at the Judgement Seat of Christ in the great day and verily in this thing is the love of God perfected 1 John 4. 17. O 't is a priviledge in which the grace mercy and love of God do â—…ine forth as clearly as the sun when it shineth in its full strength And certainly you will find cause to lye at the feet of God astonished and overwhelmed with the sense of this mercy when you shall find your selves freed from the condemnation of God whilst many others as good as you were are still under condemnation Yea your selves freed and many of your Superiors in the world still under the curse 1 Cor. 1. 26. Yea your selves freed and others that sate under the same means of grace and had the same external advantages you had still in chains 2 Cor. 2. 16. O brethren this is a marvellous deliverance look on it which way you will your ransome is paid and not a peny of it by you it cost you nothing to procure your pardon Your pardon is full and not one sin excepted out of it that you ever committed Your are freed and Jesus Christ condemned in your stead to procure your discharge your pardon is sealed in his blood and is irrevocable for ever so that you shall never any more come into condemnation He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life John 5. 24. Let them that are so delivered spend their days on earth in praise and cheerful obedience and when they die let them not shrink away from death nor be afraid to take it by the cold hand it can do them no harm Yea let them close their dying lips with Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. The Thirty third SERMON Sermon 33. JOHN 3. 19. Text. And this is the Condemnation that light is come into the Of the Aggravation of the sin and punishment of unbelief under the light of the Gospel world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil OUt of the fore-going Verse it was fully proved in our last Sermon that all Christless and unregenerate men are no better than dead men being Condemned already Our Saviour proceeds in this Verse to aggravate the misery of those that refuse and despise him yet farther and to let them know that those who remain in unbelief and the state of unregeneracy must expect some greater and sorer wrath than other men not only a simple Condemnation but an aggravated and peculiar Condemnation This is the Condemnation that light is come c. In the words we find these three parts 1. The aggravation of sin by the abuse of Gospel light Light is come c. 2. The aggravation of misery in proportion to that abuse of light this is the condemnation 3. The cause and occasion drawing men into this sin and misery because their deeds were evil First We have here the aggravation of sin by the abuse of Gospel Light Light is come By Light we are to understand 1. the knowledge discovery and manifestation of Christ and Redemption by him in the Gospel He is the Son of righteousness that arises in the Gospel upon the nations Mal. 4. 1. When he came in the flesh then did the day-spring from on high visit us Luke 1. 78. And the light may be said to come two ways either First In the means by which it is conveyed to us or Secondly in the efficacy of it upon our minds when it actually shines into our souls Light may come among a people in the means and yet they actually remain in darkness all the while As it is in nature The sun may be up and a very glorious morning far advanced whilst many thousands are drouzing upon their beds with their curtains drawn about them Light in the means we may call potential Light Light in the mind we may cali actual light It is but seldom that light comes in the means and continues long among men but some light must needs actually shine into their souls also but this actual light is twofold 1. Common and intellectual only to conviction or 2. Special and efficacious light bringing the foul to Christ by real conversion call'd in 1 Cor. 4. 6. Gods shining into the heart Where ever light comes in this last sense it is impossible that such men should prefer darkness before it but it may come in the means yea it may actually shine into the consciences of men by those means and convince them of their sins and yet men may hate it and choose darkness rather than light And this is the sense of this place Light was come in the Gospel dispensation among them yea it hath shined into many of their consciences gauled and reproved them for sin but they hated it and had rather be without such a troublesome inmate In a word by the coming of light we are here to understand a more clear and open manifestation of Christ by the Gospel than ever was made to the world before for we are not to think that there was no light in the world till Christ came and the Gospel was published in the world by the Apostles ministry For Abraham saw Christ's day John 8. 56. and all the faithful before Christ saw the promises i. e. their accomplishment in Christ afar off Heb. 11. 13. for it was with Christ the Son of righteousness as it is with the natural Sun which illuminates the hemisphere before it actually rises or shews its body above the Horizon but when it rises and shews it self the light is much Sol nonduâ—… conspectus illuminat orbem clearer so it was in this case The greater therefore was their sin that rebelled against it and preferred darkness to light this was their sin with its fearful aggravation Secondly In a most just proportion to this sin we have 2. here the aggravated condemnation of them who sinned against such clear Gospel-light This is the condemnation this is the judgement of all judgements the greatest and most intolerable judgement a severer sentence of condemnation than ever did pass against any others that sinned in the times of ignorance and darkness they that live and dye impenitent and unregenerate how few soever the means of salvation have been which they have enjoyed must be condemned yea the Pagan world who have no more but natural light to help them will be condemned by that light but this is the condemnation i. e. such sinning as this is the cause of the greatest condemnation and sorest punishment as it 's called Heb. 10. 19. Thirdly The cause and occasion drawing men into this sin and misery because their deeds were evil i. e. the convincing 3. light of truth put a great deal of vigour and activity into their Consciences which they could not endure The accusations and condemnations of Conscience are very irksome and troublesome things to
may make an Idol of it and dote beyond the bounds of moderation upon it but there is no danger of excess in the love of Christ the soul is then in the healthiest frame and temper when it is most sick of love to Christ Cant. 5. 8. Fifthly The loveliness of every creature is of a cloying and glutting nature our estimation of it abates and links by our nearer approach to it or longer enjoyment of it creatures like Pictures are fairest at a due distance but it is not so with Christ the nearer the soul approacheth him and the longer it lives in the enjoyment of him still the more sweet and desireable he is Sixthly Lastly All other loveliness is unsatisfying and straitning to the soul of man there is not room enough in any one or in all the creatures for the soul of man to dilate and expatiate it self but it still feels it self pinch't in Aestuat infelix angusto â—…mite mundi and narrowed within those strait limits and this comes to pass from the inadequateness and unsuitableness of the creature to the nobler and more excellent soul of man which like a Ship in a narrow River hath not room to turn and besides is ever and anon striking ground and foundring in those shallows but Jesus Christ is every way adequate to the vast desires of the soul in him it hath Sea-room enough there it may spread all its fails no fear of touching the bottom And thus you see what is the importance of this phrase altogether lovely Secondly Next I promised to shew you in what respects Jesus Christ is altogether lovely And 2. First He is altogether lovely in his person a deity dwelling in flesh Joh. 1. 14. The wonderful union and perfection of the divine and humane nature in Christ renders him an object of admiration and adoration to Angels and men 1 Tim. 3. 16. God never presented to the world such a vision of glory before and then considering how the humane nature of our Lord Jesus Christ is replenished with all the graces of the Spirit so as never any of all the Saints was filled O how lovely doth this render him Joh. 3. 34. God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him this makes him fairer than the children of men grace being poured into his lips Psal. 45. 2. If a small measure of grace in the Saints makes them such sweet and desireable companions what must the riches and fulness of the Spirit of grace filling Jesus Christ without measure make him in the eyes of believers O what a glory and a luster must it stamp upon him Secondly He is altogether lovely in his Offices for let us but consider the suitableness fulness and comfortableness of them First The suitableness of the Offices of Christ to the miseries and wants of men and we cannot but adore the infinite wisdom of God in his investiture with them we are by nature blind and ignorant at best but groping in the dim light of nature after God Acts 17. 27. Jesus Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles Isai. 49. 6. When this great Prophet came into the world then did the day-spring from on high visit us Luk. 1. 78. The state of nature is a state of alienation and enmity to God Christ comes into the world an attoning sacrifice making peace by the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. All the world by nature are in bondage and captivity to Satan a lamentable thraldom Christs comes with a kingly power to rescue sinners as a prey from the mouth of the terrible one Secondly Let the fulness of his Offices be also considered by reason whereof he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. The three Offices comprising in them all that our souls do need become an universal relief to all our wants and therefore Thirdly Unspeakably comfortable must the Offices of Christ be to the souls of sinners if light be pleasant to our eyes how pleasant is that light of life springing from the Sun of righteousness Mal. 4. 2. If a pardon be sweet to a condemned malefactor how sweet must the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus be to the trembling Conscience of a lawcondemned-sinner If a rescue from a cruel Tyrant be sweet to a poor Captive how sweet must it be to the ears of inslaved sinners to hear the voice of liberty and deliverance proclaimed by Jesus Christ Out of the several Offices of Christ as out of so many fountains all the promises of the new Covenant flow as so many soul refreshing streams of peace and joy all the promises of illumination counsel and direction flow out of the Prophetical Office all the promises of reconciliation peace pardon and acceptation flow out of the Priestly Office with the sweet streams of Joy and Spiritual comfort depending thereupon all the promises of converting increasing defending directing and supplying grace flow out of the Kingly Office of Christ indeed all promises may be reduced to the three Offices so that Jesus Christ must needs be altogether lovely in his Offices Thirdly Jesus Christ is altogether lovely in his relations First He is a lovely Redeemer Isai. 61. 1. he came to open the Prison-dores to them that are bound Needs must this Redeemer be a lovely one if we consider the depth of misery from which he redeemed us even from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1. 10. How lovely was Titus in the eyes of the poor enthralled Greeks whom he delivered from their bondage This endeared him to them unto that degree that when their liberty was proclaimed they even trode one another to death to see the Herauld that proclaimed it and all the night following with instruments of musick danced about his Tent crying with united voyces A Saviour a Saviour Or whether we consider the numbers redeemed and the means of their redemption Rev. 5. 9. And they sang a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation He redeemed us not with Silver and Gold but with his own precious Blood by way of price 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. with his out-stretched and glorious arm by way of power Col. 1. 13. he redeemed us freely Eph. 1. 7. fully Rom. 8. 1. seasonably Gal. 4. 4. and out of special and peculiar love Joh. 17. 9. In a word he hath redeemed us for ever never more to come into bondage 1 Pet. 1. 5. Joh. 10. 28. Oh how lovely is Jesus Christ in the relation of a Redeemer to Gods elect Secondly He is a lovely Bridegroom to all that he espouses to himself how doth the Church glory in him in the words following my Text This is my Beloved and this is my Friend O ye Daughters of Jerusalem q. d. Heaven and earth cannot show such another which needs no fuller
person and real participation of his benefits now this is the question to be determined the matter to be tryed than which nothing can be more solemn and important in the whole world Secondly The rule by which this great question may be 2. determined viz. The new Creation if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature by this rule all the titles and claims made to Christ in the professing world are to be examined if any man be he what he will high or low great or small learned or illiterate young or old if he pretend interest in Christ this is the standard by which he must be tryed if he be in Christ he is a new Creature and if he be not a new Creature he is not in Christ let his endowments gifts confidence and reputation be what it will be a new Creature not new Physically he is the same person he was but a new Creature that is a creature renewed by gracious principles newly infused into him from above which sway him and guide him in another manner and to another end than ever he acted before and these gracious principles not being educed out of any thing which was preexistent in man but infused de novo from above are therefore called in this place a new Creature this is the rule by which our claim to Christ must be determined Thirdly This general rule is here more particularly explained 3. old things are passed away behold all things are become new he satisfies not himself to lay down this rule concisely or express it in general terms by telling us the man in Christ must be a new Creature but more particularly he shews us what this new creature is and what the parts thereof are viz. Both the 1. Privative part old things are passed away 2. Positive part thereof all things are become new By old things he means all those carnal principles self ends fleshly lusts belonging to the carnal state or the old man all these are passed away not simply and perfectly but only in Non simpliciter perfectè sed partim re partim spe Estius in loc part at present and wholly in hope and expectation hereafter So much briefly of the privative part of the new Creature old things are passed away a word or two must be spoken of the positive part all things are become new He means not that the old faculties of the soul are abolished and new ones created in their room but as our bodies may be said to be new bodies by reason of their new endowments and qualities super-induced and bestowed upon them in their resurrection so our souls are now renewed by the infusion of new gracious principles into them in the work of regeneration These two parts viz. the privative part the passing away of old things and the positive part the renewing of all things do betwixt them comprize the whole nature of sanctification which in other Scriptures is expressed by equivalent phrases sometimes by putting off the old and putting on the new man Eph. 4. 24. sometimes by dying unto sin and living unto righteousness Rom. 6. 11. which is the self-same thing the Apostle here intends by the passing away of old things and making all things new and because this is the most excellent glorious and admirable work of the spirit which is or can be wrought upon man in this world therefore the Apostle asserts it with an Ecce a note of special remarque and observation behold all things are become new q. d. behold and admire this surprizing marvellous change which God hath made upon men they are come out of darkness into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. out of the old as it were into a new world behold all things are become new Hence Note DOCT. That Gods creating of a new supernatural work of grace in the Doct. soul of any man is that mans sure and infallible evidence of a saving interest in Jesus Christ. Suitable hereunto are those words of the Apostle Eph. 4. 20 21 22 23 24. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that ye have heard him and have 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 deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness where we have in other words of the same importance the very self-same description of the man that is in Christ which the Aposte gives us in this Text. Now for the opening and stating of this point it will be necessary that I shew you 1. Why the regenerating work of the Spirit is called a new Creation 2. In what respects every soul that is in Christ is renewed or made a new Creature 3. What are the remarkable properties and qualities of this new Creature 4. The necessity of this new Creation to all that are in Christ. 5. How this new Creation evidences our interest in Christ. 6. And then Apply the whole in the proper uses of it First Why the regenerating work of the spirit is called a 1. new Creation this must be our first enquiry and doubtless the reason of this appellation is the Analogy proportion and similitude which is found betwixt the work of regeneration and Gods work in the first Creation and their agreement and proportion will be found in the following particulars First The same Almighty Author who created the world createth also this work of grace in the soul of man 2 Cor. 4. 6. God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ the same powerful word which created the natural createth also the spiritual light it is equally absurd for any man to say I make my self Minus el te fecisse hominem quam sanctum to repent or to believe as it is to say I made my self to exist and be Secondly The first thing that God created in the natural world was light Gen. 1. 3. and the first thing which God createth in the new Creation is the light of spiritual knowledge Col. 3. 10. And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that Created him Thirdly Creation is out of nothing it requires no pre-existent matter it doth not bring one thing out of another but something out of nothing it gives a being to that which before had no being So it is also in the new Creation 1 Pet. 2. 9 10. who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light which in time past were not a people but are now the people of God which had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy the work of grace is not educed out of the power and principles of
dreadful stab to that noble power Gods vicegerent in the soul. And thus you see the first thing made good that light puts deep guilt and aggravation into sin Secondly In the next place let us examine why sin so aggravated by the light makes men liable to the greater condemnation 2. for that it doth so is beyond all debate or question else the Apostle Peter would not have said of those sinners against light as he doth 2 Pet. 2. 21. That it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness nor would Christ have told the Inhabitants of Chorazin or Bethsaida that it should be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of Judgement than for them There is a twofold reason of this 1. Ex parte Dei on Gods part 2. Ex parte Peccatoris on the Sinners part First Ex parte Dei on Gods part who is the righteous Judge of the whole earth and will therefore render unto every man according as his works shall be for shall not the Judge of the whole earth do right he will judge the world in righteousness and righteousness requires that difference be made in the punishment of Sinners according to the different degrees of their sins Now that there are different degrees of sin is abundantly clear from what we have lately discoursed under the former head where we have shewed that the light under which men sin puts extraordinary aggravations upon their sins answerable whereunto will the degrees of punishment be awarded by the righteous Judge of Heaven and earth The Gentiles who had no other light but that dim light of nature will be condemned for disobeying the law of God written upon their hearts but yet greater wrath is reserved for them who sin both against the light of nature and the light of the Gospel also and therefore it is said Rom. 2. 9. Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Impenitent Jews and Gentiles will all be condemned at the Bar of God but with this difference to the Jew first i. e. principally and especially because the light and mercy which he abused and violated were far greater than those bestowed upon the Gentiles because unto them were committed the Oracles of God and God had not dealt with any Nation as with that Nation Indeed in the rewards of obedience the same reason doth not hold he that came into the Vineyard at the last hour of the day may be equal in reward with him that bare the heat and burthen of the whole day because the reward is of grace and bounty not of debt and merit but it is not so here justice observes an exact proportion in distributing punishments according to the degrees deserts and measures of sin and therefore it is said concerning Babylon Rev. 18. 7. How much she had glorified her self and lived deliciously so much torment and sorrow give her Secondly Ex parte Peccatoris upon the account of sinners it must needs be that the heaviest wrath and most intolerable torments should be the portion of them who have sinned under and against the clearest light and means of grace for we find in the Scripture account that a principal and special part of the torment of the damned will arise from their own Consciences Mark 9. 44. Where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched and nothing is more manifest than this that if Conscience be the tormentor of the damned then sinners against light must needs have the greatest torments For First The more knowledge any man had in this world the more was his Conscience violated and abused here by sinning against it and O what work will these violations and abuses make for a tormenting Conscience in Hell With what rage and fury will it then avenge it self upon the most stout daring and impudent sinner the more guilt now the more rage and fury then Secondly The more knowledge or means of knowledge any man hath enjoyed in this world so much the more matter is prepared and laid up for Conscience to upbraid us with in the place of torments and the upbraidings of Conscience are a special part of the torments of the damned O what a peal will Conscience ring in the ears of such sinners Did not I warn thee of the issue of such sins undone wretch How often did I strive with thee if it had been possible to take thee off from thy course of sinning and to escape this wrath Did not I osten cry out in thy bosom stop thy course sinner Hearken to my counsel turn and live but thou wouldst not hearken to my voice I forewarned thee of this danger but thou slightedst all my warnings thy lusts were too strong for my light and now thou seest whither thy way tended but alas too late Thirdly The more knowledge or means of knowledge any man hath abused and neglected in this world so many fair opportunities and great advantages he hath lost for Heaven and the more opportunities and advantages he hath had for Heaven the more intolerable will Hell be to that man as the mercy was great which was offered by them so the torment will be unspeakable that will arise from the loss of them Sinners you have now a wide and open door many blessed opportunities of salvation under the Gospel it hath put you in a fair way for everlasting happiness many of you are not far from the kingdom of God there will be time enough in Hell to reflect upon this loss What think you will it not be sad to think there O how fair was I once for Heaven to have been with God and among yonder Saints My Conscience was once convinced and my affections melted under the Gospel I was almost perswaded to be a Christian indeed the bargain was almost made betwixt Christ and my soul there were but a few points in difference betwixt us but wretch that I was at those points the bargain stuck and there the treaty ended to my eternal ruine I could not deny my lusts I could not live under the strict yoak of Christs government but now I must live under the insupportable wrath of the righteous and terrible God for ever and this torment will be peculiar to such as perish under the Gospel The Heathen who enjoyed no such means can therefore have no such reflections nay the very Devils themselves who never had such a plank after their shipwrack I mean a Mediator in their nature or such terms of reconciliation offered them will not reflect upon their lost opportunities of recovering as such sinners must and will this therefore is the condemnation that light is come into the world but men loved darkness rather than light Inference 1. Hence it follows that neither knowledge nor the best means of knowledge are in themselves sufficient to secure men from wrath Inference 1. to come Light in it self is a choice
saved For he comes in the Fathers and in the Sons name and authority to put the last hand to our Salvation work by bringing all the fruits of election and redemption home to our souls in this work of effectual vocation hence the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 2. noting the order of causes in their operations for the bringing about of our Salvation thus states it Elect according to the fore-knowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ here you find Gods election and Christs blood the two great causes of Salvation and yet neither of these alone nor both together can save us there must be added the Sanctification of the Spirit by which Gods decree is executed and the sprinkling i. e. the personal application of Christs blood as well as the shedding of it before we can have the saving benefit of either of the former causes Propos. 4. The application of Christ with his saving benefits is exactly of the same extent and latitude with the Fathers election and the Sons intention Propos. 4. in dying and cannot possibly be extended to one soul farther Whom he did predestinate them he also called Rom. 8. 30. And Acts 13. 48. as many as were ordained to eternal life believed 2 Tim. 1. 9. who hath saved and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world The Father Son and Spirit betwixt whom was the council of peace work out their design in a perfect harmony and consent as there was no jarr in their council so there can be none in the execution of it those whom the Father before all time did chuse they and they only are the persons whom the Son when the fulness of time for the execution of that decree was come dyed for John 17. 6. I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and ver 19. for their sakes I sanctifie my self i. e. consecrate devote or set my self apart for a sacrifice for them And those for whom Christ died are the persons to whom the Spirit effectually applys the benefits and purchases of his blood 〈◊〉 comes in the name of the Father and Son but the world cannot receive him for it neither sees nor knows him Joh. 14. 17. they that are not of Christs sheep believe not Joh. 10. 26. Christ hath indeed a fulness of saving power but the dispensation thereof is limited by the Fathers will therefore he tells us Matth. 20. 23. it is not mine to give but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my father in which words he no way denies his authority to give glory as well as grace only shews that in the dispensation proper to him as mediator he was limited by his Fathers will and counsel And thus also are the dispensations of grace by the Spirit in like manner limited both by the counsel and will of the Father and Son For as he proceeds from them so he acts in the administration proper to him by commission from both Joh. 14. 26. The Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name and as he comes forth into the world by this joynt Commission so his dispensations are limited in his Commission for it 's said John 16. 13. he shall not speak of himself but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he speak i. e. he shall in all things act according to his Commission which the Father and I have given him The Son can do nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father do Joh. 5. 19. And the Spirit can do nothing of himself but what he hears from the Father and Son and it 's impossible it should be otherwise considering not only the Unity of their Nature but also of their will and design So that you see the applications of Christ and benefits by the Spirit are commensurable with the Fathers secret counsel and the Sons design in dying which are the rule model and pattern of the Spirits working Propos. 5. The Application of Christ to Souls by the regenerating work of the Spirit is that which makes the first internal difference and distinction Propos. 5. among men It is very true that in respect of Gods fore-knowledge and purpose there was a distinction betwixt one man and another before any man had a being one was taken another left and with respect to the death of Christ there is a great difference betwixt one and another he laid down his life for the sheep he pray'd for them and not for the world but all this while as to any relative change of state or real change of temper they are upon a level with the rest of the miserable world The Elect themselves are by nature children of wrath even as others Eph. 2. 3. and to the same purpose the Apostle tells the Corinthians 1 Cor. 6. 11. when he had given in that black bill describing the most Iewd profligate abominable wretches in the world men whose practices did stink in the very nostrils of nature and were able to make the more sober Heathens blush after this he tells the Corinthians And such were some of you but ye are washed c. q. d. look these were your Companions once as they are you lately were The work of the Spirit doth not only evidence and manifest that difference which Gods Election hath made between man and man as the Apostle speaks 1 Thes. 1. 4 5. but it also makes a twofold difference it self namely in state and temper whereby they visibly differ not only from other men but also from themselves after this work though a man be the who yet not the what he was This work of the spirit makes us new creatures namely for quality and temper 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature old things are past away behold all things are become new Propos. 6. The Application of Christ by the work of regeneration is that which yields unto men all the sensible sweetness and refreshing comforts Propos. 6. that they have in Christ and in all that he hath done suffered or purchased for sinners An unsanctified person may relish the natural sweetness of the creature as well as he that is sanctified he may also seem to relish and tast some sweetness in the delicious promises and discoveries of the Gospel by a misapplication of them to himself but this is like the joy of a beggar dreaming he is a King but he awakes and finds himself a beggar still but for the rational solid and genuine delights and comforts of religion no man tasts it till this work of the Spirit have first past upon his soul it is an enclosed pleasure a stranger intermeddles not with it The white stone and the new
scarce any thing that affects and melts the hearts of Christians more than this comparative consideration doth when they consider vessels of Gold cast away and leaden ones chosen for such noble uses So that it 's plain enough to all wise and humble souls that this new life is wholly of supernatural production Fifthly and lastly I shall briefly represent the necessary antecedency of this quickening work of the Spirit to our first closing with Christ by faith and this will easily let it self into your understandings if you but consider the nature of the vital act of faith which is the souls receiving of Christ and resting upon him for pardon and salvation in which two things are necessarily included viz. 1. The renouncing of all other hopes and dependencies 2. The opening the heart fully to Jesus Christ. First The renouncing of all other hopes and dependencies whatsoever Self in all its acceptations natural sinful and moral is now to be denyed and renounced for ever else Christ can never be received Rom. 10. 3. not only self in its vilest pollutions but self in its richest ornaments and endowments but this is as impossible to the unrenewed natural man as it is for rocks or mountains to start from their Centre and fly like wandering Atomes in the air nature will rather choose to run the hazard of everlasting damnation than escape it by a total renunciation of its beloved lusts or self-righteousness this supernatural work necessarily requires a supernatural principle Rom. 8. 2. Secondly The opening the heart fully to Jesus Christ without which Christ can never be received Rev. 3. 20. but 2. this also is the effect of the quickening Spirit the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus sooner may we expect to see the flowers and blossoms open without the influence of the Sun than the heart and will of a sinner open to receive Christ without a principle of spiritual life first derived from him and this will be past doubt to all that consider not only the impotence of nature but the ignorance prejudice and aversations of nature by which the door of the heart is barr'd and chain'd up against Christ Joh. 5. 40. so that nature hath neither ability nor will power or desire to come to Christ if any have an heart open'd to receive him 't is the Lord that opens it by his almighty power and that in the way of an infused principle of life supernatural But here it may be doubted and objected against this position Quest. If we cannot believe till we are quickened with spiritual life as you say and cannot be justified till we belive as all say then it will follow that a regenerate soul may be in the state of condemnation for a time and consequently perish if death should befall him in that juncture To this I return that when we speak of the priority of Sol. this quickening work of the Spirit to our actual believing we rather understand it of the priority of nature than of time the nature and order of the work requiring it to be so a vital principle must in order of nature be infused before a vital act can be exerted First make the tree good and then the fruit good and admit we should grant some priority in time also to this quickening principle before actual faith yet the absurdity mentioned would be no way consequent upon that concession for as the vital act of faith quickly follows the regenerating principle so the soul is abundantly secured against the danger objected God never beginning any special work of grace upon the soul and then leaving it and the soul with it in hazzard but preserves both to the finishing and compleating of his gracious design Phil. 1. 6. First Use of Information Infer 1. If such be the nature and necessity of this principle of divine Infer 1. life as you have heard it opened in the foregoing discourse then hence it follows That unregenerate men are no better than dead men So the Text represents them you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins i. e. spiritually dead though naturally alive yea and lively too as any other persons in the world There is a threefold consideration of objects Viz. 1. Naturally 2. Politically 3. Theologically First Naturally to all those things that are natural they are alive they can understand reason discourse preject and contrive as well as others they can eat drink build plant and suck out the natural comfort of these things as much as any others So their life is described Job 21. 12. They take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ they spend their â—…ays in Wealth c. and James 5. 5. ye have lived in pleasure upon earth as the fish lives in the water its natural element and yet â—…is natural sensual life is not allowed the name of life 1 Tim. 5. 6. such persons are dead whilst they live 't is a base and ignoble life to have a soul only to salt the body or to enable a man for a few years to eat and drink and talk and laugh and then dye Secondly Objects may be considered Politically and with respect to such things they are alive also they can buy and sell and manage all their worldly affairs with as much dexterity skill and policy as other men yea the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light Luke 16. 8. The intire stream of their thoughts projects and studies running in that one Channel having but one Liberet me deus ab homine unius tantum negotii Bern. design to manage they must needs excel in worldly wisdom but then Thirdly Theologically considered they are dead without life sense or motion towards God and the things that are above their understandings are dead 1 Cor. 2. 14. and cannot receive the things that are of God their wills are dead and cannot move towards Jesus Christ Joh. 6. 65. their affections are dead even to the most excellent and spiritual objects and all their duties are dead duties without life or spirit This is the sad case of the unregenerate world Infer 2. This speaks encouragement to Ministers and parents to wait in hopes of success at last even upon those that yet give them Infer 2. little hope of conversion at the present the work you see is the Lords when the Spirit of life comes upon their dead souls they shall believe and be made willing till then we do but plough upon the rocks yet let not our hand slack in duty pray for them and plead with them you know not in which prayer or exhortation the Spirit of life may breathe upon them can these dry bones live yes if the Spirit of life from God breathe upon them they can and shall live what though their dispositions be averse to all things that are spiritual and serious yet even such have been regenerated when more sweet
assenting act of faith in the very foundation and hence I doubt I do not believe There may be and often is a true and sincere assent found in the soul that is assaulted with violent atheistical suggestions Sol. from Satan and thereupon questions the truth of it and this is a very clear evidence of the reality of our assent that whatever doubts or contrary suggestions there be yet we dare not in our practice contradict or slight those truths or duties which we are tempted to disbelieve Ex. gr we are assaulted with atheistical thoughts and tempted to slight and cast off all fears of sin and practice of religious duties yet when it comes to the point of practice we dare not commit a known sin the awe of God is upon us we dare not omit a known duty the tye of conscience is found strong enough to hold us close to it in this case 't is plain we do really assent when we think we do not A man thinks he doth not love his child yet carefully provides for him in health and is full of grief and fears about him in sickness why now so long as I see all fath rly duties performed and affections to his childs welfare manifested let him say what he will as to the want of love to him whilest I see this he must excuse me if I do not believe him when he saith he hath no love for him Just so is it in this case A man saith I do not assent to the being necessity or excellency of Jesus Christ yet in the mean time his soul is fill'd with cares and fears about securing his interest in him he is found panting and thirsting for him with vehement desires there 's nothing in all the world would give him such joy as to be well assured of an interest in him while it is thus with any man let him say or think what he will of his assent it 's manifest by this he doth truly and heartily assent and there can be no better proof of it than these real effects produc'd by it Secondly But if these and other objections were never so fully answer'd for the clearing of the assumption yet it often falls out that believers are afraid to draw the conclusion and that fear arises partly from First The weighty importance of the matter Secondly The sense of the deceitfulness of their own hearts First The conclusion is of infinite importance to them it is the everlasting happiness of their souls than which nothing is or can be of greater weight upon their spirits things in which we are most deeply concerned are not lightly and hastily received by us it seems so great and so good that we are still apt if there be any room for it to suspect the truth and certainty thereof as never being sure enough Thus when the women that were the first messengers and witnesses of Christs resurrection Luke 24. 10 11. came and told the disciples those wonderful and comfortable tydings it 's said that their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not they thought it was too good to be true too great to be hastily received so is it in this case Secondly The sense they have of the deceitfulness of their own hearts and the dayly workings of hypocrisie there makes them afraid to conclude in so great a point as this is They know that very many dayly cozen and cheat themselves in this matter they know also that their own hearts are full of falseness and deceit they find them so in their daily observations of them and what if they should prove so in this why then they are lost for ever they also know there is not the like danger in their fears and jealousies that would be in their vain confidences and presumptions by the one they are only deprived of their present comfort but by the other they would be ruined for ever and therefore choose rather to dwell with their own fears though they be uncomfortable companions than run the danger of so great a mistake which would be infinitely more fatal And this being the common case of most Christians it follows that there must be many more believers in the world than do think or dare conclude themselves to be such Infer 4. If the right receiving of Jesus Christ be true saving and justifying faith then those that have the least and lowest degree and measure Infer 4. of saving faith have cause for ever to admire the bounty and riches of the grace of God to them therein If you have received never so little of his bounty by the hand of providence in the good things of this life yet if he have given you any measure of true saving faith he hath dealt bountifully indeed with you this mercy alone is enough to ballance all other wants and inconveniencies of this life Poor in the world rich in faith James 2. 5. O let your hearts take in the full sense of this bounty of God to you say with the Apostle Eph. 1. 3. blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and you will in this one mercy find matter enough of praise and thanksgiving wonder and admiration to your dying day yea to all eternity for do but consider First The smallest measure of saving faith which is found in any of the poople of God receives Jesus Christ and in receiving him what mercy is there which the believing soul doth not receive in him and with him Rom. 8. 32. O believer though the arms of thy faith be small and weak yet they embrace a great Christ and receive the richest gift that ever God bestowed upon the world no sooner art thou become a believer but Christ is in thee the hope of glory and thou hast authority to become a son or daughter of God thou hast the broad seal of heaven to confirm thy title and claim to the priviledges of Adoption for to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God To as many be they strong or be they weak provided they really receive Christ by faith there is authority or power given so that it 's no act of presumption in them to say God is our Father heaven is our inheritance Oh precious faith the treasures of ten thousand worlds cannot purchase such priviledges as these all the Crowns and Scepters of the earth sold at their full value are no price for such mercies Secondly The least degree of saving faith brings the soul into a state of perfect and full Justification For if it receives Jesus Christ it must therefore needs in him and with him receive a free full and final pardon of sin the least measure of faith receives remission for the greatest sins By him all that believe are justified from all things Acts 13. 39. it unites thy soul with Christ and then as
the necessary consequent of that Union there is no condemnation Rom. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not one condemnation how many soever our sins have been Thirdly The least measure or degree of saving faith is a greater mercy than God hath bestowed or ever will bestow upon many that are far above you in outward respects all men have not faith nay 't is but a remnant among men that believe Few of the Nobles and Potentates of the world have such a gift as this they have houses and lands yea Crowns and Scepters but no Faith no Christ no pardon they have authority to rule over men but no authority to become the sons of God 1 Cor. 1. 26 27. Say therefore in thy most debased straitned afflicted condition Return to thy rest O my soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee Fourthly The least degree of saving faith is more than all the power of nature can produce there must be a special revelation of the arm of the Lord in that work Isa. 53. 1. Believers are not born of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 12 13. all believing motions towards Christ are the effects of the Fathers drawing Joh. 6. 44. a glorious and irresistable power goes forth from God to produce it whence it 's call'd the faith of the operation of God Col. 2. 12. So then Let not believers depise the day of small things or overlook that great and infinite mercy which is wrapt up in the least degree of saving faith Inference 5. Learn hence the impossibility of their salvation who neither know the nature nor enjoy the means of saving faith Infer 5. My soul pities and mourns over the infidel world Ah what will become of the millions of poor unbelievers there is but one door of salvation viz. Christ and but one Key of faith to open that door and as that key was never given to the heathen world so it 's laid aside or taken away from the people by their cruel guides all over the Popish world were you among them you should hear nothing else prest as necessary to your salvation but a blind implicite faith to believe as the Church believes that is to believe they know not what To believe as the Pope believes that is as an Infidel believes for so they confess he may be * Non enim fides interior Romani Poâ—…tificis ecclesiae est necessaria Canus Loc. Theol. p. 344. and though there be such a thing as an explicite faith sometimes spoken of among them yet it is very sparingly discoursed very falsely described and exceedingly slighted by them as the veriest trifle in the world First It is but sparingly discoursed of they love not to accustome the peoples ears to such doctrine one of themselves confesses that there is so deep a silence of explicit particular faith in the Romish Church that you may find many every where that believe no more of these things than heathen Navarr cap. 11. p. 142. Philosophers Secondly When it is preacht or written of it is falsely described for they place the whole nature and essence of justifying and saving faith in a naked assent which the Devils have as well as men James 2. 19. no more than this is prest upon the people at any time as necessary to their salvation Thirdly And even this particular explicit faith when it is spoken or written of is exceedingly slighted I think if the Devil himself were in the Pulpit he could hardly tell how to bring men to a more low and slight esteem of faith to represent it as a verier trifle and needless thing than these his Agents have done Some a Petr. à S. Joseph sum Art 1. p. 6. say if a man believe with a particular explicit faith i. e. if he actually assent to Scripture truths once in a year it is enough Yea and others b Bonacina Tom. 2. in 1. praecept think it too much to oblige people to believe once in twelve months and for their ease tell them if they believe once in twelve years it is sufficient and lest this should be too great a task c Jo. Sanc. Disp. 41. n. 32. others affirm that if it be done but once in their whole life and that at the point of death too it is enough especially for the rude and common people Good God! what doctrine is here it was a saying long ago of Gregory as I remember malus minister est nisus diâ—…boli a wicked minister is the devils Gosshawk that goes a birding for hell and O what game have these hawks of hell among such numerous flocks of people O bless God while you live for your deliverance from Popery and see that you prize the Gospel and means of grace you enjoy at an higher rate lest God bring you once more under that yoak which neither you nor your Fathers could bear Second Use for Examination Doth saving faith consist in a due and right receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ then let me perswade you to examine 2. Use. your selves in this great point of faith Reflect solemnly upon the transactions that have been betwixt Christ and your souls think close on this subject of meditation If all you were worth in the world lay in one precious stone and that stone were to be tried by the skilful Lapidary whether it were true or false whether it would flye or endure under the smart stroke of his Hammer sure your thoughts could not be unconcerned about the issue why all that you are worth in both worlds depends upon the truth of your saith which is now to be tried O therefore read not these lines with a running careless eye but seriously ponder the matter before you you would be loth to put to Sea though it were but to cross the channel in a rotten leaky bottome and will you dare to venture into the ocean of eternity in a false rotten faith God forbid you know the Lord is coming to try every mans faith as by fire and that we must stand or fall for ever with the sincerity or hypocrisie of our faith Surely you can never be too exact and careful about that on which your whole estate depends and that for ever Now there are three things upon which we should have a very tender and watchful eye for the discovery of the sincerity of our faith and they are The Antecedents of Faith Concomitants Consequents As these are so we must judge and reckon our faith to be And accordingly they furnish us with three general Marks or tryals of faith First If you would discern the sincerity of your faith examine 1. Mark whether those Antecedents and preparative works of the Spirit were ever found in your souls which use to introduce and usher it into the souls of Gods Elect such are illumination conviction self-despair and earnest crys to God First Illumination is a necessary antecedent to faith you
the second we partake with him the former is the remote the later the next cause thereof In the explication of this point I shall speak to these four things 1. What are those things in which Christ and believers have fellowship 2. By what means they come to have such a fellowship with Christ. 3. How great a dignity this is to have fellowship with Jesus Christ. 4. And then apply the whole in divers practical inferences First What are those things in which Christ and believers 1. have fellowship to which I must speak both negatively and positively First The Saints have no fellowship with Jesus Christ in Negatively those things that belong to him as God such as his consubstantiality coequality and coeternity with the father 't is the blasphemy of the wicked Familists to talk of being Godded into God and Christed into Christ neither men or Angels partake in these things they are the proper and incommunicable Justitia Christi fit nostra non quoad universalem valoremsed particularem necessitatem imputatur nobis non ut causis salvationis sed ut subjectis salvandis Bradshaw de justificatione glory of the Lord Jesus Secondlly The Saints have no communion or fellowship in the honour and glory of his mediatory works viz. his satisfaction to God or redemption of the elect 't is true we have the benefit and fruit of his mediation and satisfaction his righteousness also is imputed to us for our personal justification but we share not in the least with Christ in the glory of this work nor have we an inherent righteousness in us as Christ hath nor can we justifie and save others as Christ doth we have nothing to do with his peculiar honour and praise in these things though we have the benefit of being saved we may not pretend to the honour of being Saviours as Christ is to our selves or others Christs righteousness is not made ours as to its universal value but as to our particular necessity nor is it imputed to us as to so many causes of salvation to others but as to so many subjects to be saved by it our selves Secondly But then there are many glorious and excellent Posi ively things which are in common betwixt Christ and believers though in them all he hath the preeminence he shines in the fulness of them as the Sun and we with a borrowed and lesser light but of the same kind and nature as the Stars Some of these I shall particularly and briefly unfold in the following particulars First Believers have communion with Christ in his names and titles they are call'd Christians from Christ Eph. 3. 15. from him the whole family in heaven and earth is named this is that worthy name the Apostle speaks of James 2. 7. He is the son of God and they also by their union with him have power or authority to become the sons of God Joh. 1. 12. He is the heir of all things and they are joynt heirs with him Rom. 8. 17. He is both King and Priest and he hath made them Kings and Priests Rev. 1. 6. but they do not only partake in the names and titles but this communion consists in things as well as titles and therefore Secondly They have communion with him in his righteousness i. e. the righteousness of Christ is made theirs 2 Cor. 5. 21. and he is the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. 'T is true the righteousness of Christ is not inherent in us as it is in him but it is ours by imputation Rom. 4. 5. 11. and our union with him is the ground of the imputation of his righteousness to us 2 Cor. 5. 21. we are made the righteousness of God in him Phil. 3. 9. for Christ and believers are considered as one person in construction of Law as a man and his wife a debtor and surety are one and so his payment or satisfaction is in our name or upon our account Now this is a most inestimable priviledge the very ground of all our other blessings and mercies O what a benefit is this to a poor sinner that owes to God infinitely more than he is ever able to pay him by doing or suffering to have such a rich treasure of merit as lyes in the obedience of Christ to discharge in one entire payment all his debts to the least farthing Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness Isa. 45. 24. even as a poor woman that owes more than she is worth in one moment is discharged of all her obligations by her marriage to a wealthy man Thirdly Believers have communion with Christ in his holiness or Sanctification for of God he is made unto them not only righteousness but Sanctification also and as in the former priviledge they have a stock of merit in the blood of Christ to justifie them so here they have the Spirit of Christ to sanctisie them 1 Cor. 1. 30. and therefore we are said of his fulness to receive grace for grace Joh. 1. 16. i. e. say some grace upon grace manifold graces or abundance of grace or grace for grace that is grace answerable to grace as in the seal and wax there is line for line and cut for cut exactly answerable to each other or grace for grace that is say others the free grace of God in Christ for the sanctification or filling of our souls with grace be it in which sense it will it shews the communion believers have with Jesus Christ in grace and holiness Now holiness is the most precious thing in the world it 's the image of God and chief excellency of man it is our evidence for glory yea and the first-fruits of glory in Christ dwells the fulness of grace and from him our head it is derived and communicated to us thus he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2. 11. You would think it no small priviledge to have Baggs of Gold to go to and enrich your selves with and yet that were but a very trifle in comparison to have Christs righteousness and holiness to go to for your Justification and Sanctification More particularly Fourthly Believers have communion with Christ in his death they dye with him Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ i. e. the death of Christ hath a real killing and mortifying influence upon the lusts and corruptions of my heart and nature true it is he died for sin one way and we dye to sin another way he dyed to expiate it we dye to it when we mortifie it the death of Christ is the death of sin in believers and this is a very glorious priviledge for the death of sin is the life of your souls if sin do not dye in you by mortification you must dye for sin by eternal damnation if Christ had not dyed the Spirit of God by which you now mortifie the deeds of the body could not have been given unto you then you must
capistratus er at a mute muzzled as the word signifies by the clear testimony of his own conscience these accusations are the second work or office of conscience and they make way for the third namely Thirdly The sentence and condemnation of Conscience and truly this is an insupportable burthen the condemnation 3. of conscience is nothing else but its application of the condemning sentence of the Law to a mans person the Law curseth every one that transgresseth it Gal. 3. 10. conscience applys this curse to the guilty sinner So that it sentences the sinner in Gods name and authority from which there is no appeal the voice of conscience is the voice of God and what it pronounces in Gods name and authority he will confirm and ratifie 1 Joh. 3. 20. if our hearts i. e. our consciences condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things this is that torment which no man can endure See the effects of it in Cain in Judas and in Spira 't is a real foretast of hell torments this is that worm that never dyes Mark 9. 44. For look as a worm in the body is bred of the corruption that is there so the accusations and condemnations of conscience are bred in the soul by the corruption and guilt that is there as the worm in the body preys and bites upon the tender sensible inward parts so doth conscience touch the very quick This is its third effect or work to sentence and condemn and this also makes way for a fourth namely Fourthly To upbraid and reproach the sinner under his misery 4. and this makes a man a very terrour to himself to be pittied in misery is some relief but to be upbraided and reproached doubles our affliction you know it was one of the aggravations of Christs sufferings to be reproached by the tongue of his enemies whilest he hanged in torments upon the cursed tree but all the scoffs and reproaches the bitter jeers and Sarcasâ—…s in the world are nothing to these of a mans own conscience this will cut to the very bone O when a mans conscience shall say to him in a day of trouble as Reuben to his afflicted brethren Gen. 42. 22. Spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child and ye would not hear therefore behold also his blood is required So conscience Did I not warn you threaten you perswade you in time against these evils but you would not hearken to me therefore behold now you must suffer to all eternity for it the wrath of God is kindled against thy soul for it this is the fruit of thy own wilful madness and obstinacy Now thou shalt know the price of sinning against God against light and conscience O this is terrible every bite of conscience makes a poor soul to startle and in a terrible fright to cry Oh the worm Oh the bitter foretast of Hell a wounded spirit who can bear This is a fourth wound of conscience and it makes way for a fifth for here it is as in the pouring out of the vials and the sounding of those woe-trumpets in the Revelation one woe is past and another cometh After all these deadly blows of conscience upon the very heart of a sinner comes another as dreadful as any that is yet named and that is Fifthly The fearful expectations of wrath to come which 5. it begets in the soul of a guilty sinner of this you read Heb. 10. 27. a fearful looking for of Judgement and fiery indignation and this makes the stoutest sinner quail and faint under the burthen of sin For the tongue of man cannot declare what it is to lye down and rise with those fearful expectations the case of such sinners is somewhat like that which is described in Deut. 28. 65 66 67. The Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shalt have no assurance of thy life in the morning thou shalt say Would God it were evening and at even thou shalt say Would God it were morning for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear c. Only in this it differs in this Scripture you have the terrours of those described whose temporal life hangs in doubtful suspense but in the persons I am speaking of it is a trembling under the apprehensions and expectations of the vengeance of eternal fire Believe it Friends words cannot express what those poor creatures feel that lye down and rise under these fears and frights of conscience Lord what will become of me I am free among the dead yea among the damned I hang by the frail thred of a momentany life which will and must break shortly and may break the next moment over the everlasting burnings no pleasant bread is eaten in these days but what is like the bread of condemned men And thus you see what the burden of sin is when God makes it to bear upon the consciences of men no burden of affliction is like it losses of dearest relations sorrows for an only son are not so pungent and penetrating as these For First No creature enjoyment is pleasant under these inward troubles in other troubles they may signifie something to a mans relief but here they are nothing the wound is too deep to be healed by any thing but the blood of Jesus Christ Conscience requires as much to satisfie it as God requires to satisfie him When God is at peace with thee saith Conscience then will I be at peace with thee too but till then expect no rest nor peace from me all the pleasures and diversions in the world shall never stop my mouth go where thou wilt I will follow thee like thy shadow be thy portion in the world as sweet as it will I will drop in Gall and Wormwood into thy cup that thou shalt tast no sweetness in any thing till thou hast got thy pardon These inward troubles for sin alienate the mind from all former pleasures and delights there 's no more taste or savour in them than in the white of an Egg. Musick is out of tune all instruments jarr and groan Ornaments have no beauty what heart hath a poor creature to deck that body in which dwells such a miserable soul to feed and pamper that carcass that hath been the souls inducement to and instrument in sin and must be its companion in everlasting misery Secondly These inward troubles for sin put a dread into death beyond whatever the soul saw in it before Now it looks like the King of terrours indeed you read in Heb. 2. 15. of some that through fear of death are all their life long subject to bondage O what a lively comment is a soul in this case able to make upon such a Text they would not scare at the pale horse nor at him that sits on him though his name
the world can do Second Counsel Beware of a false peace which is more dangerous than your trouble for sin can be Many men are afraid of their troubles 2. Counsel but I think they have more cause to fear their peace a great deal There is a twofold peace that ruines most men Peace in sin and peace with sin O how glad are some persons when their troubles are gone but I dare not rejoyce with them It 's like him that rejoyces his Ague is gone though it hath left him in a deep Consumption You are got rid of your troubles but God knows how you have left them your wounds are skinn'd over better they were kept open There 's no wise woman would desire to have her pains and throes cease till the Child be born And surely they have much to answer that help on these delusions healing the hurt of souls slightly by crying peace peace when there is no peace The false peace you beget in them will be a real trouble to your selves in the issue Jer. 6. 14. Third Counsel Let all that are under inward troubles for sin take heed of 3. Counsel drawing desperate conclusions against themselves and the final state of their own souls Though your case be sad 't is not desperate though the night be troublesome and tedious keep on in the way to Christ and light will spring up To mourn for sin is your duty to conclude there is no hope for you in Christ is your sin You have wronged God enough already do'nt add a farther and greater abuse to all the rest by an absolute despair of mercy 'T was your sin formerly to presume beyond any promise 't is your sin now to despair against many commands I would say as the Apostle in another case I would not have you mourn as men that have no hope your condition is sad as it is but yet it 's much better than once it was you were once full of sin and void of sense now you have the sense of sin which is no small mercy you were once quite out of the way and method of mercy now you are in that very path wherein mercy meets the elect of God Keep hope therefore at the bottom of all your troubles Fourth Counsel Observe whether your troubles for sin produce such fruits and effects in your souls as theirs do which end at last in Christ and 4. Counsel everlasting peace First One that is truly burdened with sin will not allow himself to live in the secret practice of sin either your trouble will put an end to your course of sinning or your sinning will put an end to your troubles Consult 2 Cor. 7. 11. Secondly True sorrow for sin will give you very low and vile thoughts of your selves as you were covered with pride before so you will be covered with shame after God hath convinced and humbled you Rom. 6. 21. Thirdly A soul really burdened with sin will never stand in his own justification before God nor extenuate and mince it in his confessions to him Psal. 51. 3 4. Fourthly The burdens of sin will make a man set light by all other burdens of affliction Lam. 3. 22. Mic. 7. 9. The more you feel sin the less you feel affliction Fifthly A soul truly burdened for sin will take no hearty joy or comfort in any outward enjoyment of this world till Christ come and speak peace to the soul Lam. 3. 28. Just so the soul sits alone and keepeth silence merry company is a burden and musick is but howling to him Fifth Counsel Beware of those things that make your troubles longer than they 5. Counsel ought to be There be several errors and mistakes that hold poor souls much longer in their fears and terrors than else they might be And such are First Ignorance of the nature of saving faith and the necessity of it till you come to believe you cannot have peace and while you mistake the nature or apprehend not the necessity of faith you are not like to fall into that path of peace Secondly Labouring to heal the wounds that the Law hath made upon your consciences by a more strict obedience to it for the future in the neglect of Christ and his righteousness Thirdly Inobservance of what God hath already done for you in these preparatory works of the Law in order to your salvation by Jesus Christ. O if you would but compare what you now are with what you lately were it would give some relief but the last and principal thing is this Sixth Counsel Hasten to Christ in the way of faith and you shall find rest and till then all the world cannot give you true rest The sooner 6. Counsel you transact with Christ in the way of faith the sooner you shall be at peace and enter into his rest for those that believe do now enter into rest You may tugg and strive look this way and that but all in vain Christ and peace come together No sooner do you come to him and roll your burden on him receive him as he offers himself but the soul feels it self eased on a suddain being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. And thus in finishing the first we are brought home to the second Observation Doct. 2. Doct. 2. That Sin-burdened souls are solemnly invited to come to Christ. THIS Point sounds sweetly in the ear of a distressed sinner it is the most joyful voice that ever the soul heard the voice of blessing from Mount Gerezim the ravishing voice from Mount Sion Ye are come to Jesus the Mediator In opening of it I will shew 1. What it is to come to Christ. 2. How Christ invites men to come to him 3. Why his invitation is directed to burdened souls First We will enquire what it is to come to Christ and 1. how many things are involved in it In general To come to Christ is a phrase aequipollent or of the same amount with believing in Christ. It is an expression that carries the nature and necessity of faith in it and is reciprocated with believing John 6. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst Coming to Christ is believing in Christ and believing in Christ is coming to Christ they are Synonyma's and import the self same thing only in this notion of faith there are many rich and excellent things hinted to us which no other word can so aptly convey to our minds as First It hints this to us That the souls of convinced and burdened sinners do not only discern the reality of Christ or that he is but also the necessity of applying Christ and that their eternal life is in their union with him for this is most certain that the object of faith must be determinate and fixed the soul must believe that Christ is or else there can be no emotions of the soul after him all coming
to perswade us to believe Joh. 15. 26. or external namely the preaching of the Gospel by Commissionated Embassadors who in Christ's stead beseech men to be reconciled to God i. e. to come to Christ by faith in order to their reconciliation and peace with God But all means and instruments employ'd in this work of bringing men to Christ entirely depend upon the blessing and concurrence of the Spirit of God without whom they signifie nothing how long may Ministers preach before one soul come to Christ except the Spirit co-operate in that work Now as to the manner in which men are perswaded and their wills wrought upon to come to Christ I will briefly note several acts of the Spirit in order thereunto First There is an illustrating work of the Spirit upon the minds of sinners opening their eyes to see their danger and misery Till this be discovered no man stirs from his place 't is sense of danger that rouzes the secure sinner that distresses him and makes him look about for deliverance crying What shall I do to be saved and 't is the discovery of Christs ability to save which is the ground and reason as was observed above of its motion to Christ. Hence seeing the Son is joyned with believing or coming to him in John 6. 40. Secondly There is the Authoritative call or commanding voice of the Spirit in the Word a voice that 's full of awful majesty and power 1 Joh. 3. 23. This is his Commandment that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ. This call of the Spirit to come to Christ rolls one great block namely the fear of presumption out of the souls way to Christ and instead of presumption in coming makes it rebellion and inexcusable obstinacy to refuse to come This answers all pleas against coming to Christ from our unworthiness and deep guilt and mightily encourages the soul to come to Christ whatever it hath been or done Thirdly There are soul-encouraging conditional promises to all that do come to Christ in obedience to the Command Such is that in my Text I will give you rest and that in John 6. 37. Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out and these breathe life and encouragement into poor souls that hang back and are daunted through their own unworthiness Fourthly There are dreadful threatnings denounced by the Spirit in the Word against all that refuse or neglect to come to Christ which are of great use to engage and quicken souls in their way to Christ Mark 16. 16. He that believes not shall be damned Dye in his sins John 8. 24. The wrath of God shall remain on him John 3. ult Which is as if the Lord had said Sinners don't dally with my Christ don 't be alwayes treating and never concluding or resolving for if there be Justice in heaven or Fire in hell every soul that comes not to Christ must and shall perish to all eternity upon your own heads let the blood and destruction of your own souls be for ever if you will not come unto him Fifthly There are moving and working examples set before souls in the Word to prevail with them to come alluring and encouraging Examples of such as have come to Christ under deepest guilt and discouragement and yet found mercy 1 Tim. 1. 15 16. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief howbeit or nevertheless for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe in him to life everlasting Who would not come to Christ after such an example as this And if this will not prevail there are dreadful examples recorded in the Word setting before us the miserable condition of all such as refuse the calls of the Word to come to Christ 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. By which also he went and preached to the spirits which are in prison which sometime were disobedient when once the long-suffering of God waited in the dayes of Noah The meaning is the sinners that lived before the Flood but now are in hell clapt up into that prison had the offers of grace made them but despised them and now lye for their disobedience in prison under the wrath of God for it in the lowest hell Sixthly and Lastly There is an effectual perswading overcoming and victorious work of the Spirit upon the hearts and wills of sinners under which they come to Jesus Christ. Of this I have spoken at large before in the fourth Sermon and therefore shall not add any thing more here This is the way and manner in which souls are prevailed with to come to Jesus Christ. Thirdly In the last place if you enquire why Christ makes his invitations to weary and heavy laden souls and to 3. no other the answer is briefly this First Because in so doing he follows the Commission which he received from his Father for so you will find it runs in Isa. 61. 1. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tydings to the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound You see here how Christs Commission binds him up his Father sent him to poor broken hearted sinners and he will keep close to his Commission He came not to call the righteous but sinners i. e. sensible burthened sinners to repentance Matth. 9. 13. I am not sent saith he but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel Thus his Instructions and Commission from the Father limit him only to sensible and burthened souls and he will be faithful to his Commission Secondly The very order of the Spirits work in bringing men to Christ shews us to whom the invitations and offers of grace in Christ are to be made For none are convinced of righteousness i. e. of the compleat and perfect righteousness which is in Christ for their Justification until first they be convinced of sin and consequently no man will or can come to Christ by faith till convictions of sin have awakened and distressed them John 16. 8 9. This being the due order of the Spirits operation the same order must be observed in Gospel offers and invitations Thirdly It behoves that Christ should provide for his own glory as well as for our safety and not expose that to secure this but save us in that way which will bring him most honour and praise And certainly such a way is this by first convincing humbling and burthening the souls of men and then bringing them to rest in himself Alas Let those that never saw or felt the evil of sin be told of rest peace and pardon in Christ they will but despise it as a thing of no value Luke 5. 31. The whole
in heaven in the full enjoyment of God There is a sweet calm upon the troubled soul after believing an ease or rest of the mind which is an unspeakable mercy to a poor weary soul. Christ is to it as the Ark was to the Dove when she wandred over the watery World and found not a place to rest the soal of her foot Faith centres the unquiet spirit of man in Christ brings it to repose it self and its burden on him It is the souls dropping anchor in a storm which stayes and settles it The great debate which cost so many anxious thoughts is now issued into this resolution I will venture my all upon Christ let him do with me as seemeth him good It was impossible for the soul to find rest whilest it knew not where to bestow it self or how to be secured from the wrath to come but when all is embarqued in Christ for eternity and the soul fully resolved to lean upon him and trust to him now it feels the very initials of eternal rest in it self it finds an heavy burden unloaded from its shoulders it is come as it were into a new world the case is strangely altered The word rest in this place notes and is so rendered by some a recreation 't is restored renewed and recreated as it Recreabo vos nempe à lassitudine à molestia onere Vatab. Erasm. were by that sweet repose it hath upon Christ. Believers know that faith is the sweetest recreation you can take Others seek to divert and lose their troubles by sinful recreations vain company and the like but they little know what that recreation and sweet restoring rest that faith gives the soul is You find in Christ what they seek in vain among the creatures Believing is the highest recreation known in this world But to prevent mistakes three Cautions need to be premised lest we do in ipso limine impingere stumble at the threshold and so lose our way all along afterward Caution 1. You are not to conceive that all the souls fears troubles and sorrows are presently over and at an end as soon as it is come to Caution 1. Christ by faith They will have many troubles in the world after that it may be more than ever they had in their lives Luther upon his conversion was so buffeted by Satan ut nec calor nec sanguis nec sensus nec vox superesset Our flesh saith Paul had no rest 2 Cor. 7. 5. They will be infested with many temptations after that it may be the assaults of Satan may be more violent upon their souls than ever horribilia de deo terribilia de fide Injections that make the very bones to quake and the belly to tremble they will not be freed from sin that rest remains for the people of God nor from inward trouble and grief of soul about sin These things are not to be expected presently Caution 2. We may not think that all believers do immediately enter into Caution 2. the full actual sense of rest and comfort but they presently enter into the state of rest Being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. i. e. we enter into the state of peace immediately Peace is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Psal. 97. 11. And he is a rich man that hath a thousand acres of corn in the ground as well as he that hath so much in his barn or the money in his purse They have rest and peace in the seed of it when they have it not in the fruit they have rest in the promise when they have it not in possession and he is a rich man that hath good Bonds and Bills for a great summ of money if he have not twelve pence in his pocket All believers have the promise have rest and peace granted them under Gods own hand in many promises which faith brings them under and we know that the truth and faithfulness of God stands engaged to make good every line and word of the promise to them So that though they have not a full and clear actual sense and feeling of rest they are nevertheless by faith come into the state of rest Caution 3. We may not conceive that faith it self is the souls rest but Caution 3. the means and instrument of it only We cannot find rest in any work or duty of our own but we may find it in Christ whom faith apprehends for Justification and Salvation Having thus guarded the point against misapprehensions by these needful cautions I shall next shew you how our coming to Christ by faith brings us to rest in him And here let it be considered what those things are that burden grieve and disquiet the soul before its coming to Christ and how it is relieved and eased in all those respects by its coming to the Lord Jesus and you shall find First That one principal ground of trouble is the guilt 1. of sin upon the conscience of which I spake in the former point The curse of the Law lyes heavy upon the soul so heavy that nothing is found in all the world able to relieve it under that burthen as you see in a condemned man spread a Table in Prison with the greatest dainties and send for the rarest Musicians all will not charm his sorrow but if you can produce an authentick pardon you ease him presently just so it is here faith plucks the thorn out of the conscience which so grieved it unites the soul with Christ and then that ground of trouble is removed for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 11. The same moment the soul comes to Christ it is past from death to life is no more under the Law but Grace If a mans debt be paid by his surety he need not fear to shew his face boldly abroad he may freely meet the Sergeant at the prison door Secondly The soul of a convinced sinner is exceedingly 2. burdened with the uncleanness and filthiness wherewith sin hath defiled and polluted it Conviction discovers the universal pollution of heart and life so that a man loaths and abhorrs himself by reason thereof If he do not look into his own corruptions he cannot be safe and if he do he cannot bear the sight of it he hath no quiet Nothing can give rest but what gives relief against this evil And this only is done by faith uniting the soul with Jesus Christ. For though it be true that the pollution of sin be not presently and perfectly taken away by coming to Christ yet the burden thereof is exceedingly eased for upon our believing there is an heart-purifying principle planted into the soul which doth by degrees cleanse that fountain of corruption and will at last perfectly free the soul from it Acts 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith and being once in Christ he is concerned for the soul as
Sermon 10. MAT. 9. 12. But when Jesus heard that he said unto them Text. Wherein the general Exhortation is enforced by one Motive drawn from the first Title of Christ. They that be whole need not a Physician but they that be sick HAving opened in the former discourses the nature and method of the Application of Christ to sinners it remains now that I press it upon every soul as ever it expects peace and pardon from God to apply and put on Jesus Christ i. e. to get union with him by faith whilst he is yet held forth in the free and gracious tenders of the Gospel to which purpose I shall now labour in this general Use of Exhortation in which my last Subject engaged me wherein divers Arguments will be further urged both from The 1. Titles and of Jesus Christ. 2. Priviledges The Titles of Christ are so many Motives or arguments fitted to perswade men to come unto him Amongst which Christ as the Physician of Souls comes under our first Consideration in the Text before us The occasion of these words of Christ was the call of Matthew the Publican who having first opened his Heart next opened his House to Christ and entertains him there this strange and unexpected change wrought upon Matthew quickly rings in all the Neighbourhood and many Publicans and Sinners resorted thither at which the stomachs of the proud Pharisees began to swell from this occasion they took offence at Christ and in this verse Christ takes off the offence by such an answer as was fitted both for their conviction and his own vindication But when Jesus heard that he said unto them The whole have no need of a Physician but they that be sick He gives it saith one as a reason why he conversed so much with Publicans and Sinners and so little among the Pharisees because there was more work for him men set up where they think Trade will be quickest Christ came to be a Physician to sick souls Pharisees were so well in their own conceit that Christ saw he should have little to do among them and so he applied himself to those who were more sensible of their sickness In the words we have an account of the temper and state both Of 1. The secure and unconvinced Sinner 2. The humbled and convinced And 3. Of the Carriage of Christ and his different respect to either  1. First The secure sinner is here described both with respect to his own apprehensions of himself as one that is whole and also by his low value and esteem for Christ he sees no need of him the whole have no need of the Physician 2. Secondly The Convinced and Humbled Sinner is here also described and that both by his state and condition he is sick and by his valuation of Jesus Christ he greatly needs him they that be sick need the Physician 3. Thirdly We have here Christs carriage and different respect to both the former he rejects and passeth by as those with whom he hath no concernment the later he converses with in order to their cure The words thus opened are fruitful in observations I shall neither note nor insist upon any beside this one which fuits the scope of my Discourse viz. DOCT. That the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Physician for sick souls The world is a great Hospital full of sick and dying souls Doct. all wounded by one and the same mortal weapon sin Some are senseless of their misery feel not their pains value not a Physician others are full of sense as well as danger mourn under the apprehension of their condition and sadly bewail it The merciful God hath in his abundant compassion to the perishing world sent a Physician from Heaven and given him his Orders under the Great Seal of Heaven for his Office Isai. 61. 1 2. which he opened and read in the audience of the people Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach good tydings unto the meek he hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted c. He is the tree of life whose leaves are for the healing of the Nations he is Jehova Rophe the Lord that healeth us and that as he is Jehovah Tzidkenu the Lord our righteousness The Brazen Serpent that healed the Israelites in the Wilderness was an excellent Type of our Great Physician Christ and is expresly applied to him John 3. 14. he rejects none that come and heals all whom he undertakes but more particularly I will First Point at those Diseases which Christ heals in sick souls and by what means he heals them Secondly the excellency of this Physician above all others there is none like Christ he is the only Physician for wounded souls First We will enquire into the Diseases which Christ the Physician cures and they are reducible to two heads 〈◊〉 viz. 1. Sin and 2. Sorrow First The disease of sin in which three things are found exceeding burthensome to sick souls 1. The Guilt of sin all cured by this Physician and how 2. The Dominion 3. The Inherence First The guilt of sin this is a mortal wound a stab in 1. the very heart of a poor sinner 'T is a fond and groundless distinction that Papists make of sins Mortal and Venial all sin in its own nature is mortal Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death yet though it be so in its own nature Christ can and doth cure it by the Soveraign Balfom of his own precious blood Eph. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace This is the deepest and deadliest wound the soul of man feels in this world what is guilt but the obligation of the soul to everlasting punishment and misery It puts the soul under the sentence of God to eternal wrath the condemning sentence of the great and terrible God than which nothing is found more dreadful and insupportable put all pains all poverty all afflictions all miseries in one Scale and Gods condemnation in the other and you weigh but so many Feathers against a talent of Lead This Disease our great Physician Christ cures by Remission which is the dissolving of the obligation to punishment the loosing of the soul that was bound over to the Wrath and Condemnation of God Coll. 2. 13 14. Heb. 6. 12. Micah 7. 17 18 19. this remission being made the soul is immediately cleared from all its obligations to punishment Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation all Bonds are cancelled the guilt of all sins is healed or removed original and actual great and small This cure is performed upon souls by the blood of Christ nothing is found in Heaven or earth besides his blood that is able to heal this disease Heb. 9. 22. Without shedding of blood there is no remission nor is it any blood that will do it but that only which dropt from
which they receive them Hence it is that some men taste more spiritual sweetness in their daily bread than others do in the Lords Supper one and the same mercy by this means becomes a feast to soul and body at once Fourthly All mercies have their duration and perpetuity from Christ all Christless persons hold their mercies upon the greatest contingencies and terms of uncertainty if they be continued during this life that 's all there is not a drop of mercy after death but the mercies of the Saints are continued to eternity the end of their mercies on earth is the beginning of their better mercies in Heaven There is a twofold end of mercies one perfective another destructive the death of the Saints perfects and compleats their mercies the death of the wicked destroys and cuts off their mercies for these reasons Christ is called the mercy Secondly In the next place let us enquire what manner of mercy Christ is and we shall find many lovely and transcendent 2. properties to commend him to our souls First He is a free and undeserved mercy called upon that account the gift of God John 4. 10. And to shew how free this gift was God gave him to us when we were enemies Rom. 5. 8. needs must that mercy be free which is given not only to the undeserving but to the ill deserving the benevolence of God was the sole impulsive cause of this gift John 3. 16. Secondly Christ is a full mercy replenished with all that answers to the wishes or wants of sinners in him alone is found whatever the justice of an angry God requires for satisfaction or the necessities of souls require for their supply Christ is full of mercy both extensively and intensively in him are all kinds and sorts of mercies and in him are the highest and most perfect degrees of mercy for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1. 19. Thirdly Christ is the seasonable mercy given by the Father to us in due time Rom. 5. 6. in the fulness of time Gal. 4. 4. a seasonable mercy in his exhibition to the world in general and a seasonable mercy in his application to the soul in particular the wisdom of God pitched upon the best time for his incarnation and it hits the very nick of time for his application When a poor soul is distressed lost at its wits end ready to perish then comes Christ all Gods works are done in season but none more seasonable than this great work of Salvation by Christ. Fourthly Christ is the necessary mercy there is an absolute necessity of Jesus Christ hence in Scripture he is called the bread of life Joh. 6. 48. he is bread to the hungry he is the water of life Joh. 7. 37. as cold water to the thirsty soul he is a ransome for captives Mat. 20. 28. a garment to the naked Rom. 13. ult only bread is not so necessary to the hungry nor water to the thirsty nor a ransom to the Captive nor a garment to the naked as Christ is to the soul of a sinner the breath of our nostrills the life of our souls is in Jesus Christ. Fifthly Christ is a fountain mercy and all other mercies flow from him a believer may say of Christ all my fresh springs are in thee from his merit and from his Spirit flow our Redemption Justification Sanctification Peace Joy in the Holy Ghost and blessedness in the world to come In that day shall there be a fountain opened Zech. 13. 1. Sixthly Christ is a satisfying mercy he that is full of Christ can feel the want of nothing I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. Christ bounds and terminates the vast desires of the soul he is the very Sabbath of the soul how hungry empty straitned and pinched in upon every side is the soul of man in the abundance and fulness of all outward things till it come to Christ The weary motions of a restless soul like those of a River cannot be at rest till they pour themselves into Christ the Ocean of blessedness Seventhly Christ is a peculiar mercy intended for and applied to a remnant among men some would extend redemption as large as the world but the Gospel limits it to those only that believe and these Believers are upon that account called a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 9. The offers of Christ indeed are large and general but the application of Christ is but to few Isai. 53. 1. the greater cause have they to whom Christ comes to lye with their mouths in the dust astonished and overwhelmed with the sense of so peculiar and distinguishiug mercy Eighthly Jesus Christ is a suitable mercy fitted in all respects to our needs and wants 1 Cor. 1. 20. wherein the admirable wisdom of God is illustriously displaied ye are complete in him saith the Apostle Col. 2. 20. Are we enemies He is reconciliation are we sold to sin and Satan He is redemption are we condemned by Law He is the Lord our righteousness hath sin polluted us He is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleaness are we lost by departing from God He is the way to the Father Rest is not so suitable to the weary nor bread to the hungry as Christ is to the sensible sinner Ninthly Christ is an astonishing and wonderful mercy his name is called Wonderful Isai. 9. 6. and as his name is so is he a wonderful Christ his person is a wonder 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh his abasement wonderful Phil. 2. 6. his love is a wonderful love his redemption full of wonders Angels desire to look into it he is and will be admired by Angels and Saints to all eternity Tenthly Jesus Christ is an incomparable and matchless mercy as the Apple-tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons saith the enamoured Spouse Cant. 2. 3. Draw the comparison how you will betwixt Christ and all other enjoyments you will find none in Heaven or earth to match him he is more than all externals as the light of the Sun is more than that of a Candle nay the worst of Christ is better than the best of the world his reproaches are better than the worlds pleasures Heb. 11. 25. he is more than all Spirituals as the Fountain is more than the Streams he is more than justification as the cause is more than the effect more than sanctification as the person himself is more than his image or picture he is more than all peace all comfort all joys as the Tree is more than the Fruit. Nay draw the comparison betwixt Christ and things eternal and you will find him better than they for what is Heaven without Christ Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee If Christ should say to the Saints Take Heaven among you but as for me I will withdraw my self from you
mercy to give than Christ thy portion in him all necessary mercies are secured to thee and thy wants and straits sanctified to thy good O therefore never open thy mouth to complain against thy bountiful God Inference 4. Is Christ the mercy i. e he in whom all the tender mercies Inference 4. of God towards poor sinners are then let none be discouraged in going to Christ by reason of the sin and unworthiness that is in them his very name is mercy and as his name is so is he Poor drooping sinner incourage thy self in the way of faith the Christ to whom thou art going is mercy it self to broken-hearted sinners moving towards him in the way of faith Doubt not that mercy will repulse thee 't is against both its name and nature so to do Jesus Christ is so merciful to poor souls that come to him that he hath received and pardoned the chiefest of sinners men that stood as remote from mercy as any in the world 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Those that shed the blood of Christ have yet been washed in that blood from their sin Act. 2. 36 37. Mercy receives sinners without exception of great and heinous ones Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Gospel invitations run in general terms to all sinners that are heavy laden Mat. 11. 28. When Mr. Billney the Martyr heard a Minister preaching at this rate O thou old Sinner who hast been serving the Devil these fifty or sixty years dost thou think that Christ will receive thee now O said he what a preaching of Christ is here Had Christ been thus preached to me in the day of my trouble for sin what had become of me But blessed be God there is a sufficiency both of merit and mercy in Jesus Christ for all sinners for the vilest among sinners whose hearts shall be made willing to come unto him So merciful is the Lord Jesus Christ that he moves first Isai. 65. 1 2. So merciful that he upbraids none Ezec. 18. 22. So merciful that he will not despise the weakest if sincere desires of souls Isai. 42. 3. So merciful that nothing more grieves him than our unwillingness to come unto him for mercy Joh. 5. 40. So merciful that he waiteth to the last upon sinners to shew them mercy Rom. 10. 21. Mat. 23. 37. In a word so merciful that it is his greatest joy when sinners come unto him that he may shew them mercy Luk. 15. 5. 22. But yet it cannot enter into my thoughts that I should obtain Object mercy First You measure God by your selves 1 Sam. 24. 19. If Sol. a man find his enemy will he let him go well away Man will not but the merciful God will upon the submission of his enemies to him Secondly You are discouraged because you have not tryed Go to Jesus Christ poor distressed sinner try him and then report what a Christ thou findest him to be But I have neglected the time of mercy and now it is too late Object How know you that Have you seen the Book of Life or turned over the Records of Eternity Or do you not unwarrantably Sol. intrude into the secrets of God which belong not to you Besides if the treaty were at an end how is it that thy heart is now distressed for sin and solicitous after deliverance from it But I have waited long and yet see no mercy for me May not mercy be coming and you not see it or have you Object not waited at the wrong dore If you wait for the mercy of Sol. God through Christ in the way of humiliation and faith and continue waiting assuredly mercy shall come at last Inference 5. Hath God performed the mercy promised to the Fathers the great mercy the capital mercy Jesus Christ then let no Inference 5. man distrust God for the performance of lesser mercies contained in any other promises of the Scripture the performance of this mercy secures the performance of all other mercies to us For First Christ is a greater mercy than any other which yet remains to be performed Rom. 8. 32. Secondly This mercy virtually comprehends all other mercies 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Thirdly The promises that contain all other mercies are ratified and confirmed to Believers in Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. Fourthly It was much more improbable that God would bestow his own Son upon the world than that he should bestow any other mercy upon it Wait therefore in a comfortable expectation of the fulfilling of all the rest of the promises in their seasons hath he given thee Christ he will give thee bread to eat rayment to put on support in troubles and whatsoever else thy soul or body stands in need of the blessings contained in all other promises are fully secured by the performance of this great promise thy pardon peace acceptance with God now and enjoyment of him for ever shall be fulfilled the great mercy Christ makes way for all other mercies to the souls of Believers Inference 6. Lastly How mad are they that part with Christ the best of Inference 6. mercies to secure and preserve any temporal lesser mercies to themselves Thus Demas and Judas gave up Christ to gain a little of the world O soul-undoing bargain How dear do they pay for the world that purchase it with the loss of Christ and their own peace for ever Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the mercy of mercies The Twelfth SERMON Sermon 12. CANT 5. part of verse 16. Text. Containing a third motive to enliven the general exhortation from a third title of Christ. yea he is altogether lovely AT the ninth verse of this Chapter you have a query propounded to the Spouse by the Daughters of Jerusalem What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved To this question the Spouse returns her answer in the following verses wherein she asserts his excellency in general vers 10. He is the chiefest among ten thousands confirms that general assertion by an enumeration of his particular excellencies to vers 16. where she closes up her Character and Encomium of her Beloved with an elegant Epiphonema in the words that I have read Yea he is altogether lovely The words you see are an affirmative proposition setting forth the transcendent loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ and naturally resolve themselves into three parts viz. 1. The Subject 2. The Predicate 3. The manner of Predication First The subject He viz. the Lord Jesus Christ after 1. whom she had been seeking for whom she was sick of love concerning whom these Daughters of Jerusalem had enquired whom she had endeavoured so graphically to describe in his particular excellencies This is the great and excellent Subject of whom she here speaks Secondly The predicate or what she affirmeth or saith of 2. him viz. that he is a lovely one machamaddim desires according to the import of
the original which signifies earnestly Significat appetere expetere quod jucundum gratum voluptuosum utile amabile est Pagn to desire covet or long for that which is most pleasant grateful delectable and amiable the original word is both in the abstract and of the plural number which speaks Christ to be the very essence of all delights and pleasures the very soul and substance of them As all the Rivers be gathered into the Ocean which is the congregation or meeting-place of all the waters in the world so Christ is that Ocean in which all true delights and pleasures meet Thirdly The manner of predication He is altogether 3. lovely totus totus desiderabilis lovely in all and in every part as if she had said Look on him in what respect or particular you will cast your eye upon this lovely object and view him any way turn him in your serious thoughts which way you will consider his Person his Offices his Works or any thing belonging to him you shall find him altogether lovely there is nothing ungrateful in him there is nothing lovely without him Hence note DOCT. That Jesus Christ is the loveliest person souls can set their eyes Doct. upon Psal. 45. 2. Thou art fairer than the children of men That is said of Jesus Christ which cannot be said of any creature that he is altogether lovely In opening this lovely point I shall 1. Weigh the importance of this phrase altogether lovely 2. Shew you in what respects Christ is so First Let us weigh this excellent expression and particularly 1. consider what is involved in it and you shall find this expression Altogether lovely First That it excludes all unloveliness and distastefulness from Jesus Christ. So Vatablus there is nothing in him which Nibil in to quod non est amâ—…bile is not amiable the excellencies of Christ are perfectly exclusive of all their opposites there is nothing of a contrary nature or quality found in him to allay or debase his excellency and in this respect Christ infinitely transcends the most excellent and loveliest creatures for whatsoever loveliness is found in them it is not without a distasteful tang the fairest Pictures must have their shadows the most orient and transplendent Stones must have their foiles to set off their beauty the best creature is but a bitter-sweet at best if there be somewhat pleasing there is also somewhat distasting if there be gracious and natural excellencies in the same person to delight us yet there is also some natural corruption intermixed with it to distaste us but it is not so in our altogether lovely Christ his excellencies are pure and unmixed he is a Sea of Sweetness without one drop of Gall. Secondly Altogether lovely i. e. as there is nothing unlovely found in him so all that is in him is wholly lovely as Quantus quantus est summis studi is votis est expetendus Brightman every raye of Gold is precious so every thing that is in Christ is precious who can weigh Christ in a pair of ballances and tell you what his worth is His price is above Rubies and all that thou canst desire is not to be compared with him Prov. 8. 11. Thirdly Altogether lovely i. e. he is comprehensive of all things that are lovely he seals up the sum of all loveliness quae faciunt divisa beatum in hoc mixta fluunt things that shine as single stars with a particular glory all meet in Christ as a glorious constellation Col. 1. 19. It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Cast your eyes among all created beings survey the Universe observe strength in one beauty in a second faithfulness in a third wisdom in a fourth but you shall find none excelling in them all as Christ doth Bread hath one quality Water another Rayment another Physick another but none hath all in it self as Christ hath he is bread to the hungry water to the thirsty a garment to the naked healing to the wounded and whatever a soul can desire is found in him 1 Cor. 1. 30. Fourthly Altogether lovely i. e. nothing is lovely in opposition to him or in separation from him if he be altogether lovely then whatsoever is opposite to or separate from him can have no loveliness in it take away Christ and where is the loveliness of any enjoyment The best creature comfort out of Christ is but a broken Cistern or a Vessel whose bottom is fallen out it cannot hold one drop of true comfort Psal. 73. 25. It is with the creature the sweetest and loveliest creature as with a beautiful image in the Glass turn away the Face and where is the Image Riches Honours and comfortable Relations are sweet when the face of Christ smiles upon us through them but without him what empty trifles are they all Fifthly Altogether lovely i. e. transcending all created excellencies in beauty and loveliness so much it speaks if you compare Christ and other things be they never so lovely never so excellent and desireable Christ carries away all loveliness from them he is saith the Apostle before all things Col. 1. 17. not only before all things in time nature and order but before all things in dignity glory and true excellency in all things he must have the preeminence for let us but compare Christs excellency with the creatures in a few particulars and how evidently will the transcendent loveliness of Jesus Christ appear For First All other loveliness is derivative and secondary but the loveliness of Christ is original and primary Angels and men the world and all the desirables in it receive what excellency they have from him they are streams from the fountain but as the waters in the fountain it self are more Dulcius ex ipsâ—… fonte bibuntur aquae abundant so more pure and pleasant than in the streams and the farther any thing departs and is removed from its fountain and original the less excellency there is in it Secondly The loveliness and excellency of all other things is but relative and respective consisting in its reference to Christ and subserviency to his glory but Christ is lovely considered absolutely in himself he is desireable for himself other things are so for him Thirdly The beauty and loveliness of all other things is fading and perishing but the loveliness of Christ is fresh to all eternity the sweetness of the best of creatures is a Fading flower if not before yet certainly at death it must fade away Job 4. 21. Doth not their excellency which is in them go away Yes yes whether natural excellencies of the body or acquired endowments of the mind lovely features amiable qualities attracting excellencies all these like pleasant flowers are withered faded and destroyed by death but Christ is still the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. Fourthly The beauty and loveliness of creatures is ensna ring and dangerous a man
affliction as Jesus Christ doth with his friends in all our afflictions he is afflicted Heb. 4. 15. He feels all our sorrows wants and burthens as his own Whence it is that the sufferings of Believers are called the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 24. Fourthly No Friend in the world takes that complacency in his Friend as Jesus Christ doth in Believers Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart saith he to the Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck the Hebrew here rendred ravished signifies to puff up or to make one proud how is the Lord Jesus pleased to glory in his people how is he taken and delighted with those gracious ornaments which himself bestows upon them no friend so lovely as Christ. Fifthly No Friend in the world loves his Friend with so ferverous and strong affection as Jesus Christ loves Believers Jacob loved Rachel and endured for her sake the parching heat of Summer and cold of Winter but Christ indured the storms of the wrath of God the heat of his â—…ignation for our sakes David manifested his love to 〈◊〉 in wishing O that I had died for thee Christ manifested his love to us not in wishes that he had died but in death it self in our stead and for our sakes Sixthly No Friend in the world is so constant and unchâ—…ble in friendship as Christ is Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end He bears with millions of provocations and injuries and yet will not break friendship with his people Peter denied him yet he will not disown him but after his resurrection he saith go tell the Disciples and tell Peter q. d. let him not think he hath forfeited by that sin of his his interest in me though he have denied me I will not disown him Mark 16. 7. Oh how lovely is Christ in the relation of a friend I might farther shew you the loveliness of Christ in his Ordinances and in his providences in his communion with us and communications to us but there is no end of the account of Christs loveliness I will rather choose to press Believers to their dutys towards this altogether lovely Christ which I shall briefly dispatch in a few words Use 1. First Is Jesus Christ altogether lovely then I beseech Use 1. you set your souls upon this lovely Jesus methinks such an object as hath been here represented should compel love from the coldest breast and hardest heart Away with those empty nothings away with this vain deceitful world which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it let all stand aside and give way to Christ. O did you but know his worth and excellency what he is in himself what he hath done for and deserved from you you would need no arguments of mine to perswade you to love him Secondly Esteem nothing lovely but as it is enjoyed in 2. Christ or improved for Christ affect nothing for it self love nothing separate from Jesus Christ. In two things we all sin in the love of creatures viz. in the excess of our affections loving them above the rate and value of creatures and in the inordinacy of our affections i. e. in loving them out of their proper places Thirdly Let us all be humbled for the baseness of our hearts 3. that are so free of their affections to vanities and trifles and so hard to be perswaded to the love of Christ who is altogether lovely Oh how many pour out streams of love and delight upon the vain and empty creature whilst no arguments can squeese out one drop of love from their obdurate and unbelieving hearts to Jesus Christ I have read of one Johannes Mollius who was observed to go often alone and weep bitterly and being prest by a Friend to know the cause of his trouble Oh said he it grieves me that I cannot bring this heart of mine to love Jesus Christ more fervently Fourthly Represent Christ as he is to the world by your 4. carriages towards him Is he altogether lovely Let all the world see and know that he is so by your delights in him and communion with him zeal for him and readiness to part with any other lovely thing upon his account proclaim his excellencies to the world as the Spouse here did convince them how much your Beloved is better than any other Beloved Display his glorious excellencies in your heavenly Conversations hold him forth to others as he is in himself altogether lovely See that you walk worthy of him unto all well-pleasing Col. 1. 10. Shew forth the praises of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. Let not that worthy name be blasphemed through you James 2. 7. He is glorious in himself and will put glory upon you take heed ye put not shame and dishonour upon him he hath committed his honour to you do not betray that trust Fifthly Never be ashamed to own Christ he is altogether 5. lovely he can never be a shame to you 't will be your great sin to be ashamed of him Some men glory in their shame be not you ashamed of your glory if you be ashamed of Christ now he will be ashamed of you when he shall appear in his own glory and the glory of all his holy Angels Be ashamed of nothing but sin and among other sins be ashamed especially for this sin that you have no more love for him who is altogether lovely Sixthly Be willing to leave every thing that is lovely upon 6. earth that you may be with the altogether lovely Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven Lift up your voices with the Spouse Rev. 20. 20. Come Lord Jesus come quickly 'T is true you must pass through the pangs of death into his bosom and enjoyment but sure 't is worth suffering much more than that to be with this lovely Jesus The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for of Jesus Christ 2 Thes. 3. 5. Seventhly Strive to be Christ-like as ever you would be 7. lovely in the eyes of God and men Certainly my Brethren 't is the Spirit of Christ within you and the beauty of Christ upon you which only can make you lovely persons the more you resemble him in holiness the more will you discover of true excellency and loveliness and the more frequent and spiritual your converse and communion with Christ is the more of the beauty and loveliness of Christ will still be stamped upon your Spirits changing you into the same image from glory to glory Eighthly Let the loveliness of Christ draw all men to 8. him Is loveliness in the creature embodied beauty so attractive And can the transcendent loveliness of Christ draw none Oh the blindness of man If you see no beauty in Christ why you should desire him 't is because the God of this world hath blinded your minds The Thirteenth SERMON
Sermon 13. HAGGAI 2. 7. Text. Alluring the hearts of men to come to Christ by a fourth motive contained in another Title of Christ. And the desire of all Nations shall come THe former Chapter is mainly spent in reproving the negligence of the Jews who being discouraged from time to time had delayed the rebuilding the Temple and in the mean time imployed their care and cost in building and adorning their own houses but at last being perswaded to set about the work they meet with this discouragement that such was the poverty of the present time that the second structure would no way answer the magnificence and splendor of the first In Solomons days the Nation was wealthy now drained so that there would be no proportion betwixt the second and the first To this grand discouragement the Prophet applies this relief that whatsoever should be wanting in external pomp and glory should be more than recompensed by the presence of Jesus Christ in this second Temple For Christ the desire of all Nations saith he shall come into it Which by the way may give us this useful note That the presence of Jesus Christ gives a more real and excellent glory to the places of his worship than any external beauty or outward ornaments whatsoever can bestow upon them Our eyes like the Disciples are apt to be dazled with the goodly stones of the Temple and in the mean time to neglect and overlook that which gives it its greatest honour and beauty But to return In these words we have both the description of Christ and an index pointing at the time of his incarnation he is called the desire of all Nations and the time of his coming in the flesh 't is plainly intimated to be while the second Temple should be standing where by the way we find just cause to admire and bemoan the blindness that is hapned to the Jews who owning the truth of this Prophecie and not able to deny the destruction of the second Temple many hundred years past will not yet be brought to acknowledge the incarnation of the true Messiah notwithstanding But to the point the character or description of Christ stiled the desire of all nations who was to come into the world in the time of the second Temple Mal. 3. 12. and that after grievous concussions and shakings of the world which were to make way for his coming for so our Prophet here speaks I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come to which the Apostle alludes in Heb. 12. 26. applying this prophecie to Jesus Christ here called the desire of all Nations putting the act for the object desire for the thing desired as in Ezec. 24. 16. the desire of thine eyes that is the desirable Wife of thy bosome So here the desire of all nations that is Christ the object of the desires of Gods elect in all nations of the world A Saviour infinitely desireable in himself and actually desired by all the people of God dispersed among all kindreds tongues and nations in the world From whence this note is DOCT. That the desires of Gods Elect in all Kingdoms and among Doct. all people of the earth are and shall be drawn out after and fixed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The merciful God beholding the universal ruines of the world by sin hath provided an universal remedy for his own Elect in every part of the earth Christ is not impropriated to any one Kingdom or Nation in the world but intended to be Gods salvation to the ends of the earth and accordingly speaks the Apostle Col. 2. 11. There is neither Greek nor Jew Barbarian Scythian Bond nor Free but Christ is all and in all In the explication of this point two things must be enquired into 1. Why Christ is called the desire of all Nations 2. Upon what account the people of God in all Nations desire him First Why he is called the desire of all Nations and 1. what that Phrase may import and there are diverse things that are supposed or included in it First That God the Father hath appointed him as a common remedy for the sins and miseries of his people in all parts and quarters of the world So in the Covenant of Redemption betwixt the Father and the Son the Lord expresseth himself Isai. 49. 6. and he said It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the Tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the end of the earth Suitable whereunto is that Prophecie Isai. 52. 15. He shall sprinkle many Nations If God had not appointed him for he could not be desired by all Nations And indeed herein the grace of God doth admirably shine forth in the freeness of it that even the most barbarous Nations are not excluded from the benefit of redemption by Christ. This is that the Apostle admires that Christ should be preached to the Gentiles 1 Tim. 3. 16. A people that seemed to be lost in the darkness of Idolatry yet even for them Christ was given by the Father Ask of me saith he and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Secondly Christ the desire of all Nations plainly notes the sufficiency that is in him to supply the wants of the whole world as the Sun in the Heavens suffices all Nations for light and influence so doth the Sun of Righteousness suffice for the Redemption Justification Sanctification and salvation of the people of God all the world over Isa. 45. 22. Look unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth Thirdly It implies the reality that is in godliness it shews you that Religion is no fancy as the Atheistical world would perswade us and this evidently appears in the uniform effects of it upon the hearts of all men in all nations of the world that are truely religious all their desires like so many Needles touched by one and the same Loadstone move towards Jesus Christ and all meet together in one and the same blessed object Christ. Were it possible for the people of God to come out of all Nations Kindreds and Languages in the world into one place and there confer and compare the desires and workings of their hearts though they never saw each others face nor heard of each others name yet as face answers to face in a glass so would their desires after Christ answer to each other all hearts work after him in the same manner what one saith all say these are my troubles and burthens these my wants and miseries the same things my desires and fears one and the same Spirit harmonically works in all Believers through the world which could never be if Religion were but a fancie as some call it or a combination or confederacy as others
call it fancies are as various as faces and confederacies presuppose mutual acquaintance and conference Fourthly Christ the desire of all Nations implies the vast extent his Kingdom hath and shall have in the world out of every Nation under Heaven some shall be brought to Christ and to Heaven by him And though the number of Gods elect compared with the multitudes of the ungodly in all Nations is but a remnant a little flock and in that comparative sense there are few that shall be saved yet considered absolutely and in themselves they are a vast number which no man can number Mat. 8. 11. Many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven In order whereunto the Gospel like the Sun in the Heavens circuits the world it arose in the East and takes its course towards the western world rising by degrees upon the remote Idolatrous Nations of the earth out of all which a number is to be saved even Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God Pfal 68. 31. And this consideration should move us to pray carnestly for the poor Heathens who yet sit in darkness and the shadow of death there is yet hope for them Fifthly It holds forth this that when God opens the eyes of men to see their sin and danger by it nothing but Christ can give them satisfaction 't is not the amenity fertility riches and pleasures the Inhabitants of any Kingdom of the world do enjoy that can quench and satisfie the desires of their souls when once God touches their hearts with the sense of sin and misery Christ and none but Christ is desirable and necessary in the eyes of such persons Many Kingdoms of the world abound with riches and pleasures the providence of God hath carved liberal portions of the good things of this life to many of them and scarce left any thing to their desires that the world can afford Yet all this can give no satisfaction without Jesus Christ the desire of Nations the one thing necessary when once they come to see the necessity and excellency of him then take the world who will so they may have Christ the desire of their souls Thus we see upon what grounds and reasons Christ is stiled the desire of all Nations But there lies one great Objection against this truth Object which must be satisfied viz. if Christ be the desire of all Nations how comes it to pass that Jesus Christ finds no entertainment in so many Nations of the world among whom Christianity is hissed at and Christians not tolerated to live among them who see no beauty in him that they should dedesire him First We must remember the Nations of the World have their times and seasons of conversion Those that Sol. once embraced Christ have now lost him and Idols are now set up in the places where he once was sweetly worshipped The Sun of the Gospel is gone down upon them and now shines in another Hemisphere and so the Nations of the World are to have their distinct days and seasons of illumination The Gospel like the Sea gaineth in one place what it loseth in another and in the times and seasons appointed by the Father they come successively to be enlightned in the knowledge of Christ and then shall that promise be fulfilled Isai. 49. 7. Thus saith the Lord the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One to him whom the nation abhorreth to a servant of Rulers Kings shall see and arise Princes also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful Secondly Let it also be remembered that although Christ be rejected by the Rulers and Body of many Nations yet he is the desire of all the Elect of God dispersed and scattered among those Nations Secondly In the next place we are to enquire upon what 2. account Christ becomes the desire of all Nations i. e. of all those in all the Nations of the world that belong to the election of grace And the true ground and reason thereof is because Christ only hath that in himself which relieves their wants and answers to all their needs As First They are all by nature under condemnation Rom. 5. 16 18. under the curse of the Law against which nothing is found in Heaven or earth able to relieve their Consciences but the blood of sprinkling the pure and perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus and hence it is that Christ becomes so desirable in the eyes of poor sinners all the world over If any thing in nature could be found to pacifie and purge the Consciences of men from guilt and fear Christ would never be desirable in their eyes but finding no other remedy but the blood of Jesus to him therefore shall all the ends of the earth look for righteousness and for peace Secondly All Nations of the world are polluted with the filth of sin both in nature and practice which they shall see and bitterly bewail when the light of the Gospel shall shine amongst them and the same light by which this shall be discovered will also discover the only remedy of this evil to I le in the spirit of Christ the only fountain opened to all Nations for sanctification and cleansing and this will make the Lord Jesus incomparably desirous in their eyes Oh how welcome will he be that cometh unto them not by blood only but by water also John 1. 5 6. Thirdly When the light of the Gospel shall shine upon the Nations they shall then see that by reason of the guilt and filth of sin they are all barr'd out of Heaven Those dores are chained up against them and that none but Christ can open an entrance for them into that Kingdom of God that no man cometh to the Father but by him John 14. 6. neither is there any name under Heaven given among men whereby they must be saved but the name of Christ Act. 4. 12. Hence the hearts of sinners shall pant after him as the Hart panteth for the water brooks And thus we see upon what grounds Christ becomes the desire of all Nations The improvement of all followeth in five several uses of the point viz. 1. For Information 2. For Examination 3. For Consolation 4. For Exhortation 5. For Direction Use for Information First Is Christ the desire of all Nations How vile a sin is Use 1. it then in any Nation upon whom the light of the Gospel hath shined to reject Jesus Christ and say as those in Job 21. 14. Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways To thrust away his worship government and servants from amongst them and in effect to say as it is Luke 19. 14. we will not have this man to reign over us thus did the Jews Act. 13. 46. they put away Christ from among them and thereby judged themselves unworthy of eternal life This is at once a fearful sin and a dreadful
others You know what the Law of God awards for striking a woman with Child so that her fruit go from her Exod. 21. 22 23. Oh shed not soul blood by stifling the hopeful desires of any after Christ. Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the desire of all Nations The Fourteenth SERMON Sermon 14. 1 COR. 2. 8. Text. Containing the fifth Motive to apply Christ drawn from another excellent Title of Christ. Which none of the Princes of this world have known for had they known him they would not have Crucified the Lord of Glory IN this Chapter the Apostle discourses to the Corinthians the excellency of his Ministry both to obviate the contempt which some might cast upon it for want of humane Ornaments and to give the greater authority unto it among all and whereas the spiritual simplicity of his Ministry laid it under the contempt of some he removes that several ways by showing them First That it was not suitable to the design and end of his ministry his aim being to know nothing among them save Jesus Christ and him crucified vers 1 2. Secondly Neither was it for the advantage of their souls it might indeed tickle their fancies but could be no solid foundation to their faith and comfort vers 4 5. Thirdly Though his discourses seemed jejune and dry to carnal hearers yet it had a depth and an excellency in it which spiritual and judicious Christians saw and acknowledged vers 6 7. Fourthly Therefore this excellent wisdom which he preached far transcended all the natural wisdom of this world yea the most raised and improved understandings of those that were most renowned and admired in that age for wisdom vers 8. Which none of the Princes of this world knew In which words we have 1. A Negative Proposition 2. The proof of the Proposition First A Negative Proposition none of the Princes of this 1. world knew that Spiritual Wisdom which he taught By Princes of this world or rather principes seculi the Princes of that age he means as Camero well notes the learned Rabbies Scribes and Pharisees renowned for wisdom and learning among them and honoured upon that account as so many Princes but he adds a diminutive term which darkens all their glory They are but the Princes of this world utterly unacquainted with the wisdom of the other world To which he adds Secondly A clear and full proof for had they known it 2. they would not have crucified the Lord of glory In which words we find one of Christs glorious and royal Titles the Lord of glory upon which Title my present Discourse must fall The words being fitly rendred and nothing of ambiguity in them they give us this observation DOCT. That Christ Crucified is the Lord of Glory Doct. Great and excellent is the glory of Jesus Christ the Scriptures every where proclaim his glory Yea we may observe a notable Climax or gradation in those Scriptures that speak of his glory The Prophet Isaiah speaking of him calls him glorious Isai. 4. 2. In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious John speaking of his glory rises a step higher and ascribeth to him a glory as of the only begotton Son of the Father John 1. 14. i. e. a glory meet for and becoming the Son of God proper to him and incommunicable to any other The Apostle James rises yet higher and doth not only call him glorious or glorious as the only begotten of the Father but the glory Jam. 2. 1. glory in the abstract my brethren saith he have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ the glory with respect of persons for the word Lord which is in our translation is a supplement Christ is glory it self yea the glory emphatically so stiled the glory of Heaven the glory of Sion the glory of our souls for ever The Author to the Hebrews goes yet higher and calls him not simply the glory but the brightness of his Fathers glory Heb. 1. 3. as who should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the radiancy sparkling or beaming forth of his Fathers glory the very splendor or refulgency of divine glory Oh what a glorious Lord is our Lord Jesus Christ the bright sparkling Diamond of Heaven who shines in glory there above the glory of Angels and Saints as the glory of the Sun excels the lesser twinkling Stars When he appeared to Paul in Acts 26. 13. I saw said he a light from Heaven above the brightness of the Sun shining round about me needs must the glory of Christ be unspeakable who reflects glory upon all that be with him John 17. 24. and stamps glory upon all that belongs to him His works on earth were glorious works Luk. 13. 17. The purchased liberty of his people a glorious liberty Rom. 8. 21. The Church his mystical body a glorious Church Eph. 5. 27. The Gospel which reveals him is a glorious Gospel 1 Tim. 1. 11. But more particularly let us consider the glory of Christ as it is distinguished into his either 1. Essential Glory 2. Mediatorial First The Essential Glory of Christ which he hath as God 1. from everlasting which is unspeakable and unconceivable glory for saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 6. He being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God i. e. he had a Peerage or equality with his Father in glory Joh. 10. 30. I and my Father are one and again Joh. 16. 15. All things that the Father hath are mine the same name the same nature the same essential properties the same will and the same glory Secondly The Mediatorial glory of Christ is exceeding 2. great this is proper to him as head of the Church which he hath purchased with his own blood Of this glory the Apostle speaks Phil. 2. 9 10. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exalted above all exaltation Now the mediatorial glory of our Lord Jesus Christ consisteth either 1. In the fulness of Grace inherent in him 2. Or in the Dignity and Authority put upon him First In the fulness of grace inherent in him the humanity of Christ is filled with grace as the Sun with light Joh. 1. 14. Full of grace and truth never any creature was so filled by the Spirit of Grace as the man Christ Jesus is filled for God gives not the spirit to him by measure Joh. 3. 34. By reason of this fulness of grace inherent in him he is sairer than the Children of men Psal. 45. 2. Excelling all the Saints in spiritual lustre and gracious excellencies Secondly In the Dignity and Authority put upon him he is crowned King in Sion all power in Heaven and earth is given unto him Mat. 28. 18. he is Lawgiver to the Church James 4. 12. All acts of worship are to be performed in his name Prayer Preaching Censures Sacraments
all to be administred in his name Church Officers are Commissioned by him Eph. 4. 11. The Judgement of the world in the great day will be administred by him Mat. 25. 31. Then shall he sit upon the Throne of his Glory To conclude Jesus Christ shall have glory and honour ascribed to him for evermore by Angels and Saints upon the account of his Mediatorial work This some Divines call his passive glory the glory which he is to receive from his redeemed ones Rev. 5. 8 9 10. And when he had taken the Book the four Beasts and the four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb having every one of them Harps and golden Vials full of Odours which are the prayers of the Saints and they sung a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People and Nation c. And thus you see that our Lord Jesus Christ is upon all accounts the Lord of Glory The Uses follow Inference 1. How wonderful was the love of Christ the Lord of glory to be so abased and humbled as he was for us vile and sinful Inference 1. dust 'T is astonishing to conceive that ever Jesus Christ should strip himself out of his Robes of Glory to cloath himself with the thread-bare tatters of our flesh Oh what a stoop did he make in his incarnation for us If the most magnificent Monarch upon earth had been degraded into a Toad if the Sun in the Heavens had been turned into a wandring Atom if the most glorious Angel in Heaven had been transformed into a silly Fly it had been nothing to the abasement of the Lord of Glory This act is every where celebrated in Scripture as the great mystery the astonishing wonder of the whole world 2 Tim. 3. 16. Phil. 2. 8. Rom. 8. 3. The Lord of glory looked not like himself when he came in the habit of a man Isai. 53. 3. We hid as it were our faces from him nay rather like a worm than a man Psal. 22. 6. A reproach of men and despised of the people The Birds of the air and Beasts of the earth were here provided of better accommodations than the Lord of glory Mat. 8. 20. Oh stupendious abasement Oh love unspeakable Though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that we through his poverty might be rich 2 Cor. 8. 9. He put off the Crown of Glory to put on the Crown of Thorns quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior said Bernard the lower he humbled himself for me the dearer he shall be to me Inference 2. How transcendently glorious is the advancement of Believers by their union with the Lord of Glory This also is an admirable Inference 2. and astonishing mystery 't is the highest dignity of which our nature is capable to be hypostatically united and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable to be mystically united to this Lord of Glory to be bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh O what is this Christian dost thou know and believe all this and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ O then what a heart hast thou What art thou by nature but sinful dust a loathsom sinner viler than the vilest Toad cast out to the loathing of thy person in the day of thy nativity O that ever the Lord of Glory should unite himself to such a lump of vileness take such a wretch into his very bosom Be astonished O Heavens and earth at this this is the great mystery which the Angels stoopt down to look into Such an honour as this could never have entred into the heart of man it would have seemed a rude blasphemy in us once to have thought or spoken of such a thing had not Christ made the first motion thereof Yet how long didst thou make this Lord of Glory wait upon thy undetermined will before he gained thy consent Might he not justly have spurned thee into Hell upon thy first refusal and never have made thee such another offer Wilt thou not say Lord what am I and what is my Fathers house that so great a King should stoop so far beneath himself to such a worm as I am That strength should unite it self to weakness infinite glory to such baseness O grace grace for ever to be admired Inference 3. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory then let no man count Inference 3. himself dishonoured by suffering the vilest indignities for his sake the Lord of Glory puts glory upon the very sufferings you undergo in this world for him Moses esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Heb. 11. 26. He cast a Kingdom at his heels to be crowned with reproaches for the name of Christ. The Diadem of Egypt was not half so glorious as self-denial for Christ. This Lord of Glory freely degraded himself for thee wilt thou stand huckling with him upon terms 'T is certainly your honour to be dishonoured for Christ Act. 5. 41. To you it is given in behalf of Christ not only to believe but also to suffer for his sake Phil. 1. 29. The gift of suffering is there matched with the gift of faith 't is given as an honorarium a badge of Honour to suffer for the Lord of Glory as all have not the honour to wear the Crown of Glory in Heaven so few have the honour to wear the chain of Christ upon earth Thuanus Cur me non quoque torque donas insi nis hujus ordinis mili em creas Thuanus reports of Lodovicus Marsacus a Knight of France that being led to suffer with other Martyrs who were bound and he unbound because a person of Honour he cryed out Why don't you honour me with a Chain too and create me a Knight of that Noble Order My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations Jam. 1. 2. i. e. tryals by sufferings David thought it an honour to be vile for God and that 's a true observation that disgrace it self is glorious when endured for the Lord of Glory Inference 4. Is Christ the Lord of Glory How glorious then shall the Saints one day be when they shall be made like this glorious Inference 4. Lord and partake of his glory in Heaven John 17. 22. the glory which thou gavest me I have given them yea the vile bodies of Believers shall be made like to the glorious body of Christ Phil. 3. 21. What glory then will be communicated to their souls True his essential glory is incommunicable but there is a glory which Christ will communicate to his people When he comes to judge the world he will come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes. 1. 10. Where he seemeth to account his social glory which shall
result from his Saints a great part of his own glory as we have now fellowship with him in his sufferings so we shall have a fellowship or communion with him in his glory when he shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory then the poorest Believer shall be more glorious than Solomon in all his Royalty It was a pious saying of Luther that he had rather be Christianus Rusticus quam Ethnicus Alexander a Christian Clown than a Pagan Emperor the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour though he live next dore to a graceless Nobleman but it doth not yet appear what they shall be The day will come it will certainly come for the Lord hath spoken it when they shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Inference 5. How hath the Devil blindfolded and deluded them that are scared off from Christ by the fears of being dishonoured by him Inference 5. Many persons have half a mind to Religion but when they consider the generality of its professors to be persons of the lowest and meanest rank in the world and that reproaches and sufferings attend that way they shrink back as men ashamed and as Salvian saith mali esse coguntur ne viles habeantur they choose rather to remain wicked than to become vile but to them that believe Christ is an honour as the word which we translate precious might be rendred 1 Pet. 2. 7. Till God open mens eyes thus they will put evil for good and good for evil But O dear bought honours for which men stake their souls and everlasting happiness Paul was not of your mind yet for birth he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews for dignity and esteem a Pharisee for moral accomplishments touching the Law blameless yet all this he trampled under his feet counting it all but dross and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ. Moses had more honour to lay down for Christ than you yet it was no temptation to him to conceal or deny the faith of Christ. Noble Galeacius would not be withheld from Christ by the splendor and glory of Italy But Oh how doth the glory of this world dazle and blind the eyes of many How can ye believe saith Christ who receive honour one of another John 5. 44. Saints and sinners upon this account are wonders to one the other 'T is the wonder of the world to see Christians glorying in reproaches they wonder that the Saints run not with them into the same excess of riot And it is a wonder to Believers how such poor toys and empty titles rather than titles of honour should keep the world as it doth from Jesus Christ and their everlasting happiness in him Inference 6. If Christ be the Lord of Glory how careful should all be Inference 6. who profess him that they do not dishonour Jesus Christ whose name is called upon them Christ is a glory to you be not you a shame and dishonour to him How careful had Christians need be to draw every line and action of their lives exactly The more glorious Christ is the more circumspect and watchful ye had need to be How lovely would Jesus Christ appear to the world if the lives of Christians did adorn the Doctrine of God their Saviour in all things Remember you represent the Lord of Glory to the world 't is not your honour only but the honour of Christ which is engaged and concerned in your actions O let not the carelesness or scandals of your life make Jesus Christ ashamed to be called your Lord. When Israel had grievously revolted from God he bids Moses rise and get him down from thence for saith he thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves Deut. 9. 12. as if the Lord were ashamed to own them for his people any longer It was a cutting question Jam. 2. 7. apt to startle the Consciences of those loose professors do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called Your duty is to adorn the Gospel by your Conversations Titus 2. 10. The words signifie to deck trim or adorn the Gospel to make it neat trim and lovely to the eyes of beholders When there is such a beautiful harmony and lovely proportion betwixt Christs Doctrine and your practices as there is in the works of Creation wherein the comliness and elegancy of the world much consists for to this the Apostles word here alludes then do we walk suitably to the Lord of Glory Inference 7. What delight should Christians take in their daily converse with Jesus Christ in the way of duty Your converses in prayer hearing Inference 7. Suppose saith Mr. Rutherford there were no letter of a command yet there is a suitableness betwixt the Law engraven on the heart and the spiritual matter commanded there is an Heaven in the bosom of prayer though there were not a granting of the suit Rutherfords Treatise of the Covenant p. 71. and meditation are with the Lord of Glory the greatest Peers in a Kingdom account it more honour to be in the presence of a King bareheaded or upon the knee at Court than to have thousands standing bare to them in the Country When you are called to duties of communion with Christ you are called to the greatest honour dignified with the noblest priviledge creatures are capable of in this world had you but a sense of that honour God puts upon you by this means you would not need so much tugging and striving to bring a dead and backward heart into the special presence of Jesus Christ. When he saith seek ye my face your hearts would echo to his calls thy face Lord will we seek But alas the glory of Christ is much hid and vailed by ignorance and unbelief from the eyes of his own people 't is but seldom the best of Saints by the eye of faith do see the King in his Glory Inference 8. If Christ be so glorious how should Believers long to be with Inference 8. him and behold him in his glory above Most men need patience to dye a Believer should need patience to live Paul thought it well worth enduring the pangs of death to get a sight of Jesus Christ in his glory Phil. 1. 23. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and patient waiting for of Christ saith the Apostle 2 Thes. 3. 5. intimating that the Saints have great need of patience to enable them to endure the state of distance and separation from Christ so long as they must endure it in this world The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come even so come Lord Jesus and be thou as a swift Roe upon the Mountains of Separation Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory The Fifteenth SERMON Sermon 15. LUKE 2. 25. Text. Opening the sixth Motive to come to Christ
contained in the sixth and last Titile of Christ. Waiting for the Consolation of Israel SEveral Glorious Titles of Christ have been already spoken to out of each of which much comfort flows to Believers 't is comfortable to a wounded soul to eye him as a Physician comfortable to a condemned and unworthy soul to look upon him under the notion of the Mercy The loveliness the desirableness and the glory of Christ are all so many springs of Consolation But now I am to shew you from this Scripture that the Saints have not only much consolation from Christ but that Christ himself is the very Consolation of Believers he is pure comfort wrapped up in flesh and blood In this Context you have an account of Simeons Prophecie concerning Christ and in this Text a description of the Person and quality of Simeon himself who is described two wayes 1. By his Practice 2. By his Principle His practice was heavenly and holy he was a just and devout man the principle from which his righteousness and holiness did flow was his faith in Christ he waited for the consolation of Israel In which words by way of Periphrasis we have 1. A description of Christ the Consolation of Israel 2. The description of a Believer one that waiteth for Christ. First That the Consolation of Israel is a phrase descriptive 1. of Jesus Christ is beyond all doubt if you consult vers 26. where he i. e. Simeon is satisfied by receiving Christ into his arms the Consolation for which he had so long waited Secondly And that waiting for Christ is a phrase describing 2. Phrasis est Judaeistum temporis familiaris notissima qua Messiae adventum significabatur Lodov Capell the Believers of those times that preceeded the incarnation of Christ is past doubt they all waited for that blessed day but it was Simeons lot to fall just upon that happy nick of time wherein the Prophecies and Promises of his incarnation were fulfilled Simeon and others that waited with him were sensible that the time of the Promise was come which could not but raise as indeed it did a general expectation of him John 9. 19. but Simeons faith was confirmed by a particular revelation vers 26. that he should see Christ before he saw death which could not but greatly encourage and raise his expectation to look out for him whose coming would be the greatest consolation to the whole Israel of God The Consolation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit is frequently called in Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Comforter but Christ in this place is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 comfort or consolation it self the reason of both is given in John 16. 14. He shall take of mine and shew it unto you where Christ is said to be the matter and the Spirit the applier of true comfort to the people of God Now this consolation is here expressed both with a singular Emphasis the Consolation intimating that there is nothing of consolation in any thing beside him all other comforts compared with this are not worth a naming And as it is emphatically expressed so it is also limited and bounded within the compass of Gods Israel i. e. true Believers stiled the Israel of God whether Jews or Gentiles Gal. 6. 16. From whence the point of Doctrine is DOCT. That Jesus Christ is the only Consolation of Believers and of none besides them Doct. So speaks the Apostle Phil. 3. 3. For we are the circumcision which worship God in the Spirit and rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh Those that worship God in the Spirit are sincere Believers to such sincere Believers Christ is consolation our rejoycing is in Christ Jesus and they have no consolation in any thing beside him nothing in the world can give them comfort without Christ we have no confidence in the flesh The Gospel is glad tidings of great joy but that which makes it to be so is Jesus Christ whom it imports and reveals to us Luke 2. 10 11. In the opening of this comfortable point four things must be spoken to for the right stating the method of our Discourse viz. 1. What is meant by Consolation 2. That Christ and he only is Consolation to Believers 3. That Believers only have Consolation in Christ. 4. How it comes to pass that any Believer should be dejected since Christ is Consolation to all Believers The first thing to be opened is the nature of Consolation 1. which is nothing else but the cheariness of a mans spirit whereby he is upheld and fortified against all evils felt or feared Consolation is to the soul what health is to the body after wasting sickness or the reviving Spring to the earth after a long and hard Winter and there are three sorts of consolation or comfort suitable to the disposition and temper of the mind viz. Natural Sinful and Spiritual Natural Comfort is the refreshment of our natural Spirits by the good Creatures of God Acts. 14. 17. Filling their hearts with food and gladness Sinful Comfort is the satisfaction and pleasure men take in the fulfilling of their lusts by the abuse of the creatures of God James 5. 5. Ye have lived in pleasure upon earth i. e. your life hath been a life of sensuality and sin Spiritual Comfort is the refreshment peace and joy gracious souls have in Christ by the exercise of faith hope and other graces Rom. 5. 2. and this only deserves the name of true solid Consolation to which four things are required First That the matter thereof be some spiritual eminent and durable good else our consolation in it will be but as the crackling of Thorns under a Pot a sudden blaze quickly extinct with the failing matter Christ only gives the matter of solid durable Consolation The righteousness of Christ the pardon of sin the favour of God the hopes of glory are the substantial materials of a Believers Consolation Rom. 5. 2. Mat. 9. 2. Psal. 4. 6 7. 2 Pet. 1. 8. Things are as their foundations be Secondly Interest and propriety in these comfortable things is requisite to our consolation by them Luke 1. 47. My Spirit rejoyceth in God my Saviour 'T is no consolation to him that is hungry to see a Feast to him that is poor to see a Treasure if the one may not taste or the other partake thereof Thirdly Knowledge and evidence of interest in some degree is requisite to actual consolation though without it a man may be in the state of consolation for that which appears not is in point of actual comfort as if it were not Fourthly In order hereunto the work of the Spirit upon our hearts is requisite both to give and clear our interest in Christ and the promises and both these ways he is the Comforter The fruit of the Spirit is joy Gal. 5. 22. And thus briefly of the nature of Consolation Secondly Next I will shew you that Christ and
he only 2. is matter of Consolation to Believers which will demonstratively appear by this Argument He that brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable must Argu. needs be the only consolation of Believers But Jesus Christ brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable Therefore Christ only is the Consolation of Believers First Jesus Christ brings whatsoever is comfortable to the souls of Believers Is pardon comfortable to a person condemned Nothing can be matter of greater comfort in this world Why this Christ brings to all Believers Jer. 23. 6. And this is the name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness this cannot but give strong consolation righteousness is the foundation of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isai. 32. 17. Come to a dejected soul labouring under the burthen of guilt and say Cheer up I bring you good tidings there is such an Estate befallen you or such a troublesom business comfortably ended for you alas this will not reach the heart If you can bring me saith he good news from Heaven that my sins are forgiven and God reconciled how soon should I be comforted And therefore as one well observes this was the usual receipt with which Christ cured the souls of men and women when he was here on earth Son or Daughter be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee and indeed it is as easie to separate light and warmth from the beams of the Sun as cheeriness and comfort from the voice of pardon Are the hopes and expectation of Heaven and glory comfortable Yes sure nothing is comfortable if this be not Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Now Christ brings to the souls of men all the solid grounds and foundations upon which they build their expectations of glory Col. 1. 27. Which is Christ in you the hope of glory Name any thing else that is solid matter of comfort to the souls of men and the grounds thereof will be found in Christ and in none but Christ as might easily be demonstrated by the enumeration of multitudes of particular instances which I cannot now insist upon Secondly Jesus Christ removes fom Believers whatever is uncomfortable therein relieving them against all the matters of their affliction and sorrow As namely First Is sin a burthen and matter of trouble to Believers Christ and none but Christ removes that burthen Rom. 7. 24 25. O wretched man that I am saith sin burthened Paul who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The satisfaction of his blood Eph. 5. 2. The sanctification of his Spirit John 1. 5 6. His perfect deliverance of his people from the very being of sin at last Eph. 5. 26 27. This relieves at present and removes at last the matter and ground of all their troubles and sorrows for sin Secondly Do the temptations of Satan burthen Believers O yes by reason of temptations they go in trouble and heaviness of spirit Temptation is an enemy under the walls temptation greatly endangers and therefore cannot but greatly afflict the souls of Believers but Christ brings the only matter of relief against temptations The intercession of Christ is a singular relief at present Luke 22. 32. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and the promises of Christ are a full relief for the future The God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under your feet Rom. 16. 20. Thirdly Is spiritual desertion and the hiding of Gods face matter of affliction and casting down to Believers Yes yes it quails their hearts nothing can comfort them Thou hidest thy face and I was troubled Psal. 30. 7. Outward afflictions do but break the skin this touches the quick they like rain fall only upon the Tiles this soaks into the House but Christ brings to Believers substantial matter of Consolation against the troubles of desertion he himself was deserted of God for a time that they might not be deserted for ever in him also the relieving promises are made to Believers that notwithstanding God may desert them for a time yet the union betwixt him and them shall never be dissolved Heb. 13. 5. Jer. 32. 40. Though he forsake them for a moment in respect of evidenced favour yet he will return again and comfort them Isai. 54. 7. Though Satan tug hard yet he shall never be able to pluck them out of his Fathers hand John 10. 20. Oh what relief is this What consolation is Christ to a deserted Believer Fourthly Are outward afflictions matter of dejection and trouble Alas who finds them not to be so How do our hearts fail and our spirits sink under the many smarting rods of God upon us but our relief and consolation under them all is in Christ Jesus for the rod that afflicts us is in the hand of Christ that loveth us Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten his design in affliction is our profit Heb. 12. 10. That design of his for our good shall certainly be accomplished Rom. 8. 28. and after that no more afflictions for ever Rev. 21. 3 4. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes So that upon the whole two things are most evident First Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ he is the soul that animates all Comforts they would be but dead things without him Temporal enjoyments riches honours health relations yield not a drop of true Comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments Minister ordinances promises are fountains sealed and springs shut up till Christ open them a man may go comfortless in the midst of them all Secondly No troubles sorrows or afflictions can deject or sink the soul that Christ comforteth 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing A Believer may walk with a heart brim full of comfort amidst all the troubles of this world Christ makes the darkness of trouble to be light round about his people So that the conclusion stands firm and never to be shaken that Christ and Christ only is the Consolation of Believers which was the thing to be proved In the Third place I am to shew you that Believers and 3. none but Believers can have consolation in Christ which will convincingly appear from the consideration of those things which we laid down before as the requisites to all true Spiritual Coonsolation For First No unbeliever hath the materials out of which Spiritual Comfort is made which as I there told you must be some solid spiritual and eternal good as Christ and the Covenant are What do unregenerate men rejoyce in but trifles and meer vanities in a thing of nought Amos 6. 13. See how their mirth is described in Job 21. 12. They
take their Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ He doth not say they take the Bible turn to the promises and rejoyce in Christ and the Covenant 't is not the melody of a good Conscience the joy of the Holy Ghost no no they have no acquaintance with such musick as that but the rejoycing of Believers is in those things 2 Cor. 1. 12. And this is well-built consolation which reaches the heart Secondly I told you that propriety and interest in Christ and the promises is required to all Spiritual Consolation but no unbeliever hath any title or interest in Christ and the promises and so they can signifie nothing to him in point of Comfort 'T is not another mans mony but my own that must feed cloath and comfort me nor is it another mans Christ but my own Christ that must justifie save and comfort my soul. Thirdly You were told that evidence of a mans peace and reconciliation with God is necessary to his actual consolation which no unbeliever can possibly have he hath neither grace within him to make him a qualified subject of any special promise nor any witness or seal of the spirit to confirm and clear his propriety in Christ for he never seals but where he first sanctifies So that it is beyond all contradiction that Believers and none but Believers are partakers of the Consolations that are in Christ Jesus Fourthly and Lastly There is one inquiry remains to be satisfied namely seeing Jesus Christ is consolation to Believers how it comes to pass that so many Believers in the world should walk so dejectedly as they do without any Spiritual Consolation First This may not be wondred at if we consider that the Consolations of Christ are of two sorts Seminal and in preparation or actual in present possession Every Believer in the world hath the root and seed of comfort planted and sown for him Psal. 97. 11. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart They have Christ and the promises which are the seeds of Consolation and will bring forth joy at last though at present they have no actual Consolation the seed of all joy is sown and in due time they shall reap the full ripe fruit thereof Secondly It must be remembred that interest and evidence are distinct blessings every Believer hath interest in Christ but every Believer hath not the evidence thereof Isai. 50. 10. Who is among you that feareth the Lord and obeyeth the voice of his Servant that walketh in darkness and hath no light Every Child of God is not of sufficient age to know his Father or take comfort in that blessed inheritance whereunto he is begotten again 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. Thirdly Every Believer doth not walk with like strictness and exact holiness all do not exercise faith in a like degree among Christians some are strong in grace rich in faith strict in obedience tender of sin to an eminent degree these usually are owners of much Consolation but others are weak in grace poor in faith comparatively careless of their hearts and ways frequently grieving the good Spirit of God and wounding their own Consciences the vessel into which Spiritual Consolation is poured and these are usually denied the joy and comfort which others abound withal Fourthly The Consolations of Christ are arbitrarily dispensed by the Spirit who is the Comforter and giveth to every man in such proportions and seasons as pleaseth him whence it comes to pass that he that is rich in comfort to day may be poor to morrow and contrarily the heart that is brimful of sorrow one hour is filled with peace and joy in believing the next Things that are necessary to the being of a Christian are fixed and stable but things belonging only to the well-being of a Christian come and go according to the good pleasure and appointment of the Spirit The use of all follows Inference 1. Hence it follows that the state of unbelievers is the most sad and uncomfortable state in the world having no interest in Christ Inference 1. the Consolation of Israel 'T is true they abound in Creature-comforts they live in pleasure upon earth Joy displaies its colours in their faces but for all this there is not the least drop of true Consolation in any of their hearts they have some comfort in the Creature but none in Christ that little they gather from the Creature now is all their portion of joy Luke 6. 24. Ye have received your consolation as this is all they have so they shall enjoy it but a little while Job 21. 13 17. and while they do injoy it it 's mixt with many gripes of Conscience Job 14. 13. Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful and the end of that mirth is heaviness whatever consolation any unbeliever speaks of besides this is but by rote for when the day of his distress cometh and the terrors of Conscience shall awake him out of his pleasant dreams all his sensual joys will vanish from him and the dores of true Consolation will be all shut against him Let him go to Jesus Christ knock at that dore and say Lord Jesus thy name is Consolation my heart is ready to burst within me hast thou no Consolation for me O Lord for one drop of Spiritual Comfort now but alas there is none no not in Christ himself for any unbeliever 'T is Childrens bread the Saints priviledge comfort and grace are undivided let him return into himself search his own Conscience for comfort and say O Conscience thou art more than a thousand witnesses and thousands have been comforted by thee where thou speakest comfort none can speak trouble hast thou no Consolation for me in my deepest distress Alas no if God condemn thee wherewithal shall I comfort thee I can speak neither more nor less than the Scriptures put into my mouth and I find not one word in all the Book of God warranting me to be thy Comforter believe it as an undoubted truth though the sense of the bewitched world over-rules it that the state of unbelievers even at the best is a sad and dismal state Inference 2. Let all Believers fetch all their Comfort out of Christ who is Inference 2. the Consolation of his people we rejoice saith the Apostle in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh That 's the true temper of a believing soul Take heed you live not partly upon Christ and partly upon the Creature for your Comfort much rather beware that you forsake not Christ the fountain of living waters and hew out Cisterns for your selves which can hold no water Jer. 2. 13. If you make any Creature the spring and fountain of your comfort assuredly God will dry up that spring if your souls draw their Comfort from any Creature you know they must out-live that Creature and what then will you do for Comfort Beside as your Comforts are so are you The food of
every Creature is suitable to its nature You see divers Creatures feeding upon several parts of the same herb the Bee upon the flower the Bird upon the seed the Sheep upon the stalk and the Swine upon the root according to their nature so is their food sensual men feed upon sensual things spiritual men upon spiritual things as your food is so are you If carnal comforts can content thy heart sure thy heart must then be a very carnal heart yea and let Christians themselves take heed that they fetch not their Consolations out of themselves instead of Christ. Your graces and duties are excellent means and instruments but not the ground-work and foundation of your Comfort they are useful buckets to draw but not the well it self in which the springs of consolation rise If you put your duties in the room of Christ Christ will put your comforts out of the reach of your duties Inference 3. If Christ be the Consolation of Believers what a comfortable Inference 3. life should all Believers live in this world Certainly if the fault be not your own you might live the happiest and comfortablest lives of all men in the world If you would not be a discomfort to Christ he would be a comfort to you every day and in every condition to the end of your lives your condition abounds with all the helps and advantages of consolation you have the command of Christ to warrant your comforts Phil. 4. 4. You have the Spirit of Christ for a spring of comfort you have the Scriptures of Christ for the rules of comfort you have the duties of Religion for the means of comfort why is it then that you go comfortless If your afflictions be many in the world yet your encouragements be more in Christ your troubles in the world may be turned into joy but your comforts in Christ can never be turned into trouble Why should troubles obstruct your comfort when the blessing of Christ upon your troubles makes them subservient to promote your happiness Rom. 8. 28. Shake off despondency then and live up to the principles of Religion your dejected life is uncomfortable to your selves and of very ill use to others Inference 4. If Christ be the Consolation of Believers then let all that desire Inference 4. comfort in this world or in that to come imbrace Jesus Christ and get real union with him The same hour you shall be in Christ you shall also be at the fountain head of all Consolations Thy soul shall be then a pardoned soul and a pardoned soul hath all reason in the world to be a joyful soul in that day thy Conscience shall be sprinkled with the blood of Christ and a sprinkled Conscience hath all the reason in the world to be a comforting Conscience in that day you become the Children of your Father in Heaven and he that hath a Father in Heaven hath all reason to be the joyfullest man upon earth in that day you are delivered from the sting and hurt of death and he that is delivered from the sting of death hath the best reason to take in the comfort of life O come to Christ come to Christ till you come to Christ no true comfort can come to you The Sixteenth SERMON Sermon 16. EPHES. 1. 7. Text. Enforcing the general exhortation by a seventh motive drawn from the first benefit purchased by Christ. In whom we have redemption through his blood the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace SIx great Motives have been presented already from the Titles of Christ to draw the hearts of sinners to him more are now to be offered from the benefits redounding to Believers by Christ. Essaying by all means to win the hearts of men to Christ. To this end I shall in the first place open that glorious priviledge of Gospel remission freely and fully conferred upon all that come to Christ by faith in whom we have redemption by faith c. In which words we have first a singular benefit or choice mercy bestowed viz. Redemption interpreted by way of apposition the remission of sins this is a priviledge of the first rank a mercy by it self none sweeter none more desirable among all the benefits that come by Christ. And therefore Secondly You have the price of this mercy an account what it cost even the blood of Christ in whom we have redemption through his blood Precious things are of great price the blood of Christ is the meritorious cause of remission Thirdly You have here also the impulsive cause moving God to grant pardons at this rate to sinners and that is said to be the riches of his grace Where by the way you see that the freeness of the grace of God and the fulness of the satisfaction of Christ meet together without the least jar in the remission of sin contrary to the vain cavil of the Socinian adversaries In whom we have redemption even the remission of sins according to the riches of his grace Fourthly You have the qualified subjects of this blessed priviledge viz. Believers in whose name he here speaks we have remission i. e. we the Saints and faithful in Christ Jesus vers 1. we whom he hath chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world and predestinated unto the adoption of Children vers 4 5. we that are made accepted in the beloved vers 6. 't is we and we only who have redemption through his blood Hence observe DOCT. That all Believers and none but Believers receive the remission Doct. of their sins through the riches of grace by the blood of Jesus Christ. In the explication of this point three things must be spoken to 1. That all that are in Christ are in a pardoned state 2. That their pardon is the purchase of the blood of Christ. 3. That the riches of Grace are manifested in remission First That all that are in Christ are in a pardoned state where I will first shew you what pardon or the remission of sin is Secondly That this is the priviledge of none but Believers First Now remission of sin is the gracious act of God in and through Christ discharging a believing sinner from all the guilt and punishment of his sin both temporal and eternal 'T is the act of God he is the author of remission none can forgive sins but God only Mark 2. 7. against him only i. e. principally and essentially the offence is committed Psal. 51. 4. To his Judgement guilt binds over the soul and who can remit the debt but the Creditor Mat. 6. 12. 'T is an act of God discharging the sinner it is Gods loosing of one that stood bound the cancelling of his bond or obligation called therefore remission or releasing in the Text the blotting out of our iniquities or the removing our sins from us as it 's called in other Scriptures see Psal. 103. 11. Mica 7. 18 19. It is a gracious act of God the
the hand of Satan I gave thee into the bosom of Christ I have pardoned unto thee millions of sins I have bestowed upon thee the riches of mercy my favour hath made thee great and as if all this were too little I have prepared Heaven for thee for which of all these favours dost thou thus requite me Inference 6. How precious should Jesus Christ be to Believers by whose Inference 6. blood they are ingratiated with God and by whose intercession they are and shall for ever be continued in his favour When the Apostle mentions the Believers translation from the sad state of nature to the blessed priviledged state of grace see what a Title he bestows upon Jesus Christ the purchaser of that priviledge calling him the dear Son Col. 1. 13. not only dear to God but exceeding dear to Believers also Christ is the favourite in Heaven to him you owe all your preferment there take away Christ and you have no ground to stand one minute in the favour of God O then let Jesus Christ the fountain of your honour be also the object of your love and praise Inference 7. Estimate by this the state and condition of a deserted Saint Inference 7. upon whom the favour of God is eclipsed If the favour of God be better than life the hiding of it from a gracious soul must be more bitter than death deserted Saints have reason to take the first place among all the mourners in the world the darkness before conversion had indeed more of danger but this hath more of trouble Darkness after light is dismal darkness Since therefore the case is so sad let your preventing care be the more grieve not the good Spirit of God you prepare but for your own grief in so doing Inference 8. Lastly Let this perswade all men to accept Jesus Christ as Inference 8. ever they expect to be accepted with the Lord themselves It is a fearful case for a mans person and duties to be rejected of God to cry and not be heard and much more terrible to be denied audience in the great and terrible day Yet as sure as the Scriptures are the sealed and faithful sayings Si voluntatem Dei nosse quisquam desiderat fit amicus Deo August of God this is no more than what every Christless person must expect in that day Mat. 7. 22. Luke 13. 26. Trace the history of all times even as high as Abel and you shall find that none but Believers did ever find acceptance with God all experience confirms this great truth that they that are in the flesh cannot please God Reader if this be thy condition let me beg thee to ponder the misery of it in a few sad thoughts Consider how sad it is to be rejected of God and forsaken by all creatures at once what a day of streights thy dying day is like to be when Heaven and Earth shall cast thee out together Be assured whatever thy vain hopes for the present quiet thee withal this must be thy case the dore of mercy will be shut against thee no man cometh to the Father but by Christ. Sad was the case of Saul when he told Samuel the Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28. 15. The Saints will have boldness in the day of Judgment 1 John 4. 17. but thou wilt be a confounded man there is yet blessed be the God of mercy a capacity and opportunity of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. Isai. 27. 5. But this can be of no long continuance O therefore by all the regard and love you have for the everlasting welfare of your own souls come to Christ embrace Christ in the offers of the Gospel that you may be made accepted in the beloved The Eighteenth SERMON Sermon 18. JOHN 8. 36. Text. The liberty of Believers opened and stated If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed FRom the 30th verse of this Chapter unto my Text you have an account of the different effects which the words of Christ had upon the hearts of his hearers some believed verse 30. these he encourageth to continue in his word verse 31. giving them this encouragement vers 32. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Hereat the unbelieving Jews take offence and commence a quarrel with him vers 33. We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man We are of no slavish extraction the blood of Abraham runs in our veins this scornful boast of the proud Jews Christ confutes vers 34. where he distinguisheth of a twofold bondage one to men another to sin one civil another spiritual whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin then tells them vers 36. The servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth for ever Wherein he intimateth two great truths viz. that the servants and slaves of sin may for a time enjoy the external priviledges of the house or Church of God but it would not be long before the master of the house will turn them out of dore but if they were once the adopted Children of God then they should abide in the house for ever And this priviledge is only to be had by their believing in and union with the natural Son of God Jesus Christ which brings us fairly to the Text If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed In which words we have two parts viz. 1. A Supposition 2. A Concession First A Supposition if the Son therefore shall make you free 1. q. d. The womb of nature cast you forth into the world in a state of bondage in that state you have lived all your days servants to sin slaves to your lusts yet freedom is to be obtained and this freedom is the prerogative belonging to the Son of God to bestow if the Son shall make you free Secondly Christs Concession upon this supposition then 2. shall ye be free indeed i. e. you shall have a real freedom an excellent and everlasting fredom no conceit only as that which you now boast of is if ever therefore you will be free men indeed believe in me Hence note DOCT. That interest in Christ sets the soul at liberty from all that Doct. bondage whereunto it was subjected in its natural state Believers are the Children of the New Covenant the denizons of Jerusalem which are above which is free and the mother of them all Gal. 4. 26. the glorious liberty viz. that which is spiritual and eternal is the liberty of the Children of God Rom. 8. 21. Christ and none but Christ delivers his people out of the hands of their enemies Luk. 1. 74. In the Doctrinal part of this point I must shew you First What Believers are not freed from by Jesus Christ in this world Secondly What that bondage is from which every Believer is freed by Christ. Thirdly What kind of
freedom that is which comes in upon believing Fourthly Open the excellency of this state of spiritual freedom First What those things are from which Believers are 1. not made free in this world we must not think that our spiritual liberty by Christ presently brings us into an absolute liberty in all respects For First Christ doth not free Believers from obedience to the moral Law 'T is true we are no more under it as a Covenant for our justification but we are and must still be under it as a rule for our direction The matter of the moral law is unchangeable as the nature of good and evil is and cannot be abolished except that distinction could be destroyed Mat. 5. 17 18. The precepts of the Law are still urged under the Gospel to enforce duties upon us Eph. 6. 12. 'T is therefore a vain distinction invented by Libertines to say it binds us as Creatures not as Christians or that it binds the unregenerate part but not the regenerate but this is a sure truth that they who are freed from its penalties are still under its precepts though Believers are no more under its curse yet they are still under its conduct the Law sends us to Christ to be justified and Christ sends us to the Law to be regulated Let the heart of every Christian joyn therefore with Davids in that holy wish Psal. 119. 4 5. Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently O that my heart were directed to keep thy Statutes 'T is excellent when Christians begin to obey the Law from life which others obey for life because they are justified not that they may be justified When duties are done in the strength and for the honour of Christ which is Evangelical not in our own strength and for our own ends which is servile and legal obedience had Christ freed us from obedience such a liberty had been to our loss Secondly Christ hath not freed Believers in this world from the temptations and assaults of Satan even those that are freed from his dominion are not free from his molestation 'T is said indeed Rom. 16. 20. God shall shortly bruise Satan under your feet but mean time he hath power to bruise and buffet us by his injections 2 Cor. 12. 7. he now bruiseth Christs heel Gen. 3. 15. i. e. bruiseth him in his tempted and afflicted members though he cannot kill them yet he can and doth afflict and fright them by shooting his fiery darts of temptation among them Eph. 6. 16. 'T is true when the Saints are got safe into Heaven they are out of Gun-shot there is perfect freedom from all temptation A Believer may then say O thou enemy temptations are come to a perpetual end I am now arrived there where none of thy fiery darts can reach me but this freedom is not yet Thirdly Christ hath not yet freed Believers in this world from the motions of indwelling sin these are continually acting and infesting the holiest of men Rom. 7. 21 23 24. Corruptions like Canaanites are still left in the Land to be thorns in our eyes and goads in our sides Those that boast most of freedom from the motions of sin have most cause to suspect themselves still under the dominion of sin All Christs freemen are troubled with the same complaint who among them complains not as the Apostle did Rom. 7. 24. Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliever me from the body of this death Fourthly Jesus Christ doth not free Believers in this world from inward troubles and exercises of soul upon the account of sin God may let loose Satan and Conscience too in the way of terrible accusations which may greatly distress the soul of a Believer and wofully eclipse the light of Gods Countenance and break the peace of their souls Job Heman and David were all made free by Christ yet each of them hath left upon record his bitter complaint upon this account Job 7. 19 20. Psal. 88. 14 15 16. Psal. 38. unto vers 11. Fifthly Christ hath not freed Believers in this world from the rods of affliction God in giving us our liberty doth not abridge his own liberty Psal. 89. 32. all the Children of God are made free yet what Son is there whom the Father chastneth not Heb. 12. 8. Exemption from affliction is so far from being the mark of a Freeman that the Apostle there makes it the mark of a slave Bastards not Sons want the discipline and blessing of the Rod to be freed from affliction would be no benefit to Believers who receive so many benefits by affliction Sixthly No Believer is freed by Christ from the stroak of death though they are all freed from the sting of death Rom. 8. 10. The bodies of Believers are under the same Law of mortality with other men Heb. 9. 27. we must come to the Grave as well as others yea we must come to it through the same agonies pangs and dolours that other men do the foot of death treads as heavy upon the bodies of the redeemed as of other men Believers indeed are distinguished by mercy from others but the distinguishing mercy lies not here Thus you see what Believers are not freed from in this world if you shall now say what advantage then hath a Believer or what profit is there in regeneration I Answer Secondly That Believers are freed from many great and 2. sad miseries and evils by Jesus Christ notwithstanding all that hath been said For First All Believers are freed from the rigour and curse of the Law the rigorous yoak of the Law is broken off from their necks and the sweet and easie yoak of Jesus Christ put on Mat. 11. 28. The Law required perfect working under the pain of a curse Gal. 3. 10. accepted of no short endeavours admitted no repentance gave no strength it is not so now proportionable strength is given Phil 4. 13. Sincerity is reckoned perfection Job 1. 1. Transgression brings not under condemnation Rom. 8. 1. O blessed freedom when duty becomes delight and failings hinder not acceptance this is one part of the blessed freedom of believers Secondly All Believers are freed from the guilt of sin it may trouble but it cannot condemn them Rom. 8. 33. The hand writing which was against us is cancelled by Christ nailed to his Cross Colos. 2. 14. When the seal and hand-writing is torn off from the Bond the Debtor is made free thereby Believers are totally freed Acts 13. 39. Justified from all things and finally freed John 5. 24. They shall never come into condemnation O blessed freedom How sweet is it to lie down in our beds yea in our graves when guilt shall neither be our Bed fellow nor Grave fellow Thirdly Christ frees all Believers from the dominion as well as the guilt of sin Sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace Rom. 6. 14. The law of the spirit of life
from God Hab. 1. 13. Heb. 12. 14. The enmity of our nature perfectly stopped up our way to God Col. 1. 21. Rom. 8. 7. by reason hereof fallen man hath no desire to come unto God Job 21. 14. The Justice of God like a flaming Sword turning every way kept all men from access to God and lastly Satan that malicious and armed adversary lay as a Lyon in the way to God 2 Pet. 5. 8. Oh with what strong bars were the gates of Heaven shut against our souls The way to God was chained up with such difficulties as none but Christ was able to remove and he by death hath effectually removed them all the way is now open even the new and the living way consecrated for us by his blood The death of Christ effectually removes the guilt of sin 1 Pet. 2. 24. washes off the filth of sin 1 John 5. 6. takes away the enmity of nature Col. 1. 20 21. satisfied all the demands of justice Rom. 3. 25 26. hath broken all the power of Satan Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. and consequently the way to God is effectually and fully opened to Believers by the blood of Jesus Heb. 10. 20. Secondly The blood of Christ purchaseth for Believers their right and title to this priviledge Gal. 4. 4 5. 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 i. e. both the relation and inheritance of sons There was value and worth enough in the precious blood of Christ not only to pay all our debts to justice but over and above the payment of our debts to purchase for us this invaluable priviledge We must put this unspeakable mercy of being brought to God as my Text puts it upon the account and score of the death of Christ. No Believer had ever tasted the sweetness of such a mercy if Christ had not tasted the bitterness of death for him The use of all you will have in the following Deductions of truth Deduction 1. Great is the preciousness and worth of souls that the life of Christ should be given to redeem and recover them to God As God laid out his thoughts and counsel from eternity upon them to project the way and method of their salvation so the Lord Jesus in pursuance of that blessed design came from the bosom of the Father and spilt his invaluable blood to bring them to God No wise man expends vast sums to bring home trifling commodities How cheap soever our souls are in our estimation 't is evident by this they are of precious esteem in the eyes of Christ. Deduction 2. Redeemed souls must expect no rest or satisfaction on this side Heaven and the full enjoyment of God the life of a Believer in this world is a life of motion and expectation they are now coming to God 1 Pet. 2. 4. God you see is the centre and rest of their souls Heb. 4. 9. As the Rivers cannot rest Feâ—…ti nos ad te inquietum est cor nostrum doâ—…ec requiescat in te Aug. Confess lib. 1. cap. 1. till they pour themselves into the bosom of the Sea so neither can renewed souls find rest till they come into the bosom of God There be four things which do and will break the rest and disturb the souls of Believers in this world afflictions temptations corruptions and absence from God if the three former causes of disquietness were totally removed so that a Believer were placed in such a condition upon earth where no affliction should disturb him no temptation trouble him no corruption defile or grieve him yet his very absence from God must still keep him restless and unsatisfied 2 Cor. 5. 6. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Deduction 3. What sweet and pleasant thoughts should all Believers have of death When they dye and never till they dye shall they be fully brought home to God Death to the Saints is the dore by which they enter into the enjoyment of God the dying Christian is almost at home yet a few pangs and agonies more and then he is come to God in whose presence is the fulness of joy I desire saith Paul to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1. 23. It should not scare us to be brought to death the King of terrors so long as it is the office of death to bring us to God That dreaming opinion of the soul sleeping after death is as ungrounded as it is uncomfortable the same day we loose from this shore we shall be landed upon the blessed shore where we shall see and enjoy God for ever O if the friends of dead Believers did but understand where and with whom their souls are whilst they are mourning over their bodies certainly a few believing thoughts of this would quickly dry up their tears and fill the house of mourning with voices of praise and thanksgiving Deduction 4. How comfortable and sweet should the converses and communication of Christians be with one another in this world Christ is bringing them all to God through this vale of tears they are now in the way to him all bound for Heaven going home to God to their everlasting rest in glory every day every hour every duty brings them nearer and nearer to their journeys end Rom. 13. 11. Now saith the Apostle is our salvation nearer than when we believed O what manner of heavenly communications and ravishing discourses should Believers have with each other as they walk by the way O what pleasant and delightful stories should they tell one another about the place and state whither Christ is bringing them and where they shall shortly be What ravishing transporting transforming visions they shall have that day they are brought home to God how surprizingly glorious the sight of Jesus Christ will be to them who died for them to bring them unto God How should such discourses as these shorten and sweeten their passage through this world strengthen and encourage the dejected and feeble minded and exceedingly honour and adorn their profession Thus lived the Believers of old Heb. 11. 9 10. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God But alas most Christians are either entangled in the cares and troubles or so ensnared by the delights and plasures which almost continually divert and take up their thoughts by the way that there is but little room for any discourses of Christ and Heaven among many of them but certainly this would be as much your interest as your duty When the Apostle had entertained the Thessalonians with a lovely discourse of their meeting the Lord in the air and
of creatures spring out of this dark lump Surely it would have been very hard for a man to have imagined it It may be you see no dispositions or hopeful inclinations in your friends towards God and spiritual things nay possibly they are totally opposite and filled with enmity against them they deride and jeer all serious piety where-ever they behold it this indeed is very sad but yet remember the work of grace is creation work though there be no disposition at all in their wills no tenderness in their Consciences no light or knowledge in their minds yet God that commanded the light to shine out of darkness can shine into their hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ he can say to the dry bones live to the proud and stubborn heart come down and yield thy self to the will of God and if he command the work is done God can make thee yet to rejoyce over thy most uncomfortable relations to say with the Father of the Prodigal Luke 15. 24. This my Son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry difficulties are for men but not for God he works in conversion by a power which is able to subdue all things unto it self Inference 5. If none but new creatures be in Christ how small a remnant Inference 5. among men belong to Christ in this world Among the multitude of rational creatures inhabiâ—…ing this world how few how very few are new creatures 'T is the observation of the learned Mr. Brierwood that if the world be divided into thirty parts nineteen parts are heathenish Idolaters six parts Mahumetans and only five out of thirty which may be in a large sense called Christians of which the far greater part is overspread with popish darkness separate from the remainder the multitudes of prophane meerly civil and hypocritical professors of Religion anâ—… how few will remain for Jesus Christ in this world Look over the Cities Towns and Parishes in this populous Kingdom and how few shall you find that speak the language or do the works of new creatures How few have ever had any awakening convictions on them And how many of those that have been convinced have miscarried and never come to the new birth The more cause have they whom God hath indeed regenerated to admire the riches of Gods distinguishing mercy to them Inference 6. If the change by grace be a new creation how universal and marvellous a change doth regeneration make upon men The new Inference 6. Creation speaks a marvellous and universal alteration both upon the state and tempers of men they come out of darkness gross hellish darkness into light a marvellous and heavenly light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Eph. 5. 8. their condition disposition and conversation as you have heard is all new and yet this marvellous change as great and universal as it is is not alike evident and clearly discernable in all new creatures and the reasons are First Because the work of grace is wrought in diverse methods and manners in the people of God Some are changed from a state of notorious prophaneness unto serious godliness there the change is conspicuous and very evident all the neighbourhood rings of it But in others it is more insensibly distilled in their tender years by the blessing of God upon religious education and there it is more indiscernable Secondly Though a great change be wrought yet much natural corruption â—…till remains for their humiliation and daily exercise and this is a ground of fear and doubtings they see not how such corruptions are consistent with the new Creature Thirdly In some the new Creature shews it self mostly in the affectionate part in desires and breathings after God and but little in the clearness of their understandings and strength of their judgements for want of which they are entangled and kept in darkness most of their dayes Fourthly Some Christians are more tryed and exercised by temptations from Satan than others are and these clouds darken the work of grace in them Fifthly There is great difference and variety found in the natural tempers and constitutions of the regenerate Some are of a more melancholy fearful and suspicious temper than others are and are therefore much longer held under doubtings and trouble of spirit Nevertheless what differences soever these things make the change made by grace is a marvellous change Inference 7. Lastly How incongruous are carnal wayes and courses to the spirit of Christians who being new creatures can never delight or Inference 7. find pleasure in their former sinful companions and practices Alas those things are now most unsuitable loathsom and detestable how pleasant soever they once were that which they counted their liberty would now be reckoned their greatest bondage that which was their glory is now their shame Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death they need not be pressed by others but will freely confess of themselves what fools and mad men they once were none can censure their former conversation more severely than themselves do 1 Tim. 1. 13 14. 2d Use for Conviction If none be in Christ but new creatures and the new creation Use 2. make such a châ—…nge as hath been described This may convince us how many of us deceive our selves and run into dangerous and fatall mistakes in the greatest concernment we have in this world But before I fall into this use I desire none may make a perverse and ill use of it Let not the wicked conclude from hence that there is no such thing as true religion in the world or that all who do profess it are but a pack of hypocrites neither let the godly injure themselves by that which is designed for their benefit let none conclude that seeing there are so many mistakes committed about this new creature that therefore assurance must needs be impossible as the Papists affirm it to be The proper use that should be made of this doctrine is to undeceive false pretenders and to awaken all to a more deep and thorough search of their own conditions which being precautioned let all men be convinced of the following truths First That the change made by civility upon such as were lewd and prophane is in its whole kind and nature a 1. different thing from the new creature the power and efficacy of moral vertue is one thing the influence of the regenerating Spirit is quite another thing however some have studied to confound them The heathens excelled in moral and homilitical vertues Plato Aristides Seneca and multitudes more have outvied many professed Christians in justice temperance patience c. yet were perfect strangers to the new creation A man may be very strict and temperate free from the gross pollutions of the world and yet a perfect
so I do Thus let all your obedience to God turn upon the hinge of love For love is the fulfilling of the law Rom. 13. 10. Not as if no other duty but love were required in the law but because no act of obedience is acceptable to God but that which is performed in love Fifthly In a word The obedience of Christ was constant he was obedient unto the death he was not weary of his work to the last Such a patient continuance in well doing is one part of your conformity to Christ Rom. 2. 7. 't is laid upon you by his own express command and a command back'd with the most incouraging promise Rev. 2. 10. Be thou faithful unto the death and I will give thee the crown of life Pattern 3. The self-denial of Christ is the pattern of believers and their Conformity unto it is their indispensable duty Phil. 2. Vulpibus in saltu rupes excisa latebr as Praebet aereis avibus dat sylva quietem Ast hominis nato nullis succedere tectis Est licitum Heinsius 4 5 6. 2 Cor. 8. 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the love he bare to the elect denied himself all the delights and pleasures of this world Mat. 20. 28. The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many he was all his life long in the world a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa. 53. 3. more unprovided of comfortable accommodations than the birds of the air or beasts of the earth Luke 9. 58. The Foxes have holes and the Birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Yet this was the least part of Christs self-denial what did he not deny when he left the bosom of his Father with the ineffable delights and pleasures he there enjoyed from Eternity and instead thereof to drink the cup the bitter cup of his Fathers wrath for our sakes O Christians look to your pattern and imitate your self-denying Saviour There is a threesold self you are to deny for Christ. First Deny your natural self for him Luke 14. 26. Hate your own life in competition with his glory as well as your natural lusts Titus 2. 12. Secondly Deny your Civil self for Christ whether they be gifts of the mind Phil. 3. 8. or your dearest relations in the world Luke 14. 26. Thirdly deny your moral and religious self for Christ your own righteousness Phil. 3. 10. deny sinful self absolutely Col. 3. 4 5. Deny natural self conditionally i. e. be ready to forsake its interests at the call of God Deny your religious self even your own graces comparatively not in the notion of duties but in the notion of righteousness and to encourage you in this difficult work consider First what great things Christ denied for you and wâ—…at small matters you have to deny for him Secondly how readily he denied all for your sakes making no objections against the difficultest commands Thirdly How uncapable you are to put any obligation upon Christ to deny himself in the least for you and what strong obligations Christ hath put you under to deny your selves in your greatest interests upon earth for him Fourthly Remember that your self-denial is a condition consented to and subscribed by your selves if ever you received Christ aright Fifthly In a word Consider how much your self-denial for Christ makes for your advantage in both worlds Luke 18. 29. O therefore look not every man upon his own things but upon the things that are of Christ let not that be justly charged upon you which was charged upon them Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own not the things which are Christs Pattern 4. The activity and diligence of Christ in finishing the work of God which was committed to him as a pattern for all believers to imitate 'T is said of him Acts 10. 38. He went about doing good O what a great and glorious work did Christ finish in a little time a work to be celebrated to all Eternity by the praises of the redeemed Six things were very remarkable in the diligence of Christ about his Fathers work First That his heart was intently set upon it Psal. 4. 8. Thy Law is in the midst of my heart or bowels Secondly That he never sainted under the many great discouragements he frequently met withal in that work Isa. 42. 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged Thirdly That the shortness of his time provoked him to the greatest diligence John 9. 4. I must work the work of him that sent me while it is day for the night cometh when no man can work Fourthly That he improved all opportunities companies and occurrences to further the great work which was under his hand John 4. 6 10. Fifthly nothing more displeased him than when he met with disswasions and discouragements in his work upon that accâ—…t it was that he gave Peter so sharp a check Mat. 8. 33. Get thee behind me Satan Sixthly Nothing rejoyced his soul more than the prosperity and success of his work Luke 10. 20 21. When the Disciples made the report of the success of their Ministry it is said in that hour Jesus rejoyced in spirit And O what a triumphant shout was that upon the cross at the accomplishment of his work John 19. 30. It is finished Now Christians eye your Pattern look unto Jesus trifle not away your lives in vanity Christ was diligent be not you slothful And to encourage you in your imitation of Christ in labour and diligence consider First How great an honour God puts upon you in employing you for his service Every vessel of service is a vessel of honour 2 Tim. 2. 21. The Apostle was very ambitious of that honour Rom. 15. 20. It was the glory of Eliakim to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ambio dictum verbum ab amore honoris Zanch. be fastned as a nail in a sure place and to have many people hang upon him Isa. 22. 33. Secondly Your diligence in the work of God will be your great security in the hour of temptation for the Lord is with you while you are with him 2 Chron. 15. 2. The Schoolmen put the question How the saints in heaven become impeccable and resolve it thus that they are therefore freed from sin because they are continually employed and swallowed up in the blessed visions of God Thirdly Diligence in the work of God is an excellent help to the improvement of grace For though gracious habits are not acquired yet they are greatly improved by frequent acts To him that hath shall be given Mat. 25. 29. It is a good note of Luther Fides pinguescit operâ—…us Faith is made fat by obedience Fourthly Diligence in the work
of God is the direct way to the assurance of the love of God 2 Pet. 15. 10. This path leads you into heaven upon earth Fifthly Diligence in obedience is a great security against backsliding Small remissions in duty and little neglects increase by degrees unto great Apostasies you may see how that disease is bred by the method prescribed for its cure Rev. 2. 5. Do thy first works Sixthly In a word laborious diligence in the day of life will be your singular comfort when the night of death over takes you 2 Pet. 1. 11. 2 Kings 20. 3. Pattern 5. Delight in God and in his service was eminently conspicuous in the life of Christ and is a rare pattern for believers imitation John 4. 32 34. But he said unto them I have meat to eat that ye know not of my meat is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish his work The delights of Christ were all in heaven The Son of man was in heaven in respect of delight in God while he conversed here among men And if you be Christs heavenly things will be the delight of your souls also Now spiritual delight is nothing else but the complacency and well-pleasedness of a renewed heart in conversing with God and the things of God resulting from the agreeableness of them to the spiritual temper of his mind Four things are considerable about spiritual delights First The nature of it which consisteth in the complacency rest and satisfaction of the mind in God and spiritual things The heart of a Christian is centred it is where it would be it is gratified in the highest in the actings forth of faith and love upon God as the tast is gratified with a suitable delicious relish Psal. 63. 5 6. Psal. 119. 14 24. Psal. 17. 18. Secondly The object of spiritual delight which is God himself and the things which relate to him He is the blessed Ocean into which all the streams of spiritual delight do pour themselves Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee and on earth there is none that I desire incomparison of thee Thirdly The subject of spiritual delight which is a renewed heart and that only so far as it is renewed Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man Fourthly The principle and spring of this delight which is the agreeable ess of spiritual things to the temper and frame of a renewed mind A sensitive pleasure arises from the suitableness of the faculty and object So it is here no delicious sweetness can be so pleasant to the taste or beautiful colours to the eye or melodious sounds to the ear as spiritual things to the renewed souls because spiritual senses are delicate and the objects more excellent But my business here is not so much to open its nature as press you to the practice thereof in conformity to your great pattern whose life was a life of delight in God and whose work was performed with the greatest delight for God I delight to do thy will O my God O Christians strive to imitate your pattern in this and to encourage you I will briefly hint a few things First Scarce any thing can be more evidential of sincerity than a heart delighting in God and the will of God Hypocrites go as far as others in the material part of duties but here they are defective they have no delight in God and things spiritual but do whatsoever they do in Religion from the compulsions of conscience or accommodations of self ends Secondly An heart delighting in God will be a choice help and means to perseverance The reason why many so easily part with Religion is because their souls never tasted the sweetness of it they never delighted in it but the Christian who delights in the Law of God will be meditating day and night and shall be like a tree planted by a river of water whose leaf fadeth not Psal. 1. 2 3. Thirdly This will represent Religion very beautifully and takingly to such as are yet strangers to it you will then be able to invite them to Christ by your example the language whereof will be like that Psal. 34. 8. O taste and see that God is good Fourthly This will make all your services to God very pleasing and acceptable through Christ you will now begin to do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven your duties are so far Angelical as they are performed in the strength of delight in God But may not a sincere Christian act in duty without delight Obj. yea may he not feel some kind of weariness in duties Yes doubtless he may but then we must distinguish betwixt the Temper and Distemper of a renewed heart the best hearts Sol. are not always in their right frame Pattern 6. The inoffensiveness of the life of Christ upon earth is an excellent pattern to all his people he injured none offended none but was holy and harmless as the Apostle speaks Heb. 7. 26. He denied his own liberty to avoid occasion of offence as in the case of the Tribute Mony Mat. 19. 27. The children are free notwithstanding lest we should offend them go c. So circumspect was Christ and inoffensive among all men that though his enemies sought occasion against him yet could they find none Luke 6. 7. Look unto Jesus O ye professors of Religion imitate him in this gracious excellency of his life according to his command Phil. 2. 15. That ye may be harmless and blameless the Sons of God without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation You are indeed allowed the exercise of your prudence but not a jot farther than will consist with your innocence Be ye wise as Serpents and harmless as Doves 'T is the rule of Christ that you offend none 1 Cor. 10. 32. 2 Cor. 6. 3. And to engage you to the imitation of Christ in this I will briefly press it with a few encouragements which methinks should prevail with any heart that 's truly gracious First For the honour of Jesus Christ be you inoffensive his name is called upon you his honour is concerned in your deportment if your carriage in the world give just matter of offence Christs worthy name will be blasphemed thereby James 2. 7. Your inoffensive carriage is the only means to stop the mouths of detractours 1 Pet. 2. 15. Secondly For the sake of souls the precious immortal souls of others be wary that you give no offence wo to the world saith Christ because of offences Mat. 13. 7. Nothing was more commonly objected against Christ and religion by the heathen in Cyprians time than the loose and scandalous lives of professors Behold say they these are the men who Ecce qui jactant se redemptosà tyranni de Satanae qui praedicant se mortuos esse mundo nibi lominus vincuntur cuâ—…iditatibus sâ—…is Cyprian boast themselves to be redeemed from the
tyranny of Satan to be dead to the world nevertheless see how they are overcome by their own lusts And much after the same rate Salvian brings in the wicked of his time stumbling at the looseness of professors and saying Where is that Catholick Law which they believe where are the examples of piety and chastity which they have learned c. O Christians draw not the guilt of other mens eternal ruine upon your souls Thirdly In a word answer the ends of God in your sanctification and providential dispose in the world this way by the holiness and harmlesness of your lives many may be won to Christ. 1 Pet. 3. 1. What the heathens said of moral vertue which they called verticordia turn-heart that if it were but visible to mortal eyes all men would be enamoured upon it will be much more true of Religion when you shall represent the beauty of it in your conversations Pattern 7. The humility and lowliness of Christ is propounded by himself as a pattern for his peoples imitation Mat. 11. 29. Learn of me for I am meek and lowly He could abase and empty himself of all his glory Phil. 2. 5 6 7. He could stoop to the meanest office even to wash the disciples feet We read but of one triumph in all the life of Christ upon earth when he rode to Jerusalem the people strewing branches in the way and the very children in the streets of Jerusalem crying Hosanna to the Son of David Hosanna in the highest and yet with what lowliness and humility was it performed by Christ Mat. 21. 5. Behold thy King cometh unto thee meek and lowly The humility of Christ appeared in every thing he spake or did Humility discovered it self in his language Psal. 22. 6. I am a worâ—… and no man In his actions not refusing the meanest office Joh. 13. 14. In his condescensions to the worst of men upon which ground they called him a friend of Publicans and sinners Mat. 11. 19. But especially and above all in stooping down from all his glory to a state of deepest contempt for the glory of God and oursalvation Christians here is your pattern look to your meek and humble Saviour and tread in his steps be you clothed with humility 1 Pet. 5. 5. Whoever are ambitious to be the worlds great ones let it be enough for you to be Christs little ones Convince the world that since you knew God and your selves your pride hath been dying from that day Shew your humility in your habits 1 Pet. 3. 3. 1 Tim. 2. 9 10. In your company not contemning the meanest and poorest that fear the Lord Psal. 15. 4. Rom. 12. 16. In your language that dialect befits your lips Eph. 3. 8. less than the least of all Saints but especially in the low value and humble thoughts you have of your selves 1 Tim. 1. 15. And to press this I beseech you to consider First From how vile a root pride springs Ignorance of God and of your selves gives rise and being to this sin they that know God will be humble Isa. 6. 5. and they that know themselves cannot be proud Rom. 7. 9. Secondly Consider the mischievous effects it produces it estrangeth the soul from God Psal. 138. 6. it provokes God to lay you low Job 40. 11 12. it goes before destruction and a dreadful fall Prov. 10. 18. Thirdly As it is a great sin so it is a bad sign Hab. 2. 4. Behold his heart which is lifted up is not upright in him Fourthly how unsuitable it is to the sense you have and the complaints you make of your own corruptions and spiritual wants and above all how contrary it is to your pattern and example did Christ speak act or think as you do O learn humility from Jesus Christ it will make you precious in the eyes of God Isa. 57. 15. Pattern 8. The Contentation of Christ in a low and mean condition in the world is an excellent pattern for his peoples imitation His lot in this world fell upon a condition of deepest poverty and contempt yet how well was he satisfied and contented with it hear him expressing himself about it Psal. 16. 6. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places yea I have a goodly heritage The contentation of his heart with a suffering condition evidenced it self in his silence under the greatest sufferings Isa. 53. 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before the shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth O that in this also the poorest Christians would imitate their Saviour and learn to manage an afflicted condition with a contented spirit let there be no murmurs complaints or foolish charges of God heard from you whatever straits and troubles he bring you into For First The meanest and most afflicted Christian is owner of many rich invaluable mercies Eph. 1. 3. 1. Cor. 3. ult Is sin pardoned and God reconciled then never open your mouths any more Ezek. 16. 63. Secondly You have many precious promises that God will not forsake you in your straits Heb. 13. 5. Isa. 41. 17. and your whole life hath been a life of experiences of the faithfulness of God in his promises Which of you cannot say with the Church Lam. 3. 23. His mercies are new every morning and great is his faithfulness Thirdly How useful and beneficial are all your afflictions to you they purge your sins prevent your temptations wean you from the world and turn to your salvation and how unreasonable then must your discontentedness at them be Fourthly The time of your relief and full deliverance from all your troubles is at hand the time is but short that you shall have any concernment about these things 1 Cor. 7. 29. If the candle of your earthly comfort be blown out yet remember it is but a little while to the break of day and then there will be no need of candles Besides Fifthly Your lot falls by Divine direction upon you and as bad as it is it is much easier and sweeter than the condition of Christ in this world was Yet he was contented and why cannot you O that we could learn contentment from Christ in every condition And thus I have laid before you some excellent patterns in the life of Christ for your Imitation The Thirtieth SERMON Sermon 30. 1 JOHN 2. 6. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so Text. to walk even as he walked THese words having been resolved into their parts and the sense opened in the former Sermon The observation was this DOCT. That every man is bound to the imitation of Christ under penalty of forfeiting his claim to Christ. Doct. In prosecution of this point we have already shewn what the imitation of Christ imports and what the imitable excellencies in the life of Christ are it now remains that I show you in the next
place why all that profess Christ are bound to imitate his example and then apply the whole Now the necessity of this imitation of Christ will convincingly appear diverse ways First From the established order of salvation which is fixed and unalterable God that hath appointed the end hath also 1. established the means and order by which men shall attain the ultimate end Now Conformity to Christ is the established method in which God will bring souls to glory Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren The same God who hath predestinated men to salvation hath in order thereunto predestinated them unto Conformity to Christ and this order of heaven is never to be reversed we may as well hope to be saved without Christ as to be saved without Conformity to Christ. Secondly The nature of Christ mystical requires this Conformity 2. and renders it indispensably necessary Otherwise the body of Christ must be heterogeneous of a nature different from the head and how monstrous and uncomely would this be This would represent Christ to the world in an image or Idea much like that Dan. 2. 32 33. The head of fine gold the breast and arms of silver the thighs of brass the legs of iron the feet part of iron part of clay Christ the head is pure and holy and therefore very unsuitable to sensual and earthly members And therefore the Apostle in his description of mystical Christ describes the members of Christ as they ought to be of the same nature and quality with the head 1 Cor. 15. 48. As is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly and as we have born the image of the earthy so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly That image or resemblance of Christ which shall be compleat and perfect after the Resurrection must be begun in its first draught here by the work of regeneration Thirdly This resemblance and conformity to Christ appears 3. necessary from the communion which all believers have with Christ in the same Spirit of grace and holiness Believers are called Christs fellows or copartners Psal. 45. 7. from their participation with him of the same spirit as it is 1 Thes. 4. 8. God giveth the same spirit unto us which he more plentifully poured out upon Christ. Now where the same spirit and principle is there the same fruits and operations must be produced according to the proportions and measures of the spirit of grace communicated and this reason is farther enforced by the very design and end of God in the infusion of the spirit of grace for it is plain from Ezek. 36. 27. that practical holiness and obedience is the scope and design of that infusion of the spirit The very innaâ—… property of the spirit of God in men is to elevate their minds and set their affections upon heavenly things to purge their hearts from earthly dross and fit them for a life of holiness and obedience its nature also is assimilating and changeth them in whom it is into the same image with Jesus Christ their heavenly head 2 Cor. 3. 18. Fourthly The necessity of this imitation of Christ may be argued from the design and end of Christs exhibition to the 4. world in a body of flesh For though we detest that doctrine of the Socinians which makes the exemplary life of Christ to be upon the matter the whole end of his incarnation yet we must not run so far from an error as to lose a precious truth We say the satisfaction of his blood was a main and principal end of his Incarnation according to Mat. 20. 28. We affirm also that it was a great design and end of the Incarnation of Christ to set before us a pattern of holiness for our imitation For so speaks the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 21. He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps And this example of Christ greatly obliges believers to his imitation Phil. 2. 5. Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus Fifthly our imitation of Christ is one of those great Articles which every man is to subscribe whom Christ will admit 5. into the number of his disciples Luke 14. 27. Whosoever doth not come after me cannot be my disciple And again John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me To this condition we have submitted if we be sincere believers and therefore are strictly bound to the imitation of Christ not only by Gods command but by our own consent But if we profess interest in Christ when our hearts never consented to follow and imitate his example then are we self-deceiving hypocrites wholly disagreeing from the scripture character of believers Rom. 8. 1. They that are Christs being there described to be such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit and Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the spirit let us walk in the spirit Sixthly The honour of Christ necessitates the conformity of Christians to his example else what way is there left 6. to stop detracting mouths and vindicate the name of Christ from the reproaches of the world how can wisdom be justified of her children except it be this way by what means shall we cut off occasion from such as desire occasion but by regulating our lives by Christs example The world hath eyes to see what we practise as well as ears to hear what we profess Therefore either shew the consistency betwixt your profession and practice or you can never hope to vindicate the name and honour of the Lord Jesus The uses follow For 1. Information 2. Exhortation 3. Consolation 1. Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. If all that profess interest in Christ be strictly bound to imitate his holy example then it follows that Religion is very unjustly charged Inference 1. by the world with the scandals and evils of them that profess it Nothing can be more unjust and irrational if we consider First That Christian Religion severely censures loose and scandalous actions in all professors and therefore is not to be censured for them 'T is absurd to condemn Religion for what it self condemns Looseness no way flowes from the principles of Christianity but is most opposite and contrary to it Titus 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Secondly It is an argument of the excellency of Christian Religion that even wicked men themselves covet the name and profession of it though they only cloak and cover their evils under it I confess it is a great abuse of such an excellent thing as Religion is but yet if it had not an awful reverence paid it by the consciences of all men it would
Condemnation with respect to the fault stands opposed to Justification Rom. 5. 16. Condemnation with respect to the punishment stands opposed to Salvation Mar. 16. 16. More particularly First Condemnation is the sentence of God the great and terrible God the omniscient omnipotent supream and impartial Judge at whose bâ—…r the guilty sinner stands 'T is the Law of God that condemns him now He hath one that judgeth him a great and terrible one too 'T is a dreadful thing to be condemned at mans bar But the Courts of humane Judicature how awful and solemn soever they are are but trifles and childrens play to this Court of heaven and conscience wherein the unbeliever is arraigned and condemned Secondly 'T is the sentence of God adjudging the unbeliever to eternal death than which nothing is more terrible What is a prison to hell what is a Scaffold and an Ax to go ye cursed into everlasting fire What is a Gallows and a Halter to everlasting burnings Thirdly Condemnation is the final sentence of God the Supream Judge from whose Bar and Judgment there lies no appeal for the unbeliever but Execution certainly follows Condemnation Luke 19. 27. If man condemn God may justifie and save But if God condemn no man can save or deliver If the law cast a man as a sinner the Gospel may save him as a believer But if the Gospel cast him as an unbeliever a man that finally rejects Jesus Christ whom it offers to him all the world cannot save that man O then what a dreadful word is Condemnation All the evils and miseries of this life are nothing to it put all afflictions calamities sufferings and miseries of this world into one scale and this sentence of God into the other and they will all be lighter than a feather Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you that this punishment viz. Condemnation must unavoidably follow that sin of unbelief So many unbelieving persons as be in the world so many condemned persons there are in the world and this will appear two ways 1. By considering what unbelief excludes a man from 2. By considering what unbelief includes a man under First Let us consider what unbelief excludes a man from and it will be found that it excludes him from all that may help and save him for First it excludes him from the pardon of sin John 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Now he that dies under the guilt of all his sins must needs die in a state of wrath and condemnation for ever For the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult If a man may be saved without a pardon then may the unbeliever hope to be saved Secondly Unbelief excludes a man from all the saving benefits that come by the sacrifice or death of Christ. For if faith be the only instrument that applies and brings home to the soul the benefits of the blood of Christ as unquestionably it is then unbelief must of necessity exclude a man from all those benefits and consequently leave him in the state of death and condemnation Faith is the applying cause the instrument by which we receive the special saving benefit of the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Eph. 2. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith So then if the unbeliever be acquitted and saved it must be without the benefit of Christs death and sacrifice which is utterly impossible Thirdly Unbelief excludes a man from the saving efficacy and operation of the Gospel by shutting up the heart against it and crossing the main drift and scope of it which is to bring up men to the terms of salvation to perswade them to believe this is its great design the scope of all its commands 1 John 3. 23. Mark 1. 14 15. John 12. 36. 'T is the scope of all its promises they are written to encourage men to believe Joh. 6. 35 37. So then if the unbeliever escape condemnation it must be in a way unknown to us by the Gospel Yea contrary to the established order therein For the unbeliever obeyeth not the great command of the Gospel 1 John 3. 17. Nor is he under any one saving promise of it Gal. 3. 14 22. Fourthly Unbelief excludes a man from Union with Christ faith being the bond of that Union Eph. 3. 17. The unbeliever therefore may as reasonably expect to be saved without Christ as to be saved without faith Thus you see what unbelief excludes a man from Secondly Let us next see what guilt and misery unbelief includes men under and certainly it will be found to be the greatest guilt and misery in the world For First It is a sin which reflects the greatest dishonour upon God 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son Secondly Unbelief makes a man guilty of the vilest contempt of Christ and the whole design of Redemption managed by him All the glorious attributes of God were signally manifested in the work of Redemption by Christ therefore the Apostle calls him the wisdom of God and the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. But what doth the careless neglect and wilful rejection of Christ speak but the weakness and folly of that design of Redemption by him Thirdly Unbelief includes in it the sorest spiritual judgement that is or can be inflicted in this world upon the soul of man Even spiritual blindness and the fatal darkening of the understanding by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 4. of which more hereafter Fourthly Unbelief includes a man under the curse and shuts him up under all the threatnings that are written in the book of God amongst which that is an express and terrible one Mark 16. 10. He that believeth not shall be damned So that nothing can be more evident than this that condemnation necessarily follows unbelief This sin and that punishment are fastned together with chains of Adamant The Uses follow Inference 1. If this be so then how great a number of persons are visibly Inference 1. in the state of condemnation so many unbelievers so many condemned men and women That 's a sad complaint of the prophet Isa. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Many there be that talk of faith and many that profess faith but they only talk of and profess it there are but few in the world unto whom the arm of the Lord hath been revealed in the work of faith with power 't is put among the great mysteries and wonders of the world 1 Tim. 3. 16. That Christ is believed on in the world O what a great and terrible day will the day of Christs coming to judgement be when so many Millions of unbelievers shall be brought to
man This is that which is justly called the great mystery of Godliness 1 Tim. 3. 16. That mystery which the Prophets enquired diligently after yea which the Angels desire to look into 1 Pet. 1. 10 12. In this glorious mystery of Redemption thaâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 manifold wisdom of God or that wisdom which hath such curious and admirable variety in it is illustriously displayed Eph. 4. 10. Yea the contrivement of our Redemption this way is the most glorious display of Divine Love that ever was made or can be made in this world to the children of men for so the Apostle will be understood when he saith Rom. 3. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God hath set forth or presented his love to man in the most taking manner in a way that commends it beyond all compare to the acceptation of men This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. It might be justly expected that when this glorious mystery should come to be published by the Gospel in the ears of sinners all eyes should be withdrawn from all other objects and fixed with admiration upon Christ all hearts should be ravished with these glad tidings and every man pressing to Christ with greatest zeal and diligence But behold instead thereof Secondly The desperate wickedness of the world in rejecting the only remedy prepared for them This was long since foretold by the Prophet Isaiah 53. 3. He is despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hid as it were our faces from him he was despised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 desitio virorum Nil habit infoelix paupertas durius in se quam quod ridiculos homines facit Juver and we esteemed him not His poor and mean appearance which should endear him beyond all considerations to the souls of men since it was for their sakes that he emptied himself of all his glory yet this lays him under contempt he is looked on as the very offcast of men when his own love to man had emptied him of all his riches the wickedness of men loaded him with contempt and as it was prophesied of him so it was and at this day is sadly verified all the world over For First The Pagan world hath no knowledge of him they are lost in darkness God hath suffered them to walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. Secondly The Mahumetans which overspread so great a part of the world reject him and instead os the blessed Gospel which they hiss out with abhorrence embrace the blasphemous and ridiculous Alcoran which they confidently affirm to have come down srom God immediately in that laylatto Hanzili as they call it the night of demission calling all Christians Cafirouna i. e. infidels Thirdly The Jews reject him with abhorrence and spit at his very name and being blindfolded by the Devil they call Jesus Anathema 1 Cor. 12. 3. And in a blind zeal for Moses blaspheme him as an Impostor He came to his own and his own received him not John 1. 11. Fourthly The far greater part of the Christianized world reject him those that are called after his name will not 〈◊〉 nomen 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 viâ—… 〈◊〉 quâ—… 〈◊〉 est quam praevaricatiâ—… divini nominis Cyp. de Zelo. submit to his Government The Nobles of the world think themselves dishonoured by submitting their necks to his yoke The Sensualists of the world will not deny their lusts or forsake their pleasures for all the treasures of righteousness life and peace which his blood hath purchased The worldlings of the earth prefer the dirt and dung of the world before him and few there be among them that profess Christianity who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity The only reason why they are called Christians is because by the advantagious cast of providence they were born and educated in a nation where Christianity is professed and established by the laws of the Countrey and if the wind should turn and the publick Authority think fit to establish another Religion they can shift their sayls and steer a contrary Course But now Reader let me tell thee that if ever God send forth those two grim Sergeants his Law and thine own conscience to arrest thee for thy sins if thou find thy self dragging away by them towards that prison from whence none return that are once clapt up therein and that in this unspeakable distress Jesus Christ manifest himself to thy soul and open thy heart to receive him and become thy surety with God pay all thy debts and cancel all thy obligations Thou wilt love him at another rate than others do his blood will run deeper in thine eyes than it doth in the shallow apprehensions of the world he will be altogether lovely and thou wilt account all things but dung and dross in comparison of the excellency of Jesus Christ thy Lord. To work thy heart to this frame these things are written which the Lord prosper upon thy soul by the blessing of his good Spirit upon them Blessed be God for Jesus Christ. FINIS An Alphabetical Table of the principal points insisted on in this Treatise A. ABortives Spiritual whence they are pag. 369 Absurdity of Believers sins p. 39 Accounts of our time kept in Heaven p. 57 Accusations of Conscience what they are p. 186 Acts of the Spirit sixfold in Conversion p. 197 Acceptation with God what it is p. 311 Acceptation with God what it includes ibid. Acceptance none without Christ. p. 320 Activity for the world what it speaks p. 352 Activity of Christ our pattern p. 507 Adventures of Faith how great p. 82 83 Advocate none like Christ in five respects p. 256 Affections how bewitcht by sin p. 394 Ambassadors of Christ their dignity p. 48 Application what it imports p. 5 6 Application of Christ the end of Ordinances p. 7 Application of Christ of equal latitude with Gods election and Christs death p. 9 Apologies cut off from Gospel-despisers p. 57 Approbation of Christ implied in faith p. 119 Aâ—…ointing how it teacheth p. 139 Alsufficiency of Christ for all our wants p. 196 Altogether lovely Christ only so p. 250 Apostasie an inexcusable sin p. 332. Annihilation better than damnation p. 444 Arminians sense of Justification rejected p. 132 Assent implyed in saving Faith p. 117 Assent three degrees thereof ibid. Assent how discovered to be true p. 140 Aversion from God how discovered p. 84 Awakening out of security how great a mercy it is to the souls of men p. 356 B. BAcksliding an inexcusable sin p. 213. Benefits of Christ how conveyed to us p. 13. Believers more than know themselves so p. 138 Believers why uncomfortable p. 139 Believing the immediate duty of weary souls p. 204 Believers advancement how great p. 281 Boldness of Saints in Prayer p. 313 Blood of Christ its dignity p. 301 Beauty of holiness very great