all sinners but there is some speciall time when God will make at his heart there is a time there is one day of peculiar grace that God hath reserved almost for every sinner which is called the day of his visitation Why now a poore humble hearted Saint thinks thus yonder is a man is now jeering of the people of God he is an enemie to all holinesse and sayth he yonder man his day of visitation is not yet come but then he will blesse God in that day and say O blessed be the Lord that sent me such a friend or such a neighbour he would oft come to call upon me to goe to Sermons and I did curse him when he intreated me to goe I would stay at home and drinke and sweare but now I remember his prayers and his instructions that I did then jeere at but now they are precious to my soul And therefore thinks a poore humbled Saint why is it that I am better then the worst sinner It is because God hath sent me the day of visitation before him When God shall send his day of visitation to him I have reason to think that he may be in the Kingdome of heaven before me and therefore let me be meeke and affable towards him Beloved that stir and rigour and ridgidnesse in Ridgidnesse to sinners ariseth from pride professors towards poore sinners it ariseth only from the pride of their hearts Now I say if thou have seene God in Jesus Christ thou shalt know it by thy humble carriage towards sinners There is but one thing more and so I shall have done with this text and that is how a heart that is rightly humbled by seeing of God in Jesus Christ doth carrie and behave it selfe towards other Saints But that I must leave to another opportunity SERMON 9. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts THE last lesson that God taught us from these words you know was this that A saving sight of God in Christ is the principall meanes of the humiliation of the soule The last Use we were upon was of examination to know whether the Lord hath given us this grace or no. For the clearing of that I told you that we may know much of it by our carriage and demeanour First towards God Secondly towards man Concerning our carriage towards God I instanced in five perticulars which I shall not now repeat Secondly we may know it by our carriage towards men which is the last thing and so I shall finish what I have to say on these words I began to speake of this the last time I told you that men are of two sorts eyther Saints or sinners according to the Scripture language not according to the cursed language of these times that denominate men from every opinion and call them Seekers and Presbiterians and Anabaptists and Independents I know not what cursed languages but I say all men are eyther Saints or Sinners thou art eyther a Saint or a Sinner Christ hath but two names for men here and will have but two hands when he comes to judge his right hand and his left hand and there are but two places after judgement Heaven and Hell So by our carriage towards Saints and Sinners we may know whether we have this grace of humiliation or no. Of our carriage to sinners I spake somwhat the last time I shall now proceed to the last thing of all that is our carriage and demeanour to the Saints and therein because we are now upon examination I beseech you in a speciall manner to have an eye upon your hearts while I am speaking that God may make this as a lookinglasse to some proud souls that they may thereby see how it is with them I shall therefore endeavour to open this to you as I did the former Now I say thou mayest know if thy heart be humbled by the spirit of Christ in Quest Answ The carriage of a humble heart towards Saints the Gospell by thy carriage towards the Saints You will say how is that It will appeare these wayes First if thou be rightly humbled thou doest usually conceive thy selfe and thou art willing that 1. He thinks himselfe the least of Saints all men should so conceive of thee to be the least of Saints I pray thee remember that I say thou doest usually reflect upon thy selfe and doest conceive of thy selfe and art willing to be so conceived of and accounted of by others as the least of all Saints I will give you but a Scripture or two for it 1 Cor. 15. Paul you know was a glorious Saint and truly in many things as far as we may have leave to judg more glorious then any of the Apostles yet sayth he speaking of those that had seen our Lord meaning the Apostles He was seene of James and of Cephas c. And last of all he was seen of me as one borne out of due time for I am the least of all the Apostles and am not worthy to be called an Apostle The Greek word signifies a child that is borne dead or as it were into the World before the time We say somtimes of a child when it is borne there is the least child that ever was borne alive but yet it was borne alive and in season but an abortive is a child that is borne by miscarriage that is borne dead it is lesse then the least child and lesse esteemed Job sayth O that I had been an abortive that my mother had buried me in secret Paul could not compare himselfe to the least Saint but as it were to an abortive to a thing not worth the mentioning among the living I am an abortive sayth he not because of the time that I did come after them though it be true that Paul was made an Apostle after the rest but sayth he I am the least of all Saints this was the reason Take but one place more Ephes 3. 8. Unto me who am lesse then the least of all Saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ To me that am lesse then the least The meaning of it is for in the Greek language in which the Apostles wrote they have six degrees of comparison now in English and in some other tongues there are but three as we say good better and best of all we goe no further a thing is little and lesse and least of all But they double it again and they say little and lesse and least and a thing lesse then the least and more little and lesse then the least of all Paul chose to goe to the lowest pin lesse then the least Saint Minor minimo lesse then the least As if he had sayd suppose we gather together all the tottered broken professors in the World that walke dishonourably to God the blind and the lame as it were that doe least resemble him yet let them
not seene God he goes in darknesse and must wander for ever more Looke a little on your hearts and aske the question concerning your conversation whether you love the people of God or no That is the third thing Then fourthly which depends upon this whosoever 4 Fellowship with the Saints hath seene God rightly as he loves the Saints so he hath Gospell fellowship with the Saints I say he hath Fellowship with the Saints 1 Joh. 1. 7. For there is a discourse concerning this seeing of God Truly saith John verse 3. Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ and these things we write unto you that your joy may be full But if we say we have Fellowship with him and walk in darknesse we lye and doe not the truth If we say we have fellowship with him and walke in sinne But if wee walke in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the bloud of Jesus Christ his Whence the Fellowship of Saints is Son cleanseth us from all sinne Understand me I meane not here by fellowship and I suppose it is not meant here fellowship of neighbourhood or fellowship of the family or fellowship of the same City no nor being of the same outward visible Church I thinke that is not meant though that be not contrary But VVe have fellowship one with another What is that That is when I have seene God and have had fellowship with God and his sonne Jesus Christ I have a spirituall fellowship with all that have seene God with me that is the ground of the fellowship and communion I have with others is in that they have seene God as well as I and the impression of God is cleare on their spirits and manifested in their lives Therefore for People to have fellowship with Fellowship on wrong grounds others in this or that respect because they jump with them in this or that opinion or in this or that way this is not the Fellowship spoken of by John and by Paul Philip. 1. 4 5. But this Fellowship is a higher thing the spiritual communion we have one with another upon spirituall grounds because of the Spirit of God dwelling in us Therefore examine your selves by this Have you any fellowship with the Saints Is not the Fellowship of divers of you why should I aske the question I know it is so with Drunkards and Malignants those that raile against godlinesse those that blaspheme God and his People this is the Fellowship of many And it may be others of you have fellowship with Professors but it is carnall that is it is grounded on carnall respects it is not because they have seene God and you have seene him also and therefore you have Fellowship together That is another thing A fifth thing I find that I will but touch That whosoever hath seene God they are very desirous 5 Desire to bring others to the light to bring all others into the same light that they have seene O! how oft doth Paul upon every occasion concerning his vision how oft doth he repeat it at large in the acts of the Apostles how he had seene God! And so here John when he had seene the glory of God he writes to them he delivers the message to them and he would bring them also to the light to walke in the light as he did Beloved a man that hath seene God once truly he looks upon all the world as People walking in Hell in a hell of darknesse the course of mankind in this world is but as a Hell to him Therefore to see People walke in such grosse darknesse and God having broken in a little Window into his soule he cannot choose but bring others to the light Therefore I never believed nor doe believe Christians should be ready to teach others when People among us it may be they are godly I leave them to the Lord that professe they see a great deale of light and they see God more then others and yet for the expression of it we see they withdraw and goe aside and they thinke it not fit to teach carnall men it may be they will teach one another three or foure or five Not as though I blamed teaching let us teach one another any how so we may edifie one another in the Lord publickly or privately but when there is a spirit in People that they will not communicate the light as much as they can that other poor sinners may see it I suspect that light that it is not from God for whosoever sees the Light rightly he will doe his utmost Endeavour to bring others into the Light 6 It enableth to suffering as in But lastly I find that whosoever hath seene God truly that sight of God will make him able to goe through any hardship any suffering any affliction whatsoever in the service of God As in Heb. 11. 27. Moses forsooke Aegypt and regarded not the wrath Moses of the King but endured saith the text Why did he Did he not know what the wrath of the King was No doubt but he saw what a Tyrant he was and he saw much cruelty living in the House but he endured as seeing him who is invisible he saw God and so he was able to goe through all And so Stephen that blessed man that was full of the Stephen holy Ghost Acts 7 When he had preached unto them saith the text they were cut to their hearts and gnashed on him with their teeth and he being full of the holy Ghost looked stedfastly to Heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus Christ standing on the right hand of God When they gnashed their teeth he looked up to heaven saw God and Christ at his right hand It may be there was somthing that was extraordinary but it is a worke that is ordinary Behold saith he I see the Heavens opened and the Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God Then they cryed out and stopped their eares and stoned him and he called on God and said Lord Jesus receive my spirit and kneeled downe and cried Lord lay not this sinne to their charge See how Stephen was calling on God and praying for his enemies and giving up his Spirit to God when they were gnashing with their teeth and stoning him as if they had been mad yet he goes through it quietly Whatsoever pretences men have this is the Why some Professors avoid suffeing reason why many Professors are so wise that they will never suffer persecution let the world turne which way it will they will not want distinctions to waue persecution the truth is they wave it because they have not seene God if they had they would carry themselves innocently and prudently and then let what would come Thus briefly I have shewed you how you may know whether you have seene God aright or no. Now lastly in a few words because you
that his Son hath satisfied the law and therefore we are freed Now he doth acknowledge it three wayes First You shall have it Mat. 17. compared with 1. by Gods own testimonie 2 Pet. 1. For Peter is much in it we follow not devised fables but we come to speake of the voyce in the Mount This is my beloved Son As if he had said This is one maine peice of the Gospel we heard a voyce when we were with our Master in the mount saying This is my beloved Son in whom my soule is well pleased That for his person Then a second thing that did shew that he was 2. Christ is out of prison satisfied was by suffering Jesus Christ after he was arrested and in prison for our debt for Christ was in prison for our debt he was arrested and that according to law he was brought into prison and all our suits were clapped on his back all our executions and outlaries were layd on his shoulders and then the Father let him out of prison being our suretie If he had not payd our debt he had not come out of prison but now the Father lets him out that is the Father suffred him to rise from the dead Therefore we finde that our justification is layd more upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ then upon his death as we see in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and raised againe for our justification that is he did die for our sins and was raised againe for our justification And in Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us That is his dying for us did satisfie the law but that did not justifie us untill we see that he was risen againe and then we see that all the debt was paid because our suretie is gotten out of prison Therefore justification I meane the knowledge of it at least principally ariseth from Christs resurrection Now when I see Christ is risen and is gone abroad he is gone out of the grave and gone to heaven I know that the law is fulfilled and the Father is satisfied and the Sergeant the Devill hath nothing to arrest me for all is satisfied all is cleare Thirdly and lastly I know God the Father is satisfied 3 Christ is gone into heaven for the law it is God the Fathers Writt that he had against us and now we see that all is payd not onely because our suretie is got out of prison for so a man may doe that hath not paid a debt but because when he was out of prison he ascended to his Father and the Father made him sit at the right hand of God in the glory of Majesty on high and he hath given him power and authoritie to rule the world till the day of Judgement Now in that the Father hath given the Son that honour and respect in heaven as to come and sit at his right hand wee may see it was not a breaking of prison but a reall paying of the debt and a fulfilling the law before he could come there This may give a little light how the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us through Jesus Christ Now the use of it I named in the morning I Use 1. To learne the ground of our justification was not able to expresse it neither can I now fully utter it I beseech you consider the more of it The first use we may make of it is this that you should learne from what I have said where your justification doth lie your justification doth not lie or is not built upon any thing that is in you or that is done by you or that you may hope to doe hereafter you are not justified by your own personall good or unjustified by your own personall evills you are not one jote the more just when you have done all the good you can in the world and you are not one jote the lesse just when you have committed all the weaknesses and fallen into all the frailties that a Saint can fall into because your justification is built onely upon Christ and upon what he did and suffered My justification is built upon the death of Christ and his resurrection he hath fulfilled the law and he hath paid the debt and he is out of prison and the Father is satisfied here is my justification and I believing this I am happie Now you shall find that you lay a great part of Men build justification upon something in themselves your justification upon something in your selves therefore when you are enlarged in good you think you are more justified and when you fall into sin you think you are more unjust then you were before and you look strangely upon God Now the Lord hath put it out of our hands Adam should have been justified by that that was in him and that should have been done by him but blessed be God he would not trust us with that good any more but hath put all in the hands of Jesus Christ and there is the whole foundation of our justification Therefore it is not for a Christian to come and say O Sir I feare I am no childe of God I feare I shall prove an hypocrite why so because I finde so much sin and so many lusts in me It is very well that you find and feele sin and that you mourne for and strive against sin but that therefore you should thinke there is a flaw in your justification that you should make any good that is in you a prop to support your justification or any evill in you a thing that might crack your justification this is Popery My justification depends not on this that I am justified the more when I am strong or less justified when I am weak but whether I be weak or strong whether I doe much or little for God whether I give thanks or be humbled seeing Christ is dead and risen againe I am justified that is still intire because it is not built upon me but wholly upon the death and resurrection of Christ In the 4th of the Romans Abraham is laid down Abraham how justified as a patterne of believing Abraham had the word of faith So shall thy seed be and without hope or reason or any thing he believed that is he cast himself on that word so it is said he was justified without works What a strange thing is that for it is impossible that there should be true faith but that all good works should in some measure follow after but if wee speake properly and look to the thing as it is in it self how a man is justified he is justified wholly without works Abraham did many good things he offred his son Isaack
and are damned it is said they tasted of the heavenly gift and were enlightened for there is the very word Compare that with 2 Pet. 2. 20. In the one we read they were enlightned and after fell off In the other wee read that by the knowledge of Christ they were cleansed and after fell with the Dog to his Vomit I say there is a Gospell sight of God that hath some resemblance of this peculier priviledge but is not it Men may have a sight to know abundance of things of the Kingdome of God and so in a sort be said to know and to see God yet this is not the peculiar sight I am to speak of Fourthly there is a sight of God which is not peculiar 4. At the day of Judgement to the Saints and that is at the day of Judgment there wicked people shall see God Only they shall see him clothed with wrath they shall see the Lord coming out to judgement against them they shall see that Man that they thought to be but a man and no more whom they crucified they shall then see him God comming to judge the world they shal see him whom they have pierced And this is not that sight that is the priviledge of Saints It is not a corporeall sight as the Jews had nor it is not a common sight as the Heathens have by the creation or as Hypocrites have in the Gospell by illumination or as Reprobates shall have one day to their condemnation It is none of these sights But Fiftly and lastly there is a seeing of God in the A peculiar Gospell sight only to Saints Gospell by the Spirit of God which is peculiar only to the People of God There was no Saint that ever was in the world but had this sight more or lesse There were few Saints in the old Testament but somwhere or other it is mentioned and said of them that they saw God either directly or by consequence As In the old Testament for instance in the old Testament in the beginning of it though in a different manner you read of divers men that are said to be walkers with God As Noah Noah Henoch Abraham walked with God and Henoch walked with God and Abraham walked with God Now it is impossible in a spirituall right sence that you can conceive of men to walk with God hand in hand but it must necessarily imply that they did see God how shall two walk together unlesse they be agreed much lesse unlesse they see one another for a man will not walk with one which he sees not Therefore it is said of Abraham Joh. 8. 58. Abraham saw my day and rejoyced .. He did not only see the time for that is not all but he saw the glory of God in Jesus Christ though he were not yet manifested Moses So Moses also had this sight as we read Heb. 11. 27. It is said by faith he forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King for he endured as seeing him who is invisible Moses saw him who is invisible God is said to be invisible two wayes he is invisible in respect of any corporeall shape And God is said to be invisible in respect of all mankind besides the Saints he saw him who is invisible he saw him whom never man saw or shall see but only those that are in Christ as Moses was Of Solomon it is said Solomon God appeared twice to him God appeared often to Saul therefore Saul thought it strange when the Lord appeared not unto him But God did not appeare to Saul in all his dayes with such an apparition Isaiah and in that fashion as he did to Solomon So Isaiah in the Text he had a peculiar sight that made him cry out Woe is me I am undone for mine eyes have seene the King the Lord of Hosts It was common in the old Testament and in the new Testament it is every where spoken of you shall read of it more fully in the New Testament than in the Old In Isaiah 52. 8. it was prophesied concerning the new Testament In the new Testament Thy watchmen shall lift up their voyce for they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring againe Zion as the Apostle saith 2 Cor. 3. We all behold with open face There was a kind of vaile over the best of them in the old though it were a peculiar thing to the S t s Paul then to see God yet now in the new Testament though the sight be the same yet it is a great deale clearer and brighter and nearer and more glorious As to give you a few instances as that of Paul 2 Cor. 12. He was wrapped up into the third heaven into Paradice where he heard wonders that were not to be uttered What were those glorious things that he saw that he could not utter Without controversie the same that Stephen saw Act. 7. The Heavens were opened Stephen and he saw Christ at the right hand of God the glory of God in Jesus Christ. And least you should think it was a thing peculiar to Paul or Stephen it is a thing commonly spoken of in the new testament of all the Saints and when Christ on the Mount saith And al the Saints blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. without holines none shall see God Heb. 12. As if he should say any man that is holy shall see God In 1. Joh. 3. A man that lives in sin hath not seene God And he that loves not his Brother hath not seene God It is a common thing it is it hath been and it shall be the Saints and all the Saints have a peculiar sight of God that the world knowes not of To open it a little further that hearing that there is such a glorious thing you may look after it and set your minds to consider it I shall indeavour it as far as I may according to Scripture because there is nothing but the light of the word and Spirit that can discover this You will say what is this sight Or how is it Or how shall we understand it This sight of God which only Saints have is I will lay before you these 4 or 5 propositions in generall that you may have a little light of it out of the scriptures The first is this that the sight of God which the Sâ—â— 1 Imperfect have in this world it is but imperfect it is but in part it is not ful compleat until they be in heaven Not that I meane that they see some part of God in this world and they shall see him all in the other world No a Saint seeth God wholly here he sees all that is in God he sees his love he sees his power he sees his strength he sees his righteousnesse he sees his mercy he sees his all Attributes far otherwise then a carnall man can and that
set God saith David at my right hand that I might not sin against him that is I will keep God in my eye The Eye of God is a meanes to keep a man from sin for who will sin in the eye of God therefore saith God to Abraham walk before me and be perfect The Servant may doe ill behind his Masters back but walk before me and then thou wilt be upright therefore when men sin they are said to leave God but saith David I have set God at my right hand that I might not sinne against him I will alway see God as I see a man that walks at my right hand Thirdly if there be such a sight of God to be Use 3. Highly to prise the preaching of the Gospell enjoyed in this world and that by his word and Spirit me thinks this might teach you highly to prize and esteeme the preaching of the Gospell the word of Christ Truly beloved if you doe not look on the Gospell with a spirituall consideration to a carnall eye it is the poorest and driest and most beggarly thing in the world for there are none that have more weaknesses then the dispensers of it It is a thing that should fill men with admiration to consider what it is to have poore creatures to doe the work of God that have a world of weaknesses more then other men who are more exact in their wayes as Lawyers and Tradesmen c. To a carnall eye the preaching of the Gospell is a dead drousie thing a man shall heare many things that he heard before and be taught till he sleep and be tyred out unlesse he look on it with a spiritual eye As the East-India Merchant when he sees such a shell he considers what is in it there is a glorious Pearle in it and for that he goes many a Mile So doe you consider that the preaching of the Gospell by poore and weake meanes it is that shell that Cabinet wherein these glorious treasures are found therefore esteeme it and prise it highly look on it with reverence look for the Pearle in it prise it and praise God for it It may be some of you that are sleepy Why men see not the excellency in the Gospel creatures may say I cannot tell that there is any such thing in it others are so sottish to this day that they no more know nor understand what we have bin doing in the preaching of the word these 12. moneths then a Post It is not because the treasure is not here but you shal see the reason 2 Cor. 4. 4. the reason why you see it not is because The God of this world hath blinded your eyes that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God should not shine upon your Soules God shines upon one mans Soule and not upon another another sees nothing but a poor Preacher full of weaknesses so he gos away remembers little or nothing or it may be sleeps all the while Beloved for the Lord Jesus sake trifle not It makes me tremble to consider seriously how those decrees that are infinite and innumerable that were before the beginning of the world are to be opened when we preach the word yonder man and yonder woman we know not whether of them belong to God or the Devill but when we preach the decree is opened there is a poor man or a poore woman that belongs to life it makes him a new creature another is as very a Sot at the yeares end as at the beginning who would not tremble when God threatens to seale up your condition by it O! it is a glorious thing the Gospell Look to it you sottish people that are like the Foole in the Proverbs that tell him a tale and when you have done he will aske what is the matter or as a man asleep that knows nothing what he hath been doing For the Lords sake consider what we are doing and what the Gospell is and what it is to have one day of the Son of man it is a very strange word in Luk. 17. 32. consider of it thou poore sottish creature When Christ was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdome of God should come he answered them The Kingdom of God commeth not with observation Neither shall they say lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdome of God is within you or among you And he said unto his Disciples the dayes will come when ye shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Sonne of man and ye shall not see it And yet he saith after they shall see the day of the Son of man We are to consider the sonne of Man the Lord Jesus Christ hath two sorts of dayes He hath one 2 Sorts of dayes of the Sons of man day that every wicked man shall see when they shal be eating and drinking as in the dayes of Noah When the Son of man shall come to judge according to my Gospel as Paul preacheth according to the Gospel The day of judgement that you have here preached That is one day of the Son of man And thou that wilt not receive Christ thou shalt have thy belly full of that day it will be a terribble day a day of blacknes and darknes when the earth shall reele as a drunkard and the heavens shall be gathered together as a scrowle and the world shall be on fire and thou shalt be at thy wits end it will be a terrible day the Lord deliver thee from that day But the Son of Man hath another day that is The day of grace the day of grace the day wherein the Son of man in the preaching of the Gospell would bestow grace upon thy Soule Why doth he call that the day of the Son of man more then the other He delights more in it he delights not in the death of a sinner This is that sweet day that Jesus Christ delights in to offer himself to thee and to lay before thee life and salvation by his death These things were not written for them only but for us also Remember the day will come when thou shalt desire to see one day of the son of Man but shalt not see it Thou wilt say O that I had one such day as we have now in this place when the Preacher told me of seeing God and Christ O that I had but one day but one motion in my heart by the Spirit that I had then and yet I sotted it out and did forget it O that God would smile as he did then but it shall not be Therefore the Lord help you that you doe not trifle out your salvation as abundance in this Nation and in this Citty doe between sottishnes and formalitie Abundance of People heare the word but here is abundance of formalitie few men consider with whom they have to do when they heare the word of God and what the busines is but in a trifling manner
the proud happy yea they that Worke wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered Here is the temper of proud spirits and hearts of wicked men they are all for Honour and wealth what profit shall we have by humbling our soules and keeping Gods Ordinances O! these were stout words and stout hearts and spirits to envy the prosperity of other people while they were corrected And in Job 2â— You shall read that Job did almost fall in that poynt also but it was because he was not throughly humbled as in the end he was for then he abhorred himselfe The Fift thing is this that a soul that is truely 5. Humble hearts repent not of receiving Christ humbled in his afflictions as he doth not envie the prosperity of others the while so he doth not repent of his bargaine that he hath made in receiving of Jesus Christ though all his afflictions and miseries it may be fall on him for his sake or the most of them he never repents that he hath been so holy but that he is not more holy A proud heart repents of what it hath done for God O saith a proud heart If I had not heard Puritans and followed their Sermons and gone their wayes and lived in their Conventicles I had not been noted and hated and afflicted It is a proud heart that repents of any jot of good it hath done for God or that repents of his receiving of Christ for any affliction or misery that may befall him it is a signe of a base heart There is a blessed expression Psal 44. 9. Of David and the people of God I have oft thought of the great sufferings of the Saints there spoken of Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our Armies Thou makest us to turne back from the Enemy and those that hate us spoyle for themselves Thou hast given us like Sheepe appointed for meat and hast scattered us among the Heathen Thou sellest thy people for nought and doest not increase thy wealth by their price A strange thing thou sellest them and takest no money for them Thou makest us a reproach to our Neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us c. Here is as it were an inventorie of all the troubles of the Church and wherefore doth he speake all this you shall see after For all this is come upon us yet have we not forgotten thee neyther have we dealt falsely in thy Covenant Our heart is not turned back neyther have our steps declined from thy way Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of Dragons yet we have not stretched forth our hands to a strange God He reckons up all these troubles and yet sayth he notwithstanding all this though God have brought all these miseries upon us yet We have not been false in the Covenant nor stretched out our hands to a strange God we doe not repent that we have received thee and are married to thee and have chosen thee for our God I remember the practice of a godly Minister many yeares agoe who speaking of the manner how God useth to bring in sinners to Christ though there were a great deale of curiositie in those dayes more if I may speak with reverence to the worthy men that then lived then should have been as if a man should go about to describe the forming of a child in the wombe which it were better leave to God then studie too much how it is framed But I remember his expression sayth he God takes a sinner the first time and shewes him his miserie and shuts him up that he sees no way of deliverance at all and then after a little while he opens a little crevice that he may see deliverance and Salvation but he gives him not the least occasion of hope that he shall have deliverance but in the meane while what doth the sinner He leaves his sins as fast as he can and turnes them off and throwes them away He sees Salvation and he sayth yonder is Salvation but I have no reason to hope to have it but whether I have it or no I will never goe back to sin I am resolved whether Christ will give me pardon and Salvation or not I will not take sin any more I applie it to this when afflictions and miseries come in stormes on a poore soule shower after shower that there is no end the soule sayth I know not how I shall be delivered from these troubles here is death and misery and sicknesse upon me and I know not what the issue will be but be the end what it will by the helpe of God I will not goe back to sin I will not repent that I have received Christ but will keepe close to the Lord. This is the meaning of that phrase Mat. 13. Where Christ saith when the sun is up upon the corne it scorcheth it that is when there is Persecution for every Persecution is an affliction though every affliction be not a Persecution now when the sun of Persecution is up men are offended What is the meaning of that Men repent of their bargaine they begin to be sorrie that ever they were Professors of Religion Therefore the Lord Christ would have a man cast up the cost For when a man enters into Religion it is as if he were to fight a Field there will be losse and trouble and danger there will be tribulation and hot Persecution consider if thou be able to goe through it thou must have the shell as well as the kernell it is a decree of Heaven Therefore consider before hand that thou mayest not repent when troubles come There may be base times worse then yet if worse may be and if when tribulations come thou shalt repent that thou hast gone so farr in Religion and that thou hast been acquainted with the Saints and that thou hast been so oft in their companie thou hast to speake the least and the best of thee an unhumbled heart Sixtly a Saint that hath a humbled heart you 6. He is more carefull to carry himselfe aright then to be delivered may know it by his carriage in afflictions by this he is more carefull by far of his right carriage in it then of deliverance out of it That is alway in a humble heart he studies more how to behave himselfe like a Saint under the rod then how to get away and be delivered from it You may read in Acts 4. There was very hot persecution and great affliction upon the Saints and yet there they are blessing God notwithstanding all their Persecution to see the Scripture fullfilled that which was spoken in Psal 2. The Kings of the Earth stand up and the Rulers take counsell together against the Lord and against his anoynted they rejoyced to see that fullfilled as if they had said they killed Christ the other day and now they Persecute us Now what would
is weake there is so much weaknesse and earthinesse and frailty sometimes a mans heart is right for God yet his head akes or his stomack is full of wind or he is weary and wants sleep there is some frailty or other This is all earthly Adam all this shall be gone and this kind of body and soule shall be altered and changed to the Image of the blessed second Adam we shall put off our earthynesse as well as our sinfulnesse and have his blessed compleat Image Now how glorious that shall be as you never The glory of Saints in Heaven unspeakable saw the first Adam but onely by hear-say and by reading of the Word of God so you have not seen the second Adam but you may partly know by the manifestation of his glory on earth you have heard much of his glory We saw his glory as of the onely begotten Son of God we shall then see him Phil. 3. 19. Our conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies He meanes vile not onely in respect of sinfulnesse but of dustinesse of earthynesse and weaknesse that they may be like his glorious body according to his mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himselfe that is according to his usuall manner of working he can doe what he will in Heaven and Earth We cannot conceive what an Imnge we shall have upon our bodies and soules but according to his wisedome and mighty power whereby he is able to subdue all things he will doe it Therefore let me tell you this I finde few or Saints formerly had more lively expectations of glory by Christ none that have those live by expectations in these times of that glory that is to be revealed that the Saints of old had See how they speake of it What manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God But yet it doth not appeare what we shall be for we shall be like him And gird up the loynes of your minds be sober and watch for the glory that shall be revealed The Saints heretofore more then halfe their hearts were in Heaven before hand That is the meaning of that Our conversation is in Heaven Just as you see men that goe a long journey or as you see people that have been plundered that are returning to their owne homes their conversation is there halfe a yeare before their hearts and their thoughts are there and they wish they were there and think the time long and are thinking what they will doe and what they will be when they come there So our conversation is in Heaven the Saints doe so long after the glory that is to be revealed in the day of adoption and redemption of our bodies that the most part of them is there already Now we doe not consider of this because the new Jerusalem is not yet come into our hearts We have not that Gospel-temper and frame of spirit that the Saints had before That which remaines is a little to shew you what your duty is that the Lord hath brought up to walk according to the spirit And two or three words I have to shew you how you should every one endeavour to attaine to it or to attaine it more and more But I shall leave that till the after-noone SERMON V. Rom. 8. 4. Who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit IT is the Foundation of all our happinesse to have the righteousnesse The foundation of a Christians happinesse of the law fulfilled in us for thereby we are exempted from all misery freed from all our enemies and therby we are made capable to enjoy all happinesse and blessednesse For all the misery that man suffers here and hereafter is because he hath not a righteousnesse to fulfill the law And therefore whatsoever man or woman it is that the Lord hath bestowed this great priviledge upon they must needs be in a blessed condition Now that we may know whether we are of that number the Apostle tells us that they that have this priviledge they walk not according to the Flesh but according to the spirit which was the last thing I was upon I told you what was meant by walking after the flesh and what by walking after the spirit I gave the Reasons of it and made two or three Uses There are two things remaine which I shall endeavour to speake of at this time First you that have received the spirit of God Vse 4. Exhortation to those that have the spirit how to walke and in some measure doe walk according to the spirit and not according to the flesh that the new-Jerusalem from Heaven is in some measure come into your hearts I will give you a few Exhortations from the Lord how you should carry your selves That is the first thing I shall doe and that shall be in four or five short words The first is this that the Lord having called 1. Not to abuse this liberty you to this glorious free estate to this free condition that you would take heed of abusing your liberty that you would take heed of turning the grace of God into wantonnesse as many doe And by that I meane but two things That you would take heed of using your liberty as an occasion for the flesh And Secondly of using your liberty so as to give offence to your Brethren or indeed to any I say first beware of using your liberty for an occasion 1. Not to use it as an occasion to the flesh to the flesh That you shall have Gall. 5. 13. For Brethren sayth the Apostle you have been called to liberty only use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another The Apostle shewes them in that Epistle the glorious condition and estate that they were in through grace And here in this Verse there are two things that he tells them the one is implied it is worth observing yee are called to liberty That The Gospell brings liberty is there is a freedome there is a liberty in the Gospell in diverse things that did seeme to be sinfull when ye were under the law for else what sence can you make of this ye are called to liberty onely use not your liberty for an occasion to the flesh For we find that the people under the law eyther they made the law stricter or looser then it was And there is no man in the World that walks according to the law but he makes many lawes to himselfe that Christ hath not made Now when the Gospell coms in clearly all those lawes that you made of your owne head vanish Ye are called to liberty that is you see more freedome you are not bound to every thing that before you were Before you must not smile it was a sin if you seemed to laugh or smile and a hundred such things Now
they are like fumes that come up into the braine and distract us A spirituall man is many times as it were a distracted man there are so many fumes such horrour and guilt that he is almost starck mad he can talke of naturall things but in spirituall things he is as it were mad the Chaine of spirituall reason is broken and now the spirit is the Comforter and he quiets the spirits and when a man is in a quiet temper the disease is gone and reason comes into the mind and as the Philosopher said ye know in naturall things a man can reason when he is not troubled so is it in the spirituall Another way is by sanctification by the spirit 7. By sanctification hee is the spirit of Sanctification it makes the soule holy it takes away lust and sin from the soule This I find in Mat. 6. 22. 23. I would open that place but cannot therefore pray consider it saith Christ the light of the body is the eye if therefore thy eye be single thy whole body shall be full of light He doth oppose singlenesse unto evill if thy eye be single that is if thy eye be purged from all guile that there is no sin there not when a man hath one eye to God and the other to sin to the World But if thy eye be evill that is sinfull then thy whole body is full of darknesse Therefore blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Well Lastly there is another way there are 8. By excercising diverse more but I will name but one more And that is the spirit of God doth teach the Saints thus to reason by excercising that is helpeth them to excercise and improove that light that they have There is a little light naturall light and there is a kind of spirituall light that an Hypocrite hath but the spirit of God doth not helpe him to improove that light and therefore that light dyeth he blowes not up the sire you know men come to reason by reasoning and excercise of reason makes men rationall I mean makes them know how to reason Now Hypocrites doe not thus as you may see Rom. 1. There they knew God and because they glorified him not as God they became vaine in their imaginations or in their reasonings as it is in the Originall God gave them up to a reprobate mind because they glorified not God Beloved I have three or foure uses but I feare Use The Fountaine of all good and evill in the soule I shall not reach them all I am overloath to tire you and my selfe Therefore I will conclude with one word and that is this That from hence from this that hath been said you may see what is the Fountaine of all goodnesse and of all evill in the soule Of all good as I have at large lookt upon it but 1. Of good can but touch take any good and you shall see it is carried on by spirituall reasoning as take faith Abraham reasoned he that gave him a Sonne at a hundred yeares old could raise him up againe Take your consolation it comes out by spirituall reasoning take Paul and Silas they were in Prison and ready to be brought out the next day to die now one would thinke they were madd there to sing but they did it upon spirituall reasons for they accounted themselves blessed to suffer for Christ and if they die they shall then be with Christ for hating of evill you shall see whence is it as pulling out the right eye or cutting off the right hand that is one would thinke a most unreasonable thing but Christ giveth a reason for it It is better to goe into Heaven it is better to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feete to he cast into everlasting fire So a Saint can reason spiricually and thus he loves the Saints and hates sin and denieth himselfe and performeth every dutie he so reasoneth that it is the blessed will of God he should doe it 2. Evill And so for evill whence comes sin from the vanitie of the mind whence comes persecution they thinke they doe God good service There is reason it is a good thing to suppresse these Schismatiques say some and to have Conformitie and be all of one mind and to banish them and let them all goe whence is this it is either from corrupt or naturall reason And so when men heare the Word of God and forget it they like it well as a man doth that sees his face in a glass but they goe away and forget it and whence is it why James tells you Deceive not your selves Deceiving your selves the word in the Originall is by false reasonings A man heares the Word and thinks surely I am in this evill condition and I am out of the way and I must looke after Christ and the like But afterwards comes naturall reason saying these are but new denies and what is become of our Fathers and the like Beloved all good is carried into the soule upon the wings of spirituall reason and all evill upon naturall and corrupt reason and therefore I conclude all beseeching you that you would studie and endeavour to get up your soules To labour to be swayed by spirituall reasoning and your conversations accordingly to be swayed and carried on by a spirituall mind by spirituall reasoning for here we speake of your Consciences not of your lives so much as of your hearts and minds And that you may so doe take the motive which followes in the Text which I did purpose had God given me strength and time to open but take it in the gross For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Be perswaded to goe home and pray the Lord to create this in you yea and enlighten you For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace Two things I have here to say To be carnally Carnall reasoning brings death minded is death you must expound it by the other that opposeth it its contrary to life and peace it is death and trouble and the other is life and peace Death and trouble if thou wilt be a carnal man and go on so there is nothing in all thy course but death and trouble that is there is death at the end of it Remember that the end of thy Journey is death Remember as the Apostle saith Phil. 3. they minde earthly things and I write weeping that there end is destruction It is a fine thing to be carried all our life long from one carnall thing to another and provide for my Honour and wealth and preferment and the like and doe this and that good action upon carnall reasons and with a carnall eye but God hath put a sad end to it it is Death Spirituall reasoning life And now the other it is life it is eternall life though