as it were a Confederacy against us to turn us out of all yet Ego exultabo in Deo I will rejoyce in my God even in the God of my Salvation And Calvin saith My joy is not founded upon the Creature nor upon external enjoyments therefore let all things be brought into confusion here below nay let God himself seem to stand frowning over us yet saies he will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Joy is the sweet motion of the Soul in a full contentment of heart and complacency of Spirit upon some good set before it Now here the Prophet sees all discouraging below he turns his Eyes up to Heaven and he sees a certainty there he sees stability there and therefore he rejoyces in the Lord and Joys in the God of his Salvation I will rejoice in the Lord. Who is meant by Lord here I will rejoyce in Jehovah the God of my Salvation Jehovah is a Title given unto God the Father setting forth his self-being and self-sufficiency and giving existence unto all Creatures but the Title Jehovah is attributed also unto the Son and so I understand it here in this Text I will rejoice in Jehovah that is in Christ Jesus who may be called Jehovah not only as he hath a sufficiency in himself but as he gives existence and being unto all the promises of the Covenant of Grace in whom they are yea and Amen and on this account I take it that the Title Jehovah is often given unto Jesus Christ the second Person I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation that is in my Lord my Saviour my dear Jesus and my Redeemer and so from the words you may observe this proposition Doct. That there is enough in Christ Jesus alone for the Souls full rejoycing and triumph in all cases and conditions Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Let things go how they will in the world as to my outward Concerns yet the ground of my joy that is never taken from me Although the Fig-tree do not blossom although there shall be no fruit in the Vine although the labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields shall yield no meat the Flocks shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herd in the Stall yet my Joy that abides the ground of my Joy that cannot be taken from me 't is not in the Creature 't is not upon Earth but 't is in Heaven 't is not in Man 't is in the Lord 't is not in the confluence of these things that are coming and going and in an uncertain enjoyment but it is in the Lord who never fails saies David in the 2 Sam. 23.5 Though my House be not so with God my Family is not as I would have it to be I cannot rectify all the disorders of my House and settle things as I would my house is not with God as I would have it according to my hearts desire yet God hath made with me an everlasting Covenant of Grace and this is all my Salvation and all my desire The word that is translated desire here in the Hebrew signifies also delight this is all my Salvation and all my delight as we may read it here is the Joy of my heart my delight is here Gods Covenant of Grace stands sure with me and therein will I rejoyce as if David had said things go ill with me here below the Sword is threatned never to depart from my House while I live that I must be a man of trouble and of war to the end of my daies what breaches may be made upon my Kingdom and what breeches may be made in my Family the Lord only knows yet the Covenant that stands sure and that is all my delight my heart centers here and I will comfort my self in the Lord my God And if we search into the Psalms there we shall find that David does frequently under great disasters make his boast of God Providences were frowning and he seemed to be driven out of all yet saies he The Lord God is my refuge he is the Horn of my Salvation my Sanctuary and high Tower and I will rejoyce and let all the righteous rejoice and be glad in him In the handling of this proposition there are these things that we shall propose to consider and unfold to you First What Jesus Christ is Secondly What he hath and Thirdly What he will do for the believing Soul that the believer may take comfort and rejoyce in him at all times whatsoever his condition is First What Jesus Christ is that the Prophet doth here so comfort himself in and rejoice and make his boast of First He is glorious in his Person a very glorious person he is not one like him in Heaven nor in Earth what is said concerning Saul in the 1 Sam. 9.2 we may in allusion apply unto Christ that he was a choice young man a goodly there was not among the Children of Israel a goodlier Person then he from the shoulders upward he was higher than any of the People I only allude to it Jesus Christ is a most choice excellent one a very goodly and a very lovely Person he is higher both by head and shoulders than any of his Brethren a Person all glorious a Person all over lovely and beautiful in Can. 5.16 His mouth is most sweet yea he is altogether lovely this is my beloved c. But I shall descend into particulars and shew you wherein Jesus Christ is such a sufficient ground of rejoycing and of comfort to the believing Soul that hath an interest in him in all conditions and I shall here shew you wherein it appeareth that the glory of Christs Person is such a ground of rejoycing to us at all times And that will appear in his Mediatory Constitution as God-man in one Person Jesus is a Mediator a days Man an umpire between God and Man one that hath come between God and Man to make peace for us and the glory of his Person lies in his mediatory constitution as he is God-man so he is a most glorious Person Now this Title of Mediator is often given him in Scripture in Heb. 8.6 he is called the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 9.15 the Mediator of the New Testament and Heb. 12.24 To Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling So 1 Tim. 2.5 This was such a one as Job wished for in Job 9.33 Neither is there any days-man between us that might lay his hand upon us both Now there are two things that are requisite for the compleating and accomplishing of a Mediator First He must be equally related to the Persons between whom he comes Secondly He must be impartial and faithfully indifferent now both these are found in Jesus Christ First A Mediator I say must be equally stated between and
saith the Lord so as I will never cast thee off I will never give thee a Bill of Divorce I will be thy Husband for ever and thou shalt be my Spouse for ever The relation is alwaies pleadable And in your near and intimate union with himself as you stand in relations of grace to him so you stand in relations of grace to the Father You are the Adopted Children of God God the Father of Christ is your Father and he is alwaies your Father and you are alwaies his Children nothing can come between nothing can cause him to cast you out and disinherit you having received you into this firm into this intimate union you are Heirs being made one with Christ you are Joynt-Heirs with Jesus Christ Heirs of God once an Heir and for ever an Heir so as all the blessed things of the purchase of Christ Jesus and the whole Inheritance of Christ Jesus is before you 't is yours and for you And now Christian what a ground of rejoycing is here for you What though your outward comforts are coming and going they are fading and vanishing It may be you have your hands full of them to day and to morrow they will be gone and you shall see them no more for ever yet know that you have an abiding ground of Joy in Christ Jesus for he it is that maintains your union with himself he hath not only united you but he keeps you in union and he maintains all the gracious relations of the union both with him and also with his Father so as though you have not a Friend upon Earth you may go and say well I have a Friend in Heaven I have not a Father upon Earth ay but I have a Father in Heaven I have not a Husband upon Earth ay but I have a Husband in Heaven I have not a faithful Brother upon Earth ay but I have a sincere hearted Brother in Heaven the relations of Grace they hold and they are alwaies pleadable and improveable And then Eightly In the eighth and last place Jesus Christ is making glorious provisions in Heaven and will in due time glorify all his people with himself for ever saies Christ Jesus It is expedient for you that I go away 't is for your good it was for your good that I came and it is for your good that I staid so long and it is for your good that now I go away For I go to prepare a place for you In my Fathers House are many mansions and I go to make these mansions ready for you I go to Heaven as your fore-runner Consider Jesus as your fore-runner that is entered in for you before-hand making Heaven ready preparing the Crown and the Kingdom for you now though you be robbed of your earthly comforts you cannot be robbed of your Heavenly glory you may be spoiled of your Treasures here upon Earth but you cannot be cheated of your Treasures in Heaven Why Jesus Christ is there to secure it and he hath it in possession he is there as your fore-runner he is there to make all ready I will Father saies he that those that thou hast given me be with me where I am and the glory that thou hast given to me be bestowed upon them that they may be one as thou Father and I are one Now under all your vicissitudes and changes and emptyings and spoylings in this world look up to Christ Jesus and see Heaven sure in him and see glory sure in him and see a Crown and a Kingdom sure in his hand take comfort then Christians in all your necessities here below in the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Prophet do you alwaies glory and rejoyce in him Vse All that I shall super-add shall be only in a sentence or two unto Sinners for as to Saints how they should come to improve Christ Jesus and to live by faith upon him in all conditions I shall shew you afterward if God gives the opportunity but here in a word let Sinners consider how miserable their state and condition is Why Sirs you have heard that there is an abiding ground of joy in Christ Jesus for the believer whatsoever his state is But do you consider that none of this belongs to you all this comfort belongs to Saints not to you you have no part in it there is an abiding ground of terrour of sorrow and of bitterness that belongs to you because you are apart from Christ that hath such a fulness of all joy in him for believers Take heed therefore how you content your selves in a Christless state and how you bless your selves whilest you are remote from Jesus Christ and without a part and interest in him thou art not under the blessing but under the curse there is the flaming Sword that hangs over thy head and there is the hand writing that is over thee upon the wall Let then the Sinner tremble on the consideration of his perishing condition in which he is out of Christ And let it be an inviting word to all of you who have not yet made your close with Jesus that you enquire after him that you earnestly pursue after him for your rest and your peace your comfort and your blessedness it is all in him and can only be obtained by a closure with him SERMON IV. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will Joy in the God of my Salvation THe Proposition that we are upon from the words is this Doct. That there is enough in Christ Jesus alone for the Souls full rejoycing and triumph whatsoever his condition be in this world Before I come to that which I further proposed to consider and speak to viz. how the believer should be helped to live a life of faith upon Christ Jesus unto his spiritual joy and comfort in all conditions I shall alittle insist upon and labour to clear to you the Souls interest in this Jesus that hath such abiding grounds of joy at all times in him saies the Prophet here in the text Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation I shall insist upon the Pronoun my and labour to clear the believers standing that he may know his interest and that he is indeed united unto Christ Jesus it is not in Christ at large that a Person can glory in but it is in Christ under or in a peculiar Gospel relation unto his Soul it is not in Christ in general but in Christ that his Soul is interested in that he can rejoice in in all conditions and this I suppose is an inquiry that all of you will be desirous should be spoken to viz. Qu. How the believer may know that he hath an interest in Christ Jesus That this glorious and blessed Jesus this full Jesus is his Jesus his Saviour That he may be able to say with the Prophet here Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation
rich are soon made poor and as to your relations that you at present take comfort in now they are and anon they are not Parents Children Friends Comforters Counsellors they die away from us and we see them and we know them no more for ever and which of you that are here in the Lord's presence that may not sit down weep over your broken pitchers and say This once I had and that once I had but now I have it not once I was full but now I am empty once I was lifted up on high but now I am brought down very low once I was a lender but now I am a borrower once I had most comfortable relations none happier than I in a tender Father in a loving Yoke-fellow in a desirable Child in a faithful Friend but now it is quite otherwise they are all like Jonah's Gourd that grew up and withered on a sudden This you may see in the verse before the Text the Figg tree that blossoms not the fruit of the Vine and the labour of the Olive they fail and the Fields yield no meat the Flocks are cut off from the fold and there is no herd in the stall The Lord you see hath given us but a weak tenure to all these outward enjoyments and he maintains a Soveraignty over every comfort that he is pleased to bestow upon us that so we shall hold all that we have in this world at great uncertainties and must day by day stand to the allowance of the great disposer of Heaven who will sometimes give and will sometimes take what he hath given Secondly The Lord Jesus Christ is and hath whatsoever the Scripture hath said and much more than we are able to conceive of him in our largest and utmost apprehensions He is and he hath according unto all Old Testament Prophecies and Predictions in the utmost Exposition that can be made of them in the largest extent and he is and he hath according to the utmost word of the revelation that is made of him in the New Testament and you are not able to conceive and apprehend what he is and what he hath in the considering of the Scripture expressions that are made use of to set him forth unto you You cannot measure Christ by your thoughts and imaginations but when you have conceived all that you can Christ is more and Christ hath more than you are able to apprehend of him The Scripture tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ hath a fulness of grace in him now you are not able to apprehend what this fulness of grace is it is an infinite fulness and you are not able to comprehend it in your finite thoughts how comprehensive soever they are The Gospel tells you of the outgoings of Christ's heart unto sinners but you are not able to apprehend nor to measure what is the love of the heart of Christ to poor sinners but when you have conceived never so much of his love there is more still than you are able to grapple The Scripture tells you of a great power that is in Christ conceive never so much of his power what it is that he is able to do for you in a strait and how wonderfully he is able to work there is yet a greater extent in the power of Christ than your apprehensions can reach The Gospel tells you of an All-fulness or an Allness that is in the Lord Jesus Christ Sum up all that you can think of and all that the Scripture can help you to conceive of to add unto this Allness of Christ and yet behold you are not able to tell what his All is you may soon tell what your All is or you may tell what anothers All is what a great man 's All is or what a Prince's All is or what a Kingdom 's All is but you cannot tell what Christ's All is but when you have thought and conceived when you have dived and reached until you are weary still the grace the power the love the fulness of the Lord Jesus is above your reach and there is more than ever entered into your hearts to conceive of him This you have Isa 55.8.9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your waies my waies saith the Lord for as the Heavens are higher than the Earth so are my waies higher than your waies and my thoughts than your thoughts See how the Lord tells us that he is advanced above all our imaginations of him Now the thoughts of Christ's heart are alwaies towards us and alwaies proportioned unto the fulness that he hath received Now says he My thoughts are not like to your thoughts you thought that I could relieve only in such a case or I could help only in such a strait you thought I could do thus and that I could do thus and do no more but alas says Christ you are mistaken there is as great a distance between my thoughts and your thoughts as there is between Heaven and Earth so as the fulness of Christ Jesus is a most glorious and blessed fulness enough for all your Soul's relief and to spare Thirdly Christ's fulness of grace is alwaies subjectively and objectively the same First It is alwaies subjectively the same Christ's Spring is not a rising and a falling Spring but the waters of it are alwaies of the same depth the waters of this Fountain do not admit of an ebb and of a flow but they are alwaies at one and the same height Christ hath not a more and a less his fulness will not admit of an augmentation and a diminution but notwithstanding all the overflowings of the fountain still it is a fountain-fulness notwithstanding all the streams that have run from it still it is as full as ever notwithstanding all the thousands of Souls that Jesus hath relieved and empty hearts that Jesus hath filled still he is as full of grace as ever as full of mercy as ever There is no less in this fountain as it is subjectively considered upon all that he hath given and dispensed but he is as rich in grace and there is as great a plenty in him as there was when he first opened his fountain unto sinners Col. 1.19 For it hath pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell There it doth alwaies abide and the same fulness without change the same fulness without diminution That fulness that God placed in his Son there it doth abide in the glory of its utmost height Heb. 13.8 Jesus is the same yesterday to day and for ever This is that that is said of your Jesus his fulness was a great fulness at first why he is the same to day spend Christians what you will and draw out of the fountain what you can it will be as full to morrow as it is to day Yesterday to day and the same for ever Secondly Christs fulness is alwaies objectively the same unto all those that do possess it the Soul that
if they had not something in reserve to mend their condition they were poorly on 't saies Christ John 16.33 In the world ye shall have tribulation The Saints have nothing but sorrows tryals temptations troubles and afflictions here But there is a glory which remains a glory that is in reserve that is to be revealed that is another manner of inheritance then what is possessed and enjoyed by them here Col. 3.4 For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God The life of the Saints is a hidden life God hath hid it from the world he hath hid their estate he hath hid their riches he hath hid their glory from the world they do not know what they are born and entitled to but when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory as for the men of the world you may see all they have for they have their All here All the portion that God intends to give them it is possest by them here and therefore they are called men which have their portion in this life Psal 17.14 And thus 't is said of the rich man in the Parable Luke 16.25 That he received his good things in this life And Abraham said Son remember that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things thou hadst thy portion and thy All here all the comfort and all the peace and all the honour and all the riches and all the plenty that ever God intends to bestow upon wicked men they have it here but now besides all that the Saints have here they have a hope that is laid up for them in Heaven They can look beyond and over things that are seen unto those things that are not seen that is with a carnal eye they can look from present things that are perishing unto spiritual things that are eternal 2 Cor. 4.18 Whilest we look not saies the Apostle at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We look at those things that are not seen at the unseen things of another world and Rom. 5.2 We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God We have saies he peace with God now which is something of Heaven let down into our hearts but this is not all but we rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and Rom. 8.17 18. Being Children we are heirs heirs of God and Joynt-heirs with Christ and saies he there is a glory that shall be revealed that all the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with it 2 Tim. 4.8 There is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but to all them also that love his appearing Now saies he that I have fought the good fight now that I have finished my course now that I am come to the end of my journey now that I am a going out of the world and leaving all that I have here there is a Crown of righteousness which is in reserve for me that is just ready to be set upon my head and 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled which fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you It is not known what a Saint is whilest he is here in this world nor yet what a Saint hath what he hath in reversion what he is called to and what he shall be put into the possession of 1 Joh. 3.2 Beloved now are we the Sons of God but it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is In speaking to this Proposition we shall shew you what Hope the Saints have laid up in Heaven for them A few particulars we shall alittle glance upon for the help of your Faith by the way But what the Hope of a Saint is which is laid up in Heaven for him is that which no man upon Earth is able to tell you The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 2.9 That eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him And the Apostle Paul was mounted up into the third Heavens and when he came down he tells us that the glory that was there and the high and blessed enjoyments that are there they were unspeakable he was not able to utter them 2 Cor. 12.4 He was caught up into Paradise and heard unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter unspeakable words unutterable words he was not able to utter them when he was come down again He says at the 3d verse Whether he was in the body or out of the body he could not tell but when he was come down again he was not able to tell what he heard and what he saw when he was in the transport But yet there is something that the Word of Truth hath made known to us for the reviving of our spirits and the strengthening of our hope whilst we are in our Journey and some of those things I shall briefly lay before you As First In Heaven the Saints shall have the perfection of all grace Here they have grace but grace is under-age grace is in a great deal of weakness grace is mixed with a great deal of corruption that is there is a great deal of sin in the heart with grace they are not all grace grace doth not stand alone grace is not in its full strength grace here is so low and so little so born down and so often overtopt with corruption as that it can hardly be seen by another it can hardly be discerned by themselves That a Child of God is oftentimes at a loss to know what to make of his condition he knows not whether he hath any grace or no. Says Christ Matth. 14.31 O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt The same may be said to us all O ye of little faith O ye of little love O ye of little patience O ye of little humility O ye of little self-denial grace is in a great deal of weakness here grace indeed lieth under a growing promise and they that have received but a little receive it as the earnest of a great deal but they have only the earnest here But now when they come in Heaven there is perfection all their graces are put into perfect strength there will be no weakness in their love to God there will be no short comings in their submission to the will of God but in
his People where they should dwell Jesus the fore-runner that is entered into Heaven he is gone before to search out a place to choose out a place and to prepare a place for you John 14 2. I go saith he to prepare a place for you and this place that Christ is gone to prepare 't is in the Fathers House there shall the Saints abode and dwelling be for ever and there is none that shall ever turn them out of that House but to eternity they shall peaceably possess it 6. In Heaven shall be the consummation of the Marriage between Christ and the believer here the Marriage is entered upon Christ and the believing Soul they are betrothed together as Hosea 2.19 20. And I will betroth thee unto me for ever but the betrothment here is like a young man when he betroths a Virgin they live asunder after they are betrothed so Christ and your Souls live asunder you are betrothed here by grace and you come together now and then in an ordinance and now and then Christ lets out of his heart unto you and now and then you let out of your heart to Christ and now and then Christ sends you a token of his love and a letter of his love wherein he gives a manifestation of his love but still you are asunder but in Heaven the Marriage shall be consummated 2 Cor. 5.6 While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and we live asunder but saies he when we come to depart we shall be with Christ Phil. 1.23 and we shall ever be with the Lord 1 Thes 4.17 This is a blessed day indeed that will bring Jesus Christ and your Souls together never more to be separated never more to be at a distance never to be out of the presence of one another more Communion with God it is sweet now and when Jesus Christ lets out but a little of himself O the Soul he cries out evermore give me of this Bread O saies he that I were to go down no more but this communion is clouded and the sense of it lost but when we come to be dissolved and to enter into Heaven then saies he we shall be with the Lord. 7. Again The Saints have a hope laid up for them in Heaven of enjoying fellowship and society with all sanctified ones in Christ Jesus Heaven will bring all the Saints together and keep them in an eternal communion There are two things that have respect to the Saints in Heaven 1. They shall have a full knowledge one of another And 2. They shall have communion one with another 1. They shall have knowledge one of another There shall be no strangers in Heaven indeed it is questioned by some whether the Saints shall know one another in Heaven but truly it is out of question with me for the Saints shall be all of one Society they shall be all of one Company they shall be all of one intire body and surely it is inconsistent with the glory of that state for one member to have no knowledge of another if that you be of a company here upon earth let the company be 40 50 100 or 500 by abode together and by converse and by residence together and meeting together you come to have a knowledge one of another and can it be thought that an eternal abode together in Heaven won't give you the knowledge one of another but the Scripture seems very plain and clear in this case in Mat. 17.3 4. Jesus there taketh Peter James and John and goes up into an high mountain and there he was transfigured before them and indeed it was a little corner of Heaven that he carried them into there and he brings down Moses and Elias and Peter presently knew them and he said unto Jesus Lord it is good for us to be here if thou wilt let us make here three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias Peter had never seen Moses and Elias for they were dead many years before he was born and yet as soon as ever they did appear with Christ Peter knew them this is Moses and this is Elias Sirs the knowledge of the Saints won't be decreased but heightned in Heaven some of you it may be lye under mourning of Spirit for some of your relations that are gone to Heaven well wait but a little while and you shall know them again But let me tell you you shall not know them after a carnal manner but after a spiritual manner according to that state 2 Cor. 5.16 Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh Christ shall not be known hereafter after the flesh and when you come in Heaven you won't know one another after the flesh yet in a spiritual manner you shall know one another Parents shall know their Children and Children shall know their Parents in a spiritual manner you shall know those Servants of God that have taken pains with you here and helped your Souls on to Heaven Some of you often think it may be of Reverend Mr. Armitage that laboured with you in the Lord and some of you remember Reverend Mr Allen that was the Lords mouth unto you many years you that have a hope laid up in Heaven for you you shall follow them in your time and in your order and know them again and all the Servants of the Lord from one end of the world unto the other you shall know those that you have known and you shall know those that you have not known you shall know Moses and Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Patriarchs And then 2. You shall know them so as to have communion with them you shall sit down which is a note of communion Mat. 8.11 with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven indeed all your knowledge of the Saints and all your fellowship with the Saints it shall all be resolved into the glorifying of God so as God shall be uppermost in all and you shall see God through all and you shall triumph in God and sing praises to God through all yet as glorified Saints together and as members of the same body so there will be a fellowship and communion together in the enjoyment of God and communion with him 8. There is a hope which you have laid up for you in Heaven of Gods being all in all to you in 1 Cor. 15.18 And when all things shall be subdued to him then shall the Son also himself be subject to him that put all things under him that God may be all in all The dispensation that Christ hath now in his hand in that he is the Lord of the world and the government of it shall be laid down when the whole body of believers shall be brought home and all the election of Gods grace brought in yet then shall Christ be glorious in the eyes of the Saints but God then shall be all in all that is all
believers shall be placed in the immediate presence of God where shall be the full display of his glory upon them to all eternity an immediate and powerful display of the glory of the Divine Majesty upon their Souls to eternity here the Saints can see the face of God but in a glass 1 Cor. 13.12 For now we see through a glass darkly it is but a dim glass that we have here to see God in but then saies he face to face Moses you know did importune the Lord that he might see his glory Exod. 33.18 saies the Lord at the 20 v. Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and live in thy present mortal state saies God thou art not able to bear my immediate glory but I will cause some of my goodness to pass before thee to satisfy thee for the present So God he makes some discoveries of himself in the glass of some Gospel-Institution but now in Heaven there is face to face in the immediate presence of the Lord ever to behold his glory These are some of those blessed things that are laid up for the Saints in Heaven that their hopes and expectations should be upon whilst they are here Appl. I shall now make a little Application of this Use 1. If that the Saints have such a Hope laid up for them in Heaven Then here you may see the difference between them and the men of this world who are taken up with the good things that are here below They cry out Who will shew us any good They look for things that are seen and that are pleasing to the flesh and they look no further O Sirs how poorly provided are the men of the world with all their hundreds and with all their thousands when they have all their good things here and they have nothing to come Do not you see that the portion of God's People is another manner of portion than the portion of the wicked in all their plenty and fulness Says the Prophet Jer. 10.16 The portion of Jacob is not like them So the portion of a Saint is not like the portion of a Sinner Though God hath not made you rich in this world and hath not given you the fulness and the honours that the men of this world do possess if you have a Hope laid up in Heaven for you hath not he dealt better by you Hagar and her Child they are packt away out of the family with a Loaf of bread and a bottle of water and that was their portion and allowance when the Inheritance was reserved for Isaac Gen. 21.14 So the Lord he gives the good things of this life unto wicked men he throws them in common unto them and they are sent away out of his presence with them and when the Loaf is done and the Bottle is empty they have nothing more to betake themselves unto then they must sit down in eternal misery Now under all the short commons that the Saints have here they have a Hope that is laid up in Heaven You see then that the portion of a Saint is not like the portion of a worldly man Use 2. See here the dignity and the honour that the Lord hath put upon all his Saints The worth of a Child of God is not known here like his Lord and Master he is despised and contemned and reproached they are men and women of scorn and contempt of sorrow and bitterness in the world but there is honour that the Lord puts upon them though the world count them the off-scouring of all things as those Worthies were of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. They had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonment They were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy And who were these These were Heirs of Heaven Children of the Promise these were persons that had a Hope laid up for them in Heaven and in all their disgraces and contempts here were waiting for a glory that was to be revealed Great honour hath the Lord put upon his Saints in the Hope that is laid up in Heaven for them Use 3. If that there be a Hope which the Saints have laid up for them in Heaven a Hope that will hold then all of you look into your selves and examine your Hopes and see that you be not mistaken in them There is a Hope that will stand you in no stead We read of the Hope of the Hypocrite that is like unto the giving up of the Ghost which is but as the Spider's web he shall trust to it and it shall deceive him O Sirs look well to your Hopes that you be not mistaken consider whether your Hope be laid up in Heaven whether you have cast Anchor within the Vail examine your state and condition to see how 't is with you lest at last you should miss of all this glory that the Saints hope for and in the examination of your selves look to these two things which the Apostle speaks of in the verse before the Text One is Faith and the other is Love First Look to your Faith and see whether you have made a true close with Jesus Christ True Faith it unbottoms the Soul from all things on this side Christ and founds the Soul upon Christ himself Now if you would know whether your Hope be good see whether your Faith be sound have you taken the Lord Jesus Christ for yours for your Prophet and for your Priest and for your King have you made a close with him and have you resigned up your selves unto him examine your selves about your believing Secondly Examine your selves about your Love When Jesus Christ came to put Peter upon the examination of himself says he Simon Peter lovest thou me Simon lovest thou me more than these Dost thou love me more than all the world besides that is Christ's meaning more than his Nets more than all his employments in the world So hath God and Jesus Christ the uppermost room in thy heart are they principal in thy affections are they more to thee than all the world besides dost thou love God and love Jesus Christ more than all Examine your selves by your Faith and by your Love and take heed that you do not take up in a false Hope that will deceive you Use 4. Again If that you have a Hope that is laid up in Heaven for you then comfort your selves with this Hope under all the discomfortures that you meet withal in the world The Apostle he makes this use of the point 1 Thes 4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words With what words That says he we shall meet the Lord in the Air and so shall be ever with him Comfort one another and comfort your own hearts with these words You meet with many losses here and
of rejoycing for us in Christ Jesus upon this his personal constitution as God-man to be a Mediator for us and here First We have dignity Secondly Tranquillity Thirdly Sanctity Fourthly Stability And Fifthly Familiarity given to us or brought in upon us 1. Hereby is the nature of man raised unto unspeakable honour and glory in that Jesus Christ the Second Person hath assumed our nature and taken it into union with his own divine nature in his Person therein does he now reign upon the Throne in Heaven at the right hand of God herein is the nature of man most unspeakably advanced and dignifyed The nature of man was very low before Man was made of the earth of a little red earth man was before but a contemptible Creature but now what honour is put upon it that Jesus Christ hath taken our nature and united it unto the Divine nature that nature that was despised before is now honoured honourable and worthy It hath glory and dignity from the Lord Jesus put upon it saies the Apostle 1 Cor. 15.43 44. The body of man or the nature of man it is both born and it dies in dishonour ay but it is raised in glory The body of Man is a corruptible body 't is a dying body It hath a sentence of death that hangs over it as soon as ever it hath a being but now though it be sown in dishonour yet it shall be raised in glory there is glory that waits upon the body of man or upon mans whole nature Phil. 3.21 Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like to his own glorious body c. So as there is unspeakable honour that is given unto our nature in that Christ Jesus hath taken it so near unto himself and advanced it upon the Fathers Throne in Heaven we are here under the contempt and disgrace of men but it matters not Christians they cannot take away your glory The glory of your nature is not laid in the breath of men but it is founded here in Christ Jesus's assumption of our nature and uniting it to the divine nature and if indeed the enemies of the Lords people could take our nature from Christ Jesus then they might take away our glory and our honour but he hath inseparably and everlastingly united our nature unto his divine nature therefore our honour is such as can never be taken away it is counted a great honour for an Ambassadour to be sent forth in the name of some great Prince to personate him in another Country but my friends what is it for Jesus Christ to assume our nature and to personate man before his Father in Heaven this is a greater honour that is put upon us than if God had made man the Lord of all the Angels in Heaven therefore let this satisfy you under all the reproaches and contempts that you meet withall here in the world by one and another though despised and though contemned here and there by a few yet your honour in the Lord that abides 2. In and upon the appearance of Jesus Christ as Mediator for us there is a full firm and lasting peace made between God and us Jesus Christ he came as a Mediator between two to reconcile both and make them one and this he hath done by the blood of his Cross Col. 1.20 and 21. Jesus hath reconciled God and Man together he hath taken away the wrath that the law of God had to denounce against man he hath slain the enmity of our natures he hath brought these two enemies together and made them one in his own mediatory hand so as now you may look unto God and be at peace with him you may see Heaven and all the powers of Heaven reconciled to you Rom. 5.1 Therefore being justified by saith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ and not only so v. 11. But we also Joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have received the attonement here is the blessing mentioned in the Text I will rejoice in the Lord I will Joy in the God of my Salvation but how must I consider him why consider this Lord as Mediator making peace through the blood of his Cross and then Christians you may Joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ because it is by him that you have received the attonement Jesus Christ hath satisfied and reconciled God to you he hath appeased God he hath brought over the heart of God to the sinner that now he may take comfort and encouragement in him and go to him as to a Father in Christ Jesus Eph. 2.13 14. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ for he is our peace who hath made both one c. Is not this a matter of rejoycing for you that now you may go unto God as your God you may look up to God and see him reconciled to you and see all the properties of his nature looking towards you in a friendly way that you may see God over-ruling all providences dispensations for your interest and advantage you may go and comfort your selves in your God you may encourage your selves in him you may go and rejoice in the Lord as your God through the blood of the Cross of Jesus your Mediator 3. Hereby are our corrupt natures sanctified and made holy unto God Jesus Christ becoming man he has consecrated unto the Lord that part of humane nature that he came of and did belong to he hath taken off our nature and he hath offered it up unto the Lord and so consecrated the whole lump that it was taken out of this was typed out of old by the first fruits that did consecrate the rest Levit. 2.1 Or of the Meat-offering here you see was a part taken and offered up unto the Lord and the whole was hereby consecrated Now Jesus Christ he comes of that part of the world that was the Elect and the chosen of God he did not come in General of all mankind though in a general way God hath said that all Nations are of one blood yet Jesus Christ did not come so promiscuously and in the general but he came of that particular part of man that the Lord had chosen and set apart for himself and that is the Elect of the world and as for Reprobates he came not of them he was not of that rank and number as you may see John 17.16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world and v. 19. For their sakes sanctify I my self that they also might be sanctified through the truth For their sakes that is for those that were the Chosen of God and given to Jesus Christ by the Father as v. 6. I have manifested thy name unto the men that thou gavest me out of the world for their sakes I sanctify my self he takes our nature and offers it to God and consecrates
it as a part or the first fruits of the whole whereby the whole nature of the Elect of God are dedicated to the Lord and sanctified and made holy or way is made for the sanctifying of it I may allude unto that Scripture in Rom. 11.16 For if the first fruit be holy the lump is also holy and if the root be holy so are the branches I know this is not the meaning of this Text I only allude to it as the Apostle saies in that case so I say in this case if the first fruits be holy the lump is also holy and if Jesus the root be holy then all the branches are holy to be under a peculiar and special consecration to the Lord now here Christian is a ground of rejoycing for thee thou art born a child of wrath and thy nature is a sinful nature and there is by nature nothing but sin dwelling in thee ay but Jesus Christ he hath taken thy nature he hath worn it and he hath consecrated thy nature to God and made way for the sanctifying of it So as now way is made through Jesus Christs appearing in our flesh for the consecrating of thee unto God and making of thee holy so as thou mayest rejoice notwithstanding the remains of sin that are in thee notwithstanding all the impurity and defilements that are to be found in thy heart thou hast a stained polluted Soul thou lookest into thy self and thou seest thy self so spotted and defiled that thou art ashamed of thy self well but look upon Jesus Christ and consider how thy nature is sanctified in him he sits upon the Throne all holy and thy nature that he did assume is holy why Christian there is holiness in the root for thee there is holiness in Christ thy head for thee and because he is holy thou also shalt be holy because he hath sanctified thy nature therefore thy nature shall be sanctified for your sakes saies he I sanctify my self that you also may be holy I am holy and you also shall be holy Analogically that is in some proportion in your degree and measure you shall be in a suitableness to my holiness that you may be made meet for me Saies the Apostle in 1 Thes 5.23 The very God of peace sanctify you wholly ay it shall be so because Jesus Christ hath sanctified himself and your nature is sanctified in him and therefore you shall in due time be made holy and therefore rejoice though defiled and sinful for a season yet you shall be made holy and without spot and blameless Christ hath made way for this Fourthly Hereby way is made for our stability for an eternity and perpetuity for us in grace and in glory Jesus Christ he is a Mediator for ever he hath taken our Nature to wear it for ever he will never lay aside our Nature again no not to eternity well therefore we who are consecrated by him and reconciled to God by the blood of his Cross have a perpetual standing in his Grace and shall have an everlasting abiding in that state of Glory unto which we shall be advanced by him and through him all Enemies cannot unthrone Christ Ages cannot remove Christ off from his Throne in Heaven but there he is and there he shall ever Rule and Sit. Now because he Sits there thence is your state in Grace sure Why if he keep our Nature in conjunction with his own Divine Nature then he abides alwaies full and powerful in reference unto the Concerns that he is to manage and the work that he is to do for you full of strength and powerful therein able to make all effectual he Sits there in Heaven to that end This makes him so much concerned about the bringing in and gathering home of those that he did appear for in our flesh Joh. 10.16 See how Christ doth concern himself for all those for whom he was a Mediator There are others says he that are not of this fold I have some among the Jews and among the Gentiles I have some of all Nations these I must gather home Christ will not lose any And those that are brought home he will maintain in his Grace because he is an ever-living and an everlasting Mediator and a powerful Mediator Why under all your temptations Christians in your way that you meet withall to cast away your confidence and to renounce your hope in the Grace of God Do you glory and triumph in Christ Jesus that is our standing Mediator in Heaven comfort your selves in him for as long as he abides in our Nature he will concern himself for us and as he hath his Eye alwaies upon the Glory of God so upon the good of sinners and being a Mediator he is carried on with unbiassed ends and aims to act impartially and indifferently between both Parties therefore whilst Jesus Christ is Mediator your state in Grace is certain whilst Jesus Christ hath God's Glory to care for your Salvation is sure for while he concerns himself for the Glory of God he must concern himself for the Salvation of his People These two Interests are made one by Jesus Christ the Mediator And then Fifthly In the 5th and last place Hereby we have familiarity and communion with God Jesus Christ having as Mediator made peace for us now behold he lets Believers into a comfortable enjoyment of God Now we may look towards Heaven and see God the Father in the face of Jesus Christ He therefore that hath seen the Son saith Christ hath seen the Father also Joh. 14.9 What Do you say Shew us the Father What Have I been so long time with you and yet hast thou not known me Do you not know that I have reconciled both together and made way for communion that you now in and through me may converse with the Father as your God and Father Jesus as our Mediator hath given us boldness with God and let us into the enjoyment of communion with God and hath given us blessed familiarity with God that now we shall enioy him in a Gospel way here and and have certain hopes of enjoying of him in a glorious way in Heaven ever to be in his presence and to behold his glory all this comes in by Jesus Christ the Mediator and by the way there is no state and condition into which a Soul may be brought while he is under Grace on this side Heaven but in that state and condition he may hold fellowship and communion with God The three Children did so in the fiery Furnace Daniel did so in the Lion's Den. Jonah did so in the Whale's belly when he went down into the great deep yet there he enjoyed communion with God So as whatsoever your discouragements be here in the flesh yet glory in this that having peace with God through the blood of Jesus you may go to him and say Father You may say My Lord and my God You may converse with him in the way of the
he shall be able to do even to amazement to bear and to suffer to astonishment A little of the Grace of Christ O now patient will it make the Soul under great afflictions and how will it strengthen a poor weak believer to hold on in the face of all difficulties he shall be able to hold pace not only with the Footmen but with the Horsemen by the grace of Christ are we sweetly swiftly and joyfully carried on in the ways of new obedience hence is it that we are oft-times commended unto the grace of the Lord Jesus in divers Epistles I commend you saies the Apostle to the grace of the Lord Jesus and the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you and indeed there needs no more because there is enough for our supply at all times and therefore when we are poor and weak and empty and low in our selves we should look up to Jesus Jesus is alwaies full we know not how to go through such a duty nor how to manage such a condition we have not grace for it and we think we shall sink and fail under discouragements why Christian if indeed thou hadst no more then what thou hast in thy self thou mightest fear this but keep thine Eye upon Jesus he is full and filled for the supply of thee and he will communicate according to thy necessities we may therefore at all times and upon all occasions wait upon him SERMON III. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord I will Joy in the God of my Salvation VVE are shewing you from this Scripture what a constant ground of joy and rejoycing there is in Jesus Christ for the believing Soul at all times and in all conditions as to what Christ is and as to what Christ hath we spake the last day and shall now proceed unto the third particular proposed to be considered 3. And that is what Jesus Christ will do and is a doing for the believing Soul that may be a ground of comfort and joy to him in all his heart saddening conditions and tribulations in this world And first Jesus Christ appears as an Advocate in Heaven at the right hand of God for all believers answering and silencing all accusations and charges brought in against them whereby they are continued in that justified peace state that in their first coming over to God they were stated in There are many failings and provocations in a Christians way and walking with God The remains of sin that yet abide in them they will be rising up and putting forth into the life and life-acts of a Christian But Jesus Christ as his Advocate in Heaven ever stands up before God to see the peace of a Christians state kept Satan that old accuser of the Brethren he is daily observing a Christians walking and viewing a Christians steps to see if he can gather up any thing in his life to improve it and carry it unto God against him and believe it friends he won't better your case as he represents it unto God he won't lessen your fault but he will greaten it and make it worse than it is he is called 1 Pet. 5.8 The adversary of believers The word that we translate adversary some read it a Court adversary one that puts in something against you in the Court of Heaven but I would rather read the word thus one that will charge beyond truth one that will go beyond the bounds of truth in the charges and accusations that he brings in for the word in the Original does import so much one that acts against all rules of justice in the plea's that he shall put in or the charges that he shall deliver against a Christians state in the Court of Heaven Rev. 12.10 he is there called the Accuser of the Brethren which accused them before God day and night he is the old Accuser and Traducer of the Saints at the Bar of Gods justice Now Jesus Christ he alwaies stands up at the right hand of God there to appear as an Advocate on the believers account suing out on the account of his blood new pardons for their renewed transgressions or the continuance of justification and of pardons upon their state so as nothing may be heard in the Court of Heaven against them Jesus Christ stands up to see that a Christians peace with God be not violated and therefore he removes sin as fast as it appears and he answers the accusation as soon as it is made and he silenceth the adversary as soon as he comes Rom. 8.34 Who saies the Apostle shall condemn It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us If sin appears he will remove it and if Satan step in he will silence him he is there upon this account as an Advocate or as an Attorney to answer for you whenever your name is called in Question and therefore saies the Apostle 1 John 2.1 My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not and if any man sin we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous as soon as ever an offence is committed Christ steps up and he pleads your case and he urges the value of his blood that was shed for the remission of sins that your peace with God into which you were brought in your first coming over to him may be maintained Now Christians do but consider this and you will find that it is a ground of joy and comfort in your present state It may be your outward peace is broken in upon you have enemies that have disturbed you as to your outward comforts and as to your outward joy and settlement you have those that have incensed it may be your intimate friends against you that now they stand aloof from you well though it be so yet your peace with God that abides and Jesus Christ as your Advocate continues you in your justified state before God let the Devil do his utmost he shall never incense God against a believer because Jesus Christ is an Advocate alwaies at his right hand speaking for him let him tell never such stories of a Christians carriage and conversation unto the Lord yet he shall never incense God against him You know that he did his utmost to incense God against Job he told the Lord fair stories of him that there was no truth no sincerity in him and that he served him but for the comforts of his state and for the outward advantages that he did enjoy but Jesus Christ he saw the peace of Job kept he was his Advocate then so early and he maintained Job in the love and favour of God and thus will he do for all believers he will silence all accusations and remove all objections and he will continue you in your peace state with God the vertue of Christs death is a continued vertue it is alwaies influential upon the heart of God
hath an interest in Jesus once hath an interest in him for ever and the Soul that is once admitted unto the fountain of Christ Jesus shall never be debarr'd more you have not a coming and a going interest an interest that is to day and may be taken away to morrow indeed your outward comforts they are losable comforts and your outward blessings are spendable God may give you much to day and you may have nothing of all that much to morrow but it is not so here you are not interested in Christ to day and dis-interested in him to morrow but once interested and for ever interested not gracious now and graceless by and by but your interest in the grace of Christ is an everlasting interest and you have the immutable fulness of the Lord Jesus ever to go unto whatever your strait is having once an interest given you in him the Lord doth not give you a part in himself and then take away that part but Christ once yours is for ever yours and your fountain fulness none shall ever be able to take from you nor to deprive you of so as if thou hast once Christ to go unto thou hast alwaies Christ to go unto and if thou doest once discern thy interest in Christ upon good and Gospel substantial grounds thou mayest alwaies glory in the Lord that thou art once interested in Fourthly All Saints have the same Jesus to live upon and the same fulness of Jesus in all its dimensions to go unto The Lord hath not given one believer a greater propriety in himself then he hath given another neither hath one a fuller way prepared for him of going unto Christ than another hath the same Jesus that Abraham had to do with and did live upon is in common for every Son and Daughter of Abraham and the same fulness of Jesus that Abraham had you have in all its dimensions the Lord did not open a Fountain unto Abraham and open only a stream unto you but if you be a Son or Daughter of Abraham you have the same great Ocean to go unto in all its fulness that Abraham had you have the same merits to implead that Abraham had you have the same blood to be washed in and to wash in that any other believer hath and you have the same great and precious promises to apply that another believer hath one believer cannot lay a challenge upon this promise and say it is mine and not yours but 't is yours as well as his the same Fountain in all its dimensions you have to go unto in all your streights that another believer hath and therefore if you have not that strength if you have nor that grace if you have not that riches if you have not that fulness that another believer hath you must blame your felves and not Christ for he offers himself alike unto all and discovers and holds forth his Fountain alike unto all Fifthly There is a vast disproportion between your creature losses and your gains and enjoyments in Christ your losses in the creature they are but shadows and not substance there is an emptiness in the fullest outward condition take it as an outward condition and there is a bitterness in the sweetest outward enjoyment and the losses that you can meet withal in this world they are only such as reach and concern an animal life but now there is more in a little of Christ Jesus then there is in a great deal of the Creature nay in all creature enjoyments so as whatsoever the loss is that you meet withal in the creature a little of Christ Jesus will make it up the least gift of Christs right hand doth far exceed all the gifts of his left hand and one draught of the water of the upper springs is more then all the waters in the nether springs so as though thou meetest with sore losses and great blows and breakings in the outward man yet know that a little of Christ will fill up thy Soul that there will be no want whatsoever thou hast lost it may be Christian that the Creature that thou hast lost would have been enjoyed to thy disadvantage if it had still been kept in thy hand it may be it had been to the loss to the hurt of the possessour but now Jesus Christ is alwaies enjoyed to the advantage and Christ Jesus is such an advantage as will answer all losing disadvantages so as Christian be not overmuch dejected at the passing away of the Creature when there is still enough in Christ to make up the loss that thou hast sustained Sixthly The joy that is drawn from Christ depend not upon sensible things but lives in the Soul when all outward comforts are gone you may as to the world be an undone man broken in your outward estate and yet your joy none can take from you but now whatsoever you have in the Creature if you have not Christ with the creature you have no ground of joy so as Christ he is alwaies a ground of joy whether the Creature be absent or present but the Creature is never so without Christ do but consider the Apostle Paul he had an interest in Christ and he glories in his interest when he had nothing else Rom. 5.3 We have peace with God saies he through our Lord Jesus Christ and we rejoyce in hope of the glory of God and now saies he we glory in tribulation we are spoyled in our goods and we are sore broken and left sorrowful and desolate and forsaken as to outward supports and supporters and yet saies he in the midst of all we glory in tribulation or if you will according unto another Scripture we are saies he but as sorrowful and but as poor 2 Cor. 6.10 For indeed we make many rich we have grace and abundance of grace in Christ Jesus and we are in no want Paul and Silas Acts 16.26 they were in Prison and in the Stocks and yet behold at midnight they break out in singing praises unto God their hearts were full of joy when they had nothing of the Creature in their hands and thus did the Prophet in the text there comes a famine upon all his outward comforts that behold he had nothing to live upon and yet will I rejoice in the Lord we have all in him saies he when we have nothing out of him Joy that is drawn from Christ shall abide in the Soul when all visible creature supports shall fail though his entertainment in the world be very mean and his outward burthens be very great and his poverty very pressing upon his outward man yet the Soul that hath an interest in Christ will joy notwithstanding all this Seventhly Again The Lord Jesus Christ in his Gospel-fulness of grace is under an indispensible obligation to dispense that grace that as the great officer of Heaven he hath received the charge of The fulness of Christ Jesus it is a common fulness it is a fulness for
that will keep up your spirits O pray unto the Lord that he would encrease your Faith Pray for the encrease of this grace above all and be earnest with him that he who hath been the Author would be the promoter of your Faith And for your encouragement Christians let me tell you that the more you believe in Christ Jesus the more 1. In the first place you will glorifie Christ every act of Faith glorifies Christ Jesus it doth glorifie his Fulness it glorifies his Alsufficiency it glorifies his Advancement and Enthronement at the right hand of the Father it glorifies him in his Gospel-Offices as he is intrusted with the Fulness of all grace for you Nay 2. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ doth engage Jesus Christ to come in for your help Every act of Faith doth not only glorifie him but engage him it will awaken his Power and cause him to arise and open his hand and give out more liberally and freely He says therefore unto his Servants many times According to your Faith be it unto you Nay 3. This living upon Jesus Christ is the only way to make your lives comfortable in this world What had this Prophet to comfort his heart with but only this the Lord Jesus Christ resting upon him alone The Figg-tree that was withered and his creature-comforts were gone emptiness and nothingness was before him well says he I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation Behold this it was that made his condition comfortable why Christians you will never have comfort in your own spirits under a loss under a cross and in a time of temptation if you have not Faith upon Christ Jesus and there fix your Souls Nay let me add 4. In the fourth and last place That hereby you shall have confirmation and establishment and settlement in the greatest shakings of providence that may be brought upon your condition And therefore O Christians let me in the winding up of all once more call upon you to live upon and to glory in Christ Jesus alone As to all your comforts in this world you cannot promise your selves they shall abide with you God may empty you from vessel to vessel till he have taken all these away but now there is enough in a naked Jesus to take comfort in there is enough in Jesus Christ alone for you to glory in O come and draw your comforts from Christ and do not draw them from the creature do not draw them from secondary helps but draw them from the fountain do not sit down at the streams but away to the fountain to the Ocean that is alwaies full In every strait have your eye upon Jesus in every cross keep your eye upon Jesus in every loss keep your eye upon Jesus under every strait and trial have recourse to Jesus and acquaint your selves more with him that you may be in the Prophets frame here To rejoyce in the Lord and to joy in the God of your Salvation THE SAINTS Hope in Heaven In one Sermon Together with Freedom from Condemnation in Christ Jesus Discovered in Two Sermons Preached Octob. 2. 1681. being the last that were Preached By Robert Asty late Minister of Jesus Christ in Norwiâ—h Rom. 8.33 It is God that justifieth V. 34 Who is he that condemneth LONDON Printed by Tho. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. THE HOPE OF THE Saints in Heaven Colos 1.5 For the Hope which is laid up for you in Heaven whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the Gospel THis holy Apostle being in bonds for the sake of Christ understanding by Epaphras that this Church with whom he had taken much pains in the Lord was in danger to be carried off from the purity and simplicity of the Gospel by some Seducers and false teachers that would set up the abrogated institutions of Moses with the institutions of Christ makes it his business to confirm them in the faith that they had received after the inscription and salutation the Apostle gives thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for what he had done for this people he declares how much they were upon his heart he could not cease praying for them and he rejoyced in their faith and in their love as you may see v. 3 4. We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying alwaies for you since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have to all the Saints and he speaks of their hope in this 5th verse which saies he is laid up for you in Heaven by hope he doth not mean the grace of hope as 't is sometimes to be taken in the Scripture but he means the object of hope or the thing hoped for as sometimes hope is to be understood as in Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith And Titus 2.13 Looking for that blessed hope So as the hope that he speaks of which is laid up in Heaven is Heaven itself and the glory and blessedness of it that did belong unto them that had laid hold upon Jesus and upon eternal life in laying hold upon Jesus There are some to make out the dependence of these words with the preceding do thus understand them we give thanks unto God for your faith and for your love which is an evidence that you have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for you Some others thus we are rejoyced in your faith and in your love which you have received and wherein ye stand fast for the hope which is laid up for you in Heaven Some others they understand the Apostle expressing in the fourth verse the causes and grounds of his giving thanks to God for them and rejoycing on their account and that is their faith and their love which are illustrated in the fifth verse both in the final cause and also in instrumental cause the final cause is Heaven and the blessedness thereof which their faith and their love will issue its self in the instrumental cause is the word of the truth of the Gospel by which faith and love have been wrought in them and by which they were making meet for the heavenly inheritance It is only a short discourse that I intend upon the words The Proposition from the words is this Doct. That the Saints have a hope which is laid up in Heaven for them They have the glory and the blessedness of Heaven to seed and to feast their expectations upon whilest they are here There is a world beyond this world where the Saints have their treasure where their great estate and their inheritance lyeth Some things they have here but truly as the Apostle saies 1 Cor. 15.19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable if that there were nothing more then is to be enjoyed here
you meet with many temptations here and you meet with many afflictions here trial upon trial one following another well under all comfort your selves with the Hope that is laid up in Heaven for you and ballance all your trials and temptations with the Hope that is in Heaven And Use 5. In the last place You that have a Hope laid up in Heaven for you see that you walk answerable to your Hope This is expected of you as the A postle tells you 1 Thes 2.12 That ye would walk worthy of God who hath called you unto his Kingdom and glory See that you walk worthy of the Hope that you have received Have you a Hope laid up in Heaven for you of such great things as we have mentioned a Hope ever to be with the Lord then carry it in a way correspondent to these Hopes in raised frames breathings and longings of heart after God The Hopes of an eternal enjoyment of God in the world to come should fill us with desires after the enjoyment of God here in those means and according to those waies in which he hath promised to let out of himself to his People You should be continually pressing after the enjoyment of God mediately who have the Hopes of the eternal enjoyment of God immediately And says the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.3 He that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure If you have such a Hope then testifie it by laying siege to corruption and by seeking to mortifie the body of sin and death that you bear about you and correspond with your Hopes in pressing after holiness and a growth in all grace for he that hath this Hope and he that hath the Promise of these things will be perfecting Holiness in the fear of God Make it your business therefore to grow in grace and to advance in all Holiness that so you may abound and that yet more and more in the work of the Lord. Christians Freedom FROM Condemnation in Christ Romans 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit THIS Chapter is as one calls it the Magazine of a Christian's comfort it is the Cabinet where many Jewels are lockt up the Ship where much of his Treasure is imbarqued The Apostle gives out comfort upon comfort unto Believers here 1. In the first part of the Chapter he endeavours to comfort them under the afflictive and discouraging sense that they had of the remaining corruption that did annoy and pester them every day shewing that it was pardoned and done away out of the sight of God 2. He endeavours to comfort them under all their trials tribulations and afflictions that were many and to be many in this world and shews them that there was a weight of glory in reserve that would more than ballance them all 3. He also endeavours to comfort them against their fears of falling away or of God's casting them off shewing of them that nothing shall separate them from the love of Christ And in the close of the Chapter Faith breaks out into an high act and he is able to triumph over all in this world and all the Principalities of Hell and Darkness that were engaged against him shewing that in Christ Jesus he was and all those in his state and condition were more than Conquerors through him that had loved them In the first verse you have a heart-reviving Proposition laid down There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus In the following verses you have the confirmation of this Proposition For says he the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the Law of sin and death In ver 9. he makes application of all unto those in Christ Jesus to whom he had written But ye says he are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be the Spirit of God dwelleth in you All you that have the Spirit of God you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit and therefore there is no condemnation to you and he proposes it in such general terms as that all who have the Spirit may take it up and make application of the comfort thereof to their own Souls The Assertion that he lays down in the Text is no condemination to them that are in Christ Jesus Or a Conclusion that is drawn from the whole Doctrine of our Justification in and by the Righteousness of Jesus Christ of which he had treated in the preceeding Chapters of the Epistle Now this he concludes from it that being accepted in Christs righteousness and being in that justified before God there is now no condemnation for us so as you have in the words 1. This assertion laid down that there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus 2. A Mark and Character given whereby we may come to know whether we are these to whom there is no condemnation that is such saies he walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit In the Proposition or assertion you may take notice 1. Of the Subjects and they are such as are in Christ 2. Of the Predicate and that is there is no Condemnation to them Some there are that make our being in Christ Jesus our vocation and they construe our Non-condemnation our justification and our walking not after the flesh but after the spirit to set forth our sanctification Condemnation it is the doom or sentence of a just and righteous Judge against an offender Now Non-condemnation it is the contrary hereunto that is to be acquitted to be discharged to have the sentence of death revoked and taken off and this is that that God doth for all those that are in Christ Jesus he revokes the sentence that was gone our against them There is in the Gospel a cancelling of our law obligation to die the Gospel that brings in life and removes the death that the law threatned and denounced against us and so the Proposition from the first part of the verse is this Doct. That all those that are in Christ they are acquitted absolved and discharged by God There is now saies he no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus No condemnation from God no condemnation in Heaven for them God the Father that is in Christ a Father of Mercies and a Father of Forgivenesses he comes and forgives and discharges them There are 3 Courts as I may so say there is the Court of Heaven there is the Court of Conscience and there are the Courts of Men. Now a Child of God may be sentenced in the two latter and yet acquitted and cleared in the former he may be condemning himself he may be drawing up charges against himself he may write nothing but bitterness against himself when he is acquitted before God he may be accused and condemned by Men Jesus Christ was so counted a Sinner numbred amongst Transgressours and yet the
A TREATISE OF Rejoycing in the Lord Jesus in all Cases and Conditions Wherein is manifested 1. What the Lord Jesus Christ is to and doth for Believing Souls which may be a constant ground of their Joy and Rejoycing 2. What are the grounds of that Darkness which is upon Believers about their Interest in Christ hindering this Rejoycing 3. What Believers should do in the interim until they can have the evidence of their Interest clear 4. How Souls may know their Interest in Jesus Christ Together with A Christians Hope in Heaven in one Sermon and Freedom from Condemnation in Christ in two Sermons being the last Preached By Robert Asty late Minister of Jesus Christ in Norwich Phil. 4.4 Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce LONDON Printed by Tho. Snowden for Edward Giles Bookseller in Norwich near the Market-place 1683. TO THE Congregational Church of Christ In the City of Norwich Dearly Beloved IT is much to be lamented in any day if many of the righteous are taken away by death Isa 57.1 as being signal of evil to come more when many Eminent Ministers of the Gospel are so removed whereby Vision faileth and most of all when the Sin of a People and impending Judgment threaten their being benighted and no prospect is given of others to fill up the places of those who are transplanted to Eternity I know you cannot but have many searchings of heart for your deep share in this matter of Lamentation the Lord having in so short a measure of time called home to himself from among you so many faithful Teachers as that Spiritual man Mr. Armitage Judicious Mr. Allen and now this Laborious Mr. Asty who served you in the Gospel But it is some matter of refreshment that they being dead yet by their Printed Labours they still speak to you It was the earnest desire of some amongst you that the ensuing Sermons of Mr. Robert Asty might be Published they were taken from his mouth by the Pen of a Ready Writer and not polished by his own hand yet may be exceedingly useful to all for the promoting of Faith Obedience and Comfort Indeed the chief purport of this Treatise is to raise the Joy of those who are interested in Christ and that in every state and condition It directeth unto the right Object of Joy the Lord and so to an everlasting ground of Rejoycing I shall add a few words of Counsel to you for whom I have a great respect 1. Improve the remembrance of those Gospel Truths which you heard from the mouths of your Ministers now at rest Their Labours were not intended by the Lord only for a present relief to your Souls during their speaking but for afterward Rev. 3.3 Remember how thou hast Received and Heard and hold fast Beware of losing or growing indifferent as to the practical owning those Gospel Principles which you have been grounded in be tenacious there hold them fast for Christ addeth If thou shalt not watch I will come on thee as a Thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee 2. Keep up lively Affections towards God when your Gospel-Ministers are withdrawn from you When David was exiled from the Ordinances of God yet then had he the most earnest pantings of Soul after Enjoyments of God Psal 42.1 2. 63.1 2. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee Beware of coolings in Affection to the Institutions of Jesus Christ when you want them and let nothing short of God satisfie when you enjoy them Beware of leaving your first love Rev. 2.4 5. 3. Maintain frequent Spiritual Communion each with other when some Gospel Administrations are wanted This is prescribed as a means for the prevention of Declinings or Departures from God Heb. 3.13 Exhort one another daily while it is called to day Daily Converses each with other duly managed may not only preserve from Spiritual Decaies but quicken Affections and blow up the spark of your graces into a mighty flame 4. Wait uncessantly in Prayer for the Return of God's Ark to you The less you have of Preaching the more should you be in Praying and others for you that Gospel-Light may shine among you as in former daies and the Answer will rejoyce many and should grieve none for what hurt can it be to any real Christian that Christ is Preached to others I shall only add 2 Cor. 13.11 Finally Brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in Peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you So prayeth he who is Yours in the Lord Jesus Sam. Petto Octob. 23. 1681. SERMON I. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation OF the Stock and Parentage of this Prophet we have no clear account in Scripture It may be implicitly to hint unto us that we should alwaies look more to the Message than to the Messenger and that nobleness of birth and greatness among men do not greaten the Word of God Indeed Epiphanius tells us with some confidence that this Prophet was of the Tribe of Simeon and that he lived in the time of the Babylonish Captivity but there is but little grounds for this conjecture The time also of this Prophet's Prophesying is very uncertain Some Hebrew Writers do expresly tell us that he lived in the time of the Reign of King Manasseh and there is some probability for this assertion but however this is clear that he comes from the Lord of Hosts he was his Prophet and he speaks in his name in much power and plainness to this people not fearing the face of man and spares not to deal closely with that incorrigible Spirit that was among them who had slighted the Lord's Message that was delivered by his Predecessors before him and was now near unto destruction Whether it was in the time of the Reign of Manasseh or any other King modern Expositors are very modest in their conjectures and apprehensions not seeing the thing clearly and absolutely determined in Scripture but this is certain it was at that time when God was about to raise up that bitter sharp cruel fiery fierce enemy the Chaldeans to come out against this people as you may see chap. 1. v. 6. It was at that time when God had born so long with their provocations that the time of his patience was even almost expired It was at that time when their sins were so multiplied and encreased as that they were near unto ruin destruction and desolation was at the door Now this Prophet understanding the mind of God and seeing upon good grounds that the Decree was past against this people as one who was faithful unto their interest among whom and unto whom he was the Lords Prophet as one that would approve himself faithful unto the Lord he takes upon him the boldness to expostulate the case with God why he should suffer such a
Gospel that is consecrated for us to hold and enjoy fellowship with him in and now Christians what a ground of rejoycing is here Friends they die A bosom acquaintance in the flesh is taken from thee they die from thee and their places know them no more but here is Jesus he ever abides upon the Throne clearing the way of communion between God and thee So that God is alwaies thy friend alwaies in reconciliation to thee alwaies ready to make known himself and to impart of his Love and Grace to thee Here is an abiding ground of joy for us in Christ Jesus if we consider him as he is a glorious Person in his Mediatory Constitution SERMON II. Habakkuk 3.18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my Salvation THE words have been opened unto you and we have given you this Proposition from them Doct. That there is enough in Christ alone for the Soul that is interested in him to rejoyce in whatsoever his case and condition is You need no more than Jesus to make you blessed upon Earth and there is enough in Jesus to make you blessed for ever in Heaven there is enough in Jesus to make you happy in time and enough in Jesus to make you happy to eternity Now here for the Direction of your Faith in looking up to and in dealing with Christ in a dark or low condition we proposed to consider First What Jesus Christ is And here we told you that 1. In the first place He is glorious in his Person I now proceed 2. As he is glorious in his Person so he is gracious in his Nature full of grace full of kindness full of compassion both unto Saints and unto Sinners He might have apâ—eared glorious in his Person and not gracious in his Nature He might have appeared altogether terrible a glorious Person and yet surrounded with terrible Majesty but Jesus Christ is as gracious in his Nature as he is glorious in his Person he is full of compassion unto the Sons of men there is no harshness there is no bitterness in Christ Jesus there is nothing in him my friends that will discourage you if you search him never so narrowly and if you look him through there is nothing in him to discourage you but he is full of love and full of all encouragement I do not mean that he is full of love only as he is God absolutely considered The Apostle says That God is Love he speaks it of God the Father and so as Christ Jesus is God equal with the Father in the Divine Nature it is applicable to the Second Person but that is not all but he is full of grace in his Nature as he is clothed with our flesh and his Love it is alwaies an encouraging Love it is alwaies a heart-casing Love it is alwaies a Soul-satisfying Love You cannot find such an Object upon Earth nor such an Object in Heaven as Jesus Christ is that is so full of compassion and so full of grace as he is and the greatness of his Love as a ground of Joy unto the believing Soul in all conditions is such as First Does break through and conquer all opposings Secondly It heightens under all our sorrows And Thirdly It abides unmixed in all seasons First His Love is such and so great that it breaks through all opposings and forbiddings Though there is nothing in Christ to discourage our Love to him yet I must tell you that there is enough in us to discourage Christ's Love to us and indeed there is nothing else in us but that which may forbid the Love of Jesus Christ dealing with us Now whatsoever are the matters of discouragement in us the Love of Jesus breaks through them all it sticks at nothing Let the heart be never so vile let the sinner in himself be never so loathsom let his waies be never so contrary let the principles upon which he acts be never so averse the Love of Jesus Christ breaks through all What is the state of a sinner when Christ Jesus comes to visit him a vile loathsom filthy abominable state You have it set out in the 16th of Ezekiel by all manner of strange expressions that shews the sinner is in a very loathsom state in the 5th and 6th verses Thou layest in thy blood saith he and none Eye pitied thee One casts his Eye upon thee and says There is a loathsom Object I will have nothing to do with him another comes by and casts his Eye There is a loathsom Creature Who would come near such a one Thou wert cast out says he to the loathing of thy person but says Jesus I passed by thee and it was a time of love And in the 10th of Luke you may see it set out in a Parable of the Samaritan one passed by a poor Creature that lay in his blood and would have nothing to do with him and another passes by and would have nothing to do with him but Jesus the good Samaritan he passes by and he pities him and binds up his wounds and heals him You may see what forbiddings this Love of Christ marches through Titus 3 3. For we our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient deceivers serving divers lusts and pleasures living in malice hateful and hating one another Good Lord one would think is it possible that such a Soul as this should be brought home and loved by Jesus Christ that is in such a state and have such a heart and walks in such waies But says the Apostle v. 4. After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but accoridng to his mercy he saved us c. And 1 Cor. 6.11 Such were some of you but ye are washed c. Jesus he loves you notwithstanding this and continues to love you Nay my Friends this is not all but his love is such as doth not only march through great opposings and forbiddings before grace but high discouragements after grace Why what is the walk of the Soul after grace Is it not very crooked and very perverse Doth not he fall short of the Rule Doth not he offend God in every thing he doth Is there not a great deal of unbelief Is there not a great deal of pride a great deal of carnality and impatience and passion in your hearts after grace Do not you stumble and fall in the Christian walk every day violate the Covenant of your gracestate break the Commandments of God and yet notwithstanding all be continues to love you in the 80th Psalm v. 30.31 Supposing says God there that my Children my Redeemed Ones that I have set my love upon and visited with my grace that they will forsake my Law and walk out of the way of my Commandments that I have called them to walk in and charged them to abide in Now the Love of Jesus Christ keeps up through all therefore says the
thy friend is not this a brother born for adversity look amongst all thy friends upon earth hast thou such a one look into Heaven are any of the Angels able to do for thee as Jesus can Who is there in Heaven or Earth that thy Soul can desire in comparison with Jesus he is glorious in his person and he is gracious in his nature 3. Jesus is the exhibiter revealer and unfolder of all the fulness of the blessed and glorious Attributes of God in a salvation way God is thy God in and through Jesus Christ and not otherwise God absolutely in himself dwells in light unaccessable and is a consuming fire we cannot make an approach to God as he is absolutely considered and live but now in and through Jesus Christ God he is a God that may be spoken withal and all his attributes and the properties of his nature are savingly enjoyable There is a great deal of the glory of God that was discovered in the works of Creation there was the glory of his wisdom and the glory of his power of his goodness and of his soveraignty these were discovered in the works of Creation but as so exhibited they afre not saving neither do they afford soul-saving relief to us absolutely considered in that primary exhibition that was made of them in the works of Creation but now in and through Jesus Christ there all the attributes of God they are saving all the attributes of God they are comfortable and refreshing Adam when he was out of Christ could not think of God but it was a terrour to him therefore as soon as ever he had sinned fear entered into his Spirit and he hid himself why saies the Lord to Adam what is the matter O! saies he I was afraid and I hid my self Why so O to consider the greatness of God and the wisdom of God that was discovered in the Creation and the power of God that was discovered in the Creation and the soveraignty and dominion of God that was discovered in the Creation and to think that he had no interest in this God that he had provoked and grieved him this was a terrour to him and saies Adam Lord I was afraid and I hid my self ay and all the attributes of God are enough to strike terrour into the Soul that hath no interest in Jesus considered out of Jesus and they are not relieving But now in and through Jesus all Gods attributes they are reconciled to and engaged for the believer and he may see that which may comfort him and that which may satisfy him 1 Cor. 1.24 But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God as if he had said all the power of God that is saving it is in and through Christ Jesus and all the wisdom of God that is saving is in and through Christ Jesus therefore in him it is said are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2.3 Now do but consider the attributes of God apart and you will find that they are no way relieving out of Christ but in Christ they are full of Grace and they are all exhibited and revealed through him as saving 1. As to the Justice of God Why the justice of God out of Christ it is terrible to consider that God is a most exact severe righteous God that will give every one their due and will mete out a portion to every one according to his desert This is most terrible to consider God out of Christ what may we expect but as Ps 11.6 Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup This will be the portion of all those that God hath to do withal out of Christ But now in Christ Jesus this attribute is attoned and all that wrath and that justice and that vengeance had to execute is poured out upon Christ Jesus justice dealt with the Lord Jesus in its utmost severity and received satisfaction in him and from him so as now saies the Apostle in 1 John 1.9 If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins c. and so Rom. 3.26 To declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus Why justice hath nothing to say against thee but it speaks all for thee because God is a righteous God therefore he will love thee and therefore he will bless thee with all blessings because he hath received full satisfaction from Jesus Christ thy surety 2. Consider secondly the power of God out of Christ and it is enough to fill thy heart with terrour Ezek. 26.14 Can thy heart endure or can thy hands be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee saith the Lord c. Hast thou a strength to grapple with me or canst thou set thy foot against me no verily what are all the nations of the earth they are less then a crawling worm before the foot of the great God thou canst not stand before it But now in Christ Jesus this Attribute is attoned too and the mighty power of God is engaged to carry on and to mannage a salvation design in thee Therefore saies the Apostle Eph. 1.19 That ye may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power So as let the power of God be never so great it is a power engaged for thee to manage and carry on salvation work in thee whatever be the opposings that it meet with either from thy own heart or from others Thirdly If you consider the Attribute of God's Wisdom It is not relieving out of Christ That God is so infinitely wise and so deep the Soul may think all this is against me and what is he now doing but contriving new torments and new Hells that are more fierce and exquisite for me and surely there will be no end of these torments But now in Christ Jesus the Wisdom of God is imployed in such a design of Salvation that the Angels are said to pry into it they are astonished at the design that is brought to light by the Wisdom of God Fourthly If you consider the Patience of God out of Christ it is no way relieving For what will it advantage a Soul that God does bear with it a while when under all there is wrath treasuring up for him against the day of wrath Rom. 9.22 What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted for destruction So as the Patience of God is exercised in bearing with a sinner a little while till he greaten his sins But God will come in upon him notwithstanding all though he bear a little while But now in Christ Jesus the Patience of God is reconciled 2 Pet. 3.9
for a Christian the blood of Jesus is said to be a pleading blood Heb. 12.24 And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things then the blood of Abel It is a pleading blood and it saies Father Remember the merits of the Sacrifice of my death remember the satisfaction that thou hast received and do thou continue to love and continue to bless and continue to delight in and to acknowledge these poor ones though they fail and though they provoke thee The believer it may be is so ashamed of himself upon an overcome that he hath not one word to say for himself he can give no reason why a decree of justice should not come out against him but the blood of Jesus that is alwaies speaking and alwaies interceeding whereby we are kept in that justified peace-state with God that in our first coming over to God we are stated in and this may satisfie the Christian under all the disquiets troubles turmoils and unsettlements that he meets withal in this world Secondly Jesus Christ is a powerful Intercessor in Heaven daily urging the merits of his Death and improving the Interest that he hath with God for the compleating of the work begun in the hearts of Believers whereby they are growing up to perfection Jesus Christ is not only an Advocate with the Father silencing and answering all accusations and charges and so maintaining of the Believer in his justified Peace-state with God but as a lively and living Intercessor he is alwaies urging the merits of his Death and improving the Interest that he hath with God for the compleating of the good work of his Grace that is begun Jesus Christ hath not only a Fountain of all Grace for your constant supply but he acts the part of an Intercessor and improves the merits of his Death for the managing of the work of Grace that is begun in your Souls This you have Heb. 9.24 Jesus Christ is gone into Heaven to appear in the presence of God for us And he is not there to appear only as an Advocate or an Attorney but he is there as a mighty Intercessor pleading with God in the strength of the merits of his own Death improving all his Interest with the Father for you Rev. 5.6 In the midst of the Elders stood a Lamb as it had been slain having seven Horns c. This Lamb is Christ Now Christ Jesus he is in Heaven advanced upon a Throne for you He is in the midst of the Throne near unto his Father and how doth he sit or how doth he appear Why says he he appears as a Lamb as it had been slain that is Christ he bears the marks of his Death before his Father upon the Throne he is there to make a fresh commemoration of his sufferings presenting his bloody death and his bloody Sacrifice before his Father As Jesus Christ after he was risen said unto Thomas Come says he behold my wounds and see the print of the Nails in my hands and in my feet So Jesus Christ saies as it were to his Father Father behold these wounds behold how I was pierced behold how I was wounded for these people and as one says so many wounds so many cries Every wound hath a crying mouth that is daily pleading with God for the Believer Jesus alwaies stands as a Lamb as it were slain urging his death urging his agony urging the greatness of his sufferings when justice had him under the lash when he trode the Wine-press of his Fathers wrath alone and he is urging the value of his death for the succeeding of the work of grace begun for the encreasing of strength for the carrying on of your Souls unto perfection Jesus Christ lives upon the Throne carrying on this work and for this great end he considers the Christians state in all his dangers and in all his weakness and under all his wants and he is improving his death for more grace and for an increase of spiritual blessings he knows your dangers by reason of your temptations in the world and he is praying for you there and improving his interest with his Father on that account John 17.15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil O Father saies he they cannot stand against the temptations of the world in their trades and concerns in the world not alone let thy grace be sufficient and let thy strength be sufficient to secure them in their dangers he sees that your grace is yet but small and will hardly stand against a small encounter and therefore he prays that it may be encreased as Luke 22.31 32. I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not as if he had said I know that thy grace will be sorely tryed and will meet with great opposition but I have prayed that it may not fail he pleads with the Father for a more plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon the hearts of his people John 14.16 17. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. And when Jesus Christ does pray for the Spirit he prays that he may come in the royalties of his office into your hearts bringing in the fruits of grace of peace and of joy and of spiritual comfort And thus he in Heaven looks after the work that is begun and upon that account he is called not only the Author but the Finisher of our Faith Heb. 12.2 The intercessory work of Christ is not only at your first coming over to God to give you favour with God peace with God but it is a continued act over your whole state till you come in glory Heb. 7.25 He is able to save to the uttermost or to carry on salvation work till he hath compleated it Why because he ever liveth to make intercession for us Jesus Christ by his intercession does deliver out of one streight to day and he will continue in the same work and if a new streight does appear to morrow he will aid through that also and he will go on so until he hath setled thy Soul in a compleat salvation state Jesus Christ does daily exhibit and urge and present the merits of his death for the carrying on and managing of the work that he hâ—th begun And here take notice by the way that when we say Jesus Christ continueth to interceed you must know that he doth not interceed in a way of free Grace as we do at the throne of Grace he doth not interceed in a precarious way as believers do but he interceeds in the merit of his own sufferings his interceeding is an authoritative act he doth not only pray the Father for Grace and for acceptance for us but he urges the Father upon the account of the infinite price of his own sufferings that
he gave him in and so does in an authoritative way challenge and demand the blessings of his purchase or of his death for the believer he demands of his Father the Grace that he pleads for and he in his interceeding act does will it into the Souls of his People I will Father saies he that those that thou hast given me be with me where I am and God the Father does alwaies hear his Son he never denies his Son any Petition that he offers to him John 11.42 And I knew saies he that thou hearest me alwaies and Psal 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance saies the Father ask and you shall have so as Christs intercession is a prevailing intercession it is a powerful intercession it is alwaies a speeding intercession now Christians do but consider what a ground of joy and comfort this is for you in your present low condition It may be thou hast met with many losses in thy outward estate it may be thou hast met with many breakings there emptyings there that thy outward comforts they are many of them gone thou seest others very uncertain ay but here is Jesus Christ he is interceeding with the Father for more Grace for more spiritual blessings so as though thou art poor in temporals thou art growing rich in spirituals though thou hast but a little of the Creature yet thou hast Grace that is thriving in thy heart that Christ will see shall be alwaies encreasing growing be not discouraged therefore though thou hast but a little Grace but a little strength who knows how much Grace the prayer of Christ may bring into thy heart Christian who knows how much strength the prayer of Christ may bring in upon thy weak condition to cloath thee with be not therefore discouraged though thou see thy Bottle empty and thy outward store growing low seeing Jesus Christ is carrying on the work of Grace in thy Soul and enriching of thee with the high and sacred blessings of Heaven verily Sirs if any of you had a Friend at Court that did alwaies sit at the right hand of the King and that had his ear and a grant of all his Petitions that he made to him and if you knew that he would be alwaies moving the King on your behalf and pleading with him for some new favours and new advantages and places of â—rust and dignity and the like how would your hearts rise in the remembrance thereof and you would promise your selves great things in a little while Why Jesus Christ he is your friend in the Court of Heaven that hath alwaies the Ear of God and verily it is not a vain notion he is alwaies interceeding with the Father on your behalf pleading for some new blessings for some further discoveries of his love and manifestations of his favour for thy further proficiency in grace that thou mayest be carried on unto perfection Jesus Christ is alwaies pleading this with his Father so as though you be very low as to your outward condition yet you may rejoyce that your spiritual comforts they are alwaies thriving they are growing comforts and your strength in grace is alwaies an encreasing strength Christ prays for it and makes it so by his daily Intercession Thirdly Jesus Christ perfumes all your Spiritual Offerings and presents them unto God as grateful and acceptable through whom they alwaies remain as a sweet memorial in his presence notwithstanding the weakness and imperfection of them as they come from us My Brethren the liquor of our spiritual services hath a tang of the Vessel through which they pass there is an ill favour in all our duties as they come from us there is a great deal of sin a great deal of self a great deal of corruption that doth mingle with them and doth defile them and give them an ill savour But now Jesus Christ he alwaies stands between God and us and receives our Offerings and refines them and purifies them and cleanseth them and perfumeth them and so makes them a sweet odour and then offers them up unto God and hence comes our Prayers to be prevalent hence come they to be heard and to have returns of Grace made unto them It was Jesus Christ that made Noah's Sacrifice so sweet and odoriferous Gen. 8.20 21. And Noah builded an Altar unto the Lord and he took of every clean Beast and of every clean Fowl and offered burnt Offerings on the Altar and the Lord smelled a sweet savour c. Christ Jesus was in his Sacrifice and that made it pleasant and sweet and fragrant before the Lord. This was typed out of Old by the High Priests bearing the iniquities of the holy things of God's People away Exod. 28.36 37 38. He shall bear their iniquities that is he shall bear them away he shall receive the iniquities of their holy things and shall bear them away whereby all shall be hallowed and this shall be says he upon his forehead that they may be accepted before the Lord or that they may be for an acceptableness before the Lord Why Jesus Christ is the Gospel of this type he told his Church of old that there must be a Priest and an Intercessor for the sins of their holy things now Jesus Christ is this Priest that takes the iniquity of our holy things away and so he presents our spiritual offerings unto God refined and purified that no dross that no matter of sin may be found in them when they are presented before God Cant. 3.6 Here the Church of God is spoken of as coming out of a dry barren wilderness condition now she comes like pillars of smoke she comes praying she comes pleading with God now her prayers are like pillars of smoke that is say some to set forth the darkness to set forth the corruption or weakness of them Our prayers as they come from us are more smoke than fire they are more sin than grace there is a great deal of corruption upon them that does defile them and that does besmear them they go up like pillars of smoke but they are perfumed with Myrrhe and Frankincense and with all Powders of the Merchant that is Jesus Christ he sweetens them he scents them and makes them offerings of a sweet smelling savour as any thing is perfumed by sweet Spices or odoriferous Powders that are mixed with them Or Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke that is say some others like the smoke of Incense the Prayers of God's People they do ascend like the smoke of Incense Jesus Christ he perfumes them with his Incense and so they go up through Jesus Christ as the smoke of Incense of old went up to Heaven and this perfumes them as that which is perfumed by Frankincense and by Myrrhe and by sweet Powders and the like It comes all to one reckoning in which sense soever we take it Iâ— sets forth thus
much to us that howsoever spotted and howsoever defiled and howsoever tainted our duties are as they come from us Jesus Christ makes them sweet and savoury and pleasant unto his Father and presents them as a sweet memorial unto him Isa 56.7 Even them will I bring to my holy Mountain and I will make them joyful in my house of prayer their burnt Offerings and Sacrifices shall be accepted upon mine Altar c. Why the Believer comes and brings his poor Petitions but they are not fit for the great God to read over to consider nor to look upon but Jesus Christ he examines them and he mends the Petitions and draws them up fit to be presented to his Father and delivers them with his own hand and then they come to be accepted You are says God unto his Church of old a Kingdom of Priests unto me and an holy Nation Exod. 19.6 Now this is applied unto the Church in New-Testament daies 1 Pet. 2.5 And in v. 9. Ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People Ye are made a holy Priesthood to offer up spiritual Sacrifices Ay but will they be accepted yes through Jesus Christ acceptable to God by Christ Jesus And Rev. 1.6 He hath made us Kings and Priests unto God the Father that is to offer up spiritual Sacrifices but this will not do alone Jesus Christ he stands to receive every Offering and it passes through his refining and cleansing hand and his perfuming Incense and so it comes unto God and then 't is a valuable Sacrifice then 't is a pleasant and delightful Sacrifice he puts it into his golden Censure and offers it up to his Father as Rev. 8.3 Here is the great Mystery of the Intercession of Jesus Christ held forth to you in reference to your spiritual Oblations he had a golden Censer and there was given him much Incense he hath enough for all your prayers there was given him much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints so we read it but it might also be read That he should add it unto the prayers of all Saints so as our prayers are not weighty as they come from us nor acceptable but they have the Incense of Christ Jesus added to them and then they are weighty and then they are acceptable and from hence God the Father comes to be delighted in the supplications of his servants Now by the way Christians I beseech you take in this notion into your faith it is generally received and believed that we must rest upon the satisfaction of Christ Jesus for the acceptance of our persons let me tell you that you must also act Faith upon Jesus Christ as an Intercessor and rest upon the Merit of his Incense and of his Mediation for all your speedings in your approaches unto God As you must act Faith upon the Merits of Christ Jesus for the acceptance of your persons so you must act Faith upon the Merits of Christ's Death and of Christ's Life now in Heaven for the acceptance of all your spiritual performances with God And here my Brethren you have another ground of Joy and Comfort in your low estate here Suppose that you be tossed to and fro by many tempests suppose that you were sorely broken in upon by breaches of providence suppose that you have lost many dear friends that you did use to consult withal and to go to for assistance why yet you have Jesus Christ keeping your way clear unto the Father and he it is that gives you a constant boldness with him Bring all your Petitions ask what you will in the Name of Christ Jesus and it shall be granted to you Christ stands ready to receive your Petitions and to mend whatsoever is amiss in them and to present them in his own dress unto his Father that they may be accepted and in and through Christ you have a liberty and boldness with God Let us come boldly saies the Apostle unto the Throne of Grace Heb. 4. ult And in Heb. 10.19 Having therefore Brethren boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus Jesus Christ will not throw out a Petition because it was no better worded Jesus Christ will not throw back a Prayer because the Spirit was no more composed ond ordered in it Jesus Christ will not throw back a duty because he sees a little unbelief in it or something of self in it or something that is displeasing to his Father in it but he takes out whatsoever is displeasing and he adds his own incense to it and carries it unto his Father and delivers it an acceptable offering unto him And on this ground you may joy and rejoyce in the Lord Jesus whatsoever your condition in this world is 4. Jesus Christ doth in wisdom direct and with love and grace influence all the losses crosses and afflictions of your Christian state whereby they are all made to further your spiritual interest and be subservient unto your great soul advantage It is the lot and portion of Gods People to be often afflicted to be sore broken as in the place of Dragons and they are many times emptied from Vessel to Vessel but there is infinite wisdom Christian infinite reconciled wisdom that doth order all the motions of providence in all the changes of thy condition Jesus Christ he hath hold of every providence and he directs it in wisdom and influences it with love and grace that so it must do thee good it cannot be unto thy harm or prejudice in Eph. 1.22 And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things unto the Church Christs providential Kingdom is subordinate unto his spiritual Kingdom unto which thou doest belong and by his grace and wisdom he directs all and in mercy doth manage all for thy advantage Psal 34.15 The Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open unto their cry The Lord Jesus is ever viewing of a Christians state in his goings out and in his comings in in his lyings down and in his risings up he is ever viewing a Christians condition and wisdom doth direct all for the best it is said therefore Ezekiel 1.18 and it is an observable Scripture as for their rings they were so high that they were dreadful and their rings were full of Eyes round about them four The Prophet is here speaking of the great mystery of providence sometimes saies he Gods providences are very deep they are very tremendous and dreadful but be it so the rings of the wheels of providence they are alwaies full of Eyes saies he round about them four they are full of Eyes Eyes note wisdom directing guiding influencing and managing Now saies he the rings of the wheels that move in every state condition are alwaies full of Eyes there is not only an Eye one way but there is an Eye that looks every way The wheels of
in this world if thou beest a believer there is some promise of Grace that doth sute thy condition whatsoever is thy temptation or thy tryal there is some promise that doth offer relief whatever is thy necessity there is some promise that stands ready with mercy and grace Now Jesus Christ he stands at the head of every promise and keeps the way clear and the passage free for every believer and therefore Christ is called the yea and the Amen of every promise that is they have their certainty and their stability in him and from him confirmed by him and are communicated from him Jesus Christ is the Lord of every promise and he will see Christian that thou shalt not be wronged of thy right he will not suffer any to come and take away thy blessedness that lies there now whatsoever thou wantest in thy outward condition the promises are alwaies full whither thou mayest go for relief we read that the Philistines did fill up the wells that Abrahams Servants had digged Gen. 26.18 these wells of water they were stopped enemies could fill them up but my friends all the Devils in Hell cannot fill up one well of Salvation they cannot rob a Christian of one Gospel promise neither can they obstruct his way to the promise but Jesus that sits above and is at the head of the promise he alwaies keeps the way clear and open now my friends here is another ground of rejoycing for you in Christ Jesus you look into your estates and you see that you are on the losing hand daily you look upon your outward condition and you see that you are going down the wind there you look upon your outward comforts and you see them fading and dying and uncertain and perishing before your Eyes ay but your choycest blessings that lye in the promises these are in no uncertainty and though you have not a friend upon earth to go unto and though you have not a fulness upon earth to go to yet you have a fulness in the promise Christian that you may go to there is a fulness of mercy and a fulness of grace in the promise whither you may go Those that have taken away your outward comforts they cannot take away your comfort in the promise neither can they stop up your Wells of Salvation says David Psal 119.50 This is my comfort in my affliction for thy Word hath quickened me The word of Promise that came to my Soul with life and that was as life from the dead unto me when I was in a low and in an afflicted state when I was sorely tryed and broken in upon why consider Christians then that you have a ground of rejoycing in Christ Jesus that he is the Yea and the Amen of every Promise that can never fail and he secures the Grace of every Promise for you and the Comfort and the Light and the Strength of every Promise for you You may therefore though you are brought low in your outward condition look up unto Christ Jesus and rejoyce Sixthly Jesus Christ he is alwaies a Light unto the Believer in all his darkness and a Guide unto him in the intricacies of his way unto his Fathers house We know not which way to go nor how to direct our own steps Jesus Christ he is promised as a Light as a Light unto the world and that is not all but he is a Light unto his own People in a special manner and a Guide unto them in all their waies Luke 1.79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death to guide our feet in the way of peace Why the Believer he wants counsel and he wants direction and he wants advice from the Lord how to steer his course Jesus Christ he stands by him and he administers it he opens the way he reveals the Mysteries of the Kingdom he instructs the ignorant and teaches those that are fools the great and deep things of God and therefore the promise is that the way-faring man though a fool shall not erre in the way of peace Isa 35.8 He will guide them and direct them and instruct them by his counsel at all times And because Believers go in a wildered way that is very hard to find and dangerous and hazardous Jesus Christ therefore is such a Guide that takes the charge of them as a Commander and Leader So the Promise runs Isa 55.4 Behold I have given him for a Witness to the People a Leader and Commander to the people so as he takes the charge of the Believer in his wildered way he guides him and he directs him in his course and he will see that he shall be safe aided to his Fathers house Now Christian here is a further ground of rejoycing for thee You meet with many troubles and discomfortures and discouragements and disappointments in your outward condition but Jesus Christ he will see that you shall not be disappointed of Heaven but he is an abiding Light to you and a constant Guide to you and he will so lead you that you shall not stumble nor fall nor perish in your way unto the Kingdom Seventhly Jesus Christ maintains the Union of the Believer with himself from whence arise unchangeable relations of Grace both with the Believer and him and with the Believer and the Father which are alwaies pleadable and improveable My Brethren Jesus Christ takes Believers into a near and intimate union with himself and makes them branches of him who is as the stock he makes them as bone of his bone and as flesh of his flesh He takes them into an union that he will never suffer to be broken It is an indissolvible union it is an insuperable it is an inseparable union therefore says Christ Jesus Joh. 17. Those that thou hast given me have I kept and not one of them have I lost Jesus Christ never lost a member Jesus Christ never lost a limb Jesus Christ never lost a true subject Jesus Christ never lost a sheep out of his fold so as this near intimate union it is an indissolvible union now from this union do arise everlasting unchangeable relations of Grace that are alwaies pleadable and improveable from this near and intimate union with the Lord Jesus doth Christ ever abide your head filled with strength to animate you and to influence you filled with wisdom and knowledge to instruct you and inform you filled with understanding to guide you in your way In this intimate union you are members of his body he will never suffer you to be cast off so as you may alwaies Believer stand in him and plead the advantages of a standing in him and of an implantation and ingraftment into him Jesus Christ in this union is alwaies your Husband and you are alwaies his Spouse and the advantages of this relation are alwaies enjoyable and they are alwaies pleadable I have betrothed thee unto me in righteousness and in judgment for ever
Satan will indefatigably endeavour to darken your evidence and to obscure the sense of interest Satans design is to keep Souls as long as he can from a closure with Christ he will meet the Soul in all waies if possible to turn him out of his way and if he cannot do that his next design is to obscure your evidence and to darken your sense of interest that so he may make you to walk heavily and in the dark he will follow you with false reports and false suggestions he will hint to you this falsity and the other if possible to make you to believe a lye and to deny what Jesus Christ hath done and to deny your interest and standing in him that it may be is clear upon undenyable grounds and demonstrations the Devil you know came to Christ with this very temptation to make him to question the truth of his relation to God though the Devil knew it well enough that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the true Son of God yet he comes and sets upon him with this temptation if possible to make him question If thou beest the Son of God then do so and so And he levels at the Believer in the same manner and his design is to keep you in the dark to rob you of all the peace and comfort and joy that you might have upon the sense and evidence of your Interest Tenthly There are many that presume upon a groundless confidence that they have an interest in Christ and yet are wholly ignorant of the nature of a Gospel-Interest There are many that do promise themselves great things in and from Christ Jesus and yet they are wholly ignorant of him they have hopes of large blessings that shall come in by Christ and yet are ignorant of Christ and the nature of a close with Christ that gives right to him Doubtless the foolish Virgins had hopes that as to the bulk of them were as large and as promising as the hopes of the wise Virgins were they never at all questioned their admittance when the Bridegroom should come In Deut. 29.19 And it shall come to pass when he heareth the words of this curse that he bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the imaginations of my heart c. So when we are discoursing of the terrours of the Law that do belong to persons uninterested in Christ there are many that bless themselves in their hearts and say These things do not belong to us And when we are opening the comforts that Believers have in Christ those that are strangers to Christ will presume and say All these are mine Micah 3.11 The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for money yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us no evil can come upon us In the midst of all their wickedness they would still presume upon an Interest in the Lord and think all should go well with them My friends what think you of the Church of Laodicca they were a people of a very great and high profession they stood in a Gospel body and lived under the enjoyment of the great Priviledges of a Gospel-state and they promised themselves that all was well with them and yet see what the Lord says Rev. 3.17 Because thou sayest I am rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art poor and miserable and wretched and blind and naked They had a profession upon them and they thought there was a great deal in that They were in a Church-state and they thought that would serve their turn They did enjoy Church-Priviledges and they thought upon it that their condition was good and that they might well say Now we are rich we are Professors in a Church-state we are under the common and sacred blessings of the Gospel and who better than we We are rich but says the Lord you say so but I say otherwise you say you are rich but I say you are poor you say you are full but I say you are empty you say you are encreased with goods and have need of nothing but I say you have nothing and have need of all things Verily my friends this is a deceivable Age an Age wherein many do not only deceive others but their own Souls and therefore it concerns you to enquire whether the Lord be your God or no and not to satisfie your selves with general notions of the Lord 's being your God In the Eleventh and last place An evidence of Interest obtained maintained and Gospelly managed will be of singular advantage to a Christian in his whole Christian course You do not know Believers you that are careless in and about the clearing of your state you do not know what a change a Gospel sight of your Interest in Christ will make in your hearts an evidence of your Interest will expel all your fears and will resolve all your doubts and will cause a calm in your hearts whatsoever the present storm is Why if that we could look into the hearts of many or most of us I believe they would be found very tempestuous storms they threaten sore fears are ready to overwhelm and doubts are even ready to swallow up a Christian why an evidence of your Interest will remove all these Christian an evidence of your Interest will make all in Christ Jesus precious to you and will strangely raise and inhaunse the price of Christ and the blessings of Christ in your esteem The evidence of Interest O how precious will it make the Blood of Jesus to you O how precious will it make the Death of Jesus to you O how precious will it make the Life of Jesus to you O how precious will it make the Offices of Jesus to you when you can see that you are concerned in his Blood that Jesus he is your Surety your Mediator that he hath suffered for you and satisfied for you that he is your forerunner in Heaven this will make all of Christ exceeding precious An evidence of Interest is that that will carry your Souls chearfully through all sufferings that do or may befal you in the way of Christ There are reproaches that Believers meet withal in the way of Christ and the sense of Interest will help you to bear them all There are great losses that we are exposed to in bearing our Testimony to the Truths of Jesus sense of Interest will bear you up under all Why we have a building of God that is above It is said of those in the Hebrews that they did not regard their outward comforts knowing that they had in Heaven a better and an induring substance Sense of Interest will bear you up under all changes of providences when the Lord is taking as well as when he is giving Why will the Soul say there is still enough in Christ Christ is still
Lord Jesus Christ and this works up his heart to the frame he is in and causeth him to move towards the Lord and makes him unsatisfied without Jesus Christ Now my Friends bring your Soul-state into an examination by this What change is there wrought in your hearts Do not eye your profession so much as your hearts Consider what work hath past upon your Souls Are you spiritually renewed Have you received Life from Christ Is there such a real spiritual Change wrought in your Souls as doth amount to a New Creature And have you received of the Divine Nature from Christ And is there a living Spring that moves your Souls in all your motions towards Christ If so it argues an Interest but if the Spring of your motion be from without it is a sign that it is artificial and not living and so it argues no Interest in Christ Jesus Secondly Interest in Christ mixeth concerns and may be discovered by reciprocal acts in a mutual Interest The Interest that the Soul hath in Christ is never alone but the Soul that is interested in Christ Jesus hath Christ Jesus interested in him so as the Interest is mutual and upon a mutual Interest concerns are mixt so as Christ and the Believer have one concern between them Christ is interested in the Believer's concerns and the Believer is interested in Christ's concerns The Believer concerns himself for Christ and Christ concerns himself for the Believer The Believer is interested in all that Christ is and in all that Christ hath and Christ is interested in all that the Believer is and in all that the Believer hath The Believer hath a room in Christ's heart and Christ hath a room in the Believer's heart The believer hath a propriety in Christ and Christ hath a propriety in the believer saies the Spouse I am my beloveds and my beloved is mine the interest is mutual Jesus is my Jesus saies the believing Soul Christ is my Christ he is my Saviour and I have an interest in his love and grace and I have an interest in his life in his power in his strength fulness and Christ he hath an interest in me also he hath an interest in my love he hath an interest in my heart and in my strength and in all that have and am and the interest being mutual mixing concerns it may be discovered by reciprocal acts that is as Christ makes over himself to the Soul so the Soul makes over himself unto Christ 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us he hath set his love upon us and there will be a reciprocal acting in the Soul towards him he will also set his love upon Christ Christ indeed is the first mover and so the glory must be given unto him but the interest it is mutual and the acting is reciprocal The Lord Jesus Christ he makes over himself to the Soul to be his The Soul he accepts of Christ when tendered and that is not all but he makes a return unto Christ devoting himself unto him yielding and resigning himself unto Christ to be his to walk in his waies Ezek. 16.18 there you may see the actings of Christ towards the Soul saies he I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness yea I sware unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee saith the Lord and thou becamest mine I sware unto thee there the Lord did pass over himself to the believer Now there are reciprocal actings in the Soul towards him Deut. 26.17 Thou hast avouched the Lord this day to be thy God to walk in his waies and to keep his Statutes c. and the Lord v. 18. hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised here are reciprocal acts now Christian if thou wouldst make a discovery of thy state to know whether thou art interested in Christ Consider what interest Christ hath in thee what interest he hath in thy heart what a share he hath in thy affections and what a place he hath in thy life is there a kind of sacredness in thy heart for the Lord Jesus Christ in a holy resignation to him So there is in the Soul that is interested in Christ Cant. 4.12 A Garden enclosed is my Sister my Spouse a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed She is under a peculiar dedication to and reserve for her Lord whom she hath devoted her self unto and is as a Garden enclosed Now Christian if thy heart lieth in common and there be no sacredness upon it and no secret reserve of it it speaks but sadly for thee but where there is a dedication unto Christ and if you can find Christ interested in you it is an evidence that your are interested in Christ for we can never move towards Christ till he first moveth towards us We can never choose Christ until Christ hath first chosen us If that thou canst find thy heart open for Christ and towards Christ it is a clear evidence that Christs heart hath been first opened to thee all our love to Christ is but the reflection of Christs love to us Mary did not call Raboni till Christ first called Mary So as if thou findest thy heart under a dedication to Christ that Christ is thy joy and delight and hath full rule and liberty in thy heart that thy heart is opened or at least opening and there are outgoings of Soul in thee towards the Lord Jesus Christ It doth argue that thou hast an interest in him and that he hath begun to draw thee that he hath cast the skirt of his Grace over thee and made thee his Thirdly The Soul that hath an interest in Christ is brought under the ruling power of Christ so as he chooseth him to be his only Lord. That Soul hath as yet no interest in Christ that despiseth the government of Christ that resuseth obedience unto the Scepter and dominion of Jesus Christ these you know are reckoned among Christs enemies that say concerning him this man shall not reign over us you have a clear Scripture for this Isaiah 63.19 We are thine How did it appear that they were the Lords Because it was implicitely and tacitly asserted that the Lord did bear rule over them And how did it appear that they were none of Christ's and Christ none of theirs Because he did never bear rule over them neither were they called by his name So then those that slight and despise the Scepter of Christ Jesus and refuse allegiance to this glorious King of Heaven are none of his Subjects and so have no part nor interest in him but now that Soul that hath an interest in Christ is brought under the rule of Christ and Christ doth exercise and display an over-ruling power in his heart that brings him unto his foot and he is enabled to live in a professed subjection to the Scepter and Kingly power of Christ Jesus upon this interest the Soul hath in Christ his
that heavenly state the Saints are all advanced unto a heavenly stature even unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 3 13. till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ And Eph. 5.27 That says he he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish There will be no weakness no imperfection in the new man but you shall be in your full grown state in Heaven immediately upon your translation and therefore the Souls of Just men entring into Heaven are said to be in a perfect state Heb. 12.23 To the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of Just men made perfect Here you are glad to receive now a little and then a little and to be adding by degrees But there grace shall be so compleat as there shall be no room for a further degree nor for a higher improvement 2. The Saints have a hope laid up in Heaven of the glorification of these vile bodies Our bodies are now full of corruption they are earthly bodies and they are a great clog and a hinderance unto a spiritualized Soul but there shall come a change upon them 1 Cor. 15.42 43. So also is the resurrection of the dead It is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption It is sown in dishonour it is raised in glory Ver. 44. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body It is sown in corruption Many are the coâ—â—upting diseases that our flesh is exposable to whilst we live and such infections sometimes seize upon the body as do separate Lovers and acquaintance far from them but to be sure at death corruption that seizes the body and makes it so loathsom that near relations cannot bear one another Abraham cries out O! Bury my dead out of my sight and yet she was the Wife of his bosom that was bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh to whom he wanted no love yet says he Bury my dead out of my sight It is sown in dishonour and indeed it lives so for much of the glory and beauty and fairness of the body of man that was at first bestowed upon him is lost But all the scarrs and all the blemishes and all the disfigurements of our bodies even all the effects of sin shall at once be done away that that which is sown in dishonour shall be raised in glory and that which is sown in weakness shall be raised in power and that which is sown a natural body shall be raised a spiritual body it shall be spiritual in its temperature constitution and complexion it shall be spiritual in all its operations It shall be raised to glory and all the robes of mortality and all the raggs of its vileness they shall be left behind Lazarus when he rose out of the grave he arose with all his grave-cloths about him and he came with them out of his grave because he was to return again Joh. 11.44 And he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave-cloths Jesus saith to them Loose him and let him go The grave had not done with him This was not the blessed Resurrection that was under promise but he came out of the grave to return again but now Jesus Christ when he arose out of the grave he arose to return no more and he left all his grave-cloths behind him Joh. 20.6 7. Then cometh Simon Peter and went into the Sepulchre and seeth the Linnen-cloths and the Napkin that was about his head The Grave-cloths the Napkin and all that he had about him was all left behind because he was to return no more Now Jesus he arose as the first fruits of the Saints 1 Cor. 15.20 But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first-fruits of them that slept So as you may see in the Resurrection of Christ what shall be unto the Saints in their Resurrection They shall leave all the cloths of their dishonour and of corruption and mortality behind them And Phil. 3.20 21. These vile bodies of ours shall be changed and made like to the glorious body of Christ Who shall change our vile bodies bodies full of corruption full of weakness bodies in so much dishonour they shall be changed and shall be fashioned like to the glorious body of Christ And Rom. 8.23 And not only they but our selves also who have the first-fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groan within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies So that this is another part of the hope that is laid up in Heaven for the Saints the glorification of their vile bodies We shall have part of that glory and honour upon our bodies that the Father did bestow upon that body which he prepared for his Son when he took our nature And truly the body of Jesus Christ in Heaven is the most glorious creature that is there and it is a glory which the Saints shall admire for ever they shall not only admire it in Christ but admire it in themselves as they also shall be made partakers of it 3. The Saints have a Hope laid up for them of an everlasting Rest Here is no Rest in this world it is full of troubles and tossings to and fro like a Ship that is at Sea in a storm but now in Heaven there is Rest Rest from all the troubles of men Rest from all the troubles of Satan Rest from all the troubles of sin sorrow shall flee from them All tears shall be wiped from their eyes Rev. 21.4 I shall not here tell you how far the Saints may be made partakers of this that is here promised on this side Heaven but to be sure 't is true of Heaven it self Glad would a Saint be to get into a corner where he might sit down and be at rest but if he take up in this condition he is presently disturbed if he go into another condition he finds his troubles follow him his quarters are continually broken up he can never be at rest but one disquiet follows another and one trouble takes another by the heels But in Heaven there the Saints shall be taken into an everlasting Rest 2 Thes 1.7 And to you who are troubled rest with us He cheers up these Thessalonians to whom he writes under all the troubles that they met withal from men and Devils and all their enemies in their way that were continually disquieting of their spirits Well says he Cheer up to you who are troubled rest with us He was abundant in labours and abundant in sorrows and sufferings but he comforted himself with this that there was a Rest that remained for him and
in against him at last that after-reckonings may undo all No saies God when I forgive sin I do it with this resolve of grace never to remember it more and therefore Psal 103.12 As far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgressions from us east and west can never meet together so the sins of a believer that are forgiven by God shall never return again never return again to his Condemnation The sense of them may return again and again for his humiliation but the sins themselves shall never return again unto Condemnation for God having once blotted them out will never more write them down therefore Rom. 11.29 The gifts and callings of God are without repentance God doth all in wisdom in righteousness and in judgment he knows what he doth he sees all before and he sees after at once and therefore there can never be any repentance in God for him to recede from his own act of grace but having once absolved the poor sinner he shall remain so to eternity Micah 7.19 Thou wilt cast their iniquities into the depth of the Sea That which is thrown in at the Havens mouth may be washt up again but now take a milstone and carry it into the vast Ocean and cast it into the depth of the Sea and it will never be seen more and thus the Lord to illustrate his own grace doth make use of such comparisons to speak to our understanding This act of his grace is done in Judgment and God will never repent of it it is an irrevocable act Rom. 8.1 There is therefore now no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus VVE made entrance upon these words and gave you this Proposition from them Doct. That all those that are in Christ are acquitted absolved and discharged by God We have given you the properties of this discharge that God gives out unto the believer in Christ And shall now proceed Object But you will say if that believers be thus fully and irrevocably discharged by God how comes it to pass that they are the persons that God doth so much afflict in the world that they are seldom free but followed with adversity upon adversity trial upon trial and yet all their sins done away Ans I answer Though Gods People are the People of affliction and adversity ordinarily in the world yet their afflictions are not from wrath but from love and consistent with his pardoning grace you must distinguish between punishments that are satisfactory and punishments that are monitory You must distinguish between wrathful proceeds from justice and fatherly corrections and chastisements God doth afflict his people upon two accounts in the world sometimes for sin and sometimes for the trial of grace God I grant doth sometimes Chastise his people for sin that Scripture clears it to me Psal 89.30 31 32 33. If his Children forsake my law and walk not in my Judgements if they break my Statutes and keep not my Commandments then will I visit their transgressions with rods and their iniquity with stripes nevertheless my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail c. Here you see God doth chastise for sin he hath reserved to himself a power so to do that if his Children break his law if they transgress and walk contrary to it they shall hear of it they shall feel the smart of his rod ay but it is such a chastisement and visitation as is consistent with the stability of his Covenant for that is not shaken thereby it is such a chastisement as is consistent with unchangeable love and grace and by these afflictions God carries on his work in them the more to humble them and to recover the Soul and to bring it to a due consideration of its self and waies in order unto a closer walking with God and sometimes again afflictions are for the exercise the trial and the improvement of grace and all that God might be the more glorified 1 Pet. 1.6 7. Now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations that the tryal of your faith being much more precious than that of Gold that perisheth may be found unto praise and honour c. Afflictions stir up patience and patience that encreaseth experience and experience hope so as under the trial grace is made to abound and much glory is brought forth to God Obj. Ay but you will say further The believer is taken near to God and forgiven but he sins again don't his renewed transgressions break his pardon Ans Renewed and repeated transgressions they are found in those whom God pardons and they may break their peace and take away the comfort of their pardon but they don't null the pardon of God Their pardon that is continued that is renewed as their transgressions are renewed so as the obligation to punishment obligation to Hell and the wrath of God that returns no more upon their head really before God it returns no more for the pardon that is given forth of God takes it off but the sense of the pardon and all the comforts of the pardon may be lost for a considerable while This seems clear to me from that of the Prophet 2 Sam. 12.13 David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David The Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die God had blotted out the sin of David and yet if you look into the 51 Psalm you will find there that the comfort of his pardon was gone he was not able to read it nor to make Faith nor to take any joy from it O says he Verse 8. Make me to hear joy and gladness That seems to be a strange voice in his ears the voice of joy and gladness that he had so often heard from the Lord he was a stranger to O! says he that I could hear that voice again Restore unto me the joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit V. 12. The joy of his pardon was out of sight and till God returned again to him with fresh consolations and till the Comforter came again to visit him he was not able to apply a Promise nor to take in the comfort of his pardon although the Prophet had told him that God had pardoned him But the obligation to condemnation that doth not return For says the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.1 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Christ lieth there in Heaven to secure the state of a Believer and he keeps up the torrent and stream of God's love to the Soul though the manifestations of that love are under a soveraign over-rule and dispose But 3. We proposed to give you the ground upon which God doth proceed in the giving out of this discharge unto those that are in Christ And that is the merits and the satisfaction the propitiation and atonement
Apostle Neither life nor death c. shall separate us from the love of Christ Rom. 8.38 The life of a Believer after grace is full of provocation and it may be he continues to provoke God as long as he lives There are provocations and unkindnesses in his way to the Lord all his life long till he come to the end of his daies and yet says the Apostle Life shall not separate Now this is a great ground of rejoycing that thou mayest look unto thy Jesus and see him alwaies loving of thee Thy waies are very uneven and unconstant and thou canst not keep in so good a frame as thou wouldest do yet still Jesus loves thee thou art full of wandrings still Jesus loves thee why here 's a love that marches through all opposings Secondly It is a Love that heightens under all our sorrows I mean as to the communications and dispenses of it or the actual and saving discoveries of it unto the Believer it heightens under all our sorrows that the greater our troubles are the more he loves and the more pitiful our state is the more compassionate he is he sees a Believer it may be lying under great distresses of body or in great Agonies of spirit why this draws out his love he loves thee more he is the more pitiful and the more compassionate to thee as he sees that thy state is a sorrowful state and thy condition a troubled condition and indeed the Believer never hath such discoveries and evidences of the love and kindness of God to him as when he is in a low condition Jesus Christ he did come you know into a wilderness to walk with Israel And let their troubles be never so many Jesus Christ would not leave them but the greater their troubles were the more was his love discovered and the more did his faithfulness to them appear and they never had such an eminent and signal appearances of God with them as when they were in their Wilderness Travels Jacob a holy man never had so much of God nor never had such a sight of God as when he was in a low condition Gen. 28.15 Behold I am with thee and I will keep thee in all places whither thou goest and will bring thee again to this Land and will not leave thee till I have done what I have spoken to thee of And Gen. 31.42 Here the good man was in a great strait he was afraid that he should be cut off Ay but says he The Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac he it was that rebuked thee yesternight He did charge thee that thou shouldest speak no hurt no evil unto me And when Israel Exod. 3. came into a groaning captivity and bondage when their bondage grew very great and unsufferable then did the Lord wonderfully discover himself v. 7. And the Lord said I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their Task-masters and am come down to deliver them c. And Psa 34.16 The Eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his Ears are open to their cry Here is a supposition of a condition that the Soul is in or may be brought into that makes it groan and cry Well for your comfort know that then in a special manner is the Eye of the Lord upon you and his Ear open to you And Psal 56.18 Thou tellest my wanderings c. Thou tellest my flights so some read it I have never an enemy to pursue me but the Lord takes notice of it and seeth whither the enemy hunts me and drives me he takes notice of the fury of the oppressor that comes out against me Thou tellest my wanderings and puttest my tears in thy bottle Every tear in a sorrowful condition Jesus Christ bottles up he keeps it in remembrance God's Peoples highest visits of favour and grace their choicest experiences and the most comfortable manifestations that they have of God have been when they have been in a low condition In prosperity there God many times lets the Soul walk more at liberty ay and he hath less of God in prosperity then in adversity there he is left to walk by his own light as I may so say and he bears up himself more upon his own comforts he stands then as it were more upon his own legs but in a weak condition and in an afflicted state in a time of trouble then is the Lord present discovering himself more fully to him and hence it is that the Saints have had their highest Joys in the prison and have been made to sing in the flames They have commended the sharpest distress that ever they were brought into in this world to be such as could never separate Christ and their Souls the love of your Jesus is so great that it will leap into a furnace to keep you company It is such as it will come into any strait and hazard to support and bear up your spirits Lo this is your friend your comforter that you have O believer to rejoyce in Jesus his heart is alwaies towards you and the love of his heart it heightens under all your sorrows let darkness grow upon your state the light of his love will shine through it and give you a light that you shall see your way let your disconsolations be never so many in the creature the love of Jesus Christ will countervail all for if the creature be taken away Jesus Christ will be the more and in the want of all things he will discover himself so as shall answer all to your Souls 3. As his love is such as heightens under all our sorrows so it abides unmixed in all seasons as it is a love that cannot be diverted so it is a love that cannot be adulterated but it is alwaies a sweet alwaies a pure love a heart easing a soul pacifying a soul rejoycing love none can throw any bitterness into the love of Jesus but it is alwaies a pure clear Chrystal love that hath no mixture in it it is not thus with the love of friends the sweetest the best the firmest friends that ever man had upon earth there is some mixture in their love They will sometimes rejoyce your hearts and sometimes they will make your hearts sad loving friends may sometimes frown and be churlish and unkind and you may go to them with your hopes and expectations and be disappointed you may soon weary out their love and they may discover such a mixture that their hearts seem sometimes to be alienated But it is not thus with the Lord Jesus but his love is alwaies a pure clear soul satisfying love there is light in him and no darkness at all there is sweetness in him and there is no bitterness at all There are as I said before things that may encourage you but there is nothing that will discourage you in Jesus no not unto eternity now believer this is
not for me only says he but for you also rest with us You shall come into the same Rest with us Ministers and People that are faithful in Christ Jesus shall all come into the same Rest a Rest that none of the troublers shall be able to disturb Rev. 14.13 Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them The labours and the pains that you take here they are very many We were driven by God into this condition in the sweat of our faces to eat our bread Well but this is but for this life You have a Hope that is laid up in Heaven for you of a blessed and a glorious Rest wherein you shall have freedom from all your labours you shall have freedom from all the disturbances and pressures that you have here 4. There is a fulness of Joy that is laid up in Heaven for all Believers Says the Prophet Isa 66.11 That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolation that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory If that there be such a time a coming wherein this may be true of the Saints here upon Earth it will be much more so in Heaven for Heaven will heighten all it will heighten all your joy and heighten all your comfort and not only heighten the joy and comfort that you have but that succeeding Saints shall have when the whole Earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord still there shall be a disproportion between Earth and Heaven When the voice saith Come up hither that which follows is Enter into your Master's Joy Matth. 25.21 Here the Lord for the bearing up of the hearts of his People sends down a little joy into their spirits he sends down the Comforter unto them and he comes and now and then speaks a reviving word now and then he gives a drop of consolation and it may be it is upon the end of the Rod too and this is counted a great matter and truly it should be so with us But there is a hope of another manner of Joy or other measures laid up in Heaven for you Joy it shall be the Air that the Saints shall breath in it shall be the very Orb that they shall move in the very Elements that they shall dwell in their hearts cannot hold all it shall be overflowing it shall be round about them 1. The Joy that is laid up in Heaven for the Saints it is that that shall be fully satisfying They shall have enough of it they shall be filled with it to the full so as there shall be no room for more Psal 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life in thy presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore But shall the Saints have enough of this yes Psal 17.16 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The Soul hath not its satisfaction here when it hath a little it is enlarged to bless God but it hath not enough it would have more still a little more communion with God But in Heaven there is satisfaction to the full When I awake that is in the morning of the resurrection when this mortality is blown out of his eyes when he comes to open his eyes in the other world then shall I be satisfied with thy likeness 2. The Joy that is laid up in Heaven is unmixed Here there is a mixture with your Joy you have a little joy and a great deal of sorrow you have a little peace and a great deal of trouble you have darkness with your light and you have vexation and crosses with your comforts But in Heaven there is nothing to cross there is nothing to grieve there is only joy there is no mixture with your joy It will be pure joy 3. And thirdly That Joy that is laid up in Heaven will be permanent It is such as you shall sit down in and that which you shall partake of to eternity Here your joy is not only mixed with sorrows but it meets with great overwhelmings it is coming and going it is partaken of here at great uncertainties but now in Heaven it will be alwaies the same 4. There is in Heaven laid up for you absolute freedom and full liberty of Soul in the Service of God Here 't is not so when the spirit is willing the flesh is weak and how often are our hearts ready to die within us The Spirit will not hold out we can hardly watch with Christ one hour bodies tire and spirits tire but now there will be a fulness of strength in Heaven and there will be liberty of spirit proportionable to all strength and to all grace the Soul will be in absolute freedom for God and the body under an absolute freedom too answerable unto all the freeness of the Soul now the body is a great clog to the Soul it is a great hinderance that you cannot do for God and you cannot lay out your selves for God as you would but there will be no weariness in Heaven in your Spirits though you shall serve night and day world without end the promise is Isaiah 40.31 That they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint The Saints rejoyce as they can experience something of this here but the fulness of this promise will be in Heaven there you shall mount up indeed as with wings there Soul and Body shall be in all liberty in the service of God Now what would Saints give to have their Spirits in a freedom and full liberty for God but one day O they would count it a corner of Heaven if that they could have their Spirits set in full liberty for God but one of his daies that they may serve God and delight themselves fully in the service of God a whole day But Sirs in Heaven you shall be fully delighted in the service of God to eternity all clogs shall be taken off from your Spirits 5. The Saints have a hope laid up in Heaven for them of an eternal abode in the glorious pallace of their Father here their dwelling is uncertain they have no sure dwelling place upon earth their Landlords sometimes warn them out of their Houses and command them to seek a new dwelling sometimes God turns them out of their Houses they may be driven out of their Houses here by the Sword they may be driven out by fire but the Lord he hath chosen Heaven as the place of their perpetual residence Deut. 1.33 Who went in the way before you to search out a place The Lord went before Israel in the Wilderness by Fire and by the Cloud to search out a place for
beloved Son of God all the while but yet there is a time a coming when all those that are discharged in Gods Court in Heaven shall be cleared both in the Court of their own consciences and also before the whole world We shall observe this method in our brief handling of it 1. To shew you the truth of it from Scripture 2. To give you the properties of this discharge that is given out by God to believers 3. The ground upon which God proceeds in the discharge 4. The time when the Soul is taken into this priviledge and hath the discharge given out to him And then the Application 1. Scripture clears this That there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ they are absolved they are discharged by God Believers are so but as for all those that are in their Sins they are under the sentence of condemnation it hangs over them and it follows them where-ever they go John 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already really condemned he hath the sentence really denounced against him he is really declared a dead man in the sense of the law as we say when the judge hath denounced sentence of death against a Malefactor he is a dead man so every one in his sins is a dead man he is condemned already There is indeed this difference between him and one that is in Hell he that is in Hell is condemned and executed but the sinner upon Earth is condemned and not executed The Sinner in Hell is condemned and executed and there remains no hope for him The Sinner upon Earth he is condemned and yet there is hope that comes in at the door of the Gospel which gives some probability that if he will bestir himself the sentence may be removed the patience of God is exercised and it is drawn out into a great length and it is to lead the Sinner to repentance Rom. 2.4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long-suffering not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance After the Sentence God waits upon the Sinner and will not suffer the law presently to take hold and to do its work the hand of Justice that is held from smiting the Sinner is not presently executed and in the patience in the forbearance and long-suffering of God there is a pardon that is tendered and a way discovered whereby the Sinner may come to get free from the doom that was upon him but the sentence that hangs over the head of every unbeliever as John 3.36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the Son shall not sâ—e life but the wrath of God abideth on him the wrath of God that hangs over his head it hangs over his head in that ancient sentence that was denounced against man upon his first transgression Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or thou shalt die the death here is the sentence here is the doom and God abideth by his word to this day hereupon saies the Apostle Gal. 3.10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them being under the works of the law you are under the curse because the broken law doth denounce a curse against all the breakers of it so as all those that are unbelievers all those that are under the first Covenant all those that are in a state of sin before God they are condemned already But now all those that are in Christ Jesus have this sentence of death taken off they are absolved and discharged by the Lord saies the Prophet Isaiah 38.17 For thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back It is spoken by God after the manner of men when a man gives out the bond of another and freely dischargeth him of the Debt the Bond is cancelled and thrown away it is cast behind his back for wast-paper never more to be made use of the Debt never more to be brought into question again nor yet the Debtor upon the account of the Debt Now says he thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back thou hast given me a discharge that they shall no more lie against me Rev. 2.17 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden Manna Manna of old was a type of Christ The Apostle to the Corinthians clears it Now says he he shall eat of the hidden Manna he shall feed upon Christ every overcomer shall have communion and fellowship with Christ and that is not all but I will give him a white stone The Lord in this expression doth allude unto the Custom that was amongst the Romans when a person upon his tryal was found guilty he had a black stone given him in token of his condemnation and he that was discharged and cleared he had a white stone given him in token of his absolution Now says he I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which none knows but he that receiveth it I will discharge him says the Lord Every overcomer every one in Christ he hath a white stone given him by the Lord. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus 2. We shall proceed to shew you what are the properties of this discharge that the Lord grants unto those that are in Christ First It is a real discharge It is no imaginary thing It is a real truth that the Apostle doth here affirm There is says he therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus The absolution of a Believer is as real as his sinning was real as his condemnation was real he was really a sinner and he was really condemned on the account of his sin and he is as really discharged You have the word of the Lord for it The same word of truth that tells us there is condemnation to every Unbeliever tells us that there is no condemnation to the Believer But you have not only the Word of God for it but you have your discharge under hand and seal And therefore the Apostle tells us that those that believe they are sealed by the Spirit of the Lord. The Seal of the Spirit it is God's Seal Eph. 1.13 In whom ye also trusted after that ye heard the Word of Truth the Gospel of your Salvation in whom also after that you believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise And again Eph. 4.30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed to the day of Redemption He comes and gives you a sealed pardon he gives you the Seal of God's pardon upon your own hearts And hence the Apostle speaks with as much confidence as man can speak upon a sure testimony 1 Joh. 3.14 We know that