thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkenesse be as the noone day then thy waters shall not lye unto thee that happinesse which it falsly promiseth unto other men it shall performe unto thee And so much be spoken touching the great disproportion between the Soule of man and the Creature in regard of the Vanitie of it The next disproportion is in their Operation They are vexing and molesting things Rest is the satisfaction of every Creature all the rovings and agitations of the Soule are but to find out something on which to rest and therefore where there is Vexation there can be no proportion to the soule of man and Salomon tels us That All things under the Sunne are full of labour more then a man can utter He was not used as an Instrument of the Holy Ghost to speake it onely but to trie it too the Lord was pleased for that very purpose to conferre on him a confluence of all outward happinesse and inward abilities which his very heart could desire that he at last might discover the utter insufficiency of all created Excellencies to quiet the Soule of man But if we will not beleeve the Experience of Salomon let us beleeve the authority of him that was greater then Salomon who hath plainely compar'd the things and the cares of the earth to Thornes which as the Apostle speakes Pierce or bore a man thorough with many sorrowes First They are Wounding Thornes for that which is but a pricke in the flesh is a wound in the spirit because the spirit is most tender of smart and the wise man cals them Vexation of spirit The Apostle tels us they beget many sorrowes and those sorrowes bring death with them If it were possible for a man to see in one view those oceans of bloud which have been let out of mens veines by this one Thorne to heare in one noise all the groanes of those poore men whose lives from the beginning of the world unto these dayes of blood wherein we live have been set at sale and sacrificed to the unsatiable ambition of their bloody rulers to see and heare the endlesse remorse and bitter yellings of so many rich and mighty men as are now in hell everlastingly cursing the deceite and murther of these earthly Creatures it would easily make every man with pitty and amazement to beleeve that the Creatures of themselves without Christ to qualifie their venome and to blunt their edge are in good earnest Wounding Thornes Secondly they are Choaking Thornes they stifle and keepe downe all the gratious seeds of the word yea the very naturall sproutings of noblenesse ingenuity morality in the dispositions of men Seed requires emptinesse in the ground that there may be a free admission of the raine and influences of the heavens to cherish it And so the Gospell requires nakednesse and poverty of minde a sense of our owne utter insufficiencie to our selves for happinesse in which sense it is said that the poore receive the Gospel But now earthly things meeting with corruption in the heart are very apt First To Fill it and secondly To Swell it both which are conditions contrary to the preparations of the Gospell They Fill the Heart First with Businesse Yokes of oxen and farmes and wives and the like contentinents take up the studies and delights of men that they cannot finde out any leisure to come to Christ. Secondly They Fill the Heart with Love and the Love of the world shuts out the Love of the father as the Apostle speakes When the Heart goes after covetousnesse the power and obedience of the word is shut quite out They will not do thy words saith the Lord to the Prophet for their heart goeth after their covetousnesse A deare and superlative Love such as the Gospell ever requires for a man must love Christ upon such termes as to bee ready without consultation or demurre not to forsake onely but to hate father and mother and wife and any the choisest worldly endearments for his Gospels sake I say such a Love admits of no Corrivalty or competition And therfore the love of the world must needs extingvish the love of the word Lastly they fill the heart with feare of forgoing them and feare takes of the heart from any thoughts save those which looke upon the matter of our feare when men who make Gold their Confidence heare that they must forsake all for Christ and are sometimes haplie put upon a triall they start aside choose rather securely to enjoy what they have present hold of then venture the interuption of their carnall contentments for such things the beauty where of the Prince of this world hath blinded their eyes that they should not see For certainly till the minde be setled to beleeve that in God there is an ample recompence for any thing which wee may otherwise forgoe for him it is impossible that a man should soundly embrace the love of the truth or renounce the love of the world Secondly as They Fill so they Swell the Heart too and by that meanes worke in it a contempt and disestimation of the simplicity of the Gospell We have both together in the Prophet According to their pasture so were they Filled they were filled and their heart was Exalted therefore have they forgotten me Now the immediate child of Pride is selfe-dependence and a reflection on our owne sufficiencie and from thence the next issue is a contempt of the simplicity of that gospell which would drive us out of our selves The Gentiles out of the pride of their owne wisedome counted the Gospell of Christ foolishnesse and mocked those that preached it unto them and the Pharisees who were the learned Doctors of Ierusalem when they heard Christ preach against earthlie affections out of their pride and covetousnesse Derided him as the Evangelist speakes Nay further they stifle the seeds of all noblenesse ingenuity or common vertues in the lives of men from whence come oppression extortion bribery cruelty rapine fraud iniurious treacherous sordid ignoble courses a very dissolution of the Lawes of nature amongst men but from the adoration of earthly things from that Idol of covetousnesse which is set up in the heart Thirdly they are Deceitfull Thornes as our Saviour expresseth it Let a man in a tempest go to a thorne for shelter and he shall light upon a thiefe in stead of a fence which will teare his flesh in stead of succouring him and doe him more injury then the evill which he fled from and such are the Creatures of themselves so farre are they from protecting that indeed they tempt and betray us The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the Clefts of the Rockes thou that sayest in thine heart Who shall bring me downe I will bring thee downe saith the Lord to Edom. Lastly they are vanishing Thornes nothing so apt nothing so easie to catch fire and be
cares not for the things of this World because he is in Law dead and so reserv'd to an execution and utterly devested of any right in the things hee was wont to delight in the sight or remembrance of them doth but afflict him the more A divorc'd man cares not for the things of his wife because in law she is dead vnto him and hee unto her So should it bee with us and sin because we are dead with Christ therefore we should shew it no affection Thirdly Deadnesse argues liberty unsubjection justification He that is dead is freed from sinne as the woman is from the husband after death And therefore being freed thus from sinne we should not bring our selves into bondage againe but stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath set us free and sinne should appeare in our eyes as it is in it selfe a dead thing full of noisomenesse horrour and hideous qualities We therefore should labour to shew forth the power of the death of Christ in our dying to sinne for this is certaine we have no benefit by his sufferings except we have fellowship in them we have no more fellowship in them then we can give proofe of by our dying dayly to sinne For his blood clenseth from all sinne Let us not by raigning sinne Crucifie Christ againe for he dieth no more In that hee died hee died once unto sinne Death hath no more power ovâ—…r him to shew that sinne must have no more power over us but that being once dead to sinne we should thenceforth live unto him that died for us There is a speech in Tertullian which though proceeding from Novatianisme in him doth yet in a moderated and qualified sense carry the strength of the Apostles argument in it Si possit fornicatio moechia denno admitti poterit Christus denno mori If fornication and adultery may bee againe committed by a man dead to sinne in that raging and complete manner as before if raigning sinne after it hath beene ejected out of the Throne and nail'd to a Crosse can returne to its totall and absolute soveraigntie as before Christ may dye againe for the sinnes of a Iustified and regenerate man are Crucified upon his Crosse and in his body Now I proceede to the maine thing in the Text namely the Regall power of sinne It is an observation of Chrysostome and Theodoret on the Text which though by some rejected as too nice I shall yet make bold to commend for very pertinent and rationall The Apostle did not say say they Let not sinne Tyrannize for that is sius owne worke and not ours as the Apostle sayeth Now then is it no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me all the service which is done to a tyrant is out of violence and not out of obedience But he sayes Let it not raigne in you for to the raigne of a King the obedience of the Subjects doth as it were Actively concurre whereas the subjects are rather patients then agents in a tyranny So then in a Raigning King there is a more Soveraigne power then in a Tyrant for a Tyrant hath only a Coactive power over the persons but a King hath a sweete power over the wills and affections of his Subiects they freely and heartily love his person and rejoyce in his service which rule though it be not perpetuall in the letter and in civill governements for the unwillingnesse of a people to serve a Prince may not onely arise from his tyrannie but even when he is just and moderate from their owne rebellion yet it is most generall and certaine in the state of sinne which is never a King over rebellious subjects who of themselves reject its yoke and governement For the better discovery then of the power of sinne we must note first that there are but three wayes after which sinne may be in a man First as an usurping Tyrant and seditious commotioner either by surprizall invading or by violence holding under or by projects circumventing a man against his will taking advantage of some present distemper of minde or difficultie of estate as in David of idlenesse in Peter of teare and danger or the like And thus sinne doth often incroach upon the Saints of God and play rhe Tyrant use them like Captives that are sold under the power of sinne It was thus a Tyrant in Saint Paul we reade of him that hee was sold under sinne and wee read of Ahab that hee was sold to sinne but with great difference the one sold himselfe and so became willingly the servant of sinne the other was sold by Alam from which bondage hee could not utterly extricate himselfe though hee were in bondage to sinne as the Creatures are to vanity not willingly but by reason of his act that had subjected him long before Secondly As a stâ—…ve a Gibeonite or Tributarie Cananite as a spoyled mortified crucified dying decaying sinne like the house of Saul growing weaker and weaker and thus sinne is constantly in all the faithfull while they are iâ—… the field the chaste is about them Thirdly As a raging and commanding King having a throne the heart servants the members a counsell the world flesh and Divell a complete armorie of lusts and temptations fortifications of ignorance malice rebellion fleshly reasonings lawes and edicts lastly a strict judicature a wise and powerfull rule over men which the Scriptures call the gates of Hell And of the Power of this King we are to speake In a King there is a Two fold Power A Power to command and a Power to make his commands be obeyed Sinne properly hath no power to command because the kingdome of it is no way subordinated to Gods Kingdome over us but stands up against it And even in just and annointed kings there is no power to command any thing contrary to that Kingdome of Christ to which they are equally with other subject But though sinne have not a just power to command the soule yet it hath that upon which that power where it is is grounded namely a kinde of Title and right over the soule Sinne is a spirituall Death and man by his first fall did incurre a subjection to every thing which may be called Death so that then a man did passe into the possession of sinne whence that phrase spoken of before Thou hast sold thy selfe to worke evill Now Quod venditur transit in potestatem ementis when a thing is sold it passeth into the possession of that to which it is sold. This is the covenant or bargaine betweene a Sinner and Hell Man purchaseth the pleasures and wages of sinne and sinne takes the possession of man possession of his nature in Originall sinne and possession of his life in Actuall sinne The tryall of this title of sinne that wee may discerne whether we are under it or no must be as other Titles are we must first
Divels to confesse him and God will have sinne to be felt and seene but as a dutie not as a temptation in his owne Word not in Satans false glasses to draw us unto him not to drive or deterre us from him When the spirit convinceth of sinne it is to amend us but when Satan doth it it is onely to affright and confound us And commonly hee drives to one sinne to cover another Againe the spirit opens sinne in the soule as a Chirurgian doth a wound in a close roome with fire friends and remedies about him but the divell first draw's a man from the Word from Christ from the promises and then strips the soule and opens the wounds thereof in the cold aire onely to kill and torment not to cure or releeve In such a case therefore the Soule should lay the faster hold upon Christ and when there is no light should trust upon the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Thirdly In spirituall desertions exercise faith to see God when Hee is absent goe into the watch Tower review thine owne and other mens experiences of Gods dealing resolve to trust him though he kill thee resolve to cleave to him as Elisha to Eliah though he offer to depart from thee resolve to venture upon him when he seemes angrie and arm'd against thee resolve to runne after him when hee hath forsaken thee endure rather his blowes then his absence therefore he removes that thou shouldst crie after him therefore he hides from thee not that thou shouldst lose him but onely that thou shouldest seeke him And there is most comfort in a life recovered Difficulties sweeten our fruition and there is a fulnesse in Chtist which will at last be an ample reward of all preceding discomforts Secondly the life which we have by Christ is a plenteous and aboundant life I am come saith he that they might have Life and that they might have it more aboundantly Hee that beleeveth on mee out of his bellie shall flow rivers of living water like the waters of Ezekiels vision which swelled from the ancles to the loynes and from thence to an unpassable Streame So the Apostle saith that the Lord had shed forth the spirit aboundantly in the renewing of his Saints And it is an observation which you may easily make that sundrie times in the Apostles writings the Graces of the Gospell are called the riches of Christ and the riches of his Grace and the riches of his mysterie and the riches of his Glory and the riches of his reproaches and the treasure of a good heart By all which is expressed the pretiousnes and the aboundance of the Spirit which wee have from the Life of Christ. Therefore the Spirit is compared unto water and that not onely to sprinkle and bedew men but to wash and baptise them ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost As water knowes no bounds within it selfe is onely limited by the vessell which holds it so the Spirit is of a very spreading and unlimited propertie it selfe and is onely straitned by the narrownesse of those hearts unto which it comes Yee are not straitned in us saith the Apostle or in our ministery wee preach aboundance of Grace unto you but ye are straitned in your owne bowels you are like narrow mouthed vessels though floudes of knowledge fall downe The Earth shall bee full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea yet but drops fall in This is a great grieving of the Spirit of Life and indignitie done to the springing and abounding vertue which he brings for us by our supinnes and securitie to damme up this fountaine to let this garden of spices be over growne with weedes to nippe stifle and keepe under the Graces of Christ not to receive a proportionable measure of growth to those meanes and influences which hee affords us Lastly the Life which we have from Christ is a Safe an Abiding an Eternall Life the longer it continues the more it aboundes It is such a life as runnes not into death Our earthly life is indeede but a dying and decaying life but our Spirituall life is a growing life It is called in the Scripture our abiding in Christ to note that our estate in him is a fixed constant and secure estate Life can End in Death but upon two reasons either by an inward principle and proponsion carrying it through slow and insensible progresses to a dissolution or by the assaults and violence of outward oppositions either it must be a naturall or a violent death Now the life which we have from Christ hath no seedes of mortalitie in it selfe because it comes from Christ and as hee saw no corruption so nothing that riseth from him doth of it selfe tend to corruption for Christ dyeth no more death hath no more power over him He now liveth ever not onely by himselfe but over his members not onely as man but as a member of his owne Bodie which Body of it selfe and as it is His Body in that Spirituall and Heavenly Constitution and under that denomination can no more die then Christ suffer againe For the Body of Christ quà tale hath no seedes of corruption in it from him For the Apostle saith that the seede by which we are regenerated is Incorruptible seede All the danger then must be from forren assault and externall violence But against all this we have the power and strength of Christ himselfe to oppose He is able to save to the uttermost those that come unto God by Him Let us consider more particularly the violences which may be offered to our Life in Christ. First the world assaults us with manifold tepmtations On the left hand with skorne misreports persecutions and cruell mockings with Giants and sonnes of Anak On the right hand with allurements objects promises dalliances and 〈◊〉 with midianitish women How shall wee secure our lives against such a siege of snares Our Saviour quiets us in that case be of good cheere I have overcome the World Alas may the Soule answere If Sampson should have seene a little childe under the paw of a Lion and should thus comfort him be of good cheare for I have overcome a Lion what safety or assurance could hence arise to him who had not the strength of Sampson But wee must know that Christ overcame not for himselfe but for us and as hee hath overcome the world for us so he doth it In us likewise by his Grace This is the victorie which overcommeth the World even your Faith Secondly nay but Sathan is a more powerfull subtill deepe wilie working adversarie then the world Where shall I have protection and securitie against him I answere in that promise to man and curse to the Serpent The seede of the woman shall bruize thy head and thou shalt bruize his heele He thy Head Hee shall teare out thy sting and crush thy
on high and hath given gifts unto Men as absent lovers send tokens to each other to attract the affections and call thither the thoughts If Christ would have had our hearts rest on the earth He would have continued with us here but it is his Will that we be where He is and therefore we must make it the maine businesse of our life to move towards him Things of a nature encline to one another even to their prejudice A stone will fall to his center though there be so many rubbes in the way that it is sure to bee broken all to peeces in the motion The same should be a Christians resolution Christ is his Center and Heaven is his Country and therefore thither hee must conclude to goe notwithstanding he must be broken in the way with manifold temptations and afflictions Saint Paul desired if it had been possible to be clothed upon and to have his mortalitie swallowed up of life and to get whole to Heaven But if he may not have it upon so good termes hee will not onely confidently endure but desire to be dissolved and broken in pieces that by any meanes he may come to Christ because that being best of all will be an aboundant recompence for any intercurrent damage It is not a losse but a marriage and honour for a woman to forsake her owne kindred and house to go to a husband neither is it a losse but a preferment for the soule to relinquish for a time the bodie that it may goe to Christ who hath married it unto himselfe for ever And the fellowship of his sufferings This fellowship notes two things First A participation in the benefits of his Sufferings Secondly A Conformity of ours to his First His Sufferings are Ours we were buried and Crucified with him and that againe notes two things First we communicate in the Price of Christs Death covering the guilt of sinne satisfying the wrath of God and being an Expiation and propitiation for us Secondly in the Power of his Death cleansing our Consciences from dead workes mortifying our earthly members crucifying our old man subduing our iniquities and corruptions pulling downe the throne of Satan spoiling him of all his armor and destroying the workes of the Divell And this power worketh first by the propheticall office of Christ Revealing secondly by his Regall office applying and reaching forth the power of his bloud to subdue sinne as it had before triumphed over death and Satan But here the maine point and question will be what this mighty power of the Death of Christ is thus to kill sinne in us and wherein the Causality thereof Consisteth To this I answere that Christs Death is a threefold Cause of the death of sinne in his members First It is Causa meritoria A meritorious Cause For Christs death was so great aprice that it did deserve at Gods hand to have our sinnes subdued All power and Iudgement was given unto him by his father and that power was given him to purchase his Church withall And this was amongst other of the covenants that their sinnes should be Crucified He gave himselfe unto Gods Iustice for his Church and that which by that gift he purchased was the sanctification cleansing of it Now as a price is said to doe that which a man doth by the power which that price purchased so the bloud of Christ is said to cleanse us because the office or power whereby he purifieth us was Conferd upon him Sub intuitu pretij under the condition of suffring For it was necessarie that remission and purification should be by bloud Secondly it is Causa exemplaris The death of Christ was the Exemplar pattern and Idea of our Death to sin He did beare our sinnes in his Body on the tree to shew that as his Body did naturally so sinne did by analogie and legally dye Therefore the Apostle saith that he was made sinne for us to note that not onely our persons were in Gods accompt Crucified with him unto Iustification but that sinne it selfe did hang upon his Crosse with him unto monification and holinesse In which respect Saint Paul saith That he condemned sinne in the flesh because he died as sinne in Abstracto And in this regard of morâ—…ification wee are said to be planted in the likenesse of Christs Death because as when an Ambassador doth solemnize the marriage of his king with a forraine princesse that is truely effected betweene the parties themselves which is transacted by the agent and representative person to that purpose and service authoâ—… so Christ being made sinne for us as the Sacrifice had the sinnes of the people emptied upon him and in that relation Dying sinne it selfe likewise dieth in us And there is a proportion betweene the Death of the Crosse which Christ died and the Dying of sinne in us Christ died as a Servant to note that sinne should not rule but be brought into slaverie and bondage He died a Curse to note that wee should loke upon sinne as an accursed and devoted thing and therefore should not with Achan hide or reserve any He Dranke vinegar on his Crosse to note that wee should make sinne feele the sharpnesse of Gods displeasure aginst it he was fast naild unto the Crosse to note that wee should put sinne out of ease and leave noe lust or Corruption at large but crucifie the whole body thereof Lastly though he did not presently die yet there he did hang till he died to note that wee should never give over subduing sinne while it hath any life or working in us Thus the Death of Christ is the patterne of the death of sinne Thirdly It is Causa Obiectiva an Impelling or moving cause as Obiects are For Obiects have an Attractive Power Achaâ—… saw the wedge of gold and then Coveted it David saw Bathshâ—…ba and then desired her Therefore the apostle mentions Lusts of the Eye which are kindled by the Things of the world As the strength of imagination fixing upon a blackemooâ—…e on the wall made the woman bring forth a blacke child so there is â—… kinde of spirituall Imaginative power in faith to crucifie sinne by looking upon Christ Crucified As the Brasen Serpent did heale those who had been bitten by the fierie serpents 〈◊〉 obiectum fides meerly by being looked upon so Christ Crucified doth heale sin by being looked upon with the eyâ—… of faith Now faith lookes upon Christ crucified and bleeding First as the gift of his fathers love as a token and spectacle of more unsearchable and transcendent mercie then the comprehension of the whole hoast of Angels can reach unto And hereby the heart is ravished with love againe and with a gratefull desire of returning all our time parts powers services unto him who spared not the sonne of his owne love for us Secondly It looketh on him As a sacrifice for Sinne and Expiation thereof to
Gods Iustice and hereby the heart is framed to an humble feare of reproaching voiding nullifying unto it selfe the Death of Christ or by Continuance in sinne of crucifying the Lord Iesus againe It is made more distinctly in the sufferings of Christ to know that infinite guilt and hellish filthinesse which is in sinne which brought so great a punishment upon so great a person And hereupon groweth to a more serious Hatred thereof and carefulnessâ—… against it as being a greater enemie unto his Iesus then Iudas that betraid or the Pharisees that accuâ—…ed or the souldiers that Crucified him as being more sharpe to the soule of Christ then the nailes or speares that pierced his sacred body How shall I dare thinkes the faithfull soule to live in those sinnes by which I may as truely be denominated a betrayer and Crucifier of him that saved mee as Iudas or Pilate were Thirdly It lookes on him as Our Forerunnerinto Glorie whither he Eâ—…tred not but by away of bloud From whence the heart easily concludes if Christ Entred not into his own glory but by suffering how shall I enter into that glory which is none of mine if I shed not the bloud of my lusts and take order to Crucifie all them before I goe So then none can Conclude that Christ died for him who findes not himselfe Set against the life of sinne within him in whom the body of Corruption is not so lesned as that it doth no more â—…ule to wast his conscience or enrage his heart If a man grow worse and worse his heart more hard his Conscience more senselesse his resolutions more desperate his â—…are more dead his courses more carâ—…all and worldly then before certainely the fellowship and vertue of the bloud of Christ hath hitherto done little good to such a man And what a wofull thing is it for a man to live and die in an estate much more miserable then if there never had beene any Iesus given unto men For that man who hath heard of Christ at whose heart he hath knocked unto whose Conscience he hath beene revealed and yet never beleeveth in him unto righteousnesse or sanctification but lives and dies in his filthinesse shall be punished with a farre sorer Condemnation then those of Tyre Sydon or Sodome that knew nothing of him O then let us labour to shew forth the power of Christs Death and that he died not in vaine unto us Though wee cannot yet totally kill yet let us crucifie our corruptions weaken their vigor abate their rage dispossesse them of the throne in our hearts put them unto shame and in as much as Christ hath Suffered for sinne let us cease from sinne and live the rest of our time not to the will of the flesh nor to the lusts of men but to the will of God The second part of our fellowship in sufferings with Christ is the conformitie of ours to His. In all our afflictions he is afflicted and Saint Paul cals His sufferings the filling up of that which is behinde of the afflictions of Christ. Not as if Christs sufferings were imperfect for By one offering Heâ—… hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified But as Christ hath Personall sufferings iâ—… corpore proprio in His humane Body as Mediator which once for ever He finished So He hath generall sufferings in corpâ—…re mystico in His Church as a member with the rest Now of these sufferings of the Church we must note that they have no conformitie with Christs in these two things First not in Officio in the office of Christs sufferings for His were meritorious aâ—…d satisfactorie Ours onely miniâ—…teriall and for edification Secondly not in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in the weight and measure of them not so bitter heavie and wofull as Christs were For the sufferings of Christ vpon any other Creature would have crushed him as low as Hell and swallowed him up for ever In other respects there is a conformitie of our sufferings to Christs so that He esteemeth them His. Our sufferings are First such as wee draw upon our selves by our owne folly and even in these afflictions which Christ as the King â—…ver His people inflicâ—…eth upon them yet as their Head and fellow member Hee compassionateth and as it were smarteth with them For Christ is so full of tendernesse and so acquainted with sorrowes that wee may justly conceive Him touched with the feeling of those paines which yet He Himselfe seeth needefull for them Secondly such as are by God imposed for triall and exercise of those graces which himselfe gives and in these we have a twofold Communion and conformitie to Christ First By association Christ giveth us His Spirit to draw in the same yoke with us and to hold us under them by His strength That Spirit of Holynesse by which Christ overcame his sufferings helpeth our infirmities in ours Secondly in the manner of undergoing them with a proportion of that meeknes and patience which Christ shewed in His sufferings Thirdly such as are casâ—… upon us by the injuries of Satan and wicked men And these also beare conformitie unto Christs as in the two former respects so thirdly in the cause of them for it is Christ only whom in his members Satan and â—…he world doe persecute All the enmitie that is betweene them is because of the seede of the woman If Christ were now amongst us in the fashion of a servant and in a low condition as once he was should convince men of their wickednesse as searchingly as once he did Hee would doubtlesse be the most hated man upon the Earth Now that Hee is conceived of as God in glory men deale with him as Ioaâ—… with Abner they kisse and flatter him in the outward profession of His Name and Worship and they stabbe and persecute Him in the hatred of His wayes and members And this is the principall reason why so many stand of from a through embracing of Christ and his wayes because when they are indeede in His body they must goe His way to Heaven which was a way of suffering They that will live godly in Christ Iesus must suffer persecution and be by wicked men esteemed as signes and wonders to bee spoken against and that not onely amongst pagans and professed enemies to the Truth but even in Israel and amongst those who externally make the same profession But this should comfort us in all our sufferings for Christs sake and for our obedience to His Gospell that wee drinke of our masters owne Cuppe that wee fill up that which is wanting of His afflictions that Christ Himselfe was called a Samaritane a Divell a wine-bâ—…bber entrapped spied snared slaine and Hee who is now our Captaine to leade us will hereafter be our Crowne to reward us wee may safely looke upon Christs issue and know it to bee ours First wee have Christs fellowship in them and if it were possible
expose as few of thy affections to the rage of worldly lust as may be beware of being carried where two seas meet as the ship wherein Paul suffer'd shipwracke I meane of plunging thy selfe in a confluence of many boisterous and conflicting businesses least for thine inordinate prosecution of worldly things the Lord either give thy Soule over to suffer shipwracke in them or strip thee of all thy lading and tackling breake thine estate all to pieces and make thee glad to get to Heaven upon a broken planke 3. The fashion of this world passeth over it doth but goe along by thee and salute thee and therefore use it as if thou used'st it not doe to it as thou would'st doe to a stranger whom thou meetest in the way he goes one way and thou another salute him stay so long in his companie till from him thou have received better instructions touching the turnings and difficulties of thine owne way but take heed thou turne not into the way of the Creature least thou lose thine owne home Secondly Get an Eye of Faith to looke Through and Above the Creature A man shall never get to looke of from the world till he can looke beyond it For the Soule will have hold-fast of something and the reason why men cling so much to the earth is because they have no assurance if they let goe that hold of having any subsistence else-where Labour therefore to get an interest in Christ to finde an everlasting footing in the stedfastnesse of Gods Promises in him and that will make thee willing to suffer the losse of all things it will implant a kinde of hatred and disestimation of all the most pretious endearements which thy soule did feede upon before Saint Peter saith of wicked men that they are Purblinde they cannot see a farre off they can see nothing but that which is next them and therefore no marvell if their thoughts cannot reach unto the End of the Creature There is in a dimme eye the same constant and habituall indisposition which sometimes happeneth unto a sound eye by reason of a thicke mist though a man be walking in a very short lane yet he sees no end of it and so a naturall man cannot reach to the period of earthly things death and danger are still a great way out of his sight whereas the eye of faith can looke upon them as already expiring and through them looke upon him who therefore gives the Creatures unto us that in them we might see his power and taste his goodnesse And nature it selfe me thinkes may seeme to have intended some such thing as this in the very order of the Creatures Downeward a mans eye hath something immediately to fixe on All is shut up in darkenesse save the very surface to note that we should have our desires shut up too from these earthly things which are put under our feete and hid from our eyeâ— and buried in their owne deformitie All the beauty and all the fruit of the earth is placed on the very outside of it to shew how short and narrow our affections should be towards it But upward the eye sindes scarce any thing to bound it all is transparant and dâ—…aphanous to note how vast our affections should be towards God how endlesse our thoughts and desires of his kingdome how present to our faith the heavenly things should be even at the greatest distance The Apostle saith That Faith is the Substance of things hoped for that it gives being and present subsistency to things farre distant from us makes those things which in regard of naturall causes are very remote in regard of Gods Promises to seeme hard at hand And therefore though there were many hundred yeeres to come in the Apostles time and for ought we know may yet be to the dissolution of the world yet the Apostle tels us that even then it was the last houre because faith being able distinctly to see the truth and promises of God and the Endlesnesse of that life which is then presently to be revealed the infinite excesse of vastnesse in that made that which was otherwise a great space seeme even as nothing no more in comparison then the length of a Cane or Trunke through which a man lookes on the heavens or some vast countrey And ever the greater magnitude and light there is in a body the smaller will the medium or distance seeme from it the reason why a perspective glasse drawes remote objects close to the eye is because it multiplies the species We then by faith apprehending an infinite and everlasting Glory must needs conceive any thing through which we looke upon it to be but short vanishing And therfore though the promises were a farre off in regard of their owne existence yet the Patriarkes did not onely see but embrace them their faith seem'd to nullifie and swallow up all the distance Abraham saw Christs day and was glad he looked upon those many ages which were betweene him and his promised seed as upon small aâ—…d unconsiderable distances in comparison of that endlesse glory into which they ran they were but as a curten or piece of hangings which divide one roome in a house from another Labour therefore to get a distinct view of the height and length and breadth and depth and the unsearchable love of God in Christ to find in thine own soule the truth of God in his promises that his word abideth forever and that will make all the glory of other things to seeme but as grasse Lastly though the Creature be mortall in it selfe yet in regard of man as it is an Instrument serviceable to his purposes and subordinate to the graces of God in him it may bee made of use even for Immortality To which purpose excellent is that speech of Holy Austin If you have not these earthly Goods saith he take heed how thou get them by evill workes here and if thou have them labour by good workes to hold them even when thou art gone to heaven Make you friends saith our Saviour of the unrighteous 〈◊〉 that when you faile they may receive you into everlasting habitations a religious and mercifull use of earthly things makes way to Immortalitie and Blessednesse Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many dayes thou shalt finde it It is an allusion unto husbandmen They doe not eate up and sell away all their corne for then the world would quickely bee destitute but the way they take to perpetuate the fruits of the earth is to cast some of it backe againe into a fruitfull soile where the waters come and then in due time they receive it with encrease so should we doe with these worldly blessings sow them in the bowels and backes of the poore members of Christ and in the day of harvest we shall finde a great encrease If then draw out thy soule to the righteous and satisfie the afflicted soule then shall
that is requir'd then as that Persian King who could not find out a Law to warrant the particular which hee would have done found out another That hee might doe what hee would so sinne when it hath no reason to alleage yet it hath Selfe-will that is all Lawes in one Gen. 49. 6. 2. Pet. 2. 10. Rom. 7. 23. In one word the strong man is furnished with a whole Armour Secondly sinne is a Husband Rom. 7. 1. 5. and so it hath the power of love which the wise Man saith is as strong as death that will have no deniall when it comes S. Paul tels vs there is a constraining power in love 2. Cor. 5. 14. Who stronger then Sampson and who weaker then a woman yet by love she overcame him whom all the Philistimes were unable to deale with Now as betweene a man and a strumpet so betweene lust and the heart there are first certaine cursed dalliances and treaties by alluring temptations the heart is drawne away from the sight of God and his Law and enticed and then followes the accomplishment of uncleannesse Iam. 1. 14. 15. This in the generall is that life or strength of sinne here spoken of Wee are next to observe that the ground of all this is the Law The sting of Death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law 1. Cor. 15. 56 1. Ioh. ◅ 4. from the Law it is that sinne hath both strength to condemne and to command us or have dominion over us Rom. 6. 14. Now the Law gives life or strength to sin three wayes First by the curse and obligation of it binding the soule with the guilt of sin unto the Iudgement of the great Day Every sinner hath the sentence past upon him already and in part executed He that beleeveth not is condemned already the wrath of God abideth on him All men come into the world with the wrath of God like a talent of lead upon their soule and it may all be pour'd out within one houre upon them there is but a span betweene them and judgement In which interim First the Law stops the mouth of a sinner Shuts him in and holds him fast under the guilt of his sinne Secondly it passeth sentence upon his soule sealing the assurance of condemnation and wrath to come Thirdly it beginneth even to put that sentence in execution with the spirit of bondage and of feare shaking the conscience wounding the spirit and scorching the heart with the pre-apprehensions of Hell making the soule see some portion of that tempest which hangeth over it rising out of that sea of sinne which is in his life and nature as the Prophets servant did the Cloud and so terrifying the soule with a certaine fearefull expectation of Iudgement Thus the Law strengthens sinne by putting into it a condemning power Secondly by the Irritation of the Law Sin tooke occasion saith the Apostle by the Law so by the commandement became exceeding sinnefull Rom. 7. 8. when lust finds it selfe universally restrain'd meets with Death and Hell at every turne can have no subterfuge nor evasion from the rigor and inexorablenesse of the Law then like a River that is stopt it riseth and fomes and rebels against the Law of the minde and fetcheth in all its force and opposition to rescue it selfe from that sword which heweth it in pieces And thus the Law is said to strengthen sinne not perse out of the Intention of the Law but by Accident antiperistasis exciting and provoking that strength which was in sinne before though undiscern'd and lesse operative For as the presence of an enemie doth actuate and call forth that malice which lay habitually in the heart before so the purity of the Law presenting it selfe to concupisence in every one of those fundamentall obliquities wherein it lay before undisturb'd and way laying the lust of the heart that it may have no passage doth provoke that habituall fiercenesse and rebellion which was in it before to lay about on all sides for its owne safety Thirdly by the conviction and manifestation of the Law laying open the widenesse of sinne to the conscience Man naturally is full of pride and selfe-love apt to thinke well of his spirituall estate upon presumptions and principles of his owne and though many professe to expect salvation frō Christ only yet in as much as they will be in Christ no way but their owne that shewes that still they rest in themselves for salvation This is that deceite and Guile of spirit which the scripture mentions which makes the way of a foole right in his owne eyes The Philosopher tells us of a Sea wherein by the hollownesse of the earth under it or some whirling and attractive propertie that sucks the vessell into it ships use to be cast away in the mid'st of a calme even so many mens soules doe gently perish in the mid'st of their owne securities and presumptions As the fish Polypus changeth himselfe into the colour of the Rock and then devoures those that come thither for shelter so doe men shape their mis-perswasions into a forme of Christ and faith in him and destroy themselves How many men rest in pharisaicall generalities plod on in their owne civilities moralities externall Iustice and unblameablenesse account any thing indiscretion and unnecessary strictnes that exceeds their owne modell every man in Hell that is worse then themselves I am not as this Publican and others that are better but in a fooles paradise and all this out of ignorance of the Law This here was the Apostles Case when he lived after the strictest sect of the Pharisies sin was dead he esteemed himself blamelesse but when the Commandement came discoverd its owne spiritualnes the carnalnesse of all his performances remou'd his curtald glosses and presumptuous prejudices opened the inordinatenes of natural concupiscence shewd how the lest atome doth spot the soule the smallest omission qualifie for hel make the conscience see those infinite sparkles and swarmes of lust that rise out of the hart and that God is all eye to see and all fire to consume every unclean thing that the smallest sins that are require the pretiousest of Christs blood to expiate and wash them out then he began to be co◅vinc'd that he was all this while under the Hold of Sinne that his conscience was yet under the paw of the Lyon as the Serpent that was dead in snow was reviu'd at the fire so sinne that seemes dead when it lies hid under the ignorances and misperswasions of a secure heart when either the Word of God which the Prophet calls fire or the last Iudgement shall open it unto the conscience it will undoubtedly revive againe and make a man finde himselfe in the mouth of Death Thus wee see that unto the Law belongs the Conviction of sinne and that in the whole compasse of evill that is in it Three hatefull evils are in
quoad Regnum in regard of the dominion and government of it in regard of the vigorous operation which is in it First sinne is condemn'd Rom. 8. 3. and therein destinated and design'd to death It shall fully bee rooted out Secondly in the meane time it is disabled from a plenarie Rule over the conscience though the Christian be molested and pester'd with it yet he doth not henceforth serve it nor become its instrument to bee subject in every motion thereof as the weapon is to the hand that holds it but Christ and his love beare the sway and hold the Sterne in the heart Rom. 6 6. 〈◊〉 Cor. 5. 14 15. 1. Pet. 4. 1 2. Thirdly the sentence of the Law against sin is already in execution But we are to note that sinne though condemnd to die yet such is the severity of God against it it is adjudg'd to a lingring death a death upon the Crosse and in the faithfull sin is already upon a Crosse fainting struggling dying daily yet so as that it retaines some life still so long as we are here sinne will be as fast to our natures as a nailed man is to the Crosse that beares him Our Thorne will still bee in our flesh our Canaanite in our side our Twinns in our wombe our counterlustings and counterwillings though we be like unto Christ per primitias spiritus yet we are unlike him per Reliquias vetustatis by the remainders of our flesh not to sinne is here onely our Law but in heaven it shal be our Reward All our perfection here is imperfect Sinne hath its deaths blow given it but yet like fierce and implacable beasts it never le ts goe its hold till the last breath Animamque in vulnere ponit never ceaseth to infest us till it cease to bee in us Who can say I have made my heart cleane Cleanse thou be saith holy David from my secret sinnes Though I know nothing by my selfe yet am I not thereby iustified saith the Apostle and the reason is added He that iudgethme is the Lord which Saint Iohn further unfolds God is greater then our hearts and knoweth all things Which places though most dangerously perverted by some late Innovators which teach That a man may bee without secret sinnes that he may make his heart cleane from sinne and that Saint Paul was so doe yet in the experience of the holiest men that are or have been evince this truth that the lusts of the flesh will be and worke in us so long as we carry our mortall bodies about us And this God is pleased to suffer for these and like purposes First to convince and humble us in the experience of our owne vilenesse that wee may be the more to the prayse of the glory of his great grace As once Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria dealt with the Egyptian Idols after the embracement of Christianitie most he destroyed onely one of their Apes and Images he kept entire not as a monument of Idolatry but as a spectacle of sinne and misery that in the sight thereof the people might after learne to abhorre themselves that had liv'd in such abominable Idolatries Secondly to drive us still unto him to cast us alwayes upon the hold and use of our Faith that our prayers may still finde something to aske which hee may give and our repentance something to confesse which he may forgive Thirdly to proportion his mercy to his justice for as the wicked are not presently fully destroyed have not sentence speedily executed against them but are reserv'd unto their Day that they may be destroi'd together as the Psalmist speakes even so the righteous are not here fully saved but are reserv'd unto the great day of Redemption when they also shall be saved together as the Apostle intimates 1. Thess. 4. 17. Fourthly to worke in us a greater hatred of sinne and longing after glory therefore we have yet but the first fruites of the spirit that we should grone and waite for the Adoption and Redemption therfore are we burdened in our earthly tabernacle that we should the more earnestly groane to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven Fiftly to magnifie the power of his Grace in the weakest of his members which notwithstanding that inhabiting Traytor which is ready to let in and entertaine every temptation shall yet make a poore sinfull man stronger in some respect then Adam was himselfe even able to overcome at last the powers of darkenesse and to be sufficient against all Satans buffets Lastly to commend the greatnesse of his mercy and salvation when we shall come to the full fruition of it by comparing it with the review of that sinfull estate in which here we lived when we were at the best without possibility of a totall deliverance Thirdly consider the great Contagion and pestilentiall humour which is in this sinne which doth not onely cleave unseparably to our nature but derives venome upon every action that comes from us For though we doe not say That the good works of the Regenerate are sinnes and so hatefull to God as our adversaries belie and misreport us for that were to reproach the spirit and the grace of Christ by which they are wrought yet this we affirme constantly unto the best worke that is done by the concurrence and contribution of our owne faculties such a vitiousnesse doth adhere such stubble of ours is superinduc'd as that God may justly charge us for defiling the grace he gave and for the evill which we mixe with them may turne away his eyes from his owne gifts in us Sinne in the facultie is poison in the fountaine that sheds infection into every thing that proceeds from it Ignorance and difficultie are two evill properties which from the fountaine doe in some measure diffuse themselves upon all our workes Whensoever thou art going about any good this evill will be present with thee to derive a deadnesse a dampe a dulnesse an indisposednesse upon all thy services an iniquitie upon thy holiest things which thou standest in neede of a priest to beare for thee Exod. 28. 38. and to remove from thee In the Law whatsoever an uncleane person touched was uncleane though it were holy flesh to note the evill quality of sinful nature to staine and blemish every good worke which commeth from it This is that which in thy prayers deads thy zeale fervencie humiliation selfe-abhorrencie thy importunitie faith and close attention this like an evill sauour mingleth with thy sacrifice casteth in impertinent thoughts wrong ends makes thee rest in the worke done and never enquire after the truth of thine owne heart or Gods blessing and successe to thy services This is it that in reading and hearing the Word throwes in so much prejudice blindnesse inadvertency security infidelity misapplication misconstruction wresting and shaping the word to our selves This is that which in thy meditations makes thee roving and unsetled
and therefore hee bringeth them unto these extremities that when their mouth is stopp'd and their guilt made evident they may with the more humilitie and abhorrencie of their former lewdnesse acknowledge the Iustnesse of the Law which would condemne them and the great mercy of the Prince who hath given them liberty to plead his pardon The same is the case betweene God and us First to Abraham he made promise of mercy and blessednesse to all that would pleade interest in it for the remission of their sinnes But men were secure and heedlesse of their estate and though sinne was in them and death raigned over them yet being without a Law to evidence this sinne and death unto their consciences therefore they imputed it not to themselves they would not owne them nor charge themselves with them and by consequence found no necessity of pleading that promise Hereupon the Lord published by Moses a severe and terrible Law so terrible that Moses himselfe did exceedingly feare and quake A Law which fill'd the Ayre with Thunder and the Mount with fire A Law full of blacknesse darknesse and Tempest A Law which they who heard it could not endure but intreated that it might not be spâ—…ken to them any more yet in all this God doth but pursue his first purpose of mercie and take a course to make his Gospell accounted worthy of all acceptation that when by this Law men shall bee roused from their security shut up under the guilt of infinite transgressions affrighted with the fire and tempest the blacknesse and darknesse the darts and curses of this Law against sinne they may then runne from Sina unto Sion even to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and by Faith plead that pardon and remission which in him was promised Thus we see the point in the generall â—…leered That God in the publication of the Law by Moses on mount Sina had none but mercifull and Evangelicall intentions I shall further draw downe the doctrine of the use of the Law into a few conclusions First The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men There was condemnation enough in the World betweene Adam and Moses before the Law was new published It is true the Law shall prove a condemning and judging Law unto impenitent and unbeleeving sinners But to condemne or judge men by it was no more Gods intention in the publishing of it by the ministery of Moses I speake of condemnation not pronounced but executed then it was his purpose to condemne men by the Gospell which yet de facto will be a savor of death unto death to all that despise it It is said that Christ should be as well for the faâ—… as for the riâ—…ing of many in Israel and that hee should be a stone of stumbling and a rocke of offâ—…nce yet hee faith of himselfe I came not to condemne the World but that the World by me might bee saveâ—… The meaning is the condemnation of the World was no motive noâ—… impulsiue cause of my comming though it were an accidentâ—…ll event conâ—…quent and emergencie thereupon Even so the condemnation which by the Law will be aggravated upon 〈◊〉 sinners the powring forth of more wrath and vengeance then raigned in the World betweene Adam and Moses was no motive in Gods intention to publish the Law by his ministery but onely the furtherance and advancement of the Covenant of Grace Secondly The Law was not published by Moses on mount Sina as it was given to Adam in Paradise to iusti fie or to save men God never appoints any thing to an end to which it is utterly unsurable and improper Now the Law by sinne is become weake and unprofitable to the purpose of righteousnesse or salvation nay it was in that regard Against us as Saint Paul saith and therefore we are delivered from it as a Rule of justification though not as a rule of service and obedience Thirdly The uses of the Law are severall according to divers considerations of it For we may consider it either Per se in it selfe according to the primarie intention thereof in its being and new publication or Per accidens according to those secondary and inferior effects thereof By accident or secondarily The Law doth first irritate enrage exasperate lust by reason of the venomous and malitious quality which is in sinne And this the Law doth not by ingenerating or implanting lust in the heart but by exciting calling out and occasioning that which was there before as a chaine doth not beget any furie in a wolfe nor a bridge infuse any strength into the water nor the presence of an enemie instill or create de novo any malice in a man but onely occasionally reduce unto Act and call forth that rage which though lesse discerned was yet habitually there before Secondly the Law by accident doth punish and curse sinne I say by accident because punishment is in no law the maine intention of the Lawgiver but something added thereunto to backe strengthen and enforce the obedience which is principally intended Neither could the Law have cursed man at all if his disobedience had not thereunto made way which shewes that the curse was not the primary intention of the Law but onely a secondary and subsequent act upon the failing of the principall For I doubt not but the Lord accounteth himselfe more gloryfied by the Active and voluntary services then by the Passive and enforced sufferings of the Creature Herein saith our Saviour is my Father glorified that you bring forth much fruite Secondly consider the Law by it selfe and in its primary intention and so there are two principall uses for which it serves First It hath rationem speculi It is as a glasse to manifest and discover sinne and death and thereupon to compell men to fly for sanctuary unto Christ and when they see their miserie to sue out their pardon And this the Law doth first by convincing the Conscience of its owne widenes as the Prophet David speakes I have seene an end of all perfection but thy Law is exceeding broad By revealing the compasse of sinne in proportion to the widenesse and the filthynesse of sin in proportion to the purity of that Holy Law by discovering the depth and foulenesse the deceitfulnesse and desperate mischiefe of the heart by nature and giving some evidences to the soule of that horrid endlesse and insupportable vengeance which is due to sinne We know saith the Apostle that whatsoever things the Law saith it saith to those that are under the Law That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God Secondly By judging sentencing applying wrath to the Soule in particular For when it hath stopped a mans mouth evidenced his guiltinesse concluded him under sinne it then pronounceth him to bee a cursed and condemned Creature exposed without any strength or possibility to evade or overcome unto all the
wrath which his sinnes have deserved Therefore it is called the ministery of death and condemnation which pronounceth a most rigorous and unmitigable curse upon the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from Gods Will revealed Thirdly by awakening the Conscience begetting a legall faith and spirit of bondage to see it selfe thus miserable by the Law hedged in with Thornes and shut up under wrath For the spirit first by the Law begetteth bondage and feare prickes the Conscience reduceth a man to impossibilities that hee knowes not what to doe nor which way to turne before it worketh the Spirit of Adoption or make a man thinke with the Prodigall that hee hath a Father to deliver him And by these Gradations the Law leadeth to Faith in Christ so that though in all these respects the works of the law be works of bondage yet the Ends and Purposes of God in them are Ends of Mercie Secondly The Law hath Rationem Fraeni and regulae to cohibite and restraine from sinne and to order the life of a man And in this sense likewise it is added to the Gospell as the Rule is to the hand of the workeman For as the Rule worketh nothing without the hand of the Artificer to guide and moderate it because of it selfe it is dead and the workeman worketh nothing without his Rule So the Law can onely shew what is good but gives no power at all to doe it for that is the worke of the Spirit by the Gospell yet Evangelicall Grace directs a man to no other obedience then that of which the Law is the Rule Now then to make some use of all this which hath beene said This shewes the ignorance and absurdity of those men who cry downe preaching of the Law as a course leading to despaire â—…nd discontentment though we finde by Saint Paul that it leadeth unto Christ. To preach the Law alone by it selfe wee confesse is to pervert the vse of it neither have we any power or commission so to doe for we have our power for edification and not for destruction It was published as an appendant to the Gospell and so must it be preached It was published in the hand of a Mediator and it must be preached in the hand of a Mediator It was published Evangelycally and it must bee so preached But yet wee must preach the Law and that in its owne fearefull shapes for though it were published in Mercy yet it was published with Thunder Fire Tempests and Darkenesse even in the hand of a Mediator for this is the method of the Holy Ghost to convince first of sinne and then to reveale righteousnesse and refuge in Christ. The Law is the forerunner that makes roome and prepares welcome in the Soule for Christ. I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come saith the Lord to note unto us that a man will never desire Christ indeede till he be first shaken As in Elias his vision the still voyce came after the Tempest so doth Christ in his voyce of Mercy follow the shakings and Tempests of the Law First the Spirit of Eliah in the preaching of repentance for sinne and then the Kingdome of God in the approach of Christ and evidences of reconcilement to the Soule And the reason is because men are so wedded to their sinnes that they will not accept of Mercy on faire termes so as to forsake sinne withall as mad men that must bee bouâ—…d before they can be cured so are men in their lusts the Law must hamper and shut them up before the Gospell and the spirit of liberty will bee welcome to them Now this is Gods resolution to humble the soule so low till it can in truth and seriousnesse bid Christ welcome upon any conditions His Mercy and the blood of his Sonne is so pretious and invaluable that hee will not caâ—… it away where no notice shall bee taken of it but hee will make the heart subscribe experimentally to that Truth of his That it is a saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the World to save sinners And we know a man must bee brought to great extremities who can esteeme as welcome as life the presence of such a man who comes with a sword to cut of his members or cut out his eyes and yet this is the manner of Christs comming to bring a Crosse and a Sword with him to hew off our lusts which are our earthly members and to Crucifie us unto the world But what then Mâ—…st nothing be preached but damnation and Hell to men God forbid We have commission to preach nothing but Christ and life in him and therefore we never preach the Law but with reference and manuduction unto him The truth is Intentionally wee preach nothing but Salvation wee come with no other intention but that every man who heares us might beleeve and bee saved wee have our power onely for edification and not for destruction but conditionally we preach Salvation and Damnation He that beleeveth shall be saved he that beleeveth not shall be damned that is the summe of our Commission But it is further very observable in that place that preaching of the Gospell is preaching both of Salvation and of Damnation upon the severall conditions So then when we preach the Law we preach Salvation to them that feare it as the Lord shewed mercy to Iosiah because his heart trembled and humbled it selâ—…e at his Law and when we preach the Gospell wee preach Damnation to them that despâ—…se it How shâ—…ll we escape if we neglect so great Salvation The Gospell is Salvation of it selfe but he that neglects Salvation is the mâ—…re certaine to perish and that with a double destruction Death unto Death to that wrath of God which abâ—…deth vpon him before will come a sorer condâ—…mnation by trampling under foote the blood of the Covenant and not obeying the Gospell of our Lord Iesus Christ. Here then are two rules to be observ'd First by the ministers of the Word that they so preach the Law as that it may still appeare to be an appendant unto the Gospell and â—…ot suffer the ministrie to be evill spoken of by men who watch for advantages We must endeavour so to manage the dispensation of the Law that men may not thereby be exasperated but put in minde of the Sanctuary to which they should flie The heart of man is broken as a flint with a hard and a soft together A Hammer and A Pillow is the best way to breake a flint A Prison and a Pardon A Scourge and a Salve A Curse and a Saviour is the best way to humble and convert a sinner When wee convince the hearers that all the teâ—…rors we pronounce are out of compassion to them that wee have mercy and balme in store to powre into every wound that we make that all the blowes we give are not to kill their Soules
but their sins that though our words bring fire and fury with them yet they are still in the hand of a Mediator that the Law is not to breake them unto desperation but vnto humiliation not to drive them unto furie but unto Faith to shew them Hell indeede but withall to keepe them from it if we doe not by these meaneâ—… save their Soules yet we shall stop their mouths that they shall be ashamed to blaspheme the commission by which we speake Secondly The people likewise should learne to rejoyce when the Law is preached as it was published that is when the Conscience is thereby affrighted and made to tremble at the presence of God and to cry unto the Mediator as the people did unto Moses Lâ—…t not God speake any more to us lâ—…st we die Speake thou with us and we will heare For when sinne is onely by the Law discovered and death laid open to cry out against such preaching is a shrewd argument of a minde not willing to bee disquieted in sinne or to be tormented before the time of a soule which would have Christ and yet not leave her former husband which would haue him no other king then the stump of wood was to the frogges in the fable or the moulten Calfe unto Israel in the Wildernesse a quiet idol whom every lust might securely provoke and dance about As the Law may be preached too much when it is preached without the principall which is the Gospell so the Gospell and the mercie therein may bee preached too much or rather indeede too little because it is with lesse successe If wee may call it preaching and not rather perverting of the Gospell when it is preached without the appendant which is the Law This therefore should in the next place teach all of us to studie and delight in the Law of God as that which setteth forth and maketh more glorious and conspicuous the mercy of Christ. Acquaintance with our selves in the Law wâ—…ll First keepe us more loâ—…ly and vile in our owne eyes make us feele our owne pollution and poverty and that will againe make us the more delight in the Law which is so faithfull to render the face of the Conscience and so make a man the more willing and earnest to be cleansed Their heart saith David is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The more the Law doth discover our owne leannesse scraggednesse and penurie the more doth the Soule of a Holy man delight in it because Gods mercie is magnified the more who filleth the hungrie and refrâ—…sheth the weary and with whom the fatherlâ—…sse findeth mercie Secondly It will make us more carefull to live by Faith more bold to approach the throne of Grace for mercie to cover and for Grace to cure our sores and nakednesse In matters of life and death impudence and boldnesse is not unseasonable A man will never die for modesty when the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that it is accursed and eternally lost if it doe not speedily pleade Christs satisfaction at the Throne of Grace it is emboldned to runne unto him when it findes an issue of uncleanenesse upon it it will set a price upon the meanest thing about Christ and be glad to touch the hemme of his garment When a Childe hath any strength beautie or lovelynesse in himselfe he will haply depend upon his owne parts and expectations to raise a fortune and preferment for himselfe but when a Childe is full of indigence impotencie crookednesse and deformity if he were not then supported with this hope I have a father aâ—d Parents doe not cast out their Children for their deformities he could not live with comfort or assurance so the sense of our owne pollutions and uncleanenesse taking off all conceits of any lovelynesse in our selves or of any goodnesse in us to attract the affections of God makes us râ—ly onely on his fatherly compassion When our Saviour cald the poore woman of Syrophenicia Dogge a beastly and uncleane Creature yet shee takes not this for a deny all but turnes it into argument The lesse I have by right the more I hope for by mercy even men afford their Dogges enough to keepe them alive and I aske no more When the Angell put the hollow of Iacobs thigh out of joynt yet hee would not let him go the more lame hee was the more reason hee had to hold The Prodigall was not kept away or driven of from his resolution by the feare shame or misery of his present estate for he had one word which was able to make way for him through all this the name of Father He considered I can but be rejected at the last and I am already as low as a rejection can cast me so I shall loose nothing by returning for I therefore returne because I have nothing and though I have done enough to bee for ever shut out of dores yet it may bee the word Father may have rhetoricke enough in it to beg a reconcilement and to procure an admittance amongst my fathers servants Thirdly It will make us give God the Glory of his mercy the more when wee have the deeper acquaintance with our owne miserie And God most of all delighteth in that worke of Faith which when the Soule walketh in darknesse and hath no light yet trusteth in his Name and stayeth upon him Fourthly It will make our comforts and refreshments the sweeter when they come The greater the humiliation the deeper the tranquillitie As fire is hottest in the coldest weather so comfort is sweetest in the greatest extremities shaking settles the peace of the heart the more The spirit is a Comforter as well when he convinceth of sinne as of righteousnesse and judgement because he doth it to make righteousnesse the more acceptable and Iudgement the more beautifull Lastly acquaintance with our owne foulnesse and diseases by the Law will make us more carefull to keepe in Christs company and to walke according unto his Will because he is a Physitian to cure a refiner to purge a Father and a Husband to compassionate our estate The lesse beautie or worth there is in us the more carefully should we studie to please him who loved us for himselfe and married us out of pittie to our deformities not out of delight in our beautie Humilitie keepes the heart tractable and pliant As melted waxe is easily fashioned so an humble spirit is easily fashioned unto Christs Image whereas a stone a bard and stubborne heart must bee hewed and hammered before it will take any shape Pride selfe-confidence and conceitednesse are the pâ—…nciples of disobedience men will hold their wonted courses till they be humbled by the Law They are not humbled saith the Lord unto this day and the consequent hereof is neither have they feared nor walked in my Law If you will not heare that is if you will still disobey the Lords messages my Soule shall weepe in
secret for your pride to note that pride is the principle of disobedience They and our fathers saith â—…ehemiah in his confession dealâ—… proudly and hardned their neckes and hearkered not unto thy Commandements and refused to obey And therefore Ez kiah used this perswasion to the ten tribes to come up to Ierusalem unto the Lords Passeover Be ye not stiffenecked as your fathers but yeeld your selves unto the Lord. To note that humiliation is the way unto obedience when once the heart is humbled it will bee glad to walke with God Humble thyselfe saith the Prophet to walke with thy God Receivâ—… the ingraffed Word with meeknesse saith the Apostle When the Heart is first made meeke and lowly it will then bee ready to receive the Word and the Word ready to incorporate in it as seede in torne and harrowed ground When Paul was disâ—…ounted and cast downe upon the Earth terrified and astonished at the Heavenly vision immediately hee is qualyfied for obedience Lord what wilt thou have mee to doe When the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that of it selfe it comes short of the Glory oâ—… God walkes in darkenesse and can go no way but to Hell It will then with ioy and thankfulnesse foâ—…ow the Lambe wheresoever hee goes as being well assured that though the way of the Lambe be a way of blood yet the End is a Throne of Glory and a Crowne of Life FINIS THE LIFE OF CHRIST OR THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE SAINTS WITH HIM IN HIS LIFE Sufferings and Resurrection By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE LIFE OF CHRIST 1. IOHN 5. 12. He that hath the Sonne hath Life HAving shewed the Insufficiencie of the Creature to make man happie as being full of vanitie and the Insufficiencie of Man to make himselfe Happie as being full of sinne we now proceede in the last place to discover first the Fountaine of Life and Happinesse Christ and secondly the Channell by which it is from him unto us conveyed the Instrument whereby wee draw it from him namely the knowledge of him and fellowship with him in his resurrection and sufferings These words we see containe a Doctrine of the greatest consequence to the Soule of Man in the whole Scriptures and that which is indeede the summe of them all They containe the summe of mans desires Life and the summe of Gods mercies Christ and the summe of mans dutie Faith Christ the Fountaine Life the Derivation and Faith the Conveyance Whatsoever things are excellent and desireable are in the Scripture comprised under the name of Life as the lesser under the greater for Life is better then meate and the body then ray ment And whatsoever Excellencies can bee named wee have them all from Christ. In Him saith the Apostle are bid the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Hâ—…d not to the purpose that they may not be found but to the purpose that they may bee sought And we may note from the expression that Christ is a Treasurer of his Fathers Wisedome He hath Wisedome as the Kings treasurer hath wealth as an Officer a Depositarie a Dispenser of it to the friends and servants of his father He is made unto vs Wisedome The Apostle saith that in him there are unsearchable riches an inexhausted treasurie of Grace and Wisedome And there had neede bee a treasure of riches in him for there is a treasure of sinne in us so our Saviour cals it the treasure of an evill heart He was full of Grace and Truth Not as a vessell but as a Fountaine and as a Sunne to note that Hee was not onely full of Grace but that the fulnesse of Grace was in Him It pleased the Father that in him should all fâ—…lnesse dwell God gave not the Spirit in measure unto Him And as there is a fulnesse in Him so there is a Communion in us Of his fulnesse wee receive Grace for Grace that is as a Childe in generation receiveth from his Parents member for member or the paper from the Presse letter for letter or the glasse from the face image for image so in regeneration Christ is fully formed 〈◊〉 a man and he receiveth in some measure and proportion Grace for Grace there is no Grace in Christ appertaining to generall sanctification which is not in some weake degree fashioned iâ—… Him Thus there is to Christ a fulnesse of Grace answerable to a fulnesse oâ—… sinne which is in us The Prophet cals him a Prince of Peace not as Moses onely was a man of peace but a Prince of peace If Moses had beene a Prince of peace how easily might he have instill'd peaceable and calme affections into the mutinous and murmuring people But though hee had it in himselfe yet hee had it not to distribute But Christ hath Peace as a King hath Honours to dispense and dispose of it to whom hee will Peace I leaue with you my Peace I giue unto you If I should runne over all the particulars of Grace or Mercy we should finde them all proceede from him He is our Passeover saith the Apostle As in Egypt wheresoever there was the blood of the Passeover there was life and where it was not there was death so where this our Passeover is there is life and where hee is not there is death To me to live is Christ saith the Apostle and againe now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gvae himselfe for me To consider more particular this Life which we have from Christ. First It is a Life of Righteousnesse for Life and Righteousnes are in the Scripture taken for the same because sin doth immediatly make a man dead in law He that beleeveth not is condemned already and in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death And this Life being a Resurrection from a preceeding death hath two things belonging unto it First there is a Libertie and Deliverance wrought for us from that under which we were before held Secondly there is an Inheritance purchased for us the Priviledge and Honour of being called the Sonnes of God conferr'd upon us There are three Offices or Parts of the Mediation of Christ. First his Satisfaction as hee is our Suretie whereby hee paid our debt underwent the curse of our sinnes bare them all in his body upon the Tree became subject to the Law for us in our nature and representatively in our stead fulfill all righteousnesse in the Law required both Active and Passive for us For we must note that there are two things in the Law intended One principall obedience and another secondary malediction upon supposition of disobedience
projects and machinations against his Church but thou onely His heele the vitall parts shall be above thy reach And this Christ did not for himselfe but for us The God of Peace saith the Apostle shall bruize Sathan under your feete Hee shall be under our feete but it is a greater strength then ours which shall keepe him downe The victorie is Gods the benefit and insultation ours If He come as a Serpent with cunning craftinesse to seduce us Christ is a stronger Serpent a Serpent of Brasse and what hurt can a Serpent of flesh doe unto a Serpent of Brasse If as a Lion with rage and fierie assaults Christ is a stronger Lion A Lion of the Tribe of Iudâ—… the victorious Tribe Who shall goe up for us against the Cananites first Iuda shall goe up If hee come as an Angel of light to perswade us to presume and sinne The mercie of Christ begets feare The Love of Christ constraineth us Sathan can but allure to disobedience but Christ can constraine us to live unto him If he come as an Angell of darkenesse to terrifie us with despairing suggestions because wee have sinned If any man sinne wee have an Advocate and who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is Christ that is deade yea rather that is risen againe who also sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Thirdly but I have an enemie within me which is the most dangerous of all The World may be if not overcome yet endured and by being endured it will at last bee overcome The Divell may bee driven away for a time though he returne againe but the flesh is an Inhabiting sinne and an encompassing sinne If I breake through it yet it is still within me and if I reject it yet it is still about me Saint Paul who triumphed and insulted over all the rest over the World Who shall separate us from the Love of Christ Shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednes or perill or sword nay in all these things we are more then conquerors through him that loved us Over Sathan and Hell O Death where is thy sting O Hell where is thy victorie Even hee cryes out against this enemie his owne flesh O wrethed man that I am who shall deliver mee from this body of Death Yet even against this unremoveable and unvanquishable corruption the Life of Christ is safe in us upon these grounds First we have his Prayer which helpes to subdue it and to sanctifie our nature Sanctifie them by thy Truth Secondly wee have His Vertue and Power to purge it out and to cure it The Sunne of righteousnesse hath healing in his wings Thirdly wee have His office and sidelitie to appeale unto and where to complaine against our owne flesh He undertooke it as a part of his businesse to purge and clense his people Fourthly we have His Spirit to combate and wrestle with it and so by little and little to crucifie it in us and lastly we have his Merits as Sanctuarie to flie unto to forgive them here and hereafter to expell them Fourthly for all this I am full of doubts and restlesse feares which do continually fight within me and make my spirit languish and sinke and that which may decay may likewise expire and vanish away To this I answer that which inwardly decayeth and sinketh at the foundation is perishable but that which in its operations and quoad nos in regard of sense and present complacencie may seeme to decay doth not yet perish in its substance A Cloude may hide the Sunne from the eye but can never blot it out of his orbe Nay Spirituall griefe is to that light which is sowen in the heart but like harrowing to the Earth it macerates for the time but withall it tends to joy and beautie There is difference betweene the paines of a woman in travell and the paines of a goute or some mortall disease for though that be as extreeme in smart and present irkefomenesse as the other yet it containes in it and it proceedes from a Matter of Ioy And all the wrestlings of the Soule with the enemies of Salvation are but as the paines of a woman in travell when Christ is fashioned when the issue iâ—… victorious and with gaine the soule no more remembreth those afflictioâ—…s which were but for a moment Fifthly and lastly I have fallen into many and great sinnes and if all sinne be of a mortall and venemous operation how can my Life in Christ consist with such heavie provocations and apostacies To this in generall I answer If the sight of thy sinnes make thee looke to Christ If â—…hou canst beleeve all things are possible It is possible for thy greatest apostacies to vanish like a Cloud and to be forgotten Though sinne have weakned the Law that we cannot be saved by that yet it hath not weakned Faith or made that unable to save For the strength of sinne is the Law it hath its condemning vertue from thence Now by Faith we are not under the Law but under Grace When once wee are incorporate into Christs body and made partakers of the new Covenant though we are still under the Laws conduct in regard of its obedience which is made sweete and easie by Grace yet we are not under the laws maledâ—…ction So that though sinne in a Beleever bee a transgression of the Law and doth certainely incurre Gods displeasure yet it doth not de fectâ—… though it doe de merito subject him to wrath and vengeance because every justified man is a person priviledg'd though not from the duties yet from the curses of the Law If the King should gratiously exempt any subject from the Lawes penaltie and yet require of him the Lawes obedience if that man offend he bâ—…ch transgreâ—…sed the Law and provoked the displeasure of the Prince who haply will make him some otheâ—… way to 〈◊〉 it yet his offence doth not nullyfie his priviledge nor voyde the Princes grace which gave him an immunitie from the foâ—…feitures though not from the observance of the Law Adultery amongst the Iewes was punished with Death and Theft onely wtth restitution amongstus Adulterie is not punished with Death and Theft is Now then though a Iew and an Englishman be both bound to the obedience of both these Lawes yet a Iew is not to die for Theft nor an Englishman for Adultery because wee are not under the Iudiciall Lawes of that people nor they under our Lawes Even so those sinnes which to a man under the covenant of workes do dâ—… facto bring Death if he continue alwayes under that covenant doe onely create a Merit of Death in those who are under the Covenant of Grace but doe not actually exclude them from Salvation because without infidelitie no sinne doth peremptorily and quoad eventum
and Christians That which makes us to be in Christ after any kinde of way is Faith And according to the differences of Faith are these differences of being in Christ to bee discerned Saint Iames makes mention of a dead Faith when men are in Christ by some generall acknowledgement by externall profession by a partiall dependence comming to Him only as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in His service not by any particular and willing attraction of those vitall influences those working principles of grace and obedience which are from him shed abroad upon true beleevers And this is the semi-conversion and imperfect renovation of many men whereby they receive from Him onely generall light of truth and common vertues which make them visibly and externally branches in Him But Saint Paul makes mention of a lively operative unfained faith which in true beleevers draweth in the power of Christs death and the vertue of His resurrection unto the mortification of sinne and quickning of Spirit and bringing forth fâ—…uite unto God and this onely is that which is the ground of our life from Him The Life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Lastly this Vnion unto Christ is compared unto Marriage Psal. 45. Eph. 5. 32 whereby the Church hath a right and proprietie created to the body name goods table possessions purchases of Christ and doth reciprocally become all His resigning its will wayes desires unto His governement Now for the discovery of this we may consider either the essentials or the consequents of marriage The former hath for the genuâ—… the most generall requisite consent and that must have these differencies and restrictions First it must bee a mutuall consent for though Christ declare His good will when He knocketh at our doores and beseecheth us in the ministry of His Word yet if we keepe our distance reject His tokens of Love and Favour and stop our eares to His invitations there is then no covenant made this is but a wooing and no marriage Secondly it must bee a present consent and in words de prâ—…senti or else it is onely a Promise but no Contract Many men like Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but live their owne lives would faine belong to Christ at the last and have nothing to doe with Him ever before would have Him out of neede but not at all out of love and therefoâ—… for the present they put Him off Many other suiters they have whom they cannot deferre or denie till at last peradventure Hee grow jealous and wearie departs from them and turnes unto those who will esteeme Him worthy of more acceptation Seeing you put the Word from you faith the Apostle and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall Life Lo wee turne unto the Gentiles Thirdly it must be free and unconstrained for compulsion makes it a ravishment and not a marriage They who must be but one Bodie ought first to agree in the same free and willing resolution Many men when God slayes them will enquire earely after Him when Hee puts them upon a racke will give a forced consent to serve Him when Hee sends His Lions amongst them will send for His Priests to instruct them how to worship Him but this is onely to flatter with their lippes that they may escape the present paine like the howling devotion of some desperate Mariner in a storme not at all out of cordiall and sinceere affection wicked men deale no better with God then the froggs in the fable with the blocke which was throwne in to be their king When He makes a noyse and disturbes their peace when He falls heavie upon them they are sore affrighted and seeme to reverence His Power but if He suffer their streame to bee calme about them and stir not up His wrath they securely dance about Him and re-assume their wonted loosenesse Fourthly it must be without errour for hee that erres cannot consent If a woman take her selfe upon some absence of her husband to be now free from him and conceive him dead and thereupon marry againe if it appeare that the former husband is yet living there was a mistake and error in the person and so a nullity in the contract So if a man mistake himselfe judge himselfe free from his former tie unto sinne and the Law and yet live in obedience to his lusts still and is not cleansed from â—…is filthinesse he cannot give any full consent to Christ who â—…ill have a chaste spouse without adulterers or corrivals Lastly It must be an universall and perpetuall consent for all time and in all states and conditions This is a great difference betweene a wife and a strumpet A wife takes her husband upon all tearmes his burdens as well as his goods his troubles as well as his pleasures whereas a strumpet is onely for hire and lust when the purse is emptied or the body wasted the love is at an end So here He that will have Christ must have Him All for Christ is not divided must entertaine Him to all purposes must follow the Lambe wheresoever He goeth must leave Father Mother Wife Children his owne life for Christ must take as well His Yoake as His Crowne as well His Sufferings as His Salvation as well His Grace as His Mercie as well His Spirit to leade as His Blood to redeeme He that will be his owne Master to doe the workes of his owne will must if hee can bee his owne Saviour too to deliver his soule from the wrath to come The consequents and intendments of marriage are two Convictus Proles First mutuall societie Christ and a Christian must live together have intimate and deare acquaintance with each other the spirit of a Christian must solace it selfe in the armes and embracements in the riches and lovelinesse of Christ in his absence and removes long after Him in His presence and returnes delight in Him and entertaine Him with such pure affections and Heavenly desires as may make him take pleasure in His Beautie Secondly there must be a fruitfulnesse in us we must bring forth unto God Christ will not have a barren Spouse every one that loveth Him keepeth His Commandements Now then in one word to unfold the more distinct qualitie of this our union to Christ wee may consider a threefold unitie Of Persons in one nature of natures in one Person of natures and Persons in one qualitie In the first is one God In the second is one Christ. In the third is one Church Our union unto Christ is the last of these whereby Hee and we are all spiritually united to the making up of one mysticall Body The formall reason or bond of this union is the Spirit of Christ by which as by immortall and abiding seede we are begotten a new unto Christ. For He being the
grace enables us to worke we say we are justified freely not by the workes of grace but by the grace which bestowes our Iustification and therewith our strength of working unto us For surely Gods free grace is more magnified in giving us undeservedly both righteousnesse and workes then in giving us workes to deserve our righteousnesse Secondly Iustification by Faith doth make the promise sure to all the seede If unto a begger should bee proposed some excellent benefit upon condition to performe some acceptable and perfect service unto the personne that offers it whom yet it would bee impossible to please by working without some exact abilitie for the dutie required the man might easily doubt of the certaintie of the benefit because his performance of the condition requir'd is uncertaine but if the same benefit should bee proposed upon no other act on his part requir'd then onely the acknowledgement of his owne want and the willing acceptance of the thing offered a man could not bee unsure of it So if the Lord should propose righteousnesse oâ—… salvation to a man upon condition of his morall obedience mans corruptions are so many and his abilities so weake his enemies so potent and his heart so treacherous to comply with them that the promise cannot bee made sure to him upon the concurrence of his owne workes But when there is nothing required of a man but to cleave to Christ nothing but to relinquish his owne endeavours and to accept the helpe of a sure Saviour and to rely upon the sure mercies of David this must needes make our righteousnesse and salvation to be as certaine as is the value of the merits or fidelitie of the promise on which we rely If there bee nothing requisite to the firmenesse and consistencie of a house but onely to be put upon the foundation then the house must needs be as sure as the foundation if there bee nothing requisite to the safenesse of a mans money or writings but to put them in a closet or boxe the things must needes be as safe as the place into which they are put so since nothing else is required to make our salvation sure but onely to rest upon Christ who is a safe foundation to his Church Math. 16. 18. and a certaine Treasure Col. 3. 3. Faith which alone puts us into him doth therewithall make our Salvation sure unto us Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect and pretious there is both our foundation and our Treasure now the safety which Faith brings from hence is this He that beleeveth shall not be confounded or put to shame in the Prophet it is shall not make hast 1. Pet. 2. 6. both words expresse safetie For a man to rely upon another for any good thing and at last to faile in his expectation this must needes shame him in the disappointment of his hopes but when the hopes of a man are grounded upon the unsearchable riches and the unfaileable promise and the immutable truth power and goodnesse of God impossible it is that the faith of such a man should shame or deceive him When a man is secure and certaine of any good thing he is contented to waite the season of it David by Gods promise and unction was certaine of the kingdome and therefore he would not take away the life of Saul when it was in his power but waited till the time of his death by God appointed should come 1. Sam. 26. 9 10 11. but when a man is unconsident of a thing hee is ready to snatch at every probabilitie to make use of every occasion that happens to further his desires If I should see two men going towards the Court in competition for some office or preferment and should observe the one to ride night and day in full speede to deny himselfe the comforts of the way and to expresse much impatiencie and indignation at every stoppage that met him the other to take time and leisure to rely upon the former promises of the prince or the prevalencie of some honourable friends and to laugh at the gredinesse of his competitor I should easily conclude that the hopes of that man were greater whose hast as lesse for when a man hath a thing already in promise and that from the hands of a man of whose power and fidelitie he hath infallible assurance he is not over vehement for performance but willingly attends the times and good pleasure of his friend Now this is the businesse of faith to give a being to the things we hope for and though in themselves they bee a farre of and out of sight yet to make them subsistent and at hand in the promise even within the reach and embracement of Faith Heb. 11. 1 13. So that Faith doth therefore keep a man from greedinesse and precipitancie in his pursuite and from confusion and shame in his hopes of good because it sees them as safe certain in the power and promises of Christ as if they were already made good unto him So then to conclude this point Faith being the onely Grace wherein is magnified the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods favour and wherein is secured his promise to all the seede It must needes bee the fittest grace for a mercifull Iustification The third office of Faith is having put us into Christ and Iustified us by him to give us together with Him all other things which is the conviction that the Apostle makes Rom. 8. 32. If Hee have given us Christ how shall He not with Him freely also giue us all things These All Things are of two sorts First All graces Secondly All secular good things Saint Peter puts them together and shewes how they runne from Christ to us through Faith as the pipe His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertaine to Life and Godlynesse and that through the knowledge that is the Faith of him that hath called us to glorie and vertue 2. Pet. 1. 3. First all Graces Faith is the first Grace in a Christian Soule and the spring of the rest This is the maine businesse of that excellent chapter Heb. 11. to shew how Faith was the master wheele in the lives and actions of those holy men whose renowne is there upon record The Apostle tels us that Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. where by Love we may understand either generally the universall habit of all other operative graces and then the sense is that Faith doth as it were actuate and animate all other habits of grace and apply them to their severall workes Or rather particularly that Love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and then the method and meaning of the place is this First Faith shewes us the great Love of God in Christ The life that I live saith the Apostle I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave Himselfe for me Gal. 2. 20. where we see the
principall discovery that Faith makes in Christ and that it fixeth upon is His love to us and this is a most soveraigne and superlative love Herein saith the Apostle God commended God heaped together His Love toward us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Secondly Faith having thus revealed to our hearts the Love of God in Christ doth kindle in them a reciprocall Love towards Christ againe working in us the same minde that is in Christ Phil. 2. 5. and enflaming our spirits to a retribution of Love for Love We have beleeved the Love that God hath to us saith the Apostle and therefore saith he we love Him because He loved us first 1. Ioh. 4. 16 19. Thus Faith worketh Love But now thirdly there is a further power in Faith for it doth not onely work Love but it worketh by Love as the text speakes that is it maketh use of that Love which it hath thus kindled as of a goad and incentive to further obedience for that Love which we repay unto Christ againe stirreth us unto an intimate and Heavenly communion with Him unto an entire and spirituall conformitie unto Him And the reason is because it is a conjugall Love and therefore a fruitefull love for the end of marriage is fructification Yee are become dead to the Law saith the Apostle by the body of Christ that yee should be married to another even to Him who is raised from the dead and the end of this spirituall marriage is added That we should bring forth fruite unto God which is presently after expounded That wee should serve in newnesse of Spirit Rom. 7 4 6. If a man Love mee saith our saviour he will keepe my Words and this obedience is the childe of Faith as it is set downe in the same place yee shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you and immediately upon this Faith it followes He that bath my Commandements and keepeth them hee it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my selfe unto Him Ioh. 14. 20. 21 22 23. In which place there are these things of excellent observation First the noble objects that Faith doth contemplate even the excellencie of Gods Love unto us in Christ. You shall know that I am in my Father in His bosome in His bowels in His dearest affection One with Him in mercie in counsell in power That He and I both goe one way have both one decree and resolution of Grace and compassion towards sinners And that you are in mee your nature in me your infirmities in me the punishment of your sinnes upon me that I am bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh that you are in my heart and in my tenderest affections that you were crucifiâ—…a together with me that you live togâ—…ther with 〈◊〉 that you sit together with mee in Heavenly places that â—… died your death that you rose my resurrection that I pray your prayers that you were my righteousnesse and that I am in you by my merits to justifie you by my Grace and Spirit to renew and purifie you by my Power to keep you by my wisedome to leade you by my Communion and Compassion to share with you in all your troubles these are the mysteries of the Love of the Father and the Sonne to us Now this Love kindleth a Love in us againe and that Love sheweth it selfe in two things First in having the Commandements of Christ that is in accepting of them in giving audience unto them in opening our eyes to see and our hearts to entertaine the wonders of the Law And secondly in keeping of them in putting to the strength of our Love for Love is as strong as Death it will make a man neglectfull of his owne life to serve and please the person whom he loves that so wee may performe the duties which so good a Saviour requires of us And now as our Love was not the first mover we loved Him because He loved us first So neither shall it be the last as the Father and the Son did by their first Love provoke ours so will they by their second Love reward ours And therefore it sollowes He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him This is not ment of a new Love but of a further declaration of their former Love namely in a more close and familiar communion and Heavenly cohabitation with them wee will come unto Him and make our abode with Him we will shew Him our face we will make all our goodnesse to passe before Him wee will converse and commune with His Spirit we will Suppe with Him we will provide Him a feast of fatted things and of refined wine wee will open the breasts of consolation and delight Him with the aboundance of Glory Excellent to the purpose of the present point is that place of the Apostle 2. Cor. 5. 14 15. The Love of Christ saith he constraineth us that is either Christs Love to us by Faith apprehended or our Love to Christ by the apprehension of His Love wrought in us doth by a kinde of sweete and lovely violence winne and overrule our hearts not to live henceforth unto our selves but unto Him that died for us and rose againe and the roote of this strong perswasion is adjoyned namely because wee thus â—…udge because we know and beleeve that if one died for all then all are dead to the guilt and to the power of sinne and ought to live a new life conformable to the resurrection of Christ againe Therefore in two paralell places the Apostle useth promiscuously Faith and a new Creature In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new creature The reason of which promiscuous acceptation the Apostle renders the inseparable union between faith and renovation If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Secondly Faith gives us all good things requisite to our condition Adam was created Lord of his fellow inferiour Creatures invested with proprietie to them all In his fall hee made a forfeiture of every good thing which God gave him In the second Covenant a reconciliation being procur'd Faith entitling a man to the Covenant doth likewise re-invest him with the Creatures againe All things saith the Apostle are yours and hee opens the title and conveyance of them you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3. 23. So elsewhere hee saith that the living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy that is not onely the possession but the use of the things 1. Tim. 6. 17. where by all things wee may understand first the libertie and enlargement of Christians as it stands in opposition to the pedagogie and discipline of Moses Law which distinguished the Creatures into cleane and
or holinesse so that the meaning is The spirit shall convince men that they are unrighteous and unholie men held under by the guilt condemnation and power of sinne shut vp in fast chaines unto the wrath and iudgement of the great Day unauoidably cast and condemned in the Court of Law because they fled not by faith unto that office of mercie and reconciliation which the Father hath erected in his beloved Sonne All sinnes do of themselues deserve damnation but none doe de facto inferre damnation without infidelitie This was that great provocation in the Wildernesse which kept the people out of the Land of Promise and for which God is said to have beene grieved fortie yeeres together How long will this people provoke mee How long will it bee ere they beleeve in me they despised the holy Land they beleeved not his word they drew backward and turned againe in their hearts into Egypt The Apostle summes vp all their murmurings and provocations for which they were excluded that type of heauen in this one word They entred not in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of their vnbeliefe If there bee but one onely medicine against a deadly disease and when that is offered to the sicke person he refuse it and throw it vnder his feete the state of that man is infallibly desperate and remedilesse There is but one name but one sacrifice but one blood by which we can be saved perfected and purged for ever and without which God can have no pleasure in us how can wee then escape if we neglect so great salvation and trample under foote the blood of the Covenant It is a fruitlesse labour and an endlesse folly for men to use any other courses be they in appearance never so specious probable rigorous mortified Pharisaicall nay angelicall for extricating themselues out of the maze of sinne or exonerating their consciences of the guilt or power thereof without faith Though a man could scourge out of his owne bodie rivers of blood and in a neglect of himselfe could outfast Moses or Elias though he could weare out his knees with prayer and had his eyes nail'd vnto heaven though he could build hospitals for all the poore on the earth and exhaust the Mines of India into almes though hee could walke like an Angell of light and with the glittering of an outward holinesse dazle the eyes of all beholders nay if it were possible to be conceiv'd though he should live for a thousand yeeres in a perfect and perpetuall observation of the whole Law of God his originall corruption or any one though the least digression and deviation from that Law alone excepted yet such a man as this could no more appeare before the tribunall of Gods Iustice then stubble before a consuming fire It is onely Christ in the bush that can keepe the fire from burning It is onely Christ in the heart that can keepe sinne from condemning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without mee that is separated from mee yee can doe nothing towards the iustification of your persons or salvation of your soules or sanctification of your lives or natures No burden can a man shake off no obstacle can hee breake through no temptation can hee overcome without faith shake off every thing that presseth downe and the sinne which hangeth so fast on and runne with patience namely through all oppositions and contradictions the race that is set before you saith the Apostle But how shall we do such unfeasible works Hee shewes that in the next words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looking of from our selves unto Iesus the Author and finisher of our faith When a man lookes inward upon his owne strength hee may as justly despaire of moving sinne from his soule as of casting downe Mountaines with one of his fingers but he who is able to give vs faith is by that able to make all things possible unto vs. The world tempts with promises wages pleasures of sinne with frownes threats and persecutions for righteousnesse If a man have not faith to see in Christ more pretious promises more sure mercies more full rewards more aboundant and everlasting pleasures to see in the frownes of God more terror in the wrath of God more bitternes in the threats of God more certainty in the Law of God more curses then all the world can load him withall impossible it is that he should stand under such assaults for this is the victory which overcommeth the world even our faith Satan dischargeth his fierie darts upon the soule darts pointed and poysoned with the venome of Serpents which set the heart on fire from one lust unto another if a man have not put on Christ do not make use of the shield of faith to hold up his heart with the promises of victory to hold out the triumph of Christ over the powers of death and darkenesse to see himselfe under the protection of him who hath already throwne downe the Dragon from Heaven who hath Satan in a chaine and the keyes of the bottomlesse Pit in his owne command to say unto him The Lord rebuke thee Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee impossible it is to quench any of his temptations or to stand before the rage and fury of so roaring a Lion Whom resist saith S. Peter stedfast in the faith Our corruptions set upon us with our own strength with high imaginations with strong reasonings with lustfull dalliances with treacherous solicitations with plausible pretences with violent importunities with deceitfull promises with fearefull prejudices with profound unsearchable points and traines on all sides lust stirs workes within us like sparkles in a dried leafe sets every faculty against it self The mind tempts it self unto vanity the understanding tempts it selfe unto error and curiosity the will tempts it selfe unto frowardnesse and contuinacie the heart tempts it selfe unto hardnesse and security If a man have not faith impossible it is either to make any requests to God against himselfe or to denie the requests of sinne which himselfe maketh It is faith alone which must purifie the heart and trust his power and fidelity who is both willing and able to subdue corruptions In vaine it is to strive except a man strive lawfully In prayer it is faith which must make us successefull in the word it is faith which must make us profitable In obedience it is faith which must make us cheerefull in afflictions it is faith which must make vs patient in trials it is faith which must make vs resolute in desertions it is faith which must make us comfortable in life it is faith which must make vs fruitfull and in death it is faith which must make us victorious So that as he said of water 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so may I of faith It is of all things the most soveraigne and pretious because it is of universall use in the
of holinesse and grace which in Christ wee haue receiued For as sense of sin as a cursed thing which is legall humiliation doth arise from that faith whereby wee beleeve and assent to the truth of God in all his threatnings which is a legall faith so the Abominating of sinne as an uncleane thing and contrary to the image and holinesse of God which is evangelicall repentance doth arise from evangelicall faith whereby we look upon God as most mercifull most holie and therefore most worthie to bee imitated and served Secondly Renovation and that two fold First inward in the constitution of the heart which is by faith purified Secondly outward in the conversation and practice when a man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth good things and as he hath received the Lord Iesus so walketh in him Now in all our obedience wee must observe these three Rules First that binding power which is in the law doth solely depend upon the authority of the Lawgiver who is God Hee that customarilie and without care of obedience or feare of displeasure or antipathy of spirit breaks any one Commandement ventures to violate that authority which by one and the same ordination made the whole law equally binding by consequence is habitually in praeparatione animi a transgressor of the whole Law And therefore Obedience must not bee partiall but vniversall as proceeding from that faith which hath respect equally to all Gods will and lookes upon him as most true and most holy in all his commands Secondly As God so his Law is a spirituall and a perfect Law and therefore requires an inward universality of the subject as well as that other of the Precepts which wee walke by I meane such a spiritual and sincere obedience of the hart as may without any mercenary or reserv'd respects uniformely sway our whole man unto the same way and end Thirdly In every Law all matter Homogeneall and of the same kind with the particular named every sprig seede originall of the Dutie is included as all the branches of a tree belong unto the same stock And by these rules wee are to examine the truth of our obedience Before I draw downe these premises to a particular Assumption and Applycation I must for Caution sake premise that faith may be in the heart either habitually as an actus primus a forme or seede or principle of working or else actually as an actus secundus a particular Operation and that in the former sense it doth but remotely dispose and order the soule to these properties but in the later it doth more visibly and distinctly produce them So then according as the heart is deaded in the exercise of Faith so doe these properties thereof more dimly appeare and more remisly worke Secondly we must note that according as faith hath severall workings so Satan hath severall wayes to assault and weaken it There are two maine workes of Faith Obedience and Comfort to purifie and to pacifie the heart and according unto these so Satan tempts His maine end is to wrong and dishonour God and therefore chiefly hee labours to disable the former vertue of Faith and tempts to sinne against God But when hee cannot proceede so farre hee labours to discomfort and crush the spirits of men when hee prevailes in the former he weakens all the properties of Faith when in the later onely he doth not then weaken all but onely intercept and darken a Christians peace For understanding this point we must note that there are many acts of faith Some direct that looke outward towards Christ others reflexive that looke inward upon themselves The first act of faith is that whereby a man having beene formerly reduced unto extremities and impossibilities within himselfe lookes upon God as Omnipotent and so able to save as mercifull and in Christ reconcileable and so likely to save if he be sought unto Hereupon growes a second act namely a kinde of exclusive resolution to be thinke himselfe of no new wayes to trust no inferiour causes for salvation or righteousnes to sell all to count them all dung not to consult any more with flesh or blood but to prepare the heart to seeke the Lord To resolve as the Lepers in the famine at Samaria not to continue in the state he is in nor yet to returne to the Citie to his wonted haunts and wayes where he shall be sure to perish and from this resolution a man cannot by any discomforts bee removed or made to bethinke himselfe of any other new way but onely that which hee sees is possible and probable and where he knowes if he finde acceptance hee shall have supplyes and life enough and this act may consist with much feare doubt and trembling The Syrians had food and Samaria had none therefore the Lepers resolve to venture abroad Yet this they cannot doe without much doubting and distrust because the Syrians whom they should meete with were their enemies However this resolution over-rul'd them because in their present estate they were sure to perish in the other there was roome for hope and possibilitie of living and that carried them co Esters resolution If we perish we perish such is the Act of Faith in this present case It is well assured that in the case a man is in there is nothing but death to bee expected therefore it makes him resolve to relinquish that It lookes upon God as plenteous in power and mercie and so likely to save and yet it sees him too as arm'd with Iustice against sinne as justly provoked and wearied in his patience and therefore may feare to bee rejected and not saved alive Yet because in the former state there is a certainty to perish in the later a possibility not to perish therefore from hence ariseth a third act a conclusive and positive purpose to trust Christ. I will not onely deny all other wayes but I will resolve to trie this way to set about it to go to him that hath plenty of redemption and Life If I must perish yet He shall reject me I will not reject my selfe I will goe unto Him And this act or resolution of faith is built upon these grounds First because Gods Love and free Grace is the first originall mover in our salvation If God did beginne His worke upon prevision of any thing in and from our selves we should never dare to come vnto Him because wee should never finde any thing in our selves to ground His mercie towards us upon But now the Love of God is so absolute and independant that it doth not only require nothing in us to excite and to cal it out but it is not so much as grounded upon Christ himselfe I speake of His first Love and Grace Christ was not the impulsive cause of Gods first Love to mankinde but was Himselfe the great gift which God sent to men therein to testifie that Hee did freely love them before God so