reason is this To give the World a true discovery of my spirit and light in those things which I count weighty and every truth of them to be of more concernment then a thousand Worlds I cannot tell the thoughts of men concerning my selfe nor will presume to take the place of God to judge the thoughts of any but this I can truly tell that in the following truths I have clearely opened my heart to the view of every Reader and have faithfully given to the World what light God hath given to me in those maine truths and fundamentalls of salvation in which my soule lives and what I can cheerefully dye in the next moment This is all I shall say I blesse the Lord I am single hearted in this worke let men judge of me and it according to to their light I have no other end then this That the eternall loving kindnesse and free grace of God may be lifted up in the World and that all his people may know how good a God hee is I confesse these truths of God were in my soule like new Wine in old Bottles my flesh could imprison them no longer and now they are abroad give me leave Reader with them to give thee a word of caution If thou beest spirituall and understandest these truths of God in the spirit and findest them sweet then blesse the Lord let thy heart praise him and thy eye be singly set on him overlooke the creature wholy unlesse it be to glory in the Lord that hath magnified his free grace to so weake a one as my selfe is I acknowledge the truths to be Gods and revealed by his spirit of truth so that the beauty of them must center no where but in him but all the failings and weaknesses from first to last are mine the fruits of my flesh and darknesse I beseech you let God have his due glory though you blame me for my failings let not my weaknesses prejudice any soule against the precious truths of God I trust there is nothing but what are truths of God though weakly managed and if any one amongst those many thousands more descerning eyes then mine shall finde out any thing that is not so I trust if in a spirit of love and meeknesse it be made knowne to me I shall blesse God for that soule and honour his truth by acknowledging my owne errours And to the scorner I shall onely say this I wish you could singly scorne me in it and not God then would your sinne be the lesse and so would my sorrow too for God hath carried me above your scornes and were not your sinnes increased by it the care of either side would be but very small Let me deale plainely with you you wrong your selves not me for I can both live and dye full of joy and rest in the love of God though you shall please your selves in scorning and deriding me and all the returne I shall make to this will be to pity your darknesse and to pray the Lord to give you the light of his spirit by which you may truly know him and Jesus Christ which he hath sent and then I know you will be new creatures I shall hold you no longer in the porch but open every doore of the house that you may both read and see the truths of God made knowne by his spirit to the weakest and one as unworthy as any of his Servants Rob Tichbourne The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke LOVE to all SAINTS shews union with Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another John 13.35 What Christ hath borne for Saints they shall never beare themselves For as many as are of the workes of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to doe them But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith And the law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christs then are yee Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.10 11 12 13.28 29. Gods Children have his Spirit to walk and work in For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage again to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba-Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8.14 15 16. Gods love giveth Saints to know they shall appeare like Christ Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God Therefore the world knows us not because it knew not him Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is 1 John 3.1 2. Christ is the foode of living soules I am that bread of life John 6.48 Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba-Father Gal. 4.5 6. Saints are compleate before God in their union with Christ For in him dwels all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him Coloss 2.9 Free-grace in God justifieth redeemeth through Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 Christ and the new creature are unseparable Therefore if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sunne I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 No man exceedes another in excellency but by received mercies For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4.7 None but God can be a proper subject for a Saint to glory in He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. part of the 30. vers Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory
vers 50. and 51. This is the bread which commeth downe from heaven that man may eate thereof and not dye I am the living bread which came downe from heaven if any man eate of this bread he shall live for ever And the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Here I say Christ demonstrates what is the bread hee meant namely himselfe in the flesh and he becomes this bread of life by giving his life in the flesh for us In the 53 54 55 56. verses of this chapter out Saviour shewes us how that interest in him as a crucified Jesus is our life and that he may fully cleare this out to us he holds forth himselfe not only a crucified Saviour but a living God In verse 57. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that eateth me even he shall live by me Our Saviour's argument seemeth to be thus I live as one in God and you as one in mee And thus is Christ that bread of life or that bread which gives life to his owne in the world Thus much for proof to the two heads that were first laid down I shall now hold out such spiritual observations from what hath gone before as I have received from Christ And the first observation shall be this namely That Christ only is a Saints life By this I mean that every sparke of a Saints life lies in Christ and so in Christ that it is in nothing else in which Christ is not all Christ is so fully and solely a Saints life that take all duties ordinances priviledges and externall advantages whatsoever substracted from Jesus Christ and they are all dead things but like the grave cloaths in the Sepulchre when Christ was risen Our Saviour himselfe beares witnesse to this truth I am the way the truth and the life No man comes to the Father but by me It is a truth so deare to God and Christ that Christ speakes to it in this place as fully as termes can expresse it both in the affirmative and the negative I am the life sayes Christ that is in the affirmative And so the life that no man comes to my Father the fountaine of life but by me there in the negative and affirmative both in the negative exclusive from Christ and in the affirmative inclusive If wee consult that place in John 16.14 where our Saviour speaks of the office of the Spirit and the usefulnesse of it in the hearts of his people we shall find it speak to this thing we have in hand John 16.14 He shall glorifie me for hee shall receiverf mine and shall shew it unto you Marke it the work of the Spirit is to reveal Christ to us as he is our life and so glorifie Christ in shâ—wing him to be our life As if Christ had said the holy Ghost when he comes hee shall shew you your names written in the booke of Life with my blood all your sinnes laid on me and that I have buried them in my owne wounds so that they shall never rise up in judgment more against you my righteousnesse your robe of glory perfect glory in the sight of God my law of love written in your hearts to be the power that shall slay sinne in your lives Thus the Spirit shall glorifie me in shewing you that I am your life in whole and every part of it Christ as hee is one with God is our fountaine of life in all our addresses to God he is our way truth and life For further confirmation take the experience of the Apostle It is not I saith the Apostle but Christ that lives in me and the life that I live it is by the faith of the Sonne of God And in another place Our lives are bid with Christ in God Take this Text for all 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are yee in Christ Jesus who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse and sanctification and redemption Marke it here Christ is made all by God to us for what can you call life that is not bound up in some or all of these The 29. verse of that Chapter gives a good and â—ull reason why God made Christ all to his people namely this that no flesh should glory in his presence This reason is so full that the truth stands strong upon it against all gain-sayers grace were nor grace if flesh had any thing in it selfe to glory of in the presence of God our life to be only in Christ preserves as entirely the glory of Gods free-grace as it doth the safety of our soules for that soul that glories in Christ as his life glorifies the free grace of God which gave that life When the Apostle speakes of the acts of life in his soule he makes Christ all for sayes hee I can doe all things through Christ that streng thneth me And the same Apostle in another place sayes he it is meerely of grace that I am what I am so that you see where Christ is made all there free-grace hath the glory of all and this is the great designe of God to all eternity to glorifie his free grace Thus much shall suffice for the first observation That Christ only is a Saints life A second observation is this If it be thus Saints should value and esteeme of Christ as their lives Saints what meane these carnall feares doth not Christ live If the world be nothing is not Christ enough Why feare you so much to loose the meate that perisbes when Christ this bread of life lives for ever cannot you be content the world should bring forth wants why there is no other place of want but that there is bread enough in your Fathers house Heaven only is the proper place of fulnesse doth it not speake an undervaluing of Christ that carnall feare shall possesse our spirits of want when Christ the fulnesse of the God-head bodily is our life portion Nay what mean these stoopings and bendings of our judgements affections services to the world and worldly ends Is not this the end of it to live in their love and esteeme so as to make a portion of perishing things friends of the unrighteous Mammon Saints will this stand with an esteeme of Christ as our life A soule that truly values Christ it pants thus in spirit Let me know truths as they are in Jesus and obey them in the spirit of Jesus God hath made the world my foote-stoole as it is his and I am one with him Christ is only my life and glory I would trample upon my foot-stoole and lie downe in the bosome of Christ who is my life and glory this is a soule that truly values Christ But tell me Saints if we value Christ as our life or portion and our crowne of glory our best and truest friend our faithfull brother and our loving husband one that hath borne all Gods wrath
is that state in which God loves a soul though it lyes in its blood so as no eye but Gods can pitty it and is not this free-grace then Let us consult with the covenant of grace and see if it be not free-grace Jer. 31.31 32 33 34. The engagements in it are from God and thereupon God freely engages himself to make a man eternally happy in his love God engages himselfe to be our God and we shall be his people that hee will forgive our iniquities and that he will remember our sins no more and that he will put his law in our hearts and write it in our inward parts What soule can discern this in the Spirit but he must acknowledge God in the riches of his free-grace In Heb. 7.19 The holy Ghost speaks plainly that the law makes nothing perfect but the bringing of a better hope As if he had said it is free-grace not the deeds of the law that perfects any soule That soul which is compleat before God it must be in him namely Christ And sayes another Text If the Sonne hath made you free you are free indeed which implies there is no freedome or compleatnesse but in Christ Now Christ sayes the Text is the redemption of the free-grace of God and that the Apostle knew full well when he desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified In Rom. 8. The Apostle glories in the free-grace of God It is God that justifies sayes he and Christ that hath dyed Who shall condemn As if he had said free-grace hath magnified it selfe to me in which I am safe so that none can condemn and in this I glory And the same Apostle in Rom. 5.2 makes mention of the accesse that Saints have by faith into the grace wherein they stand If we look into the 53d. of Isa we shall there finde particulars of much of that grace of God under which wee are namely the sufferings of Christ for us The Text sayes plainly He bore our griefes and carryed our sorrowes and he was wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities and the chastisement of our peace was upon him and it is by his stripes that we are healed and his soule was made an offering for our sins and that God beheld the travell of his soule and was satisfied This is a state of grace indeed for if wee compare this with 2 Cor. 5. the last we shall see there a plaine discovery of the design of Gods free-grace says the Text he was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him The Lord which had no sinne of his owne had never been made sinne nor had he born sin with all the punishments due to them but for this end and designe of God namely that fallen sinners in the first Adam might be his righteousness in the second Adam the Lord Christ Now surely this is a state of grace to be the righteousnesse of God in Christ Rom. 10.4 The Apostle tels us Christ is the end of the law for righteousnesse to every one that believeth And this salvation is of the free-grace of God wee have this righteousnesse freely of his grace Gal. 2.16 By the workes of the law shall no man be justified Gal. 3.10 For as many as are of the workes of the law are under the curse But in vers 13. of that Chapter Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us In short this is the state of grace Christ made ours and we his he made sinne for us and bearing all punishment due to sin for us satisfied Gods justice and made a redemption to a perfect state of innocency in him Thus Christ hath taken all that is ours and given us all that is his his blood to cleanse us his righteousnesse to perfect us in the sight of God his Spirit to guide us to lead us into all truth and to doe all our works in us Gal. 5.16 17 18. and at last to resign us up to his Father to enjoy fulnesse of glory with him to all eternity Now reade all this backeward and forward and behold the heights the breadths the depths and lengths of it and then you will find it all the free-grace of God and sure I am every soule which in the Spirit comes to know and behold himselfe thus fully justified will give God the glory and acknowledge it to be freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ This gives all to know that Gods way in justifying of his people is through Christ the great gift of his free-grace not of workes sayes the Text no not from good meanings or from good doinge all good in a Saint arises from his one-nesse with Christ in whom both persons and duties are justified by the free-grace of God It is not our externals makes our beauty in the sight of God not our getting into fellowship with the Saints and enjoying Ordinances and priviledges with them but our fellowship with Christ I in you and you in me saith Christ And the Spouse my beloved is mine and I am his I herein lyes the glory and the interest of a justified one Christ sayes to his Come yee blessed of my Father and the Father sayes yee are compleat in him Here is God making a soul from all eternity one with Christ and pronouncing him for ever justified in the blood and righteousnesse of Christ Oh then when you have but a thought of standing justified before God lay downe all but Christ If you have an eye to duties looke on them as the fruits of Christ in you by whom you are justified of the free-grace of God you may looke on duties as the fruits of your Justification but none but Christ as the roote and foundation of it Secondly It should beget admiration in considering Gods giving freely such eternall love and lovelinesse to his elect Saints though by nature they hated him Let us aske our soule in the truth of that word which tels us God loved us before we loved him and that he chose us we did not choose him what struglings hath our natures made against his love shed abroad in our hearts Oh then what vild hearts had we before he dropped love into them yet to us God doth not only drop drops of love but hee gives us all his love and to witnesse it he gives Christ the sonne of his loue which knew no sinne to be made sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him the perfection of righteousnesse Oh here is love making lovelinesse here is Christ given to a soule which is infinite love and being found in his righteousnesse is made perfect lovely without spot or wrinkle sayes the Text compleate in him Can we consider this and not admire it wee can as men admire that we can give no reason for Oh then let us admire this love of God which surpasses all our
Seeking those things which are above where Christ fitteth on the right hand of GOD. Having its affections on things above and not on things on the earth Col. 3.1 2. As Christ so Saints in the world have no other businesse but to doe the will of their Heavenly Father Now truly the consideration of this may well put all Saints upon that great work of selfe-examination We are apt enough to see a mote in our brothers eye when wee overlooke the beame that is in our owne But it is the onely businesse of every Saint to live up Christ then it is worth the looking into our lives how much of Christ wee can find there what singlenesse of soule is in us to all the wayes will and worke of Christ whether we follow Christ for love or for the loaves For what hee is or for what hee gives Whether it be his love that constraines us to deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts or whether feare of Hell shame or punishment stops the eyes pursute and stops the prractise of sinne Or whether our profession of godlinesse under what forme soever be to lift up Christ or selfe Whether if Heaven and Sinne might goe together we would not rather have sin live in our souls then Christ Whether that the profession of godlinesse which we seem so much to delight in be not a burthen to us in the power and life of it Whether that day in which Christ is most and selfe least in our souls be best to the souls content Whether it be the souls desire petition at the throne of grace to be unselft in every thing and that Christ may be all in all whether the soul doth indeed count that a lost day hour or moment in which he doth not in some measure lift up Christ and declare the in-dwelling of Christ in his soule by the out-goings of Christ in his life It is worthy a soules examination how the olde man dyeth and the new man is renewed in him day by day how pride and passion is brought under the feete of Christ in our soules how through Christ that loves us we are more then conquerours over sin and selfe by the love of Christ that conquers them in us and enableth us by his love to live like conquerours rejoycing and glorying in the free grace of our God the new creature is Christ in truth and truths as they are in Jesus godlinesse in power and the power of godlinesse holinesse in its beauty and the beauty of holinesse God in the Spirit and the Spirit of God heavenly mindednesse and a mind in heaven it is living and walking in the Spirit it is a soule united to Christ Christ in it and it in Christ Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creature CHAP. X. Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sun Eccles Chap. 1. vers 14. I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit THIS Scripture is the testimony of the Wise man concerning all things under the Sunne and it is so upon seeing and trying all these things In the verse before this he tels us hee gave his heart to seeke and to search out by wisdome concerning the things that are done under heaven He hath attained the beholding of what he gave hie heart to seeke so that both seeking and seeing in wisdome he findes all to be vanity and vexation of spirit The vanity of the whole creation is the subject matter of all his booke He begins it thus in this first Chap. and 2d vers Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is vanity His heart is so full of the matter that hee doubles the sentence and as he begins with it in the generall so in his whole booke he followes the same subject in the particulars of it concludes his booke with the same generall in Chap. 13. vers 8. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher all is vanity The Psalmist in Psalm 144. vers 4. Bears witnesse to this truth in the top-branch of all the creation Man saith he is like to vanity and he proves it for his dayes are as a shadow that passeth away And in Psalm 62.9 takes in men of high and low degree in the proofe of this generall truth Surely men of low degrees are vanity and men of high degrees are a lye to be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanity the vanity of the creature is a subject well worthy the study of a wise christian and truly none but Christ our wisdome can give us light into this vanity for method sake wee will draw out one generall truth which I thinke is visible in this Scripture That upon true discovery and knowledge of all things under the Sunne we shall finde them vanity and vexation of spirit For the proofe of this truth let us search the Scripture and our owne experience the wise man to prove this truth begins with man in his labour in his first Chap. vers 3 4. What profit hath a man of all his labour under the Sunne for he stayes not to keepe any fruit of his labour but passeth away one generation goeth and another commeth So in Chap. 2. vers 22 23. Man reapeth no content from all his labours under the sunne They fill him full of sorrow travell and griefe and at last he cannot lye downe and rest in them They are a bed of thornes unfit for rest yea when the poore creature comes to lye down indeed and sleep that sleep of death it find â—s no rest in all its labours under the Sun of what kinde soever So in Chap. 1.6 9.17 18 19. verses He tels us mans labour under these vanities is so great that he cannot utter it and that without any satisfaction though what is pursued be enjoyed For though the eye see yet it is not satisfied with seeing and though the eare doe he are yet it is not filled with hearing The creature can never give so long and so much till that which receives from it saith it hath enough though it give objects to the eye yet the eye wants more objects then it can give and though it offers to fill the eare yet the eare is not filled with all that it can give there is no new thing under the Sunne but that which hath been shall be and that which is done is that which shall be done So that though I give my heart to know all things wisdome madnesse and folly yet I find nothing new in them And in stead of content in all this variety of knowledge I found vexation of spirit for I will tell you the best and then judge you the rest In much wisdome is much griefe and he that encreaseth knowledge encreaseth sorrow And if this be the best of the best who can tell what is the worst of the worst he comes to particulars in Chap. 2. vers 1. he
he was in clay the flower soon fadeth the grasse is soone withered the shadow soone gone and the Weavers shuttle passeth swift away this is the time of our flesh in Scripture account Consider againe the waiting is but a moment compared with the time of enjoying the next moment may end the one but the other is eternall without end and the first entrance into our Fathers glory will take quite away the remembrance of all sorrowes and sufferings here below nay the very beholding of Death-without his sting will make ful amends for all our waiting Now surely Saints have great reason to wait for Gods time patiently and believingly though wee be at present in the Wildernesse yet Canaan cannot be farre off and Christ will goe with us all the Wildernesse way till he bring us into Canaan he is faithfull which hath promised never to leave not forsake his people the waiting time shall not be wholly without him but when that time is accomplished then we shall be fully and for ever with him therefore our waiting should be in faith and patience on the will of God all the dayes of his appointed time for us And lastly The whole life of Saints should be a life of holy joy in God and a glorying through Christ over Sin Death and Grave believing Saints should live up those joyes which accompany Death without the sting of sin they should glory in the grace of God and the God of grace They should glory in the redemption of Gods free-grace and as the Apostle here makes a holy triumph over Death without its sting of sinne and over the grave which hath no victory but must give up those bodies which are sowen in corruption to be raised in incorruption wee should let the World know how kind a God we have that will not leave any sting in death or victory in the grave but puts an end to sin and thereby an end to all sorrow which makes death the worldlings feare to be our friend and the time of stripping us from the worlds dying beauty to be the time of filling us with his own glory Saints may well glory over Death that have God and Christ for their life Saints may safely question with Death about his sting when Christ hath taken it away for us wee may safely glory in the times of Deaths approach and the hour of his comming when as Christ hath taken away his sting from him we may truly say there is no God like our God no beloved like our beloved for none but such as have an interest in the love of God and redemption of Christ can glory over Death for to all others Death hath his sting and when ever hee commeth comes with his sting the feare of such hearts to see the face of death speakes very much of the glory of Gods eternall love in Christ to all that believe on him in taking away the sting out of Death by which meanes they can glory in and over death look death in the face with joy and rejoycing where death comes with his sting there is a thousand deaths in one but to a Saint death is no death onely a change or a dissolving to be with Christ then let us proclaim this to the world and so glory in our God that they may know their perishing idols are no wayes to be compared with our reall interest in God the day of death that is at hand will fully prove the truth of this therefore we may boldly say thus we shall make it good both living and dying The glory of a believing Saints death doth abundantly exceed the Worldings life nay indeed his own life for though to him it be Christ to live yet it is gaine to dye It is more Christ to dye then live In life Saints glory in Christ as he dyed for them but in death they glory in Christ as they live with him the first is the glory of purchase but the latter of possession In the first wee glory that the inheritance is given but in the latter that it is received which maketh up perfection of glory And to Saints this is the next step to death without its sting so that they may herein glory and triumph as the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ FINIS