equally from every Minister alike yet it must be acknowledged that there is something we know not what to call it more acceptable reception of those who at first were the means of bringing men to God then others like the opinion some have of Physitians whom they love The Apostle comforts these strangers of this dispersion by the spiritual union which they obtained by Effectual calling and so calls off their eyes from their outward dispersed and dispised condition to look above that as high as the spring of their happiness the free love and Election of God Scattered in the Countries and yet gathered in Gods Election chosen or pickt out Stangers to men amongst whom they dwelt but known and foreknown to God removed from their own Country to which men have naturally an unalterable affection but made heirs of a better as followes verse 3.4 And having within them the evidence both of Eternal Election and that expected salvaâ—ion the Spirit of holiness verse 2. At the best a Christian is bâ—t a Stranger here set him where you will as our Apostle teacheth after and 't is his priviledge that he is so and when he thinks not so he forgets and disparages himself and descends far below his quallity when he is much taken with any thing in this place of his Exile But this is the wisdom of a Christian when he can solace himself against the meaness and any kind of discomfort of his outward condition with the comfortable assurance of the love of God that he hath called him to holiness given him some measure of it and an endeavour after more and by this may he conclude that he hath ordained him unto salvation if either he is a Stranger where he lives or as a stranger deserted of his friends and very near stript of all outward comforts yet may he rejoyce in this that the Eternal unchangable Love of God that is from Everlasting to Everlasting is sealed to his soul O what will it avail a man to be compassed about with the favour of the world to sit unmolested in his own home and possessions and to have them very great and pleasant well moneyed and landed and befriended and yet estranged and sever'd from God not having any token of his special Love To the Elect The Apostle here denominates all the Christians to whom he writes by the condition of true Believers calling them Elect and sanctified c. And the Apostle St. Paul writes in the same stile in his Epistles to the Churches not that all in these Churches were such indeed but because they professed to be such and by that their profession and Calling as Christians they were obliged to be such and as many of them as were in any measure true to that their Calling and profession were really such Besides it would seem not unworthy of Consideration that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians and the number of true believers usually greater in the Churches in those Primitive times then now in the best reformed Churches because there could not then be many of them that were from their Infancy bred in the Christian Faith but for the greatest part were such as being of years of discretion were by the hearing of the Gospel converted from Paganisme and Iuduisme to the Christian Religion first and made a deliberate choise of it to which there were at that time no great outward Encouragements and therefore the lesse danger of multitudes of hypocrites which as Vermine in Summer breed most in the time of the Churches Prosperity Tho no Nation or Kingdom had then universally received the faith but rather hated and persecuted it yet were there even then amongst them as the writings of the Apostles testifie false Brethren and inordinate walkers and men of corrupt minds earthly minded and led with a spirit of envy and contention and vainglory Howsoever the question that is moved concerning the necessary qualifications of all the members of a true visible Church can no way as I conceive be decided from the Inscriptions of the Epistle but eertainly they are useful to teach Christians and Christian Churches what they ought to be and what their holy profession requires of them and sharply to reprove the gross unlikeness and inconformity that is in the most part of man to the description of Christians As there be some that are too strait in their Judgement concerning the being and nature of the visible Church so certainly the greatest part of Churches are too loose in their practice From the dissimilitude betwixt our Churches and those we may make this use of reproof That if aâ— Apostolical Epistle were to be directed to us it behoved to be Inscribed to the Ignorant prophane maliâ—ious c. As he who at the hearing of the Gospel read said Either this is not the Gospel or we are not Christians So either these Charâ—cters given in the Inscription of these Epistles are not true Characters or we are not true Christians Verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinckling of the blood of Iesus Christ. IN this verse we have their Condition and Causes of it Their Condition Sanctified and Iustified the former expressed by Obedience the latter by sprinkling of the blood of Christ. The Causes 1 Eternal Election 2. The Execution of that Decree Their Effectual Calling which I conceive is meant by Election here the selecting them out of the World and joyning them to the fellowship of the Children of God so Ioh. 15.19 The former Election particularly ascribed to God the Father the latter to the Holy Spirit And the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God is here the cause of their Justification and so the whole Trinity concurring dignifie them with this their Spiritual and happy estate First I shall discourse of these seperately and then of their Connection 1. Of the state it selfe and first of Iustification tho named last This sprinkling has respect to the Rite of the Legal Purification by the sprinkling of Blood and that appositely for these Rites of sprinkling and Blood did all point out this Blood and this Sprinkling and exhibited this true ransome of souls which was only shadowed by them As the use and end of Sprinkling was Purification and Expiation because sin merited death and that the pollutions and staines of human nature was by sin Such is the pollution that it can be no manner of way washt off but by Blood Heb. 9. â—2 Neither is there any Blood able to purge from sin except the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ which is called the blood of God Act. 20.28 That the stain of sin can only be washt off by Blood inâ—imates that it merits Death And that no Blood but that of the Son of God can do it intimates that this stain merits Eternal Death and it had been our portion except the death of the Eternal Lord of life had freed us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs
sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
flesh and dwelt amongst Men in a Tabernacle like theirs and suffered death in the flesh that he who was Lord of Life hath freed us from the sentence of Eternal Death that he broke the bars and chains of Death and rose again that he went up into Heaven and there at the Fathers right hand sits in our flesh and that glorified above the Angels This is the great Mistery of Godliness And a part of this Mistery is that he is Believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3.16 This Natural Men may discourse of and that very knowingly and give a kind of natural Credit to 't as to a History that may be true but firmly to believe that there is divine Truth in all these things and to have a perswasion of it stronger then of the very things we see with our eyes such an assent as this is the peculiar work of the spirit of God and is certainly saving Faith The Soul that so believes cannot chuse but Love 't is commonly true the Eye is the ordinary door by which Love enters into the Soul and it is true in this Love though t is denied of the Eye of sense yet you see 't is ascrib'd to the Eye of Faith though you have not seen him you Love him because you believe Which is to see him spiritually Faith indeed is distinguish'd from that Vision that is in Glory but it is the Vision of the Kingdom of Grace 't is the Eye of the New Creature that quicksighted Eye that pierces all the Visible Heavens and sees above them that looks to things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 And is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 that sees him that is invisible v. 27. 'T is possible that one may be much Lov'd upon the report of their worth and Vertues and upon a Picture of them lively drawn before sight of the party so commended and represented but certainly when they are seen and found answerable to the former it raises the Affection that it first begun to a far greater height We have the report of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the Gospel yea so clear a description of him that it gives a picture of him and that together with the Sacraments are the only lawful and the only lively pictures of our Saviour Gal. 3.1 Now this Report Faith believes and beholds this picture and so lets in the Love of Christ to the Soul but further it gives a particular experimental knowledge of Christ and acquaintance with him It causes the Soul find all that is spoken of him in the Word and his beauty there represented to be abundantly true makes it really taste of his sweetness and by that possesses the heart more strongly with his Love perswading it of the truth of those things not by reasons and arguments but by an Inexpressible kind of Evidence that they only know that have it Faith perswades a Christian of these two things that the Philosopher gives as the causes of all Love Beauty and Propriety the Loveliness of Christ in himself and our interest in him The former it effâ—ctuaâ—s not only by the first apprehending and believing of those hâ—s Excellencies and Beauty but by frequent beholding of him and Eyeing him in whom all Perfection dwells and looks so ofâ— on him till it sets the very Impression of his Image as it were upon the Soul that it can never be blotted out and forgot The latter it doth by that particular Uniting Act which makes him our God and our Saviour Ye Love The distinctions that some make of Love need not be taken as of differing kinds but different actings of the same Love by which we may try our so much pretended Love of Christ which in truth is so rarely found There will then be in this Love if it be right these three qualities Goodwill Delight and Desire 1. Goodwill earnest wishing and as we can promoting Gods Glory and stirring up others so to do They that seek more their own things then the things of Jesus Christ more their own Praise and Esteem then His are strangers to this divine Love-For it seeks not her own things This bitter Root of self-love is most hard to pluck up this strongest and sweetest Love of Christ alone doth it actually though gradually This Love makes the Soul as the lower Heaven slow in its own motion most swift in the motion of that first that wheels it about so the higher degree of Love the more swift It Loves the hardest tasks And greatest difficulties where it may perform God service either in doing or in suffering for him It is strong as death and many waters cannot quench it The greater the task is the more real is the testimony and expression of Love and therefore the more acceptable to God 2. There is in true Love a complacency and delight in God A Conformity to his will Loving what he Loves and studious of his will ever seeking to know more clearly what it is that is most pleasing to him contracting a likeness to God in all his actions by conversing with him frequent contemplating of God and looking on his beauty as the Eye lets in this Affection so it serves it constantly and readily looks that way that Love directs it thus the soul that is possess'd with this Love of Jesus Christ hath its eye much upon him thinks often on his former sufferings and present Glory the more it lookes upon Christ the more it loves and still the more it loves the more it delights to look upon him 3. There is in true Love a Desire for 't is but small beginnings and tastes of his Goodness that the soul hath here therefore 't is still looking out and longing for the day of Marriage the time is sad and wearisome and seems much longer then it is while 't is deteind here I desireâ— to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ. God is the Sum of all things lovely thus excellenâ—ly Greg. Nazian expresseth himself Ovat 1. If I have any Possessions Health Credit Learning this is all the contentment I have of them that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ who is totus dâ—sâ—derâ—bilis totuâ— desiderabile And this Love is the sum of all he requires of us 't is that which makes all our meanest Services acceptable and without which all we offer to him is distasteful God doth not only deserve our Love by his matchless Excellency and Beauty but by his Matchless Love to us and that is the strongest Loadstone of Love He hath loved me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 How appears that in no less then this he hath given himself for me Certainly then there is no other Character of our Love then this to give our selves to him that hath so loved us and given himself for us This affection must be bestowed somewhere there is no Man but hath some prime choyce somewhat that is the predominant delight of his soul will it
which is able to save our souls Thus ought they that Preach to speak it to endeavour their utmost to accommodate it to this end that sinners may be converted begotten again and believers nourish'd and strengthned in their spiritual life to regard no lower end but aim steddily at that mark Their hearts and tongues ought to be set on fire with holy zeal for God and love to souls kindled by the Holy Ghost that came down on the Apostles in the shape of fiery tongues And they that hear should remember this as the end of their hearing that they may receive spiritual life and strength by the word for though it seems a poor despicable busines that a frail sinful Man like your selves speak a few words in your hearing yet look upon it as the way wherein God communicates happiness to them that believe and works that believing unto happiness alters the whole frame of the soul and makes a new creation as it begets it again to the Inheritance of glory Consider it thus which is its true notion and then what can be so precious Let the world disesteem it as they will know ye that it is the power of God unto salvation The Preaching of the cross is to them that perish foollishness but unto them that are saved it is the power of God sayes the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.18 And if you would have the experience of this if you would have life and growth by it you must look above the poor worthless Messenger and call in his almighty help who is the Lord of life As the Philosophers affirm that if the Heavens should stand still there would be no generation nor flourishing of any thing here below 't is the moving and influence of the spirit that makes the Church fruitful Would you do this before you come here present the blindness of your minds and the deadness of your hearts to God and say Lord here 's an opportunity for thee to shew the power of thy word I would find life and strength in it but neither can I that hear nor he that speaks make it thus unto me that 's thy prerogative say thou the word and it shall be done God said let there be light and it was light In this Exhortation to the due use of the word the Apostle continues the resemblance of that new birth he mention'd Chap. 1. As new born babes Be not satisfied with your selves till you find some evidence of this new this supernatural life There be delights and comforts in this life in its lowest condition that would perswade us to look after it if we knew them The most cannot be made sensible of those consider therefore the end of it Better never to have been than not to have been partaker of this new being Except a man be born again sayes our Saviour he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God Surely they that are not born again shall one day wish they had never been born What a poor wretched thing is the life that we have here a very heap of follies and miseries now if we would share in a happier being after it that life that ends not it must begin here grace and glory is one and the same Life only with this difference that the one is the beginning and the other the perfection of it or if we do call them two several lives yet the one is the undoubted pledge of the other 'T was a strange word for a Heathen to say that that day of death we fear so aeterninatalis est is the birth day of Eternity Thus it is indeed to those that are here born again this new birth of grace is the sure earnest and counter-pawn of that birth day of glory Why do we not then labour to make this certain by the former Is it not a fearful thing to spend our dayes in vanity and then ly down in darkness and sorrow for ever to disregard the life of our soul while we may and should be provident for it and then when its going out cry quo nunc abibis whither art thou going O my soul But this new life puts us out of the danger and fear of that Eternal death we are passed from death to life sayes St. Iohn speaking of those that are born again and being passed there is no repassing no going back from this life to death again This new birth is the same that St. Iohn calls the first Resurrection and pronounces them blessed that partake of it Blessed are they that have part in the first Resurrection the second death shall have no power over them The weak beginnings of grace in comparison of further strength attainable even in this life are sometimes express'd as the infancy of it and so believers ought not to continue Infants and if they do 't is reprovable in them as we see Eph. 4.14 1 Cor. 2.2 1 Cor. 14.20 Heb. 5.12 though the Apostle writes to new Converts and so may possibly imply the tenderness of their beginnings of grace yet I conceive that Infancy is here taken in such a sense as agrees to a Christian in the whole course and best estate of his Spiritual life here below and so likewise the milk here recommended is answerable to this sense of Infancy and not to the former as 't is in some of those cited places where it means the easiest and first Principles of Religion and so is oppos'd to the higher mysteries of it as to strong meat but here it signfies the whole word of God and all its wholesome and saving truths as the proper nourishment of the Children of God And so the Apostles words are a standing Exhortation for all Christians of all degrees And the whole estate and course of their Spiritual life here is called there Infancy not only as oppos'd to Corruption and wickedness of the old man but likewise as signifying the weakness and imperfection of it at its best in this life compar'd with the perfection of the life to come for the weakest beginnings of grace are nothing so far below the highest degree of it possible in this life as that highest degree falls short of the state of glory so that if one measure of grace is called Infancy in respect of another much more is all grace Infancy in respect of Glory And sure as for Time the time of our present life is far less to eternity than the time of our natural Infancy is to the rest of our life so that we may be still call'd but new or lately born Our best pace and strongest walking in obedience here is but as the stepping of Children when they begin to go by hold in comparison of the perfect obedience in glory when we shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes all our knowledge here is but the Ignorance of Infants and all our expressions of God and of his Praises but as the first stammerings of Children in comparison of the knowledge we shall have of him hereafter
know this Stone is laid but see whether you are built on it by faith The multitude of imaginary believers ly round about it but they are never the better nor the surer for that no more than stones that ly loose in heaps near unto a foundation but are not joyned to 't there is no benefit to us by Christ without union with him No comfort in his riches without interest in them and title to them by that union then is the soul right when it can say He is altogether lovely and as the spouse there He is mine my welbeloved And this union is the spring of all Spiritual consolations and faith by which we are thus united is a divine work he that laid this foundation in Sion with his own hand works likewise with the same hand faith in the heart by which it is knit to this corner stone ' its not so easy a thing as we imagine to believe Eph. 1.19 Many that think they believe are amongst the others quite contrary that the Prophet there speaks of hardened in sin and carnally secure which he calls to be in covenant with hell and death walking in sin and yet promising themselves impunity 4. There is the firmness of this building Namely He that believeth on him shall not be Confounded This firmness is answerable to the nature of the foundation Not only the whole frame but every stone of it abideth sure 'T is a simple mistake to judge the perswasion of perseverance to be self-presumption they that have it are far from building it on themselves but their foundation is that which makes them sure because it doth not only remain firm it self but indissolubly supports all that are once built on it In the Prophet whence this is cited 't is shall not make hast but the sense is one they that are disappointed and ashamed in their hopes run to and fro and seek after some new recourse This they shall not need to do that come to Christ. The believing soul makes hast to Christ but it never finds cause to hasten from him and though the comfort it expects and longs for be for a time deferr'd yet it gives not over knowing that in due time it shall rejoyce and shall not have cause to blush and think shame of its confidence in him David expresseth this distrust by making haste Psal. 31.22 and 116.11 I was too hasty when I said so Hopes frustrated especially where they have been rais'd high and continued long do reproach Men with folly and so shame them And thus do all earthly hopes serve us when we lean much upon them We find these things usually that have promis'd us most content pay us with vexation not only prove broken reeds deceiving our trust but hurtful running their broken spinters into our hand that lean'd on them This sure Foundation is laid for us that our souls may be establish'd on it and be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed Such times may come as will shake all other supports but this holds out against all Psal. 46.2 Though the earth be removed yet will not we fear Though the frame of the World were cracking about a Mans ears he may hear it unaffrighted that is built on this Foundation Why then do we chuse to build upon the sand Believe it wheresoever we lay our confidence and affection besides Christ it shall once repent us and ashame us either hapily in time while we may change them for him and have recourse to him or miserably when 't is too late Remember that we must die and must appear before the Judgment Sent of God and that the things we dote on here have neither Power to stay us here nor have we power to take them along with us nor if we could would they at all profit us there and therefore when we look back upon them all at parting we shall wonder what fools we were to make so poor a Choyce and then in that great day wherein all faces shall gather blackness and be fill'd with confusion that have neglected to make Christ their stay when he was offer'd them then it shall appear how happy they are that have trusted in him they shall not be confounded but shall lift up their faces and be acquitted in him In their present estate they may be founded and exercis'd but they shall not be confounded nor ashamed a double negation in the Original by no means they shall in all be more than Conquerours through him that hath loved them Behold The last thing Obs. is in that first word importing this work to be great and remarkable and caullng the eyes to behold it The Lord is marvellous in the least of his works but in this he hath manifested more of his wisdom and power and let out more of his love to Mankind than in all the rest but we are foolish and childishly gaze about us upon trifles and let this great work pass unregarded scarce afford it half an Eye Turn your wandring Eyes this way Look upon this precious Stone and behold him not in mere speculation but so behold him as to lay hold on him For we see he is therefore here set forth that we may believe on him and so not be confounded that we may attain this blessed union that cannot be dissolv'd all other unions are dissoluble A Man may be pluckt from his dwelling House and Lands or they from him though he have never so good title to them may be removed from his dearest friends the Husband from the Wife if not by other accidents in their lifetime yet sure by death the great dissolver of all those unions and of that straitest of the Soul with the Body but it can do nothing against this union but perfects it for I am perswaded sayes St. Paul that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principallities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to sâ—perate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. There is a twofold mistake concerning faith 1st They that are altogether void of it abusing and flattering themselves in a vain opinion that they have it and on the other side they that have it mis-judging their own Condition and so prejudging themselves of much comfort and sweetness that they might find in their believing The former is the worse and yet the far commoner evil and as one sayes of Wisdom 't is true of Faith Many would seek after it and attain it if they did not falsly imagine that they have attained it already There is nothing more contrary to the lively nature of Faith than for the soul not to be at all busied with the thoughts of its own Spiritual condition and yet this very character of unbelief passes with a great many for believing they doubt not that is indeed they consider not what they are their minds are not all in these things are not
apparent of Eternal flames 'T is an Everlasting Inheritance too but so much the more fearful being of Everlasting Misery or so to speak of Immortal Death and we are made sure to it they who remain in that Condition cannot lose their Right although they gladly would escape it they shall be forâ—'d to enter Possession But 't is by a new and supernatural Birth that men are both freed from their Engagement to that woful Inheritance and invested into the Rights of this other here mentioned as full of happiness as the former is miserable Thefore are they said here to be begotten again to that lively Hope God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ hath begotten us again And thus are the Regenerate the Children of an Immortal Father and so entituled to an Inheritance of immortality if Children then Heirs heirs of God This Sonship is by Adoption in Christ therefore added joynt heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 we Adopted and He the only begotten Son of God by an Eternal Ineffable generation And yet this our Adoption is not a meer extrinsecal denomination as is adoption amongst Men but accompanied with a real Change in those that are adopted a new Nature and Spirit infus'd into them by reason of which as they are Adopted to this their Inheritance in Christ they are likewise begotten of God and born again to it by the Supernatural work of Regeneration They are like their heavenly Father they have his Image renewed on their Souls and their Fathers Spirit They have and are acted and led by it This is that great Mistery of the Kingdome of God that puzled Nicodemus it was darkness to him at first till he was instructed in that Night under the covert whereof he came to Christ. Nature cannot conceive of any Generation or birth but that which is within its own compass only they that are partakers of this Spiritual Birth understand what it means to others it is a Ridle an unsavory unpleasant subject 'T is sometime ascribed to the subordinate means to Baptism called therefore the Laver of Regeneration Tit. 3.5 To the Word of God Iam. 1.18 It s that Immortal Seed whereby we are born again by the Ministers of this Word and the seals of it as 1 Cor. 4.15 For though you have ten thousand Instructers in Christ yet have ye not many Fathers For in Christ Iesus I have begotten you through the Gospel As also Gal. 4.19 But all those have their vigour and efficacy in this great work from the Father of Spirits who is their Father in their first Creation and Infusion and in this their Regeneration which is a new and second Creation 2 Cor. 5.17 If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Divines have reason to inferre from the Nature of Conversion thus exprest that Man doth not bring any thing to this work himself 't is true he hath a will as his natural Faculty but that this Will Embraces the offer of Grace and turns to him that offers it is from Renewing Grace that sweetly and yet strongly strongly and yet sweetly inclines it I. Nature cannot raise it selfe to this more then a man can give natural being to himselfe 2. 'T is not a superficial change 't is a new life and being A moral man in his changes and Reformations of himselfe is still the same man though he Reform so far as Men in their ordinary phrase call him quite another Man yet in truth till he be born again there is no new nature in him The Slugard turns on his bed as the door on the hinges sayes Solomon Thus the Natural man turns from one custome and posture to another but never turns off But the Christian by vertue of this new birth can say indeed ego non sum ego I am not the same man I was You that are Nobles aspire to this honourable Condition add this Nobleness to the other for it far surpasses it make it the Crown of all your honours and advantages And you that are of mean birth or if you have any Crack or stain in your birth the only way to make up and repair all and truly to Enoble you is this to be the Sons of a King yea of the King of Kings and this Honour have all his Saints To as many as received him he gave this priviledge to be the Sons of God Joh. 1.12 Vnto a lively Hope Now we are the Sons of God saith the Apostle 1 Ioh. 3.2 But it doth not yet appear what we shall be These Sons are Heirs but all this lifetime is their underage yet even then being partakers of this New Birth and Sonship they have Right to it and in the assuronce of that Right this Living Hope As an Heir when he is Capable of those thoughts hath not only Right of Inheritance but may rejoyce in the hope he hath of it and please himself in thinking on 't but hope is said to be only of an uncertain good true in the world's phrase 't is so for their Hope is conversant in uncertain things or in things that may be certain after an uncertain manner all their woldly Hopes are tottering built upon sand and their Hopes of Heaven are but blind and groundless Conjectures but the Hope of the Sons of the Living God is a living Hope That which Alexander said when he dealt liberally about him that he left hope to himself the Children of God may more wisely and happily say when they leave the hot pursuit of the world to others and despise it their Portion is Hope the thread of Alexanders life was â—ut off in the midst of his Victories and so all his Hopes evanished but their hope cannot dye nor disapoint them But then it s said to be Lively not only Objectively But Effectively Enlivening and Comforting the Children of God in all Distresses Enabling them to encounter and surmount all difficulties in the way And then it is formally so it cannot fail dyes not before accomplishment Worldly Hopes often mock Men and so cause them to be ashamed and Men take it as a great blot and are most of all ashamed of those things that discover weakness of judgment in them now worldly Hopes doe thus they put the fool upon a Man when he hath judged himself sure and laid so much weight and expectation on them then they break and foyl him they are not Living but Lying Hopes and dying Hopes they die often before us and we live to bury them and see our own own Folly and Infelicity in trusting to them but at the utmost they dye with us when we dye and can accompany us no further But this Hope answers Expectation to the full and much beyond it and deceives no way but that happy one of far exceeding it A living Hope living in Death it selfe The World dare say no more for its devise but dum spiro spero but the Children of God can add by vertue of this living Hope dum exspiro
tribulation sayes St. Paul and here our Apostle insists on that to verifie the subsistance of this Joy in the midst of the greatest afflictions 4. Spiritual Grief that seems most opposite to this Spiritual Joy prejudgeth it not for there is a secret delight and sweetness in the tears of Repentance a Balm in them that refreshes the Soul and even their saddest kind of mourning viz. The dark times of Desertion hath this in it that is some way sweet that those mournings after their Beloved who absents himselfe is a mark of their Love to him and a true Evidence of it and then all these spiritual sorrowes of what nature soever are turn'd into Spiritual Joy that 's the proper End of them they have a natural tendency that way 5. But the Natural Man still doubts of this Joy we speak of because he sees and hears so little of it from them that profess to have it and seem to have best right to it If we consider the wretchedness of this Life and especially the abundance of Sin that 's in the World what wonder though this their Joy retire much inward and appear litle abroad where all things are so contrary to it and so few that are capable of it to whom 't were pertinent to vent it Again we see here 't is Vnspeakable it were a poor thing if he that hath it could tell it all out And when the Soul hath most of it then it remains most within it self and is so inwardly taken up with it that possibly it can then least of all express it 'T is with Joyes as they say of Cares and Griefs Leves Loquuntur ingentes stupent The deepest waters run stillest true Joy is a sollid grave thing dwells more in the heart then the Countenance whereas on the Contrary base and false Joyes are but superficial skin-deep as we say they are all in the face Think not that it is with the godly as the Prophet sayes of the wicked that there is no peace to them and the LXX Reads it no Ioy. Certainly 't is true There is no true Joy to the wicked they may revel and make a noise but they Rejoyce not the Laughter of the fool is as the crackling of thornes under the pot a great noise but little heat and soon at an End There is no continuing Feast but that of a good Conscience Wickedness and real Joy cannot dwell together as the very Moralist Seneca hath it often and at large but he that can say the Righteousness of Jesus Christ is Mine and in him the favour of God and the hope of Eternal Happiness hath such a light as can shine in the darkest Dungeon yea in the dark valley of the shadow of death it selfe Say not thou if I betake my self to the way of Godliness I must bid farewel to gladness never a merry day more no on the contrary never a truly Joyful day till then yea no dayes at all but night to the soul till it entertain Jesus Christ and his kingdom which consists in those Righteousness Peace and Ioy in the Holy Ghost Thou dost not sacrifice Isaac which signifies Laughter as St. Bern. but a Ram. Not thy Joy but filthy sinful delights that end in Sorrow Oh seek to know in your Experience what those Joyes mean for all describing and commending it to you will not make you understand it but taste and see that the Lord is good you cannot see and know it but by tasting it and having tasted that goodness all those poor Joyes you thought sweet before will then be bitter and distasteful to you And you that have Christ yours by Believing know your happiness and Rejoyce and Glory in it Whatsoever is your outward Condition Rejoyce alwayes and again I say Rejoyce for Light is sowâ— to the Righteous and Ioy for the upright in heart Verses 10 11 12. 10. Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired and searched dilligently who prophesied of the Grace that should come unto you 11. Searching what or what maner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signifie when he testified before hand the sufferings of Christ and the Glory that should follow 12. Vnto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves but unto us they did Minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have Preached the Gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from Heaven which things the Angels desire to look into IT is the Ignorance or at least the Inconsiderance of Divine things that makes Earthly things whether good or evil appear great in our Eyes Therefore the Apostles great aime is by representing the Certainty and Excellency of the Belief and Hope of Christians to his afflicted Brethren to strenthen their minds against all discouragements and oppositions That they may account nothing too hard to doe or suffer for so high a Cause and so happy an End 'T is the low and mean thoughts and the shallow perswassion we have of things that are spiritual that is the Cause of all our Remisseness and Coldness in them The doctrine of Salvation he mention'd in the former verse at the End of our Christian Faith is illustrated in these words from its Antiquity Dignity and infallible truth 'T is no more Invention for the Prophets enquir'd after it and foretold it in former ages from the beginning Thus the prejudice of novelty is removed that usually meets the most ancient truth in its new discoveries Again 't is no mean thing that such Men as were of unquestion'd Eminency in Wisdom and Holiness did so much study and search after and having found out were careful not only to publish it in their own times but to record it to posterity and this not by the private motion of their own spirits but by the Acting and Guidance of the Spirit of God which sets likewise the truth of their Testimony above all doubtfulness and uncertainty But taking those three Verses entirely together we have in them those three things testifying how Excellent the Doctrine of the Gospel is 1. We have the Principal Author of it 2. The matter of it 3. The worth of those that are exercis'd about it viz. The best of Men the Prophets and Apostles in administring it and the best of all the Creatures the Angels in admiring it The first Author is the absolutely first the Spirit of God in the prophets Ver. 11. in the Apostles Ver. 12. but Ver. 11. The spirit of Christ there is the same spirit that He sent down on his Disciples after his Ascending to Glory and which spoke in his Prophets before his Descending to the Earth It is the spirit of Christ proceeding joyntly from him with the Father as he is the son of God and dwelling most richly and fully in him as the son of Man The Holy Ghost is in himself Holiness and the Source and worker of Holiness and Author of this holy doctrine that breaths
affections may be drawn off from it to this spirituall life that is not subject unto death Verse 25. But the word of the Lord endureth for ever And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you THE word of God is so like himself and carries so the Image and impression of his power and wisdom that where they are spoke of together it is sometimes doubtfull whether the words are to be referr'd to himself or to his word so Heb. 14.12 And so here But there is no hazard seeing there is truth in both and pertinency too for they that referr them to God affirm that they are intended for the extolling of his word being the subject in hand and that we may know it to be like him But I rather think here that these words are meant of the word it is called living as here Heb. 4. And abiding for ever is expressely repeated of it here in the Prophet's words And with respect to those Learned Men that apply them to God I remember not that this abiding for ever is us'd to express Gods Eternity in himself Howsoever this incorruptible seed is the living and everlasting word of the living and Everlasting God and is therefore such because he whose it is is such Now this is not to be taken in a abstract sense of the word onely in its own nature but as the principle of Regeneration the seed of this new life because the word is enlivening and living therefore they with whom it is effectuall and into whose hearts it is receiv'd are begotten again and made alive by it and because the word is incorruptible and endureth for ever therefore that Life begot by it is such too cannot perish nor be cut down as the naturall Life No this Spirituall Life of grace is the certain beginning of that eternall Life of glory and shall end in it and therefore hath no end As the word of God in it selfe cannot be abolish'd but surpasses the endurance of the Heaven and Earth as our Saviour teaches and all the attempts of men against the Divine truth of that word to undo it are as vain as if they should consult to pluck the Sun out of the Firmament so likewise in the heart of a Christian it is Immortall and incorruptible Where it is once received by faith it cannot be obliterated again all the powers of darkness cannot destroy it although they be never so diligent in their attempts that way and this is the comfort of the Saints that the life which God by his word hath breath'd into their Souls though it have many and strong enemies such as they themselves could never hold out against yet for his own glory and his promise sake he will maintain that life and bring it to its perfection God will perfect that which concerneth me saith the Psalmest 'T is grossely contrary to the truth of the Scriptures to imagine that they that are thus renewed can be unborn again This new birth is but once of one kind though they are subject to frailties and weaknesses here in this spirituall life yet not to death any more not to such way of finning as would extinguish this life This is that which the Apostle Iohn sayes he that is born of God sinneth not and the reason he addes is the same that is here given the permanence and incorrupâ—ibleness of this word the seed of God abideth in him This is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you 'T is not sufficient to have these thoughts of the word of God in a generall way and not to know what that word is but we must be perswaded that that word which is preached to us is this very word of so excellent vertue and of which these high things are spoken that it is incorruptible and abideth for ever and therefore surpasses all the world and all the excellencies and glory of it Although delivered by weak Men the Apostles and by far weaker than they in the constant ministry of it yet it loseth none of its own vertue for that depends upon the first owner and author of it the â—verliving God who by it begets his chosen unto life eternall This therefore is that which we should learn thus to hear and thus to receive and esteem and love this holy this living word to despise all the glistring vanities of this perishing life all outward pomp yea all inward worth all wisdom and naturall endowments of mind in comparison of the heavenly light of the Gospell preach'd unto us Rather to hazard all than lose that and banish all other things from that Place that is due to it to lodge it alone in our hearts as our onely treasure here and the certain pledge of that treasure of glory laid up for us in heaven To which blessed state God of his Infinit mercy bring us Amen Chap. Second 1 Pet. Chap. 2. Verse 1.2 Wherefore laying aside all Malice and all guile and Hypocrisies and Envies and all evil speakings Verse 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby THe same power and goodness of God that manifests it self in giving being to his creatures appears likewise in their sustaining and preservation to give being is the first and to support it is the continued effect of that power and goodness Thus it is both in the first Creation and in the second In the first the creatures to which he gave Life he provided with convenient nourishment to uphold that life Gen· 1. So here in the close of the former Chapter we find the Doctrine of the New birth and life of a Christian and in the beginning of this the proper food of that life and it is the same word by which we there find it to be begotten that is here the nourishment of it and therefore Christians are here exhorted by the Apostle so to esteem and so to use it and that is the main scope of the words Obs. in general The word the principle and the support of our spiritual being is both the incorruptible seed and the incorruptible food of that new life of grace which must therefore be an incorruptible life And this may convince us that the ordinary thoughts even of us that hear this word are far below the true excellency and worth of it the stream of custom and our profession brings us hither and we sitt out our hour under the sound of this Word but how few consider and prize it as the great Ordinance of God for the salvation of Souls The beginner and the sustainer of the Divine life of Grace within us and certainly untill we have these thoughts of it and seek to feel it thus our selves although we hear it most frequently and slip no occasion yea hear it with attention and some present delight yet still we misse the right use of it and turn it from its true end while we take it not as that ingrafted word
life is and wherein the nature of it consists we may easily know what is the growth of it when holiness increases the sanctifying graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the soul and consequently act more strongly in the life of a Christian then he growes Spiritually And as the word is the means of begetting this Spiritual life so likewise of its increase 1. If we consider the nature of the Word in general that it is Spiritual and Divine treats of the highest things and therefore hath in it a fitness to elevate Mens minds from the Earth being often conversant with it to assimilate them to it self as all kind of Doctrine readily doth to these that are much in it and apply their minds to study it Doubtless such kind of things as are frequent with Men have an influence into the disposition of their souls The Gospel is called Light and the Children of God are likewise called Light as being transform'd into its nature and thus they are still the more by more hearing of it and so they grow If we look more particularly unto the strain and tenour of the Word it is most fit for increasing the graces of the Spirit in a Christian for there be in it particular truths relative to them that are apt to excite them and set them on work and so to make them grow as all habits do by acting it doth as the Apostles word may be translated stir up the sparks and blow them into a greater flame makes them burn clearer and hotter That it doth both by particular Exhortation to the study and Exercise of those graces sometimes pressing one and sometimes another and by right representing to them their objects The Word feeds faith by setting before it the free grace of God his Rich Promises and his Power and truth to perform them all shews it the strength of the New Covenants not depending upon it but holding in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen and drawing faith still to rest more intirely upon his Righteousness It feeds Repentance by making the vileness and deformity of sin daily more clear and visible still as more of the Word hath admission into the Soul the more it hates sin being the more discovered and the better known in its own native colour As the more light is in a House the more any thing in it that is uncleanly or deformed is seen and dislik'd Likewise it increaseth love to God by opening up still more and more of his infinite Excellency and lovelyness and as it borrowes the resemblance of the vilest things in nature to express the foulness and hatefulness of sin so all the beauties and dignities that are in all the creatures are call'd together in the Word to give us some small scantling of that uncreated beauty that alone deserves to be loved Thus might it be instanc'd in all other graces But above all other Considerations this is in the Word observable as the increaser of grace in that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our vieu to look upon not only as the perfect pattern but as the full fountain of all grace from whose fulness we all receive the contemplating of him as the perfect Image of God and then drawing from him as having in himself a treasure for us these give the soul more of that Image which is truly Spiritual growth This the Apostle expresseth excellently 2 Cor. 3. ult speaking of the Ministry of the Gospel revealing Christ that beholding in him as 't is Chap. 4. Vers. 6. In his face the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Not only that we may take the Copy of his Graces but have a share of them There be many things might be said of this spirituall growth but I will add only a few 1. In the judging of this growth some conluding too rigidly against themselves that they grow not by the word because it is not sensible to them as they desire But 1. this is known in all things that grow that 't is not discerned in motu sed in termino not in the growing but when they are grown 2. Besides other things are to be considered in this although other graces seem not to advance yet if thou growest more self-denying and humble in the sense of thy slowness all is not lost although the branches shut not up so fast as thou wishest yet if the root grow deeper and fasten more it s an usefull growth he that is still learning to be more in Jesus Christ and less in himself to have all his dependance and comfort in him is doubtless a growing believer On the other side a far greater number conclude wrong in their own favour imagining that they do grow if they gain in some of those things we mention'd above namely if more knowledge and more faculty of discoursing if they find often some present stirrings of joy or sorrow in hearing of the word if they reform their life grow more civil and blameless c. Yet all these and many such things may be in a naturall Man who notwithstanding grows not for that 's impossible he is not in that estate a subject capable of this growth for he is dead he hath none of this new life to which this growth relates Herod heard gladly and obey'd many things Consider then what true delight we might have in this You find a pleasure when you see your Children grow when they begin to stand and walk c. You love well to perceive your estate or your honour grow but the soul to be growing liker God and nearer heaven if we know it is a pleasure far beyond them all to find pride and Earthliness and vanity abating and faith and love and spirituall mindedness increasing especially if we think whither this growth be not as our naturall life that is often cutt off before it attain full age as we call it and if it attain that falls again to move downwards and decays as the Sun being at its Meridian begins to decline again But this life shall grow on-in whomsoever it is and come certainly to its fullness after which there is no more need of this word either for growth or nourishment no death no decay no old age but perpetuall youth and a perpetuall spring ver aeternum fulness of joy in the presence of God and everlasting pleasures at his right hand Verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is Gracious OUR Naturall desire of food arises principally from its necessity for that end which nature seeks the growth or at least the nourishment of our bodies but besides there is a present sweetness and pleasingness in the use of it that serves to sharpen our desire and is plac'd in nature for that purpose thus the Children of God in their spiritual life are naturally carried to desire the means of their nourishment and of their growth
are anointed those several odoriferous graces that are the ingredients of their anointing oyl that heavenly mindedness and meekness and patience and humility and the rest that diffuse a pleasing sent into the places and societies where they comes their words actions and their deportment smelling sweet of them 4. Their garments wherein they were inaugurate and were after to wear in their services were outshin'd by that purity and holiness wherewith all the Saints are adorn'd But more by that imputed righteousness of Christ those pure Robes that are put upon them wherein they appear before the Lord and are acceptable in his sight these Priests are indeed cloath'd with righteousness according to that of the Psalmist Psa. 132.9 5. They were to have the offerings put into their hands from thence filling of the hand signifies consecrating to the Priestood and this doth Jesus Christ that is the Consecrator of these Priests he puts into their hands by his spirit these offerings they are to present unto God He furnishes them with prayers and praises and all other oblations that are to be offer'd by them he gives them themselves that they are to offer a living sacrifice rescuing them from the usurp'd possession of Satan and sin 2 ly· Let us Consider their services which were divers to name the chief They had charge of the Sanctuary and the vessels of it and the lights and were to keep the Lamps burnings The heart of every Christian is made a Temple to the holy Ghost and he himself as a priest consecrated unto God is to keep it diligently and the furniture of divine grace in it to have the light of Spiritual knowledge with in him and to nourish it by drawing continually new supplies from Jesus Christ. 2 ly They were to bless the People and truely 't is this Spiritual Priesthood the Elect that procure blesings upon the rest of the world and particularly on the places where they live they are daily to offer the incense of prayer and other Spiritual sacrifices unto God as the Apostle expresseth it supr Verse 5. Not to neglect those holy exercises together and apart And as the Priests offer'd not only for themselves but for the People thus Christians are to extend their prayers and to intreat the blessings of God for others especially for the publick estate of the Church As the Lords Priests they are to offer up those Praises to God that are his due from the other creatures which praise him indeed yet cannot do it after that manner as these Priests do Therefore are they to offer as it were their Sacrifices for them as the Priests did for the People and because the most of Men neglect to do this and cannot do it indeed because they are unholy and not of this Priesthood therefore should they be so much the more careful of it and diligent in it How few of these that the Heavens calls to by their light and revolution that they enjoy do offer that Sacrifice which becomes for this acknowledging the glory of God which they declare This therefore is as it were put into the hands of these Priests namely the Godly to do 3 ly Let us Consider their course of life We shall find rules given to the Legal Priests stricter than to others of avoiding legal pollutions c. And from these this Spiritual Priesthood must learn an exact holy conversation keeping themselves from the pollutions of the world as here it follows a holy Nation and that of necessity if a Priestood than holy Purchas'd indeed to be a peculiar treasure to God as Exod. 19.5 at a very high rate He spared not his only Son nor spared the Son himself so that these Priests ought to be the Lords peculiar poriton All believers are his Clergy and as they are his portion so he is theirs The priests had no assign'd Inheritance amongst their Brethren and the reason is added for the Lord is their portion and truely so they needed not envy any of the rest they had the choycest of all the Lord of all Whatsoever a Christian possesses in the world yet being of this Spiritual Priesthood he is as if he possess'd it not lays little account on 't That which his mind is set on is how he may enjoy God and find clear assurance that he hath him for his portion 'T is not so mean a thing to be a Christian as we think 't is a Holy an Honourable a Happy estate few of us can esteem it or do labour to find it so No we know not these things our hearts are not on them to make this dignity and happiness sure unto our souls Where is that true greatness of mind and holiness to be found that becomes those that are Kings and Priests unto God That contempt of earthly things and minding or Heaven that should be in such But sure as many as find themselves indeed partakers of these dignities will study to live conform to them and will not fail to love that Lord Jesus that hath purchas'd all this for them and exalted them to it humbled himself to exalt them We best discern and are most sensible of the evils and good of things by comparison In outward condition how many be there that are vexing themselves with causless murmurings and discontents that if they would look upon the many in the world that are in a far meaner condition than they it would cure that evil and make them not only content but chearfull and thankfull But the difference here express'd is far greater and more considerable than any can be in outward things Though the estate of a Christian is very excellent and precious and rightly valued hath enough in it self to commend it yet it doth and ought to raise our esteem of it the higher when we compare it both with the misery of our former condition and the continuing misery of those that abide still and are left to perish in that wofull estate We have here both these parallels The happiness and dignity to which they are chosen and callâ—d is oppos'd to the rejection and misery of them that continue unbelievers and rejecters of Christ. Not only Naturall Men but even they that have a spiritual life in them yet when they forget themselves are subject to look upon the things that are before them with a natural eye and to think hardly or at least doubtfully concerning Gods dispensation Beholding the flourishing and prosperities of the ungodly together with their own sufferings and distresses thus Psa. 73. c. But when they turn the other side of the Medal and view them with a right eye and by a true light they are no longer abus'd with those appearances When they consider unbelievers as strangers yea enemies to God and slaves to Satan held fast in the chains of their own impenitency and unbelief and by those bound over to eternal death and then see themselves call'd to the liberties and dignities of the Sons of God partakers
upright course of life and silent innocency as a wind it breaks the waves into foam that Roar about it As free This the Apostle addes lest any should so far mistake the Nature of their Christian Liberty as to dream of an exemption from obedience either to God or to Men for his sake and according to his appointment Their freedom he grants but would have them understand aright what it is I cannot here insist at large on the Spiritual freedom of Christâ—ans nor is it here needful being mention'd onely for the clearing of it in this point but free they are and they only that are partakers of this liberty If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed the restare slaves to Satan and the World and their own lusts as the Israelites in Egypt working in the clay under hard taskmasters Much discourse and much Ink hath been spilt upon the debate of free will but truly all the liberty it hath till the Son and his Spirit free it is that miserable freedom the Apostle speaks of Rom. 6.20 While ye were servants to sin ye were free from righteousness And as we are naturally subject to the vile drudgâ—ry of sin so we are condemn'd to the proper wages of sin which the Apostle there tells us is death according to the just sentence of the Law But our Lord Christ was anointed for this purpose to set us free both to work and to publish liberty to proclaim liberty to Captives and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound having pay'd our compleat ransome he sends his word as the message and his Spirit to perform it effectually to set us free to let us know it and to bring us out of prison He was bound and scourg'd as a slave or Malefactor to purchase us this liberty therefore ought it be our special care first to have part in it and then to be like it and stand fast in it in all points But that we deceive not our selves as too many do that have no portion in this liberty we ought to know that 't is not to inordinate walking and licentiousness as our liberty that we are call'd But from them as our thraldome not called from Obedience but to it Therefore beware that you shuffle in nothing under this specious name of Liberty that belongs not to it make it not a Cloak of maliciousness 't is too precious a garment for so base an use Liberty is indeed Christ's livery that he gives to all his followers But the sutable living of it is not wickedness and disobedience of any kind but Obedience and Holiness you are called to be the servants of God and that is your dignity and your Liberty The Apostles of this Gospel of Liberty gloried in this title the servants of Iesus Christ David before that Psalm of praise for his victories and exaltations being now settled on his throne prefixes that as more honour than all these a Psalm of David the Servant of the Lord. To Kings and Subjects and all 't is only happiness to be his Subjects 't is the glory of the Angels to be his ministring Spirits The more we attain unto the faculty of serving him cheerfully and diligently the more still we find of this Spiritual Liberty and have the more joy in it As it is the most honourable it is likewise the most comfortable and most gainful service and they that once know it will never change it for any other in the world Oh that we could live as his Servants imploying all our industry to do him service in the condition and place wherein he hath set us whatsoever it is and as faithful Servants more careful of his affairs than of our own accounting it our maine busines to seek the advancement of his glory Happy is the the servant whom the Master when he cometh shall find so doing Verse 17. Honour all men Love the Brotherhood Fear God Honour the King THis is a precious cluster of Divine Precepts the whole face of the Heavens is decored with stars But of different greatness and in some parts they are thicker set then in the rest thus is it likewise in the holy Scriptures and these are the two Books that the Psalmist sets open before us Psa. 19. The Heavens as a choyce piece of the works of God instructing us And the word of God more full and clear then they Here is a constellation of very bright stars near together These words have very briefly and yet not obscur'd by briefness but withall very plainly the Summe of our duty towards God and Men to Men both in general Honour all Men and in special Relations in their Christian or religious relation Love the Brotherhood and a chief civil relation Honour the King And our whole duty to God compris'd under the name of his fear is set in the middle betwixt these as the common Spring of all duty to Men and of all due observance of it and the Soveraigne rule by which it is to be regulated I shall speak of them as they lye in the text we need not labour about the Connexion for in such variety of brief practical directions it hath not such place as in Doctrinal discourses The Apostle having spoke of one particular wherein he would have his brethern to clear and commend their Christian profession now accumulates these directions as most necessary and after goes on to particular duties of Servants c. But first observe in general how plain and easy and how few these things are that are the rule of our life no dark sentences to puzle the understanding nor large discouses and long periods to burden the memory they are all plain There is nothing wreathed nor distorted in them as wisdom speaks of her instructions Prov. 8. And this gives check to a double folly amongst Men contrary the one to the other but both agreeing in mistaking and wronging the word of God The one is of those that despise the word and that Doctrine and Preaching that is conform to it for its plainess and simplicity These certainly doe not take the true end for which the word is design'd that it is the Law of our life and it is mainely requisite in Lawes that they be both brief and clear that it is our guide and light to happiness and if that which ought to be our Light be darkness how great will that darkness be It is true but I am not now to insist on this piont that there be dark and deep passages in Scripture for the exercise yea for the humbling yea for the amazing and astonishing of the sharpest-sighted readers But this argues much the pride and vanity of Mens minds when they busy themselves only in those and throw aside altogether the most necessary which are therefore the easiest and plainest truths in it as in nature these commodities that are of greatest necessity God hath made commonest and easiest to be had so in Religion such as
what he is and what we are he the Son of his love and we Enemies Therefore it is emphatically express'd in the words he himself bare our sins God so loved the World but love amounts to this much that it was so great as to give his Son But how great that is cannot be utter'd In this sayes the Apostle God commendeth his love to us sets it up to the highest gives us the richest and strongest evidence of it The foundation of this frame this appearing of Christ for us and undergoing and Answering all in our stead lyes in the Decree of God where it was plotted and contriv'd in the whole way of it from Eternity and the Father and the Son being one and their thoughts and will one they were perfectly agreed on 't and those likewise for whom it should hold were agreed upon and their Names written up according to which they are said to be given unto Christ to redeem And just according to that Model did all the work proceed and was accomplished in all points perfectly answering to the pattern of it in the Mind of God As it was preconcluded there that the Son should undertake the business this matchless piece of Service for his Father and that by his interposing Men should be reconciled and saved so that he might be altogether a fit Person for the Work it was resolv'd that as he was already fit for it by the Almightiness of his Deity and Godhead and the acceptableness of his Person to the Father as the Son of God so he should be further fitted by uniting wonderfully weakness to Almightiness the frailty of Man to the Power of God because that suffering for Man was a main point of the work so as his being the Son of God made him acceptable to God his being the son of Man made him suitable to Man in whose business he had engaged himself and to the business it self to be perform'd and not only was there in him by his humane nature a conformity with Man for that might have been by a new created Body but a consanguinity with Man by a Body framed of the same piece a Redeemer a Kinsman as the Hebrew word is only purified for his use as was needful and fram'd after a peculiar manner in the womb of a Virgin as 't is Heb 10. Thou hast fitted a body for me having no sin it self because ordained to have so much of our sins as 't is here he bare them on his own body And this looks back to the Primitive transaction and purpose Lo I come to do thy will sayes the Son and behold my servant whom I have chosen sayes the Father this Master-piece of my works none in Heaven or Earth fit to serve me in it but mine own Son and as he came into the World according to that decree and will so he goes out of it again in that way the Son of Man goeth as is determined it was wickedly and malitiously done by Men against him but determined which is that he there speaks of wisely and graciously by his Father with his own consent As in those two faced pictures Look upon the Crucifying of Christ one way as complotted by a treacherous Disciple and Malicious Priests and Rulers and nothing more deform'd and hateful than the Authors of it but view it again as determin'd in Gods Counsel for the restoring of lost Mankind and so 't is full of unspeakable beauty and sweetness infinite wisdom and Love in every tract of it Thus to the persons for whom as their coming unto him reflects upon that first donation as flowing from that all that the Father hath given me shall come unto me Ioh. 6. Now this being Gods great design that he would have Men eye and consider more than all the rest of his works and yet is least of all considered by the most the other Covenant made with the first Adam was but to make way and so to speak to make work for this for he knew that it would not hold therefore as this New Covenâ—nt became needful by the breach of the other so the failing of that other sets off and commends the firmness of this the former was with a Man in his best condition and yet he kept it not even then he prov'd vanity as 't is Psal. â—9 So that the second to be stronger is made with a Man indeed to supply the former but he is God-man to be surer than the former and therefore it holds and this is the difference as the Apostle expresses it that the first Adam in that first Covenant was laid as a foundation and though we say not that the Church in its true notion was built on him yet the estate of the whole race of Mankind the Materials that the Church is built of lay on him for that time and it failed But upon this Rock the second Adam is the Church so firmly built that the gates of Hell cannâ—t preâ—ail against 〈◊〉 The first Adam was made a quickening or life giving Spirit The first had light but he transfer'd it not yea he kept it not for himself drew in and transfer'd Death but the second by Death convey life to all that are reckon'd his seed he bare their 〈◊〉 He bare them on the tree in that outside of his suffering the visible kind of death inflicted on him that it was hanging on the tree of the Cross there was an Analogy with the end and main work and was order'd by the Lord with regard unto that being a Death declar'd accursed by the Law as the Apostle St. Paul observes and so declaring him that was God blessed for ever to have been made a curse that is accounted as accursed for us that we might be blessed in him in whom according to the Promise all the Nations of the Earth are blessed But that wherein lay the strength and main stress of his sufferings was this invisible weight that none could see that gaz'd on him but he felt more then all In this there are three things 1. The weight of sin 2. The transferring of it upon Christ. 3. His bearing of it 1. He bare as a heavy burden so the word of bearing in general and those two words particularly us'd by the Prophet whither these allude are the bearing of some great mass or load and thus sin is for it hath the wrath of an offended God hanging at it indissollubly tyed to it which who can bear the least of it and therefore the least sin being the procuring cause of it will press a man down for ever that he shall not be able to rise Who can stand before thee when once thou art angry sayes the Psalmist and the Prophet Ier. 3. Return backsliding Israel and I will not cause my wrath to fall upon thee fall as a great weight or as a Milstone crushes the soul. But sensless we go light under the burden of sin and feel it not complain not of it therefore truly
our miserable natural estate there is as close an union betwixt us and sin as betwixt our Souls and Bodies it lives in us and we in it and the longer we live in that condition the more the union growes and the harder it is to dissolve it and it is as old as the union of Soul and Body begun with it so that nothing but that death here spoke of can part them And this death in this relative sense is mutual in the work of conversion sin dyes and the soul dyes to sin and these two are really one and the same the spirit of God kills both at one blow Sin in the Soul and the soul to sin as the Apostle sayes of the World both are kill'd the one to the other And there are in it chiefly these two things that make the difference 1. The Solidness And 2. The universallity of this change under this notion of Death Many things may ly in a Man's way betwixt him and the acting of divers sins which possibly he affects most some restraints outward or inward may be upon him the authority of others or the fear of shame or punishment or the check of an enlightned conscience and though by reason of these he commit not the sin he would yet he lives in it because he loves it because he would commit it as we say the soul lives not so much where it animats as where it Loves And generally that kind of Metaphorical life by which a Man is said to live in any thing hath its principal Seat in the affection that 's the immediate link of the union in such a life and the untying and death consists chiefly in the disengagement of the heart breaking off the affection from it Ye that love the Lord hate evil An unrenewed mind may have some temporary dislikes even of its beloved sins in cold blood but it returnes to like them within a while A Man may not only have times of cessation from his wonted way of sinning but by reason of the Society wherein he is and withdrawing of occasions to sin and divers other causes his very desire after it may seem to him to be abated and yet he not dead to sin but only asleep to it and therefore when a temptation back'd with opportunity and other inducing circumstances comes and joggs him he awakes and arises and followes it A Man may for a while distaste some meat that he loves possibly upon a surfet but he regains quickly his likeing of it Every quarrel with sin and fit of dislike of it is not this hatred Upon the lively representing the deformity of his sin to his mind Certainly a Natural Man may fall out with it but these are but as the litle jarres of Husband and Wife that are far from dissolving the Marriage 't is not a fixed hatred such as amongst the Jews inferr'd a divorce if thou hate her put her away and that is to die to it as by a Legal Divorce the Husband and Wife are civilly dead one to another in regard of the ty and use of Marriage Again some Mens Education and Custome and morall principles may free them from the grossest kind of Sins yea a Man's temper may be averse from them but they are alive to their own kind of sins such as possibly are not so deform'd in the common account Coveteousness or Pride or hardness of heart and either a hatred or disdain of the wayes of Holiness that are too strict for them and exceed their size Beside for the good of humane Society and for the Interest of his own Church and People God restrains many Natural Men from the height of wickedness and gives them moral Vertues There be very many and very common sins that more refined Natures it may be are scarce tempted to but as in their Diet and Apparel and other things in their Natural Life they have the same kind of being with other Persons though more neat and pleasant so in this living to sin They live the same life with other ungodly Men though in a litle more deicate way They consider not that the Devils are not in themselves subject to nor capable of many of those sins that are accounted grossest amonst Men and yet are greater Rebels and Enemies to God than Men are But to be dead to sin goes deeper and extends further than all these Namely a most inward alienation of heart from sin and most universal from all sin an antipathy to the most beloved sin Not only he must forbear sin but hate it I hate vain thoughts and not only hate some but all I hate every false way A stroke at the heart does it which is the certainest and quickest Death of any wound For in this dying to sin all the whole Man of necessity dyes to it the mind dyes to the Device and study of Sin that vein and invention becomes dead the hand dies to the acting of it the ear to the delightful hearing of things profane and sinful the Tongue to the Worlds dialect of Oaths and rotten-speaking and calumny and evil speaking this is the commonest piece of the Tongues life in sin the very natural heat of sin that acts and vents most that way the Eye dead to that intemperate look that Solomon speaks of eyeing the Wine when it is red and well colour'd in the cup. Prov. 23. That is is taken with looking on the glittering skin of that Serpent till it bite and sting as there he addes Dead to that unchaste look that sets fire in the heart to which Iob blind folded and deaded his eyes by an express compact and agreement with them I have made a Covenant with mine eyes The Eye of a Godly Man is not on the false sparkling of the Worlds Pomp and Honour and Wealth 't is dead to them quite dazled with a greater beauty the grass look's fine in the morning when 't is set with those liquid Pearles the drops of dew that shine upon it but if you can look but a little while on the body of the Sun and then look down again the Eye is as it were dead sees not that faint shining on the earth that it thought so gay before and as the Eye is blinded and dies to it so within a few hours it quite evanishes and dyes it self Men think it strange that the Godly are not of their Dyet that their Appetite is not stirr'd with the delights of dainties they know not that such as be Christians indeed are dead to those things and the best dishes that are set before a dead Man give him not a stomach The Godly Mans throat is cut to those meats as Solomon advises in another subject But why may not you be a litle more sociable to follow the fashion of the World and and take a share with your Neighbours may some say without so precise and narrow examining every thing 'T is true sayes the Christian that the time was I advis'd as litle with
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may
of the World So long as we neglect our noblest trade of growing Rich in Grace and the comfortable enjoyment of the Love of God Our Saviour tells us of one thing needful Importing that all other things are comparatively Unnecessary By-works and meer Impertinences and yet in these we lavish out our short uncertain time we let the other stand by till we find leasure Men who are altogether prophane think not on it at all some others possibly deceive themselves thus and say When I have done with such a business in which I am engaged then I will sit down seriously to this and bestow more Time and pains on these things that are undeniably Greater and Better and more worthy of it but this is a slight that is in danger to undo us what if we attain not to the end of that business but end our selves before it or if we do not yet some other business may step in after that Oh then say we that must be dispatch'd also thus by such delayes we may loose the present opportunity and in the end our own souls Oh be perswaded it deserves your dilligence and that without delay to seek somewhat that may be constant enough to abide with you and strong enough to uphold you in all Conditions and that is alone this free Grace and Love of God While many say Who will shew us any good set you in with David in his choise Lord lift thou up the light of thy Countenance upon me and this shall rejoyce my heart more then the abundance of Corn and Wine This is that Light that can break into the darkest dungeons from which all other Lights and Comforts are shut out and without this all other enjoyâ—ents are what the world would be without the Sun nothing but darkness Happy they who have this light of Divine favour and Grace shining into their souls for by it they shall be led to that City where the Sun and Moon are needless for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Rev. 21.23 Godliness is profitable for all things saith the Apostle having the Promises of this life and that which is to come all other blessings are the attendants of Grace and follow upon it This blessing that the Apostle here and so St. Paul in his Epistles joynes with Grace was with the Jewes of so large a sense as to Comprehend all that they could desire when they wish'd Peace they meant all kind of good all welfare and prosperity And thus we may take it here for all kind of Peace yea and for all other blessings but especially that spiritual Peace which is the proper fruit of Grace and doth so intrinsecally flow from it We may and ought to wish to the Church of God outward blessiings and particularly outward Peace as one of the greatest so one of the most valluable favours of God thus prayed the Psalmist Psal. 122.7 Peace be within thy walls and Prosperity within thy Palaces But that wisdom that doth what he will by what means he will and works one contrary out of another brings Light out of Darkness Good out of Evil Can and doth turn Tears and Troubles to the advantage of his Church but certainly in it self Peace is more suitable to its increase and if noâ— abus'd proves so too As in the Apostolick Times it s said The Church had Peace and Increased exceedingly Act. 9.31 We ought also to wish for Ecclesiastical Peace to the Church that she may be free from Dissensions and Divisions These readily arise more or less as we see in all times and haunt Religion and the Reformation of it as a malus genius S. Paul had this to say to his Corinthians though he had given them this testimony that they were enriched in all Utterance and Knowledge and were wanting in no guift Cap. 1. v. 5. Yet presently after v. 13 I hear that there are Divisions and Contentions among you The Enemy had done this as our Saviour speaks and this Enemy is no fool for by divine permission he works to his own end very wisely for there is not one thing that doth on all hands choak the seed of Religion so much as Thorny debates and differences about it selfe So in succeeding Ages and at the breaking forth of the Light in Germany in Luther's time Multitudes of Sects arose Profane men do not only stumble but fall and break their necks upon these Divisions We see think they and some of them possibly say it ouâ— that they who mind Religion most cannot agree upon 't Our easiest way is not to Embroyl our selves nor at all to be troubled with the business Many are of Gallio's temper they will care for none of those things Thus these Offences prove a mischief to the prophane World as our Saviour sayes Wo to the World because of Offences Then the erring side that is taken with new opinions and fancies are altogether taken up with them their main thoughts spent upon them and thus the sap is drawn from that which should nourish and prosper in their hearts sanctified useful knowledge and saving grace The other are as weeds that divert the nourishment in Gardens from the Plants and Flowers and certainly these weeds viz. Mens own conceits cannot but grow more with them when they give way to them then solid Religion doth for their hearts as he said of the earth are Mother to those and but Step-mother to this It is also a Loss even to those that oppose Errors and Divisions that they are forced to be busied that way for the wisest and Godliest of them find and such are sensible of it that disputes in Religion are no friends to that which is far sweeter in it but hinders and abates it viz. these pious and devout thoughts that are both the more useful and truly delightful As Peace is a choice blessing so this is the choisest Peace and is the peculiar inseparable Effect of this Grace with which it is here joyntly wish'd Grace and Peace The flower of Peace growing upon the Root of Grace This spiritual Peace hath two things in it 1 Reconciliation with God 2 Tranquillity of Spirit The quarrel and matter of enmity you know betwixt God and Man is the Rebellion the sin of Man and he being naturally altogether sinful there can proceed nothing from him but what foments and increases the Hostility 'T is Grace alone the most free Grace of God that contrives and Offers and makes the Peace else it had never been We had universally perish'd without it Now in this is the wonder of Divine Grace that the Almighty God seeks agreement and entreats for it with sinful clay which he could wholly destroy in a moment Jesus Christ the Mediator and Purchaser of this Peace bought it with his Blood kill'd the enmity by his own Death Eph. 2.15 And therefore the Tenor of it in the Gospel runs still in his name Rom. 5.1 we have Peace with God
through Iesus Christ our Lord. and St. Paul expresses it in his Salutations that are the same with this Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Iesus Christ. As the free Love and Grace of God appointed this means and way of our Peace and Offered it So the same Grace applies it and makes it Ours and gives us faith to apprehend it And from our sense of this Peace or Reconcilement with God arises that which is our inward Peace a calm and quiet temper of Mind This Peace that we have with God in Christ Is Inviolable but because the sense and perswasion of it may be interrupted the soul that is truly at Peace with God may for a time be disquieted in it self through weakness of Faith or the strength of Temptation or the Darkness of desertion losing sight of that Grace that Love and Light of Gods Countenance on which its Tranquillity and Joy depends Thou hid'st thy face saith David and I was troubled but when these Eclipses are over the Soul is revived with new Consolation as the face of the Earth is renewed and made to smile with the return of the Sun in the Spring and this ought alwayes to uphold Christians in the saddest times viz that the Grace and Love of God towards them depends not on their sense nor upon any thing in them but is still in it selfe incapable of the smallest alteration 'T is Natural to Men to desire their own Peace the Quietness and Contentment of their Minds but most Men miss the way to it and therefore find it not for there is no way to 't indeed but this One wherein few seek it viz. Reconcilement and Peace with God The perswasion of that alone makes the Mind clear and serene like your fairest Summer Dayes My peace I give you saith Christ not as the world Let not your hearts be troubled All the Peace and Favour of the World cannot calm a troubled heart but where this Peace is that Christ gives all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot disturb it When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only See also for this Psal. 46.123 All outward distress to a mind thus at Peace is but as the ratling of the Hail upon the Tiles to him that sits within the House at a sumptuous Feast A good Conscience is called so and with an advantage that no other Feast can have nor could men endure it A few hours of feasting will weary the most profest Epicure but a Conscience thus at Peace is a continual Feast with continual unwearied delight What makes the World take up such a prejudice against Religion as a sour unpleasant thing they see the Afflictions and griefs of Christians but they do not see their Joyes the inward pleasure of mind that they can possess in a very hard Estate Have you not tryed other wayes enough hath not He tried them that had more ablility and skill for 't then you and found them not only vanity but vexation of Spirit If you have any belief of holy Truth pâ—t but this once upon the tryal seek Peace in the way of Grace This inward Peace is too precious a Liquor to be poured into a filthy Vessel a holy Heart that gladly entertains grace shall find that it and Peace cannot dwell assunder An ungodly Man may sleep to Death in the Lethargy of Carnal Presumption and Impenitency but a true lively solid Peace he cannot have There is no Peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57.21 And if He say there is none speak Peace who will if all the World with one voice would speak it it shall prove none 2 ly Consider the Measure of the Apostles desire for his Scattered Brethren that this Grace and Peace may be Multiplyed This the Apostle wisheâ— for them knowing the Imperfection of the Graces and Peace of the Saints while they are here below and this they themselves in sense of that Imperfection daily do desire They that have tasted the sweetness of this Grace and Peace call uncessantly for more This is a disease in Earthly Desires and a disease incurable by all these things desired there is no satisfaction attainable by them but this Avarice of Spiritual things is a Vertue and by our Saviour is called Blessedness because it tends to Fullness and Satisfaction Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 Verse 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 'T Is a cold lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon meer Report but they that speak of them as their own as having share and interest in them and some experience of their sweetness their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief and ardent affection They cannot mention them but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness as they are forc'd to vent in praises Thus our Apostle here and St. Paul Eph. 1. and often elsewhere when they consider'd these things wherewith they were about to comfort the Godly to whom they wrote They were suddenly Elevated with the Joy of them and broke forth into Thanksgiving So teaching us by their Example what real Joy there is in the Consolations of the Gospel and what praise is due from all the Saints to the God of those Consolations This is such an Inheritance as the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest Griefs and Afflictions What then shall the Possession of it be wherein there shall be no Rupture nor the least drop of any grief at all The main Subject of these veâ—ses is that which is the main Comfort that supports the Spirits of the Godly in all Conditions I. Their after Inheritance in the 4 verse 2. Their present Title to it and assured hope of it v. 3. 3dly The immediate cause of both assigned viz. Iesus Christ. 4ly All this derived from the free Mercy of God as the first and highest Cause and return'd to his Praise and Glory as the last and highest End of it For the First The Inheritance But because the 4th verse which describes it is link't with the subsequent we will not go so far off to return back again but first speak to this 3 verse and in it Consider 1. Their Title to this Inheritance Begotten again 2. Their assurance of it viz. A holy or lively Hope The Title that the Saints have to their rich Inheritance is of the validest and most unquestionable kind viz. by Birth Not by their first natural birth By it we are all born to an Inheritance indeed but we find what it is Eph. 2.3 Children of Wrath Heirs
be spoke too much of for 't is Vnspeakable nor too much magnified for it is Glorious To Evidence the truth of this and to confirme his Brethren in the experienc'd knowledge of it he expresses here more particularly and distinctly the causes of this their Joy which are 1. The Object or Matter of it 2. The Apprehension and appropriation of that Object which two conjoyn'd are the entire cause of all Rejoyceing The Object is Jesus Christ verse 8. And the Salvation purchased by him verse 9. For these two cannot be sever'd and these two Verses that speak of them require as is evident by their connexion to be considered together 2. The apprehension of these 1. set forth negatively not by bodily sight 2. Positively whereas that might seem to abate the certainâ—y and liveliness of their Rejoyceing that 't is of things they had not seen nor do yet see that is abundantly made up by three for one each of them more excellent then the meer bodily sight of Christ in the flesh which many had which were never the better by 't the three are those three prime Christian Graces Faith Love and Hope The two former in ver 8. the 3 d. in ver 9. Faith in Christ begetting Love to him and both these giving assured Hope of salvation by him making it as certian to them as if it were already in their hand and they in possession of it And from all those together results this Exultation or leaping for joy Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory This is that one thing that so much concerns us and therefore we mistake very far and forget our own highest interest too much when we either speak or hear of it slightly and apply not our hearts to it What is it that all our thoughts and endeavours drive at What means all that we are doing in the World tho we take several wayes to it and wrong wayes for the most part yea such wayes as lead not to it but set us further off from it yet that which we all seek after by all our labour under the Sun is something that may be matter of Contentment and rejoycing to us when we have attain'd it now here it is and in vain is it sought for elsewhere And for this end 't is represented to you that it may be yours if ye will entertain it not only that you may know this to be a truth that in Jesus Christ is laid up true Consolation and Rejoyceing that he is the Magazine and Treasury of it but that you may know how to bring him home into your hearts and lodge him there and so to have the spring of Joy within you That which gives full joy to the Soul must be something that is higher and better then it self in a word he that made it can only make it glad after this manner with unspeakable and glorious joy but the Soul remaining guilty of Rebellion against him and unreconcil'd cannot behold him but as an Enemy any belief that it can have of him while 't is in that posture is not such as can fetch Love and Hope and so Rejoycing but such as the Faith of devils produceth only begetting terrour and trembling but the light of his Countenance shining in the face of his Son the Mediator glads the heart and 't is the looking upon him so that causeth the soul to Believe and Love and Hope and Rejoyce Therefore the Apostle Eph. 2. In his description of the estate of the Gentiles before Christ was preach'd to them joynes these together without Christ that was the cause of all the rest therefore without comfort in the Promises without Hope and without God in the world So he is here by our Apostle exprest as the object In all these therefore he is the matter of our Joy because our Faith and Love and Hope of Salvation The Apostle writing to the dispersed Jewes many of whom had not known nor seen Christ in the flesh commends their Love and Faith for this reason that it did not depend upon bodily sight but was pure and spiritual and made them of the number of those that our Saviour himselfe pronounces blessed who have not seen and yet believe You saw him not when he dwelt amongst men and walked to and fro Preaching and working Miracles Many of those that did then hear and see him believed not yea they scoff'd and hated and persecuted him and in the end Crucified him you that have seen none of all those things yet having heard the Gospel that declares him you have believed Thus Observe the working or not working of Faith doth not depend upon the difference of the external Ministry and gifts of Men for what greater difference can there be that way than betwixt the Master and the Servants betwixt the great Prophet himself and his weak sinful Messengers and yet many of those that saw and heard him in Person were not converted believ'd not in him and thousands that never saw him were converted by his Apostles and as it seems even some of those that were some way accessory to his death yet were brought to Repentance by this same Apostles Sermon Act. 2. Learn then to look above the outward Ministry and any difference that in Gods dispensation can be there and know that if Jesus Christ himself were on Earth and now Preaching amongst us yet might his incomparable words be unprofitable to us not being mix'd with faith in the bearers But where that is the meanest despisable conveyance of his Message received with humility and affection will work blessed Effects Whom not seeing yet believeing Faith elevates the Soul not only above sense and sensible things but above Reason it selfe as reason corrects the Errours that sense might occasion So supernatural Faith corrects the Errours of natural Reason judging according to Sense The Sun seems less then the wheel of a Chariot but Reason teaches the Philosopher that 't is much bigger then the whole Earth and the cause why it seems so little is its great distance The Naturally wise man is as far deceiv'd by this carnal Reason in his estimate of Jesus Christ the â—un of Righteousness and the cause is the same his great distance from him as the Psalmist speaks of the wicked Psal. 10.5 Thy Iudgements are far above out of his sight He accounts Christ and his Glory a smaller matter then his own Gain Honour or Pleasure for these are near him and he sees their quantity to the full and counts them bigger yea far more worth then they are indeed but the Apostle St. Paul and all they that are enlightened by the same Spirit they know by Faith which is divine Reason that the Excellency of Jesus Christ far surpasses the worth of the whole Earth and all things earthly Phil. 3.7.8 To give a right assent to the Gospel of Christ is Impossible without divine and saving Faith infused in the Soul to believe that the Eternal Son of God cloath'd himselfe with humane