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
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
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
things Hos. 8.12 As thingâ— that you have not much to do with Do you not let the Officers of Jesus Christ all the sweet invitations of the Gospel passe by as strangers and as if ye were unconcerned in them What taste have they more then the white of an egg How unsavoury a discourse or thought to a carnall heart is it to speak of subduing the lusts of the flesh of dying to the world of the world to come Who findeth their hearts inwardly stirred upon the proposal of Jesus Christ But if any matter of petty gain were proffeâ—ed O! how would men listen with both their ears How beautiful in the eyes of the covetous mind is any gain and advantage the sound of money is sweeter to him then this blessed sound of peace and salvation How sweet is pleasure to the voluptuous What suitablenesse and conveniency is apprehended in these perishing things but how little moment or weight is conceived and believed to be in things eternal O how substantial do things visible seem to men and how triffling do other things invisible appear But for you whose eyes are opened to you Christ is precious to you the things of the Spirit are beautiful and all your grief is that you cannot affect them according to their worth or love them according to their beauty I say some there are who do see a substance and subsistance only in things not seen Heb. 11.1 And for things that are seen and visible in this world they do account them shadows only in comparison of things invisible The world apprehend no realities but in what they see but a Christian apprehends no solide reality in that he sees but only in that he sees not and therefore as in his judgment he looks upon the one as a shadow the other as a substance so he labours to proportion and conform his affection to a suitable intertainment of them to give a shadow or show of affection to the things of this life but the marrow and substance of his heart to the things invisible of another life Thus the Apostle 1 Cor. 7.29 c. Rejoycing as if we rejoyced not enjoying as if we possessed not using as if we used not half acts for half objects if we give our whole spirits the strength of our souls and minds to them we are as foolish as he that strikes with all his strength at the air or a feather there is no solidity or reality in these things able to bottom much estimation or affection only mind them and use them as in the by as in passing through towards your Countrey SERMON XVIII Rom. 8.5 6. For they that are after the flesh do mind c. For to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minminded is life and peace THere are many differences among men in this world that as to outward appeaâ—ance are great and wide and indeed they are so eagerly pursued and seriously minded by men as if they were great and momentous You see what a strife and contention there â—s among men how to be extracted out of the dregs of the multitude and set a little higher in dignity and degree then they how do men affect to be honourable above the base how do they seek to be rich and hate poverty These differences of poor and rich high and low noble and ignoble learned and unlearned the thoughts of men are wholly taken up with But there is one great difference that is most in Gods eye and is both substantial and eternal and so infinitely surpasseth all these dâ—ffeâ—ences that the minds of men most run out upon and it is heâ—e the great difference between flesh and spirit and them that are after the flesh and them that are after the spâ—rit This is of all other most considerable because widest and durablest I say it is the widest of all for all otherâ— put no great difference between men as men they do reach the peculiaâ— excellency of a man that is the true and proper good of his spiritual and immortal part they are such as befalls alike to good and bad and so cannot have either much good or much evil in them I have seen folly set in great dignity and Princes walking on foot Eccleâ— 10.6 7. Then certainly such titles of honour and dignity such places of eminency erected above the multitude have little or nothing worth the spirit of a man in them seeing a fool a wicked man is as capable of them as a wise man or a man of a princely spirit and â—o of all others they do not elevat a man as a man above others A poor unlearned mean man may have more real excellency in him then a rich learned and great person But thiâ— draws a substantial and vast difference indeed such as is between flesh and spirit such as is between men and beasts You know what pâ—eheminency a man hath over a beast there is no such wide distance among the sâ—ns of men as between the lowest and meanest man and the chiefest beast There is a spirit in man saith Elihu Job 32.8 An immortal eternal substance of a far higher nature and comprehension You know what excellency is in the spirit beyond the flesh such as is in heaven beyond the earth for the one is breathed from Heaven and the other is taken out of the dust of the earth the one is corruptible yea corruption it self the other incorruptible How swiâ—t and nimble are the motions of the Spirit from the one end of Heaven to the other How can it compasse the earth in a moment Do but look and see what a hudge difference is between a beautiful living body and the same when it s a dead carcass rotten and corrupted It is the spirit dwelling within that makes the odds that makes it active beautiful and comely but in the removal of the spirit it becometh a piece of the most defiled and loathsome dust in the world Now I say such a vast and wide difference there is between a true Christian and a natural man even taking him in with all his common indowments and excellencies the one is a man the other a beast the one is after the flesh the other after the spirit It is the ordinary compellation of the Holy Ghost man being in honour and understanding not is like the beasts that perish Psal. 49.20 and Psal. 94.8 Vnderstand ye bruitish among the people c. and Psal. 92.6 The bruitish man understands not this And Eccles. 3.18 That they themselves may know that they are but beasts Therefore you find the Lord often turning to beasts to insensible creatures thereby to reprove the folly and madness of men Isa. 1.2 and Ier. 8.7 Man hath two parts in him by which he hath affinity to the two mâ—st distant natures he stands in the midle between Angels and beasts in his spirit he riseth up to an Angelick dignity and in his body he fallâ— down to a bruitish condition Now which
spirit O to think that I was once in that black roll of these excluded from the Kingdom such were some of you and then to consider That my name was taken out and washed by the blood of Christ to be enrolled in the Register of Heaven what an astonishing thing is it you see in nature God hath appointed contrarieties and varieties to beautifie the world and certainly many things could not be known how good and beneficial they are but by the smart and hurt of that which is opposite to them as you could not imagine the good of light but by some sensible experience of the evil of darkness Heat you could not know the benefit of it but by the vexation of cold Thus he maketh one to commend another and both to beautifie the world It is thus in art contrariety and variety of colours and lines make up one beauty diversity of sounds makes a sweet harmony Now this is the art and wisdom of God in the dispensation of his grace He setteth the misery of some beside the happiness of others that each of them may aggravat another he puts light beside darkness spirit sore-against flesh that so Saints may have a double accession to their admiration at the goodness and grace of God and to their delight and complacency in their own happiness he presents the state of men out of Christ that you may wonder how you are translated and may be so abundantly satisfied as not to exchange your portion for the greatest Monarchs Then I say this may provoke us and perswade us to more suitable walking Doth he make such a difference O do not you unmake it again do not confound all again by your walking after the course of the world conformity to the world is a confusion of what God hath separated Has infinit grace translated you from that kingdom of darkness to light O then walk in that light as children of light are ye such owne your stations consider your relations and make your selves ashamed at the very thoughts of sin he points out the deformed and ugly face of the conversation of the world that you may fall in love with the beauty of holiness as the Lacedemonians wont to let their childâ—en see their slaves drunk that the bruitish and abominable posture of such in that sin might imprint in the hearts of their children a detestation of such a vice Certainly the Lord calls you to mind often what you have been and what the world about you is not to engage you to it but to alienat your minds from the deformity of sin and to commend to you the beauty of obedience You would learn to make this holy use and advantage of all the wickedness the world lyeth into To behold in it as in a glasse your own image and likenesse that when you use to hate or despise others you may rather loath and dislike your selves as having that same common nature and wonder at the goodness of God that makes such difference where none was This were the way to make gain of the most improfitable thing in the world that is the sins of other men for ordinarily the seeing and speaking of them doth rather dispose us and incline us to more liberty to sin Many look on them with delight some with contempt and hatred of these that commit them but few know how to speak or look on sin it self with indignation or themselves because of the seeds of it within them with abhorrency I would think if we were circumspect in this the worse the world is we might be the better the worse the times are we might spend it better the more pride we see it might make us the more humble the more impiety and impurity abounds it might provoke us to a further distance from and disconformity with the world Thus if we were wise we might extract gold out of the dung-hill and suck honey out of the most poysonable weed The surrounding ignoâ—ance and wickedness of the world might cause a holy Antiperistasis in a Christian by making the grace of God unite it self and work more powerfully as fire out of a cloud and shine more brightly as a torch in the darkness of the night As for you whose woful estate is here described who are yet in the flesh and enemies to God by nature I would desire you to be stirred up at the consideration of this that there are some who are delivered out of that prison and that some have made peace with God and are no more enemies but friends and fellow-Citizens of the Saints If the case were left wholly incurable and desperat you had some ground to continue in your sins and security But now when you hear a remedy is posâ—ible and some have been helped by it I wonder that ye do not upon this door of hope offered bâ—sâ—ir your selves that you may be these who are here excepted But you are not in the flesh since some are why may not I be Will you awake your selves with this alarm If you had any desire after this estate certainly such a hope as this would give you feet to come to Jesus Christ for these are the legs of the soul some desire of a better estate and some probability of it conceived by hope SERMON XXIV Rom. 8.9 If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man c. BVt will God in very deed dwell with men on earth 2 Chron. 6.18 it was the wonder of one of the wisest of men and indeed considering his infinit Highness above the hight of Heaven his immense and incomprehensible greatnesse that the Heaven of Heavens cannot contain him and then the basenesse emptinesse and worthlessnesse of man it may be a wonder to the wisest of Angels and what is it think you the Angels desire to look into but this incomprehensiâ—le mystery of the descent of the most High to dwell among the lowest and vilest of the creatures But as Solomons Temple and these visible symbols of Gods presence were but shadows of things â—o come the substance whereof is exhibited under the Gospel so that wonder was but a shadow or type of a greater and more real wonder of Gods dwelling on the earth now It was the wonder shall God dwell with man among the rebellious sons of Aâ—â—m But behold a greater wonder since Christ came God dwelling in man â—â—st personally in the Man Christ in whom the fulnesse of the God-head dwelt bodily then graâ—iously in the seed of Christ in man by His Spirit and this makes men spirituâ—l if so be the Spirit of Christ dwell in you You heard of the fâ—â—st in-dwelling ver 3. God sending his own Son in the likenesse of sinful flesh the inhabitaâ—ion of the Divine Nature in our flesh which had the likenesse of sinful â—â—esh but without sin for he sanctified himself for our cause And truly this mysterious and wonderful inhabitation is not only a pledge of the other That
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
but since ye will not condemn your selves this righteous Judge must condemn you Now since it is so that such a condemnatory sentence is past on all men what a priviledge must it be to be delivered from it to have that sentence repealed by some new act of Gods mercy and â—avour David proclaims him a blessed man whose sins are forgiven and covered and indeed he is blessed who escapes that pit of eternal misery though there were no more though there were no title to an inheritance and Kingdom above to be delivered from that wrath to come upon the children of disobedience this is more happiness than the enjoyment of all earthly delights What would a man give in exchange for his soul Skin for skin and all a man hath he will give for his life These riches and advantages and pleasures that men spend their labour for all these they will part with in such a hazard The covetous man he will cast his Coffers over-board ere he lose his life The voluptuous man he will suffer pain and torment in cutting off a member ere he die But if men knew their souls and what an immortality and eternity expects them they would not only give skin for skin and all that they have for their soul but their life also Ye would choose to die a thousand deaths to escape this eternal death But what shall a man give in exchange for his soul Mat. 16.26 though he would give yet what hath he to give There are two things endears any priviledge to us and hightens the rate of it the necessity of it and the preciousness of it and these two are eminent here Is it not necessary to be to live and have a being All men think so when they will give all they have to redeem themselves All other things are accidental to them they are nearest to themselves therefore all must go ere themselves go But I say this is more necessary to be well eternally than to be simply to escape this condemnation than to have a being And this shall be verified in the last day when men shall cry for hills and mountains to fall on them and save them from the wrath of the Lamb Rev. 6.16 Men will choose rather not to be than to fall in that wrath O how acceptable would a mans first nothing be to him in that great day of wrath who shall be able to stand in it When Kings and Princes bond and free great and small shall desire mountains to grind them into powder rather then to hear that sentence of condemnation and yet shall not obtain it O blessed are all they that trust in him when his wrath is kindled but a little Psal. 2.12 Ye toil and vex your selves and spends your time about that body and life but for as precious as they are to you now ye would exchange them one day for immunity and freedom from this wrath and curse How will that man think his lines are fallen in pleasant places How will he despise the glory of earthly Kingdoms though all united in one who considers in his heart â—ow all Kings all Tongues and Nations must stand before the Judgment Seat of God and the books of his Law be opened to judge them by as also the books of their Consciences to verifie his accusation and precipitate their own sentence and then in the open view of all the sons of Adam and the Angels all secrets be brought out their accusation read as large as their lifetiâ—e and as many curses to be pronounced against every one as there be breaches of the Law of God whereof they are found guilty and then all these will seek into corners and cry for mountains but there is no covering from his presence What do ye think the man will think within himself who will stand before God and be absolved in Judgement by Jesus Christ notwithstanding his provocations above many of them what will a King then think of his Crown and Dominions when he reflects on them what will the poor persecuted Christian then think of all the glory and perfection of this world when he looks back upon it O know poor foolish men what madnesse is in venturing your souls for trifles ye run the hazard of all greatest things for a poor moments satisfaction Ye will repent it too late and become wise to judge your selves fools when there is no place to mend it But this priviledge is no more necessary than it is precious Your souls are now kept captive under that sentence of everlasting imprisonment ye are all prisoners and know not of it What will ye give in ransome for your souls your sins and iniquities have sold you to the righteous Judge of all the earth as malefactors and he hath past a sentence of your perpetual imprisonment under satans custody in hell Now what will you give to redeem your souls from that piâ— how few know the worth of their souls and so they offer unto God some of their riches for them Doth not many of you think ye have satisfied for sins if ye pay a civil penalty to the Judge many thinks their own tears and sorrow for sin may be a price to justice at least if it be joyned with â—mendment in time coming And so men conceive their sins are pardoned and their souls redeemed But alas the redemption of the soul is precious yea it ceaseth for ever all your substance will be utterly contemned though ye offered it How few of you would give so much for your souls and yet though ye gave it it will not do it ye must pay the uttermost farthing or nothing Your sorrow and reformations will not compleat the sum no nor begin it though thou wash thee with nitre and take much sope yet is thine iniquity marked with me yet there is still condemnation for thee Though all the world should conveen about this matter to find a ransome for man suppose all the treasures of Monarchs the mines and bowels of the earth the coffers of rich men were searched Nay let the Earth the Sea the Heavens and Sun and Moon be prized at the highest Joyn all the merits of Angels above and men below all their good actions and sufferings yet the sum that amounts of all that addition would not pay the least â—â—rthing of this debt The Earth would say it is not in me the Heaven behoved to answer so Angels and men might say we have heard of it but it s hid from all living Where then is this Redemption from the curse where shall a ransome be found Indeed God hath found it It is with him he hath given his Son a ransome for many and his blood is more precious than souls let be gold and silver Is not this then a great priviledge that if all the kingdoms of the world were sold at the dearest yet they could not buy it What a jewel is this what a pearl who ever of you have escaped this
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
are swelled above ordinances I fear they be monstrous Christians A man is composed of a spirit and a body acted and quickned by that spirit without either of these he is not a compleat man So I say he is not a Christian that doth not worship God in the spirit and in truth both and it is not Religion that excludes either the inward soul-communion with God or the outward ordinance and appointment of God But alace this may be our complaint we come and worship God and drawes nigh with our bodies but our hearts are far removed Here is the death of many's worship the soul is separated from the body of it there are but pictures and images of Christians we have mouths and faces of Saints but O! how little of divine-affection or of soul-desires breaths in us We are denyers of the power of godliness by resting in a form and this is the great sin of this generation the essentials the vital-spirits of Christianity are exhausted and some dry bones like an Anatomy of a Christian remains behind I beseech you gather your spirits to this spiritual-walking they only can follow the Spirit your bodies are earthly and lumpish and the way is all upward to the holy hill Look inwardly and measure your selves so outward appearance is no just measure retire â—ithin your souls and engage them in this exercise and enter them to this motion and your spirits will sweetly and surely act your bodies and externals in all matters of godliness SERMON VI. Vers. 1. Who walk not after the flesh c. IT is one of the greatest mysteries in a Christians practice to joyn these two together which the Gospel hath conjoined justification and sanctification and to place them in their due order There is much miscarrying in both these either they are sepâ—rated or misplaced But the truth is they cannot really be except they be jointly yet often it falls out that in mens apprehensions and endeavours they are disjoined This then were the argument of a living and believing Christian to joine the study of holinesse with the exercise of â—aith in Christ for remission of sin and righteousnesse and not not only to joyn it but also to derive it from that principle There is both an union between these and an order established in Scripture The most part of these that professe the Gospel are of two sorts they do either divide holinesse from imputed righteousnesse or Christs righteousnesse from holinesse I do not say that any man truly seeks to be covered with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ and to have his sins freely pardoned but he will also study to walk before God in all well-pleasing but the truth is many do pretend and profess to seek salvation and forgivenness in Christs blood and have the mercy of God and merits of Christ alwayes in their mouth who yet declare by their conversation that they do not so much as desire or purpose to seek after holinesse I do not speak of these who are Antinomians in profession but of a great multitude in the visible Church who are more really Antinomians to wit in practice then most part of professed Antinomians You hear all of free grace and free redemption in Jesus Christ of tender and induring mercies in God and this you take for the whole Gospel and presently upon the notion of mercy and grace you conclude unto your selves not only immunity and freedom from all the threatnings of the Word and from hell but likewise ye proclaim secretly in your own hearts a liberty to sin so much the more securely the door of mercy cast open in the Gospel and the free accesse to Christ manifested therein through the corruption that is within us proves the very occasion of many's giving indulgence to their lusts of delaying reformation and turning to God You all professe that you seek to be justified and saved by Jesus Christ yea you perswade your selves to be escaped condemnation by Christ Now then conjoyn that profession and perswasion with your walk and O! how contrary you may find them to one another your saith is vain for ye are yet in your sins Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God appearing to some men effectually teacheth them to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live righteously soberly and godly c. But if we may conjecture your teaching by your walking it seems the notion of grace and the Gospel that is formed in your minds hath taught you another doctrine to a vow ungodliness and follow worldly lusts Is there so much as a shadow of this spiritual walking in many I confesse it is natural for every man to seek his own righteousnesse and it is the arm of God that must bow men to submit to Christs imputed righteousnesse yet the most part of men seem to be so far from seeking any righteousnesse that they are rather seeking the fulfilling of their own carnal lusts working wickedness with greediness not caring how little they have to put confidence into and yet certain it is that how much forever a man attains to of a form of Religion or civil honesty he is ready to put his trust in it and to lean the weight of his soul upon it But seiâ—g this is natural to you all to seek heaven by doing and working I wonder that ye do no more how do ye satisfie your consciences in the expectation of heaven who take so little pains in Religion and are so loose and profane in your conversation I wonder seing ye have it naturally engraven in your hearts to establish your own righteousnesse that ye labour not to have more of it to fill your eye withall But again on the other hand there are some men who have a form of Religion and labour to be of a blamelesse conversation among men that possibly perswades themselves they are seeking holinesse and walking spiritually but alace you may find it but a painted and seeming Religion that is an abomination in the sight of God because it is to them all the ground of their acceptation before God If ever this question was moved in some of you What shall I do to be saved You have condescended on such a walk such a profession for the answer of it It is natural to all even these who have least apperance of godlinesse to seek heaven by doing Gods will these that have no more to speak of then their Baptism or receiving the Lords Supper or attending well the solemn assemblies will ground their hope of salvation on those things How much more will civil and honest men commonly so called who pray and read and professe godlinesse how much more I say will they establish that which they attain to as the ground of their confidence before God Now this is a general unknown ill that destroys the world and yet few are convinced of it how hard it is to be driven out of our selves and to seek life in another O! know that it is in a
Christ the reward also of eternal life might be fulfilled by the Law to us he having removed the impediment of our weakness it might be not only possible but certain to us Yâ—u would consider then the reason of Christs coming God made at fiâ—st a Covenant with man promising him life upon perfect obedience to his law and threatning death and damnation upon the transgression thereof You see then what was the way of life to Adam in the state of innocency he was made able to satiâ—fie the Law with obedience and the Law was abundantly able to satisfie him by giving life unto him Gods image upon mans soul instructed him sufficiently for the one and the Lords promise made to him was as sufficient to accomplish the other so that there was no impossibility thâ—n upon the Law by reason of the strength which God gave man But it continued not long so sin entering upon man utterly disabled him and because the strength of that Covenant consisted in that mutual and joynt concurrence of Gods promise and mans obedience this being broken the one party falling off that life and salvation becomes impossible to the promise alone to perform It is sin that is the weakness and impotency of man this is the disease hath consumed his strength and concluded man under a two-fold impossibility an impossibility to satisfie the curse and an impossibility to obey the command There are three things in the Covenant of Works A command of obedience and a threatning of wrath and condemnation upon disobedience and a promise of life upon obedience sin hath disabled us every way in relation to the curse and threatning man cannot satisfie it no price no ransome â—ound sufficient for the soul for the redemption of it is precious and ceaseth for ever that curse hath infinit wrath in it which must needs swallow up â—â—â—it man And then in relation to the command there is such a diminutiâ—n of all the powers of the soul such a corruption and defilement by reason of the first sin that wherein mans strength lay which was Gods image is cut off and spoiled so that henceâ—orth it is become impossible to yield any acceptable obedience to the Commandment And hence it is from our impossibility to obey in time to come that there is a holy and faultlesse impossibility upon the promise to give life unto mankind so you see that the law cannot do it because of our weaknesse If either man while he was made upright had continued in obedience or man now fallen from uprightness could satisfie for the fault done and walk without any blemish in time coming then it wâ—re feasable for the Law to give life to us but the one was not done and the other now cannot be done and so the impossibility of life by works is refounded upon our selves who would not when we could and now neither will nor can obey Thus we may see clearly that all mankind must needs perish for any thing that man can do and according to that first transaction of God with man unlesse some other way and device be found out which indeed was far from the eyes of all living without the reach of their invention or imagination I believe if all the creatures higher or lower that have any reason had conveened to consult oâ— this business how to repair that Breach made in the Creation by mans sin they might have vexed their brains and racked their inventions unto all eternity and yet never have fallen upon any probable way of making up this breach they might have taken up a lamentation not as the bemoaners of Babylon's ruine we would have healed thee and thou wouldest not but rather thus we would heal thee but we could not and thou wouldest not This design which is here mentioned of repairing the breach by destroying that which made it sin it lay hid in the depth of Gods wisdom till it pleased himself to vent and publish it unto poor forlorn and desperat man who out of despair of recovery had run away to hide himself a poor shift indeed for him to think that he could hide himself from him to whom darkness is as light and to flee from him whose Kingdom is over all and who is present in all the corners of his universal Kingdom in hell in Heaven in the utmost corners of the earth But this silly invention shews how hopeless the case was Though this be the case and condition of man by nature yet strange it is to see every man by nature attempting his own delivery and fancying a probability yeâ— a certainty of that which is so impossible that is an attaining of life by our selves according to the Law and first Covenant of Works Though our strength be gone yet like Sampson men rise up and think to walk and rouse up themselves as in former times as if their strength were yet in them and many never perceives that it is gone till they be laid hold on by Satan according to the Laws injunction and bound into chains of everlasting darkness but then alace its too late for they cannot save themselves and the season of a Saviour is gone and this no doubt will be the accession of the bitterness and torment that damned souls shall be into that they dreamed of attaining life by a Law that now is nothing but a ministration of death that they lost life by seeking their own righteousness and made the Law more able to condemn them by their apprehending in themselves an ability to satisfie it and by resting in a form of obedience to it There is something natural in it Adam and all his posterity was once to be saved this way so the terms run at fiâ—st do this and live no wonder that something of that impression be retained but that which was a vertue in Adam while he retained integrity and fulfilled his duty is a mightâ— fault and presumptuous madness in us who have fallen from that blessed estate If man doing his duty expected a reward according to the promise it was commendable but for man now rebellious and stubborn and come short of the glory of God to look for a reward from God against whom he warreth continually and that for rebellion and enmity it is damnable But besides this I think this principle of self-righteousness is much corrupted in man now by what it was in Adam I conceive though Adam looked for life upon obedience according to the promise yet he rested not on and trusted not in his obedience I believe a holy and righteous man would be a humble man too and would rather glory in Gods grace then in his own works the sense of a free and undeserved promise would not suffer him to reflect so much upon his own obedience or put such a price upon it But now it s conjoyned with unmeasureable pride and arises only from self-love There is no ground of mens looking to be saved by their own doings but the in-bred pride
and self-love of the heart together with the ignorance of a better righteousness Adam hid himself among the trees and covered his nakedness with leaves and truly the shift of the most part is no better How vain and empty things do men trust into and from them conclude an expectation of eternal life the most part think to be safe in the midst or thick of the trees of the Church if they be in the throng of a visible Church and adorned with Church-priviledges as Baptisme hearing the Word and such like they do perswade themselves all will be well Some have civility and a blameless conversation before men and with such acts of righteousness or rather wants of some grosse out-breakings do many cover their nakedness If there be yet a larger and finer garment of profession of Religion and some outward performances of service to God and duties to men O then men do inâ—orce upon their own hearts the perswasion of Heaven and think their nakedness cannot be seen through it these are the coverings these are the grounds of claim and title that men have to eternal life and in the mean time they are ignorant of that large glorious robe of righteousness which Christ by his obedience and sufferings did weave for naked sinners But as the impossibility of the Laws saving us by reason of the weaknesse of the flesh was the ground and occasion of Christs coming into the flesh for to supply that defect and take away that impossibility so the sense and sight of this impossibility in us to satisfie and fulfill the Law and of the Law to give life is the very ground and reason of a souls coming to Jesus Christ for the supplying of this want As the Son should not have come in the likeness of sinful flesh unless it had been otherwise impossible by mans doing or suffering that life should be obtained so will not a soul come to Christ the Son of God through the vail of his flesh untill it discern and feel that it is otherwise impossible to satisfie the Law or attain life That was the impulsive cause if we may say that there was any cause beside his love why Christ came even mans misery and remediless misery and this is the strong motive and impulsive that drives a poor sinner unto Jesus Christ the sense and impression of its desperat and lost estate without him As there was first sin and then a Saviour dying for sin because nothing else could suffice so there must be in the soul first the apprehension of sin and that remediless sin incurable sin by any created power or act and then the sight of a Saviour coming to destroy sin and the works of the devil and destroying it by dying for it There is no imployment for this Physician upon every slight apprehension of a wound or sickness till it be found incurable and help sought elsewhere be seen to be in vain indeed upon the least apprehension of sin and misery men ought to come to Christ we shall not set or prescribe any measure of conviction to exclude you if you can but come to him indeed upon the least measure of it you will not be cast out according to his own word but as certain it is that men will not come to this Physician till they find no other can save them These two things I wish were deeply and seriously thought upon that you cannot satisfie Gods justice for the least point of guilt and then that you cannot do any thing in obedience to please God There is a strange inconsideration yea I may say ignorance among us when you are challenged and convinced of sin as there is no conscience so benum'd but in some measure it accuseth every man of many wrongs what is the course you fall on to pacifie it or please God Indeed if you can get any shadow of repentance if it were but a bare acknowledgment of the fault you excuse your selves in your own consciences and answers the accusation by it either some other good works formerly done occurre to you or some resolution for amendment in time coming and this you think shall pacifie God and satisfie justice But alace you are far from the righteousness of God and you do erre even in the very foundation of Religion these are but sparks of your own kindling and for all these you shall lye down in darkness and sorrow these are but the vain expiations and excuses of natural Consciences which are led to some sense of a Deity by the Law written in their heart But consider this once you must fiâ—st satisfie the curse of the Law which you are under before you can be in any capacity to please him by new obedience Now if you should undertâ—ke to pay for your former breaches of the Law that will eternally ruine you and therefore you see the punishment is lengthned throughout eternity to them who have this to undergo alone Go then and first suffer the eternal wrath of an infinit God and then come and offer obedience if thou can But now thou art in a double error both of which are damnable One is thou thinks thou art able by consideration and resolution to perform some acceptable obedience to God another that performance of obedience and amending in time coming will expiat former transgressions if either of these were true Christ needed not to have come in the likeness of sinful flesh because it had been possible for the Law to save thee But now the truth is such is the utter disability and impotency â—f man through sin that he can neither will nor do the least good truly good and pleasant to God his nature and person being defiled all he doth is unclean And then suppose that were possible that man could do any thing in obedience to his Commands yet it being unquestionable that all have sinned satisfaction must fiâ—st be made to Gods threatning Thou shalt die before obedience be acceptable and that is impossible too This then I leave upon your consciences beseeching you to lay to heart the impossibility you are encompassed with on both hands Justice requiring a ransome and you have none and justice requiring new obedience again and you can give none old debts urging you and new duty pressing you and ye alike disabled for both that so finding your selves thus invironed with indigency and impossibility within you may be constrained to flee out of your selves unto him that is both able and willing This is not a superficial business as you make it it is not a matter of fancy or memory or expression as most make it believe me it is a serious business a soul-work such an exercise of spirit as useth to be when the soul is between despair and hope Impossibility within driving a soul out of it self and possibility yea certainty of help without even in Christ drawing a soul in to him thus is the closure made which is the foundation of our happinesse
Ioh. 4.2 3 15. and 5.1 The confessing and knowing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh and is the Son of God before his taking on flesh is made a character of a spiritual man that dwelleth in God Not that a bare external confession or internal opinion and assent to such a truth is of so much value which yet is the hight that many attain unto but it is such a soul acknowledgment such an heart approbation of this mystery as draws alongst the admiration and affection after it as fixeth the heart upon this object alone for life and salvation The devils confessed and believed but they trembled at it Luke 4.34 41. He was afraid of what he knew but Peter confessed and loved what he knew yea he did cast his soul upon that Lord whom he confessed It is such an acknowledgment of Christ as draweth the soul and unites it to him by a serious and living imbracement such a sight of Jesus Christ hath both truth and goodness in it in the highest measure and so doth not only constrain the assent of the mind but is a powerful attractive to the heart to come to him and live in him I pray you consider then what moment is in this truth that you may indeed apply your souls to the consideration of what is in Jesus Christ thus revealed not simply to know it but for a further improvement of it to seek life in Him that the stamp and impression of this Saviour may be set so deeply on your souls as that you may express this in a real confession of him in your words and works Tit. 1.16 Matth. 7.21 This is indeed to know and confesse that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh to fetch thence the ground of all our hope and consolation and to draw thence the most powerful motives to walking even as he walked to improve it for confidence in him and obedience to him I shall speak then a word of these two great ends and purposes of Gods sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flâ—sh his own glory and mans good The song of Angels at his birth shews this glory to God in the highest peace on earth and good will towards man His glory is manifested in it in an eminent manner the glory of his wisdom that found out a remedy What a deep contrivance was it How infinitly beyond all creature-inventiones Truly there are riches of wisdom depths of wisdom in it I think it could never have entred in the thought of men or Angels all men once to be drowned under a deluge of sin and misery and made subject to Gods righteous judgement and then to find out a way how to deliver and save so many all the wisdom that shines in the order and beauty of the world seems to be but a rude draught to this Then herein doth the glory of his mercy and grace shine most brightly that he transfers the punishment due to mans sin upon his own Son that when no ransome could be found by man he finds it out how to satisfie his own justice and save us truly this is the most shining Jewel in the Crown of Gods Glory so much mercy towards so miserable sinners so much grace towards the rebellious If he had pardoned sin without any satisfaction what rich grace had it been but truly to provide the Lamb and sacrifice himself to find out the ransome and to exact it of his own Son in our name is a testimony of mercy and grace far beyond that But then his justice is very conspicuous in this work and indeed these two do illustrat one another the justice of God in taking and exacting the punishment of sin upon his own well-beloved Son doth most eminently highten the mercy and grace of God towards us and his grace and mercy in passing by us doth most marvellously illustrat the righteousness of God in making his own Son a curse for us What testimony can be given in the world of Gods displeasure at sin of his righteousness in punishing sin like this There was no such testimony of love to sinners and no such demonstration of hatred at sin imaginable That he did not punish sin in us but transfers it over on the most beloved Son O what love and grace and that he did punish his own Son when standing in the place of sinners O what righteousness and justice This is that glorious mystery the conjunction of these two resplendent Jewels justice and mercy of love and displeasure in one chain of Christs incarnation into which the Angels desire to look 1 Pet. 1.12 And truly they do wonder at it and praise from wonder This is it that the praises of men and Angels shall roll about eternally David Psal. 103.19 foreseeing this day foretold it that Angels should praise Him and now it s fulfilled when all these glorious companies of holy and powerfull Spirits welcome the Son of God into the world by that heavenly harmony of praise Luk. 2.14 What lumpishness and earthliness in us that we do not rise up above to this melody in our spirits to joyn with Angels in this song we I say whom it most concerns The Angels wonder and praises and wonders at this because the glory of God shines so brightly in it as if there were many Suns in one Firmament as the light of seven dayes in one These three especially wisdom mercy and grace justice and righteousness every one of them look like the Sun in its strength caried about in this orb of the redemption of man to the ravishing of the hearts of all the honourable and glorious companies above and making them chearfully and willingly to contribute all their service to this work to be ministring Spirits to wait on the heirs of Salvation Now when the glory of the Highest raiseth up such a melodious song above among Angels O what should both the glory of the highest God and the highest good of man do to us When the greatest glory of God and the chiefest advantage of man are linked together in this Chain what should we do but admire and adore adore and admire and while we are in this earth send up our consent to that harmony in Heaven In relation to our good much might be said but we shall briefly shew unto you that it is the greatest confirmation of our faith and the strongest motive to humility that can be afforded Now if we could be composed thus unto confidence and reverence to glorifie him by believing and to abase our selves to believe in him and walk humbly with him upon the meditation of Christs coming in the flesh this would make us true Christians indeed There is nothing I know more powerful to perswade us of the reality of Gods invitations and promises to us then this we are still seeking signs and tokens of Gods love something to warrand us to come to God in Christ and to perswade that we shall be welcome and many
perplexing doubts that they do not only an injury to your own souls but they are of a more bloody nature if they hold good they would cut off the life and salvation of all believers and which is worse they will by an unavoidable consequence conclude an Ante-chriâ—tian point that Christ is not come in the flesh I beseech you unbowel your evils that you may abhor them This may strengthen our faith and minister much consolation in another consideration too that which is laid down Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 that he was partaker of our nature and in all things like unto his brethren that so he might be a merciful High Priest able to succour us and touched with the feeling of our infirmities What strong consolation may be suckt out of these breasts when it was impossible that man could rise up to God because of his infinit highness and holiness behold God hath come down to man in his lowness and baâ—eness he hath sent down this ladder from heaven to the earth that poor wretched sinner may ascend upon it it is come down as low as our infirm weak and frail nature that we may have easie coming up to it and going up upon it to heaven Therefore his flesh is called a new and living way because a poor sinner may be assured of welcome and acceptation with one of his own kind his Brother he was not ashamed to call us brethren flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone this may make boldness of accesse that we have not God to speak to or come to immediatly as he is cloathed with glory and majesty and as the Jews heard him on Mount Sinai and desired a Mediator between him and them but that that great Prophet promised to them hath come and we have him between us and God as low as we that we may speak to him riding upon an ass a low ass that every one may whisper their desires in his ear and yet as high as God that he may speak to God and have power with him Truly this is a sweet trysting place to meet God in that no sinner may have any fear to come to it to this treaty of peace and reconciliation How may it perswade us of that great priviledge that we may become the sons of God when the Son of God is become the Son of man John 1.11 12. Truly though it be hard to be believed that such as we should become the Sons of the great King yet it is nothing so strange as this that the eternal and only begotten Son of the great God should become the Son of wretched man that highness will be easily believed if we consider this lowness It will not be so hard to perswade a soul that there is a way of union and reconciliation to God of being yet at peace with him if this be pondered that God hath married his own nature with ours in one person to be a pledge of that union and peace And then how much quickening and comfort may it yeild us that he was not only a man but a miserable man and that not through any necessity but only the necessity of love and compassion he had enough of mercy to save us as God he had enough of love and compassion as man but he would take on misery too in his own person that he might be experimentally merciful to us Certainly the experience of misery and infiâ—mity must superadd some tenderness to the heart of our High Priest But though it did not help him to be more pitiful yet it was done for us to help us to have more confidence in him and boldness to come unto him What an encouragement is it for a poor man to come unto once poor Jesus Christ who had not where to lay his head He knows the evil of poverty and he choosed to know it that he might have compassion on thee With what boldness may poor afflicted and despised believers come to him why because he himself had experience of all that and he was familiarly acquainted with grief and sorrow therefore he can sympathize best with thee Let us speak even of sinful infirmities thou art subject to that there might be a suitableness in him to help thee he came as nigh as might be he was willing to be tempted to sin and so he knows the power that temptations must have over weak and frail natures but sin he could not for that had been evil for us Let this then give us boldness to come to him I would desire to perswade you to humility from this according to the lesson Christ gives us Matth. 11.29 Learn of me I am meek and lowly and the Apostle makes singular use of this mystery of the abasement of Majesty to abate from our high esteem of our selves Phil. 2.3 4 5 6. O should not the same mind be in us that was in Christ. God abased and man exalted how unsuitable are these think you God lowly in condition and disposition and man though base in condition yet high in his disposition and in his own estimation What more mysterious then God humbled And what more monstrous then man proud Truly pride it is the most deformed thing in a man but in a Christian it is monstrous and prodigious If he did humble himself out of charity and love who was so high and glorious how should we humble our selves out of necessity who are so low and base and out of charity and love too to be conformed and like unto him Nature may perswade the one but Christianity teacheth the other to be lowly in mind and esteem every one better then our selves to be meek patient long-suffering reason may perswade it upon the consideration of our own baseness emptiness frailty and nothingness But this lesson is taught in Christs School not from that motive only the force of necessity but from a higher motive the constraint of love to Jesus Christ Learn of me Suppose there were no necessity of reason in it yet affection might be a stronger necessity to perswade conformity to him and following his example who became so low and humbled himself to the death even for us SERMON XIII Rom. 8.3 And for sin condemned sin in the flesh THE great and wonderful actions of great and excellent persons must needs have â—ome great ends answerable to them wisdome will teach them not to do strange things but for some rare purposes for it were a folly and madness to do great things to compass some small and petty end as unsuitable as that a Mountain should travel to bring forth a Mouse Truly we must conceive that it must needs be some honourable and high business that brought down so high and honourable a person from Heaven as the Son of God it must be something proportioned to his Majesty and his wisdom and indeed so it is There is a great Capital enemy against God in the world that is sin this arch rebel hath drawn man from his
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
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
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
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
disposal who hath the sole soveraign right to them and therefore you may take up the hainousnesse of sin how monstruous and misshappen a thing it is that breaks this inviolable Law of creation and withdraws the creature from subjection to Him in whom alone it can subsist O how disordered are the courses and lives of men men living to themselves their own lusts after their own will as if they had made themselves men using their members as weapons of unrighteousnesse against God as if their tongues and hands and feet were there own or the devils and not Gods Call to mind this obligation Remember thy Creator that memento would be a strong engagement to another course then most take how absurd would you think it To please your selves in displeasing Him if you but minded the bond of creation But when there are other two superadded what we owe to the Son for coming down in the likenesse of sinfull flesh for us and what we owe to the Holy Ghost for quickening our spirits and afterward for the resurection of our bodies whose hearts would not these overcome and lead captive to his love and obedience SERMON XXXIII Rom. 8.12 Therefore brethren we are debters not to the flesh to live after the flesh Vers. 13. For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die c. WAS it not enough to contain men in obedience to God the very essential bond of dependence upon God as the original and fountain of his beeing and yet man hath cast away this cord from him and withdrew from that alledgiance he did owe to his Maker by transgressing his holy commandments But God not willing that all should peâ—ish he hath confirmed and stâ—engthned that primitive obligation by two other as strong if not more if the Father did most eminently appear in the first the Son is manifested in the second and that is the work of the redemption of man no lesse glorious then his first creation He made him first and then He sent his own Son in the likenesse of sinfull fleâ—h to make him again by his Spirit and now a threefold cord is not easily broken It seems this should bind invincibly and constrain us not to be our own but the Lords and now truly they who are in Jesus Christ aâ—e thrice indebted wholly to God But the two last obligations are the most special and most wonderful that God sent His Son for us to redeem us from sin and misery and to restore man to happinesse took on a miserable and accursed habit that so glorious a person gave Himself for so base that so excellent a Lord became a servant for the rebell that He whose the earth is and the â—ulness thereof did â—mpty Himself of all to supâ—ly Vs and in a word the most wonderful exchange â—e made that ever the Sun saw God for men His life a ransome for their life all the rare inventions and â—ancied stories of men come infinitly short of this The light never saw Majestty so abased and love so expressed as in this matter and all to this purpose that we who had undone ourselves might be made up again and the righteouâ—nesse of the Law fulfilled in us At first He made us but it cost Him nothing but a word but now to buy that whicâ— was taken captive by sin and aâ— so dear a rate ye are bought with a price and this price more precious than the sum of Heaven and Earth could amount to suppose by some raâ—e Alâ—bymie the earth were all converted into Gold and the Heavens into Precious Stones yeâ— these corruptible and material things come as far short of this â—ansome as an heap of dung is unproportioned to a masse of Gold or heap of Jewels Now you that are thus bought may ye not conclude therefore we are debtters and whereof of our selves for we our persons estates and all were sold and all are bought with this price therefoâ—â— we are not our own but the Lords and therefore we ought to glorifie God in our bodies and spirits which are his 1 Cor 6.20 Should we henceforth claim an interest and propriety in our selves Should we have a will of our own Should we serve our selves with our members O how monstruous and absurd were that Ceâ—tainly a believing heart cannot but look upon that as the greatest indignity and vilest impiety that ever the Sun shined upon Ingratituâ—e hath a note of ignominy even among Heathens put upon it they eâ—â—eemed the reproach of it the compend of all reproaches Ingrâ—tum si dixeris omnia dixeris And truly it hath the most abominable visage of any vice yea it is all sâ—ns drawn through other in one Table Certainly a godly heart cannot but account this execrable and detestable henceforth to have any proper and peculiar will and pleasure and cannot but devout it self wholly to His will and pleasuâ—e for whose pleasure all were first created and who then redeemed us by the blood of His Son I wish we could have this image of ingratitude alwayes observant to our eyes and minds when we are inticed with our lusts to study our own satisfaction But theâ—e is another bond superadded to this which mightily aggravats the debt He â—ath given us his Spirit to dwell within as well as his Son for us And O the marvellous and strange effects that this Spirit hath in the â—avouâ—s of men He truly repairs that image of God which sin broke down He furnisheth the soul and supplies it in all its necessities He is a light and life to it a spring of everlasting life and consolâ—tion so that to the Spirit we owe that we are made agâ—in after his Image and the precious purchase of Christ applyed unto our souls For Him hath our Saviour left to execute his latter-will in behalf of his children And these things are but the first fruits of the Spirit any peace or joy or love or obedience are but an earnest of that which is coming we shall be yet more beholden to Him when the walls of flesh are taken down he will carry forth the soul into that glorious liberty of the sons of God and not long after he shall quicken our very dust and raise it up in glory to the fellowship of that happinesse Now my beloved consider what all this tends to mark the inference you should make from it Therefore we are debters debters indeed under infinit obligations for infinit meâ—cies But what is the debt we owe truly it might be conceived to be some rare thing equivalent to such unconceivable benefits But mark what it is to live after the spirit and not after the flesh to conform our affections and actions and the tenor of our way and course to the direction of the Spirit to have our spirits led and enlightned by the Holy Spirit and not to follow the indictment of our flesh and carnal minds Now truly it is a wonder that it is noâ— other thing then this for this
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