works upon some pre-existent matter but here is no such matter all that is in man the Ab uno desuper principio quod convenienter voluntati operatur dependent prima secunda tertia Quemadmodum minima pars ferri lapidis magnetis spiritu movetur per multos annulos ferreos extensi ita etiam qui sunt virtute praediti divino spiritu attracti cum prima mansione conjungantur deinceps autem alii usque ad postremam Glem Alexan. Strom. lib. 7. subject of this work is only a passive capacity or receptivity but nothing is found in him to contribute towards this work this supernatural life is not nor can it be educed out of natural principles this wholly transcends the Sphere of all natural power but of this more anon Thirdly This also we may affirm of it that this divine life is infused into all the natural faculties and powers of the soul not one exempted 1 Thes. 5. 23. The whole soul and spirit is the recipient subject of it and with respect to this general infusion into all the faculties and powers of the soul it 's call'd a new creature a new man having an integral perfection and fullness of all its parts and members it becomes light in the mind Joh. 17. 3. obedience in the will 1 Pet. 1. 2. in the affections an heavenly temper and tenderness Col. 3. 1 2. and so is variously denominated even as the Sea is from the several shores it washes though it be one and the same Sea And here we must observe lyes one main difference betwixt a regenerate soul and an hypocrite the one is all of a piece as I may say the principle of spiritual life runs into all and every faculty and affection and sanctifies or renews the whole man whereas the change upon hypocrites is but partial and particular he may have new light but no new love a new tongue but not a new heart this or that vice may be reformed but the whole course of his life is not altered Fourthly and lastly This infusion of spiritual life is done instantaneously as all Creation work is hence it is resembled to that plastick power which in a moment made the light to shine out of darkness just so doth God shine into our hearts 2 Cor. 4. 6. 'T is true a soul may be a long time under the preparatory works of the Spirit he may be under Convictions and humiliations purposes and resolutions a long time he may be waiting at the pool of Bethesda attending the means and ordinances but when the Spirit comes once to quicken the soul it 's done in a moment even as it is in the infusion of the rational soul the body is long ere it be prepared and moulded but when once the Embryo or matter is ready it 's quickned with the Spirit of life in an instant so it is here but O what a blessed moment is this upon which the whole weight of our eternal happiness depends for it is Christ in us i. e. Christ formed in us who is the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. and our Lord expressly tells us Joh. 3. 3. that except we be regenerate and born again we cannot see the Kingdome of God And thus of the way and manner of its infusion Thirdly Let the design and end of God in this his quickening work be next considered for what end and with what 3. design and aim this work is wrought And if we consult the Scriptures in this matter we shall find this principle of life is infused in order to our glorifying God in this world by a life of obedience and our enjoying of God in the world to come First Spiritual life is infused in Order to a course of obedience in this world whereby God is glorified so we read in Eph. 2. 10. Created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them habits are to actions as the root is to the fruit it is for fruit sake that we plant the roots and ingraff the branches So in Ezek. 36. 27. a new spirit also will I put within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements and do them This is the next or immediate design and end not only of the first infusion of the principle of life into the Soul but of all the exciting actuating and assisting works of the Spirit afterwards Now this principle of spiritual life infused hath a twofold influence into obedience First This makes it sincere and true obedience when it flows from an inward vital principle of grace The Hypocrite is moved by something ab extra from without as the applause of men the accommodation of fleshly interests the force of education or if there be any thing from within that moves him it is but a self-interest to quiet a grumbling Conscience and support his vain hopes of heaven but he never acts from a new principle a new nature inclining him to holy actions Sincerity mainly lyes in the harmony and correspondency of actions to their principles from this infused principle it is that men hunger and thirst for God and go to their Duties as men do to their meals when they find an empty craving stomach O Reader pause a little upon this ere thou pass on ask thy heart whether it be so with thee are holy duties connatural to thee doth thy soul move and work after God by a kind of supernatural instinct this then will be to thee a good evidence of thy integrity Secondly From this infused principle of life results the Excellency of our obedience as well as the sincerity of it for by vertue and reason thereof it becomes free and voluntary not forced and constrained it drops like honey of its own accord out of the Comb Cant. 4. 11. without squeezing or as waters from the fountain without forcing Joh. 4. 14. An unprincipled professor must be squeez'd by some weight of affliction ere he will yield one tear or pour out a prayer Psal. 78. 34. when he slew them then they sought him Now the freedome of obedience is the excellency of it Gods eye is much upon that 1 Cor. 9. 17. yea and the uniformity of our obedience which is also a special part of the beauty of it results from hence he that acts from a principle acts â—…uently and uniformly there is a proportion betwixt the parts of his Conversation this is it which makes us holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all manner of Conversation or in every creek and turning of our Conversations as that word imports 1 Pet. 1. 15. whereas he that is moved by this or that external-accidental motive must needs be up and down off and on very uneven like the legs of a lame man as the expression is Prov. 26. 7. which are not equal now a word of God and then the discourse runs muddy and prophane or carnal again all that evenness and uniformity that
prepared for application First The impossibility of coming to Christ without the teachings of the Father will appear from the power of sin which hath so strong an holdfast upon the hearts and affections of all unregenerate men that no humane arguments or perswasions whatsoever can divorce or separate them for First sin is connatural with the soul 't is born and bred with a man Psal. 51. 5. Isa. 48. 8. It is as natural for fallen man to sin as it is to breath Secondly The power of sin hath been strengthening it self from the beginning by a long continued Custom which gives it the force of a second nature and makes regeneration and mortification naturally impossible Jer. 15. 23. Can the Aethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots Then may he also do good that is accustomed to do evil Thirdly Sin is the delight of the sinner it is a sport to a fool to do mischief Prov. 10. 23. Carnal men have no other pleasure in this world but what arises from their Lusts to cut off their corruptions by mortification were at once to deprive them of all the pleasure of their lives Fourthly sin being connatural customary and delightful doth therefore bewitch their affections and inchant their hearts to that degree of madness and fascination that they rather choose damnation by God than separation from sin their hearts are fully set in them to do evil Eccles. 8. 11. they rush into sin as the horse rusheth into the battle Jer. 8. 6. And now what think you can separate a man from his beloved Lust except the powerful and effectual teachings of God Nothing but a light from heaven can rectifie and reduce the inchanted mind no power but that of God can change and alter the sinful bent and inclination of the will 't is a task above all Creature power Secondly The impossibility of coming to Christ without the Fathers teachings evidently appears from the indisposedness of man the subject of this change the natural man receives not the things which are of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. Three things must be wrought upon man before ever he can come to Christ his blind understanding must be enlightned his hard and rocky heart must be broken and melted his stiff fixed and obstinate will must be conquered and subdued but all these are the effects of a supernatural power The illumination of the mind is the peculiar work of God 2. Cor. 4. 6. Rev. 3. 17. Eph. 5. 8. The breaking and melting of the heart is the Lords own work 't is he that giveth repentance Acts 5. 31. 'T is the Lord that takes away the heart of stone and giveth an heart of flesh Ezek. 36. 26. 't is he that poureth out the spirit of contrition upon man Zech. 12. 10. The changing of the natural bent and inclination of the will is the Lords sole prerogative Phil. 2. 13. all these things are effectually done in the soul of man when God teacheth it and never till then Thirdly The nature of faith by which we come to Christ plainly shows the impossibility of coming without the Fathers teaching Everything in faith is supernatural the implantation of the habit of faith is so Eph. 2. 8. 't is not of our selves but the gift of God 't is not an habit acquired by industry but infused by grace Phil. 1. 29. The light of faith by which spiritual things are discerned is supernatural Heb. 11. 1. 27. It seeth things that are invisible The adventures of faith are supernatural for against hope a man believeth in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4. 18. By faith a man goeth unto Christ against all the dictates and discouragements of natural sense and reason The self-denyal of faith is supernatural the cutting off of the right hand and plucking out of right eye sins must needs be so Matth. 5. 29. The Victories and conquests of faith do all speak it to be supernatural it overcomes the strongest oppositions from without Heb. 11. 33 34. it subdueth and purgeth the most obstinate and deep rooted corruptions within Acts 15. 9. it overcometh all the blandishments and charming allurements of the bewitching world 1 Joh. 5. 4. all which considered how evident is the conclusion that none can come to Christ without the Fathers teachings The uses follow 1. Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. How notoriously false and absurdis that doctrin which asserteth the possibility of believing without the efficacy of supernatural grace Inference 1. The desire of self-sufficiency was the ruin of Adam and the conceit of self-sufficiency is the ruin of multitudes of his posterity This doctrine is not only contradictory to the current stream of Scripture Phil. 2. 13. 1 Joh. 1. 13. with many other Scriptures but it is also contradictory to the common sense and experience of believers yet the pride of nature will strive to maintain what Scripture and experience plainly contradict and overthrow Infer 2. Hence we may also inform our selves how it cometh to pass that many rational wise and learned men miss Christ whilst Inference 2. mean time the simple and illiterate even babes in natural knowledge obtain interest in him and salvation by him The reason hereof is plainly given us by Christ in Mat. 13. 11. To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given 't is the droppings and dews of divine teaching upon one and not upon another that dryeth up the green tree and maketh the dry tree to flourish Many natural men have very fine brains searching wits solid judgements nimble fancies tenacious memories they can search out the mysteries of nature solve the Phaenomena satisfie the enquiries of the most curious they can measure the earth discover the motions of the heavens but after all take up their place in Hell When in the mean time the Statutes of the Lord by the help of his teachings make wise the simple Psal. 19. 17. 'T is no matter how dull and incapable the Scholar be if God undertake to be the teacher I remember Austin speaks of one who was commonly reputed a fool and yet he could not but judge him to be truly godly and that by two signs of grace which appeared in him one was his seriousness when he heard any discourses of Christ the other was his indignation manifested against sin it was truly said by those two Cardinals who riding to the Council of Constance overheard a poor shepherd in the fields with tears bewailing his sin surgunt indocti rapient coelum the unlearned will rise and take heaven whilest we with all our learning shall descend into Hell Infer 3. This also informs us of the true reason of the strange and various successes of the Gospel upon the souls of men here we see why Inference 3. the ministry of one man becomes fruitful and anothers barren Yea why the labours of the same man prosper exceedingly at one time and not at
life be prolonged for a season it lives in believers still but not upon the provision they willingly make to fulfil the Lust of it Rom. 13. ult The design of every true believer is co incident with the design of the spirit to destroy and mortifie corruption they long for the extirpation of it and are daily in the use of all sanctified means and instruments to subdue and destroy it the workings of their corruptions are the afflictions of their souls Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and there is no one thing that sweetens the thoughts of death to believers except the sight and full enjoyment of God more than their expected deliverance from sin doth Evidence 5. Where ever the spirit of God dwelleth in the way of sanctification in all such he is the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered where ever he is poured out as the spirit of grace he is also poured out as the spirit of supplication Zech. 12. 10. his praying and his sanctifying influences are undivided There is a threefold assistance that the spirit gives unto sanctified persons in prayer he helps them before they pray by setting an edge upon their defires and affections he helps them in prayer by supplying matters of request to them teaching them what they should ask of God he assisteth them in the manner of prayer supplying to them suitable affections and helping them to be sincere in all their desires to God 't is he that humbles the pride of their hearts dissolves and breaks the hardness of their hearts out of dcadness makes them lively out of weakness makes them strong he assisteth the spirits of believers after prayer helping them to faith and patience to believe and wait for the returns and answers of their prayers O Reader reflect upon thy duties consider what spirituality sincerity humility broken-heartedness and melting affections after God are to be found in thy duties is it so with thee or dost thou shuffle over thy duties as an interruption to thy business and pleasures are they an ungrateful task imposed upon thee by God and thy own conscience are there no hungerings and thirstings after God in thy soul or if there be any pleasure arising to thee out of prayer is it not from the ostentation of thy gifts if it be so reflect sadly upon the carnal state of thy heart these things do not speak the spirit of grace and supplication to be given thee Evidence 6. Where ever the spirit of Grace inhabits there is an heavenly spiritual frame of mind accompanying and evidencing the indwelling of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace by the mind understand the musings reasonings yea and the cares fears delights and pleasures of the soul which follow the workings and meditations of the mind as these are so are we if these be ordinarily and habitually taken up and exercised about earthly things then is the frame and state of the man carnal and earthly the workings of every creature follow the being and nature of it if God Christ Heaven and the world to come engage the thoughts and affections of the soul the temper of such a soul is spiritual and the spirit of God dwelleth there this is the life of the regenerate Phil. 3. 20. our conversation is in Heaven and such a frame of heart is life and peace a serene placid and most comfortable life no pleasure upon earth no gratifications of the senses do relish and savour as spiritual things do Consider therefore which way thy heart ordinarily works especially in thy Solitudes and hours of retirement these things will be a great evidence for or against thy soul. David could say how precious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the summ of them if I should count them they are more in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139. 17 18. Yet it must be acknowledged for the relief of weaker Christians that there is great odds and variety found in this matter among the people of God for the strength steadiness and constancy of a spiritual mind results from the depth and improvement of sanctification the more grace still the more evenness spirituality and constancy there is in the motions of the heart after God The minds of weak Christians are more easily entangled in earthly vanities and more frequently diverted by inward corruptions yet still there is a spiritual pondus inclination and bent of their hearts towards God and the vanity and corruption which hinders their communion with him is their greatest grief and burthen under which they groan in this world Evidence 7. Those to whom the spirit of grace is given they are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the Sons of God sanctified souls give themselves up to the government and conduct of the spirit they obey his voice beg his direction follow his motions deny the solicitations of the flesh and blood in obedience to him Gal. 1. 16. and they that do so they are the sons of God 't is the office of the spirit to guide us into all truth and 't is our great duty to follow his guidance Hence it is that in all enterprizes and undertakements the people of God so earnestly beg direction and counsel from him Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness saith David make thy way straight before my face Psal. 8. 5. they dare not in doubtful cases lean to their own understandings yea in points of duty and in points of sin they dare not neglect the one or commit the other against the convictions and perswasions of their own consciences though troubles and sufferings be unavoidable in that path of duty when they have ballanced duties with sufferings in their most serious thoughts the conclusion and result will still be it is better to obey God than man the dictates of the spirit rather than the counsels of flesh and blood But before I leave this point I reckon my self a debtor unto weak Christians and shall endeavour to give satisfaction to some special doubts and fears with which their minds are ordinarily entangled in this matter for it is a very plain case that many souls have the presence and sanctification of the spirit without the evidence and comfort thereof Divers things are found in believers which are as so many fountains of fears and doubts to them And First I greatly doubt the spirit of God is not in me Obj. 1. saith
shut their eyes Secondly They have no spiritual motions towards Christ or after things that are spiritual all the Arguments in the world cannot perswade their wills to move one step towards Christ in the way of faith John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me Were there a principle of spiritual life in their souls they would move Christ-ward and heaven-ward John 4. 14. it would be in them a well of water springing up into eternal life The natural tendency of the spiritual life is upward Thirdly The unregenerate have no appetite unto spiritual food they savour not things that are spiritual they can go from week to week and from year to year all their life time without any communion betwixt God and their souls and feel no need of it nor any hungerings nor thirstings after it which could never be iâ—… a principle of spiritual life were in them for then they would esteem the words of Gods mouth more than their necessary food Job 30. 12. Fourthly They have no heat or spiritual warmth in their affections to God and things above their hearts are as cold as a stone to spiritual Objects They are heated indeed by their lusts and affections to the world and the things of the world But O how cold and dead are they towards Jesus Christ and spiritual excellencies Fifthly They breathe not spiritually therefore they live not spiritually were there a spiritual principle of life in them their souls would breath after God in spiritual prayer Acts 9. 11. Behold he prayeth The lips of the unregenerate may move in prayer but their hearts and desires do not breath and pant after God Sixthly They have no cares or fears for self-preservation which is always the effect of life the poorest fly or silliest worm will shun danger the wrath of God hangs over them in the threatnings but they tremble not at it Hell is but a little before them they are upon the very precipice of eternal ruine yet will use no means to avoid it How plain therefore is this sad case which I have undertaken here to demonstrate viz that Christless and unregenerate souls are dead souls The uses follow Inference 1. If all Christless and unregenerate souls be dead souls then how Inference 1. little pleasure can Christians take in the society of the unregenerate Certainly 't is no pleasure for the living to converse among the dead It was a cruel torment invented by Mezentius the Tyrant to tie a dead and living man together The pleasure â—…t solent vitia alibi connata in propinqua membra perniciem Juam efflare sic improborum vitia in eos derivantur qui cum illis vitae babent consuetudinem Tertul. advers Valentin of society arises from the harmony of spirits and the hopes of mutual enjoyment in the world to come neither of which can sweeten the society of the godly with the wicked in this world 'T is true there is a necessary civil converse which we must have with the ungodly here or else as the Apostle speaks we must go out of the world There are also duties of relation which must be faithfully and tenderly paid even to the unregenerate But certainly where we have our free election we shall be much wanting both to our duty and comfort if we make not the people of God our chosen companions Excellently to this purpose speaks a Modern Author Art thou a godly master when thou takest a servant into thine house choose for God as well as thy self A godly Gurnals Christian armour part 2. p. 256. servant is a greater blessing than we think on he can work and set God on work also for his masters good Gen. 24. 12. O Lord God of my master Abraham I pray thee send me good speed this day and show kindness unto my master and sure he did his master as much service by his prayer as by his prudence in that journey Holy David observed while he was at Sauls Court the mischief of having wicked and ungodly servants for with such was that unhappy King so compassed that David compares his Court to the prophane and barbarous heathens among whom there was scarce more wickedness to be found Psal. 120. 6. Wo is me that I sojourn in Mesheck that I dwell in the Tents of Kedar i. e. among those who were as prodigiously wicked as any there and no doubt but this made this gracious man in his banishment before he came to the Crown having seen the evil of a disordered house to resolve what he would do when God should make him the head of such a Royal family Psal. 101. 7. He that worketh deceit shall not dwell within my house he that selleth lies shall not tarry in my sight Art thou godly show thy self so in the choice of husband or wife I am sure if some and those godly also could bring no other testimonial for their godliness than the care they have taken in this particular it might justly be called into question both by themselves and others There is no one thing that gracious persons even those recorded in scripture as well as others have shewn their weakness yea given offence and scandal more in than in this particular The sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair Gen. 6. 2. One would have thought the sons of God should have looked for grace in the heart rather than beauty in the face but we see even they sometimes turn in at the fairest sign without much enquiring what grace is to be found dwelling within Look to the rule O Christian if thou wilt keep the power of holiness That is clear as a sun beam written in the scripture be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers 2 Cor. 6. 14. Inference 2. How great and wholly supernatural marvellous and wonderful is Inference 2. that change which regeneration makes upon the souls of men It is a change from death to life Luke 15. 24. This my son was dead and is alive again Regeneration is life from the dead The most excellent life from the most terrible death 'T is the life of God reinspired into a soul alienated from it by the power of sin Eph. 4. 18. There are two stupendious changes made upon the souls of men which justly challenges highest admiration viz. That 1. From sin to grace 2. From grace to glory The change from grace to glory is acknowledged by all and that justly to be a wonderful change for God to take a poor creature out of the society of sinful men yea from under the burden of many sinful infirmities which made him groan from day to day in this world and in a moment to make him a compleat and perfect soul shining in the beauties of holiness and filling him as a vessel of glory with the unspeakable and unconceivable joyes of his presence to turn his groanings into triumphs his sighings into songs of praise This I say is marvellous and yet the former
yet refuses Christ who comes to him with heavenly light and wisdome he is condemned by the terrible sentence of the Law to eternal wrath and yet rejects Christ who tenders to him compleat and perfect righteousness he is wholly polluted and plunged into original and actual pollutions of nature and practice yet will have none of Christ who would become sanctification to him he is oppressed in soul and body with the deplorable effects and miseries sin hath brought upon him and yet is so in love with his bondage that he will neither accept Christ nor the redemption he brings with him to sinners Oh what monsters what beasts hath sin turned its subjects into you will not come unto me that you may have life Joh. 5. 40. sin hath stabb'd the sinner to the heart the wounds are all mortal eternal death is in his face Christ hath prepared the only plaister that can cure his wounds but he will not suffer him to apply it he acts like one in love with death and that judges it sweet to perish So Christ tells us Prov. 8. 36. all they that hate me love death Not in it self but in Non quod quisque ita insaâ—…iat ut sciens volens diligat mortem quam omnes natura exhorrescimus sed quia ista est fructus spretae sapientiae Dei ut mortem tandem afferat Lavat in loc its causes with which it is inseparably connected they are loth to burn yet willing to sin though sin kindle those everlasting flames So that in two things the unbeliever shews himself worse than bruitish he can't think of damnation the effect of sin without horror and yet cannot think of sin the cause of damnation without pleasure he is loth to perish to all eternity without remedy and yet refuses and declines Christ as if he were an enemy who only can and would deliver him from that eternal perdition How do men act therefore as if they were in love with their own ruin many poor wretches now in the way to Hell what an hard shift do they make to cast themselves away Christ meets them many times in the Ordinances where they studiously shun him many times checks them in their way by convictions which they make an hard shift to overcome and conquer oh how willing are they to accept a cure a benefit aremedy for any thing but their Souls You see then that Sinners cannot should they study all their days to do themselves a mischief take a readier course to undo themselves than by rejecting Christ in his gracious offers Surely the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha is less than this sin mercy it self is exasperated by it and the damnation of such as reject Christ so prepared for them with whatever they need and so seriously and frequently offer'd to them upon the Knee of Gospel intreaty is just inevitable and more intolerable than any in the world beside them It is just for the sinner hath but his own option or choice he is but come to the end which he was often told his way would bring him to It is inevitable for there is no other way to Salvation but that which is rejected and it will be more intolerable than the Damnation of others because neither Heathens nor Devils ever aggravated their sins by such an horrid circumstance as the wilful refusing of such an apt offered and only remedy Infer 4. What a tremendous Symptome of wrath and sad Character of Death appears upon that mans Soul to which no effectual application Infer 4. of Christ can be made by the Gospel Christ with his benefits is frequently tendered to them in the Gospel they have been beseeched once and again upon the Knee of importunity to accept him those entreaties and perswasions have been urged by the greatest arguments The Command of God the love of Christ the inconceiveable happiness or misery which unavoidably follows the accepting or rejecting of those offers and yet nothing will stick all their pleas for infidelity have been over and over confuted their reasons and consciences have stood convinced they have been Speechless as well as Christless not one sound argument is found with them to defend their infidelity they confess in general that such courses as theirs is lead to destruction they will yield them to be happy souls that are in Christ and yet when it comes to the point their own closing with him nothing will stick all arguments all entreaties return to us without success Lord what is the reason of this unaccountable obstinacy in other things it is not so if they be sick they are so far from rejecting a physician that offers himself that they will send and pray and pay him too if they be arrested for debt and any one will be a surety and pay their debts for them words can hardly express the sense they have of such a kindness but though Christ would be both physician and surety and what ever else their needs require they will rather perish to eternity than accept him what may we fear to be the reason of this but because they are not of Christs sheep Joh. 10. 26. the Lord open the eyes of poor sinners to apprehend not only how great a sin but how dreadful a sign this is Infer 5. If Christ with all his benefits be made ours by Gods special application Infer 5. what a day of mercies then is the day of conversion What multitudes of choice blessings visit the converted soul in that day This day saith Christ to Zacheus Luke 19. 9. is Salvation come to this house in this day Christ cometh into the soul and he comes not empty but brings with him all his treasures of wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Troops of mercies yea of the best of mercies come with him It is a day of singular gladness and joy to the heart of Christ when he is Espoused to and received by the believing soul it is as a Coronation day to a King So you read Cant. 3. 11. Go forth O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his Espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart Where under the Type of Solomon in his greatest magnificence and glory when the royal Diadem was set upon his head and the people shouted for joy so that the earth did ring again is shadowed out the joy of Christs heart when poor souls by their high estimation of him and consent to his government do as it were Crown him with glory and honour and make his heart glad Now if the day of our Espousals to Christ be the day of the gladness of his heart and he reckons himself thus honoured and glorified by us what a day of joy and gladness should it be to our hearts and how should we be transported with joy to see a King from heaven with all his treasures of grace and glory bestowing himself
when he doth so then we are enabled to exert that vital act of faith whereby we receive Christ all this lyes plain in that one Scripture Joh. 6. 57. As the living Father hath sent me and I live by the Father so he that cateth me that is by faith applys me even he shall live by me So that these two namely the Spirit on Christs part and Faith his work on our part are the two ligaments by which we are knit to Christ. So that the Spirits work in uniting or engrassing a soul into Christ is like the cutting off the graff from its native stock which he doth by his illuminations and convictions and closing it with the living stock when it is thus prepared and so enabling it by the infusion of faith to suck and draw the vital sap and thus it becomes one with it Or as the many members in the natural body being all quickened and animated by the same vital Spirit become one body with the head which is the principal member Eph. 4. 4. there is one body and one Spirit More particularly we shall consider the properties of this 2. Union that so we may the better understand the nature of it And here I shall open the nature of it both negatively and affirmatively First Negatively by removing all false notions and misapprehensions 1. Negatively of it And we say First The Saints Union with Christ is not a meer mental 1. Union only in conceit and notion but really exists extra mentem whether we conceit it or not I know the atheistical world censures all these things as fancies and idle imaginations but believers know the reality of them Joh. 14. 20. At that day you shall know that I am in my father and you in me and I in you This doctrine is not phantastical but scientifical Secondly The Saints Union with Christ is not a Physical Union such as is betwixt the members of a natural body and 2. the head our Nature indeed is assumed into Union with the person of Christ but it is the singular honour of that blessed and holy flesh of Christ to be so united as to make one person with him that Union is hypostatical this only Mystical Thirdly Nor is it an Essential Union or Union with the divine nature so as our beings are thereby swallowed up and 3. lost in the divine being Some there be indeed that talk at that wild rate of being Godded into God and Christed into Christ and those unwary expressions of Greg. Naz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 do but too much countenance those daring Spirits but oh there is an infinite distance betwixt us and Christ in respect of nature and excellency notwithstanding this Union Fourthly The Union I here speak of is not a foederal Union or an Union by Covenant only such a Union indeed 4. there is betwixt Christ and believers but that is consequential to and wholly dependent upon this Fifthly and Lastly It is not a meer Moral Union by love and affection thus we say one soul is in two bodies a friend 5. is another self the lover is in the person beloved such a Union of hearts and affections there is also betwixt Christ and the Saints but this is of another nature that we call a Moral this a Mystical Union that only knits our affections but this knits our persons to Christ. Secondly Positively and First though this Union neither 2. Positively makes us one person or essence with Christ yet it knits our persons most intimately and nearly to the person of Christ 1. the Church is Christs body Coloss. 1. 24. not his Natural but his Mystical body that is to say his body in a Mystery because it is to him as his natural body the Saints stand to Christ in the same relation that the natural members of the body stand to the head and he stands in the same relation to them that the head stands in to the natural members and consequently they stand related to one another as the members of a natural body do to each other Christ and the Saints are not one as the Oak and the Ivy that clasps it are one but as the graff and stock are one it is not a Union by adhesion but incorporation Husband and Wife are not so near soul and body are not so near as Christ and the believing soul are near to each other Secondly The Mystical Union is wholly supernatural wrought by the alone power of God So it 's said 1 Cor. 1. 30. 2. but of him are ye in Christ Jesus we can no more unite our selves to Christ than a branch can incorporate it self into another stock it is of him i. e. of God his proper and alone work There are only two ligaments or bands of Union betwixt Christ and the Soul viz. the Spirit on his part and Faith on ours but when we say faith is the band of Union on our part the meaning is not that it 's so our own act as that it springs naturally from us or is educed from the power of our own wills no for the Apostle expressly contradicts it Eph. 2. 8. it is not of your selves it is the gift of God but we are the subjects of it and though the act on that account be ours yet the power enabling us to believe is God's Eph. 1. 19 20. Thirdly the Mystical Union is an immediate Union Immediate I say not as excluding means and instruments for 3. several means and many instruments are employ'd for the effecting of it but immediate as excluding degrees of nearness among the members of Christs mystical body Every member in the Natural body stands not as near to the head as another but so do all the mystical members of Christs body to him every member the smallest as well as the greatest hath an immediate coalition with Christ. 1 Cor. 1. 2. To the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Among the factious in this Church at Corinth those that said I am of Christ as arrogating Christ to themselves were as much a faction as those that said I am of Paul 1 Cor. 1. 30. to cure this he tells them he is both theirs and ours Such inclosures are against law Fourthly The Saints Mystical Union with Christ is a 4. fundamental Union it 's fundamental by way of Sustentation all our fruits of obedience depend upon it John 15. 4. As the branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the Vine no more can yeâ—… except ye abide in me It 's fundamental to all our priviledges and comfortable claims 1 Cor. 3. ult all is yours for ye are Christs And it is fundamental to all our hopes and expectations of glory for it is Christ in you the hope
and promising natures have been passed by and left under spiritual death It was the observation of Mr. Ward upon his Brother Mr. Daniel Rogers who was a man of great gifts and eminent graces yet of a very bad temper and constitution Though my Brother Rogers said he have grace enough for two men yet not half enough for himself It may be you have pray'd and striven long with your relations and to little purpose yet be not discouraged How often was Mr. John Rogers that famous successful Divine a grief of heart to his relations in his younger years proving a wild and lewd young man to the great discouragement of his pious friends yet at last the Lord graciously changed him so that Mr. Richard Rogers would say when he would exercise the utmost degree of charity or hope for any that at present were vile and naught I will never despair of any man for John Rogers sake Infer 3. How honourable are Christians by their new birth they are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of Infer 3. man but of God Joh. 1. 13. i. e. not in an impure or meer natural way but in a most spiritual and supernatural manner they are the off-spring of God the children of the most high as well by regeneration as by adoption which is the greatest advancement of the humane nature next to its hypostatical union with the second person Oh what honour is this for a poor sinful creature to have the very life of God breathed into his soul all other dignities of nature are trifles compar'd with this this makes a Christian a sacred hallowed thing the living temple of God 1 Cor. 6. 19. the special object of his delight Infer 4. How deplorable is the condition of the unregenerate world in no better case than dead men Now to affect our hearts with the Infer 4. misery of such a condition let ut consider and compare it in the following particulars First There is no beauty in the dead all their loveliness goes away at death there is no spiritual beauty or loveliness in any that are unregenerate 't is true many of them have excellent moral homilitical vertues which adorn their conversations in the eyes of men but what are all these but so many sweet flowers strewed over a dead Corpse Secondly The dead have no pleasure nor delight even so the unregenerate are incapable of the delights of the Christian life to be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8. 6. i. e. this is the only serene placid and pleasant life when the prodigal who was once dead was alive then he began to be merry Luke 15. 24. they live in sensual pleasures but this is to be dead while alive in Scripture reckoning Thirdly The dead have no heat they are as cold as clay so are all the unregenerate towards God and things above their lusts are hot but their affections to God cold and frozen that which makes a gracious heart melt will not make an unregenerate heart move Fourthly The dead must be buried Gen. 23. 4. bury my dead out of my sight so must the unregenerate be buried out of Gods sight forever buried in the lowest hell in the place of darkness for ever Joh. 3. 3. Woe to the unregenerate good had it been sor them they had never been born Infer 5. How greatly are all men concerned to examine their condition Infer 5. with respect to spiritual life and death It 's very common for men to presume upon their Union with and interest in Christ this priviledge is by common mistake extended generally to all that profess Christian religion and practise the external duties of it when in truth no more are or can be united Praesumendo sperant sperando pereunt Ames to Christ than are quickened by the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus Rom. 8. 1 2. O try your interest in Christ by this rule if I am quickened by Christ I have Union with Christ. And First If there be spiritual sense in your souls there is spiritual life in them there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 senses belonging to the spiritual as well as to the animal life Heb. 5. 14. they can feel and sensibly groan under soul pressures and burdens of sin Rom. 7. 24. the dead feel not moan not under the burdens of sin but the living do they may be sensible indeed of the evil of sin with respect to themselves but not as against God damnation may scare them but pollution doth not hell may fright them but not the offence of God Secondly If there be spiritual hunger and thirst it 's a sweet sign of spiritual life this sign agrees to Christians of a day old 1 Pet. 2. 2. even new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word if spiritual life be in you you know how to expound that Scripture Psal. 42. 1. without any other interpreter than your own experience you will feel somewhat like the gâ—…awing of an empty stomach making you restless during the interruption of your daily communion with the Lord. Thirdly If there be spiritual conflicts with sin there is spiritual life in your soul Gal. 5. 17. not only a combat betwixt light in the higher and lust in the lower faculties nor only opposition to more gross external corruptions that carry more infamy and horror with them than other sins do but the same faculty will be the seat of War and the more inward secret and spiritual any lust is by so much the more will it be opposed and mourned over In a word the weakest Christian may upon impartial observation find such signs of spiritual life in himself if he will allow himself time to reflect upon the bent and frame of his own heart as desires after God conscience of duties fears cares and sorrows about sin delight in the society of heavenly and spiritual men a loathing and burden in the company of vain and carnal persons O but I have a very dead heart to spiritual things 'T is a sign of life that you feel and are sensible of that deadness Ob. and beside there 's a great deal of difference betwixt Sol. spiritual deadness and death the one is the state of the unregenerate the other is the disease of regenerate men Some signs of spiritual life are clear to me but I cannot close with others Ob. If you can really close with any it may satisfie you though you be dark in others if a child can't go yet if it can suck Sol. if it can't suck if it can cry if it can't cry yet if it breath it is alive The Sixth SERMON Serm. 6. JOH 1. 12. Describing that Act on our part by which we do actually and effectually apply Christ to our own souls But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name NO
way upon Christ and the satisfaction of his blood when the efficacy and terrour of conscience is upon them and they feel the sting of guilt within them but assoon as the storm is over and the rod that conscience shak't over them laid by there 's no more talk of Christ then alas it was not Christ but quietness that they sought beware of mistaking peace for Christ. Direction 3. Thirdly In receiving Christ come empty handed unto him believing in him that justifies the ungodly Rom. 4. 5. and Direct 3. know that the deepest sense of your own vileness emptiness and unworthiness is the best frame of heart that can accompany you to Christ many persons stand off from Christ for want of fit qualifications they are not prepared for Christ as they should be i. e. they would not come naked and empty but have something to commend them to the Lord Jesus for acceptance O this is the pride of mens hearts and the snare of the Devil let him that hath no money come you are not to come to Christ because you are qualified but that you may be qualified with whatever you want and the best qualification you can bring with you is a deep sense that you have no worth nor excellency at all in you Direction 4. Fourthly In receiving Christ beware of dangerous delays Direct 4. O follow on that work till it be finished you read of some that are almost perswaded and others not far from the kingdome of God O take heed of sticking in the birth Hosea 13. 13. delays here are full of danger life is uncertain so are means of grace too the man-slayer needed no motives to quicken his flight to the refuge City Direction 5. Fifthly See that you receive all Christ with all your heart to receive all Christ is to receive his person cloathed with all Direct 5. his offices and to receive him with all your heart is to receive him into your understanding will and all the affections Acts 8. 37. As there is nothing in Christ that may be refused so there is nothing in you from which he must be excluded Direction 6. Lastly Understand that the opening of your hearts to receive the Lord Jesus Christ is not a work done by Direct 6. any power of your own but the arm of the Lord is revealed therein Isa. 53. 1. It is therefore your duty and interest to be daily at the feet of God pouring out your souls to him in secret for abilities to believe And so much as to our actual reception of Christ. Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. The Eighth SERMON Serm. 8. PSAL. 45. 7. Therefore God thy God hath anointed thee with Text. Setting forth the Believers fellowship with Christ the next end of his Application to them the oyl of gladness above thy fellows THe Method of grace in uniting souls with Jesus Christ hath been opened in the former discourses thus doth the Spirit whose office it is make application of Christ to Gods elect The result and next fruit whereof is Communion with Christ in his graces and benefits our Mystical union is the very ground-work and foundation of our sweet soul-enriching Communion and participation of spiritual priviledges we are first ingraffed into Christ and then suck the sap and fatness of that root first married to the person of Christ then endowed and enstated in the priviledges and benefits of Christ. This is my proper work to open at this time and from this Scripture The words read are a part of that excellent song of love that heavenly Epithalamium wherein the spiritual espousals of Christ and the Church are figuratively and very elegantly Hic Psalmus propheticus est continetque Epithalamium quo Christi cum ecclesia nuptiae celebrantur idemque habet argumentum quod canticum canticorum ejusque videtur esse Epitome Coc. in Loc. celebrated and shadowed The subject matter of this Psalm is the very same with the whole book of the Canticles and in this Psalm under the figure of King Solomon and the daughter of Aegypt whom he espoused the spiritual espousals of Christ and the Church are set forth and represented to us Among many rapturous and elegant expressions in praâ—…e of this glorious bridegroom Christ this is one which you have before you God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows i. e. enriched and fill'd thee in a singular and peculiar manner with the fulness of the Spirit whereby thou art consecrated to thy office and by reason whereof thou out-shinest and excellest all the Saints who are thy fellows or Copartners in these graces So that in these words you have two parts Viz. First The Saints dignity and Secondly Christs preeminency First The Saints dignity which consists in this that they are Christs fellows the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is very full and 1. Consortes participes sodales socios copious and is translated consorts companions copartners partakers or as ours reads it fellows i. e. such as are partakers with him in the anointing of the Spirit who do Vox Hebrâ—… quodcunque societatis sive communionis genus significat Muis. in their measure receive the same Spirit every Christian being anointed modo sibi proportionato with the same grace and dignified with the same titles 1 Joh. 2. 27. Rev. 1. 6. Christ and the Saints are in common one with another doth the Spirit of holiness dwell in him so it doth in them too is Christ King and Priest why so are they too by the grace of Union with him He hath made us Kings and Priests to God and his Father This is the Saints dignity to be Christs fellows consorts or copartners So that look whatever grace or spiritual excellency is in Christ it is not impropriated to himself but they do share with him for indeed he was fill'd with the fulness of the Spirit for their sakes and use as the Sun is fill'd with light not to shine to it self but to others so is Christ with grace and therefore some translate the Text not prâ—… consortibus above thy fellows but propter consortes for thy 〈◊〉 fellows making Christ the first receptaâ—…le of all grace who first and immediately is fill'd from the fountain the Godhead but it is for his people who receive and derive from him according to their proportion This is a great truth and the dignity of the Saints lyes chiefly in their partnership with Christ though our translation above thy fellows suits best both with the importance of the word and scope of the place Secondly But then whatever dignity is ascribed herein to the Saints there is and still must be a preeminency acknowledged 2. in and ascribed to Christ if they are anointed with the Spirit of grace much more abundantly is Christ God thy God hath anointed thee with the oyl of gladness above thy fellows By the oyl of gladness understand the
proof than the following particulars First That he espouseth to himself in mercy and in loving kindness such deformed defiled and altogether unworthy souls as we are who have no beauty no excellency to make us desirable in his eyes all the springs of his love to us are in his own breast Deut. 7. 7. He chooseth us not because we were but that he might make us lovely Ephes. 5. 27. He passed by us when we lay in our blood and said unto us live and that was the time of love Ezec. 16. 5. Secondly He expects nothing with us and yet bestows himself and all he hath upon us our poverty cannot enrich him but he made himself poor to enrich us 2 Cor. 8 9. 1 Cor. 3. 22. Thirdly No Husband loves the Wife of his bosome at the rate Christ loved his people Eph. 5. 25. He loved the Church and gave himself for it Fourthly None bears with weaknesses and provocations as Christ doth the Church is stiled the Lambs Wife Rev. 21. 9. Fifthly No Husband is so immortal and everlasting a Husband as Christ is Death separates all other relations but the souls union with Christ is not dissolved in the Grave yea the day of a Believers death is his marriage-day the day of his fullest enjoyment of Christ no Husband can say to his Wife what Christ saith to the Believer I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Sixthly No Bridegroom advanceth his Bride to such honours by Marriage as Christ doth he relates them to God as their Father and from that day the mighty and glorious Angels think it no dishonour to be their servants Heb. 1. 14. They are brought in admiring the beauty and glory of the Spouse of Christ Rev. 21. 9. Seventhly and Lastly No marriage was ever consummated with that triumphal solemnity as the marriage of Christ and Believers shall be in Heaven Psal. 45. 14 15. She shall be brought to the King in rayment of needle work the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee with gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought they shall enter into the Kings Palace Among the Jews the marriage house was called Bethillula the house of praise there was joy upon all hands but not like the joy that will be in Heaven when Believers the Spouse of Christ shall be brought thither God the Father will rejoyce to behold the blessed accomplishment and consummation of that glorious design and project of his love Jesus Christ the Bridegroom will rejoyce to see the travail of his soul the blessed birth and issue of all his bitter pangs and agonies Isai. 53. 11. The holy Spirit will rejoyce to see the complement and perfection of that sanctifying design which was committed to his hand 2 Cor. 5. 5. To see those souls whom he once found as rough stones now to shine as the bright polished stones of the Spiritual Temple Angels will rejoyce great was the joy when the foundation of this design was laid in the incarnation of Christ Luk. 2. 13. Great therefore must their joy be when the top-stone is set up with shouting crying Grace grace The Saints themselves shall rejoyce unspeakably when they shall enter into the Kings Palace and be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess. 4. 17. Indeed there will be joy on all hands except among the Devils and damned who shall gnash their teeth with envy at the everlasting advancement and glory of Believers Thus Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of a Bridegroom Thirdly Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of an Advocate 1 Joh. 2. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation 't is he that pleads the cause of Believers in Heaven appears for them in the presence of God to prevent all new breaches and continue the state of friendship and peace betwixt God and us In this relation Christ is altogether lovely For First He makes our cause his own and acts for us in Heaven as for himself Heb. 4. 15. He is touched with the tender sense of our troubles and dangers and is not only one with us by way of representation but also one with us in respect of sympathy and affection Secondly Christ our Advocate follows our suit and business in Heaven as his great and main design and business therefore in Heb. 7. 25. he is said to live for ever to make intercession for us as if our concernments were so minded by him there as to give up himself wholly to that work as if all the glory and honour which is paid him in Heaven would not satisfie him or divert him one moment from our business Thirdly He pleads the cause of Believers by his blood it satisfies him not as other Advocates to be at the expence of words and oratory which is a cheaper way of pleading but he pleads for us by the voice of his own blood Heb. 12. 24. where we are said to be come to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel every wound he received for us on earth is a mouth opened to plead with God on our behalf in Heaven quot vulnera tot ora and hence it is that in Rev. 5. 6. he is represented standing before God as a Lamb that had been slain as it were exhibiting and opening in Heaven those deadly wounds received on earth from the justice of God upon our account other Advocates spend their breath Christ his blood Fourthly He pleads the cause of Believers freely other Advocates plead for reward and exhaust the Purses while they plead the causes of their Clients Fifthly In a word he obtaineth for us all the mercies for which he pleads no cause miscarries in his hand which he undertakes Rom. 8. 33 34. O what a lovely Advocate is Christ for Believers Fourthly Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of a Friend for in this relation he is pleased to own his people Luk. 12. 4 5. There are certain things in which one friend manifests his affection and friendship to another but none like Christ. For First No Friend is so open-hearted to his friend as Christ is to his people he reveals the very counsels and secrets of his heart to them Joh. 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Secondly No Friend in the world is so expensive and bountiful to his friend as Jesus Christ is to Believers Joh. 15. 13. He parts with his very blood for them greater love saith he hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends he hath exhausted the precious treasures of this invaluable blood to pay our debts O what a lovely friend is Jesus Christ to Believers Thirdly No Friend sympathises so tenderly with his Friend in
affliction as Jesus Christ doth with his friends in all our afflictions he is afflicted Heb. 4. 15. He feels all our sorrows wants and burthens as his own Whence it is that the sufferings of Believers are called the sufferings of Christ Col. 1. 24. Fourthly No Friend in the world takes that complacency in his Friend as Jesus Christ doth in Believers Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart saith he to the Spouse thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes with one chain of thy neck the Hebrew here rendred ravished signifies to puff up or to make one proud how is the Lord Jesus pleased to glory in his people how is he taken and delighted with those gracious ornaments which himself bestows upon them no friend so lovely as Christ. Fifthly No Friend in the world loves his Friend with so ferverous and strong affection as Jesus Christ loves Believers Jacob loved Rachel and endured for her sake the parching heat of Summer and cold of Winter but Christ indured the storms of the wrath of God the heat of his â—…ignation for our sakes David manifested his love to 〈◊〉 in wishing O that I had died for thee Christ manifested his love to us not in wishes that he had died but in death it self in our stead and for our sakes Sixthly No Friend in the world is so constant and unchâ—…ble in friendship as Christ is Joh. 13. 1. Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them unto the end He bears with millions of provocations and injuries and yet will not break friendship with his people Peter denied him yet he will not disown him but after his resurrection he saith go tell the Disciples and tell Peter q. d. let him not think he hath forfeited by that sin of his his interest in me though he have denied me I will not disown him Mark 16. 7. Oh how lovely is Christ in the relation of a friend I might farther shew you the loveliness of Christ in his Ordinances and in his providences in his communion with us and communications to us but there is no end of the account of Christs loveliness I will rather choose to press Believers to their dutys towards this altogether lovely Christ which I shall briefly dispatch in a few words Use 1. First Is Jesus Christ altogether lovely then I beseech Use 1. you set your souls upon this lovely Jesus methinks such an object as hath been here represented should compel love from the coldest breast and hardest heart Away with those empty nothings away with this vain deceitful world which deserves not the thousandth part of the love you give it let all stand aside and give way to Christ. O did you but know his worth and excellency what he is in himself what he hath done for and deserved from you you would need no arguments of mine to perswade you to love him Secondly Esteem nothing lovely but as it is enjoyed in 2. Christ or improved for Christ affect nothing for it self love nothing separate from Jesus Christ. In two things we all sin in the love of creatures viz. in the excess of our affections loving them above the rate and value of creatures and in the inordinacy of our affections i. e. in loving them out of their proper places Thirdly Let us all be humbled for the baseness of our hearts 3. that are so free of their affections to vanities and trifles and so hard to be perswaded to the love of Christ who is altogether lovely Oh how many pour out streams of love and delight upon the vain and empty creature whilst no arguments can squeese out one drop of love from their obdurate and unbelieving hearts to Jesus Christ I have read of one Johannes Mollius who was observed to go often alone and weep bitterly and being prest by a Friend to know the cause of his trouble Oh said he it grieves me that I cannot bring this heart of mine to love Jesus Christ more fervently Fourthly Represent Christ as he is to the world by your 4. carriages towards him Is he altogether lovely Let all the world see and know that he is so by your delights in him and communion with him zeal for him and readiness to part with any other lovely thing upon his account proclaim his excellencies to the world as the Spouse here did convince them how much your Beloved is better than any other Beloved Display his glorious excellencies in your heavenly Conversations hold him forth to others as he is in himself altogether lovely See that you walk worthy of him unto all well-pleasing Col. 1. 10. Shew forth the praises of Christ 1 Pet. 2. 9. Let not that worthy name be blasphemed through you James 2. 7. He is glorious in himself and will put glory upon you take heed ye put not shame and dishonour upon him he hath committed his honour to you do not betray that trust Fifthly Never be ashamed to own Christ he is altogether 5. lovely he can never be a shame to you 't will be your great sin to be ashamed of him Some men glory in their shame be not you ashamed of your glory if you be ashamed of Christ now he will be ashamed of you when he shall appear in his own glory and the glory of all his holy Angels Be ashamed of nothing but sin and among other sins be ashamed especially for this sin that you have no more love for him who is altogether lovely Sixthly Be willing to leave every thing that is lovely upon 6. earth that you may be with the altogether lovely Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven Lift up your voices with the Spouse Rev. 20. 20. Come Lord Jesus come quickly 'T is true you must pass through the pangs of death into his bosom and enjoyment but sure 't is worth suffering much more than that to be with this lovely Jesus The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the patient waiting for of Jesus Christ 2 Thes. 3. 5. Seventhly Strive to be Christ-like as ever you would be 7. lovely in the eyes of God and men Certainly my Brethren 't is the Spirit of Christ within you and the beauty of Christ upon you which only can make you lovely persons the more you resemble him in holiness the more will you discover of true excellency and loveliness and the more frequent and spiritual your converse and communion with Christ is the more of the beauty and loveliness of Christ will still be stamped upon your Spirits changing you into the same image from glory to glory Eighthly Let the loveliness of Christ draw all men to 8. him Is loveliness in the creature embodied beauty so attractive And can the transcendent loveliness of Christ draw none Oh the blindness of man If you see no beauty in Christ why you should desire him 't is because the God of this world hath blinded your minds The Thirteenth SERMON
Consciences to this day were never throughly convinced We have mourned unto you but ye have not lamented Mat. 11. 17. Who hath believed our report and unto whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Alas we have laboured in vain we have spent our strength for nought our word returns unto us empty but O what a stupendious judgement is here Heb. 6. 7 8. The earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God but that which beareth thorns and briars is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned What a sore judgement and sign of Gods displeasure would you account it if your fields were cursed if you should manure dress plough and sow them but never reap the fruit of your labour the increase being still blasted And yet this were nothing compared with the blasting of the word to your souls that which is a savour of life unto life unto some becomes the savour of death unto death to others 2 Cor. 2. 16. The Lord affect our hearts with the terrible stroaks of God upon the souls of men 2d Use of Exhortation I shall conclude this point with a few words of Exhortation to three sorts of men Use 2. viz. 1. To those that never felt the power of the word 2. To those that have only felt some slight and common effects thereof 3. To those unto whose very hearts the Commandment is come in its effectual and saving power First You that never felt any power in the word at all I beg you in the name of him that made you and by all the regard 1. and value you have for those precious souls within you that now at last such Considerations as these may find place in your souls and that you will bethink your selves Consideration 1. Whose word that is that cannot gain entrance into your hearts is it not the Word of God which you despise and slight thou castest my word behind thy back Psal. 50. 17. O what an affront and provocation to God is this you despise not man but God the great and terrible God in whose hand your breath and soul is this contempt runs higher than you imagine Consid. 2. Consider that however the Word hath no power upon you the commandment cannot come home to your hearts yet it doth work and comes home with power to the hearts of others whilest you are hardened others are melted under it whilest you sleep others tremble whilest your hearts are fast locked up others are opened how can you choose but reflect with fear and trembling upon these contrary effects of the word especially when you consider that the eternal decrees both of election and reprobation are now executed upon the souls of men by the preaching of the Word Some believe and others are hardened Consid. 3. That no Judgement of God on this side hell is greater than a hard heart and stupid Conscience under the Word it were much better that the providence of God should blast thy Estate take away thy Children or destroy thy health than harden thy heart and seare thy Conscience under the Word So much as thy soul is better than thy body so much as Eternity is more valuable than time so much is this spiritual Judgement more dreadful than all temporal ones God doth not inflict a more terrible stroke than this upon any men in this world O therefore as you love your own souls and are loth to ruine them to all Eternity attend upon every opportunity that God affords you for you know not in which of them the Lord may work upon your hearts lay aside your prejudices against the Word or the weaknesses and infirmities of them that preach it for the Word works not as it is the word of man as it is thus neat and elegant but as it is the Word of God pray for the blessing of God upon the Word for except his word of blessing go forth with it it can never come home to thy soul meditate upon what you hear for without meditation it is not like to have any effectual operation upon you Search your souls by it and consider whether that be not your very case and state which it describes your very danger whereof it gives warning take heed lest after you have heard it the cares of the world choke not what you have heard and cause those budding convictions which begin to put forth to blast and wither carefully attend to all those Items and memorandums your Consciences give you under the word and conclude that the Lord is then come nigh unto you Secondly let this be matter of serious consideration and caution to all such as have only felt some slight transient 2. and ineffectual operations of the Gospel upon their souls the Lord hath come nigh some of our souls we have felt a strange power in the Ordinances sometimes terrifying and sometimes transporting our hearts but alas it proves but a morning dew or an early cloud Hos. 6. 4. we rejoice in the Word but it is but for a season Joâ—… 3. 35. Gal. 4. 14 15. they are vanishing motions and come to nothing Look as in nature there are many abortives as well as perfect Children so it is in Religion yea where the new Creature is perfectly formed in one soul there be many abortives and miscarriages and there may be three reasons assigned for it viz. First The Subtilty and deep policy of Satan who never more effectually deceives and destroys the souls of men than in such a method and by such an artifice as this for when men have once felt their Consciences terrified under the Word and their hearts at other times ravished with the joyes and comforts of it they now seem to have attained all that is necessary to conversion and constitutive of the new Creature these things look so well like the regenerating effects of the spirit that many are easily deceived by them The devil beguiles the hearts of the unwary by such false appearances for it is not every man that can distinguish betwixt the natural and spiritual motions of the affections under the word it is very frequently seen that even carnal and unrenewed hearts have their meltings and transports as well as spiritual hearts The subject-matter upon which the word treats are the weighty things of the world to come heaven and hell are very awful and affecting things and an unrenewed heart is apt to thaw and melt at them now here is the cheat of Satan to perswade a man that these must needs be spiritual affections because the objects about which they are conversant are spiritual Whereas it is certain the object of the affections may be very spiritual and heavenly and yet the workings of a mans affections about them may be in a meer natural way Secondly The dampening efficacy of the world is a true and proper cause of these
a poor Christian because of the great darkness and ignorance which clouds my soul for I read 1 Joh. 2. 27. that he enlightneth the soul which he inhabiteth the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things c. but alas my understanding is weak and cloudy I have need to learn of the meanest of Gods people this only I know that I know nothing as I ought to know Two things are to be respected in spiritual knowledge Sol. viz. the quantity and the efficacy thereof your condition doth not so much depend upon the measures of knowledge for haply you are under many natural disadvantages and want those helps and means of increasing knowledge which others plentifully enjoy it may be you have wanted the helps of education or have been incumbred by the necessities and cares of the world which have allowed you but little leasure for the improvement of your minds but if that which you do know be turned into practice and obedience Col. 1. 9 10. if it have influence upon your hearts and transform your affections into a spiritual frame and temper 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. if your ignorance humble you and drive you to God daily for the increase of knowledge one drop of such knowledge of Christ and your selves as this is more worth than a Sea of humane moral unsanctified and speculative knowledge though you know but little yet that little being sanctified is of great value though you know but little time was when ye knew nothing of Jesus Christ or the state of your own souls In a word though you know but little that little you do know will be still encreasing like the morning light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. If thou knowest so much as brings thee to Christ thou shalt shortly be where thy knowledge shall be as the light at noon day I sometime find my heart raised and my affections melted Obj. 2. in duties but I doubt it is but in a natural way and not from the spirit of God could I be assured those motions of my heart were from the spirit of grace and not meerly a natural thing it would be singular comfort and satisfaction to me First Consider whether this be not the ground of your Sol. fear and doubting because you are fain to take pains in the way of meditation prayer and other duties to bring your hearts to sense and savour the things of God whereas it may be you expect your spiritual enlargements and comforts should flow in upon you spontaneously and drop from heaven immediately of their own accord without any pains or industry of yours here may be and probably is a great mistake in this matter for the spirit of God works in the natural method wherein affections use to be raised and makes use of such duties as meditation and prayer as instruments to do that work by Ezech. 36. 37. So David was forced to reason with and chide his own heart Psal. 42. 5. thy comfort and enlargement may nevertheless be the fruit of the spirit because God makes it spring up and grow upon thy duties Secondly Take this as a sure rule whatsoever rises from self alwayes aimes at and terminates in self this stream cannot be carryed higher than the fountain if therefore thy aim and end in striving for affections and enlargements in duty be only to win applause from men and appear to be what in reality thou art not this indeed is the fruit of nature and a very corrupt and hypocritical nature too but if thy heart be not melted or desire to be melted in the sense of the evil of sin in order to the farther mortification of it and under the apprehensions of the free grace and mercy of God in the pardon of sin in order to the engaging of thy soul more firmly to him if these or such like be thy ends and designs or be promoted and furthered by thine enlargements and spiritual comforts never reject them as the meer fruits of nature a carnal root cannot bring forth such fruits as these Upon the Contrary Spiritual deadness and indisposedness Obj. 3. to duties and to those especially which are more secret spiritual and self-denying than others is the ground upon which many thousand souls who are yet truly gracious do doubt the indwelling of the spirit in them O saith such a soul if the spirit of God be in me Why is it thus Could my heart be so dead so backward and averse to spiritual duties no no these things would be my meat and my drink the delights and pleasures of my life First These things indeed are very sad and argue thy Sol. heart to be out of frame as the body is when it cannot relish the most desireable meats or drinks but the question will be how thy soul behaves it self in such a condition Qui bonâ—…m vult malum non vult is studium retinet plaâ—…di deo quamvis illectus concupiscentiâ malâ nonnunquam ex infirmitate illud committat quod deo displicet Davenant as this is whether this be easie or burthensome to be born by thee and if thou complain under it as a burthen then what pains thou takest to ease thy self and get rid of it Secondly Know also that there is a great difference betwixt spiritual death and spiritual deadness the former is the state of the unregenerate the latter is the disease and complaint of many thousand regenerate souls If David had not felt it as well as thee he would never have cryed out nine times in the compass of one Psalm Quicken me quicken me Besides Thirdly Though it be often it is not alwayes so with thee there are seasons wherein the Lord breaks in upon thy heart enlarges thy affections and sets thy soul at liberty to which times thou wilt do well to have an eye in these dark and cloudy dayes But the Spirit of God is a comforter as well as a sanctifier Obj. 4. he doth not only enable men to believe but after they believe he also seals them Eph. 1. 13. but I walk in darkness and am a stranger to the sealing and comforting work of the spirit how therefore can I imagine the spirit of God should dwell in me who go from day to day in the bitterness of my soul mourning as without the Sun There is a twofold sealing and a twofold comfort the Sol. spirit sealeth both objectively in the work of sanctification and formally in giving clear evidence of that work thou mayest be sealed in the first whilest thou art not yet sealed in the second sense if so thy condition is safe although it be at present uncomfortable And as to comfort that also is of two sorts viz. seminal or actual in the root or in the fruit light is sown for the righteous Psal.
incorporate with sin than oyle with water contraries cannot consist in the same subject longer than they are fighting with each other if there be no conflict with sin in thy soul or if that conflict be only betwixt the conscience and affections light in the one strugling with lust in the other thou wantest that fruit which should evidence thee to be a new creature Thirdly The mind and affections of the new Creature are set upon heavenly and spiritual things Col. 3. 1 2. Ephes. 4. 23. Rom. 8. 5. if therefore thy heart and affections be habitually earthly and wholly intent upon things below driving eagerly after the world as the great business and end of thy life deceive not thy self this is not the fruit of the New Creature nor consistent with it Fourthly The new Creature is a praying Creature living by its daily Communion with God which is its livelyhood and subsistence Zech. 12. 10. Acts 9. 11. If therefore thou be a prayerless soul or if in all thy prayers thou art a stranger to Communion with God if there be no brokenness of heart for sin in thy confessions no melting affections for Christ and holiness in thy supplications surely Satan doth but baffle and delude thy over-credulous soul in perswading thee that thou art a new Creature Fifthly The new Creature is restless after falls into sin until it have recovered peace and pardon it cannot endure it self in a state of defilement and pollution Psal. 51. 8 9 10 11 12. It is with the conscience of a new Creature under sin as it is with the eye when any thing offends it it cannot leave twinkling and watering till it have wept it out and in the very same restless state it is under the hiding of Gods face and divine withdrawments Cant. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. If therefore thou canst sin and sin again without such a burthensome sense of sin or restlesness or solicitude how to recover purity and peace with the light of Gods countenance shining as in dayes past upon thy soul delude not thy self thou hast not the signs of a new Creature in thee 4th Use for Exhortation If the new Creation be a sound evidence of our interest in Christ then hence let me perswade all that are in Christ to Use 4. evidence themselves to be so by walking as it becomes new Creatures The new Creature is born from above all its tendencies are Heaven-ward accordingly â—…et your affections on things that are above and let your conversation be in Heaven if you live earthly and sensual lives as others do you must cross your new Creature therein and can those acts be pleasant unto you which are done with so much regret wherein you must put a force upon your own spirits and offer a kind of violence to your own hearts Earthly delights and sorrows are suitable enough to the unregenerate and sensual men of the world but exceedingly contrary unto that spirit by which you are renovated If ever you will act becoming the principles and nature of new Creatures then seek earthly things with submission enjoy them with fear and caution resign them with cheerfulness and readiness and thus let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4. 5. Let your hearts daily meditate and your tongues discourse about heavenly things be exceeding tender of sin strict and punctual in every duty and hereby convince the world that you are men and women of another spirit 5th Use for Consolation Let every new creature be chearful and thankful if God have renewed your natures and thus altered the frame and Use 5. temper of your hearts he hath bestowed the richest mercy upon you that Heaven or Earth affords this is a work of greatest rarity a new creature may be called one among a thousand 't is also an everlasting work never to be destroyed as all other natural works of God how excellent soever must be 't is a work carried on by almighty power through unspeakable difficulties and mighty oppositions Eph. 1. 12. the exceeding greatness of Gods power goes forth to produce it and indeed no less is required to enlighten the blind mind break the rocky heart and bow the stubborn will of man and the same almighty power which at first created it is necessary to be continued every moment to preserve and continue it 1 Pet. 1. 5. the new creature is a mercy which draws a train of innumerable and invaluable mercies after it Eph. 2. 13 14. 1 Cor. 3. 22. when God hath given us a new nature then he dignifies us with a new name Rev. 2. 17. brings us into a new Covenant Jer. 31. 33. begets us again to a new hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. intitles us to a new inheritance Joh. 1. 12 13. 't is the new creature which through Christ makes our persons and duties acceptable with God Gal. 6. 15. In a word it is the wonderful work of God of which we may say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes there are unsearchable wonders in its generation in its operation and in its preservation Let all therefore whom the Lord hath thus renewed fall down at the feet of God in an humble admiration of the unsearchable riches of free grace and never open their mouths to complain under any adverse or bitter providences of God The Twenty seventh SERMON Sermon 27. GAL. 5. 24. Text. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh Of the nature principle and necessity of Mortification with the affections and lusts TWo great Tryals of our interest in Christ are finished we now proceed to a third namely the mortification of sin they that are Christs have crucified the flesh The scope of the Apostle in this context is to heal the unchristian breaches among the Galatians prevailing by the instigation of Satan to the breach of brotherly love to cure this he urges four weighty arguments First From the great Commandment to love one another upon which the whole Law i. e. all the duties of the second Table do depend vers 14. Secondly He powerfully disswades them from the consideration of the sad events of their bitter contests calumnies and detractions viz. mutual ruine and destruction vers 15. Thirdly He disswades them from the consideration of the contrariety of these practices unto the Spirit of God by whom they all profess themselves to be governed from vers 17 to the 23. Fourthly He powerfully disswades them from these animosities from the inconsistency of these or any other lusts of the flesh with an interest in Christ they that be Christs have crucified the flesh c. q. d. you all profess your selves to be members of Christ to be followers of him but how incongruous are these practices to such a profession Is this the fruit of the Dove-like-spirit of Christ Are these the fruits of your faith and professed mortification Shall the sheep of Christ â—…narl and fight like rabid and
advantage for the mortification of sin in as much as sin being contrary to the new nature and the object of grief and hatred cannot possibly be committed without reluctancy and very sensible regret of mind and actions done with regret are neither done frequently nor easily The case of a regenerate soul under the surprizals and particular victories of temptation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cùm ita quis capitur ut nequeat luctari nec se capienti obsistere Sclat being like that of a captive in war who marches not with delight but by constraint among his enemies So the Apostle expresseth himself Rom. 7. 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members thus the spirit of God promotes the design of mortification by the implantation of contrary habits Secondly By assisting those gracious habits in all the times 2. of need which he doth many ways sometimes notably awakening and rouzing grace out of the dull and sleepy habit and drawing forth the activity and power of it into actual and successful resistances of temptations as Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Holy fear awakens first and raises all the powers of grace in the soul to make a vigorous resistance of temptation the spirit also strengthens weak grace in the soul 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness and by reason of grace thus implanted and thus assisted he that is born of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Fifthly The last query to be satisfied is how mortification of sin solidly evinceth the souls interest in Christ and this it 5. doth divers ways affording the mortified soul many sound evidences thereof As Evidence 1. Whatsoever evidences the indwelling of the holy spirit of God in us must needs be evidential of a saving interest in Christ as hath been fully proved before but the mortification of sin doth plainly evidence the indwelling of the spirit of God for as we proved but now it can proceed from no other principle there is as strong and inseparable a connection betwixt mortification and the spirit as betwixt the effect and its proper cause and the self-same connection betwixt the inbeing of the spirit and union with Christ. So that to reason from mortification to the inhabitation of the spirit and from the inhabitation of the spirit to our union with Christ is a strong scriptural way of reasoning Evidence 2. That which proves a soul to be under the Covenant of Grace evidently proves its interest in Christ for Christ is the head of that Covenant and none but sound Believers are under the blessings and promises of it but mortification of sin is a sound evidence of the souls being under the Covenant of Grace as is plain from those words of the Apostle Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God sor sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace where the Apostle presseth Believers unto mortification by this incouragement that it will be a good evidence unto them of a new Covenant interest for all legal duties and endeavours can never mortifie sin 't is the spirit in the new Covenant which produces this whoever therefore hath his corruptions mortified hath his interest in the Covenant and consequently in Christ so far cleared unto him Evidence 3. That which is the fruit and evidence of saving faith must needs be a good evidence of our interest in Christ but mortifiâ—… 〈◊〉 sin is the fruit and evidence of saving faith Acts 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory whereby we overcome the world even our faith faith overcomes both the allurements of the world upon one hand and the terrors of the world upon the other hand by mortifying the heart and affections to all earthly things a mortified heart is not easily taken with the ensnaring pleasures of the world or much moved with the disgraces losses and sufferings it meets with from the world and so the strength and force of its temptations is broken and the mortified soul becomes victorious over it and all this by the instrumentality of faith Evidence 4. In a word there is an intimate and indissoluble connection betwixt the mortification of sin and the life of grace Rom. 6. 11. Reckon your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ and the life of Christ must needs involve a saving interest in Christ by all which is fully proved what was asserted in the observation from this Text. The Application follows in the next Sermon The Twenty eighth SERMON Sermon 28. GAL. 5. 24. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh Text. with the affections and lusts From hence our Observation was DOCT. THat a saving interest in Christ may be regularly and Doct. strongly inferred and concluded from the mortification of the flesh with its affections and lusts Having opened the nature and necessity of mortification in the former Sermon and shewn how regularly a 〈◊〉 â—…interest in Christ may be concluded from it we now proceed to apply the whole By way of 1. Information 2. Exhortation 3. Direction 4. Examination 5. Consolation 1st Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. If they that be Christs have crucified the flesh then the life Inference 1. of Christians is no idle or easie life the corruptions of his heart continually fill his hands with work with work of the most difficult nature sin-crucifying work which the Scripture calls the cutting off the right hand and plucking out of the right eye sin-crucifying work is hard work and it is constant work throughout the life of a Christian there is no time or place freed from this conflict every occasion stirs corruption and every stirring of corruption calls for mortification corruptions work in our very best duties Rom. 7. 23. and put the Christian upon mortifying labours The world and the Devil are great enemies and fountains of many temptations to Believers but not like the corruptions of our own hearts they only tempt objectively and externally but this tempts internally and therefore much more dangerous they only tempt at times and seasons this continually at all times and seasons beside what ever Satan or the world attempts upon us would be altogether ineffectual were it not for our own corruptions John 14. 30. So that the corruptions of our own hearts as they give us most danger so they must give us more labour our life
and this labour must end together for sin is long a dying in the best heart those that have been many years exercised in the study of mortification may haply feel the same corruption tempting and troubling them now which put them into tears and many times to their knees twenty or forty years ago It may be said of sin as it was of Hannibal that active enemy that it will never be quiet whether conquering or conquered and until sin cease working the Christian must not cease mortifying Inference 2. If mortification be the great work of a Christian then Inference 2. certainly those that give the corruptions of Christians an occasion to revive must needs do them a very ill office they are not our best friends that stir the pride of our hearts by the flattery of their lips The graces of God in others I confess are thankfully to be owned and under discouragements and contrary temptations to be wisely and modestly spoken of but the strongest Christians do scarcely shew their own weakness in any one thing more than they do in bearing their own praises Christian thou knowest thou carriest Gunpowder about thee desire those that carry fire to keep at a distance from thee 't is a dangerous Crisis when a proud heart meets with flattering lips auferte ignem c. take away the fire said a holy Divine of Germany when his friend commended him upon his death-bed for I have yet combustible matter about me faithful seasonable discreet reproofs are much more safe to us and advantageous to our mortifying work but alas how few have the boldness or wisdom duly to administer them 'T is said of Alexander that he bid a Philosopher who had been long with him to be gone for said he so long thou hast been with me and never reproved me which must needs be thy fault for either thou sawest nothing in me worthy of reproof which argues thy ignorance or else thou durst not reprove me which argues thy unfaithfulness A wise and faithful reprover is of singular use to him that is heartily engaged in the design of mortification such a faithful friend or some malitious enemy must be helpful to us in that work Inference 3. Hence it follows that manifold and successive afflictions are no more than is necessary for the best of Christians the mortification Inference 3. of our lusts require them all be they never so many 1 Pet. 1. 5. if need be ye are in heaviness 't is no more than need that one loss should follow another to mortifie an earthly heart for so intensely are our affections set upon the world that it is not one or two or many checks of providence that will suffice to wean and alienate them Alas the earthliness of our heart will take all this it may be much more than this to purge the earthliness of them the wise God sees it but necessary to permit frequent discoveries of our own weakness and to let loose the tongues of many enemies upon us and all little enough to pull down the pride and vanity that is in our hearts Christian how difficult soever it be for thee to bear it yet the pride of thy heart requires all the scoffs and jeers all the calumnies and reproaches that ever the tongues or pens of thy bitterest enemies or mistaking friends have at any time thrown upon thee Such rank weeds as grow in our hearts will require hard frosts and very sharp weather to rot them the straying Bullock needs a heavy clog and so doth a Christian whom God will keep within the bounds and limits of his commandments Psal. 119. 67. Dan. 11. 35. Inference 4. If they that be Christs have crucified the flesh then the Inference 4. Non est salvatus cruce Christi qui non est crucifixus in Christo qui non est membrum Christi Prosper number of real Christians is very small 't is true if all that seem to be meek humble and heavenly might pass for Christians the number would be great but if no more must be accounted Christians than those who crucifie the flesh with its affections and lusts O how small is the number For O how many be there under the Christian name that pamper and indulge their lusts that secretly hate all that faithfully reprove them and really affect none but such as feed their lusts by praising and admiring them How many that make provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts who cannot endure to have their corruptions crost how many are there that seem very meek and humble until an occasion be given to stir their passion and then you shall see in what degree they are mortified the flint is a cold stone till it be struck and then 't is all fiery I know the best of Christians are mortified but in part and strong corruptions are oft-times found in very eminent Christians but they love them not so well as to purvey for them to protect defend and countenance them nor dare they secretly hate such as faithfully reprove them as many thousands that go under the name of Christians do Upon the account of mortification it is said Matth. 7. 13. Narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Inference 5. If they that be Christs have crucified the flesh i. e. Inference 5. mortification is their daily work and study then how falsely are Christians charged as troublers of the world and disturbers of the civil peace and tranquillity of the times and places they live in Justly may they retort the charge as Elijah did to Ahab It is not I that trouble Israel but thou and thy Fathers house it is not the holy meek and humble Christians that put the world into confusion this is done by the prophane and atheistical or by the designing and hypocritical world and laid at the innocent Christians door as all the publick calamities which from the immediate hand of God or by foreign or domestick enemies befel Rome were constantly charged upon Christians and they condemned and punished for what the righteous hand of God inflicted or the working-heads of the enemies of that State without their privity contrived The Apostle James propounds and answers a very pertinent question unto this discourse James 4. 1. From whence come wars and fightings among you come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members O if all men did but study mortification and self-denial and live as much at home in the constant work of their own hearts as some men do what tranquillity and peace what blessed halcyon days should we quickly see 'T is true Christians are always fighting and quarrelling but it is with themselves and their own corrupt hearts and affections they hate no enemy but sin they thirst for the blood and ruine of none but of that enemy they are ambitious of no victory but what is over the corruptions of their own hearts
interest in Christ as my Text considers it and what an heaven upon earth must then be found in mortification These indeavours of mine to subdue and mortifie my corruptions plainly speak the Spirit of God in me and my being in Christ and O what is this What heart hath largeness and strength enough to receive and contain the joy and comfort which flowes from a cleared interest in Jesus Christ Certainly Christians the tranquillity and comfort of your whole life depends upon it and what is life without the comfort of life Rom. 8. 13. If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live i. e. you shall live a serene placid comfortable life for it is corruption unmortified which clouds the face of God and breaks the peace of his people and consequently imbitters the life of a Christian. 2. Motive As the comfort of your own lives which is much so your Motive 2. instrumental fitness for the service of God which is much more depends upon the Mortification of your sins 2 Tim. 2. 21. If a man therefore purge himself from these he shall be a vessel unto honour sanctified and meet for the masters use and prepared unto every good work Where is the mercy of life but in the usefulness and serviceableness of it unto God It is not worth while to live sixty or seventy years in the world to eat and drink to buy and sell to laugh and cry and then go down to the place of silence So far as any man lives to God an useful serviceable life to his praise and honour so far only and no farther doth he answer the end of his being But it is the purged mortified soul which is the vessel of honour prepared and meet for the masters use Let a proud or an earthly heart be imployed in any service for God and you shall find that such an heart will both spoil the work by managing it for a self end as Jehu did and then devour the praise of it by a proud boast Come see my zeal When the Lord would employ the prophet Isaiah in his work and service his iniquity was first purged and after that he was imployed Isa. 6. 6 7 8. Sin is the souls sickness a consumption upon the inner man and we know that languishing consumptive persons are very unfit to be imployed in difficult and strenuous labours Mortification so far as it prevails cures the disease recovers our strength and inables us for service to God in our generations 3. Motive Your stability and safety in the hour of temptation depends Motive 3. upon the success of your mortifying endeavours Is it then a valuable mercy in your eyes to be kept upright and stedfast in the critical season of temptation when Satan shall be wrestling with you for the Crown and Prize of eternal life Then give diligence to mortifie your corruptions Temptation is a siege Satan is the enemy without the walls labouring to force an entrance natural corruptions are the Traytours within that hold correspondency with the enemy without and open the gate of the soul to receive him It was the covetousness of Judas his heart which overthrew him in the hour of Temptation They are our fleshly lusts which go over unto Satan in the day of Battel and fight against our souls 1 Pet. 2. 11. the corruptions or infectious atomes which fly up and down the world in times of Temptation as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports 2 Pet. 2. 20. are through lusts 2 Pet. 1. 4. 'T is the lust within which gives a luster to the vanities of the world without and thereby makes them strong temptations to us 1 John 2. 16. Mortifie therefore your corruptions as ever you expect to maintain your station in the day of trial cut off those advantages of your enemy lest by them he cut off your souls and all your hopes from God 4. Motive As Temptations will be irresistible so afflictions will be unsupportable to you without Mortification My friends you Motive 4. live in a mutable world providence daily rings the changes in all the Kingdoms Cities and Towns all the world over You that have husbands or wives to day may be left desolate to morrow you that have estates and children now may be bereaved of both before you are aware Sickness will tread upon the heel of health and death will assuredly follow life as the night doth the day Consider with your selves are you able to bear the loss of your sweet enjoyments with patience Can you think upon the parting hour without some tremblings O get a heart mortified to all these things and you will bless a taking as well as a giving God 'T is the living world not the crucified world that raises such tumults in our souls in the day of affliction How cheerful was holy Paul under all his sufferings and what think you gave him that peace and cheerfulness but his mortification to the world Phil. 4. 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to abound and suffer need Job was the mirrour of patience in the greatest shock of calamity and what made him so but the moâ—…tifiedness of his heart in the fullest enjoyment of earthly things Job 31. 25. 5. Motive The reputation and honour of Religion is deeply concerned in the Mortification of the Professors of it for unmortified Motive 5. professors will first or last be the scandals and reproaches of it The profession of religion may give credit to you but to be sure you will never bring credit to it All the scandals and reproaches that fall upon the name of Christ in this world flow from the fountain of unmortified corruption Judas and Demas Hymeneus and Philetus Ananias and Saphira ruined themselves and became rocks of offence to others by this means If ever you will keep Religion sweet labour to keep your hearts mortified and pure 6. Motive To conclude what an hardâ—…tug will you have in your dying Motive 6. hour except you get a heart mortified to this world and all that is in it your parting hour is like to be a dreadful hour without the help of mortification Your corruptions like glew fasten your affections to the world and how hard will it be for such a man to be separated by death O what a bitter and doleful parting have carnal hearts from carnal things whereas the mortified soul can receive the messengers of death without trouble and as cheerfully put off the body at death as a man doth his clothes at night death need not pull and hale such a man goes half way to meet it Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better Christian wouldst thou have thy death bed soft and easie wouldst thou have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the
Philosopher desired for himself an easie death without pain or terrour then get a mortified heart the Chirurgeons knife is scarce felt when it cuts off a mortified member 3d. Use for Direction Are you convinced and fully satisfied of the excellency and Use 3. necessity of mortification and inquisitive after the means in the use whereof it may be attained then for your help and encouragement I will in the next place offer my best assistance in laying down the rules for this work 1. Rule If ever you will succeed and prospâ—… in the work of mortification Rule 1. then get and daily exercise more faith Faith is the great instrument of mortification This is the victory or sword by which the victory is won the instrument by which you overcome the world even your faith 1 John 5. 4. By faith alone eternal things are discovered to our souls in their reality and excelling glory and these are the preponderating things for the sake whereof self-denial and mortification becomes easie to believers by opposing things eternal to things temporal we resist Satan 1 Pet. 5. 8. This is the shield by which we quench the fiery darts of the wicked one Eph. 6. 16. 2. Rule Walk in daily communion with God if ever you will mortifie the corruptions of nature that is the Apostles own prescription Rule 2. Gal. 1. 16. This I say then walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Spiritual and frequent communion with God gives manifold advantages for the mortification of sin as it is a bright glass wherein the holiness of God and the exceeding sinfulness of sin as it is opposite thereunto are most clearly and sensibly discovered than which scarce any thing can set a keener edge of indignation upon the spirit of a man against fin Besides all communion with God is assimilating and transformative of the soul into his image it leaves also a heavenly relish and savour upon the soul it darkens the luster and glory of all earthly things by presenting to the soul a Glory which excelleth It marvelously improves and more deeply radicates sanctification in the soul by all which means it becomes singularly useful and successful in the work of mortification 3. Rule Keep your Consciences under the awe and in the fear of Rule 3. God continually as ever you hope to be successful in the Mortification of sin The fear of God is the great preservative from sin without which all the external rules and helps in the world signifie nothing By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil Prov. 16. 6. Not only from external and more open evils which the fear of men as well as the fear of God may prevent but from the most secret and inward evils which is a special part of Mortification Levit. 19. 14. It keeps men from those evils which no eye nor ear of man can possibly discover The fear of the Lord breaks Temptations baited with pleasure with profit and with secresie In a word if ever you be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit it must be by the fear of God 2 Cor. 7. 1. 4. Rule Study the vanity of the creature and labour to get true Rule 4. notions of the emptiness and transitoriness thereof if ever you will attain to the Mortification of your affections towards Readers if ever you would have a true sight of the emptiness and vanity of the creature and get a mortified heart to the world now is the time for at this day the providence of God hath withered all the fading flowers of earthly delights and shewed you the worlds back parts as it is departing from you it 'T is the false picture and image of the world in our fancy that crucifies us with so many cares fears and solicitudes about it and it is the true picture and image of the world represented to us in the glass of the word which greatly helps to crucifie our affections to the world O if we did but know and believe three things about the world we would never be so fond of it as we are viz. the fading defiling and destroying nature of it the best and sweetest enjoyments of the world are but fading flowers and withering grass Isa. 14. 6. James 1. 10 11. Yea it is of a defiling as well as a fading nature 1 John 5. 19. It lies in wickedness it spreads universal infection umong all mankind 2 Pet. 1. 4. Yea it destroyes as well as defiles multitudes of souls drowning men in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9. Millions of souls will wish to eternity they had never known the riches pleasures or honours of it were this believed how would men slack their pace and cool themselves in the violent and eager pursuit of the world This greatly tends to promote Mortification 5. Rule Be careful to cut off all the occasions of sin and keep at the greatest distance from temptations if ever you will mortifie Rule 5. the deeds of the body The success and prevalency of sin mainly depends upon the wiles and stratagems it makes use of to ensnare the incautelous soul therefore the Apostle bids us keep off at the greatest distance 1 Thes. 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil Prov. 8. 8. Come not nigh unto the door of her house He that dares venture to the very brink of sin discovers but little light in his understanding and less tenderness in his conscience he neither knows sin nor fears it as he ought to do and 't is usual with God to chastise self-confidence by shameful lapses into sin 6. Rule If you will successfully mortific the corruptions of your nature never engage against them in your own single strength Rule 6. Eph. 6. 10. When the Apostle draws forth Christians into the field against sin he bids them be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might O remember what a meer feather thou art in the gusts of Temptation Call to mind the height of Peters confidence though all men forsake thee yet will not I and the depth of his fall shame and sorrow A weak Christian trembling in himself depending by faith upon God and graciously assisted by him shall be able to stand against the shock of temptation when the bold and confident resolutions of others like Pendleton in our English story shall melt away as wax before the flames 7. Rule Set in with the mortifying design of God in the day of thine affliction Sanctified afflictions are ordered and prescribed in Rule 7. heaven for the purging of our corruptions Isa. 27. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his sin 'T is a fair glass to represent the evil of sin and the vanity of the creature to imbitter the world and disgust thy affections towards it fall in therefore with the gracious design of God follow home every affliction with prayer
place why all that profess Christ are bound to imitate his example and then apply the whole Now the necessity of this imitation of Christ will convincingly appear diverse ways First From the established order of salvation which is fixed and unalterable God that hath appointed the end hath also 1. established the means and order by which men shall attain the ultimate end Now Conformity to Christ is the established method in which God will bring souls to glory Rom. 8. 29. For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son that he might be the first-born among many brethren The same God who hath predestinated men to salvation hath in order thereunto predestinated them unto Conformity to Christ and this order of heaven is never to be reversed we may as well hope to be saved without Christ as to be saved without Conformity to Christ. Secondly The nature of Christ mystical requires this Conformity 2. and renders it indispensably necessary Otherwise the body of Christ must be heterogeneous of a nature different from the head and how monstrous and uncomely would this be This would represent Christ to the world in an image or Idea much like that Dan. 2. 32 33. The head of fine gold the breast and arms of silver the thighs of brass the legs of iron the feet part of iron part of clay Christ the head is pure and holy and therefore very unsuitable to sensual and earthly members And therefore the Apostle in his description of mystical Christ describes the members of Christ as they ought to be of the same nature and quality with the head 1 Cor. 15. 48. As is the heavenly such are they also that are heavenly and as we have born the image of the earthy so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly That image or resemblance of Christ which shall be compleat and perfect after the Resurrection must be begun in its first draught here by the work of regeneration Thirdly This resemblance and conformity to Christ appears 3. necessary from the communion which all believers have with Christ in the same Spirit of grace and holiness Believers are called Christs fellows or copartners Psal. 45. 7. from their participation with him of the same spirit as it is 1 Thes. 4. 8. God giveth the same spirit unto us which he more plentifully poured out upon Christ. Now where the same spirit and principle is there the same fruits and operations must be produced according to the proportions and measures of the spirit of grace communicated and this reason is farther enforced by the very design and end of God in the infusion of the spirit of grace for it is plain from Ezek. 36. 27. that practical holiness and obedience is the scope and design of that infusion of the spirit The very innaâ—… property of the spirit of God in men is to elevate their minds and set their affections upon heavenly things to purge their hearts from earthly dross and fit them for a life of holiness and obedience its nature also is assimilating and changeth them in whom it is into the same image with Jesus Christ their heavenly head 2 Cor. 3. 18. Fourthly The necessity of this imitation of Christ may be argued from the design and end of Christs exhibition to the 4. world in a body of flesh For though we detest that doctrine of the Socinians which makes the exemplary life of Christ to be upon the matter the whole end of his incarnation yet we must not run so far from an error as to lose a precious truth We say the satisfaction of his blood was a main and principal end of his Incarnation according to Mat. 20. 28. We affirm also that it was a great design and end of the Incarnation of Christ to set before us a pattern of holiness for our imitation For so speaks the Apostle 1 Pet. 2. 21. He hath left us an example that we should follow his steps And this example of Christ greatly obliges believers to his imitation Phil. 2. 5. Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus Fifthly our imitation of Christ is one of those great Articles which every man is to subscribe whom Christ will admit 5. into the number of his disciples Luke 14. 27. Whosoever doth not come after me cannot be my disciple And again John 12. 26. If any man serve me let him follow me To this condition we have submitted if we be sincere believers and therefore are strictly bound to the imitation of Christ not only by Gods command but by our own consent But if we profess interest in Christ when our hearts never consented to follow and imitate his example then are we self-deceiving hypocrites wholly disagreeing from the scripture character of believers Rom. 8. 1. They that are Christs being there described to be such as walk not after the flesh but after the spirit and Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the spirit let us walk in the spirit Sixthly The honour of Christ necessitates the conformity of Christians to his example else what way is there left 6. to stop detracting mouths and vindicate the name of Christ from the reproaches of the world how can wisdom be justified of her children except it be this way by what means shall we cut off occasion from such as desire occasion but by regulating our lives by Christs example The world hath eyes to see what we practise as well as ears to hear what we profess Therefore either shew the consistency betwixt your profession and practice or you can never hope to vindicate the name and honour of the Lord Jesus The uses follow For 1. Information 2. Exhortation 3. Consolation 1. Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. If all that profess interest in Christ be strictly bound to imitate his holy example then it follows that Religion is very unjustly charged Inference 1. by the world with the scandals and evils of them that profess it Nothing can be more unjust and irrational if we consider First That Christian Religion severely censures loose and scandalous actions in all professors and therefore is not to be censured for them 'T is absurd to condemn Religion for what it self condemns Looseness no way flowes from the principles of Christianity but is most opposite and contrary to it Titus 2. 11 12. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Secondly It is an argument of the excellency of Christian Religion that even wicked men themselves covet the name and profession of it though they only cloak and cover their evils under it I confess it is a great abuse of such an excellent thing as Religion is but yet if it had not an awful reverence paid it by the consciences of all men it would
mercy and therefore the means that begat and encreased it must be so too but yet it is a mercy liable to the greatest abuse and the abuse of the best mercies brings forth the greatest miseries Alas Christians your duty is but half learnt when you know it obedience to light makes light a blessing indeed Joh. 13. 17. If ye know these things happy are ye if you do them Happiness is not entailed upon simple knowing but upon doing upon obedience to our knowledge otherwise he that increaseth knowledge doth but increase sorrow for that servant which knew his Lords will and prepared not himself nor did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes Luke 13. 47. And to him that knoweth to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Jam. 4. 17. We are bound with all thankfulness to acknowledge the bounty of Heaven to this sinful generation in furnishing us with so many excellent means of light beyond many other nations and generations that are past but yet we ought to rejoice with trembling when we consider the abuses of light in this wanton age and what a dismal event is like to happen unto many thousands among us I fear the time is coming when many among us will wish they had never set foot upon English ground God hath blessed this nation with many famous burning and shining lights it was once said to the honour of this Nation that the English Ministry was the worlds Clerus Anglicanus stupor mâ—…ndi wonder and when a man of another Nation began to Preach methodically and convincingly they were once wont to say we perceive this man hath been in England the greater will our Peâ—…cipimus â—…c hominem fâ—…isse in Anglia account be for abusing such light and rebelling against it the clearer our light is now the thicker will the mists of darkness be hereafter if we thus wantonize under it and rebel against it The Devils have more light than we and therefore the more torment of them it is said Jam. 2. 19. The Devils also believe and tremble the horror of their Consciences is answerable to their illumination they tremble the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est 〈◊〉 aâ—…itatio Eustach signifies the rote of the Sea or such a murmuring dreadful noise as the tempestuous Seas use to make when they break themselves against the Rocks Inference 2. If the abuse of light thus aggravates sin and misery then times of great temptation are like to be times of deep guilt Wo to an Inference 2. inlightned knowing generation when strong temptations befall them How do many in such times imprison the known truth to keep themselves out of Prison offer violence to their own Consciences to avoid violence from other hands * Opificeâ—…â—…iversorum 〈◊〉 invenire fâ—…le neque inventum iâ—…â—…gus promulgare tutum Plato was convinced of the unity of God but durst not own his own convictions but said it was a truth neither easie to find nor safe to own And even * In â—…nimi religione non habeat sed in actibus fiâ—…t Seneca the renowned moralist was forced by temptation to dissemble his conviction of whom * Colebat quod reprebendebat agebat quod arguebat quod culpabat adorabat Augustin saith he worshipped what himself reprehended and did what himself reproved and even a great Papist of later times was heard to say as he was going to Mass eamus ad communem errorem let us go to the common error O how hard is it to keep Conscience pure and peaceable in days of temptation doubtless it is a mercy to many weak and timerous Christians to be removed by a seasonable death out of harms way to be disbanded by a merciful providence before the heat of the battle Christ and Antichrist seem at this day to be drawing into the field a fiery tryal threatens the professors of this age but when it comes to a close grapple indeed we may justly tremble to think how many thousands will break their way through the convictions of their own Consciences to save their flesh Believe it sirs if Christ hold you to himself by no other tye than the slender thread of a single conviction if he have not interest in your hearts and affections as well as in your understandings and Consciences if you be men of great light and strong unmortified lusts if you profess Christ with your tongues and worship the world with your hearts a man may say of you without the gift of prophecie what the Prophet said of Hazael I know what ye will do in the day of temptation Inference 3. If this be so what a strong engagement lieth upon all enlightned Inference 3. persons to turn heartily to God and reduce their knowledge into practice and obedience The more men know the more violence they do to their own Consciences in rebelling against the light this is to sin with an high hand Num. 15. 30. Believe it sirs you cannot sin at so cheap a rate as others do knowledge in a wicked man like high mettle in a blind Horse doth but the sooner precipitate him into ruine You may know much more than others but if ever you come to Heaven it must be in the same way of faith and obedience mortification and self-denial in which the weakest Christian comes thither whatever knowledge you have to be sure you have no wisdom if you expect salvation upon any other or easier terms than the most illiterate Christian finds it It was a sad observation of the Father surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum the unlearned rise and take Heaven What a pity 't is that men of such excellent parts should be enslaved to their lusts that ever it should be said sapientes sapienter descendunt in Gehennam their learning doth but hang in their light it doth but blind them in spiritual things and prepareth them for the greater misery Inference 4. Hence it also follows that the work of conversion is a very difficult work the soul is scarcely half won to Christ when Satan Inference 4. is cast out of the understanding by illumination The Devil hath deeply intrenched himself and strongly fortisied every faculty of the soul against Christ. The understanding indeed is the first entrance into the soul and out of that faculty he is oftentimes expulsed by light and conviction which seems to make a great change upon a man Now he becomes a professor now he takes up the duties of Religion and passes up and down the world for a convert but alas alas all the while Satan keeps the Fort-royal the heart and will in his own possession and this is a work of more difficulty The weapons of that warfare must indeed be mighty through God which do not only cast down imaginations but bring every thought of the heart into captivity to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. While the heart stands out though the understanding