in Christ so as to be ever well pleased with it and to delight in it 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sinne for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him God hath made Christ the foundation of his eternall love when hee beholds the travell of his soule he is well pleased which he doth in every soule he hath united to him The third Gospel-truth is this That a Saint doth then only truly and properly enjoy his life when be lives by faith upon God and Christ in the Spirit It is not enough to know the rule of the law in the letter and some of the worke of the law in our lives to know all the formes of Gods worship under the law and Gospel To know and to be under all these is nothing when ignorant of the knowledge of God through Christ in the Spirit Knowledge in all the former substracted from the latter is but to know that we are under the chaines and the power of darkness Our life consists neither in circumcision or uncircumcision but in the new creature Christ living in us and we in Christ The life that we now live 't is by the faith of the Sonne of God by faith feasting and satisfying our soules upon the love of God in Christ the Spirit that teacheth and leadeth the soule into all truth even the God of truth and there the Spirit teacheth the soule to read God to be a God of love and so to enjoy him and live in him through Christ as a God of grace and a faithfull God that will keepe Covenant with his people and not impute sinne to that soule for whom Christ hath dyed Our life shall be for ever with God and in God enjoying nothing but God and all of God in heaven this is truly our life now as we are one with Christ only the clouds of mortality darkens it and so farre as we live upon God through Christ in the Spirit so farre and no farther doe we truly enjoy life in any condition and what we strive for here below is not our life nor truly worth our contending for all the weary pursutes of the heart of man which center not in Christ must wither before they come to their journeyes end for they have no life to carry them through A childe of God can finde no rest but the bosome of his Father and no way to that rest but Christ the great gift of his Fathers love so that God and Christ is both the way and the end of a Saints rest that is enjoying fulnesse of blisse in God who is all in all to all his people Gospel truths should be teaching to Gospel-Saints and these truths accompanied with the spirit of truth may first teach and informe all Saints where our life and interest lies namely in God and Christ God opening the bosome of his love and giving us Jesus Christ Jesus Christ giving out his blood his life and all that God requires to satisfie justice and to make a compleat redemption Christ putting on our flesh and taking upon him the curse due to us and all to this end to be Mediatour to stand betweene a displeased God and a poore soule to become sinne for us that wee might become righteousnesse in him Our life lyes neither in the workes of the Law nor the formes of the Gospel but in that love which gave Christ to be made under the Law to fulfill the Law for us and in that Jesus which is the Lord and the life of the Gospel the Gospel is glad tidings which is Christ crucified The highest forme is but a darke representation a cloud without light if Christ which is the light of life be not in it 'T is God in Christ that is our life Let us not turn againe to the beggerly rudiments under which we shall be in bondage but in the Lord of glory to live only upon God in Christ who is the true light and life of Saints to seeke life in any thing else is to seeke the living amongst the dead Again These Gospel-truths should teach and exhort Gospel-Saints to beleeve in God he is a God of grace and he is a faithfull God he makes good his covenant of grace that our sinnes and iniquities hee will remember no more to charge them upon the believer for hee hath fully charged them upon Christ and hath satisfied his justice to the full in Christ And hence it is that by way of comfort our Saviour in John 14.1 bids us to beleeve in God through him Yee believe in God believe also in me that is looke upon the covenant of God and all the promises of God made good in me believe that what my Father hath given me to doe I have finished it all the worke of your redemption and what ever God hath laid upon me shall never more be laid upon you though it made me sweat drops of blood and at last give up the Ghost yet I have finished the worke I conquered by yeelding and overcame by dying and I am risen again to beare witnesse of my victory over sinne death hell law and grave for you and thus I would have you to believe in mee and in God who gave me out of his bosome of love to be all this to you Distrust of these trutths is to put a question upon the faithfulnesse of God and the fulnesse of Christ God promises to pardon freely Christ undertakes to satisfie fully now a doubt of either is unworthy in him that is an heir of both In the next place me-thinkes this cals for much love from Saints to God and Christ Oh how should we love God that hath freely given us Christ and with him all things The great God of heaven and earth had no greater gift then Christ to give and him he hath freely given us and in Christ himselfe his Spirit his Kingdome and his glory too Who would not love a heart so full of love as Gods heart is How can wee chuse but love a hand so full of love as Gods hand is What ever may justly command or invite love it is in the heart and hand of God there are mercies free and full in God at his right hand is fulnesse of joy for evermore Love had its first conception in the heart of God we love him because he loved us first The glory of his love is the rise of our love the piece-meales of beauty and glory which we earnestly seeke and pursue after in the creature they all center in God what ever it is that might be taking to oul affections that is in its primitive glory as it is in God and truly did we see God by an eye of faith as we do things below with an eye of sense the brightnesse of his glory would darken all lower glories and all the streames of our affections would runne into God who is the fountaine and originall of all love and lovelinesse
the bare law of Commandement could not raise mee up to holy walking For flesh which was my owne strength that was weake but God having made up that in his Son Now sayes hee the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And shewes in the 5th verse what it is to walke after the flesh and what after the spirit and in the 6. verse tells us flesh and spirit is the way of life and death but in the 9th verse he shewes who are in the Spirit namely those in whom the spirit of God dwels And sayes plainly that those which have not the Spirit are none of Christs And in the two next verses shewes if Christ lives in a soule by his Spirit then the body of sinne dyes There is a reigning power indeed the whole body of sin killed by the Spirits dwelling and reigning in a Saint and now all the action and motion of such a soule is from God The soule now in all its wants can have accesse to God through Christ in the spirit as in Ephes 2.18 and in Ephes 3.16 17 18. Ephes 2.18 Ephes 3.16 17 18. John 17.38 39. By the spirit in the inward man the soule is an established soule and a knowing soule and so is enabled to act for God in the Spirit John 7.38 39. There is a promise to believing soules of being so filled with the Spirit that there shall be flowings forth Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water And this saith the 39th verse is spoken of the spirit which they that believe in him should receive Now what is the end of this fulnesse of the Spirit but that it should rule and reigne in a Saint and that a Saint should walke and act in it In Rom 6.14 There is a promise sin shall not have dominion over the Saints and the reason is given because saith he you are not under the law but under grace Christ is your sanctification and his spirit of grace shall deliver you from the dominion of sin In 1 Cor. 2.14 15. There a Saints knowledge is spiritual and so dstinguished from the world and this spirituall knowledg living in action in a Saint We shall finde in 1 Cor. 12.11 in the former part of the Chapter the Apostle speaks of spiritual gifts acting diversly in severall Saints but all these workings are from one and the same Spirit so as it is the Spirit that doth all in the Saints In 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. There is a soule made light by having the vaile taken from its eyes and in that light beholding God saith the Text is changed into his Image Now marke it all this is by the spirits living in a soule A soule living upon God in the spirit hath the vaile taken away and lives in a glorious vision of God by which the soul is changed into the Image of God and this is by the Spirit of the Lord saith the end of the 18. Verse And so in 2 Cor. 5.14 15 16 17. There is a new creature made by the love of Christ which constrained the soul from the powerfull operation of the Spirit wherefore henceforth saith he wee know no man no not Christ himselfe after the flesh No How then Why in the spirit that spirit that sheddes the love of Christ in our hearts and thereby constâ—aines us to live in him that died for us and in whom wee are dead to the flesh but alive in the spirit And thus the Spirit acts the new creature So in Gal. 5.16 17 18 22 25. Verses There is an exhortation to walke in the spirit by which a saint is delivered from obedience to the lusts of the flesh though the flesh lusteth against the spirit yet saith the 18. Verse If yee be led by the spirit yee are not under the Law and in the 22. Verse shewes the fruits of the Spirit and concludes in the 25. Verse If you live in the spirit then walke in the spirit making all a Saints life and action to be in the spirit I will only touch one particular of the life of a Saint out of this generall namely his worship and shew you how all that is in the Spirit for a Saint worshiping God in the Spirit take first John 4.23 24. Which is our Saviours Answer to the woman of Samarias Question in the 20 Verse she as one without the Spirit questions about the places of worship going as far as an eye of nature could carry her to externalls but the Lord Christ in the 21 Verse tells her Woman the houre cometh when neither in this mountaine nor in Jerusalem shall yee worship the father your light is onely in externalls and you worship you know not what and then preaches himselfe to her Salvation is of the Jewes as if he had said God will have his people onely worship him and that in the Spirit for the time comes and now is when the true worshipers shall worship God in the spirit and gives the reason of it for saith he God is a spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth This truth is very fully confirmed in Phil 3.3 false teachers in the foregoing Chapter would have brought the Saints under the law of works a gaine and the yoake of circumcision but the Apostle in this 3. Verse tell us those are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit As if the Apostle had said these false teachers endeavour to bring you under a formall worship and to make you debtors to the law of worâ—s againe But we are above it and we are to live in the Spirit and to worship in the Spirit in the 1 Pet. 2.5 There the Apostle tells you who they be that are sit for communion with God they be living stones alive in the Spirâ—t and acting in the Spirit to offer up spirituall sacrificâ— to God by Jesus Christ I but when is a man a living stone fit to offer up the sacrifice sâ—e that in 1 Joh. 2.27 But the anâ—inting whâ—ch yee have received of him abides in you and the same anointing teacheth you all thinâ—s and is truth and is no lye and even as it hath taught you yee shall abide in him Then is a man a visible Saint a living stone fiâ— to worship God and to have communion with him when he hath received the Vnction of the Spirit by which he is taught of God to woâ—ship in the Spirit and in truth This truth is not taught of man but of God and therefore it abides in him thus you see he that worships God truly worships him in the Spirit What a Spirituall Saint is What a Saint is not First he is more than a Morall-man he that is lesse than a morall-man is a beast and he that is at the heigh of a morall-man is but meerly a man a fine civiliz'd peice of clay loving himselfe and therefore doth â—ot devoute another because
of God in his word but to the eye of a believer beholding God and every part of his revealed will in Christ all is alike In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God That was spoken of Christ now the Believer alwayes beholding God in Christ which is his originall word and the Scripture only Christ written out in the Spirit doth behold God in his originall and in his written word in every part of it one so that every part is of like beauty and pretiousnesse to the soule of a believer Having opened my selfe thus farre I shall doe it farther and declare that to have any hope left to live as sinfull nature pleases casting the revealed word of God behind their backs and under a notion of redemption to deny the Redeemer to talk of free-grace and to trample grace under foote to deny the Lord that bought them in walking as doe others that know not Christ This is so far from entring into my thoughts from that freedome I have pleaded for all this time that if I should name this and call it darknesse I should call it Aegyptian darkenesse so farre from freedome that it is bondage beyond expression The second of the Ephesians sets it out best in these termes The power of the Prince of the Aire ruling in the children of disobedience But that freedome I plead for is the power of the Lord of glory ruling by his Spirit in his children of light and life My aime is not to take away that holy just and good law of God out of the conscience of a believer but as God doth with his people in the new Covenant and in Christ the mediator of it establish them in a better covenant Heb. 8. upon better promises so would I only hold out the matter of the law taken out of the hand of Moses which was but a servant and established in the heart of Christ which is the Son and by the Son in the spirit of light and life written in the heart and conversation of every believing soule And lesse then this I thinke is not in the covenant of the Almighty when he convenants to put his law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts For my authority in this I shall say as the Apostle Paul in the 3d of Rom. the last vers when in the greatest part of the chapter he hath pleaded this very cause that I doe he concludes in these words Doe we then make void the law through faith God forbid Yea we establish the law So that it is cleare the law of life that makes us free from the law of sin and death which is Christ living by his Spirit in the conscience is not to make void but to establish upon better promises from a law of death to be a law of life Thus much in generall But more particularly I lay downe this as my light that the law is now in the Spirit in the Gospel for a believer to walk by the law is made Gospel as Christ is made flesh the Gospel is both a perfect law of life and righteousnesse of grace and truth why should we separate that which God hath in his free-grace joyned together namely Law and Gospel in one under the government that is given to the childe Jesus Nor is the holinesse or sanctification that God lookes for in his believing Saints such as is falsehood by the law or outward command but by the preaching of faith by which the spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a Believer and makes him the very law of Commandements in himselfe and his heart the very two Tables of Moses And though the law be a beame of Christ in substance and matter yet we are not to live by the light of one beame now when the Son of righteousnesse is risen himselfe that was a fitter light for those who lived in the regions of the shadow of death it is with the law now or light of righteousnesse as it was with the light in the creation when that which was scattered was gathered into one body of light So Christ now being revealed holinesse and righteousnesse as well as grace and love is revealed in him and and gathered up in him The word is now flesh and dwels amongst us and we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten sonne full of truth as well as grace is in substance by the Spirit set downe 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. verses There is the vaile taken away in turning to the Lord. There is Christ held forth to be the Spirit and the spirit of liberty to his people but observe the fruits of this liberty it is from sinne not to sinne but we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the spirit so it is in the margine Thus is Christ that Sunne to us which warmes us in the very shining upon us the Believer works walks and lives under the Gospel as beholding his perfect redemption wrought in Christ and so brings forth the power of this redemption and salvation through the spirit of Adoption freely working to the praise of his free-grace and freely obeying from the life of this redemption doing every thing in love because of his love shed abroad in our hearts and neither taking in judgements hell or damnation nay not heaven or glory to force on the worke or quicken the duty but doing all from the spirit of life in Christ Jesus except when corruption or temptation hindereth the freenesse and spiritualnesse in the duty A Spirit at this pitch is Christ and his beloved both met in his garden of spices and by feeding on the honey in the honey-combe Christ fils the soule with himselfe and delights himselfe in that fulnesse that is himselfe So the soule in communion with Christ in the Spirit sees it selfe compleat in Christ so joyes in its Masters joy alwayes satisfying it selfe in that love that is Christ himselfe and is able to trumpet out its glory to the world My beloved is mine and I am his This is Christ and his office branches setting about God alwayes feeding on the banquet of love and fitting under the benner of love God beholding every elect soule in Christ the soule beholds God in Christ and Christ beholds himselfe and all his in God and this vision in one spirit swallowes up all into one God beholds every elect soule as Christ Christ beholds every branch in him as of him beholding us in that glory we shall have with him when he appeares in his fulnesse of glory and the believing soule in the Spirit beholding its justification sanctification and redemption and Christ one in eternall love the soule is in this light transformed into this love that is God himselfe so sees nothing of God but what is all God such a soule knowes no divided Christ
God which to a spirituall eye carry their owne beauty but you will finde them without art not adorned with humane learning and so without beautie to a fleshly eye I know you will wonder what I meane to appeare in Print especially in these times when plaine truths from the most of men will finde nothing else but plaine scorne most men having sight but on one side and their stomacks so full of crudities that they cannot beare but vomit up with scorne in the face of him that brings them even saving truths besides you will thinke I cannot bee ignorant but to know that my name will prejudice these truths unto many that live by fancie more then Faith such as will cavill with all truth that comes by a hand they like not and have little other groūds for the truth they take up but that they come by such hands that they at present fancie I confesse I cannot make my selfe so ignorant as not to understand these things nor is it my designe by appearing in Print to make my felfe publike for I expect by it to be the derision of most men nor doe I Print because I thinke the Presse wants worke for I am throughly convinced that much evill hath over spread this Land by those many unsauory Pamphlets and those rending dividing principles which have this way been spread abroad by which the members of Christ have beene scandalized rent and divided and have almost made themselves a pray to the Wilde Boares and the subtle Foxes which have no higher ends but to destroy the tender Vines The reasons why I chuse to render my selfe to the Worlds scorne in this matter and manner are these First In satisfying my conscience in obedience to God in some Scripeures set upon my spirit by himselfe I trust when as my flesh and spirit did contend about this matter And the first is this Freely yee have received freely give Though this was spoken first to the Apostles yet I thinke it doth not exclude any but include every Saint and Disciple of Christ to be free in the giving forth of their knowledge experience and injoyment of God in Christ by his spirit to the World And this is my case What I give I have freely received from the Lord in secret when no eye but his did see me I doe acknowledge it is the free grace of God that makes knowne any title of truth to me and if my heart deceive me not it is the manifesting of his free grace that is my designe in giving forth freely as I receive I shall I trust with much more ease beare the reproaches of the World then I could a concealement of the love of God in Christ In another Scripture I finde that light is not to be put under a bushell but to be held forth that according to its nature it may lighten others and because what Saints have they have received and every talent is to bee improved to the Masters use and the standing rule to Gods people that all things be done to edification and that most which may edifie most therefore in obedience to these Scriptures God hath moulded me into his will and I doe freely cast my selfe upon his love and power to beare up my spirit to carry me through good and evill reports and I hope shall ever esteeme of the Worlds scornes as not worthy of thoughts in that day when God shall manifest his will and worke to me A second reason why I thus appeare is That I might be a Christian Servant to fellow Saints God is as free in giving as he is in saving he gives what hee pleaseth how he pleaseth when he pleaseth and by whom hee pleaseth this I have in some measure experimented of God and thinke it my duty to be a servant to God and to fellow Saints to bring unto them what I have received from him When Saints reveale their knowledge and experience of God they doe thereby confirme strengthen and build up one another in their most holy Faith I know no higher worke that Saints on earth have then this and were it more in practice I doe verily beleeve that the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse would be more transparent but in stead of serving one another this way in the spirit of God we are devouring and destroying one another by an evill spirit of lying and slaundering fomenting unchristian and needlesse jealousies one of another this is either in the beginning or the end of most mens discourses of their printings and it hath beene where I am sure it ought not to be in mens Preachings these tares which the evill man hath sowne amongst the good seed have exceedingly scandalized the Gospell of Christ with the professours thereof and if God delight in this generation hee will exceedingly humile us under this very thing in stead of crucifying Christ in one another Saints should be servants to carry Christ to each other I meane their light in Christ and their experiences of the love faithfulnesse and holinesse of God this would increase love to God and his people in stead of devouring beget imbracings into the bosome and armes of love and faithfulnesse not to bely and scandalize but to honour and vindicate every childe of God A third reason that moves in me is this To stir up those many thousands which this Land affords that are abundantly more able to take up this necessary worke Truly it is sad to see how frothy and light things doe take up the spirits of able and godly men when as this onely thing necessary is as it were quite forgotten not onely dead but buried out of sight I doe beleeve these last seven yeares have brought forth as little of this fruit as any seven yeares before in which men did complaine they durst not send truths abroad least so doing should confine them to prisons had the seven yeares liberty the Presse hath had beene improved in this through the blessing of God it might have left such monuments of God in the World as after ages might have blessed him for I doe beleeve Satan hath hindred much of this worke from appearing by the scandall and reproach of the World which is usually cast upon it truly I found it a very hard thing to get over but when God gave me to understand that The good and comfort of one soule was of greater weight then the reproach of all the World I was immediatly carryed above that temptation and I here mention it to stirre up others to the same worke for doubtlesse God hath many thousand poore Saints in this Kingdome which will gladly gather up those pearles of Divine truths which the Swine of the World trample under their feet if but one soule blesse God in truth for the revealing of these truths though many thousand prophane ones should scorne me to my face yet I shall not lose my end nor repent for my reproaches if God be honoured by them My last
reason is this To give the World a true discovery of my spirit and light in those things which I count weighty and every truth of them to be of more concernment then a thousand Worlds I cannot tell the thoughts of men concerning my selfe nor will presume to take the place of God to judge the thoughts of any but this I can truly tell that in the following truths I have clearely opened my heart to the view of every Reader and have faithfully given to the World what light God hath given to me in those maine truths and fundamentalls of salvation in which my soule lives and what I can cheerefully dye in the next moment This is all I shall say I blesse the Lord I am single hearted in this worke let men judge of me and it according to to their light I have no other end then this That the eternall loving kindnesse and free grace of God may be lifted up in the World and that all his people may know how good a God hee is I confesse these truths of God were in my soule like new Wine in old Bottles my flesh could imprison them no longer and now they are abroad give me leave Reader with them to give thee a word of caution If thou beest spirituall and understandest these truths of God in the spirit and findest them sweet then blesse the Lord let thy heart praise him and thy eye be singly set on him overlooke the creature wholy unlesse it be to glory in the Lord that hath magnified his free grace to so weake a one as my selfe is I acknowledge the truths to be Gods and revealed by his spirit of truth so that the beauty of them must center no where but in him but all the failings and weaknesses from first to last are mine the fruits of my flesh and darknesse I beseech you let God have his due glory though you blame me for my failings let not my weaknesses prejudice any soule against the precious truths of God I trust there is nothing but what are truths of God though weakly managed and if any one amongst those many thousands more descerning eyes then mine shall finde out any thing that is not so I trust if in a spirit of love and meeknesse it be made knowne to me I shall blesse God for that soule and honour his truth by acknowledging my owne errours And to the scorner I shall onely say this I wish you could singly scorne me in it and not God then would your sinne be the lesse and so would my sorrow too for God hath carried me above your scornes and were not your sinnes increased by it the care of either side would be but very small Let me deale plainely with you you wrong your selves not me for I can both live and dye full of joy and rest in the love of God though you shall please your selves in scorning and deriding me and all the returne I shall make to this will be to pity your darknesse and to pray the Lord to give you the light of his spirit by which you may truly know him and Jesus Christ which he hath sent and then I know you will be new creatures I shall hold you no longer in the porch but open every doore of the house that you may both read and see the truths of God made knowne by his spirit to the weakest and one as unworthy as any of his Servants Rob Tichbourne The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke LOVE to all SAINTS shews union with Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another John 13.35 What Christ hath borne for Saints they shall never beare themselves For as many as are of the workes of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to doe them But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith And the law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christs then are yee Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.10 11 12 13.28 29. Gods Children have his Spirit to walk and work in For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage again to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba-Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8.14 15 16. Gods love giveth Saints to know they shall appeare like Christ Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God Therefore the world knows us not because it knew not him Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is 1 John 3.1 2. Christ is the foode of living soules I am that bread of life John 6.48 Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba-Father Gal. 4.5 6. Saints are compleate before God in their union with Christ For in him dwels all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him Coloss 2.9 Free-grace in God justifieth redeemeth through Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 Christ and the new creature are unseparable Therefore if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sunne I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 No man exceedes another in excellency but by received mercies For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4.7 None but God can be a proper subject for a Saint to glory in He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. part of the 30. vers Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory
is the interest and prerogative of every childe of God This union runs through all the heires of heaven Gal. 5.22.25 Gal. 5.22.25 Love joy peace long-suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith all and every of these in any and in all the Saints is the fruits of this Spirit in which every childe of God as a childe of God walkes all these and every branch of holinesse is wrought by one and the same Spirit in every Saint So all gifts and all degrees of gifts flow from one and the same Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 1 Cor. 12.4 Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit so Eph. 5.9 For the fruits of the Spirit are in all goodnesse and righteousnesse and truth what ever of these is in any Saint and in all the Saints of God it is the fruits of this holy Spirit this is that life and bloud which runt in the veines of all the Saints of God from which all motion and acts of life flowes Through Christ that strengthens me saies Paul I can doe all things so must every Saint say it is Christ in the Spirit that makes all holy motion in the soule This union of the Spirit in Saints in an eternall union though here some have a greater degree of it then others yet in heaven every Saint shall be filled with the fullnesse of it this Spirit is that Spirit which raised Christ from the dead that dwells in all the Saints and shall quicken our mortall bodies as members of Christ our head at that great day when he shall come to judge the world this makes a very close relation in all Saints one to another and speakes very lowd for strong affections A fift Consideration may be this Reason or Consi ∣ deration 5 Phil. 4.4 That Saints when they joy and glory properly as Saints then they have all one joy and glory in this life namely the Lord our righteousnesse Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord Phil. 4.4 And he that rejoyces in the Lord and makes him his joy may rejoyce alwayes This was Pauls spirit he would glory in nothing but in Christ and him crucified A Saint will acknowledge all his springs to be in God so that he hath no spring of joy on glory but what flowes from God which is the fountaine of all the beauty his eyes see of all the sweet his soule tasts and of all the glory his soule makes after or makes mention of God is all in all and to all his people Whom have I in Heaven but thee sayes the Prophet or whom on Earth in comparison of thee Proper joy and glory in all the Saints hath but one proper fountaine and object and that is God himselfe as all the joy and glory of Saints centre in God so should all their love and this will soone teach us to love one another Lastly Consider Reason 6 and last That Saints shall have all one glorious being to eternitie John 17.24 Christ will manifest his love to all eternitie to his people he will have them all as happy as himselfe Then shall wee know indeed the life of our union with Christ and with one another Mothinkes the discovery of that love which hath made this union should beget love in all those that are thus united in the eternall love and glory of God Colos 3.4 Christ is the life and the glory of all his people and at his appearance they all oppeare in glory 1 Thes 4.16 17. This glorious being of the Saints shall be to a beleever with the Lord Oh how should this draw forth our love one to another that we shall ever be with the Lord of love if Saints be one in all these that these comprehend the whole of a Saint then why should we not be one in affection Possibly some may say wee are not all of one judgement Object and therefore cannot be one in affection That I am verily assured is our own not Gods is of the flesh Answ and not of the Spirit Through Christ says Paul I can due all things if wee looke upon one another in Christ then wee shall finde wee can love because in Christ I would aske this question Whether is the greatest argument of love being children â—f one Father or being children of equall growth or stature For I am perswaded this will comprehend all the differences among the Saints namely our state and our growth as child ren in our Fathers house the branches in Christ live and grow because in him shall wee be angry if God who is a free agent gives out more or lesse of himselfe to one brethren then to our selves Growth is as God disponses of himselfe to us What have you that you have not received sayes the Text It was the fleshly argument of Josephs brethren not to love him because they thought him dearer to their Father then themselves and because God would use and honour him above them It is the sinne and shame of Saints to make this the rule of love to their brethren that they are of one judgement at one pitch of light in the discoveries of God and not because he is a brother and beares our Fathers image If God intended to dispence alike to all his Children why then hath he provided milke for babes and stronger meate for stronger Saints And what is the meaning of God when he equires the strong to bear with the weak and to receive them but not to doubtfull disputations If a Saint makes onenesse of judgement to be the rule of his love to his brother he must then make the cause of his dislike to proceede from God because he that is free in giving hath not given equall light to all Let us take heed in this our quarrell wee be not found figbters against God He that makes his judgement to be the foundation of his love to his brethren I doubt he lays a greater weight upon it then the foundation will beare Saints knowledge in this life admits of a mixture wee know but in part and wee see but in part thou seest something of God that another sees not and another sees something of God which thou at present seest not and God beholds much of flesh and darknesse in all Saints Now consider if this glimmering light this knowing in part and this mixture of flesh and spirit be foundation strong enough to lay the weight of our love to Saints upon Spirituall love is of the greatest weight that can be this love is God for God is love so that no foundation is strong enough to beare the weight of this love but God himselfe 2 Cor. 5.16 2 Cor. 5.16 In the foregoing verse Paul lookes upon himselfe and all Saints as dead and alive with Christ and therefore he resolves in this 16. verse to know all Saints as they are in Christ to know no man after the flesh no not Christ himselfe he makes God alone the object and the foundation of his love And
three verses holds forth the ground and the reason of all these First he fs full of assurance from the testimony of the Spirit of God bearing witnesse with his Spirit as in vers 16. and from hence he is raised up into such full joy and holy boastings by receiving the spirit of Adoption which delivered him from the spirit of bondage and fear and enabled him to crie Abba-Father as in verse 15. Now being thus filled he breaks out into exhortation to holy walking out of the flesh in the Spirit and in verse 14. makes it the character of the sonnes of God to the world their being ledde by the Spirit I may fitly call this portion of Scripture the lively image of a Saint living in God and to God in the Spirit For methods sake I shall set downe two heads upon which I shall hold forth that which God shall give into me upon the meditation of this Scripture The first is the sealing worke of the Spirit of God in a Saint Head 1 or a Saint sealed up to the eternall love of God by his Spirit and that I gather out of the 16th verse and the latter part of the 15th verse The second head is this Head 2 A Saint walking and working in the Spirit or the Spirit reigning in a Saint and this I gather from verse 14. and verse 15. In this worke I shall endeavour to wave all fleshly reasons as a subject above it and keepe my selfe only to the testimony of the word of God And as a foundation to this building I judge it very necessary in two or three Scriptures to shew how wee live under the promise and the powrings forth of this Spirit in Luke 24.49 Lu. 24.49 There our Saviour promiseth to send the promise of the Father so that the certaine comming waas vnder a double promise Joh. 15.25 And in John 15.26 Our Saviour explains who hee meant by the promise of the Father Joh. 16.7 And in John 16.7 The Lord Christ doth fully promise at his going away from the world by his corporall presence that he would send the Comforter which in the last Scripture mentioned is discovered to be the Spirit Now that Christ hath made this promise good take only that one place in Acts 2.1 Acts 2.1 2 3 4. 2 3 4. I shall keep you no longer from the heads propounded but as they are laid downe so prosecute them I begin with the first of them Namely the sealing worke of the Spirit of God in a Saint or a Saint sealed up to the eternall love of God by his Spirit These Scriptures first mentioned are as full a proofe of this as any in the booke of God they tell us plainly in so many words that the spirit of Adoption being received beares witnesse to the spirit of a Saint that he is the child of God and in this assurance so satisfies the soule of a believer that he cries Abba Father that this is the office of the Spirit to seale up a Saints interest in the eternal love of God and his onnnesse with Christ Ephes 4.30 let us consult that place Ephes 4.30 where the Apostle makes it an argument a gainst corrupt or vain worldly discourse in the Saints That you may not grieve the holy Spirit of God saith he whereby you are sealed up to the day of redemption As if the Apostle had argued thus You know saith he the Spirit hath sealed you up to the love of God in Christ yea into all God and Christ all the love of God and all the blood and redemption of Jesus Christ all the righteousnesse of the Sonne the glory of the Father Now for you to be corrupt vâ—ine and worldly in your communication you seeme to deny this seale of the Spirit or your interest in God and so you grieve the Spirit whose proper worke it is to seale you up to God So in Ephes 3.16 17 18 19. Ephes 3.16 17 18 19. wee finde the Apostle praying for the Saints Now let us consider what he prayes for First that they may be strengthned with might by his Spirit in the inward man so as that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith and that they may be rooted and grounded in love that they might be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth heighth and to know the love of Christ which passeth all knowledge that they might be filled with all the fulnesse of God pray marke it Here is Christ dwelling in the heart by faith and the soule rooted and grounded in the love of God and Christ from whence it comes to know in some measure the height and breadth and depth and length of the love of Christ which passes knowledge and so comes to be filled with the fulnesse of God But whence arises all this why look into the 16th verse from being strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inward man This Spirit seales up and beares witnesse to the soule that it is in the eternall love of God in Christ and so in all that satisfaction which Christ hath made to his Fathers justice and hath an interest in all that righteousnesse which Christ hath as the head And thus Christ by his Spirit takes possession of the heart and dwels in it by faith so as he turnes all into Spirit The knowledge is made spirituall he comes to know heighths breadths depths and lengths of love Letter is now turned into Spirit and the soule now neither knows Christ nor any thing of Christ in the flesh but in the spirit Being thus strengthened with might by the sealing of the Spirit the soule is able to unfold the misteries of God Christ in the flesh and can sucke in and feed on the spirit of the word and when it reades the 53. of Isa 4 5 6 10 11. compared with 2 Co. 5. last It can draw out by the Spirit matter for the soule to live on to eternity I sayes a spirituall soule I now see that God hath set Christ in my roome and that Christ hath so really and â—â—lly all my sins imputed to him and all the punishments due to them laid on him that he is said to be made sinne for me and hee was so made sinne that God hath made him to bear all the punishments due to my sinnes Surely he hath borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to griefe and his soule is made an offering for sinne And he shall see of the travell of his soule and shall be satisfied for he shall bear their iniquities I sayes the soule now I see in the Spirit and believe that Christ was made sinne for
me and so hath taken all my sinnes and the punishment due to sinne from mee And as he was made sinne for me so am I made righteousnesse before God to all eternity in him hee is the full satisfier of divine justice for mee so that I am compleatly righteous in the righteousnesse of God in him thus doth the Spirit seale and roote and ground and establish a soule by faith in Christ And in this assurance it is that the Saints have accesse by one Spirit unto the Father Ephes 2.18 as in Ephes 2.18 In this assurance the soule runnes with holy boldnesse and throwes it selfe into the bosome of his Father In this spirituall light the soule sees that there is nothing but Christ betweene him and his Fathers bosome and this Christ to be him that hath taken all sinne punishment due to the sins of his people on himselfe so that there is not the least tittle of them to stand between God and the soule nothing but Christ betweene and this Christ stands only as the way to the Fathers bosome not to keepe out as the Angel with his sword at the entrance of the garden but to carry home and to present spotless to his Father so that God may truly say of us we have his righteousnesse in Christ Ephes 1.13 14. For further proofe looke into that Ephes 1.13 14. There the Apostle having spoken of the secrets of God his election and predestination according to his purpose in Christ in whom after yee believed yee were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise which sayes he is the earnest of our inheritance plainly making the Spirit to be the seal and the earnest of a Saints inheritance It was from this seale that Job could say I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall behold him with these eyes And so the Apostle I know sayes he if this earthly tabernacle were dissolved I should have a building not made with hands eternall in the Heavens And thus the soule is carryed above all feares under the spirit of bondage by living upon God and Christ in the spirit of Adoption bearing witnesse to the soule that it is the childe of God and so filling the soule with God that it is quiet add established and lives boasting in God as the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8. the latter end Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect who shall condemne or separate from the love of God in Christ nothing not life nor death nor any thing shall be able to dee this How knew he this why he tels you in vers 16. The Spirit of God did bear witnesse of this to his spirit And thus the soul through the seale of the Spirit quitely waites for his period in a state of grace till he be swallowed up into the fulnesse of that glory which is by the same Spirit sealed up for it as in Gal. 5.5 We through the Spirit waite saith the Apostle yea and not only wait but waite satisfied under possession the soule is satisfied with a fulnesse of eternall life as in John 4.14 There is the Spirit powred forth into a satisfying of the soul that it thirsts no more after any thing but God and is satisfied with God for it is a well of water springing up to eternall life I shall satisfie my selfe with thus much in the proofe of the first head namely the sealing worke of the Spirit of God in a Saint or a Saint sealed up to the eternall love of God by his Spirit By this we should examine our assurance of Gods love Vse whence we fetch it whether from within or from without whether from externall duties and priviledges or from an internall seale we seee it is Gods end in giving his Spirit that by it Saints may be sealed up to the day of Redemption and that we may thereby know we are his children And this wee finde to be in the experience of the Apostle Paul and other Saints Now let us aske our soules doth our assurance rise from the witnesse of the Spirit of God to our spirit Truly we shall never be established in our spirite till we come to this pitch If we live only upon those graces that flowe from the Spirit it will be a very uncertaine life for our own hearts can best witnesse how many ebbings and flowings of the fruits of the Spirit is within us Now if Gods love ebbe and flow to us as our love doth to him how changeable shall wee make God to be and how unsetled must our spirits needes be sayes God my love is unchangeable and to assure you of it I give you my Spirit to beare witnesse with your spirit that yee are the children of my love God gives his Spirit that we may looke on himselfe which is unchangeable he loves because he will love and as we can give no reason of his love so God gives no period to his love And when once the soule of a Believer comes thus to live on God himself by his spirit then he is an established soul But I hasten to the second head namely a Saints walking and working in the Spirit or the Spirit ruling and reigning in a Saint and this I gather from the 14. and 15. verses of John 14.17 There is the spirit of Truth dwelling and being in a Saint John 14.17 and the Saint knowing of this possession Here is a being and abiding a possession that leads to a ruling and a reigning The Spirit in a Saint is Christ in a Saint now Christ is a Saints head to rule in him and reigne over him And in verse 26. the Spirit puts forth an act of its Soveraignty teaching all things a Saint acting knowingly acts from the Spirit that teaches And in John 16.13 14. There is a further discovery what the Spirit shall doe when it hath possessed a soule why it makes discoveries of Christ to the soule for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you and thereby you shall be guided into all truth And as a Saint is elected into God and Christ so the holy Spirit dwelling in him he lives in and to God and Christ possessing all fulnesse in God and Christ and making all his performances from God and Christ And thus he walkes and workes in the Spirit Rom. 8.1 2 3 4 5 6.9 10 11. and the Spirit rules and reignes in him This Rom. 8.1 2 3 4 5 6 9 10 11. speaks very exactly of a Saints walking in the Spirit and the Spirit reigning in a Saint They that are in Christ Jesus saith he walke not after the flesh but after the spirit And in verse 2. he tells us he acts only in Christ and lives by the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus which hath freed him from the law of sinne and death As if hee should say all my duties and performances it is Christ living and acting by his Spirit in mee For saith he in the 3d verse
and feare it lesse it is our carnality that makes it a King and sets it on the Throne and then we fall down and worship it but God hath made the world our foote-stoole as it is Christs for he is our interest and what is his glory as our head is our glory as his members when the world concerning Saints is mentioned by God it is as an additionall thing but Christ and his righteousnesse is a Saints interest The holy Ghost gives the world this title The meate that perishes but Christ is that portion which endures for ever call not that enough which is not enough for a moment a frowne from God can in a moment darken all the world and a smile from God as soon out-shine all the beauty of the world Oh then Saints let this teach us toknow our ful interest in God and the emptinesse of this empty perishing world Lastly This cals all Saints to rejoyce in the glorious appearance of Christ that will be a day of glory that never will have night the sun that will give give light unto that day will be the Sonne of righteousnesse and the God of grace we shall from that to all eternity never behold nor enjoy lesse glory then God himselfe God filling us and all that glorious company above not only revealing but communicating the fulnesse of his glory to us so that our vilde bodies shall be made like unto his glorious body and the whole soule and body made capable to receive and shall be satisfied with the fulnesse of God all the glory of Heaven shall center in our bosomes and that shall be the feast which the Lamb and his Wife shall keep to all eternity Is not this a fit subject for our joy if such a day as this be at hand Oh then rejoyce all you whose interest is in Christ for every moment in this dying world hastens to this day all the clouds we see in this darke world are flying away that this Sun of Righteousnesse may breake forth in its full splendor and glory the world dyes that we may live things that now appeare they perish to make way for this glorious appearance of Christ and therefore live now upon this not only that we are children but knowing that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for sayes the Text we shall see him as he is CHAP. V. Christ is the foode of living soules John 6.48 I am that bread of life THESE words they are a cleare and plaine testimony of our Saviour concerning himselfe In verse 33. of this Chapter he tels the Jewes that the bread of God came downe from heaven Joh. 6.33 and giveth life unto the world For the bread of God is he which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world and then in vers 35. and vers 48. So that we must consider these words under these two heads First Head 1 The Lord Jesus Christ to be that bread which came downe from heaven Secondly Head 2 The Lord Jesus Christ to be that bread which gives life to the world For proofe of this first head we need goe no further then this Chapter in which every testimony to this truth is the witnesse of the Lord of truth even Christ himselfe to that of the 33. verse take the 38. verse of this Chapter For I came downe from heaven not to doe my owne will but the will of him that sent me So in vers 52. I am the living bread which came downe from heaven And likewise in vers 58. This is that bread which came downe from heaven Christ speaking in the verse before this of his Fathers sending him these Scriptures prove the truth But it will be said Object every good and perfect gift comes from above and wherein lies the peculiarity of Christ in this more then in other gifts of God I answer that in the consideration of the next head Answ which is that Christ is the bread of life or that bread which gives life to the world In this I say the peculiarity of Christ comming from heaven will appear Thus is the marrow and the life of all our Saviours discourse in this Chapter as it were center'd in this 48. vers I am that bread of life In verse 33. he calls himselfe the bread of God and the life of the world And in vers 38. he shewes how he came to be the life of the world even by the will of God sent by God and his businesse the worke and the will of God In this 39. and 40. verses he tels us And this is the Fathers will which hath sent me that of all which hee hath given me I should loose nothing but should raise it up againe at the last day And this is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the sonne and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day Here our Saviour cleares up whom hee meant by the world namely the elect and chosen of God which are given to Christ by his Father and then declares that his worke is his Fathers will and tels us what it is namely that all which God his Father had given him should have everlasting life in him He tels us how faithfull he will be in this worke so that nothing shall be lost that God hath committed to him and tels us this is the will of God Verse 40. that every soule which hee hath given to Christ should have a discovery of him and believe on him and that in all this wil of God runs the seed of eternal life For that part which is capable of lying downe in the dust to sleepe even that part shal not be lost but shall be raised up at the last day that is the last day of the world which passeth away like a dreame in the night Now if we lay all this together must we not needes acknowledge this truth That Christ is the bread of God the bread of life yea the God of life Our Saviour uses this term of bread indulgently to the weaknesse of our flesh but his work is in the Spirit and if God give us the Spirit with the letter we shal discerne the glory of Christ as he is our life in his own light This appears by our Saviours owne words in vers 63. of this chapter It is the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speake unto you they are spirit and they are life Christs words are spirit life Verse 49. because himself is our spiritual life In vers 49. Christ tels us what he doth mean by this bread of life Your fathers did eate Manna in the wildernesse and are dead As if Christ should say no externals whatsoever is your life you may feede on them all your way in the wildernesse and yet soule and body dye But in the two next verses he speaks plainly what is the bread he meant
vers 50. and 51. This is the bread which commeth downe from heaven that man may eate thereof and not dye I am the living bread which came downe from heaven if any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Here I say Christ demonstrates what is the bread hee meant namely himselfe in the flesh and he becomes this bread of life by giving his life in the flesh for us In the 53 54 55 56. verses of this chapter out Saviour shewes us how that interest in him as a crucified Jesus is our life and that he may fully cleare this out to us he holds forth himselfe not only a crucified Saviour but a living God In verse 57. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Our Saviour's argument seemeth to be thus I live as one in God and you as one in mee And thus is Christ that bread of life or that bread which gives life to his owne in the world Thus much for proof to the two heads that were first laid down I shall now hold out such spiritual observations from what hath gone before as I have received from Christ And the first observation shall be this namely That Christ only is a Saints life By this I mean that every sparke of a Saints life lies in Christ and so in Christ that it is in nothing else in which Christ is not all Christ is so fully and solely a Saints life that take all duties ordinances priviledges and externall advantages whatsoever substracted from Jesus Christ and they are all dead things but like the grave cloaths in the Sepulchre when Christ was risen Our Saviour himselfe beares witnesse to this truth I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the Father but by me It is a truth so deare to God and Christ that Christ speakes to it in this place as fully as termes can expresse it both in the affirmative and the negative I am the life sayes Christ that is in the affirmative And so the life that no man comes to my Father the fountaine of life but by me there in the negative and affirmative both in the negative exclusive from Christ and in the affirmative inclusive If wee consult that place in John 16.14 where our Saviour speaks of the office of the Spirit and the usefulnesse of it in the hearts of his people we shall find it speak to this thing we have in hand John 16.14 He shall glorifie me for hee shall receiverf mine and shall shew it unto you Marke it the work of the Spirit is to reveal Christ to us as he is our life and so glorifie Christ in shâ—wing him to be our life As if Christ had said the holy Ghost when he comes hee shall shew you your names written in the booke of Life with my blood all your sinnes laid on me and that I have buried them in my owne wounds so that they shall never rise up in judgment more against you my righteousnesse your robe of glory perfect glory in the sight of God my law of love written in your hearts to be the power that shall slay sinne in your lives Thus the Spirit shall glorifie me in shewing you that I am your life in whole and every part of it Christ as hee is one with God is our fountaine of life in all our addresses to God he is our way truth and life For further confirmation take the experience of the Apostle It is not I saith the Apostle but Christ that lives in me and the life that I live it is by the faith of the Sonne of God And in another place Our lives are bid with Christ in God Take this Text for all 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are yee in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption Marke it here Christ is made all by God to us for what can you call life that is not bound up in some or all of these The 29. verse of that Chapter gives a good and â—ull reason why God made Christ all to his people namely this that no flesh should glory in his presence This reason is so full that the truth stands strong upon it against all gain-sayers grace were nor grace if flesh had any thing in it selfe to glory of in the presence of God our life to be only in Christ preserves as entirely the glory of Gods free-grace as it doth the safety of our soules for that soul that glories in Christ as his life glorifies the free grace of God which gave that life When the Apostle speakes of the acts of life in his soule he makes Christ all for sayes hee I can doe all things through Christ that streng thneth me And the same Apostle in another place sayes he it is meerely of grace that I am what I am so that you see where Christ is made all there free-grace hath the glory of all and this is the great designe of God to all eternity to glorifie his free grace Thus much shall suffice for the first observation That Christ only is a Saints life A second observation is this If it be thus Saints should value and esteeme of Christ as their lives Saints what meane these carnall feares doth not Christ live If the world be nothing is not Christ enough Why feare you so much to loose the meate that perisbes when Christ this bread of life lives for ever cannot you be content the world should bring forth wants why there is no other place of want but that there is bread enough in your Fathers house Heaven only is the proper place of fulnesse doth it not speake an undervaluing of Christ that carnall feare shall possesse our spirits of want when Christ the fulnesse of the God-head bodily is our life portion Nay what mean these stoopings and bendings of our judgements affections services to the world and worldly ends Is not this the end of it to live in their love and esteeme so as to make a portion of perishing things friends of the unrighteous Mammon Saints will this stand with an esteeme of Christ as our life A soule that truly values Christ it pants thus in spirit Let me know truths as they are in Jesus and obey them in the spirit of Jesus God hath made the world my foote-stoole as it is his and I am one with him Christ is only my life and glory I would trample upon my foot-stoole and lie downe in the bosome of Christ who is my life and glory this is a soule that truly values Christ But tell me Saints if we value Christ as our life or portion and our crowne of glory our best and truest friend our faithfull brother and our loving husband one that hath borne all Gods wrath
and Christ is in the Spirit now to enjoy God in his originall love with Christ in all hee is as the fruits of this love this is our life and this can only be in the Spirit Oh then it concerns us to plead our interest as children for the spirit of Adoption as it is in Rom. 8.14 15 16. It is the breathings of the Spirit which makes dead bones to live Ordinances and soules will be both dead without Christ in the Spirit it is expedient to goe sayes Christ to send the comforter and it is as needfull that he give the Spirit without it we can never have fellowship with the Father nor the Sonne in whom only our joy our life and our glory will be full In this Spirit only can wee live upon Christ as hee is the bread of life and our bread of life CHAP. VI. Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage Gal. 4.5 6. To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes And because yee are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into your hearts crying Abba-Father THE Apostle Paul in almost this whole Epistle makes it his businesse and designe to discover to Saints their liberty in Christ and as it appeares by the Apostles writing to them in the foregoing chapter and in this These Saints to which he did more particularly write lay under legall principles and moved with legal spirits now for a remedy of this to them and all Saints after them in these two verses the Apostle holds forth Christ under a double capacity namely Justification and Sanctification to the Believer And in both a perfect freedome from the law so far as it is freedome to be delivered from it The first of these two verses holds out Christ justifying of his people in the redemption of his blood from what ever the law could accuse them of or charge upon them The latter verse holds forth the fruits of this redemption or indeede a part of this redemption it selfe Namely this That because we are sonnes God hath sent forth the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts crying Abba Father Either of these two parts are worthy a Saints study and admiring for ever I shall lay the foundation of what shall follow in this Point Namely that it is part of the Redemption of the bloud of Christ to a believer that no law should command or rule in the conscience or spirit of a believer but the Law of love the spirit of Adoption is here given forth to that very end that in it the soule may keep its communion close with God and Christ and be alwayes able to cry Abba Father In the proofe of this we must consider the first and second Adam as wee were in the first Adam we lay under a law of Creation and a Covenant of workes as creatures to obey our Creator and in obeying to have life doe and live but transgresse and die In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death But in the second Adam the Lord Christ the Covenant we are under is not of workes but of grace the law is not in the letter but in the spirit not written in Tables of stone but in the hearts of his people by his Spirit as appeares clearely where the Covenant of Free-Grace is recorded as in Jer. 31.33 34. and in Heb. 8.10 In both places God doth not only covenant to be our God reconciled to us not imputing sin and iniquity to his people any more but also to put his Law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts so that this way he will teach and rule in the hearts of his people under that covenant of which Christ is the Mediator God is a Spirit and when he promiseth to write his law in our hearts wee must understand him thus the workings of his spirit in the hearts of his people Letter shall be turned into spirit Christ shall be a King as well as a Saviour and as a spirituall King so his law and his government spirituall that the Lord Christ and his Father may appeare one in this great engagement of teaching and ruling in the hearts of his people by the Spirit let us looke into Christs promise Joh. 14.15 16 17.26 Jo. 16.13 14. Here the Lord Christ promiseth to performe that Office of his intercession to God for us that he would make good his owne covenant and give his spirit to comfort lead and guâ—de the soules of his people Now the making good of Gods covenant and the efficacy of Christs intercession for this spirit to rule in the hearts of his people every soule in its owne particular can best cleare up the faithfulnesse of God and Christ But the Apostle Paul in the power of the spirit sets it out at large in Rom. 8.2 3 4 5.9 10 11.14 15.26 27. Observe the exprestious of the holy Ghost in the second verse For the law of the â—pirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and 〈…〉 is mention of a double law and as distinct each from other as life and death the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death I looke on these two as that which depends on the two Covenants that of Workes and that of Grace or as it is else-where expressed the Law of the first and second husband which is the first and second Adam Now whilst the first Adam is alive in the conscience the conscience is kept under his law which is thus the law of sin and death as it makes known sin and the wages of sin which is death but sin saith the Text is not imputed where there is no law Rom. 5.13 and in Rom. 6.23 the wages of sin is death And then in Rom. 7. beginning the Apostle saith this law hath dominion over the conscience so long as the first husband lives From these places I judge I am not mistaken in the interpreting the law of sin and death but that the holy Ghost clearly meanes that law of Creation doe and live or the bare Letter of command in the conscience Only let us consider what is meant by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus which I understand thus That through that union the soule of a believer hath with Christ it is made spirituall Christ in his Kingly Office in throned in the conscience and the the soule resting in the bosome of Christ as a dutifull Spouse in the bosome of her beloved husband and his law is the law of the spirit of life that law which is life it selfe and turnes letter into spirit One thing more I would explaine my self in that is how I understand the holy Ghost in this freedome that the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made to a believer from the law of sin and death by the spirit of life I understand Christ
in the spirit Now the freedome the Lord Christ hath made for the soules of believers from this law of Creation under the Covenant of workes It is double Namely from the condemning power the ruling or reigning power of the law in the conscience Of the first of these there is the least scruple and not being so fully within that I desire to hold to I shall wave it and keep only to the latter Namely how Christ hath freed the. Believer in his conscience from the ruling or reigning power of the law of creation in the letter only For light in this consider the 4th verse of Rom. 8. and so forward taking in the latter part of the 3. verse it wil appeare to be the designe of God in sending Christ in the the flesh that Christ in the Spirit might rule in the soules and spirits of his people God sending his Sonne in the likenesse of sinfull flesh that the righteousnesse of the law might be fulfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit That is to walke after the rule which is not the flesh but the Spirit and so goes on to shew the difference betweenâ— flesh and spirite making it all along a part of our redemption in Christ to live in the Spirit making the Spirit our light and our life our rule and our strength In Rom. 8.14 There the Apostle speaks plainly and makes it a demonstration of our sonne ship to be ruled by the Spirit For as many as are ledde by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God Hee speakes in verse 16. following of the seale of the Spirit But here he speaks distinctly of the ruling power of the Spirit that hath power of a man to lead the man as it pleaseth and that is the terme here sonnes of God led by the Spirit of God that this Spirit is sufficient to rule the consciences of believers wee may plainly see in Rom. 6.14 Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the law but under grace I know not what can be more plaine then this here is a promise sinne shall not have dominion over us And the reason given is that part of the redemption of Christ to the soule of a believer from the ruling power of the law to the ruling power of the spirit of grace Marke the inference therefore sinne shall not have dominion over you because sinne shall not find you under the ruling power of the law in your conscience which affords no stâ—ength against it but sinne shall finde you under the law of the spirit of grace which is in Christ the law of life to the soule and death to sinne therefore sinne and death shall be swallowed up of victory in you by the spirit of Christ as it was for you in the death of Christ Sinne hath its repulse in the soule from the change of the law that rules the law of sinne and death turned into the law of spirit and life I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me saith the Apostle I am not delivered from the dominion of sinne because I have the light of the law of creation to discover sinâ— but I am under the law of the spirit of life and grace not only to discover but to destroy sinne Sin hath not dominion because that which opposes it is Christ not I. Thus I have endeavoured to let you understand that light God hath given mse in this part of the redemption of his blood for his Sonne to deliver us from the ruling power of any law in our consciences but the law of love in the spirit of life But that I may be rightly understood I desire you to remember a clause that I laid down in the beginning where I endeavored to open these verses the clause is this That the Believer in the blood and spirit of Christ hath a perfect freedome from the law so farre as it is freedome to be delivered I laid it so downe that I might have here roome to distinguish betweene the ruling power of the law and the matter and substance of the law In the first sense the ruling power of the Law I doe really believe from what hath beene delivered already and some further reasons that I shall discover That the conscience of a believer is by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made free from the law of sinne and death But for the second part the matter or substance of the law which I take to be the whole revealed will of God and is in its utmost power and purity written in the heart of every believer Not only the whole revealed will of God in his word made flesh and dwelling among us but made Spirit and dwelling in us Thus to give you a little light I shall be more full in what followes give me leave to adde some further reasons to prove the former thing As first If the law in the letter be the rule in the conscience of a Believer then Moses not Christ must be the King for sayes the Text Moses was faithfull in his house as a servant but Christ as the sonne Moses may rule till Christ comes but as Christ had none to help him in the work of redemption no more will he in the work of ruling Secondly If Moses be to rule where Christ hath redeemed where is the making good of Gods Covenant to write his law in our hearts what benefit in the promise of the comforter that spirit of truth to lead into all truth Thirdly If the law rule and Moses be King the strength must be in our selves to obey for neither Moses nor the law in the letter can give any strength If either could Christ hath dyed in vaine and if strength be in our selves then Gods designe in sending Christ is lost which is to justifie his people freely by his grace so as there may be no roome for flesh to boast in not the law of works but the law of faith to be pleaded as appears in that third chapter to the Romans Lastly If the Law be to rule in the spirits of Gods people then obedience to that law must quiet satisfie the hearts of Gods people Now as the Apostle in Gal. 3.2 This only would I learne of you Received yee the Spirit by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith So say I and appeale to the consciences and experience of every Saint that tasts the joyes of life in God received it you by the the workes of the Law or in the seale and workings of the spirit of life in which you are freed from the law of sinne and death So I shall come to that second part the matter and substance of the law Under this comprehend the whole revealed will of God in his word but to distinguish betweene that part of Gods word more distinctly known by the ten commandements from any other part of the revealed will
for the good of others and therefore lookes on it as his duty and that he is obliged by the law of Christ shed abroad in his heart to become all things lawfull to all men that hee may gaine some Againing and not a destroying worke is in his eye and this makes him indeed and in truth to lye low at the feete of the weakest Saint and this he doth from a spirituall consideration how that he stands justified to all eternity by the free-grace of God through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ for wee are justified freely by the grace of God through Jesus Christ CHAP. IX Christ and the new Creature are unseparable 2 Cor. 5. former part of vers 17. Therefore if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature THE Apostle doth in this Scripture as in all other like a good and faithfull servant make it his whole businesse and design to advance his Masters glory the Lord Jesus Christ A new creature is the most glorious object that the world affords and the Apostles care is to hold that forth in all its glory namely in Christ A creature in Christ is a new creature indeed and a new creature is in Christ indeed As if the Apostle had said there is not any man who is in Christ what ever he was before but by vertue of that union he is made a new creature though before a wilde Olive yet so soone as ingrafted into Christ the tree of life hee brings forth good fruit As you cannot gather grapes from thornes nor figs of thistles no more can the members of Christ be barren or bring forth briers or thistles in stead of the fruits of the Spirit which is love joy c. Christ is the Saints fountaine that is united to him out of whom can flow no bitter water Hee that is borne of God sins not so far as the new birth is in him though there be a law in the members in the flesh of Saints which serves the law of sin yet with the law of their mindes they serve the will of God so that you shall finde Saints in this frame complaining of selfe and admiring of God condemning of self and justifying of God the remainder of the old man in me that is my selfe my flesh saith a Saint but the new creature that is Christ in me the hope of glory that is the King of glory come into my soule and displaying the glory of his presence there that is Christ in me and I in Christ in whome I am made a new creature therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature and if any man be a new creature it is Christ in him That there may appeare Method in what followeth take this one generall Observation Namely That being in Christ and the new creature are inseperable they alway gee together If in Christ then a new creature and if a new creature then in Christ as it is impossible to be a new creature before united to Christ so it is as impossible to be truly in Christ and not to be a new creature as those dead bones could not live before God had united them covered them with skin and breathed life into them For testimony to this truth take in the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8.10 And if Christ be in you the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousnesse He gives us this truth as it were upon his experience as if he had said I have found this that ever since I have bin in union with Christ the body of sin hath bin a dying the spirit of life hath carried me forth to the fruits of righteousnesse I am dead now to the commands of sin and flesh by which I have formerly binned captive and am made alive in my spirit to the workes of righteousnesse and if you aske me a reason of this it is Christ in me And iâ— Christ be in you it will be so with you too your bodies will be dead to the commands of sin and your spirits alive in the fruits of righteousnesse you will finde Christ a living Christ the second man from heaven heavenly and as a living Christ so hee makes life where ever he comes and the life he brings is heavenly Christ makes the new creature therefore can never be without the new creature What hath its being from Christ cannot be without Christ Now the new creature hath its being from Christ it could not be but in Christ and by Christ so that it must needs follow it is alwayes with Christ where Christ is there is the new creature indeed the new creature is nothing else but Christ possessing himselfe of a soule living in it and reigning over it by his spirit as Satan doth in the meere naturall man A Saint he dies with Christ and he lives with Christ Christ dies for him and lives in him and wee shall finde the Apostle Paul in Gal. 2.20 making this confession and acknowledgment I am crucified with Christ neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me He doth acknowledge himselfe to be dead crucified to himselfe in the death of Christ and then laies hold of another life but it is out of selfe by faith in Christ this is my very life now whilst I am in the flesh saith he and truly this my life is Christ in me it is not I but Christ that lives in me that faith which is in me is not selfe but Christ as if he had said my life is a new life and that life is the new creature and that new creature is Christ in me I am that Temple which you see Christ lives in but Christ is the life of that Temple Without me saith Christ you can doe nothing True Lord saith Paul but through thy strength I can doe all things as if Christ had said you cannot be new creatures till you be in me and I in you I finde that true saith Paul for in me that is in my flesh there is no good But I have also experimented this truth if once in thee I can be no longer an old creature as he tells us in Gal. 1.15 16. So soone as ever God had called me by his grace to reveale his sonne in me that I might preach him among the heathens immediately I obeyed and did not stand to confer with flesh and blood Not to see by his old eyes nor to act upon his old principles flesh and blood must no longer teach and lead Paul when God had called him by his grace and revealed Christ to him as if Paul should say I am now united to the Lord Jesus and I cannot but be a new creature the Kingdome of God is within me and it will burst out it is like new wine in old bottles as my flesh was
the law of God though with the flesh the law of sinne The Lord Christ he ruled and governed in the mind of Paul and he doth acknowledge it for he thankes God through Jesus Christ he served the law of God with his minde and so beares witnesse to this truth that where Christ commands and governes there Gods law is obeyed And the same Apostle in the next chapter Rom. 8.2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death As if he had said I was in bondage under the law of sin in the condemning and the reigning power of it till Christ came to command in my soule by his Spirit and then I found deliverance so that now I can say It is not I but Christ that lives in mee The olde man the law of sinne was in command till Christ came but now we that were sometimes darkenesse are made light in the Lord and that light is the light of life and the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts is both roote strength to a new life So the same Apostle I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Though the new creature be a worke too hard for my flesh yet it is not too hard for Christ in the Spirit Nay it is the certaine and the constant worke of the Lord Jesus to make the new creature Hee is made to us of God Sanctification as truly as Redemption so this is an undeniable truth That if any man be in Christ he is a new creature In this meditation there is much to informe us exceeding usefull for a christians knowledge As first it informes all of the holinesse and purity of God that though his grace call pitty and pardon the worst of sinners yet his purity will imbosome no soule but in Christ and in Christ he makes them new creatures The Lord Christ himselfe tels us in one Text That no man commeth to the Father but by him And this Text tels us That if any man be in Christ he is a new creature So that such souls as come and lye downe in the bosome of God come through Christ in whom they are made new creatures as God in himselfe is that perfection to whom there can be no addition so he is that perfect purity which cannot have communion with any impure thing God is that light which discovers all darkenesse and that fire which burneth up all drosse so that if filth approach his presence his light discovers it it cannot be hid from him all thoughts and things are alwayes naked before his presence and his fire consumes it for God out of Christ is a consuming fire truly he knows not God which saith in his heart that God and Belial may live together Our God is a God of glory and the glorious God he is not a God which hath eyes and seeth not eares and heareth not hands and handleth not exclude sinne and then there is nothing he is not he is the all of all the first the fountaine and the fulnesse of all but sinne so that God is so infinitely pure that he is all but what is impure hee is pure in the fountaine and the fountaine of purity Purity flowes only from God and that only returnes to God nothing but purity can dwell in God for God is pure And if thus then secondly this informes us of the riches of Gods free-grace which hath not only given us a justifying but also a sanctifying Jesus That Christ should not only deliver his Elect from the condemning power but also from the reigning power of sin not only deliver from the justice of God in satisfying Justice for them but so carrying them in his owne righteousnesse into the bosom of God where he biddeth them all eate my beloved feed abundantly and be satisfied A Saints life is bound up in God his blessednesse is to have communion with God Now considering the purity of God and the impurity of fallen man if free-grace had not made Christ our way and our Sanctification as our Redemption we could never have been blessed in communion with God If the bosome of God be a place of rest If the love of God be the foode of eternall life If that glory at Gods right hand be more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Oh then what riches is that riches of free-grace which hath given all this freely and Jesus Christ in whom wee have these and all the fulnesse of glory not only freely but full and that to all eternity If this be the fruit of grace then surely it must be rich glorious grace the fountaine must needs be precious the streames are so full of glory If we be saved sanctified and glorified meerely by grace then it must be rich grace that gives forth so richly to all eternity Thirdly this informes us of the sad and miserable condition of prophane carnal wretches the fruit of such lives tels us plainly that Christ is none of their roote The fruits of darknesse are discovered by the light but cannot be the proceeding or issue of the light The flesh hath workes as proper to it and floweth as naturally from it as any the Spirit hath And the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8.5 6 7 8. Ephes 5.8 9. Gal. 5.17 to the end doth discover both the rootes and the fruits of flesh and Spirit which are as clearely to be distinguished between as light and darknesse and is in no nearer union then the seede of the Serpent and the seede of the woman If any man be in Christ he is a new creature olde things are passed away behold all things are become new Truly this is but sad tidings for such poore soules that are yet old creatures not yet renewed in the spirit of their minds It speaks very loud and plainly to them that they are not yet united to Christ for were they in him he would soon make them new creatures The Apostle Paul in Ephes 4.17 18 19. speaking of the Gentiles Walking in the vanity of their minds having their understandings darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance and blindnesse of their hearts who being past feeling had given themselves over unto all lasciviousnesse to worke all uncleannesse with greedinesse In vers 20. But ye have not so learned Christ As if hee had said such a life as that is the proper fruit of a naturall condition a man out of Christ for Christ he teacheth no such things but on the contrary as in verse 22 23 24. of that Chapter Christ he teacheth To put off concerning the former conversation the olde man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts and to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse It is sad indeed for poor soules to gather that which sinne and Sathan is the roote and to please it selfe
the light Bare formall profession is so true an enemie to nothing as to spirituall light and an empty form enraged against nothing more then the power of godlinesse and therefore God makes tryall of all professing and professors by the powrings forth of his Spirit Truly if God did not looke that such as worship him should worship him in spirit truth he might have worshippers all the world over If the spirit and power of godlinesse were not the distinguishing character between professors Christ would have all to follow him and Saints and truth none to oppose them but when the Spirit of truth gathers up Saints into truths as they are in Jesus above this or the other naked forme and into the power of godlinesse bringing forth the fruits of holinesse then not only carnall wretches but also naked formall professors rise up against them and thus by this fire of the Spirit God doth discover all professors that build upon this foundation the Lord Jesus whether they be gold silver and precious stones or whether they be wood hay or stubble by their abiding or consuming Truly formes or no formes can give no good testimony to this new creature I judge of form no form as the Apostle of circumcision and uncircumcision that they avail nothing but the new creature And I believe as the power of godlinesse shall encrease the contendings in the world about formes will decrease that I am troubled at is this when men are rigidly zealous for formes yet then negligent of the power of godlinesse in themselves and opposite to it in others especially if they differ in formes which makes it evidently to appeare that their forme is their God and they have no God but forme And on the other side it is as sad if not more sad to behold such as pretend to higher communion with God then others have which walke in the use of formes and yet in their lives as loose as vaine and as empty of God as those which have nothing but forme That I contend for is the power of godlinesse and I would all the contentions in the world were swallowed up in this namely who should live up most of Christ to exceede each other in the power of godlinesse this contention would kill none but our lusts love to Christ Saints and truths would live indeed and 't would be our life to live in this love But there is another sort of people in the world which this truth informes us of that is such as talke much of the grace of God and yet turne that grace into wantonnesse such wretches did never spiritually understand this Text That who ever is in Christ is a new creature Nor doe they consider how they engage the purity of Christ to discover their impurity The Apostle Paul in Rom. 6. makes it matter of abhorrency to continue in sinne upon this consideration because grace did abound in God and truly God doth more abhorre to own them under a notion of grace be not deceived God is not mocked he will make his word appear truth against all the wretches in the world they shall know that such as are in Christ they are new creatures I have heard it reported that there be some which deny the Scriptures That which is understood by the titles of the old and new Testament to be the word of God I can say no such thing knowingly but sure I am that many thousands which acknowledge it with their lips deny it with their lives and that in this one Text That if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature for they will lay claime to the one and deny the other talke of their interest in saving grace but deny his sanctifying grace Such wretches as these bring an evill report upon the Gospel of Christ and the Christ of the Gospel The Gospel of Christ it is glad tidings being the proclaiming of Christ crucified as the gift of free-grace for poore sinners Now when such as hate to be reformed talke of the free-grace of God they put dishonour upon it and a stumbling-blocke before weake Christians It makes them stagger at grace to see grace-lesse men professe it and grace in truth hath harder thoughts of many and is lesse esteemed of because of this false profession of grace and I feare me it makes poore legall soules to make a God of their duties when they see these vilde creatures to abuse the grace of God I know not what is more vilde then this to live in sinne under a profession of grace These are seared consciences indeed that can sinne and name it grace and then call the God of truth to witnesse to that lye nay to make God himselfe a lyar for he saith who ever is in Christ is a new creature but they say they are in Christ and yet are olde creatures God will unmaske this hypocrisie and prove himselfe the God of truth Christ hath no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse such as are in Christ their fellowship is with the Father with the Son such as have fellowship with Christ are those that live in Christ and Christ in them that live by the faith of the Sonne of God and in the spirit of the holy God so that they are changed into the image of God This is the new creature this is the gracious soule indeed such as have the power of their lives It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that knoweth my Fathers will and doth it saith Christ 'T is grace in truth and act that consists with union and communion with Christ if in Christ then a new creature and all profession of grace without the new creature will appeare our owne fancy of grace and not the grace of God in truth for that alwayes produceth the new man If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Lastly This informes Saints indeed of their duty and priviledge for truly it is both and it is this That wee live to no other end but to live up Christ who is our life and if Christ be our life then we are new creatures and the life of the new creature is to live up Christ which is its life Children of the day should walke as such in the light of the Lord in the power and might of his Spirit It is the Apostles exhortation in Gal. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walke in the Spirit As if hee had said it is not only our businesse as Saints to live in the joyes of God but also to live up the God of our joyes not only to live upon God in the Spirit but to walke with God in the Spirit that is in the fruits of the Spirit for that is the Apostles subject in the verses just before this Christ is a living Christ he appeare where ever he is The Apostle James in his 2d chap. vers 17. tels us that faith
Seeking those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of GOD. Having its affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.1 2. As Christ so Saints in the world have no other businesse but to doe the will of their Heavenly Father Now truly the consideration of this may well put all Saints upon that great work of selfe-examination We are apt enough to see a mote in our brothers eye when wee overlooke the beame that is in our owne But it is the onely businesse of every Saint to live up Christ then it is worth the looking into our lives how much of Christ wee can find there what singlenesse of soule is in us to all the wayes will and worke of Christ whether we follow Christ for love or for the loaves For what hee is or for what hee gives Whether it be his love that constraines us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts or whether feare of Hell shame or punishment stops the eyes pursute and stops the prractise of sinne Or whether our profession of godlinesse under what forme soever be to lift up Christ or selfe Whether if Heaven and Sinne might goe together we would not rather have sin live in our souls then Christ Whether that the profession of godlinesse which we seem so much to delight in be not a burthen to us in the power and life of it Whether that day in which Christ is most and selfe least in our souls be best to the souls content Whether it be the souls desire petition at the throne of grace to be unselft in every thing and that Christ may be all in all whether the soul doth indeed count that a lost day hour or moment in which he doth not in some measure lift up Christ and declare the in-dwelling of Christ in his soule by the out-goings of Christ in his life It is worthy a soules examination how the olde man dyeth and the new man is renewed in him day by day how pride and passion is brought under the feete of Christ in our soules how through Christ that loves us we are more then conquerours over sin and selfe by the love of Christ that conquers them in us and enableth us by his love to live like conquerours rejoycing and glorying in the free grace of our God the new creature is Christ in truth and truths as they are in Jesus godlinesse in power and the power of godlinesse holinesse in its beauty and the beauty of holinesse God in the Spirit and the Spirit of God heavenly mindednesse and a mind in heaven it is living and walking in the Spirit it is a soule united to Christ Christ in it and it in Christ Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature CHAP. X. Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sun Eccles Chap. 1. vers 14. I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit THIS Scripture is the testimony of the Wise man concerning all things under the Sunne and it is so upon seeing and trying all these things In the verse before this he tels us hee gave his heart to seeke and to search out by wisdome concerning the things that are done under heaven He hath attained the beholding of what he gave hie heart to seeke so that both seeking and seeing in wisdome he findes all to be vanity and vexation of spirit The vanity of the whole creation is the subject matter of all his booke He begins it thus in this first Chap. and 2d vers Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is vanity His heart is so full of the matter that hee doubles the sentence and as he begins with it in the generall so in his whole booke he followes the same subject in the particulars of it concludes his booke with the same generall in Chap. 13. vers 8. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity The Psalmist in Psalm 144. vers 4. Bears witnesse to this truth in the top-branch of all the creation Man saith he is like to vanity and he proves it for his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away And in Psalm 62.9 takes in men of high and low degree in the proofe of this generall truth Surely men of low degrees are vanity and men of high degrees are a lye to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity the vanity of the creature is a subject well worthy the study of a wise christian and truly none but Christ our wisdome can give us light into this vanity for method sake wee will draw out one generall truth which I thinke is visible in this Scripture That upon true discovery and knowledge of all things under the Sunne we shall finde them vanity and vexation of spirit For the proofe of this truth let us search the Scripture and our owne experience the wise man to prove this truth begins with man in his labour in his first Chap. vers 3 4. What profit hath a man of all his labour under the Sunne for he stayes not to keepe any fruit of his labour but passeth away one generation goeth and another commeth So in Chap. 2. vers 22 23. Man reapeth no content from all his labours under the sunne They fill him full of sorrow travell and griefe and at last he cannot lye downe and rest in them They are a bed of thornes unfit for rest yea when the poore creature comes to lye down indeed and sleep that sleep of death it find â—s no rest in all its labours under the Sun of what kinde soever So in Chap. 1.6 9.17 18 19. verses He tels us mans labour under these vanities is so great that he cannot utter it and that without any satisfaction though what is pursued be enjoyed For though the eye see yet it is not satisfied with seeing and though the eare doe he are yet it is not filled with hearing The creature can never give so long and so much till that which receives from it saith it hath enough though it give objects to the eye yet the eye wants more objects then it can give and though it offers to fill the eare yet the eare is not filled with all that it can give there is no new thing under the Sunne but that which hath been shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done So that though I give my heart to know all things wisdome madnesse and folly yet I find nothing new in them And in stead of content in all this variety of knowledge I found vexation of spirit for I will tell you the best and then judge you the rest In much wisdome is much griefe and he that encreaseth knowledge encreaseth sorrow And if this be the best of the best who can tell what is the worst of the worst he comes to particulars in Chap. 2. vers 1. he
intends to prove his heart with mirth and the enjoying of pleasure and in the proving his heart doth experience those things and findes them vanity and behold This also is vanity vers 2. I said of laughter that is madnesse and of mirth what doth it 1. It doth not satisfie therefore it is vanity So in vers 4. and so forward he tels us That he made him great workes and buildings planted vineyards made Gardens and Orchards planted trees in them of all kindes of fruits got him servants and maidens servants borne in his house so that he had great possessions of great and small Cattell above all that were in Jerusalem before him He likewise gathered up silver and gold and got men-singers and women-singers with the delights of the sonnes of men as musicke-instruments and that of all sorts so that hee was greater then all that was before him in Jerusalem And in vers 10. He gave out his heart to take joy in all this and kept not his eyes from any thing that they desired But in vers 11. he gives in this report of all this fulnesse and his full experience of it Then I looked on all the workes that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to doe And behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sunne I cannot imagine a fuller proofe then this Scripture here is wisdome possessing and trying all things under the Sunne and findes no profit in any or all of them 1. They yeelded no return of benefit to his labours there was more sorrow and travell then enjoyment nay not only no profit but vanity and vexation of spirit in all yet he tels us He possessed more then all that went before him and none that commeth after him should exceede him For saith he what can the man doe that commeth after the King He may not thinke to gâ—â—spe more of the world then I have done and when he hath all he hath but so much vanity and with it vexation of spirit The wise man gives an instance of this vanity in Chap. 4. vers 8. There is one alone and there is not a second yea hee hath neither childe nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour neither is his eye satisfied with riches neither saith he for whom doe I labour bereave my selfe of good This is also vanity yea it is a sore travell As if hee had said I will make you judge of all the labours of man in the things of the world for looke upon a man that spends all his time in labour after the world he encreaseth daily in riches but not in content hee is not the more at ease for the more hee possesseth but more creature he hath the more desire and travell encreaseth Nay saith he this is a great vanity he doth all this to encrease his labour of which there is no end though hee have no satisfaction in his riches nor any to leave them too he is like the barren womb that is never satisfied nor bringeth forth any to be satisfied after it Man may find creature to love and vanity enough in the world to possesse but in all his love shal be lost and shall not finde satisfaction in any abundance under the Sun Ch. 5. v. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor hee that loveth abundance with encrease this also is vanity And if vaine man should gather up a content as hee thinketh in these vaine things so that with the foole in the Gospel he bids his soule take ease he hath goods laid up for many yeares yet the Wise man saith joy and laughter it shall be as the crackeling of thornes under a pot this also is vanity Chap. 7. vers 6. So he telleth us that in respect of the world men and beasts dye alike Chap. 3. vers 19 20. For that which befalleth the sonnes of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dyeth so dyeth the other all goe unto one place all are of the dust and all return to dust again So Chap. 2 vert 16. The wise man and the foole dyeth both alike Thus the wise man hath given in his experimentall testimony to this truth both in the life and death of man for further proofe let us looke upon Job both in his full and his empty conditions they were both under the Sunne and therefore a certainty in neither hee that had so much of every thing in a few moments had nothing but his body full of sores and a pot-sheard to scrape them with and this low condition had the uncertainty of the world in it for that passeth away and his latter end was greater then his beginning I cite it only to this purpose to demonstrate the vanity of all outward conditions under the Sunne whether they be full or empty Jonas had pleasure in the gourd but it was short-liv'd pleasure for in one night the gourd withered and his pleasure turned into anger This gourd is a true embleme of the whole world the momentary delights they give produce nothing else but anger at their parting Jonas said he did well to be angry so doth every poore creature when the world withers and dyes like it selfe saith it doth well to be angry with God because it selfe is no wiser then to thinke the groud would last alway This is the world and this is vanity and vexation of spirit The Israelites in the Wildernesse which are Saints in the world found vanity in every step they took their Quails and Manna had vanity in them nay the flesh they carried about had vanity in it Your Fathers sayes Christ John 6.58 did cate Manna in the Wildernesse and are dead The world hath vanity enough in its owne wombe to eate up all its fulnesse witnesse Joseph'e store-houses at the end of the seven yeares famine there is a time for the leane Cattle to devoure the fat the flourishingst world hath a grave in it selfe to sepulchre it selfe in though here be enough to prove this truth yet it wil not be amisse to adde our owne experiences let health speak for sicknesse and sicknesse for health the strong man for the weak and the weake man for the strong when they have changed each others condition sicknesse tels health thus I thought when I was sicke that if I could but be in health as you are it would have beene a gourd that I should have had content in but when I had it I found it wither then I said I did well to be angry Health tels sicknesse I thought I should never have beene in your condition but now I finde there was vanity in my health because it withers The strong man tele the weake I thought my strength had been my owne and I could have kept it but now I am weak as you are I finde I was vaine in my thoughts and my strength is vanity so
his glory to trust under the shadow of his wings to renounce selfe aims and ends and glory to be wise for Christ and not for selfe to use more piety and lesse policie to look upon all things under the Sunne as vanity not to be so vaine as to spend their precious time and spirits in going about to make perishing things permanent not to build Tabernacles and thinke it is good to be here for the Tabernacle that they build withall is perishing and hath but a few moments to be here Ob therefore be wise and whilst it is called to day close with Christ All things below this Sunne is vanity if you trust the World you 'l finde it so The Wise man he tryed the World and found it so such as love the World will finde it loft love and those that serve the World most will finde they serve nothing but vanity and truly that is a very ill Master the latter end of that service will be worse then the beginning it is great pitty then that the World hath so many servants seeing it is so unfaithful a Master how many is there that serve the world as they should serve God with all their soules their spirits and their strength improving their lives liberties and interests to serve vanity and to lift up flish though in that worke they do their utmost to wound Christ in his Members It is a sad employment to blow up those flames that shall burne him that bloweth it to ashes This is the evils of that worke to serve the interest of the World against the interest of God they digge their owne graves they wound their-owne soules and heighten the fury of those flames which will make them cry out for a drop of water to coole their lungs this work in the end will not only make the heart ake but the conscience roare this worke indeed will prove vanity and vexation of spirit To winde up this subject It is God and Christ only that is worthy to be trusted served loved and delighted in there is vanity in all below God but no vanity at all in God we may trust him for hee is faithfull all that ever have trusted him have found him so witnesse the Israelites at the Red Sea hee bid them by Moses to stand still to trust in him and they should see his salvation and he proved himselfe a faithfull God God is worthy to be served because hee commands that which is worthy the service of a holy soule and then he giveth strength to performe the service he requires He giveth his Spirit both to teach and to lead and his service hath life and glory both in the way and end he spirits the soule and then commands spirituall service this is a service worthy to be owned and obeyed God is also worthy to be loved of all his because he loved us first and that first was when wee lay in our blood and no eye could pitty us He is the originall of our love therefore worthy to be loved by that which floweth from himselfe he hath all lovelinesse in him and therefore worthy to have all loves center in him that which is the fountaine of love may justly claime to be the object of love Saints may well say of God and Christ as the Spouse did of Christ that there was no beloved like her beloved for love and lovelinesse the best way of expressing this is to let God and Christ have all our loves By this we plainly tell that there is no object our eyes can looke on so lovely as God and Christ Communion and fellowship with the Father and the Sonne is a place of delight for the soules of Saints Love takes delight in God and Christ for there is banquets of love and banners of love bosomes of love and words of love electing love and redeeming love justifying sanctifying and glorifying love these are objects of delight indeed here we may feede abundantly and be satisfied but can never be cloyed O be wise then stand aside perishing world away with all those vanities under the Sunne there is a brightnesse out-shines it and a glory that swalloweth it up there is no beauty below God nor any excellency out of God and who ever hath a spirituall knowledge thus of God will by the same light be able to say as the Wise man I have seene all the workes under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of Spirit CHAP. XI A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Luke Chap. 22. vers 42. Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done THese are our Saviours words when hee was entering into crucifying worke his flesh would have shrunke but his Spirit bore it up and makes this the result of all the thoughts within him to have no will but the will of God and to desire that no other will should be done and fulfilled but the will of God Christ is the head of Saints and it is the glory of Saints to be made like their head this work is too hard for flesh and blood bâ—â— as it was not too hard for Christ no more will it be for a Saint when Christ is in him though it be hard to learn yet it is very sweete in the attaining the paines of the travell will be swallowed up in the birth of this beautiful man-childe The scope of our Saviour in this Scripture to me seemeth to be this That what ever his flesh might desire yet his Spirit leaves all to God and not any will to be done but Gods will Our Saviour in this doth and so should every Saint in conformity to him resigne up the whole soule and body unto the will of God to be and to doe in all times things according to his will so as that in every thing his will may be done That such as read may the better understand take these two heads as a ground-works of the ensuing treaty First That it is the duty of Saints in conformity to Christ their head to have no will but the will of God Secondly So farre as Christ liveth in any soule it is the desire of such a soule that the whole will of God and no other but the will of God may be done in all times and things And first to the first of these That it is the duty of Saints in conformity to Christ their Head to have no will but the will of God The first Scripture makes this cleare that the Lord Christ our Head would own nor stick to no other will but the will of God If there be in my flesh any thing which is not in thy will let it not be done for he confesseth he came to doe the will of his Father So in the fourth of John vers 34. Christ telleth us That his meat is to doe the will of him that sent him and to finish his work
us And this the Apostle Paul found when hee made that holy boast I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me I have from God all that I returne to God God hath my will and I have my will spiritualized by God Gods Spirit lives in my will and I thereby live in the will of God that which is impossible with man is not so with God though of my selfe I could not give up my wil to God yet God of himselfe can give me his Spirit and by that swallow up my wil into his When God bid Abrabam leave his Fathers House and goe into a strange Land the whole frame of the designe was against flesh yet God gave him a spirit to goe through with the work Nay when hee commanded him to offer up his sonne his only and his beloved sonne Isaac against which work flesh might have found arguments enough yet to this so exceeding hard work to flesh and blood God gave him in such an abundant measure of faith that he stuck not at it his own will was swallowed up into Gods because God had given him sutable strength to so hard a worke The Apostle speaking of faith tells us 't is the gift of God now if we consult the Scriptures we shall finde Abraham did all these great workes by faith Hebr. 11.8 9 18. so that in one Text he is called the Father of the Faithfull Now if Saints doe the will of God by faith in his Spirit and he gives both faith and the spirit then God is no hard master but a gracious God in commanding what he gives seeing he gives what he commands and it is nothing but ignorance of Gods way and working that begets hard thoughts of God and his wayes Secondly consider God leads his children he doth not drive them he wins and overcomes them by his love he doth not force them but as his love constraines them by converting and changing the Old man into the New God appears in the soft and milde voyce God makes choyce of a meeke Moses to be his messenger to his people to call them out and to lead them after him When God designes he uses if any the very quintessence of meanes to effect his design Now in this design of Gods to bring his peoples wil over to his so that they may be dead to their own will and alive onely to his he makes his love the meanes That is a notable text to this purpose where it is said God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe that is God was manifesting his love to his own in the world by Christ and the appearance of that love reconciles them to God that is makes them to have good thoughts of God seeing how he loves them it makes them willing to resign themselves wholly up to him If I would seek a bosome to take up my rest in to resign my self over to so as to be wholly led and ruled by it I would above all things else be sure to chuse a bosome of love one in whom I was sure of a full interest of love for then I could satisfie my selfe that what ever was willed for me or to me it was the best that could be for me because love constrained willed and wrought it for me and we know the commands of love are easie both in the commander and the commanded Now this is Gods way in bringing over his peoples will to his he opens his bosome of love to them hee makes knowne a Christ crucified and in him wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption and in all this his love nay his love as the ground of all this he makes known that he pardons iniquities transgressions and sinnes for his own name sake and he calls himself the God of love the Apostle tells us Ephes 2.8 That it is by grace we are saved that is originall love is all in our salvation Now by the discoveries of Gods love to the soules of his people by his Spirit he overcomes them and whereasbefore they were at enmity with God looking upon God as an enemy as all doe that see God onely in the flâ—sh but the Spirit opening their understandings now they become reconciled to God we love him because he loved us first and trust in him because we see he loved us from all eternity gave Christ and pardon heaven and glory in this love and to resigne up our selves into the bosome of God to be preserved directed and ruled by his love The soule by discerning the love of God in the spirit is convinced that what ever it hath flowes from this love and it is ever best in this love and therefore resignes up all to the love of God its whole will and affections which makes and rules all its motions The love of God God himself when this is used as a meanes it must needs effect its end God cannot be frustrated but what he wills he workes if he wils his love to conquer the love and the wills of his people it shall surely doe it and this is Gods certain and sweet way of melting his peoples will into his own My people sayes God shall be a willing people in the day of my power when God powres forth his Spirit upon any soule and in that Spirit manifests and reveals his own love to that soule then is the day of Gods power upon such a soul and it becomes a willing soule it is melted into Gods will and ownes no wil for it selfe but the wil of God and upon this foundation of love Christ commands his Disciples Joh. 14 15. If yee love me keep my commandement And in the 23 24. If any man love me he will keep my words And he that loveth me not keeps not my sayings as if he had said it is my love shed abroad in your hearts that is your ability to doe my wil and this will demonstrates that I have given you my love if you obey my words God ownes no service but what flowes from love and the fruits of love as the fruits of God for God is love Now I never heard any complaining of the conquest of love Where love overcomes the conquest is so lovely that the overcomed admires but never repines And sure I am that wil in man which is overcome by Gods love to deny it self onely to own God for its directer and commander will be alwayes admiring the power and the glory of that love but never be found repining that it is captivated by the loving kindnesse of God and this is the way of Gods working upon the soules of his people therefore let such as are under the darknesse of the flesh be silent and not say that to have our wils melted into Gods will is a burthensome thing and to be crossing and denying selfe and flesh is to make the way to heaven without joy on earth for so saying they onely discover this that they are in the flesh and neither
discerne nor savour the things of God Thirdly when God brings in the wil of his people to his own will there he changes the objects and the affections of such soules so that the will chuseth God and his will as its centre to rest in That which the Apostle in the third to the Colossians begin exhorts to God by his Spirit works in and enables the soule to it is That such as are risen with Christ should seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God that our affections should be there because Christ that is our life is there Now when Gods Spirit commeth and possesseth any soule it sets upon this work immediatly carries the soule upward above the world shewes it God and Christ the love of God in Christ shewes it its glorious union with God and Christ here and in glory to all eternity darkens all the world by revealing but one glimpse of this more exceeding and eternall weight of glory and in changing the object the affections soon alter This more exceeding glory carries away the soules love from the world of perishing glory When the Prodigall but considered the fulnesse of bread in his fathers house he soon resolved to leave his empty Trough of Huskes and his swinish company but surely when hee had been embraced in his Fathers Armes and tasted the love in his Fathers bosome when hee had possession of what hee longed for and was in the vision of his Fathers kindnesse and glory hee then quite forgot the Swine and the huskes his affections and wishes did not then runne to obtain enough of them no the object was changed and the affections with it and having been taken up into his Fathers glory he doth not chuse to goe backe and feed with swine any more now he chuseth to centre in God Thus doth God bring in all his prodigals when they have tasted the worlds perishing love then by his Spirit hee makes known his eternall love to them when they have tryed trusted and looked upon the world so long till they finde it empty then he by his Spirit shews them his own fulnesse when they have had the pleasure of sinne for a season and the bitternesse of sinne hath seased upon them with the visage of eternity then God by the same Spirit makes known himself to be a God of grace that pardons freely nothing to move him but his own love and how great that love it he makes manifest by a crucified JESUS and now sayes the soule I know where to centre where to sit downe where to give up my self even into the bosome of Gods love This is Gods way of conquering the soules and wils of his people He alters the object that alters the affections and centres the will in God the object is according to the eye if the eye bee flesh it discernes no object but in the flesh so if the eye be spirituall it spiritualizes every object the Spirit of God enquires for God in all it sees and where God is made the onely object there he is sure to gain the affections for he hath all love and lovelinesse in himselfe and the affections being taken the will goes where ever they go he that lives in love hath his wil in that he loves not in himselfe so the soule that hath his affections drawne into God by his love made known unto it in the Spirit hath no will in it selfe but in God in whom it lives by love Thus God doth sweetly gain and win into himselfe the will of his people by revealing the glory of his grace and love to them in the Spirit till by that Spirit they make choyce of God to give up their wills unto and say as Christ their head Not my will but thy will be done Fourthly God when he gathers in the will of his people to his owne will he gives in higher and fuller joyes and contentments into their soules then ever they had at any time or in all times and things before The Prophet David in Psalm 4. latter end given in light in these truths vers 6. There be many sayes he that say Who will shew us any good Now mark his answer in the same vers Lord list thou up the light of thy countenance upon us As if hee had said doe they enquire for any good Lord doe thou but smile upon us looke graciously on us and there is all good in that nay in vers 7. he tels us his experience of it Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more then in the time that their corne and their wine encreased This speakes to the very thing here is a time of more fuller joy and gladnesse in the heart of Gods people then under the enjoyments of the World for I judge the termes of Corne and Wine comprehends the whole but observe when is that time why when the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance when God by his Spirit makes knowne himselfe to be their Father in Christ then is the soule filled with gladnesse but in the last verse observe the effects of this upon Davids soule I will lay me downe in peace for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety As if he had said I will now resigne all up to thee and take my peace in thee and expect my safety from thee thou hast so filled my soule with thy joyes that I cannot leave thee but leave my selfe with thee continue but to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and then leade me where thou wilt and doe with mee what thou wilt for I will lay all downe before thee my will and my wayes thou shalt be my peace and my safety Observe the working of the Spirit of God in the Apostle Paul's spirit when God had brought over Paul's will to his to goe upon hard and suffering work such a work as he was told he should meete with sufferings in Acts 21. When hee would needs goe to Jerusalem Agabus the Prophetesse prophesies to him that the Jewes should binde him and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles And in vers 10 11 12. The people besought him not to goe up to Jerusalem but in vers 13. he answers them what meane you to weepe and to breake my heart for I am not only ready to be bound but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus As if he had said you only with a fleshly eye looke at the difficulty of the worke you know not the inwaâ—d supply of joy in God that I have to doe this and the whole wâ—ll work of God doe you thinke God is a hard task-master to command bricke and give no straw Doe you thinke the work God gives is more then the strength he gives If so you are mistaken for I am supplyed with joyes and in comes of God not only to goe through binding worke but also dying worke for Christ I goe in Gods strength to doe his
work in the light of his countenance and the gâ—ory of his love let me goe whether he wil and into what worke he pleaseth my strength to performe all is himselfe therefore my will shall be his his love is my life in his worke therefore I love only to live in doing his worke and whether his worke for mee be to live or dye God shall choose for me not I for my selfe because hee hath given mee the joyes of his love in which I am able not to be bound only but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus So the same Apostle 2 Cor. 4.7 to the end tels us of the troubles persecutions and afflictions that himselfe and the other Disciples with him suffered daily for owning and preaching Christ yeâ—â—n vers 16. We faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day For these are light afflictions and but for a moment but the Spirit of God through them carries up our spirits to live upon a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory As if he had said in all this hard and suffering worke for God we have more comes in from God then we lay out wee have a full supply of joyes in God so that it is no hard thing to dye day by day in the outward man for the inward man is borne up by a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory So in Rom. 8. latter end What shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword No sayes hee this cannot doe it for we suffer all this for the name of Christ Nayin all these things wee are more then Conquerours through him that loved us If we consult with flesh and blood this will be found very hard work for to give up our wills to Gods will-ing but when in the spirit we come as the Apostle to understand the love of God and to live in it to understand aright the tribulations of the World we shall finde that in Gods love wee are more then Conquerors we have more strength then worke we have love enough from God to overcome more tribulation then the world hath and not all these tribulations distresses persecutions famines nakednesses perills and swords nor death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. So that God by his love gives into the soules of his people greater and fuller joyes then they part with in the World when they give up their wils to this will In Phil. 3. the Apostle tels us what value and esteeme he put upon all his externall endowments and enjoyments after God had made known his love to him in Christ he tels us Hee had as much in the flesh to glory in as any other and shews in what circumciz'd the eight day and so forward but in vers 7. What I counted gaine I now count losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of CHrist Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may winne Christ and be found in him Observe it and we shall find this clearly in the Text that an enjoyment of Christ makes a low esteeme of all things below Christ all his legall righteousnesse hee counts it dung and desires never to be found in it but for ever to be found in Christ It proves the thing in hand that when God makes known himselfe to a soule in Christ and by that brings over its will to his owne will in that God doth not bereave the soule of joyes and contentments but gives in more in giving himselfe then he takes the soule from in taking it out of the world and it selfe and this wee see the Saints acknowledge As Paul here after hee had knowne Christ all but Christ was drosse and dung with him When God gives to his people he gives to them as he requires of them hee gives in the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit is love joy The spirit reveales the love of God to his people and seales them up to that love and this makes joy in God so that all his ways are pleasant and his paths sweet to such soules it is not kâ—lling work to the soule when God comes to winne over the will to himselfe Doubtlesse Abraham had more joyes in God then in his Fathers house otherwise hee would never have left his Fathers house to haue followed God nor have given up his will to the will of God that hee might lead him where hee pleased nor would he have slaine his sonne Isaac the sonne of his love at Gods command if he had not lived in a higher region the bosome of Gods love and if Gods love had not been in his bosome if he had not found more joy and love in God then in Isaac he would never have slaine Isaac to have pleased God No man will crucifie his highest joy therefore it is till Christ come into a soule the World is never crucified because till then the world is the chiefe and highest joy the soule hath so that if Abraham had not had a higher joy then Isaac he could never have beene willing to offer up his will in his sonne Isaac to the will of God It is the union of better and higher joyes that makes a soule forsake its lower joyes and give up it selfe and its will to God The three Childrens choise in chusing Nebuchadnezars fiery furnace rather then to worship his golden Image speaks the truth of this thing for if they had not had a better life in God then in the world they would not have chosen God rather then the world Nay they had so much joy and life in God that they believed the flames of fire could not destroy it therefore they were not carefull to answer the King all their care was to keepe close to God in whom doubtlesse they had a more exceeding and eternall weight of joy and glory otherwise they could never have given up their wills to the will of God in the flames of a fiery furnace So likewise Paul and Silas after they had endured many stripes and were cast into prison and their feete fast in the stockes Acts 16.23 24 25. yet for all this Paul and Silas prayed and sang prayses unto God What doth this speake but that the joyes of God in the soules of his people doe exceede all their sufferings and that though God in conforming the will of his people to his owne will doth bring them into sufferings yet hee giveth greater incomes of his love by his spirit then the affliction needeth that they are not only able to beare them all but to joy in God
though under tribulations this is to be more then Conquerers This is the way that our Saviour tooke with his Disciples when he was to leave them so that they could have no more of his fleshly presence his designe was to comfort them and give in that which might beare up their spirits therefore John 14.1 Let not your hearts be troubled but believe in God through me behold the love of God in sending me and your interest in that love then consider that in my Fathers house are many mansions fulnesse of glory enough for all Saints And my going from you is but to prepare a place to take possession for you as your head And I will come againe and renew you to my selfe for heaven can never part mee and my members And I will pray the Father that in my absence he shall give you another Comforter even the Spirit of truth which shall dwell with you and abide with you and teach you all things And if in that spirit you aske any thing in my Name I will doe it I will effect it for you And in John 15.9 As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love And in John 17. Christ prayes for his Disciples and all his members telling God All mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorifieâ— in them And therefore after hee had prayed God to keepe them in the World and from the evil of the World In vers 24. he prayes that they may be with him in glory Father I will that all whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me So that he gives in spirituall joyes and comforts to support and carry them through the feares they were under and the tribulations they should find in the world he gives in the joyes of heaven to carry them through the sorrowes on earth and the joyes exceed the sorrowes as Heaven doth Earth If God deale thus with his people that when he leads them into suffering and difficult worke yet then they have a greater income of strength then service of joy then sorrow of rest in God then trouble from the world then surely this way of Gods working the will of his people over to his will is not a hard but a pleasing worke and all these Scriptures makes this good That God when he brings over the will of his people to his owne will doth not make them a comfortlesse joylesse people but gives in heights and fuller joyes and contentments into the soule so that the soule makes choise of God to delight it selfe in and give it selfe up too with this resignation Not my will but thy will be done O Father Fifthly and lastly When God brings over his peoples will to his owne he convinceth them and makes them to believe that their owne present future and eternall good is bound up in this will So that as God workes his will upon his people it is not so hard a worke as the world thinks for Saints to surrender up their will unto the will of God GOd dealt thus by Noah it was his will that Noah should build an Arke to save himselfe and his Family from perishing with the olde World God convinceth him and makes him to believe that the present and future good of himselfe and family was in the thing immediately Noah's will was as God's will for hee being warned of God by faith sayes the Text he builded an Arke Heb. 11.7 So Peter though at first hee denyed our Saviour to wash his feete yet when Christ told him that if hee washed him not be had no part in him nay then sayes he not only my feete but also my hands and my head John 13.8 9. This fully proves the thing in hand Peter's will opposed Christs now our Saviour to bring over Peter's will to himselfe takes this course shewes him and convinceth him that his owne good was in submitting to his wil. The Apostle no sooner believes this but our Saviour hath his end nay then Lord not my will but thy will be done not only my feete but also my hands and my head The Apostle Paul in Phil. 4.12 13. tels us he knew both how to be abased and how to abound to be full and suffer hunger to abound and suffer neede I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me That is he could in all conditions give up his will to God not dispute with any of GOds will but submit to all And methinkes the same Apostle in Rom. 8.28 gives us the ground of this sweete and heavenly frame of spirit in him For sayes he we know that all things worke together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose That is the good of Gods Elect is in all the will of God God wils nothing but what shall worke together for this good so that my soule believing of this I can give up my whole will to God I know what ever he doth my good is in it therefore whether God in this life make me to want or abound I am content in both and choose his will for my will because I am convinced and doe verily believe that my good is in it I have this faith in Christ that my good is in all God doth therefore I can submit to Gods will and doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Thus God in Christ enables his people to give up their wils to him by convincing them and making them believe that their owne good is in his will So that gather up all these together and it will plainly appear that it is ignorance of God and his wayes in any soule that shall make this objection that Gods wayes upon the soules of his people are hard and burthensome wayes such as if a man once enters into and gives up his will to Gods will then he must be ever crossing and denying himselfe making the way to heaven without any pleasure or joy on earth This is false for First God gives what he commands then his commands cannot be hard Secondly He leads his children he doth not drive them hee winnes and overcomes them by his love he doth not force them Thirdly Hee changes the objects and affections of the soule and so overcomes the will Fourthly He gives in higher and fuller joyes and contentments into the soules of his people when he melteth them into his owne will then they had at any time or at all times before And lastly God convinceth and maketh the soules of his people to believe that their good is bound up in his will This way of working must needs convince that the worke the way and the end of God is sweete safe and pleasant to the soules of his people when he brings them to this frame of spirit to say in sincerity Not my will but thy will be done O Father Doubtlesse it will be worthy
will of God and what ever soule hath that singly in his eye shall never want a cleare object for God will never hide himselfe from that heart which he inclines to enquire after him much lesse to such a soule as hath resigned it selfe wholly up to God to see with his eyes to hear with his eares and to work with his hands to know nor doe nothing but Gods will in his Spirit God can never leave that soule to it selfe which hath given it selfe up to God And this is the language of such a soule when as duty worship and service is required of it Shew me the will and command of my God in what you require and I shall soon obey otherwise I must deny what you require untill I see it be the will of my God for there is my will bound up and truly where God appeares not I must deny my selfe to you and all flesh For I am not my own but Gods and cannot act but by the command and in the strength of my God it is not my will nor your will but Gods will that my spirit can yeeld obedience to for God is my single object upon whom I look and from whom onely I can receive light in what I should doe and strength to act according to that light This is a great and glorious benefit which comes into that soule whose will is given up to the will of God it enquires for God and pursues after the knowledge of his will in all things for this is the breathing of his spirit to God Not my will but thy will bee done A third Benefit of our wils given up to Gods will is this It carries the soule resolvedly and stedily to its duty and leaveth the issue and successe to God If God make knowne his will to this soule it doth not protract its obedience till God hath made known unto him in particular what shall bee the issue of that hee requires but makes this conclusion The duty is mine now God hath declared himselfe in it and the successe is Gods it is in a safe hand and I know in the general it shal be good because it is in God and comes from God but let God take his owne time to declare that he hath at present made known his wil concerning my work my enquiry is now at an end and I will obey Queene Hester is an eminent example in this when as God by Mordecai had shewed his wil and her duty in that great and weighty businesse of her interceding with King Ahasuerus for altering of his decree that was to take away the life of Mordecai and all the Jewish Nation though in the performance of this work she must go in to the King without his sending for her which was not according to the law and in which shee hazarded the losse of her life as well as her petition yet duty being made known she resolves to obey though ignorant of the successe shee takes up the duty with these words in her mouth If I perish I perish This is a resolved duty that comes from a stedy soule which hath given it selfe up to God as if she had said If the issue bee to perish I shal willingly take up that when God declares himselfe in it but at the present God hath declared his will that I should goe and that will of God I shall obey though I perish she doth not stay to know the issue before she goes whether perish or not perish but she obeyes the command leaveth it to God in his own time to make known his will in the successe as well as the work whether it it be perishing or not It was a pretious spirit yea it was the spirit of God in her and it is the same spirit that brings over the wil of Saints to the will of God and makes them to be stedy and resolved in their duty It was thus with Paul he could not forbear his going to Jerusalem though his friends begged him with tears and he knew bonds should take hold on him there yet neverthelesse God had declared his will for him to goe and goe he must his will was as Gods will and that manifested his obedience is stedy and resolved So it is reported of Luther that he should say he would goe and preach the Gospel though he met with as many Devils as tiles on the house Difficulties cannot hinder duties in such a soule as hath given it selfe and its will up to God when God doth but declare his will for that is all which such soules look after and when God hath declared that the soule takes it up resolvedly to obey it and casts it selfe and whole worke and wayes upon God that he would own him and his work so as to carry the soule through it according to the glory of his mighty power whereby hee is able to work all things to himselfe and leaves the issue in Gods hand to the same end the glory of his Name saying to God Not my will but thy will be done A fourth Benefit of our wils being surrendred up to the will of God is this It sanctifies and beautifies the life and conversation of Saints with the image and presence of God If the wil of God bee that fountaine which giveth life to all our motion then surely that motion will be the life of God that soul which will take up no practice upon trust but doth try all and make Gods will the touch-stone to try them shall be sure never to be deceived with copper in stead of gold that soule which wil embrace nothing but what God shal first approve of is in a sure way of keeping it selfe pure and undefiled Now this is the frame of Spirit which is in such soules as have given up their wils to Gods wil for their wils being in God they wil be sure to see his will in all they doe they can take up no practice but what they have his precept for and they will give you this for an unanswerable reason They have no wil but what is in God therefore can take up nor obey no worke nor wil but what is the worke and wil of God And such as walk by this Rule sayes the Apostle Peace be to them and to the Israel of God God is such a Rule as can produce no other end and what ever soule takes it work onely from Gods wil must needs be doing the will of God which is in a few words to be holy as God is holy to bring forth the fruits of righteousnesse because what that soule receives is from a righteous God that soule which hath all from God is alwayes with God and the presence of God changes soules into his own image and that soule which hath its wil in God must needs have God in his wil and work which wil certainly make a holy wil and a holy work because both are made by a holy God The new Creature is the most glorious
of that power beyond and contrary to that end hee received it for Otherwise the impositions upon the people of God in the matters of their God and the persecution of them for not obeying men rather then God would finde no footing in the World If pride in men doe not make them act further then they have received Rule and Commission from God his people would not complaine as they doe at the Throne of Grace for being persecuted because the Rule of God is That every man be fully perswaded in his own bosome for whatsoever is not of faith is sin Rom. 14.5.23 But the proud man puts forth his power beyond the bounds which God hath set him and is so cruell that he cannot heare the cryes of the poore people of God which onely plead for Christian forbearance and doe professe in singlenesse of heart as in the presence of God they are ready to obey their commands to the utmost so farre as God shall fully enlighten and perswade them it is his will so that in what they doe they may not sinne through unbeliefe And sure I am nothing but pride and cruelty can stop an eare to these cryes How ugly now must pride needs look to the eye of a godly soul And how doth such a soule observe the folly and cruelty of pride This should make every soule exceeding earnest at the Throne of Grace that the Lord would by the fire of his own holy Spirit destroy the lust of pride in them It is the throne of the Devill O beseech the Lord to destroy that throne it is the very flames of hell in the soule O begge of the Lord to quench them and wholly to extinguish them by his Spirit Pride in the Soule is the Devils Banner of defiance against God O be earnest with the Lord of Hosts to make himselfe in thee a Conquerour over this lust Where pride reignes God abhorres where that is King Christ is an enemy O therefore implore the power of Heaven to keep this under to destroy it and root it out of all its strong holds in the soule All the Devils in Hell without the soule are more easie enemies then pride within the soule that man is a perfect slave which hath pride for his Master and untill the Sonne and Spirit make a soule free it will never bee free indeed We should be therefore often with God beseeching him that Christ may live in us by his Spirit to make us free from the sinne and slavery of pride That soule which begges of God the death of pride in it selfe hath a promise attending its petition for it is according to the will of God God having declared himselfe an enemy to pride O that all Saints were like God in this open declared enemies to pride in themselves and others improving all their interest at the throne of Grace that God would destroy this peece of Selfe and Satan root and branch out of the Soule that neither Fruit nor Branch may ever grow upon it more Againe From this discovery of a proud man in his principles and practises I have learned thus much That if ever I should be called to put power into the hands of any man or men and to entrust all those liberties which I could commit to trust into such hands I would make this a generall rule of all men to avoid a proud man for I would never trust a foole with power nor a cruel man with my liberties and I am sure a proud man is both these so that surely that person or Nation shal never but be miserable that committeth power and trust into such hands such men as single persons are the burthen of a Land but put power in their hands and they will be so farre as their power will reach the ruine of that Land Though men as Gods instruments give a proud man his power yet he soone forgets that he hath received the power by which he differs and so Tyrant like makes use of his power to plucke downe them that set up him and to sacrifice those rights and liberties which he is intrusted to preserve to his own pride this I am sure he can never be true to me that is faulty to God but a proud man is so because in substance he denyes God to be the originall of his power for did he acknowledge himself to receive that by which he differs he would never be proud of his debt and his duty nor use his power contrary to or beyond the rule of God who gives both rule and power It is the humble heart which only hath a hand fit to put power into and to intrust any thing that is deare and precious withal because there is acknowledgements in receiving that wherein it differs this man is most like to be a faithfull Steward to give an account of his trust for he acknowledgeth himselfe to be a Steward a Trustee or indeed a trusted servant for the good and happinesse of them that have trusted him the weight of his work sanctified by the Spirit of God keeps this man humble It is this humble man which will be a blessing to them that trust him Hee that God makes humble is a sit man to make honourable and by putting trust in such hands will Nations and Kingdoms be made happy And now I must crave leave to be plain and single hearted with men in power only in asking them the Apostles questions Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received Have you more power then others yet remember you have received that power from God as the fountaine from men as the streames and it is onely in what you have received by which you differ from other men and pray remember this your account will be as great as your power because your power is received Let me begge you to consider what is Gods end and mans end in trusting you and putting power into your hands Gods end is his owne glory that you should lift up his Name in all you doe defend his people with all your power to be a defence to all that is praise-worthy and a terrour only to evil doers to make his will your worke not your owne wills a law his Word and Spirit your rule his single glory your end the people of the Covenant of his free-grace your beloved ones that you should establish righteousnesse justice and judgement in the Land which will be the firme end and lasting pillars of peace this is Gods end in giving you power and according to these ends will God have from you an account of your using that power hee hath committed to you and that you have received from him Mans end in putting power into your hands is their owne good that you should by that power defend them in all just and righteous wayes maintaine to them their proprieties and not to diminish but encrease their just liberties such in which all just men may be
shall be as high as heaven and filled with God where no troubles can ever reach you nor no power be able to unrest you this is the true nature of death to Saints Christ having taken sin from them which is the sting of death so that in all this and exceedingly more may believing Saints glory in the very nature of death Secondly a Saint through Christ may glory over Death in the time of it though it be uncertain in the time of its comming yet that hinders not a Saints glory For a beleeving Saint knowes when ever death comes it shal be without a sting and this made the Apostle to glory in Phil. 1.21 For me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine If death stay longer before it comes yet I can glory in the length of time For to me to live is Christ and in the strength of Christ I can wait patiently all the dayes of my appointed time till in the wil of God my change shal come And if death be at hand and settle it selfe in my bosome the next moment yet herein I have glory For to die is gain A beleeving Saint can tell Death he hath his time as wel as his work appointed him you have both your time and your power given you by my Father and though to me it is a secret when your time shal be yet in the Spirit of God this is revealed to me when ever you come the love of God my Father comes with you and your work shal be to have me home that I may feed upon the bankets of love for ever Therefore sayes such a soule I feare not the time of your comming but wait patiently for it in the wil and Spirit of God yet in all that time thirst earnestly to be dissolved and to be with Christ The uncertain time of death may justly be sad and amazing to such as have their good things and their portion of good onely in this world and that by terme of life for here Death crops all in a moment and they are left empty though their barnes be full as the foole in the Gospel But to such a foule whose lise is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is its life shall appeare wee shall then appeare with him in glory Here the uncertain time of death can be no disadvantage because Christ to this soule is eternal life so that it lives certainly and eternally with Christ in God Gol. 2.3 4. it hath a certain life and therefore can glory in it and over the uncertain time of death 2 Cor. 5.1 For wee know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved wee have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Though we know not the time of dissolution to this earthly Tabernacle yet this we know when it shall be it will be a time of advantage for wee leave a tabernacle that may and must be dissolved to possesse a building of God an eternal Mansion house in heaven Therefore sayes a beleeving soule Death I can glory in thy time Christ hath made thee my friend by taking my sins which was thy sting away from thee and now I long and earnestly desire to see thy face O death my friend If I must waite yet a few dayes or yeares before the appointed time shall come for thee to lay my weary body asleep in the dust yet I doe see the beauty of my Fathers will in that but if thou beest at hand thou art truly welcome if the next moment bee thine for me it is a blessed moment the moment of my first entrance into the full fruition of blessednesse this thy time is the time of wiping all teares from my eyes and revealing all glory to my soule of putting an end to all misery and the beginning of joyes without end thy time is my triumphing my waited hoped longed for moment I did tell the World that scorned me that I was an heire of glory had mansions and a crowne prepared and waited for me in my Fathers glory and art thou now come O death to fetch me home to bring me to Christ my head with whom I shall for ever possesse that glorious inheritance which I have gloried in this is a blessed time and moment in which I be held thy face thou art not come before thou art welcome I have nothing to stay me here I have waited long for thee my God and Father is in Heaven so is Christ my beloved there perfection purity is onely there my treasure is there so is my heart also and art thou now come to set mee cleere of this corrupt empty perishing World that I may bee onely there and for ever there O blessed be the Lord that thou art come thy time is a welcome time a time of deliverance from sinning in the body and the body of sinne thy moment puts an end to all howers of temptation and though the men of the World may trample over my clay yet my soule shall tryumph in reall glory above this imaginary glory thus may a beleeving soule glory over death in the time of it Thirdly A beleeving Saint through Christ may glory over the feares of death What ever feares there be in death they are onely to Christlesse soules for soules in Christ may glory over them all because to them death hath no sting as first the grand feare in death is this that it may prove eternall the haling of soule and body out of the World to come before the righteous Judge of quicke and dead where it shall receive this sentence Goe you cursed into eternall fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels for ever This is more then a feare for it is really so to Christ lesse soules where death comes with his sting in him but when the sting is gone this feare is gone too and the beleeving soule in Christ may glory over death as it is bereaved of his sting and so over death in this great feare the Scripture tels us It is appointed for all men once to dye and after death to come to judgement That is to come before the righteous Judge but the description which the Word of Gâ—d giveth us of that day is that there shall be a right hand and a left to distinguish betweene the Sheepe and the Goates on his left hand Depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angels so to the Sheep on his right hand he will say Come you blessed of my Father inherite the Kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the World 25. Mat. latter end The feare in death is a seare of judgement but the judgement day is a blessed day to all the members of Christ 't is that day when soule and body shall meet againe to be blessed for ever in inheriting of the kingdome prepared for them it is the day of the bodies full redemption and eternall nuptiall with the
hath laid the bodies of Saints in the dust there is the end of his office and when the grave hath swallowed up the corruption of those bodies then its worke is done too but then Christ hath an eternall wo ke in his hands to raise it a spirituall body that the fulnesse of his redemption may be made up so as that soule and body both may be filled with the fulnesse of his redemption and in this worke Christ commands both death and grave to give up their dead bodies and then he spirits his owne sutable to that eternall life which they are to possesse The Scripture tels us That Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 That is Christ is first in the resurrection but so as hee is the first fruits a testimony of resurrection to all that sleepe and in Rom. 8.11 the Apostle telleth us That the same power which raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortall bodies by his Spirit So in 1 Thes 4.16 For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trumpe of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first I mention these Scriptures to shew the victory that Saints have in Christ over death and grave and to me they give full satisfaction and ample proofe in them to the thing in hand that neither death can hurt nor grave hold so much as the body of a Saint in Christ but on the contrary that the very bodies of Saints have victory over death in dying and that Saints have exceeding cause to glory over death under this consideration as well as all or any of the former I shall next take into consideration in some few particulars the benefits and advantages that believing Saints through Christ have by death both in our soules and bodies I will begin with the bodies First Death freeth us from all the naturall infirmities and diseases of our bodies One complaines that winde makes a torturing tumult all his body over the bowels and the body full and they fill the head so that there is no free part Another he complains that fluxe of water hath filled his veins chil'd his bloud and num'd his joynts so that aches are in all his bones A third complains that gravell lyeth in his reines teares his kidneyes and stops his bladder so that his whole life is as it were upon the torturing racke there be many more complainers besides these which goe from man to man to make their moane and begge their help for a little ease though but for a little time which sometimes they finde but often returne from fellow-creatures as miserable as they came but when Death comes without his sting he makes a perfect cure of all sorrowes and paine for ever among creatures wee seeke ease with teares but death hee brings full and lasting ease and wipes away all teares from our eyes Death puts an end to hunger and thirst to cold and nakednesse to labour and wearinesse in short to all wants and to all woes the grave is quiet it is the only piece of quiet earth that man can meete withall though a little above the grave on the earth there be cryings out and complainings yet the grave is quiet nothing can disturb the rest and quiet of that bed it is not capable of disturbance therefore exceeding usefull to rest in this I assure you is a greater benefit then all the living World enjoyes beside Crownes have their crosses States their crackes all persons and things their wants every person state condition and thing under the sinne wrapped up in vanity all wants are buried no where but in the grave of death The body of man never bids adiew to all want til it be embraced in the arms of death and laid to rest in that quiet center of the earth but when death comes without its sting it brings this certaine benefit and advantage with it A second benefit and advantage of the body of Saints in death without its sting is this It takes from the worlds scorne and cruelty When the bodies of Saints are in the grave Worldlings must seeke some other object for their slander scorn or cruelty they will finde no sap or moisture in the dust of Saints to feede these lusts withall the derision and persecution of Gods deare Saints on Earth is the pastime and practise of sinning soules like the flye that sports it selfe about the candle till shee have burnt her wings but God hath his time to ease his people of this burthen and if not before yet certainly and fully when death comes is this worke effected Saints whilst they live in the bodie are with their spirits above the worlds scornes and cruelties but when death comes then the body gets beyond them too so that here is another benefit in death it freeth them from the scorns of fools and the cruelty of cruell men The wicked worldlings counts a Saint to be the only troubler of the people and place wherein hee lives but when death comes to a Saint he is very willing to leave the world their portion and their elbow-roome hee is not desirous to trouble them any longer all he desires is a little earth to lye downe to sleepe in and that the world is content withall wishing that al the rest were there too this is a benefit which a Saint with submission to the wil of God desires many an houre before it comes he is as willing to be at home in his owne inheritance as the worldling is to have him out of his now death crownes these longing in Saints and brings in the harvest of many prayers which the spirit hath made for this very thing so that in these and many more particulers is death beneficial and advantageous to the body of Saints But I shal mention two generals in which death without its sting is through Christ exceeding advantagious and benificous to the soules of beleeving Saints First It delivers them from a body of sinne a place of temptations and darknesse which is the whole complaint of Saints whilst they are in the flesh the Apostle Paul complaines of the Law in his members which rebelled against the Law of his minde and of the body of death how often doth the Prophet David pray to be kept from temptations and to be inlightned in his darknesse that God would shew him the way he should walke in and make his pathes straight Saints desire to be uncloathed of the body of flesh because they are capable of sinning in that body any it is a body which tempts to sinne and in which the soule is under much darknesse And therefore groanes within our selves waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our body 8. Rom. 23. It is very sweet to bee delivered from temptations that they get not the upper hand so as to lead the soule captive at their will