holinesse blase in their eyes they say it is but guilded over it is but hypocrisie These reasons may prepare and confirme but they cannot perswade we must therefore beleeve that there is such a life Iohn 3 Christ treates of this that there is such a life he tels Nicodemus that hee must live it and be borne againe He wonders at it how it can be Christ therefore concludes in the 12. verse If I have told you earthly things and yee beleeve not how shall yee beleeve if I tell you of heavenly things that is it must be beleeved that there is such a life sense beleeves it not yet it is easier to beleeve it because it is wrought on earth others things are harder than this to beleeve because they are wrought in heaven though this be wrought on earth yet it is hard to beleeve and must be beleeved And thus much for the first part of the doctrine that there is such a life For the second what this life is yee may know one Contrary by another wee have shewed already what death that is contrary to it is by which yee may partly perceive what this life is yet wee will give you some other signes how to know it This life is a reall life as reall as the other though it consist not in eating and drinking as the other doth it is a life of faith it is not seene yet it is as reall as the common life as will appeare by comparing it with the common life First in this common life of nature there must be temper of body disposition of instruments so in this life of grace there is a frame of heart a composition of soule on which it doth depend there are humors and ingredients of this life and they are the things yee know there is a realitie in this life as well as in the naturall life Secondly as the naturall life hath a temper of body hath divers mixtures so it abhorrs things that are hurtfull to it and desires things that chearish it so in this life of grace there in an appetite those that live it they are carried to the things that helpe them they hunger after the Word and that which buildâ— them up they abhorre sinne and lust that would destroy them Thirdly as in the naturall life so in this there is a taste a palate that helps this appetite Rom. 12.2 Be yee changed by the renewing of your minde that yee may prove what is that good and perfect and acceptable will of God that is that yee may bee able to discerne of it as the touchstone discernes of gold or the taste and palate of meates Fourthly as in the other life there is hunger and thirst so is there in this men who live it are sensible of paines and refreshings they are sensible of sinne judgements and threatnings which others are not being hard and dead Fiftly as the other life is fed with food so is this the food which a man eats is not presently turned into flesh and bloud that nourisheth but there is a nutritive facultie that nourisheth and turnes all we eate into nourishment So the Saints who live this life have a nutritive facultie they assimulate and turne all things to a good use there is a living and vitall faculty in them that sets them forwards Ephe. 4.16 They being knit to Christ according to the eflectuall power working in every part increase and edifie themselves in love Lastly as this common life hath beside other things that maintaine it some other indowmâ—nts to helpe it out as company recreation riches and the like so hath this spirituall life it hath riches and friends it hath its heritage company habitation God is our habitation from everlasting with the same realitie though not with the same visibility and so exposed to sence as the other The cause of this life is the holy Ghost who is to the soule as the soule is to the body hee is the cause of it the end of it is the Lord all is done to God No other life is so this life is of God through God and for God when you finde such a realitie in your actions tending to God when he is your aime then ye live this life If this bee the condition of all that are in Christ to live and bee quickned see what is expected from you to whom this talent is committed every excellency is a talent it must not lie dead but bee improved for our masters use the sinne is great if ye doe it not the neglect being of a greater thing the sinne is greater God sets a proportionable account On his benefits and expects a severe account from us if wee use them not Bee exhorted then to live this life some live much in a short time some never live this life at all one man may live more in one day than another man in an hundred for to live is nothing but to be stirring and doing 1. Tim. 5.6 Those who live in pleasures are dead whilst they live so hee that is occupied about riches or honours is dead all that time that men are occupied about riches and their estates about credit honours and the like making them their end is a time of death yee have lived no longer than yee have acted duties of new obedience If you summe up your lives according to this computation to how short a reckoning will they come A wise man speakes more in a few words than a foole doth in a multitude one peece of gold hath more worth than a hundred peeces of brasse as we say of an empty oration that there is a flood of words but a drop of matter so if you consider your lives and see how long yee have lived in death bungling out your time you will see that yee have lived but little in a long time therfore now be doing something redeeme the time bee busie in doing or receiving good be still devising to doe something for God and to put it in execution spend your fat and sweetnesse for God and man weare out not rust out flame out not smother out burne out bee not blowne out So did Christ so did Moses so did Paul making the Gospell to abound from Ierusalem to Illyricum so did David the text saith that he served his time hee did not idle it out that is hee lived not as his owne master but hee did doe all to God as to a master All the worthies of the Church have lived thus and not onely they but poore Christians likewise are still doing they serve God and men they are usefull they are the men that live Those who spend their time in sports in gaming in businesse in serving wealth and honour in morall discourses in Histories in hearing and telling of newes as the Athenians did these are dead men they doe not live As we say of Trees that if they bring not forth fruit they are dead so what ever men
are as Fish out of the water Every life hath likewise a taste and appetite a new life hath a new taste and judgement Pro. 29.27 An unjuste man is an abomination to the just and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked that is one hates the thing that the other loves he that is alive the things which before he loved he now hates he abhors the things that evill men delight in That which is a dogs meate is a sheepes poyson as the proverb is so that which wicked men delight in is as odious as poyson to the just To judge this life by see what your company and delights are nothing can be lesse dissembled than company In his company man doth speake out of the abundance of the heart he then bewrayes himselfe what he is there is no dead man no living man but he is inward with the like no signe so much poynted at in the Scripture as this Yee are translated from death to life if yee love the brethren 1 Ioh. 3.14 and Ioh. 13.35 By this shall all men know that yee are my disciples if yee love one another this rule will not deceive you Secondly yee may know whether yee live this life if ye contend for it that life which a man lives for it he will contend he will let any thing goe rather than it If yee live this life of grace yee will maintaine it and yee can doe no otherwise 1 Iohn 3.9 Hee that is borne of God cannot sinne to be borne of God is to leade a new life he that lives a new life admits not the things which tend to the destruction of it Compare this with the 1. Pet. 2.11 Abstaine from fleshly lusts which fight against the soule hee that is borne of God sinnes not that is hee yeelds not to sinne with his good will but struggles against it as one in health strives against sickenesse resists the disease and maintaines a warre against it But yet the best are foyled T is true yet they strive they never yeeld they maintaine a warre and this they doe not onely by discourse but there is a naturall instinct that puts them forwards they may be cast backe yet they returne againe they may have a sickenesse that takes away sence they may swound and be astonished for a time yet after they contend for life Every evill man contends for his life he leades his life in some lust or other from which if he be drawne hee returnes againe as a thing that is lifted from the earth will fall downe to it againe he reckons the wayes of God hard and opposite to him The wisedome of the Spirit is enmity to the flesh neyther can it be subiect to the Law of God Rom. 8. it cannot but resists it Every creature labours to mainetaine its being so evill men continuing in sinne strive naturally against all that would bring them out of this life of sinne So the Saints they live a life of grace and labour to maintaine it Iohn 6.68 Christ asking his Disciples whether they also would goe away Peter made this answer Lord whither shall wee goe thou hast the words of eternall life that is whiles we conceive thee to be the principle and fountaine of this life we cannot depart from thee The Saints wil let go friends and life and all for this life Count therefore of others and judge of your selves by contesting for this life strive to mainetaine it let all goe rather than it Thirdly yee may know whether yee have this life in you or not by the fruites of it as the tree is knowne by its fruites If the word turne the flocke into its owne nature ye know it by the fruites Gal. 5.25 If ye live in the Spirit ye will also walke in the Spirit that is if ye professe your selves holy men shew it by walking in the Spirit holy men will bee doing that which is good This is the surest triall our workes will not deceive us other things which consist in imagination may 1 Ioh. 3.10 In this the Children of God are manifest and the children of the Divill who doth not righteousnes is not of God he that is of God doth not unrighteousnesse Consider then what your walke and your actions are and by them ye shall know this life But how shall we know whether we walke in the Spirit or no I answere first that there are many by-walkes and if ye walke but in one of them yee walke in the flesh and not in the Spirit Iam. 1.26 If any man seeme to be religious and bridleth not his tongue but deceiveth his owne heart this mans religion is vaine that is hee that makes this sinne his trade and walkes ordinarily in it his religion is vaine Secondly yee may know it by the guides yee follow Evill men they follow three guides Ephe. 2.3 they follow first the world secondly the Divill thirdly the flesh Holy men have three contrary guides first the renewed part within secondly the holy Ghost thirdly the course of the Saints Goe ye the broad way oportet Sanctos vadere per diverticula the Saints doe not so Follow yee the streame fulfill yee the will of flesh or of the Spirit what are your actions Ephe. 4.17 I charge you that you henceforth walke not as the Gentiles doe in the vanity of their mindes that is holy men may have vanity in their mindes yet they walke not in it as others doe evill men may have other thoughts yet they walke in the vanity of their mindes and albeit that evill men walke not in all the waies of sin yet they are dead there is but one way to hit the marke but there are a thousand by-wayes a holy man may stumble in the wayes of God and have some foyles but he leades not his life in sinne he strives against it hee that leades his life in any knowne sinne not resisting it and will doe it and not crosse himselfe in it is dead his religion is vaine But what actions are there that holy men doe but that wicked men and others doe them I answere that there is no good actions we doe but they may be dead workes as men may pray and keepe the Sabbath yet they may be but dead workes they may doe them for a shew yet they are dead A shaddow hath all the liniaments of a body yet it wants life so the workes of hypocrites they want life consider therefore whether your workes are living workes you may know it by these three signes First if they proceed from the fountaine of life they are not dead workes compare Gal. 5.6 In Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith which worketh by love with Gal. 6.15 In Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availes any thing neither uncircumcision but a new creature all that proceeds not from a new heart and from faith which worketh by love is nothing this is
the roote of all when all our actions come from faith which workes by love else though they are never so specious they are but dead works It is no matter whether ye pray or not whether ye receive the Sacrament keepe the Sabbaths or not they helpe not a jot unlesse they come from the principle of life a new creature Secondly consider the manner of their working they will bee done with quicknesse and vivacity Men doe them as living actions with all propensnesse and readinesse with much connaturalnesse with much fervency and zeale when they are done in a perfunctory manner they are dead workes Thirdly ye may know them by their end looke ye to Christ doe yee all in sincerity to him or no or to your selves if yee doe then they are gracious workes and proceed from grace they are living actions and not dead they issue from a right principle ayming at God and not at your selves Hosea 10.1 Israel is an empty vine he bringeth forth fruite to himselfe If ye bring forth fruites to your selves and not to God ye are but empty Vines God accepts you not Fourthly this life is discovered by your behaviour to the meanes of life when they are brought unto you when there is no sound no voyce there is no distinction twixt a deafe and a hearing man where there is no light there is no difference twixt a seeing man and a blind but the light differs them So when as the sound and light of the Gospel comes then men are tryed In times of ignorance God regards not men so much but now in the time of the Gospell see if it be powerfull and whether you set your selves about holy duties Matth. 3.10 Now is the Axe laide to the roote of the tree that is since Iohns comming there is a distinguishment twixt living and dead trees A tree is not discovered to be dead till it withers no man will cut downe a tree in winter because hee knowes not then whether it be dead or no the Spring distinguisheth the dead and living trees in the winter they are all alike The Spring is the powerfull preaching of the word if men spring not then if they come not in they are dead Those whose education hath beene good those who live under a powerfull Ministry now is the Axe laide to the roote of the tree with them it is a signe they are dead if they profit not by it Fiftly yee may know whether yee have this life by the food it is fed with severall lives are fed with severall foode Now the foode of this new life of grace is double first the word secondly good workes First the word 1 Pet. 2.2.5 As new borne babes desire the sincere milke of the word that yee may grow thereby if so bee that you have tasted that the Lord is gracious that is if ye are alive as you professe your selves to be you shall know it by your behaviour to that which doth nourish your life First ye will long after the word as the Child doth after the Teate If the Child be hungry neither apples nor rattles nor any thing else can quiet him but the Teate So nothing can quiet these but the Word Others may have excuses they will have none Either they will live where the word is or they will bring the word home to them they will bring themselves to it or it to them Secondly they desire the sincere milke of the word many things may be mingled with the word that doe please the wit yet those who live the life of grace desire the sincere word the pure word without any mixture Thirdly they desire it that they may grow thereby many desire it to know it onely if ye desire it as new borne babes it will make you better and better you will grow by it Many heare but as men having an Atrophy in their bodies they grow not no fruite comes thereby Fourthly they taste a sweeenesse in the word above others the second ground received the word with joy and Herod heard Iohn Baptist with gladnesse but where there is true grace they goe farther they delight in the word it is sweeter to them than the hony few can say so in good earnest that the pure word is sweeter to them than Hony or the Hony Combe Iob he esteemed the word more than his appointed food Iob. 23.12 The second food of this life iâ— good works Ioh. 4.32 33.34 is the place out of which I collect this where Christ being asked of his Disciples to eate said that he had other meate that they knew not of then said they hath any man brought him ought to eate Hee saith unto them My meate is to doe the will of him that sent me and to finish his worke Doe you good workes with such a desire as men eate and drinke doe you hunger and thirst after them desiring for to doe them Then ye are alive Hypocrites may doe much but it is not their meate and drinke to doe it examine therefore your selves by these signes whether you are alive or dead This is the preaching of the law to shew you the narrow differences of life and death The first step to life is to know that ye are in a state of death the Law must goe before the Gospel to prepare its way as Iohn Baptist was before Christ ye must be brought to their case in the 2 Act. 37. Who were pricked at the heart ye must be brought unto the case of the Iaylâ—â— and of Paule to the case of the Prodigall that you may know your estate then yee will come home and not before Our end is to preach life and comfort to you not damnation Rom. 15.4 All Scripture is written for our comfort now there are many things in the Scripture that tend to discomfort and terror yet their end is comfort as Physicke is sharpe for the time yet the end is health Wee desire not to exclude any but to bring you in whilst you have time the market is then hard to make when yee lye on your death beds labour to know it in time your death is a time of spending not of getting it was too late for the foolish Virgins to buy oyle when they were to attend the Bride groome We desire not to affright you with false feares but to admonish you that you be not deceived I finde this sentence Be not deceived prefixed before many places of Scripture where Gods judgements are denounced as 1 Cor. 6.9 Be not deceived neither fornicators Idolaters Adulterers c. shall inherit the Kingdome of God and Eph. 5.6 Be not deceived with vaine words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience to shew that men are apt to deceive themselves in such cases as these thinking themselves to be in beâ—ter estate than they are Consider your sinnes and apply them Consider your particular sinnes actio est singularium Consider
our other enterprises To this I answer that this will not hinder them but they shall be done the better as oyling of the wheeles makes them goe the better Psal 1.2 hee is said to be blessed that doth meditate in the Law of God day and night Your knowledge being brought to action helpes you much often hearing of the word which puts you in remembrance addes to your life though it hinders you in other things Those who have not the word to heare live not under preaching Ministers who will not be at the cost to get them or live where they are not are much to blame and live not this life Simon Magus sinned in thinking that the holy Ghost might be bought with mony doe not they also sinne who doe lesse than hee that will not give mony for to have the Gospel brought unto them There is the like fault when as men may have the word and come not to it If they come to it though it addeth not to their knowledge yet it helpeth their acting and life Those who neglect the constant reading of the word who are not constant in private prayer those who neglect the speaking and talking of good things they neglect this life That Arabian proverbe Shut up the five windowes that the house may bee full of light will be of good use here that is the five senses being shut up the fuller of light shall wee be the not stopping up of them makes men ignorant cares and businesses possessing mens mindes there is no roome left for better things Let your minds be still plodding on that which may further you in grace and truth It is ignorance that makes men strangers from the life of God Ephe. 4.18 and this is not an ignorance that proceedeth from want of knowledge but from the badnesse of your hearts Hard hearts make men ignorant why doe men heare and yet are ignorant but because their hearts are hardened they regard not the word and so they grow not in knowledge The second meanes to get this life is to bee much in doing be much in doing in acting the duties of new obedience the more yee are occupied the more ye live else deadnesse will possesse you be therefore still praying and meditating these will revive you these are the coales that keepe the heart warme this life like water is apt to grow cold unlesse it be acted and stirred up But I must be full of life ere I can doe actions I answer that one begets the other action begets life and life begets action as health produceth exercises and exercise procureth health But I am indisposed and unfit for such actions I answer that if ye are indisposed the more need you have to be doing else you are more unexcusable the way to get heate is to bee acting as motion doth bring life to a benummed member so doth it to the soule be awaked be stirring this will revive you againe Christians hearts are awaked when as they themselves sleepe if they stirre them up there will be more life in them Rom. 2.13 when Christians begin to languish their medicine is to rise up and be doing whence Saint Paul admonisheth the Galatians Gal. 5.16 To walke in the Spirit those who have the Spirit stand not still as one that cannot stirre but they are still acting and walking this acting helpes this spirituall life first by inlarging and intending this life Secondly by preventing that which increaseth death the more we walke in the wayes of life the more we prevent the way that leades to the Chambers of death Be doing therefore if not one duty yet another In the steppings out of your callings be doing be reading and praying Conferring and talking of good things the neglect of this is the cause why there are so many dwarfes in grace Men content themselves with morning and evening duties and it is well if they doe them but doe you the actions of life more constantly and abundantly It is the corruption of our nature that wee are not doing life is maintained by the actions of life habits are mainetained by actions that are sutable to them We live in the commandements by well doing as the creature doth by food Good actions mainetaine life it receives strength from well-doing Set therefore your selves to pray to doe holy duties be still praying doing more and more the more ye doe the more life increaseth The third meanes to get this life is to get faith Faith helps this life it is a life of faith and it makes us to live this life by three several waies First it gives a reality to the priviledges of life and makes you see they are priviledges indeed therefore is it that yee act the duties of this life because ye beleeve that God is such a God that ye have such priviledges that yee are heirs of all things If yee thinke that God is such a one as he is in wisedome power and mercy if ye intend and minde the priviledges of this life then will you live the life of grace If ye doubt and question with Atheists whether these things be but dreames then ye intend them not and live not this life He that beleeves saith let me have God sure the other saith let me have that I touch and feele but the imaginary things consisting in faith and hope I care not for The more ye beleeve these things the more ye are occupied about them Secondly faith drawes you on to action and this life is but the acting of the duties of new obedience Faith and perswasion further other things as if one be perswaded that such a thing will hurt him it produceth an action of the will abstinence if a man be perswaded that he shall dye without the Physition he sends for him So in all other actions perswasion is that which sets a man on worke So in spirituall actions if we are perswaded that such a sinne committed wil not make our bodies sicke but our soules we will not doe it if we are perswaded our soules shall fare the better if wee doe such a thing this make us to doe it being perswaded wee shall have a recompence of reward it produceth action and the more action the more life Thirdly faith doth it by fitting us for Christ from whom our life comes 1 Ioh. 5.12 he that hath the Sonne hath life First the Sonne of God infuseth life into him to whom he is conjoyned the conjunction betwixt Christ and us is but relative as betweene the King and the subject when the subjects resolve to take such an one for their king they are conjoyned to him so when a woman resolves to take such a man for her husband shee is conjoyned to him The action of taking Christ is to take him as a Lord to serve him as a Saviour to have all comfort by him hee that hath the Sonne in the relative union shall have him in the reall union the Sonne
came his speaking puts life into us Now what is this inward speaking of life to the heart It is nothing else but to perswade fully and every way to convince us that it is best to take Christ to set to an holy course to leade a new life There is a speaking that comes neare this life and is not it that is when as men heare and understand the way and apprehend the things of God but practise them not Here is a proximity to this life yet it is not this life Let a man come so neare as that he thinkes he acts it yet he is dead if he act it not when he acts it then he is made a living man and then hee thinkes and beleeves that the wayes of sinne are evill and that they are evill to him When God doth convince us that such a thing is evill and that it is evill to us then we live and not before A man having a businesse to doe if all be done but one thing the not doing of this one thing crosseth all the rest but that being done his busines is brought to passe so in this life of grace if a man have many offers of grace which doe not fully perswade him this is not enough if Gods helpe be absent but when once he speakes he doth fully convince and perswade us and makes us to continew As Sathan having leave from God never gives over vexing man so the Spirit of God doth never cease to keepe us in good things and where there is this life there the Spirit dwels But after what manner is this effectuall perswasion wrought I answer when as God gives an eare and speakes a voyce for it to heare He that hath an eare to heare saith Christ let him heare Wee then heare when as there is a listning and yeelding disposition wrought within us When as wee preach there are many that have hard hearts and nothing for to soften them therefore the word falls from them as raine from a stone but if there be a man that God will chuse he fits his heart and so he is perswaded This is called the opening of the understanding Luk. 24.45 Hee opened their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures When we speake to men we sow as it were upon fallow ground which will beare no Corne unlesse God plow it Those that saw the miracles of the Loaves esteemed them not because their hearts were hardned Ephe. 4.18 They are alienated from the life of God thorow the ignorance that is in them because of the blindnesse of their hearts that is they are not sensible of sinne and death the word or the threatnings when God takes away this hardnesse they are fit to harken then comes light the beginning of life which is the informing of the understanding to judge righteous judgement Those who have the life of Christ if hee speakes it quickens them It is the inward voyce that quickens seeke therefore to God earnestly that Christ would speake to your hearts yee heare and are not quickned because he speakes not And thus much for this second point that all in Christ are in a state of life Wee come now to the third point that may be noted out of these words and it is this That the voyce of the Sonne of God is the onely meanes to translate men from death to life Men before they heare the voyce of the Sonne of God are dead Christ by his voyce makes them living men This voyce is the onely meanes to give life there is no voyce but this that is able for to doe it that 's the scope of this Text. This proposition may bee resolved into two parts First nothing else is able to translate men from death to life Secondly this is able for to doe it As it is sayd of faith that it justifies and nothing else but it can justifie so may it be said of this voyce that nothing else can translate men from death to life and this can doe it To translate from death to life is nothing else but effectually to perswade and change the heart now nothing else can thus perswade and alter the heart but this voyce of the Sonne of God God himselfe frames the heart it is as a curious framed locke none can picke it but hee that knowes the turning of it God onely fits the perswasions to the turnings mens perswasions are as one that will unlocke a locke with a wrong key God onely can perswade Iapheth to dwell in the Tents of Shem Ministers cannot doe it Esay 57.19 I saith God create the fruite of the lippes that is I make them to bring comfort I create the fruite of the lippes for peace by my power That this is so you may see by divers reasons First that it is so see it by this we speaking to the quickest often times they beleeve not but then others doe the same sometimes beleeve sometimes not If man were the sole cause the word would have the same effect at all times Secondly this is life and God onely gives life it is as the breathing of life into a clod of earth It requires an almighty power to worke this in those that beleeve Ephe. 1.19.20 The same power that raised up Christ from the dead raised us up it is an almighty action to give this life Thirdly if it were not proper to Christ and his voyce to translate men from death to life hee should loose his chiefest soveraignty hee quickens whom hee will hee hath compassion on whom he will have compassion If men could translate men from death to life then it would not be proper to God to doe it Lastly as nothing else can doe it so the voyce of the Sonne of God is able for to doe it At the first creation all was made by the voyce of God hee saith Let there be light and there was light let him say to any man follow mee and he doth it Matth. 9.9 he saith to the Publican sitting at the receipt of Custome follow me and hee left all and rose up and followed him Christ speaking to his eare and heart made him to follow him his speech was like the speech of Elias to Elisha he followed him and could not chuse but doe it Christ speaking wee cannot but follow him But what is this voyce of the Sonne of God that translateth men from death to life I answer it is nothing else but an inward worke of the Spirit by which hee perswades men effectually to turne from darknesse to light and from the power of Sathan to God It must be understood of the effectuall working of the Spirit because who ever doth heare it lives this voyce reneweth and changeth men translating them from death to life Now this effectuall speaking consists in two things First in propounding the object the truth to the heart Secondly in the perswasion of the truth First the Gospel must be
but endeavour perfection I would but aske this question of you doe you make God your utmost end or no If you doe then appetitus finis est infinitus you would never stint your selves if you do not make him your utmost end then you will limit your selves If a man desires money for such an end when he hath the end the desire ceaseth so if a man desire Physicke for health hee desires onely so much as shall gaine his health but if a man make money his utmost end hee sets no limits to it Thus it is with every holy man that desires grace and makes it his utmost end hee sets himselfe no limits you must not set your selves any bounds in grace When you finde this disposition in you that you are not ready to complaine for want of Grace but to justifie your selves when as you do not see your lamenesse and that corruption which is in you you have not the Spirit for that convinceth men of sinne and of righteousnesse and of judgement Iohn 16.8 You would be then complaining of your selves if you had the Spirit if you follow Christ you must cleanse your selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the feare of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Let that minde then be in you that was in Christ Phil. 2.5 follow him to the very utmost Fourthly if all that looke for any intrest in Christ must follow him then learne frō hence not to go before him we must follow Christ go not then before him in any thing in your opinions yeeld to his will let no desire runne out but know first whether it bee Christs will or no you must resigne your selves to him in every thing in all conditions you must follow him doe not therefore chuse your conditions hee saith to one sit here to another sit there in high or low places he is the great Symposiarch hee placeth you were hee pleaseth and you must rest contented So for your workes and calling he gives you your worke to doe Christ is the Master and good reason is there that hee should appoint the worke So for suffering if he who is the Generall commands it yee must doe it So for Physicke and corrections we would rather have other than that hee appoints us yet we must resigne all to him we are subject to preconceptions Iames complaines of this Iam. 4.13 Goe to now yee that say to morrow wee will goe to such a Citty and continue there a yeare and buy and sell and get gaine whereas you ought to say if the Lord will you goe before and doe not depend on Christ by resigning your selves to his providence Remember then that you are but Creatures and must follow Christ in every thing as servants to him A servant doth not say I will goe to such and such a place to morrow because hee saith that hee knoweth not his Masters will so a child that is under Tutors cannot goe whither hee will say not then to morrow wee will doe thus and thus boast not of it preconceive not of such an estate if you doe it is sinfull for then you are your owne guides and follow your owne wayes and not Christ. Lastly learne from hence to doe what you doe from an inward principle we must not be drawne after Christ as beasts but wee must goe on our owne legs Many do follow Christ but other respects doe carry them some mens company carries them and these are but carried in the streame Some are set on with other respects some other wheeles set them on worke as the spring doth the clocke such as these doe not follow Christ. Now the meanes to follow Christ are these First seeke to Christ None can come to mee except the Father draw him Iohn 6.44 Secondly love him If you did but love him you will like the Spouse in the Canticles follow him in all places Cant. 3. Thirdly feele the burthen of sinne Sathans yoake and then you will come unto Christ whose yoake will then be easie Math. 11. vlt. Fourthly beleeve in him Hee that comes to God must beleeve that he is and that he is a Rewarder of all such as seeke him Heb. 11.6 There are promises that you shall have a hundred for one even in this life if you follow Christ beeleeve them therefore and then you will follow him Fiftly have patience possesse your Soules with it without this you continue not as the fourth ground did which brought forth fruit through patience And thus much for this Text. FINIS THREE SERMONS VPON THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORDS SVPPER 1 Iohn 5.14 And this is the assurance which wee have in him that if wee aske any thing according to his will he heareth us THe scope of the holy Apostle in this Chapter is to set forth some of those principall priviledges we have by Iesus Christ. One maine and principall which is the greatest of all the rest is that through him we have eternall life And therefore saith hee know this that when you have the Sonne once you have life in the 12. verse He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Sonne hath not life Therefore saith he have I written this Epistle to you for this purpose that you might consider well what gaine you have by Christ Iesus These things have I written saith he in the verses before this that I have now read unto you to you that beleeve in the Name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternall life After this he names another great priviledge that wee have by Christ mentioned in this verse that I have now read unto you This saith he is the assurance we have in him that whatsoever wee aske according to his will hee heareth us This is the second great priviledge we have by Christ we shall be heard in all our requests it is no more but aske and have 〈◊〉 up what petition you will if you bee 〈…〉 once you have this assurance that he 〈…〉 you but he delivers it with this 〈…〉 must first bee in him We have 〈…〉 him saith he that if wee aske any 〈…〉 to his will he heareth us So that 〈…〉 are two plaine poynts lying 〈…〉 us 1 That except a man be in Christ he 〈…〉 hee ought not to apply to himselfe any 〈…〉 spirituall priviledges that we have by him if we be in Christ this and all other are ours if you be in Christ saith he then you have this assurance for we have that assurance in him The second point that the verse affords us is 2 That whosoever is in Christ whatsoever he askes he shall have it Now my full intention was onely to have handled that which is mainely aimed at in the verse for the other you see is but touched by the way which is this great priviledge that belongs to all Christians that whatsoever they aske in prayer according to the will of God they shall be heard in
hee must not trouble himselfe with so much businesse as may hinder him in his private service unto God if hee doth fill himselfe with too much businesse in his owne calling or step into other callings this is sinfull and inordinate If a man in his owne calling fill himselfe with so much businesse that hee cannot intend the things of saluation that hee is so much tired with them that he hath no spare time to search his owne heart and doe the particular duties necessary to salvation he then failes in this and sinnes in his calling Secondly his end must not be amisse hee must not aime at riches Abraham was poore and so was Iacob yet God made them rich and mighty they were diligent in their callings and God brought in wealth God calls not a man to trust in himselfe to make riches his aime and end to seek excesse superfluitie and aboundance to live deliciously to satisfie his lusts and pleasures Our aime must bee Gods glory and the publique good and then GOD will cast riches upon us as our wages Thirdly let it be a right care and not an inordinate care There is an inordinate care which choakes the Word yee may know whether your care be such a care or not by these three signes First if ye be troubled in the businesse you goe about which trouble consisteth either in desire feare or griefe when as either we desire such a blessing exceedingly or feare that we shall not have it or grieve much for the losse of it Secondly when as wee feare that wee shall not bring our enterprises to passe or attaine to that which we desire Thirdly when as we are troubled at it if it bee not accomplished and grieve when as wee fore-see any thing that may prevent it Care being aright sets head and hand a worke but the affections are calme and right there is no tumult or turbulency in them the issue of all being left to God But when is a man a covetous man I answer that then a man is a covetous man when he hath desires arising within him which are contrary to the former rules and he resists them not or else resists them so weakely and feebly that he gets no ground of them hee sees no reason why hee should resist them and therefore gives way unto them A man is not a covetous man nor yet an ambitious man which hath covetous and ambitious thoughts for these the holiest men have but hee that hath such thoughts and strives not at all against them or else strives but weakely hee is a covetous or ambitious man A godly man may have these thoughts and desires but he strives strongly against them gets ground of them and gives them a deaths wound but the covetous man he yeelds unto them the godly man he gets the victory over them Now this Covetousnesse is evill in its selfe and therefore it must be mortified For first of all it is Idolatry and Spirituall Adulterie and then it is a bitter root having many stalkes on it he that doth any thing to hold correspondency with it hee that doth belong unto it to him it is the root of all evill Luke 16. It keepes a man from salvation it choakes the good seed of the Word sowne in mens hearts Secondly it must be mortified for the vanity of the object is not worth the seeking therefore Luke 16.9 Earthly treasure is set downe in a comparison with the true treasure and expressed in these foure circumstances First it is called the Mammon of unrighteousnesse and wicked riches because it makes men wicked it being opposed to spirituall blessings which are best Secondly It is least because it doth least good preserves us not from evill doth the soule no good Thirdly It is but false treasure it hath but the shadow of the true it shines as if it were true but yet it is false and counterfeit Lastly it is not our owne it is anothers mans Riches are the goods of others not our owne Luke 16.12 and Luke 10.41.42 There are foure attributes given to riches First They are many things and require much labour Martha was troubled about many things Secondly they are unnecessary one thing is necessary Thirdly they will bee taken away from vs. Fourthly they are not the best and therefore our desire after them should be mortified From hence therefore be exhorted to mortifie this earthly member Covetousnesse which is Idolatry a sinne to which all men are subject Young men though they want experience of Riches are notwithstanding subject to this vice but old men are most subject to it though they have least cause and reason for it Professors of Religion are subject to it many times it growes up with the Corne and choakes it therefore use effectuall meanes to root it out of your hearts First of all pray to God not to incline your hearts to Covetousnesse it is impossible for man but easie for God to doe it Secondly be humbled for sinne wee are so covetous and desirous of money because wee are never humbled for sinne so much as wee should bee and this is the reason why many would rather let Christ goe than their wealth and riches Thirdly use them to better purpose than formerly yee have done make friends with them find some thing better than them to set your hearts upon except yee have a better treasure yee will not vilifie and depart with these Labour therefore for true Godlinesse with content which is great gaine 1 Tim. 6.6 This will heale the malady and take away the false pretence of gathering having and affecting riches FINIS AN ELEGANT AND LIVELY DESCRIPTION OF Spirituall Life and Death DELIVERED In divers Sermons in Lincolnes-Inne November the 9. th M.DCXXIII vpon Iohn 5.25 BY I. P. then Batchellor of Divinitie and Chaplaine in Ordinarie to the Prince his Highnesse Ignatius Epistola 15. ad Romanos Mors est vita sine Christo. LONDON Printed by Thomas Cotes for Michael Sparke at the blue Bible in Greene-Arbor 1632. AN Elegant and lively description of Spirituall DEATH and LIFE IOHN 5.25 Verily verily I say unto you that the houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and they that heare shall live THE Occasion of these words was this when as Christ had affirmed to the Iewes that God was his Father and the Iewes went about to kil him for it ve 18. He proves what he had said by this argument He that is able to give life to the dead is God or the Sonne of God But I am able to give life to the dead The houre is comming and now is when the dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and those that heare it shall live Therefore I am the Sonne of God In briefe these words shew Christs Divinity by the effects of it that he can quicken the dead In these words we may consider these parts First
the subject on which Christ doth exercise his Divinitie and that is on dead men The dead shall heare the voyce of the Sonne of God and shall live Secondly the instrument by which he doth it and that is by his Word which is not meant onely the bare preaching and hearing of the Word but such an inward commanding powerfull operative word that makes men doe that which is commanded them Such a word was spoken to Lazarus being dead Lazarus come forth and he did it This word commands men and makes them to obey it Thirdly the time when he will exercise his divinity the houre is comming and now is that is the time shall come when as it shall bee abundantly revealed the fruit of the Gospell shall appeare more plentifully and fully hereafter but yet it is now beginning to appeare there is now some small fruit of it Lastly It is affirmed with an asseveration or oath Verily Verily I say unto you And these are the parts of this Text. Out of these words I purpose to shew you these three things First What the estate of all men is out of Christ. Secondly what we gaine by Christ. Thirdly What we must doe for Christ. First we will shew you what your state is out of Christ for this will make you to prize him more And the point for this is That every man out of Christ is in a state of death or dead man that is All men how ever they are borne living yet they are still dead men without the living Spirit the root is dead Hence are these places of Scripture Gen. 2.17 The day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death Mat. 8.22 Let the dead bury their dead Ephes. 2.1 You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sinnes Eph. 5.14 Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light The meaning is that all men are spiritually dead This will be of some moment to shew you that you are dead without Christ. Yee account it a gastly sight to see many dead men lie together it affects you much but to see a multitude of dead men walke and stand before us that affects us not The naturall death is but a picture or shadow of death but this spirituall death is death indeed As it is said spiritually of Christs flesh Ioh. 6.55 That it is meate indeed Now that you may know what this death is I will shew you First of all what this death is Secondly how many kinds of this death there are Thirdly the symptomes and signes of this death Fourthly the degrees of this death For the first what this death is it consists in two things First in death there is a privation of life then a man is dead when as the soule is separated from the body so a man is spiritually dead when as the soule is separated from the quickning spirit of Grace and righteousnesse This is all our cases In us there dwels no good there is no Spirit of life within us the Soule is so out of order that the spirit is weary of it and forsakes it When the body growes distempered and unfit for the Soule to use then the Soule leaves it Even as when the instrument is quite out of tune a man layes it aside whiles it is in tune he plaies on it So a man dwels in a house as long as it is habitable and fit to dwell in but when it becomes unhabitable he departs so as long as the body is a fit organ for the soule it keepes it when it becomes unfit it leaves it Even so the holy Ghost lives in the soule of man as long as it is in good temper but being distempered by sinne the holy Ghost removes You may see it in Adam as soone as hee did eate of the forbidden fruite the holy Ghost left him and he lost his Originall righteounes Secondly in this death as there is a privation so there is also a positive evill quality wrought in the soule whereby it is not onely void of goodnesse but made ill In the naturall death when a man dyes there is another forme left in the body so in this spirituall death there is an evill habit left in the soules of men This you may see Heb. 9.14 where the workes you doe before regeneration are called Dead workes there would be a contradiction in calling them dead workes if there were not another positive evill forme in man beside the absence of the quickning Spirit which forme is called Flesh in the Scriptures But it may be objected that sinne is a meere privation of good that it is a Non-ens therefore flesh cannot bee said to be an operative qualitie and forme of sinne To this I answer that though all sinne be a meere privation yet it is in an operative subject and thence it comes to passe that sinne is fruitfull in evill workes As for example take an Horse and put out his eyes as long as hee stands still there is no error but if he begins to runne once he runnes amisse and the longer hee runnes the further hee is out of the way wherein he should goe and all this because he wants his eyes which should direct him So it is with sinne though in its selfe it be but a meere privation yet it is seated in the soule which is alwayes active Anima nunquam otiosa The goodnesse that should inlighten it is taken away and there is a positive evill qualitie put into it that leades us on to evill Consider farther whence this death proceeds the originall of it is the understanding mind of man which is primū vivens ultimum moriens That which lives first and dies last The cause of life is the understanding inlightened to see the truth when the affections are right and the understanding straight then we live when it is darkened all goes out of order Ioh. 1.4 speaking of Christ it is said that in him there was life and the life was the light of men he was life because hee was light he did inliven men because he did inlighten them therefore Ephe. 5.4 the Apostle speakes thus to men Awake thou that sleepest stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light because light is the beginning of spirituall life Therefore it is said Iames 1.18 Of his owne will begot he them by the word of truth that is the word rectifies the understanding and opinion which is the first thing in this spirituall birth and Ephe 4.22.24 Put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts thereof and put on the new man which after God is created in holinesse and perfect righteousnesse The old man is corrupt according to the deceitfull lusts that which is here called deceitfull lusts c. in the Originall signifies lusts proceeding from error and holinesse proceeding from truth Lust proceeds from error in mistaking things for lust is nothing
themselves to oppose God and the Saints but give themselves to pleasures and like those Widowes 1 Tim. 5.6 are dead in pleasures while they are alive The last step in this death is the death of Civility Civill men come nearer the Saints of God than others they come within a step or two of heaven and yet are shut out they are not farre from them the kingdome of Heaven as Christ said to the young man yet they misse of it as well as others Thirdly for the death that is opposite to the life of joy the degrees of it are more sensible Some have legall terrors the beginnings of eternall death others have peace of conscience and ioy in the holy Ghost the beginning of eternall life And thus much for the degrees of these deaths Now hearing that all are dead in trespasses and sinnes yee may object If wee bee dead why doe you preach unto us If we be dead we understand not wee move not we are not capable of what you say To this I answer First there is a great difference betweene this spirituall death and naturall death For first those who are naturally dead understand nothing at all but in those who are spiritually dead there is a life of understanding by which they themselves may know that they are dead men who are naturally dead cannot know they are dead Secondly those who are spiritually dead may understand the wayes of life though they relish them not yet they may heare and receive them which those who are naturally dead cannot doe Thirdly those who are spiritually dead may come to the meanes to the poole in which the Spirit breathes the breath of life whereas naturally dead men cannot come to the meanes of life Secondly I answer that though yee are dead yet hearing may breed life the word can doe it There was an end why Christ spake to Lazarus that was dead Lazarus come forth because his word wrought life therefore though yee are dead yet because the word can worke life in you our preaching is not in vaine Lastly this death is a voluntary death Men who are naturally dead cannot put life into themselves no more can those who are spiritually dead when they have made themselves dead Men die this death in a free manner I cannot better expresse it than by this similitude A man that is about to commit the act of murther or treason his friends perswade him not to doe it for if hee doth hee is but a dead man yet notwithstanding he will do it we say of such a one that hee is a dead man willingly So wee tell men if they doe thus and thus that they goe downe to the Chambers of death yet they will doe it Hence is that Ezek. 18.31 Why will ye die O ye house of Israel implying that this spirituall death in sinne is a voluntary death But ye will object men are not quite dead there are some reliques of Gods Image still left in them how are they then dead To this I answer that there is a double Image of God first a naturall standing in the naturall frame of the soule as to be immortall immateriall So there is understanding will and reason and some sparkes of life left in us as the remainder of a stately building that is ruinated but yet there are no sparkes of the living Image of God left in us the spirituall Image of God consisting in holinesse and true righteousnesse remaines not the Papists indeed deny it but how will they answer the rule of the Fathers that Supernaturalia dona sunt penitus ablata naturalia quassata that supernaturall gifts are utterly taken away no sparkes of them remaine But it will be objected that though men by nature have nothing left yet there is now an universall ability and grace an universall sufficiency given unto them To this I answer that that which they call universall grace is the same thing that nature is but they put another tearme upon it it is found in nature and common to all wherever it is therefore it cannot be grace For in grace there is alwayes something that is peculiar Secondly if there should bee an universall grace the Saints would be no more beholding to God than other men if God give all alike to all it should not bee God but themselves that put the difference Thirdly if there were that generall sufficiency it would take away all election there might then be prescience but no election no predestination to death or life Fourthly if there were a generall grace what is the reason that Paul made it such matter of difficulty to answer that question of election Rom. 9. If Aristotle and other Heathen if every one have such a generall sufficiency Paul would not have made such a scrupulous answer and have cried out of the depth Fithly there is no such universall ability because that which is borne of flesh is flesh and that which is borne of the Spirit is Spirit we are all borne of the flesh and cannot therefore have this spirituall sufficiency But yet there are some spirituall gifts in men I answer that we cannot have these spirituall gifts if we are not borne of the Spirit that which is borne of the flesh is flesh Not Bellarmine himselfe nor any man else will say that all are borne of the Spirit It is our Saviours owne speech Iohn 15.2 Every branch in me not bearing fruite he taketh away and it is cast out and withered that is as the branch not being in the root bringeth forth no fruit so men as long as they are not ingrafted into Christ bring forth no buds no fruite at all they may heare the word but they cannot make use of it they cannot doe it without the Spirit and that is free it breatheth where it listeth cōpare Iohn 3.8 the Spirit breatheth where it listeth with Iohn 6.44 No man can come unto mee unlesse the Father draw him that is not as a sheepe is lead with a bough for Christ doth not say no man will come but no man can come except the Father draw him compell him as it were by force not perswade him by intreatie that is unlesse he changeth and taketh away his wolvish will But it will be objected that God drawes every man I answer that the context concludes against this For Christ doth bring this in to shew the reason why many did not receive his Doctrine and hee concludes with this that men therefore doe not receive it because God doth not draw them None can come unto me except the Father draw him I will answer one objection more and so conclude If we are dead to what end is the Law given why are wee commanded to doe thus and thus if we be dead To this I answer that the Law is given to this end to shew us our weaknesse and to leade us unto
the threatnings or promises the more life is in us Lastly dead men are speechlesse there is no breath in them Out of the aboundance of the heart the mouth speaketh The drie and empty channell drives not the mill but a full streame sets it on worke If the heart bee full of life the tongue is full of good speeches Prov. 10. The words of the righteous are as fined silver because there is a treasure within them but the words of the wicked are nothing worth because their hearts are evill As it is said of evill men that their tongues are set on fire of hell so the tongues of the righteous are set on fire by heaven Esay 19.18 they speake the language of Canaan In hypocrites there is loquacity as blasing meteors and in Saints there is sometimes an indisposition by reason of some sinnes which make them like to springs that are dammed up with stones and mudde Yet judge not of them by such fits but take them as they are in their ordinary course the mouth speaketh out of the abundance of the heart Every man is delighted in some genious operations in things that are sutable to him if there be aboundance of life aboundance of grace within a man he delights to speake of it as all men are severally disposed such are their speeches Now all these are privative signes of death I will adde one more that is positive Fiftly looke what life a man lives he drawes to him the things that nourish it and expelleth that which hinders it If a man bee alive to sinne he drawes that which is sinfull but holinesse and the meanes of grace he expels as contrary to him What doth satisfie his lusts that he doth he may doe good for a time but he is quickly sicke of it But I doe much good I abstaine from much evill may some men say To this I answer that if one member lives it is a signe the whole body lives so if one mortall sinne live in you it is a signe you are dead Truth of grace cannot stand with one mortall sinne unrepented unsubdued one disease kils a man as well as an hundred so one living lust kils you Doth any lust live and reigne in you it kils you But what is it to live and to reigne I answer when a man ceaseth to maintaine warre with his lust and resists it not when a man layes downe the weapons when he seeth his lust is naturall to him and therefore yeelds unto it then it reignes in him There is no man that lives the life of grace but hee hath this propertie that hee strives against all sinne to the utmost not in shew but in sinceritie he strives against the occasions of sinne though they foile him hee still maintaines warre against them and so they live and reigne not in him 2. If every man out of Christ be in an estate of death let us not deferre repentance but doe it whilst wee may Repentance makes a dead man to be a living man What is it that makes you deferre repentance Yee thinke yee can change your courses and sorrow when you list therefore ye deferre it If men be dead and repentance puts as it were a new soule into them makes them to passe from death to life then it is not so easie a thing Suppose yee had Ezekiahs warning is it in your power to make your selves live No it is beyond your power God onely can doe it Every man lies before God as that clod of earth out of which Adam was made God must breathe life into him else hee continues dead God doth not breathe life into all He quickens whom hee will It is your wisdome therefore to waite on him in his Ordinances if ye have good motions begun in you presse them forwards they are ofsprings of life Thinke seriously am I dead or alive If dead why then say it s not in my power to quicken me its onely in God to doe it and he doth this but in few those whom he quickneth are but as grapes after the Vintage or as the Olives after the beating how then shall I bee in the number Give your selves no rest know that it is God that breatheth and then depend on him Make that use of the doctrine of election with care and more solicitude to looke to your selves God workes both the will and the deede of his good pleasure worke out therefore your salvation with feare and trembling If repentance bee a passage from death to life if it bee such a change then labour for to get it The Spirit doth not alwayes strive with men yee are not alwayes the same yee will sticke in the sand grow worse and worse if yee grow not better and better No more power have you to change your selves than the Blackmore hath to change his skinne or the Leopard his spots the time will come when you shall say as Spira did O how doe I desire faith would God I had but one drop of it and for ought wee know he had it not Thirdly learne from hence to judge aright of naturall men for all the excellency they have yet they are but dead men If a man be dead wee doe not regard his beauty all excellencies in naturall men are but dead It is a hinderance in the wayes of God to over-valew outward excellencies and to despise others that want these trappings let us say for all these excellencies yet he is but a dead man wee know none after the flesh any more 2 Cor. 5.16 Againe for your delight in them know that this death differs from naturall death for these dead men are active and ready to corrupt others they have an influence that doth dead those who are conversant with them sinne communicates as well as grace Nothing so great a quench-cole as the company of bad men there is an operative vertue in them to quench mens zeale as the droppings of water will quench the fire though they cannot wholly extinguish it being once kindled Fourthly if all out of Christ are dead learne to judge of the Ordinances of God and the meanes of salvation let us not undervalue nor over-value them the Ordinances cannot bring life of themselves no not the Word nor Sacraments If yee are sicke and send for the Minister hee cannot quicken you the Ordinance is but a creature and cannot give life If we speake to the eare and Christ speake not to the heart it is nothing Let your eyes therfore be fixed on Christ beseech him to put life into you and pray to God for a blessing on the meanes the Ordinances are but dead Trunkes as Pens without Inke or Conduit-pipes without water Learne then that God doth convey life by the Ordinances that they themselves cannot give life therefore doe not over-valew them Yet know withall that God doth not worke but by his Ordinances the spirit breathes not in Taverns or
Play-houses but in the Church assemblies Act. 10.44 whiles Peter was preaching to Cornelius and his family the Spirit fell upon them so the Spirit fell on others by laying the Apostles hands on them the ordinances are the Vehiculum of the Spirit give what is just to them and no more give them neither too little nor too much do not over-value them but yet neglect them not neglect not the Sacrament ye know not what ye do when ye neglect to receive it ye think that yee ate and drink your own damnation if ye receive it unreverently Absence from it is a sinne as well as the remisse and negligent receiving of it Sicknesse and death yee feare why then doe you neglect the Sacrament why doe you receive it unworthily Whence are those Epidemicall diseases amongst us the cause of them is from hence that yee neglect the Sacrament that yee receive it unworthily 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many are weake and sicke among you and many sleepe Consider the danger of neglecting the Sacrament he that came not to the Passeover must bee cut off from the children of Israel the same Equitie remaines still in the Sacrament the cause of that was because he was to come up with the rest to remember the death of the first borne of Egypt and the redemption from their bondage hee being passed over thereby It is now the same sinne to neglect the Sacrament the Equity still remaines Are yee so strong in faith as ye need it not To bee absent from the Word yee thinke it a sinne so it is to be absent from the Sacrament nothing can excuse you If a master bid his servant do a thing and he goes and is drunken so that he cannot doe it will it excuse him If you have made your selves unfit to receive the Sacrament by commiting any grosse sinnes the unfitnesse will not excuse you If a man hath an occasion to ride a journey if he misse one day hee will take the next so ye if ye misse the Sacrament once be sure to take it the next time It is devided here that so if ye misse once yee may receive it the next time take heed therefore how yee neglect it The end of the Sacrament is to worship God to set forth Christs death it is the chiefest part of God worship therefore give it the chiefest respect Now from hence see the necessitie of this life of grace how can yee come to the Sacrament if yee are dead men Labour therefore for this life of grace And thus much for the first point that all men out of Christ are in a state of death We come now to the second which is this That all in Christ are in a state of life Our scope is to shew you what you are out of Christ and what benefits ye receive by being in Christ we cannot goe throughout all particulars but we will take the greatest life and death the one the greatest good the other the greatest evill All in Christ are living men this is the greatest benefit because death is the greatest evill therefore by the rule of contraries life must be the greatest good Farther men prize nothing so much as life this experience sheweth and Sathan himselfe could tell that skinne for skinne and all that a man hath he will give for his life Iob 2.4 Beyond experience God himselfe threatens death to Adam as the greatest evill The day that thou eatest of it thou shalt die the death Gen. 3.3 Now all that live this life are living men and have all things pertaining to life 2 Pet. 1.2 they have all that pertaines to life and godlinesse that is all things necessary for the nourishing and cherishing of them life were else unhappy take beasts and plants they having all belonging to their life are happy and they are said to live take any naturall life when as a man hath food and rayment and recreation he is said to live A man lives when he hath life and all that appertaines unto it I will divide this Doctrine into two parts and I will shew you two things First that there is such a life as this Secondly what this life is First that there is such a life as this It is needfull to shew you that there is such a life because it is a hidden life God hides these spirituall things as he hid Christ under a Carpenters sonne so he hides the glorious mysteries of the Sacrament under the base elements of Bread and Wine he hides the wisdome of God under the foolishnesse of preaching he hides those whom the world is not worthy of under sheepes Skinnes and Goates Skinnes Heb. 11. yea Col. 3.3 Our lives are hid with Christ in God But from whom is this life hidden I answer that it is hidden from naturall men as colours from a blind man they are there and he sees them not But with what is it hidden I answer that it is hidden First with this naturall life wee see it not because wee have this life it is hid as the Sap in the roote or water in the spring Secondly it is hidden with a base outside 2. Cor. 6.10 The Saints are as poore as despised as having nothing Christ had a base outside there was no forme or beauty in him that wee should desire him and so have the Saints being conformable to him they are like other men for their outsides Thirdly it is hidden with mis-reports thus Christ himselfe was hidden he was counted a wine-bibber a friend of Publicans and sinners one casting out divels by Belzebub and therefore he became a stumbling blocke unto many The Saints are likewise mis-represented they are evill spoken of they are presented to mens understanding otherwise than they are There are a generation of men that pervert the strait wayes of God Act. 13.10 that is they make them seeme crooked though they are straight notwithstanding they pervert them as a crooked or false glasse perverts a face that is beautifull representing it in another shape or as a sticke that is halfe in the water and halfe out seemes to be crooked and yet is straight in it selfe But in what is it hidden I answer that it is hidden in Christ as in the fountaine as in the heart and soule as in the subject wherein it dwels Men what ever they professe beleeve not this that there is such a life because it is a hidden life what course then shall wee take to make you beleeve it The Scriptures you will not deny yet you will be as hard to beleeve them as you will be to beleeve that there is such a life Wee will therefore say something without the Scriptures to perswade you that there is such a life as this First there is a life which the foule and spirits lives as the Angels they move act and understand though they eate not there is therefore a life
besides this common life Secondly consider the matter of the soule then yee shall see that the soule lives such a life as Angels doe The soules of good men leade such a life as good Angels doe the soules of bad men such a life as bad Angels The life of beasts depends on the compacture and Temperature of the substance as the Harmony doth upon the true extent of every string With the soule of man it is otherwise the soule lives first and then causeth the body to live it is otherwise in beasts their soules and bodies live together Besides it is certaine that the soule shall live when as the body is laid aside then it lives another life from the body therefore it lives another life in the body The higher faculties of the soule the Vnderstanding and Will are not placed or seated in the body as other faculties are the visive facultie must have an eye to see the hearing facultie must have an eare to heare and so the rest of the faculties must have their organs but the Vnderstanding hath no such organ it onely useth those things that are presented to it by the phansie Our sight feeling and hearing perish when their organs perish but the superior faculties of the soule weare not away but the elder the body is the younger they are The soule lives now in the object now in the subject it lives in the things it is occupied about As the Angels are said to be where they worke because they haue no bodies as we have to make them bee locally there so the soule it also lives where it is occupied as if it be occupied about heavenly things then wee are said to have our conversation in heaven Take the understanding and faculties of reason they sway not men but the Ideaes truthes and opinions that dwell in the understanding sway men There are three lives in man there is the life of plants of beasts or sence and the life of reason I may adde a fourth and that is this spirituall life which is an higher life of the soule Where there is an evill life there is death but where there is a good life there is this spirituall life See it in the effects for these are but speculations First yee see by experience that there is a generation of men that live not a common life delight not in vaine pleasures sports and honors there is no life without some delights their delights and life is not in outward things abroad therefore they have a retired and inward life at home Secondly there are no Acts but for some end there are men who make not themselves their end if they did they might then take other courses going with the streame If then they make not themselves their end then they make God their end they live not to themselves but to the Lord 1. Thes. 3.8 Thirdly they care not what they lose to get advantage to God they are content to be despised contemned to suffer Torments imprisonments and death they are content to doe that which is the ruine of their lives which they would not doe had they not a more speciall-life within them 2. Cor. 4.11 We which live are alwayes given up to death for Iesus sake that the life also of Iesus might bee made manifest in our mortall flesh That is for this cause God suffered his children to be in danger that men might know that they live an other life and have other comforts this appeares by our readinesse to bee exposed to death all which shewes that there are some that leade an other life But it will be objected that the superstitious and those of another religion will suffer death as well as the Saints and morall philosophers are retired as well as the Saints and those who have but common graces live this life as well as the Saints therefore these experiences proue not the point sufficiently I answer that it is true that superstition doth worke much like Religion morall vertue doth many things like true holinesse and Common grace doth much like true grace yet it is no good argument to say that because a dreaming man dreames that he sees therefore a living man that doth see doth but as hee A picture is like a living man yet it followes not that a living man is dead because the picture is dead it is no Argument to say that because morrall vertue doth many things like true holynesse therefore true holinesse doth them not They may be like in many things yet not in all things the cause of all deceit is because we cannot discerne of things alike therefore I will shew you how these differ First superstition makes men suffer much as well as true Religion yet they doe it out of a false opinion the other from faith the one doe it being helped by the holy Ghost the other have a supernaturall helpe from Sathan that extendeth nature beyond his spheare the one doth it from grace the other from delusion the outward acts are alike but the inward principles differ Secondly morrall vertue and Christian holinesse differ in working the last is done of a sudden A man is made a living man suddainely though there are some previous dispositions yet the soule is suddenly infused after this manner the Saints passe from death to life Others have their habits by frequent acts and education they are moulded to it by little and little Thirdly in morrall men the change is never generall there is no new birth in them but in the Saints All things are new 2. Cor. 5.17.18 Fourthly morallitie doth never change nature but grace doth the most wilde man in a country the unlikeliest man of all others Religion makes him a Lambe of a Lion though it were unprobable Fifthly what did mortall men they went by divers wayes to the same center themselves were their end Epicures thought one way the best the Stoicks another but the Saints seeke a happinesse in denying themselves which helpes to perfect them Lastly common and true grace have many things alike yet they differ in this true grace doth things as a man doth naturall living actions as a man eates and drinkes with willingnesse and propensivenesse connaturally and readily so doth not the other Those who have onely common grace doe all from respects and by-ends their holinesse is but by flashes and by fits it continues not they are like violent motions quicke in the beginning and slower in the end the higher they goe the weaker they are but the motions and actions of the godly are as a stone falling downewards which moves faster and faster till it falles to the Center where it would be Now we have done all this there is not yet sufficient said to make it sufficiently appeare that there is such a life of grace these and an hundred other Arguments and reasons will not make naturall men beleeve that many men live other lives than they But when they see the life of
brings us to that state that Adam was in at first this restores us to it seeke not then your happinesse where it is not to be found We all doe as the Prodigall did we get our portion into our owne hands and goe from our Fathers house and seeke for our happinesse elsewhere but yee shall finde at last that all else is but huskes Thus the Saints have found it This life of grace gives rest to the soule all else in the creature is but vanity and vexation of spirit Vanity is nothing else but an insufficiency in the creature to give that content that wee looked for in it as when we looke for water in an empty well seeke for that in the creature that is not in it wee see its vanity in the absence of the good wee looke for and presence of the evill wee looked not for In God yee finde rest and tranquility such a tranquility as is in the Sea when it is without waves as is in the upper region of the ayre where no tempests are Looke on the lives of men who are taken up with trifles when they are young when they come to a riper age greater things move them when men are wiser they feele the apprehension of higher things when ye lift up your soules and keepe them on the wing yee are freed from troubles and cares Paul had a greater measure of this life than other men his Epistles which doe transcribere animam transcribe as it were his soule declare as much and hence was it that in all his troubles and afflictions he was full of constancy and comfort the more constantly we live this life the greater gainers shall we be Lastly till yee live this life yee have no assurance that yee are in the number of the elect Repentance puts a new life into men till yee finde this in you yee know not whether God is yours whether God will worke this life in you This should make us tremble and feare and never to leave till wee had got this life This life is a fruite of election wee know not whether wee are in Iacobs or Esau his case till we know we have it make haste therefore to get it It lies not in your power The Spirit breatheth when and where it listeth ye may feare that God will not give it you if you spend your life in vanity Take one who neglects you all the time that hee is able to doe you service if hee seekes unto you in his extremity for his owne ends what answere doe you give him but this Seeing he hath neglected you when he was able to doe you service you may justly refuse him now he is able to doe you none So if ye neglect God whilst ye are able for to serve him and seeke to him in your extremity take heede that yee receive not that answer from him as the Israelites did in their extremity Goe to your Idols and let them helpe you nay hee forbids Ieremiah to pray for them Consider this and make haste to live this life of grace ye cannot get it of your selves God must put it into you Now if these motives move you to seeke this life and after examination of your selves ye finde it not to be in you then use these meanes to get it The first meanes to get and mainetaine this life which is all one for that which begets it doth likewise nourish it is knowledge abound in knowledge get much light this life consists in light when a man judgeth aright The understanding enlightened is the primum vivens the first living part and therefore ye shall finde that life and light are put one for the other Ephes. 5.14 Stand up from the dead and Christ shall give you light and Ioh. 1.4 Christ was that light and that light was the life of men this life stands in inlightning the mind adde to this light yee adde to life The reason why men are dead is because there is a darkenesse in their soules they see not the wayes of God therefore they act not they step not forwards because they are in the darke All shining is from light as ye increase light so ye increase life Ephe. 4.18 it is said of the Gentiles that they were strangers from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them The knowledge of God brings men nearer to the life of God Ephe. 4.24 Holinesse is said to proceede from truth the words are put on the new man which after God is created in righteousnesse and holines which proceeds from truth But you will object that there are many who abound in knowledge who have life little enough that ignorant men live this life most that none live it lesse than those that know most To this I answer that there is a double knowledge First there is a meere inlightening and informing knowledge Secondly there is an operative knowledg yee may have enough of the first and be never the neere but it is the last that helps and gets this life and this knowledge is the gift of the sanctifying Spirit this is the operation of God we doe but informe and teach men wee cannot make them doe any thing wee cannot make them practise Gods teaching makes this knowledge operative perswades every way works every way Secondly there is a knowledge in the habit and a knowledge in the act which produceth actions these are set downe obscurely In the. 2 Pet. 1.12.13 the Apostle there saith that hee would not be negligent to put thē alwaies in remembrance of those things though they knew them and were established in the present truth yea I thinke it meete as long as I am in this Tabernacle to stirre you up by putting you in remembrance Peter did not write unto them that they might know those things habitually for so they knew them before but that they might know them actively and might presently act them for that end he wrote The first knowledge is as sparkes raked up in ashes the other as sparkes blowne up the first is as the sap in the roote the later like the sap that fills the branches with leaves and fruite the first is a generall knowledge gotten by contemplation the last is a practicall and actiue knowledge a knowledge to practise The Scripture exhorts to doe things that intend this knowledge Deut. 4.1 and Deut. 6. the Israelites were exhorted to heare and know the statutes of the Lord that they might doe them to speake of Gods word and works which actes their knowledge puts them in remembrance of Gods mercies and stirres up their minds Iosh. 1.8 he is commanded to reade the Law and to meditate in it day and night he must reade it not to know it for at that time there was little written but hee was to reade it that he might doe it But if we doe this so much it will hinder and interrupt our businesses so that we shall faile of
will quicken you as the soule doth the body A Christian hath the life of the Sonne of God Gal. 2.21 I live yet not I but Christ lives in me all that I doe Christ doth it in me all that the body doth the soule doth it the body lives not but the soule lives in it After that manner Christ lives in us not a good thought or affection nor any resolution or motion of the soule but comes from Christ being united to Christ by faith he lives in us Ioh. 6.43 he that eates my flesh and drinkes my blood shall live As flesh gives life to the body so the Sonne gives it to the soule To eate the flesh of Christ is to prize him to desire and long after him which is after the spirit of bondage to eate him is to take him to come to him to have him for your God In these two things stands the eating of Christ First in prising him exceedingly so as to part with any thing for him and to take up his Crosse with all losses Secondly in beleving him to be yours and you his this eating and drinking of the body and blood of Christ expresseth our relative union with him and then followes our reall union the Spirit immediately gives this he that doth the first shall have the second But how shall we doe to beleeve this I answer yee see the old Adam communicated corruption to all his posterity because they were borne of him so those who are borne of the new Adam that is those who take him and beleeve in him have grace communicated to them by him this new birth makes you as capable of Christ as the other doth of the first Adam why then shall not the second Adam communicate grace as well as the other doth corruption The phylosophers were all deceived in this poynt from whence corruption should come but wee know that it came from Adam and so doth grace come from Christ. To get this life let us seeke it in him let us beleeve more let us be humbled more repent more and take Christ more take him on any condition prize him set him at the highest rate hold him fast As in the actions of mariage those who are to marry will not part upon any condition they take one another for richer for poorer for better for worse after this manner must wee take Christ the more yee take Christ thus the more yee have the Sonne and so yee live more the life of grace All grant that this life comes by the Spirit and there is no way to get the Spirit but by the Sonne Yee must first eate ere yee can bee nourished yee must fixe your eyes on his passion as the wife doth fixe her eyes or her husband yee must seeke this life from the Spirit ultimately but yee must first have the Sonne and then yee have life He must have the Sonne that will have this life he must be ingrafâ—ed into Christ as the branches are into the roote get Christ and then this life shall abound in you The fourth meanes to get and increase this life is the communion of Saints The mouth of the righteous is a well spring of life Prov. 10.20 they put life into those that have it not and increase it in those in whom it is Ephe. 4.24 Their speeches minister grace to the hearers they edifie them hearing of the word of life and talking of the fountaine of life puts life into men The life of the body doth not communicate it selfe to others it is otherwise in the life of the soule the life of it makes others to live more as Iron sharpens Iron so one holy man doth another See it by the contrary In evill men who are dead there is an aptnesse to dead others their words are as continuall droppings to put out this life their tongues are set on fire of hell Iames. 3.6 The tongue of good men is a cole fetched from the Altar they have fire within them When two lie together they keepe one another warme there is action and redaction which ingender heate so it is in the communion of Saints it is a powerfull meanes to get and increase this life The tongue the example and communion of the righteous is full of life it is powerfull to make men live Gal. 2.14 Paul speaking to Peter saith why compellest thou the Gentiles to live after the manner of the Iewes he used not outward compulsion his example and life was a compulsion The company which wee keepe compells us to doe as they doe Evill company are the Divels snares they doe as brambles keepe us in and fetter us the sutablenesse of evill companions drawes out our secret corruption He that resolves to live this life must resolve to withdraw himselfe from evill company who are a strong temptation unto evill and betake himselfe to the communion of Saints There is a difference betweene leading our selves into temptation and being led into it when you leade your selves into temptation as you doe when as you rush into evill company you are out of the pale of Gods protection If you touch pitch yee cannot but bee defiled with it wherefore make your company good this is an effectuall and powerfull meanes to beget this life in you Saul being among the Prophets changed his spirit and became a Prophet one that goeth fast makes those that goe with him to mend their pace Act. 11.23.24 it is said of Barnabas being a good man and full of the holy Ghost and of faith that he added much people unto the Lord. Which manner of speaking shewes that the speeches of those who are full of faith helpes to breed faith that if men be full of the Spirit they quicken the Spirit Evill company deads men they are the trunkes through which the Divell speakes and this deading is done in an insensible manner and then most of all where it is least perceived Evill company poysons men a man turning his opiaion which company can doe is most of all poysoned when as he thinks that he hath least hurt The last meanes to get and increase this life is that which is mentioned in the text and that is the hearing of the voyce of the Sonne of God this will beget and increase this life that is if when wee speake to your eares hee speake to your hearts then ye live Ye have two teachers the one is he that speakes to you the other is Christ. Heb. 8 1â— They shall no more teach one another for they shall all be taught of God There are two sheapheards the one is hee that feeds you the other is the great sheapheard of the sheepe Ther are two great voices the one speaking outwardly to the eare the other when as Christ speakes effectually to the heart When Christ speakes inwardly to the heart then men live and not before This is such a speech as Christ spake to Lazarus Lazarus come forth and he
laid open to the heart all things necessary to salvation must be manifested to it then there must be light in the heart to apprehend those reasons which are propounded The Scripture propounds things by authority and when as things are thus expounded the holy Ghost doth kindle light to apprehend them which another doth not Marke how Moyses beginning his booke saith that in the beginning it was thus and thus God did he doth not perswade them by arguments to beleeve it so Iohn begins his Gospel without perswasions In the begining was the word c. so the Apostles commission was Goe and preach that Christ is Come he that beleeves shall be saved he that beleeves not shall be damned The word of it selfe is sufficient authority when the Gospell it selfe is thus propounded then the holy Ghost kindles light in men And when as the Gospell is propounded and light kindled then this life is wrought Now there are three degrees of working this life by the Spirit First there is a stirring up of men to attend to the voyce of Christ many there are that heare yet attend not Act. 16.14 The holy Ghost opened the heart of Lydia to attend unto Pauls preaching We sow on fallow ground till the Spirit opens the heart to attend to the things that are spoken The second worke of the Spirit is to convince and perswade effectually and fully Ioh. 16.8 The Spirit shall convince the world of sinne that is it shall convince and perswade thorowly none can doe this but the Spirit It doth also farther perswade men that it is good for them to be convinced and this is when the knowledge is full when as all the corners of the heart are answered and the minde resolved to practise Hypocrites and civill men are perswaded yet not fully therefore they never practise if one objection of the heart bee unanswered yee never come to practise The last worke of the Spirit is to keepe this voyce on the heart that it vanish not Iames 1.21 The ingrafted word is that which is made able to save your soules and none else Men may attend for a flash but the Spirit must ingraft the Word into the heart which as a sprig ingrafted growes bigger and bigger and hath fruit from the sap other men having truthes not fastned on them they grow weaker and weaker To understand fully what this voyce of the Sonne of God is ye must know that there is a double voyce First an outward voyce of the word which all heare Secondly an inward voyce of the Spirit This I collect out of Esa. 6.9 Goe to that people and tell them heare ye indeed but not understand see yee indeed but not perceive that is they shall have an outward hearing an outward knowledge but not an inward There is a common knowledge which all those have who live in the Church and there is a knowledge that is onely proper to the Saints which saves them The differences twixt these two knowledges that of hypocrites and of them in sixth of the Hebrewes twixt common knowledge and effectuall knowledge that is wrought in the hearts of the elect are these First common knowledge is confused and generall this is distinct inward and particular that is the voyce of the Sonne of God speaking in the Ministry to all may breed a knowledge of truthes in men yet they apply them not to their hearts and the turnings of them Heb. 4.11 The Word is sharper than a two edged Sword discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and spirit and of joynts and marrow that is that Word of God that is lively indeed that voyce of God that is effectuall to salvation it is sharpe it strikes not in generall but enters the inward parts A staffe cannot enter the flesh it may bruise it but the voyce of Christ enters like a two edged Sword discerning twixt morrall vertues and supernaturall things wrought by the Spirit it distinguisheth exactly twixt the rectitude and obliquity of mens hearts this is proper onely to the saving knowledge of the Word As nothing is hid from God but it is naked to his sight so it is to his word See if the word be distinct to you else you know nothing A man never knowes any thing till he knowes the Elements parts and grounds of it the voyce of the Sonne of God onely makes you know things thus particularly So in other things yee know not till you know particulars Aristotle saith a man is not a Physition that knowes things in generall in the grosse but he that knowes them in particular This is not to be a Physition to know that such dry meates are good for a moyst stomacke unlesse he also know dry meates and the Symptomes of a moyst stomacke so it is in the knowledge of the Word To know what regeneration is is not enough except yee know the parts the kinds and signes of it To know that none are translated from death to life that love not the brethren is not enough except yee know the brethren and love them To know that hee that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof is nothing except yee know that yee your selves have crucified it This particular knowledge is that which makes manifest to a man the secrets of his owne heart 1 Cor. 14.25 that is the voyce of the Sonne of God discerneth the secrets of the heart to know things particularly that are in it The sheepe distinguish the voyce of the sheapheard from the voyce of a stranger when men come to heare they heare the voyce and distinguish not the sound because they want this particular knowledge Secondly this hearing of the voyce of the Sonne of God workes a quicke sence in the hearts of those that heare it which the outward voyce doth not and this followes the former Let knowledge be particular it workes quicke sence Heb. 4.11 the word is called lively in operation now life consists in quicknesse and motion the voyce of Christ speaking effectually breeds quicknesse Sola individua agunt et sentiunt A knife in generall cuts nothing the particular knife cuts To know in generall you are sinners have corrupt natures offend in many things workes nothing it is the reflection on your particular sinnes that workes this makes men tremble Act. 2.36.37 Peter having told the Iewes that they had crucified Christ that pricked them at the heart As it is of sinnes so is it of comforts particular comforts only worke If one can say I am thus and thus then comfort followes so particular threatnings make men sensible When God said to Adam Hast thou not eaten of the tree whereof I said thou shouldest not eate this made him feare The word doth breed a quicke sence they who have not this true voyce sounding to them Esay 6.9 In hearing they doe not heare and seeing they doe not
see their hearts are fat their eares heavy and their eyes shut Rom. 11.8 God hath given them the spirit of slumber that is when as men heare his voyce in a common manner they are as a man in a slumber it stirres them not their hearts are fat that is they are sencelesse for fat is without sence The property of them that heare in an ineffectuall manner is this they have a spirit of slumber they are as one hearing a tale when as his minde is otherwhere If the things propounded were naturall they would heare them well enough but they are spirituall therefore they are dull of hearing them Thirdly which followeth the second those that heare the voyce of the Sonne of God have experimentall knowledge the other is but speculative 1 Cor. 2.6.9 Wee preach wisedome to those that are perfect such wisedome as eye hath not seene eare hath not heard neither hath it entered into the heart of man but God revealeth it to us by his Spirit that is the cheefest in knowledge have not seene with their eyes or heard with their eares but those that heare the voyce of the Sonne of God have an experimentall knowledge which others have not This experimentall and saving knowledge hath triall 1. Ioh. 2.13 I write unto you fathers because you have knowne him that was from the beginning expound this by the 33. of Ezekiell 33. When this commeth to passe then shall yee know that a Prophet hath beene amongst you that is when I shall doe this they shall know experimentally that there was a Prophet amongst them 1 Ioh. 5.19 wee know that wee are of God that is wee know it experimentally they can say of this as it is said in the 1 of Ioh. 1.1 That which we have heard that which wee have seene with our eyes that which wee have looked upon and our hands have handled of the words of life delare we unto you David takes it as peculiar to himselfe Psal. 9.10 They that know thy name will trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seeke thee that is they that experimentally know thee will trust in thee for thou never faylest them that trust in thee they know it by experience 1. Pet. 2.3 Desire the sincere milke of the word that you may grow thereby if yee have tasted that the Lord is gracious We find in the Saints a longing after God they desire him which others doe not thus did David Moreover they have assurance of salvation which others have not and this assurance comes from sence optima demonstratio est a sensibus the best demonstration is from sence as he that feeles the fire hot knowes it best tasting breeds longing assurance from experience breeds certainty Fourthly effectuall knowledge that is bred by the voyce of the Sonne of God makes men approve and justifie the wayes of God makes them to relish them this followes the other when men have tryed them they approve them Ioh. 6.63 The Spirit quickens the flesh profiteth nothing the words then that I speake they are Spirit and life Christ having spoken that his body was meate indeed many were offended at it then hee said The Spirit doth quicken that is yee accept not my words because yee have not the Spirit yee have but flesh that is a common knowledge my words are spirituall and you are carnall therefore they doe not relish you These words are otherwise interpreted by some that is these materials profit nothing without the Spirit but the other is undoubtedly the meaning for so it is through the Scripture the Spirit profits that is saving knowledge wrought by the Spirit men not having it doe not approve it It cannot be otherwise where the voyce of Christ doth sound effectually there they justifie this Wisedome is justified of her children Luk. 7.35 Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feete of them thaâ— preach the Gospel of peace that is they see much beauty in the wayes of God that they are beautifull to them they are vile to others The Scripture often toucheth this that when as there is but a common knowledge men relish not the word Rom. 8. they tast not the word the spirituall part of the word crossing them is bitter to them 2 Cor. 2.15 The word is compared to a sweet savour to many it is not so to some it is the savour of death to death it is a savour diffused through the house many there are who abhorre it and being guilty of death it leades them to death In others it is the savour of life that is they smell a sweetnesse in it it brings them to life to heaven the word being powerfully taught there comes a savour some smell sweetnesse in it others doe not so Luk. 2.35 When Christ shall come the hearts of many shall be opened to approve or disapprove him therefore he is said to be set for the fall and rising of many So when he came some said he was a good man others that he was a divel some said that the Apostles were good some that they were bad See how yee approve the word in its selfe and as it is expressed in mens lives Fiftly if it bee a right knowledge it breeds holy affections the other doth not this followes the other If men justifie the Word then they affect it It s a generall rule that all full perswasions draw on affections let it bee but a perswasion in habit it stirres as the habit is 1 Thes. 1.6 My word was to you not in word but in power because it did worke in you ioy in the holy Ghost Ier. 23.29 God comparing the word of true and false Prophets together saith thus My word is as fire and as the hammer that breaketh the stone it is the powerfull word if it stirres your affections Luke the last Christ speaking to the Disciples that went with him to Emmaus their hearts burned within them they were full of holy affections Consider if yee have these holy affections Holy affections in the Scripture are ascribed to this knowledge every where where men heare or know a. right Psal. 112.1 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord that delighteth greatly in his Commandements Psal. 1.2 Blessed are they that delight in the Law of the Lord See whether there be holy affections wrought in you by the word Felix did tremble at the word so the second ground received the Word with joy but not with holy joy But how shall wee distinguish them I answer that if your joy be holy joy afflictions will not put it out if your ioy be carnall joy persecution puts it out but ioy in the holy Ghost is not extinguished by the contrary Sixtly that knowledge which is lively brings forth action it is powerfull in mens actions it is active and mighty in operation Heb. 4. It workes in mens hearts and lives mightily to overcome all contraries Esa. 6.10 Make the heart of this people fat make their
eares heavy and shut their eyes least they see with their eyes and heare with their eares and understand with their hearts and convert and bee healed that is Let them have such a common knowledge as civill men and hypocrites have and no more least seeing aright they understand with their hearts and be converted and they bee healed Seeing with their eyes is meant seeing with this knowledge which if they see with their hearts will be wrought on their hearts being wrought on they are converted and then they are healed This followes on the other Let the affections be stirred and actions will forthwith follow because they are the immediate principles of action what one affects hee doth these are tyed all on one string flashy affections flashy actions Ioh. 6.45 Christ speakes thus of this knowledge They shall all hee taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth to mee that is every one that heareth this true voyce of the Sonne of God comes to me that is they breede actions whereby they come to me See if your knowledge bee operative Iam. 1.22 the Apostle distinguishing of hearers saith thus Bee not hearers onely but doers too if yee finde not this operative working change Christ hath not spoken to you But even the Saints have many defects in their actions therfore actions follow not hearing and knowledge To this I answer that as their actions are weake and faint so their knowledge is weake Heb. 12.5 They often forget and must be put in mind 2 Pet. 1.13 They must be stirred up by putting them in remembrance of those things which they have forgotten Secondly this faile is from some doubt from some shaking within when as you see a defect in actions or affections it is because you want this convincing knowledge The way to stirre up affection and action is the Word which increaseth this operative knowledge If then it be so that the voyce of the Sonne of God is the onely meanes to translate men from death to life let us examine our selves whether we have heard the voyce of the Sonne of God or no If we have not then let us know our cases and be humbled they that have not heard it are dead Consider it is your distinct knowledge not a knowledge in grosse or generall that inlivens you Know yee the passages and working of regeneration and repentance finde yee the Word as fire and as a hammer the Word is such in its owne nature and will be found so of them that receive it aright Have ye an experimentall knowledge approve yee Gods Image his wayes in the Word or in the lives of the Saints doe yee justifie wisedome are your hearts opened at the hearing of the Word doe ye like it At Christs comming many hearts were opened because then his Word came and it opened many mens hearts shewed them what they were How doe yee affect the Word and Image of God in the lives of the Saints how do yee realish holy affections in them blessednesse goeth alwayes with them Affections are alwayes a signe of this life have yee received the Word with them have yee sorrowed for your sinnes doe you delight in God This wil beget holy affections which wil last afflictions will not put them out holy joy is not damped with afflictions carnall joy is What are your lives and actions If yee seeing others holy cannot doe as they doe this voyce hath not spoken to you All who heare Christs voyce will come and be doing Iam. 1.22 If doing be joyned with hearing if yee are doers as well as hearers this voyce hath spoken to you if your practise be not joyned yee are deceived If yee finde upon examination that yee have not heard this voyce of the Sonne of God remember that Christs sheepe heare his voyce yee may therefore feare yee bee lost sheepe if ye heare it not He that hath an eare heares the Gospel If it be hidden it is hidden to those that perish where men live in ignorance and heare not God regards not it so much that 's not the time of tryall So where they have the Word as wheate covered with chaffe it tryeth not but when the Word commeth with authority and not as the Scribes when Christs voyce sounds in the Word see how yee are affected if then yee heare not yee are dead Cant. 2. Christs comming is compared to a Spring time wherein the flowers appeare on the earth and the birds begin to sing and the trees put out their greene fruite that is when Christ makes himselfe knowne it is Spring time doe you spring when the Word comes when the messages of salvation are made knowne unto you If not yee are dead Our end in speaking this is not to trouble you but to bring you to salvation I will therefore shew you what keeps men off from hearing Christs voyce that knowing the impediments yee may remove them Now the impediments are seven The first is selfe-wisedome this is a great impediment from hearing the voyce of the Sonne of God selfe conceitednesse hinders men much because it breeds a despising of the wayes of God 1 Cor. 2.14 The naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse with him therefore 1 Cor. 3.18 If any man seeme to be wise in the world let him become a foole that he may be wise that is let him lay aside that wisedome which begetteth pride in his heart Michals disposition is in every one of us more or lesse shee despised David so men chalke out a way to themselves in which they will goe they will seeke their owne wayes and will not be subiect to the Law of God Rom. 8.7 The carnall mind is enmity with God for it is not subiect to the Law of God neyther indeed can it be 2 Cor. 10.5 the Apostle speaking of imaginations saith that men with them build up themselves against God and will not alter their courses The greatest opposition is in mens minds take a man that hath a true opinion it is easy to remove his lusts but false iudgements are as bulwarkes against Gods wisedome Men will doe thus and thus because they thinke their state is good The Scribes and Pharisees come not to Christ Luk. 15.1 but Publicans and sinners came so it is with men now doe we lay open their sinnes unto them yet they will not bee perswaded men will bee righteous of themselves and will not bee perswaded that Christ must bee made unto them righteousnesse and redemption and wisedome This opinion of our selves is a great impediment this contemnes the Way of God and fashions out our owne wayes this contenting of our selves with our present estate makes us to erre therefore Psal. 119.21 Cursed are the proud that are alwayes erring from thy Law Selfe conceit makes men erre The second impediment is custome men have beene used to such wayes and will
not alter them Ioh. 4.12 the woman of Samaria was much held off with this argument Christ comming to teach her the doctrine of salvation Art thou greater said shee than our father Iacob that gave us this Well This opinion that our fathers have gone this way and it is transmitted to us hinders men much men cannot indure newnesse Lot is taxed for this by the Sodomites Gen. 19.9 This fellow came in to sojorne here and will he now bee a Iudge So Act. 17. Paul preaching at Athens the Athenians asked What new doctrine is this that thou preachest Men being accustomed to a way it winns their opinion men having once judged are loth to judge againe custome winnes their affection Change is troublesome men having gone long in a course they will still plod on in the same tract Custome of our fathers or country or place where wee are our owne custome makes us loath to forsake it Thirdly Similitude is a great hinderance Exod. 7.22 Pharaohs heart was hardned because the Magicians did the same miracles that Moyses and Aaron did So similitude hinders men from imbracing the wayes of Christ and God Men seeing Papists austerity like our mortification their suffering like true martyrdome they are perswaded of their wayes as we are of ours so for civility when as men see it so like religion as a sparke is like the fire they imbrace it All deceit is from similitude false wares having the same dye that true have deceive the buiers so falling starres are like other starres When wee see some men that professe religion to be false hearted we thinke all are so wherefore Phil. 1.10 The Apostle prayes that They might abound in all knowledge and iudgement to discerne of things that differ This proximity makes us deceived Fourthly false experiments hinder us much some experiments of the workes of God that should draw us nearer to him if wee make false use of them separate us farther from him As if God afflict and restore againe or keepe us from affliction our hearts are hardened Exod. 8.15 When as the Frogges were removed Pharoah his heart was hardned rest made him harden his heart so many times it makes men slight the word and afflictions which God layes on them We may see this in Souldiers and Mariners none more ready to contemne dangers than they because they have often escaped they delude the workes of God that should draw them to salvation Rootes will make the weeds grow againe not being taken heed of The long suffering of God should draw us to repentance but it doth not so 2 Pet. 3.3 In the last time shall come mockers walking after their owne lusts and saying Where is the promise of his comming for all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation that is men shall feele nothing apprehend nothing that God doth iudgements being beleeved they second the Word being eluded they hinder us and it The fift impediment is ignorance men know not the wayes of God therefore they doe not imbrace them Ioh 4.10 If thou hadst knowne the gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee thou wouldest have asked of him There is enough in religion to make men love it if they knew it there is vertue in it there is beauty and profit in it Esa. 57. There is a peace in it all the wayes of it are wayes of pleasantnesse there is honour in it old age is honourable with righteousnesse But mens hearts are full of darkenesse they see not neyther doe they understand it 2 Pet. 2.12 They speake evill of the things they know not It s true they know the things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they know them not experimentally and really and that deceives them 1 Cor. 8.2 If any man thinke hee knoweth any thing he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know One may know all things and yet know nothing as he should Ignorance deceives many it makes them to measure religion by a false rule and common opinion Act. 24.14 it is called heresy when yee judge of it by externall shewes all basenesse is outwardly in religion it is as like a costly thing covered with straw Christ was hid under a Carpenters Sonne preaching under the name of foolishnesse so our ignorance in attributing things to false causes keepes us off If the Gospel be hid it is hidden to those that perish there is a double ignorance privative and positive that is it by which the God of this world blinds men breeding a false perswasion of good and a good perswasion of evill The sixt impediment is in consideration men doe not consider the things they might know if men would deduce one thing from another and doe that they know they might be brought to God Deut. 29.2.3 Yee have seene saith Moyses all that the Lord did before your eyes in the Land of Egypt upon Pharoah and his servants yee have seene those great signes and miracles which hee did yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and eares to heare untill this day that is yee have not profited because yee have not considered We thinke if that we had lived then wee had beleeved yet wee see how few of them did beleeve we beleeve the Scriptures yet what inconsequence is there in mens lives because wee doe not consider things Consideration helpes to perfect mens actions it is as a circular line one part helpes the other If wee looke backe and examine our actions it helpes want of it hinders What is repentance but consideration Ier. 8.6 No man repented him of his wickednesse saying What have I done want of this keepes men from salvation 2 Chron. 6.37 If they bethinke themselves in the Land whither they are carried away and turne and pray unto me in their captivity saying Wee have sinned we have done amisse and dealt wickedly then I will heare So Ier. 8.6 God harkned whether any would say What have I done men goe on and consider not Hosea 4.11 Whoredome and new wine steale away their hearts that is it makes them not to consider Mark 6.52 They considered not the loaves therefore their hearts were hardened they were feareful in the ship because they considered not the miracle of the loaves The seventh impediment is a certaine stifnesse and obfirmation of minde whereby a man is setled to continue in such a course that is pleasant to him and all that crosse him in it are enemies to him Rom. 8. the flesh is not subject to the Spirit it crosseth it one reckons not a man his enemy unlesse hee crosse him It must be so every creature as long as it hath a being opposeth that which is contrary to it so every man that delights himselfe in such or such a lust will not be circumcised cleansed and washed from it hee will not have Christ reigne over him he will have his elbow roome Those men that are not translated from death
to life they count the wayes of God eyther vanity or folly and will not submit unto them nor yet heare Christs voyce Now the meanes the helpes and wayes to breake through the impediments and to receive the Word with profit are these First to heare profitably that the voyce of the Sonne of God bee not a common voyce but peculiar take that rule which is set downe Luk. 8.18 Take heed how yee heare Christ gave that admonition to his hearers and I give it to you looke to your selves take heed how yee come to heare the Word doe it diligently the reason of this is added in the same verse for unto him that hath shall be given and from him that hath not shall bee taken away even that which he seemed to have That is if yee heare and get a little knowledge yee shall have more hee that yeeldeth some fruits shall bring foorth more hee that doth some things shall doe more God will blesse you But from him that hath not shall bee taken even that which hee seemed to have that is your hearts shall be hardened and that common knowledge which you have shall bee taken away Ioh. 15.2 Every branch that beareth not fruite God cuts downe God lookes into a Congregation to see who doth make conscience of hearing those that doe he purgeth but those that profit not hee curseth he takes not away their lives but their graces makes them wither in the inward man and so hee comes to death Luk. 19. He that had ten Talents he that had most had more given him To practise a little is the way to get more The Talent is taken from him who did not use it and given to him that had most Talents There are two rewards for him that useth the Talent well First hee shall have mâ—re Secondly he shall be ruler over ten Cities hee shall have comfort here and hereafter hee shall have more comforâ— and grace See how he dealt with Nathaniel Ioh. 1.50 Because he confessed Christ to be the Sonne of God and beleeved because Christ saw him under the Fig-tree which was but a small thing Christ tels him that hee shall see greater things than these Ioh. 7.17 If any man will doe his will hee shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God that is if yee practise according to your knowledge you shall know more it shall be confirmed to you Let men know and not practise then Rom. 1.21.22 Because when they knew God they glorified him not aâ— God neyther are thankfull therefore God gives them up to uncleannesse thorow the lusts of their owne hearts to dishonour their owne bodyes betweene themselves and to worship Idols as he dealt with the Gentiles So in the 2 Thess. 2.9 Because they received not the love of the truth because they heard much and did not imbrace it God gave them up to strong delusions to beleeve lyes See it by experience when as men play with their knowledge God gives them up to heresies The Spirit of God will not strive long with them God hath commanded us not to cast Pearles before Swine and will hee himselfe doe it Consider what yee doe in every doctrine of salvation that is preached to you yee eyther relish it or not yee obey it or disobey it ye taste it or disrelish it If yee taste it not it is a savour of death unto death that is it brings death and leades to hell if yee savour it aright it brings to heaven There is no true doctrine but the not obeying of it bringeth something to your damnation When the savour of Christs knowledge is made manifest not receiving it ye reject it and it brings a curse Heb. 6.7.8 The earth which drinketh in the raine which commeth oft upon it and brings forth hearbes meete for him by whom it is dressed receiveth a blessing of God but that which bringeth forth thornes and briers is rejected and is nigh unto cursing whose end is to be burned that is the word is as raine it makes hearbs and weeds to grow if hearbs grow God doth prosper it more if it fals upon rockes it withers more and more God doth curse it It is not in the knowledge of divinity as in other sciences in them ye may neglect a yeare or two and get it againe but it is not so in this yee will not be able to returne againe yee are neare a curse yee cannot redeeme it See what followes in the neglecting of the Word In the 2 Chron. 36.15.16 God sent his messengers rising up early c. because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his Word and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord rose up against his people till there was no remedy Grace may stand with infirmities before they are reveiled but being reveiled the light discerneth them If men refuse God indures it not Act. 17.30 The times of that ignoâ—rance God regarded not but now take heed the Gospell being reveiled God will beare no longer Before Iohn Baptist came the Axe was not laide to the roote of the tree but as soone as he came it was because then the Gospel was made knowne hee revealed the truth When the truth is once revealed if men doe not then receive it God indures it not Heb. 3.13 To day if yee will heare my voyce harden not your hearts God will not stay longer than this day There is a day when it is wee cannot prescribe after which God will not offer grace but commonly wee see that men being of the age of discretion and having the way shewed if they neglect it then they commonly perish God hath a secret time The Iewes had their day but because they accounted them selves unworthy of everlasting life Paul did turne from them to the Gentiles Act. 13.46 Saule had his day hee had common gifts and profited not therefore God forsooke him So Israell had their day but when they neglected it God bids Ieremiah not to pray for them Consider what you have heard of the Sacrament that yee may not absent your selves from it in the places wherein you are without weighty affaires which will excuse you before God so for the Sabbath you know it should bee kept because it is holy and if it be holy I would aske you this question whether it bee holy in whole or in part If all of it be holy it is not arbitrary it must be sequestred from common uses The vessels of the Sanctuary are said to bee holy because they were not used but about holy things So the Temple is holy because it is a place set apart for Gods service so time is holy when it is bestowed on holy things holy thoughts holy duties consider that it is holy and that every part thereof is holy and then deny if you can that it is not to be sanctified Some men spend their time which
they should redeeme in idlenesse and gaming most in drunkennesse and disorder and not as they should Yee have heard of mortification yee have heard the doctrine of changing from death to life apply them and take heed how you heare yee that heard it negligently shall grow worse and worse The second meanes to heare profitably is that which is set downe in the 1 Thess. 2.13 that is to receive the Word not as the Word of man but as the Word of God This makes the Word of Christ effectuall to heare it as the Word of God that is consider whose word it is Consider the ground of it that it proceeds from God who is present God is there and we speake in his stead God spake to the Israelites in Mount Sinay and would have continued for any thing we know yet the people desired that Moses should speake unto them Wee beseech you in the stead of Christ to be reconciled unto God This is of much moment to heare it as Gods Word morrall truths may build you up in morrall vertues and may be profitable to that purpose but they will not breed spirituall life that the Word onely doth being received as the Word of God Iohn 6.65 when as Christ demanded of the twelve whether they also would goe away Peter made this answer Lord whither shall we goe Thou hast the words of eternall life A man is not a living man but by conjunction betwixt God and the soule God is to the soule as the soule is to the body hee puts life into it and is conjoyned to it by his word when it is thus received The Word comming as from God wee doe that which is commanded us because God will have us doe it we doe it simply and sincerely so that God accepts it When we receive the Word as the Word of God with faith and full Assurance then it breeds life within us and when it begets life then it comes from God then it comes in power and in the holy Ghost and makes us become followers of Christ 1 Thess. 1.5 When we receive the Word of God as from God himselfe with full assurance then it workes effectually then it begetteth life in us To live is to have sence and motion to be acting the receiving of the word with ful assurance makes us active the beleeving of it sets men on worke 2 Chron. 25.5.6.10 When as Amasiah beleeved that God would not be with him unlesse hee sent away the Israelites then he sent them away and not before Caleb and Iosuah did beleeve therefore they followed God constantly Abraham offered up his sonne Isaacke because he beleeved God that he could give him another sonne or raise him out of ashes againe Let a man be perswaded that such a thing will hurt him or that such a thing will doe him good hee doth the one and leaves the other Receive therefore the Word with full assurance consider what is delivered if it be the Word or no consider that it which yee heare is eyther the Word or not the Word it belongs to me or not Men take things overly and are not rooted and grounded in faith and that makes them heare unprofitably See then if your particular actions agree with the Word so yee shall be rooted in faith this makes the Word a Word of life The third rule and meanes to heare with profit is that which is set downe of the fourth ground in the parable of the seed in the eight of Luke the 15. verse that is To receive the Word with honest and good hearts having heard the Word to keepe iâ— and to bring forth fruite with patience Heare the word with honest hearts this is done when as a man is resolved to practise whatsoever God will reveale when he hath no reservations or exceptions to himselfe when hee is resolved to practise what he heares with an humble heart being humbled we will doe this and not before The fourth ground was humbled men will not heare this because they are proud now pride is an evill disposition in the creature whereby it exalts its selfe above its measure There is this fault â—n men they will picke and chuse in the wayes of God The last ground will onely part with all for Christ. Act. 9. When as Paul was humbled hee then cryed out Lord what wilt thou have me to doe I will doe or suffer any thing for thee and hee was as good as his word So Act. 2.32 the Iewes being humbled cried out Men and brethren what shall wee doe wee will doe any thing to be saved So Act 16.30 The jaylor being humbled demanded of Paul what hee should doe to be saved when as a man is thus disposed God will teach him Psal. 25.9 God teacheth the humble his wayes man himselfe will doe so if he see one willing to learne he will teach him The secrets of the Lord are revealed to those that feare him to those that stand in awe of him and dare doe nothing against him hee reveales his peculiar truthes in a peculiar manner to men those things that are effectuall to their salvation Bring therefore humble hearts ready to obey But you will say wee doe obey and practise what we heare I answer that yee may be deceived as they in the fift of Deut. They said they would obey but God saw that there was another heart in them than what they saide therefore God said O that there were such an heart in them that they would feare me and keepe my commandements alwayes that it might goe well with them and their children for ever So Iohanan and the other Captaines Ier. 42.20 desired Ieremia to goe to God to know his will and they would doe whatsoever he should say whether it were good or evill But Ieremiah tels them that they did but dissemble in their hearts he knew they would not doe it Looke to this in the acts and effects what have you done when the Word crosseth you in your aymes estates names friends If you have disobeyed it then Eze. 14.4 the Word is made a stumbling blocke your iniquities are before your face and the Lord will answere you according to the multitude of your Idols God will answer such men according to their comming as they come with false hearts they shall be dealt withall accordingly Come then with hearts resolved to practise whatsoever is spoken and desire God to make it effectuall to salvation The fourth meanes to heare the Word and the voyce of Christ profitably is to lay up what you heare let it abide and continew with you This rule is prescribed by Christ himselfe Ioh. 15.7 If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall aske what yee will and it shall be done unto you When ye attend to the Word if yee are affected with it but for the time it is nothing except it continue with you it will not profit you you
want his voyce ought to procure such Now if yee will not be at cost for a good Minister it is a signe you love your profit above Christ. Those that dwell where Christs voyce is not let them remove for they sit in darkenesse and in the shaddow of death Esay 9.2 If your dwelling be pleasant if you have bitter waters or no waters at all you will remove Have not your dwelling then where the water of life is not If the voyce of Christ be the onely meanes to beget life let men come to it It is a great fault men come not to this voyce hee that came not to the Sacrament must be cut off What shall be done to him that comes not to the Word Want of the Word preached is a great misery therefore David complaineth much of this case when he was not able to come to the Word O that I am constrained to dwel in Meshech and to have my habitation amongst the tents of Kedar The daily sacrifice being taken away it was the greatest desolation that could be and can men live there with comfort where the Word is wanting Is it a duty to come to heare the Word or is it Arbitrary to come or not to come If it be arbitrary then yee performe but a will worship when yee heare it if a duty then yee must heare it constantly and enquire where it is to be had But you have excuses To this I answer see how yee can excuse your selves to God How angry was Christ with those that came not to the marriage that is principally meant of comming to heare the Gospell It is a despysing of God and his ordinances not to come it is a contempt which brings forth a curse which brings a judgement that is like the sinne Those that despise you despise me saith Christ the word is the power of God to salvation there is no salvation without faith and there is no faith but by hearing Faith comes by hearing He that heares not you heares not me saith Christ. Therefore if you heare not this voyce of the Sonne of God take heed lest he heare not you at last FINIS THE DOCTRINE OF SELFE-DENIALL LVK. 9.23 And he said unto them all If any man will come after mee let him deny himselfe and take up his crosse daily and follow me WEe have formerly propounded three things unto you the first was to shew you what wee are out of CHRIST and that is wee are dead men the second is what wee gaine by CHRIST and that is Life eternall with all things belonging to it and these two wee have finished the third is what wee must doe for CHRIST And that is Wee must deny our selves take vp Christs Crosse and follow him and for this end I have chosen this Text. And hee saide unto them all If any man will come after mee let him deny himselfe and take vp his Crosse daily and follow mee As if hee should have said all expecting any benefit from me now I looke for this from them againe to deny themselves to take up my daily crosse and follow me The occasion of these words was this CHRIST told them before that the Sonne of man must suffer many things goe through many troubles and drinke this Cup now from this he makes this consectary Hee that will bee mine must doe the same things that I doe though not in the same measure He must deny himselfe hee must take up his daily crosse as I doe dye on the Crosse and follow mee The maine Poinct intended is this Who ever will have benefit by mee must follow mee Now there are two maine impediments that hinder men from following me The first is Pleasures or any thing that a man lusts after therefore hee that comes to me must deny himselfe The second is crosses hee that followes mee meets with many troubles crosses and afflictions from the Divell and the world now hee must not bauke the way or decline them when as he meeteth with them but hee must goe thorough with them and every day beare them therefore hee addes that hee that will come after him must not onely deny himselfe but likewise take up his Crosse daily and follow him The first point of Doctrine that ariseth from the words is this That whosoever lookes for any interest in Christ must deny himselfe Hee that comes after mee that is he that will bee saved by me united to me made one with me must deny himselfe that is though there be no precedent condition required of those that come to Christ wee Preach that if any man will come in hee shall be saved what ever hee hath beene there is no antecedent condition required but to desire CHRIST Rev. 22.17 Let him that is athirst come let whosoever will come and taste of the waters of life freely That is none will take him none will come in but such as thirst there is nothing required before hand but to take him yet yee must know that when yee have taken him you must bee his hee must bee your Lord and you must bee conformable to him this none can doe without denying himselfe PAVL followed Christ because hee denyed himselfe but DEMAS did not deny himselfe therefore 2 Tim. 4.10 Hee imbraced the present world and forsooke Christ. Numb 14.24 Iosh. 14.8 CALEB and IOSHVA followed God constantly they went through all and denied themselves the other heads of the Tribes did not Take ABRAHAM for example of Selfe deniall Gen 12.1 GOD bids him goe out of his Country to an unknowne Land and hee doth it Hee refused not to offer up his onely Sonne when hee was commanded to doe it hee served God constantly If our wills and Christs will were unisons coincident then there were no need to deny our selves but because they are contrary one to the other therefore we must deny our selves But what is it to deny our selves I answer it is nothing else but not to make our selves our aime and end but to make God our end and aime and to deny our selves as wee are contrary to him To deny that dulnesse and aversnesse of Nature that the Scripture calls the old man and the flesh to give this the deniall is to deny a mans selfe because this is reckoned a mans selfe Flesh and corruption of nature is called a mans selfe 2 Corinth 4.5 Wee preach not our selves but Christ That is wee preach not for our owne credit and ends but for Christ and his glory The corruption of Nature is reckoned a mans selfe 2 Corinth 12.5 PAVL saith that hee knew a man that was caught vp into Paradice c. Of such a one I will glory yet of my selfe I will not glory That is I will not rejoyce of my corruption but of the regenerate part of my selfe I am a lump◠〈…〉 of sinne But why is this reckoned a mans selfe I answer because it is spread
people fasted and assembled themselves together but it was but for Corne and Wine take away our respects wee are cold these are desires that should be denied Fourthly if all that have interest in Christ must deny themselves then try whether you have interest in Christ or no are ye willing to deny the flesh Are ye willing to undergoe the crosse To crucifie the flesh for Christ Else ye are not in him He must deny himselfe that is in Christ all are ready to say that they deny themselves when as it is spoken in generall but if yee will know whether you deny your selves or no consider but these three things First are ye willing to be informed Will ye try and sift thing to the bran Try ye if the thing be lawfull which yee desire If yee stop your eyes and eares and will not examine it you doe not deny your selves it is all one to stop the light as to have it and not to follow it Is there not a secret light within you that tels you this and this is a sinne doth your conscience whisper within you if it doth ye deny not your selves except yee desire to be informed Num. 22.20 Balaam would not goe upon any tearmes to curse Israel at the first and second request he had a secret light within him that told him that hee should not goe though God bade him goe but yet God who knowes the waies of the flesh and Spirit saw that hee lingred after Balacks wages and therefore he bids him goe and he went hee did not satisfie his conscience So SAVL caried it fairely when as he offered Sacrifice before SAMVEL came so hee did when hâ—â—â—ared AGAG and the best things pretendiâ—g Sacrifice to be made with them yet his conscience told him that it was a sinne he did not satisfie it· Examine things to the full else yee deny not your selves Wee preach to you that you must doe thus and thus peradventure yee deceive your selves and reason against it yet your Consciences are convinced 2 Corinth 4.2 Wee speake to your Consciences and approve our selves to them we preach not to the wits and humours of men but to their consciences in the sight of GOD and men You must love the light Ioh. 3.12 Hee that doth truth commeth to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought of GOD. Doe yee choose the light without seeking any â—istinctions or evasions If a man seeke evasions it is a signe hee is not of the truth Hee that loves the truth is of the light approves things that are excellent he is willing to hold up his actions to the Sunne as one doth a vessell to see if there be ever a flaw in it Yee may call sanctifying the Sabbath Iudaisme yee may call strictnesse of life Hypocrisie and Precisenesse Zeale indiscretion But what say your consciences of them If that which we doe bee but hypocrisie why doe you not it in reality Yea but you are more strict than the rule Why then try whether it bee so or no take not the word upon trust 1 Corinth 3.5 Wee are the Ministers by whom yee beleeve and not what yee beleeve If yee are not willing to search what the good 〈◊〉 of GOD is yee deny not your selves In those things that are in question see that you satisfie your Consciences and that light which is within If there bee a question about sanctifying of the Sabbath and gayning doe as your Consciences bid you see if there be not a reluctancy within Secondly consider what yee doe in case of a strong affection in a strong temptation in a particular humour it is not what a man doth in coole blood but what doe you when as opportunity and strong affections meeâ—e Hee is a good Pilot that shewes himselfe so in a storme hee is a good Souldier that shewes himselfe so in a breach see if you doe as ABRAHAM hee denyed himselfe in his Son It is Selfe-deniall when as a man renounceth himselfe and his flesh when as they aske him violently and importunately Will you omit no duty though it cost you much As DANIEL would not leave off Praier though it should cost him his life Dan. 6.10 wil ye not commit any sinne though you gaine never so much by it as BALAAM did and as those that have the persons of men in admiration because of advantage doe Try what yee doe in such cases as these If some trouble follow such a duty what doe yee Mark 8.38 Hee that is ashamed to professe CHRIST though it brings a Crosse to him hee that will not professe him in time of tryall of him will the Sonne of man also bee ashamed when hee commeth in the Glory of his Father Hath Christ need of the same thing that you your selves have need of will yee bestow it on him Suppose it be a boxe of oyntment or tenne times more the tryall is how we doe deny our selves when as we shall injure our selves Thirdly yee shall know if yee deny your selves by the humility and lowlinesse of your minds Are yee content to be translated from one condition to another An humble man is willing and content to bee translated from one estate to another hee wonders he hath so much hee will be trampled on for GOD. If yee are proud having great thoughts of heart ye never will deny your selves The proud resist GOD and hee resisteth them 1. Pet. 5.5 They are full of murmurings and disquiet The broken hearts make no account of themselves care not for any condition are contented with the lowest roome as the Prodigâ—ll was so they have grace it is enough If ye have this disposition it shewes you are men denying your selves Apply these rules and try if yee deny your selves or not if yee doe not know your condition and labour to bring your hearts to it to deny your selves The wayes to doe it are these First to deny your selves have a right judgement of your selves reckon the inward man your selfe if yee reckon the Flesh your selfe riches honours credit and wealth that perfect the flesh your selfe then yee will lose all for it yee will not deny your selves Such a one will leave Religion wound his Conscience rather than lose his estate But if wee reckon the regenerate part our selves it hath friends and a Kingdome and reckoning it our selfe wee will suffer any thing rather than hurt it we will lose our life and liberty and yet are well because this is safe After a man is regenerate he reckons another thing himselfe than he did before the Spirit is now predominant he is himselfe doing Spirituall things the Spirit is Lord of the house the flesh may come in as a theefe but there is a great difference when as it comes thus and when as it comes as a Lord When as the Spirit is a mans selfe his hold is in heaven Let us judge of our selves and wee shall be able to deny
come very neare within a step or two to heaven and yet misse it many there are which do much like the young man yet some thing is wanting that also must be had els there is no Salvation Why is there so little change in men but because they thinke that lesse will serve the turne This cold overly and customary performance of holy duties marres all therefore consider but this First that it doth you no good at all what good did the Laodiceans luke-warmnes doe them they had as good bin cold yea God wisheth that they were either hot or cold Rev. 3.15 What good did all that Amafiah did to him seeing that he did it not with a sincere perfect heart These dowbaked services as I may so stile them these carkases without life these slight services profit not therefore there are conditions added to them in the Word prayer prevailes If it be fervent Iam. 5.16 If thou beleevest with all thine heart Act. 8. Effectuall faith diligent hope and fruitfull love 1 Thess. 1.3 It is a good observation of Divines that God loves adverbs better than verbes well doing above doing those that came to the wedding not having wedding garments were shut out Math. 22.11.12.13 as well as those that came not those that offred strange fire as Nadab and Abihu and their company were consumed as well as they that did not offer at all Secondly consider the nature of the thing what it is to be religious Is it an easie thing to turne nature to worke a change Is it easie to get ground of a raging lust It is as hard as to get ground of the Sea Consider the difference betwixt the Law and us That is spirituall wee are carnall Rom. 7. Consider the distemper of your affections and know your selves all that we have in us is either common or corrupt nature Gods graces are beyond the one and contrary to the other must we make these duties of religion to be onely in the by Prayer keeping of the Sabboths are to most men but as things in the by the streame of their affections runs in an other channell There is another thing required of us than this we must love the Lord with all our hearts and strength Deut. 6.5 This is it which all must do they must love God with all their strength else they are not worthy of him There is a qualification required of all that are saved he is not worthy of Grace or Heaven that seekes them not with his utmost indevour The difference twixt Cains Abels sacrifice was this Gen. 4.3 4.5 The one did it negligently brought the worst of his fruits the other brought the best he had Cursed is every one that doth the worke of the Lord negligently that is contenting himselfe with the outward performance of it doing it as a taske and being glad when it is done and over to doe it diligently is to worke with an eye to that which it tends to and to obtaine the end The end of prayer is to quicken you to performe holy duties when you obtaine this end then is your prayer diligent To do things onely for shew is nothing the effect and end is all you esteeme not your servants works unlesse they obtaine their end there is nothing that you esteeme the end of it being not done What is it to pray the end being not done men not being built up by it Iude 20. We must build up our selves in our most holy faith praying in the holy Ghost A cold formall performance doth but hurt us breeds more coldnesse and deadnesse in us In habits the more imperfect the acts are the more they weaken the habits the duties of religion coldly performed weaken grace Let a man accustome himselfe to write carelesly and crookedly it marreth his hand Let us therefore do all we do to God with diligence and fervency consider that those whom you thinke least needed for to do it did so their diligence should stir you up You know that Iacob wrestled with God all night Gen. 32.24 and so should you wrestle with him with strong prayers Christ himselfe spent many nights in prayer looke upon the prayers of David the fastings of Daniel aâ—ove all others looke upon Paul you may see him in watching in prayers and in fastings often he had a continuall strife with his heart to bring his body that is the deeds of his body into subjection I keepe under my body saith he and bring it into subjection 1 Cor. 9.17 My body that is the sinfull lusts of my body must bee brought downe I must go thorow fighting till I have the victory else I shall be a cast-away I shall else have onely an outward shew but yet bee nothing accounted of with God Consider this if a little diligence will not serve the turne adde more if prayer will not doe it adde fasting to it As there are some divels that will not be cast out without fasting and prayer so also are there some sinnes Make the plaister fit to the disease Complaine not with the sluggard who puts his hands in his bosome and doth nothing at all or doth not proportion his labour to the worke Lesse labour would serve the turne if our soules were as dry wood but they are as greenwood there must be much blowing ere they will bee kindled It is hard to get our soules to good duties hard to keepe them on the wing we must continue in prayer and that instantly too Men are ready to give over and to sit downe but you must continue Eph. 6. We must watch thereunto with perseverance there must every day be a new winding up of the soule there is a spring of sin in us so there must be a spring of holy duties we must doe them constantly you have daily new crosses and impediments therefore you must mend your pace in the way to heaven and bee more diligent you must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord and not slothfull Rom. 12.11 Doe your owne worke up and be doing and the Lord shall be with you 1 Chr. 22.16 God will deale with you as he did with the Eunuch hee was reading of the Scripture and God sent Phillip to him for to teach him Act. 8.26 c. So Cornelius hee was praying and God sent his Angell to him first and afterward Peter Act. 10. So the Apostles when as they rowed all night as Christ bade them he at last joynes himselfe to them and helpes them Matth. 14.24 c. The worst natures with his helpe can doe any thing the best without him can doe nothing Fiftly if the wayes of God are so full of crosses and difficultyes then learne from hence to justifie the wisedome of the Word of God and the Religion in the Scriptures It is an argument that it comes from heaven because it is not a whit agreable with our natures It is a pure and no leaden Lesbian rule it is
enable a man to beleeve it I answere that certainely there is a mighty power that goes out from God and Christ that enables thee to beleeve with efficacy so that when the object is set before thee there goes out a power from Christ to worke faith in thy heart whereby thou truly beleevest it and so it appeares in thy life We think we beleeve those things but our lives do manifest the contrary namely That there is not a powerfull faith wrought in us for all the errours of our lives though we observe them not arise from hence that these Principles are not throughly beleeved if they were it could not bee that there should be such inconsequences in the lives of men Therefore consider if this faith bee wrought in thee whether such a power hath gone out to worke such a faith that hath changed thy whole course as it will doe if it bee once wrought in thee by the power of Christ So also consider whether there hath a vertue gone out from him to worke love in thy heart to the Lord for otherwise it is certaine that there is no man in the world that is able to love God or to come neere him for all love riseth from Similitude there must bee an agreement and similitude betweene those two that love Now every man by nature is as contrary to Gods pure nature as fire is to water without an almighty power to change his nature and to worke a particular affection of love in him he can never be able to love God therefore it s the baptisme of the holy Ghost which workes this He will baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire that is with the holy Ghost which is fire I will multiply thy sorrowes and thy conceptions That is the sorrowes of thy conceptions Now love is as fire in the heart and one fire must beget another And therefore you have it in the common proverbe Love is a thing that cannot be bought with mountaines of gold and silver yet if thou bee in Christ there goes out a vertue from him that stampes upon thy heart this holy affection that breedes in thee this holy fire of love so that thy heart cleaves to him thou lovest him with as true with as genuine as naturall and as sensible love as thou lovest any friend as thou lovest any creature in the world Consider if this be wrought in thee or no. And so for thy knowledge there is also a power in it consider whether any such vertue hath gone out from Christ to make the knowledge which thou hast powerfull You will say what is that That is to bring on these truthes which thy heart assents unto to bring them with that evidence and fulnesse of demonstration that thou shalt yeeld unto them and practise them according to thy knowledge Beloued there is much knowledge among us but who practiseth according to his knowledge We know God but wee glorifie him not as God and the reason is because there hath not gone a power with that knowledge to make it lively and effectuall to passe through all the faculties of the soule and to overrule them for if there were such knowledge it would alwayes draw affection and practise with it So likewise consider whether there hath gone a power from him to mortifie thy lusts Whosoever is in Christ hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts not to lay them asleepe onely but to mortifie and subdue them See likewise whether there hath a power gone out from Christ to helpe thee to overcome the world The lusts of thine eyes the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life for whosoever is in Christ overcomes the world and all that is in the world The world hath many things to worke upon us and to resist and oppose us It hath persecutions it hath disgraces it hath slanders and reproches which it casts upon holy men upon the holy wayes of God And the men that are actours in this are the divels factours though they thinke not so as the Apostle Iames expresses it Their tongues are set on fire of hell to devise slanders and false reports and to fasten them upon holy men especially upon the Ministers of the Gospell and so upon all the wayes of God I say they are the divels factours though they thinke not so and those that beleeve them are the divels receivers the one hath the divell in his tongue the other in his eare But the Lord hath appointed this This is one thing whereby the world fights against the wayes of God to discourage men and to hinder them that they might be stumbling blockes to them So it was with Christ hee was the falling of many in Israel by reason of this so was Paul as a deceiver and yet true c. Consider if thou hast this efficacy put into thy heart that thou art able to overcome this that thou art able to overcome all the offences and persecutions all the slaunders and reproaches that are cast upon the wayes of God and notwithstanding that to thinke well of them and to walke in them and practise thē Likewise as it hath these things on the one hand so it hath pleasures preferments glory riche◠credit and all things of that nature on the other art thou able to overcome all these So to shut up this point prosecute it no further thus you shall know whether you be in Christ for that is the point Wee have assurance in him that if we aske any thing we shall be heard but first we must be in him now 〈◊〉 know whether we be in him as you have heard there must be an act of ours and secondly an act of his which is this power that goes out from him to change to take and comprehend us So much for the first thing Now for the second if a man will apply or take to himselfe the priviledges wee have by Christ as this particular priviledge of being heard in our prayers of comming to the Sacrament or any other know this that it is not enough to be in Christ only but there must be a certaine qualification a certaine immediate fashioning and preparation of the heart or else though thou have a right to the priviledges though they belong to thee yet thou art suspended from the use benefit and comfort of them And this is considered in these Five things I will but name them very briefely First when a man comes to receive the Sacrament it 's not enough for him to be in Christ no nor when he is come to do some other duties but moreover there must be this also those grace thou hast this change this new creature that is wrought in thee which is but a heape of particular graces these must be acted and stirred up upon such an occasion It is true no man ought to come except he have the graces of Gods Spirit wrought in