as our Mediatour 1 Tim. 2.5 If he meanes that which they draw from his words he knew Christ after the flesh in all his Sermons and his Faith was a knowledge of Christ after the flesh And therefore that which they wrest from his words is not his meaning Secondly Pauls meaning is this that Christ is not to be knowne after the flesh As though any men should conceive that they should have any priviledge or prerogative above another in Christ because they are his kinsmen or Countrey-men according to the flesh or of the same stock with Christ being descended from Abraham or David according to the flesh Thus Christ is not to be knowne after the flesh It will availe men nothing that they are neere to Christ in the flesh by their naturall birth unlesse they be neare to Christ and one with Christ by their new birth So that the Apostle doth in this place take away the difference which some might apprehend to be between the Jew and the Gentile It is parallel to that place Gal. 3.28 There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And this is evident by the precedent verse where he saith that Christ died for all for Gentiles as well as for Jewes so that a Jew may as soone be saved by Christ as a Gentile if he rest upon the grace of the Father through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus his Sonne for Justification and Salvation It will likewise appeare to be the plain and naked meaning of the Apostle if we consider the subsequent words where he doth publish forth the same thing and explaineth his meaning telling us that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe not imputing their trespasses unto them The sinfull Gentiles who are called the world in opposition to the Jewes that were Gods peculiar and selected people gathered out of the world from other Nations God is reconciled to this world to sinfull Gentiles as well as to Gods owne people the Jewes And therefore Christ is not to be knowne among Christians in any carnall or fleshly relations as though he were a Saviour more to the Jewes then to the Gentiles This were to know Christ after the flesh but we that know him spiritually know him so no more for in the Spirit we see the partition wall which was between Jewes and Gentiles pulled down and know Christ the common Saviour both to Jewes and Gentiles which shall believe in his name And thus I have given you an answer fully satisfactory to their second objection The third place from which they frame an objection is in Eccles 3.19 That which befalleth unto the Sonnes of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth so dieth the other yea they have all one breath so that a man hath no preheminence above a beast To this I thus answer that Solomon here doth not propose this as his owne judgement but rather doth represent unto us the opinion of carnall men who have no greater light then the dimme eye of reason And doth acquaint us with their folly and ignorance by communicating his owne experience unto us I said in my heart ver 18. He spake this in his heart when the darknesse of his spirit did as a thick cloud hide the light of the Spirit of God from him He doth not speak this from his heart and spirit inlightned with the truth of God But from his heart under a mist of errour being surrounded with great temptations And this will appeare by many passages which he uttereth in this booke which doe wholly contradict that which they would gather from these words as the meaning of Solomon for the overthrowing of the Doctrine of the resurrection and the day of judgement For instance Ecc 11.9 How doth he labour to draw young men from the pursuit of the worlds pleasures and vanities by putting them in mind that God will bring them unto judgement And what a plaine place is that against Sadduces Familists and Libertines that deny a judgement day and a resurrection with which he doth put a period to this booke Ecc 12. and the last God shall bring every worke into judgement with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evill I shall not trouble you with any more of their Arguments Because they are of the same nature with those which have been brought already And the same Answers which have been given unto these will give sufficient satisfaction to any other objections which may be brought against this truth 2. Vse from this errour Againe since the truth of God appeares so cleare in Scripture that there shall be a resurrection of body and of the same body let us abhorre and abandon the grosse fanaticall conceits of all that we meet with that professe themselves open enemies to the Doctrine of the resurrection Brethren I beseech you loath abhorre and detest this hellish diabolicall Doctrine For as Christians are to imbrace the truth of God with all zeale and affection of spirit so we are to detest and abhor all errours that oppose the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ with all zeale and fervency of spirit though these are much offended with the zeale and sharpnesse of the Saints supposing that such heat and holy anger is inconsistent with the spirit of meeknesse and therefore if a man though in the Spirit witnesse against these conceits and atheisticall opinions of theirs presently they say that though he pretend to be the servant of Christ and to have the Spirit of Christ yet he hath not the Spirit of Christ because he is so sharp in his speech But consider how our blessed Saviour oft in his preaching and discourses thunders and lightens in the faces of men that opposed the truth Did he not call the Scribes and Pharisees a Generation of Vipers and Adulterers to their faces and hath not Paul and Peter expressions to this purpose Peter tells Simon Magus he was in the very gall of bitternesse Did not Paul call Elymas the child of the Devill and enemy of all righteousnesse Act. 13.10 and our Saviour tells the Hypocrites that he preached to Joh. 8. Ye are of your father the Devill Therefore know that as Christ though he had the holy Spirit in him yet he made use of such sharp and bitter speeches so a man may have such speeches in his mouth and yet he may be in the spirit of God and speak to Gods glory when he thus speaks The Angel of the Church of Ephesus is commended that he could not beare with those that were evill And that he hated the workes of the Nicolaitans himselfe and our Saviour doth professe his hatred to the Doctrine of the Nicolaitans And why should a Christian be afraid to imitate his Saviour though these will censure him for it If this be to be vile and without love to speak bitterly
on the Crosse was raised from thâ— dead and enemies to the Doctrine of the resurrection which is to be wrought by his power and that you may see how little I regard the speeches of these enemies of Christ and the glorious resurrection of Saints I would not seeme for their sakes to desert my discourse therefore I did resolve to goe on with it this day Then thirdly I apprehend it may much further the worke of the day for if we have remembred God aright in our prayses having made mention of his goodnesse to the Land and Nation we have done it spiritually and have more rejoyced in spirituall then temporall mercies And if our joy should end in rejoycing only for teporal mercies we should rejoyce rather carnally then spiritually Therefore having in the beginning of the day rejoyced for the mercies that God hath shewed to the Land I thinke I shall doe well if I raise you in your spirits by what I shall speake from these words and from the sight of Nationall mercies and temporall deliverances take occasion to draw your eyes to behold by Faith how you and all Saints shall rejoyce when you are delivered from all enemies at the resurrection that so I may sublimate your joy by carrying you higher in â—he spirit to rejoice in the spirituall things spoken of in the text Awake and sing Ye know we expresse our joy by singing as we may gather from that place Psal 126.1 when the Lord turned againe the captivitie â—â— Sion we were like them that dreame then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing Singing in Scripture is an expression of great joy If any be merrie let him sing saith James So my Evangelicall Prophet to shew what great joy there shall bâ— at the resurrection when the bodies of thâ— Saints shal be raised he bids us awake and sing So that this is the point there will be great joy at the resurrection For the amplifying oâ— which point I shall shew you what cause oâ— rejoycing there will be at the resurrection The spirits and the bodies of the Saints will then be reunited together again which were disunited for many yeares And as the Spirit doth with some regret griefe and unwillingnesse leave the bodie having a natural desire and appetite being planted into it by the hand of the Creator after union with the bodie so the spirit cannot but rejoyce when it is united againe to the bodie Therefore you shall find the spirits of Saints under the Altar in the Revelation 6.10 crying How long holy and true intimating their desire to be reunited to their bodies And iâ— 2 Cor. 5.4 The Apostle there shewes us that though the Saints be willing to live with thâ— Lord Jesus Christ yet there is an unwilling nesse in them to leave their bodies therefore they had rather have â—â— mortalitie swallowed up of life then to lay downe their bodies in the grave if it were the will of God We that are in this Tabernacle saith he groane being burthened not for that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life There seemes in these words to be held forth an unwillingnes in the Saints to be uncloathed of their bodies to put off the cloathing of the flesh We observe in Philosophie that there is a naturall appetite in the soule or forme to be united to that bodie that it once informed and as it leaves the bodie with some unwillingnesse so there is a desire of reunion when they are parted so that re-union will be a cause of joy For as there is joy at the meeting of friends so the body and soule that were long together in this world shall rejoyce when they shall meet together againe This is one ground of joy from their meeting the bodie and the spirit shall meet together there shall be a reunion after there hath been a disunion between them But in the next place there will be a cause of great joy because there will be an absolute perfection both in the body and in the soule God shall be perfection in the Spirit in every facultie of it and God in his glory shall dwell likewise in the body The soule shall be full of God here we have but an imperfect knowledge of God there the soule shall be free from all ignorance having the full vision of God Here we see as in a glasse darkly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enigmatically as the Apostle speaks there we shall see face to face Here we do but as it were see the back parts of God with Moses As the Kings of Persia in State used to keep themselves from the sight of the people God doth as it were hide his face here in comparison of the full discovery which hee will make of himselfe hereafter We doe but sip of the cup of spirituall joy here but there wee shall be filled with the rivers of the pleasures of God Here we have as Austin saith guttulas but little drops of joy but there we shall be filled with joy Here we have a sight of God which doth not fully satisfie but still we desire to know more of God and more of the Lord Jesus Christ but there wee shall be satisfied with the likenesse of God as the Apostle saith Col. 3. v. 4. When Christ which is our life shall appeare then we also shall appeare with him iâ— glorie The Apostle saith 1 Joh. 3.2 Yet it doth not appeare what we shall be it is not evident to us what glorie there shall be in oâ—â— understandings how our affections shall be ravished and enamoured with the love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ it doth not appear what shal be in our spirits but we know that when he shall appeare wee shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is O what tongue of Rhetorick can expresse this what it is to be like the Lord Jesus Christ to see him as he is there is more in it then the Eloquence of Angels can set forth unto you As they shall have such unspeakable glory in their spirits so likewise there shall be a glory on their bodies Alas our bodies now are but vile bodies weake bodies but what saith the Apostle Phil. 3. ult God shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body or to his body of glory for so it is in the originall As the body of the Lord Jesus Christ at his transfiguration was changed and his face did shine and his whole body did shine with heavenly brightnesse and Celestiall glory so the bodies of the Saints shall be bodies of glory there shall be a heavenly brightnesse on them Therefore Daniel speaking of the Saints at the resurrection hee saith Dan. 12.3 that they that are wise shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament and they that turne many to righteousnesse as the Stars of Heaven As the Starres are glorious creatures and the brightnesse of the
in his person we see that wee are conquerours over the Devill in him yet we meet with the Devill his fierie temptations darts and arrowes which he shooteth into our spirits so that he oft-times causeth us to walke something sadly occasioning troubles which Jerome calleth tempestates mentis the tempests of the mind As Paul tells us that he was buffeted by the messenger of Satan But then this wicked Fiend shall be so chained up that he shall never be let loose upon us again Then he shall be so under our feet that hee shall never have any liberty given him to tempt us any more The accuser of the Brethren is cast out of heaven Revelation 12.10 His accusations and complaints against them cannot be heard by the eare of God to prejudice their Justification but he doth persecute the woman upon the earth Rev. 12.13 He afflicts the Church and brings much trouble oft-times to the Saints but at the generall resurrection we shall be freed wholly from the Devill from all temptations from all troubles all enemies that can be thought upon so that then things shall be fully accomplished and compleated for our good The Apostle though he telleth us that Christ for the present hath abolished death and sinne to us 2 Tim. 1.10 and destroyed him who hath the power of death who is the Devill Heb. 2.14 yet he informeth us that the promises of God made to us in Christ are not fully accomplished compleated and perfected till the resurrection as wee may see by that place 1 Cor. 15.54 then shall be fulfilled that saying speaking of the resurrection day Death is swallowed up in victory then if shall be said O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Then shall it be that is it shall be in the full accomplishment wee have now what is there promised in the promise of God by Faith then wee shall have what is in the promise in the actuall fruition of the thing promised So that in this respect there will be great joy because then every Saint shall ride in a Chariot of triumph as a Conquerour of all enemies in his own person And as Christ in his owne body and Spirit did ride to Heaven and triumph over the power of Hell Death sinne curse and condemnation and as the life that we live for the present is by beholding this victory of the Lord Jesus Christ with the eye of Faith so at the generall resurrection all the Saints shall imitate the Lord Jesus Christ and in their owne persons shall ride as Conquerours triumphing over all enemies and shall live the life of vision seeing the same thing done in their owne persons which now by Faith they see done for them in the person of Jesus So that all cause and occasion of trouble and sorrow being taken away there must needs be great joy at the resurrection of those who are raised by the Lord. In the next place as the occasions and causes of all sorrow shall be taken away so likewise all things all objects that may move spirituall joy shall be presented to the Saints to raise their spirits to a spirituall joy who shall be raised and made happy with the Lord Jesus whatsoever it be that can be thought upon that can make any one happy that the Saints shal enjoy they shal enjoy God in a full measure and the Lord Jesus Sweet streames of joy will flow into their spirits because God will make himselfe the Author and worker of their joy Sing O daughter os Sion saith the Prophet Zeph. 3.14 Be glad and rejoyce O daughter of Jerusalem But why must Zion sing and shout behold the reason in the 15. verse The Lord is in the midst of thee and in the 17. ver He will rejoyce over thee with singing There is the chiefe ground of their joy laid downe So the 12. of Neh. 43. it is said the people rejoyced for God made them rejoyce with great joy So at the resurrection God shall make them to rejoyce they shall be alway then at the Fountaine at the Well-head In thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand saith the Psalmist Psal 17.11 there are pleasures for evermore All the Saints shall then bee in the presence and at the right hand of God where there shall be pleasures for evermore they all shall be in the glory of the Lord Jesus God shall emptie himselfe and the rivers and streames of joy which are in himself into their hearts and spirits so that they shall be swallowed up into those streames and rivers of joy and pleasure which are in the enjoyment of a God Macarius speaketh of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ebriety of the Spirit They then shall be inebriated with the fulnesse of a spirituall joy If there be such rejoycing here in the spirit of a Saint when he hath a light from God to see something of God in the face of Christ what spirituall joy shall there be when our joy shall be at the full If there be such joy in the ebbing of the Spirit here what joy will there be when we shall enjoy the high-tyde of the Spirit in the vision of Gods grace and glory hereafter when wee shall eat of the tree of life when wee shall drinke our fill of those rivers of pleasures which runne in the Paradise of God And if there be so much sweetnesse in spirituall joy here what tongue can expresse or heart conceive what there shall be in that joy that shall be hereafter Great glorious and high are the expressions by which Saints doe set forth the joyes that they feele here but no Saint can tell what the joyes shall be hereafter at the resurrection Psal 94.19 In the multitude of my thoughts within mee thy comforts delight my soule the delight is such here that David had rather have the light of Gods countenance in a Spirit of joy upon him then to enjoy all the glory and great things in the world Thou hast put greater joy into my heart then when the corne and wine of wicked men is increased Psal 4. and in Psal 84. One day in thy house is worth a thousand If there be such joy in the presence of God here in the beholding of his grace in the kisses of his mouth in the imbraces of his Sonne when he doth now sprinkle us with his grace O what joy shall there be when God shall poure out the Spirit of grace and sweetnesse into our soules when he shall open all the treasures of his Spirit and love when hee shall more freely and fully shew us the things that neither eye hath seene nor eare hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what they are 1 Cor. 2. Wee have seene great things in the world Crownes Scepters riches worldly pomp and glory but what are all these things they doe not shadow forth the things that wee see here in the Spirit
that the law killeth a man or cutteth off his legs Friends I am perswaded that some of you have experimentally found as I have done that the law killeth And when ye were slaine and killed by the law were you freed presently from the mandatory power of it I am perswaded that some of you can professe in truth with mee that ye were not The law then did command you to doe and walke What horridnesse is there more in this if I may make the comparison to affirme that the law cutteth off a mans legs and then biddeth him to walke then in this To affirme that the law killeth a man doth yet bid him to doe it and walke Object But some may say that Paul saith that the letter killeth because it giveth not strength to fulfill it Litera occidit nempe quia non consert vires ad praestandum Answ I spake it in this sense too and is it not lawfull for me to imitate Pauls expressions Unlesse the ignorant world must be made to believe that my speeches and exclamations are horrid and blasphemous I might multiply arguments from this Chapter if I should runne over all the expressions of the Apostle especially these where he calleth the law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A ministration of death a ministration of condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a thing to be abolished or abolished and done away And whatsoever is spoken by any of the godly for the making good of these expressions I might make use of the same for the justifying of mine seeing I spake them in the same manner as Paul did But that it may appeare that I speake not this for the reproaching of you but the vindicating of wronged abused truth and knowing that a word is sufficient to a wise man when a thousand stripes will not enter into a foole I shall not insult over your weakenesse but rather cover it as farre as I may without injury to the truth Let mee only leave this word to your consideration which in this place is very seasonable to wit That it is the mind of God that we should be as favourable in interpreting the expressions of spirituall men in their writings and speakings now as in interpreting the expressions of those spirituall men who are now with the Lord knowing that they both speak by the same spirit which spirit doth retain his liberty to speake in us as it did in them 2. Compare this speech with that of the Apostle Rom. 7.5 The motions of sinne which were by the law which will sound as harsh as to affirme that the law doth cut off the legs of sinners But if some say this is only occasionally and accidentally men running the more into sinne by how much the more they are forbidden to commit sinne According to that of the Poet. Tendimus in vetitum wee have a tendency in us to that which is forbidden I answer that the same exposition will sufficiently qualifie my speech to take away from it the least appearance of evill The law doth cut off a mans legs occasionally and accidentally A man by reason of the corruption which is in him findeth by experience that he is of lesse strength to run in the wayes of God the more he doth endeavour to get strength by the law of workes Musculus compareth it in this respect to a chaste Matron in a Brothel-house which by her good advice doth prove an occasion to some impudent whores to be more bold and shamelesse in their impiety Had the spirit of love without which wee are nothing taught you something concerning this speech you would have been favourable in interpreting it and not rigidly censorious in condemning it Oh that you who seeme to he zealous for the law would consider that this commandement to wit that we should love our neighhour as our selves is one of the great Commandements upon which all the Law and Prophets doe hang Mat. 22.40 And then how would you dare to be so rigid and uncharitable in your censuring of your Brethren If indeed you have received the law from Moses may I not say as my Saviour did to the Jewes John 7.19 Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keepeth it And then remember what the Apostle saith Rom. 2.13 That not the hearers or preachers of the law are just before God but the doers of the law shall be justified Brethren I am not such an enemie to the law but I can with freedome of spirit make use of that pertinent portion of Scripture unto you Jam. 2.8 9. If yee fulfill the royall law according to the Scripture Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy selfe yee doe well But if ye have respect to persons in your censuring judging them And the same thing in effect delivered by one man shall be accounted sound by you and shall be a horrid error if delivered by another man ye commit since and are convinced of the law as transgressors 3 dly Looke seriously upon those words of Paul Rom. 5.20 The law was given that the offence might abound And then tell me whether there be not the same figure in my expression which is in Pauls And why may I not make use of a figurative expression as well as Paul expounding my meaning more plainly afterwards as he doth which I also did in my discourse Calvin saith that by these words Paul doth simply signifie the encreasing of the knowledge and pervicacy Designatur hic simpliciter incrementum notitiae et pervicaciae And another saith that it it said that it aboundeth by the law because it aboundeth in our knowledge of it ut abundare agnoscetur And will not this which is usually spoken upon this place by Expositors make our speech passeable too And as Paul saith that the Commandement which was to life he found to be unto death Rom. 7.10 So may not I say that the law which was for holy walking I found to cut off my legs because being under it I was no more able to walke in the way of it than a man is able to walke without legs I leave it to the spirituall man who judgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 to judge of this thing betweene us And that you may not any farther to the dishonour of God and your profession the prejudicing of the worke of the Lord in my Ministery vent forth slanders and reproachas against me I do professe that I am not conscious to my selfe of denying the use of the law in any way in which it is held forth in the new Testament But know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully Knowing this that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawlesse disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for the unholy and prophane for murtherers of fathers and for man-slayers for whoremongers for perjured persons and lyars and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound
me that I should deliver in a Sermon these words Let Believers sinne as fast as they will there is a fountaine open for them to wash in But it being demanded by some whether I did deliver it by way of exhortation the accuser was so ingenious to acknowledge that it was not delivered as an exhortation And therefore it is probable that your Brethren of the new Province have had so much grace to leave it out in their charge though it be in the same page in which they have taken out the other Articles and it will be for your credit more then for mine to leave it out in your next Edition You may as well take out that part of a verse in Revel 22.11 He that is unjust let him be unjust still and he that is filthy let him be filthy still and conclude that God in Scripture exhorteth men to be unjust and filthy as to draw out scraps and fragments out of my discourses to perswade the world that I in my preaching exhort people to commit sin which I doe desire to destroy in my selfe and those who heare mee by preaching the grace of God in Christ Your learning if not love might have taught you to have put a more favourable construction upon these words The word let is not always used by way of exhortation as appeares by those words Rev. 22.11 But sometimes by way of supposition and doth frequently signifie as much as the word though doth And take it in this sence it is as seasonable a truth as I can in desire of your good leave upon your spirit Though you who professe your selfe a believer have sinned as fast as you can in my apprehension against the lawes of love and the Commandements of the Lord Jesus yet there is a fountaine opened in which if God give you faith you may wash your selfe from these sins In the meane while I shall comfort my selfe that there is nothing charged upon mee but the same hath beene charged upon those who were more filled with the Spirit for preaching then I am They were charged with the same thing by some ignorant or malicious hearers as appeareth by Rom. 3 8. And not rather as we be slanderously reported and as some affirme that wee say Let us doe evill that good may come whose damnation is just You may now expect that before I put a period to my answer I should speak something to your reproachfull railing speeches against me But you know who said men have learned to reproach me and speak evill of me but I to suffer reproaches Didicerunt illi maledicere ego pati And I shall learn of the Angel to say this to all my defamers The Lord rebuke you Zech. 3.2 And shall intreate God for his Sons sake to give grace and patience to his afflicted and oppressed servant Amen Mans legall righteousnesse is no cause or part of his justification EPHES. 2.8 9. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of works lest any man should boast THERE are two things which men ought chiefly to know Their misery by sin and their happinesse by the grace of God in Christ And by the wicked unfaithfulnesse of our memories wee are more apt to forget these two things then to forget any other points whatsoever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Know thy selfe is a lesson as difficult as it is old and common How hard a matter is it for a man to remember himselfe as to know what he is in himselfe The King of Macedonia thought it needfull that his Page should every morning put him in remembrance that he was a mortall man And every spirituall man doth finde it necessary that the Spirit daily should become his remembrancer to put him in mind that he is a sinful man So likewise it is a hard matter without the power assistance of the Spirit alwayes to know the rich full and free grace of God as it is held forth in the Gospel to poore sinners The last of these as it is the most sweet and excellent lesson so with the greater difficultie it is retained in our memories This is a Doctrine which if it were preached unto us every day wee should forget it every day The daily teaching and hourely learning of it cannot wholly free us from the ignorance of this truth But as farre as we are carnall and fleshly wee are strangers to the knowledge of it So that he that thinkes he perfectly knowes the doctrine of justification by faith alone I dare professe to that man that he knows nothing of this doctrine of justification as he ought to know As long as we live upon the earth we may be learners of this doctrine Paul after he had been a scholler and an aged teacher in the schoole of Christ many yeares did then professe that he endeavoured to forget his own workes and legall righteousnesse in reference to his justification and pressed forward to know more of the mystery of Christ labouring to be found in the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Phil. 3.10 Therefore though I have formerly spoken of the chiefe point that lieth in these verses yet I know it is needfull and necessary for mee to speake of it againe that you that have heard it opened may heare more of it as well as for those who have not heard the point so clearly fully unfolded unto them to whom God may make my discourse beneficiall if he accompany mee with his presence Wherefore I have pitched upon this subject at this present in which the summe of all divinitie is comprized For faith and love is the summe of all that we preach Faith towards the Lord Jesus and love towards God and all those that are united to him in the same Spirit with our selves And the Apostle layeth down both these in these verses shewing first clearly the doctrine of justificatiō through faith alone without works and then shewing that though we are justified without workes yet how in the Spirit wee are carried forth to performe all good works for he saith Wee are created the workmanship of God unto good works ver 10. In these words these particulars present themselves to your best attentions First that salvation and justification is by grace that is by the free favour of God Tee are saved by grace Secondly He sheweth how we are saved by grace in a way of beleeving not working Yee are saved by grace through faith Many pretend that they look on grace but it is thorough the spectacles of their own works but he that doth truly eye grace he looks on grace in an act of beleeving and not through working Thirdly The Apostle discovers the nature of true faith which is the unfained faith of the Elect. First negatively he informeth us that this faith is not of our selves There is not a fountain in our selves from whence a true and lively faith springs it floweth not
from the naturall carnall or rationall principles of the first Adam but from the power of the Spirit of grace Secondly affirmatively he informeth us concerning the nature and originall of it it proceedeth from God and is bestowed upon the creature as a free gift It is not of our selves it is the gift of God Fourthly He shews that as it is by grace so it is not by works as it is by beleeving so it is not by working Not of works Fiftly He gives the reason why it is not by works Least any man should boast If a man could say that God hath justified and saved him for his endeavours labours paines or good workes then a man might boast When he meeteth with one that is without Christ he may say I have done this good worke and the other good worke for Christ I shall be saved and thou shalt be damned But the true childe of God if he meet with a reprobate he sees no cause to boast it is by the grace of God that he is saved when the other is damned Not by works least any man should boast It is the designe and intention of God in justifying a sinner by grace without works to keepe men from pride and boasting Man did fall from happinesse by pride there is no way to attaine happinesse but by humilitie and faith the true way to humilitie is by beleeving for beleeving empties the creature of all works and righteousnesse and shewes that he is nothing in himselfe and that all his treasure glory happinesse riches and perfection lies treasured and laid up in another Fides hominem vacuum Deo adducit ut Christi bonis impleatur Faith bringeth a man in a poore and beggerly condition to Christ that he may be enriched by Christ Lastly The Apostle declareth that though we are saved by faith without works yet wee shall not be unfruitfull in bringing forth good works Wee are the workmanship of God by a new creation And the end of our creation in Christ is this that being in him we may be active to love and good works First I shall endeavour to prove negatively that there is no justification by works And then shew how it is by grace and then how it is in a way of beleeving and so come to distinguish true faith which is given by the Spirit from the false faith of hypocrites and Libertines which floweth onely from a principle of humane wisdome and not from the powerfull operation of the Spirit of God At this present I shall observe this method First I will shew that we are not saved by works I meane by the works of the Law Then I shall shew that wee are not saved and justified by works which are the fruits of faith or done under the Covenant of grace Thirdly I shall shew that we are not saved by works in which wee yeeld obedience to any Gospel Ordinances though they be Ordinances appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe to be practised by the Saints I take in this because I have found in my own spirit and in many that I have dealt with a secret and subtle kinde of Poperie by which wee are apt to attribute something to the practise of Ordinances in reference to our justification And hence it is that people are so ready to run into every new way of worship which is brought to light thinking that unlesse they finde out the right discipline and government of Jesus Christ the right Baptisme and Ordinances they are not true Saints nor sufficiently justified Therefore I shall take in this too to shew that as wee are not justified by more inward and spirituall works so neither are wee justified by any outward observation of Ordinances or submitting to any command of the Lord Jesus Christ but onely by our obedience to the first and principall command of the Gospel by which we beleeve justification by grace through Christ without works For the first of these heads I shall briefly shew how it is not by works passing by many things that I have formerly spoken of and I shall onely lay down foure or five considerations for the confirming of this that wee are saved and justified before God and in the Court of our own conscience without any works whatsoever The first consideration may be this Wee cannot be justified by works or by the Law because there was never any man had a legall righteousnesse but the man Christ Jesus This is Pauls undeniable conclusion laid down in Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and come short of the glory of God The devout Jew as well as the prophane Gentile is brought in before the tribunall of God as a guiltie finner coming short of such a glorious righteousnesse which the Law doth require of him that he may be justified under it The Gentile never walked according to the written Law of nature which is written in his heart nor the Jew according to the Law of his Maker written in Tables of stone All the works of the Law may be reduced to two heads The first are those works that wee doe in obedience to God to shew our love to him Secondly The works that we doe to shew our love to our neighbour Now if we take works in either of these two respects I shall shew that all the men and women in the world come short of such a legall righteousnesse and perfection that the holy just and pure Law of God requires It will be cleare that no man ever loved God as he ought God doth command us that wee should love him with all our heart and with all our strength with the whole streame of our affections But what man did ever love God in that manner Suppose a wife should entertaine many thousand lovers besides her husband could any say that that wife loved her husband So many fins as wee have so many lovers we have so the Scripture cals them Jer. 3.1 Thou hastplayed the harlot with many lovers that is thou hast followed many sins and lusts base and vile corruptions Now it is thus with all the men in the world wee have all gone a whoring from our God so that though all men yea even Turks and Heathens pretend to love God the great God that made them yet there is no man that ever loved God as he ought That man that thinks that he ever loved God as he ought and as the Law requires he is very blind and not enlightned to this day to see the puritie and spiritualitie of the righteous Law of the just and high God Suppose a Subject should alway contrive rebellion and conspire against the person of his King as desirous to take away his life and to pull the Crowne from his head will any say that this Subject loves the King Thus it is with all men wee are all traytors and rebells against the King of Heaven if we had strength we would take the Crowne from the head of God and set it upon the head of the
Holy Ghost Since the Scripture requires nothing to make a man an heire with Christ but faith What abominable Popery is it to say that a man cannot be a Saint if he doe not submit to outward Ordinances I cannot but commend what I finde in Luther who was zealously carried forth against some in his time that made a rent from him in a Legall way because they differed from him about externall things and Ordinances which are no just ground why Saints should divide themselves from one another who saith That they had brought in another kinde of Popery and more dangerous then that which he bad overthrowne by his preaching for as for grosse Popery saith he mens eyes begin to be enlightned to see the absurdities of it But these men come in a subtle way and pretending a necessitie of submitting to formes institutions and Ordinances doe pervert the pure and simple Gospel of Christ labouring to perswade men that if they doe not submit to the Ordinances of the Lord Jesus he would not acknowledge and confesse them before his Father and that unlesse they were under his government they should not be under him for justification Therefore wee are to be rightly informed concerning these things and if wee doe submit to outward Ordinances wee should not doe it from legall principles for it were better not to practise them then to practise them from these principles to the ruining of our soules And they that draw Disciples after them by such rigid and Gospel destroying principles will finde to their shame that those that they have brought in by these principles will fall away from them to their shame and infamy For God is dishonoured Christ is robbed of his Grace and the free Spirit looseth his glory Suffer mee now to make a little use and so I shall commend you and what hath been delivered to the blessing of God You have seene that wee are saved by believing the Gospel without any works going before justification or any submission to the Ordinances of the Gospel which may follow it This doth bring foure sorts of people under a just reproofe First Such as are grossly Popish maintaining justification by their own works and righteousnesse or affirming that a man is not justified by faith onely but by faith and works together These deny justification by the Grace of God and the righteousnesse of the Lord Jesus Christ through faith and set up a justification by inherent righteousnesse in themselves holding that wee are then justified from sinne when it is removed out of our sight sence feeling lives spirits and conversations The strongest Argument which they bring for the confirming of their assertion and in which they doe most triumph as though they had obtained a victory over the truth of Gods Grace is in the 2 Jam. 24. Yee see then bow that by works a man is justified and not by faith onely Doth not James say they lay down our assertion in so many words joyning faith and good workes as con-causes of justification Some to escape the edge of this Argument have denied this Epistle to be Canonicall like him who being unable to unty the Gordian knott did cut it in pieces Thus Lucius Osiander proposing this objection of his Antagonists doth thinke that he hath for ever cut it to pieces by their answer But secondly others yea most of those whom wee call Protestant writers for the reconciling of James to Paul and his fellow-Apostles with one consent give in this answer to this objection distinguishing of a twofold justification First a justification before God secondly a justification before men Paul as they apprehend doth speake of the former of these James of the latter supposing this to be the genuine sence and meaning of James that wee are justified by works that is declaratively before men But with respect and due reverence to the piety and learning of these men who give in this answer give me leave being not sworn in verba magistri or obliged to justifie what any man or many men though godly and learned have apprehended to be the meaning of a place to shew my reasons why I dissent from them and secondly to give in mine own answer to the place First I apprehend that James doth not speake of a justification before men because his proofe is from Abrahams being justified by works when he offered up his sonne Isaac as it is evident by the preceding words which action of Abrahams would not have justified him before men They would have looked upon him rather as a cruell malefactor then a Saint in offering up his onely Sonne Secondly This businesse was so transacted between God and Abraham that it was not visible to men that they should justifie him for it When he went to performe this act of obedience to his God he left his servants behind him and carried no man with him but his Sonne who was to be sacrificed Thirdly If wee view the place Ger. 22.11 12. out of which James doth prove his Argument it will be evident that it proveth not a justification towards men but towards God And the Angel said Lay not thy hand upon the Lad for now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy sonne thine onely sonne from mee This Angel was Christ as it doth appeare by his calling of himselfe God and he is justified by him as a man that feared him And in the 16 17 and 18. verses By my selfe have I sworn saith the Lord because thou hast done this thing that in blessing I will blesse thee and in thy seed shall all the Nations of the Earth be blessed It is cleare by this that the justisication spoken of is not a justification before men but before God Lastly I shall therefore give in what I doe conceive to be the meaning of the holy Spirit in these words James doth not speake of justification as it is taken properly and used by Paul but doth speake of justification as it is taken improperly He speaketh not of it as an act by which wee are reconciled and our iniquities pardoned but he speaketh of it as an act by which God doth approve a man to be justified by his works which he doth after his justification Abraham was a justified man by faith before Isaac was borne now God doth beare witnesse to the works and fruits of his faith and doth justifie him by his works in this sence that is he doth approve him to be a man that feareth and loveth him And this is the Answer which is given by the learned Melancthon Non intelligatur verbum justificari pro reconciliari sed ut alias saepe dicitur pro approbari Justificatur homo ex operibus id est habens justitiam operum approbatur placet Deo The word justification is not to be taken for reconciliation but approbation man is justified by his works that is having a righteousnesse of works or sanctification God doth approve him his works doe
grace who hath bestowed spirituall life light and operations upon us The Apostle hath an high expression to raise our spirits to this purpose 2 Cor. 2.14 Now thanks be to God which alwayes causeth us to triumph in Christ When men triumph there is great joy rejoycing and showâ—ing Wee are not onely to rejoyce in his Grace but wee should triumph in it A Christian may ride in a Chariott of triumph every day he may see his sinnes curse hell and damnation subdued and overcome when he beholds God in the looking glasse of his owne grace What though we have many sinnes yet for all this wee may triumph because the grace of God hath saved us from our sinnes by Christ What though wee have no works yet wee may triumph if wee know grace there is enough for us in the fulnesse of grace There is no way to peace here or glory hereafter but by grace Let grace therefore be thy glory As the Apostle doth double his exhortation when he exhorteth them to rejoyce that they might double their diligence and care in practise of their duty Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord alway and againe I say rejoyce So suffer me to double and treble my exhortation Yee have nothing to boast in but grace boast therefore and againe I say boast in the grace of God God seemes in the Prophet Isaiah to speake to an Hypocriticall proud people and he bids them bring forth their arguments and put him in Remembrance if there were any thing to be brought before him for which they should be justified Isa 43.26 Let us plead together declare thou that thou mayest be justified As if he should have said If you have any works bring them out use all your arguments skill and Rhetoricke say what you can for your selves to plead your justification But to convince them that they could not stand before him with their workes for justification he puts them in minde of their sinnes Thy first Father hath sinned and thy Teachers have transgressed against me ver 27. to this end and purpose that they should believe what was promised in the 25th verse that he would blot out their sinnes for his own sake So it is with us Brethren as we have heard Wee cannot bring forth sufficient reasons and arguments to make good our salvation by our works If we have nothing to comfort us but our owne works wee shall have no comfort at all in his presence Let us therefore as we are ingaged Trumpet out the praise of God for the manifestation of his rich and precious grace to us in the face of Jesus for justification and salvation Thirdly Let me exhort you to abide in the. profession of grace to the end of your dayes Hypocrites may professe grace for a time but true Saints shall hold fast the doctrine of grace to the end Joh. 8.31 If yee continue in my word then are yee my Disciples indeed Paul and Barnabas exhorted the religious Proselites of Antioch Acts 13.43 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to continue or abide in Grace Looke up to God for grace and power according to his promise to enable you to hold fast the truth of his grace Let not the wise and learned of the world cryed up for godlinesse Religion and devotion draw you from this grace of God We live in dangerous in perilous times and there were never such underminers of grace as have appeared in these sinfull dayes some that deny the Lord that bought them But let us not be discouraged because some who have professed grace have fallen from their profession to fancy frothy Notions Anti-Christian absurdities and Familisticall speculations Consider rather what the Apostle affirmeth 1 Cor. 11.19 that there must be Hersies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is needfull that there should be such that they which are approved may be made manifest The Divell hath his Chapalines as well as God his Ministers and Embassadors As some shall bee sent of God to hold forth grace for the conversion of sinners to the righteousnesse of the just So some will vent there blasphemous conceits and cursed impostures to pervert men to destruction If the good God sow good seed the wicked one will sow Tares among the wheate Mat. 13.24 When the Gospel is preached with power there are multitudes come to the profession of it but after a while many of these fall to philosophicall fancies foolish dreames vaine fables and idle speculations loathing the plain Gospel the heavenly Manna as the Israelites did the Manna that came downe from Heaven this wee begin to finde by experience But let not this shake us from our stedfastnesse in the profession of the Gospel God hath appointed it to be so Paul was confident that after his departure from the Congregation in Miletus grievous wolves would enter in among them not sparing the flock and that of their own selves should men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Act. 20.29 If the Apostle were coÌ„fident in his time that it would be so when he saw them under the pure Discipline and Government of Christ under the charge of those Ministers Teachers and Officers whom the Lord Jesus Christ appointed over them filled with those gifts of the Spirit which were the fruit of his Ascension what wonder is it if wee meet with the Devills Hee-Apostles and She-Apostles in these sinfull times who vomit forth boldly to their own shame and Gods dishonor hellish and pestiferous Doctrines for the most high spirituall Truths of the Lord Jesus if wee consider what confusion and disorder is among the best of Saints now and are enlightned to see our want of many spirituall gifts and favours which they enjoyed which for the present God doth not bestow upon us Againe Let not the Abusers of grace cause you to dislike grace or the Doctrine of grace By this the Divell may take great advantage against thee for thy hurt thou maist have injurious thoughts of the grace of God when thou eyest some who abuse grace but continue thou in grace fall not from thy profession nor dislike the preaching of it because thou observest some who abuse the grace of God turning it into wantonnesse Remember that in the times of the Apostle some Gospel Professors did walke so contrary to the Gospel that tender-eyed Paul could not speake of them without teares in his eyes whose end was destruction whose God was their belly whose glory was there shame who minded earthly things Phil. 3. Yet these vile wretches would talke of grace and the Doctrine of Christ knowing nothing rightly of grace or Christ And Jude doth acquaint us with some in his time that were crept in unawares turning the grace of our God into lasciviousnesse And he saith that they were ordained to this condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 written downe long before to this condemnation so the word signifieth for as God hath appointed some to salvation so he hath appointed some to damnation
discovery and application of his grace unto our own souls As no rational man when he readeth those words of our Saviour to the woman who was diseased with an issue of blood Mat. 9.22 Daughter be of good comfort thy faith hath made thee whole would conclude that because our Saviour saith that her faith did make her whole that therefore she was not made whole by Jesus Christ as the principall cause So no spirituall man should conclude that we are not saved by grace as the principall cause because the Apostle saith wee are saved through faith Desireing therefore that that crowne may stand fast which God hath set upon the head of his owne grace I shall endeavour to shew you that wee are saved by faith or through faith Wee are not saved in a way of working but beleeving Thus God saved and justified the Father of the faithfull to teach his sonnes in what way they are to expect salvation God in a vision informeth Abraham that he was his shield and exceeding great reward Gen. 15.6 And he beleeved in the Lord and he counted it to him for righteousnesse This was the Oracle of truth which Habakkuk standing upon his watch received from the Lord Hab. 2.4 Behold his soule who is lifted up in him is not upright but the just shall live by faith It is by beleeving and not by working that wee are made just Fides justos ab injustis non operum sed ipsa fidei lege discernit Aug. Truth doth make a difference betwixt the just and the unjust not by the Law of workes but by the law of faith The naturall man knoweth no righteousnesse but what is by his own workes The spirituall man doth see himselfe righteous in beleeving Thus our Saviour directed the ignorant Jewes to the right way of righteousnesse when they asked him what they should do that they might work the works of God Io. 6.28 This is the work of God saith he that ye beleeve on him whom he hath sent If any enquire after salvation let him know it is not by works The plaine way to salvation and justification is only by beleeving Tit. 2. The grace of God bringeth salvation teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse wordly lusts He doth not say that grace in the first place teaches us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts but in the first place it brings justificatiō salvation through beleeving then secondarily the same grace teacheth us to deny ungodlines worldly lusts After we have believed for salvation the holy spirit is given Ephes 1.13 In beleeving we enter into our rest Heb. 4.3 keep the yeare of Iubile see our selves unstated in happines and keep a christian Sabbath It is only in beleeving that wee are brought to the enjoyment of that felicity which is by the grace of God in Jesus Christ The Apostles in their Epistles doe not hold forth any truth more frequently then this Gal 5.6 In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by Love And Ro. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord. When the Keeper of the Prison asked Paul Silas what they should doe to be saved supposing salvation was only attainable by working they did at one discover unto him his error blindnesse acquainted him with the soul-saving truth of the Gospel assuring him that if he beleeved on the Lord Jesus he should be saved Acts 16.31 We find not rest in our spirits by the sight of our works love sincerity labours endeavours but by the sight of Gods grace in Christ Having by these places of Scripture confirmed to you this truth I shall now amplyfie it by shewing unto you more fully how it may be in truth affirmed that we are saved through faith In the first place it is by faith and by faith alone not by faith joyned with workes but by faith without workes I deny not but where true faith is workes will follow yet salvation is through faith without workes When wee are brought into the bosome of the Lord Iesus wee enter not into the bosome of his love by our love and faith together but by faith which produceth Love Our eyes are shut to the beholding all things in our selves and the eyes of our spirits are enlightned to behold what is in Gods Grace and the Lord Iesus Consonant to this is Pauls sweete and comfortable conclusion Rom. 3.28 Wee conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the Law Love to God and his people is a worke commanded by the Law but according to Pauls conclusion of truth wee are justified by faith without the deedes of the Law therefore we are justified by faith without love to God or his people When God discovers his Grace to a man for his justification hee shewes him that as his evill workes cannot bring damnation unto him so his good workes cannot bee availeable for his justification That assurance of Gods love which some professors have got by the sight of their owne workes being never illuminated in their understandings to behold Gods Grace in the light and beames of Grace is not the true assurance of the gospell but the deceit and lying divination of their owne spirits concerning their owne happinesse for salvation is by faith without workes God doth not require us to doe good workes for salvation in the conscience but doth positively and absolutely exclude them as things which have no influence at al upon that first assurance which he doth give unto his people of his love which is by a pure simple unmixed act of faith The spirit of Grace is never given to comfort us untill God hath stripped us of our owne righteousnesse workes and performances and hath brought us to the Throne of Grace to bee justified by free Grace without any thing in our selves that may make us fit for justification and salvation The Apostle doth lay downe this as a truth seconded by his owne experience and the experience of all true Saints Gal. 2.16 asserting that a man is not justified by the workes of the Law but by the faith of Iesus Christ even wee saith he have beleeved in Iesus Christ that we might bee justified by the faith of Christ and not by the workes of the Law for by the workes of the Law shall no flesh bee justified It is not as the Papists say that faith which hath love joyned with it which they make the forme of faith by which wee are justified but it is by faith without any workes at all by which wee are justified and have peace of conscience Augustine doth plainely lay downe his judgement in this point according to truth Noli presumere de operibus ante fidem quia peccatorem te fides invenit etsi te fides data facit justum impium invenit quem faceret justum Presume not upon thy workes done before faith because faith findeth thee a
all the Commandements of the Lord Jesus The cause of this legallnesse in their spirits is because they doe not see salvation firmly setled upon him that beleeveth The spirituall man beholdeth justifing grace in beleeving without his obedience to commands for externall worship and good workes and doth live joyfully and comfortably in the sight of his justification though he knoweth that it is possible that he may be ignorant of many things which other Christians may have the knowledge of And in these dayes of darkenesse contention confusion and disorder what man can have solid and lasting joy who is ignorant of free grace for justification If it were necessary to the assurance of justification to know whether the Episcopall Presbyteriall or Independent Government were the Ordinance of the Lord Jesus whether sprinckling of Children or dipping of professing beleevers were the institution of Christ in the Labyrinth of the controversies of our times how few would attaine to an assurance of their justification How would poore creatures be perplexed and disquieted in their consciences not certainly knowing in which of these wayes they should walke for their justification and salvation But that the promise might be sure to all the seed Rom. 4.16 to those who lived in the times of the Law as well as to those who live in these times of the Gospel salvation is promised not to workers but beleevers to all true beleevers in all ages and places to us who live in the time of the Babylonish-Apostacy as well as to those who were hearers of the Apostles and Members of those Congregations which were gathered and governed by them Sixtly By faith the grace of God in Christ is applyed unto us and we are justified by it as the spirituall instrument formed by God in the Spirit for the application of Christs benefits to our consciences A man that lived in the time of the Law looking upon the blood of his sacrifices did behold himselfe purged purified and sanctified in his flesh by it Heb. 9.13 So a sinner looking upon the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is applyed unto him and his conscience is purged from dead workes to serve the living God ver 14. Faith though it be called a worke 2 Thess 1.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet wee are not justified by it as it is a worke or gracious quality but as it is the hand of the Spirit by which wee receive and are made partakers of those treasures of grace which are freely given unto us in Christ Jesus Christ bath already done what is to be done by way of satisfaction to the justice of his Father and hath already made peace by the blood of his Crosse Col. 1.20 what he doth in us now is to satisfie our consciences concerning our full redemption by him that you in beleeving may be filled with peace of Conscience being perswaded that wee are of the Father in the Son who by the Father is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 Faith being nothing but a light comming from God Christ discovering God and Christ to our spirits and uniting our spirits to God in Christ By faith we beleeve what is recorded concerning the grace of God in Christ As the Prophet to my apprehension holdeth it forth in those expressions of his Isa 53.1 Who hath beleeved our report and to whom is the arme of the Lord revealed In the latter part of these words the Prophet doth interpret the former part he beleeveth the report of God to whom the arme of God that is his Sonne Jesus is revealed And when a man beleeveth in Christ Christ is revealed to that man Faith being the first thing that is wrought in the spirit of a man whom God doth justifie in his owne conscience by which the grace of God in Christ is revealed unto him for his justification Justifying faith when it is wrought by the powerfull operation of the Spirit in the heart doth remove prevailing doubts concerning our justification the faithfull beholding the all-righteousnesse of free grace applying to his conscience the clensing vertue of the blood of the Lord Jesus Faith is a gift of the Spirit establishing the soule Isa 7.9 If ye will not beleeve surely ye shal not be established The soule can never be firmely setled and quieted but by beleeving Unbeleife doth question and doubt of the promises of free grace for justification But when in the power of faith we are carried above it with Abraham Rom. 4.20 we stagger not at the promise through unbeleife but the spirit is fixed and stands immoveably upon the truth of grace God saith in the Covenant of his grace Heb. 8.12 I will be mercifull to their unrighteousnesse and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Hee that beleeveth doth set his Seale to the truth of God in beleeving the promise Iohn 3.33 He is confident that God is faithful who hath made this promise to the children of men and by beleeving the great and precious promises of grace he is made partaker of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 By an heart of unbeleefe wee depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 but by faith wee draw neere to God and apply Christ to our selves Faith being contrary to unbeleife as in the nature of it so in its operations An unbeleever doth not give credit to the truth of the generall promises of Gods grace and so remaineth unjustified in his conscience A beleever in faith nothing wavering James 1.6 doth give credit to what is reported And the Gospel commeth to him not in word only but in power and the holy Spirit and in much assurance 1. Thessalonians 1.5 Object But some may be ready here to object this against what I have delivered that though I doe acknowledge that by faith grace in Christ is applyed unto us yet in effect I say no more then what I delivered before when I proved that by faith the grace of God in Christ is first manifested and made over unto us Answ They misapprehend me when they conclude that I make faith onely an assurance of because I doe maintaine that it is the first evidence and witnesse of our justification Faith doth assure but it doth not onely assure us of Christ but doth apply Christ and makes a difference between assurance and application which I illustrate by this similitude Suppose one should lye in Prison for debt his debts being paid and he not knowing it and afterwards knowing that his debts were paid hee should rejoyce in the newes and enjoy his liberty this man doth not by the newes which he heareth enjoy only comfort but his liberty so it is with us before we beleeve we lie in prison and yet our debts are paid by Iesus Christ when the newes is brought by the spirit to the eare of the soule wee rejoyce in hearing the newes but besides this presently wee enjoy our liberty and all those riches which our
in the faith who have not Christ in them are not approved Christians 2 Cor. 13.5 Know yee not your owne selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except yee bee reprobates The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except yee be unapproved It is possible that a man may be in a state of unbeliefe and yet no reprobate But he that cannot prove that he hath faith cannot prove himselfe to be a Christian or in a state of Salvation Querie it in thy soule whether thou hast such a faith as we have spoken of Yee have heard that wee are saved through faith which is a supernaturall gift of the Spirit by which those things which the naturall man cannot apprehend concerning salvation are made plaine to the soule Supernaturall things cannot be knowne but by something which is supernaturall As the things of nature are knowne by the light of nature things of reason by the light of reason So the things of eternall life and salvation by the supernaturall gift of faith which is the evidence of the supernaturall things of the Gospel which are invisible Heb 11.1 Abraham beleeved against hope Rom. 4.18 So a spirituall man beleeveth the things of Glory and eternall life which the short line of naturall reason cannot reach or fathome and which naturally he cannot hope for or expect Is thy faith who dost Professe thy selfe a child of Abraham such a faith as Abrahams faith was who is the Father of the faithfull Secondly true beleevers see their salvation by faith alone Though a man have many seeds together in his hand yet hee may know the various and diverse natures of those severall seeds So though a justified man have many precious seeds of the Holy Spirit in his heart yet he knoweth the severall natures of them all Though he hath love to God in his heart as well as faith in God yet hee knoweth the nature of Faith which alone is avaylable to Justification Trie whether thou hast been enabled to flie to the strong Tower of Gods grace for safety against Hell sinne and Devills by the silver wings of Faith without the helpe of workes for Justification Thirdly a beleever seeth justification cannot be by grace if workes and faith were to be conjoyned for justification Gratia non est gratia ullo modo si non sit gratuita omni modo Grace is not Grace in any way unlesse it be free and undeserved every way Grace is not free and undeserved unlesse it be reached forth without any consideration of our owne workes which is onely through faith trye whether God hath taught thee this lesson of truth Fourthly faith doth take the glory of justistification from the creature and giveth it unto grace Hast thou learned to sing the new song of the Saints and redeemed ones before the Throne crying Salvation onely to God who sitteth upon the Throne of grace and to the Lamb. Fifthly art thou fully perswaded of Gods power and faithfulnesse who hath left Promises of grace upon record for the salvation of poore sinners Art thou with Abraham suily perswaded of the truth of Gods Promises of grace in reference to thy selfe I remember what one of the Ancients saith That to professe Christ without assurance is to be without faith living in the houshold of faith Fidem in domo fidei non habere Cypr. A spirituall man is that which he believeth himselfe to be Id esse incipit quod se esse credit He beleeves that he is positively and negatively righteous in Christ freed from sinne and made a partaker of a glorious righteousnesse for his justification and so he is of a Leper by believing in an instant made whole Hee believeth that he oweth nothing to his creditour and his creditour believeth so too Sixthly A believing man is bone of the bone flesh of the flesh and one spirit with the Lord Jesus There is a close neere union application of Christ to the soule by faith Dost thou in believing see thy selfe a member of Christ as thy hand or foot is a part of thy body Is Christ the quickning spirit of thy spirit to enliven that as thy spirit is the spirit which doth enliven thy body 7 ly Dost thou so live by faith that thou lookest upon Christ as thy life and righteousnesse more then faith Not suffering any perswasion which thou callest thy righteousnesse to sit in the uppermost roome of thy heart to the prejudice of Gods glory in Christ A spirituall heart is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mac the throne of the Deity where God in Christ is exalted as the chiefe righteousnesse of the soule is it so in thine Iohn 14.1 8 ly Hast thou by faith as an instrument touched the hem of Christs garment for the healing of the bloudy issue of thy own soule Hee that is wise and good is wise and good for himselfe And if thou art truly wise and good thou art wise in applying Christ to make thy selfe wise and good Lastly Is thy faith such a faith through which Christ hath inwardly discovered himselfe unto thee formed and created himselfe in thee Job 32.8 The inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding If thy faith be true it is by inward inspiration Quer. But must we have such a faith if wee will be the children of believing Abraham Answ Every true believer hath such a faith for the nature of it though not for the perfection of the degrees of it There is a perfect faire copy of faith in those who have beene presented unto thee Thou art to have the same copy written forth upon thy heart though it may not be so fairly written forth at the first But if it be a true copy of faith thou hast no cause to question thy assurance though thou dost finde it very weake at the present A palsey-shaken hand may receive a gift and a weake faith may receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ A Dwarfe is a man as well as a Giant though not so tall and one who is but a dwarfe and low in Christianity by the weakenesse of his faith may be a Christian as well as those who are of a taller stature in the Schoole of Christ Thirdly this which hath been delivered may be for the strengthning of the faith and the encreasing the comforts of those who have laid hold of salvation by a lively faith on Jesus Christ Comforts are encreased by the same meanes by which they are wrought at the first And therefore the Apostle prayeth for the Romans that the Lord would fill them with all joy and peace in believing Rom. 15.13 Our comforts are low because our faith is weake Comfort floweth in by renewed acts of faith Sathan would rob us of our comfort by wresting faith which is our shield from us Ephes 6.16 And this is one way in which he doth labour to weaken the faith of the Saints by suggesting this unto the Saints that Salvation is not only through faith But against this
salvation of him who commeth to Jesus Christ as David in the cave Adullam 1 Sam. 22.2 Entertained all such who were in distresse and every one that was in debt and every one that was discontented and became a Captaine over them So Jesus Christ of whom David was a type doth entertaine all distressed consciences indebted sinners discontented malefactors and becommeth the Captaine of their Salvation Heb. 2. He knoweth how unwilling impurity is to come to him who is purity what enemies we are to our owne salvation what fooles we are to run to those who cannot help us like Ephraim who when he saw his sicknesse went to the Assyrian who could not heale him Hos 5.13 and therefore hee publisheth proclamations of his Fathers grace to poor helplesse sinners And bringeth sinne-wounded miscreants out of the wildernesse of sin and misery to the heavenly Canaan of peace and holinesse through faith in his Name He seeth that we are ready to catch hold of the Law and our own works like unto men who are ready to sinke in the water who will get hold of rushes or strawes or any thing upon the surface of the water which cannot save them and therefore he reacheth forth his strong arme of salvation for to help us and bids us to hold fast by him and assureth us of life and salvation Hee keepeth open House and inviteth all sorts of sinners so lay hold of the grace of his Father in him He beseecheth us to be reconciled to his Father 1 Corinthians 5.20 He assureth sinners that whosoever will may drinke of the waters of life freely Rev. 22.17 He compareth himselfe to a running River out of which every poore Traveller may drinke freely no man demanding or requiring any thing for what he takes He doth set Captives sree not for price or reward Isa 45.13 not for their works Though wee have sold our selves for nought yet he assureth us that we shall be redeemed without money or price Isa 52.3 He having paid a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the price or money for our redemption and assuring us now in his word of trueth that there is salvation for us without our merits by faith in him Therefore let those who want joy and comfort come to the promises and take Christ in a promise such who have been mislead and not set in the right way to salvation and justification let them be convinced that this is the right way be assured of salvation by grace Christ dying not for the righteous but for the ungodly be perswaded that Jesus is not a Physician for the whole but for the sick Mat. 9.12 Sin is the souls sickness thou art a sinner art sick and maist come to Christ not as one that is well but as one that is sick Christ is a Chyrurgion that is able to cure the greatest wounds therefore he hath set up his bills and bids all to come and hee will reject none Wee may with the woman in the Gospell spend all that wee have upon other Physicians and be nothing profited There is health for us onely by comming to Jesus Christ Therefore if other Physitians have been Physicians of no value while they have bid you seeke Justification and assurance in the sight of your own works and not in the sight of Gods grace heare this day what the Lord Christ saith to your soules he professeth that he calleth not the righteous but sinners to repentance Hear him Heare I say and thy soule shall live Isa 55.3 I remember that some Physitians have been highly commended that have beene able to cure their Patients speedily and safely and without any great torment Now the Lord Jesus Christ is a most admirable Physitian in these three respects 1. He can speedily cure and heal us whatsoever our wounds are if there were but one wound and sore from the crown of the head to the sole of the soote if we were made up of nothing but sin the Lord Jesus Christ is able to cure us speedily hee is excellent in this respect Touch him and the bloody issue of thy soule is immediately cured He can say to thee as once he said to Zacheus This day salvation is come to thy soule If he lay the plaister of his Fathers grace upon thy sinfull soule thou shalt be immediately cured Secondly Christ cures safely there is no danger in taking that which Christ prescribes If Christ tell you that his Father justifies ungodly ones and that he is the Saviour of sinners you may believe him and put your life in his hand hee will not cozen and cheate as some Mountebanks that give that which kils when they confidently promise health If Christ promise to heale he will give that physick which shall effectually help us He wil not give that unto us which shall hurt us If hee had thought the doctrine of grace would have hurt men he would never have commanded the Doctrine of grace to have beene preached If hee had thought that the Doctrine of grace would onely have opened a doore to Libertinisme and licentiousnesse he would not have given his Apostles commission to preach the Gospell to every creature Though men in their carnall apprehensions thinke there is danger in the medicines of Christ Those who have had experience of him can assure you that hee is a matchles Physitian there is no danger in that which he gives there is no way to salvation but by believing without working Use this physicke of his apply this plaister to thy soul thou needest not to fear whom he cures hee cures with abundance of safety I dare assure thee that he will heale thee In the third place Physitians are commended that cure without tormenting their Patients much and such a physitian as Jesus Christ He comforts our hearts with Gospell Cordialls while he cures us There is sweet comfort in the healing of the Lord Jesus Christ he so heales thy wounds and diseases that thou shalt have delight and comfort while he heales thy soule and gives a plaister to thy putrified rotten spirit The Lord Jesus Christ doth not prescribe a tormenting remedie that is worse then the disease but when Christ heales he comforts he so cures that hee ravisheth the soule with joy unspeakable and full of glory Wherefore come to Christ you who have spent all and suffered much and have lain under a spirit of bondage 20. or 30. yeares here is healing looke to the Physitian the Lord Jesus Christ he will cure you speedily and safely and with delight to you In brief it is an easie and compendious way to heaven when God gives you believing hearts and yet the hardest thing in the world to believe without him but when God enables us the work is easie When Christ resolveth to be the Physician health quickly will be given in Some affirme that generation is in instanti in a moment It is unquestionable concerning spirituall regeneration by faith in Christ Therefore looke up to the Father and
the dark dungeons of their own spirits being not able to behold the invisible things of Gods grace which are not discovered and made visible unto us untill we believe in Jesus Christ But in the 3d place the holy spirit speaking of naturall men without Christ doth not only inform us that they are darkened and have their seates in darknesse but they love darknes they are pleased with their present state and condition of darknesse they are unwilling to have any light break forth upon them So our Saviour saith John 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world but men love darknesse They love unbeliefe and ignorance they had rather be the Devils prisoners in dungeons of darknesse then enjoy their liberty in Christs marvellous light They are so far from being unable to make themselves happy in believing that they are in love with their owne unhappinesse They will not come to Christ that they may have life they are unwilling that Christ should reign over them though hee doth offer salvation unto them They say unto God depart from us for wee will not have the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21.14 Like the Gadarens they doe desire Jesus to depart out of their Coasts They are the slaves of sinne and free from righteousnesse Rom. 6.20 When they are disobedient to the commands of righteousnesse they do account it their liberty and freedome As the service of Christ is liberty to a Saint cui servire regnare est Aug. so the service of sinne is accounted liberty by a carnall man They are like the servant that was to be bored through the eare upon his profession that he loved his Master and would not goe out free Exod. 21.5 This is the condition of every man out of Christ he professeth that he loves his Master he loves the Devil the works of the flesh are sweet and pleasing to him he had rather live as a Swine and wallow in the filth and mire of sinne then taste of those joyes and pleasures which are at Gods right hand he had rather doe the Devills drudgery then enjoy that perfect freedome that the Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased for the Saints It is against his heart and the whole bent frame streame strength and current of his spirit to be desired entreated and beseeched to give entertainement to Christ He is rather contented to live as a slave with Satan then to rule as a King with Christ He is an evill tree and cannot bring forth fruit to make himself good Homo extra Christumest mala arbor Hier. As an evill tree cannot bring forth good fruit to make it selfe good so an evil man being an evill tree all his thoughts words and actions are evill fruits by which he cannot make himselfe good He cannot therefore of himselfe bring forth the good fruit of faith Again the Scripture riseth higher in spirituall expressions to set forth unto us the sad and wofull condition of an unbelieving man He is not only a lover of darknesse and seated in darknesse but he is darkenesse it selfe in the abstract The Apostle speaking of the Ephesians before their conversion saith Ephes 5.8 Yee were sometimes darknesse Consonant to which words is that speech of John John 1.5 The light shined in darkenesse that is in the dark hearts of unbelieving men but the darknesse comprehended it not There doth lye more in this expression then in the former It is more to be darknesse then to be darkned now wee are not only darkened in our understandings but our understandings are nothing else but darknesse Men without Christ may think that they have a great deale of knowledge wisedoâ—e but truely the holy Ghost tells us that all their light and understanding is nothing but darknesse There is as much contrariety betweene the spirit of God and the spirit of a naturall man as there is betweene light and darknesse By reason of which the naturall mancannot of himselfeobtaine the knowledg of Christ Rom. 8.7 The carnall mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither can be The Apostle doth not only say that it is not subject but he saith that it cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hee maketh it a thing impossible According to that which he himselfe delivereth 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishnesse to him The word is very emphaticall in the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The man that hath a soule looke upon him in his best part in his ration all soul which he hath as a man and in that and by that he cannot receive the things of God Look upon the rational man with his morality with humane learning Arts Sciences with his literall knowledg of the Law Gospel look upon him as he is sublimated in his intellectualls and as he hath made the highest improvement of his learning parts gifts and endowments as hee is the worlds delight for his worldly wisedome as he is admired by men for his prudence and eloquence with all this he is blinde to the all-seeing eye of God and cannot receive or aprehend the glorious things of Gods grace in Jesus Christ Hee is a foole with his wisedome an ignorant man with his learning a wretched sinner with all his good works morall vertues And no more able to open the blind eyes of his soule that he may see the sun of the Gospell which shineth in the spirits of the Saints then a man who is borne blind is able to give himself fight and bodily eyes to hehold the Sun which shineth in the world He is not able by the acutenesse of his reason the sharpenesse of his understanding nor the largenesse of his parts gifts endowments naturall or acquired to attaine unto the saving knowledge of things of the Gospell but they are meer foolishnesse unto him So that by this consideration it will be evident that if we looke on saith as it is a light in the understanding that then a man is not able to bring this light into his owne understanding but whatsoever is in his understanding opposeth the glorious light of Gods grace and that therefore it is impossible upon this account for a man to beleeve of himselfe But iâ— the second place if we looke on faith not only as it is the light of God in the understanding but if we look on it as it is the work of God upon the will so we shall find that we believe not of our selves and that no man ever in his owne power and strength or improvement of his free will was ever able to believe what God hath reported concerning his owne grace in his Sonne Jesus For as a man is darknesse in his understanding so hee is nothing but rebellion in his will As the darknesse in his understanding opposeth the light of Christ and the beames of Gospell-truths so likewise the strength force prevalency
of the rebellion in his will fights against all the discoveries that may be made of Jesus Christ to him This is set forth most plainly to us by John John 1.13 where speaking of the Saints he saith They are borne not of blood nor of the will of flesh not of the will of man but of God It is not of the will of the rationall man spiritually truely to wil his owne regeneration Let a man make the best use he can of his will let him put forth himselfe to the best resolutions he can make let him resolve to doe nothing but seeke Christ and study to know him yet if a man be only in the strength of his own resolutions he shall never be able to find out the Lord Jesus Christ The Apostle Paul is plaine in this point Rom. 9.16 It is not of him that willeth or of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy A man may have some weake resolutions of himselfe and to seeke Christ and the things of Gods Kingdom but unlesse hee be carryed out with a higher principle and a greater power then his own wil to Christ he will never be able to effect what he seemes to desireto have effected and wrought in him In libero arbitrio nulla est libertas sed servitus Free wil is not free but a slave there is nofreedome but slavery in it It is not free to good unlesse it be freed from sin by grace si stare non potuit humana natura adhuc integra quomedo potest resurgere jam corrupta Bern. If man in the state of integrity could not stand of himselfe how shall hee of himselfe in his state of corruption be able to rise now hee is fallen Unlesse God come downe with a mighty power and force us against our naturall will to receive Christ wee shall never bee made partakers of Christ No man saith Christ can come to mee except the Father draw him Joh. 6.44 Nolentes trahimur you know when a man is drawn he is drawn against his will I need not draw a man that is willing to come after me If we were willing to goe after God in our conversion wee should stand in need of no drawing But ye see that God must compell us to come in to Jesus or else wee will never come in unto him nor submit unto his will I would not here be mistaken I do not think that when a man doth take Christ that he is unwilling to take him but hee receiveth him willingly Yet it is not by the strength of the naturall will that a man is made willing but by the power of grace Ex nolentibus volentes facit God maketh us who are unwilling to entertaine his Sonne by nature willing to entertaine him by grace and the will acted by the strength of supernaturall grace doth act in a contrary way to it selfe when it acteth in the strength of corrupt nature By which it is plainly proved that the will of a naturall man is insufficient of it selfe to bring about the salvation of a naturall man We are changed into the Image of the Lord by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 From whence one doth draw this rationall conclusion that if we are changed by the strength of the spirit that then it is not by the strength of free will Si a domini spiritu jam non a libero arbitrio And we may draw the same conclusion from the words of Paul Phil. 2.13 where he affirmeth that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his owne good pleasure If God doth work in us to will what is good then we doe not work it in our selves By which it is clearely demonstrated that if faith be looked upon as a work in the will by which it is made willing to receive Christ and his righteousnesse for Justification that then faith cannot be looked upon as from our selves but it is the gift of God A second argument for the confirmation of this may be drawn from the considering the disability of men already converted to doe any good of themselves And thus I frame my argument If men already converted are not able to think a good thought or to put forth one act of faith of themselves then men unconverted are not able to believe of themselves before conversion But men already converted are not able to think one good thought or to put forth one act of faith of themselves Therefore unconverted men are not able to believe of themselves There is that strength in the first proposition that I suppose no man pretending to bee a Schollar in the Schoole of the spirit will question the truth of it For should a man question it he should by his questioning of it attribute a greater strength to unconverted then converted men which is such an absurdity in Divinity that I think no spiritual man would be guilty of it And for the minor or second Proposition it is backed with such plaine authority of Scripture that it is in vaine for any man to deny it How plainly doth Paul deliver himselfe in this point 2 Cor. 3.5 Where speaking of Saints he saith That wee are not sufficient of our selves to think any thing as of our selves but our sufficiency is of God What spirituall act is more easie then to thinke a good thought It is easier to thinke well then to speake well or doe well we often think good thoughts that never come out upon the tongue or appeare in the action Yet holy Paul is not affraid to professe that the best of us all cannot thinke any thing as of our selves Which may be a sufficient proof of that which followeth in the same proposition where wee say that he cannot put forth one act of faith In believing our spirits are placed and fixed upon God and we are filled with high thoughts of his grace in his Sonne to his glory and therefore if we cannot think well certainly we cannot believe well And that wee cannot believe of our selves after we do believe will be evident by the Petition of the Apostles Luke 17.5 Lord encrease our Faith What necessity was there that they should have prayed to their Mr. for the increasing of their faith if by their owne strength they could have believed when they had pleased And thus I have at once both proved my argument and the point in hand that true faith is not of our selves This argument is a majore ad minus as we speake in Logicke from the greater to the lesse if the greater can doe nothing the lesse cannot if converted men be able to do nothing toward this excellent work of faith then unconverted men are able to doe nothing Men who have a life in Christ can do nothing of themselves therefore such who are dead in sins and trespasses can doe nothing of themselves but God must doe all in us by his grace The third argument may be drawne from this
strength of that spirit that commands them from the grave of sinne to the land of the living While Ezekiel prophesied over the dead bones breath came into them and they lived Ezek. 37.10 So while the Prophets of the Lord do preach over their sinfull impenitent hearers who are like the Prophets drye bones the breath of Heaven the spirit of the most High in the Ministery of the Gospell enters in into them and not by working but believing they are made new creatures and see the Kingdome of God In the next place you see faith is not of our selves it is not in any thing in man or in mans wisdome that man is enabled to believe what is reported concerning Gods grace in Jesus Christ Therefore this may convince us that that faith which is of our selves is a false faith and not the true justifying faith of the Saints The good fruit of faith cannot grow out of a wicked heart And the heart of a man naturally is wickednesse and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart is vanity and only evill continually Gen. 6.5 Psalm 94.11 When God lookes downe from Heaven upon the children of the first Adam hee seeth that there are not any that doe understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are all become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.2.3 And the Lord Jesus dyed for us when wee were enemies unto him and without strength to do any thing for our owne salvation Rom. 5.6 That faith therefore which is wrought by the strength of nature is not that true faith of the Gospel which is only wrought by the spirit of the Gospel According to that of the Apostle where he affirmeth that the Saints are justified by the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6.11 Therefore if thy faith be a working or perswasion of thine own spirit If it be framed and hammered by thy selfe upon the anvile of thy owne spirit it is a counterfet perswasion and will not be able to advantage thee in the great day of the Lord Jesus As wee read in the Prophet Jeremiah of the visions of a mans owne heart and the visions of God So there is a two-fold faith there is the faith or perswasion of a mans own heart and a perswasion of the Spirit of God And as the visions of a mans owne heart are false dreames lies and deceits and are justly reprehended by the Prophet Jerem. 23.26 So the perswasions of a mans owne heart they are false dreames and lying perswasions we are to give no credite to them As we should not believe a common lyer So we are not to believe the perswasions of our own hearts The same Prophet in the 28. ver compareth lying Prophesies to chaffe and the Prophesies of truth to wheat what saith he is the chaffe to the wheat So true faith is like unto wheat and faith of our selves is like unto chaffe As the winde driveth away the chaffe Psalm 1.4 So the blasts of Gods wrath and the winds of temptation will blow away the chaff of a false faith while true faith shall be preserved by God and we through it shall be preserved unto the day of redemption Wherefore brethren we are to try whether or no we doe truly believe Examine your selves saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 13.5 Whether ye bee in the Faith As we have a touch-stone to trye gold so God hath left a spirituall touch-stone by which true faith may be tryed As there are counterfet pieces of gold which can bee hardly distinguished from true gold until they are brought to the touch-stone so there is a counterfeit faith which can hardly be distinguished from true faith untill it be brought unto the spiritual touch-stone Therefore it will be the wisedome of every one of you to try what faith you have It is not enough to be perswaded that you shall be saved and that Christ is yours and that your names are written in heaven Alas there are false perswasions as well as true There are multitudes of Libertines who turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and make their bellies their Gods and minde earthly things Phil. 3. And yet have strong perswasions that they are in the grace and favour of God There are Pharisees who are perswaded that they are in the love of God the Pharisee had an assurance and gave God thankes for it too Luke 18.11 God I thanke thee I am not as other men are And yet hee was but an hypocrite all the while deluded with the proud conceits of his owne righteousnesse The unbelieving Jewes professed with a great deale of boldnesse and confidence that God was their Father John 8.41 We have one Father even God And yet our Saviour tells them plainely that though they had these strong perswasions that God was their Father yet in truth the Devill was their Father Ye are saith he vers 44. of your Father the Devill A man may be perswaded that Christ will save him and goe to hell and be damned with that perswasion We see by experience that many Apostates who have made a profession of Christ have had strong perswasions of the love of God have fallen from the Gospell to prophanenesse Arminianisme and diabolicall Familisme Our blessed Emanuel doth plainly prove this truth unto us by acquainting us with some who when they shall be brought before his judgement-seate shall be confident of their interest in him whom neverthelesse hee will not own to be his Matth. 7.21 22. Not every on that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Many shall say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name have cast out Devills and in thy Name done many wonderfull workes Yet you see what Christ will professe unto them I never knew you depart from me yee workers of iniquity As if he had said It is true you had a strong perswasion that you should be heires in my Kingdome it is true you thought that you should be saved if any in the world were saved but I tell you for all that I know you not depart ye workers of iniquity Wherfore it concerns all men to know whether their faith be a right faith Self-ish faith is no right faith if it arise from no higher a fountaine then our own natural reasons wisdomes and understandings our faith is from our selves and we may carry it to hell with us and find as good faith there in the Devills as this is Though this which I have spoken concerning the tryall of faith doth chiefly concerne such who are deceived with a false faith of their owne making yet it will be very advantagious for the true Saints likewise to try their faith Wherefore before I presse this farther upon such who are under a spirit of delusion I shall speak a word unto the Saints unto
there is a mighty power of God comes downe upon him when hee is enabled to believe Thou that hast a false faith apprehendest it an easie thing to believe because thou didst never feel a power from above comming upon thee to enable thee to believe Whereas the true believer knoweth that it is a difficult thing to believe Because the work of faith is the work of â—mâ—ipotency According to that of our Savior Io. 6 29. This is the worke of God that ye believe in him whoÌ„ he hath sent Therefore if upon examination thou dost find that thou art only pertwaded concerning the mysteries of Christ and the grace of God as thou art perswaded of naturall things in a naturall way and hast not felt the power of heaven enabling thee to believe thy faith is a false faith For where there is true faith a man feeles the power of God enabling him to believe the testimony that God gives of his Son Christ I will give you a plain place to confirm this Ephes 1.19 20. where hee praying for them that they might see the mighty power by which they were enabled to believe doth make use of many very emphaticall expressions that ye may know saith he what is the exceeding greatnesse of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead There hee speakes not only of a power but the greatnesse of power and not only the greatnesse of power but the supereminent greatnes of his power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And as though hee had not spoken enough to set out the Almightinesse of the power by which we are enabled to believe hee doth inform us that such an operation of the power of the vertue of God for so the words may be translated by which Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and declared to be the Sonne of God is put forth for the enabling of us to believe Thou that hast not this power in thy soule thy perswasion is wrought in thy spirit not by the spirit of grace truth but it flowes from thy own naturall and carnall spirit and it is a perswasion that will never doe thee good it will never bring thee true comfort A man that hath not a better perswasion than this shall never see the face of God with joy 3dly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us out of our selves A faithful man hat his life not in himselfe but in Jesus Christ He liveth not by the principles of the first but second Adam He hath his spirituall being in the Father and in his Sonne Jesus Christ He is joyned to the Lord and is one spirit Hee seeth the Father in the Son and the Sonne in him and the Father in him through his Son According to the promise of our Saviour John 14.20 Ye shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you Paul speaking of the spirituall Thessalonians affirmeth that they are in the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ 1 Thes 1.1 By faith we enjoy the glory of union The glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they be one even as we are one John 17. Though we have not the glory of equality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet we have the glory of likenesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Though we are not united to the Father to immediately as Christ is by himselfe and in himselfe yet we are united to him mediante Christo by the meanes and mediation of Christ Jesus This is the honour which is given to those who trust by a lively faith in the name of the Sonne of God 4 ly Faith which is not of our selves doth carry us beyond the world A believer looking upon Christ overcomming the world for him doth through faith overcome the world by him 1 John 5.4 Whatsoever is born of God overcommeth the world and this is the victory that overcommeth the world even your faith Therefore the Saints are said to be cloathed with the Sun and to have the Moon under their seet Rev. 12. Because being through saith cloathed with the righteousnesse of Christ who is called the Sun of righteousnesse Mal. 4.2 They trample upon all sublunary things as worth nothing in comparison of Jesus Christ Fifthly He that truly believeth in Christ is anointed with the spirit of Christ and assured of his abiding for ever in Christ 1 John 2.27 The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him God should lose his earnest if it were possible for us to miscarry to the losing of our soules after wee have this earnest from him which bindeth him to bring us to heaven and happinesse This spirit perswades us that we are the sons of God that God will lose none of his sons Hee that hath this spirit knoweth that no man that hath the spirit can speake what he feeles from the work of the spirit of adoption in his owne heart Hee admires grace when hee lookes on God reconciled in Christ to sinners lookes on himselfe reconciled to God in believing and when he feeleth the spirit of God witnessing with his spirit that he is the childe of God hee can goe boldly to the Throne of grace knowing Christ as his elder brother God his Father in him Selfe-deceiving hypocrite dost thou not begin to be convinced that thy faith is not the true faith of the Gospell by that which hath been spoken concerning this faith which is not of our selves but the gift of God 6. As I told you even now There is never true faith but true love follows it Love is an ndividual companion of faith Therefore such as have faith andnever have love accompanying of it may be confident that their perswasion concerning the grace and goodnesse God in Christ is but a carnal and not a spirituall perswasion True faith worketh by love therefore if mine work not by love it is a false faith this is an undenyable argument Brethren mistake me not in this point unto which I now am speaking mis-apprehending my meaning as if Ibid you love God the brethren that you may believe be justified no but I tell you now that where true lively and justifying faith is there love will follow When we doe in the light of the spirit apprehend Gods love to us and the love of Christ in giving himselfe for us wee cannot but love God againe and love Christ who hath loved us and given himselfe for us So that where there is no true love there is no true faith If it be truth that where fire is there will be heat it will necessarily follow that where there is no heat there is no fire So if where true faith is love will follow it will necessarily follow that where true love doth not follow there true faith did not precede 1 John 4.19 Wee
love him because he first loved us He that loveth not God hath not apprehended Gods love to him As farre as thou believest in a spirituall way the love of God shall constrain thee to love God Tantum diligimus quantum scimus love is answerable to the measure of our faith or knowledge Hee that hath Pauls faith shall have his love We say that love is the load stone of love magnes amoris amor So Gods love doth draw forth our hearts in love to God God in Christ when he is presented unto us for our justhification doth appeare to us as such a lovely object that we cannot but love him The greek proverb is that loving is wrought by seeing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so when by faith we see the love of God in Jesus wee cannot but love God And therefore John saith 1 John 4.8 That he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love Wherefore that faith by which thou art perswaded of the love of God to thy soul which carries thee not back again in love to God I dare speak it in the presence of God that that perswasion is not wrought by the spirit of grace but is the worke of thine owne carnall and naturall heart If any man saith the Apostle love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha 1 Cor. 16.22 Let him not be accounted as one inalbo fidelium in the list of the faithfull Let him be excommunicated look not upon him as a true Christian Peter though hee had denyed Christ not long before yet he was confident that he loved that Christ whom he had denyed when Christ asked him Simon sonne of Jonas lovest thou me he saith unto him yea Lord thou knowest that I love thee John 24.15 When Christ the second and third time proposed the same question unto him he remained still confident of his love And appeals to Christ the searcher of all hearts as to one who knew the truth of his love v. 17. Hee said unto him Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that I love thee I shall but adde one thing more because I shall God willing have an opportunity to enlarge my self in this point when I shall prove unto you affirmatively that true faith is the gift of God Lastly where the grace of the Father in the blood of his Son is apprehended for the covering of sin there is a forsaking of sin When God doth discover this that he will heale back-sliding love freely and turne away his anger Ephraim shall say what have I to doe any more with Idols Hos 14.8 When God pardoneth sin by his grace he will subdue sin by his grace Mic. 7.18 19. That man who hath true faith wrought in his heart he shall seele the power of grace apprehended for his justification ingaging his spirit to deny ungodlinesse according to that of the Apostle Tit. 2 11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodlinesse and wordly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soberly in reference to our selves 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justly in our relation towards men 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 piously or religiously in reference to God Grace will not suffer us to live gracelesly because we are justified by grace but will throughly acquaint us with our duty towards God towards men and towards our selves If the grace that thou professest teach thee not to deny ungodliness but thou livest in a gracelesse way dishonouring Christ discrediting the Gospell by thy wicked scandalous and evill life thou dost not in deed and in truth apprehend the Gospell If God discovers himself to Abraham as Alsufficient he will command him to walke before him and be upright Gen. 17. Sin shall not have dominion over us if we are not under the law but under grace Rom. 6. Christ will present himselfe unto us as the pattern for sanctification if hee reveale himselfe as the object of our justification Every man who hath a sure and lively hope of salvation by Jesus Christ purifieth himselfe as he is pure 1 John 3.3 He that truly expects happinesse hereafter studies purity here True Saints do desire not only to know but to doe the will of God Psal 143.10 Teach mee to doe thy will O Lord saith the man after Gods own heart thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightnesse The spirit of the Gospell will not lead us into the land of prophanenesse but into the land of uprightnesse Gods goodnesse to us will make us in love with holinesse They shall feare and tremble for all the goodnesse and for all the prosperity that I procure unto them saith the Lord Jer. 33.9 The golden chaine of mercy let down from heaven to draw us up unto God doth binde us and oblige us to the service and obedience of God If thou art an old professor of the Gospel and doctrine of grace and livest gracelesly unacquainted with the sanctifying spirit yet hast a strong perswasion that God is thy Father and Christ thy Saviour thy perswasion is not worth one farthing it will doe thee no good Where there is no desire of purity there is no work of true faith for when thou hast a true and a lively faith and thou seest God gracious loving and merciful believe it thy spirit will be carried forth in desires to be made like unto Christ in holinesse Wee all saith the Apostle with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory 2 Cor. 3.18 If thou by the lively operation of the spirit hast seene the glory grace beauty and holinesse in Christ for thy Justification thy spirit will be so enamourd with the beauty of holiness perfection in Christ thou wilt desire to see the image and picture of holinesse perfection which is in Christ to be drawne forth upon thy own heart and spirit There may bee some that may thinke that this is strange Doctrine which I have delivered to wit that a man may have strong perswasions concerning his interest in God and Christ and boast much of it and yet be but a hypocrite and reprobate all the while I shall therfore adde one place of Scripture to those which I have delivered for the proofe of this and so for the present I shall conclude Yes shall find it in Micah 3.11 The heads judge for reward and the Priests teach for hire and the Prophets divine for money yet for all this will they leane upon the Lord and say is not the Lord among us none evill can come upon us See here a base vicious and covetous people that sell Justice and the Word of God and yet are confident that they belong to God they would not preach without money in their hand like many of our Priests no penny no pater-noster no money in hand no
those who cry up the strength of mans will and his precedent qualifications of righteousnesse and holinesse for the making of some men worthy to close with Christ in a promise of free grace rather then great sinners 2ly This may informe us that such shall certainly believe whom God will enable to believe through grace Acts 18.27 An infinite power is of such strength that a finite power is not able to resist it but whatsoever power there iâ— in the creature by which it may resist thâ— worke of Gods grace it is but finite and thâ— grace whereby we are enabled to believe iâ— infinite therefore we are not able to resist thâ— infinite power of the grace of God by which we are enabled to believe Take the Devill and all the powers of hell with all that is iâ— the heart of man all his sinnes ignorances and corruptions conjoyning their forces tâ— hinder the worke of faith in the spirit of man all these together are but a finite power but when God comes hee comes with an infinite power to enable us to believe Therfore I conclude that wee are not able to resist the power of God when hee is determined to give us faith Faith being the gift of his Almighty power But some may here object with the Arminiaus that place of Stephen Acts 7.51 Ye stiffe-necked and uncircumcised in heart and eares yee have alway resisted the holy Spiri Here say they you see that men have resisted the holy Spirit therefore God doth not so worke upon men by the power of his grace that he leaves them altogether unable to resist To this I answer that there is a two-fold power that God puts forth An ordinary power in the preaching of his Word when by intreaties beseeching and promises and the like he allures and enticeth men in the preaching of the Word and knocking at the doores of their hearts for entrance This common worke of the spirit may be resisted and so all wicked and ungodly men in this sense resist the Spirit of God and reject the Lord Jesus Christ But there is another power of the spirit and that is that inward spirituall power by which God comes on those whom he intends to save thus he comes not only in the preaching of the Word in the language of man but in the power of heaven And though the former worke of the Spirit may be resisted this latter cannot be resisted Though wee may reject the Word of God preached in the letter and some common workings of the spirit in our owne hearts and not give entertainement to Jesus Christ when hee knockes at the doore of our hearts in the preaching of the Word yet when it comes downe with power to open the heart as he did Lydia's we are not able to prevail against him when God intends powerfully to open the doore of our spirits we are not able to keepe it lockt he will sweetly force us to open the door and by his spirit and grace breaâ— in upon us and not suffer us to shut him out 〈◊〉 our hearts and wee are bound to blesse Goâ— that it is so for unlesse it were so no man iâ— the world should ever be saved no man in the world should ever receive Christ unlesse God did come with an infinite power and pleasâ—â—â—â— violence force him to believe If it were not thus that God did worâ— this unresistable way in those whom he intenâ— to save there must of necessity be an uncertainty whether ever any man or woman should ver be saved by Jesus Christ For if every mâ— and woman in the world had power to reâ—â— grace offered not to believe at all then 〈◊〉 must follow that it might be impossible aâ—â—â— the fall that never a man or woman in the world should ever be saved by Christ And this absurdity will follow from it that God after mans fall could not be certaine that any man should be saved by Christ and so it would take away the fore-knowledge of God because he could not know but that every man in the world might resist reject Jefus Christ Thirdly This may give in some support to some trembling hearers who are convinced by the spirit of unbeliefe and are not able to believe in Jesus Christ Thou art ready to despaire when thou apprehendest that it is impossible for thee truly to believe of thy selfe but let thy spirit be upheld with this consideration that God is able to give thee faith while I am speaking of faith and shewing thee the worker of it It may be thou thinkest that thou shalt never have joy comfort and assurance of salvation but by believing and yet thou are not able to believe and therefore comfort thy selfe in this though thou canst doe nothing God is able to enable thee to doe all things Phil. 4.13 As the Martyr when some told him that when he came to suffer he wold rather deny his tenets then burn It is true said he I of my selfe should doe so but God is able to enable me So though thou knowest that thou of thy selfe canst not believe know that God is able to enable thee presently to believe Thou that hast had experience of thy unbelieving heart and of that mountaine of infidelity that lies upon thy spirit and that thou art able to say I shall never be able to believe of my selfe while the world stands know that God is ablde in this momentt to give thee faith Fourthly This may informe us concerning the nature of true faith by which it may bee distinguished from the faith of hypocriticall Formalists The hypocrite not being acquainted with his owne disability for the working of saving faith in his owne heart doth apprehend that he can doe the worke of God by himselfe in his own strength like the carnall hearers of our Saviour John 6.28 What shall wee doe that wee may worke the worke of God And when he apprehendeth that he doth believe he gloryeth more in his owne actings labourings and endeavours by which hee conceiveth that he hath obtainned faith then in the grace of the Lord Jesus having no spiritual knowledg of that faith which is wrought by the Almightines of Gods powerful irresistable grace But if it is otherwise with a true sonne of Abraham his faith is of another nature having a spirituall and heavenly tincture in it from that spirit by whom it â—â— wrought He prizeth not his faith of the naturall spirit but the faith of his heavenly spirit He can set his seale to that truth of our Saviour John 6.65 That no man can come unto him except it were give a unto him of his Father he is not proud of his faith because hee looking upon it in the glasse of Gods free grace doth account it rather Gods worke then his owne According to that of our Saviour John 6. This is the worke of God that ye believe Vpon which words one of the Ancients hath this observation Non dixit hoc
words though I know that there are many adversaries and opposers of this truth 2 Cor. 4.13 We believe therefore we speak saith the Apostle So I doe in spirit belive what I shall speake and therefore I am resolved to speake it forth plainly and you are engaged to heare me patiently The words are a conclusion drawn from preceding premises In the precedent words the Apostle delivered two propositions First That hee that committeth sinne is of the Devill Secondly That Christ hath appeared to destroy the workes of the Devill from whence he concludeth that he which is born of God cannot sin not having his being in the Devill but in Christ who destroyeth sin In this verse there are these particular observations which at the first view may present themselves unto us 1. A character of a true Christian He is one who is borne of God 2. The property of this man who is borne of God He doth not commit sin 3. A reason why he cannot commit sin to wit because his seed remaineth in him 4. His purity He doth not only not commit sinne but he sinneth not at all 5. This asserted by laying down the impossibility of his sinning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He cannot possibly sinne 6. This is further proved by his excellent glorious condition He cannot sin because he is borne of God First From the person who is here spoken of The man who is borne of God We may take notice of the folly and Bedlam-madnesse of some who would be accounted professors and Preachers of a spirituall Gospel whose Gospel and mystery of error doth make the man born of God to be God Confounding the glorious nature of the Father Word and Spirit with the new Creature The Apostle doth plainly overthrow this Bedlam-Divinity by these expressions In which hee doth make a difference between God and the man who is born of him That which is born of God is borne in time But God is from eternity And therefore that which is born of God cannot be God The place which they pervert is in the 1 Cor. 6.17 He which is joyned to the Lord is one spirit Answ Christ and the man joyned unto him are one not by confounding of the person of Christ with the person of a Believer but by the union of these two in the Spirit As the members are one with the head and yet the head is not the members nor the members the head Secondly In this objection as they destroy the personall being of a Believer so they destroy the personall being of Christ as he is the Word made flesh There Christ is nothing but God they apprehending that Christ hath offered up his humane nature wisedome and righteousnesse as things of the first creation and that hee hath no being now but in spirit which they call Christ in the Spirit the spirituall man or God I shall therefore in few words deliver the truth of God concerning the man who is born of God This phrase is taken first largely and so every Creature may be said to be of God because every creature is the workmanship of God and hath its being from God And in this sence all wicked men are called the Off-spring of God Acts 17.28 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly It is taken strictly And so it is to be understood not of those who have their being from God by creation but by spirituall regeneration And thus it is here taken and in other places John 3.5 Except a man be borne of water the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdome of God John 1 13. In this sence neither God Christ or the Spirit are the new man or the man born of God But the speciall and gracious presence of God through Christ by the spirit doth make a man a new Creature 1 Cor. 1.30 John 1.13 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man is in Christ he is a new Creature He doth not say that if any man is in Christ that then hee is Christ or that Christ is the new creature but that man who is in Christ he is the new creature Having shewed you who the new man or the man born of God is who is here spoken of and freed the Text from famelisticall blasphemies I shall desire that you may be acquainted with this truth Every true Saint is a man born of God 1 Consid It will not advantage a man to make a profession of Christ and to submit to all the outward Ordinances of Christ unlesse a man be made a new creature by Christ Gal. 6.15 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncir cumcision but a new creature We must be borne againe or else it had been better for us never to have been borne Christ will not own any for his or approve them as his Disciples whatsoever prosession they doe make of him unlesse he be formed in them 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be unapproved They are the Devils children who are not borne of God John 8.44 2 Consid God hath engaged himselfe in the Covenant of grace that those who are his shall be borne of him Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you an heart of flesh As a Carver when he maketh an Image doth begin at the outside of the Timber and cuts shaves and smooths that So hypocrites doe begin at the outside and doe smooth themselves in their outward conversation to men-ward And so there is but an image insteed of a new creature But true Saints are made new inwardly Some say that the heart is the first thing which hath life Cor est primum vivens It is true in the new creation God doth give unto the vessels of his grace new hearts Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth unto righteousnesse Jer. 32.39 3. Consid Men who are not borne of God cannot haue fellowship with God If we say that we have fellow ship with him and walk in darknesse we lye 1 John 1.6 But true Saints have fellowship with the Father and his Sonne Jesus Christ 1 John 1.3 And therefore they are borne of God 4 Consid God is to be known served and worshipped by true Saints but we cannot truly know him serve or worship him so long as we are old creatures in the state of nature and therefore it cannot be denyed that true Saints are borne of him An old creature is spiritually dead and cannot see God A dead creature cannot performe the actions of a living creature And a sinner cannot serve the living God and performe that spirituall worship which God doth require of those who are quickned to spirituall worship by Jesus Christ 5. Consid The new Heaven and the new Earth is only provided for new creatures but it is provided for Saints and they expect it 2 Pet. 3.13 And therefore they are borne
doe evill And on the other side they that doe good are first borne of God and receive of his nature and seed and by the reason of that nature and seed are first good before they doe good by the same rule And Christ who is contrary to the Devill came to destroy the works of the Devill in us and to give us a new birth a new nature and to sow new seed in us that we should by reason of that birth sinne no more And he hath a paralell place to this in the same exposition of this Epistle As there is no sin saith he in Christ the stock so can there be none in the quicke members that live and grow in him by faith Calvin in his instruction against the Libertines bringing in this place of John as an argument of theirs to prove that they doe never sin doth answer them by this exposition of the words Johns words doe signifie nothing else but this That a man as farre as he is regenerated of God cannot sin Johannis verba nihil aliud significant quam hominem quatenus regeneratus est a Deo non peccare I might multiply Authors speaking sometimes to this purpose but for my part I doe not approve this way of Preaching or frequent quoting of Authors in Sermons yet sometimes I am necessitated unto it and for the hardnesse of hearts of hearers doe thinke that something may be done in this way for the gaining of them in unto truth As Amesius doth deliver his judgment in his cases of conscience But secondly I must professe ingenuously that most men whom I might bring in to speake to this truth doe seeme to contradict in other places of their writings what they have delivered concerning this truth And therefore I shall only bring Scripture to prove what I doe desire to desend for the truth of God knowing that Scripture is sufficient of it self for the confirmation of truth And that the judgements and opinions of all the learned men that ever were or shall be are nothing at all without it As David said of the sword of Goliah 1 Sam. 21.9 There is none like that So no sword or bow of men is like unto the Scripture by which errour is hewen down and truth exalted Wherfore I shall give you more fully my plaine and naked meaning in this point and then shall shew you what Scripture will come in to beare witnesse to the truth which I have received from the Lord. First We are to take notice that man in Scripture is considered physically as he hath a rationall spirit joyned to an humane body And when we thus speake of man wee doe acknowledge that every man sinneth Lot David Peter Paul and the like according to that of James Jam. 3.2 In many things we offend all Secondly We may looke upon man theologically And if we thus consider him wee shall finde that in a spirituall sense every Christian man hath two men in him a new man and and an olde man and these two of contrary natures and operations And as sometimes we speake of a man as having two physicall beings in him and doe attribute unto him what is proper to his corporall and spirituall part as when we say a man heareth seeth walketh understandeth and the like And then again doe distinguish these two attributing to the body what is proper to the body and to the soule what is proper to the soule So somtimes the Scripture doth speak of man as having two contrary natures and then doth againe attribute that to the new or divine nature which is proper unto that and that unto the sinfull and fleshly nature which is proper unto it In the olde and unregenerated nature there is nothing but sin and the seed and spawn of all filthinesse and uncleannesse And in the regenerated part or new man there is nothing but purity and holinesse In this nature he doth no sin nor cannot sin as he cannot doe good it the other nature So that I apprehend that the man borne of God is not sinfull in his nature or in any of his actings workings or operations Hee is light in his understanding holy in his will pure in his thoughts sanctified in his affections It is well observed by Bullinger That God doth allude to the nature of seede the nature of which is retained by those things which spring out of it Alludit ad seminis naturam quamea referunt quae ex eo nascuntur The seed being holy that which ariseth from it is likewise holy as our Saviour doth informe us John 3.6 That which is borne of the flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the spirit iâ— spirit Not that the new-born man is wholly turned into the eternall spirit and is nothing else but the spirit as some deluded and deluding spirits have affirmed but the abstract is taken for the concrete which manner of speech is very frequent in Scripture That which is borne of the Spirit is said to be spirit because it is made spirituall by the presence of the holy Spirit in it Having acquainted you with my meaning and given you the spirituall interpretation of the words I shall draw the marrow and substance of the particulars which I named into one Conclusion which I shall endeavour to make good by spirituall arguments which I shall draw from Scripture and spirituall reason The conclusion is this The spiritual man or the man born of God in his spirituall and godly nature motions actings towards God in Christ doth not nor cannot sin Arg. 1. His seed is holy in him therefore his fruit is holy this is the argument of the Apostle His seed abideth in him and therefore he cannot sin Christ is the seed in us 1 Pet. 1.23 Every true Christian can say with Paul Gal. 2.20 That Christ liveth in him and Christ in us doth not suffer us to live sinfully but maketh us to live holily he becomming the principle of an holy life and sanctification in us A Christian is powerfully acted by an holy principle and therefore his actings are holy Christ is a pure fountaine of holinesse in us as well to fill our souls with the streames of holinesse by the Spirit as to wash away the uncleaness of our souls in our Justification And this sountaine cannot send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter Jam. 3.11 The streames doe retaine the pure nature of the fountain from whence they flow Reader I must inform thee that since I Preached this Sermon I received objections from my learned friend Mr. R. L. against my arguments which I thought good to print with my Arguments Ob. Against this argument this is objected The argument from the seed to the fruit wil not follow unlesse the soyl be also answerable otherwise sorry fruit may come from good seed Answ As there is good seed so there is a good soile the spirituall heart and therefore the argument will follow This I prove Ezek. 36.26
A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walke in my Statutes and ye shall keepe my judgements and doe them The new heart of flesh is a good soile And because God doth promise his Spirit and a new heart therefore see what shall follow the good fruit spoken of We shall keep his judgements and doe them Arg. 2. God cannot be the Author worker of that which is sin but God doth professe himselfe to bee the Author of good workes wrought in the Saints and therefore these workes are not sin Isa 26.12 The Saints doe profes that God hath wrought all their works in them And this likewise is the argument of the Apostle who doth prove that doing of evill is sinne because it is of the Devill and that working of righteousnesse is good because it is of God Object These things are not sinne in their whole morall nature but per accidens by accident through the defect of some circumstance Answ Every morall action commanded or forbidden of God is either good or evill If these are good and no sinne then I have what I contend for If evill acquit God from being the author of evill who doth professe himselfe to be the Author of these things in opposition to Satan and his workes If you say that they are neither good nor evill or both good and evill and prove it by Scipture I shall hearken unto you But you say they are sin by accident and if they are so by accident they are sin and still you make God the Author of sin but I affirme that they are neither sin in their nature nor by accident but good and therefore untill you prove what you say I doe not see but that my argument is unshaken by this objection Object 2. Faith and love in their whole morall abstract nature are not sin but considered in the Concrete and acted by us Answ The Apostle doth speake of them in the Concrete as acted by us and doth bid us try our selves by our faith love and working of righteousnesse and saith vers 19. That hereby we assure our selves before God therefore this distinction is of no validity in this place though some thinke that it will answer all our arguments Argu. 3. The olde man and the new man are distinguished by their contrary natures and operations But if the new man were sinfull and his operations sinfull The new man would be confounded with the old man who is sinfull in himselfe and his operations but this is contrary to Scripture The old man is corrupt according to deceitfull lusts but the new man after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse Eph. 4.22.24 And speaking of these in the Concrete as in us Eph. 5.8 9. he saith to them Ye were sometimes darknesse but now are ye light in the Lord walke as children of the light For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth Argu. 4. Those works which are commended by Jesus Christ for good works are good works but the workes of the Saints are commended for good works therefore they are good Revel 2.2 Our Saviour saith that he knoweth the workes of the Angel of the Church of Ephesus and his labour and patience that is he approveth or commendeth his workes and so Rev. 3.8 It would be a disparagement to the judgment of Christ to commend sin or sinfull works for good workes And therefore I conclude that they were good works And by consequence that the works which are wrought by a man borne of God are good works Obj. They were washed from their pollution in the blood of the Lamb. Answ When we speak of the new man and his works we look not upon him or his works but in Jesus Christ And thus he is washed from all the sins of the flesh and the works of God in us are well pleasing unto God the worker through Jesus Christ through whom hee did work them in us Arg. 5. Christ doth not present that which is sinne or sinfull to the Father to be accepted but he presentech our workes 1 Pet. 2.5 Wee offer up spirituall sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ If Christ did present any work that were sinfull he might present our sinful works It is evident therefore that there is something which is good which is presented as well as something in us which is sinfull which is forgiven Malum ex quolibet desectu The lesse defect doth make a thing evil and if there be such a defect in the work of the man who is born of God to make it sin and evill what reason can any man give from Scripture why every sinne should not be presented and accepted as well as those sins which they call good works Arg. 6. The Scripture calleth the works of the man born of God neither sinfull or sinne but works of righteousnesse Faith is called righteousnesse Rom. 4. and Rom. 5. the last Paul calleth the sincerity which was in him speaking of it in the Concrete godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1.12 Paul prayeth that grace may be with all them who love the Lord Jesus in corruption 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Doth he pray for such whom hee thought were no where to be found or for all true Saints whom he did know did love the Lord Jesus in incorruption Reply If they be considered as they ought to be done so they are not evill but as they be done by us so the holy Ghost is not affraid to call them menstruous rags even our very righteousnesse not our old man only Isa 64.6 Answ The Prophet doth not speak here of the righteousness of a man under the Covenant of grace considered under that Covenant For in the precedent verse he doth acknowledge that the righteousnesse of such a man is not as a menstruous ragge Thou meetest him that rejoyeth and worketh righteousnesse But he speaketh of men as looked upon under the olde Covenant and of their works as done under and to be judged by that Covenant which appeareth by the following words Our iniquities like the wind have taken us away And there is none that calleth upon thy Name that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee For thou hast hid thy face from us and we are consumed because of our iniquities We must not judge of this truth by expressions which holy men have made use of in confessing the sins of the whole nation of the Jews in the language of the Jewish nationall Covenant but by those passages of Scripture in which God doth speake of a man as under the Covenant of grace with his works wrought by the spirit of grace 7 Arg. God doth remember the workes of his Saints Heb. 6.10 God is not unrighteous to forget your worke and labour of
his command The fayling is not from the new but the olde man The whole man or person is under the command so that a man yea every man doth sin because he doth not doe in his person as he is a man what is commanded Charge the fault where it is to be charged upon the flesh which is the cause of a mans sin and then look upon grace which hath abolished sin and you shall finde the new man conformable to the will of God and the man good and holy in part to wit in his regenerated part It is further objected that Christ biddeth us to cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit which no man doth It is granted and therefore we deny not but that every man sinneth if we take him physically But as farre as we are in the Spirit Wee are cleansed from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit so that the new man doth fulfill it and Christ doth reign in him though the flesh prove a Traytor and rebellious against his commands Arg. 18. Another argument may be brought from the consideration of the Image of Christ If this were true that all the works of the Saints were in their formalitie sinne this would follow that the Image of Jesus Christ were an Image of unholinesse and sin I ground my argument upon that place of the Apostle 2 Cor. 3.18 Wee all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Here the Apostle shewes that the Saints are changed into the Image of Christ Now if there were nothing but sin and unholinesse sinfulnesse in those who are looked upon as spirituall as some conceive it wil follow that the Image of Christ into which they are changed must be an image of unholinesse If my love be unholinesse I am changed to that image of love which is in Christ and so it would follow that the Image of Christ doth consist in unholinesse Object If there be perfect sanctification in the new man then wee may bee justified by it Answ I deny that it doth not follow We shall have perfect sanctification at the resurrection and yet you will not say that we shall be acquitted from our sinnes by it which wee have committed upon earth but by the grace of God in the blood of Christ 2. We are justified before sancification and therefore it will not follow that we are justified by it Because that is done before the other is wrought in us 3. That a man may be justified by his sanctification It is necessary that a man should be so wholy sanctified that there should be no sin in the man Our good works will not make satisfaction for our bad works A Traytor for an act of treason might be condemned by his Prince though he hath done him much good service If a man would seeke justification by the law who is sanctified in part the law would condemn him for his sin in his unregenerated part taking no notice of any sufficiency in his sanctification to free him from condemnation for his sinne in the unregenerated part Arg. 19. This opinion that the good works of the justified man are sin or sinfull do make divers places of Scripture irreconcileable Men shall never be well able to reconcile many places of Scripture who swallow this as a trueth that whatsoever workes are now done in the Saints are nothing but sinne or sinfull For instance in one place we are bound to disclaime our works and to account all our righteousnesses as filthy ragges to believe in him that justifieth the ungodly And in another place we are said to be redeemed from all iniquity that we might be zealous of good workes Tit. 2. And we are the work manship of God created in Christ Jesus to good workes Eph. 2. By what I have delivered they are easily reconcileable To wit by distinguishing as the Scripture doth concerning good works thus That all the works of man under the Law are but splendid and shining sins and that the spirituall workes of a spirituall man are good and not sin or sinfull in their nature Not that the Scripture makes these good workes that flow from the spirituall man the cause or the matter of our justification but the fruits of the Spirit and the consequents of our justificationâ— It is a speech of Luthers worthy to be writteâ— in letters of gold that the whole world with all the riches of it are of no worth in comparison of good works flowing from faith and wrought by the Spirit of God in the hearts of his people Which how it can be made good I know not if that be true which he and some other Protestant Writers affirme that Omnâ— bonum secundum judicium dei est mortale peccatum every good worke of a regenerate man according to the judgment of God is a mortall sin That which is morally evill is not so good as any thing which is not morally evill That being the greatest evill which is morally evill I have known some professors of the Gospel who have fallen to Familisme and Atheisticall opinions and being asked why they did leave the Gospel they have answered that they could never reconcile the Scriptures concerning works to other places while they were professors of the Gospel Their meaning is while they were professors upon these principles by which they were taught to look upon the works of the spirit in them as sin and sinfull That which is frequently asserted by some Mr. Eatoon Honycomb and others that they are good to men-ward will not make up the breach The Apostle Peter speaking of a meeke quiet spirit which is the ornament of the hidden man of the heart saith that it is of great price in the sight of God 1 Pet. 3.4 The Apostle speaking of his sincerity in preaching the Gospel is not affraid to bring it into the sight of God 2 Cor. 2.17 And John saith 1 Joh. 3.22 That whatsoever we aske we receive of him because wee keepe his Commandements and doe those things which are pleasing in his sight And that he doth not meane believing only is plain by the next verse where he saith That this is his Commandement that wee believe on the name of his Sonne Jesus Christ and love one another And to stop the mouth of the objection which is usually brought against this truth to wit that he speaketh of doing as in Gods precept or command and not as done by us He saith that we receive what we aske because wee doe what is pleasing in his sight I must professe to the glory of God that this distinction hath given me a great light in the understanding of the Scripture And by this I am informed that I am justified without holiness or sanctification and yet that without holiness no man shall see the Lord Heb. 12.14 Arg. 20. This opinion that the good worke
of a man born of God are sin or sinfull doth overthrow the distinction which is warranted by many thousand places of Scripture between good works and bad works and doth draw a curse upon the doer of it Can evill be good or good evill Woe unto them that call evil good and good evill that put darknesse for light and light for darkenesse that put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Isa 5.20 What else doe they doe who plainley averre that every good work is evill Object Doe we deny the difference betweene white and blacke because we say that in most white bodies there is a mixture of some blacknesse with the whitenesse c. Answ If it could be proved that there were a mixture of that which is of the spirit and that which is of the flesh that that which is spirituall should be made fleshly by it there would seeme to be some strength in this objection But untill that such a mixture bee proved by plaine Scriptures we shall think it sufficient to affirme that such similitudes which have not their foundation upon a principle of truth do prove nothing Arg. 21. It taketh away the difference between a sanctified and unsanctified man which is a distinction which doth stand firme upon the basis of the Scripture of truth The Apostle doth plainly lay downe this distinction 1 Cor. 6.11 Where hee informeth us of the condition of the Corinthians before conversion to wit that they were thieves adulteresses and the like such were some of you and then setteth forth their blessed condition after conversion But ye are washed but ye are sanctified And doth second this truth with his owne experience acknowledging that there was a real change wrought in himself after conversion by sanctification 2 Tim. 1. I was saith he a persecuter a blasphemer injurious but the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith love which is in Christ Jesus not with faith only but love also If God hath pulled you out of the fire of sinne and drawne you as fire-brands out of Hell and brought you into the glorious kingdome of his Son ye are able to professe the same sanctified change in your selves It is a dead faith which is not accompanied with sanctification and good works As soon may a dead horse carrie a man as a dead faith save him Object This is a slander wee doe not deny sanctification Answ If yee acknowledge sanctification and a sanctified change yee contradict your selves For how can that make a sanctified change in us which is nothing else but sin or sinfull I shall be glad if you will stand to an inward change by love and sanctification But some there are who have affirmed that the distinction between a regenerated an and unregenerated man is but a legall distinction Arg. 22. The holy Spirit which is promised to us and dwelleth in us doth plainly demonstrate this point For as the Spirit is holy formally in it selfe in its owne nature essence and being so it is effectively holy because it makes that man holy who was formerly sinfull If thou be nothing but darknesse if God convert thee thou wilt have a glorious light in thine understanding if thou have nothing but unholinesse in thy will if the Spirit of God live in thee it will be a Spirit of holinesse a Spirit that will shew thee what is of the flesh and what is of the spirit a spirit checking thee if thou step aside into the way of the flesh and a spirit leading thee into the paths of holiness As the Psalmist saith Thy Spirit is good lead me into the land of holinesse and uprightnesse Therefore those that doe not find that Spirit leading them into the paths and wayes of holinesse those men have received a counterfeit spirit to delude them and not the true Spirit of the Lord Jesus Object The spirit is good but our actions are evill by the adherence of sinne in us That holy things may be defiled is plaine by Exod. 28.36.38 Aaron having his plate upon his forehead was to beare the iniquity of the holy things Answ 1. Though sin and holinesse be in the same man yet I deny that sinne by any adhering to holinesse in us doth change holinesse into the nature of it But what is of the Spirit in us doth retaine its spirituall nature and what is of the flesh doth retaine its fleshly nature 2. The Scripture produced doth prove that in doing of holy duties we sin and that Jesus Christ doth beare those sins which wee have granted unto you before But that the fruits of the Spirit in us are those sinnes cannot be proved from this place of Scripture nor from anyother Scripture which I know this still doth remaine to be proved Arg. 23. There may bee another argument drawne from that place of the Apostle when hee saith The Spirit beareth witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 The Spirit cannot beare witnesse to our old darke prophane spirits for the naturall man receives not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishnesse to him therefore it must be to our spirit enlightned renewed and filled with the Spirit of God And therefore there is somthing in a Saint besides that which is sinne and sinfull Object This is true but we are not renewed perfectly which is the thing to be proved Answ Perfection in Scripture is opposed to that which is more perfect And in this sence wee doe not affirme that a man is so perfectly renewed as he shall be 1 Cor. 13. 2. Perfection is opposed to that which is sinfull Luke 1. And in this sence we say that he is perfectly renewed that is he is holily not sinfully renewed Arg. 24. I doe ground my next argument upon the words of the Apostle Rom. 14. last Whatsoever is not of faith is sinne And therefore that which is done in faith is not sin If we deny this we shall take away the difference between doing good works in faith and doing good works without faith if both of them be alike sinfull or sinne And therefore I conclude that the work of the Spirit which is done in faith is not sin Without faith it is impossible to please God and therefore by faith it is possible to please him by doing good works Arg. 25. Another argument may be drawn from that place 2 Cor. 13. where the Apostle makes the comparison betweene faith hope and love and prefers love before faith hope for this reason because love is more permanent and of longer continuance than faith and hope when a man comes to heaven hee ceaseth to live the life of faith for then he shall live the life of sight and vision he ceaseth to hope for he enjoyeth that which he hoped for but love shall continue Therefore he saith that love that is the fruit of faith is greater than faith in respect of its continuance That which remaines and endures after this life
fearing our rejoycing our praying If so then are we in this working either perfect or imperfect Agents If perfect agents then is there no ignorance in our understandings no depravation in our wills no perversenesse in our affections The contrary whereof all the truly faithfull find by experience and the Scripture abundantly testifieth But if we be imperfect agents then cannot perfection come out of imperfection no effect can be better than its cause Ans 1 The efficiency of the first cause doth not take away the efficiency of the second cause In God we live move yet it is not God that moveth he though he moveth all things cannot be moved himself immobilis movens omnia Aug. So it is not God that repenteth but we repent The ignorance of which truth hath been the cause of the wicked mistery of Familisme which my soule abhorreth And therefore we shall agree in the truth which is implicitely laid down in the first part of your Dilemma 2ly Whereas you say that all the faithfull grant that man is an imperfect agent I answer that if we take perfect here in this point as it is opposed to that which is sinfull so many Saints doe grant and all should and will as more light is beamed into their soules grant it that the sanctified and spiritual man considered as farre forth as he is a spirituall man doth work as a perfect Agent not as an unholy but an holy man And therefore according to your rule his action must be spirituall and holy And this may give an answer to that argument which is brought from Job Who can bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane Job 14.4 3ly Whereas you say that no effect can be better than its cause c. This is not universally true A man imperfect by the want of his armes or legs may beget a childe which is perfect and hath its limbs But this not being much to the purpose I shall not contend about it Arg. 12. If the new man never sin Christ came not to save the new man for he came only to save sinners Answ The new man taken in this spirituall and theologicoll sence is not the object of salvation but an elect person guilty and sinfull in himselfe And the new creation is a blessed consequent of our redemption by Christ but I have sufficiently answered this before Arg. 13. That which is not in its owne nature agreeable to the holy law of God is not perfect and without sin for sin is the transgression or disagreement with the law of God 1 John 3.4 But the best of a regenerate mans actions are not agreeable to the law of God being not done with all the heart with all the soule with all the understanding and with all the strength Mat. 22.37 Deut. 6.5 Ans 1. By this argument you would bring the spirituall man to judge himselfe by the law or old covenant but hee is better taught by the Spirit And as hee doth not put his person under the old covenant so doth he not judge his actions by the old covenant but by the new covenant of grace According to that of the Apostle Gal. 5.18 If ye are led by the Spirit ye are not under the law And thus looking upon what is wrought by the Spirit under the new covenant he seeth it in its own nature agreeable to the law as it is delivered unto him in the hand of the Lord Jesus Not that Christ doth require lesse holinesse than is required in the old covenant but because he giveth us more grace enabling us to keepe his Commandements by the keeping of which we known in the light of the Spirit that we truly know him And the Commandements of Christ are kept by the Saints Evangelically two manner of wayes 1. By believing for justification 2. By holy walking for sanctification not that we can keep them by holy walking but as we walk in the light of our justification And thus he is as well able to keep the commandement of love as the commandement of faith Suppose a King should pardon a Traytor and should give him an assurance of pardon for all future Treason which he might run into and had power to enable him in some things and sometimes to be obedient unto him as a loyall Subject would you not say that this Subject were a loyall Subject all his trayterous acts forgiven and his loyall obedience to the command of his Soveraigne being accepted Thus it is between God and us He forgiveth all the treasons of the flesh and accepteth of the obedience of the spirit God doth account that all the commands of the Law are fulfilled by us when that which is not done is pardoned Omnia tunc facta deputantur cum id quod non fit ignoscitur which is true in a sense in reference to sanctification as well as to justification And a spirituall man thus looking upon himselfe in the glasse of the covenant of grace doth know that he is a keeper of the Commandements of God and can say with the Psalmist Ps 119.10 With my whole heart I have sought thee O let me not wander from thy Commandements All his defects and imperfections with the committing of evil and omitting good in the flesh are done away and that which is good is accounted so by the law of God as it is presented unto him in this Covenant So speake ye and so doe as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty saith James Jam. 2.12 As God doth judge our persons by the law of liberty or the law of the new Covenant so he doth judg our actions and thus they are perfect And the law of the new Covenant is not only faith for justification but love for sanctification And thus this place is expounded by the learned Paraeus Arg. 14. Paul did not think himself to have fully apprehended or to be already perfect but strove forward Phil. 3.12 13. which cannot be said of the olde man but only of the new man for the old man doth not strive forward for the prize of the high calling Answ Though Paul had not attained to that perfection which he looked for at the resurrection Yet hee had attained to a perfection of parts which is opposed to sinfulnesse Which doth appear by what followeth in the 15. vers of the same Chap. where he doth acknowledg the Saints in this sence to be perfect with which verse I shall put a period to my answers to your objections As many as be perfect be thus minded if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveale even this unto you Vse 2. The lessons which God hath taught me from these meditations have beene very powerfull by his grace for the convincing mee of sin in a Gospel-way and for the humbling of my soule under his mighty hand by seeing the huge masse of corruption which is in the flesh that little quantity of pure gold which is in the Spirit It
was the speech of one of the Ancients that grace in some Saints is like a spark in the Ocean And thus I have apprehended it in my selfe Yet I see that as it is wrought by grace so it is accepted by grace being not under the law as delivered in the first covenant and yet not without the law to God but under the law to Christ 1 Cor. 9.21 And this hath been a strong motive unto mee to hunger and thirst after the righteousnesse of sanctification commanded and promised in the new Covenant which doth comfort mee with an assurance and confidence that that which is perfected here in part inchoatively shall be perfected in degrees consummatively I can say with David Psal 138.8 The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me he will not forsake the works of his owne hand And seeing the strength and power of the flesh in mee I am carried up in spirit to admire and wonder at Gods omnipotent grace by which through faith which worketh by love I am preserved together with all Saints unto the day of salvation in Christ Jesus who is over all Rom. 9.5 God blessed for ever Amen FINIS SERMON I. ESAY 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise awake and sing yee that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the earth shall cast forth her dead THE beliefe of the resurrection is a present comfort in the midst of misery Resurrectio mortuorum fiducia Christianorun Tertul. The resurrection of the dead is the joy confidence and boasting of Christians And therefore when the people of God had made a sad complaint of their low condition in the words preceding my Text our Evangelicall Prophet for their comfort and consolation doth from the mouth of God present them with this sweet and precious promise of a glorious resurrection of their bodies Let poore Saints bee full of complaints let the billowes of misery and trouble be ready to overwhelme their soules and let God but breake in upon their spirits and give them assurance of a blessed resurrection by his grace and all their trouble all their discomforts all their miseries by the light of this Sunne will presently vanish away You may read the complaint in the precedent verse where the Church complaines that she had been like a woman with child in great paine verse 17. Like as a woman with Child that draweth neere the time of her delivery is in paine and crieth out in her pangs so have we been in thy sight O Lord We know the paines of a woman in travell are the greatest paines and the Church to set forth her trouble compares it to the paines and pangs of a woman in travell But that which doth heighten the trouble and misery of the Church is this that though she were thus like a woman in travell and paine and expected to bring forth some great thing and to doe something in the world which might be left as a lasting monument to the praise of God and be a refreshment to her selfe after her throwes and languishment She finds that all was a false conception therefore she saith in the next verse vers 18. We have been with child we have been in paine we have as it were brought forth the wind She swelled big with expectation and thought she should have brought forth some glorious birth into the world but alas all that she hath brought forth hath been but as it were wind we see nothing but a false conception We have not wrought any deliverance in the Earth neither have the Inhabitants of the world fallen ver 18. Here wee see the sad complaint of the Church And in the words I have read to you you may likewise read the Prophet laying downe that which might comfort and cheare the sad and drouping spirits of the people of God in this sad and lamentable complaint of theirs And that is drawne from a sweet promise that God makes to them of a resurrection as if the Prophet had said let it never trouble you though you be the poorest vilest and miserablest creatures here upon the Earth looke beyond the Earth looke for the accomplishment of Gods promise beyond this present life and then you shall see as much cause to rejoyce as you apprehended cause of mourning before What though you doe no great thing for the present on Earth what though your Enemies prevaile over you what though their cursed devices Counsells and Machinations doe take effect against you what though you fall by their hands and can doe no great things to set up Trophees of glory below remember this Thy dead men shall live together with my dead body shall they arise c. Thus you see what coherence these words have with the context In the words be pleased to take notice of these parts First here is a promise made to the people of God of a blessed resurrection Thy dead men shall live Secondly the confirmation of this that is as some interpret it from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus My dead body shall rise therefore they shall not lye long in the dust together with my dead body shall they arise or else thus if wee leave out together and with which are not in the Originall then this is the meaning Thy dead men shall live my dead body shall they arise at the resurrection they shall rise as my very dead body I have consulted with the Hebrew text and I find no more but that I see no reason wee should put in together with seeing it is not found in the first copy Thirdly the nature of the resurrection is expressed to us Awake The Saints doe as it were awake out of their sleep Death is nothing but sleep to the people of God The Prophet here to take away the sharpnesse and bitternesse of death compares it to a bed wherein a man sweetly reposeth himselfe and after he is refreshed riseth out againe so after the Saints have layne a while in their beds in their graves they awake as the Psalmist saith As for mee I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse Psal 17. ult that is at the resurrection when I awake then I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse I doe not enjoy so much of thee here as I desire to doe but then when I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse Fourthly here is the great joy set forth that shall be when the Saints doe arise and that is expressed in that they are bid to Awake and sing When the Saints are raised they are to have a song in their mouthes of joy and the glory of God in their hearts awake and sing But it is otherwise with wicked and ungodly ones they must awake and houle they must awake when they had rather sleepe an everlasting sleep and wish it might be a continuall and an ever induring midnight to their poore soules but
men shall live that is all those Saints that shall die shall live againe by the power of Christ who shall be their life Thirdly Thy dead men shall live The Prophet doth not speak here of a resurrection of soules but when he saith Thy dead men he meanes onely the bodies of the Saints As our age hath been fertile to bring forth all monstrous tenents and opinions that other ages have exploded so it hath brought forth this abominable errour which many Heathens by the dimme light of nature have opposed that the soule is mortall They that are acquainted with people here in this City will meet with some that will affirme that the soule as well as the body is mortall and this is one of the places that they make use of Thy dead men Now they say man is a compositum of soule and body therefore seeing dead men must live it followes that the soule or humane spirit as well as the body must die But consider this is against other places of Scripture doth not the wise man tell us of the body returning to the dust and the spirit returning to God that gave it Eccles 12.7 Doth not Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1 23. It is evident therefore that he had a perswasion that as soon as his spirit did take leave of his body his Spirit should be happy in the enjoyment of the Lord Jesus Doth not our Saviour tell us that as soone as Lazarus died the Angels carried him into Abrahams bosome he came presently to the enjoyment of some happinesse in the enjoyment of God Therefore we are to know here in this place that God speaketh unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the manner of men God speaking to men speaketh unto them in the language of men And as we ordinarily call the carkasse of the dead a dead man so God when he saith thy dead men shall live his meaning is not that there shall be a resurrection of spirits as though the soule of man were mortall like the soule of a beast and did die with the body but the meaning is that the dead bodies of the Saints shall arise Thy dead men shall live For the proofe of this I will present you with places taken out of the Scripture of truth Hosea 13.14 there the Spirit by the Prophet speakes most plainly of the resurrection I will ransome them from the power of the grave I will redeeme them from death O death I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction c. which the Apostle 2 Cor. 15. cites and proves that this Promise shall be fully accomplished to the people of God at the generall resurrrection So likewise God teacheth his holy servant Ezekiel this lesson in a holy vision Ezek. 37. The hand of the Lord was upon mee and carryed me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me downe in the middest of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to passe by them round about and behold there were very many in the open valley and loe they were very dry And he said unto me Son of man can these bones live And I answered O Lord God thou knowest Againe he said unto me Prophecie upon these bones and say unto them O yee drie bones heare the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones Behold I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live And I will lay sinewes upon you and bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Ezek. 37.1 Here the Prophet doth speak of the resurrection and shewes that a Spirit of life and power shall come upon the drie bones and dust of the Saints and that they shall live againe in the presence of God What was Jobs Faith and confidence in the middest of his sufferings but in the resurrection Job 19.25 26. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth and though after my skin wormes shall destroy this body yet in my flesh I shall see God Here is a plaine place in which the Doctrine of the resurrection is held forth to us He professeth that he believed the resurrection of the dead and speaking by the Spirit of Christ who is eternall life the wisdome of the Father made flesh he saith I shall see him with what eyes with these eyes and no other with these very eyes I urged this place to two men and I had two severall Answers from them One that denyed the resurrection gave this Answer I might tremble to speake it Job spake as a crazie old man he knew not what and therefore this was no solid place to prove the resurrection The second said he did not speak of the resurrection because he saith in my flesh I shall see God now God is not seene with fleshly eyes But the Answer to this is easie he speaks of Christ as God-man so we are said to see God when we see God in Jesus Christ as it is Rev. 1.7 Behold he commeth with clouds and every eye shall see him and they also which pierced him And all kindreds of the earth shall waile because of him With bodily eyes we may see the Lord Jesus Christ in his body and with that spirituall eye and in that spirituall body which we shal have given unto us at the resurrection with that spirituall eye and in that spiritual body we shall be able to see that spirituall body that the Lord Jesus Christ hath so seeing Christ we see God because Christ is God manifested in the flesh as the Apostle calls him 1 Tim. 3.16 The places are infinite almost in the New-Testament nothing being so much preached by the Apostles as the Doctrine of the resurrection Paul comes to Athens among the Epicures and Stoicks great Schollers that were fooles and ignorant in Religion he preacheth the resurrection that God would judge the world by the man Christ Jesus so they were to be witnesses of the resurrection and to preach Christ risen from the dead to give evidence and assurance to men that they should rise likewise as well as the Lord Jesus In the 1 Cor. 15. there were men crept into that Congregation that denyed the resurrection therefore what strong Arguments doth Paul lay downe to prove the resurrection He shewes that Christ dyed in vaine and that all Religion is in vaine that the Apostles were impostors and liers who preached that Christ was risen and that the Saints by the power of Christ should rise if there were no resurrection So in 1 Thess 4.17 The Apostle speaks of the same subject and shewes the manner of the resurrection and how Christ shall come from Heaven The Lord himselfe shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-angel and the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall
lay downe his life that is not perswaded there will be a life after death Therefore I assure the Presbyterian Party if liberty of Conscience be not granted to Saints most or all these will fall in to them And before Liberty was thought of there were a great many of these in the City and they conformed to that which was then practised and they will conforme to any Government which shall be set up by the power of man It is not any Discipline or Government that can extirpate these cursed opinions out of the hearts of these men And though there be Discipline Government and strict Lawes yet in secret wayes they know how to insinuate poyson into the hearts and spirits of men to corrupt them from the truth and simplicity of the Lord Jesus Christ I know some of these that doe and have preached publickly undiscovered and some have now places and are turned Presbyterians who professed these tenents in the Citie of London that are now gone from the Citie and have Parochiall Congregations and are looked on as Presbyterians and Orthodox men and none speake against them they know how to cover their opinions well enough This mystery of iniquitie is not easily discovered so that this objection makes nothing against Liberty of Conscience I thinke it were better if it were the Lords will that these men of this wicked ungodly spirit might be knowne that so they may not draw many people into their sinne but that the truth of God may be held forth against them to overthrow their errours for nothing will overthrow errour but truth It is not a prison it is not the Sword it is not the power of man that can overthrow errour and root up false opinions out of the hearts of men it is only the power of the truth of the Lord Jesus As Dagon fell before the Arke so these cursed opinions must fall before the Arke of truth by the power of the Lord Jesus For if you threaten them that they shall suffer any thing they will presently tell you that they were overtaken with a fault and they will be of your mind If you have power to punish them for what they professe But lastly this should not be brought as an Argument to prejudice those in the enjoyment of their Libertie who are truly conscientious For it will have no more force then this Thieves and rogues swarme and abound in the Common-wealth while Liberty Priviledges and immunities are granted to honest men and they are countenanced Therefore suffer not honest men to live in the Common-wealth Thus having removed an objection which lay in my way which I perceived might be drawne from the licentiousnesse of these wicked men to the wronging of the true Saints and children of the most High in reference to their Liberties I shall now come to answer the Objections of these adversaries to the resurrection And first they that absolutely deny the resurrection doe thus argue Doe you think that this body after it is resolved into its first elements and that part of it is burned in the fire a part exhaled into the ayre a part converted into water and a part of it turned into earth that the same numericall body shall be raised againe Let a man one that you call a Saint be torne in pieces let the bird have her prey out of him let the fish have her share let the devouring beast likewise have his belly full of his flesh let the Caniball come and have his dinner out of another limbe and shall we believe after all this that this man shall rise againe What will you bereave us of reason you professe to be rationall men how can you subscribe to such a thing that a man should be burned in the fire his ashes cast into the sea And after these changes and transmutations that this man this same man the same body of this man should be raised againe how can any man that hath not put off all reason believe it Thus they contend by their carnall reason against the truth of the resurrection But let me answer though I grant all this which they say that the bodies of the Saints may be resolved into the first Elements out of which they were made yet for all this there shall be a resurrection of the very same numericall body For looke to God he that hath promised to doe this he is omniscient he knowes the dust of his Saints though it be carryed into the Sea if a piece of the body of a Saint be in the belly of a fish he knowes it there as well as he knew his servant Jonas in the belly of the Whale If it be resolved to dust and burned to ashes he knowes the dust of his Saints We know the Alchymist can convert one thing to another and afterward reduce it to the thing that formerly it was So shall not God though he suffer the bodies of his Saints to undergoe a hundred mutations and changes into fire and water after reduce us againe to the same bodies in which formerly we were God knowes where the dust of his people lies as well as the Citizens of China know where their earth lies that they lay up for some hundreds of yeares that they may make the purer vessels of it God doth but bury us a while in the earth that at the resurrection he may bring us forth as vessells of his owne prayse and glory and God knowes where he hath hid and laid us If one limbe be in Affrica another in Asia another in Europe another in America the Lord knowes how to bring limb to limb and bone to bone he is an omniscient God And as he is omniscient and knows every part of his people and the dust of his Saints and treasures up the dust of his Saints and keeps it in safety So he is a powerfull God and able to raise the bodies of his Saints As he knowes what dust and bones belong to a bodie so he is able to bring it againe to the same body which it was and to change it into a more glorious body He is able to change that same numericall mortall body into an immortall body And though we can find nothing in nature that can evidently prove this truth yet we find many sweet sigures shadowes and resemblances of this in nature Doth not the day die into night and afterward night rise againe into the day doth not Summer die into Autumne and Autumne into Winter and then the Spring brings the Summer in glory to us againe Are not some creatures which lie dead in Winter restored to life when Summer appeareth Doe we not see the seed that is buried in the earth and put into the furrowes againe to spring to a new life and to come forth with greater glory then when it was sowen in the earth If you take notice of the Gold-Smith you shall find that he keeps his fylings and his dust and though we looke on it as
a heap worth nothing yet he knoweth by the Art of the refyner to bring a choyse and precious vessell out of that dust So though the bodies of the Saints have laine as a heape of dust and wee see no glory in it yet God the refyner of Heaven by the power of his Arme is able to extract the filings and dust of his Saints out of the earth and to restore their dust to an immortall spirituall and glorious body Looke to the power of God nothing will be impossible Therefore when the Sadduces cavilled against the Doctrine of the resurrection our Saviour strikes at the root of their errour which was this because they questioned the power of God concerning this Ye erre saith he not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God Mat. 22. Qui potest facere potest reficere c. saith Tertullian he that was able to make the bodie out of nothing is able to remake it he that was able to give a being out of no being is able to give a being out of that that hath a being It is easier to make a thing out of that that hath a being then out of that that hath no being God hath done the first why should we distrust him concerning the second Therefore you shall find the Apostle when he preached this Doctrine that we shall be raised and in our bodies made like the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ and knowing that there would be carnall objections arise in the spirits of men against this Doctrine he presently fits and shapes an answer for it from the power of God Phil. 3. ult we looke for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shal change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue even all things to himselfe Here that the mouth of unbeliefe and carnall reason may be stopped he tells us that he will make our bodies like unto his glorious bodie and question not but he will doe it for he will doe it by his mighty power by which he is able to subdue all things to himselfe thus farre in answer to the first sort of Adversaries The objections of the spirituall Enemies or rather diabolicall Enemies though they pretend to spirituality are drawn from Scripture And this is no wonder for their Father the Devill doth quote Scripture sometimes too The first place which they alleadge is in the 1 Cor. 15.50 Flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdome of God neither doth corruption inherit incorruption from whence they conclude that our corruptible and fleshly body shal not be raised And therefore that there is no such resurrection to be expected which we waite for But that the Apostle in this Chapter and all other places speaking of the resurrection doth treat of it spiritually allegorically And that he never did hold forth such a carnall and grosse resurrection as we in our muddie braines doe grossely apprehend he did In answer to which objection we shall grant that the Apostle in sundry places doth speake of a resurrection figuratively As in the 3. Col. 1. If ye be risen with Christ seelie those things which are above where he speaketh of a resurrection to a new life in the spirit by faith And in this sense we grant that Saints are already risen There being no happinesse for such at the second resurrection hereafter who are not first raised here and made partakers of the first resurrection Yet this doth not weaken our assertion nor overthrow our Faith And therefore give me leave to put in an answer to their objection First It is true flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdome of God What doth he meane he meanes sinfull flesh and bloud shall not inherit whatsoever is sinne and flesh in this respect shall not inherit the Kingdome of God Secondly flesh and blood may be taken for the weaknesses and infirmities that cleave to our bodies for the present and flesh and blood our bodies of flesh and blood if wee looke on them in their frailties infirmities and weaknesses so they shall not inherit the Kingdome of God But otherwise it is certaine these bodies which are flesh and blood shall inherit the Kingdome of God For as our Lord Christ is now in glory in the same body though it be a spirituall glorious body in Heaven in which he suffered on the Crosse so we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ shall be raised goe to Heaven and enjoy God in happinesse in these very bodies that we carrie about us we shall see God with these eyes and no other we shall have the same feet hands and members c. And though there shall be no sinne frailty weaknesse or infirmitie no imperfection lamenesse deafnesse or blindnesse yet the same numericall body shall be raised againe And if God would but open their eyes to read and understand what is spoken they shall have an answer from the pen of him whom they through their blindnesse doe misunderstand in the 53. verse of the same chapter This corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortall must put on immortality The same mortall body by him who is immortall must be made immortall and incorruptible This was the confession of the African Churches Credimus resurrectionem carnis hujus we believe the resurrection of this flesh which is consonant to the truth delivered by Paul 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appeare before the judgement seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad The same persons must appeare we that consist of a materiall body and spirituall soule must appeare in the same body and soule or else it is not we that shall appeare but some body else which shall appeare which is contrary to the mind of God and his Apostle in this place The second objection which they bring is this that we that professe Christ and a resurrection by him in this way are carnall and know Christ after the flesh whereas the Apostle saith in the 2 Cor. 5.16 That he is to be knowne so no more To which I answer that this is one of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one of the things hard to be understood in Paul which Peter speaketh of 2 Pet. 3.16 which they being unstable wrest as they doe other Scriptures unto their owne destruction Paul hath no such meaning which they carnally draw from the letter of the word which will appeare if we consider the Christ which he preached who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1.3 crucified in the flesh for our sinnes 2. Cor. 13.4 risen from the dead for our Justification Rom. 4.25 1 Cor. 15.20 ascended in our humane nature in which he suffered and descended into the lower parts of the earth 4. Eph. and in that humane nature doth make Intercession for us at his Fathers right hand
against such bitter enemies of Christ should not a zealous Christian say as David said to Michal when she scoffed him for his devotion to his God 2 Sam. 6.22 I will be yet more vile then thus Therefore let me desire you that you will abhorre these tenents and opinions of theirs which doe overthrow the whole Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ If this that they hold be a truth which we denie there is no truth in this booke that we hold if this be a truth that they professe there is no truth in Jesus Christ that professeth himselfe the way the truth and the life And as the Apostle preacheth 1 Cor. 15. The Apostles shall be found false witnesses of God for they preached that Christ though he suffered on the Crosse his body was raised and in it he ascended into Heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father and mediates and intercedes as an Advocate for us If Christ be not risen then we are false witnesses of God 1 Cor. 15.15 because we have testified that he raised up Christ whom he raised not up if the dead rise not and if they shall be found false witnesses and Imposters who then are the men that we must looke on as Divine men as knowing understanding men We must looke on these as a Generation of liers that have deceived us and made us believe that Christ is risen and that we shall rise by his power and there is no such matter who are to be eyed as men of truth we must looke on Lucian that in his Dialogues and other bookes jeeres those that expect happinesse after this life or feare misery and calls our blessed Jesus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sophister that was hanged upon a Crosse We must looke on him as an Orthodox man as a Divine writer Pliny that writes of the soules immortality and denies that resurrection of the body we must looke on him as Canonicall Julian the Apostate must be admired for his wisdome To throw away our Bibles or burne them as those in the 19. Acts 19. did burne their Bookes of curious Arts will be a point of wisdome and discretion It will be no impiety to deny the truths that Peter Paul and other servants of the Lord Jesus Christ have preached and sealed with their bloods O Brethren take heed of this hellish hellish Doctrine take heede of these seducers Beware of these Wolves that come in sheeps clothing See how this tenent plants its Ordnance to batter downe all goodnesse all the hope of Christians and strength of Christianity 3. Vse The beliefe of this truth may bring in streames of joy to our soules and spirits in the middest of the greatest troubles and miseries that can come upon us Therefore the Apostle when he had laid down this point 1 Thess 4.1 see what use he makes of it in the 18. ver for their consolation bidding them to comfort one another with those words In your weaknesses and sicknesse consider that these bodies that are fraile mortall and must after a while moulder into dust shall at the resurrection be made like unto the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. last Is death approching doth the King of feares Job 18.14 knock at the doores of your cottages of clay Let the feare of death be killed by the meditation of this that the Lord Jesus by his death and resurrection hath abolished our death and brought life and immortality to light through his glorious Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ cujus victoria nostra est whose victory is ours hath overcome sinne the grave Death Hell and he arising as a publick person his glorious resurrection may be a pledge unto us of our future resurrection in glory Our bodies are called in Scripture the Temples of God Let me tell you that God will not pull downe his Temples unlesse he intended to build them up againe He will set up these Temples in glory which he puls downe and layes in the dust with dishonour I remember what a divine Poet saith speaking of the resurrection Pellite corde metum mea membra credite vosmet Cum Christo reditura deo Atra sepulcra respuite Prudentius My limbes drive away from you the feare of death ye shall with Christ returne to God sleight the blacknesse and horrour of the grave which doth sweetly accord with the divine rapture of Paul 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. The full perswasion of this is that which hath filled the spirits of Christians with joy and fortitude in their sufferings The heavenly company of Martyrs that sacrificed their lives for Christ doe deserve rather to be registred in the Catalogue of fooles then to be dignified or innobled as Saints with the Crowne of Martyrdome had they suffered and questioned the truth of the resurrection This hath made their sufferings comfortable to them and glorious to us as our patterne and example for imitation This hath made them so willing to hazard their lives for the truth of Christ It is this that hath made them so prodigall of their blood that I remember it is reported of one of the heathen persecutors that he said he thought the Christians delighted in torments they seemed to sleight all punishments and tortures that the witty malice of their adversaries could invent or their cruelty inflict This carried them forth in that height of spirit that they rejoyced in the middest of tortures It was this that cheered the heart of a Martyr that was troubled a little before his suffering the Comforter coming and assuring him of happinesse at the resurrection Gregorius Nazianzenus in his third Oration tells us of Theclas and some other Martyrs that were observed by the spectators 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be very merry in the extremity of torments Marcus of Arethusa when the bloody persecutors had exercised his Faith and patience with several sorts of tortures and did afterwards draw him through draughts and other noysome places he accounted it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather his pomp and glory then his misery and calamity Women have discovered masculine and heroicall spirits when they were called to suffer for the Lord. Nostri pueri mulierculae tortores suos taciti vincunt exprimere illis gemitum nec ignis potest Lactantius saith that the Christian children and women did by their silence over come their tormentors and the flames of firt could not make them weepe Austin tells of a poore weak maid that went to suffer for Christ tanquam ad epulas invitata a◠though she had been invited to a banquet We read of some when they came to lay downe their lives they were sorrie that they had no more lives to lose for the Lord Jesus Tertullian saith that the Christians were so ready to suffer
that they were as willing to be devoured by the Lions as the people were desirous of their destruction by the Lyons Eusebius tells us that when as the Proconsul exhorted Germanicus to relent admonishing him of his tender yeares praying him to pitie his owne case being now in the flower of his youth he without intermission inticed the beast to devoure him Eusebius fourth book of the Eccl. Hist What steeled the spirits of these men and carried them above carnall reason and the weak principles of nature but a strong and powerfull perswasion in their spirits that they should have a glorious and joyfull resurrection at the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ This is that that the Apostle proves to us Heb. 11.35 Some were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection He informeth us that when deliverance was offered they would not accept of it What was the reason they expected a resurrection Threatnings could not terrifie them from the truth nor promises draw them to errour because they were without wavering perswaded of a resurrection This was that that made Polycarpus the Martyr so willing todie for the Lord Jesus Christ which appeareth by his speech when he was tied at the stake I thanke thee that thou hast graciously vouchsafed this day to allot me a portion among the number of Martyrs among the people of Christ unto the resurrection of the everlasting life both of body and soule c. Euseb This was that likewise that made the Saints to be so merry and chearfull upon their death-beds When Hilarion lay sick and in his flesh did feele a little feare of death he presently reproves himselfe and breaketh forth into these words Egredere egredere anima goe forth goe forth my soule hast thou served Christ so many yeares and now art thou afraid to die What difference could there be between the death of Saints and of wicked prophane unbelieving men if there were no resurrection of the dead at all and therefore as you desire to live comfortably and to die happily in the bosome of Christ rejoycing upon your death-beds live constantly in the assurance of the truth of this Doctrine of the resurrection and while others that have seduced ignorant and poore people into Familisme with a brazen face all their dayes shall tremble upon their death-beds being afraid of death and dreading a judgement day which they have denyed like the Emperour Hadrian Animula vagula blandula Quae nunc abibis in loca Pallidula rigida nudula Poore wandring pale quivering soule whither shalt thou goe Platina in the lives of the Popes You shall call for death and not looke on death as a way to the infernall prison but as a passage to immortality in Heaven ye shall see the Lyon death slaine and find nothing but honey in the carkasse you shall rejoyce in confidence that your bodies shall be raised while they shall tremble for feare of a resurrection For I would have you to take notice that God seldome suffers men that are growne to this height of unbeliefe and ungodlinesse to deny the resurrection and Christs coming in the flesh to die without galled and troubled consciences As it is observed by some of many that were professed Atheists who when they came to their death beds though they in their health and strength swimming in a world of pleasure and contentments asserted that there was no god yet when they came to lie on their death-beds none seemed to be more afraid of a God and to tremble so much at his power as these men so none are more afraid of death Hell and a resurrection then some of these that have denyed that there is any Hell or a resurrection I remember the speech of Zeno the Philosopher if I would perswade any man frō Atheisme said he I would lead him to the death-bed of an Atheist when he is gasping out his last breath So if I had not sufficiently perswaded you that there shall be a resurrectiō of the body by what I have brought out of the word of truth if I knew where any of these did lie sick I would carry you to their death-beds and you might see some of them troubled and galled in their conscience that have blasphemously professed that there is no Christ come in the flesh and that there shal be no resurrection of the body hereafter I shall not need at the present to adde many more words for I hope better things of you and such things which accompanie salvation I hope there are few such spirits as these in this Congregation yet I know the Devill is so subtle that where he thinks people are most spirituall and know God most and are acquainted with Christ he sends his imps his Sadduces to trouble and assault them he doth not set so much upon any people to draw them away as upon those that make profession of the Gospel of Christ The Devill knowes such whom he hath safe within his owne command and many of these are not assaulted by these imps but when men seeme to be heirs and boast of the Lord Jesus and professe themselves to be in the spirit of glory and adoption and to have their names written in Heaven and that none are able to separate them from the love of God the Devill sends his evill Angells to such men as these Therefore knowing that you should meet with such spirits I thought good to speake somewhat before that being forewarned you might be fore-armed praemoniti praemuniti that you may goe on in the power of God and the strength of his might though the Devill may buffet you for a time by these wicked instruments and cast his fiery darts into your hearts and spirits to perswade you that there is no resurrection and may certainly know that if there be any truth in the history of the Gospel this is a truth concerning the resurrection And it is the desire of my soule that ye may live continually and constantly in the confidence and assurance of the resurrection of your bodies which being joyned with a lively Faith in Christs death and resurrection will sweeten your lives and crowne your deaths with happinesse Death which came in upon men as a legall curse shall be turned into a blessing unto you it shall not be your feare but desire with Paul ye shall desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ But this Doctrine being layd aside as of no worth or value Christ will appeare unto you but a shadow fancy and forged Chymera of mans braine As the wicked Pope was perswaded who did thus glory in his riches What great riches have we gotten by this fable of Christ Wherefore as you desire to breath forth your soules with joy into the bosome of the Lord Jesus live in the comforts of the resurrection through Christ That will make you say in the midst of the pangs of death with Simeon Lord let thy servant now depart for mine eyes
have seene thy salvation Or else such musick will bee in your hearts as was in Stephens when he prayed Lord Jesus receive my spirit yee shall have peace at the last which shall bee everlasting The life of grace shall be lengthned out with an eternity of glory which God and the Father grant unto you in the riches of his grace through his sonne our blessed Jesus and Redeemer Amen Christs Title to the dead bodies of Saints maintained SERMON II. CHrist is a Christians shield and buckler so that none can strike at a Christian but through the sides and loynes of his Saviour We cannot wrong Saints unlesse we injure the King of Saints Christ and his people have the same Enemies This is evident in the opposers of the resurrection who as they are enemies to Christians so they are to Christ and they doe not so much wrong to his people as they offer violence unto him as they would bereave his members of the happinesse of their resurrection so they would rob him of his limbs members and glory And therefore as I have pleaded against the living adversaries of dead Saints so I shall now plead the cause of Christ against those enemies of Christ who in denying the resurrection deny the raising of his mysticall body which doth fight against that truth which doth next present it selfe unto us in the text in these words My dead body shall they arise I must speak something for the exposition something by way of amplification of that which I apprehend to be the truth of God mainly pointed at in the words Together with my dead body shall they rise So it is in our translation and those that carrie it thus they make this to be the meaning of the words that the bodies of the Saints shall be raised together with the body of the Lord Jesus And if the Holy Ghost did point at this then the first thing that should be observed would be this that Christ Jesus had a body a naturall body If it doe not clearely appeare from this place yet it doth from others for it is said he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh And likewise Joh. 1. The word was made flesh And great is the mystery of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 which will overthrow that which some Familisticall spirits dare to assert in our times that the Lord Jesus Christ never had any naturall bodie allegorizing the whole history of the incarnation life and death resurrection and ascension of the Lord Jesus But secondly if it be thus expounded as some learned men doe expound the words the next observation will be this that This bodie of Christ was a dead body Revel 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead The true Christ in his body was once dead his body was a crucified body He his own self saith Peter in his owne body bare our sinnes upon the Crosse 1 Pet. 2.24 He was wounded for our iniquities his body was bruised for our transgressions Isa 53. Thirdly that The dead body of the Lord Jesus was raised with my dead body they shall rise it is supposed that this dead body spoken of shall arise and this is that that is so frequently preached by the Apostles who were witnesses appointed by God to testifie that the Lord Jesus did rise from the dead The Devill knew what a truth this was how much life glory sweetnesse and power there is in it therefore he imployed his instruments the Scribes and Pharisees to doe what they could to smother this truth of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus What lies did they not make what stones did they not turne what paines did they not take that they might possesse the people with this perswasion that the Lord Jesus Christ did never rise out of the grave but that his Disciples came and stole him away But brethren Christ is risen and those that rightly understand this doe find what sweetnesse and consolation comes to their hearts by believing this point There is so much in it that Paul professeth he desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified Phil. 3.10 the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings And Peter 1. Pet. 1.3 saith that God hath begotten us againe to a lively hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus The hope of the Disciples was almost dead and extinguished when the Lord Jesus lay in the grave but now Christ is risen and hath discovered his power in vanquishing his and all our enemies now we have a lively hope in us that believe the resurrection of Christ for in the believing of his resurrection we have a sweet and comfortable assurance of our owne resurrection from the dead Fourthly with my dead body shall they rise Christ as I hinted before did all things and suffered all things as a publick personâ— he died not for his owne but for our sinnes Qâ—i non habuit propria portavit aliena Fulâ— He that had no sinnes of his owne did beareâ— the sinnes of other men he rose not so much for his owne as for our Justification He died for our sinnes Rom. 4. the last and he rose for our Justification So that when Christ did rise we rose And he that believes this in the spirit sees that he himselfe is risen with the Lord. There is is a two-fold resurrection A resurrection by Faith when we doe believe that we are risen in Christ our King head and leader and there is a resurrection in our owne persons when we shall be raised in our owne bodies Christ did rise for the good and in the behalfe of all his people and Christ keepes possession of Heaven after his resurrection for us in whose person we are already risen and in this respect it may be said that together with his dead body we shall arise Fiftly with my dead body shall they rise Some interpret it thus by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ they shall rise that is there shall come at the last day a power from the Lord Jesus Christ to raise up the Saints to enjoy glory with the Father But because I doe not find these two words in the Hebrew Together nor with therefore be pleased to let me passe by these observations and to give you what I doe apprehend to be the plaine meaning of the text and to read the words thus My dead body shall they rise They are the words of the Lord Jesus delivered by him for the comfort of his people assuring them that they shall be raised as his body And though some doe understand them concerning the restauration of the Jewes and the bringing in of them unto Christ yet I apprehend that this is the true spirituall meaning of God in the words which I have opened to you this day The point then will be this the dead bodies of the Saints which shall be raised are the dead bodies of Christ himselfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
cadaver meum resurgent They shall arise as my carkasse or dead body which I shall enlarge by some considerations First consideration Christ and his members are one therefore the Saints shall be raised as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ The members of the body are the members of the head Christ Jesus he is the head of the body therefore the bodies of the Saints being raised they are raised as the body of the Lord Christ Ephes 5.30 We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones The body of a Saint is the body of the Lord Jesus the flesh of a Saint is the flesh of the Lord Jesus and the spirit of a Saint is one with the spirit of Jesus Paul persecuted the Saints and cast their bodies into prison Christ calls to him from heaven Why persecutest thou me When the body of a Saint is imprisoned Christ is then shut up in prison so when the bodies of the Saints are raised the body of the Lord Jesus Christ is raised As the Animall spirits lie in the head by which motion is conveyed to the members so the spirit of power lies in the Lord Jesus Christ by which we are moved by which we are raised in which spirit we both in body and spirit are made one with the Lord Christ This Doctrine of our union with Christ is likewise set forth by Paul 1. Cor. 6.15 Know you not saith the Apostle that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot As the hand or foot of a man may be said to be part of the man so the bodies of the Saints may be said to be part of the Lord Jesus For as the head and all the members of the body make one naturall body in that one spirit that is in them all and acts in them all so Christ and all believers make one in flesh and spirit by that one spirit which dwells in the flesh of Christ and in the flesh and spirit of every true believer 1. Cor. 12.12 As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ Here you see that the Apostle calls the members of Christ Christ mysticall so also is Christ saith he he gives the Church the name of Christ by reason of this neare union which is between Christ Jesus and all his members Againe the Saints they are married to the Lord Jesus as the body of the wise may be said to be the husbands so the bodies of the Saints as wel as their souls belong to the Lord Jesus and are one with him And as Adam when Eve was brought to him said This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh so Christ when the dead bodies of the Saints shall be raised raises his owne body and will say This is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh then shall be the great marriage of the Lamb then it shall be solemnized in a most glorious manner and then Christ shall owne all those who were given to him by the Father and there in a solemne manner shall he marrie them to himselfe he shall owne them all for his own wife and they all shall be looked on as one in him Likewise the bodies of the Saints that are raised are the body of Christ as the sprigs of a tree or the branches of a vine may be said to be part of the tree or part of the vine Our Saviour sets forth this similie to us Joh. 15. where he compares himself to a vine and all believers to branches in this vine Christ shall be as the great vine in the resurrection and all believers shall be branches and sprigs sprouting out of this vine from that life power and spirit that God shall put forth through the body of the Lord Jesus This union is not by the confusion of things which are united as the ignorant Familists doe fondly conceive but by the union of things which are different in their personall beings and individuall natures which will appeare by the similitudes which God doth make use of for the illustrating of this truth unto us As of body and members though all the members doe make but one body yet every member doth retaine its proper place office and being in the body so that the hand is not the foot nor the foot the arme or head so it is between Christ and his people Christ still remaineth in his owne person as head and they as severall members belonging to that head The spirit and body make one man yet the spirit is not the body nor the body the spirit The vine and branches are one yet the vine is not the branch nor the branch the vine The Husband and wife are one yet the Husband is not the wife nor the wife the Husband The second consideration for the amplifying of this point may be this because that whatsoever he did or suffered was that he might bring all believers to an onenesse with himselfe and the Father and this is that he prayes for Joh. 17. The glory that thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one as we are one Christ did therefore beare our sinnes Christ did therefore put himselfe under all the curses due to us for our enormities he did therefore manifest himselfe as a conquerour over all the Enemies that opposed us that all things that might bee any hindrance to our union or hinder our spirituall communion with God being removed in him Eph. 12.14 we might be brought to an onenesse and see our selves as one body and one spirit with him Our happinesse lyeth in our onenesse with Father Word and Spirit which are but one Man made himselfe miserable by disuniting himselfe from God who is but one Mar. 12.29 and Christ doth make him happy by bringing him back again to that onenesse which he had with God It was the office and employment of Christ to bring all things from disunion to union and onenesse with himselfe and the Father which he hath effected for us and therefore they shall be raised as the body of the Lord Jesus Christ My dead body shall they rise The third consideration is this they shall rise as his dead body because they shall rise as the proper goods possession and inheritance of the Lord Jesus Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession they shall be raised as the body of Christ because Christ shall have a right propriety and Interest in them Ye are not your owne yee are bought with a price your bodies as well as your spirits are Gods c. 1 Cor. 6.20 the Apostle gives this reason why Christ died and revived and rose againe that he might be Lord of the quick and dead Rom. 14.9 that as a servant is more his
Masters then his owne so Christ being the Lord of the resurrection we shall be more his then our owne we shall be raised as those in whom Christ hath a propriety and Interest we shall be looked on as the inheritance of the Lord Jesus he shall be King and Lord over us all and rule over us His Scepter of glory shall be set up in every heart and his Throne shall be exalted in every spirit Thus My dead body they shall rise They shall rise as mine they are my dead men and they shall be my living men Here you see that Christ will owne them for his when they are in the dust There are some that shall speak to Christ at the resurrection as though they were familiarly acquainted with him whom he will not owne saving Depart from me I know you not yee workers of iniquitie But Christ will owne his Saints Mal. 3.17 They shall be mine saith the Lord of Hosts when I make up my Jewells or speciall treasure and I will spare them as a man spareth his owne sonne that serveth him As men will not part with their Jewells so Christ will not lose the bodies of his Saints they are part of his speciall treasure The fourth consideration is this the bodies of the Saints that shall be raised may be called the body of the Lord Jesus for this reason because Christ in the Spirit shall be the life soule and forme that shall give life and being to the bodies of the Saints at the resurrection As the body is called the body of the Spirit that dwells in it so Christ Jesus dwelling in the bodies of his Saints by his Spirit their bodies may be said to be his body And as a man may say this is my body it belongs to that humane spirit in me because his humane spirit moves lives in it and doth as a Divine power act in it so our bodies being raised may be said to be the bodies of Christ because he shall act as the Spirit forme and soule in them Christ shall be the soule which shall give life and being to all Saints which shall be raised by him The fifth consideration Death cannot dissolve the union which is between Christ and a believer The love of the Father is the urneinâ— which the ashes of dead Saints are preserved Rom. 8.38 39. I am perswaded saith Paul that neither death nor life 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. Man doth consist of a naturall body and humane spirit And death cannot make a separation between Gods love and our bodies no more then it can make a separation between his love and our soules Among the things which God hath bestowed upon us in Christ the Apostle doth reckon up death 1 Cor. 3.22 which sheweth that it is not a curse but a blessing to Saints It would be a curse unto us did it bring an irrecoverable ruine and destruction to our bodies Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Deaths disability to cast our bodies out of Gods love and protection is that which doth convert death through Christ into a blessing unto us Paul calleth Saints in respect of their bodily death 1 Thess 4.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those that sleep in Christ As leep doth not bereave men of life so death doth not take away from Saints their life which is in Christ As a Philosopher told a tyrant he might kill him but not hurt him so death may kill but cannot hurt a Saint because the union between God and him is in dissolvible Rom. 14.8 Whether we live or diâ— we are the Lords And therefore it may be truely said My dead body shall they arise Sixt consideration The bodies of Saint are sanctified by Christ and therefore he cannot but owne them Sanctification is the marke or seale of Christ As merchants doâ— set their seales and markes upon their good which they will owne so Christ will for ever owne that upon which he hath set the seaâ— and marke of his sanctifying Spirit The spirit of a Saint and Christ will never cease tâ— own his own house and the place which 〈◊〉 hath chosen for his habitation God doth nâ—â— only honour our bodies by calling them hâ—â— 19. Know yee not that your body is the Temple 〈◊〉 the holy Spirit It is not a paradoxe then in Dâ—vinity that Christ at the resurrection should owne them as his owne Seventh consideration Christ should 〈◊〉 incompleat A man that wanteth a membeâ— is incompleat and imperfect so Christ should be imperfect and incompleat were he defective in any of his members at the resurrection And therefore all the bodies of the Saints must be raised as his body It is an Argument that some of the Schoole-men make use of to prove the necessity of a resurrection of bodies from the incompleatnesse of the soule when it is separated from its proper body which it did informe and with which in union it made one compositum So the bodies of Saints must be raised that Christ may be compleat in his mysticall body as he is in his owne person The Church is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulnesse of Christ Eph. 1. last because as a body is not full and compleat in his being that wants a member so Christ should not be compleat if any part of him were wanting And therefore the bodies of all Saints must be raised that Christ may appeare in his glory and compleatnesse at the resurrection And thus having opened this Doctrine and illustrated it by these considerations I shall draw some usefull conclusions from it Vse 1. Seeing Christians shall be one body at the resurrection this should teach us to be one here in the bond of love That one member should oppose and fight against another member is against nature And that one Christian should fight against another or take his fellow-member by the throat is against the principles of grace In the 13. of Gen. and the 8. ver Abram doth thus speake unto his brother Lot Let there be no strife I pray thee between mee and thee for we are Brethren Christians should not strive or contend one against another because they are fellow-members It is reported of John that in his old age being unable by weaknesse to speake long unto the Congregation he would stand up and in stead of a long Sermon ingeminate this Precept Diligite filioli diligite Litle Children love love one another There can be no stronger Argument to love then the consideration of our union Col. 3.15 Let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also yee are called in one body Warre among members is unnaturall that love and peace may reigne and rule in the hearts of Christians God doth make them all one body so the Apostle in
the third of the Eph. 6. doth teach us that Jewes and Gentiles are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Parts of the same body One that desired to moderate between the Calvinists and Lutherans wishing them not to be so bitter the one against the other made use of this Argument telling them that Luther and Calvin were reconciled in love together in heaven Let not strife hatred malice and bitternesse prevaile among you Christians for yee shall sweetly agree together as one body in one Spirit at the resurrection Vse 2. There being such a glorious union between us and Christ it should engage the spirits of Saints to be much in the contemplation of it As the bloud and spirits doe runne through the body so this Doctrine of union doth runne through the whole body of Christian Religion Our Justification in the person of Christ our own Justification in our owne persons by Christ cannot bee clearely understood if we be totally ignorant of union with Christ As the Philosopher saith that all morall vertues are linck'd together in justice so all the points of Christianity are concatenated and joyned together in this doctrine of union As the Starre did lead the wise men to Christ shining over the place where Christ was so this Doctrine of our union with Christ shining among other truths of Christ in the Scripture doth hold forth unto us a light to direct us through the grace of God into a perfect and comfortable knowledge of all other truths As it doth in an especiall manner beame forth light unto us to confirme us in the Doctrine of the resurrection For you see that the bodies of the Saints are to bee raised because they are united to Christ and one with him Therefore this may strengthen the Faith of every one of us concerning the certainty of the resurrection◠What saith the Apostle No man yet ever hated his owne flesh but nourished it and cherished it Eph. 5.29 The Lord Jesus Christ cannot hate his owne flesh nor forget his owne body the bodies of the Saints but in love will raise them even while they lie in the dust they are his body Our propriety in a thing doth draw out our affection to the thing Our bodies belong to the Lord and are in his heart and affections even while they moulder in the dust therefore let this truth pierce your understandings and sinke deepe into your memories and be fully perswaded that your bodies shall be raised because they are not so much your bodies as the body of the Lord Jesus The Scripture as you have heard speakes so gloriously of that union which all the Saints have with Jesus Christ in that one Spirit which is in Christ and in every Saint that it seemes to hold forth Christ as incompleat till he have gathered all his members into one body And certainly Christ will not appeare incompleat in his body at the resurrection which he should doe should hee not by his power command the bodies of the Saints to come out of the earth Therefore he will not suffer any part of himselfe to lie in the dust he will not appeare at the generall resurrection without a limb not without a hand not without a finger not without the least member Thou that art the meanest Christian that apprehendest thy selfe to be but as the toe of Christ mayst be strongly perswaded of thy resurrection for I tell thee when Christ shall appeare at the great resurrection he will not be without a toe not without the lowest and most inferiour member of his body He will appeare in his fulnesse and all the Saints gathered together and made one with him in body and spirit are his fulnesse and compleatnesse The King when he rides in triumph or to his great Counsell he rides in his Royall Robes and in all his glory When Christ shall appeare the second time he will ride in Triumph as a Conquerour of all Enemies and will ride to his great Counsell or Parliament of Saints who are to judge the Delinquents of the world And the Saints are his glory 2 Cor. 8.23 and therefore they must be raised that hee may be in his full glory If thou looke upon thy selfe and thy body and consider how thou hast dishonoured God in thy body it may bee thou mayst be startled in thy spirit and have such sad thoughts as these Will Christ ever raise this body as his that I have abused to sinne ◠shall this body be glorified which I have dishonoured by base and filthy lusts but when thou hast any such thoughts as these in which the Devill appeares to thee as an Angel of light to make thee question the truth of the glorious resurrection of thy body then looke beyond thy selfe beyond the sinnes that thou hast committed against God in thy body and spirit And think thus with thy selfe This body though I have abused it by lust and intemperance though I have dishonoured God by the sinnes which I have committed and acted as it were upon a stage in this body and flesh of mine yet now the property is altered I am not now to looke on it as my body I am to look on it as the body of the Lord Jesus it is that body that he hath washed from all sinne in his owne bloud it is that body that he died for that he might cleanse it from filthinesse and uncleannesse it is his body he hath right to it and a propriety in it it is his and none of mine Christ will not lose that which belongs to himselfe and therefore it shall be raised in glory We see how unwilling men are to part with that which is their possession and inheritance We know how Naboth answered Ahab who would have had his Vineyard 1 King 21.3 Should I give the inheritance of my Fathers unto thee we are the inheritance the possession of the Lord Jesus and he will not lose any part of his inheritance This Argument is of sufficient strength to silence carnall reason if it were throughly weighed by us in the ballance of the Sanctuary For if a man look on himselfe as out of himselfe and the being which he hath in the first Adam and behold himselfe as one with the Lord Jesus in a spirituall onenesse seeing himselfe as such a part of Christ as a hand or a foote may be said to be a part of the bodie and knowing Christ hath undertaken to provide for his body and to owne it for his owne this will establish him in an unshaken confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ intends to raise his body and to assure and ascertaine us that he will raise us he himselfe is risen in his own person If the head be above the water the whole body may be drawne out of the water without drowning Christ our head is above water above the billowes that overwhelmed him is above sinne that was charged on him is above the curses of the Law that came upon him when he was made
a sacrifice for sinne above the temptations of Satan above the weaknesse of the flesh Death could not hold him as her prisoner and this may ascertaine us that wee his members shall be drawne up out of the water wee shall be above all things that we may call sinne in our selves above the reach of Satans fiery darts we shall be above Death that will be fulfilled which is spoken in the 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory Christ hath already fully conquered Death in his owne person and will conquer it in the person of all those that are his members enabling them to believe in him Christ doth infuse spirit and fortitude into all his souldiers by enabling them to looke on him their Generall Respice ad Ducem Look unto your Captaine was the old Roman word of Command to the common souldiers to stirre them up to imitate the valour and fortitude of their Commanders And Christian souldiers are made truly valiant by looking upon the fortitude and conquests of him who is the Captaine of their salvation Heb. 2.10 And knowing their union with him they see their head Captaine risen whose they are which maketh them Conquerours of death as his valiant souldiers by a strong perswasion from him and in him of a future resurrection In the next place you see that the bodies of Saints shal be raised for heaven as his body Therefore this may teach us to glorifie God in our bodies and spirits while wee are here below If the Lord Jesus Christ will raise our bodies as his owne bodie it is consonant to reason that we should use our bodies as the bodies of Christ This consideration if God goe along with it will be marvellous powerfull to teach us to be holy not only in our spirits but in our bodies considering that they are the bodies of the Lord Jesus Christ will raise thy body at the last day as his owne it is his body and not thine his spirit informes it he is owner and possessor of it thou art not thine owne thou art bought with a price 1 Cor. 6.20 Thererefore glorifie God in thy body and in thy Spirit which are Gods Seeing Christ will raise thy body as his body when it is dead therefore behave thy selfe towards thy body as the body of Christ while thou art alive This is that that the Apostle presseth from this consideration 1 Cor. 6.15 Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of a harlot a Christian would not misdemeane himselfe toward his body if he did consider what his body is it is the house and Palace of the Lord Jesus the Temple of God It was accounted a great fault for any man to misbehave himselfe in the Temple of Solomon which was a place then by Gods appointment more holy then other places Our bodies are spirituall Temples therefore defile not the Temple of the Lord. Bring not in the abomination of desolation into the holy place bring not the filth of sinne into it suffer not lust to lie in thy body suffer not pride in thy flesh sinne not against thy owne body in any kind take heed of riot and drunkennesse take heed of those sins that are sinnes against the body because by them thou sinnest against the Temple and house of God thou sinnest against that that is not thine owne but is the Lord Jesus Christs Our bodies should not be like the Egyptian Temples that were stately Edifices and buildings but in them there was nothing but some noysome and filthy beasts Thy body is a stately Edifice O set not up thy beastly lusts as Idols to be worshipped there Galen that great Physitian when he came to anatomize mans body he stood in admiration of the workmanship wondring at the skilfull hand and finger of him that was the maker of it Thou must not only looke on thy body as it is a naturall Edifice but as it is a building for the Lord Jesus as a Temple that Christ hath made choyse of a Temple for the Holy Spirit to dwell in Therefore suffer not Crocodiles and noysome beasts to sit there stoup not to lusts fall not downe on thy knees before thy corruptions sacrifice not to uncleannesse Suffer not any sinne to reigne in thy mortall body Rom. 6. thy body is the body of the Lord it is under the power of Christ therefore â—et Christ onely reigne in it Sinne shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but under grace Rom. 6.19 As yee have yeelded your members servants unto uncle annesse and to iniquity unto iniquity even so now yeeld your members servants to righteousnesse unto holinesse If men did but consider the glory of their persons the glory that God hath put upon their spirits in making them one spirit with his owne and the glory that God hath put upon their bodies in making them his houses Temples and places of glory 〈◊〉 dwell in through the goodnesse of God iâ— would restraine them from sinne That thâ— high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity should come and dwell in these humble and low cottages of ours That the God oâ— glory should come and dwell in houses oâ— clay in houses of mud in houses that presently must be pulled downe and lye in the dust O how should the serious and spirituall meditation of this put bounds and limits yea a period to our corruptions As Luther doth report of one that being tempted to any sinne by the Devill would answer that she was Christian Thy body is Christs by conquest he hath dispossessed the Devill of the strong hold which he had in thy body and therefore suffer not the Devill to rule there as he did when he was Lord of thee If the Devill come and tempt thee to commit any sinne which is a sinne that thou mayst act with thy body answer him thus Satan away my eares cannot be open to thy temptations I cannot listen to thee to commit this sinne my body is not mine owne but the body of the Lord Jesus Christ And when thou findest thy selfe in thy body at any time unwilling for the service of Christ consider with thy selfe my body is not mine owne it belongs to the Lord Christ he will have a care of it at the resurrection he will not lose my earth or ashes he will preserve my dust and keep it as a precious Diamond in the casket of his owne love Therefore be willing to serve Christ in thy body he ownes the bodies of Saints here and will owne them hereafter he hath a speciall care of the bones of his Saints and though the limbes of their bodies be carried from one end of the world to the other and scattered in severall places and climates yet by his power he will bring one limb to another therefore glorifie Christ in your bodies who hath promised to quicken your mortall bodies by his spirit which he hath given unto you Rom. 8.11 In the
next place another use may be this to make us willing to sacrifice our bodies for the maintaining of the truths of Christ if Christ be pleased to call us to suffer for him We doe not know but this point may be very seasonable we know not how soone Christ may call for our bodies to lie in prison for some truthes he hath discovered to us which he hath not made known to others why should we be unwilling that Christ should suffer in his owne body Consider that the body which shall lie in prison it is not thy body thou art not able to raise it it is the body of Christ Therefore if it be the mind of Christ that this body shall lie in prison say not My will but thy will be done and if Christ will lead thee further if he will not onely lead thee to be imprisoned in thy body for the profession of the truth but if he call thee to give up thy life to loose it for him that thou mayst find it again in him let this consideration make thee willing to be a martyr and sufferer for the Lord Christ why should not he doe what he will with his owne If he will lead thee to a pillorie to an hot Iron to receive a marke in thy body for him to an halter fire and faggot be contented And bâ— confident that if Christ ever call the to suffer he will give thee power and strength for to suffer in thy body because he cannot forget to be mindfull of his owne body We know how Christ threatneth those that are ashamed of him and his word in an adulterous and sinfull generation Mark 8.38 Of him saith he shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in the glory of the Father with power and great glory As Christ will no owne but be ashamed of wicked ungodly and unbelieving men that make profession of his name in words without his power in their hearts so Christ will owne the bodies of his Saints and such who truly believe in him and have laid downe their lives for him and they shall find their lives againe at the resurrection of the dead Therefore let this make us willing to suffer I am the more willing to presse this point because I see a spirit of basenesse and cowardinesse in Christians I find not that courage in the hearts and spirits of Christians that should be in them The complaint of Jereniah may justly be taken up in our times he saith Jer. 9.3 None were valiant for the truth There is scarce a man that appeares for truth in the height of zeale Men will rather sinne against Conscience to comply with the world then oppose themselves against the corruptions of the world they will rather wimme down with the tyde and streame â—f the world then oppose the wicked streame â—f worldly corruptions And it is to be feared that many profesâ—rs have their eye so much upon the Civill â—agistrate from this corruption and unâ—undnesse in their hearts they will be of â—e same Religion with the Civill Magistrate because they will not suffer any thing for â—e Lord. They looke on Christ in their apprehensions as precious but when they are told of a crucified Christ of a persecuted Christ of Christ hanging on a tree a Christ to be spit upon condemned and persecuted to suffer in the world with the young man in the Gospel they goe away sorrowfull from such a Sermon they would have Christ and the world together but if they cannot have Christ but they must leave the world they had rather part with Christ then with the world They are like Joseph of Arimathea that tooke Christ and left the Crosse behind him So delicate Professors in our time they will take Christ but they will be sure to leave the Crosse they will be wise in their way they will professe Religion no further then they may hold the world and Religion together One reason of this cowardise and basenesse of spirit is this because they doe not consider that the bodies of Saints are under the care and in the possession of Jesus And that wee cannot glorifie God more then by lying in prison in love to Christ or dying for him if it be his pleasure to call us to seale his truths with our bloud And if we did consider what a holy flame and Heavenly sparke was in the hearts and spirits of primitive Christians in believing this truth that they accounted it their greatest honour to be dishonoured for Christ their greatest credit to be discredited by the world for him their Liberty to be imprisoned their life to die at a stake for professing this glorious truth of Christ discovered to their soules Phil. 1.21 it would put fire and spirit into us and this lethargie that is upon us would speedily be cured Indeed we are a luke-warme people the discretion and prudence of politick professors in our times hath swallowed up zeale In the times of Popery there was zeale without knowledge in this Kingdome and now wee have knowledge without Zeale And the ground of this is this because either wee doe not meditate on this truth or else because we are rather cold and formall then truly spirituall in the meditation of it which should engage us as we tender the glory of Christ to be more frequent and serious in our contemplations concerning it for the future I find that Christians made much use of this point in former dayes though I doe not wholly justifie their practise for as it is our custome to salute one another when we meete so it was the custome of some Christians when they met one another to â—â—tter these words Christus resurrexit Christ â—â—risen They apprehended it sa a point that came with such power on their spirits to enable them to be willing to suffer for the Lord that this was their salutation in the time of persecution assuring themselves that he which was risen in his owne person as head would arise in all Saints as his members And this was that that made them so willing to jeopard their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus We read of Paul Act. 21.13 that when they exhorted him not to goe to Jerusalem because the Spirit in Agabus had made it knowne that he should be persecuted and bound when he came thither Why doe you weep and break my heart saith he I am not onely willing to be bound at Jerusalem but to did there for the name of the Lord Jesus It was a heart-breaking to Paul to tell him that he should not goe to suffer at Jerusalem â— if it were his greatest suffering not 〈◊〉 suffer for the Gospel But we have learned this point by roate and it is a thing few understand wee talke of it in a Parrat-liâ—â— way and we have mumbled it over in oâ— Creed I believe the resurrection of the body but few have dived into the bottome it or suckt the sweetnesse and spiritualiâ—â—
which lies in it or else we should not be 〈◊〉 luke-warme in the cause of Christ but 〈◊〉 the future let us looke up to God that may give us spirituall and Heavenly wisdome that so we may have a more Divine and spirituall knowledge of it He that is the resurrection and the life of Saints is the onely teacher of the Doctrine of the resurrection It is reported of the Pelican that her young being poysoned by the Serpent she doth give them life by her own death and bloud so Christ doth quicken us his members to a life of immortality by his owne death and bloud And doth give us the knowledge of life in the knowledge of his death bloudshedding and resurrection which doth inforce the necessity of our resurrection from his who is our head And this is the perswasion of true Saints And as it is reported of the Phenix that when she is to die she brings spices into her nest which being set on fire she her selfe is burned in the fire and turned to ashes and out of her ashes comes a new Phenix so a true Christian knoweth that though he may be burned and turned into ashes yet out of his owne ashes his body shall be raised againe to a new life of glory which doth arme him against the feare of death and persecution in the cause of Christ Again this doth discover what enemies they are to Christ his Spirit and members who by their wiles subtilty and hellish Logick would destroy the Doctrine of the Resurrection They would rob Christ of his members who doth here lay claime to the bodies of dead Saints They would make the Spirit a lier who doth seale up Saints unto the day of Redemption Eph. 5.30 And in whom they wait for the redemption of their bodies Rom. 8.23 They would rob Saints of their comfort which God doth give them in the beleeving of the resurrection of the same body which is committed unto the earth I am the more earnest against these men because I know these factors for Antichrist are both active and subtle as the Serpent did indeavour to beguile Eve 2 Cor. 11.3 so these indeavour to undermine men and to draw them from the simplicity of the Gospel One and a chiefe part of Christs simple Gospel is the Doctrine of the resurrection of our bodies by the power of Christ when Paul preached this at Athens the Stoicks and Epicures did look upon him as a babler And this piece of the Gospel was alwayes accounted foolishnesse to the learned Greeks And as the Apostle was jealous of them for feare they should be drawne from the simplicity of the Gospel so am I jealous over poore Christians knowing that you shall meet with men that pretend to be spirituall men of great light wisdome knowledge and deep understandings and when you have dived into the bottome of their spirits this is all you shall find in them which they will labour to draw you to assent unto to wit that there is no resurrection but in the spirit no corporall resurrection of the body at all These are like those of whom the Apostle speaketh in his time that corrupt or deale deceitfully with the word of God The metaphor is borrowed from cheating Vintners or cousening Merchants that adulterate their commodities to make them vendible as Beza doth well observe so these that their horrid opinions and blasphemies may be vendible they endeavour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to sophisticate the word and adulterate it from the plaine and simple meaning of the Holy-Ghost Therefore let mee in love to your soules once more desire you that you would be watchfull that none of these draw you away from these truthes of God and the Lord Jesus which have been discovered to you and have been sealed upon your hearts and spirits by his owne blessed Spirit The Devill doth sow the tares of Familisme in mens hearts while they sleep But I am confident that you shall believe them though for a time you may be drawn to question them and the resurrection as those in the 1 Cor. 15. and may be deluded by Familisticall fancies and notions as some good Christians have been yet if God hath laid hold on you and drawne you to him in Christ he will not totally leave you to these damnable opinions If it were possible these Serpents would deceive even the Elect but Christ intimates that it is impossible that they should ever deceive the Elect. And the Apostle when he speakes of such men as these 2 Tim. 2.19 saith that the foundation of the Lord stands sure having this seale of his everlasting election the Lord knoweth who are his Therefore let not men deceive you but live in the light of the Gospel and in that Spirit that is given forth in the Gospel Take heed of these Impostors hug not the Devill in Samuels mantle suffer not the Devill to devoure you in a sheeps skin but walke in the plaine simple path of the Gospel of the Lord Christ And that you may doe this give me leave to give you some few directions for the preserving you in the truth and the securing of you from this infection of Familisme First I wish you to apply your selves to the reading of the Scriptures which are able to make you wise unto salvation through Faith which is in Christ 2 Tim. 5.15 When these men come unto you it may be they will present you with bookes written in a strange Language stuffed with swelling non-sense and affected phrases that none understand but those that are acquainted with their blasphemous horrid and damnable opinions And will indeavour to lead you from the Scriptures and if yous oppose the truth of Scripture against their delusion some of them will affirme that Peter and Paul when they wrote their Epistles had but a little light were but children they are enlightned men growne up unto the stature of perfection labouring to prove that the bright starre of truth doth shine no where so gloriously as in the old Popish Authors and new Familisticall scriblers which they will present unto you Therefore that you may not be drawne away by these keep to the Scriptures and know that there is no booke in which there is more light then in the Scripture or from which you may expect more light if you looke to God for his spirit to open the mind of God in the reading of it Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae Waters are sweetest at the well-head And truthes doe present themselves most sweetly unto us in the Scripture which is the Well and Fountaine from which other Writers doe fetch the truthes which we find in their writings He that addicts himselfe more to the reading of mens writings then the Scriptures is like one that leaving the Fountaine where the waters are pure had rather drink in the channell where they are impure and muddy Truly if you grow in grace you will grow in liking and approving the holy
Scripture though it be written in a plaine style and though there be not that humane Eloquence and Rhetorick in it which you shall find in the preaching of some men who preach themselves rather then the Lord Jesus and the simplicity of the Gospel That man is a good proficient in the Schoole of Christ that every day growes more and more in love with the blessed and holy Scripture I remember what an Orator speaking in the commendation of Cicero faith he is a good proficient in Oratorie that delights to read the Orations of Cicero so he is a good proficient in Christianity that in believing delights in the holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Therefore you shall find that men that fall off to these opinions presently they slight the Scripture and either wholly deny the word of God or else they overthrow the truth of it by allegorizing those things that have a plain simple historicall meaning in them That is the first Rule Search the Scriptures and there you shall see no such fancies and fond notions as these men have The second direction is this take heed of those that preach not the Gospel in a plaine familiar way you may know some Familists by their bombastick language they speake not in the language of Canaan in their Sermons but they have an affected language of their owne that few understand but those that have applyed themselves much to the studie of their writings and are well acquainted with their opinions And by their chymical darke expressions and fond notions they delude poore soules that thinke they are spirituall men and that great things are revealed to them which are not discovered to other Saints when there is nothing but horrid Antichristianisme or Atheisme lies at the bottome of their hearts which shall be evident when according to the truth of God 2 Tim. 3.9 Their folly shall be manifest unt all men Paul saith when he came to preach at Corinth 1 Cor. 2.4 That it was not in the excellency of speech nor in the enticing words of mans wisdome but in plainnesse of speech in demonstration of the Spirit and power And it is the command of God that if any man speake he should speake as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or As doth relate to the manner of speaking as well as to the matter which is to be delivered Men are to speake as the Oracles of God speaking nothing but truth and as the Oracles of God for plainnesse of speech St. Paul speaking of true Gospel-Preachers saith we use great plainnesse of speech The Scripture is in a plaine familiar style the Sermons of our Saviour are plaine familiar Sermons adorned with plaine similies And the Apostles were not ashamed to imitate their Master so should our discourses be with all plainnes of speech demonstration of the spirit power that the glory may be given not to the Eloquence of our tongues but to the power of Christ in converting of soules Therefore take heed of those that lead you from the plainnesse of preaching hiding their cursed errours in a thicket and cloud of darke workes and unscripture-like expressions not holding fast the forme of sound words according to Gods precept 2 Tim. 1.13 2 Cor. 3.12 Looke on the Scripture and see how Paul speakes of Justification of remission of sinnes of the resurrection and so let us preach the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of Christ But those that have language not like the language of Scripture suspect them they make a faire shew there is great glory and outward pompe in their words but latet anguis there is a snake that lies under these fine greene herbes take heed of such men and looke more for the inward power and Spirit of God in the speaking of men then for fine words phrases notions and similies that men may make use of to winne you to the approbation of their errours The third direction which I shall present unto you is this take heed of spirituall pride for one reason why so many fall off from the truth to these horrid opinions is from a principle of spirituall pride some of these thought that they had a great deale of knowledge wisdome and understanding and that they understood as much of the Doctrine of Christ and mysteries of the Gospel as was necessary that they had heard as much of the Doctrine of Justification as any could preach of it and of the resurrection as any could speake they knew as they supposed what this man spake and what the other preached what this mans judgement was what Authors did write and they knew perfectly as they imagined whatsoever lies in the Scripture to be embraced for truth And by their pride did surfeit of their knowledge supposing that they knew all points of the Gospel when in deed and in truth they knew nothing of the Gospel savingly spiritually or practically so that as the people of Israel came to loath Manna and lusted after other food so these being puffed up with spirituall pride begin to loath the Heavenly Manna of the Gospel and disesteeme it for the plainnesse and simplicity that is in it And nothing now will please them but new fancies therefore they must have Sermons dressed in another fashion new cooked new notions and new conceits and any thing that is new pleaseth them better then the old and ancient truths of the Lord Jesus But when God teacheth a man to understand the Gospel aright the more he knowes the Gospel the more he sees his ignorance of the Gospel â— that man sees he never learned the Doctrinâ— of Justification fully that man sees that hâ—â— hath not sufficiently learned the Doctrine oâ— Sanctification this man lookes not on his knowledge meerely as it is speculative but as it is practicall when he sees any unbeliefe in his heart he saith within himselfe I have not sufficiently learned the Doctrine of Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ when he sees any hatred in his spirit to that which is good and any inclination to that which is evill he wisely concludeth I have not sufficiently learned the Doctrine of Sanctification when he finds sadnesse in his spirit O saith he there is more in the Gospel concerning the spirit of joy and consolation then I have attained to when he reads sundry enigmaticall and difficult places of the Prophets and in the Revelation and hath not attained to the spirituall meaning of them O saith he I am not sufficiently acquainted with the truths which lie hidden in the word though I may have knowledge enough to carrie me to Heaven yet I am very ignorant of many truths of Christ Thus a man that truely lives the life of Faith he is not puffed up as these are that fall to these hideous and blasphemous notions and opinions Hab. 2. He that is lifted up his heart is not upright but the just shall live by his Faith You shall find that
Familisticall spirits are puffed up with a conceit of their knowledge notions and speculations when indeed they are wholy carnall and understand not the deepe things of Gods grace in the face of Jesus Christ But he that truly walks with God faithfully that man walks humbly with his God True Faith as it exalts us and shewes us our priviledges and honour by the grace of God in Christ so it humbles us by the sight of what is in our selves The light of grace will as well discover what wee are in our fleshly part as what wee are by the grace of God in the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ And these that are thus enlightned shall never fall totally and finally from the pure and simple Gospel of Christ the Spirit in them doth assure them that they shall abide in him John 2.27 Therefore beware of pride the bane of Angels and the ruine of men and the mother of Familisme But grow in humility conceit not that you are full when you are empty As long as the Widow had empty vessels the oyle did still run so as long as there is an empty vessel in thy heart the oyle of grace shall flow in unto thee The fourth Direction Take heed that thou dost not embrace the Doctrines of free will and falling away from grace some of the Familists of the City have been great sticklers to uphold these points and to revive Arminian Tenets among Professors before they did arrive to the top and height of Familisme That man will not stand long who hath no strength but his owne legs to uphold him Neither will that man stand long for Christ who stands more by the strength of his owne will then by the power of Gods grace Adam standing in his owne strength lost his happinesse when he was wise and righteous and canst thou maintaine thy selfe in an happy condition by thine owne strength when thou art unrighteous True Saints are kept by the power of God through Faith unto salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth a keeping of any thing as by a Guard Gods grace is a guard by which he doth keepe all his in the way of salvation so that it is impossible they should fall away from his grace It is no wonder then if they fall way from grace to Familisme who doe maintaine that Saints may fall away from grace The fift Direction Be not loose or licentious in life or neglective of Sanctification under the profession of the Doctrines of Free-grace and Justification Many of the professed Familists which we meet with have been loose Professors of the Doctrine of Grace The Libertine doth live next dore to the Familist and Libertinisme is the broad road and high-way or beaten-path to Familisme Lastly take heed of vaine janglings and disputings in matters of Religion Religion is more in practise then Controversies or speculation Be more conscientious to practise what thou knowest then curious in disputing about things that thou knowest not And let thine eare be rather open to those that will instruct thee then to those that will dispute with thee The Disputes and Controversies of the times have made many Atheists and Familists in these times Origen speaking of these words in the 21. Exod. 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child so that her fruit depart from her c. doth thus allegorize them The woman with child saith he are weake Christians who are with child and ready to bring forth truth The men that strive are Professors that with bitternesse and violence doe contend for their opinions and while they strive in heat and bitternesse for their opinions the Christian miscarries and doth not bring forth truth How many who did seeme to have Christ almost formed in them have miscarried and fallen to Familisme by the strivings and contentions of Professors that thou mayst therefore learne wisdome by their folly and stand more stedfastly by their fall treasure up the truths which have been delivered and imprint them upon your memories and because reasons precepts exhortations and Rules doe little advantage us to preserve us in the Profession of the Truth without the power of him who is truth looke unto him to preserve in the Faith of your union with himselfe and his Father in the Spirit and to ascertaine you of your resurrections as part of his body and to enable you as his members to glorifie him and his Father in the Spirit for evermore Amen The great Joy of Saints in the great Day of the Resurrection SERMON III. Preach'd on a Thanks-giving DAY ISAIAH 26.19 Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust for thy dew is as the dew of herbs and the Earth shall cast forth her dead I Have shewed unto you that these words are a present comfort or cordiall given by God unto his people for the refreshment of their languishing spirits and sad hearts in the midst of their afflictions And have proved that the bodies of the Saints shall arise and that they shall arise as the body of the Lord Jesus He is their head they shall rise as his menbers He dyed to bring his people to a sprituall onenesse with himselfe and his Father They are his possession and inheritance And as a body may properly be called the body of that soule which doth informe it so Christ shall be the spirituall forme and soule to those that shal be raised at the great day of the generall resurrection By these and other spirituall considerations I did evidence this truth that the bodies of the Saints shall he raised as the dead bodie of their blessed Siviour My dead body shall they rise I shall now by the Assistance of Gods grace briefly open unto you the words that follow in the Text and make choyse of one proposition from them which may heighten your spirituall joy this day upon which I shall enlarge my selfe and so shall commend you and what I shall deliver to you to the blessing of the Almighty The next word which doth present it selfe to us in the Text is this Awake which doth afford us this observation that Death is but a sleep It is night for a time with the Saints while they sleep in their graves but they shall awake at the morning of the resurrection The grave is a bed of rest perfumed and made sweet to all Saints by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ who hath taken away whatsoever is bitter and unpleasant in it It is no longer a curse to the Saints but rather a part of their happinesse Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Rev. 14.4.13 As the Psalmist speakes Psal 17. When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse that is at the great day of the resurrection after I have had a long sleep in the dust when the night is past and the day of the resurrection shall shine I shall awake and then I shall be satisfied with thy likenesse Isa 57.2
The Prophet hath an expression that runnes this way speaking of righteous and mercifull men saith he they shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds And when Stephen was stoned to death the Holy Ghost telleth us that he fell asleep Act. 7.60 And the Primitive Christians called the places where they buried their dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sleeping places The Earth to every Saint is but a sleeping place Jesus Christ shall come downe from Heaven with a shout and with the voyce of the Arch-angel and with the Trump of God And this great Trumpet being blown the dead in Christ shall awake and rise He that dyeth in Christ and is one of his dead men doth not dye but sleep And at the resurrection shal in a moment awake out of his sleep When the Father Word and Spirit did make the Fabrick of the world all things were speedily and suddenly made for the making of any thing there was but verbum factum the word spoken and presently the thing was made Let there be Light and there was light let there be a firmament and there was a firmament so when the Lord Jesus Christ shall speake the word and bid us awake in a moment in the twinckling of an eye those that are dead in the Lord shall awake out of the sleep of death And here by the way let me give you another observation You see at the great day that the dead that lye in the dust shall be raised by the command of Christ who shall bid them come out of the dust Now as no rational man would conclude from this place that the dead who it may be have their dust lying in severall places in every part of the world a portion of their dust have any power to raise themselves though they are bid to awake even so when God speaking to souleâ— that heare the word preached doth command them to believe repent live holily and rejoyce we cannot conclude that there is any power strength and ability in the creature to doe what they are commanded to doe no more then the dead can awake of themselves though Christ commands them to awake As when Christ did bid Lazarus come forth of the grave he did presently come forth though he had not any power in himselfe to come forth but that power that bid him come forth enabled him to come forth so though Christ exhort us in the Gospel to believe and to doe good duties we have no power in our selves to doe good duties but that power that bids us doe good duties must inable us to doe them or else we are never able to doe them which moved Augustine to pray thus Da domine quod jubes jube quod vis give Lord what thou commandest and command what thou wilt Againe in the next place take notice that those who shall be raised are called the inhabitants of the dust yee that dwell in the dust the dust for a time is a habitation for the Saints in Eccles 12.5 It is said Man shall goe to his long home The grave is a home or house for a time which may assure us of the resurrection of the same bodies which are entrusted to the dust that which dwelleth in the dust and no other thing in stead of it must be be raised out of the dust Thirdly here is a reason laid downe in the next verse to assure us of our resurrection Thy dew is as the dew of Herbes The Lord Jesus in the power of his Spirit shall be as a heavenly dew upon the dead bodies and dust of the Saints to raise them up and quicken them to a new life Christ in the power of his Spirit may be compared to dew for three reasons first because as the dew comming downe upon the earth the earth bringeth forth grasse without the help and labour of man Mich. 5.7 so without the labour and strength of the creature the Lord Jesus the dew of Heaven coming down upon the dust and ashes of the Saints shall quicken them to a life and make them flourish after they have layen rotting and moldering in the grave Secondly as the dew doth come down speedily and suddenly upon the earth as you may gather from that expression of Hushaiâ— in that speech of his to Absalom concerning David 2 Sam. 17.12 We will come upon him in some place where he shall be found and light or him as the dew falleth upon the ground As the dew falls suddenly and unexpectedly so wâ—â— will surprise David So the Lord Jesus will come in the twinkling of an eye suddenly upon the bodies of the Saints Therefore hâ—â— compares his comming to the comming of a thiefe in the night and to lightning which we know is darted through the middest of Heaven with great volubilitie and swiftnesse In the third place Christ shall be as dew because as dew doth make the herbs on which it falls to be fruitfull and to waxe green and flourish after they have seemed to be dead So the Lord Jesus Christ shall quicken the dead carkasses of his Saints and put a life into their dust Thus Moses the holy servant of God speaking of his Doctrine in reference to the flourishing of it Deut. 32.2 saith that his Doctrine shall drop as the raine and his speech shall distill as the dew as the small raine upon the tender herb and as the showers upon the grasse As the dew of Heaven makes the things upon which it falls fruitfull and fertile so the Lord Jesus Christ falling downe upon the dust and ashes upon the rotten bones putrifyed carcasses and skuls of the Saints shall cause them to flourish and to spring up and they shall have a new life put into them by his â—omming downe upon them Fourthly the Prophet saith that the â—arth shall cast out her dead from whence we may strongly conclude the resurrection â—f the same body which is cast into the earth That body which was dead and buried iâ— the earth shall be raised out of the earth But I have sufficiently spoken of these points iâ— my former discourses So that if I should speal from all these particulars I should rather repeat what I have said then present you with new matter The thing therefore that I shall open unto you to day for the furtherance of your joy shall be this to shew you what great joy there shall be at the resurrection of the dead which is held forth in these words Awake and sing I doe make bold to finish this subject her among you this day because I know noâ— whether I shall have an opportunity to speak to you againe from these words And seeing I have handled the two former parts in this place I had a desire to finish my discourse from this Text among you Another reason was because I did find some Familisticall spirits here that were troubled with what I delivered being enemies to that Christ who came in the flesh and dyed
firmament is a great glory to our eyes so there shall be a Celestiall Star-like glory upon the bodies of the Saints they shall not be grosse lumpish and heavie bodies as they are now but spirituall bodies as swift as a Seraphim The bodie is now a clog and weight to the soule it is ergastulum animae as the Platonists say it keepeth the spirit under and presseth it down with the weight of it but then the bodie shall be a spirituall body so that in this body the Saints shall ascend into the aire as in a Charriot of triumph and glory to meet the Lord Jesus As Elias was carried up to Heaven so shall the Saints in these bodies of theirs rife in glorie to meet the Lord Jesus Christ in the ayre Now they are subject to diseases then they shall be freed from all diseases now they are subject to death then death shall be swallowed up and every Saint in his owne person shall appeare as a Conquerour of death and of the grave every Saint shall have this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this song of triumph in his mouth O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law but thanks he unto God who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ Our bodies then shall be incorruptible wholly like the body of Christ therefore the Apostle saith that the bodie it must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. last conformable in likenesse to the glorious bodie of the Lord Jesus Christ himselfe you see what perfection there shall be in the bodies of the Saints though they be vile now they shall be honourable and glorious then though they be now as pieces of earth they shall be then more bright then the Starres of Heaven or the Sunne in the firmament This glorie God will put upon the bodies of the Saints and being thus made happy in their bodies and spirits when they shall see themselvs in this happy condition filled in their bodies and spirits with the glory of God it cannot but cause great joy If a man lye sick a long while and have a weake distempered crazie bodie when he is restored he rejoyceth that he hath health and strength and is freed from the weaknesse that was upon him shall not there be great joy then when the Saints shall rise when they that had weake crazie and vile mortall bodies here shall see themselves in bodies of glory in bodies as glorious as the body of the Lord Jesus Againe there will be great cause of joy to these Saints when they shall be thus united in their bodies and soules and shall meet the Lord Jesus Christ because they shall have great dignitie put upon their persons they shall bee raised as no meane persons As wicked ungodly and unbelieving men shall be raised as slaves and vassals and be brought forth in chaines and fetters before the dreadfull tribunall of the Lord Jesus Christ so the Saints shall all come forth a◠Kings every one of them shall be dignified with the glorie and Majestie of a King This is that that is spoken of in the Revelation where it is said that Christ hath made 〈◊〉 Kings and Priests and wee shall reigne upon earth We shall reigne in our bodies As a◠Ambassadour said of the Senate of Rome that he apprehended that there were as many Kings as Senators in the Senate-house Quo◠Senatores tot Reges So there shall be as many Kings as Saints at the resurrection and every one shall have Kingly glory and Majesty every one together with the Lord Jesus reigning as a King upon the earth Rev. 5.10 Therefore if men rejoyce in the enjoyment of earthly Kingdomes and Crowne◠which are lined with cares that a King professed that if men knew the troubles which attended upon a Crowne no man would stoop to take it up what joy will there be when wee shall reigne as spirituall and heavenly Kings with the Lord Jesus Againe there will be great joy because all things that may occasion any sorrow or sadnesse shall be quite removed away all teares must then be wiped from the eyes of all the Saints Rev. 7.17 there must be no more sighing no more griefe no more sorrow All earthly infirmities and weaknesses which are accompanied with griefe and paine shall be removed for our bodies shall be Celestiall bodies 1 Cor. 15.40 raised up in incorruption 1 Cor. 15.42 And there shall be no more blindnesse or blacknesse upon our spirits Here so long as wee carrie sinne about us though we know it is pardoned though we know it shall be remembred no more Heb. 8.12 though we know in point of Justification that it may be sought for and cannot be found Jer. 50.20 yet so long as wee feele it opposing the Spirit of glory and holinesse in us by the filthy nature of it so long it will occasion sorrow griefe and some trouble to the soule but at the generall resurrection as sinne is now compleatly taken away in our Justification to those that believe in the Lord Jesus such being those blessed ones spoken of in the 32. Psal whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sinnes are covered So then sinne shall be wholly taken away to our owne sense feeling and apprehension by the Spirit of Sanctification There shall be no corner then in the soule spirit or body for any lust or uncleannesse and consequently no place for sorrow Sinne is like the evill spirit that possessed Saul that made him melancholy and sad and afflicted him in his spirit But when the Lord Jesus Christ shall appeare then all sinne shall be done away to our sense and feeling as it is done away now in our Justification Then we shall be as perfectly sanctified throughout both in bodie and spirit as wee are now perfectly justified Now the life that wee live in the flesh is by Faith in the Sonne of God by seeing how compleatly we are justified from sinnes lusts corruptions those enemies to the Lord Jesus Christ that wee carrie in our bosomes but then wee shall be as perfect in respect of the life of sanctification as wee are now perfect and compleat in respect of our Justification So that the cause of sorrow and trouble shall quite be taken away There shall be no place then left for Evangelicall sorrow the sorrow that now is wrought in the Saints is Evangelicall not Legall but the joy and glory which doth remaine for the Saints hereafter shall be so great that there shall be no place then left for Evangelicall griefe for any sinne that we have committed And as sin shall not then bring any sorrow upon us so neither shall the Devill who is the troubler of the Israel of God be able to afflict us Here he is permitted to afflict us as he did Job for the tryall of our Faith and patience and though for the present when we looke on Christ
awake and sing and be happie in a more full enjoyment of God and this is the desire of those that are truly faithfull When Christ saith He will come and appeare What doe the Saints answer Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly Rev. 22.2 If a naturall carnall man should speake forth that which lies at the bottome of his heart when Christ saith He will come he would say O Lord never come I am not conformed to thine Image I am not made a new creature by hearing of thy Gospel O let me never see the face of Christ But the man that knows the love of God and truly understands the everlasting Gospel when he heares Christ say I come presently there is this eccho by which he answereth the Lord Christ in his owne Spirit Even so come Lord Jesus come quickly When the Judges are in their circuits malefactors tremble and quake but an innocent man that hath a good cause expects and desires to have it heard and is glad that they are come so wicked and ungodly men who are theeves robbers murtherers and malefactors guiltie of all sinnes and lie in imprisoned shackled in their own consciences when they heare that the Lord Jesus shall rid his circuit and appeare as a Judge unless◠they have seared consciences they cannot but tremble and quake But the other when Christ shall be as a Judge to the wicked he shall be as a Saviour to them therefore they cannot but desire the coming and appearing of the Lord. Wherefore let us desire the appearing of the Lord Jesus let us not live as the men of the world that are afraid and tremble quake when they heare of a Judgement day Christ coming to judge every man according to his workes but let us continue in the assurance of Gods grace beleeving that our sinnes are pardoned Let not the coming of Christ be our feare but our desire let us desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to wait as one doth upon one that he would speake with for the Sonne who shall deliver us from the wrath to come and shall put a Crowne of glory on our heads which he hath promised to all those that love him Againe that I may draw to a conclusion let this sweeten all miseries troubles and afflictions that we shall meet with here below If wee meet with persecution with imprisonment with hatred in the world with reproaches from men let this be sufficient to sweeten all Consider the day is coming it is at hand Christ is at the dore Jam. 5.10 and you shall awake and sing while these that now rejoyce shall howle and lament Beloved Thinke it not strange concerning the fiery triall which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you But rejoyce in as much as yee are partakers of Christs sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed yee may be glad also with exceeding joy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. God leads his people to happinesse by straits Heaven is a Palace of glory a spacious place but the way to it is narrow the gate is straite by which wee must enter in unto it Let the joyes provided for us at the end of our journey sweeten unto us the troubles and difficulties of the way God intended to make Job a great man but before God brings him to his full height of greatnesse God first brings him to the dunghill So God will bring us first to the dunghill he will lay us in the dust and then make us such glorious creatures as you have heard the Saints shall be at the resurrection Joseph was to be ruler in Aegypt but first he must be laid in prison so God layes his first in prison he brings them to a low condition to be nothing in the world and afterward layes them in the prison of the grave and then hee raiseth them to be Kings Priests Rulers and Judges with the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore let this meditation of the resurrection sweeten trouble and persume the grave unto us And let it likewise sweeten all the comforts that wee enjoy here by looking upon them as pledges of the joy which wee shall have at the resurrection Let it sweeten the mercies of this day which will have little relish in them without this Alas what is it to looke on Nationall deliverances mercies victories and conquests over our enemies unlesse you see your happinesse in the Lord Jesus What is it if the Land have peace if thou hast not peace of conscience by beleeving What is it if the enemies of thy body of the State and Kingdome be wholly routed and put under the feete of those that desire to stand for the liberties of the Subject if in the meane while thou be a vassall and a slave to the Prince of darknesse What is it for thee to be free from corporall enemies and yet to be under the power and led captive by the enemy of thy soule What is it if thou be a freeman in thy body and a slave in thy soule to all lusts filthinesse and ungodlinesse What is it to keepe such a day as this and to rejoyce in a carnall way for outward mercies when thou doest not spiritually rejoyce in the first place that God hath freed thee from the enemies of thy eternall salvation Rejoyce not onely as a Heathen may for nationall blessings but rejoyce as a Christian seeing God reconciled to thee in the Sonne of his love let the joy of the resurrection both sweeten thy troubles and adde spirituall fewell to the flame of thy joy for temporall mercies Truly wee then rejoyce in temporall things and in creature-comforts and mercies aright when we rejoyce in them in a spirituall way when wee see all sweetened to us in the Lord Jesus Therefore improve to the full this doctrine for the heightening of your joyes this day Let there not be an evill heart of unbeliefe in any to keepe him from rejoycing Though there were great plentie of Corne in Samaria yet the Lord that would not beleeve what the Prophet said though he saw it he did not taste of it 2 Kings 7.19 I tell you of great plentie and happinesse I have set it before your eyes as God hath enabled me but unlesse you beleeve you shall never taste of this heavenly Manna you shall never drinke of these rivers of pleasure Here is a cup of salvation you that have the lips of faith drinke and your soules shall be refreshed and comforted in the enjoyment of it but if you lie in unbeliefe you may want the joy and comfort that you might have of it here and you may want the enjoyment of it to all eternitie Therefore beleeve what hath been spoken what God hath promised and rejoyce in it here being confident that thou shalt enjoy what God hath promised And what thou hast in spe in hope here thou shalt hereafter have in re in full fruition serving God chearfully joyfully and comfortably in the assurance of
the words untill I came and mine eyes had seene it and behold the halfe was not told me thy wisdome and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard Fame commonly exceeds the thing which is reported but Solomons glory exceeded the fame of it So we heare of great and glorious things which shall be at the resurrection the joy and glorie that the Saints shall have and we take paines to illustrate it by earthly joyes and spirituall comfort which is the best thing to shadow it But all that can be said is far short of setting forth to the full the glorie and joy of it And therefore seeing that the thing farre exceeds the discourse and apprehension of any man seeing words cannot set forth what glorie and joy this is I will not lay downe any more considerations to shadow forth to you this joy which I professe I want language fully to expresse Wherefore give me leave to make a little use and I shall put a period for the present of speaking of this joy which is unspeakable In the first place seeing there will be great joy at the resurrection therefore wee should rejoice in it before-hand God will not faile in giving you of any thing that he hath promised you will find the joy a hundred thousand times greater then any man on earth is able to expresse it to you As God when he promised the people of Israel the Land of Canaan that flowed with milk and honey he did not faile of any thing he had promised to them all came to passe as you have the storie Joh. 21.45 So God hath promised a heavenly Canaan of glorie an everlasting Kingdome a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.10 Palaces that shall stand fast and firme upon their basis and foundation to the dayes of Eternitie He hath promised to put Scepters into our hands Crowns of glory upon our heads And he that hath promised these things to his people will not faile it performance he is just and faithfull he iâ— not like man he cannot lie he cannot repent of the good he intends to doe for his people Therefore you that are his people rejyocein your portion and inheritance A the young Ward in his non-age or minority when little iâ— allowed him for the present doth rejoyce in foreseeing what large possessions he shall be master of for the future when the time of his Wardship shall be expired So let us who are the Heires of Heaven happinesse and glorie here though wee shall not have the fruition of it untill hereafter rejoyce here as though wee were in the full enjoyment and possession of it Suffer not any wicked unbelieving spirits to bereave you of your joy and comfort by leading you into errour concerning the resurrection O what enemies are these people to the spirituall joy of Gods people that goe about to sow this seed of false Doctrine among them by perswading them that there shall be no resurrection of the bodie but onely a spirituall resurrection here How doe these with specious shewes of truth bereave people of that spirituall joy comfort and contentment that they might take in believing the Doctrine of the resurrection Beloved you meet with many Arguments against the resurrection that baffle carnall reason I professe that if I should follow carnall reason I know there are such strong Arguments against the resurrection that I should easily yeild the bucklers and contend no more for the point but conclude that there would be no resurrection of the bodie but when I looke upon the power of him that hath promised when I consider that God hath said it it answers all objections of carnall reason Therefore shew your selves children of faithfull Abraham stagger not at this promise he believed above hope and against hope It is above hope and against the hope of naturall reason that this bodie should be raised yet give God the glory of his power God hath said that this bodie shall rise and rise as the body of his Sonne that we shall awake and sing and the Earth shall cast forth her dead Consider a authorem tolle dubitationem Ter. Consider the power of the agent and all doubting will be removed He that hath promised it is power love and faithfulnesse he will doe what he hath promised for his people what they expect and beyond their thoughts desires and expectations therefore 1 Thess 4. ult Comfort your selves with these words There is no Doctrine that brings so much spirituall consolation to the soule as this it is the spring of spirituall joy in the hearts of the Saints Take away the Doctrine of the resurrection of bodies and take away all spirituall joy and comfort And then look no longer upon the Saints as glorious and happie creatures but as the most miserable abjects that you behold upon the face of the earth If there be no resurrection of the dead saith the Apostle We are of al men most miserable Saints professe themselvs the most happie and joyfull people in the world and rejoyce in their portion and blesse themselves in their happinesse and inheritance But take this Doctrine away let it be granted that there shall be no resurrection let it bee granted that Christ is not risen in his humane bodie and that the Saints shall not rise in their humane bodies as Christ did and be happie in their humane bodies it will damp all the joy of the Saints presently it will quench the Spirit of joy in the people of God For there can be no cause of rejoycing to the Saints but in this assurance that their sinnes are pardoned that they are in Covenant with God that God having loved them from eternitie will love them to eternitie and preserve them in happinesse with himselfe Therefore you that truly believe this Doctrine rejoyce in it and suffer not the scoffing enemies of this Doctrine to draw you from it and so from the comfort that will flow into your hearts while you believe it Take heed lest there be in any of you a heart of unbeliefe to depart from the living God And iâ— there be any poore weak Christians here that have been misled by these miscreants and ungodly men let them looke up to God beholding his power and faithfulnesse in their Redeemer that they may see all those objections of carnall reason by which they have been deluded and misled easily answered that so their former joy and consolation may returne to them by believing the Doctrine and joy of the resurrection And let me adde this also that as this is a Doctrine of great joy so it is a Doctrine that obligeth us to great holinesse The Doctrine of Christ in every part and branch of it leads to holinesse If thou meet with any tenent or opinion that furthereth not holinesse looke on that opinion as an errour for whatsoever is the truth of the Lord it is a truth that leads us to holinesse of life and conversation
So doth this Doctrine of the resurrection for if wee consider seriously that the bodie shall be raised and we shall be happie at the resurrection in enjoying of God will not this raise up the spirit of a man to thankfulnesse and where there is true thankfulnesse will not that thankfulnesse be legible in obedience Therefore seeing God intends to glorifie thee with himselfe in bodie and in spirit since thou shalt be ever happie with him shouldest thou not glorifie this God while thou art here in thy life and conversation As the Apostle saith 2 Pet. 3.13 14. We according to his promise looke for new Heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse What is the use of this Wherefore beloved seeing ye looke for such things be diligent that â—e may be found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse A true assurance of salvation given by the Spirit of grace doth not make us negligent in the performance of good duties it doth not make us loose and licentious in our lives but that assurance that is a right assurance which is wrought in us by the Spirit of grace will as well teach us to be holy as assure our hearts that we shall be happy Lucian speaking scoffingly of the zeale of Christians and their readinesse to help one another doth give this as the reason of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These miserable men saith he believe that in bodie and soule they shall be immortall The scoffing Atheist did speake truth in this and found out the true â—ause of the zeale which was in primitive Christians There can be no holinesse without a perswasion of happinesse for men after this life If there be no resurrection saith Paul Let us eat and drinke 1 Cor. 15. But when a man is perswaded of this He wil purifie himselfe as Christ is pure 1 Joh. 3.3 Againe this shewes the different condition between a Saint and a sinner Looke upon Saints and sinners eye them onely with carnall eye in respect of the present condition and it may be you shall apprehend a sinner in a better condition then a Saint Gâ—â— oft-times gives temporall blessings to them which he denies to his owne people they aâ— the worlds happie creatures But looke oâ— Saints in this condition and then you shaâ— see a vast difference between the condition of a believer and of a man that is an enemâ— to Christ the one shall awake and sing 〈◊〉 shall awake at the resurrection to be fillâ— with joy to be crowned as a King with in mortall glorie The other shall awake an houle As Agag when he thought and wâ— perswaded that the bitternesse of death wâ— past was hewen in pieces so Epicures anâ— prophane men that sing away sorrow feaâ— of Hell and damnation spending their dayes mirth in a moment they goe downe to the gravâ— Job 21.13 and are raised from thence 〈◊〉 suffer torments to eternitie But the Sainâ— sleeping for a while in the grave are raised felicitie This is elegantly set forth in the book of Wisdome 5. Chap. We fooles thought their lives madnesse and their end without honour and behold they are become the children of God speaking of the Saints vers 6. And in the 8. v. speaking of themselves they doe thus complaine What hath our pride profited us what hath our pomp and riches brought unto us The time will come that wicked men shall wish that they had never been else that some mountaine would be so propitious as to fall on them that they might never come into the presence of God and his Sonne Jesus Christ that shall sit upon the Throne O what a dolefull noyse will it make in the eares of wicked and ungodly men when they shall be called forth to the resurrection of Damnation while the Saints shall be bid to awake to the resurrection of life Who would bee envious at wicked men that grow rich and prosper and flourish in the world that get great estates and leave their estates and houses to their heires if they did but consider that at the resurrection they shall be enforced to take hell as part of their purchase and shall be drawne and dragged as slaves to eternall torments I remember what the Heathen said It is a miserable thing for a man to have been happie Fuisse faelicem miserrimum est Boeth It grieves a man when he comes to povertie to remember that he was once rich when a man is in a disgracefull condition to thinke with himselfe I was honourable this is double misery Remember saith Abraham to the rich man that thou in thy life time didst enjoy riches and poore Lazarus lying at thy gate was denied the crummes falling from thy Table This was the aggravation of the rich mans misery to be put in minde that he had been happy and rich upon the earth Consider this and you shall plainly see that rich and great men without Christ though they live happily to the eye of the world yet they are in a miserable condition and the meanest Sainâ— is in a farre better condition then they Thâ—â— wicked rich men shall awake to howling and screeching to misery and torment eternall the poore Saint to joy rejoycing and happâ—nesse for evermore Wicked men are like the Persians slave whâ— for a day was feasted and had all things provided to delight him that they used to provide for the Emperour and at night he wâ— put to death So wicked men God feaâ— them as slaves here they have furnished tablâ— and servants children and musicke bâ— poore wretches night comes upon them aâ— death takes off their heads and they are miserable to eternitie Therefore James saith They are nourished as against the day of slaughter God doth but fat them as men use to fat beasts for sacrifice or slaughter so God suffers them to swim in pleasures to live in vanities to get riches to grow fat in the earth but it is to destroy them they are fatted for the day of damnation In this glasse or mirrour see the difference between Saints and sinners Then in the next place seeing it is thus that the people of God shall be made partakers of such happinesse at the resurrection let me exhort you to waite in expectation and desire of it A Ward that knows that when he shall live beyond the dayes of his wardship he shall have his Lands and possessions in his own hands he desires that the time may be expired that he may have all in his own hands that now is in the hands of his Guardian who it may be keepes him to a short allowance though he be an heire to great possessions Wee are Wards as yee heard even now and wee are under a guardian though wee are rich in reversion happinesse and heaven and all things being â—urs yet God keepes us low here Let us desire that the time of our wardship may be exâ—ired that wee may come to that happinesse which he hath promised that wee may