give where and to whom he will 3 And for a third ground why eternall life cannot bee given by any but by Christ is taken from the invincible difficulty of the passage to eternall life from the hand of death and the grave there is no redemption What man is he that can deliver his soule from the hand of the grave Psal 49. And if the soule be severed from the body no man can quicken his owne soule that is beyond the power and reach of the creature death is the passage to eternall life and this passage is of invincible difficulty for a man to dye and then to translate himselfe from death to life is far beyond the capacity of the creature and therefore saith our Saviour I am the resurrection and the life Joh. 11.25 and hee speakes of it formally and properly as if he should say being risen from the dead my selfe I rise my selfe and therefore raise up others also so that if you looke at the invincible difficulty of it you shall see that it onely is the Lord Jesus that can give eternall life it is a signe of an hypocrite when with Simon Magus we thinke this gift may be bought with money Reas 2 It is taken from the good pleasure of the Father whom it hath pleased that in Christ all fulnesse of life should dwell Col. 1.19 And when he which is our life shall appeare wee shall appeare with him 1 Cor. 1.30 And therefore since God hath concluded and shut up all the springs of life in Christ and out of Christ there is nothing but death the good pleasure of the Father hath determined this point that he having given us this eternall life in his Son there is no deriving life from any fountaine but only from the Son Vse If upon our having or not having of Christ depends our having or not having of life then from hence you see an evident ground of triall of every one of our estates whether we be alive or dead would any man know whether he have or not have life consider then whether you have or not have Christ And from hence you may discerne three grounds of triall to discerne whether we have Christ or no. First consider what it is to have a Christ Secondly what it is to have the Son Thirdly what signes there be of life and hereby wee shall have direction whether we have Christ or no and by this we may informe our selves aright in this particular This point containes in it the pith and marrow of Christianity so far as any comfort of it may redound to us First then let us consider what signes the Holy Ghost hath given us of our having of Christ We are said to have Christ four wayes in Scripture First by the honour or service or worship of him Secondly in some sense wee are said to have Christ by purchase Thirdly by way of Covenant Fourthly by way of free acceptance when God offers him First a man is said to have God or to have Christ that worships him and the very worshipping of him is the having of him so you read Exod. 20.3 Thou shalt have no other gods but me it is the expresse words of the Commandement And by having of God there he meanes thus much Thou shalt worship no other gods but me worship me and thou hast me worship any other and thou hast another god and not me So have the Lord Jesus Christ by worshipping of him and you have him fully Psal 45.10 11. He is the Lord thy God and worship thou him implying that as God hath set over his Son to us to be our Lord so we must receive accept and worship him this is that which Moses and the people of Israel sung He is my God and is become my salvation Exod. 15.2 He is my God and he is my Fathers God and therefore I will exalt him So that to set up and exalt God in our hearts and lives and to worship him is all one this sets up the Lord to worship him is to be our God Now a little better to understand this point that you may conceive what this worship of Christ is you are to conceive that worship is performed to Christ in minde in heart in life both in our obedience that wee performe in our life in suffering and patience which wee yeeld to God in our lives by all this we worship Christ and so have him 1 Part of the worship of Christ viz. in the mind and judgement First in our mindes we then indeed worship Christ when we have him in high estimation The worship and honour that we owe to Christ is to have him in high esteem Cant. 5 10. She the Spouse there may well call him her beloved Christ is my Christ when he is to me the chiefest of ten thousand Psal 89.6 Who among the sonnes of the mighty can be likened to the Lord. And Exod. 15.11 Who is a God like unto thee When the soule of a man doth esteem of Christ above all other things in the world when there is nothing that the soule so prizes as the Lord Jesus Christ then the soul hath him and herin lies the difference between spiritual earthly things you have an high esteem of an earthly thing and yet have it not a man may highly prize a good bargain and yet have it not but no man sets an high price upon Christ but hee that hath him spirituall things we wholly neglect untill we have them and when we have them then there oisn-thing with us comparable to them untill a man have his portion in the word of God it is but a thing of small value to him and so the Spirit of Gods grace and the blood of Christ untill a man have it it is but a light vaine thing to him yea till he have the Lord Jesus himselfe no spirituall thing is of any value with him but so soone as ever the heart begins to prize Jesus Christ as the chiefest of all the blessings that ever God bestowed upon the sonnes of men and if the soule thinke To prize Christ is to worship him that had he but his part in Christ he were the happiest man in the world in thus prizing him he worships him and in worshipping him hee hath him Now you must conceive that all worship stands in advancing another with the debasing of our selves we humble our selves that we may advance another Now if our debasement to them be such as is not compatible to a creature as when we subject our heart and spirits to them this is divine honour Now that soule that exalts the Lord Jesus Christ as the highest in his owne esteem he debases himself to the dust in his spirit before him John 1.27 It is the speech of John Baptist speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ He that commeth after me is preferred before me whose shooe latchet I am not worthy to loose This is a true worshipping of Christ when in
to be the Lords and offer themselves up to him and when God requires it of us we yeeld our selves to him and desire God to be a God to us then he is our God and we are his people by way of Covenant 2 Cor. 8.5 They gave themselves first to the Lord and then unto us by the will of God when we have bestowed our selves upon God he is not wanting to receive us to bee his people Now for further opening of this It was said this Covenant was made with God by way of sacrifice Psal 50.5.7 that was according to the sacrifice which the people of God did solemnly offer before God of which you read Exod. 24.3 to the end of the eighth ver Moses told the people the words of the Lord and the people answered with one voyce and said All the words which the Lord hath said wee will heare it and doe it They promise themselves to be an obedient people to God what ever he commands them that will they hear and that will they do And on the other side Moses tooke the blood of the sacrifice and sprinkled it upon the people and by this meanes they did passe into Covenant with God It implyes thus much when we come to make a Covenant with God we professe our selves as guilty of death and therefore look up to Christ desiring that his death might be imputed to us and we thereupon offer our selves soules and bodies to bee obedient to God to the death onely we require this back againe of God that as we give up our selves a sacrifice to him so that the Lord Jesus Christ might be imputed unto us and the blood of Christ and the life of Christ might be communicated to us his life of righteousnesse and holinesse and of eternal glory all that life that is in Christ might become ours this doth God require of them and this is to make a Covenant with God by way of sacrifice for the Burnt-offering vers 5. was a Type of Christ the Meat-offering was a Type of the peoples giving up themselves to God and this is to make a Covenant by sacrifice we confesse we deserve death but for time to come we desire to give up our selves to do and suffer his will onely we desire that the blood of Christ might be sprinkled upon our souls and that we might live in his sight Now those that have thus made a Covenant with God hee calls them his people and Saints Thus you see what it is and wherein this Covenant stands sometimes some branch of this is expressed in other Covenants God promises to Abraham that he will be a God to him that is he will not only be a good Father to him nor only a good Master or Tutour nor only a good King nor a good Phisitian but what soever is good that is in God and it is but a drop but a sparke of the well-spring of life in him all the goodnesse that is dispersed in the creature flowes from him there is goodnesse in a good Father or Magistrate or Minister or Friend but when God undertakes to bee a God to us he promises to be to us whatsoever is good in the creature a good Father a good Friend a good Phisitian whatever is good for soule and body he will bee all in all to us and that partly in his owne person and partly in so ordering matters Extent of the Covenant on Gods part that all those things wherein his goodnesse is communicated he will so dispose them that we shall see a goodnesse of God in them all we shall see the presence and goodnesse of God in all the blessings we partake in this world he will be whatsoever is needfull for us in every kind and though any meanes should faile yet God will not faile us this do we desire of God God a fountain of goodnes to his when we desire him to be our God God is an heape and fountaine of goodnesse and he undertakes so to be us Now as wee expect this from God that he would be a God to us so we desire also and offer our selves back again to God to be obedient to his will and to waite upon him for all that which he hath promised us to expect it and to waite for it And when we undertake to be obedient to him not that we promise it in our owne names and for our owne parts but in the behalfe of every soule that belongs to us as wee desire a blessing upon all that belongs to us so we offer up our selves to God and our wives and children Extent of the Covenant on our part and servants and kindred and acquaintance and all that are under our reach either by way of subordination or co-ordination so farre as in our power we may reach either by Commandement or counsell we do as much as in us lyes promise to God that we and our housholds wil serve the Lord Josh 24.15 hee and his houshold that is his children and servants and all that are bought with mony they will all serve the Lord this they offer to God as a Father in a family he and his so much as he is able will prevaile with them to keep Gods Commandements and God will be a God to them all a Father and Master a Magistrate and Minister Husband Friend and Phisitian and all and whatsoever is good thus you see how God comes to be ours by way of Covenant For further clearing of this poynt there is a three-fold Covenant Covenant three fold wherein God doth bind himselfe to his people and we back again to him according as there is among the reasonable creatures 1 The first is Between Prince and People so the high Priest made a Covenant between him and between all the people and between the King that they should be the Lords people and such a Covenant there is usually in all well governed Common-wealths unlesse the King comes in by way of Conquest and Tyranny but in well settled Common-wealths there is a Covenant and Oath between Prince and People 2 There is a Covenant between Man and Wife of which it is said Prov. 2.17 Which forsaketh the Guide of her Youth and forgetteth the Covenant of her God These are all called the Covenant of God he is a party in the Covenant ever 3 Another is an Oath or a Covenant of God to passe betweene Friend and Friend such was the Covenant between Jonathan and David 1 Sam. 20.16 Now there is a certain Covenant between God and his people in al these that look what a King requires of his People or the people of a King the very same doth God require of his people and the people of God that offers himself to be a God to his people that is a Governor a Provider for and a protector of his people to fight their Battels for them and to guide and rule them in peace and justice and the people undertake to be
a spirit of liberty to have the heart set free from all feares it is the summe of all security he hath redeemed us That we might serve him without feare all the dayes of our lives Luk. 1.74 75.78 We are free from feare of Death and Hell and of the World and we doe not feare what flesh can doe unto us Psal 3.5 6. his meaning is That the feares of men should not breake his sleep but he would walke in a child-like confidence before God and man and he would lye him downe quietly and sleepe securely though ten thousand had compassed him round about and the like you read Psal 56.3 What time I am afraid I will trust in thee And vers 11. In God will I put my trust I will not be afraid what man can doe unto me It is an usuall phrase with David and the usuall frame of the spirits of Gods people and this kinde of holy tranquillity of heart and liberty to walk with even nesse and comfort of soule against all the feares of this and another world this kinde of inward liberty from all feare Naturall property of a son is the naturall property of a Sonne a sonne never greatly feares ill measures from his Father all his care is to approve himselfe to his Fathers will and then he knowes his Fathers care is more for his owne provision and protection then his owne can be and if at any time he fall short of doing his Fathers will he makes his peace with his father upon as good termes as he can and there he rests but this is his fathers will and you need not possesse him of that and if he be a sonne he will looke for protection from his father A childe of God knowes his heavenly Father will support him and he feares not what sinne and Hell and the Grave and Death can doe unto him he feares not persecution nor sword nor famine the Lord is with him and he feares none of them I am perswaded saith Paul that in all these we are more then conquerours Rom. 8.37 38. this is the liberty of the spirit of a sonne Now as there is by the Spirit in the heart of the Childe of God liberty from all feare of sinne Liberty from power of sin so he hath liberty from all the power and dominion of sinne he is not subject to the dominion and bondage of sinne sinne hath not that power over him as to carry him captive to it but he walkes at liberty Psal 119. and therefore at liberty because he is not under the law but under grace Rom. 6.14 And notable is that speech in Chap. 8.2 The law of the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath freed me from the law of sinne and of death The spirit of life viz. That spirit of life which hath a legall power in it a power like a law and hath a ruling power over me as the law hath and in both these respects called A Law of God A kinde of spirituall life because there is a lively spirit in him And this law of the Spirituall life of Grace hath freed me set me at liberty from the law and trade of sinne and of death sinne and death set him a course and trade which this Law of the Spirit of life hath set him free from so as that he is but a bungler in sin now not now learned in the law of sinne as sometimes he hath been but the Law of the Spirit of life hath freed him from the skill of sinne and from the command of sinne the law of sinne hath had a soveraigne power over him but now he is freed from the act and trade of sinne and now he walkes at liberty even from the dominion and usurpation of sinne time hath been when nothing would withhold him and he could have followed evil company and unlawfull games they were as lawfull to him as to any and he had no power to resist them but now the Law of the Spirit of life hath helped him against them all this is another part of the spirit of liberty a liberty from the bondage and dominion of sinne and it is a marvellous comfortable liberty indeed many a vallourous spirited man hath so little feare of death that he rushes upon the Pikes as the Horse into the Battell as if it were their meat and drinke but yet he wants this liberty he is not at liberty from feare of danger by the redemption of the Lord Jesus Christ but as Aristotle saith valiant because ignorant of the danger And besides such a naturall man though he be of a magnanimous spirit in respect of fear of danger yet such a man is often captivated of many base lusts and sinfull courses and is not able to resist ill counsell nor ill company whereas a godly man is free from all these free from the bondage and dominion of sinne and all the law of sinne he looks at it as a cobweb-law which hee may easily breake through and accordingly doth so and overcomes all his former sinfull lusts Freedome from sins Service Thirdly There is another frame of this spirit of liberty as it is the Spirit of the Sonne it frees us from the service of men 1 Cor. 7.23 Not that it forbids civill subjection not so to make men free but if God have called you a servant live as a servant 1 Cor. 7.12 to 20. but use your liberty the rather if you can but if you must needs be a servant then know that he that is a servant is the Lords free man but be not ye the servants of men that is though you owe and doe your bodily service to men yet towards God walk at liberty and if thy labour be great and thy reward little yet doe thy service and looke for more wages at the hand of Christ Col. 3.23 then from men in serving men serve Christ and therefore goe about your Masters service not with eye service but in singlenesse of heart serving the Lord and not men in serving of men they do faithfull and diligent service to the Lord and therefore they do it willingly and not grudgingly but in much quietnesse of spirit and are more free for Christian duties and have more quiet time for seeking God then ever after 1 Cor. 7.22 He that is married careth for the things of the world And it is true he that is most free is but a servant to Christ but a free servant though But he that is a servant is the Lords free-man the meaning is not only to doe the worke of his owne service with a free spirit but he is not onely a free man when he is most bound but then hee goes about the service of God with much more liberty of spirit then when he is his own man It is oft times wonder to see servants being called what care they will have of Christian dutyes what time they will steal to call upon God and to examin
motions of Gods spirit and cannot indure that any Ordinance should bring us nearer to Christ Act. 7.51 Yee have always resisted the holy ghost expelled the blessed of God that if the holy ghost but dart any good councel into their hearts they cannot indure to hear it nor entertain any motion of it but grieve and vex the holy Spirit of God and they are not well till they quench it 1 Thess 5.19 Esa 5.3 we are alive to nothing but to run away from God alive to sinne alive to doe evill but to doe well we have no understanding Jer. 4.22 Apt to purge and cleanse our selves from all good things but wholly undisposed to doe any thing that is well this is the true estate of us all Look at us as we are by nature all of us without Christ cannot put forth one act of spirituall life not one good motion to be found in such a condition And in the first place for begetting any unto grace we rather doe the quite contrary we addict our selves to beget men to become the children of Hell worse then our selves Matth. 23.15 two-fold more the children of Hell and because that may be more proper to corrupt teachers Jeremy speakes it of all the sonnes of nature and those especially that had lived a while under the meanes and were not thereby brought on to an estate of grace those whom God had kindled some fire in their hearts and whom he would have brought on to grace even these They are all grievously revolted walking with slanders they are brasse and Iron they are all corrupters Jer. 6.28 He doth not say they are all corrupted but all corrupters that is such as are not only naught themselves but they corrupt others also they make others worse for their sakes No man that sets his face to God-ward but if he come among them he is the worse for them every man is kept off the more from goodnesse by their meanes they doe not love that men should be too forward or too precise nor to keep such a puleing nor such a praying we are all by nature corrupters Gen. 6.11 All flesh had corrupted their way even every man had done it every one is the worse for us that hath to doe with us if we see but any good disposition in them to be comming on in the waies of grace we doe as much as in us lyes to quench and damp and smother them and never rest by our good wills till we make them as ill as our selves and harden their hearts from Gods feare this is the true carriage of all those who are out of Christ He that hath not the Son he hath no life no motion of spirituall life no growing up in Christ no purging out of sinfull uncleannesse and therefore now to apply this conceive thus much First It applyes it selfe against the Church of Rome Application first who maintaine that men in the state of nature have free will to lay hold upon Christ and they conceive it is upon very faire termes but I would only demand of you this question Whether when they doe lay hold on Christ as they conceive whether they have him or they have him not they will say They have not Christ till they have received him for what hast thou that thou hast not received 1 Cor. 4.7 And till they have received him how shall they lay hold upon him and if not receive him they are dead men and when a man is dead what can he have by any benefit that is offered him Offer him never so largely and he can receive no benefit by it and if that any doe lay hold upon Christ were they not living when they so layed hold upon him so that when they doe lay hold upon Christ whether is it an action of life or no If not how shall they lay hold on Christ and without Christ no life A man in the state of nature neither doth good nor can he doe any good nor is he willing to doe good and therefore well doth the Apostle say It is God that workes in you both the will and the deed Phil. 2.12 13. Any thing that we doe that is good is wholly from the grace of Christ and this is just against the Papists Secondly It serves to teach us all to bemoane our owne estates or the estates of any of ours that we yet see in the gall of bitternesse lying in an estate of nature is it thy selfe or thy father or mother or thy children or servants whatever he be be he never so good a natured man if he be yet without Christ there is no life in him I say looke upon him as thy dead friend If thou didst look upon thy father and mother or children and see them lye dead before thee thou wouldest mourne bitterly for them you know what is said Zach. 12.10 As a man mournes for his first borne if our first borne or any that is neare to us dye we mourne bitterly for them and refuse to be comforted as was the case of Rachels mourning for her children and would not be comforted because they were not Matth. 2.18 they were all dead and therefore caused a bitter mourning it was the wounding and rending of her soule And may not this be the case of many a fruitfull mother many children and yet all of them dead in Gods sight not a soule living in the sight of God And is it not a farre more bitter death to be dead in sinne then to be dead in the body when it is a living soule in Gods sight then blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for even so saith the Spirit that never spake words of falshood Revel 14.13 I say therefore if that our children live to God and have the life of grace in their hearts there is no danger of their death then thy children shall come againe to thy hearing at the resurrection of the just and thou shalt imbrace them with comfort and fill thy soule with unspeakable joy and fulnesse of glory if they dye in the favour and grace of God they shall rise to glory but if they be spiritually dead no goodnesse in the world in them no spirituall life at all no life of righteousnesse or holinesse which are the first fruits of the Spirit and of glory in this world then weep for these children and those friends that husband or wife or brother or sister weep for every soule that is in an estate of sinne and death they are as so many dead Corps you may sometimes see a whole house-full of dead creatures not one of them living to God not one of thy acquaintance not one of all thy brothers and sisters weep and mourne bitterly for them that are thus wounded with sinne and bleed deadly and gaspe for their last breath and it may be shall never finde grace from God in this world their present condition is fearefull and mourne thou for them in a godly manner that