though at the first it may be weake yet it growes to that temper by which it may propagate and the life of grace is most strong in this regard it no sooner moves and feeds or growes in any measure or begins to expell any ill matter but it will have a minde to be fruitfull begetting its kinde and that is above naturall life a Christian is most apt and ready to draw on others to be like himselfe As soone as ever the woman of Samaria saw that Jesus was indeed the Messiah and found true sweetnesse in him the very same houre she runs into the Towne and tells her neighbours Come see a man that hath told me all that ever I did Joh. 4.29 Is not he the Christ and when they came and saw it they said We beleeve not because of thy Word but because we have heard him our selves and we know that this is indeed the Christ This is the proper nature of true life as soone as they are truly begotten they beget others of their owne kinde not but that sometimes a Christian soule hides himselfe long before he be well setled but when he truly discernes that he lives and is conscious to himselfe that God will be gracious to his soule then he desires to propagate the like grace unto others Joh. 1.41 to 46. when one had found Christ they call others to come and see Psal 51.10 Then shall I teach transgressors thy wayes and sinners shall be converted to thee to shew you that if God will but worke a cleane heart in David and renew a right spirit within him and his broken bones may be recovered and if God shall be pleased to establish him with his free spirit and he may be once againe assured of the pardon his sins then will he teach others the wayes of God if he be once converted himselfe he will draw on as many others as he can Thus you have five signes of spirituall life SERMON X. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life WE are now in the next place to see how we may discerne life by the properties and adjuncts of it you heard before of the effects of life now of the properties and qualities of this life by discerning of which we may know that we have life There be three properties or qualities of life Three properties of life 1. Warmth First where ever there is life there is some warmth 2 King 9.34 when the Prophet had laine upon the childe and had done so seven times at length the breath of the childe began to wax warme a signe that life was a restoring and thereby the Prophet discerned that life began to returne into the body of the childe because warmth returned and so is the presence of the Spirit of grace and the union of it with the soule and body of a man it makes a man fervent and warme Fervent in spirit Rom. 12.11 and therefore it is that it is resembled unto fire Matth. 3.11 The Holy Ghost shall come downe upon you as it were with fiery tongues and shall warme and heate you with whatever duties God shall call you to 1 Thes 5.19 Quench not the Spirit now quenching belongs to fire a signe therefore that the spirit is of a fervent nature so farre forth as it is capable of any quenching and destroying by the Sons of men and 2 Tim. 1.6 Stirre up the gifts of grace in you as if yee stirred up the embers of the fire so stirre up and kindle the gifts of God which is in you blow them up into a kindling flame so that all these things expresse thus much That since the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus and from him communicated to his Members is a spirit of heat therefore wheresoever there is warmth there is life if no warmth nor heat there is no life and as our spirits begin to wax warme so we grow to life in Christianity Notable is that expression in Luke 24.22 Did not our hearts burne within us while he talked with us of the Scriptures to shew you that there is a power in the Word to convey such a measure of the Spirit of grace to the Hearers as that their hearts begin to glow within them and to convey some heat and warmth into them when the Word is powerfully applyed to the soule For the further opening of this point you shall see it in some things principally which are ever found in some measure in the spirits of Christian men that have any life in Christ First that which is wonderfull and is indeed no where found but in them their very knowledge is warme Knowledge warme which in all other men is cold knowledge is but an empty speculation brings forth no great matter of heat but in a Christian his knowledge is full of heat Zeale must be according to knowledge knowledge is no knowledge without zeal and zeale is but a wilde-fire without knowledge Rom. 10.2 So if Christians have a knowledge of God but no zeale there is no saving life in that knowledge it is not the knowledge of Gods people Notable is that speech of our Saviour Joh. 5.35 speaking of John He was a burning and a shining light not only a shining light to give cleare instruction in the knowledge of the Messiah and the true meaning of the Law but withall a burning light Joh. 5.3 expoundeâ— so as that he had a notable power when Hypocrites came before him to burne them up Mat. 3.12 And so where ever he came he did not only shew them what they should doe what shall we Publicans doe and what shal we Souldiers doe Luk. 3.3 to 15. but he did burne up not only those who were professed enemies to the wayes of grace but all those that he found in Hypocrisie he burnt them all up where ever he came and if he did not finde out their lusts he would kindle a fire in them he warmed Herod in such sort as that he was constrained to doe many things according to Johns Ministery Mark 6. and so shall you finde it in all the Servants of God that according to their life if there be true life there is true burning though sometimes their burning is not so strong as their life yet there is heat and fervency of spirit mixed with their knowledge that if they know the Will of God they are inflamed and their knowledge of Christ will not suffer them to be barren and unfruitfull 2 Pet. 3.18 So that the knowledge which a Christian man hath is such as by which he will doe what he ought to doe if he see sinne in his brother he will not suffer it to lye there Levit. 19.17 If he see any thing amisse in his brother that he sees not in himselfe he will be helpfull to him where the Spirit of grace is lively they will not suffer their brethren to rest in sinne much lesse
of the Son of God and to know eternall life only now to speake of it so farre as it is pertinent to this place Doct. 2. Such as doe beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by these Epistles of John may know that they have everlasting life Reason 1 So it is in the text Why by these Epistles First because John in this Epistle doth set before you where eternall life is to be had as the verse before the text he in sundry places sets forth the Lord Jesus Christ as the life which we are to receive from the Father he shewes where it is to be had and where forgivenesse of sinne is to be had and by whom we have propitiation chap. 2.7 Reason 2 Secondly These Epistles sets before us and gives us certaine meanes whereby we may obtaine eternall life as first If we confesse our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 that is one means and secondly he cals upon us to looke unto him as our Advocate and propitiation Reas 3 Thirdly He doth likewise give you certaine signes by observing of which you may know Signes of grace whether you have the Lord Jesus Christ or not This for one sign If we say we have no sin we make God a lyar and vers last If we keep his Commandements we know that we know him If God give us a conscionable care to keep his Commandements we know that we know him And some other signes as Chap. 3.3 if God give us hearts to purge and cleanse our selves from all such sins as hang about us and if God give us hearts to love the brethren c. these and many more such signes of grace he gives us in this Epistle Vse 1. If God having thus written and given us these Epistles then first it will be a just refutation of that Popish Doctrine that thinke it impossible for a man to know that he is in an estate of grace If John did write these Epistles for this end that we might know we have eternall life then sure we may know it else Iohn failes of his end and for Iohn to be disappointed were lesse matter but the Holy Ghost himself for Iohn being the Pen-man of the Holy Ghost the holy end he aymes at not being attainable is to put a defiance upon the Almighty and therefore the knowledge that we have eternall life may be attained and whereas they tell us we may have a conjecturall knowledge but no certaine knowledge but to say we have a knowledge and yet but conjecturall is as much as to eate up a mans words he had formerly said for a conjecturall knowledge is no knowledge at all Knowledge what Knowledge is the judgement or discerning a man hath of a certaine thing If a man aske you whether he know if such a man have possession of such a place and he say first yes and afterwards saith he conjectures so his knowledge is no knowledge it is a false intelligence If you aske a man if he knowes whether such a man have such a portion of such a value and he say he hath he conjectures so it is no knowledge but if he know it then he speakes of a certainty And therefore if the holy Ghost say We may know it then surely we may have more then a conjecturall knowledge even a certaine knowledge of our happy estates and were there no more Arguments in the world to discourage a man from Popery this were sufficient even this very doctrine of doubting and conjecturall assurance of a mans eternall estate which leaves a mans Conscience destitute of any peace Consider therefore Rome an Harlot that the Church of Rome is an Harlot and brings up strange children when she doth not teach her children to know God to be their Father it argues she is no lawfull spouse of Christ but doe but hope such an one is your Father but count it presumption to say you know it That Church that traines not up her Children to know God to be their Father is a false Church and a signe that the Church of Rome hath mixed her selfe with so many Idols and abominations that shee cannot teach the children of her Church to know that they are the sons and children of God but condemnes them to the death if they dare presume to say that God is their Father Vse 2. May refute that opinion of the Papists that will not suffer the common people to heare this Scripture take notice here how injurious they are to the faith of Gods people and to the knowledge of their chiefest comfort to debar them of the knowledge and meanes of their salvation take away these Scriptures and take away the principall meanes of the knowledge of our salvation Vse 3. To teach such as are in any doubtfull temptation at any time about their first estate and condition who are not able to apply with comfort assuredly their grounded knowledge that Christ and eternall life is theirs It may teach them among other Scriptures to be diligent in inquiring into this Epistle the Holy Ghost saith it was the maine scope of his writing unto all those that trust upon the name of Christ that they might know their blessednesse to lye upon him and those that did not certainely know they had found him he writes to them to look after Christ to long for him and to desire after him Doest thou then desire not only to beleeve eternall salvation belongs to thee but to know it for to know is something more then to beleeve A man may beleeve a thing and upon good ground he may looke for salvation there and waite for it and desire that he may be more assured of it but to know that thou hast eternall life and the certainty of it that God hath sealed it up to thy soule and conscience of which thou needest doubt no more this is a far more greater blessing then to beleeve in Christ though by beleeving we have eternall life and therefore if thou so beleeve in him as to looke for salvation in him and not elsewhere though as yet thou beest doubtfull of thy estate yet thou mayest learne much by reading these Scriptures read them againe and againe and leave not reading and searching into them till thou finde even from this Epistle ground of assurance Vse 4. May serve to teach the Children of God to know when you have made a good use of reading these Scriptures you read much and often and you thinke when you have done you have done God good service An usuall vanity among Christians if they have prayed in the morning and read a peece of a Chapter they thinke they are better blest all the day after for it and wee are unquiet all that day when we have not had time to read and pray but if that be done we thinke we have quit our selves well but a man may read and never consider what he hath gotten by it
be smooth and level before him the frame of the heart shall be as meeke as a Lamb The Lamb of God will not lye in a den of Lyons and if we breake out into harsh and unsavory distempers afterward we shal damp the life of God in us the life of Christ wil be dead in us and therefore if you desire to entertain Christ into your hearts then lay aside al harshnesse and bitternesse and roughnesse and al guile of crookednesse 1 Pet. 2.12 then you shal have life in the Word and find Christ to be yours This is the first thing whereby we receive Christ Second way of receiving of Christ Secondly Suppose he be come there is thus much more required to have him and to keep him there we must look there be no unholy thing remaining there all vaine and common things must be removed no prophain matter must stay there 2 Cor. 6.16 touch no unclean thing And if Christ be come unto you you must not onely remove all sinfull and uncleane matter but also all common matter and now every thing must be dedicated to God and you must goe about your callings as becomes Christians and you and all yours must be dedicated to God your silver and your gold must be dedicated and onely spent upon such uses as God calls for and therefore look at every thing so as God may have glory by it and let him not bee dishonoured in any thing by you all that you are and have must be dedicated to God mind and judgement and conscience and heart and affection love and hatred your whole man and all your labours and all you can reach lyes as a consecrated thing else God will not dwell livelily in you unlesse you have a care to keepe every thing cleane you shall find this to be true Christ loves to lye cleane and Religion loves to lye cleane and if hee see hasty sluttishnesse in us he will be gone and wil not tarry there he would not have naturall uncleannes to appear among you but let al such be covered and let no such defilement be seen among you he would have all kept in an holy reverent frame such as might become the presence of God The third way Thirdly The receiving of Christ into our hearts as into a Temple implyes to keep the charge of his Ordinances and holy things to offer to him all our sacrifices and to look that all be performed in such a manner as himself requireth God chargeth it as a sinne upon his people Ezekiel 44.8 ye have not kept the charge of my holy things but ye have set keepers of my Ordinances in my Sanctuary for your selves God will not dwell among them when they set up the uncircumcised to offer up their Sacrifices God will have every man to take charge over his own Temple have a care of your selves put not off your care to others you may not put off the charge of Gods holy things every man hath a charge to look to the things of God not only to see that al unclean things be removed and all common things dedicated but to see that every morning and evening Sacrifice be duly performed and all things done in a right manner else you will finde little life in Christ and if he see this care in you then Christ will come into his Temple and dwell there and you shall have life in Christ and that in abundance you cannot have God for your God but you must have a place readily prepared for him and keepe it in fitnesse and comelynesse for him trimme it up for an habitation for him this God requires of every soule that will have God for his God In a word therefore doe but consider whether your hearts have thus imbraced Christ or no is your base hearts exalted to look after heavenly things Note this and are your proud hearts brought low to the obedience of Christ do you find your ways of hypocrisie made plain before God and is your rough passions made smooth before God then you have Christ whether you see him or feel him or no and do you find that when you have Christ you dedicate your selves to him and suffer no unclean thing in your selves or yours and do you keep the Ordinances pure and offer up your morning and evening sacrifice your selves then you have received Christ and it is your faith by which you do thus receive him but if it be not thus with you then say you have not received Christ or if you have you are to be humbled for your great neglect and want of keeping of him SERMON IV. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life THere yet remaines two things for signes of having Christ for in all this point of our Christian faith there is no word but of more then ordinary and common use And therefore when he saith he that hath the Sonne hath life some signes may be gathered from the word having him and some from having him as a SONNE and some from this word Life by which we may know whether we have the Son and life in him Wee now come to speak of the second sort of signes Hee that hath the Son hath life then if we would have life in Christ we must have him as a SON The thing then to be opened is What it is to have Christ as the Son of the most high God and that will give further light to the Text and to the consciences of them that would see the ground of their hopes settled upon a foundation Hee that hath the Son hath life There bee three things implyed in having Christ as a Sonne First it implyes that such as have Christ in truth and so having him First thing considered in having Christ as a Son have life by him they do not rest in having any of the benefits of Christ though they be spirituall but they cheifely affect to have himselfe not so much his benefits as himselfe he doth not say hee that hath such and such spirituall gifts hath the Son no though you have never so many gifts and they such as doe accompany salvation but that which he principally commends to us is himselfe you shall read of a company of Professors that had Christ and affected to have him so farre as they might have Loaves from him Joh. 6.26 27. but our blessed Saviour bids them in seeking Christ seeke not for loaves that perish but labour for the meate which endureth to eternall life and that is only the Lord Jesus Christ himself Labor not for any loaves whatsoever you might finde in your pursuit after Christ It was this by which Peter did discover the hypocrisie of Simon Magus he desired the gift of the Holy Ghost but for Christ himselfe his heart was not set upon him but he only desired that in which lay most profit for had it been in his power that upon the laying on
a woman in true conjugall affection looke at no more but at the very bare man True love to Christ wherein it is if there be true love in her towards him she is content to have him though she have nothing else but his person so if our hearts be truly set upon Christ we are content to have him though wee should never see good day with him though wee should never see peace of conscience with him though no comfort of grace in him yet would the soule say that is truely affected to Christ give me Christ and I have enough who or what is there besides Christ What is there Why there is variety of excellent graces But whom have I in earth but thee As if ye should put all other things in comparison against or with Christ they are nothing to him then surely you have Christ But how much will this discord from the fellowship of Christ the Sonnes and Daughters of men who when they see the costlinesse of the wayes of Christ they will neither seeke after Christ nor his benefits But as for pardon of sin as it passeth all understanding so it passeth their desires And for peace of conscience they hope they have a good conscience or if not they doe not search to know it and as for the graces of the spirit and subduing of lusts they have a good hope and beleive as well as the best And for the Kingdome of glory they hope if God grant them mercy they shall come to heaven at the last These men are far from having the Lord Jesus and life in him they are so far off from seeking the Sonne as that they do not so much as seek those mercies and benefits which in Christ are conveyed to their soules they neither have him nor none of his They say to the Almighty depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy law Job 21.14 of such God saith They would have none of me Psal 81.11 not only have him but none of him that is nothing that was his not any saving benefit of his the world we would have but none of those choyce and heavenly blessings of Christ no pardon of sin no peace of conscience no care of Christianity or faithfull Ministery no feare of God nor keeping of his Commandements deare hearts for us how shall we ever conceive that ever we should have life in Christ when we doe not so much as desire the very benefits of Christ which yet a man may desire and loose all too and when a man hath not so much as an affection to the things of Christ it is very dangerous But secondly when a man is in this case that there is a desire in a man after the benefits of Christ more then after Christ himselfe all this while you want that sincerity upon which Christ wil give us a comfortable meeting and speake peace to our soules we are not yet come to that condition as in which he wil say My wel-beloved thou art all faire and there is no spot in thee he yet sees not a true conjugall affection in us towards him so as that though we should never finde grace nor glory by him yet he is the chiefe desire of our soules Suppose a woman should see a man that hath a desire after her but he chiefly aimes at her estate to provide for himselfe and looks no further wonder not if she should say to him You seek not me but mine she may wel rid her hands of him in such a case and truly so is the case here between us the Lord Jesus so long as he findes that we come to him and seek and pray and wrastle and what would we have Oh pardon of sinne and peace of conscience and power of grace to be but as other Christians are that we could pray and beleeve as they doe and finde such comfort as they have and this is the thing that the soule is chiefly set upon now all this while that we come thus to Christ we must not think that Christ is to blame if he tarry a little longer then we expect for we may seek him and not finde him because we seeke not so much him as his benefits and the rich treasures of grace and mercy and peace that are layed up in him without measure the greatest part of the world doe not love their soules nor the Lord Jesus so wel as to love him for his grace and goodnesse sake but yet among better men there is a world of selfe love many a man would have his sinne pardoned because he would have his conscience at quiet we may thanke our selves for such affections as these not but that such affections may spring from the grace of God for men by nature never dreame of such things as these be but yet though such affections may spring from the grace of God yet you shall ever finde such soules to detaine the grace of God in unrighteousnesse and out of selfe love use them all to their owne ends and looke not that God may be glorified in and by them nor that his wil be done but oh that the soule might have peace and that sinne might be pardoned and there it rests When our desires is chiefly set upon spirituall gifts if wee loose much comfort and fellowship with Christ that else we might have had we must not marvell at it for our desires are set not chiefly upon Christ but upon the things of Christ our desire is not after the person but after the goods and benefits of Christ Observe the Apostles expression Rom. 8.32 He hath given us his owne Sonne he doth not say he that hath given us peace and pardon of sinne will not he give all other things also Or wil not he give us Christ He reasons not from Christs benefits to Christ but thus he reasons He that hath given us his owne Sonne will with his Sonne and after his Sonne give us all other things At the second hand comes in all these benefits of pardon of sinne and strength of grace and power against our lusts c. these things come in as attendants upon the former and therefore if God give us first to looke at Christ that in him we have life of justification and sanctification and consolation eternall glory peace and grace and all then we have him and life in him else we may have the outward comforts but stand long enough at Christs Bed-chamber doore before he let us in Let it therefore be a word of direction and exhortation to every soul that desires to have that truth of life and peace and grace wrought in his heart that wil never dye have you respect chiefly to the Lord Jesus Christ and long and seeke more after him then after all Spirituall blessings and much more above all worldly blessings If you shall therefore refuse Christ because you thinke he is but a melancholly person you wil never have him if you stand upon
expression of a living soul is he doth not say it was wrought when he had a good mind to hear such a man or to take such a course so it may be will flesh and blood say but when you come to an heart that indeed lives in God sight he expresseth himself thus but when it pleased God it was done I for my part ran cleane another way I never had a desire after God I had indeed a kind of forme and shew and could comply my selfe to my Governours and Neighbours that I might be flattered and incouraged by them and I should never have taken better course of my selfe but when it pleased God to call me by his grace there is the life of a Christian he fetches his life from the highest heavens It pleased God to call me by his grace and to reveale his Sonne in me when it pleased him to shew me the estate of my soule and the sinfull rebellion of my heart and when he revealed Christ not so much to me as in me he was revealed to him in Act. 9. in the first vision and worke upon him but when he revealed Christ in me then he went that way the Holy ghost led him Thus you shal easily discerne it plainly though it be hidden in the pleasure of God yet it will shew it selfe evidently in the expression of a Christian man when he comes to speake of the life of his spirituall estate they never attribute it to good inclination nor to the good instructions of others but they say when it pleased God thus and thus to reveal himself in me when he shewed me my selfe when God laid about to find which way to hemme me in then it pleased God to do it and since then I have lived A second cause of my spiritual life is The second cause of spiritual life The Word of God the word of Promise for so the Apostle tells you Not all that are of Abraham are the seed and children of Abraham but the children of the Promise are counted for the spirituall seed That seed which is elected of God and chosen to everlasting life that is the seed of Promise That is such as are begotten of some promise of God or other Every Isaack is a Sonne of the promise And least you should thinke it peculiar to Isaack alone the Apostle opens it sweetly in Gal. 4.28 As a thing common with Isaack to all the people of God it is a like Priviledge given to the Galathians and to all others that were born of God We brethren are children of the Promise it was not peculiar to Isaack alone to be borne of the Promise and yet of the Promise he was borne in a kind of peculiar manner for before he was born God gave Isaack to Sarah by promise and by vertue of that promise was he borne even a naturall life Now so farre indeed it was a speciall peculiar Prerogative to Isaack and Jacob but the Apostle would from thence gather that the spiritual birth of us all is by a word of promise All of us one and other is born by a word of Providence but if we speak of our spiritual birth then we brethren are children of the Promise So that you shall observe this to be an holy truth of God That every child of God is borne of the promise of God So that then hast thou a new birth and dost thou live a new life Tel me then what promise was it that did beget thee to God that begat thee to this new life What Word of God was it by which thou wast begotten it is a general speech that in Ro. 10.17 Faith commeth by hearing and by the doctrine of faith preached Gal. 3.5 that is the Gospell of faith so that this is the point There is some promise which being reported to the soule in the ministery of the Word is laid hold upon by the hearts of Gods people the same Word of promise working that faith in the heart by which the soule cleaves to such a promise Then doe but consider if thou beest borne of God what cause was there of thy birth wa st thou born of that Word of God or of thine own conceite or of the good opinion of Christians or is there some Word of God which thou hast placed thy confidence in and upon which thou hast been reformed and since that day to this God hath turned thy heart and way to another course and given thee to live in his sight It is true it may be many a good soule cannot readily tell you Note this what promise did first bring them on to God but though thou canst not alwayes tell yet a word of promise it was and ordinarily a word of Promise which the word preached did apply to thy soule and caused thy heart to reach forth and to lay hold upon it but though thou beest not always able to reckon up the first Promises yet this I say And marke it there is no Christian soule but hath some promises of God on which his heart is stayed upon and by which his life is nourished which argues it was bred of those promises of which it is now fed though a man be not alwayes able to tell what promise it was sometimes a word of reproofe or of counsell may sink deep into a man when God sets it wel on and may make a deep impression in the heart of a man And may so turne about the course of their lives as that thereby they may reforme all common and outward and knowne soule sinnes which before was ever cause and matter of reproofe but that is not so safe a worke of Christ not such a strong evidence of our spirituall life when such a word of reproofe or counsell hath set us in such a course and we have thereupon refrained gaming and breaking of the Sabbath and vain fashions this is well but it is not so safe a signe of our new birth for this may befal even an hypocrite he may be so convinced by a word of grace and wise counsell as may strongly turne the streame of his course another way and yet bee without any life and power of godlinesse only the word of promise is able to work grace and life in the heart of a man For the Ground of the Point is this Ground of the point we cannot have a spirit of life wrought in us by the workes of the Law nor by the words of the Law Gal. 3.5 He that ministereth to you in the spirit and worketh miracles doth hee it by the workes of the Law As if he should say did ye ever receive the grace of Christ by the workes of the Law or by the counsell of the Law or by the commandements of the Law or by the reproofes reached forth from the Law he excludes it as impossible and as no wayes able to doe it vers 21. And therefore he doth ever lead us unto some word of the Gospel to some promise
as lets thee alone and only puffes thee up and makes thee to thinke goodly of thy selfe if that be all the worke of thy knowledge thou art a dead-hearted Christian if it cause thee to vanish away in empty contemplation and thou therefore talkest that thou mayest let others see thou hast knowledge as well as others and if it be dead and cold and empty and vanish away in empty notion and speculation and dead conference then thy knowledge is barren in goodnesse and that is an argument of no life in thy soule but if there be any truth of life in thy soule thy knowledge is warme and lively thy knowledge that is in thee hath some zeale and that sets an edge upon it and makes it serviceable to God and thy brethren I know not better how to expresse it then from Revel 1.14 15. in the description of our blessed Saviour His eyes were as a flame of fire It is true the eye is lightsome but it doth not burne they are not hot but the eyes of Christ is as a flaming heat and the meaning is Christ is described just according to the state of the Church to whom Iohn was to write as he had feet of brasse when he writes to a Church that though burned in the fire yet the more you burne it the lesse it wasts and the more pure it is and by degrees the more bright so where he speakes to a Church in persecution and it is not consumed then Christ hath feet like brasse but if he write to a Church of Thyatira a Church of a warme spirit then thus faith he that hath eyes like a flame of fire Revel 2.9 meaning the knowledge that that Church had which was full of zeale as wel as of light and according to the measure of its knowledge so it grew more in grace and therefore the workes were more at the last then at the first As their knowledge growes so growes their zeal so that if thou hast that life in Christ which accompanies salvation thy eyes are like a flame of fire full of burning light as well as brightsome knowledge Is thy knowledge such as suffers thee to sit downe barren and though thou knowest that thou oughtest to doe this and that yet thou doest it not then there is no heate and warmth in thy knowledge but if there be true life and warmth in thy spirit thy knowledge stirres thee up to be doing and stirres up others to be doing also and thy knowledge will not suffer thee to let them alone just as Peter and Iohn sometimes said to the high Priests We cannot but speake that which we know and have seene and heard Acts 4.18 19 20. And therefore though they threatned them is perrill of life to speake no more in Christs name yet say they that which we know to be the Truth of God that we must needs speake as Ieremie speakes chap. 20. I could not forbeare The light that was in him was a glowing and warme heate and the Word of God in him was as a mighty fire and it will not suffer him to rest and he must also stir up others So then examine whether there be any heate in thy knowledge if thy knowledge be not according to zeale it will but aggravate thy condemnation Againe examine thy breath whether doest thou breath or no Doest thou smell a good savour in Gods Word when thou doest read or heare it And doest thou smell a sweet savour in the conference of Christian men or doth it stinke in thy nostrils if it be sweet to thee it is well Doest thou pray to God with some kinde of panting after him and thy spirit is fit to faint within thee and thou canst sit downe and bemoane thy selfe to God that thou hast so lost thy selfe then there is breath in thee or canst thou bring out a word to edifie thy brethren it is well but if there be no breath in thee it is an evident signe thou art dead or at least in a deep sleep if thou hast no ability to pray and can relish no ordinance of God and have no kinde of aptnesse to edifie another then either there is no life in thee or else it is much benumbed and therefore either no life or none that is extant in thee And so how dost thou find thy warm affections stand to the Word hast thou a stomach to the Word And hast thou not so much profit by it as to see thou doest not profit and art ashamed of it but if not there is no life in thee And if thou lovest to be disjoyned from thy brethren you are never better then when you are falling off and sitting loose from your brethren if you love to be asunder there is no life in you no life of Religion there for Religion desires to preserve it selfe and love is a principall worke of Religion above all things have fervent love among your selves A man had rather cover a multitude of wicked practises then loose the fervency of his love one towards another And if therefore the Devill throw brands among you and you fal asunder one Christian hangs here and another there in the end while you lye so a sunder the fire goes out and men may bid one another good night and then may you all take your pleasure in sin the truth is then all the life of Religion goes out and every businesse in the Family drawes away and so rests till all the life be lost And therefore if you see men are willing to sit loose and fall off one from another then there is an end of the life and power of godlinesse a bidding of Religion good night And no more profit to be had while such distempers of soule doth last But if you see that men come together as in that ancient famous Vision Ezek. 37. every bone finds out his fellow and joynes with him and then there was a noise and a shaking if you see bones gather bone to his bone then at the next prophecying flesh will come and sinewes and the next prophesie will breath life into them so if men begin to annex themselves one unto another as living brands If one begin to seek out another and to draw together and to lye close together if bone begin to gather to his bone then there is hope of an Host of armed men to stand up for God in good ways then there wil be life and strength and power of godlinesse else make account of it that in very truth there is no life no power of Religion where there is no relishing no closing one with another if therefore you see men closing together and warming one another in the wayes of Gods grace and there is some sence of your owne unprofitablenesse under the Word and if you can digest it turne it into edification of your selfe and others then there is true life in you and having life you have Christ and in him you have life in
of earthly blessings what will they advantage you but chiefly labour to get Christ and then He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life SERMON XII 1 John 5.13 These things have I written unto you that beleeve on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternall life and that ye may beleeve on the name of the Son of God WEE are now come to enter upon the beginning of the conclusion of this whole Epistle wherein the Apostle rehearseth the intention and scope of the whole fore-past Epistle the persons and subjects to whom he writes and the end and scope of his writing These things have I written unto you To whom To you that beleeve on the name of the Sonne of God And he intends a double end First That you may know that you have eternall life Secondly That you may beleeve on the Name of the Sonne of God Now to encourage to this latter end that John aimes at beleeving on the name of the Sonne of God he propounds three motives in the 15 16 17. verses amongst which the last of them is a promise of prevailing with God for pardon and a prevention of falling into the great sinne and so propoundeth certaine incouragements to the end of the Chapter Now at this time we shall treat of the first part of this conclusion which is an expression that John here makes or a description of the persons here spoken to to them that beleeve on the name of the Son of God from the persons to whom John dedicates this Epistle to them that beleeve on the name of the Son of God observe Doct. This Epistle of John was written or directed to beleevers on the name of Iesus Christ This is evident in the text which may be gathered from the beginning of the Epistle in Chapter 1.4 he writes to such who by reading this Epistle might attaine to fulnesse of joy and those are only beleevers who are capable of that mercy and blessing you may gather the same from the three sorts of Christians to whom he writes in particular vers 12. in chap. 2. I write unto you little children because your sins are forgiven you and these little children are divided into three sorts vers 13. Fathers young men and babes so that looke at all that Iohn writes to they are such as make a faithfull acknowledgement of God the Father as chap. 4. vers 4. And looke at his second Epistle and that is to the Elect Lady and looke at his third Epistle and that is first to the beloved Gaius and he shewes you what a notable Christian he was he wishes no further prosperity to his body and outward estate then his soule had attained unto his soule was in great prosperity only his body and estate was weake for he was the Host of the whole Church of God so that looke at all Iohns writings and they are all written to them that beleeve on the name of the Son of God And in very deed looke at all the Epistles of all the rest of the Apostles and they are all written to Beleevers if you summe them all up from first to last looke at the Prothesis of every Epistle in the first second and third verses of every Epistle and they are written sometimes to Saints by calling sometimes to faithfull brethren sometimes to the Churches of Christ naturall Sons partakers of the common salvation in a word only to those that were faithfull beleevers in Christ Iesus And when our blessed Saviour himselfe writes he writes to the seven Churches of Asia all of them such as sometime had been eminent and glorious and gracious and amongst the weakest he had a few names even in Sardis that had not defiled their garments chap. 4.3 Now when a man shall consider that all the Apostles doe dedicate all their writings to beleevers and Saints it gives us just occasion of inquiry Quest Wherefore hee writes to these and to these only Answ Now for Answer to which To these he writes in regardof the speciall benefit and helpe that these writings might yeeld to beleevers both to those that then lived What help Johns Epistle yeilds to beleevers and to all other beleevers that should succeed them to the end of the world And those benefits are many and divers As first Teaching Teaching that is one benefit the Churches receive by these Epistles 2 Thes 2.15 brethren stand fast and hold the traditions which ye have been taught whither by Word or by our Epistle This was one end of the Apostles writing their Epistles to the intent they might teach the Church of God sundry things which else they had not known Admonition 2 Another benefit the Churches received from these Epistles was Admonition and putting them in remembrance of the things they had heard things which they did know before and which happily they had forgotten 2 Pet. 1.12 13. I thought it necessary to put you in remembrance Practise 3 And in verse 13. there is a third benefit of them To stir them up to do such things which though they wel knew should be done yet they were dul and slow of heart and stood in need to be stirred up to them 4 Another end of their writings was this Humiliation That sometimes they might Humble and bring low the spirits of those that wer puffed up had not repented of the sin which they had committed 2 Cor. 7.8 I was sorry at the first that I made you sorry but now I am not sorry for it was a godly sorrow so that it seemes the writings of the Apostles did much prevaile with the faithfull people of God and wrought in them such godly sorrow that it was a comfort to the Apostle that he had sometimes grieved them Confirmation in the faith 5 Another end was that so by this meanes they might be strengthened in the faith according to what you read in the words of the Text to them that did beleeve he wrote that they might beleeve meaning that they might be confirmed and established in beleeving Consolation 6 Also to the intent that they might fil the hearts of Gods people with joy in beleeving 1 Iohn 4. according to what you read was effected Act. 15.31 So that see how much help the Church of God hath had by these writings so that they have found much comfort in them And these writings have been the foundation of the faith of Gods people from that time to the worlds end they have ever yeelded matter to the Ministers of the Gospel to preach and expound to the people that by preaching they might bring on men to salvation so that the holy ghost would not have Ministers nor any other to be wise above what is written 2 Tim. 4 16 17. That when these are put into the hand of a faithful Scribe taught unto the Kingdome of God he may be able to
upon them day and night and taken times to chew and digest them If thou hadst done thus then thou wouldest have beleeved more assuredly but if we be negligent in any of these kinds then wonder not if we take away bodily food we take away bodily heat take away the fuell that nourishes faith and then it must needs grow weake and infirme And therefore as you desire to grow in beleeving be diligent in these duties that you may beleeve on the name of Christ and in beleeving may beleeve much more And for you that doe not beleeve savingly whose faith will not put you in possession of eternall life though this Scripture was not so much written for your use and benefit Note this as for them that already beleeve yet since there is no meanes to come to faith but by the Word be not you wanting as ever you desire to come to that faith which accompanies salvation be not wanting diligently to heare the Word of God and conferre about it with those that beleeve already Faith comes by hearing Rom. 10.17 and it is the mighty power of God to salvation Be glad of any opportunity to heare the Word and waite at the posts of wisdomes gates Prov. 8.34 35. He that findeth me findeth life the promise is very plaine waiting daily at my gates Implying that in hearing we shall finde him and in finding Christ we shall finde life be diligent therefore to heare and when you have heard it goe home and search whether it be true or no and if you have liberty be doing this often be conferring about it as you can have any opportunity God hath sanctified these Ordinances to this end Be diligent in inquiring after wisdome after Christ in the Scripture there is a treasure lyes digge for it and you shall have it especially if with all these you joyne humble and hearty prayer to God for a blessing upon all these Ordinances for 1 Tim. 4.5 they are all sanctified by the Word and Prayer and Prov. 2.2 3. God would have you to use Prayer intreat him to open your eyes and hearts that you may beleeve and obey and that no Ordinance might be in vaine to you but might profit by them all and might grow up in beleeving SERMON XIV 1 JOHN 5.14 15. And this is the Confidence that we have in him that if we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we aske we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him IN the former Verse the Apostle described to us the maine scope of his writing this Epistle which was partly that Beleevers might know that they did beleeve and partly that they might beleeve on the name of the Sonne of God Now in this latter end Iohn aymes at in writing this Epistle he exhorts Beleevers to imbrace it by three severall Motives in the verses following the 14 15 16. verses Motive 1 The first Motive is taken from the confidence of such as beleeve on him for salvation for the obtaining of their Petitions This is the confidence that we have in him meaning we that beleeve on his name that if we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us Motive 2 Secondly Another motive or benefit that flowes from this is this That if we know he heareth us we know we have the things that we asked of him Motive 3 Thirdly here is likewise added another motive taken from the prevalency of his Prayers with God in such a point as wherein of all others we may finde this comfort and that is look as by beleeving on the name of Christ we shall finde comfort in respect of our everlasting estate so we shall finde this further benefit that if we see any Brother which hath sinned a sinne that is not unto death not a deadly sin that is not the sin against the Holy Ghost so mighty and prevalent shall our prayers be with God that in case we beleeve on the name of Christ and aske pardon of sinne for our brothers offence God will give him life so that if we beleeve on his name our prayers shall be heard and they have a prevailing power with God to obtaine at his hands the pardon of all our brothers sinnes that have not sinned unto death The Doctrines hence are these Doct. 1. First That a prayer that is made well never speeds ill Or thus A prayer that is made according to Gods will is ever granted according to our will or as the Apostle saith according to our desire vers 15. Doct. 2. Secondly Such as beleeve on the name of Christ for salvation may be confident and certaine of the hearing and granting their petitions Doct. 1. A prayer made according to Gods will shall be granted according to our will For so saith the words of the Text If we aske any thing according to his will he heareth us We praying according to Gods will shall finde acceptance according to our will Notable is that speech of encouragement and acceptance of our Saviour to the woman of Syrophenitia Matth. 15.28 O woman great is thy faith be it unto thee even as thou wilt She had prayed as Christ would according to Gods will and shee received answer according to her desire As if a man that did beleeve and had a spirit of Prayer and had learning to pray according to Gods will he might be able to carve for himselfe in the treasures of Gods goodnesse as if God would let him into the chamber of his presence of his grace and favour and bid him take what he will take for himselfe and his friends and for his brethren as he will For opening of this point observe thus much First let us see what it is to pray according to Gods will and then secondly what is the ground of the point For the first to pray according to Gods will To pray according to Gods will in two things are contained in that Phrase and yet divers things besides those are comprehended in it First when he saith according to his wil it implyes first That we pray for such things as God wills such things as are not according to his secret will for so we cannot guide our actions for secret things belong to the Lord our God but of things revealed it is according to his revealed will and it implyes that we should aske him nothing but what hee gives us Commandement to aske all that he commands us to doe as to aske that we may aske and for that we are to pray for expresly As for the glory of his Name the comming of his Kingdome and the building up of his grace in any the doing of Gods will for our daily bread c. These are the things he hath given us warrant to pray for Secondly According to Gods will this is evident That whatsoever we aske we should aske it with submission to the will of God so our Saviour
propounds a third motive in these words taken from the benefit which by beleeving on Christ we shall in some measure be enabled and made capable of bestowing the like blessing upon our brethren and that by our prayers If such a man should see his Brother sin a sinne which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life As an instrument God at his request shall give him life God will make him an instrument of conveying speciall favour to such a man First the words containe three parts First a promise of obtaining life for such of our brethren as we shall see sinne not unto death and shall aske life for him Secondly an acception from this generall promise he would have it understood of some speciall transgression of them that sinne not unto death he would be so understood and would not inlarge this promise so farre as that a faithful man by his prayers shal obtaine pardon of sinne for such as sin unto death but not for that that is the onely caution that he gives least this promise be taken to extend too far Thirdly A prevention of an objection or doubt that might hence arise For might some man say All unrighteousnesse is sinne and every sinne is a sinne to death and the wages of every sinne is death Rom. 6. ult And therefore if the promise extend only thus farre to procure peace and pardon for such as sinne not unto death then either you must grant some veniall sins or else this promise is of none effect for if every sin be mortall and you onely promise pardon of sin to such as is not unto death and no man sins but it is unto death this promise is of none effect Iohn Answers to this Objection vers 17. and saith though all unrighteousnosse be sin yet there is a sin that is not unto death It is true the deserved wages of al unrighteousnes is unto death but there is a sin that is not unto death not that there is any sin which doth not deserve death but not that which doth undoubtedly cut off a man from all hopes of life but notwithstanding that sin he may be converted As sometimes our Saviour said of the sicknesse of Lazarus he is sick but not irrecoverable Iohn 11.4 So that the meaning of the Holy ghost is that there is a finne unto death which doth not onely kil the soule but irrecoverably out of which there is no hope of recovery or salvation and that sin they must forbear to pray for This promise thus opened will afford us three notes First That a faithfull Christian or which is all one a beleever on the name of Christ is not to hide his eyes from observing and discerning the sinnes and slips of their brethren If any man see his brother sinne a sin which is not unto death which he cannot see if he neglect to observe them Secondly A faithfull Christian discerning the sinne of his brother is to pray for him Let him aske when he sees him sin not unto death Thirdly A faithfull man praying unto Christ for the sinne of his brother shall obtaine life at Gods hand for him pardon and peace and grace for him For the first of these Doct. A faithfull beleever is not to hide his eyes from observing the sinnes and failings of his brethren If any man see his brother sinne a sinne he must observe him else he cannot see him Gal. 2.14 When I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the Gospel c. he observed them and discerned their course hee turned not his eyes from beholding it but he did take notice of it Heb. 3.12 13. Take heed least there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeleefe in departing from the living God take heed hee doth not speak of himselfe onely though that principally but least there be in any of you an evil heart of unbeleefe that is not only for every man to take heed to himselfe but to his brethren also as appears by the following verse implying that a man should not only take heed to himself but as much as in him lyes take heed to his brethren And if you should aske how should I prevent another man from having an evill heart of unbeleefe he tells you how By exhorting one another daily while it is called to day looke to your selves and also to your brethren and shew your care of them by stirring them up daily And this is that the Apostle speakes of in Hebr. 10.24 Let us consider one another and provoke one another to love and good workes see therefore and observe one another and see where any thing is amisse and stir up one another to every holy performance Reas 1. It is first taken from the love we owe them Secondly from the love we owe our selves First The love we owe to our brethren God requires our love to our brethren yea towards our enemies Oxe or Asse we should not see one of them fall under their burden or goe astray and hide our face from them Deut. 22.24 If you should see the beast of your enemy to sink down you shall not passe by him and let him alone but you shall raise him up from under his burthen Now if God require so much love to our beasts and that to the beasts of our enemy how much more doth God require this love to our brethren that if we see them going out of the way we should call them back againe if we see them to sinke under the burthen of sinne not there to let them lye but though we could finde in our hearts there to let them lye yet we ought not so to satisfie our selves but to looke unto our brethren in such a case and doe the best we can to recover them from going astray And in respect of our selves this benefit we our selves shall have we shall learne a more holy feare of the Lord and have a more just jealousie over our selves we shall keep the better watch over our selves when we see our brethren fall before us Rom. 11.12 Be not high minded but feare to shew you that when we see other men through unbeleefe and corruption fall into any sinne we ought to benefit our selves thereby not to be high minded upon this occasion to blesse our selves and we thanke God it is not with us as it is with other men we are not such and such as these Publicans are wont to be but feare we in such a case the faylings of others should be the feares of Gods people the more they see others fall the more should they suspect their owne aptnesse to faile in the like kinde If such things doe befall the greene tree such as are full of the Oyntment of the Holy one how easily may the dry stubble kindle so that what out of respect to learne the more to watch our selves and out of compassion to our Brethren to restore them what by seasonable admonition Levit.
CHRIST THE Fountaine of LIFE OR Sundry Choyce SERMONS on part of the fift Chapter of the first Epistle of St. JOHN PREACHED By that Learned judicious Divine and faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. JOHN COTTON B. D now Preacher at Boston in New-England Christus Vita Via est Scriptura Christi Published according to Order LONDON Printed by Robert Ibbitson and are to be sold by George Calvert at the signe of the half Moone in Watling street neer Pauls Stump MDCLI The Contents CReatures broken Cisters without Christ Pag. 2 Men cannot redeeme themselves ibid First part of the worship of Christ viz. in the minde and judgement p. 6 To prize Christ is to worship him p. 7 Christians worship Christ in their mindes p. 8 Moses honours the reproaches of Christ ib Naturally men desire to know the worth of blessings p. 9 He that hath Christ is inquisitive to know all the vertue that is in Christ ib Two parts of the worship of Christ is in the will and affections ib Deep measure of worshipping of Christ p. 10 Christ when more truly worshipped p. 11 Sweetest frame of spirit ib Third part of worshipping of Christ p. 12 Universall obedience ib If we cannot enjoy the liberty of the Ordinances but with sin against our soules in this case the Ordinances of God are to be neglected and omitted p. 22 The life of Christianity is not a life of wisdome and graces but of faith p. 29 A third way of having Christ is by Covenant p. 31 Extent of the Covenant on Gods part p. 33 God a Fountaine of goodnesse to his servants ib Extent of the Covenant on our part p. 34 Covenant three-fold ib Covenant of Salt p. 35 A fourth way of having of Christ p. 39 Christ received as into a temple three wayes p. 40 Second way of receiving of Christ p. 44 The third way of receiving Christ ib How to know whether you have truly embraced Christ p. 45 First thing considered in having Christ as a Son p. 46 True love to Christ wherein it is p. 53 Christ united to us and we to him by a three-fold spirit p. 59 A three-fold conformity between Christ and his p. 60 The first conformity wherein it consisteth ib The second conformity p. 61. The third conformity p. 63 The second worke of the Spirits liberty p. 65 Liberty from feare of sinne ib Naturall property of a Son p. 66 Liberty from power of sinne p. 67 Freedome from sins service p. 68 A Servants care in perseverance of Christian duties brings priviledge of peace to his soule p. 69 The third signe he that hath the Sonne hath him for his Prince pag. 74 To have Christ for a Saviour requires two things p. 75 Christ a Saviour from sin as well as from distresse p. 79 An hard matter to be willing to be saved by Christ p. 80 Christ saveth as a Prince p. 81 Christ our Prince in two things p. 82 Rebellious thoughts p. 83 Christians differenced by their thoughts ib Good thoughts continue for ever p. 85 Summe of all laid downe p. 88 Three sorts of signes of Spirituall life p. 92 First cause of Spirituall life ib John the first and the thirteenth opened p. 93 The second cause of Spirituall life p. 94 That the Promises belong to every true Christian p. 95 Ground of the point p. 96 A third cause of Spirituall life p. 98 Signes of Spirituall life from the effects of it p. 101 Life of Justification ib Inward peace flowes from pardon of sin ib That every sinner as soone as his sin is pardoned hath an unconceiveable peace in his soule p. 102 Second effect of the life of Justification ib Property of Spirituall life p. 105 Love of God a signe of Spirituall life ib Life of Sanctification p. 109 Joy and griefe in the soule sanctified at once p. 110 Joy and feare p. 111 Joy in affliction p. 113 Patience without forbearance ib Meeknesse and strictnesse at once p. 114 Modesty mixed with magnanimity p. 115 Psalme the 24. the 7. verse opened p. 116 Psalme 149. verse 6. expounded p. 118 The seventh combination of graces p. 119 Diligence in worldly businesse and yet dead to the world ib Love of Enemies p. 102 Effects of Sanctification signes of spirituall life p. 127 First effect motion ib Lightnesse of spirit p. 128 What is required to a Spirituall duty p. 129 Of common gifts p. 130 Causes of deadnesse of heart p. 132 Remedies against deadnesse p. 133 Second signe of spirituall life ib John 6.35 explained p. 134 First a soule longs after Christ in the Ordinance ib Strength and sweetnesse in the Ordinance p. 135 Third particular applying of the Word p. 136 Fourth conformity to the Word in every thing ib Growth in grace p. 138 Repentance the best purge p. 140 Fourth effect of the life of Sanctification ib Fifth signe life propagates it like p. 142 Three properties of life first warmth p. 144 Knowledge warme p. 145 John 5.32 expounded ib 2. Where there is life there is breath p. 146 3. Spiritual warmth digesteth Gods Ordinances p. 148 4. Spiritual warmth heateth others ib Power of sinne p. 153 Plyablenesse of spirit p. 158 James 3.17 expounded ib So much sweetnesse so much life p. 159 Danger of being out of Christ p. 161 Jer. 13. last opened p. 162 Esa 44.11 explained p. 165 Procure Christ for our selves and others p. 172 Motives to get Christ p. 172 Meanes of having Christ p. 174 What help Johns Epistles yeelds to beleevers p. 179 The bane of Congregations that have no means of preaching p. 184 Note the miserable case of Congregations that have but bare reading p. 186. Carnal men have benefit by the Word p. 187 Three reasons or signes of grace p. 189 Knowledge what p. 190 Rome an Harlot ib Mighty power in the Scriptures preached p. 199 Reading the Word p. 200 Examination of things heard ib Repetition of the word blessed p. 201 Meditation on the Word p. 202 Property of a faithfull Minister p. 203 Faith profitable to all things p. 205 Infidell practice of Papists ib Mighty power in meditating upon the Word p. 206 Kings must read the Word of God daily p. 207 To pray according to Gods will in two things 1. Aske things lawfull 2. aske in Christs name 1. To aske in Christs name requireth humility p. 211 212 First second third fourth acts of humility p. 212 213 First second third fourth acts of faith in prayer p. 213 214 First to pray in the spirit is to pray feelingly 2. Fervently 3. Perseverance p. 218 219 Advocate what p. 228 Partiall eye Censorious eye Malicious eye wanton eye p 243 244 245 Mantle of wisdome p. 248 Mantle of of faithfulnesse ib Mantle of compassion p. 249 CHRIST the FOUNTAIN of LIFE SERMON I. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life THese words containe the Third part of the record that God bare of
his darling Lust that nothing might lye between God and him but might now become fit for Christ because he would not cut himselfe short of Herodias and cut short his reformation there then this was added to all his other sins he shut up John in prison and afterward cut off his head also so that when there is any sinne whether honour or pleasure or any comfort in this life that men will not be content to cut themselves short of it is the way to utter ruine God will not be abundantly ready to pardon such And so was it with Daemas when the love of money did so prevaile with his heart after he had been much esteemed of the Apostles and mentioned honourably in their Writings yet in the end it is said of him He hath forsaken me and loved this present world 2 Tim. 4.10 Love of the world had so prevailed with him that he fell off from Paul and from the Lord whose Servant Paul was and from fellowship in the Gospel and so did not finde Christ this rule is universally to be followed and the care of it not to be neglected in any case that our sins are to be put out of our hearts and hands as ever we looke to finde Christ and life in him notable is that expression recorded in Judg. 10.10 to 16. the people come and cry to the Lord to deliver them out of the hands of their enemies but they had got to themselves other gods and now he would deliver them no more When the people heard that that God would not deliver them and could finde no acceptance from him so long as they continued in such a sinne they thereupon goe and put away all their Idols and leaves not one to be seen among them and when God sees that they had put them away the text saith that his soule was grieved for their misery and his bowels rowled within him for them and he delivered them So that when men are willing to fore-go their honourable sinnes their sweet and delightfull sinnes their profitable sinnes and those wherewith they have been most captivated and he knowes one may as well pull their hearts out of their bellies as some sinnes out of them but when he sees men are willing to fore-go their most darling delightfull sins willing to breake off all impediments that stand between God and them the Soule of God is grieved in such a case and it pitties him now that such a soule should be without him and then it will not be long ere God stirres them up meanes of deliverance and he himselfe will reveale himselfe unto them Notable is that speech Hos 14.3.8 when they take words to themselves and promise to leave all their evil wayes whereby they sinne against God they make this request to God That he would take away their iniquities from them and least God should answer them but be you doing something in the meane time they professe that for their owne parts they will set about the doing of their iniquities away and they say Ashur shall not save us and we will have no more to doe with them wherein he shewes you that God lookes not that only his people shall pray him to take away their iniquities for we may pray so long enough and not finde it done but when we desire God to doe it and set our hearts and hands to it and now with heart and hand say Ashur shall not save us nor will we say any more to the workes of our hands Ye are our gods then saith God in vers 4. I will heale their back-slidings and will love them freely c. God is then abundantly ready to pardon when men forsake their owne wayes and thoughts and throw away the sins that hang about them God will say of such a people I will heale them and love them freely mine anger is turned away from them And you may presume when Gods anger is turned away it is by and through Christ or else there is no healing and therefore in vers 8. Ephraim saith What have I to doe any more with Idols the heart of a Christian or of a Nation shall openly acknowledge that they wil have no more fellowship with these abominations and then faith God I have heard him and observed him God heares us and understands what we say and observes us well and offers to be a covert to us from the storme when we begin solemnly to abandon such evils then he heares us and answers us according to the desire of our hearts you have many a soule that cryes to God Take away our iniquity and many Petitions we put up to God to that purpose and that sometimes with many bitter moanes but God heares it not we pour out our plaints in vaine and he regards it not but when we come to God and desire him not only to take them from us but begin to consider our owne wayes and iniquities and to put them from us out of our hearts and hands and we wil no more take such bad wayes as heretofore we have done we will no more ride upon horses nor run to forreigne Princes for succour then God heares and grants graciously whatever his poore people begge at his hands and answers it according to all the desire of their hearts then the Lord preseâ—â—â— gives us the Lord Jesus Christ and life and healing in him and this is the second way of having Christ by purchase Thirdly God sometimes requires that we should part with all his holy Ordinances in some cases part with all confidence in them and from staying our hearts upon them we may soone loose Christ and loose his protection and his fatherly compassion towards us if in the use of the blessed Ordinances of God we be not willing so farre to sit loose from them as not to looke for life in the Word or Sacraments or communion with Gods Servants but to looke for it all in Christ not that God would have us cast his Ordinances behind our backs but therein to seek him yea to seek his face evermore and not to be barred from them he would have a childe of God to count it his greatest misery Psal 27.4 Psal 42.3 4. Though God would have us to make account That one day in Gods Courts is better then a thousand elsewhere Psal 84.10 yet God still hath regard to this that he would not have us to trust in the temple of the Lord because so to doe is to trust in lying words Jer. 7.3 4. Hold close to the Ordinances and by no meanes part with them if you can have them in any purity and peace to your consciences but rather part with Princes Palaces then with them but while you enjoy them trust not in them nor thinke not to stand upon this that you are blessed in regard of them but looke at them all as losse and drosse and dung that you may win Christ Looke not so wishly at the Priviledges of the Ordinances
Phil. 1.23 Though the other be a lawfull desire but chiefly his desire is that he might see Christ whom from his first conversion he hath most loved and in whom he hath lived all his life and now to be wholly possessed of him and wholly acted and swayed by him not that he might have his heart filled with joy but that he might be with Christ not only as chiefest of ten thousand persons but as the chiefest of ten thousands benefits of God that should God give us pardon of sinne his Word and Sacrament and victory over all our lusts strength of every grace of God and everlasting life and therewith fellowship with all the blessed Saints and Angels yet to us Christ is the chiefest of them all none greater then the gift of Christ and this is the sincerity of a Christians soule he desires more any benefit for Christs sake then Christ for any of his benefits sake for he whose heart is set upon Christ more then upon the pardon of sinne or salvation that soule hath Christ and life in him he that hath Christ in his eye and heart above all blessings he indeed is a true Christian and hath Christ Reas Christ must so be had and we must so receive him as God gives him now God gives us first Christ in all his Ordinances and then in Christ all other things all benefits in and through Christ Act. 8.35 We preach to you Jesus we offer you him all lusts layed aside all sinfull corruptions put away whatever separates between God and us that being done away We now offer you Christ and in Christ plentious redemption but if we be without Christ we are without true life As in the Sacrament first you have the body and blood of Christ set before you Matth. 26.26 and then sealed up and confirmed to you in the Sacrament and together with that justification and further degrees of the sanctifying spirit and further pledges of everlasting life and glory No benefit but it s conveyed through him Christ first and then the benefit It is true Herod received joy but Foelix trembling and Jehu zeale but none of these received Christ they received the huske but wanted Christ they had the shell but not the marrow and kernell within they received the benefit but Christ they did not receive and for want of him they had no life at all Simon Magus hee beleeved Acts 8.13 but he had no lively faith because he would receive the benefit but Christ he minded not to receive Unlesse the heart be knit to Christ and the soule more seek Christ then pardon of sinne or subduing of lusts he hath no life in truth he that hath the Son he hath life not so he that hath the gifts and benefits of the son But Christ first and in having Christ we have all Christ must be received as God gives him we must acknowledge there is no life in any grace but in Christ Hos 14.8 On me is your fruit found and without me can you do nothing John 15.5 Now then carry this truth home with you and gather from hence a true estimate of your own estates whether you may judge of your selves as living or dead Christians Upon our having or not having of Christ depends our having or not having of life How will you know whether you have life or no you say you have Christ how know you that Whether is your hearts more set upon Christ then the gifts of Christ Whether do you labour more for gifts or for Christ himselfe And if you finde this that in the truth of your hearts you come not to the Ordinances but to find your beloved there not out of unclean and wanton spirits but to seeke him whom your soule most desires whose favour and countenance you would rather behold then to hear the voyce of a pleasant singer and you are not satisfied with any thing unlesse you find him then shal you find life in so coming to the Ordinances Can. 3.1 2 3. By night in my bed I sought him whom my soule loved c. The bed was the Temple wherein God did reveale himselfe in his Ordinances and disperse himselfe to his people in the bed of his love Shee came to the Temple not to seek any of the Preists and Levites there She goes indeed to the Watch-men and makes her moane and complaint to them that she could not finde Christ in his Ordinances and she durst not rest upon their opinions but saith have you not seen him whom my soul loveth can you tel me any newes or give me any intelligence of my beloved Saviour Thus she inquires of the Watch-men And from them she goes to the Daughters of Jerusalem to her Christian friends and chargeth them to tell him that she is sick of love Now if thus to desire him is to find Christ then there is no more to be doubted of in such a case as this But the heart thus seeking him in his Ordinances and the affections gon after him there more then after any of his benefits then in truth we have the Sonne he could not have our hearts if we first had not him And therefore it is a strong evidence we have him because our hearts are set upon him We search for nothing so much as for him This is part of the meaning of that place in Psal 73.25 Whom have I in heaven but thee or in earth in comparison of thee he desires nothing more then him neither peace of conscience nor joy in the Holy ghost nor any thing so cheifly and principally as God but if wee have a longing affection after pardon of sinne and peace of conscience and assurance of salvation after subduing of lusts and growth in grace these be blessed desires and usually upright and sincere but there may be hypocrisie even in these very desires and in using the meanes to attaine these for sometimes by this meanes we seek Christ and him in his Ordinances not so much for himself as for the benefits we have by him which is a spirit of harlotry As in a woman that it may bee hath a strong affection to match with such a man but it is but that hee might pay her debts and that she might be well provided for for the world and that he might be availe and a protector to her these be lawfull ends to aime at but if it be only and cheifly for these ends it is not true conjugal affection for if another man could do this for her as well as he she could make choyce of another as well as of him and she desires him not for his but for her own ends And just so it is alike in this case If a man desire the Lord Jesus Christ to this end that he may have his sinne pardoned and be furnished with grace though these be spirituall ends yet so much as wee prize the benefit above Christ so much are we halting in the truth of our affection to him If
such terms if you wil not have him unlesse he be thus and thus qualified then let him alone never talke of him rest not in looking after any of his benefits it is a good thing to looke for such benefits as accompany Christ but rest not there content not your selves in such wrastlings never thinke you are of a right spirit and that you have a lively life and such as by which you shall maintaine constant fellowship with God unlesse you finde your hearts longing after Christ My soule is a thirst for the living God Psal 42.1 2. Let your hearts be chiefly set upon him for his owne sake you can tell what it is to set your affections more upon a person then upon their estate and you must know that your affections are more set upon Christ then upon any benefit he hath unlesse you finde Christ more then his gifts you shall finde little peace in your way you must see that all even the worst of his things are beautifull and comly and is more to be desired then Gold is sweeter then the Honey or the Honey-combe he that thus hath the Sonne he hath life the Sonne of God God and Man as he is our Son and our Saviour let the desire of your soule be unto him and your affections run out after him be you for him and then he wil be for you Hos 3.2 3 4. Stand not so much upon this what Christ wil be for you but be sure that you be for him let friends and all goe and be sure you be only for him Though Christ love us first yet he wil make us no assurance of his love to us till he see us love him and if we chuse him first before and above all his benefits then we shall have him make him then your assurance and your Kingdome shall not be shaken thinke not that he wil make you a feoffement before you be married to him but we must be content to come to him and take him as he is and stand upon no conditions with him You must not looke for assurance of Christs benefits till you have himselfe and if you chuse him then you shall have assurance to your soules that he hath chosen you first you cannot aske more then hee wil give but first you must have himselfe he wil give you a kingdome but you must first be a little flocke all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Thus chuse him above all his benefits and you shall have him and life in him SERMON V. 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life FRom the second part of the words He that hath the Sonne there are three sorts of Heads of notes drawne One is already handled to wit That such as have the Sonne they have not so much nor doe so much stand upon nor so much desire the benefits of the Sonne as the Sonne himselfe This is the Spirituall life of a Christian while some men labour more for Spirituall gifts then for Christ himselfe the true Christian is only for him and let his gifts goe we now come to the second head of notes from the word SONNE A man is said to have the Sonne when he hath the spirit of the Son A man is said to have Christ when he hath the Spirit and therefore you may read 2 Cor. 3.17 Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and the Lord is that Spirit viz. He had spoken before of a Spirit of righteousnesse and of the Spirit of grace dispensed in the Ministery of the Gospel now the Lord is the Spirit not only so called because he is the Giver of that Spirit and Grace but also as there is a secret fellowship between Christ and the Spirit so that have one and you have both have not the Spirit of Christ and you have none of Christ Rom. 8.9 If a man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And notable to this purpose is that in Gal. 4.6 Because ye are sonnes God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Sonne into your hearts and verse â— He redeemed them which were under the Law that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Implying that to whomsoever Christ came for into the World to save and redeeme all those have fellowship with the Son and into all their hearts he hath shed abroad the spirit of the Son So that look how Christ is and was in this world so are we in the world hee that hath the Sonne hath the spirit of the Son Now that I may the better open this point unto you because it is of speciall use for our direction in a Christian course There is a Threefold spirit of a Son A threefold spirit dispensing himself three wayes and bestowing a threefold gift upon us which gives us the Lord Jesus Christ to be ours and us to him to be his First A spirit that doth knit us to the Lord Jesus Christ and him to us Secondly A spirit of liberty Thirdly A spirit of prayer These three the Holy Ghost takes special notice of in this case First The spirit of God wheresoever it is shed abroad in any member of Christ it doth make us one with the Lord Jesus it unites us into one fellowship of nature a likenesse in affection and disposition and a likenesse in all the graces of God as John 17.21 our Saviour prayes the Father that all those whom he had given him might bee one with him as thou and I art one thou in me by thy spirit and I in thee by the same spirit and this spirit is such as makes not onely mee one with thee but them also one with mee and they also in like sort one with another it makes us and Christ us it were one Hence it is that as soone as we receive him we of his fullnesse receive grace for grace Joh. 1.16 There is a conformity between Christ and us one and the same Image stamped upon us both Rom. 8.29 a like in grace a like in affection and in continuance of affection a like in every thing For a little further clearing of the point The same spirit of Christ being shed abroad into the heart of every one that hath Christ doth worke a threefold conformity or likenesse betweene Christ and us First A threefold conformity between Christ and his A likenesse in Nature Secondly A likenesse in Offices Thirdly In Estate both of humiliation and exaltation And all this is done by the mighty power of the spirit of Christ First For the Nature of Christ by the precious promises of God which are made unto us The first Conformity and which the Holy Ghost doth apply to us We are made partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1.4 There is a likenesse and a participation of the divine nature and we are made partakers of the like grace in Christ Jesus and that grace for grace
Look what grace any where you see in Christ the resemblance of it is stamped upon every child of God by the spirit of Christ Hence it comes to passe that which is worth your observation those who have Christ they doe reason from the nature of Christ to justifie the temper of their owne spirits and the course of their own lives as is the Apostle Pauls owne Argument in 2 Corin. 1.17 18 19. Some of the false Apostles tooke up an Argument against the Apostle Paul to prove his levity and inconstancy and forgetfulnesse and how doth he free himselfe did I use lightnesse no saith he our words toward you was not yea and nay and thus he reasons from Christs nature The Sonne of God who was preached among you was not yea and nay but yea and amen Now he which establisheth us with you is Christ c. So that looke as Christ is yea and amen the faithfull and true witnesse of God what he speakes he confirmes and fulfills in due season Now saith he when Christ was preached among you it was not an uncertain Christ carryed about with lightnesse and unsettlednesse but what is once gone out of his lips It is yea and amen Therefore make account that God that hath poured the same spirit upon us hath established us together with you To shew you that by reason of the participation of the spirit of grace there is such a spirit in us as that you may argue all these the nature of Christ the nature of the Gospell and the nature of the frame of grace in the hearts of Gods people to be all alike they do mutually shew the face one of another in the frame and carriage one of another That as Christ is yea and amen so is the Gospell and such are they that beleeve the Gospell and are established by the Gospel in Christ Jesus v. 21.2 And he hath sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts the same spirit of Christ that breathed in the Gospell and in the Preachers of the Gospell and the beleevers of it is yea and amen in them all a spirit of truth and innocency and gravity and purity whatsoever is the spirit of the one is the spirit of them all So that this is an evident signe that wee have Christ when we have the spirit of Christ when you may reason alike the one from the other though in us it be the weaker by reason of a spirit of corruption found in us and not in Christ Yet this is an evident argument of the stabillity and gravity of our hearts which though in regand of weaknesse we might think the Apostle might have been excepted against yet because there is no weaknesse in a child of God but if he have Christ his heart is in the same condition with Christ and with the Gospel also therefore he may comfortably argue a likenesse between them what he speakes that he thinkes in his heart and it is the desire of his soul that it may be effected And though he may be hindred yet his heart is still the same and he was by no meanes to bee taxed of any lightnesse because he did not performe his word the fault was not his levity his spirit was the same but some occasion fell out otherwise by the providence of God And so it is with every child of God if he have Christ the spirit of a Christian is ever the same if there should be any inclination to lying and inconstancy the frame of the spirit is altered but the true bent and frame of a Christian is to be one with Christ as Christ is one with him 2 Now as there is a likenesse and conformity The second conformity and unity in nature between Christ and a child of God so there is also in us a conformity to Christ in his Offices The meaning is Whosoever hath the Son he hath the offices which the Sonne hath As he was both King Priest and Prophet to God his Father so are we Rev. 1.6 As Kings to rule over all our lusts and to rule all those whom God commends to our Government according unto God As Kings to get victory and to conquer over the World and to over-wrastle any difficulty as we meete with As Kings anoynted with the spirit of a King of a royall spirit though not invested with fulnesse of glory till the last day yet of an heroyicke noble spirit can easily over-look all earthly drudgery and resist any enemy we meet with And Priests also we are so as we are able to offer up sacrifices of prayer and thanksgiving to God A broken and an humble heart is a Sacrifice much set by of God Psalm 51.17 and Phil. 2.17 offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith We are now inabled to go to God and to offer up praises to him which are as insence before him and in offering up any other sacrifice of an holy life we are Priests unto God the Father And so are we also Prophets Acts 2.17 hee poures out his spirit in a rich and plentifull measure he poures out his spirit upon all flesh whence it comes to passe that the servants of God understand many secrets of Gods counsell Psalm 25.14 and whence also it comes to passe that many a godly man by the same spirit discernes many secret hidden mysteries and meanings of the Holy Ghost in Scripture more then ever he could by any reading or instruction and many times discernes some speciall work of the spirit of God which inables them to fore-see some speciall blessings most usefull for their spirituall estate and so leads them on to many good things which they did little thinke of and so makes them of Propheticall spirits and bowes them to teach others also to lead on others of their neighbours in the wayes of God And now I say that as these be the Offices of the Lord Jesus Christ so there is no child of God that hath the Son but he hath all these in him hee is now a man of a royall and Priestly and Prophetical spirit And you are hereby I meane by the spirit not onely called to these Offices but inabled to discharge them For that is the difference between a Christian in heart and a Christian in appearance fall short of ability to performe these Offices And as there is this conformity to the Nature and Offices of Christ in them that have the Sonne So Thirdly The third conformity there is a conformity in their Estates you know Christ waded through an Estate of humiliation and exaltation These bee the main Principles of Religion that looke as it was with Christs estate it was sometime the time wherein hee was humbled in this world all the course of his life was a time of humiliation and that unto the very death or else his state of exaltation in heaven that then when he was most mortified then was he most glorified triumphing openly and mightily shewing
streame of our hearts that unfainedly we would be made whole not a member in our bodies but we would have it healed we would not have an uncleane lust in our soules but we would be perfectly made whole would we be saved from all our sins then we have him for our Saviour and there is not a sin in us but we shall be healed of it and this is life to looke to Christ for universall salvation And so consider have you Christ for a Prince Are your hearts willing to subject every thought unto him you say you are somewhat unwilling to it but doth not the Apostle say Every thought must be brought into subjection to the Gospel of Christ into captivity and were it not better to be free and voluntary It is true Gods people know that when they were first brought on to God they were carried captive and drawne Ioh. 6.44 but afterwards they finde the service of Christ to be perfect freedome and therefore how lookest thou at thy thoughts for I principally take notice of them Art thou not willing that a vaine thought should lodge within thee thoughts of pride and of revenge come into thy heart but what entertainment dost thou give them Doth Satan when he comes finde thy house fit for his purpose If thou give these Guests such entertainment then thou hast not Christ for thy Prince but if they come like stubborne Rebels into thy house and they disturbe thee and thou call to thy friends to help thee and thou cryest out to thy Prince in Heaven for a privie search to be made to finde them out and would not have any one wicked thought to rest in thy heart then thou hast Christ for thy Prince but if thou givest them willing entertainment and lodgest them next thy heart and fattest and feedest thy selfe in such thoughts of wrath and lust and huggs them in thy bosome then thy heart stands in rebellion against God if these rebellious lusts be thy friendly companions then God is not at peace with thee but if thou beest burthened with them as Souldiers come into the houses of men that live in the Palatinate and they are forced to entertaine them but if thou wouldest cast them out then thou hast Christ for thy Prince but if you refuse his government and your thoughts are your owne and you wil have God to serve your turne and you burthen his patience with one wicked course after another and you make use of Gods patience to the sinfull provocation of his wrath and you deale with God as Witches doe with the Devil he shall serve you now and you will serve him when you dye Consider what sacrifice you offer to God any thing is good enough for God and the wayes of his grace is a burthen to you then you have him not for your Prince Now in the name and fear of God consider what hath been said every one take his portion and the Lord give you a good understanding in all things SERMON VII 1 JOHN 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son hath not life WE now come to a third head of Signes by which it may appeare whether we have Christ or no and that is from the third word in the Text which is Life for it is an Argument of like strength and value to argue the one from the other He that hath the Sonne hath life and he that hath life he hath the Sonne and therefore now at this time to open to you some signes or markes by which it may appear to us whether we have life or no that Spirituall Life here spoken of to wit the life of righteousnesse in our Justification and of Sanctification of comfort and consolation and of eternall glory And the signes of Life are of three sorts Three sorts of signes of Spirituall life either you may discerne the life of Gods Grace by the causes of it or by the effects of it or by the qualities and properties of it as we call them First 1 Signe for the Causes the Holy Ghost usually sets forth the causes of our Spirituall life and if we finde these causes to have been the work of that life which we conceive our soules to be endued with we may from thence argue the truth of our Spirituall life and from thence the truth of our fellowship with Christ For the first First cause of Spirituall life The first cause of our Spirituall life is the holy and gracious will of God Iam. 1.18 Of his owne will begat he us It is that therefore to this life by which we are begotten for all generation is unto life it is of his own wil that we are begotten to this life And the Apostle John sets it forth Joh. 1.13 opend by the removeall and deniall of all other causes John 1.13 We are borne not of flesh nor of blood nor of the will of man but of God Not of bloods Not of godly parents for men may have godly Parents and yet themselves degenerate and therefore it is not to be ascribed to parentage it is not from the parentage but from the Covenant and from Gods will in the Covenant that begets a child of God nor is it of the will of the flesh that is of corrupt nature nor of the will of man nor of the best paines that they can take though they take much paines for us yet all may be in vaine so as that unlesse God set in with Christian friends and with the blood and Covenant of our Ancestors we shall not be brought on to live a spirituall life in Gods sight It is that which God himselfe speakes of in Ezek. 16.6 When wee were yet in our blood yet God said to us live When we were in our blood like an infant gaspeing for naturall life and ready to perish even then when none could helpe us then God said to us live and then we lived in his sight And therefore in a word you may take this for an evident signe of the true life of grace where ever you find the worke of grace wrought in any soule you shall find the heart speaking of it as the worke of Gods owne hand Take you a man in the estate of nature and he will say God be thanked he had alwayes a good mind and his parents would never say no lesse of him but he was alwayes a toward and hopefull child he thanks God and thus a man will speake that is onely well nurtured he will say it is a worke that was ever in him and he ever thought so of himselfe But now take another man that is indeed borne to a new life and hath this life in him that springs from Christ he will tell you as Paul was wont to say Gal. 1.15 16. When it pleased God to separate me from my mothers wombe and called me by his grace There you shal as in a pattern discern what the maner of the
of grace for the ground of all our spiritual life as if ever we would be able to say we are begotten to a new Inheritance we must be able and are able to say we have some word of Promise which hath wrought this in our soules which hath bowed us to looke to Christ and to cleave to him for strength and increase and groweth in grace For it is true indeed The Workes of the Law may indeed cut us off from some bad wayes but when it hath don so it leaves us there leaves us in an estate wherein we would not give offence and would not displease men that are grave and wise And this we may reach unto without respect to the glory of God or any inward regard of his holy feare but when as we are quickned to live by vertue of some Promise then the love of God constraineth us to live to obedience and good ends then our respects can reach heavenly and spiritual ends And therefore observe this as of necessary use for any man that as he would be loath to be deceived in a counterfeit peece of money so much more let him be carefull in the main points of his everlasting estate on this depends our having or not having of life And therefore it behooves us to bee sure that we be not disappointed in this great mystery of godlinesse and consider seriously upon what your hopes and confidence was bred and whence it was grounded Quest You will say But is it not ordinary that the Word of the Law doth humble and cast downe the heart and spirit before God and cut them off from all confidence in the flesh before they come to lay hold of the promise of grace in Christ Answ True it is so indeed That ordinarily some word of the Law some word of conviction prevailes with the heart and makes him in sence of sinne say to his Christian friends what shall I doe to be saved this is true but yet this is not it that makes him a new man in Gods sight it may reach to the reformation of his outward man and to the alteration of sundry of his former courses which no meanes else could have reclaimed but yet this makes him not live a spiritual life until he be not onely humbled by the Law but in some measure brought on to look after the promise of grace in Christ and to long after them and to say and desire oh that I had but my part in this or that promise what a mercy of God would that be to me could I but lay hold upon them but thereupon the soule of a Christian doth stand poring and plodding and wistly gazeing upon them till in the end the very sight of a promise hath so seasoned us with a spirit of faith that we begin not only to long after that promise but to cleave to it and in time come to receive it into our hearts and come to imbrace it to rejoyce in it to acknowledge it and finde our happinesse and life and comfort to bee wrapped up in it A third cause of our spiritual life A third cause of Spirituall life Is the Spirit of grace that which is borne of the spirit is spirit whatever is borne of the flesh and no more is but carnall but that which is borne of the spirit is spirit Joh. 3.6 there is a shedding abroad the spirit of Gods grace in the heart of man that makes him of another spirit he is not the same man that he was before his spirit was changed his inclination and disposition is changed For Spirit is nothing else but the inclination and disposition the habit of it the spirit of wisdome is an habit or inclination to Wisdome the Spirit of grace is an habit of Grace the Spirit of prayer is an inclination or an habit of Prayer they are severall words but all meane the same thing Be renewed in the spirit of your mindes that is bee renewed in the inclination and disposition of your minde Epb. 4.23 And not only be renewed in the mind or judgement or understanding of a man but there must be a renewall of the whole soule of a man the disposition and inclination of the whole must be changed and altered Caleb and Ioshua was of another spirit they could judge of things otherwise then other men could doe other men not renewed in the spirit of their mind have no alteration but the truly regenerate they see a great change they never saw the danger of their sinnes before nor ever before judged themselves for their sinnes but now their spirit and soule and affection is changed and now a spirit of feare and love and care and every affection is altered now a man is turned quite off from earthly things so farre as they hinder him in the enjoyment of his Spirituall life and now we are set upon the things of God so as that he that is borne of God to a Spirituall life is become a new Creature and old things are past away 2 Cor. 5.17 He hath a new mind and a new heart new affections new Language and new employments that he was never wont to doe before now he can read Gods Word and conferre with Gods people about the things of God and can instruct others and fashion himselfe to a new mould and all upon the renewall of the spirit of his minde so that if you see that God hath put another spirit into you then ever you had before so as not only this or that part but the whole man is changed and put into another frame that though there be still a taste of the Old man yet the frame both of the body and soule is of another mould and all things are become new in some measure then you live a new life indeed else it is not a perfect change though this and that alteration bee wrought in you By these causes you may clearly discerne whether God hath given you a new life or no consider it therefore I beseech you how doe you now finde your hearts apt to speak when you speak of that estate you are in Are you in your Closets wont to say That time was when you have been thus and thus led in the vanitie of your minde and the hardnesse of your heart and custome of sinne but when it pleased God who called you by his grace when it pleased God then it tooke place you had been in good company before and had used many meanes but never any thing would worke but when it pleased God then it wrought and from that day to this it hath been so and so with me It is a good signe to you if withall you can recall that such or such a word of promise it pleased God to pitch your soules upon you have long looked and waited for salvation but in the end it pleased God to wrap up your soules in life by such a promise and if you can call to minde that such a promise
your soules did cleave unto then are you indeed borne to a Spirituall life because you are right bred bred of a Promise and of the holy will and pleasure of God but if you finde your selves to be of another frame and you are bowed to walke with God and to reforme your course of life by outward bounds this is not so safe but if your whole man universally be bowed to a godly holy frame and all things are become new new friends new affections new desires if you finde such an universall change then you are right bred Christians and indeed no Christians are right bred but such Christians but if you make a great stirre about the great Reformation that is wrought in you and it is from the good inclination and disposition you have alwaies had you ever had a good minde and in the end you thanke God you have reformed such and such evils as you have been blamed for time was when you could have freely played at Cards and Dice but since then you see the vanity of it Note this and you take better courses and doe now consort your selves with wel ordered and stayed company you had alwaies a good minde to be better but you could not doe it suddenly and so in the conclusion your reformation is but a good inclination or disposition of your minde and if you see that much good hath been wrought upon you by the counsell of such and such friends and by the good example of such and such wise and discreet friends and if you find that there is some strange change in your carriage your course of life is much altered you are not so light and wanton as you were but you take a farre more grave and wise and stayed course and to much better purpose both for Church and Common-wealth wherein you live now I say if you shall goe on and looke for that Spirituall life which only springs from Christ Jesus and wil lead on to eternall glory and therefore rests not in any reformation of your selves till you finde there be such an inward and whole change wrought in you which the heart is wont to speake of to the praise of Gods grace it was Gods will else it could never have been wrought and you could not speak of it till now and you never rest satisfied in such a change as a word of reproofe or counsell that hath wrought such a change or reformation in you that stayed in the outward man or in some affections till you found your hearts to sanctifie the name of Gods grace in the acknowledgement of the word of Promise and of the Spirit of grace making you new that you may bee able to say that in very deed you have Christ and with Christ life and that life which will never decay but wil hold to all eternity And therefore now to speake something of the signes of the life of our Justification Therefore a second sort of signes Signes of spirituall life from the effects of it is taken from the effects of Spirituall life you see what is the causes of it as the good pleasure of God the word of promise and the Spirit of grace these be the first sort of signes Now a second sort of signes is from the effects and fruits of life and herein take notice of some fruits of your life of Justification Life of Justification it is a principall part of our Spirituall life to have our sins forgiven Blessed is the man whose iniquity is pardoned and to whom the Lord imputeth no sinne Psal 32.1 2. And therefore it is that forgivenesse of sinne is called justification then God accounts us righteous and this is called Justification of life Rom. 5.18 because in the pardon of our sins is our life As when a Malefactor by the Law is condemned he is by the Law a dead man and if his Pardon come his pardon is his life and it is so indeed So is it in this case the pardon of our sins is the very life of our soules and if God give us to finde that life there is no feare of the life of our Sanctification or Consolation c. The first effect then that flowes from the pardon of our sins is some inward peace of Conscience Inward peace flowes from pardon of sins some inward refreshment and satisfaction yeelded to the heart that it could never attaine to before for sinne may be pardoned in the sight of God and yet that pardon is not manifested and declared to my soule untill God vouchsafe me some measure of peace and a manifestation of the free pardon of my sins I can have little rest it is a notable saying Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Jesus Christ A man justified is one that hath his sins pardoned for what was it that all our life time before made us afraid of Gods displeasure and we had much disquietnesse about our estates Oh the sinne of our soules that we had committed all our life long the sinne committed many a day agoe that now lay heavie upon our soules and the want of pardon lay as heavie as our sins but now if God come and say Thy sins are pardoned then followes a sweete tranquility of peace in the soule A matter that Philosophers have talked of to quiet the minde to lull men asleep and with applying remedies did stupisie for a while and take off the heavie burthen or the sence of the burthen rather then the burthen it selfe but so soone as ever God pardons sinne there is shed abroad a spirit of peace in our soules and sometimes in that unspeakable measure as that it passeth the understanding of a man to conceive Note this Phil. 4.7 But I doe not so conceive that every Christian as soone as ever his sinne is first pardoned hath such an unconceiveable peace in his soule but he findes a great deale of ease sometimes as if you had thrown a Milstone from off his body notable is that expression in Esa 32.17 The work of righteousnesse shall be peace and the effect of righteousnesse quietnesse and assurance for ever He speakes of that righteousnesse whereby we stand righteous before God and the imputation of Christs righteousnesse to our soules The worke of righteousnesse shall be peace from this worke and effect you may gather what the causes of it is blessed are such it is quietnesse and assurance for ever Not that there is an everlasting sence of that peace for the sence of it is sometimes obscured for want of watchfulnesse and want of experience in the wayes of godlinesse and sometimes through the buffetings of Sathan or desertions from the hand of God and so many times our peace may be over-clouded and the sence of it taken away but the worke of righteousnesse is peace if sinne be pardoned peace will follow upon it and the fruit of this righteousnesse is quietnesse and assurance for ever the heart
distemper with boyling in heat of wrath against his enemies he is all upon it to doe him any harme his heart is full of hot and bitter wrath so as that love which was as heat and fire to thaw and warme cold and hard hearts when it comes to the fire of wrath it is as it were cold water and allayes that heat and bitternesse and harshnesse which else our hearts are subject to This is the nature of love as it is the nature of water to coole hot distempers and as it is the nature of fire to thaw and soften hard frozen spirits so though it be but as one intire grace Yet in the act it puts forth a kind of variety of worke whereby one would thinke it did crosse it selfe but it doth not but doth all by the life of Christ thus you see what the effects of the life of sanctification is in the heart of a man after that God hath begun to roote the life of justification in us and hee discernes that God hath wrought a change in him and then these severall graces though in themselves and worke one opposite to another yet in a Christian heart they can meet and joyne together And therefore now doe but lay this to heart he that hath the Sonne hath life Will a Christian say how shal I know that I have that life in having of which I may know I have Christ Why do but consider with thine owne soule not now of the life of thy justification but hast thou found that ever God did fill thy heart with joy so as thy soule hath said the Lord hath done great things for my soule whereof he hath made me to rejoyce and hast thou found that when thou hast most rejoyced in the wonderfull mercy of God then hath thy heart most melted before the Lord thy God And thou hast been ashamed and confounded within thy selfe and never open thy mouth against God any more Doest thou see that the more God reveales Christ to thee who was crucified for thy sake the more bitterly thou moanest for thy wickednesse then it is a strong evidence of life and peace in thy soule were it not the mighty power of the life of Christ in thee thou couldest have had neither of both these graces much lesse combined together to worke the same thing at one and the same time if therefore God hath helped you to looke at the great mercy of God with joy and yet with shame and bitter mourning that ever thou shouldest dishonour such a God certainly God hath vouchsafed thee life and such a life as in which thou shalt live You shall have many a soule that is marvellously comforted in hearing the word rejoyce exceedingly in what they heare and goe home and say such a word was good and very comfortable and never man spake like that man and he never thought before that there was so much to be found in the word as now he conceives there is But now if this were the joy of Gods Elect if it were such a joy as would not vanish away like lightning in the aire a flash of joy it would sinke downe into the heart and leave so much the more deeper impression mourning by how much the more it hath had joy I grant that sometimes the joy of Gods owne servants may soone vanish away but it was never knowne that the joy of a living Christian did so soone vanish and depart away but that when it did most abound in the heart it did cause inward mourning and if not weeping yet an affection of greife and sorrow of soule that ever we have so displeased God the more God hath been mercifull to us the more are we shamed of ourselves inwardly grieve for our shamelesse carriages If therefore you only finde joy in hearing that may deceive you it is not the shortnesse of the continuance that argues the unsoundnesse of the joy but the want of this combination that will argue the falshood of it if God yoake not spirituall joy with spirituall mourning then suspect your joy for it doth not accompany salvation unto life And in very deed this you shall find to be true the joy of living soules in Christ though that oftentimes bee soon gone yet it leaves this spirit of mourning which keeps possession for it and that many times for a long time and you may read your comfort in the sorrow that it hath left behind for there is as much cause of comfort in this sorrow as in the joy when you had it when you see your soules can mourne unfeignedly for that you see so good a God to such a wretch this very comfortable sorrow that is left in thy heart is an undoubted pledge that it is not a vanishing joy the power and work of it lasts long and wil abide in the soule for ever a man will in such a case mourne for his sin while he lives If you have therefore found your joy mixed with sorrow it is right else it is but a fading hypocriticall and false joy Againe further how doe you finde your heart affected with the duties of Gods worship Doe you come to duties marvellous unwillingly that if you could avoyd it you would not keep such duties in your house and if it must needs be you put it upon any body rather then upon your selfe you may be a living Christian but your heart is in a dead frame at that time and if it be alwayes so with you you never did truly live but if you finde your spirits at least your hearts comming on most willingly to Christian duties that you performe them like Free-will offerings not free so as without warrant from Gods Word but free in respect of grace Doe but observe thus much it may be you may come off freely before God because hee hath given you spirituall gifts and you can quit your selves well in the performance of them and that makes you come the more boldly but consider if the more willingly you come to Christian duties the more trembling your heart goes about them the more the soule is prepared the more it feares before the Lord and the more lowly the spirit is and awfull in the sight of God if a man can serve the Lord with joy and trembling together then the service you perform to God is heavenly and spirituall and lively and such as in which you live they come from a living heart and the sacrifice is lively and acceptable and argues you have life and therein you have Christ the God of peace but if a man have only feare in a duty but no joy or joy but no feare his heart is not in a good frame we must bring a better frame of heart before God then so before we can say that we have the life of sanctification Againe for another signe How doe you finde your selves in your tribulations are they altogether matter of burden and wearinesse to your hearts Have you no
of the soule is a power to move it selfe and in its place unto spirituall duties that is the true nature of the life of sanctification doe you therefore see a creature no further moving it selfe then according to its lightnesse You shall sometimes have men to move themselves out of their levity come to an eminent duty in the pride of their natures Note and will lift themselves up to some duties but this is not out of an inward principle but out of the lightnesse of their spirits desire to be above Lightness of spirit will move them to this and that duty and rather move from hence then from any inward principle of grace and so sometimes creatures out of their heavinesse and basenesse of minde will be doing spirituall duties but as the one doth them to be seen of men and performe the meere letter of the duty and in the pride of his heart not out of any inward affection to such duties so there be others that for profit sake will move themselves basely unto spirituall duties as Christ said of his Hearers they followed him for loaves Joh. 6.26 so that it is one thing to move to such or such a businesse or to be stirring about such duties out of an inward affection to the duty and inclination of heart and love of such a worke and another thing to be carried to such workes out of an inward levity of nature or because by such duties a man may excell others and goe beyond his neighbours and it is one thing to be acting and stirring in spirituall duties out of an inward love to them and another to performe them out of a base respect to the profit and pleasure that may be found in them in outward peace and rest as sometimes the case so stands that if a man doe betake himselfe to spirituall duties he shall perhaps finde the more favour in the eyes of men and to please authority if it take the better side and so from an heavie basenesse of their hearts to such regards they will have respect unto spirituall duties but these doe not move but as heavie things move downward and light things upward a stone will move downward and fire upward Absolom had a marvellous strong affection to be doing 2 Sam. 15.4 he tels them every man should have justice if he was but made King in the Land so all Israel desired after him but Absolom was now out of his place but as soone as ever he got into the place hee desired the first thing he intended was to cut off his Fathers life an act of the greatest rebellion that ever could be done so that men out of their places are apt to be stirring and moving but it is but either from the basenesse or lightnesse of their hearts Note this O that I were but in my Masters place saith a servant I would have duties performed in such time and place and when they come to be in place and might order and command their families then they grow as bad as their Masters and it may be worse but this are we apt to doe when we are out of our places apt to be moving but it s not true life because only that which moves in its place that only lives and yet further A thing may move in its place and yet move from some kind of outward respects as a Watch or a Clock it moves but it is from the weight that lyes and hangs upon it and so it is rather a violent motion then a naturall So is it many times with men the weight of the Law or the weight of the authority of Governours doth so carry them an end in those waies they walke in that they goe through with it and yet it is but from an outward principle from some outward weights that hangs upon them but yet suppose men should be doing in their places as Jehu was he was mighty in his place and was very much against Baal and destroyed the house of Ahab and his children and his friends but yet notwithstanding though this was all in his calling he had a speciall Calling given him of God to that end What required to a spirituall duty but though you should performe duties in your places as a tree though it move in its place upward yet it puts not forth so many a man may doe good duties in his place and yet be wanting in the graciousnesse and spirituality of them Now to make a duty spirituall requires not only that it should be for the better a good worke but that it should be wrought First in sence of our owne insufficiency without Christ and yet so as that by and from Christ we are able to doe it Secondly that we have some respect to the Word of God for our warrant Thirdly that in all we doe we have respect to the glory of God in all our performances I live by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 The just shall live by his owne faith As if he should say he no further puts forth a worke of spirituall life further then he denies his owne ability so farre hee lives by his faith and depends upon Christ for supply in every duty he goes about whether he pray preach or receive Sacraments or be diligent in his Calling or in his carriage towards any that stand in relation to him so farre as we are sensible of our owne failings and therefore doe depend upon him for strength these are not such as come from common graces Common gifts but doe accompany sanctification to life It is true if men be invested with common gifts they may be acted and moved to many duties in their places and put out very sweet affections to the duty and yet doe it rather out of the power of their owne strength and rather for their owne glory and applause then from any dependance upon Christ so that spirituall life hath the Lord Jesus for its root and the Word for its warrant and for its rule to walke by Psal 119.6 Then shall I never be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandements All such actions will be accpptable to God and serviceable to men and also aime at the glory of God for the end that is their last end and all such other ends as are sub-ordinate unto that the building up of Gods Kingdome Zach. 7.5 6 7. When ye did eate did ye it unto me saith the Lord nay did ye not doe it to your selves Hos 7.14 They have not cryed unto me with their heart when they howled upon their beds Did you desire in your prayers to bring in any service to God to tend to his honour and glory And did you debase your owne soules before him that you might finde help from him Or did you not this to your selves or for your owne deliverance and redemption and freedome from such bondage and other miseries that lay upon you so that if God see men goe
about such duties meerly for themselves they are wanting of this spirituall life So then doe but lay these things together doe you finde a man that is desirous to be doing good duties but is it to please others or is it out of the bonds of authority that lyes upon him Doe you see them have affection to duties but out of their place and calling or in their calling they doe such duties but rather out of their own strength then from the strength of Christ and not out of a conscionable respect to all the Commandements of God or if it be from outward principles and to wrong ends the glory of God not sought after nor tending to the building up themselves nor others in grace all these are such as men may be carried to doe from outward respects they may doe something that one would thinke would argue life but all the duties they doe by their owne strength is like a Spider that weaves a webbe out of her owne bowels we follow not the rule of the Word exactly but are ever wheeling about to our owne ends and to those respects that concerne our selves rather then to the glory of God and the Churches good it is true no man that hath common graces men that have gifts of preaching and gifts of praying may love to act and move them or any other zealous gift but yet notwithstanding you shal finde this to be true that till the heart be sanctified by the life of Christ we ever detaine all the graces of God in unrighteousnesse as the Romans and Gentiles did detaine the truth of God in unrighteousnesse Rom. 1.18 So we by a spirit of ypocrisie detaine all the graces of God in unrighteousnesse and in Hypocrisie whereas God hath given us every grace and the manifestation thereof to edifie himselfe and to glorifie God withall We wonderfully magnifie our selves withall and make our selves goodly in the eyes of men we are full of our selves and thinke we have this and that in us that will serve our turne and reach our owne ends this is not a life of grace but is indeed a dead worke all that we doe and therefore rest not in any such kinde of life and motion But if you finde an inward inclination of soule to Spirituall duties and to those duties in speciall that are pertinent to your place and if they be not within the compasse of your calling you dare not reach unto them and in your calling you do them not out of desire to be seen of men but you are doing good duties out of a sence of your owne inability to reach any duty in your calling much lesse of Gods service and in them all you observe every commandement of God and the ends you aime at are singly that God may be glorifyed and that God may see you and not man that good may be done by you in your places in Church and Family and Commonwealth and that thereby others might be brought on to God and his Kingdome increased this very motion and inclination of your hearts is an argument that you have a stirring spirit to spiritual duties and this is spirituall life in Christ And therefore by how much the more God shall give you an heart to bee doing your works and duties in this order so much the more comfort you shal gather to your souls that undoubtedly Christ hath shed abroad his spirit in you by which you are able to doe that which else you could not have reached unto Quest You say unto me may not a good Christian man have his heart so dead that he is unfit to pray or preach or to instruct his Family or for the duties of his calling fit and good for nothing And is a soule in such a case as this altogether void of spirituall life and sanctification is there not sometimes a kind of a coath come upon a Christian that so benumbs his spirit that he performes no duties at all but if he might have his owne mind he would not pray at all nor receive Sacraments Is not this sometimes the case of Christian and will you say that such an one is a dead soule because he is altogether listlesse and dead-hearted to move to any spirituall duty Answ It is true there may fall such a deadnesse upon the heart of Christian men that they are both unable and unwilling to any spiritual duty Which commonly God leaves his servants unto when he hath found them acting and moving in their own strength and upon their detaining of the graces of God in unrighteousnesse Causes of deadnes of heart and diverting them rather to their own praise in the world then the edifying of the people of God or the glorifying of his own name when God sees we are much of our selves and thinke we can doe much by the strength of grace we have received then God is wont to leave us cold and dead so as we know not in the world what to doe nor are we willing to do any thing The very presence of a duty and the thoughts of it is an horror to such soules in such cases we have been too busie in our own strength and too mighty in the grace we have received and rather aimed at our selves then at him and then no marvaile if God leave us to a world of deadnesse But when God hath thus by this meanes let us see that all our life is in him and that we are dead hearted further then we have life from him then God is wont not to faile but to help us thus farre at the least to looke with a wist and a sad eye upon the forlornnes of our estates and to cry out of our selves O what dead hearted Creatures and dull spirited things are we and bemoane our selves as Paul did Rom. 7.18 I see that in me that is in my flesh Remedies against deadnesse dwels no good thing Sometimes I have a minde to doe good duties but I finde that I have no strength to performe Paul comes to Macedonia and he had an open doore a faire calling to preach but he had no heart to it because he found not Titus his brother there Now when this is the case of a Christian man that he is strait and dead hearted he groanes under the burthen of it and he lookes at it with sad countenance and sees he is not well but is ready to complaine of it now this sence and complaint of deadnesse and using the best meanes to raise himselfe up out of this deadnesse this is an action of Spirituall life It is an act of Spirituall life for a man to be sensible of his owne deadnesse which in time workes the soule of a Christian to a more constant dependance upon Christ for life and makes him more observeable of the Word and more ingenuous and sincere in looking at the glory of God and the Churches good more then his owne and by how much the more we come to this passe and
the more we have respect to the Word as our daily rule so much the more All our stirrings in our callings is a motion of Spirituall life and argues the life of sanctification shed abroad in our hearts Secondly another action of life is feeding 2 Signe of spirituall life the creature that feeds it selfe is able to live Joh. 6 35. explained Iohn 6.35 Except you eate my Flesh and drinke my Blood you have no life in you He doth not speake of the Sacrament of the Lords Supper there for it was not then instituted but yet it is true of that as wel as of any other Ordinance of God the Body and Blood of Christ fed upon in Word and Sacrament and Christian communion in hearing and reading the Word and if Christ had ordained more Ordinances then he hath yet when he hath had ordained any Spirituall Ordinance the feeding upon Christ in that Ordinance had been an argument of Spirituall life Except yee eate his flesh and drinke his blood yee have no life in you This is an argument of Spirituall life when a man in every duty that he takes in hand and is sensible in them all in some measure though not alwayes easie to be discerned at first but if in every duty of Christianity that you performe and in every Ordinance of God you feed upon Christ then you have life in Christ so that let a man observe it You heare the Word and you receive Sacraments and you partake in Christian company Doe you eate the flesh of Christ there and drinke his blood there If so then it is well when you heare the Word is the Blood of Christ or is the flesh of Christ there or is either of both there to feed upon Or in prayer or in any other duty that you take in hand doe you feed upon Christ in it If you feed upon him there you have life and he that feeds not lives not if a man forbeare his meat he cannot long subsist It is true a man may live for a while and finde no rellish in any thing but in time he must finde relish in them else he cannot be preserved Quest But how shall I know that I doe feed upon Christ in every Ordinance Ans 1. A soule longs after Christ in Ordinance First Whether doe you finde an inward longing desire in your souls after the Lord Jesus Christ in the duties you goe about Doe you come with a desire to finde Christ in his Ordinance hungring and thirsting and not satisfied unlesse you finde Christ that is the nature of hungring and thirsting and so is the case here This desire and thirst is such an unquenchable desire as that without Christ it is by no meanes satisfied doe you therefore finde an inward longing to find and meet with the Lord Jesus in the Word that you read or heare in the Sacraments that you receive and such a longing desire as that if you finde not Christ there you goe away poore and dead and finding your hearts unsatisfied is an evident signe of life for you came to an Ordinance and desired to finde Christ there and there he was not what then Cant. 3.1 2 3. to the bed of the Ordinances the Church goes to seek and to finde Christ by night I sought him that was in a time of calamity that she could plainly discerne she found him not and she sought him in every other Ordinance but found him not or sign of life she hungers and sought out after him but could not finde him and when she missed him was not satisfied If a man come to an Ordinance and find nothing there Note this and yet when he is gone he is satisfied he is well enough that soule hath either no life at all or life in a swound or cold without stirring and motion there is not an hungering desire after him when you can come and goe away unsatisfied and yet be well contented too Secondly feeding hath another worke Strength and sweetnesse in the ordinance the former is but a preparation or supposition of feeding but a man also then feeds when he findes some sweetnesse and rellish in the meat that he eates that doth ever accompany feeding and is a signe that a man doth feed the stomach doth well affect the meat it feeds on have you then found some sweet rellish in the Ordinances the Gospell is a sweet savour to them that are saved 2 Cor. 2.15 16. and as for savour to smell so as a sweet savour to the taste doe you therefore finde some kinde of sweetnesse a spirituall sweetnesse in the Word you heare or read or Sacraments you receive or prayers that you make Are they such a comfort or sweetnesse to you that you finde in this or that promise or commandement or doctrin any word of life Do you finde strength and sweetnesse in it It is an evident signe of life because you finde sweetnesse in it it s a signe of health to rellish a sweetnesse in our meat for a sick man it may be eates and drinkes but he findes no sweetnesse in it and that is a part of his complaint that he cannot relish his meat and it is true it may be a man that hath some life in him feels no relish no savour in any Ordinance but then he sees he is sicke and he complaines of it to God but yet notwithstanding if a man doe finde sweetnesse and relish there it is an evident argument not of life only but of health and such as will maintaine spiritual life but if a man find no sweetnesse in it he cannot live for were there life it would finde sweetnesse Thirdly 3. Particular applying of the Word in all feeding there is a taking of the meate downe and not spitting it out but we receive it downe and there it lyes in our stomachs and we chew upon it and there it rests but if we cast it up againe then we feed not it is an ill signe when we cast it away as soone as we receive it If Gods Word abide with us and in us that we doe not reject it but hide it in our hearts that so we might not sinne against God Psal 119.11 and receive it by a wise applying of it to our owne soules receive it into the inward man and apply our selves to every duty commanded us so farre as concernes our callings and our estates and takes notice of every threatning that we had need looke to it so farre as we might sinne against God if we thus take the Word of God downe into our hearts and make it our owne case and therefore keepe it within our selves and give up our selves in some measure to be bowed by it and hide it in our hearts and lets it sit next our hearts then truly we doe feed upon it and it secretly conveyes strength into us though sometimes we lesse discerne it Fourthly 4. Conformity to the Word in everything all
feeding containes in it a conversion of the meat into the thing nourished so as that which we feed upon it becomes our selves it is all one with our selves in time it is so digested and turned into our nature that every part hath sucked in its owne nourishment every part hath received something of that which was inwardly received This hath been anciently observed this is somewhat more then receiving Christ by faith for when we apply every word to our selves and make Christ ours that is receiving him to be ours yet it is a further worke to be conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ in every thing to be confirmed and established in the Promises and to be quickned by them to be terrified by threatnings and to stand in awe of every word of God and to be bowed to an inward subjection to Christ day by day by the word we receive this is a further mighty worke of grace If therefore hee be a Christian that by the Word and Ordinances he receives he is fashioned and made conformable to Christ meek and righteous and lowly and holy as he is and willing to do any good Office for the Church of God and goe up and down doing good and needs no further motion this way but as Christ moves him it is a signe that he feeds upon Christ Christ is turned into his nature or which is more his nature is rather turned into the nature of Christ the nourishment being so strong makes us become such as he is in this world Now when we are conformable to the Lord Jesus Christ by the Ordinances that we partake in it is an evident sign that we there feed upon him And therefore try your selves by this signe of sanctification if you live you feed on Christ and except you so doe you have no life in you so then consider do I feed upon the flesh of Christ and drinke his blood and do I finde a spirituall appetite to the Lord Jesus raised up in my soule and do I find any spiritual refreshment and strength by that which I do partake in and that which I so find sweetnesse in I apply it to my own estate and convey it into the inward part of my heart that I may be able to drink it up as my lot and portion And do I by this strength of grace grow like to Christ and do I more adorn the Gospell of Christ this is an evident signe you live for you feed upon spirituall food which is an argument of spiritual life no man can feed upon spirituall food but he that lives and such a life as hee lives in Christ Let a man come to the Word without an appetite to it and when he comes find no nourishment nor refreshment in it and applyes nothing as is said to him but let such and such looke to it he never hears profitably that doth not particularly apply that which he heares and if he apply it he rather stormes at it it is an evident argument that such a man hath no life in him at all Not that you should here look at the naturall body and blood of Christ for that were a Canaball eating and drinking That which the Church of Rome puts upon the Church of God at this day but our Saviour tells you the meaning of this place It is the spirit that quickeneth the flesh profiteth nothing had a company of Roman Souldiers fallen upon Christ and either out of wrath against him or love to themselves had pulled him in peeces and eaten him goblet by goblet it had profitted them nothing had men eaten the reall body of Christ and drunk up his blood and joyned with others in so doing and left none of him al this had profited them nothing nay it profits nothing for the Capernites aske the question How can this man give us his flesh to eat it is an hard saying they thought it incredible v. 5.2 they would think it a savage bruitishnesse to fal upon him in that manner and therefore our Saviour so confesseth that it is no part of his meaning that they should eate and drinke his reall body and blood but hee meanes the breathing of the spirit in the Ordinances if you can rellish Note this and feed upon that and grow to be such as Christ was in this world that was the meate and drinke of his soule if you grow humble and meek and be transformed into the spirit of Christ if you see your spirits conformable to the will of Christ it is a signe of the life of holinesse in your soules which God hath given you through Christ A third effect of the life of sanctification 3 Signe is growth for that which lives growes till it come to its full perfection so in all naturall Growth in grace vegitative or sensitive life if it live it growes till it come to its full maturity when it comes to its full vigour and strength it may decay and stand at a stay but a Christians life never comes to that till it come to the life of glory to the full measure of the stature of Christ In this life we cannot come to that but therefore it is that we grow to the end of our dayes and then are forthwith translated to immortallity ye desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 and 2 Pet. 3.18 grow in grace and God hath given us Ministers to teach and instruct us till we all grow to be perfect in Christ Jesus Eph. 4.11 12 13. Col. 2.19 Increase with the increasings of God with divine and inlarged and spirituall increasing so doth the body of Christ grow and all the members of it they grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ So that this is a third effect of life if a man can find his heart to grow Quest But doth not many a Christian stand at a stay and sometimes grow backward and fall from their first love fall from the fruitfullnesse and goodnesse and rootednesse in Christ though not wholly cut off yet falling from the firmenesse in grace and the power of grace and from fruitfullnesse and the abundance of the worke of righteousnesse Answ It is true many a soule doth so for a while but if so bee that God doe give a Christian man not to grow we must not say therefore he doth not live not but that a man for a time may be weake as a living man in sicknesse may be very weake his spirit faile and his strength faile and his worke and imployment fails him and he can do nothing neither eate nor drink no not so much as leane upon a staffe but may lye bed-rid but yet such a man feeles a sensible distemper of his body and he ceaseth not to use the best means he can and so in the end he comes to grow and recovers his first love againe in some measure some also there are that by sinfull lusts waste instead of
themselves and therefore this is the warmth of this knowledge it both burnes up their owne lusts like chaffe and all the sinfull distempers that we see in the lives and wayes of our Brethren this is one part of the heat of a Christian soule that his knowledge is a warme knowledge Look what he knowes he thinkes he must doe whereas another man knowes many things but he doth them not but a Christian if he know it to be the Will of God he must doe it And that is the reason why Gods servants are many times counted very busie as indeed the fire is ever very busily working no creature in the house so busie as the fire is and so the knowledge of Gods people makes them to be so busie in doing and therein they expresse the life of Christ Secondly 2. Where there is life there is breath where ever is true life there is this warmth a warmth in their breath both in the Naturall and Spirituall body in this Naturall body while we live it is warme and so long as we live we breath more or lesse it is but for a little time if at all breath be intercepted it may be in some suddaine fits but ordinarily if it tarry long it is a signe of death but if there be life there is breathing and that breathing is warme some warme breath comes from him that is alive And truely so shall you finde it in your spirituall life If there be any true life in the heart of a Christian soule there is alwayes some kind of warm breathing there is some measures of warmth in his prayers the prayers of an hypocrite ir alwayes but lip-labour and accordingly lust labor the words vanish away in the aire but there is ever more or lesse some kind of warmth-in the prayers of Gods servants according to what the Apostle speakes Rom. 8.26 even then when we know not what to pray for nor how to pray as we ought then the spirit helpes our infirmities that when we sometimes cannot bring out a word to God the heart is ful sometimes of anguish and discouragement in respect of inward desertions or temptations and outward afflictions but yet though in such a case we be not able to tel what to pray for yet there is ever in a Christian soule something that makes him seeke to God and the very sighs of such a soule come from ome warmeth of spirit within him The scalding sighs and deep groanes of the soule they come from a spirit of life and warmth in Christ Jesus Therefore though it be true there be many cold prayers that Gods servants do put up yet there is some kind of sighs and groans that springs from them which argues some heat and life in them And so is it As they breath thus to God-ward so doe they breath one to another so that if they speake of the things of God they speake not of God and his Word lightly and wantonly or loosely as those that have no affection to them but if they speak of the Word of God of his threatnings promises or of any of his commandements or any of the workes of his providence they speake not of them coldly as those that took no pleasure in them but if they speake of any of the things of God they speake with some reverence and desire after them and settling a confirmation in them they have love to the word and rejoyce in it and stand in awe and in feare of it and they exercise their hearts and wits about it when at any time they speak of the things of God so that there is some kind of warmth in the expression of a Chirstian in some savoury affection whereby he esteemes of the things of God above what is found in an hypocrite Thirdly Spiritual warmth digesteth Gods Ordinances There is a certaine kind of warmth by which the soule doth not only affect the Ordinances of God but by which it doth in some measure digest them there is no living man wanting some such measure of heat as makes him able to digest some kind of dyet though not alwayes strong meate especially if he be in any measure of health and that is no small measure of heate Psal 119.20 the very longing desire it alwayes hath to Gods Judgements was it that even made his soule to breake within him and so to pant after Gods Word and his presence in his Ordinances Psalm 42.1 there was a kind of panting and longing and eager desire after God by which it comes to passe that the soule of a Christian closes with God in his Ordinances and turnes them into nourishment within himselfe and so is more strongly and inwardly bent towards God in the ways of his grace whereas a dead spirit is flat and hath no affection to the word no affection to Gods presence no list to the things of this nature Fourthly things that are warm put them together and they are the more warm 4. Spiritual warmth heateth others but put cold clogs and peeces of wood together and they are never a whit the warmer but if you take but two or three of them things that are well kindled and they will set all a fire that comes nigh them though ready before to goe out for want of supply if you lay two or three warme brands together they will kindle one another And truly so it is among Christians take you a Christian that hath this spirituall warmth in him though almost benumbed for want of good company and good conference and breathing forth of Gods spirit and grace in the soule Yet if he meet with two or three like himselfe they presntly begin to kindle one another And the breath of such Christians is like bellows to blow up sparkes savoury and sweet expressions of their hearts and edifie themselves by their mutuall fellowship one with another Yea and sometimes they grow so warme by this means as that they are fit to admonish one another to exhort and to comfort and if need require to rebuke one another as occasion serves 1 Pet. 4.8 Have fervent love one to another above all things have fervent love among your selves this is a speciall thing love among Christians by which love they so kindle one another to such deep respects to God and the wayes of his grace and so burne one out of another much sinfull folly and frailety which will be in them that are so loose one to another and raiseth them up to that power of godlinesse which sometimes they had grown up unto and now almost lost for want of often joyning together for by so doing they do what they can to put out the fire when Satan means to put out the light and life of Religion out of both Church and Commonwealth hee layes one Christian in one corner and another in another that they shall when they list go to bed and sleep and then a lazy spirit shall come upon them and so they
lye till they be dead in trespasses and sins But above all things have fervent love among your selves forsake not the fellowship you have one with another as the manner of some is Heb. 10.25 26. Love covereth a multitude of sins So as that though there was much evill in Christians before yet their very lying together doth burn out all that superfluity of naughty stuffe that hangs about the servants of God 1 Pet. 1.22 see that ye love one another with a pure heart and fervency of spirit This warmth in Christians it is found in these foure things And thus you see the properties of this life Quest You say but if this were always found in Christian men how comes it to passe then that the servants of God do many times finde their hearts so cold in their prayers and appetite so little to the word and so unprofitable under it How should a man heare so much and profit so little if a man aid digest the word and is it not a common complaint of Christians how much they hear and how little they profit Yea and will not some Christians say he profits nothing at all no not any thing And is it so many times that Christians come together and they are little edification one to another very little profit sit together and talke of matters that little edifie but rather corrupt the spirits one of another how is it then that you say where ever there is life there is heat so such as makes them more lively in Christian duties And it might be objected that Luke 24.32 Did not our hearts burn within us c. A sign that till he came to them and came into conference with them and did rub them up they were very cold hearted and dull spirited and went on their way with much darknesse of soule without life and strength of soule until he came to put life into their spirits Answ It is true many times Gods servants are very cold and benumbed and a cold spirit growes upon them exceedingly so as that they scarce feele any life breathing in their knowledge or prayers or appetites to the Word or love to their Brethren little warmth in any of these partly through want of supplying the life of Gods grace with fit nourishment whereby the heart should grow warme As naturall fire if it be not supplyed with new fewell it will goe out and partly sometimes by pouring cold water upon it which is as much as in us lyes to dampe the fire And we doe power cold water upon this life of grace when we admit of any sinfull lusts in our soules those do marvellously eate out all that life and heate of spirit that sometimes we had in our hearts and sometimes by an excessive use of worldly things which without a very spiritual mind doth clog the soule as much as if you should throw cold water upon a fire it will damp it very much so is this case men sometimes walke in worldly businesses with worldly affections and sometimes give leave to distempered lusts and sometimes neglect to put any fewell to the fire of grace but as soone as ever they find the heart well warmed with some good Sermon or a good Prayer or Conference or the like they thinke this fire wil never goe out and so they begin to neglect it and so either the fire goes quit out or else is so damped as that you can discerne no life no savour or power of Religion there And therefore such a thing may befall Gods servants they may grow dul hearted one way or other as you have heard But yet thus much let me say though this sometimes do befal the spirits of Gods people yet even then when they want burning and chafeing and stirring up there is something in them that argues some life and where is some life there is some heat so much life as there is so much heat is there so much as you take away of your Christian heat so much life you take away And therefore for these two Disciples that went to Emaius It is said when they were talking one with another they were talking of Jesus Christ and upon all the things that befell him in his passion And said Christ to them ver 17. What manner of communication is this and what is the matter that you are thus sad what was it that made them sad was it not an affection of griefe for all the evills done to their Saviour that was life of grace and some heate there was in them that their spirits should be so troubled to see their Elders and Princes and all the people to cry out so bitterly against the Lord Jesus Christ and not to leave him till they had crucified him there was some sad expression came from them upon that occasion And so though it left the outward man sad yet there was something in the heart though full of doubting through unbeleife what this Christ was and what this would come to we hoped this was he that should redeem Israel c. then Christ began to put a little warmth into them by saying ought not Christ to suffer these things v. 24 25. and so he opens to them the Scriptures spoken of himselfe and these words put new life into them and did blow up the spirit and heat of that decaying life which was overwhelmed with griefe and care their hearts was heated yet So that take you a Christian man when he is even in the most disordered framelook how much he hath lost of his spiritual heat so much of his true life if he have left to be warm so much life hath he lost and if his warmth be smoothered his life is smoothered for the present And even as life will shew it selfe in the very sad face of the heart and dejection of spirit that they fall into and sometimes in the deepe sighs and groans of the heart which in such a case it sometimes will breake forth into So a Christian soule when his heate is most damped there is a sad face in his spirit that he discerns all is not well with him his spirit is benumbed his heart in his own thoughts is frozen within him It is a burden to him and a matter of sadnesse to his spirit and therefore hee doth expresse himselfe sometimes with many sad and deep sighs and groanes about his forlorne and lost estate and yet sometimes you shall have his heart even then when his heart is most cold which is worse then the former for you shall sometimes have a Christian soule not onely not affected with sadnesse 〈◊〉 this when his life is smothered within him but vanish away in much empty carnall delights and contentments and rejoycing in those comforts which have no life at all in them A Christian man that hath his life so deaded may come not onely to have nothing left but sadnesse of heart to behold it but hee may loose his sadnesse too and even
many times conveys such a spirit of grace into us as gives us power to receive Christ what power had the Cripple to stand much lesse to walke Act. 3.6 7. he had no power to walke and it had been a vaine speech to him if there had not been a power in it to convey strength into him by his breath and the Lord Jesus working in it which did convey such strength into him as that presently he did walke And truly so is it with the Servants of God those that shal be saved we speake not in vaine to them the word that we speake conveyes spirit and life into them then they begin to receive life in him and are glad that they may finde Christ and for other men it leaves them without excuse if they do not use the meanes God appoints them to use And the means God prescribes to us are these Means of having Christ First as ever thou wouldest have Christ labour wisely to ponder upon and consider how dead thou art without Christ for thou shalt never find life by Christ unlesse thou find thy selfe lost without him Luke 10.10 Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost If thou seest thy self lost Christ will seek thee up be fully satisfied of this in thy judgement and mind that unlesse thou hast Christ thou hast no life and therefore mourn and pray The whole need not the Physitian but them that are sicke Matth. 9.12 13. See thy selfe a sinner and a perishing creature unlesse Christ seeke thee up Secondly Take this meanes as ever you desire to have life in Christ if thou knowest any sin by thy selfe thou art much to blame in thy selfe if thou dost not by any meanes wash thy hands of it Note this cleanse thy selfe from it There are many sins which a man lives in which he might avoid by very common gifts which would he renounce God would not be wantng to lead him on to further grace John 3.18 19. This is condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkenesse rather then light 2 Cor. 6.17 18. touch no unclean thing meddle not with vain company and have nothing to doe with the unfruitfull workes of darkenesse and then I wil be a father to you and you shall be my Sons and Daughters if wee would but abhor that which we know to be nought God promiseth to receive us And it is the same that you read Esay 1.16 17 18. to shew you that if men do begin to learn to be better if they cease to doe evill and learn to do well if they acknowledge their sins in the sight of God God wil so sprinkle the blood of Christ upon them as that their great sins shal be forgiven them and upon the same termes men might feed upon the paschal Lamb Exo. 12.15 they must put all leaven out of their houses purge out therefore the old leaven and ye shall become a new lumpe 1 Cor. 5.7 8. purge out the old and ye shall be new creatures in Christ purge out the leaven of maliciousnesse and wickednesse and whatever is sinfull before God away with it touch no uncleane thing and Esa 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his wickednesse and the unrighteous his thoughts and then I am a God ready to pardon I will forgive all your iniquities Thirdly Seeke the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is nigh Esa 55.7 8. Seeke him and your soule shall live God is abundantly ready to pardon c. How shall I seeke him no man hath a desire to seeke but that which he hath a desire to finde and therefore hunger and thirst after him as it is in the first verse of that Chapter desire nothing so much as thy part in Christ and besides endeavour to finde him in the meanes vers 3. Heare and your soules shall live hearken diligently to the Word of God It is a notable promise that in Prov. 8.34 Blessed is the man that heareth me watching daily at the posts of my gates for he that findeth me findeth life Consider there is no man that heares Christ but hee findes him and if he finde him he shall have life by him And therefore how much cause have men to straighten themselves a little in their worldly businesse to heare daily for who so findeth me findeth life and he that hears me findes me Heare therefore diligently and your soules shall live Shake off all drowsinesse of flesh and spirit and be desirous to receive Christ in his Word that is spoken to you and so seeke him in calling upon him ver 7 8. Call upon him while he is nigh And when is he nigh Every day if you stay longer then the present day you have no further opportunity offered you call upon God now and wrastle with him in your prayers that that which you have heard may be life and the length of your dayes Vse 4. To teach every soule that hath already found Christ and yet complaines thou hast a dead heart and a dull minde an heavie spirit heavie affections nothing lively cannot expell thy corruptions cannot beget others to God and art not active in spirituall workes then if thou finde a want or decay of life then seeke for Christ againe labour for more Christ and thou shalt have more life rest not in having a good measure of grace for thou wilt finde a world of deadnesse and weaknesse in beginnings of grace but as thou wouldest have any further measures of life so looke for further measures of Christ for Christ dispenseth himselfe to us in measure by little and little and use the same meanes to increase him as thou didst to get him at the first see thy selfe lost without him and thirst after him and heare diligently and call earnestly upon him for more strength use Christ and have Christ use grace and have grace grow up in the use of him and thou shalt grow up in the possession of him and therefore as you have received Christ so walke in him Col. 2.7 8. As if that were the way to get more rooting in Christ labour to live by faith and walke to the glory of Christ and by the rules of Christ and by that meanes you will be more built up rooted and established in him Vse 5. Of comfort to every soule that hath any part in Christ thou hast life in him and that in abundance and favour with God having him thou hast life Prov. 8.34 35. They that hate me love death if you seek not Christ you seeke death and mischiefe and destruction to your owne soules and yours vers last and therefore as you desire to finde Christ seeke him and having found him rejoyce in him that God hath given you to finde him and then walke as those that desire for ever to have him as not to change your portion by any meanes If you have Christ you have enough and if you sit loose to Christ for the enjoyment
Arts and Sciences whence is their knowledge but from their observation of many experiences Phisitians know it and they therefore set it downe in their bookes they know it is so Things that we gather from sence and experience we are said to have the knowledge of now this experience doth not only give us confidence but knowledge for by the unction that we have received we doe know the love of God that passeth knowledge Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith we come to know the love of God towards us Eph. 3.17.19 There is not any thing that concernes the love of God towards us but the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts by faith it comes to passe that we are able to comprehend the height and depth length and breadth of the love of God towards us This Spirit of God in our hearts gives us sensible experience and knowledge of Gods love to us of his attonement and grace to us our Consciences that had hels in them before all such darksome evils are now vanisht and scattered and we know that sensibly we had power given us to pray and to beleeve that our prayers are granted and can wait upon God and feare God and make conscience of obeying his will Now this Spirit of prayer that discovers these things plainly to our inward man the sence and experience of it makes a Christian able to know what God hath done for him and makes him able to beleeve what God hath promised him and thus now when we aske any thing according to Gods will he doth not only say It is well said but he takes a course to answer our requests we have certaine grounds to move us in what we aske and the ends of our requests are right Now God considers not alwaies so much the letter of our prayers as the grounds and ends of them the scope we ayme at and God will so accordingly answer us Vse 1. Let it be first a ground of encouragement to every Christian soule that beleeves in the name of Jesus Christ trust not in your owne good parts and good gifts if any such things increase set not your hearts upon them trust not in any worldly blessing but beleeve on the name of Christ And therefore that you may beleeve humble your soules before him in regard of your sins and pray heartily in the faith of Christ And why so The ground is in the text you shall not only be confident and assured of your salvation which is a great mercy of God to my soule and a greater then all the whole Church of Rome would grant they may goe to Rome and from thence to Jerusalem and from one place to another to have sought for pardon of sin and yet not so much comfort promised them that after all this they shall finde it but in the end to Purgatory they must goe and that is as ill as Hell fire say they save only in durance and this is all the helpe they have they might whip and scourge themselves and give all their goods away to the poore and themselves goe in sackcloth and ashes all their dayes and when all comes to all they must not be sure of any mercy or favour from God which to beleeve would be Hereticall presumption but they must notwithstanding all this rest in Hell fire till the day of Judgement unlesse they will be at cost to purchase freedome from it and which is strange though they would not suffer them to beleeve a release by Christs pardon yet upon the Popes pardon they might have hope and so they take more pains for an uncertainty then we for certainty and knowledge but you shall not only attaine certainty of salvation but certainty of the granting of all your requests no peace to the peace of a Beleever and therefore lay aside all your confidence in the world but be confident in the name of the Lord Jesus and be certaine of Gods favour and goodnesse to you in him and then here is such blessings as will keep a mans heart warme in the worst houres Vse 2. To teach such as beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus how you may come to be confident and certaine of the hearing and granting your petitions How may wee come to that Hast thou good evidence to thy soule of thy Adoption that God is thy Father then meditate well upon this point that Christ is thy Advocate to make intercession and Attonement for thee in case thou hast displeased thy heavenly Father These two things will much prevaile they be strong helps to a weake faith and then consider what unction thou hast received and look up to God that he would give thee a spirit of prayer to pray feelingly and fervently and humbly before him and then labour for a spirit of faith which if God give thee so much faith as to perswade thee thy requests are heard and to wrastle against discouragements and that the spirit of faith doth worke in thee grace to hope and waite upon God and withall an holy feare of his name and obedience to walke obediently in doing his will and patiently to suffer his will under his hand and observe how the Spirit speakes evidently in this and that kinde and it will be a notable means to helpe thee to grow confident and certaine that all thy prayers are heard Now many a Christian soule falls short of this he considers not the Attonement of Christ in his prayer but many times thus stands the case with them there is much desolutenesse in their lives and loosenesse and fearlesnesse in their hearts before God rejoyce not with trembling God sees his Servants loose in their obedience and when disobedient they seek not to Christ for Attonement whence it is that many times they are so full of doubts Vse 3. Of much consolation to all those that beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus and make use of these blessed meanes this is our confidence that whatsoever petitions we aske he heareth us and we know it See how comfortable a Christians estate is he growes certaine not only of his owne salvation but he is certaine of the hearing and granting of all his petitions if he can but pray well he makes account all is well let his distresses be what they will be SERMON XVI 1 JOHN 5.16 17. If any man see his brother sinne a sinne which is not unto death he shall aske and he shall give him life for them that sinne not unto death There is a sinne unto death I doe not say that he shall pray for it THese words containe a third motive to encourage us unto that duty which is the maine scope of this Epistle to wit to beleeve on the name of the Sonne of God whereto the Apostle exhorts us vers 13. and propounds first this motive to wit A blessed confidence of the hearing of all our petitions Secondly a certaine knowledge verified that he not only heares but grants our desires Now he
see that we doe not pray for them when we forget to remember them before the Lord this is ill taken God is displeased when there is none to stand in the gap in such a case as this Esa 59.15 16. God doth not afflict willingly and yet if he be stirred up he must destroy them if there be none to stand in the gap you then provoke the wrath of the Lord and this displeaseth him much and God may justly leave us to the like sinne for which we are not humbled in others Reas 5. Takâ—â—â—â—om the blessing that befalls Gods Servants when we doe so as was upon Job in chap. 42.8 9. when Iob begins to pray for his friends then God turned the captivity of Iob he had long time laine under many vexations wofull calamities but when he begins to pray for his friends that had sinned then the Lord turned his captivity and so it is expresly said Esa 57.18 19. I will restore comfort unto him and to his mourners To shew you that God will restore comfort to us if we lament the falls of others and mourne over them in that condition We shall have comfort in their comfort because we did mourne in their griefe If Gods people can mourne with their brethren in sinne and misery God will restore comfort to them and to their mourners Before we make use of this point come we to the next Doct. 3. A faithfull Christian praying for his brethren faln into any sin shall obtaine peace and pardon and grace for him It is said so in the text If any man that is any man that beleeves in Jesus Christ he shall aske and he shall give him life So that you see here is the promise made to such the promise is that upon asking he shall give life to his sinfull brother Who shall give him life Interpreters take it both wayes and both agreeable to the text and the Analogie of faith for whether he that prayes be as an Instrument or God it is all one for it must be God that doth it and he that prayes is an Instrument he procures to his sinning brother great favour from God Life that is the life of Iustification and of Sanctification consolation and comfort to his soule notwithstanding his sinne the promise is evident he shall prevaile with God to bestow life upon his brother This you shall see evident from Scripture Deut. 9.25 26. I fell downe before the Lord forty dayes and forty nights c. and thereupon the Lord did shew mercy and pardoned their sin Iob prayed for his friends and the Lord said he would accept him Job 42.8 9. And so our Saviour he prayed for his crucifiers And it is generally thought that the powerfull prevalency of Peters Sermon in converting three thousand soules at once did especially spring from our Saviours prayer and the efficacy of it Act. 2.37 And Stephen he prayed for his persecutors and Paul was one of them that had an hand in his death Act. 7.6 And yet ere long God answered Stephens prayer in converting Saul so that let a man a beleeving Christian pray for his sinning brother and he shall give him life Reas 1. It is taken from the pleasure that God takes to knit the Members of the Body of his Son together and no better means to joyne us together and so fitly to make us useful Members one to another then this those members of the body that are most weak should be most helped this way 1 Cor. 12 21 22. Every member should be of some use one to another and it doth better compact the body together God did not say to Iobs friends Goe you and pray for your selves but Goe to my servant Job and he shall pray for you He would have them beholden to Iob of whom they had spoken the thing that was not right else God would not accept them Reas 2. It is taken from the Intercession of Christ who performes that office for every member of his body This honour have all his Saints though they doe not merit this by their prayers yet there is this efficacy in their prayers not of merit but of grace to prevaile with the Father in their brethrens behalfe Rom. 8.34 Intercession is such a part and kinde of prayer as a man makes for other men to procure favour from God to them to be Mediators for them to pray for others in the name and mediation of Jesus Christ and that for his sake they may be accepted God will then heare us for Christs sake in the behalfe of our brethren Vse 1. It may be a ground of much encouragement to every Christian man to wrastle earnestly with God in the behalfe of his brethren when you see them sinne a sinne that is not unto death be it a mans wicked covetousnesse and such as a man is froward in it and wil by no meanes be admonished and goe on resolutely in it yet in this case God expects and requires we should mourne for him Esay 57.17 18. and therefore neglect not to pray for your brethren in this case First it will displease God if you pray not for them is it nothing to you to passe by and to see such a man lye in sinne assure your self of this Gods heart will fit loose towards you if your hearts sit loose to your brethren and therefore neglect not to pray for them Secondly if you pray for them you shall have comfort restored to them and to your selves with them and though for the present you might seeme to procure hurt to your selves and no good to them yet pray and pray heartily and use the best meanes you can and you will surely finde the comfort and benefit of it may not this be a notable encouragement to you this way that God should be pleased to make thee an Instrument of life to thy brother when he is a dead man in Gods sight a dead man will be stiffe and cold and putrifie and yet even such a man if thou prayest for him thou shalt give him life to his soule Object You say But doth not many a man pray for his brethren and yet is not heard and accepted did not Abraham pray for Ishmael And what think you of Samuels prayer for Saul and yet saith God How long wilt thou mourn for Saul 1 Sam. 17.6 I have cast him off mourne no more for him so that sometimes a man may pray for his brethren and that earnestly and yet his prayers fall to the ground in vaine Answ First it would be considered whether a man be a brother or no Abraham did not pray for one that was already gracious that did belong to the election of grace and the text doth not reach to such a brother but I understand it of such as are either called or belong to the election Secondly Suppose you doe not know whether he belong to the election of grace or no it may be you pray for them whom you have not used other means to heal them I doubt not but David prayed for Absalom and Adonijah but not using other meanes his prayers are rejected these are not prayers of faith when other good means are not used Thirdly It s possible that a man may pray without faith and without fervency Jam. 5.15 and such requests should be faithfull and fervent and God requires you should come before him and submit your selves to him and acknowledge your owne unworthinesse to aske such a blessing and yet in the name of Christ you presse God with it and you must walke close with God in a course of Christianity else your prayers are to no purpose and to waite on God through Christ for a gracious acceptance and God will recompence your prayers and labour of love in due time FINIS
of knowledge Was there ever any soul so desperately ignorant think you as to take the place of a Minister and not have skil to read no but these had no knowledge to teach the people the meaning of the Law of God whose lips should preserve knowledge and at whose mouth the people should seek the Law Mal. 2.7 8. Vse 3. To teach all that beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ diligently to be conversant in the Writings of Iohn and of the Apostles Shall the Holy Ghost have a Pen to write unto us and shall not we have a hand to receive these Writings and by faith to behold and beleeve them Shall he take care to write us Letters from Heaven from the Lord Jesus Christ indicted by the blessed Spirit and written by the hands of faithfull Scribes who were carried to all truth and shall they write them to us to continue to the end of the world and shall not we attend to them These be written to every soule that beleeves in Christ for if written to them that beleeve in Christ then every beleever may say These writings are written to me to thee and to me and therefore let us carefully read and attend to them And therefore doe not neglect a Letter written by such precious Scribes and from the hand of a gracious God that directed them to us but if written to us and for our instruction and learning let us heare and read and obey and looke at them as the chiefest blessings and ornaments of God vouchsafed to us Among all the meanes of grace put up these writings as the Oracles of God for our instruction Rom. 15.4 Whatever was written aforetime was written for our instruction and edification as well as for them that lived in ancient times how much are the Church of Rome to blame that lock up these Epistles from the common people in strange Languages and if they understand not Latine they must not read unlesse with license or in a strange Tongue heavie will the curse of God fall upon them they may as well read a Fable to them as the Scripture yea many times the Priests themselves understood not the Latine that they read it was given to them as a clasped booke they were not able to expound it but say that ignorance in the people is the Mother of Devotion and therefore both fall into the ditch together Quest Vse 4. Serves to be some direction to every carnall man you say if these Scriptures be written but to beleevers will you not allow ignorant carnall men to read this part of the Word of God Ans Even they have thus much benefit by the Word first Carnall men have benefit by the Word whatever is expounded to them from this Word may be effectuall to bring them on to salvation but faith comes by hearing Secondly These Scriptures when they are read they are a profitable and helpfull meanes to get knowledge though that knowledge I beleeve reach not to salvation Thirdly it is a meanes to put people in remembrance of what they know though it be not to salvation And lastly it kindles in them some desires to know these things that they might understand them though that be rare I dare not reckon the Eunuch among the ignorant and unbeleevers Act. 8.30 31. and that were a blessed use if men shall read the Scripture and complaine for that they cannot understand them and shall be stirred up to desire a Guide to help them to see and understand what they before understood not and so be brought on to some knowledge it were a blessed use of the Scriptures And besides they are of this use they are of singular benefit to discover to people what sinne is and open to men what morall and common vertues be and so are a meanes to preserve people in a forme of godlinesse whereby they know that Magistrates are to be obeyed Ministers reverenced Parents honoured Murder not to be committed the Sabbath not to be prophained God only to be worshipped the body of these things they see are to be done and these evils eschewed they are a meanes to keep people in good order and to prepare them to a better understanding of the Ministery of the Gospell that shall at any time be blessed to them so that some profit there is hence to them that want faith but the principall thing the Apostle aymes at is this I write unto you that beleeve on the name of the Son of God But further I say to you that are not yet brought on to beleeve let this be your instruction diligently to attend to what you heare from these words for you may say and truly you may read every day a Chapter or two and read them over againe and againe and spend many houres about them and in prayer too and yet no nearer salvation then at the first I say not not nearer salvation for you are stirred up to many duties but when you see you have read much and prayed much and yet get little hold of the saving grace of Christ how should this provoke all that live without meanes of grace to give diligent heed to that Ordinance of God in which faith to salvation is wont to be conveyed and that is an use that may be of notable efficacy to stirre them up to heare diligently those who are destitute of the knowledge of God let them be the more diligent to seeke after more meanes in the Ordinances of God Vse last It is an use to all those that do indeed beleeve on the name of the Lord Jesus to be not only carefull to read but to read these Scriptures in hope of finding those very blessings for which these Scriptures were written and sent us Were they written that you might be taught truly you make an il use of reading if you know no more at last then at the first you may wel say you are unprofitable if you doe not observe something from your reading and if they were written to stir us up to be doing good you make an il use of reading if it bring not forth some profitable fruits yea if by reading these Epistles you might beleeve and be humbled comforted and your joy might be full in reading then truly you should not rest till by reading you finde some measure of faith strengthened in you to an holy feare of God in whose presence you stand and whose word you take in hand and finde your hearts take comfort from what you doe read since they were writen for your sakes that beleeve and for your sakes onely if you shall be negligent to read them shall you not take this blessed Ordinance of God in vaine and therefore read them and read them diligently and profitably for the blessed ends for which God hath written them that you may finde the blessed fruites of them Now we come to speake of the end for which he wrote them that you might beleeve on the name