conceive that the Gospel works like a Charm that it works upon men like mad-men but hence it comes to pass that though there be no natural reason in it nor the wisdome of men yet they speak in demonstration of the Spirit they speak the wisdome of God to them that are perfect There is spiritual reason in every piece of that Doctrine that is able to satisfie a man and were there not stronger reason then any is in the world men would never yield to it Thus I have given you a few hints to shew you that there is abundance of profound reason in godliness Besides when we see that godly men are so meek so gentle so easie to be intreated Whence is this From the strength of spiritual reason that is in them As it is in natural things you know women are the weaker vessels the Scripture saith so and they are more apt to be froward then men Why so because there is not such strength of reason in them Now men that are at full age and have strength of reason they will bear unkindnesses it is the glory of a man to pass by an offence it is the wisdome of a man to pass by an injury Now as it is in natural things between a man at full age and a childe such a difference there is between godly spiritual men and natural men most natural men are froward and peevish and very ungentle and hardly to be intreated but the godly as far as they are godly as far as they have the wisdome that is from above they are made gentle and easie to be intreated because they have spiritual reason As for instance suppose a man offer another a great deal of unkindness and speak very ill of him natural reason would say Why should he do this or why should I bear it But spiritual reason comes in and saith When they curse do you bless and the Scripture teacheth me that Christ loved me when I was an enemy and so should I do to others There is nothing that may provoke a godly man but if he hath the use of spiritual reason he may keep his heart meek and calm as may be Now you must not think that the Saints are flocks or stones for a Saint hath as much apprehension as a natural man hath but he hath spiritual reason that he can shape the wrong done him in a spiritual Mould and so carry himself meekly and quietly Moreover there is reason in godliness and hence it is that the godly in times of Confusion they can see their way in the middest of the mist when all others are at a loss and know not which way to go a godly man can by spiritual reason seek out his way as there is a full instance in these Times all carnal men are at a loss and think that all Religion is gone into confusion and one Governour is gone and another come and one man is of this opinion and another of another the whole World even those that are meer Spectators they know not which way to go yet now the Saints that are spiritual they can serve God as fully and as sweetly as ever Why so because though the others are at a loss yet they have their eyes in their heads and can see their way And hence it is by this spiritual reasoning that the view and contemplation of their lives past is so sweet to them and afforde them so much comfort as far as it was Religious whereas they remember their sinful actions with shame and natural actions with sorrow when we come to be men we cannot endure to think of our carriage when we were Children as making little Houses of straws and of clay c. When a man comes to be a man he rejoiceth more that he hath gotten such a House and purchased such Land and he rejoiceth in his Wife and Children There is more pleasure in the remembrance of a rational act then of a fantastical though when we were Children there was more pleasure in a fantastical act then in a rational as a Childe hath more pleasure and will to make Pyes of Clay then a man hath to purchase a House and Land So look to your lives past you shall see abundance of corrupt acts that you are ashamed of What profit had you saith the Apostle in those things whereof you are now ashamed you are ashamed to think of your drunkenness and cozening c. and you look upon natural acts with sorrow but look upon any spiritual godly act what you have done for Christ or the Saints the comfort of them is as much at the present as when you first did them and that is a sign that they were spiritual otherwise the comfort of them would vanish away Those things that we do out of reason have a more lasting sweetness and comfort then those that we do out of lust that is the reason that if a man did a thing for God though it were forty years ago yet the sweetness of it is fresh now it is not so in natural or corrupt actions you befool your selves in the one and blame your selves in the other but spiritual actions you rejoyce in them Again from this it appears that there is reason in godliness because godly men are not caught with chaff they are not caught with lusts as natural men are you know little Children how you may catch them with a Baby or a Top and a Scourge all the year about you may feed their fancy by bringing them some new Toy home but a man of forty years old you cannot please him with a Baby or with a Horse of wood c. Such is the difference between a natural man and a spiritual man you may please a natural man and catch him with a good Office or some such thing but take a through full grown spiritual man as we have blessed be God some instances in the Army and in the Parliament and City you offer him chaff when you offer him these things when you would tempt him to leave God and to embrace the World That German Beast as it is said of Luther will not be caught with Gold such a man will not be catched with a Bribe a Saint can out-reason all such lusts he sees they are but the pleasures of sin for a season Thus it appears to you that in godliness there is a great deal of reason Now let me adde this before I go further there is the profoundest and most excellent reason and reasoning that can be in godliness and I will demonstrate it to you in three things That there is Reason you have heard Now I shall shew you that there is the profoundest and the best Reason and that there is no reason to be compared to it First Because that in godliness there is a light put into the Soul whence a man may reason for man cannot reason without light put into the minde That is the reason why a Horse cannot reason because
I told you that these they do come immediately from it The third thing was that the reasoning is the chief character of a man as reason in a man considered in a natural way is the most proper way of distinguishing of him from other things because it is most essential to him for you cannot distinguish a man so properly from a horse because he hath two legs and that a horse hath four but by his essence he is a rational creature and therefore I told you a man may know good excellently a man may love good and godliness and a man may do good and suffer for good and yet be an Hypocrite yet be a carnal man Why Because he may do good and love good and suffer for good and all out of carnal reasoning he may love the good because of some fine circumstantial things And therefore I concluded last day with two words of use but I must endeavour to make good my promise Now the last thing is how it comes to pass for I have as in reference to the Doctrine you heard That spiritual men are swayed with spiritual reasons How comes it to pass that they are enabled so to reason and to be so guided by such Reasons Beloved in general certainly it is only by the same spirit of God for I must advance the spirit still not in opposition to the Scriptures mistake me not for the spirit takes of the things of Christ and in the Scriptures sheweth you them but it is the spirits teaching you And therefore it is said they are after the spirit that do minde spiritual things because it is the spirit that doth work them to mind spiritual things ye would never mind spiritual things else All the learning in the World and all the wit in the World will never teach a man to make one sincere Argument to do good or draw him from evil But you will say how doth the Spirit do this Beloved I told you heretofore that I do not approve of those that do endeavour to shew you too particularly and disbiastly how the spirit of God works in the soul as many men have done and many a godly man but they have lost much time and have puzelled the souls of poor people for thou knowest not how a child is formed in the wombe how his eye is made and how his nose is made And how are we able to discover how the Spirit of God works grace in the soul which ordinarily is done that he doth this first and then that and will not do this until he hath done that which hath brought forth a deal of curiosity and needless distinctions troubling the people of God But I will give you some particulars how he doth it The wayes whereby he doth without curiosity not saying he doth this first or that first He doth it by a Creation by spiritual Creation he doth make a Creation in the soul which is called the new man Thou that art there now sitting in a Pew that Creature that old Creature cannot reach the spirit of God It cannot be mended for we have hearts of stone that will not be cobled nor mended but taken out wholly our natures are so naught that they cannot be mended but God comes and by his holy spirit makes a new Creature in the soul As man is said to be a man and hath not his denomination from the grosser part as his Legs or the like but from the more noble part his soul and his minde for where as in one place it is said What will it avail a man to get the World and lose his Soul in another it is lose himself So as my soul is my self So there is an old man not according to outward age but according to the inward Now he makes thee a new Creature not new Legs and Hands but new minde new affections and new powers in thy soul Now most people say that the Lord doth infuse new qualities into ths soul that whereas thou hast an understanding and it is rotten and all is full of bad qualities thou shalt have new qualities thou shalt have an understanding that will minde heavenly things Beloved that is true but I very much doubt whether there be not something more because the Lord calls it a man and we never read in the Scripture where he will work new qualities but a new man we are created a new creature Now that is the way and therefore if ever thou wilt be a spiritual man thou must have the Lord to make thee a new Creature Now the Saints heretofore pray understand me did not look upon things as we do we have had so many false distinctions and subdistinctions we have not the same notions and distinctions they had They alwayes looked upon the inward man or the new Creature Now we look without saith Paul my inward man gaineth dayly If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Beloved that ye may understand this bear with me a little I do finde in the Scripture that a man is made a Saint made spiritual and holy two wayes One is by renewing a man to that which he was in old Adam Secondly by creating things in him that were never there before And we have these two expressions in Scripture Be renewed in the spirit of your mind and created unto good works So that a Saint he is made up unto that condition two wayes either God hath renewed in him those things he had in Adam or else God hath created in him that which was never there before As for instance God revealeth in him sobriety and continuance and the like these things were in Adam and now when a man is made a Saint they are renewed only upon a new foundation And withal the Lord creates something that was never in Adam as for instance he creates faith there that is the faith of the Gospel There was a faith in Adam without doubt but that faith of the Gospel to believe in another to renounce his own righteousness this was not in Adam because it was point-blank contrary to his own condition for he was to have righteousness in himself and to renounce it was contrary to his condition Now God creates such a faith in us And Beloved there is another thing and it may be there are many things more I have had many thoughts of it with submission to the godly and wise I think that Gospel goodness is a piece of the New man which was not in Adam as to do good to Enemies to love them that hate us to give drink to a thirsty Enemy When one is wicked and ungodly and doth deal despightfully with us as Christ saith then to do him good and bless when he curseth and pray for him that injureth us Beloved this is Gospel-goodness I have had many thoughts of it had I time to prove that this Gospel goodness is a piece of the New creature that was not in old Adam There was goodness in
or sword Nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through Christ that loved us Indeed tribulation and hunger and famine they are sad things but these are the least troubles of a Christian these outward miseries Over these we are more then Conquerors saith Paul I can tie my right hand at my back and with my left hand beat all these back I can beat them with a finger Nay I say more Neither death nor life that is more nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. See there how he dares all the Enemies to come upon the Stage and tramples them under feet As in Malachi it is said that in the time of the Gospel they shall tread their enemies as ashes under their feet So there is a place also in 1 Cor. 15. Death is swallowed up in victory As if he had said You that have received Jesus Christ I will tell you news Death is swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory He jeers the grave and death and triumphs over them O death where is thy sting thou thoughtest to overcome me but where is thy sting The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be unto God who hath given us victory through Jesus Christ our Lord. He doth not say which will give us victory when we are dead and then we shall be perfect in Heaven it is true then we shall be more perfect but he saith which hath given us victory for the present I have already over come Hell and Death and the Devil for all hangs on the law the law is Gods Writ and the Devil is Gods Sergeant that executes that Writ and Hell is the Prison Therefore if the law be satisfied if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled Death and Hell and the Devil have nothing to do with me So in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and was raised for our justification And then it follows Chap. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God See where the Apostle layes justification And we glory in tribulation knowing that it worketh patience c. We rejoice in tribulation and affliction Why because we are justified by Christs death and resurrection O what kinde of spirits should we have How full of joy and comfort should we be in the greatest tribulation How should we tread all this world under our feet the evils of this world and the comforts of the world How should we insult and triumph over the Devil and over Death and Hell for all their power as I said is from the law and if the righteousness of the law be fulfilled then all our enemies are subdued and all is clear Heaven is open and God is mine and the favour of God is to me For know this that there is no natural inbred hatred in God to his creature there is nothing that keeps the creature from the full enjoyment of God but the law not being satisfied God made a law and we made the breach of it and there falls out the distance between the Creatures and God whether Men or Devils Now then if I can say though I be a sinful man yet Jesus Christ hath fulfilled the law the law hath a full righteousness to a farthing then I know I am one with God he is wholly for me and I for him and all the enemies of my Salvation are conquered Now if the Lord would open your eyes to understand the hope of your calling the glorious condition you are brought into you would not walk so weakly and poorly and sadly and dejectedly that every thing should cast you down but you would go on and trample all the world under your feet we should be above men and Devils and the world and every thing if we did but understand to what a glorious estate God hath called us in this world through Jesus Christ Therefore a man reflecting upon his justification as he may look upon himself and account himself something so he may account Death and Hell and all subdued and he may account that the law cannot demand a farthing of him That whereas the breach of the law kept us from communion with God that being taken away we are as righteous as if we had never fallen O glorious condition There Paul Eph. 1. he prayes that they might know the riches and hope of their calling that is that they might understand what this glorious calling is that God hath called us to That is a second Lesson we should learn hence First seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us we should learn how to build our Justification aright how to lay the foundation of it And secondly we should endeavour to get our spirits raised like people that are freed from the law Vse 3. Thirdly and there I shall end for this time being freely and fully justified by the grace of Jesus Christ this should follow to any one that understands it that therefore we should study and learn to conform our selves in our hearts and lives out of love to the will of God There comes in holiness and there it comes in amain and never before all before is nothing but bungling but then it comes rightly We should I say conform our selves to the Example and to the Rule of Jesus Christ in his Gospel And that you may understand that you must know that every man in this world hath a rule to walk by And there are but three great Rules and all men do and must conform to one of these three for there is no man that doth an action but it is in reference to a Rule 1. Now you have one Rule in 1 Pet. 1. 14. As obedient children not fashioning your selves according to the lusts of your former ignorance which shews that once they did conform themselves they did fashion themselves unto their lusts but saith he now God hath justified you you must not conform your selves to your lusts Most of mankinde make their lusts their rule which the Prophet calls in Scripture to do that which is right in their own eyes to do what is their minde what they like in their own minde and as that worthy Dr. Preston saith they think when they are in their beds what place they shall go to and where they shall spend their time and when they are up they do that which is right in their own eyes what they have a lust to when they have a lust to be drunk they will be drunk when they have a lust to be filthy they will be filthy when they have a lust to be idle or a lust to be malicious against their neighbours they will be so So that the stirrings of their lusts are their rule and their whole life
other is to be pleased with one that was an Enemy before one that was against me that is now received to favour So I have told you briefly some Scriptures to shew you that the flesh is taken in this sense Now the main Reason of it why I believe this to be the chief meaning of it is because that I see clearly that this is the chief drift and scope of this Epistle and if I may speak without disparagement there is nothing more methodically laid down and this is spoken to bring them from the way of works to the way of faith But I hasten Why doth the holy Ghost call walking after the Covenant of Works and after the law walking after the flesh and the other walking after the Spirit The Reason is Because there is so great affinity and nearness between walking legally and walking sinfully that they are promiscuously in Scripture taken one for another For let a man walk and endeavour and do his best according to the Law and not by the Gospel he shall be sure to walk sinfully and carnally there is no help for it If he be under the law sin will have dominion over him and if he go after the flesh the motions of the flesh will bring forth fruit unto death Sin and the law are as it were of so near a kin that the law makes sin more sinful and the more a man strives to keep the law the more he sins The Apostle brought it so near that people were ready to speak non-sense that the law was sin He prevents the objection Is the law sin O no faith he sin is the transgression of the law So that a man that walks according to the law and not according to the way of the Gospel in spight of his heart he shall walk according to the flesh that is according to the lusts of nature he can never walk holily let him do what he can A second Reason why it is called flesh is in allusion to the two Sons of Abraham as we see in Gal. 4. 21. The Apostle there speaking of these two Covenants he saith Abraham had two sons the one by a bond-maid the other by a free woman but he who was of the bond-woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise which things are an allegory or a comparison for these are the two Covenants the one from mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage which is Agar for this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all He is proving that the old Covenant was to be done away Agar was to be thrown out with her children He proves that those two Sons of Abraham Ishmael and Isaac were types of the two Covenants that God made with mankinde the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace Now the Covenant of Works he compares to Ishmael that was born after the flesh as other children were Abraham went in to Hagar and she conceived and bare a childe as other women but Isaac was not born after the flesh all fleshly wayes could not produce Isaac he was a childe of Promise and the Spirit of God breathing in the promise and working mightily in Abraham and Sarah Isaac was produced This is an Allegory there is a great Mysterie that you think not of when you reade of Ishmael and Isaac By Ishmael is meant the Covenant of Works and the principles of it and the practitioners of it and they walk according to the flesh as Ishmael did and by Isaac is meant the Covenant of Grace and those that go that way are children of the promise as Isaac was So God hath set this Comparison and I conceive the Apostle alludes to it and calls it a walking according to the flesh As if he had said Thou shalt never have this righteousness by walking in the way of thy father Ishmael by Mount Sinai in Arabia by walking in the law to turn away the wrath of God but if thou wilt get this righteousness thou must walk according to the Spirit thou must get the Spirit and be a childe of promise The third and last Reason that I shall give why it is called walking according to the Flesh is because of weakness for flesh is put for weakness as the Scripture saith They are Flesh and not Spirit that is they are poor weak things so those that walk in that way in the way of the law they are weak creatures there is nothing but wishing and woulding and covenanting and promising and protesting and vexing and fretting but there is no strength Now one Saint that is truly planted in Christ and the Gospel hath truly taken place in his heart he hath more strength then five hundred of the other Saith Paul I can do all things I can want and I can abound I can go to prison freely I can rejoyce with them that rejoyce and mourn with them that mourn Because the same Spirit that dwells in Christ and works effectually the same Spirit dwells in us and works in us Therefore that is the meaning of it They that walk after the flesh that is they that go after the law they are weak they tug and are never the nearer Heaven and if they should live a thousand years they would be no better but wishers and woulders and say I have a good desire to do as the Preacher saith but I have no power Vse Let me conclude with one word of Use from all this that hath been said which I hope you will consider of From this Doctrine thus opened you may hence see the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ verified and made good that few shall enter into the kingdome of Heaven Doubtless Paul did not look on sinners and Saints as we do we account every Professor let his principles be what they will either from the first or second Adam if he begin to leave sin and to perform duties we account him a good man But when the Lord comes to judge he will look further and examine us and will I fear finde abundance that shall never enter into the kingdome of Heaven even of those that follow good old Adam I mean there are abundance of Professors that have left corrupt Adam in his grossness and follow good old Adam that is a sprig from that they will abstain from sins and they will perform duties and they will do no wrong and all is but old Adam still Therefore you that are Professors look to your selves for the Lords sake I am mistaken if there be not many hundreds of us that will be found the Sons of Ishmael at the last day many that make a great Profession and many that make a greater Profession then others that are honest spiritual Saints before the world before men for when a man goes to keep the law every light that comes into his
the Spirit of God as long as they do so they shall never know the will of God We are not debtors to the flesh but we must be debtors to the Spirit if we will have one true thought of Jesus Christ O praise the Spirit and prize the Spirit If you have any thought of Christ thank the Spirit if you have any glimpse of him in your souls worth any thing praise the Spirit That is the reason that the Saints in the Book of God speak not of the Spirit of God without some special Epithite of Commendation Guide me by thy HOLY Spirit and saith another thy BLESSED Spirit and thy GRACIOVS Spirit and the Spirit of GRACE faith another They never speak of it without some word that shewed their love to it and high esteem of it When the Lord shall come and his Spirit shall be advanced in the hearts of men we shall have glorious times and never before that and those times will come I remember Calvin on those Prophesies in Isaiah and Joel The SVN shall be darkened and the MOON shall be turned into blood in that day Saith he the meaning is all the excellency that a man naturally hath his Learning and Endowments in the dayes of the Gospel when the Spirit shall come with his light when God shall exalt the Spirit The Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood Men shall not so much esteem Learning from Books but learned and great men and Scholars shall come to one Classis and one Rank and Form with simple people all waiting on God by his Word through the Spirit A man can take his Boy from School that hath his Latine and Greek and send him to the University and he assures himself that he shall be as good a Minister as his other Son that it may be hath served the Spirit seven years this is our way and a hundred more whereby we basely slight and disdain the Spirit of God and do not honour him and therefore he will not honour us 3. If ever you will be true Gospel-Saints you must suffer your selves to be led by the Spirit of God That phrase you finde oft in Rom. 8. Gal. 5. If you live in the Spirit Walk in the Spirit Be led by the Spirit We are not complementary to commend the Spirit of God c. but give it scope to lead us You must heed more what the Spirit of God saith to you and what he works on you If there come a place of Scripture in your minde hear and consider whether the Spirit of God hath not put it in thy minde and would have thee study it and would have thee compare Scriptures And when thou comest to do any action whatsoever not so much to advise with this man or that man but what saith the Spirit I mean according to the light of the Scriptures hearken to that more then what all the world saith Therefore I have known some men that in their whole lives have often mâ—st the will of God in circumstantial things usually it may be for a year or two or three and they have mist it again in another thing and in another thing and when they have examined how this comes about they can say If they had hearkned to the Spirit they had not done so but they hearkned to men and so went against the dictates of the Spirit in their Conscience they would hear what this man said and what the other man did But now the Spirit will say to them You see I would have shewed you the right way but you would not give me scope but made a cypher of me And for my one particular I do not yet see how I should ever have mist the will of God since I knew him if I had hearkned to the Spirit of God if I had but observed so much light as the Spirit had put into my heart Now we ballance the Spirit with this mans example and with the other mans opinion and so come home by Weeping Cross Therefore give scope to the Spirit I mean not against the Word or above the Word but still I mean the Spirit of God working according to the Scriptures and no otherwise 4. Another thing and a special one is I wish you for the Mysteries of the Gospel to study the Scriptures in the simplicity of them without the glosses of men for a man in extremity must do that that a man that is not in extremity would not do We have brought our selves in such slavery to men that we must take that course that another sober man should not I mean thus when ever we go to look for any truth of God for the will of God we have notions in our mindes beforehand according to the times and places we live in As concerning Baptism what need I go to the Scriptures saith one we have it in such and such mens Writings and so we forestall the will of God that we are blinded and cannot see it Therefore if you will see the will of God I wish you for a while to look on the naked Scriptures And for my part I know but three uses to be made of other Books 1. As first there is this use of Books you have Books that will read the Scriptures in divers languages and shew the Originall and open the tongues now when I see a word in English and doubt of the meaning of it then I will go to the Greek or Hebrew as God hath endowed me with knowledge 2. Then there is another use of Books when I reade one single Scripture it may be I have a Book that will point out halfe a dozen Scriptures to open one Scripture by 3. And it may be I have some Books that take some Scripture and presse it upon my soule as Doctor Prestons and other godly Books But to take Books and say Jerome thinks this and Austin that and fill our heads with notions they blind us that we cannot see the will of God Therefore in reading of the Scriptures there should be this difference from our reading of other Books I mean in respect of age When we are Children and young we use not Spectacles it may be at twenty or thirty or fourty yeares old we can reade without Spectacles but when we come tofifty or sixty then we can see nothing but through Spectacles It should be just contrary with us when we are Christians When we are young we usually never read the word of God but through the Spectacles of mens glosses but when we are older Christians and stronger Saints we should learne to read better without Spectacles we should daily make lesse use of Mens Books and more of Gods Book That whereas before a man turned over twenty Authors upon a point Now he can go humbly to God with his Bible and without Spectacles he can see what the will of God is Therefore lay aside Spectacles sometimes and only take the spirit of God and compare Scripture