raising up himself with himself he raised up us 〈◊〉 for as he suffered as our 〈◊〉 so he rose again as our Surety and so we were raised with him Therefore when Christ will come and make Application of all Spiritual Good to any soul he doth it by the Vertue and Power of his Resurrection When the hard heart resists the Power of the Word and saies all Threatnings all Promises all Commandements shal not prevail with me and when Sin and Satan 〈◊〉 themselves to the uttermost to keep the soul still in the Gall of bitterness in the bonds of iniquity the Lord Christ comes from Heaven and shews 〈◊〉 Power 〈◊〉 his Resurrection give way Sin give 〈◊〉 Satan that soul is mine and they all give way 〈◊〉 thence comes the prevailing vertue of the Word 〈◊〉 the soul for its effectual 〈◊〉 home to God 〈◊〉 you 〈◊〉 the Frame of this Truth The Lord Jesus by the Power of his God-head did 〈◊〉 up himself from under the Power of Sin and 〈◊〉 and Death 〈◊〉 he had a Sovereign 〈◊〉 Power over Sin and Satan therefore he is able 〈◊〉 conquer and to 〈◊〉 Sin and Satan where ever 〈◊〉 meets them The Spirit of God also hath a hand in this great Work of Application and indeed it is in a special 〈◊〉 attributed to him not because all the three 〈◊〉 do not joyntly work throughout in all the works of Application for according to the received 〈◊〉 of Divines all the Works of God upon the Creature are common to all the three Persons of the Trinity but because the manner of the Spirits work 〈◊〉 principally appear here There are but three 〈◊〉 Works in the World Creation Redemption and Application which are given to the three Persons of the srinity according to the special manner of their working Creation is given to the Father that 's the first Work and therefore given to the first Person Redemption is given to the Son that 's the second Work and therefore given to the second Person Application of that Redemption is the third and last Work and therefore is in a peculiar manner attributed to the third Person the Holy Ghost Conceive it thus A Malefactor that hath committed high Treason against his Prince and being taken he is imprisoned in the strongest Hold the deepest Dungeon without hope of release imagine a man comes and satisfies the wrath of the King and answers the Law so that the King saies upon satisfaction given the Law is fully answered no wrong is done If he shall so do the King is bound not only to be 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 of himself and the wrong done to 〈◊〉 and his Law but he is also bound to give his 〈◊〉 Hand Authority and Commission to him that paid for the Prisoner that he may go and fetch the Prisoner from the Dungeon and 〈◊〉 him away with him Imagine that the Jaylor grows sturdy and stiff he 〈◊〉 the Prisoner is prositable to him therfore he 〈◊〉 and saies the Prisoner shall not depart now he that hath Authority from the King must be able to break the Prison doors and then to slay the Jaylor and by force to deliver the Prisoner from the bondage he was in Thus it is here every sinner is a Prisoner to Divine Justice Sin is the Prison and the Devil is the Jaylor that holds him in bondage by reason of the power of Sin and by vertue of Commission from Divine Justice Christ Jesus hath come and payed our debts satisfied Divine Justice and answered the Law that God the Father hath professed This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased the Law is performed my anger fully appeased and my mercy procured therefore all those sinners for whom thou hast died and obeyed shall be redeemed from the power of Sin and authority of Satan and now God the Father gives him a full Commission to 〈◊〉 those sinners from the hands of sin and Satan But now when Christ comes for the soul Satan and sin refuse they will not let the sinner go therfore Christ by the vertue of his Resurrection and by the power of his Spirit he doth rescue the soul whether sin and Satan and a mans heart will or no he will have the soul and humble him and call him and justisie him and 〈◊〉 him and glorifie him and then deliver him up to his Father at the great day Direction How to help the souls of poor Sinners that are under the work of Application either 〈◊〉 in it or in Preparation to it here is Direction to you al in the greatest streights whatsoever When the Lord gives intimation to sinners that they are not in the right way and he begins to be 〈◊〉 with them and our Savior Christ comes as the High Sheriff when he would put a man into Possession of his Land that is Possessed by those that have no right to it The High Sheriff comes with his Company and knocks at the door now al that are within come and make resistance and labor to keep him out as much as they can So when our Savior Christ comes and saies to a desperate rebellious sinner that soul of thine was never made for Sin or Satan but thou must come and shouldest come out of thy sins and come to me saies Christ when the Word is thus 〈◊〉 with Life and power now the soul is in an uproar now the soul resists this Work he makes al the doors and bolts fast and he that comes in he dies upon it But the Lord presses in stil upon the soul he must he wil conquer and subdue it to himself now the sinner sees nothing but Hel and Death and Damnation before it die he must and that for ever if he stand out and now he sees he should yeild and submit he sees now the body of death that hangs upon him the power of his lusts that prevails with him and he finds his heart shut up under unbeleef under the chaines of pride and vainglory and earthlimindedness and the Devil presents impossibilities to his view canst thou think that ever those sins of thine should be pardoned or that ever that soul of thine should be delivered from under the power of them Now Brethren here the soul 's at a stand above al the stifness and stubborness of a mans own wil no Threatnings no Mercies no Afflictions no offers of Grace can prevail but a man wil have his sins though the Devil have his soul he finds his heart so 〈◊〉 he must have his sin and his wil though he 〈◊〉 for it Ay now what wil you do The Cause 〈◊〉 this work of Application is 〈◊〉 of your self in Christ Therefore send your thoughts and keep your 〈◊〉 upon the Resurrection of Christ set your eye keep your eye there for ever see a passage or two from Scripture here Rev. 1. 18. I was dead but 〈◊〉 am alive and I live for evermore and I have the Keyes Hell 〈◊〉 Death saies Christ Thou
lastly is the meaning of that text Rom. 7. 6. wherein a man is said to be married to his sin for the comparison holds As long as the Husband lives so long the Wife is bound and is subject to him so while we remain in our natural condition under the Covenant of Works we are in Covenant with our sins and married to them so that we cannot be to any other we are hand-fasted and cannot part 1 Sin claims a propriety in the soul. 2 Takes possession of it 3 It wholly orders and acts it as the woman hath not power over her self but the man On the 〈◊〉 side the Soul 1 Gives it self away to it 2 Submits to the authority of it And 3 Is wholly acted by it Therefore it is That they that are in the flesh cannot please God Rom. 8. 8. The act of Sin cannot please but the Spiritual 〈◊〉 of the Soul is acted by Sin therefore it cannot please God while a man is in his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This KEY will Open many Doors Hence it follows Original Sin is not a meer Privarion or want of Original Righteousness but an active 〈◊〉 or running wrong of all the wheels the Faculties of the Soul of man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not only take away his Image but 〈◊〉 up the soul to the power of Corruption and 〈◊〉 its discovered by the actions of Fighting 〈◊〉 5. 7. The Flesh lusts against the Spirit 〈◊〉 Rom. 7. 21. The Law of Flesh 〈◊〉 against the law of my mind captivating the 〈◊〉 erecting and setting up a soveraignty and height 〈◊〉 jurisdiction in the soul there is a law of sin and 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 2. As Adam actually by his own Fault and Folly 〈◊〉 away the Holiness and Righteousness of God 〈◊〉 himself to the sinful distemper of his own 〈◊〉 so he doth also Meritoriously work i. e. by 〈◊〉 sin deserve that God should take away the one 〈◊〉 deliver up to the power of the other And if 〈◊〉 then also Actually for to work a 〈◊〉 meritoriously is so to do a thing according to 〈◊〉 of Covenant our selvs and that we should 〈◊〉 another should do to us or for us what is sutable 〈◊〉 the Covenant either broken or kept In a word As Adam works his own death by 〈◊〉 so also 〈◊〉 procures both the loss of the Image of God the 〈◊〉 of Corruption to take possession of him and 〈◊〉 for both these are included in that Thy 〈◊〉 is of thy self Oh Israel Hos. 13. 9. Hence also it comes about That the law is the 〈◊〉 of sin 1 Cor. 15. 56. and sin as strong as the Law because the Law of God gives 〈◊〉 to sinful distempers to take possession of it So 〈◊〉 look what power the Kings Commission is of in 〈◊〉 hand of the High Sheriff the same power hath 〈◊〉 Sheriff when he hath that Commission So look what strength there is in the Commission from Divine Justice the same strength sin hath which hath that Commission Hence again All sins Original and Actual which follow therefrom are punishments of the 〈◊〉 of Adam as they come from God Its 〈◊〉 with God That he that wil reject his Wisdom 〈◊〉 Holiness should be deprived of it its just that 〈◊〉 that wil chuse his own Delusions and 〈◊〉 before Gods directions and Covenant should be delivered up to the power of them and staked 〈◊〉 in them Thou wouldst be so why remain so 〈◊〉 And every putting forth of Original Corruption takes occasion from this act of revenging 〈◊〉 pushing the soul away from him But as they 〈◊〉 from Adam so they are sins properly called For Adam doth not properly punish himself he 〈◊〉 not the execution of any act of Justice 〈◊〉 is it 〈◊〉 that he doth evil but it is his delight 〈◊〉 takes content therein even to depart from God which is the sentence of the second Death Hence lastly There is no possibility that a 〈◊〉 should be recovered by any power he hath or by 〈◊〉 vertue of any Creature to deliver the wil of a 〈◊〉 from under the power of his sin or from 〈◊〉 carried with it Because he is sealed up under 〈◊〉 by the Curse of the Covenant broken and the 〈◊〉 of it in a righteous Course For as 〈◊〉 could be no other reward of a good work but to 〈◊〉 immutably carried by the Spirit of the Lord and enabled to work so for ever We can go no farther than the last end to please God is the last end 〈◊〉 chief good of the Creature the immutable 〈◊〉 and constancy in that is al the good we 〈◊〉 have Do and Live That is Do and Do 〈◊〉 me once and please me for ever that is Thou shalt be enabled for ever to please me and to be happy in so doing So contrary wise The Curse of the breach of the Covenant is for ever to be acted by the power of sin 〈◊〉 break it Do not and Die that is Displease 〈◊〉 by Disobedience and be so accursed that thou 〈◊〉 ever displease me The just punishment which is answerable to our 〈◊〉 of the Lord and our chief good is that 〈◊〉 shal ever reject it For if a man could please God and so 〈◊〉 his end after his Disobedience and 〈◊〉 of Covenant he might then be happy and 〈◊〉 be in his sin and so never be punished for it which is impossible The Sum of this Argument in short returns to thus much That if the Will of a man be under Commission of Divine Justice and is delivered up to 〈◊〉 power of Sin to be possessed of it and acted by it therefore it is not nay cannot be willing to be 〈◊〉 from its sins The Third Reason of the Doctrine is taken from the Power which Satan hath to lead and so to 〈◊〉 all sinners wholly according to his own desire 〈◊〉 the lord hath given him allowance thereunto As 〈◊〉 said to Satan touching Job All that he hath is 〈◊〉 thy hand Job 2. 6. So al these that wil not be my Subjects but are turned Traytors lo they be in 〈◊〉 hand they shal be thy slaves Thus he rules in the Children of disobedience Eph. 2. 2. Thus he 〈◊〉 them at his will 2 Tim. 2. last He is the strong man that maintains possession in the Soul and the sinner goes as he is led 2 Cor. 12. 2. Malefactors are the Kings Prisoners but under the keeping of the 〈◊〉 so sinners have their Mittimus and they are put into Satans hand he keeps them in the chayns of 〈◊〉 and reserves them to the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 day if they be not rescued out of his hand by Jesus Christ. The last Reason is taken from the Naturalness and neer Alliance there is between our hearts and our lusts that we count it death to part with them nay we cannot be without them hence in Scripture they are called as the members of our body Col. 3. 5. mortifie your members and those the dearest and tenderest the right
put Them into the Possession of it and make it Theirs For the First of these the Doctrine is That Christ hath Purchased all Spiritual good for His 〈◊〉 be Three Particulars to be attended for the 〈◊〉 of this Point 1 What this Spiritual Good is 2 Why Christ Purchased it and How 3 For Whom This Spiritual Good intended is the heap of Grace 〈◊〉 Happiness with all those sweet Fruits and 〈◊〉 which are either in preparation to it or 〈◊〉 upon it the whole Estate and Portion and Patrimony of a Christian the Riches Revenues of 〈◊〉 Gospel what is in Hand what is in Hope what 〈◊〉 Possession what in Expectation the whole Mass 〈◊〉 Inventory of those Everlasting Treasuries which 〈◊〉 stored up from all Eternity for the welfare of His. David thus discovers it Psal. 31. 19. Oh! How 〈◊〉 is that Goodness which thou hast wrought for Them and laid up for Them and laid out for Them 〈◊〉 trust in thee before the Sons of men So the Apostle also Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood the forgivness of sins according to the riches of his grace wherein he hath abounded towards us I would not I should not in a way of orderly proceeding descend to Particulars for that were to 〈◊〉 things out of place I am now only in the general Doctrine which lies open in a Community for the 〈◊〉 of it to all that comes after and therefore nothing proper to this place but that which carries that Community with it The Severals I shal reserve to their particular places Only thus much we may say 〈◊〉 the further manifestation All that Spiritual Good we lost all that we do want or can need all that 〈◊〉 can desire all that we can receive for our everlasting welfare this is that plentiful Redemption which 〈◊〉 meant here Psal. 130. 7. Why is it said that Christ hath Purchased 〈◊〉 Good Because there is a Price laid down for it 〈◊〉 that of equal worth and of valuable consideration 〈◊〉 that which is desired and obtained and that in a righteous way of just proceeding and the Price that 〈◊〉 laid down is expresly named in the Text to be the 〈◊〉 Blood of Jesus You were Redeemed saies 〈◊〉 Apostle not with Silver and Gold these were 〈◊〉 too mean quality and too base a condition being 〈◊〉 and tramitory things and therefore no 〈◊〉 answerable to those everlasting and spiritual and 〈◊〉 good things we look for but with the 〈◊〉 Blood of Christ which is of endless infinite and 〈◊〉 virtue and efficacy and in which the Lord rests 〈◊〉 this is a full Purchase For any Power by strong hand to wrest away 〈◊〉 sinner from under the Almighty hand of God it 〈◊〉 impossible for Justice to lay aside it self and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have her 〈◊〉 righted in a righreous way was 〈◊〉 therefore that Gods Justice might 〈◊〉 and our good procured there was necessity 〈◊〉 an equal price should be laid down for it and 〈◊〉 was the blood of Christ. In a word The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obedience of Christ was the full Purchase The 〈◊〉 out of Justice is bound to manifest the Glory of 〈◊〉 because that is to give every one his own and 〈◊〉 must require satisfaction where any breach 〈◊〉 been made by any transgression and swerving 〈◊〉 the righteous Will of God While therefore 〈◊〉 Savior by his Death satisfied the breach of the 〈◊〉 and for all the sins that ever any of His should 〈◊〉 guilty of and by his Obedience fulfilled all 〈◊〉 and perfectly pleased God He fully 〈◊〉 by way of purchase and compleat payment made 〈◊〉 Divine Justice the removal of all that evil we 〈◊〉 deserved and the enjoyment of all that good we 〈◊〉 and could desire and that by a valuable 〈◊〉 tendered into the hands of Divine Justice in 〈◊〉 behalf Thus we are said 1 Cor. 6. 20. to be bought with a 〈◊〉 And Job 33. 24. the Lord is said to set free the 〈◊〉 through the righteousness of his Son he 〈◊〉 Deliver him because I have found a Ransom 〈◊〉 the Ransom and Payment is tendered to divine 〈◊〉 for to it the Soul stands Prisoner As the 〈◊〉 is the King's Prisoner not the Jaylors so the 〈◊〉 stands bound to divine Justice and is God's 〈◊〉 he is neither the prisoner of Satan who is 〈◊〉 Jaylor nor of Sin which is the Prison properly 〈◊〉 so far as they receive Commission from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to require Satisfaction in her behalf And 〈◊〉 when Justice is satisfied neither of them have right 〈◊〉 power to retain the Soul Therefore the Scripture stiles them redeemed from 〈◊〉 earth Rev. 14. 3. And He gave himself that he 〈◊〉 deliver us from this present 〈◊〉 world Gal. 1. 4 〈◊〉 again Rev. 5. 9. He was slain and 〈◊〉 bought us 〈◊〉 his blood unto God the Father So that by way of Purchase he hath bought us from our selves that is Redeemed us from the tyranny authority and 〈◊〉 veraignty of our own lusts unto which we were 〈◊〉 bondage 1 Cor. 7. 23. He hath bought us 〈◊〉 price from being the servants of men that is 〈◊〉 the slavery and servitude of mens humors and 〈◊〉 When the Law is satisfied the Dungeon and 〈◊〉 can detain the Prisoner no longer Thus However it is out of free mercy and 〈◊〉 grace that Redemption is given to us for it s out 〈◊〉 mercy that Christ is given that he gave his life 〈◊〉 both are bestowed upon us and not upon the world yet in regard of the Lord Jesus 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 payment he hath laid down out of his own 〈◊〉 cost and charges his own blood its justice it 〈◊〉 be bestowed upon him and by justice it may be challenged as that which he hath 〈◊〉 in a 〈◊〉 proceeding Instruction We may here see how great and 〈◊〉 a work it is to obtain the least Spiritual Good that appertains to the everlasting welfare of our souls were it but the giult of the least sin that should be removed were it but the power of the least 〈◊〉 that should be brought under one smile of Gods countenance and one blessed look of his face and favor toward a poor wtetch were it but a saving and a heavenly thought of a mans mind the least spiritual motion or stir of our hearts in any sincere affection to the Lord It is not all the Policy or Parts of men that can procure it not all the power of created Nature in heaven or earth that can accomplish it not all the 〈◊〉 of Pearls mynes of Gold and Silver in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that can purchase this no if it were 〈◊〉 from a vain Conversation from a Tradition from a Delusion you must be redeemed from it by the 〈◊〉 blood of Christ So the text God wil not 〈◊〉 any good of the Covenant of Grace but he 〈◊〉 well paid for it and it comes at such a rate that all 〈◊〉 and all Creatures are not
we are Justified 〈◊〉 Resurrection Answers not the Law nor yet 〈◊〉 thing of divine Justice for that which the Law never required by that it never can be Answered But 〈◊〉 Law requires a man either to do that he may live 〈◊〉 to die if he sin but it never requires him to rise 〈◊〉 that 's no part of the Command or the Curse or 〈◊〉 Therefore the Resurrection of Christ 〈◊〉 no part of Payment which is imputed or for which 〈◊〉 are Justified We owed Two things Doing 〈◊〉 Dying these answer the whole Debt the Law 〈◊〉 Justice of God Though the Resurrection of Christ be no part os 〈◊〉 yet it serves for more than a naked 〈◊〉 of our Justification All Interpreters agree in 〈◊〉 that it serves to declare our Justification but I 〈◊〉 there is somthing more in it So the Apostle 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 15. 17. and he makes it one of those 〈◊〉 wherby he urgeth them that deny the 〈◊〉 If Christ be not risen your faith is vain 〈◊〉 are yet in your sins Whereas if this 〈◊〉 may stand That the Resurrection is barely a 〈◊〉 of Justification a man might shew Pauls 〈◊〉 to be a weak one For it doth not follow 〈◊〉 a mans Faith might find success without it 〈◊〉 the Resurrection of Christ doth not give a being 〈◊〉 Justification but only declare it as they say 〈◊〉 the Text says If Christ be not Risen you are yet 〈◊〉 your Sins yet in the gall of bitterness and bonds 〈◊〉 iniquity your sins are not pardoned not subdued Therefore if it be no part of the Payment 〈◊〉 which we are justified and yet more than a bare declaration of it then there can be no other given 〈◊〉 must apply that for which we are Justified it is an 〈◊〉 powerful cause to make Application of 〈◊〉 Merits of Christ to us for which and through which 〈◊〉 stand Justified in the sight of God Not only the text is clear 〈◊〉 it but the nature 〈◊〉 Application cals for it in a special manner For by the 〈◊〉 of man we are lyable to a double evil 1 〈◊〉 the revenging Justice of God 2 To the 〈◊〉 and Power 〈◊〉 Satan and Death For when a 〈◊〉 had 〈◊〉 himself into the hands of divine Justice it was 〈◊〉 righteous with the Lord to 〈◊〉 up the Soul to the Authority and Vassallage of 〈◊〉 and Satan Now therefore when our Savior Christ by his Death and Obedience answered divine Justice and so took away the first evil it was then 〈◊〉 with the Lord to free lost-man through Christ from the Second evil the Authority and Tyranny 〈◊〉 Sin Mark that place Act. 2. 24. Whom God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 up having 〈◊〉 the sorrows of death 〈◊〉 it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he should be 〈◊〉 of it 〈◊〉 cannot be meant of being holden by the bonds 〈◊〉 death as if 〈◊〉 were bound to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of God when he was in the 〈◊〉 for he that 〈◊〉 satisfied the 〈◊〉 of God could not stand bound to it any 〈◊〉 but when 〈◊〉 had suffered for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Garden and on the 〈◊〉 he had then fully satisfied for the Law of God required no more 〈◊〉 Doing and Dying so that Christ might have 〈◊〉 again as soon as 〈◊〉 he was laid in the Grave but 〈◊〉 he lay so long was for another reason But the 〈◊〉 here is How he can be said to be 〈◊〉 from the pains and sorrows of Death when 〈◊〉 Body was in the Earth and his Soul in Heaven 〈◊〉 say from a sorrowful and painful Death I 〈◊〉 that is true Yet under favor I would say thus 〈◊〉 more It was a kind of pain and grief to the man Christ Jesus as to any 〈◊〉 that his Body was in 〈◊〉 Grave when his Soul was in Heaven which did 〈◊〉 to be united together the keeping of these two 〈◊〉 is a 〈◊〉 to them they are 〈◊〉 friends made to be together the Souls of the Saints now 〈◊〉 in Heaven 〈◊〉 to have their bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now then when Christ had fully satissied 〈◊〉 Justice and removed the displeasure of God it 〈◊〉 not possible he could be held by the sorrows of 〈◊〉 it was not 〈◊〉 that his Body and Soul 〈◊〉 be held asunder then To clear it yet more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be considered in a double regard As it is a punishment the 〈◊〉 whereos may 〈◊〉 Justice 2 As it is a part of that Tyranny 〈◊〉 Satan by sin doth exercise upon a man It is 〈◊〉 Death and Obedience of 〈◊〉 takes away the 〈◊〉 of Death in the 〈◊〉 sense but it is he 〈◊〉 of Christ that takes away the power and 〈◊〉 of Death in the Second sense Again 〈◊〉 that Sin also hath a double 〈◊〉 1 As an Aberration or Transgression of the Law 〈◊〉 with the guilt and punishment that follows 〈◊〉 it 2 As part of the Tyranny that Satan exerciseth over the Soul there 〈◊〉 a hellish authority that 〈◊〉 exerciseth over the Soul by reason of Sin Sin 〈◊〉 the first sense our Savior Christ had imputed to 〈◊〉 the guilt of our Sins was charged upon him and the punishments of Sin was suffered by him by which means he answered Gods Justice and so came to justifie us 〈◊〉 the tyranny and authority which Sin and Satan doth exercise over the Soul that 〈◊〉 away by the Resurrection of Christ. This being laid for a ground it is alwaies required at the Sureties hand not only to pay the Debt for the Debtor but to bring the Debtor out of Prison in despight of the malice of 〈◊〉 Jaylor and strength of the Prison When therefore Christ who is our Surety had laid and paid a ful price for our Surety to God the Father and had fully answered that Debt which we stand bound unto by reason of our offence so that now Justice was wel pleased with us and the Anger of the Lord appeased towards us yet now the soul is in Prison under the power of Sin and dominion of Satan therefore it is requisite that God the Father having taken a payment must let the prisoner go free and the Lord Jesus must undertake also to Redeem the soul from the power of Sin and dominion of Satan though they be never so strong therefore God the Father raised up his Son Jesus Christ and together with him he raised us also The soul by reason of sin comes to be forfeited to the divine Justice of God to be a Prisoner to revenging Justice for the Malefactor is the Kings Prisoner not the Jaylors now Christ by his death satisfying Justice he frees the soul from the authority of revenging Justice but when the soul comes to be fetched out of Prison though Gods Justice be satisfied yet Sin and Satan keeps the soul in Prison and wil not let it go unless by strong hand therefore Jesus Christ by an Almighty power raiseth up himself from the dead and by the power of his Resurrection he rescues the soul from the power of
and the venom of the Serpent in the other Why Have they not nay continue they not to do the lusts of the Devil to this day They have the Spirit of sin and Satan within them and therefore they are their Children and therefore sin and Satan 〈◊〉 a right and title to them Is it not again writ Rom. 6. 16. Know ye not that to whom you yeild your selves servants to obey his servants you are As who should say It is a ruled case common and confessed by the verdict of al. If ye yeild your selves to obey sin you are the servants of sin therefore saies sin and Satan since we have such law on our side for our right we crave our right for these have yeilded themselves servants to my temptations saies Satan and to my allurements saies the World and to my instigation saies Sin therefore they are our Servants therefore let us have them still To which the Lord Answers and Justice also Replyes While they did remain the seed of the Serpent and in the state of the Children of wrath so long you have reason to have them and right to challenge them and therefore it is you have detained them as Prisoners to your pleasure to this day Yea but saies the Father The Lord Jesus whom I have sent he hath undertaken to pacifie my wrath and purchase their deliverance and so hath done for he hath bought them of Divine Justice and therefore hath right now to make them the seed of the Covenant of Grace and to bring them to himself and life as they are and have been the seed of the Serpent and estranged from me and happiness and therefore he hath not only done for them what was required on their behalf but he wil work in them what may be answerable to the Covenant and the Condition of it therfore your claim is nothing This under correction I take to be the meaning of that place Rom. 8 2 3 4. which is mysterious and dark and dazels the eyes of Judicious Interpreters that several senses appear to the several apprehensions of men we wil open it briefly as we pass by and apply it to our 〈◊〉 And that which I suppose wil give some light to the true intent of the place and wil be as a Key to the Scripture and set open the sense that an easie apprehension may give a sad guess at the purpose of the Spirit is this I suppose the words must be understood of the work 〈◊〉 the Spirit wrought in us and the impressions of Grace left upon the Soul not of the work of Justification which is wholly without us in the Lord Jesus our Surety and only counted ours And this that Phrase in the 4 th vers seems to me of necessity to imply Where it is evident that the end of the former work of Christ is made this That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Whereas in the work of Justification the truth of the work the meaning of the Lord and expression of Scripture is other 2 Cor. 5. last Christ was made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him not in our selves That Righteousness for which we are Justified is fulfilled for us by Christ and is in him it s not fulfilled in us For it is the Doctrine of the Popish Sect who are adversaries to Gods Grace that we are justified for any thing wrought in us and for which we are for ever to renounce them And hence it is Phil. 3. 7. Not having mine own Righteousness but that which is of God in Christ Therefore not in us properly This being granted I shal shortly give you the meaning of this 3 d. Vers. For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh The Apostle had evidenced the state of a man in Christ by the fruits of it He walks not after the flesh but after the spirit Vers. 1. The Question might be How comes that about He Answers Vers. 2. The Law of the spirit of life which is in Christ as the Head hath freed me and so al his Body and each Member from the Law of Sin that is The Soveraign Rule of Sin and Death But why was the Spirit of Christ necessarily required to do this since the mind of God is in the Law revealed and my Obedience required therein Is it not enough that I understand this and thereby be enabled to follow it The Apostle answers No It was impossible for the Law to enable a man to walk after the Spirit and to be free from the Law of sin for so the Causal For knits this Verse as a proof of the former not because the Law was faulty but because our Flesh our natures were corrupt and thence it is not enough the Lord should tell and teach unless there be some other Spirit and Power to enable But how then comes this other Spirit He Answers 〈◊〉 3. God 〈◊〉 his Son to take our Nature upon him who was like unto us in all but sin and he sent him to take our Nature 〈◊〉 i. e. For the Removal of sin And these words are to be referred to those going before he sent not to those after he condemned sin As thus He sent his Son in the similitude of sinful Flesh for sin for the removal of sin and he condemned sin in the Flesh i. e. In the Vertue of the Sufferings of his Flesh he did abolish and destroy the 〈◊〉 and Jurisdiction of sin so that sin as we may say hath lost his Cause and is as we 〈◊〉 to speak non suited fails wholly in al the Pleas it can or doth make for any right it hath to the Soul of a sinner As we say of a man that is Cast in Law that the Cause went against him His Cause is Condemned or his Cause is Damned his Claim is false and feeble and hath no force to carry the thing he would So here Sin fails of its Claim is wholly Cast in the Suit that it makes for the Challenge of the Soul Divine Justice delivered it into its power because it was wronged but must now deliver it out of the Claim and Authority of sin being satisfied And from hence this will be attained That the Righteousness which the Law requires may by the Spirit of Christ be wrought in me 〈◊〉 by way of 〈◊〉 hereafter in perfection To the like purpose is the meaning of that place also 1 〈◊〉 4. 6. For for this end was the Gospel preached to them that are dead that they might be judged according to men in the flesh but live according to God in the spirit In the sirst Verse from the Death and Sufferings of our Savior he perswaded those to whom he wrote That they should 〈◊〉 that Application by way of proportion That
〈◊〉 who suffered in the flesh i. e. Had their fleshly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Death of Christ should cease from 〈◊〉 This 6 th Verse is one proof of that For for 〈◊〉 end was the Gospel preached to men alive when 〈◊〉 heard it but now dead so that those that are 〈◊〉 alive and those that are 〈◊〉 they might be 〈◊〉 in the flesh that is their lusts of the flsh might have sentence passed against them and Execution done upon them and so be abolished even that flesh those lustings which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to men which come from corrupt nature that so we may live in the Spirit according to God and his Counsel which guides us according to Gods mind To this place also appertains that in Rom. 7. 4. Wherefore my Brethren you are become dead to the Law by the Body of Christ that you should be married to another even to him that is raised from the Dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God And Vers. 6. But now you are delivered from the Law that being dead in which we were held that is The marriage Covenant between Sin and the Soul being broken wherein we were held The full Comparison of which those words are but one part is taken by way of Resemblance from marriage namely As long as the Man lives the Woman is bound by Marriage Covenant he may plead it and she cannot gain-say it but she is his But if the Husband be dead than she is free the Law or Covenant cannot bind her there is no Claim on the Mans part that can be pretended nor Right on Her part acknowledged So is it betwixt Sin and the Soul who were as it were handfasted together by reason of the Breach of the Law being thereby delivered up in Gods 〈◊〉 Justice unto the jurisdiction and authority thereof But when by Christ the Law is now satisfied and Justice answered and the Soul delivered from under the Covenant of the Law as broken and the power of sin removed the bond of the Covenant whereby they were married is now dis-annulled so that sin cannot Challenge any Right over the soul no more than a dead Husband nor yet should the Soul yeild to any such Claim As Sin and Satan can make no Claim to the Soul so neither can they keep possession of it but they are Outed there also by Christ. For as it is in Marriage the Woman who is engaged by Marriage Covenant as she is bound by Law to the Man so are they tyed to mutual Cohabitation one with another possession and enjoyment of each other So here when by the breach of the Covenant of the Law the soul was under the Right and Claim of sin sin and Satan took up their abode in the soul and took possession of it So Satan is said to cast it into the mind of Judas and to enter into him Luke 22. 3. And Judas himself is said to be a Devil Joh. 6. last That was only spiritually And what he did to him he doth to al the Children of wrath while they remain in their natural estate when now the Lord Jesus comes to bring the soul under the Covenant of Grace and to make the sinner one of the seed of that Covenant he casts out sin and Satan and dispossesseth them so that they cannot have ingress and egress as before nor can he say I will return to my house nor take up his abode there nor wil he find it swept and garnished that he may solace himself therin and enjoy his habitation as in former times but he finds the door now shut against him This is the meaning of that place Joh. 12. 31. Now is the judgment of this world now is the Prince of the world cast 〈◊〉 and I if I be lifted up will draw all men after 〈◊〉 Our Savior in the foregoing Verses being to 〈◊〉 into his Agonie and sensible of the dreadful 〈◊〉 of his Father he prayes Father keep 〈◊〉 from this hour but for this Cause came I unto 〈◊〉 hour Father Glorifie thy self that is In his 〈◊〉 And the voyce from Heaven answered I 〈◊〉 and will Glorifie it I have Glorified my self 〈◊〉 thy Life I wil Glorifie my self in thy Death 〈◊〉 our Savior ads Now that is When he was 〈◊〉 suffer the judgement of this world That wil be 〈◊〉 when he is Crucified The Prince of this 〈◊〉 Satan is cast out shal be cast out from taking 〈◊〉 keeping possession of the souls of sinners For 〈◊〉 Christ be lifted up on the Cross and suffer he 〈◊〉 by the power of his Death break down the 〈◊〉 wall and draw all Nations his Elect out of 〈◊〉 Nations shal be called by the preaching of the 〈◊〉 This I take it also is the meaning of that place 〈◊〉 16. 11. When the Spirit comes he convinceth 〈◊〉 world of sin that they be miserable in regard of 〈◊〉 of Righteousness that there is Salvation in a Christ and free pardon and of judgement because 〈◊〉 Prince of this world is judged This shews the 〈◊〉 of the soveraign Government of our Savior so Joh. 5. 22. All Judgement is given into the hands of Christ that is the immediate dispensation of al sovereign Power and Rule And this was one of the things that Peter in whose Ministery the Spirit after the Ascention of our Savior Convinced the world of Acts 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus both Lord and Christ. So that he will not break the bruised reed which is done in Contrition when the soul is bruised with the sight and sense of sin and yet is indeed wholly helpless and weak yet he wil not break it by despair until 〈◊〉 bring judgement unto victory make his Government and Dispensation Victorious The Soul comes now not to be acted by the motions of sin nor carried by the temptations of Satan as formerly that howsoever its true that while Satan Converseth here in the Camp of the Saints in the Warfare of this world and while we carry these bodies the houses of Clay without us and a body of Death within us It cannot be but 〈◊〉 and Satan wil give many assaults and press in mightily upon the soul and with the violence of their Charge somtimes may crowd the soul out of its intended Course of spiritual Conversation and justle it aside out of the right way yet they shal never be able to prevail as to pervert the frame of it but the set and face and frame of the soul wil be towards God and the bent of it for him Hence Christ is said by Death to destroy him that had the Power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2. 14. To destroy him in the Original is to take off the Activity of Satan and by a deadly blow to stay the prevailing virtue of any temptation as that it shal not sway the soul to its bent though it may hinder the soul and
opposeth that only the Lord by the mighty impression of the powerful operation of Spirit over-bears that opposition in the soul and forceth the soul to feel the stab and venom of sin though it use all means and waies it can to avoid the stroak of it but al in vain for the Arrows of the Almighty stick fast in him And all this is done and may be without any prejudice to any Liberty that the Lord hath put into the will for the will may be forced to suffer even against it's will without any wrong to the liberty thereof as the damned do in Hell at this day and shal through all eternity and shal never be able to get from under the terrors of the Almighty For the meaning of that received expression the Will cannot be compelled is this In all the acts the Will puts forth she is a cause by counsel and acts from the inward power and ability that is implanted in her to be compelled is to act by constraining force from without now for the will to act from her own power inwardly and yet to be acted by a contrary power from without are Contradictions The will then in a word cannot be constrained to do but it may be constrained to suffer without any the least prejudice to liberty and so it is here in this work I now mention a meer sufferer Thus Job 36 10. The Lord said to command men from iniquity he not only directs but by a soveraign power carries the soul from iniquity thus lamenting Ephraim intreats Jer. 31. 18. Turn me and I shall be turned thou art the Lord my God And Paul was sent Acts 20. 18. To turn men from darkness to light and so the whol frame of Scripture runs they are said to be wounded burdened 〈◊〉 when they should avoid the blow and remove the burden were in their choyce but they are pressed under the hand of the Lord which they are not able to escape though not able to undergo it Hence it is that though by reason of the presence of the body of death that yet remains there will be some stirrings of distemper which wil raise up some mutinies and conspiracies against the work and preventing Grace of God yet there will never be power nor possibility so far to resist as to hinder the work of Conversion and effectual bringing of the soul to God As in an Army wholly defeated and routed and scattered their Commanders slain and strong Holds taken and their Country possessed though some roving Troops may happily pilfer and forage up and down here and there in secret when they are not observed yet they are never able to make head or come into the Field So here Lastly When this resistance is removed and the right power and challenge which sin made disanulled the soul comes yet further to yield consent that there should be an everlasting divorce made between it and her former lusts and lovers and is in earnest content they should for ever be estranged from her and she from them And in this consent which the soul yields for this separation which is the great knot it moves only as under the power and in the vertue of the motion of the Spirit So that Divines thus speak This consent is not of our selves though not without our selves There is no power in the soul by which as a principle and beginning of the work it 's carried to the work but acts as prevented by the impression of the power and motion of the Spirit in vertue whereof it 's acted and enabled to this consent so that the act of Gods exciting and working Grace doth not concur with the power that is in the will to put forth this consent but as a principle leaves an impression of power upon the will by the vertue whereof it 's moved and so moves in and to this consent As the will of a child of Adam in generation it turns from God to sin not by any first power of its own but by the perverting work of the next Parent who under the vertue of the Curse and Gods Divine Justice turned it from the Lord and the Authority of the Law and put it under the Authority of fin So the will of him that comes to be begotten of the Second Adam doth turn from sin unto God not by any power or principle it hath of its own but by the impression of the operation of his Spirit by which it is turned and in vertue of that it turns Take an instance Suppose the first Grace offered or the voyce of Gods Call tendered unto the will that now hath the resistance taken off the Question now grows How the will comes to give her consent to this Act or first Grace this consent must come either from the will only or partly from the will and partly from Grace or from Grace only To say from the will only is Heretical and perfect Pelagianism in the highest degree which exalts Nature above Grace nay to make it perfect without it If from Grace and the will both as divers principles then there is a concurrence of our will by a power of its own with the power of Grace at the same instant to this work of consent then there is an ability in the will to begin its work and to meet and concur with Grace without Grace so far in a Spiritual Act As for instance The Father and the child both draw a Boat the Father puts more strength to the work the Son also from a principle of its own puts forth some strength and both these concur and meet in the motion the beginning is several from each as several causes though both meet in the act So that Grace concurs with the power of the will to this motion doth not give power and principle whereby it moves And this also is Heretical and Pelagianism for thus far and in that beginning the will closeth with Grace without the power of Grace which is cross to the Apostle and to all the former conclusions Whereas it is in this consent The first call of Grace prevents and wholly moves the will and the will in the 〈◊〉 of that motion moves to the call and consents As it in the Eccho the Voyce stirs the Air the Air in vertue of that stir returns the Voyce again Among some searching Disputes I meet with such an expression which I shal propound and explicate because it makes way for the understanding of the thing in hand The Will doth consent or will but doth not make it self to consent but is made so by another Their meaning is this 1. The Will doth put forth the Act of Consent and so far it 's the cause of it 2. But it was not the cause of that power by which it was enabled to consent but that it received and by that it was enabled to it So that this seems to be the order in which God proceeds God takes away that resistance by the
heart stil more 〈◊〉 it from Hypocrisie and makes it 〈◊〉 refined causeth the heart to come forth from each new Cast and moulding with a deeper and fairer Impression 〈◊〉 his Image and Glory If then the Holy Ghost the Writer of his Law in the Heart set that high value upon that Work 〈◊〉 his that he vouchsafeth to take 〈◊〉 pains to write it over and over again in the same Tablet Let it be no Diminution to this great Author but let us bless God rather for the Providence that the same Divine Hand and Spirit should set him this Task to take the Doctrine of 〈◊〉 VVork into a second yea a third Review and thereby make it as it were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the VVork of his Life Only thus it is That the other Great Points as Union with Christ Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glory which Subjects as he was able for so his heart was most in them he hath left unfinished And so thereby as is most likely multitndes of precious yea glorious thoughts which he might have reserved as often fals out to Preachers and Writers for those higher Subjects as the Close and Centre and Crown of what forewent as preparative thereto are now perished and laid in the dust with him None but Christ was ever yet able to finish all that Work which was in his Heart to do Farewel Thomas Goodwin Philip Nye Eleven Books made in New-England by Mr. Thomas Hooker and printed from his Papers written with 〈◊〉 own Hand are now published in 〈◊〉 volnms two in Quartò one in Octa. vo VIZ. The Application of Redemption by the Effectual Work of the Word and Spirit of Christ for the 〈◊〉 home of lost 〈◊〉 unto God The First Book on 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. The Second on 〈◊〉 1. 21. The Third on Luk. 1. 17. The Fourth on 2 Cor. 6. 2. The Fift on ' 〈◊〉 20. 〈◊〉 6 7 The Sixt on Revel 3. 17. The Seventh 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 7. The Eight on John 6. 44. The 〈◊〉 on 〈◊〉 57. 15. The Tenth on Acts 2. 37. The Last viz. Christ's Prayer for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 17. There are Six more Books of Mr. Hookers now printing in two Volums The Contents BOOK I. On 1 Pet. 1. 18. Ye were redeemed by the Blood of Christ. Oct. Christ hath purchased all spiritual good for His. 5 For Explication three things  What this Spiritual good is  All that we lost in Adam all that we need and 〈◊〉 desire to make us happy  How Christ hath purchased this by laying down 〈◊〉 sufficient price for it viz. His Death and Obedience  〈◊〉 two hence 8 1 Instruction See how difficult it is to obtain the least spiritual good Nothing to be had without this Purchase  2 Reproof to two sorts  1 To those that have interest in this Purchase 〈◊〉 improve it not  2 To those that catch at it having no right 〈◊〉 unto  3 FOR HIS here consider 〈◊〉 1 The special respect in which they come to have 〈◊〉 in Christs merits 〈◊〉 on Sinners 〈◊〉 Elect. 〈◊〉 But as the Seed of the Covenant such as shall 〈◊〉 leeve  2 Christ hath purchased FOR THEM  1 In their room  2 For their good  Reasons why Christ hath purchased only for His 〈◊〉 the Faithful not for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  1 The 〈◊〉 of God is satisfied only for them  2 Christ prayed only for them  3 They only shall be saved  4 They 〈◊〉 have the means of Salvation made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them Many have not so much as 〈◊〉 means  〈◊〉 sour hence 〈◊〉 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three things  1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 challenge any spiritual good to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before he beleeve 〈◊〉 For  1 No man hath Christ but by Faith  2 Beleevers 〈◊〉 are in the Covenant of 〈◊〉  3 〈◊〉 are in the state of 〈◊〉  2 The Spirit of God deth not witness to any 〈◊〉 interest in this spiritual good before and 〈◊〉 Faith Because  1 It 's a falshood cross to the Covenant of 〈◊〉  2 An 〈◊〉 is uncapable of knowing receiving such a witness  Inferences hence 29 1 It 's a delusion to say you may have Christ before Faith this is the ground of Prophaneness and 〈◊〉  2 There are no absolute Promises in the Covenant of Grace but such as do either express or imply the condition of Faith And yet it 's a Covenant of free Grace  3 The 〈◊〉 of Christ never gives evidence to any man of his good Estate without respect to a qualification viz. Faith and Grace Because 41 1 This work of Evidencing is a work of Applicacion  2 The Spirit never Evidenceth without tha Word  3 The Spirit alwaies 〈◊〉 by applying of a general Promise wherein particular persons are included  4 This would be to charge the Spirit with witnessing a falshood  5 The Spirit ever witnesseth as the Covenant of Grace doth  6 The Spirit witnesseth in the same respect as the Father intended and Christ purchased  7 The Evidence of spiritual Knowledge and Assurance of Faith arise upon the same ground  Hence see the excellency and blessed condition of Beleevers 54 Confutation it dasheth the dream of universal Redemption 57 Objections Answered  Exhortation to provoke our hearts 66 1 To get Faith  2 To have all at Christs Command and lay out all for his praise  BOOK II On Matth. 1. 21. He shall save his People from 〈◊〉 sins DOCT. Christ puts all his into possession of all 〈◊〉 Good that he hath purchased  Two Branches  Branch 1. Redemption and Application are of 〈◊〉 extent For 〈◊〉 1 The Spirit applies Redemption to all and 〈◊〉 such as the Father intended and Christ 〈◊〉 sed it 〈◊〉 2 Application was the end of purchasing  3 If the Application were narrower than the 〈◊〉 chase then Christ should have died for many 〈◊〉 should have no benefit by his death  Uses three hence  1 Consutation of these false Opinions  1 Christ died for all  2 Christ died for all in point of Impetration 〈◊〉 not of Application  3 That the Application of mercy depends upon liberty of mans will  2 Instruction See the Reason why the work of 〈◊〉 cation prevails so powerfully though sinners 〈◊〉 it  Christ having redeemed them will and doth 〈◊〉 that Redemption to them  Direction to distressed sinners Look to the purchase and blood of Christ.  〈◊〉 2. The Manner bow this Application is wrought  Three things implied in that 81 No man can make Application of any spiritual good in Christ to himself  1 Nor by power wrest it  2 Nor by Justice claim it  3 Nor able to receive it  4 Nor willing to be made able  Uses four hence  It dasheth the 〈◊〉 of such as conceive they have power to take Christ and Grace when they
procure it  3 There is no Promise made to a Natural man  Uses three hence Matter of  1 Thanksgiving 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of Grace  2 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 sinners in the sight of their sins and 〈◊〉  3 Exhortation to such as want and are seeking mercy to stay Gods time and wait his pleasure  DOCT. 2. VVhile this life lasts and the Gospel is continued that 's the day of Salvation  1. The time of this Life the time of getting Grace 241 Reason Because after this Life  1 The Sentence past is irrevocable  2 The condition of a man is unchangable  2 While the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods 〈◊〉  In regard  1 Of the Causes and means which are then afforded  2 Of the effect and work it self which is then wrought  3 Of the subject the persons wrought upon  Uses three hence  1 Learn That long life is a great blessing  2 Caution To fortifie our selves against self-murder  3 Exhortation to improve the time of Salvation  1 It is a Season 251 2 It is a short one but a day  3 A Season not of our but of Gods acceptation  4 It is a day of Salvation  BOOK V. On Matth. 20. 5 6 7. He went out about the sixth ninth and eleventh hour and hired Laborers  DOCT. God calls his Elect at any Age but the most before old Age. 〈◊〉 1 God calls his at any Age some in yonger some in elder yeers  〈◊〉  1 To shew the freeness of his Grace  2 To shew 〈◊〉 Power  〈◊〉 God calls the most before old Age viz. In their yonger or middle 〈◊〉  Reasons Because that 's the fittest Age in regard of  1 The Subject For  1 The Faculties are then most capable of being wrought upon  2 Corruptions are not so strongly rooted  2 The End why Grace is given viz. the Glory of God  Uses three hence 271 1 Instruction Be not rash in censuring the 〈◊〉 Estate of any  Though we may judg of their present state by their fruits  2 Consolation to support aged sinners though it 's not ordinary yet possible they may be converted then 276 3 Exhortation to yonger men take 〈◊〉 present time defer not till old Age if you do  1 Either you will never attain it  2 Or it will be uncomfortable if you do  Motives to provoke such Consider  1 What good you may do while you live  2 What Comfort you will have at your death  3 What your Glory will be in Heaven  BOOK VI. On Revel 3. 17. Thou sayest thou art rich when thou art poor and miserable c.  DOCT. The soul is naturally setled in a sinful security 285 1 The sinner 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in his Condition  2 He 〈◊〉 no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 present  3 He 〈◊〉 none 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 future  4 Hence 〈◊〉 puts his condition beyond question  5 And therefore 〈◊〉 scorns  6 And openly 〈◊〉 an alteration of his estate  Reasons three taken from 292 1 The 〈◊〉 of sin  2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the soul  3 〈◊〉 and Self-ease  Uses four 〈◊〉 295 1 See the reason why sharp and soul-saving preaching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 little acceptance Because it awakens men out of security  2 It 's the 〈◊〉 plague for a man to be let alone in his sins  3 〈◊〉 as never were 〈◊〉 and awakened to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet in it  4 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Such should  1 Suspect their 〈◊〉  2 〈◊〉 about it  3 Yield that 〈◊〉 the present their condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  BOOK VII 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the slesh is enmity against the Lord and is not subject to his Law  DOCT. The frame of the whol heart of a Natural man is wholly unwilling to submit to the VVord that would sever him from his sins 305 1 He seeks not after truth  2 He is loth to meet with it  3 He stops the passage of it  4 He doth what he can to defeat the power and evidence of it  5 He will professedly oppose it  6 He will privily 〈◊〉 the stirrings of the Truth in his Conscience  Reasons four taken from 315 1 The Corruption of the will  2 The Revenging Justice of God  3 The power of Satan  4 The 〈◊〉 and neer alliance between the heart and sin  Uses sive hence  1 It 's the heaviest plague for a Natural man to have his own corrupt will  2 The will of a Natural man is the worst part 〈◊〉 him  3 The 〈◊〉 of a carnal man 〈◊〉 cross to sence and reason  4 Tryal of our estates by our 〈◊〉 or unwillingness to part with sin  He that is willing 331 1 He is speedy and 〈◊〉 in improving 〈◊〉 〈◊〉  2 He takes delight in those means that 〈◊〉 and work most  3 He is not content till his sin be removed  4 He takes not up his stand till he come at God  5 Exhortation Labor for willingness to part with sin 343 1 The greatest and hardest work lies with the wil.  2 Beleaguer the heart with the evidence of Truth  3 Look up to God that he would work upon the heart  BOOK VIII On John 6. 44. None can come to me but whom the Father draws  DOCT. God the Father by a holy kind of 〈◊〉 plucks his out of their corruptions and draws them to beleeve in Christ. 349 This work of Attraction is a transient work 〈◊〉 both these  1 Plucking from sin  2 And drawing to Christ are handled together  For Explication six Particulars  The sorts of drawing two  1 By moral Suasion  2 By Physical or internal operation  This latter is meant here 353 The proper Nature of this drawing it 's the motion or impression of the Spirit upon the Soul not any habit in it or act put forth by it to 〈◊〉 with the Spirit 355 The means how God works and by wich he draws  These are four 355 1 By a hook of Instruction shewing a man that he is out of the way to Heaven  2 By the Cords of Love shewing that Christ and Mercy are  1 Able to 〈◊〉 him  2 Willing to save him  3 Are freely offered for that end  4 The Lord waits to see when the sinner will come  3 By the Iron Chains of Conscience  1 Warning  2 Accusing  3 Condemning  4 By the hand of the Spirit himself  How the holy violence in drawing the Soul from sin to Christ may be discerned in four Conclusions 373 1 The will of man as such is a subject capable of sin and Grace successively  2 The faculty of the will cannot actually
Sin and Satan when Justice is satisfied the Lord Jesus saies I have satisfied for that soul therefore Satan and Sin let him go they say we wil not let him go and they try al conclusions to hold him fast Now the Resurrection of Christ steps in and the Lord Jesus being raised from the dead by a strong hand he breaks the Prison which is Sin and 〈◊〉 the soul from the power of Satan who is the 〈◊〉 and in 〈◊〉 of them both he takes the soul 〈◊〉 them and then puts it into the 〈◊〉 of al 〈◊〉 good So that now the Authority of Sin and Satan is 〈◊〉 away which hindred the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good things and 〈◊〉 is done by the 〈◊〉 of Jesus Christ. Hence it is that al special works of Grace 〈◊〉 in the communication of saving good to the soul 〈◊〉 are all given to the 〈◊〉 of Christ. 1 Our Effectual Calling Eph. 1. 19. the work 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there expressed on this manner That ye 〈◊〉 know what is the exceeding greatness of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to us-ward who 〈◊〉 according to 〈◊〉 working of his mighty power 〈◊〉 whence 〈◊〉 all this it is shewed in the next verse ver 20. 〈◊〉 he wrought in Christ when he raised him 〈◊〉 the dead and set him at his own right hand c. 〈◊〉 the same Power whereby God the Father raised Christ and whereby Christ raised himself by he 〈◊〉 same Power the Lord Jesus works the heart to 〈◊〉 2 Justification is attributed to the Resurrection 〈◊〉 Christ besides that place 〈◊〉 4. last 〈◊〉 and opened before the Apostle in 1 Pet. 3. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Baptism saves us not the putting away 〈◊〉 the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good 〈◊〉 towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ That is not the outward act of Baptism 〈◊〉 Christ fignified by it the answer or demand of 〈◊〉 good conscience is an effect of the Application 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Blood of Christ to the soul for when the soul is 〈◊〉 a good conscience saies I 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sins are 〈◊〉 my person accepted Conscience owns 〈◊〉 challengeth this but whence comes this the Apostle here tels us by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ That is the Resurrection of Christ is the special means whereby way is made 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the dea h and obedience 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ to the soul and by 〈◊〉 whereof the 〈◊〉 comes to be justified 3 Hence again we are said to 〈◊〉 adopted by the Resurrection of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 3. He hath 〈◊〉 us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the dead 4. Hence also Sanctification is commonly constantly attributed to the Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6. 4 5 6 7 8. The reason of all these expressions is because the Resurrection of Christ is the chief cause to make 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Application of all Spiritual Good to the soul and therefore we are called justified adopted 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 of his Resurrection And there is a 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Explication from this 〈◊〉 ground Matt. 28. 18. when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the dead he said All 〈◊〉 Heaven and Earth is given unto me he received 〈◊〉 power at his Resurrection by his death and obedience he had purchased all the binding and condemning Power of Divine Justice and all the power of Mercy nay power over all Blessings and Mercies and Creatures they all became his But when he rose again he then received all power over Hell and Sin and Death whereby he is able to vanquish these Enemies of our Salvation and to rescue the Soul for which he hath died from the hands of all these because he hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 power over al things in Heaven and Earth 〈◊〉 dispose of them for his own glorious ends 〈◊〉 again Revel 1. 18. Christ being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead is said to have the Keys of Hell and Death that is he hath a Sovereign Authority 〈◊〉 dispose of Hell and Death to deliver his Servants 〈◊〉 Hell and Death and therefore also he hath 〈◊〉 to dispense Grace as he will and how he will 〈◊〉 hence it is also that the communication of Grace 〈◊〉 been from the beginning and shall be to the end 〈◊〉 the World and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a larger 〈◊〉 of the Spirit after the Resurrection of Christ than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. 39. The holy Ghost was not yet 〈◊〉 because fesus was not yet glorified the Spirit 〈◊〉 given 〈◊〉 but the 〈◊〉 and abundance and 〈◊〉 of the Spirit was not given till after Christs 〈◊〉 for all that was given to all Churches 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 from the beginning of the World was 〈◊〉 vertue 〈◊〉 Christs Resurrection but now the 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 there was a greater measure of the Spirit 〈◊〉 and when Christ 〈◊〉 to Heaven then was 〈◊〉 larger measure than before and when the Jews shall 〈◊〉 called there shall be a greater measure still Hence also Christ having 〈◊〉 Hell and Sin 〈◊〉 Death by his 〈◊〉 he is armed with all Authority to send out 〈◊〉 to his Churches and 〈◊〉 Presence and 〈◊〉 to go along with them Eph. 48. 11 12. When he ascended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave gifts unto men he gave Apostles Pastors and Teachers c. Christs 〈◊〉 is one degree of his Exaltation and the fullest 〈◊〉 largest expression of his Kingly Authority to provide 〈◊〉 and to come along with them is from 〈◊〉 so that here you have as it were a Key to open several Scriptures The Frame of this Truth may be discerned in these Particulars The Lord Jesus as the second Adam the Head of the Covenant of Grace hath all Spiritual Good in himself and from him it must be communicated to al the Faithful as his 〈◊〉 That he may communicate al Spiritual Good to his he must be able to crush all that power that shall 〈◊〉 the communication of this Good for if 〈◊〉 were any power more able to oppose than he to communicate the work might be hindred If he must crush all that oppose then he must have a conquering Sovereign Power over all the Power of Hell and Sin and Death for unless he had a Sovereign prevailing Power over all opposing Power he might be conquered and hindred as well as they delivered Therefore he must have that Power that must raise 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 hour and power of darkness Luk. 22. 53. Christ when he was to die said this is your hour and the power of darkness God the Father gave leave unto and left him in the hands of Sin and Satan and they did what they could do to hinder the Work of Redemption by Jesus Christ and Christ felt it and professed it that all the Power of Hell and Sin and 〈◊〉 was let loose upon him and they brought him down to his grave and there they would have kept him But the Lord Jesus by the Power of his 〈◊〉 raised up himself from the power of darkness under which in some sort he then was and
approbation of Satan but by Compulsion For do but weigh a little what manner of Construction in a common apprehension can be made of a Morral Perswasion in this Case Namely The Lord Christ casts in so many Convicting Arguments into the mind of Satan and stirs up that malice and envie that is within him that he doth perswade Satan to destroy his own malice and envie yea perswades him to lay down his power and to make choice and desire that the Spirit of Christ should exercise power in the Soul He Conquers him only by perswading of him to yeild willing subjection to the power of Christ which is indeed to make Satan a Saint and the Devil not to be the Prince of darkness The Power and Rule of Satan cannot be Destroyed without violence but in this work Satan his power is destroyed and himself bound and Conquered therefore it s done by Violence Fifthly Now we are to enquire How the plucking of the Soul from Sin and Drawing unto Christ is accomplished by this holy Violence To which I Answer 1 Generally 2 Particularly 1 Generally thus All that hold that Sin Satan had of the Soul and al that authority they exercised in it is now removed and the bent and set of the heart is now under the hand of the Spirit of God The Lord comes now to manifest his claim and to make good and challenge the right he hath unto the soul through his Christ whom he hath appointed to bring his unto himself This is his good pleasure for the execution whereof he hath sent the Lord Jesus Isa. 49. 45. Therefore he is said to be formed from the womb to be a servant unto God the Father to restore the preserved of Israel and to be the salvation of God to the ends of the earth Hence that of our Savior Christ Joh. 10. 16. Other sheep I have there 's the ground those I must bring and they shall hear my voice they are mine I have died for them sin and Satan shal not keep them shal not hold them hands off sin hands off Satan I must Humble them and Call them and Justifie them and 〈◊〉 them and Save them for ever And therefore the Lord was typed out in the Parable of the Owner that left Ninty and nine to seek the lost sheep Luke 15. 4 5. And when it could not seek its own good or Christ or find either the Lord sought it up and found it and brought it home upon his shoulder 2 ' More Particularly The accomplishment of this Work Discovers it self in Four Particulars The Lord calls in that Commission which formerly he put into the hands of Satan to lay hold of the heart of a sinner as a Malefactor attached of high Treason committed against God and Heaven and therefore it was he sent him with his Mittimus as the Justice doth the Fellon into the Custody and keeping of Satan that since he would not be ruled by the Law of Liberty and Life he should be made a slave unto sin and subject to death and that for ever to be kept in the Chains of darkness until the day of 〈◊〉 great Goal Delivery and the Declaration of the fierce wrath of God and this Durante bene placito during the pleasure of the Lord or until ye shal understand his Majesties pleasure to the 〈◊〉 For still you must remember That as in Courts and Course of Justice amongst men upon earth it is so in the Court of Heaven and the Proceedings of the Almighty the Malefactor is the Kngs prisoner The Jaylor is but the Keeper or under Officer betrusted with the Execution of Justice the Lord is the sole Commander of mens souls and of life and death unto which they are liable by reason of their sins This being the Commission the Lord put into the hands of Satan and sin for the present unless any Express appear to the contrary He is now pleased to signifie to the Prince of Darkness and to the Power of Hell and to those Damned Spirits by the Ministery of the Word in the mouths of his Servants and by the Hand and Almighty Operation of his Spirit Be it known 〈◊〉 you you Principalities of 〈◊〉 and spiritual wickednesses that take possession of and rule in the hearts of the Children of disobedience that upon the first hearing of this holy Word and Message dispensed by my faithful Servant as a warrant under my hand that it is my Royal Wil and Command That you forthwith let loose that poor 〈◊〉 who hath been long prisoner in the chains of Darkness For my Justice is fully answered and satisfaction fully accepted Fail not at your 〈◊〉 under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 displeasure of the Almighty Dated at the Court of Mercy before all worlds published this present day and instant according to the counsel of mine own Will This puts the powers of Darkness the Devils and his Angels to deep Consultation what to do they see they have no warrant now to hold the sinner any longer and yet they have no wil to let him go They are 〈◊〉 loth to part with him and yet their power is gone whereby they have hitherto kept him For the strength of 〈◊〉 is the law 1 Cor. 15. 56. And this is to take away the Devils Armour Luke 11. 22. When Justice will deliver the sinner Satan hath no power to hold him As our Savior said to Pilate when 〈◊〉 said I have power to bind thee or to loose thee our Savior 〈◊〉 Thou hadst no power 〈◊〉 was given thee from above John 19. 11. So Satan hath no power but what is given from above according to the Edict of Gods revenging Justice and their just deservings Therefore now God the Father through the perfect Death and satisfaction 〈◊〉 the Lord Jesus hath yeilded the Edict of 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 and therefore the Devils cannot 〈◊〉 As it was said touching our Savior when he was in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was impossible he should be 〈◊〉 2 Acts 24. 〈◊〉 Gods Justice was answered to here When the Devils power is now gone and that Justice hath signified her pleasure That the Prisoner must be set loose they then begin to pretend the right they have and the claim they can make yet unto the Sinner Therefore Sin and 〈◊〉 seem 〈◊〉 plead their own Cause in way of Justice and that which cannot be gain-said as that the souls of such 〈◊〉 Creatures do appertain to them for besides saies Satan the Statute Law The soul that sins that soul must die The Evidence is cleer from their practice and experience Whether these be the seed of the Serpent because they express the nature of the serpent in their actions Is it not written John 8 44. You are of your Father the Devil for the lusts of your Father you will do These are they whose hearts if they were discerned whose carriages if they were traced and taken notice of would give in Evidence that the 〈◊〉 of the Serpent was in the one
turn or do the work 〈◊〉 we are all sinners it is my infirmity I cannot help it my weakness I cannot be rid of it no man lives without faults and follies the best have their failings In many things we offend all But alas all this wind shakes no Corn it costs more to see sin aright than a few words of course It 's one thing to say sin is thus and thus another thing to see it to be such we must look wishly and steddily upon our distempers look sin in the face and discern it to the full the want whereof is the cause of our mistaking our estates and not redressing of our hearts and waies Gal. 6. 4. Let a man prove his own work Before the Goldsmith can sever and see the Dross asunder from the Gold he must search the very bowels of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and try it by touch by cast by hammer and by fire and then he will be able to speak by proof what it is So here We perceive sin in the crowd and by hearsay when we 〈◊〉 some common 〈◊〉 customary expressions taken up by persons in their common converse and so report what others speak and yet never knew the Truth what either others or we say but we do not single out our corruptions and survey the loathsomness of them as they come naked in their own Natures this we ought to do There is great ods betwixt the knowledg of a Traveller that in his own person hath taken a view of many Coasts past through many Countries and hath there taken up his abode some time and by Experience hath been an Eye-witness of the extream cold and scorching heats hath surveyed the glory and beauty of the one the barrenness and meanness of the other he hath been in the Wars and seen the ruin and desolation wrought there and another that sits by his fire side and happily reads the story of these in a Book or views the proportion of these in a Map the ods is great and the difference of their knowledg more than a little the one saw the Country really the other only in the story the one hath seen the very place the other only in the paint of the Map drawn The like difference is there in the right discerning of sin the one hath surveyed the compass of his whol course searched the 〈◊〉 of his own heart and examined the windings and turnings of his own waies he hath seen what sin is and what it hath done how it hath made havock of his peace and comfort ruinated and laid wast the very Principles of Reason and Nature and Morality and made 〈◊〉 a terror to himself when he hath looked over the loathsom abominations that lie in his bosom that he is afraid to approach the presence of the Lord to bewail his sins and to crave pardon lest he should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them while he is but confessing of them afraid and ashamed 〈◊〉 any man living should know but the least part of that which he knows by himself and could count it happy that 〈◊〉 was not that the remembrance of those hideous evils of his might be no more Another happily hears the like preached or repeated reads them writ or recorded in some Authors and is able to remember and 〈◊〉 them The ods is marvelous great The one sees the History of sin the other the Nature of it the one knows the relation of sin as it is mapped 〈◊〉 and recorded the other the poyson as by experience he hath found and proved it It 's one thing to see a disease in the Book or in a mans body another thing to find and feel it in a mans self There is the report of it here the malignity and venom of it But how shall we see cleerly the Nature of sin in his naked hue This will be discovered and may be conceived in the Particulars following Look we at it First As it respects God Secondly As it concerns our selves As it hath reference to God the vileness of the nature of sin may thus appear It would dispossess God of that absolute Supremacy 〈◊〉 is indeed his Prerogative Royal and 〈◊〉 in a peculiar manner appertayn to him as the Diamond of his Crown and 〈◊〉 of his Deity so the Apostle He is God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. All from him and all for him he is the absolute first being the absolute last end and herein is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Glory Al those attributes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holiness Power Justice Mercy the shine and Concurrency of all these meeting together is to set out the unconceivable excellency of his Glorious name which exceeds all praise Thyne is the kingdom the power and the glory the right of all and so the rule of all and the Glory of all belo 〈◊〉 to him Now herein 〈◊〉 the unconceavable hainousness of the hellish nature of sin it would justle the Almighty out of the Throne of his Glorious Soveraignty and indeed be above him For the will of man being the 〈◊〉 of all his workmanship all for his body the body of the soul the mind to attend upon the will the will to attend upon God and to make choyce of him and his wil that is next to him and he onely above that and that should have been his Throne and Temple or Chair of State in which he would have Set his Soveraignty for ever He did in an Especial manner intend to meet with man and to communicate himself to man in his righteous Law as the rule of his Holy and righteous will by which the will of Adam should have been ruled and guided to him and made happie in him and all Creatures should have served God in man and been happy by or through him serving of God being happy in him But when the will went from under the government of his rule by sin it would be above God and be happy without him for the rule of the law in each command of it holds forth a threefold expression of 〈◊〉 from the Lord and therein the Soveraignty of all the rest of his Attributes 1. The Powerful Supremacy of his just will as that he hath right to dispose of all and authority to command all at his pleasure What if God will Rom. 9. 22 My Counsel shall stand and I wil do all my pleasure Isa. 46. 10. And as its true of what shal be done upon us so his wil hath Soveraignty of Command in what should be done by us we are 〈◊〉 say the will of the Lord be done Davids warrant was to do all Gods wils Acts. 13. 22. and our Saviour himself professeth John 6. 38. that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him and therfore his wrath and jealousie and judgment will break out in 〈◊〉 that be disobeyed 2. There is also a fulness of wisdom in the law of God revealed to guide direct us in the way we should walk
is the way that God hath appointed and he wil bless the order which he hath set in his infinite wisdom and which he wil prosper If you would find his blessing walk in his way if you expect success attend his order and direction which he hath left to bring us to his Christ and so to life and happiness If you see not your sins you are in hazard never to see good day while you live nor when you dye Christ is said to stand at the dore and knock and if any man wil open unto him he wil come in and supp with him Rev. 3. 20. Saving Contrition is a shooting back the boults of our base lusts a severing and unlocking the heart from the Soveraignty of ones noysom Corruptions that stop the passage and hinder the coming of our Saviour this clear and convicting sight of our sins is as it were the lifting up of the latch or letting in of the Key the powerful dispensation of the truth and operation of his spirit whereby the knot and combination between sin and the soul is broken and severed and the way made that the authority of the truth may come at the heart and work kindly upon it for good An error here in the entrance is hardly ever recovered to miss here is mervailous dangerous it spoyles our whol proceeding in the great work of our calling and everlasting comfort as the naturallist and Physitian observe an error in the first concoction is never recovered in the second for the Lord in his wisdom and the course of nature hath so ordayned that each part doth that which is its proper and peculiar work but doth not rectify or redress that which was done amiss by another and so the goodness of the nourishment is never recovered or the body strengthened or health so comfortably preserved herby as were to be desired So it is in the entrance of 〈◊〉 great work of preparation for Christ and our effectual bringing home unto him never see sin aright the soul cannot be affected with it in a right manner never truly see the need of a Savior never seek after him or come to him this through sight of sin is as it were the setting open of the window whereby the light and good of the truth and the loath 〈◊〉 of sin is laid open unto the soul and comes in a main upon the Conscience to prevayl with it whereas shut this window and stop this passage the soul is cooped up in the dungeon of darkness and delusion be the ordinances never so powerful the means never so effectual there 〈◊〉 no coming into the heart no hope to work upon it or to prevail with it for good the evil of sin is not acknowledged and therefore not prevented that which his reason cannot see a man cannot shun the excellency and necessity of a Christ is not discerned and therefore not endeavoured after as were meet It befalls the soul smote with this spiritual blindness as with the Assyrian Host when they came to surprize Elisha 2 Kings 18. 19. 20. He prayed Lord smite this people with blindness he did so and they saw nothing before they were in the midst of their enemyes so here when the sinner is misguided by the dimness of his deluded mind he goes on in an evil way and knowes not whither he goes or where he is before he be in the botintoless pit Oh be wise and wary therefore that we err not here least we rush into ruine and that past alrecovery Expect then Gods blessing upon our endeavour but in Gods order attend his work in his own way It is the aym of our Saviour in sending and the office of the Holy Ghost in coming into the world when he intends to work effectually the saving good of his people to intitle them to the pardon of their sins and to establish their hearts under the government of his spirit John 16. 7. 8. If I depart I wil send the Comforter and when he is come he wil reprove he wil convince and set down the world by 〈◊〉 conviction of sin of righteousness of judgment of righteousness that the law is satisfied justice answered and that fully because he that was in prison is now released and therefore the debt payd and he gone to heaven to his Father Of judgment the power of his Kingdom government erected and set up in the soules of his servants and children in that by death he overcame him that had the power of death that is the Devill and therefore he is judged and falls in his cause as having no right nor in reason can challenge no rule in the hearts of those for whom Christ hath satisfied divine justice and therefore are free from that authority that sin and Satan had of them thereby But before we can share either in the righteousness of Christ for our justification or the rule of his spirit in our Sanctification the Holy Ghost must and doth convince us of sin that we have rejected and not entertained this Saviour If we do not convictingly see our sin in settling upon the root of our Corrupt rebellions and casting away the riches of Christs mercy the rule of his Grace it s not possible that those spiritual benefits should ever be made ours As ever therefore you desire to see and find the mercies of Christ sealed up unto your Consciences in pardoning of sins and acceptation of your persons As ever you would find the Kingdom of Satan cast down in your hearts and the government of his Grace and spirit there set up labor for this clear and convicting sight of sin begin you where the Holy spirit begins that you may find his presence with you his effectual power and blessing to accompany your endeavours in that way Catch not disorderly at pardon look not for peace of Conscience or hope to see the government of Christs Grace set up in your souls before you come to 〈◊〉 your sins by convicting evidence of the Holy Ghost The holy spirit of Grace wil not cross his course to gratify our Corruption That I may further set on the exhortation I shal endeavour to do these two things First To propound some means to help in 〈◊〉 work Secondly Some motives to quicken you therein The means are these that follow First Labor we to see that unconceivable excellency of holiness that is in the Lord and search we into the 〈◊〉 and the righteous laws there recorded for the direction of our daily course and that wil make us see the loathsomness of our own hearts and the vileness of 〈◊〉 As it s said of darkness it cannot be seen by it self but its light that discovers it self and darkness It s as true of sin it is not by it self to be discerned for it is spiritual darkness the light of Gods Holiness and wisdom which by sin are wronged and the law which is transgressed these are both lights God is light and in
with a little prosit or pleasure nay with a beggerly lust that thy heart takes delight in The Apostle cals it The labor of Love 1 Thes. 1. 3. Love is laborious laies out it self to give content to that which is beloved Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you John 15. Thou dost nothing for the Lord and thy love is very little or else that which is is nothing worth in Gods account Look at the practice of Judas so helluh and detestable as not to be named nor remembred amongst men and the loathsomness that lay in the bottom was this That he sold the Lord Jesus for thirty pieces of silver a goodly price saies the Prophet Zach. 11. 12. Turn but the Tables judg thy practice by this pattern thou sets the Gospel of Christ and the Government of the Spirit of Christ at a far lower rate even the thirtieth part of the price that he set yea sel him to satisfie a base lust or humor of thine own heart It was a just reproach whereby Absalon checked the falsness of Hushas who forsook David as he conceived in his distress and followed his Enemy into the Camp Is this thy love to thy friend to leave him thus in the lurch and do nothing for him in the day of distress The reproof was sharp and just so far as reason could reach but it fals far more justly far more heavily upon thee Is this thy love to the Name of the Lord Jesus that thou should'st slight it to his Law that thou shouldst despise it 〈◊〉 it is this thy love to his Spirit that thou shouldst grieve it and that for a trifle for a twopence for a booty for a bargain which wil make thee a beggar when thou hast got al thou canst gain by it and that when there is no allurement worth the looking after that might entice thee no danger or difficulty that might hinder thee in thy duty and receiving a blessing and comfort therefrom The less the thing is the less care and conscience thou expressest for the good of thine own soul. When thou wilt run the hazard of 〈◊〉 happiness for the gaining of a little profit so many pence in the shilling so many shillings in the pound nay but the giving satisfaction to a lazy sinful sensual humor Alas poor Creature hadst thou no more for thy soul but pence and shillings a little laziness for thy life and happiness and Salvation dost thou value thy soul of no greater worth Our Savior in the Gospel sets a higher price upon it Matth. 16. 25. 26. What will it profit a man if he should win the whol world and lose his own soul 〈◊〉 what shall he give in exchange for his soul q. d. A. man should be a loser by the gain and a begger by the bargain if he had all And yet deluded Creature thou wilt sel thy comfort the peace of thy conscience the salvation of thy soul for a thing of naught The whol world is vanity nothing and less than nothing and thou wilt part with thy happiness for that which is far less than that which is less than nothing When Naaman came to the Prophet to be cured of the Leprosie of his body and so to save his Natural life and he was directed and enjoyned by the Prophet to wash seven times in Jordan he began to take it in distast as a course that was too mean and base for his comfort and Cure Are not saies he the Waters of Pharpar and Damascus better than the Waters of Jordan His Servants seasonably and wisely check the carelessness of his own safety and recovery Had the Prophet commanded thee some great thing would'st thou not have done it How much more when he saith wash and be clean 2 Kings 5. 12 13. The greatest labor should have been undertaken to preserve thy life what carelessness is this to neglect the least that may procure thy safety It 's so here our sick sinful leprous and polluted souls lies now at hazard ready to perish had the Lord enjoyned us to the heaviest task things of greatest danger and difficulty to be done and suffered for the safeguard of 〈◊〉 souls would we not should we not have done them parted with a limb for our lives our lives for our souls and shal we not be willing to part with the paring of our nails these poor empty lying vanities for our everlasting happiness what Athiestical carelessness is this that men should live as if they had no souls to be saved nor sins to be pardoned not care to do the least thing that might procure their everlasting good and greatest welfare The less the things 〈◊〉 in which thou givest thy self liberty to transgress without any touch or trouble the greater the wickedness of thy heart For such a kind of course argues undeniably that thy soul is fully possessed with the sourse of corruption when it runs out at every chink runs over upon every occasion and is 〈◊〉 to the commission of evil And a man is put beyond al color of reason that may excuse or any pretence that might lessen it before God or men It argues the Veins are full of blood when the body bleeds in several parts without provocation It 's certain the channel is full and the stream strong when it fils each creek and goes speedily and swiftly when there is no gale stirring So it 's certain it argues strength of distemper and sourse of sinful corruption in the soul when the heart is carried to the commission of evil upon each trifling occasion that is 〈◊〉 The less the thing is that might draw thee the greater the corruption of thy heart that like a mighty stream transports thee to the practice so that there is no reason to be rendred but only the wretchedness of thy own Spirit why thou fallest into such an evil When the Lord charged the Israelites with the consideration of his kindnesses and their departings from him Judg. 2. 2. he thus presseth them Why have ye done this So when this question shal be put to thee Why art thou lazy in thy place careless of a command so easie to be done so dayly before thine eye that thou canst not but attend it Why dost thou outreach in thy dealings cheat in thy sellings Why there is nothing to be alleadged but the poysonous impostumes of corruption that break out of thy heart when there is no temptation without to provoke a man no bait to entice him no fear of evil on the one side to force him to sin to avoid danger there is no weight of worth in any profit or pleasure by thine own confession that might justly stir thee or take thee aside to go against Justice Command Conscience thy own Comforts and 〈◊〉 There is nothing but the power of thine own lusts the perversness of thine own will the strength and distemper of thine own affections that 〈◊〉 and hurries thee to the Commission of such
honor of his justice and to save thy soul thou sinful rebel Nay he can tel how best to provide most for his own glory when he pardons most sins I beseech thee pardon my sins for they are many Psal. 25. 11. He lets the power of darkness proceed to its ful strength that the power of his exceeding mercy might shew it self in delivering from the nethermost hell He gives sin advantage that it might do its worst and raign unto death that so his grace might raign over sin death unto eternal life According to the soveraignty of his wil whereby he subdues al things to himself Eph. 3. last and here thou mayest yet feel firm bottom to bear up thy fainting heart from sinking down into everlasting discouragement Thus you see the compass of this encouragement which issues from Gods free grace But least some proud flesh should arise by this healing preservative if it should heal too fast to keep thee under this encouragement and yet to keep thee from presumption take these Cautions It 's possible God may do thee good notwithstanding all indispositions and oppositions But know 〈◊〉 for certain he never will do it but in his own way If he save thee he wil humble thee if he pardon that guilty soul and Conscience of thine he wil pierce both to the quick there is not a possibility he should save thy soul 〈◊〉 thy sin also set it down for an undenyable conclusion I cannot have my stubborn and rebellious heart and have any hope that ever I shal have either Grace or Mercy If thou wilt sin that mercy may abound as the Apostle brings in the sons of Belial speaking Rom. 6. 1. thou mayest have thy sin but upon these terms thou shalt never have mercy Either expect that God should take away thy sin or else never expect he should prevent thy ruin When the Lord lets in some light to discover the loathsomness of thy corrupt Nature and begins to grapple with thy Conscience so that thou stand'st convinced of the vileness of thine own waies the worth and excellency of his Grace when God hath thee upon the Anvil and under the Hammer to break thee in the fire to melt thee 〈◊〉 fear fear lest thou should'st make an escape from under the hand of the Lord and fall back again to the old base course it 's a dreadful suspicion of Gods direful displeasure lest either the Lord wil cease to do thee any further good or give thee up to those hellish departures that thou shouldest make thy self everlastingly uncapable of mercy 1. It 's a sore suspicion that the Lord purposeth to leave striving and to meddle with thee no more when the Lord suffers thee to wind away from under the power of the means which formerly thou wert subject to It 's Gods usual manner to make such unexcusable and never make them good that they might go self-condemned and so go to Hell It 's that of the Prophet 〈◊〉 which he makes a Symptom of the out-cast condition of the Jews that they were dross Jer. 〈◊〉 30. Reprobate Silver shall men call them because the Lord hath rejected them How proves he that Verse 29. The Bellows are burnt the Lead is consumed in the fire the Founder melteth in vain for the wicked are not plucked away To this purpose is that of our Savior when he had long striven with the rebellious Jews clocked to them as a Hen to her Chickens and would have gathered them under the wing of his saving Providence by the preaching of the Gospel and ye nothing would prevayl they would drive Christ out of their sight and he smites them with a plague answerable Math 23. 2 last ver ye shal see me no more until ye shal say blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. And this his word hath taken hold upon them unto 〈◊〉 day the poor forlorn Jewes have not had a sight of Christ this sixteen hundred yeers scriptures they have prophecyes promises yea they have the Gospel while they 〈◊〉 the Gospel for so the Apostle Gal. 3. The Gospel was preached to Abriaham saying in thy seed shal al the Nations of the earth be blessed they see al this but the vayl is over their eyes they see no Christ in promises ordinances and therefore no salvation leaving secret things to God So it befals many falshearted Apostates when God hath had them in the fire and they come out too hastily from horror and humiliations before half melted It s a great adventure they never come to Christ but wanse away in a powerless kinde of formality and content 〈◊〉 with the enjoyment of some outward priviledges and ordinances and names of profession they have the scriptures and ordinances but never see a Christ in any of them nor wil the Lord look upon them nor once speak to them when he passeth by but let them live and perish as heartless Christless men Thus our savior dealt with his people in former times when he had sent the spyes into the Land of Canaan Heb. 3. 18. Numb 14. 23. and they returned convinced by their own experience of the goodness of the land as flowing with milk and honey and out of a slothful cowardice because there were iron Charrets and walled cities and mighty Giants they withdrew the duty and Gods charge and disheartened also the people the text sayes the Lord sware in his wrath they should not enter into his rest When God swears it shewes his purpose is unchangable and his execution wil not be altered Canaan is a type of the Kingdom of grace and so of Glory when the Lord let in some evidence of the excellency thereof and the heart cannot but acknowledg it 〈◊〉 leaves off rather than it wil take the paynes to grapple with those Giant-like corruptions that iron and 〈◊〉 hardness of heart why shouldest not thou fear least God should swear thou shalt never enter into his rest thou shouldest never find the power of the death of Jesus in killing the body of death so that thou shouldest cease from thine own works and from the sinful distempers of thy corrupt heart Fear again lest the Lord give thee up to thy old distempers that thou should'st make thy self everlastingly uncapable of any good and sin that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost When thou goest against those Convictions of thy Conscience those tasts of approbation which somtimes thy heart took in the good Word and waies of God for by this back-sliding thou art in the ready way to run upon that rock This was that which helped Paul the possibility of mercy 1 Tim. 1. 14. But I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly it was his zeal that he persecuted the Church i. e. his blind zeal but should he have done so against the Dictates of his Conscience and the evidence of Truth in his own heart he could hardly have seen a way for mercy So the Apostle to the
affect it with the greatest grief and burden for sorrow in al the proportions of it issues from these two grounds A crossness of an evil truly apprehended by the judgment the venome acting really upon us where these are in a greater or lesser measure there sorrow is greater or less upon this ground the Apostle evidenceth the grief and burden of the creature Rom. 8. 22. For we know that the whol creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and that because it was made subject to vanity and this is their vanity because their end is crossed and so their good is hindred for wheras it is their desire to serve such as may serve God when they serve the humors and corruptions of carnal men they become vain and miss their end and so their good and this is as it were a grief to them Were the venome of sin but discovered and acted upon the nature of the soul it could not but groan under the evil and vanity thereof as that which wholy deprives it of its end and good While the soul stands fully under the power of corruptions possessed with it and acted by it it 's not possible it should apprebend the evil of sin nor the nature of the soul tast the venome thereof Sin carryes no crossness of opposition of evil to it self and therefore 〈◊〉 disquiet to it self 〈◊〉 so no separation from it self But sin wholly possessing and wholly acting the soul it makes the mind and heart apprehend not according to the nature of the soul and impression left upon it when created but according to the distemper by which it is possessed and carried So did they to Samuel 1 Sam. 8. 19. they said nay but we wil have a King Jer. 18. 12. So they to Jeremiah we wil walk every one in the imagination of his own heart Give the sick man the most pleasant potion though the Physitian profess it and give reasons and others by experience find it so he no sooner tasts it but he puts it away as that which is exceeding bitter because his tast is corrupted and tongue furred with the foulness of his stomack he rellisheth the drink not according to what they say and what it is or what the natural constitution of the palate would perswade but what his distemper which now possesseth and disordreth his tast tel him So it was with Judas though he was told before that it were better he had never been born that would not do the deed his covetous heart found another rellish nay when he flung away his money out of vexation yet he rellished hismurther stil and therefore hanged himself And this is the reason why they who sin against the holy Ghost even against the evidence of reason the corruption of their heart rellisheth other than reason tells Hence the Lord Christ by the irresistible power of his spirit doth countermand the authority of sin makes it appear that its commission is come to an end the date of it is expired Namely sin after Adam withdrawing himself received a commission from divine justice that 〈◊〉 the soul would not be ruled by him and his law It should be possessed and acted by corruption the date of the commission lasts until the Lord Jesus the second Adam who 〈◊〉 for the sinner comes by covenant to take the soul to himself and then he appearing in this behalf sin is forced back and not to exercise her power and then the evil of sin is brought home to the soul and set on with the ful venome of it and the nature of the soul is made sensible of it I say made sensible and deeply affected therewith This me thinks is the binding of the strong man Math. 12. 29. Wherby the Devills armour that is his comission by vertue of which 〈◊〉 holds the soul is taken away from him stopp the sluice and stream that drives the mil and then you turn the wheel another way which otherwise while under the sourse of the stream cannot be stirred Thus God commands the soul to return from iniquity Job 36. 10. And if he do but stop the commission for a sudden turn then there may follow a tast which such as sin against the holy Ghost may have of whom the Apostle speaks Hebr. 6. 4 5 6. The Lord Jesus by the virtu of his death puts an end to the commission that divine justice gave disanuls the right and power that sin challenged and by which it acted the soul of a sinner wherby it kept the soul under its command that no means could work upon it or be made effectual to it 1. Pet. 3. 18. Christ dyed for us that he might bring us to God For when Adam and so we in him wilfully departed from God would not be guided by his rightous law and just wil divine justice gave a commission to sin to take vengeance of the soul and keep it under that no good may come to it or it receive any now Christ by his death having satisfyed justice the commission is cancelled there is nothing on Gods part which hinders And there is nothing on our parts can hinder the authority of sin is disannulled his claym made voyd that soul is mine saies Christ hands off 〈◊〉 hands off sin the claym answered authority disannulled power stopped now there is way for light to come to the mind and for the nature of sin as discovered to be set on upon the soul and it made to seel the venom thereof as upon those termes it may utsupra So our Saviour 〈◊〉 1. 18. I was dead but am alive and I have the keyes of hell and death i. e. hath supream authority to shoot back al boults to open al dores As the first Adam by natural generation 〈◊〉 power and commission from divine justice to turn the souls of his children from God to sin so the second Adam having satisfyed and answered divine justice hath power to turn the soul from satan and sin to God satan and sin are at his devotion the soul at his command The third particular to be opened How far the soul is or may be truly said to be active in this work of Contrition or this spiritual sorrow when it comes to receive the right impression of it for sin as such The Answer may be conceived in the following particulars There is no power in man to remove that resistance that is in his heart against God the work of his grace that which out of its own corrupt principles doth wholly resist and cannot but resist the operation and dispensation of al spiritual means that would prevayl with it for good that cannot take away the resistance for resistance cannot take away resistance it implyes a palpable contradiction as that which is professedly cross to common sence but the corrupt heart of a natural man while he is in the state of nature and corruption doth and cannot but wholly resist the work of
go 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heaven than having both eyes and feet to go to Hell So the 〈◊〉 would be content to be maimed in credit quiet comfort 〈◊〉 no reservation of any sin of any kind if one if little if sweet if profitable No the soul would not touch an unclean thing 2 Cor. 6. 17. He doth not say no gross unclean thing but nothing no not to touch it So 〈◊〉 Savior to the yong man There is one thing wanting Go and sell all that thou hast Mark 10. 21. Admits no case of exception what ever difficultie or danger may be presented or can be conceived in the compass of a mans apprehension nay there cannot befal any 〈◊〉 or pretence which carries any reality with it why the soul should continu any entertainment with any corruption and therefore it casts out al 〈◊〉 pleas pretences 〈◊〉 that carnal reason might cast in 〈◊〉 one should loose his friends and favor and fellowship of such asare or have been never so near or dear to him why that should not stick Deut 33. 9. nay not onely to leave them but to do execution upon them for so the case may be and it 's supposed by interpreters when it is said the Levites knew not their brethren that hath reference to that story Exod. 32. where the Levites were enjoyned to slay each man his brother So Peters advice here following the text save your selves from this Crooked generation Yea were 〈◊〉 the loss of mans life 〈◊〉 also comes within this necessity there is no necessity to hinder to part with this life there is a necessity he should part with his sin Dan. 3. 17. 18. we care not to answer thee in this thing O King our God can deliver us but 〈◊〉 he wil not we wil fal down and worship thy golden Image The Reasons are three The sinners thus affected they feel experimentally the 〈◊〉 of Gods justice which 〈◊〉 proceeds 〈◊〉 the sinner for whatever 〈◊〉 it meets withall and what ever the sinner be That 〈◊〉 men 〈◊〉 in the 〈◊〉 of a sinful course they 〈◊〉 and promise to 〈◊〉 freedom and escape from the 〈◊〉 of Gods 〈◊〉 or at least such a mitigacion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as may allay the extremity of the fear of the evil they did expect or take off the pleasure or pursuit of sin in which they did delight yet now under the stroke or 〈◊〉 they 〈◊〉 by proof they were misguided in their thoughts and 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 hopes For that such is the 〈◊〉 of Gods righteous 〈◊〉 that he doth and wil undoubtedly 〈◊〉 and find out al and is absolutely resolved to execute punishment upon al and therefore there is an absolute necessity they should renounce and abandon al even the most beloved and least suspected distempers which formerly like Atheists they foolishly thought God did not attend or at least would not trouble himself withal but wink at them or pass them by which now they find far otherwise Gods justice is peremptory in punishing and therefore they must be as peremptory in abandoning their lusts they cannot avoyd the justice of the Lord and therefore they must avoyd their sins whatever deluded hope they had formerly of Gods connivence but now they see themselves deceived be the corruption never so secret he wil search it who professeth Zeph. 2. 11. that he wil search Jerusalem with candles and punish them that are setled upon their lees who say in their hearts the Lord wil not do good neither wil he do evil the lees ly at the bottom such as no eye sees when the Vessel is set on broach they carry the matter so covertly as if it were beyond either apprehension or suspicion but God wil search it It was spoken of the times of Josiah when reformation was general and with great applause and approbation of al hands religion seemed to be enterained yet men settle upon their lees had their retireing corners for their corrupt lusts while they carryed al before them and seemed to be most exact Isa. 29. 10. 16. there was a generation that digged deep to hide their counsels from the Lord but their turning of things up side down shal be esteemed as potters clay q. d. even those privy conveyances are as the clay in the hand of the Potter God sees them and wil act and order as he sees fit thus Achan saw and took and 〈◊〉 and carryed and hid it secretly in his rent but God found him and his falsness and forgeries and forced him to acknowledge so much As the secretest so the smallest transgressions divine justice stabs the heart of a sinner withal Not onely Achan who committed but Israel who did but neglect their watch and care to keep him from or recover him 〈◊〉 of it they also smart Jos. 7. 1. an evil which the best of them neither saw nor considered therefore the Lord was constrayned to mind 〈◊〉 of it in the day of 〈◊〉 what means this Israel hath sinned vers 11. as who should say the hand is in a wrong box thou missest that which is of the most weight Moses his hasty expression in siniting the rock or Lots wife looking back a man would have thought not to be evils of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a nature and so heavily to be punished It fares with the contrite and broken-hearted sinner as it did with the woman sick of the bloody issue who strove to touch our Savior that she might be healed our Savior openly discovers her evil carriage who was it that touched me when she saw that she could not be kept secret she came trembling and acknowledged what she had done So when the soul under the horror of Gods revenging hand 〈◊〉 that indeed he cannot be kept secret but now God sees his evils and wil pursue them he fals down flat before the Lord and concludes the absolute necessity of it that God should punish every evil and therefore it 's absolutly necessary he should part with it this the wise man intimates Ecles 11. last rejoyce O young man in thy youth and let thy heart chear thee in the wayes of thy youth but know thou for all these things thou shalt come to judgment q. d. diddst thou indeed know that thou wouldest not thou durst not go on in the sins of youth Now the sinner I say now in this state and under this stroke 〈◊〉 an inability in himself nay utter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the weight of the 〈◊〉 sin which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 soul by the Almighty and therfore is now put 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 conditions and 〈◊〉 that his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him before withal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But 〈◊〉 definitively no more ado no further talk I see I cannot beare the sting of the least sin and therefore I must not keep it Heretofore he could make a shift to shake off the fear of the threatnings of the word which were denounced to stop the mouth of his Conscience which whispered bitter things in his bosom and to
the lusts of men and the will of the Gentiles yea fulfil the desires of the flesh and walk after the Prince of the Air. Eph. 2. 2. As a man cannot turn himself so this first Aversion from sin and the Creature is not wrought by any gracious habit that is put into the soul by the Lord i. e. That is not the way and means by which this first Aversion and turning from sin is wrought And the Reasons are First All gracious qualities and habits as all other accidents and attendants upon things never have any being but in a subject and therefore must first be there before they can put forth any operation Wisdom must first be in the mind before a man can act wisely Skil must be in the Head and Understanding of the Artificer before he can work build and plant skilfully Holiness Righteousness Patience in our Hearts before we can work holily patiently and that 's the Reason though we have the same faculties of mind and wil before our Conversion as we have after yet we neither do nor can put forth any gracious action before but after Grace Hence it follows That if the first Aversion from sin were wrought by a habit of Grace we should first have this i. e. The Habit of Grace should be in the soul before it should work this Aversion of the soul from sin but that implies a contradiction that a man should have Grace and yet be wholly averted from God for the least moment Secondly If the soul be uncapable in that condition and under that consideration to receive the Habit of Grace then there cannot be a gracious habit in the soul to work any thing but while the soul is wholly possessed and acted by sin it is not capable of a gracious habit no more than it 's possible to be in light and darkness together The wisdom of the Flesh is enmity against God it is not subject nay it cannot be subject to the Law if not subject then it cannot receive the gracious impressions of it Rom. 8. 7. and John 14. 17. it 's said of the Comforter that the world cannot receive him the issue is if a gracious Habit neither is nor can be there in the soul wholly possessed and averted from God by sin then this Aversion from sin cannot be wrought by it Though the Lord doth not put a gracious habit INTO the Soul by which this may be done yet the Spirit of Contrition puts forth an irresistible power by which it works UPON the Soul thus turned from God to sin to return it from sin to God For the Spirit in the Work of Application sustains a double Office and so a double Respect As a Spirit Assisting As a Spirit Inhabiting And yet the same Spirit of Regeneration in such as shall be saved taking Regeneration in the breadth thereof including the whol Work though the operation be double or divers according to the diversity of the subject as the soul of a sinner upon which the work of Application must be made according to the degrees thereof The Spirit works upon the Soul in Preparation to make way for gracious habits but never inhabits the heart makes the soul a Temple without some gracious qualisication 1 Cor. 6. 18 19. Ye are the Temples of the holy Ghost Christ dwels in our hearts by Faith Eph. 3. 17. there is the Spirit inhabiting yet it is said The world cannot receive the Spirit because they do not see him nor know him but you know him for he dwels in you and abides with you John 14. 17. yet those who are nothing for the while but the world the Spirit doth work upon such to cal them out of the world by turning of them from darkness to light The Lord Christ as the Second Adam and the Head of those whom he shal bring back and beget unto God the Father in the vertue of his death he brings a Release from under the hand of Divine Justice to reverse that Commission which sin and Satan had to fasten the soul to the Creature and so to sin and by sin and the Creature to rule in it For when Adam jarred and justled against the Law the Law was strong and hard i. e. just the Law and the Lord in Justice pushed Adam away from him sin takes occasion to fall in and by that advantage when Divine Justice by reason of his provocation pushed him away it carries him to the Creature and the Devil by sin and the Creature challengeth Soveraignty over him The Lord Jesus by and in the vertue of his death suffering and satisfying Divine Justice delivers both himself and his from the Authority of sin God raised him from the Grave because it was impossible be should be held by the sorrows and power of the grave and therefore not by the power of sin and darkness Acts 2. 24. for they had no power but by vertue of Divine Justice which being now appeased their Commission is reversed and repealed By Death Christ destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil Heb. 2. 14. So our Savior gives the ground of comfort and release to his I was dead and 〈◊〉 alive and behold I have the keyes of Hell and Death Rev. 1. 18. The Lord saies to sin hands off that soul is mine and doth therefore by the power of his Spirit not only stop the work-of sin but over-bears and abolisheth and takes off the right of Rule which Satan by sin challenged he brings the soul off from the Soveraignty of sin into another Jurisdiction The Lord having forced the sinner whereof I formerly disputed to feel sin as it is sin to be cross to the end of his being though not to the corruption of the soul yet to the Nature of the soul and therefore as it 's possible that the soul may be forced to 〈◊〉 so now upon feeling the soul finds it to be a most bitter thing and that unto the being of the soul as an immortal Creature made next for God as its last end And therefore Observe though it want Spiritual and Supernatural ability to enter into combate or vanquish a corruption by any Grace received yet being sensible by the Spirit of Contrition of the evil of it and so loosened from it it becomes subject stands readily prepared to 〈◊〉 any impression of the power of the Spirit whereby the exercise and power of sin may be stopped the challenge of any right of Rule and Soveraignty may be shaken off and for ever destroyed and the soul be carried to God in Christ to be owned ruled and blessed for ever So that when Christ as the Second Adam and Head of the Covenant comes to take a soul and to 〈◊〉 him from sin to God the Father look by what irresistable power he acts in opposition and 〈◊〉 against it as cross to his Glory the soul wanting power of its own it takes advantage to fall in
and yield to that power and is acted and moved by the like opposition and detestation against its sin according as the impression of the Spirit is left upon him And hence it comes the sinner is transported with that holy 〈◊〉 and indignation at such times 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ward he doth never find 〈◊〉 may be can never again attain unto As the Gibeonites when all the Princes of the Cities and Provinces were gathered together against them they had not power in themselves to oppose yet withdraw themselves they would from under their Rule and Confederacy and yielded themselves to the Authority and Soveraignty of Joshua though it were to hew wood and draw water or as the Boat that is run a ground and hath neither tackling nor 〈◊〉 yet by a mighty wind and a Spring Tide he is carried with more speed to the Haven than by all 〈◊〉 and helps he could ever after attain So the Soul being acted wholly by that power and impression of the 〈◊〉 having yet no principle of its own it 's carried with a detestation against sin here Christ applies this power only afterward in Sanctification we apply the power of Christs death to this end with him This is the first work of God in the extent of it and the way he takes to turn the soul from sin and the Creature Fear stops him sorrow tires him hatred turns him Fear troubles his sin sorrow loosens it hatred abandons it Fear finds the knot Griefunties it Hatred dissolves and breaks it off Fear questions the Lawfulness of the match between sin and the soul Sorrow gives in proof and evidence out of sence of the evil of it Hatred disanuls the League and fues out an everlasting Divorce betwixt sin and the soul. This Hatred is the hatred of Preparation not of Sanctification the difference between which may be discerned by the former Discourse That in Sanctification is from the Spirit inhabiting this from the Spirit Assisting That of Sanctification is by a gracious habit infused into the Soul this is without a habit the Spirit only by 〈◊〉 irresistible motion working upon the soul. In that there is an inward Principle received whereby we meet with Christ and concur with him to the work here we have no habit and therefore no inward principle to meet with Christ he wholly and only 〈◊〉 upon us and we act as acted by him Take the wheels of a Watch out of place if you wil bring them into the right room and place they wil then move because there is a principle of motion put into it So of a Member out of Joynt if you wil by strong hand pul and move it unto the place being wholly moved it wil move into his order and rank it doth not concur or meet with your hand for the joynting of it self but stirs wholly and only as stirred but being settled and confirmed in the place it wil move to your hand and concur with your hand to help it self So here That hatred in Sanctification we receive from our union with Christ this the Spirit works upon us to make way to bring us to Union with the Lord Jesus we must turn from our sins before we come to God there must be an aversion from sin before there can be a conversion unto God we cannot be under two Covenants in the first Adam and the second grow upon two stocks together It 's said that Adam begot a son in his own Image that a Son was generated by the first Adam the act of Generation was no part of the Image but the Image is the corruption of Nature that came by Generation So that we are united that 's none 〈◊〉 Christs Image but the Image of Christ which is 〈◊〉 communion with him in his Graces this Image and these graces issue from our union The sum in short then is this There must be an aversion from sin before conversion unto God there is nothing in the soul that can work this but Christ must do it When Christ works this it is not by any habit of Grace infused into the soul but by the motion and work of the Spirit upon the Soul In this work Christ as the Head of the Covenant by 〈◊〉 of his death whereby he satisfied the Law brings a release from the hand of Divine Justice to reverse and repeal that Commission by which sin had Authority over the soul and Satan by sin 〈◊〉 that the act of sin is stopped and the right of the Rule of sin is wholly 〈◊〉 and made voyd the contrite sinner feeling the evil of sin and yet no power of himself to oppose and subdu look in what opposition and detestation the 〈◊〉 power of the spirit goes out against sin as acted by the impression of that power it acts by opposition and detestation against its sin and is turned from it 2. How this hatred discovers it self and how it may be discerned This hatred is attended with a continual fear of the presence and the deadly infection of sin and so with a constant watch against it or a watchful fear is a never fayling work whereby this hatred 〈◊〉 it felf in the carriage and daily conversation of a 〈◊〉 sinner the venom of sin which formerly he hath felt the plague and vengeance which those his distempers hath brought upon him leaves so fresh and yet so 〈◊〉 a remembrance of them upon his soul that the very thoughts of them afright him but any temptation or provocation that may draw him to the 〈◊〉 of the like is so loathsom that the least appearance that looks that way he sees presently and shakes at it 〈◊〉 it as the 〈◊〉 of hell as that which wil hazard the happiness of the soul and 〈◊〉 as present 〈◊〉 to him As it is in the work of nature in the body of a man he that hath surfeted upon some sweet meat or some pleasing potion that hath been prepared in a guilded cup happily suited with his palate for the present but in issue had in reason hazarded his life in his own sence and each mans apprehension but that the Lord was merciful you need not 〈◊〉 him with arguments the loathing of 〈◊〉 stomach and the very hatred and Antipathie that nature hath against that which procured the hazard wil make him watchful and shy how he is deceived in that kind any 〈◊〉 the very sight of the gally-pot the sent or smel of the potion yea the least suspicion that such a receit is coming towards him 〈◊〉 him to fear and fly his stomach begins to turn riseth from the 〈◊〉 removes out of the room 〈◊〉 frame of nature begins to fail and shake with the remembrance of the 〈◊〉 and with the fear of the like danger It behoves me to look what I take it had like to have cost my life therefore I wil come there no more So it is with a 〈◊〉 sinner that hath felt the poyson of those pleasing distempers upon which
vertue of his death puts an end to the Commission of sin 384 3 How far the soul is active in Contrition 385 1 There is no power in man to remove the resistance of his heart against God and Grace 385 2 The Lord must put a Spiritual power into the will before it can put forth an act for removing this resistance 386 3 The influence of this spiritual power is not by a gracious habit but by the motion of the spirit upon the soul 388 4 In removing this resistance the will is a meer Patient 〈◊〉 5 This resistance being removed the will consents to a divorce between it self and sin 393 4 The behavior of the heart under this work 396 1 The contrite sinner hath the loath somness of fin ever in sight ibid. 2 He is tender and easie to be convinced 399 3 He loaths himself for his sins 404 4 He fears all fin and provocations thereunto 406 5 He delights most in those means that discover and remove corruptions 407 6 He is restlesly importunate in seeking Christ and mercy 411 Reasons four Because  1 Such a sorrow for sin is only true in Gods account 414 2 Without this the heart can never be separated from fin 415 3 By this the resistance of the heart against Christ is removed 416 4 Without this he cannot receive Christ. ibid. Uses four hence  1 Humiliation for the want of this saving sorrow ibid. Five sorts want it  1 The heedless Professor 417 2 The treacherous 〈◊〉 419 3 The self-conceited Pharisee 423 4 The complaining 〈◊〉 425 5 The discouraged Hypocrite 427 2 Terror to 〈◊〉 sinners As 428 1 Secure sinners that never were 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 and feel their sins 429 1 Such are out of the way of God 431 2 So continuing God hath appointed no good for them 432 3 Christ came not to save such 434 2 Relapsed sinners who have been awakened to see and feel their sins but have fallen back again and their hearts grown harder than before ibid. 1 It is suspicious the day of Grace is past with such a one 436 2 Their Judgment hastens 438 3 Comfort ibid. 1 To broken-hearted sinners themselves their sorrows are not to death but in the way to deliver from death and so to bring unto life 439 2 To their friends and well-wishers they are now and were never before in the way of mercy 444 4 Exhortation Labor for this saving sorrow of Contrition 447 1 Do not tug with the resistance of thy heart by thine own power 449 2 Do not fear the terror of the Truth so as to step aside from under it but think of the goodness of it 450 3 Possess thy soul with the ticklishness and danger of miscarrying in this work 451 DOCT. 11. They whose hearts are pierced by the VVord are carried with Love and respect to the Ministers of it 453 Reasons two Because  1 They know more now than they did before 454 2 〈◊〉 hath more Liberty now to express what they know 455 Uses two hence  1 Sound Contrition makes a strange and sudden 〈◊〉 557 2 Terror to such as after Conviction hate both the Word and Ministers of it 558 DOCT. 12. He that is pierced by the Word truly is busie to enquire and ready to submit to the mind of God 560 1 He is busie to enquire ibid Reasons two Because  1 He now finds the evil of sin 562 2 And the folly of his former conceits 563 Uses two hence  1 Terror to hard-hearted sinners who never enquire after the mind of God 564 2 Direction teaching the way to make men serious in their enquiries after Christ viz. Maintain the work of Contrition 570 2 He is ready to submit to the Ministers making known the mind of God ibid. Reasons three Because  1 The pride of their carnal Reason is conquered 572 2 The stubbornness of their wills is tamed 573 3 They have found the truth and terror of the Word ibid. Uses two hence  1 See the Reason of that unreadiness and unwillingness of man to submit to the evidence of the Word they want broken-heartedness ibid. 2 Tryal discovering such as were never broken-hearted at all 574 1 Open Rebels ibid. 2 Secret Traytors 575 DOCT. 13. Sinners in distress of Conscience are ignorant what they should do 576 Reasons two taken from  1 The Secrecy of the waies of God 577 2 The blindness of the distraction of their minds 579 Uses two hence  1 Instruction Men in distress of Conscience are apt to be mis-led 580 2 Advice to mourners in Sion Be careful to whose Counsel you commit your selves 582 DOCT. 14. A Contrite sinner sees a necessity of coming out of his sinful Condition 583 1 He propounds no terms of tolleration 584 2 He maintains no reservation ibid. 3 He admits no case of exception 385 Reasons three Because  1 He hath felt the severity of Gods Justice against every sin ibid. 2 He finds it impossible to bear the weight of the least sin 587 3 He perceives the combination of all Lusts. So that any one sin 589 1 Keeps possession for Satan ibid. 2 Keeps off the power of Gods Ordinances 590 Uses three hence  1 Tryal whether we have found this absolute necessity of parting with all sin ibid. It discovers the falshood of  1 Neuters 593 2 Formal Professors 594 2 Instruction See the reason of mens un-even and unsteady walking viz. The want of 〈◊〉 593 3 Direction how to keep the heart opposite to every sin ibid. 1 Be convinced sin is the greatest evil ibid. 2 Confider not of any cavil to the contrary ibid. DOCT. 15. There is a secret Hope wherewith the Lord supports the hearts of contrite sinners 596 This Hope differs from that which a Beleever hath in two things  1 In the ground of it 598 2 In the uncertainty 600 Reasons two That so he may thereby  1 Secretly support the 〈◊〉 601 2 Make way for the work of the means ibid. Uses three hence  1 Instruction See the reason why Satan so much endeavors to dead the hopes of the Contrite by suggesting 602 1 He is not elected ibid. 2 The day of Grace is past 606 3 He hath sinned against the holy Ghost All which are answered ibid. 2 Observe how easie it is with the Lord to confound a sinner with his own imagination 607 3 Exhortation to nourish this Hope ibid. Therefore be perswaded  1 Of thine own ignorance and inability to relieve thy self 608 2 Of Gods All-sufficiency who can do beyond what thou canst conceive ibid. DOCT. 16. They who are truly pierced for their sins do prize and covet deliverance from their sins ibid. 1 In the want of this the soul is not quieted 610 2 He is content with this though he want other things 611 3 He is resolved to submit to any Counsel 613 4 His 〈◊〉 is upon it his prayers dayly about it 614