motions of Gods spirit and cannot indure that any Ordinance should bring us nearer to Christ Act. 7.51 Yee have always resisted the holy ghost expelled the blessed of God that if the holy ghost but dart any good councel into their hearts they cannot indure to hear it nor entertain any motion of it but grieve and vex the holy Spirit of God and they are not well till they quench it 1 Thess 5.19 Esa 5.3 we are alive to nothing but to run away from God alive to sinne alive to doe evill but to doe well we have no understanding Jer. 4.22 Apt to purge and cleanse our selves from all good things but wholly undisposed to doe any thing that is well this is the true estate of us all Look at us as we are by nature all of us without Christ cannot put forth one act of spirituall life not one good motion to be found in such a condition And in the first place for begetting any unto grace we rather doe the quite contrary we addict our selves to beget men to become the children of Hell worse then our selves Matth. 23.15 two-fold more the children of Hell and because that may be more proper to corrupt teachers Jeremy speakes it of all the sonnes of nature and those especially that had lived a while under the meanes and were not thereby brought on to an estate of grace those whom God had kindled some fire in their hearts and whom he would have brought on to grace even these They are all grievously revolted walking with slanders they are brasse and Iron they are all corrupters Jer. 6.28 He doth not say they are all corrupted but all corrupters that is such as are not only naught themselves but they corrupt others also they make others worse for their sakes No man that sets his face to God-ward but if he come among them he is the worse for them every man is kept off the more from goodnesse by their meanes they doe not love that men should be too forward or too precise nor to keep such a puleing nor such a praying we are all by nature corrupters Gen. 6.11 All flesh had corrupted their way even every man had done it every one is the worse for us that hath to doe with us if we see but any good disposition in them to be comming on in the waies of grace we doe as much as in us lyes to quench and damp and smother them and never rest by our good wills till we make them as ill as our selves and harden their hearts from Gods feare this is the true carriage of all those who are out of Christ He that hath not the Son he hath no life no motion of spirituall life no growing up in Christ no purging out of sinfull uncleannesse and therefore now to apply this conceive thus much First It applyes it selfe against the Church of Rome Application first who maintaine that men in the state of nature have free will to lay hold upon Christ and they conceive it is upon very faire termes but I would only demand of you this question Whether when they doe lay hold on Christ as they conceive whether they have him or they have him not they will say They have not Christ till they have received him for what hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And till they have received him how shall they lay hold upon him and if not receive him they are dead men and when a man is dead what can he have by any benefit that is offered him Offer him never so largely and he can receive no benefit by it and if that any doe lay hold upon Christ were they not living when they so layed hold upon him so that when they doe lay hold upon Christ whether is it an action of life or no If not how shall they lay hold on Christ and without Christ no life A man in the state of nature neither doth good nor can he doe any good nor is he willing to doe good and therefore well doth the Apostle say It is God that workes in you both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 13. Any thing that we doe that is good is wholly from the grace of Christ and this is just against the Papists Secondly It serves to teach us all to bemoane our owne estates or the estates of any of ours that we yet see in the gall of bitternesse lying in an estate of nature is it thy selfe or thy father or mother or thy children or servants whatever he be be he never so good a natured man if he be yet without Christ there is no life in him I say looke upon him as thy dead friend If thou didst look upon thy father and mother or children and see them lye dead before thee thou wouldest mourne bitterly for them you know what is said Zach. 12.10 As a man mournes for his first borne if our first borne or any that is neare to us dye we mourne bitterly for them and refuse to be comforted as was the case of Rachels mourning for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Matth. 2.18 they were all dead and therefore caused a bitter mourning it was the wounding and rending of her soule And may not this be the case of many a fruitfull mother many children and yet all of them dead in Gods sight not a soule living in the sight of God And is it not a farre more bitter death to be dead in sinne then to be dead in the body when it is a living soule in Gods sight then blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for even so saith the Spirit that never spake words of falshood Revel 14.13 I say therefore if that our children live to God and have the life of grace in their hearts there is no danger of their death then thy children shall come againe to thy hearing at the resurrection of the just and thou shalt imbrace them with comfort and fill thy soule with unspeakable joy and fulnesse of glory if they dye in the favour and grace of God they shall rise to glory but if they be spiritually dead no goodnesse in the world in them no spirituall life at all no life of righteousnesse or holinesse which are the first fruits of the Spirit and of glory in this world then weep for these children and those friends that husband or wife or brother or sister weep for every soule that is in an estate of sinne and death they are as so many dead Corps you may sometimes see a whole house-full of dead creatures not one of them living to God not one of thy acquaintance not one of all thy brothers and sisters weep and mourne bitterly for them that are thus wounded with sinne and bleed deadly and gaspe for their last breath and it may be shall never finde grace from God in this world their present condition is fearefull and mourne thou for them in a godly manner that
feeding containes in it a conversion of the meat into the thing nourished so as that which we feed upon it becomes our selves it is all one with our selves in time it is so digested and turned into our nature that every part hath sucked in its owne nourishment every part hath received something of that which was inwardly received This hath been anciently observed this is somewhat more then receiving Christ by faith for when we apply every word to our selves and make Christ ours that is receiving him to be ours yet it is a further worke to be conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ in every thing to be confirmed and established in the Promises and to be quickned by them to be terrified by threatnings and to stand in awe of every word of God and to be bowed to an inward subjection to Christ day by day by the word we receive this is a further mighty worke of grace If therefore hee be a Christian that by the Word and Ordinances he receives he is fashioned and made conformable to Christ meek and righteous and lowly and holy as he is and willing to do any good Office for the Church of God and goe up and down doing good and needs no further motion this way but as Christ moves him it is a signe that he feeds upon Christ Christ is turned into his nature or which is more his nature is rather turned into the nature of Christ the nourishment being so strong makes us become such as he is in this world Now when we are conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Ordinances that we partake in it is an evident sign that we there feed upon him And therefore try your selves by this signe of sanctification if you live you feed on Christ and except you so doe you have no life in you so then consider do I feed upon the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood and do I finde a spirituall appetite to the Lord Jesus raised up in my soule and do I find any spiritual refreshment and strength by that which I do partake in and that which I so find sweetnesse in I apply it to my own estate and convey it into the inward part of my heart that I may be able to drink it up as my lot and portion And do I by this strength of grace grow like to Christ and do I more adorn the Gospell of Christ this is an evident signe you live for you feed upon spirituall food which is an argument of spiritual life no man can feed upon spirituall food but he that lives and such a life as hee lives in Christ Let a man come to the Word without an appetite to it and when he comes find no nourishment nor refreshment in it and applyes nothing as is said to him but let such and such looke to it he never hears profitably that doth not particularly apply that which he heares and if he apply it he rather stormes at it it is an evident argument that such a man hath no life in him at all Not that you should here look at the naturall body and blood of Christ for that were a Canaball eating and drinking That which the Church of Rome puts upon the Church of God at this day but our Saviour tells you the meaning of this place It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing had a company of Roman Souldiers fallen upon Christ and either out of wrath against him or love to themselves had pulled him in peeces and eaten him goblet by goblet it had profitted them nothing had men eaten the reall body of Christ and drunk up his blood and joyned with others in so doing and left none of him al this had profited them nothing nay it profits nothing for the Capernites aske the question How can this man give us his flesh to eat it is an hard saying they thought it incredible v. 5.2 they would think it a savage bruitishnesse to fal upon him in that manner and therefore our Saviour so confesseth that it is no part of his meaning that they should eate and drinke his reall body and blood but hee meanes the breathing of the spirit in the Ordinances if you can rellish Note this and feed upon that and grow to be such as Christ was in this world that was the meate and drinke of his soule if you grow humble and meek and be transformed into the spirit of Christ if you see your spirits conformable to the will of Christ it is a signe of the life of holinesse in your soules which God hath given you through Christ A third effect of the life of sanctification 3 Signe is growth for that which lives growes till it come to its full perfection so in all naturall Growth in grace vegitative or sensitive life if it live it growes till it come to its full maturity when it comes to its full vigour and strength it may decay and stand at a stay but a Christians life never comes to that till it come to the life of glory to the full measure of the stature of Christ In this life we cannot come to that but therefore it is that we grow to the end of our dayes and then are forthwith translated to immortallity ye desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 and 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and God hath given us Ministers to teach and instruct us till we all grow to be perfect in Christ Jesus Eph. 4.11 12 13. Col. 2.19 Increase with the increasings of God with divine and inlarged and spirituall increasing so doth the body of Christ grow and all the members of it they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ So that this is a third effect of life if a man can find his heart to grow Quest But doth not many a Christian stand at a stay and sometimes grow backward and fall from their first love fall from the fruitfullnesse and goodnesse and rootednesse in Christ though not wholly cut off yet falling from the firmenesse in grace and the power of grace and from fruitfullnesse and the abundance of the worke of righteousnesse Answ It is true many a soule doth so for a while but if so bee that God doe give a Christian man not to grow we must not say therefore he doth not live not but that a man for a time may be weake as a living man in sicknesse may be very weake his spirit faile and his strength faile and his worke and imployment fails him and he can do nothing neither eate nor drink no not so much as leane upon a staffe but may lye bed-rid but yet such a man feeles a sensible distemper of his body and he ceaseth not to use the best means he can and so in the end he comes to grow and recovers his first love againe in some measure some also there are that by sinfull lusts waste instead of
though at the first it may be weake yet it growes to that temper by which it may propagate and the life of grace is most strong in this regard it no sooner moves and feeds or growes in any measure or begins to expell any ill matter but it will have a minde to be fruitfull begetting its kinde and that is above naturall life a Christian is most apt and ready to draw on others to be like himselfe As soone as ever the woman of Samaria saw that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and found true sweetnesse in him the very same houre she runs into the Towne and tells her neighbours Come see a man that hath told me all that ever I did Joh. 4.29 Is not he the Christ and when they came and saw it they said We beleeve not because of thy Word but because we have heard him our selves and we know that this is indeed the Christ This is the proper nature of true life as soone as they are truly begotten they beget others of their owne kinde not but that sometimes a Christian soule hides himselfe long before he be well setled but when he truly discernes that he lives and is conscious to himselfe that God will be gracious to his soule then he desires to propagate the like grace unto others Joh. 1.41 to 46. when one had found Christ they call others to come and see Psal 51.10 Then shall I teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be converted to thee to shew you that if God will but worke a cleane heart in David and renew a right spirit within him and his broken bones may be recovered and if God shall be pleased to establish him with his free spirit and he may be once againe assured of the pardon his sins then will he teach others the wayes of God if he be once converted himselfe he will draw on as many others as he can Thus you have five signes of spirituall life SERMON X. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life WE are now in the next place to see how we may discerne life by the properties and adjuncts of it you heard before of the effects of life now of the properties and qualities of this life by discerning of which we may know that we have life There be three properties or qualities of life Three properties of life 1. Warmth First where ever there is life there is some warmth 2 King 9.34 when the Prophet had laine upon the childe and had done so seven times at length the breath of the childe began to wax warme a signe that life was a restoring and thereby the Prophet discerned that life began to returne into the body of the childe because warmth returned and so is the presence of the Spirit of grace and the union of it with the soule and body of a man it makes a man fervent and warme Fervent in spirit Rom. 12.11 and therefore it is that it is resembled unto fire Matth. 3.11 The Holy Ghost shall come downe upon you as it were with fiery tongues and shall warme and heate you with whatever duties God shall call you to 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit now quenching belongs to fire a signe therefore that the spirit is of a fervent nature so farre forth as it is capable of any quenching and destroying by the Sons of men and 2 Tim. 1.6 Stirre up the gifts of grace in you as if yee stirred up the embers of the fire so stirre up and kindle the gifts of God which is in you blow them up into a kindling flame so that all these things expresse thus much That since the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus and from him communicated to his Members is a spirit of heat therefore wheresoever there is warmth there is life if no warmth nor heat there is no life and as our spirits begin to wax warme so we grow to life in Christianity Notable is that expression in Luke 24.22 Did not our hearts burne within us while he talked with us of the Scriptures to shew you that there is a power in the Word to convey such a measure of the Spirit of grace to the Hearers as that their hearts begin to glow within them and to convey some heat and warmth into them when the Word is powerfully applyed to the soule For the further opening of this point you shall see it in some things principally which are ever found in some measure in the spirits of Christian men that have any life in Christ First that which is wonderfull and is indeed no where found but in them their very knowledge is warme Knowledge warme which in all other men is cold knowledge is but an empty speculation brings forth no great matter of heat but in a Christian his knowledge is full of heat Zeale must be according to knowledge knowledge is no knowledge without zeal and zeale is but a wilde-fire without knowledge Rom. 10.2 So if Christians have a knowledge of God but no zeale there is no saving life in that knowledge it is not the knowledge of Gods people Notable is that speech of our Saviour Joh. 5.35 speaking of John He was a burning and a shining light not only a shining light to give cleare instruction in the knowledge of the Messiah and the true meaning of the Law but withall a burning light Joh. 5.3 expoundeâ— so as that he had a notable power when Hypocrites came before him to burne them up Mat. 3.12 And so where ever he came he did not only shew them what they should doe what shall we Publicans doe and what shal we Souldiers doe Luk. 3.3 to 15. but he did burne up not only those who were professed enemies to the wayes of grace but all those that he found in Hypocrisie he burnt them all up where ever he came and if he did not finde out their lusts he would kindle a fire in them he warmed Herod in such sort as that he was constrained to doe many things according to Johns Ministery Mark 6. and so shall you finde it in all the Servants of God that according to their life if there be true life there is true burning though sometimes their burning is not so strong as their life yet there is heat and fervency of spirit mixed with their knowledge that if they know the Will of God they are inflamed and their knowledge of Christ will not suffer them to be barren and unfruitfull 2 Pet. 3.18 So that the knowledge which a Christian man hath is such as by which he will doe what he ought to doe if he see sinne in his brother he will not suffer it to lye there Levit. 19.17 If he see any thing amisse in his brother that he sees not in himselfe he will be helpfull to him where the Spirit of grace is lively they will not suffer their brethren to rest in sinne much lesse
Phil. 1.23 Though the other be a lawfull desire but chiefly his desire is that he might see Christ whom from his first conversion he hath most loved and in whom he hath lived all his life and now to be wholly possessed of him and wholly acted and swayed by him not that he might have his heart filled with joy but that he might be with Christ not only as chiefest of ten thousand persons but as the chiefest of ten thousands benefits of God that should God give us pardon of sinne his Word and Sacrament and victory over all our lusts strength of every grace of God and everlasting life and therewith fellowship with all the blessed Saints and Angels yet to us Christ is the chiefest of them all none greater then the gift of Christ and this is the sincerity of a Christians soule he desires more any benefit for Christs sake then Christ for any of his benefits sake for he whose heart is set upon Christ more then upon the pardon of sinne or salvation that soule hath Christ and life in him he that hath Christ in his eye and heart above all blessings he indeed is a true Christian and hath Christ Reas Christ must so be had and we must so receive him as God gives him now God gives us first Christ in all his Ordinances and then in Christ all other things all benefits in and through Christ Act. 8.35 We preach to you Jesus we offer you him all lusts layed aside all sinfull corruptions put away whatever separates between God and us that being done away We now offer you Christ and in Christ plentious redemption but if we be without Christ we are without true life As in the Sacrament first you have the body and blood of Christ set before you Matth. 26.26 and then sealed up and confirmed to you in the Sacrament and together with that justification and further degrees of the sanctifying spirit and further pledges of everlasting life and glory No benefit but it s conveyed through him Christ first and then the benefit It is true Herod received joy but Foelix trembling and Jehu zeale but none of these received Christ they received the huske but wanted Christ they had the shell but not the marrow and kernell within they received the benefit but Christ they did not receive and for want of him they had no life at all Simon Magus hee beleeved Acts 8.13 but he had no lively faith because he would receive the benefit but Christ he minded not to receive Unlesse the heart be knit to Christ and the soule more seek Christ then pardon of sinne or subduing of lusts he hath no life in truth he that hath the Son he hath life not so he that hath the gifts and benefits of the son But Christ first and in having Christ we have all Christ must be received as God gives him we must acknowledge there is no life in any grace but in Christ Hos 14.8 On me is your fruit found and without me can you do nothing John 15.5 Now then carry this truth home with you and gather from hence a true estimate of your own estates whether you may judge of your selves as living or dead Christians Upon our having or not having of Christ depends our having or not having of life How will you know whether you have life or no you say you have Christ how know you that Whether is your hearts more set upon Christ then the gifts of Christ Whether do you labour more for gifts or for Christ himselfe And if you finde this that in the truth of your hearts you come not to the Ordinances but to find your beloved there not out of unclean and wanton spirits but to seeke him whom your soule most desires whose favour and countenance you would rather behold then to hear the voyce of a pleasant singer and you are not satisfied with any thing unlesse you find him then shal you find life in so coming to the Ordinances Can. 3.1 2 3. By night in my bed I sought him whom my soule loved c. The bed was the Temple wherein God did reveale himselfe in his Ordinances and disperse himselfe to his people in the bed of his love Shee came to the Temple not to seek any of the Preists and Levites there She goes indeed to the Watch-men and makes her moane and complaint to them that she could not finde Christ in his Ordinances and she durst not rest upon their opinions but saith have you not seen him whom my soul loveth can you tel me any newes or give me any intelligence of my beloved Saviour Thus she inquires of the Watch-men And from them she goes to the Daughters of Jerusalem to her Christian friends and chargeth them to tell him that she is sick of love Now if thus to desire him is to find Christ then there is no more to be doubted of in such a case as this But the heart thus seeking him in his Ordinances and the affections gon after him there more then after any of his benefits then in truth we have the Sonne he could not have our hearts if we first had not him And therefore it is a strong evidence we have him because our hearts are set upon him We search for nothing so much as for him This is part of the meaning of that place in Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee or in earth in comparison of thee he desires nothing more then him neither peace of conscience nor joy in the Holy ghost nor any thing so cheifly and principally as God but if wee have a longing affection after pardon of sinne and peace of conscience and assurance of salvation after subduing of lusts and growth in grace these be blessed desires and usually upright and sincere but there may be hypocrisie even in these very desires and in using the meanes to attaine these for sometimes by this meanes we seek Christ and him in his Ordinances not so much for himself as for the benefits we have by him which is a spirit of harlotry As in a woman that it may bee hath a strong affection to match with such a man but it is but that hee might pay her debts and that she might be well provided for for the world and that he might be availe and a protector to her these be lawfull ends to aime at but if it be only and cheifly for these ends it is not true conjugal affection for if another man could do this for her as well as he she could make choyce of another as well as of him and she desires him not for his but for her own ends And just so it is alike in this case If a man desire the Lord Jesus Christ to this end that he may have his sinne pardoned and be furnished with grace though these be spirituall ends yet so much as wee prize the benefit above Christ so much are we halting in the truth of our affection to him If
distemper with boyling in heat of wrath against his enemies he is all upon it to doe him any harme his heart is full of hot and bitter wrath so as that love which was as heat and fire to thaw and warme cold and hard hearts when it comes to the fire of wrath it is as it were cold water and allayes that heat and bitternesse and harshnesse which else our hearts are subject to This is the nature of love as it is the nature of water to coole hot distempers and as it is the nature of fire to thaw and soften hard frozen spirits so though it be but as one intire grace Yet in the act it puts forth a kind of variety of worke whereby one would thinke it did crosse it selfe but it doth not but doth all by the life of Christ thus you see what the effects of the life of sanctification is in the heart of a man after that God hath begun to roote the life of justification in us and hee discernes that God hath wrought a change in him and then these severall graces though in themselves and worke one opposite to another yet in a Christian heart they can meet and joyne together And therefore now doe but lay this to heart he that hath the Sonne hath life Will a Christian say how shal I know that I have that life in having of which I may know I have Christ Why do but consider with thine owne soule not now of the life of thy justification but hast thou found that ever God did fill thy heart with joy so as thy soule hath said the Lord hath done great things for my soule whereof he hath made me to rejoyce and hast thou found that when thou hast most rejoyced in the wonderfull mercy of God then hath thy heart most melted before the Lord thy God And thou hast been ashamed and confounded within thy selfe and never open thy mouth against God any more Doest thou see that the more God reveales Christ to thee who was crucified for thy sake the more bitterly thou moanest for thy wickednesse then it is a strong evidence of life and peace in thy soule were it not the mighty power of the life of Christ in thee thou couldest have had neither of both these graces much lesse combined together to worke the same thing at one and the same time if therefore God hath helped you to looke at the great mercy of God with joy and yet with shame and bitter mourning that ever thou shouldest dishonour such a God certainly God hath vouchsafed thee life and such a life as in which thou shalt live You shall have many a soule that is marvellously comforted in hearing the word rejoyce exceedingly in what they heare and goe home and say such a word was good and very comfortable and never man spake like that man and he never thought before that there was so much to be found in the word as now he conceives there is But now if this were the joy of Gods Elect if it were such a joy as would not vanish away like lightning in the aire a flash of joy it would sinke downe into the heart and leave so much the more deeper impression mourning by how much the more it hath had joy I grant that sometimes the joy of Gods owne servants may soone vanish away but it was never knowne that the joy of a living Christian did so soone vanish and depart away but that when it did most abound in the heart it did cause inward mourning and if not weeping yet an affection of greife and sorrow of soule that ever we have so displeased God the more God hath been mercifull to us the more are we shamed of ourselves inwardly grieve for our shamelesse carriages If therefore you only finde joy in hearing that may deceive you it is not the shortnesse of the continuance that argues the unsoundnesse of the joy but the want of this combination that will argue the falshood of it if God yoake not spirituall joy with spirituall mourning then suspect your joy for it doth not accompany salvation unto life And in very deed this you shall find to be true the joy of living soules in Christ though that oftentimes bee soon gone yet it leaves this spirit of mourning which keeps possession for it and that many times for a long time and you may read your comfort in the sorrow that it hath left behind for there is as much cause of comfort in this sorrow as in the joy when you had it when you see your soules can mourne unfeignedly for that you see so good a God to such a wretch this very comfortable sorrow that is left in thy heart is an undoubted pledge that it is not a vanishing joy the power and work of it lasts long and wil abide in the soule for ever a man will in such a case mourne for his sin while he lives If you have therefore found your joy mixed with sorrow it is right else it is but a fading hypocriticall and false joy Againe further how doe you finde your heart affected with the duties of Gods worship Doe you come to duties marvellous unwillingly that if you could avoyd it you would not keep such duties in your house and if it must needs be you put it upon any body rather then upon your selfe you may be a living Christian but your heart is in a dead frame at that time and if it be alwayes so with you you never did truly live but if you finde your spirits at least your hearts comming on most willingly to Christian duties that you performe them like Free-will offerings not free so as without warrant from Gods Word but free in respect of grace Doe but observe thus much it may be you may come off freely before God because hee hath given you spirituall gifts and you can quit your selves well in the performance of them and that makes you come the more boldly but consider if the more willingly you come to Christian duties the more trembling your heart goes about them the more the soule is prepared the more it feares before the Lord and the more lowly the spirit is and awfull in the sight of God if a man can serve the Lord with joy and trembling together then the service you perform to God is heavenly and spirituall and lively and such as in which you live they come from a living heart and the sacrifice is lively and acceptable and argues you have life and therein you have Christ the God of peace but if a man have only feare in a duty but no joy or joy but no feare his heart is not in a good frame we must bring a better frame of heart before God then so before we can say that we have the life of sanctification Againe for another signe How doe you finde your selves in your tribulations are they altogether matter of burden and wearinesse to your hearts Have you no
thinke a dead man is able to feed upon Christ you know what God said of the Idolatrous people in old time Esa 44.11 12. Esa 44.11 explained The same saith 〈◊〉 to every naturall man He feedeth upon what upon Christ No no upon ashes why upon ashes ashes is farre from feeding upon the living God and yet truly a man feeds upon ashes every soule that feeds not upon Christ hath some Idol for his God and so falls downe to worship it some god of profit or pleasure and this is the estate of all wicked men they feed upon ashes upon ashes it seemes to me to be a borrowed speech or similitude taken from children or some women with childe that being sometimes taken with some ill humour and distemper of stomach they have an eager desire to feed upon ashes and such like dry unsavoury meat Children will be eating coales and ashes and so will sometimes women with childe so truly it is with every naturall man he is a naturall Idolater he worships something besides Gods he feeds upon ashes some dry and unsavoury and unwholsome meat which cannot profit him in the day of wrath which gives not his soule any nourishment for the soule of man is an immortall spirit and we only feed it with profit and pleasure and credit and these be but ashes bodily food The good things of this life are no more suitable to a mans soule then ashes be to a mans body and therefore Solomon so compares the estate of all the sonnes of Nature Eccles 3.21 Who knowes the spirit of a man that goes upward and the spirit of the beast that goes downeward to the earth his meaning is this he complaining of the vanity that lyes upon the sonnes of nature he speakes not in the person of an Epicure as some conceive but his meaning is Who knowes which of all the sonnes of men considers or takes it to heart that his soule goes up to any better place then the soule of a beast which of all the sons of Nature feeds his soule upon better food then the soule of a beast is fed upon Doe they not all feed as if they all went to one place and therefore upon the dust of the earth they feed turne me out the man that is in an estate of nature considers that his soule is to live for ever and therefore takes care to feed his soule to immortality this is the wofull distemper of all the sonnes of nature that we feed not upon Christ but upon the blessings of this world so long as we are without Christ all our food is upon earthly things here below there is not any power in a man by nature not any wisedome or strength in us to deliver our soules and then is not this a false course A lying vanity is not my heart deceived with this and that he is not able to aske his heart such a question am I such a foole to forget all good to my soule thus long it would deliver his soul if hee did but consider that there was a lye in the other way and he flatters himselfe in his good estate before God and considers not the truth of the thing he thinkes hee is as faire a dealing man as any of them all but his heart deceitfull and desperately wicked and so cannot see the falsehood of his way And for growing which is a third act of spiritual life a man is dead to any growth never comes to any growth in grace but he is apt to grow in evil and sin evill men and deceivers shall wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13 take you any natural man and he is ever growing worse and worse ever growing of the worse hand he growes more and more unprofitable and more loose from God and estranged from the wayes of his grace and settled in the wayes of sin And this is that which the Prophet Jeremiah complaines of chap. 9.3 they proceeded from evill to worse and this is the estate of us all without Christ we grow from prodigality to covetousnesse and from wantonnes to voluptuousnes and so goe on til we come to take pleasure in all sinne though it be but for a season This is al the growth and progresse that such men make And in the fourth place for cleansing our selves from al superfluous and noysome lusts that we doe not neither can we be freed from them O Jerusalem wash thy heart from thy wickednesse how long shall thy vaine thoughts lodge within thee Jer. 4.14 Purge out all those sinful lusts God knowes the thoughts of the hearts of men are but vaine 1 Cor. 3.18 and they being vain God would have us to wash our hearts how long shal it be that we suffer these lusts to lodge within us we never cleanse our selves from these but such woful cleansing it is that if we goe about to purge them out by the motions of the spirit of grace that he casts into our hearts we think its a troublesome worke and doth crosse the tranquility and peace of our estates we thinke they are noysome and therefore if any good motion be darted into the heart in the Ministery of the Word or in the Counsell of Christian friends we are sick of it till we have cast out all those good motions againe and what ever good affection God hath been pleased to cast into us wee are not wel til we be shut of it as was the case of Ahab he comes sadly and mourning from Eliahs sharpe reproofe 1 King 21. two last verses but he could not be well at ease til he had cast it all off with putting Naboth to death and put it off with calling a Councel about going to War and so damped all the sorrow that was in his heart Let Caine have any good motion come in his heart and he wil put it off with building of Cities His sin and punishment is great Gen. 4.13 and would he not now seek to God for mercy that his soule might live no he goes out from the presence of God and from all good company and good councel and whither goes he then Into the land of Nod and there he builds Cities and calls them by such and such names and so takes off his thoughts from any good motion and extinguishes all the motions of grace And truly so stood the case with Foelix Act. 24.25 when he trembled at Pauls Sermon he would not indure to hear him any further but when he had convenient leasure he would hear him again but he never sent for him And so you shall ever find this frame in a naturall mans heart those motions which the spirit of God casts into his heart that might induce him and lead him on by the hand to better courses we are not wel til we have cast them all off Just as Paul complaines of the Jewes Act. 13.46 since you have put it away from you loe we turne to the Gentiles we purge and cast out the
a man may pray and never observe what answer God makes to his prayers all the day long but God requires that you should get knowledge by reading and that not of small matters but of your possession of everlasting life and therefore you read to purpose when you thereby come to know that you have eternall life and your joy is increased and you are brought on to beleeve and trust in the name of Christ more and more and unlesse you so read you have taken this blessed Ordinance of God in vaine and therefore be diligent and conversant in reading these Epistles and as you would search for treasure so be diligent and laborious herein that you may know you have eternall life SERMON XIII 1 JOHN 5.13 That you may beleeve on the Name of the Son of God NOw we come to speak of the other end of the Apostles writing of these Epistles and that is that you may beleeve on the name of the Son of God Doct. It is an holy end of the holy scriptures that beleevers may beleeve John when he writes the Gospel he speakes as wel to beleevers as to others but cheifly to beleevers John 20.31 These things are written that you may beleeve Say not what is this but to make the worke that is already wrought for though faith and beleeving bee wrought in the hearts of Gods people yet such as doe beleeve had need to be helped to beleeve more and better Rom. 1.17 It is not onely the power of God to worke faith in such as beleeve but to lead them on from faith to faith from one measure of faith to another and the Gospel is revealed from heaven for that end that such as beleeve not might be brought on to beleeve And such as do beleeve may be carried an end in beleeving such as are faithful had need be yet more faithful you read also Phil. 1.25 I shall abide with you for your furtherance and joy of faith such a furtherance as is for the increasing and augmentation of your faith so that there is not only faith but increase and growth of faith too as furthered by the Gospel 1 Thess 3.10 That I might supply the defects of your faith to supply what is wanting in your faith there is not any of the servants of God no not those that receive the word with much joy in the holy ghost in much affliction and tribulation no not those that give good pledges and evidences of their grace as 1 Thess 1.4 5 6 7. yet there is something wanting or lacking in your faith not any no not the most exemplary Christians v. 7. but there is something wanting in their faith and therefore to this end he desires to come to them Note this as vers 10. he is pressed exceedingly night and day stirred up unto that duty with much vehemency and in earnestnesse of spirit desires exceedingly to see your faith and to perfect what is wanting in it A marvellous thing that the best Christians should yet have something wanting in their faith so that this is not a needlesse work he undertakes in writing to them that beleeve on Christ that yet they may beleeve better Quest Now what is that which they had need grow unto Answ First they had need to grow unto the beleife of some further principles of Gods truth some further Articles of faith which yet they know not Some have need to grow in the object of their faith to beleeve more then they yet doe beleeve Some of the Apostles did not beleeve the resurrection of Christ Thomas said he would not beleeve unlesse he might see and feele John 20.25 he was wanting in the beleefe of one Article of faith the resurrection of the dead and 1. Cor. 15. the whole Church was wanting in this and in many other Articles of their Christian faith they doubted not but that their bodies should rise but they wanted that before And the Thessalonians they wanted this in their faith they could not tell what to make of the long delay of the second comming of Christ they did expect a suddaine comming and therefore many of them were troubled in their minds so as that they neglected their callings and minded not their outward businesse in the world expecting a suddaine dissolution of all And therefore the Apostle supplies what was wanting in their faith by acquainting them further of the councel of God That Christ must not come to Judgement till Antichrist have first come with all deceiveablenesse and lying wonders and till the Church have made an Apostacy and the Galathians they were ignorant of the Doctrine of Justification for supply of which and satisfying them therein that whole Epistle is spent so in all other Churches the Apostles labours to supply what was wanting in the object of their faith Secondly there is something wanting in their approvednesse of the habit of faith something wanting in the gift and grace of faith The Apostle prayes for the Colossians That as they have received Christ they would so walke and that they might be rooted and established in him Many of them were not so rooted and established in Christ as they stood in need to be not able to exclude and banish those doubts and feares and cares of spirit that sometimes accompany beleevers even those that beleeve already on the name of Christ yet there is something wanting in the root of their faith for looke as you see it is with a Plant that is grafted into a Stock it doth not forthwith take root but a little matter will soone unsettle it so is it in this case a man may in some measure be implanted into Christ and yet for a time be marvellously unsetled and farre off from that rootednesse which God lookes our faith should grow unto and so in a building it at the first framing may be so greene as that yet it is not setled upon the foundation but it would have a time to be dryed and withered that it may stand the firmer on the foundation without shrinking and be more fit for a mans dwelling so is it sometimes with the faith of a Christian man he may be knit to Christ and may have a place in Christ but his morter may yet be green and may be easily shaken with wind and weather of temptation and not be yet rooted and established there may want such holy confidence and assured perswasion of fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ as we had need to be lifted up unto a further increase of faith which this Epistle and such other Doctrines as these be are wont to work in them Thirdly It may be increased in the comfort of it in the sence and feeling of it for it may so fall out that many a good soule may come to a large measure of a lively faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as that they may cleave to him and seeke him early and doe and suffer any thing for the name of Christ and yet
in the second place there is something in our prayers made according to the will of God as is exprest in the spirit of him that prayes for this you shall finde ordinarily in Scripture that men that pray pray in the spirit Jud. 20. Praying in the Holy Ghost and Eph. 6.18 Pray in the spirit And you know what the Apostle saith in that well knowne place Rom. 8.26 27. We know not what to pray for nor how to pray as we ought but the Spirit helpeth us c. God searcheth the heart especially in prayer he knowes the meaning of the Spirit for he maketh requests according to the will of God that is the words of the text so that if you would aske how we may pray according to the will of God looke what is revealed in the breathings of the Spirit which marvellously declares it selfe in the wrastling and longing desires that it puts up to God Psal 119. My soule longeth and breatheth after thee and it lets us know what the will of God is and for that the Spirit helps us to pray First to pray in the spirit is to pray feelingly Now to open this a little First you shall discerne the will of God by the breathing of the Spirit first when the Spirit helps us to pray feelingly and sensibly for those blessings that we stand in need of when the Spirit doth lift up our hearts and reach after those mercies we stand in need of in some feeling and sensible manner The will of God is revealed in the breathing of the Spirit that stretches forth it selfe in such an humble and faithfull manner as that the soule is very sensible of its need of it we poure out our soules before God for what we stand in need of in feeling desires and this good Hannah expressed in her prayers 1 Sam. 1.15 I am a woman of a sorrowfull spirit I have poured out my soule before the Lord. To shew you there was an inward sensible worke of the Spirit of God in her heart that did inlarge her not so much to poure out words as sighes and groanes this feeling power of the Spirit doth mightily expresse what the will of God is that we should aske this is according to the will of God according to what you read Esay 26.9 With my spirit within me will I seeke thee early my spirit within me that is to say he speakes as if there were a spirit within his spirit besides the inclination God had given and wrought in him to the wayes of grace and besides his soule that did animate his body the Spirit of God within him with that spirit will he seeke God early in prayer the spirit will inwardly be working and turning him towards God so then this is the first thing wherein God reveales his will to us and we pray in the spirit which we doe when we pray in the sence and feeling of our own wants of those blessings we want at Gods hand that is by a certaine strength greater then any of our owne spirits can reach forth themselves unto the Spirit of God comes and helps us to wrastle with God with sighes and groanes that cannot be expressed that we thinke more then we speake and we speake more then we thought of 2. Fervently Secondly besides this this spirit helps us to pray unto God with fervency and heate of spirit so much as that in such a case as this we strive with God in our prayers and wrastle with him The effectuall fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much Jam. 5.16 When the Spirit of God helps us to fervency to cry to God and to be earnest with him in that regard and not to give him over and comes from a sensible want of the blessings we stand in need of and that makes us goe out of our selves to God for the mercy that is according to the will of God and this in Scripture is called wrastling and striving with God Rom. 15.30 when you grow sensible of your owne danger and you strive with him for the blessing this is to expresse fervency of spirit and this was commended in Iacob that he wrastled with God Gen. 32.24 26. which is expounded Hos 12.4 that he prayed and wept his wrastling was chiefly in prayer with teares that God would be mercifull to him in this case Thirdly 3. Perseverance We pray then in the spirit when we also persevere in prayer for that is also requisite in all the Petitions we put up our Saviour put forth a Parable for this very end that men should pray constantly and never be weary Luk. 18.1 Pray upon all occasions for every thing that you stand in need of and never give over til you be heard and answered and the Parable teacheth thus much from the unjust Iudge Shall a sinfull mortall man be moved with importunity and shall not God arise and be moved for those poore soules that cry unto him night and day yes doubtlesse though you may thinke God is not sensible of your prayers but he rests himselfe quietly in heaven and remaines in fulnesse of glory who is blessed for ever in himselfe and will not trouble himselfe with such poore requests as yours is but let me tell you this woman did not so much trouble the Judge here nor could be more troublesome to him then a poore Christian is to God that wrastles with him in prayer God cannot be quiet in heaven for such a soule but in the end he must rise and satisfie its desire so you have the like Luk. 11.8 to 13. If you continue knocking he will rise and so will your heavenly Father doe for you much more so as that though God might seeme to be asleep and rest himself satisfied in that blessed estate he enjoys in another world and no more regard things below then men asleep yet if you continue knocking and begging you wil disturbe his peace till he arise and shew mercy to you and this he speakes after the manner of men to shew you that he doth as unfeignedly and as deeply take to heart the desires of your soules as any of you can doe one of another and therefore be constant and persevering in prayer and never give over when we have a good petition in hand never give over when we pray for pardon of sin or for peace of conscience or for strength of grace for our selves or for others when we pray for the healing of our soules or our bodies for the Church or Common-wealth whatsoever we have in hand if the Spirit of God doe but move us this way it is for us never to give over untill God shew mercy to us in some one kinde or other that we may see our requests was not neglected Ephes 6.18 Watch thereunto with perseverance vers 19. where you see what course God would have his Servants to take take this course ever follow God watch night and day and never give over till he blesse you and