himself Exod. 2.11 with Acts 7.35 Moses whom they refused saying who made thee a ruler and a judge The same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer He supposed his Brethren would have understood that by his hand God would deliver them But afterward having found the work so hard he could not hope to do it though God expresly set him about it and gave him his Commission for it Exod. 3.10 11. Come now therefore and I will send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayst bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt And Moses said unto God Who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt Yea when he had now had some experience of the power and presence of God with him in the undertaking yet he speaks as despairing of bringing it to any effect because he found so much difficulty in it Exod. 5.22 23. Moses returned unto the Lord and said Why is it that thou hast sent me for since I came to Pharoah to speak in thy name he has done evil to this people Neither hast thou delivered thy people at all So Christians newly converted make almost nothing of resolving if God will pardon them and speak peace to them to do all that they shall know to be duty and breaking off from all Sin for ever after But in process of time they find Sin so mighty in them that they think they shall never do any thing to purpose in that work of Godliness So they find themselves utterly unable for obedience and holy walking in their own strength This is the first Experiment tending to this dependance on the power of Grace in Chrst 2dly They find that there is a presence of God sometimes with them helping them against all weakness to perform their duty with much ease and pleasure so they are marvellously encouraged in trusting God Enlivened in seeking of him animated in speaking and acting for him and made free and chearful in submitting to his Providence insomuch that they cannot but wonder at themselves that they should be so transported beyond their ordinary bounds of weakness heaviness and indisposition as Hab. 3.19 The Lord God is my strength he maketh my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon high places And on this occasion they many times err thinking that it will continue always so with them as they have found it 3dly They find that this assistance usually comes in most when they are most sensible of their own weakness and despairing of themselves 2 Cor. 12.10 When I am weak then am I strong The like you shall see in the 94th Psalm 18. When I said my foot slippeth thy mercy O Lord held me up That is very notable and observable to this purpose Judges 6.14 The Angel bids Gideon go forth in this thy might why what was his might He being humble in the sense of his weakness God would be with him 4thly They find that the more earnestly they look to God for his help the more sensibly he is pleased to relieve and succour them with it as David said in the 28th Psalm 7. The Lord is my strength my heart trusted in him and I am helped They fail most when they either forget their weakness and think to go forth as at other times as Sampson said or when they conceive no hope of help from God but provoke him by despair to leave them for the time to sink in their sorrows And thus Experience plainly leads them to a constant and steddy dependance on the gracious Power of God for all their work and suffering When they find themselves unable God enabling them and that when they are most sensible of their weakness and when they wait most earnestly on him for strength What can be more plainly taught than all this teaches them to depend on the power of Grace for the performance of their whole Christian duty Now for the Uses Use 1. This shews how far they are from the true spirit of Christianity who make their weakness an Apology for their sloth and negligence instead of looking to Christ for strength of grace They cast off the Duties of Repentance and new Obedience and plead for themselves that they are not able of themselves for such work and God has not given them power and grace that 's requisite to it and therefore they must let it alone unassayed unendeavoured till more strength comes First 'T is evident they do not love Christian duty They are unwilling to it or they would be impatient of their weakness crying out for strength as the poor Syrophenician Woman when Christ seemed to neglect her Lord help me Matth. 15.24 25. 2dly They do not heartily believe the necessity of holiness and obedience to Salvation that of the Apostle Heb. 12.14 Without holiness none shall see God has no power on their hearts Nor that in 2 Thess 1.7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ For let 's reason it a little If you believe these things why do you not live holy and religious lives Why do you suffer your Lusts and bruitish Appetites to lead and carry you to such Company and such Courses as you know are unsuitable to Christianity and such as you are ashamed Persons of any Religion and soberness should take notice of Why do you not set up a strict exercise of Religion in your hearts and lives and devote your selves to the practice of Godliness If you say you do not because you cannot you have no ability Then it seems you think you cannot but perish you cannot but be damned for he that cannot be holy cannot see God and cannot but fall under the Vengeance of Eternal Flames and do you believe this No no if you did you would not live an hour at quiet never enjoy your selves or any thing in this World but be always crying out O wretched man c. No I 'll never think you can be such monsters as to believe you are under a necessity of perishing and yet be pleased and quieted in that Estate But you will be secure and hope the best and quarrel at them that would disturb you Well If you will rather disbelieve God and make him a Liar than be disturbed in your security who can help it you will shortly find your Error Use 2. It informs us of the unsoundness of that Faith which looks only at safety from misery and not at the Spirit of Grace and Holiness to do all things through Christ True Saving-faith relies on God for grace to the performance of duty as well as for the Reward and for a freedom from Punishment Though at first Christians are usually but low in this act of Faith yet Experience brings them to it The third Use Use 3. Is
't is rather than to go out of it and that is not heartily afraid of death Answ 1. I answer Among sincere Christians many are weak and of little growth Though a man have not attained such a willingness to entertain death as some have he may be sincerely godly and growing to it Answ 2. You must take these conjunctly A desire to depart and be with Christ. So Christians can ordinarily subscribe and say I desire to depart and be with Christ. Looking on the one as enough to sweeten the other and make it desirable else it were better for a Christian to be with Christ as he is than die and not be with him This Paul intimates in the next words which is far better As a dinner of herbs where love is Prov. 15.17 is better than a stalled ox with hatred A Wilderness with Manna is better than the Flesh-pots in Egypt So to be gone out of this world and be with Christ is far better than to be in this world Answ 3. The one part must be understood as absolutely desired the other but relatively to that in its relation to the other To be with Christ a Christian desires absolutely he aims at it in all his faith and holiness but die he desires not at all save only as it serves to bring him to Christ as Christ laid down his life to take it up Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again So earnest willingness excludes not real unwillingness as a man desires to have his Leg or Arm cut off to preserve his Body yet is really unwilling to have the one or the other cut off 4thly The best of Christians are not always actually assured of this conjunction and relation of death and being with Christ and then they cannot desire death at all Death cannot be desired but as it 's a passage to Jesus Christ tâ—ke away that order which it has to a Christians being with Christ and 't is undesirable and a Christian is not always sure that when he dies he shall be with Christ 5thly Though a Christian do heartily desire to depart and be with Christ yet he cannot fix his desire upon any particular point of time for them as to say Now I desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. Christians usually desire somewhat between them and death which they apprehend conducing to their better dying as David requests of the Lord Spare me a little that I may recover my strength before I go hence and as Moses Lord let me go over Jordan c. But now it 's not the case of every Christian that he can fix upon the time and say as Simeon Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace Every Christian cannot say so though he has a desire to depart and be with Christ. 2. They must be determined by the Will of God however for the time and not by their own assignment as Simeon Now dismissest thou thy servant in peace Luke 2.29 So Paul I know not which to chuse Philip. 1.22 And so much for the proof of this Point That well-setled and established Christians do live in an earnest desire to leave this world and be with Christ in Heaven I come now to the Uses And first 1 Use By this we may judge of our Attainments in Christianity If our hearts stick fast to the world and we have no mind to leave it If our desires after Heaven be loose and cool 't is a sign we have made little progress in Christianity If we be Christians at all natural motion is stronger toward the end as a Stone falling to the earth the nearer it comes to the ground the swifter 't is in motion So the further we grow in Christianity the more heavenly-natur'd we grow and so the more desirous to be there every thing tends to its natural place The more we grow in Grace the more sight we have of the excellency of Heaven and so are more willing to leave the world Heaven is the Christian's Centre and the nearer he comes to it the faster he moves toward it Time and experience of the world may make us less esteem earthly things but Grace only makes us willing to leave them because it only raises our desires to Heaven for till we know and hope for better we are never content to leave what we have though it be never so sorry and undesirable Secondly Use 2. This serves to humble us for our unwillingness to leave the world and weak desire to be with Christ. 'T is an evidence of our little proficiency or improficiency under means of Grace when 't is little in our minds and unpleasing we hardly leave the world and join with Christ a little while a Sabbath an hour when it 's grievous to us to part with any thing in the world for Christ when we take little care to get and keep that communion with him which we might have in this world Thirdly Use 3. This serves to perswade Christians to set their affections on things above Coloss 3.1 That they may be loose from these earthly things and live in a desire to depart and be with Christ. For 1. This will assure you of your attainment of your desire Earnest desire to depart and be with Christ is a certain evidence that when you depart you shall be with Christ in Heaven as the Apostle speaks in 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth 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 unto all them also that love his appearing that is his coming to receive them to himself c. that long to see the very first glimpse that is to be had of him as when a man looks for a Friend coming by Sea he longs to see the top of the Sails of the Ship that brings him so the Soul that loves the appearance of Jesus Christ if there be any sign of his coming to receive them to himself they rejoice to see the very tops of the Sails of that Ship that brings Jesus Christ to them The Lord will never frustrate such a desire open thy mouth thus wide and it shall be filled if Heaven be enough to fill it 2. It will make all easy that is to be suffered by the way If once you attain to this that you can desire to die and be with Christ you will not stick at sufferings on this side death that being the King of Terrors all other Fears are but its Subjects and terrible only as they serve under its Banner to subdue men to it and bring them under its power as Paul argued Acts 21.13 I am ready not only to be bound but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus If to die no doubt to be bound ACTS XX. 24. That I may finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of
Conscience falls fiercely on the Soul for them and this is plainly the Reproofs of the Almighty within a man Conscience being his Deputy and Remembrancer yea Death it self is a Rebuke for Sin God would never put us to the pains of Death were it not that we have sinned As when God pardoned the sin of David yet he appointed him the sword to dwell in his house as a sorrowful memorial of his sin 2 Sam. 12.10 so he appoints all his people many afflictions in this life though he forgives their sin and Death at last as an unavoidable Rebuke for sin As if he should say I take away your sin and free you from the curse of my Law but yet not a man of you shall get to Heaven but through the pains of death through the dark valley of the shadow of death Yea many times Christians have Reproofs given them in their Death for some particular Sins which God gives them notice of as Moses and Aaron died in the Wilderness for a Reproof of their Unbelief And many of the Corinthians were judged of God in their Death for their Sin about the Holy Supper 1 Cor. 11. that is as the Apostle there expounds it They were chastened of God that they might not be condemned And this is a very sorrowful thing to be smitten with Death in a Rebuke for Sin as Moses complains of it Deutr. 4.22 The Lord sware against me that I shall not go into the land of Canaan Thus Death is so sorrowful a thing as would be too much for a Christian to endure without spiritual comfort to take off the bitterness of it Reas 3. It is highly due to the Honour of Christianity that a Christian should die comfortably in the exercise of spiritual joy Christianity propounds life and glory to be enjoyed after Death and teaches men to accept of Death as a passage to such happiness as eye hath not seen c. Blessed are the dead dying in the Lord Rev. 14.13 Now if they that hold up this Profession among men should be as sadly surprized with Death and as much affrighted and appaled at it as other men this would bring a shame upon their Profession and lay it open to the reproach of those who will be ready to say I thought you had been going home to your Father to your beloved Jesus Christ to your blessed Inheritance c. and can you die sorrowfully Thus Christians are exercised with great Afflictions and no appearing help Adversaries are presently ready to ask Where now is your God and there is no sufficicnt Answer but to acknowledge his comforting and supporting presence where is He why here he is in our hearts and souls strengthning and upholding us So 't is in the case of Death no maintaining the credit of Religion against Reproach but by rejoicing in the Lord when we are going out of the world and therefore our great care should be that we may die in peace with God Reas 4. It 's a necessary part of a Christian's love to those whom he leaves behind him to die chearfully A Christian's chearful Death eases the sorrow of surviving Friends and we should 1. Endeavour so to go out of the world as to leave them as little trouble as may be that stay behind us Especially to provide what we can that if they mourn they may not mourn as those without hope concerning us 2. But besides this A Christian's chearful and comfortable dying is an encouragement to others to follow him in the way of Christianity Balaam himself desired to die the death of the righteous but where grace is the death of the righteous will encourage a man to live the life of the righteous considering as the Apostle says the end of their conversation Hebr. 13.7 Now for the Uses Use 1. Hence we learn That the work and care of a Christian is as lasting as his life When he is converted to God and believes in Christ he must take care to live well and when he has walked with God and demeaned himself like a Christian in his conversation he must have a care also to die well that he may depart in peace and in the joy of the Lord. They greatly mistake that think a Christian once justified and adopted has no more to do but stay the time when he shall go to Heaven He must take heed how he lives and have a care how he dies so that living and dying he has peculiar Duties to attend Use 2. It shews the happiness of a Christian in his death He dies such a death as will not only bear joy and comfort but requires it He has not only cause to rejoice when he goes out of this world but ought to do it Blessed are the dead dying in the Lord Rev. 14.13 Men of this world please themselves in the present delights of their life but that 's a happy life indeed which tends to a pleasurable and truly joyous end Use 3. The third Use teaches and exhorts Christians to be always providing not only for a safe but a comfortable death And to this end take these few Directions following Direct 1. Be diligent to assure your selves that you are reconciled to God in Jesus Christ and at peace with him The great terror of death is that it brings men to the Bar of God's great judgment But when we are once sure of Pardon we may safely expect a justifying Sentence and an Adjudication to Glory And there is no danger in appearing before that Judge by whom we shall certainly be acquitted when a man can say I am going to my God my Father my Redeemer c. This will make it comfortable dying as our Saviour said I go to my Father and your Father This assurance made Paul triumph over death as in Rom. 8.38 Neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so in 1 Cor. 15.55 O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Direct 2. Be much in meditation of heaven according to the report that Scripture gives of it that which is more and better than Eye has seen or Ear heard yea a fulness of joy Or as as Eliphaz said to Job of hearing Job 5.27 Hear this and know it for thy self Think of these things for your selves How happy shall I be if once I may behold the face of God in Righteousness be like him and see him as he is When the Prodigal thought what was in his Father's House it made him glad to return and that 's the Argument that our Saviour gives his Disciples against trouble in this World the consideration of what is provided for them in his Father's House John 14.2 In my father's house are many mansions And in Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ We look at things not seen Direct 3. Be always labouring to discharge your selves of earthly hopes We are looking for some contentment in things of this World and that makes Death more unacceptable But you have no certainty of any Earthly comfort that you can propound to your selves and be it what it will there is better to your satisfaction to be had in Heaven Remember what Leah and Rachel said to Jacob Is there any portion or inheritance yet for us c. Gen. 31.14 That made them willing to go into Canaan They had no expectation left in Padan-Aram Direct 4. Endeavour always to maintain uprightness and sincerity of heart That 's the comfort of Christians while living and dying that 's comfort while we live 2 Cor. 1.12 Our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience And when we dye Psal 37.37 Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace And so Prov. 14.32 The righteous has hope in his death Direct 5. Diligently apply your selves to all duties of righteousness and goodness toward men It conduces much to the comfort of our death to live as in the exercise of holiness toward God so in practice of honesty and goodness to men It helps to make a man wait with confidence for the coming of Christ Tit. 2.12 13. Teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ See how Paul takes his dying leave of the Ephesians though he was not presently to die Acts 20.33 I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel Sixthly and Lastly Direct 6. Live in a continual exercise of faith in Jesus Christ for remission of sin and everlasting life Be always trusting and renewing your confidence in Christ There is no preserving our assurance of peace with God no maintaining of our hope of glory without continual recourse had to the great Advocate for the saving benefits of his Mediation He can never dye comfortably that doth not always live by faith 2 Tim. 4.7 I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith The continual exercise of judgment and holy discretion in our Actions is a keeping of Judgment Psal 106.3 Blessed are they that keep judgment and he that doth righteousness at all times So the continual exercise of Faith is a keeping of Faith which confirms the Soul against the fear of Death and Judgment 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Thus now have I endeavoured to shew you what is necessary to a Christian's comfortable passage through this World and that 's the last thing of a Christian's motion towards his Perfection To go well out of this World And now this work of a Christian's motion towards his Perfection I shall conclude with this I have finished my course FINIS
newness of the way of Christianity to them is very much a cause of their pleasure in it They take up Duty in obedience to God and love it for its goodness and so far Grace acts them and works in them But besides there is a natural pleasure which they take in it as a new course of life to which they have not been used And this serves for a while to hold them up to a great deal of forwardness and activity which afterwards wears off with its cause and leaves but so much activity behind as there is Grace in the Soul to produce and maintain it This sometimes makes Christians seem to others to have been but Hypocrites in their former diligence in Christianity because they are now more remiss and commonly themselves at some time or other are brought to suspect that they have no saving Grace in them at all because as they think they are grown worse whereas indeed there is but an accidental Motive fallen off which makes the Motion slower than it was though the true and proper Principle remains As if a Man pulls a Clock or Jack by the Line when 't is going it goes apace but when he withdraws his hand it goes more slowly and yet it goes as fast as the proper weight made it go before and is not grown a worse Clock or Jack but only the Hand-help is withdrawn This newness is it which causes that first love which the Ephesians are blamed for leaving Rev. 2.4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love Now this some take to be the zeal and forwardness of Christianity for the newness of it But some may object and say Object This may seem to be no fault in the Ephesians and not reprovable in them 't is no fault to leave it I answer Answ 'T is Sin in others as in them when we do not love Duty still in as high degree for Christ's sake when such accidental motions fall off as when they are at the highest as a School-boy should love his Book when 't is old as when it was fresh and new so perhaps new Converts loved Christianity better at first than afterward but it 's their fault Thus far have I been speaking concerning Christians that are hopefully and comfortably in a state of salvation I now proceed to the reason of this why Christians that are comfortably assured of their safe estate do give up themselves to the practice of godliness why they are so active and forward in the Duties of Religion First 1 R. Christians comfortably assured of their Justification or Interest in Jesus Christ do therefore heartily give up themselves to the service of Righteousness because they love God and this is the proper exercise of their love The grace of love to God is implanted in their Souls in their first Conversion when as yet they have no clear assurance of their salvation but when they come to a comfortable perswasion that they are in a state of grace they love God because he has first loved them see Psal 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voice And in 1 Joh. 4.19 We love him because he first loved us Secondly 2 R. The trouble and torments which their Sin has brought upon them makes them gladly betake themselves to a course of Holiness in hope to be at ease Psal 25.12 13. What man is he that feareth the Lord him shall he teach in the way that he shall chuse His soul shall dwell at ease c. Obedience seems to flesh and blood a very hard and wearisom course of life and therefore it pleases God so to order it that men should return to him wearied with the troubles and vexatious fears and despairs which attend on Sin that they may be the more willing to give up themselves to Holiness and Obedience 3 R. Thirdly They know it is the way to their compleat happiness Tho Heaven be not merited by Holiness yet 't is not to be obtained without it as Heb. 12.14 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. It 's a usual saying of Divines That Holiness does not merit Heaven but it is the way to it and this Christians understanding are more willing and forward in the practice of Holiness I come now to the Uses Use 1. This confutes the usual Objection against the Doctrine of Assurance of Salvation that it leads to the neglect of duty for say they that deny Assurance attainable If once men be persuaded that they are in a state of Salvation and shall be saved they will presently think it needless to take more pains about their Salvation But we have seen that a comfortable persuasion of their being in a safe Estate is an effectual argument to duty and Christians never set so couragiously and resolvedly upon the practice of Godliness as when they have attained a good assurance of their Salvation Use 2. This Doctrine which I have been propounding to you may convince men of their Self-deceit who neglect duty and take liberty to sin because they hope to be saved It 's a false Opinion of an interest in God that stands with the neglect of his Commands especially when 't is the ground and argument of that neglect I am God alsufficient walk before me and be perfect Gen. 15. So God indents with them whom he receives for his people and they consent with him You that live beside the known Rules of Christianity without any stated worship of God in your Families without the Exercise of Secret Prayer and meditations in your Chambers and Closets you that ordinarily profane the Sabbath and lay it common to your worldly Uses that are ordinarily guilty of swearing lying defrauding and injuring your Neighbours that are intemperate in eating and drinking c. and you that so clearly know your sin that you use your art and skill to hide it from the eyes of men Do you not know that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against such unrighteousness of men Yea but possibly some may say We have believed in Jesus Christ and are justified through his Blood and hope to be saved as well as those that live the strictest lives Certainly your hopes deceive you and you are in a perishing estate For the knowledge of being in a state of Grace will make them apply themselves to the practice of Godliness being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness Such is the case of those that encourage themselves in the Examples of Noah and David Fore-fathers or of men reputed godly Use 3. It helps much to confirm Christians in their hopes of Salvation who find themselves moved and excited to Obedience 't is a sign your Persuasion is rightly grounded And thus much for this third Step of Converts toward their Salvation A resolved setling upon a course of Christian Practice 2 COR. V. 1. Having therefore these promises dearly beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of
to persuade Christians troubled about their inability for holy actions to yield themselves to the Counsel of God's conduct of Experience as it leads to a reliance and waiting on God for strength of his Grace That which the Word requires Isa 40. last To wait on the Lord that they may renew their strength You find your selves weak c. And do you not sometimes find God relieving you against your weakness and that when you are most pressed down under the sense of it especially when you look up most earnestly to him for help What can be more plainly spoken than this speaks the Language of the Prophet Isa 26.4 Trust in the Lord for ever For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength 1 JOHN I. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ THE Eighth degree of a Christian's Motion toward Perfection is a spiritual Communion or Conversation with God When God has brought a Believer to a setled dependance on his gracious Power for the practice of Godliness He gradually draws him into a converse and intimacy with himself which is at least comprehended in these words Our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ The word Fellowship signifies Communion or Communication when two or more Persons partake of the same thing as they that feed on the same Diet and Table together are called Commoners So they whose Cattle partake of the same Pasture are said to Common together and so they are called partakers of the Altar who eat together or alike of the Sacrifices as in 1 Cor. 10.18 This is an ordinary Signification of the word Fellowship Communion or Conversation But when 't is referred to God and Christ in Scripture it has a more free Signification 1st Sometimes it imports Assimilation and Conformity of Christians to God the Father and Christ the Mediator So in as much as Saints are like God in holiness They are called partakers of his divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Holiness in Christians is not the same that is in God for that 's Essential but somewhat Analogous So Christians conformed to Christ in Sufferings are said to partake of his Sufferings 1 Pet. 4.13 Rejoyce in as much as ye are partakers of Christs sufferings that is He suffered and they suffer likewise as Verse 1. 2dly It is used to signify the virtual Interest that Christians had and have in the Death and Mediatory Performances of Christ The benefit whereof is derived to them as if themselves had died and done as he did for them Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Fellowship of his Sufferings that is what it is to partake with the Saints of the benefit of his Sufferings as if I had suffered with him in which respect Christians are said to have died risen ascended with Christ and to sit in Heaven with him as Col. 3.1 and Eph. 2.6 He has raised us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ And Col. 3.1 If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above 3dly It notes Converse and Society between God and Man 2 Cor. 6.14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness that is They cannot joyn or abide together God who is Light can have no Conversation with Unbelievers who are Darkness Christ with Belial Ver. 15. therefore you should have none Hence the word Companions Heb. 10.33 Ye became companions of them which were so used that is suffer like them And this I understand to be especially intended in this place Our fellowship is with the Father Christians are at first Conversion conformed to God in some degree of Holiness and made partakers of the benefits of the Death and Resurrection of Christ in their Justification and Adoption But acquaintance and converse with God they attain to by degrees when they have had experience of him and his ways Now 't is evident the Apostle is here directing Christians to something higher than they had yet attained to They were now the Children of God Chap. 3.2 And had the Unction of the Spirit Chap. 2.20 But he directs to something in which they might be Copartners with himself and others whose Fellowship he could truly say was with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ To have fellowship with the Son is to have fellowship with the Father as to see the Son is to see the Father John 14.19 Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more but ye see me God transacts all things with his Church in the Person of his Son the Mediator He is doer of all since his Ascension and is always with his to the end of the World Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you alway even unto the end of the world So Communion with the Father is Communion with the Son Again Christ being now ascended manages all in a Divine way and invisibly therefore they that have fellowship with him are said to have fellowship with the Father So the Apostle having attained this fellowship with God the Father and Son and directing others to it We may gather this Observation Doct. That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate acquaintance and fellowship with God That your fellowship may be with us And truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ There is much proof I might easily give of this Phil. 3.20 For our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Our Conversation is in Heaven that is with God So Asaph in Psalm 73.23 says I am continually with thee So Enoch and Noah walked with God So in John 14.23 our Saviour says If any man love me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him So in Psalm 139.18 saies David I am continually with thee And so in several other places we find the Intimacy and Communion with them that walk with God And this comes to the point in hand That Christians as they proceed in Godliness they grow into an intimate Acquaintance and Fellowship with God Take some instances of the Converse and Fellowship which Christians have with God 1. They confer much with God in Holy Meditation Meditation is a secret Conference and close Discourse between God and the Soul Good thoughts as they come into the mind are the very whisperings of God and as they are the act of the Mind upon God they are the proper Language of the Soul speaking to him as Psalm 27.8 Thou saidst Seek ye
though shame and fear may for a time restrain them they at length open their griefs and state the case of their Souls earnestly pursuing the great Question What shall we do The Fifth Step or Degree of this Work is An heedful and humble Attendance on the Doctrine of Salvation by Jesus Christ contained in the Gospel as 't is said of Lydia she attended to the things that were spoken by Paul And what was the Sum of his Doctrine every where we know viz. That which alone gives a satisfying Answer to the Question What must I do to be saved This is the next Step toward Conversion and Salvation after Consultation had about the way to escape the wrath of God But as there are many considering Souls that never come to any full Conviction and some convinced who yet are never soundly humbled yea many proceed as far as a Legal Repentance and Humiliation and yet never come to any serious Enquiry So there are many that consult with themselves and may be with others for and about a Remedy for their bad Estate and yet never attain so far as to give any heedful Attention to the Doctrine of the Gospel as that which propounds the only way of life for dying Souls 1. Some pitch upon false Remedies and heal the Wound slightly as the Prophet speaks being deceived by their own hearts or misled by erroneous and unskilful Teachers And the Rock that men here usually split upon is an opinion that they may satisfy God and save themselves by their own works by amending their Lives breaking off from former Sins and taking up neglected Duties emancipating themselves to the Law as the Prodigal hired himself to the Citizen in hope to recover favour with God and escape his Judgment by reformation of their Lives Now they fall to praying hearing of Sermons reading of Scripture and other good Books they forsake their bad company and leave off their licentious courses and so pacify their Consciences choke their Convictions and drain up their Sorrows till at length all their trouble being suppressed they grow secure again and by degrees return to their old course or else which makes their case less hopeful having accustomed themselves to a form of godliness take up with that and run the stage of Hypocrites It is indeed their Duty to reform their Lives and high time When they see themselves perishing for Sin But to rest in that Reformation as the price of their Acceptance with God is that wherein they seduce themselves to their own ruin if God do not graciously seize upon them and give them another shaking to bring them back into the way 2. Others after some Consultation had with themselves and sometimes with others also fall into incurable Despair They can devise no Remedy for themselves and therefore they verily think there is none or they have good counsel offered them by those they advise with but understand it not aright or they ask advice of those that are unable to direct them or careless of their sad condition which was the case of Judas he considered his estate was convinced of his sin and the deserved punishment of it he was deeply humbled and proceeded to consultation But this was his unhappiness he opened his case to those that had no compassion for him no not when he professed himself tormented in Conscience with the pains of that sin into which they had hired him Mat. 27.4 What is that to us see thou to that Poor Judas He had betrayed his Lord and could not go to him for comfort he had forsaken the Disciples and could not look them in the face To whom should he betake himself for advice in so great a distress when he saw the wrath of God smoking against him and ready to consume him but to the Priests whose office it was to instruct the People to have compassion on the ignorant and those that are out of the way Hebr. 5.1 2. and who were so greatly concerned in his sin but they rejected him and left him perishing in his despair Unhappy Souls who under the Terrors of the Almighty fall into the Hands of such hard-hearted Confessors But where the work of Salvation goes on the Enquiry spoken of before never ceases till the Soul sets it self down under the teaching of the Gospel as God some way or other provides it for him and hearkens diligently to the proposals therein made to Sinners for Salvation see Acts 11.14 with Acts 10.33 Now he hears the Gospel after another manner and reads it with another attention than heretofore watches and observes every word that falls from the mouth of God as Benhadad's Servants watched the words of the King of Israel that if any argument of hope were offered they might be sure to lay hold on it O how still were the Jews and how closely attentive to Peter's discourse Acts 2. while he was preaching the Gospel to them after they had propounded to him that weighty question What shall we do Now the Sinner will not miss a Sermon that he may hear nor lose a Sentence for want of heed taking that he may see if there be any hope for such a one as he is Every one says our Saviour that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me John 6.45 Now is the Soul of whom we are speaking hearing the Father what offers he makes of his Son to poor Sinners and what encouragement he gives them to come to him and trust in him And if he do but understand and learn what he hears it will be well with him The Sixth step or degree of this work is Belief of the Gospel an hearty Assent to the word of Salvation Attention to the Gospel serves properly to bring the Soul to a belief of it there being such evidence of a Divine Authority and Majesty in it as strongly demands the credit of him that seriously attends it But even in this place also there is danger of obstruction or diversion to be heedfully observed Men that do attentively consider the Gospel are yet in danger to be turned aside First By Disbelief The Gospel is so great a Mystery and Salvation by Jesus Christ so strange and so unlikely a thing to the judgment of Flesh and Blood that the poor affrighted Sinner cannot bring himself to believe that there is any such way and means of Life as the Word propounds tho it may be he never doubted of it before while as yet he never understood the evil of his own estate nor what an hateful thing a Sinner is That which he never questioned before he now looks upon as hard to be believed That Jesus Christ is ready and willing to save Sinners especially so great a Sinner as he accounts himself to be and this incredulity will be his destruction if help come not in from Heaven against it 2. By Misbelief A man may attentively hear or read the Gospel and yet be far from understanding it As the Eunuch said
they should live all their days under Fears and Sorrows yet Heaven would make amends for all But God will not put them so hardly to it He will not always contend lest the spirit fail Isaiah 57.16 I come now to the Uses Use 1. Let none dislike the way of God as a sorrowful and uncomfortable way Christianity has its Nights indeed but it has also its pleasant Mornings which makes amends for them Christians have much labour and sorrow but it 's recompenced abundantly with rest and ease They go through an hungry and thirsty Wilderness but have Manna to eat and Water out of the living Rock to drink They have in fit season and proportion the Cup of Consolation given them in this Life and the best Wine is reserved to the last when Christ and they shall drink it new together in the Kingdom of their Father As Matth. 26.29 Secondly Use 2. This speaks Encouragement to mourning and trembling Souls that are labouring after Assurance of Love of God Heaviness may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning Psalm 30.5 It is the work of converted Christians to settle themselves in the hope of Salvation and the usual way of God when they have been exercised a while in this labour to give them Peace and Joy in believing As the Apostle speaks of Sufferings and Prayers for the scattered Saints in a suffering Estate in 1 Pet. 5.10 The God of peace after that ye have suffered a while make ye perfect strengthen stablish you So Christians after that you have feared and trembled a while the Lord will stablish you in assurance of his favour and that will bring in a Joy far exceeding your present Sorrows Wait therefore in the use of means and hearken that you may hear what God will say For he will speak peace to his people You know not how near your Joy may be at hand as the Church in the Canticles Chap. 3. Verse 4. It was but a little that I passed c. but I found him whom my Soul loveth Use 3. This teaches Christians to try the soundness of their perswasion that they are in a state of Grace It is and must needs be a very rejoycing thing to be well perswaded of it If you think your selves safe for Eternity and under the favour of God and yet take no pleasure in it it 's a plain sign you deceive your selves And this is doubtless the case of many that think to go to Heaven when they dye and yet have no joy of that Opinion because they have no love to an heavenly Estate no desire after Communion with God This their Perswasion relieves them against some fear of Hell but for the most part gives them very little pleasure of Heaven But it must yet be granted that Men may have some joy of a false Perswasion that they are in a state of Salvation Let us therefore enquire into the difference between Joy of Faith and of a false Perswasion of Salvation First 1. Joy of Faith and of good Assurance is a Soul-humbling Joy It gives all the Glory to God and abases the Soul in what it is Isaiah 29.19 The meek shall increase their joy and their joy increase their meekness But that of an unsound Perswasion is attended with Pride and Self-confidence Luke 18.11 I am not as other men He despised others 2. It raises the heart to Heaven and future Glory and makes the Soul look earnestly at more of the glorious presence of God as Moses in his Song Exod. 15.17 18. Thou shalt bring them in viz. thy People Israel and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance in the place O Lord which thou hast made for thee to dwell in in the sanctuary O Lord which thine hands have established The Lord shall reign for ever and ever So Cant. 3.4 I held him and would not let him go till I had brought him into my mothers House c. The Church having re-obtained the sight of the favour of God in Christ resolves to keep up to him till she should come to a joyous beholding of him in Heaven To which Vision that which she now sees of him makes her earnestly to aspire Again This Joy as it raises the desire towards Heaven so it moderates the Affections to earthly things as Hosea 10.34 Ye suffered with joyfulness the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that you have in heaven a better and more enduring substance This assurance does not make Christians rejoyce in the loss of their Goods but in the hope of better in Heaven Joy of an unsound Perswasion inclines the mind to earthly things Phil. 3.28 Who mind earthly things while yet they profess to have their hope in the Cross of Christ but are its Enemies Yea this Joy makes the Soul desire to depart and be with the Lord in Heaven Lord now lettest thou thy servant dapart in peace Luke 2.29 Thirdly 3. It 's active and obediential and puts Men upon work and service for God What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me Psalm 116.12 I 'll walk before the Lord in the land of the living As to stand before the Lord is to wait for his order and commands so to walk before him is to perform and execute them But Joy of an unsound Perswasion takes off from Duty What need so much Work and Duty so must strictness c. But this falls in the third Step or Period which I shall now speak to from ROM VI. 18. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of rightousness THE Third Period or Degree of a Christian's Motion towards his Perfection is a resolved settling upon a Course of Christian Practice which is intimated in these words Being made free from Sin c. Freedom from Sin in this place is to be understood of the State of Justification into which Men enter in the very first Act of Faith that is in their first true Conversion as appears in Verse 14 15. Ye are not under the law but under grace i. e. not under Condemnation but justified freely by the Grace of God This he called freedom from Sin in the Text which may be yet further argued thus The Apostle speaks of such a freedom from Sin as requires a service to righteousness Verse 9. Now freedom by way of Sanctification doth not require service to righteousness but immediately implies it 'T is the same thing to be cleansed from Sin and to be Holy freed from the inherency of Sin and engaged in the service or practice of righteousness It were absurd to command a Man because he is no ignorant Man to be wise and knowing because he is no intemperate Person to be sober when the very quality of the Person mentioned and the reason of the command imply the presence of the thing required So 't is not to be imagined that the Apostle supposes the Romans free from the indwelling and the power of Sin and
speaking to the Colossians bids them mortify their members that is to say your hands your feet your eyes which is the very language of our Saviour If thine eye offend pluck it out Mat. 5.29 And that of David Psal 38.4 5. is most plainly and naturally resolved into this sense Mine iniquities are gone over mine head as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me He was engaged as every good man is in a Combat against Sin and the work too hard for him and his Sin a burden too heavy and that distressed him Troubles of Christians about Indwelling Sin 1. The first Trouble is That it seems to increase and grow upon them It 's a very grievous thing to be conflicting with a growing Adversary as David says Psal 3.1 Lord how are they increased that trouble me A great discouragement and heart-killing thing to a Christian striving against Sin when he apprehends it more and more abounding in him When the Body of Sin appears in him like the Hydra of which the Poets give us their Fictions of a Serpent of Fifty Heads whereof when one was cut off two more presently grew up in the stead of it what hope off overcoming such an Adversary and the unlikeliness of the Victory must needs be a sore trouble to the Combatant Thus Paul complains that he was sold under Sin verse 14. as a Captive or a Slave that is sold in the Market by him that has him in his power to do what he will with him as 2 Tim. 2. ult Taken captive by Satan at his will He that 's sold is more hopeless than he that is but newly taken Alas says the Soul I am at that pass now that one sight of a tempting Object one word one thought will hurry away my Soul into sinful desires and reaching after forbidden things which awhile ago were abominable to me and I thought all the Art of Hell could never reconcile me to them sure I am much worse than ever O wretched man that I am Besides this growth of Sin appears in a woful backwardness and indisposition to Duties of Holiness to which the Soul was much inclined heretofore Time was when I found no hindrance to Duty but worldly business or the prohibition of Superiors or the Scorns of Neighbours c. And if I could but get time from my Calling and leave of my Friends and liberty of my Superiors I easily broke through other discouragements and found nothing to stay me but now when I have leisure enough and leave enough to wait on God in Duties my heart stands off from them I am fain to force and drive my self to them and many times cannot do so much certainly Sin is encreasing and growing in me against all my Prayers Resolutions and Endeavours to forsake it 2dly They very much suspect themselves to be altogether graceless and unrenewed They see so much Sin in themselves and that so hateful and abominable that they can hardly think it possible it should stand with Grace It 's true the Apostle Paul could in this case distinguish between himself absolutely considered and himself in his flesh or fleshly part and therefore when he was saying In me there dwells no good thing he limited it to the flesh in me that is in my flesh but every Christian has it not in a readiness so to distinguish Many sincere Christians conclude themselves to have no Grace because that they see they have so much Sin and this is a sore Affliction I had hoped says a Christian that I was in Christ and took much joy in my supposed saved Estate after much fear and terror I had my heart quieted and I thought upon right grounds then I set upon Reformation and I thought was acted in it by the Holy Spirit but now I fear the work of Conversion was never soundly wrought in me as the Disciples were distressed with fear that Jesus was not the Christ We hoped it had been he that should have redeemed Israel I find my self so proud so sensual so under the power of brutish and base Lusts that it seems utterly improbable there should be one spark of saving Grace in me Oh sad Case so many Convictions so many Sorrows endured so many Hope 's conceived so many Prayers for Mercy poured out and so many Purposes and Resolutions of Obedience taken up and all lost and am I a graceless Sinner yet O wretched man that I am Such a Soul knows by what it has formerly felt and suffered under condemnings of Law and Conscience what 't is to be in an unregenerate Estate and therefore is most sadly afflicted when it falls under fear of being yet in that Estate 3dly They many times fear they shall never prevail against their Indwelling Sin because they find it so strong and active They labour sadly under bondage to their Lusts and they fear it will never be better with them and this must needs be a sore trouble to a Soul that has so much Grace as to make Sin a burden to him and to make him hunger and thirst after Righteousness It was a grievous thing to David that God seemed to forget him but that made it a full Affliction indeed that he begun to fear that it might be so for ever Psal 13.1 To be always thus enslaved to vile affections c. it 's a woful misery What should I do in this Case says the Soul if I humble my self acknowledge my Sin flie to mercy and cry out for help from Heaven c. it 's but the same I have done already and for ought I see the evil Spirit prevails upon me as that of old did upon the Sons of Sceva and if this be the success of such Assays what hope but I must be a Slave to Satan and to abominable Lusts while I live 4thly They charge themselves as Hypocrites in all their Profession and Practice of Christianity hitherto If they had been sincere they think they could not have been so bad and so base as they now find themselves to be within No sure such an heart as mine is must needs be unsanctified and graceless and then have I dissembled with God and Man all this while How often have Ministers comforted me as a Convert and Christians received me and prayed for me as a Believer and thought a good Work was wrought in me and were glad of it and alas I fear I have been all this while but a painted Hypocrite as the Martyr said of himself This is a sore trouble to him that knows the danger that Hypocrites are in but much more to him that hates Hypocrisy 5thly They sadly fear they shall return to their former wickedness or more in their lives Seeing they have so much Sin in themselves they can hardly hope better but that God will give them up to the Lusts of their hearts and then they believe they shall be as bad as any Work Iniquity with greediness to their own shame and the shame