from all other teachings 3d Use of Exhortation The last use I shall make of this point shall be a word of exhortation both to them that never were yet effectually Use 3. taught of God and to them also that have heard his voice and are come to Christ. First To those that never yet heard the voice of God speaking to their hearts and truly this is the general case of most men and women in the professing world they have heard the sound of the Gospel but it hath been a confused empty and ineffectual sound in their ears we have heard the voice of man but have never yet heard the voice of God the gifts and abilities of Preachers have in a notional and meer humane way improved their understandings and sometimes slightly touched their affections all this is but the effect of man upon man O that you would look for something which is beyond all this satisfie not your selves with what is meerly natural and humane in ordinances come to the word with higher ends and more spiritual designs than to get some notions of truth which you had not before or to judge the gifts and abilities of the speaker if God speak not to your hearts all the Ordinances in the world can do you no good 1 Cor. 3. 7. O remember what a solemn and awful thing it is to come to those Ordinances and attend upon that Ministration in and by which the eternal decrees of Heaven are to be executed upon your souls which must be to you the savour of life unto life or of death unto death wrastle with God by prayer for a blessing upon the Ordinances Say Lord speak thy self to my heart let me hear thy voice and feel thy power in this Prayer or in this Sermon others have heard thy voice cause me to hear it it had been much better for me if I had never heard the voice of Preachers except I hear thy voice in them Secondly Let all those that have heard the voice of God and are come to Christ in the vertue of his teachings admire the wonderful condescension of God to them O that God should speak to thy soul and be silent to others there be many thousands living at this day under Ordinances to whom the Lord hath not given an ear to hear or an heart to obey Deut. 29. 4. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven but to them it is not given Mat. 13. 11. and I beseech you walk as men and women that have been taught of God When Satan and your corruptions tempt you to sin and to walk in the wayes of the carnal and careless world remember then that Scripture Eph. 4. 20 21. But ye have not so learned Christ if so be that you have heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus To conclude see that you be exceeding humble and lowly in Spirit humility qualifies you for divine teachings Psal. 25. 9. The humble he will teach and the more ye are taught of God the more humble you will still be And thus you see that no man can come to Christ without the application of the Law and the teachings of the Father which being considered may be very useful to convince us which indeed is the design of it that among the multitudes of men and women living under the Ordinances of God and the general profession of Religion there are but few very few to be found who have effectually received the Lord Jesus Christ by saving faith And now Reader I suppose by this time thou art desirous to know by what signs and evidences thy union with Christ by faith may be cleared up and made evident to thee and how that great question whether thou hast yet effectually applied Christ to thy soul or no may be clearly decided which brings me to the third general Use of the whole viz. The Examination of our Interest in Christ. By 1. The donation of the Spirit from 1 Joh. 3. 24. 2. The new Creation from 2 Cor. 5. 17. 3. The mortification of sin from Gal. 5. 24. 4. The imitation of Christ from 1 Joh. 2. 6. Of each of these Trials of our interest in Christ I shall speak in their order and first of the donation of the Spirit The Twenty fourth SERMON Sermon 24. 1 JOHN 3. 24. Text. And hereby we know that be abideth in us Of the manner and importance of the Spirits indwelling by the Spirit which he hath given us THe Apostle in this Chapter is engaged in a very trying Discourse his scope is to discriminate the spirits and states of sincere Believers from meerly nominal and pretended Christians which he attempts not to do by any thing that is external but by the internal effects and operations of the Spirit of God upon their hearts His enquiry is not into those things which men profess or about the duties which they perform but about the frames and tempers of their hearts and the principles by which they are acted in religion According to this Test he puts Believers upon the search and study of their own hearts calls them to reflect upon the effects and operations of the Spirit of God wrought within their own souls assuring them that those gracious effects and fruits of the Spirit in their hearts will be a solid evidence unto them of their union with Jesus Christ amounting to much more than a general conjectural ground of hope under which it is possible there may subesse falsum lurk a dangerous and fatal mistake but the gracious effects of the Spirit of God within them are a foundation upon which they may build the certainty and assurance of their union with Christ hereby we know that he abideth in us by the spirit which he hath given us In which words we have three things to consider viz. 1. The thing to be tried our Union with Christ. 2. The trial of it by the giving of his Spirit to us 3. The certainty of the trial this way hereby we know First The thing to be tried which indeed is the greatest 1. and weightiest matter that can be brought to tryal in this world or in that to come namely our union with Christ expressed here by his abiding in us a phrase clearly expressing the difference betwixt those that by profession and common estimation pass for Christians among men though they have no other union with Christ but by an external adhesion to him in the outside duties of Religion and those whose union with Christ is real vital and permanent by the indwelling of the Spirit of Christ in their souls Joh. 15. 5 6. opens the force and importance of this phrase I am the vine ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit if a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered the thing then to be tried is whether
stranger to regeneration all the while John 3. 10. Secondly That many strong convictions and troubles for 2. sin may be found where the new creature is never formed Conviction indeed is an antecedent unto and preparative for the new creature as the blossomes of the tree are to the fruit that follows them but as fruit doth not always follow where those blossoms and flowers appear so neither doth the new creature follow all convictions and troubles for sin Conviction is a common work of the Spirit both upon the elect and reprobates but the new creature is formed only in Gods elect Convictions may be blasted and vanish away and the man that was under troubles for sin may return again with the dog to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 22. but the new creature never perishes nor can consist with such a return unto sin Thirdly That excellent gifts and abilities fitting men for service in the Church of God may be where the new creature 3. is not for these are promiscuously despensed by the Spirit both to the regenerate and ungenerate Mat. 7. 22. Many will say unto me in that day Lord Lord have we not prophesied in thy name Gifts are attainable by study prayer and preaching are reduced to an art but regeneration is wholly supernatural Sin in dominion is consistent with excellent gifts but wholly incompatible with the new creature In a word these things are so different in nature from the new creature that they oft times prove the greatest barrs and obstacles in the world to the regenerating work of the spirit Let no man therefore trust to things whereby multitudes deceive and destroy their own souls Reader it may cost thee many an aking head to obtain gifts but thou wilt finde an aking heart for sin if ever God make thee a new creature Fourthly Be convinced that multitudes of religious duties may be performed by men in whom the new creature was never formed Though all new creatures perform the duties of religion yet all that perform the duties of religion are not new creatures regeneration is not the only root from which the duties of religion spring Isa. 58. 2. Yet they seek me dayly and delight to know my ways as a nation that did righteousness and forsook not the ordinance of their God they ask of me the ordinances of justice they take delight in approaching to God These are but weak and slippery foundations for men to build their confidence and hopes upon 3d. Use for Examination Next therefore let me perswade every man to try the state of his own heart in this matter and closely consider and weigh Use 3. this great question Am I really and indeed a new creature or am I an old creature still in the new creatures dress and habit Some light may be given for the discovery hereof from the considerations of The 1. Antecedents of the new Creation 2. Concomitants 3. Consequents First weigh and consider well the Antecedents of the new creature have those things past upon your souls which ordinarily make way for the new creature in whomsoever the Lord forms it First hath the Lord opened the eyes of your understanding in the knowledge of sin and of Christ hath he shewed you both your disease and remedy by a new light shining from heaven into your souls Thus the Lord doth whereever he forms the new creature Acts 26. 18. Secondly hath he brought home the word with mighty power and efficacy upon your hearts to convince and humble them this is the method in which the new creature is produced Rom. 7. 9. 1 Thes. 1. 5. Thirdly have these convictions overturned your vain confidences and brought you to a great pinch and inward distress of soul making you to cry what shall we doe to be saved These are the ways of the spirit in the formation of the new creature Acts 16. 29. Acts 2. 37. If no such antecedent works of the spirit have passed upon your hearts you have no ground for your confidence that the new creature is formed in you Secondly Consider the concomitant frames and workings of spirit which ordinarily attend the production of the new creature and judge impartially betwixt God and your own souls whether they have been the very frames and workings of your hearts First have your vain spirits been composed to the greatest seriousness and most solemn consideration of things eternal as the hearts of all those are whom God regenerates When the Lord is about this great work upon the soul of man whatever vanity levity and sinful jollity was there before it is banished from the heart at this time for now heaven and hell life and death are before a mans eyes and these are the most awful and solemn things that ever our thoughts conversed with in this world now a man of the most airy and pleasant constitution when brought to the sight and sense of those things saith of laughter it is mad and of mirth what doth it Eccles. 2. 2. Secondly A lowly meek and humble frame of heart accompanies the new Creation the soul is weary and heavy laden Matth. 11. 28. convictions of sin have plucked down the pride and loftiness of the spirit of man emptied him of his vain conceits those that were of lofty proud and blustring humours before are meekened and brought down to the very dust now it is with them to speak allusively as it was with Jerusalem that lofty City Isa. 29. 1. 4. Wo to Ariel to Ariel the City where David dwelt thou shalt be brought down and shalt speak out of the ground and thy speech shall be low out of the dust Ariel signifies the Lyon of God so Jerusalem in her prosperity was other Cities trembled at her voice but when God brought her down by humbling Judgements then she whispered out of the dust so it is in this case Thirdly Alonging thirsting frame of spirit accompanies the new creation the desires of the soul are ardent after Christ never did the hireling long for the shadow as the weary soul doth for Christ and rest in him if no such frames have accompanied that which you take for your new birth you have the greatest reason in the world to suspect your selves under a cheat Thirdly Weigh well the effects and consequents of the new creature and consider whether such fruits as these are found in your hearts and lives First Whereever the new creature is formed there a mans course and conversation is changed Eph. 4. 22. That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts and be renewed in the spirit of your mind the new creature cannot but blush and be ashamed of the old Creatures conversation Rom. 6. 21. Secondly The new Creature continually opposes and conflicts with the motions of sin in the heart Gal. 5. 17. The spirit lusteth against the flesh grace can no more
change from sin to grace is no way inferiour to it Nay in some respect beyond it for the change which glory makes upon the regenerate is but a gradual change but the change which regeneration makes upon the ungodly is a spiritual change Great and admirable is this work of God and let it for ever be marvellous in our eyes Inference 3. If unregenerate souls de dead souls what a fatal stroke doth death give to the bodies of all unregenerate men A soul dead in sin and Inference 3. a body dead by vertue of the curse for sin and both soul and body remaining for ever under the power of eternal death is so full and perfect a misery as that nothing can be added to make it more miserable 't is the comfort of a Christian that he can say when death comes non omnis moriar I shall not wholly die there is a life I live which death cannot touch Rom. 8. 13. The body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first Resurrection on such the second death hath no power As death takes a believer from amidst many sorrows and troubles and brings him to the vision of God to the general assembly of all the perfected saints to a state of compleat freedom and full satisfaction so it drags the unregenerate from all his sensitive delights and comforts to the place of torments It buries the dead soul out of the presence of God for ever 'T is the king of terrours 't is a serpent with a deadly sting to every man that is out of Christ. Inference 4. If every unregenerate soul be a dead soul how sad is the case of Hypocrites Inference 4. and temporary believers who are twice dead These are those cursed trees of which the Apostle Jude speaks Jude v. 12. Trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots The Apostle alludes unto dying trees Trees that are dying the first time in the spring they then fade decay and cast their leaves when other trees are fragrant and flourishing But from this first death they are sometimes recovered by pruning and dressing or watering the roots But if in Autumn they decay again which is the Critical and Climacterical time of trees to discover whether their disease be mortal or not if then they wither and decay the second time the fault is ab intra the root is rotten there is no hope of it The husbandman bestows no more labour about it except it be to root it up for fewel to the fire Just thus stands the case with false and hypocritical prosessours who though they were still under the power of spiritual death yet in the beginning of their profession they seemed to be alive They shewed the world the fragrant leaves of a fair profession many hopeful buddings of affection towards spiritual things were seen in them but wanting a root of regeneration they quickly began to wither and cast their untimely fruit However by the help of ordinances or some rouzing and awakening providences they seem to recover themselves again but all will not do the fault is ab intra from the want of a good root and therefore at last they who were always once dead for want of a principle of regeneration are now become twice dead by the withering and decay of their vain profession Such trees are prepared for the severest flames in hell Mat. 24. 51. Their portion is the saddest portion allotted for any of the sons of death Therefore the Apostle Peter tells us 2 Pet. 2. 20 21. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ they are again intangled therein and overcome the latter end is worse with them than the beginning For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after they have known it to turn from the holy Commandment delivered unto them Double measures of wrath seem to be prepared for them that die this double death Inference 5. If this be so then unregenerate persons deserve the greatest lamentations Inference 5. And were this truth heartily believed we could not but mourn over them with the most tender compassion and hearty sorrow If our husbands wives or children be dying a natural death how are our hearts rent in pieces with pity and sorrow for them what cries tears and wringing of hands discover the deep sense we have of their misery O Christians is all the love you have for your relations spent upon their bodies Are their souls of no value in your eyes is spiritual death no misery Doth it not deserve a tear The Lord open our eyes and duly affect our hearts with spiritual death and soul miseries Consider my friends and let it move your bowels if there be bowels of affection in you whilst they remain spiritually dead they are useless and wholly unserviceable unto God in the world as to any special and acceptable service unto him 2 Tim. 2. 21. they are uncapable of all spiritual comforts from God they cannot taste the least sweetness in Christ in duties or in promises Rom. 8. 6. They have no beauty in their souls how comely soever their bodies be 't is grace and nothing but grace that beautifies the inner man Ezek. 16. 6 7. The dead have neither comfort nor beauty in them They have no hope to be with God in glory for the life of glory is begun in grace Phil. 1. 6. Their graves must shortly be made to be buried out of the sight of God for ever in the lowest hell the pit digged by justice for all that are spiritually dead The dead must be buried Can such considerations as these draw no pity from your souls nor excite your endeavours for their regeneration Then 't is to be feared your souls are dead as well as theirs O pity them pity them and pray for them in this case only prayers for the dead are our duty who knows but at the last God may hear your cries and you may say with comfort as he did This my son was dead but is alive was lost but is found and they began to be merry Luke 15. 24. The Thirty second SERMON Sermon 32. JOHN 3. 18. Text. But he that believeth not is condemned already The Condemnation of unbelievers opened and applied because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God CHrist having discoursed Nicodemus in the beginning of this Chapter about the necessity of regeneration proceeds to shew in this following discourse the reason and ground why regeneration and faith are so indispensably necessary viz. Because there is no other way to set men free from the curse and condemnation of the Law The curse of the Law like the fiery serpents in the wilderness hath smitten every sinner with a deadly stroke and sting for
yet refuses Christ who comes to him with heavenly light and wisdome he is condemned by the terrible sentence of the Law to eternal wrath and yet rejects Christ who tenders to him compleat and perfect righteousness he is wholly polluted and plunged into original and actual pollutions of nature and practice yet will have none of Christ who would become sanctification to him he is oppressed in soul and body with the deplorable effects and miseries sin hath brought upon him and yet is so in love with his bondage that he will neither accept Christ nor the redemption he brings with him to sinners Oh what monsters what beasts hath sin turned its subjects into you will not come unto me that you may have life Joh. 5. 40. sin hath stabb'd the sinner to the heart the wounds are all mortal eternal death is in his face Christ hath prepared the only plaister that can cure his wounds but he will not suffer him to apply it he acts like one in love with death and that judges it sweet to perish So Christ tells us Prov. 8. 36. all they that hate me love death Not in it self but in Non quod quisque ita insaâ—…iat ut sciens volens diligat mortem quam omnes natura exhorrescimus sed quia ista est fructus spretae sapientiae Dei ut mortem tandem afferat Lavat in loc its causes with which it is inseparably connected they are loth to burn yet willing to sin though sin kindle those everlasting flames So that in two things the unbeliever shews himself worse than bruitish he can't think of damnation the effect of sin without horror and yet cannot think of sin the cause of damnation without pleasure he is loth to perish to all eternity without remedy and yet refuses and declines Christ as if he were an enemy who only can and would deliver him from that eternal perdition How do men act therefore as if they were in love with their own ruin many poor wretches now in the way to Hell what an hard shift do they make to cast themselves away Christ meets them many times in the Ordinances where they studiously shun him many times checks them in their way by convictions which they make an hard shift to overcome and conquer oh how willing are they to accept a cure a benefit aremedy for any thing but their Souls You see then that Sinners cannot should they study all their days to do themselves a mischief take a readier course to undo themselves than by rejecting Christ in his gracious offers Surely the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha is less than this sin mercy it self is exasperated by it and the damnation of such as reject Christ so prepared for them with whatever they need and so seriously and frequently offer'd to them upon the Knee of Gospel intreaty is just inevitable and more intolerable than any in the world beside them It is just for the sinner hath but his own option or choice he is but come to the end which he was often told his way would bring him to It is inevitable for there is no other way to Salvation but that which is rejected and it will be more intolerable than the Damnation of others because neither Heathens nor Devils ever aggravated their sins by such an horrid circumstance as the wilful refusing of such an apt offered and only remedy Infer 4. What a tremendous Symptome of wrath and sad Character of Death appears upon that mans Soul to which no effectual application Infer 4. of Christ can be made by the Gospel Christ with his benefits is frequently tendered to them in the Gospel they have been beseeched once and again upon the Knee of importunity to accept him those entreaties and perswasions have been urged by the greatest arguments The Command of God the love of Christ the inconceiveable happiness or misery which unavoidably follows the accepting or rejecting of those offers and yet nothing will stick all their pleas for infidelity have been over and over confuted their reasons and consciences have stood convinced they have been Speechless as well as Christless not one sound argument is found with them to defend their infidelity they confess in general that such courses as theirs is lead to destruction they will yield them to be happy souls that are in Christ and yet when it comes to the point their own closing with him nothing will stick all arguments all entreaties return to us without success Lord what is the reason of this unaccountable obstinacy in other things it is not so if they be sick they are so far from rejecting a physician that offers himself that they will send and pray and pay him too if they be arrested for debt and any one will be a surety and pay their debts for them words can hardly express the sense they have of such a kindness but though Christ would be both physician and surety and what ever else their needs require they will rather perish to eternity than accept him what may we fear to be the reason of this but because they are not of Christs sheep Joh. 10. 26. the Lord open the eyes of poor sinners to apprehend not only how great a sin but how dreadful a sign this is Infer 5. If Christ with all his benefits be made ours by Gods special application Infer 5. what a day of mercies then is the day of conversion What multitudes of choice blessings visit the converted soul in that day This day saith Christ to Zacheus Luke 19. 9. is Salvation come to this house in this day Christ cometh into the soul and he comes not empty but brings with him all his treasures of wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Troops of mercies yea of the best of mercies come with him It is a day of singular gladness and joy to the heart of Christ when he is Espoused to and received by the believing soul it is as a Coronation day to a King So you read Cant. 3. 11. Go forth O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his Espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart Where under the Type of Solomon in his greatest magnificence and glory when the royal Diadem was set upon his head and the people shouted for joy so that the earth did ring again is shadowed out the joy of Christs heart when poor souls by their high estimation of him and consent to his government do as it were Crown him with glory and honour and make his heart glad Now if the day of our Espousals to Christ be the day of the gladness of his heart and he reckons himself thus honoured and glorified by us what a day of joy and gladness should it be to our hearts and how should we be transported with joy to see a King from heaven with all his treasures of grace and glory bestowing himself
is one of the Articles or Conditions of our peace with God Isai. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon But it 's manifest in many of us that we are no enemies to sin we secretly indulge it what bad names soever we call it by we will commit ten sins to cover one we cannot endure the most serious faithful seasonable private tender and necessary reproofs of Sin but our hearts swell and rise at it sure we are not reconciled to God whilest we embrace sin his enemy in our bofoms 5. Evidence We love not the Children of God nor are reconciled to them that bear his Image and how then can we be reconciled 5. Evid to God 1 Joh. 5. 1. He that loveth him that begat loveth them also that are begotten what at peace with the father and at War with the children It cannot be do not some that hope they have made their peace with God hate revile and persecute the Children of God Surely in that day we are reconciled to the Lord we are reconciled to all his people we shall then love a Christian as a Christan and by this we know we are passed from death to life 6. Evidence Lastly How can any man think himself to be reconciled to God who never closed heartily with Jesus Christ by 6. Evid faith who is the only dayes-man and peace-maker the alone mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and man This is a sure truth that all whom God accepts into favour are made accepted in the beloved Eph. 1. 6. If any man will make peace with God he must take hold of his strength accept and close with Christ who is the power of God or he can never make peace Isai. 27. He must be made nigh by the blood of Christ Eph. 2. 13. But alas both Christ and faith are strangers to many souls who yet perswade themselves to be at peace with God O fatal mistake 3. Use of Exhortation Lastly This point deserves a close vigorous application 3. Use. in a threefold exhortation First To Christs Ambassadors who treat with Souls in order to their reconciliation with God Secondly To those that are yet in their enmity and unreconciled state Thirdly to those that have embraced the terms of peace and submitted to the Gospel overtures First To the Ambassadors of reconciliation God hath put a 1. great deal of honour upon you in this high and noble imployment great is the dignity of your office to some you are the savour of death unto death and to others the savour of life unto life and who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. But yet the Duty is no less than the dignity O what manner of men should we be for judgement seriousness affections patience and exemplary holiness to whom the management of so great a Concern betwixt God and man is committed First for Judgment and prudence how necessary is it in so weighty and difficult a business as this He had need be a man of wisdom that is to inform the ignorant of the nature and necessity of this great work and win over their hearts to consent to the Articles of peace propounded in the Gospel that hath so many subtil temptations to answer and so many intricate cases of conscience to resolve There are many strong holds of Satan to be battered and many stout and obstinate resistances made by the hearts of sinners which must be overcome and he had need be no Novice in religion to whom so difficult a province is committed Secondly Let us be Serious in our work as well as judicious Remember O ye Ambassadors of Christ you bring a message from the God of heaven of everlasting consequence to the souls of men The eternal decrees are executed upon them in your Ministry to some you are the savour of life unto life and to some the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. Heaven and hell are matters of most awful and solemn Consideration O what an account have we also shortly to give unto him that sent us These are matters of such deep Concernment as should swallow up our very spirits the least they can do is to compose our hearts unto seriousness in the management of them Thirdly Be filled with tender affections toward the souls Vide Bowles pastor Evang. p. 136. of men with whom you treat for reconciliation you had need be men of bowels as well as men of brains you see a multitude of poor souls upon the brink of eternal misery and they know it not but promise themselves peace and fill themselves with vain hopes of heaven and is there a more moving melting spectacle in the world than this O think with what bowels of Commiseration Moses and Paul were filled when the one desired rather to be blotted out of Gods Book and the other to be accursed from Christ than that Israel should not be saved Exod. 32. 33. and Rom. 9. 3. Think how the Bowels of Christ yearned over Jerusalem Matth. 23. 37. and over the multitude Matth. 9. 36. Let the same mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus Fourthly Be patient and long-suffering towards sinners such is the value of one soul that it 's worth waiting all our days to save it at last the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing them that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give them repentance 2 Tim. 2. 24 25. The Lord waits with patience upon sinners and well may you Consider your selves how long was God treating with you ere you were won to him Be not discouraged if success presently answer not expectation Fifthly and Lastly be sure to back your Exhortations with drawing examples else you may preach out your last breath before you gain one soul to God The Devil and the Carnal hearts of your hearers will put hinderances enough in the way of your labours don't you put the greatest of all your selves O study not only to preach exactly but to live exactly let the misplacing of one action in your lives trouble you more than the misplacing of words in your discourses this is the way to succeed in your Embassy and give up your account with joy Secondly The exhortation speaks to all those that are 2. yet in a state of enmity and unreconciled to God unto this day O that may words might prevail and that you would now be intreated to be reconciled to God! The Ambassadors of peace are yet with you the treaty is not yet ended the Master of the house is not yet risen up nor the door of mercy and hope finally shut hitherto God hath waited to be gracious O that the long-suffering of God might be your salvation a day is hasting when God will treat
regeneration and from hence is the first spiritual life of a Christian of this I am here to speak and that I may speak profitably to this point I will in the Doctrinal part labour to open these five particulars First What this spiritual life is in its nature and properties Secondly In what manner it is wrought or inspired into the Soul Thirdly For what end or with what design this life is so inspired Fourthly I shall shew this work to be wholly supernatural And then fifthly Why this quickening must be antecedent to our actual closing with Christ by Faith First We will enquire into the nature and properties of 1. this life and discover as we are able what it is And we find it to consist in that wonderful change which the Spirit of God makes upon the frame and temper of the soul by his infusing or implanting the principles of grace in all the powers and faculties thereof A change it makes upon the soul and that a marvellous one no less than from death to life for though a man be physically a living man i. e. his natural soul hath Union with his body yet his soul having no Union with Christ he is Theologically a dead man Luke 15. 24. and Col. 2. 13. alas it deserves not the name of life to have a soul serving only to season and preserve the body a little while from stinking to carry it up and down the world and only enable it to eat and drink and talk and laugh and then dye then do we begin to live when we begin to have Union with Christ the fountain of life by his Spirit communicated to us from this time we are to reckon our life * Hic jacet Similis cujus aetas multorum annorum fuit ipse septem dumtaxat annos vixit as some have done there be many changes made upon men besides this many are changed from prophaneness to Civility and from meer Civility to formality and a shadow of Religion who still remain in the state and power of spiritual death notwithstanding but when the Spirit of the Lord is poured out upon us to quicken us with the new spiritual life this is a wonderful change indeed it gives us an Esse supernaturale a new supernatural being which is therefore call'd a new creature the new man the hidden man of the heart the natural essence and faculties of the soul remain still but it is devested of the old qualities and endowed with new ones 2 Cor. 5. 17. old things are past away behold all things are become new And this change is not made by altering and rectifying the disorders of the life only leaving the temper and frame of the heart still carnal but by the infusion of a supernatural permanent principle into the soul Joh. 4. 14. it shall be in him a well of water principles are to a course of actions as fountains or springs are to the streams and rivers that flow from them and are maintain'd by them and hence is the evenness and constancy of renewed souls in the course of godliness Nor is this principle or habit acquired by accustoming our selves to holy actions as natural habits are acquired by frequent acts which beget a disposition and thence grow up to an habit or second nature but it is infused or implanted into the soul by the Spirit of God So we read Ezek. 36. 25 26. a new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you it grows not up out of our Natures but is put or infused into us as it 's said of the two witnesses Rev. 11. 11. who lay dead in a Civil sense three days and an half that the Spirit of life from God entered into them so it is here in a spiritual sense the spirit of life from God enters into the dead carnal heart it 's all by way of supernatural infusion Nor is it limited to this or that faculty of the soul but grace or life is poured into all the faculties behold all things are become new 2 Cor. 5. 17. The understanding will thoughts and affections are all renewed by it the whole inner man is changed yea the tongue and hand the discourses and actions even all the ways and courses of the outward man are renewed by it But more particularly we shall discern the nature of this spiritual life by considering the properties of it among which these are very remarkable First The soul that is joyned to Christ is quickened with a divine life so we read in 2 Pet. 1. 4. where believers are said to be partakers or consorts of the divine nature a very high expression and warily to be understood Partakers of the divine nature not essentially so it 's wholly incommunicable to the Creature nor yet Hypostatically and personally so Christ only was a partaker of it but our participation of the Divine nature must be understood in a way proper to believers that is to say we partake of it by the inhabitation of the Spirit of God in us according to 1 Cor. 3. 16 17. know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the spirit of God dwelleth in you the Spirit who is God by nature dwells in and actuates the soul whom he regenerates and by sanctifying causes it to live a divine life from this life of God the unsanctified are said to be alienated Eph. 4. 18. but believers are partakers of it Secondly And being divine it must needs be the most excellent and transcendent life that any creature doth or can live in this world it surmounts the natural rational and moral life of the unsanctified as much as the Angelical life excels the life that flyes and worms of the earth do live Some think it a rare life to live in sensual pleasures but the Scripture will not allow so much as the name of life to them but tells us they are dead whilest they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. certainly it is a wonderful elevation of the nature of man to be quickened with such a life as this There are two ways wherein the blessed God hath honoured poor man above the very Angels of heaven One was by the Hypostatical Union of our nature in Christ with the divine nature the other is by uniting our persons mystically to Christ and thereby communicating spiritual life to us this later is a most glorious priviledge and in one respect a more singular mercy than the former for that honour which is done to our Nature by the Hypostatical Union is common to all good and bad even they that perish have yet that honour but to be implanted into Christ by regeneration and live upon him as the branch doth upon the Vine this is a peculiar priviledge a mercy hedg'd in from the world that is to perish and only communicated to Gods elect who are to live eternally with him in heaven Thirdly This life infused by the regenerating Spirit is a most pleasant life
a member now of his own mystical body to purifie and cleanse it that at last he may present it perfect to the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5. 26. The reigning power of it is gone immediately upon believing and the very existence and being of it shall at last be destroyed O what rest must this give under those troubles for sin Thirdly It was an intolerable burthen to the soul to be under the continual fears aiarms and frights of death and 3. damnation It s life hath been a life of bondage upon this account ever since the Lord opened his eyes to see his condition Poor souls lye down with tremblings for fear what a night may bring forth 'T is a sad life indeed to live in continual bondage to such fears But faith sweetly relieves the trembling Conscience by removing the guilt which breeds it fears The sting of death is sin when guilt is removed fears vanish Smite Lord smite said Luther for my sins are forgiven Now if sickness come 't is another thing than it was Feri Domine feri nam à peccatis meis absolutus sum Luth. wont to be Isai. 33. 21. The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities a man scarce feels his sickness in comparison to what he did whilst he was without Christ and hope of pardon Fourthly A convinced sinner out of Christ sees every thing 4. against him nothing yields any comfort yea every thing increases and aggravates his burthen whether he look to things past present or to come If he reflect upon things past his soul is filled with anguish to remember the sins committed and the seasons neglected and the precious mercies that have been abused if he look upon things present the case is doleful and miserable nothing but trouble and danger Christless and comfortless and if he look forward to things to come that gives him a deeper cut to the heart than any thing else for though it be sad and miserable for the present yet he fears it will be much worse hereafter all these are but the beginning of sorrows and thus the poor awakened sinner becomes a Magor missabib fear round about But upon his coming to Christ all things are marvellously altered a quite contrary face of things appears to him every thing gives him hope and comfort which way soever he looks so speaks the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All things are yours saith he whether life or death or things present or things to come all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods they are ours i. e. for our advantage benefit and comfort more particularly upon our coming to Christ First Things past are ours they conduce to our advantage and comfort Now the soul can begin to read the gracious end and design of God in all its preservations and deliverances whereby it hath been reserved for such a day as this O! it melts his heart to consider his Companions in sin and Vanity are cut off and he spared and that for a day of such mercy as the day of his espousals with Christ is Now all his past sorrows and deep troubles of spirit which God hath exercised him with begin to appear the greatest mercies that ever he received being all necessary and introductive to this blessed union with Christ. Secondly Things present are ours though it be not yet with us as we would have it Christ is not sure enough the heart is not pure enough sin is too strong and grace is too weak many things are yet out of order yet can the soul bless God for this with tears of joy and praise him for this brimful of admiration and holy astonishment that it is as it is that he is where he is though he be not yet where he would be O 't is a blessed life to live as a poor recumbent by acts of trust and affiance though as yet it have but little evidence that it is resolved to trust all with Christ though it be not yet certain of the issue O this is a comfortable station a sweet condition to what it was either when it wallowed in sin in the days before conviction or was swallowed up in fears and troubles for sin after conviction now it hath hope though it want assurance and hope is sweet to a soul coming out of such deep distresses now it sees the remedy and is applying it whereas before the wound seemed desperate now all hesitations and debates are at an end in the Soul 't is no longer bivious and unresolved what to do all things have been deeply considered and after consideration issued into this resolve or decree of the will I will go to Christ I will venture all upon his Command and Call I will imbarque my eternal interests in that Bottom here I fix and upon this ground I resolve to live and dye O how much better is this than that floating life it lived before rolling upon the billows of inward fears and troubles not able to drop Anchor any where nor knowing where to find an Harbour Thirdly Things to come are ours and this is the best and sweetest of all man is a prospecting creature his eye is much upon things to come and it will not satisfie him that it is well at present except he have a prospect that it shall be so hereafter but now the soul hath committed it self and all its concernments to Christ for eternity and this being done it 's greatly relieved against evils to come I cannot saith the Believer think all my troubles over and that I shall never meet any more afflictions it were a fond vanity to dream of that but I leave all these things where I have left my soul he that hath supported me under inward will carry me through outward troubles also I cannot think all my temptations to sin past O I may yet meet with sore assaults from Satan yet it is infinitely better to be watching praying and striving against sin than it was when I was obeying it in the lusts of it God that hath delivered me from the love of sin will I trust preserve me from ruine by sin I know also death is to come I must feel the pangs and agonies of it but yet the aspect of death is much more pleasant than it was I come Lord Jesus to thee who art the death of death whose death hath disarmed death of its sting I fear not its dart if I feel not its sting And thus you see briefly how by faith Believers enter into rest How Christ gives rest even at present to them that come to him and all this but as a beginning of their everlasting rest Inference 1. Is there rest in Christ for weary souls that come unto him Then certainly it 's a design of Satan against the peace and welfare Inference 1. of mens souls to discourage them from coming to Christ in
thy delight as once they were but thy shame and sorrow This is a comfort that thy case is not singular but more or less the same complaints and sorrows are found in all gracious souls through the world and to say all in one word This is the comfort above all comforts that the time is at hand in which all thâ—…se defects infirmities and failings shall be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For ever blessed be God for Jesus Christ. And thus I have finished the third general Use of Examination whereby every man is to try his interest in Christ and discern whether ever Christ hath been effectually applied to his soul. That which remains is a Use of Lamentation Wherein the miserable and most wretched state of all those to whom Jesus Christ is not effectually applied will be yet more particularly discovered and bewailed The Thirty first SERMON Sernâ—… EPHES. 5. 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Text. Of the state of Spiritual Death and the misery thereof THis Scripture represents unto us the miserable and lamentable state of the unregenerate as being under the power of spiritual death which is the cause and in-let of all other miseries From hence therefore I shall make the first discovery of the woful and wretched state of them that apply not Jesus Christ to their own souls The scope of the Apostle in this Context is to press believers to a circumspect and holy life to walk as children of light This exhortation is laid down in ver 8. and pressed by diverse arguments in the following verses First from the tendency of holy principles unto holy fruits and practices ver 9 10. Secondly from the convincing efficacy of practical godliness upon the consciences of the wicked ver 11 12 13. It awes and convinces their consciences Thirdly from the co incidence of such a conversation with the great design and drift of the scriptures which is to awaken men by regeneration out of that spiritual sleep or rather death which sin hath cast them into And this is the Argument of the Text Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest c. There is some difficulty in the reference of these words Some think it refers to Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Others to Isa. 60. 1. Arise shine for thy light is come c. But most probably the words neither refer to this or that particularly but to the drift and scope of the whole Scriptures which were inspired and written upon this great design to awaken and quicken souls out of the state of spiritual death And in them we are to consider these three things more distinctly and particularly 1. The miserable state of the unregenerate they are asleep and dead 2. Their duty which is to awake and stand up from the dead 3. The power enabling them thereunto Christ shall give thee light First The miserable state of the unregenerate represented under the Notions of sleep and death both expressions intending 1. one and the same thing though with some variety of Notion The Christless and unregenerate world is in a deep sleep a spirit of slumber senselesness and security is fallen upon them though they lie exposed immediately to eternal wrath and misery ready to drop into hell every moment Just as a man that is fast asleep in a house on fire and whilst the consuming flames are round about him his fancy is sporting it self in some pleasant dream this is a very lively resemblance of the unregenerate soul. But yet he that sleeps hath the principle of life entire in him though his senses be bound and the actions of life suspended by sleep Lest therefore we should think it is only so with the unregenerate the expression is designedly varied and those that were said to be asleep are positively affirmed to be dead on purpose to inform us that it is not a simple suspension of the acts and exercise but a total privation of the principle of spiritual life which is the misery of the unregenerate Secondly We have here the duty of the unregenerate which is to awake out of sleep and arise from the dead This is their great 2. concernment no duty in the world is of greater necessity and importance to them Strive saith Christ to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13. 24. And the order of these duties is very natural First awake then arise Startling and rousing convictions make way for spiritual life till God awake us by convictions of our misery we will never be perswaded to arise and move towards Christ for remedy and safety Thirdly But you will say if unregenerate men be dead men to what purpose is it to perswade them to arise and stand up 3. The very exhortation supposes some power or ability in the Quamvis verba videntur velle primum excitari surgere deinde illuminari tamen intelligendum est vi lucis Christi excitari eum surgere Roll. in Loc. unregenerate else in vain are they commanded to arise This difficulty is solved in this very Text though the duty be ours yet the power is Gods God commands that in his word which only his grace can perform Christ shall give thee light Popish Commentators would build the power of free will upon this Scripture by a very weak argument drawn from the order wherein these things are here expressed which is but a weak foundation to build upon for it is very usual in Scripture to put the effect before and the cause after as it is here so in Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust But I will not here intangle my discourse with that controversie that which I aim at is plain in the words viz. DOCT. That all Christless souls are under the power of Spiritual death Doct. they are in the state of the dead Multitudes of testimonies are given in Scripture to this truth Eph. 2. 1 5. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Col. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sint and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him with many other places of the same importance But the method in which I shall discourse this point will be this First I will shew you in what sence Christless and unregenerate men are said to be dead Secondly what the state of spiritual death is Thirdly how it appears that all unregenerate men are in this sad state And then apply it First In what sense are Christless and unregenerate men 1. said to be dead men To open this we must know there is a threefold death viz. Death 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 3. Eternal Natural death is nothing else but the privation of the principle of natural life or the separation of
the soul from the body James 2. 26. The body without the spirit is dead Spiritual death is the privation of the principle of spiritual life or the want and absence of the quickening spirit of God in the foul the soul is the life of the body and Christ is the life of the soul the absence of the foul is death to the body and the absence or want of Christ is death to the soul. Eternal death is the separation both of body and soul from God which is the misery of the damned Now Christless and unregenerate men are not dead in the first sense they are naturally alive though they are dead while they live Nor are they yet dead in the last sense eternally separated from God by an irrevocable sentence as the damned are but they are dead in the second sense they are spiritually dead whilst they are naturally alive and this spiritual death is the fore-runner of eternal death Now spiritual death is put in scripture in opposition to a two-fold spiritual life Viz. 1. The life of Justification 2. The life of Sanctification Spiritual death in opposition to the life of Justification is nothing else but the guilt of sin bringing us under the sentence of death Spiritual death in opposition to the life of sanctification is the pollution or dominion of sin In both these fen ses unregenerate men are dead men but it is the last which I am properly concerned to speak to in this place and therefore Secondly Let us briefly consider what this spiritual death is which as before was hinted is the absence of the quickening 2. spirit of Christ from the soul of any man That soul is a dead soul into which the spirit of Christ is not infused in the work of regeneration and all its works are dead works as they are called Heb. 9. 14. For look how it is with the damned they live they have sense and motion and an immortality in all these yet because they are eternally separated from God the life which they live deserves not the name of life but is every where in scripture stiled death So the unregenerate they are naturally alive they eat and drink they buy and sell they talk and laugh they rejoyce in the creatures and many of them spend their days in pleasures and then go down to the grave This is the life they live but yet the scripture rather calls it death than life because though they live yet it is without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Though they live yet it is a life alienated from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. And therefore while they remain naturally alive they are in scripture said to remain in death 1 John 3. 14. and to be dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. And there is great reason why a Christless and unregenerate state should be represented in scripture under the notion of death for there is nothing in nature which more aptly represents that miserable state of the soul than natural death doth The dead see and discern nothing and the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of God The dead have no beauty or desirableness in them Bury my dead said Abraham out of my sight neither is there any spiritual loveliness in the unregenerate True it is some of them have sweet natural qualities and moral excellencies which are taking things but these are as so many flowers decking and adorning a dead corpse The dead are Objects of pity and great lamentation men use to mourn for the dead Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets But unregenerate and Christless souls are much more the Objects of pity and lamentation How are all the people of God especially those that are naturally related to them concerned to mourn over them and for them as Abraham did for Ishmael Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Upon these and many other accounts the state of unregeneracy is represented to us in the notion of death Thirdly And that this is the state of all Christless and unsanctified persons will undeniably appear two ways 3. 1. The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them 2. The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them and therefore they are in the state and under the power of spiritual death First The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them There are two causes of spiritual life 1. Principal and internal 2. Subordinate and external The principal internal cause of spiritual life is the regenerating spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 2. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death 'T is the spirit as a regenerating spirit that unites us with Christ in whom all spiritual life originally is John 5. 25 26. Verily I say unto you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself As all the members of the natural body receive animation sense and motion by their Union with their natural head so all believers the members of Christ receive spiritual life and animation by their Union with Christ their mystical head Eph. 4. 15 16. Except we come to him and be united with him in the way of faith we can have no life in us John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Now the spirit of God hath yet exerted no regenerating quickening influences nor begotten any special saving faith in natural unsanctified men whatever he hath done for them in the way of natural or spiritual common gifts yet he hath not quickened them with the life of Christ. And as for the subordinate external means of life viz. the preaching of the Gospel which is the instrument of the spirit in this glorious work and is therefore called the word of life Phil. 2. 16. this word hath not yet been made a regenerating quickening word to their souls Possibly it hath enlightned them and convinced them it hath wrought upon their minds in the way of common illumination and upon their consciences in the way of conviction but not upon their hearts and wills by way of effectual conversion To this day the Lord hath not given them an heart opening it self in the way of faith to receive Jesus Christ. Secondly The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them for First They have no feeling or sense of misery and danger I mean no such sense as throwly awakens them to apply Christ their remedy That spiritual judgment lies upon them Isa. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and
be attended p. 89 Outward troubles how cured p. 222 Oyl of gladness what it notes p. 164 P. PArdon of sin how sweet p. 188 Papists how they still Conscience p. 203 Pauses made in Conversion p. 77 Penance no act of mortification p. 460 Peace two sorts worse than trouble p. 190 Pleas for converting souls p. 21 22 Pleasures of the spiritual life p. 97 Pleasure of sin cost dear p. 186 Physitian noue like Christ p. 223 Pledge of glory what is so p. 410 Pleasure none in carnal men p. 534 Policy of Satan in what discovered p. 283 Powers of the soul twofold p. 405 Power of sin gradually weakened p. 462 Propositions about applying Christ p. 6 7 8 Persecutors warned of danger p. 42 Presumption falsely pretended p. 200 Presumption a general sin p. 350 Prayer how prevalent p. 314 Prayers of Saints desirable p. 316 Prayer evidential of the Spirit p. 417 Prayerless persons unregenerate p. 453 Probabilities of mercy incourage p. 388 Proper sins to be especially eyed p. 487 Principles of mortification what p. 467 Promises of temporals how secured p. 246 Practical nature of Gods teaching p. 399 Purity of Conscience how needful p. 484 Purposes accepted by God p. 315 Q. QUalifications of Ministers p. 63 Qualities of the new creature p. 434 Quickning of two sorts p. 94 Quickning the Spirits work in order to union with Christ p. 93 Quickning a supernatural work p. 103 Quietness of men what it argues p. 353 R. REconciliation with God what p. 51 Reconciliation wonderful p. 52 Readiness in God to grant prayer p. 313 Receiving Christ the vital act p. 115 Receiving Christ what it improts p. 116 Remission the Saints priviledge p. 299 Remission what it is p. 300 Remission none without Christ p. 305 Reconciled persons their duties p. 66 Renovation of nature p. 430 Regenerate their duties p. 445 Religion precise and strict p. 499 Religion falâ—…y charged p. 518 Represent Christ as he is p. 260 Respect due to Ministers and why p. 48 Reluctance of nature how cured p. 76 Rest coming by faith sweet p. 203 Rest of Believers present and how p. 207 Righteousness connected with holiness p. 16 Riches of Christ how great p. 178 Right to glory Christs purchase p. 341 Rome shall feel the force of prayer p. 317 Rods of affliction the Saints lot p. 325 Rules of two sorts p. 498 Rules to discern the spirit in us p. 411 Rule no man a rule to others p. 498 S. SAints have real communion with Christ p. 165 Saints honourable on what account p. 175 Satans great design opened p. 211 Satisfaction none short of glory p. 342 Satans power destroyed and how p. 327 Satans policy wherein seen p. 368 Selfishness an odious sin p. 176 Secrets of God opened to Saints p. 314 Skill bred by experience what p. 193 Signs of divine teaching p. 398 Sins evil not seen at first p. 378 Sin is long a dying in the best p. 464 Sin yields neither profit nor pleasure p. 489 Sin against the Spirit mistaken p. 200 Sins of Believers most piercing p. 319 Sound of the Gospel sweet p. 202 Sorrows of the soul not quickly over p. 206 Souls of great value p. 341 Small things accepted by God p. 314 Small remnant in Christ p. 447 Spiritual sickness a mercy p. 201 Spirits threefold power in conversion p. 363 Spirit taken two ways p. 406 Spirit the bond of union p. 408 Spirit works arbitrarily in us p. 411 Spirit works variously in men ibid. Sting of death pluckt out by Christ p. 328 Striving ineffectual when so p. 381 Stability the result of mortification p. 481 Success of the word to be waited for p. 110 Supports under defects of obedience p. 524 Supports under spiritual troubles what and whence they are p. 189 190 Sufferings for Christ honourable p. 281 Sweetness of Religion in application p. 11 Sympathy a mark of the Spirit p. 41â—… Symptoms of a desperate state p. 227 T. TEmptations not removed here p. 325 Terms on which Christ is offered p. 122 Teachings of God twofold p. 377 Teachings of God necessary p. 375 Teaching of God not opposed to mans p. 376 Teachings of God infallible p. 390 Teaching of God clear ibid. Teachings of God permanent p. 391 Teachings of God harmonical p. 399 Tenderness of Conscience p. 492 Time of conversion in the hand of the Spirit p. 364 Time of Christs incarnation exactly agreeable to the promises p. 240 Things past present and to come ours p. 209 Thoughts of death how sweetned p. 342 Troubles of Conscience great p. 188 Troubles for sin wean the heart p. 191 Troubles for sin prevent falls p. 192 Troubles for sin make Christ sweet ibid. Troubles for sin tryed p. 191 Trials of our union with Christ. p. 43 Trials of spiritual life p. 111 V. VExing the Spirit p. 489 Visions not to be expected p. 376 Unition supposed to union p. 94 Union with Christ how illustrated p. 26 Union with Christ no fancy p. 28 Union with Christ what it is not p. 30 Union mystical what it is p. 32 Union ingages to godliness p. 44 Union the ground of acceptation p. 315 Union fundamental to benefits p. 383 Unregenerate in a sad state p. 〈◊〉 110 Unbelief unreasonable p. 17 Unreconciled exhorted p. 65 Unbelief the damning sin p. 136 Unbelief the root of ingratitude p. 212 Unworthiness no bar to faith p. 245 Unbelievers their sad estate p. 294 Unbelievers under condemnation p. 541 Unbelief the evil thereof p. 543 Voluntary motions of souls to Christ p. 194 Voyce of God never heard by some p. 400 Upbraidings of Conscience what p. 187 Usefulness of the Law is great p. 204 W. WAnts relieved by union with Christ p. 40 Wants of Saints provided for p. 176 Want of outwards quietly born p. 244 Wants not to be feared p. 318 Willingness to dye what it signifies in carnal men p. 353 Will how allured by God p. 393 Workings of the word when slight p. 368 World its damping efficacy p. 369 Work of grace supernatural p. 445 Work of new creatures what p. 4â—…4 Wonderful preservation of grace p. 438 Wrath due to sin how great p. 379 Z. ZEal in wicked men dangerous Zeal improved against Zeal p. 580 FINIS This Author hath writ the several Books following A Saint indeed the great work of a Christian opened and pressed from Prov. 4. 23. a seasonable Discourse for recovery of decayed godliness A Touch-stone of Sincerity or signs of Grace and symptoms of Hypocrisie being the Second Part of the Saint Indeed Husbandry Spiritualized or the Heavenly use of Earthly things The Seamans Compass spiritually improved The Seamans Companion wherein the mysteries of Divine Providence relating to Seamen are opened the sins and dangers discovered their duties pressed their several troubles and burdens opened and profitably applied Divine Conduct or the Mystery of Providence its Being and Efficacy asserted and vindicated all the methods of Providence in our course of life opened with directions how to apply and improve them A Token for Mourners or Boundaries for Sorrow on death of Friends The Fountain of life opened or a display of Christ in his Essential and Mediatorial Glory wherein the impetration of our redemption by Christ is unfolded as it was begun carried on and finished These following Books lately Printed HEavenly and Earthly mindedness in two Parts with an Appendix about laying hold on Eternal Life The Life and Death of Mr. John Row of Credditon in Devon Emanuel or the love of Christ explicated and applied in his incarnation being made under the Law and his satisfaction in 31 Sermons all three by Mr. John Row Minister of Gods word Christs power over bodily diseases by Edward Lawrance now Minister of the Gospel in London The Saints nearness to God by Richard Vines Minister of the Gospel Of Idolatry a Discourse in which is endeavoured a declaration of its distinction from superstition by Tho. Tenison Dr. in Divinity and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty FINIS
metal is delivered into the Gospel mould where it receives the same form and figure that the mould gives as the impress upon the wax doth the engravings in the Seal and this is of principal consideration for there is no receiving Christ upon any other terms but his own proposed in the Gospel to us he will never come lower nor make them easier than they are for any mans sake in the world we must either receive him upon these or part with him for ever as thousands do who could be content to agree to some Articles but rather choose to be damned for ever than submit to all this is the great controversie betwixt Christ and sinners upon this many thousands break off the Treaty and part with Christ because he will not come to their terms but every true believer receives him upon his own i. e. their acceptance of him by faith is in all things consentaneous to the overtures made of him in the written word So he tenders himself and so they receive him as will be evident in the following particulars First The Gospel offers Christ to us sincerely and really and so the true believer receives and accepts him even with 1. a faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. If ever the soul be serious and in earnest in any thing it it so in this can we suppose the heart of him that flys for his life to the refuge City to be serious and in earnest to escape by flight the Avenger of blood who pursues him then is the heart of a convinced sinner serious in this matter for under that notion is the work of faith presented to us Heb. 6. 18. Secondly Christ is offered to us in the Gospel intirely and undividedly as cloathed with all his offices Priestly Prophetical 2. and Regal as Christ Jesus the Lord Acts 16. 31. and so the true believer receives him the hypocrite like the harlot is for dividing but the sincere believer finds the need he hath of every office of Christ and knows not how to want any thing that is in him His ignorance makes him necessary and desirable to him as a Prophet His guilt makes him necessary as a Priest His strong and powerful Lusts and Corruptions makes him necessary as a King and in truth he sees not any thing in Christ that he can spare he needs all that is in Christ and admires the infinite wisdome in nothing more than the investing Christ with all these offices which are so suited to the poor sinners wants and miseries Look as the three offices are undivided in Christ so they are in the believers acceptance and before this tryal no hypocrite can stand for all hypocrites reject and quarrel with something in Christ they like his pardon better than his government they call him indeed Lord and master but it is but an empty Tite they bestow upon him for let them ask their own hearts if Christ be Lord over their thoughts as well as words over their secret as well as open actions over their darling Lusts as well as others let them ask who will appear to be Lord and master over them when Christ and the world come in competition when the pleasures of sin shall stand upon one side and sufferings to death and deepest points of self-denyal upon the other side Surely 't is the greatest affront that can be offered to the divine wisdome and goodness to separate in our acceptance what is so united in Christ for our salvation and happiness As without any one of these offices the work of our salvation could not be compleated so without acceptance of Christ in them all our Union with him by faith cannot be compleated The Gospel offer of Christ includes all his offices and Gospel faith just so receives him to submit to him as well as to be redeemed by him to imitate him in the holiness of his life as well as to reap the purchases and fruits of his death It must be an entire receiving of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thirdly Christ is offered to us in the Gospel exclusively 3. as the alone and only saviour of sinners with whose blood A man may as lawfully joyn Saints or Angels in his mediation with Christ as graces It is gross idolatry to make the works of God a God and it is but a more subtil Idolatry to make the works of Christ a Christ. Burges de Lege and intercession nothing is to be mixed but the foul of a sinner is singly to rely and depend on him and no other Acts 4. 2. 1 Cor. 3. 11. and so faith receives him Psal. 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only Phil. 3. 9. And be found in him not having my own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the faith of Christ to depend partly upon Christs righteousness and partly upon our own is to set one foot upon a rock and the other in a quick-sand either Christ will be to us all in all or nothing at all in point of righteousness and salvation he affects not social honour as he did the whole work so he expects the sole praise if he be not able to save to the uttermost why do we depend upon him at all and if he be why do we lean upon any beside him Fourthly The Gospel offers Christ freely to sinners as the gift not the sale of God Joh. 4. 10. Isa. 55. 1. Rev. 22. 17. and even so faith receives him The believer comes to Christ with an empty hand not only as an undeserving but as an hell deserving sinner he comes to Christ as to one that justifies the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. Unto him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness where by him that worketh not he means a convinced humbled sinner who finds himself utterly unable to do the task the Law sets him i. e. perfectly to obey it and therefore in a Law sense is said not to work for it 's all one as to the intent and purpose of the Law not to work and not to work perfectly this he is convinced of and therefore comes to Christ as one that is in himself ungodly acknowledging the righteousness by which he alone can stand before God is in Christ and not in himself in whole or in part and by the way let this encourage poor souls that are scared and daunted for want of due qualifications from closing with and embracing Christ there is nothing qualifies any man for Christ more than a sense of his unworthiness of him and the want of all excellencies or ornaments that may commend him to divine acceptance Fifthly The Gospel offers Christ orderly to sinners first his person then his priviledges God first gives his son and then 5. with him or as a consequent of that gift he gives us all things Rom. 8. 32. In the same order must our faith receive him The
have lived Vassals to your sins and dyed at last in your sins but the fruit efficacy and benefit of Christs death is yours for the killing those sins in you which else had been your ruine Fifthly Believers have Communion with Christ in his life and resurrection from the dead as he rose from the dead so do they and that by the power and influence of his vivification and resurrection 't is the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus that makes us free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. our spiritual life is from Christ Eph. 2. 1. and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins and hence Christ is said to live in the believer Gal. 2. 20. Now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and it is no small priviledge to partake of the very life of Christ which is the most excellent life that ever any creature can live yet such is the happiness of all the Saints the life of Christ is manifest in them and such a life as shall never see death Sixthly To conclude Believers have fellowship with Jesus Christ in his glory which they shall enjoy in heaven with him they shall be ever with the Lord 1 Thes. 4. 17. and that 's not all though as one saith it were a kind of heaven but to look through the keyhole and have but a glimpse of Christs blessed face but they shall partake of the glory which the father hath given him for so he speaks Joh. 17. 22 24. and more particularly they shall sit with him in his throne Rev. 3. 21. and when he comes to judge the world he will come to be glorified in the Saints 2 Thes. 1. 10. So that you see what glorious and inestimable things are and will be in common betwixt Christ and the Saints His Titles his righteousness his holiness his death his life his glory I do not say that Christ will make any Saint equal with him in glory that 's impossible he will be known from all the Saints in heaven as the Sun is distinguished from the Stars but they shall partake of his glory and be fill'd with his joy there and thus you see what those things are that the Saints have fellowship with Christ in Secondly Next I would open the way and means by which 2. we come to have fellowship with Jesus Christ in these excellent priviledges and this I shall do briefly in the following Positions Position 1. First No man hath fellowship with Christ in any special saving Position 1. Soli verè fideles sunt membra Christi idque non quatenus homines sed quatenus Christiani nec secundum primam generationem sed secundum reg nerationem Polanus Syntag. lib. 6. cap. 35. priviledge by nature howsoever it be cultivated or improved but only by faith uniting him to the Lord Jesus Christ 't is not the priviledge of our first but second birth This is plain from Joh. 1. 12 13. But to as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to as many as believed on his name who are born not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God We are by nature children of wrath Eph. 2. 3. we have fellowship with Satan in sin and misery the wild branch hath no communication of the sweetness and fatness of a more noble and excellent root until it be ingraffed upon it and have immediate Union and coalition with it Joh. 15. 1 2. Position 2. Believers themselves have not an equal share one with another in all the benefits and priviledges of their Union with Christ but in Position 2. some there is an equality and in others an inequality according to the measure and gift of Christ to every one In Justification they are all equal the weak and the strong believer are alike justified because it is one and the same perfect righteousness of Christ which is applied to the one and to the other so that there are no different degrees of Justification but all that believe are justified from all things Acts 13. 39. and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1. be they never so weak in faith or defective in degrees of grace But there is apparent difference in the measures of their Sanctification some are strong men and others are babes in Christ 1 Cor. 3. 1. the faith of some flourishes and grows exceedingly 2 Thes. 1. 3. the things that are in others are ready to dye Rev. 3. 2. It 's a plain case that there is great variety sound in the degrees of grace and comfort among them that are joyntly interested in Christ and equally justified by him Position 3. The Saints have not fellowship and communion with Christ in the fore-mentioned benefits and priviledges by one and the same medium Position 3. but by various mediums and ways according to the nature of the benefits in which they participate For instance they have partnership and communion with Christ as hath been said in his righteousness holiness and glory but they receive these distinct blessings by divers mediums of communion we have communion with Christ in his righteousness by the way of Imputation we partake of his holiness by the way of infusion and of his glory in heaven by the beatifical Vision Our Justification is a relative change our sanctification a real change our glorification a perfect change by redemption from all the remains both of sin and misery Thus hath the Lord appointed several blessings for believers in Christ and several channels of conveying them from him to us by imputed righteousness we are freed from the guilt of sin by imparted holiness we are freed from the dominion of sin and by our glorification with Christ we are freed from all the reliques and remains both of sin and misery let in by sin upon our natures Position 4. That Jesus Christ imparts to all believers all the spiritual Position 4. blessings that he is filled with and with-holds none from any that have Union with him be these blessings never so great or they that receive them never so weak mean and contemptible in outward respects Gal. 3. 27. Ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. The salvation that comes by Christ is stiled the common salvation Jude 3. and heaven the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. There is neither Greek nor Jew saith the Apostle Circumcision nor uncircumcision Barbarian Scythian bond or free but Christ is all and in all Col. 3. 11. he means there is no priviledge in the one to commend them to God and no want of any thing in the other to debarr them from God let men have or want outward excellencies as beauty honour riches nobility gifts of the mind sweetness of nature and all such like ornaments what is that to God he looks not at these things but respects
affliction as Jesus Christ doth with his friends in all our afflictions he is afflicted Heb. 4. 15. He feels all our sorrows wants and burthens as his own Whence it is that the sufferings of Believers are called the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 24. Fourthly No Friend in the world takes that complacency in his Friend as Jesus Christ doth in Believers Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart saith he to the Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck the Hebrew here rendred ravished signifies to puff up or to make one proud how is the Lord Jesus pleased to glory in his people how is he taken and delighted with those gracious ornaments which himself bestows upon them no friend so lovely as Christ. Fifthly No Friend in the world loves his Friend with so ferverous and strong affection as Jesus Christ loves Believers Jacob loved Rachel and endured for her sake the parching heat of Summer and cold of Winter but Christ indured the storms of the wrath of God the heat of his â—…ignation for our sakes David manifested his love to 〈◊〉 in wishing O that I had died for thee Christ manifested his love to us not in wishes that he had died but in death it self in our stead and for our sakes Sixthly No Friend in the world is so constant and unchâ—…ble in friendship as Christ is Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end He bears with millions of provocations and injuries and yet will not break friendship with his people Peter denied him yet he will not disown him but after his resurrection he saith go tell the Disciples and tell Peter q. d. let him not think he hath forfeited by that sin of his his interest in me though he have denied me I will not disown him Mark 16. 7. Oh how lovely is Christ in the relation of a friend I might farther shew you the loveliness of Christ in his Ordinances and in his providences in his communion with us and communications to us but there is no end of the account of Christs loveliness I will rather choose to press Believers to their dutys towards this altogether lovely Christ which I shall briefly dispatch in a few words Use 1. First Is Jesus Christ altogether lovely then I beseech Use 1. you set your souls upon this lovely Jesus methinks such an object as hath been here represented should compel love from the coldest breast and hardest heart Away with those empty nothings away with this vain deceitful world which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it let all stand aside and give way to Christ. O did you but know his worth and excellency what he is in himself what he hath done for and deserved from you you would need no arguments of mine to perswade you to love him Secondly Esteem nothing lovely but as it is enjoyed in 2. Christ or improved for Christ affect nothing for it self love nothing separate from Jesus Christ. In two things we all sin in the love of creatures viz. in the excess of our affections loving them above the rate and value of creatures and in the inordinacy of our affections i. e. in loving them out of their proper places Thirdly Let us all be humbled for the baseness of our hearts 3. that are so free of their affections to vanities and trifles and so hard to be perswaded to the love of Christ who is altogether lovely Oh how many pour out streams of love and delight upon the vain and empty creature whilst no arguments can squeese out one drop of love from their obdurate and unbelieving hearts to Jesus Christ I have read of one Johannes Mollius who was observed to go often alone and weep bitterly and being prest by a Friend to know the cause of his trouble Oh said he it grieves me that I cannot bring this heart of mine to love Jesus Christ more fervently Fourthly Represent Christ as he is to the world by your 4. carriages towards him Is he altogether lovely Let all the world see and know that he is so by your delights in him and communion with him zeal for him and readiness to part with any other lovely thing upon his account proclaim his excellencies to the world as the Spouse here did convince them how much your Beloved is better than any other Beloved Display his glorious excellencies in your heavenly Conversations hold him forth to others as he is in himself altogether lovely See that you walk worthy of him unto all well-pleasing Col. 1. 10. Shew forth the praises of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. Let not that worthy name be blasphemed through you James 2. 7. He is glorious in himself and will put glory upon you take heed ye put not shame and dishonour upon him he hath committed his honour to you do not betray that trust Fifthly Never be ashamed to own Christ he is altogether 5. lovely he can never be a shame to you 't will be your great sin to be ashamed of him Some men glory in their shame be not you ashamed of your glory if you be ashamed of Christ now he will be ashamed of you when he shall appear in his own glory and the glory of all his holy Angels Be ashamed of nothing but sin and among other sins be ashamed especially for this sin that you have no more love for him who is altogether lovely Sixthly Be willing to leave every thing that is lovely upon 6. earth that you may be with the altogether lovely Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven Lift up your voices with the Spouse Rev. 20. 20. Come Lord Jesus come quickly 'T is true you must pass through the pangs of death into his bosom and enjoyment but sure 't is worth suffering much more than that to be with this lovely Jesus The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for of Jesus Christ 2 Thes. 3. 5. Seventhly Strive to be Christ-like as ever you would be 7. lovely in the eyes of God and men Certainly my Brethren 't is the Spirit of Christ within you and the beauty of Christ upon you which only can make you lovely persons the more you resemble him in holiness the more will you discover of true excellency and loveliness and the more frequent and spiritual your converse and communion with Christ is the more of the beauty and loveliness of Christ will still be stamped upon your Spirits changing you into the same image from glory to glory Eighthly Let the loveliness of Christ draw all men to 8. him Is loveliness in the creature embodied beauty so attractive And can the transcendent loveliness of Christ draw none Oh the blindness of man If you see no beauty in Christ why you should desire him 't is because the God of this world hath blinded your minds The Thirteenth SERMON
result from his Saints a great part of his own glory as we have now fellowship with him in his sufferings so we shall have a fellowship or communion with him in his glory when he shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory then the poorest Believer shall be more glorious than Solomon in all his Royalty It was a pious saying of Luther that he had rather be Christianus Rusticus quam Ethnicus Alexander a Christian Clown than a Pagan Emperor the righteous is more excellent than his neighbour though he live next dore to a graceless Nobleman but it doth not yet appear what they shall be The day will come it will certainly come for the Lord hath spoken it when they shall shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdom of their Father Inference 5. How hath the Devil blindfolded and deluded them that are scared off from Christ by the fears of being dishonoured by him Inference 5. Many persons have half a mind to Religion but when they consider the generality of its professors to be persons of the lowest and meanest rank in the world and that reproaches and sufferings attend that way they shrink back as men ashamed and as Salvian saith mali esse coguntur ne viles habeantur they choose rather to remain wicked than to become vile but to them that believe Christ is an honour as the word which we translate precious might be rendred 1 Pet. 2. 7. Till God open mens eyes thus they will put evil for good and good for evil But O dear bought honours for which men stake their souls and everlasting happiness Paul was not of your mind yet for birth he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews for dignity and esteem a Pharisee for moral accomplishments touching the Law blameless yet all this he trampled under his feet counting it all but dross and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ. Moses had more honour to lay down for Christ than you yet it was no temptation to him to conceal or deny the faith of Christ. Noble Galeacius would not be withheld from Christ by the splendor and glory of Italy But Oh how doth the glory of this world dazle and blind the eyes of many How can ye believe saith Christ who receive honour one of another John 5. 44. Saints and sinners upon this account are wonders to one the other 'T is the wonder of the world to see Christians glorying in reproaches they wonder that the Saints run not with them into the same excess of riot And it is a wonder to Believers how such poor toys and empty titles rather than titles of honour should keep the world as it doth from Jesus Christ and their everlasting happiness in him Inference 6. If Christ be the Lord of Glory how careful should all be Inference 6. who profess him that they do not dishonour Jesus Christ whose name is called upon them Christ is a glory to you be not you a shame and dishonour to him How careful had Christians need be to draw every line and action of their lives exactly The more glorious Christ is the more circumspect and watchful ye had need to be How lovely would Jesus Christ appear to the world if the lives of Christians did adorn the Doctrine of God their Saviour in all things Remember you represent the Lord of Glory to the world 't is not your honour only but the honour of Christ which is engaged and concerned in your actions O let not the carelesness or scandals of your life make Jesus Christ ashamed to be called your Lord. When Israel had grievously revolted from God he bids Moses rise and get him down from thence for saith he thy people which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt have corrupted themselves Deut. 9. 12. as if the Lord were ashamed to own them for his people any longer It was a cutting question Jam. 2. 7. apt to startle the Consciences of those loose professors do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which ye are called Your duty is to adorn the Gospel by your Conversations Titus 2. 10. The words signifie to deck trim or adorn the Gospel to make it neat trim and lovely to the eyes of beholders When there is such a beautiful harmony and lovely proportion betwixt Christs Doctrine and your practices as there is in the works of Creation wherein the comliness and elegancy of the world much consists for to this the Apostles word here alludes then do we walk suitably to the Lord of Glory Inference 7. What delight should Christians take in their daily converse with Jesus Christ in the way of duty Your converses in prayer hearing Inference 7. Suppose saith Mr. Rutherford there were no letter of a command yet there is a suitableness betwixt the Law engraven on the heart and the spiritual matter commanded there is an Heaven in the bosom of prayer though there were not a granting of the suit Rutherfords Treatise of the Covenant p. 71. and meditation are with the Lord of Glory the greatest Peers in a Kingdom account it more honour to be in the presence of a King bareheaded or upon the knee at Court than to have thousands standing bare to them in the Country When you are called to duties of communion with Christ you are called to the greatest honour dignified with the noblest priviledge creatures are capable of in this world had you but a sense of that honour God puts upon you by this means you would not need so much tugging and striving to bring a dead and backward heart into the special presence of Jesus Christ. When he saith seek ye my face your hearts would echo to his calls thy face Lord will we seek But alas the glory of Christ is much hid and vailed by ignorance and unbelief from the eyes of his own people 't is but seldom the best of Saints by the eye of faith do see the King in his Glory Inference 8. If Christ be so glorious how should Believers long to be with Inference 8. him and behold him in his glory above Most men need patience to dye a Believer should need patience to live Paul thought it well worth enduring the pangs of death to get a sight of Jesus Christ in his glory Phil. 1. 23. The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and patient waiting for of Christ saith the Apostle 2 Thes. 3. 5. intimating that the Saints have great need of patience to enable them to endure the state of distance and separation from Christ so long as they must endure it in this world The Spirit and the Bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is a thirst come even so come Lord Jesus and be thou as a swift Roe upon the Mountains of Separation Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the Lord of Glory The Fifteenth SERMON Sermon 15. LUKE 2. 25. Text. Opening the sixth Motive to come to Christ
he only 2. is matter of Consolation to Believers which will demonstratively appear by this Argument He that brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable must Argu. needs be the only consolation of Believers But Jesus Christ brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable Therefore Christ only is the Consolation of Believers First Jesus Christ brings whatsoever is comfortable to the souls of Believers Is pardon comfortable to a person condemned Nothing can be matter of greater comfort in this world Why this Christ brings to all Believers Jer. 23. 6. And this is the name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness this cannot but give strong consolation righteousness is the foundation of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isai. 32. 17. Come to a dejected soul labouring under the burthen of guilt and say Cheer up I bring you good tidings there is such an Estate befallen you or such a troublesom business comfortably ended for you alas this will not reach the heart If you can bring me saith he good news from Heaven that my sins are forgiven and God reconciled how soon should I be comforted And therefore as one well observes this was the usual receipt with which Christ cured the souls of men and women when he was here on earth Son or Daughter be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee and indeed it is as easie to separate light and warmth from the beams of the Sun as cheeriness and comfort from the voice of pardon Are the hopes and expectation of Heaven and glory comfortable Yes sure nothing is comfortable if this be not Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Now Christ brings to the souls of men all the solid grounds and foundations upon which they build their expectations of glory Col. 1. 27. Which is Christ in you the hope of glory Name any thing else that is solid matter of comfort to the souls of men and the grounds thereof will be found in Christ and in none but Christ as might easily be demonstrated by the enumeration of multitudes of particular instances which I cannot now insist upon Secondly Jesus Christ removes fom Believers whatever is uncomfortable therein relieving them against all the matters of their affliction and sorrow As namely First Is sin a burthen and matter of trouble to Believers Christ and none but Christ removes that burthen Rom. 7. 24 25. O wretched man that I am saith sin burthened Paul who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The satisfaction of his blood Eph. 5. 2. The sanctification of his Spirit John 1. 5 6. His perfect deliverance of his people from the very being of sin at last Eph. 5. 26 27. This relieves at present and removes at last the matter and ground of all their troubles and sorrows for sin Secondly Do the temptations of Satan burthen Believers O yes by reason of temptations they go in trouble and heaviness of spirit Temptation is an enemy under the walls temptation greatly endangers and therefore cannot but greatly afflict the souls of Believers but Christ brings the only matter of relief against temptations The intercession of Christ is a singular relief at present Luke 22. 32. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and the promises of Christ are a full relief for the future The God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under your feet Rom. 16. 20. Thirdly Is spiritual desertion and the hiding of Gods face matter of affliction and casting down to Believers Yes yes it quails their hearts nothing can comfort them Thou hidest thy face and I was troubled Psal. 30. 7. Outward afflictions do but break the skin this touches the quick they like rain fall only upon the Tiles this soaks into the House but Christ brings to Believers substantial matter of Consolation against the troubles of desertion he himself was deserted of God for a time that they might not be deserted for ever in him also the relieving promises are made to Believers that notwithstanding God may desert them for a time yet the union betwixt him and them shall never be dissolved Heb. 13. 5. Jer. 32. 40. Though he forsake them for a moment in respect of evidenced favour yet he will return again and comfort them Isai. 54. 7. Though Satan tug hard yet he shall never be able to pluck them out of his Fathers hand John 10. 20. Oh what relief is this What consolation is Christ to a deserted Believer Fourthly Are outward afflictions matter of dejection and trouble Alas who finds them not to be so How do our hearts fail and our spirits sink under the many smarting rods of God upon us but our relief and consolation under them all is in Christ Jesus for the rod that afflicts us is in the hand of Christ that loveth us Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten his design in affliction is our profit Heb. 12. 10. That design of his for our good shall certainly be accomplished Rom. 8. 28. and after that no more afflictions for ever Rev. 21. 3 4. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes So that upon the whole two things are most evident First Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ he is the soul that animates all Comforts they would be but dead things without him Temporal enjoyments riches honours health relations yield not a drop of true Comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments Minister ordinances promises are fountains sealed and springs shut up till Christ open them a man may go comfortless in the midst of them all Secondly No troubles sorrows or afflictions can deject or sink the soul that Christ comforteth 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing A Believer may walk with a heart brim full of comfort amidst all the troubles of this world Christ makes the darkness of trouble to be light round about his people So that the conclusion stands firm and never to be shaken that Christ and Christ only is the Consolation of Believers which was the thing to be proved In the Third place I am to shew you that Believers and 3. none but Believers can have consolation in Christ which will convincingly appear from the consideration of those things which we laid down before as the requisites to all true Spiritual Coonsolation For First No unbeliever hath the materials out of which Spiritual Comfort is made which as I there told you must be some solid spiritual and eternal good as Christ and the Covenant are What do unregenerate men rejoyce in but trifles and meer vanities in a thing of nought Amos 6. 13. See how their mirth is described in Job 21. 12. They
which is in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. Now who can estimate such a liberty as this What slavery what an intolerable drudgery is the service of divers lusts from all which Believers are freed by Christ not from the residence but from the reign of sin 'T is with sin in Believers as it was with those beasts mentioned Dan. 7. 12. They had their dominion taken away yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time Fourthly Jesus Christ sets all Believers free from the power of Satan in whose right they were by nature Col. 1. 13. they are translated from the power of darkness into the Kingdom of Christ. Satan had the possession of them as a man of his own goods but Christ dispossesseth that strong man armed alters the property and recovers them out of his hand Luke 11. 21 22. There are two ways by which Christ frees Believers out of Satans power and possession namely 1. By Price 2. By Power First By Price the blood of Christ purchaseth Believers out of the hand of justice by satisfying the law for them which being done Satans authority over them falls of course as the power of a Jaylor over the Prisoner doth when he hath a legal discharge Heb. 2. 14. For as much then as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil The cruel Tyrant beats and burthens the poor captive no more after the ransom is once paid and he actually freed and therefore Christ delivers his Secondly By power Satan is exceeding unwilling to let go his prey he is a strong and a malicious enemy every rescue and deliverance out of his hand is a glorious effect of the almighty power of Christ Act. 26. 18. 2 Cor. 10. 5. How did our Lord Jesus Christ grapple with Satan at his death and triumphed over him Col. 2. 15. O glorious salvation blessed liberty of the Children of God! Fifthly Christ frees Believers from the poisonous sting and hurt of death kill us it can but hurt us it cannot 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. If there be no hurt there should be no horror in death 't is guilt that arms death both with its hurting and terrifying power To dye in our sins John 8. 24. To have our bones full of the sins of our youth which shall lye down with us in the dust Job 20. 11. To have death like a Dragon pulling a poor guilty Creature as a prey into its dreadful Den Psal. 49. 14. In this lies the danger and horror of death but from death as a curse and from the grave as a Prison Christ hath set Believers at liberty by submitting to death in their room by his victorious resurrection from the grave as the first-born of the dead death is disarmed of its hurting power the death of Believers is but a sleep in Jesus Thirdly The next thing to be briefly spoken to is the 3. kind and nature of that freedom and liberty purchased and procured by Christ for Believers Now liberty may be considered two ways viz. 1. As Civil 2. As Sacred As to civil freedom or liberty it belongs not to our present business Believers as to their civil capacity are not freed from the duties they owe to their Superiors Servants though Believers are still to be subject to their Masters according to the flesh with fear and trembling Ephes. 6. 5. nor from obedience to lawful Magistrates whom we are to obey in the Lord Rom. 13. 1 4. Religion dissolves not the bonds of civil relations nor is it to be used as an occasion to the flesh 1 Pet. 2. 16. 'T is not a carnal but a spiritual freedom Christ hath purchased for us and this spiritual freedom is again to be considered either as 1. Inchoate 2. Consummate The liberty Believers have at present is but a beginning liberty they are freed but in part from their spiritual enemies but it is a growing liberty every day and will be consummate and compleat at last To conclude Christian Liberty is either 1. Privative or 2. Positive The liberty Believers are invested with is of both kinds they are not only freed from many miseries burthens and dangers but also invested by Jesus Christ with many royal priviledges and invaluable immunities Fourthly And this brings us to the fourth and last thing 4. namely the properties of this blessed freedom which the Saints enjoy by Jesus Christ and if we consider it duly it will be found to be First A wonderful liberty never enough to be admired how could it be imagined that ever those who owed unto God more than ever they could pay by their own eternal sufferings those that were under the dreadful curse and condemnation of the Law in the power and possession of Satan the strong man armed those that were bound with so many chains in their spiritual prison their understanding bound with ignorance their wills with obstinacy their hearts with impenetrable hardness their affections with a thousand bewitching vanities that slight their state of slavery so much as industriously to oppose all instruments and means of deliverance For such persons to be set at liberty notwithstanding all this is the wonder of wonders and is deservedly marvellous in the eyes of Believers for ever Secondly The freedom of Believers is a peculiar freedom a liberty which few obtain the generality abiding still in bondage to Satan who from the multitude of his Subjects is stiled the god of this world 2 Cor. 4. 4. Believers in Scripture are often called a remnant which is but a small part of the whole piece the more cause have the people of God to admire distinguishing mercy how many Nobles and great ones of the world are but royal slaves to Satan and their own lusts Thirdly The liberty of Believers is a liberty dearly purchased by the blood of Christ what that Captain said Acts 22. 28. With a great sum obtained I this freedom may be much more said of the Believers freedom 't was not Silver or Gold but the precious blood of Christ that purchased it 1 Pet. 1. 18. Fourthly The freedom and liberty of Believers is a growing and encreasing liberty they get more and more out of the power of sin and nearer still to their compleat salvation every day Rom. 13. 11. the body of sin dieth daily in them they are said to be crucified with Christ the strength of sin abates continually in them after the manner of crucified persons who dye a slow but sure death and look in what degree the power of sin abates proportionably their spiritual liberty encreases upon them Fifthly
they live so securely and pleasantly as they do in a state of so much danger and misery 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. The God of this world blinds the eyes of them that believe not Thirdly You have seen what the life of the unregenerate is and what maintains that life in the next place I shall 3. give you evidence that this is the life the generality of the world do live a life of carnal security vain hope and false joy this will evidently appear if we consider First The activity and liveliness of mens spirits in pursuit of the world O how lively and vigorous are their hearts in the management of earthly designs Psal. 6. 4. Who will shew us any good The world eats up their hearts time and strength Now this could never be if their eyes were but opened to see the danger and misery their souls be in how few designs for the world run in the thoughts of a condemned man O if God had ever made the light of conviction to shine into their Consciences certainly the temptations would lye the quite contrary way even in too great a neglect of things of this life but this briskness and liveliness plainly shews the great security which is upon most men Secondly The marvellous quietness and stillness that is in the thoughts and consciences of men about their everlasting concernments plainly shews this to be the life of the unregenerate how few scruples doubts or fears shall you hear from them how many years may a man live in carnal families before he shall hear such a question as this seriously propounded What shall I do to be saved There are no questions in their lips because no fear or sense of danger in their hearts Thirdly The general contentedness and profest willingness of carnal men to dye gives clear evidence that such a life of security and vain hope is the life they live Like sheep they are laid in the grave Psal. 49. 14. O how quiet and still are their Consciences when there are but a few breaths more between them and everlasting burnings Had God opened their eyes to apprehend the consequences of death and what follows the pale Horse Rev. 6. 8. it were impossible but that every unregenerate man should make that bed on which he dies shake and tremble under him Fourthly and Lastly The low esteem men have for Christ and the total neglect of at least the meer trifling with those duties in which he is to be found plainly discovers this stupid secure life to be the life that the generality of the world do live for were men sensible of the disease of sin there could be no quieting them without Christ the Physician Phil. 3. 8. All the business they have to do in this world could never keep them from their knees or make them strangers to their Closets all which and much more that might be said of like nature gives too full and clear proof to this sad assertion that this is the life the unregenerate world generally lives Fourthly In the last place I would speak a few words to 4. discover the danger of such a life as hath been described to which purpose let the following brief hints be minded seriously First By these things souls are inevitably betrayed into Hell and eternal ruine this blinding is in order to damning 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded those that are turned over into eternal death are thus generally mop't and hoodwinkt in order thereunto Isai. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and convert and be healed Secondly As damning is the event of blinding so nothing makes Hell a more terrible surprise to the soul than this doth by this means the wrath of God is felt before its danger be apprehended a man is past all hope before he begins to have any fear his eternal ruine like a breach ready to fall swelling out in a high wall cometh suddenly at an instant Isa. 30. 13. And as it damns surely and surprizingly so Thirdly Nothing more aggravates a mans damnation than to sink suddenly into it from amidst so many hopes and high confidence of safety for a man to find himself in Hell when he thought and concluded himself within a step of Heaven O what a Hell will it be to such men the higher their vain hopes lifted them up the more dreadful must their fall be Mat. 7. 22. And as it damns surely surprizingly and with highest aggravations So Fourthly This life of security and vain hope frustrates all the means of recovery and salvation in the only season wherein they can be useful and beneficial to us by reason of these things the word hath no power to convince mens Consciences nothing can bring them to a sight and sense of their condition therefore Christ told the self-confident and blind Jews Mat. 21. 21. That the Publicans and Harlots go into the kingdom of God before them and the reason is because their hearts lye more open and fair to the strokes of conviction and compunction for sin than those do who are blinded by vain hopes and confidences Inference 1. Is this the life that the unregenerate world lives then it is not to be wondered at that the preaching of the Gospel hath so Inference 1. little success who hath believed our report saith the Prophet and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Isai. 53. 1. Ministers study for truths apt to awaken and convince the Consciences of them that hear them but their words return again to them they turn to God and mourn over the matter we have laboured in vain and spent our strength for nought and this is the cause of all security and vain hopes bar fast the dores of mens hearts against all the convictions and perswasions of the word the greater cause have they to admire the grace of God who have or shall find the convictions of the word sharper than any two-edged Sword piercing to the dividing asunder of the soul and spirit to whose hearts God brings home the Commandment by an effectual application Inference 2. If this be the life of the unregenerate world what deadly enemies Inference 2. are they that nourish and strengthen the groundless confidences and vain hopes of salvation in men This the Scripture calls the healing of the hurt of souls slightly by crying peace peace when there is no peace Jer. 6. 14. the sowing of Pillows under their arm holes Ezech. 13. 18. that they may lye soft and easie under the Ministry and this is the Doctrine which the people love but O what will the end of these things be
which effectually worketh also in you that believe 'T is a successful instrument only when it is in the hand of the Spirit without whose influence it never did nor can convince convert or save any soul. Now the Spirit of God hath a soveraignty over three things in order to the conversion of the sinner viz. 1. Over the word which works 2. Over the soul wrought upon 3. Over the time and season of working First The Spirit hath a glorious soveraignty over the word it self whose instrument it is to make it successful or not as it pleaseth him Isai. 55. 10 11. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from Heaven c. so shall my word be that goeth out of my mouth as the Clouds so the word is carried and directed by divine pleasure 't is the Lord that makes them both give down their blessings or to pass away fruitless and empty yea 't is from the Spirit that this part of the word works and not another those things upon which Ministers bestow greatest labour in their preparation and from which accordingly they have the greatest expectation these do nothing when mean time something that dropt occasionally from them like a chosen Shaft strikes the mark and doth the work Secondly The Spirit of the Lord hath a glorious soveraignty over the souls wrought upon 't is his peculiar work to take away the stony heart out of our flesh and to give us an heart of flesh Ezec. 36. 26. We may reason exhort and reprove but nothing will stick till the Lord set it on The Lord opened the heart of Lydia under Pauls ministry he opens every heart that is effectually opened to receive Christ in the word if the word can get no entrance if your hearts remain dead under it still we may say concerning such souls as Martha did concerning her Brother Lazarus Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not died So Lord if thou hadst been in this Sermon in this Prayer or in that counsel these souls had not remained dead under them Thirdly The Spirit hath dominion over the times and seasons of conviction and conversion therefore the day in which souls are wrought upon is called the day of his power Psal. 110. 3. that shall work at one time which had no efficacy at all at another time because this and not that was the time appointed and thus you see whence the word derives that mighty power it hath Now this word of God when it is set home by the Spirit is mighty to convince humble and break the hearts of sinners Joh. 16. 9. The Spirit when it cometh shall convince the world of sin the word signifies conviction by such clear demonstration as compelleth assent it not only convinces men in general that they are sinners but it convinceth men particularly of their own sins and the aggravations of them So in the Text sin revived that is the Lord revived his sins the very circumstances and aggravations with which they were committed and so it will be with us when the Commandment comes sins that we had forgotten committed so far back as our youth or childhood sins that lay slighted in our Consciences shall now be rouzed up as so many sleepy Lyons to affright and terrifie us for now the soul hears the voice of God in the word as Adam heard it in the cool of the day and was afraid and hides it self but all will not do for the Lord is come in the word sin is held up before the eyes of the Conscience in its dreadful aggravations and fearful consequences as committed against the holy Law clear light warnings of Conscience manifold mercies Gods long-suffering Christs precious blood many warnings of judgements the wages and demerit whereof by the verdict of a mans own Conscience is death eternal death Rom. 6. 23. Rom. 1. 32. Rom. 2. 9. thus the Commandment comes sin revives and vain hopes give up the Ghost Inference 1. Is there such a mighty power in the word then certainly the word is of divine authority there cannot be a more clear and Inference 1 satisfying proof that it is no humane invention than the common sense that all Believers have of the almighty power in which it works upon their hearts so speaks the Apostle 1. Thes. 2. 13. When ye received the word of God which ye heard of us ye received it not as the word of man but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe Can the power of any creature the word of a meer man so convince the Conscience so terrifie the heart so discover the very secret thoughts of the soul put a man into such tremblings No no a greater than man must needs be here none but a God can so open the eyes of the blind so open the graves of the dead so quicken and enliven the Conscience that was seared so bind over the soul of a sinner to the judgement to come so change and alter the frame and temper of a mans spirit so powerfully raise refresh and comfort a drooping dying soul. Certainly the power of God is in all this and if there were no more yet this alone were sufficient to make full proof of the divine authority of the Scriptures Inference 2. Judge from hence what an invaluable mercy the preaching of Inference 2. the word is to the world 't is a blessing far above our estimation of it little do we know what a treasure God committeth to us in the Ordinances Acts 13. 25. To you is the word of this salvation sent 't is the very power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. and salvation is ordinarily denied to whom the preaching of the word is denied Rom. 10. 14. It 's called the word of life Phil. 2. 16. and deserves to be valued by every one of us as our life the eternal decree of Gods election is executed by it upon our souls as many as be ordained to eternal life shall believe by the preaching of it Great is the ingratitude of this generation which so slights and undervalues this invaluable treasure which is a sad presage of the most terrible judgement even the removing our Candlestick out of its place except we repent Inference 3. How sore and terrible a judgement lies upon the souls of those Inference 3. men to whom no word of God is made powerful enough to convince and awaken them Yet so stands the case with thousands who constantly sit under the preaching of the word many Arrows are shot at their Consciences but none goes home to the mark all fall short of the end the Commandment hath come unto them many thousand times by way of promulgation and ministerial inculcation but never yet came home to their souls by the spirits effectual application Oh friends you have often heard the voice of man but you never yet heard the voice of God your understandings have been instructed but your
Consciences to this day were never throughly convinced We have mourned unto you but ye have not lamented Mat. 11. 17. Who hath believed our report and unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Alas we have laboured in vain we have spent our strength for nought our word returns unto us empty but O what a stupendious judgement is here Heb. 6. 7 8. The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned What a sore judgement and sign of Gods displeasure would you account it if your fields were cursed if you should manure dress plough and sow them but never reap the fruit of your labour the increase being still blasted And yet this were nothing compared with the blasting of the word to your souls that which is a savour of life unto life unto some becomes the savour of death unto death to others 2 Cor. 2. 16. The Lord affect our hearts with the terrible stroaks of God upon the souls of men 2d Use of Exhortation I shall conclude this point with a few words of Exhortation to three sorts of men Use 2. viz. 1. To those that never felt the power of the word 2. To those that have only felt some slight and common effects thereof 3. To those unto whose very hearts the Commandment is come in its effectual and saving power First You that never felt any power in the word at all I beg you in the name of him that made you and by all the regard 1. and value you have for those precious souls within you that now at last such Considerations as these may find place in your souls and that you will bethink your selves Consideration 1. Whose word that is that cannot gain entrance into your hearts is it not the Word of God which you despise and slight thou castest my word behind thy back Psal. 50. 17. O what an affront and provocation to God is this you despise not man but God the great and terrible God in whose hand your breath and soul is this contempt runs higher than you imagine Consid. 2. Consider that however the Word hath no power upon you the commandment cannot come home to your hearts yet it doth work and comes home with power to the hearts of others whilest you are hardened others are melted under it whilest you sleep others tremble whilest your hearts are fast locked up others are opened how can you choose but reflect with fear and trembling upon these contrary effects of the word especially when you consider that the eternal decrees both of election and reprobation are now executed upon the souls of men by the preaching of the Word Some believe and others are hardened Consid. 3. That no Judgement of God on this side hell is greater than a hard heart and stupid Conscience under the Word it were much better that the providence of God should blast thy Estate take away thy Children or destroy thy health than harden thy heart and seare thy Conscience under the Word So much as thy soul is better than thy body so much as Eternity is more valuable than time so much is this spiritual Judgement more dreadful than all temporal ones God doth not inflict a more terrible stroke than this upon any men in this world O therefore as you love your own souls and are loth to ruine them to all Eternity attend upon every opportunity that God affords you for you know not in which of them the Lord may work upon your hearts lay aside your prejudices against the Word or the weaknesses and infirmities of them that preach it for the Word works not as it is the word of man as it is thus neat and elegant but as it is the Word of God pray for the blessing of God upon the Word for except his word of blessing go forth with it it can never come home to thy soul meditate upon what you hear for without meditation it is not like to have any effectual operation upon you Search your souls by it and consider whether that be not your very case and state which it describes your very danger whereof it gives warning take heed lest after you have heard it the cares of the world choke not what you have heard and cause those budding convictions which begin to put forth to blast and wither carefully attend to all those Items and memorandums your Consciences give you under the word and conclude that the Lord is then come nigh unto you Secondly let this be matter of serious consideration and caution to all such as have only felt some slight transient 2. and ineffectual operations of the Gospel upon their souls the Lord hath come nigh some of our souls we have felt a strange power in the Ordinances sometimes terrifying and sometimes transporting our hearts but alas it proves but a morning dew or an early cloud Hos. 6. 4. we rejoice in the Word but it is but for a season Joâ—… 3. 35. Gal. 4. 14 15. they are vanishing motions and come to nothing Look as in nature there are many abortives as well as perfect Children so it is in Religion yea where the new Creature is perfectly formed in one soul there be many abortives and miscarriages and there may be three reasons assigned for it viz. First The Subtilty and deep policy of Satan who never more effectually deceives and destroys the souls of men than in such a method and by such an artifice as this for when men have once felt their Consciences terrified under the Word and their hearts at other times ravished with the joyes and comforts of it they now seem to have attained all that is necessary to conversion and constitutive of the new Creature these things look so well like the regenerating effects of the spirit that many are easily deceived by them The devil beguiles the hearts of the unwary by such false appearances for it is not every man that can distinguish betwixt the natural and spiritual motions of the affections under the word it is very frequently seen that even carnal and unrenewed hearts have their meltings and transports as well as spiritual hearts The subject-matter upon which the word treats are the weighty things of the world to come heaven and hell are very awful and affecting things and an unrenewed heart is apt to thaw and melt at them now here is the cheat of Satan to perswade a man that these must needs be spiritual affections because the objects about which they are conversant are spiritual Whereas it is certain the object of the affections may be very spiritual and heavenly and yet the workings of a mans affections about them may be in a meer natural way Secondly The dampening efficacy of the world is a true and proper cause of these
needs be satisfied that Christ is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him which is the sixth Lesson Believers are taught of God Lesson 7. Every man that cometh to Christ is taught of God that it can never reap any benefit by the blood of Christ except he have union with the person of Christ 1 Joh. 5. 12. Eph. 4. 16. Time was when men fondly thought nothing was necessary to their salvation but the death of Christ but now the Lord shews them that their union with Christ by faith is as necessary in the place of an applying cause as the death of Christ is in the place of a meritorious cause the purchase of salvation is an act of Christ without us whilst we are yet sinners the application thereof is by a work wrought within us when we are believers Col. 1. 27. In the purchase all the elect are redeemed together by way of price In the application they are actually redeemed man by man by way of power Look as the sin of the first Adam could never hurt us unless he had been our head by way of generation so the righteousness of Christ can never benefit us unless he be our head in the way of regeneration In teaching this Lesson the Lord in mercy unteaches and blots out that dangerous principle by which the greatest part of the Christianized world do perish viz. that the death of Christ is in it self effectual to salvation though a man be never regenerated or united unto him by saving faith Lesson 8. God teaches the soul whom he is bringing to Christ that whatsoever is necessary to be wrought in us or done by us in order to our union with Christ is to be obtained from him in the way of prayer Ezek. 36. 37. And it is observable that the soul no sooner comes under the effectual teachings of God but the spirit of prayer begins to breath in it Acts 9. 8. behold he prayeth those that were taught to pray by men before are now taught of the Lord to pray to pray did I say yea and to pray fervently too as men concerned for their eternal happiness to pray not only with others but to pour out their souls before the Lord in secret for their hearts are as bottles full of new wine which must vent or break Now the soul returns upon its God often in the same day now it can express its burthens and wants in words and groans which the spirit teacheth they pray and will not give over praying till Christ come with compleat salvation Lesson 9. Ninthly All that come to Christ â—…e taught of God to abandon their former wayes and companions in sin as ever they expect to be received unto mercy Isai. 55. 7. 2 Cor. 5. 17. Sins that were profitable and pleasant as the right hand and right eye must now be cut off Companions in sin who were once the delight of their lives must now be cast off Christ saith to the soul concerning these as he said in another case John 18. 8. if therefore ye seek me let these go their way and the soul saith unto Christ as it is Psalm 119. 115. depart from me ye evil doers for I will keep the Commandments of my God and now pleasant sins and companions in sin become the very burthen and shame of a mans soul objects of delight are become objects of pity and compassion no endearments no union of blood no earthly interests whatsoever are found strong enough to hold the soul any longer from Christ nothing but the effectual teachings of God is found sufficient to dissolve such bonds of iniquity as these Lesson 10. Tenthly All that come unto Christ are taught of God that there is such a beauty and excellency in the wayes and people of God as is not to be matcht in the whole world Psal. 16. 3. When the eyes of strangers to Christ begin to be opened and enlightned in his knowledge you may see what a change of judgement is wrought in them with respect to the people of God and towards them especially whom God hath any way made instrumental for the good of their souls Cant. 5. 9. they then called the spouse of Christ the fairest among women the convincing holiness of the Bride then began to enamour and affect them with a desire of nearer conjunction and communion we will seek him with thee with thee that hast so charged us that hast taken so much pains for the good of our souls now and never before the righteous appeareth more excellent than his Neighbour Change of heart is always accompanied with change of judgement with respect to the people of God thus the Jaylor Act. 16. 33. washed the Apostles stripes to whom he had been so cruel before The godly now seem to be the glory of the places where they live and the glory of any place seems to be darkned by their removal As one said of holy Mr. Barrington Methinks the Town is not at home when Mr. Barrington is out of Town they esteem it a choice mercy to be in their company and acquaintance Zech. 8. 23. we will go with you for we have heard that God is with you no people like the people of God now as one said when he heard of two faithful friends utinam tertius essem O that I might make the third Whatever vile or low thoughts they had of the people of God before to be sure now they are the excellent of the earth in whom is all their delight the holiness of the Saints might have some interest in their Consciences before but they never had such an interest in their estimations and affections till this Lesson was taught them by the Father Lesson 11. Eleventhly All that come to Christ are taught of God that whatever difficulties they apprehend in Religion yet they must not upon pain of damnation be discouraged thereby or return back again to sin Luke 9. 62. No man having put his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God plowing work is hard work a strong and steady hand is required for it he that plows must keep on and make no balks of the hardest and toughest ground he meets with Religion also is the running of a Race 1 Cor. 9. 24. there is no standing still much less turning back if ever we hope to win the prize The Devil indeed labours every way to discourage and daunt the soul by representing the insuperable difficulties of Religion to it and young beginners are but too apt to be discouraged and fall under despondency but the teachings of the Father are encouraging teachings they are carried on from strength to strength against all the oppositions they meet from without them and the many discouragements they find within them to this conclusion they are brought by the teaching of God we must have Christ we must get a pardon we must strive for salvation let the difficulties troubles and sufferings in
name is as an Oyntment poured forth Cant. 5. 16. his mouth is most sweet O how powerfully and how sweetly doth the voyce of God slide into the heart of a poor melting sinner how jejune dry and tastless are all the discourses of men compared with the teachings of the Father Thirdly God teacheth plainly and clearly he not only opens truths to the understanding but he openeth the understanding also to perceive them 2 Cor. 3. 16. In that day the vaile is taken away from the heart a light shineth into the soul a clear beam from heaven is darted into the mind Luk. 24. 45. Divine teachings are fully satisfying the soul doubts no more staggers and hesitates no more but acquiesces in that which God teaches 't is so satisfied that it can venture all upon the truth of what it hath learnt from God as that Martyr said I cannot dispute but I can dye for Christ. See Prov. 8. 8 9. Fourthly The teachings of God are infallible teachings the wisest and holiest of men may mistake and lead others into the same mistakes with themselves but it is not so in the teachings of God if we can be sure that God teacheth us we may be as sure of the truth of what he teacheth â—…r his spirit guideth us into all truth Joh. 16 〈◊〉 and into nothing but truth Fifthly The teachings of God are abiding teachings they make everlasting impressions upon the soul Psal. 119. 98. they are ever with it the words of men vanish from us but the words of God stick by us what God teacheth he writeth upon the heart Jer. 31. 33. and that will abide littera scripta manet 'T is usual with souls whose understandings have been opened by the Lord many years afterward to say I shall never forget such a scripture that once convinced me such a promise that once encouraged me Sixthly The teachings of God are saving teachings they make the soul wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3. 15. There is a great deal of other knowledge that goes to hell with men the pavement of hell as one speaks is pitched with the sculs of many great Scholars but eternal life is in the teachings of God Joh. 17. 3. This is eternal life to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is deservedly stiled the light of life Joh. 8. 12. in this light we shall see light Psal. 36. 9. Seventhly The teachings of God make their own way into the dullest and weakest capacities Isa. 32. 4. The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly upon this account Christ said Mat. 11. 25. I thank thee O father Lord of heaven and earth because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes 't is admirable to see what clear illumination some poor illiterate Christians have in the mysteries of Christ and Salvation which others of great abilities deep and searching heads can never discover with all their learning and study Eighthly To conclude the teachings of God are transforming teachings 2 Cor. 3. 18. they change the soul into the same image God casts them whom he teacheth into the very mould of those truths which they learn from him Rom. 6. 17. These are the teachings of God and thus he instructeth those that come to Christ. Secondly Next let us see what influences divine teachings have upon souls in bringing them to Christ and we shall find 2â—… a threefold influence in them 1. They have an influence upon the external means by which they come to Christ. 2. They have influence upon the mind to remove what hindered it from Christ. 3. They have influence upon the will to allure and draw it to Christ. First They have influence upon the means by which we come to Christ the best ordinances are but a dead letter except the spirit the teaching and quickening spirit of God work in fellowship with them 2 Cor. 3. 6. The best Ministers like the Disciples cast forth the Net but take nothing win not one soul to God till God teach as well as they Paul is nothing and Apollo nothing but God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3. 7. Let the most learned eloquent and powerful Orator be in the Pulpit yet no mans heart is perswaded till it hears the voice of God cathedram in coelis habet qui corda docet Secondly They have influence upon the mind to remove what hindered it from Christ except the minds of men be first untaught those errors by which they are prejudiced against Christ they will never be perswaded to come unto him and nothing but the Fathers teachings can unteach those errors and cure those evils of the mind the natural mind of man slights the truths of God untill God teach them and then they tremble with an awful reverence of them Sin is but a trifle till God shews us the face of it in the glass of the Law and then it appears exceeding sinful Rom. 7. 13. We think God to be such a one as our selves Psal. 50. 21. until he discover himself unto us in his infinite greatness awful holiness and severe Justice and then we cry who can stand before this great and dreadful God! We thought it was time enough hereafter to mind the concernments of another world untill the Lord open our eyes to see in what danger we stand upon the very brink of eternity and then nothing scares us more than the fears that our time will be finished before the great work of Salvation be finished We thought our selves in a converted State before till God make us to see the necessity of another manner of conversation upon pain of eternal damnation We readily caught hold upon the promises before when we had no right to them but the teachings of God make the presumptuous sinner let go his hold that he may take a better and surer hold of them in Christ. We once thought that the death of Christ in it self had been enough to secure our Salvation but under the teachings of God we discern plainly the necessity of a change of heart and state or else the blood of Christ can never profit us Thus the teachings of God remove the errors of the mind by which men are withheld from Christ. Thirdly The teachings of God powerfully attract and allure the will of a sinner to Christ Hos. 2. 14. But of these drawings of the father I have largely spoken before and therefore shall say no more of it in this place but hasten to the last thing propounded viz. Thirdly why it is impossible for any man to come to Christ without the Fathers teachings and the impossibilities hereof will appear three ways 1. From the power of sin 2. From the indisposition of man 3. From the nature of faith By all which the Last point designed to be spoken to from this Scripture will be fully cleared and the whole
to be led by the spirit ver 18. to be in the spirit and the spirit to dwell in them Rom. 8. 9. And so much of the first thing to be opened viz. what we are to understand by the giving of the spirit Secondly In the next place we are to enquire and satisfie 2. our selves how this giving of the spirit evidently proves and strongly concludes that souls interest in Christ unto whom he is given and this will evidently appear by the consideration of these five particulars First The spirit of God in believers is the very bond by which they are united unto Christ if therefore we find in our selves the bond of union we may warrantably conclude that we have union with Jesus Christ this is evidently held forth in those words of Christ Joh. 17. 22 23. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me 't is the glory of Christs humane nature to be united to the God-head this glory said Christ thou gavest me and the glory thou gavest me I have given them i. e. by me they are united unto thee and how this is done he sheweth us more particularly I in them there is Christ in us viz. mystically and thou in me there is God in Christ viz. Hypostatically so that in Christ God and believers meet in a blessed union 't is Christs glory to be one with God 't is our glory to be one with Christ and with God by him but how is this done certainly no other way but by the giving of his Spirit unto us for so much that phrase I in them must needs import Christ is in us by the sanctifying spirit which is the bond of our union with him Secondly The Scripture every where makes this giving or indwelling of the spirit the great mark and tryal of our interest in Christ concluding from the presence of it in us positively as in the Text and from the absence of it negatively as in Rom. 8. 9. now if any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Jude ver 19. sensual not having the spirit this mark therefore agreeing to all believers and to none but believers and that alwayes and at all times it must needs clearly inferr the souls union with Christ in whomsoever it is found Thirdly That which is a certain mark of our freedom from the Covenant of works and our title to the priviledges of the Covenant of grace must needs also inferr our Union with Christ and special interest in him but the giving or indwelling of the sanctifying spirit in us is a certain mark of our freedom from the first Covenant under which all Christless persons still stand and our title to the special priviledges of the second Covenant in which none but the members of Christ are interested and consequently it fully proves our Union with the Lord Jesus This is plain from the Apostles reasoning Gal. 4. 6 7. And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba father wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God through Christ. The spirit of the first Covenant was a servile spirit a spirit of fear and bondage and they that were under that Covenant were not Sons but Servants but the Spirit of the New Covenant is a free ingenuous spirit acting in the strength of God and those that do so are the Children of God and Children inherit the blessed priviledges and royal immunities contained in that great Charter the Covenant of Grace they are heirs of God and the evidence of this their inheritance by vertue of the second Covenant and of their freedom from the servitude and bondage of the first Covenant is the spirit of Christ in their hearts crying Abba father So Gal. 5. 18. if ye be led by the spirit ye are not under the Law Fourthly If the eternal decree of Gods electing love be executed and the vertues and benefits of the death of Christ applyed by the spirit unto every soul in whom he dwelleth as a spirit of sanctification then such a giving of the spirit unto us must needs be a certain mark and proof of our special interest in Christ but the decree of Gods electing love is executed and the benefits of the blood of Christ are applyed unto every soul in whom he dwelleth as a spirit of sanctification This is plain from 1 Pet. 1. 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ where you see both Gods election executed and the blood of Jesus sprinkled or applyed unto us by the spirit which is given to us as a spirit of sanctification There is a blessed order of working observed as proper to each person in the Godhead the Father electeth the Son redeemeth the spirit sanctifieth The spirit is the last efficient in the work of our salvation what the Father decreed and the Son purchased that the Spirit applyeth and so puts the last hand to the compleat salvation of believers And this some Divines give as the reason why the sin against the spirit is unpardonable because he being the last agent in order of working if the heart of a man be filled with enmity against the spirit there can be no remedy for such a sin there is no looking back to the death of Christ or to the Love of God for remedy this sin against the spirit is that obex infernalis the deadly stop and bar to the whole work of salvation oppositely where the spirit is received obeyed and dwelleth in the way of sanctification into that soul the eternal love of God and inestimable benefits of the blood of Christ run freely without stop or interruption and consequently the interest of such a soul in Jesus Christ is beyond all dispute Fifthly The giving of the spirit to us or his residing in us as a sanctifying spirit is every where in Scripture made the pledge and earnest of eternal salvation and consequently must abundantly confirm and prove the souls interest in Christ Eph. 1. 13 14. In whom also after that ye believed ye were sealed with that holy spirit of promise which is the earnest of our inheritance c. So 2 Cor. 1. 22. who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the spirit in our hearts And thus you have the point opened and confirmed The Use of all followeth Use. Use. Now the only Use I shall make of this point shall be that which lyeth directly both in the eye of the Text and of the design for which it was chosen namely by it to try and examine the truth of our interest
that God would follow it with his blessing God kills thy comforts out of no other design but to kill thy corruptions with them Wants are ordained to kill wantonness poverty is appointed to kill pride reproaches are permitted to pull down ambition Happy is the man who understands approves and heartily sets in with the design of God in such afflicting providences 8. Rule Bend the strength of your duties and endeavours against Rule 8. your proper and special sin 'T is in vain to lop off branches whilst this root of bitterness remains untouched This was Davids practice Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity We observe in natural men that one faculty is more vigorous than another We find in nature that our soil suits with this seed rather than another and every believer may find his nature and constitution inclining him to one sin rather than another As graces so corruptions excel one another even in the regenerate The power of special corruptions arises from our constitutions education company custom callings and such like occasions But from whencesoever it comes this is the sin that most endangers us most easily besets us and according to the progress of mortification in that fin we may safely estimate the degrees of mortification in other sins strike therefore at the life and root of your own iniquity 9. Rule Study the nature and great importance of those things Rule 9. which are to be won or lost according to the success and issue of this conflict your life is as a race eternal glory is the prize grace and corruption are the antagonists and according as either finally prevails eternal life is won or lost 1 Cor. 9. 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain This consideration will make mortification appear the most rational and necessary thing to you in the whole world Shall I lose heaven for indulging the flesh and humouring a wanton appetite God forbid I keep under my body saith Paul and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 28. 10. Rule Accustom your thoughts to such meditations as are proper Rule 10. to mortifie sin in your affections else all endeavours to mortifie it will be but faint and languid To this purpose I shall recommend the following Meditations as proper means to destroy the interest of sin 1. Meditation Consider the evil that is in sin and how terrible the appearances Meditat. 1. of God will one day be against those that obey it in the lust thereof Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men 1 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Let your thoughts dwell much upon the consideration of the fruits and consequences of sin It showes its fairest side to you in the hour of temptation O but consider how it will look upon you in the day of affliction Numb 22. 23. In that day your sin will find you out think what its aspect will be in a dying hour 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin Think what the frightful remembrances of it will be at the bar of Judgment when Satan shall accuse conscience shall upbraid God shall condemn and everlasting burnings shall avenge the evil of it such thoughts as these are mortifying thoughts 2. Meditation Think what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ to expiate the guilt Meditat. 2. of sin by suffering the wrath of the great and terrible God for it in our room the meditations of a crucified Christ are very crucifying meditations unto sin Gal. 6. 14. He suffered unspeakable things for sin it was Divine wrath which lay upon his soul for it that wrath of which the prophet saith Nah. 1. 5 6. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him It was the unmixed and unallayed wrath poured out in the fulness of it even to the last drop and shall we be so easily drawn to the Commission of those sins which put Christ under such sufferings O do but read such scriptures as these Luke 22. 44. Mat. 26. 36 37. Mark 14. 33. And see what a plight sin put the Lord of glory into how the wrath of God put him into a sore amazement a bloody sweat and made his soul heavy even unto death 3. Med. Consider what a grief and wound the sins of believers are Med. 3. to the spirit of God Eph. 4. 30. Ezek. 16. 43. Isa. 63. 10. Oh how it vexes frets and grieves the holy Spirit of God! Nothing is more contrary to his nature Oh do not that abominable thing which I hate saith the Lord Jer. 44. 4. Nothing obstructs and crosses the sanctifying design of the Spirit as sin doth defacing and spoiling the most rare and admirable workmanship that ever God wrought in this world violating all the engagements laid upon us by the love of the Father by the death of his Son by the operations of his Spirit in all his illuminations convictions compunctions renovation preservation obsignation and manifold consolations Lay this meditation upon thy heart believer and say sicne rependis Dost thou thus requite the Lord O my ungrateful heart for all his goodness is this the fruit of his temporal spiritual common and peculiar mercies which are without number 4. Med. Consider with your selves that no real good either of profit Med. 4. or pleasure can result from sin you can have no pleasure in it whatever others may have it being against your new nature and as for that brutish pleasure and evanid joy which others have in sin it can be but for a moment for either they must repent or not repent if they do repent the pleasure of sin will be turned into the gall of Asps here if they do not repent it will terminate in everlasting howlings hereafter that 's a smart question Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death You that are believers must never expect any pleasure in sin for you can neither commit it without regret nor reflect upon it without shame and confusion Expect no better consequents of sin than the woundings of conscience and dismal cloudings of the face of God that is all the profit of sin O let these things sink into your heart 5.
grown and confirmed believers and such are these First The more submissive and quiet any man is under the will of God in smart and afflicting providences the more that mans heart is mortified unto sin Psal. 119. 67 71. Col. 1. 11. Secondly The more able any one is to bear the reproaches and rebukes of his sin the more Mortification there is in that man Psal. 141. 5. Thirdly The more easily any man can resign and give up his dearest earthly comforts at the call and command of God the more progress that man hath made in the work of Mortification Heb. 11. 17. 2 Sam. 15. 25. Fourthly The more power any man hath to resist sin in the first motions of it and stifle it in the birth the greater degree of Mortification that man hath attained Rom. 7. 23 24. Fifthly If great changes upon our outward condition make no change for the worse upon our spirits but we can bear prosperous and adverse providences with an equal mind then Mortification is advanced far in our souls Phil. 4. 11 12. Sixthly The more fixed and steady our hearts are with God in duty and the less they are infested with wandring thoughts and earthly interpositions the more Mortification there is in that soul. And so much briefly of the Evidences of Mortification 5. Use for Consolation It only remains that I shut up all with a few words of consolation unto all that are under the Mortifying influence of the Use 5. spirit Much might be said for the comfort of such In brief First Mortified sin shall never be your ruine 't is only raigning sin that is ruining sin Rom. 8. 13. Mortified sins and pardoned sins shall never lye down with us in the dust Secondly If sin be dying your souls are living for dying unto sin and living unto God are inseparably connected Rom. 6. 11. Thirdly If sin be dying in you it is certain that Christ died for you and you cannot desire a better Evidence of it Rom. 6. 5 6. Fourthly If sin be dying under the Mortifying influences of the spirit and it be your daily labour to resist and overcome it you are then in the direct way to heaven and eternal salvation which few very few in the world shall find Luke 13. 24. Fifthly To shut up all if you through the spirit be daily mortifying the deeds of the body then the death of Christ is effectually applied by the spirit unto your souls and your interest in him is unquestionable for they that are Christs have Crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts and they that have so Crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts are Christs Blessed be God for a Crucified Christ. The Twenty ninth SERMON Sermon 29. 1 JOHN 2. 6. Text. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so Of the Imitation of Christ in holiness of his life and the necessity of it in all believers to walk even as he walked THe express and principal design of the Apostle in this Chapter is to propound marks and signs both Negative and Positive for the trial and examination of mens claims to Christ amongst which not to spend time about the Coherence my Text is a principal one a trial of mens interest in Christ by their imitation of Christ. It is supposed by some Expositors that the Apostle in laying down this mark had a special design to overthrow the wicked Doctrine of the Carpocratians 〈◊〉 taught as Epiphanius relates it that men might have as much Communion with God in sin as in duty In full opposition to which the Apostle lays down this Proposition wherein he asserts the necessity of a Christ-like conversation in all that claim Union with him or interest in him The words resolve themselves into two parts Viz. 1. A Claim to Christ supposed 2. The only way to have our claim warranted First We have here a claim to Christ supposed if any 1. man say he abideth in him abiding in Christ is an expression denoting proper and real interest in Christ and communion with him for it is put in opposition to those temporary light and transient effects of the Gospel which are called a morning dew or an early cloud such a receiving of Christ as that Mat. 13. 21. which is but a present flash a sudden vanishing pang abiding in Christ notes a solid durable and effectual work of the Spirit throughly and everlastingly joyning the soul to Christ. Now if any man whosoever he be for this indefinite is equivalent to an universal term let him never think his claim to be good and valid except he take this course to adjust it Secondly The only way to have this claim warranted 2. and that must be by so walking even as he walked which words carry in them the necessity of our imitation of Christ. But it is not to be understood indifferently and universally of all the works or actions of Christ some of which were extraordinary and miraculous some purely mediatory and not imitable by us in these paths no Christian can follow Christ nor may so much as attempt to walk as he walked But the words point at the ordinary and imitable ways and works of Christ therein it must be the care of all to follow him that profess and claim interest in him they must so walk as he walked this so is a very bearing word in this place the emphasis of the Text seems to lie in it however certain it is that this so walking doth not imply an equality with Christ in holiness and obedience for as he was filled with the spirit without measure and anointed with that oyl of gladness above his fellows so the purity holiness and obedience of his life is never to be matched and equallized by any of the Saints But this so walking only notes a sincere intention design and endeavour to imitate and follow him in all the paths of holiness and obedience according to the different measures of grace received The life of Christ is the Believers copy and though the Believer cannot draw one line or letter exact as his copy is yet his eye is still upon it he is looking unto Jesus Heb. 12. 2. and labouring to draw all the lines of his life as agreeably as he is able unto Christ his pattern Hence the Observation is DOCT. That every man is bound to the imitation of Christ under penalty Doct. of forfeiting his claim to Christ. The Saints imitation of Christ is solemnly enjoined by many Christiani 〈◊〉 Christo nomen acceperunt operae pretium est ut sicut sunt â—…eraedes nominis ita sint imitatores sanctitatis Bern. sent lib. p. 436. great and express commands of the Gospel so you find it 1 Pet. 1. 15. But as he that hath called you is holy so be ye holy in all manner of conversation So Eph. 5. 1 2. Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ
and obedience here 3. Motive The Conformity of your lives to Christ your pattern is Motive 3. your highest excellency in this world the measure of your grace is to be estimated by this rule The excellency of every creature rises higher and higher according as it approaches still nearer and nearer to its original the more you resemble Christ in grace the more illustrious and resplendent will your conversations be in true spiritual glory 4. Motive So far as you imitate Christ in your lives and no farther you will be beneficial to the world in which you live So far Motive 4. as God helps you to follow Christ you will be helpful to bring others to Christ or build them up in Christ for all men are forbidden by the Gospel to follow you one step farther than you follow Christ 1 Cor. 11. 1. and when you have finished your course in this world the remembrance of your ways will be no further sweet to others than they are ways of holiness and obedience to Christ 1 Cor. 4. 17. If you walk according to the course of this world the world will not be the better for your walking 5. Motive To walk as Christ walked is a walk only worthy of a Christian this is to walk worthy of the Lord 1 Thes. 2. 12. Col. 1. Motive 5. 10. by worthiness the Apostle doth not mean meritoriousness but comeliness or that decorum which befits a Christian as when a man walks suitably to his place and calling in the world we say he acts like himself So when you walk after Dignitatis vocabulum in scripturis non semper denotat exactam proportionem aequalitatis rei ad rem sed quandam convenieâ—…tiam decentiam quae tollit repugnantiam Davenant in Col. p. 52. Christs pattern you then act like your selves like men of your character and profession This is consonant to your vocation Eph. 4. 1. I beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called This walking suits with your obligation 2 Cor. 5. 15. For it is to live unto him who died for us This walking only suits with your designation Eph. 2. 10. For you are created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained we should walk in them In a word such walking as this and such only becomes your expectation 2 Pet. 3. 14. wherefore beloved seeing that you look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless 6. Motive How comfortable will the close of your life be at death if you have walked after Christs pattern and example in this Motive 6. world A comfortable death is ordinarily the close of a holy life Psal. 37. 37. Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace A loose careless life puts many terrible stings into death As worms in the body are bred of the putrefaction there so the worm of conscience is bred of the moral putrefaction or corruption that is in our natures and conversations O then be prevailed with by all these considerations to imitate Christ in the whole course and compass of your coversations 3d. Use for Consolation Lastly I would leave a few words of support and comfort to such as sincerely study and endeavour according to the tendency Use 3. of their new nature to follow Christs example but being weak in grace and meeting with strong temptations are frequently carried beside the holy purposes and designs of their honest meaning hearts to the great grief and discouragement of their souls They heartily wish and aim at holiness and say with David Psal. 119. 5. O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes They follow after exactness in holiness as Paul did Phil. 3. 12. If by any means they might attain it But finding how short they come in all things of the rule and pattern they mourn as he did Rom. 7. 24. O wretched maâ—… that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death Well well if this be thy case be not discouraged but hearken to a few words of support and comfort with which I shall close this point 1. Support Such defects in obedience make no flaw in your Justification For your Justification is not built upon your obedience 1. Support but upon Christs Rom. 3. 24. and how incompleat and defective soever you be in your selves yet at the same instant you are compleat in him which is the head of all principality and power Col. 2. 10. Wo to Abraham Moses David Paul and the most eminent Saints that ever lived if their Justification and acceptation with God had depended upon the perfection and compleatness of their own obedience 2. Support Your deep troubles for the defectiveness of your obedience doth not argue you to be less but more sanctified than those 2. Support who make no such complaints for this proves you to be better acquainted with your own hearts than others are to have a deeper hatred of sin than others have and to love God with a more fervent love than others do the most eminent Saints have made the bitterest complaints upon this account Psal. 65. 3. Rom. 7. 23 24. 3. Support The Lord makes excellent uses even of your infirmities and failings to do you good and makes them turn to your unexpected 3. Support advantage For by these defects he hides pride from your eyes he beats you off from self-dependance he makes you to admire the riches of free grace he makes you to long more ardently for heaven and entertain the sweeter thoughts of death and doth not the Lord then make blessed fruits to spring up to you from such a bitter root O the blessed Chymistry of heaven to extract such mercies out of such miseries 4. Support Your bewailed infirmities do not break the bond of the 4. Support everlasting Covenant The bond of the Covenant holds firm notwithstanding your defects and weaknesses Jer. 32. 40. Iniquities prevail against me saith David yet in the same breath he adds as for our transgressions thou shalt purge them away Psal. 65. 3. He 's still thy God thy Father for all this 5. Support Though the defects of your obedience are grievous to God yet your deep sorrows for them are well-pleasing in his eyes 5. Support Psal. 51. 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Ephraim was never a more pleasant child to his father than when he moaned himself and smote upon his thigh as thou dost Jer. 31. 20. Your sins grieve him but your sorrows please him 6. Support Though God have left many defects to humble you yet he hath given many things to comfort you This is a 6. Support comfort that the desire of thy soul is to God and to the remembrance of his name This is a comfort that thy sins are not
Condemnation with respect to the fault stands opposed to Justification Rom. 5. 16. Condemnation with respect to the punishment stands opposed to Salvation Mar. 16. 16. More particularly First Condemnation is the sentence of God the great and terrible God the omniscient omnipotent supream and impartial Judge at whose bâ—…r the guilty sinner stands 'T is the Law of God that condemns him now He hath one that judgeth him a great and terrible one too 'T is a dreadful thing to be condemned at mans bar But the Courts of humane Judicature how awful and solemn soever they are are but trifles and childrens play to this Court of heaven and conscience wherein the unbeliever is arraigned and condemned Secondly 'T is the sentence of God adjudging the unbeliever to eternal death than which nothing is more terrible What is a prison to hell what is a Scaffold and an Ax to go ye cursed into everlasting fire What is a Gallows and a Halter to everlasting burnings Thirdly Condemnation is the final sentence of God the Supream Judge from whose Bar and Judgment there lies no appeal for the unbeliever but Execution certainly follows Condemnation Luke 19. 27. If man condemn God may justifie and save But if God condemn no man can save or deliver If the law cast a man as a sinner the Gospel may save him as a believer But if the Gospel cast him as an unbeliever a man that finally rejects Jesus Christ whom it offers to him all the world cannot save that man O then what a dreadful word is Condemnation All the evils and miseries of this life are nothing to it put all afflictions calamities sufferings and miseries of this world into one scale and this sentence of God into the other and they will all be lighter than a feather Thirdly In the next place I shall shew you that this punishment viz. Condemnation must unavoidably follow that sin of unbelief So many unbelieving persons as be in the world so many condemned persons there are in the world and this will appear two ways 1. By considering what unbelief excludes a man from 2. By considering what unbelief includes a man under First Let us consider what unbelief excludes a man from and it will be found that it excludes him from all that may help and save him for First it excludes him from the pardon of sin John 8. 24. If ye believe not that I am he ye shall die in your sins Now he that dies under the guilt of all his sins must needs die in a state of wrath and condemnation for ever For the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult If a man may be saved without a pardon then may the unbeliever hope to be saved Secondly Unbelief excludes a man from all the saving benefits that come by the sacrifice or death of Christ. For if faith be the only instrument that applies and brings home to the soul the benefits of the blood of Christ as unquestionably it is then unbelief must of necessity exclude a man from all those benefits and consequently leave him in the state of death and condemnation Faith is the applying cause the instrument by which we receive the special saving benefit of the blood of Christ Rom. 5. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Eph. 2. 8. By grace are ye saved through faith So then if the unbeliever be acquitted and saved it must be without the benefit of Christs death and sacrifice which is utterly impossible Thirdly Unbelief excludes a man from the saving efficacy and operation of the Gospel by shutting up the heart against it and crossing the main drift and scope of it which is to bring up men to the terms of salvation to perswade them to believe this is its great design the scope of all its commands 1 John 3. 23. Mark 1. 14 15. John 12. 36. 'T is the scope of all its promises they are written to encourage men to believe Joh. 6. 35 37. So then if the unbeliever escape condemnation it must be in a way unknown to us by the Gospel Yea contrary to the established order therein For the unbeliever obeyeth not the great command of the Gospel 1 John 3. 17. Nor is he under any one saving promise of it Gal. 3. 14 22. Fourthly Unbelief excludes a man from Union with Christ faith being the bond of that Union Eph. 3. 17. The unbeliever therefore may as reasonably expect to be saved without Christ as to be saved without faith Thus you see what unbelief excludes a man from Secondly Let us next see what guilt and misery unbelief includes men under and certainly it will be found to be the greatest guilt and misery in the world For First It is a sin which reflects the greatest dishonour upon God 1 John 5. 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself He that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth not the record which God gave of his Son Secondly Unbelief makes a man guilty of the vilest contempt of Christ and the whole design of Redemption managed by him All the glorious attributes of God were signally manifested in the work of Redemption by Christ therefore the Apostle calls him the wisdom of God and the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. But what doth the careless neglect and wilful rejection of Christ speak but the weakness and folly of that design of Redemption by him Thirdly Unbelief includes in it the sorest spiritual judgement that is or can be inflicted in this world upon the soul of man Even spiritual blindness and the fatal darkening of the understanding by Satan 2 Cor. 4. 4. of which more hereafter Fourthly Unbelief includes a man under the curse and shuts him up under all the threatnings that are written in the book of God amongst which that is an express and terrible one Mark 16. 10. He that believeth not shall be damned So that nothing can be more evident than this that condemnation necessarily follows unbelief This sin and that punishment are fastned together with chains of Adamant The Uses follow Inference 1. If this be so then how great a number of persons are visibly Inference 1. in the state of condemnation so many unbelievers so many condemned men and women That 's a sad complaint of the prophet Isa. 53. 1. Who hath believed our report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Many there be that talk of faith and many that profess faith but they only talk of and profess it there are but few in the world unto whom the arm of the Lord hath been revealed in the work of faith with power 't is put among the great mysteries and wonders of the world 1 Tim. 3. 16. That Christ is believed on in the world O what a great and terrible day will the day of Christs coming to judgement be when so many Millions of unbelievers shall be brought to
behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. Against this discourse the Apostle foresaw and obviated this objection If your Gospel be so clear what is the reason that many who live under the ministration of it and they none of the meanest neither for wisdom and understanding do yet see no glory nor excellency in it To this he returns in the words I have read if our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded c. q. d. 'T is true multitudes there are who see no glory in Christ or the gospel but the fault is not in either but in the minds of them that believe not The Sun shines forth in its glory but the blind see no glory in it the fault is not in the Sun but in the eye In the words themselves we have three parts to consider 1. A dreadful Spiritual Judgement inflicted 2. The wicked instrument by whom it is inflicted 3. The politick manner in which he doth it First We have here a very dreadful Spiritual Judgement inflicted upon the souls of men viz. the hiding of the Gospel 1. from them if our Gospel be hid For these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are a concession that so it is a very sad but undeniable truth Many there are that see no beauty in Christ nor necessity of him though both are so plainly and evidently revealed in our Gospel if our Gospel be hid 't is called our Gospel not as if Paul and the other Preachers of it were the Authors and Inventers of it but our Gospel because we are the Preachers and Dispensers of it We are put in trust with the Gospel and though we Preach it in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power using all plainness of speech to make men understand it yet it is hid from many under our ministry 't is hid from their understandings they see no glory in it and hid from their hearts they feel no power in it Our Gospel notwithstanding all our endeavours is a hidden Gospel unto some this is the sorest and most dreadful Judgement Secondly We have here an account of that wicked Instrument 2. by whom this judgement is inflicted viz. Satan called here by a Mimesis the god of this world not simply and properly but because he challenges to himself the honour of a God rules over a vast Empire and hath multitudes of souls even the far greater part of the world in subjection and blind obedience to his government Thirdly Here also we have an account of the politick manner of his government how he maintains his dominion 3. among men and keeps the world in quiet subjection to him namely by blinding the minds of all them that believe not putting out the eyes of all his subjects darkning that noble faculty the mind or understanding the thinking considering and reasoning power of the soul which the Philosophers truly call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the leading and directing faculty for it is to the soul what eyes are to the body and it is therefore called the eyes of the understanding Eph. 1. 18. These eyes Satan blinds i. e. he darkens the mind and understanding with ignorance and error so that when men come to see and consider spiritual things they see indeed but perceive not Isa. 6. 9 10. They have some general confused notions but no distinct powerful and effectual apprehensions of those things and this is the way indeed none like it to bar men effectually from Jesus Christ and hinder the application of the benefits of redemption to their souls 'T is true the righteous God permits all this to be done by Satan upon the souls of men but wheresoever he finally prevails thus to blind them it is as the Text speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in them that are lost or appointed of God unto perdition The elect of God are all blinded for a time but Christ applieth unto them his Eye salve effectually opens the eyes of their understandings and recovers them thereby out of Satans power and dominion but as for those who still continue thus blinded the Symptoms and Characters of eternal death appear upon their souls they are a company of lost men DOCT. That the understandings of all unbelievers are blinded by Satans policies in order to their everlasting perdition Four things must be opened in the Doctrinal part of this point First what the blinding of the understanding or hiding of the Gospel from the understanding is Secondly I shall demonstrate that the understandings of many are thus blinded and the Gospel hidden from them Thirdly I shall shew what policies Satan uses to blind the minds of men Fourthly That this blindness is the sorest judgement and in order to mens everlasting perdition Fifthly And then apply the whole First we shall enquire what the blinding of the mind or hiding 1. of the Gospel from it is Two sorts of men are thus blinded in the world 1. Those that want the means of illumination 2. Those that have the means but are denied the blessing and efficacy of them The former is the case of the Pagan world who are in midnight darkness for want of the Gospel The later is the case of the Christian world The greatest part of them that live within the sound of the Gospel being blinded by the God of this world Isa. 6. 9 10. And he said Go and tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed Thus when the Son of righteousness actually rose in the world it is said John 1. 5. The light shined in darkness but the darkness comprehended it not So we may say of all that light which is in the understanding of all unbelievers what Job speaks of the grave Job 10. 22. That the light there is as darkness But more particularly to open the nature of this Spiritual blindness I will show you 1. What it is not opposed unto 2. What it is opposed unto First Let us examine what Spiritual blindness or the hiding of the Gospel from the minds of men is not opposed unto and we shall find First That it is not opposed unto natural wisdom a man may be of an acute and clear understanding Eagle-eyed to discern the mysteries of nature and yet the Gospel may be hidden from him Who were more sagacious and quick-sighted in natural things than the heathen Philosophers renowned for wisdom in their generation Yet unto them the Gospel was but foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 20 21. S. Augustine confesseth that before his conversion he was filled with offence and contempt of the simplicity of the Gospel Dedignabar esse parvulus saith he I scorned to become a child again And that great
the second we partake with him the former is the remote the later the next cause thereof In the explication of this point I shall speak to these four things 1. What are those things in which Christ and believers have fellowship 2. By what means they come to have such a fellowship with Christ. 3. How great a dignity this is to have fellowship with Jesus Christ. 4. And then apply the whole in divers practical inferences First What are those things in which Christ and believers 1. have fellowship to which I must speak both negatively and positively First The Saints have no fellowship with Jesus Christ in Negatively those things that belong to him as God such as his consubstantiality coequality and coeternity with the father 't is the blasphemy of the wicked Familists to talk of being Godded into God and Christed into Christ neither men or Angels partake in these things they are the proper and incommunicable Justitia Christi fit nostra non quoad universalem valoremsed particularem necessitatem imputatur nobis non ut causis salvationis sed ut subjectis salvandis Bradshaw de justificatione glory of the Lord Jesus Secondlly The Saints have no communion or fellowship in the honour and glory of his mediatory works viz. his satisfaction to God or redemption of the elect 't is true we have the benefit and fruit of his mediation and satisfaction his righteousness also is imputed to us for our personal justification but we share not in the least with Christ in the glory of this work nor have we an inherent righteousness in us as Christ hath nor can we justifie and save others as Christ doth we have nothing to do with his peculiar honour and praise in these things though we have the benefit of being saved we may not pretend to the honour of being Saviours as Christ is to our selves or others Christs righteousness is not made ours as to its universal value but as to our particular necessity nor is it imputed to us as to so many causes of salvation to others but as to so many subjects to be saved by it our selves Secondly But then there are many glorious and excellent Posi ively things which are in common betwixt Christ and believers though in them all he hath the preeminence he shines in the fulness of them as the Sun and we with a borrowed and lesser light but of the same kind and nature as the Stars Some of these I shall particularly and briefly unfold in the following particulars First Believers have communion with Christ in his names and titles they are call'd Christians from Christ Eph. 3. 15. from him the whole family in heaven and earth is named this is that worthy name the Apostle speaks of James 2. 7. He is the son of God and they also by their union with him have power or authority to become the sons of God Joh. 1. 12. He is the heir of all things and they are joynt heirs with him Rom. 8. 17. He is both King and Priest and he hath made them Kings and Priests Rev. 1. 6. but they do not only partake in the names and titles but this communion consists in things as well as titles and therefore Secondly They have communion with him in his righteousness i. e. the righteousness of Christ is made theirs 2 Cor. 5. 21. and he is the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. 'T is true the righteousness of Christ is not inherent in us as it is in him but it is ours by imputation Rom. 4. 5. 11. and our union with him is the ground of the imputation of his righteousness to us 2 Cor. 5. 21. we are made the righteousness of God in him Phil. 3. 9. for Christ and believers are considered as one person in construction of Law as a man and his wife a debtor and surety are one and so his payment or satisfaction is in our name or upon our account Now this is a most inestimable priviledge the very ground of all our other blessings and mercies O what a benefit is this to a poor sinner that owes to God infinitely more than he is ever able to pay him by doing or suffering to have such a rich treasure of merit as lyes in the obedience of Christ to discharge in one entire payment all his debts to the least farthing Surely shall one say In the Lord have I righteousness Isa. 45. 24. even as a poor woman that owes more than she is worth in one moment is discharged of all her obligations by her marriage to a wealthy man Thirdly Believers have communion with Christ in his holiness or Sanctification for of God he is made unto them not only righteousness but Sanctification also and as in the former priviledge they have a stock of merit in the blood of Christ to justifie them so here they have the Spirit of Christ to sanctisie them 1 Cor. 1. 30. and therefore we are said of his fulness to receive grace for grace Joh. 1. 16. i. e. say some grace upon grace manifold graces or abundance of grace or grace for grace that is grace answerable to grace as in the seal and wax there is line for line and cut for cut exactly answerable to each other or grace for grace that is say others the free grace of God in Christ for the sanctification or filling of our souls with grace be it in which sense it will it shews the communion believers have with Jesus Christ in grace and holiness Now holiness is the most precious thing in the world it 's the image of God and chief excellency of man it is our evidence for glory yea and the first-fruits of glory in Christ dwells the fulness of grace and from him our head it is derived and communicated to us thus he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2. 11. You would think it no small priviledge to have Baggs of Gold to go to and enrich your selves with and yet that were but a very trifle in comparison to have Christs righteousness and holiness to go to for your Justification and Sanctification More particularly Fourthly Believers have communion with Christ in his death they dye with him Gal. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ i. e. the death of Christ hath a real killing and mortifying influence upon the lusts and corruptions of my heart and nature true it is he died for sin one way and we dye to sin another way he dyed to expiate it we dye to it when we mortifie it the death of Christ is the death of sin in believers and this is a very glorious priviledge for the death of sin is the life of your souls if sin do not dye in you by mortification you must dye for sin by eternal damnation if Christ had not dyed the Spirit of God by which you now mortifie the deeds of the body could not have been given unto you then you must