joy unspeakable This priviledge and many other Christ Jesus hath purchased for and given to his people to oblige and endear them that they should be a willing people 2 Tim. 5.2 By whom we have access through faith unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in the hope of the glory of God Ephes 3.12 In whom we have boldness and access with confidence to the Throne of grace Gal. 2. v. 20. The life which I now live I live by the faith in the Son of God He is the Author of our salvation and of all the priviledges we enjoy because to as many as receive him he gives the priviledge to become the Sons of God and that entiltes them to all priviledges Another Argument may be fetched a causis for as there are pleasures and comforts desires and enjoyments natural causing the joy natural so are there found pleasures comforts desires and enjoyments supernatural undependent separate and removed from the natural and had and injoyed meerly and only in the privation of those according to that of the Apostle when we have no comfort in the world then we have most in duty As having nothing yet possessing all things which joy is fully described by the Prophet Habakkuk c. 3. Though the Fig-tree should not blossom neither should fruits be in the Vines though the labour of the Olive should fail c. yet he would rejoyce in the Lord And it is promised by our blessed Lord and Saviour Joh. 10. My joy shall no man take from you Which the blessed Martyrs in the Epistle to the Hebrews found true when they took joyfully the spoiling of their goods and would not accept deliverance Christ calls it his joy partly because he is the Author of it and doth give it according as he promised and partly in opposition to the joys of the world which proceeds from worldly causes and because the world cannot take it away no more than it can give it for afflictions and persecutions cannot take it away therefore it is said Heb. 10. To you it is given to suffer that is with joy and patience and content for otherwise it were no gift Another argument to prove this priviledg is from the Identity of the principles of the new nature of the Regenerate man which is the Spirit These that are such are lead by the Spirit which is in them they live after the Spirit they are in the Spirit The Spirit of grace and of glory resteth upon them and being Spiritual they are delighted with and savour the things of the Spirit only Spiritus sanctus exhilerat sui participes he quickens and stirs up those graces that are in them and replenishes them with the dew of Heaven without which continual supply our graces would fail Zach. 4. The two Olive Trees emptied themselves by golden Pipes into the Lamps Mortification and Vivification and all graces are wrought in us by the Spirit John 4. The water that I shall give him shall be a well of water springing up to eternal life Rom. 8.22 If ye by the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 1 Pet. 1.22 Since ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit being born again c. Both the Will and the Deed are from him helping our infirmities That which is their meat and drink which they hunger and thirst for and live upon their Pabulum Animarum must be so qualified as to refresh strengthen delight and comfort and so it doth This priviledge will be further made out by the effects thereof which the Heavenly soul doth injoy therefore it is proper to search out in what particulars the Holy Ghost doth rejoyce and make joyful the believing soul the particulars are contained under three heads First in their duties performed the Holy Spipit doth exhilerate the souls of the faithful people of God this head containeth both active and passive duties whereby they do exert and put forth their graces in doing and suffering the good will of God For duties well performed are their injoyments because they do find the assistance of the Holy Spirit inabling them in the performance of them when they find themselves insufficient and indisposed and this is matter of joy and comfort to them because they have performed by the Spirits assistance the work of prayer and praising God according to his will and they are confident that they shall enjoy that blessed priviledg which Christ hath purchased for them by his blood viz. confidence in their access to the Throne of Grace and assurance that they shall receive their petitions through the merit of his bloody passion and intercession And as every degree of sin if but a sinful or vain thought makes a child of God loath himself so every degree of holiness and every good thought yields him pleasure content and enjoyment Hereby they are encouraged and delighted to walk with God in holy Meditation and converversation So suffering with Christ also called by David loving correction is matter of joy If we suffer with him we know we shall also reign with him therefore they are willing to bear his reproach which they are enabled to do by the assistance of the Spirit in the time of their tryals he revives the spirit of the contrite ones Isa 57.15 A second head to which these particular acts may be referred is the sealing and ensuring the exceeding precious promises of the Gospel to them whereby they are enabled to live upon a promise by faith in him who made it and is able and willing to perform it to them that trust in him through the merits of Jesus Christ And they find themselves contented and willing to live upon the promise and to wait God's leisure for the time till it is accomplished and for the manner of the accomplishing thereof And these workings of the Spirit are all matter of joy and enjoyment to the soul to find them stirring in their hearts because they know it to be the Spirit By this they lay hold of the promises in the greatest latitude I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty No good thing will he withhold from them that live a godly life They shall want no manner of thing that is good Call upon me in the time of trouble and I shall deliver thee and thou shalt praise me Psal 50.15 He will not be afraid of evil tydings Psal 107. No plague shall come nigh his dwelling Isa 54.17 No weapon formed against thee shall prosper c. And that all things shall work for their good but chiefly they lay hold on the promises of grace These consolations are alwaies bestowed upon God's suffering Servants and are most proper and suitable to that condition In the multitude of the sorrows that I had in my heart thy comforts refresht me The holy Ghost working in our hearts shew us our
water out of the wells of salvation Which promise I conceive extends to all duties of Religion and so to this a-among the rest But sure I am that without this a man cannot be well disposed nor well perform any other with comfort the more we make use of this the more joy we have in us and this is to be alwaies performed others cannot be so Psal 4. Commune with your own hearts and in your Chamber be still What comfort and satisfaction doth it yield to the virtuous mind to contrive and meditate how to do well holily and according to vertue the very Idea of the action hath beauty and delight though peradventure we are not able sometimes to do according because of our infirmities and likewise the evil mind delighteth in evil Jer. 11.15 And this delight in good and the impression of the beautifulness and decency of the action excites to the Act. Although evil be present with us when we endeavour our selves to do the thing by reason of our corrupt nature and our Ghostly enemy If this were not a clear truth it might be sufficiently demonstrated by its contrary The contrivance or remembrance of any unseemly or impious action how full of loathing and horror is it or if they be but vain thoughts that lodge in us as they must needs do in those who read ludicrous vain and scurrilous books or spend their time in the Theatre the mind and manners will be formed accordingly unless we disgust them I mean not that the sins of God's people are often premeditated for if they did premeditate them I suppose they would avoid them but yet sometimes they do consider of sin but most commonly break off their consideration and purpose with loathing of it and themselves too for their thoughts and assayes of sinning but those sins which they committed before their conversion they remember after their conversion with the contrivance of them with loathing and the sins which they see others contrive or read or hear of And often the wickedest persons that are when they remember their foulest sins they abhor them and tremble and endeavour to put out of their minds the remembrance of them for the horrible foulness which they then perceive in them and for the offence which they yield them This Duty then being enjoyned us by God as most necessary and powerful for attaining and improving of every grace and for the avoiding of all and every sin and temptation that our nature is inclined to or liable to be drawn to Let these reasons be sufficient to convince us of the necessity and utility of it and the delightfulness of it both to God and our selves and put us upon the practice of it that we may be Royal Priests to God and our bodies may be the Temples of the Holy Ghost and our hearts God's holy Altars upon which the fire shall ever burn and Incense without ceasing Exod. 30. v. 73. The Corrolary Holy Meditation is the thing whereby we edifie our selves and holy life and conversation is that whereby we edifie one another in the most holy Faith Of the Worship of God in general THAT God is and that he is to be worshiped is written in the heart of man with indelible characters for it appears that before any Law was given the Light of Nature did not only instruct men of the Being of God and of the necessity of Divine Worship but also afforded them such plentiful instruction of the manner of the Worship too that he that had an honest sincere heart might and did perform it in an acceptable manner as Abel did without any other Instructer And Cain might also have done the like as is intimated in those words which God spake to him If thou do good shalt not thou be accepted How far did Cornelius the Centurion go by this light and when by this he could do no more God sent his help Rom. 1. v. 20. The invisible things of him that is of God from the Creation of the world are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal Power and Godhead so that they are without excuse because that when they knew God they glorified him not as God but became vain c. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of man and beast and birds and creeping things Nature then is a Mistress that teacheth us of God and of his worship else the Gentiles had not been given up for not glorifying him as God Nor would Cain have been reproved for mis-serving him Neither would Cain being a wicked person have done it at all But like as he mis-served God so all doubting and unbelieving sensual and hypocritical and vain persons do only offer that which cost them nothing that which they can best part withal easie service and cheap And this corruption growing more and more upon them and they more and more corrupt themselves till at length they become abominable in their wickedness as it is in Psal 53.2 When they have changed the Truth into a Lye and worship the Creature more than the Creator They are driven to that absurdity of denying the being of God that they may avoid the greater viz. a confessing a Deity and yet to yield him no worship Remarkable it is that there hath never been any people or Nation in the world so barbarous but they have both acknowledged a Deity and had a solemn manner of Divine Worship established by municipal Laws the violation whereof hath been punished capitally And if there be any individual person or persons who do or doth deny God or his Worship the same have nothing of the Image of God left in them nor any thing of the holy Spirit of God in them That wisdom and knowledge which they have in them thus corrupted is the Image of the Devil or the Image of the brute beasts as St. James calls their wisdom carnal sensual and devilish And what they know naturally as brute beasts in those things they corrupt themselves as St. Jude speaks Their chief study care labour and industry all their designs providence and all their wisdom is to satisfie their sensual appetites and to provide for back and belly therefore the Apostle saith of them their God is their belly and they mind earthly things This wisdom doth expel and extinguish the wisdom which is from above So that they become Atheistick The Apostle Pet. 2 ep cap. 3. Hath prophecied that such scoffers shall come in these last daies he saith that they are willingly ignorant Ignorance makes them fearless shamless and hopeless That these Atheistick principles are not from our Nature nor born with us but the contrary are from the light of Nature and by our corrupting of our selves we become Atheists is further proved by this That to us who live under the preaching of the gospel and have liberty to read it our selves the glorious light thereof would shine into our hearts if we
shall be conquerors over them through Christ Jesus And let me not be offended at the Cross of Christ knowing that the Gospel is offer'd upon the termes of self-denial and taking up our Cross and knowing that thou dost comfort thy Servants in all afflictions and that as their afflictions do abound their consolations do much more abound but rather let us count it all joy when we fall into these temptations knowing they work in us patience experience hope and repentance So David before he was afflicted he went astray but by his afflictions learned thy Judgments and he said 't is good for me that I have been afflicted And my afflictions seem not greater than his when he cried out Thy hand is heavy upon me day and night my moisture is like the drought in summer All the day long am I afflicted and chastned every morning I am dried up and my heart is like the melting wax my heart panteth my strength faileth me and the light of my eyes is gone from me my lovers and my friends stand afar off and no man cares for my soul But Lord I will make my prayers unto thee in an acceptable time and call upon thee in the time of my trouble Lord how long shall mine enemies triumph over me Lord when wilt thou comfort me Lord as others have found thee full of compassion and mercy so let me find Think upon thy compassions which have been ever of old Remember not against me mine iniquitys but do away my sins for thy names sake Meditation I don't enough apprehend my proneness to every sin and lust but think my self free from sin and from the danger of falling because I feel it not stirring for the present whereas the reason why it is so is only because various diversions take up my thoughts otherways and keep out those so that they are but only laid asleep as it were and are easily awaked by any temptation if the Lord don't strengthen me and the least opportunity lets them loose upon me so that I am not able to resist them Lord let me watch against all those sins that I find my nature inclined to and against such as I find no inclination to but an utter aversation from because my nature is wholly corrupted and it is the power of God only that keeps me from all sorts of sins and temptations therefore let me fear every temptation and sin and watch against them and pray that I enter not into any temptation for if I once but enter into the temptation I am sure to fall if I have no better support than my own strength though the temptation be but weak my strength is weaker Lord do thou either give me more strength or temptation less let me never enter the lists with this enemy but se defendendo flying him as far as I can let me not desire to know what sin or lust is but let me love the ignorance of it Lord when I confess my sins which I have comitted against so many means of grace thy mercies Judgments promises Threatnings the testimonies of my own conscience of thy holy Spirit and the testimonies of the wicked also I must needs acknowledg thy justice in all my punishments and thy long suffering in this that thou dost not confound me nor quite cast me off as thou didst Saul but punishedst me less than I deserve And I admire thy goodness in this that in the midst of thy wrath thou rememberest mercy and hast delivered me when in my affliction I sought thee herein I rejoice and I beseech thee Lord make me contented to be restrain'd from sin by sorrow Lord thou art my God and my Lord therefore let me acknowledg thee in all my ways wait upon thee serve and obey thee and let me not live as if I were without a God nor according to my own lusts denying the Lord that bought me as those do who make their belly their God or Idolize the unrighteous Mammon and vanities of the world neither let me question thy power in the want of means Thou art my Saviour and my deliverer my Buckler the Horn of my Salvation and my refuge my Stony Rock and my Castle therefore let me have grace to fly unto thee in my time of trouble to trust in thee in thy power and in thy goodness for my refuge and defence and stay my self upon thee and commit my way unto thee as unto a faithful Creator make my Prayers continually unto thee Thou art to thy Servants their hope and strength and present help in trouble therefore let not the surprise of any trouble dismay me as if I were hopeless or helpless thou art the Defender of all them that put their trust in thee mighty to save God all-sufficient therefore let me walk with thee and be perfect O thou who art the Rock of ages the helper of the poor and fatherless helpless and destitute The Fountain of living water Let me always run unto thy fountain for true comfort not to broaken Cisterns Let not the baseness of my nature or my sins dismay me for thou knowest whereof we are made but let me look up to Christ as the Israelites being stung did to the brazen Serpent and be healed Let me taste of the Tree of life in the midst of the paradise of God live even the body and blood Jesus Christ as oft a I eat of this Tree of life in the blessed communion assure me that I am healed of all my passed sins Thou Lord art life and truth I will therefore be guided by thee believe in thee and be dead to the World and all creatures and live unto thee and upon thee In Christ let us have life even the new life of the life of faith and not of sense That the old man may dye daily That Christ may live in us as the head liveth in the members and we in him by faith in the promises of eternal life through him As Abraham did in the Land of promise though he had not as yet received the earthly promise neither did he set his heart upon it nor seek it or suffer himself to be hindred by it in the persuit of his future felicity Thou to a believer art all that is desirable in all conditions whatsoever whom have I in Heaven but thee And whom in earth that I can desire in comparison of thee Thy goodness is infinite and though our sins be never so great yet thy thoughts exceeding our thoughts so far as the Heaven is higher than the earth we may have Hope in thy mercy because it endureth for ever and is over all thy works The Lord will never leave nor forsake those that trust in him though he suffered Daniel to be cast into the Lions Den. The three children into the firye furnace the sword to be put to Isaacs throat yet then he delivered them for the Lord knoweth how to deliver his Lot was delivered though Sodom was burned and so was Noah
is greater than the joy of worldly men in their abundance of corn wine and oyle the Prophet Habakkuks joy in the Lord in the want of necessaries of life Hab. 3. Proveth it for what worldly thing can bear up the mind in Adversities Jobs hope and assurance that with those very eyes he should see his redeemer made him suffer all things patiently but all Hamans greatness and happiness did not avail against a disrespect But worldly joy kills the joy in the Holy Ghost They that live in pleasure the Holy Apostle saith they are dead while they live when Afflictions have taken off our heart from the love of the world then wee seek more durable joy then is Gods time to give his Servants joy in the Holy Ghost the peace of conscience and pardon of their sins Though for a season they are in heaviness through manifold temptations they rejoyce in the hope of glory to be revealed As sorrowing they are though they always rejoyce as having nothing yet they possess all things in value Their sorrow is but in semblance their joy reall and in substance Their seeming sorrow for a season their rejoycing perpetual Well then might they take joyfully the spoiling of their goods and rejoyce that they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of Christ and prefer afflictions before the pleasure of sin I had utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodness of the Lord in the Land of the living Psal This anchor of hope kept up his fainting soul As Stephen being stoned then saw Heaven opened So doth faith give to the suffering Saints and Martyrs a prelibation of the joys of Heaven As it is resembled by the first fruits of Canaan which were brought to the Israelits in the barren wilderness 'T is usual with God to depress those which greatest afflictions whom he intends to exalt high And so those to whom he reveals himself most as St. Paul experienced This Apostle though afflicted had joy unspeakable and glorious and received abundance of glorious revelations Psal 23.4 David though he walked through the vally of the shadow of death would fear no evil for thou art with me said he this apprehension of Gods presence and almighty supportation will banish all fears but Psal 46.3 He was not so strong in faith as not to fear for he saith Though I am sometimes afraid yet put I my trust in the Lord. He recovers himself out of his fainting fits by the use of the means Twice in one Psalm we find him fainting and checking himself for it in these expressions Why art thou cast down O my soul and why so disquieted within me Then he raiseth himself up again to hope and trust in God by the experience he had had of Gods help and his interest in him as his God He is the help of my countenance and my God Therefore hope thou in God Bless God for this that he hath given us greater things than we are willing to lose and that he hath given us Christ whom we can not lose Let this comfort us consider if we are afraid of suffering here how should we be afraid of hell If we leave our present enjoyments for God it shall all be made up in Heaven God gives us good things that we may have somthing of value to leave for Christ Philip 1. They rejoyced and waxed confident by St. Pauls bonds Suffering adversity credits the Gospel and creadits thee who sufferest for Satan and his instruments are known to strike at the fairest and best according to that saying placet in vulnus maxima cervix Sen. If afflictions are cause of joy to a believer as the scriptures make out as that of St. James c. 1. Count it all joy when you fall into temptations knowing that the trial of your faith worketh patience c. Then in respect of their spiritual good they ought to contemn temporal losses as this holy precept teacheth The example of the practice of this duty was in those blessed martyrs who took joyfully the spoiling of their goods not accepting deliverance from their persecuters The like example we find in St. Paul Gal. 1.14 He glories in his afflictions saying God forbid that I should glory in any thing save the Cross of Christ by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world It may be rendered by which the world is crucified to me c. i. e. Though the contemplation of the Cross of Christ and his bitter sufferings did throughly motify the Apostle the contemplation of the same operation of it to him made him glory Or the afflictions which he suffered for Christ which wrought such a mortification in him made him therefore glory in them The like is put in practice by other Saints as it is Rom. 5.2 By whom also we have access by faith c. v. 3. And not onely so but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience And patience experience and experience hope Besides these graces and many others which are wrought in the soul by afflictions The reward which is given to those who do so suffer may well make them seem light and also matter of rejoycing viz. That exceeding and eternal weight of glory They do not only yeild the peaceable fruits of righteousness which alone were sufficient to make our lives happy but by these is wrought our eternal happiness also as before is expressed They work for us an exceeding and eternal weight of glory This will prove the truth of Christs Doctrine Mat. 11. ult My yoak is easie and my burthen is light Which may be intended in this sense that all hardship and pains which humane nature can undergo is but light in comparison of sin or the punishment thereof or else that they are but light in respect of the reward here and hereafter or light in respect of the almighty suportation as it is in the Psal 119. v. Hold thou me up and I shall be safe And that of the Apostle Paul I can do all things though Christ that strengthens me for which supportation they may rely upon this promise I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And that I will be with the in the fire c. Another maine cause that makes light the burthen of Christ Cross or yoake is Love the Soul submits willingly to God because it sees in him all causes of love all exeellency of Power majesty glory are in him All perfection of beauty in him every excellent work from him His kindness love and beneficence to us above our merit Hope or expectation his paternal relation to us as his creatures and adopted children in Christ his pittying of us and pardoning our sins and not punishing us according to the fear of our guilty consciences his peculiar pitty to Humane Nature more than to fallen Angels the need we have of him and the benefit we expect from him on whom for all temporal and eternal good we depend
with Anger Also examine thine own reason whether it be not more honourable and more satisfying to thee to shew meekness goodness of Nature ingenious Education Courtesie Generosity Love and Pity in forgiving affronts and provocations than to shew thy Pride Malice Boldness Undaunted Spirit and Courage in revenging them besides the timerity of hazarding thine own Life and Immortal Soul Then examine thy self also in all other actions of Holiness and Unholiness viz. If thou hast led thy Life in Temperance Sobriety and Frugality whether hast thou not found the benefit of it throughout thy Life in thy Mind Body and Estate But if thou hast otherwise lead thy Life thy Health is impaired thy Estate wasted thy Soul polluted and the faculties of thy mind dulled and crased The like examination thou mayest make if thou hast kept thy Body in Chastity whether thou hast not found this to be the best means to preserve thy Life Health and Estate and to propagate the same benefits to thy Issue besides many other blessings which this and every other Grace hath entailed upon it But if thou hast on the contrary been addicted to thy lusts thou wilt feel the pains of it in thy bones when age groweth upon thee and if thou hast not quite wasted thy Estate yet either thou hast no lawful Issue to inherit it or if any yet they are unsound or such as thou hast no comfort of for such persons who are thus addicted are generally thus punished with one of these punishments as we read of Solomon and have seen in our own times Hast thou fed the hungry and cloathed the naked with thy fleece thou knowest that thou hast treasure in Heaven if not thy riches will make themselves wings But alas if thou couldst attain all secular ends and interests Salva Conscientia what are they to him that carrieth on the design of an eternal Interest viz. For eternal happiness how inconsiderable how impertinent how vile But since holiness is the only meanes of attaining happiness and lusts and unholiness are the obstacles and impediments that hinder us and deprive us of it then be constant in the way of holiness and take this for thy design and main business according to that which the Poet Horrace directeth thee by the light of Nature Lib. Epistolar Primo Ep. 6. Si virtus hoc sola potest dare fortis Omissis Hoc age deliciis And Hoc primus repetes opus hoc postremus omittas And make no Omisions of duty for that puts thee back T were endless labor and needless to cite all authorities Civil Moral and Divine that might be brought to prove holiness to be the way and meanes of obtaining happiness for it is so inseparably joyned to happiness that it can hardly be distinguished from eternal happiness which I conceive is begun in this life in holiness I will only mention the Authority of the greatest of the Sons of men John the Baptist who makes repentance and workes meet for repentance to be the way to bring us to Christ who is the way the truth and the life eternal In whom we have eternal life and happiness And I conceive all men will confess the same though in workes they deny it All the precepts which our blessed Saviour taught he propounded as the means to attain happiness And the doers of them he pronounceth happy actually in the present tense likewise all the Commandments which God enjoyned the Israelites were therefore given them to make them happy and when they kept them they did make them happy as they made them holy Whither tend all Divine and Moral precepts and Philosophical improvements of the light of nature but to repress mortiify the inordinate passion and preturbations of the mind and the lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life that by this means we might enjoy a sweet and happy life in all ease rest and peace joy quietness holiness and happiness But imagining that the sensual persons of this age will still oppose and say that happiness is mans interest but the holiness of man is Gods design and interest I answer first What profit shall the Lord have if thou do good 2. Admitting it were Gods Interest it follows if he be greater than thou and thou canst not attain thy end without him then thou must of necessity promote his design and do nothing to cross it Holiness Described 3. Meditation Though it be too great a task for me to undertake nay for any creature for he hath found folly in the Angels and the Heavens are not clean in his sight therefore God himself teacheth us by his word and Spirit And from that word of truth these few collections are drawn for my own help in this grace The Negative part that sheweth what is not true holiness though by some it is supposed to be holiness is the first to be considered Our Saviour describes the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees and then tells his Disciples that Except their Righteousness exceeds theirs they shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Their Righteousness is condemned as insufficient for they justified themselves and condemned others and did their works of Piety and Charity to be seen of men and were Hypocrites Therefore Jesus Christ pronounces several woes against them Again our Saviour reproves the Jews ingeneral for relying upon the outward priviledges without the inward Qualifications saying unto them Think not to say within your selves we have Abraham for our Father This priviledg without the life of Holiness is like a dead body without a soul which the Prophet Jeremiah reproves thus Trust not in lying words saying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord are these Jeremiah 7.4 They did frequent the Temple with their Sacrifices but the Prophet saith you trust in lying words Do you think to lye steal and come into my house Matth. 7.22 Christ shews how that many will come at the day of Judgment with great confidence saying we have prophesied in thy name cast out Devils and done many wonders But he will disown them how little then will it avail the Papists to call themselves the Church and their Pope Peters Successour Our Saviour Christ doth divide professors into 2 sorts Mathew 25. Under the terme of wise and foolish Virgins some had Oyl in their Lamps and some none all had Lamps The causes why men rest in the forme of Godliness without the power are first because they see a necessity that their actions must be changed but do not see a necessity that their hearts must be changed The Apostle Paul in the 3d. of the Philip. Refutes the Righteousness which the Jews imputed to their circumcision and outward priviledges and calls them the concision and vers the 3d. We are the Circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and have no confidence in the flesh This is the reall circumcision whereby we have the
in the words of St. Paul O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of sin and death Who can say he hath cleansed himself Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean But yer St. John saith that he that is born of God sinneth not because his seed remaineth in him and the 1 Epst c. 3. I have wrote unto you young men because you have overcome that wicked one Love not the world nor the things of the world And v. 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not Whosever sinneth hath not seen him nor known him v. 7. Little children let no man deceive you he that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous v. 9. He cannot sin because he is born of God v. 8. He that committeth sin is of the Devil Which Texts are not to be expounded in this sense that a Saint of God may not be overtaken or be temped so above his strength as to be overcome against his will as some suppose it is for then to what purpose doth the Apostle Paul enjoyne it as a duty if any one be overtaken with a fault restore such a one in the Spirit of meekness considering that thou thy self also mayest be tempted unless a good man might be overtaken and the argument too of the duty is positive that thou also who art to restore him mayest be tempted and overcome therefore do this duty to another and the promise of lifting up those that fall would be needless and those many exhortations of our Saviour all the Apostles to watchfulness and prayer circumspection and carefulness against temptations of the world the flesh and the Devil seducers and deceivers would little become so great teachers if there were no need at all of those duties and no danger in the neglect of them nor no possibility that the regenerate person could fall Then he that standeth needs not to take such heed least he fall and St. John himself also saith in the first Epistle chap. 5.17 All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not unto death And in vers 16. If any Man see his Brother sin a sin that is not to death he shall ask and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death and 1 Epist ch 1. v. 8. If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive and ch 2. v. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father c. But if we were absolutely free from sin and the power of sinning what need had we of our Advocate Therefore it seems by the opinion and consent of most Men that when he saith He that is born of God sinneth not he meaneth the same as St. Paul doth express saying It is not I but sin that dwelleth in me And again so with my Spirit I serve the Law of God but with my Flesh the Law of sin and the Law of his Members lead him Captive By which it appears That the inclination of his mind was to serve God in all holiness of Life and he delighted in that in his inward Man And if he chanced to do the contrary it was unwillingly and he counted it his unhappiness and bondage from which he endeavoured to get free Whereas the unregenerate Man counts sin his freedom and every holy observance of Gods Commandments his bondage And when his Conscience checks him and forceth him to any walking with God in religious duties it is thraldom and bondage to him For his course of Life and Conversation is to serve the Flesh and the World to walk in the ways of his own Heart and the sight of his eyes and is sorry that there is any Commandment to restrain him and desires not to know it at least in the strictness of it Again if a regenerate person chance to be overcome by his corruption and strength of Temptation he immediately not only loaths the sin but himself also that he is no better and would rather undergo all misery than fall into the same again And would foregoe all the enjoyments that he hath or hopes for in this World if he could but undoe what he hath misdone The unregenerate are not so and as Solomon describes the Harlot she wipeth her mouth and saith I have not sinned so do others in the state of Nature unless their sins be very gross say they have not sinned or if they confess their sins to God and pray for pardon they think it is enough to embolden them to sin afresh And as the Regenerate walk with God and premeditate and study not how they may commit a sin secretly and undiscovered so as to avoid the shame and punishment but how they may walk closely with God and avoid every Temptation and Snare of Satan so the unregenerate study and contrive to sin with advantage And that place of St. John that saith ye have overcome the evil one may be upon this ground that they have overcome the evil one many times and persist in the conquest of their corruption every day though peradventure some time the Devil may prevail to overcome them as it is said he shall bruise thy heel And though God never leaves Man to be overcome when he endeavours his utmost yet God may let him be overcome as Peter was to humble him in the sight of his own weakeness when he is confident of his strength that he may depend and rely more upon God and seek to him more and not rely upon his own strength but ascribe all to God and his grace And though St. Paul confesseth so much imperfection and St. John so much perfection both of them will agree in this that we are made perfect in Christ St. John further describeth the perfections of the regenerate 1 Ep. 5.4 Whosoever is borne of God overcometh the world And sheweth how in the following words and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our saith He tells us the particulars which he means namely The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life which all are overcome for ch 3. v. 7. He saith That he that doth righteousnes is righteous And 10. Whosoever doth not righteousness is not of God And 1 Ep. c. 5.18 We know that whosoever is borne of God sinneth not for he that is begotten of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Which touching certainly hath reference to the words before of sinning a sin not unto death and those words sinneth not have the same reference viz. He sinneth not de industria Pleno Animo Else no man will be found that it can be said of him that he sineth not Noah whom God mentioned for one of the three persons most acceptable to God of whom it is testified in the holy scriptures that he only was found righteous yet he was overtaken by the sin of