is first impressed on the mind hence flowes out pleasant obedience and full of love hence all the affections and the whol body with its members learn to give a willing obedience and submit unto God whereas before they resisted him being under the standerd of Satan This Obedience tho imperfect yet hath a certain if I may so say imperfect perfection It s universal three manner of wayes 1. in the subject 2. In the Object 3. In the duration the whole man subjected to the whole Law and that constantly and perseveringly The first universality is the cause of the other because it s not in the tongue alone or in the hand c. but has its root in the heart therefore doth not wither as the grasse or flower lying on the superfice of the earth but it flourishes because rooted and therefore it embraces the whole Law because it arises from a reverence it has for the Lawgiver himself Reverence I say but tempered with Love hence it accounts no Law nor command little or of small value which is from God because he is great and highly esteemed by the pious heart No command hard tho contrary to the flesh because all things are easie to Love there is the same authority in all as St. Iames divinely argues And this Authority is the golden chain of all the commandments which if broke in any link all falls a pieces That this three fold perfection of obedience is not a picture drawn by fancy is evident in David Psal. 119. where he subjects himself to the whole Law His feet v. 105. his mouth v. 13. his heart v. 11. the whole tenor of his life v. 24. He subjects himself to the whole law v. 6. and he professes his constancy therein in v. 16. and 33. teach me the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end According to the foreknowledge of God the Father The exactest knowledge of things is to know them in their causes it is then an excellent thing and worthy of their endeavours that are most desirous of knowledge to know the best things in their highest Causes and the happiest way of this knowledge is to possess those things and to know them in Experience to such the Apostle here speaks and sets before them the excellency of their spiritual condition and leads them to the causes of it Their Estate is that they are sanctified and justified the nearest cause of both these is Iesus Christ he is made unto them both Righteousness and Sanctification the sprinkling of his blood purifies them from guiltines and quickens them to obedience Now followes to consider the appropriateing or applying Cause the Holy and holy making or sanctifying Spirit the Author of their selecting from the world and effectual calling unto grace The source of all the appointing or decreeing Cause is God the Father for though they all work Equally in all yet in order of working we are taught thus to distinguish and particularly to ascribe the first work of Eternal Election to the first Person of the blessed Trinity In or through Sanctification for to render it Elect to the sanctification is strained so then I conceive this Election is their Effectual Calling which is by the working of the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 26.27.28 where Vocation and Election are used in the same sense Ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise after the flesh c. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to condemn the wise 't is the first act of the decree of Election the beginning of its performance in these that are Elected and 't is in it self a real seperating of men from the profane and miserable Condition of the world and an appropriating and consecrating of a man unto God and therefore both in regard of its relation to Election and in regard of its own nature it well bears that name Rom. 8.28.30 Act. 2.47 13.48 Ioh. 15.19 Sanctification in a narrower sense as distinguished fâ—om Iustification signifieth the inherent holiness of a Christian or his Inclinement and Innablement to obedience mentioned in this verse but 't is here more large and so extends with the whole work of Renovation and is the severing and seperating of men to God by his holy Spirit drawing them unto him and so it comprehends Justification as here and the first working of faith by which the soul is justified through its apprehending and applying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of the spirit The Word calls men externally and by that Eternal calling prevails with many to an External receiving and professing of Religion but if it be left alone it goes no further it is indeed the means of sanctification and effectual calling Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth But this is doth when the spirit that speaks in the Word works in the heart and causes it to hear and obey The Spirit or Soul of a man is the chief and first subject of this work and 't is but slight false work that begins not there but the Spirit here is rather to be taken for the Spirit of God the Efficient then the Spirit of man the Subject of this sanctification And therefore our Saviour in that place prayes to the Father that he would sanctifie his own by that truth and this he doth by the concurrence of his Spirit with that word of truth which is the life and vigour of it and makes it prove the power of God unto salvation to them that believe 't is a fit means in it self but 't is then a prevailing meanes when the Spirit of God brings it in to the heart 't is a Sword and sharper then a two edged Sword fit to divide yea even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit But this it doth not without it be in the Spirits hand and he applyes it to this cutting and dividing The word calls but the Spirit Drawes not sever'd from that word but working in it and by it 'T is a very difficult work to draw a Soul out of the hands and strong chains of Satan and out of the pleasing Entanglements of the world and out of its own natural perversness to yield up it self unto God to deny it self and live to him and in so doing to run against the main stream and the current of the ungodly world without and Corruption within The strongest Rhetorick the most moving and persuasive way of discourse is all too weak the tongue of Men and Angels cannot prevail with the soul to free it self and shake off all that deteins it although it be convinced of the truth of those things that are represented to it yet still it can and will hold out against it and say non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris The hand of Man is too weak to pluck any soul out of the croud of the world and set it in amongst the select number of Believers Only the Father of Spirits hath absolute command of Spirits viz. the Souls of Men
upright course of life and silent innocency as a wind it breaks the waves into foam that Roar about it As free This the Apostle addes lest any should so far mistake the Nature of their Christian Liberty as to dream of an exemption from obedience either to God or to Men for his sake and according to his appointment Their freedom he grants but would have them understand aright what it is I cannot here insist at large on the Spiritual freedom of Christâ—ans nor is it here needful being mention'd onely for the clearing of it in this point but free they are and they only that are partakers of this liberty If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed the restare slaves to Satan and the World and their own lusts as the Israelites in Egypt working in the clay under hard taskmasters Much discourse and much Ink hath been spilt upon the debate of free will but truly all the liberty it hath till the Son and his Spirit free it is that miserable freedom the Apostle speaks of Rom. 6.20 While ye were servants to sin ye were free from righteousness And as we are naturally subject to the vile drudgâ—ry of sin so we are condemn'd to the proper wages of sin which the Apostle there tells us is death according to the just sentence of the Law But our Lord Christ was anointed for this purpose to set us free both to work and to publish liberty to proclaim liberty to Captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound having pay'd our compleat ransome he sends his word as the message and his Spirit to perform it effectually to set us free to let us know it and to bring us out of prison He was bound and scourg'd as a slave or Malefactor to purchase us this liberty therefore ought it be our special care first to have part in it and then to be like it and stand fast in it in all points But that we deceive not our selves as too many do that have no portion in this liberty we ought to know that 't is not to inordinate walking and licentiousness as our liberty that we are call'd But from them as our thraldome not called from Obedience but to it Therefore beware that you shuffle in nothing under this specious name of Liberty that belongs not to it make it not a Cloak of maliciousness 't is too precious a garment for so base an use Liberty is indeed Christ's livery that he gives to all his followers But the sutable living of it is not wickedness and disobedience of any kind but Obedience and Holiness you are called to be the servants of God and that is your dignity and your Liberty The Apostles of this Gospel of Liberty gloried in this title the servants of Iesus Christ David before that Psalm of praise for his victories and exaltations being now settled on his throne prefixes that as more honour than all these a Psalm of David the Servant of the Lord. To Kings and Subjects and all 't is only happiness to be his Subjects 't is the glory of the Angels to be his ministring Spirits The more we attain unto the faculty of serving him cheerfully and diligently the more still we find of this Spiritual Liberty and have the more joy in it As it is the most honourable it is likewise the most comfortable and most gainful service and they that once know it will never change it for any other in the world Oh that we could live as his Servants imploying all our industry to do him service in the condition and place wherein he hath set us whatsoever it is and as faithful Servants more careful of his affairs than of our own accounting it our maine busines to seek the advancement of his glory Happy is the the servant whom the Master when he cometh shall find so doing Verse 17. Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King THis is a precious cluster of Divine Precepts the whole face of the Heavens is decored with stars But of different greatness and in some parts they are thicker set then in the rest thus is it likewise in the holy Scriptures and these are the two Books that the Psalmist sets open before us Psa. 19. The Heavens as a choyce piece of the works of God instructing us And the word of God more full and clear then they Here is a constellation of very bright stars near together These words have very briefly and yet not obscur'd by briefness but withall very plainly the Summe of our duty towards God and Men to Men both in general Honour all Men and in special Relations in their Christian or religious relation Love the Brotherhood and a chief civil relation Honour the King And our whole duty to God compris'd under the name of his fear is set in the middle betwixt these as the common Spring of all duty to Men and of all due observance of it and the Soveraigne rule by which it is to be regulated I shall speak of them as they lye in the text we need not labour about the Connexion for in such variety of brief practical directions it hath not such place as in Doctrinal discourses The Apostle having spoke of one particular wherein he would have his brethern to clear and commend their Christian profession now accumulates these directions as most necessary and after goes on to particular duties of Servants c. But first observe in general how plain and easy and how few these things are that are the rule of our life no dark sentences to puzle the understanding nor large discouses and long periods to burden the memory they are all plain There is nothing wreathed nor distorted in them as wisdom speaks of her instructions Prov. 8. And this gives check to a double folly amongst Men contrary the one to the other but both agreeing in mistaking and wronging the word of God The one is of those that despise the word and that Doctrine and Preaching that is conform to it for its plainess and simplicity These certainly doe not take the true end for which the word is design'd that it is the Law of our life and it is mainely requisite in Lawes that they be both brief and clear that it is our guide and light to happiness and if that which ought to be our Light be darkness how great will that darkness be It is true but I am not now to insist on this piont that there be dark and deep passages in Scripture for the exercise yea for the humbling yea for the amazing and astonishing of the sharpest-sighted readers But this argues much the pride and vanity of Mens minds when they busy themselves only in those and throw aside altogether the most necessary which are therefore the easiest and plainest truths in it as in nature these commodities that are of greatest necessity God hath made commonest and easiest to be had so in Religion such as
to work on them as he pleaseth and where he will This powerful this sanctifying Spirit knowes no Resistance works sweetly and yet strongly it can come in to the heart whereas all other speakers are forc'd to stand without That still voice within perswades more then all the lowd crying without as he that is within the house though he speak low is better heard and understood then he that shouts without doors When the Lord himself speaks by this his spirit to a Man selecting and calling him out of the lost world he can no more disobey then Abraham did when the Lord spoke to him after an extraordinary manner to depart from his own Country and Kindred Gen. 12.4 Abraham departed as the Lord had spoken to him There is a secret but very powerful vertue in a word or look or touch of this spirit upon the soul by which 't is forced not with a harsh but a pleasing violence and cannot chuse but follow it not unlike that of Elija's Mantle upon Elisha 1 Kin. 19.19 How easily did the Disciples forsake their callings and dwellings to follow Christ. The spirit of God drawes a Man out of the world by a sanctfied Light sent into his mind discovering to him 1. How base and false the sweetness of sin is that withholds men and amuses them that they return not and how true and sad the bitterness is that will follow upon it 2. Setting before his eyes the free and happy condition the glorious liberty of the Sons of God the riches of their present enjoyment and their far larger and assured hopes for afterwards 3. Making the beauty of Jesus Christ visible to the soul which straight way takes it so that it cannot be stayed from coming to him though its most beloved friends most beloved sins lye in the way and hang about it and cry will you leave us so It will tread upon all to come within the embracements of Jesus Christ and say with St. Paul I was not disobedient to or unperswaded by the heavenly Vision 'T is no wonder that the Godly are by some called singular and precise they are so Singular a few selected ones pickt out by Gods own hand for himself Psal. 4.3 Know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Therefore saith our Saviour the world hates you because I have chosen you out of the world For the world lyes in unholiness and wickedness is buried in it And as living men can have no pleasure amongst the dead neither can these Elected ones amongst the ungodly they walk in the World as warily as a Man or Woman neatly apparel'd would doe amongst a multitude that are all sullied and bemired Endeavour to have this sanctifying spirit in your selves pray much for it for his promise is past to us that he will give this holy spirit to them that ask it and shall we be such fools as to want it for want of asking when we find heavy setters on our souls and much weakness yea aversness to follow the voice of God calling us to his obedience then pray with the Spouse Draw me She cannot go nor stirre without that drawing and yet with it not only goes but runs We will run after thee Think it not enough you hear the word and use the outward Ordinances of God and profess his Name for many are thus called and yet but a few of them are chosen There is but a small part of the world outwardly called in comparison of the rest that is not so and yet the number of true Elect is so small that it gains the number of these that are called the name of many They that are in the visible Church and partake of external vocation are but like a large list of names as in civil elections is usual out of which a small number is chosen to the dignity of true Christians and invested into their priviledge some men in nomination to Offices or employments think it a worse disapointment and disgrace to have been in the list and yet not chosen them if their names had not been mention'd at all certainly 't is a greater unhappines to have been not far from the Kingdom of God as our Saviour speaks and miss of it then still to have remained in the furthest distance to have been at the mouth of the Haven the fair Havens indeed and yet driven back and Shipwrackt your labour is most preposterous you seek to ascertain and make sure things that cannot be made sure and that which is both more worth and may be made surer then them all you will not endeavour to make sure Hearken to the Apostles advice and at length set to this in earnest to make your calling and Election sure make sure this Election as 't is here for that 's the Order your effectual calling sure and that will bring with it assurance of the other the eternal Election and love of God towards you which follows to be considered According to the foreknowledge of God the Father Known unto God are all his works from the beginning saith the Apostle Iames Act 15.18 He sees all things from the beginning of time to the end of it and beyond to all Eternity and from all Eternity he did foresee them but this foreknowledge here is peculiar to the Elect Verâ—a sansus in sacra scriptura connotant affectus as the Rabbins remark so in man Psal. 66. if I see Iniquity and in God Psal. 1. ult Amos 3.2 and in that speech of our Saviour relating it as the terrible doom of Reprobates at the last day Depart c. I know you not I never knew you so St. Paul Rom. 7.15 and Bezâ— observes that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Greeks sometimes taken for deceâ—â—ere judicare thus some speak to cogâ—osce upon a business so then this foreknowledge is no other but that Eternal love of God or decree of Election by which some are appointed unto life and being foreknown or elected to that end they are predestinate to the way to it Rom. 8.29 'T is most vain to Imagine a foresight of faith in men and in the vieu of that as the Condition of Election it self to have chosen them for 1. Nothing at all is futurum or can have that imagined futurition so to speak but as it is and because 't is decreed by God to be and therefore as before the Apostle St. Iames sayes known to God are all his own works therefore because his works in time and his purpose from Eternity 2. 'T is most absurd to give any reason of Divine will without himselfe 3. This easily solves all that difficulty that the Apostle speaks of and yet he never thought of such a solution but runs high for an answer not to satisfie cavilling reason but to silence it and stop its mouth For thus the Apostle Argues Rom. 9.19 20. Thou wilt say then unto me why doth he yet find fault for who hath resisted his will
Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God Who can conceive whence this should be that any man should believe unless it be given him of God and if given him then it was his purpose to give it him and if so then is it evident that he had a purpose to save him and for that end he gives faith not therefore purposes to Save because Man shall believe 4. This seems cross to these Scriptures where they speak of the subordination or rather Coordination of those two as here Foreknown and Elect not because of Obedience or sprinkling or any such thing but to Obedience and sprinkling which is by faith So he predestinated not because he foresaw Men would be conform to Christ but that they might be so as Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and the same order Act. 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church dayly such as should be saved and 13.48 And as many as were ordained to Eternal life believed This Foreknowledge then is his Eternal and Unchangable Love and that thus he Chuseth some and rejecteth others is for that great End to manifest and magnifie his Mercy and Justice but why he appointed this Man for the one and the other for the other made Peter a vessel of this mercy and Iudas of wrath this is even so because it seemed good to him This if it be harsh yet is Apostolick Doctrine Hath not the Potter saith St. Paul power over the same Lump to make one Vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour This deep we must admire and alwayes in considering it close with this O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God Now the Connexion of these we are for our profit to take notice of that effectual Calling is inseparably tyed to this Eternal Foreknowledge or Election on the one side and Salvation on the other These two links of the chain are up in Heaven in Gods own hand but this middle one is let down to earth into the hearts of his Children and they laying hold on it hath sure hold on the other two for no power can sever them and therefore the reading the characters of Gods Image in their own souls those are the counterpain of the golden characters of his Love in which their names are written in the Book of Life Their believing writes their names under the promises of the revealed Book of Life the Scriptures and so ascertains them that the same names are in the secret Book of Life that God hath by himself from Eternity So finding the stream of grace in their hearts tho they see not the Fountain whence it flowes nor the Ocean into which it returns yet they know that it hath its source and shall return to that Ocean which ariseth from their Eternal Election and Salvation and shall empty it selfe into Eternity of happiness Hence much joy ariseth to the Believer this tye indissolvable as the Agents are the Father the Son and the Spirit So Election and Vocation and Sanctification and Iustification and Glory and therefore in all conditions they may from the sence of the working of the Spirit in them look back to that Election and forward to that Salvation but they that remain unholy and dissobedient have as yet no evidence of this Love and therefore cannot without vain presumptions and self delusion Judge thus of themselves that they are within the peculiaâ— Love of God but in this Let the Righteous be glad and let them shout for joy all that are upright in heart 'T is one main point of happiness that he that is happy doth know and judge himselfe to be so this being the peculiar good of a reasonable creature 't is to be enjoyed in a Reasonable way 't is not as the dull resting of a Stone or any other natural body in its natural place but the knowledge and consideration of it is the fruition of it the very relishing and tasting its sweetness The perfect blessedness of the Saints is abiding them above but even their present condition is truly happy tho incompleatly and but a small beginning of that which they expect and this their present happiness is so much the more the more clear knowledge and firm perswasion they have of it 't is one of the pleasant fruits of the Godly to know the things that are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Therefore the Apostle to comfort his dispersed Brethren sets before them a description of that excellent Spiritual Condition to which they are called If they be inseparably linkt together then by any one of them a man may lay hold upon all the rest and may know that his hold is sure and this is that way wherein we may attain and ought to seek that comfortable assurance of the Love of God Therefore Make your Calling sure and by that your Election for that being done this follows of it self We are not to pry immediately into the Decree but to read it in the performance though the Mariner sees not the Pole-star yet the Needle of the Compass that points to it tells him which way he sails thus the heart that is touched with the Loadstone of Divine Love trembling with godly fear and yet still looking towards God by fixed believing it points at the Love of Election and tells the soul that its courss is heavenward towards the Haven of Eternal rest He that Loves may be sure he was loved first and he that chuses God for his delight and Portion may conclude confidently that God hath chosen him to be one of those that shall enjoy him and be happy in him for ever for that our Love and Electing of him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of his Love shining upon us Find thou but within thee Sanctification by the Spirit and this argues necessarily both Justification by the Son and the Election of God the Father 1 Ioh. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit 'T is a most strange demonstration ab Effectu reciproco He Called those he hath Elected he Elected those he Called where this sanctifying Spirit is not there can be no perswasion of this Eternal Love of God they that are Children of disobedience can conclude no otherwise of themselves but that they are the Children of wrath Although from present unsanctification a Man cannot inferre that he is not Elected for the Decree may for part of a Mans life run as it were under-ground Yet this is sure that that estate leads to death and unless it be broken will prove the black line of reprobation A man hath no Portion amongst the Children of God nor can read one word of Comfort in all the Promises that belongs to them while he remains unholy Men may please themselves in prophane Scoffing at the Holy Spirit of Grace but let them withal know this that that Holy Spirit
they mock and despise is that Spirit that seals men to the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 If any pretend they have the Spirit and so turn away from the straight rule of the Holy Scriptures they have the Spirit indeed but 't is a fanatical Spirit the Spirit of Delusion and Giddiness but the Spiâ—it of God that leads his Children in the way of truth and is for that purpose sent them from Heaven to guide them thither squares their thoughtts and wayes to that Rule And that Word whereof it is Author which was inspired by it sanctifies them to Obedience He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Lyar and the truth is not in him 1 Ioh. 2.4 Now this Spirit that sanctifieth and sanctifieth to Obedience is within us the Evidence of our Election and Earnest of our salvation and whoso are not sanctified and led by this Spirit the Apostle tells us what is their Condition Rom. 8.9 if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his Let us not delude our selves this is a truth if there be any in Religion they that are not made Saints in the estate of Grace shall never be Saints in Glory The Stones that are appointed for that Glorious Temple above are hewen and polished and prepar'd for it here as the stones were wrought and prepared in the Mountains for building the Temple at Ierusalem This is the Order Psal. 84.12 He gives Grace and Glory as Moralists can tell us that the way to the Temple of Honour is through the Temple of Vertue They that think they are bound for Heaven in the wayes of sin have either found a new way untroden by all that are gone thither or will find themselves deceived in the end We need not then that poor shift for the pressing of Holiness and Obedience upon Men. to represent it to them as the meriting cause of Salvation this is not at all to the purpose seeing without it the Necessity of Holiness to Salvation is pressing enough for holiness is no less necessary to Salvation then if it were the meriting Cause of it it is as insepararably tyed to it as the purpose of God and in the Order of performance Godliness is as certainly before Salvation as if Salvation did wholly and all together depend upon it and were in point of Justice deserved by it Seeing then there is no other way to Happiness but by Holiness no Assurance of the Love of God without it Take the Apostles advice study it seek it follow earnestly after holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. Grace unto you and peace be multâ—plyed It hath always been a civil custom amongst Men to season their intercourse with good wishes one for another this the Apostles use in their Epistles in a spiritual divine way suitable to their holy Writings It well becomes the Messengers of Grace and Peace to wish both and to make their salutation conform to the main scope and subject of their discourse The Hebrew word of salutation we have here Peace and that which is the spring both of this and these good things are all in the other word of Salutation used by the Greeks Grace All right Rejoycing and Prosperity and Happiness flowes from this source and from this alone and is sought elsewhere in vain In general this is the Character of a Christian spirit to have a heart fill'd with Blessing with this sweet good will and good wishing to all especially to those that are their Brethren in the same Profession of Religion And this Charity is a precious Balm diffusing it self in the wise and seasonable expressions of it upon fit occasions and those expressions must be cordial and sincere not like that you call Court Holy-water in which there is nothing else but falshood or vanity at the best This manifests Men to be the Sons of Blessing and of the ever blessed God the Father of all Blessing when in his name they bless one another yea our Saviours Rule goes higher to bless those that curse them and urges it by that Relation to God as their Father that in this they may resemble him That ye may be the Children of your Father which is in Heaven But in a more eminent way it s the duty of Pastors to bless their People not only by their publick and Solemn Benediction but by daily and instant Prayers for them in secret And the great Father who seeth in Secret will reward them openly They are to be ever both endeavouring and wishing their increase of knowledge and all Spiritual grace in which they have St. Paul a frequent Pattern They that are Messengers of this Grace if they have Experience of it 't is the Oyl of gladness that will dilate their heart and make it large in Love and spiritual desires for others Especially their own Flocks Let us 1 Consider the matter of the Apostles desire for them Grace and peace 2. The measure of it that it may be multiplyed 1 Grace We need not make a noise with the many School-distinctions of Grace and describe in what sense 't is here to be taken for no doubt 't is all saving Grace to those dispersed Brethren so that in the largest Notion that it can have that way we may safely here take it What is preventing Grace assisting Grace Working and Co-working Grace as we may admit these differences in a sound sense but divers Names of the same effectual saving Grace in relation to our different Estate as the same Sea receives different names from the different parts of the shoar it beats upon First It Prevents and Workes then it Assists and Prosecutes what it hath wrought he worketh in us to will and to do but the whole sense of saving Grace I conceive is comprehended in these two 1 Grace in the Fountain that is the peculiar Love and Favour of God 2. In the Streams the Fruits of this Love for 't is not an empty but a most rich and liberal Love viz. All the Graces and spiritual Blessings of God bestowed upon them whom he hath freely chosen The Love of God in it selfe can neither Diminish nor Increase but it is Multiplied or abounds in the Manifestation and Effects of it so then to desire Grace to be multiplied to them is to Wish to them the living Spring of it that Love that cannot be exhausted but is ever flowing forth and in stead of abateing makes each day richer then another And this is that which should be the top and summe of Christian Desires To have or want any other thing indifferently but to be resolved and resolute in this to seek a share in this Grace the free Love of God and the sure Evidences of it within you the fruit of holiness and the Graces of his Spirit but the most of us are otherwise taken up We will not be convinc'd how basely and foolishly we are busied though in the best and most respected employments
nothing but holiness and urges it most pressingly upon all that receive it This is the very life of divine Faith touching the Mysteries of Salvation firmly to believe their Revelation by the Spirit of God this the Word it selfe testifies as we see and it is really manifest in it it carries the lively stamp of divine Inspiration but there must be a spirituall Eye to discern it he that is blind knows not that the Sun shines at noon but by the report of others but they that see are assur'd they see it and assur'd by no other thing but by its own Light To ask one that is a true Believer how know you the Scriptures to be divine is the same as to ask him how know you Light to be Light The Soul is nothing but Darkness and blindness within till that same spirit that shines without in the Word shine likewise within it and Effectually make it Light but that once done then is the word Read with some measure of the same spirit by which it was written and the Soul is ascertain'd that it is divine as in bodily fight there must be a meeting of inward Light Viz. the visuall spirits with the outward Object The spirit of God within brings Evidence with it and makes it self discernable in the word this all arguments all Books and study cannot attain unto it is given to believe No Man knows the things of a Man but the spirit of Man 1. Cor. 2.11 But how holds that here for if a Man speak out the things that are in his spirit then others may know them But the Apostle's aime is there to conclude that the things of God even such as were Revealed in his Word could not be known but by his own spirit ' it s so though Revealed yet they remain still unreveal'd till the spirit teach within as well as without Because intelligeable by none but by those that are the private Scholers and Hearers of the holy Ghost the author of them and because there are so few of these therefore there is so little reall Believeing amongst all the noise and profession that we make of it who is there if you will believe them that Believes not and yet truely there is too much Cause to continue the Prophets regret who hath believed our Report Learn then to suspect your selves and to finde out your own Unbelief that you may desire this Spirit to teach you inwardly those great Mysteries that he outwardly Reveals and Teaches by his Word Make use of that promise and press the Lord with it They shall be all taught of God But 2. There is here the Matter of this Doctrine which we have in three severall Expressions 1. That which is Repeated from the foregoing Verse 't is the Doctrine of Salvation that 's the end of it and 2. The Doctrine of sufferings and glory of Christ as the means 3. The Doctrine of Grace the spring of both And 1. Salvation the onely true Doctrine of true happiness which the wisest of naturall Men have grop't and sought after with much earnestness but with no success they had no other then the dark Moon light of Nature and that is not sufficient to find it out onely the Sun of Righteousness shining in the Sphere of the Gospel brings Life and Immortality to Light 2. Tim. 1.10 No wonder that naturall Wisdom the deepest of it is far from finding out the true method and way of cure seeing it cannot discover the disease of miserable Mankind Viz. the sinfull and wretched Condition of nature by the first Disobedience Salvation expresses not only that which is Negative but Implies likewise positive and perfect Happiness thus forgiveness of sins is put for the whole nature of Iustification frequently in scripture 't is more easy to say of this unspeakable Happiness what it is not then what it is there is in it a full and final freedom from all Annoyance all tears are wip'd away and their fountain dryed up all feeling and fear or danger of any the least evil either of sin or punishment banish'd for ever no Invasions of Enemies no robbing nor destroying in all this holy Mountain no voice of complaining in the streets of the new Jerusalem here 't is at the best but interchanges of Mornings of joy with weeping of sad evenings but there there shall be no Light no need of Sun nor Moon For the glory of the Lord shall lighten it and the Lamb shall be the Light thereof Well may the Apostle as he doth here throughout this Chap. lay this Salvation to Counter ballance all sorrows and Persecutions and whatsoever hardships can be in the way to it The soul that is perswaded of this in the midst of Storms and Tempests enjoys a Calme Triumphs in Disgraces grows Richer by all its Losses and by Death it self attaines this Immortall life Happy are they that have their eye fixed upon this Salvation and are longing and waiting for it that see so much of that brightness and Glory as darknâ— all the lusture of Earthly things to them and makes them trample upon those things which formerly they admir'd and doted on with the rest of the foolish world Those things we account so much of are but as rotten wood or Glow-wormes that shine onely in the night of our Ignorance and Vanity so soon as the Light beam of this Salvation enters into the soul it cannot much esteem or affect any thing below it and if those glances of it that shine in the Word and in the Soul of a Christian be so bright and powerfull what then shall the full sight and real possession of it be The worker of this Salvation whom the Prophets and Apostles make the summe of all their doctrine is Jesus Christ and the summe of that work of Redemption as we have it here is his Humiliation and Exaltation His Sufferings and the Glory that followed thereupon now though this serve as an Encouragement to Christians in their Sufferings that this is the way by which their Lord went into his Glory and is true also of Christ mysticall the Head with the Members as the scriptures often teach us Yet I conceive 't is here mainâ—ly intended as a summary of the work of our Redemption by Jesus Christ relateing to the salvation mention'd Verse 10. And as the Cause for the Effect so 't is put for it here The Prophets enquired and prophecied of that Salvation How By searching out and foretelling the Sufferings and Glory of Christ His sufferings then and his after Glories are our Salvation His sufferings is the purchace of our Salvation and His Glory is our assurance of it He as our head having Triumph'd and being Crown'd makes us likewise sure of Victory and Triumph Having entered possession to glory makes our Hope certain this is his prayer that where he is there we may be also and this his own assertion the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them Ioh. 17.22 24. this is
disparages not their extraordinary Visions and Revelations and that which is added that the Spirit of Christ was in them and did foretel the things to come It was their constant Duty and they being sensible of their duty made it their constant Exercise to search into Divine Misteries by Meditation and Prayer yea and by Reading such holy writers as were already extant in their times as Dan. 9. and 10. For which Cause some taking the word actively Conceive Daniel to be call'd there a Man of desires because of his great desire and dilligent search after the knowledge of those High things And in this dilligent way they constantly waited for these Revelations which sometimes when it seem'd good unto the Spirit of God were imparted unto them Prophesie resideth not say the Hebrew Doctors but in a Man that is great in Wisdom and Vertue whose affections overcome him not in any worldly things but by his knowledge he overcometh his Affections continually on such a Man the Holy Spirit cometh down And his Soul is associated to the Angels and he is changed to another Man thuâ— Maimonides 'T was the way of the Prince of darkness amongst the Idolatrous Gentiles to speak either through senseless Statues or where they uttered his Oracles it was by such profane Prophets as he had to cause them in a fury tumble forth words they understood not and knew not what they said but the Spirit of God being Light and the Holy Prophets Inspired with it they being dilligent attendants on its Motions and Searchers of the Misteries of Salvation understood well what their business was and to what purpose tended those things of the Kingdom of Christ which they by Inspiration did foretel and therefore bended their thoughts this way praying and searching and waiting for Answers studying to keep the passage as it were open for the beams of those Divine Revelations to come in at not to have their Spirits clogg'd and stopt with earthly and sinful Affections endeavouring for that calm and quiet Composure of Spirit in which the voyce of Gods Spirit might be the better heard Thus Psal. 85.8 and Hab. 2.1 In both which places followes an excellent Prophesie Concerning Christ and that Salvation which he wrought for his People Were the Prophets not exempted from the pains of Search and Inquiry that had the Spirit of God not only in a high measure but after a singular manner how unbeseeming then is slothfulness and Idleness in us whether is it that we judge our selves advantag'd with more of the spirit then those holy men or that we Esteem the Doctrine and Misteries of Salvation on which they bestow'd so much of their labour unworthy of ours these are both so gross that we will be loath to own either of them and yet our laziness and negligence in searching after those things seems to charge us with some such thought as one of those You will say this concerns those that succeed to the work of the Prophets and Apostles in ordinary the Ministers of the Gospel And it doth indeed fall first upon them It is their task indeed to be dilligent and as the Apostle exhorts his Timothy to attend on reading but above all to study to have much Experimental knowledge of God and his Son Jesus Christ and for this end to disentangle and free themselves as much as is possible from lower things to the search of heavenly Misteries Prov. 18.1 As they are called Angels so ought they to be as much as they can attain to it in a constant nearness unto God and attendance on him like unto the Angels and look much into these things as the Angels here are said to do to endeavour to have their souls purified from the affections of sin that the light of Divine truth may shine clear in them and not be fogg'd and misted with filthy vapours to have the Impressions of God clearly written in their breasts not mix'd and blurr'd with earthly characters seasoning all their readings and common way of studies with much Prayer and divine Meditation They that Converse most with the King and are inward with him know most of the affairs of state and even the secrets of them that are hid from others and certainly those of Gods Messengers that are oftenest with himself cannot but underdand their business best and know most of his meaning and the affairs of his Kingdom And to that End 't is confess'd that singular dilligence is requir'd in them but seeing the Lord hath said without exception that his secret is with them that fear him and that he will reveal himself and his saving truths to those that humbly seek them Do not any of you your selves so much injury as to barr your selves from sharing in your measure of the search of these same things that were the study of the Prophets and which by their study and publishing them are made the more accessible and easie to us Consider that they doe concern us universally if we would be saved for 't is Salvation here that they studied Search the Scriptures sayes our Saviour Ioh. 5. And that is the motive if there can be any that may be thought in reason pressing enough or if we doe indeed think so For in them ye think to have Eternal life And it is there to be found Christ is this Salvation and that Eternal life and he adds further it is they those Scriptures that testifie of me These are the Golden mines in which alone the abiding treasures of Eternity are to be found and therefore worthy all the digging and paines we can bestow on them Besides their Industry in this enquiry and search there is here expressed their ardent affection to the thing they Prophesied of and their Longings and Wishes for its Accomplishment viz. The coming of Jesus Christ the promised Messiah the top of all their desires the great Hope and the Light of Israel No wonder they desired his day that had so much joy in the seeing it So far off as over the head almost of two thousand years Faith overlooking them and foreseeing it so in Abraham his heart danc'd for joy Ioh. 8.36 Abraham saw my day and Rejoyced And this is conceived to be the meaning of those Expressions in that mistical Song as they suit those times of the Jewish Church breathing out her longings for the coming of her Beloved his speaking by the Prophets were his voice as afar off but his incarnation was his coming near and kissing his Church with the kisses of his mouth as Cant. Chap. 1. Verse 1. and to omit other expressions throughout the Song the last Chapter Verse 1. is tender and pathetical Oh that thou wert as my Brother c. and the last words of it Make hast my Beloved and be thou like a Roe or a young Hart upon the Mountain of Spices And when this salvation came in the fulness of time we see how joyfully good old Simeon embraces it and thought he had seen
Cherubims wonder how guilty man escapes their flaming swords and Reenters paradise The Angels see that their Companions that fell are not restor'd but their room fill'd up with the spirits of just men and they envy it not which Mistery the Angels desire to look into and this is added in the close of these words for the extolling of it The Angels look upon what they have seen already fulfill'd with delight and admiration and what remains namely the full accomplishment of this great work in the end of time they look upon with desire to see it finish'd 't is not a slight glance they take of it but they fix their eye and look stedfastly on it viz. That mistery of godliness God manifested in the flesh and 't is added seen of Angels The word made flesh drawes the eyes of those glorious Spirits and possesses them with wonder to see the Almighty God-head joyn'd with the weakness of a Man yea of an Infant He that stretcheth forth the heavens bound up in swadling cloaths And to pass all the wonders of his life this is beyond all admiration that the Lord of Life was subject to death and that his Love and Rebellious mankind moved him both to take on and lay down that life 'T is no wonder the Angels admire those things and delight to look upon them but 't is strange that we do not so They veiw them stedfastly and we neglect them either we consider them not at all or give them but a transient look half an eye That which was the great business of the Prophets and Apostles both for their own times and to convey them to us we regard not and turne our eyes to foolish wandering thoughts which Angels are ashamed at They are not so concern'd in this great mystery as we are They are but mere beholders in comparison of us yea they seem rather to be losers someway that our nature in it self inferiour to theirs is in Jesus Christ exalted above theirs Heb. 2.16 We bow down to the earth and study and grovell in it take into the very bowels of it and content our selves with the outside of the unsearchable riches of Christ and look not within it but they having no will nor desir◠but for the glory of God being pure flames of fire burning onely in love to him are no less delighted then amazed with the bottomless wonders of his wisdom and goodness shining in the work of our Redemption 'T is our shame and our folly that we lose our selves and our thoughts in poor childish things and trifle away our days we know not how and let these rich mysteries lye unregarded they look up upon the deity in it self with continuall admiration but that they look down to this mystery is another wonder We give them an ear in publick and in a cold formal way stop Conscience's mouth with some religious performances in private and no more But to have deep and frequent thoughts and to be ravish'd in the meditation of our Lord Jesus once on the cross and now in glory how few of us are acquainted with this We see here excellent Company and Examples not onely of the best of Men that have been but we have them fellow-servants and fellow-Students if that can perswade us we may all study the same Lesson with the very Angels and have the same thoughts with them this the soul doth that often entertains it self with the delightfull admiration of Jesus Christ and the Redemption he hath wrought for us Verse 13. Wherefore Gird up the loyns of your mind be sober and hope to the End for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the Revelation of Iesus Christ. THe great error of Mans mind and the cause of all his Errors of Life is the diverting of the soul from God and turning down-ward to in feriour confidences and comforts and this mischoyce is the very root of all our miseries therefore the maine end of the holy word of God is to untye the hearts of Men from the world and reduce them To God as their onely rest and solid comfort and this is here the Apostles mark at which all the preceeding discourse aimes it all meets and terminates in this exhortation Wherefore gird up the loyns of your mind c. In the words are those 3 things 1. the great stay and comfort of the soul which the Apostle repeats and represents to his afflicted brethren 2. his Exciting them to the right apprehension and confident Expectation of it 3. the Inference of that Exhortation The matter of their comfort is the grace which is brought to them at the Revelation of Iesus Christ. some for grace read joy having as it seem's for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words are not more near one to an other than the things they signify Grace and joy but ' its most commonly thus read The estate of Grace and that of glory are not onely so inseparably connexed but so like one to the other yea so essentialy the same that the same expressions in scripture do often fit both of them and so fit them that it is doubtfull for which of the two to understand them but the hazard is not great seeing they are so near and so one grace being glory begun and glory grace compleated both often called the Kingdom◠of God So grace here brought to them is either the doctrine of grace in the Gospel wherein Jesus Christ is reveal'd and that Grace in him for all the whole tenour of the Covenant of Grace and every Clause of it holds in him His precious name runs throw it all 't is the Grace of salvation to be fully perfected at the last and clearest Revelation of Jesus Christ and for this rather I take it here for that the Apostles nearest foregoing words were concerning that and it is set up here as the object of hope which though often put for faith yet in its proper notion looks out to that which is to come This is the last act of Grace and yet still it is called by it self and not turn'd into the name of merit notwithstanding all the obedience and all the sufferings of the Saints that have gone before it yea even the salvation to be revealed to them is called Grace but 't is needless to insist on this for certainly none that partake of Grace will be of another mind or ever admit the mixture of the least notion of self deserving Though much dispute hath been bestow'd on this and Questions multiplying in the disputants hands as is usuall in Controversies one growing out of another yet truely I think the debate in this to be but waste 't is not onely against the voyce of the scriptures and of Grace it self in the soul but even against sound Reason to imagine any meriting properly taken in any mere Creature at his Creators hands who hath given him his being of which gift all his services and
so much and spake so many tongues yet I determined sayes he to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 And again he expresses this as the top of his Ambition that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death That Conformity is this only knowledge He that hath his lusts unmortified and a heart unweaned from the World though he know all the history of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ and can discourse well of them yet indeed he knows them not If you would increase much in holiness and be strong against the Tentations of sin this is the only art of it view much and so seek to know much of the death of Jesus Christ Consider often at how high a raâ—e we were redeem'd from sin and provide this answer for all the enticements of sin and the world except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross I cannot hearken to you Far be it from me will a Christian say that considers this Redemption that ever I should prefer a base lust or any thing in this World or it all to him that gave himselfe to death for me and payed my Ransom with his blood his matchless love hath freed me from the miserable Captivity of sin and hath for ever fastened me to the sweet yoke of his Obedience Let him alone to dwell and rule within me and let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to come down from the Cross. Verse 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you OF all those Considerations and there are many that may move Men to Obedience there is none that persuades both more sweetly and strongly then the sense of Gods goodness and mercy towards Men and amongst all the Evidences of that there is none like the sending and giving of his Son for Mans redemption therefore the Apostle having mentioned that insists further in it and in these words expresses the performance and the Application of it 1. The purpose or Decree foreknown but 't is well rendred fore ordained for this knowing is Decreeing and there is little either solid truth or profit in the distinguishing them We say usually that where there is little wisdom there is much chance and comparitively amongst Men some are far more foresighted and of further Reach then others yet the wisest and most provident Men both wanting skill to designe all things aâ—ight and power to act as they contrive meet with many unexpected Casualties and often Disappointments in their undertakings but with God where both wisdom and power are infinite there can be neither any Chance nor Resistance from without nor any Imperfection at all in the contrivance of things neither himself can give that cause to add or abate or alter any thing in the frame of his purposes The modell of the whole world and of all the course of time was with him one and the same from all Etenity and whatsoever is brought to pass is exactly answerable to that pattern for with him there is no change nor shaddow of turning Iam. 1.17 There is nothing dark to the father of lights he sets at one view through all things and all ages from the beginning of time to the end of it yea from Eternity to Eternity And this Inccomprehensible wisdom is too wonderfull for us we do but childishly stammer when we offer to speak of it It is no wonder that Men beat their own braines and knock their heads one against another in the contest of their opinions to little purpose in their severall Mouldings of Gods Decree Is not this to cut and square Gods thoughts to ours and Examine his Soveraign purposes by the low principles of Humane wisdom how much more learned then all such knowledge is the Apostles Ignorance when he crys out O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11.33 Why then should any man dâ—bate what place in the series of Gods decree is to be assign'd to this purpose of sending his son in the flesh Let us rather seeing it is manifest that it was for the Redemption of lost Mankind admire that same Love of God to mankind that appears in that purpose of our recovery by the word made flesh that before Man had made himself miserable yea before either he or the world was made this thought of boundless love was in the bosome of God to send his son forth from thence to bring fallen Man out of misery and restore him to happiness and to do this not onely by taking on his nature but the curse to shift it off from us that were sunk under it and to bear it himself and by bearing it to take it away he laid on him the iniquity of us all And to this he was appointed says the Apostle Heb. 3 2. Before the foundation of the world This we understand by Faith that the world was framed by the word of God Although the Learned probably think it evincible by humane Reason yet some of those that have gloried most in that and are reputed generally masters of Reason have not seen it by that light therefore that we may have a divine belief of it we must learn it from the word of God and be persuaded of its truth by the spirit of God that the whole world and all things in it were drawn out of Nothing by his almighty power that is the onely Eternal and Increated being and therefore the fountain and source of being to all things Foundation In this word is clâ—ar the Resemblance of the world to a building and such a building it is as doth evidence the greatness of him that fram'd it so spacious Rich and comely so firm a foundation and rais'd to so high and stately a roofe and set it with variety of stars as with Jewels therefore call'd as some conceive it Psa. 8. the work of his fingers to express the curious artifice that appears in them Though Naturalists can give the reason of the earth's stability from its heaviness which stayes it necessarily in the lowest part of the world yet that abates nothing our admiring the wisdom and power of God in laying its foundation so and establishing it for it is his will that is the first cause of that its nature and hath appointed that to be the property of its heaviness to fix it there and therefore Iob alledeges this amongst the wonderfull works of God and evidences of his power that he hangeth the earth upon nothing Before there was Time or place or any Creature God the blessed Trinity was in himselfe and as the Prophet speaks inhabiting Eternity compleatly happy in himself but intending to manifest and communicate his goodness he
constrained semblances of reconcilement are but a false healing do but skin it over and therefore usually it breaks forth worse again How few are there that have truly maliceless hearts and find this intire upright affection towards their Brethren meeting them in their whole Conversation this Law of love deeply impress'd on their hearts and from thence express'd in their words and actions and that is unfeigned love as real to their Brethren as to themselves 2. It must be pure from a pure heart this is not all one with the former as some take it 'T is true doubleness and hypocrisie is an impurity and a great one but all impurity is not doubleness one may really mean that friendship and affection he expresses and yet it may be most contrarie to that which is here requir'd because impure such a brotherly Love as that of Simeon and Levi brethen in Iniquity as the expressing them brethren Gen. 49. is taken to mean When hearts are cemented together by impurity it selfe by ungodly conversation and society in sin as in uncleanness or drunkenness c. This is a swinish fraternity and friendship that is contracted as it were by wallowing in the same mire call it good fellowship or what you will all the fruit that in the end can be expected out of unholy friendliness and fellowship in sinning together is to be tormented together and add each to the torment of another The mutual Love of Christians must be pure arising from such causes as are pure and spiritual from the sense of our Saviour's Command and of his example For he himself joynes that with it A new Commandment give I you saith he that as I have loved you so you also love one another They that are indeed Lovers of God they are united by that their hearts meet in him as in one center They cannot but love one another where a godly Man sees his Fathers Image he is forc'd to love it he he loves those he perceives Godly so as to delight in them because that Image is in them and those that appear destitute of it he loves them so as to wish them partakers of that Image And this is all for God he loves Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum That is he loves a friend in God and an Enemy for God And as the Christians love is pure in its Cause so in its Effects and Exercise his society and converse with any tends mainly to this that he may muâ—ually help and be helpt in the knowledge and love of God desires most that he and his brethren may joyntly mind their journey heavenwards and further one another in their way to the full Enjoyment of God And this is truly the love of a pure heart that both begins and ends in God Fervently Not after a cold indifferent manner Let the Love of your Brethren be as a fire within you consuming that selfishness that is so contrary to it and is so natural to Men let it set your thoughts on work to study how to do others good let your love be an active Love intense within you and extending it selfe in doing good to the souls and bodies of your Brethren as they need and you are able Alium re alium concilio alium gratiâ as Sen. de benef Lib. 1. cap. 2. It is selfe-love that contracts the heart and shuts out all other Love both of God and Men save only so far as our own Interest carries and that is still self-love But the Love of God dilates the heart purifies Love and extends it to all Men but after a special manner directs it to those that are more peculiarly beloved of him and that is hero the particular love required Love of the Brethren In this is Implied our Obligation to it after a special manner to love those of the houshold of faith because they are our Brethren This concludes not only as Abraham said that there ought to be no strife but it binds most strongly to this sincere and pure and fervent love and therefore the Apostle in the next Verse repeats expresly the Doctrine of the mysterious New-birth and explains it more fully which he had mention'd in the entrance of the Epistle and again referr'd to it Verse 14 17. There is in this fervent Love sympathy with the griefs of our Brethren desire and endeavour to help them bearing their Infirmities and recovering them too if it may be raising them when they fall admonishing and reproving them as is needful sometimes sharply and yet still in Love Rejoycing in their good in their Gifts and Graces so far from envying them that we be glad as if they were our own there is the same blood running in their veins you have the same Father and the same spirit within you and the same Jesus Christ the head of that glorious fraternity the first born among many Brethren of which the Apostle saith Eph. 1.10 that he hath recollected into one all things in heaven and in earth The word is gathered them into one head And so suits very fitly to express that our union in him in whom sayes he in that same Epistle c. 4.16 The whole body is fitly compacted together and addes that which agrees to our purpose that this body grows up and edifies it selfe in love All the members receive spirits from the same head and are useful and serviceable one to another and to the whole body Thus these Brethren receiving of the same spirit from their head Christ are most strongly bent to the good one of another If there be but a thorn in the Foot the Back boweth the Head stoops down the Eyes look the Hands reach to it and endeavour its help and case In a word all the members partake of the good and evil one of another Now by how much this body is more spiritual and lively so much the stronger must the union and love of the parts of it be each to other You are brethren by the same new birth and born to the same Inheritance and such an one as shall not be an Apple of strife amongst you to beget debates and contentions No 't is enough for all and none shall prejudge another but you shall have joy in the happiness one of another seeing you shall then be perfect in love all harmony no difference in judgement nor affection all your harps tun'd to the same new Song which you shall sing for ever let that love begin here which shall never end And this same union I conceive is likewise pressed in the first words of the verse seeing you are partakers of that work of sanctification by the same word and the same spirit that works it in all the faithfull and by that are called and incorporate into that fraternity therefore live in it and like it You are purified to it therefore love one another after that same manner purely Let the profane world scoffe that name of Brethren you will not be so foolish
as to be scorn'd out of it being so honourable and happy and the day is at hand wherein those that scoffe you would give much more than all that the best of them ever possess'd in the world to be admitted into your number Seeing you have purifi'd your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit Here is 1. The chief seat or subject of the work of sanctification the Soul 2. The subordinate means Truth 3. The Nature of it obeying of truth 4. The chief worker of it The Holy Spirit For the first 'T is no doubt a work that goes through the whole man renews and purifies all Heb. 10.22 2 Cor. 7.1 But because it purifies the soul therefore 't is that does purifie all There begins impurity Mat. 15. not onely evil thoughts but all evill actions come forth from the heart which is there all one with the soul and therefore this purifying begins there makes the tree good that the fruit may be good 't is not so much externall performances that are the difference of Men as their inward temper we meet here in the same place and all partake of the same word and prayer But how wide a difference is there in Gods eye betwixt an unwash'd profane heart in the same exercise and a soul purified in some measure in obeying the truth and desirous to be further purified by further obeying it 2. That which is the subordinate means of this purity is the Truth or the word of God it is truth and pure in it self and begets truth and purity in the heart by teaching it concerning the holy and pure nature of God shewing it and his holy will which is to us the rule of purity And by representing Jesus Christ unto us as the fountain of our purity and Renovation from whose fulness we may receive grace for grace 3. The nature of this work that wherein the very being of this purifying consists is the Receiving or Obeying of this Truth So Gal. 3.1 Where 't is put for right believing The chief point of obedience is believing the proper obedience to Truth is to give credit to it and this divine belief doth necessarily bring the whole soul into obedience and conformity to that pure Truth which is in the word and so the very purifying and renewing of the soul is this obedience of faith as unbelief is its cheif impurity and disobedience therefore Act. 15.9 faith is said to purifie the heart 4. The chief worker of this sanctification is the Holy spirit of God they are said here to purifie themselves For 't is certain and undeniable that the soul it self doth act in believing or obeying the truth but not of it self it is not the first principle of motion They purifie their souls but 't is by the spirit They doe it by his enlivening power and a purifying vertue recevied from him Faith or obeying the truth works this purity But the Holy Ghost works that faith as in the forecited place God is said to purifie their hearts by faith Verse 8. He doth that by giving them the Holy Ghost The truth is pure and purifying yet can it not of it self purifie the soul but by the obeying or believing it and the soul cannot obey or believe but by the spirit which works in it that faith and by that faith purifies it and works Love in it ' it s the Impurity and Earthliness of Mens minds that is the great cause of disuâ—ion and disaffection amongst them and of all their striâ—es Iam. 4.1 This spirit is that fire that refines and purifies the soul from the dross of earthly desires that possess it and sublimates it to the love of God and of his Saints because they are his and are purified by the same spirit T is the property of fire to draw together things of the same kind the outward fire of Enmities and persecution that are kindled against the godly by the world doth some-what and if it were more considered by them would do more in this knitting their hearts closer one to another but it is this inward pure and purifying fire of the Holy Ghost that doth most powerfully unite them The true reason why there is so little truth of this Christian mutuall Love amongst those that are called Christians is because there is so little of this purifying Obedience to the truth whence it flowes Faith unfeigned would beget this Love unfeigned men may exhort to them both but they require the hand of God to work them in the heart Verse 23. Being borne again not of Corruptible seed But of Incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE two things that make up the Apostles Exhortation are the very summe of a Christians duty to walk as obedient children towards God and loving brethen one towards another And that it may yet have the deeper impression he here represents to them anew that new birth he mentioned before by which they are the children of God and so brethren We shall first speak of this Regeneration And then of the Seed This is the great dignity of believers that they are the sons of God Io. 1.12 and the great Evidence of the love of God that he hath bestow'd this dignity on them 1 Io. 3.1 For they are no way needfull to him he had from Eternity a Son perfâ—ctly like himself the character of his person and one Spirit proceeding from both and there is no Creation neither the first nor the second can add any thing to those and their happiness 't is most true of that blessed Trinity Satis amplum alter alterj Theatrum sumus But the gracious purpose of God to impart his goodness appears in this that he hath made himself such a multitude of sons not onely Angels that are so called but man a little lower than they in nature yet dignified with this name in his Creation St. Luke 3.38 Which was the Son of Adam which was the son of God He had not onely the Impression of Gods footsteps as they speak which all the Creatures have but of his Image and most of all in this is his rich Grace magnified that sin having defac'd that Image and so degraded Man from his honour and devested him of that title of sonship and stampt our polluted nature with the marks of vileness and bondage yea with the very Image of Satan Rebellion and Enmity against God that out of Mankind thus ruin'd and degenerated God should raise to himself a new Race and Generation of sons For this designe was the word made flesh Io. 1. The son made Man to make men the sons of God and 't is by him alone we are restor'd to this they that receive him receive with him and in him this priviledge Verse 12. And therefore 't is a sonship by Adoption and is so called in scripture in difference from his Eternall and Ineffable Generation who is and that was the onely begotten son of God yet that we may
without it 't is true that the substantial Eternal word is to us as we said the spring of this New birth and life the head from whom the spirits of this supernatural life flow but that by the Word here is meant the Gospel the Apostle puts ouâ— of doubt Verse last and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Therefore it is indeed that this Word is thus the seed of this New birth because it contains and declares that other word the Son of God as our life The word is spoken in common and so is the same to all hearers but then all being naturally shut against it God doth by his own hand open some hearts to receive it and mixes it with faith and those it renews and restoreth in them the Image of God drawes the traits of it anew and makes them the Sons of God My Doctrine shall drop as the dew sayes Moses the word as a heavenly dew not falling beside but dropt in to the heart by the hand of Gods own spirit makes it all become spiriâ—ual and heavenly and turns it into one of those drops of dew that the Children of God are compared to Psal. 110. Thou hast the dew of thy youth The natural estate of the soul is darkness and the word as a divine light shining into it transforms the soul into its own nature that as the word is called Light so is the soul renew'd by it ye were darkness but now are ye not only enlightn'd but light in the Lord. All the evils of the natural mind are often compriz'd under the name of darkness and Errour and therefore the whole work of conversion likewise signified by light and truth he begat us by the word of truth So 2 Cor. 4 6. alluding to the first fiat Lux or Let there â—e Light in the Creation The word brought within the soul by the spirit lets it see its own necessity and Christs sufficiency convinceth it throughly and causeth it to cast over it self upon him for life and this is the very begetting of it again to Eternal life So that this Efficacy of the word to prove successful seed doth not hang upon the different abilities of Preachers their more or less Rhetorick or Learning 'T is true Eloquence hath a great advantage in civil and moral things to perswade and and to draw the hearers by the Ears almost which way it will but in this spiritual work to revive a soul to beget it anew the Influence of heaven is the main there is no way so common and plain being warranted by God in the delivery of saving truth but the spirit of God can revive the soul by it and all the skilful and most autoritative way yea being withal very spiritual yet may effect nothing because left alone to it self One word of holy Scripture or of truth conform to it may be the principle of Regeneration to him that hath heard multitudes of excellent Sermons and hath often read the whole Bible and still unchang'd if the spirit of God preach that one or any such word to the Soul God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life It will be cast down with the fear of perishing and driven out of it self by that and rais'd up and drawn to Jesus Christ by the hope of everlasting life it will believe on him that it may have life and be inflamed with the Love of God and give it self to him that so loved the World as to give his only begotten Son to purchase us that everlasting life Thus may that word prove this Immortal Seed which tho very often read and heard before was but a dead letter A drop of those liquors that are called Spirits operates more than large draughts of other waters one word spoke by the Lord to the heart is all Spirit and doth that which whole streams of Mans eloquence could never effect In hearing of the Word Men look usually too much upon Men and forget from what spring the Word hath its power they observe too narrowly the different hand of the Sowers and too little depend on his hand that is great Lord both of Seed-time and Harvest Be it sowen by a weak hand or a stronger the Immortal seed is still the same yea suppose the worst that it be a foul hand that sowes it that the Preacher himself be not so sanctified and of so edifying a life as you would wish yet the seed it self being good contracts no defilement and may be effectual to Regeneration in some and strengthening of others Although he that is not renew'd by it himself cannot have much hope of such success nor reap much comfort by it and usually doth not seek nor regard it much but all Instruments are alike in an Almighty hand Hence learn 1. That true conversion is not so slight a work as we commonly account it 'T is not an outward change of some bad customes which gains the name of a reform'd Man in the ordinary dialect 't is a New birth and Being and elsewhere called a new Creation though it be but a change in qualities as 't is such a one and the qualities so far distant that it bears the name of the most substantial productions from Children of disobedience and that which is link't with it heirs of wrath to be sons of God and heirs of glory They have a new spirit given a free princely noble spirit as the word is Psal. 51. and this spirit acts in their life and action 2. Consider this dignity and be kindled with the ambition of it how doth a Christian pity that poor vanity that men make so much noise about of of their kindred and extraction this is worth glorying in indeed to be of the highest blood royal and in the nearest Relation Sons of the King of Kings by this new birth and addes Matchless honour to that birth which is honourable But we all pretend to be of this number Would we not study to cozen our selves the discovery would not be so hard to know whither we are or not In many their false confidence is too evident No appearance of the spirit of God not a foot-step like his leading and that character Rom. 8.14 not a lineament of God's visage as their father if ye know that he is righteous sayes St. Iohn 2.29 ye know then that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And so on the contrary how contrary to the most holy God the lover and fountain of holiness are they that Swinishly love to wallow in the mire of unholiness Is Swearing and Cursing the accent of the Regenerate the Children of God No 't is the language of Hell Do children delight to indignifie and dishonour their Fathers Name No Earthly mindedness is a countersign Shall the King's Children they that were brought up in scarlet as Ieremy laments embrace the dunghil
word And there is such a necessity of this that the most approv'd teachers of wisdom in a human way have requir'd this of their Scholars that to the end their minds might be capable of it they should be purified from vice and wickedness for this reason the Philosopher judges young Men unfit hearers of morall Philosophy because of the abounding and untamedness of their passions granting that if those were compos'd and order'd that they might be admitted And it was Socrates his custome when any ask'd him a question to be inform'd by him before he would answer them he ask't them concerning their own qualities and course of life Now if Men require a calm and purified disposition of mind to make it capable of their doctrine how much more is it sutable and necessary for learning the doctrine of God and those deep mysteries that his word opens up 't is well express'd in that Apocryphal Book of Wisdome that forward thoughts separate from God and wisdom enters not into a malitious soul no indeed that 's a very unfit dwelling for it and the very Heathen could say the mind that is impure is not capable of God and divine things Seneca Therefore we see the strain of that book of Proverbs that speaks so much of this wisdom it requires in the first chap. That they that would hear it do retire themselves from all ungodly customes and practices And indeed how can the soul apprehend spirituall things that is not in some measure refin'd from the love of sin that abuses and bemires the minds of Men and makes them unable to arise to heavenly thoughts Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God sayes our Saviour not only shall they see him perfectly hereafter but as they can receive him he will impart and make known himself unto them here so Iohn 14.23 This is it that makes the word obscure namely the filthy mists within whereas on the contrary he will in just judgement hide himself and the saving truth of his word from those that entertain and delight in sin The very sins wherein they delight shall obscure and darken the light of the Gospel to them that though it shine clear as the Sun at noon-day they shall be as those that live in a dungeon they shall not discern it And as they receive no benefit by the word that have these evils here mention'd reigning and in full strength in them so they that are indeed born again the more they retain of these the less shall they find the influence and profit of the word for this exhortation concernes them they may possibly some of them have much remainder of these corruptions unmortified therefore exhorted to lay aside intirely those evils all malice all hypocrisie c. And so though they hear the word often yet be in a spirituall Atrophy eat much and grow nothing by it find no increase of grace and spirituall strength Would we know the main cause of our fruitless hearing of the word here it is Men bring not meek and guiless spirits to it not minds emptied and purified to receive it but stuff'd with Malice and Hypocrisie and Pride and other such evils and where should the Word enter when all is so taken up And if it did enter how should it prosper amongst so many enemies Or at all abide amongst them either they will turn it out again or choak and kill the the power of it We think Religion and our own Lusts and secret heart-Idols should agree together because we would have it so but this is not possible either therefore labour to entertain the word of Truth in the â—ove of it and lodge the mystery of Faith in a pure conscience as the Apostle St. Paul speaks joyn those together with David Psal. 119 113. I hate vain thoughts but thy Law do I love And as here our Apostle Lay aside all malice and hypocrisie and envy and evil speakings and so receive the Word or else look for no benefit by it here nor for salâ—ation by it hereafter but cast out all impurity and give your whole heart to it so desire it that you may grow and then as you desire you shall gâ—ow by it Every real Believer hath receiv'd a life from Heaven far more excelling our natural life than that excels the life of the Beasts And this life hath its own peculiar desires and delights that are the proper actings and the certain characters and evidence of it amongst others this is one and a main one answerable to the like desire in natural life namely a desire of food and because 't is here still imperfect therefore the natural end of this is not only nourishment but growth as 't is here express'd The sincere Milk of the word The Life of grace is the proper life of a reasonable soul and without it the soul is dead as the body is without the soul so that without untruth this may be rendered reasonable milk as some read it but certainly that reasonable milk is the Word of God The milk of the Word It was before call'd the immortal seed and here 't is the milk of those that are born again and thus it is very agreeable nourishment to that spiritual life according to their saying iisdemalimur ex quibus constamus as the milk that Infants draw from the brest is most connatural food to them being of that same substance that nourish'd them in the womb But when they are brought forth that food followes them as it were for their supply in that way that is provided in nature for it by certain veins it ascends into the breasts and is there fitted for them and they by nature directed to find it there Thus as a Christian begins to live by the power of the word he is by the nature of that spiritual life directed to that same word as its nourishment To follow the resemblance further in the qualities of milk after the Monkish way that runs it self out of breath in an Allegory I conceive is neither solid nor profitable and to speak freely the curious searching of the similitude in other qualities of milk seems to wrong the quality here given it by the Apostle in which it is so well resembl'd by milk namely the simple pureness and sincerity of the word besides that the pressing of comparisons of this kind too far proves often so constrain'd ere they have done with it that by too much drawing they bring forth blood in stead of milk Pure and unmix'd as milk drawn immediately from the brest the pure word of God without the mixture not only of errour but of all other composition of vain unprofitable subtilties or affected humane eloquence such as become not the Majesty and gravity of Gods word If any man speak sayes our Apostle let him speak as the Oracles of God light conceits and Flowers of Rhetorick wrong the word more than they can please the hearers the weeds among the Corn make it
life is and wherein the nature of it consists we may easily know what is the growth of it when holiness increases the sanctifying graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the soul and consequently act more strongly in the life of a Christian then he growes Spiritually And as the word is the means of begetting this Spiritual life so likewise of its increase 1. If we consider the nature of the Word in general that it is Spiritual and Divine treats of the highest things and therefore hath in it a fitness to elevate Mens minds from the Earth being often conversant with it to assimilate them to it self as all kind of Doctrine readily doth to these that are much in it and apply their minds to study it Doubtless such kind of things as are frequent with Men have an influence into the disposition of their souls The Gospel is called Light and the Children of God are likewise called Light as being transform'd into its nature and thus they are still the more by more hearing of it and so they grow If we look more particularly unto the strain and tenour of the Word it is most fit for increasing the graces of the Spirit in a Christian for there be in it particular truths relative to them that are apt to excite them and set them on work and so to make them grow as all habits do by acting it doth as the Apostles word may be translated stir up the sparks and blow them into a greater flame makes them burn clearer and hotter That it doth both by particular Exhortation to the study and Exercise of those graces sometimes pressing one and sometimes another and by right representing to them their objects The Word feeds faith by setting before it the free grace of God his Rich Promises and his Power and truth to perform them all shews it the strength of the New Covenants not depending upon it but holding in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen and drawing faith still to rest more intirely upon his Righteousness It feeds Repentance by making the vileness and deformity of sin daily more clear and visible still as more of the Word hath admission into the Soul the more it hates sin being the more discovered and the better known in its own native colour As the more light is in a House the more any thing in it that is uncleanly or deformed is seen and dislik'd Likewise it increaseth love to God by opening up still more and more of his infinite Excellency and lovelyness and as it borrowes the resemblance of the vilest things in nature to express the foulness and hatefulness of sin so all the beauties and dignities that are in all the creatures are call'd together in the Word to give us some small scantling of that uncreated beauty that alone deserves to be loved Thus might it be instanc'd in all other graces But above all other Considerations this is in the Word observable as the increaser of grace in that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our vieu to look upon not only as the perfect pattern but as the full fountain of all grace from whose fulness we all receive the contemplating of him as the perfect Image of God and then drawing from him as having in himself a treasure for us these give the soul more of that Image which is truly Spiritual growth This the Apostle expresseth excellently 2 Cor. 3. ult speaking of the Ministry of the Gospel revealing Christ that beholding in him as 't is Chap. 4. Vers. 6. In his face the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Not only that we may take the Copy of his Graces but have a share of them There be many things might be said of this spirituall growth but I will add only a few 1. In the judging of this growth some conluding too rigidly against themselves that they grow not by the word because it is not sensible to them as they desire But 1. this is known in all things that grow that 't is not discerned in motu sed in termino not in the growing but when they are grown 2. Besides other things are to be considered in this although other graces seem not to advance yet if thou growest more self-denying and humble in the sense of thy slowness all is not lost although the branches shut not up so fast as thou wishest yet if the root grow deeper and fasten more it s an usefull growth he that is still learning to be more in Jesus Christ and less in himself to have all his dependance and comfort in him is doubtless a growing believer On the other side a far greater number conclude wrong in their own favour imagining that they do grow if they gain in some of those things we mention'd above namely if more knowledge and more faculty of discoursing if they find often some present stirrings of joy or sorrow in hearing of the word if they reform their life grow more civil and blameless c. Yet all these and many such things may be in a naturall Man who notwithstanding grows not for that 's impossible he is not in that estate a subject capable of this growth for he is dead he hath none of this new life to which this growth relates Herod heard gladly and obey'd many things Consider then what true delight we might have in this You find a pleasure when you see your Children grow when they begin to stand and walk c. You love well to perceive your estate or your honour grow but the soul to be growing liker God and nearer heaven if we know it is a pleasure far beyond them all to find pride and Earthliness and vanity abating and faith and love and spirituall mindedness increasing especially if we think whither this growth be not as our naturall life that is often cutt off before it attain full age as we call it and if it attain that falls again to move downwards and decays as the Sun being at its Meridian begins to decline again But this life shall grow on-in whomsoever it is and come certainly to its fullness after which there is no more need of this word either for growth or nourishment no death no decay no old age but perpetuall youth and a perpetuall spring ver aeternum fulness of joy in the presence of God and everlasting pleasures at his right hand Verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is Gracious OUR Naturall desire of food arises principally from its necessity for that end which nature seeks the growth or at least the nourishment of our bodies but besides there is a present sweetness and pleasingness in the use of it that serves to sharpen our desire and is plac'd in nature for that purpose thus the Children of God in their spiritual life are naturally carried to desire the means of their nourishment and of their growth
sense which crosses not this it must not be whole but broken Psal. 51. But if thou find it unbroken yet give it him with a desire that it may be broken and if it be broken and when thou hast given it him he break it more yea and melt it too yet thou shalt not repent thy gift for he breaks and melts it that he may refine it and make it up in a new and excellent frame and may impresse his own Image on it make it holy and so like to himself Let us then give him our selves or nothing and to give our selves to him is not his advantage but ours as the Philosopher said to his poor Scholar that when others gave him great gifts told him he had nothing but himself to give 'T is well said he and I will endeavour to give thee back to thy self better than I received thee Thus doth God with us and a Christian makes himself his daily Sacrifice he renews this gift of himself every day to God and receiving it every day better'd again still he hath the more light to give it as being fitter for God the more 't is sanctified by former Sacrificing Now that whereby we offer all other Spiritual Sacrifices and our selves withal is Love that is the holy fire that burns up all sends up our Prayers and our hearts and our whole selves a whole burnt offering to God and as the fire of the Altar it is originally from Heaven being kindled by Gods own love to us and by this the Church and each Believer ascends like a straight Pillar of smoak as the word is Cant. 3.6 going even up to God perfum'd with Aloes and all the Spices all the graces of the Spirit receiv'd from Christ but above all with his own Merits How far from this is the common Multitude of us though professing to be Christians Who considers his holy calling As the peculiar holiness of the Ministry should be much in their Eye and thoughts that are call'd to 't to study to be answerably eminent in holiness so all that are Christians consider you are Priests unto God being called a Holy Priesthood thus you ought to be but if we speak what we are indeed we must say rather we are an unholy Priesthood a shame to that Name and holy Profession in stead of the Sacrifices of a godly Life and the incense of Prayer and Praise in Families and alone what is with many but the filthy vapours of prophane speaking and a profane life as a noysome smell arising out of a dunghil But you that have once offered up your selves unto God and are still doing so with all the services you can reach Continue so and be affur'd that how unworthy soever your selves and all your offerings be yet they shall not be rejected The 3. thing here observable is the success of that Service acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. Heb. 13.16 The Children of God do delight in offering Sacrifices to him but if they might not know that they were well taken at their hands this would discourage them much therefore this is added how often do the Godly find it in their sweet experience That when they come to Pray he welcomes them and gives them such evidences of his love as they would not exchange for all Worldly pleasures and when this doth not so presently appear at other times yet they ought to believe it he accepts themselves and their wayes offer'd in sincerity though never so mean though they sometimes have no more but a sigh or groan 't is most properly a Spiritual Sacrifice Stay not away because thou and thy gifts thou offer'st are below others no none are excluded for that only give what thou hast and act with affection for that he regards most Under the Law they that had not a Lamb were welcome with a pair of Pigeons so that the Christian may say What I am Lord. I offer my self unto thee to be wholly thine and had I a thousand times more of outward or inward gifts all should be thine had I more Estate or Wit or Learning or Power I would endeavour to serve thee with all What I have I offer thee and it is most truly thine it is but of thy own that I give thee None needs forbear Sacrifice for Poverty for that he desires is the heart and there is none so poor but hath a heart to give him But meanness is not all there is a guiltiness on our selves and on all we offer our Prayers and Services are all polluted But this hinders not neither for our acceptance is not for our selves but for one who hath no guiltiness at all Acceptable by Iesus Christ In him our Persons are cloath'd with righteousness and in his cloathing we are as Isaac said of Iacob in his Brother's garments as the smell of a Field that the Lord hath blessed And all our other Sacrifices our Prayers and Services if we offer them by him and put them into his hand to offer to the Father then doubt not they will be accepted in him for this by Iesus Christ is relative both to our Offering and acceptance we ought not to offer any thing but by him Heb. 13.15 And so we are well pleasing for he is his wellbeloved Son in whom his soul is delighted not only delighted and pleas'd with himself but in Him with all things and Persons that appear in him and are presented by him And this alone answers all our doubts for we our selves for as little as we see that way yet may see so much in our best Services so many wandrings in Prayer so much deadness c. as would make us still doubtful of acceptance and might say with Iob although he had answered me yet would I not bâ—lieve that he had hearkned to me were it not this that our Prayers and all our Sacrifices pass through Christs hand he is that Angel that hath much sweet odours to mingle with the Prayers of the Saints he purifies them with his own Merits and Intercession and so makes them pleasing unto the Father How ought our hearts to be knit to him by whom we are brought into favour with God and kept in favour with him in whom we obtain all the good we receive and in whom all we offer is accepted In him are all our supplies of grace and our hopes of glory Verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture behold I lay in Sion a chief Corner stone elect precious and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded THat which is the chief of the works of God is therefore very reasonably the chief Subject of his word as both most excellent in it self and of most concernment for us to know And this is the saving of lost Mankind by his Son therefore is his name as precious Ointment or perfume diffus'd through the whole Scriptures all these holy leaves smell of it not only those that were written after his coming but those
whole Epistle Here he is representing to them the great fruit of that Love that happy and high Estate to which they are called in Christ that the chusing of Christ and Believers is as one act and they as one entire Object of it one glorious Temple He the Foundation and head corner Stone and they the Edifice one honourable Fraternity He the King of Kings and great high Priest and they likewise through him made Kings and Priests unto God the Father a Royal Priesthood c. He the Light of the World and they through him Children of Light Now that this their Dignity which shines so bright in its own innate worth may yet appear the more he sets it off by a double opposition 1. Of the misery under which others are 2 dly That Misery under which they themselves were before their calling And this being set on both sides is as a dark shadowing round about their happiness here describ'd setting off the lustre of it Their former misery express'd in the former Verse by Darkness is here more fully and plainly set before their view in these words They are borrowed from the Prophet Hosea 2.23 Where as is usual with the Prophets he is raised up by the Spirit of God from the temporal troubles and deliverances of the Israelites to consider and foretel that great restorement wrought by Jesus Christ purchasing a New People to himself made up both of Jews and Gentiles that believe and therefore the Prophecy is fit and applicable to both so that the debate is altogether needless whether it concerns the Jews or Gentiles For in its Spiritual sense as relating to the Kingdom of Christ it foretels the making up to the Gentiles that were not before the People of God and of the Jews likewise that by their Apostacies and the Captivities and Dispersions come upon them as just punishments of those Apostacies were degraded from the outward Dignities they had as the People of God and withal were Spiritually miserable and Captives by Nature and so in both respects laid equal with the Gentiles and stood in need of this Restiâ—ution as they St. Paul â—iseth it concerning the calling of the Gentiles Rom. 9. And â—ere St. Peter Writing as is most Probable particularly to the Dispersâ—d Jews applies it to them as being in the very reference it bears to the Jews truly fulfill'd in those alone that were Believers Faith making them a part of the true Israel of God to which the Promises do peculiarly belong as the Apostle St. Paul argue at large Rom. 9. Their former Misery and so their present Happiness we have here under a double expression they were not a People destitute of mercy not the People of God sayes the Prophet Not a People sayes our Apostle being not Gods People so base and miserable as not worthy the Name of a People at all as 't is taken Deut. 32.21 There is a kind of being a life that the Soul hath by a peculiar union with God and therefore in that sense the Soul without God is dead as the Body is without the Soul Eph. 2.1 Yea as the Body seperated from the Soul is not only a liveless lump but putrifies and becomes noysome and abominable thus the Soul seperated from God is subject to a more loathsome and vile putrefaction Psal. 14.3 So that Men that are yet Unbelievers are Not as the Hebrewes express'd death multitudes of them are not a People but a heap of filthy Carcases Again take our Natural Misery in the notion of a Captivity which was the judgement threatned against the Jews to make them not a People therefore their Captivity is often spoke of as a Death by the Prophets and their reduction as their resurrection Ezek. 37. And as a Captive People is civilly dead as they speak so are Souls captive to Sin and the and the Prince of darknes Spiritually dead wanting happiness and well being which if it never attain it had better for it self not be at all Nothing but disorder and confusion in the Soul without God the affections hurrying it tumultuously Thus Captive sinners are not are dead they both want that happy being that flowes from God to the Souls that are united to himself and consequently must want that Society and union one with another which results from the former from the same union that Believers have with God and the same being in Him which makes them truly worthy to be called a People and particularly the People of God His People are the only People in the World worthy to be call'd a People the rest are but refuse and dross although in the Worlds esteem that judges by its own rules and favour of it self the People of God be as no body no People a company of silly creatures yea we are made sayes the great Apostle as the filth of the World and the offscouring of all things yet in his account who hath chosen them who alone knowes the true value of things His People are the only People and all the rest of the World as nothing in his eyes He Dignifies and beautifies them and loves in them that Beauty which He hath given them But under that term is not only compriz'd that new being of Believers in each one of them apart but that tie and union that is amongst them as one People being incorporated together and living under the same Government and Laws without which a People are but as the Beasts of the Field or the Fishes of the Sea and the Creeping things that have no ruler over them as the Prophet Habak speaks That regular living in Society and Union in Laws and Polity makes many Men to be One People but the civil Union of Men in States and Kingdoms is nothing comparable to the Mysterious Union of the People of God with him and one with another That Commonwealth hath a firmer Union then all others Believers are knit together in Christ as their Head not merely a Civil or Political Head ruling them but as a Natural Head enlivening them giving them all one Life Men in other Societies though well ordered yet are but as a Multitude of trees regularly planted indeed but each upon his own Root But the Faithful are all Branches of one Root their Vnion is so Mysterious that it is resembled to the very union of Christ with his Father as indeed the product of it Ioh. 17. People of God I will say to them thou art my People and they shall say thou art my God Hos. 2.23 That Mutual Interest and possession is the very foundation of all our Comfort He is the first Chuser He first sayes My People calls them so and makes them to be so and then they say My God therefore a Relation that shall hold and shall not break because it is founded upon His choyce who changes not The tenor of an external Covenant with a People as the Jewes particularly found is such as may be broken by Mans unfaithfulness
intreat you as you love your selves to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against your Souls And what is our purpose when we exhort you to believe and repent but that you may be happy in the forgiveness of your sins Why do we desire you to embrace Christ but that through him ye may have everlasting life Howsoever you take these things 't is Our Duty uncessantly to put you in mind of them and to do it with much love and tenderness of affection to your Souls not only pressing you by frequent warnings and exhortings but also by frequent Prayers and tears for your Salvation Abstain 'T was a very wise abridgment that Epictetus made of Philosophy into those two words bear and forbear These are truly the two main Duties that our Apostle recommends to his Christian Brethren as in this Epistle 'T is one and the same strength of Spirit that raises a Man above both the troubles and pleasures of the World and makes him despise and trample upon both We have first briefly to explain what these fleshly lusts mean then to consider the exhortation of abstaining from them Unchast desires are particularly called by this name indeed but to take it for these only in this place is doubtless too narrow That which seems to be the true sense of it here takes in all undue desires and use of Earthly things and all the corrupt affections of our carnal minds Now in that sense these fleshly lusts comprehend a great part of the body of sin all those three the Worlds acccursed Trinity 1 Ioh. 2. are under this name here of fleshly lusts A crew of base imperious Masters they are to which the Natural Man is a slave serving divers lusts Some more addicted to the Service of one kind of lust some of another But all in this unhappy that they are Strangers yea Enemies to God and as the bruite Creatures Servants to their flesh either beasts of the field as covetous with their eye still upon the earth or voluptuous swiming in pleasures as the Fishes of the Sea or Fowls of the air in vain ambition All the strifes that are rais'd about these things all malice and envyings all bitterness and evil speaking which are works of the flesh and tend to the satisfying of its wicked desires we are here requested to abstain from To abstain from these lusts is to hate and fly from the very thoughts and first motions of them and if surpris'd by those yet to kill them there that they bring not forth And to suspect our selves even in those things that are not sinful and to keep afar off from all inducements to those polluted wayes of sin In a word the serving of our flesh either in things forbidden us as unjust gain or unlawful pleasures c. And withal from immoderate desire of and delighting in any earthly thing although such as is lawful yea necessary in some degree to desire and use them to have any feverish pressing thirst after gain even just gain or after earthly delights though lawful is to be guilty of those fleshly lusts and a thing very unbeseeming the dignity of a Christian they that are cloath'd in Scarlet to embrace a Dunghil is a strange sight therefore the Apostle having so cleared that immediately before hath the better reason to require this of them that they abstain from fleshly lusts Let their own slaves serve them you are redeem'd and deliver'd from them a free People yea Kings and suits it with Royal dignity to obey vile lusts You are Priests consecrated to God and will you tumble your selves and your precious Garments in the Mire It was a high speech of a Heathen that he was greater and born to greater things than to be a servant to his body how much more ought he that 's born again say so Being born Heir to a crown that fadeth not Again as the honour of a Christians estate is far above this baseness of serving his lusts so the happiness and pleasantness of his Estate sets him above the need of the pleasures of sin He said before if ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious desire the sincere Milk of the Word desire that word wherein you may taste more of his graciousness and as that fitly urgeth the appetites desire of the word so it is strong to perswade this abstinence from fleshly lusts yea the disdain and loathing of them if you have the least experience of the sweetness of his love have but tasted of the Crystal River of his pleasures the muddy pudle pleasures of sin will be hateful and loathsome to you yea the best earthly delights that are will be disrelish'd and unsavoury to your taste The imbittering the breasts of the World to the Godly by afflictions doth something indeed to their weaning from them but the breasts of consolation that are given them in their stead weans much more effectually The true reason why we remain Servants to these Lusts some to one some to another is because we are still Strangers to the Love of God and those pure pleasures that are in him Though the Pleasures of this Earth be poor and low and most unworthy our pursuit yet so long as Men know of no better they will stick by those they have such as they are The Philosopher gives this as the reason why Men are so much set upon sensual Delights because they know not the higher pleasures that are proper to the soul and they must have it some way 'T is too often in vain to speak to Men in this to follow them with the Apostles intreaty I beseech you abstain from fleshly lusts unless they that are spoke to be such as he speaks of in the former words such as have obtained mercy and have tasted of the graciousness and love of Christ whose loves are better then Wine Oh that we would seek the knowledge of this love for seeking it we should find it and finding it no force would need to pull the delights of sin out of our hands we would throw them away of our own accord Thus a Carnal mind prejudices it self against Religion when it hears that it requires an abstinence from fleshly lusts bereaves Men of their mirth and delight in sin But they know not that it is to make way for more refin'd and precious delights there is nothing of this kind taken from us but by a very advantageous exchange 't is made up in the World ye shall have affliction but in me ye shall have Peace Is not want of the Worlds peace abundantly paid with peace in him Thus fleshly lusts are cast out of the hearts of Believers as Rubbish and trash to make room for Spiritual comforts we are barr'd fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness to the end we may have fellowship with God and his Son Jesus Christ this is to make Men eat Angels food indeed as was said of the Manna The serving of the flesh sets Man below
design and thought What way shall I most advance the glory of my God how shall I that am engaged more than they all set in with the Heavens and the earth and the other creatures to declare his excellency his greatness and his goodness In the day of Visitation The beholding of your good works may work this in them that they may be gained to acknowledg and embrace that Religion and that God which for the present they reject but that it may be thus they must be visited with that same light and grace from above which hath sanctified you This I conceive is the sense of this word though it may be and is taken divers other ways by Interpreters Possibly in this day of visitation is implied the clearer preaching of the Gospel amongst those Gentiles where the dispersed Jews dwell and that when they should compare the light of that doctrine with the light of their lives and find the agreement betwixt them that might be helpfull to their effectual calling and so they might glorify God But to the end that they might do thus indeed as with the word of God and the good works of his People there must be a particular visiting of their Souls by the Spirit of God Your good conversation may be one good mean of their conversion therefore this may be a motive to that But to make it an effectual mean this day of gracious visitation must dawn upon them The day spring from on high must visit them as it is Luke 1.78 Verse 13 14. Submit your selves unto every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether it be to the King as Supreme Or unto governours as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers and for the praise of them that do well IT is one of the falsest and yet one of the commonest prejudices that the world hath always entertain'd against true Religion that it is an enemy to civil power and government The Adversaries of the Jews charged this fault upon their City the then Seat of the true worship of God Ezra 4.15 The Jews charged it upon the preachers of Christian Religion Act. 17.7 As they pretended the same quarrel against Christ himself And generally the enemies of the Christians in the primitive times loaded them with the slander of Rebelion and contempt of authority Therefore our Apostle descending to partacular rules of Christian life by which it may be blameless and to silence calumny begins with this not only as a thing of prime importance in it self but as particulary fit for those he wrote to being both Jews and Christians for the clearing of themselves and their Religion Submit your selves c. There are in the words divers particulars to be considered all concurring to press this main duty of obedience to Magistrates not only as well consistent with true Religion but as indeed inseparable from it not to parcell out the words into many pieces they may I conceive be all not unfitly compris'd under these two 1. The extent of this duty 2. The ground of it First The extent 1. To all Civil power of what kind soever for the time receiv'd and Autoris'd There being no need of questioning what was the rise and original of civil power either in the nature of it or in the persons of those that are in possession of it for if you will trace them quite through in the succâ—ssion of ages and narrowly eye their whole circle there be few crowns in the world in which there will not to be found some crack or other more or less If you look on those great Monarchies in Daniel's Vision you see one of them built up upon the ruines of another and all of them represented by terrible devouring beasts of monstrous shape And whether the Romane Empire be the fourth there as many take it or no yet in the things spoken of that fourh and the rest it is inferiour to none of them enlarging it self by conquests in all parts of the world and under it were the Provinces to which this Epistle is address'd yet the Apostle enjoyn's his brethren subjection and obedience to its Authority Nor is it a Question so to be mov'd as to suspend or at all abate our obedience to that which possesses in present where we live What forme of government is most just and commodious God hath indeed been more express in the officers and government of his own house his Church But Civil Societies he hath left at liberty in the chusing and modelling of Civil government though alwayes indeed overruling their choyce and changes in that by the secret hand of his wise and powerful providence yet he hath set them no particular rule touching the frame of it only the common rule of equity and justice were to be regarded both in the contriving and managing of Government And yet though it be some way defective in both they that be subject to it are in all things lawful to submit to its Authority whether suprem or subordinate as we have it here expressely whether to the King as Supreme Namely To the Emperour or to the Governours sent by him which though a Judicious Interpreter refert's to God and will not admitt of any other sense yet it seem's most sutable both to the words and to the nature of the Government of those Provinces to take that word To him as relating to the King for the them that are sent Answers to the other The King as Supreme and so is a very clear designment of the inferiour Governours of those times and places And whatsoever was their end that sent them and their carriage that were sent that which the Apostle addes expresses the end for which they should be sent to govern and at which they should aime in governing as the true end of all government And though they were not fully true to that end in their deportment but possibly did many things unjustly yet as God hath ordain'd authority for this end there is alwayes so much justice in the most depraved government as is a publick good and therefore puts upon inferiours an obligation to obedience and this leads us to consider the Second thing The ground of this duty 2 The main ground of submitting to humane authority is the interest that divine authority hath in it having both apponited Civil government as a common good amongst Men and particularly commanded his people obedience to it as a particular good to them and a thing very sutable with their profession it is for the Lords sake This word carries the whole weight of the duty and is a counter balance to the former which seem's to be therefore on purpose so expressi'd that this may answer it Although Civil Authority in regard of particular formes of Government and the choyce of particular persons to govern is but a humane ordinance or mans creature as the word is yet both the good of government and the duty of subjection to it
that all the Torments of the cross and revilings of the multitude that as it were rack't him for some answer yet could draw no other from him but this father forgive them for they know not what they do But for those to whom this mercy belong'd not the Apostle tells us what he did in stead of Revilings and Threatnings he committed all to him that judgeth righteously And this is the true method of Christian patience that which quiets the mind and keeps it from the boyling Tumultuous thoughts of revenge to turne the whole matter into Gods hand to resign it over to him to prosecute when and as he thinks good Not as the most that had rather if they had power do for themselves and be their own avengers and because they have not power do offer up such bitter curses and prayers for revenge unto God as are most hateful to him and are far from this calm and holy way of committing matters to his judgment The common way of referring things to God is indeed impious and dishonourable to him being really no other but a calling of him to be a Servant and executioner to our passion We ordinarily mistake his justice and judge of it according to our own precipitant distemper'd minds If wicked Men be not cross'd in their designes and their wickedness evidently crush'd just when we would have it we are ready to give up the matter as desperate or at least abate of those confident and reverent thoughts of divine justice that we owe him Howsoever things go this ought to be fixed in our hearts that he that sits in Heaven judgeth righteously and executes that his righteous judgement in the fittest season We poor wormes whose whole life is but an hand-breadth in it self and is as nothing unto God we think a few months or years a great matter but to him that inhabites Eternity a thousand years are but as one day as our Apostle teaches us Our Saviour in that time of his Humiliation and Suffering committed himself and his cause for that is best express'd in that nothing is express'd but he committed and the issue shall be that all his enemies shall become his footstool and he himself shall judge them But that which is given us here to learn from his carriage toward them in his Suffering is that quietness and moderation of mind even under unjust Sufferings make us like him Not to reply reproach with reproach as our custom is to give an ill word for another or two for one to be sure not to be behind Men take a pride in this and think it ridiculous simplicity to suffer and this make strifes and contention so abound but 't is a great mistake you think it greatness of spirit to bear nothing to put up no wrong Whereas it is indeed great weakness and baseness 't is true greatness of Spirit to despise the most of those things that set you usually on fire one against another especially being done after a Christian manner 't were a part of the Spirit of Christ in you and is there any Spirit greater than that think you Oh! that there were less of the Spirit of the Dragon and more of that Spirit of the Dove amongst us Our obligement to the example of Christ besides its own excellency is in these two things in the words 1. The intendment of his behaviour for this use to be as an example to us 2. Our Interest in him and those his Sufferings wherein he so carried himself Leaving us an Example c. He left his footsteps as a Copy as the word is to follow every step of his a letter of this Copy and particularly in this point of Suffering he writ us a pure and perfect Copy of obedience in clear and great letters in his own blood His whole life is our Rule not his Miraculous works his footsteps walking on the Sea and such like are not for our following But his obedience and Holiness and Meekenss and Humility are our Copy which we should continualy study The shorter and more effectual way they say of teaching is by example but above all this matchless example is the happiest way of teaching He that followes me sayes he shall not walk in darkness He that aimes high shoot's the higher for 't though he shoot not so high as he aimes This is that which ennobles the Spirit of a Christian the propounding of this our high Patterne the example of Jesus Christ. The Imitation of Men in worthless things is low and servile the Imitation of their vertues is commendable but if we seek no higher 't is both imperfect and unsafe The Apostle St. Paul will have no Imitation but with regard to this Supreme Patterne be ye follewers of me as I am of Christ One Christian may take the example of Christ in many things in another but still examining all by the Original primitive Copy the footsteps of Christ himself following nothing but as it conformes with that and looking most on him as both the perfectest and most effectual example Heb. 12.2 there is a cloud of wittnesses and examples but look above them all to him that is as high above them as the Sun is above the clouds As the way is better a lively one indeed so there is this advantage in the Covenant of grace that we are not left to our own skill for following of it but taught by the Spirit In the delivery of the Law God shewed his glory and greatness by the manner of it but the Law was written only in dead Tables but Christ the living Law teaches by obeying it how to obey it and this is the advantage of the Gospel that the Law is Twice written over unto believers first in the example of Christ and then inwardly in their hearts by his Spirit There is together with that Copy of all grace in him a Spirit deriv'd from him enabling believers to follow him in their measure they may not only see him as the only begotten Son of God full of grace and truth as it is Io. 6. But as there it followes they receive of his fulness grace for grace The love of Christ makes the Soul delight to converse with him and converse and Love together makes it learn his behaviour as Men that live much together especially if they do much affect one another will insensibly contract anothers habitudes and customes The other thing obliging us is our interest in him and his Sufferings he suffer'd for us and this the Apostle returnes to Ver. 24. Observe only from the Tye of these two that if we neglect his example set before us we cannot enjoy any right assurance of his suffâ—ring for us but if we do seriously endeavour to follow him then we may be perswaded of life through his death and those steps of his wherein we walk will bring us ere long to be where he is Verse 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree
know that this divine adoption is not a mere outward Relative Name as that of men The sonship of the Saints is here and often elsewhere in scripture express'd by new Generation and new birth They are begotten of God Io. 1.13 1. Io. 2.29 There is a new being a spirituall life communicated to them they have in them of their Fathers spirit and this is derived to them through Christ and therefore called his spirit Gal. 4.6 They are not onely accounted of the family of God by Adoption but by this new birth they are indeed his Children partakers of the divine nature as our Apostle expresseth it Now though it be easie to speak and hear the words of this Doctrine yet the truth it self that is in it is so high and mysterious that it is altogether impossible without a portion of this new nature to conceive of it Corrupt nature cannot understand it what wonder that there is nothing of it in the subtilest Schooles of Philosophers when a very doctor in Israel mistook it grossely Io. 3. It is indeed a great mystery and he that was the sublimest of all the Evangelist and therefore call'd the Divine the soaring Eagle as they compare him he is more abundant in this subject than the rest And the most profitable way of considering this Regeneration and Sonship is certainly to follow the light of those holy writings and not to jangle in disputes about the order and manner of it of which though somewhat may be profitably said and safely Namely so much as the scripture speaks yet much that is spoke of it and debated by many is but an useless expence of time and paines What those previous dispositions are and how far they go and where is the march or point of difference betwixt them and the infusion of spirituall life I conceive not so easily determinable If Naturalists and Physicians cannot agree upon the order of â—ormation of the body's parts in the womb how much less can we be peremptory in the other If there be so many wonders as indeed there be in the naturall structure and frame of Man how much richer in wonders must this divine and supernaturall Generation be see how David speaks of the former Psal. 14.15 Things spirituall being more refin'd than Materiall things their workmanship must be far more wonderfull and curious But then it must be with a spirituall eye There is an unspeakable lustre and beauty of the new Creature by the mixture of all divine Graces each setting off another as so many rich severall colours in embroidery but who can trace that invisible hand that works it so as to determine of the order and to say which was first which second and so on whether Faith or Repentance and all Graces c. This is certain that these and all graces doe inseparably make up the same work and are all in the new formation of every soul that is born again If the wayes of Gods universall providence be untraceable then most of all the workings of his Grace in a secret unperceivable way in this new birth He gives this spirituall being as the dew which is silently and insensibly formed and this Generation of the sons of God compar'd to it by the Psalmist they have this originall from heaven as the dew Io. 3.3 Except a man be born from above he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God And 't is the peculiar work of the spirit of God as he himself speaks of the dew to Iob. Iob. 38.28 hath the Rain a Father or who hath begotten the drops of the dew The sharpest witts are to seek in the knowledge and discovery of it as Iob speaketh of a way that no fowl knoweth and which the vultures eye hath not seen Iob. 28.7 To contest it much how in this Regeneration he works upon the will and renews it is to little purpose providing this be granted that it is in his power to Regenerate and Renew a Man at his pleasure And how is it possible not to grant this unless we will run into that Error to think that God hath made a Creature too hard for himself to Rule or hath willingly exempted it and shall the works of the Almighty and of all others especially this work wherein he glories most fail in his hand and remain Imperfect shall there be any abortive births whereof God is the father shall I bring to the birth sayes he and not cause to bring forth No no sinner so dead but there is vertue in his hand to revive out of the very stones Tho the most impenitent hearts are as stones within them yet he can make of them children to Abraham He can digg out the heart of stone and put a heart of flesh in its place otherwayes he would not have made such a promise Io. 1.13 Not of flesh nor of the will of Man but of God If his soveraigne will is not a sufficient principle of this Regeneration why then sayes the Apostle St. Iames Of his own will begat he us and he addes the subordinate Cause by the word of truth which is here called the Immortall seed of this new birth Therefore 't is that the Lord hath appointed the continuance of the Ministry of this word to the end that his Church may be still fruitfull bringing forth sons unto him That the Assemblies of his people may be like flocks of sheep coming up from the washing none harren amongst them Though the Ministers of this word by reason of their employment in dispensing it have by the Scriptures the Relation of Parents imparted to them which is an exceeding great dignity for them as they are called co-workers with God And the same Apostle that writes so calls the Galatians his little Children of whom he travell'd in birth again till Christ were formed in them and the Ministers of God have often very much pain in this travel yet the priviledge of the Father of spirits remains untouched which is effectually to beget again these same Spirits which he creates and to make that seed of the word fruitful that way where and when he will The Preacher of the Word be he never so powerful can cast this seed only into the Ear his hand reaches no further and the hearer by his attention may convey it into his head but 't is the Supream Father and Teacher above that carries it in to the heart the only soyl wherein it proves lively and fruitful One Man cannot reach the heart of another how should he then renew its fruitfulness If natural births hath been alwayes acknowledged to belong to Gods prerogative Psal. 127.3 Lo Children are an heritage of the Lord and the fruit of the womb is his reward And so Iacob answered wisely to his Wife 's foolish passion am I in Gods stead how much more is this new birth wholly dependant on his hand But though this word cannot beget without him yet 't is by this Word that he begets and ordinarily not