to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may
flesh and dwelt amongst Men in a Tabernacle like theirs and suffered death in the flesh that he who was Lord of Life hath freed us from the sentence of Eternal Death that he broke the bars and chains of Death and rose again that he went up into Heaven and there at the Fathers right hand sits in our flesh and that glorified above the Angels This is the great Mistery of Godliness And a part of this Mistery is that he is Believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3.16 This Natural Men may discourse of and that very knowingly and give a kind of natural Credit to 't as to a History that may be true but firmly to believe that there is divine Truth in all these things and to have a perswasion of it stronger then of the very things we see with our eyes such an assent as this is the peculiar work of the spirit of God and is certainly saving Faith The Soul that so believes cannot chuse but Love 't is commonly true the Eye is the ordinary door by which Love enters into the Soul and it is true in this Love though t is denied of the Eye of sense yet you see 't is ascrib'd to the Eye of Faith though you have not seen him you Love him because you believe Which is to see him spiritually Faith indeed is distinguish'd from that Vision that is in Glory but it is the Vision of the Kingdom of Grace 't is the Eye of the New Creature that quicksighted Eye that pierces all the Visible Heavens and sees above them that looks to things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 And is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 that sees him that is invisible v. 27. 'T is possible that one may be much Lov'd upon the report of their worth and Vertues and upon a Picture of them lively drawn before sight of the party so commended and represented but certainly when they are seen and found answerable to the former it raises the Affection that it first begun to a far greater height We have the report of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the Gospel yea so clear a description of him that it gives a picture of him and that together with the Sacraments are the only lawful and the only lively pictures of our Saviour Gal. 3.1 Now this Report Faith believes and beholds this picture and so lets in the Love of Christ to the Soul but further it gives a particular experimental knowledge of Christ and acquaintance with him It causes the Soul find all that is spoken of him in the Word and his beauty there represented to be abundantly true makes it really taste of his sweetness and by that possesses the heart more strongly with his Love perswading it of the truth of those things not by reasons and arguments but by an Inexpressible kind of Evidence that they only know that have it Faith perswades a Christian of these two things that the Philosopher gives as the causes of all Love Beauty and Propriety the Loveliness of Christ in himself and our interest in him The former it effâ—ctuaâ—s not only by the first apprehending and believing of those hâ—s Excellencies and Beauty but by frequent beholding of him and Eyeing him in whom all Perfection dwells and looks so ofâ— on him till it sets the very Impression of his Image as it were upon the Soul that it can never be blotted out and forgot The latter it doth by that particular Uniting Act which makes him our God and our Saviour Ye Love The distinctions that some make of Love need not be taken as of differing kinds but different actings of the same Love by which we may try our so much pretended Love of Christ which in truth is so rarely found There will then be in this Love if it be right these three qualities Goodwill Delight and Desire 1. Goodwill earnest wishing and as we can promoting Gods Glory and stirring up others so to do They that seek more their own things then the things of Jesus Christ more their own Praise and Esteem then His are strangers to this divine Love-For it seeks not her own things This bitter Root of self-love is most hard to pluck up this strongest and sweetest Love of Christ alone doth it actually though gradually This Love makes the Soul as the lower Heaven slow in its own motion most swift in the motion of that first that wheels it about so the higher degree of Love the more swift It Loves the hardest tasks And greatest difficulties where it may perform God service either in doing or in suffering for him It is strong as death and many waters cannot quench it The greater the task is the more real is the testimony and expression of Love and therefore the more acceptable to God 2. There is in true Love a complacency and delight in God A Conformity to his will Loving what he Loves and studious of his will ever seeking to know more clearly what it is that is most pleasing to him contracting a likeness to God in all his actions by conversing with him frequent contemplating of God and looking on his beauty as the Eye lets in this Affection so it serves it constantly and readily looks that way that Love directs it thus the soul that is possess'd with this Love of Jesus Christ hath its eye much upon him thinks often on his former sufferings and present Glory the more it lookes upon Christ the more it loves and still the more it loves the more it delights to look upon him 3. There is in true Love a Desire for 't is but small beginnings and tastes of his Goodness that the soul hath here therefore 't is still looking out and longing for the day of Marriage the time is sad and wearisome and seems much longer then it is while 't is deteind here I desireâ— to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ. God is the Sum of all things lovely thus excellenâ—ly Greg. Nazian expresseth himself Ovat 1. If I have any Possessions Health Credit Learning this is all the contentment I have of them that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ who is totus dâ—sâ—derâ—bilis totuâ— desiderabile And this Love is the sum of all he requires of us 't is that which makes all our meanest Services acceptable and without which all we offer to him is distasteful God doth not only deserve our Love by his matchless Excellency and Beauty but by his Matchless Love to us and that is the strongest Loadstone of Love He hath loved me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 How appears that in no less then this he hath given himself for me Certainly then there is no other Character of our Love then this to give our selves to him that hath so loved us and given himself for us This affection must be bestowed somewhere there is no Man but hath some prime choyce somewhat that is the predominant delight of his soul will it
still cleave to sin and love sin better than him that suffered for it But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply humbled in the sense of sin come to this depth of consolation and try it that you may have experience of the sweetness and â—iches of it study this point throughly and you will find it answer all and quiet your consciences Apply this bearing of sin by the Lord Jesus for you for it is publish'd and made known to you for this purpose this is the genuine and true use of it as of the Brazen Serpent not â—emptily to gaze on the Fabrick of it but to cure those that look'd on it when all that can be said is said against you ' its true may you say but it is satisfied for he on whom I rest made it his and did bear it for me The person of Christ of more worth than all Men yea than all the creatures and therefore his life a full ransome for the greatest offender And for outward troubles and sufferings which were the occasion of this Doctrine in this place they are all made exceeding light by the removal of this great pressure Let the Lord lay on me what he will seeing he hath taken off my sin and laid that on his own Son in my stead I may suffer many things but he hath bâ—rn that for me which alone was able to make me miserable And you that have this perswasion how will your hearts be taken up with his love Who thus lov'd you as to give himself for you and by interposing himself to bear off from you the stroke of everlasting death and that encountered all the wrath due to us and went through with that great work by reason of his unspeakable love Let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to go down from the cross That we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousnesse The Lord doth nothing in vain hath not made the least of his work to no purpose in wisdom hath he made them all sayes the Psalmist and that is not only in regard of their excellent frame and Order but of their end which is a chief Point of Wisdom so then to the right knowledge of this great work put into the hands of Jesus Christ it is of special concern to understand what is this end This is the thing thâ—t his wisdom and love aim'd at in that great undertaking and therefore will be our truest wisdom and the truest evidence of our reflex Love to intend the same thing that in this the same mind may be in us that was in Christ Iesus in his suffering for us and for this very end is it express'd In this there are 3. Things 1st What this death and life is 2. The intendment of it in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. 3. The effecting of it by them Whatsoever this is sure 't is no small change that bears the Name of the great and last natural change that we are subject to a death and then another kind of life succeeding to it and in this the greatest part are mistaken that they take any light alteration in themselves for true conversion There be a World deluded with superficial Moral changes in their Life some rectifying of their outward actions and course of Life and somewhat too in the temper and habitude of their mind far from reaching the bottom of Natures wickedness and laying the axe to the root of the Tree 't is such a work as Men can make a shift withal by themselves but the Renovation that the Spirit of God worketh is like himself so deep and through a work that it is justly called by the Name of the most substantial works and productions a new birth and more than that a new Creation and here a Death and a kind of life following it This death to sin supposes a former living in it and to it and while a Man is so he is said indeed to be dead in sin and yet withal this is true that he lives in sin as the Apostle joynes the expressions speaking of Widowes she that lives in pleasures is dead while she liveth So Eph. 2. dead in trespasses and sins and he addes wherein ye walked which imports a life such an one as it is and more expresly Verse 3. We had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh Now thus to live in sin is call'd to be dead in it because in that condition Man is indeed dead in respect of that Divine Life of the Soul that happy being which it should have in Union with God for which it was made and without which it had better not be at all For that Life as it is different from its natural being and a kind of Life above it so it is contrary to that corrupt being and life it hath in sin and therefore to live in sin is to be dead in it being a deprivement of that Divine being that Life of the Soul in God in comparison whereof not only the base life it hath in sin but the very natural life it hath in the Body and the Body by it is not worthy the Name of Life You see the Body when the threed of its union with the Soul is cut becomes not only straightway a motionless lump but within a little time a putrified noysome Carcase and thus the Soul by sin is cut off from God who is its life as is the Soul of the Body it hath not only no moving faculty in good but fills full of rotteness and vileness as the word is Psal. 14. they are gone aside and become filthy The Soul by turning away from God turns filthy yet as a Man thus Spiritually dead lives naturally so because he acts and spends that Natural life in the wayes of sin he is said to live in sin yea there is somewhat more in that expression than the mere passing of his life in that way for in stead of that happy life his Soul should have in God he pleases himself in the miserable life of sin that which is his death as if it were the proper life of his Soul that natural propension he hath to sin and the continual delight he takes in it as in his Element and living to it as if that were the very end of his being In that estate his Body nor his mind stirreth not without sin setting aside his manifest breaches of the Law those actions that are evidently and totally sinful his natural actions his eating and drinking his religious actions his Praying and hearing and Preaching are sin at the bottom and generally his heart is no other but a forge of sin every imagination every fiction of things framed there is only evil continually or every day and all the day long 't is his very trade and Life Now in opposition to this life of Sin living in it and to it a Christian is said to dy to sin to be cut off or separated from it In
Conscience as others but sought my selfe and pleasd my self as they do and look't no further but that was when I was alive to those wayes but now truly I am dead to them and can you look for activity and conversation from a dead Man the pleasures of sin wherein I liv'd is still the same but I am not the same Are you such a Snake and a Fool sayes the Natural Man as to bear affronts and swallow them and say nothing Can you suffer to be abus'd so by such and such a wrong Indeed sayes the Christian again I could once have resented an injury as you or another and had somewhat of that you call high-heartedness when I was alive after your fashion but now that humour is not only something cool'd but 't is kill'd in me 't is cold dead as ye say and a greater Spirit I think than my own hath taught me another Lesson hath made me both deaf and dumb that way and hath given me a new vent and another language and another Party to speak to in such occasions see for this Psal. 38.12 13 14 15. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long What doth he in this cafe But I as a deaf man heard not and I was as a dumb Man that openeth not his mouth And why for in thee O Lord do I hope And for this deadness that you despise I have seen him that dyed for me who when he was reviled reviled not again This is the true Character of a Christian dead to sin but alas Where is this Christian to be found and yet thus is every one that truly partakes of Christ he is dead to sin really Hypocrites have a Historical kind of Death like this as Players in Tragedies Those Players have loose bags of Blood that receive the wound so the Hypocrite in some externals and it may be in that which is as near him as any outward thing his Purse he may suffer some Bloodshed of that for Christ but this death to sin is not a sounding fit that one may recover out of again the Apostle Rom. 6. addes that he is buried But this is an unpleasant Subject to talk thus of Death and Burial the very Name of Death in the softest sense it can have makes a sowr melancholly discourse It is so indeed if you take it alone if there were not for the life that 's lost a far better immediately following but so 't is here Living unto righteousness succeeds dying to sin That which makes natural death so affrightful the King of terrours as Iob calls it is mainly this faint belief and assurance of the Resurrection and glory to come And without this all mens moral resolves and discourses are too weak Cordialls against this fear they may set a good face on 't and speak big and so cover the fear they cannot cure but certainly they are a litle ridiculous that would perswade Men to be content to dy by reasoning from the necessity and unavoydableness of it which taken alone rather may beget a desperate discontent than a quiet compliance the very weakness of that Argument is that it is too strong Durum telum That of Company is phantastick it may please the imagination but satisfies not the judgement Nor are the miseries of life though somewhat Properer a full perswasive for Death the oldest decrepitest most diseased persons yet naturally fall not out with life but could have a mind to it still and the very truth is this the worst cottage any dwells in they are loath to go out till they know of a better And the reason why that which is so hideous to others was so sweet to Martyrs Heb. 11.35 And other godly Men that have heartily embrac'd death and welcom'd it though in very Terrible shapes was because they had firm assurance of Immortality beyond it the ugly Deaths head when the light of glory shines through the holes of it is comely and lovely To look upon death as Eternitie's birth day is that which makes it not only tolerable but aimiable Hic dies postremus aeterni natolis est Is the word I admire most of any Heathen Thus here the strongest inducement to this Death is the true notice and contemplation of this Life unto which it sets us over 't is most necessary to represent this for a natural Man hath as great an aversion every whit from this figurative Death this dying to sin as from natural Death and there is the more necessity of perswading him to this because his consent is necessary to 't no Man dies this Death to sin unwillingly although no Man is naturally wiling to it much of this death consists in a Man's consenting thus to dye And this is not only a lawful but a laudible yea a necessary self murder Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth Sayes the Apostle Col. 3.5 Now no sinner will be content to dy to sin if that were all but if it be passing to a more excellent Life then he gaineth and it were a folly not to seek this Death It was a strange power of Plato's discourse of the Souls Immortality that moved a young Man upon reading it to throw himself into the Sea that he might leap through it to that Immortality But truely were this Life of God this Life to righteousness and the excellency and delight of it known it would gain many minds to this death that steps into 't 1 There is a necessity of a new being to be the principle of new acting and motion as the Apostle sayes while ye served sin ye were free from righteousness so 't is while ye were alive to sin ye were dead to righteousness But there is a new breath of life from Heaven breathed on the Soul Then lives the Soul indeed when it is one with God and sees Light in his Light hath a Spiritual knowledge of him and therefore Soveraignely loves him and delights in his will and that is indeed to live unto righeousness which in a comprehensive sense takes in all the frame of a Christian life and all the duties of it towards God and towards Men. By this new Nature the very Natural motion of the soul so taken is obedience to God and walking in the paths of righteousness it can no more live in the habitude and wayes of sin than a Man can live under water Sin is not the Christians Element 't is too gross for his renew'd Soul as the water is for his body He may fall into 't but he cannot breath in it cannot take delight and continue to live in it but his delight is in the Law of the Lord that 's the walk that his Soul refreshes it self in he loves it entirely and loves it most where it most crosses the remainders of corruption that are in him he bends the strength of his Soul to please God aimes all at that it takes up his thoughts early and late
hath no other purpose in his being and living but only to honour his Lord that 's to live to righteousness he doth not make a by-work of it a study for his spare houres no 't is his main busines his all In this law doth he meditate day and night This life as the other is in the heart and from thence diffuses to the whole Man he loves righteousness and receiveth the truth as the Apostle speaks in the love of it A natural Man may do many things that for their shell and outside are righteous But he lives not to righteousness because his heart is not possess'd and rul'd with the love of it but this life makes the godly Man delight to walk uprightly and to speak of righteousness his Language and wayes carry the resemblance of his heart Psa. 37. Ver. 30.31 I know 't is easiest to act that part of Religion that is in the Tongue but the Christian ought not for that to be Spiritually dumb Because some Birds are taught to speak Men do not for that give it over and leave off to speak the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his Tongue talketh of judgement and his feet strive to keep pace with his Tongue which gives evidence of its unfainedness None of his steps shall slide or he shall not stagger in his steps but that which is betwixt these is the common Spring the Law of God is in his heart of both and from thence as Salomon sayes are the issues of his life that Law in his heart is the principle of this living to righteousness 2 The Second thing here is the design or Intendment of this death and life in the sufferings and death of Christ he bare sin and died for it that we might dye to it Out of some conviction of the consequence of Sin many have a confus'd desire to be justified to have sin pardon'd and look no further think not on the importance and necessity of sanctification the nature whereof is express'd by this dying to sin and living to righteousness But here we see that sanctification is necessary as inseparably connexed with justification not only as its companion but as its end which in some kind raises it above the other that it was the thing which God ey'd and intended in taking away the guiltiness of sin that we might be renew'd and sanctified If we compare them in point of time either backward holiness was alwayes necessary unto happiness But satisfying for sin and the pardon of it was made necessary by sin or if we look forward the estate we are appointed to and for which we are delivered from wrath is an estate of perfect holiness When we reflect upon that great work of Redemption we see it aim'd at there Redeem'd to be holy Eph. 5.25 26. Tit. 2.14 And go yet higher to the very Spring the decree of Election And then it s said Chosen before that we should be Holy and in end it shall Suit the designe Nothing shall enter into the new Ierusalem that is defiled or unholy Nothing but all purity there not a spot of sinfull pollution not a wrinkle of the Old Man for this end was that great work undertaken by the Son of God that he might frame out of polluted Mankind a new holy generation to his Father that might compasse his throne in the Life of glory and give him pure praises and behold his face in that eternity Now for this end it was needfull according to the all-wise purpose of the Father that the guiltiness of sin and sentence of Death should be once removed and thus the burden of that lay upon Christs shoulders on the Crosse and that done it is further necessary that Souls so deliver'd be likewise purg'd and renew'd for they are design'd to perfection of holiness in end and it must begin here Yet is it not possible to perswade Men of this that Christ had this in his eye and purpose when he was lift up upon the crosse and look'd upon the whole company of those his Father had given him to save that he would redeem them to be a number of holy Persons We would be redeem'd who is there would not but he would have his redeemed ones holy and they that are not true to this his end but crosse and oppose him in it may hear of redemption long and often But litle to their comfort Are you resolv'd still to abuse and delude your selves Well whither you will believe it or no this is once more told you there is unspeakable comfort in the death of Chirst but it belongs only to those that are dead to sin and alive to righteousness This Circle shuâ—s out the impenitent world there it closes and cannot be broke through but all that are penitent are by their effectual caling lifted in to it translated from that accurs'd condition wherein they were So then if you will live in your sins you may but then resolve withal to bear them your selves for Christ in his bearing of sin meant of none but such as in due time are thus dead and thus alive with him 3. But then in the Third place Christs Sufferings and death effects all this 1. As the exemplary cause the lively contemplation of Christ crucified is the most powerful of all thoughts to separate the heart and sin But 2. besides this working as a Moral cause as that example Christ is the effective natural cause of this death and life For he is one with the Believer and there is a real influence of his death and life into their Souls This Mysterious Union of Christ and the believer is that whereon both their Justification and Sanctification and the whole frame of their Salvation and Happiness depends and in this particular the Apostle still insists on it speaking of Christ and Believers as one in his Death and Resurrection crucified with him dead with him buried with him and risen with him Rom. 6. Being arisen he applies his death to those he dyed for and by it kills the life of sin in them and so is aveng'd on it for its being the cause of his death according to that of the Psalm raise me up that I may requite them He infuses and then actuates and stirres up that faith and love in them by which they are united to him and these work powerfuly in this 3. Faith look's so stedfastly on its suffering Saviour that as they say intellectus fit illud quod intelligit it makes the Soul like him assimilates and conformes it to his Death as the Apostle speaks That which some fable of some of their Saints of receiving the impression of the wounds of Christ in their body is true in a Spiritual sense of the Soul of every one that is indeed a Saint and a believer it takes the very print of his Death by beholding him and dyes to sin and then takes that of his rising again and lives to righteousness as it applies it to justify so
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
apparent of Eternal flames 'T is an Everlasting Inheritance too but so much the more fearful being of Everlasting Misery or so to speak of Immortal Death and we are made sure to it they who remain in that Condition cannot lose their Right although they gladly would escape it they shall be forâ—'d to enter Possession But 't is by a new and supernatural Birth that men are both freed from their Engagement to that woful Inheritance and invested into the Rights of this other here mentioned as full of happiness as the former is miserable Thefore are they said here to be begotten again to that lively Hope God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath begotten us again And thus are the Regenerate the Children of an Immortal Father and so entituled to an Inheritance of immortality if Children then Heirs heirs of God This Sonship is by Adoption in Christ therefore added joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 we Adopted and He the only begotten Son of God by an Eternal Ineffable generation And yet this our Adoption is not a meer extrinsecal denomination as is adoption amongst Men but accompanied with a real Change in those that are adopted a new Nature and Spirit infus'd into them by reason of which as they are Adopted to this their Inheritance in Christ they are likewise begotten of God and born again to it by the Supernatural work of Regeneration They are like their heavenly Father they have his Image renewed on their Souls and their Fathers Spirit They have and are acted and led by it This is that great Mistery of the Kingdome of God that puzled Nicodemus it was darkness to him at first till he was instructed in that Night under the covert whereof he came to Christ. Nature cannot conceive of any Generation or birth but that which is within its own compass only they that are partakers of this Spiritual Birth understand what it means to others it is a Ridle an unsavory unpleasant subject 'T is sometime ascribed to the subordinate means to Baptism called therefore the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 To the Word of God Iam. 1.18 It s that Immortal Seed whereby we are born again by the Ministers of this Word and the seals of it as 1 Cor. 4.15 For though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers For in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel As also Gal. 4.19 But all those have their vigour and efficacy in this great work from the Father of Spirits who is their Father in their first Creation and Infusion and in this their Regeneration which is a new and second Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Divines have reason to inferre from the Nature of Conversion thus exprest that Man doth not bring any thing to this work himself 't is true he hath a will as his natural Faculty but that this Will Embraces the offer of Grace and turns to him that offers it is from Renewing Grace that sweetly and yet strongly strongly and yet sweetly inclines it I. Nature cannot raise it selfe to this more then a man can give natural being to himselfe 2. 'T is not a superficial change 't is a new life and being A moral man in his changes and Reformations of himselfe is still the same man though he Reform so far as Men in their ordinary phrase call him quite another Man yet in truth till he be born again there is no new nature in him The Slugard turns on his bed as the door on the hinges sayes Solomon Thus the Natural man turns from one custome and posture to another but never turns off But the Christian by vertue of this new birth can say indeed ego non sum ego I am not the same man I was You that are Nobles aspire to this honourable Condition add this Nobleness to the other for it far surpasses it make it the Crown of all your honours and advantages And you that are of mean birth or if you have any Crack or stain in your birth the only way to make up and repair all and truly to Enoble you is this to be the Sons of a King yea of the King of Kings and this Honour have all his Saints To as many as received him he gave this priviledge to be the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 Vnto a lively Hope Now we are the Sons of God saith the Apostle 1 Ioh. 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be These Sons are Heirs but all this lifetime is their underage yet even then being partakers of this New Birth and Sonship they have Right to it and in the assuronce of that Right this Living Hope As an Heir when he is Capable of those thoughts hath not only Right of Inheritance but may rejoyce in the hope he hath of it and please himself in thinking on 't but hope is said to be only of an uncertain good true in the world's phrase 't is so for their Hope is conversant in uncertain things or in things that may be certain after an uncertain manner all their woldly Hopes are tottering built upon sand and their Hopes of Heaven are but blind and groundless Conjectures but the Hope of the Sons of the Living God is a living Hope That which Alexander said when he dealt liberally about him that he left hope to himself the Children of God may more wisely and happily say when they leave the hot pursuit of the world to others and despise it their Portion is Hope the thread of Alexanders life was â—ut off in the midst of his Victories and so all his Hopes evanished but their hope cannot dye nor disapoint them But then it s said to be Lively not only Objectively But Effectively Enlivening and Comforting the Children of God in all Distresses Enabling them to encounter and surmount all difficulties in the way And then it is formally so it cannot fail dyes not before accomplishment Worldly Hopes often mock Men and so cause them to be ashamed and Men take it as a great blot and are most of all ashamed of those things that discover weakness of judgment in them now worldly Hopes doe thus they put the fool upon a Man when he hath judged himself sure and laid so much weight and expectation on them then they break and foyl him they are not Living but Lying Hopes and dying Hopes they die often before us and we live to bury them and see our own own Folly and Infelicity in trusting to them but at the utmost they dye with us when we dye and can accompany us no further But this Hope answers Expectation to the full and much beyond it and deceives no way but that happy one of far exceeding it A living Hope living in Death it selfe The World dare say no more for its devise but dum spiro spero but the Children of God can add by vertue of this living Hope dum exspiro
spero 'T is a fearful thing when a Man and all his hopes dye together Thus saith Solomon of the Wicked when He dyeth many of them before but at the utmost then all of them then dye his Hopes Prov. 11.7 but the Righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14.32 Death that cutts the sinews of all other Hopes and turns men out of all other Inheritances it alone fulfils this Hope and ends it in Fruition As a Messenger sent to bring the Children of God home to the possession of their Inheritance By the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead This referrs to both Begotten again by his Resurrection and having this living Hope by his Resurrection and well suits both it being the proper cause of both in this order First then of the Birth then of the Hope The Image of God is renewed in us by our Union with him who is the express Image of his Fathers person Gal. 4 19. Therefore this new birth in the Conception is exprest by the forming of Christ in the Soul and Resurrection particularly is assign'd as the cause of our New Life this New Birth is called our Resurrection and that in conformity to Christ yea by vertue and Influence of His. His Resurrection is called a Birth he the first begotten from the dead Rev. 1.5 and that Prophesie Psal. 2.7 Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee is applyed to his Resurrection as fulfilled in it Act. 13.33 God hath fulfilled the same unto us their Children in that he hath raised up Iesus again as it is also written in the second Psalm Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee Not only is it the Exemplary but the Efficient cause of our new birth Thus Rom. 6. at large and often elsewhere and thus likewise it is the cause of our Living hope that which indeed inspires and maintains life in it because he hath Conquered Death and is risen again and that implyed which followeth is set down at the right hand of God hath entered Possession of that Inheritance This gives us a Living Hope that according to his own Request where he is there we shall be also Thus this Hope is strongly underset on the one side by the Resurrection of Christ on the other by the abundant mercy of God the Father Our hope depends not on our own Strength or Wisdom nor on any thing in us for then if it did it would be short-liv'd would die and dye quickly but on his Resurrection that can dye no more for in that he died he died unto sin once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Rom. 6.10 This makes this Hope not to imply in the notion of it Uncertainty as worldly hopes but 't is a firm stable inviolable hope an Anchor pitch'd within the vail According to his abundant mercy Mercy is the Spring of all this yea great Mercy and manifold Mercy for as St. Bernard saith Great sins and Great Miseries need Great Mercy and many sins and Miseries need many Mercies and is not this great Mercy to make of Satans slaves Sons of the most high Well may the Apostle say Behold what manner of Love and how great Love the Father hath shewed us that we should be called the Sons of God The World knows us not because it knew not him they that have not seen the Father of a Child cannot know its Resembling him for the World knowes not God and therefore discerns not his Image in his Children to esteem them for it But whatever be their Opinion this we must say our selves Behold what Love to take fire-brands of Hell and to appoint them to be one day brighter then the Sun in the firmament To raise the poor out of the dunghil and set them with Princes Psal. 11.38 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly we see it stirs up the Apostle to praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ This is the stile of the Gospel as formerly under the Law the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and the God that brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt c. This now is the Order of the Government of Grace that it holds first with Christ our Head and in Him with us so he sayes I go to my Father and your Father and my God and your God Which as St. Cyril of Hierosol in his Catechism observes shows us not only our Communion with him that might have been exprest thus I go to my God and Father but the Order of the Covenant First my Father and my God and then yours Thus ought we in Consideration of the mercies of God still take in Christ for in him they are conveyed to us Thus Eph. 1.3 With all spiritual Blessings in Christ Iesus Blessed He blesseth us really benefaciendo benedicit We bless Him by acknowledging His goodness And this we ought to do at all times Psal. 34.1 I will bless the Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth All this is far below Him and His mercies What are our lame praises in comparison of his Love Nothing and less then nothing but Love will stammer rather then be dumb They that are amongst his Children begotten again they have in the Resurrection of Christ a lively hope of glory as 't is Col. 1.27 which is Christ in you the hope of Glory This leads them to observe and admire that rich mercy whence it flowes and this consideration awakes them and strains them to break forth into praises To an Inheritance incorruptible As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather and as Vinegar upon nitre so is he that singeth Songs to a heavy heart Prov. 25.20 Worldly Mirth is so far from curing Spiritual Grief that even worldly Grief where 't is great and takes deep root is not allayed but increased by it a man that is full of inward heaviness the more he is compassed about with mirth it exasperates and enrages his Grief the more like ineffectual weak Physick that removes not the humour but stirs it and makes it more unquiet but spiritual Joy is seasonable for all Estates In prosperity 't is pertinent to crown and sanctifie all other Enjoyments with this that so far suspasses them and in distress 't is the only Nepenthe the cordial of fainting Spirits So Psal. 4. He hath put joy into my heart this mirth makes way for it selfe which other mirth cannot do these Songs are sweetest in the Night of distress Therefore the Apostle writing to his scattered afflicted Brethren begins his Epistle with this Song of Praise Blessed be the God and Father c. The matter of it is the Joyful Remembrance of the Happiness laid up for them under the name of Inheritance Now this Inheritance is described by the singular Qualities of it They Contain 1. The Excellency of its Nature 2. The certainty of its attainment the former in these three Incorruptible Vndefiled and that fadeth
not then be our wisdom to make the worthiest choyce seeing it is offered us and is extream folly to reject it Grace doth not pluck up by the roots and wholly destroy the natural passions of the mind because they are distempered by sin that were an extreme remedy to Cure by killing and heal by cutting off no but it corrects the distemper in them it dries not up this main stream of Love but purifies it from the Mud it is full of in its wrong Course or calls it to its Right Channel by which it may run into Happiness and empty it selfe into the Ocean of goodness The Holy Spirit turns the love of the soul towards God in Christ for in that way only can it apprehend his Love so then Jesus Christ is the first Object of this divine Love he is Medium unionis through whom God conveys the sense of his Love to the soul and receives back its Love to him And if we will consider his incomparable Beauty we may look on it in the holy Scriptures particularly in that divine song of Loves Wherein Solomon borrowes all the beauties of the Creatures dips his pencill in all their severall Excellencies to set him forth unto us who is the chief of ten Thousands There is an inseparable intermixture of Love with Belief and a pious Affection receiving divine Truth so that in effect as we distinguish them they are mutually strengthened the one by the other and so though it seem a Circle 't is a divine one and falls not under censure of the School's Pedantry If you ask how shall I do to Love I Answer Believe If you ask how shall I believe I Answer Love Although the Expressions to a carnall mind are altogether unsavoury by gross mistaking them yet to a Soul taught to Read and Hear them by any measure of that same Spirit of love wherewith they were penn'd they are full of heavenly and unutterable sweetness Many Directions and means of begetting and increasing this Love of Christ may be here offered but they that delight in number may multiply them but sure this One will Comprehend the greatest and best part if not all of them Believe and you shall Love Believe much and you shall Love much labour for strong and deep persuasions of the glorious things that are spoken of Christ and this will command Love Certainly did Men indeed believe his worth they would accordingly Love him for the Reasonable Creature cannot but affect that most which it firmly believes to be worthy of affection O this mischief of Unbelief is that which makes the heart cold and dead towards God Seek then to believe Christs Excellency in himselfe and his Love to us and our interest in him and this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it ascend in a Sacrifice of Love to him Many Signes likewise of this Love may be multiplied according to the many fruits and workings of it but in them all it self is its own most infallible Evidence When the soul finds that all its Obedience and endeavour to keep the Commands of Jesus Christ which himself makes its Character do flow from Love then it is true and sincere For do or suffer what you will withour Love all passes for nothing All are Cyphers without it they signifie nothing 1. Cor. 13. This is the Message of the Gospell and that which the Ministry aimes at and therefore the Ministers ought to be Suitors not for themselves but for Christ to Espouse souls to him and to bring in many hearts to Love him And certainly this is the most compendious way to perswade to all other Christian duties this is to converse with Jesus Christ and therefore where his Love is no other incentive will be needfull For Love delights in the presence and converse of the party Loved If we are to perswade to duties of the second Table the summe of those is Love to our Brethren resulting from the Love of Christ which diffuseth such a sweetness into the soul that its all Love and meekness and Gentleness and long suffering If times be for suffering Love will make the soul not onely bear but welcome the bitterest afflections of life and the hardest kinds of death for his sake In a word there is in Love a sweet constraint or tying of the heart to all Obedience and Duty The Love of God is requisite in Ministers for their preaching of the word so our Saviour to St. Peter Iohn 21.15 Peter lovest thou me then feed my lambs It is requisite for the people that they receive the Truth in the Love of it and that Christ preach'd be Entertain'd in the soul and Embrac'd by Faith and Love You that have made choyce of Christ for your Love let not your hearts slip out to renew your wonted base familiarity with Sin For that will bring new bitterness to your souls and at least for some time will deprive you of the sensible favour of your beloved Jesus delight alwayes in God and give him your whole heart for he deserves it all and is a satisfying good to it the largest heart is all of it too strait for the riches of consolation that he brings with him seek to Increase in this Love for tho its at first weak yet Labour to find it daily rise higher and burn hotter and clearer and consume the dross of Earthly desires Receiving the end of your Faith Although the soul that Believes and Loves is put in present possession of God as far as it is Capable in its sojourning here yet it desires a full Enjoyment which it cannot attain to without Removing hence While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord saith the Apostle And because they are assur'd of that happy Exchange that being united and freed of this body they shall be present with the Lord and that having his own word for 't that Where he is they shall be also this begets such an assured Hope as bears the name of possession Therefore its said here Receiveing the end of your faith This Receiveing likewise flows from Faith Faith apprehends the present Truth of the divine Promises and so makes the things to come present and Hope looks out to their after Accomplishment which if the promises be true as Faith averrs then Hope hath good reason firmly to expect it This desire and Hope are the very wheels of the Soul that carry it on and Faith the common Axis on which they rest In the words there are two things 1. The good hoped for in Christ so Believed on and Loved 2. The assuredness of the Hope it selfe yea as sure as if it were already accomplished As for the good hoped for it consists 1. In the nature of it Viz. The Salvation of their Soul 2. in a Relative Property of it the End of their Faith The nature of it is Salvation and Salvation of the soul it imports full deliverance from all kind of misery and
Cherubims wonder how guilty man escapes their flaming swords and Reenters paradise The Angels see that their Companions that fell are not restor'd but their room fill'd up with the spirits of just men and they envy it not which Mistery the Angels desire to look into and this is added in the close of these words for the extolling of it The Angels look upon what they have seen already fulfill'd with delight and admiration and what remains namely the full accomplishment of this great work in the end of time they look upon with desire to see it finish'd 't is not a slight glance they take of it but they fix their eye and look stedfastly on it viz. That mistery of godliness God manifested in the flesh and 't is added seen of Angels The word made flesh drawes the eyes of those glorious Spirits and possesses them with wonder to see the Almighty God-head joyn'd with the weakness of a Man yea of an Infant He that stretcheth forth the heavens bound up in swadling cloaths And to pass all the wonders of his life this is beyond all admiration that the Lord of Life was subject to death and that his Love and Rebellious mankind moved him both to take on and lay down that life 'T is no wonder the Angels admire those things and delight to look upon them but 't is strange that we do not so They veiw them stedfastly and we neglect them either we consider them not at all or give them but a transient look half an eye That which was the great business of the Prophets and Apostles both for their own times and to convey them to us we regard not and turne our eyes to foolish wandering thoughts which Angels are ashamed at They are not so concern'd in this great mystery as we are They are but mere beholders in comparison of us yea they seem rather to be losers someway that our nature in it self inferiour to theirs is in Jesus Christ exalted above theirs Heb. 2.16 We bow down to the earth and study and grovell in it take into the very bowels of it and content our selves with the outside of the unsearchable riches of Christ and look not within it but they having no will nor desir◠but for the glory of God being pure flames of fire burning onely in love to him are no less delighted then amazed with the bottomless wonders of his wisdom and goodness shining in the work of our Redemption 'T is our shame and our folly that we lose our selves and our thoughts in poor childish things and trifle away our days we know not how and let these rich mysteries lye unregarded they look up upon the deity in it self with continuall admiration but that they look down to this mystery is another wonder We give them an ear in publick and in a cold formal way stop Conscience's mouth with some religious performances in private and no more But to have deep and frequent thoughts and to be ravish'd in the meditation of our Lord Jesus once on the cross and now in glory how few of us are acquainted with this We see here excellent Company and Examples not onely of the best of Men that have been but we have them fellow-servants and fellow-Students if that can perswade us we may all study the same Lesson with the very Angels and have the same thoughts with them this the soul doth that often entertains it self with the delightfull admiration of Jesus Christ and the Redemption he hath wrought for us Verse 13. Wherefore Gird up the loyns of your mind be sober and hope to the End for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the Revelation of Iesus Christ. THe great error of Mans mind and the cause of all his Errors of Life is the diverting of the soul from God and turning down-ward to in feriour confidences and comforts and this mischoyce is the very root of all our miseries therefore the maine end of the holy word of God is to untye the hearts of Men from the world and reduce them To God as their onely rest and solid comfort and this is here the Apostles mark at which all the preceeding discourse aimes it all meets and terminates in this exhortation Wherefore gird up the loyns of your mind c. In the words are those 3 things 1. the great stay and comfort of the soul which the Apostle repeats and represents to his afflicted brethren 2. his Exciting them to the right apprehension and confident Expectation of it 3. the Inference of that Exhortation The matter of their comfort is the grace which is brought to them at the Revelation of Iesus Christ. some for grace read joy having as it seem's for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the words are not more near one to an other than the things they signify Grace and joy but ' its most commonly thus read The estate of Grace and that of glory are not onely so inseparably connexed but so like one to the other yea so essentialy the same that the same expressions in scripture do often fit both of them and so fit them that it is doubtfull for which of the two to understand them but the hazard is not great seeing they are so near and so one grace being glory begun and glory grace compleated both often called the Kingdom◠of God So grace here brought to them is either the doctrine of grace in the Gospel wherein Jesus Christ is reveal'd and that Grace in him for all the whole tenour of the Covenant of Grace and every Clause of it holds in him His precious name runs throw it all 't is the Grace of salvation to be fully perfected at the last and clearest Revelation of Jesus Christ and for this rather I take it here for that the Apostles nearest foregoing words were concerning that and it is set up here as the object of hope which though often put for faith yet in its proper notion looks out to that which is to come This is the last act of Grace and yet still it is called by it self and not turn'd into the name of merit notwithstanding all the obedience and all the sufferings of the Saints that have gone before it yea even the salvation to be revealed to them is called Grace but 't is needless to insist on this for certainly none that partake of Grace will be of another mind or ever admit the mixture of the least notion of self deserving Though much dispute hath been bestow'd on this and Questions multiplying in the disputants hands as is usuall in Controversies one growing out of another yet truely I think the debate in this to be but waste 't is not onely against the voyce of the scriptures and of Grace it self in the soul but even against sound Reason to imagine any meriting properly taken in any mere Creature at his Creators hands who hath given him his being of which gift all his services and
so much and spake so many tongues yet I determined sayes he to know nothing among you save Iesus Christ and him Crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 And again he expresses this as the top of his Ambition that I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death That Conformity is this only knowledge He that hath his lusts unmortified and a heart unweaned from the World though he know all the history of the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ and can discourse well of them yet indeed he knows them not If you would increase much in holiness and be strong against the Tentations of sin this is the only art of it view much and so seek to know much of the death of Jesus Christ Consider often at how high a raâ—e we were redeem'd from sin and provide this answer for all the enticements of sin and the world except you can offer my soul something beyond that price that was given for it on the cross I cannot hearken to you Far be it from me will a Christian say that considers this Redemption that ever I should prefer a base lust or any thing in this World or it all to him that gave himselfe to death for me and payed my Ransom with his blood his matchless love hath freed me from the miserable Captivity of sin and hath for ever fastened me to the sweet yoke of his Obedience Let him alone to dwell and rule within me and let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to come down from the Cross. Verse 20. Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world but was manifest in these last times for you OF all those Considerations and there are many that may move Men to Obedience there is none that persuades both more sweetly and strongly then the sense of Gods goodness and mercy towards Men and amongst all the Evidences of that there is none like the sending and giving of his Son for Mans redemption therefore the Apostle having mentioned that insists further in it and in these words expresses the performance and the Application of it 1. The purpose or Decree foreknown but 't is well rendred fore ordained for this knowing is Decreeing and there is little either solid truth or profit in the distinguishing them We say usually that where there is little wisdom there is much chance and comparitively amongst Men some are far more foresighted and of further Reach then others yet the wisest and most provident Men both wanting skill to designe all things aâ—ight and power to act as they contrive meet with many unexpected Casualties and often Disappointments in their undertakings but with God where both wisdom and power are infinite there can be neither any Chance nor Resistance from without nor any Imperfection at all in the contrivance of things neither himself can give that cause to add or abate or alter any thing in the frame of his purposes The modell of the whole world and of all the course of time was with him one and the same from all Etenity and whatsoever is brought to pass is exactly answerable to that pattern for with him there is no change nor shaddow of turning Iam. 1.17 There is nothing dark to the father of lights he sets at one view through all things and all ages from the beginning of time to the end of it yea from Eternity to Eternity And this Inccomprehensible wisdom is too wonderfull for us we do but childishly stammer when we offer to speak of it It is no wonder that Men beat their own braines and knock their heads one against another in the contest of their opinions to little purpose in their severall Mouldings of Gods Decree Is not this to cut and square Gods thoughts to ours and Examine his Soveraign purposes by the low principles of Humane wisdom how much more learned then all such knowledge is the Apostles Ignorance when he crys out O the depth of the Riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out Rom. 11.33 Why then should any man dâ—bate what place in the series of Gods decree is to be assign'd to this purpose of sending his son in the flesh Let us rather seeing it is manifest that it was for the Redemption of lost Mankind admire that same Love of God to mankind that appears in that purpose of our recovery by the word made flesh that before Man had made himself miserable yea before either he or the world was made this thought of boundless love was in the bosome of God to send his son forth from thence to bring fallen Man out of misery and restore him to happiness and to do this not onely by taking on his nature but the curse to shift it off from us that were sunk under it and to bear it himself and by bearing it to take it away he laid on him the iniquity of us all And to this he was appointed says the Apostle Heb. 3 2. Before the foundation of the world This we understand by Faith that the world was framed by the word of God Although the Learned probably think it evincible by humane Reason yet some of those that have gloried most in that and are reputed generally masters of Reason have not seen it by that light therefore that we may have a divine belief of it we must learn it from the word of God and be persuaded of its truth by the spirit of God that the whole world and all things in it were drawn out of Nothing by his almighty power that is the onely Eternal and Increated being and therefore the fountain and source of being to all things Foundation In this word is clâ—ar the Resemblance of the world to a building and such a building it is as doth evidence the greatness of him that fram'd it so spacious Rich and comely so firm a foundation and rais'd to so high and stately a roofe and set it with variety of stars as with Jewels therefore call'd as some conceive it Psa. 8. the work of his fingers to express the curious artifice that appears in them Though Naturalists can give the reason of the earth's stability from its heaviness which stayes it necessarily in the lowest part of the world yet that abates nothing our admiring the wisdom and power of God in laying its foundation so and establishing it for it is his will that is the first cause of that its nature and hath appointed that to be the property of its heaviness to fix it there and therefore Iob alledeges this amongst the wonderfull works of God and evidences of his power that he hangeth the earth upon nothing Before there was Time or place or any Creature God the blessed Trinity was in himselfe and as the Prophet speaks inhabiting Eternity compleatly happy in himself but intending to manifest and communicate his goodness he
know this Stone is laid but see whether you are built on it by faith The multitude of imaginary believers ly round about it but they are never the better nor the surer for that no more than stones that ly loose in heaps near unto a foundation but are not joyned to 't there is no benefit to us by Christ without union with him No comfort in his riches without interest in them and title to them by that union then is the soul right when it can say He is altogether lovely and as the spouse there He is mine my welbeloved And this union is the spring of all Spiritual consolations and faith by which we are thus united is a divine work he that laid this foundation in Sion with his own hand works likewise with the same hand faith in the heart by which it is knit to this corner stone ' its not so easy a thing as we imagine to believe Eph. 1.19 Many that think they believe are amongst the others quite contrary that the Prophet there speaks of hardened in sin and carnally secure which he calls to be in covenant with hell and death walking in sin and yet promising themselves impunity 4. There is the firmness of this building Namely He that believeth on him shall not be Confounded This firmness is answerable to the nature of the foundation Not only the whole frame but every stone of it abideth sure 'T is a simple mistake to judge the perswasion of perseverance to be self-presumption they that have it are far from building it on themselves but their foundation is that which makes them sure because it doth not only remain firm it self but indissolubly supports all that are once built on it In the Prophet whence this is cited 't is shall not make hast but the sense is one they that are disappointed and ashamed in their hopes run to and fro and seek after some new recourse This they shall not need to do that come to Christ. The believing soul makes hast to Christ but it never finds cause to hasten from him and though the comfort it expects and longs for be for a time deferr'd yet it gives not over knowing that in due time it shall rejoyce and shall not have cause to blush and think shame of its confidence in him David expresseth this distrust by making haste Psal. 31.22 and 116.11 I was too hasty when I said so Hopes frustrated especially where they have been rais'd high and continued long do reproach Men with folly and so shame them And thus do all earthly hopes serve us when we lean much upon them We find these things usually that have promis'd us most content pay us with vexation not only prove broken reeds deceiving our trust but hurtful running their broken spinters into our hand that lean'd on them This sure Foundation is laid for us that our souls may be establish'd on it and be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed Such times may come as will shake all other supports but this holds out against all Psal. 46.2 Though the earth be removed yet will not we fear Though the frame of the World were cracking about a Mans ears he may hear it unaffrighted that is built on this Foundation Why then do we chuse to build upon the sand Believe it wheresoever we lay our confidence and affection besides Christ it shall once repent us and ashame us either hapily in time while we may change them for him and have recourse to him or miserably when 't is too late Remember that we must die and must appear before the Judgment Sent of God and that the things we dote on here have neither Power to stay us here nor have we power to take them along with us nor if we could would they at all profit us there and therefore when we look back upon them all at parting we shall wonder what fools we were to make so poor a Choyce and then in that great day wherein all faces shall gather blackness and be fill'd with confusion that have neglected to make Christ their stay when he was offer'd them then it shall appear how happy they are that have trusted in him they shall not be confounded but shall lift up their faces and be acquitted in him In their present estate they may be founded and exercis'd but they shall not be confounded nor ashamed a double negation in the Original by no means they shall in all be more than Conquerours through him that hath loved them Behold The last thing Obs. is in that first word importing this work to be great and remarkable and caullng the eyes to behold it The Lord is marvellous in the least of his works but in this he hath manifested more of his wisdom and power and let out more of his love to Mankind than in all the rest but we are foolish and childishly gaze about us upon trifles and let this great work pass unregarded scarce afford it half an Eye Turn your wandring Eyes this way Look upon this precious Stone and behold him not in mere speculation but so behold him as to lay hold on him For we see he is therefore here set forth that we may believe on him and so not be confounded that we may attain this blessed union that cannot be dissolv'd all other unions are dissoluble A Man may be pluckt from his dwelling House and Lands or they from him though he have never so good title to them may be removed from his dearest friends the Husband from the Wife if not by other accidents in their lifetime yet sure by death the great dissolver of all those unions and of that straitest of the Soul with the Body but it can do nothing against this union but perfects it for I am perswaded sayes St. Paul that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principallities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to sâ—perate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. There is a twofold mistake concerning faith 1st They that are altogether void of it abusing and flattering themselves in a vain opinion that they have it and on the other side they that have it mis-judging their own Condition and so prejudging themselves of much comfort and sweetness that they might find in their believing The former is the worse and yet the far commoner evil and as one sayes of Wisdom 't is true of Faith Many would seek after it and attain it if they did not falsly imagine that they have attained it already There is nothing more contrary to the lively nature of Faith than for the soul not to be at all busied with the thoughts of its own Spiritual condition and yet this very character of unbelief passes with a great many for believing they doubt not that is indeed they consider not what they are their minds are not all in these things are not
put upon him and by giving him up to be crucified and then cast into the grave and a stone to be roll'd upon this Stone which they had so rejected that it might appear no more and so thought themselves sure But even from thence did he arise and became the head of the corner The disciples themselves spake you know very doubtfully of their former hopes We believ'd this had been he that would have delivered Israel but he corrected their mistake first by his word shewing them the true method of that great work Ought not Christ to suffer first these things And so enter into glory and then really by making himself known to them risen from the dead When he was from these rejected and lay lowest then was he nearest his exaltation as Ioseph in the prison was nearest his preferment And thus is it with the Church of Christ when 't is brought to the lowest desperatest condition then is deliverance at hand it prospers and gains in the event by all the practices of Men against it And as this corner stone was fitted to be so by the very rejection even so is it with the whole bulidâ—ng it rises the higher the more Men seek to demolish it 3. Their unhappiness that believe not is express'd in the other word He is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence because they will not be saved by him they shall stumble and fall and be broken to pieces on him as it is in Esay and in the Evangelists But how is this is he that came to save become a destroyer of Men he whose name is salvation proves he destruction to any Not he in himself his primary and proper use is the former to be a foundation for souls to build and rest upon but they that in stead of building upon him will stumble and fall on him what wonder being so firm a stone though they be broken by their fall thus we see the mischief of unbelief that as other sins disable the Law it disables the very Gospel to save us and turns life it self into death to us And this is the misery not of a few but of many in Israel many that hear of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel shall lament that ever they heard that sound and shall wish to have liv'd and dyed without it finding so great an accession to their misery by the neglect of so great salvation They are said to stumble at the word because the things that are therein testified concerning Christ they labour not to understand and prize aright but either altogether slight them and account them foolishness or misconceive them and prevert them The Jews stumbled at the meaness of Christ's birth and life and the ignominy of his death not judging of him according to the Scriptures and we in another way think we have some kind of belief that he is the Savior of the world yet not making the Scripture the rule of our thoughts concerning him many of us undo our selves and stumble and break our necks upon this Rock mistaking Christ and the way of believing looking on him as a Saviour at large and judging that enough not endeavouring to make him ours and to embrace him upon the termes of that New-Covenant whereof he is Mediator Whereunto also they were appointed This the Apostle addes for the further satisfaction of Believers in this point how 't is that so many reject Christ and stumble at him Telling them plainly that the secret purpose of God is accomplish'd in this having determin'd to glorify his justice on impenitent sinners as he shews his rich mercy in them that believe Here it were easier to lead you into a deep than to lead you forth again I will rather stand on the shoar and silently admire it than enter into it This is certain that the thoughts of God are all no less just in themselves than deep and unsoundable by us His justice appears clear in that Mans destruction is alwayes the fruit of his own sin But to give causes of Gods decrees without himself is neither agreeable with the primitive being of the nature of God nor with the doctrine of the Scriptures this is sure that God is not bound to give us further account of these things and we are bound not to ask it Let these two words as S. Austin sayes answer all What art thou O man And O the depth Our only sure way to know that our names are not in that black line and to be perswaded that he hath chosen us to be saved by his Son is this to find that we have chosen him and are built on him by faith which is the fruit of his love that first chuseth us And that we may read in our esteem of him He is precious or your honour The difference is small you account him your glory and your gain he is not only precious to you but preciousness it self He is the thing that you make acount of your Jewel that if you keep though you be robb'd of all besides you know your selves rich enough To you that Believe Faith is absolutely necessary to make this due Estimat of Christ. 1. The most excellent things while their worth is undiscern'd and unkown affect us not Now faith is the proper seeing faculty of the soul in relation to Christ that inward light must be infus'd from above to make Christ visible to us without it though he is beautiful yet we are blind and therefore cannot love him for that beauty but by faith we are inabled to see him that is fairer than the Children of Men yea to see in him the glory of the only begotten Son of God and then it is not possible but to account him precious to bestow the entire affection of our hearts upon him And if any say to the Soul what is thy beloved more than another it willingly layes hold on the question and is glad of an opportunity to extoll him 2. Faith as it is that which discernes Christ so it alone appropriates him makes him our own And these are the two reasons of esteeming and affecting any thing it s own worth and our interest in it and faith begets this esteem of Christ by both 1. It discovers to us his excellencies that we could not see before 2. It makes him ours gives us possession of whole Christ all that he hath and is As it is faith that commends Christ so much and describes his comeliness in that song and withal that word is the voyce of faith that expresses propriety My Wellbeloved is mine and I am his and these together make him most precious to the soul having once possession of him then it looks upon all his sufferings as endur'd particularly for it and the benefit of them all as belonging to it self sure it will say can it chuse but account him precious that suffer'd shame that he might not be ashamed and suffered death that he might not die that
took that bitter cup of the father's wrath and drunk it out that he might be free from it Think not that you believe if your hearts be not taken up with Christ if his love do not possesse your soul so that nothing is precious to you in respect of him if you cannot despise and trample upon all advantages that either you have or would have for Christ and count them with the great Apostle loss and dung in comparison of him And if you do esteem him labour for increase of Faith that you may esteem him more for as Faith growes so will he still be more precious to you And if you would have it grow turn that Spiritual Eye frequently to him that 's the proper object of it for even they that are Believers may possibly abate of their love and esteem of Christ by suffering Faith to ly dead within them and not using it in beholding and applying of Christ And the World or some particular vanities may insensibly creep in and get into the heart and cost them much paines ere they can be thrust out again but when they are daily reviewing those excellencies that are in Christ which first perswaded their hearts to love him and discovering still more and more of them his Love will certainly grow and will chase away those follies that the World dotes upon as unworthy to be taken notice of Verse 9. But ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light IT is matter of very much both consolation and instruction to Christians to know their own Estate what they are as they are Christians This Epistle is much and often upon this point for both those ends both that the reflecting on their dignities in Christ may uphold them with comfort under suffering for him and may lead them in doing and walking as becomes such a condition Here it hath been represented to us by a building a Spiritual Temple and by a Priesthood conform to it The former is confirm'd and illustrated by testimonies of Scripture in the preceeding Verses In this the latter in these words tho 't is not expressly cited yet 't is clear that the Apostle here hath reference to Exod. 19.5 6. where this dignity of Priesthood together with the other titles here express'd is ascrib'd to all the chosen People of God 'T is there a promise made to the Nation of the Jewes but under the condition of obedience and therefore is most fitly here apply'd by the Apostle to the believing Jews to whom particularly he writes 'T is true that the external Priesthood of the Law is abolish'd by the coming of this great high Priest Jesus Christ being the body of all those shaddowes But this promis'd Dignity of Spiritual Priesthood is so far from being nulled by Christ that it is altogether dependant on him and therefore fails in those that reject Christ although they be of that Nation to which this Promise was made But it holds good in all of all Nations that believe and particularly sayes the Apostle 't is verified in you You that are believing Jewes by receiving Christ you receive withal this dignity As the Legal Priesthood was remov'd by Christs fulfilling all that it prefigur'd so he was rejected by them that were at his coming in possession of that Office as the standing of that their Priesthood was inconsistent with the revealing of Jesus Christ so they that were then in it being ungodly Men their carnal minds had a kind of antipathy against him though they pretended themselves builders of the Church and by their calling ought to have been so yet they threw away the foundation stone that God had chosen and design'd and in rejecting it manifest that they themselves are rejected of God but on the contrary You that have laid your soules on Christ by believing have this your chusing him as a certain evidence that God hath chosen you to be his peculiar People yea to be so dignified as to be a Kingly Priesthood through Christ. We have here 1. To Consider the estate of Christians in the words that here describe it 2. The opposition of it to the state of Unbelievers 3. The end of it A chosen Generation Psal. 24. The Psalmist there speaks first of Gods universal Soveraignty then of his peculiar choyce The earth is the Lords But there is a select company appointed for this holy Mountain describ'd and then clos'd thus This is the generation of them that seek him Thus Deut. 10.14 15. So Exod. 19.5 Whence this is taken for all the Earth is mine and that Nation which is a figure of the Elect of all Nations Gods peculiar beyond all others in the World As Men that have great variety of Possessions yet have usually their special delight in some one beyond all the rest and chuse to recide most in it and bestow most expence on it to make it pleasant Thus doth the Lord of the whole earth chuse out to himself from the rest of the World a number that are a chosen generation Chusing here is the work of effectual calling or severing of Believers from the rest for it signifies a difference in their present estate as the other words joyned with it But this election is altogether conform to that of Gods Eternal Decree and is no other but the execution or performance of it Gods framing of this his building just according to the Idea of it which was in his mind and purpose before all time The drawing forth and investing of such into this Christian this Kingly Priesthood whose names were expresly written up for it in the Book of life Generation This imports them to be of one race or stock as the Israelites who were by outward calling the chosen of God were all the seed of Abraham according to the flesh So they that believe in the Lord Jesus are Children of the Promise and all of them by their new birth one People or Generation they are of one Nation belonging to the same blessed Land of Promise all Citizens of the new Ierusalem yea all Children of the same family whereof Jesus Christ the root of Iesse is the stock who is the great King and the great high Priest and thus they are a Royal Priesthood there is no devolving of his Royalty or Priesthood on any other as it is in himself for his proper dignity is Supreme and incommunicable and there is no succession in his Order he lives for ever and is Priest for ever Psal. 110.4 and King for ever too Psal. 45.6 but they that are descended from him do derive from him by that new original this double dignity in that way that they are capable of it to be likewise Kings and Priests as he is both They are of the Seed-Royal and of the holy seed of the Priesthood in as much as they partake of a new