will and be it little or much yet it is all amiable in the eye of a Saint and operative in his soule my meaning is this you are not to conceive as though it were the glorious priviledge of a Saint to see one side of God as it were and not another but that that is most terrible in God to wicked men that is also I say amiable and lovely in the eye of a Saint As the power of God the greatnesse of God the Justice of God Even these things that the wicked abhorre and hate the Lord useth to reveale them to his Saints in Excellent Glory That is an other thing 3. God sheweth himself variously Then thirdly God doth shew himselfe to his children by various manifestations My meaning is this God doth not alway shew himselfe in the same manner and fashion to his child God as it were comes in a new dresse every day to the Soule of his Child all the dayes of his life in this world and for ought he knowes for ever in the world to come As it is unspeakable to say how God appeares to the soule of a Saint so the manifestations are innumerable the strange ways that God comes to the soule he shews himself to day this way to morrow after another and the third day after another The Lord manifests himself variously That is another thing Then fourthly it is by various means also that God 4 By various meanes comes in by You must understand he comes alwayes through Jesus Christ but then for other lower meanes he chooseth what meanes he pleaseth he comes in somtimes by afflictions and corrections somtimes by common providence sometimes in the word preached sometimes in meditation sometimes in prayer some times one way sometimes another The Lord can take any way any creature any providence any thing to convey himselfe by to the Soule of his Child in a saving way 5 It is not constant Then lastly this sight of God which is the priviledge of the Saints it is not constant for ought I know to any Saint no not under the New Testament much lesse under the Old but the Saints have their desertions in the new Testament God hides his face though not as oft as he did in the old Now let me desire you to lay up these things because they will be necessary when we come to speak of the other doctrine So much concerning the manner how God reveales himself to his children I shall now come to the Uses of this and then way will be made for the other point to shew how this sight of God doth truly kindly and savingly humble us For the Use of this First this shews the happy estate Use 1. The happy estate of a Saint in this world of a Saint in this world that he hath as it were a heaven upon earth because he sees God If thou wouldest consider seriously that there is such a glorious priviledge as this thou wouldest say blessed is the man that hath it and cursed and unhappy is the man that hath it not it is our Saviours word in the beginning of his Sermon Math. 5. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Now purity of heart is not the blessing properly but the seeing of God He that is pure in heart is a blessed man saith Christ for he shall see God So that if thou wilt believe Christ Jesus If thou be a Saint and see God and canst say the Lord hath revealed his glory to my soule in Jesus Christ then oppose that to any miserie that can be in this world Put any miserie that makes a man unhappy in this world in the one scale and that priviledge of seeing God in Christ in the other scale and surely thou wilt see that thou art a blessed and happy man As suppose thou art a poore man a plundred man a persecuted man or a sick man or woman be it what it will if thou canst see God in the face of Jesus Christ if thou wilt believe Christ who is the truth thou art a blessed man a blessed woman Suppose a man were sick and should never see health suppose he were weake and should never see strength suppose he were poore and should never see wealth suppose he were banished and should never see his Countrey or his Friends Nay suppose a man were starke blind and should never see the naturall Sun yet if he have a pure heart he shall see God and if thou wilt believe Christ Jesus thou art a blessed man or woman All the blessednesse in this world put together all that mankind ever enjoyed from the creation is not worthy to be compared with one glance of that sight that a Saint hath thousands of in his life of the glory of God in Jesus Christ We are wont to say that there is this difference The beatifical vision in this life and only this difference betweene heaven and earth that glory differs from grace but only in degrees that glory and grace are the same and that glory is the perfection of grace That is very true I deny it not for we shall be clothed upon with glorie But some conceive that the beatificall vision that blessed sight is not in this world we shall not have it till we come to Heaven It is true we shall not fully and perfectly but it is not true any otherwise then as the part differs from the whole For here even in this world a Saint in some measure hath it he sees God as truly and rightly as ever he shall hereafter in Heaven therefore you may see what it is to be a Saint If God should take a poor Drunkard or Swearer and but shew his Soule as it were through his fingers or through a gold ring one glance of this sight he would never be a Drunkard or Swearer he would never be a Railer and live as a Sott againe all the dayes of his life No it is a glorious condition that a Saint is in Therefore meet God and labour to know his glory in Christ And for shame be not discouraged for every trifle in the world When you heare that wicked men prosper that they have wealth and they see their children before their eyes and their Bull gendereth and their Cow calveth as it is in Job envy not their quality one glance of this blessed sight is worth more then all that ever they had or shall have therefore pitty them Nay if thou wert in prison to night and shouldest dye to morrow the most cruell death that ever was yet if the face of God shine on thee thou art a blessed man it is a glorious condition thou mayest say with David My lot is fallen in a good ground I have a goodly heritage The Lord hath denyed me worldly things wit and wealth and honour and credit but God hath been pleased to bestow this the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Therefore
is wrong'd by him that he hath been most kind to of all the men in the World and yet he proves most ungratefull if a man should goe to flesh and blood he would hate and abhorr him and not indure him man in his best naturalls would not beare it he would not beare ungratefullnesse and wrong but labour to requite it But what is the rule The Lord is good to the wicked and unthankfull Therefore Lend freely looking for nothing againe Presently God will bring a spirituall rule to your mind and God will give you power to doe it And so suppose a man should charge and challenge you with a debt and would have you pay such a debt you perhaps know no such thing and are perswaded of the contrary What now You know what most men think I will never pay him I were a foole if I should give away my estate and be a Beggar when I have done but what is the rule If thine enemy sue thee at the law and take away thy cloake give him thy coat also A Christian comes to this law he consults not with flesh and blood when a case comes but he thinks what is the rule in this case But all the misery is you will be fingering with justification which you should leave alone upon Christs death and Resurrection and you should be working out your holynesse every day that should be your way God will bring it in So when a woman is putting on her cloathes and making her fine cloaths and thinks to be as fine as her Neighbours shee should think but what is my rule Not to conforme my selfe to others in embroydred haire and fine apparrell and gold but with the Ornament of a meek spirit So you have the New Testament full for every case there is some thing that wil direct and lead you that thereby you may conforme to Jesus Christ I give you but generall instances if God open your eyes to see your glorious condition in the New Testament you must resolve on this to walk according to the coppy and the rules of it that in any case you may aske what is my rule as I am a Christian as I am a free man one with God that I may walke by it Now I exhort you to this because if a thousand The best motive to holinesse Devills should preach instead of men and tell you what the Torments of Hell are all would not be so great a motive by half to walke holily as to tell you that the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled by Christ that you are righteous and just all your sins are done away by Christ Therefore O love him and live to him conforme to your coppy Let your Neighbours conforme to their coppy to the World and others conforme to their lusts as too many doe but doe you conforme to Jesus Christ think what would Christ doe if he had my opportunitie what would he have taken in hand And what ever occasion you have with God or man aske what is my rule in the New Testament and conforme to it Blessed is the man or woman to whome God gives a heart so to doe There remaines one word more of this and the third lesson which is the principall thing the description of those persons that have this priviledge They walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit But because the time is gone and my strength also I shall leave that till God give another opportunitie SERMON III. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THERE were three Lessons that we may learne from these words The first is implied namely that The righteousnesse of the law must be fulfilled by every man OR Every man is bound to fulfill the law of God And Secondly that The law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true Beleivers And Thirdly that True Beleivers are they who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit We were the last time upon the second we have prooved it and opened the poynt and have made some Use of it First that from hence we may learne where our justification lieth and wheron it is buylt 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 beleive in Jesus Christ should labour to see the glorious condition they are in by Christ Thirdly we should learne being justified freely and fully by the grace of Jesus Christ to conforme our selves in our hearts and lives to the example of Jesus Christ and to his rules in the Gospell I shall add but one word more from this Lesson Use 4. True beleivers no Antinomians that is that seeing the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in them that beleive you may hence see that none are further from Antinomianisme then those that are true beleivers those that are godly Saints You have a great stir concerning Antinomians what they should be It Antinomians who is one that is against the law that is the signification of the Greeke word Now the question is who is most against the law of God I doe not denie but that 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 satisfyed the law Every man must pay the law and they that would fulfill the law with their owne righteousnesse they doe the law wrong they that doe 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 righteousnes Now if a man should owe ten thousand pounds and he had but fifty shillings a yeare comming in and it may be one yeare he payes ten shillings another yeare he payes a Noble and another yeare three pence yet he payes as well as he can But now suppose there come a Suretie and he payes the whole ten thousand pound and he sayth to the Creditor you shall be paid no more by three pences but you shall receive the whole summe what doe you think is not that better None satisfie the law but beleivers So there are none that satisfie the law so roundly and fulfill 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 Therfore when Paul is prooving strongly that we are justified by Christ and not by the law sayth 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 poore sinner that beleives in Jesus Christ And so for
set God saith David at my right hand that I might not sin against him that is I will keep God in my eye The Eye of God is a meanes to keep a man from sin for who will sin in the eye of God therefore saith God to Abraham walk before me and be perfect The Servant may doe ill behind his Masters back but walk before me and then thou wilt be upright therefore when men sin they are said to leave God but saith David I have set God at my right hand that I might not sinne against him I will alway see God as I see a man that walks at my right hand Thirdly if there be such a sight of God to be Use 3. Highly to prise the preaching of the Gospell enjoyed in this world and that by his word and Spirit me thinks this might teach you highly to prize and esteeme the preaching of the Gospell the word of Christ Truly beloved if you doe not look on the Gospell with a spirituall consideration to a carnall eye it is the poorest and driest and most beggarly thing in the world for there are none that have more weaknesses then the dispensers of it It is a thing that should fill men with admiration to consider what it is to have poore creatures to doe the work of God that have a world of weaknesses more then other men who are more exact in their wayes as Lawyers and Tradesmen c. To a carnall eye the preaching of the Gospell is a dead drousie thing a man shall heare many things that he heard before and be taught till he sleep and be tyred out unlesse he look on it with a spiritual eye As the East-India Merchant when he sees such a shell he considers what is in it there is a glorious Pearle in it and for that he goes many a Mile So doe you consider that the preaching of the Gospell by poore and weake meanes it is that shell that Cabinet wherein these glorious treasures are found therefore esteeme it and prise it highly look on it with reverence look for the Pearle in it prise it and praise God for it It may be some of you that are sleepy Why men see not the excellency in the Gospel creatures may say I cannot tell that there is any such thing in it others are so sottish to this day that they no more know nor understand what we have bin doing in the preaching of the word these 12. moneths then a Post It is not because the treasure is not here but you shal see the reason 2 Cor. 4. 4. the reason why you see it not is because The God of this world hath blinded your eyes that the light of the knowledge of the glory of God should not shine upon your Soules God shines upon one mans Soule and not upon another another sees nothing but a poor Preacher full of weaknesses so he gos away remembers little or nothing or it may be sleeps all the while Beloved for the Lord Jesus sake trifle not It makes me tremble to consider seriously how those decrees that are infinite and innumerable that were before the beginning of the world are to be opened when we preach the word yonder man and yonder woman we know not whether of them belong to God or the Devill but when we preach the decree is opened there is a poor man or a poore woman that belongs to life it makes him a new creature another is as very a Sot at the yeares end as at the beginning who would not tremble when God threatens to seale up your condition by it O! it is a glorious thing the Gospell Look to it you sottish people that are like the Foole in the Proverbs that tell him a tale and when you have done he will aske what is the matter or as a man asleep that knows nothing what he hath been doing For the Lords sake consider what we are doing and what the Gospell is and what it is to have one day of the Son of man it is a very strange word in Luk. 17. 32. consider of it thou poore sottish creature When Christ was demanded of the Pharisees when the Kingdome of God should come he answered them The Kingdom of God commeth not with observation Neither shall they say lo here or lo there for behold the Kingdome of God is within you or among you And he said unto his Disciples the dayes will come when ye shall desire to see one of the dayes of the Sonne of man and ye shall not see it And yet he saith after they shall see the day of the Son of man We are to consider the sonne of Man the Lord Jesus Christ hath two sorts of dayes He hath one 2 Sorts of dayes of the Sons of man day that every wicked man shall see when they shal be eating and drinking as in the dayes of Noah When the Son of man shall come to judge according to my Gospel as Paul preacheth according to the Gospel The day of judgement that you have here preached That is one day of the Son of man And thou that wilt not receive Christ thou shalt have thy belly full of that day it will be a terribble day a day of blacknes and darknes when the earth shall reele as a drunkard and the heavens shall be gathered together as a scrowle and the world shall be on fire and thou shalt be at thy wits end it will be a terrible day the Lord deliver thee from that day But the Son of Man hath another day that is The day of grace the day of grace the day wherein the Son of man in the preaching of the Gospell would bestow grace upon thy Soule Why doth he call that the day of the Son of man more then the other He delights more in it he delights not in the death of a sinner This is that sweet day that Jesus Christ delights in to offer himself to thee and to lay before thee life and salvation by his death These things were not written for them only but for us also Remember the day will come when thou shalt desire to see one day of the son of Man but shalt not see it Thou wilt say O that I had one such day as we have now in this place when the Preacher told me of seeing God and Christ O that I had but one day but one motion in my heart by the Spirit that I had then and yet I sotted it out and did forget it O that God would smile as he did then but it shall not be Therefore the Lord help you that you doe not trifle out your salvation as abundance in this Nation and in this Citty doe between sottishnes and formalitie Abundance of People heare the word but here is abundance of formalitie few men consider with whom they have to do when they heare the word of God and what the busines is but in a trifling manner
and when peace comes there will then be a discovery of rotten hearts then much more then in these times yet in these times there are abundance of rotten hearts discovered that were not knowne before The Lord comes near the quick of our profession in these times there are abundance that have been professors that now jeere the Saints and dishonour God and imbrace the VVorld but in times of mercie there will be more the sun makes the Traveller put off his cloake when the wind cannot But to open it to you as I did the former that which I shall doe shall be to discover to you what the carriage of a humble heart is and what our carriage should be when God shewes mercie to us when the Lord deales kindly with us in the way of his mercy What is the posture of a humble heart then I answer First of all a humble heart he can be 1. A humble heart content to be denyed any mercy content that the Lord should denie him any mercie let it be never so deare or pretious to him though he prize it high and pray earnestly for it and wayt long for it yet if God come at last and say thou shalt not have it he can be content patiently and meekly to take a denyall from God and goe away contented if it must be so Indeed there is a kind of earnestnesse that should be in us and in a sence we should take no deniall from God we should not be easily put off As we see in Mat. 15. That Woman of Canaan when Christ put her off shee comes again and again and again But if God say say no more it shall not be so rhen a man should quietly submit himselfe to God though like Hannah he desire Children and pray earnestly and seek God againe and againe and seeme to be near towards it sometimes but at last if God come and say thou shalt never have a child then sayth a proud heart Give me children or I die I will give you an instance or two of this in 2 Sam 15. 25. David there was in a poore condition he was pursued by his enemy by Absalom his owne son and David David had the Arke and Zadock the Preist But sayth the King to Zadock carry back the Arke of God into the City if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good unto him As if he had said I am in a miserable condition but I will not trouble thee or indanger the Arke if I have found favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again to my house and to his but sayth he if he thus say I have no delight in him Behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good in his eyes God will bring me back to Jerusalem if I have found favour with him but if God say David I have no delight in thee thou shalt never see my house more Loe here I am let him doe as seemeth best to him This is the posture of a humble soule that desireth this and that and the other mercy yet if God say I have no delight in thee I will doe none of these things he can say here I am doe as it seemeth good in thine eyes I will give you one instance more in Deut. 3. 24. You have Moses there praying and he desires a great request and that earnestly of God Moses O Lord thou hast begun to shew thy seruant thy greatnesse and thy mighty hand for what God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can doe according to thy might I pray thee I pray thee Lord see how familiar he is with him Let me goe over and see that good land that is beyond Jordan and that goodly Mountaine and Lebanon Moses was going towards Canaan that was a type of the Kingdome of grace under the Gospell and a type of Heaven and they had travelled forty yeares in the VVildernesse I pray thee sayth he let me goe over and see that good land and see Lebanon that goodly forrest But sayth he the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not heare me and the Lord said unto me let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Let it suffice I will heare no more concerning this thing Get thee up into the top of Pisgah I will give thee leave to looke on it but thou shalt not goe over Now in the Chapter following Deut. 4. 21. Sayth he The Lord was angrie with me for your sakes It was for their sakes that God denyed him And he sware that I should not goe over Jordan and that I should not goe in unto that good land which the Lord thy God hath given thee for an inheritance but I must die in this Land It is a broken speech I must die he doth not say it in passion must I die must I lead this people forty yeares and when there is any good to be had I must be cut off he spake it not on that fashion but sayth he I must not goe over but you shall goe over and possesse it He submits to Gods will and rejoyceth that they should goe over though it was for their sakes that he was crossed And he shewes them how they should carry themselves there A proud heart would have sayd you may get you over if you will and if it had not been for you I might have gone too but I may thanke you that I must stay and die here But sayth he God hath sayd I shall speake no more of that matter it is my lot I submit So in all the mercies of God to thee if thou canst quietly as Moses and David submit in silence when he denies thee any mercy though it be never so deare it is a signe thou hast a humble heart Truely some godly men are of opinion that a Saint can come to this to be content that God should deny him everlasting Salvation for his soul I have read of one and I have spoken with another I have knowne two godly men in that posture the one was so and the other seemed to be so by his writing that if after all the meanes used he cannot come to beleive as others doe that he can have no assurance or hope of life from God but that God almost in every Ordinance doth as much as tell him thou shalt be damned yet he can be content to goe to Hell it selfe I have seen a glorious Saint that hath said that if God should tell him he should be damned yet he could submit without murmuring Such a thing may be but I think it is not ordinary neyther Grace crosseth not principles of nature doth God expect it because grace never crosseth the ground principles of nature and of all this
and he relieved his kinsman when he was in misery and did teach his familie and relieved the King of Sodome he did many good works Though these good works did justifie his faith to the world that they knew he was a believer by it and he himselfe did know it by it yet never a one of these were an ingredient into the justification of his person that was by the righteousnesse of God without works Wee must get good works after This is the Good works to be done after we believe rule of the word Charge them that believe to maintain good works that is after they believe charge them to avoy'd the evill and to doe the good and to abound But for the poynt of justification which is the maine thing for your soule and mine to feed on that is built on another foundation upon the grave of Christ and upon the death of Christ Therefore you shall find those speeches of the Apostle Paul when he speaks of this glorious condition he speaks alway of his union with Christ I am crucified with Christ and I am buried with Christ and I am dead but Christ lives in me Learne this lesson that you may come to this Ground of humilitie for if you had learned it spiritually when you had done the most for God if you could doe ten times more then Abraham or Paul and yet Paul preached from Jerusalem to Illyricum yet then thou wouldest say I am an unprofitable servant there is not one graine that I have done that is an ingredient into the death and resurrection of Christ to help to make me a just man or to procure the favour and love of God And when you had done evill and it may be failed in carelesnesse and committed sin O what a glorious thing were it to goe home and fall upon thy knees and say Lord I have sinned grievously but yet I am not one jote the lesse just before thee because my justice and my righteousnesse is not depending upon my sinning or my unsinning upon my holinesse or my unholinesse but upon Jesus Christ Then you would find by experience your hearts The right way to mourn for sinne melt in pieces you would be able to look upon sin in the vastness and unkindness of it against a deare Father then you would see your selves the vilest objects you would not so thinke or speake of any man in the world as of your selves even for the least frailtie For then the love of God as oyle working with iron would press your hearts Then you shall know and not before what it is to be truly humbled and then you shall have power to reforme Then you would be able to say my soule is truly humbled I can mourne for sin till I am weary of weeping Then you will be able though you make not those covenants and resolutions there will be such an impression upon the soule that you cannot choose but mourne and loath your selves and avoyd the occasions of sinne seeing your selves just men in Jesus Christ For when a man sees himself unjust he can never mourne kindly for sin if he see God on Sinai as a Judge there will be but untoward mourning for sin But when a man sees the coast cleare then he can say I have been the greatest sinner in London there is never a childe of God that hath walked more barrenly then I have done and yet through Christ I am as just in Gods sight as any man in London I am Gods childe but I am an unhappie graceless childe then a man can call himselfe foole and be angry with himselfe and weep bitterly Now usually when you mourne for sinne you Men usually think justification is cracked by sin thinke there is a crack in your justification and so many sins as you have committed there are so many flawes in your justification and so many faintings of faith in the favour of God and therefore when you pray to God and are humbled for sin it is your manner and it was mine most of my dayes onely to dawb up the flawes of justification and you pray the Lord to pardon such a sin and now you see God is wrath with you and you are like to be cast off and your hearts begin to be hard and you have sad thoughts of God arising in you and unquiet and horror in your soules and you are far enough from true sorrow all this while It is impossible there should be true sorrow when you keep a coile and confess your sinnes and wrangle it out with God and you will confess your sins to day and think to make God amends to morrow and so as a man stops chincks in a wall wee think to dawb up the flawes and cracks of justification this way Whereas wee should look on justification as a thing entire in the hands of Christ that wee have nothing to doe in but it is in Christ altogether founded on his death and resurrection and all the title that wee have in it is onely by saith As Rom. 10. sheweth The righteousnesse of faith saith on this wise c. The word is nigh thee There is our title and tenure I have nothing to doe for my justification but Christ hath fulfilled the law and he did die and rise and sitteth on the right hand of God and I endeavour to believe it that is to consent that it is so and praise his name and live to him all the dayes of my life O here is the life of Christianitie I have seene people quarrell with themselves Hindrance of reforming our wayes and complaine O I have a hard heart and I desire the preachers to pray for me and when you have fallen into weaknesse you will goe and confess your sins and strive to breake your hearts and mourne for your worldlinesse and your pride and frowardnesse and yet it will not doe but your hearts grow harder then they were before and whereas when you have committed a sin to day you think to goe and reforme to morrow and to turne over a new leafe to morrow you will be worse then to day because you think to make God amends he leaves you to your selves and you grow worse The reason is this because in some sort even to this day you mix sanctification with justification Now I know it I speak what I know could you leave your justification alone in the hands of Jesus Christ and look on it as I said as cash in the cupboord not to be touched and as long as Christ is righteous say I am righteous behold your selves alway as just men and women that in Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law of God and then you will find your hearts inclined to any good thing then would your hearts break and shatter to peices when you have done the least evill against God then you would know what true sorrow and what true repentance is and not before then you would know
eat and drinke and feed our lusts c. Here was a reasoning but it was corrupt And so in Mat. 21. When they had killed the Servants that came to gather the rents Now say they the Heire is come come let us kill him and then the Land will be ours Here was reasoning but it was corrupt reasoning So in Luke 9. 44. there the disciples did reason Who should be the greatest in the kingdom of God There are such reasonings in our hearts for man is called a rationall man and though some men be called unreasonable men as I shall shew by and by yet there is no man but hath reasonings in him either corrupt or naturall or spirituall There is no act that a man doth but there is such a nimblenesse in the understanding that it presently drawes some argument and reason for it a man never doth any thing but he hath some kind of reason for it be it what it will be Secondly there is a naturall reasoning and 2 Naturall that we oft find in the Scriptures as in Mark. 3. 6. Christ had there told a Leper that he had forgiven him his sins the Scribes sitting there reason in their hearts Why doth this man speake blasphemy who can forgive sins but God This was not properly corrupt reasoning it was true reasoning Who can forgive sins but God This man forgives sins therefore it is blasphemie they reasoned right and true as farr as naturall light could goe but here is the difference betweene naturall and spirituall light naturall light comes too short they did not see that he was God None can forgive sins but God but they saw him not to be God This was naturall reasoning Why because it was true according to their principle had he been but a meere man they had reasoned very well but it was naturall because it was lame and low and did not rise up so high as to see that that man was God and could forgive sins So Peters reasoning was rather naturall then corrupt Master spare thy selfe it was naturall and not corrupt reasoning because it is good for a Servant to give good counsell to his Master But this was but naturall because though it were honest in a naturall way yet it was lame it wanted a principle that was spirituall to see that it was needfull and necessary that Christ should die according to the counsell of God rather then that all the elect should perish Thirdly there are spirituall reasonings As 3. Spirituall there is a spirituall mind so I say there are spirituall reasonings in all godlinesse For all godlinesse and every peice of it as I shall shew is carried upon reason only it is spirituall reason Looke upon the whole bulk of godlinesse you may divide it into three parts It consists Either in beleiving and doing Or in obedience and doing Or in suffering and doing All a Christians life is spent either in beleiving or in doing or in suffering Now in all these three you shall see in Scripture that a Saint doth not all these hand over head as being led by a fancie of them but clearly upon reason and the best reason in the World as I shall shew you anon First for beleiving looke to Abraham who is 1. Spirituall reasoning in beleiving our patterne our coppie In Heb. 11. 19. By faith Abraham when he was tried offered up Isaak and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whome it was said that in Isaak shall thy seed be called accounting that God was able to rayse him up from the dead c. Accounting or as the Greeke word is reasoning that God was able to rayse him from the dead from whence he received him in a figure It is said that by faith Abraham offered Isaac his onely son he that had received the promise God had made the promise to Isaac In Isaac shall thy seed he called Isaac was his son and a son that he had in a strong way by an ancyent Woman and his onely son and a son of whome the Messias should come Now there must be a great deale of reason to perswade such a godly Father to kill such a hopefull Child to put him to death to whome God had given the promise of all blessings to all Nations Surely there must be a great deale of reasoning before he could be perswaded to doe this and yet he did reason that God was able to raise him from the dead The word reasoning in the Greeke is a word taken from Arithmetitians that take two or three Sums and put them together and tell you this is the result of them so he did reason this is my son and all my hopes lie in him and I received him when I was as a dead man and for me to goe and kill him will dash all the hopes of my salvation But on the other side spirituall reason comes in and saith that God that gave him me in a figure from the dead that is as it were from a dead woman and when I was an old man that God is able of his ashes when I have killed him and burned him to raise him up againe and therefore I will goe and Sacrifice him and thence it is that the holy Ghost saith that God raised him fron the dead Beloved there is nothing that seems to be more without reason then Faith and in faith there is nothing seemes to be more without reason then for a man to go and kill his Son his only Son and yet he reasoned is said it And so in Rom. 4. he looked not upon flesh and bloud but reasoned from that promise So shall thy seed be What was that God called him out in a cleare night and shewed him the Stars in the firmament and said so shall thy seed be and he reasoned and staggered not but looked upon God as one that was able to bring it to passe and therefore it is said in hope above hope he believed What shall I speake of Moses you have it in that Chapter they say old men are twice children but Moses being 40. yeares old refused to be called the Sonne of Pharaohs daughter some might thinke what a madnesse this was the text gives the reason he reasoned or he Esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then the Treasures in Egypt that is he reasoned thus here I am in great honour I may be called the Sonne of the Kings Daughter and here I have hunting and hawking and riches c and yonder are the poore people of God making brick and there they have burdens laid upon them every day and are sighing and groaning and making spirituall prayers and saith he the blessing of God is there and these riches are but for a time and there are the riches that are abiding and blessed and therefore saith the text He chose rather to suffer affliction with the People of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sinne for a season Thus you
have naturall reason and corrupt reason enough but he is an unreasonable man he hath no spirituall reason Ground of Saints constancie And hence it is that godly spirituall men are so constant in their Spirits and in their wayes indeed they are not absolutely constant because they are godly but in part but so far as a man is godly so far he is constant As you may see in naturall things the difference betweene a man that is at full age and hath reason and a Child that is not come up to reason as the Scripture saith be not as little children tossed too and fro Now what is the reason that a Child is so inconstant he will love a thing to day and have it to bed with him and to morrow he will cast it in the dirt it is because his actions are carryed by fancie and he hath not reason to rule and sway him Now you know a man doth not doe and undoe things like a Child See what difference there is in a naturall way between a man at full age and a Child at three or foure yeares old so much and more difference there is betweene a godly spirituall man and a naturall man and that is the reason that when a godly man heares a naturall man discourse and say he will do this and that he will go to the Wars and he will take this and that garrison he smiles at it because he knowes he will not be constant Take men all along in these wars for some yeares past whither they were Commanders or others you shall see how many brave resolute men both went forth and were here in the Parliament at home and where are they now But now take a godly man either in the Army or elsewhere and you cannot say of him he was so but he is so because he hath some reason to carry him along that the other hath not he went for the glory of God the respect of that continues with him the other went out for a shew for a blast and so are turned about with every winde like a Wether-cock and all this for want of spirituall reason Why the Saints are comfortable in the worst condition Moreover it appeares by this why the Saints that are godly and spirituall are so comfortable even in the worst condition and why other men are so apt to be dejected Take a Saint and put him into any condition and he knowes how to rejoyce in the Lord. Take a Paul or a Sylas and put them in Prison and let them be to be hanged to morrow and yet they can rejoyce and sing they can rejoce in tribulation as well as in prosperity but now men that have not faith that are not spirituall though they laugh loud sometimes when they are in Prosperitie yet when affliction comes they are downe againe and this comes from hence not beeause godly men are mad men that they can rejoyce in Chaines as men in bedlome doe but it is from spirituall reasoning When they are in affliction they can reason I am now in much shame and povertie but I know that they that are in Christ all shall turne to their good they are Christs and all is for their Salvation And thus they will draw from the Scriptures by the help of the Spirit of God such kind of arguments as will draw them up and fill them with joy even in the worst condition which because the others have not they are up and down though their laughter be louder as Solomon saith yet it is but as the crackling of thornes that end in smoake and smother and ashes O the godly are endued with a great deale of spirituall reasoning And hence it was because there is so much reason in godlinesse that the Doctrine of the Gospell of Jesus Christ by a few Fisher-men and contemptible men without any force of rme without any Sword drawne they have bene able to breake the great Emperour of the World and to plant Religion over a great part of the World It is true there is no naturall reason in it in the World that a hundred or halfe a hundred should goe forth and tell a Storie of a man that was a Carpenters sonne a poore man that was at last hanged upon a Tree by the Jewes and buryed in a Grave and for a company of poore men that had no oratorie in the world to goe and tell People that by this man is salvation and that they must believe in him and that they had no power in themselves to doe it and that if they did believe in him they must deny themselves and Father and Mother and Lands and Life and then they should have a Reward they knew not where nor whence hereafter in Heaven but nothing in this World which there was no naturall reason to perswade them to and there was no Sword to Command them for their Commission was onely to tell men that if they beleived they should be saved and if they did not beleive they must be damned and yet we see the Gospell hath prevailed in many Kingdomes of the World more or lesse Now when Mahomet came he comes as a great man and when he was asked how will you proove your Religion to be true He takes a Sword and saith by this Such is the Doctrine of the Turks and Persians but the Doctrine of the Gospell came not so Now you must not conceive that the Gospell works like a charme that it works upon men like mad men but hence it comes to pass that though there be no naturall reason in it nor the wisedome of men yet they speake in demonstration of the spirit they speake the wisedome of God to them that are perfect There is spirituall reason in every peice of that Doctrine that is able to satisfie a man and were there not stronger reason then any is in the World men would never yeild to it Thus I have given you a few hints to shew you that there is abundance of profound reason in godlinesse Besides when we see that godly men are so meek Gentlenesse in gody men whence it is so gentle so easie to be intreated Whence is this From the strength of spirituall reason that is in them As it is in naturall things you know women are the weaker Vessells the Scripture saith so and they are more apt to be froward then men Why so Because there is not such strength of reason in them Now men that are at full age and have strength of reason they will beare unkindneses it is the glory of a man to pass by an offence it is the wisedome of a man to pass by an injurie Now as it is in naturall things betweene a Man at full age and a Child such a difference there is between godly spirituall men and naturall men most naturall men are froward and peevish and very ungentle and hardly to be intreated but the godly as farr as they are godly as farr as they