regenerate soul hath an inherent justice or righteousnesse in it self He that is righteous let him be righteous still saith the Angel But at the best this righteousness of ours is like our selves full of imperfection If thou Lord shouldst mark iniquities O Lord who shall stand Behold we are before thee in our trespasses for we cannot stand before thee because of this How should a man be just with God If he will contend with him he cannot answer him one of a thousand So then hee that doth righteousnesse is righteous but by pardon and indulgence because the righteousnesse he doth is weak and imperfect he that is made righteousnesse is perfectly righteous by a gracious acceptation by a free imputation of absolute obedience Wo were us if wee were put over to our own accōplishments for Cursed is every one that cōtinueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them and If we say that we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Lo if there be truth in us we must confesse we have sinne in us and if we have sin we violate the Law and if we violate the Law we lye open to a curse But here is our comfort that our surety hath paid our debt It is true we lay forfaited to death Justice had said The soul that sinneth shall die Mercy interposeth and satisfies The Son of God whose every drop of bloud was worth a world payes this death for us And now Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercessiō for us Our sin our death is laid upon him and undertaken by him He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisements of our peace were upon him and with his stripes we are healed His death his obedience is made over to us So then the sin that we have committed and the death that we have deserved is not ours but the death which he hath endured and the obedience that he hath performed is so ours as he is ours who is thereupon made of God our righteousnesse Where now are those enemies of grace that scoffe at imputation making it a ridiculous paradox that a man should become just by another mans righteousnesse How dare they stand out against the word of truth which tels us expresly that Christ is made our righteousnesse What strangers are they to that grace they oppugn How little do they consider that Christ is ours his righteousnesse therefore by which we are justified is in him our own Hee that hath borne the iniquitie of us all hath taught us to call our sinnes our debts those debts can be but once paid if the bounty of our Redeemer hath staked down the sums required and cancelled the bonds and this payment is through mercy fully accepted as frō our own hands what danger what scruple can remain What doe we then weak souls tremble to think of appearing before the dreadfull tribunall of the Almighty we know him indeed to be infinitely and inflexibly just we know his most pure eyes cannot abide to behold sin we know wee have nothing else but sinne for him to behold in us Certainly were we to appear before him in the meer shape of our own sinfull selves we had reason to shake and shiver at the apprehension of that terrible appearance but now that our faith assures us we shall no otherwise bee presented to that awfull Judge then as cloathed with the robes of Christs righteousnesse how confident should we be thus decked with the garments of our elder brother to carry away a blessing whiles therefore we are dejected with the conscience of our own vilenesse we have reason to lift up our heads in the confidence of that perfect righteousnesse which Christ is made unto us and we are made in him At the barre of men many a one is pronounced just who remains inwardly foule and guilty for the best of men can but judge of things as they appear not as they are but the righteous Arbiter of the world declares none just whom he makes not holy The same mercy therefore that makes Christ our righteousnesse makes him also our sanctification of our selves wretched men what are we other at our best then unholy creatures full of pollution and spirituall uncleannesse it is his most holy Spirit that must cleanse us from all the filthinesse of our flesh and spirit and work us daily to further degrees of sanctification He that is holy let him be holy stil neither can there be anything more abhorring from his infinite justice and holinesse then to justifie those souls which lie still in the loathsome ordure of their corruptions Certainly they never truly learnt Christ who would draw over Christs righteousnesse as a case of their close wickednesses that sever holinesse from justice and give no place to sanctification in the evidence of their justifying Never man was justified without faith and wheresoever faith is there it purifieth and cleanseth But besides that the Spirit of Christ works thus powerfully though gradually within us That he may sanctifie and cleanse us with the washing of water by the word his holinesse is mercifully imputed to us That he may present us to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinckle or any such thing but that wee should bee holy and without blemish so as that inchoate holinesse which by his gracious inoperation grows up daily in us towards a full perfection is abundantly supplyed by his absolute holinesse made no lesse by imputation ours then it is personally his When therefore we look into our bosomes we finde just cause to bee ashamed of our impurity and to loath those dregs of corruption that yet remain in our sinfull nature but when vve east up our eyes to heaven and behold the infinite holinesse of that Christ to whom we are united which by faith is made ours vvee have reason to bear up against all the discouragements that may arise from the conscience of our own vilenesse and to look God in the face with an awfull boldnesse as those vvhom he is pleased to present holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as knowing that he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one Redemption vvas the great errand for vvhich the Sonne of God came down into the vvorld and the vvorke vvhich hee did vvhiles hee vvas in the vvorld and that vvhich in vvay of application of it hee shall bee ever accomplishing till he shall deliver up his Mediatory Kingdome into the hands of his Father in this he begins in this he finishes the great businesse of our salvation For those who in this life
are enlightned by his vvisdome justified by his merits sanctified by his grace are yet conflicting vvith manifold temptations and strugling with varieties of miseries and dangers till upon their happy death and glorious resurrection they shall be fully freed by their ever-blessed and victorious Redeemer He therefore vvho by vertue of that heavenly union is made unto us of God Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification is also upon the same ground made unto us our full Redemption Redemption implies a captivity We are naturally under the vvofull bondage of the Law of sin of miseries of death The Law is a cruell exactor for it requires of us vvhat vvee cannot now doe and vvhips us for not doing it for the Law worketh wrath and as many as are of the workes of the Law are under the curse Sinne is a vvorse tyrant then he and takes advantage to exercise his cruelty by the Law For when we were in the flesh the motions of sins which were by the Law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death Upon sinne necessarily follows misery the forerunner of death and death the upshot of all miseries By one man sinne entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned From all these is Christ our Redemption from the Law for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us From sin for we are dead to sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace From death and therein from all miseries 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 thanks be to God which giveth us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now then let the Lavv doe his vvorst we are not under the Law but under Grace The case therefore is altered betwixt the Law and us It is not now a cruell Task-master to beat us to and for our vvork it is our School-master to direct and to whip us unto Christ It is not a severe Judge to condemne us it is a friendly guide to set us the vvay towards heaven Let sin joyn his forces together vvith the Law they cannot prevail to our hurt For what the Law could not doe in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his owne Son in the likenesse of sinfull flesh condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousnesse of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Let death joyn his forces vvith them both vve are yet safe For the Law of the spirit of life hath freed us from the Law of sin and of death What can vve therefore fear vvhat can vve suffer vvhiles Christ is made our Redemption Finally as thus Christ is made unto us Wisdome Righteousnesse Sanctification Redemption so whatsoever else he either is or hath or doth by vertue of this blessed union becomes ours he is our riches our strength our glory our salvation our all he is all to us and all is ours in him From these primary and intrinsecal priviledges therefore flow all those secondary and externall vvherewith vve are blessed and therein a right to all the blessings of God both of the right hand and of the left an interesse in all the good things both of earth and heaven Hereupon it is that the glorious Angels of Heaven become our Guardians keeping us in all our ways and vvorking secretly for our good upon all occasions that all Gods creatures are at our service that we have a true spirituall title to them All things are yours saith the Apostle and ye are Christs and Christ Gods But take heed my son of mis-laying thy claime to what and in what manner thou ought'st not There is a civill right that must regulate our propriety to these earthly things our spirituall right neither gives us possession of them nor takes away the right and propriety of others Every man hath and must have what by the just Lawes of purchase gift or inheritance is derived to him otherwise there would follow an infinite confusion in the world we could neither enjoy nor give our owne and onely will and might must be the arbiters of all mens estates which how unequall it would be both reason and experience can sufficiently evince This right is not for the direption or usurpation of that which civill titles have legally put over to others there were no theft no robbery no oppression in the world if any mans goods might be every mans But for the warrantable and comfortable injoying of those earthly commodities in regard of God their originall owner which are by humane convciances justly become ours The earth is the Lords and the fulnesse of it in his right what ever parcells doe lawfully descend unto us we may justly possesse as we have them legally made over to us from the secondary and immediate owners There is a generation of men who have vainly fancied the founding of Temporall dominion in Grace and have upon this mistaking outed the true heyres as intruders and feoffed the just and godly in the possession of wicked inheritors which whether they be worse Commonwealths-men or Christians is to me utterly uncertaine sure I am they are enemies to both whiles on the one side they destroy all civill propriety and commerce and on the other retch the extent of the power of Christianity so far as to render it injurious and destructive both to reason and to the Lawes of all well-ordred humanity Nothing is ours by injury and injustice all things are so ours that we may with a good conscience enjoy them as from the hand of a munificent God when they are rightfully estated upon us by the lawfull convention or bequest of men In this regard it is that a Christian man is the Lord of the whole universe and hath a right to the whole creation of God how can he challenge lesse he is a son and in that an heire and according to the high expression of the holy ghost a co-heir with Christ As therefore we may not be high-minded but fear so we may not be too low-harted in the under-valuing of our condition In God we are great now mean soever in our selves In his right the world is ours what ever pittance we enjoy in our owne how can we goe lesse when we are one with him who is the possessour of heaven and earth It were but a poore comfort to us if by vertue of this union wee could only lay claime to all earthly things alas how vaine and transitory are the best of these perishing under our hand in the very use of them and in the meane while how unsatisfying in the fruition All this were nothing if we
that man or that world had any beeing hast so far loved me as to pre-ordain me to a place of blessedness in that heaven which should be and to make me a co-heir with my Christ of thy glory And oh what an heaven is this that thou hast laid out for me how resplendent how transcendently glorious Even that lower Paradise which thou providedst for the harbour of innocence and holinesse was full of admirable beauty pleasure magnificence but if it be compared with this Paradise above which thou hast prepared for the everlasting entertainment of restored souls how mean and beggerly it was Oh match too unequall of the best peece of earth with the highest state of the heaven of heavens In that earthly Paradise I finde thine Angels the Cherubim but it was to keep man off from that Garden of Delight and from the tree of life in the midst of it but in this heavenly one I finde millions of thy Cherubim and Seraphim rejoycing at mans blessednesse and welcomming the glorified souls to their heaven There I finde but the shadow of that whereof the substance is here There we were so possessed of life that yet we might forfait it here is life without all possibility of death Temptation could finde accesse thither here is nothing but a free and compleat fruition of blessednesse There were delights fit for earthly bodies here is glory more then can be enjoyed of blessed souls That was watered with four streams muddy and impetuous in this is the pure river of the water of life clear as Crystall proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb There I finde thee onely walking in the cool of the day here manifesting thy Majesty continually There I see onely a most pleasant Orchard set with all manner of varieties of flourishing and fruitfull plants here I finde also the City of God infinitely rich and magnificent the building of the wall of it of Jasper and the City it selfe pure gold like unto cleare glasse and the foundations of the wall garnished with all manner of precious stones All that I can here attain to see is the pavement of thy celestiall habitation and Lord how glorious it is how bespangled with glittering starres for number for magnitude equally admirable What is the least of them but a world of light and what are all of them but a confluence of so many thousand worlds of beauty and brightnesse met in one firmament And if this floor of thine heavenly Palace be thus richly set forth oh how infinite glory and magnificence must there needs be within Thy chosen Vessell that had the priviledge to be caught up thither and to see that divine state whether with bodily or mentall eyes can expresse it no otherwise then that it cannot possibly be expressed No Lord it were not infinite if it could bee uttered Thoughts goe beyond words yet even these come far short also He that saw it says 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 Yet is thy love O Saviour so much more to bee magnified of me in this purchased glory when I cast down mine eyes and look into that horrible gulf of torment and eternall death whence thou hast rescued my poor soul Even out of the greatest contentment which this world is capable to afford unto mankind to be preferred to the joys of heavē is an unconceivable advantage but from the depth of misery to be raised up unto the highest pitch of felicity addes so much more to the blessing as the evill from which we are delivered is more intolerable Oh blessed Jesu what an hell is this out of which thou hast freed me what dreadfull horror is here what darknesse what confusion what anguish of souls that would and cannot die what howling and yelling and shrieking and gnashing what everlasting burnings what never slaking tortures what mercilesse fury of unweariable tormentors what utter despair of any possibility of release what exquisitenesse what infinitenesse of paines that cannot yet must be endured Oh God if the impotent displeasure of weake men have devised so subtile engines of revenge upon their fellow-mortals for but petty offences how can wee but think thine infinite justice and wisdome must have ordained such forms and ways of punishment for hainous sins done against thee as may be answerable to the violation of thy divine Majesty Oh therefore the most fearfull and deplored condition of damned spirits never to be ended never to be abated Oh those unquenchable flames Oh that burning Tophet deep and large and those streams of brimstone wherewith it is kindled Oh that worm ever gnawing and tearing the heart never dying never sated Oh ever-living death oh ever renuing torments oh never pitied never intermitted damnation From hence O Saviour from hence it is that thou hast fetcht up my condemned soul This is the place this is the state out of which thou hast snatcht me up into thy heaven Oh love and mercy more deep then those depths from which thou hast saved me more high then that heaven to which thou hast advanced me Now whereas in my passage from this state of death towards the fruition of immortall glory I am way-laid by a world of dangers partly through my own sinfull aptnesse to miscarriages and partly through the assaults of my spirituall enemies how hath thy tender love and compassion ô blessed Jesu undertaken to secure my soul from all these deadly perils both without and within without by the guardance of thy blessed Angels within by the powerfull inoperation of thy good Spirit which thou hast given me Oh that mine eyes could be opened with Elishaes servant that I might see those troops of heavenly soldiers those horses and chariots of fire wherewith thou hast encompassed mee every one of which is able to chase away a whole host of the powers of darknes Who am I Lord who am I that upon thy gracious appointment these glorious spirits should still watch over me in mine uprising and down lying in my going out and comming in that they should bear me in their arms that they should shield me with their protection Behold such is their majesty and glory that some of thy holiest servants have hardly been restrained from worshipping them yet so great is thy love to man as that thou hast ordained them to be ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Surely they are in nature far more excellent then man as being spirituall substances pure intelligences meet to stand before the throne of thee the King of glory What a mercy then is this that thou who wouldst humble thy self to be lower then they in the susception of our nature art pleased to humble them in their offices to the guardianship of man so far as to call them the Angels of thy little ones upon earth How hast thou