and in his own person he submitted to be tempted to sin though it had been evil for us he had been overcome by it yet this brings him a step lower and nearer us and maketh the union more hopeful But since he can come no lower and can be made no liker us in the case we are in then certainly if the match hold We must become liker him and raised up out of our miserable estate to some suitableness to his holy Nature and therefore the love and wisdom of God to fill up the distance compleatly and effectuat this happy conjunction that the creation seemeth to groan for for vers 22. the whole creation is pained till it be accomplished he hath sent his blessed Spirit to dwell in Vs and to transform our natures and make them partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 as Christ was partaker of humane nature and thus the distance shall be removed when a blessed Spirit is made flesh and a fleshly man made spirit then they are near the day of espousals and this indwelling of the spirit is the last link of the chain that fastens us to Christ and maketh our flesh in some measure like His holy flesh By taking on our flesh Christ became bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh But the union becometh mutual when we receive the spirit we become bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh as it is expressed Eph. 5.30 In allusion to the creation of Eve and her marriage to Adam the ground of the marriage is That near bond of union because she was taken out of man and therefore because of his flesh and bone she was made one flesh with him even â—o the sinner must be partaker of the Spirit of Christ as Christ is partaker of the flesh of sinners and these two concurring these two knots interchanging and woven thorow other we become one flâ—sh with him And this is a great mystery indeed to bring two who were so far assunder so near other Yea it is nearer then that too for we are said not only to be one flesh with Christ but one spirit 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit because he is animated and quickned by one Spirit that same Spirit of Christ and indeed spirits are more capable of union and more fit to embosome one with another then bodies therefore the nearest union conceivable is the union of spirits by affection this maketh two souls one for it transports their spirit out of the body where it lives and setleth it there where it loveth Now my beloved you see what way this great marriage that heaven and earth are in a longing expectation after shall be brought about Christ he did forsake his Fathers house when he lest that holy habitation his Fathers bosome a place of marvellous delight Prov. 8.30 And descended into the lowest parts of the earth Eph. 4.9 And He came out from the Father into the world John 16.28 This was a great journey to meet with poor sinners But that there may be a full and intire meeting you must leave and forsake your fathers house too and forget your own people Psal. 45.10 You must give an intire renounce to all former lovers if you would be His all former bonds and engagments must be broken that this may be tyed the faster And to hold to the subject in hand you must forsake and forget the flesh and be possessed of his holy Spirit as he came down to our flesh you must rise up to meet him in the Spirit the Spirit of Christ must indeed prevent you and take you out of that natural posture you are born into and bring you a great journey from your selves that you may be joyned unto Him This Spirit of Christ is his messenger and ambassadour sent before-hand to fit you and suit you for the day of Espousals and therefore he must have a dwelling and constant abode in you This indwelling imports A special familiar operation and the perpetuity or continuance of it The Spirit is every where in his being and he worketh every where too but here he hath a special and peculiar work in commission To reveal the love of God in Christ to engage the soul to love him again to prepare all within for the great day of Espousals to purifie and purge the heart from all that is displeasing to Christ to correspond between Christ and his Spouse between Heaven and Earth by making intercession for her when she cannot pray for her self as you find here vers 26. and so sending up the news of the souls panting and breathing after Christ sending up her love groans and sighs to her beloved giving intelligence of all her necessities to Him who is above in the place of an Advocat and Interceeder and then bringing back from Heaven light and life direction from her Head for the Spirit must lead in all truth and consolation for Christ hath appointed the spirit to supply his absence and to comfort the soul in the mean time till he come again you have this mutual and reciprocal knot in 1 Ioh. 4.13 Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us by the spirit that he hath given It is much nearness to dwell one with another but much greater to dwell one in another and its reciprocal such a wonderful interchange in it we in him and he in us for the Spirit carries the soul to Heaven and brings Christ as it were down to the earth He is the Messenger that carries Letters between both our prayers to Him and His prayers for us and love-tokens to us the anointing that teacheth us all things from our husband 1 Ioh. 2.27 and revealing to us the things of God 1 Cor. 2.12 giving us the fiâ—st fruits of that happy and glorious communion we must have with Christ in Heaven as you see ver 23. of this chap. and sealing us to the day of redemption Eph 1.13 and 4.30 Supplying us with divine power against our spiritual enemies fetching alongs from Heaven that strength whereby our Lord and Saviour overcame all Eph. 3.16 Gal. 5.17 This is a presence that few have such a familiar and love-abode But certainly all that are Christs must have it in some measure Now whosoever hath it its perpetual the Spirit dwells in them It s not a sojourning for a season not a lodging for a night as some have fits and starts of seeking God and some transient motions of conviction or joy but return again to the puddle these go through them as lightning and do nâ—t warm them or change them but this is a constant residence where the Spirit takes up house he will dwell he dwelleth with you and shall be in you and abide for ever Joh. 14.16 17. If the Son abide in the house for ever Joh. 8.35 much more the master of the house must abide Now the Spirit where he dwells hath gotten the command of that house all
and besides it was for a pledge that at the last day all shall not die but be changed The true cause of death is sin and the true nature of it is penal to be a punishment of sin take away this relation to sin and death wants the sting But in itâ— fiâ—st appointment and as it prevails generally over men aâ—uleaâ—a est mors it hath a sting that pierceth deeper and woundeth soâ—er then to the dissolution of the body it goeth in to the innermost paâ—â—s of the soul and wâ—undeth that eternally The truth is the death of the body is not either the first death or the last death it is rather placed in the middle between two deaths and it s the fruit of the first and the root of the last There is a death immediatly hath ensued upon sin and it is the separation of the soul from God the fountain of life and blessedness and this is the death often spoken of you who were dead in sins and trespasses c. Eph. 2.1 Being past feeling and alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 19. And truly this is worse in it â—elf then the death of the body simply though not so sensible because â—pirituâ—l the corruption of the best pâ—â—t in man in all reason is worse then the corruption of his worst part but this death which consists especially in the losse of that blessed communion with God which made the soul happy cannot be found till some new life enter or else till the last death come which adds infinit pain to infinit losse Now the death of the body succeeds thiâ— souls death and that is the separation of the soul from the body most suitable seeing the soul was turned from the fountain spirit to the body that the body should by his command return to dust and be made the most defiâ—ed piece of dust Now this were not so grievous if it were not a step to the death to come and a degree of it introductive to it But that statute and appointment of Heaven hath thus linked it after death comes Iudgment Because the soul in the body would not be sensible of its separation from God but was wholly taken up with the body neglecting and miskenning that infinit losse of Gods favour and face therefore the Lord commands it to go out of the body that it maythen be sensible of its infinit loss of God when it is separated from the body that it may then have leasure to reflect upon it self and find its own surpassing misery and then indeed infinit pain and infinit losse conjoyned eternal banishment from the presence of that blessed Spirit and eternal torment within it self these two concurring what posture do you think such a soul will be into There are some earnest of this in this life when God reveals his terrour and sets mens sins in order before their face O how intolerable is it and more insupportable then many deaths They that have been accquainted with it have declared it the terrours of God are like poysonable arrows sunk into Jobs spirit and drinking up all the moisture of them Such a spirit as is wounded with one of these darts shot from Heaven who can bear it not the most patient and most magnanimous spirit that can sustain all other infiâ—mities Prov. 18.14 Now my beloved if it be so now while the soul is in the body drowned in it what will be the case of the soul separated from the body when it shall be all one sense to reflect and consider it self This is the sting of death indeed worse then a thousand deaths to a soul that apprehends it and the lesse it is apprehended the worse it is because it is the more certain and must shortly be found when there is no brazen serpent to heal that sting Now what comfort have you provided against this day what way do you think to take out this sting Truly there is no balm for it no Physitian for it but one and that the Christian is only acquainted with He in whom Christ is he hath this soveraign antidot against the pâ—yson of Death he hath the very sting of it taken out by Châ—â—st death it self killed and of an mortal enemy made the kindest friend And so he may triumph with the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God in Iesuâ— Christ who giveth us the victory 1 Cor. 15.55 The ground of his triumph and that which a Christian hath to oppose to all the sorrows and pains and fears of death mustred against him is threefold one that death is not real a second that is not total even that which is and then that it is not perpetual This last is contained in the next vers the second expressed in this vers and the first may be understood or implyed in it That the nature of death is so far changed that of a punishment it is become a medicine of a punishment for sin it is turned into the last purgative of the soul from sin and thus the sting of it is taken away that relation it did bear to the just wrath of God And now the body of a Christian under appointment to die for sin that is for the death of sin the eternal death of sin Christ having come under the power of death hath gotten power over it and spoiled it of its stinging vertue he hath taken away the poysonable ingredient of the curse that it can no more hurt them that are in Him and so it is not now vested with that piercing and wounding notion of punishment though it be true that sin was the first in-lett of death that it first opened the slâ—ue to let it enter and flow in upon mankind yet that appointment of death is renewed and bears a relation to the destruction of sin rather then the punishment of the sinner who is f`orgiven in Christ And O how much solid comfort is here that the great reason of mortality that a Christian it subject unto is that he may be made free of that which made him at first mortal Because sin hath taken suâ—h possession in this earthly tabernacle and is so strong a poyson that it hath infected all the members and by no purgation here made can be fully cleansed â—ut but there are many secret corners it lurks into and upon occasion vents it self therefore it hath pleased God in His infinit goodnesse to continue the former appointment of death but under a new and living consideration to take down this infected and defiled tabernacle as the houses of leprosie were taken down under the Law that so they might be the better cleansed and this is the last purification of the soul from sin And therefore as one of the Ancients said well That we might not be eternally miserable mercy hath made us mortal Justice hath made the world mortal that they may be eternally miserable but to put an end to this misery
shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and glory of his power if it were duely apprehended it would weigh down a mans soul and make it heavy unto death This condemnation includes both damnum poenam poenam damni poenam sensus and both are infinite in themselves and eternal in their continuance What an unpleasant and bitter life would one lead that were born to a kingdom and yet to be banished it and losse it But what an incomparable losse is it to fall from an heavenly kingdome which heart cannot conceive and that for ever In Gods favour is life and in his presence are rivers of pleasures for evermore When your petty penny-losses do so much afflict your spirits what would the due apprehension of so great a losse do would it not be death unto you and worse then death to be separated from this life to be eternally banished from the presence of this glory If there should be no more punishment but this only if the wicked were to endure for ever on earth and the godly whom they despised and mocked were translated to heaven what torment would it be to your souls to think upon that blessednesse which they enjoy above and how foolishly ye have been put by it for a thing of no value what would a rich man's advantages and gaines be to him when he considereth what an infinite loser he is how he hath sold a kingdom for a dung-hill Now if there were any hope that after some years his banishment from heaven might end this might refresh him but there is not one drop of such consolation he is banished and eternally banished from that glorious life in the presence of God which these do enjoy whom he despised If a man were shut up all his lifetime in a pit never to see the light once more would not this be torment enough to him but when withall there is such pain joyned with this losse when all this time he is tormented within with a gnawing worm and without with fire these senses that did so greedily hunt after satisfaction to themselves are now as sensible in the feeling of pain and torment and when this shall not make an end but be eternal O! whose heart can consider it It is the comfort and ease of bodily toâ—ments here that they will end in death Destruction destroyes it self in destroying the body but here is an immortal soul to seed upon and at length the body shall be immortal that destruction cannot quite destroy it but shall be an everlasting destruction and living death This is the sentence that is once past against us all in the Word of God and not one jot of this Word shall fall to the ground Heaven and earth may fail sooner Ye would think it were an irrepealable decree if all the Nations in the earth and Angels above conveened to adjudge a man to death did pass sentence upon him Nay but this Word that is daily spoken to you which passeth this sentence upon you all is more certain and this sentence of death must be executed unless ye be under that blessed exception made here and elsewhere in the Gospel I beseech you consider what it is to have such a Judge condemning you Would not any of you be afraid if ye were under the sentence of a King if that judgment were above your head Who of you would fit in peace and quietness Who would not flee from the wrath of a King that is like the roaring of a Lion But there is a sentence of the KING of Kings and Nations above your heads Who would not fear thee to whom it doth appertain O King of Nations It is not a great man that can destroy thy body that is against thee it is not he who hath power to kill thee and he hath also a great desire so to do this were indeed much but it is the great and eternal Jehovah who lifts up his hand to heaven and swears he lives for ever he is against thee he who hath all power over body and soul is against thee and so is oblidged to improve his omnipotency against thee He can kill both soul and body and cast them into hell and by vertue of this curse he will not spare thee but pour out all the curses in this book Thou would be at no peace if thou wert declared rebell by the King and Parliament but alace that 's a small thing they can but reach thy body nay neither can they alwayes do that thou may flee from them but whither canst thou flee from him thou cannot go out of his dominions for the earth is his and the sea and all that therein is darkness cannot hide thee from him he may spare long because he can certainly overtake when he pleases men may not because they have no assurance of finding I beseech you then consider this it is of soul-consequence and what hath a man gained if he gain the world and lose his soul if the gainer be lost what is gained And it is of eternal consequence and what is many thousand years to this You can look beyond all these and might comfort your sâ—lves on hope but you cannot see to the end of this there is still more before than is past nay there is nothing past it is still as beginning O that ye would consider this curse of God that stands registrate upon us all What effects had it in Christ when he did bear it it made his soul heavy to death it was a cup that he could scarcely drink he that supported the frame of this world was almost near succumbing under the weight of this wrath it made him sweat blood in the garden He that could do all things and speak all things was put to this What shall I say When this condemnation was so terrible to him who was that mighty One upon whom all help was laid what shall it be to you No mans sorrow was ever like his nor pain ever like his if all the scattered torments were united in one but because he was God he overcame and came out from under it But what do you think shall be the estate of these who shall endure that same torment and not for three dayes or three years or some thousands of years but beyond imagination to all eternity I beseech you consider this condemnation which ye are adjudged unto and do not ly under it Do ye think ye can endure what Christ endured Do ye think ye can bear wrath according to Gods power and justice and yet the judgment is come upon all men to this condemnation But alace who fears him according to his wrath Who knows the power of his anger Ye sleep secure as if all matters were past and over your head We declare unto you in the Lords Name that this condemnation is yet above you because you have not judged your selves It is preached unto you that ye may flee from it
heaven and earth to be so busied abroad to know other things and then to know and consider nothing of that which of all things most nearly concâ—rns us our selves what shall it profite a man if he gain the whole world and lose his soul for that is himself And what shall it proâ—â—t to know all and not know his soul to be every where but where he ought to be Well a Christian is one called home from vain impertinent diversions one that is occupyed most about his soul and spirit how to have all the disorders hâ—â—â—â—ds in himself ordâ—rd all these distempers cured all these defilements washed this is the business he is about in this world to wash his heart from wickedness Jer. 4.14 To cleanse even vain thoughts and shut up from that ordinary repair his own heart he is about the inclosing it to be a garden to the welbeloved to bâ—ing forth sweet fruits he is about the renewing of it the adorning of it with the new man against that day of our Bridegrooms appearing and bringing him up to celebrate the marriage Though he be in the flesh yet he is most taken up with his Spirit how to have it restored to that primitive beauty and excellency the Image of God in it how to be cloathed with humility and to put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit that he accounts his beauty how to rule his own spirit that he accounts only true fortitude and thinks it a greater vassalage and victory to overcome himself then his enemy and esteems it the noblest revenge not to be like to other men that wrong him he is occupyed about the highest gain and advantage viz to save his spirit and soul and accounts all loss to this to bring Jesus Christ into the heart that is the jewel he digs for and esteems all duâ—g in comparison of it If you be Christians after the Spirit no doubt you are busied this way about your spirits For others they are busied about the flesh to make provision for its lusts and there needs no other mark to know them by Alas poor souls that you have never yet adverted that you have spirits immortal beings within you which must survive this dust this corruptible flesh What will you do when you cannot have flesh to care for when your spirits can have nothing to be carried forth into but must eterternally dwell within the bosome of an evil conscience and be tormented with that worm the bitter remembrance of the neglect of your spirits and utter estrangement from them while you were in the body then you must be confined within your own evil consciences and be imprisoned there for ever because while yet there was time and season you were alwayes abroad and every where but within your own hearts and consciences and is not that a just recompence Then again as Christianity descends from the Father of spirits into the spirit of a man to lodge there for a while it doth at length bring up the spirit of a man and unites it to that eternal Spirit and so as the Original was high and divine the end is high â—oo It issues out of that fountain and returns with the heart of man to imbosome it self in that agâ—in And truly this is the great excellency of true Religion above all these things you are busied about that it elevats the spirit of a man to God that it will never rest till it have carried it above to the fountain-spirit Our spirits are sparks and chips to speak so with reverence of that divine beeing but now they are wholly immersed and sunk into the flesh and into the earth by sin till grace come down and renew them and extract them out of that dung-hill and purifie them and then they are as in a state of violence alwise striving to mount upwards till they be embodied or rather inspirited so to speak in that Original spirit till they be wholly united to their own element the Divine Nature You know Christs Prayer Ioh 17. that they may be one as we are one I in them and they in me that they may may be made perfect in one v. 22 23. then spirits have attained their perfection then will they rest from their labours when they are one with him this is the only Center of spirits in which they can rest immoveable You find all the desires and affections of the Saints are as so many breathings upward pantings after union with him and longings to be intimatly present with the Lord therefore a Christian is one after the spirit groaning to be all spirit to have the earthly house of this tabernacle dissolved and to be cloathed upon with that house from heaven He knows with Paul that he is not at home though he be at home in in the body because the body is that which separats from the Lord which partition wall he would willingly have taken down that his spirit might be at home present with the Lord 2 Cor. 6.1 c. Who knoweth saith Solomon the spirit of a man that ascends upward and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth Eccles. 3.21 Truly the natural motion of mans spirit should be to ascend upward to God who gave it When this â—rail and broken Vessel of the body is dissolved into the Elements the higher and purer nature that lodged within it should flee upwards to Heaven even as the spirit of the beasts being but the prime and fiâ—er part of the body not different in nature from the earth naturally falls down to the earth with the body and is dissolved into the Elements But I think the consideration of that woful disorder that sin hath brought into the world that all things in man are so degenerated and become bruitish both his affections and his conversation that carnal and sensual lusts have the whole dominion over men I say the serious and earnest view of this might make a man suspect and call in question whether or not there be any difference between men and beasts whether or not there be any spirit in the one of an higher nature then in the other Truly it would halâ— peâ—swade that there is no immortal spirit in man else how could he be such a beast all his time serving diverse lusts Can it be possible might one think that there is any spirit in men that can ascend to heaven when there is no motion thither to be observed among men I beseech you consider this the spirit must either ascend or descend when it goes out of the body as now in affection and endeavour it ascends or descends while it is in the body there is an indispensible connexion between these what way soever the spirit aims at which way soever it turns and direct its flight thither it shall be constrained to go eternally Do you think my Beloved while you are in the body to bow down your selves to the Earth to descend unto the service of
dungeon of the flesh and cast off these heavier chains that bind the most part oâ— men yet wholly escape they cannot There be higher and lower rooms of this prison there are some more gross some more subâ—â—le câ—â—ds and bands of the flesh and whatsoever it be that holds a man bound or in whatsoever house he be imprisoned it s not mucâ— matter since really he is bound and his liberty restrained If a Câ—ain of Gold bind as fast as a Chain of Iron there is no â—eal difference except that mockeâ—y is added unto it when a man is detained in a Golden Prison with Golden Chains Though some men I say escape the grosser pollutions of the flesh yet they are â—ettered within some narrow scant and but imaginary good things they cannot go without the compass of those every man is confined by nature within the circle of his own narrow bosome or if he expatiat into the field of the world yet how narrow how limited are all created objects for the infinit desires of the soul whether it tend to the enjoyment of other creatures or to the possession of some imaginary excellency in a mans self how straitned are they how imprisoned in all that compass There is no true liberty can be found there Though some may be disingaged from baser lusts and the common vain imployments of men yet far they cannot go they do but ingage more with themselves the love and estimation of themselves without that compass they cannot possibly go whether from another principle or to another end and O! how little boundâ— is within any created breast for the immortal spirit that is so vast and expatiating in its desires to dwell in But here is the perfect redemption that is in Jesus Christ when he comes into the soul he unâ—etters and releases it not only of the grosser lusts of the flesh but even of thâ—se subtile invisible bands of self-love self-seeking of all scant narrow and particular objects and sets it at liberty to expatiat in that universal good the infinite fulness of God and grace which is in Christ Jesus And hence a Christian is called one after the Spirit that is whose spirit is rid and delivered from that natural bondage and slavery to the creatures and is espoused at least in affection and endeavour to the all-sufficient and self-sufficient God We told you that this new nature of a Christian shews it self in affection and motion in minding and walking both are signs of life and the proper actions of it As the natural man is easily known by what he minds and savours and what way he walks so is the spiritual man Minding or savouring comprehendâ— no doubt all the inward acts of the soul all the imaginations cogitations thoughts affections desires and purposes of the soul to expresse it shortly there is a concurrence of these two cogitation and affection the understanding and the will in this business The natural man knoweth not the things of the Spirit so he cannot taste or relish them since he doth not know them 1 Cor. 2.14 How can they believe on him whom they have not heard but far moâ—e how can men love and desire that which they do not know Though it be hard to convince some that they know not God nor the things of the Spirit because they have some form of knowledge and seem to understand and can discourse in Religion yet I wonder that the most part of men whose ignorance is written in their forehead with such palpable characters should have so much difficulty to take with this challenge I am sure many that perswade themselves of Heaven are yet shut up in that dungeon of natural blindness and daâ—kness of mind and that so gross and thick darkness that it is not possible to make them conceive any notion of spiritual things the common twilight of nature is almost exinguished and little or nothing increased by their education in the visible Church How can you prize and â—steem Jesus Christ of whom you know nothing but the bare name How can you favour Heaven when you have never admitted one serious thought of the life to come O that ye could be perswaded that the grace of God is inconsistent with such gross ignorance as is the generality of you truly grace is a light shining in the soul that opens the eyes to see that light that surrounds us in the Gospel But will you consider beloved how ready you are to receive other things of no moment how your memories can retain them and your understandings receive other purposes very perplexed and laborious but for the knowledge of your sin and misery or of that blessed remedy shewed in the Gospel we cannot make you capable of a few questions about them and if you learn the words by heart as ye use to speak yet alâ—ce the matter and thing it selâ— is not in the heart or mind you have nothing but words as appears if we ask about that same maâ—ter in other words and terms it is as dark and new to you as if you had never heard it I beseech you consider if you do not then mind the things of the flesh most when you are not only most capable to know these things that concern this life but most ready to entertain such thoughts You have no difficulty to mind the world whole weeks and years but you can never find leasure or time to mind the liâ—e to come and yet vainly you say you mind it alwayes I beseech you how do you mind God and the things oâ— God when if ye will but recollect your thoughts and gather the sum of them you will not find one serious advised thought of him or his matters in a whole week I profess I wonder how so many can inforce upon themselves a perswasion that God is alwayes in their heart I think it is the hight of delusion I am sure he is not in one of ten thousand thoughts that travel walk lodge and dwell in the souls of men and yet they will needs bear upon themselves that they alwayes mind him I am sure most of you cannot say that ever you shut the doors of your hearts upon other vain objects that you might retire to secret meditation on God or conference with him and I am as sure that many men have God oâ—tner in their mouths by oaths and blasphemies and irreverent speaking and taking his holy Name in vain then in their minds prayers or praises or any holy meditations of him Are you not as unwilling to fix your minds upon any sad solemn thoughts of Gods Justice of hell of heaven of sin or misery of death as boys whose heads are â—ull of play are loath to go to their books Doth not your practice in this speak with these wicked men Iob. 21.14 Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of the Almighty How constrained are all your thoughtâ— of Religion they are intertained as these whom you would
indeed in the first word of this vers there is something of the excellent nature of Christianity holden out If Christ be in you which is the true description of a Christian one in whom Christ is which imports The divine principle and the spiritual subject of Chriâ—tianity The principle is Christ in a man Christ by His Spirit dwelling in him This great Apostâ—e knew thiâ— well in his own experience and therefore he can speak best in this style I live yet not I buâ— Christ in me Gal. 2.20 Importing that Christ and His Spirit is to the soul what the soul is to the body that there is a living influence from Heaven that acts and moves the soul of a Christian as powerfully yet as sweetly and pleasantly as if it were the natural motion of the soul and truly it is the natural motion of the soul it s that primitive life which was most connatural to the soul of man which sin did deprive us of all the powerful constraint and violence that Christ uses in drawing the souls of men to him and after him is as kindly unto them and perfects them as much as that impulse by which the soul moves and turns the body a sweet compuâ—â—ion and blessed violence Now this should make Christians often to reflect upon another principle of their life then themselves that by looking on Him who is the resurrection and the life who is the true Vine and abiding in Him by faith their life may be continued and incâ—eased It is certainly much reflection on Him who is all in all and lesse upon our selvâ—s that maintains this life and therefore the most part of men being wholly strangers to this whether in their purposes or practices or judgings of both unacquainted with any higher look in Religion then they use in their natural and civil actings it doth give ground to assure us that they are strangers alienated from the life of God without God and without Christ in the world But then the spiritual subject of Christianity is here Christ in you not Christ without you in ordinances in profession in some civil â—arriage but Christ within the heart of a man thâ—t as a Christian It is the receiving of Châ—ist into the soul and putting Him on upon the inner man and renewing it that makes a Christian not being externally cloathed with him or compassed about with him in the administration of the Ordinances It fears me most part of us who bear that name of Christianity have no character of it within if we were looked and searched Many are like the sepulchres Christ speaks of without painted and fair within nothing but rottennesse and dead bones What have many of you more oâ— Christ then what a blind man hath of light it is round about him but not within him The light hath shined in darknesse but your darknesse cannot comprehend it You are environed with the outward appearances of Christ in his Word and Ordinances and that is all but neither within you nor upon many of you is there any thing either of his light or life not so much as any outward profession or behaviour suitable to the revelation of Christ about you as if you were ashamed to be Christians you maintain grosse ignorance and practise manifest â—ebellion against his known will in the very light of the Gospel How few have so much tincture of Christ so much as to colour the external man or to cloath it with any blamelessness of walking or form of Religion How few so much as Christians in the Letter for you are not acquainted either with Letter or Spirit either with knowledge or affection or practice But suppose that some have put on Christ on their outward man and colour over themselves with some performances of religious duties and smooth themselves with civility in carriage yet alas How few are they who are renewed in the spirit of â—heir mind and have put Christ on their inward man who have opened the secrets of their hearts and received him to ly all night between their breasts How â—ew are busied about their hearts to have any new impression and dye upon their affections to mould them after a new manner to kill the love of this world and the lusts of it and cast out the rottenness and superfluity of naughtiness which â—bides within But some there are who are peâ—swaded thus to do to give up their spirits to Religion and all their business and care is To have Christ within as well as without Now if the â—est of you will not be perswaded to be of this number consider what you pre-judge your selves of of all the comfort of Religion and then Religion is no Religion and to no purpose if you have no benefit by it And certainly except Christ be in you as a King to rule you and a Prophet to teach you to subdue your lusts and to dispel your darknesse when he appears he cannot appear to your comfort and salvation You are deprived of this great cordial against death death must seise upon all that is within you soul and body since Christ the Spirit of life is not within you Happiness without you will not make you happy salvation round about you will not save you If you would be saved there must be a near and immediat union with happinesse Christ in the heart and salvation cometh with him A Christian is not only Christ without not imputing his sins to him clothing him with His righteousnesse but Christ within too cleansing the heart from the love of sin perfecting holinesse in the fear of God Do not think you have any share in Christ without you except you receive Christ within you because Christ is one within and without and His gifts are undivided Therefore true â—aith receives whole Christ as a compleat Saviour even as He is intirely offered so He is undividedly received as He is without saving us and within sanctifying us Christ without delivering from wrath and Christ within redeeming from all iniquity these cannot be parted more then His coat that had no seam It is a heavy and weighty word of this Apostles 2 Cor. 13.5 examine your selves whether ye be in the faith know ye not your selves that Christ is in you except you be reprobates I wish ye would lay it to heart who have never yet returned to your hearts If Christ be not formed in you as Gal. 4.19 You are as yet among the refuse drâ—sse and that which must be burnt with fire you cannot but be cast away in the day when he makes up his jewels Where Christ is He is the hope of glory he is an immortal seed of glory How can you hope for Christ who have nothing of Him within you Now the other touch-stone of true Religion is the great comfort it furnishes to the soul And of all comforts the greatest is that which is a cordial to the heart against the greatest fears and evils Now certainly the matter of
is no other thing then what we owe to our selves and to our own natures so to speak for truly there is a conâ—ormity and suitablenesse of some things to the very nature of man that is beautiful some things are decent and becomes it other things are undecent and uncomely unsuitable to the very reasonable beeing of man so that they put a stain and blot upon it Now indeed there is nothing can be conceived more agreeable to the very constitution of mans nature then this that the far better and more excellent part should lead and command and the baser and earthly part should obey and follow that the flesh should minister and serve the spirit Doth not even Nature it self teach it and yet no heavier yoke is put upon us then what our own nature hath put upon 〈◊〉 already which indeed is wonderful and certainly this wonderful attempering of his Laws unto the very natural exigence of the spirit of man make the transgression of them so much the more hainous Now all these three forementioned bonds do joyntly bind on this Law upon man in general they oblidge strongly to subjection and obedience to the will of God but particularly they have a constraining influence upon this living after the spirit not after the flesh our very creation speaks this forth when God made man after his own Image when he beautified the spirit of man with that divine similitude and likenesse in that he breathed a spirit from Heaven and took a body out of the dust and then exalted that heavenly piece to some participation of his own nature Doth not all this cry aloud upon uâ— that the order of creation is now dissolved that the beauty of it is maâ—â—ed that all is turned up â—ide-down when mens passions and senses are their only guiâ—s and the principles of light in their conscience are choakt and â—â—iâ—â—led Doth not all this teach us plainly that we should not live after the flesh that we owe not so much to this bruitish part as to enthrone it and impower it over us that it were the vilest Anarchy and most intoleâ—able confusion and usurpation to give it the power over uâ— as most men do that there can be no order or beauty in man till the spirit be unfettered from the chains of fleshly lustâ— and restored to the native dignity and preheminency and so keep the body in subjection And indeed Paul was so 1 Cor. 9.27 I keep my body in subjection and beat it down because it is an imperious slave an usurping slave and will command if not beaten and kept under Again Christ hath put a bond upon us to this very same he hath strengthned this obligation with a neâ— cord in that he gave his precious life a ransome for the souls of men this was the principal thing he payed for the body only being an accessory and appendix to the soul for it is said The redemption of the soul is precious and ceaseth for ever Psâ—l 49.8 and What can a man give in exchange for his soul Mark 8.37 For what material thing can equalize a spirit Many things may be had more preciouâ— and fine than the body but all of them have no proportion to a spiritual being Now then in that so dear a ransome and so infinit a pâ—ice must be given for the spirit of man it declares the infinit worth and excellency of it above the body and above all visible things and here indeed the greatest confirmation that can be imagined God hath valued it he hath put the soul of man in the ballance to find something equal in weight of dignity and worth and when all that is in Heaven and Earth is put in the other scale the soul is down-weight by far there is such distance that there is no proportion only the life and blood of his own Son weighs it down and is an overvalue and thus in our redemption we have a visible demonstration as it were of the infinit obligation of this Law not to live after that contemptible part our flesh but to follow after the motions and directions of an enlightned spirit not to spend our thoughts care and time upon the body and making provision for the lusts thereof as most men do and all by nature aâ—e now inclined to do but to be taken up wiâ—h the immortal preciouâ— Jewel that is within how to have it 〈◊〉 and cleansed from all the filth that sin and the flesh hath cast 〈◊〉 and restored to that native beauty the image of God in righteousness and holiness If you in your practice and affectiâ—n 〈◊〉 the scales otherwise and make the body and things of the body â—uppose the whole world down-weight in your affection and imagination you have pâ—ainly contâ—adicted the just measuâ—e of the Sanctuary and in effect you declare that Christ died in vain and gave his life out of an errour and mistake of the worth of the soul you say he needed not have given such a price for it seing every day you weigh it down with every triffle oâ— momentany fleshly satisfaction Lastly the Spirit binds this fast upon us for the soul of man he hath chosen for his habitation and there he delights to dwell in the heaâ—t oâ— the contrite and humble and this he intends to beautifie and garnish and to restore it to that primitive excellency it once had The Spirit of man is neaâ—er his nature and more capable of being conâ—oâ—med unto it and therefore his peculiar and special work is about our spirits first to enlighten and convince them then to reform and direct them and lead them and this binds as foâ—cibly and constraineth a believer certainly to â—esign himself to the Spirit to study how to order his walk aâ—ter that diâ—ection and to be more and more abstracted from the satisfaction of his body else he cannot choose but gâ—ieve the Spirit his bâ—st friend which alone is the fountain oâ— joy and peace to him and being grieved cannot but grieve himself next Now my beloved conâ—â—der if you owe so much to the flesh whether or not it be so steadable and profitable unto you and if you think it can give you a sufficient reward to compense all your pains in satisfying it go on But I believe you can â—eckon no good office that ever it did you and your expectation is lesse what fruit have you of all but shame and vexation of conscience and what can you expect but death the last fruits of it whaâ— then do you owe unto it are you debters to its pleasure and satisâ—â—ctiâ—n which hath never done you good and will do you eternal hurt consider whether you are so much bound and oblidged to it as to lose your souls for it one of them must be and whether or not you be not more oblidged to God the Father and his Son Iesus Christ to live after the Spirit though for the present it should be painful to beat down your body You
satisfied in our Cautioner and considers us as righteous in that account before God And this likewise I speak for your use that ye may loath and abhor your selves as much in your selves who are made clean by the blood of Jesus Christ as if ye were not washen Nay so much the more ye ought to remember your own sins which he doth not remember as debt any more and to be ashamed and confounded because they are pardoned It is ordinary for souls to look on themselves with an eye of more complacency in themselves when they apprehend that God lookes favourably on them I do not think that any soul can duely consider the gracious aspect of God in Jesus Christ to them but they will the more loath themselves but I find it ordinary that slight and inconsiderate thoughts of pardon begets jolly conceits in mens hearts of themselves and this is even the sin of Gods children something is abated of our self abhorring when we have peace and favour spoken in to us but I beseech every one that believes there is no condemnation for them to consider there is all things worthy of it in them yea nothing but what deserves it and therefore let that aspect of God beget self-loathing and self-detestation in you the more you apprehend he is pleased with you be ye the more displeased with your selves because it is not your selves he is pleased with but his own well-beloved Son The day of redemption is coming when there shall be no condemnation and nothing condemnable either In Heaven you shall be so but while ye are here this is the most important duty ye are called to to loath your selves because of all your abominations and because he is pacified towards you Ezek. 16. at the close and Chap. 36.31 and 20 43 44. There is a new and strange mortification now pleadde â—or by many whose highest advancement consisteth in not feeling or knowing or confessing sin but in being dead to the sense and convictâ—â—n of the same Alace whither are these reforming timeâ— gone Is not this the spirit of Antichrist I confess it is a mortification of Godliness a crucifying of Repentance and Holiness a crucifying of the new man but it is a quickning of the old man in the lusts thereof a living to sin this is a part of that new but â—aâ—sly so called Gospel that is preached by some which if an Angel would bâ—ing from Heaven we ought not to believe it Other foundation can no man lay then which is laid already upon which the Prophets and Apostles are builded even Christ Jesus Lord give the spirit to understand these mysteries already revealed but save us from these new discoveries and lights That which we have received is able to make us perefâ—ct to salvation Every one pretends a claim and right to this priviledge of Christians to be pardoned and absolved from condemnation who doth not put it out of question though in the mean time their iniquities testifie against them and their transgressions say in the heart of a godly man that there is no fear of God before their eyes Therefore the Apostle describes the man that is in Jesus Christ to be such an one That walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit Not only to guard against the presumptuous fancy of those that live in their sins that pretend to hope for Heaven but to stir up every justified soul to a new manner of conversation since they are in Jesus Christ. We would speak a word of two things from this First that the Scripture gives marks and characters of justified and reconciled persons that they may be known by both to themselves and others Next that the Christian escaped condemnation hath a new manner of walking and is a new creature in Christ. It might seem a strange thing that this fiâ—st were questioned in this generation if any the most clear and important truth could pass without scanning the very tenor of the whole Scripture holds out so much of it I wonder that any man that reads this Chapter or the Epistles of Iames and Iohn should have any more doubt of it Hereby we know that we know him if we keep his commands Is not this a conclusion of our state and condition from the conformity of our walking to the will of God What divine truth can we be sure of if this be uncertain When the beloved Disciple who knew how to preach Christ asserts it in express terms 1 Ioh. 5.13 These things have I written to you that believe that ye may know ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the Name of the Son of God this very thing was the great scope and purpose of that Evangelick and Divine Epistle I find that Antinomians confound this question that they may have the more advantage in their darkness The question is not concerning the grounds of a mans believing in Christ but concerning our assurance or knowledge of our believing There is a great mistake in Christians practice in confounding these two it makes Christians very unreasonable in their doubtings and exercises therefore let us have this before our eyes Faith in its first and pure acting is rather an adherence and cleaving of a lost soul to Christ than an evidence of its interest in him or of his everlasting love You know all that it is one thing to know a thing or love a thing and another thing to reflect upon it and know that I know and love Iohn did write to believers that they might know they did believe and believe yet more These things then are both separable and the one is posterior to the other After ye believed ye were sealed The perswasion of Gods love and our interest in Christ is the Spirits seal set upon the soul there is a mutual sealing here the soul by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ sets to its seal that God is true as Iohn speaks 3.33 When God speaks in his Law the soul receives that testimony of his Justice and Holiness subscribes to the equity and righteousness of the sentence by condemning it self And when Christ speaks in the Gospel the soul seals that doctrine of free Salvation by approving and consenting with all its heart to the offer subscribes to the way of Salvation in Christ and truth of his promises and thus is the truth of God and Christ sealed by the souls believing Then the Spirit of Jesus Christ afterward when he pleaseth irradiats and shines upon the soul and discovers these things that are freely given and witnesseth to the conscience of the believer that he is a son of God thus the Spirit seals the believer and gives his testimony to his truth Now if we speak of the ground of the first viz. Of believing in Christ to salvation I know none but that which is common to sinners and holden out in the Gospel generally to all Our sin and misery and absolute necessity and Christs invitation of all to
There is no toleration of sin within this City and Kingdom sinners are indeed pardoned yea received and accepted drunkards unclean persons c. are not excluded from entering here but they must renounce these lusts if they would stay here Christ will not keep both he must either cast out the sin or the sinner with it if he will not part with it I beseech you know what ye walk after the flesh is your leader and whither will it lead you O! its sad to think on it to perdition vers 8. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die Ye think flesh your great friend ye do all ye can to satifie and please it and O how pleasant is the satisfaction of your flesh to you Ye think it liberty to follow it and counts it bonds and cords to be restrained But Oh! know and consider that flesh will lead you by the Kingdom that guide of your way to which ye committed your self will lead you by Heaven Gal. 5.21 It s a blind guide corruption and humour and will have no eyes no discerning of that pit of eternal misery they choose the way that is best pathed and troden that is easiest and most walk into and this certainly will lead you straight into this pit of darkness Be called off this way from following your blind lusts and rather suffer them to be crucified be avenged on them for your two eyes that they have put out and their treacherous dealing to you in leading you to destruction the high way Come in to Christ Jesus and ye shall get a new guide of the way the Spirit that shall lead you in all truth unto the blessed and eternal life Christ is the way ye must walk in and the life that we must go in to at the end of our way and the truth according to which we must walk now he hath given his Spirit the Comforter to be our leader in this way according to this rule and pattern unto that life In a word the Spirit shall lead you the straight way unto Christ you shall begin in him and end in him he shall lead you from grace to glory the Spirit that came down from Heaven shall lead you back to Heaven All your walk is within the compass of Christ out of him is no way to Heaven But we must not take this so grosly as if no other thing were a walking after the flesh but the gross abominations among men though even these will scrape a great number from being in Christ Jesus but it must be further enlarged to the motions affections of the unrenewed spirit and the common principles according to which men walk And therefore the Apostle Col. 3 and Gal. 5. nameth many things among the works of the flesh and members of the old man which I doubt many will account so of Some natural passions that we account nothing of because common as anger wrath covetousness what man is there amongst us in whom some of these mentioned stirs not Many of your hearts and eyes are given to covetousness your souls bow downward as your bodies do and many times before your bodies Is not the heart of men upon this world and cannot rise above to a treasure in Heaven and therefore your Callings otherwayes lawful and all your pains and endeavours in them hath this seal of the flesh stamped on them and passeth no otherwayes with God We see how rank the corruptions of men are anger domineering in them and leading them often captive and this is counted a light matter but it is not so in Scripture How often is it branded with folly by the wise man and this folly is even the natural fleshly corruption that men are born with and in how many doth it rise up to the elevation of malice and hatred of others and then it carries the image of the devil rather then of humane infirmity And if we suppose a man not much given to any of these yet what a spirt of pride and self-love is in every man even these that carry the lowest sail and the meanest port among men these that are affable and courteous and these that seem most condescending to inferiours and equals yet alas this evil is more deeply engraven on the spirt If a man could but watch over his heart and observe all the secret reflections of it all the comparisons it makes all the desires of applause and favour among men all the surmises and stirrings of spirit upon any affront O how would they discover diabolick pride This sin is the more natural inbred for that it is our mother-sin that brought us down from our excellency this weed grows upon a glass-window and upon a dunghill it lodges in Palaces and Cottages nay it will spring and grow out of a pretended humility and low carriage In a word the ambitious designs of men the large appetite of earthly things the over-weaning conceit of our selves love to our selves the flirring of our affections without observing a rule upon unlawful objects or in an unlawful manner all these are common to men and men walk after them Every man hath some predominant or idol that takes him most up some are finer and subtiler than others some their pleasures and gains without others their own gifts and parts within but both are alike odious before God and both gross flesh and corruption before him There are two errours among men concerning this spiritual walking the one is the Doctrine of some in these dayes the other is the practical error of many of us Many pretending to some near and high discoveries as to Christ and the Spirit have fallen upon the most refined and spiritualized flesh instead of the Spirit indeed they separate the Spirit from the Word and reckons the Word and Law of God which was a Lamp to Davids feet among the fleshly rudiments of the world But if they speak not according to the Law and Testimony saith Isaiah it is because there is no light in them Thus their new light is but an old darkness that could not endure even the darker light of the Prophets If they speak not according to the Word it is because there is no spirit in them It is not the Spirit the Comforter which Christ promised to send to the Apostles and all that should believe in his Name through their word for that Spirit was a Spirit of truth that should lead into all truth and lest men should father their own fancies and imaginations on the Spirit of God Christ adds he shall bring all things to your remembrance These things that Christ hath spoken and we have here written The holy Apostle to the Col. 3. when he reproves the works of the flesh and declares they had put them off he commends unto them in opposition to these Let the word of Christ dwell in your richly in all wisdom teaching one another in Psalms and spiritual songs with grace in your hearts to the Lord
The love of Christ would be an inward principle of motion and would make our spiritual actings as easie and pleasant as natural motions are Fear is but a violent principle that is like the impulse of a stone thrown upward as long as that external impression remains it moves but still slower and slower and at length evanisheth But if ye believed in him and your hearts were engaged to love him O! how would it be a pleasant and native thing to walk in his way as a stone goeth downward Consider your principles that acts you to matters and duties of Religion Many men there be in whom appears no difference of their work to beholders but O! how wide a difference doth God discern in them Ingines and artifice may make dead and lifeless things move and walk as orderly as things that have life But the principle of this motion makes a huge difference the one is moved from without the other from it self The most part of us act as irrational and bruit beasts in Religion nay we walk as inanimat and senseless creatures It s some one or other consideration without us moves us Custome censure education and such like Ah! these are the principles of our Religion How many would have no Religion no form of it if they were not among such company and therefore we see many change it according to companies as the fish doth its skin according to the colour of that which is nearest it How many would do many things they dare not for punishment and censure and for that same daâ— not leaveâ— other things undone In a word the most part of us are such as would walk in no path of godliness if it were not the custome of the time and â—ear of men that constrained us But my brethren let it not be so among you you who are in Christ Iesus let this be the predominant in your hearts to constrain you not to live to your selves but unto God even this that ye believe Christ hath died for sinners that they might live from sin and from this let your hearts be inflamed with his love that it may carry you on in a sweet and blessed necessity to walk in all well pleasing Let the consideration of his love lay on a constraint but a constraint of willingness to live to him who hath thus loved you But as the principle is spiritual so must the end be and I think these two compleat the mystery of the practice of Christianity to act from another principle unto another end even as these two make up the mystery oâ— iniquity in our hearts to act from our selves unto our selves every man naturally makes a god of himself is his own Alpha and Omega the beginning of his actionâ— and the end of them which is proper to God As the fall hath cut off the subordination of the soul to God in its actions that it cannot now derive all from that blessed fountain of all-being and well-being so is this channel of reference of all our actions to God stopped that they do not tend unto him as they are not derived from him and thus they return unto a mans self again There is one point of self and making it our aim and design which possibly many doth not take heed unto It is ordinary for us to act and walk in Christian duties for our salvation for obtaining of life eternal as our chief and only end which is but an inferiour end because we ought not to walk mainly for life but to life we should not walk after the command only for Heaven but in the way of it unto Heaven Our spiritual walking can never purchase us right unto the leaâ—t of his mercies when we have done all this should be our souls language we are unprofitable servants our righteousness extends not to thee What gain is it to the Almighty that thou art righteous Yet for the most part we make our walking as a hire for the reward The Covenant of Works doing for life is some way naturally imprinted in our hearts and we cannot do but we would live in doing we cannot walk unto all well-pleasing but we would also walk unto pacifying of God Self-righteousness is mens great idol which when all other baser and grosser idols are down they do still seek to establish But Christians observe this evil in your selves and suffer this mystery of godliness to be wrought in you the abasing of your selves the denyal of your selves I would have you in respect of diligence and earnestness doing walking and running as if ye were to be saved by it only But again you must deny all that and no more consider it or lean weight upon it then if ye ought to do nothing or did nothing But your ends should be more divine and high as your nature is to glorifie God in your mortal bodies since ye are hiâ— and bought with a price O how ought ye not to be your own The great purpose of your obedience should be a declaration of your sense of his love and of your obligation to him Ye ought to walk in his way because ye are escaped condemnation and saved by him and not that ye may be saved only It is the glory of our Heavenly Father and the honour of the Redeemer for Christians to walk even as he walked and follow his footsteps it commends the grace of Jesus Christ exceedingly Therefore this cannot but be the choise and delight of a believing soul to walk unto all well-pleasing to have the glory of him as their great design to aim at who for our salvation laid aside his glory and embraced shame and reproach We use to walk in obedience to God that we may pacifie God for our disobedience but let a Christian abhor such a thought Christs blood must pacifie but the walking of his child pleaseth him in his welbeloved Son When he is once pacified for sin when he once accepts your persons your performances are his delight Now this should be the great scope of a soul that all its powers should be fixed on to please him and live to him Now these three being established we must conceive that the chief agent and party in this walking must be spiritual therefore mens bodies are not capable of this walk after the Spirit principally Outward Ordinances are but the shell wherein the kirnel must be inclosed all our walkings that is visible to men is but like a painted or engraven Image and Statue that hath no breath or life in it unless the Spirit actuat and quicken the same I say not only the Spirit of God but the spirit and soul in man for the Spirits immediat and divine operations are upon such a suitable subject as the immortal soul. Verily there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding We must not abolish the outward â—oâ—m because it hath some divinity in it even the stamp of Gods authority and therefore these who
it s a subject of such admiration in it self and so much conceâ—nment to us Every word hath weight in it and a peculiar emphasis there is a gradation that mystery goes upon till it come to the top every word hath a degree or step in it whereby it rises high and still higher God sent that is very strange but God sent his Son is most strange but go on and it s still the stranger in the likeness of flesh and that sinfull flesh c. In all which degrees you see God is descending and coming lower and lower but the mystery ascends and goes higher and higher the lower God come down the higher the wonder rises up Still the smaller and meaner that God appears in the flesh the greater is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh If you would arise up to the sensible and profitable understanding of this mystery you must first descend into the depths of your own natural wretchedness and misery in which man was lying when it pleased God to come so low to meet him and help him I say you must first go down that way in the consideration of it and then you shall ascend to the use and knowledge of this mystery of Godliness Gods sending hath some weight of wonder in it at the very first apprehension of it if you did but know who he is and what we are a wonder it had been that he had suffered himself to be sent unto by us that any message any correspondence should passe between heaven and earth after so soul a breach of peace and Covenant by man on earth Strange that heaven was not shut up from all intercourse with that accursed earth If God had sent out an Angel to destroy man as he sent to destroy Ierusalem 2 Chron. 21.15 If he had sent out his armies to kill those his enemies who had renounced the yoke of his obedience it had been justice Matth. 21.41 and 22.7 If he had sent a cruel messenger against man who had now acted so horrid a rebellion it had been no strange thing as he did send an Angel with a flâ—mming sword to encompasse the tree of life he might have enlarged that Angels commission to take veangence on man and this is the wonder he did not send after this manner But what heart could this enter into who could imagine such a thing as this God to send and to send for peace to his rebellious footstool man could not have looked for acceptance before the throne if he had prevented and sent first up supplications and humble cryes to heaven and therefore finding himself miserable you see he is at his wits end he is desperate and gives it over and so flees away to hide himself certianly expecting that the first message from heaven should be to arme all the creatures against him to destroy him But O! what a wonderful yet blessed surprisal God himself comes down and not for any such end as vengeance though just but to publish and hold forth a Covenant of reconciliation and peace to convince man of sin and to comfort him with the glad tidings of a Redeemer of one to be sent in the likeness of flesh It s the gâ—andor and majesty of Kings and great men to let others come to them with their petitions and it s accounted a rare thing if they be accâ—ssable and affable But that the Lord of lords and King of kings who sitteth in the Circle of the Heavens and before whom all the inhabitants of the Earth are as poor Grashoppers or crauling worms about whose throne there are ten thousand times ten thousand glorious Spirits ministring unto him as Daniel saw him Chap. 7. v. 9 10. that such an one should not only admit such as we to come to him and offer our suits to his Highness but himself first to come down unto Adam and offer peace to him and then send his own Son And what were we that he should make any motion about us or make any mission to us Rom. 5.10 while we were yet enemies that we were when he sent O how hath his Love triumphed over his Justice But needed he fear our enmity that he should seek peace no wayes one look of his angry countenance would have looked us unto nothing thou lookest upon me and I am not one rebuke of his for iniquity would have made our beauty consume as the moth far more the stroak of his hand had consumed us Psal. 39.11 But that is the wonder indeed while we were yet enemies and weak too neither able to help our selves nor hurt him in the least and so could do nothing to allure him nothing to terrifie him nothing to ingage his love nothing to make him fear yet then he makes this motion and mission to us God sending c. God sending and sending his own Son that is yet a step higher Had he sent an Angel it had been wonderful one of these ministering Spirits about the Throne being far more glorious then man But God so loved the world that he sent his Son might he not have done it by others But he had a higher project and verily there is more mystery in the end and manner of our redemption then difficulty in the thing it self no question he might have enabled the creature by his Almighty power to have destroyed the works of the devil and might have delivered captive man some other way he needed not for any necessity lying upon him gone such a round as the Father to give to the Son and the Son to receive as God to send and the Son to be sent nay he might have spared all pains and without any messenger immediatly pardoned mans sin and adopted him to the place of Sons Thuâ— he had done the business without his Sons or any others travel and labour in blood and suffering But this profound mystery in the manner of it declares the highness and excellency of the end God proposed and that is the manifestation of his love Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us 1 John 3.1 and in this was manifested the love of God toward us that God sent his onlâ— begotten Son in the world 1 Joh. 4.9 And truly for such a design and purpose all the world could not have contrived such a suitable and excellent mean as this nothing besides this could have declared such love there is no expression of love imaginable to this to give his Son and only begotten Son for us It had been enough out of meer compassion to have saved us however it had been but if he had given all and done all besides this he had not so manifested the infinit fulness of love there is no gift so suitable to the greatness and magnificence of his Majesty as this One that thought it no robbery to be equal with himself Any gift had been infinitly above us because from him but this is not only infinitly above us but equal to
hath no force or power to hurt man but death being the wages due for sin Rom. 6.23 all the certainty and efficacy in the wages flowes from this work of darkness sin But Now the strength of sin is the Law this puts a poysonable and destructive vertue in the sting of sin for it is the sentence of Gods Law and the justice and righteousness of God that hath made so inseparable a connexion between sin and death this gives sin a destroying and killing vertue Justice arms it with power and authority to condemn man so that there can be no freedom no releasment from that condemnation no eschewing that fatal sting of death unless the sentence of Gods Law which hath pronounced thou shalt die be repealed and the justice of God be satisfied by a ransome And this being done the strength of sin is quite gone and so the sting of death removed Now this had been impossible for man to do these parties were too strong for any created power the strength of sin to condemn may be called someway infinit because it flows from the unchangeable law of the infinit justice of God now what power could encounter that strength except that which hath infinite sterngth too Therefore it behoved the Son of God to come for this business to condemn sin and save the sinner And being come he yokes first with the very strength of sin for he knew where its strangth did ly and so did encounter first of all with that even the justice of his Father the hand writing of ordinances that was against us for if once he can set them aside as either vanquished or satisfied he hath little else to do Now he doth not take a violent way in this either he doth it not with the strong hand but deals wisely and to speak so with reverence cunningly in it he came under the Law that he might redeem them who were under the Law Gal. 4.4 force will not do it the Law cannot be violented justice cannot be compelled to forgo its right therefore our Lord Jesus chooseth as it were to compound with the Law to submit unto it he was made under the Law he who was above the Law being Law-giver in mount Sinai Acts 7.38 Gal. 3.19 he cometh under the bond and tye of it to fulfil it I came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it Mat. 5.17 he would not offer violence to the Law to deliver sinners contrary to the commination of it or without satisfaction given unto it for that would reflect upon the wisdom and righteousness of the Father who gave the Law But he doth it better in an amicable way by submission and obedience to all its demands whatsoever it craved of the sinner he fulfils that debt he satisfies the bond in his own person by suffering and fulfils all the Commandments by obedience And thus by subjection to the Law he gets power over the Law because his subjection takes away all its claim and right over us therefore it is said that he blotted out the hand-writing of ordinances which was against us by nailing it to his cross and so took it out of the way Col. 2.14 having fulfilled the bond he cancell'd it and so it stands in no force either against him or us thus the strength of sin which is the Law is removed and by this means sin is condemned in the flesh by the suffering of his flesh it is fallen from all it's plea against sinners for that upon which it did hang viz. the sentence of the Law is taken out of the way so that it hath no apparent ground to fasten any accusation upon a poor sinner that flees in to Jesus Christ and no ground at all to condemn him it is wholly disabled in that point for as the Philistines found where Sampsons strength lay and cutted his hair so Christ hath in his wisdom found where the strength of sins plea against man lay and hath cutted off the hair of it that is the hand-writing of ordinances which was against us This is that which hath been shadowed out from the beginning of the world by the types of Sacrifices and Ceremonies All these offerings of Beasts of Fowls and such like under the Law held â—orth this one sacrifice that was offered in the fulness of time to be a propitiation for the sins of the world and something of this was used among the Gentils before Christs coming certainly by tradition from the Fathers who have looked afar off to this day when this sweet smelling sacrifice should be offered up to appease Heaven And it is not without a spâ—cial Providence and worthy the remarking that since the plenary and substantial One was offered the custom of sacrificing hath ceased throughout the world God as it were proclaiming to all men by this cessation of Sacrifices as well as silence of Oracles thâ—t the true atonement and propitiation is come already and the true Prophet is come from Heaven to reveal Gods mind unto the world There were many ceremonies in sacrificing observed to hold out unto us the perfection of our atonement and propitiation They laid their hands on the beast who brought it to signifie the imputation of our sins to Christ that he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him And truly it is worth the observation that even those sacrifices for sin were called sin and so the word is used promiscuously in Leviticus to point out unto us that Jesus Christ should make his soul sin Isa. 53.10 that is a sacrifice for sin and he made sin for us that is a sacrifice for sin When the blood was poured out because without shedding of blood no reconciliation Heb. 10. the Priest sprinkled it seven times before the Lord to shadow out the perfection of that expiation for our sins in the vertue and perpetuity thereof Heb. 9.26 that he should appear to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself to put it away as if it had never been by taking it on him and bearing it And then the High Priest was to bring in of the blood into the holy place and within the vail and sprinkle the Mercy Seat â—o shew unto us that the merit and efficacy of Christs blood should enter into the highest Heavens to appease the wrath of God Our High Priest by his own blood hath entered into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Heb. 9.12 And truly this is that sacrifice which being offered without spot to God pacifies all ver 14. Sin hath a cry cryeth aloud for vengeance this blood silenceth it and composeth all to savour and mercy It hath so sweet and fragrant a smell in Gods account that it fills Heaven with the perfume of it He is that true scape-goat who notwithstanding that he did bear all the sins of his people yet he did escape alive albeit he behoved to make his soul a sacrifice for
very image of a beast upon his nature to look on that slavery and bondage of his far better part to the worst and bruitish part in him his flesh If a man did wisely consider the constitution of his nature from its first divine original and what a thing the soul is which is truly and more properly himself then his body what excellency is in the soul beyond the body and so what preheminency it advanceth a man unto beyond a beast He could not but account Religion the very ornament and perfection of his nature Reason will say that the spirit should rule and command the body that flesh is but the minister and servant of the spirit that there is nothing the proper and peculiar good of man but that which adorns and rectifies the spirit that all these external things which mens senses are carried after with so much violence do not better a man as man but are common to beasts that in these things mans happiness as man doth not at all consist but in some higher and more transcending good which beasts are not capable of and which may satisfie the immortal spirit and not perish in the using but live with it All these things the very natural frame and constitution of man doth convincingly perswade Now then may a soul think within it self O how far am I departed from my original how far degenerated from that noble and royal dignity that God by the stamp of his image once put upon me How is it that I am become a slave and drudge to that baser and brutish part the flesh I would have you retire into your own hearts and ask such things at them Man being in honour and understanding not is even like the beasts that perish Truly we are become like beasts because we consider not that we are men and so advanced by creation far above beasts The not reflecting on the immortal spiritual nature of our souls hath transformed us in a manner into the nature of beasts perishing beasts Christianity is the very transforming of a beast into a man as sin was the deforming of a man into a beast This is the proper effect of Christianity to restore humanity to elevat it and purifie it from all those defilements and corruptions that were ingrossed and incorporated into it by the state of subjection to the flesh and therefore the Apostle delineats the nature of it unto us and draws the difference wide between the natural man and a Christian The natures of things are dark and hidden in themselves but they come to be known to us by there operations and acting their inclinations and instincts are known this way Grace is truly a very spiritual thing and the nature of it lyes high yet as Christ could not be hid in the house neither can grace be hid in the heart it will be known by its working Christ can better be hid in a house then in the heart because when he is in a heart he is ingadged to restore that heart and soul to its native dignity and preheminency over the flesh and this cannot but cause much disturbance in the man for a season to change governments to cast out usurpers and to restore the lawful and righteous owner to the possession of his right cannot be done secretly and easily it will shake the very foundations of a Kingdom to accomplish it so it is here the restitution of the soul to the possession of its right and dominion over the flesh the casting out of that tyrannous and base usurper the flesh cannot be done except all the man know it feel it and in a manner be pained with it Now the nature of Christianity doth lay it self open to us in these two especially in what it minds and savours and how it causeth to walk life is known especially by affection and motion A feeling thinking â—avouring power is a living power so a moving walking power is a living power and these are here the Christian is shortly described by his nature he is one after the Spirit not after the flesh and by the proper characteristical operations of that nature first minding or savouring the things of the Spirit which comprehends his inward thoughts affections intentions and cogitations all his inward senses are exercised about such objects and then he is one walking after the Spirit his motions are in a course of obedience proceeding from that inward relish or taste that he hath of the things of God It is not without very good reason that the name of a Christian is thus expâ—essed one after the Spirit that is his character that expressed his nature unto us whether ye look to the original of Christianity or the prime subject of it or the chief end of it it deserves to be called by this name The original of it is very high as high as that eternal Spirit as high as the God of the spirits of all flesh Things are like their original and some way participat of the nature of their causes that which is born of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3.6 that which is born of God who is a Spirit must be spirit 1 Joh. 5.1 How royal a descent is that how doth it nobilitat a mans nature Truly all other degrees of birth among men are vain imaginary things that hath no worth at all but in the fancies of men they put no real excellency in men But this is only true nobility this alone doth extract a man deface vulgi out of the dregs of the multitude There is no intrinsick difference between bloods or natures but what this make this divine birth this second birth all other differences are but in opinion this is reality it puts the image of that blessed Spirit upon a man Truly such a creature is not begotten in the womb of any natural cause of any humane perswasion or intising words of mans wisdom of any external mercy or judgment no instruction no peâ—swasion no allurement nor afrightment can make you Christians in the Spirit till the Spirit blow when he pleaseth and creat you again It must come from above that power that can set your hearts aright and make them to look straight above Christ Jesus came down from Heaven into the earth and took on our flesh that so the Almighty Spirit might come down to transform our spirits and lift them up from the earth to the Heaven We cast the seed into the ground of mens hearts and alace it gets entry but in few souls it is scattered rather on the high-way side and cannot reach into the arrable ground of the heart but it can do nothing without the influence of Heaven except the Spirit beget you again by that immortal seed of the Word Therefore we would cease our wondering that all the means of Gods Word and Works do not beget moe true Christians I do rather wonder that any of Adams wretched posterity should be begotten again and advanced to so high a dignity to
of these hath the preheminency that he is If the spirit be indeed elevated above all sensual and earthly things to the life of Angels that is to communion with God then a man is one after the Spirit an Angel incarnat an Angel dwelling in flesh but if his spirit throw it self down to the service of the fâ—esh minding and favouring only things sensual and visible then indeed a man puts off humanity and hath associated himself to beasts to be as one of them And indeed a man made thus like a beast is worse then a beast because he ought to be far better it is no disparagement to a beast to mind only the flesh but it is greatest abasement of a man that which draws him down from that higher station God had set him into to the lowest station that of beasts and truly a Nebuâ—hadnezzar among beasts is the greatest beast of all far more bruitish then any beast Now such is every man by nature that which is born of the flesh is flesh even man as he comes out of the womb is degenerated and fallen down into this bruitish estate to mind to savour to relish nothing but what relates to this fleshly or temporal being The utmost sphear and comprehension of man is now of no larger extent then this visible world and this present life He is blind and seeth not far off 2 Pet. 1.9 Truly such is every man by nature whereas the proper native sphear of the spirits motion and comprehension is as large as its endurance that is as long as eternity and as broad as to reach the infinitness of God the God of all spirits now through the slavery and bondage of mens spirits to their flesh it s contracted into as narrow bounds as this poor life in the flesh he that ought to look beyond time as far as eternity and hath an immortal spiâ—it given â—or that end he is now half blind the eye of the mind is so over-clouded with lusts and passions that it cannot see far off not so far as to the morrow after death not so far as to the entry of eternity And truly if you compare the context you will find that whosoever doth not give all diligence to add to faith vertue to vertue knowledge to knowledge temperance to temperance patience and to patience godliness c. He that is not exercised and imployed about this study how to adorn his spirit with these graces how to have a victory over himself and the world and in respect of these accounts all things beside indifferent such a man is blind and seeth not far off he hath not gotten the sight of eternity he hath not taken up that everlasting endurance else he could not spend his time upon the provision for the lusts of the flesh but he behoved to lay such a good foundation for the time to come as is here mentioned If he saw afar off he could not but make acquaintance with those courtiers of Heaven which will minister an entrance into that everlasting Kingdom But truly while this is not your study you have no purpose for Heaven you see nothing but what is just before your eye and almost toucheth it and so you savour and mind only what you see Is not this then a wide difference between the children of this world and the children of God Is it not very substantial all others are circumstantial in respect of this this only puts a real difference in that which is best in men viz. their spirits The excellency of nature is known by their affections and motions so are these here the spiritual man savours spiritual things the carnal man carnal things every thing symphathizes with that which is like it self and is ready to incorporat into it things are nouâ—ished and preserved by things like themselves You see the Swine embraces the dung-hill that stink is only savoury smell to them because its suitable to their nature but a man hath a more excellent taste and smell and he savours finer and sweeter things Truly it cannot choose but that it must be a nature more swinish or bruitish then â— swine that can relish and savour such filthy abominable works of the flesh as abound amongst some of you The works of the flesh are manifest Gal. 5.19 and indeed they are manifest upon you acted in the very day time out-facing the very light of the Gospel you may read them and see if they be not too manifest in you Now what a base nature what abominable and bruitish spirits must possesse men that they apprehend a sweetnesse and fragrancy in theâ—e corrupt and stinking works of the old man O how base a scent is it to smell and savour nothing but this present world and satisfaction to your senses Truly your scent and smell your relish and taste argues your base degenerat and bruitish natures that you are on the worst side of this division after the flesh But alace it is not possible to perswade you that there is no sweeâ—nessâ— no fragrancy nothing but corruption and rottennesse such as comes out of Sepulchres opened in all these woâ—ks of the flesh till once a new spirit be put in you and your natures changed no more then you can by eloquence perswade a sick man whoâ—e pallat is possessed with a vitiated bitter humour that such things as are suitable to his vitiated taste are indeed bitter or make a swine to believe that the dunghill is stinking and unpleasant Truly it is as impossible to make the multitude of men to apprehend to relish or savour any bitterness or loathsomnesse in the wayes and courses they â—ollow or any sweetness and fragrancy in the wayes of Godlinesse till once your tastes be rectified your spirits be transformed and renewed And indeed when once the spirit is renewed and dispossessed of that malignant humour of corruption and fleshly affection that did present all things contrary to what they are then it is like a healthful and wholsome pallat that tastes all things as they are and finds bitter bitter and sweet sweet or like a sound eye that beholds things just as they are both in colour quantity and distance Then the soul savours the sweet smell of the fruits of the Spirit vers 22. Love joy peace long-suffering meekness temperance c. these are fragrant and sweet to the soul and as a sweet perfume both to the person that hath them and to others round about him and to God also these cast a savour that allures a soul to seek them and being possessed of them they cast a sweet smell abroad to all that are round about and even as high as Heaven a soul that hath these planted in it and growing out of it is as a garden inclosed to God These fruits are both pleasant and sweet to the soul that eats them and as the pleasantness of the apple allured man to taste it and sin so the beauty and sweetnesse of these fruits of the Spirit
in lesser things and shall we be mad self-willed and refractory in the greatest thing that concerns us eternally O! unbelief is that which will condemn the world the unbelief of this one thing that the walking aâ—â—er and minding of the flesh is mortal and deadly Though all men confesse with their tongues this to be a truth yet it is not really believed the deep inconsideration and slight apprehension of this truth makes men boldly to walk and violently to run on to perdition Did you indeed believe that eternal misery is before you at the end of this way and would you be so cruel to your selves as to walk in it for any allurement that is in it Did you really believe That there is a precipice into utter darkness and everlasting death at the end of this alley would the pleasure and sweetness of it be able to inâ—atuat you and besott you so far as to lead you on into it like an Ox to the slaughter and a fool to the correction of the stocks It is strange indeed thou you neither will believe that death is the end of these things nor yet can you be perswaded that you do not believe it there is a twofold delusion that possesses the hearts of men one is a dream and â—ancy of escaping death though they live in sin another is a dream and fancy that they do believe that death is the wages of sin We might wonder how they consist together if we did not find it by so many experiences Your way proves that you do not believe it that death is the end of it and then your words evidence that you do not believe That you are unbelievers of that O! how desperat is the wickedness and how great is the deceitfulness of the heart The false Prophet that is in every mans bosome deceives him that it may destroy him As Satan is a liar and murderer and murders by lying so the heart of man is a self-murderer and self-destroyer and that is done by lying and dâ—ceiving There is some lie in every â—in but there is this grosse black fundamental lie at the bottom of all sin A conceit of immunity and freedom from death and hell a strong imagination of escaping danger even though such a way be chosen and walked into as of its own nature inevitably leads to destruction And there is something of this bloody murdering flattery even in the hearts of Christians therefore this Apostle gives us an antidot against it and labours often to purge it out by stirring up that knowledge they have received Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6.9 Be not deceived God is not mocked for what a man soweth that he shall reap he that soweth to the flesh shall reap corruption c. Gal. 6.7 8. O! that you might listen to this word to this watch word given you and stop your course at least for a season to think what shall be the latter end know ye not that such shall not inherit the Kingdom know you not that the way to heaven lyes upward know you not that your way lyes downward towards the flesh and the earth are you so far demented as to think to come to Heaven by walking just downward in the lusts of the flesh Truly this is the strongest and strangest inchantment that can be that you think to sow one thing and reap another thing to sow darkness and reap light to sow corruption and reap incorruption Is that possible in nature to sow nettle-seed and think to â—eap barley or wheat Be not deceived O that you would undeceive your poor deluded souls and know that is as natural for Death and Hell to grow out of sin and walking after the flesh as it is for every seed to yeeld its own fruit and herb Do you then think to disolve the course and order of nature Truly the flesh is mortal in it self it s ordained for corruption you see what it turns to after the life is out that is an embleme of the state of the fleshly soul after death As you did abase your spirits to the service of the flesh here and all your plowing and labouring and sowing was about it the seed which you did cast in the ground was Fleshly lusts earthly things for the satisfaction of your flesh so you shall reap of the flesh Corruption death and destruction that shall make your immortal spirits mortal and corruptible and subject them to death and corruption with the body as far as they are capable it shall deprive them of all that which is their proper life and refreshment and separat them eternally from the fountain of blessedness and banish them out of Heaven unto the fellowship of devils and Oh! that corruption of the incoruptible spiâ—it is worse then the corruption of the mortall flesh corruptio optimi pessima Now who ever of you is thus far undeceived as to believe your danger and misery and to discern that imbred delusion of your hearts be not discouraged utterly there may be hope of recovery when you see your disease I say if you see that hell is at the end of your way then know that He who sent that voice to call you off that way of death He leaves you not to your own wits to guide you into the right way but He follows with a voice behind you â—aying Here is the way walk in it turn not out of it to the right hand or left and this voice sounds plainly in the Word and it is nothing elâ—e but the sound of the Gospel that blessed sound that invites and allures you to come in to Jesus Christ the way truth and life the true way to the true life All other wayes all other lifes have no truth in them it s but a cloud a fancy that men apprehend and lay hold on But come to this way and it will truly lead thee to the true life eternal life if you flee unto him out of the apprehension of your danger you have a clear way to come to God and as plain a way to attain life and peace Being in Christ you have assurance of not falling into condemnation He is such a way as will hold you in and not suffer you to go out of it again to the way of Death And therefore he will give you a Tutor a guider and directer in this way to life and peace and that is the Holy Spirit to lead in all truth and to guide your feet in the way of his Commandments so that in this new and living way of Christ you shall have both light of the Word to know where to walk and life of the Spirit to make you walk toward that eternal life and thus grace and truth is come by Christ. Indeed you must suffer the mortification of your flesh you must endure the pain of the death of your lusts the cutting off your right hand and plucking out your right
not deceive your selves the true quarrel is because they run not to the same excesse of riot with you if they will lie cozen defraud swear and blaspheme as other men you could indure to make them companions as you do others and the principle of that is the enmity that was placed in the beginning that mortal irreconciliable feud betwixt the two families are two seeds of Christ and Satan But as I told you this enmity acts in a more subtile and invisible way in some and is painted over with some fair colours to hide the deformity of it not only the grosser corruptions of men carry this stamp but take even the most refined piece or part in man take his mind take the excellency of his mind even the wisdom of it yet that hath enmity incorporated into it and mixed with it throughout all for the wisdom of the flesh is enmity with God as it may be read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very prudence and reason of a natural man which carries him to a distance from and opposition with the common defilements in the courses of men yet that hath in its bosome a more exquisite and refined enmity against God and so the more spiritual and purified it be from grosser corruptions it is the more active and powerful against God because it is as it were the very spirit and quintessence of enmity You see it 1 Cor. 1. how the wisdom of God is foolishness to the wisdom of the world and then again that the wisdom of the world is the greatest folly to the only wise God Men that have many natural advantages beyond others are at this great disadvantage They are more ready to despise godliness as too base and simple a thing to adorn their natures As Christ said of rich men it may be said of wise men of learned men of civil and blameless persons who have a smooth carriage before the world how hard is it for such to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven hard indeed for they must be stript naked of that ere they can enter through this narrow gate I mean the opinion and conceit of any worth or excellency and so diminished in their own eyes that they may go through this needles eye without crushing The stream of enmity runs under-ground often and so hides it self under some other notion till at length it burst forth openly I find it commonly run in the secret channel of amity or friendship to some other thing opposite to God So Iames 4.4 the amity of â—he world is enmity with God and 1 Joh. 2.15 He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him There are two dark and under-ground conduits to convey this enmity against God Amity to the world and Amity to our selves self-love and creature-love We cannot denounce war openly against Heaven but this is the next course To joyn to or associat with any party that is contrary to God and thus under the covert of friendship to our selves and love to the world we war against God and destroys our own souls I say first Amity to the world carries enmity to God in the bosome of it and if you believe not this hear the Apostles sharp and pungent question you adulterers and adulteresses know you not that the Amity of the world is Enmity with God He doth not speak only to persons guilty of that crime but to all natural men who are guilty of an adultery or whoredome of a more spiritual nature but as abominable and more dangerous There is a bond and special tye betwixt all men and God their Maker which oblidgeth them to consecrate and devout themselves their affections and endeavours to his honour especially when the Covenant of the Gospel is superadded unto that in which Jesus Christ our Lord reveals himself as having only right to us and our affections as willing to bestow himself upon us and notwithstanding of all the distance between him and wretched sinners yet filling it up with his infinit love and wonderful condescency dimitting himself to the form of a servant out of love that so he might take us up to be his chast Spouse and adorn us with his beauty This he challengeth of us whoever hear and profess the Gospel This is youâ— profession if you understood it That Iesus Christ shall be your well-beloved and ye his that you shall separate your self to him and admit no stranger in his place that the choice and marrow of your joy love and delight shall be bestowed on him Now this bond and tye of a professed relation to that glorious Husband is foully broken by the most part by espousing their affections to this base world Your hearts are turned off him unto strangers that is present perishing things whereas the intendment of the Gospel is To present you to Christ as pure Virgins 2 Cor. 11.2 Truly your hearts are gone a-whoring after other things the love of the world hath withdrawn you or kept you in chains these present things are as snares nets and bands as an harlots hands and heart Eccles. 7.26 they are powerful inchantments over you which bewitch you to a base love from an honourable and glorious love O that you would consider it my beloved what opposition there is betwixt the love of the world and the love of the Father betwixt amity to that which hath nothing in it but some present bait to your deceitful lusts and amity to God your only lawful Husband Affection is a transforming and conforming thing Si terram amas terra es the love of God would purify thy heart and lift it up to more similitude to him whom thou loves but the love of the world assimulats it unto the world makes it such a base and ignoble piece as the earth is Do you think marriage-affection can be parted My wel-beloved is mine therefore the Church is the Turtle the Dove to Christ of wonderful chastity it never joyns but to one and after the death of its marrow it sighs and mourns ever after and sits solitarily You must retire my beloved and disingage from the love of other things or you cannot love Christ and if you love not Christ you cannot have peace with the Father and if you have not that peace you cannot have life this is the chain of life the first link begins at the divorcement of all foâ—mer loves and beloved idols once the soul must be loosed in desire and delight and that link must be fastned upon the most lovely and desireable object Christ the desire of the Nations and this draws alongs another link of peace and life with it Do not mistake it Religion would not hinder or prejudge your lawful business in this world O it were the most compendious way to advance it with more ease to your souls But certainly it will teach you to exchange the love of these things for a better and more heart-contenting love Then Amity to our selves is Enmity to
favour to us especially since the goodness of God is so exundant as to overflow even to the wicked world and vent it self as out of superabundance in a river of goodness throughout the whole earth how much more will it run abundantly towards them whom he is well pleased with and therefore the Psalmist cryes out as being already full in the very hope and expectation of it That he would burst if he had not the vent of admiration and praise O how great is His goodness and how excellent His loving-kindness laid up for them that fear him Psal. 31.19 and 36.7 But on the other hand how incomparable is the misery of them who cannot please God even though they did both please themselves and all others for the present to be at odds with him in whom alone they can subsist and without whose savour is nothing but wretchedness and misery O! that must be the worst and most cursed estate imaginable to be in such a state as do what they can they cannot please him whom alone to please is of only concernment what can be invented to that Now if you ask who they are that are such the words speak it plainly in way of inference from the former doctrine Therefore they that are in the flesh cannot please God Not they in whom there is flesh for there is remnants of that in the most spiritual man in this life we cannot attain here to Angelick purity though it should be the aim and endeavour of every Christian. But they that are in the flesh or after the flesh importing the predominion of that and an universal thraldom of nature unto it which indeed is the state of all men that are but once born till a second birth come by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The ground of this may be taken from the foregoing discourse and it is chiefly twofold one is because they are not in Iesus Christ in whom his soul is well pleased another is because they cannot suit and frame their carriage to his pleasure since all mankind hath fallen under the displeasure of the most high God by sinning against him in preferring the pleasure of the flesh and the pleasure of Satan to the pleasure of God there can be no atonement found to pacifie him no sacrifice to appease him no ransome to satisfie his Justice but that one perfect offering for sin Iesus Christ the propitiation for the sins of the elect world This the Father accepts in the name of sinners and in testimony of his acceptance he did two several times by a voice from Heaven declare first to a multitude Matth. 3.17 and then to the beloved Disciples Matth. 17.5 and both times with great Majesty and solemnity as did become him that this is his well-beloved Son in whom his soul is well pleased It pleased God to make the stream of his love to take another channel after mans sin and not to run immediatly towards wretched man but he turned the current of his love another way to his own Son whom he choosed for that end to reconcile man and bring him into favour and his love going about by that compass comes in the â—ssue towards poor sinners with the greater force He hath appointed Christ the meeting-place with sinners the dayes-man to lay his hands on both and therefore he is God to lay his hand on God and Man to lay his hand on man and bring both into a peaceable and amicable conjunction Now then whoever are not in Iesus Christ as is spoken vers 1. certainly they cannot please God do what they can because God hath made Christ the Center in which he would have the good pleasure of sinners meeting with his good pleasure and therefore without faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 not so much for the excellency of the act it self as for the well-pleasing object to it Christ. The love of the Father is terminat in Him His Justice is satiâ—fied in Him His love is well pleased with the excellency of His person He finds in him an object of delight which is no where else and His Justice is well pleased with the sufficiency and worthiness of His ransome and without this compass there is neither satisfaction to the one nor to the other so then whatsoever you are how high soever your degree in the world how sweet soever your disposition let your natures be never so good your carriage never so smooth yet certainly there is nothing in all that can please God either by an object of love or a price for justice You are under that eternal displeasure which will fall on and crush you to pieces mountains will not be so heavy as it will appear in that great day of his wrath Rev. 6. I say you cannot come from under that imminent weight of eternal wrath unless you be found in Iesus Christ that blessed place of immunity and refuge if you have not forsaken your selves and your own natures and denied your own righteousnnss as dung to be found in him cloathed with his righteousness and satisfaction If the delight and pleasure of your soul do not co-incide and fall in at one place with the delight and good pleasure of the Father that is upon his well-beloved Son Certainly the pleasure and good will of God hath not as yet fallen upon you and met with you therefore if you would please God be pleased with Christ and you cannot do him a greater pleasure then believe in him Joh. 5.23 that is absolutely resign your selves unto him for salvation and sanctification The other ground is Such as are in the flesh cannot frame their spirits affections and wayes to Gods good pleasure for their very wisdome the very excellency that is in them is enmity to God and cannot subject to His Law and therefore they cannot please him I am sure you may easily reflect upon your selves and find not with much search but upon all these as the Prophet Ier. 2.34 speaks that it is not the study and businesse you have undertaken To please God but the bent and main of your aims and endeavours is to please your selves or to please men This makes many mens pains even in Religion displeasing to God because they do not indeed mind his pleasure but their own or others satisfaction what they do is but to conâ—orm to the custome of the time or commandments of men or their own humour and all this must needs be abominable to God Truly that which is in great account among men is abomination to God as our Saviour speaks of the very righteousness and professed piety of the Pharisees Luk. 16.25 the more you please your selves and the world the further you are from pleasing God The very beginning of pleasing God is when a soul falls in displeasure at it self and abhorrency of his own loathsomness therefore it is said The humble and contrite spirit I will look unto and dwell with him and such sacrifices do please
Having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts You have both in that word dâ—rknesse and deadnesse want of that shining light of God in the mind â—o that it cannot discern spiritual things that makes to our eternal peace all the plainnesse and evidence of the Gospel though it did shine as a Sun about you cannot make you see or apprehend either your own misery or the way to help it because your dungeon is within the most part cannot form any â—ensible notion of spiritual things that are daily sounding unto them in the Word The eye of the mind is put ouâ— and if it be darknesse how great is that darknesse Certainly the whole man is without light and your way and walk must be in the dark and indeed it appears that it is dark night with many souls because if it were not dark they could not run out all their speed among pits and snares in the way to destruction And from this woful defect flows the alienation of the whole soul from the life of God that primitive light being eclipsed the soul is separated from the influence of Heaven and as Nebuchadnezzars soul acted only in a bruital way when driven out amongst beasts so the soul of man being driven out from the presence of the Lord may act in a way common to beasts or in some rational way in things that concern this life but it is wholly spoiled of that divine life of communion with God it cannot taste smell or savour such things O if it were visible unto us the state of the ruinous soul we would raise a more bitter lamentation over it then the Iews did over Ierusalem or the Kings and Merchants have reason to do over fallen Babylon Truly we might bemoan it thus how is the faithful city become a harlot righteousnesse lodged in it but now murderers Isa. 1.21 Man was once the dwelling place of princely and divine graces and veâ—tues the Lord himself was there and then how comely and beautiful was the soul But now it is like the desolate cities in which the beasts of the desertly and there houses are full of doleful creatures where Owls dwell and Satyrs dance where wilde beasts cry and Dragons in the pleasant Palaces Isa. 13.21 22 and Ier. 50.39 So mighty is the fall of the soul of man as of Babylon that it may be cryed It is fallen and become the habitation of devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird Rev. 18.2 All the beasts flock now to it all the birds of darknesse take their lodging in it since this noble guest left it and took away the light from it for the Sun hath not shined on it since that day All unclean affections all beastly lusts all earthly desires all vain cogitations get lodging in this house the Bethel is become a Bethaven the house of God become a house of vanity by the continual repair of vain thoughts the house of prayer is turned in a den of theeves and robbers that which was at first created for the pure service and worship of God is now a receptacle of all the rebellious and idolatrous thoughts and affections the heart of every man is become a Temple full of Idols This is the state of it and worse then can be told you Now judge if there be not need of a better guest then these O what absolute necessity is there of such a Spirit as this to repair and reform the ruinous spirit of man to quicken and enlighten the darkned mind of man even that Spirit that made it at first a glorious Palace for God that Spirit that breathed the soul into the formed clay must repair these breaches and creat all again Now when the Spirit of Christ enters into this vile and ruinous cottage he repairs it and reforms it he strikes out lights in the heart and by a wonderful eye-salve makes the eyes open to see He creats a new light within which makes him behold the light shining in the Gospel and behold all things are new himself new because now most loath-some and vile the world new because now appears nothing but vanity in the very perfection of it and God new because another Majesty glory excellency and beauty shines into the soul then ever it apprehended And as the Spirit enlightens so He enlivens this Tabernacle or Temple He kindles a holy fire in his affections which must never go out it is such as cannot be kindled iâ— it go out but by the beams of the Sun as the Poets fancied the Vestalfire The spirit within the soul is a fire to consume his corruption to burn up his drosse and vanity Christ comes in like a refiner with the fire of the Spirit and purges away earthly lusts and makes the love of the heart pure and clean to burn upward toward Heaven This Spirit makes a christian-Christian-soul move willingly toward God in the wayes that seemed most unpleasant It is an active principle within him that cannot rest till it rest in its place of eternal rest and delight in God And then the Spirit reforms this house by casting out all these wild beasts that lodged in it these savage and unruly affections that domineered in man this strong man entering in casts them out there is much rubbish in old waste Palaces Neb. 4.2 O how much pains is it to cleanse them â— our house is like the house of these Nobles Ier. 5.27 Full of deceit as a cage is full of birds and our heart full of wickednesse and vanity Jer. 4.14 Certainly it will be much labour to get your unclean spirits cast out that is the grosser and more palpable lusts that reign in you but when these are gone forth yet there is much wickednesse and uncleannesse in the heart of a more subtile nature and by long in dwelling almost incorporated and mingled with the soul and this will not be gotten out with gentle sweeping as was done Luk. 11.25 that takes away only the uppermost filth that lyes loosest but this must be gotten out by much washing and cleansing and therefore the Spirit enters by blood and water There are idols in the heart to which the soul is much engaged it unites and closes with them Ezek. 36. and these must be cleansed and washed out There is much deceit in the heart and this lyes clossest to it and is engrossed into it and indeed this will take the help of fire to separate it for that is of the most active nature to separate things of a diverse nature the Spirit must by these take out your drosse and all this the Spirit will not do alone but honours you with the fellowship of this work and therefore you must lay your account that the operation and reformation of this house for so glorious a Guest will be laborious in the mean time But
O how infinitly is that compensed one hours fellowship with him alone when all strangers are cast out will compense all will make all to be forgotten the pain of mortification will be swallowed up in the pleasure of his inhabitation When I shall awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness When He shall take up house fully in you it will satisfie you to the full In the mean time as he takes the rule and command of your house so for the present he provides for it the provision of the soul is incumbent to this Divine Guest and O how sweet and satisfying is it the peace and joy of the Holy Ghost which are the intertainment that he gives a soul where he reigns and hath brought In righteousnesse Rom. 14.17 What a noble train doth the Spirit bring alongs with him to furnish this house Many rich and costly ornaments hang over it and adorn it to make it like the Kings Wise all glorious within such as the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit 1 Pet. 3.4 which is a far more precious and rich hanging than the most curious or precious contexture of corruptible things the cloathing of humility simple in shew but rich in substance 1 Pet. 5.5 which enriches and beautifies the soul that hath it more than all Solomons glory could do his person for better is it to be of a humble spirit with the lowly then divide the spoil with the proud Prov. 16.19 In a word the Spirit makes all new puts a new man a new fashion and Image on the soul which suits the Court of Heaven the highest in the world and is conformed to the noblest and highest pattern the Holinesse and Beauty of the greatest King And being lodged within O what sweet fruits is the Spirit dayly bringing forth to feed and delight the soul withall Gal. 5.22 23. And he is not only a Spirit of Sanctification but of Consolation too and therefore of all the most worthy to be received into our hearts for he is a bosome-comforter Ioh. 14 16. when there is no friend nor lover without but a soul in that posture of Heman Psal. 88.18 and in that desolate estate of the Churches Ierem. Lament 1.2 Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her vers 17. Spreading forth her hands and none to comfort her vers 21. Sighing and none to comfort her In such a case to have a living and over-running spring of comfort within when all externall and lower consolations like winter-brookes that dry up in summer have dryed up and disappointed thy expectation sure this were a happy guest that could do this O that we could open our hearts to receive him SERMON XXV Rom. 8.9 If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man c. THere is a great marriage spoken of Eph. 5. That hath a great mystery in it which the Apostle propoundeth as the samplar and archetype of all marriages or rather as the substance of which all conjunctions and relations among the creatures are buâ— the shaddows It is that marriage between Christ and his Church for which it would appear this world was builded to be a Palace to celebrat it into and especially the upper-house Heaven was made glorious for that great day where it shall be solemnized The first in order of time that was made by God himself in paradise certainly to represent a higher mystery The marriage of the second Adam with his Spouse which is taken out of his bloody side as the Apostle imports Eph. 5. Now there is the greatest inequality and disproportion between the parties Christ and sinners so that it would seem a desperate matter to bring two such distant and unequal natures to such a neer union as may cast a copy to all unions and relations of the creatures But He who at first made a kind of marriage between Heaven and Earth in the composure of man and joyned together an immortal spirit in such a bond of amity with corruptible dust hath found out the way to help this and make it â—easable And truly we may conceive the Lord was but making way for this greater mystery of the union of Christ with us when he joyned the breath of Heaven with the dust of the earth in this he gave some representation of another more mysterious conjunction Now the way that the wisdome and love of God hath found out to bring about this marriage is this Because there was such an infinite distance between the only begotten Son of God who is the expresse character of his Image and the brightness of his Glory and Us sinful mortal creatures whose foundation is in the dust therefore it pleased the Father out of His good-will to the match To send his Son down among men and the Son out of his love to take on our flâ—sh and so fill up that distance with his low condescendence to be partaker of flesh and blood with the children And now what the Lord spoke of man fallen in a holy kind of irony or mock Behold he is become as one of us that men may truly say of the Son of God not fallen down from Heaven but come down willingly Lo he is become as one of us like us in all things except sin which hath made us unlike our selves This bond of union you have in the vers 3. Christ so infinitly above sinners and higher then the Heavens coming down so low to be as like sinners as might be or could be profitable for us in the liâ—eness of sinful flesh c. But yet this bond is not neer enough that conjunction seemeth but general and infirm both because it is in some manner common to all mankind who shall not be all advanced to this priviledge By taking on our nature he cometh nearer to humane nature but not to some beyond others and besides the distance is not filled up this way because there is a great disproportion between that nature in Christ and in us In Him it is holy and undefiled and seperated from sin but in Us it is unclean and immersed into sin so that albeit he be nearer us as a man yet he is far distant and unlike us a holy perfect man Now what fellowship can be between light and darkness as Paul speaketh of the marriage of Christians with Idolaters much greater distance and disagreement is between Christ and us Therefore it seemeth that some of us must be changed and transformed But Him it may not be he cannot become liker us than by partaking of our flesh for if he had become a sinner indeed he would have become so like us that he could not help himself nor us either this would eclipse the glory and happiness of the marriage but in that he came as near as could be without disabling himâ—elf to make us happy and so he was contented to come in the place of sinners and take on their debt and answer to Gods Justice for it yea
greatest fear is death not so much because of it self but chiefly because of that eternity of unchangeable misery that naturally it transmitts them unto Now it is only Christian Religion possessing the heart that aâ—mes a man compleatly against the fear either of death it self or the consequents of it it giveth the most powerful consolation that not only overcometh the bitternesse and taketh out the sting of death but changeth the nature of it so far as to make it the matter of triumph and gloriation There is something here supposed the worst that can befall a Christian it is the death of a part of him and that the worst and ignoblest part only the body is dead because of sin Then that wâ—ich is opposed by way oâ— comfort to counterballance it is the life of his better and more noble part And besides we have the fountaâ—ns both of that death and this life mans sin the cause of bodily death Christs righteousnesse the fountain of spiritual life Of death many have had sweet meditations even among these that the light of the Word hath not shined upon and indeed they mâ—y make us ashamed who prosesse Christianity and so the hope of the resurrection from the dead that they have accounted it only true wisdom and sound Philosophy To meditat often on death and made it the very principal point of living well To be alwayes learning to die and have applyed their whole studies that way neglecting present things that are in the by have given themselves to search out some comfort against death or from death Yea some have so profited in this that they have accounted death the greatest good that can befall man and perswaded others to think so Now what may we think of our selves who scarce apprehend mortality especially considering that we have the true fountain of it revealed to us and the true nature and consequents of it All men must needs know that death is the most universal King in the world that it reigns over all ages sexes conditions nations and times though few be willing to entertain thoughts of it yet sooner or later they must be constrained to give it lodging upon their eye lids and suffer it to storm the very strongest tower the heart and baâ—â—er it down and break the strings of it having no way either to flee from it or resist it Now the consideration of the general inundation of death over all mankind anâ— the certain approâ—ching of it to every particular mans door hath made many serious thoughts among the wise men of the world But being destitute of this heavenly light that â—hineth to us they could not attain to the original of it but have conceived that it was a common tribute of nature and an universal Law imposed upon all mankind by nature having the same reason that other mâ—tations and changes among the creatures here below have and â—o have thought it no more strange thing then to see other things dissolved in their elements Now indeed seeing they could apprehend no other bitter ingredient in it it was no wonder that the wisest of them could not fear it but rather wait and expect it as a rest from their labours as the end of all their miseries But the Lord hath revealed unto us in his Word the true cause of it and so the true nature of it The true cause of it is sin sin entred into the world and death past upon all for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 Man was created for another purpose and upon other conditions and a Law of perpetual life and eternal happinesse was past in his â—avours he abiding in the favour and obeying the will of Him that gave him life and being Now sin inteâ—posing and separating between man and God loosing that blessed knot of union and communion it was this other law that succeeded as a suitable recompence Thou shall die It is resolved in the Council of Heaven That the union of man shall be dissolved his soul and body separated in just recompence of the breaking the bond of union with God This is it that hath opened the sluce to let in an inundation of misery on mankind this was the just occasion of that righteous but terrible appointment It is appointed that all men once should die and after death cometh to Iudgment Heb. 9.27 That since the body had inticed the soul and suggested unto it such unnatural and rebellious motions of withdrawing from the blessed fountain of life to satisfie its pleasure the body should be under a sentence of deprivement and â—orfeitour of that great benefite and priviledge of life it had by the souls indwelling and condemned to return to its first base original the dust and to be made a feast of worms to lodge in the grave and be a subject of the greatest corruption and rottennesse because it became the instrument yea the incitement of the soul to sin against that God that had from Heaven breathed a spirit into it and exalted it above all the dust or clay in the world Now my beloved do we not get many remembrances of our sin Is not every day presenting our primitive departure from God our fiâ—st separation from the fountain of life by sin to our view and in such sad and woeful effects pointing out the hainousnesse of sin Do you not see mens bodies every day dissolved the tabernacle of earth taken down and the soul constrained to remove out of it But what influence hath it upon â—s what do the multiplied funeralls work upon us It may bâ— sorrow for our friends but little or no apprehension of our own mortality and base impression of sin that separats our souls from God Who is made sadly to reflect upon his original or to mind seriously that statute and appointment of Heaven in that day thou shalt die It is strange that all of us fear death and few are afraid of sin that carrieth death in its bosome That we are so unwilling to reâ—p corruption in our bodies and yet we â—re so earnest and lâ—borious in sowing to the flesh Be not deceived for you are dayly reaping what you have sowen And O that it were all the harvest but death is only the putting in of the sickle of vengeaâ—ce the first cut of it But O to think on what follows would certainly restrain men and cool them in their fervent pursuits after sin SERMON XXVIII Rom. 8.10 The body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life because of righteousnesse THE sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law saith our Apostle 1 Cor. 15.56 These two concur to make man mortal and these two are the bitter ingredients of death Sin procured it and the Law appointed it And God hath seen to the exâ—ct execution of that Law in all ages for what man liveth and shall not taste of death Two only eâ—caped the common lot Enoch and Elias for they pleased God and God took them
Christ hath continued our mortality Else he would have abolished death it self if he had not meant to abolish sin by death and indeed it would appear this is the reason why the world must be consumed with fire at the last day and new Heavens and earth succeed in its room because as the little house the body so the great house the world was infected with this leprosie so subjected to vanity and corruption because of mans sin therefore that there might be no remnant of mans corruption and no memorial of sin to inteâ—upt his eternal joy the Lord will purify and change all all the members that were made instruments of unrighteousness all the creatures that were servants to mans lusts a new form and fashion shall be put on all that the body being restored may be a fit dwelling place for the purified soul and the world renewed may be a â—it house for righteous men Thus you see that Death to a Christian is not real death for it is not the death of a Christian but the death of sin his greatest enemy it is not a punishment but the enlargement of the soul. Now the next comfort is that which is is but partial it is but the dissolution of the lowest part in man his body so far from prejudging the immortal life of his spirit that it is rather the accomplishment of that Though the body must die yet eternal life is begun already within tâ—e soul for the Spirit of Christ hath brought in life the Righteousnesse of Christ hath purchased it and the Spirit hath performed it and applyed it to us not only there is an immortal being in a Christian that must survive the dust for that is common to all men but there is a new life begun in him an immortal well being in joy and happinesse which only deserveth the name of life that cometh never to its full perfection till the bodily and earthly house be taken down If you consider seriously what a new life a Câ—â—istâ—â—n is â—â—â—aâ—lated unto by the operation of the Holy Ghost and the ministration of the word it is then most active and lively when the soul is most retired from the body in meditation the new life of a Christian is most perfect in this life when it carrieth him the furthest distance from his bodily senses and is most abstracted from all sensible engagements as you heard for indeed it restores the spirit of a man to its native rule and dominion over the body so that it is then most perfect when it is most gâ—thered within it self and disingaged from all external intanglements Now certain it is since the perfection of the soul in this life consists in such a retirement from the body that when it is wholly separated from it then it is in the most absolute state of perfection and its life â—cts most purely and peâ—fectly when it hath no body to communicat with and to entangle it either with its lusts or necessities The Spirit is life it hath a life now which is then best when furthest from the body and therefore it cannot but be surpassing better when it is out of the body and all this is purchaâ—ed by Christs righteousnesse As mans disobedience made an end of his life Christs obedience hath made our life endlesse He suffered death to sting him and by this hath taken the sting from it and now there is a new statute and appointment of Heaven published in the Gospel whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have eternal life Now indeed this hath so intirely châ—nged the nature of death that iâ— hath noâ— the most lovely and desirable aspect on a Christian that it is no more an object of fear but of desire amicable not terrible unto him since there is no way to save the passenger but to let the vessel break he will be content to have the body splitted that himself that is his soul may escape for truly a mans soul is himself the body is but an earthly tabernacle that must be taken down to let the inhabitant win out to come near his Lord the body is the Prison-house that he groans to have opened that he may enjoy that liberty of the sons of God And now to a Christian death is not properly an object of patience but of desire rather I desire to be dissolved and be with Christ Phil. 1.23 He that hath but advanced little in Christianity will be content to die but because there is too much flesh he will desire to live but a Christian that is riper in knowledge and grace will rather desire to die and only be content to live he will exercise patience and submission about abiding here but groanings and pantings about removing hence because he knoweth that there is no choice between that bondage and this liberty SERMON XXIX Rom. 8.10 The body is dead because of sin but the Spirit is life c. IT was the first curse and threatning wherein God thought fit to comprehend all misery Thou shalt die the death in that day thou eatest though the sentence was not presently executed according to the letter yet from that day â—orward man was made mortal and there seemeth to be much mercy and goodness of God interveening to plead a delay of death it self that so the promise of life in the second Adam might come to the first and his posterity and they might be delivered â—rom the second death though not from the first Alwayes we bear about the markes of sin in our bodies to this day and in so far the threatning taketh place that this life that we live in the body is become nothing else but a dying life the life that the ungodly shall live out oâ— the body is a living death and either of these is worse then simple death or destruction of beeing The serious contemplation of the miseries of this life made wise Solomon to praise the dead more then the living contrary to the custom of men who rejoyce at the birth of a man-child and mourn at their death yea it pressed him further to think them which have not at all been better then both because they have not seen the evil under the Sun this world is such a Chaos such a masse of miseries that if men understood it before they came into it they would be far more loath to enter into it then they are now afraid to go out of it And truly we want not remembrances and representations of our misery every day in that children come weeping into the world as it were bewailing â—heir own misfortune that they were brought forth to be sensible subjects of misery And what is all our life-time but a repetition of sighs and groanâ— anxiety and satiety loathing and longing dividing our spiâ—its and our time between them How many deaths must we suffer before death come for the absence or losse of any thing much desired is a sepâ—ration no lesse gâ—ievous to the hearts of men
The more the soul be satisfied with eaâ—thly things it is the deeper buâ—ied in the grave of the flesh and the â—urther separated from God Alas many oâ— you know no other liâ—e then that which you now live in the body you neither apprehend what this new birth is nor what the perfect statuâ—e of it shall be afterwards but truly while it is thus you are but walking shadows breathing â—lâ—y and no more A godly man used to calculat the years of his nativity from his second birth his conversion to God in Christ And truly this is the true period of the â—ight calculation of life of that life which shall not see death True life hath but one period that is the beginning of it for end it hath none I beseech you reckon your years thus and I fear that you â—eckon your selves many of you yet dead in sins and trespasses Is that life I pray you To eat to drink to sleep to play to walk to work Is there any thing in all these worthy of a reasonable soul which must survive the body and so cease from such things for ever Think within your selves do you live any other life then this What is your life but a tedious and wearisome repetition of such bruitish actions which are only teâ—minat on the body O then how miserable are you if you have no other period to reckon from then your birth day If there be not a second birth day before your burial you may make your reckoning To be banished eternally from the life of God As for you Christians whom God hath quickned by the Spirit of His Son be much in the exercise of this life and that will maintain and advance it let your care be about your spirits and to hearten you in this study and to beget in you the hope of eternal life look much and lay fast hold on that Life-giving Saviour who by his righteous life and accursed death hath purchased by his own blood both happinesse to us and holinesse Consider what debters ye are to Him who loved not his own life and spared it not to purchase this life to us Let our thoughts and affections be occupied about this high purchase of our Saviours which is freely bestowed on them that will have it and believe in Him for it if we be not satisfied with such a low and wretched life as is in the body He will give a higher and more enduring life and only worthy of that name SERMON XXX Rom. 8.11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Iesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken you c. IT is true the soul is incomparably better then the body and he is only worthy the name of a Man and of a Christian who prefers this more excellent part and imploys his study and time about it and regards his body only for thâ— noble guest that lodges within it and therefore it is one of the prime consolations that Christianity affords that it provides chiefly for the happy estate of this immortal piece in man which truly were alone sufficient to draw our souls wholly after Religion suppose the body should never taste of the fruits of it but die and rise no more and never be awak'd out of its sleep yet it were a sufficient ground of engagement to godlinesse that the life and well-being of the far better part in man is secured for eternity which is infinitly more then all things beside can truly promise us or be able to perform Certainly whatsoever else you give your hearts to and spend your time upon it will either leave you in the midst of your dayes and at your end you shall be a fool or you must leave it in the end of your dayes and find your selves as much disappointed or to speak more properly because when your time is ending your life and being is but at its beginning you must bid an eternal adieu to all these things whereupon your hearts are set when you are but beginning truly to be But this is only the proper and true good of the soul Christ in it most portable and easily carried about with you yea that which makes the soul no burden to it self and helps it to carry all things easily and then most inseparable for Christ in the soul is the spring of a never-ending life of peace joy and contentation in the fountain of an infinit goodnesse and it out-wears time and age as well as the immortal beeing of the soul yea such is the strength of this consolation that then the soul is most closly united and â—ully possessed oâ— that which is its peculiar and satisfying good when it leaves the body in the dust and eâ—capes out of this pâ—iâ—on unto that glorious liberty But yet there is besides this an additional comfort comprehended in the vers read that the sleep of the body is not perpetual that it shall once be awakened and raised up to the fellowship of this glory â—or though a man should be abundantly satisfied if he possesse his own soul yet no man hateth his own flesh the soul hath some kind of natural inclination to a body suitable unto it and in this it differs from an Angel and therefore the Apostle when he expresseth his earnest groan for intimat presence oâ— his soul with Christ he subjoyns this correction not that we desire to be uncloathed but cloathed upon it 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3. If it were possible sayes he we would be glade to have the society of the body in this glory we would not desire to cast off those cloaths of flesh but rather that the garment of glory might be spread over all if it were not needful because they are old and ragged and would not suit well and our earthly Tabernacle is ruinous and would not be fit for such a glorious guest to dwell into and therefore it is needful to be taken down well then here is an overplus and as it were a surcharge of consolation that seing for the present it is expedient to put off the present cloathing of flesh and take down the present earthly house yet that the day is coming that the same cloaths renewed shall be put on and the same house repaired and made suitable to Heaven shall be built up that this mortal body shall be quickned with that same Spirit that now quickens the soul and makes it live out of the body and so the sweet and beloved friends who parted with so much pain and grief shall meet again with so much pleasure and joy and as they were sharers together in the miseries of this life sâ—all participat also in the blessednesse of the next like Saul and Ionathan lovely and pleasant in their lives and though for a time separated in death yet not alwayes divided Now is the highest top of happinesse to which nothing can be added its comprehensive of the whole man and its
from sin as the death of Christ is made the pledge of our dying to sin so his rising of our living to God Rom. 6.4 5. These are not meer paterns and examples of spiritual things but assured pledges of that divine vertue and power which he being raised again should send abroad throughout the world for as there are Coronation-gifts when Kings are solemnly installed in office so there are Coronation-mercies triumphal gifts when Christ rose and ascended he bestowed then on the world Eph. 4. And certainly these are the greatest the vertue of his death to kill the old man and the power of his resurrection to quicken the new and by faith a believer is united and ingraâ—ted into him as a plant into a choice stock and by vertue and sap coming from Christs death and resurrection he is transformed into the similitude of both he groweth into the likenesse of his death by dying to sin by crucifying these inward affections and inclinations to it and he groweth up into the similitude of his resurrection by newnesse of life or being alive to God in holy desires and endeavours after holinesse â—nd obedience And thus the first resurrection of the soul floweth from Christs resurrection But add unto this that Christs rising is the pledge and pawn of the second resurrection that is of the body for He is the head and we the members now it is most incongruous that the head should rise and not draw up the members after him certainly he will not cease till He have drawen up all his memâ—ers to him if the head be above water it is a sure pledge that the body will win out of the water if the root be alive certainly the branches will shoot out in Spring-time they shall live also There is that connexion betwixt Christ and believers that wonderful communication between them that Christ did nothing was nothing and had nothing done to him but what He did and was and sufferd personating them and all the benefiâ—e and advantage redounds to them He would not be considered of us as a person by himself but would rather be still taken in with the children as for love he came down and took flesh to be like them and did take their sin and misery off them and so was content to be looked upon by God as in the place of sinners as the chief sinner so he is content and desirous that we should look on him as in the place of sinners as dying as rising for us as having no excellency or privelege incommunicable to us And this was not hid from the Church of old but presented as the grand consolation Thy dead men shall live â—ogether with my dead body they shall rise and therefore may poor souls awake and sing though they must dwell in the dust yet as the dew and influence of Heaven maketh herbs to spring out of the earth so the vertue of this resurrection shall make the earth and sea and air to cast out and render their dead Isa. 26.19 Upon what a sure and strong chain hangs the salvation of poor sinners I wish Christians might salute one another with this Christ is risen and so comfort one another with these words or rather that every one would apply this cordial to his own heart Christ is risen and you know what a golden chain this draweth after it therefore we must rise and live The other cause which is more immediat and will actively accomplish it is the Spirit dwelling in us for there is a suitable method here too as the Lord first raised the Head Christ and will then raise the Members and he that doth the one cannot but do the other so the Spirit first raiseth the soul from that woful fall into sin which killed us and so maketh it a Temple and the body too for both are bought with a price and therefore the Spirit possesseth both but the inmost residence is in the soul and the bodily members are made servants of righteousness which is a great honour and dignity in regard of that base imployment they had once and so it is most suitable that he who hath thus dwelt in both repair his own dwelling-house for here it is ruinous and therefore must be cast down but because it was once a Temple for the Holy Ghost therefore it will be repaired and built again for he that once honoured it with his presence will not suffer corruption alwayes to dwell in it for what Christ by his humiliation and suffering purchased the Spirit hath this Commission to perform it aâ—d what is it but the restitution of mankind to an happier estate in the second Adam then ever the first was into Now since our Lord who pleased to take on our flesh did not put it off again but admits it to the fellowship of the same glory in heaven in that he died he dies no more death hath no more dominion over him he will never be wearied or ashamed of that humane clothing of flesh and therefore certainly that the children may be like the father the followers their Captain the members not disproportioned to the head the branches not different and heterogeneous to the stock and that our rising in Christ may leave no footstep of our falling no remainder of our misery therefore the Spirit of Christ will also quicken the mortal bodies of believers and make them like Christs glorious body This must be done with divine power and what more powerful then the Spirit for it is the spirits or subtil parts in all creatures that causeth all motions and worketh all effects What then is that Almighty Spirit not able to do You have shadows of this in nature yea convincing evidences for what is the Spring but a resurrection of the earth Is not the world every year renewed and riseth again out of the grave of Winter as you find it elegantly expressed Psal. 107. and doth not the grains of seed die in the â—lods beâ—ore they rise to the harvest 1 Cor. 15. All the vicissitudes and alterations in nature give us a plain draught of this great change and certainly it is one Spirit that effects all But though there be the same power required to raise up the bodies of the godly and ungodly yet O what infinit distance and difference in the nature and ends oâ— their resurrections there is the resurrection of life and the resurrection of condemnation Joh. 5.29 O happy they who rise to life that ever they died but O miserable thrice wretched are all others that they may not be dead for ever The immortality of the souls was infinit misery because it is that which eternizes their misery but when this overplus is added the incorruptibility of the body and so the whole man made an inconsumable subject for that fire to seed upon perpetually what heart can conceive it without horrour and yet we hear it often without any such affection It is a strange life that death is the only
incense to God dayly when they offer up their souls desires in simplicity and sincerity Certainly this is a spiritual thing derived only from the fountain of Spirts this grace of pouring out our souls into him and keeping communication with him the variety of words and riches of expression it is but the shell of it the external shadow And all the life consists in the frame of the heart before God And this none can put in frame but he that formed the Spirit of man within him some through custom of hearing and using it attain to a habit of expressing themselves readily in it it may be to the satisfaction of others but alas they may be strangers to the fiâ—st letters and elements of the life and spirit of prayer I would have you who want both look up to heaven for it many of you cannot be induced to pray in your family and I fear little or none in secret which is indeed a more serious work because you have not been used or not learned or such like Alas beloved this cometh not through education or learning it cometh from the Spirit of adoption and if ye cannot pray ye say ye have not the Spirit and if ye have not the Spirit ye are not the Sons of God Know what is in the inevitable sequel of your own confessions But I haste to the qualifications of this divine work fervencie reverence and confidence Fervencie in crying reverence and confidence in crying Abba Father for these two suit well towards our Father the first I fear we must seek it elsewhere then in prayer I find it spent on other things of lesse moment Truly all the Spirit and affection of men runes in another channel in the way of contention and strife in the way of passion and miscalled zeal and because these things whereabout we do thus earnestly contend have some interest or coherance with Religion we not only excuse but approve our vehemency But O! much better were that imployed in supplicationâ— to God that were a divine channel Again the marrow of other mens Spirits is exhausted in the pursuit of things in the world the edge of their desires is turned that way and it must needs be blunted and dulled in spiritual things that it cannot pierce into Heaven and prevail effectually I am sure many of us useth this excuse who are so cold in it that we do not warm our selves and how shall we think to prevail with God our spirits make little noise when we cry all the loudest we can scarce hear any whisper in our hearts and how shall he hear us Certainly it is not the extension of the voice pleaseth Him it is the cry of the heart that is sweet harmony in his ears and you may easily perceive that if you but consider that he is an infinit Spirit that pierceth into all the corners of our hearts and hath all the darknesse of it as light before him how can you think that such a spirit can be pleased with lip-cryes how can he endure such deceit and â—alshood who hath so perfect a contrariety with all false appearances that your heart should lye so dead and flatt before him and the affection of it turned quite another way There were no sacrifices without fire in the Old Testament and that fire was kept-in perpetually and so no prayer now without some inward fire conceived in the desires and blazing up and growing into a flame in the presenting of them to God The incense that was to be offered on the Altar of perfume Exod. 30. it behoved to be beaten and prepared and truly prayer would do well to be made out of a beaten and bruised heart and contrite spirit a spirit truly sensible of its own unworthinesse and wants and that beating and pounding of the heart will yeeld a good fragrant smel as some spices do not till beaten The incense was made of divers spices intimating to us that true prayer is not one grace alone but a compound of graces It is the joynt exercise of all a Christian graces seasoned with all every one of them give some peculiar fragrancy to it as Humility Faith Repentance Love c. The acting of the heart in supplication is a kind of compend and result of all these as one perfume made up of many simples But above all as the incense our prayers must be kindled by fire on the Altar there must be some heat and servour some warmnesse conceived by the holy Spirit in our hearts which may make our spices send forth a pleasant smell as many spices do not till they get heat Let us lay this engagement on our hearts to be more serious in our addresses to God the Father of spirits above all to present our inward soul before him before whom it is naked and open though we do not bring it And certainly frequency in prayer will much help us to fervency and to keep it when we have it SERMON XL. Rom. 8.15 VVhereby we cry Abba Father ALL that know any thing of Religion must needs know and confess that there is no exercise either more suitable to him that prosesseth it or more needful for him then to give himself to the exercise of prayer but that which is confessed by all and as to the outward performance gone about by many I fear it is yet a mystery sealed up fâ—om us as to the true and living nature of it There is much of it expressed here in few words whereby we cry Abba Father The divine constitution and qualification of this divine work is here made up of a temper of fervency reverence and confidence The first I spoke of before but I fear our hearts was not well heated then or may be cooled since It is not the loud noise of words that is best heard in Heaven or that is constructed to be crying to God No this is transacted in the heart more silently to men but it striketh up into the ears of God His ear is sharp and that voice of the souls desires is shrill and though it were out of the depths they will meet together It is true the vehemency of affection will sometimes cause the extension of the voice but yet it may cry as loud to Heaven when it is kept within I do not presse such extraordinary degrees of servour as may effect the body but I would rather wish we accustomed our selves to a solid calm seriousnesse and earnestnesse of spirit which might be more constant then such raptures can be that we might alwayes gather our spirits to what we are about and avocat them from impertinent wanderingâ— and fix them upon the present object of our worship this is to worship him in spirit who is a Spirit The other thing that composes the sweet temper of prayeâ— is reverence and what more suitable whether you consider Him or your selves If I be your Father where is my honour and if I be your Master where is my fear
Mal. 1.6 While we call him Father or Lord we proclaim this much that we ought to know our distance from him and his superiority to us and if worship in prayer carry not this character and expresse not this honourable and glorious Lord whom we serve it wantes that congruity and suitableness to him that is the beauty of it Is there any thing more uncomly then for children to behave themselves irreverently and irrespectively towards their Fathers to whom they owe themselves It is a monstruous thing even innature and to natures light O how much more abominable must it be to draw near to the Father of spirits who made us and not we our selves in whose hand our breath is and whose are all our wayes in a word to whom we owe not only this dust but the living spirit that animats it that was breathed from Heaven and finally in whom we live and move and have our being and well-being to worship such an one and yet to behave our selves so unseemly and irreverently in his presence our hearts not stricken with the apprehension of his glory but lying flatt and dead before him having scarcely him in our thoughts whom we speak to and finally our deportments in his sight are such as could not be admitted in the presence of any person a little above our selves to be about to speak to them and yet to turn aside continually to every one that cometh by and entertain communication with every base creature this I say in the presence of a King or Nobleman would be accounted such an absurd incivility as could be committed and yet we behave our selves just so with the Father of spirits O the wandrings of the hearts of men in divine worship while we are in communication with our Father and Loâ—d in prayer whose heart is fixed to a constant attendance and presence by the impression of his glorious holinesse whose spirit doth not continually gadd abroad and take a word of every thing that occurrs and so marrs that soul-coâ—â—espondance O that this word Psal. 89.7 were written with great letters on our hearts God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the Saints and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him that one word God speaketh all Either we must convert Him in an idol which is nothing or if we apprehend Him to be God we must apprehend our infinit distance from Him and his unspeakable inaccessible glory above us He is greatly feaâ—ed and reverenced in the Assemblies that are above in the upper Courts of Angels those glorious Spiâ—its who must cover the feet from us because we cannot see their gloâ—y they must cover their faces from Him because they cannot behold his glory Isa. 6. what a glorious train hath he and yet how reverend are they they wait round about the Throne above and about it as Courtierâ— upon their King for they are all ministâ—ing spirits and they rest not day and night to adore and admire that holy one crying holy holy holy the whole earth is full of his glory Now how much more then should he be greatly feared and had in reverence in the assembly of his Saints of poor mortal men whose foundation is in the dust and dwell in clay and besides drink in iniquity like water there is two points of difference and distance from us He is nearer Angels for Angels are pure spirits but we have flesh which is furthest removed from his nature And then Angels are holy and clean yet that is but spotted to his unspotted holinesse but we are defiled with sin which putteth us farthest off from him and which his holinesse hath greatest antipathy at Let us consider this my beloved that we may carry the impression of the glorious holinesse and Majesty of God on our hearts when ever we appear before him that so we may serve and rejoice with trembling and pray with reverence and godly fear if we apprehend indeed our own quality and condition how low how base it is how we cannot endure the very clear aspect of our own consciences we cannot look on our selves stedfastly without shame and confusion of face at the deâ—ormed spectacle we behold much lesse would we endure to have our souls opened and presented to the view of other men even the basest of men we would be overwhelmed with shame if they could see into our hearts Now then apprehend seriously what He is how glorious in holinesse how infinit in wisdom how the secrets of your souls are plain and open in his sight and I am perswaded you will be composed to a reverend humble and trembling behaviour in his sight But withall I must add this that because he is your Father you may intermingle confidence nay you are commanded so to do and this honours him as much as reverence for confidence in God as our Father is the best acknowledgment of the greatnesse and goodnesse of God it declareth how able he is to save us and how willing and so ratifieth all the promises of God made to us and setteth to a seal to his â—aithâ—ulness there is nothing he accounts himself more honoured by then a souls full resigning it self to him and relying upon his power and good-will in all necessities casting its care upon Him as a loving Father who careth for us And truly there is much beauty and harmony in the juncture of these two reioycing with trembling confidence with reverence to ask nothing doubting and yet sensible of our infinit distance from him and the disproportion of our requests to his Highnesse A child-like disposition is composed thus as also the temper and carriage of a Courtier hath these ingredients in it The love of his Father and the â—avour of his Prince maketh him take liberty and assume boldnesse and withall he is not unmindful of his own distance from his Father or Master Let us draw near with full assurance of faith Heb. 10.22 There is much in the Scripture both exhorted commanded and commended of that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that liberty and boldnesse of pouring out our requests to God as one that certainly will hear us and grant that which is good Vnbelief spoileth all it s a wretched and base-spirited thing that can conceive no honourable thoughts of God but only like it self but faith which is the well-pleasing ingredient of prayer the lower thoughts a man have of himself it maketh him conceive the higher and more honourable of God My wayes are not as your wayes nor my thoughts as your thoughts but as far above as the Heaven above the Earth Isa. 55.8 This is the rule of a believing souls conceiving of God and expecting from him and when a soul is thus placed on God by trusting and believing in him it is fixed My heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal. 112.7 O how wavering and inconstant is a soul till it fix at this Anchor upon the ground of his immutable promises It is tossed
up and down with every wind its double-minded Now one way then another now in one mind and shortly changed and indeed the soul is like the Sea capable of the least or greatest commotion Iam. 1.6 7 8. I know not any thing that will either fix your hearts from wandring in Prayer or establish your hearts from trouble and disquiet after it nothing that will so exonor and ease your spirits of care as this To lay hold on God as All-sufficient and lay that constraint on your hearts to wait on him and his pleasurâ— to cast your souls on his promises that are so full and so free and abide there as at your Anchor-hold in all the vicissiâ—udes and changes of outward or inward things In spiritual things that concerns your salvation that which is absolutely necessary you may take the boldnesses to be absolute in it and as Iob though he should slay me yet will I trust in thee and as Iacob I will not let thee go till thou blesse me But either in outward things that have some usefulness in them but are not alwayes fittest for our chiefest good or in the degrees of spiritual gifts and measures of graces the Lord calls us without anxiety to pour out our hearts in them unto him but withall we would do it with submission to his pleasure because he knows best what is best for us In these we are not bound to be confident to receive the particular we ask but rather our confidence should pitch upon his good-will and favour that he will certainly deny nothing that himself knows is good for us And so in these we should absolutely cast our self without caâ—efulnesse upon his loving and fatherly providence and resign our selveâ— to him to be disposed 〈◊〉 in them as he sees convenient There is sometimes too much limitation of God and peremptoriness used with him in such things in which his wisdom craves a latitude both in publick and privat matters even as mens affections and interests are ingaged but ordinarily it s attended and followed with shame and disappointment in the end and there is on the other hand intollerable remisseness and slacknesse in many in pressing even the weightiest petitions of salvation mortification c. which certainly ariseth from the diffidence and unbelief of the heart and the want of that rooted perswasion both of the incomparable necessity and worth of the things themselves and of his willingnesse and engagement to bestow them The word is doubled here Abba Father the Syriack and Greek word signifying one thing expressing the tender affection and love of God towards them that come to him He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him deligently so he that cometh to God must believe that he hath the bowels and compassion of a Father and will be more easily inclined with our importunat cryes then the fathers of our flesh he may suffer his children to cry long but it is not because he will not hear but because he would hear them longer and delights to hear their crâ— oftener If he delay it s his wisdom to appretiat and endear his mercies to us and to teach us to presse our petitions and sue for an answer Besides this is much for our comfort that from whomsoever and whatsoever corner in the world prayers come up to him they cannot want acceptance All Languages all Countreys all Places are sanctified by Jesus Christ that whosoever calls upon the Name of the Lord from the ends of the earth shall be saved And truly it is sweet meditation to think that from the ends of the earth the cryes of souls are heard and that the ends is as near Heaven as the middle and a Wildernesse as near as a Paradise that though we understand not one another yet we have one loving and living Father that understands all our meanings and so the different Languages and Dialects of the members of this body make no confusion in Heaven but meet together in his heart and affection and are one perfume one incense sent up from the whole Catholick Church which here is scattered on the earth O that the Lord would perswade us to cry this way to our Father in all our necessities FINIS
the flesh all your time never once seriously to rise up in the consideration of eternity or lift up your heads above temporal and earthly things and yet in the close to ascend unto Heaven No no do not deceive your selves you must go forward this life and eternity makes one straight line either of ascent or descent of happinesâ— or misery and since you have bowed down alwayes while in the body there is no rising up after it forward you must go and that is downward to that element which you transformed your spirits into that is the earth or below the earth to hell your spirits hath most affinity with these and down they must go â—s â— stoâ—e to the earth But if you would desire to have your spirits ascending up to heaven when they are let out of this prison the body take heed which way they turn bend and strive while here in the body If your struglings be to be upward at God if you have discovered that blessedness is in him and if this be the predominant of your spirit that carries it upward in desires and endeavours and turns it off the base study of satisfying the flesh and the base love of the world if thy soul be mounting alost on these wings of holy desires of a better life then can be found in any thing below certainly the motion of thy spirit will be in â— straight line upward when thou leaves thy dust to the earth Anâ—els waits to carry that spirit to that bosomâ— of Christ where it longed and liked most to be but devils do attend the souls of most part of men to thrust them down below the earth because they did still bend down to the earth SERMON XVII Rom. 8.5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh c. THough sin hath taken up the principal and inmost Cabinet of the heart of man though it hath fixed its Imperial Throne in the spirit of man and makes use of all the powers and faculties in the soul to accomplish its accursed desires and fulfill its boâ—ndless lusts yet it is not without good reason expressed in Scripture ordinarily under the name of flesh and a body of death and men dead in sins are said to be yet in the â—lesh The reason is partly because this was the rise of mans first ruine or the chiefest ingredient in his first sin his hearkning to the suggestions of his flesh against the clear light and knowledge of his spirit The Apple was beautiful to look on and sweet to the taste and this engâ—ged man thus the voluntary debasement and subjection of the spirit which was breathed in of God unto the service of that dust which God had appointed to serve it hath turned into a necessary slavery so that the flesh being put in the Throne cannot be cast out and this is the righteous judgment of God upon man that he that would not serve so good and so high a Lord should be made a drudge and slave to the very dregs of the Creation Partly again because the flesh hath in it the seeds of the most part of these evil fruits which abound in the world the most part of our corruptions have either their rise or their increase from the flesh the most part of the evils of men are either conceived in the flesh or brought forth by it by the ministry and help of our degenerat spirits And truly this is it that makes our returning to God so hard and difficult a work because we are in the flesh which is like stubble disposed to conceive flame upon any sparkle of a temptation there are so many dispositions and inclinations in the body since our fall that are as powerful to carry us to excess and inordinatness in affection or conversation as the natural instincts of beasts do dâ—ive them on to their own proper operations You know the flesh is oftâ—n times the greatest impediment that the spirit hath because of its lumpishness and earthly qâ—ality how willing would the spirit be how nimble and active in the wayes of obedience if it were not â—etarded dulled and clogged with the heavy lump of our flesh The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak saith Christ Matth. 26.41 Truly I think the great reâ—issness negligence weaknesâ— fainting of Christians in their race of Christianity ariseth ordinarily from this weight that is carried about with them that is must be some extraordinary impulse of a higher spirit to drive us on without wearying And because of this indisposition of the flesh we are not able to bear much of Gods presence in this life it would certainly confound mortality if so much were let out of it as is in Heaven no more then a weak eâ—e can endure to behold the Sun in its brightness Anâ— then the flesh as it is the greatest retardment in good it is the greatest incitement to evil it is a bosome-enemy that betrays us to Satan it is near us and connatural to us and this is the great advantage Satan hath of a Christian he hath a fâ—iend within every Christian that betrays him often You know the most part of temptationâ— from without could have no such force or strength against us if there were not some predisposition in the flesh some seeds of that evill within if they were not presented with some suitableness to our senses and they being once engaged on Satans side they easily draw the whole man with them under a false colour and pretence of friendship therefore they are said to war against the soul 1 Pet. 2.11 And they are said easily to beset us Heb. 12.1 Truly it is no wonder that the enemy storm our City when the out-works yea the very Ports of the City are possessed by traitors no wonder Satan approach near the walls with hiâ— temptations when our senses our fleshly part is so apt to receive him and ready to entertain all objects without difference that aâ—e suitable to affect them You see then how much power the flesh hath in man so that it is no wonder that every â—atural man hath this denomination one after the flesh one carnal from the predomining part though the worst part Every man by nature till a higher birth come may be called all flesh all fashioned and composed of the flesh and after the flesh even his spirit and mind fleshly and earthly sunk into the flesh and transformed into a bruitish quality or nature Now the great purpose of the Gospel is to bring alongs a deliverer unto your spirits for the releasing and unsettering of them from the chains of fleshly lusts This is the very work of Christianity to give liberty to the captive souls of men and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Isai. 63.1 The souls oâ— men are chained with their own fleshly â—usts and if at any time they can break these grosser chains aâ—â—ome â—iner spirits have escaped out of the vilest