Spirit be put upon him I answer Christ is both God and Man Christ as God gives the Spirit to his humane nature so hee communicates his Spirit the Spirit is his Spirit as well as the Fathers the Spirit proceeds from them both Christ as man receives the Spirit God the Father and the Son put the Spirit upon the man-hood of Christ so Christ both gives and receives the Spirit in diverse respects as God hee gives and sends the Spirit the spiration and breathing of the Spirit is from him as well as from the Father but as man he received the Spirit And this is the reason of it next under the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Christ the mediator was to be the spring and originall of all comfort and good therefore Christs nature must not onely be sanctified and ordained by the Spirit but he must receive the Spirit to inrich it for whatsoever is wrought in the creature is by the Spirit whatsoever Christ did as man he did by the Spirit Christs humane nature therefore must be sanctified and have the Spirit put upon it God the Father the first person in Trinity and God the Son the second they worke not immediately but by the Holy Ghost the third person therefore whatsoever is wrought upon the creatâ—re it comes from the Holy Ghost immediately so Christ received the Holy Ghost as sent from the Father and the Son Now as the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son so he workes from the Father and the Son he sanctifieth and purifieth and doth all from the Father and the Son and knits us to the Father and the Son to the Son first and then to the Father therefore it is said The grace of our Lord Iesus Christ the love of God the Father and the Communion of the Holy Ghost because all the communion we have with God is by the Holy Ghost all the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Ghost and all the communion that God hath with us and wee with God is by the Holy Ghost for the Spirit is the bond of union betweene Christ and us and betweene God and us God communicates himselfe to us by his Spirit and we communicate with God by his Spirit God doth all in us by his Spirit and we doe all backe againe to â—od by the Spirit Because Christ as a Head as the second Adam was to be the root of all that are saved as the first Adam was the roote of all that are damned he was therefore to receive the Spirit and to have it put upon him in a more excellent and rich manner for wee must know that all things are first in Christ and then in us God chose him first and then he chose us God singled him out to be the Saviour the second Adam and he cals us in Christ. God justified Christ from our sinnes being our Surety taking our sinnes upon him we are justified because hee by his resurrection quit himselfe from the guilt of our sinnes as having paid the debt Christ is the first fruites of them that rise againe we rise againe because he is risen Christ first ascended we ascend in Christ. Christ is first loved we are loved in the Beloved Christ is first blessed we are blessed with all spirituall blessings in Iesus Chrest So whatsoever is in us we have it at the second hand we have the Spirit in us but he is first in Christ God hath put the Spirit in Christ as the spring as the second Adam as a publike person that should receive the Spirit for us all he is first in all things Christ must have the preheminence he hath the preheminence in all both before time in time and after time in election in whatsoever is done here in this world and in glorification all is first in Christ and then in us he is the elder Brother We must understanding this to give Christ his due honour and respect and to know whence we have all we have Therefore the Spirit is said here first to be put upon Christ. Wee have not the Holy Ghost immediately from God but we have him as sanctifying Christ first and then us and whatsoever the Holy Ghost doth in us he doth the same in Christ first and hee doth it in us because in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 14. Christ saith He shall take of mine whatsoever the Holy Ghost works in us hee takes of Christ first How is that Thus The Holy Ghost comforts us with reasons from Christ he dyed and hath reconciled us to God therefore now God is at peace with thee Here the Holy Ghost takes a ground of comfort from the death of Christ. When the Holy Ghost would raise a man up to holinesse of life he tels him Christ thy Saviour and Head is quickned and is now in Heaven therefore we ought to rise to holinesse of life If the Holy Ghost be to worke either comfort or grace or any thing he not onely doth the same thing that he did first in Christ but hee doth it in us by reasons from Christ by grounds fetched from Christ the Holy Ghost tells our soules that God loves Christ first and he loves us in Christ and that we are those that God gave Christ for that we are those that Christ makes intercession for in Heaven the Holy Ghost witnesseth to us the love of the Father and the Sonne and so hee fetcheth from Christ whatsoever he works And hence the worke of the Holy Ghost is distinguished from illusions and delusions that are nothing but franticke conceits of comfort that are groundlesse The Holy Ghost fetcheth all from Christ in his working and comfort and he makes Christ the patterne of all for whatsoever is in Christ the Holy Ghost which is the Spirit of Christ workes in us as it is in Christ. Therefore in Iohn 1.13 it is said of his fullnesse we receive grace for grace that is grace answerable to his grace There are three things that we receive answerable to Christ by the Spirit We receive grace that is the favour of God answerable to the favour God shewes his Son he loves his Son he is gratiously disposed to him and he loves us So grace habituall wee have grace in us answerable to the grace in Christ wee have love answerable to his love patience answerable to his Patience Obedience and Humility answerable to that in Christ the Spirit workes a conformity to Christ in all things Likewise in the third place the Spirit assures us of the same priviledges that issue from grace Christ is a Son the Spirit tells us wee are sons Christ is an heire the Spirit tells us wee are heires with Christ Christ is the King of Heaven and Earth the Spirit tells us that wee are Kings that his riches are ours thus wee have grace for grace both favour and grace in us and priviledges issuing from grace we have all as they are in Christ. Even
for salvation there is not any thing in the world that will one day more torment you then your refusall of him O that we should ever live to heare of salvation so freely offered and of a Saviour so authorized yet notwithstanding that we should respect our sinnes more then our soules and because we could not have him to bee our Saviour except wee came under his governement and bee ruled by him as a King we refused him wholy altogether Indeed if we might have had salvation by him and the forgivenesse of sinnes and withall have remained under the rule and sway of our owne lusts and beene led by them we would have beeene contented to have had him but rather then we would leave our blasphemous our uncleane inujurious and covetous courses of life wee were content to let Christ goe if hee would O that we should reject this Sealed Saviour O that we should refuse salvation offered on such loving termes when God was so loving as to Seale and authorize his Sonne when the Sonne was so loving as to give himselfe when he was Sealed to refuse this and that for such base respects will certainely one day when the conscience is wakened proove the greatest torment that can be See how the Apostle notably enforceth this in the second of the Hebrewes if so be they did not escape that despised Moses Law How shall we escape if wee neglect so great salvation hee doth not say how shall we escape if we oppose Christ if we raile on him if wee despise his Image in his children as many cursed wretches doe but how shall we escape if we doe but neglect so great salvation so witnessed and authorized with all the signes so offered and tendered with all the termes of love that may be And therfore if there be any heere that have lived in sinfull courses and have a purpose to breake them off that are weary of the governement of their lusts and of Satan that rules them by their lusts for all are under one governement or other either under the Sealed governement of Christ or under the base governement of Satan that tends to damnation O leave it and come under this Governour Sealed by God the Father authorized from Heaven by the blessed Trinity by miracles and by all the arguments that can be come under his blessed governement and you shall doe well God the Father the partie offended with your sinnes he hath Sealed him and he cannot refuse a Mediator of his owne Sealing And doe not say your sinnes have beene thus and thus for consider what were these parties that he offers himselfe to heere that he saith to Labour for the meate that endures to everlasting life were they not cursed Hypocrites that followed him for the loaves and yet he saith to them Labour for the meate that endures c. I am Sealed even for your salvation if you will come out of your hypocrisie and be ruled by me therefore let none stand out from comming under the governement of Christ for hee offers mercy you see heere to the worst of men even to cursed hypocrites And to conclude with a word of comfort if there be any poore distressed soule frighted in conscience with the sight of his sinnes and Satans temptations O let such consider the love of God in Christ Satan pictures out God as a terrible Judge and so he is indeed to men that goe on in their sinnes a consuming fire but art thou weary of thy courses art thou willing to come under a better covenant let not Satan abuse thee by setting God before thee as a terrible Judge and Christ as one that would not save thee no come in kisse the Son for him hath the Father Sealed Sealed for thee if thou bee weary of thy sinnes inforce not upon thy soule any unwillingnesse to be in God wherefore doth God stoope so low and labour by all these arguments heere as that Christ is the Sonne of man and that hee shall give it you and that the Father hath Sealed him for that end wherefore is all this but to shew his willingnesse to receive thee wherefore hath the Father Sealed Christ but in love to thee Come in therefore and then if you will seale to this truth if you will beleeve and cast your selves on Gods gratious promise even against doubting and distrust you shall finde God sealing you by his Spirit you shall finde his Spirit witnessing to your spirits that you are the sonnes of God Heere then you see is sure footing for poore doubting soules to fasten upon God the Father the party offended hath Sealed his Sonne hath authorized him to save thee if thou repent and come in what are all thy sins and unworthinesse to Christ God-man Sealed and authorized by the Father who is the partie offended if thou art willing to come in bring all thy sins and oppose them to Christ God-man Sealed by the Father and they will vanish as a cloud But as I said before if thou wilt not come in and accept of this Saviour if thou wilt not submit thy selfe to his governement thou sealest thy damnation Thus you see I have unfolded this blessed portion of Scripture Christ Jesus and all the prerogatives and benefits that come by him is the food that endureth to everlasting life you see the arguments our blessed Saviour useth to enforce us to Labour after this food it is food it is food that endures it is food that endures to everlasting life and he will give it for him the Father hath Sealed and authorized so to do he is both the gift and the giver both the food and the inviter to the food both the Priest and the Sacrifice Labour therefore after this food There is an objection which I will briefely answer and so end Labour after it why Christ will give it if he will give it why must wee labour after it and if we must labour for it how doth he give it how can these two guift and labour stand together I answer very well Christ will give himselfe and forgivenesse of sinnes and life everlasting and yet we must labour too But wee must know for what we must labour we must not labour for any merit to the title unto Heaven and happinesse Christ indeed gives that But labour in the use of all good meanes to get knowledge and faith to receive this gift to get the knowledge of Christ what he is in his natures and offices what he hath promised what he hath done and what he hath suffered what the intent of the Gospell is what the Giver is and what the authority is that his Father hath given him this requires labour it is a labour to crack the shell to understand the letter of the Scripture to know what the gift and what the giver is And it is likewise a labour to get faith to receive this gift to get the soule emptied of all selfe-confidence of all worth in it selfe and
of red well coloured earth to a lump of flesh it is a wondrous conjunction But there is a more supernaturall conjunction of man when all of us sinners as we are are knit to Christ our head and head and members make one Christ here is a wondrous conjunction Saint Paul calls it a mystery Ephes. 5. these conjunctions in us are wonderfull But now to goe higher in Christ there are more wonderfull conjunctions for the greatest and the meanest to joyne together for God and man to come together the Lord of all and a servant and such a servant as should be under a curse for the highest of all to come to the deepest abasement for there was no abasement ever so deepe as Christs was in a double regard First none ever went so low as he for hee suffered the wrath of God and bore upon him the sins of us all none ever was so low And then in another respect his abasement was greatest because hee descended from the highest top of glory and for him to be man to be a servant to be a curse to suffer the wrath of God to be the lowest of all Lord whether dost thou descend here is a wonder in these conjunctions Next to Christs abasement was Adams because he was the most excellent being in the state of innocencie and carrying the image of God and being familiar with God for him presently to come into that fearefull condition it was the greatest abasement because it was from the greatest dignity that made the abasement of Christ so great for Lordship to submit to service for God to be man the blessed God to become a curse heere is matter of wonder indeed In Christ againe there was a conjunction of perfect body perfect soule and perfect God and all make one Christ In the Trinity there is a conjunction of three persons in one nature that is a wondrous conjunction but it belongs not to our present purpose here you see there is matter of wonder in the person that Christ should be a servant There is matter of wonder likewise in that from whence he is a servant whence comes it that Christ is a servant It is from the wondrous love of God and the wondrous love of Christ to be so abased it was wondrous love in God to give him to us to be so abased and the wondrous misery we were in that we could not otherwise be freed from for such was the pride of man that he being man would exalt himselfe to bee like God God became man he became a servant to expiate our pride in Adam so that it is wondrous in the spring of it There was no such love as Christs to become a servant there was no such misery as we were in out of which we were delivered by this abasement of Christ becomming a servant so it is wondrous in that regard springing from the infinite love and mercy of God which is greater in the worke of Redemption and Reconciliation then in the Creation of the world for the distance betweene nothing and something was lesse then the distance betweene sin and happinesse For nothing adds no opposition but to be in a sinfull state there is opposition therefore it was greater love and mercy for God when wee were sinfull and so obnoxious to eternall destruction to make us of sinners not onely men but to make us happie to make us heires of heaven out of a sinfull and cursed estate then to make us of nothing something to make us men in Adam for there God prevailed over nothing but here his mercy triumphed over that which is opposite to God over sinfullnesse and cursednesse To shew that the creature cannot be so low but there is somewhat in God above the misery of the creature his mercy shall triumph over the basest estate where hee will shew mercy therefore there is mercy above all mercy and love above all love in that Christ was a servant Thirdly it is wondrous in regard of the fruit we have by this service of Christ the worke of our Redemption to be translated from the kingdome of Satan to the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God to be brought out of darkenesse into marveilous light it is marveilous matter of wonder the good wee have by this abasement of Christ Behold what love the Father hath shewed us that wee should be called the sonnes of God Now all this comes from Christs being a servant our liberty comes from his service and slavery our life from his death our adoption and sonship and all comes from his abasement therefore it is a matter of wonderment for the great things we have by it O the depth O the depth saith Saint Paul here are all dimensions in this excellent worke that Christ hath wrought by his abasement by his incarnation and taking upon him the forme of a servant and dying for us here is the height and breadth and length and depth of the love of God in Christ O the riches of Gods mercie the Apostles they stand in a wonder and admiration of this and indeed if any thing be to be admired it is Christ that wondrous conjunction the wondrous love that wrought it and the wondrous fruit we have by it It is the basenesse of our nature we can wonder at shallow things there cannot be a foolery but there will be many about it presently and stand admiring every emptie idle thing that the nature of man is carried away with whereas indeed there is nothing worthy of admiration but the wonderfull love of God O how wonderfull are thy workes saith David of the works of Creation Psal. 8. the worke of Creation and of providence whereby God guides the world are wonderfull and the Psalmist cries out of the folly of men that do not regard the worke of the Lord Psal. 107. Fooles regard not this The workes of the Lord are worthy to bee considered they are knowne of all that delight in them Psal. 111. but if these things bee so wonderfull and to bee regarded and delighted in alas what is all the worke of redemption Great is the mysterie of godlinesse God manifested in the flesh c. there are mysteries matters of admiration but carnall men thinke these triviall matters they can heare matters of more rarity and when they speake of these things alas they are too wise to wonder tush they know the Gospell well enough whereas indeed as wee see here they are things that deserve the admiration of Angels and as they deserve it so the Angels prie into these excellent secrets in Jesus Christ. Christ was a servant by office and by condition we must not rest in this base condition for he took upon him the forme of a servant that he might be an excellent servant there is both basenesse and excellencie in the word servant for his humiliation was a degree of his exaltation and a part of his advancement if wee regard his
adds to our comfort that whatsoever Christ did for us he did it as chosen hee is a chosen stone as Saint Peter saith 1. Peter 2.6 A precious corner stone though refused of the builders yet precious in Gods sight Was Christ a chosen servant of God and shall not we take Gods choise Is not Gods choise the best and the wisest Hath God chosen Christ to worke our salvation and shall we choose any other Shall we run to Saints mediation to the Virgin Mary and others for intercession which is a part of Christs office Who chose Mary and Peter and Paul to this worke there is no mention in Scripture of them for this purpose But behold my servant whom I have chosen God in Paradice did choose a wife for Adam so God hath chosen a husband for his Church he hath chosen Christ for us therefore it is intollerable sacrilegious rebellion and impudency to refuse a Saviour and Mediator of Gods choosing and to set up others of our own as if we were wiser to choose for our selves then God is we may content our selves well enough with Gods choise because he is the party offended Besides it is folly to goe out from Christ where there is all fulnesse and content to leave Gods chosen servant and to goe to any other servant to any broken vessell God rests in this servant as Pharoah did in Ioseph the second person in the Kingdome therefore let Gods choise and ours agree And this directs us also in our devotions to God how to carry our selves in our prayers and services to offer Christ to God Behold Lord thy chosen servant that thou hast chosen to bee my Mediator my Saviour my all in all to me he is a Mediator and a Saviour of thine owne choosing thou canst not refuse thy owne choise if thou looke upon me there is nothing but matter of unworthinesse but look upon him whom thou hast chose my head and Saviour Againe if Christ be a chosen servant O let us take heed how we neglect Christ. When God hath chosen him for us shall not we think him worthy to be imbraced and regarded shall we not kisse the Sonne with the kisse of love and faith and subjection he is a Saviour of Gods owne choosing refuse him not What is the reason that men refuse this chosen stone They will not be laid low enough to build upon this corner stone this hidden stone the excellencie of Christ is hidden it appeares not to men men will not be squared to be built upon him stones for a building must be framed and made even and flat men stick out with this and that lust they will not be pared and cut and fitted for Christ if they may have their lusts and wicked lives they will admit of Christ but wee must make choise of him as a stone to build upon him and to bee built on him wee must be made like him we like not this laying low and abasing therefore we refuse this Corner stone though God hath made him the corner of building to all those that have the life of grace here or shall have glory hereafter The Papists admit him to be stone but not the onely stone to build on but they build upon him and Saints upon him and works upon him and traditions but he is the onely corner stone God hath chosen him onely and wee muâ—â— choose him onely that wee may bee framed and laid upon him to make up one building so much for that Behold my servant whom I have chosen My Beloved in whom my soule is well-pleased How doe we know that these words in the Prophet Isaiah are fitly appliable to Christ By the greatest authority that ever was from the beginning of the world by the immediate voice of God the Father from Heaven who applies these words in Isaiah to Christ Mat. 3. in his inauguration when he was baptised This is my Beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased this is that my Sonne that beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beloved Sonne so beloved that my soule delights in him he is capable of my whole love I may powre out my whole love upon him in whom I am well pleased it is the same with that heere in whom my soule delighteth the one expresseth the other How and in what respect is Christ thus beloved of God First as he is God the Sonne of God the engraven Image of his Father so he is primum amabile the first lovely thing that ever was when the Father loves him he loves himselfe in him so he loves him as God as the second person as his owne image and character And as man he loves him for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world he was conceived fashioned and framed in his mothers wombe by the Holy Ghost It is said Heb. 10.5 God gave him a body God the Father by the Holy Ghost fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body therefore God must needs love his owne workmanship Againe there was nothing in him displeasing to God there was no sinne found in his life any way therefore as man he was well-pleasing to God he took the man-hood and ingrafted it into the second person and inriched it there therefore he must needs love the Man-hood of Christ being taken into so neare a union with the God-head As God and man Mediator especially hee loves and delights in him in regard of his office he must needs delight in his owne Ordinance and Decree now he decreed and sealed him to that office therefore he loves and delights in him as a Mediator of his owne appointing and ordaining to be our King and Priest and Prophet Againe hee loved and delighted in him in regard of the execution of his office both in doing and suffering In doing the Evangelist saith hee did all things well when hee healed the sick and raised the dead and cured all diseases whatsoever he did was well done And for his suffering God delighted in him for that as it is in Iohn 10.17 My Father loves me because I lay downe my life and so in Isaiah 53. He shall divide him a portion with the great because hee powred out his soule unto death and in Philip. 2. Because he abased himselfe to the death of the Crosse God gave him a name above all names therefore God loves and delights in him for his suffering and abasement It is said of Noah Gen. 8.21 that he offered a sacrifice after the flood and the Lord smelled a sweet savour of his sacrifice and thereupon hee saith I will not curse the earth againe so God loves and delights in Christ as he offered himselfe a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour wherin God rests he felt such a sweet savour in the sacrifice of Christ he is so delighted in it that he will never destroy mankind hee will never destroy any that beleeve in Christ the sacrifice of Noah
servant to do our worke for us to suffer for us to beare the burthen of our sinnes upon the tree to become our husband to bestow his riches upon us to raise us to the same condition with himselfe and withall to be such a one as God hath chosen out to love and delight in as the best object of his love and most capable of it and for us not to solace and delight our selves in him that God delights in when God delights in him for our sake God loves and delights in him for the worke of salvation and redemption by his blood and shall not wee love and imbrace him for his love which is for our good What good hath God by it but onely the glory of his mercy in saving our soules through Christ Therefore if God love him for the good he doth to us much more should we love him for the fruit of it that wee receive our selves It should shame us therefore when we finde dullnesse and coldnesse upon us that wee can heare of any thing better then of Christ and arguments concerning Christ are cold to us alas where is our love and joy and delight and when we can make no better but a carnall use of the incarnation and other benefits by Christ we should therefore desire God to shed the love of Christ into our hearts more and more that we may feele in our soules the love that hee beares to us and may love God and Christ againe for that that hee hath done for us Hence we have also a ground of estimation of Christians to be excellent persons doth God valew poore sinfull soules so much as to give Christ for them to become a Saviour doth he delight in Christ for giving himselfe for them and shall not we love one another whom God and Christ so loves But if God love and delight in those that are in Christ with the same love and delight that he hath in him how shall I know that I am in Christ and that God thus delights in me Briefly a man may know that hee is in Christ if he find the Spirit of Christ in him for the same Spirit when Christ tooke our nature that sanctified that blessed masse wherof he was made when there was an union betweene him and the second person the same Spirit sanctifies our soules and bodies there is one Spirit in the head and in the members therfore if we find the Spirit of Christ in us we are in Christ and he in us Now this Spirit is renewing Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature all is new old things are done away the old manner of language the old disposition old affections old company all old things are past all is new and if a man be a new creature hee hath right and title to the new heaven and new earth let us examine the worke of grace in us if there be no change in us we have no present interest in Christ we have to do with him because he is still woing us to be in him but as yet we have no title to him The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight the Spirit that makes us new creatures and stirres us up to behold this servant it is a transforming beholding if wee looke upon him with the eye of faith it will make us like Christ for the Gospell is a mirrour and such a mirrour that when we looke into it and see our selves interessed in it wee are changed from glory to glory a man cannot looke upon the love of God and of Christ in the Gospell but it will change him to be like God and Christ for how can we see Christ and God in Christ but we shall see how God hates sin and this will transforme us to hate it as God doth who hated it so that it could not bee expiated but with the blood of Christ God-man so seeing the holinesse of God in it it will transforme us to be holy when we see the love of of God in the Gospell and the love of Christ giving himselfe for us this will transforme us to love God when wee see the humility and obedience of Christ when we looke on Christ as Gods chosen servant in all this and as our surety and head it transformes us to the like humility and obedience those that find not their dispositions in some comfortable measure wrought to this blessed transformation they have not yet those eyes that the Holy Ghost requireth here Behold my servant whom I have chosen my Beloved in whom my soule delighteth I will put my Spirit upon him Now wee come to the qualification of Christ for his calling in these words I will put my Spirit upon him that is I will cloath him with my Spirit I will put it as it were upon him as a garment Now there were divers degrees of Christs receiving the Spirit at severall times for hee was conceived by the Holy Ghost the Holy Ghost did sanctifie that blessed masse whereof his body was framed in the wombe of the Virgin he was quickned in the wombe in his conception by the Holy Ghost and he was graced by the Holy Ghost and led by the Spirit in all things before his Baptisme but afterward when he came to set upon his office to be the Prophet and Priest and King of his Church that great office of saving mankind which he did not solemly set upon till hee was thirty yeares old then God powred upon him a special portion of the Spirit answerable to that great calling then the Spirit lighted upon him Christ was ordained to his office by the greatest authority that ever any was ordained from the beginning of the world for at his Baptisme when he was ordained and set apart to his office there was the Father from heaven uttered an audible voice This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased and there was Christ the partie baptized and installed into that great office then there was the Holy Ghost in the forme and shape of a Dove it being a matter of the greatest consequence that ever was in the world greater then the Creation it was fit it should be done with the greatest authority and so it was the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost being present at the admission of Christ into his office this is especially here intended though the other bee included I will put my Spirit vpon him that is I will annoint him as it is in Isaiah 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon mee saith Christ because the Lord hath annointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke to binde up the broken hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives to open the prison for them that are bound to proclaime the acceptable yeare of the Lord that is the yeare of Iubile for that was a Type of Christ to preach the Gospell deliverance to all that are in captivity servitude and thraldome under Satan and sin this was
no Spirit of Christ at all I will not be large in the point onely I speake this by way of tryall to know whether wee have the Spirit of Christ in us or no if not we have nothing to doe with Christ For Christ saves us not as he is out of us onely Christ was to doe something of himselfe that wee have no share in onely the good of it is ours hee was to redeeme us by his blood to bee a Sacrifice the title to Heaven and salvation was wrought by Christ out of us but there is somewhat that he doth not onely for us but hee works in us by his Spirit that is the fitting of us for that he hath given us title too and the applying of that that he hath done for us Whosoever therefore hath any benefit by Christ he hath the Spirit to apply that to himselfe and to fit and qualifie him to be a member of such a Head and an heire of such a Kingdome whosoever Christ works any thing for he doth also worke in them there is a Spirit of application and that spirit of application if it be true it is a Spirit of sanctification and renovation fitting us every way for our condition Let us not abuse our selves as the world commonly doth concerning Christ they thinke God is mercifull and Christ is a Saviour Jt is true but what hath he wrought in thee by his Spirit hast thou the Spirit of Christ or else thou art none of his Romans 8. Where ever Christ is he goes with his Spirit to teach us to apply what Christ hath done for us and to fit us to bee like him Therefore let those that live in any sinnes against conscience thinke it a diabollicall illusion to thinke God and Christ is mercifull I but where is the worke of the Spirit All the hope thou hast is onely that thou art not in Hell as yet for the time to come but for the present I dare not say thou hast any thing to doe with Christ when there is nothing of the Spirit in thee the Spirit of Christ conformes the Spouse to bee like the husband and the members to be like the Head therefore begg of Christ that hee would annoint himselfe King in our hearts and Prophet and Priest in our hearts to doe that that he did to know his will as a Prophet to rule in us as a King and to stirre up prayers in us as a Priest to doe in some proportion that that he doth though it bee in never so little a measure for wee receive it in measure but Christ beyond measure wee must labour for so much as may manifest to us the truth of our estate in Christ that we are not dead but living branches Now Christ gives and conveyes his Spirit especially and most of all since his ascention and sitting at the right hand of God for after his resurrection he declared his victory over all his enemies and therefore was able to give the Spirit without opposition and upon his resurrection death and hell and the anger of God were overcome and our sinnes were satisfied for now Christ was Head indeed having trod all his enemies under his feete now he was enabled to give the Spirit but upon his ascention into Heaven and his sitting there he was more enabled for even as the Sunne being so high above the Earth doth convey his light and heate and influence upon the inferiour bodies So Christ being so highly advanced is fitter to infuse his Spirit and grace heere below since his exaltation therefore the Church is fuller of grace and grace hath beene more spread and diffused since the ascention of Christ then before and the Evangelist gives it as a reason The Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not ascended intimating that after his ascention there was a more full portion of the Spirit given God being fully appeased by the death of Christ and Christ staying the advantage that was fittest to give the Spirit now God the Father gives the Spirit with the Sonne so in both regards there was a greater fullnesse of the Spirit Therefore the Prophets speaking of the times of Christ especially of his exaltation shew that then they should be filled with the Spirit that the Spirit should be povvred out upon all flesh more aboundantly then before And that is the reason that the Apostles so differed from themselves before and after Christs ascention what a wondrous alteration was there Peter before hee flies even at the voice of a maide and they were full of contention and vaine glory but after we see when the Spirit the Holy Ghost came downe after Christs ascention into Heaven how couragious and valarous they were that they accounted it a matter of glory to suffer any thing and indeed we have more or lesse valour and courage the more of lesse Spirit we have now they having received more abundance of Spirit hereupon they were more couragious and undaunted at one time then another and this abundance of the Spirit comes especially since Christs advancement But how or by what meanes doth Christ give his Spirit to us This Spirit that is so necessary for us it is given by the ministery of the Gospell which is the ministery of the Spirit received ye the Holy Ghost by the workes of the law or by the hearing of faith preached when the love of God in Christ and the benefits by Christ are layed open in the preaching of the Gospell to us God gives his holy Spirit the Spirit of Christ. Now God in Christ would save us by a triumphant and abundant love and mercy and the Spirit of God never goes but where there is a magnifying of the love and mercy of God in Christ therefore the ministery of the Gospell which onely discovers the amity and love of God to man-kinde being now reconciled in Christ it is accompanyed with the Spirit to assure us of our part and portion in those benefits for the Spirit is the fruit of Gods love as well as Christ Christ is the first gift and the Spirit is the second therefore that part of the word that discovers Gods exceeding love to man-kinde leaving Angells when they were fallen in their cursed estate and yet giving his Sonne to become man and a curse for us the discovery of this love and mercy of God and of his Son Christ to us is joyned with the Spirit for by the Spirit we see our cursed estate without the love and mercy of God in Christ and likewise we are convinced of the love of God in Christ and thereupon we love God againe and trust to his mercy and out of love to him performe all chearfull obedience whatsoever we doe else if it be not stirred by the Spirit apprehending the love of God in Christ it is but morallity A man shall never goe to Heaven but by such a disposition and frame and temper of soule as is wrought by the Holy Ghost
but they either resist them or quench them and wrong and grieve the Spirit as Saint Paul saith Greive not the Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption Ephes. 5. Men speake or doe somewhat that grieves the Spirit of God in them their conscience being enlightned by the Spirit tels them that they have done that which is naught yet notwithstanding for this or that advantage to please this or that company they will speake or doe that which is ill and then the Spirit that was given in some measure before is grieved at this carnall and sinnefull liberty Therefore if yee would be guided by the Spirit of Christ take heed of all these and of such like courses Another meanes whereby we may come to obtaine the Spirit is Prayer to bee guided by the Spirit of Christ next to Christ himselfe our Saviour is the most excellent thing in the world therefore it is worth the begging and getting Luke 11.13 How much more shall your heavenly Father give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Insinuating that wee can aske nothing greater then the Spirit A man that hath a sanctified judgement next the forgivenesse of his sins through Christ hee begs nothing more then the Spirit to witnesse the favour of God in Christ and to fit him for other favours especially to fit us for the world to come God can give nothing greater nor we can beg nothing greater if wee have sanctified judgements then the Spirit of God therefore let us have a high esteeme of the holy Spirit of the motions of it and out of an high esteeme in our hearts beg of God the guidance of the Spirit that he would leade us by his Spirit and subdue our corruptions that wee may not bee lead by our owne lusts and so consequently by Satan that leads us by our owne lusts in the way that leads to perdition So much for that I will put my Spirit c. And he shall shew judgement to the Gentiles After Christ was fully furnished as he was furnished with the Spirit of God and with a commission from Heaven from Father Sonne and Holy Ghost having this high commission and gifts for it by the Spirit he fals upon his office presently we are never fit for any thing till wee have the Spirit and when we have the Spirit it is active and vigorous and working He shall shew judgement to the Gentiles What is meant by judgement here By judgement is meant lawes hee shall declare his lawes his truth and together with declaring the truth of the Gospell which is his Evangelicall law hee shall declare it in the soule and bow the neck of the inward man to the obedience of this his judgement Christ then by himselfe and his Apostles and Ministers shall declare his truth which is the scepter of his governement to the Gentiles and not onely declare it as Princes doe their lawes by Proclamations and Statutes c. but hee shall declare it to the heart by his Spirit Now in the hebrew language ordinarily wise governement is called judgement hee shall declare judgement that is his manner of governement he shall declare it by his Spirit and cause our Spirits to submit to it And indeed grace is called judgement in the phrase of Scripture the grace of sanctification because it is agreeable to judgement to Gods law it is agreeable to it and wrought by it in the soule and it is the best judgement for grace whereby the soule is subject to the judgement and law and rule of God it must needs be the best judgement because it is agreeable to Gods judgement grace judgeth aright of things and subdues all things the affections and inward man to it selfe But why is the word of God called judgement It is called so frequently in the Psalmes and in other places of Scripture because the truth of God shewes what God doth judge Judgement is originally in God who is the first truth and the first good the first truth judgeth best of truthes what is light and what is darkenesse what is truth and what is error what is good and what is ill what is safe and what is dangerous all will grant that God is the first light and the firâ—t truth therefore hee doth originally judge of the difference of things for even as in the creation he put an eternall difference betweene light and darkenesse and severed things that were in the confuseâ— Chaos and established an orderly world that Heaven should be above and earth below that one thing should be above another and all in judgement So in the governing of man-kinde he shewes his judgement by his word and that word shewes how God judgeth of things Lawes shew judgement what is to be done and what is not to be done The Gospell shewes Gods judgement what he will have us beleeve and hope for and how wee must carry our selves in way of thankefullnesses if we doe this then the Gospell the word of God judgeth what shall become of us wee shall be saved if we doe the contrary the word againe judgeth what our state shall be wee shall be damned so it is called judgement because it judgeth what is good and what is ill and because it determineth what shall become of us if we obey or disobey Hereupon it is that the word of God is a glasse wherein we may see our owne condition infallibly what will become of us the Word of God judgeth thus he that lives in such and such sinnes shall come to this end God will inflict these and these judgements upon him Iudgement in the first place is you shall doe this and this because it is good Iudgement in the second place is because you have not done this this shall befall you so the Evangelicall judgement of the Gospell is this He that repents and beleeves shall not perish but have everlasting life but he that armes and furnisheth his heart to rebellion he shall perish in his sinnes He that believeth not is condemned allready the wrath of God hangs over his head So from this that Gods truth is called judgement we may know how to judge of our selves even as God judgeth in his Word wee may see our owne faces and conditions there hee that is a man of death may see it in the Word and he that is appointed for happinesse may there see his condition Againe not onely the Word of God the Gospell which is out of us in the booke of God is called judgement but the worke of God in the soule Sanctification is called judgement hence we may observe what is the most judicious course in the world the most judicious frame of soule when it is framed to the judgement and truth of God being the first truth When a man is sanctified and set in a holy frame it is from a sanctified judgement the flesh is subject to the Spirit heere is all in a gratious
to send us to heaven and make us partakers of that we desire most First wee desire that God will be with us here and secondly that we may be with God in heaven they make Gods children partakers of their desires by killing of them Let Tyrants and all persons that have a malignant disposition to the Church of God and are armed with power let them doe their worst the cause must stand impregnable Christ will have a Church and Kingdome in the world and their spirits will be impregnable against them they may kill them but they cannot hurt them they may kill them but they cannot kill their courage As we see in the Martyres there was the Spirit of God in them above all the dealings of of the persecutors there was a fire of Gods Spirit in them above all outward fire whatsoever You see it must be taken for granted that the Church of God and every particular Christian hath many enemies against them as it is Psal. 129. From my youth up saith the Church they have fought against me but they have not prevayled From my youth up from Abel to the last Saint that shall be in the world there will be alway some against Gods people yet their comfort is that none shall be against them to prevaile either over the Spirit of God in them or over the cause that they manage First of all you see then that the state of a Christian in this world is an impregnable state and a glorious condition Here is glory upon glory from this clause to the end of the Chapter If God be with us who shall be against us If God gave his Sonne for us shall hee not with him give us al things else there is another glorious speech Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods people another glorious triumphant speech another glorious speech Who shall separate us from the love of God founded in Christ Hee loves Christ first and us in Christ as members and as he loves him eternally so he loves us eternally too Therefore you see every way the state of a Christian is a glorious condition Who can be against us You see the state of Gods people it is an impregnable and glorious condition Then by this meanes those that are strange Paradoxes to flesh and blood yet they agree in a Christian. He is never alone when hee is alone God is with him the Father Son and Holy-Ghost are with him Angels are with him God is not only with him but his guard is with him and Gods Spirit is with him and in him victoriously both in grace and comfort Christ saith to his Disciples when they thought to leave him alone saith hee you cannot leave me alone My Father is with me and Saint Paul towards his latter end that had deserved so well of the Christian world All forsooke me saith he but the Lord forsooke me not but delivered me out of the mouth of the Lion So a Christian is not alone hee is not left to the mercy of his enemies but God is with him and who shall be against him to prevayle over him Againe though a Christian be a worme a person trampled upon for so the Church is the most afflicted part of man-kind yet Feare not thou worme Jacob. The world accounts them as wormes and they account themselves so they are trodden on as wormes they are wormes upon earth yet they have a glorious head in heaven and a glorious guard about them strange things agree in a Christian therefore let us not stumble though wee see not these things presently the life of a Christian is a mysterie Againe hence we see that a Christian profession to be a sound Christian to have true faith in Christ to be one with Christ and to be taken out of the state of nature this condition and the happinesse of it it hath the strongest foundation of any life in the world Christianity is founded upon the strongest and the greatest reasons that can bee Faith stands with the greatest reason that a thing can doe Why The comfort of a Christian is that he hath no enemy that shall prevaile over him and what is the ground of that God is with him God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Faith is that that layes hold upon that presence and promise and covenant of God and is not faith well bottomed A Christian that carries himselfe valiantly and couragiously is not his course grounded on sound reason Is not God with him God the Father is his father God the Son is his Redeemer God the Holy Ghost is his Comforter There is no other men that have strong reason for their course for that choise that they make of their Religion and of their wayes they prove but fooles in the conclusion onely the sound Christian that by the Spirit of God hath his eyes open to see the cursed estate he is in by nature and what it is to be in Christ and by a Spirit of faith is made one with Christ hee is the truely wise man in his faith and affiance that the world mockes at that hee hath no common supports in the world which hee cares not for if God be on his side hee cares not what man can doe against him as it is Psal. 118. you see on what ground it is founded God is with him and none can be against him Let us labour to lay up these principles wee worke according as our principles are Principles are the foundation of all conclusions that arise from them As our grounds are so are we in our faith and working and grace and comfort every way if wee have rotten principles if the grounds of our comfort bee rotten our course will be rotten and uncomfortable in the conclusion Let us build upon the Rocke to be well bottomed and founded that our principles and grounds bee strong and that they be so to us for what if God be with his if he be not so to us Let us labour to lay up sound grounds Grounds have influence into the whole course of our lives this one Text hath influence into all the parts of our lives in doing in suffering in all conditions I know not a more pregnant fruitfull principle in the Scripture than this If God be with us who can be against us It is like a pearle little in quantity few in words but strong in sence large in the fruit that issues from it Therefore as wee may carry pearles or precious things wheresoever we go because there is a great deale of worth in them and they be small in quantity so wee may carry this principle with us let us bee sure to lay it up and make use of it There be these two That there is a God and that God is with his children and so with his children that hee will subvert and overthrow all their enemies and all their plots and endevours a principle of wonderfull comfort If
was a Type of Christs sacrifice Now that Christs sacrifice was so acceptable to God there is a direct place for it in Ephes. 5. Walke in love as Christ hath loved us and hath given himselfe an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smell And indeed how many sweet savours were there in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the Crosse was there not the sweet savour of obedience he was obedient to the death of the Crosse there was the sweet savour of patience and of love to mankind therefore God delighted in him as God as Man as Mediator God-Man in his doings in his sufferings every way Doth God delight thus in Christ in his person or considered mystically I answer both God loves and delights in Christ mysticall that is in Christ and his members in whole Christ This is my Beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased not onely with whom alone by himselfe but in whom in him as God in him in body and soule in him as head of the Church in him mystically in all that are under him any kind of way God delights in him and all his Is it possible that hee should delight in the head and refuse the members That he should love the husband and mislike the Spouse O no with the same love that God loves Christ he loves all his he delights in Christ and all his with the same delight there is some difference in the degree That Christ in all things may have the preheminence but it is the same love therefore our Saviour sets it downe excellently in his owne prayer he desires that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his that they may feele the love wherewith his Father loves him for hee loves him and his members him and his Spouse with all one love This is our comfort and our confidence that God accepts us because hee accepts his Beloved and when he shall cease to love Christ he shall cease to love the members of Christ they and Christ make one mysticall Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sinne wee are so and so indeed but Christ is the chosen servant of God In whom he delighteth and delights in us in him it is no matter what we are in our selves but what we are in Christ when we are once in him and continue in him God loves us with that inseperable love wherewith hee loves his owne Sonne therefore Saint Paul triumphs Rom. 8. What shall seperate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus This love it is founded in Christ therefore neither things present nor things to come as he goes on there gloriously shall bee able to seperate us you see what a wondrous confidence and comfort wee have hence if we labour to be in Christ that then God loves and delights in us because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus And here is a wondrous comfort that God must needs love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ because hee powred out his soule to death to save us doth not God delight that wee should bee saved and our sinnes should bee forgiven when hee loves Christ because hee abased himselfe for that purpose What a prop and foundation of comfort is this when the Divell shall present God to us in a terrible hideous manner as an avenging God and consuming fire c. indeed out of Christ he is so let us present to our selves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets foorth God to us and as God setâ— forth himself not only in that sweet relation as a Father to Christ buâ— our father I go to my Father and your Father to my God and your God having both one God and love and care There is none of us all but the Divell will have a saying to us either in the time of our life in some terrible temptation especially when any outward abasement comes or at the houre of death and all the cordials wee have gathered out of the Word will then be little enough to support the drooping soule especially in the houre of temptation Oh Beloved what a wondrous stay and satisfaction to a distressed conscience doth this yeeld that Christ in all that hee hath wrought for us is Gods chosen servant whom he loves and delights in and delights in him for this very worke that hee abased himselfe and gave himselfe for us that hee wrought Gods worke because he wrought reconciliation for us If we can believe in Christ wee see heere what ground of comfort wee have that God loves and delights in us as he doth in his owne Son And what a comfort is it now in our daily approach to God to minister boldnesse to us in all our suites that we goe to God in the name of one that he loves in whom his soule delights that we have a friend in Court a friend in Heaven for us that is at the right hand of God and interposeth himselfe there for us in all our suites that makes us acceptable that perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable his intercession is still by vertue of his service dying for us he interceeds by vertue of his redemption if God love him for the worke of redemption he loves him for his intercession therefore God must needs regard the prayers made by him by vertue of his dying for us when he loves him for dying for us Bee sure therfore in al our suites to God to take along our elder Brother take our beloved Brother take Benjamin with us offer al to God in him our persons to be accepted in him our prayers our hearing our works and al that we do and we shal be sure to speed For he is one in whom the soule of God delights There must be this passage and repassage as God looks upon us lovely in him and delights in us as wee are members of him all Gods love and the fruits of it come to us as we are in Christ and are one with him then in our passage to God againe we must returne all and doe all to God in Christ be sure not to goe to a naked God for so he is a consuming fire but goe to him in the mediation of him whom he loves and in whom his soule delighteth And shall God love him and delight in him and shall not our soule delight in Christ This therefore should stirre up our affections to Christ to be faithfull in our conjugall affection as the Spouse of Christ to say My Beloved is mine and I am my Beloveds Christ calls his Church My Love and my Dove Doth Christ delight in us and God delight in Christ and shall not we delight in Christ that delights in us and in whom God delights In the 1. Cor. 16. ult the Apostle is bold to pronounce a bitter curse Anathema Maranatha upon him that loves not the Lord Christ Jesus a most bitter curse when Christ shall become a
of his when he rose againe in his resurrection the acquittance from our sinnes was sealed thereby we know that the debt is paid because he rose againe let us see an acquittance of all in the resurrection And if we thinke of the glory that God hath reserved for us thinke of it in Christ see Christ glorious first and we in him See Christ at the right hand of God and wee in him carry Christ along with us in our contemplations We are quickned with Christ Christ takes away all the deaths J spake of before Christ by his resurrection tooke away the death of sentence he rose againe for our justification so that now there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ. So againe in regard of that deadly disposition that is in us Christ quickens us in regard of that by infusing grace by his Spirit for Christ is an universall principle of all life Now Christ by his death pacifying his Father obteined the Spirit and by that Spirit which he infuseth as a principle of life he more and more quickens our nature and makes it better and better till it be perfect in Heaven As Adam was a principle of death and the more we live in the state of nature the worse we are til we come to hel So when we are in Christ the Spirit sanctifies us more and more till he have brought us to perfection And as we are quickned from the death of sentence and of disposâ—tion so we are quickned in regard of that hope of glory that we have For now in Christ we are in Heaven already and though there come bodily death betweene yet notwithstanding that is but a fitting us for glory the body is but fitted and molded in the grave for glory This very consideration will quicken a man in death my head is in Heaven above water therefore the body shall not bee long under water And Faith makes that that is to come present and affects the soule comfortably Christ is in Heaven already and J am there in Christ and J shall be there as verily as he is there I am there de jure de facto I shall be there in these considerations Christ quickens us Therefore saith St. Peter Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe through the resurrection of Christ from the dead to a lively hope of an inheritance immortall c. We are begotten againe to this inheritance by the resurrection of Christ who is risen againe to quicken himselfe and all his The consideration of this should affect us as it did Saint Peter to blesse God Now all this quickning power ariseth from our union with Christ we must have a beeing in Christ before we can have comfort by death with him or by rising with him Our union with Christ springs from faith faith is cherished by the Sacrament the Word and Sacrament beget faith faith unites us to Christ union with Christ makes us partake of his death and the benefits of it and of his resurrection and ascention to glory therefore the more we attend upon this ordinance of the Word and the seale of the Word the Sacrament the more our faith is increased for God invites us to communion and fellowship with Christ and all his benefits and favours and the more wee find faith assured of Christ the more union and fellowship wee have with Christ and the more wee seele that the more Christ is a quickning Spirit quickning us with the life of grace here and the hope of Glory afterward Therefore let us comfortably attend upon the ordinance of God sanctified for this purpose to strengthen this our union with Christ. FINIS THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Foode In two Sermons By the late Reverend and Learned Divine RICHARD SIDS Doctor in Divinity Master of Katherine Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grayes-Inne ESAY 55.2 Why doe you spend money for that which is not Bread and your labour for that which satisfieth not Hearken diligently unto mee and eate yee that which is good and let your soule delight it selfe in fatnesse JOHN 6.55 For my flesh is meate indeed and my blood is drink indeed LONDON Printed by G.M. for Nicholas Bourne and Rapha Harford 1639. THE FRVITFVLL LABOVR FOR Eternall Food IOHN 6.27 Labour not for the meate that perisheth but for the meate that indureth to everlasting life which the Sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father Sealed OUr blessed Saviour was mighty in word and deed witnesse what he did what he taught and both in this Chapter What he did hee fed many with a few loaves he came over the water without any helpe What he taught witnesse from this part of the Chapter to the end The words are part of an Answer of our blessed Saviour to his hypocriticall followers that followed him for the Loaves and not for any confirmation of their faith by his miracles for upon occasion of those two miracles mentioned in the former part of the Chapter they followed him and perceiving that hee was miraculously come over the water they began to aske him Rabbi how camest thou heere Our Saviour perceives that they meant to complement with him he sees with what hearts they came after him therefore as most befitting the Exigence of their state because they were hypocrites he answers not to their question but to their persons Verily verily yee seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves and were filled Labour not for the meate that perisheth c. The Verses together containe a Conviction and an Injunction or direction A Conviction and that is serious and loving Serious Verily verily I say unto you you seeke mee not because of the miracles but because yee eate of the loaves c. Hee convinceth them of their fault of their hypocrisie of their wicked and carnall aimes in holy businesse they come flattering of Christ but as hee was too holy to flatter so he was too wise to be flattered hee deales therefore directly with them thoroughly convinceth them of their hypocrisie and corrupt aimes in following after him We are all naturally prone to these carnall ends in holy actions we must take heed with what mindes with what hearts we come before God whose eyes are brighter then the Sun who regards not so much what we doe as with what mindes we doe it As his conviction is Serious so it is Loving for with the conviction or reproofe followes the injunction or direction Labour not for the meate that perisheth In the Injunction there are two things First he shewes them what they should not follow he takes them off from labouring after the meate that perisheth And then secondly hee instructs them in what they should follow what they should seeke after But labour for the meate that indureth to everlasting life c. There are Arguments in both In the first there is an Argument disswasive and
goods I give to the poore c. when grace is planted in the soule when the soule hath tasted once of better things there will be a meane and base esteeme of earthly things the more the soule feeds on heavenly things the lesse respect it hath to temporall things The soule is a finite Essence and it cannot spend it selfe on all things the more it runs into severalls the more shallow it is to others as in a streame when it is cut into many channels it runs weakely in the severall whereas it runs strongly in the maine so it is with the soule when it is scattered as the poore Israelites were about the land of Aegypt to gather straw to gather these perishing earthly things it is weake to heavenly things it hath little strength to those but when the course of it is wholy bent to those there are but weake or no desires running to these earthly things when once the soule of a Christian hath had a true taste and relish of the things of Heaven it lookes with a despising eye upon whatsoever is heere below when once it hath tasted of Christ then especially it growes out of relish with poyson then away with Popery away with false doctrine away with hypocrisie and formality in religion Againe secondly wee may know that wee have tasted Christ and fed on him and on the good things that are by him when wee are strengthened by our feeding when wee are strengthened to duties strengthened against tentations and against corruptions Thou saist thou beleevest on Christ and hast made him thine own what comfort and strength feelest thou by Christ art thou able to encounter a tentation art thou able to resist a lust art thou able to performe holy services If there be no strength in thee but every tentation turnes thee over and thou yeeldest to every base lust where is Christ canst thou beleeve Christ to be thy King and yet suffer thy lusts to beare sway in thee canst thou beleeve that Christ is a Priest that died forthy sinnes and yet cherishest and lovest sinne canst thou beleeve that Christ is in Heaven and that thou art in heavenly places with Christ and yet hast no minde of heavenly things but art carried away with every earthly thing No thou hast not yet tasted how good and gracious the Lord is thou hast not yet relished the heavenly Manna the soule that feeds on Christ is strengthened from spirituall reasons and supernaturall grounds and divine principles drawne from Christ to duty so that it is enabled even with a holy violence to doe any thing for Christs sake for the soule reasons thus Christ gave himselfe to death for mee I will therefore if need be give my selfe to death for him Christ thought nothing too deare for mee I will thinke nothing too deare for him this pride this vanity that I am tempted to these were the speares that were the death of my Saviour thus the soule fetches reasons from the death of Christ to strengthen it against temptations to strengthen it to duty and so for the matter of comfort after meate hath beene received wee are refreshed if the soule be sweetly refreshed with the comforts that are to be had in Christ and in the Word of Christ it is a signe wee have tasted Christ those that have trembling and discouraging hearts and soules that cannot rest nor receive comfort it is a signe they have not rightly tasted Christ Come unto mee saith Christ all yee that are weary and heavie laden and yee shall finde rest to your soules in Christ there is rest out of Christ there is no rest and so likewise those that have corruptions bearing sway in them it is a signe they have not so much as touched Christ for if they had but touched Christ hee would stop the issue of their corruptions the poore woman in the Gospell as soon as she had touched Christ her bloudy issue was stayed so upon the least touch of Christ by faith there will be an abating of corruption Thirdly in the bodily life we know after a good meale the desire and appetite is satisfied so the soule that tastes of Christ it hath sweet satisfaction and contentment O the sweet satisfaction that a Christian soule hath above a Heathen A Christian that hath Christ need not goe out of him for any thing it hath fullnesse and satisfaction in him in all estates both in life and in death dost thou finde Christ and the priviledges and prerogatives we have by him dost thou finde the Word of Christ and the promises of the Word fully and sufficiently satisfie thee then it argues that thou hast fed on Christ for Christ being received by faith into the soule gives it fullnesse and contentment Lastly to name no more as men if they have the grace of God in their hearts will give thankes for their bodily food so it is an evidence that we have fed on Christ when our hearts and tongues are enlarged to praise God for Christ for the comforts and contentment and satisfaction that we finde in him and in religion therefore Saint Paul begins his Epistle to the Ephesians with Blessed bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly place in Christ. And Saâ—nt Peter being led by the same blessed Spirit his heart being full his mouth is full of thankes Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath begotten us againe to an inheritance immortall that fadeth not away reserved for you in the heavens for you that are reserved by faith to salvation so undoubtedly the soule that tasts the sweet comforts of Religion in Christ will be much in sweet inlargements of heart in thanksgiving it cannot be otherwaise it is an universall reason the more beleeving a soule is the more thankefull a soul is where there is no praise there is no faith Thus you see how we may try whether we have tasted and relished whether wee have fed upon the food that endures to everlasting life or no. Taste is the most necessary sense of all saith a wise searcher of the mysteries of Nature our life is maintained by taste Every creature sees not every creature heares not but every creature hath taste you may judge of your selves by your taste and relish and if once you have tasted and relished Christ all the world cannot perswade you to fall from him if all should say there were no sweetnesse in Religion that it were better to be a worldling c. you would defie it you would never beleeve it there is no disputing against what a man tasts if all men should say sugar were sharpe if J once tasted it I would say otherwise Labour for the meate that endures to everlasting life The Arguments enforcing this act upon the object to labour for Christ are that he is food and food that endures and food that endures to everlasting life Let me from these
the Sonne of God by the resurrection from the dead the Angells from Heaven brought witnesse of him he was witnessed by all kinde of persons on earth yea by the divels themselves so hee is Sealed and authorized every way by all kinde of witnesses to be a Mediator This is set out in other phrases in the Scripture In Psal. 2. This my Son have I set upon my holy hill of Sion and Rom. 3. toward the latter end Whom God hath set forth to bee a propitiation God hath set him forth as the Shew-bread was set out under the Law And then againe in another place Whom hee hath sent and in 1. Cor. 1.30 Hee is made of God unto us Wisedome c. Hee is made of God that is he is Sealed appointed authorized by God for that purpose So you see why Christ is said to be Sealed especially because hee is authorized by God the Father made sent set forth whom the Father hath Sealed that is the party offended by our sinnes he hath Sealed and authorized Christ to be a Mediator If this be so let us learne this use of it to blesse God the Father as well as Christ Blessed bee the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ and Blessed bee Christ for him hath the Father Sealed by the Spirit The blessed Trinity have all a hand in our salvation And then againe consider if wee despise Christ whom we despise we despise the Father that hath Sealed him it is a weighty matter Reade the second Psalme and you shall see there what it is to despise Christ not to kisse the Sonne that is when God hath annointed and set forth a Saviour and Sealed him and authorized him by all the testimonies that can be to be a Mediator not to receive him for our King for our Priest and Prophet it is a rebellion not against Christ onely but against the Father who hath Sealed him And likewise it serveth wonderfully to strengthen our faith when we goe to God for forgivenesse of sinnes offer him his owne broad Seale offer to him Christ a Mediator authorized by himselfe Lord I am thus and thus a sinner but notwithstanding thou hast sent thy blessed Sonne and set him forth to be a Saviour for mee and him I offer to thee thou canst not deny or refuse thy owne Sealed Mediator and Redeemer if hee had beene a Mediator of my owne appointing and of my owne sealing it were another matter but I offer thy owne Mediator looke on the death of him whom thou hast Sealed to bee my intercessour It is a wondrous prevailing argument with God hee cannot denie that which he hath devised himselfe him whom hee chose before all worlds for this great office But how shall I know whether hee be Sealed for my good or no saith the soule that heares this we heare much of an authorized Saviour of an authorized Mediator to be All-sufficient but what is that to mee Why for whom is he Sealed is he Sealed for Angels or for men and amongst men is he Sealed for holy men or sinners I come not to seeke or to save whole men or men that never were lost no he came to seeke and to save men but they are lost men sick men and it is a faithfull saying and worthy of all meanes to be imbraced that Christ came into the world to save sinners saith blessed Paul therefore he is Sealed to save thee if thou art a sinner to save thee if thou wilt receive him and thou art bound to receive him under paine of the punishment of rebellion Is it not rebellion not to receive a Magistrate whom the Prince hath authorized under his broad Seale it is another manner of matter not to receive Christ it is a greater sinne then to sinne against the Law for if a man sinne against the Law there is the Gospell to helpe him but if a man sinne against the Gospell there is not another Gospell to helpe him now to refuse Christ offered in the Gospell is a sinne against the Gospell where then can there bee hope of salvation salvation it selfe cannot save him that will not bee saved that refuses the remedy Sealed by God the Father the party offended who can heale him that casts downe the Potion that is brought to heale him that refuseth the Physitian that comes to cure him I say hee is Sealed to save thee if thou wilt be saved if thou wilt receive him receive him not onely to be thy Saviour but to be thy King to rule thee and thy Prophet to teach and instruct thee as we shall see afterwards But to cleare this a little better we must know that there are three distinct sealings There is God sealing of Christ which I have unfolded to you And there is our sealing of God that is our sealing of Gods truth And then againe there is Gods sealing of us by his Spirit And these follow one the other Why hath God sealed Christ but that wee hereupon should be stirred up to believe and to receive Christ and so by consequence to seale that God is true in sending such a blessed Mediator as St. Iohn saith He that believes in the Sonne hath set to his seale that God is true God hath sealed him that we by receiving him should seale Gods truth Beloved God comes to us for our testimonialls for our hands and seals Oh how wondrously doth God condescend to weake man He hath sealed Christ for the office of a Mediator and he offers him unto us and he comes to us likewise that we would set to our seales too that Christ is the Sonne of God he counts it not sufficient that he hath sealed him himselfe but he will have us seale too and we seale him when we receive him he that receives him hath set to his seale that God is true he that doth not receive him he makes God a lyar saith Saint Iohn And what comes of this when wee receive Christ and set to our seale that God in the promise of salvation by Christ is true Then we having honoured him he honours us by sealing us by his Spirit as the Apostle saith Ephes 1. In whom after ye beleeved yee were sealed So when we beleeve and set to our seale that God is true God seales us by his Spirit after yee beleeved you were sealed But what is this seale of the Spirit whereby God seals us after we beleeve I answer God seales us when hee sets the stampe of his Spirit upon us when the worke and witnesse of his Spirit is wrought in us For as in a seale the wax hath all in it â—he whole likenesse of the Jmage that is in the seale So the soule that is sealed by the Spirit hath the likenesse of the Spirit of Christ stamped on it God imprints in their spirits the likenesse of his Sonne that is to say he makes â—hem loving soules humble soules obedient as Christ was in all things patient meeke c. you may see
in the spirit of a beleeving man an expression of the Spirit of Christ so that if you would see Christ in his excellencies looke on the spirit of a true Christian there you shall see a resemblance of Christ Jesus not perfectly but in some comfortable measure you shall see the very Image of Christ you shall see how full of love he is how patient in crosses how humble how meeke how obedient to God in all things both in a passive and active obedience This is the stampe of the Spirit when a man beleeves God honours him by setting his Image on him And yet this is not all besides this wee are sealed with the witnesse and comfort of the Spirit as well as with the worke of the Spirit the Spirit of God sweetly witnessing that we are the sons of God and this sweet witnesse of the Spirit especially comes after wee have honoured God by beleeving in temptation when we are able to hold out and say as Iob said Though he kill me yet wil I trust in him so when we can after conflicts of doubting and dispaire say though he kill me yet will I trust in him I will set to my seale that he is true well will you so God to honour such a soule seales him to the day of redemption that is he gives to the soule of such a one a sweet evidence and testimony that hee is the Son of God And this seale of the Spirit is double not only done by the witnesse and worke of the Spirit inwardly which I have shewed but likewise the Spirit doth seale them outwardly inabling them to make an outward confession of Christ and his Truth and therefore in Reve. 14. Christians are said to be Sealed in the forehead that is as they are marked and singled out in ill times to be such as God hath set his speciall favour upon so they are Sealed with a spirit of boldnesse willingly and with forwardnesse to confesse the truth of Christ in ill times Now to apply it to our purpose wouldest thou know whether thou be such a one for the present as for whom Christ is Sealed a Mediator Examine first of all whether thou hast put to thy Seale that God is true by receiving and beleeving Christ and the promise of Salvation through him if thou hast done so then thou wilt finde another Seale from God even the worke of the Spirit in sanctifying of thee and conforming of thee to the Image and likenesse of Christ and thou wilt finde the witnesse and comfortable testimony of the Spirit in telling thee that thou art the Sonne of God and withall thou wilt have a spirit of boldnesse and readinesse and forwardnesse to confesse Christ thou wilt not care for al that the world saith but wilt if neede be stand to the profession of Religion to the death If thou canst finde this in thy selfe undoubtedly thou art not onely such a one as Christ came to Seale but for the present thou mayest be assured that thou hast interest in this Mediator Sealed by God for that purpose Thus you see that here is food that endures to everlasting life which is Christ and the benefits wee have by him you see that that blessed meate is attaineable because he is willing to give it for he is become Man for that purpose he is able to give it for he is God as well as Man and he hath aurhority to give it for God the Father hath Sealed him and fitted him for that office If we receive him he will Seale us with his blessed Spirit that is the same Spirit that furnished Christ with grace that sanctified him in the wombe will sanctifie all those that are his members will worke a likenesse and conformity in them to his blessed Image for the same Spirit that was in the naturall Sonne is in all the adopted Sonnes of God And he will likewise give us the comfortable evidence and assurance that we are the Sons of God furnish us with boldnesse and resolution to professe Christ in all times Let me then I beseech you come againe to re-enforce this exhortation Take heed you refuse not Christ consider with what authority he comes he is Sealed it is no presumption therefore to receive him though you be never such sinners to receive him I meane not onely to be a Priest to reconcile you to God but to be a King to rule you and a Prophet to instruct you by his Spirit to receive him on this manner is no presumption to receive him indeed as a Saviour but to neglect him as King to refuse to come under his government is great presumption but to receive whole Christ is obedience and faith and no presumption nay if you doe not receive him you sinne damnably you commit the greatest sinne that can be He came to save all that will come under his blessed government that will kisse the Sonne Whosoever will let him come and drinke of the waters of lâ—fe all the good promised by Christ is promised upon our receiving of him upon the obedience of our Faith there is nothing required but a will to imbrace him and to be under his government there is no exception made of sinnes or persons or times At what time soever a sinner repents whatsoever sinner whatsoever time or whatsoever the sinnes bee if he repents Christ is ready to receive him If you pretend your unworthinesse and want of excellencies hee takes away that objection Come unto me all that are weary and heavy laden Come buy without money and here in the text the Sonne of man shall give it and what so free as guift If you pretend you have sinned since your calling and that you have sinned against conscience and knowledge and therefore now you have no further hope of Christ remember that Paul 2. Cor. 5. speakes to the Corinthians that were in the state of grace I beseech you to be reconciled to God and in Ieremy 3. Returne againe you Backesliding Israel and I will heale your Backeslidings and againe will a man receive a wife that hath played the harlot and broken the band of marriage Yet returne O house of Israel and I will receive you Therefore runne not away from God though thou hast sinned after thou art in the state of grace come againe J beseech you still Christ is to be received the doore of grace is alwayes held open and the golden scepter continually held out as long as we live in this world But yet it is not good to neglect the time of grace receive Christ presently deferre not to come under his governement and receive him wholy or else there is no receiving of him at all And to presse this a little further I beseech you consider that if you leave not your sinfull courses and come under the blessed governement of Christ if you receive not this Sealed King this Sealed Priest and Prophet this Sealed Mediator whom God hath Sealed and sent unto you
and to have societie with the Devill and his Angels in hell and that forever and for ever Thou maist perhaps make â—light of the service of sinne because thou hast the present baits to delight thee but thou shouldst regard death Thou maist neglect death but then regard eternall death This word Eternall it is a heavy word Eternall separation from all good and eternall communion with the Devill and his Angels and for the wrath of God to seize on thy soule eternally world without end me thinkes men should not set light by that Therefore considering that this is our estate by nature we are all slaves to sinne and death let us labour to get out of this cursed estate by all meanes which is by The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus Now I come to speake of our freedome The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus hath freed me from the Law of sinne and death This is good news indeed to heare of freedome good newes to the Israelites to heare of freedome out of Egypt and for the Jewes to heare of Cyrus Proclamation for their freedome out of Babylon Freedome out of bondage is a sweet message Here we have such a message of spirituall freedome from other manner of enemies then those were The yeare of Jubile it was a comfortable yeare to servants that were kept in and were much vexed with their bondage when the yeare of Jubile came they were all freed therefore there was great expectation of the yeare of Jubile Here we have a spirituall Jubile a manumission and freedome from the bondage we are in by nature The Spirit of life in Christ makes us free from the Law of sinne and death There is life in Christ opposite to death in us there is a Spirit of life in Christ and a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ opposite to the law of sinne and of death in us So that this is our happinesse while we live here oh it is the blessednesse of men to make use of it while they have time and space and grace to repent and to cleave to Christ that whatsoever ill we are under by nature we may have full supply in Christ for all the breaches that came by the first Adam There came the wrath of God the corruption of our nature terrours of conscience death and damnation all these followed the sinne and breach of the first Adam all these are made up in the second He hath freed us from all the ill wee received from the first Adam and that we have added our selves for we make our selves worse then we come from Adam by our voluntary and daily transgressions but wee are freed from all by the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Iesus How comes this freedome There can no freedome be without satisfaction to divine Justice For why are we under sinne God gives us up to sinne why are we under death God gives us up to death Why are we under Satans government he is Gods executioner Gods serjeant he gives us up to him here because we offend him Why are we under damnation and wrath because God is offended All our slavery comes originally from God however it be sinfull in regard of Satan that keepes us yet the power whereby he keepes us is good for he doth it from God His will is alwayes naught but his power is alwayes lawfull therefore the power whereby the Devill keepes us if wee looke up to God under whom the power is it is a lawfull power for God hath a hand in giving us up to finne it is a judiciall giving up and then by lusts and â—inne to Satan and death and damnation So if we speake of freedome wee must not begin with the executioner the wrath of God must be satisfied God must be one with us so as his Justice must have contentment Satisfaction must be with the glory of his Justice as well as of his Mercie his Attributes must have full content one must not be destroyed to satisfie another hee must so be mercifull in freeing us as that content must be given to his Justice that it complaine not of any losse Now reconciliation alway supposeth satisfaction it is founded upon it And satisfaction for sinne it must be in that nature that hath sinned now man of himselfe could not satisfie divine Justice being a finite person therefore God the second Person became man that in our nature hee might satisfie Gods wrath for us and so free us by giving payment to his divine Justice The death of Christ God-man is the price of our liberty and freedome But why doth the Apostle speake here of a Law of the Spirit of life in Christ which frees us but here is no mention of satisfaction by death Oh but death is the foundation of all as we shall see afterwards To unfold the point therefore because it is a speciall point and the words need unfolding Here it is said there is life in Christ. A Spirit of life in Christ. and a Law of a Spirit of life in Christ. There is life in Christ not onely as God for so indeed he is life God his life is himselfe for life is the being of a thing and the actions and moving and vigour and operations of a thing answerable to that being So the life of God is his being As I live saith the Lord that is as I am God I will not the death of a sinner Now Christ hath life in him as God as the Father hath but that is not especially here meant There is life in Christ as God-man as Mediator Now this life is that life which is originally from the God-head indeed it is but the God-heads quickening and giving life to the man-hood in Christ the Spirit quickning and sanctifying the man-hood And we have no comfort by the life of God as it is in Gods life alone severed for alas what communion have wee with God without a Mediator but our comfort is this that God who is the fountaine of life he became man and having satisfied Gods Justice he conveyes life to us he is our head hee hath life in himselfe as God to impart spirituall life to all his members so there is life in Christ as Mediator And there is a Spirit of life that life it is a working life for spirit is an emphaticall word spirit added to a thing increased the thing Againe he saith the Law of the Spirit of life Law is a commanding thing to shew that the life in Christ it is a commanding life it countermands all opposite lives whatsoever of sinne and death and this Law is a countermand to all other Lawes the Law of the Spirit of life frees us from all other Lawes So here is life the Spirit of life and the Law of the Spirit of life all words of strong signification But for the cleare understanding of this sweet and comfortable point First
question What shall we say to these things It is good often to propound quaeres and demands to our owne hearts when we read or heare divine truths to aske our owne hearts you have heard these things what say you to them For whatsoever God saith in his Word will doe us no good till we speake to our owne hearts and be convinced of it and say it is so therefore wee should say to our selves here are many comforts and duties pressed but what sayest thou to it my heart dost thou not stand out against comforts and advice It is no matter what God saith unlesse he over-power the unbeleeving heart to say what shall I say to these things shall I not agree with God and his Spirit and his comforts shall they be best in regard of an unbeleeving heart oâ— no Therefore let our care be to store them in the treasury of our memory which should be like the pot of Mannah to containe heavenly comforts let us treasure up all the truths we can all will be little enough when we shall need comfort But when we have them in our memory let us aske our selves are these things so or no If they be so beleeve them if they be not so then let us give liberty to our selves and away with hearing and reading c. If they be so for shame let me yeeld to them Let us aske these questions with some fruit let us deale thus with our owne hearts often call them to account whether â—â—beleeve or no for wee have such a faculty â—nd power we can reflect upon our selves And we ought to desire of the Spirit of God to teach our hearts to reflect upon them selves to examine whether wee know and if wee know whether we beleeve and what use wee make of these things and why we should live thus doth this life and course of mine agree with these principles The best of us all are tardy this way therefore let not that part without making some use of it But I proceed to that I will more dwell on If God befor 〈◊〉 who can be against us Here is first a ground layd and then a comfort built upon it The ground that is layd is If God be with us when he saith If God be with us he doth not put the case but layes it as a ground If God be with us as indeed he is with all his in electing them in calling them in working all for their good in glorifying them after c. If God be with us as he is then this comfort is built upon this ground Who shall or can be against us For the first the ground that is laid is that God is with his children Iâ—deâ—d hee is with the whole world hee is every where but he is with â—is Châ—rch and children in 〈…〉 The soule inâ—pred in the whole body but it is in the braine â—fter another 〈…〉 it understands and 〈…〉 he is not every where comfoâ—ting and directing and sanctifying nor every where giving a sweet and blessed issue So besideâ— the generall respect that will not now stand on God is with us that 〈◊〉 his in a more pecâ—liar manner in all his sweet Attributes in his wisedome to direct us with his power to assist and strengthen us by his grade and love to comfort us and hee is with us in all our perplexities to stay our soules hee is with us by his sweet and gracious mercy to feed 〈◊〉 with hidden Mannah with secret comforts in the middest of discomforts when there is no comfort else with us then God is with us And then he is with us in the issue of all that a godly man takes in hand in his name hee is with him in all crosses to direct and tuâ—â—e them to his best good All things worke for the best to them that love God He is with them in all his sweet relations as a gracious Father in Covenant as a Husband He is with them in those sweet comparisons as a Hen as an Eagle to carry them on his wings above all dangers as hee carryed the Israelites in the wildernesse He is with them in all comfortable relations Therefore God in the Scriptures borrowes 〈◊〉 from every thing thâ—â— is comfortable He is with them as a Rocke to build on as a Shield to defend them in the time of heate and persecution he is a shaddow to keepe them from the heate hee is with them as a light Christ is our life in death our light in darkenesse our righteousnesse in sinfulnesse and guilt our holinesse in impurity our redemption in all our miseries There is somewhat of God in every creature therefore God takes names from his owne creatures because there is some strength or comfort in them God gives himselfe variety of names as there are variety of our distresses Are we in misery God is a Rock a Shield a Tower of defence a Buckler hee is all that can be said for comfort He is with us in his Attributes and sweet relations and all sweet termes that may support our faith that whatsoever wee see comfortable in the creature we may rise more comfortably to God and say God is my Rocke and Shield and my light and defence And then God is with us in every condition and in every place whatsoever hee is not onely a God of the mountaines and not of the valleyes or a God of the valleyes and not of the mountaines as those foolish people thought but he is in all places and at all times with his If they be in prison hee goes with them Act. 16. He made the prison a kind of Paradise a heaven If they be banished into other Countries he goes with them I will goe with thee oh Jacob into Egypt and bring thee backe againe If they be in death he is with us to death and in death In the valley of the shadow of death thou art with â—e at all times whatsoever and in all conditions God is with us In all our affaires whatsoever God is with us Feare not Josua Feare not Moses what was the ground of their comfort I will be with thee Hee was with Saint Paul in all conditions therefore hee bids him feare not So our blessed Saâ—iour the head of all in Act. 10.38 in the speech of Peter to Cornelius hee did all things well for God was with him you see how God is with his children What is the ground that the great and holy and pure God blessed for ever should be with such sinfull and wretched creatures as we are that hee should not onely be with us and about us and compasse us as a shield but be in us The ground of all is his free love in Christ Christ was God with us first God that hee might be with us ordained that Chrisâ— should be God with us Emmanuel that hee should take our nature into unity of person with himselfe Christ being God with us that he
Spirit in the Spouse saith Come The Spirit doth all as the soule doth all in the body it acts it and leads it and comforts it and gives beauty to it so the Spirit first knits Christ and us together there is the same Spirit in Christ the head and in the Church there is one common Spirit in head and members And when it hath done so it acts and leads and sanctifies and purifies the Church it acquaints the Church with the good things that God hath given her acquaints her with the deepe meaning of God the love of God in Christ it acquaints God with our desires hee knowes our meaning in our prayers and we know his meaning it acquaints us with the state we shall have after and assures us of it It is the earnest of the Inheritance the Spirit and the graces of it are not onely the earnest but a part of that Inheritance a part of heaven where our bodies shall be spirituall not that they shall turne to be spirits but they shall be ruled wholy by the Spirit as the soule rules the body As it is in a river it is impossible that the streame should run higher then the spring-head from whence it comes so it is impossible that our desires should rise higher then the spring from whence they come the desires of nature cannot goe higher then nature the desires of the flesh are fleshly but spirituall desires as they spring from heaven they have a noble originall and head so they carry to heaven againe Therefore as the Spirit comes from God the Father and the Sonne so it carries us backe againe to the Father and the Sonne as it comes from heaven so it carries to heaven back againe That is one way to know whether our desires be spirituall or no our desire of death and of the comming of Christ if it be from wearisomnesse of life and from afflictions in the world so nature may desire I were better be dead then to be thus as Ionas wished death and the children of Israel and Elias in a passion oh that I were dead c. but if those desires spring from the Spirit then they come from heaven from the consideration of the excellency of the state wee shall have there that it shall be better with us and that death is but a darke passage to a glorious condition We may know our desires are spirituall from the rise of them if they come from spirituall and holy and heavenly considerations the Spirit doth all in the Spouse that is holy and Spirituall Therefore let us give entertainment to the Spirit of God and be where we may have further and further communion with the Spirit in spirituall Ordinances The preaching of Gods holy Word though it be meanely esteemed by the world it is the Ministerie of the Spirit in the hearing of it the Spirit is given if we would have the Spirit let us attend upon the Ministerie of the Spirit And let us study Christ and make him all in all Saint Paul questions with the Galathians saith hee I would know of you how came ye by the Spirit by hearing of Christs Gospel or of the Law preached No it was by the Gospel so that not onely the Ministerie in generall but the Evangelicall Ministerie that unfolds Christ and the infinite love of God in Christ the excellent condition we have in this world and look for in the world to come the Spirit is effectuall with these thoughts to make us holy and heavenly The Law beats downe but the Gospel especially these Evangelicall truths make us spirituall Therefore wee should be willing to heare spirituall points There are a company of men that love to heare curious and nice points and if a Minister be quaint anâ— satyricall and unfold points sutable to their apprehension they can digest this but come to speake of things above nature of Christ and the benefits by him they are spirituall they are remote and transcendent above their nature that they cannot relish them But he that hath the Spirit of Christ of all points there are none to those that unfold Christ and the benefits by him the glory that wee hope for by him in another world And let us not grieve the Spirit but give way to his motions The Spirit is now among us in his Ordinance knocking at our hearts and desiring entertainement let us give way and not quench the good motions that hee stirres up and the Spirit shall be given more and more to us The Holy-Ghost is given to them that ebey him And let us beg the Spirit God will give his holy Spirit to them that aske him Luk. 11. As if hee should say the Spirit is the best thing that God can give you that are evill can give good things to your children but your heavenly Father hath one good thing instead of all he will give his Spirit Therefore when wee find our hearts dead and dâ—ll and earthly and base-minded thinke thus Alas I am a lump of flesh now where is the Spirit of God certainely if I had the Spirit in me I could not be as I am If we love our soules we will take this course wee trifle with Religion else God doth all by the Spirit the Spirit is Christs Vicar here is no need of a Ministeriall head betweene the Spouse and Christ the Spirit and the Spouse are so neere together there is such a conjunction betweene Christ and his Church that where the Spirit is hee stirres up desires of his comming Onely let us attend upon the meanes and Ordinances that hee hath left in his Church And let us consider wee are not for this life we are not to live here alway the child in the wombe is not for that life and when it is in the world it is not for this life there is a third life that we are for An imperfect state rests not till it come to perfection our best is behind let those that are naught feare the second comming of Christ. Let Herod and Iudas and the beast of Rome feare that shall be cast into the burning lake Let Felix tremble the corrupt Judge and all that live in corrupt courses But wee that professe our selves to be Christians and hope for better things in another world let us labour to banish base feares and to this end let us labour to be spirituall and not to be lead by the flesh Whosoever is Christs hath the Spirit of Christ or else he is none of his as it is sweetly and largely and heavenly prooved Rom. 8. We have nothing to doe with Christ unlesse we have his Spirit to stirre up motions and desires of better things then this world can afford FINIS DAVIDS CONCLVSION OR THE SAINTS RESOLVTION In one Sermon By the late learned and reverend Divine RICHARD SIBBS Doctor in Divinitie Master of Katherine-Hall in Cambridge and sometimes Preacher at Grays-Inne Ieremy 30.21 Who is this that ingageth his heart to approach
death rest Againe it is in this respect a sleep because a man goes to bed with assured hope of rising againe and therefore he goes quietly though it be a state of darknesse for the time all the senses are bound up yet hee knowes that in Gods ordinarie providence hee shall rise againe therefore men not only quietly but cheerefully go to bed So there is greater ground to know that wee shall rise againe out of our graves than that we should rise out of our beds for many mens beds have been their graves in some sort I meane they have died in their beds but for the resurrection we have the word of Almighty God that is a God of his word that we shall rise againe and we have it in the pledge of our Saviours resurrection there is no doubt of that Therefore when wee die if wee have faith wee should make no more of death than men doe to goe to bed hoping undoubtedly of an assured and joyfull resurrection The want of faith in that kind makes us backward to this you see in what respect death is said to be a sleep To speak only of those references and relations that are most pertinent between sleep and death David fell asleep and very willingly for he had lived a painefull life he served God both as a private man as a Sheepheard as a King Eccles. 5.12 To a labouring man sleepe is sweet so to a man that hath served God carefully in his calling and kept a good conscience death is very sweete Wee see children that have been playing all day they are loath to goe to bed but to a man that hath wrought all day sleepe is sweete as wise Salomon saith to a labouring man Would we then have death as a sweet rest to us let us doe as David did that is bee painefull and laborious in our particular place and in our generall calling let us be faithfull in them to keep a good conscience and set all in order as much as wee can while we live to leave no seeds of debate when we are gone Some men die carelesly this way in disposing the good things that God hath given them they lay a foundation of perpetuall jarring afterward and so their death is skarsly a sleepe and rest they cannot but bee disquieted when they thinke how they leave things because they were not wise before hand David setled Salomon in his Throne and set all things right before hee died and that made him die not only in rest but in honour in 1 Chron. 29.28 David died in a good old age full of riches and honour And let us labour to get assurance of a change for the betteâ— David his flesh rested in hope because hee beleeved in Christ that Christs body should see no corruption Psal. 16. So if wee would have death sweete as a sleepe let us labour to get assurance by faith in Christ and so our flesh may rest in hope that as Christ raised his owne flesh so he will raise ours Good Simeon when he had seene Christ once Lord now let thy servant depart in peace c. so after we have gotten a sight of Christ to be our Christ our Saviour and Redeemer and have interest in him Lord now let thy servant depart in peace So much for the tearme sleepe It is added besides that Hee was gathered to his Fathers HEâ— was gathered to his Fathers both in regard of his body and in regard of his soule for his body went to the house of the dead the grave and his soule went to his fathers to heaven As I said before of sleepe so of this it is a phrase of Scripture that must bee understood as the persons are When a man dies his body goes to the place or house of all men the house of darknesse the grave but for his soule that goes as the man is to his fathers to hell if hee bee naught to the soules of just and perfect men as the Apostle speakes if he have lived a gracious and a good life and so it must be understood here bâ—cause hee speaks of a blessed man He was 〈◊〉 to his Fathers he meanes not to his immediate fathers but all beleeving men before him that were the children of Abraham his soule went to them his body to the first Mother the Earth out of which it was taken So the Generall is nothing but this that When we die wee are put to our fathers Therefore this should moderatâ— our feare of death and our griefe for the departure of others Why wee are not lost when we die the soule and body is taken asunder it is taken in pieces but both remaine still the bodie goes to the earth from whence it was taken and the soule goes to God that gave it And for our comfort we goe to those that we knew before many of them to our fathers not to strangers Especially in respect of our soules wee goe to our fathers to our next fore-fathers and to our old fathers to Abraham Isaac to Iacob to David to blessed Saint Paul and Peter and all the blessed men that died in the faith And when we are dead wee goe to those that are more perfect than those that wee leave behind us This should moderate our griefe oh I leave my friends behind me my father and mother and childrenâ— it is to goe to better to greater and those that love thee better Thou goest to greater for they are in their pitch they have attained their end they are in heaven and to better they are refined from those corruptions that men here are subject unto and then their love is perfect likewise therefore going to our fathers and not to strangers to those that are better and greater and love us more perfectly why should wee thinke much to die they will bee readie to entertaine us oh the welcome that soules find in heaven and at the day of the Resurrection the sweete imbracings when all the blessed soules that have beene from Adam to the last man shall meete together seeing therefore wee goe to our fathers it should rather make us chearefull Here whom do we live with take them at the best our friends men subject to jealousies and weaknesses our jealousie makes us suspect them and their weaknesses makes us thinke the meaner of them so our love is not perfect nor our graces are not perfect therefore we cannot have perfect love and contentment while we are here But in heaven there shall be no jealousie nor feare nor imperfection which is the ground of jealousie we shall perfectly love them because they shall be perfectly good and they shall perfectly love us because we shall be perfectly good and one shall stand admiring the graces of God in another and that will maintain a perpetuity of love therefore it is want of faith that makes us unwilling to yeeld our soules unto God at the point
of death It is a going to our fathers But then wee must take heed what fathers wee imitate here take heed who are our patterns while we live for if wee do not imitate them here wee cannot live with them in heaven when wee are dead Therefore it is a very necessary item in Heb. 13.7 Look to them that rule over you that speak the word whose faith follow Considering the end of their labour Let us look before what kind of men those have beene that wee desire to live with in heaven and mark the end of their conversation for such as we delight in and frame our carriage to here such we shall live with hereafter We must not think to live with Nero and die with Paul to live Epicures and die Christians to live dissembling and falsly in our places and to die comfortably and to go to the blessed soules at the houre of death and at the resurrection No God will gather our soules with wicked men if wee fashion our carriage to wicked men such as wee delight in and live with and set as patterns before us with such we shall live for ever hereafter Hee was gathered to his fathers One signe of a man that shall be gathered to beleeving fathers to his good fore-fathers besides imitation is this to delight in the congregations of just men here A man may know he shall go to the congregation of perfect soules in heaven if he delight in the congregations of Gods Saints here for surely he that hath a confidence to bee in the proper heaven heaven that is so blessed he will have a care while he lives as much as he can to be and delight in the heaven upon earth Now the chiefe heaven upon earth is the Church of God Oh how amiable is thy dwelling place oh Lord where many soules meet together to joyne in speaking to God and in hearing God speak to them Those therefore that delight not in the congregations that delight not in the service of God what hope have they to bee gathered to the congregation of the faithfull when they are gone so much for that he was gathered to his fathers And he saw Corruption IT is an Hebraisme for he felt Corruption he had experience of Corruption All other senses are attributed to sight that being the principall of all the senses they have their terme from it because sight is the most excellent the most capacious and quick sense therefore I say the actions of all the other senses are attributed to it as wee say see how he speaks and so here he saw Corruption that is he had experience of it because sight is a convincing sense He could not properly see when he was dead but the meaning is he had experience of Corruption the truth is this in a word that The best and greatest men in the world when they are gone they are subject to corruption David was a King and a Prophet a man after Gods owne heart yet this could not keepe Davids body from Corruption The reason is wee are but dead men here this is not the life that Christ hath purchased for us wee are going to death our naturall life is but Cursus ad mortem a continuall going to death We are alive now but alasse our life is nothing but a continuall dying every day cuts off a part of our life It is a statute that all must die And it is our perfection to die we cannot otherwise see God enjoy our Crown Death indeed is nothing but misery but when we die we go to live The best must see Corruption Therefore this should bee an argument to support the soule when we think of the rottennesse in the grave and of that place and time of horrour when wee shall bee no more here upon earth It is no otherwise with us than it hath beene with the best in the world they all saw Corruption in their time Again considering we have but corruptible bodies here bodies that must see corruption let us take care for the better part He is a mad man that having two houses one free-hold the other a rotten tenement ready to fall about his eares that shall take delight in that and neglect his owne inheritance which is a goodly thing it is for want of wit and it is as much want of grace when we having a double life the life of grace that ends in glory the life of the soule the life of God as Saint Paul saith and then the life of the body which is communicated from the soule to the body which is corruptible our bodies are but tabernacles of clay whose foundation is in the dust for us to take care of this vile body as the Apostle calls it Phil. 3. Who shall change our vile body and make it like to his glorious body according to his mighty power to take care of this vile body and to neglect our precious soules It is the care of most such is the carnall breeding of men and they follow those that bred them in this brutishnesse as if they had no soules as if there were no life after this their care is what they shall eat and what they shall drink and put on what to commend themselves by in the outward man to the view of others all their care is for their outward man Alas what is it but a corruptible vile body it is but the case of the soule they forget the Iewell and look all to the Casket which is a base body take it at the best while we are here And take heed we be not ensnared with the bodies of others This is the corruption of men to gaze in this kind You see wise Salomon and others were much troubled with temptations in this kind Consider that body that thou dotest on now and which is made by the Divell a snare to thee what will it bee ere-long so noysome that thou wilt not indure the presence of it it is but a flower and it is fading fresh in the morning and dead at night All flesh is but grasse it is a corruptible body If thou wilt needs love bee acquainted with such as have excellent spirits that shall live eternally Oh there is an object of love indeed that is the true love and acquaintance that is spirituall Many things may be lovely in the outward person but see that there be a heavenly spirit that is mounting up that savours of good things a spirit that hath life begunne in it that shall be for ever happy in heaven unlesse there bee this there cannot bee a fit ground for the love of any wise man To end all you see here a short story of a good life and a blessed death let us make this blessed man of God exemplary to us in both Let our whole life be nothing but a service of God and let us consider the generation wherein wee are to take