How then canst thou think to draw near to the Holy God when thy Heart and thy Lips and thy Life are clothed with Impurity and Filthiness when thy Thoughts the only Instruments whereby thou canst converse with him are busied in Considerations unworthy of a Spirit much more unworthy of the God of Spirits Canst thou think that this Holy God will accept of the productions of that Soul thy Prayers and Meditations who but now was imployed in base unclean earthy Thoughts and didst but now part with them with a resolution to resume them Every impure thought leaves a mark and blot upon thy Soul that remains when thy Thought is past and canst thou bring that spotted Soul into the presence of the Pure and Holy God without confusion and shame Thou art now going about with thy Lips to draw near unto God Remember how many vain and unprofitable words how many murmuring and unthankful words how many unclean and filthy words how many false and dissembling words how many proud and arrogant words how many malicious and vindictive words how many hypocritical and deceitful words how many seducing and misleading words how many ungodly and blasphemous words have stain'd and polluted those calves of thy Lips thou art now about to sacrifice to thy Creator Thou art about to undertake a Conversation and walking with God Can two walk together unless they are agreed Amos 3.3 How then canst thou a polluted Man in all thy actions even those of the best denomination expect to have a Conversation with the Holy Holy Holy Lord The stains of thy Life past stick upon thee and thou art not cleansed from them and the Sea of Corruption that is within thee will notwithstanding thy highest Resolutions never cease to cast out mire and dirt O Lord it is true I am a sinful Man and the whole frame of my Heart and Lips and Life hath been only evil and that continually and as I have been so still I must continue without thy Mercy to pardon and cleanse me My pollutions and impurities are such as may justly affright me from coming near thy Holiness lest I should be consumed such as may discourage my Prayers and Applications unto thee lest I should stain and infect them and it is no more in my power to change or cleanse my self from the stains of my sins past or from the growing evils of my Nature than in the Leopard to change his spots so that I may most justly conclude that it were extream presumption for me to draw near unto thee and rather cry out with the Disciple Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man Luk. 5.8 But if I sit where I am I shall perish and if I draw near unto thee I can but die That Purity that I behold in thee is the Purity of the great God and my sins are the sins of a finite Creature my sinfulness cannot defile thy Holiness but thy Holiness may cleanse my impurity That Fire which will consume an impure and a proud Heart will cleanse an impure and unhumble Heart O Lord I desire to abhor my self in dust and ashes Unless thou hadst shewn me my filthiness I could not have seen it and unless thy Grace had been with my Heart I could not have humbled my self before thee Unless thou hadst called me I could not have moved toward thee Thy Promises upon which my Soul shall ever fix till thou throw me off are full of bounty and tenderness even to the vilest of Sinners No sin of so deep a dye but thy Mercy can wash away No Corruption so hideous but thy Grace can cleanse And so far hast thou condescended to the weakness of thy Creature that thou hast given us a visible Sacrifice whose Blood is sufficient to cleanse us from all our Guilt a visible Fountain to wash for Sin and for Uncleanness even the Blood of the Son of God which cleanseth us from all Sin which cleanseth our Consciences from the guilt and stain of Sin and washeth our Bodies from the dominion and pollution of Sin and by that Blood hath opened a new and living way for us into the presence of God Hebr. 10.20 and given access thereby into the Holiest and given us a Commission to draw near with acceptation into his presence Hebr. 10.19 2. The Presence of God. Whither shall I fly from thy presence Psal 139.7 He seeth the secretest corners of the World and the secretest chambers of thy Heart and all the Guests that are there even thy closest Thoughts and Contrivances and Purposes much more thy most retired and deepest Actions are as legible to him as if they were graved in Brass And the deep and setled and frequent Consideration of this will be of excellent use upon all occasions Is thy Heart sollicited by thy self as our unhappy Hearts are our own tempters or by any Object or by the perswasions of others or by the suggestion of the Devil to impure Speculations or sinful Resolutions to atheistical Disputations to proud or arrogant Conceptions of thy self to revengeful or uncharitable or forbidden Wishes to vain and unprofitable thoughts Remember thou and all those thy Thoughts which even natural Modesty or Prudence would shame thee to publish before a mortal Man as thou art are all naked and manifest before the Great Holy and Immortal God whose Eyes walk through all the corners of thy Heart And darest thou in his presence to entertain such Guests as these in that place where thy Creator is present in that place which thou pretendest to make a Temple for him in that place which the Lord of Heaven is pleased most justly and most mercifully to claim as his own Consider what a Presence thou art in he is not only an Eye-witness of the impurities of thy Heart which yet if there were nothing else might justly shame thee but it is his Presence who hath forbidden thee to entertain such Vermin as these in thy Heart under pain of eternal Death it is thy Judge that sees thee it is the great Creator before whom the Angels of Heaven cover their Faces not being able to behold his Glory And which is more than all this to an ingenuous Nature it is he to whom thou owest thy self and all thou art he to whom thou hast given up thy name that hath purchased thy heart from Hell with the price of his Son's blood And how canst thou chuse but tremble and be confounded to think that thou shouldest contrary to all the bonds of duty and gratitude even in his presence and before his face let in again those abominations into thy heart from which it was cleansed by the Blood of Christ Again Hath a sinful thought through incogitancy of the presence of God entred into thy heart Yet remember the presence of God before it grow into a purpose or resolution or if it hath gone so far as a Resolution yet remember that presence and thou canst not dare to perfect this hideous
by one Spirit unto the Father CHAP. VII Of the Efficacy of the Satisfaction of Christ and the Congruity of it to right Reason THUS for the settling of our Minds in the Truth of Christ we have considered of those clear Prophecies and Types of Christ in the Old Testament We now come to consider some Particulars concerning this great work of our Redemption 1. Wherein consists the Efficacy and Virtue of Christ's Mediation and Sacrifice 2. How it was effected Wherein we shall consider 1. His Satisfaction 2. The Application of this Satisfaction in reference to the Father his Intercession in reference to us his Word and Spirit 3. The Effects and Consequents of it 1. The Efficacy of this Satisfaction consists in that free Acceptance by God of this Sacrifice of Christ as a Satisfaction for the Sins of his Elect and to be the price of the Inheritance thereby purchased for them by an eternal Contract between the Father and the Son for otherwise it were impossible of its own nature that the Sacrifice of one could expiate for the sin of another The tenor of this great Covenant between God and Christ was that the Son should take upon him Flesh should fullfil the Law of our Creation should suffer death and rise again and that Almighty God would accept this as the satisfaction for the sins of the righteous and as the price of Eternal Life for as many as should believe in him This is effectually set forth by the Word of Truth it self John 6.37 38 39 40. All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven not to do my own Will but the will of him that sent me and this is the Father's will that hath sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day And this is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day It is the Will of God which is nothing but the Acceptaton of God 1 John 4.10 He sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins his sending was his Acceptation Isa 53.10 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin there was the Acceptation of the Father Again on the Son's part Psal 40.6 â— Burnt-offering and sin-offering hast thou not reâ—uired then said I Lo I come And the same Word of Truth that tells us John 3.16 That God gave his only begotten Son tells us again John 10.17 18. I lay dâ—wn my life that I may take it up again And this susception of Christ and acceptation of God though we represent it to our selves under several Notions yet it was one indivisible and eternal Counsel of the Divine Majesty Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore knowledge of God And this Purpose and Counsel of his only the proceed of his eternal and free Love So God loved the world John 3.16 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because he sent c. But could the Pardon of Man's Sin and his attaining of Happiness be had at no lower a rate could not God have freely forgiven the one and given the other without this great mixing of Heaven and Earth in this wonderful Mystery of the Sacrifice of the Son of God As the original Resolution of all the Works and Counsels of God must be into his own good pleasure so especially of this Ephes 1.5 He hath predestinated us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will. Yet we do find some Congruity of Right Reason in this course of Man's Redemption 1. To magnifie to all the World the Glory of his free Grace Ephes 1.6 and to take away all possibility of boasting in the subject of this Redemption Ephes 2.8 By Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast 1 Cor. 1.29 That no flesh should glory in his presence The Dependence that all Creatures especially Man have upon the Creator both in their Being and Perfection doth most justly and reasonably challenge from the reasonable Creature a free Retribution of Acknowledgment of his Dependence upon the Goodness of God and it is an affection of the greatest Congruity that is imaginable yet we see how soon Man forgot that duty and would be independent upon his Lord. Now when Man had concluded all his Posterity under sin then for God freely to give such a Price of Redemption as it magnifies the Freeness and Bounty of his Goodness so it doth ingage lapsed Man to the everlasting Acknowledgment of the Free Grace of God in restoring him that so God may be all in all 2. To magnifie the Exquisiteness of his Justice In that dreadful Proclamation of the Name of God Exod. 34.6 7. we find a strange mixture of his Mercy and Justice Forgiving Iniquity Transgression and Sin and that will by no means clear the guilty and both parts essential to his Name Such a way then must be for Man's Restoration that may evidence his Mercy in pardoning as well as his Justice in punishing Sin Christ was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 And being made Sin for us was likewise made a Curse for us Galat. 3.13 Here we have him pardoning Iniquity Transgression and sin of Men and yet not sparing his own Son when he bore the imputed guilt of our sins 3. To magnifie the glory of his Wisdom The admirable Fabrick of the World speaks abundantly the Wisdom of our Creator but all this was inferiour and subservient unto this great Business 1 Cor. 1.24 Christ the Power of God and the Wisdom of God 1 Pet. 1.22 A Business for the inquiry and speculation of Angels Ephes 3.10 The manifold Wisdom of God the end of the Creation Colos 1.16 All things created by him and for him Colos 1.20 to reconcile all things to himself whether they be things in Heaven or things in Earth Ephes 1.10 That he might gather together in one all things in Christ The sum of this Mystery we have 1 Tim. 3.16 God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the world received into glory In this great frame of Man's Redemption we see the Counsel of God strangely executed his ancient Promises fulfilled the Shadows and Types of the Law unveiled the breach of the righteous Law of God punished the Righteousness thereof fulfilled the Justice of God satisfied his Mercy glorified his Creature pardoned justified glorified all those difficulties intricacies and confusions which came into the world by the sin of Man extricated ordered and salved the
As well our Victory 1 Cor. 15.57 as our Deliverer from the Wrath to come 1 Thes 1.10 As well our Life Colos 3.4 as our Deliverance from Death as well our Purifier as our Redemption from Iniquity Tit. 2.14 as well our Peace Ephes 2.14 as our Price as well the Price of our purchased Inheritance as the Price of our Ransom 1 Cor. 6.20 As well our Translator into his own Kingdom as the Deliverer from the power of Darkness Colos 1.13 And this as the former we owe likewise in the original and foundation of it to the free Love and Acceptation of God 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ of God is made Righteousness and therefore called the Righteousness of God by Faith Phil. 3.19 Without this free Love of God as it is impossible to imagine a Mediator between God and Man so much more is it impossible to imagine how the Righteousness of that Mediator should be the Righteousness of a guilty sinful Man Our Redemption and Salvation by Christ hath its original and strength from the free Love and Acceptation of God. 2. How this Redemption and Salvation was immediately effected which was thus The Eternal Word took upon him the Nature of Man in the unity of one Person and in our Nature did fulfil that Righteousness which we were bound to fulfil and did undertake take our Guilt and underwent the Punishment due to that Guilt which was accepted of God as the Satisfaction for the sins of the Elect for the Remission of their sins and his Righteousness accepted as the Righteousness of those for whom he so satisfied whereby he did not only abolish Death the Curse due to our sins but brought Life and Immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 This Truth we shall set down in these several Positions 1 That Christ the Mediator was perfect God the Eternal begotten Son of God one Eternal Essence with the Father His Name Isa 9.6 The mighty God the Everlasting Father Matth. 1.23 Emmanuel Matth. 16.16 Thou art Christ the Son of the living God that great Confession of Peter asserted by Christ himself John 1.14 The Word was God and the Word was made Flesh John 10.30 I and the Father are one John 17.5 Glorifie me with thy own self with that glory which I had with thee before the world was John 14.9 â—e that hath seen me hath seen the Father 1 Tim. 3.16 God manifest in the flesh 1 Tim. 6.15 King of kings and Lord of lords Heb. 1.3 The brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person Colos 1. â—5 16. The image of the invisible God by whom all things were created and consist Colos 2.9 In him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Phil. 2.6 Being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God Acts 20.28 Ye are redeemed with the Blood of God John 8.59 Before Abraham was I am And those speeches of our Saviour which seem to import an inequality between the Father and the Son are not to be understood in reference to this Nature of Christ but in reference to his Office of Mediator or to his Person in reference to the Humane Nature John 14.28 Ye would rejoyce because I say I go to my Father for my Father is greater than I For as the Divine Nature of Christ was never disjoyned from the Father so it went not to him consequently my Father is greater than I must be spoken in reference to him under that Nature which was To go to the Father 2. That Christ was perfect Man consisting of a reasonable Soul Matth. 26.38 My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and of a humane Body even after his Resurrection Luke 24.39 A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have and this Humane Nature subject to natural Passions he was sorrowful hungry sensible of pain and Heb. 4.15 tempted in all things as we are yet without sin he was subject to the Infirmities of our Nature not to the Distempers of our Nature This Humane Nature he took of the Virgin Mary and so was truly the Seed of Abraham But this by a miraculous Procreation by the immediate Power of God Matth. 1.20 and that without the contagion or guilt of any sin As he did no sin nor guile was found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 so he knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 And if he had had any Guilt of his own then he could not have been a fit Sacrifice or Priest for us 1 Pet. 1.19 A Lamb without spot or blemish Heb. 7.26 For such a high-priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled c. 3. That both these Natures were united in the Person of Christ our Mediator yet without any confusion of Natures and the conjunction so strict that in both Natures he was but one Mediator And hence it is that many of those things that were properly to be attributed to one Nature and not to the other are affirmed of the Person of Christ under the Notion proper to the other Nature of Christ Acts 20.28 Ye are redeemed with the blood of God there the act of the Humane Nature is attributed to the Person of Christ in the Notion of the Divine Nature Again John 3.13 No man hath ascended into Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven yet that Nature of the Son of man was not then in Heaven But so strict is this personal Union that whatsoever is affirmed concerning one Nature may be affirmed of the whole Person of the Mediator but yet so distinct are the Natures that nothing that is affirmed concerning one Nature can be affirmed of the other Nature the eternal Son of God dyed for us but the Deity of the Son of God dyed not Herein we therefore conclude 1. That both Natures were united into one Person 2. That both Natures thus united made up but one Mediatour and so both Natures united into one Office as well as into one Person 3. That notwithstanding the uniting of both Natures into one Person and Office yet are there acts or things that properly belong to one Nature which do not belong to the other thus the Father is said to be greater than the Son John 14.28 in reference to his humane Nature Mark 13.32 But of that day and hour knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in Heaven neither the Son but the Father For although the Natures were united in one Person yet it is not imaginable that the fullness of the Divine Nature was communicated to the humane for that were to make the humane Nature of Christ infinite and not so much assumed unto as converted into the Divine Nature and then it had been impossible he could have suffered or have had any Eclipse of the light of his Fathers Countenance as he did in his bitter cry upon the Cross at which time without all question there was not nor could be any intermission of Communion between the
way to his Happiness as one Man teacheth another though we must not exclude that powerful Co-operation of his mighty Spirit that strikes upon our Spirits even when his Word strikes upon our 〈◊〉 And herein the Pharisees spoke truth even against their own Wills Matth. 22.26 Thou teachest the way of God in Truth For God in these last times hath spoken to us by his Son Heb. 1.2 and revealed unto us the whole Counsel and Will of his Father concerning us For he spoke not of himself but the Father which sent him gave him Commandment what he should say John 12.49 And that this Doctrin of his might receive a Testimonial from Heaven it was 〈◊〉 with Miracles and with suffrages from Heaven John 12.30 This Voice came not because of me but 〈◊〉 your sakes Now among divers Particulars of the 〈◊〉 of Christ we may observe these great Master-pieces 1. Instâ—ucting us that there is a higher end for the Sons of Men to arrive unto than temporal Felicity in this Life viz. Blessedness express'd in those several Expressions of his Matth. 5.3 4. c. The Kingdom of Heaven Comfort Fulness sight of God c. And in order to this great Doctrin are those several Doctrines of the Resurrection the last Judgment the Immortality of the Soul truths that the whole World either never knew or had forgotten or doubted 2. Instructing in the true Way to attain this Blessedness teaching us that Righteousness accepted of God consists not in meer outward observations but in the integrity and sincerity of the Heart and hereby rubs off all those false glosses that the formallest of Men had put upon the Law of God teaches that the Love of God is the fulfilling of God's Commandments and the reason is because this Love of God if it be sincere will ingage the whole Man to the exact Observance of what he requires those abstruse practical Truths of Depending upon God's Providence Self-denyal Loving our Enemies Rejoycing in Affliction all flowing from the high Point of the Love of God this is the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 3. In revealing that which is the only Means to attain the two former even that great Mystery of the Gospel that was hid with God in Christ A Man might rove at the two former though the World had almost lost them both but this latter was a mystery that the Angels themselves knew not 1 Cor. 2.16 Who hath known the Mind of the Lord that he way instruct him But we have the mind of Christ which contains the whole Counsel of God touching Man this is that which Paul calls all the Counsel of God. Acts 20.27 and Truth it self hath given us the Breviary of it John 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day These great Truths of so great Concernment to the Children of Men yet so far remov'd from their Understanding were the third Business of the Life of Christ 7. That Christ bearing the sins of his People did suffer the wrath of God for the Remission of their sins The sufferings of Christ did only befal his Humane Nature for his Divine Nature was impassible yet in respect of that strict union of both Natures in one Person they received a value from that divine and impassible Nature for the union of both Natures in one Person though it did not communicate the Conditions of either Nature to the other did communicate the conditions of either Nature to the same Person as is before shewn This Suffering of Christ had these several Attributions 1 It was a Voluntary Suffering and yet not without a Necessity The Suffering was Voluntary even in respect of his Humane Nature yet Obediential to the Counsel and Purpose of God Matth. 17.21 he must go and suffer Luke 24 26. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things Acts 2.23 Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God Yet was this most Voluntary in Christ Voluntary in the original undertaking of this Work in that Eternal Susception by the Eternal Word Voluntary in the discharge of that Undertaking in the Humane Nature the Humane Nature of Christ pursuing and following the will of Eternity Luke 12.50 I have a baptism to be baptized withal and how am I straitned till it be accomplished And even when the Humane Nature did according to the Law of Nature shrink from its own dissolution yet he presently corrects that natural Passion John 12.27 Father save me from this hour But for this cause came I to this hour Father glorifie thy Name Matth. 26.39 O my Father if it be pâ—ssible let this cup pass from me nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt whiles his Humanity trembles and startles at the Business he goes about yet his Love to his Church his Obedience to his Father his Faithfulness to his Undertaking breaks through that natural reluctance Now the Voluntariness yet obedience of Christ's suffering both consistent appears Joh. 10.15 1 Joh. 3.16 I lay down my life for my sheep No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self yet Isa 53.6 10. All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all it pleased the Lord to bruise him when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin Psal 2.7 8. As he made himself of no reputation and humbled himself so he became obedient to death Titus 2.14 He gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity yet John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. Again 1 John 4.9 Herein perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us Yet Rom. 8.32 He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all 1 John 4.9 God sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Psal 40.7 Then said I lo I come yet he came not without a Mission I delight to do thy will O my God. The sum of all then is the Love of God to Mankind was the absolute and original foundation of our Redemption the same act of this Love proposed and undertook the Redemption of Mankind voluntarily and freely in this way contrived by the Eternal Wisdom and Counsel of God The Humane Nature of Christ in exact and voluntary submission unto this Counsel performed it If it had been Voluntary and not in Conformity to the Will of God whose Will could be the only measure of his Satisfaction it could never have been satisfactory And if it had been meerly Passive it could not have been an Obedience which requires a free Submission and Conformity to the Will of him that injoyns without which it could never be meritorious 2. It was a Meritorious and Expiatory Suffering for by that Eternal Covenant between the Father and the Son he was to bear the sins of
and Glory that thy Being can return unto him But had he given thee a simple Being thy Debt had not been so great so have the most unaccomplisht Creatures But thy Being was dressed with an Intellectual Nature and that Nature furnished with Fruition of Happiness filling the uttermost extent of its Capacity and that Happiness guarded with such a Law as was suitable to that Nature full of Beauty and Order in the obedience whereof thou didst at once perform thy Duty and improve thy Felicity But thou rejectedst all this and becamest a Rebel to thy God and a ruine to thy self and thou hast improved thy ruine and rebellion by a voluntary rejection of thy Duty and thy Happiness until this hour And what canst thou expect but a just return of an infinite Vengeance from an omnipotent injured Creator for so ungrateful a breach of an infinite Obligation But consider what thy Lord hath done for thee for all this and stay thy self and wonder Thy Lord proclaims Return thou backsliding Soul and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 12. Hadst thou offended thine Equal for thy offended Equal to have solicited thy Reconciliation had deserved Acceptation and Love But for the infinite God to whom thou owest an infinite Duty and hast violated it who is able to annihilate thee and can receive no advantage by thy return to solicit it with an offer of a Reprieve nay of a Pardon But here 's not all our Deliverance from the Wrath of God is wonder enough Let me now be as one of my Father's hired Servants No there is more yet 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of love he is content to accept of us as Sons But what must the Price be of so great a Change or who shall give it Thy Lord whom thou hast thus injured hath paid the Price of thy Redemption and such a Price as Heaven and Earth may wonder at the mention of it The Son of God lays down his Life for his Rebels Pardon and Assumption into a Partnership with him in his own Kingdom But thou art not for all this at the End of thy Debt this Price is rendred to thee upon easie terms Believe and live and this Life accompanied with infinite Advantages even Communion with this Creator But yet like the murmuring Israelite thou wilt die with the Manna between thy Teeth unless God who hath given thee such a Price of thy Redemption enable thee to receive him He sends his Spirit into thy Heart with Light and Life to strive with thy unbelieving Heart and to subdue it and to cleanse thy filthy and polluted Heart to bring Redemption into thy Heart and to solicite perswade importune thy Heart to receive him for thy own Good. What remains then but that thou shouldest ever admire that Love that hath done all this for thee that thou shouldest in all humility and humble reverence return love to thy Lord and magnifie his condescension that he is pleased to accept the Love of his poor Creature that thou study not to grieve the Spirit of that God that hath taken this pains and care with thee for thy good not to crucifie again that Christ that hath died for thee that thou labour to find out what is the Will of thy Lord and to obey it and to walk in love as Christ also loved us and hath given himself for us Ephes 5.2 Now according to the measure of the true Knowledge of God and of his Love in Christ is the measure of our Love to him and as that Knowledge is the immediate cause of its production so it must of necessity be the measure of its Degree And although both the knowledge of his Absolute Goodness which excites the love of Desire and the knowledge of his Benefactoriness to us which increaseth the love of Gratitude or Benevolence are mingled in every Soul that truly loves God yet according to the different degrees of the discoveries of either to the Soul so are the different manners of their working upon the Soul. The knowledge of the Perfection and Absolute Goodness of God is more suitable to an Angelical Nature and therefore produceth an high Angelical and Intellectual Love for this Love begins with the Judgment But because our Nature as it now stands as it arrives seldom to such a Knowledge so seldom to such a Love and that Love which comes into the Heart meerly upon such Contemplations is weak mingled with Servile Fear unactive because the Knowledge like the Sun in a Cloud shines dim and the Heat proves waterish and weak But the knowledge of the Goodness of God to us as it draws the Goodness of God nearer to us in Sense so it strikes more our Affections which God hath placed in us for this End. And this was the motive of Love and consequently of Obedience both under the Law and under the Gospel though the Expressions of that Love under the Law had more in them of Sense and under the Gospel more of Spirit Deut. 30.20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God and obey his voice and cleave unto him for he is thy life and the length of thy days c. Luk. 7.47 Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Christ argues from the measure of her Love to the measure of God's Goodness to her and her Sense of it And here we have the true Principle of all true Obedience to God The bare External act of any thing commanded by God unless it move from a Heart or Principle conformable to the Will of God is no Obedience for all External actions taking them divided from the Will they are all of one kind and nature The very same act proceeding from a Soul differently principled may be an act of Obedience viz. when proceeding from an obedient loving Heart an act of compulsion when proceeding from a bare servile Heart a bruitish act when it proceeds from a Soul not moved with any Consideration and an act of malignity against God when done out of a malicious cunning design Some even preached the Gospel for Envy Phil. 1.16 So then as the Knowledge of the Goodness and Love of God to us is the immediate cause of the return of our Love to God so this love of the Soul unto God is the true and immediate Principle of all true Obedience unto God Now these are the genuine and natural Effects of Love to God 1. It makes a Man to make God and his Honour and Glory the highest and supream End of all his actions And this must needs be so in Reason For as the great End of all the works of God are his own Honour so where there is true Love to God it cannot chuse but make the Soul value that most which God most values As he must needs be convinced in his Judgment that that which God makes his End must needs be the chief End of the Creatures actions so where this Affection is it
were presently under the Sentence of Everlasting Death though delivered from it by the Messiah that promised seed 2. They lost the estate of Immortality of their Bodies though they lost not the state of Immortality of their Souls which were essensentially Immortal 3. They lost their Innocence their Happy Estate in Paradise the clear and supernatural Light of their Understanding the Rectitude of their Wills the right Order of their Affections and their Souls lost much of its Perfection though not its essential Spirituality and Immortality 4. All that were after derived from them by ordinary Generation though they had immortal Souls yet their Faculties were imbased and corrupted and greatly disordered and without the extraordinary Grace of God preventing and assisting them prone to all kind of evil and sin and thereby obnoxious to the wrath of God and to everlasting Death And this is the Condition of all the Posterity of Adam by Nature except Jesus Christ 10. God Almighty in his eternal wisdom and foreknowledge of the fall of Man in his infinite Wisdom and Goodness purposed to send forth his Son to take the Humane Nature and to become a King a Priest and a Prophet and also a Sacrifice to expiate the Sins of Mankind and to make them again partakers of the great and essential part of that Happiness which the first Man lost by his Fall and so to recover unto himself a Creature that might actually glorifie and serve him 11. And to make this Purpose effectual to our first Parents and to those that succeeded them before the coming of Christ the purposed Redeemer Almighty God was pleased to use two Expedients 1. He gave out the Promise of the Messiah or the Seed of the Woman the seed in whom all Nations should be blessed and the Belief of this though darkly revealed became an Instrument or Means to render the promised Messiah effectual to them to partake of the Benefits of his Redemption when it was joyned with the Obedience to the revealed Will of God in Sincerity 2. He gave out Precepts directing Men to their Duty and to the sincere Endeavour of Obedience to those Precepts he annexed the Benefit of Remission of Sins and Acceptance of their Persons and Duties through the Messiah or Christ that was to come 12. In the fulness or appointment of time namely about four thousand years after the Creation of Mankind the Son of God by a miraculous Conception of the Virgin Mary without the conjunction of Man assumed the Humane Nature became Man lived about three and thirty years discovered the Mind and Will of God touching Mankind confirmed his Doctrine with unquestionable Miracles and Evidences from Heaven and lived a most Holy and Spotless Life and then was without cause crucified by the Jews was buried the third day he rose from the dead lived again according as he promised and conversed with his Disciples forty days then ascended into the glorious Heavens where he is in a state of Glory and Power 13. And after his Ascension he sent upon his Apostles as he promised the Power of the Holy Spirit whereby they did many Miracles in witness of the truth of the Doctrine and History of Christ 14 The Reasons and Ends why the Son of God thus took our Nature became Man and died for us were these 1. That the Eternal Counsel and Purpose of God for the Recovering and Redemption of Mankind out of their lost Condition and all those Predictions and Prophecies touching the same might be fulfilled and thereby the great God to have the Glory of his Wisdom Mercy Power and Truth 2. That there might be a common Remedy for the Recovery of Mankind to their duty and subjection to Almighty God that they might actively glorifie their Creator according to the End of their Creation 3. That there might be a common Remedy afforded to Mankind to obtain in substance that Happiness which they lost in their first Parents and by their own renewed Transgressions and a Means provided for the pardon of their Sins and saving of their immortal Souls and yet without derogation of the Divine Justice and the Honour of his Government 15. In order to these great Ends the Son of God was thus sent from Heaven and Commissionated as it were by the Father principally to do these Great Businesses in this World first to acquaint the World with the whole Will of God concerning Mankind 2. To lay down a full and sufficient Sacrifice for the Sins of the World by his own Death and Passion 3. To give the World all possible Assurance both of the Truth of his Doctrine and the Sufficiency of his Satisfaction by his wonderful Miracles by his Resurrection and Ascension and by the Diffusion of the Gifts of the Spirit upon his Apostles and Believers after his Ascension 16. Touching the first of these namely the manifestation of the Divine Will touching Mankind this contains the Doctrine of the Gospel the Message sent from Heaven by the Son of God touching all things to be believed and to be done by the Children of Men in order to their Redemption and attaining of everlasting Happiness And this was necessary because the World was full of Darkness and Ignorance And many things that were now necessary for Men to know were but darkly revealed unto the former Ages of the World. The Son of God therefore came to bring Life and Immortality to light by the Gospel 17. The Doctrines of the Gospel which Christ brought with him into the World were principally these 1. That all Men have Immortal Souls which must live to all Eternity notwithstanding the death of their Bodies 2. That there should come a Dissolution of this present World and at that time there shall be a Resurrection of all that had been dead and a change of all that should be then living into an Immortal Estate 3. That there should at that day be a Final Judgment where all Men should be doomed some to everlasting Life and Happiness some to everlasting Misery 4. That in the strict Rule of Divine Justice the Wages of every Sin is everlasting Death and Misery which is fully described in the Gospel 5. That all Mankind is obnoxious to everlasting Death and Misery because all Mankind have sinned and are born in Sin. So that without the help of Mercy from God all Mankind are in a lost and desperate Condition 6. That yet for all this Almighty God is willing that his Creature should be reconciled to him is desirous to pardon his Sins to be at peace with him and everlastingly to save him and to restore unto him that everlasting Happiness that he had lost by his own sin and the sin of our first Parents 7. But yet that all this should be done in such a way as might be consistent with the Honour of his Justice and of his Government as well as of his Mercy and of his Bounty and therefore that he will have a Sacrifice and a Price
without any actual Causality upon the things These though they are not so much as accidentally differing in God yet in our Apprehensions there is a difference so that we conclude there is not only a Prescience in God of all things that shall or may be Known unto the Lord are all his Works from the beginning but likewise a Predetermination by his Divine Will of all things that shall be and of the several means conducing to it And this Counsel of God is in truth the supream Cause of all things for as that Power whereby all things do move themselves or other things is put into them by the great maker of all things by the mere and immediate act of his Will as hath been before observed so the managing of all these several Powers to the production of the several things in the World is the act of the same Will of God they move in their several Series according to that Counsel of the great God of Heaven Now this Counsel of God is represented to us in the Scripture under these several qualifications 1. An Eternal Counsel 2. An Immutable Counsel 3. A Free Counsel 4. A Wise Counsel 5. An Active and Irresistible Counsel 6. An Universal Counsel 1. It is an Eternal Counsel a Purpose and Counsel before the Foundation of the World the indivisible and unsuccessive act of his Will. It is true the Counsels of Men as their Conceptions are successive one consideration supplying the defect or imperfection of the former and oftentimes the Counsels of Men are taken up pro re nata principally because they have not either the power to manage all the Emergencies and Ingredients into an Action according to their own Wills nor to foresee those Accidents that might enervate or impede the fruit of his Counsels but the Will of God is the Cause of all things and therefore as nothing can have a Being without his Will so nothing can impede or hinder the Counsel of his Will. 2. From hence it follows that it is an Immutable Counsel otherwise it cannot be Eternal for what began to be otherwise than it was before cannot be Eternal The Change of Counsels and Purposes among Men arise from one of these Causes either from an intrinsecal Unsetledness and Unconstancy which is their imperfection or from some extrinsecal Emergency which either was not forâ—seen or cannot be mastered but neither of these can fall upon God. It is true what he wills he wills freely and therefore ex natura rei he might not have willed it yet what he wills he wills from all Eternity with him there is no variableness nor shadow of turning I the Lord change not therefore ye Sons of Jacob are not consumed And as there is no ground of change in himself so neither is there any possibility of change from any thing without him because the same Act of his Will which is his Counsel is the cause and measure of the being of all things and therefore it can no more hinder or alter his Counsel than it can give it self a Being against his Will. But because there be some things that owe not their Formality to the Counsel of God as Sin which how far it falls within the Counsels of God shall be hereafter considered yet that cannot any way elude the Counsel of God as shall be hereafter shewn Therefore those several passages in holy Scripture that tell us that God repented of Evil when Man repented of Sin Joel 2.14 Jonah 3.4 are not to be understood of the Nature or Counsels of God for in that respect Balaam spoke a Truth of God Numb 23.19 God is not a Man that he should lye nor the Son of Man that he should repent For the same Counsel of God which appointed Jonah to be the Instrument of Nineveh's Repentance ordained likewise their turning upon that preaching and ordered the diversion of that Judgment which the same Counsel had ordered to be imminent but not executed But because there was the execution of such a real change which in Man is ordinarily the effect of a change of purpose or repenting therefore it is called a Repenting yet the very same Counsel that appointed the denunciation of an imminent Judgment appointed their repenting upon that denunciation and that diversion upon that repenting 3. It is a Free Counsel it is nothing else but the act of the Will of God. It is true the determination of that Will imposeth a necessity of the existence of the thing willed yet the determination it self was an act of the freest Agents This excludeth any Stoical Necessity 4. It is a most Wise Counsel And this is evident even in the lowest and most inconsiderable execution of this Counsel and therefore Isa 28.29 the dispensation of this Counsel of God even in the sowing and threshing of Fitches concludes this also cometh forth from the Lord who is wonderful in Counsel and excellent in working This Wisdom is eminent in this 1. In that it doth not only predetermine the End or Event but likewise all those Means that are conducible to the bringing to pass of this End. It is true God by an act of his Power might and sometimes doth per saltum bring to pass his own Purpose by his own immediate Power but this is not the ordinary course of the execution of his Counsel but produceth the End Decreed by Decreed Means Acts 27. Paul's dangerous Voyage is predetermined to end in a safe Arrival Verse 24. Yet Verse 31. Except these Men abide in the Ship ye cannot be saved This Perswasion of Paul's becomes prevalent and they stay The Counsel of God that determined the Ship 's safe arrival predetermined the stay of the Men in the Ship to be the means of that safety and the perswasion of Paul to be the means of their stay Here is the Link of God's Counsel coupling the Event to his Purpose with subordinate and purposed Means When I see a Counsel of God discovered that had not its compleat Execution in many hundreds of years after and observe how many thousands of strange connexions of Accidents do intervene between the Counsel discovered and the Execution of it although till the execution the event seems as unlegible as any thing in the World nay oftentimes these Antecedents that seem most probable of any to the producing of the expected Event with a contrary wind quite driven off and blasted yet when after all these several Meanders of Successes I see the Effect come to pass even by most improbable and accidental Means I must needs acknowledge this seeming Confusion is methodically managed by the same Counsel that predetermined the End I must conclude as the Wise Man doth in another case Eccles 7.14 God hath set the one over against the other to the End that Man should find nothing after him Let us consider it in the great Business of our Redemption by Christ God in his Eternal Counsel had appointed Man to be partaker of
the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles believed on in the world received up into Glory 1 Tim. 3.16 The Mystery of Faith 1 Tim. 3.9 CHAP. VI. Predictions and Types of Christ YET this great Mystery of Christ was not kept so secret but that as the fruit of his Mediation preceeded his coming in the Flesh as shall be after shewn so some glimpses of this Truth were discover'd to former Generations 1 Pet. 1.10 Of which Salvation the Prophets have enquired Ephes 2.20 Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ the Corner-stone We shall therefore for the settling of our Minds in this Cardinal Point observe those Predictions concerning Christ in the Old Testament and we shall find the Old and New Testament like the two Cherubims upon the Mercy Seat their Faces looking one toward another yet both of them toward the Mercy Seat and as we have before noted the Old Testament unriddling the difficulties of Nature so the New Testament unriddling the Old The Predictions of Christ in the Old Testament were of two kinds Prophetical and Typical The Prophetical Predictions to follow them in order of time 1. The first and great Publication of the Gospel though dark and mysterious was that by God himself in Paradise Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed it shall break thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel This was not only fulfilled in that mystical Woman the Church and here see Revel 12.17 but also in Christ 1. He was the Seed of the Woman and not of the Man Luke 1.34 He sent his Son made of a Woman Gal. 4.4 The Parallel observable By the Woman Sin first came into the World and Salvation 2. It shall break thy head He came to destroy the works of the Devil in his Temptation In his Life he bound the strong Man Heb. 2.14 destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil Matth. 12.29 In his Preaching Luk. 10.17 18. Satan like Lightning falling down from Heaven in his Death and Resurrection spoiling Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly and triumphing over them in it Colos 2. â—5 In his Ascension Ephes 4.8 When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive this Captive taker is the Devil 2 Tim. 2.26 In his Members Ephes 6.12 We wrestle against Principalities and Powers and it is our Business to stand against the Wiles of the Devil Ibid. Vers 11. To resist him stedfastly in the Faith 1 Pet. 5.9 In the Dispensation of his Government in his Church and Members Revel 12.7 Michael and his Angels fight with and overcome the Dragon and his Angels In his last and great Judgment Revel 20.10 The Devil cast into the Lake of Fire 1 John 3.8 For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devil 2. The next great Promise of Christ was that which was made to Abraham That in him Gen. 12.3 Gen. 18.18 That is in his Seed Gen. 22.18 all Nations of the Earth should be blessed This is applied to Christ Galat. 3.16 And afterwards to Isaac the Son of the Promise was the same Promise renewed and entailed Gen. 26.4 And so exact was the great God of Heaven in the fulfilling of his Promise that until by a civil Investiture the right of Primogeniture was translated from Esau to Jacob first by the sale of his Birth-right Gen. 25.33 and then by the Blessing though surreptitiously by Jacob yet providentially by God Gen. 27.29 This Promise was not actually entailed upon Jacob's Line Gen. 28.14 This Patria potestas Jacob likewise used upon his three eldest Sons Reuben for his Incest Simeon and Levi for their Murder Gen. 49.34 56. Whereby Judah became as it were the first-born and therefore Judah continually after had the preheminence of Primogeniture Viz. in the division of the Land Numb 34.19 Judah's Commissioner first named so in the alotment of the Land of Canaan Joshua 15.1 Judah had the preheminence in compleating the Victory of Canaan by the Suffrage of God. Judges 1.2 And by the decision and Prophecy of dying Jacob the Regality a right of Primogenture and the Messiah entailed to that stock Gen. 49. The Scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a Law-giver from between his feet until Shiloh come and unto him shall the gathering of the People be And hence he is called the Lion of the Tribe of Judah Revel â— 5 This Gathering of the People to him was the Calling of the Gentiles to the knowledge of God in Christ And this was the Star of Jacob which Balaam inspired against his will prophesied of Numb 24.17 And this that great Prophet which God promised by Moses to raise up to stand between the Majesty and Glory of God and the frailty of Humane Nature Deut. 18.15 John 5.46 The Redeemer of Job Job 19.25 From the time of Moses the Prophecies of Christ are interrupted and his time not specified but in him God was pleased to evidence it first in his Promise to him 2 Sam. 7.16 Thy throne shall be established for ever And this Covenant touching Christ therefore called the sure Mercies of David Isaiah 55.3 again Isa 11.1 10. In that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign of the people To it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious And this was a known Truth even among the unbelieving Jews Matth. 22.42 The learned Doctors confessed that Christ was to be the Son of David This fulfilled in Christ Acts 13.23 Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour Jesus Revel 5.5 The Root of David The Place of his Birth Mich. 5.2 And thou Bethlehem c. out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from old from everlasting this Bethlehem the City of David 1 Sam. 17.22 notoriously confessed among the Jews to be the place of the Messias's Birth Matth. 2.5 The Manner of his Birth A virgin shall bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel Isa 7.14 fulfilled Matth. 1.25 And as in his Name the union of the Divine and Humane Nature is discovered so more plainly Isa 9.6 His name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the Everlasting Father the Prince of Peace of the increase of his Government and Peace there shall be no end Peace proclaimed at his Birth Luke 2.14 On earth peace good will towards men his Business Peace 2 Cor. 5.1 God in Christ reconciling the World to himself Ephes 2.14 Christ our Peace his Gospel the Gospel of Peace Rom. 10.15 Ephes 6.15 Peace his Legacy John 14.27 Peace his Command Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the Peace-makers Rom. 12.18 Live peaceably with all men Luke 10.5 6. Into whatsoever house ye enter first say Peace be to this house And if the son of Peace
his Elect and under that Condition it was necessary that he should suffer for them It was the Love of the Father to accept of Christ to bear the sins of the People and it was his Justice that disclosed his Anger against Sin although his Son did but represent the sinner and yet the merit of this Suffering hath its strength from the free acceptation of his Father according to his Eternal Covenant with his Son. 3. From hence it follows that it is a Full and Perfect Satisfaction The reason is because the measure of the Satisfaction is the Acceptation of the offended God for it appears before that there can be no other Measure or Rule to him but his own Will though that be a most Just Will. Now that God was fully satisfied and pleased in Christ we have the Testimony of Angels Luke 2.14 On earth peace good will to men Of Christ John 17.4 when by way of Anticipation he saith I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do which he fully perfected when John 19.30 he said It is finished By the eternal Father by a voice from Heaven Matth. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased By the Spirit of Truth Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that be sanctified And from the sufficiency of this satisfaction doth arise that assurance in which the Apostle glories Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect c. it is Christ that died And hence called the Author and Finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 4. It was an Vniversal Suffering The sin of Man had an universal Contagion both upon his Body and Soul and an universal Guilt and consequently an universal Curse went over both his Soul and Body In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die the death This death extended to his Body and Soul and the whole Compositum his very Life was mingled with Death both in Sense and Expectation And answerable to the extent of this Contagion Guilt and Curse was the extent of Christ's Satisfaction who was figured by the first Adam Rom. 5.14 His Life was mingled with Pain Isa 53. A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief in his Body he suffered a cursed and a painful Death and though the nailing to the Cross was not sufficient naturally to have made a separation of the Body and Soul no more than of the two Thieves yet he had those other Concurrences to his dissolution that they had not viz. the bearing of his Cross John 19.17 His scourging and Crown of Thorns Matt. 27.26 29. But especially the suffering of his Soul the very anticipation of this suffering made him even to shrink at it John 12.27 Now is my soul troubled what shall I say Father save me from this hour And this like the Trumpet upon Sinai waxed louder and louder till his very dissolution witness his affirmation In the Garden of Gethsemane Matth. 26.28 My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death and that astonishing Cry of the Son of God upon the Cross Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sorrow and the suffering of his Soul in the Garden that was so strange as to cause a sweat of Blood had been enough without the interposition of any outward force to have caused his dissolution for it was a sorrow unto death had not God supported his Humane Nature with a supernatural aid Luk. 22.43 An angel from heaven strengthened him and when the Divine Dispensation withdrew that extraordinary supply he died Matth. 27.50 He cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost If it be asked What was the cause of this extremity of suffering in the Soul of Christ we say as he willingly took upon him to stand in our room to bear our sins and to become Sin for us so he felt the wrath of God against that sin which he by way of imputation did bear as he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2.24 and God laid on him the iniquity of us all and as he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 so he trode the wine-press of his Fathers wrath for that time Isa 63.3 and was made a Curse for that Sin. The Guilt that he had was not inherent but imputed but the sense of that wrath of God against Sin was not imputed but real and inherent If it be inquired How could such a sense of the wrath of God be consistent with that union that was between his Natures in one Person such Knowledge is too wonderful for me Nevertheless thus far we may say that as in the highest extremity of the suffering of his Soul there was no interruption of that strict Union between the Humane and Divine Nature yet so it pleased God to order this great Work that the actual communication of the presence of the Divine Nature was to the sense of the Humane Nature eclipsed the Sun still remained in the Firmament yet the Light thereof Eclipsed at the time of the death of Christ Matth. 27.45 to shadow to us that interruption of Vision which was in our Redeemer that so his Soul might be made an Offering for Sin as well as his Body If it be inquired How it came to pass that a perpetual Punishment due to Man was expiated by a temporary suffering of Christ we answer Man's suffering must needs be perpetual because it could never be satisfactory Matth. 5.26 Thou shalt not come out till thou payest the uttermost farthing But Christ's suffering was satisfactory and the satisfaction being made the suffering could not continue 1. It was a Voluntary Suffering 2. An Innocent Suffering 3. A Suffering of the Son of God. 4. An Accepted Satisfaction by the offended God. 8. That Christ having suffered death did arise again from death the third day This was that which the Prophet David foretold of Christ Psal 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soul in grave by Isa 53.10 When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin c. He shall prolong his days he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death prefigured by Jonah and so expounded by Christ himself Matth. 12.40 and predicted by himself Matth. 20.13 And the third day shall rise again attested by an Angel Matth. 28.6 He is risen as he said And this Truth was that which was the great Means of Conversion and therefore received the greatest opposition of Devils and Men Acts 2.24 Acts 4.10.33 Acts 5.30 And as it was the greatest Caution of the High Priest if it had been possible to falsifie the Prediction of Christ concerning his Resurrection Matth. 27.63 64. So this was the Truth that they most persecuted Acts 25.19 And being a Truth of that great concernment was most evidenced by the Evangelists and Apostles whose Business it was to be Witnesses of the Resurrection Acts 1.22 1 Cor. 15. per totum for by this he was
declared to be the Son of God with Power Rom. 1.4 And this Resurrection of Christ must of necessity follow his Satisfaction he had taken upon him our Sin and therefore must undergo the Wages due unto it viz. Death in the very instant of his Death he had compleated his Sacrifice and Satisfaction when he said upon the Cross It is finished John 19.30 Yet as it was necessary for him to lie under Death so long as might convince the Reality of it so it was impossible for him to lie longer the Debt was paid and he could be no longer detained Prisoner Acts 2.24 Whom God hath raised up having loosed the pains of death because it was not possible he should be holden of it And this Resurrection of Christ as it was by the Power of God 2 Cor. 13.4 He liveth by the Power of God Ephes 1.19 The working of his mighty Power or by the Eternal Spirit Rom. 8.11 The Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead so it was the effect of his Justice the Price of Man's Redemption being paid he was now by the Eternal Covenant of God to prolong his days And hence he is said to be justified in the Spirit 1 Tim. 3.16 Even that Spirit that raised him up from the dead did at the same time proclaim the compleatness of his Satisfaction and justifie the fulfilling of his Undertaking If Christ had not risen there had of necessity followed these two Consequences either of which had left us in as bad case as he found us 1. It had been then impossible that his Death had been a sufficient Sacrifice If he had been detained under Death the Guilt had still continued undischarged And hence 1 Cor. 15.17 If Christ be not raised your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins As if he should have said If there be no Satisfaction made for your Sins ye are still in them If Christ be detained under Death it is evident the Satisfaction is not made for the Curse of the Law continues undischarged and consequently the Guilt continues unacquitted and hence Christ's Sacrifice was justified by his Resurrection so are we Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification And this Resurrection of Christ was his Victory over Guilt and Death and Hell. 1 Cor. 15.57 The Victory given through Christ Colos 2.15 Having spoiled Principalities and Powers he then made a shew of them openly 2. It had been impossible that the Members of Christ could have the benefit either of the first or second Resurrection for by reason of that Union with their Head they partake of all those conditions whereof their head participates Crucified with him Gal. 2.20 Dead to sin and buried with him Rom. 6.3 6 8. Live with him Galat. 2.20 Rise together with him to newness of Life Rom. 6.4 Rom. 8.11 12. Planted unto the likeness of his Resurrection Rom. 6.5 Ascended with him Ephes 2.6 and shall rise again to eternal Happiness by virtue only of his Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thes 4.14 9. That Christ after his Resurrection did Ascend up into Heaven where his humane Nature is cloathed with Power and Glory and Immortality The Death of our Saviour was attested by his three days keeping his Grave and the Resurrection was attested by all the Evidences that incredulity it self could require for satisfaction because the matter of the greatest difficulty to believe and which being admitted made the whole truth concerning him easily credible Therefore for the clearing of this truth as he spent forty days to conquer the Temptations of the Devil in the Wilderness so he spent forty days after his Resurrection to subdue the infidelity of mankind to the belief thereof And during that time used all the sensible Convictions that might be for the confirming of their belief that the very Body of Christ re-assumed his Soul and Life 1. The Body removed out of the Sepulchre Luke 24.5 Why seek ye the Living among the Dead 2. He appeared unto them and because those appearances were accompanied with some Circumstances that might breed jealousie that it was a finer substance than a Body as his sudden vanishing out of their sight Luke 24 3â— His sudden presenting of himself among them when the Doors were shut Luke 24.36 John 20.19 Yet to convince that suspicion he exhibits his hands and his side eats with them converses with them about forty days Acts. 1.3 The Body of Christ being by the power of God made of an Angelical though not spiritual substance is taken up into Heaven Mark 16.19 Luke 24.57 Acts 16.9 where he sits at the right hand of Glory Acts 3.21 Heb. 10.12 Heb. 12.2 This was that which was figured by the High Priest's entring into the Holy of Holies Heb. 9.24 and extended to the very whole humane Nature of Christ the same that ascended is he that descended Ephes 4.9 This was the saying of Christ himself John 20.17 I am not yet ascended to my Father but go tell my Brethren I ascend unto my Father and your Father c. And this is that that our Saviour so often inculcates That the Son of Man shall come in his Glory c. Matth. 25.31 Matth. 26.64 To insinuate that that very humane Nature by which he is denominated Man should continue in immortality and appear the last day for the judgment of the World. And as by the power of God Man in his purity had been perpetuated to immortality and so he shall be in his Resurrection so by the power of God the Life of Christ's humane Nature shall be perpetuated to everlasting 2 Cor. 13.4 He liveth by the power of God. And this Body of Christ as it is filled with immortality so it is filled with Glory we shall be made like unto his glorious Body Phil. 3.21 10. That Christ having perfected the work of Man's redemption and ascended into Heaven exerciseth a threefold Office for the benefit of his Church and People 1. Of Power of Dominion This was that Inauguration of Christ in his Kingdom Psal 110.1 Sit thou at my right Hand Isaiah 53.10 Therefore will I divide him a Portion with the great c. because he hath poured out his Soul unto Death And therefore after his Resurrection he tells his Disciples Matth. 28.18 That all power is given him both in Heaven and in Earth and is that which is so often called his sitting at the right hand of his Father Ephs 1.20 and his making both Lord and Christ Acts 2.36 And this Kingdom Dominion and Power of Christ shall continue until the end when he shall deliver up the Kingdom to his Father that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15.24 27. 2. The Communication of his Spirit The Power of the Spirit of God is in all his Creatures and especially in Men and all Creatures in their actings are but instrumental to the Spirit of God But by Christ the Power of that Spirit is communicated in a more
a guilty and condemning Conscience when I look behind me I see the avenger of blood pursuing me and ready to overtake me when I look before me I see nothing but a Hell to receive me in my flight when I look upward I behold an offended and angry God aâ—med with Power and Justice to condemn me 〈◊〉 is true he is a Merciful and Bountiful God but that aggravates my Misery What Comfort can the thought of a neglected an abused Mercy add unto 〈◊〉 so that now as my Misery is intolerable so it is inextricable as I cannot help my self so I can see nothing without me but storms but trouble and darkness and dimness and anguish Isa 8.22 and a guilt within me still telling me worse is to come and to prevent my despair I turn me to the Creatures to Friends to Pleasures but alas they have no more taste in them than the white of an Egg like Drink in a Fever they increase my Torment In the midst of all this tempest of the Soul the Love of God like the Dove to the drowning Ark le ts fall an Olive Branch a 〈◊〉 a Message and Promise of Life and Deliveâ—â—â—â— an invitation to Peace and Salvation Let any 〈◊〉 judge now whether a Soul sensible of his own Condition will not greedily and even before it hath leisure to contemplate the Mercy lay hold upon it rest upon it get unto it so that the condition of the Soul and the sense of it doth even drive the Heart in the first act of its Illumination to coming unto Christ and resting upon him And then the Soul hath more opportunity to discover and contemplate and value the Goodness of God whereby the Love of the Soul to God is more and more excited and increased And thus we see how the Believer is united unto Christ not corporeally nor yet substantially yet really and spiritually these motions of the Soul being met and entertained with Objects suitable to their utmost latitude Our motion unto him by Faith and Adherence finds not only an invitation before it come Matth. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy ladâ—n and I will give you rest But a rest when it doth come Our motion unto him by our Love finds an entertainment with Fruition John 14.23 If a man love we he will keep my words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Our Hope entertained with Assurance and the Prepossession of our Expectation John 14.2 I go to prepare a place for you 1 Pet. 1.4 An inheritance incorruptible and undefiled reserved in Heaven In the creation of Man as likewise of Angels God placed in them Powers suceptive and able to receive a great measure of his Truth Glory and Goodness And when he had furnished them with Vessels as I may say of this Capacity he filled them with his Light and Goodness And herein consisted that great Union between God and his Creature and consequently his great Happiness And in Man's Restitution the same course is taken to make him happy again Here is the difference and our accession of Happiness that this Mercy 〈◊〉 put into our own hands but into the hands of our Mediator for our use For as in him dwells the fulness of God so every true Believer dwells in him and makes up that Body which is the fulness of him that filleth all in all Ephes 1.23 And is thereby filled with the Fulness of God Ephes 3.19 CHAP. XII The Effects of our Vnion with Christ NOW we come to consider the Effects of this our Vnion with Christ more distinctly 1. Remission of Sins Ephes 1.7 Colos 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins For by virtue of our Union with him the Father looks upon us as having made that Satisfaction for Sin which in truth his Son made 2. Justification For as by virtue of our Union with him his Satisfaction is ours so is his Righteousness And hence that Righteousness by which we are made righteous in the sight of God is called the Righteousness of God 2 Cor. 5.21 That we might be made the Righteousness of God in him Phil. 3.9 That I may be found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith And therefore Jer. 23.6.33.16 he is called The Lord our Righteousness And indeed without this though it were possible that we could have our sins forgiven yet without this Righteousness we could not actually attain Happiness Christ therefore must present us Holy as well as unblameable Colos 1.22 So then being one with him as our sins by imputation were his and his Satisfaction ours so was also his Righteousness 3. Peace and Reconciliation with God For as God from Heaven proclaimed himself well pleased in his Son so if we are one with him he is consequently well pleased with us And this Conclusion follows naturally from our Justification in the sight of God The controversie between God and his Creature was Sin and when Christ took up that Controversie there must needs follow peace Rom. 5.1 Being justified by Faith we have Peace with God through Christ Colos 1.20 Having made Peace through the blood of his Cross Eph. 2.14 For he is our Peace And the consequent of this Peace with God is Peace with the Creature who when Man became Rebel to God became Rebel to Man unuseful vain full of vexation but by our Peace restored with our God our Peace with the Creature is part of our Portion Godliness having the Promise of this Life as well as that to come 1 Tim. 4.8 Matt. 6.33 and peace with our own Consciences Conscience was God's Vicegerent in Man and when her Lord is angry the Conscience will chide It is a Glass wherein a Man may by reflection see the face of Heaven and of his own Soul. But when once the Heart is sprinkled from an evil Conscience by the Blood of Christ Heb. 10.2.22 the Conscience is quiet for Heaven is quiet As Peace was the Proclamation of an Angel at the Birth of Christ Luke 2.14 so Peace was the Legacy of Christ when he was leaving the World John 14.27 My Peace I leave with you And the Fruit of this Peace must needs be Joy When a Man upon sound grounds doth find that his Peace is made with Heaven there cannot chuse but be a Joy answerable to the sense of so beneficial a Peace Therefore Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 15.13 The God of Hope fill you with all Joy and Peace in believing Where there is Faith there will be Peace and where Peace Joy and therefore when Christ had finished the work of our Redemption that Spirit which he sent into the World is called the Comforter John 15.26 4. The Spirit of Christ and that
Uncertainties in the midst of any external Trouble without a Refuge and so full of Despair As we cannot have Confidence to go to our offended God by our Prayers so it makes him withdraw and hide himself from them a continual disquietness and heaviness of Spirit mingles and winds it self into all our thoughts even in our pursuits of diversions from it the same aspect that is between God and us is between our own Conscience and us The Light of his Countenance is able to give Life and Comfort and Serenity to the Soul in the midst of all the Losses and Pains and Deaths in the World and the want of that Light makes the most happy external Condition to be dark and disconsolate And all this Good I lose by a transient unprofitable Sin a Sin that I might have avoided and therefore a Loss that I might have avoided a Loss that comes not to me by my necessity but by my foolish choice I will therefore sit down and mourn in secret for that Comfort and Light that I have thus foolishly sinned away and measure out my sorrows and tears proportionable in some degree to that Loss I have sustained The time was when it pleased the great God to let his Presence and the Light of his Countenance to shine into my Soul and when I could with Comfort and Confidence upon any occasion go to him and present my wants my desires my acknowledgements unto him and he that sits in Heaven was pleased to accept and entertain them at the hands of his Creature But now that Influence of his hath met with a filthy and backsliding Heart and is weary of it and hath withdrawn it self as justly it may and my Prayers are laden with my Guilt and cannot get up to him and he hides himself I have regarded Iniquity in my Heart and as he hath said so I find he will not hear my Prayers But though he will not hear my Prayers yet he will not neglect my Tears A broken and contrite heart O Lord thou wilt not despise O Lord though I have thus trifled away my Peace and my Comfort and have destroyed my self yet in thee is my help As I will not rest in my Sin so neither will I rest in my Grief but will never give my self nor thee rest till thou hast been pleased in the Blood of thy Son to wash away my Guilt and restore unto me thy Presence and Peace again And when I have recovered this Loss I will by the assistance of that good Spirit of thine learn by this my sin to revenge my self upon my sin to value the Mercy and Goodness of my Creator that hath yet once more intrusted into my hands the Life and Comfort which I had so lately lost to value the necessity as well as the Love of my Saviour that hath been pleased by a reapplication of his own Blood to wash me again after my late Relapse to value the kindness of the Pure and Blessed Spirit that though by my sin I made him weary and forsake that polluted chamber of my Heart yet is pleased to return and cleanse and take up again that Room from which I had so unworthily excluded him I will learn to prise that Peace and Comfort which once I had and valued not but lost it for an unprofitable perishing Sin I will strive to sence my Heart with renewed Covenants and Resolutions of more watchfulness over my self that I return not again to Folly I will sit down and bless the Mercy Goodness Patience Bounty of God that hath not left me in that Condition which I could neither endure nor remove and study to return a Heart and Life in some measure answerable to so great Love and Goodness And when I have done all O Lord Jesus let that Eternal Covenant between thee and the Father that thou shouldest give Eternal Life to as many as he hath given thee John 17.2 that Power and Promise of thine that none shall pluck me out of thy hands John 10.28 that Union with thee that thou art pleased to give to as many as believe on thee John 15.4 5. that Spirit of thine which by that Union with thee conveys Life and Influence to the smallest branch in thee preserve and support me in all my Purposes and Resolutions in all my Frailties and Temptations For without thee I can do nothing 2. In reference to outward Objects and occasions of Sorrow as loss of Friends Wealth Reputation Health Life it self have a guard upon this Passion 1. Look upon them as the Fruits and Effects of thy Sin and so let them carry thy Grief beyond the immediate object to the meritorious cause of them This is the sting of all Affliction the Plague in thy Heart is the Core and Fountain of the Plague of thy Externals And when thou hast humbled thy Soul before thy Creator and gotten the Blood of thy Saviour to wash thy Conscience thy Affliction shall be removed or thy Soul enabled with chearfulness and comfort to bear it 2. Labour to find out the Voice of the Rod the Mind of thy Creator for if thou diligently observe it there is not a dispensation of Divine Providence but it brings a message with it to thy Soul. Look into thy Heart it may be there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee Joshua 7.13 and this Affliction bids thee be up and removing it It may be thy Heart was leaning too much upon that very Blessing wherein thou findest thy Cross or Affliction which robbed thy Maker of some of the Love and Duty thou owest to him It may be thy Heart was grown dead and careless in thy applications to thy Creator secure and resting in thy temporal Enjoyment and he hath sent his Messenger to awake thee It may be thou hast had a dull and heavy Ear that would not listen or could not perceive God speaking once yea twice unto thee in a still voice Job 33.14 and now he hath sent an instruction with a louder voice It may be thou begannest too much to set up thy rest here to place thy Confidence in the things of this World to be overtaken with the delight in them to overâ—expect them and he hath sent a disappointment into thy Counsels a Worm into thy Gourd a Moth into thy Store a Canker into thy Bag a Distemper into thy Body to shew thee the vanity of thy Dependances to make thee let go thy hold of that which may fall upon and hurt thee but cannot secure thee to make the look upward to quicken thy Life of Faith by shaking thy Life of Sense It may be thou wert growing presumptuous in the Goodness of God Saucy in thy Carriage towards him insolent towards him opinionative of thy self And he hath sent this searching Medicine to fallow and purge these disorderly and dangerous Humours But gâ—ant that upon all thy search thou findest that for a long time thou hast kept a Watch over thy Heart that thou
am an unclean things and all my righteousnesses are as filthy rags Isa â—â— 6 and my own Heart tells me that even to my most exact observance there be secret adheâ— of sin and defect and how much more are thâ— in thy sight who seest through every cranny of the Soul and therefore thou mayest justly reject them yet O Lord thou knowest that that little good that is in them proceeds from an upright Heart from an unfeigned desire to obey thee that it is my Hearts desire and my hearty and daily endeavour to serve thee better that it is the sorrow and gâ—f of my Heart that my returns of obedience and conformity unto thee are so infinite short of what I every way owe unto thee I do not content my self with these loose and half performances that I make before thee and though I see my best obedience gives me daily occasions of repentance yet I will not give over but what I want in my own strength I will beg thy Grace to perfect and thy Mercy to accept according to what I have and to pardon what I want 2 Cor. 8.12 and since I have prepared my Heart to seek the Lord God the good Lord pardon me though I am not cleansed according to the purification of thy Sanctuary 2 Chron. 30.19 2. An over-matching of the Power of Sin by the Power of Sanctifying Grace It is true that in the best Condition we can arrive unto in this World there is with us a body of Sin and Death as well as a Principle of Holiness and Life Rom. 7.24 a lusting of the Flesh against the Spirit as well as of the Spirit against the Flesh Gal. 5.17 a wrestling against Flesh and Blood actuated by Principalities and Powers Ephes 6.12 But where God is pleased to begin this work in the Heart though it never arrives to the abolition of sin yet it ever ariseth to a Victory over it Rom. 6.15 Sin shall not have dominion over you because you are not under the Law but under Grace And now as where there is but one degree of heat in any subject more than there is of cold though that subject be not perfectly hot but there is a mixture of cold in every atom of it yet is denominated from the predominate quality so this Man though he be not exactly conformable to the exact Rule of Righteousness and therefore could not in the severe Justice of God be accepted but that rigorous course of the Law would lay hold upon him Gal. 3.10 Cursed be every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them which Book of the Law required a Love of God with all the Heart Might and Soul and that not only all that Heart Might and Soul which a Man now hath but which a Man once had and by his own fault hath lost and therefore that Law being weak through the Flesh Rom. 8.2 that is meeting with an impotency in us exactly to fulfil it became rather a Law of Death than Life yet when Christ came into the World and brought with him a perfect Righteousness of his own whereby to justifie us in the presence of God he did likewise by an Eternal Covenant of Peace with the Father stipulate for an acceptation of this imperfect Righteousness of ours which is wrought in us by his Grace and Spirit So that as the Righteousness of Christ the Lord our Righteousness which was perfect in Degrees was by the acceptation of the Father made our Justification so the Righteousness which is begun in us here by his Grace though mingled with our own defects is accepted by God with a Promise of increase of our Glory And the same Christ that hath fulfilled a perfect Righteousness for our Justification doth continually by his own Spirit begin and support a true though imperfect Righteousness in us to our Sanctification and helps against and pardons our many infirmities and defects as he hath promised Jer. 3.12 Return thou back-sliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you Jer. 31.19 Surely 〈◊〉 I was turned I repented Is Ephraim my dear 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 a pleasant child for since I spake against him I do 〈◊〉 remember him still Isa 42.3 A bruised reed shall â—e nâ—t break and smoaking flax shall he not quench Isa â—â— 11 He shall â—ed his flâ—ck like a shepherd he shall gather 〈…〉 with his 〈◊〉 and carry them in his bosom and shall gerth lead thâ—se that are with young Hos 11.3 〈◊〉 Ephraim also to go taking them by the arm Which several expressions shew 1. The Original of that initiate Righteousness in us even the Grace of God in Christ continually by degrees mastering our corruptions and in some measure conforming us unto him â— His Tenderness towards those small inceptions of his Grace in us cherishing and encouraging 〈◊〉 His Mercy and Goodness accepting of our sincerity and pardoning our weakness And this is that Evangelical Perfection of our Righteousness and Sanctification here And from this Advantage that the Grace of God hath over our Perfections do arise these four Consequents of it 1. Universality of Obedience 2. Constancy in it 3. Growth and increase in it 4. Renewing of our Repentance all which as they are the gifts of God so they do naturally flow from the over-matching of our Corruptions by Grace as appears in these Particulars 1. Vniversality of Obedience The Heart wherein the Grace of God hath over-matched his sinful Nature cannot allow it self in any known Sin or any known neglect of any one Command but hath respect to all God's Commandments Psal 119.6 Whosoever shall keep the whole yet if he offend in one point he is guilty of all James 2.10 The Grace of God and Sin are universally opposite one to another and as they are so in the abstract so are they in the concrete Where Sin hath an advantage in the Soul it doth oppose universally the whole Will of God and where Grace is in the Soul it doth oppose the whole will of Sin and therefore where any one Sin or neglect of any one Command of God is entertained knowingly and advisedly in the Soul there the Grace of God hath not the upper hand for the same Principle by which it acts viz. the Love of God equally engageth the Soul to every Duty and against every Sin according to the measure of Knowledge that is commmunicated to the Soul. 2. Constancy and Perseverance The change that is wrought in our Nature it is true is not in the essence of it but it is the presence of the Grace of Christ in the Heart that preserves and upholds the Heart and Life in Holiness and Righteousness If that could be withdrawn or intermitted we should like the Iron removed from the Fire soon return to our ancient Nature again but that great God whose presence alone supports all the things in Heaven and Earth in their being and
thee not to a course in sin or to a death in sin but gives thee a Cordial which though it puts thee to pain preserves thy Life that though thou like a foolish misguided Sheep art stragling thou knowest not whither yet seeks thee and finds thee and reduceth thee that though thou canst so easily forget him yet he doth not forget thee and when all is done is contented to accept of that Repentance and that Sorrow which he himself gives thee and washes away thy Spot by his own Blood and looks upon thee with no less Tenderness and Love and Compassion and Goodness than if thou hadst never gone aside Ever blessed be thy Name O merciful Lord God that hast redeemed us from everlasting Death and yet when we daily endanger our selves dost rescue us by thy Grace that when we sin thou art pleased not to cast us off but fetchest us in by Repentance and when we repent art pleased not to reject us nor upbraid us with our former Falls but accept us to Pardon and Favour and blottest out our iniquities for thy great Names sake But let not thy Servants return any more to folly Amen CHAP. XXVIII Of the Parts of Sanctification and 1. In reference to our selves Sobriety THE fourth thing considerable are the Parts of that Sanctification which is required of us Sanctification is the Conformity of the whole Man to the Will of God concerning Man concerning his Life and Conversation And that Will of God respecteth three Objects Himself our Neighbour and our Selves And accordingly the Duties which lie upon us in reference to these three are shortly summed up by the Apostle Tit. 2.11 12. The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men teaching us that denying ungodless and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world We have there the Old Man that we are to put off Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts cast by S. John into these three Ranks the Lusts of the Flesh the Lusts of the Eyes and Pride of Life 1 John 2.16 whereof before And we have that New Man Ephes 4.24 distributed into two parts Righteousness and true Holiness and here into three parts viz. Sobriety towards our selves Righteousness towards others and Godliness towards God the two latter come distinctly under the Commands of the first and second Table of the Decalogue as those Commands receive their true and spiritual interpretation by Christ the former though virtually it be therein included yet it is not expresly and directly 1. In reference to our selves Sobriety This refers either to our Judgment or Estimation of our selves or to the motions and inclinations of our sensual Appetites 1. Sobriety in our Judgments which is nothing else but a just and true Estimate of our selves Rom. 12.3 Not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly c. Man doth naturally inordinately love himself and that love to himself doth mislead and inhance a Man's opinion of himself even by those things that are meerly extrinsecal to him he thinks the better of himself by reason of his Wealth though that be a thing distinct from him by Nature and easily by any casualty severed from him or by reason of Esteem or Honour though that is such an accession as depends meerly upon the Will of another for if I withdraw that honour or respect which I give to a Man he is no longer honourable to me and as I may do it so may any and so may all and then he wholly ceaseth to be what he thought he was And much more Men are apt to have a high opinion of themselves in respect of that which seems most their own as Strength Beauty Elocution Wit Knowledge and the more intimate the Perfection is unto him that hath it the harder it is for that Man to be brought to that due estimation that he should have of himself that very Knowledge which must be the ground of bringing him to a right estimation of himself is ready to puff him up and that concretion that ariseth from the over-estimation of a Man's self and from his reflection upon that over-estimation is Pride and from this Pride arise those other distempers of the inward and outward Man a proud look despising the weaker or inferiour Arrogance lofty and haughty Speech Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon c. Psal 73.9 They set their mouth against Heaven and their tongue walketh through the earth Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord c. a placing of a Man's self in God's room and deifying himself implacableness with any thing that checketh the full Fruition of his own Glory though it seems never so inconsiderable the want of a Bowe from Mordecai makes Haman sick of anger and discontent Esther 3.7.5.13 and thus Pride is the foundation of Contention Prov. 13.10 because it cannot endure the competition of any thing that may allay the tumor the foundation of envy delight in flattery to feed and stroak that foolish Humour excess in Stateliness Distance Apparel singularity and the like All which are the Children of this Vanity Now as this proceeds much from the mistake of our Judgment or the want of the Exercise of it so on the other side when the judgment concerning a Mans self is rectified it produceth a clean contrary effect in the Soul the Man was mad before out of his Wits and his Carriage and Deportment was answerable thereunto but now by this right understanding himself he is sober in his right Senses and a sutable Deportment riseth thereupon he looks upon his Wealth as a thing that is lent him deposited with him only as a Steward not as an Owner as that which is uncertain vanishing subject to be easily translated from him to another as that which is external to him which he may have and be a Fool or a Man under a Curse as that which will one day inhance his Account not ease his Conscience as that which he may not it may be keep whilst he lives and is sure to lose when he dies as that which may be his snare his Temptation cannot be his Felicity as that which though never so excessive gives no greater a Priviledge than it gives his Servant that eats of it but only the bare Name of being his own He looks upon his Esteem Reputation and Honour in the World as that which meerly depends upon his inferiors Benevolence which thy may withdraw when they please as that which is external also to him may make him an Object of more Envy Danger and insecurity that ingageth to a great deal of vigilance to preserve it and is often lost without desert and yet the Man is the same He looks upon his Power and Authority as a thing that is not in himself but meerly in the Contribution of the strength of others or their voluntary denying it to themselves by a resolution of Non-resistance as that which makes no real Accession
to him but he is but what he was before he had it and when he loseth it will be what he was before he left it in all points save meerly outside and vulgar opinion He looks upon himself under the Beauty of his external Ornaments as a little Clay drest up in Gallantry that that may more justly make him proud that made it than him that wears it that alters not the Soul or Body that is under it nor is become part of it he looks upon his Strength or Beauty or temperature of Body as that which a few years will lay in the Dust and the Worms will master it as that which is not able to contest with the least Distemper either within it or without it and yet the good that is in it while it lasts is but a borrowed good He looks upon his Knowledge Vnderstanding and Wisdom as that which is infinitely short of what it was or what it might be the most that we know being infinitely short of what we know not and what we should know that his increase of Knowledge is but an increase of his Account an aggravation of those sins which would be of lesser magnitude had they not been committed against a greater Light that the most of what we know and that makes up the most of Men great in their own conceits is that which will be utterly unuseful after this life Of what use will those Volumes of Learning concerning Human Laws Physicks the Mathematicks Natural Philosophy and the Knowledge of the Contemperation of mixt Bodies be when the Earth with the works thereof shall be burnt up Political dispensations shall cease either the things shall not continue and so the knowledge of them be useless or the truth shall be more compendiously and clearly discovered to us and so the Labour to acquire them unnecessary It looks upon the best practical Habits or Actions it doth as things that need an expiation rather than deserving a reward it finds in it self a little small Grain of Gold in them but so covered and stifled with dross and filth that that which is good is scarce worth the accepting Finally he looks upon nothing as his own but the sin of his Nature that hath stained and polluted the sin of his Life that makes him odious in the Presence of God the sin of his Services as that which adulterates and spoyls them and whatsoever is useful or comfortable in his external Accessions whatsoever is beautiful in his Body or Soul he looks upon as anothers not as his and blesseth him for it carries the glory to him takes upon himself the shame and abhorrence of his own Deformities and magnifies the patience of his Creator in sparing him and his bounty in lending to him whatsoever of good he finds in himself or any way belonging to him And out of this right and sober judgment concerning himself and the reflection of the mind thereupon spring those Vertues of Humility Meekness Gentleness Patience Moderation Contentedness Thankfulness Quietness whereby a Man entertains all the Dispensations of God with such a frame and Temper of Spirit as he expects In thy addresses to God it will teach thee Lowliness and Reverence remembring thee of thy own Vileness and his Perfection and that infinite distance between thee a Man a sinful Man and Him the great and glorious God Gen. 18.27 Now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord that am but Dust and Ashes Luk. 18.13 the Publican standing a far off would not lift up his eyes to Heaven In the midst of Blessings either of this Life or that to come it will teach thee Admiration and Thankfulness 2 Sam. 7.18 What am I O Lord and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto Psal 8.4 When I consider the Heavens c. What is Man that thou art mindful of him that a sinful Man that owes so much to God and performs so little should receive such Blessings such Mercies and such Bounty from the hand of an injured God. In the midst of the severest Afflictions it will teach thee Patience and Quietness of mind and Contentedness when the Soul shall sit down and consider it self and justifie yea and magnifie God in this very dealing with her O Lord by that light that thou hast lent me I do see my self and therein behold nothing of my own but Deformity and Rebellion against thee unthankfulness and vileness and now I eat but the Fruit of my own ways and thou art just when thou judgest Nay thou dealest not with me according to the severest Rule of Justice thou hast punished me less than mine iniquities deserve Ezra 9.13 I have forfeited all unto thee but thou hast not taken all from me I have deserved that thy whole fury should be poured out upon me but thou hast afflicted me in measure thou hast left me my life thou hast left me my hope thou hast left me some Light of thy Countenance which is better than my Life thou hast left me Liberty and Encouragement to pour out my Soul before thee and dost entertain it if thou hadst deprived me of all this yet thou hadst not been unjust and in that thou hast left me these or any of these or any other mercy thou art gracious Nay more than all this I find in that very thing wherein thy hand lyeth heaviest upon me a mercy and that thou hast afflicted me in very faithfulness Psal 119.75 in love Rev. 3.19 and for my profit and advantage Heb. 12.10 that I should not be condemned with the World 1 Cor. 11.32 my heart began to grow wanton to be lingring too much after the World to be taken up too much with Vanity and things that must perish to me and I to them I began to grow confident upon my Wit my Wealth my Power to grow negligent cold and careless in my Duty to thee in my Dependance upon thee in my Obedience to thee The Consolations of God the Presence of my Saviour my Life by Faith my hope of Glory began to grow small unto me Job 15.11 And this I plainly see was the state of my Soul and therefore I desire to receive these thy Afflictions not only as Punishments but as Medicines as Messages as well of thy care of me and thy mercy to me as of thy Justice upon me that they may not only be an exercise of my Patience but an Object of my Thankfulness of my Joyfulness that they may not only be a conviction of thy Detestation of my sin but a pledge of thy Love to my Person I shall therefore endeavour to bear thy hand as becomes me with Patience because I deserve them with Thankfulness because they are moderate and with Comfort because they are thy Ministers sent me for my good and as I shall thus learn to entertain them so I shall endeavour to use and improve them to that end thou sendest them to take me off from the World to bring me
say upon found grounds the Lord is my Portion Psal 16.5 Like the Tree that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah Exod. 15.23 It makes those bitter Waters sweet and puts more Joy in my Heart than in the time that their Corn and their Wine increased Psal 4.6 But if it please him together with the Light of his Countenance to give me a competency of Externals to feed me with Food convenient for me with Agar Prov. 30.8 though with David Psal 23. my Cup runs not over yet if the Lord be the Portion of my Cup Psal 16.5 O Lord shouldest thou deny me all things even necessary for my present subsistence yet I have Portion enough in thy Favour and the Light of thy Countenance for which I owe thee more than all the thankfulness and strength of my Soul and such a Portion as would bear up my Heart in the midst of all my Exigences When thy Son bore our Nature in the Flesh though the sence of thy Love supported him yet he wanted things of convenience he became poor that we might be rich But if it shall please God to add the Blessings of his left hand to the Blessings of his right hand as rather than deny me the latter I beseech thee give me not the former If he shall bless me in the Fruit of my Body and my Ground and command a Blessing upon my Store-houses and all that I set my hand unto Deut. 28.4 8. I will learn to serve the Lord my God with joyfulness and gladness of Heart for the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 to contemplate and bless that good hand of God that giveth me power to get Wealth Deut. 8.18 To look with more comfort and delight upon that Hand that gives than in the very Blessing that is given to set a watch over that evil and deceitful Heart of mine that is able to turn my Blessing into my Snare to beware lest when all that I have is multiplied my Heart be lifted up and I forget the Lord my God Deut. 8.13 14. To beware lest when my Riches increase I set my Heart upon them Psal 62.10 and trust in uncertain Riches 1 Tim. 6.17 To remember that I am but a Fiduciary a Steward of them they are not given me to look upon but to use them as one that must give an account of them to watch over my self that I use them soberly with moderation and as in his presence that I turn not the Grace and Bounty of God into Excess or Wantonness to look upon all the Goodness Comfort and Use of them as flowing from the Blessing and Commission that God sends along with them Eccles 2.24 That a man should make his soul enjoy good in his labour this also is from the hand of God To beware that the multiplication of Blessings do not rob my Creator of one grain of that Love Service and Dependance that I owe unto him to carry a loose affection towards them for it is infallibly true that where the Heart is truly set upon God and makes him his Portion it enables a Man equally to bear all Conditions because the object of his Soul is immutable and invaluable though his external Condition alter an accession of Externals may carry up such a Soul in a more sensible apprehension of the Goodness of him whom the Soul loves it cannot steal away one jot of that Love which it owes to the giver the Creature it self is of too low a value to diminish the Love to the Creator a Heart that is rightly principled cannot find any good in the Creature but what he will derive from and carry to the object of his Love. 3. The Pride of Life There are two great Cardinal Truths whereof if the Mind be soundly convinced it puts a Man in a right frame and temper of Spirit in the whole course of his Life 1. That there is an essential universal Subjection due from all Creatures to the Will and Power of God This is the ground of all true Obedience and all true Humility which is nothing else but a putting of the Mind into a Posture and frame answerable to that Position wherein by Nature it is framed a conformity of the Mind to the Truth and Station wherein it is set 2. That all Goodness Beauty and Perfection is originally in God and nothing of Good Beauty or Perfection is in any thing but derivatively from him according to that measure that he is freely pleased to communicate This keeps the Heart in a continual Love of him Dependance upon him and Thankfulness unto him From the Ignorance of those is the ground of all the Pride in the World which is nothing else but a false placing of the Mind in such a Condition or Station or the opinion of such a Station wherein in truth he is not and so it disorders the Mind it makes a Man that is essentially subordinate to God and depending upon him to place himself above God and to be independent upon him And though this false opinion cannot alter his condition in truth for he that hath said My Will shall stand cannot be removed by the pride or resistance of Man yet as to the Man himself it puts him out of his place and in the room of God And therefore above all other distempers of the Soul this is the most hateful to God for as the proud Man resisteth God and labours to get into his place so God resisteth him 1 Pet. 5.5 Prov. 3.24 And this Ignorance or not full subscription to these two Truths will appear to be the foundation of all the Pride in Men. 1. From the Ignorance of the former of the subjection we owe to God proceeds that Pride that manifests it self in Rebellion and Disobedience against God. God challengeth the subjection of our Wills to his as justly he may and Man will have his own Will take place Jer. 42.14 No but we will go into the â—and of Egypt Luke 19.14 We will not have this Man to rule over us And as among Men Pride is the Mother of Contention because it puts a Man out of that place wherein he is and he doth consequently put himself in the place of another and thence come Contentions so from this Pride of Men putting themselves into the place of God comes the contention between God and man He that hath said he will not give his Glory to another will not give his Place to his Creature but resisteth the proud And from this ignorance of that subjection we owe to God proceeds that Haughtiness and Arrogance which we find in the Spirits of Men Exod. 5.2 Who is the Lord that I should let the people go Job 21.15 What is the Almighty that we should serve him Dan. 3.15 Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands This Ignorance was that which bred that haughty speech in Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 4.30 Is not this great Babylon c. Till God by his immediate hand
made him know that he is able to abase them that walk in pride Ibid. Verse 37. And hence it is that Men are compassed with Pride as a Chain when they set their mouth against the Heavens Psal 73.6 9 11. And this manifestation of Pride is principally in the Will because it is the absence of that subjection which we owe to his Will. 2. From this want of the due knowledge of the subjection we owe to the Power of God proceeds that Pride which evidenceth it self in that vain Confidence and Security which men put in themselves or those other accessions of Friends Wealth Power Policy c. Revel 3.17 I am rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing Luke 12.17 And I will say to my soul Soul thou hast much goods laid up for many years take thine ease Isa 28.14 When the over-flowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come near us for we have made lies our refuge and under falshood have we hid our selves This was the speech of the scornful Men of Ephraim who had not Humility enough to shelter themselves under their Maker and yet had so much Baseness of Spirit as to make a Lie their Refuge and Security Isa 30.2 trust in a shadow Verse 12. in oppression and perverseness Isa 31.1 in Horses and Chariots Isa 47.7 I shall be a Lady for ever I am and there is none else besides me to see the pride and arrogance of a Heart that knows not God even to take upon it the very self-sufficiency of God himself Now when a Heart truly knows the Power of God the essential Dependance that all things and events have upon him how easily without the interposition of his own immediate hand he can manage some little inconsiderable Circumstance to break and confound the most complicated and twisted Securities that a whole Nation can make for it self he will soon learn to look upon all these external contributions to Happiness and Safety as vanity and nothing much less will he repose any confidence in them And to break the Children of Men from this deifying themselves and the sparks that they have kindled Isaiah 50.11 God doth most commonly as I may say set himself to blast and subvert those Refuges of Men their Idols with the most unlikely and improbable means Job 5.13 He catcheth the wise even with their own craftiness intangles the Powerful by their own strength or arms some impotent unexpected Emergency a nothing in a moment to shatter in pieces what Men have been many Years or Ages building up and fortifying into a Confidence with multiplicity of Supplies 3. By the Ignorance of the latter viz. That the Original of all Good is in and from God ariseth that Haughtiness and Elevation of Mind that is in Men when they find any thing in themselves or in what they have acquired that is beautiful or useful When a Heart rightly principled meddles with any such thing it teacheth him Thankfulness and Humility he runs it up presently to God the Fountain and Original of all Good and gives him the praise of any thing he finds Good in himself and concludes even in the meanest Good that he finds even in his Skill it may be in the lowest Profession with Isaiah 28.29 This also cometh forth from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working If he finds in himself an industrious and successful Hand he attributes this to God Deuteronom 8.18 It is he that giveth thee Power to get Wealth If he finds himself advanced to any Greatness or Honour he acknowledgeth this to be the Dispensation of God Psalm 75.7 God is the Judge he putteth down one and setteth up another If he find a victorious and successful Hand in War he attributes it not to his own Sword or his own Arm Psal 44.3 But thy right hand and thine arm and the light of thy countenance If he find any Eminence of Wisdom Knowledge Counsel Learning still he remembers that it cometh down from the Father of Lights James 1.17 But the Ignorance or want of Consideration of this is that which puffeth up a Man by carrying that Glory which is indeed due to God unto himself A Man cannot have a little more Knowledge than he sees in another but presently it swells him 1 Cor. 8.1 he thinks higher of himself than he ought to think Rom. 12.3 If he get a little Wealth presently he concludes Deuteronom 8.17 My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth If he hath been successful in his Counsels he presently bespeaks himself with the insolent Assyrian Isa 10.13 By the strength of my hand have I done it and by my wisdom for I am prudent And what a truly wise Heart saith to God Psalm 21.13 Be thou exalted in thy own strength this proud Fool says to himself and so much as he can makes himself God stopping the Current of that Glory at himself which would naturally run unto God as the Rivers into the Sea and thereby the Man filleth himself beyond his proportion till he surfeit upon that which belongs not unto him And therefore the Prophet well saith Hab. 2.4 His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him his Heart is out of his due place and situation and consequently as he disorders other things so he ruines himself for the eternal Wisdom and Goodness of God doth communicate his Goodness to every thing in that place and situation which he hath appointed for it and if the Heart get up above that place which God hath appointed for it it is no wonder if it miss of his Blessing by reason of its disorder and with Herod find his Vengeance for its Presumption CHAP. XVII Of Prayer THUS far concerning the Mortification of our Lusts by the help of Meditation the next is Prayer God as he is the Original of all Being so he is the Fountain of all that Good which is or can be in the Creature and this Goodness is derived to it from God by such means as he hath appointed and is most natural and suitable to the Creature Man is essentially depending upon God as well as other Creatures here is the difference other Creatures are placed in a greater distance from God and therefore he conveys his Goodness unto them by more mediate and inferiour means Man as he was created in a Perfection nearer unto God even in his own Image so consequently in a nearer degree and relation unto him and therefore though all things are in their Nature dependant upon him yet Man hath ability to know his Dependance and therefore not only to be dependent but to be dependent upon him and therefore upon all occasions might make his immediate Address to God to whom he was immediately subject Now Prayer and Thanksgiving is nothing else but the actual exercise of that Dependance we have upon God Psal 50.15 Call upon me in the day of trouble I will deliver thee and