take a man that walks according to the flesh that is according to the most refined principles of Old Adam and he alway carries guilt upon his Conscience he will alway be as a man that is rolling of a Snow-ball the more he goes on in his service the more guilt and horrour But a man that walks according to the Spirit let him be weak or strong he sees this in some measure and probably for the most part that his sins are done away and that there is no condemnation to him because he is in Christ and believes in him therefore as it is Rom. 5. 7. He that is dead is freed from sin or justified from sin That is one thing Secondly in all these phrases this is held forth to us as I understand that a believer being planted into Christ for so he looks upon himself and ingrafted and united to Christ in respect of the power of sin he accounts it as dead that is when he sees any sin stirring in him he considers I am one with Christ I am planted with him in his death and resurrection and this sin was condemned when Christ was condemned and as sure as Christ did die this sin must die therefore he looks upon all his sins and lusts as things that are gasping for life as things that are ready to die and that will surely die as surely as Christ did die Another man that walks according to the law when he sees sin in him and findes lusts to rise in his soul he saith as David in another case Surely I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Surely I shall prove an Hypocrite one time or other this sin will break my neck and so he is discouraged and his heart is hardened But a man that is under grace that walks according to the Gospel let sin be never so strong and prevalent he looks on it as a condemned thing he can triumph over it when it is strongest and can say I know thou must be laid in the grave with Jesus Christ he reckons himself dead to sin That is another thing Thirdly and lastly from all these expressions here in Rom. 6. we gather this That surely all those that are under grace or that walk according to the Spirit in some eminent way are more holy and more freed from sin then once they were and then all those are that walk under the law in some eminent way I say they are more holy though I do not say there is no sin in them for then we should lie as John saith but certainly there is a power in their souls against sin that is exceedingly transcendent in respect of the best moral men in respect of the exactest men in the world that walk according to the law what else is the meaning of all this Ye are dead to sin and Sin shall not reign and have dominion over you and you shall not yield your members as
waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our body The meaning is there is no man knows what that glory is that is to be revealed nor no man what it is to look for it and expect it The word in the Original is as one saith as a woman looks for deliverance when her pains are on her Oh! she would fain be delivered or as a man in Prison that looks for his Friend out of a window he puts out his head and looks but he cannot get out though he fain would Such an earnest hope and expectation and desire there is in the Saints that walk according to the Spirit to see Jesus Christ come and to enjoy that glory that is to be revealed There are many more expressions there that are the fruits of it as the spirit of supplication ver 26. and there is also a triumphing over all our spiritual enemies ver 31. What shall we say 〈…〉 God be with us who can be against us c And then there is an absolute dependance upon God for all things He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things And then there is also a patient suffering of all afflictions saith the Apostle ver 18. I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed And then there is lastly an absolute eternal union with Jesus Christ in respect of his love I am perswaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor any thing shall ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. These are the expressions of the fruits of the Spirit of God in the Soul when men walk according to the Spirit when they walk according to grace Take a man that walks according to the flesh or according to the law you shall finde none of these kinde of things in his soul So much concerning that Use Vse 3. In the next place as this Doctrine is a Touchstone whereby you may try and judge of mens persons so hereby also you may try your services and actions I say this is a rule whereby you may come to know what your services are what worth is in them For as they onely are Saints who walk according to the Spirit let the world judge how they will and those that walk carnally according to the flesh according to the law are not Saints so I say those actions or services of ours that proceed from the spirit of God they are only pleasing to God and those that proceed from the flesh from Old Adam they are not pleasing to him Now I say by this we may try our services and actions as well as our persons for there is the same reason for both in all my actions all that I expect from them is that they be pleasing to God that is the end of all that we do for they cannot justifie us that is done already or if it be not they cannot do it but all is to be pleasing to God Now then the main Rule by which I am to judge of my actions it is this not to judge of them according as they are plausible to men or according as they have affection or enlargement in them as we call it but we are to judge of our actions chiefly if not principally by the principle that they flow from if it be the weakest and meanest action if it be the least sigh or prayer if it proceed from the New Adam the Lord Jesus it is sweet and pleasing to God it is an acceptable sacrifice But if it be the most glorious thing in the world if it proceed from Old Adam not only from sinful Adam but from naturall Adam as he is called the naturall man 1 Cor. 15. I say that that riseth from natural wisdome and invention and understanding and memory c it is but flesh and whatsoever is born of flesh is flesh and as we say Pepper is Pepper that is it is dear so flesh is flesh that is it is a filthy abominable thing to God as it is in this Chapter They that walk according to the flesh cannot please God So that that is born of the flesh that service that ariseth from the flesh that is done from the flesh cannot please God Quest But you will say Cannot the actions that proceed from the principles of natural Adam be pleasing to God Every man knows that of corrupt Adam cannot but cannot that of natural Adam As a man may pray meerly by a naturall wit and bravely to please man and to please himself and he may Preach by a natural wit and do other Exercises and do them finely cannot they be pleasing to God Answ No this is a certain rule that there is nothing that comes from flesh from a principle of Old Adam whether it be naturally good or evil there is nothing whether from pure Adam or from corrupt Adam that is pleasing to God The reason is this Because as it is Gen. 3. 5. that when Adam sinned against God you know his punishment was that he should die he was not to eat or touch the forbidden fruit lest he should die Now when Adam eat of that fruit you know the Curse came upon him and in reference to this you shall finde those phrases in this Epistle Whosoever walks according to the flesh shall die whosoever walks as Old Adam is in the state of the old Curse He shall die and O miserable man who shall deliver me from this body of death He calls it a body of death alluding to the main Curse of Old Adam which was that he should die Now when the Lord said that Adam should die for sin conceive not that the meaning is onely that he should die personally that his person now should be subject to the wrath of God to damnation of soul and body for ever in Hell that is not the onely meaning of it it is true he fell under that but the meaning is this also that whole Adam Adam as thou art a publick person thou shalt die that whereas I made and appointed thee to be the Spring and Foundation of all Mankinde and every man in the world is to have thy Image on him and I have filled thee with righteousness and wisdome and good things that may tend much to thy happiness and thy posterity that thou mayest derive a principle to them to be like thee in good and to be pleasing to me But when Adam sinned now saith God thou shalt die I made thee a happy Creature and put abundance of excellencies in thee for thy self and thy posterity as a publick person but now thou hast sinned and extinguished all that good Now I will blast them all thy wisdome and thy righteousness thy soul and thy body thy very being Adam shall die Thy person as thou art a private man and as
misery the spirit is willing but the flesh is weake there is so much weaknesse and earthinesse and frailty somtimes a mans heart is right for God yet his head akes or his stomack is full of wind or he is weary and wants sleep there is some frailty or other This is all earthly Adam all this shall be gone and this kind of body and soul shall be altered and changed to the Image of the blessed second Adam we shall put off our earthiness as well as our sinfulness and have his blessed compleat image Now how glorious that shall be as you never saw the first Adam but onely by hear-say and by reading the word of God so you have not seen the second Adam but you may partly know by the manifestation of his glory on earth you have heard much of his glory We saw his glory as of the only begotten Son of God we shall then see him Phil. 3. 19. Our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies He meanes vile not onely in respect of sinfulness but of dustiness of earthyness and weakness that they may be like his glorious body according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe that is according to his usuall manner of working he can doe what he will in Heaven and Earth We cannot conceive what an image we shall have upon our bodies and souls but according to his wisdome and mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things he will do it Therefore let me tell you this I finde few or none that have those lively expectations in these times of that glory that is to be revealed that the Saints of old had See how they speak of it What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God but yet it doth not appear what we shall be for we shall be like him and Gird up the loyns of your mindes be sober and watch for the glory that shall be revealed The Saints heretofore more then half their hearts were in Heaven beforehand that is the meaning of that Our conversation is in heaven Just as you see men that go a long journey or as you see people that have been plundered that are returning to their own homes their conversation is there half a year before their hearts and their thoughts are there and they wish they were there and are thinking what they will do and what they will be when they come there So Our conversation is in heaven the Saints do so long after the glory that is to be revealed in the day of Adoption and Redemption of our bodies that the most part of them is there already Now we do not consider of this because the New Jerusalem is not yet come into our hearts we have not that Gospel-temper and frame of spirit that the Saints had before That which remains is a little to shew you what your duty is that the Lord hath brought up to walk according to the Spirit And two or three words I have to shew you how you should every one endeavour to attain to it or to attain it more and more But I shall leave that till the Afternoon SERMON V. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit IT is the foundation of all our happiness to have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us for thereby we are exempted from all misery freed from all our enemies and thereby we are made capable to enjoy all happiness and blessedness for all the misery that man suffers here and hereafter is because he hath not a righteousness to fulfil the law And therefore whatsoever man or woman it is that the Lord hath bestowed this great priviledge upon they must needs be in a blessed condition Now that we may know whether we are of that number the Apostle tells us that they that have this priviledge they walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit which was the last thing I was upon I told you what was meant by walking after the flesh and what by walking after the Spirit I gave the Reasons of it and made two or three Uses There are two things remain which I shall endeavour to speak of at this time Vse 4. of Exhortation First you that have received the Spirit of God and in some measure do walk according to the Spirit not according to the flesh that the New Jerusalem from Heaven is in some measure come into your hearts I will give you a few Exhortations from the Lord how you should carry your selves That is the first thing I shall do and that shall be in four or five short words 1. The first is this that the Lord having called you to this glorious free estate to this free condition that you would take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonness as many do And by that I mean but two things 1. That you would take heed of using your liberty as an occasion to the flesh 2. Of using your liberty so as to give offence to your Brethren or indeed to any I say first beware of using your liberty for an occasion to the flesh That you shall have Gal. 5. 13. For brethren saith the Apostle you have been called to liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another The Apostle shews them in that Epistle the glorious condition and estate that they were in through grace and here in this Verse there are two things that he tells them the one is implied it is worth observing ye are called to liberty that is there is a freedome there is a liberty in the Gospel in divers things that did seem to be sinful when ye were under the law or else what sense can you make of this Ye are called to liberty onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh For we finde that the people under the law either they made the law stricter or looser then it was And there is no man in the world that walks according to the law but he makes many laws to himself that Christ hath not made Now when the Gospel comes in clearly all those laws that you made of your own head vanish Ye are called to liberty that is you see more freedome you are not bound to every thing that before you were Before you must not smile it was a sin if you seemed to laugh or smile and a hundred such things Now you are called to liberty but use it not as an occasion for the flesh that is take not occasion from your liberty to live more sinfully to say you are made free and others are tyed by the law and therefore you will live more carelesly and loosely and sinfully take heed and beware of that There were
some it seems I am sure there are some now that all the liberty and freedome they hear of from the Gospel or by getting off from the law it is nothing in the world but that they may go on more in sin and enjoy their lusts more freely this is to pervert the Gospel And what the end of these people shall be you may see in 2 Pet. 1. and in the Epistle of Jude they are appointed to damnation and their damnation slumbereth and sleepeth not that is they are going on amain they are going faster towards Hell then any Drunkard or Whoremonger A Malefactor never goeth so fast to death as these do to destruction when all the knowledge of liberty that they have is onely to give occasion to provide more for their lusts then before Let us consider and take heed of that 2. Another thing is seeing you have liberty by walking according to the Spirit for where the Spirit is there is freedome that is certain use it not for the offence of your Brethren As some there are that when they hear they are free are ready to say I care not what all the world say I know this is not a sin and therefore I will do it Beloved that is far from walking worthy according to the Gospel I became all things saith Paul to all men that I might win sâ—me I am under the law to them that are under the law and without law to them that are without law I became all things to all men that I might gain some so we must not please our selves but one another for edification Rom. 15. and condescend to men of low sort Rom 12. Who is weak saith the Apostle and I am not weak If thou see a man under the law fumbling and wallowing upon Mount Sinai without the knowledge of the Gospel despise him not and say He is a Legallist and what have we to do with him but endeavour to frame thy heart and thy language and carriage so suitable to him that thou mayest win upon him and so with others This is the language of the Gospel and the true way of the Spirit of God when a man knows his freedome and yet he becomes all things to all men that he may do them good There is one word that I think is the word and will of God and I desire that thou mayest take it so and carry it with thee 2. A second thing that I advise you to that are Spiritual that the Lord hath revealed a little of the Gospel to it is this that you would endeavour to walk humbly O walk humbly Why so I will tell you why because a man when he is under the law he shall be twenty years striving for a little knowledge or grace and shall hardly get them but as soon as ever a man comes rightly to Christ and to know him then there is such a flood of grace and such abundance of revelations it is the Scriptures word there is such abundance of manifestations of God and of the Image of God when they begin to come in that it is a hard thing then to keep the soul down for Spiritual things when they come in rightly when the flood-gates are open they come in as waves one upon the neck of another For Spiritual Gospel-truths multiply in the Soul a thousand-fold one lesson from another and one Scripture opens another and then there is no end and then it is hard to keep the soul humble Therefore in 2 Cor. 12. when Paul was wrapt into the third Heavens because of the abundance of revelations that he had seen for he had seen and heard things that he could not utter and speak to others he was ready to be proud to be lifted up and lest he should be so God sent a messenger of Satan to buffet him It implies it was a hard thing for Paul the Apostle when abundance of revelations came into his soul not to be lifted up And this spoils some honest hearts I hope they are so and that God will bring them home that having been kept bare of food as some Souldiers that went to relieve Glocester when they came home to the City they killed themselves with eating full and good food so when poor souls have gone upon the bare Mountains of Sinai and then have come to the Pastures of righteousness they go so greedily and are so taken that if God be not wonderful merciful they will be undone by being lifted up Therefore beware of this learn from Paul's example to seek to the Lord to keep your hearts humble 3. A third thing is this Endeavour to walk simply I mean to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel The Gospel though there be glorious Mysteries in it to feed the soul yet notwithstanding it is a plain simple thing Now here the Devil endeavours to undo souls as it is ordinary in this City when men come once to understand a little of the Gospel and to taste the sweetness of it the Devil screws them up to sublimare all Religion into Notions to cleave a hair and Religion will be all in Idea's and conceits of the Nature of God and of the Creature whereas the Gospel is a plain thing Paul desired to know the death of Christ and the power of his resurrection and Paul teacheth Servants how to obey their Masters and Masters how to carry themselves to their Servants and Wives to their Husbands and such simple plain things Now these are accounted nothing and that is the reason that many among us they do more and more lose the Word of God unless it be about some sublime Notions If a Minister be upon such Points some high Idea's for they feed upon such that is worth the while but if a Minister speak of things that concern their Calling or their Sex and Condition that is plain it hath no taste in it no more then the white of an Egge It is a hard thing to keep to the simplicity of the Gospel As the Devil tempted our first Parents God gave Adam and Eve sufficient knowledge to do his will and they had sufficient Natural knowledge for they named all the Creatures yet notwithstanding she must needs go from the simplicity of Gods will and be curious and she must know good and evil there was the distinction good and evil thought she what kinde of good and evil she goes to this sublime conceit and so was lost Now saith Paul I am afraid of you lest the Devil should beguile you so I am loth to offend you for I had rather win you or else I could instance in twenty or forty conceits and distinctions of things Idea's that are above the simplicity of the Gospel and that is enough to make us leave them because they are above the simplicity of the Gospel and the excellency of the Gospel is not in those Idea's but in knowing the power of plain things as the death of Jesus Christ Every man in Jerusalem
knew the death of Christ but to know the power of that death keep close to the simplicity of the Gospel 4. Another thing is this you that have known a little of the Spirit of God and have inlarged hearts and enlightned eyes Let not God rest till thou find the comfort and power of what thou knowest O we know that the righteousness of the law by Christ is fulfilled in us and the like but we have not the full comfort of such a truth and many others We know Christ hath paid our debt and that we are one with him as he is one with the Father but we have not the power and the comfort of these things Beloved for thy comfort know that Paul in a sort was in thy condition Phil. 3. Not as though I had attained or apprehended but I would apprehend him of whom I am apprehended and I would know the vertue of his death and the power of his Resurrection Paul saw something that he did not fully apprehend but he would feele more of the power of the Gospel spirituall truths and if he saw that he wanted much more we Oh do not content your selves to have an old frozen knowledge of Gospell truthes whereby you are able to prove that men are legallists and that men are under Mount Sinai and yet have cold and frozen hearts cold truths without life therefore thinke of minding God of this 5. Then lastly labour to take heed that you be not by any means bewitched so as to fall back from that little light in the Gospell that you have received it is an easie thing so to doe I doe believe and it is my comfort and will be when I am farr from this place that the Lord hath enlightened divers of you to know the Gospel to know Jesus Christ a little clearer Now I know not what the Lord may doe for you but I say it is wonderous easie you may under one quarter of a years fleshly preaching lose that that you have been under two or three yeares Preaching a getting I have knowne after a quarter of a years building up of my soule in the knowledg of Christ and the setling of my faith and assurance I have heard one Sermon that hath routed and dasht all that work in my soule Therefore I beseech you beware faith is a tender thing especially the light we have that is but very weak and very tender therefore saith Paul Who hath bewitched you you foolish Galatians before whom Jesus Christ hath been lively painted as the word signifies Christ was drawn lively before the Galatians and yet they did fall If Paul that was an Apostle and had the spirit of God in such a measure laying open the spirit of Christ and yet his people did go back to Moses and to Sinai the Lord help and uphold us Therefore stand fast in your liberty in Jesus Christ This is all in short I have to say to you for that I hope you will lay up these words Vse 5. Now I have a few words of Advice and Counsel to those poor souls that do yet in a great measure walk according to the flesh in one fashion or other Their Religion is a fleshly Religion from Old Adam and according to the law in a great measure Now the Question is What shall they do that they may be spiritual Christians that they may walk according to the Spirit I will onely name a few things 1. The first is this I would desire you to endeavour to study much the difference between the two Testaments the New and the Old I mean not the two Books but the two Testaments that we reade of Heb. 8. and Heb. 9. whereof the one is faulty and the other is excellent the one is done away the other remains Study the difference between them for thereby you say the foundation of your Gospel-happiness for there is the misery of many Professors and will be their misery if they should live a thousand years they jumble both Testaments without knowledge and distinction and so they will never be better 2. Another thing that I would exhort you to is this to prize the Spirit of Christ more then you do There is nothing in the Gospel but it is a Mysterie you cannot know it but by the Spirit and there is no duty in the Gospel to be done that can be done but by the power of the Spirit We may do many things in the law by the strength of Old Adam in the Gospel we can do nothing but the Spirit is all And that is the reason I think for I speak according to the grace given me why people now are left so bare and poor and confused and know not which way to go or what to do they do not prize the Spirit of God Many men extoll Learning mightily and it is accounted almost Heresie to commend the Spirit of God There are many men I and many Professors that do not love to hear a man in a few modest words to commend the Spirit of God but all must be by study and reading and learning and for the Spirit of God it is a plain meer Cypher and there is an end But my life on it if I had a hundred I would say so they shall be beholden to the Spirit of God and extoll him before they be taught spiritually they shall be willing to lay down all their Learning as I have seen a learned godly man of late even with the Plow-boy I do not say but that Learning is good for some uses and God may bless it to help a man to express what he knows the better but as I told you Adam must die he cannot by it come to know one jot of the spiritual meaning of God in the Gospel or one jot of power or assurance to be happy or to do any thing for God towards this all Learning is not worth a straw therefore labour to extol the Spirit And if any of you have a minde to learning go on I discourage you not from it Learning is a thing in another element take pains and diligence to be learned it is good to do so But if thou wilt be a Gospel Christian thou must thank the Spirit of God for all Saith Paul for all his learning I am not sufficient to speak a good word and he was a learned man that Festus said Much learning had made him mad Beza in his Comment upon 2 Cor. 11. where the Apostle saith Are they Hebrews so am I Are they Jews so am I. Saith he I never read in any Latine on Greek Author so much eloquence and elegancy of speech as Paul hath there and yet he professeth he could not think a good thought for all he was learned so much much less do a good work As long as thou keepest the Spirit an underling as a cypher as many of the Clergie and learned men they extol Learning to the Heavens and many of them upon purpose to despight
with Scripture that you may come to know the mind of Christ Shall I name one thing more If you would come to be spirituall Gospel-Saints you must be born again you must be born from above A Gospell profession is Jerusalem from above and there are none that can come into Jerusalem that is from above but those that are borne from above Therefore marke our Saviours reasoning Jehn 3. Nicodemus asks Christ which was the way to Heaven And he tells him Verily thou must be born again or thou must be born from above or else thou canst not see it Nicodemus wonders why he must be born from above saith he Shall I go into my Mothers belly c. Saith Christ marvell not wonder not why should he not wonder at such a strange speech Here is the reason That which is born of flesh is flesh therefore think it not strange that I say thou must be born again So I say whatsoever you do by the power of nature by your own wisedome by your own righteousness or your own strength all comes but to this but to flesh and whatsoever comes of flesh is flesh flesh cannot bring out the spirit no more then a thorn can bring out grapes as Christ speaks Therefore wonder not that thou must be born from above that is thou must have the Lord from above to beget thee again You have every one been born once you must be born once more you must have a new creation in you the Lord must create new strange properties and dispositions that no flesh and blood is able to comprehend Lastly take the counsell of the Holy Ghost and that is in Ephes 1. 16. As Paul prayed for them so do thou pray for thy self and there is all the reason in the world that thou shouldest I cease not saith he to give thanks for you making mention of you in my Prayers that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give to you the spirit of wisdome and revelation in the knowledge of him Pray for the spirit of wisedome and revelation in the knowledge of Christ Slight not these words because some wicked men abuse them and others reproach them but because Paul saith so pray that the Lord would give the spirit of wisdome and revelation So much concerning the Directions I had to give you Vse 6. There is one word of Information and with that I will conclude From what I have said before concerning the flesh and the Spirit learn this Instruction more hence to see what is the true ground of all Persecutions nay even of all the Divisions that are among us men may pretend what they will and deceive themselves but all the strife and persecution in the world is meerly between the Flesh and the Spirit between the Old and the New Adam There are two Princes in this World and these are contrary the one to the other The flesh lusteth against the Spirit Old Adam seeks to get up the New Adam will have him down Therefore you shall have these two in every Town in one Church in one Family in one Soul and wheresoever they are the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these two are contrary Are contrary what is that that is there is no true contrariety between any things in the world but between the Old Adam and the New between the flesh and the Spirit Now by Flesh I mean not onely corruption but whole flesh fleshly wisdome The wisdome of the Old Adam is enmity against the New the righteousness of Old Adam is quite contrary to the righteousness of the New this is the cause of persecution Let people pretend what they will you shall see godly men persecuted you may see Christ in their Souls as clearly as the Sun and people keep a coyle about Independency and Presbytery but the truth is it is Old Adam in those that persecute and the New Adam in the other a man with one eye may see it There are many pretences but all the strife is between the Old Adam and the New For to give a little illustration take Gospel godly Saints that have the Spirit of God in them they agree well enough they will not strive sometimes they may differ a little but for the generality they live well enough together nay take some Gospel Saints that are filled with the Spirit of God and the knowledge of Jesus Christ in these times and in this City which is the Centre of all Division and they cannot attest divisions they cannot make a Party and give railing for railing and strife for strife they cannot but love their enemies and bless them that blaspheme them As James saith Whence come all wars You think they come from your zeal for your Way and yours for your Way but it is from your lusts The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh it is from Old Adam And I was going to say but I will but name it This is the cause also of the weakness generally that is among you It is not wickedness that troubles a Saint but weakness it is not positive ills but weakness And whence is this weakness because he walks after the flesh the Spirit is powerful but the flesh is weak As the Scripture faith Their horses are flesh and not spirit so I may say Your Prayers are flesh and not spirit and it may be my Preaching and it may be our endeavours to resist sin But as far as they are flesh they are weak enough but where the Spirit is there is power I can do all things saith Paul I can preach the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum and I shall come to you in the fulness of Christ A man would think he had been mad but it was the strength of his spirit A poor weak Christian he doth nothing but wish and would and confesseth his sins to day and falls into it again to morrow and then confesseth again and When will it once be O Jerusalem but the Gospel is the power of God to salvation and all the principles of it are powerful and all the precepts of it have a power through the spirit for a man to keep and observe them Men talk that the learning of Christ and the knowledge of the Gospel is to make men loose and licentious It is true carnal vain hearts the better any thing is the worse they be but assure your selves concerning true Saints it is false for the onely way to be lively and lusty and fruitful in good is to know Christ more according to the Gospel Let men please themselves and say so as long as they will they shall be but poor old barren creatures you will be wishing but you shall never overcome your sins I have known some Saints that by the knowledge of Jesus Christ have had power to subdue those sins and to bring them under that before they never so much as hoped to bring under
in this world yet the power of Christ hath brought them under when all their Fastings and Humiliations would never do it when they were in that way without the clear knowledge of Christ but when they have come to Christ they have found it done In 2 Pet. 3. you shall finde there men that were carnal men that were as dogs that returned to their vomit yet the common knowledge of Jesus Christ did make them clean from the pollutions of the world and did give them power against their sins what then will the spiritual effectual knowledge of Christ do Therefore never entertain any prejudice against Christ or against his Gospel or against his Spirit and his Wayes for if there be any power in this world it is there all the rest is but a flourish but a shew of mortification when the heart is as full of lusts as a Toad is of poyson There is no true mortification or holiness but what comes from Christ and his holy Spirit SERMON VI. Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit IN the former Verse you remember how I shewed you that there was a great priviledge to all true Beleevers which indeed is the chiefe of all Priviledge for it is the inlet of all mercies and the principall deliverance from all evills It is contained in the beginning of Verse 4. That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us In the latter end of the Verse I shewed the person more largely described to whom this priviledge doth belong that is Not those that walk after the flesh but those that walk after the spirit And I have as God enabled me opened the meaning of that to you what it was to walk after the Flesh and what to walk after the spirit Now the Apostle in this fifth Verse goes forward a little more particularly to discover those that have a right to this priviledge by drawing one thing from another The main was They walk not after the flesh but after the spirit I but that is a generall word and how shall we know that Saith he you shall know that also by this They that are after the flesh do mind fleshly things and they that are after the spirit do minde spirituall things You shall know whether you have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in you if you walk not after the flesh but after the spirit And you shall know that also by your minding by the frame of your mindes if you walk after the flesh you will mind fleshly things if you walk after the spirit you will mind spirituall things And then he goes on to prove that also as we see oft in Scripture as in 1 John 5. where one thing is made the mark of another by a gradation there are five or six things and one thing proves another we know that we are the children of God if we keep his Commandements and we know we keep his Commandements by another thing and we know that by another thing So that I say the Scope of the Apostle is to cleare unto the Saints their right title to this great priviledge and also withall to convince those that are carnal that they are without it and to shew them their great miserie in being so for you shall see after how as he discovers them so also he shews their misery he saith they are enmity to God and they that walk after the flesh must dye c. Now that we may go on breifly to handle this a little to you you may take the Doctrine as it lyes here in the words for I will not nor need not frame it otherwise Doct. That those that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh Only remember what I said before for it is of great concernment for that great priviledge depends upon this if you have the righteousness of the law fulfilled in you you must be those that walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh And then would you know that saith the Apostle Those that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh and those that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit so let that be the Doctrine or Lesson I will give you but two short words to prove this to you and then to open it as God shall help us Reas 1. The first thing to prove it is this that it must be so because every thing in the world in all the Creation of God doth act according to the nature of its principle from whence it flows As James saith Jam. 3. 11 12. Doth a fountain send forth from the same place sweet water and bitter Can a figtree my Brethren bear olive-berries or can a Vine bear figs You know that a Fig-tree bears Figs and a Vine-tree bears Grapes and an Apple-tree bears Apples and a Pear-tree Pears and every Tree and every thing will work according to its principle Make the tree good saith Christ and then the fruit will be good such as the tree is such will be the fruit such as the fountain is such will be the stream and when a mans principles the frame of his heart is nothing but flesh then of necessity his actions must be fleshly his affections must be fleshly If he have a fleshly minde he must have a fleshly will a fleshly love fleshly hatred a fleshly life fleshly prayers fleshly Sacraments fleshly every thing for every thing must be according to its principle So on the other side where the principle is spiritual there a man will minde spiritual things he will love spiritual things he will do spiritual things he will delight in spirituall things That is one Reason of it Reas 2. And the second is this for I will give you but these two because the chief thing that I intend at this time is the opening of it fleshly carnal men that are after the flesh they must minde fleshly things because they know not spiritual things they understand not spiritual things Or if you will and it may be that word hath something more in it 1 Cor. 2. they perceive not spiritual things they do not ken and perceive them Now you know that a man mindes not I mean look upon it as the acting of the understanding a man cannot minde but what he knows a man cannot think of things he knows not That is the reason to prove that poor ignorant people speak an untruth and deceive themselves when they say we remember God we minde God wheresoever we are and yet they know not God for God is not minded but when he is known As in that place of the Corinthians A natural man cannot perceive the things of the spirit he doth not know Jesus Christ therefore he cannot minde him he doth not know the things of the spirit of God therefore he cannot set his heart upon them Without
things of the Spirit are comprehended in these three First the things of Faith They minde the things of the Spirit that is they alway minde and study how to believe in Jesus Christ and how to lay firmer and righter hold of him how they may know him more distinctly and hold him more firmly and get fuller assurance this is their work 2. Or they are exercised about the things of Hope that is they are contemplating and rejoycing in their Happiness by Christ how their persons are justified and their sins pardoned and the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them and all in Heaven and Earth bestowed on them As Paul saith Phil. 3. this is our Religion we glory in the flesh as if not but we rejoyce in Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh but we rejoyce in Jesus that is in all the happiness we have in Jesus Christ 3. Or thirdly and lastly the things of the Spirit are the will of God or the Commands of Jesus Christ they alway study how they may obey and fulfill the good and acceptable and perfect will of God So that a Saint if he be spiritual he is alway either acting his Faith and increasing and strengthning that or he is contemplating his Happiness in Jesus Christ or studying which way to glorifie God to know what part of the will of God he knows not and to study what part of the will of God he knows and remembers this is his exercise And let this suffice to shew what the things of the flesh and what the things of the Spirit are Now the third question briefly is What is meant by the minding of the things of the Flesh and the things of the Spirit 1. You must under stand first that the meaning is not as though a man might not think upon fleshly things for a spiritual Saint oft thinks upon fleshly things in a spiritual manner as to consider his sins to bewail and to mourn for them and he may minde earthly worldly things to provide things honest to provide for his Family as the Apostle saith he may think of his business Therefore the Holy Ghost here doth not use the word Frounesis but Frounena Frounesis signifies prudence or discretion or providence in business he doth not use that lest we should think that the Holy Ghost forbids to provide to be mindful and careful of worldly business but Frounena that signifies a further thing as I shall shew presently 2. Now then you must understand this also that when the Apostle saith they minde the things of the flesh the word doth not onely signifie the understanding but it signifies all the affections also I could give you divers places of Scripture where this word is set downe to expresse the working of any affection in the soul Therefore the meaning is not only of the mind that studies but his affections his will the way of his delight his joy is in earthly things his care is after fleshly things But in particular there are these four or five things implied in the word when they are said to mind the things of the flesh The first is that the very care of his heart as I told you before is Fleshly and carnall A Christian hath outward worldly things in an outward room and Jesus Christ next his heart There is saith one godly man a closet in the heart of a Saint only to entertaine Jesus Christ which the Scripture calls the spirit frequently I worship God in my spirit Rom. 1. And in 1 Thes 5. That ye may be sanctified in your spirit That is in the very coare and quintessence of the soul Now a godly man may have many hurries of wordly things and lusts cross and come through but the coar of his heart is for God and for Holiness Therefore saith Paul Rom. 7. I serve the law of the flesh with my members and the law of Christ with my mind That is inwardly with the care of my heart I shewed the meaning of that word before I shall not now go further in that Secondly a man is said to minde wordly things when a man not only thinks of worldly and fleshly things but savours of worldly and Fleshly things therefore the same word Frounena that is here minding is oft read to savour As in the Speech of Christ to Peter thou savourest the things of the world thou hast a smack of it thou hast a relish of carnall things So then to mind fleshly things is when a man not only thinks of them and considers them but when a man finds most joy and rast and delight in such kind of things But a Fleshly man about worldly or carnal or if you will about sinful businesse O there he is as a fish in the water there he is his own man he is well but put him about any spirituall thing let him come to learne a little for his soul or let his Neighbour come to teach him and admonish and reprove him he is upon thornes then he hath no tast of it at all now if thou be a fleshly man thou mindest fleshly things that is thou doest not only in thy understanding consider of them but thy soul relisheth them there thou art thy owne man when thou art in the middest of the world and the flesh and earth and hell therefore look to thy self Thirdly to mind fleshly things is when the streame the main of the soul goes upon fleshly earthly carnall things when the things of God are but by businesse to a man It is no so in a spirituall man 1 Cor. 7. He useth the world as if he used it not he mindes little of the world as little as may be but the main stream of his soul is upon Jesus Christ there he exerciseth himself day and night as David speaks Fourthly when a man doth study and plod continually upon worldly things upon fleshly carnal things When a man takes care for so the word is used oft in Scripture as it is used Rom. 14. 6. If any man doth observe a day or care for a day Curare diem as we reade it in the Latine if one observe it and another will not or will not regard it When a man observes and regards and takes care and studies and plods for earthly fleshly things this is to minde Fleshly things Therefore in Phil. 4. 7. saith the Apostle I am glad that your care is renewed towards me saith Beza It is more then care there is a kinde of sollicitude it is addicere animam it is a word that signifies when a man addicts him when he is given wholly to a thing when a man is addicted and gives his minde wholly to the world to fulfill his lusts or to enjoy his pleasures this is to minde Fleshly things Then Fifthly and lastly it is when a man doth judge of things according to the Flesh Non est cogitare c. To minde is not onely to think of it but to judge of things As
every Regiment in every Company that seek themselves there are but few that are otherwise there are but few that naturally seek the things of God And that you may see what a fearful thing it is that you may look to iâ— you shall see in Chap 3. 18. For many walk of whom I have told you often and now tell you weeping and so in 2 Cor. 12. Beloved I do not reade that Paul did write weeping to the Church about any thing but about this and what was it he wept for They are enemies to the Cross of Christ they were not profane men but Professors Whose end is destruction who minde earthly things whose Belly is their god Who are they who minde earthly things whose Belly is their god They did not fall down on their knees and worship their Belly but they were such as did take more care and pains for their Belly and did rise earlier to look after the things of this life then after the glory of God and their end is destruction notwithstanding all their Profession and you shall know them by this they minde earthly things But our conversation is in heaven from whence we look for the Saviour c. Therefore to conclude this is my meaning that all that are Professors in this self-seeking age wherein one may go with a Candle as the Prophet saith through Jerusalem a man may go with a Candle from Westminster to the Tower to look for a man that naturally minds the things of God and the People of God and the Honour of God and the like And if they be so scarce I beseech you consider what a fearfull thing it is and how the Holy Ghost sets it out here that their end is destruction and Paul speaks of it weeping Therefore let it be thy work now to look to thy minde though thou profess to be a Saint whether it be natural for thee to care for thy self but to do for God but now and then and it may be after many perswasions thou mayest be brought to do something for God and for the people of God but it is natural to thee to look to thy self and to thine own honour and thy own place and preferment c. The Lord help thee to look to this SERMON VIII Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit I Have spoken of these words in generall and â—ow I will according to the strength that God shall give me speake of them a little in particular that seeing those that enjoy this great priviledge to have the law fulfilled in them are those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That we may find whether we walk after the flesh or after the spirit I would urge it a little further and that according to the Apostles method he pitcheth upon the minde and the minde not simply considered but as it is acting and setting forth the minde in minding therefore as he takes the chiefest facultie to judge the rest by so I will take the chiefest act in that faculty that so you may judge of the rest by that one and so keep to the Apostles method Now the chiefest act of the minde doubtless is the reasoning part of the minde There are many acts in the minde as it understands it thinks it imagines but especially the reasoning part it belongs to the minde to reason concerning things and Reason is the chiefest part and is called and accounted by Scholars the chiefest part of man and therefore they say that man is a reasonable creature Now I say if we will finde ouâ— by the Scriptures what we are whether we be according to the flesh or according to the Spirit for there is the hinge of it we must examine it by the minde and not by the minde simply as it is a faculty but the minde acting and exercising and if we speak of the exercise let us take the reasoning part of it that is the best part for of all the acts of the minde the reasoning is the strongest and that that most immediately flows from the Understanding therefore if the reasoning of the Soul be carnal the whole Soul is so and if the reasoning of it be spiritual the whole Soul is spiritual that was one thing that did move me to pitch upon that it being the chiefest Besides I finde that the Apostle in 1 Cor. 5. 16. he distinguisheth those that walk according to the flesh from those that walk according to the Spirit by the reasoning part for saith he Henceforth know we no man after the flesh yea though we have known Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more We do not saith he henceforth walk according to the flesh and we know it by our knowledge we do know things not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit if Christ himself were here we would not look upon him with a fleshly eye What this knowledge is you may see in the verses before For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge we thus reason that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again We know saith he that we are spiritual and not fleshly by our judging of things by our reasoning of things for thus we judge or thus we reason that if one died for all that is did die for all then surely we all are dead And we reason further that if one man did die for us and we are suffered to live we should imploy our life not for our selves but for him that died for us This kinde of reasoning we have that walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh therefore I will pitch upon that And the rather because the Lord hath been pleased for ends best known to him to keep that in my minde and to six it so on my thoughts that I could not pass it by and I usually judge in such cases that God doth often do it for your sakes And therefore according to this Method we shall observe this Doctrine or this Lesson Doct That those that are according to the flesh or that walk according to the flesh are swayed and guided by fleshly reasonings and those that are according to the Spirit are swayed and ruled by spirituall reasonings True Gospel Believers are ruled and swayed with spirituall reasonings and all carnal fleshly men are ruled by carnal fleshly reasonings For such as the mind is so is the whole man and if your reasoning be right then I dare say that all the acts of the minde are right for that is the chiefest you may judge of all the acts of your minde by your reasoning and therefore we cull out that for the triall of the rest I say carnal men are swayed
comes into the minde and as the Philosopher said ye know in naturall things a man can reason when he is not troubled so it is in the spiritual 7. Another way is by Sanctification by the Spirit he is the Spirit of Sanctification it makes the soul holy it takes away lust and sin from the soul This I finde in Mat. 6. 22 23. I would open that place but cannot therefore pray consider saith Christ The light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light He doth oppose singleness unto evil if thine eye be single that is if thy eye be purged from all guile that there is no sin there not when a man hath one eye to God and the other to sin to the world but if thy eye be evil that is sinful then thy whole body is full of darkness Therefore blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God 8. Well lastly there is another way there are divers more but I will name but one more and that is The Spirit of God doth teach the Saints thus to reason by exercising that is helpeth them to exercise and improve that light that they have There is a little light natural light and there is a kinde of spiritual light that an hypocrite hath but the Spirit of God doth not help him to improve that light and therefore that light dieth he blows not up the fire you know men come to reason by reasoning and exercise of reason makes men rational I mean makes them know how to reason Now hypocrites do not thus as you may see Rom. 1. there they knew God and because they glorified him not as God they became vain in their imaginations or in their reasonings as it is in the Original God gave them up to a reprobate minde because they glorified not God Vse Beloved I have three or foure uses but I feare I shall not reach them all I am overloath to tire you and my self Therefore I will conclude with one word and that is this That from hence from this that hath been said you may see what is the Fountain of all goodness and of all evil in the soul 1. Of all good as I have at large lookt upon it but can but touch Take any good and you shall see it is carried on by spiritual reasoning as take Faith Abraham reasoned He that gave him a Son at a hundred years old could raise him up again Take your Consolation it comes out by spiritual reasoning take Paul and Silas they were in prison and ready to be brought out the next day to die now one would think they were mad there to sing but they did it upon spiritual reasons for they accounted themselves blessed to suffer for Christ and if they die they shall then be with Christ for hating of evil you shall see whence is it as pulling out the right eye or cutting off the right hand that is one would think a most unreasonable thing but Christ giveth a reason for it It is better to go into Heaven it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire So a Saint can reason spiritually and thus he loves the Saints and hates sin and denieth himselfe and performeth every dutie he so reasoneth that it is the blessed will of God he should do it 2. And so for evill whence comes sin from vanity of the minde whence comes persecution they think they do God good service there is reason it is a good thing to suppress these Schismaticks say some and to have Conformity and be all of one minde and to banish them and let them all go whence is this it is either from corrupt or natural reason And so when men hear the Word of God and forget it they like it well as a man doth that sees his face in a glass but they go away and forget it and whence is it why James tells you Deceive not your selves Deceiving your selves the word in the Original is by false reasonings A man hears the Word and thinks surely I am in this evil condition and I am out of the way and I must look after Christ and the like but afterwards comes natural reason saying these are but new denies and what is become of our fathers and the like Beloved all good is carried into the soul upon the wings of spiritual reason and all evil upon natural and corrupt reason and therefore I conclude all beseeching you that you would study and endeavour to get up your souls and your conversations accordingly to be swayed and carried on by a spiritual minde by spiritual reasoning for here we speak of your Consciences not of your lives so much as of your hearts and mindes And that you may so do take the Motive which follows in the Text which I did purpose had God given me strength and time to open but take it in the gross For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Be perswaded to go home and pray the Lord to create this in you yea and enlighten you For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Two things I have here to say To be carnally minded is death you must expound it by the other that oposeth it its contrary to life and peace it is death and trouble and the other is life and peace Death and trouble if thou wilt be a carnal man and go on so there is nothing in all thy course but death and trouble that is there is death at the end of it Remember that the end of thy Journey is death Remember as the Apostle saith Phil. 3. They minde earthly things and I write weeping that their end is destruction It is a fine thing to be carried all our life long from one carnal thing to another and provide for my Honour and Wealth and Preferment and the like and do this and that good action upon carnal reasons and with a carnal eye but God hath put a sad end to it it is Death And now the other it is Life eternal life though it be rough for me every day to dispute with my carnal heart and not onely carry on good but deny my self in good upon spiritual reason this is a warfare but the end is life and it is peace too This is a hard work you will say and therefore we will take the easiest and smallest work Beloved I say there is more ease and sweetness and contentedness in going on in the wayes of God spiritually upon spiritual reasons an hundred-fold then in the other for the other will be rough and God hath cast it so God hath put a Curse upon all Old Adam he curseth it with death and therefore he must die that walks carnally and that is the reason all your natural thoughts and actions are so bitter God hath cursed them they must die and now all the wayes of Holiness have enough to induce thee to endeavour to walk holily as one saith The gleanings of the Saints are better then the harvest of the wicked men if there were no Hell nor Heaven hereafter but onely the wicked to have the pleasures of sin here and the Saints to have the Consolations of the Spirit dwelling in them it is more an hundred-fold the one is nothing but crackling of thorns under a pot and the end is smoke and stink and the other is sweet here and in the end blessed eternally if it were not suppose though the way to Heaven be bitter here yet it is sweet in the end and the way of the world sweet here and bitter in the end yet you should choose Holiness as a Philosopher said If a man were to take a bitter and sweet thing which were he best to take first saith he to take the sowre or the evil first and the sweet for the hope of the good to come will sweeten the present evil but when a man hath the good first the fear of the evil to come will marre all but therefore seeing there is a reward in the way in Holiness as well as in the end for Holiness it should move us to labour after Holiness FINIS