is the Imaginations of the minde the reasonings of the minde of which God willing I shall speak more after for as the minde is the chiefest faculty of the soul so the reasonings of the the minde are the cheifest acts of the minde Now the strong holds of Satan must be thrown downe and be brought into captivitie to Jesus Christ every thought of them If thine eye be single saith Christ the whole body is full of light but if thine be evil the whole body shall be full of darkness You know that if the eye have light in it the hands have light to work and the feet have light to go and a man knows where hâ—â—s what he is doing and whither he is going but if the eye be dark the whole body is darkness Just so if the eye of the minde have spiritual light in it then the whole man hath light then all the whole man hath light then the will hath light and the affections and the actions all have light but if the eye be dark if the minde be dark the whole body is full of darkness If the Coachman as a godly man saith be blinde then you know where the coach must be The minde is to the soul and body of a man as a Coachman is to the Coach and Horses he guides them and if he be blind or mad or drunk then all goes out of order Therefore you shall finde that when God in Scripture doth express the height of the misery of people he sets it out by some misery that is upon their mindes and when the Holy Ghost would set out the height of what God doth for Christians he sets it forth by something that he doth upon their minds As you have it in Rom. 11. 7. What then Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for but the election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded To be blinde or to be without judgement in the Scriptures language is to be a Reprobate Therefore when the Holy Ghost speaks of Reprobates he takes a word that is the same in the Original and Reprobate is the worst word that is in the Scripture for it is far worse to say a man is a Reprobate then to say he is a wicked man or a cursed man for he that is in a cursed condition for the present may be in a blessed but saith he The election hath obtained it and the rest were blinded So on the other side when God will shew the chief happiness of a man he sets it forth by some good he doth to the minde As in Heb. 8. I will put my law in their hearts and write it in their mindes And if it be said What shall we do with our wills and affections and actions O saith God if I be pleased to put my law throughly in their mindes their affections and actions cannot go amiss and so poor Paul when he was strugling with corruptions Rom. 7. he ends all wâ—â—h â—his I thank God through Jesus Christ that though I serve the law of sin in my members yet my minde is whole and entire for all this So that is the chiefest happiness of a Christian to have his minde sanctified and of all miseries this is the worst to have a carnal unsanctified minde Quest But it may be you will say What is the misery of a fleshly minde Answ Give me leave in a few short words to set it out unto you I will tell you what the Scripture saith of a carnal minde and I desire you to consider of it and O that God would help us to come out of our formality that we may think of these things and consider Doth not the Minister speak of me and am not I the man Now there are these expressions of a carnall minde First the Scripture saith the minde is blinde Secondly that it is vain Thirdly that it is rotten Fourthly that it is polluted Fifthly that it is reprobate Sixthly that it is proud Let me open these a little First it is blinde that is it is darkness that is the word in Eph. 5. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness you were not onely dark but darkness it self There is not the least spark of spiritual light in thee if thou be yet in the flesh if thy minde be fleshly Secondly it is vain What is that The Gentiles that walked in the vanity of their mindes they became vain in their imaginations What is a vain minde Vain signifies empty in Scripture as Solomon saith I saw all things under the Sun that they were vain that is they are empty they have no good in them So if thou be a carnal man thy minde is vain that is it is empty of all good there are none of those sweet Meditations and Contemplations and Considerations of spiritual things it is quite empty Christ saith Thou shalt not call thy brother Racha that is empty but thou mayest say so of thy minde thou mayest say I have an empty minde a minde that is Racha that is empty Therefore saith Solomon The words of the wise are as choice silver but the heart of the wicked is little worth as one godly man faith his very heart is not worth a half-peny so I may say of all thy thoughts that are yet in the flesh all thy thoughts through the year are not worth one farthing Thirdly they are rotten or corrupt Eph. 4. What is the meaning of that I shall it may be speak more of it by and by but for the present it is rotten that is it is not onely empty of good but full of putrifaction it is full of superstitious thoughts full of evil imaginations that are abominable to God and that not thy minde and make it worse and worse and make it stink before the Lord. The plowing of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord the nearer you come to his heart the more abominable 4. It is polluted thy minde being carnal every lawful thing every indifferent thing makes thy minde fouler and fouler 5. And take heed take heed poor soul after all this that thy minde prove not to be a reprobate minde you shall have the word in Rom 1. 28. you may finde in that Chapter that the people had a little natural knowledge of God but they did not know him as God but became vain in their imagination they did not delight to keep the knowledge of God they were sorry that they knew so much of God because they could not follow their lusts so freely Well what saith the Apostle As they did not like to retain God in their knowledge God gave them â—ver to a reprobate minde c. a minde void of judgement as it is in your Margin because they had a little knowledge and regarded it not God gave them up to a reprobate minde a minde void of judgement that is such a minde as never should have the knowledge of God any more you shall know no more you are troubled that you
you have it 2 Cor. 5. I judge no man according to the flesh If Christ Jesus were here again I would not look on him according to the flesh Now when he saith They minde the things of the flesh this is the meaning of it that is they judge of things in an earthly Fleshly way they judge of the worth of things by the fleshliness not by the spiritualness of them A godly man doth not so all that he accounts of in the world are the things of God and of the Spirit were it not for that this world would be a Hell to him and he judgeth of every man as he hath the Spirit of God he accounts of him as without that not worth any thing a carnal man judgeth of things carnally as they are fleshly and carnal and as old Adam is set up so he judgeth by carnal arguments of spiritual things Thus I have as briefly as I could opened the meaning of it I will onely at this time name one Use and leave the rest till God give another opportunity You have heard what it is to be after the flesh and what the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit are and what it is to minde the things of the flesh and the things of the Spirit for we may judge of the one by the other Vse 1. Now the Lesson or the Use as we call it is this Hence we may learn and see what the reason is why divers people notwithstanding all the means used even among us in this place and in other places why they cannot come to understand any thing of Heavenly things of spiritual things What is the reason Because they minde them not and why do they not minde them Because they are fleshly I have wondred oft times and I do believe in my Conscience that had I been here but a Twelve-moneth and had taken any Natural thing under Heaven had I read a Lecture of Philosophy or of Logick or any thing in your Trades or State-business there are none either great or small but could have given some account what the man had said and yet there are some among you that though we have been speaking to you as the Lord hath enabled us almost these two years yet you are as ignorant and as unknowing in any thing that hath been said as if you had been asleep or had been in your graves all this while It is a wonderful thing that no word should stick nothing in the world of all that hath been said If we should ask some among us do you remember any one passage or any one thing that the Preacher hath spoken of these two yeares they remember not one word What is the reason You did not mind it that is the meaning of that word Seeing they see not and hearing they heare not that was the plague upon that people in Isaiah When a mans minde is taken up with other things a man may ride by the door and one may say did you see such a man he came by your eye I saw him not saith he seeing he saw not his eye was on him but his mind was not he was thinking seriously somthing else so hearing they heare not Many times a man heares a sound and is neare enough yet hearing he heares not so it is with many among us the Lord pitty them my heart is ready to burst every day more and more to consider and think of it hearing they hear not all the year long there is not one notion or Exhortation from the Word that sticks on their souls the reason is they minde not they minde the things of the flesh they are feeding some lust they are providing for some fancy or when they are best they are contemplating to set up a way of Justification by works and all because they minde not these things Therefore saith the Lord Isa 1. Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth I may well say so of divers among us Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters crib but Israel doth not know my people doth not consider Hear O Heavens and give ear O Earth As if he had said I expect that Heaven should hear and that Earth should hear as soon as this people and yet there is nothing further from hearing then Heaven and nothing duller then the Earth and yet the Prophet would Preach to Heaven and Earth before he would to this dull people and saith he The Ox and the Ass know their owners but my people have not known me Why They do not consider they do not minde So you do not minde what we spake before that you that are Drunkards and Whoremongers and Swearers that waste your Estates and Souls and Bodies in the service of the Devil that you are under the Curse of God and must perish that there is nothing that you do that is pleasing to God till you be born again did you ever minde these things and lay them to heart Did you ever say Yonder man speaks really and tells us the truth But you go home when Sermon is done and say There was a great Company a Throng and he Preached a little too long and we must go to him again after dinner and thus you minde not the Lord Jesus pity you that is the reason that you are ignorant and will be world without end because you minde not spiritual things And this is the reason also why you have carnal people that care noâ— for the Ordinances of God they care not to use those means of grace that the poor Saints do why they minde not spiritual things they are like Gallio he cared not for those things he was busie about natural things It was likely he was a wise judicious man but he cared not for these things So to hear Sermons or Discourses or Conference of thy Neighbours or at thy Table of spiritual things thou art like Gallio thou carest not for them and therefore thou respectest them not Therefore desire the Lord to put his law in thy mind O the maine misery of a man is in his minde the man is nothing but his mind in a manner the maine happiness of a man is in his minde if the law of God be there Therefore before ever thou canst have thy heart good or thy wishes or Prayers good thou must get a good mind desire God to put his law in thy minde for there is the first and main work So also for the poore Saint this is the reason why the people of God are so weaned from the world those that are spirituall Christians you can easily cozen and cheat them and take away all from them and they bear it very well Why so they mind not earthly things fleshly things Let the Devill come with all the policie and power of Hell to cheat them in
Mount Sion OR The Priviledge and Practice OF THE SAINTS Opened and Applied By that faithful Dispenser of the Mysteries of Christ WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at Alhaâ—â—ws the Great in London Heb. 12. 22. But ye are come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God c. Gal. 4. 26. But Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of us all CAMBRIDGE Printed by M. J. 1673. To the Reader THese Sermons being exactly penned from the Authors own mouth are now brought to publick view though when he preached them had not the least thought to suffer them to be Printed but since they were thus prepared to come abroad into the world the pious Author finding so much of the sweetness of Christ in viewing of them could not turn his back upon them As for this godly Author his worth and excellency is so eminently known it would be vanity in me to speak any thing in relation to his praise let this and other of his own works praise him Yet thus much I shall say That I do verily believe that he preached these choyce Lectures from the bosome of Jesus Christ that these things were the very experiments of his own soul and the lively actings of the Spirit of God within him What he hath seen and heard he hath declared that we might have fellowship with him whose fellowship is with the Eather and the Son 1 Joh. 1. 3. and therein shall our joy be full These Sermons are not clothed with humane Art quaint expressions eloquent Speculations but choose rather to come forth in the nakedness of truth not with the enticing words of mans wisdome but in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power Here is nothing to fill thy head with barren notions fruitless opinions or meer speculations but here is that to fill thy heart with the glory of God the life of Christ and light of his Spirit I shall in a few words hint out what thou shalt finde in these ensuing Discourses 1. Mans fleshly righteousness is the great Idol of the world every one is ready to fall down unto it and call it blessed This is Antichrist coming forth in the habit of Christ being arrayed and decked with gold precious stones and pearls whereby the Nations are deceived but when we know the righteousness of the Lord we shall cast away our own righteousness and as the Prophet speaks say unto iâ— Get ye hence Isa 30. 22. 2. Formality is in no less esteem among us then the former What is the Religion of most people but a meer form without any life or power at all Astronomers tell us that the upper Planets have their Stations and Retrogradations as well as their direct Motions So 't is with most in their Religion sometimes they move forwards sometimes backward sometimes stand at a stay and thus they tread alwayes in one circle or round turning like a door upon the hinges but never from off the place where they were As for most mens hearing praying fasting what is it but as a task performed so coldly that there is no principle of divine life in it and thus they go on but are never at their journeys end Men commonly use what they should enjoy and enjoy that they should use they will use the Lord whom they should enjoy and they will enjoy their duties and performances that they should onely use thus they starve their souls by formality in Religion 3. The third thing we may take notice of is the righteousness of Christ commended to us before the righteousness of Adam Most of the worlds righteousness proceeds from the principles of the old Adam which is corrupt and fleshly what is this but to be born of Ishmael the son of the bond-woman to come unto Mount Sinai in Arabia viz. the Covenant of Works but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the Mother of all the first-born of God viz. the Covenant of Grace Vain man thinks to climb to heaven by his own righteousness when alas it is but of the first Adam natural weak and fleshly All the wisdome knowledge in 〈…〉 tion of man as Tongues Arts and Sciences as Philosophy Logick Rhetorick c. all these are but to repair those reliques of the first Adams corrupted principles of reason and understanding therefore if we go to patch up a righteousness of these we do but build what the Lord will have destroyed But that which is able to restore us is an establishment of the righteousness of Christ upon our hearts by the participation of the divine Nature Christ performs all righteousness for his Saints and then works all righteousness in them The divine Will of God is righteousness now Christ is that divine Will brought forth in a Saint working after the Lords own pleasure The Civil Law doth account Elephants and Camels to have the nature of wilde Beasts though they do the work of tame beasts So Adams righteousness commends not to God we are onely accepted in the beloved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ingratiated through that beloved The divine treasures of righteousness are first in Christ and by our union with him we come to enjoy them by way of participation 4. Substantial and reall Holiness set out to be farre more excellent then all empty Forms or meer Professions Holiness is God stamped and printed upon the soul 't is Christ formed in the heart 't is the very image frame and disposition of the holy Spirit within us The Philosopher could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That God was but an empty name without vertue so are all our professions of Christ without holiness that being the very marrow and quintessence of all Religion Holiness is something of God in us it proceeds from him it lives in him God can no more be separated from it then the beams from the Sun Holiness is happiness and the more of it we have the more we have of the life and image of God upon us Holiness is nothing but our conformity to God and our being like him to be as he is Holiness is the new frame the new creation the wormanship of the Lord in our hearts it is the Lord building and setting up his own Temple Tabernacle and new Jerusalem within us filling of us with his own glory writing his name in our foreheads by imprinting his own divine image upon us Oh what happiness what sweet delight and harmony of heart what Soul-musick and spiritual joy is there in having our soul wrapt up in the divine life light and beauty of the Lords holiness 5. Thou hast a discovery of the inability of mans carnal principles or reason to judge of spiritual things or the things of God every truth is discovered by principles of light suitable to it self Hence it is that the Apostle tells us of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an animate sensuall or naturall man and of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a spiritual man one enlightned by the Spirit of
I will avoid that which is evil do that which is good And mark it this is more natural to man then sin it is more natural to man to be righteous then to be sinfull because he was righteous before he was sinful The liquor that is put first into a vessel the vessel keeps the taste of that longer then of any that is put into it afterwards Now God at first made man righteous and man is more apt to fall to that kinde of righteousness then to any sin And this is the great misery of people every one in some fashion or other this is his business he goes about to fulfill the law of God in his own person and there you shall have one praying and another crying and another keeping so many fasts and dayes of humiliation upon humiliation and the end of all is if men had eyes to see it his endeavour is to fulfill the law of God he endeavours to scrape and to get up a righteousness to pay the law of God You cannot conceive and comprehend how subject you and I are to this misery and how this is in your very bones as it were and I fear truly it is the greatest part of your Religion and the most of your Profession is nothing but to endeavour to get a righteousness to fulfill the law of God though some do it in a closer finer way then others Now I beseech you consider this word lay down this throughly in your hearts that it is a vain thing so to do and who would go about a vain thing a thing that he shall never bring to perfection For it is not every paltry righteousness that can fulfill the law of God It is not ten thousand fastings that can fulfill the law of God it is not praying in your family three times a day that can fulfill the law I speak not against these things in their right way and course but all will not do in this respect for if you fail but once if you miss but one farthing you are gone if you have but one bad thought in all your life you are lost Therefore I would have you despair of getting by your own doing and suffering any righteousness to fulfill the law of God never go about it No wise man will go and build a Castle in the Aire It is reason and argument enough in any naturall business to make a man desist to tell him it is a vain thing it is a work that will never come to perfection therefore desist and give over and think of some other course Why should we not prevail in spiritual things as well as in natural Let every man lay down this for a certain truth for a certain conclusion in his Soul That I were as good be a sinner as a righteous man in my own person in respect of fulfilling the law I am sure I shall never do it but as a Snow-ball the more it is rolled the bigger it grows so the more you go on and endeavour to get a righteousness to fulfill the law the farther off you will be for as I said if you fail but once you are guilty of all And as you cannot reach it by doing so not by suffering for what men have mist in doing they shall be suffering to all eternity in Hell but the law is so holy and God is so glorious whose law you have broken that when you have suffered millions yet the debt will be still unpaid Therefore who would be so mad as Paul calls the Galatians mad Galatians Who hath bewitched you it is a kinde of madness for any man to attempt in his own person by doing or suffering to fulfill the righteousness of the law or to justifie and save his Soul You will say We grant it is true and therefore the Papists are much to blame that labour to be justified by their works They are so and so are many others much to blame besides them and blessed is that man or woman among you whosoever it be that doth not in some measure in his own person endeavour to make up his own righteousness It is a thing that sticks nearer to you then you are aware of though it may be at sometimes you see Christ and justification by him clearly yet at other times you know how many pangs and how many secret glances we have at our justification by our own works take notice of the vanity of this That is one word Vse 2. Me-thinks this should move you above all things in the world if it were considered and oh that the Lord would be pleased yet to open your eyes while it is called to day I say this should be one of the greatest motives in the world to come to Jesus Christ to get into Christ to receive Jesus Christ and in him as I shall shew after you shall have a righteousness that hath fulfilled the law Let every man say I see here is law that God hath laid upon me I am subject to it and this law must be fulfilled there is no help for it every man is bound to it he must have a righteousness to satisfie the law Heaven and earth shall pass away rather then that shall not be Now there are but three wayes to fulfill it Either in mine own person here or to suffer for ever in Hell or else to believe in and receive another that may do it for me Now we neither our by doing or suffering can get such a righteousness that is clear therefore there is but one way that is in Jesus Christ there is a perfect righteousness in him he hath fulfilled the law get into him and be one with him and then we shall be able to say perfectly with Paul That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us that believe and are in Jesus Christ There is but that one way now when there is but one way me-thinks there needs no deliberation or consultation In worldly things when there are divers wayes and courses that a man may take he will consult with his friends which to take this or that or the other but when there is but one way there needs no consultation So if there were two or three or many wayes to Heaven we might consult which way to take if there were as many wayes as you imagine and make in your own heads if Antinomianism were the onely way or Presbyterians or Independents were the onely way men might demurre but in Gods language there is but one way and that is the Way the Truth and the Life Jesus Christ is the way go out of that and you wander for ever he is the onely sacrifice miss that and there is no more sacrifice for sin There is but this one thing necessary there is no other way in the world but Jesus Christ there is no other name under heaven by which you can be saved Therefore we should do in our condition just as a man that were fallen into a
of God he faith not by the mercy of God though that be true there is infinite mercy but saith he that God might declare his righteousness in Christ to save us It is a merciful thing for God to give us Christ and to give us hearts to know that Christ and to believe in that Christ it is infinite mercy but now that we are in Christ and united in him as there was mercy so it is righteous and just with God to save us because we are righteous persons Mistake me not I say every poor Saint through Christ is a righteous person a just man I say in and through Christ he hath taken away all our sins and forgiven all our iniquities Coloss 2. So that when God saves believers he doth not onely save them out of mercy but out of righteousness he can do no otherwise therefore it is three times over his righteousness his righteousness his righteousness Rom. 3. And that is a blessed word in Heb. 12. Ye are come to the spirits of just men made perfect I do not conceive that it is spoken of the spirits of men in heaven as many do and no wonder they mistake for I did so for many years That place it looks so like heaven that I took it for heaven it self Ye are come unto mount Sion to the general assembly and Church of the first-born and to the spirits of just men made perfect A man would think it were heaven it self it is called heaven but it is nothing in the world but the glorious estate of the Saints in Jesus Christ under the New-Testament as you may see afterwards Therefore as Christ saith let this word sink into your hearts that if thou be a right believer thou art perfectly just and righteous through Jesus Christ as if thou hadst never sinned against the law of God not by thy own righteousness but by the righteousness of Jesus Christ For what can be said more faith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled He doth not say we have a piece of it but it is fulfilled that is to an Iota or tittle the law cannot say Black is thine eye because Christ hath paid and done all that it can demand Now to give you a word or two of the grounds or Reasons to help you to believe this truth to shew you how it comes about It comes about three wayes I mean it will be clear to you three wayes if you consider three things Reas 1. First You must consider that Jesus Christ which is our Surety he was sent of the Father out of his love as a publick person to fulfil the law of God by doing and suffering as a publick person There is much comfort in that Beloved you can never throughly understand your justification unless you study the first Adam what kinde of person Adam was as you may see in Rom. 5. Now the Lord Jesus he came a publick person and he was delivered for our offences as it is said Rom. 4. 25. he did die for our sins That 's one thing Reas 2. Now the second thing that demonstrates this to us is besides his dying as a publick person there is a union made between every poor believer and Christ as really as between Christ and his Father Indeed it is called in Scripture a Marriage because as in a Marriage all the wealth of the Husband is the Wives it becomes hers and she hath a right to it after Marriage so all that is in Christ becomes ours by this union But it is a more real union a closer union by far then that of Marriage it is compared to the union between the Members and the Head now by this union that you may reade of in Joh. 17. all that is ours becomes Christs and all that is Christs becomes ours There are two things Reas 3. Then thirdly we finde that God the Father to whom the debt was owing and whose law this was that we must satisfie he acknowledgeth satisfaction And what can we have more God the Father acknowledgeth that his Son hath satisfied the law and therefore we are freed Now he doth acknowledge it three wayes First You shall have it Mat. 17. compared with 2 Pet. 1. for Peter is much in it We follow not devised fables but we come to speak of the voice in the Mount This is my beloved Son As if he had said This is one main piece of the Gospel we heard a voice when we were with our Master in the Mount saying This is my beloved Son in whom my soul is well pleased That for his person Then a second thing that did shew that he was satisfied was by suffering Jesus Christ after he was arrested and in prison for our debt for Christ was in prison for our debt he was arrested and that according to law he was brought into prison and all our Suits were clapped on his back all our Executions and Outlaries were laid on his shoulders and then the Father let him out of prison being our Surety if he had not paid our debt he had not come out of prison but now the Father lets him out that is the Father suffered him to rise from the dead Therefore we find that our justification is laid more upon the resurrection of Jesus Christ then upon his death as we see in Rom. 4. 25. Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification that is he did die for our sins and was raised again for our justification And in Rom. 8. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him give us all things Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us that is his dying for us did satisfie the law but that did not justifie us untill we see that he was risen again and then we see that all the debt is paid because our Surety is gotten out of prison Therefore justification I mean the knowledge of it at least principally ariseth from Christs resurrection Now when I see Christ is risen and gone abroad he is gone out of the grave and gone to heaven I know that the law is fulfilled and the Father is satisfied and the Sergeant the Devil hath nothing to arrest me for all is satisfied all is clear Thirdly and lastly I know God the Father is satisfied for the law it is God the Fathers Writ that he had against us and now we see that all is paid not onely because our Surety is got out of prison for so a man may do that hath not paid a debt but because when he was out of prison he ascended to his Father and the Father made him sit at the right hand of God in the glory of Majesty on high and he hath given him power and authority to rule the world till the day of Judgement Now in
upon the second we have proved it and opened the Point and have made some use of it First that from hence we may learn where our justification lieth and whereon it is built not upon any thing in us or done by us but only upon the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ Secondly hence all that are Saints all that believe in Jesus Christ should labour to see the glorious condition they are in by Christ Thirdly we should learn being justified freely and fully by the grace of Jesus Christ to conform our selves in our hearts and lives to the Example of Jesus Christ and to his Rules in the Gospel Vse 4. I shall adde but one word more from this Lesson that is that seeing the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in them that believe you may hence see that none are further from Antinomianism then those that are true believers those that are godly Saints You have a great stir concerning Antinomians what they should be it is one that is against the law that is the signification of the Greek word Now the question is Who is most against the law of God I do not deny but there are some and they may be called Antinomians though we should not miscall people yet they deserve it But now a Saint that is in Christ he is not an Antinomian he is not against the law because he hath satisfied the law Every man must pay the law and they that would fulfill the law with their own righteousness they do the law wrong they that do most here and they that suffer most in Hell they can never satisfie the law But a Christian hath satisfied the law because he hath given it a perfect righteousness Now if a man should owe Ten thousand pounds and he had but Fifty shillings a year coming in and it may be one year he payes ten shillings another year he payes a Noble and another year three pence yet he payes as well as he can But now suppose there come a Surety and he payes the whole Ten thousand pound and he saith to the Creditor You shall be paid no more by three pences but you shall receive the whole sum what do you think is not that better So there are none that satisfie the law so roundly and fulfil it so perfectly as he that relinquisheth all that is in him and layes hold on Jesus Christ and in him payes God to a farthing Therefore when Paul is proving strongly that we are justified by Christ and not by the law saith he We take not away the law but we establish the law This is a better way of fulfilling the law then any other All the damned men in Hell and all the Pharisees on Earth cannot satisfie the law so well as one poor sinner that believes in Jesus Christ And so for matter of practice a man that believes in Jesus Christ he walks more strictly then any Pharisee can for he looks not only what is lawful but what is convenient he walks by a more sublime excellent rule A Pharisee looks only what is lawful and what is not lawful but a Christian he looks what is exact and expedient Take any man that knows what it is to be justified by Christ and that man goes a thousand-fold further then another for a man that would be saved by his own fulfilling of the law if he cannot come up to the law he will bring the law down to him As a man that hath a heavy burthen if it be too heavy for him he will cast off some of it so when a man goes about to keep the law and findes it too heavy for him he will throw away some and cut out a part and make a carnal gross law and endeavour to keep that Now a man that is justified by Christ he knows that the law must be satisfied and so he takes it in the purest spirituality and goes to Christ Jesus and he hath satisfied all So much briefly for the second Lesson Now I shall enter a little upon the third as far as the Lord shall give strength and time Those that believe and have this great Priviledge which is the foundation of all others to have the law perfectly fulfilled for them in Christ they are here described to be such as walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit So in the third place take this Doctrine or Lesson Doct. 3. That they and they onely that walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit are partakers of this Priviledge to have the benefit of the righteousness of Christ to fulfill the law of God for them I say they and they onely have it for it excludes all other The Scripture doth not onely set it down positively as it saith Go baptize all nations in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the holy Ghost therefore we may conclude thence that we may baptize those that are disciples but from that place to gather this Doctrine That they and they onely are to be baptized cannot be right but here I say it is they and they onely Why so because we see after those that walk according to the flesh shall die the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled for them for then they should never die nor be damned they that walk after the Spirit and they onely have this Priviledge Now the main business that I shall endeavour at this time will be onely to open to you these two words What iâ— is to walk And what is meant by flesh and what by Spirit For if we understand what it is to walk according to the flesh we shall easily understand what it is to walk according to the Spirit Concerning the former word to walk I shall say but little because you understand it To walk is a general word in this place it is of a great extent and comprehends a mans whole course and way and practice A man who goes or converseth whose course and way is according to the flesh whatsoever that flesh is as we shall see afterwards such a man walks Therefore it is oft set down in Scripture by several expressions They that are after the law and they of the concision c. Put what words you will so they be general enough they whose thoughts and words and courses are that way they are they that are said to walk There are three words in the Original for walking and of those three the word here is of the largest extent To walk according to the flesh what is the meaning of that I shall be a little larger in opening of this I will not trouble you with the various acceptations of the word flesh You know there is a literal sense of it and by a Synecdoche it is put for the whole person Soul and Body and there is a Metonymicall acceptatoin of flesh I will give them a heart of flesh it is called flesh for softness and there is a Metaphorical
can do a little from the Spirit of Jesus Christ and if God will frame my heart from the Lord Christ and his Spirit to speak a few words to my Father this is all I care for And so for other things Therefore I beseech you let this sink into you That makes you proud that you cannot rule your hearts but you are lifted up with pride when you have done duties it is because every fine thing you do from old Adam makes you proud you take all in the bulk and consider not whence you do things you consider not how much of the old Adam or of the new there is in your Prayers and duties Therefore let this be an universal eternal rule to know the worth of all your services and actions by whatsoever is of the flesh is flesh and whatsoever of my Preaching and of your praying and lending and giving and of your publick actions if it be not from a Spiritual Principle from Jesus Christ according to the Gospel planted in you it is of old Adam and it is condemned labour to leave that Vse 4. I shall conclude with one word more and that is this That this being so that this is to walk according to the Spirit Then we should long very much for the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises that God hath made unto us concerning the latter times There is no Saint almost now that I know but expects glorious times onely one Saint thinks that the glory of the Saints shall be in this thing and another in that thing but every Saint expects continually the fulfilling of those Prophesies and Promises set down in the latter end of the Revelations and they are glorious ones whatsoever the meaning of them is and I think the chief thing there promised which shall be the height of our happiness that the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven mistake me not though it be a consequent yet it is not chiefly and properly such a way of Government this or that or the other way though it be true that Government will follow upon it yet if the meaning of it were onely to Reform our Churches though that were a blessing or that Christ should come and reign here temporally and give us Inheritances and Riches and the like truly a Saint would not long much for these things But the New Jerusalem shall come down from heaven and abundance of blessings that shall go along with it What is that The meaning of it is we shall have the light of the Gospel clearly revealed unto us and we shall have Gospel-principles fully put into our souls which by Antichrist by Babylon we have been sednced of these thirteen or fourteen hundred years For that was the mischief of Antichrist he hath kept us all his reign under the Old Testament with Altars and Sacrifices and Priests and I know not what every thing just as they used under Moses and we are not wholly gone out of Antichrist yet But the Lord will send a light into our hearts to know the truth in the power and to square our hearts to it For that is New Jerusalem if you compare it with Heb. 12. where the holy Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is clearly opposite to Mount Sinai So compare it with Gal. 4. he tells us that Jerusalem which is above is the mother of us all that is the Covenant of grace and the principles thereof in the souls of men Therefore I wish that the Lord would set your hearts and mine longing after that that we may have more of the spirit of the Gospel and of the Principles of the New Testament in us and then for matter of Government of Churches those things would follow For to set up Government and Discipline before this comes into the soule truely it is to build Castles in the ayre for let a man take us and frame us in the Independent or Presbyterian way in what way he will unlesse the Principles of Jesus Christ in the Gospel be spiritually planted it will be a fleshly Independent and a fleshly Presbyterian service Therefore labour chiefly for that and pray the Lord to fulfil that and then your Government whatsoever it shall be God will reveale it more fully People are now generally going to build and order Churches and I know not what unlesse the spirit of the New Testament govern in the New Testament it is a vain thing for if we have our former fleshly hearts that walke according to the law and according to the flesh all the Government in the World will never doe us good because God hath cursed flesh and it will never be regulated and brought to good And this also should move us exceedingly to long for the comming of Jesus Christ to glory for his comming to us or our comming to him and the reason of that you shall have in 1 Cor. 15. 49. a glorious word that hath dwelt much in my thoughts I told you the reason why every man must dye a naturall death because of that absolute grand curse that Adam did fall in as a publick person and we being from him we must dye Now here is the comfort of it a blessed word it is As we have born the image of the earthly so we shall bear also the image of the heavenly that is when the redemption of our bodies comes at the day of Christ then as we have borne the Image of the earthly so we shall bear the Image of the heavenly We have born hitherto and do beare the Image of naturall Adam we are all his Sons and his Daughters just like him in our wisdom and understandings and bodies and soules poore earthly creatures naturall frail creatures we are and by that curse that was layd upon him we must all dye and lay downe these earthly Tabernacles these earthly creatures must be dissolved As we have born the Image of the earthly not only as we have born the Image of old Adam sin and wickednesse and pride and frowardnesse so now we shall bear the Image of the new not only in respect of grace and holinesse and righteousnesse that if I be in him all those corruptions of nature shall out and I shall have a new nature That is true but that is not all but as I wholly beare the Image and shape of old Adam his body and soule and senses and all those must dye so when these bodies shall be raised we shall as absolutely and largely beare the Image of the new Adam the Lord Jesus in our body senses and all our whole man soule and body in respect of substance as well as quality we shall bear the Image of the second Adam as lively and in as large an extent as ever wee bore the Image of the earthly Adam Therefore that is a great comfort I will tell you why because it is not onely the sinfulnesse of a Christian that troubles him but his earthinesse so many distempers and troubles that it is a
knew the death of Christ but to know the power of that death keep close to the simplicity of the Gospel 4. Another thing is this you that have known a little of the Spirit of God and have inlarged hearts and enlightned eyes Let not God rest till thou find the comfort and power of what thou knowest O we know that the righteousness of the law by Christ is fulfilled in us and the like but we have not the full comfort of such a truth and many others We know Christ hath paid our debt and that we are one with him as he is one with the Father but we have not the power and the comfort of these things Beloved for thy comfort know that Paul in a sort was in thy condition Phil. 3. Not as though I had attained or apprehended but I would apprehend him of whom I am apprehended and I would know the vertue of his death and the power of his Resurrection Paul saw something that he did not fully apprehend but he would feele more of the power of the Gospel spirituall truths and if he saw that he wanted much more we Oh do not content your selves to have an old frozen knowledge of Gospell truthes whereby you are able to prove that men are legallists and that men are under Mount Sinai and yet have cold and frozen hearts cold truths without life therefore thinke of minding God of this 5. Then lastly labour to take heed that you be not by any means bewitched so as to fall back from that little light in the Gospell that you have received it is an easie thing so to doe I doe believe and it is my comfort and will be when I am farr from this place that the Lord hath enlightened divers of you to know the Gospel to know Jesus Christ a little clearer Now I know not what the Lord may doe for you but I say it is wonderous easie you may under one quarter of a years fleshly preaching lose that that you have been under two or three yeares Preaching a getting I have knowne after a quarter of a years building up of my soule in the knowledg of Christ and the setling of my faith and assurance I have heard one Sermon that hath routed and dasht all that work in my soule Therefore I beseech you beware faith is a tender thing especially the light we have that is but very weak and very tender therefore saith Paul Who hath bewitched you you foolish Galatians before whom Jesus Christ hath been lively painted as the word signifies Christ was drawn lively before the Galatians and yet they did fall If Paul that was an Apostle and had the spirit of God in such a measure laying open the spirit of Christ and yet his people did go back to Moses and to Sinai the Lord help and uphold us Therefore stand fast in your liberty in Jesus Christ This is all in short I have to say to you for that I hope you will lay up these words Vse 5. Now I have a few words of Advice and Counsel to those poor souls that do yet in a great measure walk according to the flesh in one fashion or other Their Religion is a fleshly Religion from Old Adam and according to the law in a great measure Now the Question is What shall they do that they may be spiritual Christians that they may walk according to the Spirit I will onely name a few things 1. The first is this I would desire you to endeavour to study much the difference between the two Testaments the New and the Old I mean not the two Books but the two Testaments that we reade of Heb. 8. and Heb. 9. whereof the one is faulty and the other is excellent the one is done away the other remains Study the difference between them for thereby you say the foundation of your Gospel-happiness for there is the misery of many Professors and will be their misery if they should live a thousand years they jumble both Testaments without knowledge and distinction and so they will never be better 2. Another thing that I would exhort you to is this to prize the Spirit of Christ more then you do There is nothing in the Gospel but it is a Mysterie you cannot know it but by the Spirit and there is no duty in the Gospel to be done that can be done but by the power of the Spirit We may do many things in the law by the strength of Old Adam in the Gospel we can do nothing but the Spirit is all And that is the reason I think for I speak according to the grace given me why people now are left so bare and poor and confused and know not which way to go or what to do they do not prize the Spirit of God Many men extoll Learning mightily and it is accounted almost Heresie to commend the Spirit of God There are many men I and many Professors that do not love to hear a man in a few modest words to commend the Spirit of God but all must be by study and reading and learning and for the Spirit of God it is a plain meer Cypher and there is an end But my life on it if I had a hundred I would say so they shall be beholden to the Spirit of God and extoll him before they be taught spiritually they shall be willing to lay down all their Learning as I have seen a learned godly man of late even with the Plow-boy I do not say but that Learning is good for some uses and God may bless it to help a man to express what he knows the better but as I told you Adam must die he cannot by it come to know one jot of the spiritual meaning of God in the Gospel or one jot of power or assurance to be happy or to do any thing for God towards this all Learning is not worth a straw therefore labour to extol the Spirit And if any of you have a minde to learning go on I discourage you not from it Learning is a thing in another element take pains and diligence to be learned it is good to do so But if thou wilt be a Gospel Christian thou must thank the Spirit of God for all Saith Paul for all his learning I am not sufficient to speak a good word and he was a learned man that Festus said Much learning had made him mad Beza in his Comment upon 2 Cor. 11. where the Apostle saith Are they Hebrews so am I Are they Jews so am I. Saith he I never read in any Latine on Greek Author so much eloquence and elegancy of speech as Paul hath there and yet he professeth he could not think a good thought for all he was learned so much much less do a good work As long as thou keepest the Spirit an underling as a cypher as many of the Clergie and learned men they extol Learning to the Heavens and many of them upon purpose to despight
things of the Spirit are comprehended in these three First the things of Faith They minde the things of the Spirit that is they alway minde and study how to believe in Jesus Christ and how to lay firmer and righter hold of him how they may know him more distinctly and hold him more firmly and get fuller assurance this is their work 2. Or they are exercised about the things of Hope that is they are contemplating and rejoycing in their Happiness by Christ how their persons are justified and their sins pardoned and the righteousness of the law fulfilled in them and all in Heaven and Earth bestowed on them As Paul saith Phil. 3. this is our Religion we glory in the flesh as if not but we rejoyce in Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh but we rejoyce in Jesus that is in all the happiness we have in Jesus Christ 3. Or thirdly and lastly the things of the Spirit are the will of God or the Commands of Jesus Christ they alway study how they may obey and fulfill the good and acceptable and perfect will of God So that a Saint if he be spiritual he is alway either acting his Faith and increasing and strengthning that or he is contemplating his Happiness in Jesus Christ or studying which way to glorifie God to know what part of the will of God he knows not and to study what part of the will of God he knows and remembers this is his exercise And let this suffice to shew what the things of the flesh and what the things of the Spirit are Now the third question briefly is What is meant by the minding of the things of the Flesh and the things of the Spirit 1. You must under stand first that the meaning is not as though a man might not think upon fleshly things for a spiritual Saint oft thinks upon fleshly things in a spiritual manner as to consider his sins to bewail and to mourn for them and he may minde earthly worldly things to provide things honest to provide for his Family as the Apostle saith he may think of his business Therefore the Holy Ghost here doth not use the word Frounesis but Frounena Frounesis signifies prudence or discretion or providence in business he doth not use that lest we should think that the Holy Ghost forbids to provide to be mindful and careful of worldly business but Frounena that signifies a further thing as I shall shew presently 2. Now then you must understand this also that when the Apostle saith they minde the things of the flesh the word doth not onely signifie the understanding but it signifies all the affections also I could give you divers places of Scripture where this word is set downe to expresse the working of any affection in the soul Therefore the meaning is not only of the mind that studies but his affections his will the way of his delight his joy is in earthly things his care is after fleshly things But in particular there are these four or five things implied in the word when they are said to mind the things of the flesh The first is that the very care of his heart as I told you before is Fleshly and carnall A Christian hath outward worldly things in an outward room and Jesus Christ next his heart There is saith one godly man a closet in the heart of a Saint only to entertaine Jesus Christ which the Scripture calls the spirit frequently I worship God in my spirit Rom. 1. And in 1 Thes 5. That ye may be sanctified in your spirit That is in the very coare and quintessence of the soul Now a godly man may have many hurries of wordly things and lusts cross and come through but the coar of his heart is for God and for Holiness Therefore saith Paul Rom. 7. I serve the law of the flesh with my members and the law of Christ with my mind That is inwardly with the care of my heart I shewed the meaning of that word before I shall not now go further in that Secondly a man is said to minde wordly things when a man not only thinks of worldly and fleshly things but savours of worldly and Fleshly things therefore the same word Frounena that is here minding is oft read to savour As in the Speech of Christ to Peter thou savourest the things of the world thou hast a smack of it thou hast a relish of carnall things So then to mind fleshly things is when a man not only thinks of them and considers them but when a man finds most joy and rast and delight in such kind of things But a Fleshly man about worldly or carnal or if you will about sinful businesse O there he is as a fish in the water there he is his own man he is well but put him about any spirituall thing let him come to learne a little for his soul or let his Neighbour come to teach him and admonish and reprove him he is upon thornes then he hath no tast of it at all now if thou be a fleshly man thou mindest fleshly things that is thou doest not only in thy understanding consider of them but thy soul relisheth them there thou art thy owne man when thou art in the middest of the world and the flesh and earth and hell therefore look to thy self Thirdly to mind fleshly things is when the streame the main of the soul goes upon fleshly earthly carnall things when the things of God are but by businesse to a man It is no so in a spirituall man 1 Cor. 7. He useth the world as if he used it not he mindes little of the world as little as may be but the main stream of his soul is upon Jesus Christ there he exerciseth himself day and night as David speaks Fourthly when a man doth study and plod continually upon worldly things upon fleshly carnal things When a man takes care for so the word is used oft in Scripture as it is used Rom. 14. 6. If any man doth observe a day or care for a day Curare diem as we reade it in the Latine if one observe it and another will not or will not regard it When a man observes and regards and takes care and studies and plods for earthly fleshly things this is to minde Fleshly things Therefore in Phil. 4. 7. saith the Apostle I am glad that your care is renewed towards me saith Beza It is more then care there is a kinde of sollicitude it is addicere animam it is a word that signifies when a man addicts him when he is given wholly to a thing when a man is addicted and gives his minde wholly to the world to fulfill his lusts or to enjoy his pleasures this is to minde Fleshly things Then Fifthly and lastly it is when a man doth judge of things according to the Flesh Non est cogitare c. To minde is not onely to think of it but to judge of things As
spirituall things to take away their peace and crack their communion with God they will see be wise and resist but come and cheat them in worldly things poor creatures they are quiet and part with them as it is the manner of many of you that are rotten Professors and Self-seekers you make it a trade to abuse them but they are quiet they minde spiritual things As a Cut-purse that comes into your shop and a man mindes other things he may easily steal so the poor Saints are made poor and suffering because they minde God and heavenly things or else I tell you if their mindes were not imployed elswhere a Saint could be as cunning and as wise and worldly as thou but thou mayest easily steal any thing from him and cheat and cozen him because his minde is upon other things it is upon Heaven and those blessed things Therefore learn that one thing learn to understand that the main of thy happiness or misery is in thy minde beg of the Lord to give thee a good minde to write his law in thy minde Without knowledge the minde is not good Therefore when the Lord gave the people of Israel up it is said the misery came upon their mindes blindness of heart is hapned to Israel that iâ— blindness of minde there was the main and there is the excellency of the Saints When Paul saw nothing but flesh yet he rejoyced in God in the law of his minde therefore look on it as the fountain of all good and evil if thy minde be fleshly and carnall thou wilt minde fleshly things and love fleshly things and walke fleshly but if the Lord sanctifie thy mind the Lord will give thee sanctified affections SERMON VII Rom. 8. 5. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit IN the former Verse I told you the Apostle holds forth unto us a great Priviledge the greatest that I know that a man can have That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us for it doth protect a man from all evils for all evil is founded upon this that a man hath not a righteousness to fulfil the law And he that hath this priviledge it doth lead him to the enjoyment of all good for if a man hath a righteousness to fulfil the law then there is nothing that can keep the Creature from a full enjoyment of his Creator Now this Priviledge being so great the Apostle shews us who they are that are partakers of it who have the actual enjoyment of it for the worst fleshly carnal man may come to be a partaker but he shews who are for the present and saith he they are those that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit That is a sure way to know and distinguish them but it is a general way and therefore the Apostle draws down some particulars from this general that are more known and easie to be discerned As in 1 John 5. 1. you shall see there the same kinde of reasoning saith the Apostle Whosoever believeth that Jesus is Christ is born of God How shall we know â—haâ— we do believe Every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him How shall we know that we love God We love them that are begotten of God How shall we know that we love them that are born of God If we love God and keep his Commandments And how shall we know that we keep his Commandments They are not grievous and so he goes from a more general to a more particular thing So the Apostle in this place after he had given a general he comes more particularly to shew it They that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit do minde the things of the Spirit As if he had said If you do not know whether you walk in the flesh or in the Spirit I will shew you I will instance in one thing I will pitch upon the best thing that is in a natural man and that is his minde I will instance but in that for you may know the Lion by his Paw you may know the man by his minde for he that is fleshly mindes fleshly things As if he had said If the minde of a man which is his best thing be altogether about fleshly things then his Will is so and his Affections and Actions are so and if the minde of a man be upon spiritual things then his Will is so his Affections his Actions his whole life is so This is the drift and scope of the Apostle Now the Lesson we had in hand the last time from the words it was as I told you the same with the Text here That those that are after or walk after the flesh they do minde fleshly things and those that are after the Spirit do minde spiritual things I gave you two Reasons of it I opened it by answering three Questions I came to make some Use of it and finished onely one which was to see the reason why carnal fleshly people do know so little of the things of God though they have so much means and Ordinances and have time to enjoy them and have ears to hear and Books to reade and yet they know nothing of spiritual things the reason is because they minde them not But I shall now proceed Vse 2. Another word is this from this way and method of reasoning that the Apostle useth here you may learn this That the main and chief misery of a fleshly carnal man is the fleshliness of his minde As the chief happiness of a Christian the choicest piece that is in a Christian is the spiritualness of his minde so the worst piece in a carnal man is the fleshliness of his minde Therefore the Apostle doth pitch upon the worst piece to demonstrate the rest He that is after the flesh mindes fleshly things As if he had said You may easily guess at the rest if the minde be naught You are wonderfully mistaken when you see a little of your misery you complain Oh I have a weak memory when I am hearing spiritual things I think they are written upon my heart but I presently forget it and I am passionate c. and that is all my fault Oh but here is the root thou hast a fleshly minde and therefore there are fleshly thoughts and fleshly actions all proceed from that The minde of a man is either the chiefest Seat for Jesus Christ or the cheifest Throne for the Devil If Christ be in thee there is his Throne in thy minde and if Satan the Prince of darkness be in thee there is his Palace Therefore you shall reade in Luke 12. Christ throws out the strong man the armed man Now what is the royal seat that the Devil hath in a man compare that with 2 Cor 10. You shall see there it