Joh. 14.30 The Prince of this world comes and has nothing in me Joh. 14.30 He came in his instrument Judas and the Pharisees and the high Priest and the Soldiers Satan stirred them up And he has nothing in me that is as some render it nothing of his own when he speaks a lye he speaks of his own Let your conversation be yea and nay for what is more is of the evil one And he hath nothing that is no power and authority over me by reason of sin all mankind is subject unto death and therefore are under the power of him that has the power of death that is the Devil Heb. 2.15 But where there is no sin Satan has no power and therefore they are called the rulers of the darkness of this world Ephes 6.12 He is a Prince of darkness and his power lyes in darkness indeed Interpreters by darkness do understand ungodly and unregenerate men who are called sometimes darkness it self in the abstract Ephes 5.8 You were sometimes darkness but now you are light in the Lord and so Satan is a ruler over the wicked of the world i. e. the darkness of the world but it is sin that is this darkness and gives them this denomination and therefore so much sin as there is in any man so much power the Devil has over him because so much a party of his own he has within him 3. This corruption is in the will of a regenerate man as well as in any other part so that even in the very remainders of sin in the Saints there is an inclination to sin wilfully against knowledgâ— even a tendency to the great transgression the sin against the Holy Ghost and therefore David prays against presumptuous sins in reference unto the great transgression So shall I be innocent Psal 19.13 There was looking on his own corruption a tendency to presumptuous sins and these in their own nature make way for the unpardonable sin I confess a godly man cannot sin unto death 1 Joh. 5.18 Whosoever is born of God keeps himself that the evil one does not touch him He can never touch him with this sin because he is born of God and the seed of God remains in him But though a regenerate man cannot commit this sin against the Holy Ghost nor the seeds and remainders of lust within him be ever so fat improved and blown up by Satan yet there is a tendency in them thereunto as Divines say in the matter of conversion God works the will that is ex nolentibus volentes facit of unwilling makes men willing Tollit Deus resistentiam vincentem Doth God at the same time take away all the unwillingness in a man is not there then a principle that gain says and denies they say there is and something that does resist yet so as it shall never overcome but the Spirit of God and the Almighty Power of God in conversion gets the victory and as it is in perseverance a regenerate man cannot fall away Grace is an immortal seed though not in its own nature so properly for it is a Creature and therefore subject to change and the grace that was in Adam and the Angels though perfect was subject to change much more imperfect grace cannot preserve it self and therefore they say Auferi actum deficiendi sed potentia ad actum non aufertur God takes away the act of failing albeit the power to the act is not taken away There is in the nature of Grace a possibility of decay that shall never be reduced into act but shall be preserved by the power of God and the Spirit of Christ and the unchangeableness of the Covenant of Grace so though a godly man by grace shall be preserved from the sin against the Holy Ghost that he shall never actually fall into it yet the remainders of corruption that are within him have a tendency thereunto and in themselves considered there is a possibility even for a godly man to sin the sin unto death if they were left unto the violence of their lusts and not supported by a supply of the Spirit of Christ 4. Regenerate men may be given up unto spiritual judgments They are left very far unto and under the power of Satan the Saints may be hardned from Gods fear Isa 63.17 Satan may harden them by temptation and God may give them up in judgment thereunto 1 Cor. 5.5 Deliver such a man unto Satan a godly man may be rightly excommunicated and if so that which is bound on earth God will bind in Heaven his sins may be bound upon his Conscience as unpardoned till he does repent and he be as it were under a sequestration for a time of all the benefits comforts and emoluments of the state of Grace and being without left under the power of Satan who would carry him to sin whereby God would afterward awaken his Conscience c. for there are two ways that Satan does ordinarily work upon godly men when they are given over unto him and left in a measure by God in his power either wasting a mans Conscience and bringing a man unto such a hardness of heart and a spirit of slumber that a man lives in a wretched security and neglect of his duty towards God or peace with God and gives himself over to the pleasures of sin and the comforts of the Creatures with a kind of greediness and that for many days and years together as we see it in Solomon who under a spiritual judgment did not with hold his heart from any Creature-comforts or delight whatsoever or else Satan works upon the weakness of a mans spirit and his apprehensions of wrath God writing bitter things against a man and Satan drawing conclusions out of them to draw the man to despair of mercy and to seek his own destruction and so a man may go despairing and disconsolate all his days so that God may give him up to spiritual judgments 5. There being this principle within him and thus left in judgment unto the power of Satan he does strangely raise and improve and draw out this corruption and blow these sparks into a flame As Job 3.1 Then Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth Before under all his afflictions his mouth was full of blessing The Lord gave and the Lord takes blessed be the name of the Lord and shall we receive good things at the hand of God and not evil There is a seed of corruption in those that are most holy which if Satan improve he will draw forth in them very foul acts of enmity to God and contrariety unto themselves as we see in Peter at first his mouth was full of nothing but promises and engagements of adhering to Christ and though all men forsake thee yet will not I but being left into the winnowings of Satan at Satans desire he is first possessed with fear and that grows to a denial of Christ
be a principle of flesh in you and this principle is sinful contrary to the Law and condemned by the Law yet it shall never prevail to condemn you though it will many times to defile you for you are not under the Law for condemnation they may be and will be matter of your trouble and affliction here but never the matter of your condemnation hereafter And so the meaning is that the godly that have received the spirit of Grace and submit themselves willingly to be acted and guided thereby though they have the remainders of sin in them that deserve death yet they shall never infer death because they are not for the condition of their persons under the Laws condemning power Rom. 8.1 Though there be in the Saints matter of condemnation yet there is in them no actual condemnation There is a second interpretation given of it and that is That though there be remainders of sin contrary lustings within you so that you cannot do the things you would do but all your performances 〈◊〉 blemished and defiled as a Collier and Fuller dwelling in the same house what the one whites the other pollutes Yet this shall not make your services hateful before God shall not hinder their acceptation for you are not under the rigor and conviction of the Law requiring perfect obedience or else it cannot be accepted as it is with all unregenerate men but you are not so under the Law neither shall this contrary principle be wholly able to hinder you in duties for you are not under the Law constraining you and forcibly compelling unto duty without giving you strength to perform it but you have a spirit within you as well as a rule without you the one directing and the other assisting and inabling Both these will make one compleat sense and are for consolation to the condition of those that are in Christ that though corruptions may remain in them yet they shall never prevail against them to their condemnation neither shall they hinder their acceptation with the Lord in the midst of all their failings We must consider that the dispensations of God to every man are according to the Covenant under which he stands and the administrations of both Covenants are ever since the fall in the hand of Christ as Mediator he dispenseth the Curse of the first Covenant as well as the Grace of the second and at the day of Judgment it is the Man Christ Jesus that shall say to the wicked Go you cursed as well as to the Saints Come you blessed c. Now for the administration of all things according to this great trust Jesus Christ as Mediator has received the spirit as a spirit of union and a spirit of unction and this spirit is the viceroy or prorex that works all the works and all the administrations of Christ in this great Kingdom only he dispenses this spirit to some as a Lord and to others as a head unto some only as a spirit of qualification for service unto others as a spirit of sanctification for their Salvation So that all that Christ does he does by the spirit and answerable unto the condition of the person so is the spirit that works in him all is wrought suitably unto the Covenant under which he stands if the man be under the first Covenant he is a bondman for his Covenant genders unto bondage and all the works of the spirit of God in that man are only the works of bondage and this spirit is a spirit of fear There is a double spirit by which wicked men are acted there is a spirit of the world that works effectually in the children of disobedience the strong man armed keeps the house and they are taken by him as beasts taken alive and led captive at his will 2 Tim. 2.26 and this spirit does act them wholly in most of the acts of their lives but God has reserved unto himself a Judicature in the man and that is Conscience but this commonly works not there is a fearedness a spirit of slumber and senslesness a being past feeling that sin has brought upon it but sometimes the spirit of God comes into the Court of Conscience and awakens it and then it speaks in Gods name unto the man and therefore it is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conscience and it is always a co-witness Rom. 9.1 A renewed Conscience can never work of it self nor witness of it self neither does a natural Conscience but as it is acted by the spirit of God Now if the man be in the condition of a servant the spirit does witness unto him and speaks in his Conscience nothing but fear and bondage and therefore it is called answerable to the condition of the man a spirit of bondage But if the man be under the second Covenant and in the condition of a son then the spirit does speak peace favour and acceptance unto him and liberty and is a spirit of Sonship Not that in a godly man there is never any thing else spoken but from Rom. 8.15 where the Apostle says You have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba father I conclude The Spirit of God never speaks bondage to a godly man that he is in a state of bondage and death and binding a man over to wrath again though sometimes God leaving a man unto the spirit of Satan he may speak so in his heart and tell him he is unregenerate and then the darkness of a mans own spirit may be apt to gather such conclusions but the Spirit of God does never speak any thing unto a Saint concerning his eternal state but liberty after his translation out of the first Covenant Every regenerate man having received the Spirit of Christ and his Covenant being changed this spirit has undertaken to be dux viae his guide Joh. 16. to lead him on in his way till he comes to glory Now a man that is in Christ and has received the Spirit of Christ and is led by that Spirit Rom. 8.14 that man is not under the Law neither for condemnation nor for coaction therefore every man that is out of Christ and not led by this Spirit but has received a spirit of bondage he is under the Law both these ways § 2. Hence we observe Doct. Tom. 4. p. 87. That every man that is out of Christ is under the coaction and rigor of the Law Austin upon this place in the Galatians makes a fourfold state of man 1 Ante legem before the Law when a man did sin without the knowledg of sin and committed it without restraint or controul and so it is with many men that lay the reins upon their lusts necks 2 Sub lege under the law c. when a man does strive against sin his Conscience being convinced that it is sin but yet he is over-come though he does strive 3
under the sense â—reaking the Law The Law holds a man under this conviction and self condemnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a man cannot 〈◊〉 off from it that a man shall say with David Psal 51. My sin is ever before me And 〈◊〉 3.2 3. here we are all compared unto prisoners I am shut up under the Law it is my 〈◊〉 and if that be not enough to manifest that our bondage under it is sure and there 〈◊〉 way to escape he says we have a garrison to attend us as the word signifies 1 Pet. 1.5 the same â—â—d is used of Gods keeping of us to salvation So that the soul is kept under by it and alâ—â—â—s poring upon its misery and cannot look off it it is shut up under it and this is meant â—he spirit of bondage Rom. 8.15 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word in the Greek is used partly for the Holy Ghost self and partly for the inward dispositions that it works in the hearts of men as a spirit â—â—ve and fear and joy that is such a temper and frame of soul wrought by the Holy â—â—â—ft and foâ—t is the Spirit of God by the Law working upon a man such a frame of heart â—â—â—r of sorrow or fear Hos 4.12 A spirit of whoredom is in the middle of them c. â—â—s they were bent to backsliding So when a man cannot cast off his fears and the bondage 〈◊〉 own heart then a man is said to be under a spirit of bondage and a spirit of fear and â—â—â—e sinners are all their life long by fits Heb. 2.15 The soul of man desires nothing 〈◊〉 than the pleasure of sin and peace in it and therefore it does as a Deer when it is wâ—â—â—ded it runs and leaps and does all that possibly it can but haeret lateri lethalis aerundo â—â—â—â—â—rtal arrow sticks in the side A man runs to the pleasures of sin to his old companions as â—â—re to King Jareb for help and if that will not do then he runs to Duties and the man â—â—ys and crys and all will not heal the man and he cannot cast the sight of his sin behind back and it is as gastly and as unwelcome even as Hell it self A man is under Conviction 〈◊〉 a wild Bull in a Net full of the fury of the Lord and he beats every way but the â—â—e he strives the more he is ensnared till at last his soul lyes down under the apprehensiâ—â— of it and does possess the sins of his youth Joh 13.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the thoughts of a mans heart called the possessions of his heart for all that a man does possess is by thoughts and that 〈◊〉 which a mans thoughts dwell most that a man is said to possess most Job 17.11 Now the man crys 〈◊〉 What fruit have I now in those things whereof I am ashamed Oh wretched man that I 〈◊〉 who shall deliver me from the body of this death And his soul lyes down in his shame and â—â—ths and abhors himself continually is afraid at the shaking of a leaf expects daily when â—â—e instrument and messenger of vengeance shall come for him and Job 31. His life draws â—â—er to the destroyers and he doth seem to smell the savour of death and of unquenchable fire Lex est carcer spiritualls verè infernus Luth. â—â—d his soul is continually filled with horrour and amazement the terrors of the Almighty set him round about he is so fast in prison that he cannot get forth he is under the wrath 〈◊〉 God as Christ is said to be in prison and David so speaks of himself also § 4. Now how doth the Law in all this advance the ends of the Gospel how is it as â—agar added because of transgression 1. It prepares the soul and the Spirit thereby works those qualifications required to be 〈◊〉 the soul that comes to Christ for Christ will not come into an unprepared soul his subâ—â—cts are a people prepared for the Lord. He sent John Baptist before to prepare his way for there are valleys to be filled Mat. 11. and there are mountains to be laid low Come all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you take my yoke having had experience of the iron yoke of sin 2. The Law prepares the soul by making the opinion of a mans own righteousness die and letting him see a perishing need of Christ Phil. 3. that what was before gain he may now count loss therefore there is hereby wrought in the soul a longing for Christ and an instinct of Union with him the Law is as the avenger of blood unless it did pursue many men would never regard to fly to the city of refuge 3. It will make the Grace of God the more glorious and the blood of Christ the more orient and Salvation the more acceptable when in such a time of extremity the Lord brought light out of darkness 2 Cor. 4.6 and then a man says I thank my God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And therefore there be several dispensations of God some have less of those breakings by the hammer of the Law than others have for the Lord is a free agent but there are no men in the world that prize Christ and exalt his righteousness and relie more upon his Grace 1 Tim. 1.13 14. than they do that have lain under most of these breakings and have been longest in this wilderness 4. It makes a man fear sin ever after that which he hath had so great a smart for when he was under the hammer of the Law Psal 85.8 he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints but let them not turn again to folly Hos 3. ult When a man shall remember the bitterness of his spirit in times past and call to mind the gall and the wormwood then sin is loathed by him David commits Adultery no more Paul Persecutes no more Peter denies Christ no more c. 5. It makes a man pliable to do whatever God would have him Lord what wilt thou have me to do A little child shall lead them Isa 11.6 Disobedience is grounded in pride My soul shall weep in secret for your pride Jer. 13.17 And there is nothing breaks a mans pride and make a man walk more humbly with God than this does Mic. 6.8 6. This makes a man to set a high price upon the spirit of Adoption that enables him to cry Abba father after he has had experience of a spirit of bondage The bread in his fathers house had never been so pleasant to the Prodigal had he not been in want and tasted husks Heaven is never so sweet as it will be after the trials of this life when men have comâ— out of great tribulation and made their garments white in the blood of the Lamb then to be gathered into Abrahams bosom it is much the sweeter to rest from
that they have not their appropriata any peculiar works appropriated unto them but whatever is done is done by the Godhead joyntly and the same thing that is said to be done by the Father is said to be done by the Son also that as God the Father is said to create all things so is the Son also Joh. 1 3 4. All things were made by him and without him was nothing made that was made and so it is said of the Spirit also Gen. 1.2 The Spirit moved upon the face of the waters Job 26.13 By his Spirit he has garnished the heavens which doth not note the instrument or the minister by whom the Lord wrought but only the order of the working in the Trinity for the order of working is answerable to the order of subsisting the Father works by the Son and the Son works by the Spirit and therefore Job 33.4 The Spirit of God made me and the breath of the Almighty has given me life It 's attributed unto the Spirit alone and not only in the work of Creation but also in the upholding of the things created for Joh. 1.3 4. In him was life that is omnia per ipsum sustentari c. which is expounded by that in him we live and move and have our being and that Col. 1.17 By him all things consist as well as were made by him and in a more special manner the image of God in which man was created was from them all Gen. 1.26 Let us make man in our own image which was but one and the same of all the persons for it is added in the image of God created he him Joh. 1.4 the life is the light of men which is as much as to say hominem per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad imaginem Dei creatum as Chemnitius Thus under the first Covenant all things were carried on by the Godhead joyntly and whatever was done is said to be done by them all without any appropriation of any thing unto one person more than another But when we come to a second Covenant then though God works all in all yet there is a special kind of appropriation of the actions some more peculiarly unto one person and some unto another vel quoad agendi modum vel quoad actionis terminum in quo se unius personae operatio potissimùm elucet c. Med. p. 37. Synops purior c. p. 103. In which though there be a joynt concurrence of all the persons by way of consent for they have all but one will yet they may be in a special manner so appropriated unto the one as they cannot unto the other so the Father is said to send his Son and the Son cannot be said to send himself and so the Son is said to be incarnate the word was made flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant which cannot be said of the Father and so the Father and the Son are said to send the Comforter which cannot be said of the Holy Ghost Mat. 1.20 and the Holy Ghost is said to form Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary the holy thing conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost is the bond of Union between the two Natures and the bond of Union between Christ and us which cannot be said of the Father or the Son though there be a consent of will and so a concurrence of all the persons unto every action that doth tend unto our salvation for having one and the same Essence they have all of them one will also yea they have so taken upon themselves the special offices and acts that per solennem quandam appropriationem by a certain solemn appropriation some of them are said so to be done by the one as that they cannot be said to be done by the other and it is according unto these appropriated Acts that the persons are made over unto us under the second Covenant for though the will of the Father and the Son be one and the same because the Essence is but one yet as the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Father so eadem voluntas distinctè appropriat se alteri ut donanti mittenti alteri ut dato misso Cocceius de Testament Dei Disput 9. Thes 92. The same will doth distinctly appropriate it self to one as the giver and sender and to the other as given and sent Now answerable unto this consent of will such are the offices that they have undertaken and such are the actions and operations that they do put forth and by this distinct consent of will unto the several actions which in the Scripture we see they do appropriate unto themselves for it is the Word of God and the Lord speaks it of himself and not any man according unto these do they under the second Covenant make over themselves to the Saints that answerably to these several acts and offices they may be able to look upon each person to whom in Scripture they are appropriated and from that person in faithfulness to expect the accomplishment of them because they have each of them undertaken it speaking so of themselves in the word as if such acts did properly belong unto them and thereby manifesting the distinct appropriation of their wills unto each of them This being premised let us now see how each person has made over himself unto Believers in reference unto the second Covenant 1 As a distinct object of their faith for there are distinct acts of faith to be exercised upon all these persons answerable unto their appropriated acts Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God says Christ believe also in me for though the ultimate object of faith be God for by Christ the Mediator we believe in God yet the several persons are to have faith distinctly exercised upon them 1 Pet. 1.21 answerable unto that distinct revelation of themselves Joh. 5.23 Rev. 1.4 2 As a distinct object of worship That every man might honour the Son even as they honour the Father Grace and peace from him that is and was and is to come and from the seven Spirits that are before the Throne 3 As distinct grounds of their consolation for though God be the God of all consolation yet there is a distinct consolation comes from each person answerable unto their appropriated acts which is the ground of a distinct communion 4 For their salvation each of the persons having their proper work in bringing many sons to glory but it has been shewed that these appropriated acts which I called Acts of Office are but for a time taken up with reference unto the mediatory Kingdom and when that shall be ended and all the Saints perfected and glorified and the Kingdom again given up into the hand of the Father then God shall be all in all and the persons shall act joyntly without any such appropriation for ever and look what the Spirit in
they shall be truly our servants that is they shall tend unto the advancement of our spiritual and eternal good Rom. 8.38 what he had before spoken positively that they shall all do us good here he speaks negatively that they shall never be able to do us hurt I am perswaded that neither life nor death via extrema secunda adversa the highest pitch of prosperity and the lowest ebb of adversity or affliction shall not be able to hurt us nor Angels good or bad nor principalities and powers that is all the powers of Empires and Monarchs of the world nor things present nor things to come not any intermediate events that now do or hereafter may befal us nor heights nor depths nor any creature i. e. if there be any creature that comes not under the former enumeration whether it be in heaven above or in the deeps beneath it shall never be able to hurt us in respect of our eternal state because it shall never be able to separate us from the love of God which has so sure a ground for it is love born to us in Christ in whom he has elected us c. therefore you see there comes no disadvantage but a continual advantage unto the spiritual Kingdom by all the creatures and by the dispensations of Christ in the ordering and the government of them all Let us see this by an enumeration of some particulars 1. If the Lord give unto his people prosperity it shall be to the advantage of the inward man and in their outward prosperity their souls shall prosper 2 Chron. 17.6 Jehosaphat had silver and gold and riches in abundance and his heart was lifted up and encouraged in the ways of Gods commandments and thereby the people of God make them friends of the unrighteous Mammon and they lay up a good foundation that they may lay hold of eternal life Eccles 7.11 Wisdom is good with an inheritance it is good in it self without an inheritance but there is a special advantage by wisdom with an inheritance and so it 's better to the man or it is good to a mans self but it is not so good unto another and so Prov. 14.24 The crown of the wise is their riches but there are to other men riches reserved for the hurt of the owner and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them Prov. 1.32 wisdom is the better with an inheritance but folly is the worse with an inheritance for the folly of fools is foolishness he speaks it of rich fools there are no men discover their folly more and whose foolishness is more eminent and notorious than these mens as riches draw forth the graces of the one so do they also the sins of the other 2. If the Lord give unto his people afflictions it shall be to the advantage of their inward man Rom. 5.3 Tribulation works patience surely patience is a fruit of the Spirit as all other graces are and cannot be wrought in any man by affliction unless it be given him by the Spirit A man must have patience 1 if ever he will bear affliction fruitfully but 2 the word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth signifie to work a thing out and bringing of it to perfection Phil. 2.12 It is this therefore that when patience is wrought in the soul by the Spirit it is improved and exceedingly drawn out by affliction it doth improve the graces of the Saints and upon this ground it is said Count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations Jam. 1.2 Esa 27.8 9. in measure God shoots forth the affliction and the mercy of God is greatly seen in the moderation of the affliction By this shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is the fruit to take away the sin of his people when he makes all the stones of their Altars to be as chalk stones and therefore Esa 24.15 Glorifie the Lord in the fires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 12.10 he doth chastise them that they may be made partakers of his holiness 3. Temptations for the Lord Jesus doth order all the temptations of Satan and directs them unto spiritual ends for even the very enemies of the spiritual Kingdom he doth over-rule so as he makes them servants to it even the vessels of dishonour have their use in the great house as the Apostle speaks 2 Tim. 2.21 Satan is an enemy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that enemy in two things to the Saints 1 In his accusations unto God he is therefore called the Accuser of the Brethren and so he did move God against Job to destroy him without a cause Job 2.3 there was cause enough in Job if the Lord had been extreme to mark what he had done amiss but there was not that cause that Satan did alledge and it is a mercy to the people of God that though there be cause enough yet he doth hide the true cause from their malicious accusers that that which they fasten upon them is no cause to set God or man against them but the more the Lord doth appear for his servants to justifie them had not Satan accused Job so impetuously God had never so eminently appeared for his justification This should quiet and comfort the Saints in all the hard measure and reproaches that they meet withal in the world that yet the Lord will arise for their justification and their enemies confusion that though a child of God may lye under the blast of the wicked for a season yet God will vindicate him at last so that false friends as well as true enemies shall be made to say Surely there is no inchantment against any of the seed of Jacob Jude 15. c. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him and his children c. 2 Satan is an enemy by his temptations unto the Saints and so the strength of God is made perfect in their weakness that is manifestly declared so to be 2 Cor. 12. for thereby their strength is tryed there is nothing tries grace so much as temptation unto sin because nothing is more opposite unto grace and gratia vexata seipsam prodit grace vexed discovers it self thereby also their corruption is purged for the Lord doth commonly temper that poyson into a medicine and Satan that seeks to kill shall be instrumental to cure he that doth intend to stab the man shall but give vent to his imposthume and therefore Luther says of temptation when the Papists did object unto Luther that he himself granted Purgatory I do indeed saith he but it is but that Purgatory of temptation and he adds Hoc Purgatorium non est fictum and hereby the enemy is conquered for we are more than conquerors Rom. 8. It was said that the Carthaginians did prevail against
They may not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly proceed nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rightly divide and so by doctrine and example they may hurt souls Ezech. 13.18 20. and their trading may be as that of Rome for the souls of men The Apostle says there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a craftiness to deceive and draw disciples after them And the Father says There is a bait of heresie something that the flesh of man is taken with 3 They may stir up great divisions and contentions in Churches and States There was a contention begun amongst the Disciples which of them should be the greatest And by Diotrephes from love of Preheminence He prates against us with malicious words and he neither receives the brethren 3 Joh. v. 10. and forbids them that would casting them out of the Church And in the Revelations they go forth together with the Kings of the Earth to the great battel of Armageddon Therefore Nazianzen bitterly bewails the contentions between the Ministers in his time If I saith he be the cause of this division if I be the Jonas then cast me out And he makes that as his last request to Theodosius the Emperour That he would compose those divisions telling him This should be as the ornament and glory of all his former Victories and Trophies 4 They may be a means to ripen the sins and to hasten the Judgment of God upon a people Isa 6.10 Heb. 6.8 and increase their condemnation Go make the heart of this people fat c. And the ground that drinks in the rain and bears briers and thorns is near to cursing If I had not come and spoken to you you had had no sin but now there is no cloak for your sin c. 2. There is a Curse that comes upon the Ministers by the peoples sin 1 For the peoples sins God does many times hide his face and his truth from their Ministers Psal 74.9 Ezech. 26. There is not a Prophet there is none can tell us how long I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth and thou shalt be dumb and not be a reprover to this people The Sun shall go down upon your Prophets and the day shall be dark over them c. For they do receive Truths as stewards to dispense them and when God will punish the family then he does straighten the stewards and hides his face from them 2 For the peoples sins God does many times give the Ministers up to errours and delusions that as the people are such also shall the Priest be They love lies and say prophesie and declare to us smooth things prophesie deceit therefore if any man will prophesie of wine and strong drink he shall be a Prophet for this people Ahab's sin did provoke God to send the Devil to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all the Prophets And 2 Thes 2.10 11. the people not receiving the truth in the love of it the Ministers were given over to that efficacy of deceit and the people were ensnared by it that all they might be damn'd that had pleasure in unrighteousness and had not pleasure in the truth 3 The people are many times a continual grief to their Ministers I was amongst you as a nurse and therefore did bear with much frowardness and perverseness in the people to the grief of his soul if you will not hear my soul shall weep in secret for your pride saith Jeremy And how much bitterness of spirit the Ministers of God have felt by the perversness of the people is known to God and their own souls 4 They many times make them to prophesie in sackcloth and ashes in a poor low afflicted and contemptible condition look upon them as the scum of the world and the off-scouring of all things It has in all ages been the portion of the Witnesses that God has stir'd up to be lookt upon as enemies to men because they tell them the truth and therefore there are snares laid for them to reprove in the gate And though the Lord says they should be counted worthy of double honour that labour in the word and doctrine yet amongst the generality of men they that labour most shall be honour'd least And though the Lord says Let him that is taught in the word make him that teaches partaker in his good things yet men are willing to make them partakers in nothing and yet if they sow to you spiritual things is it a great matter that they reap carnal things from you Yes men think it great and look not upon it as a duty but give it with the same repining that nigards give an alms at their door c. 3ly The Curse is also come upon the relation of Husband and Wife 1 When a Wife shall become a snare to a mans soul and be to him but one of the Devils darts a Serpent in his bosom 'T is said in 1 King 21.20 There was none like Ahab who sold himself to work wickedness whom Jezabel his wife stir'd up To have a Wife instrumental to further the lust of her Husband in what kind soever what a snare is that for her to entice him to the worst of evils Idolatry c. as Deut. 13. 2 When a Wife shall be false to her Husband in the Marriage bed Thy wife shall be a harlot in the middle of the city is threatned as the Husbands Curse Amos 7.17 And Job 31.10 Let my wife grind to another man c. And for a man to mistrust his Wife Keep the door of thy lips from her that lies in thy bosom 3 When a Wife shall be an enemy to Religion and a scoffer as Michal How glorious was the King of Israel to day when he was uncovered before the maids And for Job's Wife to joyn with his friends yea with Satan against Dost thou still retain thy integrity curse God and die It 's question'd why the Devil should spare Job's Wife when he took away his Goods and Children there is surely more comfort in a Wife than in all things in this world The reason given is because he did intend to make her an instrument to perswade her Husband to curse God hoping to conquer him by her And how this evil in a Wife imbitters the spirit of a Husband and what animosity it raises in him against her and what suspicious thoughts and what estrangement this does usually work in their minds one from another we many times by experience find And the Husband also becomes a Curse to the Wife 1 By a spirit of jealousie over her which though sometimes it may be upon just ground and cause given in the Wife yet sometimes it may be causless as appears Numb 5.12 13. We see what great care the Lord did take of Marriage-Chastity it being his own Ordinance he did appoint an Offering and a water of Jealousie the one to be offered to the Lord and the other to be drank by the
then from the condemnation of the Law and the sentence of it there is no appeal or redemption CHAP. III. How and whence it is that sin is irritated by the Law Rom. 7.8 But sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence SECT I. How sin takes occasion and is irritated by the Law § 1. WE have seen that to be under the first Covenant though broken is unto every man in a state of nature a desirable thing though formally indeed men desire it not for they will all disclaim it but interpretatively and by consequence they do desire it as Prov. 8. ult it was finis operis though not operantis it was the end of the work Ezek. 8.3 though not of the worker and so men going about to establish their own righteousness and not submitting unto the righteousness of God and being contented to be acted by a spirit of bondage which is the spirit of the first Covenant which doth produce in them fruits answerable to the Covenant under which they stand this is in Gods account and in the censure of the Scripture an argument of an inward desire and contentment to be under this Covenant still Now because men do look upon it as a desirable condition let us examine what this condition is of a man fallen to be under the first Covenant as broken Divines do commonly say that a man that is in Christ is freed from the Law he being dead to the Law and the Law being dead unto him in some respects as was mentioned at first 1 For Irritation the Law hath not this power in men to irritate and exasperate and enrage their lusts by the restraint and the prohibitions of them and so they apply that place Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law That is saith Beza He exhorts them to Sanctification Let not sin raign in your mortal bodies and he does promise them sin shall not raign under the Law only forbidding sinning and thereby provoking and increasing lust but you are under Grace strengthning against sin and healing it and hence it is concluded from several other Scriptures that a man in Christ and under Grace is freed from the Law and irritation of it 2 For Co-action to keep them from sin by force for fear simply of the curse of the Law and to compell them to duty as a task-master against their wills when the Law they hate and the duty that is required of them that they hate and wish there were no Law and look upon it as a yoak and a burden insupportable for as a godly man says of sin so a wicked man says of duty that which I hate that do I. And it requires of him perfect obedience as a task-master he must work brick but gives no straw requires the full tale of duty but gives no strength nor assistance The Apostle says Gal. 5.8 if you be led by the spirit you are not under the Law the spirit that is in you is the spirit of the second Covenant a spirit of Adoption a spirit of liberty a free and a Princely spirit which enables you to perform duties out of an inward principle of love to them and delight in them unto them the yoak is easie and the burden is light for it 's their happiness and honour and meat and drink to do the will of their Heavenly father And so that place I conceive is to be understood 1 Tim. 1.9 The Law was not made for a righteous man that is neither in the restraining act of it or keeping from sin only for fear of the curse because he has an inward principle that lusts against it and as a fountain casts out the mud an inward antipathy a spirit lusting and rising against it that though there were no curse yet he would hate it and endeavour to avoid it nor in the constraining power of it to force to duty only as that which his soul hates and he comes hardly off too in any measure to do that which is required but he has a spirit within the Law written in his heart an inward principle suitable to what the Law requires of him as it is said of Christ in respect of that great Commandment was laid on him Joh. 10.18 This Commandment have I received of my father for of that I think he speaks lo I come to do thy will thy law is in the middle of my bowels I have power to lay it down and to take it up again He had an inward principle that made him ready and willing and chearful in it and in this respect the Law was never made for them as the only principle upon which they should act 3 For condemnation so as to be able to lay upon a man the guilt of his own sin and condemn him for it for the sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law there is a destroying power in sin and this it has from the condemning power of the Law do but take away the condemning power of the Law and the sting of death that is that power that it has to destroy the soul is gone because the guilt is taken off the sinner Now Gal. 3.13 He has delivered us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us And so Gal. 5.23 Against such there is no Law It is not spoken against such works but against such persons there is no Law partly because the Law is against none but those that transgress it and partly because those being the fruits of the spirit do argue and clear to a man that his Covenant is changed because he is acted by the spirit of the second Covenant and therefore he may thereby receive an evidence to himself that the condemning power of the Law is not against him any more Rom. 4.6 4 For Justification For blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputes righteousness without works That no man is justified by the Law is evident Gal. 2. ult If righteousness be by the law then Christ is dead in vain And from hence I argue that if they that are in Christ and under the second Covenant are freed from the Law in all these respects then all those that are out of Christ are under the Law still in all those respects and therefore every unregenerate man is under the Law as a Covenant of works and under this Covenant he desires to be now the Covenant being broken he is under it for Justification Irritation Coaction and Condemnation Daven de luâ—ut actuali p. 397. which when we have lookt over it will appear that this is no such happy condition that a man should desire it In being freed thus from the Law the main part of a Christians liberty consists yet there is this difference the two last refer unto a person and state and in those his liberty is perfect and he is wholly freed from the Law
even in all his temptations of the Saints as well as wicked men to touch them Jon. 6.7 Job 5.19 and to leave in them an impression and stamp of his own devilishness and therefore the more men sin against knowledg and with despight and disaffection unto God the more he is pleased with it for as God loves holiness in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes unto conformity to God the more God delights in him so Satan loves sin in the spirituality of it and the nearer a man comes in conformity unto Satan the more spiritual his wickedness grows and Satan delights to act that man of all other 2 The dearer any thing is unto God the more Satan delights to abuse it unto this end and the more God hath set up any thing against sin the more Satan does endeavour to make that a means to draw men unto sin sometimes he seeks to abuse the Creatures of God and stir up lust by them as when a man looks upon the Sun when it shines and his heart is enticed thereby sometimes he looks upon a Woman and lusts after her sometimes he looks upon the Wine when its colour looks red in the glass and thus the Creatures of God are abused by Satan to draw out the lusts of men and whatever is in the world is the lust of the flesh the lust of the ey and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.15 16. Sometimes he abuseth the servants of God he will enter into Peter and he shall become a tempter unto Christ that he saith Get thee behind me Satan and the woman that God gave man to be a help she shall by Satan be made a dart and sometimes the Law and the Gospel which specially God has set up as a remedy against sin shall act it and improve it and draw it forth Now God leaving a man under the power and dominion of Satan the God of this world who works effectually in the children of disobedience he is as a conquerour over them and triumphs in this that he has made use of the Law of God and the Gospel of God that is made against sin to increase and ripen it yea even the motions and common works of the Spirit of God the heart of man rising and making head against them are the great means by which Satan draws men to the great transgression even to sin against God with despight and revenge § 3. But here is a question Question Are believers who are engrafted into Christ and come under him as a father as the second Adam that is have their Covenant changed as well as their image are these wholly freed from the law in respect of the irritation of it Rom. 6.14 it is said Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the law but under grace Which as has been declared is not to be referred unto a mans justification as being freed from the Law for righteousness and life and from the curse of the law for death and condemnation but it is spoken of a mans Sanctification a man is not under the Law as irritating sin and increasing it but under grace not only pardoning but sanctifying and subduing it and in this respect the dominion and the ruling power of sin is taken away in the godly though the being of it remain The Apostle speakes wholly in this place in reference to a mans state of unregeneracy Vers 5 When we were in the flesh the motions of sin that were by the law c. And he speaks this in reference to his own estate before conversion I was alive without the law once and I had not known sin but by the law nor lust to be a sin and the danger of it but that the Law of God discover'd it unto me and so in my former state Sin took occasion by the Commandment and wrought in me c. The word in the Greek signifies to work a thing throughly and effectually and to work it out Phil. 2.20 Work out your salvation with fear and trembling And Rom. 7.18 To will is present with me but to perform or go through with the work I find not a power to do it And so sin by the Commandment wrought in him effectually or wrought in him which we heard before all manner of Concupiscence all lust was thereby drawn out Hath the law of God no such work upon a regenerate man one that is a believer does not sin in a regenerate man take occasion by the Commandment Is a Believer as perfectly freed from the Law for irritation as he is for condemnation Answer Christ says If the Son make you free you are free indeed and the special part of our liberty with which Christ has made us free is in being freed from the Law as a Covenant Some as Paraeus and others do distinguish thus Liberty from the Law is twofold 1 Perfect in respect of justification and condemnation that their perfect obedience to the Law is no way required for the one neither shall any of the transgressions of the Law be imputed for the other 2 Inchoate which is but begun in the Saints and shall be perfected and so they are delivered from the Law only for irritation and coaction but so long as sin remains in them so long they shall never be perfectly delivered from the Law in either of these But to make this plain and bring it down in the particular branches of it unto the meanest understanding There are many things to be considered which I shall now proceed to lay down to make out this general and received Doctrine that is so commonly delivered by our Divines 1. There are remainders of corruption in the best of the Saints Grace destroys the reigning of sin but not the being of it You read how that Abraham the father of the faithful had his unbelief and Moses the meekest man in his generation had his passion and provocation and spake unadvisedly with his lips David a man after Gods own heart yet he complains of his secret sins and Paul that great Apostle had the law of his members rebelling against the law of his mind 2 Cor. 7.1 There is a filthiness of flesh and spirit that is to be purged out as there is something wanting in their Graces and therefore they have a daily growth in Sanctification so there is something remaining of their corruption which requires a daily growth in their mortification therefore they are compared to the Moon Cant. 6.10 which has some spots in it because not wholly enlightned by the Sun they do defile themselves and therefore had need daily to wash their feet Joh. 17.10 2. These remainders of sin in them as they are promoted by Satan so they give Satan an access unto their spirits and are as the seed for him to work upon they are to him a seminary and so much as Satan has in a man so much power he has over him says Christ
and that denial increaseth to an oath and that swearing multiplies to cursings and to imprecations upon himself in the highest kind as the word is in the original as if he had wished Mat. 26 74. I would I might never find mercy at the hands of God or come where God hath to do that I might be separated from God eternally and damned body and soul if that I know the man And Isa 57.17 says God For the iniquity of his covetousness I smote him and was wroth and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart c. Theodosius was an Emperour of a very meek sweet and gracious temper yet a Temptation so far got the head of him that upon an occasion of a Tumult in Thessalonia a servant of his that he had in a special manner respect for being slain he commanded an universal Massacre throughout the City that in a very short space 3000 men were slain by his command and that by a wile being invited to behold a Play for which cause the Emperour himself was by Ambrose kept from the Sacrament It were strange to consider unto what a height even the sins of godly men from the remainders of corruption that is in them may be improved 6. For the improvement of sins in godly men Satan may and commonly does make advantage of the Law of God and the commands and restraints thereof whereby sin will take occasion See it in King Asa the Prophet did prophesie and he put him into Prison because he shewed him his sin and instead of repenting for it he increased it for he was in a rage temptation had got hand over him and by the reproof Satan did stir up his lust And even the Gospel is by Satan turned into wantonness and all the Grace of it yea and all the glorious works of Grace upon a mans heart sin will take occasion from Gods drawing nigh and wax wanton under his love there is not any part of the Law of God or the Works of God or the Providence of God that Satan will not make use of and sin take occasion by to stir up and to improve corruption in a man even those remainders of sin that are in a Saint Quest § 4. If a godly man be under the irritation of the Law as well as a wicked man where then lyes the difference that a man in Christ is said not to be under the Law in this respect The difference lyes in these three things mainly Answ 1. An unregenerate man has no other use of the Law but this all the fruit that he has by it is to improve draw out and increase his sins but a godly man being under another Covenant as he has the Law written in his heart in his regeneration so he has by the Law Grace increased in the continued work of his Sanctification Joh. 17.17 there is in respect of his regenerate part a power of Sanctification and the whole Law of God tends to that end in him and this the Law works in him per se as he is regenerate though it works the other per accidens as far as he is unregenerate Grace receives strength by the Commandment according to the law of the mind as sin does according to the law of the flesh in the one sin is restrained and subdued in the other sin may be restrained but it is increased and as a damm set upon the waters which â—â—â—es them swell the higher 2. Through sin may â—â—â—e occasion by the Law in the regenerate yet this does not constitute sin in dominion it doâ—â— never rise up so high in a regenerate man as to amount unto a compleat raign and dominion as Rom. 6.14 Sin shall not have dominion over you so that a man should obey it in the lusts thereof for in the highest improvement of sin by the Law in the regenerate there is another law in the mind a spirit that lusts against the flesh that a man cannot be given up unto all iniquity it does never work in him all manner of concupiscence as it does in the unregenerate so as to make a man always go on in a presumptuous way of sinning but Grace and the spirit of Grace gives a check to it because a man loves the law of God and its precepts according to his inward man 3. Lastly it does never so far prevail in the regenerate as to bring forth fruit unto death as it does in the unregenerate Rom. 7.5 The motions of sin that were by the law wrought in me to bring forth fruits unto death But as the law is made a servant unto the Gospel so both the precept and the curse of the law is made subservient and subordinate this way for as the remainders of sin in the godly are sprinkled with the blood of Christ so are all the temptations of Satan and the improvements of sin by the law which is unto all unregenerate men a part of the curse of their Covenant sanctified unto the regenerate and are a means to shew them their own vileness and to humble them deeply before the Lord as we see it in Peter and David and to make them hate sin the more and to make them the more watchful over their own hearts and lay the faster hold upon Christ and the Grace offered in the Gospel by faith and to ply the Throne of Grace by constant and daily prayers and the more to long for their adoption and redemption and so this improvement of sin by the law does tend in the end to the further subduing of sin and at last to the utter abolishing of it that so the remainders of sin being wholly done away Satan may stir up sin and sin may take occasion by the Commandment no more And so as other fruits of the curse of the law are blessed and sanctified unto them as their afflictions their temptations and death it self so shall these fruits of the curse be also sanctified unto them and tend to their sanctification and end in the perfection of their holiness at the last So that as death is swallowed up in victory in a mans resurrection so is sin also in a mans perfect sanctification unto which through the Grace of the Gospel sin it self was over-ruled to be a means for as there are two ways of a mans pollution so there are also two means of a mans sanctification there are proper and natural means as Satan and a mans own lusts c. and there are occasional means as the law of God so there are of a mans sanctification the Word and the Spirit and the Ordinances and there are occasions which in their own nature do work no such thing but Grace takes occasion from the one as corruption does from the other the temptations of Satan and the improvement of sin by the law being sprinkled by the blood of Christ shall be as effectual to a mans sanctification as the other being not sprinkled with the blood of Christ
self-accusation and self-condemnation together with perfect fear perfect sorrow and despair for ever SECT II. Whence the Law hath this Coactive power WHence is it that the Law hath this Coactive power It does arise from these ground §. 1. 1. From the Sovereignty of God in the Law it is the Royal Law as being the rule of mans duty and the whole will of God concerning him that rule according to which man should walk in which he should be accept Eccles 12. ult Rom. 2.12 and by which he shall be judged at the last and great day for they that have sinned under the law shall be judged by the law And Christ that shall be the Judge saith I will not judge you but there is one that judges you even Moses in whom ye trust And though man has sinned and broken the Law and endeavoured to cast it off yet he is held still under the authority and soveraignty of the same Law Rom. 7.1 2 A man is subject to the law as long as he lives and so long as a man lives in a natural state so long he is under this Law as a Covenant and the Law does 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord it over him in full dominion for the Law rules in the authority and soveraignty of God it is the great Expansum that God has spread over the rational world of mankind while they â—re in their natural state by which they are to be ruled and by which they shall be judged â—nd this is the main ground of all the rigor and coaction of the Law 2. There is in unregenerate men a natural conscience I call it natural as our Divines use 〈…〉 say because it acts only by natural principles and is in every man naturally in opposiâ—on to a renewed conscience which I conceive to be an ability in the understanding of a â—han to judg of actions and states according unto the rule that is prescribed by God Gal. 6.16 Rom. 2. 1 Conâ—â—ience must have a rule and that rule is the Law of God which is regula regulans whereâ—s conscience is only regula regulata as a rule ruled by the Divine Law 2 The things subâ—â—â—cted unto the judgment of conscience are a mans actions and his state and that not only â—hat he has done but what he is to do and conscience does pass a sentence of Good and â—â—d Evil upon both what is to be imbraced and followed and what is to be avoided and â—â—ough custom in sinning wear out the power of conscience exceedingly and in some men 〈…〉 is less than in others for they have their Conscience seared 1 Tim. 9.2 as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sigâ—fies and so to harden the place or else to cut off with searing some men have very brawny â—â—d insensible Consciences and do seem to walk without any Conscience at all as to live â—ithout God in the world and so walk without Conscience in the world and are less unâ—â—r the power of it than other men are yet there is no man but his Conscience has a power â—er him to constrain him to duty and restrain him from sin in some measure and that by 〈◊〉 authority of the Law of God And if God awaken Conscience by some great affliction â—â—our of death or judgment the power of it will quickly appear over them we may see 〈◊〉 Judas who was a Devil a man exceedingly given up to spiritual wickedness and one 〈◊〉 had a very seared Conscience for Christ had told him it had been good for him never to have been born we see all the other Disciples did abhor and fear the very hearing of the â—ct yet Judas afterwards with a brazen face asks Christ Master is it I but yet when â—od did awaken Judas's Conscience we see the power that the â—aw had upon him c. 3. The Spirit of God comes into the Consciences of men for Conscience is a relative â—culty and does not work by it self but does accuse and excuse by the concurrence of â—â—e spirit and the spirit that is given a man is answerable unto his Covenant The second â—ovenant makes men sons and the priviledge of it is the adoption of sons therefore the â—irit that accompanies this Covenant is a spirit of adoption and makes them all free-men 〈◊〉 the Covenant is a free Covenant it is Gal. 4. resembled by Sarah the free woman but â—â—e first Covenant unto man fallen is a Covenant that genders to bondage and there are â—ne under it but bondmen and therefore it is resembled by Hagar the bondwoman Now â—â—e spirit of this Covenant is a spirit of bondage and all that it works in a man is fear and â—rrour binding a man over to wrath upon neglect of duty and threatning vengeance and â—lling the soul with horrour and amazement telling a man of wrath and judgment to come â—â—d the constraint that is upon his soul in reference to these is very great 4. There is in a man a principle of self-love desiring good and fearing of evil for no â—atural man can act from a higher principle than self in whatever he does and therefore it is â—race that gives self-denial So much self-denial so much grace so much self-seeking so much â—â—rruption there is in every man Hence it is when a mans Conscience does tell a man of the â—od of obedience and the happy end thereof as Balaam did see it and therefore desired â—at his death might be like unto the Saints and a Herod may reform and do many things â—â—d so many do good rationally that never did it obedientially do it to do good to themâ—â—ves but never to bring glory unto God as we see it in Jehu and yet many men having tasted of the powers of the world to come and having had some great apprehensions of the good of the ways of God they may go very far and be constrained to do much for God as we see it in Alexander that afterwards proved an Apostate and a Persecutor and yet did much for God for a season and afterwards fell away And when Conscience doth tell a man of the danger of sin and presents to a man Hell and wrath as the consequence of it though it be a way that seems good to a man yet it leads down to the chambers of death and carries a man to the end of his journey and tells him that the fiery lake is but a little before and comes with the threatning of God as the Angel did to Balaam with a drawn sword in his hand a man may say I will turn back again if my way be perverse before thee and he may turn away from the sins that he loves most dearly he may cast up his vomit with the dog and leave the mire with the swine but it is only in fear of some evil and not from a principle wrought in a man that is the ground thereof There is a double principle that moves all things either
a principle of life within or else a principle from without either weights or springs as it is in Clocks or Watches which makes the motion so many men may move to duty and abstain from sin not from an inward principle of life in the one or the other but from a weight without 5. There is in every unregenerate man a sinful and unrenewed heart deceitful above all things Jer. 17.10 and desperately evil a heart fully set in him to do evil and because this is natural therefore his heart is fully bent to go this way so that let him be constrained to do duty yet he will hate the duty that he does and count it a weariness and look upon it as a burden Mallet non facere si posset impune and say When will the Sabbath be gone And let him be kept from sin yet he will love it still if you chain up a Beast from the prey yet his inclination will be after it and keep the stone from the Center and force it up into the air as often as you will it will still return and when it comes down to the earth and can descend no further yet it will have a tendency thereunto So Conscience thâ—â— is meerly natural counts it its misery and affliction to be kept from sin for restrain it from sin never so much it will at last break these bounds and will be carried on with the greater fury greediness and violence because of the former restraint that was put upon it and the Devil will enter with seven worse spirits the dog will return to his vomit and the latter end will be worse than the beginning it had been better that man had never known the way of righteousness for he will be more wicked than if he had never known it Thus let the man have a heart set upon lust and let the power of the Law come into his Conscience acted by the Spirit it 's no wonder if it so far over-awe the man as to restrain him from sin and constrain him to duty § 2. But is a godly man that is under the Covenant of Grace wholly freed from the Coaction of the Law Answ This distinction was laid down in the beginning that though the main part of our Christian Liberty consists in being freed from the Law yet this liberty is in this life either inchoata or perfecta in respect of justification and condemnation A godly man is perfectly freed from the Law as a Covenant but in respect of Irritation and Coaction he is freed from these effects of it only in part We have seen how far the Irritation of the Law remains even in the regenerate and it is like lime which does quench those fires sometimes kindles 〈◊〉 Sin while it does remain and is acted by Satan may take occasion by the Commandment and produce woful effects even in the Saints so for the Coaction of the Law they are not wholly freed from it so far as they are unregenerate and the law of the flesh remains in their members the Law is of use to them and a handmaid to the Gospel and they do and ought to make use of legal motives to constrain to duty and to restrain from sin and the Law is to be preached to the regenerate to this purpose Heb. 11.25 1. To constrain to duty many times The Saints are to make use of the Law and the good things thereof so did Moses he had respect to the recompence of reward and the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 5.9 We labour whether present or absent that we may be accepted of him for we must all appear before the Judgment-seat of Christ and knowing the terrour of the Lord we perswade men Again Heb. 12. ult Let us have grace to serve him acceptably for our God is a consuming fire These be the helps that the Lord has given us and it were our sin not to make use of them there is no man but he finds so much deadness and backwardness in his flesh that he shall be forced to call in this help many times Mark 9.44 2. And to restrain a man from sin also Christs exhortation is Cut off your right hand and pull out your right eye for it 's better to go to heaven maimed than having two eyes to be cast into hell where the worm dies not c. And if Adam in the state of Innocency had need of the threatning of the Law to deter him from sin much more a godly man that is holy but in part Yet there is a great deal of difference 1 in a godly man this is not the only principle that acts him as it is in the unregenerate for an unregenerate man would never do duty while he lives were it not from this Coaction of the Law out of a principle of self-love and natural conscience for he does duties as a godly man commits sins and he must say that which I hate do I but in a godly man there is another principle also there is a law of his mind an inward disposition the law written in his heart a new and divine nature and his obedience to God is natural to him as it is for a tree to bring forth fruit in its kind and a fountain to cast out mud and to work out any thing that is contrary to it 2 As this is not the only so it is not the main principle that works in them but there is the Spirit of Christ that dwells in them and leads them and there is a law of love that does mainly act them in all they do 1 Joh. 5.3 they abstain from Sin as from Hell and that which they see all evil in and as that which is dishonourable to God and defiles their own beauty for Sin is the souls deformity as Grace is the ornament of the soul and he does duty from an ingenuous and free spirit And therefore Christ says Take my yoke upon you for it is easie Whence so far as a man is regenerate he is a law unto himself and he would be kept from sin and carried on to duty if neither of these were but only from a principle within 3. The more a regenerate man is acted by legal principles and the less love he has to spiritual duties the less spiritual he is and therefore his desire is always to be led by the Spirit of God and he always prays to God for his free Princely Spirit SECT III. The APPLICATION § 1. WE may hence learn what a miserable estate a man is in being under the first Covenant every thing is a burden to him because it is a constraint upon his spirit the thing he does he hates he has a contrary principle within him which he would indulge and gratifie Now there being in a man the same nature and the command of God lying upon a man this may and this does commonly put a force upon him to perform duties of the law but that
Summer and Winter Day and Night shall not cease and this is an universal and an absolute Covenant called the Covenant of the day and of the night Gen. 8.22 9.9 10. and used to express the stability of the Covenant of Grace and the perpetuity thereof Says the Lord If you can break my Covenant of the day Jer. 33.20 c. then may also my Covenant be broken with David my servant So that all man-kind is in Covenant with God and stands bound to him in a Covenant-way 2. The two main Covenants though the federates in them may be said to be all man-kind yet they were not made with all men immediately but in a publick person a representative head There being two sorts of creatures that God will deal with in a Covenant-way some that were created all at once and did not proceed from one another neither had dependance one upon another and with them God made a personal and a particular Covenant and that he did with every individual Angel and therefore every one stood for himself and fell for himself Thence some fell and others stood they that consented to the Transgression and abode not in the Truth they left their first habitation Ephes 3.10 But there was a second sort of reasonable creatures that were to come into the World successively and to flow from one as from a common root all must come out of his loyns therefore all Nations are said to be made of one blood for God loves variety that he may shew forth his manifold Wisdom and therefore he made a Covenant with this head this common root in whom they all were and in whom they must all stand or fall And he will make him also to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the type of him that was to come that he may suit all things one to another For as his Wisdom is wonderfully seen in the order of his creatures and the suiting of one thiâ—g to another so it is wonderfully seen in his works of Grace also in a special manner towards man and therefore by his absolute Sovereignty he calls things that are not as if they were and things are so because he counteth them so not because man counts them so He has appointed a twofold common head of all man-kind 1 Cor. 15. ◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The first Covenant was made with the first Adam and therefore by one man and by one offence of that one man Judgment came up on all unto condemnation â—om 5. and so all mankind are under the Law and under the Curse Children of the bond-woman even unregenerate men that live in the Church that is of the Covenant of Works as broken which only binds men over unto wrath and wholly genders unto bondage And the second Covenant made with the second Adam the Covenant that was made with Abraham Gal. 3.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was confirmed by God in Christ Gal. 3.17 which refers to Vers 16 To Abraham and his seed was the Covenant made he says not seeds as many but one which is Christ About which there is some controversy some do understand it of Christ in individuo personally some of Christ in aggregato or a Christ mystically but in which sence soever it is primarily in Christ as the head and surety of the Covenant So that neither of the Covenants are made with man immediately as in himself but in another 3. It is a mans Vnion with either of these publick persons or representative heads that doth bring a man under either Covenant If a man be one with the first Adam then he is under his Covenant and if he be one with the second Adam then he is under his Covenant The ground of a mans Covenant is his Vnion with him that is the head of his Covenant This appears in both Men come not under the Angels Covenant because they are not one with them the Lord Jesus Christ proceeding from Adam not in a natural way but voluntarily taking to himself the seed of Abraham and being made flesh therefore he does voluntarily and freely Gal. 4.5 not necessarily come under Adam's Covenant he was made of a woman made under the Law and because he was not of necessity one with Adam therefore he was not of necessity but freely under his Covenant but all mankind coming from Adam by a necessity of nature because they are naturally and necessarily one with him they are therefore necessarily under his Covenant And therefore Divines do ask how a man becomes a sinner he cannot have sin in his soul because it is created by God immediately pure and holy and creando infunditur in the very act of creating it is infused and sin being only the act of a reasonable creature there cannot be sin in this body before the soul is infused Now if there be no sin in the Soul then it cannot defile the body and if there be no sin in the body how can that infect the soul Our Divines do answer That the soul is created by God pure and has no spot in it and the body cannot have sin in it actually but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 potentially and the body cannot work upon the soul being a Spirit Anima non dicitur priùs habere peccatum quà m corpori conjuncta est ratio est quia tunc primum facti sunt homines Adami peccatum non transfertur nisi in homines Zan. de peccato Origen p. 49. Chrys on Rom. 5.12 to corrupt it neither has the soul sin in it nor the body Zanchy saith That the soul cannot be said to have sin before united to the body c. And therefore he adds Propter conjunctionem cum corpore anima inficitur non tam actione corporis in animam quam Dei ordinatione qui dixerat Adamo die quo commederis morte morieris The soul is infected by reason of its conjunction with the body yet not so much by the action of the body on the soul as by Gods ordination who said to Adam in the day that thou sinnest c. So that when a man becomes a man he becomes one with the first Adam and by his Union comes under his Covenant and then the transgression of Adam and the curse of his Covenant takes place upon him And therefore the Apostle says Rom. 5 In him all sinned and by one judgment came upon all to condemnation By one offence this Covenant was so broken that it could never be made up again but all men must perish under it therefore they all stood under it as they were in him and as they were from him successively in their generations and did receive their nature from him so they were to be one with him and being one with him they come under his Covenant and his Curse Chrysostom saith That he falling all men did partake of his fall So for the second Adam it is only union with him that brings us
under his Covenant 1 John 5.11 God has given us eternal life and this life is in his son he that has the son has life So that all the benefits of the Covenant are grounded upon our Union with him who is the Prince of the Covenant if you be Abrahams seed How shall that be Gal. 3. last By being Christs and then a man comes under Abrahams Covenant and thereby is a Son of Abraham and that is only by being in Christ They that are born after the spirit are Children of the freewoman Gal. 4.31 2 Cor. 1.20 that is they that believe and it is in him that all the promises are made unto us in him all the promises of God are Yea and Amen they have their truth and their certainty and stability in him and we are made the righteousness of God in him and we bear fruits in him for every promise does carry back the Soul unto his Union with Christ in the right whereof we do claim the promises which are made unto Christ in our behalf and unto us only so far as we are members of Christ as we are in him And from hence the point that I shall gather wherein this translation lies is this Doct. In a mans Vnion with the second Adam his translation out of the first Covenant does consist it is by a mans Vnion that his Covenant is changed § 2. In the opening of it there are three things to be cleared 1 To explain the nature of this Vnion 2 How it comes to pass that this Vnion should be a mans Translation 3 To shew how a man being united unto Christ the prince of the Covenant differs from what he was before his being translated and in what particulars this difference lies § 1. For the nature of this Union it is an Union with him as he is set forth by God publick person as a representative head as a second Adam Now as we were one with the first Adam and therefore said to be in him and to sin in him so we must be one with the second Adam and so are said to be in him also Now in the first Adam we are naturally as we partake of his Spirit every man by nature receiving the spirit of Adam as well as the Image of Adam and voluntarily every man by nature consenting to his Covenant and desiring still to be under it Gal. 4. And as Jesus Christ is become one with us so must we also become one with him Now he is become one with us naturally taking our flesh and voluntarily as entring into our Covenant so we must become one with Christ naturally by receiving his spirit and voluntarily by consenting unto his Covenant And these two are the branches of our Union without which it cannot be compleat and therefore our Union in Scripture is set forth by similitudes that express both parts naturally between the head and the body we are the members of Christ and he the head between the branch and the root he the root and we the branches between the meat and the body that is nourished by it when turned into juice and blood c. And also voluntarily between the Husband and the Wife they two making up one flesh Ephes 5.3 by mutual consent 1. There is a natural Vnion between Christ and the Soul As Christ taking our flesh becomes one with us so also we partaking of his Spirit become one with him As there are some that God has given unto Christ from eternity in his purpose and decree so he has appointed a time when they shall be actually united who though in the Purpose of God and Transaction between the Father and his Son are given unto Christ yet do for the present live without Christ in the World but though Christ in the Purpose of God was a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world yet in the fullness of time only he took our flesh so though we were in the counsel of God given unto Christ before the world was yet there is a fullness of time appointed by the Father when he shall bestow upon us his spirit so that the first part of our Union is that we receive the Spirit of Christ for this Union begins on Christs part as he did unite himself unto us by taking our flesh so he does unite us unto himself by imparting of his spirit Phil. 3.12 That I may apprehend as I am apprehended Chrys 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. He took hold of our nature flying from him So Oecumen We were no more able to lay hold upon Christ than to lay hold on the Sun in the Firmament This â—ending of his spirit makes us become one body with him as the head and the feet make up â—ne body because they are acted by the same soul Because you are Sons Gal. 4.6 Rom. 8.9 1 Cor. 6.17 he has sent forth â—e spirit of his son into your hearts If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his â—e spiritual body so Pareus or mystical or in respect of the Copula as Beza as he that 〈◊〉 joyned to a Harlot is one flesh with her his bond is carnal so he that is joyned to the â—ord is one spirit and so a man becomes the Temple of the Holy Ghost and the Spirit of Christ dwells in a man and takes up his habitation there for ever never to forsake that man â—fterward There is the inhabitation and the operation of the spirit Jo. 15.26 2 Tim. 1.14 the Holy Ghost dwells â—here and works there for ever and so Christ and he having one spirit they are become one body Hence we see 1 this Union is real and not imaginary though Christ be in Heaven and we upon thâ— Earth yet the bond is real the same spirit in both as many members of one body acted by the same Soul and so though many members be scattered all the World over yet they make up one body for it is a spiritual body and a mysterious Union for â—he same spirit unites the members to the head and one to another for they all partake of â—he same spirit 2. It is a natural and not meerly a voluntary Union and therefore there are many simiâ—itudes some express it by a voluntary and some by a natural Union as the members â—hough they be naturally one and acted by the same spirit yet they are of different forms â—o it is here Christ and the Soul are not only one by consent but they are naturally one c. 3. The Union is not with the Gifts and Graces and Benefits of Christ though indeed the Communion we have is with these but the Union is with his person for Isa 9.6 To us a son is given John 1.14 The word was made flesh and dwelt among us And Psal 45.10 11 Hearken O daughter and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty for
a glass Jam. 1.24 He that looks into the perfect Law of liberty Here it is spoken of the Moral Law as Beza observes in opposition unto the bondage of the Ceremonial not that the Moral Law is a Law of liberty or can set us at liberty of it self but it is so to them that are in Christ because it is a Law written in their hearts and they are stablished by a free and a Princely spirit There is a double glass that the Scripture holds forth in which Christians should often look as this here and that in the 2 Cor. 3.18 Rom. 3.20 Rom. 7.7 Per legem peccati cognitio per fidem abolitio Ambros in Rom. 3. that in the one they may see themselves and in the other they may behold their Saviour even the Glory of the Lord. The Law is the one and the Gospel is the other Now the great use of this glass is that a man may see his own spots and deformities that his sin may be discovered and therefore the Text says it was added for transgressions And of this use of the Law the Scripture speaks often Rom. 30.20 By the Law is the knowledge of sin the Law entred that the offence might abound I had not known sin but by the Law And Rom. 7.13 That sin might appear sin and by the Commandment become exceeding sinful that is that he might see sin in the extent of it and its utmost vileness and filthiness and therefore he shews that there could be nothing worse than it he calls it by no worse name than its own sinful sin as to call Satan a devilish Devil is not so bad as to call him sinful Angel for sin being the worst of evils can have no worse name than it self and therefore when the Apostle says it did appear to him in the utmost sinfulness of it then he says it did appear sin Lex est Index peccati non genitrix the Law is the Index of sin â—ot the Parent As the light enters and discovers filthiness that before was there but it lay â—id in the dark And these Scriptures do direct us to sins of two sorts which are discovered â—y the Law 1 Original sin which is called the offence which was in the world beâ—ore the Law even from Adam for by one man sin entred into the world and by him it passed â—pon all mankind 2 Actual sins whether of the heart or of the life all the inordinate â—otions of the spirit tending unto evil which the Scripture calls lusts Rom. 7.7 I had not known lust 〈◊〉 be a sin unless the Law had said unto me Thou shalt not lust Here I must speak unto two â—hings 1 How does the Law discover sin 2 How by discovering sin is it a handmaid and 〈◊〉 servant to the Gospel 1. How does the Law discover Original sin and that cursed frame of nature which is in â—ery sin 1. By shewing unto a man as in a glass that primitive holiness and righteousness in which he â—s created For the Law indeed is primitive justitiae speculum the glass of primitive justice â—or that image of God in which man was created was nothing else but a perfect conformity 〈◊〉 the nature of the Law and will of God in every thing So that as Christ while he was â—pon earth in his humane nature was a perfect pattern of that obedience that the Law requiâ—ed so that all that he did was agreeable to the Law in every thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 2.21 and he has therein left as a copy to write after so was Adams nature and so should also his life have been he should have known no sin neither should any guile have been found in his mouth he should â—ave been as it was said of one a living Scripture and a walking Bible a living Law 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so â—hat whatever the Law of God now requires of us that at first God created in us Now when a man compares himself with this Law and sees how unanswerable he is in every thing he does he thereby comes to see how he has utterly lost the righteousness and holiness that was in him at the first and the glory of his Creation his Mind that was in the Creation as full of light as the Sun is is now darkness it self and his Conscience is now feared his heart that was tender unto God is now hardned his Memory that was firm is now frail and leaking and his Affections that did move rationally and orderly as the Stars in their courses â—re now full of nothing else but confusion madness and disorder â—â—d his Thoughts the immediate issues and the first-born of his soul always excellent spiritual and useful but now polish vain and unprofitable flying up and down like atoms in the air to no end 2. A man looking upon this rule does not only see a privation of what formerly was his â—appiness and his glory but he sees now the quite contrary Act. 13.10 an opposition in him to the Law of God in every thing that he is an enemy unto all righteousness and full of the fruits of all unrighteousness the image of the Devil upon him so that look how the heart of the Devil works against God and duty so does his for he is as like him as a child can be like his father There is a touch that Satan has left upon a mans spirit and this is upon his whole soul 1 Joh. 5.19 also all the faculties of it are turned the wrong way all of them are taken off from God and duty and therefore a man when he is converted is said to return and when the Lord calls him he is said to hear a voice behind him but novv by sin he is turned quite avvay and there is this devillishness in him that he is the more contrary unto any duty because God commands it and is carried vvith the greater violence after any sin because God forbids it sin taking occasion by the Commandment which comes nearest unto direct â—â—â—ity that can be to do things by way of revenge which is the Devils sin 3. The Law discovers Original sin by shewing the dominion of it a man cannot resist it he cannot cast it off it has a double authority in the man the dominion of a Lord Rom. 6.14 and of a King a power of command and thence some expound sin mentioned by the Apostle Rom. 7.6 to be the husband and it is not much material which whether the Law irritating sin or sin irritated by the Law be the husband and so sin has a power of love also an interest as a husband to perswade and therefore there must be obedience men obey it in the lust thereof for he that hath authority over us to command and a power to persvvade the heart also he can procure obedience to all his commands vvhen he vvill but so has sin and therefore it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
their labours and their works to follow them when a man has been under a hard master to be set at liberty is thâ— sweeter when a man out of a Prison comes to a Throne this I say makes him honouâ— that Spirit and keep close to him and cherish the motions of it ever after and be carefuâ— not to be led into the same darkness again The Spirit of Christ is a delicate Spirit and wheâ— it is grieved it withdraws from a soul and suspends the comfort and quicknings that it used to enjoy therefore the soul sets a high price upon the spirit of Adoption SECT III. The Subservience of the Law to the Gospel as it restrains Sin § 1. HAving spoken of the Law in the first sense I now come to consider it in the second In the one it discovers judges and condemns sin and in the other 〈◊〉 checks and restrains sin Here are three things to be considered and cleared 1 That 〈◊〉 Law is as a bridle to check sin and to restrain it 2 In what respects it is said so to 〈◊〉 3 How in this also the Law is in the hand of a Mediator used as a servant or handmaid â— the Gospel 1. That the Law is as a bridle to check sin I desire you to observe three things 1. That sin hath in it a fierceness and unruliness and therefore men in it are compared unto the most raging and unruly creatures in the world Isa 57.20 It is compared to the Sea which is the most unruly and tumultuous and unquiet creature if there were never any wind without yet it is always unquiet from an inward principle in it self which you may explain by Jude v. 13. Jude v. 13. Jer. 2.23 Savage creatures and raging waves of the Sea foaming out their own shame And they are compared unto the wildest and most unruly of all the Creatures a Dromâ—dary Jer. 2.23 which some say is a She-camel others say it is Cameleo pardalis a creaturâ— of a mixed Generation and they are resembled unto this creature for its swiftness it is onâ— of the swiftest of all Creatures and the Female more swift than the Male as Franzius 〈◊〉 his Historia sacra animalium has well observed And a Horse is an unruly creature his mouth must be holden with bit and bridle a Horse prepared for the battel and being chafed to it of which the Lord says Job 29.19 That he hath cloathed his neck with thunder he mocks at fear and does not turn back from the sword he swallows the ground with fierceness c. And such is the fierceness of a sinner in his way Hos 8.9 Hos 8.9 A wild ass alone by himself in Scripture sinners are compared to the Ass for a double property 1 for his fierceness 2 for his folly as Job 11.12 Vain man would be wise though born like a wild Asses colt and for his fierceness a wild Ass in the wilderness Jer. 2.28 In a wilderness an Ass is alone by her self under no government no restraint no rider to rule or bridle her It 's better to meet a Bear robbed of her whelps than a fool in his folly as 2 Sam. 17.8 2 Sam. 17.8 The fierceness of this Creature is noted to be the greatest in Scripture Hos 13.8 I will meet them 〈◊〉 a bear bereaved of her whelps c. And by which the fierceness of Gods Judgements is â—et out I will meet them as a bear rob'd of her whelps c. and will rend the caul of his heart â—ow the same rage will a sinner be in when he is met and stopped in an evil way in any way â—f sin whatsoever There is an unruliness in sin beyond all this that neither the Bear nor â—y other fierce Creature can vent All the creatures have been tamed but man his tongue â—an no man tame Jam. 3. Now you may say why who sets bounds unto this Sea and who â—hall command and rule this swift Dromedary this chafed Horse this wild Ass and this beâ—aved Bear c. surely no natural power Thence 2. The Spirit of God doth aim in his dealings with man to keep under and restrain their â—sts Here you are to distinguish between what he doth per se and in his own proper nature â—d that which he doth per accidens and occasionally The aim of the Spirit of God in all his â—orks is properly and in its own nature to keep down the lusts of men but yet occasionâ—â—ly his dealing with man doth draw them forth the more as by sending an affliction the â—ord doth it to take away his sin but yet it does raise up his sin and so does the Law sin taking occasion by the Commandment and so the Ordinances of the Gospel also And this will appear Hos 2.6 I will hedge up their way with thorns and I will make a wall that she shall 〈◊〉 find her pasture He compares them to wild beasts that will not be kept within â—unds therefore the Lord made up a hedge of thorns against them that is a hedge of afâ—â—iction and if one affliction will not do it if they still break through the hedge he will â—ollow them with a wall and all this is to the end that she may not find her path that she may not go on and prosper in a way of sinning she shall meet with difficulties in sinful ways â—nd they shall also want success and labour in vain in them for though they do follow â—fter them they shall not overtake them disappointment in the way of sinning is the Lords â—im in all afflictions Job 33.16 17. it is To keep man from his purpose and to hide pride â—â—om his heart And Paul had a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him that he might not be â—â—ted up through the abundance of revelation The aim of the Spirit of God is to restrain â—e lusts of men and this very restraining Grace is a great mercy There is a twofold reâ—â—raining Grace 1 Upon the actions of men Pharaoh he had a desire to the sin his lust â—s stirred up but says God Gen. 20. I with held thee 2 Upon the lusts of men says God Exod. 34.24 There shall no man desire thy land To have a mans lust restrained is a great mercy and it is only during the time of this life for afterwards God will let out mens lusts to the uttermost as he does the Devils and their sin shall have rationem poenae Oh unhappy men when God leaves them to themselves and resists not their fury wo be to them whose sin God connives at Luth. the nature of punishment as Aquinas observes after this life the demerit of sin ceaseth Quia pertinet ad damnationis poenam because it belongs to the punishment of damnation as obedience in Heaven belongs to the reward of blessedness Thus all restraining Grace shall cease as all natural affection shall and the Spirit of God shall only work wrath as a spirit of bondage in
ad omnis generis flagitia sicut ergo hominibus obsessis vincula catenae injiciuntur ne quem laedant sic toti mundo qui est obsessus a diabolo adest Deus legibus cohibens manus pedes ne praeceps ruat in omnis generis flagitia 2 The Lord has set bounds unto the sins of the World as well as unto the sins of particular persons and Nations which when they have by degrees filled up judgment shall come upon them to their destruction As there was a fulness of sin when the Flood came upon the world and it repented the Lord that he had made man upon the earth so there is a fulness of sin when the World shall be burnt and when all the wicked have filled up their measure then shall the fire of Gods wrath be kindled upon the World unto which it is reserved Only then when the World was drowned because there was a holy seed remaining upon the earth the Lord did spare the earth for Noahs sake because there was a blessing but when all the Elect of God shall be translated from this earth to Glory then there shall be an utter destruction and the earth shall be burnt up at least refined by fire Now if there should not be a restraint laid upon the lusts of men every one that is now a Serpent would become a Dragon and they that now sin as men would act like Devils and the measure of mens lusts would be quickly fulfilled and the end of the World would be suddenly hastned Now because God has appointed a time that the World shall stand for Gospel ends and to shew forth the Grace of the Gospel that mercy may rejoice and triumph over judgment therefore he does restrain the lusts of men that the fulness of the sin of the World may be filled up by degrees 2. It does exceedingly exalt the Gospel and the Grace thereof that it does make such a use of the Law as is unto man fallen above the nature of the Law and contrary to the use that sin does make of the Law 1 It is above the power of the Law unto man a sinner for the Law is become weak through the flesh Rom. 8.4 as we see they that know the Law yet pour out themselves to all excess of riot and give themselves over unto all manner of abominations He that says thou shalt not commit adultery doth himself commit adultery c. All this shews that the Law of it self is weak it can forbid sin indeed but it cannot restrain it as it can require duty but it cannot enable a man thereunto but as Bernard has observed It commands without grace and it punishes without mercy Restraining Grace in respect of sin and assisting Grace in respect of duty comes not from the Law but from the Spirit that is given in the Gospel working with it 2 It is contrary to the use that sin makes of the Law for sin takes occasion by the Commandment and the Law is so far from being a means of restraining lust that by the Commandment corruptions are improved and increased Rom. 7.8 11. the flood rises the higher by the damm that is made against it and there is this devillishness in sin that it does take occasion by the Commandment to deceive a man that is it does work in a man a greater apprehension of the sweetness of it and a greater desire to it and longing after it because it is in the Commandment forbidden and from the very prohibition does arise the strength of the temptation a man should never have had his heart so much carried out after it if the Lord had not forbidden it and then a man says Stollen waters are sweet and the bread of deceit is pleasant Now when Satan and sin shall take occasion by the Commandment to improve corruption and to draw it forth that the Spirit of Christ in the Gospel should make a quite contrary use of it to restrain it and bind it up it does much exalt the power of the Gospel and the spirit of the Gospel which works with this Law 3. Restraining Grace which the Spirit of God does work in a man by the Law is of great use and does mightily exalt the Grace of the Gospel in preserving from open violences and immoralities 1 In reference unto the Saints that they are not destroyed for they are sheep in the midst of wolves their souls are amongst lions and therefore it is a wonder that they are not destroyed it is God that lays a restraint upon their enemies lust sometimes and they desire it not and sometimes upon their acts and they cannot effect it Abimelechs lust was restrained in reference to Abraham I kept thee that thou shouldst not touch her And as to Laban God laid a charge upon his spirit and so it was with Herod in reference unto John the Baptist and it is by this restraint laid upon the hearts of wicked men that the lives and liberties of the people of God are preserved and this is every day as great a miracle in some respect as to set bounds to the Sea that it do not overflow and as to stop the Lions mouths or to hinder and restrain actum secundum the second act of the Fire in the Babylonish Furnace that it did not burn so much as the garments of the three Children and that your peace and prosperity and that the progress of the Gospel is not interrupted that the Devil does not cast some of you into prison and seek your blood as in time past it is not that he is not as truly the Destroyer still as in times past but the Lord restrains the lusts of men that he cannot act them and draw them forth as he has done formerly 2 In reference unto wicked and ungodly men that live in their sins and perish in them Though it is true while the corrupt will prevails and a mans enmity to God remains so long is a man a sinner before God in every thing because he is in his habitual frame of heart an enemy unto all righteousness Austins Epist 144. But it is a great common mercy that wicked men have by the Gospel that their lusts are not let out to the uttermost and the greatest judgment that men can be given over to is to be given up to their own hearts lusts delivered over unto the power of sin and to be acted by Satan to the highest and the utmost as Judas the Devil entred into him it was but a higher degree of acting of him in a way of wickedness The restraint that is acted upon them lessens the guilt and does not spread so much in the defilement the act of sin does intend the habit Nor is it so dangerous and infectious unto others for sinners in their actions are corrupters and by their example taint many with evil ways and words the more their restraints are the less will their judgement and condemnation be and
they shall have this fruit by it which will be a great one hereafter Seeing that all men are sinners in Adam alike and sin in one man is as much improved as in another that all men are not alike sinful in this life and alike miserable in the life to come for there be degrees of wrath and that all men do not sin against the Holy Ghost and are not by Satan hurried on to the great Transgression it is no thanks to the man but merely to restraining Grace So in Mar. 10.21 the young man that came to Christ Mark 10.21 Christ is said to love him he was proud and stood upon his own righteousness and he was covetous and did part with Christ to reserve to himself an Estate and went away from him as being offended at his Doctrine and never returned again and yet it is said that Christ loved him what was there lovely in such a man Here Interpreters distinguish 1 of the act 2 of the object 1 Of the Act they say there is a double love of Christ so Cartwright Quia illi grata est humani generis conservatio ideoque politicas virtutes amare dicitur Tenues paulatim per se evanescentes imaginis suae reliquias Beza a Humane and Divine a Divine love that is to Salvation so he loves only the Saints but there was a humane love and so he loved his friends and kindred according to the flesh who yet did not believe in him And some say there is a double love of God and of Christ as God there is a peculiar and a fatherly love and this he bears only to his own people but there is also a common love whereby he loves whatever is of his own in any of the Creatures So Beza and Calvin But I should rather call them the common works of the Spirit of Christ dispensed unto unregenerate men under the Gospel 2 They distinguish of the Object he â—oved the remainder of his own Image or rather the works of his own Spirit in him though they were common that he was preserved unchangeable in tanta morum corruptela where there was such a general and universal overspreading of wickedness and this was Donum Dei gratuitum naturale illam pravitatem non quidem immutantis sed in quibus illi placet paulatim reprimentis Bernard i. e. Not mortifying but restraining sin So that all this was grounded upon the restraining Grace the Lord did vouchsafe unto him in his younger years for to be preserved is a good thing a great gift it is a great mercy not to be tainted with the common corruption and not to wallow in the common mire of the times nor to be given over thereunto 3 In reference unto godly men before and after their conversion 1 Before a mans conversion so it was with Paul Phil. 3. who was concerning the righteousness of the Law blameless and one that did not sin against his Conscience even then when he persecuted the Church Act. 23.1 because there is the greater guilt and horror upon a mans Conscience having so highly dishonoured God the greater bitterness to a man having insnared and corrupted others by his example and the greater matter of temptation Satan representing unto a man anew the sweetness that a man has tasted in former sins and his former experience of it does exceedingly strengthen the temptation and make a mans heart to hanker the more earnestly after them 2 After conversion restraining Grace is a mercy Keep back thy servant from presumptuous sins Psal 19.13 Also the word does signifie to restrain or keep a man back or with-hold him as with a bridle the same word is used in Gen. 20. I with-held thee from touching her And so David Set a watch before the door of my lips So that though lust will be in a mans heart and though it will sometimes arise and all the power of Grace cannot keep it under yet to have it restrained that it shall not break forth and a man not to be hurried upon sinful actions is a great mercy After conversion for the lust of Adultery to be up in David and he desired her and yet if he had been kept from the act it had been a great mercy and so in numbering the people his lust was up and to have been kept from the act would have been a great mercy as we see it in the case of Nabal his lust was up but how does David bless God that it did not break forth into acts but that the lust was restrained before-hand and so do all the Saints of God bless the Lord that sometimes by his Law and sometimes by afflictions and by the admonitions of friends or by the reproach of enemies any lust is kept within its bounds from breaking forth or that there is a restraint of it in any measure that a man doth not pour out himself upon it with greediness that a man is not wicked in the highest degree and that carnal fear doth not prevail upon him as it did upon Peter and carnal love as it did upon Sampson or Solomon and passion as it did upon Asa c. 4. By the Gospel lust is subdued and mortified and that is one great end of the Gospel That we should deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.13 14. And having these promises should purifie our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 And he that has this hope does purifie himself even as God is pure But the Spirit of God doth make use of the Law even to this end also and the restraints thereof There is a double way for the mortifying of sin 1 By infusing a new principle of Grace 2 By restraining the old principle of sin 1 There must be a new principle of Grace infused which will work out the contrary and hinder the actings of it the spirits lusting against the flesh We are not under the Law but under Grace therefore sin shall not have dominion over you Rom. 6.12 Not under the Law strengthning and irritating sin but under Grace subduing it the Spirit of God-working in a man a new and another nature Joh. 3.6 which is contrary unto sin and is like unto that spirit of holiness that works it That which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3.6 and it cannot sin because it is born of God 2 There is a power of the same Spirit of God restraining and keeping under the lusts of men Psal 19.13 and thereby destroying them With-hold from me presumptuous sins in me they are and I find in my self a proneness to them but keep them under With-hold me from the actings of them lest they grow upon me and get the dominion over me As by the exercise of sin it does increase so by the restraining of it it does die and is brought to nothing It is as fire if it be covered and have no vent it will go out and as Trees the more
of right belong to them and God hath therefore separated them from other people that he might set his Tabernacle in the middle of them and they have his presence with them Rom. 9.4 Rev. 4. there the worship of God is there is a glorious Throne by which is meant the Lord Christ in the presence of his people and it is of a visible Church for there are Beasts and Elders there are Believers and there are Officers which cannot be in the Church invisible therefore this presence of God in Ordinances and the Ordinances themselves do belong unto this visible Church and the members of it have a right unto them all as being born of believing parents and they have not only jus haereditarium an hereditary right but jus actuale an actual right which is called jus in re when they shall be made fit for them and are capable of them it was the great honour of Israel that it was the valley of Vision and that because of the presence of God there it is called the holy City Esa 12.1 29.1 Rev. 21.3 Ezech. 48.35 Ariel the Altar of God and the great honour of the new Jerusalem is Rev. 21.3 That the tabernacle of the Lord shall be with men it is not meant of Heaven for it is a Tabernacle there shall be Ordinances therein and the same is spoken of Ezech. 48.35 Jehovah shammah 3. There is a special Providence that doth watch over them though it is true not the same peculiar Providence that doth watch over those that are really Saints and by union members of Christ but yet there is a special Providence towards the visible Church in reference unto all the works of God and therefore Zac. 2.5 to hurt them is as touching the apple of his eye and he will be a wall of fire about Jerusalem theirs is such a protection as other men have not and therefore when the Lord did unchurch them he says he will take away the wall and the hedge Esa 5.5 and they shall be trodden down that is that peculiar Providence that the Lord did before exercise towards them now he will remove and give them up into the hands of men to devour them as it is in Deut. 32.30 said that their rock had sold them God did put them into the hands of their enemies Thou sellest thy people for nought and we know amongst men what it is for an out-law a proscribed man to be put out of the protection of the Law and so when the Lord doth cast any man out of the Church he doth put him out of protection also 4. The great and special workings of the Spirit of Christ do belong unto such it is true that Christ hath a providential Kingdom as well as a spiritual and the Spirit is the Viceroy and Prorex in both the Spirit rules for him and therefore there are mighty workings of the Spirit of God raising up the spirits of men and fitting and preparing of them for to accomplish the Lords work and to bring about his ends but yet in the spiritual Kingdom there are the chief operations of the Spirit the Apostle counts three things as works of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 5 6. 1 Gifts of the Spirit 2 There are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 administrations functions and offices and they are divers which these gifts qualifie men for 3 There are different fruits and effects works and successes that the Spirit doth give unto these gifts in different offices and administrations but unto whom doth all this belong they do all of them belong to the Church vers 12 28. he hath set in the Church offices and given them gifts and his saving gifts are amongst these and many very glorious common works by which even unregenerate men are sanctified for the Blood of Christ by which they are sanctified they may despise as an unholy thing and in this priviledge of being a member of the visible Church of God and having the Name of God called upon him and the services of God pertaining to him in this doth this holiness consist and a man thereby is separated from all other people in the world Quest 5 § 5. Is this federal right to the children only the priviledge of parents and so conveyed unto the child from the parents one or both of them being Believers or is there any other way of conveyance We read Gen. 17.12 how not only they came under Abrahams Covenant that were of his seed but he that was born in his house that was not of his seed or bought with his money or any stranger he was to come under Abrahams Covenant and was to be circumcised as well as any that did come out of Abrahams loyns and we find that the Church of God did therefore ordain Sureties which were to take upon them the care of the education of such children answerable unto that Religion into which they were baptized and they were admitted thereunto by their proparentes right which otherwise had no right thereunto by their natural parents and this is so ancient that I find in the second Century Hyginus Susceptores ad baptismum Christianorum adjecit c. Magdeb. And Tertullian has a hint of it as in use in his time also Tertul. de coron milit August which hath been justified by Divines since and therefore practised in the Church of God in succeeding ages to this day Aliquando filiis infidelium per statum haec gratia ut baptizentur cùm occulta Dei providentia in manu piorum qumodocunque perveniunt Aug. de Grat. lib. And hence our Divines generally have concluded that as there is a spiritualis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Christ doth convey unto the Saints a sonship before God so there is a priviledge that belongs to Christians of those that are taken by them into their care and charge Et adoptati pro liberis sunt habendi Gerh. loc com de baptis p. 582. they have a priviledge to convey a kind of sonship unto them by a spiritual Adoption And Mr. Calvin in an Epistle to Farel about the baptizing of a child of a Papist by father and mother the Grandmother being a Protestant and desiring the child might be baptized Calvin inquires if she would ingage to the Church for the education of the child the child then might be baptized and had an interest in the Covenant by her right undertaking for its education though it had no intetest nor right by the immediate parents And Mr. Perkins and many others Castes of Conscience pag. 76. And Am. Cases of Consc says That infantes illegitimè nati excommunicatorum interventu sponsorum idoneorum possunt baptizari si ab aliis piis educatio eorum suscipiatur p. 232. though they look upon sureties as not of divine institution and only for a civil use testifying the abundant care of the Church of the education of those that were received by them and
come to possess it it is none other but what in the promise we had a right to it is the fiducial vision that we have of God in this life that as it prepares the soul so also gives us an interest in the beatifical vision which is only proper to the life to come 2. Divines say That the Saints have a threefold title unto Heaven and Glory in this life 1 in pretio as there is a purchase made for Heaven is as well a purchased possession as any thing that we do injoy in this life There are two things in the satisfaction of Christ there is debitum legale a legal debt so he paid the old debt and there is superlegale meritum a superlegal merit and so he made a new purchase answerable unto the two benefits by Christ which the Apostle speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1.7 14. we have by him redemption and an inheritance c. 2 The Saints have another title and that is jus promissionis in the promise for it is a promise intailed upon them as it was made unto Christ before the world began Eternal life is made first unto him and it is that which he himself doth glory in thou shalt shew me the path of life Psal 16. in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore And by virtue of the same Covenant and promise the Saints do claim eternal life that Jesus the Mediator of the Covenant did though it belong unto him primarily and unto them only in his right and at second hand 3 They have a title in primitiis in the first-fruits as they have received the first-fruits of the Spirit So Israel had unto Canaan God did give them a promise many hundred years before but yet they were strangers unto their own inheritance that the Lord had promised them and many of them dyed in faith not having received the promise as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs did but when the Lord had once brought them into the borders of the land and they had tasted the grapes of Eskol this gave them a further title because they had tasted of the good land that the Lord had promised them And so it is with the Saints who have received the first-fruits of the Spirit and in them tasted that the Lord is gracious for the first-fruits are a further pledge of the crop it is called an Earnest which is a further security than barely a promise therefore all the happiness of the Saints that they shall have in Heaven is a fruit of the promise and they do enjoy glory by virtue of the same Covenant that they obtain grace which is therefore called an everlasting Covenant not only because it shall never be broken as a Covenant of salt which stands for ever but because the fruit of it is to everlasting in a mans eternal inheritance § 2. The portion of the Saints lies in the very Essence of God which will appear to us by these demonstrations Psal 16. ult 1. By clear Scripture Psal 16. ult In thy presence is fulness of joy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in faciebus in thy face is fulness of joy according to Gods own language thou shalt see my back parts but my face thou shalt not see and live therefore it is in the face of God that the fulness of the joy and the happiness of the Saints doth consist for in that the happiness of Christ as Mediator who is our head doth consist and when we come to Heaven we have not a happiness apart from Christ as if he had one happiness and we another for we do enter into our masters joy and 1 Joh. 3.3 it is see him as he is that is not as he does now discover himself pro captu humano according to our capacity in a glass and in a riddle rather as he is not than as he is but we shall see him with open face according to his Essence that is as he is 2. The ultimate object of faith is that in which the happiness of the Saints doth consist and that which is the highest thing in the promise in that doth the glory and the perfection of the creature lye Now there are many intermediate objects of faith but the ultimate is glory 1 Pet. 1.21 So 1 Pet. 1.21 Who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God And the last thing in the promise is eternal life and that being once attained all the promises are at an end therefore it is in the Essence of God that eternal happiness lyes 3. Without this nothing can make the Saints happy 1 Nothing in this life can they have in this life four things 1 They have glorious promises but those are but of an inheritance to come and we believe that which we see not and therefore hope for it for faith and sight are opposed there is a fiâ—â—â—al presentiality unto faith in the promise but it is not beatifical and therefore an inheritance of promises will never make a man happy because it keeps the soul in a continual longing and in an hungring and thirsting condition and therefore is unsatisfied 2 Of graces but they are also imperfect because they do not make a mans soul perfect Heb. 12.24 till a man be actually united unto God the Fountain of all happiness and perfection he can never be happy it 's true Gratia electis infunditur ut actiones peragant ordinatas ad vitam aeternam Grace is infused into the Elect that they may perform actions ordinate to life eternal as Aquinas But these graces have respect unto an eternal reward they do but make us meet for a further mercy Col. 1.12 to make us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light 3 In creatures a mans happiness does not consist in them because they are finite and the soul is ordained to be happy in an infinite good and therefore when a man shall be made happy by going to Heaven to enjoy God he doth take his leave of the creatures they were his inheritance in his way and were to him a viatick but afterwards God shall be all in all and a man goes to God with joy 1 Cor. 15. and is glad to see the Moon under his feet so the Saints of God in this life continue still longing for their future happiness 4 There is an inheritance of Attributes Rev. 12.1 and so the Saints have an interest in God here and a vision of him for they may behold him in his back parts and live as the Lord discovered unto Moses Now no man can be perfectly happy in this life and therefore the discovery of God in his Attributes being the way of Gods revealing himself in this life there is a higher way of manifestation in which the happiness of the Saints doth consist and that is a
inaccessible whom no man has seen or can see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now there shall be a vision of God that 's plain for we shall see him face to face therefore it 's spoken of bodily eyes when he says No man can see thee they can see him with the eyes of the mind but they cannot with the eyes of the body and 2 it will appear by reason drawn from the nature of a body for the body though it shall be made spiritual yet it shall not be made a spirit that is it shall not lose the essential properties of a body Now nothing can be seen with bodily eyes but bodily objects but God is a Spirit and therefore invisible Col. 1.15 i. e. in reference unto bodily vision c. The School-men indeed speak of the elevation of bodily subjects to work upon Spirits and so here they speak of the elevation of bodily eyes to behold a spiritual object but these are but the empty conceits of men for the body shall retain even in glory its essential properties and shall have a happiness suitable and proportionable unto them in objects fitted to the bodily senses for beatitude though it be radicaliter in corde yet it 's redundanter in corpore c. and this shall be either per lumen gloriae as in thy light we shall see light or else in natura Christi glorificata veluti Divinitatis conjunctum instrumentum And so is that to be understood Job 6.19 26. I shall see my Redeemer with these eyes And 1 Joh. 3.3 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is it shall be in the appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ but yet this cannot be a corporeal but it must in the essence of blessedness be an intellectual vision 2 Cor. 3. ult Rev. 22.4 2. That there is an intellectual Vision of God will appear three ways 1 By the visions of God that the Saints have here by an eye of faith they shall see his face Num. 12.8 The similitude of God shall he behold it 's a speech of visio mystica the mystick vision that the Saints have in the life that now is by discoveries made unto the eye of their faith for God hath given them new understandings Joh. 1.20 to this end that they may be able to know him that 's true and if there be discoveries of God and his glory unto the understanding of the Saints here how much more in glory in the inheritance of the Saints in light 2 It will be made appear by the Angels says our Saviour They do behold the face of your Father which is in heaven Mat. 18.10 and they are Spirits and have no bodies and yet in all their imployments about the creatures for Christ doth in the Oeconomical Kingdom govern all things by these the spirit of the living creatures is in the wheels they never lose the vision of God they carry their Heaven with them wheresoever they go though they are not always resident in loco beatorum as the Devils do carry their Hell about with them though they are not always in the place of the damned Now we shall be in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Angels and shall have like discoveries of God as the Angels have but theirs are to their understanding so discoveries of God will be according to ours also 3 It will appear in the souls of just men made perfect before the Resurrection they have the vision of God that 's plain because their souls are made perfect now nothing perfects the soul but the beatifical vision because nothing renders it impeccable but this and finis ultimus perficit agentem actionem the last end perfects the action and Agent therefore there is an intellectual vision of God in which the substance or the essence of happiness doth consist Quest 3 § 3. But can there be an intellectual Vision of Gods Essence Can the understanding of man immediately see the Essence of God or be made happy thereby Answ 1. There must be a vision of the Essence of God for 1 the promise is 1 Cor. 13.12 That we shall see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and we shall know even as we are known The opposition is between the knowledge that now we have of God and what we shall have hereafter and they are compared in two things 1 in the manner of knowledge which shall not be the same now we see in a glass but then immediately we shall see without a glass but if we should see God per abstractam imaginem as Gomer hath a disputation of it in Joh. 1.17 part 1. pag. 328. though it were the purest glass more clear than crystal yet it were seeing in a glass still which is wholly denied we shall no more see in a glass but face to face 2 In the imperfection of our vision we now see darkly and the reason is from the manner of it because we see in a glass but then it shall be perfected because we shall see face to face so much is manifested to Moses thou shalt see my back parts the Attributes of God are discovered here in this life but there is the face of God discovered which must be something beyond what is called his back parts that shall be discovered to the soul which here he cannot see and live but hereafter he must see or he cannot live therefore there is a vision of the Divine Essence 2 It will appear by reason also the chief good of the creature is in God alone that which is called Beatitudo objectiva objective Beatitude which doth only satisfie and fill the heart of the Saints and it 's in the vision and fruition thereof that the soul rests Now any image of God or manifestation of God that is created cannot be our objective happiness for these are but creatures as the discoveries of God unto the soul by the Spirit in a way of Ordinances are therefore the soul can never rest in them can never look upon them as its happiness as the Saints receiving here the joy in the Holy Ghost they are exceedingly ravished with it it 's joy unspeakable Ego mihi visus sum tanquam unus ex illis beatis I seemed to my self as one of those blessed ones but yet the soul is not satisfied with it but when he sees Gods face he is satisfied with his likeness that discovery that there is of God in his own face but is never satisfied till then 2. Though we shall see God in his Essence yet we shall not see the Essence of God unto perfection There is a twofold knowledge 1 Apprehensionis of Apprehension when a man knows any thing truly 2 Comprehensionis of Comprehension when a man knows any thing perfectly secundùm modum cognoscibilitatis as it is knowable or to the utmost that it may be known Now the Essence of God being infinite cannot be
of promise who is the earnest of your inheritance And so 1 Pet. 1.2 Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God through the sanctification of the Spirit and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ therefore by reason of the special interest that they have given unto the Saints in themselves they have undertaken distinct offices and this is plain in Son and Spirit which are terms of office He that is sent doth imply as much as to be imployed in the business of another and to receive his commission from another This will appear 1 in the work of Conversion and Election the Father begets calls draws For no man says Christ can come to me except God the Father draws him Christ he receives men but he receives none but those that the Father has given him he gives him the souls that he must save and they that come to him are so given him of the Father these shall come and none else he will in no wise cast them off And as Christ receives them so the Spirit unites God and the soul for he is the bond of union between them and their Head he that is joyned unto the Lord is one Spirit and we are one Spirit baptized into one body and therefore in the work of Election each of them have their distinct acts and office 2 In all the duties of the Saints they have their proper and distinct works as in hearing it is God the Father whose the truths are that they hear Eph. 3.9 they are a mystery hid in God from ages and from generations The book of his counsels are in the hand of him that sits upon the Throne who is the Word of God that is the Interpreter of the Fathers mind as the word of a man is of the mind of a man which I conceive is the proper meaning of that expression and so Joh. 1.17 The law came by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ meritoriously for there is not a truth revealed but cost the blood of Christ and it is as the Lamb that was slain by virtue of his Priesthood that he doth open the book Rev. 5. And so the Spirit is the Eye-salve that gives us an understanding to receive the truths that are revealed and doth ingraft the word into the heart so in prayer also Joh. 5.20 the Father is prayed unto and therefore Christ teaches us in our prayers to look up unto God and to cry Our Father not but that Christ and the Spirit may be prayed to for they are God they are believed in and therefore are to be prayed unto but yet because of the different offices of the persons in this work of prayer therefore we are mainly directed to pray unto the Father so that he hears prayers and the Spirit indites them Rom. 8.26 and the Son he offers them with his own odours Rev. 8.3 3 It will appear also in the sealing of the Saints which I conceive is not the working of grace as some say and so the allusion is of a seal modo naturali and so the Spirit in working an impression of the image of Christ upon the soul is said to seal it leaving the like impression in the man but it is after a man believes Eph. 1.13 and I conceive that sealing is used in Scripture chiefly in a metaphorical sense to assure and to mark out a person as it 's said Ezech. 9. They were sealed that is set apart for it and seal the stone that is to make it sure to ratifie and confirm it Now there are the distinct seals of all the persons unto the evidences of the Saints they have all of them a distinct witness 1 Joh. 5.7 The Father the Word and the Spirit and they three agree in one they do all of them testifie the same thing but yet they do all of them give a distinct witness in the hearts of the Saints as they did witness unto Christ the Father from Heaven and the Son in his Baptism and the Spirit descending as a Dove so they do also unto the souls of the Saints and therefore Sacraments are called Seals not that they do work the righteousness of faith in any man for they do not work grace but strengthen and witness grace but because they do assure it unto the man that doth receive them and for that cause are said to be sealing Ordinances § 2. Now these distinct acts of office they do perform are grounded upon the distinct interest that the Saints have in them all and I call these acts of Office upon a double ground 1 Because they are but for a time during the present administration of the mediatory Kingdom which shall have its period and then the Father will draw souls to Christ no more the Son will present sacrifice to God no more 1 Cor. 15.24 the Spirit will no longer assist call purge sanctifie seal but all the graces of the Subjects of the Kingdom of Christ shall be perfected and all Gods ends in the Covenant of grace attained and then the offices that were undertaken but for the accomplishment of these ends shall be laid down 2 Because there is a personal glory that doth redound unto each person by these offices there be natural acts that do add to the essential glory the glory of the nature but acts of Office being personal they add unto the glory of the persons that do perform them 1 Cor. 5.17 18. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself the Father hath the glory thereof and the Son he hath taken the form of a servant and paid the service and made a purchase and he has the glory thereof all Nations are given unto him and the honour of it in the hearts of all the Saints Joh. 5.23 That all men may honour the Son c. And the Holy Ghost he works all in the hearts of the Saints he begins the good work Phil. 1.6 and he perfects it for all the graces of the Saints are but fruits of the Spirit and therefore he has a distinct glory also The great end and intent of God in the new Covenant was not only to shew forth the Attributes of his Nature and to glorifie them in a higher way than ever they were formerly under the first Covenant discovered as we have formerly seen but also to exalt the glory of all the persons in the hearts of the Saints that they might with hearts ravished with the love goodness and the offices of them all cry out Glory be unto the Father Son and holy Ghost and pray unto them all Rev. 1.5 6. Grace be unto you and peace from him which was and is and which is to come and from the seven Spirits before the Throne and from Jesus the faithful and true witness the first begotten of the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth who has loved us and washed us from our sins by his own blood and has made
perfected here below the Kingdom shall be given up into the hands of the Father again and thus Christ as Mediator as sent by the living Father so he received from him a fourfold life and therefore may be fitly said to live by the Father Joh. 5.26 But it may be objected from Joh. 5.26 As the Father hath life in himself so he has given to the Son to have life in himself How is it said that Christ hath life in himself when he receives his life from the Father I answer Christs meaning is this he did publish himself to be the fountain of life and he doth commonly tell you that there is a double fountain of life 1 there is the living Father but so life could not have been derived unto us being dead for there is no way to receive any thing from God but by the hand of a Mediator therefore the Father hath appointed another fountain of life and that is his Son and in him he hath laid up life as in a common Treasury though as Mediator the fountain of his life be in God yet in reference unto us the Father hath given him to have life in himself it 's not spoken of him as he is man but as he doth raise the dead by an Almighty power and they shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live as he is an everlasting Father and begets souls unto the Lord and as it is given unto him and therefore it must belong to him as Mediator and not as God and it is said He has given this power to him because he is the Son of man therefore the meaning is that God the Father being the fountain of life man being fallen and separated from God and dead in trespasses and sins now if the Lord will convey life unto us it must be by another hand and therefore he hath made the Son the fountain of life and the fulness thereof to dwell in him and so the Son has life in himself as the Father has life in himself the Father conveys it to the Son and the Son receives it of purpose to derive it unto us 3. Having seen what the life is that the Son receives from the living Father and how he lives by the Father let us in the next place consider how we that are members live by the Son also and it will appear that answerably to the life that Christ received from the Father so is he the fountain of life unto the Saints 1 A life of Justification for he is become Jehovah our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 2 Cor. 5.21 we are made the righteousness of God in him so that there is no condemnation unto them that are in Christ Jesus for the debt is paid and the bond is cancelled for the Lord hath brought in an everlasting Righteousness and such as sin can never spend Thus we live by him a life of Justification he is made unto us of God wisdom and righteousness 2 We have from him a life of Holiness and Regeneration we are dead in our trespasses and in the uncircumcision of our life till by him we are quickned and therefore 1 Cor. 15.44 it 's said The first man Adam was made a living soul that was his state in his creation and God did breathe into him the breath of life and he became a living soul that is such a nature as he had such he could propagate unto his posterity and so from the first Adam we are made living souls but if they were dead Adam could not revive and quicken them again and therefore that belongs to the second Adam he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in spiritum vivificum for a vivifick spirit we have the unction from the holy One 1 Joh. 2.20 and therefore the Spirit that we receive and that dwells in us is the Spirit of the Son he is the head from whence our influences come and he is the root from which all our sap is derived it is of his fulness only that we receive grace for grace 3 We receive from Christ a life of consolation for he it is that sends the Comforter the message is Esay 61.2 he is sent to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaim liberty to the captive and to publish the acceptable year of the Lord the year of Jubilee the time of rejoycing Isa 57.15 his work is to revive the spirits of the contrite ones he gives them strong consolation and good hope through grace Hab. 3.2 and that 's the meaning of that place Hab. 3.2 Revive thy work in the middle of the years The Church was then in captivity and in great affliction and they were as dead men under the hand of God it is such a reviving that they beg and all the incomes that the Saints have from the Spirit of consolation it is a life that is derived unto them from the Lord Jesus Christ from whom the Spirit of Sanctification comes from him comes also the Spirit of Consolation 4 We receive from Christ a life of Glory he is gone to Heaven as our Fore-runner and having prepared a place for us he will come again and fetch us we can never be received up to glory if Christ had not been first received and then he receives us also into the same glory we enter into our masters joy it is his by a personal purchase and propriety it is ours by our mystical union and fellowship with him only and therefore it is said That he doth raise us up at the last day And Phil. 3.21 He shall change our vile body that it may be like to his glorious body and when he shall appear we shall be like him 1 Joh. 3.3 so that our life is hid with Christ in God but when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him in glory Col. 3.3 4. God the Father is the fountain of life unto the Saints and that two ways 1 as he is the fountain of life unto Christ and as he lives by the Father 2 As by the Fathers appointment and decree he is made the fountain of life unto us 1 As the Father is the fountain of life unto Christ for Joh. 14.19 Because I live ye shall live if he did not give himself we could not live by him Now Col. 3.4 And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall you also appear with him in glory Christ is our life causativè non essentialiter c. and he gives us life because he hath life in himself but that is given him from the Father there is a righteousness in him by which we are accepted and the fulness of habitual grace in him by which we are sanctified all this is laid up in him by the Father it is upon this ground only that he is the fountain of life unto us because he himself lives by the Father therefore in all the glory of Christ Rom. 5.10 the Father should be honoured
extrà which are terminated in the creatures and are meerly acts of will now faith is not only by this means to be exercised and taste the sweetness of the acts of will ad extrà but the acts of nature ad intrà for I have an interest in that Father as the Father that did from all Eternity beget the Son and I have an interest in that Son that was begotten by the Father so that those acts of nature that were of God before the world was they have all some respect unto me and I can taste a sweetness in them all that as I have not only an interest in the absolute perfections of God which are his Attributes but in the relative perfections of God also which respect the persons so I have not only an interest in and benefit by all the actings of the Atrributes of God but by the eternal actings of the persons also that we may see how high it reaches and that there is nothing in God but it is as truly for our good as it is for his own glory therefore we may rejoyce in them all 5 A mans faith should expect all the Attributes of God to be distinctly exercised for him by all the persons a man has an interest in them all in all the works that they do put forth for as they are three in their subsistence so they are but one in their Essence and therefore all the Attributes of God come in unto them all the Son thinks it no robbery to be equal with the Father Phil. 2.6 for he is found in the form of God that is in the nature of God subsisting in the nature or essence of God and therefore Divines do commonly when they prove the Deity of the Son and Spirit shew that the Attributes of God are in Scripture given unto them as Esa 9.6 Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father Prince of peace that 's given to the Son and to the Spirit is given Omnipotency Omnipresence and Omniscience c. Now when the Father comes to work he has the power of God the wisdom of God the holiness of God put forth for the accomplishment of his work and so have the Son and Spirit also and therefore we see that the Son could not miscarry in any thing that he did and though he dyed yet it was impossible that he should be held by death Acts 2. because he had the power of the Godhead to carry him through and so it is with the Persons in all their operations and undertakings for men in the work of our salvation and therefore it is good for a man not only to exercise faith upon the Attributes of the Divine Nature in common as they are infinite and absolute perfections but as those Attributes are to be found in each of the persons and to be exercised for us in all their appropriated actions and by this means the Attributes of the nature are made over not only by the Essence but also that they shall be all of them exercised by each person acting according to their own acts which they have undertaken and so we have an assurance of the acting of the Attributes for us in a threefold way and a threefold cord is not broken 6 As it is the recumbency of faith so it should be in the assurance of faith also it should distinctly close with them all in their witnessing as well as in their working 1 Joh. 5.6 7. 1 Joh. 5.6 7. There are three that bear record in heaven it is not only a testimony to the truth of the Gospel but it is a testimony also given unto the state of the Saints for they have the witness in themselves for it is that they may know that they have eternal life vers 13. which could not be unless the testimony were given in the heart and a mans state put out of controversie Now though they be one in Essence and though their testimony do agree in one yet they are three in their witness in the word and in the heart now under the Law in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established we receive the witness of man but the witness of God is greater the same God who hath but a few witnesses amongst men but two witnesses Rev. 11.3 yet he will not let a mans assurance go without a full testimony there shall be two classes of witnesses some on Earth and some in Heaven and they shall be three of each of them therefore as in acts of recumbency we are to close with the love of all the persons so in acts of assurance we are to close with the witness of all the persons and thus we see that there are distinct objects of faith upon which it is to work in them all 2. Now let us come to consider the acts of faith that are distinctly to be put forth upon them all as 1. There is to be a fiducial knowledge hereof that the persons are made over to us for as faith without works is dead so faith without knowledge is blind therefore faith is commonly set forth by knowledge in the Scripture Joh. 17. ult and Phil. 3.8 9. To know him and be found in him c. But it is not every knowledge but that which is described Col. 2.2 and Tit. 1.1 A knowledge of the mystery of God and the Father and of Christ a knowledge that draws an acknowledgment with it that carries the consent of the soul with it and he sits down under it and lies under the power thereof a sapida scientia a knowledge of a truth that lets in the savour of the goodness of it with the truth 2. The soul is distinctly to cast it self by distinct thoughts upon each of these persons as when a soul comes to Christ he sees his need of him that he is undone without him he sees the excellency that is in him and thereupon he doth leave himself with Christ and will look out for salvation in no other there is an exclusive resolution against all other ways and a full determination to go this way only and if I perish here I will perish so when a soul sees all this and sees his need of the persons and the glory that is not only in Christ but in the Father and the Spirit and sees that without an interest in them he is undone for else there are no benefits by them thereupon he doth distinctly resign himself unto each of them for as all the promises of the Gospel being distinct objects of faith have not their due honour unless we exercise distinct acts of faith upon them so it is true also of all the persons much more because Christ is set forth as an object of faith therefore we rely upon him so we should upon the Father and Spirit also and therefore Christ looks upon it as a dishonour that being set forth to them they did not distinctly believe in him 3. Faith
and they are cast out as a branch and wither but during the time of their continuance in this kingdom till he has cast them out for their rebellion there is a government that the Lord Jesus by his Spirit doth exercise towards them and over them for the good of his Saints And this will appear by the expressions that we meet with in Scripture 1 They are his servants Joh. 8.35 the Church is compared to a house a family as it 's called the family of God and the house of God and of this family Christ is the Master now there is a special imployment that he has for every one of his servants and they are under his special command and dominion it is true this family is made up of servants and of sons and the servants may have a greater rule in the house than the sons but yet both under the authority of the housholder only he rules over the one as a Master and over the other as a Father but both are in subjection Cant. 6.8 there are in the Church sixty Queens and fourscore Concubines and Virgins without number some are truly married unto Christ and have a true right and authority in the family by their marriage-union with the King for the woman shines by the beams of her husband but there are Concubines that came in only for lusts sake and that did bear fruit but it was never from a marriage state and there were Virgins that were companions only that were not married neither did they in a manner bear fruit but were for attendants only and the King has a special rule and dominion over all these c. 2 The Church visible is compared to a great House 2. Tim. 2.20 some expound it de mundo but contextus nos ducit ut de Ecclesia intelligamus non de extraneis disputat Apostolus sed de ipsa familia Dei Calv. there is not a vessel but it has its use though all have not the same use nor of the like honour yet all are for use and all are for the Masters use so that there is a special dominion that is exercised over them all as well the vessels of wood and stone as those that are of gold to imploy them where he will and as he will in what service he pleases for it is his will that makes their use to differ it is for the Saints sake that he makes use of them so that all Gods dispensations towards unregenerate men in the Church is for their sakes all the husbandry that is exercised about the unfruitful branches is for the sake of those that have a blessing in them for the wicked shall have no benefit by it in the great day of the Lord the greater rule the Lord has exercised towards men the greater will their abhorring be the nearer they have been to him the further off shall they be from him the higher they have been exalted to heaven the deeper shall they be cast down to hell Mat. 11.23 there is utter darkness for the children of the kingdom Mat. 8.12 And this we may reduce unto four Heads 1 their graces 2 their gifts 3 their services 4 their sins and in all these the dominion of Christ over them is for the good of the Saints 1. Their graces are ruled by Christ for the Saints there are common graces which the Lord doth give unto unregenerate men in the Church common illuminations by which they see much glory and beauty in spiritual things and yet had never their eyes anointed with eye-salve and there are many common works upon the wills of men letting in a taste of the goodness of spiritual things so that the heart is much taken with them and makes out after them and there are many tendencies to the new birth Hos 13.13 we see them set forth to us Heb. 6.3 4. which is meant of the common graces of the Spirit of Christ under the Gospel which he works upon the souls and consciences of unregenerate men which are only from the Spirit assisting and not from the Spirit informing which flow not from union but from conviction and therefore from which in time they will surely fall away there is a great beauty that the Spirit of God in such common works doth put forth upon the souls of unregenerate men though it be but as the Sun shining upon a mud-wall or as a curious robe put upon a dead carkass it cannot keep it from stinking because there is not a principle of life in it 1 Hereby the Lord restrains their spirits There is a restraint without by a power that is upon the Devil by which he is restrained from doing the mischief he would else do but there is a restraint within upon the lusts of men and that is by some special works of the Spirit of God upon them Exod. 34.24 No man shall desire thy land c. and the Spirit restraining is for the Saints sake as well as the Spirit renewing Psal 76 10. The wrath of man shall praise thee Psal 76.10 and the remainder of wrath thou shalt restrain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accinges thou shalt gird up sometimes the Lord lets mens lusts loose and sometimes he does gird them up as he doth the Sea in a girdle of sand or else the Saints of God who are always as sheep amongst wolves would surely be devoured by them for their soul is amongst lyons Now they are common works that do exceedingly restrain the sins and the rage of unregenerate men and bind up their spirits both in reference unto persecution and the wrongs done by them as also in reference to corruption and the evil example given by them also 2 Hereby the Lord doth fit them for service for even the vessels of dishonour are for service in the house also though they be but of wood and stone c. Now though gifts do immediately qualifie them yet they are common works that do make them to exercise those gifts and are unto them as oyl to the wheels in the use of them as a temporary Believer he may be an eminent Professor and the house that such a one builds is far more glorious in outward shew than that of a Saint for they are both called builders Mat. 7.7 and many men do service for God but they are cold in it because they are acted only from without Rom. 16.18 whose God is their belly Non ità glacies frigus sicut Elcius alii sed ego rem seriam agebam ut quòd diem extremum horribiliter timui c. Luth. and this will make a man seem to act from an inward principle as if he had received life from the Spirit and were made alive from the dead and thereby even ungodly men do many times give a great testimony unto the principles and the practices of the Saints that they acknowledge them and seal unto them and yet nevertheless there is in them a principle to hate them
never to expect the like again yea after the same manner as he did deliver them when they came out of Egypt in a miraculous way by signs and wonders so he will do again and the grounds of it is the same Hab. 3.9 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oaths of the Tribes Hab. 3.9 even thy word Selah thou didst cleave the earth with rivers c. it is according unto the oaths that he swore unto the Tribes even his word the juramenta quae saepiùs repetita c. 2 When he doth work in an ordinary way according unto the course that he has set in nature and according unto the dependence that things have one upon another Hos 2.22 the heavens shall hear the earth and the earth the corn and the wine and they shall hear Jezreel c. there are the ordinances of Heaven of the Sun and the Moon and the Stars Jer. 31.35 that constant and established course that God has set amongst the creatures c. Now whether the Lord work by means or without means by his own immediate hand all is and shall be ordered and disposed for the good of the Saints all the governments that the Lord doth exercise in the world either of those ways 4. The Providence of God is either seen 1 in things necessaria which have a necessary dependence upon their causes and we may accordingly expect them as the Sun and Moon to shine or to be in their Eclipse as we say It will be foul weather to day for the skie is red and it will be fair to morrow for the skie is red which men do conclude of by their observation because they have a necessary dependence upon their causes Mat. 16.2 3. And as it is in natural things so it is in morals also there are signs of the times by which things may be as well known and as certainly concluded by an observing man a man may as well know the signs of the times as the Stork and the Crane and the Swallow know their times Jer. 8.7 8. or else why should they be blamed for it as being more unwise for themselves than the brute creatures are c. 2 There are some things that are accidentalia that are casual or fall out so as we can give no reason for them there is no expectation of it in man as the disposing of the minds of men the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord Prov. 21.1 as in King Ahasuerus in the business of Mordecai there was a concurrence of many things that were casual and so Prov. 16.33 The lot is cast into the lap but the whole disposing of it is from the Lord so that there is not the most casual thing that can be but it comes under a providence and in all these also it is for the good of the Saints as it 's said 2 Kings 3.22 a rumour Sennacheribs Army shall hear they shall have such an apprehension that because the Sun shines upon the water therefore the Kings have slain one another for this is blood c. 5. Providence is either circa bonum vel malum either 1 in all good so the Lord doth work and order the spirits of men for as every good gift is from above so every good work is from him that is the Father of lights and the Fountain of all goodness 2 Also of all the evil that is in man there is a providence for God would never have suffered sin to have come into the world if he had not known how to have wrought his own ends by it even by the vessels of dishonour he is served in his house 2 Tim. 2.21 he doth order and over-rule even the sins of men unto his own high and most glorious ends he doth uphold Pharaoh and let out his spirit but it is that he might shew his power in him Even the wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder he will and doth restrain and Gen. 20.3 I kept thee that thou shouldst not touch her There is a letting out of sin and there is a restraint upon sin so far as it may serve to his ends Now all the providence of God whether it be for good or ill either permitting or disposing it is all of it for the good of the Saints 1. The Providence of God is circa maxima and that is for the good of the Saints and this I will reduce unto two heads 1 His government over the Angels 2 Over men in all the great turnings and changes in the world in the policies and in the governments thereof for it is the most High rules in the Kingdoms of mortal men and all this is done for the Saints sake and all is ordered so as it shall be for their good 1. For the government of the Angels either good or bad it 's all for the good of the Saints 1. As for the good Angels it 's true they are part of the spiritual Kingdom and shall make up part of that great Church and body of which Christ is the head and therefore Heb. 12.22 we are said to be come unto them and therefore it is ordinary with the Fathers and the School-men as I told you to intimate that there are as many men elected as there were Angels that fell and that they are taken in to fill up that number qui locum illum supplerent ruinas Jerusalem restaurarent Bern. But they are also used by the Lord in the providential Kingdom and all is for the Saints good in their whole Ministry it is for the sake of them that are heirs of salvation Heb. 1.14 And Ezech. 1.5 c. Ezech. 1.5 c. we have the manner how the Lord governs all things in a threefold subordination there are the wheels and the living creatures that act them and one as the Son of man by whose command and by whose Spirit they do move in all their ways and the wheels by them 1 They do by a secret virtue work upon and over-rule the hearts and the wills of men and therefore the Trumpets and the Vials are given unto the hands of Angels that is they do fashion the hearts of men and stir up their spirits unto such a work and strengthen their hearts in it for as the Devil doth fashion the minds and wills of men and gives suggestions suitable to his designs so do the good Angels also and as Satan strengthens the resolution of wicked men so do the good Angels also for they have a power upon the soul also being Spirits and a more immediate work upon the minds of men as Ahabs false Prophets thou shalt perswade them and prevail there is an impression upon their hearts they have their arguments and suggestions and they follow them with reasonings till the men be overcome so do the good Angels also Rev. 2.10 the devil shall cast some of you into prison it 's Satans working powerfully in his instruments and upon
the Lord shall so lead thee that thou shalt not dash thy foot against a stone tibi nocere non possunt sed coguntur inservire 2 Stones were for bounds and Land-marks and they shall not be removed but you shall continually enjoy the bounds of your own habitation they shall not be removed it shall be as sure as if you were in league with the Stones that they shall not depart from your bounds 3 Cocceius hath out of Vlpian a certain punishment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellant whence they did use to heap stones upon a ground that it might never be plowed to hinder its fruitfulness Thus the sense is The Stones shall be at league with thee that none of them shall hinder the fruitfulness of thy land and make it lye barren and untilled as in judgment they might doe Now if there be a Covenant by God made with all these for his people then surely the Motions and the Actings of all these shall be for the good of his People But you will say In what particular do all these little things work for the good of the Saints It will clearly appear in these particulars 1. In the smallest things the people see God and their spirits are elevated and raised up to behold him in them for not only the Heavens declare the Glory of God Psal 19.1 but even the meanest Creatures in all their motions do it Repraesentat quaelibet herba Deum Now there is a threefold Vision of God in this World in his Works and in his Word and in his Son and it is of special use that the works of God are unto the Saints in all their being and motions that they can see something of God in them Our Communion with God depends upon our Vision of God and the more we see God in all things the more we converse with him Now there is not the least of all the Creation of God but it doth represent him to us and we look upon it as a footstep of God it is that which doth raise up our hearts unto Heaven while we are upon Earth and causeth us to look upon nothing small that hath so glorious a Creator and so wise a Disposer in minimis lauda magnum says Austin when he speaks de culice there is much of God to be seen and the heart is much to be over-aw'd not only in the lesser things of the Word but also of the Works of God 2. It is unto the people of God matter of praise even in the actings of the meanest of the creatures to see how they work unto an end that they know not but the wise disposer of them knows all their motions and directs them unto his end the out-goings of the morning and evening do praise thee that is objectivè and occasionaliter as they give unto his people matter and occasion of praise In the creation the Morning Stars did sing Job 38.7 and so they do in all the Executions of Providence also fitting them for this end and guiding them to this end c. Austin in Psal 148. blames those that dislike and find fault with the works of God In officina non audent vituperare fabrum tamen audent reprehendere in mundo Deum Perdidisti Hallelujah A man doth lose his praise and the matter and occasion of it which is unto a Saint a great loss for praise is his delight and he loves the occasion of it 3. There is great matter of Meditation even in these ordinary things such as do mightily affect the Souls of the Saints it was so to David Psal 148.7 8 9 10. Praise the Lord from the earth ye Dragons and all deeps fire and hail snow and vapours stormy wind fulfilling his Word mountains and all hills fruitful trees and all cedars Beasts and all cattel creeping things and flying fowls and how can this be Nudae creaturae Deum celebrant Moller dum ad mirandam ejus sapientiam potentiam quotidie ostendunt The dangers prevented and the good things conferred such as are secrets unto us and we know not we consider not of as Luther saith of himself in the like case Somnia nostra observat quando nescimus nos vivere c. equidem odi carnem meam quòd haec scio vera esse iis tamen non seriò afficior c. It gives the Soul high matter of Meditation puts it into the Mount with God 4. It is unto the People of God a great ground of exercising their Faith and that in two things 1 Upon the word of Promise that all these creatures are his by Covenant in all their motions and therefore he has not a common interest in them with the rest of the world but they come unto him from another hand and he receives them by another tenure Now any mercy that has the respect of the Covenant put upon it is infinitely heightned unto them the smallest mercy enjoy'd by Covenant is better than the greatest without the Covenant it is better be as low as Hell with a promise than in Paradise without it therefore it is true that other men walk upon the Stones and they hurt them not and the Beasts break not in upon them the Sun shines and the Rain falls upon them yet here is the sweetness to a Believer This I enjoy as a fruit of an everlasting Covenant as an heir of Promise and as a Pledge of an eternal Inheritance 2 It will be a ground to exercise a mans Faith for a support if the Lord cloath the grass of the field how much more will he cloath you and if he feeds the Ravens he will surely not starve his Children nay if the supply of all the Creatures will be a Provision for you you shall not want it they shall all act for you and if it were possible to put a Saint of God in this life in such a condition as he should want the supply of all the creatures at once they should surely all work for his good for the Lord provides them of purpose and for that very end that they may work for you and therefore are they continued in their being and to that end are govern'd by him 5. The Love of the People of God is drawn out by them exceedingly even by small Mercies for it is not the greatness of the Blessing but the abundance of Love discovered to the soul in it that takes a gracious heart for we love him because he loved us first And as his love is discovered such are the outgoings of our love to him again Now these small things may be magni amoris indicium an ordinary turn of the creature may testifie a great deal of love from God to the Soul as when Israel came out of Egypt Joh. 19.36 not a Dog did move his tongue Exod. 11.7 if they had the matter had not been great for in the night they use to bark but though there was a great cry amongst the Egyptians
live not by bread only and therefore if God do withdraw his acting or withhold it the second cause is of no value it is but as an axe in the hand of a man or as a pen it is but as it were a dead instrument as the Apostle says of himself 2 Cor. 3.2 3. and therefore the people of God put no confidence in them I will not trust in my bow and it is not my sword that shall save me it is thou O Lord that savest us from our enemies this is the language of a true Saint and therefore it is only the Lords withdrawing and then all second causes work not whence it is said That they shall eat and they shall not be nourished and they shall put on cloaths but not be warmed there is a natural aptitude in these means to produce such effects but yet if the Lord do but suspend his influx they can do nothing And therefore in the Babylonish Furnace Divines do commonly say that the Lord did not take away the nature of the fire it remained to be fire still only in reference unto such an object he did suspend his own concurrence so that though it remained in actu primo yet it was not able to produce actum secundum because the immediate concurrence of the first cause was denied so it is in all means and this is the reason of their want of efficacy the same Ordinances would be as effectual at one time as at another and unto one man as unto another there is no difference in the means only in the concurrence of the first cause with the means and so it is with creatures also the same land would be as fruitful at one time as at another and there is no difference only when thou tillest thy land it shall not yield its strength says the Lord there is not the same concurrence of God with it which is his blessing upon it and that is the true reason of all the difference in the use and the success of means whatsoever 3. Though the Lord doth in the administration of all things in the providential Kingdom use means and therefore hath made all things in a due order and subordination yet he doth delight sometimes to work without means by his own immediate hand not by power nor by might but by my Spirit Zac. 4.7 if there be none to help yet his own arm shall bring salvation And the Lord doth this 1 that he may sometimes shew forth some special discoveries of his own power The heart of man would be wholly terminated in the creature as we are very apt to be and we would look no further therefore the Lord is pleased sometimes to shew forth something more than the power of the creature and sometimes he will go in an ordinary way of nature sometimes in a miraculous way to shew that there is a higher hand that rules all things that he may not be forgotten by us 2 To shew that he doth not use the creature necessarily but voluntarily and therefore he can use it or lay it aside at his pleasure work by it or work without it that the souls of his people may depend upon him alone both in the want and in the injoyments of the creature and the good effect is never the further off when they want it nor ever the nearer when they do injoy it whether they have it or not it is all one they can rejoyce in the Lord and glory in the God of their salvation Hab. 3.17 18. 3 That he may still keep up in the remembrance of his people a creating power when there was nothing but himself immediately there was no means used It hath been disputed by the School-men Whether the ministry of Angels were not used in the creation of the world and it is commonly answered No it was not it could not be because in the exercise of almighty power there can be no concurrence of the creature no creature can be raised by the power of God unto such an elevation as to be made capable to put forth any act of omnipotence and therefore that this power of the Creation of God may be kept up he doth do the like often in the world that as he hath appointed a day to remember the Creation and would have us to remember our Creator so he doth works that he may keep it continually in our remembrance providence is said to be nothing but a continued Creation therefore the Lord will do something that shall be as a Creation still that this great work may never be forgotten he that doth create grace in the souls of men daily doth put forth other acts answerable thereunto 4 The Lord doth it that he may train up his people by it unto a remembrance of Heaven where all means shall cease for God shall be all in all that is he shall be all unto his people immediately It is true that the Saints do injoy God here and they injoy all in God he is their portion and their hope but all this is in the use of means as they see him in a glass so they shall injoy him also but there is a time that will shortly come when all means shall be done away and he that now governs the world and so dispenses himself by second causes will do all by his own immediate hand there shall be immediate therefore pure mercy and pure wrath and pure power and pure acts of Omnipotence In this life we are by the creatures refreshed and when he comforts us by the creature those comforts lose much by reason of the vessel and so when he doth teach us by the creature that treasure is in earthen vessels it is much otherwise when he teaches himself immediately and so when he doth punish by the creature it is but as a mighty man correcting a man with a straw it 's true that he is mighty but it is but a small thing that is in his hand which is nothing in comparison of that which shall be hereafter it shall be all immediate and that keeps up in his people an expectation of this that they may have herein a kind of foretaste of Heaven by beholding the immediate working of God without the help of creatures or their concurrence Now this immediate acting of Providence is wholly for the good of his people and is so managed sometimes he will use means for their good and sometimes he will for their good work without means but still so as his Soveraignty is made over unto them in these his actings and herein we are to observe 1. The Scripture speaking of a creating power which the Lord doth often put forth for the good of his people Esa 4.5 Esa 4.5 there 't is said I create upon every dwelling place a cloud c. Upon every dwelling place there is a protection that which is immediate and beyond the power of second causes when there is no defence in them yet their succour
setting them their habitation the earth is the Lords and he hath given it unto the children of men but he hath set every man in his place in the earth the bounds of their habitation are set so he doth tell Paul I will send thee afar off to the Gentiles that he should preach amongst the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ The Ministers of the Gospel are the Stars in the right hand of Christ â—ev 1. ult and he doth set them in their orbs where they shall shine as well as give them light by which they shall shine there are some Stars primae magnitudinis of the first magnitude but they are not all so one Star differs from another in glory Jonah must go to Nineveh Amos must prophesie at Bethel though it be the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court John Baptist must preach in the Wilderness of Judea and he must not spare the sins of any of his Auditors neither the Publicans nor the Souldiers and if the Pharisees come they shall meet also with their reproof O generation of vipers who hath forewarned you to flee from the wrath to come We have an instance in Nazianzen who was chosen by the people to be Minister at Nazianzum which was the place of his birth and from whence he hath his name but at his hearing of it he did declare the work was that which he thought himself no way fit for and yet after some stay and much ado the Lord brought him thither and so for Musculus when he was turned out of the Covent and deprived of all means of livelihood he betook himself unto a Weavers house that was an Anabaptist and there he wrought some two years where confuting a Teacher which used to come unto his master he was thereupon displaced and now he knew not what to do and then resolved for a livelihood to go work in the Town-ditch for they were making of Fortifications and walking there the night before he made these Verses Est Deus in coelis c. and so next morning one sent unto him to be Minister of a Church c. 3. In giving them occasion and opportunity to exercise their graces for opportunity is the spring time of grace and of sin Phil. 4.10 Ye but wanted opportunity and Judas sought an opportunity to betray Christ there is much within that if there were not opportunity would never be vented it 's this that gives the vent unto the inward man Now opportunity and occasion of sinning is a judgment and it is one way that the Lord hath a hand in the ordering of sinful actions he doth give the occasion to them he ordered it that Judas should have the bag and Achan should see the wedge and the young man have a harlot come out to meet him c. So the Lord doth give occasion and opportunity for the exercising of graces and it is a special providence so to do 1 Cor. 1.6 9. A great door is open to me that is a great and a blessed opportunity of service Rev. 3.8 I will set before thee an open door that is give a man a great opportunity and to continue to a man such an occasion as this is a door that shall not be shut though not only service but even opportunity of service shall be sure to meet with many adversaries This is a special mercy unto the people of God and a great gift if the Lord doth in providence so order things that it shall be so unto them So the obedience of Abraham in leaving of his country and his offering of his son the strength of Jacob in prayer therefore Esau shall meet him the chastity of Joseph and the patience of Job the zeal of Jehosaphat and his readiness to work for God he â—â—d abundance and his heart was lifted up in the ways of Gods commandments and the courage and height of spirit in Luther he shall meet with opposition that shall draw it forth gratia vexata seipsam prodit he had never appeared unto that hâ—ight had it not been that the Lord by their opposition gave him occasion and opportunity for such eminent service Prov. 17.16 and Prov. 17.16 Why is there a price in the hand of a fool 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hoc pretium this great and this excellent price some expound it of riches which the Lord doth give men that they might by them endeavour to get wisdom and to exercise it but it is I conceive of a larger extent and to be understood of any talent which the Lord doth put into a mans hand it is all given by God that it may be used and improved unto a spiritual end and the wisdom and the folly of a man is much discovered in the use of the price that is put into his hand wise men have a heart to it that is they do understand it what they are betrusted with and they have a will and a desire and they do their endeavour to imploy it but fools understand not what it is neither do they consider it and therefore they have no desire to use it unto the end for which God gave it they know not the season in which talents are continued nor the end for which they were committed unto men and therefore they use them for their hurt and are but as a sword put into a mad mans hand to hurt all that comes near him and they cast fire-brands and say I am in sport c. Now it 〈◊〉 true opportunity is a great talent it is a mans day of visitation for service as there is a day of visitation for grace and if a man know it not and take it not but let it slip it is his folly and his sin and will prove a curse to him There is many a â—â—n that has as much sin as another but yet it is not so improved because he never had in providence the opportunity which makes others grow more exceedingly and out of measure sinful and so it is also in this there is many a man that has much more grace because he had more opportunity of exercising it and drawing it forth and so the habit is exceedingly improved and there are glorious fruits of it all which do abound unto the account of the Saints thus providence orders opportunities of service 4. There is a special Providence unto his people in â—ppointing of their societies that as ungodly men are permitted to be cast upon some that will improve their sin for a man is much built up by his society either unto Heaven or Hell Prov. 1.10 If sinners entice thee consent thou not sinners will entice and a man shall be cast into such companies and such occasions of converse he knows not how so there is a providence also in casting of the people of God upon their societies Act. 18.24 25. Apollos came to Ephesus and at the same time Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome now Aquila and Priscilla
of the heart proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness deceit lasciviousness an evil eye blasphemy pride foolishness all these evil things come from within and defile the man c. for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh Mat. 12.34 Now how comes it to pass that now one sin riseth in the heart and sometimes another sin when there is an equal propension unto all sin it riseth out of the heart but there is a Soveraignty of God that doth order these motions and desires in the heart permitting such motions and stirrings of heart now which he had not before Jam. 1.15 Lust conceiveth and brings forth sin there is original sin the root of corruption which is called Lust Jam. 1.15 and that is the mother of all sin and it is said to conceive when it is formed into motions reasonings consultations and desires and consents but yet there is many a lust conceived that never is brought forth into act and the permitting the rising as well as of the being of lust depends upon the Dominion and the Soveraignty of God As there came into the heart of Esau such a resolution when my father is dead I will slay my brother Jacob so there came a motion into the heart of Judas to betray Christ and thereupon he consulted how to do it with the greatest advantage and how to take the fittest opportunity to bring it to pass so a thought came into Davids heart to number the people Satan stirred it up but God in judgment giving him over that it should be at this time when God was angry with Israel and Ezech. 38.10 It shall come to pass at the same time that things shall come into thy mind and thou shalt think an evil thought a thought that he did not think before the time of his destruction was near then such motions shall arise as it did in Ahab Is not Ramoth in Gilead ours c which was the occasion of his destruction There is a providence even in the rising of lusts in the hearts of his own people that this lust at this special time and another lust at another time should rise in them it is the same Soveraignty of God that doth draw forth gracious desires in the Saints and doth permit corrupt desires in them also God is not the Author but the orderer of them and yet even in this also the Soveraignty of God is exercised for the good of the Saints and that many ways 1 In this that all lusts break not forth in the soul continually for lust that is the mother of all sin original sin stands equally prepared unto all sin at all times and therefore that all lusts be not stirring in the heart together is from a glorious act of the soveraign restraint of God Hos 4.2 By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out c. erumpunt it is taken from waters that have been hid or from fire shut up in an oven or a furnace Hos 7.6 sometimes it breaks forth into thoughts in the soul and sometimes into acts in the life Now there is a double restraint that the Soveraignty of God has over mens acts and over their lusts and it 's a great mercy to have acts of sin restrained as it was in Abimelech Gen. 20.6 his lust was let out but God restrained the act and it is a greater mercy to have the lust restrained than the act as the Lord said They shall not desire thy land Now the Lord doth restrain the Devils acts but for his lusts he doth let them range and so he doth very far also restrain the acts of wicked men when he sets no bounds unto their lusts next to being freed from the being of sin it 's a mercy to be delivered from the rising of sin and in that there is a special manifestation of the Soveraignty of God for if the rising of one sin be so troublesom unto a godly man that he strives and prays and wrestles with it and it is unto him as the thorn in his flesh he cannot be quiet in himself by reason of it how miserable and continually unquiet would the heart of a godly man be if he should have many such strangers and way-faring men come to him as it was said of the lust that came into Davids heart how should a godly man be able even to stand under the burden of them therefore even this restraint of the rising of some lusts is a special mercy that Josephs lust should not rise and conceive in him at such a time and when he had such an opportunity And it is the greater because I conceive the Spirit of God by a peculiar work and not a common doth restrain the lusts of the Saints It 's true that there is restraining grace both unto the godly and the wicked but not both from the same principle but the Spirit having once taken possession of a godly man for his own house and Temple he doth never work common works in that man more as a Spirit assisting barely but as a Spirit inhabiting 2 There is a great deal of mercy in the Lords ordering of the rising of lust when lust doth not rise when the object is present there is the object and the opportunity but the lust is past away as Ruth lay at Boaz his feet all night yet no lust ariseth towards her and David had an opportunity of killing Saul but yet when Saul was in his hand and he was stirred up to it by his servants also yet God restrained his lust it did not rise in him which we may see by the contrary in other men as soon as the object is offered the lust is up in the young man Prov. 7. he met a harlot and he went after her straight-ways and there is a man that no sooner sees his neighbours wife but he doth lust after her his lust riseth as soon as the object is presented and so it was with Achan I saw and I coveted and I took and so it is with many a man let the least shew or provocation be given and his spirit is on fire immediately but it was not so with Abraham though he was the better man and had a better right than Lot yet in the contention the lust of pride and passion did not arise in him Let there be no strife between me and thee for we are brethren A man of understanding is of a cool spirit he doth not take fire immediately that lust should rise at one time and not at another it can be attributed unto nothing but the Soveraignty of God ordering and over-ruling and restraining it c. 3 The Lord doth let some lusts at this time arise that it may shew a man that such a sin is in his nature which formerly he haply never considered never particularly repented of and never saw the fruit of it breaking forth in his life Now to lead a man