momentarie and vanishing First by the Law of their Creation they were made subject to alterations there was an enmitie and reluctancy in their entirest being Secondly this hath been exceedingly improved by the s◅ne of man whose evill being the lord of all Creatures must needs redound to the misery and mortalitie of all his retinue For it was in the greater World as in the administration of a private family the poverty of the Master is felt in the bowels of all the rest his staine and dishonour runnes into all the members of that society As it is in the naturall body some parts may be distempered and ill affected alone others not without contagion on the rest a man may have a dimme eye or a withered arme or a lame foot or an impedite tongue without any danger to the parts adjoyning but a lethargie in the head or an obstruction in the liver or a dyspepsie and indisposition in the stomake diffuseth universall malignity through the body because these are soveraigne and architectonicall parts of man so likewise is it in the great and vast body of the Creation However other Creatures might have kept their evill if any had been in them within their owne bounds yet that evill which man the Lord and head of the whole brought into the world was a spreading and infectious evill which conuey'd poyson into the whole frame of nature and planted the seed of that universall dissolution which shall one day deface with darkenesse and horror the beauty of that glorious frame which wee now admire It is said that when Corah Dathan and Abiram had provoked the Lord by their rebellion against his servants to inflict that fearefull destruction upon them the earth opened her mouth swallowed not only them up but al the houses and men and goods that appertained to them Now in like maner the heaven and earth and al inferior Creatures did at first appertaine to Adam the Lord gave him the free use of them dominion over them when therefore man had committed that notorious rebellion against his maker which was not only to aspire like Corah and his associates to the height and principality of some fellow Creature but even to the absolutenesse wisdome power and independency of God himselfe no marvell if the wrath of God did together with him seize upon his house and all the goods that belongd unto him bringing in that cōfusion and disorder which we even now see doth breake asunder the bonds and ligaments of nature doth unjoynt the confedera◅ies and societies of the dumbe Creatures and turneth the armies of the Almighty into mutinies and commotion which in one word hath so fast manicled the world in the bondag◅ of corruption as that it doth already groane and linger with paine under the sinne of man and the curse of God and will at last breake forth into that universall flame which will melt the very Elements of Nature into their primitive confusion Thus wee see besides the created limitednesse of the creature by which it was utterly unsuteable to the immortall desires of the soule of man the sinne of man hath implanted in them a secret worme and rottennesse which doth set forward their mortalitie and by adding to them confusion enmity disproportion sedition inequalitie all the seeds of corruption hath made them not onely as before they were mortall but which addes one mortalitie to another even momentary and vanishing too When any Creature loseth any of its native and created vigour it is a manifest signe that there is some secret sentence of death gnawing upon it The excellency of the Heavens wee know is their light their beauty their influences upon the lower World and even these hath the sinne of man defaced Wee finde when the Lord pleaseth to reveale his wrath against men for sinne in any terrible manner hee doth it from Heaven There shall be wonders in the Heauen blood and fire and pillars of smoake the Sunne shall be turned into darkenesse and the Moone into blood and the day of the Lord is called a day of darknesse and gloominesse and thicke darknesse How often hath Gods heavy displeasure declared it selfe from Heaven in the confusion of nature in stormes and horrible tempests in thick clouds and darke waters in arrowes of lightning and coales of fire in blacknesse and darkenesse in brimstone on Sodome in a flaming sword over Ierusalem in that fearefull Starre of fire to the Christian World of late yeeres which hath kindled those woful combustions the flames whereof are still so great as that wee our selves if wee looke upon the merits and provocations of our sinnes may have reason to feare that not all the Sea betweene us and our neighbours can bee able to quench till it have scorched and singed us Wee find likewise by plaine experience how languid the seeds of life how faint the vigor either of heavenly influences or of sublunary and inferiour agents are growne when that life of men which was wont to reach to almost a thousand yeeres is esteemed even a miraculous age if it be extended but to the tenth part of that duration We need not examine the inferiour Creatures which we find expressely cursed for the sinne of man with Thornes and Briers the usuall expression of a curse in Scripture If we but open our eyes and looke about us wee shall see what paines Husbandmen take to keepe the earth from giving up the Ghost in opening the veines thereof in applying their Soile and Marle as so many Pills or Salves as so many Cordials and preservatives to keepe it alive in laying it asleepe as it were when it lyeth fallow every second or third yeere that by any meanes they may preserve in it that life which they see plainely approching to its last gaspe Thus you see how besides the originall limitednesse of the Creature there is in a second place a Moth or Canker by the infection of sinne begotten in them which hastens their mortalitie God ordering the second causes so amongst themselves that they exercising enmitie one against another may punish the sinne of man in their contentions as the Lord stirred up the Babylonians against the Egyptians to punish the sinnes of his owne people And therefore wee finde that the times of the Gospell when holinesse was to bee more universall are expressed by such figures as restore perfection and peace to the Creatures The Earth shall be fat and plenteous there shall be upon every high hill Rivers and Streames of water the light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne sevenfold as the light of seven dayes And againe the Wolfe shall dwell with the Lambe and the leopard shall lye downe with the kid and a Calfe and a young Lion and a fatling together c. Which places though figuratively to be understood have yet me thinks thus much of the letter in
of â—…ther else the Bodie of Christ would be a mangled and a maimed thing and not as Saint Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the fulnesse of Him that filleth all in all In the Body of Christ there is a supply to every joynt a measure of every part an edification and growth of the whole compacted body from Him who is equally the Head to all Being thus united unto Christ first the Death and Merit of Christ is ours whatsoever Hee really in His humane nature suffered for sinne wee are in moderated Iustice reputed to have suffered with Him The Apostle saith that we were crucified and dead with Christ and that as truely as the hand which steales is punish'd when the backe is beaten and surely if a man were crucified in and with Christ by reason of His mysticall communion with him then he was crucifi'd as Christ for al 〈◊〉 which should otherwise have laine upon him Hee was not in Christ to cleanse some sinnes and out of him to beare others himselfe For the Apostle assures us that the Merit of Christ is unconfined by any sinne The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sinne As Saint Ambrose said to Monica the mother of Austen when with many teares she bewailed her sonnes unconversion Non potest tot lacrymarum filius perire that is that it could not be that the Sonne of so many teares should perish so may I more certainely say to any Soule that is soundly and in truth humbled with the sense of any grievous relapse non potest tot lacrymarum frater perire It cannot bee that the brother of so many teares and so pretious blood which from Christ trickled downe with an unperishable soveraigntie unto the lowest and sinfullest of his bodie should perish for want of compassion in Him who felt the weight of our sufferings or for want of recovery from him who hath the fulnesse of Grace and Spirit Secondly the Life of Christ is ours likewise Christ liveth in me saith the Apostle Now the Life of Christ is free from the power and the reach of death If death could not hold Him when it had Him much lesse can it reach or overtake Him having once escaped Hee died once unto sinne but Hee liveth unto God likewise saith Saint Paul reckon you your selves to be dead unto sinne but alive unto God and that through or in Iesus Christ by whom wee in like manner are made partakers of that Life which Hee by rising againe from the Grave did assume as we were by AdaÌ„ made obnoxious to the same death which heby failing did incurre and contract For Christ is the second Adam and as wee have borne the Image of the earthly in sinne and guilt so must we beare the Image of the Heavenly in Life and righteousnesse and that which in us answereth to tâ—…e Resurrection and Life of Christ which Hee ever liveth is our holynesse and newnesse of life as the Apostle plainely shew's to note that our Renovation likewise ought to be perpetuall and constant not fraile and mutable as when it depended upon the life of the first Adam and not of the second Thirdly the Kingdome of Christ is ours also Now His Kingdome is not perishable but eternall a Kingdome which cannot be shaken or destroyed as the Apostle speakes Heb. 12. 28. Fourthly the Sonneship and by consequence â—…tance of Christ is ours I speake not of His personall Sonneship by eternall generation but of that dignitie and honour which He had as the first borne of every Creature and Heire of all things That Sonneship which Hee had as Hee was borne from the Dead Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee namely in the Resurrection in which respect He is called the first borne and the first begotten of the Dead In this dignitie of Christ of being Heires and a kinde of first borne unto God doe wee in our measure partake for wee are called the Church of the first borne and a kinde of first fruites of His Creatures For though those attributes may be limited to the Iewes in regard of precedencie to the Gentiles yet in regard of the inheritance which was usually and properly to descend to the first borne they may bee applyed to all for of all beleevers the Apostle saith If you are Sonnes then are ye heires Coheires with Christ. We hold in chiefe under his guardianship and protection as his sequele and dependant Now from hence our Saviours argument may bring much comfort and assurance The Sonne abideth in the house for ever and the House of God is His Church not in Heaven onely but on Earth likewise as the Apostle shewes Fifthly Christs victories are ours Hee overcame the World and Temptations and Enemies and Sinnes for us And therefore they shall not bee able to overcome Him in us Hee is able to succour them that are tempted Hee who once overcame them for us will certainely subdue them in us Hee that will overcome the last Enemie will overcome all that are before for if any be left the last is not overcome Lastly we have the benefit of Christs Intercession I have prayed for thee that thy Faith faile not It is spoken of a saving Faith as the learned prove at large And I have shewed before that particular promises in Scripture are universally applyable to any man whose case is paralell to that particular If then Peters 〈◊〉 did not by reason of this prayer of Christ overturne his Salvation or bring a totall deficiencie upon his faith why should any man who is truely and deepely humbled with the sense of relapse or consciousnesse of some sinne not of ordinary guilt or dayly incursion but indeede very hainous and therefore to be repented of with teares of blood yet why should he in this case of sound humiliation stagger in the hope of forgivenesse or mistrust Gods mercie since a greater sinne then Peters in the grosse matter of it can I thinke hardly be committed by any justified man These are the comforts which may secure the Life of Christ in a lapsed but repenting sinner the summe of all is this Since we stand not like Adam upon our owne bottome but are branches of such a Vine as never withers Members of such a Head as never dies sharers in such a Spirit as cleanseth healeth and purifieth the heart partakers of such promises as are sealed with the Oath of God Since we live not by our owne life but by the Life of Christ are not ledde or sealed by our owne spirit but by the Spirit of Christ doe not obtaine mercie by our owne prayers but by the Intercession of Christ stand not reconciled unto God by our owne endevours but by the propitiation wrought by Christ who loved us when wee were enemies and in our blood who is both willing and able to save
by better promises and therefore respect none of the wages of Lust consider that God is the Fountaine of life that thou hast more and better of it in him then in the Creatures that when thou wantest the things of this life yet thou hast the promises still and that all the offers of lust are not for comforts but for snares not for the use of life but for the provisions of sin and there is more content in a little received from God then in whole treasures stollen from him and all sinfull gaine is the robbing of God Fourthly for the law of lust setup the law of the spirit of life in thy heart It is a royall Law and a Law of liberty whereas lust is a law of death and bondage and where the spirit comes a man shall be set free from the law of sinne and of death Keepe thy selfe alwayes at home in the presence of Christ under the eye and government of thy husband and that will dash all intruders and adulterers out of countenance Take heed of quenching grieving stifling the Spirit cherish the motions thereof stirre up and kindle the gifts of God in thee labour by them to grow more in grace and to have neerer communion with God the riper the Corne growes the looser will the chaffe be and the more a man growes in grace with the more ease will his corruptions be sever'd and shaken off Fifthly when lust is violent and importunate First be thou importunate and vrgent with God against it too when the Messenger of Satan the Thorne in the flesh did buffet and sticke fast unto S. Paul hee reiterated his prayers unto God against it and proportion'd the vehemency of his requests to the violence and urgency of the enemy that troubled him and he had a comfortable answer My Grace is sufficient for thee sufficient in due time to cure and sufficient at all times to forgive thy weakenesse In the Law if a ravisht woman had cried out shee was esteemed innocent because the pollution was not voluntary but violent And so in the assaults of lust when it useth violence and pursues the soule that is willing to escape and flye from it if a man with-hold the embraces of his owne will and cry out against it if he can say with Saint Paul It is no more I that doe it but sinne that dwelleth in me though in regard that the flesh is something within himselfe he cannot therefore be esteemed altogether innocent yet the Grace of God shall bee sufficient for him Secondly when thou art pursued keepe not Lusts counsell but seeke remedy from some wise and Christian friend by communicating with him and disclosing thy case unto him sinne loves not to bee betrayde or complained on mutuall confession of sinne to those who will pray for a sinner and not deride him or rejoyce against him is a meanes to heale it Thirdly when thou art in a more violent manner then usuall assaulted by sinne Humble thy selfe in some more peculiar manner before God and the more sinne cries for satisfaction denie it and thy selfe the more as Salomon saith of children so may I say of lusts Chastice and subdue thy lusts and regard not their crying Sixthly cut off the materials and provisions for lust weane thy selfe from earthly affections love not the World nor the things of the World desire not anything to consume upon thy lusts pray for those things which are convenient for thee turne thy heart from those things which are most likely to seduce thee possesse thy heart with a more spirituall and abiding treasure hee who lookes stedfastly upon the light of the Sunne will be able to see nothing below when he lookes downe againe and surely the more a man is affected with heaven the lesse will he desire or delight in the world Besides the provisions of sinne are but like full pastures that doe but fatten and prepare for slaughter Balaam was in very good plight before able to ride with his two servants to attend him but greedinesse to rise higher and make provision for his ambitious heart carried him upon a wicked businesse made him give cursed counsell against Israel which at length cost him his owne life Lastly for the instruments of lusts make a covenant with thy members keep a government over them bring them into subjection above all keepe thy heart establish the inward government for nothing can be in the body which is not first in the heart keepe the first mover uniforme and right all other things which have their motions depending there must needs be right too Having thus opened at large the life and state of originall sinne it remaines in the last place to shew how the spirit by the commandement doth convince and discover the life of actuall sinne in omitting so much good in committing so much evill in swarving and deviating from the rule in the manner and measure of all our services And this it doth by making us see that great spiritualnes and perfection that precise universall and constant conformitie which the Law requires in all we doe Cursed is every one that abideth not in all things that are written in the booke of the Law to doe them Perfection and perpetuitie of obedience are the two things which the Law requires Suppose we it possible for a man to fulfill every tittle of the Law in the whole compasse of it and that for his whole life together one onely particular and that the smallest and most imperceptible deviation from it being for one onely time excepted yet so rigorous and inexorable is the Law that it seales that man under the wrath and curse of God The heart cannot turne the thoughts cannot rise the affections cannot stirre the will cannot bend but the Law meets with it either as a Rule to measure or as a Iudge to censure it It penetrates the inmost thoughts searcheth the bottome of all our actions hath a widenesse in it which the heart of man cannot endure They were not able to endure saith the Apostle the things which were commanded and Why tempt you God saith Saint ' Peter to those that preached Circumcision and put a yoake upon the brethren which neither we nor our fathers were able to beare Circumcision it selfe they were able to beare but that yoke which came with it namely the Debt of the whole Law was by them and their fathers utterly unsupportable For this very cause was the Law published that sinne might thereby become exceeding sinfull that so Gods grace might bee the more magnified and his Gospell the more accepted Let us in a few words consider some particular aggravations of the life and state of actuall sinne which the spirit by the Word will present unto us First in the least sinne that can bee named there is so much life and venome as not all the concurrent strength of those millions of Angels one of whom was
in one night able to stay so many thousand men had been able to remove More violence and injustice against God in a wandring thought in an idle word in an impertinent and unprofitable action then the worth of the whole Creation though all the Heavens were turned into one Sunne and all the earth into one Paradise were able to expiate Thinke we as meanely and slightly of it as wee will swallow it without feare live in it without sense commit it without remorse yet be we assured that but the guilt of every one of our least sins being upon Christ who felt nor knew in himselfe nothing of the pollution of them did wring out those prodigious drops of sweat did expresse those strong cryes did poure in those wofull ingredients into the Cup which he dranke as made him who had more strength then all the Angels of Heaven to shrinke and draw backe and pray against the worke of his owne mercy and decline the businesse of his owne comming Secondly if the least of my sinnes could doe thus O what a guilt and filthinesse is there then in the greatest sinne which my life hath been defiled withall If my Atomes be Mountaines O what heart is able to comprehend the vastnesse of my mountainous sinnes if there bee so much life in my impertinent thoughts how much rage and fury is there in my rebellious thoughts In my thoughts of gall and bitternesse in my contrived murthers in my speculative adulteries in my impatient murmurings in my ambitious projections in my coverous worldly froward haughty hatefull imaginations in my contempt of God reproching of his Word smothering of his motions quenching of his spirit rebelling against his grace If every vaine word be a flame that can kindle the fire of Hell about mine eares O what vollies of brimstone what mountaines of wrath will be darted upon my wretched soule for tearing the glorious and terrible name of the great God with my cursed oathes my crimson and fiery execrations What will become of stiâ—…king dirty carrion communication of lies and scornes and railings and bitternesse the persecutions adulteries and murthers of the tongue when but the idlenesse and unprofitablenesse of the tongue is not able to endure this consuming fire 3. If one great sin nay one small sin be so full of life as not all the strength nay not all the deaths or annihilations of all the Angels in heaven could have expiated O how shall I stand before an army of sinnes So many which I know of my selfe swarmes of thoughts steames of lusts throngs of sinfull words sands of evill actions every one as heavie and as great as a mountaine able to take up if they were put into bodies all the vast chasmâ—… betweene earth and heaven and fill all the spaces of nature with darkenesse and confusion and how infinite more secret ones are there which I know not by my selfe How many Atomes and streames of dust doth a beame of the Sunne shining into a roome discover which by any other light was before imperceptible How many sinfull secrers are there in my heart which though the light of mine owne conscience cannot discover are yet written in Gods account and sealed amongst his treasures and shall at the day of the revelation of all things bee produc'd and muster'd up against me like so many Lyons and Divels to flye upon me Fourthly if the number of them can thus amaze O what shall the roote of them doe Committed out of ignorance in the midst of light out of knowledge against the evidence of conscience out of presumption and forestalling of pardon abusing and subordinating the mercies of God to the purposes of Satan not knowing that his goodnesse should have led me to repentance out of stubbornnesse against the discipline out of enmitie against the goodnesse out of gall and bitternesse of spirit against the power and purity of Gods holy Law Fifthly not the roote onely but the circumstances too adde much to the life that is in sinne See how notably Saint Austen aggravates his sinne of robbing an Orchard when he was a Boy that which others lesse acquainted with the foulenesse of sinne might be apt enough but to laugh over First it began in the will and the members follow'd I had a minde and therefore I did it Secondly I did not doe it for want of the things but out of the naughtinesse of my heart and my inward enmitie to righteousnesse Thirdly I did it not with any aime at fruition of the fruite but onely of the sinne it was not my palate but my lust which I studied to satisfie Fourthly the apples I stole were very unapt to tempt no rellish no forme in them to catch the eye or allure the hand but the whole temptation and rise of the sinne was from within Fifthly I did it not alone there were a troope of naughty companions with mee and wee did mutually cherish and provoke the itch of each others lust Sixthly it was at a very unseasonable time of night when at least for that day we should have put a period and given a respite unto our lusts Seventhly it was after wee had spent much time before and should now at least have been tired out in pestilent and foolish sports Eighthly wee were immodest in our theft we carried away great loades and burdens of them Ninthly when wee had done we feasted the Hogs with them and our selves â—…ed upon the review and carriage of our owne lewdnesse Lastly the chiefe sport and laughter which wee had was this that we had not only robb'd but deceiv'd the honest â—…en who had never so bad an opinion of us as that wee should doe it and thus another mans losse was our jest And after all this his meditations upon it are excellent with David hee goes to the roote Ecce cor meum Deus meus ecce cor meum O Lord what a nature and heart had I that could commit sinne without any 〈◊〉 without any incentive but from my selfe and againe What shall I returne unto the Lord that I can review these my sinnes and not be afraid of them Lord I will love thee I will prayse thee I will confesse to thy Name it is thy Grace which pardoneth the sinnes which I have committed and it is thy Grace which prevented the sinnes which I have not committed Thou hast saved me from all sinnes those which by mine owne will I have done and those which by thy Grace I have been kept from doing If every man would single out some notable sinnes of his life and in this manner anatomize them and see how many sinnes one sinne containeth even as one flower many leaves and one Pomegranate many kernels it could not but be a notable meanes of humbling us for sinne Sixthly not evill circumstances onely but unproâ—…ble ends adde much to the life of sinne when men spâ—…d mony for that which is not bread and labour for that which satisfieth not when
and pharisaicall outsides begets much dispensation and allowance in many errours that he may keepe pace and not seeme too austere censorious and ill conceited of the men whom hee walkes with Therefore David would not suffer a wicked man to be in his presence nor any wicked thing to be before his eyes lest it should cleave unto him Take heede saith the Apostle lest any roote of bitternesse springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled Fourthly it spreads not onely upon men but defiles and curses the good Creatures of God about us It puts a leprosie into the stone in the wall and the beame in the house barrennesse into the earth mourning into the Elements consumption into the Beasts and Birds bondage vanitie griefe and at last combustion and dissolution upon the whole frame of nature Fourthly it is a mortall apoysonous pollution the pollution of deadly sores putrifactions I said unto thee in thy blood live yea I said unto thee in thy blood live It notes that that estate wherein they were in their sinnes was so deadly that the cure of them was very difficult it required the repetition of Gods power and mercie If a childe new borne should lie exposed in its blood to the injurie of a cold ayre not have the Navell cut nor the body wrapp'd or wash'd or tended at all how quickly would it be that from the wombe of the mother it would drop into the wombe of the Earth The state of sinne is an estate of nakednesse blood impotencie obnoxiousnesse to all the temptations and snares of Sathan to all the darts of death and hell The ancients compare it to falling into a pit full of dirt and stones a man is not onely polluted but hee is bruized and wounded by it To conclude there is no deformity nor filthines extant which did not rise from sinne It is sin which puts bondage into the Creature which brings discords and deformities upon the face of Nature It is sin which put devilishnesse into Angels of Heaven and hurried them downe from their first habitation It is sin which put a sting into death without which though it kil yet it cannot curse It is sin which puts fire into Hell and supplies unto all eternitie the fuell materials for those unextinguishable slames It is sin which puts hell into the Conscience and armes a man with terrours and amazements against himselfe It is sin which puts rottennes and dishonour into the grave he that died without sin rose up without corruption It is sinne which wrings out those clamors and grones of bruit creatures which wrestle under the curse of Adams fall It is sin which enrageth and maddeth one beast against another and one man against another one nation against another It is sin which brought shame and dishonor upon that nakednesse unto which all the Creatures in Paradise did owe awe and reverence It is sin which turn'd Sodom into a stinking lake and Ierusalem the glory of the Earth into a desolation and haunt for Owles and Bitterns It is sinne which so often staineth Heauen and Earth with the markes of Gods vengeance and which will one day roule up in darkenesse and devoute with fire and reduce to its primitive confusion the whole frame of nature It is sinne which puts horror into the Law makes that which was at first a Law of life and liberty to be a Law of bondage and death full of weaknesse unprofitablenesse hideousnesse and curses It is sinne which puts malignity and venome into the very Gospell making it a savor of Death unto Death that is of another deeper death and sorer condemnation which by trampling upon the blood of Christ wee draw upon our selves unto that death under which wee lay before by the malediction of the Law And lastly which is the highest that can bee spoken of the veâ—…ome of 〈◊〉 It is sinne which in a sort and to speake after the manner of men hath put hatred into God himselfe hath moved the most mercifull gratious and compassionate Creator to hate the things which he made and not to take pittie upon the workes of his hands If God had look'd round about his owne workes hee could have found nothing but Goodnesse in them and theresore nothing but Love in himselfe But when sinne came into the World it made the Lord repent and grieve and hate and destroy his owne workmanship And the consideration hereof should drive us all like Lepers and polluted wretches to that Fountaine in Israell which is opened for sinne and for uncleannesse to buy of him white rayment that wee may be clothed and the shame of our nakednesse may not appeare For which purpose we must first finde out the pollution of sinne in our selves and that is by using the Glasse of the Law which was published of purpose to make sinne appeare exceeding sinfull For as rectum is sui index obliqui so purum is sui index impuri That which is right and pure is the measure and discovery of that which is crooked and impure Now the Law is Right Pure Holy lâ—…st Good Lovely Honourable Cleane and therefore very apt to discover the contrary affections and properties in sinne And having gotten by the Law acquaintance with our selves there is then fit place for the Apostles precept To cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit First the Lord discovered the preposterousnesse of Israels services unto him when they came before him in their uncleannesse and lifted up hands full of blood and then comes the like precepts to the Apostles here wash ye make ye cleane put away the evill of your doings from before mine eyes c. But can an uncleane thing cleanse it selfe Can that which is intrinsecally naturally inherently uncleare purifie it selfe It may pollute any thing which toucheth it but how can it cease from that which belongs to its nature or wipe out that which hath eaten in and is marked in its very substance It is true of our selves wee cannot cleanse our selves It is Christs Office to Sanctifie his Church and it is His comlynesse with which wee are adorned without him we can doe nothing but yet having him we must wash our selves For God worketh not upon men as a carver upon a stone when he would induce the shape and proportions of a man but yet leaves it a stone still and no more but as himselfe did worke upon Earth in Paradise when hee breath'd into it the Soule of man and so made it a Living Creature It is true a naturall man is as dead to grace as a stone is to naturall life and therefore if onely man should worke upon him hee would continue as dead still but hee who of dead Earth made a living man is able of stones to raise up children unto Abraham and the worke of conversion is a worke of vivification Now then being quickned we must walke and worke
even as a nurse her infant Secondly Holynesse must needes consist in a Conformitie unto Christ if wee consider the nature of it Wee are then Sanctified when wee are re-endued with that Image of God after which we were at first created Some have conceived that we are therefore said to bee created after Gods Image because wee were made after the Image of Christ who was to come but this is contradicted by the Apostle who saith that Adam was the figure of Christ and not Christ the patterne of Adam yet that created Holynesse is renewed in us after the Image of Christ. As we have borne the image of the earthly Adam who was taken out of the Earth an image of sinne and guilt So wee must beare the Image of the Heavenly Adam who is the Lord from Heaven an Image of Life and Holynesse We were predestinated saith the Apostle to be conformed unto the Image of the Sonne Conformed in his Nature Holynesse in His End Happynesse and in the way thereunto Sufferings We all saith he beholding with open face as in a glasse that is in Christ or in the face of Christ the Glory of God are changed into the same Image with Christ He the Image of his Father and we of Him from glory to glory that is either from glory inchoate in obedience and grace here for the Saints in their very sufferings are glorious and conformable to the Glory of Christ The Spirit of Glory is upon you in your reproaches for Christ unto Glory consummate in Heaven and Salvation here after or from glory to glory that is Grace for Grace the Glorious Image of Gods Holynesse in Christ fashioning and producing it selfe in the hearts of the faithfull as an Image or species of light shining on a glasse doth from thence fashion it selfe on the wall or in another glasse Holynesse is the Image of God now in an Image there are two things required First a similitude of one thing unto another Secondly A Deduction derivation impression of that similitude upon the one from the other and with relation thereunto For though there bee the similitude of snow in milke yet the one is not the image of the other Now then when an image is universally lost that no man living can furnish his neighbour with it to draw from thence another for himselfe there must be recourse to the prototype and originall or else it cannot bee had Now in Adam there was an universall obliteration of Gods Holy Image out of himselfe and all his posteritie Vnto God therefore Himselfe wee must have recourse to repaire this Image againe But how can this be The Apostle tels us that He is an Inaccessible an unapproachable God no man can draw neere him but hee will be licked up and devoured like the stubble by the fire and yet if a man could come neere him as in some sense he is not farre from every one of us yet He is an Invisible God no man can see Him and live no man can have a view of his face to new draw it againe Wee are all by sinne come short of His Glory as impossible it is for any man to become holy againe as it is to see that which is invisible or to approch unto that which is Inaccessible except the Lord be pleased through some vaile or other to exhibite His Image againe unto us and through some glasse to let it shine upon us we shall be everlastingly destitute of it And this Hee hath beene pleased to doe through the vaile of Christs flesh God was manifested in the flesh in that flesh He was made visible and we have an accesse into the Holyest of all through the vaile that is to say Christs flesh in that flesh He was made accessible By Him saith the Apostle wee have an accesse unto the Father He was the Image of the Invisible God He that hath seene Him hath seene the Father For as God was in him reconciling the World unto Himselfe so was Hee in Him revealing Himselfe unto the World No man hath seene God at any time the onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father Hee hath revealed Him Thirdly consider the quality of the mysticall body It is a true rule That that which is first and best in any kinde is the rule and measure of all the rest And therefore Christ being the first and chiefest member in the Church He is to bee the ground of conformitie to the rest And there is indeede a mutuall suteablenesse betweene the Head and the Members Christ by compassion Conformable to His Members in their infirmitie We have not an high Priest who cannot be touched with a feeling of our infirmities And the members by communion conformable to Christ in His Sanctity Both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one Fourthly Holynesse in the Scripture is called an Vnction All the vessels of the Tabernacle were sanctified by that Holy Vnction which was prescribed Moses Ye have received an ointment saith S. Iohn which teacheth you all things It is an oyntment which healeth our wounds and cleanseth our nature mollyfieth our Consciences and openéth our eyes and consecrateth our persons unto royall sacred and peculiar services Now though Christ were annointed with this Holy Oyle above his fellowes yet not without his fellowes but all they are by his unction sanctified Light is principally in the Sunne and sappe in the roote and water in the Fountaine yet there is a derivation a conformitie in the beame branches and streames to their originals Onely here is the difference in Christ there is a fulnesse in us onely a measure and in Christ there is a purenesse but in us a mixture Fifthly and lastly Christ is the Summe of the whole Scriptures and therefore necessarily the Rule of Holynesse For the Scripture is profitable to make a man perfect and to furnish him unto all good workes Saint Paul professeth that he with-held nothing which was profitable but delivered the whole Counsell of God and yet elsewhere we finde the Summe of his preaching was Christ crucified and therefore that which the Scripture calles the writing of the Law in our hearts it calles the forming of Christ in us to note that Christ is the summe and substance of the whole Law Hee came to men first in his Word and after in his Body fulfilling the types accomplishing the predictions performing the commaunds remooving the burdens exhibiting the precepts of the whole Law in a most exemplarie and perfect conversation Now for our further applycation of this Doctrine unto use and practise we may hence first receive a twofold Instruction First touching the proportions wherein our holynesse must beare conformitie unto Christ for conformitie cannot be without proportion Here then we may observe foure particulars wherein our holynesse is to bee proportionable
Hee shall change our vile bodies into the similitude of his Glorious bodie When Hee comes we shall meete him and be ever with him Hee is ascended to his Father and our Father to his God and our God and therefore to his Kingdome and our Kingdome His by personall proprietie and hypostaticall union ours by his purchase and merit and by our mysticall union and fellowship with him He is gone to prepare a place for us In Earth Hee was our suretie to answere the penaltie of our sinnes and in Heaven He is our Advocate to take seifin and possession of that Kingdome for us Our Captaine and Forerunner and high Priest who hath not onely carried our names but hath broken off the vaile of the Sanctuary and given us accesse into the Holyest of all And hee that hath the Sonne hath this life alreadie in three regards First in pâ—…etio he hath the price that procured it esteemed his It was bought with the pretious blood of Christ in his Name and to his use and it was so bought for him that he hath a present right and claime unto it It is not his iâ—… Reversion after an expiration of any others right there are no leaseâ—… nor reversions in Heaven but it is his as an inheritance is the heires after the death of the Ancestor who yet by minoritie of yeeres or distance of place may occupie and possesse it by some other person Secondly Hee hath it in promisso He hath Gods Charter his Assurance sealed with an oath and a double Sacrament to establish his heart in the expectation of it By two immutable things faith the Apostle namely the Word and the Oath of God wherein it was impossible for him to he we have strong consolation and great ground of hope which hope is sure and stedfast and leadeth us unto that place which is within the vaile whither Christ our Forerunner is gone before us Thirdly He hath it in primitijs in the earnest and first fruites and hansell of it in those few clusters of grapes and bunches of figges those Graces of Christs Spirit that peace comfort serenitie which is shed forth into the heart already from that Heavenly Canaan The Holy Spirit of Promise is the earnest of our inheritance untill the Redemption or full fruition and Revelation of our purchased possession to the prayse of his Glory The Graces of the Spirit in the soule are as certaine and infallible evidences of Salvation as the day starre or the morning aurora is of the ensuing day or Sunne-rising For all spirituall things in the Soule are the beginnings of Heaven parcels of that Spirit the fulnesse and residue whereof is in Christs keeping to adorne us with when he shall present us unto his Father But this Doctrine of the Life of Glory is in this life more to be made use of then curiously to bee enquired into O then where the Treasure is let the heart be where the body is let the Eagles resort if wee are already free men of heaven let our thoughts our language our conversation our Trading be for Heaven Let us set our faces towards our home Let us awake out of sleepe considering that now our salvation is neerer then when we first beleeved If wee have a hope to be like him at his comming let us purifie our selves even as hee is pure since there is a price a high calling a crowne before us let us presse forward with all violence of devotion never thinke our selves farre enough but prepare our hearts still and lay hold on every advantage to further our progresse Since there is a rest remaining for the people of God let us labour to enter into it and to hold fast our profession that as well absent as present we may be accepted of him Secondly since we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternall in the Heavens Let us feele the burden of our fleshly corruptions and groane after our redemption Let us long for the revelation of the Sonnes of God and for his appearing as the Saints under the Altar How long Lord Iesus Holy and Iust. Thirdly let us with enlarg'd and ravish'd affections with all the vigor and activitie of enflamed hearts recount the great love of God who hath not onely delivered us from his wrath but made us Sonnes married his owne infinite Maiestie to our nature in the unitie of his Sonnes person and made us in him Kings Priests and Heires unto God Beloved what manner of Love How unsearchable How bottomlesse how surpassing the apprehensions of Men or Angels is the Love of God to us saith the Apostle that wee should be called the Sonnes of God Lastly if God will glorifie us with his Life hereafter let us labour as much as wee can to glorifie Him in our lives here It was our Saviours argument who might have entered into Glory as his owne without any such way of procurement if his owne voluntarie undertaking the office of Mediator had not concluded him Glorifie me with thy selfe with the glorie which I had with thee before the World was for I have gloryfied thee on Earth I have finished the worke which thou gavest mee to doe If we are indeede perswaded that there is laid up for us a Crowne of righteousnesse we cannot but with Saint Paul resolve to fight a good fight to finish our course to keepe the faith to bring forth much fruite that our Father may be glorified in us And now having unfolded this threefold Life which the faithfull have in Christ wee may further take notice of three attributes or properties of this life both to humble and to secure us and they are all couched in one word of the Apostle your life is hid with Christ in God It is in Christs keeping as in the hands of a faithfull depositary and it is a Life in God a full Life a derivation from the Fountaine of Life where it is surer and sweeter then in any Cisterne Here then are three properties of a Christians Life in Christ first Obscuritie secondly Plentie thirdly safetie or Eternitie First it is an obscure life a secret aâ—d mysterious life so the Apostle calleth Godlynesse a Mysterie As there is a mysterie of iniquitie and the hidden things of uncleannesse so there is a Mysterie of Godlynesse and the hidden man of the heart The Life of Grace first is hidden totally from the wicked A stranger doth not intermeddle with a righteous mans joy The naturall man knoweth not any things of Gods spirit Saint Peter gives the reason because he is blinde and cannot see a farre off Now the things of God are deepe things and high things upward they have too much brightnesse and downeward they have too much darknesse for purblinde
gives an excellent reason in the same place No man can by any meanes redeeme his brother nor give to God a ransome for him for the Redemption of their Soule is Pretious And secondly it may teach them as not to Trust so not to Swell with these things neither It is an argument of their windinesse and emptinesse that they are apt to make men swell whereas if they cannot change a haire of a mans head nor adde an inch to his stature they can much lesse make an accession of the least dramme of merit or reall value to the owners of them And surely if men could seriously consider That they are still members of the same common bodie and that of a twofold body a civill and a mysticall body and that though they haplie may bee the more honorable parts in one body yet in the other they may be the lesse honorable that the poore whom they despise may in Christs body have a higher roome then they as the Apostle saith Hath not God chosen the poore in this world Rich in faith Iam. 2. 5. I say if men could compare things rightly together and consider that they are but the greater letters in the same volume and the poore the smaller though they take up more roome yet they put no more matter nor worth into the word which they compound they would never suffer the tympanie and inflation of pride or superciliousnesse of selfe-attributions or contempt of their meaner brethren to prevaile within them Wee see in the naturall body though the head have a Hat on of so many shillings price and the foot a Shooe of not halfe so many pence yet the head doth not therefore despise the foot but is tender of it and doth derive influence as well unto that as to any nobler part and surely so should it be amongst men though God have given thee an Eminent station in the body cloath'd thee with purple and scarlet and hath set thy poore neighbour in the lowest part of the body and made him conversant in the dirt and content to cover himselfe with leather yet you are still members of the same common body animated with the same spirit of Christ moulded out of the same dirt appointed for the same inheritance borne out of the same wombe of natural blindnesse partakers of the same great and pretious promises there was not one price for the Soule of the poore man and another for the rich there is not one table for Christ's meaner guests and another for his greater but the faith is a Common faith the salvation a Common salvation the rule a Common rule the hope a Common hope one Lord and one Spirit and one Baptisme and one God and Father of all and One foundation and One house and therefore wee ought to have Care and Compassion one of another Secondly consider that Goodnesse and value which is fix'd to the being of the Creature implanted in it by God and the institution of nature and even thus we shall finde them absolutely unable to satisfie the desires of the reasonable and spirituall soule God is the Lord of all the Creatures they are but as his severall monies he coin'd them all So much then of his Image as nay Creature hath in it so much value and worth it carries Now God hath more communicated himselfe unto man then unto any other Creature in his Creation we finde man made after the similitude of God and in his restauration we finde God made after the similitude of man and man once againe after the similitude of God And now it is needlesse to search out the worth of the Creature Our Saviour will decide the point What shall a man gaine though he winne the whole World and lose his owne soule or what shall a man give in exchange for his soule To which of the Creatures said God at any time Let us create it after our image of which of the Angels said He at any time Let us restore them to our image againe there is no Creature in heaven or earth which is recompence enough for the losse of a Soule Can a man carrie the world into hell with him to bribe the flames or corrupt his tormentors No saith the Psalmist His glory shall not descend after him Psal. 49. 17. but can hee buy out his pardon before he comes thither no neither the Redemption of a Soule is more pretious vers 8. we know the Apostle counts all things Dung Phil. 3. 8. and will God take dung in exchange for a soule Certainely Beloved when a man can sow grace in the furrowes of the field when he can fill his barnes with glory when he can get bagges full of salvation when he can plow up heaven out of the earth and extract God out of the Creatures then he may bee able to finde that in them which shall satisfie his desires But till then let a man have all the exquisitest Curiosities of nature heap'd into one vessell let him be moulded out of the most delicate ingredients and noblest principles that the world can contribute let there be in his body a concurrency of all beauty and feature in his nature an Eminence of all Sweetnesse and ingenuity in his minde a conspiration of the politest and most choice varieties of all kinde of learning yet still the spirit of that man is no whit more valueable and pretious no whit more proportionable to Eternall Happinesse then the soule of a poore and illiterate begger Difference indeed there is and that justly to bee made betweene them in the eyes of men which difference is to expire within a few yeeres and then after the dust of the beautifull and deformed of the learned and ignorant of the honorable and base are promiscuously intermingled and death hath equall'd all then at last there will come a day when all mankinde shall be summon'd naked without difference of degrees before the same tribunall when the Crownes of kings and the shackles of prisoners when the robes of princes and the ragges of beggers when the gallants braverie and the peasants russet and the statists policie and the Courtiers luxurie and the schollers curiosity shall be all laid aside when all men shall be reduc'd unto an equall plea and without respect of persons shall bee doom'd according to their workes when Nero the persecuting emperor shall be throwne to Hell and Paul the persecuted Apostle shall shine in glory when the learned Scribes and Pharises shall gnash their teeth and the ignorant and as they terme them cursed people shall see their Saviour when the proud antichristian prelates that dyed their robes in the bloud of the Saints shall be hurried to damnation and the poore despised martyrs whom they persecuted shall wash their feet in the bloud of their enemies when those puntoes and formalities and cuts and fashions and distances and complements which are now the darling sinnes of the upper
Abounds like the pumping of water out of a fountaine the more it is drawne the faster it comes We grant indeed that the Lord being the Fountaine of life doth allow the Creature in regard of life temporall some subordinate operation and concurrencie in the worke of preserving life in us But we must also remember That the Creatures are but Gods Instruments in that respect and that not as servants are to their masters Living instruments able to worke without concurrence of the superior cause but Dead instruments and therefore must never be separated from the Principall Let God subduct from them that concourse of his owne which actuates and applies them to their severall services and all the Creatures in the world are no more able to preserue the body or to comfort the mind then an axe and a hammer and those other dead instruments are able by themselues alone to erect some stately edifice It is not the corne or the flowre but the staffe of bread which supports the life and that is not any thing that comes out of the earth but something which comes downe from heaven even the blessing which sanctifies the Creature for man liveth not by bread alone but by the word which proceedeth out of Gods mouth The Creature cannot hold up it selfe much lesse contribute to the subsistence of other things unlesse God continue the influence of his blessing upon it As soone as Christ had cursed the figge-tree it presently withered and dried up 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frâ—m the rootes to shew that it was not the roote alone but the blessing of Christ which did support the figge-tree The Creatures of themselues are Indifferent to contrary operations according as they have been by God severally applied Fire preserved the three children in the furnace and the same fire lick'd up the instruments of the persecution Fire came downe from heaven to destroy Sodome and fire came downe from heaven to advance Elias the same sea a Sanctuarie unto Israel and a grave unto Egypt Ionah had been drown'd if he had not been devour'd the latter destruction was a deliverance from the former and the ravine of the fish a refuge from the rage of the sea pulse kept Daniel in good liking which the meat of the kings table could not doe in the other children for indeed Life is not a thing meerely naturall but of promise as the Apostle speakes Let the promise be removed and however a wicked man lives as well as a righteous man yet his life is indeed but a breathing death onely the cramming of him to a day of slaughter When the blessing of God is once subducted though men labour in the vâ—ry fire turne their vitall heate with extremity of paines into a very flame yet the close of all their labour will prove nothing but Uanitie as the Prophet speakes We should therefore pray unto God that we may live not onely by the Creature but by the word which sanctifieth the Creature that wee may not leane upon our substance but upon Gods promises that we may not live by that which we have onely but by that which we hope for and may still finde God accompanying his owne blessings unto our Soule But here the vanitie and wickednesse of many worldly men is justly to be reproved who Rest on the Creature as on the only staffe and comfort of their life who count it their principall joy when their corne and wine and oyle encreaseth who magnifie their owne arts sacrifice to their owne net and drag which is the Idolatrie of Covetousnesse so often spoken of by the Apostle when all the trust and hope and glory and rejoycing which men have is in the Creature and not in God They boast saith the Psalmist in the multitude of their Riches Nay so much sottishnesse there is in the nature of man and so much sophistrie in the Creature that the proud foole in the Gospell from the greatnesse of his wealth concludes the length of his life Thou hast much laid up for many yeeres and the certainety of his mirth and pleasure Take thine ease eate drinke and be merry Their inward thought is that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling places to all generations And David himselfe was over-taken with this folly I said in my prosperity I shall never be moved Yea so much seed is there of pride in the heart of man and so much heate as I may so speake vigour in the Creature to quicken it as that men are apt to Deifie themselves in the reflection on their owne greatnes to deifie any thing else which contributes to the enlargement of their ambitious purposes The greatnesse of the Persian Emperors made them all usurpe religious worship from their subiects The like insolence we finde in the Babilonish monarchs they exalted themselves above the height of the clouds and made themselves equall to the most high Esai 14. 14. yea their pride made them forget any God save themselves I am and there is none besides me Esai 47. 7. 8. It was the blasphemous arrogance of Tyrus the rich citty I am a God I sit in the seate of God I have a heart like the heart of God Ezek. 28. 26. neither are these the sinnes of those times alone the fountaine of them is in the nature and the fruites of them in the lives of those who dare not venture upon the words For albeit men with their mouths professe God there is yet a bitter roote of Atheisme and of Polutheisme in the mindes of men by nature which is mightily actuated by the abundance of earthly things Where the treasure is there is the heart where the heart there the happinesse and where the happinesse there the God Now worldly men put their trust in their riches set their heart upon them make them their strong citty and therefore no marvell if they be their Idoll too What is the reason why oftentimes wee may obserue rich and mighty men in the world to bee more impatient of the Word of God more bitter scorners of the power of religion more fearefully given over to the pursuite of fleshly lusts and secular purposes to vanity vaine-glory ambition revenge fierce implacable bloudy passions brasen and boasting abominations then other men but because they have some secret opinion that there is not so great a distance betweene God and them as betweene God and other men but because the abundance of worldly things hath brawned their heart and fatted their conscience and thickned their eyes against any feare or faith or notice at all of that supreme dominion and impartiall revenge which the most powerfull and just God doth beare over all sinners and against all sinne What is the reason why many ordinary men drudge and moile all the yeere long thinke every houre in the Church so much time lost from their life are not able to forbeare their
things but as accessions unto him Otherwise if wee love it either alone or above Christ however it may by Gods providence keepe our breath a while in our nostrils and fatten us against the last day yet impossible it is that it should ever minister the true and solid comforts of life unto us which consisteth not in the abundance of things which a man possesseth as our Saviour speakes Life goes not upward but downeward the inferiour derives it not on the superiour therefore by placing the Creature in our estimation above Christ we deny unto it any influence of livelihood from him whom yet in words we professe to be the fountaine of life But men will object and say This is a needlesse caution not to preferre the Creature before the Creator as if any man were so impious and absurd Surely Saint Paul tells us that men without faith are impious and absurd men who doe in their affections and practises as undoubtedly undervalue Christ as the Gadarens that preferred their Swine before him What else did Esau when for a messe of pottage he sold away his birth-right which was a priviledge that led to Christ What else did the people in the Wildernesse who despised the holy Land which was the type of Christs Kingdome and in their hearts turned backe to Egypt What else did those wicked Israelites who polluted the Table of the Lord and made his Altar contemptible which was a type of Christ What else did Iudas and the Iewes who sold and bought the Lord of glory for the price of a beast What else doe daily those men who make Religion serve turnes and godlinesse waite upon gaine who creepe into houses with a forme of pietie to seduce unstable foules and plucke off their feathers to make themselves a neast The Apostles Rule is generall that sensuall and earthly-minded men are all the enemies of the Crosse of Christ Phil. 3. 18. 19. The third and last disproportion betweene the soule of Man and the Creature arising from the vanitâ—…e thereof is in regard of duration and continuance Man is by nature a provident Creature apt to lay up for the time to come and that disposition should reach beyond the forecast of the Foole in the Gospell for many yeeres even for immortalitie it selfe For certainely there is no man who hath but the generall notions of corrupted reason alive within him who hath not his conscience quite vitiated and his minde putrified with noysome lusts who is not wrapped up in the mud of thicke ignorance and palpable stupiditie but must of necessitie have oftentimes the immediate representations of immortalitie before his eyes Let him never so much smother and suppresse the truth let him with all the Arte he can divert his conceits and entangle his thoughts in secular cares let him shut his eye-lids as close as his naile is to his flesh yet the flashes of immortalitie are of so penetrative and searching a nature that they will undoubtedly get through all the obstacles which a minde not wholly over-dawb'd with worldlinesse and ignorance can put betweene Therefore the Apostle useth that for a strong argument why rich men should not trust in uncertaine riches but in the living God and should be rich in good workes That so saith he they may lay up in store a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternall life 1. Tim. 6. 17. 19. Wicked men indeed lay up in store but it is not riches but wrath even violence and oppression against the last day But by trusting God and doing good a man layes up durable Riches as the wise Man speakes in which respect he presently addes That the fruit of wisedome is better then Gold For though Gold be of all Mettals the most solid and therefore least subject to decay yet it is not immortall and durable riches for the Apostle tels us that silver and gold are corruptible things and that there is a rust and canker which 〈◊〉 up the gold and silver of wicked men I confesse the hearts of many men are so glewed unto the world especially when they finde all things succeed prosperously with them that they are apt enough to set up their rest and to conceite a kinde of stedfastnesse in the things they possesse Because they haue no changes saith the Prophet David therefore they feare not God But yet I say where the Lord doth not wholly give a man over to heape up treasures unto the last day to be eaten up with the canker of his owne wealth the soule must of necessâ—…y sometime or other happen upon such sad thoughts as these What ailes my foolish heart thus to eate up it selfe with care and to rob mine eyes of their beloved sleepe for such things as to the which the time will come when I must bid an everlasting farewell Am I not a poore mortall Creature brother to the Wormes sister to the Dusâ—… Doe I not carry about with mee a soule full of corruptions a skinne full of diseases Is not my breath in my nostrils where there is roome enough for it to goe out and possibility never to come in again Is my flesh of brasse or my bones of iron that I should thinke to hold out and without interruption to enjoy these earthly things Or if they were yet are not the Creatures themselves subject to period and mortalitie Is there not a Moth in my richest garments a Worme in my tallest Cedars a Canker and rust in my fiâ—…nest Gold to corrupt and eate it out Or if not will there not come a day when the whole frame of Nature shall bee set on fire and the Elements themselves shall melt with heate when that universall flame shall devoure all the bagges and lands and offices and honours and treasures and store houses of worldly men When Heaven and Hell shall divide the World Heaven into which nothing can be admitted which is capable of Moth or rust to corrupt it and Hel into which if any such things could come they would undoubtedly in one instant bee swallowed vp in those violent and unextinguishable flames And shall I be so foolish as to 〈◊〉 my felicity in that which will faile me when I shall stand in greatest neede to heape up treasures into a broken bagge to worke in the fire where all must perish Certainely the soule of a meere worldly man who cannot finde God or Christ in the things hee enjoyes must of necessity be so fâ—…rre from reaping solid or constant comfort from any of these perishable Creatures that it cannot but ake and tremble but be wholly surprized with dismall passions with horrid preapprehensions of its owne wofull estate upon the evidence of the Creatures mortalitie and the unavoideable flashes and conviction of its owne everlastingnesse Now if we consider the various rootes of this corruption in the Creature it will then further appeare unto us that they are not onely mortall but even
them to assure us that whatever blemish since the Creation any of those glorious heavenly bodies are either in themselves or by interposition of foggy vapours subject unto what ever enmities and destructive qualities enrage one beast against another they are all of them the consequents of that finne which nothing can remove but the Gospell of Christ. And this is that universall contagion which runneth through the whole frame of Nature into the bowels of every Creature But yet further in a third place there is a particular ground of this mortality to many men namely the Particular curse upon that place or creature which men enioy For as a piece of oke besides the natural corruptiblenes of it as it is a body compounded of contrary principles whereby it would of it selfe at last returne to its dust againe may further have a worme like Ionah his Gourd eating out the heart of it by that meanes hastening its corruption and yet further besides that may be presently put into the fire which will make a more speedy riddance then either of the former Or as in the body of a man besides the generall consumption which lingringly feedeth upon the whole each particular mēber may have a particular disease which may serve to hasten that corruption to it self which the other threatens to the whole so may it be and often is in the Creatures of God Besides their naturall finitenes and their generall bondage of corruption which by a hidden insensible insinuation doth emasculate the vigor and strength of the Creatures there may be a Particular Curse which may serve speedily to hasten that decay which without any such concu◅rence would have made hast enough to leave the possessors of them in everlasting penurie I will be unto Ephraim as a moth and to the house of Iuda as rottennes saith the Lord. That is Gods first Instrument of mortality whereby he will certainely though indeed lingtingly consume a thing But now if for all this when the Moth secretly consumes him so that he seeth his sicknesse and feeleth his wound he will yet trust in his owne counsels and confederacies sacrifice to his owne net goe to Assyria or King Iareb for succour I will then be unto Ephraim as a Lyon in a more sudden and swift destruction As he dealeth thus with men so with the things about them too first he puts a Moth into them rust in our gold canker in our siluer hartlessenesse in our earth faintnesse in the influences of heauen and if notwithstanding all this men will still trust in the Cisterne God will put holes into it too which shall make it runne out as fast as they fill it hee will giue wings to their monie encrease the occasions of expence and if they clip their wings that they fly not away he will make holes in the bottome of their baggs that they shall droppe away he will not onely send a Moth and rust which shall in time eate them out but hee will send a Thiefe upon them too which shall suddenly breake through and carry them away So many steps and gradations are there in the mortality of the creature when God pleaseth to adde his curse unto them for sin As for Ephr◅im saith the Lord their Glory shall fly away like a Bird from the birth and from the wombe and from the conception Observe the gradations of mortality in the best blessings we enjoy in our very glory namely our children which are called an Inheritance and reward to take away shame from their parents They shall fly away like a bird that notes the swiftnesse of the Iudgement and that first from the birth as soone as they are borne the murtherer shall destroy them yea from the wombe before they be borne they shall perish nothing of them shall be enjoyd but the hope and if that be too much here is a degree as low as can be from the very conception they shall miscarry and prove abortive I will smite the winter house and the summer house the houses of Ivori◅ and the great houses shall have an end If the Lord undertake to smite if he send abroad the fire of his wrath it shall seize on those palaces and great houses which men thought should have endured unto all generations For that Flying role importing Iudgement decreed and sudden which was sent over the whole earth against the Thiefe and the swearer did not onely smite the man but his house and like a leprosie consume the very timber and stones thereof Therefore wee read in the Leviticall law of leprosies not in men onely but in houses and garments intimating unto us that sinne derives a contagion upon any thing that is about us and like Ivie in a wall or that wild Caprificus wil get rooting in the very substance of the stone in the wall and breake it asunder What ever it is that men can finde out vnder the Sunne to fasten their hearts upon for Satisfaction and comfort this leprosie will defile it and eate it out If silver and gold besides their secret rust and proper corruption the Lord can make the thiefe rise up suddenly and bite the possessors and so unlade them of their thicke clay If Reall substance and encrease the Lord cast◅th away saith the wise man the substance of the wicked a◅d the increase of his house saith Iob shall depart and flow away If greatnesse and high places the Lord can put ice vnder their feete make their places slippery and subject to a momentarie desolation If a great name and glory the Lord cannot onely suffer time and ignorance to draw out all the memorie of a man but can presently rot his name from under heauen If Corne and the fruits of the Earth the Lord can kill it in the blade by with-holding raine three moneths before the Haruest Hee can send a Thiefe a Caterpiller a Palmer worme to eate it up If it hold out to come into the barne euen there he can blow upon it and consume it like chaffe However men thinke when they have their Corne in their houses and their Wine in their C◅llars they are sure and have no more to doe with God yet he can take away the staffe and lif◅ of it in our very houses Yea when it is in our mouthes and bowels he can send leanenesse and a curse after it Awake ye Drunkards and howle ye drinkers of wine saith the Prophet because of the new wine for it is cut off from your mouths The Lord could deferre the punishment of these men till the last day when undoubtedly there will be nothing for them to drinke but that Cup of the Lords right hand as the Prophet calls it a Cup of fury and trembling a cup of sorrow astonishment and desolation a Cup which shall make all that drinke thereof to bee moved and mad to be drunken and fall and
expose as few of thy affections to the rage of worldly lust as may be beware of being carried where two seas meet as the ship wherein Paul suffer'd shipwracke I meane of plunging thy selfe in a confluence of many boisterous and conflicting businesses least for thine inordinate prosecution of worldly things the Lord either give thy Soule over to suffer shipwracke in them or strip thee of all thy lading and tackling breake thine estate all to pieces and make thee glad to get to Heaven upon a broken planke 3. The fashion of this world passeth over it doth but goe along by thee and salute thee and therefore use it as if thou used'st it not doe to it as thou would'st doe to a stranger whom thou meetest in the way he goes one way and thou another salute him stay so long in his companie till from him thou have received better instructions touching the turnings and difficulties of thine owne way but take heed thou turne not into the way of the Creature least thou lose thine owne home Secondly Get an Eye of Faith to looke Through and Above the Creature A man shall never get to looke of from the world till he can looke beyond it For the Soule will have hold-fast of something and the reason why men cling so much to the earth is because they have no assurance if they let goe that hold of having any subsistence else-where Labour therefore to get an interest in Christ to finde an everlasting footing in the stedfastnesse of Gods Promises in him and that will make thee willing to suffer the losse of all things it will implant a kinde of hatred and disestimation of all the most pretious endearements which thy soule did feede upon before Saint Peter saith of wicked men that they are Purblinde they cannot see a farre off they can see nothing but that which is next them and therefore no marvell if their thoughts cannot reach unto the End of the Creature There is in a dimme eye the same constant and habituall indisposition which sometimes happeneth unto a sound eye by reason of a thicke mist though a man be walking in a very short lane yet he sees no end of it and so a naturall man cannot reach to the period of earthly things death and danger are still a great way out of his sight whereas the eye of faith can looke upon them as already expiring and through them looke upon him who therefore gives the Creatures unto us that in them we might see his power and taste his goodnesse And nature it selfe me thinkes may seeme to have intended some such thing as this in the very order of the Creatures Downeward a mans eye hath something immediately to fixe on All is shut up in darkenesse save the very surface to note that we should have our desires shut up too from these earthly things which are put under our feete and hid from our eyeâ— and buried in their owne deformitie All the beauty and all the fruit of the earth is placed on the very outside of it to shew how short and narrow our affections should be towards it But upward the eye sindes scarce any thing to bound it all is transparant and dâ—…aphanous to note how vast our affections should be towards God how endlesse our thoughts and desires of his kingdome how present to our faith the heavenly things should be even at the greatest distance The Apostle saith That Faith is the Substance of things hoped for that it gives being and present subsistency to things farre distant from us makes those things which in regard of naturall causes are very remote in regard of Gods Promises to seeme hard at hand And therefore though there were many hundred yeeres to come in the Apostles time and for ought we know may yet be to the dissolution of the world yet the Apostle tels us that even then it was the last houre because faith being able distinctly to see the truth and promises of God and the Endlesnesse of that life which is then presently to be revealed the infinite excesse of vastnesse in that made that which was otherwise a great space seeme even as nothing no more in comparison then the length of a Cane or Trunke through which a man lookes on the heavens or some vast countrey And ever the greater magnitude and light there is in a body the smaller will the medium or distance seeme from it the reason why a perspective glasse drawes remote objects close to the eye is because it multiplies the species We then by faith apprehending an infinite and everlasting Glory must needs conceive any thing through which we looke upon it to be but short vanishing And therfore though the promises were a farre off in regard of their owne existence yet the Patriarkes did not onely see but embrace them their faith seem'd to nullifie and swallow up all the distance Abraham saw Christs day and was glad he looked upon those many ages which were betweene him and his promised seed as upon small aâ—…d unconsiderable distances in comparison of that endlesse glory into which they ran they were but as a curten or piece of hangings which divide one roome in a house from another Labour therefore to get a distinct view of the height and length and breadth and depth and the unsearchable love of God in Christ to find in thine own soule the truth of God in his promises that his word abideth forever and that will make all the glory of other things to seeme but as grasse Lastly though the Creature be mortall in it selfe yet in regard of man as it is an Instrument serviceable to his purposes and subordinate to the graces of God in him it may bee made of use even for Immortality To which purpose excellent is that speech of Holy Austin If you have not these earthly Goods saith he take heed how thou get them by evill workes here and if thou have them labour by good workes to hold them even when thou art gone to heaven Make you friends saith our Saviour of the unrighteous 〈◊〉 that when you faile they may receive you into everlasting habitations a religious and mercifull use of earthly things makes way to Immortalitie and Blessednesse Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many dayes thou shalt finde it It is an allusion unto husbandmen They doe not eate up and sell away all their corne for then the world would quickely bee destitute but the way they take to perpetuate the fruits of the earth is to cast some of it backe againe into a fruitfull soile where the waters come and then in due time they receive it with encrease so should we doe with these worldly blessings sow them in the bowels and backes of the poore members of Christ and in the day of harvest we shall finde a great encrease If then draw out thy soule to the righteous and satisfie the afflicted soule then shall
his worship Thus all those phantasticall felicities which men build upon the Creature prove in the end to have been nothing else but the banquet of a dreaming man nothing but lies and vanitie in the conclusion Lastly They Deceive us likewise in respect of evill No Creatures however they may promise Immunitie and deliverance can doe a man any good when the Lord will be pleased to send evill upon him And yet it is not for nothing that a truth so universally confessed should yet bee repeated in the Scripture That silver and gold and corruptible things are not a fit price for the soules of men Doubtlesse the holy men of God forsaw a time when false Christs and false Prophets should come into the world which should set salvation to sale and make merchandise of the Soules of men as wee see at this day in popish Indulgences and penance and the like no lesse ridiculous then impious superstitions Neither is it for nothing that Salomon tells us That riches yea whole Treasures doe not profit in the day of death a speech repeated by two prophets after him For surely those holy men knew how apt wealth and greatnesse is to bewitch a man with conceits of Immortality as hath been shewed Who were they that made a covenant with death and were at an agreement with hell to passe from them but the scornfull men the Rulers of the people which had abundance of wealth and honour Who were they that did put far away the evill day in despight of the Prophets threatnings did flatter themselves in the conceite of their firme and inconcussible estate but they who were at ease in Sion who trusted upon the Mountaines of Samaria who lay upon beds of I◅orie and stretch'd themselves upon their couches But we see all this was but deceite they go captive with the first of those that go captive the banket of them that stretched themselves is removed All earthly supports without God are but like a stately house on the sand without a foundation a man shal be buried in his owne pride He that is strong shall be to seeke of his strength he that is mighty should deliver others shall be too weak for his own defence he that is swift shall be amaz'd and not dare to fly if he be a bowman at a great distance if he be a rider have a great advantage he shal yet be overtaken and he that is couragious adventures to stand out shall be faine to flye away naked at the last What ever hopes or refuges any Creature cā afford a man in these troubles they are nothing but froth vanity the Lord challenges derides them al. And the Prophet Esay gives a sound reason of it all The Egyptians are men and not God their horses are flesh not spirit when the Lord shal stretch out his hand both he that helpeth shall fall and he that is helpen shal fal down and they al shal faile together Before wee proceed to the last thing proposed here is a question to be answered If the Creatures be so full of Vexation It should seeme that it is unprofitable and by consequence unlawfull either to labour or to pray for them Which yet is plainely contrary to Christs direction Give us our daylie bread and contrary to the practice of the Saints who use to call for the fatnesse of the earth and dew of heaven peace of walls and prosperity of Palaces upon those whom they blesse To which I answere That which is evill by accident doth not prejudice that which is Good in it selfe and by Gods ordination Now the vexation which hath been spoken of is not an effect flowing naturally out of the condition of the creature but ariseth meerely by accident upon the reason of its separation from God who at first did appoint his owne blessed communion to goe along with his Creatures Now things which are good in themselves but accidentally evill may justly be the object of our prayers and endeavours And so on the otherside many things there are which in themselves alone are evill yet by the providence and disposition of God they have a good issue they worke together for the best to them that love God It was good for David that he had been afflicted yet wee may not lawfully pray for such evils on our selves or others upon presumption of Gods goodnesse to turne them to the best Who doubts that the calamities of the Church doe at this time stirre up the hearts of men to seeke the Lord and his face and to walke humbly and fearefully before him yet that man should be a curse and prodigie in the eyes of God and men who should still pray for the calamities of Sion and to see the stones of Ierusalem still in the dust Death is in it selfe an evill thing for the Apostle calles it an enemy 1. Cor. 15. yet by the infinite power and mercy of God who delights to bring good out of evill and beauty out of ashes it hath not onely the sting taken away but is made an entrance into Gods owne presence with reference unto which benefit the Apostle desireth to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1. 23. Now notwithstanding this goodnesse which death by accident brings along with it yet being in it selfe a Destructive thing we may lawfully in the desires of our soule shrinke from it and decline it Example whereof we have in the death of Christ himselfe which was of all as the most bitter so the most pretious and yet by reason of that bitternesse which was in it hee prayes against it presenting unto his Father the desires of his Soule for that life which he came to lay downe as his obedience to his Father and love to his Church made him most willingly embrace death so his love to the integritie of his humane nature and feare of so heavy pressures as he was to feele made him as seriously to decline it And though the Apostle did most earnestly desire to be with Christ yet he did in the same desire decline the common rode thither through the darke passages of death 2. Cor. 5. 4. Vnlawfull indeed it is for any man to pray universally against death because that were to withstand the Statutes of God Heb 9. 27. but against any particular danger wee may as Ezechiah did 1. King 20. 1 2. reserving still a generall submission to the will and decrees of God For we are bound in such a case to use all good meanes and to pray for Gods blessing upon them which amounts to a prayer against the danger it selfe So then by the Rule of contraries though the Creatures be full of vanitie and vexation yet this must not swallow up the apprehension of that goodnesse which God hath put into them nor put off the desires of men from seeking them of God in those just prayers which he hath prescribed and in those
of us the other from the predominancy of lust which overswayes the heart unto evill Good motions and resolutions in evill hearts are like violent impressions upon a stone though it move upwards for a while yet nature will at last prevaile and make it returne to its owne motion Secondly a Heart set on lusts mooves to 〈◊〉 ends but its owâ—…e and selfe-ends defile an action though otherwise never so specious turnes zeale it selfe and obedience into murder hinders all faith in us and acceptance with God nullifies all other ends swallowes up Gods glory and the good of others as the leane Kine did the fat as a Wenne in the body robs and consumes the part adjoyning so doe selfe-ends the right end Thirdly the Heart is a fountaine and principle and principles are ever one and uniforme out of the same fountaine cannot come bitter water and sweet and therefore the Apostle speakes of some that they are double-minded men that have a heart and a heart yet the truth is that is but with reference to their pretences for the Heart really and totally lookes but one way Every man is spiritually a married person and he can be joyned but to one Christ and an Idoll as every â—…ust is cannot consist he will have a chaste spouse he will have all our desires and affections subject unto him if the Heart cannot count him altogether lovely and all things else but dung in comparison of him he will refuse the match and with-hold his consent Let us see in some few particulars what impotency unto any good the Creatures bring upon the hearts of men To Pray requires a hungry spirit a heart convinc'd of its owne emptinesse a desire of intimate communion with God but now the Creature drawes the heart and all the desires thereof to it selfe as an ill splene doth the nourishment in a body Lust makes men pray amisse fixeth the desires onely on its owne provisions makes a man unwilling to be carried any way towards heaven but his owne The Young Man prayed unto Christ to shew him the way to eternall life but when Christ told him that his riches his covetousnes his bosome lust stood betweene him and salvation his prayer was turned into sorrow repentance and apostacy Meditation requires a sequestration of the thoughts a minde unmixt with other cares a syncere and uncorrupted relish of the Word now when the heart is prepossest with lust and taken up with another treasure it is as impossible to be weaned from it as for an hungry Eagle a Creature of the sharpest sight to fixe upon and of the sharpest appetite to desire its object to forbeare the body on which it would prey as unable to conceive aright of the pretiousnesse and power of the Word as a feaverish palate to taste the proper sweetnesse of the meate it eates In Hearing the Word the heart can never accept Gods Commands till it be first empty a man cannot receive the richest gift that is with a hand that was full before Now thornes which are the cares of the World filling the heart must needs choake the feede of the Word The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsell of God against themselves because their pride would not let them yeeld to such a baptisme or to such a doctrine as requires emptinesse confession of sinnes justifying of God and condemning of themselves for these were the purposes of Iohus Baptisme and of the preaching of repentance That man comes but to bee rejected who makes love to one who hath fixt her heart and affection already A man must come to Gods Word as to a Physitian a meere patient without reservations or exceptions he must set his corruptions as an open marke for the word to shoot at hee must not come with capitulations and provisoes but lay downe the body of sinne before God to have every earthly member hewed of Till a man come with such a resolution as to be willing to part from all naughtinesse hee will never receive the ingrafted Word with meeknesse and an honest heart a man will never follow Christ in the wayes of his Word till first he have learned to denie himselfe and his owne lusts Nay if a man should binde his devotion to his heart With vâ—…ws yet a Dalila in his bosome a lust in his spirit would easily nullifie the strongest vowes The Iewes made a serious and solemne protestation to Ieremie that they would obey the voyce of the Lord in that which they desired him to enquire of God about whether it were good or evill and yet when they found the message crosse their owne lusts and reservations their resolutions are turned into rebellions their pride quickly breakes asunder their vow and they tell the Prophet to his face that hee dealt falsly between God and them a refuge which they were well acquainted with before Some when then conscience awakens and begins to disquiet them make vowes to bind themselves vnto better obedience and formes of godlinesse but as Sampson was bound in vaine with any cords so long as his haire grew into its length so in vaine doth any man binde himselfe with vowes so long as he nourisheth his lusts within a vow in the hand of a fleshly lust will be but like the chaines and fetters of that fierce â—…unatick very easily broken asunder This is not the right way First labour with thy heart clense out thy corruptions purge thy life as the Prophet did the waters with seasoning and rectifying the fountaine T is one thing to give â—…ase from a present paine another thing to roote out the disease it selfe If the chinkes in a ship bee unstopt 't is in vaine to labour at the pumpe so long as there is a constant in let the water can never be exhausted so is it in these formall resolutions and vowes they may ease the present paine let out a little water restraine from some particular acts but so long as the heart is unpurged lust will returne and predominate In a word whereas in the Service of God there are two maine things required faith to begin and courage or patience to goe through lust hinders both these How can yee beleeve since yee seeke for glory one from another Ioh. 5. 44. when persecution arose because of the word the Temporary was presently offended Matth. 13. 21. Thirdly and lastly in one word A man ought not to set his Heart on the Creature because of the Noblenesse of the heart To set the heart on the creature is to set a diamond in lead None are so mad to keep their Iewels in a cellar and their coales in a closet and yet such is the profannesse of wicked men to keepe God in their lips only and Mammon in their hearts to make the earth their treasure and heaven but as an accessorie and appendix to that And now as Samuel spake unto Saul set not thine
driving to no point nor issue running into no conclusion nor resolutions of further obedience in faith and godlinesse This is that which in thy converse with others mingles so much frowardnesse levitie unprofitablenesse to or from them This is that which in thy calling makes so unmindfull of God and his service aime at nothing but thine own emoluments Where is the man who in all the wayes of his ordinarie calling labours to walke in obedience and feare of God to carry alwayes the affections of a servant as considering that he is doing the Lords worke That consecrates and sanctifies all his courses by prayer that beggeth strength presence concurrence supplies of spirit from God to lead him in the way which he ought to goe and to preserve him against those snares and temptations which in his calling he is most exposed unto that imploreth a blessing from heaven on his hearers in their conversation on his clients in their cause on his patients in their cure on himselfe in his studies on the state in all his servlees That is carefull to redeeme all his pretious time and to make every houre of his life comfortable and beneficiall to himselfe and others Where is the man whose particular calling doth not trench and incroach upon his generall calling the duties which he owes to God That spares sufficient time to humble himselfe to studie Gods will to acquaint himselfe with the Lord to keepe a constant Communion with his God nay that doth not adventure to steale from Gods owne day to speake his owne words to ripen or set forward his owne or his friends advantages In all this take notice of that naughty Inmate in thy bosome set thy selfe against it as thou wouldest do against the Stratagems of a most vigilant enemie or of a perfidious friend Qui inter amplexus strangâ—…lat that like Dalilah never comes alone but with Philistimes too like Iael never comes with Milke and Butter alone but withall with a naile and a hammer to fasten not thy head alone but which is worse thy heart also unto earthly things Fourthly consider the Fruitfulnesse of it It is both male and female as I may so speake within it selfe both the Tempter and the seed and the wombe Suppose wee it possible for a man to be separated from the sight and fellowship from the contagions and allurements of all other wicked men kept out of the reach of Satans suggestions and sollicitations nay to converse in the midst of the most renowned Saints that are yet that man hath enough in himselfe and would quickly discover it to beget to conceive to bring forth to multiply to consummate actuall sinnes The Apostle S. Iames sets forth the birth and progresse of actuall sinne Every man is tempted when he is drawne away and enticed of his owne lust there Lust is the father the adulterer and Lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sinne there Lust is the mother too and there is no mention of any seede but the temptation of lust it selfe the stirrings and flatteries and dalliances of the sinfull heart with it selfe Iam. 1. 13 14 15. The same Apostle compares it to Hell which notes the unsatiablenesse of the wombe of sinne that doth enlarge its desires as the grave nay to the fire of Hell nothing so apt to multiply as fire every thing ministers occasion of encrease unto it but then ordinary fire workes out it selfe and dies but. Lust as it is like fire in multiplying so it is like Hell fire in abiding it is not preserv'd by a supply of outward materials to foment and cherish it but it supports its selfe It is like a troubled sea which casteth up mire and dirt a fountaine out of which every day issue Adulteries thefts murthers evill thoughts c It bringeth forth fruite like Summer fruit Who hath heard such a thing who hath seene such things shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day saith the Prophet yet consider how suddenly this sinne brings forth When you see in your children of a span long their sinne shew it selfe before their haire or their teeth vanity pride frowardnesse selfe-love revenge and the like then thinke upon your owne infancie and bewaile Adams image so soone in your selves and yours in your children I have seene saith Saint Austin a sucking infant that was not able to articulate a word looke with a countenance even pale for Envie upon his fellow Suckling that shared with him in the same milke upon which consideration the holy man breakes forth into this pious complaint Ubi Domine quando Domine where ever was the place O Lord when ever was the time O Lord that I have been an Innocent Creature Secondly consider how continually it brings forth even every day Gen. 6. 5. or all the day long as fast as the Sunne begets swarmes of vermine or the fire sparkles Thirdly consider how desperately it breakes forth When thou seest a man wallow like a beast in his owne vomit dart out blasphemies against heaven revile the Gospell of Salvation teare the blessed name of God in pieces with abhorrid and hideous oathes Cain murthering his brother Iudas betraying his master Ananias lying to the Holy Ghost Lucian mocking the Lord Iesus as a crucified Impostor Iulian darting up his bloud against heaven in hatred of Christ the Scribes and Pharises blaspheming the holy spirit then reflect on thy selfe and consider that this is thine owne image that thou hast the same roote of bitternesse in thy selfe if the Grace of God did not hinder and prevent thee As face answereth unto face in water renders the selfe same shape colour lineaments proportion so the Heart of man to man every man may in any other mans hart see the complet image deformities uncleannesse of his owne Suppose we Two Acorns of a most exact and geometricall equality in seminall vertue planted in two severall places of as exact and uniforme a temper of earth needs must they both grow into trees of equall strength and 〈◊〉 unlesse the benignitie and influences of heaven doe come differently upon them Our case is the same we are all naturally cast into one mould all equally partake the selfe same degrees and proportions of originall lusts our harts equally by nature fruitfull in evill If then we proceed not to the same compasse and excesse of riot with other men we must not attribute it to our selues or any thing in our natures as if we had made our selues to differ but onely to the free and blessed influences of the Grace of Christ and his Spirit which bloweth where it listeth Lastly consider how unexpectedly it will breake forth Is thy servant a Dog that hee should doe this great thing To dash children to pieces and rip up women with childe It was the speech of Hazael to Elisha the Prophet As if he should have said I must cease to be a man I must put off all the principles of
and defect of reason or at least it is an inconsistency a lubricitie a slipperinesse of reason And these are very deepe in the nature of a man folly is bound up in the heart of a childe and in spirituall things we are all children First there is an universall ignorance and inconsideratenesse of spirituall things in the nature of man he takes lesse notice of his condition then the very bruite beasts The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider The Stâ—…rke in the heavens knoweth her appointed time and the Turtle and the Crane and the Swallow but my people knoweth not the judgement of the Lord. The very dumbe Assereproved the madnesse of the Prophet as Saint Peter speakes And for this reason it is that we shall observe That frequent Apostrophe of God in the Prophets when he had wearied himselfe with crying to a deafe and re bellious people he turnes his speech and pleads before dumbe and inanimate Creatures Heare O Heavens and give eare O Earth nothing so farre from the voyce of the Prophet as the heavens nothing so dull and impenetrable as the earth and yet the heavens likelier to heare the earth likelier to listen and attend then the obdurate sinners Heare O ye mountaines the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth Nothing in the earth so immoveable as the mountaines nothing in the mountaines so impenetrable as the foundations of the mountaines and yet these are made more sensible of Gods pleadings and controversies then the people whom it concern'd The Creatures groane as the Apostle speakes under the burden and vanitie of the sinnes of men and men themselves upon whom sinne lies with a farre heavier burden boast and glory and rejoyce in it Of our selves we have no understanding but are foolish and sottish as the Prophet speakes we see nothing but by the light and the understanding which is given unto us we cannot have so much as a right thought of goodnesse The Apostle doth notably expresse this universall blindnesse which is in our nature Ephes. 4. 17. 18. Walke not as other Gentiles in the Vanitie of their minde having the understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God or from a godly life through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their Hearts First their minds are vaine the minde is the Seate of Principles of supreme primitive underived truths but saith he their mindes are destitute of all divine and spirituall principles Secondly their understanding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is darkened The understanding or Dianoeticall facultie is the seate of Conclusions and that is unable to deduce from spirituall principles if there were any in their mindes such sound and divine conclusions as they are apt to beget so though they know God which is a Principle yet this Principle was vaine in them for they conceiv'd of his glory basely by the similitude of foure footed beasts and creeping things they conceiv'd him an idle God as the Epicures or a God subject to fate and necessity as the Stoicks or a sinfull impuâ—…e God that by his example made uncleannesses religious as Saint Cyprian speakes one way or other they became vaine in their imaginations of him but secondly though they knew him yet the conclusions which they deduc'd from that Principle That he was to be worshipped c. were utterly unworthy his majesty They worshipped him ignorantly superstitiously not as became God they changed his truth into a lye Thirdly suppose their principles to be found their Conclusions from those principles to be naturall and proper yet all this is but speculation they still are without the end of all this spirituall prudence their hearts were blinded the heart is the Seate of knowledge practicall that by the Principles of the minde and the Conclusions of the understanding doth regulate and measure the Conversation but that was unable yea averse from any such knowledge for they held the truth of God in unrighteousnesse they did not like to retaine God in their knowledge they served the lusts of their owne hearts were given up to vile affections were filled with all unrighteousnesse and had pleasure in evill workers even when they did things which they knew deserved death and provoked judgement This is that universall defect which is in us by nature and very much of this remaines in the best of us Here then when we are not able to conceive the Lords purpose in his word though of it selfe it be all light when we finde with David that it is too excellent for us let us learne to bewaile that evill concupiscence of our nature which still fils our understandings with mists and puts a vaile before our faces The whole Booke of God is a pretious Mine full of unsearchable treasures and of all wisedome there is no scoria no refuse in it nothing which is not of great moment and worthy of speciall and particular observation and therefore much are we still to bewaile the unfaithfulnesse of our memories and understandings which retaine so little and understand lesse then they doe retaine If David were constrain'd to pray Open mine eyes to see more wonders in thy Law how much more are we to pray so too If there were a dampe of sinne in Davids heart that did often make his light dimme that did make him as abeast in understanding as himselfe complaines how much darkenesse then and disproportion is there betweene us and that blessed light Looke upon Heretiques old and new Marcions two gods a good and an evill Valentinians thirty and odde gods in severall lofts and stories worshippers of Caine worshippers of Iudas worshippers of the Serpent and a world of the like sottish impiecies nay amongst men that pretend more light to see the same Scriptures on both sides held and yet opinions as diametrally contrary as light and darkenesse one gospell in one place and another gospell in another to speake nothing of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and naevi those blemishes that are in the writings of the most rare and choisest instruments in Gods Church All these are notable evidences of that radicall blindnesse which is in our nature and is never here quite removed for if the light be not seene it is not for want of evidence but for want of sight Secondly consider the slipperinesse and inconsistencie of naturall reason in spirituall things it can never stay upon any holy notion And this is another kinde of madnesse Mad men will make a hundred relations but their reason cannot stand still nor goe through with any but roves from one thing to another and joynes together notions of severall subjects like a rope of sand some few lucid intervals they may haply have but they quickly returne to their frenzies againe This is the condition of our nature let a man enter upon
my furie to rest upon thee We have considered the Quod s◅ that sinne is full of filthinesse and pollution I will but name the Quid ◅it What this filthinesse is It hath Two things belonging to the nature of it First a privation of the nitor or beauty which the image of God brought into the soule with it A difformity to the holinesse and brightnesse of the Law The Law was both Holy and Good not onely the Rule but the beauty of our life and nature So that as evill is a declination and swarving from the Law as a Rule so it is sinne and as it is a swarving from the Law as our beauty so it is the staine and pollution of the soule Secondly it notes a positive foulenesse an habituall both naturall and contracted defilednesse of minde and conscience an introducing of the image of Satan hideous markes of hellishnesse and deformity in the soule body and conversation Every desire motion and figment of the heart being nothing but the exhalations of an open sepulcher the dampe and steame of a rotten soule Now in the last place let us see the Quale sit those Evill Properties which accompanie this pollution Foure woefull qualities belong unto it First it is a deepe pollution of a Crimson dye of a skarlet tincture that will not weare out Esai 1. 18. Like the spots of a Leopard or the blicknesse of an Ethiopian which is not by way of accidentall or externall adherencie but innate and contemper'd belonging to the constitution Ier. 13. 23. It is engraven upon their heart written with an iron pen and the claw of a diamond and so fashion'd even in the very substance of the soule Ier. 17. 1. It is an iniquitie marked which cannot bee washed away with niter and much sope no more then markes imprinted and incorporated in the substance of a vessell Ier. 2. 22. The whole inundation and deluge of Noah could not wash it of from the earth but it return'd againe A showre of fire and brimstone from heaven hath not so clensed it out of the country of Sodome but that the venome and plague of it doth still there appeare in a poisonous and stinking l◅ke The plague which came amongst the Israelites for the abominations of Baal Peor had not clensed the filthinesse all away but many yeeres after the staine remained Ios. 22. 17. Nay the very flames of Hell shall not in all eternity be able to eate out the prints or to fetch away the staines of the smallest sinnes from the nature of man Nay which is yet stronger then all this though Grace be of it selfe apt to wipe out and conquer sinne yet that measure and portion of Grace which here the best receive though it may shorten weaken abate yet it doth not utterly roote ◅t out Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am free from my sinnes The best of us have yet our sores running upon us and stand i◅ neede of a garment to cover our pollutions Secondly It is an universall pollution I said unto thee when thou wast In thy bloud live We are by nature all overdrown'd and plung'd in the filthinesse of sinne The Apostle here cals it filthinesse of flesh and spirit to note the compasse of the staine of sinne For notwithstanding some sinnes belong principally to the spirit as pride heresie idolatry superstition c. and others to the flesh as drunkennesse gluttonie uncleannesse c. yet certaine it is that every sinne defiles both flesh and spirit by the reason of their mutuall dependencie in being and working and of the contagious quality of sinne Sinnes of the flesh soake and sinke and eate in to the bottome of the spirit to drowne that with hardnesse insensibility errour security inconsideratenesse contempt of God c. and the sinnes of the spirit breake out like plague sores into the flesh pride into the eye malice into the hand heresie◅ to the tongue superstition and idolatry into the knee c. the soule and body have so neere communion that one can no more sinne al◅e without the contagion of the other then one wheele in an Engine move without the motion of the other Thirdly it is a spreading pollution A leprosie a gangrene a plague that diffuseth poison and infection upon others First it spreades in a mans selfe An evill lust will infect the thoughts and they the desires and they the words and actions and they grow into habits and reflect backe againe upon the heart and conscience to harden and defile them Secondly this infection staies not in a mans selfe onely but runnes forth upon others to leade and misguide them we will certainely doe as we have done We and our kings our princes and our fathers in the cities of Iudah and in the streetes of Ierusalem To drive and compell them why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as doethe Iewes To comfort and hearten them Thou hast justified and art a comfort to thy sisters Sodome and Samaria To exasperate and enrage them Thou hast given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme To deceive and seduce them as the old Prophet of Bethel did the Prophet of the Lord by his lie To teach and instruct them the Israelites by their idolatry taught their children to walke after Baalim And by how much the more authority over the persons of men or emmencie of place or reputation of piety any man hath by so much the more spreading and infectious are his sinnes being taken with the more trust and assurance If a minister be loose and scandalous a magistrate carelesse and rustie a gentleman rude a◅d uncleane a man that professeth the power of godlinesse unjust and worldly strange it is how the lower and more ignorant ranke of men who beleeve that surely such men as these are not by their places so farre from or by their learning and studies so unacquainted with God as they will be hereby strengthned in their deadly and formall courses Thirdly which is yet worse the vory godly are apt to be infected by the sinnes of the wicked It is not so strange to see a godly man misguided and seduc'd by the errours of others like himselfe the estimation of whose persons may over-rule the opiniō of their actions and so make a man take them upon trust from them But that a Holy man should carch infection from the example of another who is in the gall of b◅ternesse is a thing that wonderfully sets f◅th the corruption of our nature and the contagion of sin◅e The sonnes of God saw the daughters of men and were polluted the people of Israel saw the Midianitish women and were ensnared A Holy mans conversing with loose carnall and formall men diswonts him from the wayes of God brings a deadnesse of spirit and insensible decay of grace upon him secretly and therefore the more dangerously conveyes a mediocritie and compliancie of Spirit with formes onely of godlinesse
occasion to get as much of it as he may together Notably doth Saint Paul set forth this purifying propertie of hope in the promises I follow after if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Iesus I am already apprehended of Christ he hath in his body carried me in hope vnto Heaven with him and made mee sit together in Heavenly places and this hope to come to him at last to attaine to that price of the high calling of God in Christ Iesus makes me presse and pull and strive by all meanes to attaine to perfection to expresse a Heavenly conversation in earth because from thence I looke for a Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ Hope as we said is an Anker Our Anker is fix'd in heaven our vessell is upon earth now as by the Cable a man may draw his vessell to the Anker so the Soule being fixed by hope vnto Christ doth hale and draw it selfe neerer and neerer unto him Thirdly Promises are the efficient causes of our purification as they are the objects of our Faith For we dare not beleeve without Promises Therefore Abraham stagger'd not through unbeliefe but gave glory to God because he was fully perswaded that what he had promised he was able to performe It is not Gods power simply but with relation to his Promise which secures our faith So Sarah is said through faith to be deliver'd of a child being past age because she judg'd him faithfull that had promised Now by being Objects of faith the Promises must needs cleanse from filthinesse for faith also hath a cleansing property It purifieth the heart and worketh by love and looketh upon the things promised as desireable things rejoyceth in them and worketh homogeneall and sutable affections unto them Againe we must note That sinne comes seldome without Promises to pollute us begets vast expectations and hopes of Good from it Balaam was whet and enliven'd by promises to curse Gods people The Strumpet in the Proverbes that said to the young man Come let us take our fill of loves conceiv'd most adequate satisfaction to her adulterous lusts by that way This was the delusion of the rich foole in his Epicurisme Soule take thine â—…ase eate drinke and be merry for thou hast much laid up for many yeeres Of the Iewes in their Idolatries to the Queene of heaven because that would afford them plenty of victuals and make them see no evill Of Gehazies foolish heart who promised to himselfe Olive-yards and Vineyards and sheepe and Oxen and men-servants and maide servants by his officious lie And this was one of the divels master pieces when he tempted Christ All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Thus we see sinne seldome comes without promises to seduce and pollute the soule And yet the Truth is these promises cannot hold up the hope of any man When a man hath wearied himselfe in the pursuit of them yet still there is lesse hope at last then at first But now faith fixing upon sure mercies upon promises which cannot be abrogated or disannull'd being made iâ—…eversible by the oath of God who after hee hath sworne cannot repent and seeing not onely stabilitie but pretiousnesse in the promises and through them looking upon the great goodnesse of the things contained in them as already subsisting and present to the soule and by this meanes overcomming the world whose onely prejudice and advantage against Christ is this that the things which hee promiseth are long hence to come whereas that which it promiseth it likewise presenteth to the view of sense which difference faith destroieth by giving a subsistence and spirituall presence of things hoped for to the soule by this meanes I say faith doth mightily prevaile to draw a man unto such holinesse as becommeth the sonnes and heires of so certaine and pretious promises Till a man by faith apprehends some interest in the promises he will never out of true Love endeavour a conformitie unto God in Christ. By them saith Saint Peter we are made partakers of the divine nature and doe escape the corruption that is in the world through lust What is it to be made partaker of the divine nature It notes two things first a fellowship with God in his holinesse that puritie which is eminenter and infinitely in Gods most holy nature is formaliter or secundum modum creaturae so farre as the image of his infinite holinesse is expressible in a narrow creature fashioned in and communicated unto us by our union with Christ. Secondly a fellowship with God in his blessednesse namely in that beatificall vision and brightnesse of glory which from the face and fulnesse of Iesus Christ who as a second Adam is made unto us the Authour and Fountaine of all heavenly things shall at last in fulnesse and doth even now in flashes and glimmerings shine forth upon his members And all this we have from those great and pretious promises which are made unto us of Holinesse and of Blessednesse For as we say of the Word in generall so more especially of the Promises they are operative words and doe produce some reall effects being received by faith As a man when he receiveth a deed signed sealed witnessed and delivered doth not onely take parchment or waxe or emptie words but hath thereby some fundamentall right created unto the things in the deed mentioned to be convey'd so that the deed is declaratorie and operative of some Reall effects so in the word and promises of God sealed by the bloud of Christ ratified by the oath of the Covenant testified by the Spirit of Truth deliver'd by the hand of Mercy and received by the hand of Faith there doth not onely passe emptie breath and naked words but also some Reall effects by the intendment of God are thereby produc'd namely the cleansing of our sinfull nature from the pollutions of the world and the transforming thereof into the image and purity of the divine nature Fourthly Promises are the efficient causes of our purification as they are the Raies and Beames of Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse in whom they are all founded and established They are All in him Yea and in him Amen Every promise by faith apprehended carries a man to Christ and to the consideration of our unity with him in the right whereof we have claime to the Promises even as every line in a circumference though there never so distant from other doth being pursued carry a man at last to one and the same Center common unto them all For the Promises are not made for any thing in us nor have their stability in us but they are made in and for Christ unto us unto Christ in our behalfe and unto us onely so farre forth as we are members of Christ. For they were not made to seeds as many but to seed namely to Christ in aggregato as
him shall God destroâ—… for the temple of God is holy which temple ye are He promiseth to be Our Father and make us his people and this also is a strong argument why wee should purifie our selves and as obedient children not fashion our selves according to the former lusts in ignorance but as he who hath called us is holy so should we be holy in all manner of conversation And if we call him father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans workes we should passe the time of our sojourning here in feare Ye are a chosen generation saith Saint Peter a royall priesthood a holy nation a peculiar people that you should shew forth the vertues of him who hath called you out of darknesse into his marvellous light When yee were of the world ye were then strangers to the Covenant and aliens from the house and Israel of God but now being become Gods houshold ye are strangers and pilgrimes in the present world and should therefore abstaine from the lusts of the flesh which are sensuall and worldly things Those that are a peculiar people are a purged people â—…oo He will purifie to himselfe a peculiar people that they may be zealous of good workâ—…s The consideration of which things should make us labour to settle our hearts to beleeve love and prize the promises to store up and hide the word in our hearts to have it Dwell richly in us that in evill times and dayes of temptation wee may have some holdfast to relie upon In times of plenty security and peace men go calmely on without feare or suspicion but when stonnes arise when God either hides his face or le ts out his displeasure or throwes men upon any extremities then there is no hope but in our aâ—…ker no stay nor reliefe but in Gods promises which are setled and sure established in heauen and therfore never reversed or cancelled in the earth And if this faithfull and sure word had not bin Daâ—…ids delight comfort if he had not in all the changes chances of his owne â—…ife remembred that al Gods promises are made in heaven where there is no inconstancie nor repentance he had perished in his affliction Though David by a propheticall spirit foresaw that God would not make his house to grow but to become a dry and wither'd stocke of â—…esse yet herein was the ground of all his salvation and of all his desire that the Lord had made with him an Everlasting Covenant order'd in all things and 〈◊〉 that he had 〈◊〉 by his holâ—…nesse that he would not faile David so that it was as possible for God to be unholy as for the Word of promise made unto David to fall to the ground be untrue Now that wee may the better apply the Promises to our selves and establish our hearts in the truth and fidelity of God by them wee may make use of these few Rules amongst divers others which might be given First Promisâ—…s generally made and so in medio for all or particularly to some are by the ground of them equally appliable to any in any condition unto which the promises are â—…utable All the promises are but as one in Christ as lines thoâ—…gh severall in the circumference doe meete as one in the center Take any promise and follow it to its originall and it will undoubtedly carry to Christ in whom alone it is Yea and Amen that is hath its truth certainety and stability all from him Now the Promises meeting in Christ cannot be severed or have a partition made oâ—… them to severall men for every beleever hath All Christ Christ is not divided any other wise then the exigence of mens present estates doth diversifie them and so fit them for such promises as now to others or at other times to themselves would be unseasonable and unappâ—…able The Lord in aslenting to Salomons prayer made a generall promise to any man or to all the people that what prayer or supplication soever should be made towards his temple he would heare in heaven and forgive c. 〈◊〉 beiâ—…g after in distresse applied this generall to hiâ—… 〈◊〉 present 〈◊〉 when the children of Ammon 〈◊〉 and Mount Seir came to turne Israel out of their possessions The Lord made a particular promise 〈◊〉 Ioshua that he would be with him to blesse his enterprises against the Cananites and to carry him through all the difficulties and hazards of that holy warre aâ—…d Saint Paul applies the promise to all the faithfull in any straites or distresses of life as the Lord himselfe had before applied it from Moses to Ioshua Let your conversation be without covetousnesse for as God was with Ioshua so will he be with thee He will not faile thee nor forsake thee Christ made a particular promise unto Peter I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not And the same in effect he applies to All his I pray that thou wouldst keepe them from the evâ—…ll And the consequent words to Saint Peter make it good When thou art con verted strengthen thy brethren that is comfort and revive them by thine owne experience that when they are brought â—…nto the like case with thee they may have the benefit of the same intercessor and the sympathy and compassion of the same Saviour who deliver'd thee As our Saviour saith in matter of dutie What â—… 〈◊〉 â—…nto you I say unto All so we may say of him in matter of mercy What he promiseth unto any he promiseth unto alâ—… in an equall estate It is good therefore to observe the truth of God in his Promises to others and when we finde our selves reduced unto their condition to apply it unto our selves that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures may have hope This is the counsell of Saint â—…awes Take my brethren the Prophets for an examâ—…le of suffering affliction and of patience yee have heard of the patience of â—…ob and ye have seene the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pittifull â—…nd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And saint Paul assures us that for this cause God comforted him in his tribulation that he might be able to comfort them who might be in any trouble with the comfort wherewith â—…ee himselfe had beene comforted by God A poore Christian might object Aâ—…as If I were an Apostle if I had such graces such services such wayes of glorifying God as Paul had I might hope for the same power and providence of God in my afflictions as he findes But I am a poore ignorant unfruitfull and unserviceable creature who doe more blemish then adorne my profession of the Gospell of Christ and shall I looke for such care from God as saint Paul Beloved the members in the body would not so argue If I were an eye or a tongue one of the noblest parts of the body haply some compassion and remedy might be
Saving Faith The Pretiousnesse is in the whole scope of the place for the words are a comparative speech where faith is preferd before all legall or morall performances The nature is open'd by the Act of it Knowledge and the Obiect the vertue of Christs Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings Touching the former of these two the scope of the Apostle in this place is to shew that faith is the most pretious and excellent gift of God to a Christian man So it is Expresly called by Saint Peter a pretious faith 2. Pet. 1. 1. For understanding of which point mee must note that faith may be Consider'd in a double respect Either as it is a Qualitie inherent in the Soule or as an Instrument whereby the Soule apprehendeth some other thing Now in the same thing there is much difference betwene it selfe as a Qualitie and as an Instrument Heate as a Qualitie can only produce the like quality againe but as an Instrument of the Sunne it can produce life and sense things of more excellency then the Quality it selfe Faith as a Quality is noe better then other graces of the spirit but as an Instrument so it hath a Quickning quality which noe other Grace hath The iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. This pretiousnesse of Faith is seene chiefely in two respects First in regard of the Obiects and secondly in regard of the Offices of it First Faith hath the most pretitious and excellent object of any other Christ and his Truth and promises Herein saith the Apostle God commended His Love in that when we were sinners Christ died Rom. 5. 8. This was the soveraigne and most excellent love token and testification of divine favor that ever was sent from Heaven to men God so loved the world so superlatively so beyond all measure or apprehension that He gave His Sonne Ioh. 3 16. There is such a compasse of all dimensions in Gods love manifested through Christ such a heigth and length and breadth and depth as makes it exceede all knowledge Eph. 3. 18 19. It is exceeding unsearchable riches In one word that which faith lookes upon in Christ is the price the purchase and the promises which we have by Him The price which made satisfaction unto God the purchase which procured Salvation for us and the promises which comfort and secure us in the certaintie of both and all these are pretious things The blood of Christ pretious blood 1. Pet. 1. 18. The promises of Christ pretious promises 2. Pet. 1. 4. And the purchase of Christ a very exceeding and aboundant weight of Glorie 2. Cor. 4. 17. But it may be objected Have not other Graces the same object as well as Faith Doe we not love Christ and feare Him and hope in Him and desire Him as well as Beleeve in Him True indeede but heerein is the excellencie of Faith that it is the first grace which lookes towards Christ. Now the Scripture useth to commend things by their order precedencie As the women are commended for comming first to the Sepulcher the messenger which brings the first tidings of good things is ever most welcome the servant who is neerest his masters person is esteemed the best man in that order so Faith being the first grace that brings tidings of Salvation the neerest Grace to Christs Person is therefore the most excellent in regard of the obiect Secondly Faith is the most pretious Grace in regard of the offices of it Though in its inherent and habituall qualification it be no more noble then other graces yer in the offices which it executeth it is farre more excellent then any Two pieces of parchment and waxe are in themselves of little or no difference in value but in their offices which they beare as instruments or patents one may as farre exceede the other as a mans life exceedes his lands for one may bee a pardon of life the other a lease of a Cottage One man in a Citie may in his personall estate be much inferiour to another yet as an Officer in the Citie hee may have a great precedence and distance above him Compare a piece of gold with a seale of silver or brasse and it may have farre more worth in it selfe yet the seale hath an Office or Relative power to ratifie covenants of far more worth then the piece of gold so is it betweene Faith and other Graces Consider Faith in its inherent properties so it is not more noble then the rest but consider it as an instrument by God appointed for the most noble offices so is it the most superlative and excellent grace These offices which are to it peculiar I take it are principally these three The first to unite to Christ and give possession of Him The Apostle prayes for the Ephesians that Christ may dwell in their hearts by Faith Eph 3. 17. Wealth in the Mine doth no good at all till it be sever'd and appropriated to persons and uses Water in the Fountaine is of no service unto me till it be conveyed thence to mine owne Cisterne the light of the Sunne brings no comfort to him who hath no eyes to injoy it So though Christ be a Mine full of excellent and unsearchable riches a Fountaine full of comforts and refreshments a Sunne of righteousnesse a Captaine and Prince of Life and Salvation yet till Hee is made ours till there bee some bond and communion betweene Him and us we remaine as poore and miserable as if this Fountaine had never beene opened noâ—… this Mine discovered Now this Vnion to and Communion with Christ is on our part the worke of Faith which is as it were the spirituall joynt and ligament by which Christ and a Christian are coupled In one place wee are said to live by Christ Because I live saith he you shall live also Ioh. 14. 19. In another by Faith The Iust shall live by Faith Heb. 10. 38. How by both By Christ as the Fountaine By Faith as the pipe conveying water to us from the fountaine By Christ as the Foundation By Faith as the Cement knitting us to the foundation By Christ as the Treasure By Faith as the clue which directs as the Keye which opens and let us in to that Treasure This the Apostle explaines in the former place where he shewes by what meanes Faith makes us liue namely by giving us an enterance and approach to Christ for he opposeth Faith to drawing backe vers 19. 30. Noting that the proper worke of Faith is to carry us unto Christ as our Saviour Himselfe expoundeth beleeving in Him by comming unto Him Ioh. 6. 64. 65. Therefore the Apostle puts both together not I but Christ liveth in mee and the life which I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Gal. 2. 20. Faith is compared to eating and drinking Ioh. 6. and we know there is no sense requires such an intimate and secret union to its object as that of