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
had no holdfast at all of Him When Lazarus was raised It is said that Hee came forth bound hand and foote with Grave cloathes to note that Hee came not out as a victor over Death unto which He was to returne againe but when Christ rose Hee left them behinde because death was to have no more power over Him Thus by His resurrection He was declared to have gone through the whole punishment which Hee was to suffer for sinne and being thus justified himselfe that hee was able also to justifie others that beleeved in him This is the reason why the Apostle useth these words to prove the resurrection of Christ I will give you the sure mercies of David for none of Gods mercies had been sure to us if Christ had been held under by death Our faith had been vaine we had been yet in our sinnes But his worke being fully finished the mercy which thereupon depended was made certaine and as the Apostle speakes sure unto all the 〈◊〉 Thus as the Day wherein Redemption is victorious and consummate is cald the day of Redemption so the worke wherein the merits of Christ were declar'd victorious is said to have been for our justification because they were thereby made appliable unto that purpose The second worke of the Power of Christs Resurrection is to overcome all death in vs and restore vs to life againe Therfore he is cald the Lord of the living and the Prince of life to note that his life is operative unto others wee are by his Resurrection secur'd first against the death and Law which wee were held under for euery sinneâ—… is condemn'd already Now when Christ was condemned for sinne hee thereby deliver'd us from the death of the Law which is the curse so that though some of the grave cloathes may not be quite shaken off but that wee may be subject to the workings feares of the Law upon some occasions yet the malediction thereof is for ever removed Secondly we are secured against the death in sinne regenerated quickned renued fashioned by the power of godlinesse which tameth our rebellions subdueth our corruptions and turneth all our affections another way Thirdly against the hold-fast and conquest of death in the grave from whence wee shall bee translated unto glory a specimen and resemblance of this was shewed at the resurrection of Christ when the graves were opened and many dead bodies of the Saints arose and entred into the Citie As a Prince in his inauguration or sosemne state openeth prisons and unlooseth many which there were bound to honour his solemnitie so did Christ do to those Saints at his resurrection and in them gave assurance to all his of their conquest over the last Enemy What a fearefull condition then are all men out of Christ in who shall have no interest in His resurrection Rise indeed they shall but barely by his power as their Iudge not by fellowship with him as the first fruites and first borne of the dead and therefore theirs shall not be properly or at least comfortably a Resurrection no more than a condemn'd persons going from the prison to his execution may be cald an enlargement Pharaohâ—… Butler and Baker went both out of prison but they were not both delivered so the righteous and the wicked shall all appeare before Christ and bee gathered out of their graves but they shall not all bee Children of the Resurrection for that belongs onely to the just The wicked shall be dead everlastingly to all the pleasures and wayes of sin which here they wallowed in As there remaines nothing to a drunkard or adulterer after all his youthfull excesses but crudities rottennesse diseases and the worme of Conscience so the wicked shall carry no worlds nor satisfactions of lust to hell with them their glorie shall not descend after them These things are truths written with a sunne beame in the booke of God First That none out of Christ shall rise unto Glorie Secondly That all who are in him are purged from the Love and power of sinne are made a people willingly obedient unto his scepter and the government of his grace and spirit and have eyes given them to see no beauty but in his kingdome Thirdly Hereupon it is manifest that no uncleane thing shall rise unto glory A prince in the day of his state or any roiall solemnitie wil not admit beggers or base companions into his presence Hee is of purer eyes then to behold much lesse to communicate with uncleane persons None but the pure in heart shal see God Fourthly that every wicked man waxeth worse and worse that hee who is filthy growes more filthy that sinne hardneth the heart and infidelitie hasteneth perdition Whence the conclusion is evident That every impenitent sinner who without any inward hatred purposes of revenge against sinne without godly sorrow forepast and spirituall renovation for after-times allowes himselfe to continue in any course of uncleannesse spends all his time and strength to no other purpose then onely to heape up coales of Iuniper against his owne soule and to gather together a treasure of sins and wrath like an infinite pile of wood to burne himselfe in Again this power of Christs resurrection is a ground of solid and invincible comfort to the faithfull in any pressures or calamities though never so desperate because God hath power and promises to raise them up againe This is a sufficient supportance first Against any either publike or privat afflictions However the Church may seeme to be reduc'd to as low and uncureable an estate as dried bones in a grave or the brands of wood in a fire yet it shall be but like the darknesse of a night after two daies he will revive againe His goings forth in the defence of his Church are prepared as the morning When Iob was upon a dunghill and his reines were consumed within him When Ionah was at the bottome of the Mountaines and the weedes wrapped about his head and the great billowes and waves went over him so that he seemed as cast out of Gods sight When David was in the midst of troubles and Ezekiah in great bitternesse this power of God to raise unto life againe was the onely refuge and comfort they had Secondly against all temptations and discomforts Satans traines and policies come too late after once Christ is risen from the dead for in his resurrection the Church is discharged and set at large Thirdly against Death it selfe because wee shall come out of our graves as gold out of the fire or miners out of their pits laden with gold and glory at the last Lastly wee must from hence learne to seeke those things that are above whither Christ is gone Christs Kingdome is not here and therefore our hearts should not be here Hee is ascended
momentarie and vanishing First by the Law of their Creation they were made subject to alterations there was an enmitie and reluctancy in their entirest being Secondly this hath been exceedingly improved by the s◅ne of man whose evill being the lord of all Creatures must needs redound to the misery and mortalitie of all his retinue For it was in the greater World as in the administration of a private family the poverty of the Master is felt in the bowels of all the rest his staine and dishonour runnes into all the members of that society As it is in the naturall body some parts may be distempered and ill affected alone others not without contagion on the rest a man may have a dimme eye or a withered arme or a lame foot or an impedite tongue without any danger to the parts adjoyning but a lethargie in the head or an obstruction in the liver or a dyspepsie and indisposition in the stomake diffuseth universall malignity through the body because these are soveraigne and architectonicall parts of man so likewise is it in the great and vast body of the Creation However other Creatures might have kept their evill if any had been in them within their owne bounds yet that evill which man the Lord and head of the whole brought into the world was a spreading and infectious evill which conuey'd poyson into the whole frame of nature and planted the seed of that universall dissolution which shall one day deface with darkenesse and horror the beauty of that glorious frame which wee now admire It is said that when Corah Dathan and Abiram had provoked the Lord by their rebellion against his servants to inflict that fearefull destruction upon them the earth opened her mouth swallowed not only them up but al the houses and men and goods that appertained to them Now in like maner the heaven and earth and al inferior Creatures did at first appertaine to Adam the Lord gave him the free use of them dominion over them when therefore man had committed that notorious rebellion against his maker which was not only to aspire like Corah and his associates to the height and principality of some fellow Creature but even to the absolutenesse wisdome power and independency of God himselfe no marvell if the wrath of God did together with him seize upon his house and all the goods that belongd unto him bringing in that cōfusion and disorder which we even now see doth breake asunder the bonds and ligaments of nature doth unjoynt the confedera◅ies and societies of the dumbe Creatures and turneth the armies of the Almighty into mutinies and commotion which in one word hath so fast manicled the world in the bondag◅ of corruption as that it doth already groane and linger with paine under the sinne of man and the curse of God and will at last breake forth into that universall flame which will melt the very Elements of Nature into their primitive confusion Thus wee see besides the created limitednesse of the creature by which it was utterly unsuteable to the immortall desires of the soule of man the sinne of man hath implanted in them a secret worme and rottennesse which doth set forward their mortalitie and by adding to them confusion enmity disproportion sedition inequalitie all the seeds of corruption hath made them not onely as before they were mortall but which addes one mortalitie to another even momentary and vanishing too When any Creature loseth any of its native and created vigour it is a manifest signe that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it The excellency of the Heavens wee know is their light their beauty their influences upon the lower World and even these hath the sinne of man defaced Wee finde when the Lord pleaseth to reveale his wrath against men for sinne in any terrible manner hee doth it from Heaven There shall be wonders in the Heauen blood and fire and pillars of smoake the Sunne shall be turned into darkenesse and the Moone into blood and the day of the Lord is called a day of darknesse and gloominesse and thicke darknesse How often hath Gods heavy displeasure declared it selfe from Heaven in the confusion of nature in stormes and horrible tempests in thick clouds and darke waters in arrowes of lightning and coales of fire in blacknesse and darkenesse in brimstone on Sodome in a flaming sword over Ierusalem in that fearefull Starre of fire to the Christian World of late yeeres which hath kindled those woful combustions the flames whereof are still so great as that wee our selves if wee looke upon the merits and provocations of our sinnes may have reason to feare that not all the Sea betweene us and our neighbours can bee able to quench till it have scorched and singed us Wee find likewise by plaine experience how languid the seeds of life how faint the vigor either of heavenly influences or of sublunary and inferiour agents are growne when that life of men which was wont to reach to almost a thousand yeeres is esteemed even a miraculous age if it be extended but to the tenth part of that duration We need not examine the inferiour Creatures which we find expressely cursed for the sinne of man with Thornes and Briers the usuall expression of a curse in Scripture If we but open our eyes and looke about us wee shall see what paines Husbandmen take to keepe the earth from giving up the Ghost in opening the veines thereof in applying their Soile and Marle as so many Pills or Salves as so many Cordials and preservatives to keepe it alive in laying it asleepe as it were when it lyeth fallow every second or third yeere that by any meanes they may preserve in it that life which they see plainely approching to its last gaspe Thus you see how besides the originall limitednesse of the Creature there is in a second place a Moth or Canker by the infection of sinne begotten in them which hastens their mortalitie God ordering the second causes so amongst themselves that they exercising enmitie one against another may punish the sinne of man in their contentions as the Lord stirred up the Babylonians against the Egyptians to punish the sinnes of his owne people And therefore wee finde that the times of the Gospell when holinesse was to bee more universall are expressed by such figures as restore perfection and peace to the Creatures The Earth shall be fat and plenteous there shall be upon every high hill Rivers and Streames of water the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And againe the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe and the leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a Calfe and a young Lion and a fatling together c. Which places though figuratively to be understood have yet me thinks thus much of the letter in
entred by Moses that sin might abound that is That that concupiscence which reigned without conviction before during the ignorance of the originall implanted Law might by the new edition and publication of that Law be knowne to be sinfull and thereby become more exceeding sinful to those who should be thus convinced of it that so the exceeding sinfulnesse of sinne might serve both the sooner to compell men to come to Christ and the Grace of Christ might thereby appeare to be more exceeding gratious for the Law was reviv'd and promulgated anew meerely with relation to Christ and the Gospell and therefore the Apostle saith It was added and ordained by Angels in the Hand of a Mediator or by the ministery of a Mediator Where there are three reasons to shew Gods Evangelicall purpose in the publication of the Law anew First it was not published alone but as an Additament with relation to the Evangelicall promise which was before made Secondly the service of Angels or Messengers which shewes that in the Law God did send from Heaven anew to instruct men and therein to take care of them and prepare them for salvation for Angels minister for this purpose that men might be heires of salvation Thirdly the ministry of a Mediator namely Moses who was Mediator in the Law with reference whereunto Christ is cald Mediator of a better Covenant and was faithfull as Moses Now where there is a Mediator appointed therein God declares his purpose to enter anew into a treaty with men and to bring them to termes of agreement and reconciliation with him Men were rebels against God held under the sentence of death and vengeance they are in darkenesse know not whither they goe are well pleasde with their owne estate give no heed to any that would call them out For this reason because God is willing to pull mē out of the fire he sends first Moses armed with thunder and brightnesse which can not be endur'd for the shining of Moses his face which the people could not abide denotes the exceeding purity and brightnesse of the Law which no sinner is able with peace to looke on and he shews them whither they are hastning namely to eternall death and like the Angell that met Balaam in a narrow roome shuts them in that either they must turne backe againe or else bee destroyed and in this fright and anguish Christ the mediator of a better covenant presents himselfe as a Sanctuary and refuge from the condemnation of the Law Secondly there is universalitie of men and in men universality of parts All men and every part of man shut up under the guilt and power of this sinne Both these the Apostle proves at large Iewes Gentiles all under sinne none righteous no not one all gone out of the way altogether become unprofitable none that doth good no not one Every mouth must be stopped all the world must be guilty before God all have sinned and come short or are destitute of his glory God hath concluded all in unbeliefe the Scripture hath shut up all under sinne this shewes the universality of persons The Apostle adds Their throate is an open sep◅lcher with their tongues they have used deceit the poyson of aspes is under their lips their mouth full of cursing and bitternesse their feete swift to shed bloud destruction and unhappinesse are in their wayes and the way of peace they have not knowne there is no feare of God before their eyes these particulars are enough to make up an Induction and so to inferre a universalitie of Parts Every purpose desire Imagination incomplete and inchoate notion every figment so the word properly signifies with reference whereunto the Apostle as I conceive cals sinne The creature of the Heart and our Saviour the Issue of the Heart is evill onely evill continually evill Originall sinne is an entire body an old man which word noteth not the impotencie or defects but the maturity wisedome cunning covetousnesse full growth of that sinne in us and in this man every member is earthly sensuall and divelish As there is chaffe about every corne in a field saltnesse in every drop of the sea bitternesse in every branch of wormewood so is ehere sinne in every faculty of man First looke into the minde you shall finde it full of vanitie wasting and wearying it selfe in childish impertinent unprofitable notions Full of ignorance and darknesse no man knoweth nay no man hath so much knowledge as to enquire or seeke after God in that way where he will bee found nay more when God breakes in upon the minde by some notable testimonie from his Creatures Iudgements or providence yet they like it not they hold it downe they reduce themselves backe againe to foolish hearts to reprobate and undiscerning mindes as naturally as hot water returnes to its former coldnesse Full of Curiositie Rash unprofitable enquiries foolish and unlearned questions profane bablings strife of words perverse disputes all the fruits of corrupt and rotten mindes Full of Pride and contradiction against the Truth oppositions of science that is setting up of philosophy and vaine deceit Imaginations thoughts fleshly reasonings against the spirit and truth which is in Iesus Full of domesticall Principles fleshlie wisedome humane Inventions contrivances super-inducements upon the pretious foundation of rules and methods of its owne to serve God and come to happinesse Full of Inconsistency and roving swarmes of empty and foolish thoughts slipperinesse and unstablenesse in all good motions Secondly looke into the Conscience you shall finde it full of Insensiblenesse the Apostle saith of the Gentiles That they were past feeling and of the Apostates in the latter times that they had their consciences seared with a hot iron which things though they be spoken of an Habituall and acqui◅'d hardnesse which growes upon men by a custome of sinne yet wee are to note that it is originally in the Conscience at first and doth not so much come unto it as grow out of it As that branch which at first shooting out is flexible and tender growes at last even by it owne disposition into a hard and stubbo◅e bow as those parts of the naile next the flesh which are at first softer then the rest yet doe of themselves grow to that hardnesse which is in the rest so the consciences of children have the seedes of that insensibility in them which makes them at last dea◅e to every charme and secure against all the thunder that is threatned against them Full of Impurity and disobedience dead rotten unsavorie workes Full of false and absurd excusations and accusations fearing where there is no cause of feare and acquitting where there is great cause of feare as Saint Pauls here did Looke into the Heart and you shall finde a very He◅ of uncleannesse Full of deepe and unsearchable deceit and wickednesse Full of hardnesse no sinnes no judgements no mercies no
and you shall finde more madnesse and tempest in him then in the Sea into which he was throwne Angry exceeding angry at Gods mercy to Ninivie and with a strange uniformitie of passion in a contrary occasion as angry at Gods severity to the Gourd That which made Iob though before full of impaciency in some particular fits to lay his hand on his mouth and reply no more which was Gods debatement and expostulation with him Ionah regarded not but reproves and replyes with much madnesse of heart upon God himselfe I doe well to be angry even unto death So belluine and contumacious are the mindes of men set upon their owne end that though God himselfe undertake the cause they will out-face his arguments and stand on their owne defence Asa was a holy King his heart was perfect with the Lord all his dayes yet when the Prophet sent from God told him of his folly in entertaining leagve with the Syrians and depending upon their confederacies It is said that he imprisoned the Prophet and was in a rage or in a tempestuousnesse against him Theodosius was a holy and excellent Prince and amongst all other graces for none more eminent then for lenitie and compassion yet so farre did his furie kindle upon occasion of an uproare at Thessalonica where one of his servants had been slaine that he commanded an universall massacre without distinction to passe upon the City where in a very short space of three houres there were seven thousand men butchered by the Emperours Edict and the City fill'd with the blood of Innocents And this should teach us to keepe the stricter watch over our owne hearts since such excellent men as these have fallen since so many occasions may throw us into the like distemper since the sinne of our nature is but like a sleeping Lyon or at best but like a wounded Lion any thing that awakens and vexeth it begets rage and furie to be the more circumspect over our selves and the more jealous of our owne passions in those particular cases especially wherein this fiâ—…e is most apt to kindle First when thou art in disputation engag'd upon a just quarrell to vindicate the truth of God from heresie and distorsion looke unto thy heart set a watch over thy tongue be ware of wild-fiâ—…e in thy zeale take heed of this madnesse of thiâ—…e evill nature Much advantage the Divell may get euen by disputations for the truth When mâ—…n dispute against those that oppose themselves as the Disciples against the Samaritans with thunder and fire from heaven with railing and reviling speeches such as the Angell durst not give unto Satan himselfe when men shall forget the Apostles rule to instruct those that oppose themselves with meeknes and to restore those that are fallen with the spirit of meeknes When tongve shal be sharpned against tongue and pen poisoned against pen when pamphlets shall come forth with more teeth to bite then arguments to convince when men shall follow an adversarie as an undisciplin'd Dog his game with barking and bawling more then with skill or cunning this is a way to betray the truth and to doe the Divell service under Gods colours It is a grave observation which Sulpitius Severus makes of the councel at Ariminum consisting of foure hundred Bishops whereof eighty were Arians and the rest Orthodox when after much treaty and agitation nothing was concluded but either party kept immoveable to his owne tenent It was at last resolv'd that the sides should severally dispatch an embassage to the emperour of ten men apiece who should make relation of their faith and opinions And here now grew the disadvantage for saith hee the Arians sent Aged men cunning and able to manage their employment to the best but on our part there were young men sent of little learning and of strong passions who being vex'd and provok'd by the adverse partie spoild their owne businesse though farre the better with imprudent and intemperate handling Secondly when thou art upon any civill controversie or debate for matter of right looke unto thy heart take heed of that seed of madnesse which lies lurking in it lest upon occasion of lawfull controversie there breake out rage and revenge upon the persons of one another It is not for nothing that the Apostle saith There is utterly a fault amongst you because you goe to Law with one another 1. Cor. 6. 7. Why The Apostle doth plainely allow Iudicature vers 1. A man may go to law before the Saints they may iudge small matters and things that pertaine to this life vers 2. 3. 4. And for any man from such a place to inferre the unlawfulnesse of sueing to publick justice for his right is a piece of Anabaptisme and folly justly punished with the losse of his right What then is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Impotency and defect which the Apostle blameth in them It consisteth in two things first their going to law before Heathen Iudges thereby exposing the profession of Christianity to imputations of scisme divisions and worldlinesse amongst the enemies of it In which case rather then put a rub unto the progresse of the Gospell by giving unreasonable men occasion to censure the truth thereof by their altercations and making the ministery evill spoken oâ—… by their scandals they were to suffer and to beare wrong For those words Why doe you not rather take wrong and suffer your selves to bee defrauded are not a Positive precept as Iulian the Apostate objected scornefully to the Christians unlesse it be in smaller injuries which may with more wisedome be borne by patience then by contention repaid or overcome but onely a Comparative precept that a man should rather choose to leave his name life estate goods interests utterly unvindicated then by defending them unavoydably to bring a scandall upon the Crosse of Christ. Secondly which is to my present purpose Their going to law though in itselfe Iust when before competent and fit judges had yet an accidentall vitiousnesse that by their inadvertencie did breake out of their evill hearts and cleave unto it and that was their litigations ranne from the businesses unto the persons It brake forth into violence and wrong against one another much perturbation of minde revengefull and circumventing projects shew themselves under the colour of legall debatements Nay saith the Apostle you doe wrong and defraud and that your brethren Such a notable frowardnesse and rage lyes in the natures of men that without much caution and watchfulnesse it will bee blowne up into a flame even by honest and just contentions Thirdly In Differences upon private conversation looke to your hearts give not the raines too much to anger or displeasure to suspicions or misconstructions of your neighbours person or courses give not the water passage no not a little Be Angry saith the Apostle but sinne not let not the sunne goe downe upon your wrath It is not a
and defect of reason or at least it is an inconsistency a lubricitie a slipperinesse of reason And these are very deepe in the nature of a man folly is bound up in the heart of a childe and in spirituall things we are all children First there is an universall ignorance and inconsideratenesse of spirituall things in the nature of man he takes lesse notice of his condition then the very bruite beasts The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The Stâ—…rke in the heavens knoweth her appointed time and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow but my people knoweth not the judgement of the Lord. The very dumbe Assereproved the madnesse of the Prophet as Saint Peter speakes And for this reason it is that we shall observe That frequent Apostrophe of God in the Prophets when he had wearied himselfe with crying to a deafe and re bellious people he turnes his speech and pleads before dumbe and inanimate Creatures Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth nothing so farre from the voyce of the Prophet as the heavens nothing so dull and impenetrable as the earth and yet the heavens likelier to heare the earth likelier to listen and attend then the obdurate sinners Heare O ye mountaines the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth Nothing in the earth so immoveable as the mountaines nothing in the mountaines so impenetrable as the foundations of the mountaines and yet these are made more sensible of Gods pleadings and controversies then the people whom it concern'd The Creatures groane as the Apostle speakes under the burden and vanitie of the sinnes of men and men themselves upon whom sinne lies with a farre heavier burden boast and glory and rejoyce in it Of our selves we have no understanding but are foolish and sottish as the Prophet speakes we see nothing but by the light and the understanding which is given unto us we cannot have so much as a right thought of goodnesse The Apostle doth notably expresse this universall blindnesse which is in our nature Ephes. 4. 17. 18. Walke not as other Gentiles in the Vanitie of their minde having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God or from a godly life through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their Hearts First their minds are vaine the minde is the Seate of Principles of supreme primitive underived truths but saith he their mindes are destitute of all divine and spirituall principles Secondly their understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is darkened The understanding or Dianoeticall facultie is the seate of Conclusions and that is unable to deduce from spirituall principles if there were any in their mindes such sound and divine conclusions as they are apt to beget so though they know God which is a Principle yet this Principle was vaine in them for they conceiv'd of his glory basely by the similitude of foure footed beasts and creeping things they conceiv'd him an idle God as the Epicures or a God subject to fate and necessity as the Stoicks or a sinfull impuâ—…e God that by his example made uncleannesses religious as Saint Cyprian speakes one way or other they became vaine in their imaginations of him but secondly though they knew him yet the conclusions which they deduc'd from that Principle That he was to be worshipped c. were utterly unworthy his majesty They worshipped him ignorantly superstitiously not as became God they changed his truth into a lye Thirdly suppose their principles to be found their Conclusions from those principles to be naturall and proper yet all this is but speculation they still are without the end of all this spirituall prudence their hearts were blinded the heart is the Seate of knowledge practicall that by the Principles of the minde and the Conclusions of the understanding doth regulate and measure the Conversation but that was unable yea averse from any such knowledge for they held the truth of God in unrighteousnesse they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge they served the lusts of their owne hearts were given up to vile affections were filled with all unrighteousnesse and had pleasure in evill workers even when they did things which they knew deserved death and provoked judgement This is that universall defect which is in us by nature and very much of this remaines in the best of us Here then when we are not able to conceive the Lords purpose in his word though of it selfe it be all light when we finde with David that it is too excellent for us let us learne to bewaile that evill concupiscence of our nature which still fils our understandings with mists and puts a vaile before our faces The whole Booke of God is a pretious Mine full of unsearchable treasures and of all wisedome there is no scoria no refuse in it nothing which is not of great moment and worthy of speciall and particular observation and therefore much are we still to bewaile the unfaithfulnesse of our memories and understandings which retaine so little and understand lesse then they doe retaine If David were constrain'd to pray Open mine eyes to see more wonders in thy Law how much more are we to pray so too If there were a dampe of sinne in Davids heart that did often make his light dimme that did make him as abeast in understanding as himselfe complaines how much darkenesse then and disproportion is there betweene us and that blessed light Looke upon Heretiques old and new Marcions two gods a good and an evill Valentinians thirty and odde gods in severall lofts and stories worshippers of Caine worshippers of Iudas worshippers of the Serpent and a world of the like sottish impiecies nay amongst men that pretend more light to see the same Scriptures on both sides held and yet opinions as diametrally contrary as light and darkenesse one gospell in one place and another gospell in another to speake nothing of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and naevi those blemishes that are in the writings of the most rare and choisest instruments in Gods Church All these are notable evidences of that radicall blindnesse which is in our nature and is never here quite removed for if the light be not seene it is not for want of evidence but for want of sight Secondly consider the slipperinesse and inconsistencie of naturall reason in spirituall things it can never stay upon any holy notion And this is another kinde of madnesse Mad men will make a hundred relations but their reason cannot stand still nor goe through with any but roves from one thing to another and joynes together notions of severall subjects like a rope of sand some few lucid intervals they may haply have but they quickly returne to their frenzies againe This is the condition of our nature let a man enter upon
Adams sinne may be thus farre said to be unto posterity imputed as that by reason of it they become obnoxious unto Death namely to an eternall dissolution of body and soule without any reunion and an eternall losse of the divine vision without any paine of sense yet that death which to Adam in his person was a punishment is not so to his posteritie but onely the condition of their nature Thirdly they say that that which is called originall sinne is nothing else at all but onely the privation of originall righteousnesse and that concupiscence was 〈◊〉 contracted and brought upon nature by sinne but was originally in our nature suspended indeede by the presence but actuated by the losse of that righteousnesse Fourthly they say That that Privation was not by man contracted but by God inflicted as a punishment upon Adam from whom it comes but onely as a condition of nature unto us that man in his fall and prevarication did not Throw away or actually shake off the Image of God but God pull'd it away from him which if God had not done it would have remained with him notwithstanding the sinne of the first fall Fifthly they say That in as much as the privation of originall righteousnesse was a punishment by God upon Adam justly inflicted and by Adam unto us naturally and unavoidably propagated It is not therefore to be esteem'd any sinne at all neither for it can God justly condemne any man nor is it to be esteem'd a punishment of sinne in us though it were in Adam because in us there is no sinne going before it of which it may bee accounted the punishment as there was in Adam but onely the condition of our present nature Lastly they say that Adam being by God deprived of originall righteousnesse which is the facultie and fountaine of all obedience and being now constituted under the deserved curse all the debt of legall obedience wherein he and his posteritie in him were unto God obliged did immediately cease so that whatsoever outrages should after that have beene by Adam or any of his children committed they would not have beene sinnes or transgressions nor involv'd the Authors of them in the guilt of iust damnation That which unto us reviveth sin is the new covenant because therein is given unto the law new strength to command and unto us new strength to obey both which were evacuated in the fall of Adam Vpon which premises it doth most evidently follow that unlesse God in Christ had made a covenant of grace with us anew no man should ever have beene properly and penally damned but onely Adam and he too with no other then the losse of Gods presence For â—… Hell and torments are not the revenge of Legall but of Evangelicall disobedience not for any actuall sinnes for there would have beene none because the exaction of the Law would have ceased and where there is no Law there is no transgression not for the want of righteousnesse because that was in Adam himselfe but a punishment and in his posteritie neither a sinne nor a punishment but onely a condition of nature not for habituall concupiscence because though it be a disease and an infirmitie yet it is no sinne both because the being of it is connaturall and necessary and the operations of it inevitable and unpreventable for want of that bridle of supernaturall righteousnesse which was appointed to keepe it in Lastly not for Adams sinne imputed because being committed by another mans will it could bee no mans sinne but his that committed it So that now upon these premises we are to invert the Apostles words By one man namely by Adam sinne entered into the world upon all his posterity and death by sinne By one man namely by Christ tanquam per causam sine quâ non sinne returned into the world upon all Adams posteritie and with sinne the worst of all deaths namely hellish torments which without him should not haue beene at all O how are wee bound to prayse God and recount with all honour the memorie of those Worthies who compiled Our Articles which serue as a hedge to keepe out this impious and mortiferous doctrine as Fulgentius cals it from the Church of England and suffers not Pelagius to returne into his owne country There are but three maine arguments that I can meet with to colour this heresie and two of them were the Pelagians of old First that which is naturall and by consequence necessarie and unavoidable cannot be sinne Originall sinne is naturall necessarie and unavoidable therefore it is no sin Secondly that which is not voluntarie cannot be sinfull Originall sinne is not voluntarie therefore not sinfull Thirdly no sinne is immediatly caused by God but originall sinne being the privation of originall righteousnesse is from God immediately who pull'd away Adams righteousnesse from him Therfore it is no sinne For the more distinct understanding the whole truth and answering these supposed strong reasons give me leave to premise these observations by way of Hypothesis First there are Two things in originall sinne The privation of righteousnesse and the corruption of nature for since originall sinne is the roote of actuall and in actuall sinnes there are both the omission of the good which we ought to exercise and positive contumaâ—…ies against the Law of God therefore a vis formatrix something answerable to both these must needs be found in originall sinne This positive corruption for in the other all agree that it is originall sinne is that which the Scripture cals flâ—…sh and members and law and lusts and bodie and Saint Austin vitiousnesse inobedience or inordinatenesse and a morbid affection Consonant whereunto is the Article of our Church affirming that man by originall sinne is farre gone from righteousnesse which is the privation secondly that thereby he is of his owne nature enclined unto evill which is the pravitie or corruption and this is the doctrine of many learned papists Secondly the Law being perfect and spirituall searcheth the most intimate corners of the soule and reduceth under a law the very rootes and principles of all humane operations And therefore in aâ—… much as well being is the ground of well working and that the Tree must be good before the fruite therefore wee conclude that the Law is not onely the Rule of our workes but of our strength not of our life only but of our nature which being at first deliver'd into our hands entire and pure cannot become degenerate without the offence of those who did first betray so great a trust committed unto them Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God Exâ—…ni valdâ—… tuo with all thy might saith the Law it doth not only require us to love but to have mindes furnish'd with all strength to love God so that there may be life and vigoâ—… in our obedience and love of him The Law requires no
after all death it selfe For though these things may be where there is no guilt imputed and so properly no punishment inflicted neither the blinde man nor his parents had sinned that he was borne blinde as in the same ship there may bee a malefactor and a Merchant and to the one the voyage is a trafficke to the other a banishment yet to the wicked where they are not sanctified they are truely punishments and fruites of Gods vindicative justice because they have their sting still in them For the sting of death is sinne Secondly Spirituall and those threefold First Purishment of losse separation from the favour and fellowship with God expulsion from Paradise the seat of Gods presence and love Aliens forreiners farre from God Secondly Of sense the immediate strokes of Gods wrath on the soule wounds of Conscience scourges of heart taste of vengeance implanting in the soule tremblings feares amazements distracted thoughts on a cleare view of the demerit of sinne evidences of immortality and presumptions of irreconciliation with God This made Cain a runnagate and Iudas a murtherer of himselfe yea some touches of it made David cry out that his bones were broken and marrow dryed up and his flesh scortched like a potsheard It is able to shake the strongest Cedars and make the mountaines tremble like a leafe The sonne of God himselfe did sweate and shrinke and pray against it and with strong cries decline it though the suffering of so much of it as could consist with the holinesse of his person were the worke of his office and voluntary mercy Thirdly of sinne when God in anger doth forsake the soule and give it over to the frenzie and fury of lust to the rage and revenge of Satan letting men alone to joyne themselves unto idoles and to beleeve lies Now as the operation of the sunne is strongest there where it is not at all seene in the bowels of the earth or as lightning doth often blast and consume the inward parts when there is no sensible operation without so the Iudgements of God doe often lie heaviest there where they are least perceiv'd Hardnesse of heart a spirit of slumber blindnesse of minde a reprobate sense tradition unto Satan giving over unto vile affections recompencing the errors of men with following sinnes are most fearefull and desperate judgements But doe we then make God the Author of sinne God for bid In sinne we may consider the execution and committing of it as it is sinne and this is onely from man for every man is drawne away and enticed by his owne lust and the Ordination of it as it is a Punishment and this may be from God whose hand in the just punishment of sinne by sinne in obstinate contemptuous impenitent sinners may thus farre be observed First Deserendo by forsaking them that is taking away his abused gifts subtracting his despised Graces calling in and making to retire his quenched and grieved spirit removing his candlesticke and silencing his Prophets and giving a bill of divorce that either they may not see nor heare at all or hearing they may not understand and seeing they may not perceive because they did not see nor heare when they might Secondly Permittendo when he hath taken away his own Grace which was abused unto wantonnesse he suffers wicked men to walke in their owne wayes and because they like not to retaine him in their knowledge nor to live by his prescript therefore he leaves them to themselves and their owne will Thirdly Media disponendo ordering objects and proposing meanes not onely to Try but to punish the wickednesse of men and to bring about whatever other fixed purposes of his hee hath resolved for the declaration of his wonderfull wisedome to execute and as it were to fetch out of the sinnes of men as the conspiracie of Pilat Herod and the Iewes which their former wickednesse had justly deserved to have them given over unto was by God order'd to accomplish his determined and unchangeable counsell touching the death of Christ. Excellent is the speech of Holy Austin to this purpose The Lord enclineth the wils of men whither soever pleaseth himselfe whether unto Good out of his mercie or unto evill out of their merit sometimes by his manifest sometimes secret but alwayes by his righteous judgement and this not by his patience onely but by his power Fourthly Perversas voluntates non invitas flectendo sed spontaneas suo impetu faciles ulterius Satanae praecipitandas tradendo By giving over perverse wilfull rebellious sinners to the rage and will of Satan to hurry and enrage them at his pleasure unto further sinfulnesse When Iudas had listued to the Temptation of Satan to betray Christ had set himselfe to watch the most private opportunitie had been warned of it by Christ and that upon a question of the most bold and impudent hypocrisie that was ever made Master Is it I though it is not an improbable conjecture that Iudas at that very time upon the curse that was pronounced might secretly and for that time seriously resolve to give over his plot and upon that resolution to aske the question then at last Christ by a sop did give Satan as it were a further seisin of him and the purpose of Christ was that that which he was to doe hee might doe quickely He was now wholly given up to the will of Satan whose temptation haply before though very welcome in regard of the purchase and project of gaine which was in it had not fully silenc'd nor broken through all those reluctancies of Conscience which were very likely to arise upon the first presentment of so hideous a suggestion but now I say whether out of a sinister Construction of our Saviours words That thou doest doe quickly as if they had been not as indeed they were a giving him over to the greedinesse of his owne lust and to the rage of Satan but rather an allowance of his intention as knowing that hee was able to deliver himselfe out of their hands unto whom he should bee betraide and so his treason should onely make way to Christs miracle and not to his crosse or whether it were out of a secret presumption that notwithstanding Christ had made him know how his conspiracie was not hid from him yet since he was of all the company singled out whom Christ would Carve unto therefore his conspiracie was not so vile but that Christ would redâ—…re in gratiam countenance and respect him after all that and that as by the plot hee had not so lost him but that hee had gain'd him againe so also hee might doe after the execution too Now I say after that soppe and those words without further respect to the strugglings and staggerings of his Conscience hee goes resolvedly about that damned businesse for he was now delivered unto the will of Sathan The like libertie and commission was that which God gaue to
upon so just and gratious a God as may safely bring into suspicion and disgrace any doctrine which admits of so just an exception Now to this likewise the Apostle answeres God forbid The Law is not given to condemne or clogge men not to bring sinne or death into the world It was not promulgated with any intention to kill or destroy the Creature It is not sin in it selfe It is not death unto us in that sense as we preach it namely as subordinated to Christ and his Gospell Tnough as the rule of righâ—…eousnesse we preach deliverance from it because unto that purpose it is made impotent and invalid by the sinne of man which now it cannot prevent or remove but onely discover and condemne Both these Conclusions that the Law is neither sinne nor death I finde the Apostle before in this Epistle excellently proviâ—…g Vntill the Law sinne was in the world but sinne is not imputed where there is no Law neverthelesse death â—…atgned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adams transgression That is as I conceive over those who did not sinâ—…e against so notable and evident Characters of the Law of nature written in their hearts as Adam in Paradise did for sinne had betweene Adam and Moses so obliterated and defaced the impressions of the morall Law that man stood in need of a new edition and publication of it by the hand of Moses That place serves thus to make good the purpose of the Apostle in this Sinne was in the world before the publication of the Law therefore the Law is not sinne But sinne was not imputed where there is no Law men were secure and did flatter themselves in their way were not apt to charge or condemne themselves for sin without a Law to force them unto it And therefore the Law did not come a new to beget sinne but to reveale and discover sinne Death likewise not onely was in the world but raigned even over all men therein before the publication of the Law Therefore the Law is not death neither There was Death enough in the world before the Law there was wickednesse enough to make condemnation raigne over all men therefore neither one nor other are naturall or essentiall consequences of the Law It came not to beget more sinne it came not to multiply and double condemnation there was enough of both in the world before Sinne enough to displease and provoke God death enough to devoure and torment men Therefore if the Law had beene usefull to no other purposes then to enrage sinne and condemne men if Gods wisedome and power had not made it appliable to more wholsome and saving ends he would never have new published it by the hand of Moses Here then the observation which from these words we are to make and it is a point of singular and speciall consequence to understand the use of the Law is this That the Law was revived and promulgated a new on Mount Sina by the ministery of Moses with no other then Evangelicall and mercifull purposes It is said in one place That the Lord hath no pleasure in the death of him that dyeth but it is said in another place That the Lord delighteth in mercie Which notes that God will doe more for the Salvation then he will for the damnation of men He will doe more for the magnifying of his mercy then for the multiplying of his wrath for if that require it he will revive and new publish the Law which to have aggravated the sinnes and so doubled the condemnation of men He would never have done Before I further evidence the truth of this doctrine It will be needefull to remove one Objection which doth at first proposall thereof offer it selfe If God will doe more for his mercie then for his wrath and vengeance why then are not more men saved then condemned If Hell shall bee more fill'd then Heaven is it not more then probable that wrath prevaileth against Grace and that there is more done for furie then there is for favour To wave the solution given by some That God will intentionally and effectually have every man to bee saved but few of that every will have themselves to be saved An explication purposâ—…ly contradicted by Saint Austin and his followers whose most profound and inestimable Iudgement the Orthodoxe Churches have with much admiration and assent followed in these points I rather choose thus to resolve that case It will appeare at the last great day that the saving of a few is a more admirable and glorious worke then the condemning of all the rest The Apostle saith That God shall bee gloryfied in his Saints and admired in those that beleeve For first God sheweth more mercie in saving some when He might have judged all then Iustice in Iudging many when he might have saved none For there is not all the Iustice which there might have beene when any are saved and there is more mercy then was necessary to haue beene when all are not condemned Secondly the Mercie and Grace of God in saving any is absolute and all from within himselfe out of the unsearchable riches of his owne will But the Iustice of God though not as essentiall in him yet as operatiâ—…e towards us is not Absolute but Conditionall and grounded upon the supposition of mans sinne Thirdly his Mercie is unsearchable in the price which procured it Hee himselfe waâ—… to humble and empty himselfe that he might shew mercie His mercie was to be purchased by his owne merit but his Iustice was provoked by the merit of sinne onely Fourthly Glory which is the fruite of Mercie is more excellent in a few then wrath and vengeance is in many as one bagge full of gold may bee more valuable then tenne of silver If a man should suppose that Gods mercy and Iustice being equally infinite and glorious in himselfe should therefore have the same equall proportion observed in the dispensation and revealing of them to the world wee might not therehence conclude that that proportion should be Arithmeticall that mercy should be extended to as many as severitie But rather as in the payment of a summe of mony in two equal portions whereof one is in golâ—… the other in silver though there bee an equalitie in the summes yet not in the pieces by which they are paide so in as much as Glory being the communicating of Gods owne blessed Vision Presence Love and everlasting Societie is farre more honourable and excellent then wrath therefore the dispensation of his Mercie in that amongst a few may bee exactly proportionable to the revelation of his Iustice amongst very many more in the other Suppose wee a Prince upon the just condemnation of a hundred malefactors should professe that as in his owne royall brest mercy and Iustice were equally poised and temper'd so he would observe an equall proportion of them both towards that number of
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
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
the Word of faith and with the spirit of faith Beeyee not slothfull saith the Apostle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Lastly we must doe with faith as men doe with pretious things Try it and put it to the touchstone that wee may prove whether it be truly valuable and unfeigned because there is much counterfeite faith as there is false money and deceitfull jewels and wilde herbes in the field which very neerely resemble those that are right and pure This is an argument which hath been much travail'd in by men of more learning and spirit and therefore I will but touch upon it by considering foure principall effects of this Grace The first is a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith the heart assenteth unto for according as is the evidence and pretiousnesse of the thing beleeved such is the measure of our love unto it For saving faith is an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divels which is with trembling and horror and that delight is nothing else but a kind of rellish and experience of the goodnesse of that truth which we assent unto Whereupon it necessarily followes even from the dictate of nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him comfort and delight that from this assent must arise a love of those truths whence such sweetnesse doth issue By the first act of faith we apprehend God a reconcileable God by the second a reconciled God for faith shewes us Gods love to us in Christ proposeth him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and thereby begetâ—…eth in us a love unto Christ againe and this love is a sincere uncorrupted immortall love a conjugall and superlative love nothing must be loved in competition with Christ every thing must be rejected and cast away either as a snare when hee hates it or as a Sacrifice when he calles for it Therefore God required the neerest of a mans blood in some cases to throw the first stone at an Idolater to shew that no relations should preponderate or over-sway our hearts from his love Christ and earthly things often come into competition in the life of a man In every un just gaine Christ and a bribe or Christ and cruelty in every oth or execration Christ and a blasphemy in every sinfull fashion Christ and a ragge or Christ and an excrement in every vaine-glorious affectation Christ and a blast in every intemperancy Christ and a vomit a stagger a shame a disease O where is that faith in men which should overcome the world and the things of the world Why should men delight in any thing while they live which when they â—…e on their death beds a time speedily approching they shall never bee able to reflect on with comfort nor to recount without amazement and horror Certainely he that fosters any Dalila or darling lust against the will and command of Christ well may hee delude himselfe with foolish conceits that hee loves the Lord Iesus but let him be assured that though he may be deceived yet God will not bee mocked not every one that faith Lord Lord shall bee accounted the friends of Christ but they who keepe his Commandements The second effect of faith is Assiance and Hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in due time performe what in his word hee hath promised I haue set life and death before you saith Moses to the people That thou maist love the Lord thy God and that thou maist obey his voice and that thou maist cleave unto him c. Wee are confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst wee are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. When once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest claime and propriety unto them and that to be at last actually performed not by a man who may be subject both to unfaithfulnesse in keeping and disability in performing his promises but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by word and oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doâ—… what hee hath purposed or promised Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and all sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such Promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-concurrencie as in it selfe utterly impotent and to the fullfilling of such a worke as is to be by Gods owne omnipotencie effâ—…cted altogether irrequisite and resolving in the midst of temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that hee who hath promised will certainly bring it to passe A third effect of faith is ioy and peace of Conscience Being justified by faith wee haue peace with God The God of peace fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing The mind is by the rellish and experience of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a Dead peace which is onely an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming man on the top of a mast but such a peace as a man may by afyllogisme of the practicall judgement upon right examination of his owne interest unto Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often haue an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but there is a great difference For there is but a dore betweene a wicked man and his sinne which will certainely one day open and then sinne at the doore will fly upon the Soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sin there is a wall of fire and an immoveable impregnable fort even the merits of Christ the wicked mans peace growes out of Ignorance of God the Law himselfe but a righteous mans peace growes out of the knowledge of God and Christ. So that there are two things in it Tranquillity it is a quiet thing and serenitie it is a cleare and distinct thing However if a faithfull man have not present peace because peace is an effect not of the first and direct but of the second and reflexive act of faith yet there is ever with all faith the seed of peace and a resolution to seeke and to sue it out The last effect of faith which I shall now speake of is fructification faith worketh by love And it worketh first Repentance whereby we are not only to understand griefe for sinne or a sense of the weight and guilt of it which is onely a legall thing if it proceed no farther and may goe before faith but hatred of sinne as a thing contrary to that new spirit
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