presently extingvished They are quenched like a fire of Thornes To consider yet more distinctly the vexation of the Creature we will observe first the Degrees secondly the Grounds of it and thirdly the Vses which we should put it to Five Degrees we shall observe of this Vexation First the Creatures are apt to molest the spirit in the procuring of them even as Thornes will certainely pricke in their gathering They make all a mans dayes sorrow and his travell griefe they suffer not his heart to take rest in the night as the Wise man speakes What paines will men take what hazards will they runne to procure their desires Paines of body plotting of braine conflicts of passions biting of conscience disreputation amongst men scourge of tongues any thing every thing will men adventure to obtaine at last that which it may bee is not a competent reward for the smallest of these vexations How will men exchange their salvation throw away their owne mercy make themselves perpetuall drudges and servitors to the times fawne flatter comply couple in with the instruments or authors of their hopes hazard their owne blood in desperate undertakings and staine their consciences with the blood of others to swimme through all to their adored haven Adâ—…rare vulgus iacere oscula omnia serviliter pro imperio The Historian spake it of Otho that Romane Absolom he worshipped the people dispenced frequently his courtesies and plausibilities crouched and accommodated himselfe to the basest routs that thereby he might creepe into an usurped honour and get himselfe a hated memory in after ages And that the like vexation is ordinary in the procurement of any earthly things will easily appeare if wee but compare the disposition of the minde with the obstacles that meete us in the pursuite of them Suppose we a man importunately set to travell unto some place where the certainty of some great profit or preferment attends his comming the way through which he must goe is intricate deepe unpassable the beast that carries him lame and tired his acquaintance none his instructions few what a heavie vexation must this needs bee to the soule of that man to be crossed with so many difficulties in so eager a desire Iust this is the case with naturall men in the prosecution of earthly things First the desires of men are very violent which the Scripture useth to expresse by making haste greedy coveting a purpose to be rich Qui Dives fieri vult citâ—… vult fieri they that will be rich cannot be quiet till their desires are accomplished and therefore wee finde strong desires in the Scripture-phrase expressed by such things as give intimation of paine with them The Apostle describes them by groâ—…ing and sighing the Prophet David by panting and gasping the Spouse in the Canticles by sicknesse I am sicke with love Thus Ammon grew leane for the desire of his sister and was vexed and sicke thus Ahab waxed heavy and laid him downe on his bed and turned away his face and would not eate because of Naboths Vineyard So that very importunity of desires is full of vexation in itselfe But besides the meanes for fulfilling these desires are very difficult the instruments very weake and impotent peradventure a mans wits are not suteable to his desires or his strength not to his wits or his stocke not to his strength his friends few his corrivals many his businesses tough and intricate his counsels uncertaine his projects way-laid and prevented his contrivances dashed and disappointed such a circumstance vnseene such a casualty starting suddenly out such an occurrence meeting the action hath made it unfeasible and shipwrack'd the expectation A man deales with the earth he findes it weake and langvid every foot of that must often times lye fallow when his desires doe still plow with men hee findes their hearts hard and their hands close with servants he findes them slow and unfaithfull with trading hee findes the times hard the World at a stand every man too thrifty to deale much and too crafty to be deceived so that now that vexation which was at first begun with vehemency of desire is mightily improued with impatiency of opposition lastly much encreased with the feare of utter disappointment at last For according as the desires are either more urgent or more difficult so will the feares of their miscarriage grow and it is a miserable thing for the minde to bee torne asunder betweene two such violent passions as Desire and Feare The second Degree of vexation is in the multiplying of the Creature that men may have it to looke upon with their eyes and to worship it in their affections And in this Case the more the heape growes the more the heart is enlarged unto it and impossible it is that that desire should be ever quieted which growes by the fruition of the thing desired A Wolfe that hath once tasted blood is more fierce in the desire of it then hee was before experience puts an edge upon the Appetite and so it is in the desires of men they grow more savage and raging in the second or third prosecution then in the first It is a usuall selfe-deceit of the heart to say and thinke If I had such an accession to mine estate such a dignitie mingled with mine other preferments could but leave such and such portions behind me I should then rest satisfied and desire no more This is a most notorious cheate of the fleshly heart of man first thereby to beget a secret conceit that since this being gotten I should sit quietly downe I may therefore set my selfe with might and maine to procure it and in the meane time neglect the state of my soule and peradventure shipwracke my conscience upon indirect and unwarrantable meanes for fulfilling so warrantable and just a desire And secondly thereby likewise to inure and habituate the affections to the love of the world to plunge the soule in earthly delights and to distill a secret poyson of greedinesse into the heart For it is with worldly love as with the Sea let it have at the first never so little a gap at which to creepe in and it will eate out a wider way till at last it grow too strong for all the bulwarkes and overrun the soule Omne peccatum habet in se mendacium there is something of the lie in every sinne but very much in this of worldlinesse which gets upon a man with slender and modest pretences till at last it gather impudence and violence by degrees even as a man that runnes downe a steepe hill is at last carried not barely by the impulsion of his owne will but because at first hee engaged himselfe upon such a motion as in the which it would prove impossible for him to stop at his pleasure Wee reade in Saint Austens confessions of Alipius his Companion who being by much importunity overcome to accompany a friend of his to those bloody
heart upon thine Asses for the desire of Israel is upon thee Why should a Kings heart be set upon Asses so may I say why should Christians hearts be set upon earthly things since they have the desires of all flesh to fix upon I will conclude with one word upon the last particu lar How to use the Creatures as Thornes or as vexing things First Let not the Bramble be King Let not earthly things beare rule over thy affections fire will rise out of them which will consume thy Cedars emasculate all the powers of thy Soule Let Grace sit in the throne and earthly things be subordinate to the wisdome and rule of Gods Spirit in thy heart They are excellent servants but pernicious Masters Secondly Be arm'd when thou touchest or medlest with them Arm'd against the Lusts and against the Temptations that arise from them Get faith to place thy heart upon better promises enter not upon them without prayer unto God that since thou art going amongst snares he would carry thee through with wisedome and faithfulnesse and teach thee how to use them as his blessings and as instruments of his glory Make a covenant with thine heart as Iob with his eyes have a jealousie and suspicion of thine evill heart lest it be surpriz'd and bewitched with finfull affections Thirdly touch them gently doe not hug love dote upon the Creature nor graspe it with adulterous embraces the love of mony is a roote of mischiefe and is enmity against God Fourthly use them for Hedges and fences to relieve the Saints to make friends of unrighteous Mammon to defend the Church of Christ but by no meanes have them In thy field but onely About it mingle it not with thy Corne least it choake and stifle all And lastly vse them as Gedeon for weapons of Iust revenge against the enemies of Gods Church to vindicate his truth and glory and then by being wise and faithfull in a little thou shalt at last be made ruler over much and enter into thy Masters Ioy. FINIS THE SINFVLNES OF SINNE Considered in the State Guilt Power and Pollution thereof By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Societie of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostocke 1631. THE SINFVLNESSE OF SINNE ROM 7. 9. For I was alive without the Law once but when the Commandement came Sinne revived and I died WEE have seene in the foriner Treatise that man can finde no Happinesse in the Creature I will in the next place shew That he can find no happinesse in Himselfe It is neither about him nor within him In the Creature nothing but vanitis and vexation in Himselfe nothing but Sinne and Death The Apostle in these words sets forth three things First The state of Sinne Sinne Revived Secondly the Guilt of Sinne I Died or found my selfe to be a condemn'd man in the state of perdition Thirdly the evidence and conviction of both When the Commandement came which words imply a conviction and that from the spirit First a conviction for they inferre a conclusion extremely contradictory to the conclusions in which Saint Paul formerly rested which is the forme of a conviction Saint Pauls former conclusion was I was alive but when the commandement came the conclusion was extremely contrary I Died. Secondly It was a spirituall conviction For Saint Paul was never literally without the Law but the vaâ—…le till this time was before his eyes he is now made to understand the Law in its native sense and compasse the Law is spiritual v. 14. and he is enabled to discerne it spiritually Absurd is the Doctrine of the Socinians some others That unregenerate men by a meere natur all perception without any divine superinâ—…us'd light they are the words of Episcopius and they are wicked wordes may understand the wholâ—… Law even all things requisite unto faith godlines Foolishly confounding and impiously deriding the spirituall and divine sense of holy Scriptures with the grammatical construction Against this we shall need use no other argument then a plaine Syllogisme compounded out of the very words of Scripture Darknesse doth not comprehend light Ioh. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 men are Darkenesse Eph. 5. 8. 4. 17. 18. Act. 26. 18. 2. Pâ—…t 1. 9. yea Held under the power of darkenesse Col. 1. 13. and the word of God is light Psal. 119. 105. 2. Cor. 4. 4. therefore unregenerate men cannot understand the â—…d in that spirituall compasse which it carries There is such an asymmetry and disproportion betweene our understandings and the brightnesse of the word that the Saints themselves have prayed for more spirituall light and vnderstanding to conceive it That knowledge which a man ought to have for there is a knowledge which is not such as it ought to be doth passe knowledge even all the â—…ength of meere naturall reason to attaine unto peculiar to the sheep of Christ. Naturall men have their principles vitiated their faculties bound that they cannot understand spirituall things till God have as it were â—…nplanted a â—…ew understanding in them framed the heart to attend and set it at liberty to see the glory of God with open face Though the vaile doe not keepe out Grammaticall construction yet it blindeth the heart against the spirituall light and beauty of the Word We see even in common sciences where the conclusions are suteable to our owne innate and implanted notions yet he that can distinctly construe and make Grammar of a principle in Euclide may be ignorant of the Mathematicall sense and use of it much more may a man in divine truths bee Spiritually ignorant even where in some respect hee may be said to know For the Scriptures pronounce men ignorant of those things which they see and know In divine doctrine obedience is the Ground of knowledge and Holinesse the best qualification to understand the Scriptures If any mâ—…n will doe the will of God he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God The 〈◊〉 will he teach his way and â—…eale his secret to them that feare him to babes to those that conforme not themselves to this evill world To understand then the words we must note first that there is an opposition between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those two Clauses in the Text Once and When the Commandement came It is the conceite of some that the latter as well as the former is meant of a state of unregeneration and that Saint Paul all this Chapter over speaketh in the person of an unregenerate man not intending at all to shew the fleshlinesse and adherency of corruption to the holiest men but the necessitie of righteousnesse by Christ without the which though a man may when once the Commandement comes and is fully revealed will good hate sinne in sinning doe that which he would not
Hee shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his Glorious bodie When Hee comes we shall meete him and be ever with him Hee is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God and therefore to his Kingdome and our Kingdome His by personall proprietie and hypostaticall union ours by his purchase and merit and by our mysticall union and fellowship with him He is gone to prepare a place for us In Earth Hee was our suretie to answere the penaltie of our sinnes and in Heaven He is our Advocate to take seifin and possession of that Kingdome for us Our Captaine and Forerunner and high Priest who hath not onely carried our names but hath broken off the vaile of the Sanctuary and given us accesse into the Holyest of all And hee that hath the Sonne hath this life alreadie in three regards First in pâ—…etio he hath the price that procured it esteemed his It was bought with the pretious blood of Christ in his Name and to his use and it was so bought for him that he hath a present right and claime unto it It is not his iâ—… Reversion after an expiration of any others right there are no leaseâ—… nor reversions in Heaven but it is his as an inheritance is the heires after the death of the Ancestor who yet by minoritie of yeeres or distance of place may occupie and possesse it by some other person Secondly Hee hath it in promisso He hath Gods Charter his Assurance sealed with an oath and a double Sacrament to establish his heart in the expectation of it By two immutable things faith the Apostle namely the Word and the Oath of God wherein it was impossible for him to he we have strong consolation and great ground of hope which hope is sure and stedfast and leadeth us unto that place which is within the vaile whither Christ our Forerunner is gone before us Thirdly He hath it in primitijs in the earnest and first fruites and hansell of it in those few clusters of grapes and bunches of figges those Graces of Christs Spirit that peace comfort serenitie which is shed forth into the heart already from that Heavenly Canaan The Holy Spirit of Promise is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption or full fruition and Revelation of our purchased possession to the prayse of his Glory The Graces of the Spirit in the soule are as certaine and infallible evidences of Salvation as the day starre or the morning aurora is of the ensuing day or Sunne-rising For all spirituall things in the Soule are the beginnings of Heaven parcels of that Spirit the fulnesse and residue whereof is in Christs keeping to adorne us with when he shall present us unto his Father But this Doctrine of the Life of Glory is in this life more to be made use of then curiously to bee enquired into O then where the Treasure is let the heart be where the body is let the Eagles resort if wee are already free men of heaven let our thoughts our language our conversation our Trading be for Heaven Let us set our faces towards our home Let us awake out of sleepe considering that now our salvation is neerer then when we first beleeved If wee have a hope to be like him at his comming let us purifie our selves even as hee is pure since there is a price a high calling a crowne before us let us presse forward with all violence of devotion never thinke our selves farre enough but prepare our hearts still and lay hold on every advantage to further our progresse Since there is a rest remaining for the people of God let us labour to enter into it and to hold fast our profession that as well absent as present we may be accepted of him Secondly since we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Let us feele the burden of our fleshly corruptions and groane after our redemption Let us long for the revelation of the Sonnes of God and for his appearing as the Saints under the Altar How long Lord Iesus Holy and Iust. Thirdly let us with enlarg'd and ravish'd affections with all the vigor and activitie of enflamed hearts recount the great love of God who hath not onely delivered us from his wrath but made us Sonnes married his owne infinite Maiestie to our nature in the unitie of his Sonnes person and made us in him Kings Priests and Heires unto God Beloved what manner of Love How unsearchable How bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehensions of Men or Angels is the Love of God to us saith the Apostle that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Lastly if God will glorifie us with his Life hereafter let us labour as much as wee can to glorifie Him in our lives here It was our Saviours argument who might have entered into Glory as his owne without any such way of procurement if his owne voluntarie undertaking the office of Mediator had not concluded him Glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the World was for I have gloryfied thee on Earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe If we are indeede perswaded that there is laid up for us a Crowne of righteousnesse we cannot but with Saint Paul resolve to fight a good fight to finish our course to keepe the faith to bring forth much fruite that our Father may be glorified in us And now having unfolded this threefold Life which the faithfull have in Christ wee may further take notice of three attributes or properties of this life both to humble and to secure us and they are all couched in one word of the Apostle your life is hid with Christ in God It is in Christs keeping as in the hands of a faithfull depositary and it is a Life in God a full Life a derivation from the Fountaine of Life where it is surer and sweeter then in any Cisterne Here then are three properties of a Christians Life in Christ first Obscuritie secondly Plentie thirdly safetie or Eternitie First it is an obscure life a secret aâ—d mysterious life so the Apostle calleth Godlynesse a Mysterie As there is a mysterie of iniquitie and the hidden things of uncleannesse so there is a Mysterie of Godlynesse and the hidden man of the heart The Life of Grace first is hidden totally from the wicked A stranger doth not intermeddle with a righteous mans joy The naturall man knoweth not any things of Gods spirit Saint Peter gives the reason because he is blinde and cannot see a farre off Now the things of God are deepe things and high things upward they have too much brightnesse and downeward they have too much darknesse for purblinde
spue and rise up no more even that fierce and bitter indignation in the pouring out of which the Lord shall put to his right hand his strong arme not onely the terror of his presence but the glory of his power I say the Lord could let drunkards alone till at last they meet with this Cup which undoubtedly they shall doe if there be either truth in Gods word or power in his right hand if there be either Iustice in heaven or fire in hell till with Belshazzar they meet with dregs and trembling in the bottome of all their Cups but yet oftentimes the Lord smites them with a more sudden blow snatcheth away the Cup from their very mouths and so makes one Curse anticipate and preuent another Though Haman and Achitophel should have liv'd out the whole thred of their life yet at last their honor must have laine downe in the dust with them Though Iudas could have liv'd a thousand yeares and could have improv'd the reward of his Masters bloud to the best advantage that ever Vsurer did yet the rust would at last have seiz'd upon his bags and his monie must have perished with him but now the Lord sets forward his Curse and that which the moth would have been long in doing the gallows dispatcheth with a more swift destruction Thus as the body of a man may have many summons and engagements unto one death may labour at once under many desperate diseases all which by a malignant conâ—…unction must needs hasten a mans end as Cesar was stabd with thirty wounds each one whereof might have serv'd to let out his soule so the Creatures of God labouring under a manifold corruption doe as it were by so many wings post away from the Owners of them and for that reason must needs be utterly disproportionable to the condition of an Immortall Soule Now to make some Application of this particular before wee leave it This doth first discover and shame the folly of wicked worldlings both in their opinions and affections to earthly things Love is blinde and will easily make men beleeve that of any thing which they could wish to bee in it and therefore because wicked men wish with all their hearts for the love they beare to the Creatures that they might continue together for ever the Divell doth at last so deeply delude them as to thinke that they shall continue for ever Indeed in these and in the generall they must needs confesse that one generation commeth and another goeth but in their owne particular they can never assume with any feeling and experimentall assent the truth of that generall to their owne estates And therefore what ever for shame of the world their outward professions may be yet the Prophet David assures us That their inward Thoughts their owne retir'd contrivances and resolutions are that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations and upon this Immortality of stones and monuments they resolve to rest But the psalmist concludes this to be but brutish and notorious folly This their way is their folly they like sheepe are laid downe in their graves and death feeds upon them And indeed what a folly is it for men to build upon the sand to erectan Imaginarie fabrick of I know not what Immortality which hath not so much as a constant subsistence in the head that contrives it What man will ever goe about to build a house with much cost and when he hath done to inhabit it himself of such rotten and inconsistent materials as will undoubtedly within a yeere or two after fall upon his head and bury him in the ruines of his owne folly Now then suppose a man were lord of all the World and had his life coextended with it were furnished with wisedome to manage and strength to runne through all the affaires incident to this vast frame in as ample a measure as any one man for the governement of a private family yet the Scripture would assure even such a man that there will come a day in which the heavens shall passe away with a noise and the elements shall melt with heate and the earth with the workes that are therein shall be burnt up and that there is but one houre to come before all this shall be Behold now is the last houre And what man upon these termes would fix his heart and ground his hopes upon such a tottering bottome as will within a little while crumble into dust and leave the poore soule that rested upon it to sinke into hell But now when we consider that none of us labour for any such inheritance that the extremitie of any mans hopes can be but to purchase some little patch of earth which to the whole World cannot beare so neere a proportion as the smallest molehill to this whole habitable earth that all we toyle for is but to have our loade of a little thicke clay as the Prophet speakes that when wee have gotten it neither wee nor it shall continue till the universall dissolution but in the midst of our dearest embracements we may suddenly be puld asunder and come to a fearefull end it must needs be more then brutish stupidity for a man to weave the Spiders webs to wrappe himselfe up from the consumption determined against the whole earth in a covering that is so infinitely too short and too narrow for him Wee will conclude this particular with the doome given by the Prophet Ieremy As the Partridge sitteth on egges and hatcheth them not shee is either caught by the fowler or her egges are broken so he that getteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the midst of his dayes and in the end shall bee a foole Secondly this serves to justifie the wisedome and providence of God in his proceedings with men The wicked here provoke God and cry aloud for vengeance on their owne head and the Lord seemes to stop his eares at the cry of sinne and still to loade them with his blessings he maketh their way to prosper they take roote and grow and bring forth fruite they shine like a blazing Comet and threaten ruine to all that looke upon them they carry themselves like some Tyrant in a Tragedy that scatters abroad death with the sparkles of his eyes and darts out threats against the heaven aboue him they are like Agag before Samuel clothed very delicately and presume that there is no bitternesse to come And now the impatiency of man that cannot resolve things into their proper issues that cannot let iniquitie ripen nor reconcile one day and a thousand yeeres together begins to question Gods proceedings and is afraid leâ—…t the World be governed blindfold and blessings and curses throwne confusedly abroad for men as it were to scramble and to scuffie for them But our God who keepeth times and seasons in his owne power who hath given to every Creature under the Sunne limits
of us the other from the predominancy of lust which overswayes the heart unto evill Good motions and resolutions in evill hearts are like violent impressions upon a stone though it move upwards for a while yet nature will at last prevaile and make it returne to its owne motion Secondly a Heart set on lusts mooves to 〈◊〉 ends but its owâ—…e and selfe-ends defile an action though otherwise never so specious turnes zeale it selfe and obedience into murder hinders all faith in us and acceptance with God nullifies all other ends swallowes up Gods glory and the good of others as the leane Kine did the fat as a Wenne in the body robs and consumes the part adjoyning so doe selfe-ends the right end Thirdly the Heart is a fountaine and principle and principles are ever one and uniforme out of the same fountaine cannot come bitter water and sweet and therefore the Apostle speakes of some that they are double-minded men that have a heart and a heart yet the truth is that is but with reference to their pretences for the Heart really and totally lookes but one way Every man is spiritually a married person and he can be joyned but to one Christ and an Idoll as every â—…ust is cannot consist he will have a chaste spouse he will have all our desires and affections subject unto him if the Heart cannot count him altogether lovely and all things else but dung in comparison of him he will refuse the match and with-hold his consent Let us see in some few particulars what impotency unto any good the Creatures bring upon the hearts of men To Pray requires a hungry spirit a heart convinc'd of its owne emptinesse a desire of intimate communion with God but now the Creature drawes the heart and all the desires thereof to it selfe as an ill splene doth the nourishment in a body Lust makes men pray amisse fixeth the desires onely on its owne provisions makes a man unwilling to be carried any way towards heaven but his owne The Young Man prayed unto Christ to shew him the way to eternall life but when Christ told him that his riches his covetousnes his bosome lust stood betweene him and salvation his prayer was turned into sorrow repentance and apostacy Meditation requires a sequestration of the thoughts a minde unmixt with other cares a syncere and uncorrupted relish of the Word now when the heart is prepossest with lust and taken up with another treasure it is as impossible to be weaned from it as for an hungry Eagle a Creature of the sharpest sight to fixe upon and of the sharpest appetite to desire its object to forbeare the body on which it would prey as unable to conceive aright of the pretiousnesse and power of the Word as a feaverish palate to taste the proper sweetnesse of the meate it eates In Hearing the Word the heart can never accept Gods Commands till it be first empty a man cannot receive the richest gift that is with a hand that was full before Now thornes which are the cares of the World filling the heart must needs choake the feede of the Word The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsell of God against themselves because their pride would not let them yeeld to such a baptisme or to such a doctrine as requires emptinesse confession of sinnes justifying of God and condemning of themselves for these were the purposes of Iohus Baptisme and of the preaching of repentance That man comes but to bee rejected who makes love to one who hath fixt her heart and affection already A man must come to Gods Word as to a Physitian a meere patient without reservations or exceptions he must set his corruptions as an open marke for the word to shoot at hee must not come with capitulations and provisoes but lay downe the body of sinne before God to have every earthly member hewed of Till a man come with such a resolution as to be willing to part from all naughtinesse hee will never receive the ingrafted Word with meeknesse and an honest heart a man will never follow Christ in the wayes of his Word till first he have learned to denie himselfe and his owne lusts Nay if a man should binde his devotion to his heart With vâ—…ws yet a Dalila in his bosome a lust in his spirit would easily nullifie the strongest vowes The Iewes made a serious and solemne protestation to Ieremie that they would obey the voyce of the Lord in that which they desired him to enquire of God about whether it were good or evill and yet when they found the message crosse their owne lusts and reservations their resolutions are turned into rebellions their pride quickly breakes asunder their vow and they tell the Prophet to his face that hee dealt falsly between God and them a refuge which they were well acquainted with before Some when then conscience awakens and begins to disquiet them make vowes to bind themselves vnto better obedience and formes of godlinesse but as Sampson was bound in vaine with any cords so long as his haire grew into its length so in vaine doth any man binde himselfe with vowes so long as he nourisheth his lusts within a vow in the hand of a fleshly lust will be but like the chaines and fetters of that fierce â—…unatick very easily broken asunder This is not the right way First labour with thy heart clense out thy corruptions purge thy life as the Prophet did the waters with seasoning and rectifying the fountaine T is one thing to give â—…ase from a present paine another thing to roote out the disease it selfe If the chinkes in a ship bee unstopt 't is in vaine to labour at the pumpe so long as there is a constant in let the water can never be exhausted so is it in these formall resolutions and vowes they may ease the present paine let out a little water restraine from some particular acts but so long as the heart is unpurged lust will returne and predominate In a word whereas in the Service of God there are two maine things required faith to begin and courage or patience to goe through lust hinders both these How can yee beleeve since yee seeke for glory one from another Ioh. 5. 44. when persecution arose because of the word the Temporary was presently offended Matth. 13. 21. Thirdly and lastly in one word A man ought not to set his Heart on the Creature because of the Noblenesse of the heart To set the heart on the creature is to set a diamond in lead None are so mad to keep their Iewels in a cellar and their coales in a closet and yet such is the profannesse of wicked men to keepe God in their lips only and Mammon in their hearts to make the earth their treasure and heaven but as an accessorie and appendix to that And now as Samuel spake unto Saul set not thine
much set forward by the Word because therein is made more apparant to the Soule the Glory and the Power of God therefore the Two Prophets are said to Torment the inhabitants of the Earth and the Law is said to make men guilty and to kill to hew smite and destroy those whom it deales with all Secondly such a faith as the Divels have begotten by the Word and assented unto by the secret suggestions of the heart witnessing to it selfe that it hath deserved more then yet it feeles and this begets a fearefull expectation of being devoured surpriseth the heart with horrid tremblings and presumptions of the vengeance to come which the Apostle calls the Spirit of bondage and feare But all this being an Assent perforce extorted for wicked men confesse their sinnes as the Divels confessed Christ more out of Torment then out of Love to God or humiliation under his mighty hand amounts to no more then a Naturall Conviction Secondly there is a Spirituall and Evangelicall Conviction of the Guilt of sinne and the damnation due thereunto arising from the Law written in the heart and tempered with the apprehension of mercie in the new Covenant which begets such a paine under the Guilt of sin as a plaister doth to the impostumation which withall it cures such a Conviction as is a manuduction unto righteousnesse And that is when the Conscience doth not onely perforce feele it selfe dead but hath wrought in it by the Spirit the same affection towards it selfe for sinne which the word hath is willing to charge it selfe and acquit God to endite accuse arraigne testifie condemne it selfe meete the Lord in the way of his Iudgements and cast downe it selfe under his mighty hand That man who can in secret and truth of heart willingly and uncompulsorily thus stand on Gods side against sinne and against himselfe for it giving God the Gloâ—ie of his righteousnesse if he should condemne him and of his uâ—searchable and rich mercie that hee doth offer to forgive him I dare pronounce that man to haue the Spirit of Christ. For no man by nature can willingly and uprightly Owne damnation and charge himselfe with it as his due portion and most just inheritance This can never arise but from a deepe sense and hate of sinne from a most ardent zeale for the Glory and Righteousnesse of God Now then since the Conviction of sinne and of the death and Guilt thereof are not to drive men to despaire or blasphemie but that they may beleeve and lay hold on the righteousnesse of Christ which they are then most likely to doe when sinne is made exceeding sinfull and by consequence death exceeding deadly give mee leave to set forth in two words what this Guilt of sinne is that the necessitie of righteousnesse from Christ may appeare the greater and his mercie therein bee the more glorified Guilt is the Demerit of sinne binding and subjecting the person in whom it is to undergoe all the punishments legally due the reunto This Demerit is founded not only in the Constitution Will and Power of God over his owne Creatures of whom hee may justly require whatsoever obedience hee giveth power to performe but in the nature of his owne Holinesse and Iustice which in sinne is violated and turned from and this Guilt is after a sort Infinite because it springeth out of the aversion from an Infinite Good the violation of an infinite Holynesse and Iustice and the Conversion to the Creatures infinitely if men could live ever to commit adultery with them And as the Consequence and reward of obedience was the favour of God conferring life and blessednesse to the Creature so the wages of sinne which this Guilt assureth a sinner of is the wrath of God which the Scripture calleth Death and the Curse This Guilt being an Obligation unto punishment leadeth us to consider what the nature of that curse and death is unto which it bindeth us over Punishment bearing necessarie relation to a command the trangression whereof is therein recompenced taketh in these considerations First on the part of the Commander a will to which the Actions of the subject must conforme reveal'd and signified under the nature of a Law Secondly a justice which will and thirdly a power which can punish the transgressors of that Law Secondly on the part of the subject commanded there is requir'd first Reason and free-will originally without which there can be no sinne for though man by his brutishnesse and impotency which he doth coÌ„tract cannot make void the commands of God but that they now binde men who have put out their light and lost their libertie yet originally God made no law to binde under paine of sinne but that unto the obedience whereof hee gave reason and free-will Secondly a debt and obligation either by voluntarie subjection as man to man or naturall as the creature to God or both sealed and acknowledged in the covenants betweene God and man whereby man is bound to fulfill that law which it was originally enabled to observe Thirdly a forfeiture guilt and demerit upon the violation of that Law Thirdly and lastly the evill it selfe inflicted wherein we consider first the nature and qualitie of it which is to have a destructive power to oppresse and dis quiet the offender and to violate the integritie of his well being For as sinne is a violation offered by man to the Law so punishment is a violation retorted from the Law to man Secondly the Proportion of it to the offence the greatnesse whereof is manifested in the majestie of God offended and those severall relations of goodnesse patience creation redemption which he hath to man in the quality of the creature offending being the chiefe and lord of all the rest below him in the easinesse of the primitive obedience in the unprofitablenesse of the wayes of sinne and a world of the like aggravations Thirdly the end of it which is not the destruction of the creature whom as a creature God loveth but the satisfaction of justice the declaration of divine displeasure against sinne and the manifestation of the glory of his power and terrour So then Punishment is an evill or pressure of the Creature proceeding from a Law giver just and powerfull inflicted on a reasonable Creature for and proportionable unto the breach of such a Law unto the performance and obedience whereof the Creature was originally enabled wherein is intended the glory of Gods just displeasure and great power against sinne which hee naturally hateth Now these punishments are Temporall Spirituall and Eternall Temporall and those first without a man The vanitie of the Creatures which were at first made full of goodnesse and beautie but doe now mourne and grone under the bondage of our sinnes The wrath of God revealing it selfe from heaven and the curse of God over-growing the earth Secondly within him All the Harbingers and Fore-runners of death sicknesse paine povertie reproach feare and
on high and hath given gifts unto Men as absent lovers send tokens to each other to attract the affections and call thither the thoughts If Christ would have had our hearts rest on the earth He would have continued with us here but it is his Will that we be where He is and therefore we must make it the maine businesse of our life to move towards him Things of a nature encline to one another even to their prejudice A stone will fall to his center though there be so many rubbes in the way that it is sure to bee broken all to peeces in the motion The same should be a Christians resolution Christ is his Center and Heaven is his Country and therefore thither hee must conclude to goe notwithstanding he must be broken in the way with manifold temptations and afflictions Saint Paul desired if it had been possible to be clothed upon and to have his mortalitie swallowed up of life and to get whole to Heaven But if he may not have it upon so good termes hee will not onely confidently endure but desire to be dissolved and broken in pieces that by any meanes he may come to Christ because that being best of all will be an aboundant recompence for any intercurrent damage It is not a losse but a marriage and honour for a woman to forsake her owne kindred and house to go to a husband neither is it a losse but a preferment for the soule to relinquish for a time the bodie that it may goe to Christ who hath married it unto himselfe for ever And the fellowship of his sufferings This fellowship notes two things First A participation in the benefits of his Sufferings Secondly A Conformity of ours to his First His Sufferings are Ours we were buried and Crucified with him and that againe notes two things First we communicate in the Price of Christs Death covering the guilt of sinne satisfying the wrath of God and being an Expiation and propitiation for us Secondly in the Power of his Death cleansing our Consciences from dead workes mortifying our earthly members crucifying our old man subduing our iniquities and corruptions pulling downe the throne of Satan spoiling him of all his armor and destroying the workes of the Divell And this power worketh first by the propheticall office of Christ Revealing secondly by his Regall office applying and reaching forth the power of his bloud to subdue sinne as it had before triumphed over death and Satan But here the maine point and question will be what this mighty power of the Death of Christ is thus to kill sinne in us and wherein the Causality thereof Consisteth To this I answere that Christs Death is a threefold Cause of the death of sinne in his members First It is Causa meritoria A meritorious Cause For Christs death was so great aprice that it did deserve at Gods hand to have our sinnes subdued All power and Iudgement was given unto him by his father and that power was given him to purchase his Church withall And this was amongst other of the covenants that their sinnes should be Crucified He gave himselfe unto Gods Iustice for his Church and that which by that gift he purchased was the sanctification cleansing of it Now as a price is said to doe that which a man doth by the power which that price purchased so the bloud of Christ is said to cleanse us because the office or power whereby he purifieth us was Conferd upon him Sub intuitu pretij under the condition of suffring For it was necessarie that remission and purification should be by bloud Secondly it is Causa exemplaris The death of Christ was the Exemplar pattern and Idea of our Death to sin He did beare our sinnes in his Body on the tree to shew that as his Body did naturally so sinne did by analogie and legally dye Therefore the Apostle saith that he was made sinne for us to note that not onely our persons were in Gods accompt Crucified with him unto Iustification but that sinne it selfe did hang upon his Crosse with him unto monification and holinesse In which respect Saint Paul saith That he condemned sinne in the flesh because he died as sinne in Abstracto And in this regard of morâ—…ification wee are said to be planted in the likenesse of Christs Death because as when an Ambassador doth solemnize the marriage of his king with a forraine princesse that is truely effected betweene the parties themselves which is transacted by the agent and representative person to that purpose and service authoâ—… so Christ being made sinne for us as the Sacrifice had the sinnes of the people emptied upon him and in that relation Dying sinne it selfe likewise dieth in us And there is a proportion betweene the Death of the Crosse which Christ died and the Dying of sinne in us Christ died as a Servant to note that sinne should not rule but be brought into slaverie and bondage He died a Curse to note that wee should loke upon sinne as an accursed and devoted thing and therefore should not with Achan hide or reserve any He Dranke vinegar on his Crosse to note that wee should make sinne feele the sharpnesse of Gods displeasure aginst it he was fast naild unto the Crosse to note that wee should put sinne out of ease and leave noe lust or Corruption at large but crucifie the whole body thereof Lastly though he did not presently die yet there he did hang till he died to note that wee should never give over subduing sinne while it hath any life or working in us Thus the Death of Christ is the patterne of the death of sinne Thirdly It is Causa Obiectiva an Impelling or moving cause as Obiects are For Obiects have an Attractive Power Achaâ—… saw the wedge of gold and then Coveted it David saw Bathshâ—…ba and then desired her Therefore the apostle mentions Lusts of the Eye which are kindled by the Things of the world As the strength of imagination fixing upon a blackemooâ—…e on the wall made the woman bring forth a blacke child so there is â—… kinde of spirituall Imaginative power in faith to crucifie sinne by looking upon Christ Crucified As the Brasen Serpent did heale those who had been bitten by the fierie serpents 〈◊〉 obiectum fides meerly by being looked upon so Christ Crucified doth heale sin by being looked upon with the eyâ—… of faith Now faith lookes upon Christ crucified and bleeding First as the gift of his fathers love as a token and spectacle of more unsearchable and transcendent mercie then the comprehension of the whole hoast of Angels can reach unto And hereby the heart is ravished with love againe and with a gratefull desire of returning all our time parts powers services unto him who spared not the sonne of his owne love for us Secondly It looketh on him As a sacrifice for Sinne and Expiation thereof to
services 246 In the best there is a partiall impotency 250 What a man should doe when he finds himselfe disabled and deaded in good workes 253 2. It is an estate of extreme enmitie against God and his waies 255 How the spirit by the Commandement doth convince men to be in the state of sinne 258 The spirit by the commandement convinceth men to bee under the guilt of sinne 260 There is a naturall conviction of the guilt of sinne and 260 There is a spirituall and evangelicall conviction of the guilt of sinne 261 What the guilt and Punishments of sinne are 262 ROM 6. 12. Sinne will abide in the time of this mortall life in the most Holie 273 Our death with Christ unto sinne is a strong argument against the raigne of it 275 Difference betweene the regall and tyrannicall power of Sinne. 277 Whether a man belong unto Christ or sinne 279 Sinne hath much strength from it selfe 282 from Satan and the world 285 from us 285 What it is to obey sinne in the lusts thereof 286 Whether sinne may Raigne in a regenerate man 288 How wicked men may be convinc'd that sinne doth raigne in them Two things make up the raigne of sinne 1. In sinne power 290 2. In the sinner a willing and vncontroled subiection 290 Three exceptions against the evidence of the raigne of sinne in the wicked 291 1. There may be a raigne of sinne when it is not discerned 292 Whether small sinnes may raigne 293 Whether secret sinnes may raigne 294 Whether sins of ignorance may raigne 295 Whether naturall concupiscence may raigne 296 Whether sinnes of omission may raigne 296 2. Other causes besides the power of Christs Grace may worke a partiall abstinence from sinne and conformitie in service 1. The power of restraining grace 298 Differences between restraining and renewing Grace 2. Affectation of the credit of godlinesse 302 3. The Power of pious education 304 4. The legall power of the word 305 5. The power of a naturall illightned Conscience 305 6. Selfe love and particular ends 307 7. The antipathy and contradiction of sinnes 309 3. Differences betweene the conflicts of a naturall and spirituall conscience 1. In the Principles of them 310 2. In their seates and stations 313 3. In the manner and qualities of the conflict 314 4. In their effects 316 5. In their ends 317 Why every sinne doth not raigne in every wicked man 317 2. COR. 7. 1. The Apostles reasons against Idolatrous communion 321 The doctrine of the pollution of sinne 322 The best workes of the best men mingled whith pollution 325 The best workes of wicked men full of pollution 237 What the pollution of sinne is 328 The properties of the pollution of sinne 1. It is a deepe pollution 329 2. It is an universall Pollution 330 3. It is a spreading Pollution 330 4. It is a mortall Pollution 332 Why God requireth that of us which he worketh in us 335 How promises tend to the dutie of cleansing ourselves 1. Promises containe the matter of rewards and so presuppose services 337 2. Promises are efficient causes of purification 1. As tokens of Gods love Love the ground of making fidelity of performing Promises 338 2. As the grounds of our hope and expectations 340 3. As obiects of our faith 342 4. As the raies of Christ to whom they lead us 345 5. As exemplars patterns and seeds of puritie 346 3. Many promises are made of purification itselfe 347 Rules directing how to use the Promises 1. Generall Promises are particularly and particulars generally appliable 350 2. Promises are certaine performances secret 352 3. Promises are subordinated and are performed with dependence 357 4. Promises most usefull in extremities 359 5. Experience of God in some promises confirmeth faith in others 360 6. The same temporall blessing may belong to one man onely out of providence to another out of promise 361 7. Gods promises to us must be the ground of our prayers to him 364 ROM 7. 13. The Law is neither sinne nor death 368 The Law was promulgated on Mount Sina by Moses onely with Evangelicall purposes 371 God will doe more for the salvation then for the damnation of men 372 The Law is not given ex primaria intentione to condemne men 385 The Law is not given to iustifie or save men 386 The Law by accident doth irritate and punish or curse sinne 386 The Law by itselfe doth discover and restraine sinne 387 Preaching of the Law necessary 388 Acquaintance with the Law strengthens Humility Faith Comfort Obedience 392 The third Treatise The Life of Christ. 1. IOH. 5. 12. ALL a Christians excellencies are from Christ. 400 1. From Christ wee have our life of righteousnesse 401 Three Offices of Christs mediatorship His Payment of our debt 401 Purchase of our inheritance 401 Intercession 401 Righteousnesse consisteth in remission and adoption 402 By this Life of righteousnesse we are delivered from 1. Sinne. 403 2. Law as a Covenant of righteousnesse Law full of Rigor Curses Bondage 2. From Christ we have our life of holinesse 407 Discoveries of a vitall operation 407 Christ is the Principle of our holinesse 409 Christ is the patterne of holinesse 410 Some workes of Christ imitable others unimitable 410 Holinesse beares conformity to Christs active obedience 412 How we are said to be holy as Christ is holy 413 Holinesse consists in a conformitie unto Christ. Proved from 1. The ends of Christs comming 415 2. The nature of holinesse 416 3. The quality of the mysticall body of Christ. 418 4. The vnction of the Spirit 418 5. The summe of the Scriptures 419 The proportions betweene our holinesse and Christs must be 1. In the seeds and principles 419 2. In the ends Gods glory the Churches good 420 3. In the parts 4. In the manner of it Selfe-deniall 421 Obedience 422 Proficiencie 423 What Christ hath done to the Law for us 423 We must take heed of will-holinesse or being our owne Rule 425 Christs life the Rule of ours 427 3. From Christ wee have our life of glorie 429 The attributes or properties of our Life in Christ 1. It is a hidden life 432 2. It is an abounding life 437 3. It is an abiding life 438 No forrsigne assult is too hard for the life of Christ 439 Arguments to reestablish the heart of a repenting sinner against the terror of some great fall from 1. The strength of Faith 442 2. The love and free grace of God 446 3. Gods Promise and covenant 448 4. The obsignation of the spirit 449 5. The nature and effects of Faith 449 THE VANITIE OF THE CREATVRE AND VEXATION OF THE SPIRIT By EDWARD REYNOLDS Preacher to the Honourable Society of Lincolns Inne PAX OPVLENTIAM SAPIENTIA PACEM FK LONDON Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Robert Bostock 1631. Christian Reader Importunitie of Friends hath over-rul'd me to this Publication and importunitie of businesse crossing me in the putting of these pieces together hath made
But in as much as they are onely for present refreshment in this vale of misery and have no matter of reall and abiding happinesse in them not to looke on them with an admiring or adoring eye but to use them with such due correctives as become such mortall and meane things First in using the Creature be sure thou keepe thine intellectuals untainted for earthly things are apt to cast a filme over mens eyes and to misguide them into corrupt apprehensions and presumptions of them We find nothing more frequent in the Prophets then to upbraid the people with their strange coÌ„fidences which they were wont to rest upon against all the judgements which were denounced against them by objecting their wealth greatnesse strong confederacies inexpugnable munitions their nests in the clouds and their houses amongst the starres they could never be brought to repent for sinne or to tremble at Gods voyce till they were driven off from these holds A man can never be brought to God till he forsake the Creature a man will never forsake the Creature till he see vanitie in the Creature Turne away mine eyes from beholding vanitie David intimates that a man can never heartily pray against fixing his affections on earthly things till he be really and experimentally convinc'd of the vanity of them This rule Salomon obserues to withdraw the desires of yong men who have strongest affections and smallest experience of the deceit of worldly things Though thou rejoyce and cheere up thy selfe and walke in the waies of thine heart and in the sight of thine eyes yet Know thou that for all these things God will bring thee to judgement a time will come when thou shalt be stripp'd of all these when they shall play the fugitives and the yeeres of darkenesse shall draw nigh when thou shalt say I have no pleasure in them and then the Lord will revenge thy great ingratitude in forgetting and despising him amidst all his blessings in â—…dolizing his gifts and bestowing the attributions of his glory and the affections due unto him upon a corruptible Creature In the Romane Triumphs the Generall or Emperour that rode in honour through the city with the principall of his enemies bound in chaines behinde his chariot had alwaies a servant running along by him with this Corrective of his glory Respâ—…ce post te hominem memento te Looke behinde thee and in the persons of thine enemies learne that thou thy selfe art a man subject to the same Casualties and dishonors with others Surely if men who had nothing but the Creatures to trust to being Aliens from the Covenant of promise and without God in the world had yet so much Care to keepe their judgements sound touching the vanity of their greatest honors how much more ought Christians who professe themselves heires of better and more abiding Promises But especially arme thy selfe against those vanities which most easily beset and beguile thee apply the authoritie of the Word to thine owne particular sickenesse and disease treasure up all the experiences that meete thee in thine owne course or are remarkeable in the lives of others remember how a moment swallowed up such a pleasure which will never returne againe how an indirect purchase embitter'd such a preferment and thou never didst feele that comfort in it which thy hopes and ambitions promised thee how a frowne and disgrace at another time dash'd all thy contrivances for further advancement how death seised upon such a friend in whom thou Hadst laid up much of thy dependance and assurances how time hath not onely rob'd thee of the things but even turn'd the edge of thy desires and made thee loath thy wonted idoles and looke upon thy old delights as Ammon upon Tamar with exceeding hatred But above all addresse thy selfe to the throne of Grace and beseech the Lord so to sanctifie his Creatures unto thee as that they may not be either thieves against him to steale away his honour or snares to thee to entangle thy soule We will conclude this first Direction with the words of the Apostle The Time is short It remaineth that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weepe as though they weep'd not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as not abusing it that is as not to be drown'd and smother'd in the businesses of this life as if there were any fundamentall and solid utility in them for saith he The fashion of this world passeth away The Apostles exhortation is beset at both ends with the same enforcement from whence I have raised mine First The Time is short The Apostle as the learned conceive useth a Metaphor from Sailes or Curtens or Shepheards tents as Ezekiah makes the comparison such things as may be gather'd up together into a narrow roome Time is short that is That time which the Lord hath spread over all things like a saile hath now this five thousand yeeres been roling up and the end is now at hand as S. Peter speakes the day is approaching when time shall be no more And so the words in the originall will well beare it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Remainder of time is short or time is short for so much as yet remaineth of it to be folded up and therefore we ought so to behave our selves as men that have more serious things to consider of as men that are very neere to that everlasting haven where there shall be no use of such sailes any more And in the Apostles close the same reason is farther yet enforced For the fashion of this world passeth away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The figure intimating that there is nothing of any firmenesse or solid consistencie in the Creature it is but a surface an outside an empty promise all the beauty of it is but skinne-deepe and then that little which is desireable and pretious in the eyes of men which the Apostle cals The lust of the world 1. Ioh. 2. 17. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It passeth away and is quickely gone The word as the learned differently render it hath three severall Arguments in it to expresse the Apostles exhortation 1. It deceives or coozens and therefore use it as if you used it not use it as a man in a serious businesse would use a false friend that profers his assistance though his protestations be never so faire yet so employ him as that the businesse may be done though he should faile thee 2. Transversum agit It carries a man headlong the lusts of the world are so strong and impetuous that they are apt to enflame the desires and even violently to carry away the heart of a man and for this cause likewise use it as if you used it not engage your selfe as little upon it as you can doe as Mariners in a mighty winde hâ—…ise up as few sailes
thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkenesse be as the noone day then thy waters shall not lye unto thee that happinesse which it falsly promiseth unto other men it shall performe unto thee And so much be spoken touching the great disproportion between the Soule of man and the Creature in regard of the Vanitie of it The next disproportion is in their Operation They are vexing and molesting things Rest is the satisfaction of every Creature all the rovings and agitations of the Soule are but to find out something on which to rest and therefore where there is Vexation there can be no proportion to the soule of man and Salomon tels us That All things under the Sunne are full of labour more then a man can utter He was not used as an Instrument of the Holy Ghost to speake it onely but to trie it too the Lord was pleased for that very purpose to conferre on him a confluence of all outward happinesse and inward abilities which his very heart could desire that he at last might discover the utter insufficiency of all created Excellencies to quiet the Soule of man But if we will not beleeve the Experience of Salomon let us beleeve the authority of him that was greater then Salomon who hath plainely compar'd the things and the cares of the earth to Thornes which as the Apostle speakes Pierce or bore a man thorough with many sorrowes First They are Wounding Thornes for that which is but a pricke in the flesh is a wound in the spirit because the spirit is most tender of smart and the wise man cals them Vexation of spirit The Apostle tels us they beget many sorrowes and those sorrowes bring death with them If it were possible for a man to see in one view those oceans of bloud which have been let out of mens veines by this one Thorne to heare in one noise all the groanes of those poore men whose lives from the beginning of the world unto these dayes of blood wherein we live have been set at sale and sacrificed to the unsatiable ambition of their bloody rulers to see and heare the endlesse remorse and bitter yellings of so many rich and mighty men as are now in hell everlastingly cursing the deceite and murther of these earthly Creatures it would easily make every man with pitty and amazement to beleeve that the Creatures of themselves without Christ to qualifie their venome and to blunt their edge are in good earnest Wounding Thornes Secondly they are Choaking Thornes they stifle and keepe downe all the gratious seeds of the word yea the very naturall sproutings of noblenesse ingenuity morality in the dispositions of men Seed requires emptinesse in the ground that there may be a free admission of the raine and influences of the heavens to cherish it And so the Gospell requires nakednesse and poverty of minde a sense of our owne utter insufficiencie to our selves for happinesse in which sense it is said that the poore receive the Gospel But now earthly things meeting with corruption in the heart are very apt First To Fill it and secondly To Swell it both which are conditions contrary to the preparations of the Gospell They Fill the Heart First with Businesse Yokes of oxen and farmes and wives and the like contentinents take up the studies and delights of men that they cannot finde out any leisure to come to Christ. Secondly They Fill the Heart with Love and the Love of the world shuts out the Love of the father as the Apostle speakes When the Heart goes after covetousnesse the power and obedience of the word is shut quite out They will not do thy words saith the Lord to the Prophet for their heart goeth after their covetousnesse A deare and superlative Love such as the Gospell ever requires for a man must love Christ upon such termes as to bee ready without consultation or demurre not to forsake onely but to hate father and mother and wife and any the choisest worldly endearments for his Gospels sake I say such a Love admits of no Corrivalty or competition And therfore the love of the world must needs extingvish the love of the word Lastly they fill the heart with feare of forgoing them and feare takes of the heart from any thoughts save those which looke upon the matter of our feare when men who make Gold their Confidence heare that they must forsake all for Christ and are sometimes haplie put upon a triall they start aside choose rather securely to enjoy what they have present hold of then venture the interuption of their carnall contentments for such things the beauty where of the Prince of this world hath blinded their eyes that they should not see For certainly till the minde be setled to beleeve that in God there is an ample recompence for any thing which wee may otherwise forgoe for him it is impossible that a man should soundly embrace the love of the truth or renounce the love of the world Secondly as They Fill so they Swell the Heart too and by that meanes worke in it a contempt and disestimation of the simplicity of the Gospell We have both together in the Prophet According to their pasture so were they Filled they were filled and their heart was Exalted therefore have they forgotten me Now the immediate child of Pride is selfe-dependence and a reflection on our owne sufficiencie and from thence the next issue is a contempt of the simplicity of that gospell which would drive us out of our selves The Gentiles out of the pride of their owne wisedome counted the Gospell of Christ foolishnesse and mocked those that preached it unto them and the Pharisees who were the learned Doctors of Ierusalem when they heard Christ preach against earthlie affections out of their pride and covetousnesse Derided him as the Evangelist speakes Nay further they stifle the seeds of all noblenesse ingenuity or common vertues in the lives of men from whence come oppression extortion bribery cruelty rapine fraud iniurious treacherous sordid ignoble courses a very dissolution of the Lawes of nature amongst men but from the adoration of earthly things from that Idol of covetousnesse which is set up in the heart Thirdly they are Deceitfull Thornes as our Saviour expresseth it Let a man in a tempest go to a thorne for shelter and he shall light upon a thiefe in stead of a fence which will teare his flesh in stead of succouring him and doe him more injury then the evill which he fled from and such are the Creatures of themselves so farre are they from protecting that indeed they tempt and betray us The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the Clefts of the Rockes thou that sayest in thine heart Who shall bring me downe I will bring thee downe saith the Lord to Edom. Lastly they are vanishing Thornes nothing so apt nothing so easie to catch fire and be
heart upon it They will not set their heart upon us say the people to David for thou art worth ten thousand of us that is they will no whit regard us in comparison of thee so then a mans heart is set on the Creature when he prizeth it above other things and declareth this estimation of his heart by those eager endeavours with which he pursueth them as his God and Idoll Thirdly to relie upon to put trust and affiance in the Creature and this is imported in the word by which the Prophet expresseth riches which signifieth strength of all sorts vires and propugnaculum the inward strength of a man and the outward strength of munition and fortification therefore saith Salomon the rich mans wealth is his strong city and rich men are said to Trust and Glorie in their riches examples whereof the Scripture abundantly gives in Tyre Babylon Ninive Edom Israel c. Now a man ought not thus to set his heart on the Creature first because of the Tendernesse and delicacie of the spirit which will quickely be bruiz'd with any thing that lies close upon it and presseth it As men weare the softest garments next their skinne that they be not disquieted so should we apply the tenderest things the mercies and the worth of the bloud of Christ the promises of grace and glory the precepts and invitations of the Spirit unto our spirits And now as subterraneous winde or ayre being pressed in by the earth doth often beget concussions and earth-quakes so the spirit of a man being swallow'd up and quite clos'd in earthly things must needs beget tremblings and distractions at last to the soule The word heere which we translate Vexation is rendred likewise by Contritio a pressing grinding wearing away of a thing and by Depastio a feeding on a thing which makes some render the words thus All is vanitie and a feeding upon winde That as windie meates though they fill and swell a man up they nourish little but turne into crudities and diseases so the feeding upon the Creature may puffe up the heart but it can bring no reall satisfaction no solid nutriment to the soule of man The Creature upon the spirit is like a worme in wood or a moth in a garment it begets a rottennesse of heart it bites asunder the threads and sinewes of the soule and by that meanes workes an ineptitude and undisposednesse to any worthy service and brings a decay upon the whole man for cares will prevent age and change the colour of the haire before the time and make a man like a silly Dove without any heart as the Prophet speakes Secondly because the strength of every man is his spirit Mens cujusque is est quisque Now if the Creature seize on a mans strength it serues him as Dalilah did Sampson it will quickely let in the Philistines to vexe him Strength hath Two parts or offices Passive in undergoing and withstanding evill and Active in doing that which belongs to a man to doe Now when the heart and spirit of a man is set upon any Creature it is weakned in both these respects First it is disabled from bearing or withstanding evill We will consider it First in temptations Secondly in afflictions First A man who hath set his heart inordinately upon any Creature is altogether unfit to withstand any temptation In the Law when a man had new married a wife he was not to goe to warre that yeere but to rejoyce with his wife One reason whereof I suppose was this because when the minde is strongly set upon any one object till the strength of that desire be abated a man will be utterly unfit to deale with an enemie so is it with any lust to which a man weds himselfe it altogether disables him to resist any enemie after Hannibals armie had melted themselves at Capua with sensualitie and luxurie they were quite strangers to hard service and rigid discipline when they were againe reduc'd unto it The Reason hereof is first The subtiltie of Satan who will be sure to proportion his temptations to the heart and those lusts which doe there predominate setting upon men with those perswasions wherewith he is mos likely to seduce them As the Grecians got in upon the Trojans with a gift something which they presum'd would finde acceptance The divell dealeth as men in a siege casts his projects and applies his batteries to the weakest and most obnoxious place Therefore the Apostle saith that a man is tempted when he is led away of his owne lust and enticed the divell will be sure to hold intelligence with a mans owne lusts to advise and sit in counsell with his owne heart to follow the tyde and streame of a mans owne affections in the tempting of him Adam tempted in knowledge Pharaoh by lying wonders the Prophet by pretence of an Angels speech Ahab by the consent of false prophets the Iewes by the Temple of the Lord and carnall priuiledges the heathen by pretence of vniversalitie and antiquitie When Dauids heart after his adultery was set vpon his owne glory more then Gods how to saue his owne name from reproach we see as long as that affection preuailed against him as long as his heart was not so throughly humbled as to take the shame of his sinne to himselfe to beare the indignation of the Lord and accept of the reproach of his iniquity hee was ouercome with many desperate temptations he yeelds to be himselfe a temper of his neighbour to unseasonable pleasures to drunkennesse and shame to bee a murtherer of his faithfull seruant to multiply the guilt that hee may shift of the shame of his sinne and provide for his owne credit Peters heart was set upon his owne life and safetie more then the truth of Christ or his owne protestations and Sathan fitting his assault to this weakenesse prevailes against a rocke with the breath of a woman They that will be rich saith the apostle who set their hearts upon their riches whose hearts runne after their couetousnesse fall into temptation and a snare into many foolish and hurtfull lusts Such a heart is fit for any temptation Tempt Achaâ—…s covetous heart to sacriledge and hee will reach forth his hand to the accursed thing Tempt Iudaes his covetous heart to treason and he will betray the pretious blood of the Sonne of God which is infinitely beyond any rate of silver or gold for a few pieces of silver the price of a little field Tempt Gehazies covetous heart to multiply lie upon lie and he will doe it with ease and greedinesse for a few pieces of money and change of rayment Tempt Sauls covetous heart with the fattest of the Cattell and hee will venture on disobedience a sinne worse then witchcraft which himselfe had rooted out Tempt the covetous heart of a Iudge in Israel to doe iniustice and a paire of shooes shall spurne righteousnesse
the Divell threaten Demas with persecuâ—…ion and presently hee forsakes the fellowship of the Apostles and imbraceth this present world And as it was heretofore so is it still If a mans heart be not set on God and taught to rest upon his providence to answer all Satans promises with his All-sufficiencie to reward vs and all his threatnings with his All-sufficiency to protect us how easily will promises begvile and threatnings deterre unstable and earthly minds Let the Divell tell one man All this will I give thee if thou wilt speake in a Cause to pervert judgement how quickly will men create subtilties and coine evasions to rob a man and his house even a man and his inheritance Let him say to another I will doe whatsoever thou sayst unto me if thou wilt dissemble thy conscience divide thy heart comply with both sides keepe downe the power of godlinesse persecute zeale set up will-worship and superstiâ—…ions how quickly shall such a mans religion bee disgviz'd and sincerity if it were possible put to shame If to another thou shalt by such a time purchase such a Lordship out such a neighbour swallow up such a prodigall if thou enhance thy rents enlarge thy fines set unreasonable rates upon thy Farmes how quickly will men grinde the faces of the poore and purchase ungodly possessions with the blood of their tenants If to another beware of laying open thy conscience of being too faithfull in thy Calling too sâ—…rupulous in thy office least thou purchase the dis-favour of the World lest the times cloud overthee and frowne upon thee lest thou be scourged with persecuted names and make thy selfe obnoxious to spies and censures how will men be ready to start backe to shrinke from their wonted forwardnesse to abate their former zeale to coâ—…ple in with and connive at the corruptions of the age in one Word to tremble when Ephraim speakes and not to tremble when God speakes So hard is it when the heart is wedded to earthly things and they are gotten into a mans bosome to beare the assaults of any temptation Lastly this comes from the just and secret wrath of God giuing men over to the deceitfulnesse of sinne and to the hardnesse of their owne hearts to beleeve the lies and allurements of Satan because they rejected the counsell of God and the love of his truth before In the influences of the Sunne we may observe that the deeper they worke the stronger they worke the beames nearer the Center meeting in a sharper point doe consolidate and harden the very Element so the Creatures by the justice of God when they meete in a mans Center reach as farre as his heart doe there mightily worke to the deceiving and hardning of it the eye nor any other outward sense can finde no more in the Creature then is really there it is the heart which mis-conceives things and attributes that Deity and worth to them which the senses could not discover If men then could keepe these things from their spirits they should ever conceive of them according to their owne narrow being and so keepe their hearts from that hardnesse which the Creatures destitute of Gods blessing doe there beget and so worke in the soule a disposition suteable to Satans temptations Secondly a Heart set upon any lust is unfit likewise to beare any affliction The Young man whose heart was upon his riches could not endure to heare of selling all and entring upon a poore and persecuted profession First Lusts are choice and dainty they make the heart very delicate and nice of any assaults Secondly they are very wilfull and set upon their owne ends therefore they are expressed by the name of concupiscence and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The wills of the flesh and wilfulnesse is the ground of impatiency Thirdly they are naturall and move strongly to their owne point they are a Body and our very members no marvell then if they be sensible of paine from afflictions which are contrary unto nature The stronger the water runnes the more will it roare and some upon any opposition lust is like a furious beast enrag'd with the affliction the chaine that binds it Fourthly Lusts are very wise after a fleshly and sensuall manner and worldly wisedome is impatient of any stoppage or prevention of any affliction that crusheth and disappoints it Therefore the Apostle doth herein principally note the opposition betweene heavenly and carnall wisedome that the one is meeke peaceable and gentle the other divelish and full of strife Fifthly Lusts are proud especially those that arise from abundance of the Creature and pride being set upon by any affliction makes the heart breake forth into impatience debates and stoutnesse against God a proud heart growes harder by afflictions as Metals or Clay after they have past thorow the furnace It is said of Pharaoh that he did not set his heart to the Iudgements of God but exalted himselfe against his people Pride grew stronger by Affliction Besides pride in earthly things swallowes up the very expectation of Afflictions and therefore must needs leave the heart unprepared against them Sixthly Lusts are rooted in self-selfe-love and therefore when Christ will have a man forsake his lusts he directs him to denie himselfe Now the very essence of Afflictions are to be grievous and adverse to a mans selfe Seventhly Lusts are contentious armed things and their enmity is against God and therefore utterly unfit to accept of the punishment of sinne and to beare the â—…ndignation of the Lord or to submit unto any afflictions Eighthly Lusts resist the truth set up themselves against the Word and thereby utterly disable men to beare Afflictions for the Word sanctifies and lightens all Affliction the Word shewes Gods moderation and intention in them an issue out of them the benefits which will come from them the supplies of strength and abilities to beare them the promises of a more abundant exceeding weight of glory in comparison whereof they are as nothing Lastly if wee could conceive some Afflictions not contrary to lust yet Afflictions are ever contrary to the provisions of lust to the materials and instruments of lusts such as are health pleasure riches honours c. And in all these respect a Heart set upon lust is weakened and disabled to beare Afflictions Secondly when the Heart is set upon the Creature it is utterly disabled in regard of its active strength made unfit to doe any duty with that strength as Gods requires First because Bonum fit ex causâ integrâ A good duty must proceede from an entire Cause from the whole heart Now lust divides the Heart and makes it unstedfast and unfaithfull unto God There is a twofold unstedfastnesse one in degrees another in objects the former proceeds from the remainders of corruption and therefore is found in some measure in the best
meeke and peaceable In the same will a delight in the Law of God and yet a bias and counter-motion to the law of sinne In the same understanding a light of the Gospell and yet many relikes of humane principles and fleshly reasonings much ignorance of the purity excellency and beauty of the wayes of God In the same heart singlenesse and sensiblenesse of sinne and yet much secret fraud and prevarication hardnesse and dis-apprehension of sin and wrath In the same affections love of God and love of the World feare of God and feare of men trust in God and doubting of his favour Lord I beleeve helpe thou mine unbeliefe was the cry of the poore man in the Gospell and such must bee the complaints of the best of us Lord I will helpe thou mine unwillingnesse Lord I heare thee helpe thou my deafenesse Lord I remember thee helpe thou my forgetfulnesse Lord I presse towards thee helpe thou my wearinesse Lord I rejoyce in thee helpe thou my heavinesse Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee helpe thou my strangenesse Lord I love and delight in thy Law helpe thou my failings Such tugging is there of either nature to preserve and improve it selfe Iacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the birth contention for the birth-right contention with an Angell for the blessing contention for his wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typicall man his name was Israel and he was a patterne to the Israel of God We must be all men of contention wrestlers not onely with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our elder brother Esau with the lusts and frowardnesse of our owne hearts The Thiefe on the Crosse was a perfect embleme of the sinne of our nature he was naild hand and foot destin'd unto death utterly disabled from any of his wonted outrages and yet that only part which was a little loose flies out in reviling and reproaching Christ Our old man by the mercy of God is upon a Crosse destin'd to death disabled from the exercise of that wonted violence and dominion which it used and yet so long as there is any life or strength left in him hee sets it all on worke to revile that blessed spirit which is come so neere him The more David prevailes the more Saul rageth and persecuteth him As in the wombe of Tamar there was a strife for precedencie Zarah thrust out his hand first and yet Pharez goâ—… foâ—…th before him so in a Christian many times the 〈◊〉 thruâ—… out the hand and begins to worke and presently the flesh growes sturdie and boisterous and gets first into the action A man sets himselfe to call upon God lifts up his hand with the skarlet thred the blood of Christ upon it is in a sweete preparation to powre out his complaints his requests his praises to his father and ere he is aware pride ln the excellencie of Gods gifts or deadnesse or worldly thoughts intrude themselves and justle-by Gods spirit and cast a blemish upon his offring A man is setting himself to heare Gods word begins to attend and rellish the things that are spoken as matters which doe in good earnest concerne his peace begins to see a beauty more then ordinary in Gods service an excellencie with David in Gods Law which hee considered not before resolves hereafter to love frequent submit beleeve prize it more then he had ever done presently the flesh sets up her mounds her reasonings her perverse disputes her owne principles her shame her worldlinesse her want of leisure her secular contentments and so resists the spirit of God and rejects his counsell I have enough already what needs this zeale this pressing this accuratenesse this violence for heaven strive wee what wee can our infirmities will encompasse us our corruptions will bee about us But yet Beloved as in a pyramide the higher you goe the lesse compasse still you finde the body to bee of and yet not without the curiositie and diligence of him that fram'd it so in a Christian mans resurrection and conversation with Christ in heaven the neerer he comes to Christ the smaller still his corruptions will bee and yet not without much spirituall industry and christian art A Christian is like a flame the higher it ascends the more thinne purified and azurie it is but yet it is a flame in greene wood that wants perpetuall blowing and encouragement A man sets himselfe with some good resolution of spirit to set forward the honor in questioning in discovering in shaming in punishing within the compasse of his owne calling and warrant the abuses of the times in countenancing in rewarding in abetting and supporting truth righteousnes his flesh presently interposeth his quiet his security his relations his interests his hopes his feares his dependencies his plausibility his credit his profit his secular provisoes these blunt his edge upbraid him with impoliticknes with malecontentednes with a sullen cynicall disposition against men and manners and thus put I know not what ill favor'd colours upon a good face to make a man out of love with an honest busines In a word good is before me the glory the service the waies of God I see it but I cannot love it I love it but I cannot doe it I doe it but I cannot finish it I will but yet I rebell I follow and yet I fall I presse forward and yet I faint and flagge I wrestle and yet I halt I pray and yet I sinne I fight and yet I am Captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me I watch my heart and yet it runnes away from me God was at first the Author of nothing but peace within me what envious man hath sowed this warre in my bowels Let the Apostle answer this question saith Saint Austen By one man sinne entred into the world That which I would be I am not and that which I hate I am O wretched man in whom the Crosse of Christ hath not yet worne out the poysonous and bitter tast of that first tree It is the patheticall complaint of Bonifacius in the same Father How doth the Apostle even breake with complaining of this rebellious and captivating power of originall concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me though hee were delivered from the damnation yet hee was not delivered from the miserie of this sinne which must necessarily arise from the stirrings and conflicts of it Though lust in the regenerate bee not damnable because albeit it bring forth sinne yet it doth not finish and consummate it for it is broken off by repentance and disabled by the power of Christs spirit yet it is still miserable because it disquieteth the spirituall peace and tranquillity of the soule But there is no great danger in the warre if the enemie bee either foolish or
Precept for such Anger as is required of us by way of duty the Sun may safely go down upon nor is it a pardon for anger whē we fal into it to take of the inordinatenes of it but it is a speech by way of concession or unavoidable supposition It cannot bee but that the Saints themselves upon severall occasions and provocations will be overtaken with anger but yet though their infirmity break forth into the passiō let not pride self love harden that passion into a habit let them be wary that the flame grow not upon them to set them on fire Give no place to the Divell The longer a man continues in anger the more roome the Divel hath to get in upon him enrage him Anger is the kernell and seed of malice if it be let lie long in the heart that is so fertile a soile and Satan so diligent a waterer of his owne plants that it will quickly grow up into a knottie and stubburne hatred Wee read of hatreds which have runne in the bloud and have been entaild Hereditarie malice as the Historian cals it Hatreds which have surviv'd the parties and discover'd themselves in their very funerals Hatreds which men have bound upon their posterity by oaths as Hasdrubal took a solemne oath of Hanibal that he should be an irreconcileable enemie to Rome And what doe all such expressions import but that there is a boundlesse frenzy in the flesh of men a fiercenesse which no lawes can tame and that there is enough of it in the best men to breake out into implacable affections if grace and prayer and watchfulnesse doe not prevent it Fourthly in Afflictions paines of body temptations of spirit abridgement of estate trials in reputation and favour or the like looke by all meanes unto thy heart take heede of these seedes of rage and madnesse which are in thee Never more time to looke to thy mounds to repaire thy bulwarks then when a tempest is upon thy sea Have you seene a beast breake his teeth upon the chaine that bindes him or a Dog poure out his revenge upon the stone that did hurt him then have you seene some darke shadowes of that fiercenesse and furie that is apt to rise out of the hearts of men when Gods hand lies close upon them When thou hearest of the strange impatiencie of Ionah at the beating of the Sun upon his head unto whom yet it was a mercy beyond wonder that he did now see the sunne when thou hearest of those deepe expostulations of David with God Hath he forgotten to be gracious forgotten his promises forgotten his truth forgotten his power and mercy and shut up all his kindenesse in displeasure When thou hearest of the impatiencies of Iob a man yet renowned for his patience expostulating and charging God Is it good for the◅ that thou should'st oppresse When thou hearest of those deepe curses of ◅eremie against the day of his birth of those froward expostulations and debates of the people of Israel with Moses of Moses with God Why hast thou evill entreated this people why hast thou sent me O then reflect upon thy selfe and be afraid of thine owne evill heart which is farre more likely to breake out against God then any of those were And for a remedie or prevention hereof keepe in thy sight the historie of thy sinnes make them as hainous to thine owne view as they are in their own nature The way not to rage against afflictions is to know our selves aright that will make us confesse unto God with Ezra let our calamities be what they will That the Lord hath punish'd us lesse then our iniquities have deserved The way to beare the hand of God with patience and with acceptance is to confesse our sinnes and to be humbled for them If their uncircumcised hearts bee humbled and then they accept of the punishment of their iniquities saith the Lord noting thus much that the sight of our sin and humiliation for it makes a man willing to submit to Gods chastisements Wherefore doth a living man complaine a man for the punishment of his sins there are three strong reasons together why we ought not to murmur in our afflictions First Wee are men and what an impudence is it for the clay to swell against the potter that form'd it and complaine why hast thou made me thus Secondly wee are sinners all the punishments wee suffer are our owne the wages of our iniquities and what a madnesse is it to complaine against the justice of our Iudge Thirdly wee are living men and therefore God hath punished us lesse then our sinnes deserve for the wages of sinne is death and what ingratitude is it to repine at mercifull and moderated punishments but yet such is the frowardnesse of our nature that wee are very apt thus to murmur what is the cure and remedy of this evill affection Let vs search and try our waies saith the Church and turne to the Lord our God the more wee grow acquainted with our sinnefull estate and marveilous provocations with the patience and promises of God the more we shall justifie God and waite upon him the more wee shall judge our selves lesse then the least of Gods mercies and forbearances I will beare the indignation of the Lord saith the Church againe in the same case I will not repine nor murmure at his dealing with me I will acknowledge that righteousnesse belongeth unto him and confusion unto me and the ground of this resolution is the sense of sinne Because I have sinned against him I have pressed and wearied and grieved and vexed him with my sinnes without any zeale or tendernesse of his glory but he hath visited me in judgement and not in fury in wrath he hath remembred mercy and not quite consumed me as he might have done he hath not dealt with me after my sinnes nor rewarded me according to mine iniquities he hath spared me as a sonne when I dealt with him as a traytor and hee will pleade my cause and bring me forth to the light and revenge my quarrell against those which helped forward my affliction Thus we see the way not to rage against Afflictions is to understand and be sensible of the foulenesse of our sinnes Otherwise pride and madnesse will undoubtedly shew themselves in our Afflictions What desperate and horrible rage did the heart of Pharaoh swell into when in the middest of those fearefull Iudgements hee hardned his heart and exalted himselfe against the people of God and trampled upon them and did not set his heart unto the iudgement but threatned and drave out M◅ses and Aaron from his presence and pursued them with finall and obdurate malice through the midst of that wonderfull deliverance The like example we see in that impatient and fretfull reply of Iehoram king of Israel in the great famine This euill is of the Lord what should I
by better promises and therefore respect none of the wages of Lust consider that God is the Fountaine of life that thou hast more and better of it in him then in the Creatures that when thou wantest the things of this life yet thou hast the promises still and that all the offers of lust are not for comforts but for snares not for the use of life but for the provisions of sin and there is more content in a little received from God then in whole treasures stollen from him and all sinfull gaine is the robbing of God Fourthly for the law of lust setup the law of the spirit of life in thy heart It is a royall Law and a Law of liberty whereas lust is a law of death and bondage and where the spirit comes a man shall be set free from the law of sinne and of death Keepe thy selfe alwayes at home in the presence of Christ under the eye and government of thy husband and that will dash all intruders and adulterers out of countenance Take heed of quenching grieving stifling the Spirit cherish the motions thereof stirre up and kindle the gifts of God in thee labour by them to grow more in grace and to have neerer communion with God the riper the Corne growes the looser will the chaffe be and the more a man growes in grace with the more ease will his corruptions be sever'd and shaken off Fifthly when lust is violent and importunate First be thou importunate and vrgent with God against it too when the Messenger of Satan the Thorne in the flesh did buffet and sticke fast unto S. Paul hee reiterated his prayers unto God against it and proportion'd the vehemency of his requests to the violence and urgency of the enemy that troubled him and he had a comfortable answer My Grace is sufficient for thee sufficient in due time to cure and sufficient at all times to forgive thy weakenesse In the Law if a ravisht woman had cried out shee was esteemed innocent because the pollution was not voluntary but violent And so in the assaults of lust when it useth violence and pursues the soule that is willing to escape and flye from it if a man with-hold the embraces of his owne will and cry out against it if he can say with Saint Paul It is no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me though in regard that the flesh is something within himselfe he cannot therefore be esteemed altogether innocent yet the Grace of God shall bee sufficient for him Secondly when thou art pursued keepe not Lusts counsell but seeke remedy from some wise and Christian friend by communicating with him and disclosing thy case unto him sinne loves not to bee betrayde or complained on mutuall confession of sinne to those who will pray for a sinner and not deride him or rejoyce against him is a meanes to heale it Thirdly when thou art in a more violent manner then usuall assaulted by sinne Humble thy selfe in some more peculiar manner before God and the more sinne cries for satisfaction denie it and thy selfe the more as Salomon saith of children so may I say of lusts Chastice and subdue thy lusts and regard not their crying Sixthly cut off the materials and provisions for lust weane thy selfe from earthly affections love not the World nor the things of the World desire not anything to consume upon thy lusts pray for those things which are convenient for thee turne thy heart from those things which are most likely to seduce thee possesse thy heart with a more spirituall and abiding treasure hee who lookes stedfastly upon the light of the Sunne will be able to see nothing below when he lookes downe againe and surely the more a man is affected with heaven the lesse will he desire or delight in the world Besides the provisions of sinne are but like full pastures that doe but fatten and prepare for slaughter Balaam was in very good plight before able to ride with his two servants to attend him but greedinesse to rise higher and make provision for his ambitious heart carried him upon a wicked businesse made him give cursed counsell against Israel which at length cost him his owne life Lastly for the instruments of lusts make a covenant with thy members keep a government over them bring them into subjection above all keepe thy heart establish the inward government for nothing can be in the body which is not first in the heart keepe the first mover uniforme and right all other things which have their motions depending there must needs be right too Having thus opened at large the life and state of originall sinne it remaines in the last place to shew how the spirit by the commandement doth convince and discover the life of actuall sinne in omitting so much good in committing so much evill in swarving and deviating from the rule in the manner and measure of all our services And this it doth by making us see that great spiritualnes and perfection that precise universall and constant conformitie which the Law requires in all we doe Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Perfection and perpetuitie of obedience are the two things which the Law requires Suppose we it possible for a man to fulfill every tittle of the Law in the whole compasse of it and that for his whole life together one onely particular and that the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from it being for one onely time excepted yet so rigorous and inexorable is the Law that it seales that man under the wrath and curse of God The heart cannot turne the thoughts cannot rise the affections cannot stirre the will cannot bend but the Law meets with it either as a Rule to measure or as a Iudge to censure it It penetrates the inmost thoughts searcheth the bottome of all our actions hath a widenesse in it which the heart of man cannot endure They were not able to endure saith the Apostle the things which were commanded and Why tempt you God saith Saint ' Peter to those that preached Circumcision and put a yoake upon the brethren which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare Circumcision it selfe they were able to beare but that yoke which came with it namely the Debt of the whole Law was by them and their fathers utterly unsupportable For this very cause was the Law published that sinne might thereby become exceeding sinfull that so Gods grace might bee the more magnified and his Gospell the more accepted Let us in a few words consider some particular aggravations of the life and state of actuall sinne which the spirit by the Word will present unto us First in the least sinne that can bee named there is so much life and venome as not all the concurrent strength of those millions of Angels one of whom was
equall and uniforme to all the Law It esteemeth all Gods precepts concerning al things to be right it hateth euery false way Whereas the other is onely in some particulars reseruing some exceptions from the generall rule and framing to it selfe a latitude of holinesse beyond which in their conceits is nothing of realitie but onely the fictions and chimaeraes the more abstract notions and singularities of a few men whose end is not to serve God but to be unlike their neighbours I deny not but that as oftentimes it falleth out in ill affected bodies that some one part may be more disordered and disabled for seruice then others because ill humors being by the rest rejected doe at last settle in that which 〈◊〉 â—…aturally weakest so in Christians likewise partly by the temper of their persons partly by the condition of their liues and callings partly by the pertinacious and more intimate adherence of some close corruption partly by the company and examples of men amongst whom they liue partly by the different administration of the spirit of grace who in the same men bloweth how and where he listeth it may come to passe that this uniformitie may bee blemished and some actions be more corrupt and some sinnes more predominant and untamed in them then others Yet still I say Renewing Grace doth in some measure subdue all and at least frame the heart to a vigilancie ouer those gaps which lie most naked and to a tendernes to bewaile the incursions of sin which are by them occasioned Thirdly that which riseth from Renewing Grace is constant growes more in old age hath life in more abundance proceedeth from a heart purged and prepared to bring forth more fruite where as the other growes faint and withers an hypocrite will not pray alwaies a torrent will one time or other dry vp and putrifie Water will mooue vpward by art till it be gotten levell to the spring where it first did rise and then it will returne to its nature againe So the corrupt hearts of naturall men how euer they may fashion them to a shew of holinesse so farre forth as will 〈◊〉 even to those ends and designes for which they assum'd it yet let them once goe past that and their falling downe will make it appeare that what ever motions they had screwed up themselves unto yet still in their hearts they did bend another way and did indeed resist the power of that grace whose countenance they affected Euen as Scipio and Annibal at Scyphax his table did complement and discourse and entertaine one another with much semblance of affection whereas other occasions in the field occurring made it appeare that euen at that time their hearts were full of reuenge and hostility Lastly that which riseth from Renewing Grace is with delight and much complacencie because it is naturall to a right spirit it desires nothing more then to haue the law of the flesh quite consum'd whereas the other hath paine and disquietnesse at the bridle which holds it in and therefore takes all advantages it can to breake loose againe For while naturall men are tampering about spirituall things they are out of their element it is as offensiue to them as aire is to a fish or water to a man Men may peradventure to coole and clense themselves step a while into the water but no man can make it his habitation a fish may friske into the aite to refresh himselfe but he returnes to his owne element wicked men may for varietie sake or to pacifie the grumblings of an unquiet conscience looke sometimes into Gods law but they can never suffer the word to dwell in them they are doing a worke against nature and therefore no marvell if they finde no pleasure in it nay they doe in their hearts wish that there were no such law at all to restraine their corrupt desires that there were no such records extant to be produced against them at the last and as soone as any occasions call them unto sensuall and sinfull delights they stealâ—… away the law from their owne consciences they suppresse and imprison the truth in unrighteousnesse they shut their eyes by a voluntary and affected ignorance that they may more securely and without checke or perturbation resigne themselves to their owne waies Secondly a deepe desperate hypocriticall affectation of the credit of Christianitie and of the repute and name of holinesse like that of Iehu Come â—…ce my zeale for the Lord of Hoasts And this is so farre from pulling downe the raigne of sinne that it mightily strengthens it and is a sore provocation of Gods jealousie and revenge The Prophet compares hypocrites to a deceâ—…tfull Bow which though it seeme to direct the arrow in an even line upon the marke yet the unfaithfulnesse thereof carries it at last into a crooked and contrarie way And a little after we finde the similitude verified Israel shall crie unto me my God we know thee Here seemes a direct ayme at God a true profession of faith and interest in the covenant but obserue presently the deceitfulnesse of the Bow Israel hath cast off the thing that is good though he be well contented to beare my name yet he cannot endure to beare my yoke though he be well pleased with the priviledges of my people yet he cannot away with the tribute and obedience of my people and therefore God rejects both him and his halfe services The enemie shall pursue him They haue sowed the winde and they shall reape the whirle winde saith the Lord in the same Prophet My people are like a husbandman going over plowed lands and casting abroad his hands as if he were sowing seed but the truth is there is nothing in his hand at all but winde nothing but vaine semblances and pretences the profession of a leedsman but the hand of a sluggard and now marke what an Harvest this man shall have That which a man soweth that also shall he reape he sowed the wiâ—…de and he shall imhâ—…rit the windâ—… as Salomon speakes Yet you may observe that there is some diffâ—…rence As in Harvest ordinarily there is an increase hee that sowes a Pecke may haply reape a Quaâ—…ter so the hypocrite here sowes winde but he reapes a whirle winde he sowed vanitie but he shall reape furie for the furie of the Lord is compar'd to a whirle winde God will not be honored with a lie shall a man lie for God This argument the Apostle useth to proove the Resurrection because else saith he we are found false witnesses of God and God doth not stand in neede of false witnesses to justifie his power or glory Why takest tâ—…ou my Word into thy mouth seeing thou hatest to be reformed We reade that in one of the States of Greece if a scandalous man had lighted upon any wholsome counsell for the honor and advantage of the countrie yet the Common-weale rejected it as from him and
his government For when we mention uncontrolednesse as an argument of sins Raigne we meane not that a bare naturall Conviction which the Apostle cals an Accusation which imports a former yeelding to the lust and no more but that a spirituall expostulation with a mans owne heart ioyned with true repentance and a sound and serious Lusting against the desires and commands of the flesh are the things which subdue the raigne of sinne The whole state then of this point touching the Roialtie of siâ—…ne will be fully opened when we shall have distinctly unfolded the Differences betweene these Two Conflicts with sinne the Conflict of a naturall Accusing Conscience and the Conflict of a spirituall Mourning and Repenting Conscience First they Differ in the Principles whence they proceede The one proceeds from a spirit of feare and bondage the other from a spirit of love and delight An unregenerate man considers the state of sinne as a kingdome and so he loves the services of it and yet he Considers it as Regnum sub graviore regno as a kingdome subiect to the scrutinies and enquiries of a higher kingdome and so he feares it because the Guilt thereof and day of accompts affrights him so that this Conflictâ—…iseth â—…iseth out of the Compulsion of his Iudgement not out of the propension of his will not from a desire to be Holy but onely to be safe and quiet he abhorreth the thoughts of God and his Iustice whereas the faithfull hate sinne with relation to the purity and righteousnesse of God desire to walke in all well pleasing towards him hunger after his grace are affected with indignation selfe-displicencie and revenge against themselves for sin mourne under their corruptions bewaile the frowardnesse of their slipperie and revolting hearrs set a watch and spirituall iudicature over them crie out for strength to resist their lusts and prayse God for any grace power discipline severitie which he shewes against them In one word a naturall conscience doth onely shew the danger of sinne and so makes a man feare it but a Spirituall conscience shewes the Pollution of sinne the extreme contrarietic which it beares to the love of our heart the rule of our life the Law of God and so makes a man hate it as a thing contrary not only to his happinesse but to his nature of which he hath newly beene made partaker A dogge will be brought by discipline to for beare those things which his nature most delights in not because his ravine is changed into a better temper but the following paines makes him abstaine from the present baite so the conflict of the faithfull is with the unholynesse of sinne but the conflict of other men is onely with the Guilt and other sensuall incommodities of sinne And though that may make a man forbeare and returne yet not unto the Lord They have not cryed unto me saith the Lord with their heart when they howled upon their beds Their prayers were not cries but howlings brutish and meere sensuall complaints because they proceeded not from their hearts from any inward and sincere affection but onely from feare of that hand whith was able to cast them upon their beds As a sicke man eates meat not for love of it which he takes with much reluctancie and disrellish but for feare of death which makes him force himselfe a. Saul said to Samuel against his will whereas a healâ—…y man eates the same meate with hunger and delight so a naturall conscience constraines a man to doe some things which his heart never goes along with onely to avoide the paine which the contrary guilt infers In a Tempest the marriners will cast out all their wares not out of any hatred to the things for they throw over their very hearts into the Sea with them but because the safety of their lives and preservation of their goods will not stand together not sub intuitu mali sed minâ—…ris boni not under the apprehension of any evill in the things but onely as a lesser good which will not consist with the greater and therefore they never throw them over but in a Tempest whereas at all other times they labour at the pumpe to exonerate the ship of the water which settles at the bottome not onely for the danger but stinch and noysomnesse of it too Thus a Naturall conscience throwes away sinne as wares and therefore never forbeares it but in a Tempest of wrath and sense of the curse and quickly returnes to it againe but a spirituall conscience throwes out sinne as corrupt and stinking water and therefore is uniformely disaffected to it and alwayes laboureth to be delivered from it A scullion or colliar will not dare handle a coale when it is full of fire which yet at other times is their common use wheras a man of a more cleanly education as he will not then because of the fire so not at any time because of the foulnesse so here a Naturall conscience for forbeares sinne somtimes when the guilt and curse of it doth more appeare which yet at other times it makes no seruple of but a Spirituall conscience abstaines alwayes because of the basenesse and pollution of it The one feares sinne because it hath fite in it to burne the other hates sinne because it hath filth in it to pollute the Soule Secondly these conflicts differ in their seates and stations The naturall Conflict is in severall faculties as between the understanding and the will or the will and the affections and so doth not argue any universall renovation but rather a rupture and schisme a confusion and disorder in the soule But a spirituall conflict is in the same facultie will against will affection against affection heart against heart because sinne dwels still in our mortall body Neither doe the spirit and the flesh enter into covenant to share and divide the man and so to reside asunder in severall faculties and not molest one anothers governement there can be no agreement betweene the strong man and him that is stronger Christ will hold no treatie with Beliall he is able to save to the uttermost and therefore is never put to make compositions with his enemie he will not disparage the power of his owne Grace so much as to entertaine a parlie with the flesh So then they fight not from severall forts onely but are â—…ver struggling like Esau and Iacob in the same wombe They are contrary to one another saith the Apostle and contraries meete in the same subject before they exercise hostility against one another Flesh and spirit are in a man as light and darkenesse in the dawning of the day as heate and cold in warme water not severed in distinct parts but universally interweav'd and coexistent in all There is the same proportion in the naturall and spirituall conflict with sinne as in the change of motion in a bowle A Bowle may be two wayes alter'd from that motion which the impressed violence
from the arâ—…e did direct it to sometimes by an externall cause a bâ—…ke meeting and turning the course ever by an internall the sway and corrective of the Bias which accompanies and slackens the impressed violence throughout all the motion So is it in the turning of a man from sinne A naturall man goes on with a full consent of heart no bias in the will or affections to moderate or abate the violence only sometimes by chance he meetes with a convicted judgement or with a naturall conscience which like a banke turnes the motion or disappoints the heart in the whole pleasure of that sinne but in another where haplie he meetes with no such obstacle he runnes his full and direct course But now a spirituall man hath a Bias and Corrective of Grace in the same facultie where sin is which doth much remit the violence and at length turne the course of it And this holdes in every sin because the Corrective is not casuall or with respect onely to this or that particular but is firmely fix'd in the parts themselves on which the impressions of sinne are made Thirdly they differ in the manner or qualities of the conflict For first a naturall conflict hath ever Treacherie mixed with it but a Spirituall conflict is faithfull and sound throughout and that appeares thus A Spirituall heart doth ever ground its fight out of the Word labors much to acquaint it selfe with that because there it shall have a more distinct view of the enemy of his armies holdes supplies traines weapons strategems For a spirituall heart sets it selfe seriously to fight against every method deceite armor of lust as well against the pleasures as the guilt of sinne But a naturall heart hath a secret treacherie and intelligence with the enemy and therefore hates the light and is willingly ignorant of the forces of sinne that it may have that to alledge for not making opposition There is in every naturall man in sinning a disposition very suteable to that of Vitellius who used no other defences against the ruine which approached him but onely to keepe out the memory and report of it with fortifications of mirth and sottishnesse that so he might be deliver'd from the paines of preserving himselfe Thus the naturall conscience finding the warre against sinne to be irkesome that it may bee deliver'd from so troublesome a businesse labours rather to stifle the notions to suppresse and hold under the truth in unrighteousnesse to strive resist dispute with the spirit to be gladly gull'd and darkened with the deceites of sinne then to live all its time in unpreventable and unfinishable contentions Secondly a naturall conflict is ever particular and a spirituall universall against All sin because it proceedeth from hatred which is ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speakes against the whole kinde of a thing A naturall man may be angry with sinne as a man with his wife or friend for some present vexation and disquietnesse which it brings and yet not hate it for that reacheth to the very not being of a thing And for a naturall man to have his lusts so overcome as not at all to be would doubtlesse be unto him as painefull as mutilation or dismembring to the naturall bodie and therefore if it were put to his choice in such termes as might distinctly set forth the painefulnesse and contrarietie of it to his present nature he would undoubtedly refuse it because he should be destitute of a principle to live and move by and every thing naturally desires rather to move by a principle of its owne then by violent and forraigne impressions such as are those by which naturall men are moved to the wayes of God And therefore the naturall conscience doth ever beare with some sinnes if they be small unknowne secret or the like and hearkens not after them But the spirit holdes peace with no sin fights against the least the remotest those which are out of sight Paul against the sproutings and rebellions of naturall Concupiscence David against his secret sinnes as Israel against Iericho and Ai and those other cities of Canaan it suffers no Accursed thing to be referâ—…ed it slayes as well women and children as men of warre lest that which remaines should be a snare to deceive and an engine to induce more The naturall conscience shootes onely by aime and levell against some sins and spares the rest as Saul in the slaughter of the Amalekites But the spirituall shootes not onely by levell against particular notorious sinnes but at randome too against the whole army of sinne and by that meanes doth peradventure wound and weaken lusts which it did not distinctly observe in it selfe by complaining unto God against the bodie of sinne by watching over the course and frame of the heart by acquainting it selfe out of the Word with the armour and devices oâ—… Satan c. The opposition then betweene the naturall conscience and sinne is like the opposition betweene fire and hardnesse in some subjects the conflict betweene the spirituall conscience and sinne is like the opposition betweene fire and coldnesse Put mettall into the fire and the heat will dissolve and melt it but put a bricke into the fire and that will not melt nor soften because the consistencie of it doth not arise Ex causâ frigidà but siccâ but put either one or other into the fire and the coldnesse of it will be removed and the reason is because betweene fire and hardnesse there is but a particular opposition in some cases namely where a thing is hard out of a dominion of cold as in mettals not out of a dominion of dry qualities as in bricke and stones but betweene fire and coldnesse there is an universall opposition So a naturall conscience may peradventure serve to dissolve or weaken in regard of outward practice some sinnes but never All whereas a spirituall reacheth to the remitting and abating every lust because the one is onely a particular the other an universall opposition Thirdly the naturall conscience fights against sinne with fleshly weapons and therefore is more easily overcome by the subtiltie of Satan such as are servile feare secular ends carnall disadvantages generall reason and the like but the spirituall conscience ever fights with spirituall weapons out of the Word Faith Prayer Hope Experience Watchfulnesse Love godly Sorrow Truth of heart c. Fourthly they differ in their Effects First a natural conflict consists with the practice of many sinnes unquestioned unresisted but a spirituall changeth the course and tenor of a mans life that as by the remainders of the flesh the best may say We cannot doe the things which we would So by the first fruits of the spirit and the seede of God it may be truely said They cannot sinne For though they doe not attaine a perfection in the manner yet for the generall current and course of their living it is without eminent
but Gods Love and Mercy is the onely reason of making promises The Lord did not set his Love upon you nor choose you saith Moses to Israel because ye were more in number then any people but because the Lord Loved you that is the ground of making the promise and because he would keepe the oath which he had sworne to your fathers that was the ground of performing his promise For thy Words sake and according to thine owne heart saith David hast thou done all these great things According to thine owne heart that is ex mero motâ—… out of pure and unexcited love thou didst give thy Word and Promise and for thy Word sake thou hast performed it not for any thing that was in mee for whâ—… am â—… O Lord or what is my house hast thou brought me hitherto Thou wilt performe saith the Prophet the Truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworne unto our fathers from the dayes of old Why Truth to Iacob and Mercy to Abraham We must note the promise after a sort began in Abraham therefore he is call'd the Father of the Faithfull and when God makes a promise it is onely out of Mercie but the Promise was continued unto â—…a cob who being Abrahams seede was an heiâ—…e of the Promise and so the inheritance which was out of mercy given unto Abraham did out of Truth and fidelitie descend unto Iacob the seede of Abraham and therefore we shall finde Covenant Mercy and Oath ioyned together in the Scripture to note unto us both the ground of making the Covenant Mercy and the ground of performing the Covenant made the Truth and Fidelity of God Thy God shall keepe unto thee the Covenant and the Mercy which he sware unto thy fathers saith Moses To performe the Mercy promised to our fathers and to re member his holy Covenant The oath which he sware to ouâ—… father Abraham c. saith Zachary in his song Thâ—… wee see that the Promises are the tokens and fruits oâ—… Gods meere Love And in that regard they are apt to cleanse or to moue us to any dutâ—…e which God requires of us For Love and mercy being by faith apprehended are strong arguments to love and feare God againe is love him because he loved us and they shall feare thâ—… Lord and his goodnesse the goodnesse of the Lord begetteth feare and that is all one as to cleanse and purifie for the feare of the Lord is cleane and pure There is an uncleane feare like that of the Adulteresse who feareth her husband lest hee should returne and deprehend her in her falsenesse to him but the true feare of the Lord is cleane like that of a chaste spouse who feareth the departure of her Love There are none so destitute of humanity as not to answere Love for Love Secondly Promises are the Efficient causes of our Purification as they are The grounds of our Hope and expectations Wee have no reason to Hope for any thing which is not promised or upon any other conditions then as promised Hope is for this reason in Scripture compared to an Anker both sure and stedfast because it must have something of firmenesse and stabilitie to fasten upon before it can secure the Soule in any tempest To hope without a promise or upon any promise otherwise then it stands is but to let an Anker hang in the water or catch in a Wave and thereby to expect safetie to the Vessell This argument the Apostle useth why we should not cast away our confidence or slacken our hope because there is a Promise which by patience and doing the Will of God we may in due time receive and which is a firme foundation for our Confidence to â—…est upon So Abraham is said to have beleeved against hope in hope that hee should be the father of many nations and the ground of that hope is added According to that which was spoken to that word of Promise â—…o shall thy seâ—…de be And else where he is said to have looked for a City which had foundations that is a Citie which was built upon the Immutable stabilitie of Gods â—…ath and Promise Thus we see Promises are the grounds of our Hopâ—… and Hopâ—… is of a cleansing nature The Grace of God saith the Apostle teacheth as to deny 〈◊〉 and worldly lusts and to live â—…oberly righteously and Godly in this present World the reason whereof is presently enforced Looking for that blessed Hope and the Glorious appearing of the great God And againe He that hath this hope in him saith S. Iohn namely to bee like him at his comming Purifieth himselfe even as He is Pure Hee that hopeth to be fully like Christ hereafter and to come to the measure of the stature of his fulnesse will labour to his uttermost to bee as he was in this World For a man hopes for nothing de futuro which he would not presently compasse if it were in his power No man is to bee presum'd to Hope for the whole who hates any part or to expect the fulnesse who rejects the first fruites of the Spirit He that loveth not his brother whom hee hath seene how can hee love God whom he hath not seene That is He that cannot endure nor looke on that little glimpse and ray of Holynesse which is in his brother in one of the same passions infirmities and corruptions with himselfe will much lesse be able to abide the light of the Sonne of righteousnesse and that most orient spotlesse and vast Holynesse which is in him The same reason holdes here he that cannot endeavour to purifie himselfe here doth never truely hope to be like Christ hereafter He that directs his course towards Yorke can never bee presumed to hope that hee shall by that journey get to London when he knowes or might easily be informed that it is quite the other way And the truth is no wicked man hath any true or aâ—… saint Peter calâ—… it lively Hope to come to Heaven Blind presumptions ignorant wishings and wouldings hee may have but no true Hope at all For that ever supposeth some knowledge and preapprehension of the Goodnesse of that which is Hoped for and there is nothing in Heaven which wickedmen do not hate as very evill to them the Presence of the most Holy God the purity and brightnesse of his Glory the Company of Christ Iesus and his Saints c. If they might be suffered first to have a view of it and see what is there doing what Divine and Holy imployments take up all the thoughts desires and powers of the blessed company there they would abhorre no place more Hope begets Love whom having not seene ye love saith the Apostle Hope to bee like Christ hereafter will worke a love and desire to expresse so much as wee can of his Image here Hee that longs for a thing will take any present
occasion to get as much of it as he may together Notably doth Saint Paul set forth this purifying propertie of hope in the promises I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus I am already apprehended of Christ he hath in his body carried me in hope vnto Heaven with him and made mee sit together in Heavenly places and this hope to come to him at last to attaine to that price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus makes me presse and pull and strive by all meanes to attaine to perfection to expresse a Heavenly conversation in earth because from thence I looke for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ Hope as we said is an Anker Our Anker is fix'd in heaven our vessell is upon earth now as by the Cable a man may draw his vessell to the Anker so the Soule being fixed by hope vnto Christ doth hale and draw it selfe neerer and neerer unto him Thirdly Promises are the efficient causes of our purification as they are the objects of our Faith For we dare not beleeve without Promises Therefore Abraham stagger'd not through unbeliefe but gave glory to God because he was fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to performe It is not Gods power simply but with relation to his Promise which secures our faith So Sarah is said through faith to be deliver'd of a child being past age because she judg'd him faithfull that had promised Now by being Objects of faith the Promises must needs cleanse from filthinesse for faith also hath a cleansing property It purifieth the heart and worketh by love and looketh upon the things promised as desireable things rejoyceth in them and worketh homogeneall and sutable affections unto them Againe we must note That sinne comes seldome without Promises to pollute us begets vast expectations and hopes of Good from it Balaam was whet and enliven'd by promises to curse Gods people The Strumpet in the Proverbes that said to the young man Come let us take our fill of loves conceiv'd most adequate satisfaction to her adulterous lusts by that way This was the delusion of the rich foole in his Epicurisme Soule take thine â—…ase eate drinke and be merry for thou hast much laid up for many yeeres Of the Iewes in their Idolatries to the Queene of heaven because that would afford them plenty of victuals and make them see no evill Of Gehazies foolish heart who promised to himselfe Olive-yards and Vineyards and sheepe and Oxen and men-servants and maide servants by his officious lie And this was one of the divels master pieces when he tempted Christ All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Thus we see sinne seldome comes without promises to seduce and pollute the soule And yet the Truth is these promises cannot hold up the hope of any man When a man hath wearied himselfe in the pursuit of them yet still there is lesse hope at last then at first But now faith fixing upon sure mercies upon promises which cannot be abrogated or disannull'd being made iâ—…eversible by the oath of God who after hee hath sworne cannot repent and seeing not onely stabilitie but pretiousnesse in the promises and through them looking upon the great goodnesse of the things contained in them as already subsisting and present to the soule and by this meanes overcomming the world whose onely prejudice and advantage against Christ is this that the things which hee promiseth are long hence to come whereas that which it promiseth it likewise presenteth to the view of sense which difference faith destroieth by giving a subsistence and spirituall presence of things hoped for to the soule by this meanes I say faith doth mightily prevaile to draw a man unto such holinesse as becommeth the sonnes and heires of so certaine and pretious promises Till a man by faith apprehends some interest in the promises he will never out of true Love endeavour a conformitie unto God in Christ. By them saith Saint Peter we are made partakers of the divine nature and doe escape the corruption that is in the world through lust What is it to be made partaker of the divine nature It notes two things first a fellowship with God in his holinesse that puritie which is eminenter and infinitely in Gods most holy nature is formaliter or secundum modum creaturae so farre as the image of his infinite holinesse is expressible in a narrow creature fashioned in and communicated unto us by our union with Christ. Secondly a fellowship with God in his blessednesse namely in that beatificall vision and brightnesse of glory which from the face and fulnesse of Iesus Christ who as a second Adam is made unto us the Authour and Fountaine of all heavenly things shall at last in fulnesse and doth even now in flashes and glimmerings shine forth upon his members And all this we have from those great and pretious promises which are made unto us of Holinesse and of Blessednesse For as we say of the Word in generall so more especially of the Promises they are operative words and doe produce some reall effects being received by faith As a man when he receiveth a deed signed sealed witnessed and delivered doth not onely take parchment or waxe or emptie words but hath thereby some fundamentall right created unto the things in the deed mentioned to be convey'd so that the deed is declaratorie and operative of some Reall effects so in the word and promises of God sealed by the bloud of Christ ratified by the oath of the Covenant testified by the Spirit of Truth deliver'd by the hand of Mercy and received by the hand of Faith there doth not onely passe emptie breath and naked words but also some Reall effects by the intendment of God are thereby produc'd namely the cleansing of our sinfull nature from the pollutions of the world and the transforming thereof into the image and purity of the divine nature Fourthly Promises are the efficient causes of our purification as they are the Raies and Beames of Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse in whom they are all founded and established They are All in him Yea and in him Amen Every promise by faith apprehended carries a man to Christ and to the consideration of our unity with him in the right whereof we have claime to the Promises even as every line in a circumference though there never so distant from other doth being pursued carry a man at last to one and the same Center common unto them all For the Promises are not made for any thing in us nor have their stability in us but they are made in and for Christ unto us unto Christ in our behalfe and unto us onely so farre forth as we are members of Christ. For they were not made to seeds as many but to seed namely to Christ in aggregato as
him shall God destroâ—… for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are He promiseth to be Our Father and make us his people and this also is a strong argument why wee should purifie our selves and as obedient children not fashion our selves according to the former lusts in ignorance but as he who hath called us is holy so should we be holy in all manner of conversation And if we call him father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans workes we should passe the time of our sojourning here in feare Ye are a chosen generation saith Saint Peter a royall priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the vertues of him who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light When yee were of the world ye were then strangers to the Covenant and aliens from the house and Israel of God but now being become Gods houshold ye are strangers and pilgrimes in the present world and should therefore abstaine from the lusts of the flesh which are sensuall and worldly things Those that are a peculiar people are a purged people â—…oo He will purifie to himselfe a peculiar people that they may be zealous of good workâ—…s The consideration of which things should make us labour to settle our hearts to beleeve love and prize the promises to store up and hide the word in our hearts to have it Dwell richly in us that in evill times and dayes of temptation wee may have some holdfast to relie upon In times of plenty security and peace men go calmely on without feare or suspicion but when stonnes arise when God either hides his face or le ts out his displeasure or throwes men upon any extremities then there is no hope but in our aâ—…ker no stay nor reliefe but in Gods promises which are setled and sure established in heauen and therfore never reversed or cancelled in the earth And if this faithfull and sure word had not bin Daâ—…ids delight comfort if he had not in all the changes chances of his owne â—…ife remembred that al Gods promises are made in heaven where there is no inconstancie nor repentance he had perished in his affliction Though David by a propheticall spirit foresaw that God would not make his house to grow but to become a dry and wither'd stocke of â—…esse yet herein was the ground of all his salvation and of all his desire that the Lord had made with him an Everlasting Covenant order'd in all things and 〈◊〉 that he had 〈◊〉 by his holâ—…nesse that he would not faile David so that it was as possible for God to be unholy as for the Word of promise made unto David to fall to the ground be untrue Now that wee may the better apply the Promises to our selves and establish our hearts in the truth and fidelity of God by them wee may make use of these few Rules amongst divers others which might be given First Promisâ—…s generally made and so in medio for all or particularly to some are by the ground of them equally appliable to any in any condition unto which the promises are â—…utable All the promises are but as one in Christ as lines thoâ—…gh severall in the circumference doe meete as one in the center Take any promise and follow it to its originall and it will undoubtedly carry to Christ in whom alone it is Yea and Amen that is hath its truth certainety and stability all from him Now the Promises meeting in Christ cannot be severed or have a partition made oâ—… them to severall men for every beleever hath All Christ Christ is not divided any other wise then the exigence of mens present estates doth diversifie them and so fit them for such promises as now to others or at other times to themselves would be unseasonable and unappâ—…able The Lord in aslenting to Salomons prayer made a generall promise to any man or to all the people that what prayer or supplication soever should be made towards his temple he would heare in heaven and forgive c. 〈◊〉 beiâ—…g after in distresse applied this generall to hiâ—… 〈◊〉 present 〈◊〉 when the children of Ammon 〈◊〉 and Mount Seir came to turne Israel out of their possessions The Lord made a particular promise 〈◊〉 Ioshua that he would be with him to blesse his enterprises against the Cananites and to carry him through all the difficulties and hazards of that holy warre aâ—…d Saint Paul applies the promise to all the faithfull in any straites or distresses of life as the Lord himselfe had before applied it from Moses to Ioshua Let your conversation be without covetousnesse for as God was with Ioshua so will he be with thee He will not faile thee nor forsake thee Christ made a particular promise unto Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not And the same in effect he applies to All his I pray that thou wouldst keepe them from the evâ—…ll And the consequent words to Saint Peter make it good When thou art con verted strengthen thy brethren that is comfort and revive them by thine owne experience that when they are brought â—…nto the like case with thee they may have the benefit of the same intercessor and the sympathy and compassion of the same Saviour who deliver'd thee As our Saviour saith in matter of dutie What â—… 〈◊〉 â—…nto you I say unto All so we may say of him in matter of mercy What he promiseth unto any he promiseth unto alâ—… in an equall estate It is good therefore to observe the truth of God in his Promises to others and when we finde our selves reduced unto their condition to apply it unto our selves that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope This is the counsell of Saint â—…awes Take my brethren the Prophets for an examâ—…le of suffering affliction and of patience yee have heard of the patience of â—…ob and ye have seene the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pittifull â—…nd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And saint Paul assures us that for this cause God comforted him in his tribulation that he might be able to comfort them who might be in any trouble with the comfort wherewith â—…ee himselfe had beene comforted by God A poore Christian might object Aâ—…as If I were an Apostle if I had such graces such services such wayes of glorifying God as Paul had I might hope for the same power and providence of God in my afflictions as he findes But I am a poore ignorant unfruitfull and unserviceable creature who doe more blemish then adorne my profession of the Gospell of Christ and shall I looke for such care from God as saint Paul Beloved the members in the body would not so argue If I were an eye or a tongue one of the noblest parts of the body haply some compassion and remedy might be
that Spirit revealeth and confirmeth unto us so every smaller sinne doth in its manner and measure grieve this spirit even as every distemper in the body doth bring paine in some measure unto the naturall soule A living member is sensible of the smallest pricke whereas a body in the Grave is not pained nor disaffected with the weight and darknesse of the earth the gâ—…awing of wormes the stinch of rotteâ—…nesse nor any violences of dissolution because the principle ofsense is departed so though wicked men lie in rotten and noysome lusts have the guilt of many millions of sinnes like so many rockes and mountaines of Lead on their soules doe dayly cut and teare themselves like the Lunaticke in the Gospell yet they feele nothing of all this because they have no spirit of life in them whereas another in whom Christ is formed would bee constrain'd with teares of blood and most bitter repentance to wash the wound of spirit which but one of those fearefull oathes or uncleane actions which the others multiply and wallow in with delight would make within them Now Hee who hath the Sonne hath holynesse upon two grounds according to that double relation which Holinesse hath unto Christ. For it respecteth Him as the Principle and Fountaine from whence it comes and as the rule or patterne unto which it answeres Holynes is called the Image of God now as the face is both the Fountaine of that Image or species which is shed upon the glasse and likewise the exact patterne and example of it too so Christ is both the Principle of Holinesse by whom it is wrought and the Rule unto which it is proportioned First Christ is the Principle and Fountaine of Holinesse as the head is of sense or motion from him the whole body is joyned together and compacted and so maketh encrease and edification of it selfe in Love The oyntment ran downe from Aarons head unto the skirts of his garment to note the effusion of the spirit of Holinesse from Christ unto his lowest members Ye have received an unction from the holy One saith the Apostle What this influence of Christ into his members is wee shall more particularly open in the consequent parts of this discourse Secondly Christ is the Rule and Patterne of holinesse to his Church Our Sanctification consisteth onely in a conformitie unto his wayes For more distinct understanding of which point we must note first that Christ had severall waies and workes to walke through Sometimes we finde him walking to Golgotha and the Garden which was the worke of his merit and passion Sometimes to the Mount with Peter Iames and Iohn which was the worke of his glory and trans-figuration Sometimes upon the sea and through the midst of Enemies which was his worke of power and miracles Sometimes in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes which was his worke of government guidance and influence on the Church Lastly we finde him going about and doing good submitting himselfe unto his parents going apart by himselfe to pray and in other the like workes of his ordinary obedience Secondly of these workes of Christ we must note that some are uncommunicable others communicable Vncommunicable are first his workes of Merit and Mediation There is but one Mediator betweene God and man the man Christ. There is no other name under heaven by which a man may be saved but the name of Christ. There is no Redemption nor intercession to bee wrought by any man but by Christ. None have to doe with the Censer to offer incense who have not to doe with the Altar to offer Sacrifice Secondly his worke of Governement and Influence into the Church his dispensing of the spirit his quickning of his Word his subduing of his enemies his collecting of his members are all personall Honours which belong unto Him as Head of the Church Those which are Communicable and wherein wee may be by his Grace made partakers are such as either belong to the other life or to this In the other life our Bodies shall bee made Conformed to the transfigured and Glorious body of Christ when Hee appeareth wee shall be made like unto Him by the power whereby Hee subdueth all things unto Himselfe Here some are againe extraordinarily Communicable being for ministery and service not for sanctity or Salvation Such were the miraculous workes of the Apostles which were unto them by way of priviledge and temporary dispensation granted Others ordinarily and universally to all his members So then it remaines that our formall and complete Sanctification consists in a Conformitie to the wayes of Christs ordinary Obedience The whole Life of Christ was a Discipline a Living Shining and exemplary Precept unto men a Visible Commentary on Gods Law Therefore wee finde such names given unto Him in the Scriptures as signifie not onely Preeminence but exemplarynesse A Prince a Leader a Governour a Captaine an Apostle and high Priest a chiefe Sheepeheard and Bishop a Forerunner or Conduct into Glory a Light to the Iewes a Light to the Gentiles a Light to every man that entereth into the World All which titles as they declare his Dignitie that He was the first borne of every Creature so they intimate likewise that Hee was proposed to be the Author and Patterne of Holynesse to his people All other Saints are to be imitated onely with limitation unto Him and so farre as they in their conversation expresse his Life and Spirit Be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ. But we must 〈◊〉 pinne our obedience to the example of any Saint lest we happen to stumble and breake our bones as they did Wherefore are the falls and apostacies the errors and infirmities of holy men in Scripture registred Certainely the Lord delighteth not to keepe those sinnes upon record for men to gaze on which himselfe hath put behinde his owne backe and wiped out of the booke of his owne remembrance Hee delighteth not in the dishonour and deformities of his worthies But they are recorded for our sakes set up for landmarks to warne euery man to take heed of adventuring on any mans authority upon those rockes where such renowned and noble Saints have before miscarried Children of light indeed they are but their light is like the light of the Moone subject to mixtures wainings decayes eclipses Christ onely is the Sunne of righteousnesse that hath a plenitude indeficiencie unerring holinesse which neither is deceived nor can deceive Now further this conformity unto Christ must be in all his obedience First in his actiue obedience unto the Law Learne of me saith he for I am meeke and lowly I have given you an Example that you should doe as I have done unto you The action was but temporarie and according to the custome of the place and age but the affection was universall the humility of his heart Let the same minde saith the Apostle be
God beleeve and all this strength and comfort is thine leane not upon thine owne wisedome trust not thine owne righteousnesse arrogate nothing to thy selfe but impotencie to good no strength of thy selfe but against thy selfe and Gods Grace no power but to resist and withstand the Spirit But rest only upon the Promises and Power of Him who is Alpha and Omega the Author and Finisher of thy Faith Who is a Head to take care of his weakest members When thou art as weake as a worme in thine owne sense yet feare not O worme Iacob be not dismaide O Men of Israel saith the Lord for I am thy God I will strengthen thee yea I will helpe thee yea I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse that is with the strength of my Truth and Promises How shall I give thee up Ephraim It is spoken to backsliding Ephraim How shall I deliver thee Israel How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim That is How shall I make mine owne Church as the cities of Sodome My heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together and marke the reason of all I am God and not man Though you are Men subject to many changes and miscarriages yet I am not a Man that I should repent of my goodnesse and therefore I will not turne to destroy Ephraim But now as men who looke upon the Sunne when they looke downward againe upon darker objects can scarse see or distinguish any thing so ought it to bee with us our looking up unto God should make us see nothing in ourselves but matter to be humbled by and driven backe unto him againe If once the strong man beginne to glorie in his strength or the wise man in his wisedome If our prosperity and security make us resolve with David that we shall never be moved If because we finde our corruptions wounded and mortified wee beginne to insult over them more with our pride then with our faith How easie and just is it with God to let in Satan upon us to remove his hand from under us to overshadow and withdraw His countenance from us to set on our very wounded corruptious upon us to burne up our citie and peradventure to plunge us in the guilt of some such fearefull sinnes as at the very names and first suggestions whereof wee would haply before have beene startled and amazed Alas what are wee to David and Peter to Salomon and Hezekiah men of such dayly communion and intimate acquaintance with the Almightie And yet notwithstanding what fearefull testimonies have they left upon record for all posteritie to take notice what a fraile and inconstant creature man is when once Gods Spirit departs from him That the strength of the greatest champions in the Church of God is but like the strength of Sampson of whom in all his great exployts the Scripture saith that The Spirit of the Lord came upon him and when hee was overcome that the Lord was departed from him We should therefore labour to rejoyce in the Lord with trembling to worke out our salvation with feare to pray that wee may be delivered from our selves and from the traines of Satan that wee may never know by our owne fearefull experience into what an incredible excesse of sinning our flesh though otherwise mortified would breake forth if God should a little subduct his hand and give us over a while to the violence of our owne passions to the treacherie of our owne hearts Wee should be very watchfull and cautious against our selvees that wee presume not to sinne because Grace hath abounded How shall wee that are dead to sinne live any longer therein saith the Apostle What a monstrous perverting of the grace and mercie of God is this to build straw and stubble upon so pretious a foundation Surely wee would esteeme that man prodigiously foolish and contumelious unto nature who should spend his time substance and industrie to finde out a perverse philosophers stone that should turne all the gold it touched into lead or drosse how injurious then and reprochfull are they to the grace of God who extract their owne presumptions out of His mercie and turne the redundancie of divine Grace into an advantage and priviledge of sinning As if Gods mercie had no other use then a dogges grasse or a drunkards vomit or a Papists confession to his Priest to absolve us for some sinnes that there might be roome made for more Surely Grace teacheth men to make other conclusions from Gods mercie Deale bouâ—…tifully with thy seruant that I may keepe thy Word was Davids inference from Gods favour And Saint Paul assures us that none but hard and impenitent hearts despise the goodnesse and riches of Gods patience and forbearance not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead them to repentance It is the worke of grace to re-imprint the image of God in us to conforme us unto Christ to bend and incline the heart to a Spirituall delight in the Law to remoove in some measure the ignorance of our mindes that wee may see the beautie and wonders of Gods Law and the difficultie and frowardnesse of the fleshly will against grace that Gods Commands may not be grievous but sweete unto us These are the branches and properties of that Life which we have from Christ. And wee have them from Him at the Sonne as a middle person betweene us and his Father First because the Sonne hath His Fathers Seale Hath Iudgement Power libertie to dispose of and dispense Life and Salvation to whom He will Labour for the Meate that endureth unto Eternall Life which the Sonne of Man shall give unto you for Him hath God the Father sealed Secondly because the Son is in his Fathers bosome hath His heart His eare His affections and therefore He is heard alwayes in whatsoever Hee desireth for any of His members and this interest in His Fathers Love was that by which He raised Lazarus unto Life againe Lastly he that hath the Sonne hath the greatest gift which the Father ever gave unto the World Hee cannot denie Life where He hath given the Sonne He cannot with-hold silver where Hee hath given gold and Diamonds If He spared not His Son but delivered Him up for us all how shall He not with Him freely give us all things Now our life is conveyed from Christ unto us First by Imputation of His merit whereby our persons are made righteous and acceptable unto God Secondly by Infusion or communion with His Spirit which sanctifies our nature and enables us to doe spirituall services For though we exclude workes from Iustification formally considered yet we require them of every Iustified man neither doth any Faith Iustifie but that which worketh by Love though it justifie not under that reason as a working Faith but under that relative office of receiving and applying Christ. Thirdly by
His Life and Intercession applying His merits unto us and presenting our services unto His Father as lively sacrifices cleansed from those mixtures of deadnesse and corruption which as passing from us did cleave unto them Having thus unfolded our Life by Christ wee are in the last place to inquire into that Proprietie which wee have unto Christ which is the ground of the Life wee receive from Him For one thing cannot bee the principle and seede of Life unto another except there be some union and fellowship which may be the ground of the conveyance and this is that which the Text call's the having of Christ which is the same with that of Saint Iohn To as many as received Him He gave power to be called the Sonnes of God So then there must bee a mutuall Act Christ exhibiteth Himselfe unto us and wee adhere and dwell in Him whereby there is wrought a Vnitie of will 's a Confederacie of affections a Participation of natures a concurrence to the making up of the same bodie so that Christ accounteth Himselfe incomplete without His Church This union of the faithful to Christ being one of those deepe things of God which are not discernable without the Spirit is yet set forth unto us in the Scriptures under sundrie vulgar and obvious similitudes which I will but touch upon It is first set forth by the expression of a Bodie consisting of diverse members Rom. 12. 4 5. 1. Cor. 12. 12. 13. Eph 1. 22 23. In which places the purpose of the Apostle is to shew how the proportion that is betweene Christ and His Church answereth to that relation which is betweene the members of a Body and the Head For as in the naturall Body all the members are joyned by nerves and vitall ligatures unto the Head from whence they receive their strength and sensation and doe by vertue of that union to the Head retaine a fellowship and communion amongst themselves So is it betweene Christ and His Church Every member of the true and mysticall Body of Christ is by a secret knot of his Spirit so fastned unto him and so compacted with the other members by that which every joynt supplieth as that the whole world of Elect from Christ the Head and first borne of the Creatures uâ—…to the lowest and meanest of all His members doe make up but one Body unto which Christ by being the Head hath these principall relations First He is the principle of all Spirituall Influences as the Head of naturall All the Grace in us is but an overflowing and measure from His fulnesse Secondly He is the principle of all governement and direction all the wisedome and prudence of the Church is from Him He is the everlasting Counsell or the Light that inlightneth every man that commeth into the world the power and the wisedome of God unto us Thirdly He is conformable to the members for Christs Church is no monster and maketh them conformable unto Him Hee to us in our infirmities tempted in all things as we are and we to Him in His holynesse He that Sanctifieth and they that are Sanctified are all of one Now as in a body wee resolve the whole into no parts but those which are integrall and proper to it in the nature of a living and organicall Body namely the members though many things else are in the Body yet nothing belongs integrally unto it but the members So many men are in the Body of Christ onely by an externall and sacramentall admission or by some false and presumptuous perswasions and professions as wennes or excrements in the naturall body they doe no services they exercise no vitall and spirituall functions but rather cumber and infest the members Secondly this union is compar'd unto a building or house Eph. 2. 20. 21. 1. Tim. 3. 14. 1. Pet. 2. 5. whose stones are knitte together by the juncture and bond of Love and are firmely grounded upon the Elect pretious and sure foundation who as He doth by His power uphold all things so much more those that are built upon Him Now as in a structure the stones cannot subsist in the building by any qualities or inherent vertues of their owne but onely by that direct and perpendicular dependence and subsistence which they have upon the foundation so in the Church no graces no carvings no inherent excellencies doe hold men up but onely that full and sole reliance and subsistence of the Soule upon Christ. If a man have any other bottome that holds him up if he be not even and full upon Christ if hee be not in all things levelled and proportioned unto him by the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets which is therefore likewise called a foundation because by it wee are set right upon Christ who is the Foundation of foundations as the Scripture spcakes Hee cannot abide in the building for ever the wall and the foundation must all have the same center and there must bee the same propensions and affections in us which were in Christ His Rule must be ours and His Ends ours and His Will ours If there be any such exorbitancies and swellings out as make the heart have quite another point and center to move to other grounds to fixe upon if men will despise the Word will not be par'd and regulated to the foundation but will trust in oppression and perversenesse and stay on that this iniquitie will at length prove a breach which commeth suddenly at an instant Thirdly this union is coÌ„par'd to an ingrafture of a branch in a tree whereby the juice and nourishment of the stock is conveyed and the branch thereby quickned to bring forth fruite Where by the way it is worth our noting that the Church is most vsually in this particular compared to a Vine and the branches of a Vine to note that there is nothing of worth or expectation in Christians but their fruite A man cannot make a pinne to fasten in a wall of the branch of a vine An unfruitefull Christian is the most unprofitable Creature that is there are no secondarie uses which can mediate as I may so speake for a dead vine to keepe that from the fire either it must be for fruite or for fuell to all other purposes it is utterly improper and unprofitable Now wee must observe that a Branch may bee in a Tree two wayes First by a meere corporeall adherencie or continuation with the stocke by cleaving and sticking to the bodie of the Tree and so every dead branch is in the Tree as well as those that live but this alone is not that which our Saviour requires for such branches the husbandman will cut off and cast 〈◊〉 fire Secondly by a reall participation of the life sappâ—… and influences of the roote which unto the former sort of branches though offered yet is not received because of the inward deadnesse and indisposition that is in it thus it is betweene Christ
second Adam we are spiritually in Him and from Him as we are naturally or corruptly in and from Adam As Adam was the fountaine of all that are naturally generated and by that meanes transmitted condemnation to all chat are One with Him so Christ is the Head of all that are Spiritually borne againe and by that meanes transmitteth grace righteousnes to al that are one with him From this Vnion of the faithfull unto Christ doth immediately arise a Communion with Him in all such good things as he is pleased to Communicate I will but touch them it having been the subject of this discours hitherto First we have a Communion with Him in His merits which are as fully imputed unto us for Iustification as if His sufferings had beene by us endured or the debt by us satisfied As wee finde in the body medicines often apylyed unto sound parts not with relation to themselves but to cure others which are unsound In a distillation of â—…hewmes on the eyes we cuppe and scarifie the necke which was unaffected to draw backe the humor from the part distempered even so Christ the glorious and innocent Head of a miserable and leprous bodie suffered Himselfe to be wounded and crucified to wrestle with the wrath of His Father to bee One with a wretched people in the condition of their infirmities as He was with His Father in the unitie of divine holinesse that so by his infirmitie beirg joyn'd unto us the Communion of His puritie might joyne us unto God againe He alone without any demerit of His suffered our punishment that we without any merit of ours might obtaine His Grace The paines of Christs wounds were His but the profit ours the holes in His hands and side were His but the balme which issued out was ours the thornes were His but the Crowne was ours in one word the price which He paid was His but the Inheritance which Hee purchased was ours All the ignominie and agonie of His Crosse was infinitely unbeseeming so honourable a Person as Christ if it had not beene necessary for so vile a sinner as man Secondly we have Communion with Him in His Life and Graces by habituall and reall infusion and inhabitation of His Spirit unto Sanctification For we are Sanctified in Him and except we abide in Him we cannot bring forth fruite Christ comes not onely with a passion but with an unction to consecrate us to Himselfe except thou be a partaker as well of this as of that bee as willing to be rull'd as redeemed by Christ In Him indeed thou art but it is as a withered branch in a fruitefull vine while thou art in Him it is to thy shame that thou shouldest bee dead where there is such aboundance of Life and the time will come that thou shalt bee cut off from Him Every branch in me that beareth not fruite He taketh away Lastly we have Communion with Him in many priviledges and dignities But here we must distinguish of the priviledges of Christ some are personall and incommunicable others generall and communicable Of the former sort are all such as belong unto Him either in regard of His Divine Person as to be the everlasting Sonne the word and wisedome of His Father the expresse Image of His Person and brightnesse of His Glory the upholder of all things by the Word of His Power and the like or in regard of His Office as to bee the Redeemer of the Church the Author and finisher of our Faith the Prince of our Salvation the propitiation for the sinnes of the world the second Adam the Mediator betweene God and Man in which things He is alone and there is none with Him Other priviledges there are which are communicable all which may bee compriz'd under this generall of being fellow members with Him in the most glorious Bodie and societie of Creatures in the world The particulars I touch'd before First we have communion in some sort with Him in His Holy unction where by we are consecrated to be Kings and Priests to subdue our corruptions to conquer spirituall wickednesse to offer up the sacrifices of prayer prayses almes and Holy services for we are by Him a royall priesthood Secondly we have Communion in His victories wee are more then conquerors through Him because in the midst of the enemies insultations and our owne distresses the victorie is still ours The enemie may kill us but not overcome us because our death is victorious As Christ triumphed upon the Crosse and had His governement on His shoulders so we rejoyce in afflictions glory in tribulations and in all of them in a confluence and conspiracie of them all wee are more then conquerors Thirdly wee haue Communion with Christ in His Sonship from whence it comes to passe that Christ and His Church doe interchangeably take one anothers names Sometimes Hee is not ashamed to call Himselfe Iacob and Israel This is the generation of them that seeke thy face O Iacob and Thou art my servant O Israel in whom I will bee glorified saith the Lord speaking unto Christ n yea Hee giveth to the Church His owne Name As there are many members and yet but one body so is Christ that is so is the Church of Christ. And what manner of love is this saith the Apostle that we should be called the Sons of God From hence it comes that wee have fellowship with the Father accesse and approach with confidence for all needfull supplyes assurance of His care in all extremities interest in the inheritance which Hee reserveth for His Children confidence to be spared in all our failings and to be accepted in all our sincere and willing services secret debates spirituall conferences of the heart with God He speaking unto our spirits by His Spirit in the Word and wee by the same spirit speaking unto Him in prayers complaints supplycations thankesgivings covenants resolutions Hee kissing us with kisses of Love and comfort and wae kissing Him againe with kisses of reverence and worship We see then to conclude all what an absolute necessity lyes upon us of having Christ because with Him we have All things and can doe all things without Him wee are poore and can doe nothing And the more necessary the dutie the more sinfull the neglect especially considering that Christ with-holds not Himselfe but is ready to meete to prevent to attend every heart that in truth desires Him If a man have a serious simple sincere will to come wholy to Christ not to be held back from him by His dearest and closest corruptions by the sweetest pleasures or strongest temptations which can allure or assault him he may draw neere unto Him with boldnesse and assurance of acceptation he hath a call Christ inviteth yea intreateth him and therefore he may come he hath a command Christ requireth it of him and therefore
tasting no sense that is the instrument of so neere a union as that So then as the motion of the mouth in eating is not in the nature of a motion any whit more excellent then the motion of the eye or foote or of it selfe in speaking yet in the instrumentall office of life and nourishment it is farre more necessarie So though Faith in the substance of it as it is an inherent qualitie hath no singular excellencie above other graces yet as it is an instrument of conveying Christ our spirituall Bread unto our soules and so of assimilating and incorporating us into Him which no other Grace can doe no more then the motion of the eye or foote can nourish the body so it is the most pretious and usefull of all others It may be objected doe not other graces joyne a man unto Christ as well as Faith Vnion is the proper effect of Love therefore wee are one with Christ as well by loving Him as by beleeving in Him To this I answere that Love makes onely a morall union in affections but Faith makes a mysticall union a more close and intimate fellowship in nature betweene us and Christ. Besides Faith is the immediate tie betweene Christ and a Christian but love a secondary union following upon and grounded on the former By nature we are all enemies to Christ and His Kingdome of the Iewes minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us therefore till by Faith wee are throughly perswaded of Christs Love to us we can never repay Love to Him againe Herein is Love saith the Apostle not that wee loved God but that Hee loved us and sent His Sonne 1. Ioh. 4 10. Now betweene Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us One with Christ we have knowne and beleeved the Love that God hath to us ver 16. And hence it followes that because by Faith as Hee is so are wee in this world therefore Our love to Him is made perfect and so wee love Him because Hee first loved us vers 19. So that we see the union we have with Christ by Love presupposeth the Vnitie wee have in Him by Faith so Faith still hath the preeminence The second office wherein consists the excellencie of Faith is a consequent of the former namely to justifie a man for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unitie of Christ and into the fellowship of His Merits God is alone well pleased in Christ and till a man be a member of His Bodie a part of His fulnesse hee cannot appeare in Gods presence This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken or taken of from the Communion of His naturall body Ioh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to bee betweene Him and His mysticall Members So that now as in a naturall bodie the member is certainely fast to the whole so long as the bones are firme and sound so in the mysticall where the body is there must every member be too because the bones must not be broken asunder If then Christ goe to Heaven if Hee stand unblameable before Gods justice we al shal in him appeare so too because his bones cannot be broken That which thus puts us into the Vnitie of Christ must needs Iustifie our persons and set us right in the presence of God and this is our Faith The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Iustification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace The first on Gods part that it might bee of Grace The second on the part of the promise that the promise might be sure to all the seede Rom. 4. 16. First Iustification that is by Faith is of meere Grace and favour no way of worke or merit For the Act whereby Faith Iustifies is an act of humility and selfe-dereliction a holy despaire of any thing in our selves and a going to Christ a receiving a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiencie so that as Marie said of her selfe so we may say of Faith The Lord hath respect unto the lowlynes of his grace which is so farre from looking inward for matter of Iustification that it selfe as it is a worke of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere doth not justifie but onely as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it selfe emptie If it bee full before it must let all that goe ere it can take hold on any other thing So Faith being a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1. 12. must needes suppose an emptinesse in the soule before Faith hath two properties as a Hand To worke and to receive when Faith purifies the heart supports the droaping spirits worketh by love carries a man through afflictions and the like these are the workes of Faith when Faith Accepts of righteousnesse in Christ and receives Him as the gift of His Fathers Love when it embraceth the promises a farre of Heb. 11. 13. and layes hold on Eternall Life 1. Tim. 6. 12. This is the receiving act of Faith Now Faith justifies not by working lest the effect should not bee wholly of Grace but partly of Grace and partly of worke Ephesians 2. 8 9. but by bare receiving and accepting or yeelding consent to that righteousnesse which in regard of working was the righteousnesse of Christ Rom. 5. 18. and in regard of disposing imputing appropriating unto us was the righteousnesse of God Rom. 3. 21. 1. Cor. 1 30. Phil 3. 9. To make the point of Iustification by the receiving and not the working of Faith plaine let us consider it by a familiar similitude Suppose a Chirurgian should perfectly cure the hand of a poore man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him for any worke when he hath so done should at one time freely bestow some good almes upon the man to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure and at another time should set the man about some worke unto the which likewise the former cure had enabled him and the worke being done should give him a reward proportionable to his labour I demaund which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength hee restored or the free bestowing of an equall gift unto the receiving whereof likewise he himselfe gave abilitie Any man will easily answere that the gift was a worke of more free grace then the reward though unto both way was made by His owne mercifull cure for all the mercy which was shewed in the cure was not able to nullifie the intrinsecall proportion which afterwards did arise betweene the worke and the reward Now this is the plaine difference betweene our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries in the point of Iustification They say we are justified by Grace and yet by workes because
grace enables us to worke we say we are justified freely not by the workes of grace but by the grace which bestowes our Iustification and therewith our strength of working unto us For surely Gods free grace is more magnified in giving us undeservedly both righteousnesse and workes then in giving us workes to deserve our righteousnesse Secondly Iustification by Faith doth make the promise sure to all the seede If unto a begger should bee proposed some excellent benefit upon condition to performe some acceptable and perfect service unto the personne that offers it whom yet it would bee impossible to please by working without some exact abilitie for the dutie required the man might easily doubt of the certaintie of the benefit because his performance of the condition requir'd is uncertaine but if the same benefit should bee proposed upon no other act on his part requir'd then onely the acknowledgement of his owne want and the willing acceptance of the thing offered a man could not bee unsure of it So if the Lord should propose righteousnesse oâ—… salvation to a man upon condition of his morall obedience mans corruptions are so many and his abilities so weake his enemies so potent and his heart so treacherous to comply with them that the promise cannot bee made sure to him upon the concurrence of his owne workes But when there is nothing required of a man but to cleave to Christ nothing but to relinquish his owne endeavours and to accept the helpe of a sure Saviour and to rely upon the sure mercies of David this must needes make our righteousnesse and salvation to be as certaine as is the value of the merits or fidelitie of the promise on which we rely If there bee nothing requisite to the firmenesse and consistencie of a house but onely to be put upon the foundation then the house must needs be as sure as the foundation if there bee nothing requisite to the safenesse of a mans money or writings but to put them in a closet or boxe the things must needes be as safe as the place into which they are put so since nothing else is required to make our salvation sure but onely to rest upon Christ who is a safe foundation to his Church Math. 16. 18. and a certaine Treasure Col. 3. 3. Faith which alone puts us into him doth therewithall make our Salvation sure unto us Behold I lay in Sion a chiefe corner stone elect and pretious there is both our foundation and our Treasure now the safety which Faith brings from hence is this He that beleeveth shall not be confounded or put to shame in the Prophet it is shall not make hast 1. Pet. 2. 6. both words expresse safetie For a man to rely upon another for any good thing and at last to faile in his expectation this must needes shame him in the disappointment of his hopes but when the hopes of a man are grounded upon the unsearchable riches and the unfaileable promise and the immutable truth power and goodnesse of God impossible it is that the faith of such a man should shame or deceive him When a man is secure and certaine of any good thing he is contented to waite the season of it David by Gods promise and unction was certaine of the kingdome and therefore he would not take away the life of Saul when it was in his power but waited till the time of his death by God appointed should come 1. Sam. 26. 9 10 11. but when a man is unconsident of a thing hee is ready to snatch at every probabilitie to make use of every occasion that happens to further his desires If I should see two men going towards the Court in competition for some office or preferment and should observe the one to ride night and day in full speede to deny himselfe the comforts of the way and to expresse much impatiencie and indignation at every stoppage that met him the other to take time and leisure to rely upon the former promises of the prince or the prevalencie of some honourable friends and to laugh at the gredinesse of his competitor I should easily conclude that the hopes of that man were greater whose hast as lesse for when a man hath a thing already in promise and that from the hands of a man of whose power and fidelitie he hath infallible assurance he is not over vehement for performance but willingly attends the times and good pleasure of his friend Now this is the businesse of faith to give a being to the things we hope for and though in themselves they bee a farre of and out of sight yet to make them subsistent and at hand in the promise even within the reach and embracement of Faith Heb. 11. 1 13. So that Faith doth therefore keep a man from greedinesse and precipitancie in his pursuite and from confusion and shame in his hopes of good because it sees them as safe certain in the power and promises of Christ as if they were already made good unto him So then to conclude this point Faith being the onely Grace wherein is magnified the fulnesse and freenesse of Gods favour and wherein is secured his promise to all the seede It must needes bee the fittest grace for a mercifull Iustification The third office of Faith is having put us into Christ and Iustified us by him to give us together with Him all other things which is the conviction that the Apostle makes Rom. 8. 32. If Hee have given us Christ how shall He not with Him freely also giue us all things These All Things are of two sorts First All graces Secondly All secular good things Saint Peter puts them together and shewes how they runne from Christ to us through Faith as the pipe His divine Power hath given unto us all things that pertaine to Life and Godlynesse and that through the knowledge that is the Faith of him that hath called us to glorie and vertue 2. Pet. 1. 3. First all Graces Faith is the first Grace in a Christian Soule and the spring of the rest This is the maine businesse of that excellent chapter Heb. 11. to shew how Faith was the master wheele in the lives and actions of those holy men whose renowne is there upon record The Apostle tels us that Faith worketh by Love Gal. 5. 6. where by Love we may understand either generally the universall habit of all other operative graces and then the sense is that Faith doth as it were actuate and animate all other habits of grace and apply them to their severall workes Or rather particularly that Love of God which is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost and then the method and meaning of the place is this First Faith shewes us the great Love of God in Christ The life that I live saith the Apostle I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God who loved me and gave Himselfe for me Gal. 2. 20. where we see the
principall discovery that Faith makes in Christ and that it fixeth upon is His love to us and this is a most soveraigne and superlative love Herein saith the Apostle God commended God heaped together His Love toward us in that while wee were yet sinners Christ died for us Rom. 5. 8. Secondly Faith having thus revealed to our hearts the Love of God in Christ doth kindle in them a reciprocall Love towards Christ againe working in us the same minde that is in Christ Phil. 2. 5. and enflaming our spirits to a retribution of Love for Love We have beleeved the Love that God hath to us saith the Apostle and therefore saith he we love Him because He loved us first 1. Ioh. 4. 16 19. Thus Faith worketh Love But now thirdly there is a further power in Faith for it doth not onely work Love but it worketh by Love as the text speakes that is it maketh use of that Love which it hath thus kindled as of a goad and incentive to further obedience for that Love which we repay unto Christ againe stirreth us unto an intimate and Heavenly communion with Him unto an entire and spirituall conformitie unto Him And the reason is because it is a conjugall Love and therefore a fruitefull love for the end of marriage is fructification Yee are become dead to the Law saith the Apostle by the body of Christ that yee should be married to another even to Him who is raised from the dead and the end of this spirituall marriage is added That we should bring forth fruite unto God which is presently after expounded That wee should serve in newnesse of Spirit Rom. 7 4 6. If a man Love mee saith our saviour he will keepe my Words and this obedience is the childe of Faith as it is set downe in the same place yee shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you and immediately upon this Faith it followes He that bath my Commandements and keepeth them hee it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my selfe unto Him Ioh. 14. 20. 21 22 23. In which place there are these things of excellent observation First the noble objects that Faith doth contemplate even the excellencie of Gods Love unto us in Christ. You shall know that I am in my Father in His bosome in His bowels in His dearest affection One with Him in mercie in counsell in power That He and I both goe one way have both one decree and resolution of Grace and compassion towards sinners And that you are in mee your nature in me your infirmities in me the punishment of your sinnes upon me that I am bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh that you are in my heart and in my tenderest affections that you were crucifiâ—…a together with me that you live togâ—…ther with 〈◊〉 that you sit together with mee in Heavenly places that â—… died your death that you rose my resurrection that I pray your prayers that you were my righteousnesse and that I am in you by my merits to justifie you by my Grace and Spirit to renew and purifie you by my Power to keep you by my wisedome to leade you by my Communion and Compassion to share with you in all your troubles these are the mysteries of the Love of the Father and the Sonne to us Now this Love kindleth a Love in us againe and that Love sheweth it selfe in two things First in having the Commandements of Christ that is in accepting of them in giving audience unto them in opening our eyes to see and our hearts to entertaine the wonders of the Law And secondly in keeping of them in putting to the strength of our Love for Love is as strong as Death it will make a man neglectfull of his owne life to serve and please the person whom he loves that so wee may performe the duties which so good a Saviour requires of us And now as our Love was not the first mover we loved Him because He loved us first So neither shall it be the last as the Father and the Son did by their first Love provoke ours so will they by their second Love reward ours And therefore it sollowes He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him This is not ment of a new Love but of a further declaration of their former Love namely in a more close and familiar communion and Heavenly cohabitation with them wee will come unto Him and make our abode with Him we will shew Him our face we will make all our goodnesse to passe before Him wee will converse and commune with His Spirit we will Suppe with Him we will provide Him a feast of fatted things and of refined wine wee will open the breasts of consolation and delight Him with the aboundance of Glory Excellent to the purpose of the present point is that place of the Apostle 2. Cor. 5. 14 15. The Love of Christ saith he constraineth us that is either Christs Love to us by Faith apprehended or our Love to Christ by the apprehension of His Love wrought in us doth by a kinde of sweete and lovely violence winne and overrule our hearts not to live henceforth unto our selves but unto Him that died for us and rose againe and the roote of this strong perswasion is adjoyned namely because wee thus â—…udge because we know and beleeve that if one died for all then all are dead to the guilt and to the power of sinne and ought to live a new life conformable to the resurrection of Christ againe Therefore in two paralell places the Apostle useth promiscuously Faith and a new Creature In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love neither circumcision nor uncircumcision but a new creature The reason of which promiscuous acceptation the Apostle renders the inseparable union between faith and renovation If any man be in Christ he is a new Creature Secondly Faith gives us all good things requisite to our condition Adam was created Lord of his fellow inferiour Creatures invested with proprietie to them all In his fall hee made a forfeiture of every good thing which God gave him In the second Covenant a reconciliation being procur'd Faith entitling a man to the Covenant doth likewise re-invest him with the Creatures againe All things saith the Apostle are yours and hee opens the title and conveyance of them you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1. Cor. 3. 23. So elsewhere hee saith that the living God giveth us all things richly to enjoy that is not onely the possession but the use of the things 1. Tim. 6. 17. where by all things wee may understand first the libertie and enlargement of Christians as it stands in opposition to the pedagogie and discipline of Moses Law which distinguished the Creatures into cleane and
wolvish and wasting lusts and by consequence is not able to settle and secure the heart in the enioyment of them But now by Faith in the promises the godly have their hold altered have their estate setled in a better and surer tenure delivered from those many encumbrances and intanglements vnto the which before they were obnoxious so that now a mans heart is secured beyond all doubts or humane feares A poore man may object I am not wise enough to order my affaires I am disabled by sicknesse and weaknesse to attend my Calling my charge encreaseth vpon mee and my probabilities of providing for them waxe smaller then before But yet Faith is able to answer these and all other the like objections by proposing the promise Dost thou live by thine owne strength Dost thou prosper by thine owne wisedome and industry or by the blessing and truth of God in his promises and is Gods Truth an Accepter of persons Is not his fidelitie as firme towards weake and poore as towards rich beleevers Is there any want or weakenesse any poverty or deficiency in heaven Doe the promises of God stand in need of mans wisedome or strength to bring them to passe Can thy encrease of charge or occasions exhaust the Treasures or drie vp the Fountaines and truth of God If an honourable and wealthy person have occasions to enlarge his retinue and live at a higher pitch then before yet because hee hath abundance he doth not repine at this necessitie All the faithfull are of the houshold and family of God who is no whit the poorer in his state and power by maintaining many or few He gives to all men yet he gives liberally Iam 1. 5. which no rich man in the World is able to do because as he gives to others himself decreaseth But God gives out of a Fountaine as the Sunne gives light which whether it shine to one or to thousands retaines still equall light in it selfe neither can the eyes of men exhaust or draw out the light of the Sunne All the Creatures are mine saith God upon a thousand hills If a thousand hills can beare corne enough or feed Cattel enough for any poore mans reliefe he need not doubt or feare for God hath still thousands of mountaines as it were so many granaries or store-houses in his truth and promises for the faithfull in any straits to have recourse unto And thus faith gives us all things by entituling us to the Promises Against all this which hath been spoken touching the excellency of Faith may be objected that determination of the Apostle Now abideth Faith Hope and Charitie these three but the greatest of these is Charitie 1. Cor. 13. 13. By which comparison this point touching the precedency of faith seemes to be impaired To which I answer That the Apostle speakes of a greatnesse extensivè in regard of duration Charitie being an everlasting Grace but faith pertaining onely to this life as being requisite to the present qualitie and states of the Church for faith and fruition are oppos'd 2. Cor. 5. 7. Faith looketh upon things in their promises fruition in their reall existence but now consider faith as an instrument to lay hold on Christ and the precious promises of life and grace in him and consider it as a Roote a living principle to put the heart in worke to purifie the conscience to enflame the heart to spirituall obedience and a retribution of holy love to God for all his love to us in his Sonne and thus Faith exceeds Charitie as the motion of the mouth in eating which is an act that tends immediately to life doth the motion of the mouth in speaking which tendeth not to an end so important nor absolutely necessary Another objection may be this Other Graces make a man like Christ which Faith cannot do because Christ could not beleeve unto justification or life having the Fountaine of both aboundantly in himselfe whereas the proper and primitive worke of Faith is to carry a man out of himselfe and to make him see all his sufficiency in another To which I answer two wayes First Christ had faith though not to such purposes as wee Faith in the common nature of it as it imports assent to all divine truth and adherence or reliance of the soule to the benefit and goodnesse which the same brings with it for ratio veritatis and ratio commodi are the two objects of a right faith or rather severall qualifications of the same object thus it is a Legall thing comming under the compasse of those duties of the Law unto which Christ made himselfe subject But faith as a Condition an Officer an Instrument of justification so it could not stand with Christ who was not to be righteous by beleeving but to bee himselfe the righteousnesse of those that beleeve But in other respects when the Apostle saith hee was heard in that which he feared when hee saith himselfe My God my God it is manifest that though he had not faith for righteousnesse yet he had it for deliverance that though he were not saved by beleeving yet hee was obedient in beleeving Secondly it is more to be one with Christ then to be like him more to bee a part of him then a picture now faith makes a unitie with Christ other graces onely a resemblance faith makes a man a member others onely a follower of him and so in that respect still Faith hath the prehemiuence Now then from the great necessitie and pretiousnesse of this duty we may first inferre the greatnesse of their sin who neglect it who live with no sense of the want and little sorrow for the weaknesse of it to lie sweare revell cozen to live in the practice of any notorious outrage and morall enormitie many men esteeme hainous and vnworthie But to live in infidelitie without the knowledge or fellowship of Christ in an utter unacquaintance with their owne unworthinesse and unexperience of their everlasting insufficiencies to compasse or contrive their owne saluation are things seldome or never seriouslie thought on by them And yet infidelity is indeed the edge and sting of all other sinnes that which bindes them and their guilt everlastingly upon the soule and locketh them like shackles to the conscience which otherwise by the helpe of Christ might easily shake them of He that beleeveth saith Christ is not condemned he that beleeveth not is condemned already and the wrath of God abideth on him There is a displeasure which is but for a moment a wrath which doth only sing and blow vpon the soule and then away such the faithfull themselues after some bold adventure into the waies of sinne may haue experience of And there is a wrath which is constant permanent intimately and euerlastinglie adherent vnto the Soule which will seize onely vpon vnbeleeuers The spirit shall convince the World of Sinne because they beleeve not saith Christ. Sinne there stands in opposition to righteousnesse and Iudgement
the Word of faith and with the spirit of faith Beeyee not slothfull saith the Apostle but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Lastly we must doe with faith as men doe with pretious things Try it and put it to the touchstone that wee may prove whether it be truly valuable and unfeigned because there is much counterfeite faith as there is false money and deceitfull jewels and wilde herbes in the field which very neerely resemble those that are right and pure This is an argument which hath been much travail'd in by men of more learning and spirit and therefore I will but touch upon it by considering foure principall effects of this Grace The first is a love and liking of those spirituall truths which by faith the heart assenteth unto for according as is the evidence and pretiousnesse of the thing beleeved such is the measure of our love unto it For saving faith is an assent with adherence and delight contrary to that of Divels which is with trembling and horror and that delight is nothing else but a kind of rellish and experience of the goodnesse of that truth which we assent unto Whereupon it necessarily followes even from the dictate of nature which instructeth a man to love that which worketh in him comfort and delight that from this assent must arise a love of those truths whence such sweetnesse doth issue By the first act of faith we apprehend God a reconcileable God by the second a reconciled God for faith shewes us Gods love to us in Christ proposeth him as altogether lovely the chiefest of ten thousand and thereby begetâ—…eth in us a love unto Christ againe and this love is a sincere uncorrupted immortall love a conjugall and superlative love nothing must be loved in competition with Christ every thing must be rejected and cast away either as a snare when hee hates it or as a Sacrifice when he calles for it Therefore God required the neerest of a mans blood in some cases to throw the first stone at an Idolater to shew that no relations should preponderate or over-sway our hearts from his love Christ and earthly things often come into competition in the life of a man In every un just gaine Christ and a bribe or Christ and cruelty in every oth or execration Christ and a blasphemy in every sinfull fashion Christ and a ragge or Christ and an excrement in every vaine-glorious affectation Christ and a blast in every intemperancy Christ and a vomit a stagger a shame a disease O where is that faith in men which should overcome the world and the things of the world Why should men delight in any thing while they live which when they â—…e on their death beds a time speedily approching they shall never bee able to reflect on with comfort nor to recount without amazement and horror Certainely he that fosters any Dalila or darling lust against the will and command of Christ well may hee delude himselfe with foolish conceits that hee loves the Lord Iesus but let him be assured that though he may be deceived yet God will not bee mocked not every one that faith Lord Lord shall bee accounted the friends of Christ but they who keepe his Commandements The second effect of faith is Assiance and Hope confidently for the present relying on the goodnesse and for the future waiting on the power of God which shall to the full in due time performe what in his word hee hath promised I haue set life and death before you saith Moses to the people That thou maist love the Lord thy God and that thou maist obey his voice and that thou maist cleave unto him c. Wee are confident saith the Apostle knowing that whilst wee are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. When once the minde of a man is wrought so to assent unto divine promises made in Christ as to acknowledge an interest claime and propriety unto them and that to be at last actually performed not by a man who may be subject both to unfaithfulnesse in keeping and disability in performing his promises but by Almighty God who the better to confirme our faith in him hath both by word and oath engaged his fidelity and is altogether omnipotent to doâ—… what hee hath purposed or promised Impossible it is but from such an assent grounded on the veracity and all sufficiency of God there should result in the minde of a faithfull man a confident dependance on such Promises renouncing in the meane time all selfe-concurrencie as in it selfe utterly impotent and to the fullfilling of such a worke as is to be by Gods owne omnipotencie effâ—…cted altogether irrequisite and resolving in the midst of temptations to relie on him to hold fast his mercy and the profession of his faith without wavering having an eye to the recompence of reward and being assured that hee who hath promised will certainly bring it to passe A third effect of faith is ioy and peace of Conscience Being justified by faith wee haue peace with God The God of peace fill you with all ioy and peace in beleeuing The mind is by the rellish and experience of sweetnesse in Gods Promises composed unto a setled calmenesse and serenity I doe not meane a Dead peace which is onely an immobility and sleepinesse of Conscience like the rest of a dreaming man on the top of a mast but such a peace as a man may by afyllogisme of the practicall judgement upon right examination of his owne interest unto Christ safely inferre unto himselfe The wicked often haue an appearance of peace as well as the faithfull but there is a great difference For there is but a dore betweene a wicked man and his sinne which will certainely one day open and then sinne at the doore will fly upon the Soule but betweene a faithfull man and his sin there is a wall of fire and an immoveable impregnable fort even the merits of Christ the wicked mans peace growes out of Ignorance of God the Law himselfe but a righteous mans peace growes out of the knowledge of God and Christ. So that there are two things in it Tranquillity it is a quiet thing and serenitie it is a cleare and distinct thing However if a faithfull man have not present peace because peace is an effect not of the first and direct but of the second and reflexive act of faith yet there is ever with all faith the seed of peace and a resolution to seeke and to sue it out The last effect of faith which I shall now speake of is fructification faith worketh by love And it worketh first Repentance whereby we are not only to understand griefe for sinne or a sense of the weight and guilt of it which is onely a legall thing if it proceed no farther and may goe before faith but hatred of sinne as a thing contrary to that new spirit