Ephes 2.8 Every saved soule is a child of free grace and its salvation the gift of God in the fifth verse of that Chapter Verre 5. Even we who were dead in sins hath he quickned us together with Christ there is all in one state of death and all in one state of life and the originall of this life he brings in a parenthesis by grace ye are saved love is in God the originall of it to all alike and it never degenerates from this first principle till it comes through the muddy hearts of fallen creatures and we so much degenerate from God and from love Joh. 17 23◠latter part as we live below this love in the Originall John 17.23 latter part our Saviour there prayes that the world may know that God loves Saints as he loves him And hast loved them sayes Christ as thou hast loved me thus is Christ and Saints in one originall love And if head and Member then surely Member and Member All true Saints lye in this one womb the originall love of God Ephes 4.4 5 6. And thus all Saints are of one Body one Calling have one Lord one God and Father of all the originall love of God makes this Onenesse in all the Saints and speakes very strongly this thing That there should be a uniting of affections amongst all Saints upon the interest of Saints Secondly Reason or Consi ∣ deration 2 consider as Saints our onenesse in union with Christ the rock from whence we are all hewen whom God hath chosen to manifest to us his eternall love and to make us capable of enjoying the fulnesse of that love this union our Saviour speakes to in John 17.23 I in them and they in me that they might be made perfect in one Consider Saints perfection lies in this union surely their affections should flow from this union A Saints compleatnesse is in Christ Coloss 2.10 Vnion with Christ hath all the Arguments of love in it For there is the beauty the fulnesse and the compleatnesse of Christ upon such a soule The excellency of Christ seemes to have but little beauty in such an eye or heart as cannot love upon the naked interest of a Saint Ephes 2.5 If Christ bee enough to gain thy love whole Christ is the interest of every Saint every beleever is quickned together with Christ who in all is for eternall interest alike to all that the Father hath given him His blood equall redemption and satisfaction his righteousnesse is as compleat a robe to all his members as to any where Christ is the Head every Member is compleat in him Christ is Head to the whole elect beleeving Body the Foot hath as good an interest as the Hand or Eye God is no respecter of persons he chuses meerly of his own grace and that grace fils every soule with the fulnesse of him that is the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily So that through that free full grace every soule is compleat in him if this union ingage not love it can be no spirituall object which will doe it for the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily is in Christ and Saints are one with Christ every beame of the love and glory of God shines through Christ Whence is it then that union with Christ takes not all the affections Surely Christ bath but little love from such a soule that findes not this Argument enough to perswade him to love his brother that is one with him in Christ and lives up to his union with Christ bearing his Image Faith workes not lower effects then flesh and blood doth refined affections make stronger and purer motions then the highest piece of simple Nature can doe Now flesh and blood will act thus high I must love he is my brother we had one womb to be conceived in I must love hee is my child he beares my Image surely faith workes higher then this spirituall affections make stronger and purer motions upon union and relations then carnall can doe motion from affection made in the soule by a light of this interest He is my brother one womb of love conceived us both we are both builded upon one Rock of Ages this love out-beats the pulse of carnall affections though it beats very strong love to God and Christ is in the bottome of this motion and carries it strongly on 1 John 4.20 If a man say I love God and hateth his brother he is a lyar if there bee love to God and Christ there will be love to every soul that is in communion with Christ Thirdly Reason or Consi ∣ deration 3 consider the onenesse of Saints in the ingagement of God to all namely his covenant of free grace in which all his people have equall interest it is free from God and so equally full to all God freely ingages to be our God and that we shall be his people and that he will freely forgive our iniquity and remember our sins no more God makes this new covenant to all the new creation to the whole body of his elect in Christ which as the holy Ghost tels us in Ephes 2.10 That we are his workmanship ereated in Christ Jesus unto good workes There is not any soule hath any thing to plead for his eternall life but meere grace and this is the free ingagement of God to every soule that he hath given to Christ this is the sure mercies of David this that better Covenant 't is made in God and cannot be broken And in all this glorious interest all the Saints are one there is not a beame of this glory from God that takes in one Saint and shuts out another The weakest beleeving soule may as truly say God is my God in his covenant of free grace as the strongest beleever Fourthly consider Reason or Consi ∣ deration 4 the onenesse of that way which God and Christ hath chosen to manifest their love and their will to all Saints namely the holy Spirt John 14.17.26 Hete is a generall promise to all Saints that they shall be taught all things and this shall be by the holy Ghost the Spirit of Truth whom the Father will send in Christs Name and he shall dwell with them and shall be in them What ever truth of God any Saint hath learned in truth he hath received it from this Spirit of truth Though God as a free agent gives to his children as it pleaseth him to one more light to another lesse but all receive of this one Spirit and this I take to be that one Baptisme spoken of in the 4. Eph. 4.5 Ephefians 5. Jesus Christ administring himselfe by this one Spirit to all his Children by which they come baptized into Christ into his death and have put on Christ Rom. 6.3 4 Rom. 8.14 Rom. 6.3 4. And are led by the Spirit Rom. 8.14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sous of God To be led by the Spirit
reliefe and in a day of death to the fountaine of life This soule goes not to his outward esteeme in the world not to his externall advantages or endowments of parts and the like for his reliefe hee doth not boast and rejoyce himselfe in this that he is a member of a Church or is under this or th' other Ordinance above other men or that his parts are greater or his esteeme with the world more then other poore Saints but he fetches his reliefe from the fountâ—ine of life that originall love which made him a sonne His eye is with the Apostle in Ephes 2.5 upon that grace which first gave him lifâ— Even when we were dead in sinnes hath be quickned us together with Christ by grace yee are saved He eyes that grace which made him one with Christ that originall love of God and from this object the soule drawes very high and glorious conclusions in all the dispensations of God to it I am now a sonne and in all Gods dispensations to mee he is my Father and I stand as a sonne in his presence begotten by his owne originall love and therefore I know all is the kindenesse of my God and Father to me in this life but when Christ shall appear in the fulnes of his glory then shall all know I am a son for I shal be like him and see him as he is Thus a child of God fetcheth his reliefe from his interest in God and an heire of Heaven makes up his glory in his soule by that glory which waites for him shall to all eternity be revealed to him with God and Christ in Heaven The sixth observation is this namely That a Saints glory which now is hid from the world when it is fully manifested shall destroy the world When Christ shall come to judge the world and to put an end to all corruptible things then is it that he will reveale the fulnesse of his owne glory and so our glory as wee are by free-grace united to him Original love hath more grace and glory in it then the world can bâ—are so that when it shall be fully manifested it will eate up all vanishing dying things Should any soule in this life partake of the fulnesse of the glory of its interest as it is one with Christ that soule would soone breake through the clay wals of the body it would be like new wine in old bottles the bottles would soone breake the heart-strings would be like the locks bolts of the prison doores that opened of themselves to the Apostles The sunne in the Firmament is a type of the Son of Righteousnesse and is the glory of the present world but when Christ the naturall sonne of God and the thing typified appeares in his fulnesse of glory then all these small brookes of glory shall run into this fountaine The worldling then must lose his glory viz. the world though he finde not a higher glory God in the face of Christ but when the world shal thus be swallowed up then shal a Saint be no looser but shal be carried from narrow shalow streames into the Ocean of original life and glory A Saint can loose nothing in loosing the world for hee findes all fulnesse in God the type ceases the thing typified appearing the life of faith ends and the life of vision begins fulnesse of glory then arises before his eyes and never sets any more The seventh observation is this Though at the glorious appearance of Christ the world shall be consumed yet then his owne shall be made like him Vilde bodies made like his glorious body and so taken up into an eternal beholding of God and Christ for ever For sayes the Text we shall see him as he is That glorious appearance of Christ which shal eate up the glory of the world and so leave worldlings howling for want of a glory that I say shal swallow up Saints into it selfe and fixe them in singing Halelujah's to all eternity The world passes away that Saints may have entrance into those mansions prepared for them by original love where the same love wil fully discover it selfe to all eternity and satisfie the soule with those discoveries The eighth observation is this namely That a Saints glory is a certaine glory For as our lives are bid with Christ in God so the fulnesse of our glory is in Christ and appeares at his glorious appearance a Saints fulnesse of glory shal as certainly appeare as Christ shal come to judge the world And this shal be the beginning of glory Come yee blessed of my Father receive the Kingdome prepared for you enter into your Masters joy Now feede my beloved and be satisfied to eternity you shall have no interruption of the full enjoyment of God for ever what ever is in God communicable you shall have it you shall know God as you are knowne of God and be filled with the fulnesse of that glory that flowes from the presence of God and fils heaven and all the heirs of glory to all eternity Christ in whom our life is hidde though hee make it an obscure life from the world yet it is a certain life to a Saint the being of it is as sure as Christs owne being Because I live you live also and the glorious manifestation of it as certaine as the appearance of Christ The ninth and last observation is this That that day which will be most dreadfull to the world and their entrance into the fulnesse of all horrour to eternity even that day shall be a day of fulnesse of joy to the people of God and an entrance into fulnesse of communion with God and Christ which as another Text speaks is fulnesse of joy which is at Gods right hand for evermore Yea that shall be the Coronation day when the righteous Judge shall crowne us with righteousnes 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not me only but all them that love his appearing And then shall Jesus Christ give up the Kingdome to his Father and all the flood-gates of glory shall be set open Love shall then flow from God as it is in God and the soule made capable to receive suitable to such a fulnesse These truths may bee usefull to us in these particulars following First Let this perswade us to be much in beholding our interest as we are the children of God and as we are fixed with Christ in the eternall love of God It is the exhortation of the holy Ghost in this place Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sonnes of God Herein is the glory of the life of saith that it lookes into the love of God and our interest in Christ as co-heirs with him in the love and the glory of God This is a fountain that always gives forth the water of life and
is no other name under heaven by which men can be saved but by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Oh then where should poore sinning soules looke but to their interest in Christ as sons of God and co-heirs with Christ The Prophet Isaiah in Chap. 35.11 speaking in the verse before of Gods bruising and putting Christ to griefe making his soule an offering for our sins saith Hee shall see the travell of his soule and shall be satisfied God is satisfied with no other object but his sons he looks on all his people through him now wee must eye what God eyes the travell of Christ as our publique person and in that object the soule will live and sin will dye God hath lodged the glory of his grace here that all our reliefe should come in and through the Lord Christ He came from the bosome of Gods love upon this designe to be eyes to the blinde legges to the lame and to set the captive and those that are bound in fetters chains free Is not Christ then and the bosome of free-grace that gave him the only object for a sinning soule to looke on for reliefe an experienced soule in these objects will tell you that a glimpes of Gods love in the face of Christ is the only expeller of the being and the reigning of sin in it such experience as this the Apostle speaks of in 2 Cor. 5.14 15. For the love of Christ constrains us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then we were all dead And that he dyed for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which dyed for them and rose againe Marke the spirit of the Apostle he eyed his interest as one with Christ in death and life and speaking of sin sayes he love constraines straines me thus to judge that I am dead to sinne and can live no longer to it because Christ is my interest This is an object indeed able to slay sinne in the soule to behold our interest in Christ that love which made this interest constraines our soules thus to judge and thus to act as being dead to sin because we are alive to Christ so that I hope it is clearely made out that a soule in a sinning condition must eye its interest in God as a Father and in Christ as a head and a husband For no other object besides this can either raise a soule fallen in sin or slay that sinne which lives in the soule Therefore the exhortation stands firm and should make its impression on our soules namely that wee should be much in beholding our interest as we are the children of God and as we are fixed with Christ in his eternall love I may safely say this is our duty as well as our priviledge to be alwayes eyeing our interest in the love of God for herein we serve the ends of God in magnifying his grace to us and shedding his love abroad in our hearts This is fully proved in that Rom. 8.14 15 16. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but ye have received the spirit of adoption whereby we crie Abba Father The Spirit it it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirits that we are the children of God Marke it the Spirit is given to beare witnesse of our interest and this is not a spirit of bondage but that free spirit in which we behold our interest as children and sayes the Text cry out Abba-Father If we have received the Spirit it is our duty as well as our priviledge to improve it to this end the constant beholding of our interest as the children of God and in vers 17. of Rom. 8. If children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ Oh eye this interest as we love our lives let us eye this interest this is our living upon that life which is hid with Christ in God the perfection of which shall be a full enjoyment of God and Christ to all eternity Againe let this perswade us to prize highly and thrust heartily for this most glorious appearance of Christ If our hearts put that day farre from us wee put our highest glory farre from us for till then we are as heirs under age not in full possession for free-grace hath given more and the blood of Christ hath purchased more and heaven containes more glory for us then the world can beare to be revealed but Christ shall come and manifest it all which glory shall consume the world all corruptible things shal dye before it and then soule and body both shall be carried above corruption to be filled and crowned with immortall glory though now we are sonnes yet many times there is such clouds of corruptions and afflictions on us that it hardly appeares what we are much lesse what we shall be Our glory now as children is more then the world can see and when Christ thus appears it shal be more then the world can bear Oh let this bear up our spirits the few moments that are behinde if all in this world be not enough Christ is hard by and he wil bring enough with him Wait cheerfully as those that believe such an appearance of Christ at hand in which we shall appeare in our interest and our union with him Againe let this teach us what value to put upon the world it is too weake a foundation to beare all our glory when we come to possesse our full inheritance as co-heirs with Christ the world will be too narrow to containe it and if it be so then surely the world is not worthy of our love our joy nor our feare That soule which God loves the world is too little for its love God only can and will satisfie that love he makes us love him because he loved us first the flames of love which he kindles in our bosoms he satisfies with that fountain of love which is in his own bosome That soul which hath interest in Christ and waits for his appearance the perishing world is too low a thing for him to rejoyce in But he may always rejoyce in the Lord for there is a sutable portion and truly there is no just cause for a Saint to feare the world when Christ hath undertaken for him at the throne of grace the world must hate us because it hates him whose image wee bear but here is reliefe enough Christ that is our interest in heaven he hath overcome the world for us wee may be encouraged to goe to the Father in Christs name to be kept from the evill of the world but there is no cause why wee should feare that the world shall overcome us for Christ is able and faithfull to preserve all those the Father hath committed to his charge Were the world as little in our affections as it is in our interest we should enjoy it more
make this their boastings that they live upon the living God that to them it is Christ to live and gain to dye that they want nothing here and have this assurance in their bosomes that there waits to swallow them up to all eternity a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory The vanity of all things urider the Sunne doth onely make them miserable whose lives are so low but for such as have their interest in God and live upon him they live in the Sun of Righteousnesse that is above all vanity and in the love of God which hath not the shadow of change in it contrarieties sets forth each other the misery of that soule which hath nothing but a vaine world to live on sets forth the glory of him which hath the God of glory to his portion only herein they differ the world is not so perfect an emptinesse as God is fulnesse there is more in God to satisfie then can be in the world to dissatisfie If all the vanity and emptinesse of the world appeare at once to disquiet and distract a spirit yet if at that moment one glimpse of Gods love doe but appeare it stils and quiets all this shewes how glorious an interest God is to his peopse that a world of vanities is not able to disquiet where his love appearer The loving kindnesse of God is better then life it is all our life it is life in death and above death it puts the soule upon this triumph nothing shall seperate me from the love of God and Christ neither life nor death things present or things to come or any thing because God is my interest my life and my glory That can never come to nothing which made all things out of nothing now that is God He made all things out of nothing but can never be made nothing himselfe all powers springs from him therefore no powers can be above him Hee said let there be light and it was so let the Sunne rule the day and the Moone the night and it was so It is this power and glory that is the interest of Saints so that an empty world can neither take from nor adde to their felicity because their lives are hidde with Christ in God and when Christ shall appeare then shall all his appeare with him in glory Furthermore It will be the wisdome of Saints to learn from the Wise mans experience First not to trust in the World or any thing under the Sun because all is vanity hee that rests upon a broken reed doth not only lose his hopes and his ends but is wounded by that which he trusted in The world is this broken reed it makes a show but can beare no weight the soule that trusteth it must find it so because 't is vanity and in the experience of this vanity there is not only hopes lost and disappointments in their roome but also vexation of spirit 'T was so with Jonas when the Gourd failed him hee said hee did well to be angry Disappointments have a mighty weight upon a naturall heart the hopes of the world do puffe up like a bladder which is filled only with wind but the disappointments of the world come like a mil-stone that presseth down to the dust nay the hopes of the world have so many fears mixed with them that it is hard to discover which is most the hopes or the feares but when the disappointment comes then the former hopes encrease the present griefes and the complainings then are as the Prophets were My friend that lay in my bosome hath betrayed mee I neither knew it nor feared it to be a broken reede till I had placed my hopes and confidence in it and that weight discovered it Indeed saith this poore heart though I had no mind to think of dying yet I could not tell how short my life was but I well hoped this that the pleasures profits and honours of the World would not leave mee in this life therefore I gave out my heart to them bound up my spirit in them lay downe to rest by them and expected they should be a Gourd to shelter mee from sunne and stormes but the poore soule which thus trusteth in the World doth not see it vanity is not knowing of the worm that is at the roote of the Gourd to consume it his heart saith as the foole in the Gospel Soule take thine ease thou hast goods laid up for many yoares but doth not heare that voice that saith thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee It is a great burthen to be disappointed for the present but to be disappointed to eternity is more misery then can be expressed and thus must every soule be that trusteth the world and layeth out it selfe upon it All things under the Sunne have their creation and their being from God therefore must needs be what God intended them to be i. a created being which must returne to its first nothing The world is a map of vanity never intended by its originall to be an object of faith or hope It is the Earth that must be shaken untill it be crumbled to nothing therefore very unfit to be trusted or rested in the vanity under the Sun will be no better satisfaction to such soules as trust in them then the fig-leaves were a garment to cover the nakednesse of our first Parents neither of both can beget confidence enough to come into the presence of God where the spirit seales up this truth to any soule sure there will be no more trusting of or in the world or in any thing under the Sun because vanity comprehends it all Psal 61.9 Men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye altogether lighter then vanity So that trust man or men of what degreee soever they must deceive because they are vanity the man of high degree in his out-side promiseth more then him of low degree but he will prove a lye there is a worme at his roote hee will wither to nothing Methinkes the Prophets counsell Psal 2.10 commeth in very sutable to this purpose Be wise now therefore O yee Kings be learned yee that are Judges of the earth serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce in him with reverence Kisse the Sonne lest he be angry and so yee perish from the right way If his wrath be kindled yea but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Observe it and it amounts to thus much That the highest and greatest amongst men rest not in themselves or any other piece of vanity but to close with Christ and trust in him For saith the Prophet there will appeare a day of blasting all these lower vanities and then you will finde them to be blessed that put their trust in him On that Kings and Judges Parliaments and people had learned this heavenly wisdome to kisse the Sonne to close with Christ to doe his worke to lift up his Scepter and
work in the light of his countenance and the gâ—ory of his love let me goe whether he wil and into what worke he pleaseth my strength to performe all is himselfe therefore my will shall be his his love is my life in his worke therefore I love only to live in doing his worke and whether his worke for mee be to live or dye God shall choose for me not I for my selfe because hee hath given mee the joyes of his love in which I am able not to be bound only but to dye for the name of the Lord Jesus So the same Apostle 2 Cor. 4.7 to the end tels us of the troubles persecutions and afflictions that himselfe and the other Disciples with him suffered daily for owning and preaching Christ yeâ—â—n vers 16. We faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day For these are light afflictions and but for a moment but the Spirit of God through them carries up our spirits to live upon a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory As if he had said in all this hard and suffering worke for God we have more comes in from God then we lay out wee have a full supply of joyes in God so that it is no hard thing to dye day by day in the outward man for the inward man is borne up by a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory So in Rom. 8. latter end What shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distresse or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill or sword No sayes hee this cannot doe it for we suffer all this for the name of Christ Nayin all these things wee are more then Conquerours through him that loved us If we consult with flesh and blood this will be found very hard work for to give up our wills to Gods will-ing but when in the spirit we come as the Apostle to understand the love of God and to live in it to understand aright the tribulations of the World we shall finde that in Gods love wee are more then Conquerors we have more strength then worke we have love enough from God to overcome more tribulation then the world hath and not all these tribulations distresses persecutions famines nakednesses perills and swords nor death nor life 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. So that God by his love gives into the soules of his people greater and fuller joyes then they part with in the World when they give up their wils to this will In Phil. 3. the Apostle tels us what value and esteeme he put upon all his externall endowments and enjoyments after God had made known his love to him in Christ he tels us Hee had as much in the flesh to glory in as any other and shews in what circumciz'd the eight day and so forward but in vers 7. What I counted gaine I now count losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of CHrist Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may winne Christ and be found in him Observe it and we shall find this clearly in the Text that an enjoyment of Christ makes a low esteeme of all things below Christ all his legall righteousnesse hee counts it dung and desires never to be found in it but for ever to be found in Christ It proves the thing in hand that when God makes known himselfe to a soule in Christ and by that brings over its will to his owne will in that God doth not bereave the soule of joyes and contentments but gives in more in giving himselfe then he takes the soule from in taking it out of the world and it selfe and this wee see the Saints acknowledge As Paul here after hee had knowne Christ all but Christ was drosse and dung with him When God gives to his people he gives to them as he requires of them hee gives in the Spirit Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit is love joy The spirit reveales the love of God to his people and seales them up to that love and this makes joy in God so that all his ways are pleasant and his paths sweet to such soules it is not kâ—lling work to the soule when God comes to winne over the will to himselfe Doubtlesse Abraham had more joyes in God then in his Fathers house otherwise hee would never have left his Fathers house to haue followed God nor have given up his will to the will of God that hee might lead him where hee pleased nor would he have slaine his sonne Isaac the sonne of his love at Gods command if he had not lived in a higher region the bosome of Gods love and if Gods love had not been in his bosome if he had not found more joy and love in God then in Isaac he would never have slaine Isaac to have pleased God No man will crucifie his highest joy therefore it is till Christ come into a soule the World is never crucified because till then the world is the chiefe and highest joy the soule hath so that if Abraham had not had a higher joy then Isaac he could never have beene willing to offer up his will in his sonne Isaac to the will of God It is the union of better and higher joyes that makes a soule forsake its lower joyes and give up it selfe and its will to God The three Childrens choise in chusing Nebuchadnezars fiery furnace rather then to worship his golden Image speaks the truth of this thing for if they had not had a better life in God then in the world they would not have chosen God rather then the world Nay they had so much joy and life in God that they believed the flames of fire could not destroy it therefore they were not carefull to answer the King all their care was to keepe close to God in whom doubtlesse they had a more exceeding and eternall weight of joy and glory otherwise they could never have given up their wills to the will of God in the flames of a fiery furnace So likewise Paul and Silas after they had endured many stripes and were cast into prison and their feete fast in the stockes Acts 16.23 24 25. yet for all this Paul and Silas prayed and sang prayses unto God What doth this speake but that the joyes of God in the soules of his people doe exceede all their sufferings and that though God in conforming the will of his people to his owne will doth bring them into sufferings yet hee giveth greater incomes of his love by his spirit then the affliction needeth that they are not only able to beare them all but to joy in God
not made with hands but eternal in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 This wil be lasting glory when as the longest day the worldlings glory lives is but till the earthly tabernacles bee dissolved their joy and glory amounts to no more then the crackling of thornes under a pot it is certainly perishing because it is not God himselfe It were well if Saints did not suck in too much of this perishing glory But there is another glory which Saints too often sit down in and too much make their boasts of which is short of the true subject of glory even GOD himselfe And that is Circumcision and Uncircumcision Paul Apollo and Cephas externals formes outsides somethings in the way of God when they should only glory in the end God himselfe a soule that truly lives in God submits to all the will of God and walkes in all the wayes of God revealed to it by the Spirit but lookes upon them all as below his rest Hee can fixe and glory in none but God himselfe it pleaseth God through meane things to make known himselfe to his people and to have communion with his people in but hee contrives and makes up the salvation the life rest and glory of his people in his owne eternal love and free-grace and would not have his people lye downe in the streames but passe through them into the Ocean of his owne bosome of love and free-grace it wil be a smal advantage when Christ comes to make up his jewels for any soule to say I was of this Church or of that known by this name or the other Circumcised or not circumcised availes not at that day Christ lookes for the new creature his owne image the worke of the eternal love and free grace of God in every soule The glory of that day will be God is mine and I am his His free-grace is my salvation and my salvation is the worke and fruits of his owne eternal love and free-grace Therefore sayes the Apostle in 1 Cor. 3.22 23. Let no man glory in man for all things are Gods whether Paul or Apollo or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come all are Gods and yee are Christs and Christ is Gods Glory not in man nor any thing comes by man all these are yours in that great gift the Lord Jesus Christ glory in him then you have a right subject for your glory namely God Paul and Apollo is yours to use but not to glory in Christ and God in Christ is the only centre for a Saint to rest and glory in Oh then away with any lower glory then the Lord himselfe hee is a never failing glory at his right hand are glories for evermore In the 21. of Revel 23. The glory of God is the light of the new Jerusalem and the Lamb is the light thereof It is only God in Christ that is the glory of heavenly soules therefore let such soules glory in nothing else It is very unbecoming the heires of Canaan to take up their glory in the Wildernesse provision much lesse to hunger after the Onyons of Aegypt It is not huskes with Swine but bread in our Fathers house that is our portion as children then surely our glory should be in God and in Christ the bread of life all lower glories are the sin and shame of Saints and when Gods people doe take up lower glories it pleaseth the Lord in much mercy to take away those dung glories that his people may be ashamed to glory in any thing but himselfe who is the everlasting God in as much as the riches of the eternal love and free-grace of God hath made himselfe the inheritance of his people and their glory It is not presumption but true interest and duty for every Saint in point of glory to overlooke al of this side God himselfe and not to rest but in the eternal original love and free-grace of God I shall conclude with this cordial truth to all the people of God Your real and proper glory can never be taken from you because 't is God himselfe the World may hate and persecute Saints because of this but they shall never be able to strippe us of our glory it may be they thinke to doe it when they shal scatter Churches and Saints from one another but this is their darkenesse they know not Saints proper glory God himselfe is their glory he is the glory of all Church-fellowship and communion with Saints Worldlings are mistaken if thy thinke to put out this glory though God doth many times make use of meanâ—s in which hee makes knowne himselfe yet hee is not bound up to meanes If the men of the World could so scatter Saints as they should never see the faces one of another more yet by this they cannot hinder them from seeing the face of God in Christ and this is Saints glory It is an unexpressable glory that our glory is in God and that God himselfe is his peoples glory though the malice of men seems to be boundlesse yet certainly their power is bounded they are in fetters and chaines before they come to their owne home though they may perfectly envy yet they cannot in the least disappoint or destroy Saints in their glory God can in a moment unpower and destroy them but they can never un-God him they cannot diminish his original eternal love and free-grace and rich mercy they cannot make him unjust or unfaithful nay they shal feele that he is both They cannot strip God of his holinesse righteousnesse purity power perfection infinitenesse and eternity therefore they cannot strippe Saints of their glory because God in all this and all he is is his peoples glory Saints have this glory above a dying World therefore above the reach of dying men Oh then Saints rejoyce in the Lord alwayes glory in God who is fulnesse of glory let the World see we have meate to eate which they know not of and a God to glory in which they can never hinder us of Let them see that wee are already risen with Christ into his glory and do know that if these earthly Tabernacles were dissolved nothing could hinder us of the ful enjoyment of our God in glory who is our God and our glory so that the Spirit of God hath imprinted in our hearts and lives this precious exhortation He that gloryeth let him glory in the Lord. CHAP. XIIII Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory in it 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. verses 55. O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 56. The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sin is the Law 57. But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ THE subject-matter of this whole Chapter is Death and the Resurrection from the Dead The generall scope of these three verses is Death and that under a two-fold consideration Death in its strength with its
in it O Death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law But thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 15 55 56 57. FINIS Jan. 25. 1648. I Have delightfully looked upon these Clusters of Canaans Grapes and have helped them to the Presse that they may be Wine for Common drinking I onely minde the Reader that these Grapes yeeld the New Wine of the Gospell Let him take heed hee puts it not into the Old Bottles of envy or of malice of prejudice or of contempt if he doe His Bottles will breake and though the Wine because 't is saving Wine cannot but be safe yet himselfe will be a looser yea in danger to be lost Whereas his profit and Salvation are I beleeve on this side the glory of God the highest end of the Author in this publication as they are of the Licenser Joseph Caryl A Cluster of Canaans GRAPES CHAP. I. Love to all Saints shews union with Christ JOHN 13.35 By this shall all men know that yee are my Disciples if yee love one another THE fore-going verse holds out a Command from Christ that all his Disciples those which love and follow him should love oee another And to this command our Saviour holds forth his love as a pattern and incitation to us to love one another That you love one another saith Christ Verse 34 as I have loved you Our Saviour spake these words a little before bis death that they might be of the more force and make the more impression upon the soules of his Disciples as if he should say remember my dying love and let it live in your bosomes as a precept and example for you to love one another In this 35. verse our Saviour advances love holy spirituall love and makes it a Beacon of discovery This love it is the love of Christ within us for without him we can doe nothing Now Christ makes a double discovery by this love The first is he discovers God his Father and our Father and himselfe to us Secondly by this love he makes a discovery of Saintt to the world as they are in union and communion with him the latter of these is that which is held forth in this verse namely A Saint manifesting to the world his union with Christ by his love to every fellow-member as bearing Christs image The point that naturally flowes from these words is this That love to all Saints is a plain manifestation of our union and communion with Christ When I say all Saints I admit of no distinction but only Saintship living in the Spirit up to their interest as Disciples and followers of Christ Not Saints of such or such a judgement in point of worship nor Saints of a higher or lower growth nor Saints distinguished by their various formes of discipsine but as branches of the true Vine which in their union with Christ bring forth the fruits of the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse Christ gives this as a generall command to all his Disciples to love one another Joh. 15.17 our Saviour tells us this As I am in the Father so are you in me and this is a good foundation of love therefore love one another as I have loved you Joh. 15.12 And in 1 John 4.21 And this Commandment have we from him that he who loves God loves his brother also as if the holy Ghost had said Those that truly love God will love his image where-ever they find it Our Saviour in John 17.20 21. prayes upon this principle he prayes for all that shall beleeve in him his love is not stinted onely unto Apostles or Disciples persons of greatest gifts and graces but it runnes as strongly to the weakest beleever So in the 10. verse of that 17. of John All mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them Christ by an eye of love beholds that union which the weakest beleever hath with him and beholds his glory in that union Here wee have Christ the purest founntain of love for our pattern his love runnes to all in union with him so should our distinguishing love extend to all that hold the head Christ Jesus and walk in the light and life of the Spirit This truth is so cleare from the first Text that it needs not any more to prove it though the Scripture be abundant in it 2 Thess 4.9 as that 1 John 4.19 20 21. and John 15.12 So take in 1 Thess 4.9 the Apostle makes it as it were a needlesse thing to write to them their duty in this to love their brethren in Christ For sayes he you your selves are taught of God to love one 〈◊〉 nother as if he had said you know nothing of God if you know not this duty if you know your union with Christ you will know that that love which made you one with him hath made you so with every of his members So in that 1 John 2.10 11. 1 Joh. 2.10 11. the holy Ghost there speakes the same thing with the first Text and makes love to the brethren to be a discovering Beame of Christ the Lord of Light and Glory in us The Text is plain Hee that loves not his brother abides not in the light but is in darknesse and walkes in darknesse not knowing whither be goes because he is without Christ the light of life who is the light of that soule hee lives in which soule loves Christ and all that is like him In all these Scriptures you may observe how the heart of Christ and all those that wrot from the Dictates of the holy Ghost is upon this very thing God calls himself the God of Love fils his children with his Divine nature by his Spirit and would have them beare his Name too that the world may know that the Father of Love hath begotten Children of Love in his own likenesse I am afraid we all live much below this eminent discovery of our interest in Christ by our love to all Saints in that latitude which Christ intends it therefore to stirre up and engage our hearts more in this glorious and heavenly duty and priviledge let us in the Spirit of Christ seriously weigh these Reasons and Considerations following First Reason or Consi ∣ deration 1 the Onenesse of all Elect beleevers in the originall love of God consider if we all have not one Fountaine of life and were not all in the first Adam involved into one death of transgression Was there any fallen soule lesse guilty in the fall of the first Adam then another Or was there any that God saw more worthinesse in then in another to move him to chuse such a soule Surely no For then that Word of eternall Truth could not stand in Ephes 2.8 For by grace are we saved not of our selves 't is the gift of God
if Saints now did resolve with Paul to know neither Christ nor Saints after the flesh I beleeve our formes and our apprehensions of the wayes of God which have in the best of them so much mixture of fleshly darknesse would not be made the foundation and the bounds of our love one to another I know in Scripture-language but of two seeds in the world The seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent Saints are all of one seed though they may differ in light some more in the Spirit and others more in the flesh yet all have the seed of eternall life in them 1 Cor. 1.11 12 13. When the Apostle heard of the contentions that were in the house of Cloé saying that some were of Paul some of Apollo and some of Cephas and some of Christ his answer is this Is Christ divided As if he had said it is your fleshly apprehension that divides you to Paul Apollo and Cephas Did you judge in the Spirit you would see your selves to be one in Christ for Christ is not divided Christ and his people are one as Christ is one with God so are his people one with him Joh. 17.10.21.23 All mine are thine says Christ to his Father and our Father and therefore prayes for a Spiritof union to fall upon all Saints as Saints All that are thine and mine Christs bowells earnes to all his members as members one with himselfe and his Father his heart is not satisfied till they be all with him in glory 24 verse he doth not say Father I will that those which thou hast given me that have the highest light be with me where I am to behold my glory and those of lower light to be kept under the beggerly rudiments of the World but his armes of love doe incompasse all that they all may be one and those which thou hast given me says Christ As if Christ bad said thou art free in thy selfe and mightest choose whom thou pleasest but those which thou hast chosen my heart is fired on them all so that Imust have them all with me in glory Thou wert free in choosing of them and art still a free agent so that thou maist give them light as it pleaseth thee but they have my heart as they are thy gift thou hast given them me and I have given my selfe for them and to this end I dyed for them and live in them that they all might be one in me as I am one in thee Christs love flowes from union in himselfe and not from those apprehensions in Saints which are mixtures of flesh and Spirit he is like his Father he will not quench smoaking flax or break the bruised reed he loves the least of his Fathers image where ever he sees it Christs heart is in the midst of his body he tenders a foote or a hand as well as an eye because it is a member of his body 1 Cor. 12.13 14 15 26 27. And gives it us in charge that as his body we should suffer and rejoyce with every member which must relate to Saints in generall for sayes the 27 verse you are the body of Chrivt and members in particular Every particular Saint is a member of Christ all Saints the body of Christ to be a member of the body a Saint this draws forth Christs love and by this will it appeare that we are Disciples followers of Christ if upon interest in Christ wee love one another By this will all men know that you are my Disciples if you love Saints because of my image and not because of your owne Again consider this if that worldlings finding us contending with and hardly using of our brethren fellow Saints that are below or above our light shall cruelly entreat us will they not have a faire plea to God at the last and great day when God shall lay it to their charge that they have persecuted his Disciples may they not answer Lord we did not know them to be thy Disciples for thou hast told us wee shall know thine by loving one another but we found these contending among themselves their unkindenesse to one another did demonstrate them to be the children of the World not heirs of thy Kingdome and walking like children of the flesh and this world we judged that we might safely lay our iron rods upon them If they should answer thus sure I am this would be as good a reason for the worlds cruelty to us as our differing apprehensions of the mind of God will be for our not loving one another Wee have two examples in the Olde Testament why love and brethren should goe together First Abraham and Lot let not us fall out for we are brethren Secondly Joseph to his brethren in their journey Fall not out by the way for you are brethren To be children of one Father is an argument of love Saints are all in their way to Heaven and Christ is their way the way and the end are both arguments of love The whole current of the Gospel runs this way that which invloves all in one is Christs command Love one another as I have loved you Christ loved us to give us light and life so that light could not be the cause of his love no more should it be the cause of our love for we should love as Christ doth from union with God Thine they were and thou gavest them mee that is enough to Christ if an interest in God he loves them God cals himselfe the God of love and Christ is the manifest testimonie of Gods love now the great testimonie that Saints give to the world of their being in God and Christ is the life of love to God and all that beare his Image even the meanest of his Disciples None can love spiritually and truly but those that live spiritually and truly in God for God is love in the fountaine what ever is love in the streames it is the flowings forth of God into such a soule And the true reason of our little love to Saints as Saints is this our living so much in the flesh and so little in the Spirit so much in a forme of godlinesse and so little in the power of godlinesse laying so much weight upon things that perish and so little upon the rocke of ages and surely when God by the fire of his Spirit shall burn up consume our fleshly principles then will the pantings of our soules be pure like the Spouse in the Canticles Tell me saith shee where is hee whom my soule loveth and this hee was Christ So will our soules say when they seeke an object for their loves tell me where Christ is And if we find Christ in such a soule that is not at our pitch of light and in matter of forme beares not our image yet I have found Christ here and it is hee whom my soule loves so that now my love must runne forth to Christ In this soule is an
love in Gods heart by which a Saint is brought with David Psal 57.7 to professe his heart is fixed His heart is fixed and he wil sing and give praise Psalm 57.7 The 28. and 29. verses of Gal. 3. runs thus There is neither Jew nor Greeke neither bond nor free neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus And if yee be Christs then are yee Abraham's seede and heirs according to promise Here first the Apostle strips them of their Nationall priviledges and their outward endowmens as hee had done before of their legall performances Ephes 2.3 the same Apostle in Ephes 2.3 puts all flesh by nature under one and the same lost condition Among whom also we all had our conversations in times past and by nature were the children of wrath as well as others Gal. 3.22 But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne In these generalls we finde no exception for nationall priviledges or outward endowments but the 4. and 5. verses of that 2 Ephes tels us that God who is rich in mercy magnified his great love to us when we were dead in sins and quickened us together with Christ so that it is by grace that wee are saved And that Text in Gal. 3.22 shewes the reason why all is concluded under sinne namely that the promise of faith in Christ Jesus might be given to them that believed So that if salvation be the purchase nothing of selfe shall be the price or if salvation be the end nothing but Christ shall be the way Christ is that rocke of Ages which can beare and beare up the weight of soules to all eternity Secondly as he empties the soule of all hopes of good in it selfe so he makes Christ to he all good to the soule If yee be Christs then are yee Abram's seede and heires according to the promise 1 Cor. 1.30 But of him are yee in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1.30 who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousnesse sanctification and redemption This Text I take to be full to this purpose the scope and tendency of it is to hold out Christ to be all to a Believer as he is made so of God So in 1 Cor. 3.22 23. All things are ours 1 Cor. 3.22 23. as wee are Christs Interest in Christ is interest in all God God doth not strip his children naked that they might remaine so but he strips us of our owne righteousnesse to cloath us with the perfect robe of Christs righteousnesse He empties us of our owne wisdome to fill us with Christ our wisdome Though God makes it impossible for us to redeeme our selves from his wrath yet he freely gives us Christ who is so full a Redeemer that nothing can be laid to the charge of those for whom he hath dyed Rom. 8.1.33 34. And though we are fallen from God by nature it is impossible for us either to quicken or maintaine the least truth of grace in our owne soules Yet God having made Christ our sanctification sinne shall not reigne in our mortall bodies because we are not under the law but under grace And whoever is in him they are thereby made new creatures he so waters with his owne Spirit and shines with his owne love that he makes every branch in him to bring forth fruit Christ is a living interest and though he finde soules dead by nature yet he makes them alive by grace so that they are in him as soules alive From these observations I shall set downe three Gospel-truths as I humbly conceive which Christ hath made known to my soule The first is this That man out of Christ considered under what notion you will is the most miserable emptiest undone piece of the whole creation You will grant me this truth when you looke on fallen man in this consideration which the Scripture holds forth in Ephes 2.2 3. Being ledde by Sathan to doe all his will and answer all the lusts of the flesh But then take him under the most glorious performances of the workes of the law under the highest externall priviledges in these dayes of the Gospel call them Church-priviledget or what you will or in the fullest injoyments of the creatures till it say soule take thine ease as the foole in the Gospel If all these or what ever else can be thought on should meete in one man yet at this very instant of time the absence of Christ writes death upon this soule with all it hath or doth Christ is the life of every soule that truly liveth it is two deaths in one for a dead soule to enjoy any thing without Christ It is nothing more then a dead man wrapped up in his winding-sheete both dead alike so that neither hath life much lesse can give life each to other the whole creation is dead till Christ give it life Now the more created things we finde without Christ the more deaths are center'd in a soule dead before Ephes 2.1 This death remaines upon the whole creation till Christ quicken it When Christ who is our life shall appeare then and not till then can any soule appear in glory The second truth is this That a man united to Jesus Christ is united to the love of God the redemption the righteousnesse purity and the glory of Christ in truth to all that is communicable in God and Christ That which hath gone before doth prove this truth but I shall offer some more Texts of Scripture 1 John 2.1 My little children these things I write unto you that you sinne not And if any man sinne wee have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Union with Christ makes Christ to plead his owne righteousnesse for the sinner The Saint through weakenesse may fall into sin but sin cannot separate from the love of God for Christ lives for ever to make intercession and he as our Advocate pleads his righteousnesse to be ours John 17.10.21 22 23. In this Scripture Christ beares witnesse to a Saints union with God and himselfe All mine are thine and thine are mine in the 10th verse and then in the following verses we see what use he makes of this union namely to pray his Father that all his might be made perfect in his glory and to manifest to the world that he loves those in union with Christ as hee doth Christ himselfe so that 1 Cor. 1.30 Christ is all to a Saint and all Christs is a Saints In this Text is union with the righteousnesse purity and redemption of Christ Colos 2.10 The text speaks plainly after the Apostle had told us the fulnesse of Christ he tels us we are compleat in him Rom. 8.24 Heires of God and joynt-heires with Christ God is a Saints inheritance as the Saint is united to Christ If God be our portion we are Christs fellow-heirs who is the first-borne of many brethren The end of Gods uniting a soule to Christ is that hee might alwayes behold that soule
cannot fin but it must be without excuse A carnall man may sin I could doe no better in my owne strength I but a Saint cannot plead so he hath Christ for his strength why then in the Spirit of God let Saints consider what a course of sin would be in them it is little less then proclaiming Christ a sinner for a Saint is looked upon to live act in Christ and that Christ doth all in him Oh then if the glory and honour of God and Christ be deare to us how can we that are delivered from sin live any longer to it It is impossible that we can love Christ and sin too therefore where Christ lives by his love he constrains the death of sinne The exhortation is to Saints to live in the Spirit and that is trampling upon all below God and Christ and behold our selves heirs of that glory and co-heirs with Christ in that glory that is God and Christ to all eternity CHAP. IIII. Gods love giveth Saints to know they shall appear like Christ 1 John 3.1.2 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God Therefore the world knowes us not because it knew not him Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appeare what wee shall be but wee know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is GOds love in the manner of it in making of us his sonnes is here by the holy Ghost set forth with a behold and truly none but such as have received the holy Ghost can behold it It is too bright a glory for any but a spiritual eye to look on therefore the world knowes not Gods children the heires of glory because they know not him the Lord of glory Spirituall objects are only discerned by spirituall eyes and such are here called to behold the originall love of God which hath made us one with Christ in him sonnes of his love and heires of his glory There lyes very much in these two verses I shall only for methods sake put them into two generall heads and make observations from them The first is this That at the glorious appearance of Christ will come the fulnesse of a Saints glory as hee is united to Christ The second generall head is this That this fulness will be the fulnesse of Christ for we shall be like him see him as he is To the first head That at the glorious appearance of Christ will come the fulnesse of a Saints glory as he is united to Christ By this glorious appearance of Christ I understand that appearance when he shall come to judge the world when he shall give the damned their full portion and his children theirs for then sayes the Text wee shall be made like him and see him as he is which is a state of perfection I shall now endeavour to prove this first generall head First take this paralell Scripture as a proofe Colos 3 3 4. For yee are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appeare then shall yee also appeare with him in glory Here Christ is said to be a Saints life there is our union with him and at his appearance then we appeare in fulnesse of glory That soule which is one with Christ is united to him in his death and in his life We are dead with Christ sayes one Text and this Text sayes wee are alive in Christ Nay Christ is our life so that when Christ manifests his owne glory he manifests our glory as we are united to him Wee may reade the will of Christ in this point of our glory with him in John 17.24 Father I wil that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me To behold the glory of Christ is to be swallowed up into the glory of Christ yea into Christ himselfe for his glory is not to be beheld out of himselfe and then doth the fulnesse of a Saints glory appeare when he doth come to behold Christ aâ— he is united to him in his fulnesse of glory So likewise Rom 8 17. And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ If so be that we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together The Apostles scope is to shew that in our union with Christ we are heires of glory joynt-heirs with Christ and so have joynt-interest in his glory so that when the fulnesse of Christs glory appeares then the fulnesse of our glory appeares The holy Ghost doth fully cleâ—â—e this point and shews wherein this glory lies in that 1 Thes 4.16 17. For the Lord himselfe shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Arch-Angel and with the trumpe 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 meete the Lord in the aire and so shall we ever be with the Lord. This place speakes of that comming and appearing of Christ which I mentioned in the beginning and it clears this point fully that we shall appear with Christ in glory sayes the Text and so shall wee ever be with the Lord not only appeare with him in glory but also abide for ever with him and so be filled with the fulnesse of his glory These Scriptures instead of many more which might be produced will fully serve to make proofe of the first generall head The second generall head proves it selfe it hath in it a double proofe that our fulnesse is the fulnesse of Christ For first sayes the Text wee shall be like him Now nothing but ouâ—uâ—ion with Christ can make us like Christ to be filled with his fulnesse And another Text sayes Of his fulnesse meaning Christs we received and grace for grace The second proofe in the Text is We shall see him as he is Now Christ is so beight a glory that he can be seene in no light but his owne he is the expresse Image of his Father and the brightness of the glory of God so that his brightnesse darkens all other glories and is discerned in nothing but himselfe I shall now make some observations of this Scripture and these generâ—ll heads And the first observation shall be this namely That a Saints â—oorst condition is in this world When the world shall end then shall all the clouds of the people of God be blown over and the brightnesse of Christs appear and we like him sayes the Text. I when the little world that we carry about us in this body of sinne and death shall give up the ghost then shall a harvest of gaine come in as the holy Ghost tels us in that first Chapter of Paul to the Philippians vers 21. Though to live be Christ yet to dye is gaine Though
of God in his word but to the eye of a believer beholding God and every part of his revealed will in Christ all is alike In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God That was spoken of Christ now the Believer alwayes beholding God in Christ which is his originall word and the Scripture only Christ written out in the Spirit doth behold God in his originall and in his written word in every part of it one so that every part is of like beauty and pretiousnesse to the soule of a believer Having opened my selfe thus farre I shall doe it farther and declare that to have any hope left to live as sinfull nature pleases casting the revealed word of God behind their backs and under a notion of redemption to deny the Redeemer to talk of free-grace and to trample grace under foote to deny the Lord that bought them in walking as doe others that know not Christ This is so far from entring into my thoughts from that freedome I have pleaded for all this time that if I should name this and call it darknesse I should call it Aegyptian darkenesse so farre from freedome that it is bondage beyond expression The second of the Ephesians sets it out best in these termes The power of the Prince of the Aire ruling in the children of disobedience But that freedome I plead for is the power of the Lord of glory ruling by his Spirit in his children of light and life My aime is not to take away that holy just and good law of God out of the conscience of a believer but as God doth with his people in the new Covenant and in Christ the mediator of it establish them in a better covenant Heb. 8. upon better promises so would I only hold out the matter of the law taken out of the hand of Moses which was but a servant and established in the heart of Christ which is the Son and by the Son in the spirit of light and life written in the heart and conversation of every believing soule And lesse then this I thinke is not in the covenant of the Almighty when he convenants to put his law in our inward parts and to write it in our hearts For my authority in this I shall say as the Apostle Paul in the 3d of Rom. the last vers when in the greatest part of the chapter he hath pleaded this very cause that I doe he concludes in these words Doe we then make void the law through faith God forbid Yea we establish the law So that it is cleare the law of life that makes us free from the law of sin and death which is Christ living by his Spirit in the conscience is not to make void but to establish upon better promises from a law of death to be a law of life Thus much in generall But more particularly I lay downe this as my light that the law is now in the Spirit in the Gospel for a believer to walk by the law is made Gospel as Christ is made flesh the Gospel is both a perfect law of life and righteousnesse of grace and truth why should we separate that which God hath in his free-grace joyned together namely Law and Gospel in one under the government that is given to the childe Jesus Nor is the holinesse or sanctification that God lookes for in his believing Saints such as is falsehood by the law or outward command but by the preaching of faith by which the spirit is given which renewes and sanctifies a Believer and makes him the very law of Commandements in himselfe and his heart the very two Tables of Moses And though the law be a beame of Christ in substance and matter yet we are not to live by the light of one beame now when the Son of righteousnesse is risen himselfe that was a fitter light for those who lived in the regions of the shadow of death it is with the law now or light of righteousnesse as it was with the light in the creation when that which was scattered was gathered into one body of light So Christ now being revealed holinesse and righteousnesse as well as grace and love is revealed in him and and gathered up in him The word is now flesh and dwels amongst us and we behold his glory as the glory of the only begotten sonne full of truth as well as grace is in substance by the Spirit set downe 2 Cor. 3.16 17 18. verses There is the vaile taken away in turning to the Lord. There is Christ held forth to be the Spirit and the spirit of liberty to his people but observe the fruits of this liberty it is from sinne not to sinne but we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord or of the Lord the spirit so it is in the margine Thus is Christ that Sunne to us which warmes us in the very shining upon us the Believer works walks and lives under the Gospel as beholding his perfect redemption wrought in Christ and so brings forth the power of this redemption and salvation through the spirit of Adoption freely working to the praise of his free-grace and freely obeying from the life of this redemption doing every thing in love because of his love shed abroad in our hearts and neither taking in judgements hell or damnation nay not heaven or glory to force on the worke or quicken the duty but doing all from the spirit of life in Christ Jesus except when corruption or temptation hindereth the freenesse and spiritualnesse in the duty A Spirit at this pitch is Christ and his beloved both met in his garden of spices and by feeding on the honey in the honey-combe Christ fils the soule with himselfe and delights himselfe in that fulnesse that is himselfe So the soule in communion with Christ in the Spirit sees it selfe compleat in Christ so joyes in its Masters joy alwayes satisfying it selfe in that love that is Christ himselfe and is able to trumpet out its glory to the world My beloved is mine and I am his This is Christ and his office branches setting about God alwayes feeding on the banquet of love and fitting under the benner of love God beholding every elect soule in Christ the soule beholds God in Christ and Christ beholds himselfe and all his in God and this vision in one spirit swallowes up all into one God beholds every elect soule as Christ Christ beholds every branch in him as of him beholding us in that glory we shall have with him when he appeares in his fulnesse of glory and the believing soule in the Spirit beholding its justification sanctification and redemption and Christ one in eternall love the soule is in this light transformed into this love that is God himselfe so sees nothing of God but what is all God such a soule knowes no divided Christ
or parted God every tittle of revealed truth which is Christ written out by the Spirit it is all God and Christ in one and this Spirit that reveales Christ to the world in the word and to the believer in his soule this Spirit is God too that so all within the soule is God all about the soule is God and all comes from the soule is God and this is the freedome the believer in his conscience hath from the law in the letter it is not destroyed but established It is taken out of the hand of Moses the servant and put into the hand of Christ the Sonne it is not made void but fulfilled for us and in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit Now behold the Law in its glory changed from law to Gospel from letter to spirit from Moses to Christ from death to life from an angry God to a loving Father as it is Gospel so it is Spirit 't is Christ yea it is God himselfe On the glory of that Law which is God not only declaring the mind will of God but in the spirit of love filling the soule with strength to obey from whence we find Christ in the Gospel calling upon those that love him to keepe his Commandements God Christ and the Spirit being in the Law it becomes the law of life when the law had in it but a naked demonstration what a Creator might justly require of a fallen creature but gave no strength it is held forth under the termes of the law of sinne and death by which it had not that glory to invite a poore soule to looke on it because the soule could see nothing but its death in it but as Christ being made under the law to redeem them that were under the law hath satisfied his and our Father fully in it for us so hee hath turned this law into his law of love into Gospel into Spirit into himselfe and his Father Now this law hath that beauty which allures and takes every beleeving soule nature turned into grace it is now meate and drinke to a believer to doe the will of God in the Spirit First This will let us truly to understand who they be that be Antinomians Those that deny the Law if I may judge I should say it is those that would keepe it in the hand of the servant out of the Sonne what can be a greater denying of it then to keepe it in the Letter out of the Spirit to rob it of that glory which is God and Christ in the Spirit What soule dare put it selfe under the Law out of Christ when in so doing it makes it selfe a debter to the whole law And as the Apostle in Gal. 3.10 11. sayes So many as are under the workes of the law are under the curse of the law and under that law which can never justifie before God Now to keepe the law in such a state as this is will make every soule shun it not daring to come under it as seeing nothing but death in it Sathan is the soules greatest enemy in darkning it with legall principles that it sees not Christ so are those the greatest enemies to the holy just and good law of God that would pul that nature of Christ in his Spirit from it and leave it still the law of the letter in the hand of Moses when God and Christ hath made it Gospel-law the law of love in the Spirit The law may here complain as the Spouse did of those watch-men that rent her vaile those that rend Christ from the law rend the beautifull vaile the glory of the law from it These holds forth the law dead like Lazarus in the grave stinking and those that follow it weeping Or as Pharoah to the children of Isael doubling the tale of bricks and giving no straw what glory is there in this But those that hold out the Law in the Spirit holds it not only forth as a law that lives but a law that gives life so farre from requiring the tale of bricke to be doubled and give no straw that in every duty it brings Christ in whence we are able to doe all things This makes it plainely appeare who they be which deny the law and may justly be distinguished by the name of Antinomians Againe this exhorts Saints that seeing it is part of the redemption of the blood of Christ That no law but the law of love the spirit of life in Christ should rule or reigne in the conscience of a believer To take the counsell of the Apostle in Gal. 5.1 Stand fast therefore in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled againe with the yoake of bondage God hath not given nor Saints received the spirit of bondage againe to feare but the pirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father This is the life of our lives to live in the spirit It is the great promise of the Gospel to give the Spirit This would I know when doth the soule feast but when God spreads tables of love and in the Spirit bids us eate my beloved eate abundantly and be satisfied Nature teaches the outward man to stand for liberty oh then what should grace doe how should this stirre us up to stand for that liberty which is our life loose this and loose all your spirituall life in a moment doe but once looke on the law out of Christ and it will be with us as those in 2 Cor. 3.15 But even to this day when Moses is read the vaile is upon their hearts This vaile will be a vaile of darknesse that the soule shall not see Christ in propriety in any of his offices benefits or merits If any or all these be deare oh then stand fast in this liberty wherewith Christ bath made us free This is that freedome the Sonne hath made which is freedome indeed But if the Sonne make us not free then are we bond men to eternity If thy heart be hard looke on him whom you have piereed and then shall it be evangelically melted If sinne sting thy conscience looke on him that is is lifted up which the brazen Serpent typified this is our freedome and Christs prerogative the governement is on his shoulders he is that King and his Spirit that Law which is only to reigne in the conscience of his people Why should not our soules count deare of that which is so deare to Christ and all his people This is that glory Christ will not give to another therefore this is that glory wee should only give to Christ Oh then admire and extoll for ever this glory of the riches of the free-grace of God in Christ that hath freely given this state of grace this glorious state to us that were by nature the children of wrath as well as others It doth not yet appear what we shall be so that more glory shall be then is yet revealed but our soules must confesse that
the fruit can be no other then the tree is and it is the darknesse of that flesh which is in Saints that keeps them from a cleare discerning of that truth and makes them smile when the world smiles on them and be sad when the world frownes on them Vanity could not unsettle our spirits if vanity were not in them It is that vanity which is in our flesh that puts a value upon the vanity that is in the world but truly it is our exceeding shame that having the Lord to glory in we should glory in any thing but the God of our salvation and having so sure and abiding glory that any frownes from vanity should make the least damp upon our glory Saints are of an eternall glory and substance and therefore should not labour for nor glory in any thing but what is sutable that which will abide for ever and upon this consideration the whole World that lumpe of vanity is cut off at once it withers in the using and certainly dyeth either before or with our flesh it is not able to satisfie either out soules or bodies therefore unworthy to be laboured or contended for by any but especially by Saints that have God to live and delight in Againe the Wise mans discovery is that all things under the Sunne is vanity Carries along with it this counsell that we should use the world as if we us'd it not i. value it no higher then vanity let it be so in our eye and hearts let Gods end in creating of the world be our end in using of it He made the World to serve man and man only to serve himselfe so may we use all things not sinfull moderately and with thankesgiving making the whose Creation our servants and our foot-stoole so that in all and with all we serve our God and live in his bosome of love which is so bright a glory that it swalloweth up all the glory of the World and makes that something or nothing meerly as God appeares in them or not in them God is so perfect a glory that he makes the darkest lanthorn of the creature when he appeares in it to shine glorious and when he withdrawes his presence the Lanthorn is dark again sutable to its owne nature this should the world be in a Saints eye what of God is in the whole or any part of the creation embrace that keep close to that lift up his name his power and his glory in all so use the world as to lift up God above it My meaning is this use all power all place all honours and interest among the sonnes of men to lift up the Name of God This is a pretious spirit indeed that can despise the worlds glory when Gods glory goeth not with it and can rejoyce in the worlds reproaches when in that he may more advance the glory of his God this is to use the world as if we used it not to take it up and lay it downe onely as it may serve the highest end of our Being the lifting up of the glory of our God If there were any thing but vanity in the world I verily perswade my selfe it should have been part of the Saints portion but as it is it is too low a Region for the Saints to live in God giveth full blessings to his children and therefore hath given himselfe to be his peoples inheritance hath done them no injury in binding up the whole world under vanity for it is not their portion it is at most but their Wildernesse footstoole Christ is their Rock of Ages Heaven their more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Saints would soon have low thoughts of the world if their hearts were lifted up to their interest the King and Kingdome of glory it will then appeare that we used it as if we used it not that when we have it it is no part of our life and glory so when it is gone we have no want of it for God is our all and we have at all times all in God It is not the creature which is vanity that maketh a Saints joy but God in the creature and if that vanity vanish away yet the comfort doth not because that is bound up in God who liveth for ever God doth often vary in his dispensations to his children but not in his love which is their life though in reference to the world he leads them through good and bad reports through ficknesse and health high and low honorable and dishenorable esteem of the world yet in all this his eternall love is alwayes the same and Saints knowing this are as full of life and joy in the one condition as in the other because God and his love is their life and joy in all conditions And hence it comes that Saints use the world with so much slightnesse because not any of their life and interest is bound up in it if the Gourd be green and flourish yet God and not that is their life and glory if the Gourd wither and die yet they doe not for they have lost nothing in the Gourds being nothing because God who is all is their all Oh that the Spirit did live more in Saints then should we live more in God and lesse in the world then should wee truly use the world as if we used it not This truth doth also shew us the glorious interest of Saints that have a God to live and glory in though there be vanity in all things under the Sunne Sure it could not but be amazement to that Tyrant to behold the 3 children in the fiery furnace and not consumed And were it well considered it would be as great an amazement to the world to see Saints full of rest joy and peace in their spirits though the world be full of changes and altogether vanity Put these together and we shall finde the cause to be one and the same in Daniel 3. verse 25. The Text telleth us That foure men walked in the midst of the fire and the form of the fourth is like the Sonne of God The Text gives us the reason why the fire could not consume them according to its own nature because the presence of God was there the reason is the same though the Saints have their being among the vanities under the Sunne yet they have their reall being and their life in the bosome of God and his Spirit lives in their bosome so that it is his presence which makes that rest joy and peace that is in their soules A Rock that giveth forth water in a dry and long Wildernesse hath its double beauty such is God to his children in this wildernesse of vanity he is Rock and Water of life both and such as experiment him can tell they have meat to eat such as the world kowes not of and when the world shall be forced to confesse that their food is buskes and not enough neither then can such as have an interest in God
that glories glory in this That he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth This Scripture is a full proofe to the thing in hand both in the Negative and in the Affirmative First in the Negative not to glory in any thing out of God or besides God not in Wisdome Power Riches or any other thing of that nature any thing below God himself is too low for the people of God to glory in if you will glory here is a subject fit for your glory namely God to understand and know him to bee the Lord which exercises loving kindnesse judgement and righteousnesse in the earth he that truly knowes God may glory in God who is the onely fit object of glory God is so glorious that hee makes the foolish things of the world to confound the wise weak things the mighty and despised things to bring to naught things that are Therefore wisdome power riches nobility in the world are not proper subjects for a Saint to glory in no God is the onely and single vubject of his peoples glory and when you finde them glorying it is in the Lord as in the 30. verse of this chapter the Apostle glories in this that through the freegrace of God Christ is made to his people wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption his glory is in God and Christ Christ as the gift and God as the giver Christ made of God and so forth This is my glory Gods wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Christ is all this to Saints of the free grace of God Therefore be that glories let him glory in the Lord. His selfe is nothing but Christ as the gift of God his All and his Glory So the same Apostle in Galat. 6.15 God forhid that I should glory save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ Hee tels them there be such which make a fair shew in the flesh that would have them to be circumcised that they might not suffer persecution But sayes the Apostle tell not me of these poore low shifts or glory for in Christ Jesus neither circumcision not uncircumcision availeth any thing but a new creature And in another place Christ in us the hope of glory I can glory in none of these empty outsides and shadowes of things it is the new Creature Christ in me the crosse of Christ the redemption of free grace the eternall love of God that I can glory in or make the subject of my glory as in that most remarkable place Eph. 2.8 9. For by grace are yee saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Mark it and we shall find here is a sure provision to keep all the glory upon Gods head so that who ever glories must glory in God Why because the whole matter of salvation comes of by and from the free grace of God yea even faith the hand that layes hold of the free grace of God is also the gift of Gods free grace worke selfe is wholly excluded because God will have no flesh to boast or glory in his sight or in any thing but himselfe Therefore God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he hath loved us even when we were dead in sinnes hath quickned us together with Christ therefore it is by grace that we are saved He loved us when we lay in our blood when no eye pitied us his love is first to us and from hence he makes a covenant of free grace to be our God and that we shall be his people that he will put his law in our hearts and teach his people by his own Spirit What doth all this prove but thus much That God alone is and ought to be the onely subject of his peoples glory and we shall find the Apostle Paul in this first of the Ephesians not onely in the precept but in the practice of this thing blessing of God and glorying in God in the third verse Blessed be the Lord God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in heavenly places in Christ Observe it he blesses and glories in God he mentions nothing to glory in but God in Christ God in himselfe when he speaketh of chusing electing love and glory he doth it in Christ verse 4. Chosen us in him before the foundation of the world and so forward in the fifth verse Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himselfe according to the good pleasure of his will verse 6. to the praise of the glory of his grace wherein he hath made us acceptable in the beloved And in the seventh verse according to the riches of his grace verse 8. wherein he hath abounded towards us in all wisdome and prudence Thus the Apostle spends the whole chapter in declaring the glory of the full love and free grace of God to his in Christ he is in a very glorious frame of spirit full of glory and blessing but God is the subject of all his glory and blessing So we may find him in his triumphing Chariot That Rom. 8. verse 1. No condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus and walk after the Spirit in which there is freedome from the law of sinne and death 33. Nothing to be laid to the charge of Gods elect which God justifies and that nothing can separate from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Gods love is the subject the Apostle glories in it was the love of God and so everlasting unchangeable love it was justification by the free grace of God therefore above condemnation Mark it God is the subject of his glory God justifies and God loves So in Rom. 11. latter end O the depth of the riches both of the wisdome and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgements and his wayes past finding out For of him and to hins and through him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen The Apostle finds all to be in God and God the onely subject for him to glory in and give glory to What ever God doth himselfe is the glory of all his workes and God is a depth of riches wisdome and knowledge he is unsearchable in his judgements and his wayes are so full of glory that man cannot trace them he is so pure a glory that he can bee discerned by no light but his own 2 Cor. 2.14 But the naturall man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishnesse unto him neither can hee know them because they are spiritually discerned God is so greaâ— a glory that he darkens all glory besides himselfe so that nothing but himselfe can be a discovery of himselfe and this the Apostle declares as the glory of God he is an unsearchable and more exceeding and eternall weight of glory Therefore sayes hee
wil also glory through the free-grace of God in this that Christ is made his Righteousnesse and Justification so that hee stands compleate before God in him Free-grace made Christ sinne for me sayes this soule that I might be made the righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. last Jesus Christ in the designe of Gods free-grace hath borne sinne death hel law and curse for me that I am for ever acquitted from the condemning reigning or devouring power of any or of all these Now sayes this soule tel me you that understand Is nor this God of free-grace the only subject of a Saints glory Nay I wil tel you more God himselfe is the fulnesse of his peoples glory to all eternity hee lets the Worldlings for a little time to glut themselves with the World but himselfe is the free the full and eternal glory of his people in the Ages to come even to all eternity hee is filling his people with the exceeding riches of his grace and kindnesse in Christ Jesus Ephes 2.7 God doth to all eternity set open his bosom and not give to such as are heirs of himselfe flagons but oceans of love and glory It must needs be glory if it be Gods love Now this I and more then this more then eternity can tel is the free-grace of God therefore let him that glorieth glory in the Lord for he is God the only fountaine and fulnesse of free-grace But if any should object and say if grace be thus free in God to elect call justifie sanctifie and glorifie his people meerely of his free-grace why then did Christ take flesh and in the flesh satisfie the utmost of Gods justice for the sinnes of his people It seemes to appeare that God was satisfied in his justice he had the debt paid how then doe you make it grace To this I answer that in its proper place I shal make use of this argument to clear up the glory of God in the exactnesse of his justice but it doth no ways diminish the freeness of his grace to us for it is free-grace that made Christ to be the satisfaction of divine justice for our sinnes and that God satisfies his owne justice in himselfe doth no more make his grace not to be free then the making his Covenant in himselfe could keepe that from being free that justice is satisfied makes it ful redemption to us but that God doth it in Christ which is wholly out of our selves keeps it very exactly to bee the redemption of free-grace Wee are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Rom. 3.24 That God doth satisfie his justice in Christ it is that through him we might be made partake is of the redemption of his grace it is grace redeemes and just fies by Christ but Christ the gift of Gods grace cannot diminish his grace that which God gives his people through Christ though he satisfies his justice in the way yet he magnifies the freenesse of his grace in the work A third particular is this The riches of Gods mercy The Apostle Paul glories in God upon this very consideration in Ephes 2.4 But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith hee loved us and so forwards God to manifest his great love wherewith he loved his people bestowes on them the riches of his mercy namely his eternal love his free-grace his beloved Sonne and in him election calling justification sanctification and glorification and his holy spirit in these now this will be acknowledged to be rich mercy many doe pretend to be givers though they have nothing but what they first receive but none I am sure but blasphemers can pretend to be givers of such rich mercies as these God is the onely fountaine and giver of these more exceeding and eternall weights of glory Nay that which Worldlings make their God namely the World it was created by him and for him and though it be a curse to them that know no other God yet every piece and parcell of it sanctified is a blessing and a rich mercy of God to his chosen people love makes all conditions to be rich mercy of God to them It was a rich mercy to a darke world to say let there be light and it was so but then how rich is God in mercy when he makes known his eternall love and shines through the wounds of Christ by his owne spirit into a darke soule and bids the soule be of good cheere its sinnes are forgiven It stands compleat in Christ and is an heire of God a joynt-heire with Christ however men may slight the riches of these spiritual mercies whilst they are glutting their soules with the World yet let them remember the time is not farre off when death shall close their eyes and their soules sit upod their trembling lips and then a glimpse of a reconciled God in Christ will be found a rich mercy The Apostle cals the love of God heights and breadths depths and lengths of love Hee takes in all that hee could reckon up to shew the exceeding riches of it God is the fulnesse of glory and the fountaine of mercy therefore his mercies must needs be rich and full of glory So then as riches of mercy is a subject of glory let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. In the next place Consider the faithfulnesse of God in making good of his promises God is a free God in all his promises he onely ingages himselfe no soule can ingage God for to receive all from God and yet to oblige God is a contradiction the first is a truth of God what the latter is I leave the Reader to judge But as God is free in all his promises the whole workings of God in the world is an ample testimony to this truth and faithfulnesse of God but yet for more particular proofe take two or three Scriptures First Gods promises at the fault of the first Adam to give the Lord Jesus Christ the second Adam in Gen. 3.15 That the Seed of the Woman namely Christ should bruise the Serpents head This Serpent is the Devill Now to the making good of this promise the whole word of God and the salvation of his people is a full testimony For another great promise take that of Gods giving his Spirit to his people to teach them and to lead them into all truth and by which he doth write his Law in the hearts and inward parts of his people Jer. 31.33 John 14.26 Now how God doth make good this promise such as be truly spirituall can give in their testimony and I doubt not but God hath many thousand such witnesses in the world though such as know him not doe blaspheme and scoff at him in scoffing at his Spirit in his people yet Saints in truth will tell you that they in themselves are darknesse and God is onely light and it is the Spirit of God in them that is their light that they know
it becomes a servant not only to God but to Saints also Death is through Christ a servant to all Saints to waite on them till they have finished their worke on Earth in the will of God and then layes them to rest in the dust It waits till all the worke be done and then doth its worke in the appointment of God resting the weary body from its labours cracking the clay walls that the thirsting soule may meete its Beloved in perfection of glory so meet as never to part more but to be for ever with the Lord to behold the love of God in glory and be for ever swallowed up in the glory of that love Death which in it selfe is grim and frightfull is through Christ to a Saint welcome and pleasing because it comes without a sting and hath no other businesse but to serve Gods end in freeing both soule and body sets the foule free from the body of death and the body from a weary and toilesome life Death is but a sleep in which the body lyes till at the glorious appearance of Christ it riseth incorruptible the nature of death is through Christ but to be our Fathers messenger to bring us home that we may see his reconciled face in glory and enjoy the mansions prepared for us that wee may tast the love of his heart know him in himselfe reape the full harvest of all our hopes possessing glory above the life of faith our feasting in heaven will be fruitions not a crown of glory in promise only but in possession the joyes the hopes the desires of a gracious soule in all his life is by death brought in at once the joy of this soule is that the day drawes nigh in which the body shall be dissolved and it shall be with Christ It hopes to meete its beloved in perfect glory and never part more it desires to be absent from the body and present with the Lord and in all this death is through Christ a servant to a Saints death hath all its poyson in its sting and Christ taking away the sting from death hath quite changed the nature of it Death with its sting kils where it conquers but Death without its sting only changes the body of Saints from wormes to cold clay So Job hee waited all the dayes of his appointed time till his change came by death Saints change their place but not their company whereas before they lived in God now they live with God Saints on earth have communion with God and Christ in the Spirit and Saints in heaven have the same company but in greater glory Death changes our place of communion but not those wee have communion with Saints on Earth live upon love tokens from God and Christ sent to them by the Spirit but in Heaven upon the originall and fulnesse of all that love here by the Spirit we read the love and kindnesse of God and Christ in a Covenant of free-grace and many gracious promises but in heaven we taste of love in the fountaine in the very bosome of God and Christ to all eternity here wee glory that glory waits for us in heaven there our glory is to be swallowed up into glory and to be made glorious in the fulnesse of that glory In this Saints glory over the nature of death it doth not kill them but change them from a cloudy to a more exceeding and eternall weight of glory And as for the bodies of Saints it may be said of them as Christ did of the Rulers daughter shee is not dead but sleepeth Death changes them in this their sleep is something longer then at other times yet they are not dead but sleepe for Christ is the life of Saints And because Christ lives they live also John 14.19 Their clay is colder in this sleepe then in others and by degrees crumbles into dust here is a change indeed and it is no more for this corruptible must put on incorruptible and this mortality must put on immortality and then it will fully appeare that death is swallowed up in victory 1 Cor. 53 54. The nature of Death is changed by Christs taking the sting away from being the King of terrours it becomes the messenger of glad tidings Death is now so free from terrours that it brings tidings of the greatest joy to Saints it tels the Spouse of Christ she shall goe and be for ever in her beloveds armes Your wildernesse days are accomplished in which you went many times to the Watchmen to enquire for your Beloved and you found them in the darke as well as your selfe but now you shall finde your Beloved and be filled with his love and live in the light of the Lord for ever Death tels the children of God hee is come to fetch them home to their Fathers house yea to their Fathers Kingdome in which they shall all reign with him They shall be as children under-age no longer they shall now possesse the mansions prepared from eternity to eternity not only have all teares wiped from their eyes but to live for ever in the beholding and enjoying perfection of glory Death brings glad tidings both to body and soule it tels the body head you shall ake no more stomacke you shall be sicke no more heart you shall tremble and be affraid no more flesh you shall bleed and smart no more I am come to put an end to all these feares and troubles God will looke you up in the cabinet of the earth that you may there sleep in peace till Christ raise you incorruptible and carry you into glory And to the soule sayes Death you shall have no more time for sinne and vanity perfect holinesse to eternity shall now swallow you up I come only to put an end to sinning dayes you shall now groane under sinne no more that body which held you and was subject to temptations shall now goe to sleepe in the dust till the tempter be chained up in eternall darkenesse in stead of mourning under sin you shall now for ever glory over sin your feares shall end so shall your faith for in stead of the evidence of things not seene you shall both see enjoy the heighths breadths depths and lengths of the love grace kindnesse faithfulnesse and glory of that God you have believed in Feare not me sayes Death I come from your Father so as you mâ—y be sure I have no commission to hurt you Christ your beloved Huâ—band Brother Head and Redeemer tooke care that I should not be able to hurt you for he tooke my sting from me before I should come unto you I am come without a sting to tell you God and Christ loves you but that is not all my errand they love you so well that they can suffer you no longer to be out of the full enjoyment of their love and I am sent to cracke the clay walls which is your prison that you may flye home and be at rest there your rest
soule this day is so farre from administring feare in death to soules in Christ that it is the comfort in which those earthly tabernacles goe to the dust beleeving That what is sowne in corruption shall bee raised in incorruption what is sowne in dishonour shall be raised in glory and what in weaknesse shall be raised in power and though it be sowne a noturall body yet it shall bee raised a spirituall body 1 Cor. 15.42 43 44. So that the feare of eternall death and judgement is wholy taken away from this naturall death where Christ hath taken away away the sting But secondly The men of the World will tell you they are afraid of death because it cuts them off from their Worldly delights they can finde no other fault with the World but that it perisheth coold they injoy it for ever though there be many bryers in this Wildernesse yet they could make their Canaan in it so that they might never be stripped of it but they know when death shall once close their eyes they must bid adue to all their Worldly delights never to see or enjoy them more and upon this consideration as well as the former death is the King of feares and 〈…〉 unto them But it is quite contrary with the soule in Christ he concludes if his hopes and comfort were onely in the World he were of all men most miserable hee blesseth God for every wildernesse mercy but he lives onely in God himselfe it is his joy to looke upon the World as perishing and his body a decaying for the top of his glory and the expectation of his soule is to be dissolved and to be with Christ he counts the worldlings choyce of mercy to be the greatest misery To be ever in the World would bee worse then ten thousand thousands of deaths to his body his pantings are to be absent from the body that he might be fully present with the Lord he doth acknowledge God to be glorious in his footstoole but as an heire of God he thirsts to be in the glory of his throne if you tell him of pleasure and delights in the World his answer is that communion with God is full of pleasure and delight where ever it be but sayes he the World cloudeth these joyes and eclipseth this communion therefore O that I were stript of this dying flesh that I might have full communion and fellowship with God in the spirit that I might drinke freely of the waters of life in the fountaine this soule reckons all the delights and pleasures of the world to be amongst the wise mans vanities and having tasted Christ the bread of life in his Fathers house and in him the love of his Fathers heart can neither feede upon nor delight in the empty buskes of this perishing World if any ambitious worldling telleth him it is very good to be honourable I sayes he If you meane that honour which floweth from being precious in the sight of God and having an interest in his love 43 Isay 4. He gives this one answer to the worldling in all his proposals of pleasure and beauty in this life sayes he God is the beauty of the whole creation as the originall fulnesse of it so that it wholy depends upon his will and that which is our glory is God himselfe who is the glory of Heaven and earth though the World withers yet he is for ever glorious and he is his peoples glory therefore the worldlings feare in death upon this account is not a Saints feare for his glory is out of the World even in God and his delight and affections are in things above not in things on the earth and that because He is risen with Christ his affections are risen before his body is dead the delight of his heart is in Heaven though the flesh of it be in his body 3 Col. 1 2. this soule is crucified with Christ to the World and the World to him 6 Gal. 14. so that neither his joyes nor his feares are with the worldling if death can onely strip him of the World he hath no cause to feare death nay death commeth too late in that for hee through Christ is dead to the World whilst he liveth and is above all the feares of death because his life is hid with Christ in God I but sayes the worldling I am afraid of death because it takes me from all my sweet relations here on earth I must dye to them and they to me it is true indeed but herein the beleeving soule is no looser he leaveth the drops of corrupted creatures love to be swallowed up into the Ocean of Gods power and eternall love he leaveth those broken Cisterns of love which in a little time would leave him and is taken up into the Father and fountaine of love in the glory of love and free grace for ever he now comes to taste love in the originall and readeth it as it was in the heart of God to him from eternity and shall be to eternity in the fulnesse of Gods love so full that there will not be the want of any sweet or relation for all will be made up in God there is no complaining in the streets of the new Jerusalem no want of relations God will be a Father Christ will be a husband Saints glorified our brethren Sisters and asociates to all eternity we shall want no relations in Heaven nor shall any relations there want perfection for all there shall be compleat in Christ and filled with the fulnesse of God we leave a World of wants and it is to possesse a Heaven of fulnesse and glory I but sayes a tender hearted Father or Mother will not my Children my little babes want me Truly no for your worke in the decree of Heaven is done before God suffers death to cut your thread of life and t is our unbeliefe that telleth us it were better either for us or ours that we had more work in the World then God hath appointed us had we more dayes we could not in them make a haire black or white we could not in our selves add that little to our little ones Our Fathers kindnesse will bee our Childrens comfort and hee liveth when wee are dead to them and alive with him the presence of God with our children will be their blessed portion though we be absent to beleeve in this his love and faithfulnesse will be a blessed rest to us and ours we shall leave them well in leaving them with God and need not feare the leaving them when we are going to God death in taking us from our children to carry us home to our Father will advantage us and not disadvantage ours for though he filleth us with all fulnesse of love and glory in Heaven yet he is neverthelesse full but can also fill our children on earth and such as taste of his love and grace have no cause to doubt of the freenesse and fulnesse thereof I but
sayes the flesh it may be of a Saint I am afraid of the paines of death in dying truly this is a feare of our owne creating for how many thousands goe out of the World when standers by can scarce tell whether they sleepe or dye but grant it that the paines of death be strong upon thy flesh yet take this with thee it is all the paines that ever thy flesh shall beare men to live a dying life are oftentimes content to have their limes cut from their bodies which I beleeve is far more paine to the body then when death cracks it to let out the soule but the gaine farre exceedeth thus is soule and body at ease both when the body is but the dying of one limbe a little before the rest of the body it is but the deferring of death and it may be many deaths assaults the body in that time this is but a bugbeare in the fancie to fright children not worth the nameing among Saints let God breake what he will when he will and how he will he makes all good againe to his people in himselfe it was Christs end in taking the sting from death not to leave any ground of feare for his people so that beleeving Saints through Christ may truly glory in and over death in all the feares of it Fourthly Believing Saints through Christ may glory over death in the manner of it Whether it be according to the termes we use for distinction either naturall or violent death yet to a Saint through Christ it is in both but death without a sting and that which our flesh cals the worst of these the violent death God hath and doth make to be the portion of many of his deare Saints the Prophets Apostles and those glorious primitive Christians did many if not most of them drinke of this cup and did it with so much joy in God that the Tyrants of those times were more unable to invent cruel deaths then they were to undergoe them and the reason is visible for though these deaths had the cruelty of man in them yet there was also the kindnesse of God in them Christ had taken away the sting of death which was sin and though men might adde to their cruelty yet they could put no sting into death The Martyrs of late times as Histories tels us have gone leaping and rejoycing to the stake being joyfull in the embracing of flames and as one said to his fellow Martyr Be of good cheere though our break-fast be sowre yet our supper will be sweete in Heaven As if hee had said though these flames brings smarts with them yet they will put an end to all smâ—rts this is all the sting that is in death and it will soon have an end we shall sup with our beloved Jesus and abide in that love for ever it is sin in death that makes it bitter what ever the manner be but if finne be taken away there is no sting in death let the manner be what it wil it is all one to a Saint where he meets with Death whether in the field or at home in his bed whether it takes him in his greatest streÌ„gth with his bones ful of marow in his dâ—câ—ying state when his eyes grow dimme and his other faculties faile he mindes not the manner of dying but the matter of death death is without a sting so that where when or how death comes into his bosome that is of little value with him he on 〈◊〉 this to find death a friend without its sting and then through Christ he glories in and over both matter and manner of death Fifthly A believing Saint through Christ may glory over death in the ends of it There is two maine ends in Death which is proper to Saints The first is to put an end to a dying life to finish that worke which begins so soone as wee begin to live in these bodies of clay man begins to dye so soon as he beginâ— to livâ— because the whole life is but a progresse of death or a dying life all the time we live we dye invisible and when we dye indeed it is but vâ—sible death that which we carry about with us in the world then appeares to carry us out of the world that which sleepes with us many a short sleepe now casteth us into one â—â—ng sleep this is properly the end of death in Saints to put an end to all dying for it is a reall truth though a mistery to the world that Saints dye whilst they live and live when they dye So that this end of death is a Saints glory not his griefe not what he feares but what he hopes for counting himselfe most miserable of all men if Deaths end were not to put an end to his dying life The other maine end in death is To plucke up the flowers of heaven that growes in the earth by the rootes that they may be planted in their owne kingdome and flourish there for ever I meane those precious souâ—es of Saints which are here enclosed in those earthly mâ—ulds of our bodies by which the beauty of those heavenly flâ—wers are exceedingly short of that glory they shall have with Christ above and doe many times taste and savour of the earth they grow in Christ is the proper roote of those branches and Heaven the only place for them to grow and flourish in Now death comes only to transplant them from Earth to Heaven to crrumble that clay into dust which holds these flowers of heaven so fast that they cannot get home into their owne kingdome Now a Saint may well glory over this end of Death for Death is herein the soules servant to have it home to glory and to unprison it from all the bonds it lyes under But lastly A believing Saint through Christ may glory over Death in its victory My meaning is the victory which Saints have over death death in the wil of God lays Saints to sleep in their corruptible bodies But Saints through their union with Christ rise againe that in incorruption though it goe to the dust corrupt and noisome clay in dishonour and in weaknesse like a natural body yet Christ will raise it againe a spirituall body full of power and glory There is no losse to Saints in dying no not to their corruptible flesh for that hath an interest in Christ and Christ having conquered death for his people though their bodies shal by death be sown in incorruption yet they shall not lye there for ever the grave shall have no vâ—ctory but shall give up its dead and such as rise in Christ shall rise as Christ spirituall bodyes though the Earth shall have leave to roote the corruption of the body of Saints yet Christ will preserve his interest and raise it as the fruit of his redemption resurrection even a spirituall body Death hath its office and the grave its proper worke but Christ hath the command of both when death
but to be above the reach of all temptations where we can never possible be tempted more how exceeding precious and glorious is this a Saint would if it were in his power give the whole World so that he might never sinne more it must hten needs be of great advantage to him to be carryed above the reach of any temptation to sinne you shall never meet a Saint at the throne of grace but his breathings are Lord inlighten me in thy will make thy minde clearer and clearer out unto me by thy spirit leave me not in the darknesse of my owne flesh now then how precious must it needs be to this soule to be taken out of all clouds to have all clouds even the clouds of the flesh done away so that not the least shaddow of darknesse doth remaine Why all this and much more is the advantage of a Saints soul in the death of its body for this death without the sting of sinne is death to the body of sinne that it can be no more a body to sinne in it separates light and darknesse the soule and body that both might goe to their proper place and then the soule complaines no more of darknesse it is darke clay that hinders the soules light when it is quit of that it is perfect in light and this makes Saints so thirsting to shake off the rags of flesh their clouds of darknesse their places of temptation and their sinning body now when death comes he satisfies all these thirstings fils up all these desires and accomplisheth the present designe of God concerning the fleshly body in which the precious soules of beleeving Saints are through Christ aboundantly benifited and advantaged but this is not all the benefit and advantage which death without its sting through Christ bringeth to the soules of beleevers There is another generall which is this The soule ip now taken us into the perfection of Gods eternal love free grace full glory everlasting purity and thus to be for ever with the Lord. When I say this comes in with death I meane it is then so perfected as it could be never so before for the bodies of Saints must bee sowne in corruption before they can rise in incorruption and the soule is never perfect till it be quit of the corruptible body and this evill World but this being once accomplished Then the soule in God and God in the soule makes up perfection to all eternity the soule hath now no let to full injoyment of his Masters joy it is now a childe of full age nothing can hinder him in possessing his full inheritance in his Fathers love and glory The mansions prepared from all eternity are now possessed to all eternity the love which lay hidd in our Fathers heart and was too great to be revealed in the World is now spred open to the soule and the soule is bid eate my beloved O drinke abundantly and be satisfied this feast of love will hold out for ever eternity cannot exhaust it it is the love of God this is the supper of the Lambe slaine before the foundation of the World in the designe of Gods free grace this mystery is now revealed and the soules of Saints filled with the glory of it Saints in Heaven are in the light of the Lord and all filled with the Lord their Light perfection is there the portion of every soule Christ hath given up the Kingdome to his Father and God is the perfection and fulnesse of all his Children this perfection of glory is Gods end in redeeming his elect that we might be heires of God fellow-heires with Christ in his eternall love full glory and everlasting purity never to know sinne or sorrow more to be above the breathings of any defilement or the buddings of any vanity what we shall then possesse will bee nothing but all God it will be all God and alwayes God God will bee the light of our eyes the life of our soules the excellency of our glory the sweet of our sweets and the perfection of our purity in Heaven Heaven is the presence of God the full perfect glorious and the eternall presence of God will be our Heaven when death hath layd our dying bodies asleepe when the corruptible sleepes away its corruption the incorruptible soule possesseth a crowne incorruptible and full of glory so that the time of death without its sting is through Christ to a Beleever of great benefit and advantage both in soule and body Saints in Christ ought to improve the joyes and consolations which comes from the free grace of God to their soules amongst which I am sure this truth is very eminent and therefore ought to be well improved and first this calls upon beleeving Saints to whom through Christ death when ever it comes wil be without the sting of sinne that they should not have sadd or hard thoughts of death we should not make feare in our flesh or spirits to be the associate of the thoughts of death there is no cause for it the sting being taken away by this needlesse and unbeleeving feare of death in Saints we doe prejudice our selves and bring an evil report upon our friend First wee prejudice our selves for through a feareful fancy of evil and danger in death we many times doe what we should not and leave that undone which we ought to doe how many stretch their consciences to doe that which they have no rule for and otherwise would not doe but that they feare it may cost them their lives if they should not and how much duty is neglected upon this very consideration upon a feare in doing to lose or indanger life the feare indeed is to meet with death in doing therefore chuse rather to omit duty but it is safe and blessed through Christ to meet death in duty sad and hard thoughts of death I verily beleeve doe much prejudice Saints in their streight and even walking with God through this wildernesse it were happy if in reading wee could read our owne hearts But secondly These fleshly feares of Saints bring an evill report upon death which through Christ is our real friend it is very imbecomming Saints to scandalise any out that we should do this to death who is so real a friend to us and the messenger of such glad tidings as what hath gone before proveth him to be this is very disingenious if Saints looke upon him with a feareful eye he wil then be taken for an enemy to all the World for to others hee commeth with his sting so as they have just cause to feare but to Saints death is a reconciled friend in Christ and we doe him injury when ever we looke upon him as other nay truly we dishonour Christ to feare death after hee hath conquered him the redemption of Christ for his people is so ful that they may and ought to serve him without feare the victory over death is part of the redemption of Christ so that
now feare of death is no lesse then diffidence of that Redemption therefore Saints should be very watchful that they harbour no sad nor hard thoughts of death because in so doing wee dishonour a true friend nay Christ that made death thus to be our friend In the next place this cals upon Saints that when death comes to sit in our bosomes wee should bid him truly welcome and give him the entertainement of a friend that is be truly joyful to see him let him finde by the joy of our hearts that he is welcome to our besomes let his countenance be pleasing to us for though hee be pale death to our flesh yet that flesh shall be a gainer by its palenesse and finde nothing in death but a quiet rest til it shal put on incorruption But to the spirit death is a messenger from God and Christ of glad tydings and the feet of those which bring glad tidings should be beatiful to us let death when he comes finde he is a long looked for friend that he is not come before he is welcome but should have beene welcome if hee had come much sooner that thou takest him for so good and so real a friende that thou art heartily willing to goe with him and to leave all thy friends in the flesh that thou hast kept them company but til he comes and now art willing to leave them all to goe with him Saints may wel bid death welcome as a friende for Christ is in him and the love of Christ when Christ tooke sinne from Saints which was the sting of death he gave them love in the roome of sinne so as before we had sinne in all now we have love in all and though death to Saints have not the sting of sinne yet it hath the love of Christ and is worthy to bee bidd welcome and entertained with gladnesse when hee commeth But in the next place This calleth loude to Saints that they beleeve strongly in that love of Christ who hath taken away the sting of death which is sinne and thereby made death that was an original enemy to be a true and constant friend the Scripture teleth us 1 Cor. 15.26 The last enemie that shall be destroyed is death Now death as an enemy to Saints is destroyed in the death of Christ for his sting which is his enmity is taken away by Christ that I inferre is this Saints have much cause to beleeve strongly in that love the strength of which hath overcome all enemies for us Christ hath overcome death the last of enemies why should we ever then feare the fading of that love which hath left no enemies to make us afraide Saints feares are of their owne creating for what ever might have beene a true cause of feare hath beene under Christs destroying for he hath destroyed all enemies and where no enemy is there is no true ground of feare what remaines then Why nothing but a firme and lasting foundation of faith the love of Christ is a strong foundation for a Saint to beleeve strongly in what should we feare death is our friend the love of Christ hath made him so the breakings forth of this love is ground sufficient to banish all feares if death be no enemy then there is no enmity betweene death and us for death is the last destroyed enemy and the love of Christ hath destroyed that enmity Saints have many that hate them but none that can hurt them take this for proofe death is a Saints friend there can bee no greater testimony of love then the destroying of enemies for no man will destroy the enemies of him that he is an enemy to himselfe enmitie would make enemies it is onely love that destroyes them and this love is Christ to his people his love is so great that he will leave us no enemy that is no person persons or things shall ever be able to destroy a Saint then surely Saints may and ought to beleeve strongly in the love of Christ let worldlings know their nailes are too short to scratch out this love their strength too weake to shake this eternall foundation if they suck our bloods they may choak themselves but doe us no hurt for through the love of Christ Saints are conquerers over death Saints may believe strongly on the love of Christ for a worse enemy then the World shall never be able to destroy them even sinne for Christ hath destroyed sin and in that death for all that believe in him so as a Saint triumphs over death in the want of its sting is in the love of Christ which hath taken away sin and this is that love which the soules of Saints should believe in and rest strongly upon Saints need not fear they cannot lay more upon this love then Christ is able and willing to beare nay then he hath born already for he hath borne all the transgressions iniquities sinnes griefes sorrowes stripes and chastisements of his people Isâ— 53. So that hee hath redeemed his from the whole of sin and believing Saints may not feare to venture their soules in all upon the love of Christ nay doubtlesse it is the duty of Saints to live believing strongly in the love of Christ which hath put Death to death and overcome all enemies for them But in the fourth place Saints should make this improvement of these truths to waite upon God patiently in believing Death will assuredly come and deliver them from all their troubles in the flesh Faith made Job to waite patiently all the dayes of his appointed time till his change did come There is an appointed time in which the change shall come and beyond that time it shall not stay There can be no loss of faith in this thing for death waits upon our Fathers will and shall certainly come at his appointed time I confesse it is hard for Saints that are heires of heaven and know it willingly to stay longer out of heaven and their Fathers imbracings and in that time to be in a body of sin and a sinful world to beare the infirmities of the body with the scornes slanders persecutions of the World yet remember that this is the fulfilling of the will of our God and all this time death our friend is a comming every moment bringeth this longed for blessing nearer and nearer and we cannot tell but it may be at the doore that death may be in the next moment is the worlds feare let it be a Saints joy and serve to quench immoderate thirst here is this to answer all feares it will certainly come and cannot be farre off Christ longeth more for us then we doe or can doe for him and though we thinke him long yet he that shall come will come and will not tarry Remember the body is made of brittle earth it will be soone cracked or moulder away it cannot by its constitution last long the word of truth calleth him a foole that counted upon many yeares when
A Cluster Of Canaans Grapes BEING Severall experimented truths received through private communion with God by his Spirit grounded on Scripture and presented to open view for publique Edification By Col. ROBERT TICHBOURN 1 Cor. 12.7 The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall Matthew 5.15 Neither doe men light a candle and put it under a bushell but on a candlesticke and it giveth light unto all that are in the house 1 Cor. 1.27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the World to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weake things of the world to confound the things which are mighty Decemb. 25. 1648. Imprimatur Joseph Caryll LONDON Printed by Matthew Simmons 1469. The Author nothaving leisure to attend and correct the Press desires the Reader to be at so much pains as to peruse these Errata and amend what in some places are necessary to be observed to make the sense compleate ERRATA PAge 6. l. 22. leave out and going before blood p. 7. l. 21. for believer r. being for ever p. 22. l. 5. for 35. 53. p. 29. l. 38. for out r. our p. 37. l. 11. for add r. and p. 42. l. 21. for present r. precept p 50. l. 26. for eive r. live p. 58. l. 17. for 35. r. 53. p. 58 l. 20. for sons r. sun p 69. l 28. r. such such p 83. l 14. r. I comprehend and in l. 15. for but r. not p. 84. l. 29. for falshood r. fashioned p. 85. l. 32. for office r. olive p 95. l 32. for ceter r. center p 95 l 36. for he r. thee p 103. l 32. for I have told I you r. I have told you I p 103. l 35. for doe distrust me r. doe you distrust me p 109. l 25. for inful r sinful p 112. l 34. for receive truth r. receive this truth p 121. l 34. for power of their lives r. power of godlinesse in their lives p 125. l. 23. for eyes pursute r eager pursute p 128. l 30. for return r. return of p 131. l 27. for sin r. sun p 135. l 19. for the spirit r. this spirit p 146. l. 1 for constrained r. cōtrived p 163. l 25. for Jews r. Spouse p. 165. l. 2. for but r and p 168. l last r. the workings or God p 182. l 19. for ceasing r. crossing p 18 2. l 27. for you r. he p 183. for rip up r. crye up p 213. l 10. for sure but r. sure none but p 213. l. 27. for upod r. upon p 206. l 5. for fault r. fall p 134. l 16. for body r. other p. 235. l 15. for in his r. or in his p 137. l 14. for give r. have p 239. l 27. for would it r. would if p 240. l 15. for soule ip r. soule is P. 107. l. 20. left out where it is said as those dead bones could not live before God had united them covered them with skin and breathed life into them this should be added no more could they remain dead bones when God had so united them and breathed life into them p. 131. l 7 to he is best satisfied adde not to eate at all To His EXCELLENCY THOMAS Lord FAIRFAX Commander in Chiefe of all the Land Forces under the pay of the PARLIAMENT within the Kingdome of England and Dominion of Wales and the Islands of GARNSEY and JERSEY MY LORD I HAVE observed that Persons engaged by love have used this way to make their acknowledgmēts that when they give their labours to the Worlds view they present them to that hand which hath by kindenesse most obliged them I judge this practice to arise from ingenuity of spirit that where men cannot pay a debt there they wil acknowledge themselves debters Now I beseech your Excellency to give mee leave to take up this practice I am not able to pay the obligements of your Lord-ships love and kindenesse to mee nor in this doe I attempt any higher thing then to acknowledg my selfe your Lord-ships debter for more undeserved favours then any person I know amongst those many thousands that are fellow-debters with mee And if your Excellency shal be pleased to own and accept of this poore acknowledgement I shall declare it to be the fruites of your owne wonted goodnesse my self not at all the lesse but the more your debter I am the more encouraged to Dedicate this to your Lord-ship from the observation that I have made of your spirit to be willing to owne truth and honesty in the lowest person the meanest dress What I here present to your hands I trust will bee found truths by the word and spirit of truth but I confes unto your Lordship it is in a very mean attire without the ornament of humane learning And I expect Worldlings should slight and scorn it upon that account but if they appear truths as truth is in Jesus I am confident they wil be beautiful in your Excellencies eye I have had much struglings between my flesh spirit whether to bury or to bring forth these breathings of God upon my soule The spirit of God hath made them very sweet to me and my spirit judged they might be so to others therefore was I willing to breath them forth but then my flesh objected that the stile was low and meane and that this subject out of my hand would administer matter of scorne from the World and if one of a thousand did value it yet a thousand for one would slight me and it Til it pleased God to cary me above scorn I could not rise to this resolutiō to bring that forth to the World which God by his Spirit had brought into my soule but when I had resolved the world should have it I was not long to seeke in my self of a hand first to present it to but resolved to presume upon your Excellencies exceeding love and goodnesse so as to present it unto your Lordship as the acknowledgement of my reall affections abundant engagements to your Excellency Sir I blesse the Lord I have no base ends in this appearing to the World for if the reasonings of my flesh could have prevailed this had never beene an object for Worldlings scorne And if the Lord shal give you time to read it I hope it wil appeare to your Excellency and to every spiritual eye that shal looke into it that my designe is to lift up something above my selfe Namely God in Christ And finding the same spirit to be in your bosome I am encouraged to dedicate this following Treatise to your Lordship and take that boldenesse as to subscribe my selfe your Excellencies very much engaged and ever faithful servant ROB TICHBURN To the Readers Readers IF you know what you looke for I will tell you what you shall finde that so you may either save your labours or attaine your ends You shall have truth in a meane attire set before your eyes the truths of
God which to a spirituall eye carry their owne beauty but you will finde them without art not adorned with humane learning and so without beautie to a fleshly eye I know you will wonder what I meane to appeare in Print especially in these times when plaine truths from the most of men will finde nothing else but plaine scorne most men having sight but on one side and their stomacks so full of crudities that they cannot beare but vomit up with scorne in the face of him that brings them even saving truths besides you will thinke I cannot bee ignorant but to know that my name will prejudice these truths unto many that live by fancie more then Faith such as will cavill with all truth that comes by a hand they like not and have little other groūds for the truth they take up but that they come by such hands that they at present fancie I confesse I cannot make my selfe so ignorant as not to understand these things nor is it my designe by appearing in Print to make my felfe publike for I expect by it to be the derision of most men nor doe I Print because I thinke the Presse wants worke for I am throughly convinced that much evill hath over spread this Land by those many unsauory Pamphlets and those rending dividing principles which have this way been spread abroad by which the members of Christ have beene scandalized rent and divided and have almost made themselves a pray to the Wilde Boares and the subtle Foxes which have no higher ends but to destroy the tender Vines The reasons why I chuse to render my selfe to the Worlds scorne in this matter and manner are these First In satisfying my conscience in obedience to God in some Scripeures set upon my spirit by himselfe I trust when as my flesh and spirit did contend about this matter And the first is this Freely yee have received freely give Though this was spoken first to the Apostles yet I thinke it doth not exclude any but include every Saint and Disciple of Christ to be free in the giving forth of their knowledge experience and injoyment of God in Christ by his spirit to the World And this is my case What I give I have freely received from the Lord in secret when no eye but his did see me I doe acknowledge it is the free grace of God that makes knowne any title of truth to me and if my heart deceive me not it is the manifesting of his free grace that is my designe in giving forth freely as I receive I shall I trust with much more ease beare the reproaches of the World then I could a concealement of the love of God in Christ In another Scripture I finde that light is not to be put under a bushell but to be held forth that according to its nature it may lighten others and because what Saints have they have received and every talent is to bee improved to the Masters use and the standing rule to Gods people that all things be done to edification and that most which may edifie most therefore in obedience to these Scriptures God hath moulded me into his will and I doe freely cast my selfe upon his love and power to beare up my spirit to carry me through good and evill reports and I hope shall ever esteeme of the Worlds scornes as not worthy of thoughts in that day when God shall manifest his will and worke to me A second reason why I thus appeare is That I might be a Christian Servant to fellow Saints God is as free in giving as he is in saving he gives what hee pleaseth how he pleaseth when he pleaseth and by whom hee pleaseth this I have in some measure experimented of God and thinke it my duty to be a servant to God and to fellow Saints to bring unto them what I have received from him When Saints reveale their knowledge and experience of God they doe thereby confirme strengthen and build up one another in their most holy Faith I know no higher worke that Saints on earth have then this and were it more in practice I doe verily beleeve that the beauty of holinesse and the power of godlinesse would be more transparent but in stead of serving one another this way in the spirit of God we are devouring and destroying one another by an evill spirit of lying and slaundering fomenting unchristian and needlesse jealousies one of another this is either in the beginning or the end of most mens discourses of their printings and it hath beene where I am sure it ought not to be in mens Preachings these tares which the evill man hath sowne amongst the good seed have exceedingly scandalized the Gospell of Christ with the professours thereof and if God delight in this generation hee will exceedingly humile us under this very thing in stead of crucifying Christ in one another Saints should be servants to carry Christ to each other I meane their light in Christ and their experiences of the love faithfulnesse and holinesse of God this would increase love to God and his people in stead of devouring beget imbracings into the bosome and armes of love and faithfulnesse not to bely and scandalize but to honour and vindicate every childe of God A third reason that moves in me is this To stir up those many thousands which this Land affords that are abundantly more able to take up this necessary worke Truly it is sad to see how frothy and light things doe take up the spirits of able and godly men when as this onely thing necessary is as it were quite forgotten not onely dead but buried out of sight I doe beleeve these last seven yeares have brought forth as little of this fruit as any seven yeares before in which men did complaine they durst not send truths abroad least so doing should confine them to prisons had the seven yeares liberty the Presse hath had beene improved in this through the blessing of God it might have left such monuments of God in the World as after ages might have blessed him for I doe beleeve Satan hath hindred much of this worke from appearing by the scandall and reproach of the World which is usually cast upon it truly I found it a very hard thing to get over but when God gave me to understand that The good and comfort of one soule was of greater weight then the reproach of all the World I was immediatly carryed above that temptation and I here mention it to stirre up others to the same worke for doubtlesse God hath many thousand poore Saints in this Kingdome which will gladly gather up those pearles of Divine truths which the Swine of the World trample under their feet if but one soule blesse God in truth for the revealing of these truths though many thousand prophane ones should scorne me to my face yet I shall not lose my end nor repent for my reproaches if God be honoured by them My last
reason is this To give the World a true discovery of my spirit and light in those things which I count weighty and every truth of them to be of more concernment then a thousand Worlds I cannot tell the thoughts of men concerning my selfe nor will presume to take the place of God to judge the thoughts of any but this I can truly tell that in the following truths I have clearely opened my heart to the view of every Reader and have faithfully given to the World what light God hath given to me in those maine truths and fundamentalls of salvation in which my soule lives and what I can cheerefully dye in the next moment This is all I shall say I blesse the Lord I am single hearted in this worke let men judge of me and it according to to their light I have no other end then this That the eternall loving kindnesse and free grace of God may be lifted up in the World and that all his people may know how good a God hee is I confesse these truths of God were in my soule like new Wine in old Bottles my flesh could imprison them no longer and now they are abroad give me leave Reader with them to give thee a word of caution If thou beest spirituall and understandest these truths of God in the spirit and findest them sweet then blesse the Lord let thy heart praise him and thy eye be singly set on him overlooke the creature wholy unlesse it be to glory in the Lord that hath magnified his free grace to so weake a one as my selfe is I acknowledge the truths to be Gods and revealed by his spirit of truth so that the beauty of them must center no where but in him but all the failings and weaknesses from first to last are mine the fruits of my flesh and darknesse I beseech you let God have his due glory though you blame me for my failings let not my weaknesses prejudice any soule against the precious truths of God I trust there is nothing but what are truths of God though weakly managed and if any one amongst those many thousands more descerning eyes then mine shall finde out any thing that is not so I trust if in a spirit of love and meeknesse it be made knowne to me I shall blesse God for that soule and honour his truth by acknowledging my owne errours And to the scorner I shall onely say this I wish you could singly scorne me in it and not God then would your sinne be the lesse and so would my sorrow too for God hath carried me above your scornes and were not your sinnes increased by it the care of either side would be but very small Let me deale plainely with you you wrong your selves not me for I can both live and dye full of joy and rest in the love of God though you shall please your selves in scorning and deriding me and all the returne I shall make to this will be to pity your darknesse and to pray the Lord to give you the light of his spirit by which you may truly know him and Jesus Christ which he hath sent and then I know you will be new creatures I shall hold you no longer in the porch but open every doore of the house that you may both read and see the truths of God made knowne by his spirit to the weakest and one as unworthy as any of his Servants Rob Tichbourne The Contents of the severall Chapters contained in this Booke LOVE to all SAINTS shews union with Christ By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if yee love one another John 13.35 What Christ hath borne for Saints they shall never beare themselves For as many as are of the workes 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 booke of the law to doe them But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God it is evident for the just shall live by faith And the law is not of faith but the man that doth them shall live in them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree There is neither Jew nor Greeke there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for yee are all one in Christ Jesus And if ye be Christs then are yee Abrahams seed and heirs according to promise Gal. 3.10 11 12 13.28 29. Gods Children have his Spirit to walk and work in For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sonnes of God For yee have not received the spirit of bondage again to feare but yee have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba-Father The Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse with our spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8.14 15 16. Gods love giveth Saints to know they shall appeare like Christ Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God Therefore the world knows us not because it knew not him Beloved now are we the sons of God and it doth not yet appeare what we shall be but we know that when hee shall appeare we shall be like him for wee shall see him as he is 1 John 3.1 2. Christ is the foode of living soules I am that bread of life John 6.48 Christs reigne by his Spirit is the Saints liberty from bondage To redeeme them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons And because ye are sons God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying Abba-Father Gal. 4.5 6. Saints are compleate before God in their union with Christ For in him dwels all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him Coloss 2.9 Free-grace in God justifieth redeemeth through Christ Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Rom. 3.24 Christ and the new creature are unseparable Therefore if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Vanity and vexation of spirit compasseth all things under the sunne I have seene all the workes that are done under the Sun and behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 1.14 A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done Luke 22.42 No man exceedes another in excellency but by received mercies For who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive 1 Cor. 4.7 None but God can be a proper subject for a Saint to glory in He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1. part of the 30. vers Saints have victory through Christ over Death and by faith glory
is the light of the Spirit Now we have all this freedome because the Son hath made us free by bearing those burthens for us and what Christ hath borne for a believer that a believer is fully redeemed from Thirdly Christ hath borne the punishment due to sinne for us See this in Isa Isa 35 4 5.8.10 11. 35.4 5.8.10 11. Observe the Text. Surely he borne our griefes and carried our sorrowes Hee was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed For the transgressions of my people was he smitten It pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to griefe to make his soule an offering for sinne and he shall see of the travell of his soule and be satisfied I know not how fuller expressions should be made to set out this thing That Christ hath borne the punishment due to sin for the believer as fully as he hath the sinnes themselves With his stripes we are healed that is the punishment of our sins which he did beare for us so that as the wrath of God due to sinne we shall never beare them again for what Christ hath borne for us he hath delivered us from the bearing of it in our owne persons otherwise Christ dyed in vaine and this Text is not made good if we be not healed by his stripes Now if the punishment be not taken from the believer as well as the sinne how is the wounds of that soule healed by the stripes that Christ bore for it And if any shall say God made Christ to beare the believers sinnes but the believer must beare the punishment due to those sins though Christ was wounded bruised and chastised for them Such an affirmation will beare very hard upon the justice of God and question that truth of our Saviour upon the crosse that he had finished the worke of redemption part of which is the punishment as well as the sinne I verily believe when Christ bore the curse of the law he did beare the punishment due to all the sinnes of all his people and though I doe believe that God chastiseth every child whom hee loveth yet those chastnings are the fruits of his love and not of his wrath Christ hath borne all that in being made a curse for us Lastly Christ hath borne death for us as it is the wages of sinne 1 Cor. 15.53 to the end By which meanes death is swallowed up of victory The sting of death which is sinne and the strength of sinne which is the law have lost themselves their strength when they entered into Christ so that now a believer can blesse God that through Christ he hath victory over death sin hell law and grave and why so Why because Christ hath gone through he hath borne and overcome all these for us and wee are more then conquerours through Christ that strengthens us We are more because none of these can conquer Christ but he hath to all eternity overcome them for us This sting of death is swallowed up of victory for it is buried in the wounds of Christ but Christ is risen and is at the right hand of God and because he lives we live also John 14.19 Joh. 14.19 The second observation is this Observ 2 What-ever the free grace of God hath taken off from his Elect and laid upon Jesus Christ that his divine justice neither can nor will at any time to all eternity lay upon the elect soule againe This is justice sutable to his covenant of grace in the 31. of Jer. 34. For I will forgive their iniquities Jer. 31.34 remember their sinnes no more The faithfull God engages himselfe to remember his peoples sins no more and to make it good he layes them upon Christ which satisfieth his justice and carryeth our sins into the land of Forgetfulnesse Doe but observe how Gods justice as well as his mercy is engaged to make good this his owne covenant of grace For the law of creation that was doe and live self could not doe therefore selfe must dye Now surely the law of grace is not stricter then the law of creation so that Christ having fulfilled the whole law and performed every tittle of his Fathers will for us the justice of God is engaged to acquit Christ who hath paid the utmost farthing in him to acquit us for whom he hath made this full satisfaction As it was free grace in God to make us one with Christ so it is compleate justice that wee live in Christ who hath dyed for us And what ever Christ as the gift of free grace hath borne for us God in justice will never lay upon his elect in Christ again Whoever will deny this must deny God to be just and his covenant of lesse value then the covenant of a faithfull man his grace neither free nor full grace Christ not a compleat Saviour and then his death of no effect Now looke backe upon this truth and you shall behold sin the curse of the law punishment due to sin from the law of creation and death with its sting in it all borne by Christ for his elect body so that they shall never beare any of them more in their owne persons then glory in the free grace of God and the full redemption of Jesus Christ Thirdly Observ 3 Observe here the exceeding love that Christ shewes to those poore soules which his Father hath given him That hee would take upon himselfe the curse of the law the punishment of sinne due to fallen man and all this to redeeme them which his Father had given him though they lay under sin law punishment and death It had been great love and condiscention in Christ being God only to have taken our nature though he had never taken any thing else But then what love is this to take our sins and all that followed sin upon him Hee hath borne that weight for us which would have pressed us to hell if we had lain under it in our owne strength Rom. 5.8 These are heighths and breadths and depths and lengths of love Rom. 5.8 This commends love indeed to choose to beare all evill to deliver the sinner from it and by the same act to involve the sinner into all good Fourthly Observ 4 Observe from hence the glorious condition of a soule in union with Christ hee is taken up into the glory of God the bosome of his love he lives because Christ lives and as Christ lives above sin above a condemning reigning law above the punishment of sin and above death as it is the wages of sin above all that is below God Our fellowship saith the Text is with the Father and the Sonne and these things we write unto you that your joy may be full It is a life in the spirit above the flesh a feasting upon the fat things in Gods house and a resting upon the full
in Christ so as to be ever well pleased with it and to delight in it 2 Cor. 5.21 For he hath made him to be sinne for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him God hath made Christ the foundation of his eternall love when hee beholds the travell of his soule he is well pleased which he doth in every soule he hath united to him The third Gospel-truth is this That a Saint doth then only truly and properly enjoy his life when be lives by faith upon God and Christ in the Spirit It is not enough to know the rule of the law in the letter and some of the worke of the law in our lives to know all the formes of Gods worship under the law and Gospel To know and to be under all these is nothing when ignorant of the knowledge of God through Christ in the Spirit Knowledge in all the former substracted from the latter is but to know that we are under the chaines and the power of darkness Our life consists neither in circumcision or uncircumcision but in the new creature Christ living in us and we in Christ The life that we now live 't is by the faith of the Sonne of God by faith feasting and satisfying our soules upon the love of God in Christ the Spirit that teacheth and leadeth the soule into all truth even the God of truth and there the Spirit teacheth the soule to read God to be a God of love and so to enjoy him and live in him through Christ as a God of grace and a faithfull God that will keepe Covenant with his people and not impute sinne to that soule for whom Christ hath dyed Our life shall be for ever with God and in God enjoying nothing but God and all of God in heaven this is truly our life now as we are one with Christ only the clouds of mortality darkens it and so farre as we live upon God through Christ in the Spirit so farre and no farther doe we truly enjoy life in any condition and what we strive for here below is not our life nor truly worth our contending for all the weary pursutes of the heart of man which center not in Christ must wither before they come to their journeyes end for they have no life to carry them through A childe of God can finde no rest but the bosome of his Father and no way to that rest but Christ the great gift of his Fathers love so that God and Christ is both the way and the end of a Saints rest that is enjoying fulnesse of blisse in God who is all in all to all his people Gospel truths should be teaching to Gospel-Saints and these truths accompanied with the spirit of truth may first teach and informe all Saints where our life and interest lies namely in God and Christ God opening the bosome of his love and giving us Jesus Christ Jesus Christ giving out his blood his life and all that God requires to satisfie justice and to make a compleat redemption Christ putting on our flesh and taking upon him the curse due to us and all to this end to be Mediatour to stand betweene a displeased God and a poore soule to become sinne for us that wee might become righteousnesse in him Our life lyes neither in the workes of the Law nor the formes of the Gospel but in that love which gave Christ to be made under the Law to fulfill the Law for us and in that Jesus which is the Lord and the life of the Gospel the Gospel is glad tidings which is Christ crucified The highest forme is but a darke representation a cloud without light if Christ which is the light of life be not in it 'T is God in Christ that is our life Let us not turn againe to the beggerly rudiments under which we shall be in bondage but in the Lord of glory to live only upon God in Christ who is the true light and life of Saints to seeke life in any thing else is to seeke the living amongst the dead Again These Gospel-truths should teach and exhort Gospel-Saints to beleeve in God he is a God of grace and he is a faithfull God he makes good his covenant of grace that our sinnes and iniquities hee will remember no more to charge them upon the believer for hee hath fully charged them upon Christ and hath satisfied his justice to the full in Christ And hence it is that by way of comfort our Saviour in John 14.1 bids us to beleeve in God through him Yee believe in God believe also in me that is looke upon the covenant of God and all the promises of God made good in me believe that what my Father hath given me to doe I have finished it all the worke of your redemption and what ever God hath laid upon me shall never more be laid upon you though it made me sweat drops of blood and at last give up the Ghost yet I have finished the worke I conquered by yeelding and overcame by dying and I am risen again to beare witnesse of my victory over sinne death hell law and grave for you and thus I would have you to believe in mee and in God who gave me out of his bosome of love to be all this to you Distrust of these trutths is to put a question upon the faithfulnesse of God and the fulnesse of Christ God promises to pardon freely Christ undertakes to satisfie fully now a doubt of either is unworthy in him that is an heir of both In the next place me-thinkes this cals for much love from Saints to God and Christ Oh how should we love God that hath freely given us Christ and with him all things The great God of heaven and earth had no greater gift then Christ to give and him he hath freely given us and in Christ himselfe his Spirit his Kingdome and his glory too Who would not love a heart so full of love as Gods heart is How can wee chuse but love a hand so full of love as Gods hand is What ever may justly command or invite love it is in the heart and hand of God there are mercies free and full in God at his right hand is fulnesse of joy for evermore Love had its first conception in the heart of God we love him because he loved us first The glory of his love is the rise of our love the piece-meales of beauty and glory which we earnestly seeke and pursue after in the creature they all center in God what ever it is that might be taking to oul affections that is in its primitive glory as it is in God and truly did we see God by an eye of faith as we do things below with an eye of sense the brightnesse of his glory would darken all lower glories and all the streames of our affections would runne into God who is the fountaine and originall of all love and lovelinesse
the beames of Christ shines through clouds in this world and so maintains life in his members yet here lyes the gaine to be carried above the clouds and to be lodged in the bosome of the Lord of glory As the fore-named Text To be ever with the Lord there lies the gain Gods word tels us of a time when all teares shall be wiped from our eyes but it is not in this world for our Saviour tels us the world will hate us it shall be a place of tribulation It must not seeme hard or strange to those that shall reigne with Christ to suffer with him all our sufferings are in and from the world but the fulnesse of our reigne is with Christ in Heaven Thus are we made conformable to the image of Christ in this world we enjoy least of Christ and therefore must needs be a Saints worst condition That is the darkest day to a Saint in which the least of Christs presence and glory appeares therefore is the world a Saints worst state because it is not able to beare the fulnesse of the glory of Christ which shall be revealed in Heaven There will be no need to enquire for him whom our soule loves for we shall alwayes be in his presence When mortality hath put on immortality then comes in the crown of glory we may have glimpses of glory in this life but the more exceeding and eternall weight of glory is in the life to come The top of our life here is of faith we eive by the faith of the Sonne of God saith the Text. And another Scripture opening the nature of faith sayes It is the evidence of things not seen but in Heaven we know as we are known of God the eye wil then be made sutable to the object and there wil be defect no more on our part to diminish the glory So that you see if wee set aside all the sowr of the world and take a Saints sweetest morsels he hath below yet it is short of the glory shal be revealed Wherefore the observation stands very cleare That a Saints worst condition is in this world The 2d observation is this namely That a Saint hath reliefe from the worst of the world by faith waiting for the appearance of Christ as in the Text. A Saint by faith lookes upon his union with Christ as a Sonne and so satisfies it selfe with the appearance of God So the Apostle Paul in Rom. 8. the latter end he eyes there his union with Christ and so is carried above tribulation or distresse or the worst of the world Hee concludes there was nothing could separate him from Christ and therefore he is at rest as if he should say notwithstanding all these which he named before as tribulation and the rest yet Christ and I shall be one in glory and when his fulnesse of glory appeares then shall mine A Saint by faith can argue thus what-ever may seeme best at present to a carnall eye yet I know when Christ shall appeare that is the righteous Judge of quicke and dead then shall my head be lifted up for my full redemption drawes nigh When a state of good and evill for eternity comes then shall my state and condition appeare good I know whom I have trusted Christ will preserve his owne glory and mine with his my state of glory shall be that which shall accompany the appearance of Christ the best and worst of the world hath but a moment a little time to attend it but the glory of Christ hath eternity with it and this is my portion Thus hath a Saint by faith reliefe from the worst of the world waiting for the appearance of Christ A third observation Love makes the soule quicke-sighted The soule that loves Christ sees by faith his appearance though afarre off and rejoyces in it though no affliction but is grievous for the present yet by faith the soule sees the appearance of Christ though at some distance and in the joy of it is carried above the present affliction Hence it is that Saints can overcome the world even their faith sayes the Text that eyes the appearance of Christ for if they saw nothing but the world the world would overcome them but it is a higher glory that carries them above the world The believing soule sayes he that shall come will come and will not tary and so quickens Christs appearance to the reliefe of his owne soule A fourth observation A Saint values himselfe according to his interest in God and what reliefe comes in by that interest hee eyes it though afarre off and satisfies himselfe with it Let the world value me at as low a rate as they will sayes a Saint yet I will value my selfe according to my interest in God If they say my wisdome is folly yet I will say Christ is my wisdome and so I have true wisdome If they say I shall want bread to eate I can say by experience I have food to feed on which they know not of and when they shall want their huskes I shall finde bread enough in my Fatâ—ers house and love enough in my Fathers heart to satisfie and till my eternall soule I blesse the Lord sayes such a soule I value this above tenne thousand worlds my union with Christ and know there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and that nothing shall be able to separate mee from this glorious interest Rom. 8. I can value this I am thâ—ough free grâ—ce a childe of God an heire of glory and that which the worâ—d adores I in the Spirit of Christ can trample upon I know God hath freely given me Christ and with him all things the world is an addition and over plus Christ and glory is my portion and when the worldling gluts himselfe with this present dying world I can rejoyce in my interest in the living God and eye my gâ—ory as a sonne of God and an heire wiâ—h Christ as â—t shall be revealed at the great and glorious appearance of the Lord Jesus My soule shall be satisfied with its interest in God when the world and worldlings shall be confounded in their own glory My life is hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is my life shall appeare then I know I shall appeare with him in glory Through as it is hâ—d in God the world cannot see it yet through the Spirit of God I can see it and rejoyce in it and thus a gracious soule filled with the Spirit values it self according to â—ts interest in God and Christ The fifth observation is this namely That a gracious soule relieves it selfe in bâ—holding Gods love in the originall and the glory of it Hee lookes upon Gods love as it elected and chose him to be a sonne and he lookes on the glory of that love as it shall be manifested at the glorious appearance of Christ In a cloudy day such a soule goes to the Sonne of Righteousnesse for
which doth appeare is more glory then wee can expresse Sure then it is our duty to admire and extoll the riches of this free-grace which hath freed us from the law of sinne and death translated us from the power of darkenesse to the Kingdome and government of his deare Sonne enthron'd Christ in our hearts and written his holy law there in his Spirit Oh let us extoll this God in the fruits of the Spirit which is love joy peace long suffering gentlenesse goodnesse faith meekenesse temperance against which there is no law Thus I shall conclude This is our freedome so to live in the Spirit as to be led by the Spirit CHAP. VII Saints are compleat before God in their union with Christ Coloss 2.9 and part of the 10. vers For in him dwels all the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and yee are compleat in him THIS portion of Scripture is a part of Pauls Epistile to the Church of God at Colosse it is the very center of all those sweete comforts that the holy Ghost hath dropped downe in this Epistle Nay sure I am it holds forth the corner-stone of all the building A Saints perfection and the reason of it is the subject-matter of this Scripture The reason stands first in reading as a foundation is laid before a sure building The Apostle holding forth a Saints compleatnesse sets before it Christ fulnesse From these drops we may observe these two points First That a Saint hath no compleatnesse in the sight of God Observ 1 but as it is united to Christ And secondly That as a Saint is one with Christ Observ 2 so he stands compleat before God in Gods owne fulnesse First That a Saint hath no compleatnesse in the sight of God but as it is united to Christ To prove this First observe the scope of the holy Ghost in this Scripture For in him which is Christ dwels all the fulness of the God head bodily Here the holy Ghost takes in the God-head in all the fulnesse of it and centers it in Christ and so makes out the Saints perfection in union with him As if he had said all fulnesse in perfection dwels in Christ as the fountaine or the body and is so in you as you are in him hee filled for you you filled in him hee compleat as one with God you compleat as one with him as Christ sayes himselfe I in the Father and you in me Mark it till the holy Ghost had center'd all fulnesse in Christ hee mentions no compleatnesse for a Saint which points at this truth had not Christ been full for us wee had never beene compleat and when he doth mention the Saints compleatnesse he doth it inclusively compleat in him This is not only full mercy but also it springs from pure love it is free-grace that wee are compleat in him for free-grace sees no compleatnesse but in him Thou art my beloved Sonne sayes God speaking of Christ in whom I am well pleased And in another place I beheld the travell of his soule and am well pleased I never met with any mention of God being well pleased and satisfied but Christ was Alpha and Omega all in all in it This which is already laid down makes a fair way for such a quere as this is Pray wherein lyes the compleatnesse of a Saint what are the parts or substance of Saints compleatnesse or fulnesse To this I answer it will be best discerned by its contrary The Saints fulnesse and compleatenesse before God in Christ will be most transparent when wee spiritually discern our condition in the first Adam and that will appear in Ephes 2.1 2 3. The Apostle speaking there of a state of nature speaks of a person dead in sins and trespasses walking according to the course of the wicked world and the will of Sathan that Prince of the Aire fulfilling the lusts of the flesh and so by nature the children of wrath This is the state of a naturall man under the wrath of God separated from the bosome of God and so dead in sins and trespasses a vassall to Sathan led by his will according to the course of the wicked world fulfilling the lusts of the flesh alienated from God Christ from the Common-wealth of Israel breaking every holy law of God so often as Sathan will And then not having Christ made a curse for him lyes under the curse of the law and the wrath of God to all eternity A soule fully delivered from this state and compleatly stated in the bosome of God and in glory with Christ will be acknowledged a full compleatnesse First observe the state of nature drawne into these heads First the wrath of God Secondly vassalage or slavery under Sathan to be led to the fulfilling of lusts at his will And lastly to be dead in sins and trespasses In opposition to these I shall hold out justification sanctification and glorification And in these three heads I shall endeavour to shew how we are compleat in him namely Christ First how Christ is our compleat Justification see this in Rom. 3.20 to the 25. Here Justification exclusively and inclusively is set forth In vers 20. By the deeds of the law no flesh is justified in his sight There the holy Ghost shews where it is not by deeds of the law I under stand our best duâ—â—s the highest performances wee can make to the will of God in this no justification But then looke into the 24. verse and there you shall see Justification lying between or in these two breasts that alwayes flow with eternall life namely the free grace of God and the redemption of the blood of Christ here is free-grace giving Christ to be our redemption and Christ in his blood giving satisfaction to his Fathers justice bringing us to lye down in the bosome of this free-grace which gave him out for us he doth this by being made a curse for us Gol. 3.13 God and Christ are one in this as in all things else for layes the Text He hath made him to become sinne for us that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him Isa 53.5.11 marke there Christ is wounded for our transgressions bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace laid on him Now marke the issue with his stripes we are healed And God sees the travell of his soule and is satisfied Here is God satisfied our soules healed and all this through the wounds of Christ The whole booke of God his sull of this take for proofe only these two places more Coloss 1.13 14. and then I thinke it will stand fair to view that the clect Sâ—int stands before God for just fication compleat in Christe this is the part of the compleatnesse wee have in Christ and so delivered from the wrath of God for as one Text sayes were there no law there would be no finne if no rule then no transgression so may I say the curse being born and the law satisfied
in the Margin things to gird about them and here they rest content they saw their nakednesse a great advantage truly but having girded themselves with fig-leaves they knew no want of God for in verse 8. when they heard the voyce of God and that in the coole of the day they hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden and when God came so neere to them as they were falne to confesse the reason why they fled from his presence they acknowledged they were afraid verse 10. Compare these first appearances of nature in our first parents after their fall with the experiences of our owne naturall hearts and others and it will appeare in all that is miserable what exact Images we are by nature of these our first parents They were naked so are all by nature of any righteousnesse to stand in the sight of God they knew they were naked so doth many a desperate finner whose conscience fâ—ies in his face but the remedy they sought was only an apron or girdle of fig-leaves So doth our naturall hearts licke their woundes whole and cover their nakednesse by legall and formall duties and performances girding our loines strengthening our hearts in them and covering our nakednesse so as the eye of man cannot discerne it and in this posture as our first Parents hid themselves amongst the trees of the garden from the presence of the Lord so we shrowd our selves under publick externall Ordinances after the fashion of the world and resting in beggerly rudiments to defend us from the presence of an angry God and yet not withstanding all this when God comes close to the soule though it hath girt it selfe about with fig-leaves it s owne righteousness yet it is not established but doth confesse in all the actions under such a state it was afraid because of its nakednesse and this feare doth inflame the misery of it and causeth it to fly and hide it self from the presence of God here is the first buddings of nature and truly it is an exact miserable condition for it is wholely in selfe and wholely out of God the reliefe this soule findes is in flying from and being out of the presence of God now sure I am every Saint experienced of Gods love will call this state a state compleatly miserable knowing that all its life happinesse lies in a close communion with the bosom of God a continual beholding of his face in Christ yet this state thus compleatly miserable is not Adams alone but all his seede in him of which by nature is all the world as is fully expressed in verse 23. of this 3. Chap. of the Romans For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God The misery of this state of nature may be farther amplified in coÌ„fidering thar Antipathy that is in all to that holy just and good law of God and that impossibility which is in man to performe it one place saith speaking of the law it is that which neither we nor our fore-fathers could beare we could not stand under it to justifie our selves by it The Apostle in Rom. 3.9 to vers 19. speaks plainly this generall evill state by nature and the fruits of it in many particulats in oppolition to all the laws of a holy God And in vers 19. speaks plainly that the Law makes all the world guilty and so makes his inference in the 20th verse that none can be justified by the deeds of the law and then he gives his reason for it which is this For sayes hee by the law is knowledge of sinne Gods pure nature discovers the impure nature of fallen man so in the following verses speaks of a blessed and a justified state for a poor soul under another head But all this speakes the miserable irrecoverable lost state of a naturall man in himselfe the fruits of this tree of nature we may see in that 2d of Ephes the three first verses Though it be a dead tree yet at beates fruit but it is the fruit of death trespasses and sins walking in them according to the course of this world and the power of the Prince of the Aire that spirit which workes in the children of disobedience who are by nature the children of wrath Any of these particulars rightly understood and set home upon the spirit of a man will make it crye out as the Apostle O wretched man that I am and in me that is in my flesh is no good But certainly if ever we come to see that sinke and masse of sin and corruption that is in us by nature and that wages of sinne which is death wee shall then acknowledge if ever God discover his thoughts of eternall love to us that it is all free-grace The second demonstration of the point is To consider a Saint under a state of grace in Christ the second Adam To take this in the beginning as it stands in the word let us turne backe to that 3d of Gen. 15. where Christ is promised in the seed of the woman and what to doe to breake the head of the Serpent that is to kill and overcome him The Apostle in 1 Cor. 15.21 sayes be must reigne till he hath put all his enemies under his feete And in this conquest over his owne and his peoples enemies hee doth the will of his Father we have his owne word for it John 4.30 This doth exceedingly set forth the free grace of God that when he found all man-kinnde in a state of rebellion so soone as ever he had enquired into the fault hee makes a promise of the Lord Christ in whom the state of a poore soule is better then in innocency As if the Lord had said Adam though thou didst run from me was affraid because thou wert naked yet now establish thy heart in beholding my fulness which is thy cloathing cast from thee the workes of thy owne hands that fig-leave righteousness thou hast begirt thy selfe with and lay hold on the workings forth of my eternal love in this promise of Christ The Serpent hath been too hard for thee when he found thee in thy own strength but I will give out Christ that great gift of my love and he shall as he is one with me from eternity in my everlasting power and fulnesse make warre with the Serpent and in that warfare though the Serpent shall bruise his heele wound his flesh yet he shall breake the head of the Serpent and overcome him This must needs be free-grace to make such a promise to fallen Adam and his posterity that ranne from the presence of God and were content with fig leaves for a covering of their nakednesse You may see in nature there is as little desire of Christ and his righteousnesse as there can be of discerning for here is a flying from the presence of God and a satisfying it selfe with its owne righteousnesse and certainly this righteousnesse is nothing but menstruous rags that
the light Bare formall profession is so true an enemie to nothing as to spirituall light and an empty form enraged against nothing more then the power of godlinesse and therefore God makes tryall of all professing and professors by the powrings forth of his Spirit Truly if God did not looke that such as worship him should worship him in spirit truth he might have worshippers all the world over If the spirit and power of godlinesse were not the distinguishing character between professors Christ would have all to follow him and Saints and truth none to oppose them but when the Spirit of truth gathers up Saints into truths as they are in Jesus above this or the other naked forme and into the power of godlinesse bringing forth the fruits of holinesse then not only carnall wretches but also naked formall professors rise up against them and thus by this fire of the Spirit God doth discover all professors that build upon this foundation the Lord Jesus whether they be gold silver and precious stones or whether they be wood hay or stubble by their abiding or consuming Truly formes or no formes can give no good testimony to this new creature I judge of form no form as the Apostle of circumcision and uncircumcision that they avail nothing but the new creature And I believe as the power of godlinesse shall encrease the contendings in the world about formes will decrease that I am troubled at is this when men are rigidly zealous for formes yet then negligent of the power of godlinesse in themselves and opposite to it in others especially if they differ in formes which makes it evidently to appeare that their forme is their God and they have no God but forme And on the other side it is as sad if not more sad to behold such as pretend to higher communion with God then others have which walke in the use of formes and yet in their lives as loose as vaine and as empty of God as those which have nothing but forme That I contend for is the power of godlinesse and I would all the contentions in the world were swallowed up in this namely who should live up most of Christ to exceede each other in the power of godlinesse this contention would kill none but our lusts love to Christ Saints and truths would live indeed and 't would be our life to live in this love But there is another sort of people in the world which this truth informes us of that is such as talke much of the grace of God and yet turne that grace into wantonnesse such wretches did never spiritually understand this Text That who ever is in Christ is a new creature Nor doe they consider how they engage the purity of Christ to discover their impurity The Apostle Paul in Rom. 6. makes it matter of abhorrency to continue in sinne upon this consideration because grace did abound in God and truly God doth more abhorre to own them under a notion of grace be not deceived God is not mocked he will make his word appear truth against all the wretches in the world they shall know that such as are in Christ they are new creatures I have heard it reported that there be some which deny the Scriptures That which is understood by the titles of the old and new Testament to be the word of God I can say no such thing knowingly but sure I am that many thousands which acknowledge it with their lips deny it with their lives and that in this one Text That if any man be in Christ hee is a new creature for they will lay claime to the one and deny the other talke of their interest in saving grace but deny his sanctifying grace Such wretches as these bring an evill report upon the Gospel of Christ and the Christ of the Gospel The Gospel of Christ it is glad tidings being the proclaiming of Christ crucified as the gift of free-grace for poore sinners Now when such as hate to be reformed talke of the free-grace of God they put dishonour upon it and a stumbling-blocke before weake Christians It makes them stagger at grace to see grace-lesse men professe it and grace in truth hath harder thoughts of many and is lesse esteemed of because of this false profession of grace and I feare me it makes poore legall soules to make a God of their duties when they see these vilde creatures to abuse the grace of God I know not what is more vilde then this to live in sinne under a profession of grace These are seared consciences indeed that can sinne and name it grace and then call the God of truth to witnesse to that lye nay to make God himselfe a lyar for he saith who ever is in Christ is a new creature but they say they are in Christ and yet are olde creatures God will unmaske this hypocrisie and prove himselfe the God of truth Christ hath no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse such as are in Christ their fellowship is with the Father with the Son such as have fellowship with Christ are those that live in Christ and Christ in them that live by the faith of the Sonne of God and in the spirit of the holy God so that they are changed into the image of God This is the new creature this is the gracious soule indeed such as have the power of their lives It is not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that knoweth my Fathers will and doth it saith Christ 'T is grace in truth and act that consists with union and communion with Christ if in Christ then a new creature and all profession of grace without the new creature will appeare our owne fancy of grace and not the grace of God in truth for that alwayes produceth the new man If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Lastly This informes Saints indeed of their duty and priviledge for truly it is both and it is this That wee live to no other end but to live up Christ who is our life and if Christ be our life then we are new creatures and the life of the new creature is to live up Christ which is its life Children of the day should walke as such in the light of the Lord in the power and might of his Spirit It is the Apostles exhortation in Gal. 5.25 If we live in the Spirit let us also walke in the Spirit As if hee had said it is not only our businesse as Saints to live in the joyes of God but also to live up the God of our joyes not only to live upon God in the Spirit but to walke with God in the Spirit that is in the fruits of the Spirit for that is the Apostles subject in the verses just before this Christ is a living Christ he appeare where ever he is The Apostle James in his 2d chap. vers 17. tels us that faith
intends to prove his heart with mirth and the enjoying of pleasure and in the proving his heart doth experience those things and findes them vanity and behold This also is vanity vers 2. I said of laughter that is madnesse and of mirth what doth it 1. It doth not satisfie therefore it is vanity So in vers 4. and so forward he tels us That he made him great workes and buildings planted vineyards made Gardens and Orchards planted trees in them of all kindes of fruits got him servants and maidens servants borne in his house so that he had great possessions of great and small Cattell above all that were in Jerusalem before him He likewise gathered up silver and gold and got men-singers and women-singers with the delights of the sonnes of men as musicke-instruments and that of all sorts so that hee was greater then all that was before him in Jerusalem And in vers 10. He gave out his heart to take joy in all this and kept not his eyes from any thing that they desired But in vers 11. he gives in this report of all this fulnesse and his full experience of it Then I looked on all the workes that my hands had wrought and on the labour that I had laboured to doe And behold all was vanity and vexation of spirit and there was no profit under the sunne I cannot imagine a fuller proofe then this Scripture here is wisdome possessing and trying all things under the Sunne and findes no profit in any or all of them 1. They yeelded no return of benefit to his labours there was more sorrow and travell then enjoyment nay not only no profit but vanity and vexation of spirit in all yet he tels us He possessed more then all that went before him and none that commeth after him should exceede him For saith he what can the man doe that commeth after the King He may not thinke to gâ—â—spe more of the world then I have done and when he hath all he hath but so much vanity and with it vexation of spirit The wise man gives an instance of this vanity in Chap. 4. vers 8. There is one alone and there is not a second yea hee hath neither childe nor brother yet is there no end of all his labour neither is his eye satisfied with riches neither saith he for whom doe I labour bereave my selfe of good This is also vanity yea it is a sore travell As if hee had said I will make you judge of all the labours of man in the things of the world for looke upon a man that spends all his time in labour after the world he encreaseth daily in riches but not in content hee is not the more at ease for the more hee possesseth but more creature he hath the more desire and travell encreaseth Nay saith he this is a great vanity he doth all this to encrease his labour of which there is no end though hee have no satisfaction in his riches nor any to leave them too he is like the barren womb that is never satisfied nor bringeth forth any to be satisfied after it Man may find creature to love and vanity enough in the world to possesse but in all his love shal be lost and shall not finde satisfaction in any abundance under the Sun Ch. 5. v. 10. He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor hee that loveth abundance with encrease this also is vanity And if vaine man should gather up a content as hee thinketh in these vaine things so that with the foole in the Gospel he bids his soule take ease he hath goods laid up for many yeares yet the Wise man saith joy and laughter it shall be as the crackeling of thornes under a pot this also is vanity Chap. 7. vers 6. So he telleth us that in respect of the world men and beasts dye alike Chap. 3. vers 19 20. For that which befalleth the sonnes of men befalleth beasts even one thing befalleth them as the one dyeth so dyeth the other all goe unto one place all are of the dust and all return to dust again So Chap. 2 vert 16. The wise man and the foole dyeth both alike Thus the wise man hath given in his experimentall testimony to this truth both in the life and death of man for further proofe let us looke upon Job both in his full and his empty conditions they were both under the Sunne and therefore a certainty in neither hee that had so much of every thing in a few moments had nothing but his body full of sores and a pot-sheard to scrape them with and this low condition had the uncertainty of the world in it for that passeth away and his latter end was greater then his beginning I cite it only to this purpose to demonstrate the vanity of all outward conditions under the Sunne whether they be full or empty Jonas had pleasure in the gourd but it was short-liv'd pleasure for in one night the gourd withered and his pleasure turned into anger This gourd is a true embleme of the whole world the momentary delights they give produce nothing else but anger at their parting Jonas said he did well to be angry so doth every poore creature when the world withers and dyes like it selfe saith it doth well to be angry with God because it selfe is no wiser then to thinke the groud would last alway This is the world and this is vanity and vexation of spirit The Israelites in the Wildernesse which are Saints in the world found vanity in every step they took their Quails and Manna had vanity in them nay the flesh they carried about had vanity in it Your Fathers sayes Christ John 6.58 did cate Manna in the Wildernesse and are dead The world hath vanity enough in its owne wombe to eate up all its fulnesse witnesse Joseph'e store-houses at the end of the seven yeares famine there is a time for the leane Cattle to devoure the fat the flourishingst world hath a grave in it selfe to sepulchre it selfe in though here be enough to prove this truth yet it wil not be amisse to adde our owne experiences let health speak for sicknesse and sicknesse for health the strong man for the weak and the weake man for the strong when they have changed each others condition sicknesse tels health thus I thought when I was sicke that if I could but be in health as you are it would have beene a gourd that I should have had content in but when I had it I found it wither then I said I did well to be angry Health tels sicknesse I thought I should never have beene in your condition but now I finde there was vanity in my health because it withers The strong man tele the weake I thought my strength had been my owne and I could have kept it but now I am weak as you are I finde I was vaine in my thoughts and my strength is vanity so
his glory to trust under the shadow of his wings to renounce selfe aims and ends and glory to be wise for Christ and not for selfe to use more piety and lesse policie to look upon all things under the Sunne as vanity not to be so vaine as to spend their precious time and spirits in going about to make perishing things permanent not to build Tabernacles and thinke it is good to be here for the Tabernacle that they build withall is perishing and hath but a few moments to be here Ob therefore be wise and whilst it is called to day close with Christ All things below this Sunne is vanity if you trust the World you 'l finde it so The Wise man he tryed the World and found it so such as love the World will finde it loft love and those that serve the World most will finde they serve nothing but vanity and truly that is a very ill Master the latter end of that service will be worse then the beginning it is great pitty then that the World hath so many servants seeing it is so unfaithful a Master how many is there that serve the world as they should serve God with all their soules their spirits and their strength improving their lives liberties and interests to serve vanity and to lift up flish though in that worke they do their utmost to wound Christ in his Members It is a sad employment to blow up those flames that shall burne him that bloweth it to ashes This is the evils of that worke to serve the interest of the World against the interest of God they digge their owne graves they wound their-owne soules and heighten the fury of those flames which will make them cry out for a drop of water to coole their lungs this work in the end will not only make the heart ake but the conscience roare this worke indeed will prove vanity and vexation of spirit To winde up this subject It is God and Christ only that is worthy to be trusted served loved and delighted in there is vanity in all below God but no vanity at all in God we may trust him for hee is faithfull all that ever have trusted him have found him so witnesse the Israelites at the Red Sea hee bid them by Moses to stand still to trust in him and they should see his salvation and he proved himselfe a faithfull God God is worthy to be served because hee commands that which is worthy the service of a holy soule and then he giveth strength to performe the service he requires He giveth his Spirit both to teach and to lead and his service hath life and glory both in the way and end he spirits the soule and then commands spirituall service this is a service worthy to be owned and obeyed God is also worthy to be loved of all his because he loved us first and that first was when wee lay in our blood and no eye could pitty us He is the originall of our love therefore worthy to be loved by that which floweth from himselfe he hath all lovelinesse in him and therefore worthy to have all loves center in him that which is the fountaine of love may justly claime to be the object of love Saints may well say of God and Christ as the Spouse did of Christ that there was no beloved like her beloved for love and lovelinesse the best way of expressing this is to let God and Christ have all our loves By this we plainly tell that there is no object our eyes can looke on so lovely as God and Christ Communion and fellowship with the Father and the Sonne is a place of delight for the soules of Saints Love takes delight in God and Christ for there is banquets of love and banners of love bosomes of love and words of love electing love and redeeming love justifying sanctifying and glorifying love these are objects of delight indeed here we may feede abundantly and be satisfied but can never be cloyed O be wise then stand aside perishing world away with all those vanities under the Sunne there is a brightnesse out-shines it and a glory that swalloweth it up there is no beauty below God nor any excellency out of God and who ever hath a spirituall knowledge thus of God will by the same light be able to say as the Wise man I have seene all the workes under the Sunne and behold all is vanity and vexation of Spirit CHAP. XI A Saints excellency is to have no will in himselfe but the will of God Luke Chap. 22. vers 42. Saying Father if thou be willing remove this cup from me neverthelesse not my will but thine be done THese are our Saviours words when hee was entering into crucifying worke his flesh would have shrunke but his Spirit bore it up and makes this the result of all the thoughts within him to have no will but the will of God and to desire that no other will should be done and fulfilled but the will of God Christ is the head of Saints and it is the glory of Saints to be made like their head this work is too hard for flesh and blood bâ—â— as it was not too hard for Christ no more will it be for a Saint when Christ is in him though it be hard to learn yet it is very sweete in the attaining the paines of the travell will be swallowed up in the birth of this beautiful man-childe The scope of our Saviour in this Scripture to me seemeth to be this That what ever his flesh might desire yet his Spirit leaves all to God and not any will to be done but Gods will Our Saviour in this doth and so should every Saint in conformity to him resigne up the whole soule and body unto the will of God to be and to doe in all times things according to his will so as that in every thing his will may be done That such as read may the better understand take these two heads as a ground-works of the ensuing treaty First That it is the duty of Saints in conformity to Christ their head to have no will but the will of God Secondly So farre as Christ liveth in any soule it is the desire of such a soule that the whole will of God and no other but the will of God may be done in all times and things And first to the first of these That it is the duty of Saints in conformity to Christ their Head to have no will but the will of God The first Scripture makes this cleare that the Lord Christ our Head would own nor stick to no other will but the will of God If there be in my flesh any thing which is not in thy will let it not be done for he confesseth he came to doe the will of his Father So in the fourth of John vers 34. Christ telleth us That his meat is to doe the will of him that sent him and to finish his work
us And this the Apostle Paul found when hee made that holy boast I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me I have from God all that I returne to God God hath my will and I have my will spiritualized by God Gods Spirit lives in my will and I thereby live in the will of God that which is impossible with man is not so with God though of my selfe I could not give up my wil to God yet God of himselfe can give me his Spirit and by that swallow up my wil into his When God bid Abrabam leave his Fathers House and goe into a strange Land the whole frame of the designe was against flesh yet God gave him a spirit to goe through with the work Nay when hee commanded him to offer up his sonne his only and his beloved sonne Isaac against which work flesh might have found arguments enough yet to this so exceeding hard work to flesh and blood God gave him in such an abundant measure of faith that he stuck not at it his own will was swallowed up into Gods because God had given him sutable strength to so hard a worke The Apostle speaking of faith tells us 't is the gift of God now if we consult the Scriptures we shall finde Abraham did all these great workes by faith Hebr. 11.8 9 18. so that in one Text he is called the Father of the Faithfull Now if Saints doe the will of God by faith in his Spirit and he gives both faith and the spirit then God is no hard master but a gracious God in commanding what he gives seeing he gives what he commands and it is nothing but ignorance of Gods way and working that begets hard thoughts of God and his wayes Secondly consider God leads his children he doth not drive them he wins and overcomes them by his love he doth not force them but as his love constraines them by converting and changing the Old man into the New God appears in the soft and milde voyce God makes choyce of a meeke Moses to be his messenger to his people to call them out and to lead them after him When God designes he uses if any the very quintessence of meanes to effect his design Now in this design of Gods to bring his peoples wil over to his so that they may be dead to their own will and alive onely to his he makes his love the meanes That is a notable text to this purpose where it is said God was in Christ reconciling the world to himselfe that is God was manifesting his love to his own in the world by Christ and the appearance of that love reconciles them to God that is makes them to have good thoughts of God seeing how he loves them it makes them willing to resign themselves wholly up to him If I would seek a bosome to take up my rest in to resign my self over to so as to be wholly led and ruled by it I would above all things else be sure to chuse a bosome of love one in whom I was sure of a full interest of love for then I could satisfie my selfe that what ever was willed for me or to me it was the best that could be for me because love constrained willed and wrought it for me and we know the commands of love are easie both in the commander and the commanded Now this is Gods way in bringing over his peoples will to his he opens his bosome of love to them hee makes knowne a Christ crucified and in him wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption and in all this his love nay his love as the ground of all this he makes known that he pardons iniquities transgressions and sinnes for his own name sake and he calls himself the God of love the Apostle tells us Ephes 2.8 That it is by grace we are saved that is originall love is all in our salvation Now by the discoveries of Gods love to the soules of his people by his Spirit he overcomes them and whereasbefore they were at enmity with God looking upon God as an enemy as all doe that see God onely in the flâ—sh but the Spirit opening their understandings now they become reconciled to God we love him because he loved us first and trust in him because we see he loved us from all eternity gave Christ and pardon heaven and glory in this love and to resigne up our selves into the bosome of God to be preserved directed and ruled by his love The soule by discerning the love of God in the spirit is convinced that what ever it hath flowes from this love and it is ever best in this love and therefore resignes up all to the love of God its whole will and affections which makes and rules all its motions The love of God God himself when this is used as a meanes it must needs effect its end God cannot be frustrated but what he wills he workes if he wils his love to conquer the love and the wills of his people it shall surely doe it and this is Gods certain and sweet way of melting his peoples will into his own My people sayes God shall be a willing people in the day of my power when God powres forth his Spirit upon any soule and in that Spirit manifests and reveals his own love to that soule then is the day of Gods power upon such a soul and it becomes a willing soule it is melted into Gods will and ownes no wil for it selfe but the wil of God and upon this foundation of love Christ commands his Disciples Joh. 14 15. If yee love me keep my commandement And in the 23 24. If any man love me he will keep my words And he that loveth me not keeps not my sayings as if he had said it is my love shed abroad in your hearts that is your ability to doe my wil and this will demonstrates that I have given you my love if you obey my words God ownes no service but what flowes from love and the fruits of love as the fruits of God for God is love Now I never heard any complaining of the conquest of love Where love overcomes the conquest is so lovely that the overcomed admires but never repines And sure I am that wil in man which is overcome by Gods love to deny it self onely to own God for its directer and commander will be alwayes admiring the power and the glory of that love but never be found repining that it is captivated by the loving kindnesse of God and this is the way of Gods working upon the soules of his people therefore let such as are under the darknesse of the flesh be silent and not say that to have our wils melted into Gods will is a burthensome thing and to be crossing and denying selfe and flesh is to make the way to heaven without joy on earth for so saying they onely discover this that they are in the flesh and neither
discerne nor savour the things of God Thirdly when God brings in the wil of his people to his own will there he changes the objects and the affections of such soules so that the will chuseth God and his will as its centre to rest in That which the Apostle in the third to the Colossians begin exhorts to God by his Spirit works in and enables the soule to it is That such as are risen with Christ should seek those things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God that our affections should be there because Christ that is our life is there Now when Gods Spirit commeth and possesseth any soule it sets upon this work immediatly carries the soule upward above the world shewes it God and Christ the love of God in Christ shewes it its glorious union with God and Christ here and in glory to all eternity darkens all the world by revealing but one glimpse of this more exceeding and eternall weight of glory and in changing the object the affections soon alter This more exceeding glory carries away the soules love from the world of perishing glory When the Prodigall but considered the fulnesse of bread in his fathers house he soon resolved to leave his empty Trough of Huskes and his swinish company but surely when hee had been embraced in his Fathers Armes and tasted the love in his Fathers bosome when hee had possession of what hee longed for and was in the vision of his Fathers kindnesse and glory hee then quite forgot the Swine and the huskes his affections and wishes did not then runne to obtain enough of them no the object was changed and the affections with it and having been taken up into his Fathers glory he doth not chuse to goe backe and feed with swine any more now he chuseth to centre in God Thus doth God bring in all his prodigals when they have tasted the worlds perishing love then by his Spirit hee makes known his eternall love to them when they have tryed trusted and looked upon the world so long till they finde it empty then he by his Spirit shews them his own fulnesse when they have had the pleasure of sinne for a season and the bitternesse of sinne hath seased upon them with the visage of eternity then God by the same Spirit makes known himself to be a God of grace that pardons freely nothing to move him but his own love and how great that love it he makes manifest by a crucified JESUS and now sayes the soule I know where to centre where to sit downe where to give up my self even into the bosome of Gods love This is Gods way of conquering the soules and wils of his people He alters the object that alters the affections and centres the will in God the object is according to the eye if the eye bee flesh it discernes no object but in the flesh so if the eye be spirituall it spiritualizes every object the Spirit of God enquires for God in all it sees and where God is made the onely object there he is sure to gain the affections for he hath all love and lovelinesse in himselfe and the affections being taken the will goes where ever they go he that lives in love hath his wil in that he loves not in himselfe so the soule that hath his affections drawne into God by his love made known unto it in the Spirit hath no will in it selfe but in God in whom it lives by love Thus God doth sweetly gain and win into himselfe the will of his people by revealing the glory of his grace and love to them in the Spirit till by that Spirit they make choyce of God to give up their wills unto and say as Christ their head Not my will but thy will be done Fourthly God when he gathers in the will of his people to his owne will he gives in higher and fuller joyes and contentments into their soules then ever they had at any time or in all times and things before The Prophet David in Psalm 4. latter end given in light in these truths vers 6. There be many sayes he that say Who will shew us any good Now mark his answer in the same vers Lord list thou up the light of thy countenance upon us As if hee had said doe they enquire for any good Lord doe thou but smile upon us looke graciously on us and there is all good in that nay in vers 7. he tels us his experience of it Thou hast put gladnesse in my heart more then in the time that their corne and their wine encreased This speakes to the very thing here is a time of more fuller joy and gladnesse in the heart of Gods people then under the enjoyments of the World for I judge the termes of Corne and Wine comprehends the whole but observe when is that time why when the Lord lifts up the light of his countenance when God by his Spirit makes knowne himselfe to be their Father in Christ then is the soule filled with gladnesse but in the last verse observe the effects of this upon Davids soule I will lay me downe in peace for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safety As if he had said I will now resigne all up to thee and take my peace in thee and expect my safety from thee thou hast so filled my soule with thy joyes that I cannot leave thee but leave my selfe with thee continue but to lift up the light of thy countenance upon me and then leade me where thou wilt and doe with mee what thou wilt for I will lay all downe before thee my will and my wayes thou shalt be my peace and my safety Observe the working of the Spirit of God in the Apostle Paul's spirit when God had brought over Paul's will to his to goe upon hard and suffering work such a work as he was told he should meete with sufferings in Acts 21. When hee would needs goe to Jerusalem Agabus the Prophetesse prophesies to him that the Jewes should binde him and deliver him to the hands of the Gentiles And in vers 10 11 12. The people besought him not to goe up to Jerusalem but in vers 13. he answers them what meane you to weepe and to breake my heart for I am not only ready to be bound but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus As if he had said you only with a fleshly eye looke at the difficulty of the worke you know not the inwaâ—d supply of joy in God that I have to doe this and the whole wâ—ll work of God doe you thinke God is a hard task-master to command bricke and give no straw Doe you thinke the work God gives is more then the strength he gives If so you are mistaken for I am supplyed with joyes and in comes of God not only to goe through binding worke but also dying worke for Christ I goe in Gods strength to doe his
though under tribulations this is to be more then Conquerers This is the way that our Saviour tooke with his Disciples when he was to leave them so that they could have no more of his fleshly presence his designe was to comfort them and give in that which might beare up their spirits therefore John 14.1 Let not your hearts be troubled but believe in God through me behold the love of God in sending me and your interest in that love then consider that in my Fathers house are many mansions fulnesse of glory enough for all Saints And my going from you is but to prepare a place to take possession for you as your head And I will come againe and renew you to my selfe for heaven can never part mee and my members And I will pray the Father that in my absence he shall give you another Comforter even the Spirit of truth which shall dwell with you and abide with you and teach you all things And if in that spirit you aske any thing in my Name I will doe it I will effect it for you And in John 15.9 As the Father hath loved me so have I loved you continue in my love And in John 17. Christ prayes for his Disciples and all his members telling God All mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorifieâ— in them And therefore after hee had prayed God to keepe them in the World and from the evil of the World In vers 24. he prayes that they may be with him in glory Father I will that all whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me So that he gives in spirituall joyes and comforts to support and carry them through the feares they were under and the tribulations they should find in the world he gives in the joyes of heaven to carry them through the sorrowes on earth and the joyes exceed the sorrowes as Heaven doth Earth If God deale thus with his people that when he leads them into suffering and difficult worke yet then they have a greater income of strength then service of joy then sorrow of rest in God then trouble from the world then surely this way of Gods working the will of his people over to his will is not a hard but a pleasing worke and all these Scriptures makes this good That God when he brings over the will of his people to his owne will doth not make them a comfortlesse joylesse people but gives in heights and fuller joyes and contentments into the soule so that the soule makes choise of God to delight it selfe in and give it selfe up too with this resignation Not my will but thy will be done O Father Fifthly and lastly When God brings over his peoples will to his owne he convinceth them and makes them to believe that their owne present future and eternall good is bound up in this will So that as God workes his will upon his people it is not so hard a worke as the world thinks for Saints to surrender up their will unto the will of God GOd dealt thus by Noah it was his will that Noah should build an Arke to save himselfe and his Family from perishing with the olde World God convinceth him and makes him to believe that the present and future good of himselfe and family was in the thing immediately Noah's will was as God's will for hee being warned of God by faith sayes the Text he builded an Arke Heb. 11.7 So Peter though at first hee denyed our Saviour to wash his feete yet when Christ told him that if hee washed him not be had no part in him nay then sayes he not only my feete but also my hands and my head John 13.8 9. This fully proves the thing in hand Peter's will opposed Christs now our Saviour to bring over Peter's will to himselfe takes this course shewes him and convinceth him that his owne good was in submitting to his wil. The Apostle no sooner believes this but our Saviour hath his end nay then Lord not my will but thy will be done not only my feete but also my hands and my head The Apostle Paul in Phil. 4.12 13. tels us he knew both how to be abased and how to abound to be full and suffer hunger to abound and suffer neede I can doe all things through Christ that strengthens me That is he could in all conditions give up his will to God not dispute with any of GOds will but submit to all And methinkes the same Apostle in Rom. 8.28 gives us the ground of this sweete and heavenly frame of spirit in him For sayes he we know that all things worke together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose That is the good of Gods Elect is in all the will of God God wils nothing but what shall worke together for this good so that my soule believing of this I can give up my whole will to God I know what ever he doth my good is in it therefore whether God in this life make me to want or abound I am content in both and choose his will for my will because I am convinced and doe verily believe that my good is in it I have this faith in Christ that my good is in all God doth therefore I can submit to Gods will and doe all things through Christ that strengthens me Thus God in Christ enables his people to give up their wils to him by convincing them and making them believe that their owne good is in his will So that gather up all these together and it will plainly appear that it is ignorance of God and his wayes in any soule that shall make this objection that Gods wayes upon the soules of his people are hard and burthensome wayes such as if a man once enters into and gives up his will to Gods will then he must be ever crossing and denying himselfe making the way to heaven without any pleasure or joy on earth This is false for First God gives what he commands then his commands cannot be hard Secondly He leads his children he doth not drive them hee winnes and overcomes them by his love he doth not force them Thirdly Hee changes the objects and affections of the soule and so overcomes the will Fourthly He gives in higher and fuller joyes and contentments into the soules of his people when he melteth them into his owne will then they had at any time or at all times before And lastly God convinceth and maketh the soules of his people to believe that their good is bound up in his will This way of working must needs convince that the worke the way and the end of God is sweete safe and pleasant to the soules of his people when he brings them to this frame of spirit to say in sincerity Not my will but thy will be done O Father Doubtlesse it will be worthy
of our paines to consider the benefits that doe accrue to the soules of Gods people in having their wils involved into the will of the holy God First This giving up our wils to the will of God it lifts up and magnifies the glory of God in his love power and wisdome upon our own soules and in the World By this Saints declare to all the World that they have found more sweetness in Gods love then in theirs because they have given themselves from the world to be ruled by and satisfied with his love Abraham did this in an eminent manner when he left his Fathers house to follow the will and command of God It speakes plainly this there is most love in God therefore the soule loves alwayes to be with God and to that end hath given it self wholy up to God and that it resteth upon the power of God to defend it and therefore gives up himselfe and his will to Gods worke and leaves his protection in all his worke to Gods power Sure Abraham did so for the Text tels us bee knew not the place to which be went then hee could not know the dangers hee should meete withall but he knew whom he had trusted and under what protection hee was namely the power of the Almighty God to whom hee had committed his owne will and way this also doth much manifest the glory and wisdome of God when his people give up their wils to his what is it but adeclaring Lord wee are folly but thou art wisdome swallow us up into thy selfe that wee may be wise in thy wisdome let our foolish wils appeare no more but thy will and thy wisdome Let Christ be our wisdome lift up thy selfe in us the soule gives up it selfe to God because it would appeare no more in it selfe but in God as Paul not in his owne righteousnesse which is of the Law but in Christ the righteousnesse of God Now doth not this plainly appeare that the soule judgeth Gods love better then all other love His power above all other power and Gods wisdome to exceede all his owne and the wisedome of the World else why doth the soule in its will give up it selfe to the will of God So the Apostle Paul I through Christ can doe all things He would not so much as mention himselfe I have given my selfe up to Christ sayes hee and what is done Christ doth it in me I have found his love his power and his wisdome better then my owne or any besides therefore I have given my selfe up to him and I act in him How exceedingly doth this frame of Spirit declare the glory of God this frame of will to Gods will was in the Disciples Luke 5.5 When Christ bid them cast their nett into the Sea againe they told him They had toyled all night and caught nothing yet neverthelesse at thy word wee will let downe the nett How doth this manifest their love to Christ in obeying him contrary to all their reason and experience of that nights labour also it magnifies the power of Christ As if they had said wee will cast in at thy command for thou hast power to make our labour successefull so it doth the wisdome of Christ thou art wiser then all wee therefore wee will obey not dispute thy commands marke that clause yet neverthelesse at thy word wee will let downe the net As if they had said should wee owne our wills to be our owne we should finde arguments enough in our flesh to dispute thy commands Yet neverthelesse that there be so many fleshly arguments against thy command yet our wils being thine we readily obey this neverthelesse gives the more glory to the love power and wisdome of God A second Benefit of the will of man given up to the will of God is this That it takes the soule off from vain and needlesse pursuits and enquiries and wholly puts it upon seeking after the will of God when the soule is brought to this to seek and have all its light life and strength from God it then seekes no where else so when it hath given it selfe up wholly to be acted and disposed of by God then it lookes for nothing but God to manifest his will in what the soule or body should doe or suffer This single object is a mighty advantage to a beleeving soule how miserably are such poore hearts puzled which have more then this single object to look to for rules to act by such as when God by his providence brings them to a triall that they must act or declare for or against him own him or deny him before men then they have struglings within themselves First to know after the menner of men which is the strongest side and if they find that yet they feare lest it should not continue so they would seemingly own God but yet dare not let goe the arm of flesh they know not how to trust Gods power and wisdome above the power and wisdome of the world and this makes them say one thing one day and another the next this uncertainty and perplexity in mens spirits ariseth from hence that God is not their single object they would doe that which cannot be serve God and Mammon too they are ambidous and would be alwayes uppermost therefore they keep their wils in their own hands that they may as they think be able alwayes to gratifie the strongest party But this makes miserable worke in the soule and altogether unfixes the motions You shall never tell where to have that man that cannot tell where to be himselfe He must turn with the wind and unlesse you can tell where and when the wind will change you shall never know how to find him This is misery enough for any man and it is great pitie that any such man or men should have power to make more miserable then themselves But the misery of this man sets forth the beauty and the benefit of that wil which is wholly given up to God and to whom God is the single object it looks after When God brings forth the soule to discover it selfe to the world it goes to God and begges of him to discover and manifest his will concerning its motion For sayes he Lord thou knowest I have no will of my own my will is in thee thou must discover thy will before I can know or doe my duty Now when the soule is fixed upon this single object it is free from all those poore and low distracting considerations and though he be made to wait a while to know Gods way yet hee waits patiently because he knows he hath pitched upon an object that cannot deceive him and upon a faithfull God that will make known himselfe to him so that both waiting and working hath a setlednesse in it where God is the single object of any soul and God is so when the will of man is brought over to his will it hath then nothing to enquire after but the
being on earth for it is God in the Creature now this is the wil of man swallowed up in the will of God put forth in the soule and life of man And this is the soule that speakes to God truly in the spirit Not my will but thy will bee done O Father Fifthly and lastly When our wils are melted into the wil of God it puts the soule and spirit into a quiet peaceable restfull and serene condition and it must needs be so upon this consideration For what can make it otherwise when all things worke according to the desires of that soule every thing distinct and all things together perfects the end that this soule drives at and the soule knowes it therefore must needs be at rest the property of this soule is it hath its will in God and desires the fulfilling and accomplishment of no others wil but the wil of God Now tell me what can disturb the peace of this soule Nothing but what is able to frustrate God of his wil and that can be no created being because God that made it can when he pleases make it return to its first nothing that soule hath its peace above disturbance which hath in it the fulfilling of the will of God For all the working in Heaven and Earth doe but fulfill the wil of God and make up the peace and rest of that soule which is bound up in the wil of God And upon this consideration our Saviour tels his people That their joy shall no man take from them because their joy and rest is in God above the reach of man or men and this is the main reason of that vaste difference that is in the spirits that live in him and the men of the World that live in the World in regard of the rest and peace that is in the bosomes of the one and the perplexing distractions that are in the hearts of the other Sayes the Soule that hath given up his wil to God I am at rest for I know in all the workings in the world he is perfecting his own will and setting up his owne glory and his wil it my wil if Gods will be done I have all done that my soule desires therefore nothing can disturb my rest But now ask the worldling how is it with him in point of rest O sayes he never worse the world is so unquiet so full of trouble hazards and change that a man cannot tell where he is safe nor when hee is wel nor doe we know when it will be better when some hopes of rest appeare then new troubles nip that in the bud so that I am hopelesse of any rest in the world That is very true sayes the the gracious soule for the earth that must be shaken and is ever shaking was never made for a place of rest but did you enjoy God and live in the fulnesse of that love which soules live in that have given themselves up to God your mournings would be turned into joyes and your sad complainings into high admirings of the power and wisdome of God that makes all things perfects his ends and lifts up his glory Truly sayes this soule I remember the time when it was with me as with David my heart repined to see the wicked fat and flourish but since my wil hath been moulded into the will of God I can repine at nothing because now I know all things shall fulfill the wil of God I have knowne the time when my spirit hath been disturbed if God should seeme to set me aside and use others in my place to doe his work but truly no such thing disturbs me now my wil is in Gods wil for it is the wil and work of God to be done that I mind not the instrument that doth it nay Gods wil in altering of his instruments satisfies me as much as any other part of his will for it is the doing of his will that I rest in and this makes me alwayes at rest because God is alwayes accomplishing his own will therefore sayes the Psalmist in the 45 Psalme I will not feare nor be disquieted though the earth be removed and the mountaines carried into the midst of the Sea though the waters thereof roare and bee troubled though the mountaines shake with the swelling thereof No why not What is the reason of it Why The Lord of Hosts is with us the God of Jacob is our refuge This is the reason He lived in the power love and faithfulnesse of God and so could not be moved that which could move the earth and carry away the mountaines the great men powers of it could not disquiet him because not remove him from his God Our Saviour intimates thus much unto his Disciples John 14. Let not your hearts be troubled you beleeve in God beleeve also in me i. Beleeve in God live in God and rest on God through me and your hearts will be at rest When the wil of Man centres in the wil of God the peace of God centres in the bosome of that man When God makes any soule to sit down in his wil he doth also make that soule to be at rest in his wil and his love till he take it up for ever into the fulnesse of his glory This is an unparallel'd benefit which that soule enjoyes that hath given up his will to the will of God Wee have an example of this in David 2 Sam. 12.16 whilst the child was sicke he besought the Lord for it but when he knew the childe was dead He arose from the earth washed and anointed himself worshipped God and went to his own house are bread and refreshed himselfe 19 20. And in the 22 23. verses he tels us the reason of it While the child was living he besought God for it he could not tel but it might be his will that the child should live but when God had declared his will in the death of his child that satisfied David so that we see clearly it was the will of God hee looked after and that being revealed the heart is at rest and it s only a heart that is thus bound up in God and his will that can be at rest Gods will is either the rest or the trouble of every soule where it is the rest that soule must needs be at rest because his wil shal alwayes be done but where it is the trouble that soule must ever bee in trouble because his will is ever fulfilling Now it cannot but bee the rest of that soule which hath its will in God and disquietments of such wils as are out of and contrary to God that soul must needs be at rest which hath his wil in Gods because let God strip it of what he pleaseth yet it finds more in God then it can lose for God more love more life more joy more riches more honours and more pleasures then it must needs follow more peace and quiet in such spirits The onely
way to be at peace and quiet is to be out of our selves and the world in our wills and in God This soule gaines its will by losing of it he hath what he desires that in all times and things Gods will must bee done on Earth as it is in heaven But if our hearts should ask this question If there be such great benefits that doe accrew to the soules of Gods people in having their wils moulded into the wil of the holy God then what hinders that this work is not wrought upon the wil of every man To this I answer There be three things especially which hinder 1. Ignorance of God 2. Unbeliefe 3. Love of the world First It is ignorance of God in his love and the working of his love that makes the soule long to give up it selfe and its will to God and this appeares clearly in what hath gone before The blind man cannot judge of colours he that knows not an excellency can never close with it it is all one to a swine whether he tramples upon pearles or peble-stones hee cannot distinguish There is not a greater evidence of ignorance then in such a question as was put to the Jewes What is there in thy beloved more then in other beloveds It is a signe they were ignorant of her beloved that should make question what was in him more then in other beloveds had they known him as she did they would have confessed he had been the fairest among ten thousand and admired his excellency not compared it by a question to poor low empty things Now from this ignorance it arises that men keep their wils to themselves and doe not surrender them up to God because they know not God nor what gainers they shall bee in so doing Secondly Vnbeliefe and this is the grand cause for though men may have a fleshly knowledge of God and Christ yet if they know not God and Christ in spirit there will be no trusting in them nor beleeving on them and there can never be a resigning the will over to God All the eminent examples which we have in Scripture of this giving up the wil to Gods wil we shal find it the fruits of faith Heb. 11.7 By faith Noab obeyed the will of God and builded an Arke 8 9 verses So by faith Abraham gave his wil up to God in leaving the place he was in to goe to a strange countrey which he did not know and sojourned in the Land of promise as a stranger And in the 17. verse when God tried Abraham in that superlative streight to the flesh whether he had given up his wil to Gods wil in commanding him to offer up his sonne Isaac the Text saith By faith he did it he had by faith resigned up his own wil to Gods did beleeve Gods wil better for him then his own so by faith he obeyed verse 23. It was by faith Moses parents hid him three moneths that their wil was Gods wil comes from faith So by faith Moses when hee came to yeares obeyed Gods wil and left Pharaohs Court And by faith the children of Israel gave up their wils to God and followed his wil through the red sea and the long wildernesse into Canaan Thus it is beliefe in God that centers the wil in God and so consequently unbeliefe that keepes off the will from centering in God Thirdly and lastly inordinate love to the world keeps off the wil of man from closing with Christ they are afraid to lose something of the world if they give up their wils to Christ This made the Gaderens to desire Christ to depart out of their Coast Mark 5.17 because in the fulfilling of his wil when as he cast the Legions of Devils out of the man and suffered them to goe into the swine so that the swine ran into the Sea and were drowned they desired no more of his will to be done if it took away their swine This worlds love is swinish love it loves not that Gods wil should be done if in the fulfilling of it there bee but a cropping of any creature bud This love puts a great value upon the things and esteem of the world and therefore refuseth to give up its wil to God because he seeth that the wil of God commands the offering up of an Isaac and he not being acquainted with the spiritual incoming of God to his soule nor beleeving the love and faithfulnesse of God refuseth to resigne up his wil to God but as the unjust Steward would make friends of the unrighteous Mammon gives up his will to the possessing and esteem of an empty world values them more then God loves them better then God and therefore give up their will to the world and not to God reading this lesson backeward and say to God not thy will but our will be done This truth is full of beauty in its information but in the application of it and the soules closing with it it makes an exceeding glorious Christian First It informes us whence all trouble and rest both within us without us do arise and that is clearly in this from our wils out of God our wils in God that will which is not in God is in opposition to God so is God to it now hence it is that all troubles arise both within without the soul because God is always fulfilling his owne will and this is a continual crossing such a wil as is out of God that wil that lives in it selfe is tortured every moment of selfe-disappointment which doth follow it all its dayes and in all its designes because it wils and designs contrary to God Disappointments are dreadfull things to such a man as wils for himselfe and lives in his will his will being disappointed in which his life was bound up the man must needs be a life-lesse miserable man this was the grond of Pharoah's troubles about the children of Israel his will was in opposition to Gods will in their going to worship God in the Wildernesse God in every act of his providence was fulfilling his will and this eate up the very bowels of Pharoah and this is the very cause that makes those tyrants over the consciences of Gods people in these dayes so restlesse because in opposition to them God is fulfilling his owne wil Hee wil have his people free from their wils to worship him in his Spirit and though they pursue with all their might to hinder this wil of God in his Saints yet they imagine but a vaine thing and shall compasse nothing in the conclusion but their owne ruine God may suffer them so far to have their owne wils as to drive Saints to the Red Sea but all that shal fulfil Gods wil not their wil for then wil God bring their greatest disappointment and certaine ruine This was also proud Hamans case his wil was to destroy the whole Nation of the Jewes as we may see in Esther 3. But
the type or the things typified yet it holds forth this that God is the glory of it God in Christ the light thereof Exceeding much may be written upon this head but I hope this little will fully satisfie all but Atheists That God is the first fulnesse and all of all glory But what advantage this is to Saints how their glory is in God is next under consideration And for this first consider the prayer of our Saviour to his Father and our Father in John 17.24 Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the World And in vers 22. The glory which thou gavest me I have given them This is truly the end for which Christ was given of the Father that in him namely Christ the people of God might be made partakers of his glory Christ prayes according to the will of God that God would perfect in his elect body the worke of his Mediatorship namely that God and his people might have full communion in that glory which Christ had with the Father before the World was vers 5. For I conceive that to be the glory which Christ cals my glory that to which he was ascending Our Saviour seemes to make these the grounds of this prayer I in them and thou in me vers 23. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them therefore let them behold my glory i. Let them be filled with thy self for thou art my glory For there is no other way of beholding God the glory of Christ but by being made partakers of God and filled with his fulnesse There is another full Text to this purpose in Rom. 8.17 And if children then heirs heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ Marke it first every childe of God is an heir 2. God himselfe is the inheritance of all his Children heirs of God but how doe Saints enjoy this their inheritance namely God the Text tels us joyntly with Christ we are joynt-heirs of God with Christ So that God communicates himselfe in his glory to Saints as to Christ Saints full of God as Christ their elder Brother is This is as full a proofe as words can make That in God there is fulnesse of glory for his people because himselfe is the inheritance of his people which Saints enjoy as fellow heirs with Christ having their lives bound up with God in Christ their glory appeares with Christ in God the experience of this made the Apostle to glory in Phil. 1.21 For to me to live is Christ and to dye is gaine The free-grace and eternall love of God in Christ is my life wherefore to dye to this body wil be my gaine for I am an heir of God with Christ my glory is with God and were I out of the body I should be fully in God so againer in glory but whether to live or dye God in Christ is all my glory And the same Apostle in Phil. 4.4 gives this exhortation Rejoyce in the Lord alwayes and againe I say rejoyce Be glad and glory in the Lord surely he had found fulnesse of glory in God otherwise he would never have given such an exhortation as this to rejoyce and rejoyce alwayes speake this that there is alwayes fulnesse of joy and glory in God for his people The Saints of olde living upon God could glory in tribulation that is in God though under tribulations as Shadrach Meshech and Abednego in the fiery Furnace Daniel in the Lions Den Paul and his fellow prisoner in the Stocks when as their stripes were sore And as the same Apostle in Rom. 8. latter end though under tribulations distresses persecutions famine nakednesse perill sword and killings all the day long yet under all these more then Conquerours through the love of God So that it appeares clearly a Saints glory is in God because when hee enjoyes God in his love he is more then a Conquerour over all afflictions more because God is his glory and that glory is greater then all the trouble of the World It must needs be great and communicable glory that can keep the head above water and the soul from being overwhelmed by that sea of afflictions which is before expressed And thus we see God is fulnesse of glory for all his people and I am confident the experiences of Gods people in these dayes can produce a numberlesse number of testimonies to this truth I shall adde no more but leave the Reader to reade the makings forth of the glory of God upon his own soule the sum of all is this that in the Lord is all glory therefore he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. But if any shall say I am not edified by this generall theame of glory in God for his people to glory in shew me the particulars of this glory in which the people of God may and doe singly glory in God To this I answer I will tell you what God hath shewed mee but it is only himselfe that can shew it you by his Spirit for his glory is too great to be beheld in any light but his owne and to such as God gives the light of his Spirit it will appeare in these particulars following wherein Saints may and doe in all their glory glory singly in the Lord. The first particular is this The originall full and eternall love of God to all his Elect in Christ A soul that glories in God upon this consideration may glory singly in God and will tell you God is the original of love for God is love he is Alpha Omega the beginning and the end Nay his love is as himselfe from all eternity without beginning and without end this soul wil tel you Gods love is full for the fulnesse of all that is lovely proceeds from it he is the first of love for he is the first in love he loved us first and his originall love is the womb of our love we love him because he loved us first It is this originall love of God which conceived and brought forth heires of love Christ the eldest Brother is the gift of this love and this originall love is so full that it makes every childe a joynt heire with Christ and this love so eternall that the inheritance is as eternall as God himselfe for God in the fulnesse of his love is his Childrens eternall inheritance this soule will tell you all I have and am to all eterninity which hath life and glory in it is the effects and workings of this original ful and eternal love of God the state of Innocency the restoration and redemption of grace the beauty of the first Adam before his fall and the perfection of the second Adam all but that proceeds of this originall love of God Ephes 2.4 5. But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even
is eternall power and his wisdome eternall wisdome Now tell me if the first Scripture be not a weighty exhortation He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. Take this as a foundation and carry it all along in your eye That purely what God is in himselfe is the onely matter and subject of his peoples glory For that is the exhortation Hee that glorieth let him glory in the Lord. And I desire to carry soules home to God himself that our soules may drinke the water of life at the fountain of life there it is eternally the same A soule that doth truly and purely glory in God himselfe will tell you that it findes God to be a God of originall eternall love and free grace And therefore sayes this soule Blessed be this God I beleeve all my iniquities are pardoned and my sinnes blotted out by the blood of Christ so they shall never more be remembred or charged against me for the originall love and free grace of God hath laid them all on Christ and he hath given exact satisfaction to the Divine Justice of God so that through eternall love and free grace I am acquitted and just fied in the fight of the eternall holy righteous and pure God and in this eternall love and free grace of God I am united to Christ so that Christ the Wisdome Sanctification and Redemption of God is mine and I am his Christ made sinne for me and I made the righteousnesse of God in him so that when I glory in my redemption I glory in God in his originall love and free grace When I say the Law of God cannot condemne me I doe not affirme that I have kept the Law in my selfe and so glory in the righteousnesse of the Law which is of workes but I glory in the original eternal love of God his free grace that hath made Christ my righteousnesse who hath fulfilled the Law for me and is daily doing it in me by the power of his grace Rom. 6.14 And give me leave to glory then sayes this soule though it bee great things that I glory of so long as God himselfe is the subject of my glory no Legalist can hinder God of the Soveraignty of his original love and free grace so that when God assures any soul of this his salvation and the soule glories in it this soule glories in the Lord. Come and see sayes this soule the glory of the Lord I am saved meerly by the free grace of God his original and eternal love hath plucked me out of sinne self eternal death hell law grav the power of Satan and eternal condemnation and made me one with Christ and heire of himselfe a joynt heire with Christ in eternall glory This is my God sayes the soule all this is the fruits of his love and free grace riches of mercy and faithfulnesse in his covenant and promises the exactnesse of his justice upon Christ is perfection of justification to my soule in union with Christ the perfection of his holinesse righteousnesse and purity is the glory of my soule whose life is hid with Christ in God the baptizing of his holy Spirit in which the elect in Christ are buried with him to sinne makes the resurrection of Christ and the new creature in me sayes this soule And all this is God meerly what God is in himselfe saving justifying and sanctifying glorifying grace all is Gods grace all this is free grace and all this free grace is my God sayes the beleeving soule therefore sayes this soule come O man and taste how good the Lord is Here is Milk and hony freely without price and without money Isai Chap. 55.1 If this soule meets with a beleeving heart it presently holds forth a bleeding Christ and if a soule that argues against its own salvation why sayes this soule consider grace is free your salvation hath no other foundation but the original love and free grace of God God concluded all under sinne that salvation might he of grace No soule since the fall of Adam could ever plead it selfe before God the whole frame of salvation stands upon the free grace of God now you have nothing to argue against but free grace your not being worthy can neuer make God not to be gracious you see nothing lovely in your selves that cannot hinder for God is the original of love you can in no measure keep the Law the Law it was to convince of sinne not to justifie any soule but Christ the gift of free grace he hath satisfied and fulfilled the Law for all his elect say what you can I will answer you sayes this soule with God that is with eternal love and free grace If God should suffer Selfe sayes this soule to have share in salvation I were as miserable as any soule alive for I am as much under sinne in my selfe as any other soule but the glory of my salvation is my God this I beleeve by his Spirit that himselfe is my salvation his own eternal Being is my eternal life his original love and his free grace which is of himselfe is the everlasting salvation of my eternall soule And sayes this soule upon this assurance I am able to goe to God himselfe through Christ by his Spirit to plead my interest in him to plead my salvation to be eternal because it is the salvation of his own originall love and free grace so that it can never faile and come to nothing because in the eternall God and when Satan would shake me out of my assurance I carry him to my God and let Satan know that my salvation standeth not upon my own legges but is the worke of the eternal original love and free grace of my God which is above the reach of Satan because in the very Being of God for God is love and free grace Thus a beleeving soule makes God the onely subject of his glory and from this foundation such a soule can never want a proper subject to glory in Saints would be glad to finde loving kindnesse mercy faithfulnesse justice holinesse righteousnesse and purity amongst men and truly these beames of God in his people makes them very glorious and the want of these is not onely a shame but the misery of this our present age These sparks of God make men truly Noble and the going out of these is the innobility of the times we live in but neverthelesse Gods people are not at a losse for a subject of glory For God is this all this and eternally this in the infinite fulnesse and glory of it Therefore what remaines but to presse home and to take up the Apostles exhortation He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord in the God of Grace and that our names are written in the book of life with the blood of Christ the gift of his grace that we have our inheritance in the New Jerusalem so that if these earthly tabernacles were dissolved we have a building with God an house
he was in clay the flower soon fadeth the grasse is soone withered the shadow soone gone and the Weavers shuttle passeth swift away this is the time of our flesh in Scripture account Consider againe the waiting is but a moment compared with the time of enjoying the next moment may end the one but the other is eternall without end and the first entrance into our Fathers glory will take quite away the remembrance of all sorrowes and sufferings here below nay the very beholding of Death-without his sting will make ful amends for all our waiting Now surely Saints have great reason to wait for Gods time patiently and believingly though wee be at present in the Wildernesse yet Canaan cannot be farre off and Christ will goe with us all the Wildernesse way till he bring us into Canaan he is faithfull which hath promised never to leave not forsake his people the waiting time shall not be wholly without him but when that time is accomplished then we shall be fully and for ever with him therefore our waiting should be in faith and patience on the will of God all the dayes of his appointed time for us And lastly The whole life of Saints should be a life of holy joy in God and a glorying through Christ over Sin Death and Grave believing Saints should live up those joyes which accompany Death without the sting of sin they should glory in the grace of God and the God of grace They should glory in the redemption of Gods free-grace and as the Apostle here makes a holy triumph over Death without its sting of sinne and over the grave which hath no victory but must give up those bodies which are sowen in corruption to be raised in incorruption wee should let the World know how kind a God we have that will not leave any sting in death or victory in the grave but puts an end to sin and thereby an end to all sorrow which makes death the worldlings feare to be our friend and the time of stripping us from the worlds dying beauty to be the time of filling us with his own glory Saints may well glory over Death that have God and Christ for their life Saints may safely question with Death about his sting when Christ hath taken it away for us wee may safely glory in the times of Deaths approach and the hour of his comming when as Christ hath taken away his sting from him we may truly say there is no God like our God no beloved like our beloved for none but such as have an interest in the love of God and redemption of Christ can glory over Death for to all others Death hath his sting and when ever hee commeth comes with his sting the feare of such hearts to see the face of death speakes very much of the glory of Gods eternall love in Christ to all that believe on him in taking away the sting out of Death by which meanes they can glory in and over death look death in the face with joy and rejoycing where death comes with his sting there is a thousand deaths in one but to a Saint death is no death onely a change or a dissolving to be with Christ then let us proclaim this to the world and so glory in our God that they may know their perishing idols are no wayes to be compared with our reall interest in God the day of death that is at hand will fully prove the truth of this therefore we may boldly say thus we shall make it good both living and dying The glory of a believing Saints death doth abundantly exceed the Worldings life nay indeed his own life for though to him it be Christ to live yet it is gaine to dye It is more Christ to dye then live In life Saints glory in Christ as he dyed for them but in death they glory in Christ as they live with him the first is the glory of purchase but the latter of possession In the first wee glory that the inheritance is given but in the latter that it is received which maketh up perfection of glory And to Saints this is the next step to death without its sting so that they may herein glory and triumph as the Apostle O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the law But thankes be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ FINIS