the Feet of Christ and look up to him in all above all for all casting our selves and Burthens upon him that we may be supported under all our cares and fears and temptations and be relieved in all wants and exigencies Do all through the influence of that Spirit that comes down from the Head that with St. Paul you may live yet not you but Christ Paul owned his Life was bound up in Christ Gal. 2.20 I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Sixthly The Sixth Request is That your Conversations be only as becomes the Gospel let not the Doctrin of Free-Grace be abused by your unholy Conversation see that ye be not of the number of those Atheists that say Let us Sin that Grace may abound Let the Enemies of the Doctrin of Free-Grace reproach the Doctrin and the Christians that own it a their pleasure I am sure there are none that are acquainted with the Free-Grace of God can live a loose Life neither was any known that taught that Doctrin feelingly or learn'd it truly that were ever known to be wicked persons The Grace of God teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts Indeed the Notions of Free-Grace may leave persons with unsanctified Hearts and Lives but the true Knowledg of it leaves so sweet a Savour upon the Heart that the Soul cannot willingly embrace Dunghil Lusts When the Soul knows the whole of his Salvation is of Free Grace that Soul is drawn forth to love admire glorifie and praise God who hath done such great things for him Let me beseech you let not the glorious Gospel suffer Reproach by your uneven Conversation You know you that profess the Truth Truths of Christ have many Enemies You had need pray earnestly to be led in a plain Path because of all your Enemies You have given up your selves to the Lord in your external Dedication see that it appear in your Conversation The Life of an Holy Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to God 1 Pet. 4.6 That God you have given your selves up to is an holy God the Lord Jesus that redeemed you is the Holy one of God The Spirit that leads the Children of God is an holy Spirit the Covenant that you are in is an holy Covenant without Holiness none of you shall see the Lord. Then let me prevail in my Request Pray live holy Lives let your Conversation be as becomes the Gospel only then no matter what Men say of you you will have great peace in your own Souls Psal 119.165 Great peace have they which love thy Law and nothing shall offend them It is better to be holy than to be thought holy no matter if you are outwardly black so you are inwardly beautiful Seventhly Walk in love imitate the Lord Jesus whose love overcame all our infirmities love brought him out of his Fathers Bosom love caused him to be born in a low condition to bear our sorrows and grief he taught love he practised love he died for love he left pledges of his love to comfort his Spouse in his absence and will shortly come and fetch all his Redeemed home to Glory to have their fill of love Be ye therefore followers of God as dear Children and walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Eph. 5.1 2. These will demonstrate that you are Christs Disciples John 13.35 The Lord Jesus Christ spake these words a little before his Death that they might be of the more force and make the more Impression upon the Souls of his Disciples as if he should say Remember my dying Love and let it live in your Bosoms as a precept and example to love one another And this is a certain Character of Love to Jesus Christ when we love Christ's Disciples for Christ's sake not because we are of the same mind in our Judgment but because we are Christ's Disciples and bear his Image and then you may assure your selves if you love upon such grounds your Love will not be restrained only to each other that walk in Church-fellowship but to all Saints as Saints of what denomination soever they go under which is much wanted in this day we live in It is much to be lamented that persons Saint themselves more by their own Opinion than by their Interest in Jesus Christ Saints should love as they are Children of one Father and in their way to Heaven and all that are in that way have Vnion with Christ and are Members of one glorious Head therefore we ought to love one another why should Brethren fall out by the way Nothing doth more manifest that the power of Godliness is in a People than when they love for Saintship rather than for Judgment If you read the 13th Chapter of the Corinthians the Apostle gives the true Characters of Love The first description of it is That it suffereth long that is Not hasty to take Revenge on them that offend them nor rash in Expressions to threaten Revenge Secondly It is kind ready to do any good Office Thirdly Envieth not is not troubled at the Prosperity of others however it go with himself Fourthly Vaunteth not it self doth not ambitiously glory in himself doth labour to exalt himself Fifthly Not puffed up not swelling with Conceits of himself Sixthly Doth not behave himself unseemly would not do any unseemly Action nor behave himself in an unbeseeming manner Seventhly Seeketh not his own hath not an Eye to his own profit as to make it his end but eyes God's Glory chiefly and the good of Zion more than carnal Interest Eightly Is not easily provoked though there may be Passions yet is not governed by them it is an Evil much to be lamented Passion so governs some as if their Tongues were set on fire from Hell Ninthly Thinketh no Evil he would do Evil to none nor readily take up Evil of another to have uncharitable Thoughts of him he will not be ready to charge his Brother rashly upon every Report Tenthly Rejoyceth not in Iniquity he doth not rejoyce in the Faults of others Elevently He rejoyceth in the Truth he rejoyceth that Truth prospereth and that an innocent persons Righteousness is cleared up The Apostle in winding up the marks of it shews it is every way excellent it beareth all things believeth all things hopeth all things he beareth all things all Evils he meets withal he believeth all things good of his Brother so far as Charity may not injure Truth There be many that account themselves to have passed from Death to Life which fall short of those Characters of Love We may all lament we find it so cold in our selves to them that bear Christs Name and Image I beseech you dearly Beloved in the Lord be much in Love and you will be much in God for God is Love To be a loving Saint is a sign of a lively Saint many Waters cannot quench the fire
since the Draw-bridge of Mercy hath been let down never diminished or lessened Christ's Mercy No he is an Everlasting Pearl for he that believes in Christ shall have Everlasting Life God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son to die that whosoever believed in him should not perish but have everlasting Life John 3.16 There you see is a Pearl that will last you for ever when Friends fail you and the World fails you he will not fail you For he that believes shall never perish but have everlasting Life Fifthly He is a most glorious Pearl If ever you would live a glorious Life live on Christ who is the Brightness of his Fathers Glory We see his Glory as the Glory of the only begotten Son of God full of Grace and Truth He is a glorious Pearl therefore see to it in all you enjoy let Christ be the prime principal thing to be the all in all and more than all in every thing you enjoy The 8th reason A Believer desires not Life nor nothing in Life no further than he enjoys Christ for he knows that Christ is better than Life Psal 63. O God thou art my God early will I seek thee my Soul thirsteth for thee my Flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty Land where no water is to see thy power and thy Glory as I have seen thee in the Sanctuary Because thy loving kindness is better than life my lips shall praise thee Thus will I bless thee while I live I will lift up my hands in thy Name Thou shalt be the Object of my Worship thee alone will I trust in thee alone will I rest on because thy loving-kindness is better than life thy Grace and Mercy and Love in Christ is better than Life God is very gracious to give us our Lives he did not owe us one moment of time When we came into the World he might immediately have sent us to our Graves First God's love in giving of Christ is better than Life How gracious is God to preserve us hitherto But what an Act of Grace to give Christ when poor Sinners lay weltering in their Blood for the love of God to pity them and look on them and bestow Christ upon them Secondly Christ is better than Life because of the Wonder of God's Love the Love of God in giving Christ is more wonderful and admirable than Life it self This is a wonder of Mercy but the wonder of God's love in giving Christ that is a greater wonder O the Heighth O the Depth O the Length and Breadth of the Love of God in giving Jesus Christ O the riches of his Grace His love is past finding out In giving Jesus Christ there is height of Love depth of Love length of Love bredth of Love it is higher than Heaven Though our sins have reached to Heaven yet Christ's Love is higher than our sins it is deeper than Hell Hell shall never prevail all the Plots of Hell shall never prevail against a Believer Then as to the breadth of it Spread our Thoughts as far as we can we can never reach the Love of Christ to poor Sinners it passeth knowledg Then as to the length of it It is longer than Time for it is everlasting Thirdly It is better than Life if we consider the Bounties of it How bountiful is God to give us means and mercies in our life But Jesus Christ is better than all better than Silver or Gold or all things that can be desired who with him can compare Fourthly He is better than Life in regard of the Delights of Life though we may enjoy all Comforts and Mercies of this Life if we have not Peace with God what good will they do us A wounded Spirit who can bear Who can stand against a sin-revenging God Then is not Christ better than Life Next Christ is better than Life if we consider that the Believer will never be separated from Christ But as for our Life though we live a while e're long we must lay down our Lives we must all e're long away to the House appointed for all living But now as for Jesus Christ where there is Union with him and the Soul lives to him and upon him there is neither Life nor Death things present nor things to come shall separate a Believer from Christ Rom. 8.39 Neither height nor depth nor any thing shall be able to separate him from Christ Ninthly A Believer is well acquainted what it is to be without Christ and know what it is to have Christ For me to live is Christ as if he should say I knew what it was once to live without him to trust to my own Works to live on any thing without him I knew once what it was to be without Faith and without God and without true Hope and without true Joy and without true Consolation now I know what a wonderful Change there is in me and what a wonderful difference there is between my living in Christ and my living without Christ before if I had any hope it was false if I had any Comfort it was perishing But now my hopes are built on another Foundation and all my Comforts spring from another Fountain Oh I would not live one day without Christ I would not have one Mercy or Duty without him While I lived without Christ it was all lost time I lived on Vanity and Folly now I have many a weeping Eye and sighing Heart for those things I once took delight in O my Vanities my lost days O that I knew Christ no sooner O that I got not acquaintance with him before First The Believer will tell you all the days of his Life before he knew Christ were spent in Folly and Vanity O the time that is run out in Vanity O let me not live in any Comfort or Enjoyment where I do not enjoy Christ O saith the Soul the difference that is between the Joy I have in Christ and the foolish mad Pleasures I enjoyed when I lived out of Christ Now Lord let me not live but to glorifie thee Lord I would be with thee and glorifie thee in all let Christ be all in all to me What weeping Eyes and wounded Hearts will Sinners have that live without Christ when once they come to know Christ that they lived so long without him O how ready are poor Sinners to think we do them much Wrong in wooing them to come to Christ and accept of him But poor Sinner when thou comest to know Christ thou wilt then with a weeping Eye and Heart cry out O let me not live but to Christ A Believer will say It is high time for me to awake and to be serious and earnest in seeking Jesus Christ Many are turned from vain Sinners to foolish Professors but take a true honest-hearted Believer and ask him what would you have O that I may enjoy Christ saith he What would you have in every Duty What would you have
are as Rain ay and all your Afflictions too Then you may go through all Trials chearfully to Heaven you my meet God smiling on you in every Trouble and Affliction After a great Rain how doubtingly does a Man go on his Journey there are great Floods of Water I cannot go on with comfort I fear deep Gulfs in the way but when the Flouds are dried up he goes forward comfortably So does a Soul when he comes to live on Christ he goes forward with Joy We may say to a Christian you have great Afflictions and great Temptations but it is all sweet there is no fear of God's Anger Christ hath taken all that away The more I pray saith the Believer the more I am encouraged to pray the more I do act Faith the stronger I find my Faith but till you come to believe in this Christ to make him your Life you go on very feebly very doubtingly and the Soul many times cries out I faint I fear I shall not come to Glory when I have done all And many under Convictions go back again and cast off Religion What is the matter Truly I fear I shall not hold out I shall not reach Heaven at last But when you come to know Christ saith the Soul I know whatever I meet with I shall be brought home safe to Glory O then what miserable Doctrin is that of falling from Grace As if Christ would bring Believers half way to Heaven and then leave them Hath this glorious Redeemer undertaken this for the Believer and at last will he leave him No no if you have made Christ your Life you shall certainly be brought home safe to Glory Seconldy if it be so that a Believer's Life is wrapt up in Christ's Life then a Believer lives a happy Life I shall branch these forth into several particulars to shew wherein this Happiness consists First He that lives on Christ lives an happy Life because it is a suitable Life to an immortal Soul while persons live upon any thing below Christ it is nothing but a little Dust a little Earth What is Gold or Silver or Honour or Life or Liberty without Christ Such is the nature of the Soul that it is not fitted to live upon gross material and perishing things as the Body doth The Food of every Creature is agreeable to its Nature One cannot subsist upon that which another doth as we see among several sorts of Animals What is food to one is none to another In the same place there is found a Root which is fit for Swine a Stalk which is Food for Sheep a Flower which feeds the Bee and a Seed on which the Birds Live The Sheep cannot live on the Root as the Swine doth nor the Bird on the Flower as the Bee doth but every one feeds upon the Plants which are agreeable to its nature so 't is here our Bodies being of an earthly material nature can live upon things earthly and material as most agreeable to him that can relish and suk sweetness 〈…〉 these things But the Soul can find nothing therein suitable to its nature and appetite Mr. Flavel it must have spiritual Food or perish Now to live Christ is the only suitable Life to an immortal Soul A precious Soul must have something precious to live upon there is nothing can purchase the redemption of the Soul No one can redeem his Brothers Soul that is too precious Psal 49.7 8. None of them can by any means redeem his Brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of the Soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever Every thing is below this immortal Soul none can redeem his Brothers Soul no not by his Riches nor by his Prayers or Duties without Christ become his Life The redemption of the Soul is too precious to be bought by any Duties that can be done Prayers or Tears or Fasting cannot buy a Soul therefore it must be a precious Christ that must be the Life of the Soul for he is suitable to an immortal Soul as we speak concerning our natural Constitutions When Health is wanted we say the person must have that which is suitable if they give him Food we tell him he wants Physick if he have Physick we tell him he wants Air if he have this we tell him he wants Contentment and so if they do not hit of that which is suitable the Man is lost A Man may be killed with Food as well as for want of it and likewise with Physick as well as for want of it So if we do not hit of that which is suitable it is the destruction of the Body So if we do not hit of that which is suitable to the Soul it is the Death of the Soul Suppose a great many persons endeavoured to make a Cure but they miss of that which is suitable then there can be no Cure wrought The poor Papists think to save their Souls by trusting to their own Merits and their feigned Purgatory but alas they miss the mark So some carnal Protestants they will do many things and think to gain eternal Life When they are convinced of sin they will run to Duty they do well but if they make that their Saviour there they miss the suitable Good Some they go to Reformation they do well but that will not do if rested on or to trust to their own endeavours or own purposes they settle on a false bottom all miss the Mark of this glorious high Calling in Christ Jesus It were therefore too bruitish and unreasonable of a man that understood the nature of his own Soul Mr. Flavel's Treatise of the Soul p. 59. to chear it up with the stores of earthly Provisions made for it as he did Luke 12.20 I will say to my Soul Soul thou hast laid up Goods for many years eat drink and be merry Alas the Soul can no more eat drink and be merry with carnal things than the Body with spiritual and immaterial things it cannot feed upon the Bread that perisheth it can relish no more in the best and daintiest fare of an earthly growth than in the White of an Egg but bring it to a reconciled God in Christ to the Covenant of Grace and the sweet promises of the Gospel set before it the Joys Comforts and Earnests of the Spirit and if it be a sanctified renewed Soul it can make a rich Feast upon these These make a Feast of fat things full of marrow as is expressed Isa 25.6 Spiritual things are proper for a spiritual and immaterial Soul If a Physician gives a thousand Medicines and miss of the right the Man dies Every Man walks in the Name of his God but how many are ignorant of Christ who is the Life of the Soul Now notwithstanding all Duties and Performances they want a precious Christ for a precious Soul At first Man lived on his own Works but when he sinnned the Soul had an immortal stroke
safety any where else you that are in Christ O look back first what not long since you were Secondly what now you are Thirdly what you shall be and you will see cause of Admiration When you were out of Christ what a dangerous state were you in under the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law Consider where was I when I knew not Christ Where was I going I was going to Destruction and did not know it Was I so near the Brink of the Pit and did not mind Was I so near sinking and did not cry out O how can I but admire and adore this God that hath done this for me He hath brought me nigh by the Blood of the Covenant he hath brought me to a safe Condition you were a far off but now are brought nigh by the Blood of the Covenant ye were without Christ without the Covenant Ephes 2.13 Thirdly Consider what ere long you shall be you that are in Christ shall ere long be with Christ you shall be safely arrived in Glory O the danger that a Soul out of Christ is in You are under the Sword of Divine Justice and how soon it may drop down on your Head drop down on your Heart you do not know therefore you are never safe till you are in Christ that is a safe Life Prov. 1.33 But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil Whoso hearkens so as to believe accept and lay hold on and close with Christ they shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of Evil the Fear of Evil shall not hurt you Prov. 3.18 speaking of Wisdom she is a Tree of Life to them that lay hold upon her and happy is every one that retaineth her There is in Christ safety there is first the Life of Justification secondly of Sanctificaon and thirdly of Glorification First a Life of Justification a Tree of Life to free from Condemnation There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 1.8 You are safe from the Condemnation of the Law you are safe from the Condemnation of Justice you are safe from the Condemnation of Conscience you are safe from the Condemnation of the Devil you are safe from the Condemnation of the World Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect there is Life laid up in Christ Life for poor dead Sinners Life for poor condemned Sinners that lay hold on this Tree of Life there is no Condemnation to them more there shall be no following them as it was with Joab to the Altar to slay him there Lay hold on the Tree of Life and you are safe for ever You may say of the Thunderings of the Law I am safe from them all the Tree of Life stands ready to give you the Life of Righteousness and Justification that you may be free from Condemnation there is no Condemnation What a safe case is a Soul in that is in Christ let a Soul be condemned never so much nothing shall hurt him God hath justified him in through and for Christ's sake though the Devil come and accuse and saith this man is clothed with filthy Garments this Tree of Life stands ready Zechar. 3.1 2. Satan comes and accuses Joshua he was clothed with filthy Garments Thou art a holy God a God of purer Eyes than to behold Iniquity with approbation But here is one come with filthy Garments here is a sinful Man come he comes to offer up Sacrifice for the People but he is sinful the Devil comes and accuses him and condemns him Now while there is any thing to condemn a Man he is not safe the Devil comes and lays to his Charge that he is clothed in filthy Garments but he comes not in Love to Holyness but in Envy to Joshua in Envy to the Saints and in Envy to God and in Envy to his Free-Grace but the Lord Jesus Christ said to Satan the Lord rebuke thee Satan the Lord rebuke thee Is not this a Brand pluckt out of the Fire I have chosen him he is an Elect Vessel I have redeemed him I have clothed him with Change of Raiment I have put a fair Mitre on his Head Satan do thy worst and speak thy worst thou canst not hurt Jashua So this Tree of Life frees from Condemnation lay hold on Christ you are quit let what Bills there will come in against you if a Man should be tryed for his Life and there comes in many Bills of Inditement against him but he shews his Pardon for all then in vain do they come in or if there be never so many Items all is forgiven so let the Devil come in with never so many Items and the Law come in with never so many Items the Lord Jesus forgives them all to them that lay hold on him by Faith Secondly Then it is a Life of Sanctification Where sin reigned before sin shall not have Dominion over you you are not under the Law but under Grace Then you may see that the Law will not kill sin The Law will tell you you are a sinner but it will not kill your sin Rom. 6.14 For sin shall have Dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace Tho sin may trouble you it shall not have Dominion over you tho it may grieve you it shall not undo you The Serpent's Seed is sentenc'd The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpent's Head Rom. 8.3 For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh When a Soul laies not hold on Christ sin is in his Nature his Lusts dogging of him his Lusts reigning and ruling over him but through Christ he overcomes Thirdly A Life of Glory The Apostle reckons the Justified ones among the glorified ones Whom he called them he justified and whom he justified them he glorifies He speaks in the Present Tense as if it were already done that they that lay hold of this Tree of Life are as sure of eternal Life as if they were already in Glory So that it is a very safe Life to live Christ and to lay hold on her But mark it still this Tree of Life is too high for carnal Reason to reach This Tree of Life must drop Fruit into your Souls before you can reach up to that We see fruitful Trees are bending Trees Trees that are loaded with Fruit bow down so that even a Child may lie on the Ground and eat the Fruit So Jesus Christ taking our Nature humbled himself to the Death of the Cross he condescended so low to have Union with us poor sinners that a poor Soul cannot go to Christ till Christ first comes to him Christ first comes to the Soul he bends down to the carnal Heart and possesses the Soul of the Life of Faith and then the Soul can reach up to him Come to
But the Glory and Homage which is peculiarly due unto God he will not give unto another Isa 42.8 48.11 For what else do we by performing Divine Honour to any but own and acknowledge such to be God unto whom we thereby ascribe Divine Excellencies with respect whereunto we yield that peculiar Reverence which is due to God alone as such And seeing he dwelleth in the Light which none can approach unto 1 Tim. 6.16 is infinite invisible and incomprehensible in his Being it hath pleased God to condescend to give forth such a Representation of himself and such evident discoveries of his Divine Excellencies as might be a meet Object of Divine Honour and worthy to receive the Homage due from Creatures unto their Creator This was the Shekinahâ— or Divine Presence of old evidencing it self by Divine Operations Hence Jacob saith of it Gen. 28.16 17. Surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not and he was afraid and he said How dreadful is this place this is none other but the House of God and this is the Gate of Heaven The Egyptians said of the Plague of Lice Exod. 8.19 that it was the Finger of God This Divine Presence in the burning Bush obliged Moses to pull off his Shoes Exod. 3.5 and Joshua to the like act of Reverence Josh 5.14 15. unto the Lord as Prince of the Lords Host unto this Glory of God as discovering it self at the door of the Tabernacle in a Cloud Exod. 33.10 The people bowed their Heads and worshiped This Divine Presence of God dwelling between the Cherubims and filling the Temple 1 King 8.10 11 12 13 27 28 29 30. obliged Israel to Worship towards that Holy Place there being discovered the Tekmeria or evident Marks of the Divine Glory and to pay the same Respect to any other place or to that place now God is not there is Idolatry Deut. 16.5 6. 12.13 14. 1 King 12.28 29 30. Now proportionably unto that degree and measure of the Discovery which God is pleased to make of himself to his Church As to the Obscurity or Clearness of it such is the Glory or Defect of these Dispensations 2 Cor. 3.9 10 11 14 18. Heb. 1.1 In this respect therefore it is that the Dispensation of the Gospel is so far excelling the Glory of all former times in that by the Incarnation and Exhibition of Jesus Christ God is manifest in the Flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 is most clearly fully and gloriously revealed in the person of Christ No Man hath seen God at any time but the only begotten Son that dwelleth in the Bosom of the Father he hath declared him John 1.18 He was declared to be the Son of God with Power by the Resurrection from the Dead Rom. 1.4 God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto our Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son whom he hath appointed Heir of all things by whom also he made the Worlds who being the Brightness of his Glory and the Character or express Image of his Person and upholding all things by the Word of his Power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the Right Hand of the Majesty on high Heb. 1.1 2 3. Who thought it not robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.6 Seeing it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1.19 All the Treasures of Wisdom and Knowledge being hid in him Col. 2.3 And the infinite eternal unchangeable Excellencies of God in his Counsel of Peace his Love Grace and Mercy to lost Sinners being revealed by him and represented in him 1 John 3.16 1 John 4.8 9 10. By him is Glory brought to God in the highest on Earth Peace and good will towards Men Luke 2.14 Hence it is that all Idolatry is now more inexcusable than ever Men being not now left to grope in the dark since Christ is come a Light into the World John 3.19 John 15.22.24 Acts 17.30 31. So that we may conclude as this living to him is an Act of Divine Honour That he is worthy of it and we may say Rev. 1.5 Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father to him be Glory and Dominion for ever and ever Amen And Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Wisdom and Riches and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing John 5.23 That all Men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father Secondly Another Respect on the Account whereof this Living to Christ here pressed appeareth reasonable is as it is an expression of the greatest Love and highest Esteem of him to whom we live and this he is most worthy of being incomparably lovely in himself and having loved us with an infinite and everlasting Love who hath died for us while we were Enemies and Sinners and washed us from our sins in his Blood And Thirdly As this living to Christ is a Resignation of our selves unto the disposal of another He is most worthy of it who hath redeemed us with the price of his precious Blood therefore ought we to honour him with our Lives seeing we are not our own but his purchased People So that to live to Christ in the constant performance of Divine Honour to him in the highest Expressions of the greatest Love unto him and in the fullest resignation of our selves unto this Jesus our dear Redeemer is entirely his due and no more than our reasonable Service Secondly As it is in reason due to Christ so it is most necessary for us This being the Fruit God expects at our hands for this great Cost he hath been put unto for our Redemption from Wrath to come 2 Tit. 14. Christ gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of Good Works Rom. 14.8 9. To this end Christ both died and arose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living Therefore saith the Apostle None of us liveth to himself but whether we live we live to the Lord and whether we die we die unto the Lord whether we live therefore or die we are the Lords The like we have in the Text whereon the following Discourse is raised Phil. 1.20 21. His earnest expectation and hope was that Christ should be magnified in his Body whether it be by Life or by Death for saith he to me to live is Christ and to die is gain that is saith Piscator in Loc. Vita mea est occupaâ—a in promovenda Gloria Christi my Life is employed in promoting the Glory of Christ Indeed the Syriack Erasmus Beza and others render this 21st Verse otherwise yet all allow this matter to be thus stated in the Verse before it nay the whole current of Scripture manifesteth this to be the great Testimony
and true Knowledg of Christ what a poor miserable Wretch will he appear to be in a dying hour Alas how poor and low a thing is health strength riches parts and gifts if we are ignorant of Christ Fourthly Consider what a blessed Life they live that live in Christ and upon Christ What a blessed Life it is to live to Christ There is no Life like it and that is a Believers Life Fifthly Consider and this hath been much my Meditation How terrible would the thoughts of our life past be when we come to dye since our best actions have been mixt with sin were it not for this glorious Name the Lord hath revealed to sinners the Lord our Righteousness All the names of God would be astonishing to poor sinners were it not for this to know the Lord a righteous God That would be a terrible name Enter not into Judgment with thy Servant O Lord but the Lord our Righteousness poor sinners Righteousness this Righteousness is made mine This makes the thought and name of Christ sweet to a poor sinner Sixthly Consider there is no dying comfortably if we have not lived on Christ If we have not lived to glorifie Christ all things we have enjoyed will leave us wretched poor and miserable Seventhly Consider all our Reading Praying Ordinances will be but like withered Leaves if they are not kept green and flourishing in Christ our Life Eightly All the actions of our Life that are good are all in and from and through Christ that glorious Vine that bears the Branches and causeth them to be fruitful In the Verse before the Text you find the Apostle resigning himself up wholly to Jesus Christ According to my earnest expectation and my hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death Saith he I have resigned up my self I am not afraid of death neither am I careful for this life Whatever God will do with me so I may but glorifie him I am not careful about this body whether I live longer here or whether I lay it down in the dust Paul as it were stands a Tip-toe saith Mr. Trap to see which way he may glorifie Christ I am ready to dye it will be for my profit it will be best for me to go to Glory I am sure it is best for me to go home to my dear Lord there to sit with him on the Throne and receive the Crown of Immortal Life and Glory but for you it is best to continue here Let his name be exalted and his Glory made more known to his Church however he deal with me I am not careful in any thing neither am I ashamed but that with all boldness as always so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body whether it be by life or by death that is it I live for that is it I dye for I would live that I might glorifie him I would dye that I may enjoy his Glory But which way his Glory may be most exalted that way have I resigned up my self to the Lord Jesus to dispose of me which way he pleaseth so his Name may be magnified in Life or Death I desire nothing more than the exalting of Christ in all The matter contained in the words of my Text is of as high Concernment and of as great a Consequence as the Soul of man can be taken up with and indeed so great that all things in the World are but Trifles in comparison to it What was the sum of the Apostles desire and business of his Life to serve and enjoy the Lord Christ ought to be the business of every one that will be everlastingly happy This Life only can bring true Peace Treasures Pleasures Wisdom Grace Glory to the Immortal Soul of Man Whether we read the words actively or passively of his receiving Life from Christ or acting for Christ in his Life it plainly appears in either sense That Christ is the Sum and Substance of a Christians Life If the Apostles meaning was That Christ was Life to him or that he would live to Christ in either sense Christ is a Believers Life Some do expound it efficiently others objectively I think the meaning of the words may not be mis-placed if both be understood for Christ is that inexhaustible Fountain and Treasury of Grace that a Believer receives his Grace and Holiness from to act for Christ We cannot move toward Christ but as we are moved by Christ we must have our Life from Christ before we can live to Christ he is the Fountain from whence the Believer hath his Life the Sun from whence he hath his Light and Glory the full Treasure of Grace from whence a Believer receives a holy heart and life He that is the Image of the Invisible God renews them by his Grace in that Image he purgeth Conscience with his Blood to serve the living God the Lord Jesus being formed upon the heart the desires and delights of the heart are changed the bent and byass of the heart is carried after Christ it is Christ must kindle the holy Fire upon the Altar of the heart before the Believer can act from a true Zeal for God So whether the words be taken disjunctively from the Verse before That he would magnifie Christ because he had received his Life and Salvation from Christ He would magnifie the efficient cause of his Life whom he was united to Or whether conjunctively He would live to glorifie Christ as he had resolved in the Verse before in either sense this is plain The Apostles heart was wrapt up in Christ more than any thing in this World There are many precious Truths to be suckt out of this blessed portion of Scripture But I shall only through Gods assistance draw from the words this point of Doctrin That a true Believer desires not Life nor the things of Life whatever they are no further than he may glorifie and enjoy Christ in them Or thus The Aims and End of a Believer in Life or Death is to glorifie the Lord Jesus Christ Or Christ a Christians Life I. By way of Explication wherein Christ is a Believers Life or how a Believer is thus wrapt up in Christ II. Shew the Reasons why they are so III. Apply the whole There are four things wherein a person is chiefly concerned as to Life First His dependency upon his Life Ask a Man to do any thing yes saith he if I am alive or in health Secondly In our natural Actions If a Man eat drink put on Cloths take Physick Food or any thing it is that he may live Thirdly Take Life for the Comforts of Life A Man's Life is a burthen to him when his Comforts are gone a Believers Life is a burden to him when he does not injoy Christ Fourthly For the Aim and End of Life Persons that are tractable and industrious
David had made the Lord his Strength he was girt about with the Strength of the Almighty Lord the Name of Jehovah was the Breast-plate he put on but the Men of Israel that were great Warriors were afraid to meet this Champion So persons that have been great Disputers great Discoursers persons that have been great in Knowledge in the Letter shall be afraid to meet Death that great Champion when a weak Believer that hath made Christ his Life shall go through the Battel with Courage so I say a Believer depends on Christ for Life for the Life of Grace for the Life of Righteousness being girt about with the Strength of the Lord. Secondly Take Life for the Actions of Life While a Man lives he acts when a Man is dead he cannot act saith the Apostle first negatively and then affirmatively None lives to himself none dies to himself and then affirmatively living or dying we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 So if we ask a natural Man why do you eat drink put on cloaths and work that I may live And if we ask a Christian why do you pray hear wait on God in Ordinances O that I may live on Christ injoy Christ You see me saith Paul live as you think but you are mistaken I do not live of my self it is Christ that lives in me and the Life I live is by the Faith of the Son of God Gal. 2.20 I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live I am dead yet I live I am dead to the World yet I live in Christ I am a dead condemned Sinner by the Sentence of the Law yet I live in the Righteousness of Christ I am dead to my own Righteousness to my own Works but I am alive in Christ I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me though I am dead to Sin I am alive to Christ though I am a dead Sinner I am a living Saint I am pardoned in Christ beloved in Christ made alive through Grace in Christ clothed with the Righteousness of Christ therefore I live though dead as if a Man should say I am a Man sentenced yet I am a Man absolved I am a Man dead in the Eye of the World yet I am a Man acquitted here is my Pardon so saith a Believer the Law condemns me the Law judges me but I am alive in Christ pardoned in Christ Now Law thou hast nothing to say to me Well but Paul do you live You have got your Pardon will you live now to your self Nay saith he do not mistake me though you hear me say I live yet not I live but Christ liveth in me I do not say I am pardoned and absolved to live to my self No my Life is none of mine though you see me a living Saint yet I have my root in Christ it is not I but Christ lives in me When I was a Pharisee it was I then I prayed I repented I humbled my self I did this or that I lived zealously to the Law but now it is no more I though I do the action of a Man as before I spake as the Pharisee I did so and so in my self but now it is changed now it is in Christ all before it was my own Righteousness now Christ's Righteousness before it was my Duty but now it is Christ Christ liveth in me Christ reigns in me Christ is all in all therefore not I but Christ therefore look not on me do you hear me pray preach do any action it is no more I but Christ in me and the Life I now live is by Faith in the Son of God If a natural Man cats drinks puts on cloths it is that he may live but all that I do is that I may enjoy Christ Some poor Creatures think when they have done some duties they have done enough to justifie them but if they have not Christ their Life they will appear in as bad a state as the profanest Wretches on Earth But I put on Christ to be my Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification in all my Duties I am putting on Christ It is a hard matter to turn persons from Profaness but when they are turned from Profaness and rest upon their Reformation it is an harder matter to turn them to Christ Now all the Actions of a Believer are still that Christ may be his Life acting in Christ and for Christ Thirdly Take Life for the Comforts of Life What is a Man's Life to him if his Comforts have taken their leave of him So it is with a Believer saith he if I cannot enjoy Christ I have no Comfort in praying or hearing I have no Comfort but as I meet with Christ What are Sabbaths or Ordinances though I use them I cannot rejoyce in them till I meet with Christ he is my Comfort when he shines on my Soul then all goes well with me He is the health of my countenance saith David Psal 43.5 How do Saints return mourning and sorrowing and what a sorrowful story will they tell us if they have not met with Christ in an Ordinance A formal Professor he is content if he hath been at an Ordinance whether he meets with Christ or no But come to a Believer ask him how doth it go with you saith he I have waited on God and I bless God that he hath brought me to wait on him but I have not met with God and he sorrows and mourns with the Spouse I called but he gave me no answer I could not hear one comfortable word from him Cant. 3. I went to the Watchmen but I could not find him Oh what sorrowful stories will Believers tell if they do not meet with Christ If I could meet with him then should I rejoyce though you may see me perform Duties what is this if I do not meet with Christ and have him shining upon my Soul Thus take Life for the Comforts of Life and the Believer hath no Comfort when Christ withdraws when they come from an Ordinance where they have met with Christ they will come leaping like an Hart Oh I met with him whom my Soul desired and that is to make Christ our Life to depend on Christ and in the Actions of all our Duties draw life from Christ and then our Souls have no comfort in Ordinances without Christ So therefore the Spouse invites Christ very friendly for she knew that if she had not injoyment of him she should have no comfort she invites him in Cant. 7.11 12. Come my Beloved let us go forth into the Field let us lodge in the Villages let us get up early to the Vineyard let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender Grape appear and the Pomgranates bud forth there will I give thee my loves Oh come saith she my Beloved let us go forth if I go without thee I shall have no comfort in my walk Lord Jesus saith a Believer come in this Ordinance come in this Duty reveal
thy Grace and Righteousness without that I have no comfort Come my Beloved let us get up early to the Vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish I am sure if I have not thy presence I shall have a dead and dark time a dismal walk of it Come Lord Jesus in the Revelation of thy Grace in my Heart then will my Soul thrive in Grace then shall I receive comfort If I have but the Buddings of Grace if I have thy presence I shall make a good construction of it if I have but a little Grace and Christs presence I can rejoyce in a little Grace A little Grace when Christ appears is more to a Believer than a strong Faith when Christ withdraws The Spouse would not bring discomfort to her self Come let us see if the Vine flourish whether the tender grapes appear if there be but the least Grace in my Soul what will you do there will I give thee my loves there will I give thee my delights there will I embrace thee with open Heart with warm Affections there will I give thee my praises there will I exalt thy name Come let us see whether the tender grape appear and the Pomegranates bud forth see how my Soul thrives let me take comfort though there be but the least budding forth of Grace though I have but a dram of Grace let me have thy presence there will I give thee my loves First My Soul shall have heart-joy and be full of delight Secondly Then will I give thee the glory of thy Grace Thirdly There will my Soul be endeared to thee When thou art present the very buddings of Grace will be sweet The strongest Believer cannot take comfort in his Graces till Christ appear in the manifestation of his Love to the Soul Fourthly Take Life for the end of Life The end I live for pray for hear for is that I may enjoy Christ My Friends Pray look to the end of your actions and see that your aim and desire in all is to glorifie and enjoy the Lord Jesus for it is but a few days and you will come to your last day a little time and you will have time no more a few Minutes before you will draw your last Breath a few Sabbaths and you will have no more and whatever you have done if you have not made Christ your life you are undone for ever That is an excellent question the Lord Christ puts to the multitude Mat. 11.7 saith our blessed Lord concerning John What went ye out into the Wilderness to see a Reed shaken with the Wind John that had Preacht of the coming and appearing of Christ there was abundance of People flockt about him to hear him as if they would all have been his Converts but alass they did not know him nor wherefore they went after him Many poor sinners seem to be taken with the Ministers and ways of God for a time but they do not know why nor wherefore as if the Lord Jesus should say if you are only taken with his Preaching as a Man and only the words of his mouth you will but see a Reed shaken with the Wind If a person goes to hear the best man upon earth Preach a man of the greatest Fame and Name and go barely for his Learning or Eloquence or to hear some new thing alass you see but a Reed shaken with the wind a poor mortal man a poor earthen Vessel the best of Ministers and Christians when under temptations are but Reeds shaken with the wind but if you come out to hear Christ Preacht to enjoy Christ to meet with Christ and can say I come to hear Christ Crucified and Preached Christs Righteousness revealed then indeed this is the aim and end of a Believer But saith Christ What came you out for we may say to many Professors What come you out for notwithstanding the means you have had the mercies you have enjoyed you are in the old way that you were in how blind and ignorant are most of the Doctrins of Faith in Christ of that Doctrin that alone will save them of that Righteousness that will cover them in the day of Battle Some are taken with one thing some with another some to get Notions in the Head to maintain Disputes But few come to enjoy Christ and meet with him but what went you out for O believer to enjoy Christ and if Christ is not your aim and end in every Duty and Sermon what a sad disappointment will you meet with at last Will you not do that in a spiritual action as in a civil action You eat you drink that you may live saith Christ Mat. 6.25 Take no thought for your life what you shall eat or what you shall drink nor yet for your body what you shall put on is not life more than meat and the body than raiment So I say is not Christ more than life Is not Jesus Christ more than all the things that appertain to life So saith a Believer I do all that I may get Christ So much for those four things in the Explication concerning Life The next is the reasons why a Believer enjoys Christ First Because of that Union there is between Christ and every Believer As there is an Union between a man and himself so is there an Union between Christ and a Believer You are dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God not I live but Christ lives in me I am not on my own bottom I am not a man living of my self they that are joyned to the Lord are one Spirit Christ is made my own he is made to me Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Christ and I am one I am a Member of his mystical Body so that wherever I live I live in Christ and Christ in me and I live to Christ A Believer is the very Image of Christs Goodness the very Impression of Christs Mercy the pledges of Christs Love Saith a Believer I see Christs Conquests is my Conquest his Life my Life his Righteousness my Righteousness his Victory my Victory I see him dead for me risen for me at Gods Right Hand for me appearing in Glory for me raising me up at the last day John 6.44 No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent him draw him and I will raise him up at the last day There is such an Union between the dust of a Believer in the Grave and Christ that he will raise him up in a close and near Union his Body like Christs glorious Body Saith Christ though a Believer dies there shall none of his Glory be lost the Grave is a perfumed Bed to take a sweet Nap till Christ calls in the glorious morning of the Resurrection then he will raise up every crum of his dust there shall none of him be lost for there is such an Union between Christ and a Believer that a Believer may meet death and not fear Death is but a messenger
Field let us lodge in the Villages let us get up early to the Vineyards let us see if the Vine flourish Ah you that have experience of Christ methinks it should be your voice always on your Beds and in your walking Come let us go come my Beloved and wake with with me come and watch over me Come my Beloved let us go forth into the Field let us lodge in the Villages the Spouse knows the Sweetness of his Company the Excellency of his Presence the Glory of his Holiness Without Christ what would a Sermon or a Sabbath be What though I could lay up Silver like Dust if I could heap up Gold like Pibble Stones if I could gain all the Riches of the World what is it all without Christ But the Believer knows what it is to enjoy Christ and live in Christ and therefore cries O let him be with me in all I do in all my Undertakings Lord my Soul waiteth and Watches for thee Psal 130.6 My Soul watches for thee more than they that watch for the morning As a Man that is in sorrow all Night he longs for the break of the day Saith the Psalmist My Soul doth wait for the Lord. I am not an out-side Professor my Soul is engaged in the Work I wait for the Lord more than they that watch for the Morning What stirs up the good Man to this earnest longing for God Oh he had the experience of the sweet Comforts he had found in Communion with the Lord That Soul must needs be dead and careless in seeking the Lord that experiences not what it is to enjoy the Lord in Duties and Ordinances O that it might please God to convince all you that hear me this day that have been formal careless Professors Had you ever had a taste of Christ you could not be content to go on so cold and careless as most of you do in your Profession The 11th Reason or Ground is this A Believer knows it to be a glorious Life We are changed from Glory to Glory into the same Image Now the Believer knows it to be a glorious Life because he hath received and doth expect great things from Christ Saith the Soul I will live upon Christ for I have received great things from Christ First I have received the Pardon of my Sins from him I was under the Wrath of God but now I have Redemption through his Blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Eph. 1.7 I am a pardoned Soul I am saved from Wrath by him even that Jesus that saves from wrath to come 1 Thess 1.10 Secondly I have received Justification by him a Righteousness to stand before God being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.24 Thirdly I received Sanctification from him Acts 26.28 Who were sanctified through faith in Christ Jesus Fourthly I have received Consolation from Christ and then I expect great things to come I expect when this poor earthly Tabernacle is laid down for Christ to raise me not only to raise my Body out of the Grave but to change my vile body and fashion it like unto his glorious body Phil. 3.21 I do expect to see my Lord coming with his glorious Train when the last Trump shall blow awaking me out of my sleep and raising up my dust at the last day John 6.44 I expect at Christs appearing a great Glory Tit. 2.13 14. Looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Saith the Believer I live upon Christ because I expect great things from Christ when Christ comes I have a blessed hope I desire he may be my Life all in my Life I look for great things when Christ comes it is a blessed Hope that I have When will you have your Hopes accomplished at the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Why do you expect such great things I will tell you Because he gave himself for me and redeemed me You that have low Thoughts of Christ can you expect great things from Christ Can you say even Amen so come Lord Jesus you that seldom invite him into your Closets now Can you expect his coming will be joyful to you Will you not rather say Let not thy Chariot Wheels make such speed for I am not ready What is he a coming Have you a blessed hope in him If one of you should go to many and say Do you hope for Christs coming They would say Yes but have a care for many have a cursed hope a vain hope and a bad hope a Devilish hope I fear When Christ comes many will be dreadfully mistaken What can you expect at Christs coming when you do not desire Christ here A little thing takes their Hearts off from Christ their Hearts are more set on other things than Christ they have not invited Christ nor have a blessed hope in Christ But all you Saints that have made Christ your Life will have a blessed hope in Christ at Death You that can speak with comfort you desire not Life nor any means nor mercies but what you enjoy Christ in them You will have a blessed Hope when the glorious Trump is sounded before him you will say What is that the Voice of my Lord Is this Trump for me must I awake be raised up be glorified with my Lord go in with the glorious Church Triumphant and set upon the Throne with them But for the poor careless lifeless legal formal Professor the dead-hearted and trifling Professor Christ's coming will be a dreadful appearing to you What is Christ's appearing when I have not made him my Life I have not lived upon him I have not lived to him I am at a distance from him I am a Stranger to him O see how furious are his Chariot Wheels Is that him in Flames of Fire that makes the Mountains tremble O my Heart how canst thou but shake at the sight of him But the Saint he rejoyces and he hopes and waits for the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ O Saint have you but little here but short hints here but little comfort here The great comfort is That you make Christ your Life that you live on Christ and though you do enjoy but little now I tell you there is great things for you when Christ appears looking for that glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour who gave himself for me O saith a Believer I long to see that Face that was spit upon for me I long to see that Glorious Body that was pierced for me that glorious Head that was Crowned with Thorns for me those Hands and Feet that were nailed to the Cross for me It will be a blessed a glorious hope the Lord Jesus's appearing Oh I long to see him I expect glorious things I expect a
again she knew not When Jesus told her that her Brother should live saith she Lord he hath been dead four days it seemed an impossibility that he should rise again yet before she believed the Resurrection of the Dead Was it a greater impossibility to raise him up when no part of him was diminished than to raise him up at the last day Saith Christ I am the Life I will raise him up at the last day and am not I able to raise up thy Brother that hath been dead but four days So should a Believer say within himself under his Doubts and Fears Did the Lord convert me bring me out of a state of Sin and Misery quicken me when I was dead and will he not give me Life Can he raise up Lazarus when dead four days and cannot he raise up my dead Heart Saith Christ I am the Life I am the Original of Life I am the first that gives Life all are dead Sinners till I come to quicken them till I come to bring Life to your Souls Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die for I am the Principle of their Life as I gave them Life at first so do I also continue their Life they shall never die When Death comes the Immortal Soul is alive it is but the Body that is gone to the Dust that will be raised up again that will be a glorious Body for the Soul to live with in Eternal Glory What an exceeding Joy is it then for a Believer that Christ is the Vital Fountain of his Life Though Death be at the very door it shall never come into the Soul Though there may be a Separation for a time the Soul is with Christ and the Body united to Christ that the Believer may be rather said to sleep than die The root of his Comforts are alive There may be a Death on a Believers outward Mercies and Comforts yet it shall never come into his Soul As we see the Trees in the Winter seem to be dead so the Believer they may fear the Death of their Comforts or Graces though they may have the Withdrawings of God's Presence yet as the Trees in Spring they revive and sprout forth so shall they revive and Death shall not enter into their Souls Saith Paul Who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death I thank God for the Victory through Christ There is Death in my self but Christ gives me Victory he removes it he carries it away though it be at the Door it shall never come in at the Door if there be deadness upon the Heart Christ is Life to my Soul if there be Corruptions strong and great Christ is the Fountain of Life to innoble me to outgrow all As we may say of young Children that are weak and infirm they will out-grow their Weaknesses So a Child in Christ will outgrow his Infirmities they will outgrow their Corruptions and inward Weakness they shall have Victory over them they shall be Conquerors at the last Christ being the vital Fountain of Life a Believer must needs live a growing flourishing Life the Lord Christ doth water them at the Root Psal 1. The godly man is like a Tree planted by a River of Water which withereth not but bringeth forth Fruit in due season because there is a vital Fountain there is Life at the Root Isaiah 41.18 The Prophet speaking of Christ's being Life to his Church he is said to be Rivers of water in high places Were not Christ Rivers of Water the Saints would be dry at root but he is Rivers of Waters in a dry place Small Rivers may flow from a Fountain that may be stopt Mr. Robinson's Christ all in all but Christ is the ever-flowing Fountain that none can stop Other Rivers may be stopt in time of Drought but nothing shall stop the Grace of Christ Cold Weather may freez up Rivers but the coldest deadest Heart that is shall not freez up Christ's Grace he will be Rivers of Water in dry places Other Rivers may dry of themselves but all our Unworthiness shall not bar Christ's Grace from the Soul Christ is set forth excellently by that Rock our Fathers drank of and the Rock followed them and that Rock was Christ 1 Cor. 20.4 How did the Rock follow them The Water that was in the Rock followed them by some Channels or little Rivers in the Wilderness So doth the Lord Jesus Christ his poor bewildered people he not only is ready to give them Grace but follows them with Grace and follows them with Mercy Goodness and Mercy shall follow me all the days of my Life Psal 23.6 Alas if we should stand by the Rock never so long could we by smiting cause the water to gush forth But this Water is so free that it flows to the Believer Christ follows the Believer with his Grace follows them with his comforts follows them with supports follows them with new refreshments If this Rock did not follow us it would be long enough before we should go to this Rock Christ follows the Soul with Divine Grace as the Soul stands in need of it The Rock smitten by Moses supplied the Israelites and Christ smitten by the Curse of the Law supplies the Church not with Earthly Water but with Heavenly Rivers of Grace and Comfort following Believers not for a time but indeficiently and for ever Christ told the Woman of Samaria He that drinketh of this water it shall be a Well of water springing up unto eternal Life I am the resurrection from the dead the Resurrection from the Death of Sin and also the Life of the Soul to live in and upon Christ He that believes in me shall never die no Death shall lay hold on him to ruine him nor separate him from God and though Death come on the Body he is said never to die because he shall live for ever Therefore the Saint in Christ every day he lives he is living so upon Christ that he is daily getting on his way to Glory and is nearer to Heaven and Happiness Christ saith Because I live ye shall live also If the root die the branches must needs die but the root cannot die and the branches shall not die while the root lives the branches shall not die Therefore in John 15. he saith That he is the Vine and the Believer is the Branch that is the reason the Soul that lives in Christ and one in Christ must needs live a flourishing and increasing Life because Christ is the vital Fountain of Life to keep the Soul of a Believer flourishing and green at root it shall not be like the Barren Hypocrite or barren Apostate Secondly Christ is said to come down as Rain upon his Church and People to keep them watered to keep them fresh and flourishing Now you must note there must be a good root a living root or otherwise all the rain that is will do no good to the Soul Col. 1.19 It pleased the
Father that in him should all fulness dwell as he is the vital Fountain from whence their Life is derived so is he manifesting his Grace to them and so is said to come down as Rain on them in Psal 72. This Psalm was penned when David was on his Death Bed and he orders Solomon to be Crowned he speaks of Solomon Give the King thy Judgment O Lord and thy Righteousness unto the Kings Son And then he speaks Prophetically of Christ and of his Kingdom He shall judge thy people with righteousness and thy poor with judgment the mountains shall bring peace to the people and the little hills by righteousness He shall judge the poor of the people he shall save the children of the needy and shall break in pieces the oppressor They shall fear thee as long as the Sun and Moon endure throughout all generations Now that cannot be spoke of Solomon that must be of Christ Then Verse 6. He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass and as showers that water the earth in his days shall righteousness flourish and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth Speaking of the Prosperity and Glory of Christ's Kingdom under the Gospel He shall come down as rain While there is Rain from Heaven there will be Fruits on the Earth while Christ is Rain to a Believer he shall never die though there may be some Limitations and some restraints in his exercise of Grace yet he shall not die First Christ came down in his Incarnation when he came to take our Nature upon him he descended from the Bosom of his Father Mr. Robinson's Christ all in all descended from the Crown to the Cradle from the Glory of his Father to the Manger from Angels and Glorified Saints to converse with poor Man Secondly he came to live here an humble and debased Life he came here to bare our Infirmities and to take our Sicknesses Thirdly He came down very low when the blessed Lord of Glory came to the Cross when he that was the Fountain of all Life must die the cursed Death of the Cross Fourthly He comes down in descending into the Hearts of his People by his Holy Spirit in the Revelation of his Divine Grace he comes down when he reveals from Heaven his blessed Grace and Consolation to his People The River of Life that is above drops down many sweet drops into the Soul When a Believer is gasping and thinking I will hear this Sermon and die will God ever speak peace or comfort As the Woman she would bake her Cake eat it and die but when that was gone she had a supply The Believer is ready under Doubts and Fears to say Hath God forgot to be gracious but he hath a supply from that River that comes from the Throne of God Rev. 21.1 And he shewed me a pure River of water of Life clear as Crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. He shewed me a pure River there is in Christ no Impurity he is the Lamb of God without spot what he gives to his People are pure Mercies choice Mercies pure Blessings when we drink of other Streams they are mixed with Mud all your Comforts below Mr. Durham on the Revelations yea all Ordinances and Duties are mixed with Corruption but Christ is the pure River it is a River no small Brook but a River running and always running flowing and always flowing giving and always giving It is not only a River flowing but Waters of Life to the Soul that lives on Christ Those that drink of this Water of Life shall never die He that desires to drink of these Waters of Life that thirsts for them cannot but live they are as clear as Crystal That is an Emblem of the Saints Life a Life of Grace and Life of Glory Here we have these Waters in Ordinances through Pipes here we see them through a Glass but there you will see them Face to Face there the Saints shall solace themselves as Celestial Fishes in that pure River In Ordinances we have some sweet drops and streams Psal 46. the Church being under trouble speaks of her help in God Though the Earth be removed that is though there is a change of times and revolution of things though the Mountains be carried into the Sea we will not fear So though we have many Temptations many Troubles though we have many Discouragements we will not fear though the Waters thereof roar and be troubled though the Mountains shake with the swelling thereof There is a River the Streams whereof make glad the City of God This shews forth in the letter the Tabernacle where the Presence of God was and his Glory appeared Though we have swelling Waves great Temptations great Troubles yet we have a Stream that makes glad the City of God for God is in the midst of her He was in the midst of Jerusalem that was called the City of the great King Psal 48.1 2. Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised in the City of our God in the Mountain of his Holiness Beautiful for situation the Joy of the whole Earth is Mount Sion on the sides of the North the City of the great King So that the City of Jerusalem where the King of Glory had his Dwelling-place where he met his People between the Cherubims and the Mercy-seat God did dwell in the Tabernacle in Jerusalem but Christ is the glorious Temple wherein the Godhead dwells being in the midst of his Church by a Divine Union is their Life in the midst of their Troubles Here are sweet Streams that flow from him There is a River and this River is in the midst of her Christ is in the midst of his Church watering of his Church giving new Streams to it daily that makes Glad the Heart of his People How does Rain rejoyce the Heart of the Husbandman in a dry time when it comes unexpected So a Believer receives the Streams of Comfort unexpected under the Ordinances An Experimental Believer longs to be under the Enjoyments of all Ordinances and would be hindred from none though the Heart may be back ward to Duty A poor Believer will cry to the Lord in secret Lord let not this wicked Heart hinder me it may be I may have a Stream from Christ that may refresh my thirsty Soul and make it glad for Christ is in the midst of his People and my Soul desires to enjoy him my Soul desires to live upon him There is a River makes glad the City of God the Church of God And why may not my Soul receive Comfort Thus Jesus Christ comes as Rain from Heaven to make Glad the City of God Though there are swelling Waves of Temptation and Trouble there are Streams that make glad this City The Wrath of God is made known from Heaven to Unbelievers and his Love is made known from Heaven to Believers though indeed the Believer may not always have
the Comfort of it But the Believer that lives on Christ whose Desires and Thirstings and Ends and Aims are that in all he may enjoy Christ I say when they are under Fears and Doubts they seem to be in a withering state but when Christ as the Rain descends down the Believer is revived and refreshed As Gideon's Fleece was wet when the Ground was dry so hath a Believer Heavenly Enjoyment and Communion with Christ when all the World is barren When the Believer is under fear and saith I fear I am a withered Plant that I am not watered Saith the Lord He shall come down as rain If we ask many where is your Comfort They will tell you here and there But say to a Believer Where is your expectation My Hope is laid up in Christ my expectation is from him To such saith God he shall come down as rain that is with his Spirit revealing his Love and Grace to the Soul as Rain comes from the Clouds So through the Clouds of Darkness doth Christ reveal his Grace to poor dark doubting Saints When the Lord Jesus poureth out his Holy Spirit into poor doubting Souls to comfort and refresh the weary and heavy laden Soul to give a Testimony of the Love of God to your Souls the efficacy of God's Holy Spirit revives the Saints and begets Life in dead Sinners Christ comes down to them and causes them to live that never lived before Indeed I confess there Christ is wonderfully beyond all showers of Rain for if we plant and sow Rain brings it up but Christ brings up Seed brings forth Fruit where it was never before So saith the Prophet Isa 32. from the 12th to the 16th They shall lament for the Teats for the pleasant Fields for the fruitful Vine Vpon the Land of my people shall come up Thorns and Briers yea upon all the Houses of Joy in the joyous City because the Palaces shall be forsaken the multitude of the City shall be left the Forts and Towers shall be for Dens for ever a joy of wild Asses a pasture of Flocks Vntil the Spirit be poured upon us from on high and the Wilderness be a fruitful field and the fruitful field be counted for a Forest This indeed was literally spoken of the Captivity of the Jews saith he All their pleasant places shall be filled with desolation and their Palaces shall be forsaken How long until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high But how should this be Why it might be supposed that the Spirit of the Lord came on Cyrus and those that gave the Jews Liberty to go and build the City of God But shall we think that this is the whole No every sinner that lives upon the face of the Earth is a barren desolate wretched Creature till the Spirit of God is poured upon him How long shall these sinners continue so Until the Spirit of the Lord be poured from on high And what then Why then this Wilderness shall become a fruitful Field the Wilderness becomes a Garden or Field The old ignorant poor carnal sinner becomes now a gracious Saint Doth he stand at a stay No And the fruitful Field be counted for a Forest When the Spirit of the Lord comes down then the Wilderness becomes a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field is counted for a Forest Many Professors there are that hear Christ preached hear what it is to live upon Christ but they not knowing Christ not having the Spirit of God poured out upon them are the same as ever they were Now how long will it be that you will hear of Christ and not live on Christ I can tell you until the Spirit of the Lord be poured upon you from on high until the Spirit be revealed from on high it signifies a plentiful communication of the Spirit it hath a respect to the times of the Gospel for altho God gave his Spirit in some measure before yet he poured it not out before he was first anoynted with his Fulness a larger measure of God's Spirit is now given then was before Then we shall return and say Lord the Wilderness is become a fruitful Field and the fruitful Field is counted for a Forest but the mean time you sit unconcerned while you send us home mourning you sit on your Seats unconcerned and go home so but your poor Minister goes with sorrow to the Lord. How long Lord shall I preach before one Soul be converted by my Ministry How long shall I teach before one Sinner is converted Dr. Owen on the Spirit The Lord answers Until my Spirit be poured out upon them from on high Many Sermons may be poured out and Hearts and Lives of Ministers poured out before your Souls are converted except the Spirit of God be poured upon you How much do they err that tell you If you will you may believe and that there is no such thing as an irresistable Power put forth But let them that know Christ speak whether the Arminians speak Truth or no. You know you were barren before the Spirit of God came you that are rush'd into a Profession of Religion that are barren and dead and carnal and live so still I profess you are in a miserable condition you never did know Christ if you did you would lead other kind of Lives but those that have received Christ that live upon Christ and thirst for Christ Christ comes down and revives them with new showers from Heaven Isa 44.3 4 5. I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and flouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my blessing upom thine Offspring And they shall spring up as among the grass as Willows by the Water-courses One shall say I am the Lord's and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel These Words call for your attention the beginning is Jacob was afraid he was forsaken of God Israel of old was under Discouragements and the Evangelical Prophet reacheth to all the Israelites of God Verse 1. Yet now hear O Jacob my Servant and Israel whom I have chosen Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the Womb which will help thee fear not O Jacob my Servant and thou Jesurun whom I have chosen We see here plainly that which many of our Age do deny God's choosing of one more than another God laies the Foundation of Israel's Comfort in his peculiar choice of them Israel whom I have chosen If God hath not chosen Israel what is all Blessings or Mercies But Lord if I am chosen yer I am under Trouble Straits and Fears Saith God I will pour Water upon him that is thirsty and Flouds upon the dry ground I will pour my Spirit upon thy Seed and my Blessing upon thy Offspring That is all that are in Christ If you are Christ's then you are
Abraham's Seed and what then they shall spring up as among the Grass as Willows by the Water-courses by the Water-side they shall grow I shall see my people grow And what then One shall say who shall say why the poor doubting Soul that hath long cried out O that I could but know Christ were mine O that I could but make mention of him as my Lord and my Redeemer My Soul even faints with expectation for his loving-kindness to be revealed What shall these flourish and grow and thrive Yes they shall One shall say I am the Lord 's and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord. When the Spirit of the Lord is poured out then the Soul comes to have the Revelation of the Love of God to it Before he was drooping hanging down his Head fearing himself a withered Soul But now saith the Soul When I read the Love of God I can subscribe my self the Lords and I can call my self by the name of the God of Jacob. I will set Heart and Hand to it as that good holy Man of God Mr. Peacock said Let it be preach'd at my Funeral that I am no Cast-away How comes this about A poor Soul longing for Christ waiting for him desiring nothing more than to live on Christ and with Christ yet under much doubt and fear Why the Believer wanted these Heavenly Showers to be poured out the Testimony of the Spirit But when the Spirit is poured out saith the Soul I can call my self by the name of Jacob and subscribe with my hand I am the Lords Say to a Believer What dost thou desire Soul Nothing more than to live to Christ nothing more than to enjoy Christ nothing below him will content me Where will you wait there Where the Lord comes And how long Till the Spirit of the Lord is poured out and then I shall call my self by the name of the Lord and not be ashamed This hath relation to the righteous and gracious Act of God in delivering a righteous and oppressed Nation from cruel Tyrants and Oppressors This Work shall be so great and illustrious as if God had rain'd down showers of Righteousness out of Heaven But this is not all the meaning the Mystery of the Sinners glorious Redemption through Christ is here included and also God's gracious Acts of Righteousness Isa 45.8 Drop down ye Heavens from above let the Skies pour down righteousness let the Earth open and let them bring forth Salvation and let Righteousness spring up together I the Lord have created it Here is the Lord's Command and the Church's Prayer drop down ye Heavens Let the Skies pour down righteousness the Lord commands it the Church and Prophet prays for it When a poor Believer is praying sighing looking up to Heaven O that I might have a glimpse this day of the Love of God! O that I did but know that I were redeemed by thy Blood Saith the Lord Drop down ye Heavens For until the Spirit of the Lord come there will be cold hearing and praying until the Lord reveal himself to the poor sinner A poor doubting Soul in his own imaginations is undone God's delivering his people from Temporal Miseries was but a Drop in comparison of his giving Christ for poor sinners to satisfie Divine Justice then he poured down Righteousness Saith the Lord You shall not want a Righteousness I will send down a Righteousness to that Soul Drop down ye Heavens and let the Skies pour down righteousness As the Sky when it is clear gives Light so does the Lord by his Spirit reveal to the Soul his interest in Jesus Christ and his love to his Soul That is a poor Life indeed or Profession that you live on your self and your own performances and not on Christ You see when Christ comes down he comes with the Power of his Spirit on the Hearts of sinners in their Conversion and on Saints in their Desertion and then you shall go away rejoycing O with what chearful Hearts have we had many gone from an Ordinance They have been complaining in the Morning and have been rejoycing in the Afternoon And how comes this Did it lie in the power of a Man Could an earthen Vessel give this No the Heavens dropt down and then what praising and blessing God is there in the Soul when the Spirit of God in the Word is poured out on a poor Believer that was in Fears and Doubts While the Hypocrite never questions nor fears his Condition The Believer fears nothing more than decaying tho he is established that he shall never fall from Christ yet he would not be barren As it is the desire of a Believer to be glorified with Christ so to glorifie Christ while on Earth Here a Believer hath many Fears and Doubts First he fears that God is not reconciled to him but the Spirit of the Lord comes to water the poor drooping Soul Christ manifests to the Soul that God is reconciled I am at peace with thee saith the Lord Isa 27.2 3 4 5. In that day sing unto her a Vineyard of red Wine Truly it is red Wine must make the sinners peace it is the red Blood of Christ a bleeding Redeemer must give Peace unto the doubting Believer Sing ye unto her a Vineyard of red Wine Redemption thro' the Blood of Christ is the sweetest Song that ever sinners can hear it is not a Vineyard to work in but a Vineyard to sing in a Vineyard of red Wine without this red Wine our red sins would undo our poor guilty Souls But Lord How shall I know that this red Wine this Blood of Christ is made mine How shall I know that I am reconciled by the Blood of Christ Saith God I will water it I will pour out my spirit to reveal it and manifest it And what then Lord Shall I know Fury is not in me who would set the Briers and Thorns against me in Battle I would go through them I would burn them together You shall know that I am a reconciled God unto you I am at peace with thee How shall I be at peace with thee Saith God in the fifth Verse Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me and he shall be at peace with me In that day sing ye unto her a Vineyard of red Wine Saith the Lord I will sing her a song every Sermon you hear of the Love of Christ is a Song to every doubting Believer When poor Souls come to have the Spirit of the Lord poured out upon them to reveal that God is reconciled unto them then the Soul goes on in the ways of God chearfully before the Believer was doubting and fearing and questioning But what dost desire O Soul I desire nothing more I crave nothing more than to enjoy Christ Then saith God I will sing you a Song under the Gospel the Lord does not come to
profitable How warmly do they discourse of the Kingdom of God How longing after it Luke 24.32 And they said one to another Did not our Hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the Scriptures He might have talked of the Scriptures long enough and opened the meaning of them and no warmth come to their Heart till he shined into their Souls You that are united to this Sun of Righteousness you that live on him by Faith you are under these thriving Beams though you have not always the same manifestation But when these glorious Beams dart into your Souls how lively are you in your walking and in your talking Though you may have some frosty Nights some cold Fits yet while you are united to this Sun of Righteousness you shall have some warm Beams that shall make you thrive and grow All means of Grace are like the Prophet's Staff which will not bring the dead Child to Life until the Prophet comes When the Prophet came and lay on the Child the Child was warm and it breathed and stirred and rose up and walked Poor doubting Soul is there Breath in thee Dost thou breath after Christ Dost thou desire no means mercies nor blessings but what thou mayest enjoy Christ in them I say Christ hath already breathed on you and his Divine Beams of Grace will cause you to rise up and walk I mean to grow stronger and stronger so that the Sun of Righteousness heals the Affections of many A poor Soul cries I cannot love Christ it is impossible I should ever love him But if you desire to love Christ with your whole Heart you love him already The Soul that hath a spark of Faith that works by Love shall be sure to increase in Love When Christ comes down when he puts in his Finger by the hole of the Door saith the Soul Draw me I will run after thee his Love is better than Wine Christ sometimes gives you drops of Wine sometimes Flagons of Wine sometimes but a Sip and sometimes full Draughts Draw me and I will run after thee as if she had said Draw me and I will commend thee to others As Melancthon said when he was converted He thought that he could have converted all that he conversed with but he found the old Serpent was too hard for young Melancthon When the Soul comes to know this glorious Christ by Faith and to live upon him the Soul thinks he could so commend him that he could make all about him to love Christ Draw me I will run after thee Why what is the matter Thy Love is better than Wine vers 3. Because of the savour of thy good Oyntments thy Name is as Oyntments poured forth therefore do the Virgins love thee vers 4. Draw me we will run after thee When the Lord Jesus Christ witnesses to the Believer by the Spirit that he is united to him when he sends forth Divine Beams from this Glorious Light and Life and Warmth the Soul hath his Love drawn out abundantly When Peter was freezing by the Fire in the High Priest's Hall one look from Christ melts his Heart Ah my Friends you may have the Fire of Ordinances kindled yet have an Heart as cold as a stone but when Christ looks on you then does he melt your Souls into the very Image of Love then he draws the Heart after him in Divine Acts of Love that what the Soul hath often thought of now it comes more and more to the Soul that Love is stronger than Death When the Divine Beams of Divine Love are darted into the Soul and the Soul comes to consider First What unconceivable Love the Love of Christ is O saith the Soul Christ hath loved me with an unconceivable unspeakable Love So Paul saith who loved me and gave himself for me Not I live but Christ lives in me the Soul is acquainted this is an unspeakable Love John 1.3 Behold what manner of Love is this that we should be called the Children of God! O what unspeakable Love is this saith the Soul that I should be called a Child of God! How comes it about O the Wonders of this Love O that I should be called a Child of God What me to be made like Christ For God to be my Father in Christ What manner of Love is this How unspeakable how wonderful is this love Secondly When Christ comes to shine on the Soul it comes to see what distinguishing Love this is Why me O Lord Who gave himself for me Saith the Apostle There is an application of this Love Why me Lord Why not many thousands chosen and I left out Why I chosen and many thousands left O that Christ should love me redeem me die for me O my Soul love thou the Lord live to this Lord let him be all in all who loved me before the World was That I am not among the Damned in Hell is a wonderful mercy But that I should be one of the Lords redeemed ones that I should be chosen out of the Kindred and Tongues and Nations of the Earth O what Love is this The Expressions and Impressions of Divine Love A Believer would live with it all his days and die with it and go to Glory with it Why me Lord Why hast thou pardoned me sanctified me O that God should give Christ for me That Christ should go through his Sorrows for me Through his bloody Sweat for me That I should have a part in Christ's precious Merits What though Christ loved sinners if I am not the sinner that Christ loves But when the Beams of Divine Love are darted into the Soul it cries O that Christ hath loved me more than his own Life more than his own Glory and love me above others in the World O what distinguishing Love is this Then the Soul must needs have an endeared Love to Christ O that for me to live may be Christ O that I may enjoy him in all my enjoyments Thirdly The Soul sees the Love of Christ is undeserved Love O wretch that I am that ever Christ should love me It is an heightning our Love when the Divine Beams of his Love shines on our Souls to reveal how unworthy we are of Christ's Love This is that the Apostle speaks of and nothing more heightens our Love than that Christ loved us when we were unworthy of his Love 1 Tim. 1.12 13. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry who was before a Blasphemer and a Persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy It is a glorious Beam of Divinity shines on the Soul when the Soul comes to see its own Unworthiness Why me Lord so wretched and miserable a sinner What Christ come from his Glorious Throne from Heaven to Earth to heal my Heart To come here to die for me a wretched Soul O when the Sun of Righteousness rises on the
do it no good Saith the Man my Soul that lives for ever that never dies It is immortal Life that my Soul must be bound up in so that I say to live Christ is a suitable Life in that it is suitable to a Soul that lives for ever We see Persons are careful that they may lay up something to help them when they cannot work and are careful to lay up something for their Children and alas will you provide for a mortal Life for a poor dying Body and will you not provide for your immortal ever-living never-dying Souls O lay hold on Christ now that you may live for ever E're long you must be gone from hence and then no more praying nor hearing And you that rest on Duties e're long you can rest no more on them and you that are careless and formal in Duties or negligent of them e're long you will have no more Opportunities And you that are careless of getting Christ e're long you will have no more Offers of Christ There are two sorts of Fools I have minded mentioned in the Holy Scriptures First The Fool that laid up much on Earth but did not live to spend it And the next The Fool that laid up so little and lived beyond it In Luke 12.29 we have an account of the Fool that laid up a great deal on Earth he thought he had a long time to live saith he Soul take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many years This was a Fool indeed for he had not provided for nor thought what would become of his Immortal Soul Thou Fool hast thou not thought of thy immortal Soul Of thy eternal state Thou hast laid up for thy Body for a long time but this night shall thy Soul be required of thee thou shalt live no longer here What take thought for Barns for Riches and no thought for an immortal Soul No thoughts of a Christ to save thee to all Eternity Many will take great thought about the things of this World but no thought for a Christ for their immortal Souls You have enough laid up for many years as you think but it may be not for many moments If you have not a Christ you are not safe for one moment And what will you do if the Lord say to thee this night shall thy Soul be required of thee O Fool hast thou not something laid up for time to come when thou hast not an hour to live Hast thou had thoughts for the things of this Life when thou hast not spent one thought for the things of another Life This mad Fool he laid up Goods for longer than he had time to enjoy them Considered for a great while to come and yet laid not up any thing for his Immortal Soul that was to live for ever this night shall thy Soul be required of thee thou shalt have no more time in this World and hast thou not laid up for Eternity O Man or Woman what a Fool art thou that dost not look after Christ That dost not seek in good earnest for thy immortal Soul to be happy to all Eternity The second Fools that are mentioned are They that out-lived their Estate they had not enough to keep them I warrant you will say they wanted care in this World and you shall hear many worldly Men say That will not I do I will take care to lay up something for a spending time but it is not worldly Riches we are concerned about but higher matters it is Spiritual things The Foolish Virgins outlived their Estates they survived them they had not enough to maintain them my meaning is they wanted saving Grace they took much pains in outward Truths yet wanted Grace to carry them safe to Glory You may live on Duties and Performances and the outside of Religion and I tell you your Immortal Souls will out-live your Duties and be undone for not having a Christ Your Souls will not out-live all external Duties and Ordinances and if you have not lived on Christ you are undone The foolish Virgins thought they had done very well and had got enough to keep them to all Eternity they set out with the wise and kept along with them but here was the difference the one had Christ in them and the other was without him the one had Christ in their Hearts and the other had only the Notions of Christ in their Heads the one lived on Christ in their Duties and the other lived on their Duties without Christ the wise Virgins Lamps kept burning because they had Oyl of Grace and Christ was in them the hope of Glory but the foolish Virgins they wanted Oyl in their Lamps yet what confidence had they that their Condition was good which did appear by their Coufidence to the very last Mat. 25.10 Afterward came also the other Virgins and said Lord Lord open to us sure we have some part in thee sure we have some Treasure here No saith Christ you have none at all I know you not They bgged Oyl of the wise Giv us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out They out-lived all their Duties and Gifts and were miserably poor for want of Grace My Friends be you never so outwardly religious if you have not Christ in you you will out â—â—e all your Duties and Righteousness Prâ—yers and Tears and all Duties will 〈◊〉 over and if you have not Christ to 〈◊〉 your Righteousness you will be very poor at last None so poor as those who lie down in the Grave without a Christ Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are gone out We have no Oyl What have you been doing all this while What so long a praying People So long Hearers So long Professors and have you not a Christ for your Souls They thought they had Oyl enough in their Lamps but were miserably mistaken Many think certainly if they pray and hear they shall go to Heaven if they come to the Lord's Supper and are baptized and have other Ordinances they shall go to Heaven Why Friends the foolish Virgins were all this yea and more than this for many Persons may have scandalous Lives outwardly but these were called Virgins they walked so uprightly none could charge them with Hypocrisie none could say black was their Eye till at last they slept when the others slumbred The foolish set their faces Heaven-ward as well as the wise only the Hypocrites they have their Faces one way and row another as Water-men do But what was the difference The wise Virgins made Christ their Life and the foolish lived upon their own Duties without Christ Many think themselves very well because they do perform Duties and attend on Ordinances and can discourse of Christ But do you know what it is to have Christ your Life When the foolish Virgins found Christ was come they cried Alas we are undone we have lived on our own stock and we want a Life beyond all that we have lived And the
him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. For ye are dead and your Life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall they also appear with him in Glory The Saints if they consider need not be so afraid at the approaching of Death for it will be the real happiness of their Souls for then you shall enjoy that perfect Communion and Blessedness that you long for here on this side the Grave We are willing to have rest but are loath to go to bed we are willing to be released of our sins and troubles but we are unwilling to die and we shall never be wholly freed from them till then How lingring are we as if our Desires were that Christ's Chariot-wheels should stay a little longer But sure were the Joy of this glorious Life more cleared up to us we should long to put off our Mortality and to put on Immortality 2 Cor. 5.1 2 3 4. You that have Christ for your Life are very safe Death shall rob you of nothing for the Apostle saith For him to live is Christ and to die is gain Death does but take away that clod that we carry about us that we may see the Sun of Righteousness more glorious and enjoy him more perfectly in immortal Life and Glory Death robs most but shall not rob the Believer you shall but make an exchange of Heaven for Earth Glory for your Shame Joy for Sorrow for your crying and weeping here praise and Hallelujahs above Fourthly Death shall not rob you of your Treasure Indeed the Damned live but it is a miserable Life living Death in everlasting chains When Death comes the Treasure of the Saint is perfectly enjoyed What they had an earnest of before now they have in possession now they shall put on the glorious Robe and the Royal Crown on their Head they shall put on the Crown of Glory and of Righteousness Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness O what a laying up is here When the Apostle was ready to be offered up saith he I am ready to be offered up but I shall lose nothing by it for I cannot have my Crown till I die 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all that love his appearing I am ready to go I do not repent my going I know very well the time of my departure is at hand But what then Though it be I have fought the good fight I have kept the Faith I have lived Christ I have made him the hope of my Life and now I shall receive my Crown I have been in Troubles and Trials and in my Lords Battles but now I am going to receive a Crown of Righteousness Why so Had Paul deserved it by his Works No but as God is a righteous God and had promised Henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day I shall have it when I am offered up when I am put to Death and then shall I wear a Crown an Immortal Crown on my Head for ever and this is not only for me but for all that love his appearing they must needs love his appearing that have him for their Life O the glorious Crowns that the Saints shall be crown'd with at that day a Crown of Life that never withers Here our Comforts wither while we hold them in our Hand they wither like a Beautiful Flower in the Morning it holds up its Head but by Evening it is withered A Crown of Glory that never fades away O what treasures will the Saints have when Death comes that have made Christ their Life The Worldling will lose his Treasure the Hypocrite will lose his hope he will never hope more Job 27.8 For what is the hopes of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his Soul Tho he hath gained applause of Men he shall lose it Dan. 12.3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and they that turn many to righteousness as the Stars for ever and ever What is the Hope of a Hypocrite of a Christless Soul when he hath breathed his Last when his Soul sits quivering on his Lips Alas I have made a Profession of Religion I thought I had something laid up but all is lost for ever O that I should hope in vain and now the end of my hope is come and not the Salvation but Damnation of my Soul Though I have done many things and made a clutter in the World and eat and drunk in Christ's Presence it is all in vain that I have hoped my strength and my hope is perished for ever and then all his Peace is lost No Peace saith my God to the wicked Then the Storm of Divine Vengeance will come and awaken the false hope of the Hypocrite then the Worldling will lose all his Riches The Young Man was sorrowful to leave all and follow Christ Persons are afraid to do any thing for Religion for fear of wanting But whether the Young Man will part with all to follow Christ or no he must leave all at Death Death does spoil them of all their Treasure But it is not so with the Saint The poor Christless Soul may say when he considers his state Whatever I have e're long it will be taken from me if I have treasured up the Worlds Goods and have not made Christ my Life I am like for ever to be undone to use this World to God's Glory will be our Mercy but to over-love it it will be our undoing but Death to the Saint will be the year of Jubile they shall have double for all their Trials Troubles and Sorrows when Death comes they shall have all restored to them whatever they have lost for Christ it will be gain then they have laid up for themselves a good Foundation for time to come as the Apostle speaks 1 Tim. 6.17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high-minded nor trust in uncertain riches but in the living God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy that they do good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the times to come that they may lay hold on eternal Life A good Foundation against the time to come the Saints have their Treasure in store when they go hence Mat. 6.20 Lay up for your selves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through nor steal In Heaven there his Heart was there his Hope was there his Desire was there his Longing was and now he comes to die his Treasure is
safe for him then a Saint while he lives he need not fear Death he lives a certain Life Secondly He may live comfortably First He may live certainly on comforts I am Christ's and I know nothing shall pluck me from Christ I am perswaded What are you perswaded of Paul I am perswaded that neither Life nor Death nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. May not some Temptation some Corruption over-set you No saith he they shall not I shall be a Conqueror through Christ nothing shall separate me from him I am perswaded Death shall not if I live I live Christ if I die I shall live with Christ Nor Angels Good Angels will not if they would they should not nor bad Angels shall not nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present Buffitings Reproaches Scornings Imprisonment Sufferings what if you go through all this and are not separate from Christ Yet is there not something to come Do you not fear Death and Judgment that will be a Terror to most of the Sons and Daughters of Men. Whatever comes I still am Christs neither height nor depth shall separate me from Christ Let mine Iniquities reach up as high as Heaven the righteousness of Christ is still higher Nor Depths It shall not swallow a Believer up he is held safe in the everlasting Arms of infallible Grace and Mercy What a certain Life does a Saint live that is sure never to be separated from Christ things present cannot do it nor things to come shall not What a blessed Life an happy Life a safe Life is this O poor Christless Soul how uncertain dost thou live You are not sure of abiding here one moment The World is like an handful of Sand running through your Fingers like the Air that you breath in that you cannot hold a moment in your Fist But the Believer hath a certainty he can assure himself he shall never be poor and miserable nor deprived of true Happiness but shall be safe for ever in the Hands of Christ As for this World it is uncertain how long we shall enjoy Life Liberty or any Mercy we know not But the best Counsel I can give you is to get Christ and then you will be safe Things may have a good Aspect one day and another day as bad but yet in Christ you are safe for ever in Life in Death and to all Eternity Here you are certain of nothing Favour of Men or high or low rich or poor is unconstant the Wheel turns in a moment But if you have Christ you have a certain Life O how comfortably may a Saint live in all troubles and changes whatsoever that hath Christ for his Life We use to say It is an ill Wind blows no body good But I say let the Wind blow as ill as it will it blows the Saint always good that the Soul may say Let what will come I live well We may compare a Saint that is troubled for outward things to a Man that hath an Orchard full of Trees laden with Fruit but because the Wind has blown off the Leaves sits down and weeps If one should ask What do you weep for Why my Apple-tree Leaves are gone Why you have your Apples have you not Yes then what a foolish Man are you to weep for a few Leaves that might hinder both sight and ripening of your Fruit The comforts of this World are but Leaves Why do you weep for the Leaves while you have the Fruit Glorious Promises Glorious Peace Glorious Pardon Riches of Grace Hope of Glory and set down to weep or be cast down for the Loss of a few worldly comforts And the truth of it is so narrow are our Spirits so unbelieving are our Hearts that we many times weep for Losses here as if we had no better Portion What weeping while the Boughs hang full of Fruit What weep while your Souls have the glorious Promises and glorious Peace and glorious Pardon and a glorious Christ and hopes of Life Eternal through him Will you weep for a few outward Losses and Crosses while your Souls are filled with Fruit While your Souls are as Trees bringing forth Twins This is much to be lamented that the Saints do thus mourn for outward comforts let the Wind blow which way it will it cannot take away your Life You may eat of the Fruit of the Tree of Life in the midst of Paradice that you may leave your Drops below and come to the full Fountains above If a Man hath enough he may afford to lose a little Saith the Psalmist I have a goodly Heritage the Lord is my Portion Psal 16.5 6. The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance and of my cup thou maintainest my lot the lines are fallen to me in a pleasant place yea I have a goodly Heritage While Christ is my Life my Glory my Portion I have a goodly Portion May be the Winds may arise Storms of Affliction Storms of Trouble the Lord knows what may be but make sure of Christ let the Wind blow what way it will it can but blow off the Leaves it cannot take away the Fruit. The Church saith in Lam. 3.24 The Lord was her portion she would hope in him Is it so that a Believers Life is bound up in Christ There is a great deal of difference between a Believer and another Man at Death What are the thoughts of a carnal Man at Death What if they were known to the Standers-by My Life is done and my Misery is come O that I were to live in the World and never die But what is a Believers thought O saith he that my Heart may be setled on Christ that I may know Christ to be my Life and God mine I would bless his Name for ever There is a difference between a moral Man and a Believer How is it I have lived honestly I have done no body any harm God deal with me as I have done with others Now a Believer will discourse of things in another manner I have nothing in my self I am sin and sinful but Christ is my Life therefore I desire not to stand in one of my good Works in Judgment but wrap up my self wholly in Christs Righteousness Come to a Legal Man one under the Law O I would pray more fast more if I were to live longer Thus he would do a great deal of Work in a little time not considering if he lives longer he carries the same Heart about him But a Believer saith If I am to live it shall be by Faith I would believe more know Christ more I would live upon Christ more and when I die I would die in him and be found in him at the great day 3 Infer Is it so that a Believer's Life is bound up in Christ What boundless Love was
fuerim omnes si potuissem occidere I was so great a Saint in my own esteem that I was ready to slay all if I could and this he did out of a blind Zeal The Pride of Men's Hearts together with their blind Zeal cause persons to exalt themselves and strive to make the Doctrin and Life of others odious to the People altho they are such as God has given his Vrim and Thummim to While Persons are contending about Words and distracting their Hearers with things that concern not their Salvation and endeavouring to beget a Prejudice in their Hearts against Godly Ministers they in the mean time neglect to preach down Heresies and false Doctrins that strike at the Principles of Faith and welfare of immortal Souls Surely all those that are begotten from the Dead unto a lively hope by Christ Jesus will love all those that are made partakers of the same Life and will not cease daily to mourn for their Deficiency therein 6 Infer Is Christ a Believers Life and such a Life as you have heard then what a miserable state is a Christless Soul in A state of Darkness while they live a state of misery when they die the Cup of Wrath without mixture eternal misery will be the portion of the wicked Oh what a state of blindness and darkness do they live on Earth And what a state of misery will they be in in the other World But you may say How shall I know that Christ is mine I shall lay down a few Characters but I shall First Shew who they are that have not Christ for their Life Secondly Who they are that have Christ for their Life I shall begin with the Negative First That Soul that was never sick unto Death for Christ never yet had Christ for its Life that Soul that never saw himself undone without Christ that Soul never made Christ his Life They that never groan under the body of Sin and Death that never cried out Wo is me I am undone what shall I do to be saved they are dead in Trespasses and Sins They that never saw the Sentence of Death in themselves never made Christ their Life 2 Cor. 1.9 But we had the Sentence of Death in our selves but in God which raiseth the dead When a Soul comes to say Alass I have gone as far as I can but I cannot get peace nor comfort by all I do therefore I must lie down and perish if I have not Christ to be mine I have nothing of my own to cover me I shall be naked if I have not his Blood to wash me I shall die in my sins If you believe not in me saith Christ you shall die in your sins Better die on a Dunghil better die in a Prison better die in a Fiery Furnace in Christ than in a Palace out of him But what remedy shall there be to save us from our sins Why Christ doth not set them to work for Life but to believe in him who is the believing Sinners Life Let a Legalist or Formalist they that never were pained at the Heart with a sense of their undon state they that have not Christ for their life what a deal of difference is between a Believer and them as much as thereis between a person that is sick and another that is dead He that is dead if he be laid on the ground there is all quiet and lay a Weight on him he is quiet but go and lay your Ear at the sick Man's Bed and there is groaning and crying O my Head O my Heart What is it you want I want Breath I want a Physician I want Life We preach Christ to you poor sinners What is the reason You do not groan for this Christ Why You are dead in your sins You go away and it may be some particular things we tell you of you can repeat them when you go home Some particular Duties you perform but are your Souls awakened Do you groan for Christ Do you go home pained at the Heart Was Christ ever your Life Do you cry out I am dead and undon without Christ be my Life If you were sick at Heart and were pained for Christ we should hear of you It may be you go to hear as your fancy leads you but not with a sense of your wants You fancy somtimes this Man sometimes that Man but were your Souls ever sick for Christ Did your Hearts ever break within you Did your Souls ever mourn in secret Lord give me a Christ I am afraid of this little number many that are dead that Christ was never your Life When persons are in a Swound put Spirits or any thing into their Nose they do not mind it but when they come to themselves they cry out I am sick O give me something Saith our blessed Lord Jesus John 5.25 Verily Verily I say unto you the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live When Christ comes with an effectual Call by his Spirit to the Heart in his Word it raises up the dead Man If there be a whole Family dead there is not one Groan heard but if one that is alive be sick or in pain he fills the place with Groans Talk of any thing rather than Christ any preaching is for some Men rather than Christ that is foolishness to some Ay but Soul whether thou wilt have Christ or no we must preach Christ and then we can give up our account with Joy It is the whole Work of a Minister to preach Christ whatever Duties are Spiritual they all flow from Christ but where Christ is not dwelling in the Soul all they perform is dead and formal Silent Professor quiet Professor quiet with outward Duties with a Form of Religion and so rest until you are undone If once God calls you and awakens you by the effectual working of his Spirit then your Souls will cry out O give me a Christ If I have not the Blood of Christ I am undone If I have not the Righteousness of Christ I am undone If I have not the Spirit of Christ I am none of his And whose are you then The Devils Rom. 8.9 Now if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his There is no middle state you are the Devils that are not Christs you are dead in sin under Bondage if you have not the Spirit of Christ Be what you will a Professor a Person in Communion or out of Communion be rich or poor a person of Gifts a person that can hear read and pray if you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his When the dead persons were raised up by Christ something was called for them to eat O saith the Soul when he is awakened by Grace give me a Christ or I perish O that I had a Cordial of his Blood I want his Blood I want his Righteousness his
it and think he hath a good bargain Life is the most precious the most excellent thing in Nature Hester's Speech to the King in her Petition imports that all other Losses might have been born but the loss of Life Mr. Caril on Job She thought Liberty not worth the asking for compared with Life A Christian values Christ above all things Phil. 3.7 What was gain to me I count loss that I may have Christ I count all but dung and dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ For Christ is precious his Love is precious his Offices precious his Person precious his Promises are precious I would give all so I might have Christ to be mine Where Christ is your Life you will prize him above all O let me have Christ know Christ that is the Sum of my Life The Spouse told the Daughters He was the chief among ten thousand Did you ever see Christ precious Is his Blood precious Do you long for his Righteousness 2 Pet. 2.7 To them that believe he is precious Fifthly If Christ is your Life you will study Christ more and more Many we say are their own Physicians they will study Physick that they may be their own Doctors and know how to apply Medicines to themselves Those Souls that know Christ to be their Life they will study to know Christ more that they may have a Remedy for every Disease of their Souls ready at hand and not be strangers to that Grace and Mercy that helps in time of need I shall now come to wind up with a Word of Exhortation Is it so that the Life of a Believer is such a glorious Life O then you Christless Souls cry day and night till Christ is become your Life it is a Life above all Lives if once you come to live Christ you will say with David One day in thy Court is better than a thousand and I had rather be a door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the Tents of wickedness I would rather enjoy one moments time with Christ than all the Pleasures of the World It is a Life above all Lives The Happiness of this World is mixt with Sorrow You have your dead Flies in your sweet Oyntment The best of your outward Mercies are mingled with Trials and Troubles and Fears and when you have Gain you are afraid of losing it When you have great Mercies you have great Care comes in with it But to live Christ it is a pure Life It is said of Wisdom All her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are paths of Peace Now the Soul that lives on Christ what a sweet Life what a pure Life what a glorious Life does he live But saith the Sinner What shall I do Ah Sinner Christ hath done all that thou mayest have all given freely for in thy doing thou mayest be undone But what may you do to make Christ your Life Nothing that we do can move God to give Christ If we think we deserve any thing at God's hand for our doings it is the way to be undone But though we cannot work for Life we are taught to beg for Mercy God will be enquired of for those things he freely gives First Go to God and beg of him to convince thee of the necessity of Christ Go and tell the Lord what an undone and miserable Wretch thou art thou art poor and canst not see it Cry Lord I am poor but I am blind and miserable O Lord convince me what need I have of Christ Jesus Beg of God to open thy eyes to see the worth and want of Christ Secondly Beg the Lord to awaken thy Soul to see how suitable Christ is to thy Soul If the Lord would speak from Heaven this day and say to an awakened Sinner What wilt thou have Sinner Riches and Honours Wilt thou have long Life The Sinner awakened would answer No Lord that is not suitable give me thy self or I am undone Oh how suitable is Christ to an undone Soul Thirdly Beg God to perswade thy Heart how ready and willing Christ is to entertain thee when all is done you still sink under your Burden if you do not believe the willingness and reaidness of Christ to receive you Ah poor Sinner thou canst not long more for Life and Salvation than Christ longs to save thee All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 Fourthly What can you do Sinner Nothing to work in any way to purchase the Favour of God but this you may do Wait upon the means of Grace wait at Wisdoms Gate You do not know Sinner how soon it may be your Call how soon Christ may come and you may hear the Voice of the Son of God Though a carnal natural Man can do nothing in matter of his Salvation he may wait on God in the way of his Divine Appointments Though Zaccheus was a carnaâ—â—ublican he could get up into the â—â—camore-Tree to see Christ A poâ—â—â—â—â—â—al Heart may come wait and hea◠〈◊〉 be at Wisdoms Gate Come get into the Sycamore Tree and it may please the Lord to speak a Word to thee this day or next day Salvation may come to thy House to thy Soul May not we liken many persons that come to hear the Gospel to Zaccheus's getting up the Tree to get a sight of Christ they come to see and be seen and think not what they shall meet with they never see their need of Christ but Christ comes and calls the Soul awakens it Sinner where art thou Where art thou going undon sinner I will become thy Salvation Luke 19.3 Zaccheus had only a mind to see Christ as other persons had And he sought to see Jesus who he was but could not for he was low of Stature and he ran before and climbed up into a Sycamore Tree to see Christ And when Jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him Christ must look upon us first he saw a poor ignorant People running to see his Person but not to believe in him for Salvation Christ said unto him Zaccheus make haste and come down for to day I must abide at thy House Come to the Ordinances of God attend there Then poor Sinner thou art in the way though thou hast no Interest in Christ nor never heardst this Salvation sounding in thy Soul so as to give thee comfort though thou art looking and beholding there seeing and hearing out of custom Jesus said unto him Make haste and come down for to day I must abide at thy House Make haste if Christ would give thy poor dark Soul a call this day what haste would you make to close with Christ there would be no deliberation Zaccheus delays not but comes down presently and the Lord may speak in a Word of Grace sinner This day I will take up my Abode in thy Heart for ever O how good it
proud they would fain be doing something rather than 〈◊〉 to Christ they would fain be trading for goodly Pearls As if a Man that was adry should be going through a Field where there was much Water that was pure and clean and the Man should say I shall dirty my Cloths to come at it and in the clear Water my Face will be seen and therefore I will rather drink of some muddy dirty Water that I may not see my Face So it is with poor Sinners they would fain drink the Kennel-Water of their own Duties for they are afraid to come to Christ for fear of seeing their own Faces for fear of seeing themselves undone and miserable and therefore the Soul cries out Will God look on me Will so righteous a God entertain me If I were better if I could but get my Heart to break and could have my Heart inlarged I would come to Christ but shall I a filthy Sinner think to have Grace and Righteousness Thus poor Sinners would be trading with their own Coin and with their own Duties they are very unwilling that all their own Duties should be cast down but saith Paul That I counted to be gain I found loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Christ O let me be found in Christ now let me put off my own Rags now let me live on nothing of my own but on Christ Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of God's Righteousness and going about to establish their own Righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the Righteousness of God And in Rom. 9. They were prone to their own Righteousness and would not come to Christ for Righteousness in Vers 31 32. But Israel which followed after the Law of Righteousness hath not attained to the Law of Righteousness Wherefore because they sought it not by Faith but as it were by the Works of the Law for they stumbled at that stumbling-stone They stumble they could not lay down all their own Works all their own Righteousness In point of Justification they stumbled at the Righteousness of Faith they would be justified by the Deeds of the Law which justifie no Man but condemn every Man All Sinners are proud and poor they would not be beholding to Christ for all They would apprehend some worthyness in themselves to be accepted of God Secondly Sinners are very poor and very ignorant they think to get out of debt some other way than by Christ or by the help of Christ they are like a poor man that is in debt he trades and thinks to get out of debt but the business is so carried that he runs further in debt so one comes to him and tells him you do not get at all out of debt by your trading pray consider how poor you are and rest no longer on your own trading to bring you out of debt but if you will come along with me I will bring you to one will pay all your debts for you The glorious Gospel that reveals the Lord Jesus Christ calls Sinners to accept of him as poor miserable undone Sinners who are deeply indebted to God acquaints them that Jesus Christ hath paid a full price for them to set them free John 8.36 The Son shall make you free then shall you be free indeed Yet poor Sinners they think they have something to trade with they think if they could but pray more or remember Sermons more they should get out of God's Debt but they take a wrong course for all that they can do they do but run further into debt by all that you can do you will never get out of debt if you have not a Righteousness in Christ you will never be accepted of God you must lay down all your own and as a poor Sinner lay hold on Christ as the Merchant-man sells all the goodly Pearls to buy this Pearl of Price Well might Paul say I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me I live upon him to him I live in him I was so poor I could never get out of debt by all that I could do therefore I desire to be found in Christ alone Many are complaining they cannot do this or that as if they would get out of debt by their own Works but now Christ is rich enough to make up all your losses When a Man hath one to repair and make up all his Losses he may well depend on him Rom. 5. from 15th Verse to the end But not as the offence so also is the free gift For if through the offence of one many be dead much more by the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one Man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many And not as it was by one that sinned so is the gift for the Judgment was by one to condemnation but the free gift is of many offences unto justification For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of Grace and of the Gift of Righteousness shall reign in life by one Jesus Christ Therefore as by the offence of one Judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the Righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto Justification of Life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made Righteous Moreover the Law entred that the offence might abound but where Sin abounded Grace did much more abound That as Sin hath reigned unto Death even so might Grace reign through Righteousness unto Eternal Life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Here you see whatever the Offence of Unrighteousness and Sin and Condemnation is there is Life and Righteousness by Jesus Christ to make up the breach All that lay hold on Christ shall have Righteousness and Life by him For as Sin and Death reigned in Adam so Life and Righteousness reigns in Christ and is imputed to the Sinner by him so that Christ is rich enough to make up all Losses Alas It is not in our selves to do this In the first Adam there is Death and Condemnation and Unrighteousness and Guilt and Wrath here now must be one to satisfie here must be one to bring in Righteousness and Life and Grace and that more than sin but where is that Man that hath Righteousness and Grace abounds more than Sin Man cannot do this himself he must have one that hath an All-sufficient Righteousness and infinite Grace that may present him to the Father to be accepted that the Grace of God the Gift of Life and Righteousness may overcome and wrap up the poor Sinner wholly in it that he may be without spot or wrinkle If it be so that in Christ you shall have all your Losses made up and repaired should you not live on Christ for all you want are you sinful Christ is Righteous are you dead in Sin Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to light have you sinned to a great height Christ's Merit is
in Ordinances O let me have Christ or else they will be poor empty Wells without Water Clouds without Rain to my Soul Secondly He will tell you it was not only vain and foolish but altogether unprofitable Saith the Apostle What I counted gain I found loss What will it profit a man to gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Mat. 16.26 Saith the Apostle What I counted gain I found loss Alas What Profit shall I have of my Education and Learning I thought once I was as happy as another and a little Duty would make me happy for ever but I see without Christ I am undone for ever I thought if I gave God something of his due if I did some Duties and was something beyond the vain World I should be happy but I see nothing will do or can profit me without Christ for without I live in Christ I cannot enjoy Christ I cannot enjoy Grace in Christ Righteousness in Christ Faith in Christ Thirdly I see all my Duties are poor worthless things out of Christ I thought to have prayed my way to Heaven but I see all my Duties are Dross and Dung let me not meet one of them without Christ I had lost my Prayers and my Soul had not I been shipt in Christ had I not had Christ to be my all and in all I see all would have been unprofitable if I had not had Christ Prayers Sabbaths Hearing What is all my Hearing if I have not Christ So also the Supper of the Lord and other Duties what would they be to me without Christ they would be as whited Sepulchers which within are full of dead Mens Bones and all Vncleanness Mat. 23.27 O how miserable was I before I knew Christ and lived to Christ Nay saith a Believer I cannot tell you how wretched I was but I can tell you three things First I had been unprofitable I had never brought forth fruit to God Secondly Uncomfortable in Life and Death and unto all Eternity Thirdly I had been wretched and miserable O then Come to me I will tell you what God hath done for my Soul Psal 66.16 Tenthly A Believer desires neither Means nor Mercies nor Comforts but what he may enjoy Christ in because a Believer hath experienced how sweet the Life of a Believer is O taste and see that the Lord is good Psal 34.8 9. O taste and see how precious Christ is how rich in Mercy how wonderful in Love O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him I will tell you what Christ hath done for me I cryed unto the Lord and he heard me I have experienced it O taste and see that the Lord is good blessed is the man that trusteth in him that liveth upon him So in 1 Pet. 2.2 3 As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby If so be that ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious O saith the Soul I desire I may live upon Christ upon the Promises of Christ upon the Love of Christ What if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious Then let Christ be one at my Table one in my Prayers one in every Ordinance one where ever I am What have I tasted That the Lord is gracious that is the best Sawce to my Meat the best Comfort to my Soul O I have tasted What have you tasted That the Lord is gracious I experience I know what he is he is the chief of ten thousand I cannot live without him I cannot enjoy any Mercy or any Comfort without him Saith the Soul What is this Friend This is not Christ and what is this Ordinance This is not Christ What can I take Comfort in if I have not Christ The Saints can experience how precious Christ is to them that believe he is precious Mary came to the Sepulchre there was the place where her Lord lay there were the Grave-Cloths the Sepulcher but her Lord was gone where have you laid my Lord There Mary stands weeping I cannot live withou Christ So a Soul comes to an Ordinance Here is the Tomb Here is the Grave Cloths but where have they laid my Lord What comfort is this or that What is a Sabbath What is a Sermon What is a Sacrament What are Means and Mercies without Christ Where have you laid my Lord Why do you know him Yes saith the Soul he is the Chief of ten thousand I heard him speak to me my Sister my Spouse and I have felt the sounding of my Bowels toward him he hath moved my Heart and I cannot be satisfied without him I am sick unto Death if I do not enjoy Christ Thus the Soul experiences what Christ is he is the Chief of ten thousand Why he hath done more than ten thousand Worlds could have done What is he I have tasted that he is gracious I have experienced the Bowels of his Mercies the Wonders of his Grace therefore saith the Psalmist Psal 116. I belived therefore have I spoken Vers 5. Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is merciful 6. The Lord preserveth the simple I was brought low and he helped me Saith the poor Soul I was as low as the Gates of Hell I was as one without hope till Christ raised me up Christ was my helper God laid help on one that was mighty what then Now will I live upon this God Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee For thou hast delivered my Soul from death mine Eyes from Tears and my Feet from falling Thou hast delivered my Soul from Eternal Death mine Eyes from Tears of Sorrow which I had while they said Where is my God My Feet from falling into Sin I will walk before the Lord in the Land of the Living I will live upon the Lord to the Lord in the Land of the Living I believed therefore have I spoken what I set forth of the Wonders of the Lord that have I experienced And saith the Apostle 1 John 1.3 These things write we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ and we would have you live as we do live on Christ as we do O saith the Believer that all persons did but know Christ and live upon Christ We write unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us for truly our ends and aims are that you may live as noble lives as we do and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ It is God in Christ that we live upon and have Communion with O the Soul that experiences what it is to live on Christ desires in all things to enjoy Christ The Spouse would not step a foot without him Come my Beloved let us go forth into
glorious Crown Glorious Robes a glorious Throne I expect everlasting Joy and I expect Rivers of Pleasure Is not this an Inducement to a Believer to make Christ his Life When we expect great things how does it cause us to be intent about them Where a Soul expects high things and great things from Christ they will live upon Christ and to Christ make Christ their All In all Mercies and Comforts and Enjoyments what is the reason many are poor carnal dead Professors and have low Thoughts of those things that are Preached in the Gospel but because they never relished Christ And it is as much as ever they can do to creep along in the ways of God and may be something of Conscience causes them to perform Duty But where the Soul hath glorious and high Expectations it is otherwise great things he hath done for them and great things he is doing he is advocating and interceding with the Father answering all Accusations and pleading for poor Sinners I go to prepare a place for you saith Christ and will come again and fetch you that where I am you may be also I am going to prepare for you Mansions of Glory Robes of Glory Crowns of Glory immortal Glory Is not this Lord to be lived upon and to be desired more than all things that can be desired Therefore had you ever experienced what it is to enjoy Christ and live on Christ you could not but have high and glorious Thoughts of this blessed Jesus you could not but have your Hearts raised up with high expectation what he will do for you But poor trifling formal Professor whatever thou professest I fear thou knowest not Jesus Christ Ask your Heart Have I glorious hopes of Christ's appearing Have I glorious hopes of reigning with him in Heaven Doth he reign in my Heart now Do I prize him and make him my All desire him in all and glorisie him above all I believe should you put this Question to your Souls you would many of you know that you are great Strangers to Christ But a Believer that can experience the Love of Christ is lifted up in admiration of the Wonders of his Grace crying out Oh what Wonders of Grace What glorious Love What a precious Redeemer is this Did he die for me Did he cry out my God my God and was I on his Heart when he drank of the Brook by the way and lift up his Head and was it for me He went out of the World by a cursed shameful Death up to his Fathers Glory and said that he would come again to fetch me he will make Death to be a sweet Embassador for me the Angels will come and convey my Soul to Glory O what will be your Thoughts when you shall see your Lord coming in the Clouds when you shall hear him say Come you blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you before the Foundation of the World and sit down with Palms in your Hands and with Crowns on your Heads surely believing that he is your Lord and that his Glory is your Glory and that he will come again and fetch you then you shall be for ever with the Lord 1 Thes from 13. to 18. But I would not have you to be ignorant Brethren concerning them which are asleep that ye sorrow not even as others which have no hope For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him For this we say unto you by the Word of the Lord that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the Air and so we shall ever be with the Lord. So much for the eleventh Reason This is a glorious Life the Believer hath experienced and that because he hath great expectation of what Christ will do for him as well as what he hath done for him therefore desires to make this blessed Christ his Life The Twelfth Reason is because a Believer can see no object so glorious as the Lord Jesus Christ is And saith the Soul all I can see I count it all empty in comparison of Christ for to see the Father in the Son choosing me in election before the World was to see this glorious Love out of the Bosom of the Father to be given for me to be my Ransom and Salvation O how glorious an Object is he to behold O how glorious is the Sun in the Firmament that lightens the whole World But then O how glorious is he that came out of the Bosom of the Father the Brightness of his Glory O my Soul let me behold him and live upon him I can see no way but he is glorious O love for Delight The Thirteenth Reason A Believer desires to live on Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ hath paid all and done all for him he hath bought all for him and saith the Believer all I have is from Christ have I Peace Hope Joy It is all bought by Christ I might have had a desparing Soul or a cursed Hope I might have been under the Curse and Wrath of God I might have been among the damned Souls that are roaring in Hell But have I Peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost Christ hath bought and brought me to the hope of an incorruptible Kingdom of Glory and as he hath bought all and paid for all I live upon him for all As the Apostle saith 1 Pet. 1.3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope All the Joy I have and hope I have of Heaven is bought by Christ all the Enjoyment of God I have all the Glory my Soul is crowned with all the Joy my Heart is filled with is bought by Christ therefore saith the Apostle Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath begotten to us a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead It is Jesus Christ hath ransomed me from Death from Hell from Guilt of Sin he hath bought an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled therefore I desire to live upon him The Fourteenth Reason The Believer desires to live upon Jesus Christ because he works all his Works in him There is not a good Motion in him but Christ is the Worker of it not a good Thought or good Action but all is from Christ Isa 26.12 Lord thou wilt ordain Peace for us for thou hast wrought all our Works in us The Lord hath wrought for me Redemption Salvation Sanctification Consolation and Hope of Glory therefore I will live
upon him for all So much for the Doctrinal Part and Reasons of the Proposition why a Believer desires to live upon Christ and to Christ in all The Application follows The first Inference from the Point is this If it is so that the desires of a Believer run out in all after Christ to enjoy him more than all If Christ is a Believers Life then a Believer must needs live a very fruitful Life A Believer's Life is no barren nor unfruitful Life he cannot be a barren Tree there are no unfruitful Branches in Christ that fruitful Vine He that chooses Christ with his whole desire to make Christ his all he must needs be a fruitful Liver increasing in the Grace and Knowledge of Jesus Christ Indeed a Believer may have some dark Days that look gloomy he may have some Summer Droughts may make him look withered notwithstanding he is sound at Root he hath rooting in Christ for me to to live is Christ saith the Apostle while I live I will have my Life bound up in him and expect all from him A Soul that does thus cannot have an unfruitful Life there may be some Summer Droughts But is Christ your Life and do you expect him to be your All and wrap up your selves in Christ it is impossible for you to be barren for I tell you you that look up expecting to have your Life of Grace and Comfort from Christ he will not let your Expectation fail I do not speak what you are sometimes in your sense and feeling but what you are by Faith in Christ As that good Mr. Peacock he had a Summers Drought Saith he I feel an Hell in my Conscience crying out of the woful burden of his Sins saying how woful and miserable is my state that thus must converse with Hell-Hounds the Standers by asked him to pray I cannot said he suffer us to pray for you he replyed Take not Gods Name in vain for a Reprobate as I am Yet after these grievous Pangs this blessed Saint found much comfort as did appear by his Expressions I have been far led and deeply troubled with Temptation and Sting of Conscience I thank God they are ceased in good measure I desire I may not be branded for a Cast-away or Reprobate He declared that he renounced his inconsiderate Speech in his Trouble and Temptation humbly and heartily asking Mercy of God for them and after receiving a little more Light that through Mercy did arise in his Heart he brake forth in such Speeches as these I do feel God be praised such comfort that if I had an hundred Worlds I could not make satisfaction for such an Issue the Sea is not fuller of Water nor the Sun of Light than God is of Mercy his Mercies are ten thousand times more What cause have I to magnifie the great Goodness of God that hath humbled nay rather exalted such a wretched Miscreant one of so base a condition to a state so glorious and stately the Lord hath honoured me with his Goodness I am sure he hath prepared a glorious Kingdom for me the Joy I feel in my Heart is incredible Mr. Glover in his trouble and casting down thus complains What he felt inwardly in his Spirit no Speech was able to express he lay langushing in trouble for the space of five years he took no comfort in Meat nor Drink nor any pleasure in his Life being under the sense of some Back-sliding was perplexed as if he had been in the deepest pit of Hell he did not eat his Food from any Appetite but for this end to defer his Damnation thinking with himself that he must needs be thrown into Hell so soon as his Breath was out of his Body yet after this Summer Drought this Servant of the Lord had sweet showers of Mercy from Christ his Life after his many years Buffetings and strong Temptations he received great Comfort and afterward lived altogether an Heavenly Life No Art of Man no Arm of Flesh no Earthly Comfort no Earthly Power can possibly heal or help in this condition neither Men nor Angels Friends nor Phisick Gold nor Silver Pleasures nor Profits Preferments or Favours Mr. B's Cases of Conscience infinite skill must take this in hand or else never any Cure and Recovery can be had A poor Believer may be brought so low through Temptation and Desertions that they that behold them may think they are cast off by God but the Believers Life is hid in Christ and doth yet hope for a time of Refreshing as one that stands by the Trees and Plants perceiving them to look withered tells the Gardiner that he had as good cut them down as let them incumber the Ground for he believes they are dead but saith the Gardiner you are mistaken the Root is alive in the ground I hope for a good shower from Heaven to revive them a Believer by Faith beholds his Life in Christ expecting for the dropping of his Spirit to revive his drooping Spirit Saith the Saint you think because I am under temptation and burdened with Sin my hope is gone no in Christ my Root is green and I wait to have his Grace and Comforts poured out and I shall be raised up again Saith David I look to the everlasting Hills from whence my help comes Psal 123.1 2. Vnto thee lift I up mine Eyes O thou that dwellest in the Heavens Behold as the Eyes of the Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the Eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress so our Eyes wait upon the Lord our God how long until that he have mercy upon us Psal 121.1 I look saith David to the Hills that is to Sion Hill where God meets his People through Faith in God by Christ David did not look to the Tabernacle barely but to God in Christ figuratively Psal 18.24 Our help is in the Name of the Lord who made Heaven and Earth and do you behold that God that made the Heavens that made all things Do you see the Clouds Do you see the glorious Sun To that God will I look till he break the Clouds and send down Streams that glad the City of God I lift up my Eyes to God in Christ I lift up my Eyes to the everlasting Hills to the Eternal Love of God in Christ and Everlasting Righteousness of God in Christ till he look down on me and look into my Soul therefore though you see me look like a barren Tree in Summer Drought it does but make me long the more for a shower for watering that is it I look up for O Saint What do you expect to see O saith he though Satan tempt me and Conscience may trouble me and my Soul be cast down that I am a sinner a condemned sinner but I will look up till God reveals Christ's Righteousness to be my Righteousness Rom. 1.17 For therein is the Righteousness of God revealed from Faith to Faith as it is written
The Just shall live by Faith A Believer must needs live a thriving Life that lives on Christ The truth of which among the rest that might be brought to prove this I shall only lay down three things to demonstrate That every true Believers Soul is in a thriving and prosperous state that can neither fall from the State of Grace nor lose any one Grace First Christ is the Fountain of Life whom they are united to Secondly Rain from Heaven to water them in time of Drought Thirdly The Sun of Righteousness to revive them in Winter Seasons First Jesus Christ is the Fountain of Life the vital Fountain from whence a Believer hath a continual supply of Grace to maintain his Spiritual Life John 14.19 Because I live you shall live also We may ask them that talk of falling from Grace what the Child told the Mother I have heard of a godly Woman being left a Widow in great Distress the Children crying for Bread and she having none to give them saith the Mother Children be comforted for God lives the Child sometime after saw the Mother cry Mother saith the Child is God dead We may put this Question to the Arminian when he pleads for falling from Grace Is Christ dead that a Believer can fall from Grace Who hath said Because I live you shall live also while Christ hath it a Believer shall never want Phil. 4.19 But my God shall supply all your need according to his Riches in Glory by Christ Jesus A Believer shall not want Grace to maintain his Spiritual Warfare if he live fighting he shall dye conquering John 1.16 Of his fulness have we all received Grace for Grace The Believer hath all in a way of receiving Adam had his Stock in his own Hands he lost it but a Believers Stock is in the Hands of Christ and shall never be lost He is the Author and Finisher of their Faith Hebrews 12.2 As the first Adam that we by Nature are all in is the Original of our Death and Misery Mr. Gale 's Summary of Mr. Strong 's Book on the Two Covenants so is the Lord Jesus Christ the second Adam in Believers and they in him who is the original cause of their Restauration and Life who gives daily supplies to them out of his infinite Fulness What good is there in Man but what is first in Christ as the original Head of the Covenant and publick Receiver Wouldst thou see Gods Love and Grace streaming towards thy Soul must thou not see it first lodged in Christ as the Fountain of all Dost thou desire to see all thy sins wiped off Must thou not first see them wiped off from Christ thy Representative Wouldst thou by a Prevision of Faith see thy self in a glorified State O then by Faith look on Christ the Head of the Covenant glorified for thee Alas If thou look on thy self in thy self growing out of thine own natural Root what art thou but as a Branch cut off from the Olive Root But how comfortable and sweet it is to see thy self crucified acquitted and glorified in Christ the Head of the Covenant The Soul that lives on Christ shall neither lose nor lack Grace but shall have daily supplies from Christ who is an Everflowing Fountain of Grace and Comfort So long as there runs Oyl from the Olive Branches there shall never want Light in the Lamps This Oyl from the Olive Branches that runs through the golden Pipes is the Emblem of Supernatural Grace filled from the true Olive Tree Mr. Pool 's Annotations ever emptying themselves and are ever full so are Gospel Ordinances filled by Christ always filling his Members true Christians and ever full for all Believers It pleased the Father that in him should all Fulness dwell and that the Lord Jesus Christ is both active and willing to communicate it to Believers according as their want requires He also may be pointed at in his two Offices by the two golden Pipes conveighing the Oyl from the Trees to the Candlesticks Mr. Hutcheson 's Exposition on Zechariah it being through his Merit as Priest and his Efficacy as King that the Fulness in him becomes ours it is the enjoyment of Christ in Ordinances that doth refresh the Believers Soul with the Joys of Gods Salvation and causes him to flourish like a Palm-Tree in the Courts of their God Psal 92.13 If the death of Christ hath brought unto us Righteousness and Life what shall his Life do If our Saviour dying paid the Price what shall he do now being alive and interceding for us For Christ liveth and dwelleth in the Heart If the Remembrance of his most holy Merit live and flourish in it draw me Lord Jesus that I may be possessed in the Truth of the thing the which here I expect by the firmness of Hope Let thy Servant I pray thee be with thee and behold thy Glory John 17.23 And let him inhabit the Mansions which thou hast prepared in thy Fathers House Gerard's Meditations John 14.2 Blessed are they that dwell in thy House O Lord they shall praise thee for ever and ever Psal 84.4 The Lord Jesus Christ in his Discourse with Martha about Lazarus declares himself to be the Fountain of Life Grace and Glory John 11.21 saith Martha to Jesus Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not died Here is 1. Her sensibleness of their own Weakness and Frailty 2. Of Christs Power If thou hadst been here my Brother had not died Jesus saith unto her Thy Brother shall rise again Christ speaks in general to bring her Faith to her particular Case Martha said I know it he shall rise again in the Resurrection It is an easier matter to believe future things many times than present because future things are put off by supposition Many say they believe the Resurrection of the Body but if they did really believe that their Bodies should be raised up and stand before God's Tribunal would they live quietly in a Christless state or mistrust God in present streights If we did but stand on the Graves Mouth and consider Shall all this Dust be raised up Shall every person be raised up in order Cannot this God deliver out of all streights Said Martha Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not died but that was more than Martha knew she depended too much upon his bodily Presence It may be that she thought Christ would have prayed for her Brother and so he would not have died but Christ comes to take her off of some depending on sensible things and to live by Faith Jesus saith unto her Thy Brother shall rise again Saith she I know at the Resurrection he shall rise Jesus saith unto her I am the Resurrection and the Life he that believeth on me though he were dead yet shall he live Martha had a general Faith of the Resurrection but how to believe at the present that her Brother should be raised up
need we hope for and what need we act Faith for what we possess We are to depend on the Lord Jesus Christ so as to act Faith in him for new supplies of Grace We are to set our selves under those golden Pipes that do convey the golden Oyl you are to be looking to the everlasting Hills from whence your help comes as the Psalmist saith Psal 123.22 Behold as the eyes of Servants look unto the hand of their Masters and as the eyes of a Maiden unto the hand of her Mistress so our eyes wait upon the Lord our God until that he have mercy upon us Psal 121.1 I will list up my eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help The Hills where the Temple was built Sion and Moriah there will I look from whence cometh my help Now we must look unto God in Christ for supplies of Grace and Peace and Comfort we are to expect our Comfort from those Mountains that drop down new Wine and the Hills that drop down Milk the Skies that pour down Righteousness and the Heavens that rain down Grace Were your Comforts always flourishing and green were you always filled with Joy would there be such a dependence on Christ where you are daily supplied and renewed When persons are waiting for Rain they set their Vessels forth day and night and when they are full they take them in again but persons that turn the Cock to let it run into their Cisterns it fills them presently they wait no longer Alass many run to their own Cisterns their own Duties walk by the sparks of their own kindling to what they can perform which the Lord complains of Jer. 2.1 My people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living water and hewed to themselves Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Alas their Cisterns will not hold there is brackish Water in all their Springs broken Cisterns that hold no Water their Vessels will quickly be empty again but the Soul that waits on Christ will be like the Husbandman that waits for Rain is glad when he seeth the Clouds are gathering the Husbandman is glad he looks on his withered Grass and Corn but saith he the Clouds begin to gather and I wait for Rain and that will revive them again So saith a poor Soul I do expect yea I do wait for the Lord to come with new Light and new Love and new Peace and new Comfort and new assurance of his Love and that I may read my Pardon in his Blood and my Comfort in his Love Saith the Lord I will be a dew to Israel Hos 14.5 In the mystical and spiritual sense it signifies Christ who doth by his Holy Word and Heavenly Grace drop down and distil upon the Souls of Believers by his Princely Favours and loving Countenance which is as a Cloud of the latter Rain That which Dew is to Fields Gardens Vineyards Flowers Fruits of the Earth after an hot and scorching day that the Favour Word Grace loving Countenance and Holy Spirit will be to the drooping and afflicted Conscience of his People Dr. Reynolds A Believer hath his dependence on the Lord Jesus Christ who is appearing before God for him pleading the Sinners Cause presenting his own Wounds before the Father till he pours down his Grace into the Soul and drops down showers of Grace into the Heart But a Soul that feeds himself with his own Gifts and Parts he does his Duty and is gone therefore he does not wait for nor depend on Christ But saith a Believer I would be in a Believing Frame though I do not find Christ coming I will look up Psal 5.1 2 3. Give ear to my words O Lord consider my meditation Hearken unto the voice of my cry my King and my God for unto thee will I pray My voice shalt thou hear in the morning O Lord in the morning will I direct my Prayer unto thee and will look up There are many go to their own Cisterns in the Morning performing Duty exercising what Gifts and Parts they have or what they remember they do Duty but it may be think not on Christ one Moment more all the day These are poor empty Cisterns that can hold no Water But saith the Psalmist I will pray and look up tho I am come off from my Knees I have not done looking up expecting or believing for I wait for the Lord's Answer I look for a Return of Prayer I look for supplies of Grace for supports of Faith for comforts to my Soul Many pray but do you look up do you believe do you make Christ your Life depending on him for the showers of his Grace to come into your Souls That may comfort you and quicken you and may be matter of praise not only that you may quiet Conscience but that you may enjoy God When the Earth is dry if a drop does but fall our Hearts begin to be glad we hope to have showers from Heaven So when a Soul finds but a drop of Comfort a drop of Love a little taste Saith the Soul Christ is coming now he is revealing himself I will depend upon him as long as I live as Job saith Though thou kill me yet will I trust in thee so saith the Soul I will depend on thee And as Luther said Though Christ come against me with a drawn Sword yet will I run into his Arms. Secondly The second Reason is That as you should depend on Christ so you should be waiting in the way of Duty waiting in Ordinances What Confusions have come into the Minds of Persons throwing off Ordinances pretending they had the Light within them and were come to perfection and had no need of Teaching pretending they knew more than could be taught them But speak with a Believer he will tell you another thing he will tell you he wants Comfort he wants Grace he wants teaching and that he wants new reviving Isa 26.8 Yea in the way of thy Judgments O Lord have we waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early yea in the way of thy Judgments have we waited for thee Though thy Hand hath been as it were against us though thou hast afflicted us though thou hast seemed to frown upon us yet we have waited for thee though it be dark with us whether it be the Night of Affliction or the Night of Desertion as well as in the Night of Trouble and Adversity though our Souls are in an afflicted state or a discomforted state we will wait till thou return we will wait for that God that hides himself from the House of Jacob Not like some that are seeking purer Churches through the deceivings of Satan and their own Hearts Many there are that think they have Knowledge enough and Peace enough but these are the
Stall Vnto you that fear my Name First You have the Persons that enjoy this great Priviledge those that fear the Lord to wit Believers distinguished from all others Secondly The Author of this Glory the Lord Jesus Christ Thirdly The Mercy they shall receive from him He shall arise with healing under his Wings upon such as fear his Name This general Mercy hath three glorious Manifestations First He rises with healing under his Wings Christ makes healthful Souls the Believer hath an healthful Soul Secondly Here is Liberty to the Soul they shall go forth one that knows not Christ is in Bondage but they shall go forth Thirdly Here is their growth they shall grow up as Calves of the Stall them that fear the Lord the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing under his Wings Though the Believer sometimes may have his doubting Fits his Dispondency many times yet the Sun of Righteousness will not let him perish for want of Healing he will rise with healing under his Wings First The Lord Jesus Christ heals the Souls of Believers with his Spirit when he pours out his Spirit into their Souls comfort ye comfort ye my People I will send the Comforter to you To a poor doubting drooping desponding Believer the Lord Jesus Christ rises with healing under his Wings he sends him a Divine Cordial from Heaven he sends a drop from his own Heart the Spirit of God comes and heals the Soul When the Disciples were under Trouble the Holy Ghost is promised I will send you the Comforter Though it is a dark Day though you think you shall never bear your Burden yet I will send the Holy Ghost that shall be a Comforter that shall lead you in all Truth that shall be better than my Presence So when the poor Spouse her very Bowels were turned within her very Heart was broken I opened to my Beloved and he was gone my Soul fainted my Heart melted What then Did he leave any thing behind him Yes He left Myrrh upon the handle of the Lock he did not only leave a Lock and Key he did not leave an Heart without Faith nor an Heart without some Peace nor an Heart without Joy nor an Heart without Comfort A Soul that is under the Law when he hath done a Duty is dead and hard still but the Lord Jesus Christ leaves Myrrh upon the handle of the Lock though he was gone and left her wounded he left her Balsam to heal her Whenever the Lord Jesus Christ leaves his People he leaves Myrrh behind him Cant. 5.4 My Beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for him First Christ heals with his Spirit Secondly Christ heals with his Merits When a Believer is under Trouble and Fear then this precious Blood of Christ comes fresh to them and is applied to them they overcame by the blood of the Lamb. When a poor oul goes mourning wishing longing O that I knew that Christ were mine Then Christ comes with his glorious Merit with his precious Blood he comes and heals the Soul comes and applies that Blood in whom we have redemption through his blood the remission of sin Ephes 1.7 Thirdly The Lord Jesus Christ heals the Soul with his Righteousness When a Soul finds it self in a naked condition as it were it cannot draw nigh to God it cannot look up to God it cannot speak chearfully of God nor thank God for the riches of Redemption fearing Christ is none of theirs then the Lord Jesus Christ reveals his Grace and Redemption and then the Soul saith The Lord my righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ heals all the Faculties of the Soul First He heals the Understanding Though the Believer hath true knowledge of Christ yet he may be in the dark when he stands behind the Wall the Believer cannot see him The Lord Jesus Christ is pleased by his holy Spirit to enlighten the Understanding to see how glorious and beautiful this Sun of Righteousness is The Sun is the Glory of the World so Christ is the Glory of the Soul As the Sun is Speculum Mundi so Christ is Speculum Animae all the Spiritual Light that the Soul enjoys comes in and through Christ Psal 36.9 For with thee is the fountain of light in thy light we shall see light so that I say this glorious Sun of Righteousness heals the Understanding he opens the blind Eyes and leads the blind in a way they know not The glorious Gospel is the Chariot that the Sun of Righteousness rides in that brings immortal Life to light through the Gospel But what would be the Gospel without the Sun of Righteousness 2 Tim. 1.10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and hath brought life and immortality to light by the Gospel What would a Gospel be without a Christ It would be as a Box without a Pearl it would be as a Glass without Quick-silver Nay a poor Soul would have no Eyes to see this Glass were it not that Christ shines into the Soul Before Christ comes every Soul is shut up as in a dark Dungeon and can see nothing But when this glorious Sun doth shine with his glorious Beams on the Soul how does the Soul see his Beauty and excellency Then it may be said that the Light of the Lord is risen upon them Isa 60.1 Arise shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is revealed When a poor doubting Believer hath the revelation of this Sun of Righteousness when he shines on the Soul with the Divine Beams of his Grace with the Divine Beams of his Love with the Divine Beams of Comfort with Divine Beams of Peace this Sun of Righteousness is united unto a Believer We cant have a dark World while we have the Sun our Horizon cannot be dark while we have the glorious Sun in it so Christ is in the Believer the hope of Glory and they live in Christ and Christ lives in them But does he always shine alike in them No The Sun doth not always shine alike though it is the same one day as another yet sometimes the Clouds keep it from us but yet they are enlightned with it Take notice of this you can never be thriving Souls while you are ignorant Souls But a Believer though he complains of Ignorance hath such Knowledge that he can say I desire none but Christ none in comparison of Christ The Soul can say I desire nothing but Christ and if you ask me what I I would have I would tell you Christ Above all If you ask me How came you to know this glorious Lord He shined on my Understanding in the glorious Glass of the Gospel changing my Soul into the same Image 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory When a Soul comes to see
external Duties performed yet the Soul does not grow When Trees are short they bear thick When a Soul grows in Humility they bring forth much Fruit though they hang down their Heads When the Bunches of Grapes are heavy then does the Vine hang down its Head So when a Soul grows out of Love with its self and in love with Christ then does the Soul lie low before the Lord. When a Believer thinks there is a decaying it is not so though it may be some Graces are not so much in Exercise at one time as at another But I do not understand how Grace can decay whilst Christ lives The Trees are not green all the year yet you do not say they are dead the Root is in the Earth and keeps alive So a Believer groaning under a sense of his unworthiness he is then best prepared to bring forth Fruit to God The more we find our own unworthiness and the less we find the Promises to belong unto us the more we must desire them being assured that this desire doth greatly please God who desireth and willeth his Grace should be earnestly desired Therefore when the glorious Sun of Righteousness casts forth its Divine Beams the Soul grows humble and lowly There may be some deadness as to the exercise of Faith some deadness as to the exercise of Love some backwardness in heart unto Duty Is the Soul now decaying No it is a Winter Season and tho you do not find Grace in present Exercise yet your Root is alive and will spring forth Will Christ let it die No it is more to glorifie his Grace Lazarus shall lie four days in the Grave and then the Power of God will be more glorified in raising him up and this we find most excellent in Peter Did not Peter know Christ Yes but yet he must take a little better root he must see that not only his Righteousness is in Christ but his Life also Peter was a brave Man before he fell I will not forsake thee though all men do I will stand by thee if all Men forsake thee I will stand alone Many times when we are carried on smoothly and largely on Duty we are apt to think our Mountain shall never be moved as David did but saith he Thou hidst thy Face and I was troubled When the Sun is lowest and furthest from us then our Shadows are longest but when it is shining over our Heads and nearest us then our Shadows are shortest then the Sun is to us most glorious So it is the less our knowledge of Christ is the more do Men doat on their own Righteousness The Shadow of their own Righteousness is longest when Christ and they are most Strangers but when Christ comes to dart into them his glorious Beams then they see themselves nothing The Soul that hath a glorious Revelation of Jesus Christ comes to see himself all in Christ and nothing in himself Saith the Apostle Sin died and I revived Christ is truly Omnipotent and truly then reigns in our Souls when we find our selves so weak that we can scarce give a Groan Many because they have not outward Marks or Signs in acting of Sanctification they will conclude they are not alive in Christ but Faith when Christ arises with Glory on the Soul beholds Christ what he is in the Promises and what he hath done for poor sinners and so wraps it self in Christ alone in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen for ever Christ is that glorious Sun from whence a Believer hath all his Light and that precious Stock that a Believer receives sap and nourishment from to bring forth Fruit. A Believer may have a Winters season that he may not exercise his Grace but I cannot understand that a Believer can be said to decay in Grace being engrafted in Christ Do you think Peter is in a worse condition than before or that he decays No it is only Grace stopt in its exercise Do you think Faith was in a decaying Frame I know many conclude it was but I cannot think it Faith was only stopt in its exercise his Faith was in the hands of Christ safe Sin is sin and will cost the Saint dear but though sin is evil in its self God brings it about for good and though there is a stop in the Exercise of Grace the Root shall not wither nor the Branch neither but the Sun of Righteousness will shine on the Soul and revive it What does poor Peter do O how does he break forth into sorrow Luke 22.61 The Lord turned and looked upon Peter and Peter remembred the word of the Lord how he had said Before the Cock crow thou shalt deny me thrice and Peter went out and wept bitterly Was Peter in a decaying Frame The exercise of his Faith was stopt for a time the Current of that Faith that works by Love that should have been stronger than Death that many Waters cannot quench that Love that should have been in a Flame it was for a while under the Ashes and the Flouds did as it were overflow it But did Peter decay No Peter's root was in the Ground there came a glorious Beam from the Lord Jesus that did revive Peter Peter the Devil will sift thee and thy Comforts will have a failing time thy own experience will fail thee of thy love to Christ and confidence of thy Courage and Boldness There is no building on experience we may take them for comfort but it is Faith in Christ we must build on because experiences may fail us Peter comes to a sad experience of his own wretched Heart his Love was as it were under Water but saith Christ Peter I have prayed that thy Faith be not lost thy experience will fail for a time When a Tree does not bear Fruit in the Summer we say it fails but in the Winter you cannot say it fails because you cannot expect Fruit So Christ told Peter his Faith should not fail therefore it did not decay but there was a stop in its exercise but his Faith being kept by Christ prayed for by Christ it did not fail Indeed poor Judas's decayed Demas and Alexander's decayed because theirs was but seeming not real Grace But is Peter's decayed No He like the Flowers in Spring time appeared Christ looked upon Peter The Sun of Righteousness this glorious Lord the Believers Life when he sees the Believer wants a Season to bring forth Fruit then he turns about the Divine Beams of his Grace toward the Soul Peter had taken Root and now he shall bring forth Fruit. Peter remembred the Words of Jesus he remembred what Christ had said Lord thou hast told me what a deceitful heart I have And what does he boast No he falls a weeping he grows in Humility now he hath a look from Christ O how many sweet Looks go forth in those Divine Beams on Peter's Soul Christ takes care of his own we have great Complaints from a Believer but
Professor complains for want of Gifts and Enlargements Shall we bring thousands of Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or my first born for my Transgressions the Fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul Micah 6.7 What a proud absurd Question is this A carnal Heart will do any thing rather than come to Christ and yet have no Contentment in what they do But Soul when Christ becomes thy Life and the glorious Divine Beams of his Grace shine on your Soul you will live a contented Life all comes through Christ's hands all your Blessings and Mercies are bought with the Blood of Christ all your Duties sanctified by Christ Surely this Soul must needs thrive We say discontentedness make an unthriving Person Indeed it is impossible the Soul that is not united to Christ should thrive for he hath altogether Impossibilities before him It is impossible for you to reach Heaven with your Duties to get your sins done away with all your Tears and Prayers without you are wash'd in the Blood of Christ that cleanseth from all Sin 1 John 17. If you can fulfil the Law you shall live by the Works of the Law but it is an impossible thing If you can pray your way to Glory you shall be saved it is impossible But when a Man comes to Christ he takes away all the Impossibilities To what purpose were a Man commanded to bring in a Sum of Mony of his own to save his Life if he never had it nor ever will have it to pay Man since the Fall hath not nor never can have a Power of his own to obey God's Commands Whatever God commands Christ hath done it for the Believer what ever Law commands or Justice demands it is all done for you by Christ Saith the Apostle As for the Works of the Law if you can do them you shall live in them Gal. 3.6 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under Sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Verse 23. But before Faith came we were kept under the Law shut up unto the Faith which should afterward be revealed But saith he we were all concluded under sin that the promise by Faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe Christ comes and opens the Prison Doors le ts the Soul out from Unbelief le ts the Soul out from under the Curse of the Law How does Christ let the Soul from Prison Christ comes to the Heart causeth it to believe the Soul now believes the Promises takes hold of Christ in the Promise Christ comes to the Unbeliever to the Soul under the fear of God's Wrath and Curse assisting it with a Divine Promise working Faith in the Heart As suppose a Soul is under the burden of his Sins and should say I am so great a Sinner I fear I shall never obtain Mercy Christ comes with this Promise It is a faithful Saying and worthy of all Acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save Sinners of whom I am chief The believing Sinner layeth hold on Christ in the Promises and findeth Relief The Soul lies burdened with the sense of God's Wrath for sin Christ comes in with that Promise Come to me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest Saith the Soul Is it so indeed What rest in Christ for me What will Christ give me rest The Soul closes with the Promise makes Christ his Life and Rest to live upon As supposing a Man should be in a Crowd among Pikes and Guns and Halberts among mischievous Men he is afraid one will wound him another kill him but comes a Friend of his and a strong Man and carries him through all So does Christ when a poor Soul is under fear in himself he is afraid of every Frown of every Trouble Christ comes and carries him through all from the Curses of the Law from the Wrath of God from sinking Fears by applying himself a suitable Remedy who died for their sins and rose again for their Justification Now the Soul goes out and is at Liberty Until you know this Life you are but poor Prisoners Slaves and Servants and you do Duty but in Servitude till you come to know Christ The Soul that knows Christ shall grow many do not grow and they think it is for want of such a Grace or for want of Gifts and Enlargements But here is the fault It is in not living upon Christ and making him your Life As you know the Flowers and Roots that are in the Earth peep up their Heads in Spring as if they were rejoycing to see a Jubile So does a Soul that hath been tugging under the Law that hath not known Christ When Christ comes to shine on the Soul the Soul comes to look up and to breath in a new Air. Now Christ appears to his Soul he as it were hears a new Voice Come away my Beloved the Winter is past the singing of Birds is come Cant. 2.10 My beloved spake and said unto me rise up my Love my fair one and come away Vers 11. For lo the Winter is past the Rain is over and gone Vers 12. The Flowers appear that is when the glorious Spring comes the Sun shines warm and gloriously and what then The Spring is come the Flowers appear on the Earth the time of the singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in our Land the Fig-Tree putteth forth her green Figs. When the Soul comes to live by Faith in Christ and grow up in Christ it puts forth green Leaves They are all withered Duties that are performed out of Christ Persons may make a great Discourse of Religion and be divided into Parties and they will all pretend to own Christ whereas if they are examined they deny Christ But the Souls that do live on Christ they do bring forth Fruit. What is the Law but the Winter to the Soul Arise saith Christ my Love my fair one and come away for lo the Winter is past the Rain is over A Man you know can't travel in Rain because of the Floods The Floods of God's Wrath are dryed up when you come to know Christ The Rain is sweet and pleasant when it comes down moderately but when it comes down hastily and in abundant manner it causes Floods Whatever a Soul does until it knows God in Christ there are Flouds of Wrath between God and them But when a Soul comes to know Christ all God's Dealings are like moderate Rain Rise up my Love and come away for lo the Winter is past the Rain is over no Rain to hinder you from God no Rain to keep you from the enjoyment of him Mild all your Mercies
rational Soul But the Soul hath new Qualities being changed by Christ dwelling in the Soul they are changed in their Understandings their Affections their Wills It may be compared to Iron put into the Fire while Iron remains red hot and the Fire is in it if you beat the Iron to pieces you cannot separate it from the Fire knock but the least piece of Iron Fire is in every piece yet the Iron is not the Fire nor the Fire the Iron yet the Iron is in the likeness of Fire So the Soul is not so changed into the Image of Christ as not to retain its own natural Faculties but by reason of Christ dwelling in it is changed in its Qualities from Evil to good So there is the Glory of Christ appearing in all the Actions of a Christian tho' they have many Infirmities yet all that they principally design is the Glory of God When Fire is in the Iron you cannot separate it you cannot say that Iron is without Fire nor Fire without Iron So in this Life you may see a Saint hath many Imperfections but yet Christ is in him swaying his Heart and Life with the Scepter of his Righteousness Though there are the same Faculties yet the Qualities are all made new So though there is corruption in Prayer and weakness in Faith and weakness in Love yet there is true Love and true Faith Repentance there is something seen of Christ in all his Infirmities 2 Cor. 6.18 We are changed from Glory to Glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the Lord the Spirit or the Spirit of the Lord. Dr. Owen on the Spirit in every Faculty of the Soul What a glorious change to be changed into the Image of Christ The Beams of the Sun have several effects some things it withers some things it revives The Gospel of Christ and the goodness of God that melt the Heart of a Saint hardens the Heart of an impenitent Sinner but the Soul that hath Union with Christ that Christ is his Life the Love of Christ conforms the Soul to Christ There is the meekness of Christ though not in Perfection there is the Love of Christ the Humility of Christ though not in perfection the self-denyal of Christ there is the Patience of Christ though not in perfection but through Christ you are pardoned The Soul that is changed into the Glory of Christ hath natural corruption natural backwardness but Christ being their perfect Head and spotless Righteousness they are pure and lovely in God's Eye Jesus Christ God Man hath all the glorious Idea's of God's Image and Grace shining in him as in a Glass he reflects the same in and by the Glass of the Gospel in the Hearts of Believers who by Faith contemplating are by the efficacious working of the Spirit of Grace transformed into the same glorious Image even from Glory to Glory from one degree of glorious Grace unto another Thus the believing Soul by Faith contemplating the Wisdom Meekness Patience Kindness Justice c. of God shining in Christ is by the effectual concurrence of the Spirit of Christ transformed into a wise meek patient kind and just Spirit Faith by contemplating the Glory of God in Christ brings into the Soul Spiritual Ideas of the same glorious Image a Divine Light and Life bearing some resemblance to the Life of God or Divine Nature so that Christ the essential Glass of God hath not only a manifestative Mr. Gale's Treatise of the Saints Amity with Christ but also transformative changing Glory shining in them Beloved have you not all immortal Souls What would you have your Souls be like when you come to die Would you have them like the Devil Would you have the Pride and Envy of Hell the Covetousness of Hell Or would you have the Image of Christ stamped on you that you may live Christ and lead an humble Life a meek Life a self-denying Life an holy Godly Life What likeness would you have your Souls appear in out of your Body Whose Image and Stamp would you have them bear Most Men live to themselves and make provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof And some live to be revenged of others to get the World of their side The Lusts Persons seek to fulfil are innumerable to speak but how would you have your Souls appear What condition would you have them in Would you have them in Christ O then beg Christ may be your Life Beg you may be changed from Glory to Glory into his Image every day of a Believers Life he is going from Glory to Glory Poor wretched ignorant Professors What do you think will become of you e're long if Christ is not your Life Eternal Death will be your Portion You see many Imperfections in a Believer yet he is perfect in Christ being changed into the Image and Glory of Christ A Believer all his works are works of Grace all his walking walks of Grace all his Actions Actions of Grace and in all that he doth there is a Glory on it through Christ his glorious Lord. They that live on external Duties they will give you the hearing of a Sermon and away they seek not to know Christ but they will be found as dreadfully miserable as the Turk or Heathen that never heard of Christ for notwithstanding their Profession they are swallowed up in the World Take a covetous Man his Heart is on this World Take a gluttonous Man his Heart is set to make his Belly his God Take a Man that lives on Christ his Heart is knit there he cleaves to the Lord with full purpose of Heart Thirdly It is a glorious Life because you have the hope of Glory You never will have the hope of Glory till you have Christ living in you Christ in you the hope of Glory 1 Tim. 1.1 If a person be without Christ he is without all true hope of Salvation there is neither hope of the Glory of God nor rejoycing in the Hope while a person is without Christ What have you hope of Glory But have you a good Hope If you come to live Christ then you have a good hope if you have Christ in you then as sure as Christ is in you you shall come to Glory Who is in you Who lives in you We know our next Neighbour we know our familiar Friend or Acquaintance Who do you converse with Who is your near Neighbour Christ or the World Christ or vain Thoughts Christ or Carnality Is Christ in you If Christ is in you then he reigns in you and you converse most with him What is your daily Food your Livelyhood Mistake me not I would not have you neglect your daily Calling I hope you understand me better But what do you make the chief of your Aims and Ends What takes up your Heart most Does the Love of Christ the Mercy of Christ the Peace of Christ affect you most If so I tell you you live a glorious Life
Grace we enjoy You that live Christ though you go mourning from a Sermon this may encourage you to wait for the Blessing of the means of Grace It may be a Soul may object and say I am a poor sorrowful Soul am I blessed Soul thou art blessed Blessed are they that mourn The contrite Heart is an acceptable Sacrifice to God Blessed are they that mourn This is your case sometimes you mourn at other times you rejoyce in God and joy in the God of your Salvation You are rich in Blessings all Sermons that you hear do your Souls good and all Ordinances do your Souls good you are blessed when you are humbled when you mourn when you thirst as well as when you rejoyce These are Spiritual Blessings in Christ O Christless Soul till you know Christ there is not one of these belongs to you O Sinners you have innumerable Curses hang over your Heads that are out of Christ you have a Book 〈◊〉 of Wo and Lamentation written without and within Ezek. 9.10 Many sorrows are to the wicked but he that trusteth to the Lord mercy compasseth him about Psal 32 10. Innumerable are the Blessings that Believers are compassed about with When you come to an Ordinance and think you do not meet with God you complain and go away mourning you are blessed if you go away in the dark you are blessed How so I blessed that cannot see Christ Yes blessed are they that trust in him and stay themselves upon him though they walk in Darkness and see no Light O what a rich Soul art thou that livest this Life of Faith You are blessed in all Ordinances all Opportunities I tell you whatever comes God will bless his people God's Providence is to all the World he takes care of the whole Creation he is wonderful in Goodness and Mercy yet as a rich Man that gives to many yet in an especial manner saith he I must remember my Children at home my dying Child my weak Child this Child that Child every Child So God gives liberally to all but gives his special Blessings to his Children his choice Blessings are reserved for his redeemed ones O what a rich Life it is to live Christ The Saint is rich in Faith rich in Love rich in Peace rich in all Blessings Then the Soul admires What am I blessed in every condition What with all spiritual Blessings O Lord not long ago I was crying out Sure God hath forsaken me But this was your infirmity and sin But is not Christ more precious to you than ever Do not you long for Christ thirst for Christ Then you are blessed Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Under Darkness under Temptation under every Affliction you are blessed and every Sermon and every Sacrament and every Ordinance you have you are blessed though you cannot rejoyce in God in all yet you are blessed in all though you go away hanging down your Head O I have not met with God! I tell you you are blessed For it is said Blessed are they that mourn and Blessed are the poor in Spirit Fourthly You are enriched with the Love of God I do not know what you can have more to enrich you If the love of God doth not make you rich I am sure nothing can and you can never be rich if you have not the love of God and be sure God loves you if you know Christ he looks on you in Christ loves you in Christ delights in you in Christ John 16.27 For the Father himself loveth you because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God God's favour maketh rich those whom God favours he hath grace that heals his Soul which is that that makes his Happiness and is that which is the inward fashioning of every Man's apprehension that makes him happy that brings comfort to him Pray mind the Lord Jesus speaks with an Emphasis for the Father himself loveth you You have my Father's love a choice Love indeed And how comes this Love about because you have loved me and have believed that I came out from God because you have believed in me and made me your life God loves you What God love me I confess it would make a Christian go comfortably through all the Tryals in the World the very ardency and application of that the Heart of God is the Ocean the first rise of all Love to the Creature Christ is the Spring that first receives from him Dr. Crisp and then through him all Love is diffused to the Creature God loves me for the Father himself loveth you What God love me I pray how comes it about because you have loved me and believed that I came out from God You have made me your Life you have Faith in me and now God loves you God never loved you whatever you did without Christ God abhors all out of Christ God elected you all in Christ chuses you all in Christ pardons you all in Christ and then Oh what Immense Love is this God loves you in Christ O unspeakable Love O infinite Love this Love is Love that passes Knowledge Love that passes Bounds O highth and depth of Love you that live in Christ and believe in Christ are rich Souls We use to say when we see Men thrive and prosper in the World This will be a rich Man And what may you say of the Saints O they will be rich indeed they will have a rich portion because they believe that Christ came out from God O Soul hast thou with thy Heart chose Christ with thy Heart lived to Christ with thy Heart wrapt up thy self in Christ is it the out-cry of thy Soul none but Christ none but Christ thou art a rich Soul for thou art already possest of the presence of God it will be thy portion to live in the House of God for ever For Brethren to dwell together in love and unity how sweet is it O the harmony of it but what a divine Harmony is there in that Soul where the Love of God dwells Turn about your Thoughts turn about your Ears Hear I beseech you for Christ's sake accept of Christ that you may have God's love God indeed loved the Elect with Everlasting Love in Christ but God's Love is not manifested to you until you believe in Christ then all the things of this life are yours there are many things which we cannot reach here the price is too great Is not that rare which costs dear there is not a bit of Bread you have you that are Saints but it cost the Bloud of Christ all your Mercies are in a way of redemption all is yours Paul and Apollos and Cephas and life and death and things present and things to come for ye are Christs and Christ is Gods May it not be said of them that know not Christ Nothing is theirs Is not the Minister yours as well as others Is
not your Bread yours and your Meat yours and your Drink yours and Cloaths yours No Soul they are borrowed Mercies stoln Mercies and you will be damned for them without Christ has paid for them for you but the Soul that loves Christ his Mercies are all bought the Ministers of Christ those Ambassadors of Peace are all yours in Christ Paul is yours Apollos is yours and Life and Death is yours You that art out of Christ it makes my Heart tremble to consider that your Mercies are all to be payed for to be reckoned for and you that are in Christ you may leap and rejoyce at a drop of cold water and a bit of bread O! it is a rich Mercy it is bought with the Bloud of Christ and then at last you will be inriched you will sit like Kings in Glory with your Lord and Redeemer for ever and ever Fifthly It is a happy life because it is a Soul-satisfying life the Soul cannot be satisfied with any thing below Christ whatever a person does enjoy whatever a person does in a way of duty he cannot be satisfied if he hath not Christ Take who you will whether they be Formalists or Legalists whether Moral men or Profane men whether Rich men or Poor men or Professors that have not made Christ their Life they will tell you they want satisfaction there is a complaint of this thing or that thing wanting to give contentment if they have Golden duties if they do not bring the Water of life they cannot satisfie their Souls but this life of living upon Christ doth satisfie the Soul I shall shew in these following Particulars The Lord will satisfie her Poor with Bread the poorest Man that lives upon Christ lives more plentifully than the richest Man that knows not Christ Psalm 132.5 I will abundantly bless her provision I will satisfie her Poor with Bread Who is the Poor the Poor is a longing person a craving person the poor desire something they stand in need of saith the Lord I will bless Sion's provision it is a great Mercy to have our provision blessed we may be fed high and yet not have healthy bodies Many may fare high in means of Grace but not having a Blessing with it they do not prosper Many have been long under the means of Grace and yet do not thrive nor grow in Grace saith God I will satisfie her poor with bread The Poor are craving and desiring and longing so the longing Soul in Christ shall be satisfied they shall not want the Prophet Isaiah speaks of spending their Money for that which is not bread which will not satisfie but the Lord Jesus satisfies the Soul fills up the Desires whatsoever they be Take one which is under the Law and hath the greatest Gifts and Parts but is a stranger to Christ and one that is the poorest in gifts and parts yet in Christ he hath more satisfaction than the other with all his great Gifts and Parts the poorest and meanest in Grace that is in Christ lives a higher life than the richest in Gifts and Parts or in worldly things that does not know Christ so that it is a satisfying life to live Christ Here is enough for this present life enough for hereafter there is enough in Christ to fill up all the Faculties of the Soul John 6.35 I am the bread of life he that cometh to me shall never hunger he that believeth on me shall never thirst Coming and Believing is the same he that comes or believes in me shall never hunger What doth not a Soul in Christ hunger doth he not long for Christ yes but as he hungers and thirsts for Christ he shall be filled his wants shall be supplied we say in our outward things Money answers all things but Money will not satisfie the Soul But saith Christ he that comes to me I will satisfie all his desires he shall have Contentment Supplies Satisfaction he shall want nothing I am the bread of life I will satisfie his hunger I am the water of life he that comes to me shall never thirst they shall never cry I perish for hunger or I perish for thirst The Prodigal when he came to his Fathers house he did hunger but he had bread to satisfie his hunger A Soul believing in Christ making Christ his life there is enough in Christ to â—â—ll up all the desires of the Soul and to heal all the Wounds of the contrite Heart Whatever the Soul desires in Christ are Eternal Springs to fill up the Soul every thing that is below Christ is too empty to satisfie an Immortal Soul they are not Springs they are but Cisterns take Ordinances take away Christ what can the Ordinances do will not the Soul wither immediately Ordinances are but Cisterns and not Springs the Psalmist saith All my Springs are in thee Psal 87.7 Doth a Soul desire to love God hath the Soul a desire to be satisfied with Love with Beauty with the Glory of Christ there are divine Springs from Christ who is an overflowing and ever-flowing Fountain to the Souls of Believers to satisfie all their desires So that a Believer let him desire as much as he will he shall have his desires satisfied Psal 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness The longing Soul shall not miss of being filled with Wisdom in Christ with Redemption in Christ with Sanctification with Salvation Let the Soul crave for Holiness there is enough in Christ to fill it let it crave for Love there is enough in Christ let it crave for Peace and Joy there is enough in Christ to fill it Christ being such an inexhaustible Fountain is still flowing into the Soul to give it daily satisfaction the Soul may weary it self in other things and not be the better Believers that can but experience the least true Longings after Jesus Christ tho with a weak Faith need not doubt but that they have true Faith and shall not miss of a true and full satisfaction A weak Faith shews it self by this Grace of God namely an unfeigned Desire not only of Salvation for that the Wicked and Graceless Man may have but of Reconciliation with God in Christ This is a sure sign of Faith in every touched and humbled heart and it is peculiar to the Elect. Perkins on the Creed What a Mercy and Blessing it is to have the least true Desires after Jesus Christ since such Souls are assured in Gods Word that their longing Souls shall be satisfied Saith Holy Bernard He that Thirsts let him Thirst more and he that Desires let him Desire more abundantly because so much as he can Desire so much he shall Receive Persons will be weary of their Pleasures weary of their Treasures and weary of their Duties that Soul which hath made Christ his rest hath the truest satisfaction when a Soul comes to know Christ it may say with the
me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest But how Shall I come Lord may a poor sinner say Says Christ No man can come to me except the Father draw him I must first come by my â—pirit to the sinner before he can come to me by Faith But saith a poor Soul I cannot lay hold of Christ I cannot believe nor I cannot make Christ my Life I am a poor undone sinner but if Christ comes to you and takes you by the Arm as he did Ephraim Hos 11.3 cannot you go along with him If he comes and gives you an hand of Faith and takes hold of you can you not follow him This fruitful Tree of Life bends down with his Fruit that sinners may lay hold on him If the Husbandman expects to have Corn he must sow it if a Man would have a fine Garden he must plant it for the ground naturally brings forth nothing but Briers and Thorns The Ground was cursed when Adam had sinned and every Heart is cursed and all the sinner can bring forth by Nature is cursed Fruit there may be something like Grace something like Faith but no true saving Faith as there may be Field-herbs like Garden-herbs and many other things alike that are not the same natural Gifts may shew like Grace But by natural Reason there is never a Man nor Woman do the most they can that can lay hold of Christ till Christ comes and lays hold of them There is nothing in our Hearts but Briers and Thorns we cannot believe but when Christ comes and works Faith in our Hearts then we lay hold on Christ then we are safe for ever When you are got into Christ all Storms whatsoever cannot hurt you you are safe So the Lord Jesus speaks Prov. 8.35 For whosoever findeth me findeth Life Whoever is a stranger to Christ is under the power of Death the sentence of Death and Condemnation but whoever findeth me findeth Life What then They shall obtain Favour of the Lord. In the Favour of a King or great Man they say is safety but that is not true always nor very often but they are certainly for ever safe that enjoy the favour of God You must find Christ before you know the favour of God God's favour is manifest in Christ when he shews kindness it is in Christ whosoever finds Christ shall have God's favour Psal 68.18 He hath received gifts for men yea for the rebellious also that God may dwell among them If you would have the favour of God seek after Christ in this Temple the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily and when you come to live in Christ God lives in you he comes and takes up his abode with you Thou hast ascended up on high thou hast led captivity captive thou hast received gifts for men What Men The Rebellious What encouragement is here for rebellious sinners to come to Christ O sinner come Christ hath received Gifts for you To what end That God may dwell among you Christ hath received enough to make you lovely in the sight of the Father for ever How should Saints also be encouraged by this under all their Infirmities and Troubles If you had all the comforts of a present Life and had not the favour of God you would be undone for ever He that finds Christ finds Life and shall obtain favour of the Lord God will dwell among such As Christ by Death made way for the Soul to come to God so by the Revelation of his Grace a Soul comes to taste of the Love of God When a Soul comes to know Christ then the favour of God shines on him and is not this a safe Life O Christless Soul that lives but not in Christ that knows many things but not Christ that performs Duties but not by Faith in Christ you are never safe you do not know how soon your slaughter-day will come and it will be eternal You that have not Christ for your Sacrifice you must be the Sacrifice for ever The Lamb of God was offered up once for all but if he be not your Sacrifice your Souls must be a Sacrifice in Hell for ever But you that live Christ live an happy Life for it is a safe Life As Abigail spake to David when she met him the greatest comfort that she brought to him was That his Life should be bound up in the Life of his Lord 1 Sam. 25.28 29. I pray thee forgive the trespass of thine handmaid for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a sure House because my Lord fighteth the Battels of the Lord and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days Yet a man is risen to pursue thee and to seek thy Soul Saith she Here is a mighty Man risen to pursue thy Life but though he is risen up against thee thou shalt be sure to be safe Why What is the reason The Soul of my Lord shall be bound in the bundle of Life with the Lord thy God Whatever pursues a Soul in Christ shall never hurt him All Temptations and Troubles and Accusations that pursue the Soul shall not hurt it Saith she A Man is risen to pursue thy Life but however the Soul of my Lord is bound up in the bundle of Life with the Lord thy God Friends you are never safe till your Souls are bound up in the bundle of Life with Christ till you come to take Christ lay hold on him as your own you are never safe you have Pursuers A man is risen up to pursue the life of my Lord But one poor Christian is pursued with Temptation another with strong Corruption another with strong Fears and Terrors another with great Desertion but Christians never fear your Life is bound up in the bundle of Life the Life of Righteousness the Life of Grace the Life of Comfort the Life of Glory The Soul that believes in Christ is so bound up in him that the Devil cannot reach him Temptation cannot harm him sin cannot undo him Trouble cannot overcome him O what a Life is a Believers Life I am not speaking of a Professors Life only not one that performs Duty but one that lives on Christ For me to live is Christ O it is the safest of Lives Whatever you have done you will never be safe whatever you have professed you will never be safe till you are bound up with Christ There is nothing you can do in outward Duty but the Devil will have more to say against you than you have to say for your selves There is no fear O Saint whatever comes against thee if thou art in Christ Therefore consider it every one of you as you would appear at the Great Day and your Faces not be ashamed pray see that Christ be yours pray see that you can produce the Seals and Witness of the Spirit of God that you are Believers or all your Profession will leave you miserable To live Christ is a safe Life John
14.19 saith Christ Because of him you shall live also He lives and you shall live he is in Glory and you shall be in Glory he is on the Throne and you shall be on the Throne he is beloved of the Father and you are beloved of the Father Believing in Christ is a safe way no way safe but by believing in Christ There is a poor Christian in Troubles and Trials but he is happy his Life is bound up in his Lords Life which is the Life of Lives When Jacob was in his Journey to Padan Aram when he came to lie down at night he had but an hard Pillow Indeed many times it is hardest with the outward Man when it is best with the inward Man He had a stone for his Pillow but a cordial for his Soul A Ladder that reached from Heaven to Earth This Ladder hath six glorious Rounds that make a Believer to ascend up to the enjoyment of God his Birth his Life and Doctrin his Death and Resurrection his Ascension and Intercession Christ is that Ladder that reacheth from Heaven to Earth the Saints Salvation is begun carried on and finished in and through and by him he is the Author and Finisher of our Faith we are elected in him Ephes 1.1 Christ is Principium Caput Electionis he is the first Elect in whom and for whom all other are elected God elected Christ to be Head of the Body all the Members chosen in him he is made All to the believing Soul from first to last he is made of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 It was a Figurative Discovery of the Lord Jesus Christ whose Deity and Humanity was set forth by this Ladder This Ladder may be considered either 1. Literally and so it is represented to Jacob the Providence of God who tho he dwells in Heaven extends his Care and Government to the Earth and particularly makes use of the Angels as ministring Spirits for the good of his people and these Angels do not appear idle or standing still but always in motion either ascending to God to receive his Commands or descending to Earth for the execution of them which was a most seasonable Vision for Jacob in his sad and sorrowful condition that though he was forsaken and persecuted by Men and forced to flie away secretly for fear of his Life yet he neither was nor should be neglected or forsaken of God in his whole Journey Or Mystically and so it represents Jesus Chist by whom Heaven and Earth are united who is called the way to Heaven which this Ladder was who as the Head of Angels Mr. Pool's Annotations is perpetually sending them forth either to God or from God to minister to the Heirs of Salvation And he dreamed a Dream and behold a Ladder set upon the Earth and the top of it reached up to Heaven and behold the Angels of God ascending and descending Gen. 28.11 And he lighted upon a certain place and tarried there all night It is best tarrying though night when Christ is present because the Sun was set When outward Comforts go down and Christ arises it is a blessed change And he took of the stones of the place and put them for his Pillows It is a blessed Lodging where Christ is And lay down in that place to sleep Well may a Soul sleep quiet when Christ is present with him And he dreamed a Dream and behold a Ladder set upon the Earth and the top of it reached to Heaven This must be Jesus Christ figuratively For First His Protection was ready though this was but a Dream God did visit his People in Dreams of old before Christ was manifest in the Flesh Jesus Christ whose Humanity was set forth who humbled himself to the Death of the Cross he came from Heaven to Earth he was truly God truly Man And behold the Angels of God ascending and descending on it Still there are always ministring Spirits about the Heirs of Salvation still they keep the Rounds of the Ladder they are ready to serve God if they are sent a thousand Miles yea Millions of Miles to minister to the Saints shewing still only that a Soul in Christ hath protection and Guardian Angels to attend upon him he hath the Chariots of God to accompany him Psal 68.17 O Believer what are you Christ's And have you so many Angels waiting on you daily Where is your thankfulness Where is your Heart-love to God Psal 34. The Angel of the Lord encamps round about those that fear him Have you Angels waiting and attending on you Angels ascending and descending for your Good you are in a safe condition Believing Souls have you not found this Ladder many times when you have been in Trouble and under Desertion have you not found your Hearts hard your Comforts dead your Souls cast down have not you found Jesus Christ the Ladder by which you have ascended up to the Father Hath he not brought you out of that Wilderness condition Whosoever thou art that fearest the Lord be of good courage take thou no care neither be faint-hearted nor make any doubt of the Angels waking watching and Protection for most certainly they are about and by thee and do carry thee upon their hands But how or in what manner Take thou no care God saith it Luther therefore it must be sure and certain Although now adays they appear not visibly nor afford such outward help yet are these Heavenly Messengers employed for the safeguard and benefit of the Saints As Embroidered Cherubims environed the Tabernacle Ainsworth so do those Heavenly Soldiers guard God's true Tabernacle the Church Cant. 3.6 Who is this that comes out of the Wilderness Who is this From whence doth she come From the Wilderness a Wilderness of Trials Temptations and Desertions she turns her Back on them and her Face on Christ And how doth she come She ascends like Pillars of smoke What Incense hath she She hath perfumed Incense Myrrh and Frankincense with all Powders of the Merchant with the sweet savour of Christ with the Righteousness of Christ It ascends being drawn up by the Spirit of God it is perfumed having Christ's Righteousness No Powder of the Merchant can be sweeter than the Prayers of a Saint to God in Christ but they would not ascend if it were not for the Spirit of God While Persons employ their Gifts and Parts out of Christ they descend though they do perform Duty in the exactest manner yet there is Evil enough in them for God to abhor it they are as smoak in the Nostrils of a pure God But when they are perfumed by Jesus Christ they are a sweet savour Therefore be not afraid of those weak Prayers smoky Prayers they are perfumed with Christs Righteousness It may be the poor Soul complains I have been at Prayer but I have prayed with such wandrings and such deadness and such coldness that I fear God will abhor me But
Soul hast thou breathed after Christ in them Then Soul they are perfumed they will be accepted in Christ Therefore by Faith in Christ your Prayers are safe O blessed be God for Jesus Christ blessed be God for the Persume and blessed be God for this ascending for you never would have ascended if it were not for the Spirit of God nor have your Prayers perfumed were it not for the sweet Odour of Christ's Righteousness There are two things a carnal Heart is ready to do if they do a Duty to their mind then they are apt to be proud of it and rest on it and if they do not do it to their Mind then they are cast down and complain I cannot pray I cannot profit by hearing God hath forgotten me The humble Godly believing Soul that hath made Christ his Life he can truly say Though I am poor in my self yet I am rich in Christ I am indifferent and cold in Prayer but Christ is my Offering and Altar and therefore in him I put up all to God Therefore you see how safe a Soul is that is in Christ First Your Souls are safe none can rob you of them go where you will your Souls are safe in the hands of Christ you that live Christ know Christ believe in Christ lay hold on Christ your Souls are safe indeed he will keep you Saith the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.12 What I have committed to him he will keep my All I have left with him he that hath bought me that hath paid the price I have committed all to him As you know if a Man hath purchased a rich Jewel and leaves it in the hand of a trusty Friend saith he I have left it with one that is an able Man but is he faithful Yes he is a very honest Man O how much more may we speak of Christ Hast thou committed thy Soul to Christ Why Because he is able to pay whatever Justice can demand He hath paid it all Whatever Troubles or Trials I go through Christ can bare me up But is Christ faithful He is a faithful High Priest saith Paul I have committed my All to him You do not know what you lose by not committing your selves to Christ We commit our selves to our selves and that is our great loss If you believe Christ to be faithful commit your Souls to him it is safe to leave your All with Christ Sometimes a Man will not leave the worth of six pence in another Mans hand why Because he is in debt and so he thinks it is not safe Christ is not in debt he hath paid all that God hath demanded therefore do you commit your Souls to him the Apostle had committed his All to him and truly Paul had learn'd very much of the knowledg of Christ For the which cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed for I know whom I have believed Many times a person says I am ashamed I was such a Fool to believe such a Person Many times you trust to your own Heart ay the more Fool you Many times you say I trust to my own Duties ay the more Fool you But I have committed my All to Christ Why Because I know him I have left all with him and I am perswaded when I meet the great God I shall not be a Farthing in debt for Christ hath paid all I am perswaded my Comforts will be safe I am perswaded my Hopes my Faith my Soul my Body my Treasure are all safe when the poor Hypocrite will be ashamed when the carnal Professor will be ashamed Whatever Denomination Believers go under by a reproaching World let them do all they can you that have committed your Souls to Christ shall not be ashamed Nevertheless I am not ashamed saith the Apostle for I know whom I have believed and I am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day Look to that day that great day of accounts is coming that day that you must meet God at the Judgment-seat If Christ doth not then present his satisfaction for you to God you must lie by it to all Eternity But if you are in Christ your Souls are safe Paul was as sure of Glory as if he were in Heaven he was as certain of a Crown of Righteousness as if possess'd of it 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the Faith henceforward there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto them also that love his appearing Friends look to your Crown look to your Souls look to your Glory ay and that you may secure them look that you lay hold on Christ Methinks to consider how many Millions of Souls will stand at the great Day strangers to Christ that have made a great Profession of Religion but have rested upon their own Duties for Salvation should awaken us to throw our selves upon Christ alone in all we do for acceptance before God Do as many Duties as can be performed if Christ be not yours at that day you will be confounded but if Christ is yours your Souls are safe But Christians are your Souls in the hands of Christ Bought with the Blood of Christ Have you committed your Souls to Christ Do you live on him Psal 37.5 Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall hring it to pass he will never fail them that commit themselves unto him Heb. 13.8 Yesterday and to day the same for ever If the World be turned upside down he is the same for ever Secondly The Soul that lives Christ his Soul is safe none can rob him of his Comforts First Afflictions shall not rob you of your Comforts Truly I tell you Friends there are many we hope they are Believers but for want of a real demonstration of Faith in Christ and living on Christ they are afraid in every Trouble that God is coming to destroy them But if Christ is your Life who can destroy you Mat. 10.28 And fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both Body and Soul in Hell What hurt can all Affliction do when God is your God There is not one Affliction comes but it is in Love You may write Love upon all your bitter Portions they are all safe you have them from a kind and tender Physician that understands his Practice and loves his Patients If it is a bitter Portion yet Love and Care may be writ upon all Many are apt to cry God is against me he is destroying me he hath found me out but when Christ is become your Life it is all in Love from God If a Child be running in a pleasant way to the Rivers side where many Children have been drowned and one pulls this
Child away it cries out O let me go this pleasant way but the Person or Parent that pulls it away knows the Danger that the Child doth not therefore he plucks it away tho against the Childs Will So many times when a Saint cries out God is dealing with me in Anger when God is dealing with him in Love and tho it is a green and pleasant way the Lord prevents you by Afflictions from the Evil that otherwise you would fall into My Son despise not thou the chastning of the Lord neither faint when thou art rebuked of him It may be you will say Do any despise the Lord Yes when you murmur Truly God might have prevented this Affliction I cannot bear it I should have done well enough had not these Troubles come upon me But God is not wrath with a Believer the Flame of his Justice hath taken hold of Christ The Physician does not intend any hurt in a bitter Portion Christ hath paid dear for your Afflictions that they might be sanctified Heb. 11.6 Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with Sons for what Son is he whom the Father chasteneth not But while a Soul is out of Christ every Pressure is a Lash of Divine Justice But a Soul in Christ may say by his stripes am I healed my Iniquities are laid upon him God hath nothing against me Christ hath paid all for me When God calls his Children aside corrects them they may say I will go to my Father and hear what he speaks for Christ hath paid all bought all and whatever the Cup is though bitter I will drink it up though a Cup of Affliction it is a blessed Cup. But Souls out of Christ every thing robs them of their comfort while they can do any thing and prosper in the World they go on bravely but let God touch them and they are filled with Amazement But take Saints that God is their God Christ their Life they can go on comfortably Lord whatever bitter Portion I have it is in Love That God in anger chastises his Saints is impossible for Christ hath born the Wrath of God and hath satisfied Divine Justice that God hath not one drop to pour out upon you that are Christs Your Afflictions are to keep you from sin to subdue sin to sanctifie your course of Life that you may be weaned from the World and live to God Many Persons bring a false Charge against the Saints of God in their Afflictions as Job's Friends did against him You will say to the Godly when they are afflicted The Hand of God is against you the Curse of God is upon you the Devil and our corrupt Hearts are very apt to make bad constructions of God's Dealings and to close in with such conjectures If Christ hath not paid all there is something for you to pay but if you are Christ's Christ hath paid all therefore Affliction cannot rob you of your comfort Secondly Justice cannot rob you The Justice of God is satisfied you may look Divine Justice in the Face boldly There are two Men that walk very fearfully the Man that borrows what he hath and the other that steals that he hath The one is afraid of an Arrest the other of hanging So it is with poor Sinners The ungodly Man that calls not upon God at all steals all for he never asks Gods leave he steals the Mercies of God without asking God's leave whether he shall have them or no. There is another that is the Professor that knows not Christ he indeed will ask God for Mercies and doth perform Duties he will pray he will give thanks and he will fast and in his own conceit do whatever God requires but he rests here but notwithstanding all this Justice is not satisfyed It is your Duty to give thanks for Mercies and your Duty to pray and your Duty to fast But do you think your Duties are Payments to God for what you receive And do you think because you perform Duty you satisfie God No there will come a day of Reckoning and you must lie in Prison till you have paid the last Mite if your Mercies are not bought with Christ's Blood but if Jesus Christ is become your Life then all is paid for you have all your Mercies in a way of Redemption So the Psalmist Psal 107.1 O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good for his mercy endureth for ever Will giving Thanks entitle to these mercies No let the redeemed of the Lord say so You that are Christs all God's Mercies are yours made over to you every Mercy is bought and paid for But an Unbeliever every comfort he hath he must pay dear for his Mercies and Talents are but borrowed but all the Mercies you have that are in Christ are bought with the Blood of Christ What you have is your own in Christ Jesus therefore none can take it from you Thirdly Satan cannot rob you of your comfort if you are in Christ he may cast Floods after you but he cannot rob you he may wash you but shall not drown you Vpon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it You are not built on this Rock that have not Christ to be yours do what you will but taking hold on Christ you are built on a Rock Mat. 16. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Christ is not only a Rock to uphold you but he is Life to keep you that all the Flouds that the Devil casts after you shall not drown you Satan's Temptations may come and may try you the Saint may see a great Cloud arising but it shall not drown him David complains That Deep calleth unto Deep and that the Waves and Billows were gone over him Tho' there may be great Waves great Trials great Temptations they shall not overcome you I tell you the Devil shall never drown you that are in Christ the Ship may be tossed the poor Saints may cry out Lord save or we perish but if Christ is in the Ship no fear if Christ is yours if you are tossed with Temptations and perplexed with great Troubles all the Devil can do against you shall but stir you up to awaken Christ though he intends the undoing of your Souls Have you Temptations or Wandâ—â—ngs in Prayer Does it not make you to cry to Christ more vehemently to run to Christ more constantly to rely on Christ more heartily The Devil's Temptations do but wash away your Filth you are kept still upon the Rock you shall not be drown'd The loving-kindnesses of the Lord are still the same to you the Devil robs most of the World he robs them of their Time and their Souls and Comforts and they will certainly be undone But now though Satan
this in God to poor Sinners that he unbosoms himself to them that he should give Christ to be their Life When they were carnal wicked and sinful that then Jesus Christ should be revealed unto them that the Lord should bestow on dead Sinners such a precious Life who were by Nature poor dead heavy Lumps of Hell What infinite surpassing Love is this that should give such a Life to raise up Lumps of Hell to Heavenly Glory Christ cloathed himself with Human Flesh and Blood that so he might become an Infinit Mass and boundless Sea of visible speaking breathing weeping bleeding living dying Grace All the glorified Saints and Angels are but living Monuments and ever-living Tenants of this Free Grace this Grace of Christ perfumeth Heaven and Earth All the Grace which God doth or can put forth for the Salvation of Sinners is laid up and exhibited by Christ he has broad and strong Shoulders which can bear to Heaven the most heavy Lumps of Hell There is more Force and Omnipotence in Christ's Infirmity and Sufferings than in all the strength and efficacy of Men and Angels There is more Life in Christs Death more Riches in his Poverty more Victory in his hanging on the Cross than in all the World besides yea Christ's very Sighs Tears Sweat Stripes Reproaches and Faintings have a Sovereign Efficacy in them for the procuring and conferring Grace on his redeemed ones Thence we receive of Christs Fulness Grace for Grace Look as the Child receiveth from his Parent Limb for Limb Member for Member as the Sons of Adam receive all of his Fulness Sin for Sin Lust for Lust so Christs regenerated ones receive of his Fulness Grace for Grace there is not any Grace in the Heart of Christ but his Members have an Impartment and Resemblance thereof Now this infinite Plenitude of Grace in Christ which renders him so glorious proceeds originally from the Election of God the Father for all the Treasures of Grace are originally lodged in the Sovereign good pleasure or Heart of God the Father who has ordained Christ as Mediator through whom all are to be conveighed to the Elect. This ought greatly to be remarked or heeded by the Friends of Christ that albeit the Divine Essence and Sovereign Will of God be the Original Fountain of all Grace yet he has determin'd that not one drop of this Grace shall be derived unto Sinners but through Christ a Mediator This is the gret Mystery of the Gospel the great Wonder of Heaven and Earth that the blessed God who is the Fountain of all Grace Mr. Gale of the Saints Amity with God in Christ should so far condescend to Sinners as to assume Human Nature and to make it a Receptacle and Vehicle to convey all Grace unto them 4 Infer Is Christ a Believers Life and such a Life as hath been discoursed How should Believers be endeared to Jesus Christ What a thriving happy blessed glorious surpassing Life do Believers live It is natural to Persons to love their Lives more than all Enjoyments What Cost and Pains will Persons be at to preserve their natural Lives but what are all the Lives that have been since Adam to the end of the World if compared with Christ who is a Believers Life all their present and future Blessings are bound up in this Life What cause hath every every Believer to mourn that they love Christ so little that hath loved them so much His Love to them passeth Knowledge the Depths of it can never be fathomed With what purpose of Heart should every Believer cleave to Christ Christ loved with his whole Heart as it doth appear by what he hath suffered for his redeemed ones Methinks I should hear a Believer say with Peter Lord thou knowest I love thee It is much to be lamented Christ hath many professed Friends but few real Lovers as a Learned Author saith Multi osculantur Christum pauci vero amant Many kiss Christ but few love him Many do as Orpha did to her Mother Naomi Kiss and take their leave And many with Judas Kiss and betray But Oh with what an hearty and fervent Love should every Believer love Christ 5 Infer Is Christ a Believers Life Then what Life should there be in a Believers Love towards each other They that are bound up in the same bundle of Life should be bound up in a bundle of Love How can our Love be hid from them in whom we see the Love of Christ appear How can those pretend to be made partakers of the Life of Christ that are Strangers to the Love of Christ Rivers of Waters ran down David's Eyes because Men kept not God's Law Have we not cause in our days to shed a Flood of Tears that Christians break Christ's new Commandment who hath commanded his Disciples to love one another There are many that pretend to be passed from Death to Life but few there are that love the Brethren Are not many so bound up in their own Opinion as if their whole Salvation lay therein laying such weight and stress thereon as if none could be saved but them that jump in with them in their Opinion while it may be all the while they are grosly mistaken But if their Form and way of Worship be right they mistake the Mark that rest there for Salvation How do such despise Persons holier and sounder in the Principles of Religion than themselves and while they profess themselves to be Christians of the highest Rank they deny an Article of our Christian Faith that all that own themselves Christians profess to believe viz. the Communion of Saints denying Fellowship with them that have Fellowship with the Father and his Son Christ Jesus such as are bound up in 〈◊〉 things as Tith of Mint Annis and Cummin neglect the weightier matters Judgment Mercy and Faith not but that it is good to be zealous for every Truth of Christ but not to let our Zeal run out more in the Form than the Power of Godliness as the Pharisees of old did Where Love is wanting the life and power of Godliness is absent from such Persons If Love to the Brethren is a mark of Grace I believe many that account themselves very good Christians fail of that mark except none are their Brethren but those of their own Opinion then Papists and Quakers and all such Persons that hold together in a cursed Unity to uphold damnable Heresies may be said to love the Brethren as well as such for they love not for Christ's sake nor as they bare the Image of God but for Opinions sake They that love the Brethren that love such as have the Lord Jesus formed upon their Hearts will love every person that is sound in the Faith and holy in Life though he differ in Judgment in some outward Forms Persons being great in their own Eyes makes them look so loftily upon their Brethren as Luther saith of himself Tantus eram sanctus ut purissimus
Promises they shall hear the Voice of the Son of God and live It is called a Vivification We are by Nature dead in Trespasses and Sins in our deliverance from them we are said to be quickened Eph. 5.5 Though dead we hear the voice of the Son of God and live being made alive unto God through Jesus Christ Rom. 6.11 Now no such Works can he wrought in us but by an effectual Communication of a Principle of Spiritual Life and nothing will deliver us Some think to evade the power of this Argument by saying that all these Expressions are metaphorical and arguing from them are but fulsom Metaphors and it is well if the whole Gospel be not a Metaphor to them But if there be not an Impotency in us by Nature unto all Acts of Spiritual Life like that which is in a dead Man unto the Act of Life natural if there be not a like power of God required unto our Deliverance from their condition and they work in us a Principle of Spiritual Obedience as it is required unto the raising of him that is dead They may as well say that the Scripture speaks not truly as that it speaks metaphorically and that the almighty Power the exceeding Greatness of God's Power that is put forth are exercised herein Eph. 1.18 Col. 2.12 13. 2 Thess 1.11 2 Pet. 1.3 And what do these Men intend by this quickning this raising from the Dead by the power of God A perswasion of our minds by rational motives taken from the Word and the things contained in it But was there ever heard of such a monstrous Expression If there be nothing else in it what could the Holy Writers intend by calling such a Work as this a quickning of them who were dead in trespasses and sins through the mighty power of God unless it were by a noise and insignificant Words to draw us off from a right understanding of what is intended Dr. Owen on the Spirit p. 279. Sect. 49. and it is well if some are not of that mind Do you hear the Voice of Christ continually in the Word preached but you must hear another Voice or you are undone for ever If the Voice of the Ministration of the Word without the Power of the Spirit would awaken Men there would be fewer in Hell and more in Heaven than there are This is the external means but yet there must be the pouring out of the Spirit or else this will do no good And here I shall shew how the Spirit of God works on the Heart First The Spirit of God works effectually that is the Voice of the Son of God How long may we preach the Resurrection of the Dead to a dead Man before he rises but that Resurrection that is preached when Christ comes with the Sound of the Trumpet and saith Ye dead arise presently the Dead arise We may come and sound the Trumpet in the Ears of Sinners but they will not hearken till Christ come by the effectual working of his Holy Spirit then it works indeed Acts 16.14 speaking of Lydia whose Heart the Lord opened and then she attended to the things of the Kingdom of God And a certain Woman named Lydia a Seller of Purple of the City Thyatira which worshipped God heard us whose Heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul She attended as one whose Heart was opened and was sick for Christ and rejoyced to hear Christ preached Secondly The Spirit of God comes and perswades the Heart to close with Christ Saith a sick person I am perswaded if I could but have such a Physician I should be cured healed of my sickness So poor Souls lie complaining but not in Despair they are sick unto Death but yet shall not die they see themselves lost without Christ yet shall not die for want of Christ The Spirit perswades them to embrace Christ John 6.45 It is written they shall be taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learn'd of the Father cometh unto me It is written in the Prophet they shall be all taught of God Is this to leave off all teaching No they shall be all taught of God How Why God shall teach them by the Power of his Spirit in the Word And how then Every Man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh to me God teacheth them by the World and the Spirit perswades them there is Life in Christ The Soul is perswaded to close with Christ for the Soul that is sick for Christ shall never die Saith Christ He that believeth on me shall never die But the sick Sinner is perswaded that Christ can heal him and will heal him he groans but not in Despair he sighs but not as a Person that is out of hopes but does believe that Jesus Christ will be his Salvation and is his Life he shall hear the Voice of the Son of God The preaching of the Word is the means but it must be the Spirit of God that must work and make it effectual and then the Soul makes no delay no consideration of this or that but closes with Jesus Christ as a dying person closes with a Medicine that may cure him Thirdly The Voice of Christ is a Voice that engrafts it self with power in the Heart The Apostle saith Jam. 1.21 Receive with meekness the engraffed word which is able to save your Souls They are peswaded that Jesus Christ is their Life the Promises of Christ are become theirs though they are sick of Love to Christ they shall not die for want of Christ Ask Believers what it is they want they will tell you they want more strength from Christ more knowledge of Christ more Communion with Christ Now they that have not had these Symptoms of Life lie yet in the Grave of sin and the Worm of Conscience feeds on them and they feel it not Millions feel not the Worm of Conscience till they come to Hell Saith Christ I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance The whole need no Physician but they that are sick The Second Character of such that never made Christ their Lise are those that never see themselves poor and undone without Christ Thou sayest thou art high and increased in Goods and hast need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked Rev. 3.17 What without Christ and not cry out thou art poor miserable and undone They that never see themselves poor miserable and undone are yet without Christ What without Christ and well enough What hath enrich'd you Need of nothing What are you well enough without Christ Thou sayest I am encreased What can you patch up with any Duties with any Hopes with any thing below Christ But saith Christ thou art poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked 3ly They never made Christ their Life that never prized that glorious Gospel that brings them Tidings
of this Life If a Man be sick unto Death as he thinks bring him tidings of Life it is the best News he can hear of bring him Tidings that his Will is made his Estate is setled very well but how is it with you I am a dead Man O Sir but I have brought one with me that saith he can certainly cure you This is the best News saith he that you have brought me So is Jesus Christ come to save poor Sinners of whom I am the chief saith a poor Soul This is a Saying worthy of all Acceptation They that do not prize the Gospel and find it the sweetest thing in the World yet have not Christ for their Life There is that in Nature that persons must be doing something that they may obtain Blessedness The Israelites stript themselves for to make them a God So do formal Professers they will be at much Cost and Charge for an outward Profession and then fall down and adore their own Doing but to prize this Gospel that brings them News of a Redeemer it is very rare to find one among many But now the Soul that longs for Christ is sick for Christ rejoyces to hear these glad Tidings Saith Paul 1 Tim. 1.15 This is a faithful saying and worthy all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the World to save sinners of whom I am chief It is the best News that ever I heard If the Gospel is not joyful News to you if it doth not affect you you never had Christ When a Soul comes to close with Christ he saith And is there hope for me and did Christ die for me And did Christ come to be Life for me O welcom News the best that ever I heard in my Life 2 Tim. 1.10 But now is made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ who hath abolished Death and brought Life and Immortality to Light through the Gospel Life is brought through the Gospel What Life Immortal Life Immortal Grace Immortal Salvation to a poor undone Sinner If this Gospel is not prized but as a thing indifferent as many make their calling and business their main end but the Gospel is a thing they can best spare Such never made Christ their Life In ver 9. the Apostle saith Christ hath called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and Grace which was given us in Christ before the World began who hath abolished Death The Death of immortal Souls under the Curse of the Law and Wrath of God Christ takes Death away And what hath he brought Life and Immortality to light through the Gospel Were you but sensible of the Worth of this Life how would you love the Wells of Salvation from whence is drawn the Waters of Life Love the Pot that holds the Manna that preserves this Life Love the Messenger that brings you Tidings You shall live and not die How would a condemned Malefactor love that Person that should bring him a â—ardon yea the Messenger that should bring him News of it So it is with the condemned Sinner the Sentence is pass'd He that believes not is Damned O what Joy is it to hear of Salvation by Christ when the Sinner hath a sense of his misery This immortal Life comes through the Gospel When a Sermon of Christ is preached News from Heaven is brought to Sinners and what News is it O that there is mercy and pardon for poor Sinners Saith the believing Soul shall my Soul live is Christ become my Salvation O what blessed Gospel is this What precious News is this Now Soul do you look on the Gospel glad Tidings and the Feet of them that bring it beautiful if not be sure Christ is not your Life Fourthly They never had Christ for their Life that live in themselves that centre in themselves on themselves and not above themselves As thus Take a dead Man and wrap him up in Silk and Silver with the best Perfumes you can it centres all in Putrifaction Rottenness and Death all the sweet Smells and Perfumes will not keep him from corruption But take a living Man he lives on something to preserve Life It would be improper to say a Man lives on nothing a living Man must have something to subsist with A dead sinner centres in himself what Duty he performs he takes to be his Life But a Soul in Christ lives on Christ and not on his Performances tho he performs Duty So much for the Negative now follows the Affirmative What are the Characters of them that have Christ their Life First If Christ is your Life you will love the Word of God and look upon it to be very precious that hath been the means of begetting and nourishing this Life in you As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may go thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 If you have tasted that the Lord is gracious you will love the Food that the Lord gives you The Prodigal when he returned home to his Fathers House then he thought his Food precious The Word of Christ is that which is very precious to the Soul if you do not taste that the Lord is gracious you can never fall in love with Christ There may be some Convictions under the Word but they will wear off again there may be something that may delight but Souls that Christ is their Life they come to relish the inward sweetness and power of the Word of Christ if you have tasted that the Lord is gracious First They will long for it Secondly They will make it their Meat and Drink First They will long for it If a Child be crying for the Breast if you give it a Rattle or any other thing it will not please it or still it without the Breast It is not any thing of this World nor the Glory of it will still a Believer without Christ Psal 84. See how the Psalmist praises the Courts of God how lovely it is One day in thy Courts is better than a thousand I had rather be a Door-keeper in the House of God than to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Why would you be a Door-keeper in the House of God Truly there Beggars fare well Hungry Souls would be first in and last out they would be served more than once Saith a longing Soul I would not have a Word drop before I come that I may lose nothing I would be one of the first in and last out I would not have a Word drop nor a Crum fall I would hear all that is spoken of Christ How sweet is every Word of Christ The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul More are they to be desired than 〈…〉 than much fine Gold sweeter than the 〈◊〉 the Honey-comb Ps 19. And 〈…〉 prize thy Word more than my 〈◊〉 Food Soul thou that longest for the Word of Christ certainly thou art alive in Christ Surely thou that longest for the
above all your Sin where Sin hath abounded Grace doth much more abound where Sin hath abounded there is a superabounding Grace superabounding Righteousness and superabounding Life Adam received the Promise of the Woman's Seed before he had done any Work or Sacrifice to the end that God's Truth might stand fast namely that we are justified before God altogether without Works and do obtain Forgiveness of Sins meerly by Grace who so were able to believe this well and stedfastly the same were a Doctor above all the Doctors in the World said Luther Again All Hereticks have failed in this point that they do not rightily understand nor know the Article of Justification how we are justified before God for if that were lost then manifold errors of necessity would ensue O then how rich is Christ How rich in Merit to pay God all that is due to him from the Sinner O saith one I am a great Sinner saith another I have great Imperfections in my Duties I am so carnal so dead so wandering so indifferent I am afraid to come to God I am so sinful Why poor Soul here is a Christ for you to live upon here is Righteousnes for Sin Life for Death Pardon for Condemnation Then go to Christ lay hold of him by Faith as given of God to you and then you will say with Paul For me to live is Christ Secondly As Christ is rich enough to repair all your Losses So you are inricht with all the Treasure of Christ 1 Cor. 3. ult For all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods As if he should say have you a Christ with God Is your Christ God's Son and is he Heir of all things Then all is yours Paul and Apollos and Cephas are all yours all the Ministers of Christ are sent for the good of the Redeemed ones all that are Christs Then the Saint may say Is all mine Is Life mine Yes Life is yours for while you live you shall live a sanctified Life Well but is Death mine many are afraid to die Yes Death is yours Death is made your Friend Death is conquered in Christ and when Death comes you need not be afraid to entertain your Lord's Messenger that he sends to fetch you home to his Glory Death is sent to fetch you out of your Houses of Clay to meet your Redeemer and sit on the Throne with him and to enjoy your Lord in Glory Saith the Believer But how comes all this to be mine Why your are Christ's and Christ is Gods All things are yours the Crowns above the Thrones above the Saints above the Angels above Fulness of Joy above Rivers of Pleasure above and how comes all this to be yours in Christ Because Christ is Gods and God hath possessed him with all things and made him Heir of all things therefore he enriches his Members with all things Then well may a Saint desire neither Life nor any thing in Life any futher than he enjoys Christ Thirdly As Christ repairs all your Losses and as you are enriched with the Treasures of Christ so he enriches your Souls also As you have Riches above and Riches below so he enriches you within When a Soul knows Christ what a glorious Knowledge of the things above comes into the Soul He enriches your poor dark beggerly Understandings for while a Man is ignorant of Christ what poor low things does he study and seek after but when a Soul comes to have Christ revealed to him then the Soul comes to aspire and inquire after God and Christ and the things above he enlightens the Understanding that before did lead on the Affections to grasp after a little vain Pleasures and Honors and Profits in this World and now causes the Soul to pursue after higher things then he enriches the Will I will make them a willing people in the day of my Power Psal 110.3 It is a glorious thing to have the Will subdued the Will renewed to have a perverse stubborn Will now to serve in the Beauties of Holiness Secondly he enriches the Affections with Joy and Peace and Delight O what a Glory is it to have the Affections raised up the Heart set on things above on Jesus Christ the Soul is seeking after Glory the Heart is seeking after Heavenly things When Jesus Christ comes he enriches all the Affections of the Soul The Kings Daughter is all glorious within Christ is so rich a Pearl such Riches in him that he sets open Doors to all that come whoever come shall find welcome there is enough in him for the Sinner to live upon while he lives here and to all Eternity Thirdly Christ is an Heart-chearing Pearl O saith the Soul could I but have Christ for mine enjoy Christ how would my Heart rejoyce Now when Christ shines with a glimps of his Righteousness into the Soul O saith the Soul that I could enjoy more of this Christ more of his Grace of his Love Saith the Spouse He brought me into the Banqueting-House and his Banner over me was Love Cant. 2.4 Banners of Love O what a chearful Feast I have now I think all the Afflictions and Temptations I have in the World can never cast me down the Heart is cheared What is Christ mine What is God mine Is Grace mine and Righteousness mine and Glory mine This is an Heart-chearing Pearl O it is such a Pearl drink it in all your Potions and bring Christ in every Duty Then a Soul may take comfort and reason thus with himself though I am dead in Duty Christ lives though I am sinful Christ is righteous though my Corruptions abound Christ's Grace doth much more abound Take Christ in every Portion and in all Duties let Christ be there still I have set the Lord always before me saith David so should you set Christ always before you and when Satan or Conscience accuses set Christ before you as your perfect Righteousness Saith the Plalmist Psal 16.8 I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Verse 9. Therefore my Heart is glad and my Glory rejoyceth my Flesh also shall rest in hope Verse 10. For thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption If Christ shall be raised up to Glory then I will live in hope of being raised up to Glory with him The Psalmist speaks Prophetically of Christ Neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption Now saith the Believer if Christ conquers Death and Hell and did not see Corruption I may well rejoyce for I set the Lord always before me and whatever he enjoys I shall have a glorious share in Fourthly He is an Everlasting Pearl Many have rich Pearls live on them and spend them but live on Christ as long as you will you will never waste Christ's Stock All the Sinners that ever came to the Gate of Mercy and have been supplied with Mercy ever
foolish said to the wise give us of your Oyl Have you no Oyl to spare us No none All the Angels in Heaven nor Saints in Heaven cannot help a poor sinner that hath not made Christ his Life He that hath most of Christ cannot part with any of Christ he that hath most Grace cannot part with any when he comes to die O saith the graceless Soul when he comes to die give me of your Oyl have not you some to spare The ungodly Husband will wish himself in the condition of the Godly Wife the Ungodly Parent of their Godly Child the Ungodly Children in the condition of the godly Parent If the ungodly Child should cry to the Godly Parent Oh for some of your Grace Oh spare me some of your Grace The Answer will be No no we have little enough for our selves would we had more Grace pray go and buy for your selves But alas 't is too late we trifled with Christ and with Grace I could go home after I heard a Sermon and be content and thought it was well enough though I never minded it any more I was told if I had not Christ I was undone It was preach'd to me if I had not Christ's Righteousness I should be found naked but I did not mind it nor regard it but now it is too late I indeed performed some Duties because I was afraid of Hell and because Conscience would not let me alone I kept to hearing and praying but to make Christ my Life that I was ignorant of Whatever was preach'd to me of him to make him my Life whatever was preach'd to me of him to make sure of him for my own I thought I could spare him well enough I thought I could live on my own Duties Alas you may be full of Duties and yet have an Heart empty of Christ You may keep a Sabbath outwardly and yet have no enjoyment of God inwardly you may perform Duty but if you have not Christ your Life you will survive all you have you will live to spend all An Hypocrite may go very far his Profession may carry him very far and yet fall short at last God doth not pluck away the Vizard at first but letteth them proceed The foolish Virgins took their Lamps and went boldly out to meet Christ along with the Wise More then will be perswaded too that will hardly now stir a Foot for Christ they continued so until the Bridegroom tarried so long beyond their expectation that they fell asleep What a dreadful thing is it for Professors to have nothing but what they may live to spend and be undone when they come to die Your Immortal Souls will survive all your Prayers and all your Sabbaths and if Christ is not your Life you are undone for ever This was the case of those fooolish Virgins The Fool in the Gospel provides for many years to come and lives but a short time And the other they pretended to get something for their Souls and lived to spend all You may be undone for living on your Profession as well as those who are Enemies to it Many will say they have not time to look after the things of another World no time to mind Christ nor seriously to think of their latter end Alas it is not being on your Knees in a morning and remember the Lord no more all the Day then to go hurrying on in the World never minding Christ nor your precious Souls On the other hand there are foolish Professors that make their own Duties their Righteousness and so think they have no need of Christ The one laies up more for himself than he lives to spend The other is so foolish he lays up so little not having Christ that he spends all and so is miserable but let us have a care we are not those Fools You that are Professors have a care you do not die poor that you do not live upon your Duties and not get Christ for your Souls to live upon The foolish said to the wise Give us of your Oyl But the wise answered and said Not so lest there be not enough for us and you but go rather to them that sell and buy for your selves Ah! how fain would every one of you have a Christ when you come to die How fain would every one of you have Grace when you come to die You will go home it may be this day and a few days more and set quietly at your Tables without Christ but when you come to die you will cry out O that I had a Christ It is hard venturing your Immortal Souls on this Line of time thinking it will reach out longer and you do not know how soon this thred of your Life may be cut asunder and when you come to die and are without Christ you will wish O that I had closed with Christ when I was perswaded to do it You are always ready that know Christ but never ready whatever you do without Christ if you have performed ten thousand Duties and keep a thousand Fasts without Christ you are undone And when they came the door was shut the Door of the Kingdom the Door of Grace the Door of Mercy the Door of Happiness of Comfort What the Door shut What the Door of Heaven shut against me O where shall I go Those persons that will not in time come to Christ for Grace they will knock when it is too late for entrance into glory What shall I do I am shut out without the Kingdom without God without Christ in everlasting Burnings Afterwards came also the other Virgins saying Lord Lord open to us Thus ready will they be to call Christ Lord that never took him to be their Husband Lord Lord open to us we are come we are come we knock now O how earnestly do they knock now You that coldly desire Christ now that indifferently seek after Christ now you will at last knock and call earnestly when it is too late There are three dreadful Outcries in this World but there will be three dreadfuller Cries which a Person that dies without Christ will send forth in the other World The first dreadful Cry in this World is a Malefactor that is sensible of his Misery when he is condemned What an Outcry when it is said Thou must die O how doth he cry out for mercy The second dreadful Outcry is When a Ship suffers Shipwrack and the Mariners or Passengers are sinking into the Sea then what a dreadful Outcry is there with them that before were cursing and swearing The third dreadful Outcry is When Soldiers or Rebels besiege a City and put Men Women and Children to the Sword but a Person that lives and dies without Christ there are three dreadfuller Cries First A Soul that is awakened departing this Life takes a view of his miserable state in the other World when Conscience drags him before God's Tribunal and there is condemned by the Law of God the Soul cries
out Lord must I be shut up under thy eternal Wrath for ever There he sees the Judge condemning him the Law condemning him Conscience condemning him he can look no way but he is amazed above him a sin-revenging God below him everlasting Flames O what a dreadful Outcry will a condemned Soul make You may know by these foolish Virgins Lord Lord open to us what a dreadful Outcry will there be for a condemned sinner to appear before a sin-revenging God You are all condemned in Adam and if you have not a Christ you will be condemned to all Eternity when the last Moment comes what an Outcry will there be Lord Lord must I to Hell for ever Must I be damned for ever Yea Soul for thou hast no part nor portion in Christ Secondly As Seamen or Mariners when they suffer Shipwrack and are sinking make a dreadful Cry so a Soul that 's out of the Body that hath not Christ all your Duties and Profession and Comforts all your Righteousness and your Souls sinking together O what a dreadful Cry will there be my hope is perished my Righteousness is perished my Duties abhorred Wo is me I am undone for ever Thirdly What a dreadful Outcry is there when a City is besieged and plundered and all the Men Women and Children put to Fire and Sword So when Christless Persons must appear before God's Tribunal the Sword of Divine Justice meets the Soul The Angel that stood at the Gate of Paradice had a flaming Sword in his Hand the Justice of God that flaming Sword will meet you at Heaven Gate Soul no entrance here you must for ever lie in the Prison of Hell till your Debts are paid you have no Surety you have no Christ you have no Grace then you must for ever depart into everlasting Burnings now too late when Justice hath took hold of them Legions of Devils halling them down to the bottomless Pit They cry Lord Lord open to us when their Lamps are gone out Now Lord we see our Sparks dying before they reach Heaven O pardon this our Hypocrisie And O give of thy Oyl Thou art the Olive-tree pour out thy Oyl into our Vessels Had they with the wise Virgins Oyl in their Lamps saving Grace in their Hearts they had been ready and entred with Christ No but they would not come to Christ and see now the Gate was shut upon them now they cry Lord open to us they would not come to him for a Wedding Garment but they would be beholden to him to let them enter into the Feast without one Mr. Murcot tho Heaven would have held them but a little while if they had entred in that condition Next This Life is a suitable Life because it is a glorious Life Alas you live a miserable Life till you know Christ A Professor without Christ is a poor empty Person You read of a new Heaven and a new Earth wherein dwells Righteousness What was the Earth A dark Chaos before the glorious Sun that glorious Light came What is a poor Soul in this poor House of Clay till you come to know Jesus Christ till you come to live Christ We have a dark Chaos but when you come to live Christ this is a new Heaven in the Soul and a new Earth every part of the Soul every Member of the Body is put into a new Frame O saith the Soul let me not act but for Christ let me not walk but with Christ let me not be employed but for Christ let me not live but to Christ it may be you will give us the hearing of a Sermon on the Lords Day but what Mould are you cast in all the Week Alas what Folly and Madness is it for to be seeking looking waiting and watching for what is not for what will not do you good Our Eye is fixed our Thoughts are fixed our Hands are employed but is it for Christ Can you say you desire nothing in comparison of Christ Or are your Thoughts swallowed up in the World Where you have had one for Christ it may be you have had many thousands for the World To be a Professor and not live on Christ it is as if a dead Man should be dress'd with the Cloaths of a living Man and should have Meat dish'd out and set before him to eat who yet remains Dead and the Meat untasted Persons may make external Profession and have Ordinances administred to them but if you do not know Christ and live Christ what Profit will you have in all What is the Chaff to the Wheat Most of the Sermons you hear you may have the Notions of Religion but if Christ is not made manifest to your Souls you have but the Shell without the Kernel the Chaff without the Wheat He that knows Christ he that lives Christ is above that Soul let him live never so noble a Life that knows not Christ Therefore the Prophet saith That a wise Child is better than an old and foolish King Eccles 4.13 A wise Christian though he is never so little in Grace and Knowledge that knows Christ is better than the greatest Person in knowledg that doth not know Christ Better is the poorest lowest Christian than the greatest Noble in the Land that doth not know Christ Now I shall shew in some particulars the Glory of this Life To live Christ first If you come to live Christ it is a glorious Life for there is the beginning of Glory Whatever you do you never come to have Glory begun till you come to live on Christ by Faith Phil. 1.6 He that hath begun the good Work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ he that justifies he glorifies We are called to eternal Glory by Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 5.10 If we have not Christ ours eternal Life will never be ours Col. 1.27 Christ in you the hope of Glory All the Pearls of a Christians Crown of Glory are the purchase of Christ's Blood As soon as a Soul begins to know Christ he begins an Heaven on Earth Let Earth and Hell do what they will Glory is begun the World and Devil and Temptations may toss you but they are come too late to destroy you there is immortal Life and Glory begun The immortal Seed is sowed in the Soul Grace in the Soul is Glory in the Believer Christ dwelling in the Soul is the beginning of Glory you never come to know the Life of Glory till you know Christ and when you come to live on Christ you are in the way to Glory and shall as sure come there as the Saints and Angels now in Glory This is the comfort and stay of a Believer when he comes to know Christ he is certainly linked to eternal Glory Secondly To live Christ is a glorious Life for you are changed from Glory to Glory into the same Image for there is a glorious Union between Christ and a Believer there is the natural Faculties there is the same
I warrant you think that they that conversed with Christ on Earth were happy I tell you there were thousands saw Christs Face on Earth that shall never see his Face in Glory It may be you think if you come and hear a Sermon you have conversed enough with Christ for all the Week though you never had one precious thought of Christ but to have Christ your Life you have a Glorious Life Soul is thy Heart wrapt up in Christ What would you desire if you were to have your Wishes granted Is it Christ More of Christ To live more to Christ To enjoy more of Christ If it is so you live a glorious Life there is more Glory in one Believer than in all Creatures on Earth beside When Chrysostom was put to silence said some Better the whole World were left in darkness than such a glorious Light should be put out Now if the preaching of Christ be so glorious what is the Life of Christ in the Believer Fourthly To live Christ is a glorious Life for there comes a glorious Train with Christ all the Graces of the Spirit Believers are God's Habitations Eph. 2.22 You are the Terrestrial wherein the King of Glory keeps his Abode till you be removed to abide with him in Heaven If we did but consider and our Eyes were opened to see what a Train of Hellish Lusts dwell in us before Christ is in us we should be amazed the Apostle tells you of many of them While you are fleshly and not know Christ I tell you whatever you are in Profession you are what the Apostle speaks Gal. 5.9 Now the works of the Blesh are manifest which are these Adultery Fornication Vncleanness Lasciviousness Idolatry Witcheraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Sedition Heresies Envyings Murders Drunkenness Revellings and such like as if he should say I will not foul my mouth with what dwells in a carnal Heart May be you may say Many that have no Grace abhor many of these things I answer It may be the Devil may not lead Persons into all at once but the Works of the Flesh are manifest in unconverted Persons What Man is there that knows not Christ but loves something below Christ and that is Idolatry though you do not worship a strange God Do you love a strange God Is God first and last Highest and best Most prized and loved Is all well when Christ is enjoyed Do you not complain more for other things than for Christ Hatred is a very reigning sin Variance Emulations Wrath Strife many sins dwell in the Heart all sin is rooted in corrupt Nature but what is meet for Sale he brings forth like a Shop-keeper he brings forth Goods that are fit for Sale he hath all sorts but he doth not sell all sorts at once So the sinner hath all sin in him to be brought forth Satan tempts him sometimes to one sin sometimes to another When the Devil comes to buy the Sinner is furnished with all sorts of sins for him and sells what the Devil pleases to buy But when Christ comes what Train does he bring with him He brings a glorious Train Verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law the Law hath nothing to say against them for Christ is formed upon their Heart O what a glorious Train does Christ bring When Christ is your Life you come to Christ and walk with Christ what a glorious Train of Graces possess the Soul Now the angry Man the wrathful Person is a meek an humble Person the worldly Man is come to love Christ and God and the Kingdom of Heaven and the Saints and Holiness he is come to have the Fruit of the Spirit O what a glorious Life is it to live Christ It sets Christ on the Throne and unthrones Ungodliness and at the last Day Christ will set you on his Throne and crown you with Glory Christ and the Believer are all one he dwells in you and you live on him Alas to be a Professor and walk at random to walk in the Suburbs of Hell while we Profess to be Citizens of Heaven I profess it is a shame some Professors should profess Religion Blessed be God that many are waiting on God but till you know Christ there is a black Train in the Soul The Hearts of many swell if they know but a little of the Letter if they can but speak or discourse but when Christ comes there is a new frame of Heart not new in Faculties but in Qualities O what a glorious Life it is to live Christ I This Life is not to be parallel'd If I had the Tongue of an Angel I could not set forth the Life of a Soul that lives on lives Christ it is so far beyond the Life of the carnal Professor that makes me repeat it over and over There is so much difference between this Life and the Life of carnal Professors that they do not deserve to be once named in the day the Believer that lives on Christ is spoke of What for Christ to have Union with the Believer For the Believer to have Union with Christ It is such a Mystery that the Angels desire to look into the Mystery of it Those that live not this Life tho they make a Profession they are cold Professors ignorant Professors and indeed nothing but Professors Fifthly It is a glorious Life because it is the richest Life you can live You never live richly till you live holy and you never live holy till you come to live on Christ Of his fulness have we all received Grace for Grace There is not only in Christ a fulness of Abundance but also fulness of Redundance there is an everflowing fulness in Christ as a Fountain overflows and yet remains full Grace for Grace or Grace upon Grace abundance of Grace and the increases of Grace one by another there is all good in Christ that poor Sinners want Omne bonum in summo bono Mr. Brook's Unsearchable Riches of Christ all good is in the chiefest good You may see Corn that is scattered on a thatch'd House spring up but it soon withers it is not like Corn sown in its natural Soyl. You may see some new Professors under some Convictioons how hot and zealous they are but it soon withers there being no root But when a Soul is planted in Christ it is got in good ground it is not thorny ground or stony ground Many Persons are very unhappy they are very diligent to do something to attain Happiness yet miss of Happiness at last Many Professors are very unhappy they make a great noise of Religion yet never come to know Christ so never thrive in Religion You never thrive nor lead a rich Life till you know Christ all Treasures of Wisdom dwell in him that is the true Wisdom and the Lord humble this Generation because they exalt Christ no more
Psalmist Psal 116. Return unto thy rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee What Rest hath the Soul There is a great many restless Enemies there is Satan pursuing the Law condemning Guilt pursuing the poor Soul hath no safe Refuge to flee unto but the Lord Jesus The Soul that hath Christ his Life can say the Lord Jesus Christ hath purchased eternal Salvation for me he became a Curse for me and Redeemed me from the Curse of the Law and let Satan and Conscience say what they will Jesus Christ hath paid my Debts satisfied Justice given me rest to my Soul Take up thou thy quiet Rest in him O my Soul for what ever the Law saith it speaks to them that are under the Law But I am Redeemed by Christ he is become my Rock and my Salvation my Soul return thou to thy Rest Gal. 3.10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Be sure you do all or you do nothing there was never a Man since the fall of Adam that could do all things nor the least thing as he ought But Christ fulfilled the Law and hath delivered us from the Curse of the Law for the Just shall live by Faith in Christ Till a Soul comes to center in Christ the Soul can never have rest and quiet Indeed you may forget the day of your Death if you are wrapt up in Carnal securities that is not Rest the Soul will be molested again when Conscience is awakened to consider what the state of the Soul is But if the Law and Sin accuses the Soul that can truly experience the Lord Jesus Christ is his Life hath Redeemed him from the Curse of the Law hath Died and Risen for him and is at Gods right hand interceding with Divine Justice and hath payed the whole Price and Ransom the Law condemns them that are under the Law but Christ hath delivered a Believer from all its Accusations who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect What Christ hath done is a Believers own he is Righteousness to every one that truly applies him My Friends till you know there is satisfaction made to the Justice of God you can never take up your rest do as much as you can until you come to center in this Glorious Redemption that Christ hath purchased to see him Sanctification and Redemption that he hath satisfied for you that you live on him for all then the Soul can take up his quiet Rest But till it is thus do as much as you will there is something wanting still Not a word of Peace to be had from God but in and through Christ Do as much as you will in a way of Duty without Christ you cannot have Rest and Quiet If you have been a Praying Person this Ten Twenty or Thirty Years this will all be swallowed up in this one thing God is not satisfied the Guilt of Sin follows me my Conscience accuses Saith Luther I am not able to indure my Conscience neither am I quieted by my own Works or by the Righteousness of Gods Laws much less have I any comfort by my sanctity which out of my own Devotion and good Opinion I make choice of yea the Devil through my Sin so hunteth me in such sort that I think the World is too narrow for me only the acknowledgment of Christ lifteth me up and setteth my Conscience in Peace Therefore I look not what I am in my self but what Christ hath done he hath bore the Curse therefore I shall never bear it God hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all therefore my Soul return thou to thy rest All the Debt is discharged now my Soul can live a quiet Life in Christ O what a Soul-satisfying life it is to live Christ and till then there will be a complaining when you have done all that you can do when you have done the best you can you want a Righteousness to stand before God The Soul in Christ is cloathed with a Garment sufficient for to cover its Nakedness Here is a Righteousness is as broad and long as the Wounds and Nakedness of the Soul and that your own Duties can never be If a Man could stand bemoaning his Sins from Morning till Night there would be something in that that he would need a Pardon for but now Christ was made Sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Made Sin not only said to be so but made so Sin imputed to him And while our Sins lay on him he was an imputed Sinner baring our Sins The Wrath of God was poured on him he bore the fault and God laid our Sins on him that we might be the Righteousness of God in him His Righteousness is made our Personal Righteousness as if we had performed all things our selves we are made the Righteousness of God not thought to be so or seem to be so but really made so here is a covering to cover all our Nakedness Isaiah saith our Righteousness is a Bed too short for us to stretch our selves upon and a Covering too narrow for us to wrap our selves in if a Man hath a Garment of Silk or Silver and if it be not long enough to cover him there is cause of shame so if you have the bravest Duties and Expressions Carriage and outward Behaviour in Religion without you are wrapt up in this Righteousness there is still something wanting that will cause shame and Confusion to all Eternity he was made sin for us that knew no sin that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him A Believing Soul ought to talk with our Saviour in this manner I am thy Sins thou art my Righteousness therefore I am joyful and boldly do triumph for my Sins not over ballancing thy Righteousness neither let thy Righteousness suffer me to be or remain a Sinner Luther Blessed for evermore and praised be thy Name sweet Jesus It is a glorious Expression a high Expression a comfortable Expression and truly a great Mystery that the innocent Lamb of God that knew no Sin should be made Sin for us and we made the Righteousness of God in him Col. 2. We are compleat in him compleat in Christ though not compleat in Sanctification yet compleat in the sight of God in Justification he doth present you without Spot or Wrinkel before God In the best of Men the best Performances leaves a sense of Guilt upon their Souls there is something wanting but in Christ there is compleat Righteousness compleat Wisdom compleat Redemption compleat Beauty compleat Glory every thing compleat that the Soul is compleat in him Fifthly To live Christ is a happy Life because it is a safe Life you are never safe till you are in Christ and there is no