that looketh upon the Gospel in the Light of Parts and External Tradition hath a Model of Truth in his Brain but these find it impressed upon their Hearts there is Light and Fire Wait for this Witness Sixthly By the wonderful preservation of Scriptures even to our Times There is no Doctrine so ancient it describeth the whole History of the World from the very Creation Moses was ancienter than the Gods of the Heathens No Doctrine can produce such Records of the Original of the World The Doctrine of the Gospel is as Old as Paradise where God preached it to Adam Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed It shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heel The Foundation was laid long since tho it was more explicitly revealed upon the coming of Christ. None so much oppugned We have some ancient Writings of the Heathens tho nothing so ancient as Scripture Other Writings by tract of Time have been much mangled tho they have been cherished by Men as not contrary to their Lusts but the Scripture is still opposed persecuted maligned and yet it continueth Psal. 129.1 2. Many a time have they afflicted me from my Youth may Israel now say Many a time have they afflicted me from my Youth yet they have not prevailed against me The Church hath been always bred up under Afflictions Enmity against it began betimes yet still it holdeth up its Head Errors are not long-lived 1 Cor. 3.12 13. Now if any Man build upon this Foundation Gold Silver precious Stones Wood Hay Stubble Every Man's Work shall be made manifest For the Day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by Fire and the Fire shall try every Man's Work of what sort it is The World hath had time enough to enquire into the Scripture and to discover the vanity and falshood of it if there were any Nay not only the main Doctrine of the Scripture hath been continued but no part of it is falsified corrupted or destroyed The World wanted not Malice nor Opportunity the Powers of the World were bent against it and corrupt Persons in the Church were always given to other gospelling Gal. 1.6 7. I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel Which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. 1 Tim. 6.3 If any Man teach otherwise and consent not to wholsome words c. But still the Scriptures are wonderfully preserved as the three Children in the Furnace not an Hair was singed not a jot or tittle of the Truth is perished or corrupted If it were corrupted it must be before Christ's Time or after it not before then Christ would have noted it not after for then the Parts would not agree but we find no such thing but an exact Harmony Nor is there any lost for here is a sufficient Instruction and Guide to Happiness Christ hath promised not a tittle shall fall to the ground The Word hath been in danger of being lost but the Miracle of Preservation is therefore the greater In Joshua's Time there was but one Copy of the Law In Dioclesian's Time there was an Edict to burn their Bibles and Copies were scarce and chargeable and yet still it hath been kept Seventhly By his Judgments on those who have reviled abused and persecuted this Truth The Records of all Ages witness to this The whole Jewish Nation was destroyed for opposing the Doctrine of the Gospel After the slaughter of the Prophets and murder of Christ God let them alone for forty Years and then Wrath came upon them to the uttermost the People were carried captive contrary to the Roman Custom the Land lost its fertility Look into succeeding Times very few Persecutors went to the Grave by a natural Death Particular Stories are full of the Judgments of God executed on them Julian the Apostate confessed Christ had the best at last Vicisti Galilee and so died blaspheming Lucian that railed against God and his Word as he returned from a Supper his Dogs fell mad and tore him in pieces Eusebius reports of a certain Jew that took upon him to apply a sentence of the Word to a prophane End to make a Jest of Scripture was stricken with blindness till he made confession of his Fault Appion scoffing at Scripture and at Circumcision had an Ulcer growing in the place of Circumcision as Josephus reporteth God is very angry when Men are partial in the Law tho they do many good things Rev. 22.18 19. For I testify unto every Man that heareth the words of the Prophecy of this Book If any Man shall add unto these things God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this Book And if any Man shall take away from the words of the Book of this Prophecy God shall take away his part out of the Book of Life and out of the Holy City and from the things which are written in this Book SERMON XXIX JOHN XVII 17 Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth II. THE Church hath owned the Word You see how God hath owned it he saith it is my Word Let us see how the Church hath owned it Here I shall shew three things 1. What is the Church's Duty to the Word 2. What Credit and Value we ought to put on the Churches Testimony 3. How the Church hath witnessed to the Word in all Ages 1. What is the Churches Duty To keep the Word and to transmit it pure to the next Age that nothing be added nothing diminished that it be published to the present Age and transmitted pure to the next Rom. 3.2 Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God We are Trustees Jude 3. Earnestly contending for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of the Truth The Church is to hold it forth as a Pillar doth a Proclamation that it may not be lost and extinguished This is the Jewel Christ hath left his Spouse as the Law was kept in the Ark. 2. What respect we ought to bear to the Churches Testimony To hearken to it till we have better Evidence We do not ultimately resolve our Faith into the Churches Authority for the Authority of the Church is not Absolute but Ministerial as a Royal Edict doth not receive Credit by the Officer and Crier he only declareth it Yet the Church's Testimony is not to be neglected for Faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10.14 It is a preparative Inducement John 4.42 Now we believe not because of thy saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the World If we would know the Truth of a thing before we have experience go to them that have experience the judgment of others whom we respect and reverence causeth us
our infirmities he liveth a glorious life Luke 20.28 He is not the God of the dead but of the living for all live to him though they do not live to the World they live to God those that are departed out of this World have another Life the Souls of the Just are already in the hands of God and their Bodies are sure to be raised up at the last Day So Christ liveth to God Doctrine That the due consideration of Christs being raised from the Dead doth mightily promote the spiritual Life in us This will be evident if we consider what advantage we have by Christs Resurrection 1. It evidenceth the Verity of Christian Religion and that Christ was no Deceiver for his Resurrection is a sufficient attestation to the Dignity of his Person and Offices Rom. 1.4 Declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead Acts 17.31 He hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead This is a strong and undeniable Argument that Christ is the Son of God the Saviour and Judge of the World Where lyeth the force of the Argument Christ dyed in the judgment and repute of the World as a Malefactor but God justified him when he would not leave him under the power of Death but raised him up and assumed him up unto Glory thereby visibly declaring unto the World that the World was mistaken in him that he was indeed what he gave out himself to be the Son of God and the Judge of the World to whom is given power over all flesh either to save or destroy them according to his Covenant This Argument supposeth 1. That there is a God sufficiently represented to us by other means 2. That whatsoever exceedeth the power of Nature or course of second Causes is done by this God 3. Among all the Miracles this of raising a dead man to life is the greatest the cure of a disease is not so much 4. That if this be done to a person unjustly accused and condemned in the World it is a Justification of his Cause before all the World and a sure mark of Divine Testimony 5. The Cause between Jesus Christ and those that condemned him was That he made himself to be the Son of God and Saviour and Judge of the World this he evidenceth himself and this was preached by his Disciples Surely the Supreme and Just Governor of the World would not justifie a Cheat and Imposture and so far permit the Devil to deceive in his Name as to change the course and order of Nature and so far directly to work against it as to raise a man from the dead Now it is a mighty advantage to the advancement of the spiritual Life to be sure of the Religion that requireth it at our hands much of it being against the inclination of corrupt Nature for then there is no tergiversation or excuse as if our Rule were uncertain or that we did trouble our selves more than needeth us of absolute necessity 2. It sheweth us the Perfection of his Satisfaction there needeth no other Sacrifice to abolish sin for it is said in the Text In that he dyed he dyed unto sin once and elsewhere the unity of the Mediator and the Sacrifice is pleaded to shew the perfection of it The Unity of the Mediator 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one Mediator between God and man the Man Christ Jesus And Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And Heb. 9.28 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many The ground of this Argument standeth thus That Christ came to take away sin the benefit which the World needeth either he hath done it sufficiently or not done it if sufficiently we have what we desire if not it must be either because other Mediators were necessary to supply his defects but where are they Who can challenge this Honour as authorized by God and recommended to the World as Christ was Or what can they do beyond what he hath done No there is but one Mediator or else because another Sacrifice or Offering was necessary because this could not attain its end then Christ needed again to undergo Death for the single Sacrifice did not the work which was the taking away of sin But this was enough to ransom all Souls no other propitiatory Sacrifice was necessary Why how doth it appear By the Resurrection for when Christ was raised from the dead our Surety and Mediator which were the Qualities he took upon himself was let out of prison and dismissed as having done what he undertook Isa. 53.8 He shall be taken from prison and from judgment The Debtor may have confidence the debt is cancelled when the Surety is let out of prison and walketh freely abroad when Christ is risen from the dead and advanced to a glorious condition surely his Merit is full enough and he hath a perfect release and discharge as having done his work and needeth no more to come under the power of Death which is a great encouragement to us to set upon the destruction of sin Christ hath paid a full ransom to purchase grace to make our endeavours effectual 3. It is a visible demonstration of the Truth of the Resurrection and Life to come For Christ who would be an Example to us of all painful and self-denying Obedience would also be a Pattern of the Glory and Felicity that should ensue Therefore after a life of Holiness and Sufferings he dyed and rose again and entred into the Glory that he spake of which is a great encouragement to us to follow his steps for all this is a pledge of what shall be done in us It is said 1 Pet. 1.21 That God raised him from the dead and gave him glory that our faith and hope might be in God The Resurrection of Christ and the consequent Honour and Glory put upon him is the great prop and foundation of our Faith and Hope Certainly it much concerneth us to believe the truth of the Resurrection and the reality of the unseen Glory else all Holiness Patience Self-denial and practical Godliness would fall to the ground Now when our Teacher who hath told us of these things hath given sufficient evidence of the Truth of them in his own Person by his own rising from the dead and his own ascending into Glory it helpeth mightily to silence the objections of Unbelief The thing is not incredible nor impossible Christ in our Nature did arise from the dead and ascend up into Heaven nay it is not only possible but certain for Christ is risen and entred into Glory as our forerunner Heb. 6.20 to make the way accessible to us and to seize upon it in the name and right of all true Believers and secure a landing
John 10.28 29. This is the great security of the Fold that they are under the power of so careful and so able a Shepherd This Almighty power of God and Christ doth mightily fortifie us against all temptations we meet with in the way to Heaven 6. This right accrueth to believers by virtue of their interest in Christ 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or to come all are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods All things are theirs wherein they are concerned if not in possession yet in reduction or final use Friends Enemies Ordinances Providences all conditions Life Death If you resolve firmly to obey Christ and adhere to him you need not fear any thing Now upon these grounds a Christian may conclude that nothing shall separate him from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. 4. That we ought firmly to be perswaded of this here I shall shew you how this perswasion is bred in us 1. By the word of the Gospel discovering to us the whole mystery of our Redemption by Christ with all the consequent benefits There all Gods merciful designs for the justifying sanctifying and glorifying the creature are manifested to us as matter of our faith Acts 19.8 And perswading the things concerning the kingdom of God The Doctrine and end of his Ministry was to perswade men of the necessity of coming out of their lapsed estate and the power of the Devil and to put themselves under the government of the King whom God hath set upon his holy hill of Sion that he may defend them against the Devil the World and the Flesh and at length bring them to everlasting happiness Again Acts 28.23 And he expounded and testified the kingdom of God perswading them concerning Jesus c. Assuring them of his sufficiency to save them Now this they did partly by shewing the danger of the contrary 2 Cor. 5.11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord we perswade men and partly by shewing the grace and readiness of God to own them in all troubles Acts 13.43 Perswading them to continue in the grace of God And if men do quarrel at this dispensation they will not be edified by any other be it never so extraordinary Luke 16.31 Neither will they be perswaded though one should rise from the dead There is more reason to perswade the Scriptures are true than if a message were brought to us by a vision or apparition which would not induce us to quit our sinful habits and customs Now this is the means when we receive it and are perswaded of it 2. By the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God that we may know the things that are freely given us of God The spirit of God is necessary that we may believe the Doctrine of the Gospel and cure our worldly and sensual inclinations for who else will be brought to forsake the things which he seeth and loveth for a God and a Glory which he never saw 3. By faith which is a perswasion of the truth of such things as God hath revealed because God hath revealed them 1 John 4.16 And we have known and believed the love which God hath to us 'T is matter of faith to believe the love and care of God over his people 4. Experience The perswasion with application increaseth our confidence His love to us in particular is known by what he hath wrought in us and for us and this increaseth our perswasion and breedeth in us a holy confidence 2 Cor. 1.10 Who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us 2 Tim. 4.17 18. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me and strengthned me and I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lyon and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work In this perswasion confirmed seasoned experienced Christians do continue who have not only a true faith in Christ and a settled love to him but such as maketh up an evidence in their conscience of their sincerity and giveth an undoubted perswasion of his love to them 1. They are such as are rooted and grounded in faith The full comfort of Christianity is reserved for such as are described by the Apostle Col. 1.23 If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel There is an initial faith which may wither as the grace of the second and third ground and there is a rooted faith which will be supported and maintained in the good and honest heart Therefore 't is not sufficient once to assent to the truth of the Gospel in our understandings or imbrace the good things offered to us by our will and affections but we must be rooted and grounded in the faith Fluctuating opinion without a well-grounded perswasion will not serve the turn Some slight desires and affections to blessedness to come will not maintain us against the several blasts of so many temptations as we meet with but we must get a faith that will make us indifferent to all worldly things heighth or depth life or death The sound world-conquering faith will only give us safety and I am sure will only give us comfort 1 John 5.4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Such a sound belief of blessedness to come maketh us dead to the present world 2. Such as are rooted and grounded in love A taste may fail Heb. 6.3 4. A slender insufficient touch of the love of God upon the soul will not break the force of opposite inclinations and temptations Eph. 3.17 18 19. That ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able with all saints to comprehend what is the breadth and length and depth and heigth and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge A sincere love doth so fasten us to Christ that no temptation is able to shake us or unloose us for they are acquainted more and more with Christs love and admire it are ravished by it feel the effects of it The breadth noteth the great blessings we have by it or the ample priviledges of the New Covenant The length the duration of it from one eternity to another The depth of it his profound condescention fetching us out of Hell its self by a painful cursed and ignominious death The heigth as it raised us up to the glory of Heaven and that everlasting blessedness Now none are said to comprehend this but those that are rooted and grounded in love that is to comprehend them to their comfort and joy to comprehend it to their conquest and victory over temptations to comprehend it as their triumph and confidence None but those whose hearts are filled with the love of God and
other must complement Antiquity at a great rate if himself hath any judgment and doth not say that Multitudes in the last Age have been as to Preaching greater than they In the former are to be found many judicious Explications of Scripture many honest and spiritual Discourses In the latter not these things only but a pleasantness of Wit and Fancy but for plenty of Matter clearness of Iudgment Orderliness of Method and many other things they have not been a little exceeded by men of this last age Nor is it any disparagement to them more than it was to John the Baptist that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven was to be greater than he or to Christ that the Apostles Joh. 14.12 were to do greater things than he had done In the middle Ages of the Church Preaching generally was turn'd into trifling about Scholastick nicetyes and to the very dawning of the Reformation the Priests Texts were out of Scotus or Aquinas and we remember they were not ashamed when Luther Melancton c. restored in some degree the true kind of Preaching to petition Magistrates for the suppression of it and a liberty to trifle still in that great work of God with discourses upon Scotus and Aquinas Thô Luther Zuinglius and others in Germany and Mr. Calvin Farellus and Viret and Beza in France about a hundred and fifty years since mended this matter in a great degree yet we all know how ill their Examples were followed So as Mr. Perkins who began to flourish about the year 1580. is generally judged to have been the first who amongst us restored Preaching to its true use and taught us the true manner of it whose Piety was followed by many but as their Number hath vastly increased since that time especially in the fifty or sixty years last past so God hath seemed to pour out his Spirit upon Ministers as to spiritual Gifts in a more plentiful measure Yet in very different proportions that he might have some to feed his Lambs as well as others to feed his Sheep The Generality of good Preachers have made it their business to preach Christ and the exceeding Riches of his Grace and to study matter rather than words upon Mr. Perkins his old Principle Verba sequentur res But all have not had alike ferâile Invention or solid Judgment or alike Skill and Learning in Languages and Arts c. Some particular Persons have been blessed with them all by which they have made Stars of the first Magnitude in the Church of God Such Reader we take the Reverend Author of these Sermons to have been in all whose Writings thou shalt find a quick and fertile Invention governed with a grave and solid Iudgment and the Issue of both expressed in a grave and decent Style so as it is not easie to say what one would desire in a Divine that was wanting in him He had an Heart full of Love and Zeal for God and his Glory and out of the abundance of his Heart his Mouth continually spake So frequent yet so learned and solid Preaching by the same person was little less than miraculous But he was a Scribe fully instructed in the things of the Kingdom of God and like a good Housholder was continually fetching out of the Store-house of his knowing and judicious Soul things both old and new He was no studyer of Words and Phrases he abhorred such a Pedantry and debasing the Authority of Gospel Propositions but a grave and serious Soul fitted with his skill in Arts and Languages neither ever did nor could want Expressions above the scorn of the most wanton Word-dressers thó beneath the expectations of such as can be pleased with the timeableness of Paranomasiaes or the rollings of six-footed words He was a good and learned a grave and judicious person and his Auditory never failed thô he laboured more than the most Preachers his constant course of Preaching being for many years Five times and till near his End three times a Week to hear from him a pious learned and most judicious Discourse This those who never heard him may easily believe by his printed Commentaries and Sermons in which we never met with any that complained for want of any thing fit for a Divine So that he is one of those Authors upon the credit of whose Name not only the plainer and less intelligent sort of people but even Scholars may adventure to buy any Book that was his and be assured they will see no cause to repent of the expence of their Money His late large Folio upon the 119 th Psalm is a plentiful Evidence of this and a great part of our English World hath given their suffrage to this by making it so scarce in so short a time as the Price of it is inhanced above a fifth part We here offer a 2 d Volume of a greater Bulk thô no greater price which contains his Discourses upon the 25 th of Matth. the 17 th Chapt. of John the 6th and 8th Chapter of Paul's Epistle to the Romans and the 5th Chapt. of his 2 d Epistle to the Corinthians five Chapters than which possibly in the whole New Testament there will not be found five others more full of Gospel Doctrine in the Knowledge of which Gods People are more concerned In the first under the Parable of the Ten Virgins five of which were wise five foolish our Lord represents to us the state of the Members of the Church waiting for Christs Second coming to Iudgment Amongst whom some are sincere some are Hypocrites the different actions and issues of whom are excellently represented to us and most worthy to be learned and considered 2. Vnder the Parable of the Talents we are instructed in Gods different dispensation of his Gifts to men their different use of them and the Account they are like to be called to about them To which is subjoyned an Hypotuposis of the day of Judgment fit to be continually in our Eyes and Ears In the second we have our Saviours last Prayer for his Elect as well those that to the end of the World should believe as those who at that time did believe It was our Lords Legacy what good Christian desireth not a full understanding of it that he may know what to hope and pray in Faith for at being first secured to him ãâ¦ã Prayer of him whom the Father heareth alwayes In the 6th and 8th of the Romans are contained great Treasuries of Gospel Truth Vpon both the ãâ¦ã many learned men have spent their labours to great advantage But the Scripture is such a Book ãâ¦ã never know when we fully comprehend it and if he may judge to whose share it fell to peruse some of those ãâ¦ã the Reader will find some things here discovered which he will hardly meet with elsewhere His way of ãâ¦ã it is rather Dogmatical and Practical than Polemical yet he now and then judiciously resolveth a ãâ¦ã But all along in the handling of it
seemed to believe the coming of Christ and went forth to meet him 1. Therefore I shall shew you what they may do as to Faith I shall shew what the Grace is and how far they may go along with it The Scripture speaketh so much of Faith that we need to know what it is Faith in its peculiar respect works towards Christ and Heaven But take it in its general latitude 't is a firm and cordial assent to all such things that are revealed by God as revealed by him Let us explain this here is the Object things revealed by God as revealed by him then the Act 't is an assent the Adjuncts 't is a firm and cordial assent For the Object in this description I consider it materially and formally all things revealed by God whatsoever All things necessary to Salvation Faith apprehends them distinctly other things implicitely that is knows them in their general principle Few Christians know all the Doctrines contained in the Christian Religion but they believe them in the general But now things necessary to Salvation I must distinctly know them as those that are called Articles of the Creed the Lords Prayer the ten Commandments Faith is an Assent to and built upon a divine testimony without any other reason whether as to things past present or to come things past as the Creation of the World Heb. 11.3 By Faith we understand the Worlds were created by the Word of God If a man should hold the Creation of the World upon some other reason that seemeth cogent unto him and not upon the discovery of it in the Word certainly 't is not Faith whatever it be for Faith assents to whatsoever is revealed by God So for things present that God sitteth in Heaven and Christ at his right hand Stephen saw it by Vision and Extasie but every Believer seeth it by Faith which is the evidence of things not seen as if with bodily eyes So for things to come as Christs coming to Judgment John saw it in the light of Prophesie Rev. 20.12 I saw the dead both small and great stand before God and they see it in the light of Scripture and the Promise so that you see the Objects of Faith are things revealed by God because revealed by him If a man should believe the Christian Religion upon Tradition or the current opinion where he liveth 't is not Faith but humane Credulity now the act of Faith 't is an assent not knowledge but acknowledgment the understanding hath a double act apprehension or dijudication it judgeth of the truth of things apprehended or apprehendeth the tenor of things and then judgeth of the truth of them they are not enlightned in a way of Faith that are only able to talk of Heavenly things but such as are perswaded of the truth of them And then mark the Adjuncts 't is a firm and Cordial assent 1. 'T is a firm assent and that excludeth many things from Faith as light Credulity Prov. 14.15 The simple believeth every word He that believeth every thing without search and serious advertency believeth nothing And it excludeth bare non-contradiction Many are thought to believe the Religion they live under because they do not question it These can no more be said to believe than Children are said to believe the Questions and Answers of the Catechism they have learned by rote True Faith knoweth the certainty of those things wherein they have been instructed Luk. 1.4 And then it excludeth Conjecture to be Faith which is a lighter inclination of the mind to a thing as probable it may be so yet there is a suspition to the contrary Nay it excludeth Opinion which goeth higher than Conjecture but cometh short of Faith Well now thus far many goe there may be an owning of the true Orthodox Religion only out of Custom Chance of Birth Education tradition of Ancestours they may talk much as Parrots repeat mens words by rote only There may be Convictions and Opinions about them they may be perswaded those things are true that are in the Word of God and yet no firm assent 2. But to come nearer yet the next Adjunct 't is a cordial and hearty assent such as engageth the Heart to Christ. We read in Scripture of believing with the Heart Rom. 10.9 and believing with all the Heart Acts 8.37 Truths are propounded to us in the Scripture not only as true but good things of great weight and moment as well as certain Believing is an hearty business now this cordial and hearty Assent excludeth Historical Faith and Temporary Faith First Historical Faith which rests in a naked speculation or a simple and naked assent to such things as are propounded in the Word of God This consisteth in a meer Speculation of the Mind without any change of the bent of the Will and Affections True Faith ever overcomes all contrary inclinations and motions so that Gods Interest may prevail above them Heb. 11.13 Being perswaded of them they embraced them Those who have a meer historical Faith are not excited to holy Living are rendred more knowing not better this is a real Faith in its kind Simon Magus did really believe by the preaching of Philip Acts 8.13 't was not counterfeit for 't is said he wondred And those in John 2.24 that believed in the Name of Christ but Christ would not commit himself to them for he knew all men And no question the Devils do really believe James 2. not only natural Truths but Gospel Truths I know thou art the holy one of God What a Confession is this out of the Devils mouth Therefore 't is a wrong to say that unregenerate men do not believe Because this being the main business in hand I will tell you why 't is called Historical Faith Not from the Object of it as if they only believed the Histories of the Scripture No they believe Promises Threatnings Doctrines Precepts Mysteries But 't is called Historical Faith from the manner wherewith 't is conversant about its Object As we read Histories in which we are no way concerned only for contemplation and Knowledge sake not to make a Party in their Broils or interpose in their quarrels so they rest in idle Speculations which betters not the Practice Well now this speculative assent they may have this Faith doth not only believe those things that are true but doth heartily and truely believe them Secondly There is besides this temporary Faith that is such an assent as is accompanyed with a sleight and insufficient touch upon the Heart called a taste Heb. 6.4 so that they do not only believe the Truths of the Gospel but are tickled with some delight and do in some measure find their Hearts drawn off from wordly lusts and practices but the Impression is not deep enough nor the Joy rooted enough to counterballance all temptations to the contrary They seem to have their hearts loosened from the World and to preferre Christ before the Creature as long
the world Our whole Life was appointed for this end and all the time we spend here is worse than lost if it be not imployed and used for this end 'T is now Preparation time these are the Months of our Purification for our Immortal Souls therefore our continual care should be to make ready Secondly We may deferr this work too long we cannot begin it too soon The foolish Virgins would get Oyl in their Vessels but it was too late Never any complained of beginning with God too soon many could have wished they had known the wayes of Righteousness sooner Rom. 13.11 Many have judged the time past more than enough 1 Pet. 4.3 Thirdly 'T is not so sleight and easie a thing to get to Heaven as the World imagineth Mat. 7.14 Strive to enter in at the streight gate for many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Many deceive themselves 't is not so broad as the Opinions of some as the practices of more would make it and the carnal hearts of all would have it Broader or narrower it cannot be than Christ hath left it In the General a man may come much too short none go over Oh! when you do but consider that many are afar off Eph. 2.13 and some are near as Christ told the young man Thou art not far from the Kingdom of Heaven and others are scarcely saved and some enter abundantly it concerns us therefore to take heed to our selves Fourthly This is your Wisdom There is a great deal of doe in the World about Wisdom Job 11.12 Vain man would be accounted wise A man cannot endure to be counted a Fool will sooner own a Vice in Morals than a weakness in Intellectuals Now Wisdom lyeth in Providence and folly in Negligence especially in weighty matters These wise Virgins provided Oyl in their Vessels and the wise Builder built upon a Rock They are wise in Gods account whatever the World thinketh of them that are wise for Heavenly things and govern their hearts and ways exactly Eph. 5.14 15. and they are fools that never mind the good of their Souls What would you have us do I will only press you to three things 1. Let your Belief be sound and firm to the great Articles of Christianity 't is Faith enlivens all our notions of God John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art Jesus the Son of God 2. Let your Resolutions for God be unbounded Psa. 119.112 You never knew a man fall off from God but he loved some secret Lust some corruption was left unmortifyed though for the present it did not appear to the party himself this in time will break out and cause some scandalous fall 3. I would have you put it out of all question by the lively Exercise of your Grace and by your diligence in the spiritual Life Phil. 2.12 and in time 't will grow up into an evidence 2 Pet. 1.5 Luke 13.3 Nothing will yield you comfort but the exercising and increasing Grace SERMON II. MATTH XXV v. 3 4. They that were foolish took their Lamps and took no Oyl with them But the wise took Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps NOT only the openly wicked those that eat and drink with the Drunken are rejected but those that have some shew of Godliness yea hopefull beginnings but not improved is the drift of this Parable We have considered wherein the ten Virgins agree now wherein they differ They had so much Wisdom to take their Lamps with them but so much Folly as to take no Oyl in their Vessels These Vessels were annexed to their Lamps or that part of the Lamp which was kindled and lighted By the Lamps are meant outward Profession Matth. 5.16 by the Oyl the Spirit called the Anointing which abideth in us 1 Joh. 2.27 Now the foolish Virgins are such inconsiderate Christians as content themselves with the Name and blaze of outward Profession neglecting the great work within namely an inward principle of Grace which should maintain their Profession before men and their Uprightness before God they had only some transient motions of the Spirit or inclinations to that which is good enough to keep up their present Profession but not to hold out and suffice at Christs coming But the wise Virgins that had Oyl in their Vessels with their Lamps are sound and solid Christians who with the Lamps of external Profession are careful to be furnished inwardly with the Graces of the Holy Spirit 1. Doctrine 'T is not enough to have Oyle in our Lamps but we must have Oyle in our Vessels also 2. Doctrine This will be found to be our true Wisdom and the other to be the greatest folly For the first point That 't is not enough to have Oyl in our Lamps but we must have Oyl in our Vessels also Let me explain this point in these Propositions 1. Profession must not be neglected both the wise and the foolish took their Lamps with them burning Profession is twofold Vocal and Real Vocal Rom. 10.9 If thou shalt Confess with thy Mouth and believe with thy Heart Christ will be owned by those that are his Christs followers need not be ashamed of avowing their Master Faith should not and Love cannot be smothered and hidden therefore Profession is as necessary as Believing in its kind Again there is a Real Profession not so much by word of Mouth as by constant Practice and Conversation so Christians are bidden to shine as Lights Phil. 2.15 This is for the glory of God Mat. 5.10 and the Honour of Christ that it should be so therefore the Apostle prayeth 2 Thes. 1.11 12. Wherefore we Pray alwayes for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fullfill all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of Faith with Power that the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you 'T is not meant of the illicite acts but the Fruit that it produceth and 't is for the honour of the Truth Suitable Practice joyned with Profession puts a Majesty and splendor on the Truth and recommendeth it to the Consciences of Beholders Titus 2.10 Adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour 'T is not so much by good words and expressions that Christians do put a loveliness and beauty upon the wayes of God as by ordering their wayes with all strictness and gravity So that this fair Profession is of great use especially the real part it is an evidence that all is right within for the breaking out of sin and folly in the Life clearly evidenceth the power and prevalency of unmortified Lusts in the Heart Therefore we must keep our Lamps burning the foolish and the wise did both well in that 2. A Profession of Godliness though never so glorious should not be rested in without a saving work of Grace upon the the Heart to maintain it there was the folly of one sort of Virgins that they were contented with having Oyl in their Lamps
God and partly with the Creature neither loosed nor unloosed but between both can never be sound and upright Jam. 1.8 A double-minded man is unstable in all his wayes A man must purge himself from Lusts before he be a Vessel fit for Gods use 2 Tim. 2.20 There is some delight in lawful or unlawful things that lyeth between us and Christ and is so near and dear to us as to draw away the Heart at least in part that the heavenly Plantation cannot thrive and prosper in our Souls Luke 8.14 There is some unmortified root of bitterness Jer. 4.3 4. Sow not among thorns plow up the fallow ground Till God be our scope Religion can never be our work If the pleasing enjoying or glorifying him were more sincerely intended other things would come on with more ease and success as the Water floweth of its own accord if the Pipe be not leaky If the Honour of Christ his Glory Will and Command lye nearest and closest the Heart then sin would be more loathed than any other thing more feared more avoided and we would follow our work more heartily We are enlivened in the Means by an unfeigned regarding of the End our carelesness cometh from this that God is only minded as a matter by the by The End and Means alwayes go together If any thing be prized more than God or equal with him or apart from him a little Grace and Godliness will serve the turn If God were intirely our End we would be mainly for him and most industrious to approve our selves to him if it be not so something there is that causeth that neglect that must be found out something that cloggeth thy heart and detaineth thee from this effectual pursuit some lust the gratifying of which is the delight and pleasure which contents us and therefore are we cold and sleight in Religion 4. Vnbelief For faith doth enliven all our Notions of God and Christ and Heaven and the day of Judgement and maketh them effectual and powerful The Apostle telleth us Heb. 11.1 That Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen It puts a presence into things and so affects us as if the things believed were before our eyes Otherwise a man cannot see things at a distance 2 Pet. 1.9 Christ and Eternity are afar off Hence to an Unbeliever they seem little and therefore 't is not made a business of the greatest weight or Importance to seek after them At the day of Judgment how will wicked men stamp and tear their hair when matters of Faith become matters of Sense that they minded them no more Oh! if I had known this I should never have dreamed out my time as I have done saith the convinced Wretch but made a more serious business of my preparation If the day of Judgment be too far off let us lay the Scene a little nearer Suppose one of the damned Souls now in torments that feeleth that which he would never believe thus crying out Oh! had I thought my Lazy desires and good meanings would have done me no more good that my sloathfulness would have ended so sadly I would rather have wept out my Eyes and have filled the World with sorrowful Complaints I would have bereaved my self of sleep by Night and refused my Bread by Day rather than to have wanted time to have thought of God and the great Affairs of my Soul If our Faith be so short-sighted that we cannot look as far as the Region of darkness time may come in this World that we shall wish we had done more for God and our precious and immortal Souls First or last we bear witness to this Truth when the neglected Soul cometh to be separated from the pampered Flesh or over-prized body If we would learn to shut the Eye of Sense and open the Eye of Faith we might see it now 2 Vse Is to press you to get Oyl in your Vessels to be rooted and grounded in Faith settled in Love Hope Zeal Temperance and perfect what is lacking to every grace That you may be sensible what I exhort you to I shall give you the summe of it by degrees 1. Do not meerly affect the reputation of Good People and rest there As the Lord saith of the Church of Sardis Rev. 3.1 Thou hast a Name that thou livest and art dead Do not rest in this that you have a Name to live God judgeth not as man judgeth Man judgeth according to outward appearance but God judgeth according to the reality of the thing Many have the Name without the Thing Isa. 48.2 For they call themselves of the holy City and stay themselves upon the God of Israel That is they get themselves a Name to be his People but they have not the Thing its self On the other side we read of some that are Israelites indeed John 1.47 Some are only so in the shew and outside and some are Disciples indeed Joh. 8.31 so in reality others are so in pretence only There is no true ground of solid Comfort but in this in being real Disciples so Joh. 8.37 we read of some that were free indeed The Jews had the Name of free men but were not free indeed stood upon their Liberty they were in bondage to no man Some are Religious indeed humble indeed fear God indeed when a man hath gotten the Thing he may referre himself to God for the Name 2. Do not rest in a common work of Grace Look as in the Beasts there is some little tincture of Reason so in Temporaries there is something that looks like saving Grace but is not something that resembles it and looketh most like it yet 't is but the shadow of Grace not true Grace it self Historical Faith is the shadow of true saving Faith There are some outward Lineaments of Repentance in Ahabs Humiliation and Judas his Compunction of spiritual Affection in Herod's delight in John and the stony ground received the Word with joy And some shew of Reformation there was in those that escaped the pollutions of the world Therefore if you rest here without a powerfull and inward affecting of the whole Heart you may come short of glory The Grace of Temporaries is good in its kind but must not be rested in 'T is good in its kind 't is like priming the Post to make it receptive of other colours 't is an inchoate imperfect thing They are affected almost with the same feeling the Godly are come very near How nice a point is that wherein the Temporary and the real Christian differ Both pray with sorrow hear with joy perform duties with some enlargement and sweetness Simili fere sensu afficiuntur Yet as two Hills may seem very near at the top when their bottoms are far distant one from another so these Operations may seem near together when in the bottom and root they much differ These motions argue Gods Spirit working on them not dwelling in them actuated they are
this Slumbring and Sleeping is 'T is twofold that of the Body and that of the Mind That of the Body when the Senses cease for a time to do their Office That of the Mind is a secure State of Soul and that is twofold Moral and Spiritual 1. Moral When Reason and natural Knowledge is as it were asleep and useless to us a man doth not act as a reasonable Creature Psal. 94.8 Oh ye bruitish among the People when will ye be wise and Psa. 22.27 All the ends of the Earth shall remember and turn to the Lord Psa. 119.59 I thought on my wayes and turned my feet unto thy Testimonies If men did improve common principles shew themselves men they could not continue in that course of Life wherein they allow themselves In part this Sleep of Reason may befall the Children of God they do not consider nor turn their minds to their Affairs nor act as men whose Eyes are open 2. Spiritual Sleeping Here I shall shew the Nature and Effects of it First The Nature of it when Graces are not lively and kept in exercise I shall instance in those three Theological Graces Faith Hope and Love a weak dead Faith a feeble Sleepy Love a cold and careless Hope 1. A weak and dead Faith that consists more in a Form of Knowledge than a lively assent to the Truths of Godliness A dead oppinionative belief may stand with a carnal Life Jam. 2.20 Faith without works is dead The Word of God is come to them in Word only not in power it puts no Life into what we do believe 1 Thes. 2.13 Doth not work effectually This will fit the slumbring and Sleeping of the foolish Virgins but alas the Wise have their drowsie fits the Truths of the Word concerning God Christ Heaven and Hell have not such a lively influence upon them by the blandishments of worldly Prosperity Faith is fallen asleep ready to give place to the Flesh and they are governed more by Fancy and Appetite than by the Heavenly mind there is no consideration of the Vanity of earthly things the Heart is kept strange to God and Heaven and the Soul is taken up with carnal projects more than it should be 2. A feeble sleepy Love which doth not level and direct our actions to the great end of them which is the pleasing and glorifying of God so that they live too much to themselves Love in vigour doth over-rule us to live unto God 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for all that they should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him who dyed for them and rose again And this keepeth us more sincere and uniform in our course alwayes tending to the great end 3. A cold and careless Hope When there is not that earnest and desirous expectation of Blessedness to come which doth fortifie us against the allurements of sense Math. 6.19 20 21. Lay not up for your selves Treasure upon Earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where Thieves break thorough and steal but lay up for your selves Treasure in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break thorough and steal for where your Treasure is there will your Hearts be also They do not mind their true Treasure Secondly The Effects of this Sleepiness are seen in these things 1. In some Intermission of their care and caution Watching is a diligent taking heed to our selves and wayes so as we keep our selves from sin We are in constant danger of sins that come on us by insensible Degrees Psa. 39.1 I said I would take heed to my wayes that I sin not with my tongue The best are surprized and Corruption often breaketh out we may say of them as Christ of the Damsel they are not dead but sleep The Children of God are sometimes overtaken by their inadvertency Gal. 6.1 or overborn by the violence of Temptations Jam. 1.14 Inconsiderately and suddenly surprized with some sin So subtle and assiduous is Sathan in Tempting and so ready is Corruption to close with the Temptation as soon as it is represented that if a Child of God doth but abate any thing of his Circumspection and diligence he will be surprized by some one sin or other and thereby be brought to dishonour God and to lay a stumbling block before others Besides those sins of daily incursion and suddain surreption Sathan lieth in wait to draw us to greater Offences that may dishonour God and wound our Peace and scandalize the World against our Profession 2. Some abatement of our Zeal and fervency We are not alwayes fervent in Spirit and do not keep up our Life and Seriousness in the Duties of Holiness our Graces are not actuated and kept in exercise but suffer some decay though they be not quite dead Faith is weak Love is cold Math. 24.12 There is not that lively Hope 1 Pet. 1.3 Christians should not only be living but lively 1 Pet. 2.5 Ye as living Stones Nay There may be so great a damp and quenching upon us that there is no outward visible difference between a dead man and a dying Christian All things in us may be ready to dye Revel 3.2 Be watchful and strengthen the things that remain that are ready to dye Life is even quite gone in some cases when sin hath made fearful havock in the Conscience 3. In Forgetfulness of non-attendency to the Lords coming When we live merrily quietly in a careless and unprepared Estate this is necessarily to be taken in as the cause of the two former In the slumbring and sleeping of the foolish Virgins the Case is clear Christ's absence or tarrying long is the occasion the World takes to grow secure and wicked the Scoffers walked after their own Lusts because they said Where is the Promise of his coming 2 Pet. 3.3 4. And in the degenerate Church the reason why they were given to Sensuality carnal Pomp and Persecution is set down Math. 24.48 49. My Lord delayeth his coming Therefore the Officers of the Church smite their fellow Servants and eat and drink with the Drunken encourage the wicked and smite the Godly with Censures As it was with the Israelites there was no speech of making a Calf when Moses first went up to the Mount but when he tarryed long Exod. 32. And as for this Moses we wot not what is become of him then nothing would content them but making a Calf The Ordinances and Institutions of Christ had never been so perverted in the Christian World but that they forgat Christs coming to see how they have been observed 1 Tim. 6.14 That thou keep this Commandment without spot unrebukeable until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now for the wise Virgins alas there is not such a constant waiting for the coming of the Lord for if we did not leave off to think of
thou hast given me to do Have you been adding one Grace to another so that now you have nothing to do but to wait for the Crowning of all III. We should Improve it as to Christs general Coming If it be so that the Bridegroom will certainly come but at his own time 1. Then be not of the Number of those Scoffers and Mockers that either deny or doubt of his coming The most part of men expect no such matter the Prophane scoff at it and would fain shake off this bridle and restraint upon their Lusts 2 Pet. 3.3 Therefore take heed of the whispers of Atheism which would tempt us to turn unto the World and present things and give over our hopes Most mens Faith about the eternal Recompenses is but pretended at best but too cold and speculative an Opinion rather than a sound Belief as appeareth by the little fruit and effect it hath upon them for if we had such a belief of them as we have of other things we should be other manner of Persons in all Holy Conversation and Godliness Two things are to be wondred at viz. That any man should doubt of the Christian Faith that is acquainted with it and that having embraced it should live sinfully and carelesly Therefore believe it as if you saw it Rev. 20.12 I saw the dead c. 2. Take heed of apprehending it as a thing afar off look upon it as sure and near to hasten your Preparation It cannot be long to the end of Time If we compare the remainder with what is past and the whole with Eternity Psa. 90.4 A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when 't is past alas 't is nothing to the true measure of things He that shall come will come and will not tarry Therefore we should have more quick and lively thoughts and apprehensions about it such as will awaken us out of our security 3. Take heed of a cold and ineffectual thinking of it There is a certain time appointed and when that appointed time is come he will certainly appear therefore look for it and long for it The Saints are described by their looking for it Titus 2.13 Looking for the blessed hope Phil. 3.20 From whence we look for a Saviour and Heb. 9.28 Actual expectation enliveneth all our actions Rebecka espied Isaac a great way off Faith and Hope standeth ready to embrace him And also by their longing for it 2 Tim. 4.8 Revel 22.17 Come Lord Jesus come quickly Long for it for Christs sake and your own sakes For Christs sake his Interest is concerned in it that the glory of his Person may be cleared His first coming was obscure but now he will come in great splendor accompanied with his holy Hosts ten thousands of Saints and Angels 1 Pet. 4.13 That when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad with exceeding joy His Justice will then be demonstrated Acts 17.31 He hath appointed a day in which he will Judge the World in Righteousness And 2 Thes. 1.6 7. 'T is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you that are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus Christ shall be revealed with his mighty Angels And long for it for your own sake 't is a day of the manifestation of the Sons of God Rom. 8.19 Then you shall receive your reward to the full 1 Pet. 1.13 Hope to the end for the Grace that is to be brought to you at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. Then is the fullest manifestation of the Love of God Now we are pressed with the remainders of Corruption within and Temptations and Persecutions without wait for his coming The People tarryed without for the High Priest 'till he came forth to bless them so must we look for his return when he will come to bless us SERMON VI. MATTH XXV v. 7 8. Then all those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps And the foolish said unto the wise Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out THe meaning of this part of the Parable is that the Virgins being roused by the Cry made went to trim their Lamps and fit themselves for their March while they were so doing some of them had Oyl left but others had spent all their store and their Lamps were going or gone out Three things are remarkable in these Parabolical Expressions 1. That which is common to them all All those Virgins arose and trimmed their Lamps which must be differently interpreted of the wise and the foolish The arising and trimming their Lamps noteth in the wise their actual preparation for the Lords coming in the foolish it noteth the strength of their Confidence and Self-conceit The foolish think they are as prepared and ready for Christs coming as the wise they arise and Address themselves to meet the Bridegroom 2. On the part of the foolish they found their Oyl spent 3. That they go to the wise for a supply give us of your Oyl First The Effect of the Cry that is common to them all They arose and trimmed their Lamps Which is first to be considered on the wise Virgins part and so it will teach us this Note Doct That the Faithful as often as they think of the coming of the Lord should more rouze up themselves and prepare themselves to meet him with Ioy and Comfort For the trimming of the Lamps on their part it noteth the rousing up of themselves out of their negligence and security and a serious preparation for his coming To evidence this to you we shall consider 1. How the Scripture presseth this upon us 2. What reasons there are in the thing it self to awaken us to this serious Preparation First How the Scripture presseth this upon us In the Word of God we have not only the Doctrine of Christs coming to Judgment but the Uses and Inferences built thereupon I shall instance in two places in one Chapter 2 Pet. 3.11 and 14. v. 11. What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness Where Observe 1. That 't is not enough to believe the Doctrine of Christs coming but we must improve it to the use of holy Living The Improvement is pressed in Scripture as well as the Doctrine is revealed In Gods account no Faith will go for Faith but the working Faith all else is but Opinion and cold Speculation whatever Truths we believe we must bring forth to practice Therefore if we believe stedfastly we must live accordingly live as men that look for such things A bare apprehension or assent to the truth is nothing worth unless it be accompanied with that care and diligence which belongeth to the truth so apprehended The Christian Religion consisteth not in word but in deed And our belief of it is not tried by a speculative assent especially in the absence of temptations but by a constant and diligent practice of those duties whereunto this belief bindeth us
So that they do not truly and savingly believe such things who are not seriously and constantly diligent in the spiritual life I cannot say that an assent separate from practice is no Faith but 't is no saving Faith 't is such a Faith as the Devils may have who know there is a God and a Christ and a World to come they believe it and fear it So may carnal men believe it so far as to stir up bondage and legal fears in their Hearts but while they improve it not and prepare not for their everlasting Estate their Faith is ineffectual to Salvation True Faith is tryed rather by Living than by Talking 1 John 2.4 He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Lyar and the truth is not in him There is a difference between an Untruth and a Lye now where the Actions do not correspond to the Profession that Profession is not only an Untruth but a Lye There is a denying in word as well as works Titus 1.16 Many Profess and believe as Christians but live as Atheists T is not notions but affections living rather than talking that will demonstrate true Faith Now the paucity of serious walkers sheweth the paucity of true Believers 2. In this Improvement there is an Appeal to Conscience for here is a question put to our own Hearts let Reason and Conscience speak After the serious consideration of the glory and terrour of Christs second coming what holiness and preparation is necessary on our part Surely the holiest upon Earth if they would put this question to their own hearts they would not be satisfied with that holiness which they had but would seek after more their desires would be strengthned their endeavours quickened their diligence doubled 'T is for want of self-communing that we are so dull and sluggish If men did oftner ask of themselves Reason would tell them that no slight thing will serve the turn But Truths are not improved First For want of a sound Belief Secondly For want of a serious Consideration Therefore in Scripture when any notable Truth is propounded and improved there are these Appeals to Conscience Heb. 2.3 How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation and Rom. 8.31 What shall we say to these things 3. In this Appeal the qualification of our persons is first regarded and looked after For pray mark the question 't is not How holy ought our Conversations to be but What manner of persons The state of the person must be first regarded and then the course of our actions and conversations There are some persons at whose hands God will not accept a gift God had respect first to Abel and then to his Offering The state of the person is to be judged of according to the two great priviledges of Christianity Justification and Sanctification 1. That we be justified and reconciled to God through Christ that we daily renew friendship by the exercise of a godly sorrow for sin and a lively faith in Christ. 1 John 5.1 Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God And 1 John 2.1 Little Children these things I write unto you that ye sin not And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous Others are not accepted with God 2. That we be sanctified or renewed by the Spirit Tit. 3.5 and so fitted and framed by this general Holiness for the particular duties we are called to A Bowl must be made round before it can run round The Instrument must be framed and strung and put in tune before it can make any melody the Tree must first be made good before we can expect any good fruit from it Mat. 12.33 Actions are holy by their rule a person is holy by his principle Therefore till there be a principle of Grace wrought in our hearts we are not such manner of persons as God will accept Nor are we fitted to perform him any service or to meet him at his coming 4. When our Persons are in frame we must look to the course of our Actions or walking For the tree is known by its fruit and a man by the course of his actions We do but imagine we have holiness within unless we manifest it in our outward conversation and will strive to shew our selves mindful and respectful of Gods commands at every turn Psal. 119.1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord not only undefiled in the rule but undefiled in the way A sincere constant uniform obedience to Gods Law or a careful endeavour to approve our selves to God in all our wayes is the mark of true blessedness A man is judged by the tenour of his life not by one action 5. This holiness must be in all the parts of our Conversation In all holy conversation In our outward carriage and secret practice common affairs and religious duties In the duties of Gods immediate Worship and the duties of Relations towards Superiors Inferiors and Equals 1 Pet. 1.5 in every creek and turning of our lives there is no part of a Christian conversation but should savour of Holiness and Godliness His common and civil actions in adversity prosperity at home and abroad So Tit. 2.12 13. The grace of God which bringeth Salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying all ungodliness we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Soberly as to our selves Righteously as to our Neighbour Godly as to God To rest in a partial practice of holiness will not become the expectation of Christs coming who will examine us upon every point of duty 6. Godliness is added to Holiness to increase the sense and signification There is some formal difference between these two Holiness signifieth the purity of our actions and Godliness the respect they have to God that He be eyed and aimed at in all that we do That all things should be done in and to the Lord or for his glory This should be the supream end of all our wayes and actions If we consider Grace as it provideth for the rectitude of our actions positively it is called Holiness If relatively with respect to our dedication to God 't is called Godliness Well then we should be such manner of persons not only in all holy conversation but Godliness We should stir up our selves to do more for God in the World and love him and fear him and honour him in all that we do 7. In both we should endeavour the highest pitch that possibly we can attain unto For 't is in the Original all holy conversations and godlinesses which doth not only imply the extention as we render it in all holy conversation and godliness but the intention and degree as well as all the parts and points of Godliness Those that have made most progress in Godliness should still aspire after higher degrees the more will our comfort be now and the more our glory
be renounced or we are for ever miserable and why not now Sin will be as sweet hereafter as now it is and Salvation dispensed upon the same terms You cannot be saved hereafter with less adoe or bring down Christ or Heaven to a lower rate If this be a reason it will ever be as a reason against Christ and Religion because you are loath to part with this or that pleasing lust and so it will never be 3. The Suspicion that is upon a late Repentance 'T is seldome sound and therefore alwayes questionable That is no true Repentance which ariseth meerly from horrour and the sense of Hell This sensible work that men have upon them may be but the beginning of everlasting despair All men seek the Lord at length but the wise seek him in time This was the great difference between the wise and foolish Virgins one sought him in time the other out of time They would covet his favour at last Upon a Death-bed the most prophane would have God for their portion When they can sin no more and enjoy the World no longer then they cry and howl for mercy and comfort and a little well grounded hope of Heaven or eternal life But who can tell whether this sensible work that is upon them be not meerly an act of self-love and the fruit of those natural desires which all the Creatures have after their own happiness or a meer retreat others have when they can hold the World no longer We cannot say this Repentance is true nor affirm the contrary that 't is false but 't is doubtful There is but that one instance of the Thief on the Cross that truly repented when he came to die The Scriptures contain an History of four thousand years or thereabouts and yet all that while we have but this one instance of a true Repentance just at death and in that Instance there is an extraordinary Conjunction of Circumstances which cannot reasonably be expected again Christ was now at his right hand in the height of his love drawing sinners to God Never such a season as then and 't is more than probable he had never a call before then Well then let us put this necessary work of Preparation for God out of doubt betimes yea let the Children of God if they have not yet prevailed against such a Lust or lived in the neglect of such a Duty could not bring their hearts to it hitherto make speed left they be surprized and this defect in their preparation make their death uncomfortable A good Christian is alwayes converting yet not fully converted The first work is often gone over and he is still getting nearer to God by a more affectionate compliance with his whole will Doct. 2. That those that are finally refused by the Lord may yet have a desire of the Ioyes of Heaven 1. Consider them in this VVorld and in the VVorld to come These two respects are different For though Self-love be the common cause of their desiring Heaven both now and then yet there is a difference 'T is more commendable to desire it now than to desire it then though neither be an argument of any gracious Constitution of Soul 'T is more commendable to desire it now when 't is a matter of Faith to believe the World to come than when 't is a matter of Sense as when all Shadows are chased away then 't is no hard matter to convince men of things that lye within the Veil that is of the truth and worth of Heavenly things And yet if they should be convinced of this we cannot say they are gracious however they are better than meer Infidels for carnal men may desire a share in the state of the Blessed as Numb 23.10 Oh that I might die the death of the Righteous Balaam had his wishes And those that did not like Christs Doctrine but departed from him said Joh. 6.34 Lord evermore give us of this bread of life They would fain be happy When this happiness was represented unto them it may and doth stir up strange motions in the Hearts of those that are unrenewed and unchanged 2. There is a difference in the End and Vse of this desire of Happiness Now and then God leaveth these Velleities and Inclinations as a Stock upon which to graft Grace as a Spinster leaveth a lock of Wooll to fasten the next thread as Nebuchadnezzar's shape remained when he was turned a grazing among the Beasts and as Job's Messengers I alone am escaped to tell thee There are these Inclinations to happiness that are escaped out of the ruines of the Fall God by our self-love would draw us to love himself Man will not be dealt with else It leaveth men capable of Heaven the Doctrine of Life represented to them they are without excuse if they refuse it This is the use of it now but then when we are in termino it hath another use This love of their own happiness and desire to be saved serveth for this very use to make them sensible of their loss the grief of their Condemnation and lost estate is encreased thereby Now this is little thought of by carnal men because they have Oblectamenta sensus the entertainments of sense to divert their minds but when separate and set apart from all these then if they have no other punishment this is enough Surely their understanding remaineth having nothing to comfort them and allay the bitter sense of their loss But now let us see 1. How far carnal and unregenerate men desire Happiness 2. Why this is so little improved and they make so little use of it First How far a carnal and unregenerate man may desire Happiness 1. They may desire good confuse non indefinitè Happiness in the General but this desire cometh under no deliberation and choice The happiness that is offered by Christ or that Life and Immortality that he bringeth to light cometh under another consideration Good Good is the cry of the World Certainly no man would be miserable but all would be happy and live at ease Christians Pagans all good men bad men they that seldome agree in any thing do all agree in this they would have good To ask men whether they would be happy or no is to ask men whether they love themselves yea or no. 2. They would not only have good in the General but some eternal good And because this is not so evident by nature they grope and feel about for it Act. 17.26 There is an unsatisfiedness in present things and therefore they are scrambling and feeling about for some better thing As Solomon tryed all experiments so do men go about seeking for good Eccl. 7.29 Since we lost the streight line of Gods direction we seek it sometimes in one thing sometimes in another and Christ saith Mat. 13.45 46. That the Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a Merchant man seeking goodly pearls And when he had found one pearl of good price he went
observe God in his various works in and by them And indeed nothing was such a means to convince him of his dependance upon God as this labour of dressing and keeping the Garden which God put him into for he could produce no new Plant but only manure and cherish those which God had planted there already and all his keeping and planting was nothing without Dews and Showers and Influence from Heaven and the continual interposing of Gods Providence And still in every Calling he that is sedulous in it seeth more need of Gods concurrence than those that are idle for those that have done their utmost by experience find that the success of all their endeavours dependeth upon His Power and Goodness or the effect followeth not I am sure it holdeth good in the work of Grace none are so practically convinced of the necessity of Divine Assistance as they that do their utmost for they see plainly all will not do if God with-hold his Blessing and their often disappointments when they lean upon their own strength teacheth them this lesson that all is of God Secondly That this Increase must be understood of the same Talent not in another kind It holdeth not that he that useth the Talent in one kind shall thrive in another for what a man soweth that shall he reap No the meaning is the thing used is still increased 'T is not intended that by imploying his Talent in Riches he should increase in Learning that by improving his Learning he should grow in strength and beauty of Body no it holdeth good in eodem genere in the same kind Use common helps well and you increase as far as common helps will carry you use Moral Vertue well and you increase in moral vertue use that measure of saving Grace you have well and you shall have a great measure given you by God set a-work thy Knowledge Faith Zeal and Love and all these graces will increase in you Wait on the Lord and be of good courage and he shall strengthen thy heart Psal. 46.14 and Psal. 31.24 and Isa. 58.13 14. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the Earth and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy Fathers for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it So Psal. 91.1 He that dwelleth in the secret places of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty God that Punisheth sin with sin doth reward Grace with Grace they that abuse the light of Nature are given up to a reprobate sense they that improve the Grace they have shall have more every act maketh an increase of the habit and whosoever imployeth that spiritual Wealth that he hath shall have an addition from God be more strong in Faith and Love and more rich in Knowledge Object But may not we enlarge this a little further Arminius gathereth from hence that the works of the unregenerate done by the meer strength of nature are so accepted with God that by them he is moved and induced to give them supernatural Grace And many others that will not speak so grosly think that if we improve the gifts of Nature we shall have common Grace and if we improve common Grace we shall have special and saving Grace And ought we not and can we not use these common Gifts and Graces to this end and purpose that we may obtain Conversion and Faith in Christ such as the use of Reason the freeing of the mind from bruitish Passions and Affections good Education the Examples of others the powerful Preaching of the Gospel and common Illumination and the Knowledge of the Truth gained thereby Answ. 1. Those that have Common Grace ought and are bound to use it for the obtaining of more Grace there is no doubt of that for therefore they are accused that They have ears and hear not eyes and see not and God findeth fault with his People That they will not frame their doings to turn to the Lord Hosea 5.4 So much as put themselves in a posture they are threatned That it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah than for them And that the Ninevites shall rise in Judgment against them and Condemn them They are reproved for Being idle and sloathful Servants and hiding their Talents in a Napkin Certainly they that are lifted up to Heaven in Ordinances that receive so much Grace from God and yet turn it into Wantonness and do not Know nor Worship nor Seek after God they aggravate their own Condemnation their destruction is of themselves they shut themselves out of the Kingdom of God reject the Counsels of God against themselves In short they put away the Word of God from them and judge themselves unworthy of Eternal Life The Scripture every where speaketh at this rate concerning the Folly and Negligence of men 2. But if it be asked Whether they that have received Common Grace not only ought but also can use it for the acquiring and getting the special Grace of Conversion This Question concerneth the manner how the Will of God and the will of man meet together in the work of Conversion And here we must use great care in Answering to avoid Inconveniencies on all hands certainly merit they cannot neither de congruo nor de condigno nor by any Covenant oblige God to give them the Grace of Regeneration neither can Christ be said to have acquired and purchased this Grace for them to whom he is not given as a Mediator nor by any Promise is God bound to give us Grace for the good use of our natural abilities No the distribution of Converting Grace is not Promised or bound to any works of Righteousness that we have or can do but is reserved and referred to the free disposition good will and Pleasure of God Rom. 9.16 Not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy So Tit. 3.5 Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us The first Grace is given by God as a soveraign Lord according to the Counsel of his own Will But since the Question is propounded Whether a man can by common Grace obtain special The Answer must be prudent and cautelous that of the one side we may not prejudice the Truth nor of the other side give Scandal and Offence to the weak For 1. If you answer That an unregenerate man may by the use of common Grace acquire and obtain the special Grace of Regeneration and that the whole business lies in the good use of his Will you seem to dash upon the eternal Purpose and Decrees of God by which he hath determined
Being and of an Essence finite and limited their acts are more comprehensible 3. There may be a third Reason imagined why the Angels should come to this Judgment which will give us an occasion for handling A Question Whether they shall be judged yea or no I answer For the good Angels I think not For the bad the Scripture is express and plain 1. For the good Angels 't is clear by what hath been said already that they shall be present at this action not to be judged but to bring others to Judgment as Officers not as Parties I suppose this if men had continued in their Innocency and Integrity of their Creation such a day of universal Judgment had been needless for then there had been none to be Condemned because none had sinned the Covenant of God would have been enough to have secured their Happiness so the good Angels continuing in that state wherein they were Created there is nothing doubtful about them that needeth any judiciary Debate and discussion and being already confirmed in the full fruition of God and Happiness as to their whole nature their estate is not to be put to any tryal whereas good men though their Souls be in Heaven yet their Bodies are not admitted there some part of them as yet lyeth under the effects of sin and their glorification is private and Gods goodness as yet hath not been manifested to them in the eyes of all the world nor their uprightness sufficiently vindicated therefore a Judgment needeth for them but not for the Angels who were never as yet censured and traduced in the world and they in their whole nature and person enjoy most absolute felicity in Gods heavenly Sanctuary No such great change will happen to them after the Judgment as happeneth to the Saints when their whole persons are taken into glory 'T is true they have a Charge and Ministry about the Saints Heb. 1.14 But of that Ministry and Charge they give an account daily in the sight of God to whom they do approve themselves in it So that there is no cause for further inquisition concerning that thing there being no necessity of Judgment concerning them I think they shall not be Judged 2. For the evil Angels the Scripture is express 1 Cor. 6.3 Know ye not that we shall Judge Angels That is as evil Men so evil Angels So 2 Pet. 2.4 Goâ spared not the Angels that sinned but cast them down to Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved to the Judgment of the great Day Though they are imprisoned in the Pit of Hell yet reserved for further Judgments God's irresistible Power and terrible Justice over-ruleth tormenteth and restraineth them for the present These are the Chains of Darkness yet there is a more high measure of Wrath that shall light upon them at the Day of Judgment Where any Accession or considerable Increase shall be made either to the Happiness or Punishment of any Creature there that Creature shall be judged Now there is no such considerable Alteration or increase of Happiness to good Angels as to Men And on the other side there is a considerable Alteration as to wicked Angels Matth. 8.20 Art thou come to torment us before the time They know there is a Time coming when they shall be tormented more than they are yet And besides God's Justice was never publickly manifested and by any solemn Act glorified as to the Punishment of the evil Angels for their Rebellion against him but was reserved for this Time Besides as God would now receive into Glory the Good and Holy among Men and therefore would first begin with their Head which is Christ sending him in Power and great Glory so on the other side when God would punish the Disobedient he would begin with condemning their Head who is the Devil and is first cast into Hell as a Pledge of what should light upon all those that follow him and are seduced by him I could say more but I forbear Thirdly There remaineth one Circumstance in the Text and that is Christs Throne of Glory which because it is wholly to come and not elsewhere explained in Scripture we must rest in the general Expression The Cloud in which he cometh possibly shall be his Throne Or if you will have it further explained you may take that of the Prophesie of Daniel Chap. 7.9 10. I beheld all the Thrones were cast down and the Ancient of Dayes did sit whose Rayment was white as Snow and the Hair of his Head like the pure Wooll His Throne was like the fiery Flame and his Wheels as burning Fire A âiery Stream issued and came forth from him Thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him The Judgment was set and the Books were opened I cannot say this Prophesie is intended of the Day of Judgment but as they said of the Blind Man Joh. 9.9 Either 't is he or it is very like him so this is it or very like it And in the General you see it describeth that which is very Glorious Or you may conceive of it by the Description of Solomon's Throne 1 King 10.18 19 20. Moreover the King made a great Throne of Ivory and over-laid it with the best Gold The Throne had six Steps and the Top of the Throne was round behind and there were Stayes on either side of the Place of the Seat and two Lyons stood behind the Staâes And twelve Lyons stood on the one side and on the other upon the six Steps There was not the like made in any Kingdom It was high and dreadful but not worthy to be a Foot-stool to this Tribunal The VSE of all is Exhortation To press you to propound this Truth 1. To your Faith 2. To your Fear and Caution 3. To your Love 4. To your Patience 5. To your Hope That all these Graces may be the more exercised upon this occasion that you may believe it and consider it 1. Propound it to your Faith be perswaded of it We are so occupied in present things that we forget or do not mind the future And Men that are in love with their Lusts and Errors love to be ignorant of those Truths the Knowledge whereof might disquiet them in following those Lusts 2 Pet. 3.5 This they are willingly Ignorant of But we had need to call upon you again and again to believe these things that the Lord Jesus shall come in his Glory with his Angels They that are Slaves to their Lusts strongly desire an Eternal Enjoyment of the present World and labour to banish out of their Hearts the Thoughts of the Day of Judgment The sound Belief of it is not so much encountred with Doubts of the Understanding as the Lusts and Inclinations of their carnal and perverse Hearts But Beloved I hope it will not be tedious to you to tell you again and again of these things and to press you to rest your Hearts upon them
work to cast out Devils would seem to us more excellent than these mentioned as the Workers of Iniquity Mat. 7.22 Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy Name and in thy Name cast out Devils and in thy Name done many wonderful works Ver. 23. Then will I profess unto them I never knew you depart from me ye that work Iniquity Then there are many works of the same kind we must not only visit but cloath not once but often The same Faith which inclineth our Hearts to works of one kind will incline them to every kind for they all stand by the same Authority and 't is not agreeable with Sincerity to balk any of them 3. These Works must be done so heartily as that it may appear we have denyed all for Christ and love him above all or that it may appear they are fruits of Faith and Love The parting with worldly Goods implyeth our Hearts must be loosened from the love of temporal things And the Visiting of Christ in Prison which may be for Righteousness sake implyeth our Victory over our fear of Danger otherwise it argueth our Faith is weak and our Love is cold and so not sincere not prevailing over us in such a degree as will argue Sincerity There is Faith unfeigned 2 Tim. 1.5 and Loving in deed and truth 1 Joh. 3.18 Faith Vnfeigned as when Temporal things seem nothing to us and are easily parted with and Love in Deed and in Truth is to relieve our Brethren with our Goods yea to give our lives for them if need be as appeareth ver 16 17. But alas Love in most Christians is cold it will neither take pains nor be at charge much less lay down Life for them as Christ did for us do little to maintain comfort or support Christ's Servants in distress 3. The Broken-hearted Serious Christian that thinketh Works can never have enough of his care or too little of his trust that is alwayes hard at work for God and yet seeth God must do all at last He is perswaded that Grace doth not weaken his Duty but enforce it yet when he hath done all counteth himself but an Vnprofitable Servant and is still approving himself unto God more and more and yet the more he doth the more daily need he seeth of Christ No man liveth under a greater dread of the Holiness and Justice of God yet flyeth oftener to his Mercy We must comfort these 1. Consider God observeth all the Good that we do and pondereth every Action of what kind soever it be whether giving Food or Cloathing or Harbour or Entertainment or Visiting or Comforting 't will all be fruit abounding to your account Phil. 4.17 The more you abound in Acts of Communion with God or Relief towards such as are in Misery the greater will your Reward be in the last Day There is Fruit for our Account and Abounding for our Account 2. The least Actions done for Christ's sake shall be rewarded by Him for some of the Actions are more inconsiderable than the other yet if done for Christ's sake a Meals Meat a little Harbour yea a Visit is taken notice of by him He doth not say Ye feasted me ye made me sumptuous Entertainment But Ye gave me food ye cloathed me ye visited c. The least Action done for Christ's sake shall not go unrewarded Mat. 10.42 Whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a Cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple Verily I say unto you he shall in no wise lose his Reward 3. God will pardon all their Failings Here is no mention of the evil but the good they had done An honest upright Heart is dispensed with as to many Weaknesses Mal. 3.17 I will spare them as a man spareth his own Son that serveth him I come now to the Second Point II. Doct. That Christ ordereth his Dispensations so that some of his People are exposed to necessity others in a capacity to relieve them The Priviledges and Promises of the Gospel do not exempt the one from Distress nor do the Duties and Rules of the Gospel make the possession of Riches to the other unlawful In the one sort of good men Christ is hungry and a-thirst in the other sort of good men he feedeth and cloatheth them Christ is in the Giver and Receiver These want that they may have matter of Patience those abound that they may have matter of Bounty Abraham was Rich Lazarus that slept in his bosom was poor 'T is so 1. That he may shew himself to be the Governour and disposer of all things here in the world and that he giveth Honour and Riches to whomsoever he will Dan. 4.17 If these things were at the Devils disposal Gods friends should never have them 2. To shew that the bare Possession is not unlawful that 't is not the having but the ill use that bringeth so much mischief 3. That the world may know somewhat of his Favour to his People and what Prosperity he can bestow upon all if it were expedient some Diseases require Cordials others sharp and bitter Potions 4. That in the time of our Exercise we may have a Pledge what he will do for us hereafter and give us in Heaven 5. That they may be Instruments of his Providence to supply others that want House and Harbour and all necessaries as the great veins receive blood to convey it to the lesser some are kept under Affliction We sail more safely to the Haven of Salvation with an adverse wind than a prosperous VSE If it fall to your lot to Give rather than to Receive bless God in that behalf and neglect not your Duty God could level all to an Equality but he will not that you may be Instruments of his Providence to cherish them you should be a Fountain not to keep the water to your selves but to overflow for the necessity of others I come now to the Third Point III. Doct. That works of Charity done out of Faith and Love to God are of greater weight and consequence than the world taketh them to be 1. There is a Command of God requireth it Next to the great duties of the Gospel nothing more enforced to relieve the necessities of the poor is not Arbitrary but a duty required of us according to our abilities 't is Charity to them but a due Debt to God and a part of our Righteousness Stewards are to dispense the Estate by the Masters command 2. 'T is the tryal of our Love to Christ He hath made the poor his Proxies and Deputies we would cozen our selves with an empty Faith and a cheap Love if God had not devolved his right upon our Brethren 1 Joh. 3.17 But whoso hath this worlds good and seeth his Brother have need and shutteth up his bowels of Compassion from him how dwelleth the Love of God in him If Christ were sick in a Bed we would visit him
Grace and Authority Mat. 7.29 The People were astonished at his Doctrine for he taught them as one having Authority and not as the Scribes All he did was with Heavenly Majesty and Authority a Soveraign Majesty was to be seen in Christ's teaching proper to himself Besides his Faithfulness as a Minister with such Clearness Evidence and Demonstration there was sufficient Declaration to the World at his Baptism Mat. 3.17 Lo a Voice from Heaven saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased agreeing with the Prophecy of him Isa. 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold my Elect in whom my Soul delighteth At his Transfiguration before three Persons that for the Holiness of their Lives were of great Credit Mat. 17.5 Before all his Disciples John 12.28 Father glorify thy Name Then came there a Voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorify it again To the World at his Resurrection Acts 17 31. Whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead To which Resurrection the Jews were conscious Those that reported it wrought Miracles these Men sought not themselves had no Advantage but visible Hazards their Witness was agreeable to the Writings of the Prophets the Doctrine built on it very satisfactory there is in it what every Religion pretendeth to tho in a higher way tho Miracles are now ceased yet it is confirmed by the Truth of the Word God continually confirmeth it by the Seal of the Spirit and there is an inward Certioration whereby Believers are satisfied John 18.37 For this cause came I into the World that I should bear witness unto the Truth Every one that is of the Truth heareth my Voice that is enlightned by the Holy-Ghost receiveth and believeth it but those that have a mind to wrangle God will not satisfy And then for his Miracles they were not Miracles of Pomp and Ostentation not destructive Miracles but Actions of Relief When the Pharisees said He casteth out Devils by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils Mat. 12.24 He proveth that his main aim was to cast out Satan ver 26. If Satan cast out Satan he is divided against himself Would Satan consent that his Kingdom should fall He would not go to dispossess himself All his aim was to promote Holiness and the Kingdom of God I note this 1. That you may know that the Apostles had sufficient Means to convince the World of the certainty of the Christian Doctrine The inward Testimony of the Spirit the Apostles would not alledg it by Miracles and rational Probabilities they were fitted to deal with the World and to appear as Witnesses for him when they were to give an Account Acts 5.32 And we are Witnesses of these things and so is the Holy-Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him This inward Witness is proper to Believers the other may be alledged to Infidels By the Spirit is meant there a Power to work Miracles 2. That you may know the way of God's working with Men Usually all these three concur to the working of Faith there is the Light of the Spirit external Confirmation and the use of fit Instruments 1. The Light of the Spirit without which there can be no Grace nor Faith 1 John 5.6 It is the Spirit that beareth Witness because the Spirit is true That is That Word which the Spirit himself hath revealed is Truth for he is not only the Author and Inditer of the Word but the Witness he worketh in the Hearts of the Faithful so that he persuadeth them of the Truth of the Word 2. There is external Confirmation Tho Miracles cease yet we have the Testimony and Consent of the Church who by undoubted and authentick Rolls hath communicated her Experience to us which is visibly confirmed by the Providence of God not suffering the Truth to be oppressed 3. There is the use of fit Instruments specially gifted for this Purpose Tho the Effect of the Word doth mainly depend on the Spirit yet there is a Ministerial Efficacy in the Messengers Acts 14.1 They so spake that a multitude both of the Jews and also of the Greeks believed Not that the Faith of the Hearers doth meerly depend upon the excellency of the Preacher Yet certain it is that one way of preaching may be more fit to convert than another both in regard of Matter and Form Pure Doctrine for the Matter is more apt to convert than that which is mixed with Falshood as pure Water cleanseth better than foul and good Food nourisheth better than that which is in part tainted He that can divide the Word aright and prudently apply it is more powerful to work than he that seeth by an half Light or presseth Truth loosly and not with Judgment and Solidity Not as if they could infallibly convert but they are more likely they do not carry the Grace of Conversion in their Mouths Then for the Form with more plainness clearness strength of Argument God hath given to some Gifts above others not to bind himself to them but in the way of Instruments they are more powerful tho the weakest Gifts are not to be despised And in the quality of the Persons Holy Persons are more polished Shafts in God's Quiver 3. I observe it to press you to regard all these things 1. The Power of the Spirit if you would profit in Christ's School The watering-Pot will do nothing without the Sun nor the Word without his Testimony 1 Cor. 3.7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither he that watereth but God that giveth the Increase The Spirit is to confirm Truth to you by way of Witness and Argument By way of Witness 1 John 5.7 For there are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy-Ghost There is a secret Persuasion especially when you are reading and hearing that insinuateth it self with your Thoughts doubtless this is the Word of God Acts 16.14 Whose Heart the Lord opened that she attended to those things that were spoken by Paul By way of Argument working such things from whence you may conclude it is God's Word John 8.32 Ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make ye free When ye are freed from the bondage of Sin then ye are enlightned to see the Truth of the Gospel by experience ye shall know the Truth 2. Take in the advantage of external Confirmation By Miracles Christ's Testimony was made valuable to the Apostles You have not only authentick Records wherein these Miracles are recorded which as an History may be believed but the Testimony of the Church which hath experience of the Truth and Power of the Gospel for many Ages The Lives of the Godly who are called God's Witnesses 1 Cor. 14.26 The Providences of God in delivering his Church in their miraculous Preservations Psal. 58.11 Verily there is a God that judgeth in the Earth Answers of Prayers grounded on the Word Upon all these
shall speak unto them all that I shall command him Christ saith his Father gave it him Christ was consecrated Prophet of the Church by the Trinity Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased There was the Father's Voice the Holy Ghost as a Dove and the Son was there in Person Vse Which should stablish us the more in the Truth and is a Patern to Ministers It is excellent when we can say My Doctrine is not mine but his that sent me Or as Paul That which I received of the Lord I have delivered to you 1 Cor. 11.24 3. Observe Among the Things which the Father gave to the Son one of the chiefest is the Doctrine of the Gospel Let us look upon it as a Gift the Father gave it the Son gave it here is a double Gift it was a Gift from the Father to Christ and from Christ to the Apostles I have given them the Word which thou gavest me Next to Christ the Gospel is the greatest Benefit which God hath given to Men He that despiseth the Gospel despiseth the very bounty of God and Men cannot endure to have their Love and Bounty despised As when David sent a courteous Message to Nabal and he was refused he threatned to cut off from Nabal every one that pisseth against the Wall Take heed you despise not God's special Gifts The preaching of the Word it was Christ's largess in the day of his Royalty Ephes. 4 8 11. When he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers As Princes when crowned have their Royal Donatives Those that grudg at the Ministry and count it a burden they do in effect upbraid Christ with his Gift as if it were not worth the giving Those that labour in the Ministry are his especial Gift to us They are but sottish Swine that trample such Pearls under Feet We should think of them as the special Favours of Christ. I do not speak of the Persons but the Calling This Disposition sheweth no love to Christ. Secondly The next Thing is the Nature of Faith There are two Things spoken of in the Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they have received them and have known surely I. I begin with the latter in order of Words as first in order of Nature ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they have known surely The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which signifieth truly surely is used to exclude that literal historical Knowledg which may be in carnal Men. I. Observe Faith cannot be without Knowledg It is not a blind Assent Rom. 10. 14. How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard We must know what Christ is before we can trust him with our Souls 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed we must see the Stay and Prop before we lean upon it otherwise we shall neither be satisfied in our selves nor be able to plead with Satan nor answer Doubts of Conscience He that is impleaded in Court and doth not know the Privileges of the Law how shall he be able to purge himself Fears are in the Dark The blind Man spoke Reason in that Conference between Christ and him when Christ asked him Dost thou believe on the Son of God He answered and said Who is he Lord that I might believe on him John 9.35 36. We must know what God is Till we have a distinct Knowledg of the Nature of God and the Tenor of the Covenant we shall be full of Scruples Well then Vse 1. It discovereth the wretched Condition of Ignorant Persons We are not so sensible of the Danger of Ignorance as we should be God will render Vengeance to them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 Poor Wretches they live sinfully and die sottishly they live sinfully they are under no aw of Conscience because they have no Knowledg and when they come to die they die sottishly like Men that leap over a deep Gulph blindfold they know not where their Feet shall light In their Life-time at best they live but by guess and some devout Aims and when they come to die they die by guess in a doubtful uncertain way Vse 2. To press Christians to gain more distinct Knowledg if you would settle your Souls in a certainty of Salvation God may lay trouble of Conscience upon a knowing Person but usually Persons Ignorant are full of Scruples which vanish before the Light as Mists do before the Sun 2. Observe They know surely In the Knowledg of Faith there is an undoubted certain Light It dependeth upon two things that cannot deceive us the Revelation of the Word and the illumination of the Spirit The Knowledg of Faith is less than the Light of Glory for Clearness but equal for Certainty it hath as much assurance from God's Word though not so much evidence as ariseth from Injoyment 3. Observe They know ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã truly indeed Every kind of Knowledg is not enough for Faith but a true sound Knowledg There is a Form of Knowledg as well as a Form of Godliness Rom. 2.20 compared with 2 Tim. 3.5 A Form of Knowledg is nothing else but an artificial Speculation a naked Model of Truth in the Brain which like a Winter Sun shineth but warmeth not But let us a little state the Differences 1. The Light of Faith is serious and considerate Faith is a Spiritual Prudence it is opposed to Folly as well as Ignorance Luke 24.25 Oh Fools and âlow of Heart to believe all that the Prophets have said Faith always draweth to use and practice It is a Knowledg with Consideration Ephes. 1.17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory would give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledg of him Many have Parts but they have not Wisdom to make the best choice for their Souls There is a great deal of difference between Knowledg and Prudence it is excellent when both are joined together I Wisdom dwell with Prudence Prov. 8.12 Wisdom is the Knowledg of Principles Prudence is an Ability to use them to our Comfort Knowledg is setled in the Brain not the Heart When Wisdom entreth into thy Heart Prov. 2.10 it stirreth up Esteem Affiance Love A Carnal Man may have a Model of Truth a traditional disciplinary Knowledg such as lieth in Generals not Particulars and is rather for Discourse than Life A Vintner's Cellar may be better stored than a Noble Man's he hath Wines not to taste but sell a Carnal Man hath a great deal of Knowledg for Discourse not to warm his own Heart 2. The Light of Faith is a realizing Light ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Faith is the Evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 it maketh absent things present to the Soul But the Light of Parts is a naked abstract Speculation it is without feeling there is no sense and feeling
for their Author We come in God's stead to strike up a Bargain with you for your Souls this bindeth the Ear to Attention the Mind to Faith the Heart to Reverence the Will and Conscience to Obedience We are to entertain all the Doctrines of the Word without any suspence of Judgment and Contradiction We are to put to our Seal to Christ's Testimony John 3.33 He that hath received his Testimony hath set to his Seal that God is true Usually there is some privy Atheism in us we look upon the Gospel as a Golden Dream and well devised Fable This is properly Assent and should be soundly laid Lord thou wilt not fail thy poor Creatures if they venture their Souls on thy Word 3. The whole Word must be received In every Covenant there is a Precept as well as a Promise We maââ the very form of it when we reflect on the Promise and neglect the Precept It is great Error in them that think that receiving of the Word is done when we apply the Promises as if nothing were needful to Salvation but to say I trust that my Sins are forgiven me in Christ. The Gospel hath not only Promises but Commands Conditions and Articles of the Covenant which are no less to be received than the Promises First receive the Commandment concerning Repentance and Conversion with a Resolution to cast thy self on Christ and then be of good confidence thy Sins shall be forgiven thee There is in Faith not only an Assent but Consent Assent to the Truth of God Consent to the Articles of the Covenant Assent to the Truth of the Contract Consent to the Terms and Affiance or confident waiting for the Promise all these are in Faith Hypocrites are said to receive the Word with Joy Luke 8.13 but they received only the Word of Promise with Joy It is pleasing to the Conscience to hear of Pardon of Sins Men may have vanishing fleeting Joys A Carnal Man would have God's Grace but he would have none of his Counsel 4. This must be received with all the Heart The Work of Faith is not confined to the Acts of the Understanding there are some Motions of the Heart Philip puts the Eunuch to this Tryal Acts 8.37 Believest thou with all thy Heart and he said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God God is as careful of the Duty of the Gospel as of the Duty of the Law he that required that we should love him with all our Hearts hath also required that we should believe in him with all our Hearts he required the whole Heart in Love and he expecteth the whole Heart in Faith Now because this is the critical Difference between True Faith and Counterfeit I shall apply this Receiving to both the Objects of Faith the Word and the Person of Christ because the Doctrine concerning both is of near Affinity and the one is opened by the other In receiving the Person of Christ there is the same method of the Acts of Faith as there is in receiving the Word of God 1. There is an Offer Faith receiving presupposeth an Offering we do not snatch at Christ but receive him Sinners snatch at Christ sometimes when God's hand is not open to give him 2. We must look at this Offering as made by God himself Faith taketh Christ out of his Father's Hands 3. We must take whole Christ as Lord and Saviour And 4. we must take him with our whole Hearts Therefore I shall explain this Receiving with the whole Heart in reference to both Objects the Word and Christ. First what is it to receive the Word with our whole Hearts There is nothing so difficult as to draw the Acts of Faith into a Method 1. It implyeth an Act of the Will there must not only be Knowledg and Acknowledgment that the Doctrine is true but an actual Choice and a willing Acceptation Faith apprehendeth the Covenant made in Christ not only as true but good and so answerably there is not only a believing with the Mind but a believing with the Heart Rom. 10.10 With the Heart Man believeth The Faculty answereth the Object 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and then ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã worthy of all acceptation c. So that there is required some Motion of the Heart besides intellectual Assent 2. This Act of the Will is accompanied with some sensible Affection Heb. 11.13 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã they imbraced the Promises they hugged and clasped about and imbraced the Promises All Acts of Faith do necessarily imply answerable Affections The Children of God embrace the Promises with delight receive the Threatnings with trembling and reverence and the Commandments with all chearfulness Acts 2.41 Then they that received the Word gladly ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã not as a People that are overcome receive Laws from the Conqueror or as Zipporah circumcised her Child with grudging and discontent but with hearty and chearful consent I confess there is and ever will be an opposition of the Flesh a Man doth not receive the whole Word as a thirsty Man receiveth sweet Drink but as a sick Man or one that is thirsty after Health receiveth Physick or a bitter Potion with an earnest serious desire tho his Appetite loatheth it There is an hearty consent to God's Terms because they know it will be for their welfare as Laban when he heard Jacob's Proposals What shall I give thee the speckled and spotted among the Flocks Gen. 30.34 Laban said Behold I would it might be according to thy Word Oh would to God that this were my share that God would take up the Quarrel between himself and me 3. This Affection is accompanied with a pursuit or serious making after those Hopes There is a care and anxiousness of Obedience or taking the next course to speed that we may find him and feel him in our Consciences They received the Word gladly and were baptized Acts 2.41 In every Contract where the Parties are agreed there is a signing and sealing so they received the Word and were baptized that was the next course to come under these Hopes A Contract lieth void and dead if there be Consent yet no Performance So Faith without Works is dead Faith is a Consent to God's Covenant yet because there is no answerable Obedience this Consent is void and to no effect Now this is the utmost extension of the Will in Motions and Addresses towards Christ Faith is expressed by coming to Christ qui se dat in viam a Man putteth himself into the way of Salvation upon a search and enquiry after Christ We know not what will come of it but we will continue seeking I will go to my Father 4. These Endeavours are supported by Affiance or a resolution to wait upon God till the Blessings of the Covenant be accomplished and made good Tho they meet with Difficulties they keep wrestling with God Gen. 32.26 I will not let thee go
unless thou bless me There is an obstinate purpose Job 13.15 Tho he stay me yet will I trust in him So they will have Christ whatever it cost them Phil. 3.8 9. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledg of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but Dung that I may win Christ And be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is after the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Faith may be shaken but it will not lose its hold as a Tree-groweth tho it be bended with the Wind. Thus you see what it is to receive the Word with our whole Heart not only to acknowledg the Truth of it but to chuse and accept it as our Direction with all chearfulness and accordingly make out after the Hopes of Christianity resolving not to be discouraged whatever entertainment we meet with from God and the World Secondly There is a receiving Christ with the whole Heart Art thou willing to take Christ upon these terms Yes saith the Soul with all my Heart This Answer were enough if it were simple and genuine But because we prophane and prostitute these words to every slight Matter the Deceit is not so easily discovered We are wont to say of every Trifle I love such a thing with all my Heart I will do it with all my Heart Whereas these words are of a sacred sound and importance and did not we adulterate them so often as we do but keep them consecrate to God to whom alone they are proper the very pronouncing of them would awaken Conscience we could not give such an Answer but Conscience would give us the lie Let us then enquire into the Thing and see a little into the nature of the Thing for there is no trust in the Expression What this believing in Christ with all the Heart or receiving Christ with all the Heart doth imply I Answer 1. It implieth that your whole and sole dependance must be intirely carried out to him God will have no Rivals in the trust and confidence of the Creature A King in his Progress that takes up an Inn will have it wholly to himself much less will he have any to share with him in his own Bed-Chamber So here you must trust Christ alone with your Welfare We believe with our whole Heart when we have such a perswasion of his Sufficiency that we durst venture all in his Hands in matter of Remission of Sin we mind no confidence but in his Grace Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true Heart in full assurance of Faith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã an Heart that doth not secretly run out to other Props and Confidences Truth and Sincerity in Believing is there intended not in Obedience Faith is a simple single trust in God's Mercy the Heart is very deceitful Christ beareth the Name but the Confidence is secretly built on our own Merits as those Women in Isaiah Isa. 4.1 We will eat our own Bread and wear our own Apparel only let us be called by thy Name People will say they trust in Christ alone and yet secretly rest on their own Innocency and good Meanings But most sensibly this perverseness of Trust is discovered in Matters of Providence those that put half their Trust in Christ and half in the World do not believe with their whole Hearts They pretend they can trust Christ for Pardon Grace and Glory and yet cannot trust him for a morsel of Bread they find no difficulty in believing in Christ for Salvation and Remission of Sins and yet cannot believe that he will give them daily Bread What should be the Reason Heaven and Pardon of Sins are greater Mercies and if Conscience were opened we should see the difficulty to obtain them to be greater There are more natural Prejudices but bodily Wants are more pressing to a Conscience not sufficiently convinced And here Faith is presently to be exercised with Difficulties In Matters of Grace Men are more slight and inconsiderate and content themselves with some general cold Perswasions and therefore do not believe with their whole Hearts Alas temporal Salvation is more easy Can you look for Heaven who cannot trust him for a Crust of Bread Do you know what it is to venture your Souls in Christ's Hands notwithstanding Sins notwithstanding Death and yet soon despond in time of Danger and when outward Means of Preservation fail 2. To receive Christ with the whole Heart is to receive him as an Allsufficient Saviour when every Faculty seeketh contentment in Christ. We ought not only to acknowledg him to be the true Mediator but to chuse and receive him for our Allsufficient Portion Worldly Men look to Christ as fit for their Consciences but look to the World as an Object for their Affections Now Christ should not only pacify the Conscience but satisfy the Heart We should come to him not only as a Physician to heal our Wounds but as a Husband to satisfy and content our Love as a meet Object for our Affections The whole Soul is to clasp about him He is not only good in a way of Profit but amiable in a way of Excellency therefore the whole Heart is to be given him The things of the World are good but for one thing Food is good to satisfy the Appetite yet we must have Cloaths to warm the Back But Christ is good for all things he is not only the Physician of the Soul but the Beloved Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none on Earth that I desire besides thee since there is none so fit to match and wed their Affections 3. To receive him with the whole Heart is to make after him with the earnest Motions and lively Affections of the Soul as Desire and Delight Carnal Men have a naked imaginary Perswasion but no lively Affections to Christ unless it be for a very small while They never felt the bitterness of Sin and so have not such vehement and strong motions of Heart towards Christ. Conviction of Conscience differeth much from literal Assent Carnal Men have a literal Assent and a speculative Delight in Contemplation but not such labour and travel of Soul to get an Interest in Christ. Swimming is for Life and Death it is not a Work proper for him that standeth on firm Land but for those that are ready to be swallowed up of the Waves Nor have they such Delight a Stomach always full knoweth not the sweetness of Bread Christ relisheth only with troubled Consciences Vse of the whole Well then you see that there is required to Faith ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Knowledg and Receiving 1. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Knowledg There is a Knowledg before Faith in Faith and after Faith Before Faith a Man must know what he believes or else he cannot believe See Scriptures John
10.38 That ye may know and believe that the Father is in me and I in him 1 John 4.16 We have known and have believed the Love that God hath to us John 6.69 We know and believe that thou art Christ. We must first know before we can believe In Faith there is a Knowledg an Apprehension as well as Discourse a pregnant Apprehension Faith is a clear Light it freeth the Soul from the Mists of Prejudice by representing God in the Allsufficiency of Grace and Power Heb. 11.3 Through Faith we understand that the World was framed by the Word of God It puzzeled the Philosophers but Faith maketh all clear After Faith 2 Pet. 1.5 Add to your Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledg Faith is the Fruit of Knowledg Knowledg is the Fruit of Faith So Psal. 119.66 Teach me good Judgment and Knowledg for I have believed thy Commandments that is a fuller manifestation First we receive the Word by Faith then we know more Oportet discentem credere First we know That it is then How it is The ground of Faith is that they are revealed How or what they are we learn by more acquaintance and experience Light is always increasing most necessary to the Christian Life Faith is as Knowledg is more or less explicite yet not so explicite but that there is some impliciteness in it as long as we live here 1 John 2.3 It doth not yet appear what we shall be but this we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him We have not a particular Account not a Reason of the Thing but we have a Reason why we believe it 2. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã This is a proper Act of Faith God is always on the giving and we on the receiving Hand we receive the Word we receive Christ and we receive Remission of Sins and Glory the main of our Duty is but a Receiving Let me press you to receive the Word to receive Christ. 1. Receive the Word give it a kind entertainment There is an Act of Consideration meditate upon it seriously that Truth may not float in the Understanding but sink into the Heart Luke 9.44 Let these sayings sink down into your Hearts Believe it the Truth is a Soveraign Remedy but there wanteth one Ingredient to make it work and that is Faith Heb. 4.2 The Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it There is an Act of the Will and Affections which is called a receiving the Truth in Love 2 Thess. 2.10 Make room for it that Carnal Affections may not vomit and throw it up again Christ complaineth that his Word had no place in them John 8.37 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã like a queasy Stomach possessed with Choler that casts up all that is taken into it 1 Cor. 2.14 A natural Man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Let it lodg and quietly exercise a soveraign command over the Soul 2. Receive Christ in the Word In a Contract there is not only a receiving a Bond but by virtue of the Bond an Inheritance conveyed to us So you must not only receive the Word we are not saved by giving credit to any Maxim of Religion Fides non est assensus axiomati Not they that saw the Ark many saw it and scoffed but they that were in it were saved from drowning When a Man is ready to perish in the Floods it is not enough to see Land but we must reach it stand upon it if we would be safe It is not a naked Contemplation but a real Implantation into Christ. Now if you will know it whatever was in Christ in the History must be in you in the Mystery You are Adopted Sons 1 John 3.1 Christ must be formed and conceived in you Gal. 4.19 You must suffer and be crucified to the World and Sin Rom. 6.6 You must be buried and raised up again Col. 2.12 All is to be done in a spiritual manner I speak not this to turn all Scripture into an Allegory but every Act of Christ hath some Spiritual Accomodation So much for these two acts or parts of Faith They have known surely and have received thy Word Before I go off from this Clause there are two or three Observations to be raised especially if we compare this Verse with John 16.27 28 29 30 31. For the Father himself loveth you because ye have loved me and believed that I came forth from God I came forth from the Father and am come into the World again I leave the World and go to the Father His Disciples said unto him Lo now speakest thou plainly and speakest no Proverb Now are we sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any Man should ask thee by this we believe that thou camest forth from God Jesus answered them Do ye now believe From whence I observe That this was but a late Acknowledgment Vers. 30. Now we are sure and by this we believe that thou camest forth from God And presently within an hour Christ commendeth it to his Father They have known surely and have believed 1. Observe How ready Christ is to take notice of the Good that is wrought in us He watcheth for an occasion to commend us to God Satan and his Instruments they watch for our halting Jer. 20.10 All my Familiars watched for my halting peradventure he will be inticed Let us watch say they we may have Matter against him The Devil is a Spy that lieth upon the catch that he may frame an Accusation against you before God A Dog doth not wait for a Bit from his Master's Trencher more than he doth for a passionate Word some evil Gesture and Practice whereof to accuse us so his Instruments watch to defame you in the World But now Jesus Christ looketh after Matter of Praise and Commendation Now we know verily and believe and Christ presently telleth his Father of it Oh what an encouragement should this be to press us to grow in Knowledg and to abound in every good Work you furnish your Intercessor with matter of Praise and give your Advocate an Advantage against your Accuser Christ watcheth for a good Action as the Devil doth for a Bad He is a swift Witness not only against his Adversaries but for his People Mal. 3.5 I will come near to you in Judgment and I will be a swift Witness against the Sorcerers c. He cometh to convince them sooner than they are aware none of their Sins are unknown to him and they are brought in Court before they dream of it And the Godly have a Witness in Heaven too So Job 16.20 Behold my Witness is in Heaven and my Record is on High And he is a swift Witness we reap the Fruit of many Actions as soon as they are performed A continual Experience we have of this disposition of Christ in the speedy answer of Prayers Isa. 64.24 And it shall come to pass that before they call
a Christian hath to rejoyce Secondly By what means he may get keep and maintain it First What Reasons a Christians hath to rejoice The Causes of Joy may be referred to his past Estate his present Interest his future Hopes 1. The Remembrance of his past Estate A Christian may stand wondring at the Change which God hath made in his Soul 1 Pet. 2.9 That ye should shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you out of Darkness into his marvellous Light The Light is the more marvellous because of the foregoing Darkness Past Miseries are sweet in the remembrance It will be a part of our happiness in Heaven to look back as Travellers in the Inn discourse of the dangers and dirtiness of the Way It is matter of renewed Joy to see how the Weeds of Sin are rooted out how the Buds of Grace begin to grow in the Garden of our Hearts No Man looketh on the Sea with more comfort than he that hath escaped the dangers of a Shipwrack as the Israelites when they saw the Egyptians dead on the shore sung a Song of Triumph so doth a Christian rejoice when he considereth his Change what he was what he is 2. His present Interest Sense and Feeling We have Mercies in Hand as well as Mercies in Hope something exhibited as well as promised God's Eternal Love with all the Blessings that issue thence of Justification Sanctification c. Paul triumphs in this Rom. 8.37 Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us God hath adopted them to be Children Heirs of his Heavenly Kingdom if the World maketh War against them they have Peace with God they are in a reconciled Estate in frame of Heart they are regenerate they have the first Fruits of the Spirit sweet experience of Grace not only the Wine of Canaan but the Clusters of Canaan they have Communion with God tho banished from Men. It is the nature of the Mind to delight it self in the possession of any solid Good No Good can satisfy but the Supream this we are in part possessed of as soon as Grace is wrought in the Heart 3. His Future Hopes Heb. 3.6 If we hold fast the Confidence and the rejoicing of Hope firm unto the End We are Heirs apparent to the Crown of Heaven We may rejoice in what we possess we may Glory in what we hope for This ravisheth the Heart to think of it we shall have what infinite Mercy will bestow infinite Merit purchase and the ample Promises of the Reward hath revealed The Body of Sin will be destroyed and we shall be out of the reach of Temptations Secondly By what means it is maintained God hath appointed Graces and Ordinances for this End 1. Graces Faith Hope and Obedience 1. Faith it is a help to Joy it representeth the Excellency Truth and Reality of Spiritual Things That which we rejoice in must be good true present All Joy ariseth from the presence of some good either in actual Possession or firm Expectation Thus doth Faith Heb. 10.34 Knowing in your selves that in Heaven ye have a better and an induring Substance Faith is not an Opinion or wild Guess Heaven is a pleasing Fancy to a Carnal Man but it is a Reality a Substance an induring Substance to a Believer The World is a Fashion perishing moveable It is the nature of Faith to make Things absent present it giveth a Being to Hope it sets up a Stage in the Heart of a Believer where God is represented acting whatever he hath promised and this not by a naked Fiction or empty Speculation as a Man may frame Idea's of Things that never shall be as in the Dream and Dotage of a distempered Fancy they make a Soul as if seen with bodily Eyes Faith gives to its Object not only a naked Representation but an actual Presence 2. Hope This dependeth much on Faith it is an earnest elevation of the Mind to look for what Faith counteth real Now Hope ravisheth the Soul as if it had its Head above the Clouds Rejoicing in Hope Rom. 12.12 Joy is proper to Enjoyment but Hope serves instead of Enjoyment they feast and entertain their Souls with their glorious Hopes 3. Obedience Faith giveth the Title Hope the Sight Obedience the Evidence therefore it is necessary to the establishing of Joy Nay it hath an effective Influence it is God's Method first he poureth in the Oil of Grace before the Oil of Gladness Heb. 7.2 First being by Interpretation King of Righteousness and after that also King of Salem that is King of Peace Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Sin taketh away Joy and Peace the whole strength of Men and Angels cannot make the Conscience of a Sinner to rejoice Yea the Children of God must take heed that they do not violate Peace of Conscience by allowing the least Sin You are to walk so that you may be in a condition capable of Joy none walk sweetly but they that walk strictly Acts 9.31 They walked in the Fear of the Lord and in the Comfort of the Holy Ghost that is a sweet Couple 2. Ordinances I shall name them 1. The Word The Joy that Hypocrites have is from the Word Heb. 6.5 They have tasted the good Word of God A Temporary Faith findeth Joy in the Word all the fault is it is but a taste some slight experience which they do not continue and maintain Here is represented Fuel for Faith and Hope God's infinite Mercy Christ's infinite Merits the Glory of the Next World Joy it is as it were the Blaze of the Soul Love keepeth the Fire burning but now if we would have it blaze and flame up we must come to the Word this is the Bellows When the Angel preached the Gospel he said Luke 2.10 Behold I bring you glad tidings of great joy which shall be to all People We come to hear good News from Heaven tho an Angel be not the Messenger yet the Message is the same God openeth his Heart to us 2. Prayer wherein we open our Hearts to God it hath a pacative Virtue Many Psalms begun with Anguish end with Triumph as if he had received good News that his Affairs were altered Hannah when she had prayed her Countenance was no more sad 1 Sam. 1.18 God is the Father of Mercies the God of Consolations 2 Cor. 1.4 The nearer to him the nearer to the Fountain of Joy there are Joys felt in Prayer by retiring into God's Presence Psal. 16.11 In thy Presence there is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore Heaven is a Place of Joy because of the constant Communion we have with God there God doth not love to send us away sad 3. Sacraments because of sweeter Experiences Cant. 1.4 We will be glad and rejoice in thee we will remember thy Love more than Wine They are sealing
it hateth because I testify of it that the Works thereof are evil We are to contest with Publick Miscarriages Interests and Powers stir up the Malice and Rage of Men Sore Eyes cannot endure the Light nor a guilty Conscience the Word John 3.20 For every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his Deeds should be reproved The Ethiopians curse the Sun Rev. 10.11 The two Witnesses tormented them that dwell on the Earth This drouzy World would fain take a Nap and sleep were it not for some bawling Preachers Proud covetous carnal Men Men wedded to their Interests will hate us if we preach in good earnest as a good Thresher maketh the Straw to flie about his Ears Nay and Errors are more touchy than Sins a Drunkard is more patient of Conviction than a Seducer Errors take away the Light of Reason and leave nothing but the Pride of Reason A Drunkard standeth upon lower ground his Practices cannot endure the Test of the Light of Nature but every erroneous Person thinketh he standeth upon the upper Ground because of the height of his Pride and the plausibleness of his Notions 2. By the Providence of God Preachers are like Gideon's Lamps in earthen Pitchers possibly the Apostle may allude to it when he saith We carry this Treasure in Earthen Vessels 2 Cor. 4.7 Now as when the Pitcher is dashed to pieces the Lamp breaketh out to the amazement of the Adversaries so the Sufferings of Ministers are a great Confirmation to their Doctrine Vse 1. Advice to us 1. To prepare for Sufferings 2. When they come do not count it strange I. To prepare for Sufferings It will do us no hurt to be prepared for Sufferings It hath ever been the Lot of God's People to be obnoxious to the World's hatred and we our selves cannot look for any Exemption I shall lay down several Probabilities to shew when God is about to bring Trouble on the Church 1. Observe That after God hath laid in many spiritual Comforts there comes a time to lay them out again and after great Receipts we are put upon great Expences The Disciples first enjoyed Christ's Presence and Ministry and then were exposed to a dreadful Persecution John 11. Christ biddeth them make use of Light because Darkness was coming upon them Never was the Gospel powerfully preached but Trials came 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy-Ghost and in much Assurance And it follows Verse 6. Ye received the Word with much Affliction God will try how we can live upon the Comforts of the Gospel Castles are first victualled and then besieged Heb. 10.32 After ye were illuminated ye endured a great Fight of Afflictions The Churches of Asia had horrible Desolations after a powerful Ministry The Germans after a sufficient Promulgation of the Gospel suffered many sad Years 2. Observe After Trials and Reformations there come Trials and Probations that after we have submitted to the Ways of God we may honour them with Sufferings The Ten Persecutions were after Christ had set up the Ordinances of the Gospel The Marian and Bloody Days were after King Edward's Reformation God will have every Truth honoured in its season When the Witnesses had finished the Testimony of their Prophecy after a short time they were slain Rev. 11. 3. Observe When Reformations stick in the Birth God will promote them by Troubles he taketh his own Fan into his hand Mat. 3.12 Whose Fan is in his hand and he will throughly purge his Floor When Men cannot or will not effect it God will purge his Floor and cleanse the Church from prophane mixtures Christ came with his Whip to cleanse the Temple Joh. 2.15 Grosthead prophesied That the Church should not be reformed but ore gladii cruentandi God usually tendreth a Reformation to the World with a Judgment in his hand and if the Reformation be obstructed the Judgment will proceed Ezek. 24.12 13. She hath wearied her self with Lies and her great Scum went not forth out of her her Scum shall be in the Fire In thy filthiness is lewdness because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not be purged from thy filthiness any more till I have caused my Fury to rest upon thee When the Pot is put over the Fire if the Scum remaineth still he overturneth all 4. Observe When there are great Differences among God's own People the End is bitter We warp in the Sun-shine The Dog is let loose that the Sheep may run together A piece of Wax when it is broken put it together never so often it will not close but put it into the Candle and the Ends stick close together Ridley and Hooper could agree in a Prison A little before Dioclesian's Persecution the Church was rent and torn by intestine Broils Pastor against Pastor and People against People Ease begets Pride and Wantonness and that maketh way for Contention God may soder you in your own Blood and effect Union by making you Objects of the same Hatred and Persecution Nazianzen was wont to call the Enemies of the Church ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the turbulent Enemies many times prove the best Reconcilers and the Wolves bring the Sheep together 5. Observe Libertines and Fanatical Persons when they encrease in Power and Numbers become cruel Jude 11. Wo unto them for they have gone in the way of Cain The Donatists are of detestable and accursed memory because of their insolent Cruelties Hos. 5.5 The Revolters are profound to make Slaughter Men that have cast off the holy Faith after some Profession the Lord keep us from their tender Mercies The Arrians grew bloody Want of Truth is usually made up by a supply of Rage Lees and Dregs are usually very tart and sowre 6. Observe When Religion hath received Wounds in the House of her Friends and occasion is given to the World by Scandals to think evil of the Ways of God God taketh his Scourge in his hand and the Devil hath an Advantage he stirreth the Malignant World against the Children of God As a Sect of Monsters the Gnosticks by their impure and libidinous Courses made Christianity odious and then the Heathens rose up against them as Pests of Mankind Satan is a Liar but never his Lies carry more pretence 7. Observe When there is a decay of the Power of Godliness and Formality and Contempt of the Word take place which are the usual Effects of Prosperity As soon as we come out of Miseries we run into Disorders therefore God is wont to return us into our old Chains and Captivity that we may wanton it no more Hos. 5. ult I will go and return to my Place till they acknowledg their Offence and seek my Face In their Affliction they will seek me early I will try them by Adversity I will try what my Rod will do to better my People As also to discover Hypocrites When
the School of Christ He hath begotten us by the Word of Truth And the Ordinance of preaching the Word is consecrated to this purpose Ephes. 5.26 That he might sanctify them by the washing of Water through the Word There are other Occasional Helps but this is the Instituted Means God will work no other way in his ordinary and revealed course and will accept no other Obedience and Sanctification but by the Word Holiness or that Piety which is proper and genuine is wrought by a Divine Truth otherwise it is Superstition not Godliness Civility not Holiness of Conversation Tho Men have never so good an Inclination yet because they have not a Divine Revelation for their Warrant it is but a Bastard Religion Superstition or framing a strictness of our own accompanied with opposition against the Truth The Word and Spirit are in Conjunction Isa. 59.21 My Spirit that is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy Mouth c. These act in Conjunction and it is for the honour of the Scriptures that God hath annexed them 1 Thess. 5.19 20. Quench not the Spirit Despise not Prophesying Preaching of the Word and pouring out of the Spirit go together 4. Every part of the Truth worketh not but only the Gospel which is the Truth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã The Law sheweth us our Spots and the Gospel cleanseth and washeth them away The Work of the Law is Preparation but that which hath a special and direct influence upon Sanctification is the Gospel John 15.3 Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you and that was the Gospel Privilege This pulleth in the Heart to God that we may be partakers of his Grace Moses brought them to the Borders but Joshua brought them into the Land of Canaan The Apostle appealeth to the Experience of Believers Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received ye the Spirit by the VVorks of the Law or by the hearing of Faith Tho the Spirit may be received by the preaching of any part of Canonical Scripture yet most usually by the preaching of the Gospel The Lord would give us this sensible and authentick Proof of the Truth and Excellency of the Gospel that we receive the Spirit of Regeneration by it and not by the Law It is the Instrument by which God useth to confer the Spirit So 2 Pet. 1.4 To us are given exceeding great and precious Promises that by these we may be made partakers of the Divine Nature What part of the Word worketh the Heart to a conformity to God likeneth us in Holiness to God the great and precious Promises It is not by moral Strains nor by terrible Threatnings these have their use in their place but by the great and precious Promises as God was in the sââll Voice 5. The Gospel worketh not unless it be accompanied with the Spirit There is a great deal of difference between seeing things in the Light of Reason and seeing things in the Light of the Spirit Truth represented in the Light of Reason begets but an humane Faith leaveth a weak impression and hath but a weak operation upon the Soul but things represented in the light of the Spirit âââketh quite otherwise there is not only a notional Irradiation but an experimental Feeling they see another manner of Beauty and Excellency in Christ a vanity in worldly Delights which they never saw before Running-water and Strong-water differ not in colour but in taste and virtue John 16.13 When he the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all ãâã 1 John 2.27 The Anointing which ye have received of him abidetâ ãâã you and ye need not that any Man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things Most Men content themselves with a superficial Belief they have but a hââane knowledg of Divine Things and therefore their Souls are not carried out to Holiness Love Fear Trust Obedience they have a cold and naked apprehension liteâââ Knowledg is waâhy and weak it worketh not 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit 6. This must not only be represented in the Power and Demonstration of the Spirit but received and applied by Faith Sanctification is sometimes ascribed to the Gospel and sometimes to Faith which receiveth the Gospel Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Our Hearts are purified by the Word of Truth 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing that âe have purified your Souls in obeying the Truth through the Spirit Here they were purified by Faith The Word worketh not without an Act on our part as well as on God's The Word preached did not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them that heard it Heb. 4.2 As a Plaster worketh not till it be applied to the Sore Nay the Apostle's Word implieth more the Word must not only be applied to the Soul but mingled with the Soul ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã As in a Medicine the Ingredients must be mixed together to do good So if we have the Word we must have the Spirit and we must have Faith mix it altogether and then it worketh Faith receiveth the Word as a divine and infallible Truth and that begets an Awe In short Faith working to Sanctification apprehends the Love of God the Blood of Christ the Promises Precepts of the Word and by all these it is ever purging and working out Corruption By apprehending the Love of God Gal. 5.6 In Christ Jesus neither Circumcisionâ availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith that worketh by Love Shall I love that which God hateth O do not this abominable Thing that I hate Jer. 44.4 Faith representeth God pleading thus Is this thy Kindness to thy Friend Do I thus requite God for all his Kindness to me in Christ There is an Exasperation against Lusts. It maketh use of the Blood of Christ. 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sins Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God That is an excellent Purger In outward Purging it is the Water and the Soap cleanseth but the Hand of the Laundress applieth it and rubbeth the Cloaths that are washed Faith apprehendeth the Blood of Christ to purge the Conscience it waiteth for the sanctifying Virtue of his Blood and the Grace purchased thereby So Faith maketh use of the Promises this giveth Faith encouragement to expect glorious Rewards Assistance is purchased and Acceptance is promised 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all Filthiness of the Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God Then Faith constantly maketh use of the Precepts and Counsels of the Word by which Sin is discovered and taxed When the Word is received by Faith there goeth a
Light with it to see Sin after another manner altho a Man did not know it before Faith persuadeth us that the Commands of God are just and equal there is a believing Commands as well as Promises this is a Command from God Psal. 119.66 Teach me good Judgment and Knowledg for I have believed thy Commandments SERMON XXVII JOHN XVII 17 Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth I NOW Proceed to the Reasons why God sanctifieth by his Truth It is most suitable to God's Honour and to Man's Nature I. To God's Honour It was meet that God should give a Rule to the Creatures or else how should they know his Will And then it was meet to honour this Rule by owning it above all other Doctrines by the concomitant Operation of his Spirit This is the authentick Proof the Efficacy of the Word is a Pledg of the Truth of it John 8.32 And ye shall know the Truth and the Truth shall make ye free from the Bondage of Sin the Devil and Death A wicked Man cannot have an absolute assurance of the Truth of the Word he hath no feeling of the Power of it There is a great deal of Do How do you prove the Scriptures to be the Word of God A Believer hath the Testimony in his own Heart 1 John 5.10 He that believeth in the Son of God hath the Testimony in himself His Conscience and Heart are set at liberty by Water and Blood This made the Apostles bold and should make Ministers so Rom. 1.16 I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the Power of God unto Salvation We should not be ashamed to preach it and you should not be ashamed to profess it it is the Power of God God will not associate and join the powerful Operation of his Spirit with any other Doctrine So David when he commendeth the Law by which he doth not mean the Decalogue but the whole Word of God Psal. 19.7 8 9. The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul the Testimony of the Lord is sure making wise the Simple The Statutes of the Lord are right rejoycing the Soul the Commandment of the Lord is pure enlightning the Eyes The Fear of the Lord is clean enduring for ever the Judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether He had spoken before of the Excellency of the Sun now of the Word intimating that the Word of God is as necessary for the Heart as the Sun is for the World We can as well be without the Sun as without the Bible But how doth he evidence it From the Effects upon the Heart and Conscience Comfort and Grace are two great Evidences of the Perfection of the Word No Doctrine in the World save this Divine Truth set down in Scripture is able to discover the Sin and Misery of Man the Remedy and Relief of it in Christ. No Doctrine save this alone can effectually humble a Soul and convert it to God make it sensible of the Loss by Sin and restore it to a better Condition II. It is more suitable to Man's Nature The Word is more morally accommodated to work upon the Heart of Man than any other Instrument Means or Doctrine in the World 1. The Precepts of it It is the Copy of God's Holiness the Light by which we see everâ thing in its own Colours The Light of Nature is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Work of the Law Rom. 2.14 15. It taketh notice of gross Acts of Sin and the outward Work of Duty they made Conscience to abstain from gross Acts of Sin and to perform outward Acts of Piety and Devotion as offering Sacrifices and Prayers But now there is an excellent Spirit of Holiness that breatheth in the Word and all matters of Duty are advanced to their greatest perfection Psal. 119.96 Thy Commandment is exceeding broad of a vast extent and latitude comprizing every Motion Thought and Circumstance in Duties not only the Act is required but the Frame of Heart is regarded not only Sins but Lusts are forbidden If ever there were an Instrument fitted to do a thing the Word is fitted to promote Holiness the true Purity that is pleasing to God 2. The Paterns and Examples of the Word We miscarry by low Examples and learn Looseness and Carelesness one by another Therefore the Word of God to elevate Holiness to the highest extent presseth not only the Examples of the Saints whose Memorials are left upon record in the Word but the Holiness of the Angels yea the Holiness of God himself The highest Aim doth no hurt he will shoot further who aimeth at a Star than he that aimeth at a Shrub Be ye Followers of them who through Faith and Patience have inherited the Promises Heb. 6.12 Thy Will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven Mat. 6.10 Be ye holy as I am holy 1 Pet. 1.15 Communion begets Conformity We need all kinds of Examples high Examples that we may not rest in any low degrees and beginnings of Holiness low Examples that we may think it possible We are not Angels but Men and Women ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã of like Affections that have the same natural Interests natural Wants with others It is a trodden Path in the Way to Heaven you may see the Footsteps of the Saints 3. Excellent Rewards and fit Arguments to induce us to the Practice of Holiness 2 Cor. 7.1 Having these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all the Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the Fear of God 2 Pet. 1.4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these ye might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. God covenants with us as if we were free-born to interest our Hearts in the Love and Practice of Holiness we have as much propounded as we can wish for nay and more 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love him Lactantius saith of the Heathens Virtutis vim non sentiunt cujus proemium ignorant They feel not the Power of Vertue because they are ignorant of the Reward of Vertue Life and Glory and the great things to come are powerful Motives can you meet with the like elsewhere All Creatures seek their own Perfection Philosophy is to seek of a sure Reward and Encouragement 4. Our many Advantages in Christ. We have not only Encouragement offered but Help and Assistance Christ hath purchased Grace to make us holy 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead unto Sin might live to Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed He hath not only purchased the Rewards of Grace to wit that God should not deal with us in Soveraignty but purchased the Abilities of Grace redeemed us from
a vain Conversation 1 Pet. 1.18 By his Death the Covenant is made a Testament and all the Precepts are turned into so many Promises and Legacies Christ will give what he requireth All Excuse is taken away from Laziness and Wickedness is no longer allowed the Plea of Weakness There is Help offered in Christ. 5. Terrible Threatnings The Word is impatient of being denied it would have Holiness upon any Terms There is somewhat propounded to our Fear as well as our Hope Not only the Loss of Happiness Heb. 12.14 Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God which is Loss enough to an ingenuous Spirit But the Forfeiture of the Soul into eternal Torments without ease without end Go ye Cursed into everlasting Fire God hath a Prison for obstinate Creatures a Worm that never dies a Fire that never goes out Whose Heart doth not tremble at the mention of these things We cannot endure the Torment of one Night under a Feaverish Distemper how shall we think of lying down in everlasting Burnings 6. The Word presseth all this with such a Majesty and Power that it astonisheth the Conscience and maketh the Hearts and Souls of Men to quake within them Felix trembled at the mention of Judgment to come There is so much of God in the Word that if it doth not renew Men it doth restrain them maketh them tremble where it hath least force it cometh with such a manifestation of divine Authority upon the Conscience Lactantius saith Nihil ponderis habent illa Praecepta quia sunt humanae There is no such Majesty in humane Precepts Nemo credit quia tam se hominem putat esse qui aâdivit quà m illum qui praedicat Man is not astonished by Man Verba dedi verba reddidi But now the Word of God searcheth the Heart pincheth the Conscience and where it worketh least it maketh Men to quake within themselves It is said Mat. 7.28 29. The People were astonished at Christ's Doctrine for he taught them as one having Authority and not as the Scribes God's Word cometh with Evidence and Conviction upon the Conscience that they admire the Power of it there is Sovereign Majesty in it the Draught is like the Author Thus you see what a powerful Instrument the Word is even in a moral way therefore the fittest Means whereunto God should join his Assistance to work on the Heart of Man Vse 1. Of Information 1. It informeth us what a Treasure Truth is and what a value we should put upon it There are two Things in the World that God is very tender of his Truth and his Saints In the Controversy about Toleration Men on the one side have urged the danger of medling with Saints on the other side others have urged the value of Truth If the whole Controversy did depend upon this Issue which are to be most respected the Truth or the Saints since God is tender of both it would soon be decided For besides this that it is strange that they only who are called Saints should be afraid of a vigorous Prosecution and Defence of the Truth it is clear Truth must have the Preheminence for it is Truth that maketh Saints and we had need be more tender of the Root than of the Branches 2. It informeth us that out of the true Religion there is no Salvation because there is no true Holiness and without Holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12.14 Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see God It is not without Peace the Necessity is not laid upon that but Holiness for Peace is often broken for Strictness sake A Man that is faithful and sincere may have little of the World's respect But now without the true Religion there is no Holiness that 's clear Hence 't is said Sanctify them by thy Truth There may be Civility and the Exactness of a moral Course counterfeit Grace but there can be no true Sanctification because the Heart can never be good that is ignorant of the Truth and poisoned with Error there may be Superstition which is but a Bastard Religion there may be a good Life but there cannot be a good Heart no true Comfort and true Grace Anima quae à Deo fornicata est casta esse non potest He that believeth ill can never live well Grace and Truth are Twins that live and die together Moral Vertue is very defective in it self Sapientia eorum plerumque abscondit vitia non abscindit All their Craft was to hide a Lust not to root it out 3. That they have not a sound apprehension of Truth that have no Grace There may be a naked and unactive Apprehension that is not accompanied with Power they learn Truth by rote and rest in a vain Speculation but have no strength to perform their Duty 2 Tim. 3.5 compared with Rom. 2.20 What in one place is called a Form of Godliness is in the other called a Form of Knowledg Poor slight and superficial Apprehensions of the Truth they take up Truth not upon any Divine Testimony or Evidence of the Spirit but upon the Credit and Authority of Men the Practice and Profession of the Nation or the Injunctions of a Civil State This is the account of most Mens Truth and Faith Alas Truth thus received entreth not upon the Heart Men gain but a disciplinary Knowledg a literal Knowledg and a spiritual Knowledg differ Ephes. 4.21 If so be that ye have heard of him and have been taught by him as the Truth is in Jesus When a Man receiveth it out of the Hands of the Spirit of Christ it frameth and disposeth the Heart to Godliness So Col. 1.6 Since ye heard of it and knew the Grace of God in Truth The tasting of a Thing excelleth the reading of it the true inward powerful affectionate Knowledg affecteth the Heart and altereth and changeth it A Man knoweth no more of Christ than he valueth esteemeth and affecteth and which puts the whole inward Man into an holy spiritual Frame Good Principles if heartily embraced will ãâã a good Conversation The Point needeth to be heeded in these Times when Knowledg is increased but practice and strictness suffereth an abatement and decay Boni esse desinunt postquam docti evaserint What Strength and Power of Religion possesses the Heart When you know the Truth doth it carry you to God and Godliness 4. They that are above Scriptures have no true Holiness God sanctifieth by the Truth It is strange how Charity over-reacheth to saint Antiscripturists and Men above Ordinances whereas it is the true Ground and Reason of Sanctification As Bernard saith of some That whilst they plead for the Salvation of Heathens scarce shew themselves Christians So I am afraid our excessive Charity to Men argueth little Affection to God God accepteth no Holiness but Word-Holiness and worketh Holiness no other way I doubt they that despise Prophesying quench the Spirit When
Men neglect and contemn the Word of God they damm up the Fountain of Holiness 5. What is the true Witness of the Scripture's Certainty not the Testimony of the Church but feeling the sanctifying virtue of it It is good to take the Testimony of the Church at first as we take a Medicine from others upon their Experience but we must not rest in it 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only but also in Power and in the Holy Ghost and in much Assurance this giveth Certainty At first we believe upon the Church's Saying as the VVoman commended Christ to her Citizens John 10.42 Now we believe not because of thy Saying for we have heard him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the VVorld There is a preparative humane Faith as in taking Pills we do not chew them but swallow them It is not good to be disputing away our Hopes But we should not rest in this but labour to get an Experience of the Power of the Truth upon our Hearts 6. The difference between Civility and Sanctification Civility is wrought by meer moral Education according to natural Principles without any Knowledg or so much as a desire to be acquainted with the Word of God Thus many are careful of common Honesty in Matters of Traffick and Commerce obedience to Civil Laws being restrained from gross Enormities but have no true Grace but in true Holiness we are inclined by the Word 1 Pet. 2.2 As new-born Babes desire the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby This is true Holiness when we conform and subject our selves in Heart and Practice to the Will of God revealed in the Word The Word of God must be Reason and Rule Reason 1 Thess. 5.18 This is the VVill of God concerning you and Rule Gal. 6.16 As many as walk according to this Rule Peace be on them Why do you do this as the Children must ask their Parents VVhy do ye keep the Passe-over Still all must be examined by the Word John 3.21 He that doth Truth cometh to the Light that his Deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought of God he trieth every Action by it Only the Word is our Rule in all our Actions we seek to it as our Guide obey it for Truth 's sake Vse 2. Exhortation 1. Beware of Error It is a defiling thing the more mixture of Falshood the less awe of God upon the Soul and the more carnal Affections are gratified A constant use of the Word discovers Sin 2. To press you to wait upon God for the purifying of your Hearts through the Word in the use of the Word through the Spirit to look for the Purification and Sanctification of your Souls Here I should press you to take heed That you hear How you hear and What you hear 1. That you hear You need wait upon God and hearken diligently The Apostle infers it James 1.18 Of his own Will begat he us by the Word of Truth What then therefore be swift to hear Continually you will find some new Enforcement or new Consideration to promote your Holiness and Sanctification 2. Take heed what ye hear Mark 4.24 You must get the distinguishing Ear that as the Mouth tasteth Meats so the Ear may taste Doctrines and you may judg of Things that differ 3. Take heed How you hear Luke 8.18 that is wait for the Operations of the Spirit do not âear carelesly negligently It is said Acts 10.44 While Peter was speaking those things the Holy Ghost fell upon them While we are speaking to you there are many good Motions stirred up in your Hearts Take heed how you hear that the Blessing may ãâ¦ã from you Thy Word is Truth The Point which I am now to discuss is The Truth of the Word In managing this Discourse I shall shew I. What Necessity there is that God should give us his Word or a Declaration of his Will II. Where we shall infallibly find this Word or Declaration of his Will III. Of what Concernment it is to âe established in the Truth of this Word IV. Whether it be possible that Carnal Men remaining so can have any Assurance of this Truth or whether it be only left to be cleared up infallibly to the Soul by the Light and Working of the Spirit I. What necessity there is of God's Word or some outward signification of his Will An absolute Necessity of an outward Rule there is not God might immediatly reveal himself to the Heart of Man he who made the Heart can stamp it with the full knowledg of his Will But the written Word is best for God's Honour and for the safety of Religion and because of the weakness of our Nature 1. For the Honour of God that he should give Man a Rule You know all Creatures that God hath made they have a Rule without themselves by which they are guided and directed in their Operations It is God's own Priviledg to be a Rule to himself The Angels have a Rule that is distinct from their Essence And in Innocency tho God stamped the Knowledg of his Will immediatly upon Man's Heart that Adam's Heart was as it were his Bible yet his Rule was distinguished from his Essence otherwise he could not have sinned against God If Man were his own Rule there would be an impossibility of sinning and so there would be an intrenchment upon God's own Privilege You know it is God's own Privilege that his Act is his Rule and therefore it is impossible that God should sin Look as when a Carpenter choppeth and squareth a piece of Timber there is a Line and Rule without him by which he is guided and directed If it were to be supposed that his Hand could never strike amiss that would be his Rule he would need no Line or Rule without him But this is proper to no Creature it is God's own Privilege that his Essence and his Rule are not distinguished but still a Man should not share with him in his peculiar Privilege therefore he hath given him a Rule Besides if Man were a Rule to himself there would be no room for Rewards there is no Commendation nor Praise where there is a natural necessity of doing good as Stocks and Stones are not capable of a Reward for not sinning because they cannot sin 2. For the Safety of Religion now Man is fallen that he might not obtrude Fancies on his Neighbour Isa. 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this VVord it is because their is no Light in them Let it be Voice or Oracle all is to be measured by the outward Rule which God hath given to the Church 3. In respect of Man to repair the Defects of Nature and to satisfy the Desires of Nature 1. To Repair the Defects of Nature Fallen Man is brutish and knows not how to carve out a Right VVorship for God or a Rule of
himself to justify and sanctify us and we never look after the Benefit we make him to be a Christ in vain II. We come now to the End Effect and Fruit of it that they might be sanctified through the Truth First The Benefit or Blessing intended That they also might be sanctified Where 1. Observe it is Bonum morale not that they might be Rich Happy Great Glorious in the World but that they might be Sanctified When Christ was on the Cross he neither wanted Wisdom to chuse nor Love to intend nor Merit to purchase the highest Benefits and those which were most necessary for us but that which he had in his Eye was our Sanctification Ephes. 5.26 He loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it And Heb. 13.12 Jesus that he might sanctify the People suffered without the Gate All his Aim was to recover us to God and dedicate us to God for he came to repair the Ruins of the Fall and save that which was lost Luke 17.10 The Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost And we were first lost to God before we were lost to our selves as appeareth Luke 15. by the Parable of the lost Sheep which was lost to the Owner and the lost Groat which was lost to the Possessor and the lost Son which was lost to the Father Our Misery is included but the principal thing intended was that God hath lost the Honour of the Creation 2. It is Bonum congruum I sanctify my self that they may be sanctified The Scripture delighteth in these Congruities Heb. 5.8 9. He learned Obedience by the things that he suffered And being made perfect he became the Author of Eternal Salvation to all them that obey him As there is a suitableness between the Seal and the Impression so between Christ and his People in all things Christ must ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã he must have the preheminence We have the Blessings of the Covenant not only from him but through him Christ was elected Isa. 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I have chosen my Elect in whom my Soul delighteth so are we Christ was justified 1 Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit so are we Christ was sanctified and we in conformity to him are sanctified also as in the Text Christ rose again ascended and was glorified so do we He as the Elder-Brother and first Heir and we in our Order 3. It is bonum specificativum It sheweth the Parties or that sort of Men to whom Christ intended the Benefit Heb. 10.14 For by one Offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified them and no other the Godly themselves while unconverted and lying in their Sins have not the actual Benefit of Christ's Redemption But in what manner are we sanctified Christ consecrated and sanctified himself as a Sin-Offering but we are sanctified and consecrated as a Thank-Offering Christ to do the Work of a Redeemer or Mediator we to do the Work of the Redeemed We are set apart for the Lord to glorify him in all Holy Conversation and Godliness Secondly The means of applying and conveying this Benefit through the Truth ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã it may be rendred through the Truth in the Truth or for the Truth all which Readings admit of a commodious Explication 1. In the Truth or truly in opposition to legal Purifications which were but a shadow of true Holiness Heb. 9.13 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the Vnclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the Living God Or in opposition to counterfeit Sanctification Ephes. 4.24 And that ye put on the New Man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Some only are sanctified externally as they are in visible Covenant with God Heb. 10.29 And hath counted the Blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing they live among his peculiar People Others are really renewed and changed by his Spirit and turned from a sinful Life to God making Conscience of every commanded Duty and aiming at his Glory in all things 2. For the Truth that they may be consecrated set apart and fitted for that Function of preaching the Gospel This is agreeable to the Context which limits this part of the Prayer to the Apostles 3. Through the Truth as we render it and fitly considering the 17 th Verse Sanctify them through the Truth thy Word is Truth through the Word by which the virtue of Christ's Death is applied to us There are certain Means and Helps by which Christ bringeth about this Effect Ephes. 5.26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of Water through the Word The Word offereth this Grace the Sacraments seal and confirm it to us So John 15.3 Ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken to you The Word of Command presseth it Psal. 119.9 Wherewithal shall a young Man cleanse his Way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word The Word of Promise encourageth us 2 Cor. 7.1 Having therefore these Promises dearly Beloved let us cleanse our selves from all the filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God And the Doctrine of Christ's Blood holds out the virtue whereby it may be done 1 John 1.7 The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin And it exciteth Faith by which the Heart is purified Acts 15.9 Purifying their Hearts by Faith Vse 1. Information It informeth us of divers important Truths 1. That in our selves we are polluted and unclean or else what needed there so much ado to get us sanctified This is needful to be considered by us Job 15.14 What is Man that he should be clean and he that is born of a Woman that he should be Righteous That is Man by Nature is neither clean nor righteous destitute of Purity by Nature and uprightness of Conversation They are ill acquainted with Man who think otherwise for if we consider his earliness in sinning his easiness in sinning his constancy in sinning and the universality of Sinners we may soon see what his Nature is and the Fountain being so corrupt the Streams or Emanations from it are defiled also 2. That nothing can cleanse us but the Blood of Christ. Can Man cleanse himself Job 14.4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Can that which is corrupt cleanse it self or that which is enmity to Holiness promote it Or can the Word do it without Christ Good Instructions may shew a Man his Duty but cannot change the bent of his Heart Christ needed not only to be sent as a Prophet Ver. 18. but must sanctify himself as a Priest and Sacrifice before this Benefit could be procured for
be spared and of all Offices Hearing is least necessary The Ear received the first Temptation Sin and Misery broke in that way so doth Life and Peace The Happiness of Heaven is expressed by Seeing the Happiness in the Church by Hearing This is our great Emploiment to wait upon the Word preached next to Christ's Word it is a great Benefit to have the Word written next to the Word written the Word preached Christ sent first Apostles then Pastors and Teachers God could have converted Paul without Ananias taught the Eunuch without Philip instructed Cornelius without Peter Do not hearken to those that cry up an inward Teaching to exclude the outward Teaching as if the external Word were but an empty sound and noise as the Libertines in Calvin's Time Faith confirmed by Reading is usually begotten by Hearing 2. The Use of the Word It is our Warrant What have we to shew for our great Hopes by Christ but the Word It is our Excitement a Means and Instrument to shew us God's Heart and our own our natural Face and the worth of Christ the Key which God useth and openeth our Hearts by Ministers are Christ's Spokesmen if we will not open the Ear why should God open the Heart 3. The Power of the Word is exceeding great It is the Power of God to Salvation The first Gospel-Sermon that ever was preached after the pouring forth of the Spirit had great success Acts 2.41 The same day there were added to the Church about three thousand Souls It was a mighty thing that an Angel should slay 185000 in one Night in Senacherib's Host But it is easier to kill so many than to convert one Soul One Angel by his meer natural strength could kill so many armed Men but all the Angels in Heaven if they should join all their Forces together could not convert one Soul There were single Miracles of curing one Blind or one Lame Ay but the Apostle's Word could work three thousand Miracles 1 Cor. 3.5 Who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye believed even as the Lord gave to every Man Why doth God use the Word I Answer Because it pleased him 1 Cor. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of Preaching to save them that believe 1. It is most suitable to Man's Nature Man is made of Body and Soul and God will deal with him both ways by internal Grace and external Exhortations Man is a reasonable Creature his Will is not brutish God will not offer Violence to the Principles of Humane Nature Man is not only weak but wicked there is Hatred as well as Impotency God will overcome both together by sweet Counsels mixed with a mighty Force he useth such a Remedy as our Disease requireth the Gospel is not only called the Power of God but the Wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.24 There are excellent Arguments which the Heart of Man could not have found out 2. It is agreeable to his own Counsels to try the Reprobate by an outward Rule and Offer wherein they have as much favour as the Elect they shall one day know that a Prophet hath been among them and so be left without excuse Rom. 1.20 The Rain falleth on Rocks as well as Fields the Sun shineth to blind Men as well as those that can see 3. It commendeth his Grace to the Elect. Their Faith must be ascribed to Grace When others have the same Means the same Voice and Exhortations it is the peculiar Grace of God that they come to understand and believe Whence is it that the Difference ariseth that whereas wicked Men are by the Word restrained and made civil there being an use of wicked Men in the World as of a Hedg of Thorns about a Garden they are by the same Word converted and brought home to God It is from the Grace of God Vse Examination Is our Faith thus wrought Every one should look how he cometh by his Faith by what Means True Faith is begotten and grounded upon the Word it is the ordinary means to work Faith The Word will be continued and a Ministry to preach it as long as there are any to be converted The Gospel alone revealeth that which may satisfy our Necessities it giveth a bottom for Faith and particular Application as being the Declaration of God's Will It is the only Means sanctified by Christ for that End John 17.17 Sanctify them through thy Truth thy Word is Truth James 1.18 Of his own Will begat he us with the Word of Truth The Condition of those is woful that want the Gospel or put it from them Acts 13.46 Seeing ye put it from you and judg your selves unworthy of Everlasting Life lo we turn to the Gentiles If Faith be of the right make the Word will shew thee once thou hadst none and that thou wert not able of thy self to believe beseech the Lord to work it in thee SERMON XXXV JOHN XVII 21 That they all may be One as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the World may believe that thou hast sent me WE have seen for whom Christ prayeth Now let us see what he prayeth for their comfortable Estate in the World and the Happiness of their everlasting Estate in Heaven With respect to their Estate in the World Christ mentioneth no other Blessing but the Mystical Union which is amplified throughout Vers. 21 22 23. Here he beginneth That they may be all one as thou Father art in me and I in thee He had before prayed for the Apostles that they may be One as we are One Vers. 11. and now let them ALL be One. The Welfare of the Church is concerned not only in the Unity of the Apostles but of private Believers you had need be One as well as your Pastors Many Times Divisions arise from the People and those that have least Knowledg are most carried aside with blind Zeal and Principles of Separation therefore Christ prayeth for private Believers That they may be all One c. In which words there is First The Blessing prayed for That they may be all One. Secondly The Manner of this Unity illustrated by the Original Patern and Exemplar of it As thou Father art in me and I in thee the ineffable Unity of the Persons in the Divine Essence Thirdly The Ground of this Unity the Mystical Union with Christ and by Christ with God That they may be One with us Fourthly The End and Event of this Union That the World may believe that thou hast sent me First From the Blessing prayed for I Observe That the great Blessing Christ asketh for his Church is the Mystical Vnion of Believers in the same Body Let them be One One in us and as thou in me and I in thee All these Expressions shew that the Mystical Union is here intended Let them be One ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as it is elsewhere explained
far from the Kingdom of God they approve things that are good but they have no mind to take hazard and lot with Christ. 5. If there should be a Profession there is no Power The Net draws bad Fish as well as good There are mixtures in the Church Many revere Godliness but were never acquainted with the Virtue and Power of it Many have an excellent Model of Truth and make a Profession as plausible and glorious in the World as possibly you can desire yet they never knew the Virtue of this Religion it never entred into their Heart 1 Cor. 4.20 For the Kingdom of God is not in Word stands not in plausible Pretences but in Power 1 Thess. 1.5 For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only but also in Power You know the State of Men were represented by Christ in the Parable of the two Sons Mat. 21.28 29 30. A certain Man had two Sons and he came to the first and said Son go to work to day in my Vineyard He answered and said I will not but afterwards he repented and went And he went to the second and said likewise And he answered and said I go Sir and went not Oh there be many that say I will go that pretend fair that are convinced so far as to make a Profession yet never bring their Hearts seriously to addict themselves to God to walk in his Ways and keep his Charge there is no real change of Heart no serious bent of Soul towards God 6. If there be some real Motions as there may be in temporary Believers for we must not think all is Hypocritical yet it is not intire Mark 6.20 Herod did many things and heard John Baptist gladly His Heart and his Profession went a great way together till he was to part with his Bosom-Lust John was safe till he touched upon his Herodias then Conviction grows furious and he turneth into a Devil Therefore take heed of meer Conviction Vse 4. To press the Children of God to express such Fruits of their Union with Christ that they may convince the World Christ prays not only that the World may be convinced but that it might be by those that are real Members of his Mystical Body that they may have a Hand to further it What are the Fruits of the Mystical Union that you may convince the World 1. Love and mutual serviceableness to one another's Good When we live as Members of the same Body that have a mutual care for one another then we shall bring a mighty Honour and Credit to Religion and can with Power give Testimony to the Truths of Christ. Acts 2.44 And all that believed were together and had all things common When Christians were of One Mind and Heart they had all things common O it is a mighty convincing thing when all those that profess Godliness labour to carry on the same Truths and Practices Divisions breed Atheism in the World The Lord Jesus knew it and therefore he prays Let them be all one c. that the World may believe that thou hast sent me We never propagate the Faith so much as by this Union Divisions put a great stop to the progress of Truth When contrary Factions mutually condemn one another it is a wonder any are brought off from their vain Conversations The World is apt to think there is no such thing as Religion and one sort is no better than another they see the World cannot agree about it therefore they stay where they are 2. Holiness and Strictness of Life and Conversation there is a convincing Majesty in it natural Conscience doth homage to it where ever it findeth it Therefore live as those who are taken up into Fellowship with God through Christ. Herod feared John Baptist Why because he was a strict Preacher No but because he was a Just Man Mark 6.20 When you live thus holily and accomplish the Work of Faith with Power then the Lord Jesus is glorified in you 2 Thess. 1.11 12. 3. When you can contemn the Baits of the World and Allurements of Sense this is a mighty Argument to convince the World that you have higher and nobler Principles you are acted by and better Hopes you are called to Tho you have not divested and put off the Interests of Flesh and Blood for you are not Angels yet you can be faithful to God and Christ. The World admireth what kind of Temper Men are made of 1 Pet. 4.4 They think it strange that you run not with them into all excess of Riot They have the same Interests and Concernments and yet how mortified how weaned are they from those Things which others go a whoring after sure they have a felicity which the World knoweth not of they dread and admire this tho they hate you 4. A Chearfulness and Comfortableness in the midst of Troubles and deep Wants when you can live above your Condition take joyfully the spoiling of your Goods Heb. 10.34 and bear Losses with an equal mind for you are not much troubled with these Things then you live as those that are called to a higher Happiness 5. To be more faithful in the Duties of your Relations The Fruits of the Mystical Union run to every part of the Spiritual Life None commend their Religion so much as those that make Conscience of the Duties of their Relations that they may carry themselves as becomes Christians Husbands and Wives Parents and Children Masters and Servants So poor Servants make the Doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ comely Tit. 2.10 That ye may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things And the Apostle saith Men that do not obey the Word may without the Word be won by the Conversation of their Wives 1 Pet. 3.1 Worldly Men have been much gained by the Lives of Religious Persons Thus you propagate the Truth by carrying your selves usefully in your Relations This hath been ever the Glory of Religion as it was in the Primitive Times Austin makes this Challenge Vbi tales Imperatores c. Let all the Religions in the World shew such Emperors such Captains such Armies such Managers of Publick Treasury as the Christian Religion The World was convinced there was something Divine in them O! it is pity the Glory of Religion should fall to the ground in our days and that the quite contrary should be said none such careless Parents as those that seem to be touched with a sense of Religion None so disobedient to Magistrates none such disobedient Children to Parents as those that seem to be called to Liberty with Christ Therefore if you would honour Christ and propagate the Truth keep up this Testimony and convince the World 6. A Constancy in the Profession of Faith You should live as if Christ and you had one common Interest Sure they believe Christ was sent from God and able to reward them else why should they sacrifice all their Interests for his sake It is said Rev. 12.11 The
Saints overcome by the Blood of the Lamb and the Word of their Testimony and they loved not their Lives unto the Death Religion had never thrived and spread its Branches far and near had it not been watered by the Blood of the Martyrs Christ began and watered the Plant by his own Blood and then the Martyrs kept watering it till it began to be rooted and had got some esteem in the World and now it spreads its Boughs and yields a shadow and refreshing to the far greatest part of the World When Men take up Principles that will not warrant Suffering or are changeable and pliable to all Interests and wriggle and distinguish themselves out of their Duty upon all Occasions it doth mightily dishonour Christ and make Religion vile and harden the World and feed their Prejudices against the Truth What is the Reason the Ways of God have so little honour in the Eyes of the World so little Power upon the Hearts of Men Professors are so fickle and changeable this maketh them suspect all and so return to their old Superstitions and Vanities Now that you may do so I shall bind it upon you by some further Considerations 1. Consider you are God's Witnesses to keep up Truth in the World to bring them on to Conversion or at least to some temporary Faith Isa. 43.10 Ye are my Witnesses saith the Lord that I am He. God appealeth to those that have most Communion with him for the truth and reality of his Grace If a Man would be satisfied in a Thing that he knoweth not to whom should he go for Satisfaction but to those that have most Experience Well if the World would be satisfied Is Union with Christ a Notion or a real thing Ye are my Witnesses 2 Cor. 3.3 Ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ. In an Epistle a Man writes his Mind The Scriptures they are Christ's Epistle and so are Christians The World that will not study the Scriptures are to be convinced and preparatively induced by your Lives Every Christian is to be a walking Bible It is a dangerous Temptation to Atheism when Christians that pretend themselves near and dear to God are scandalous and let loose the Reins to every corrupt Affection He that took a Christian in an Act of Filthiness cried out Christiane ubi Deus tuus In the Scripture there is Christ's Mind in words in a Christian there is Christ's Mind written in Deeds in his Conversation You are to be a living Reproof As Noah condemned the World by preparing an Ark Heb. 11.7 There was something in it when he was so busy in preparing an Ark with so great Cost and Charge it was a real upbraiding of their security and carelessness So when Men are so diligent and busy in working out their Salvation with fear and trembling it is a real Reproof to the carnal and lazy World 2. Consider if you do not convince the World you justify the World as Israel justified Sodom Ezek. 16.52 The Wicked hold up their Ways with greater pretence and are hardned in their Prejudices You put an Excuse into Wicked Mens Mouths What a sad thing will it be when they shall say Lord we never thought they had been thy Servants they were so wrathful proud sensual self-seeking factious turbulent hunting after Honours and great Places in the World Rom. 2.23 24. Thou that makest thy boast of the Law through breaking of the Law dishonourest thou God For the Name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you Carnal Professors will blush at the last day when they shall consider how many they have hardened by their Examples unsetled by their loose walking how you have disgraced Christ and taken up his Name for a dishonour to him It is this that makes the Chams of the World to laugh you cannot gratify them more 3. Consider the great Good that cometh by it For the present you stop the Mouth of Iniquity Tit. 2.8 That he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil Thing to say of you It is the Duty of Christians not only to approve themselves to God but as far as they can to Wicked Men to take off all advantage from the World to confute their Slanders to muzzle the Mouths of Carnal Men that they may have no occasion to speak against the Ways of God and the Professors of Christianity Carnal Christians open prophane Mouths their Slanders shall be put upon your Score who give them too much matter and occasion to speak Do not say they are Dogs what care I if they bark The Awe that is upon Wicked Men is one Means of the Church's Preservation therefore you must justify Wisdom Mat. 11.19 But Wisdom is justified of her Children Justification is a relative Word it implieth Condemnation the World condemns the Ways of God and People of God of Fancy Fury Faction now you must justify them at least you will leave them without excuse and furnish Matter for the Triumphs of God's Justice at the last Day and so will have further cause to applaud the Counsels of God when you sit on the Bench at the last day For as in the last Day you shall together with Christ judg the World by your Vote and Suffrage 1 Cor. 6.2 Know ye not that the Saints shall judg the World So now you must convince them by your Conversations It is a sad thing Men walk so as it cannot be said Where is the Malefactor and where is the Judg You should condemn them as by the difference of your Lives so by the Heavenliness of your Hearts SERMON XXXVIII JOHN XVII 22 And the Glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one CHRIST had prayed for the Union of Believers in one Mystical Body here is an Argument to inforce that Request The Glory which thou hast given me I have given them c. His Act is urged as a Reason because of that Consent of Will that is between Him and the Father Christ would have his Gift ratified by the Father's Consent as if he had said Deny not what I have granted them For the meaning of the Words all the difficulty is what is meant by the Glory here spoken of Some say by Glory is meant the Power of working Miracles that is called the Glory of God John 11.40 Said I not If thou wouldest believe thou shalt see the Glory of God that is a Glorious Miracle wrought by him When Christ wrought a Miracle John 2.11 He manifested forth his Glory And so they limit it to the Apostles who had Gifts of Miracles and were fitted to succeed Christ upon Earth Thus many of the Ancients By the Glory of God is sometimes meant the Image of God Rom. 3.23 All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God So 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the
All Consequent Benefits are procured by the Merit of Christ. The Father that is first in order of Persons is first in order of working and can have no higher Cause than his own Will and Purpose And besides there is an Obligation established to every Person absolute elective Love is the Father's Property and Personal Operation but then his Eternal Purpose is brought to pass in and through Jesus Christ In the carriage of our Salvation Christ interposeth So we are chosen in him as Head of the Elect Ephes. 1.4 pardoned justified sanctified glorified in and through him all these Benefits and Fruits of God's Love are procured by Christ's Merit not only as it is the more for the Freedom of Grace that the Reasons why Man should be loved should be without himself and so the Obligation is increased and not meerly neither for the greater fulness of our Comfort for if God should love us in our selves it would be a very imperfect Love our Graces being so weak and our Services so stained But whence should we have this Grace at first which is the Object of his Love He could never find in us any cause why he should love us God could not love us with honour to himself if his Wisdom had not found out this way of loving us in Christ. There was a double Prejudice against us our Nature was loathed by God's Holiness and then God's Justice had a quarrel against us 1. For God's Holiness What Communion could there be between Light and Darkness God is Holy by Nature and we are Sinners by Nature Nature being corrupted God cannot love it unless he see it in such a Person as Christ is Psal. 5.4 5. For thou art not a God that hast pleasure in Wickedness neither shall Evil dwell with thee The Foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all workers of Iniquity not only the Work but the Person Therefore we are hidden in him found in him as when a Man loaths a Pill we lap it up in something which he affects God abhorred the fight of Man till found in Christ. 2. God's Justice had a Quarrel against us God dealt with Man by way of Covenant and so hated Man not only out of the Purity of his Nature but out of Justice his Righteous Anger was kindled because of the breach of the Covenant When Subjects are fallen into displeasure with their Prince such an one as the King loveth must mediate for them So God was in Christ reconciling the World unto himself 2 Cor. 5.19 How cometh God who seemed to be bound in point of Honour to avenge himself on Sinners to be reconciled In Christ he received satisfaction God was resolved to manifest an infinite Love to Man but he would still manifest an infinite Hatred against Sin which could not be more fully manifested than by making Christ ââe ground of our Reconciliation Thus the Wisdom of God hath taken up the difference between us and his Holiness and between us and his Justice that so Divine Love may be like it self not blind but rational This was the great Prejudice how could the Holy God the Just God who is not overcome with any Passion love such vile and unworthy Creatures as we are The Question is answered he loveth us in Christ and for Christ's sake Secondly Take the Particle ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã as in the ordinary Acceptation So it signifieth Similitude and Likeness but then it signifieth not an exact Equality but some kind of Resemblance Be ye perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect Mat. 5.48 One as we are One. So here 1. There is a Disparity 2. A Likeness 1. A Disparity for in all Things Christ hath the preheminence both as God and as Mediator 1. As God he is most perfect in whom God hath found all Complacency and Delight Prov. 8.30 Then I was by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his Delight rejoicing always before him He was God we are Creatures He the natural Son Psal. 2.7 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee We the adopted Children John 1.12 To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God God's Love to Christ was necessary ours is a free dispensation John 3.16 God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Everlasting Life 2. As Mediator so he is the first Beloved God loves Christ as the first Object of his Love after Christ he loveth those that are Christ's The Relation begins with him John 20.17 Go to my Brethren and say unto them I ascend unto my Father and your Father unto my God and your God He is loved as the Head of the Mystical Body we as Members the Head first then the Members He is loved for his own sake we for his 2. Yet there is a Likeness God loveth us with a like Love 1. Upon the same Grounds Nearness and Likeness 1. Nearness He loveth Christ as his Son so he loveth us as his Children 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God There is a three-fold Ecce in Scripture 1. Ecce demonstrantis as pointing with the Finger John 1.29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him and saith Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the Sin of the World It referreth to a Thing or Person present and it noteth the certainty of Sense as there he pointed at him as present or to a Doctrine and then it noteth the certainty of Faith Job 5.27 Lo this we have searched so it is hear it and know thou it for thy good believe it as a certain Truth 2. There is Ecce admirantâs as awakening our drowsy Minds more attentively to consider of the Matter as Lam. 1.12 Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow So here entertain it with Wonder and Reverence as an important Truth 3. Ecce exultantis vel gratulantis as rejoicing and blessing our selves in the Privilege Psal. 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel he neither slumbers nor sleeps Now all these take place here Behold it with Faith and Confidence as a certain Truth behold it with Reverence and Wonder as an high Dignity behold it with Joy and Delight as a Blessed Privilege as it is a certain Truth we should believe it more firmly as it is an important Truth we should consider it more seriously as it is a comfortable Truth we should improve it more effectually to our great Joy and Satisfaction in all Conditions The Wisdom of God findeth out Relations between God and us to establish a mutual Love between us He would be known not only as our Creator but our Father and indeed none is so much a Father as God is Earthly Parents have but a drop of Fatherly Compassion suitable to their finite Scantling never had any such Bowels and
What they know not naturally as brute Beasts in those things they corrupt themselves Suppose they use the Spectacles of Art to help the Native Light of Reason with Industry yet their Eyes are blind How erroneous in Religion were the Civil Nations Rom. 1.22 Professing themselves to be wise they became Fools very foolish in Matters of Worship The Romans placed Fear Humane Passions and every paltry thing among their Gods The ruder and more brutish Nations worshipped only the Sun and Thunder things great and wonderful And still now we see great Scholars given over to fond Superstitions Nay go higher suppose besides the Spectacles of Art Nature be furnished with the Glass of the Word yet we see great Scholars very defective in the most useful and practical Points Nicodemus a Teacher in Israel knew not Regeneration John 3.10 Usually they delight rather in Moral Strains than Mysteries of Faith and err in one Point or another usually the Controversies of their Age they are blinded by Pride or Interest are loth to stoop to Truth revealed and so are outstarted by the Vulgar Surgunt indocti rapiunt Coelam c. they dispute away Heaven while others surprize it Nay suppose they had an exact Model and Proportion of Faith and do pry into all the Secrets of Religion as it is possible to do with the common Light and Help of the Spirit which is as far as a Reprobate can go yet all this is without any change of Affection without any savour or relish of Truth This Speculative and Artificial Knowledg doth not change the Heart But here is an Objection Many Carnal Men have great Parts and profess the Knowledg of the True God I Answer 1. The greatest part of the World lieth in Ignorance they are born in Darkness live in Darkness love Darkness more than Light and are under the Powers of Darkness Ephes. 6.12 The Rulers of the Darkness of this World The Devil hath a large Territory over all the blind Nations 2. Carnal Men that own the True God and profess him yet in a Scripture-sense they do not know him For Knowledg not being affective it is reputed Ignorance John 8.54 55. Of whom ye say that he is your God Yet ye have not known him but I know him and if I should say I know him not I shall be a Liar like unto you but I know him and keep his Saying It is a Lie to pretend to Knowledg without Obedience 1 John 2.4 5. And hereby we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him For all their great Parts they are but Spiritual Fools they have no true Wisdom ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã So are all Carnal Men Titus 3.3 We our selves also were sometimes foolish out of our Wits They do not understand things Spiritual and such as tend to maintain Communion with God they love and do those things with delight that are against all Reason hurtful to Body and Soul Natural Men are sometimes represented as Fools that judg amiss sometimes as Infants that know nothing Isa. 28.9 Whom shall he teach Knowledg and whom shall he make to understand Doctrine they that are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breast Sometimes as Beasts that are uncapable of Understanding Psal. 32.9 Be ye not as the Horse or as the Mule that hath no Vnderstanding Fools they are in their choice that prefer a Nut or an Apple before a Jewel they spend all their time in looking after Riches and Honours and such kind of things as do not conduce to Eternity for Carnal Pleasures forfeit their Souls and yet think themselves very wise In their Course they make War with Heaven and enter into the Lists with God as if they were stronger than he In their presumption they give out themselves for the Sons of God when they are the Devil's Children as if a Man born of a Beggar should pretend to be the Son of a King Fools and Mad-men challenge all Lands as theirs so do they all Promises and Comforts Within a little while experience will shew them to be Fools their Eyes are never opened to see their Folly till it be too late Luke 12.20 Thou Fool this Night thy Soul shall be required of thee Jer. 17.11 As a Partridg sitteth on Eggs and hatcheth them not so he that getteth Riches and not by Right shall leave them in the midst of his Days and at his End shall be a Fool. There is no Fool to the Carnal Fool Godly Men are only wise that are wise to save their Souls Vse It informeth us 1. Of our Misery by Nature For as the Reprobate lost World are so are we all by Nature we have no Knowledg of the True God Job 11.12 Vain Man would be wise tho Man be born like a wild Asses Colt We are apt to think our selves Angels but we are Beasts Every one affects the repute of Wisdom we would rather be accounted Wicked than Weak If a Man were born with an Asses Head or were monstrous and mishapen in his Body this were sad It is worse to be born with the Heart of an Ass to be born like a Wild-Asses Colt with such gross and rude Conceits of God and Holy Things This is our Estate by Nature 2. The Danger of Ignorance it is the state of the Reprobate World It is good to think of it partly that we may avoid it our selves and strive for Knowledg partly that we may be thankful if we have obtained Knowledg and partly that we might pity others as Christ wept over Jerusalem Luke 19.41 42. And when he was come near he beheld the City and wept over it saying If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace but now they are hid from thine Eyes It is one of God's sorest Judgments when the Lord hath left threatning other things then he threatens a blind Heart and a vain Mind The great reproach that Nahash would lay upon Israel was to put out their right Eyes The great Design of the God of this World upon the Men of this World is to put out their Eyes that they might not come to the Knowledg of the Truth 3. Positive Ignorance is a sign that we are of the World I mean where we have Means and Opportunities to the contrary and do not come to the Knowledg of God and of his Ways 1 John 2.13 I write unto you little Children because ye have known the Father God hath no Child so little but he knows his Father The blind World knows him not when there is Night in the Understanding or Frost in the Heart it is a sign of a Worlding when Men are ignorant unteachable and do not grow in Knowledg God's Children many times may be ignorant and do not profit according to their Advantages John 14.9 Have I been so long
Curiosity In things not revealed a simple Nescience is better than a bold Inquiry there is enough for Service and Adoration Let not Reason prescribe to Faith He were not God if he were not incomprehensible Should Worms make their own Apprehension the measure of Divine Truth It is not so because I cannot understand it by a Candle in the Night I cannot see it therefore it is not Some things are to be received from Divine Testimony tho we cannot fully conceive of them Let us bless God for the Word and take heed unto it as to a Light shining in a dark Place It is God's Mercy that Christ came from Heaven with a Commission to discover so much to us It is a Ray of the Face of God in Christ. Here is God's Heart discovered to us and our Hearts to our selves Vse 2. When you consult with the Gospel make use of Christ. He is to discover his Father's Name he taught the Gospel not only on Earth but in Heaven I have declared thy Name and will declare it Non loquendum de Deo sine lumine There is no Saving-knowledg of God from our selves Christ is called ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Interpreter of his Father's Mind It is dangerous to set upon the Knowledg of the Mystery of the Gospel in the strength of our own Gifts and Parts to rest meerly on the study of Books and Humane Helps The Gospel is God's Riddle which none but himself can expound beg the Spirit of Revelation you cannot have a knowledg of it without a Revelation from Christ. We do not improve Christ's Prophetical Office so much as we should we think he must pacify our Consciences subdue our Affections but we do not look after Knowledg but think to get it by our own Industry 3. Point Christ doth not convey all Knowledg or the full notice of God's Name at once The Knowledg that is originally in Christ is not communicated to us but by degrees that it may increase more Like the good Housholder that brought out the best at last John 1.50 Because I said unto thee I saw thee under the Fig-tree believest thou thou shalt see greater things than these Partly to keep up our Dependance and Respect lest a Satiety grow upon us When there is no more use of a thing then we contemn it Man is a Creature that is led by Hope rather than by Memory Still God keepeth the best till last there is a perpetual use of Christ's Prophetical Office that he may declare more Partly to conform us to himself and to the Church Christ increased in Wisdom and Stature c. Luke 2.40 52. his Humane Capacity was inlarged by degrees The Church grew by degrees There was a Non-age then it was the Seed of the Woman afterwards In thy Seed c. To Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Then it was told what Tribe The Scepter shall not depart from Judah Gen. 49.10 afterwards of what Family to David that a Virgin shall conceive and shall bear a Son and shall call his Name Immanuel Isa. 7.14 At last Behold the Lamb of God John 1.29 Partly that he might suit his Dispensations to our Capacity God will not violate the Course of Nature Our Life is hidden in Christ. You do not teach University-Learning to a Boy Christ dealeth with us as we are capable according to our receptivity We are made meet to be partakers of the Inheritance of the Saints in Light Col. 1.12 Vse 1. Comfort against present Defects Tho you are ignorant of some Mysteries of Religion do not despond Christ doth not give you all at once There is a double Comfort God will accept our weakness and we have an Head in whom is all Fulness As our Life is hidden in Christ so is our Wisdom hidden In the Text you see Christ hath undertaken for our growth we have a Teacher that will carry us on from one degree of knowledg to another Therefore let us not be discouraged tho we know little and our parts be weak and insufficient Vse 2. It presseth us to grow in Knowledg 2 Pet. 3.18 But grow in Grace and in the Knowledg of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. There is more to be learned Do not say I know as much as they can tell me we never know so much but we may know more there is no stint in Knowledg If there be a measure of Grace beyond which we cannot pass the Apostle would not say Grow in Grace and Knowledg Therefore be conscionable and careful in the use of Means We must not rest in our low and imperfect Measures nor alwayes keep to our A B C. We must grow till we come to Heaven and then there will be no more growing A formal Man is where he was as a Picture doth not increase in Stature The way to keep what we have is to increase our Store Gifts that lie idle and unactive suffer loss and decay an active Nature such as Man's must either grow worse or better It is an ill sign when we are contented with a little Light groweth to the perfection of Glory our Reward is increased in the other World Col. 3.16 Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all Wisdom It is the worst of Poverty to have a poor Understanding Grace is multiplied through Knowledg 2 Pet. 1.2 Grace and Peace be multiplied unto you through the Knowledg of God and of Jesus our Lord. 4. Point Christ maketh one Mercy to be the Pledg of another I have declared and I will declare He is never weary of well-doing his Love is Infinite and cannot be wearied and his Grace is Infinite and cannot be spent Men waste by giving their drop is soon spent but the oftner we come to God the more welcome we are Our Faith is sooner tired than Godâ Bounty for he doth not waste by giving I AM is God's Name he is where he was at first he is never at a loss what he hath done he can do and will do God's Providence is new and fresh every Morning God is One Gal. 3.21 he is always like himself The Creatures soon spend their Allowance but he is where he was at first But it chiefly holdeth good in Spiritual Mercies the least drop of Saving-Grace is an Immortal Seed it will grow it will increase it is a Spark that cannot be quenched it is the Pledg of meer Grace Therefore where Christ hath begun to work for thee in some sparks of Saving-Grace and Knowledg he will go on in his Work where he is the Alpha he will be the Omega where he is an Author he will be a Finisher Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith The Apostle would have us confident of this Phil. 1.6 Being confident of this very thing that he that hath begun a good Work in you will perform it until the Day of Christ. God's first Work is an Earnest and God will not lose his Earnest it is the
you to be careful to get and keep your Hearts clean to perform service acceptably to him to be in the exercise of Faith Love and other Graces that you may entertain as you ought your Heavenly King who comes to take up his continual abode and residence in your Hearts FINIS A TABLE of the principal Matters contained in this PART A. ABasement of Christ the truth of it Page 11 Aboad of Christ in us the fruit of it Page 333 Account all must be called to an Account Page 55 Actions all Actions and Employments have their Temptations Page 215 Afflictions why they befal God's People Page 132 God loves his People in Affliction Page 344 God is a Father to them in Afflictions Page 6 How to carry our selves in Afflictions towards God as a Father Page 7 Ambassadors Ministers Christ's Ambassadors and why Page 280 Angels entertain Christ at his Ascension Page 127 Anointed who were anointed Page 44 What Christ 's anointing implys Page 44 To what Christ was anointed Page 45 Antiscripturists have no true Holiness Page 237 Iudgments of God on them Page 254 Apostles and ordinary Ministers how they differ and wherein they agree Page 271 Arrian's ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã confuted Page 306 Ascension of Christ what it includes Page 61 The History of it Page 121 The Time of it Page 121 The place from whence and to whence Page 121 The manner of it Page 122 Christ ascended as a Conqueror Page 122 Angels entertain Christ at his Ascension Page 122 Christ's welcome of the Father at his Ascension Page 123 The Reasons of it Page 123 The Fruits and Benefits of it Page 124 A Token of his Satisfaction Page 124 A Pledg of our Ascension Page 124 Comfort to Believers from hence Page 126 How shall a Man know he is ascended with Christ. Page 125 Authority of Christ as Mediator Page 267 B. BElievers their Felicity and Dignity Page 108 Comfort to Believers Page 295 Believing vid. Faith Believing in Christ what it is Page 296 Difference between believing Christ and believing in Christ. Page 296 Difference between believing in Christ and believing in God Page 296 Which is most difficult to believe in Christ for temporal or for spiritual things Page 172 Blessing Christ blessed his Disciples before his Ascension Page 122 Blessing and praising God how they differ Page 49 139 Body all the Saints make but one Body Page 335 And shall at last be all gathered together into one Body Page 336 C. CAll to the Ministry the necessity of it Page 274 Extraordinary what it is Page 271 Not to be expected now Page 271 Ordinary inward what Page 272 Outward what Page 272 The necessity of it Page 272 What Call the first Reformers had Page 277 What is to be done where no Call can be had Page 278 How to make out our Calling to the People Page 276 Calling civil the necessity of it Page 53 What Callings are unlawful Page 54 God hath a hand in appointing Mens Callings Page 54 Every Man to keep in his Calling Page 276 How a Man should glorify God in his Calling Page 54 Every Calling hath its Snare Page 215 Care of Christ over his People Page 171 The fruit and success of it Page 173 Carelessness whether God hates most the careless Person or the openly vitious Page 229 Caution to be used in the World and why Page 135 Censure the whole Body not to be censured for the Miscarriages of some Page 180 Certainty of the Salvation of the Elect Page 78 And of their future Hopes Page 350 Charge what was the Charge God gave Christ concerning the Elect. Page 77 The ground of this Charge vid. Covenant of Redemption Page 77 Christ hath a Charge of his People Page 134 Christ is loyal faithful tender of his Charge Page 171 Children of God their Priviledg Page 125 Believers Children of Christ's Family Page 74 157 Christ what the Word signifies vid. Anointed Page 42 True God Page 17 A distinct Person from the Father Page 40 Sent by the Father vid. sent That he came out from God what it signifies Page 98 Made known to the Church by degrees Page 259 The Holiness of his Life Page 288 Tender of his Servants and Truth Page 18 Is ready to take notice of the good in his People Page 96 Speaks good of his People to the Father Page 80 Tho they have many Failings vid. Gentleness of Christ. Page 80 All that he hath is for his Peoples good and Comfort Page 125 Christ in us what is not to be understood by it Page 387 What is to be understood by it Page 389 How he is said to be in Believers vid. Union Page 311 Christ is in us as God is in Christ. Page 330 What must we do that Christ may be in us Page 332 Arguments to press us to look after this Priviledg Page 331 How we may know whether Christ be in us Page 333 Christian Doctrine the certainty of it Page 89 A Gift of God Page 90 Church visible in it always some Mixture Page 179 The use of wicked Men in the visible Church Page 179 316. Claim false Claims to God and Christ disproved Page 108 Comfort the loss of the greatest Comforts may be supplied Page 125 Commensurableness of the Acts of the three Persons in the Trinity Page 110 Of the distinct propriety of the three Persons in Believers Page 110 Reasons of it Page 110 Committing the Soul to Christ what it is Page 79 159 When we should do it especially Page 79 How we should do it Page ibid. We should commit our Bodies to Christ. Page 80 Communion with Father Son and Holy Ghost Page 310 Communion with God constant and habitual or solemn and special Page 358 Difference between Communion with God here and in Heaven Page 326 Communion between Saints on Earth and Saints in Heaven what it is Page 336 Company Christ takes delight in his Peoples Company Page 355 Reasons of it Page 356 Condition every Condition of Life hath its Snares Page 214 Confidence in God to be used in Prayer Page 4 Confirmation of Ministers the Magistrates Right Page 274 Conformity to Christ wherein it consists Page 324 Conscience what keeps it quiet without Christ. Page 297 Consubstantiation of the Lutherans disproved Page 127 Contentment none in the World for the Heart of Man Page 334 Continuance of God's People in the World in a time of Danger consistent with the Wisdom and Goodness of God Page 210 We should be willing to continue in the World as long as God hath Work for us to do vid. Desire of Death Page 211 Why God's People are not continued but taken out of the World in time of danger Page 211 Conversation worldly vid. wordly Conviction of the World of the truth of Christianity the fruit of the Mystical Vnion Page 320 A great Blessing Page 311 318 What the Spirit convinceth the lost World of viz. Sin Righteousness and Iudgment Page 312 313. The fruit and
vid. Willingness Did not fall out by chance Page 180 Were appointed by the Father Page 7 Foretold by the Prophets Page 8 Always attended with some Glory Page 9 Sufferings of God's People short Page 8 God's People to prepare for them Page 194 vid Troubles When they come do not think strange at them Page 195 How to know when God is about to bring Trouble on the Church Page 164 Cautions in suffering for Christ. Page 117 Christ hath Experience of his Peoples Sufferings Page 134 T. TEaching of Christ the manner of it Page 69 Christ the great Teacher of the Church Page 74 Temptations fitted to every State Page 135 To every Condition Calling Action Place Page 214 215 Lust within gives advantage to Temptations without Page 129 260 Tender God is tender of his Truth and Saints Page 239 337 Threatnings of the Word always fulfilled Page 250 Objections answered Page 250 Titles of God in Scripture suited to Requests made to him Page 136 349 367 Toleration Arguments against it Page 236 Treason against Christ one of Judas's Sins Page 175 To be avoided Page 178 Trinity the Doctrine of the Trinity opened and proved Page 37 vid. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Person How we are to imitate the Trinity Page 168 309 Truth a great Treasure Page 236 Truth of the Scriptures Scriptures must be fulfilled Page 182 vid. Scriptures Divine Authority U. VIctory over evil to be preferred before Exemption from it Page 213 Vision of Christ in Heaven ocular and mental what Page 358 359 Why our Happiness lies in it Page 359 Vision the cause of all Fruition in Heaven Page 359 It shall be comfortable Page 361 Who are they that shall see Christ in Heaven Page 361 Union moral of Believers one with another what it is vid. Unity Page 106 303 Union mystical of Believers with Christ what it is Page 160 301 389 The whole Trinity is concerned in this Union Page 301 Whole Christ is united to a whole Believer Page 301 This Union is secret and mysterious but real Page 302 Illustrated by the Union of Head and Members Page 302 And by the Conjugal Union Page 390 All the Ordinances have an aspect on our Union with Christ. Page 332 How this Union is brought about and in what order Page 389 What the Act of Faith is whereby we are united to Christ. Page 389 The end of it Page 333 The advantages Believers have by it Page 305 Glory the Fruit of Union as well as Grace Page 326 The Honour and Happiness of those that are united to Christ. Page 304 305 The Resemblance between the Mystical Union and the Union of the Divine and Humane Nature in Christ. Page 308 The disagreement between these two Unions Page 308 The Resemblance between the Mystical Union and the Union of Father and Son in the Trinity Page 308 Why Christ prayeth for this Union Page 303 How we may know we are united to Christ. Page 305 391 Those who are united to Christ to look for greater things than they enjoy Page 326 This should teach us Dependance Page 331 What those Fruits are of it whereby the World is convinced of the Truth of Christianity vid. Conviction Page 311 320 Unity of Believers hath some resemblance of the Unity of the Divine Persons Page 167 What is contrary to it Page 165 To be prayed for Page 163 Believers to be earnest for it Page 165 How much Christ's Heart is set on the Unity of his Members Page 161 vid. Love of Brethren Why Christ so earnestly prays for it Page 162 Arguments to press it Page 166 It is possible to be attained Page 163 What an excellent Blessing it is Page 162 The need the Church hath of it Page 163 Directions to attain it Page 166 Directions to restore it Page 166 How God keepeth the Saints together Page 168 Unity between God and Christ. Page 307 Unworthiness what we should do when dejected with a sense of our Unworthiness Page 344 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã the Original and Signification of the Word vid. Person Page 38 W. WAiting ân God a Duty tho we want outward Supplies Page 172 Walk Christians to walk wisely towards them that are without Page 203 Warning Sinners to take warning by Iudgments on others Page 180 Watching what a Believer should watch against Page 216 Watching and Prayer should go together Page 216 Welcome of Christ by the Father at his Ascension Page 123 Willingness of Christ to undertake the Work of Redemption Page 286 And to suffer Page 9 287 Word of God the necessity of God's giving us a Word Page 238 VVhat it is Page 240 To be reverenced Page 250 How given to Christ. Page 88 The proper means to work Faith Page 88 vid. Faith It will work without Miracles Page 89 The Spirit will not work without it Page 89 The Power of it to convert Souls Page 89 The Truth of it vid. Scripture Divine Authority It helps our Ioy. Page 190 Work every Man hath his Work Page 52 This Work is given to him by God Page 53 This Work must be finished Page 54 World why God permits his People to be in the World Page 131 The weakness of the World Page 105 The danger of living in the World Page 129 214 The Enemies we meet with in the World Page 130 Christ apprehensive of his Peoples danger in this World and why vid. Daâger Page 133 VVhy we should grow weary of the World Page 135 How Christians are not of this World Page 204 VVhy Christians are not of this World Page 204 Characters of those that live as if they were of this World Page 206 How to know whether our Hearts are set on this World vid. Heart Page 206 207 How should a Christian know when the Worâd incroacheth upon him Page 217 VVe can never enough be cautioned against the World Page 222 Worldly Conversation wherein seen Page 209 Worldly Men their dangerous Estate Page 106 Men of the World apt to defile the People of God Page 130 How the People of God differ from the Men of the World Page 191 Worldly Spirit to be avoided Page 224 Worldly things are frail Page 148 Worldliness expressed by Adultery and Idolatry and why Page 217 223 Arguments against it Page 223 Worldliness of Professors brings Troubles on the Church Page 195 Worship God to be worshipped in an holy manner Page 142 VVe should go away the more holy from Worship Page 142 A TABLE Of the Places of Scriptures explained in this PART Â Â Â Pag. GEn. 3. 15. 197 19. 17. 216 Ex. 28. 12 29. 265 29. 4. 230 1 Sam. 2. 9. 171 Â 25. 86 264 Job 1. 5. 105 4. 18. 138 31. 14. 56 Psalm 14. 1. 33 16. 3 4. 106 19. 7 8 9. 235 24. 7 8. 253 Â 11. 122 25. 14. 372 62. 10. 209 93. ult 140 112. 96. 235 259 Proverb 8. 12. 91 13. 17. 281 14. 13. 187 18. 10. 152 29. 27. 197 30. 8 9. 214 Eccles. 2. 2. 187
have some kind of remorse and trouble but they cannot help or free themselves 2. Observe that the Gospel looketh forward to the time to come It respecteth not what Believers have been before Conversion and turning to God but thenceforward they must forsake their sinful lusts and turn to God So 1 Pet. 4.2 That he no more should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God Time is short work is great since it is not enough for a Christian to cut off one member but the whole body of sin must be destroyed and they have been too long dishonouring God and destroying their own Souls and cherishing divers lusts in themselves Therefore now they should more earnestly set about the mortifying of sin Now as this is an encouragement to those that have long been serving their base lusts and vile affections and been eminent in wickedness so it is an ingagement to them to double their diligence for the future to serve God by virtue of their deliverance by Christ Heb. 9.14 How much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God Luke 1.74 75. That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life If the Gospel doth not look backward surely it looketh forward it obligeth us to be more assiduous and serious in the study of Holiness after Conversion that if it be possible they may restore the Lord to his honour reclaim those whom they have hardened in sin and get their own hearts more loosened from it since custom hath deeply rooted it in them 3. Observe the Apostle saith That we should not serve sin It is one thing to sin another thing to serve sin Though sin doth remain in the godly it doth not reign in them to serve sin is to yield willing obedience to it This may be done two ways First When men slavishly lye down in any habit and course of sin There is ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã a way of sinning as David Psal. 139.24 See if there be any way of wickedness in me David would not be corrupt in any of his ways And again Psal. 119.29 Remove from me the way of lying Some are given to one sin some to another some covetous others sensual some proud others brutish there is some iniquity they regard in their hearts and make much of and indulge in themselves and so grow slaves to that imperious lust Now whatever good properties we have otherwise we must take heed of any one perverse habit or evil frame of spirit lest it hamper us and make fools of us and make us liable to be caught again after some shew of escape A beast escaped with an halter is easily caught again so this lust indulged will bring us into our old bondage Secondly When we willingly indulge any presumptuous acts For Joh. 8.34 He that committeth sin is the servant of sin If we allow our selves to commit any one gross sin we serve it Other sins steal into the Soul by degrees but these at once therefore we must take heed that we run not wilfully into these inordinacies and yet hope to escape the danger Secondly How all this must be improved by us ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã knowing this The word signifies 1. Knowledge 2. Consideration 3. Assent 1. Knowledge understand this This is of use here for ignorance of Christ and his Gospel is a great cause of sin whereas a sound knowledge produceth mortification Ignorance causeth men to become brutish 1 Pet. 1.14 Not fashioning your selves according to the former lusts in your ignorance 1 Cor. 15.34 Some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame On the other side knowledge is an help to mortification provided it be found and such a knowledge both for matter and manner as it ought to be For matter that it be a thorough knowledge Eph. 4.20 21 22. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts If men were thorougly instructed in the Christian Doctrine they could not so easily sin against God but a partial knowledge incourages our boldness in sinning For manner it must be lively 2 Pet. 2.20 If after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Joh. 8.32 And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make ye free Jer. 31.19 After I was instructed I smote on my thigh I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth It is but a form of knowledge not the lively light of the Spirit which doth not break the power of our lusts 2. It may import Consideration and so knowing this is seriously considering this Many Truths lye by neglected unimproved for want of consideration and that is the cause of mens sins they consider not Gods benefits Isa. 1.3 The ox knows his owner and the ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider nor his Judgments Job 34.27 They turned back from him and would not consider his ways that is made the reason of their sin they consider not his ways that is the ways of his Providence towards them and others If men did consider and ponder with themselves how hateful sin is to God with what severity he will punish it what obligations they have to the contrary it would much check the fervour of their lusts and they could not go on so quietly in a course of disobedience against God but they do not seriously consider what they are a doing Above all the Death of Christ should be considered by us as 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversations received by tradition from your fathers But with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot If men would know that is ponder these things in their hearts and discourse with themselves Why was so great a price given for our Reconciliation but that sin might be destroyed and the great Make-bate between God and us removed out of the way 3. Knowing is often put for Assent For Faith is not a Doubting but a certain Knowledge And this enliveneth every Truth If you do believe that Christ came to take away every sin you have no reason to cherish it The Word worketh not till it be believed Heb. 4.2 To us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it But then it worketh
mightily and effectually for it cometh not to us in word only but in power 1 Thess. 2.13 Ye received it not as the word of men but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe And more particulary in Mortification for it is Faith that purifieth the heart Acts 15.9 Where the Christian Doctrine is really entertained and received by Faith it taketh men off from their old sins 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit The obedience of the Truth is nothing else but Faith wrought in us by the Spirit upon the hearing of the Gospel this produceth in us that purity of heart and life which becometh Christians II. I will give you the reasons The Death of Christ may be considered as it worketh morally or as it worketh meritoriously As it worketh morally it hath a full and a sufficient force to draw us off from sin as it worketh meritoriously it purchaseth the Spirit for us As it worketh morally it layeth a strong ingagement upon us as it worketh meritoriously it giveth great incouragement to oppose and resist sin and set about the mortification of it So that the true way of subduing sin is by serious reflexion on the Death of Christ which we shall consider 1. As it is a strong ingagement 2. As it is a great incouragement 1. As it is a strong ingagement and there 1. It is a pattern to teach us how to deny the pleasures of the senses Pleasure is the great Sorceress that hath bewitched all the World and that which giveth strength to all temptations Jam. 1.14 Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and inticed There is some sensitive carnal bait which first inviteth and then draweth us from our duty and all the Charms sin hath upon us are by the treacherous sensual appetite which is impatient to be crossed So when another Apostle speaketh of a revolt to the carnal life after some partial Reformation he giveth this account of it 2 Pet. 2.20 After they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled and overcome Before men be overcome by Temptation they are first inticed by the apprehension of some pleasure or profit which is to be had by their sins by which apprehension the danger of committing the sin is covered and hid as the Fishers hook is by the bait that is the Metaphor there ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã lapse again into the slavery of the former sins which they seemed to have escaped Therefore till we are dead to the sensitive lure and can be content to suffer in the flesh and to deny the satisfactions of the animal life we shall never avoid the slavery of sin nor know that our old man is crucified Now what is more powerful than the consideration of the Death and Example of Jesus Christ In his whole Life he was a Man of sorrows and so taught us to contemn the world and the pleasures of the flesh but especially at his Death when pain was poured in upon him by the Conduit of every Sense there he pleased not himself Rom. 15. 3. but conquered the love of life and all the natural contentments of life that he might please God and procure our Salvation Now we have not the Spirit of our Religion till we grow dead not only to the pleasures of sin but the natural pleasures of life yea life it self and can submit all to Gods glory 2. As it is an act of Love which should beget love in us to God again which love will make us tender of sinning There are many aggravations of sinning but the greatest of all is because we sin against so much Love as God hath shewed us in our Redemption by Christ. Sin is aggravated by the greatness of the Person against whom it is committed against the infinite Majesty of God as to strike an inferiour person is not so hainous a crime as to strike a Magistrate or Prince but this will not hold in all cases for foul indignities and grievous wrongs offered to meaner persons are a greater offence than the omission of a Ceremony to a Prince as if a man through ignorance of the customs of the Court should not be bare before his Chair of State Therefore take in the other Consideration of the infinite Goodness and Love of God towards us in Christ this doth exceedingly aggravate our sins They are acts of unkindness After such a deliverance as this is shall we again break thy commandments Ezra 9.13 14. after a deliverance out of Babylon out of Hell To sin against the infinite Goodness of a Creator by eating the forbidden Fruit we see what mischief it brought on Mankind conscious of this transgression the first Actors hid themselves from Gods presence But what is it to sin against the infinite Goodness of a Redeemer who came to recover us from this thraldom and bondage and to draw us to himself with the cord of love He chose rather to suffer the punishment due to our sins than to suffer sin still to reign in us whom he loved more dearly than his own life Gal. 2.20 Who loved me and gave himself for me Rev. 1.5 To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Now if after this manifestation of his Love we shall still continue in sin the hainousness of our offence is greatly increased 3. Christs Death is the best Glass wherein to view the deadly nature of sin It was so great and hainous an evil in the sight of God that nothing but the Blood of the Son of God could expiate it Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Jesus Christ must come and suffer a shameful Death this painful shameful accursed Death of the Son of God sheweth Gods displeasure against sin and what it will cost us if we allow it and indulge it in our hearts and lives for if this be done in the green tree what shall be done in the dry 4. It sheweth us also what a great benefit Mortification is This among others was intended by him and moved him to bear our sins in his Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree that we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness To remember a good turn done by a Friend and not to prize and value it as we ought is rather to forget than to remember his friendliness So here if we do not prize Christs benefits we undervalue his Death and a lessening of the benefits is a lessening the price Now one of the chief of them is to take away sin and to break the reign of it in the heart of his
with Christ. What that is we have explained already all that I shall now add is That in Scripture it implieth two things First Conformity with Christ in his Sufferings so we have a Saying like that in the Text 2 Tim. 2.11 It is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him which presently is explained vers 12. If we suffer we shall also reign with him Secondly It implieth mortification of sin so it is understood here if we have communion and fellowship with his Death for the mortification of sin 2. The Term of Proposal conditionally If we The Particle if hath sometimes the notion of a Caution see that ye be dead with Christ sometimes it is a note of Relation when one priviledge is deduced from another as here if we partake of the effect and likeness of his Death in dying to sin we shall partake of the effect and likeness of his Resurrection in being quickened to live in Holiness and Righteousness all our days Dying to sin and newness of life are inseparable if we have the first we shall have the other also they are branches of the same work of Regeneration and both proceed from the same Cause Union with Christ. 2. The Truth hence inferred We shall also live with him This is meant both of the Life of Grace and of the Life of Glory Regeneration and Resurrection the one is to newness of Life the other is to everlasting Bless and Happiness Regeneration is the Spirits begetting us to the Image and Nature of God our heavenly Father and Resurrection is for the perfecting of that Likeness which is 't is true perfect in part here in the Soul 2 Cor. 3.18 We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Hereafter both in Body and Soul Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his own glorious body according to the wonderful working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself As to degrees 1 Joh. 3.2 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is As to kinds both in Holiness and Happiness 1 Cor. 15.49 As we have born the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Now we are conformed to his Image in afflictions Rom. 8.29 He hath predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his Son we look like him in the form of a Servant then we shall be like him as the Lord from Heaven heavenly Therefore the life of Glory in Heaven must not be excluded 3. The Certainty of the Inference ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã It is not a matter of Opinion and Conjecture but of Faith we are certainly perswaded of the truth of it We must distinguish of this Truth for it may be considered two ways First As a general Maxim or Proposition so it is absolutely true Those that are dead with Christ shall live with him This is an Article of Faith to be believed fide divinâ Secondly As it is applied to us or as it is a ground of our particular Confidence so it is true Hypothetically or upon Supposition and our Confidence can be no greater than the evidence of our Qualification If we be indeed dead with Christ we in particular shall also live with him It is but a rational Conclusion from two Premisses one of which is of Divine Revelation the other of inward Experience namely that I am dead with Christ therefore I believe that I shall live with him It is an act both of Faith and Reason an act of Faith by participation as it buildeth on a Principle of Faith Doctrine Those that are dead with Christ have no reason to doubt but that they shall also live with him I. I shall speak of the Condition If we be dead with Christ. II. Of the Benefit They shall live spiritually and everlastingly III. Of our certain Apprehension We believe I. Of the presupposed Condition If we be dead with Christ. 1. Who are dead with Christ. 2. How necessary this Order is The one will shew us that it is not an over-strict but a comfortable Condition the other that it is a Condition absolutely necessary to subsequent Grace 1. Who are dead with Christ. 1. Such as owne the Obligation which their Baptism and Profession puts upon them That reckon themselves dead indeed unto sin Rom. 6.11 that make account they are under a Vow and Bond wherewith they have bound their Souls The careless mind it not but the sincere Christians acknowledge that the debt lyeth upon them they being solemnly ingaged to Christ to do it The Apostle saith Rom. 8.12 We are debtors not to the flesh to live after the flesh as the Jew by Circumcision is bound to observe all the Rituals of Moses Gal. 6.3 so Christians by Baptism are bound to crucifie the flesh and obey the Spirit What say you Are you at liberty to do what you lift or under a strict Bond and Obligation to dye unto sin Let your lives answer for you 2. They make Conscience of it and seriously address themselves to perform it Gal. 5.24 They that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts they have begun to do it and still go on to do it more and more for this is a continued action not the work of a day but of our whole lives They have not only retrenched the desires of the flesh but seek to mortifie and subdue them and perform their Promise so solemnly made to God 3. They obtain the effect in such a degree that the reign of sin is broken though sin it self be not utterly extinct us They do no longer live in their old slavery and bondage as those do who obey every foolish and hurtful lust that bubleth up in their hearts A mans condition is determined by what is in the Throne habitually and governeth our lives and actions There are two warring Principles in us full of enmity and repugnancy to each other the Flesh and the Spirit but one reigneth which constituteth the difference between the carnal and the renewed in the carnal Flesh reigneth but in the regenerate the Spirit hath the mastery and is superiour and most powerful so that a Christian sheweth himself to be Spirit rather than Flesh otherwise it could not be said That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Joh. 3.6 The acts of sin are disowned acts and he may say with Paul It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me Sin is against the bent and habit of our wills 4. They substract the fuel of their lusts as they wean themselves from earthly things and shew such contempt of the World that the good things which they enjoy by Gods allowance are not a snare to them For the Apostle saith of those that set their affections
We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord then we shall be changed by the beatifical Vision 1 Joh. 3.2 When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is our life here and life there is but one life begun here and perfected there here are manifold imperfections but there is compleat blessedness sometimes as the morning to high noon or light of the perfect day Prov. 4.18 The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more to the perfect day here the day breaks but it is but a little sometimes to a man and a child 1 Cor. 13.10 11 12. But when that which is perfect is come that which is in part shall be done away When I was a child I spake as a child I understood as a child I thought as a child but when I became a man I put away childish things For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face now I know in part but then shall I know even as also I am known as it is in the change of Ages so is it between this and the other Life Now all these things shew both the sameness of the life and also the necessity of one degree of Grace to another 3. Observe how fitly this is mentioned as an help to Mortification we should sweeten the tediousness and trouble of the work by thinking of the life that will ensue 1. The Life of Grace Conscience calleth upon you for your duty to your Creator and Lust hindereth it now is it not a great advantage to have a vital Principle to incline us to God By the life of Grace we are enabled in some measure to do what is pleasing in his sight Heb. 12.28 Let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Set about Mortification and you shall have this Grace This should be a great consolation to us who are so often vexed with guilty fears because of the neglect of our duty 2. The Life of Glory Pleasures Honours and Profits seem great matters to a carnal heart and can do much till you put Heaven in the balance against them as Moses did Heb. 11.26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt for he had respect unto the recompence of reward he looked off from one object to another Alas when we think of this life all that we enjoy here is nothing and should do nothing upon us to gain us from God and our duty to him we should have such thoughts within our selves Shall I take these pleasures instead of my birth-right For this preferment shall I âell my part in Heaven Shall I cast away my Soul for this sensual delight The Devil usually prevaileth over men when Heaven is forgotten and out of sight Sure the Baptismal Vow and Engagement hath little hold upon us 2 Pet. 1.9 He is blind and cannot see afar off and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins These things are fitly coupled 4. Observe how we have all with Christ we dye with him and we live with him as we mortifie sin by virtue of that Grace which he purchased for us by his Death so we hold Heaven by his gift or the Grant of that Covenant which he hath confirmed by his Blood his Dying is the Pattern of our Mortification and his Life of our Happiness and Glory if by his Example we first learn to dye unto sin according to his Pattern and Example we shall have a joyful Resurrection to eternal Life for still we fare as Christ fared he would not be a Pattern to us only in his worst estate but in his best also we shall be partakers of the same glory which Christ hath at the right hand of the Father and as we shall live eternally so we shall eternally praise our Redeemer who deriveth influence to us all along both in dying and rising III. The certain Apprehension we have of this we believe Here I shall handle 1. The necessity of this Faith 2. The grounds of it 3. The profit of believing this 1. The necessity of believing 1. This life is not matter of Sense but of Faith whether you take it for the life of Grace or the life of Glory 1. The Life of Grace If you consider the nature of it which is of the order of things spiritual and men that judge according to things of sense see no glory in it 1 Cor. 2.14 The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Alas the rich preparations of Grace which God hath made us in the Gospel a carnal heart hath no savour for them nor value and esteem of them is nothing moved with the tender and offer we must have a higher light to see these things Besides the new Nature is hidden under manifold infirmities and afflictions Col. 3.3 Your life is hid with Christ in God and 1 Joh. 3.2 It doth not yet appear what we shall be Once more it is Gods gift and a matter full of difficulty for them to apprehend that are sensible of their own vileness and are daily conflicting with so many lusts that they should be quickened and inabled to live to God is a matter which they cannot easily believe Shall these dead bones live O Lord thou knowest Ezek. 37.3 It is an hard matter to perswade them that have a great sense of the power of their bewitching lusts they shall ever overcome 2. For the Life of Glory that is also a matter of Faith because it is a thing future unseen and to be enjoyed in another World Now faith is the substance of things not seen and the evidence of things hoped for Heb. 11.1 2. The Person Office and Power of our Redeemer are all mystical Truths Joh. 11.25 26. I am the resurrection and the life he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never dye believest thou this That Christ is able to raise the dead to life again now or hereafter 3. The matter is difficult to be believed that after worms have consumed this flesh it shall be raised again in Glory and at length reign with Christ for ever Therefore Abrahams Faith is so often propounded to the Faithful Who considered not his own body now dead nor yet the deadness of Sarahs womb Rom. 4.19 and the Apostle sheweth us That such a kind of faith shall be imputed to us for righteousness vers 24. who believe Christs Resurrection and then ours All this sheweth the necessity of Faith in this case 2. The grounds of believing this blessed Estate which is reserved for the mortified 1. The infinite Love of God which prepared these Mercies
wean us from worldly happiness To make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 Vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory Rom. 9.23 In time you shall be delivered see that you have the beginning and first-fruits and that you daily grow in grace 2. With earnest Longing Rom. 7.23 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 2 Cor. 5.2 In this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven 3. As to Faith 1. Fix it and be at a greater certainty against all doubts and fears not only as to your interest but the truth of the promise of eternal Life These doubts may stand with a sincere Faith but not a confirmed Faith we have much of the Unbeliever in our bosoms venture all your happiness temporal and spiritual upon this security 2. Improve it it is the work of Faith to overcome the World and the Flesh 1 Joh. 5.4 5. This is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith Who is he that overcometh the world but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God to over-rule our sense and appetite and to teach us to make nothing of all that would disswade us against our heavenly interest Acts 20.24 But none of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God This is the true Mortification SERMON VIII ROM VI. 9 10. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him For in that he dyed he dyed unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God THAT I may the better explain the drift of these words let us take the Apostles Method along with us His intent is to prevent an abuse of the Doctrine of the Gospel which publisheth the free Grace of God to Sinners Where sin abounded grace did much more abound From hence some did infer That therefore under the Gospel they might take liberty to sin the more their sins were and the greater they were the more they should occasion God to manifest the abundance of his Grace upon them The Apostle answereth this 1. By way of Detestation Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid 2. By way of Confutation the Argument by which he confuseth it is our Baptismal Vow and Engagement How shall they that are dead to sin live any longer therein To clear this he explaineth our Baptismal Vow in the two branches of it dying to sin and living to righteousness the one direct and the other consequential directly we are baptized into the death of Christ vers 2. but so as that we also rise again to newness of life vers 4 5. for we are united to Christ as dying anâ rising and we are by virtue of the Union to express a conformity to both vers 5. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection He proveth the former part vers 6 7. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin for he that is dead is freed from sin The latter he begins to prove vers 8. If we be dead with Christ we believe that we shall also live with him How live with him As our spiritual death was answerable to the Death of Christ so our spiritual Life must be answerable to his Resurrection from the Dead as we have a Copy and Pattern for the mortifying sin in his Death so we have also a Copy and Pattern for newness of life in his Resurrection and therefore we do not in vain believe that we shall live spiritually and eternally with him Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him for in that he dyed he dyed unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God The better to state the Analogy and Proportion between Christs Resurrection and our rising to the Life of Grace first and then of Glory afterward The Life of Christ after his Resurrection is set forth by two thiâââ 1. The Perpetuity or Immortality of it 2. The Perfection and Blessedness of it 1. The Perpetuity and Immortality of it is delivered in three expressions First Actual dying again is denied Christ being raised from the dead dyeth no more Christs Resurrection was not a return to a single Act of Life or Life for a while to shew himself to the World and no more but to an immortal endless estate Secondly His further liableness or subjection to death is denied Death hath no more dominion over him That is thus expressed for two reasons 1. Death had once dominion over Christ when he gave up himself to dye for us he for a while permitted yea subjected himself to the power of it but Christ overcame death and put an end to its power by his Resurrection Acts 2.24 Whom God raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was impossible that he should be holden of it 2. To shew that Christ dyed not only to expiate sin but to take away the dominion and power of it in Believers therefore it is said Death hath no more dominion over him he took away sin by which death reigneth he did enough both as to the satisfying Gods Justice and our Deliverance Thirdly Any further need of his dying again is denied In that he dyed he dyed unto sin once that is he hath done his work his Death needeth not to be repeated he dyed to sin once not in regard of himself for in him was no sin but as charged with the sins of his people he sufficiently took away sin both as to guilt and power 2. The Perfection and Blessedness of his Life is intimated In that he liveth he liveth unto God This expression may imply either the Holiness of his Life in Heaven or the Blessedness of it First The Holiness when Christ was raised from death to life again he liveth to God wholly seeketh to promote his Glory in the World he liveth with God and to God with God as he is sat down at the right hand of Majesty and administreth the Mediatorial Kingdom for his Glory as indeed God hath a great deal of Honour from Christ as Mediator Phil. 2.11 That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father 2. The Blessedness of it Christ always lived to God even before his Death Joh. 8.29 And he that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone but I do always those things that please him Why then is he said after his Resurrection to live to God Answ. As freed from
Lord and Master Sin and the Devil and the World are Usurpers and therefore are exauctorated we are no longer bound to serve them but God hath a right to require love and service at our-hands Acts 27.23 The God whose I am and whom I serve He hath a title by Creation as our proper Owner Psal. 100.3 Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves By Redemption 1 Cor. 6.19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods Christ came to recover us from our slavery Secondly To shew the disadvantage between having Sin and God for our Master What is more filthy than sin and more mischievous than sin and more holy and beneficial than God To serve sin is a brutish captivity and will prove our bane in the issue but to serve God is true liberty and it will be our present and eternal Happiness Rom. 6.22 But now being made free from sin ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life Secondly The Grace to perform this Duty Through our Lord Jesus Christ. We are to die to Sin and live to God not only ex praescripto Christi according to the precepts of Christ which every where run strongly against sin and pleading Gods right with us nor only ex imitatione Christi to imitate our Pattern and Example that we may be like Christ in these things and express his dying and rising in our conversations but virtute Christi by the power of Christs Grace as by the force of his Example This power of Christ may be considered as purchased or as applied or as our interest in it is professed in Baptism 1. As it is purchased He died and rose again to represent the Merit of his Death to God that he might obtain Grace for us to kill sin and live unto God and that in such a continued course of obedience till we live with God 1 Thess. 5.10 He dyed for us that whether we wake or sleep we should live together with him i.e. to redeem us from all iniquity and to preserve us in our obedience to eternal Life While we wake or are alive we live with him and when we sleep after we are dead we still live with him we live a spiritual Life here and afterward an eternal Life in Glory So that place which otherwise hath some difficulty in it may be expounded by Rom. 14.8 9. Whether we live we live unto the Lord or whether we dye we dye unto the Lord Whether therefore we live or dye we are the Lords For this Christ died 2. As it is applied It is applied by the Spirit of Christ by virtue of our Union with him Jesus Christ is the Root and Foundation of this Life in whom we do subsist For it is in the Text ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and in the Context it is said vers 5. we are planted into his likeness so that this conformity is the fruit of our Union and wrought in us by his Spirit which is the sap we derive from our Root 3. As our interest in him is professed in Baptism for then we are visibly graffed into Christ Gal. 3.27 As many as are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Thence an obligation resulteth we ought to be like him So that in short the summ of the whole is this the Precepts and Example of Christ do shew us our Duty the Grace whereby we perform it is wrought in us by the Spirit by virtue of our Union with Christ and our Baptismal ingagement bindeth it on our hearts Or thus it is purchased by Christ effected by the Spirit sealed and professed in Baptism which partly bindeth us to our Duty and assureth us we shall not want Grace but have help and strength from Jesus Christ. Thirdly The means of improvement ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã reckon your selves It may be inquired why the Apostle faith not simply we are dead or be ye dead indeed but reckon your selves to be dead indeed unto sin c. Shall our reckoning our selves dead or alive make it so Answer 1. Let us consider the import of the word 2. Why it is used 1. For the import of the word It is equivalent with ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 6. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 8. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ver 9. what they signifie this signifieth It is an act of judgment the power of the mind is put forth in it 2. The Use of it here 1. It is Actus Mentis cogitantis it is an act of the mind considering or meditating upon this matter and the effect here mentioned doth much depend upon meditation as the means The weightiest things work not if they be not thought of therefore we must not slightly pass over this Mystery of Christs dying and rising but consider how they concern us and what we were before Regeneration and what we are now to be who profess to follow our Redeemer unto Glory 2. It is Actus Rationis concludentis an act of reason concluding from due Premises and inferring that this is our Duty Because the heart is averse from God we need positively to determine upon rational deductions that it is our unquestionable Duty for we must certainly know a thing to be our Duty before we will address our selves to perform it and herein Reason is a good Handmaid to Faith for sanctified Reason ever concludeth for God whilst it improveth Principles discovered by Faith it is our Light to discover many things evident by natural Light it is our Instrument to improve other things which it cannot discover but depend on Gods Revelation We ponder and weigh things in our minds then determine what is our Duty So that Reckon is by Reason collect as often in Scripture 1 Cor. 10.15 I speak as to wise men ye have reason Judge ye what I say 3. It is Actus Fidei assentientis it is the Syllogism of Faith It is not the bare knowledge nor the bare discourse of these things doth make them operative and effectual but as Faith is mingled with them Heb. 4.2 The word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it This is not matter of conjecture or opinion only but of Faith to owne the obligation which dependeth on the Authority of Christ which is a supernatural Truth 2. to believe the Power which doth assist us which is also a matter of pure Faith and seemingly contradicted by sense For though Mortification and Vivification be begun in us yet because of the troublesom relicts of corruption to reckon our selves with any degree of confidence and trust to be dead unto sin and alive unto God is an Act of Faith the thing is not liable to external sense and internal sense contradicts it we being oppressed with so many remaining corruptions 4. It is Actus Fidei applicantis We must not
only know and discourse of these things but apply them to our selves The best and the most profitable knowledge is in applying general Truths to a mans own case Likewise reckon ye your selves also to be dead unto sin c. This is a Truth which concerneth us in Mortification I profess Faith in Christ am baptized with Christ I must die unto sin Omnis operatio est per contactum the closer the truth the more effectual the operation Rom. 8.31 What shall we say to these things 5. It is Actus Judicii decernentis we do determine this we must do or be undone 2 Cor. 5.14 15. We thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead and that be dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose again 6. It is Actus Voluntatis consentientis this Death and Life is much promoted by the firm purpose and resolution of our minds 1 Pet. 4.1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh arm your selves likewise with the same mind for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin The summ of the whole is 1. That we should think of it seriously and here many are defective who little think of dying to sin or living to God all their thoughts are how they may please the flesh Rom. 13.14 To make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof or thrive in the world Luke 12.17 18. ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã and he thought within himself saying What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits And he said This will I do I will pull down my barns and build greater and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods Or as those Jam. 4.13 To day or to morrow we will go into such a city and continue there a year and buy and sell and get gain and so their great work lyeth neglected 2. That by Reason we should so evidence it to our selves to be our Duty that we should make conscience of it A sluggish heart needs to be awakened by plain and evident Conclusions for wherefore was Reason given us to lye asleep No we must argue and conclude for God that we may bring it to this issue that either we are flat Rebels or must do those things he hath given us in charge 3. We must assent to those Principles of Faith from whence this Conclusion is deduced by necessary consequence as namely 1. That Christ is set up as a Pattern to whom all the Heirs of Promise must be conformed 2. That our Conformity is mainly seen in resembling his two Estates his dying to Sin and living to God 3. That our Baptism obligeth us both by way of Dependence and Obedience By way of Dependence waiting for his Grace whereby this Conformity and Likeness may be accomplished By way of Obedience using all those holy means and endeavours that conduce to this end and purpose Faith assenteth Reason concludeth 4. We must resolve upon it as an unquestionable Duty that we may not play fast and loose with God For the Judgment determintaing and the Will consenting make up the strength of Resolution which in this case is very necessary because we are likely to be assaulted with many enemies and seeing we are too often secure and forgetful of our work and welfare therefore we must stand fast in the purpose of our own hearts still to pursue this work till it be finished Those who are regenerated by the Spirit surely will have such reasonings in themselves and are not only in profession but indeed as the word is in the Text dying to sin and living to God And it is ordinary in Scripture to exhort by affirming that is to speak of the Duty of Believers as already done by them thereby to assure them it shall be done and to oblige them the more strongly to the endeavour of it Vse To press us to two things 1. To regard your Duty 2. To owne the Grace of Christ. 1. To regard your Duty of dying to Sin and living to God The Arguments to press it are these 1. From the Work it self which is so noble and excellent that if there were no benefit to ensue it were enough to ingage us It consists in these four Branches and Parts First To have the sensitive Appetite subject to Reason which is nothing else but to have the order of Nature preserved or that Man should carry himself rather like a Man than a Beast nor serve divers lusts and pleasures but be governed by his Reason and Conscience Now it should not be a hard Precept to us to perswade us to walk upon our feet rather than our heads let the head guide the body and the feet obey its direction put Reason in the Throne Secondly To have Reason illuminated and rectified by Faith which discovereth things to us out of the ken and view of Reason Heb. 11.1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen The Heathens had the highest opinion of those who were admitted into secrecy with their Gods and had things revealed to them which other Mortals could never have known This Honour have all his Saints They shall be all taught of God Joh. 6.45 higher Mysteries than Nature could discover Thirdly That this Faith should make us alive to God or enable and incline us to persevere in our Duty to him Faith is our life as begun Gal. 2.20 The life that I live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me As consummated Heb. 10.38 Now the just shall live by faith the Spirit working in us a practical fiducial assent to the saving Truths of the Gospel or affiance on God according to the Promises doth beget life in us or a resolution to obey God whatever it cost us Fourthly That this Faith working by Love doth incline and enable us to live accordingly The property of Faith is to work by love Gal. 5.6 Now see what these two Graces do The property of Love is to incline us to God it is the bent and biass of the Soul and the property of Faith is to enable us by presenting greater encouragements to the holy and heavenly Life than the World and the Flesh can produce to the contrary Now is this a toilsom and tedious life to have Appetite governed by Reason Reason elevated by Faith to the sight of God and the other World and Faith acting by Love and Hope which incline us to God and Heaven and fortifie and strengthen us against all the delights and terrors of sense This is nothing but dying to sin and living to God 2. From the consequent Benefits which are 1. Pardon of all their sins these have an interest in Christ a Pardon sealed by his Blood They that die to Sin and live to Righteousness have passed from death to life
he may devour with the World Jam. 4.4 Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God whosoever therefore will be a friend to the world is the enemy of God with the Flesh Rom. 7.15 For that which I do I allow not for what I would that I do not but what I hate that do I there is the strife described Now we resist 1. By strength of resolution Dan. 3.18 We will not serve thy gods nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up Psal. 39.1 I said I will take heed unto my ways that I offend not with my tongue 2. Partly by hazarding our temporal interests Heb. 12.4 Ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin Rev. 12.11 They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death 3. By opposing gracious considerations Gen. 39.9 How shall I do this wickedness and sin against God 1 Joh. 2.14 Ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you and ye have overcome the wicked one by opposing reasons out of Scripture or arguing strongly against sin 4. By praying or crying strongly for help when we are sensible of the burden of sin Rom. 7.24 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death 5. But chiefly by being acquainted with all the Christian Armor and the use of it we must not go one day unarmed but be armed cap-a-pee with the Helmet of Salvation which is Hope the Breast-plate of Righteousness the Girdle of Truth the Shoes of the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace the Shield of Faith the Sword of the Spirit The Apostle beginneth with First The Girdle of Truth whereby is meant a sincere and honest intention to be what we seem to be Satan useth wiâes but we must not imitate our Adversary in deceit but labour for Truth of Heart which as a Girdle is strength of the loins Secondly The Breast-plate of Righteousness which is a Principle of Grace inclining us to obey God in all things or a fixed purpose and endeavour to give God and man their due This secureth the breast or vital parts Thirdly The Feet must be shod We meet with rough ways as we are advancing to Heaven and Souldiers had their Greaves or brazen Shoes to defend from sharp-pointed Stakes fixed by the Enemy in the ground over which they were to march This Preparation is a readiness of mind to suffer any thing for Christ this is built on the Gospel of Peace Acts 21.13 Then Paul answered What mean ye to weep and break my heart for I am ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus 1 Pet. 3.15 Sanctifie the Lord God in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear We must be ready to confess Christ in Persecutions and dangers When we have a sense of our peace and friendship made up between God and us by Jesus Christ and our great and eternal interests are once setled what need a Believer fear Fourthly The Shield of Faith which covereth the whole body a sound belief of the Mysteries of the Gospel and the Promises thereof especially a clear sight of the World to come They that have such a Faith see a sure foundation to build upon On the one side the Righteousness of Christ or the Promises of the Gospel to a penitent Believer of Pardon of strength to maintain Grace received and finally of eternal Life on the other side Threats to impenitent and sensual persons Fifthly The Helmet of Salvation which is a well grounded hope of eternal Life 1 Thess. 5.8 But let us who are of the day be sober putting on the breast-plate of faith and love and for an helmet the hope of salvation This maketh a Christian hold up his head in the midst of all encounters and sore assaults he that often looketh above the Clouds and expecteth within a little while to be with God in the midst of the Glory of the World to come why should he be daunted Sixthly The Sword of the Spirit This is a Weapon both offensive and defensive it wardeth off Satans blows and maketh him fly away wounded and ashamed If Satan saith O it is too soon to mind Religion he hath the word ready Eccles. 12.1 Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth If that it is too late then Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life If that his sins are too great or too many to be pardoned then Isa. 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon If Satan tempt him to live sensually Rom. 8.13 If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye If to defile himself with base Lusts 1 Thess. 4.3 4. This is the will of God even your sanctification that ye should abstain from fornication That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour If to a negligent careless Profession then Phil. 2.12 Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling 1 Thess. 2.12 That ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his kingdom and glory If to despondency and fainting 2 Cor. 12.9 My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness SERMON XVI ROM VI. 15 What then shall we sin because we are not under the Law but under Grace God forbid HERE the Apostle preventeth an absurd Conclusion which might be inferred by people of a libertine Spirit from what he had said in the former verse either from the first or the last clause the Priviledge or the Reason from either carnal men might collect what might be matter of security to them in sin either because of the Priviledge Sin shall not have dominion over you therefore they might let loose the reins sin should not reign and consequently not damn Or else from the Reason Ye are not under the Law but under Grace the Negative part might seem to infer an exemption from the Duty of the Law the Positive But under Grace which provideth pardon for the lapsed they might infer hence that therefore they might sin impunè without any fear of punishment So that in short three Doctrines of Grace are apt to be abused First The free Pardon or exemption from Condemnation which the new Covenant hath provided for Sinners therefore they might sin securely no harm would come of it Secondly The Liberty and Exemption from the Rigour of the Law which requireth things impossible at our hands under the penalty of the Curse as if this had freed us from all manner
teacheth us That none can be a Servant to another but by the election and consent of his own proper Will and whatsoever service men enter they enter it of their own accord the Devil cannot force us to evil and Christ will not force us to good The second Notion teacheth us That we must not judge of our service to any either to Sin or God by our professed Consent barely but by our Practice and Obedience if we obey sin we are servants to sin whatever we prosess or say to the contrary and if we do not live in obedience to God whatever Professions Vows and Covenants we make to him or with him we are not Servants of God 2. In the Application of it to the matter in hand take notice 1. Of two contrary Masters Sin and Obedience 2. Of two contrary Rewards and Wages Death and Righteousness 3. The suiting the one to the other Sin and Death Obedience and Righteousness 1. By Sin he meaneth sinning wittingly and willingly constantly easily By Death as the Wages is understood the second or eternal Death 2. The other Master By Obedience is meant obedience to God if you obey Gods commands and as our Duty is expressed by Obedience so our Reward by Righteousness He doth not say ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã which the Law of Contraries would seem to require but ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã by Righteousness you may expound it either of our Title to Happiness or our Reward it self 1. Our Title you shall be pronounced and accepted as righteous and so Heirs of eternal Life There are many acceptations of the word Righteousness in Scripture In short take them thus 1. It may be taken in a Moral sense for a good disposition of mind and heart Eph. 4.24 That ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness 2. In a Legal or Judicial sense for a state of Acceptation or the ground of a Plea before the Tribunal of God So Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of one many shall be made righteous In this Judicial sense either with respect to the Precept or the Sanction 1. With respect to the Precept or the Law as it is sincerely and Evangelically obeyed 1 Joh. 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous And Luke 1.6 They were both righteous before God walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless this is opposite to reatus culpae 2. With respect to the Sanction which is double the Threatning or the Promise With respect to the Threatning so Righteousness implieth freedom from the Obligation to Punishment So Rom. 1.17 18. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness this is opposite to reatus poenae With respect to the Promise so Righteousness imports our Right and Title to eternal Life not from any merit in our obedience it self but Gods gracious condescension in the Covenant There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness 1 Tim. 4.8 Our Title is first by Faith then continued by new Obedience 2. It may imply the Reward it self for it is said elsewhere Isa. 48.18 O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments then had thy peace been as the river and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea Where by righteousness is not meant any moral Vertue or gracious Disposition but Prosperity and Happiness So Prov. 8.18 Riches and honour are with me yea durable riches and righteousness thereby is meant Felicity As Iniquity is put for Punishment He shall bear his iniquity so Righteousness is put for Reward So here Righteousness is opposed to Death and signifieth eternal Life Doctrine That it greatly concerneth Christians to consider upon what they bestow or imploy their Time Service and Obedience This will be evident by these Considerations 1. That the great business which belongeth to our Duty is the choice of a Master or to consider to what we must addict our selves and upon what we bestow our minds and hearts our life and love our time and strength 1 Kings 18.21 How long halt ye between two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him He brings the business to a tryal not to give them liberty to be of what Religion they pleased but on deliberation to chuse the best So Josh. 24.15 If it seem evil to you to serve the Lord chuse you this day whom you will serve He doth not leave it to their liberty to chuse God or Idols but would have them to compare the best with the worst the service of God or the service of Devils which will be Life and which will be Death which will be good and which will be bad for them not as if it were doubtful which to chuse for that is evident to any man in his right wits nor to blunt their zeal by any demurrer in the case but rather quicken and hasten their choice but chiefly that they might chuse freely and be more firm and constant in their Covenant and to shame them that they might be more inexcusable if pretending to God they divert their obedience from him to other things Well then whom will you serve and love To whom will ye give up your minds and hearts and whole man To do what God requireth or to serve and please your Lusts Make a right choice and then be firm and true to it Will you pretend to be Servants to God and do nothing for him 2. The Considerations which must guide us in this choice are two 1. Right and Interest 2. The Good or Hurt that we all get by it for there are wages proportionable and suitable to every work 1. Where lyeth the Right to command and who hath the best Title to us Justice is to give every one his own Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Surely sin is an Usurper but God is our rightful Lord for he made us and to him we must give an account of our time strength and imployments Acts 27.23 There stood by me this night an Angel of God whose I am and whom I serve And 2. His service turneth to the best account Our Apostle telleth us Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 3. That in a moral Consideration there are two Masters sinful Self and the Holy God This distribution comprehendeth all men either they are servants of Sin or servants to God whosoever yieldeth his consent or obedience to sin doth thereby make himself the true and proper servant of sin and whosoever yieldeth his obedience to God is the servant of God If you deliver up your selves to serve God to obey his commands you will be reputed as his Servants and so accepted
living And Acts 2.36 Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ and Psal. 2.7 8 9 10 11. So that he is Lord of the new Creation and man doth owe Obedience not only to God as Creator but to Christ as Redeemer and Ruler 2. Christ being possessed of this Lordship and Dominion hath made a new law of Grace which is propounded as a remedy for the relieving and restoring the lapsed World of mankind to the grace and favour of God granting pardon and life to all that sincerely repent and believe in him and live in new Obedience and peremptorily concluding and damning those to everlasting Death that shall refuse these terms 3. This new constitution and Gospel Covenant hath all the formalities of a Law and here I shall shew you first wherein it agreeth and secondly wherein it differeth from the laws of men 1. Wherein it agreeth First in the promulgation of it with full Authority 't is not only enacted pleno jure by an absolute and uncontrollable right but proclaimed by authorized Messengers sent by the Lord Christ who in his name were to require the Obedience of the World to his new Law Matth. 28.19 20. All power is given to me in heaven and earth go ye forth therefore and teach all nations baptizing them in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you he sendeth abroad his Heralds summoning the World to Obedience Act 5.31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins And Acts 17.30 The times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men every where to repent He commandeth all men to repent because he will judg the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained Acts 17.31 And Acts 10.36 We preach peace by Jesus Christ who is Lord of all In these places Christs Right and Authority is asserted and the Gospel is preached in his Name and the World invited and commanded to obey 2. In the obligation and force There is not only direction given to us to obey the Gospel but a Charge and Obligation is laid upon us The Gospel is sometimes called the counsel of God Luke 7.30 they rejected the counsel of God against themselves Sometime the law of God is called his Counsel as 't is the result of his wisdom and his Law as 't is the effect of his legislative Will he would not only direct and instruct the Creature by his counsel but oblige him by his Authority Decretum necessitatem facit exhortatio liberum voluntatem excitat saith the Canonist Exhortation or Advice serveth to direct or excite one that is free but a Decree and Law implyeth a necessity to obey So Hierom Vbi consilium datur offerentis arbitrium est ubi praeceptum necessitus servitatis Counsel and Precept differ Precept saith not only we shall do well to do so but we must do so Counsel respects friends a Preeept subjects There is a coactive power in Laws God hath not left the Creatures to comply with his directions if they please no there is a strict charge laid upon them they must do it at their peril Laws have a binding force from the authority of their Law-giver God giveth us counsel as a friend but commandeth us as a Sovereign Therefore we read much of the Obedience of Faith Rom. 16.26 The Gospel was manifested to all nations for the obedience of faith And Rom. 1.5 We have received Apostleship for the obedience of faith among all Nations So Acts 6.7 and a great company of priests were obedient to the faith And 2 Cor. 10.5 bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. And 1 Pet. 1.22 having purified your hearts in obeying the truth through the spirit And Acts 5.32 The holy Ghost which is given to them that obey All this is said to shew 't is not Arbitrary or Indifferent but we are bound by the authority of this new Law 3. This Law hath a sanction otherwise it were but an arbitrary Direction though delivered in a preceptive form the sanction is by promises of reward or by threatnings of punishment the precept establisheth mans duty and is the rule of our obedience which if it be neglected infers culpam fault or blame the sanction is the rule of Gods proceeding and so it inferreth poenam punishment Mark 16.16 The law of grace threatneth us with the highest penalties John 3.19 This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light and Heb. 20.9 of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy c. though in the loss all are equal yet Conscience in Hell hath a kind of Accusation or self-tormenting in reflecting upon the refusal of the remedy or losing the special advantages we had by the Gospel As the breach of the Law is vindicated on the Jew first Rom. 2.9 so the Gospel when known to be the only way of Peace and Life 't is the worse for us in the Judgment if we neglect it Secondly The promises are given to sweeten the precepts to us that we may obey in love not as slaves for fear of punishment only Forced motives change not the heart endure not long therefore in Christs Law there are promises of pardon of Sin Adoption into Gods Family and finally eternal life We make the precept to be the way to the promise and God maketh the promises to be the motive to the precept we keep the precept to obtain the promise but God propoundeth the promise that we may keep the precept more comfortably We aim at happiness but God aimeth at obedience and maketh that the end of all his promises so that we must obey the command that we may obtain the blessing of the promise and be assured of it and we believe the promise that we may obey the precept 4. This sanction supposeth an exercise of government according to law and so that there is a just Governor and Administrator who will take account how this new law of grace is kept or broken So there is here now in part both in the way of internal or external Government First internal government as the kingdom of God is within us Luke 17.20 Soul-government is carried on according to this rule of commerce between us and God as there is a sense of our Duty written upon our hearts a remaining inward principle inclining us to it Heb. 8.10 so there is a fear of our Judg who will call us to an account for the violation of his Law an inward sentence of life or death upon us as we do good or evil the bitter afflictive sense of Gods displeasure in case of evil and the rewards of love and obedience as tasts of Gods acceptance given us by his Spirit upon
for their evidences are not clear by which they should be tryed Mortification Gal. 5.24 They that are Chrisâs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Courage 1 Pet. 4.14 If ye be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye 3 d Use is of Direction to all sorts of Christians 1. Do all your duties as those that are under the law of the spirit of life Not in the oldness of the letter but the newness of the spirit not customarily formally but seriously with a life and a power believe in the Spirit 1 Cor. 2.5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Love in the spirit Col. 1.8 Who also declared to us your love in the spirit Hope in the spirit Gal. 5.5 For we through the spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith Hear in the spirit pray in the spirit and obey in the spirit 1 Pet. 1.22 Seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the spirit Let there be a Spirit and Life in all that you do 2. Beg of your Redeemer to pour out a fuller measure of his Spirit in your Souls he hath promised it Zech. 12.10 I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication Isa. 44.3 For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground and I will pour my spirit upon thy seed and my blessing upon thine off-spring The Saints have begg'd it earnestly Psal. 143.10 Teach me to do thy will for thou art my God thy spirit is good lead me into the land of uprightness And Luke 11.13 They that ask shall have None lack this grace but those that forfeit it by neglect and contempt and resistance of the motions of his holy Spirit 3. Vse Ordinances to this end All these are helps and means to obtain it the Gospel worketh morally and powerfully 'T is the Divine power giveth us all things to life and godliness therefore in the use of means you must wait for it 2 Pet. 1.3 According to his divine power he hath given us all things 4. Let us examine often and see if we are partakers of his Spirit Two Evidences there be of it and they are both in the Text life and liberty First life for this spirit is called the spirit of life in Christ Jesus by it we are enabled to live the life of faith and holiness Gal. 2.20 I live by the faith of the son of God Doth it rule the main course of your lives denying the pleasures and profits and honours of the World we must live in Christ and to Christ we must not only seek truth in the Gospel but life in the Gospel Secondly liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty There is more alacrity readiness and chearfulness in obedience Psal. 119.32 I will run the ways of thy commandments when thou shalt inlarge my heart 'T is a liberty not to do what we list but what we ought and that upon gracious and free motives with a large heart that can deny God nothing but is sweetly and strongly inclined to him SERMON III. ROM VIII 2 Hath made me free from the Law of Sin and Death WE now come to the second point 2 Doct. That the new Covenant giveth liberty to all that are under it from the slavery of sin and the condemning power of the law Let me explain this point and here I shall shew you 1. That liberty supposeth precedent bondage 2. That our liberty must answer the bondage 3. I shall shew you the manner of getting our liberty First Liberty supposeth preceding bondage for when Christ spake of liberty or making them free the Jews quarrelled at it John 8.33 We were never in bondage to any man how sayest thou then that ye shall be made free So much we gather from their cavil That it is the first thought or the ready sentiment and opinion of mankind That to be made free implieth a foregoing bondage now our Bondage consisteth in a slavery to Sin and Satan and being under the condemning power of the law or obligation to the curse and eternal damnation 1. That man is under the slavery of sin which the Law convinceth him of that it is so with us the Scripture sheweth Titus 3.3 We were sometimes foolish and disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures 1. There is the condition of natural men they serve 2. The baseness of the Master lusts and divers lusts 3. The bait or motive by which they are drawn into this service intimated in the word pleasures for a little bruitish satisfaction a man selleth his Liberty his Soul his Religion his Good and All. The word ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã is most proper to our purpose for that noteth his slavery carnal affections so govern us that we know not how to escape and come out of this thraldome we suffer the Beast to ride the Man it were monstrous in the body for the feet to be where the head should be or to have the limbs distorted to have the arms hang backward yet such a de-ordination there is in the Soul when Reason and Conscience is put in vassalage to sense and appetite The natural order is this Reason and Conscience directs the Will the Will moveth the affections the affections move the bodily Spirits and they the senses and members of the body but natural corruption inverts all pleasures affect the senses the senses corrupt the phantasy the phantasy moveth the bodily spirits the affections by their violence and inclination inslave the Will and blind the Mind and so man is carried head-long to his own Destruction This Slavery implieth three things 1. A willing subjection Rom. 6.16 Know ye not âhat to whom ye yield your selves servants to obey his servants ye are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Servants were made so eitheâ by consent or conquest The Apostle speaketh there not of servants by conquest but of servants by consent and covenant When a man yeildeth up himself to be at the disposal of another he is a servant to him so in moral matters by whatever a man is imployed and to which he giveth up his time and strength life and love to that he is a servant be it to the flesh or to the spirit as we make it our business to accomplish or gratifie the desires of the one or the other A godly man hath sin in him but he doth not serve it yield up himself to obey it he doth not walk after his lusts 2. Customary practise and observance John 8.34 Whosoever eommitteth sin is the servant of sin ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã that liveth in an habit and course of sin these are brought under the power of it inslaved by such pleasures as they affect 3. Inability to come out of this condition The Law is
passed upon us by the law and acquitted and discharged from the guilt of sin and being justified by faith are made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3.7 That I will not speak of now because before in the first Verse I now proceed to open unto you the last Thing at first propounded which was 3. The manner of getting our liberty There are three words in the Text Law Spirit and Christ Jesus Let us begin with the last Christ procureth this liberty for us by the merit of his death and intercession The Law or Gospel offereth this liberty to us and the Spirit first applieth it and sealeth it to the Conscience 1. Christ procureth and purchaseth this liberty for us both from the damning power of the Law and the slavery of corruption We were Captives shut up under Sin and Death and he paid our ransom and so obtained for us remission of sins and the sanctification of the spirit remission of Sins Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption by his blood the remission of sins That 's one part of our recovery highly necessary for guilty Creatures how else can we stand before the Tribunal of God or look him in the face with any confidence but his redemption did not only reach this but the sanctification of the spirit also Therefore 't is said 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye are not redeemed with corruptible things but by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. Thus Christ doth what belongeth to him and none can share with him in this honour 't is his merit that is at the bottom of the Covenant and procured for us both the favour and image of God that we might love him and be beloved by him 2. There is a Law or New Covenant which offereth this grace to us The law of nature concludeth men under Sin and pronounceth Death upon them Christ hath set up a new remedial Law of Grace by which we are called to submit to Christ and thankfully to accept of his merciful preparations even the great benefits of pardon and life The Gospel or New Covenant doth its part First There is Grace published or offered to us Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for he hath anointed me to preach deliverance to the captives 'T is not enough that our ransom be paid but the offer must be made or else how shall it be laid hold upon by faith and received with thankfulness and with a due sense of the benefit Now the Gospel sheweth liberty may be had upon sweet and commodious and easie terms 2. The terms are stated in the Covenant That we give up our selves to the Lord by Christ and be governed and ruled by the conduct of his Word and Spirit Gal. 3.2 Received ye the spirit by the works of the law or the hearing of faith And 2 Tim. 2.25 26. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will The Covenant is not left to our humours and fancies to model and bring it down to our liking no nor are only the benefits offered but terms stated Isa. 56.4 That chuse the things that please me and take hold of my covenant When he hath stated his terms 't is too late for man to interpose his Vote or to imagine to bring down Christianity to a lower rate for we must not new model it but take hold of it as God hath left it Be in Christ and walk after his Spirit 3. This liberty is assured and established by the Covenant the Conscience of sin and the fears of condemnation are not easily done away and we are so wedded to our lusts that the power of reigning sin is not easily broken therefore we had need of a sure firm Covenant to ratifie these Priviledges to us because our fears are justified by a former Law made by God himself therefore God would not deal with us by naked Promise but put his Grace into a Covenant-form that we may have as good to shew for our Salvation as we had for our Condemnation yea and more And God hath added his Oath That the consolation of the heirs of promise might be more strong Heb. 6.18 And it being a latter grant former transactions cannot disannul it so that the Covenant doth its part also to free beâievers from the power of Sin and the fears of Condemnation 4. The Spirit applieth this grace both as to the effects and the sense as to the effects he applieth it in effectual calling as this quickning spirit doth regenerate us and convert us to God and break the power and tyranny of Sin the wages whereof is Death the Gospel is the means but the blessing is from the Spirit John 8.32 Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free that is ye shall know it savingly so as to feel the power and efficacy of it To be set free to know love serve and delight in God is that liberty that we have by the free Spirit Psal. 51.12 Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit 2. The spirit sealeth it as to the sense when we come to discern our freedom by the effects of it in our own souls Eph. 1.13 After ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise And in the fruit of Christs purchase Gal. 4.4 5 6. But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying Abba Father The Spirits seal is Gods impress upon our Souls left there not to make us known to God for he knoweth who are his from all eternity but for the increase of our joy and comfort not by guess but some kind of certainty 1 John 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in God and God dwelleth in us by his spirit that he hath given us by the Spirit dwelling and working in us we know our interest this is not so absolutely necessary as the former to our safety but very comfortable There is a Spirit that attendeth the Law reviving fears in men and a sense of Gods Wrath and there is a Spirit attending the Gospel inclining us to come to God as a Father Rom. 8.15 The one is called the spirit of bondage the other the spirit of Adoption Now because the law is so natural to us we the more need this liberty Vse 1. Since there is a Liberty by Christ and that wrought in us by the Spirit but dispensed by the Gospel let us seek it in this way Therefore consider 1. Your need since every man is under the power of Sin naturally and so under a sentence
things as many that do well here in the world fare ill in the world to come but now 't is otherwise with the godly John 16. 20. Your sorrow shall be turned into joy Our last and final portion is most to be ragarded the Christian by temporal trouble goeth to eternal joy the worldling by temporal glory to eternal shame a Christians end is better than his beginning he is best at last a man would not have evil after experience of good 4. The comparison tho it be rightly stated and weighed by us it will have no efficacy unless we have faith or a deep sense of the world to come For unless we believe these things they seem too uncertain and too far off to work upon us 'T is easie to reason down our bodily and worldly choice and to shew how much eternal things exceed temporal but this taketh no hold of the heart till there be a firm belief of the glry oreserved for Gods People Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen and 2 Pet. 1.9 He that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off To draw us from things that we see and feel we need a clear light about things we see not Men are sharp sighted enough in things that concern the present world but beyond it we can see nothing but by the perspective of faith and therefore reason as long as we will yet the consideration of the other world doth nothing prevail with us without a lively faith 5. This faith must be often exercised by serious meditations or deep and ponderous thoughts For the greatest truths work not if we do not think of them Faith sheweth us a truth but consideration is the means to improve it that we may make a good choice and our hearts may be fortified against all temptations we must often sit down and count the charges with our selves what it will cost us what we shall lose and what we shall get Luke 14.28 29 30. The Spirit of God will not help us without our thoughts for he dealeth not with us as birds do in feeding their young bringing meat to them and putting it into their mouths while they lie still in the nest and only gape to receive it but as God giveth Corn while we plow sow weed dress and with patience expect his blessing No here the Apostle was reasoning and weighing the case within himself 6. There is besides sound belief and serious consideration need of the influence and assistance of the holy spirit For besides his giving faith and exciting and blessing meditation to dispose and frame our hearts to bide by this conclusion the influence of the Holy Ghost is necessary for God is the chief disposer of hearts 't is not enough notionally to know this but we must be practically resolved and the heart inclined 't is a new inlightned mind and a renewed heart that is only capable of determining thus that we may live by it and that is by another spirit than the spirit of the world which naturally possesseth us even the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Which is promised to his children and inclineth us to place our happiness not in worldly things but in Christ and his benefits in short sense is too strong for reason without faith and faith cannot do its office without the spirit the flesh seeketh not reason but ease unless the heart be changed and otherwise biassed and bent all is lost USE Now I must shew you the use of this Doctrine 1. Certainly 't is useful for the afflicted in any sort whatever their troubles and afflictions be First for common evils 1. Are you pained with sickness a role to and fro in your bed like a door on the hinges for the weariness of your flesh in Heaven you shall have everlasting ease for that is a state of rest Heb 4.9 We are apprehensive of present pain but not of the greatness of the ease peace and glory that shall succeed tho the pains be acute the sickness lingring and hangeth long upon you yet present time is quickly past but eternity shall have no end 2. Must you dye and the guest be turned out of the old house You have a building with God eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 You do but leave a shed to live in a Palace and forsake an unquiet world for a place of everlasting repose 2. 'T is especially to be applied te those that suffer for righteousness sake Shall we shrink at sufferings for Christ when we shall be in glory with him for evermore How short is the suffering How long the reward For a greater good we should endure a lesser evil A Traveller endureth all the difficulties of the way for the sake of the place where he is going unto so should we What is the evil threatned Are you cast out by man as unworthy to live in any civil society You shall be received by the Lord into an everlasting abode with him 1 Thes. 5.17 And so shall we be ever with the Lord. Have you lost the love of all men for your sincerity and faithfulness You shall everlastingly enjoy the love of God Rom. 8.39 Are you reproached calumniated in the world Then you shall be justified by Christ and your faith found to honour praise and glory 2 Pet. 1.7 Are you cast into Prison you shall shortly be in your Fathers House where there are many mansions John 14.2 Are you reduced to forbid poverty You may read in the Scripture of the riches of the glory of the inheritance of the saints Eph. 1.18 In short are you tempted opposed persecuted consider much of your journey is past away you are nearer eternity than you were when you first believed Rom. 13. 11. They that both tempt and persecute cannot give so much to you or take so much from you as is worthy to be compared with your great hopes Immortal happiness is most desirable and endless misery most terrible therefore be you faithful to the death and you shall have the Crown of Life Rev. 2.10 Is life its self likely to be forced out by the violence of man the sword is but the key to open Heaven Door for you surely this hope will make the greatest sufferings to become light turn pain into pleasure yea and death its self into life 2. 'T is useful for all if only for the afflicted None is exempted and you must hear for the time to come but every good Christian should be of this temper and spirit and wholly fetch his solaces from the world to come else he is not possessed with a true spirit of Christianity which warneth us all to prepare for sufferings and calleth for self-denyal besides this is a great means to mortifie worldly affections which are the great impediment of the heavenly life when we once learn to despise the afflictions of the world our affections to the delights thereof die by consent both are
Acts 24.15 16. I have hope towards God that there shall be a resurrection of the just and unjust ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã And herein or thereupon or in the mean time do I exercise my self to keep a conscience void of offence towards God and towards men 2. To vanquish temptations Which are either on the right hand or on the left but both are defeated by hope on the right hand when some present delight is ready to invite us to sin on the left hand when some present bitterness is likely to draw us from the ways of God in both cases the hopes of future joys outweigheth that pleasure and allay that bitterness If the temptation be the comforts of the world or the delights of sin he that sincerely hopeth for Heaven dareth not think so slightly of it as to lose it or put it to hazzard for a little carnal satisfaction 't is noted high prophaneness in Esau to sell the birth-right for a morsel of meat Heb. 12.16 Sin cannot offer him things so good but he must forego better and so the heart riseth in indignation against the temptation Shall I leave my fatness my sweetness to rule over the Trees If the temptation be some grievous inconvenience or affliction Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us and 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory This is the language of one that hopes for salvation all is but a flea-biting to him that hath his heart in Heaven 3. To comfort us in all our tribulations There are many difficulties that intervene and fall out between hope and having between our first right to eternal life and our full possession of it in our journey to Heaven we meet with tryals and sufferings by the way now 't is hope carryeth us through and therefore 't is compared to an Anchor Heb. 6.19 To an Helmet 1 Thes. 4.8 As we would not go to Sea without an Anchor nor to War without an Helmet so neither must we think of carrying on the spiritual life without hope nothing else will compose the mind or keep it stable in the floods of temptation therefore 't is an Anchor nothing else will cause us to hold up head in our daily conflicts and encounters with afflictions but this Helmet without this Anchor we are in danger of spiritual shipwrack without this Helmet our Heads are exposed to deadly blows from sin Satan and worldly discouragements 4. That we may dye peaceably and with comfort We need hope while we live but we most need it when we come to die and shoot the gulph of death They that are destitute of the hope of salvation are then in a dangerous woful and most lamentable case Job 27.8 What is the hope of the hypocrite if he hath gained when God taketh away his soul They may be full of presumption and blind confidence while they live but what hope have they when they come to dye All their worldly advantages will then yield them no solid comfort We live in a presumptuous dream that all shall be well but then they dye stupid and sensless or else despairing and their hopes fail when they have most need of them but then a lively hope of eternal life sustaineth the hearts of the faithful they are going to possess what they expected and when they resign their souls to Christ they can commit their bodies to the grave in hope Psal. 16.9 10. My flesh shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my soul in hell nor suffer thine holy one to see corruption God will not utterly forsake that dust that is in covenant with him nor suffer his servants totally to be extinguished or finally to perish 1. VSE is Information 1. That the great reward of a Christian lyeth not in things seen but unseen Not in the good of this world but of another because hope is one of the graces requisite to his constitution and hope is about future things Much to blame then are they who place all their happiness in present things which are so transitory God hath reserved us to a future estate because he bestoweth graces that suit with it and nothing so opposite to it as the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2.12 For we have not received the spirit of the world but the spirit which is of God 2. The Cognation and kin that is between faith and hope The one is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 The other is the earnest desire and expectation of things not seen The one is an Assent the other an Appetition Faith differeth from hope 1. In the order of nature Faith goeth before as the cause is before the effect First There is a firm perswasion of good things to come and then a certain expectation of them in the way which God hath appointed Faith assents to the truth of the promise and hope looketh for the accomplishment of it 2. In the object there is some difference First in the latitude of the object The object of faith is larger Faith is of things past present and to come as by faith we believe the Creation of the world Heb. 11.4 The present existence of God Heb. 11.6 And the truth of heavenly joys Heb. 11.1 Hope is only of things to come So again we believe some things that we hope not for as the Torments of the damned For hope is an expectation of good to come and the pains of hell are matter of fear not of hope Secondly In the formal consideration of the object Faith looketh to the word promising verbum rei hope to the thing promised rem verbi Faith considereth the veracity or truth of God in making the promise hope the benignity and goodness of God in making so great a promise as eternal life and salvation by Christ Faith respects the person giving his fidelity hope the persons receiving their benefit Faith perswadeth us there is salvation hope that we shall or at least may obtain it 3. There is a difference in the subject Faith as 't is an assent is in the mind hope is in the affections as reflecting upon the goodness of the thing promised so that tho there be some difference between faith and hope yet they are much of a like nature 3. It informeth us of the excellency of hope faith saveth Eph. 2.8 and hope saveth as in the text which is to be regarded because our thoughts run so much upon faith that we overlook hope and we do so altogether regard our present reconciliation with God through the merits of Christ that we forget our Eternal fruition of him in glory and what is necessary thereunto as if the whole drift of the new covenant were only to comfort us against the guilt of sin Now a Christian should mind both not only his
importance and the eternal recompences not their own interest only as David Psal. 73.13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocency As if he had said What reward is there of Holiness Mortification Patience and self-denyal In the lower world where God is unseen our great hopes yet to come the flesh being importunate to be pleased and the things of the world necessary for our use and present to our imbraces Christians are not certain and past all doubts of the truth of their everlasting hopes else there would be no weak faith nor faint hope Did not the Disciples in a great temptation doubt of an Article of Faith Luke 24.21 But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel And v. 25. O ye fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken To doubt of what the Prophets spake was not to doubt of their own Salvation but of the constant state of their Souls all the Godly are perswaded of the truth of the Gospel that ordinarily they have no considerable doubts about it but that still they resolve to cleave to God and Christ looking for their reward in another world whatever it cost them here and in some measure can fell all for the pearl of price 2. As to the hope which ariseth from your assurance 1. Make your sincerity more clear and unquestionable and every day your hope and your confidence will increase upon you to believe and hope that you your selves shall be saved is very desirable and comfortable but then you must do that which assurance calleth for give diligence to make your calling and election sure abound in the love and work of the Lord grow more indifferent to temporal things venture all in Christs hands for while your faith and repentance is obscure you will not have such full comfort tho you are confident of the truth of Gods promise to all penitent believers 4. This latter or consequent hope which dependeth on the assurance of our interest admits of a latitude it may be full or not full Heb. 6.11 To the full assurance of hope That is full which casteth out all fear that is not full which is accompanied with doubts but the certainty prevaileth Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Cant. 5.2 I sleep but my heart waketh Now we should labour to go to Heaven with full sails or abound in hope Rom. 15.13 and 2 Pet. 1.11 For so an enterance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. With hearts full of Comfort 5. When 't is full it may be interrupted or continued to the end or at sometimes it may be full or nor full at another 1 Pet. 1.13 Hope to the end If we continue in our duty with diligence affection and zeal our full hope may be continued if we abate our fervour grow remiss and cold in the spiritual life we lose much of the comfort of our hopes 6. The hope which followeth after experience and much exercise in the spiritual life may result from an act of ours and from an impression of the comforting Spirit 1. From an act of ours From our considering the truth of Gods promises or his wonderful mercy in Christ and his grace inabling us in some measure to fulfil the conditions of the new Covenant when thereupon we put forth hope Phil. 3.20 21. For our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body 2. Or some impression of the comforting spirit supporting and relieving us in our distresses or rewarding our self-denial and obedience as Rom. 5.5 Hope leaveth not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the holy ghost given unto us The one is an act of Godliness the other one of Gods internal rewards the one is a duty the other a felicity 2. VSE Is to press us to get and act hope Hope implieth two things 1. Certain Perswasion 2. An earnest Expectation The certainty is seen in the quiet and pleasure of the mind for the present The earnestness in the diligent pursuit after the thing hoped for by all holy means Now we must look to both acts of Hope 1. To strengthen the certain expectation There we must often revive the grounds of hope which are these 1. The mercy of God which hath made such rich preparation for our comfort in the Gospel The first ground of hope to the faln creature is the undeserved grace mercy and goodness of God 2 Thes. 2.16 He hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace And therefore it is our great invitation to hope Psal. 130.7 Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord is mercy and plenteous redemption Apply your selves to God as a God of mercy otherwise such were our undeservings and our ill deservings there were no hope for us so Psal. 13.5 I have trusted in thy mercy my soul shall rejoyce in thy salvation Let others trust in what they will I will trust in thy mercy The serious remembrance of Gods mercy maketh hope lift up the head so Jude 21. Looking for the mercy of the Lord Jesus unto eternal life There 's our best and strongest plea to the very last Therefore the Heirs of promise are called Rom. 9.23 Vessels of mercy Because from first to last they are filled up with mercy 2. The promise of God which cannot fail Titus 1.2 The hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began he promised it to Christ in the Covenant of Redemption and he hath promised it to us in the Covenant of Grace that before time this in time now God will not fail to do what he hath promised when he made the promise he meant to perform it For what need had God to court his creature into a false hope or to flatter him into a fools paradise to tell them of an happiness he never meant to give them and if he meant it is he not able to perform it Men break their word out of weakness they cannot do all that they would their will exceedeth their power Or out of imprudence they cannot foresee what may happen or out of levity and inconstancy for all men are lyars but none of these things can be imagined of God We have Gods Word and Oath Heb. 6.18 We have his Seal the spirit who hath wrought miracles without to confirm this hope and assâre the world Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy ghost Within preparing the hearts of the faithful for this blessed estate Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy spirit whereby ye are sealed to the day of redemption And giving them some beginnings of it as an earnest 2 Cor. 1.22 Who
and unseen But other qualifications are necessary beyond these already mentioned 1. It must be something promised by God 2. Believed by us before we can hope for it 1. Such future things as God hath promised to bestow upon us These are the matter and object of our faith and hope the promise giveth us notice and the promise giveth us assurance First Notice We can have no other certain knowledg of their futurity but by Gods promise the light of nature or reason giveth a shrewd guess at a future estate but the certain knowledg we have by Gods Word there life and immortality is brought to light 2 Tim. 1.10 He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel There we have the clear prospect of it the Heathen had nothing but the light of nature to guide them spake doubtfully of a future estate like men travelling on the hills and see the spire of a steeple at a distance sometimes they have a sight of it and presently they lose it and so cannot certainly tell whether they saw it yea or no but all is clear full and open in Gods promise 2. Certainty and assurance for it conveyeth a right to us upon certain terms for he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life John 3.36 Hath it in the offer and promise of God if he will fulfil the condition required not only shall have it at the close of their days but they have the grant already and therefore wait for ãâã ââuition as we are fulfilling the conditions we gain more security and confidence that we shall have it 1 Tim. 6.12 Fight the good fight of faith lay hold on eternal life V. 19. Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation that they may lay hold on eternal life The meaning is challenge it for theirs In short our expectation must be grounded on some promise or else 't is but a fancy and presumption 2. The thing hoped for must be believed by us For there can be no expectation of things not seen till there be faith which is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 First There is a firm assent by faith we are as confident in some measure of those things as if we saw them with our eyes or as we are of those things which we daylie see then after this assent there followeth earnest expectation For hope maketh the assent practical Though God promise never so much yet if we believe him not we expect nothing therefore faith is necessary look as to bodily sight there needeth an object to be seen and an eye by which we see so in spiritual sight the promise sets the object before us Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus and Heb. 6.18 lay held of the hope set before us But the eye is faith which though it cannot give us sight it giveth us foresight we have heard of it though yet we have not seen it and see it by the eyes of the mind as it is contained in the promise of the everlasting God though we do not and cannot see it with the eyes of the body Compare it with reason By reason we apprehend more than we see for we see effects in their causes but that is but probable foresight for many things intervene between the cause and the effect by faith we foresee the blessing in the promise by reason we see things beyond sense so far as natural probabilities will carry us by faith we see things beyond reason so far as the promises of good invite us to a better hope But how can we surely hope for that we see not which neither sense nor reason can inform us of Answer 1. This glory is not a fancy 't is seen by many in our nature that now possess it and by the word of God you are invited to follow them in the same course of holiness and godliness that you may in time see it also Heb. 6.12 be ye followers of them who through faith and patience have inherited the promises propound the same noble end and the same holy course and matters of faith will in time become matters of sense Now though the end be unknown the way is so good and holy and justifiable by reason that we should venture the imitation of them not their holiness only but their faith Heb. 11.13 they lived and dyed in this faith their life was holy and their death was happy that are gone into the other world But you will say If we could talk with any of these that are gone into the other world Luke 16.30 31. And he said Nay father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they would repent and he said unto him They have Moses and the Prophets and if they will not hear them neither will they be perswaded if one should come from the dead They are out of the sphere of our commerce their testimony is not convenient for the government of God who will not govern the world by sense but by faith and besides you have better hopes Moses and the Prophets there is more reason to perswade a man the Scriptures are true than to believe a message brought him from one among the dead 2. One that hath seen and is an infallible witness hath testified to us of the truth of these things we hope for John 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten son which is in the bosome of the father he hath declared him Christ perfectly saw and knew all that he hath told us of âod and the world to come John 3.11 Verily verily I say unto thee We speak that which we know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness so that our faith and hope goeth on sure grounds so verse 32. What he hath seen and heard he testifieth and no man receiveth his testimony A good man whose testimony is valuable that hath been in a strange country and testifieth what he hath seen there of it would not we believe him Christ that came from the other world and told us of the blessedness of it deserveth the credit of a good man he used a faithful plainness John 14.2 if it were not so I would have told you But more of a Teacher sent from God who confirmed his message by miracles and laid down a Doctrine holy and good and shall not we receive his testimony concerning these things he had perfect knowledge of assured us of the truth of them shall we not receive his testimony 3. Those that saw him and conversed with him were not only authorized by him to shew us the way to Eternal life but saw so much of it themselves as the mortal state is capable of yet enough to prove the reality of the thing 1 John 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life for the life was
come to Christ For the power of God disposeth us to accept of his offer and not only encourageth but inclineth us to come to him for his calling is sanctifying and changing the heart Rom. 9.25 I will call them my people which were not my people That is make them to be so 1. VSE Hearken to this calling 1. From the benefit Doth God call thee to thy loss or do thee any wrong when he disturbeth thy sleep in sin and invites thee to partake of the riches of his Grace in Christ No he calls thee to the greatest happiness thou art capable of 2 Thes. 2.14 He hath called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God seeketh to advance you to the greatest honour can be put upon mankind 'T is a blessed estate 1 Pet. 5.10 He hath called you to his eternal glory by Jesus Christ. That glorious happiness for ever 2. The great misery if we refuse this call None of those that were bidden shall tast of my Supper Luke 14.24 They are not only excluded from happiness but are under extream wrath and misery Prov. 24 25 26. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I will also laugh at your calamity I will mock when your fear cometh 2. USE is To press you to make your calling and election sure 2 Pet. 1.10 It cannot be more sure than it is in its self but it may be more sure to us This may be known by these signs ââ cation can be imagined either in God or out of God not in God nothing can fall out but what God foresaw at first nor can be frustrated for any defect of power for he is Almighty Angels Devils and Men being subject to him as the supreme and universal Lord. 4. This grace is brought about in a way most convenient for the honour of God and the good of the creature in a way of Faith and Holiness Faith John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life Holiness Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love Now faith is his gift Eph. 2.8 We are saved by grace through faith and that not of our selves it is the gift of God And Holiness is wrought in us by the spirit of Sanctification and that with a respect to his election 2 Thes. 2.13 He hath chosen you to salvation through the sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth God did not chuse us because he did foresee that we should be believers or would be holy but that we might believe and might be holy he could not foresee any faith or holiness in us but what was the fruit of his own grace and elective love to us all is still according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began Faith and holiness is the way and means of bringing about his purpose not the foreseen cause and reason or the end the fruit of it not the motive to induce God to shew us mercy 5. To promote this faith and holiness and to preserve them 'till their glorified estate Gods Providence about them is very remarkable 1. He contriveth means to bring them into the world Many of their Parent may be wicked and deserve to be cut off for their sins but because there is a blessing in some of the Clusters they are not destroyed Many times a slip may be taken from an ill stock and grafted into the Tree of Life tho the Grace of the Covenant runneth most kindly in the channel of the Covenant How much more shall these which be the natural branches be grafted into their own Olive-tree Rom. 11.24 But yet God will shew the liberty of his counsels and chuse some out of families very opposite to his wayes and therefore many wicked men are spared that they may be a means to bring into the world those that afterwards shall believe Ahaz is let alone to beget Hezekiah and a wicked Ammon Josiah and there was one in the house of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin one child only in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel 1 Kings 14.13 a godly young man that had in his heart the true seeds of Religion 2. When they are born God hath a special care of them that they may not dye in their unregenerate condition from the womb the decree beginneth to take place and be put in act Gal. 1.15 It pleased God who separated me from my mothers womb and called me by his grace Jer. 1 5. When thou camest out of the womb I knew thee He took special notice that that child was a vessel of mercy and to be employed for his glory and used for such and such purposes as he had designed them unto to fit them with such a constitution of body and mind as might best serve for that use if a man would trace the progress of Providence he would plainly see that God still hath been pursuing his choice and that that antecedent love which is the fountain of all our mercies is it which rocked you in your cradles suckled you at your Mothers breast trained you up and took care of your non-age visited you with his early mercies disposed of several Providences for your safety and preservation 't is said in Heaven we shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13.12 compare Gal. 4.9 But now after that ye have known God or rather are known of God Then we shall understand how many several circumstances concurred to bring us home to God and how the goodness of God hath gone along with you from time to time to preserve you till the time of Grace was come rescued you in eminent dangers when the thred of your life was likely to be fretted asunder 3. The dispensation of means and the directing of means to such a place and people where and among whom the course of your life fell Not only the Doctrine but the journeys of the Apostles were ordered by the Spirit Acts 16.7 They assayed to go into Bythinia but the spirit suffered them not Acts 13.26 To you is this word of salvation sent Not brought by us but sent by God not only in regard of his institution but providential direction certainly there is a special Providence goeth along with ordinances and they are ordered and directed with respect to Gods elective love he sendeth furnisâeth continueth able instruments Acts 18.10 I am with thee and no man shall let on thee to hurt thee for I have much people in this city Wherever God lighteth a candle he hath some lost groat to seek He had much people belonging to his election in
Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more 'T is fit Gods turn should be served before ours that we should be willing to return to our obedience before we have our discharge 3. The next step is and whom he justified them he also glorified But you will say Doth the Apostle in the several links of the Golden Chain omit Sanctification I Answer No 'T is included as to the beginning in vocation as to the continuance and further degree 't is included in glorification this therefore is the order God doth first regenerate that he may pardon and he pardoneth that he may further sanctifie and so make us everlastingly happy now Regeneration is included in vocation for his calling us is all one with his begetting us by the word of truth James 1.18 But his further sanctifying which is consequent to justification is implied in the word glorified as grace is glory begun so glorification is sanctification consummate and compleated 2 Cor. 1.22 Who hath sealed us and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts which is centessima pars Here our happiness standeth in loving God and being beloved of him there in the most perfect act of love and reception of his benefits this love is here inkinddled by faith there by vision here so far like God that sin is mortified there nullified 4. Those that are sanctified are glorified in part There are fully glorified the Apostle speaketh of it as past he will certainly and infallibly glorifie them as if they were in Heaven already Hath eternal life John 5.24 Hath it in the promise hath it in the pledg the gift of the sanctifying spirit we have small beginnings and earnests and fore-tasts of everlasting blessedness in this life by faith we may foresee what God will be for ever to his Saints now by being sanctified we are put into a capacity of eternal life Without holiness we cannot see God Heb. 12.14 But holiness maketh us more fit and as it is increased in us so we are nearer to Glory and are more suited to it 1. VSE is information It informeth us of divers truths necessary to be observed by us 1. In all this order and chain of causes there is no mention of merits But all is ascribed to grace and Gods free favour chusing calling justifying sanctifying glorifying us from the first step to the last 't is all grace our best works are excluded from having any meritorious influence upon it Rom. 9.11 Before the children had done either good or evil it was said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated that the purpose of God according to election might stand Mark there was a voluntas and voluntas miserendi 2 Tim. 1.9 Not according to works but according to his purpose and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began Works are still excluded as they stand in opposition to Gods free mercy and goodness 't is a free act of his disposing to which only God was induced by his own love 2. That predestination is most free not depending upon foreseen works and faith We are chosen to faith and holiness but not for it the Scripture saith to Faith 2 Thes. 2.13 Because God hath from the beginning of the world chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth And to Holiness Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the world that we should be holy But we are not chosen because we believed and were holy or because God did foresee it but that we might believe and be holy Faith and Holiness are only fruits and effects of Gods Grace in us there was no foreseen cause in us to move God to bestow it upon us 3. That predestination to glory doth not exclude the means by which 't is brought about Such as Christs Gospel Ministry Faith Holiness the Cross No A conditional dispensation is subordinate to an absolute decree God hath predestinated will yet call before he will justifie God giveth the condition taketh away the heart of Stone worketh Faith and Holiness in us Gods purpose is that such and such shall be called and saved by faith in Christ now this maketh an absolute connection between faith and salvation now the elect till they are called and do believe know nothing of this but 't is their duty to fulfil the condition 4. The greatness of our obligation to God Here are the several steps and degrees whereby his eternal love descendeth to his chosen or the several acts and effects by which he bringeth them to their purposed blessedness and do all infer a new obligation that he was pleased to chuse us who were equally involved in misery with others and call us with an holy calling passing by thousands and ten thousands in outward respects much before us and justifie us freely by his grace forgiving us so many offences and bestowed upon us the gift of the sanctifying spirit by which we are regenerated and fitted for everlasting glory see here the great love of God Gods love in time cannot be valued enough but Gods love before all time should never be forgotten by you there you have the rise and fountain of all the benefits done unto us this was ancient love before we or the world had a being 't was the design God travelled with from all eternity and who are we that the thoughts of God should so long be taken up about us 'T is love managed with wisdom and counsel his heart is set upon it to do us good those benefits came not by chance but were fore-layed and fore-ordained by God if one do us a kindness that lyeth in his way and when opportunity doth fairly invite him he is friendly to us but when he studieth to do us good we know his heart is towards us God sets all his Wisdom and Grace awork this was a feast long in preparing that it might be the more full and ample and all things be ready if we be ready and our remedy at hand before our misery took effect this is a distinguishing love differencing us from others all along by chusing calling justifying glorifying that one should be taken and the other left 5. The blessedness of a Christian they are predestinated called justified and glorified all which are special grounds of comfort and patience under the cross what ever may befal a Christian in this world God hath predestinated and singled us to be objects of his grace and instruments of his glory in this world and to be conformed to the image of his Son v. 29. And we can fare no worse than Christ did and that the Lord should call us in due time out of the corrupt and miserable state of mankind to the Faith of Christ and shall not we suffer for it And then justifie us and free us from the
giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledg c. wherefore the rather brethren give all diligence to make your calling and election sure c. for if ye do these things ye shall never fall for we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So for Consideration Heb. 3.1 Wherefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and high priest of our profession Jesus Christ. The weightiest things lye by and are as if they were not sleepy reason is as none and the most important truths work not till consideration make them lively so for application what concerneth us not is passed over unless we hear things with a care to apply them we shall never make use of them Eph. 1.13 After ye heard the word of truth the gospel of your salvation 'T is not enough to know the Gospel to be a Doctrine of Salvation to others but we must look upon it as a Doctrine that bringeth salvation to our own doors and leaveth it upon our choice a plaister doth not heal at a distance till it be applied to the sore truths are too remote till we set the edg and point of them to our own hearts Now this Question in the Text relateth to all Three 1. It challengeth our faith What shall we say to these things Do we believe them and assent to them as certain verities The Apostle doth in effect demand what we can reply or say to these things The unbelieving dark and doubtful heart of man hath many things to say against divine truths let God say what he will the heart is ready to gainsay it yet 't is good to press our selves thoroughly with the light and evidence of truths to compel the heart to bring forth its objections and scruples if any mind to contradict have we any solid arguments to oppose truth wanteth its efficacy when 't is received with an half conviction and doubts smothered breed Atheism irreligion and gross negligence certainly the weighty truths of Christianity are so clear that the heart of man hath little or nothing to say against them therefore follow it to a full conviction doth any scruple yet remain in our minds 't is good thoroughly to sift things that they may appear in their proper lustre and evidence John 11.26 Believest thou this Pose your hearts 2. This question doth excite consideration or meditation We should not pass by comfortable and important truths with a few glancing and running thoughts 't is one part of the work of grace to hold our hearts upon them Acts 16.14 Whose heart the Lord opened that she attended to the things that were spoken Otherwise in seeing we see not and in hearing we hear not when we see and hear things in a crowd of other thoughts as when you tell a man of a business whose mind is taken up about other things no your minds must dwell upon these things till you are affected with them a full survey of the object sheweth us the worth of it What shall we say to these things That is what can be said more for our comfort and satisfaction Or what do we desire more How should we be satisfied with this felicity and love of the Ever-blessed God to his people 3. It awakeneth application to our selves that we may make use of these things for our own good Application is twofold direct or reflexive and the question may be explained with respect to both 1. Direct application As when we infer and bind our duty upon our selves from such principles as are laid down so What shall we say to these things That is what use shall we make of them Christianity is not a matter of speculation only but of practise therefore when we hear the truth of it enforced we must commune with our selves What doth this call for at our hands but serious diligence 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness The truths of the Gospel are not propounded that we may talk at an higher rate than others do but to live at an higher rate if I should be negligent indifferent careless What will become of me 2. Reflexive application is when we consider our state and course and judg of it by such general truths as are propounded to us direct application is by way of practical inference reflexive by way of discovery and to this sense may this question be interpreted What shall we say to these things Doth heart and practise agree with them Do I live answerable to these comforts and priviledges What am I one called and sanctified and one that continueth with patience in well doing upon the hope of eternal life 2 Cor. 13.5 Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye are reprobates If Christ be formed in his people is he formed in me Thus things must be brought home to the heart and laid to the conscience if we would make a profitable use of them USE is to awaken this self-communing To make our assent more strong our consideration more deep and serious and our application either by way of inference or discovery more close and pungent Do we assent Is this a truth to be lightly passed over If this be true what must I do Or what have I done Now this you should do upon these occasions 1. When you are tempted to unbelief There are some points which are remote from sense and cross the desires and lusts of sensual men and we either deny them or doubt of them or our hearts are full of prejudice against them and also the Devil doth inject thoughts of blasphemy or doubts about the world to come into the hearts of people especially in those that take Religion upon trust or are secretly false to that Religion they have received upon some evidence Now to prevent all this 't is good to commune with our selves that we may be well settled in the truth therefore see with what evidence the great things of the other world are represented unto us in the Word of God and what a just title they have to our firmest belief Faith will not be settled without serious thoughts and it soon withereth there where it hath not much depth of earth Matth. 13.5 6. No thoughts in the highway ground slight thoughts in the stony ground faith is a child of light and given upon certain grounds Luke 1.4 That thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed and Acts 17.11 12. They searched the Scriptures whether those things were so Therefore many of them believed But presumption and slight credulity is a child of darkness the fruit of ignorance and incogitancy therefore 't is good in those truths that need it most to ask What say we to these things 2. When you are in danger
is increased Certainly 't is above their trouble 2 Cor. 4.17 For our light afflictions which are but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory 'T is likely they have more Mark 10.29 30. In the day of judgment more honour and praise 1 Pet. 4.6 7. That the tryal of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth though it be tryed with fire may be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Christ Jesus 3. The Author or Cause of the Victory or the power by which they conquer ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã through him that loved us Here observe 1. That Christ is not estranged from his people by their afflictions but rather is more tender of them the more they are wronged by others 2. That loving them he doth over-rule these things and cause them to become a means to do them good 3. He doth not only over-rule these occurrences of providence but doth give them the Spirit of Grace 4. That giving them the Spirit of Grace they overcome in his strength not their own 5. That Christs love is more powerful to save us than the world's hatred to destroy us 2. Branch That a true believer doth not miscarry under his troubles but overcome them yea more than overcome them Here I shall show 1 The nature of the Victory 2 How more than Conquerors 3 Who is this true believer that will be more than a Conqueror 4 Reasons why more than Conquerors 5 Application 1. To explain the nature of this Victory it doth not consist in an exemption from troubles or suffering Temporal loss by them or utter perishing as to this world but keeping that which we contend and fight for We do not vanquish our enemy so as to cause all opposition to cease yea or that we shall not Temporally perish under it no the world needeth not suspect this holy Victory of the Saints 't is not conquering Kingdoms and becoming masters of other mens possessions nor seeing our desire upon our enemies I prove it 1. From Christs purchase Gal. 1.4 Who dyed that he might deliver us from the present evil world How so That we should live exempt from all troubles That the world should never trouble us no but that the world should not ensnare and pervert us his work was to save us from our sins Matth. 1.21 To deliver us from wrath to come 2 Thes. 1.10 and to justifie and sanctifie and glorifie us We have the Victory that he hath purchased for us if the Devil and the world do not hinder our fruition and possession of eternal glory 2. I prove it partly from the way of dispensation of it that is intimated in the first promise of the Messiah Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel Misery being brought into the world by sin God ordereth it so that some Temporal calamities shall remain on those that are recovered by Grace indeed 't is our Redeemers work so to moderate these sufferings that our heel may be only bruised but our head safe 3. I prove it from the way of our conflict and combate and conquest 't is not by worldly Greatness visible prosperity or the strength of outward Dominion but by patience and contentedness in suffering even to the very death Those that are as sheep appointed to the slaughter and killed all the day long are more than conquerors This is a riddle to carnal sense we do not call them conquerors in the world who are killed oppressed kept under but yet these are killed all the day long and yet are more than conquerors Scias hominem Christo dicatum saith Jerome Mori posse vinci non posse A Christian may be slain yet more than a conqueror The way to conquer here is to be trodden down and ruined 2 Cor. 4.8 9. We are troubled on every side yet not distressed we are perplexed yet not in despair persecuted but not forsaken cast down but not destroyed 4. Our main party and enemy is Satan You have not only to do with men who strike at your worldly interests but with Satan who hath a spight at your souls Eph. 6.12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities against Powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against Spiritual wickedness in high places God may give men a power over your bodily lives and all the interests thereof but he doth not give the Devil a power over the graces of the Saints to separate them from Gods love The Devil aimeth at the destruction of souls he can let you enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season that he may deprive you of your delight in God and Celestial pleasures He can be content you shall have dignities and honours if they prove a snare to you The Devil seeketh to bring you to troubles and poverty and nakedness to draw you from God 1 Pet. 5.8 9. Be sober be vigilant because your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lyon walketh about seeking whom he may devour whom resist stedfast in the faith knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world Satans temptations are conveyed to the Godly by afflictions by which he seeketh to make them quit the truth or their duty or to quit their confidence in God otherwise he would let such have all the glory in the world if it were in his power so you would but hearken to his lure as he offered it to Christ Matth 4.9 And saith unto him all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and ãâ¦ã Therefore our Victory is not to be measured by our prosperity and adversity but faithful adherence to God if he get his will over our bodies if he get not his will over our souls you conquer and not Satan 5. The ends or things we contend for The Victory must be stated by that for we overcome if we keep what we fight for now our conflict is for the glory of God the advancement of the kingdom of Christ our own salvation and to maintain and keep alive present grace 1. The glory of God God must be honoured by his people in adversity 2. Thes. 1.11 12. Wherefore we pray always for you that God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness and the work of faith with powâr that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you John 21.19 This he said signifying by what death he should glorifie God Phil. 1.20 Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death When we suffer for his cause our very sufferings are conquering 1 Pet. 4.14 On your part he is glorified When they are reviled reproached persecuted God can bring more honour to himself by the constancy of his people
6.8 If we be dead with Christ we believe we shall also live with him So 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the Love which God hath to us Mark 't is a thing to be believed and that with a Divine Faith Qu. But how can this be you will say since I have no Divine Testimony and Revelation for it that I shall be saved Answ. If I take any thing upon mans Testimony that is Credulity if I take it upon Gods Testimony that is Faith Now I have Gods Testimony in the general that whosoever believeth shall be saved And particulars are included in their generals Look as with that faith that believeth the Commandments Psal. 119.66 I believe that it is the will of God that I must not steal I must not Commit Adultery dishonour Parents because God hath said so to all and every one though not to me by name So with that faith which I believe promises I believe they belong to me though my name be not expressed in Christs Charter and Deed of grace if I have the qualification annexed The qualification I discern by Spiritual sense the benefit of the promise I expect by faith even salvation to me 't is a matter to be believed upon supposition that I am converted and brought home to God As in this Syllogism All the dead shall rise Peter is dead ergo the Conclusion is de fide it belongeth to faith though it be not expresly written in Scripture the first Proposition is evident by faith the second by sense and yet the conclusion is de fide So here all that heartily come to God by Jesus Christ shall be saved this is written in Scripture but I do so that is evident by Spiritual sense the Conclusion is de fide I am bound to believe that I shall be saved if it be so upon supposition the Conclusion doth arise from premises one whereof is in Scripture the other evident by Spiritual sense Therefore It is of faith Only let me give you these cautions 1. The particular certainty of our eternal Salvation is not equal in certainty and firmness of assent to that assurance which we have about the Common object of faith the promises of the Gospel Because some things are believed absolutely and immediately other things are believed only mediately and upon supposition as they suit with things believed immediately The promises of the Gospel are totally and immediately revealed in Scripture But that I shall be saved in particular dependeth upon an Argument whereof one part is in Scripture the other ariseth from reflection upon and observation of a mans heart and ways the Conclusion is certain according to the verity of the second Proposition 'T is absolutely certain and evident by faith that whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but have everlasting life But that I believe in Christ with a saving faith 't is not so certain though certain it may be I have greater assurance that God is faithful and true then that my heart is upright Therefore greater assurance of the general truth that the true believer shall be saved then I can have of this that I am a true believer 2dly As our assurance of our own interest or particular Salvation is not so strong as our assurance of the truth of the Gospel So 't is not so absolutely necessary For firm adherence to Gospel promises with a resolution of obedience is the qualification absolutely necessary to the Pardon of sins Justification of our persons or our acceptance with God But assurance of our own Salvation though it be comfortable 't is not absolutely necessary The humble and broken heart God will not despise Psal. 51.17 Many poor Souls that want assurance are tenderly beloved of him owned by him as heirs of Salvation and their good works accepted in Jesus Christ that do only resolvedly adhere to Gospel promises and seek after God in the way of an humble obedience yea though they write bitter things against themselves 3dly Assurance of the Word is sooner gotten than assurance of our interest assoon as the Word entreth upon yea before it can have any thorow efficacy upon our hearts we receive it as the word of God or else 't would not work upon us 1 Thes. 1.5 1 Thes. 2.13 Assurance of our own Salvation is not usually got at once but by degrees after we have had some experience of a setled and habitual devotedness to God and grace hath been well exercised and approved in manifold duties tryals and combats Rev. 2.17 To him that evercometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and this establishment of heart will come after conquest and some experience in afflictions 3dly 'T is propounded as a common priviledge You and I and all the suffering Servants of God we know When we prove the possibility of assurance from the experience of the Saints recorded in Scripture as put case Job 19.25 26. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that I shall see him at the last day or David Psal. 23.1 or Paul 2 Tim. 4.7 8. From all which instances there ariseth this Argument That which hath been may be The Papists answer That these were extraordinary cases that they had by special priviledge and revelation But there is no reason for such exemptions For the Faith of every Believer is as acceptable to God as the Faith of a Prophet or Apostle 2 Pet. 1.1 Simon Peter a Servant and an Apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The object laid hold upon is the same Christs Righteousness there we are upon equal terms So Exod. 30.15 The Covenant by which we hold is the same But chiefly take notice of these three things 1. They assert their own assurance upon grounds common to all the faithful as the love of God in Christ Rom. 8.38 The Righteousness of God or his veracity in keeping promise 2 Tim. 4.8 Gods Power and All-sufficiency to maintain and uphold them in all Tribulations 2 Tim. 1.12 They that build upon the same grounds they may have the same certainty 2. They speak as taking in Believers together with themselves to shew that 't is a common case as here ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã We are always confident And St. John taketh in others 1 John 5.19 We know that we are of God and the whole world lyeth in wickedness So that here is nothing singular challenged or intimated 3. Whatever was written was written for our comfort and learning That we might be incouraged by the grace given to them to look up to God with the more hope for the same priviledges Paul who was one of the Instances saith That he was set out as a Pattern unto them that should afterwards believe 1 Tim. 1.17 Though his humiliation were extraordinary yet he had his comforts in an ordinary way by the Ministry of Ananias I come now to the fourth Consideration
hope in us John 20.31 These things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have eternal life in his name All that is written in the Gospel is to establish Faith in Christ as the Messiah and that in order to eternal life The whole sum of the Christian Religion is That God hath chosen us to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the Truth whereunto he hath called you by our Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ 2 Thess. 2.13 14. All the parts of Religion harmoniously concur to establish this hope The whole Covenant of God implyeth it A Covenant is a transaction of God as the Soveraign with his Subjects and consists of Precepts and Laws invested with the Sanction of Promises and Threatnings His Commands all of them imply such an estate Some express it All imply it For they are work propounded to us in order to wages or a reward to be given and 't is not fit we should have wages before our work be over Some express it as John 6.27 Labour not for the meat which perisheth but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life c. and Mat. 6.19 20. we are commanded not to lay up Treasures upon Earth but in Heaven c. And Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in c. And if there were no such estate all these Laws were in vain and would the wise and faithful God give us Laws in vain his Threatnings would be but a vain Scare-crow if there were not a world to come his promises but flatter us with a lye All the Doctrines concerning Christ point out such an eternal condition to us whether they concern his Person or Estates His coming from Heaven the place of Souls his going thither again or sitting down on the right hand of God and then his coming to Judgment Wherefore was Christ apparelled with our flesh But that we might be cloathed with his glory if Christ were in the Womb why not we in Heaven 'T is more credible to believe a Creature in Heaven than a God in the Grave Therefore he came into the world to purchase a right for us and he went to Heaven again to plead prosecute and apply that right Rom. 5.10 He is gone thither with the names of the Tribes on his Breast and Shoulders Heb. 9.12 All the benefits of Christ tend to this Justification Our release from the curse that we may be capable of life Rom. 5.18 Sanctification to prepare fit us for it and to begin this life in us for he that hath the Son hath life 1 John 5.12 All ordinances The word Isa. 55.3 Hear and your Souls shall live The Supper Luke 22.20 all Graces Faith to see it 1 Pet. 1.9 Receiving the end of your Faith even the Salvation of your Souls Love to desire it hope to wait for it The comforts of the Spirit to give us a tast of it So that this is the great object of Faith and to which all the rest tend 2dly The believing of this constituteth a main difference between the Animal and Spiritual life by which the world of mankind are distinguished The Animal life is that which is supported by the comforts and delights of the present world such as Lands Honours Pleasures Riches and when these are out of sight they are at loss and utterly dismayed But the Spiritual and Divine life is supported by the comforts and delights of the world to come by reflecting upon everlasting happiness and the glory and blessedness we shall injoy there as in the verses before the Text in the close of the former Chapter when we believe these things another kind of Spirit cometh upon a man and hath such a life and strength derived into his heart that he can bear up with joy and courage when the outward and Animal life is exposed to the greatest difficulties and decays because he is a man of another world And therefore we are said to live by Faith because we apprehend those great and glorious things which are kept for us in Heaven 2 Cor. 413 14. We having the same Spirit of Faith according as 't is written I believed and therefore have I spoken We also believe and therefore speak knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you Oh 't is a mighty thing to have a Spirit of Faith in the lowest condition such an one can hold up his head and avouch his hopes He can own Christ how dear soever it cost him None are of such a Noble and Divine Spirit as they Without it a man that wholly loveth the Animal life is but a wiser sort of Beast Not only the Sensualist or the Covetous but even the Ambitious who aspire after Crowns and Kingdoms and great Fame by their Gallantry and Noble Exploits are but poor base Spirits in comparison of those in whose Breasts the sparks of this Heavenly fire do ever burn and carry them out in the zealous pursuit of the world to come 3dly We need press this sound belief of the world to come Because whatever men pretend eternal life is little believed in the World The most part of those men who live in the common light of Christianity are purblind and cannot see afar of or look beyond the Grave Gods own Children have too cold and doubtful thoughts of this estate not such a lively clear and firm persuasion of things to come but that it needeth to be increased more and more The Apostle prayeth for the converted Ephesians That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his Calling c. Eph. 1.17 18. That is more clearly see and more firmly believe those good things which they should injoy in Heaven Alas we are so taken up with trifles and childish toys that our Faith is very weak about these excellent Blessings The evidences that 't is little believed are these 1. Because we are far more swayed with the promises of small temporal advantages than we are with the promise of eternal life The Blessings we expect in the other world are far more excellent and more glorious in their nature and certain in their duration yet they have less influence upon us than poor paltry perishing vanities What should be the reason I Answ. When a thing of less weight weigheth down a greater we judge then the ballances are not equal The Soul doubteth of things to come but readily closeth with things present Who would prefer a Cottage before a Palace A Lease for an year before an Inheritance There is no comparison between the things themselves but we are not equally persuaded of things to come and things in hand and of a present
Persecution may not scorch it nor the cares and pleasures of the World choak it Col. 1.23 Continue in the Faith grounded and settled and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel We must be thoroughly persuaded that it is the very Truth of God and venture our Souls and all our concernments and interests upon this Bottom when we seriously consider what we do There is a slight and superficial Confidence which soon vanisheth away as the seed that fell upon the stony ground soon sprung up for it had not much depth of earth but as soon withered because it had no root Matth. 13.5 6. Some may readily receive the Offers of Eternal Life but the Word is not ingrafted in their hearts No the Confidence of Faith must be sound and permanent such as is not easily shaken with the Winds of Temptation 3. It must be predominant and in some degree of Soveraignty in the Soul not only over our doubts and fears but over our lusts and carnal affections subduing the heart to God and vanquishing the Devil the World and the Flesh. The World 1 John 5.4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith And Taming the Flesh Acts 15.9 purifying their hearts by Faith and mastering our carnal desires and affections Resisting the Devil 1 Pet. 5.9 It sheweth us better things with which our minds are wholly taken up Every mans heart cleaveth most strongly to those things which he judgeth best Now Faith shewing us the things of the other World present things are lessened in our eyes and our desires to them abated A âlight and superficial Confidence soon vanisheth away they are not able by it to vanquish Temptations John 12.42 43. Nevertheless among the Chief rulers also many believed on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him lest they should be put out of the Synagogue For they loved the praise of men more then the praise of God 'T is such a dependance upon the mercy of God in Jesus Christ as to count it better than life Psal. 63.3 Such a value of the blessing promised as will Counterballance the Temporal good or evil which the Devil the World and the Flesh opposeth to their good or Evil. Men may have some beginnings or dispositions to true Faith but they are weak and feeble and so are soon over mastered by worldly and carnal respects and cannot prefer the Service of Christ before the glory of the World John 5.44 How can ye believe which receive honour one of another and seek not the honour that cometh from God only 4. 'T is growing As our assent to the Word of Truth is more full and strong so our Adherence Confidence and Dependance increaseth also and we cleave faster to the Promises of Christ and are better established in the practice of godliness and have a more setled boldness against fears and doubts and temptations so that they can bear better repulses from God Matth. 15.28 Great is thy Faith Grow more couragious in dangers and difficulties Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us ver 37. Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerours And are the less shaken and troubled with cares and fears Mat. 6.20 Shall he not much more cloath you O ye of little Faith And believe in hope against hope Rom. 4.20 The highest degree of Confidence is not gotten at once nor at first ordinarily but by degrees after some continuance of waiting upon God after many Tryals and Conflicts and Experiences of his Love and Favour therefore still we are to labour after this that we may with greater quietness wait on God in the midst of pressures overcome the World contemn the pleasures of Sin curb our unruly Passions Come to the Throne of Grace with more boldness and confidence 2. What is the Earnest of the Spirit See the Sermon on the former verse 3. How this Confidence ariseth from having the Earnest of the Spirit in our hearts Three ways 1. As an Argument 2. By way of Effectual Influence 3. By way of gracious Improvement 1. As a confirming Argument against all our doubts and fears which are apt to assault and hurt us till we be in full possession especially in great Tryals The Spirit 't is an argument strong and full to confirm us in the truth and worth of the promised Glory The truth is plain so the worth as before 'T is an Argument in our own bosoms other things are without us but this is within That which before was written in books or spoken by men is now transcribed upon our hearts and so nearer at hand for our use 1 John 5.10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself When I go to my Bible there I find promises of eternal life which are the ground of my Confidence I go to my heart and there I find the beginnings of eternal life and so my Confidence is much increased a believer hath that within which assureth him of better a state to come he hath a tast of it in his Soul a spiritual sense That which is within us and lyeth as near as our own hearts is more sensible and affecting and more likely to work upon us effectually than that which is without us 'T is a very ingaging Argument to bind us not to depart from these Hopes shall we turn the back upon God after experience 'T is their great aggravation Heb. 6.4 5. 'T is impossible for those that have been once inlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost have tasted of the good word the Powers of the World to come if they should fall away to renew them again unto Repentance There may be some kind of tast and preparation towards this Earnest from whence men may fall away 2 Pet. 2.20 21 22. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning for it had been better for them not to have known the way of Righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb the dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire Some knowledge and some experience some Common work of the Spirit This Argument doth increase our confidence because it doth evidence our right and interest as well as the truth of the thing its self that there is an Immortal Blessed Estate and that it is ours An earnest is given to secure the party that hath it This earnest is the Spirit convincing comforting changing the heart
he is the universal King that hath an Absolute and Supream Authority therefore must be the judge of the World 1. For wisdom and understanding it is in Christ twofold Divine and Humane for each nature hath its proper wisdom belonging to it As Christ is God his wisdom and his understanding is Infinite as it is said in the Psalms and so by one act of understanding he knows all things that are have been yea that shall be or may be He knows all things that shall be in his own Decree And all things that may be by his Divine Power and Alsufficiency They are all before him naked as the Apostle inters Heb. 4.13 Cut down as it were by the chin-bone As when we cut down a Beast by the chin-bone and divine his Body we may see all things within him so all things are naked and open to God We know things successively God knows them all at once If a man were to read a Book he must go from line to line or from page to page but Gods knowledg is just such a thing as if a man should see through a Book by one act of his mind by one view could know all that was contained in that book by one glance of his Eye Well this is his divine wisdom For his Humane wisdom that cannot be equal to this for a Finite Nature is not capable of an Infinite Understanding But yet his humane wisdom is such as doth far exceed the knowledge of all Men and Angels When Christ was upon Earth though the forms of things could not but successively come into his mind as a man he must understand as men do in understanding because of the limited nature of the mind and understanding yet then he could know whatever he would to whatsoever thing he did apply his mind he did presently understand it and that in a moment all things were presented to him So that he accurately knew the nature of things he had a mind to know you find upon all occasions he was not ignorant of the thoughts and hearts of men and when done never so secretly yet Christ knew them as when the woman came behind him and touched the hem of his Garment undiscernibly as she thought by a secret touch then saith Christ who touched me for vertue is passed from me Luke 8.45 Christ knew the touch of Faith knew the woman that came behind him and would not be seen And Mat. 9.3 4. When certain Pharisees said within themselves this man Blasphemes Within their hearts though they dursâ not say it publiquely and Christ discovers their inward thoughts and turns out the very inside of their Souls So Mat. 12. Jesus knew their thoughts when they imagined that by Beelzebub the Prince of Devils he cast out Devils But more fully see that notable place which will set forth that no subtil devices we can use is sufficient to escape his knowledge John 2.24 25. When he was at Jerusalem at the Passover on the Feast day many believed in his Name when they saw the miracles which he did But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any should testify of man For he knew what was in man Mark they are said to believe in Christ certainly their Faith was not pretended only but real though not a thorough faith not rooted in their souls though as yet they did not betray their insincerity But Jesus knew what was in man We cannot infallibly discern the truth and falshood of a profession before men discover themselves But all hypocrites are known to him long before they shew their hypocrisy And known how Not by a Conjectural but by a certain knowledge as being that knowledge that is from and by himself as God he do's infallibly know what is most secret in man even then when for the present we have but a Moral Sincerity and do not dissemble the Lord knows whether this is a true real and supernatural work for there may be a Moral where there is not a Supernatural Sincerity Now if the Lord Jesus was endowed with such an admirable wisdom and understanding even in the days of his flesh when he was capable of growing in wisdom as well as in stature Luk. 2. as his humane capacity was inlarged by degrees for he would in all things be like us except in sin what shall we think of Christ glorifyed when he comes in that stare in which he is now glorious in heaven When he comes to exercise this judgment certainly he shall bring an incomparable knowledge so far exceeding the manner and measure of all Creatures Men or Angels even as he is man But his infinite knowledge as he is God that chiefly shines forth in this work and therefore he is fit to judge for he can bring forth the secret things of darkness and the hidden counsels of the heart 1 Cor. 4.5 And shall despoil sinners of all their pretences and excuses and plainly and undeniably pluck off their disguises from them He knows all the Springs Motions hidden Counsels of the heart and secret things that move you and set you a work 2. For Justice and Righteousness An Incorrupt Judge he is that neither hath doth or can err in the Judgment As there is a double knowledge in Christ so there is also a double righteousness the one that belongs to him as God the other as man And both are exact and immutably perfect His Divine nature is holiness it self In Him there is light and no darkness at all 1 John 1.5 The least shadow of Injustice cannot be imagined in God for Gods holiness is his Being it is not a superadded Quality as it is in us The Quality may be lost yet the Being remain as in Angels holiness was a superadded Quality they had their Angelical being but lost their holiness and when Adam fell he lost that holiness and righteousness in which he was Created but yet he had his being But Gods holiness is his very Nature and Essence The holiness of God may be compared to a vessel that is all of pure Gold but the holiness of the Creature may be compared to a vessel of Wood and Earth that is only gilded the outside is God but the substance of the vessel is another thing Now in a vessel of pure Gold there the lustre and the substance is the same Our holiness is but gilding it may be worn out but Gods holiness is Gold he is holiness it self We cannot call a wise man wisdom We use the Concrete when we speak of men we say they are wise good holy but we use the Abstract of God God is Love Light Holiness Purity and Mercy it self which notes the inseparability of the Attribute from his Nature God is himself and God cannot deny himself Peter Martyr sets forth the holiness of God by this Comparison Take a Carpenter when he hath chalked and drawn his line when he goes and chops the Timber sometimes he
their angry brow are as graves and furrows yet some have escaped the wrath of kings and worldly potentates as Elijah escaped the vengeance of Jezââel 1 Kings 19.2 3. The Gods do so to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them to morrow by this time And when he heard that he arose and fled to Beersheba for his life But there is no escaping Gods wrath Rev. 6.16 No avoiding his sight or escaping the stroke of his Justice Psa. 134.7 4. If it particularly concern every one of us a Clap of Thunder in our own Zenith doth more affright us than when 't is at a distance This did once belong to all and it doth still belong to the Impenitent and therefore we should take the more care that we be not of that number and while we are in the state of tryal we cannot be over confident I am sure 't is a sinful confidence that is joyned with the neglect of the means to shun it The dreadful consequence of that day to the wicked 't is in its self a matter of terror to all and to slight this terrour is to turn the Grace of God into Wantoness And it cometh either from unbelief or from a dull stupid senseless Spirit And if it produceth not caution and watchfulness and serious and diligent preparation 't is not a fruit of the assurance of the Love of God but of the security of the flesh I confess 't is a case of Conscience how to make the day of Judgment matter of joy and confidence and matter of terror and caution sometimes we are bidden to reflect upon it with joy and confidence so as we may love his appearing 2 Tim. 4.8 To lift up our heads because our Redemption draweth nigh Luke 17.28 To rejoice because we shall be partakers of the Blessedness promised 1 Pet. 4.14 At other times matter of fear and terrour These are not contrary The one is to prevent slight thoughts which are very familiar with us The other future perplexities and dejection of Spirit The strictness of our account the dreadful consequence to those that shall be found faulty should not discourage us in the way of duty eternal wrath should not be feared farther than to stir us up to renew our flight to Christ and to quicken us in his service who hath delivered us from wrath to come 2. The persons fearing Paul and his Colleagues together with all the parties who are to be judged That the unspeakable terrour of the Lord is a rational just and equitable ground of fear we have seen already But the doubt is how this could be so to Paul and his Colleagues especially if we consider it mainly as we ought with respect to the execution of punishment or the Wrath of God that shall abide on the impenitent I answer 1. To be only moved with terrour is slavish The wicked may out of fear of Hell be frighted into a little religiousness But Paul was moved by other principles Hope and Love as well as fear see the 14. verse The Love of Christ constraineth us But this among the rest is allowable 't is one of the Spirits motives to quicken us to fly to Christ and to take sanctuary at his grace Heb. 6.18 To ingage us to thankfulness for our deliverance 1 Thes. 1.10 Yea to stir us up to more holy diligence and sollicitude in pleasing God Heb. 13.28 29. The Eternal Wrath of God among other things doth rowse us up to serve him with Godly fear 2. Though Paul and his Colleagues had the Love of God shed abroad in their hearts and were assured of his favour and their everlasting Salvation yet knowing the terrour of the Lord They had a deeper reverence of his Majesty and so afraid to displease him or to be unfaithful in their charge and trust And could not endure that any others should do so Reverence of God as one able to destroy us and cast Body and Soul into Hell Fire is always necessary The fear of reverence remaineth in Heaven in the glorified Saints and Angels and Christ presseth us to this fear Luke 12.3 4. 3. We must distinguish between a perplexing distrustful fear and an aweful preventive-eschewing fear A distracting tormenting fear of Hell or the Wrath of God would weaken our delight in God and therefore the Love of God casts out this fear 1 Joh. 4.18 But now the aweful fear fleeing from wrath to come this doth not destroy peace of Conscience or joy in the Holy-Ghost but gard it rather This only quickeneth us to use those means by which we may avoid so great an evil Instances we have in Scripture Job that was sure that his Redeemer lived Job 19. Yet destruction from the Lord was a Terrour to him Chap. 31. That is he thought himself obliged to use all those means by which he might shun so great an evil So Paul We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens Yet knowing the Terrour of the Lord. 4. There are great reasons why this Terrour should have an influence upon us while we dwell in flesh 1. Because 't was once our due Eph. 3.2 And though we are delivered from it by Gods grace yet still 't is a fearful state which we cannot sufficiently shun and avoid 2dly We still deserve it after grace hath made a change in our Condition There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8.1 Yet many things are condemnable We now and then do those things for which the Wrath of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience we deserve that God should say to us depart ye cursed 3 dly 'T is certainly a great and extream difficulty to get free from so great an evil 1 Pet. 4.18 We cannot get to the harbour but by encountring many a terrible storm and God is fain to discipline us that we may not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 I know I shall be saved but 't is a difficult thing to save me 3. The means how this fear cometh to be raised in us knowing This implyeth three things 1. A clear and explicite apprehension 2. A firm assent 3. Serious consideration 1. A distinct knowledge of this Article of Christs coming to Judgment 1 Thes. 5.2 You your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a Thief in the night 'T is good not only to know things but to know them perfectly for though a man may be saved by an implicite faith as he knoweth things in their common principle yet explicite faith and plenitude of knowledge or seeing round about the compass of any truth conduceth much to the practical improvement of it Instance in the Creation of the World To know the general truth may make me safe but a distinct explication thereof maketh us more admire the Wisdom Goodness and Power of God So for
providence It ingageth my dependance to know there is a providence but it helpeth my dependance to know how 't is managed for the good of Gods Children They that know thy name will put their trust in thee Psa. 9.10 So the Doctrine of Justification by Christ. The thing is plain in all points 2. Firm assent John 17.8 They have known surely ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã indeed or in truth And Acts 2.36 ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã assuredly safely without danger of errour The certainty of faith mightily enlivens our apprehensions of any truth and makes them more forcible and operative But usually there is a defect in our assent hated truths are usually suspected Ministers speak of it coldly and in jest as if not perswaded of what they say And we hearers learn it by rote Yet this I must say God hath not only warned the World of wrath in the Old Testament and the New But also natural light doth so far evidence this truth that in their serious and sober moods men cannot get rid of the apprehensions of Immortality and punishment after Death Reason will tell us that God perfectly hateth sin will terribly punish it we cannot easily lay aside these fears nor stifle them in our Bosoms nor sport them away nor jest them away when we are alone or when we are serious or when we come to dye they will revive and haunt us But oh that we were oftner alone and would resuscitate and blow up these sentiments which lye hid in the heart and revive our Faith about them 3. It implyeth serious consideration knowing that is considering acting our thoughts upon it for next to sound belief to make truths active there is required serious consideration Thoughts of Hell may keep many out of Hell 'T is a moral means which God may bless 't will be no loss to Christians to think of their danger before they incur it They that cannot endure to think of it or hear of it discover their guilt and the security of their own hearts presumption is a coward and a run-away but Faith meeteth its enemy in open field Psa. 23.4 Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me It supposeth the worst suppose God should reject me consider with thy self aforehand as the unjust steward Luke 16. what to do when turned out of doors how shall I make my defence when God shall rise up what shall I answer him Job 31.14 What shall I then do 4. Here is perswasion as to the effect and fruit of all which implyeth three things 1. The thing to which they were perswaded That is not mentioned but the matter in hand sheweth it to be such things as would bear weight in the Judgment and exempt them from wrath to come Such as Faith Repentance and new Obedience Faith in the Redeemer 2 Thes. 1.10 Heb. 6.18 Repentance Matth. 3.19 And Acts 3.19 New obedience Heb. 5.9 2 Thes. 1.8 or a serious coming to Christ and hearty subjection to him is the only way to escape that wrath To these we exhort and perswade you again and again without these you are obnoxious to the severity of his revenging Justice 2. Earnest zeal and endeavours on the part of Paul and his colleagues and all that are like minded with them they must not only teach and instruct but perswade Col. 1.28 Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus He addeth verse 29. Whereunto I also labour striveing according to his working The understanding is dark and blind in the things of God and needeth teaching The will and affections are perverse and backward and they need warning And therefore we must warn and teach Warn and that not in a cold or slaunting manner as if we were in jest and did not believe the things we speak of But with such vigour and labour and striving as becometh those who would present them to Christ as the travail of our Souls at the last day and as those who are sensible of the terrour of the Lord our selves 3. It implyeth a being perswaded on the peoples part For all that mind their own welfare will take this warning and since we must shortly appear before the bar of the dreadful God to give an account what use we have made of these perswasions When God giveth warning and God giveth time our condemnation is the more aggravated Revel 2.21 I gave her space to repent and she repented not Warning and perswasion as Reuben did not I warn you 2 Cor. 6.1 We beseech you receive not this grace in vain God keepeth an account of these warnings Luke 13.7 And the importunity of these pressing convictions which we have had very request and exhortation made for God will be as a fiery dart in your Souls how fresh will every Sermon come into your minds The melting words of exhortation which you were wont to hear will be as so many hot burning coals in your hearts to torment you It will be easier for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah then for you Matth. 10.15 VSE is to teach us all to apply this truth What Paul had spoken in general concerning the last Judgment he applyeth to himself 'T is not enough to have a general knowledge of truth but we must improve and apply them to our own use Men of all ranks must do so 1. It presseth Preachers to perswade men Oh how diligently should we study how earnestly should we perswade with what love and tender compassion should we beseech men to escape this wrath to come How unweariedly should we bear all opposition and mocks and scorns and unthankful returns How plainly should we rip up mens soars and open their very hearts to them How carefully should we watch over every particular Soul How importunate should we be with all sinners for their conversion considering that shortly they must be judged Cry aloud spare not Isa. 58.1 'T is a notable help against a sleepy Ministry to consider that those Souls to whom we speak must within a while receive their everlasting doom When you find a deadness rowse up your selves by these thoughts this will put a life into your exhortations a sense of what we speak zeal for the Glory of God and compassion over Souls will not suffer us to do the work of the Lord negligently 2. To all Christians 1. Perswade your selves commune with your own Souls Do I know the terrour of the Lord What have I done to escape it If you would not fall into the hands of a living God cast your selves into the arms of a dying Saviour Hide your selves before the storm cometh if his anger be but kindled a little blessed are all those that put their trust in him Psa. 2.12 Seek conditions of peace while a great way off Luke 14. A powerful enemy marcheth against us especially when you begin to grow negligent dead hearted and
means to our perfect injoying pleasing and glorifying of God Acts 26.18 when we are made capable of the Blessed Inheritance 2. The manner how this priviledge is brought about and applyed to us by these steps 1. The first stone in this building was laid in Gods Eternal decree and purpose to reconcile sinners to himself by Christ not imputing their trespasses to them I cannot pass over this consideration because 't is of principal importance in this place God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses to them Then he was thinking of a sufficient sacrifice ransom and satisfaction for all the World of sinners and that he would not deal with them according to the desert of their sin but in mercy and provided a sufficient remedy for the pardon of sin for all those who would or should accept of it in time The Covenant of grace is founded upon the Covenant of redemption Isa. 53.10 11. And the plot and design for our reconciliation pardon adoption was then laid according to the terms agreed upon between the Father and the Son what the redeemer should do for the satisfying of his wrath what sinners should do that they may have pardon in the method which God hath appointed and so God should be actually reconciled to us and sinners actually pardoned in time when we submit to the terms 2. The Second step towards this Blessed effect was when Christ was actually exhibited in the flesh and paid our ransom for us For then he came to take away sin 1 John 3.5 The Son of God was manifested to take away sin and in him was no sin So John 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the World And 't is said Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins he sate down on the right hand of Majesty And Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified There needed no more to be done by way of merit and satisfaction and sacrifice We must carefully distinguish between impetration and application Christs acquiring and our applying As also between Gods purposing and our injoying pardon or actual interest in it God purposed it from all eternity but we are not actually reconciled and pardoned from all eternity no more than we were actually created sanctified and glorified from all eternity So Christ purchased it when he died and therefore the Apostle saith we were reconciled by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 Then all was done on Christs part which was necessary to our reconciliation and pardon by vertue of the satisfaction made by Christ he was pleased to profess to us free and easie Conditions of mercy in the Gospel by which it might be actually applyed to us 3. The next step was when Christ rose from the dead for then we had a visible evidence of the sufficiency of the ransom sacrifice and satisfaction which he made for us Therefore 't is said Rom. 5.25 That he died for our offences and rose again for our justification As he dyed for our release and pardon and to make Expiation for our sins so he rose again to convince the unbelieving World by that supream act of his power that all was finished which was necessary to our pardon and reconciliation with God For Christs Resurrection was the acquittance of our Surety Rom. 8.34 yea rather that is risen again God hath received a sufficient ransom for sins and all that believe in him shall find the benefit and comfort of it 4. We are actually justified pardoned and reconciled when we repent and believe What ever thoughts and purposes of grace God in Christ may have towards us from all Eternity yet we are under the fruits of sin till we become penitent Believers For we must distinguish between Gods looking upon the Elect in the purposes of his grace and in the sentence of his Law In the purposes of his grace so he loved the Elect with the love of good will in the sentence of his law so we were under wrath Eph. 2.3 And John 3.18 Condemned already and wrath remaineth on us till believing and repenting That these are conditions which only make us capable of pardon is evident 1. Repentance Acts 5 31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Christ purchased pardon and absolution into his own hands as King and Judge or Head of the renewed state to be dispensed according to the Laws of his mediatorial Kingdom and so he giveth both these together So he grants pardon by his new Law by which he requireth and giveth repentance and remission of sin so he sent forth his Messengers into the World Luke 24.47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all Nations Well then none but the penitent are capable 2. Faith Acts. 10.43 To him gave all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins And Acts 13.38 39 Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses It belongeth to the power and office of our Lord Jesus to forgive sins And it must be forgiven according to the terms of his New Covenant or Law and that is when men obediently receive his Doctrine and by their Prayers offered in his name do in a broken hearted manner sue out their pardon and remission of their sins they are justified and accepted with God and freed from his wrath and punishment which attend sin in another World Well then none are actually and personally pardoned but penitent Believers This benefit is bestowed upon sinners but sinners repenting and believing a person abiding in his sins and persisting in his Rebellion cannot be made partaker of this priviledge repentance qualifieth the subject Faith immediately receiveth it as having a special aptitude that way That I may not nakedly assert this truth but explain it for your edification I shall suggest two things 1. As to the nature of these graces that the reference of repentance is towards God and faith doth especially respect the Mediator So I find them distinguished Acts 20.21 Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. All Christianity is a coming to God by him Heb. 7 25. Repentance towards God noteth a willingness to return to the duty love and service which we owe to our Creator from whence we have faln by our folly and sin This must be for Christ died not to reconcile God to our sins or which is all one to pardon our sins while we remain in them but to bring us back again to the service love and injoyment of God Faith respects the Redeemer for by dependance upon his merit and the sufficiency of his
and minding us of our duty is the proper means to cure slightness and to remove their Impotency which lieth in their obstinacy and wilfulness There is no such means as to besiege them with constant persuasion and the renewed offers of a better estate by Christ for the Impotency is rather Moral than Natural we do not use to reason men our of their natural Impotency to bid a lume man walk or a Blind man see or a Dead man live but to make men willing of the good they have neglected or rejected we must perswade them to a beter choice In short to inform the Judgment to awaken the Conscience to perswade the will this is the work and Office of the Word by its precepts promises and rewards 't is true the bare means will not do it without Gods concurrence the influence and power of his Spirit but 't is an incouragement to use the means because they are fitted to the end and God would not appoint us means which should be altogether vain 5. That it is not enough that the Word be written but preached by those who are deputed thereunto For several reasons 1. Partly Because Scripture may possibly lie by as a neglected thing The Lord complaineth Hos. 8.12 I have written to them the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing Men flighted the Word written as of little Importance or concernment to them are little conversant in it therefore some are appointed that shall be sure to call upon us and put us in mind of our eternal condition that may bring the Word nigh to us lay it at our doors bring a special Message of God to our Souls Acts 13.26 To you is the Word of Salvation sent he speaketh to all the World by his Word to you in particular by the special Messages his Servants bring you 'T is sent to you there is much of God in it the Word written hath its use to prevent delusions and mistakes and the Word preached hath also its use to excite and stir up every man to look after the remedy offered as he will answer it to God another day 2. Partly Because the Word written may not be so clearly understood therefore God hath left gifts in the Church authorized some to interpret As the Eunuch was reading and God sent him an Interpreter Philip said unto him Vnderstandest thou what thou readest And he said how can I except some Body guide me Acts 8.30 31. The Scripture is clear in its self but there is a covering of natural blindness upon our Eyes which the Guides of the Church are appointed and qualified to remove Job 33.23 If there be a Messenger with him an Interpreter one of a thousand to shew a man his uprightness There are Messengers from God authorized to speak in his name to relieve poor Souls that they may soundly explain forcibly express and closely apply the truths of the Word that what is briefly expressed there by earnest and copious Exhortations may be inculcated upon them and the arrow may be drawn to the head and they may more effectually deal with sinners and convince them of their duty and rowse them up to seek after the favour of God in Christ Look as Darts that are cast forth out of Engines by Art and fitted with Feathers are more apt to fly faster and pierce deeper than those that are thrown casually and fall by their own weight so though the Word of God is still the Word of God and hath its proper Power and force whether read or preached yet when 't is well and properly enforced with distinctness of Language vehemency and vigour of Spirit and with prudent application 't is more conducible to its end 3. Because God would observe a congruity and decency As death entred by the Ear so doth life and peace Rom. 10.14 15. How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a Preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent By the same sense by which we received our venom and poison God will send in our blessings work faith and repentance in us by the Ministry of reconciliation Besides as vision and seeing is exercised in Heaven so hearing in the Church 't is a more imperfect way of apprehension but such as is competeât to the present state Job 42.5 I have heard of thee by the hearing of the Ear but now mine Eye seeth thee speaking of his extraordinary vision of God which is a glimpse of Heaven Now we have a report of God and his grace Satisfying ocular inspection is reserved for Heaven but now we must be contented with the one without the other 6. That to preach the word to us God hath appointed men of the same mould with our selves and intrusted them with the ministry of reconciliation As the Fowler catcheth many birds by one decoy a bird of the same Feather so God dealeth with us by men of the same nature and affections and subject to the Law of the same duties who are concerned in the Message they bring to us as much as we are men that know the heart of man by experience our prejudices and temptations for the heart of man answereth to heart as the face in the Waters Prov. 27.19 And so know all the Wards of the Lock and what Key will fit them Now the love and wisdom of God appeareth herein 1. Because God will try the World by his ordinary Messengers Col. 1.21 It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe We now live by faith and not by sight and therefore he will not discover his own Majesty and send us Nuncios and Messengers out of the other World or deal with us in an extraordinary way to lead us to faith and repentance but send mean Creatures like our selves in his name who by the manifestation of the truth shall commend themselves to every mans conscience to see if they will submit to this ordinary stated course We would have Visions Oracles Miracles Apparitions one come from the dead but Christ referreth us to ordinary means if they work not extraordinary means will do us no good Luke 16.30 31. And he said Nay Father Abraham but if one went from the dead they will repent and he said unto him If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead When God used extraordinary ways man was man still Psa. 78.22 23 24. Because they believed not in God and trusted not in his Salvation though he had commanded the clouds from above and opened the doors of Heaven and had rained down Manna upon them to eat and had given them the corn of Heaven They had their Meat and Drink from Heaven and yet they were rebels against God and unbelievers Their victuals came out of the Clouds their Water out
and obedience as if delivered by Christ himself in person Otherwise he would not have mentioned that respect without detestation Acts 14.14 The Apostles rent their Cloaths when they would have given them Divine Honour Well then attention credit and obedience is due to their Message 2. The value and authority of this office They sustain the person of God and supply the place of Christ upon Earth As though God did beseech you by us and in Christs stead This is added to bespeak credit and respect to their Message 1. Credit Salvation is a weighty thing and we had need be upon sure grounds and not only have mans Word but Gods for it Mans Word breedeth but humane credulity and that 's a cold thing 'T is faith actuateth and enliveneth our notions and opinions in religion and maketh them operative 1 Thes. 2.13 The Word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the Word of men but as it is in truth the Word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe The Apostles word as it concerned them was evidenced to be of God Partly by the evidence of the Doctrine its self which had Gods impress and stamp upon it and to minds unprejudiced did commend its self to their Consciences 2 Cor. 4 2 3 4. And partly by the power and presence of God with them Acts 5.31 32. And 1 Cor. 2.4 5. Per modum efficientis causae per modum argumenti enlightening the mind perswading the heart outwardly by miracles inwardly by the operation of the Holy-Ghost The objective Testimony was made up of both The internal sanctifying work and the external confirmation by miracles For 't is said 2 Cor. 3.3 They were the Epistle of Christ prepared by their Ministry written not with Ink but the Spirit of the living God He writeth the Law upon the heart Heb. 8.10 And Jer. 31.33 As it was the Ministration of the Spirit and carryed a sanctifying vertue along with it that their faith might be grounded upon the authority of God opening their heart to receive the Word Acts 16.14 Now the ordinary Ministers the truth of their Doctrine is evidenced by its conformity to the direction of the Prophets and Apostles Isa. 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word there is no light in them That 's the standard and measure by which all Doctrines must be tryed to prevent the obtrusions of errour Well then though other Doctrine be brought to us by men yet our Faith standeth not in the wisdom of men but in the power of God It must be resolved into a Divine Testimony Though men bring it yet God is the Author what the Embassadour saith the King saith if he be true to his Commission And therefore this word of reconciliation must be received as the Word of God When you come to an Ordinance the awe of God must be upon your hearts Acts 10.33 We are all here beforâ thee to hear all things commanded thee of God 2. Respect They speak in God's Name and in God's stead as if God were beseeching and Christ calling upon you Luke 10.16 He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me 'T is Christ maketh the request for your hearts The Father sent him and he us 'T is a wonder that after so much evidence of the Christian Faith and the World hath had such sufficient Tryal of its Goodness Efficacy and Power any should suspect the voice of God speaking in the Scriptures But 't is a greater wonder that believing the Scriptures to be the Voice of God and the Testimony of God we should so slight it and carry our selves so neglectfully in a business of such Importance as if either we suspected what we profess to believe or the hatred and love of God were such inconsiderable things that we did not much consider the one nor the other If an Oracle from Heaven should warn you of danger bid you seek the Peace of God or you are undone for ever would not you seriously address your selves to this business God doth by us beseech you we in Christs stead pray you to be reconciled 'T is God's Word that we hear and God's Message that is sent to you As Peter prescribeth Ministers to speak as the Oracles of God 1 Pet. 4.11 so you must hear as the Word of God ought to be heard with reverence and attention and serious regard as if God and Christ himself had spoken to you to press you to it This Word which you hear slightly as it is the Testimony of God to you so one day it will be the Testimony of God against you This Word shall judge you John 12.48 It doth not fall to the ground but will be producâd as a Witness against your negligence and carelesness 3. The Manner Here is beseeching and praying in and by this Ministry which God hath instituted God cometh down from the Throne of his Soveraingty and speaketh Supplications We must treat with men after the manner of Christ when he was here upon Earth calling Sinners to Repentance with all the affectionate importunity imaginable 1. With Love and Sweetness The manner must suit with the matter We have an Authority to Exhort yet in regard of the rich grace we offer we must beseech and intreat with all gentleness and importunity Paul in a like case doth the like elsewhere Rom. 12.1 I beseech you Brethren by the Mercies of God that ye present your Bodies a Living Sacrifice Church Power and Civil Power differ much They go altogether by way of Injunction and Command We must beseech They compel we must persuade The Power of Christ's Embassadors is a Ministry not a Domination We are to deal with the Will and the Affections of Men which may be moved and inclined but not constrained Again there is a difference between the Law and the Gospel the Law doth not beseech but only command and threaten You shall have no other Gods before me Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. But we as in Christs stead pray you to be reconciled The Law is peremptory I am the Lord. The Gospel wooeth before it winneth and reasoneth with us The Gospel being a Charter of God's Love we must use a dispensation suitable invite men to God in a loving sweet way And surely if men despise God's still Voice their condemnation will be very just When Nabal slighted David's kind Message he marches against him in fury 1 Sam. 25.13 14. to cut off all that belonged to him It we despise the ãâã Voice we must expect the Whirlwind I stretched out my hands and no man regarded Prov. 1.24 I will laugh at their calamity How can we expect that God should hear our prayers if we be deaf to his requests and when we in his stead pray you to be reconciled and still you refuse to hear 2. Meekness and Patience Praying and
word used and 't is here taken in a legal and judicial sense not for a disposition of mind or heart but for a âtate of acceptation or the ground of a plea before the Tribunal of God So also 't is taken Rom. 5 19. As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one many shall be made righteous That is deemed and accounted so accepted as such In short sanctification is not here intended but justification Now this Forinsecal or Court righteousness may be interpreted either with relation to the precept or sanction 1. With respect to the Precept of the Law so 't is said Rom. 2.13 For not the âearers of the Law are just before God but the doers of the Law shall be justified A man that exactly fulfilleth the Law of works is righteous but so by the deeds of the Law no flesh shall be justified in his sight Rom. 3.20 Let me instance in this kind of Righteousness with respect to the Law of grace 1 John 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous That is evangelically whil'st he doth it sincerely though not perfectly The legal righteousness is opposite to reatusculpae to the fault if that could be we might say he that fulfilleth the Law is righteous that is he is not faulty 2. There is a righteousness with respect to the sanction and so with respect either to the commination or the promise With respect to the commination so legal righteousness is not dueness of punishment he is righteous who is freed from the obligation to punishment This righteousness is opposite to reatus poenae and so a man is said to be justified or made righteous when he is freed from the eternal punishment threatned by God And thus by the Righteousness of Christ we are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 Or rather see that place Rom. 1.17 18. For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith For the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness But before I go off in the commination two things are considerable sentence and Execution From the commination as it importeth a sentence or respects a sentence so we are justified or made Righteous when we are not liable to condemnation as Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation c. And Rom. 5.18 As by the offence of one Judgment came upon all to condemnation so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justification of life But as the commination respects the execution so to be justified or made Righteous is not to be liable to punishment So 't is said Rom. 5.9 Being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Now this exemption is sometimes founded on the innocency of the Person but that is not our case sometimes it cometh to pass through free pardon as when the Law is suspended or penalty remitted by meer bounty as Joseph forgave his Brethren or David Absolom but that is not our case neither sometimes by satisfaction made as Paul would pay Onesimus his debt or by free pardon and satisfaction both together which was certainly our case For we are justified freely by his grace through the Redemption of Jesus Christ Rom. 3.24 There is a free pardon and a full compensation made to Divine Justice to satisfy for the breaches of the Law And so we are made the Righteousness of God in him Freely and by Gods grace finding out the remedy and yet securing the authority of his Law and the honour of his Justice upon the account of Christs satisfaction or his being sin for us That is freed from the sentence and execution of the Law or the eternal wrath of God 2. The other part of the sanction is the promise And so our Judicial or Legal Righteousness is nothing else but our right to the reward gift or benefits founded not in any Merit of our own nor yet in the bare gift of another but in the Merit of another conjoyned with his free gift So by Christs being made sin for us we have not only freedom from the curse but title to Glory 1 Thess. 5.9 10. ver And our estate in Heaven is called Redemption Eph. 1.14 Vntil the Redemption of the purchased possession Christs people are purchased by his blood and are his possession and his Peculiar People And they shall at length come to their full and final deliverance which is there called Redemption as also Eph. 4.16 chiefly because 't is a fruit of Christs death and something that accreweth to us by vertue of his laying down his Soul as an offering for sin 2dly The abstract is used concerning our priviledges as well as concerning Christs sufferings He made sin we made Righteousness Not only accounted or accepted as Righteous but made Righteousness which is more emphatical and doth heighten our thoughts in the apprehension of the priviledge as Christs Being made sin doth in the greatness of his sufferings 3. Observe this is called the Righteousness of God Why 1. Because 't is the Righteousness of that person who is God Jer. 23.6 The Lord our Righteousness There is an essential Righteousness which Christ as God hath in common with the Father and the Spirit and is incommunicable either as to men or Angels no more then God can communicate to his creatures any other of his Essential Attributes Omnipotency and Eternity But the Righteousness of Christ God-man is conditionary and Surety Righteousness which he performed in our stead his doing and suffering in our stead this may be communicated to us and is the ground of our acceptance with God and may be called the Righteousness of God because the person that procured it is God 2dly It may be called the Righteousness of God Because the only wise God found it out and appointed it 'T was not the device of man but the result of his eternal Counsels Col. 1.19 20. So when the Apostle had proved that Jews and Gentiles were under a deep guilt ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã ãâã Rom. 3.19 Liable to the challenges of the Law and the process of his revenging Justice and therefore needed a Righteousness to render them acceptable to God The light of nature and the Law of Moses could give them no Remedy but rather rendred them more miserable discovering sin and affording them no help against it but left them under uncertainty bondage and horrours of conscience what should the faln creature do The Lord in his mercy found out a Righteousness Even the Righteousness of God which is by Faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference Rom. 3.21 22 c. 3. Because 't is accepted by God A Righteousness wherein God acquiesceth and which he accepteth for our Absolution Matth. 3.17 God
satisfactory to his Fathers Justice and expiatory of our sins The two solemn notions of Christs death are Ransom and Sacrifice 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a Ransom for all And Eph. 5.2 And hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour And this Ransom and Sacrifice was paid with respect to the curse of the Law to free us from the penalty of the old Covenant 4thly Upon this Death Christ hath acquired a new right of Dominion and Empire over the World To be their Lord and Saviour to rule them and save them upon his own terms Rom. 14.9 For this end Christ both died and rose again and revived that he might be Lord of dead and living So Phil. 2.8 9 10 11. He became obedient unto Death even the Death of the Cross wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every Knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth And that every Tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father God hath made this God-man the supream Prince of his Church and given him all power in Heaven and Earth that all rational creatures should pay him all manner of Subjection and acknowledgement and his doctrine and faith be embraced by all Nations in the World 5thly Our Redeemer being possessed of this Lordship and Dominion hath made a new law of grace which is propounded as a remedy for the recovering and restoring of the lapsed world of mankind unto the grace and favour of God by offering and granting them their free Pardon Justification Adoption and right to glory to all that will sincerely repent and believe in him But sentencing them anew to death that will not That this is the Sum of the Gospel appeareth in many places of Scripture Mark 16. â6 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned And Job 3.16 17 18 19. God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life for God sent not his Son into the World to condemn the World but that the World through him might be saved He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already Because he haâh not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God c. 6thly This repenting and believing is such an hearty assent to the truth of the Gospel as causeth us thankfully and broken-heartedly and fiducially to accept the Lord Jesus as he is offered to us and to give up our selves to God by him An assent to the truth of the Gospel there must be for the general faith goeth before the particular A belief of the Gospel before our commerce with Christ. This assent must produce acceptance because the Gospel is an offer of a Blessedness suitable to our necessities and desires and our great work is receiving Christ. John 1.12 But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his name A broken hearted acceptance it is because Christ and his benefits are a free gift to us and we come to accept this grace as condemned sinners with confession of our undeservings and ill deservings with confession that eternal wrath might justly be our portion For God lets none go out of the first covenant till they have subscribed to the Justice of it felt sin and know what is the smart of it And then a thankful acceptance it is For so great a benefit as pardon and life should not be entertained but with a grateful consent and a deep sense of his love who doth so freely save us Surely Christ cannot should not be received into the heart without an hearty welcom and cordial embracings And 't is a fiducial consent such as is joined with some confidence For there is confidence or trust in the nature of faith and cannot be separated from it and without it we are not satisfied with the truth of the offer nor cannot depend upon Gods word Eph. 1.13 And this is joined with a giving up our selves to him or to God by him For he is our Soveraign and Lord as well as our Saviour Col. 2.6 Acts 5.31 Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins 2 Pet. 3.2 The Apostles of our Lord and Saviour And we must be contented to be conducted to the unseen glory in his own way Besides in this remedying law of grace he cometh to us as the Physician of our Souls and we must own him as such and rest upon his skill and suffer him to apply his sharpest plaisiers and take his bitterest Medicines which are most ingrateful to flesh and blood Lastly 'T is a return to God to injoy please and glorify him which is our main business and therefore we must yield up our selves to the Lord with an hearty consent of subjection to be guided ruled and ordered by him 7thly All those that repent and believe have Remission and Justification by Christs Satisfaction and Merit given to them So that they are become acceptable and pleasing unto God For Christ is the end of the Law for Righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10.4 And God having by a sin offering condemned sin in the flesh the Righteousness of the Law is fulfilled in us That is such a Righteousness as satisfieth the Law so that we shall be able to stand in the Judgment which without we could not Psal. 130.3 4. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquities Oh Lord who shall stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be Justified But why Upon a twofold account You have a Righteousness to plead to exempt you from the penalties of the Law And you have the conditions of the new Covenant to plead to intitle you to the privileges of the Gospel Christs merits and satisfaction as a sinner impleaded and faith and repentance as the condition VSE 1. Let us propound this to our faith That Christ was made sin for us that we might be the Righteousness ãâ¦ã 'T was agreed between the Father and the Son that if he would be sin ãâ¦ã for sin we should be made free from sin and death and live by him See ãâ¦ã thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed he shall prolong ãâ¦ã the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand By this one offering Christ ãâ¦ã as much honour to God as our sin took from him And therefore now justice being satisfied grace hath a free course Therefore this should comfort us against the guilt of sin Christs sacrifice is sufficiently expiatory
concerning his Essence and Will Psal. 138.2 Thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name there he hath made himself most known In Creation and Providence we may read much of God but in the Bible more and chiefly his Word of Promise and Covenant which is that Theater upon which his Mercy and Truth is discovered which is the Representation wherein God delighteth And again the Covenant as it is revealed in the Gospel is a chief part of his Name for his Name was secret before the New-Testament-Dispensation was set afoot Judg. 13.18 Why askest thou thus after my Name seeing it is secreet There was little known of the Trinity of the Son of God the Incarnation of the Son of God c. 1. Point That one great Priviledg of the Gospel is to know God by his right Name 1. I shall shew you how God's Name and Title hath been often changed and altered because he would acquaint his People with his full Name by degrees Exod. 6.3 I appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the Name of God Almighty but by my Name IEHOVAH was I not known to them First to Abraham to distinguish him from Idols and false Gods El Shaddai then Jehovah as giving Being to his People making good his Promises after God of Abraham God of Isaac and God of Jacob as relating more to the Covenant then God that brought them out of the Land of Egypt Exod. 20.2 then God that brought them out of the Land of the North then the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ before that The Lord our Righteousness Jer. 23.6 The Jewish Church knew little of the Doctrine of the Trinity distinction of the Persons quality of the Mediator God proclaimed his Name Exod. 34.6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in Goodness and Truth keeping Mercy for thousands forgiving Iniquity and Transgression and Sin but the way of Pardon was not then so fully discovered Some Names God hath from Everlasting as Eternal Infinite some relate to the present State as Creator Lord God in Covenant the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob. 2. What the Gospel especially doth discover more of God 1. The Distinction of the Persons in the Godhead At the Baptism of Christ the whole Trinity was sensibly present the Son in the Body the Father in the Voice and the Holy Ghost in the form of a Dove This was the Mystery brought upon the Stage 2. The Incarnation of Christ 1 Tim. 3.16 God manifest in the Flesh. The World was acquainted with this great help to Piety The Jews had a Temple here is a Temple wherein the Godhead dwelleth bodily Col. 2.9 For in him dwelleth all the Fulness of the Godhead bodily 3. The Attributes of God are more amply declared Every Excellency of God hath its proper Theater where it is seen In the Gospel all are discovered but chiefly Mercy Justice and Truth His Power and his Wisdom are seen in the World but more in the Gospel the Heavens do not declare half so much of the Glory of God as the Word and Doctrine which Christ brought out of the Father's Bosom 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the Wisdom of God and the Power of God There is Truth 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the Promises of God in him are Yea and in him Amen The greatest Assurance of his Faithfulness was his sending Christ that which we expect is nothing so difficult to believe as the Incarnation of the Son of God his second coming is not so unlikely as his first if he came to Suffer and to Purchase he will come to Reign His Wisdom in joining God and Man together in the Person of Christ Justice and Mercy together Comfort and Duty together in the Covenant of Grace two Natures two Attributes God loseth no Honour Man wanteth no Encouragement God sheweth his Justice Rom. 3.26 To declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the Justifier of him which believeth in Jesus While the Sacrifices continued God only shewed Patience and Forbearance His Holiness and Hatred of Sin by laying it on Christ punishing it in Christ. His Wrath the most dreadful sight of God's Wrath is upon Golgotha God spared not his Son But his Grace that was on the top Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards Man appeared This is the Attribute that beareth sway in the Gospel Mercy is in Office ever since the Fall there was not so much Kindness to Man discovered in Innocency God did good to a good Man there was no Mercy to Enemies then there Man was made after God's Image here God is made after our Image and Likeness Mercy and Grace comes now to shew it self to the World Vse Let us admire and study more the Name of God in the Gospel The first Letter of Christ's Name is Wonderful He is a Mystery that is worthy our Contemplation The Angels have known more of God since Christ was revealed Eph. 3.10 To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly Places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God Let it take up your Thoughts set your Minds awork Heb. 3.1 Wherefore Holy Brethren partakers of the Heavenly Calling consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ. There cannot be a more affective humbling and Heart-changing Consideration 2. Point That none can discover this Name of God but Christ none Authoritatively none perfectly 1. None Authoritatively can fix his Name by which he shall be known among the Creatures The imposition of Names implieth Superiority the less is named of the greater Adam had this favour to name the Beasts as having Authority over them Gen. 2.19 20. And out of the Ground the Lord formed every Beast of the Field and every Fowl of the Air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every Living Creature that was the Name thereof And Adam gave Names to all Cattel and to the Fowl of the Air and to every Beast of the Field Now God is over all there is no higher to name him therefore he nameth himself Jesus Christ who is the very Image of God he cometh and declareth his Name My Name is in him Exod. 23.21 He is God and therefore Authoritatively fixeth the Name of God establisheth the Gospel as the Rule and Direction of the Church 2. None can so perfectly discover him Our Hearts are too narrow to conceive of God and our Tongues too weak to express him Prov. 30.4 What is his Name and what is his Son's Name if thou canst tell Who knoweth his Pedigree exactly Who knoweth his Being Who hath been in his Bosom to discover him so as Christ hath done we must have a borrowed Light to see him Vse 1. Sit down with this Revelation which Christ hath left in the Church there is enough to instruct Faith tho not to satisfy