flesh and dwelt amongst Men in a Tabernacle like theirs and suffered death in the flesh that he who was Lord of Life hath freed us from the sentence of Eternal Death that he broke the bars and chains of Death and rose again that he went up into Heaven and there at the Fathers right hand sits in our flesh and that glorified above the Angels This is the great Mistery of Godliness And a part of this Mistery is that he is Believed on in the World 1 Tim. 3.16 This Natural Men may discourse of and that very knowingly and give a kind of natural Credit to 't as to a History that may be true but firmly to believe that there is divine Truth in all these things and to have a perswasion of it stronger then of the very things we see with our eyes such an assent as this is the peculiar work of the spirit of God and is certainly saving Faith The Soul that so believes cannot chuse but Love 't is commonly true the Eye is the ordinary door by which Love enters into the Soul and it is true in this Love though t is denied of the Eye of sense yet you see 't is ascrib'd to the Eye of Faith though you have not seen him you Love him because you believe Which is to see him spiritually Faith indeed is distinguish'd from that Vision that is in Glory but it is the Vision of the Kingdom of Grace 't is the Eye of the New Creature that quicksighted Eye that pierces all the Visible Heavens and sees above them that looks to things that are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18 And is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 that sees him that is invisible v. 27. 'T is possible that one may be much Lov'd upon the report of their worth and Vertues and upon a Picture of them lively drawn before sight of the party so commended and represented but certainly when they are seen and found answerable to the former it raises the Affection that it first begun to a far greater height We have the report of the perfections of Jesus Christ in the Gospel yea so clear a description of him that it gives a picture of him and that together with the Sacraments are the only lawful and the only lively pictures of our Saviour Gal. 3.1 Now this Report Faith believes and beholds this picture and so lets in the Love of Christ to the Soul but further it gives a particular experimental knowledge of Christ and acquaintance with him It causes the Soul find all that is spoken of him in the Word and his beauty there represented to be abundantly true makes it really taste of his sweetness and by that possesses the heart more strongly with his Love perswading it of the truth of those things not by reasons and arguments but by an Inexpressible kind of Evidence that they only know that have it Faith perswades a Christian of these two things that the Philosopher gives as the causes of all Love Beauty and Propriety the Loveliness of Christ in himself and our interest in him The former it effâ—ctuaâ—s not only by the first apprehending and believing of those hâ—s Excellencies and Beauty but by frequent beholding of him and Eyeing him in whom all Perfection dwells and looks so ofâ— on him till it sets the very Impression of his Image as it were upon the Soul that it can never be blotted out and forgot The latter it doth by that particular Uniting Act which makes him our God and our Saviour Ye Love The distinctions that some make of Love need not be taken as of differing kinds but different actings of the same Love by which we may try our so much pretended Love of Christ which in truth is so rarely found There will then be in this Love if it be right these three qualities Goodwill Delight and Desire 1. Goodwill earnest wishing and as we can promoting Gods Glory and stirring up others so to do They that seek more their own things then the things of Jesus Christ more their own Praise and Esteem then His are strangers to this divine Love-For it seeks not her own things This bitter Root of self-love is most hard to pluck up this strongest and sweetest Love of Christ alone doth it actually though gradually This Love makes the Soul as the lower Heaven slow in its own motion most swift in the motion of that first that wheels it about so the higher degree of Love the more swift It Loves the hardest tasks And greatest difficulties where it may perform God service either in doing or in suffering for him It is strong as death and many waters cannot quench it The greater the task is the more real is the testimony and expression of Love and therefore the more acceptable to God 2. There is in true Love a complacency and delight in God A Conformity to his will Loving what he Loves and studious of his will ever seeking to know more clearly what it is that is most pleasing to him contracting a likeness to God in all his actions by conversing with him frequent contemplating of God and looking on his beauty as the Eye lets in this Affection so it serves it constantly and readily looks that way that Love directs it thus the soul that is possess'd with this Love of Jesus Christ hath its eye much upon him thinks often on his former sufferings and present Glory the more it lookes upon Christ the more it loves and still the more it loves the more it delights to look upon him 3. There is in true Love a Desire for 't is but small beginnings and tastes of his Goodness that the soul hath here therefore 't is still looking out and longing for the day of Marriage the time is sad and wearisome and seems much longer then it is while 't is deteind here I desireâ— to be dissolved saith St. Paul and to be with Christ. God is the Sum of all things lovely thus excellenâ—ly Greg. Nazian expresseth himself Ovat 1. If I have any Possessions Health Credit Learning this is all the contentment I have of them that I have somewhat I may despise for Christ who is totus dâ—sâ—derâ—bilis totuâ— desiderabile And this Love is the sum of all he requires of us 't is that which makes all our meanest Services acceptable and without which all we offer to him is distasteful God doth not only deserve our Love by his matchless Excellency and Beauty but by his Matchless Love to us and that is the strongest Loadstone of Love He hath loved me saith the Apostle Gal. 2.20 How appears that in no less then this he hath given himself for me Certainly then there is no other Character of our Love then this to give our selves to him that hath so loved us and given himself for us This affection must be bestowed somewhere there is no Man but hath some prime choyce somewhat that is the predominant delight of his soul will it
not then be our wisdom to make the worthiest choyce seeing it is offered us and is extream folly to reject it Grace doth not pluck up by the roots and wholly destroy the natural passions of the mind because they are distempered by sin that were an extreme remedy to Cure by killing and heal by cutting off no but it corrects the distemper in them it dries not up this main stream of Love but purifies it from the Mud it is full of in its wrong Course or calls it to its Right Channel by which it may run into Happiness and empty it selfe into the Ocean of goodness The Holy Spirit turns the love of the soul towards God in Christ for in that way only can it apprehend his Love so then Jesus Christ is the first Object of this divine Love he is Medium unionis through whom God conveys the sense of his Love to the soul and receives back its Love to him And if we will consider his incomparable Beauty we may look on it in the holy Scriptures particularly in that divine song of Loves Wherein Solomon borrowes all the beauties of the Creatures dips his pencill in all their severall Excellencies to set him forth unto us who is the chief of ten Thousands There is an inseparable intermixture of Love with Belief and a pious Affection receiving divine Truth so that in effect as we distinguish them they are mutually strengthened the one by the other and so though it seem a Circle 't is a divine one and falls not under censure of the School's Pedantry If you ask how shall I do to Love I Answer Believe If you ask how shall I believe I Answer Love Although the Expressions to a carnall mind are altogether unsavoury by gross mistaking them yet to a Soul taught to Read and Hear them by any measure of that same Spirit of love wherewith they were penn'd they are full of heavenly and unutterable sweetness Many Directions and means of begetting and increasing this Love of Christ may be here offered but they that delight in number may multiply them but sure this One will Comprehend the greatest and best part if not all of them Believe and you shall Love Believe much and you shall Love much labour for strong and deep persuasions of the glorious things that are spoken of Christ and this will command Love Certainly did Men indeed believe his worth they would accordingly Love him for the Reasonable Creature cannot but affect that most which it firmly believes to be worthy of affection O this mischief of Unbelief is that which makes the heart cold and dead towards God Seek then to believe Christs Excellency in himselfe and his Love to us and our interest in him and this will kindle such a fire in the heart as will make it ascend in a Sacrifice of Love to him Many Signes likewise of this Love may be multiplied according to the many fruits and workings of it but in them all it self is its own most infallible Evidence When the soul finds that all its Obedience and endeavour to keep the Commands of Jesus Christ which himself makes its Character do flow from Love then it is true and sincere For do or suffer what you will withour Love all passes for nothing All are Cyphers without it they signifie nothing 1. Cor. 13. This is the Message of the Gospell and that which the Ministry aimes at and therefore the Ministers ought to be Suitors not for themselves but for Christ to Espouse souls to him and to bring in many hearts to Love him And certainly this is the most compendious way to perswade to all other Christian duties this is to converse with Jesus Christ and therefore where his Love is no other incentive will be needfull For Love delights in the presence and converse of the party Loved If we are to perswade to duties of the second Table the summe of those is Love to our Brethren resulting from the Love of Christ which diffuseth such a sweetness into the soul that its all Love and meekness and Gentleness and long suffering If times be for suffering Love will make the soul not onely bear but welcome the bitterest afflections of life and the hardest kinds of death for his sake In a word there is in Love a sweet constraint or tying of the heart to all Obedience and Duty The Love of God is requisite in Ministers for their preaching of the word so our Saviour to St. Peter Iohn 21.15 Peter lovest thou me then feed my lambs It is requisite for the people that they receive the Truth in the Love of it and that Christ preach'd be Entertain'd in the soul and Embrac'd by Faith and Love You that have made choyce of Christ for your Love let not your hearts slip out to renew your wonted base familiarity with Sin For that will bring new bitterness to your souls and at least for some time will deprive you of the sensible favour of your beloved Jesus delight alwayes in God and give him your whole heart for he deserves it all and is a satisfying good to it the largest heart is all of it too strait for the riches of consolation that he brings with him seek to Increase in this Love for tho its at first weak yet Labour to find it daily rise higher and burn hotter and clearer and consume the dross of Earthly desires Receiving the end of your Faith Although the soul that Believes and Loves is put in present possession of God as far as it is Capable in its sojourning here yet it desires a full Enjoyment which it cannot attain to without Removing hence While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord saith the Apostle And because they are assur'd of that happy Exchange that being united and freed of this body they shall be present with the Lord and that having his own word for 't that Where he is they shall be also this begets such an assured Hope as bears the name of possession Therefore its said here Receiveing the end of your faith This Receiveing likewise flows from Faith Faith apprehends the present Truth of the divine Promises and so makes the things to come present and Hope looks out to their after Accomplishment which if the promises be true as Faith averrs then Hope hath good reason firmly to expect it This desire and Hope are the very wheels of the Soul that carry it on and Faith the common Axis on which they rest In the words there are two things 1. The good hoped for in Christ so Believed on and Loved 2. The assuredness of the Hope it selfe yea as sure as if it were already accomplished As for the good hoped for it consists 1. In the nature of it Viz. The Salvation of their Soul 2. in a Relative Property of it the End of their Faith The nature of it is Salvation and Salvation of the soul it imports full deliverance from all kind of misery and
and set with Princes As there is Joy from Faith so also from Love Though 't is in it self the most sweet and delightfull passion of the Soul yet as we foolishly misplace it it prove often full of bitterness but being set upon Jesus Christ the only right and worthy Object it Causeth this unspeakable Delight and Rejoycing 1. T is matter of joy to have bestowed our Love so worthily and though our Saviour seems to withdraw himselfe and sometimes sadden the soul that loves him with absences in regard of sense yet even in those sad times the soul delights to Love him and there is a pleasure in the very pains it hath in seeking after him And this it knowes that his mercies are Everlasting and that he cannot be long unkind but will return and speak comfortably unto it 2. Our Love to Christ gives us assurance of His to us so that we have not only chosen worthily but shall not be frustrate and dissapointed and it assures us of his not as following but preceeding and Causing ours for our Love to Jesus Christ is no other but the reflex of his on us Wine maketh glad the heart but thy love is better then wine saith the Spouse And having this perswasion that he hath loved us and wash'd us in his blood and forgets us not in our conflicts that though he himself is in his Glory yet that he interceed's for us there and will bring us thither what condition can befal us so hard but we may Rejoyce in it And in them so far as we are sure to arrive at that full Salvation and fruition of him who hath purchas'd it Then there is the third Cause of our Rejoyceing viz. our Hope Now Hope is our anchor pitch'd within the vail that stayes us against all the stormes that beat upon us in this troublesome Sea that we are tossed upon The Soul that strongly Believes and Loves may confidently Hope to see what it believeth and Enjoy what it loves and in that rejoyce It may say whatsoever hazards whether ontward or inward whatsoever Afflictions and Temptations I endure yet this one thing puts me out of hazard and in that I will Rejoyce the salvation of my Soul depends not upon my own strength but is in my Saviours hand my life is hid with Christ in God and when he who is my Life shall appear I likewise shall appear with him in Glory The Childish world is hunting shadows and gaping and hoping after they know not what but the Believer can say I know whom I have trusted and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day Now we have not only right to those things but withal there must be frequent Consideration of them to work Joy The Soul must often view them and so Rejoyce My meditation of him shall be sweet saith David I will be glad in the Lord Psal. 104. And the Godly failing in thiâ— deprive themselves much of that Joy they might have and they that are most in these sublime thoughts have the highest and truest Joy The Excellency of this Joy the Apostle here expresseth by these two words Vnspeakable and full of glory That 't is Vnspeakable no wonder seeing the matter of iâ— is Inconceivable it is an Infinite Good God reconciled in Jesus Christ and testifying and sealing his Love unto the soul and giving assured hope of that blessed Vision of Eternity what more unspeakable than this And for the same Reason 't is Glorious or glorified joy having the highest and most glorious Object for it derives all its Excellency from thence Vnspeakable The best worldly Joyes are easily speakable they may be express'd to the uâ—most yea usually more is spoke of them then they are indeed Their name is beyond their worth they are very seldom found upon experience equal to the opinion and expectation that men have of them But this spiritual Joy is above the report any can make of it say what they can of it who are of happiest Expression yet when a Man comes to know it in his own breast he will say as that Queen said of Salomons wisdom the half was not told me of it Again earthly Joyes are Inglorious Many of which Men are asham'd of and those that seem most plausible yet are below the Excellency of the Soul and cannot fill it but the Joyes that arise from Union with Christ as they are most avowable a Man needs not blush to own them so they are truly contenting and satisfying and that 's their Glory and the Cause why we may glory in them My soul shall make her boast in God sayes David For Application of all this If these things were believed we would hearken no more to the foolish prejudice that the World hath taken up against Religion and wherewith Satan endeavours to possess mens hearts that they may be scarr'd from the wayes of Holiness 't is that they think it a Sour Melanel oly life that hath nothing but Sadness and Mourning in it but to remove this prejudice Consider 1. Religion barres not the lawful delights that are taken in natural things but teaches the moderate and regular use of them which is far the sweeter for things lawful in themselves are in their excess sinful and so prove Bitterness in the end and if in some cases it require the forsaking of lawful Enjoyments as of pleasure or Profits or Honour for God and for his Glory this is Generous and truly more delightful to deny them for this reason then to enjoy them Men have done much this way for the Love of their Country and by a Principle of Moral Vertue but to lose any delight or to suffer any hardship for that highest End the glory of God and by the strength of love to him is far more Excellent and truly Pleasant 2. The delights and pleasures of sin Religion indeed banishes but 't is to change them for this Joy that is unspeakably beyond them it calls men from sordid and base delights to those that are pure delights indeed it calls to Men drink ye no longer of the pudle here are the Crystal streams of a living fountain There is a delight in the very despising impure delights as he said how pleasant is it to want these pleasures But for such a change to have in their stead such delights as in comparison the other deserve not that name To have such spiritual joy as shall end in Eternal Joy 't is a wonder we hasten not all to chuse this joy but 't is indeed because we believe it not 3. 'T is true the Godly are subject to great Distresses and Afflictions but their Joy is not extinguished by those no nor diminished either but often sensibly increasâ—d When they have least of the Worlds joy they abound most in Spiritual Consolations and then Relish them best They find them sweetest when their taste is not depraved with Earthly enjoyments We rejoyce in
make Christ once the Medium our pure Redeemer and through him as clear transparent Glass the beams of Gods favourable Countenance shine in upon the soul the Father cannot look upon his wellbeloved son but graciously and pleasingly God lookes on us out of Christ sees us rebels and fit to be condemn'd we look on God as being just and powerfull to punish us but when Christ is betwixt God looks on us in him as justified and we look on God in him as pacified and see the smiles of his favourable countenance Take Christ out all is terrible interpose him all is full of peace Therefore set him always betwixt and by him we shall believe in God The warrant and ground of believing in God by him is this that God rais'd him from the dead and gave him glory which evidences the full satisfaction of his death and in all that work both in his humiliation and exaltation standing in our room we may repute it his as ours if all is payed that could be exacted of him and therefore he set free from death then are wee acquitted and have nothing to pay If he was rais'd from the dead and exalted to glory then so shall we he hath taken possession of that glory for us and we may judge our selves possessed in it already because he our head possesseth it And this the last words of the Verse confirm to us in meaning this to be the very purpose and end for which God having given him to death raised him up and gave him glory it s for this end expressly that our faith and hope might be in God The last end is that we may have life and glory through him the nearer end that in the mean while till we attain them we may have firme belief and hope of them and rest on God as the giver of them and so in part enjoy them before hand and be upheld in our joy and conflicts by the comfort of them and as St. Steven in his vision faith doth in a spirituall way look through all the visible heavens and see Christ at the Fathers right hand and is comforted by that in the greatest troubles though it were amidst a showre of stones as he The comfort is no less than this that being by faith made one with Christ his present glory wherein he â—its at the Fathers right hand is assurance to us that where he is we shall be also Verse 22. Seeing ye have purified your Souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned Love of the brethren see that ye Love one another with a pure heart fervently JEsus Christ is made unto us of God Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 'T is a known truth and yet very needful to be often represented to us that Redemption and holiness are undivided Companions yea that we are redeem'd on purpose for this End that we should be Holy The pressing of this we see is here the Apostles scope and having by that reason enforc'd it in the general he now takes that as concluded and confess'd and so makes use of it particularly to exhort that main Christian Grace of brotherly love The Obedience and holiness mention'd in the foregoing Verses comprehends the whole duties and and frame of a Christian life towards God and Men and having urg'd that in the general he specifies this Grace of mutual Christian Love as the great Evidence of their sincerity and the truth of their Love to God for Men are subject to much hypocrisie this way and deceive themselves if they find themselves diligent in religious Exercises they scarce once ask their hearts how they stand affected this way Namely in love to their Brethren They can come constantly to the Church and pray it may be at home too and yet cannot find in their hearts to forgive an Injury As forgiving Injuries argues the truth of Piety so 't is that which makes all converse both sweet and profitable and besides it Graces and commends Men and their holy profession to such as are without and strangers to it yea even to their Enemies Therefore is it that our Saviour doth so much recommend this to his Disciples and they to others as we see in all their Epistles He gives it them as the very badge and Livery by which they should be known for his followers by this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye Love one another And St. Paul is frequent in exhorting and extolling this Grace Rom. 12.10 13.8 1 Cor. 1.13 Gal. 5.13 Eph. 4.2 and in many other places Colloss 3.14 he calls it the bond of perfectness that Grace which unites and binds all together Our Apostle here and often in this and the other Epistle and that beloved Disciple St. Iohn who leaned on our Saviours brest drunk deep of that spring of Love that was here and therefore it streams forth so abundantly in his writings they contain nothing so much as this divine Doctrine of Love We have here 1. The due Qualifications of it· 2. A Christians Obligation to it The Qualifications are three Namely sincerity purity and fervency The sincerity express'd in the former clause of the Verse unfeigned Love and repeated again in the latter part that it be with a pure heart as the purity is in fervency It appears that this dissimulation is a disease that is very incident in this particular The Apostle St. Paul hath the same word Rom. 12.9 And the the Apostle St. Iohn to the same sense 1 Ioh. 3.18 That it have that double reality which is opposed to double dissembled love that it be Cordial and Effectual that the professing of it arise from truth of affection and as much as may be be seconded with action that both the heart and the hand may be more the seal of it than the tongue Not Court-holy water an empty noise of Service and affection that fears nothing more than to be put upon tryal Although thy Brother with whom thou conversest cannot it may be see through thy false appearances he that commands this Love looks most within seeks it there and if he find it not there hates them most that most pretend it so that art of dissembling never so well studied cannot pass in this Kings Court to whom all hearts are open and all desires known When after Variances Men are brought to an agreement they are much subject to this rather to cover their remaining malices with superficial verbal forgiveness than to dislodge them and free the heart of them this is a poor self deceit as the Philosopher said to him that being ashamed that he was espyed by him in a Tavern in the outer Room withdrew himself to the inner he called after him that 's not the way out the more you go that way you will be the further within it When hatreds upon admonition are not thrown out but retire inward to hide themselves they grow deeper and stronger than before and those
reward of sin this I say is not incongruous with the estate of the Sons of God yea 't is their duty and their property even thus to fear 1. This is the very end for which God hath publish'd these intimations of his justice and hath threatned to punish Men if they transgress to the end they may fear and not transgress So that not to look upon them thus and to be affected with them answerably to their intendment were a very grievous sin a slight and disregard put upon the words of the great God 2. Of all others the Children of God have the rightest and clearest knowledge of God and the deepest belief of his word and therefore they cannot chuse but be affraid and more afraid then all others to fall under the stroak of his hand They know more of the greatness and truth and justice of God then others and therefore they fear when he threatens My flesh trembleth for fear of thee sayes David and I am affraid of thy judgements yea they tremble when they hear the Sentence against others or sees the execution on them it minds them when they see publick executions and knowing the terrour of the Lord we persuade Men sayes S. Paul they cry out with Moses Psa. 90. Who knowes the power of thine anger even according to thy fear so is thy wrath 'T is not an imagination nor invention that makes Men fear more then they need his wrath is as terrible as any that fears it most can apprehend and beyond So that this doth not only consist with the estate of the Saints but is their very character to tremble at the word of their Lord the rest neglect what he sayes till death and judgement sieze on them But the Godly know and believe that it is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the living God And though they have firme promises and a Kingdome that cannot be shaken yet they have still this grace by which they serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear even in this consideration that our God even he that is ours by peculiar covenant is a confirming fire Heb. 12.28 29. But indeed together with this yea more then with these they are perswaded to fear the Lord by the sense of his great love to them and the power of that love that works in them towards him and is wrought in them by his They shall fear the Lord and his goodness in the latter dayes Hos. 3.5 In those dayes his goodness shall manifest it self more then before the beams of his love shall break forth more abundantly in the dayes of the Gospel and shall bear more direct and hotter on the hearts of Men and then they shall fear him more because they shall love him more This fear agrees well both with faith and love yea they work it compare Psa. 31.23 with Psa. 34.9 and that same Psa. 34. Ver. 8. with 9. and Psa. 112. Ver. 1. with 7. The heart touch'd with the load-stone of divine love trembles still with this godly fear and yet looks fixedly by faith to that star of Iacob Jesus Christ who guids it to the Haven of happiness The looking upon God in the face of Jesus Christ takes off that terrour of his countenance that drives Men from him and in the smiles of his love that appear through Christ there is such a power as unites their hearts to him but unites them so as to fear his name as the Psalmist's prayer is He puts such a fear in their hearts as will not cause them depart from yea causes that they shall not depart from him And this is the purest and highest kind of godly fear that springs from love and though it excludes not the consideration of wrath as terrible in it self and some fear of it yet it may surmount it and doubtless where much of that love possesses the heart it will sometimes drown the other consideration that it shall scarcely be sensible at all and will constantly set it aside and persuade a Man purely for the goodness and loveliness of God to fear to offend him though there were no interest at all in it of a Man 's own personal misery or happiness But do we thus fear the Lord our God What mean then our oaths and excesses and uncleanness our covetousness and generally our unholy and unchristian conversation This fear would make Men tremble so as to shake them out of their profane customes and to shake their beloved sins out of their bosomes the knowledge of the holy one causes fear of him Prov. 9.18 But alas We know him not and therefore we fear him not knew we but a little of the great Majesty of God how holy he is and how powerful a punisher of unholiness we would not dare to provoke him thus he that can kill both body and soul and cast them into hell as our Saviour tells us and he will do so with both if we will not fear him because he can do so and 't is told us that we may fear and so not feel this heavy wrath A little lively spiritual knowledge would go far and work much that a great deal such as ours is doth not Some such word as that of Ioseph would do much being engraven on the heart shall I do this evil and sin against God it would make a man be at no more liberty to sin in secret then in publick no not to dispense with the sin of his thoughts more then of openest words or actions If some grave wiseman did see our secret behaviour and our thoughts would we not look more narrowly to them And not suffer such rovings and follies in our selves sure therefore we forget Gods eye which we could not if we thought right on 't but respect more then if all men did see within us Nor is this only the main point to be press'd upon the ungodly but the Children of God themselves have much need to be put in mind of it and to increase in it how often do they abuse the indulgence of so loving a father and have not their thoughts so constantly full of him are not in his fear as Solomon advises all the day long but many times slip out of his directing hand and wander from him and do not so deeply fear his displeasure and so watch over all their wayes as becomes them and keep close by him and wait on his voyce and obey it constantly and are not so humbled and afflicted in their repentings for sin as this fear requires but slight and superficial They offer much lip labour which is but dead service to the living God These are things My beloved that concernes us much and that we ought seriously to lay to heart for even they that are freed from condemnation yet if they will walk fearlesly and carelesly at any time he hath ways enough to make them smart for 't and if there were no more should it not wound them deeply to think
tree shall not Blossom neither shall fruit be in the vine c. yet vers 18. I will rejoice in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation In spirituall tryalls that are the sharpest and fieryest of all when the furnace is within a Man when God doth not onely shut up his loveing kindness from its feeling but seems to shut it up in hot displeasure when he writes bitter things against it yet then to depend upon Him and wait for his salvation this is not onely a true but a strong and very refined Faith indeed and the more he smites the more to cleave to him well might he say When I am tried I shall come forth as Gold who could say that word though he slay me yet will I trust in him though I saw as it were his hand lifted up to destroy me yet from that same hand would I expect salvation As the furnace shews faith to be what it is so also it betters it and makes it more precious and purer then it was The Graces of the spirit as they come from the hand of God that infuses them are nothing but pureness but being put into a heart where sin dwells which till the body be dissolved and taken to pieces cannot be fully purg'd out there they are mixed with Corruption and dross And particularly Faith is mixed with Unbelief and Love of earthly things and dependance upon the Creature if not more then God yet together with him and for this is the furnace needfull that the soul may be purified from this droâ—s and made more sublime and spirituall in believing T is a hard talk and many times comes but slowly forward to teach the heart by discourse and speculation to sit loose from the world at all sides not to cleave to the best things in it though we be compass'd about with them though Riches do increase yet not to set our hearts on them not to trust in such uncertain things as they are as the Apostle speaks Therefore God is pleas'd to chuse the more effectual way to teach his own the right and pure exercise of Faith either by witholding or withdrawing those things from them makes them relish the sweetness of spirituall Comfort by depriving them of those outward Comforts wherein they were in most danger of excess to have doted on them and so forget themselves and him when they are necessitate and experimentally train'd up easily to let go their hold of any thing Earthly and to stay themselves onely upon their Rock this is the very refining of their faith by those losses and afflictions wherewith they are exercised they that learn bodily Exercises as fencing c. Are not taught by sitting still and hearing Rules or seeing others practise but they learn by exercising themselves The way to profit in the art of believing or comeing to this spirituall activity of faith is to be often put to that work in the difficultest way to make up all wants and losses in God and to sweeten the bitterest griefs with his loving kindness Might be found unto praise and honour and glory This is the end that is intended and shall be certainly obtain'd by all these hot trials Faith shall come through them all and shall be found unto praise c. An unskillfull beholder may think strange to see Gold thrown into the fire and left there for a time but he that puts it there would be loath to lose it his purpose is to make some costly piece of work of it every believer gives himself to Christ and he undertakes to present them blameless to the Father not one of them shall be lost nor one dram of their faith they shall be found and their Faith shall be found when he appears That faith that is here in the furnace shall be then made up into a Crown of pure Gold it shall be found unto praise and honour and Glory This Praise and Honour and Glory may be referr'd to believers themselves according to the Apostle S. Pauls Expression Rom. 2.7 or to Christ that appears but the two will agree well together that it be both to their Praise and to the Praise of Christ for certainly all their praise and glory shall terminate in the Glory of their Head Christ who is God blessed for ever they have each their Crown but their Honour is to cast them all down before his Throne He shall be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe They shall be glorious in Him and therefore in all their glory he shall be glorified for as they have derived theâ—r glory from him it shall all return back to him again At the appearance of Iesus Christ This denotes the Time when this shall come to pass For Christ is faithfull and true he hath promised to come again and to Judge the World in Righteousness and he will come and will not tarry he shall Judge Righteously in that day that was himself unrighteously judged here on Earth T is called the Revelation all other things shall be Revealed in that day the most hidden things good and evil unvail'd but 't is eminently the day of His Revelation it shall be by his Light by the brightness of his coming that all other things shall be reveal'd but he himself shall be the worthiest sight of all All eyes shall behold Him He shall then gloriously appear before all Men and Angels and shall by all be acknowledged to be the son of God and Judge of the World some shall with joy know him and acknowledge him to be foâ— others â—o their Horrours and amazement How beautifull shall he be to those that Love him when he as the glorious Head shall appear with his whole body mysticall together with him Then the Glory and Praise that all the Saints shall be honoured with shall recompense fully all the Scorns and Ignominies and Distresses they have met with here And they shall shine the brighter for them Oh! if we Consider'd often of that solemn day how light would we seâ— by the opinions of Men and all ouâ—ward hardships that can befall us digest dispraise and dishonour here and pass through all cheerfully providing we may be then found in him and so partakers of Praise and Glory and Honour in that day of his appearing Verses 8 9. 8. Whom haveing not seen yee Love in whom tho you see him not yet believing ye reâ—oyce with joy unspeakable and full of Glory 9. Receiveing the End of your faith even the Salvation of your Souls IT is a paradox to the world that the Apostle hath asserted that there is a Joy that can subsist in the midâ—â— of sorrow therefore he insists in the Confirmation of it And in all those words proves it to the full yea with advantage that the Saints have not only some measure of Joy in the griefs that abound upon them here but excellent and eminent Joy such as makes good all that can be said of it cannot
be spoke too much of for 't is Vnspeakable nor too much magnified for it is Glorious To Evidence the truth of this and to confirme his Brethren in the experienc'd knowledge of it he expresses here more particularly and distinctly the causes of this their Joy which are 1. The Object or Matter of it 2. The Apprehension and appropriation of that Object which two conjoyn'd are the entire cause of all Rejoyceing The Object is Jesus Christ verse 8. And the Salvation purchased by him verse 9. For these two cannot be sever'd and these two Verses that speak of them require as is evident by their connexion to be considered together 2. The apprehension of these 1. set forth negatively not by bodily sight 2. Positively whereas that might seem to abate the certainâ—y and liveliness of their Rejoyceing that 't is of things they had not seen nor do yet see that is abundantly made up by three for one each of them more excellent then the meer bodily sight of Christ in the flesh which many had which were never the better by 't the three are those three prime Christian Graces Faith Love and Hope The two former in ver 8. the 3 d. in ver 9. Faith in Christ begetting Love to him and both these giving assured Hope of salvation by him making it as certian to them as if it were already in their hand and they in possession of it And from all those together results this Exultation or leaping for joy Ioy unspeakable and full of Glory This is that one thing that so much concerns us and therefore we mistake very far and forget our own highest interest too much when we either speak or hear of it slightly and apply not our hearts to it What is it that all our thoughts and endeavours drive at What means all that we are doing in the World tho we take several wayes to it and wrong wayes for the most part yea such wayes as lead not to it but set us further off from it yet that which we all seek after by all our labour under the Sun is something that may be matter of Contentment and rejoycing to us when we have attain'd it now here it is and in vain is it sought for elsewhere And for this end 't is represented to you that it may be yours if ye will entertain it not only that you may know this to be a truth that in Jesus Christ is laid up true Consolation and Rejoyceing that he is the Magazine and Treasury of it but that you may know how to bring him home into your hearts and lodge him there and so to have the spring of Joy within you That which gives full joy to the Soul must be something that is higher and better then it self in a word he that made it can only make it glad after this manner with unspeakable and glorious joy but the Soul remaining guilty of Rebellion against him and unreconcil'd cannot behold him but as an Enemy any belief that it can have of him while 't is in that posture is not such as can fetch Love and Hope and so Rejoycing but such as the Faith of devils produceth only begetting terrour and trembling but the light of his Countenance shining in the face of his Son the Mediator glads the heart and 't is the looking upon him so that causeth the soul to Believe and Love and Hope and Rejoyce Therefore the Apostle Eph. 2. In his description of the estate of the Gentiles before Christ was preach'd to them joynes these together without Christ that was the cause of all the rest therefore without comfort in the Promises without Hope and without God in the world So he is here by our Apostle exprest as the object In all these therefore he is the matter of our Joy because our Faith and Love and Hope of Salvation The Apostle writing to the dispersed Jewes many of whom had not known nor seen Christ in the flesh commends their Love and Faith for this reason that it did not depend upon bodily sight but was pure and spiritual and made them of the number of those that our Saviour himselfe pronounces blessed who have not seen and yet believe You saw him not when he dwelt amongst men and walked to and fro Preaching and working Miracles Many of those that did then hear and see him believed not yea they scoff'd and hated and persecuted him and in the end Crucified him you that have seen none of all those things yet having heard the Gospel that declares him you have believed Thus Observe the working or not working of Faith doth not depend upon the difference of the external Ministry and gifts of Men for what greater difference can there be that way than betwixt the Master and the Servants betwixt the great Prophet himself and his weak sinful Messengers and yet many of those that saw and heard him in Person were not converted believ'd not in him and thousands that never saw him were converted by his Apostles and as it seems even some of those that were some way accessory to his death yet were brought to Repentance by this same Apostles Sermon Act. 2. Learn then to look above the outward Ministry and any difference that in Gods dispensation can be there and know that if Jesus Christ himself were on Earth and now Preaching amongst us yet might his incomparable words be unprofitable to us not being mix'd with faith in the bearers But where that is the meanest despisable conveyance of his Message received with humility and affection will work blessed Effects Whom not seeing yet believeing Faith elevates the Soul not only above sense and sensible things but above Reason it selfe as reason corrects the Errours that sense might occasion So supernatural Faith corrects the Errours of natural Reason judging according to Sense The Sun seems less then the wheel of a Chariot but Reason teaches the Philosopher that 't is much bigger then the whole Earth and the cause why it seems so little is its great distance The Naturally wise man is as far deceiv'd by this carnal Reason in his estimate of Jesus Christ the â—un of Righteousness and the cause is the same his great distance from him as the Psalmist speaks of the wicked Psal. 10.5 Thy Iudgements are far above out of his sight He accounts Christ and his Glory a smaller matter then his own Gain Honour or Pleasure for these are near him and he sees their quantity to the full and counts them bigger yea far more worth then they are indeed but the Apostle St. Paul and all they that are enlightened by the same Spirit they know by Faith which is divine Reason that the Excellency of Jesus Christ far surpasses the worth of the whole Earth and all things earthly Phil. 3.7.8 To give a right assent to the Gospel of Christ is Impossible without divine and saving Faith infused in the Soul to believe that the Eternal Son of God cloath'd himselfe with humane
the safe possession of perfect happiness when the soul shall be out of the reach of all Adversaries and adverse Accidents no more subjected to those Evils that are its own properly namely the Conscience of Sin and fear of Wrath and sad Defections nor yet subject to those other Evils it endur'd by Society with the body outward distresses and Affliction Persecutions Poverty diseases c. 'T is call'd Salvation of the soul not excluding the body from the society of that Glory when it shall be rais'd and reunited to the Soul but because the soul is of it self an Immortall substance and both the more Noble part of Man and the prime subject both of Grace and glory and because it arrives first at that blessedness and for a time leaves the body in the dust to do homage to its Originall therefore it is only named here but Jesus is the Saviour of the body too and he shall at his coming change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body The End End or Reward for it is both It s the End either at which Faith aimes or wherein it Ceaseth it s the Reward not of their Works nor of Faith as a work deserving it but as the Condition of the New Covenant which God according to the tenour of that Covenant first works in his own and then Rewards as if it were their work And this Salvation or Fruition of Christ is the proper Reward of faith which Believes in him unseen and so obtains that happy sight 't is the proper work of faith to believe what thou seest not and the Reward of faith to see what thou hast believed This is the Certainty of their Hope that 't is as if they had already receiv'd it if the promise of God and the merit of Christ hold good then they that believe in him and Love him are made sure to salvation The promises of God in Christ are not yea and nay but they are in him yea and in him Amen sooner may the Rivers run back-ward and the course of the Heavens change and the frame of nature be dissolv'd then any one soul that is united to Jesus Christ by Faith and Love can be sever'd from him And so fall short of salvation hoped for in him and this is the matter of their rejoycing Ye Rejoyce with Ioy unspeakable The naturall Man sayes the Apostle receiveth not things of God for they are foolishness unto him and he adds the Reason why he cannot know them for they are spiritually discern'd he hath none of that faculty by which they are discern'd there is a vast disproportion betwixt those things and Natures highest Capacity it cannot work beyond its Sphere Speak to the Naturall Man of the matter of Spirituall grief the sense of Guiltiness and the Apprehension of Gods displeasure or the hiding of his favour and the Light of his countenance from the soul these things stirre not him he knows not what they mean Speak to him again of the Peace of Conscience and sense of Gods Love and the Joy that arises hence He is no less stranger to that As our Saviour speaks mourn to him and he laments not pipe to him and he dances not Mat. 11. but as it there follows there is a wisdom in those things though they seem Folly and Non-sense to the foolish world and this wisdom is justified of her own Children Having said somewhat allready of the Causes of this spirituall Joy the Apostle speaks of here It remains now that we consider those two things 1. How Joy ariseth from those Causes 2. the Excellency of this Joy as 't is here express'd There is here a sollid sufficient Good and the heart made sure of it being partly put in present possession of it and in a most certain Hope of all the rest And what can be more required to make it joyfull Jesus Christ the treasure of all blessings received and united to the soul by Faith and Love and Hope Is not Christ the Light and Joy of the Nations such a light as Abraham at the distance of many ages of more then two thousand years yet saw by faith and seeing Rejoyced Besides this brightness that makes light a joyfull object Light is often in Scripture put for Joy Christ this Light brings Salvation with him He is the Sun of Righteousness and there is healing under his wings I bring you said the Angel good tydings of great Ioy that shall be to all people And their Song hath in it the matter of that Joy Glory to God in the Highest peace on Earth and good will toward Men. But to the end we may Rejoyce in Christ we must find him ours otherwise the more Excellent he is the more Cause hath the heart to be sad while it hath no portion in him my spirit hath Rejoyced saith the Blessed Virgin in God my Saviour Thus 1. Ioh. 1.3 Having spoken of our Communion with Christ he adds these things I write that your Ioy may be full Faith worketh this Joy by uniteing the Soul to Christ and applying his merites and from that application arises the pardon of sin and so that load of misery which was the great Cause of Sorrow is removed and so soon as the Soul finds it selfe lightned and unloaded of that burden that was sinking it to Hell it cannot chuse but leap for Joy in the Ease and Refreshment it finds Therefore that Psalm that David begins with the doctrine of the Pardon of Sin he Ends it with an Exhortation to Rejoyceing Blessed is the Man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Psal. 32.1 Thus he begins but he ends vers 11. Be glad in the Lord and Rejoyce ye Righteous and shout for joy all ye that are â—pright in heart S. Peter speaks to his hearers of the Remission of sins Act. 2.38 and verse 41. 't is added they received his words Gladly and our Saviour joynes these two together be of good Comfort thy sins are forgiven thee Thus Isaiah 61.1 Good tidings of Liberty to Captives is proclaimed and a notable change there is of their Estate Who mourn in Zion Giving them beauty for ashes the Oyle of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the Spirit of Heaviness Think with what Joy the long imprison'd debter drown'd in debt recâ—â—ves a full Discharge and his Liberty or a condemned Malefactor the news of his Pardon and this will somewhat resemble it but yet fall far short of the joy that Faith brings by bringing Christ to the Soul and so forgiveness of sins in him But this is not all This Believing Soul is not only a debter acquitted and set free but Enrich'd besides with a new and great Estate not onely a pardon'd Malefactor but withall highly preferr'd and advanc'd to honour having a Right by the promises to the unsearchable Riches of Christ as the Apostle speaks and is receiv'd into favour with God and unto the Dignity of Sonship taken from the dunghill
word is a Lamp unto my feet says David and a Light unto my paths not onely comfortable as Light is to the eyes but withall directive as a Lamp to his feet Thus here the Apostle doth not onely furnish consolation against distress but Exhorts and directs his Brethen in the way of Holiness without which the apprehension and feeling of those comforts cannot subsist This is no other but a clearer and fuller expression and further pressing of that sobriety and spiritualness of mind and life that he joyntly exhorted unto with that of perfect hope ver 13. as in separably connext with it if you would enjoy this Hope be not conform to the lust of your former ignorance but be holy There is no doctrine in the world either so pleasant or so pure as that of Christianity 'T is matchless both in sweetness and holiness The Faith and Hope of a Christa in have in them an abiding precious balm of comfort but this is never to be so lavish'd away as to be poured into the puddle of an impure Conscience No that were to lose it unworthily As many as have this hope purify themselves even as he is pure 1. Ioh. 3 3. Here they are commanded to be holy as he is holy Acts. 15. Faith first purifies the heart Empties it of the love of sin and then fills it with the Consolation of Christ and hope of Glory 'T is a foolish misgrounded fear and such as argues inexperience of the nature and workings of divine Grace to imagine that the assured hope of salvation will beget unholiness and presumptuous boldness in sin and therefore that the doctrine of that assurance is a doctrine of Licentiousness Our Apostle we see is not so sharp sighted as these men think themseves he apprehends no such matter but indeed supposes the contrary as unquestionable he takes not assured hope and holiness as Enemies but joynes them as nearest friends hope perfectly and be holy They are mutually strengthened and increas'd each by the other the more assurance of salvation the more holiness the more delight in it and study of it as the onely way to that End and as labour is then most pleasant when we are made surest it shall not be lost nothing doth make the soul so nimble and actitve in obedience as this oyle of gladness this assured hope of glory Again the more holiness is in the soul the clearer always is tâ—is assurance as we see the face of the heavens best when there are fewest clouds· The greatest affliction doth not damp this hope so much as the smallest sin yea it may be the more lively and sensible to the soul by affliction but by sin it always suffers loss as the Experience of all Christians does certainly teach them The Apostle exhorts to Obedience and enforceth it by a most persuasive Reason His exhortation is 1. Negative not fashioning your selves 2. Positive Be ye holy That which he would remove and separate them from is Lusts This is in Scripture the usuall name of all the irregular and sinfull desires of the heart both the polluted habits of them and their corrupt streams both as they are within and outwardly vent themselves in the Lives of Men. The Apostle St. Iohn 1 Ioh. 2 17. calls it the Lust of the world and Verse 15. love of the world And then Verse 16. Branches it into those three that are indeed the base Anti-trinity that the world worships the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh and the pride of Life The soul of Man unconverted is no other but a den of impure Lusts wherein dwells pride Uncleanness Avarice Malice c just as Babylon is described Revelation 18.2 or as Isa. 13.21 Were a Man's eyes opened he would as much abhorre to remaine with himself in that condition as to dwell in a house full of Snakes and Serpents as S. Austin says and the first part of conversion is once to rid the soul of these noysome Inhabitants for there is none at all found naturally vacant and frâ—e from them thus the Apostle here expresses it of the believers he wrote to that these lusts were theirs before in their Ignorance There is a truth in it that all sin arises from some kind of Ignorance or at least from present Inadvertâ—nce and Inconsideration turning away the mind from the light which therefore for the time is as if it were not and is all one with Ignorance in the â—ffect and therefore the works of sin are all called works of darkness for were the true visage of sin seen at a full light undress'd and unpainted it were impossiable while it so appear'd that any one soul could be in love with it but would rather flye it as hideous and abominable but because the soul unrenewed is all darkness therefore it is all lust and love of sin no order in it because no light as at the first in the world confusion and darkness went together and darkness was upon the face of the deep 't is so in the soul the more Ignorance the more abundance of Lusts. That light that frees the soul and rescues it from the very kingdome of darkness must be somewhat beyond that which nature can attaine to all the light of Philosophy naturall and morall is not sufficient yea the very knowledge of the Law sever'd from Christ serves not so to enlighten and renew the soul as to free it from the darkness or Ignorance here spoke of for our Apostle writes to Jews that knew the Law and were instructed in it before their conversion yet he calls those times wherein Christ was unknown to them the times of their Ignorance though the stars shine never so bright and the moon with them in its full yet they do not all together make it day still 't is night till the sun appear Therefore the Hebrew doctors upon that word of Solomons Vanity of vanities all is vanity say vana etiam Lex doneâ— venerit Messias Therefore of him Zacharias sayes that the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace A naturall Man may attaine to very much acquir'd knowledge of the doctine of Christ and may discourse excellently of it and yet still his soul be in the chains of darkness fast lockt up under the Ignorance here mention'd and so still of a carnal mind in subjection to these lusts of Ignorance The saving light of faith is a beam of the sun of Righteousness himself that he sends into the soul by which he makes it discern his incomparable beauties and by that sight alienates it from all those lusts and desires that do then appear to be what indeed they are vileness and filthiness it self makes the soul wonder at it self how it could love such base trash so long and so fully resolves it now on the choyce of Jesus Christ the cheif
constrained semblances of reconcilement are but a false healing do but skin it over and therefore usually it breaks forth worse again How few are there that have truly maliceless hearts and find this intire upright affection towards their Brethren meeting them in their whole Conversation this Law of love deeply impress'd on their hearts and from thence express'd in their words and actions and that is unfeigned love as real to their Brethren as to themselves 2. It must be pure from a pure heart this is not all one with the former as some take it 'T is true doubleness and hypocrisie is an impurity and a great one but all impurity is not doubleness one may really mean that friendship and affection he expresses and yet it may be most contrarie to that which is here requir'd because impure such a brotherly Love as that of Simeon and Levi brethen in Iniquity as the expressing them brethren Gen. 49. is taken to mean When hearts are cemented together by impurity it selfe by ungodly conversation and society in sin as in uncleanness or drunkenness c. This is a swinish fraternity and friendship that is contracted as it were by wallowing in the same mire call it good fellowship or what you will all the fruit that in the end can be expected out of unholy friendliness and fellowship in sinning together is to be tormented together and add each to the torment of another The mutual Love of Christians must be pure arising from such causes as are pure and spiritual from the sense of our Saviour's Command and of his example For he himself joynes that with it A new Commandment give I you saith he that as I have loved you so you also love one another They that are indeed Lovers of God they are united by that their hearts meet in him as in one center They cannot but love one another where a godly Man sees his Fathers Image he is forc'd to love it he he loves those he perceives Godly so as to delight in them because that Image is in them and those that appear destitute of it he loves them so as to wish them partakers of that Image And this is all for God he loves Amicum in Deo inimicum propter Deum That is he loves a friend in God and an Enemy for God And as the Christians love is pure in its Cause so in its Effects and Exercise his society and converse with any tends mainly to this that he may muâ—ually help and be helpt in the knowledge and love of God desires most that he and his brethren may joyntly mind their journey heavenwards and further one another in their way to the full Enjoyment of God And this is truly the love of a pure heart that both begins and ends in God Fervently Not after a cold indifferent manner Let the Love of your Brethren be as a fire within you consuming that selfishness that is so contrary to it and is so natural to Men let it set your thoughts on work to study how to do others good let your love be an active Love intense within you and extending it selfe in doing good to the souls and bodies of your Brethren as they need and you are able Alium re alium concilio alium gratiâ as Sen. de benef Lib. 1. cap. 2. It is selfe-love that contracts the heart and shuts out all other Love both of God and Men save only so far as our own Interest carries and that is still self-love But the Love of God dilates the heart purifies Love and extends it to all Men but after a special manner directs it to those that are more peculiarly beloved of him and that is hero the particular love required Love of the Brethren In this is Implied our Obligation to it after a special manner to love those of the houshold of faith because they are our Brethren This concludes not only as Abraham said that there ought to be no strife but it binds most strongly to this sincere and pure and fervent love and therefore the Apostle in the next Verse repeats expresly the Doctrine of the mysterious New-birth and explains it more fully which he had mention'd in the entrance of the Epistle and again referr'd to it Verse 14 17. There is in this fervent Love sympathy with the griefs of our Brethren desire and endeavour to help them bearing their Infirmities and recovering them too if it may be raising them when they fall admonishing and reproving them as is needful sometimes sharply and yet still in Love Rejoycing in their good in their Gifts and Graces so far from envying them that we be glad as if they were our own there is the same blood running in their veins you have the same Father and the same spirit within you and the same Jesus Christ the head of that glorious fraternity the first born among many Brethren of which the Apostle saith Eph. 1.10 that he hath recollected into one all things in heaven and in earth The word is gathered them into one head And so suits very fitly to express that our union in him in whom sayes he in that same Epistle c. 4.16 The whole body is fitly compacted together and addes that which agrees to our purpose that this body grows up and edifies it selfe in love All the members receive spirits from the same head and are useful and serviceable one to another and to the whole body Thus these Brethren receiving of the same spirit from their head Christ are most strongly bent to the good one of another If there be but a thorn in the Foot the Back boweth the Head stoops down the Eyes look the Hands reach to it and endeavour its help and case In a word all the members partake of the good and evil one of another Now by how much this body is more spiritual and lively so much the stronger must the union and love of the parts of it be each to other You are brethren by the same new birth and born to the same Inheritance and such an one as shall not be an Apple of strife amongst you to beget debates and contentions No 't is enough for all and none shall prejudge another but you shall have joy in the happiness one of another seeing you shall then be perfect in love all harmony no difference in judgement nor affection all your harps tun'd to the same new Song which you shall sing for ever let that love begin here which shall never end And this same union I conceive is likewise pressed in the first words of the verse seeing you are partakers of that work of sanctification by the same word and the same spirit that works it in all the faithfull and by that are called and incorporate into that fraternity therefore live in it and like it You are purified to it therefore love one another after that same manner purely Let the profane world scoffe that name of Brethren you will not be so foolish
house of God with the voice of Ioy. This is that happy circle wherein the soul moves the more they love it the more they shall tast of this goodness and the more they taste the more they shall still love and desire it But observe if ye have tasted that the Lord is gratious then desire the milk of the Word This is the sweetness of the word that it hath in it the Lords graciousness gives us the knowledge of his love this they find in it that have Spiritual life and senses and those senses exercis'd to discern good and evil and this engages a Christian to further desire of the Word These are fantastical deluding tastes that draw Men from the writen Word and make them expect other Revelations This graciousness is first conveyed to us by the Word there we tast it and therefore there still we are to seek it to hang upon those breasts that cannot be drawn dry there the love of God in Christ streames forth in the several promises the heart that cleaves to the word of God and delights in it cannot but find in it daily new tastes of his goodness there it reads his love and by that stirs up his own to him and so growes loves every day more than the former and thus is tending from tastes to fulness 'T is but little we can receive some drops of joy that enter into us but there we shall enter into joy as vessels put into a Sea of happiness Verse 4 5. 4. To whom coming unto a living Stone disallowed indeed of men but chosen of God and pretious 5. Ye also as lively Stones are built up a Spitual House an holy Priesthood to offer up Spiritual Sacrifices acceptable to God by Iesus Christ. THe spring of all the dignities of a Christian and therefore the great motives of all his duties is his near relation to Jesus Christ. Thence it is that the Apostle makes that the great subject of his Doctrine both to represent to his distress'd Brethren their Dignity in that and to press by it the necessary duties he exhorts unto Having spoke of their Spiritual life and growth in him under the resemblance of natural life he prosecutes it here by another comparison very frequent in the Scriptures and therefore makes use in it of some passages of those Scriptures that were Prophetical of Christ and his Church Though there be here two different similitudes yet they have so near Relation one to another and meet so well in the same subject that he joynes them together and then illustrates them severaly in the following Verses a Temple and a Priesthood comparing the Saints to both The former in these words of this Verse We have in it 1. The nature of the building 2. The materials of it 3. The structure or way of building it 1. The nature is a spiritual building Time and place we know receiv'd their being from God and he was Eternaly before both therefore stiled by the Prophet the high and lofty one that inhabiteth Eternity but having made the World he fills it though not as contain'd in it and so the whole frame of it is his Palace or Temple but after a more special manner the higher and statelier part of it the highest Heaven Therefore call'd his holy place and the habitation of his holiness and glory and on earth the houses of his Publick Worship are called his houses especially the Jewish Temple in its time having in it such a relative typical holiness which others have not but besides all these and beyond them all in excellency he hath a house wherein he dwells more peculiarly than in any of the rest even more than in Heaven taken for the place only and that is this spiritual building And this is most suitable to the nature of God as our Saviour sayes of the necessary conformity of his Worship to himself God is a spirit and therefore will be worshipped in spirit and in truth So it holds of his house he must have a Spiritual one because he is a spirit So Gods Temple is his People And for this purpose chiefly did he make the world the heaven and the earth That in it he might raise this spiritual building for himself to dwell in for ever to have a number of his reasonable creatures to enjoy him and glorifie him in eternity and from eternity he knew what the demensions and frame and materials of it should be The continuance of this present world as now it is is but for the service of this work like the scaffolding about it and therefore when this Spiritual building shall be fully compleated all the present frame of things in the world and in the Church it self shall be taken away and appear no more This building is as the particular designing of its materials will teach us the whole invisible Church of God and each good man is a stone of this building but as the nature of it is spiritual it hath this priviledge as they speak of the soul that ' it s tota in toto tota in quâlibet parte as the whole Church is the spouse of Christ and each believing soul hath the same title and dignity to be called so thus each of these stones is called a whole Temple Temples of the holy Ghost though taking the temple or building in a compleater sense they are but each one a part or a stone of it as here it is express'd The whole excellency of this building is compris'd in this that 't is called spiritual differencing it from all other buildings and preserving it to them and because he speaks immediately after of a Priesthood and sacrifices it seems to be call'd a spiritual building particularly in opposition to that material Temple wherein the Iews gloried which was now Null in regard of its former use and was wholly after destroyed But when it stood and the legal use of it stood in fullest vigour yet in this still it was inferiour that it was not a spiritual house made up of living stones as this but of a like matter with other earthly buildings The spiritual house is the palace of the great King of his temple The Hebrew word for palace and temple is one Gods temple is a palace and therefore must be full of the richest beauty and magnificence But such as agrees with the nature of it a spiritual beauty In that Psalm that wishes so many prosperities one is that their daughters may be as corner stones polished after the similitude of a palace thus is the Church that is called the Kings daughter Psa. 45. but her comliness is invisible to the World She is all glorious within through sorrowes and Persecutions she may be smoaky and black to the World's eye as the tents of Kedar but in regard of Spiritual beauty she is comely as the Curtains of Salomon and in this the Jewes Temple resemble it right which had most of its riches and beauty in the inside Holiness
even with the Princes of his people Or as Ioshua the Priest Zach. 3.3 4. So those of this Priesthood are dealt withall Now that we may be the deeper in the sense and admiration of this mercy it is indeed our duty to seek earnestly after the evidence and strong assurance of it for things work on us according to our Notice and apprehensions of them and therefore the more right assurance of mercy the more love and thankfulness and obedience springs from it therefore 't is that the Apostle here represents this great and happy change of estate to Christians as a thing that they may know concerning themselves and ought to seek the knowledge of that so they may be duely affected with it a happy thing to have in the soul an extract of that great Archive and act of grace towards it that hath stood in heaven from eternity it is sure both a very comfortable and profitable thing to find and read clearly the seal of mercy upon the soul which is holyness that by which he is mark'd by God as a part of his peculiar possession that he hath chosen out of the world And When we perceive any thing of this let us look back as here the Apostle would have us to do how God has called us from darkness to his marvelous Light Verse 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from Fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul THe right Spiritual knowledge that a Christian hath of God and of himself differenceth it self from whatsoever is likest to it by the power and influence it hath upon the heart and life And in this it hath the lively impression of that doctrine of the holy Scriptures that teaches it Wherein we still find throughout that the high mysteries of Religion are accompanied with practical truths not only as agreeing with them but as drawn out of them and that not violently draw but naturally flowing from them as pure streams from a pure spring Thus in this Epistle we find the Apostle intermixing his divine doctrine with most useful and practical exhortations Chap. 1. Verse 13.22 And in the beginning of this Chap. Again and now in these words And upon this model ought both the Ministers of the Gospel to form their preaching and the hearers their ear Ministers are not to instruct only or exhort only but to do both to exhort Men to holiness and the duties of a Christian life Without instructing men in the doctrine of faith and bringing them to Jesus Christ is to build a house without a foundation And on the other side to instruct the mind in the knowledge of divine things and neglect the pressing of that practice and power of godliness that is the undivided companion of true faith is to forget the building that ought to be rais'd upon that foundation once laid which is likewise a point of very great folly Or if Men laying that tight foundation do proceed to the Superstructure of vain and empty Speculations 't is but to build Hay and stuble in stead of those solid truths that direct the soul in the way to happiness which are of more solidness and worth than Gold and Silver and precious stones 1 Tim. 3.9 Christ and the doctrine that reveals him is called the mystery of the faith and Ver. 16. The mystery of godliness as Christ is the object of faith so he is the spring and fountain of godliness The Apostle having we see in his foregoing discourse unfolded the excellency of Christ and of Christians in Him proceeds here to exhort them to that pure and Spiritual temper of mind and course of life that becomes Christians These hearers are to blame and do prejudge themselves that are attentive only to such words and discourse as stirre the affections for the present and find no relish in the doctrine of faith and the unfolding of those mysteries that bear the whole weight of Religion and are the ground both of all Christian obedience and all exhortations and persuasives to it These temporary sudden stirrings of the affections without a right informed mind and some measure of due knowledge of God in Christ do no good 'T is the wind of a word of exhortation that stirres them for the time against their Lusts but the first wind of tentation that comes caries them away and thus the mind is but Toss'd too and fro like a wave of the Sea with all kind of winds not being rooted and grounded in the faith of Christ. As it is Col. 2.7 and so in the love of Christ Eph. 3.17 Which are the conquering graces that subdue his Lusts and the world unto a Christian 1 Ioh. 5.4 2 Cor. 5.14.15 Love makes a Man dead to himself and the world and to live to Christ that died for him On the other part they are no less yea more to blame that are glad to have their minds instructed in the mysteries of the Christian faith and out of a mere natural desire to know are curious to hear such things as inform them but when it comes to the urging of holiness and mortifying their Lusts these are hard sayings they had rather there were some way to receive Christ and retain their Lusts too and bring them to agreement To hear of the mercies of God and the dignities of his people in Christ is very pleasing but to have this follow upon it abstain from fleshâ—y Lusts this is an importune troublesome discourse But it must be so for all that these that will share in that mercy and happiness must abstain from fleshly lusts c. Dearly Beloved I beseech you There is a faculty of reproving required in the Ministry and sometimes a necessity of very sharp Rebukes cutting ones They that have much of the Spirit of meekness may have a rod by them too to use upon necessity But sure the way of Meekness is that they use most willingly as the Apostle there implies And out of all question with ingenuous minds the mild way of sweet intreaties is very forcible as oyl that penetrates and sinks in insensibly or to use that known resemblance they prevail as the Sun beams that without any noise make the Traveller cast his Cloak which all the blustering of the Wind could not do But made him rather gather it closer and bind it faster about him We see the Apostles are frequent in this strain of Intreaties I beseech you Rom. 12.1 Now this word of intreatie is strengthned much by the other Dearly Beloved scarce can the harshest Reproofs much less gentle Reproofs be thrown back that have upon them the stamp of Love That which is known to come from Love cannot readily but be so receiv'd too and 't is thus express'd for that very purpose that the request may be the more welcome Beloved 't is the advice of a Friend one that truly loves you and aims at nothing in it but your good 't is because I love you that I intreat you and
we owe Honour to all is nothing but a conformity to this inward temper of mind for he that inwardly despiseth none but esteemeth the good that is in the Lowest at least that they are men and loves them as such will accordingly use no outward sign of disdain of any will not have a scornful Eye nor a reproachful tongue to move at any not the meanest of his servants nor the worst of his Enemies but on the contrary will acknowledge the good of every Man and give unto all that outward respect that is convenient for them and that they are capable of and be ready to do them good as he hath opportunity and ability But in stead of walking by this rule of honouring all Men. What is there almost to be found amongst Men but a perverse proneness to dishonour one another and every Man ready to dishonour all Men that he may honour himself reckoning that what he gives to others abates of himself and taking what he detracts from others as good booty to make up himselfe Set Mens own interest aside and that common Civility that for their own Credit they use one with another and truly there will be found very little of this real respect to others out of their obedience to God and love to Men tendring their esteem and good Name and their wellfare as our own For so the rule is but mutual disesteem and Defaming filling almost all Societies And the bitter root of this Iniquity is that wicked accursed self love that dwells in us every Man is naturally his own grand Idol would be esteem'd and honoured by any means and to magnifie that Idol selfe kills the good Name and esteem of others in sacrifice to it Hence is the narrow observing Eye and broad speaking tongue upon any thing that tends to the dishonour of others and where other things fail the disdainful upbraiding of their Birth or Calling or any thing that comes next to hand that serves for a reproach And hence arises a great part of the jarrs and strifes amongst Men the most being drunk with an over weening opinion of themselves and the Worthlessest most A fool sayes Solomon is wiser in his own conceit then ten Men that can render a reason and not finding others of their mind this frets and troubles them they take the ready course to deceive themselves for they look with both Eyes on the failings and defects of others and scarce give their good half an Eye on the contrary in themselves they study to the full their own advantages and their weaknesses and defects as he sayes they skip over as Children do the hard words in their lesson that are troublesome to read and making this uneven parallel what wonder the result be a gross mistake of themselves Men miscount themselves at home they reckoning that they ought to be regarded and their mind should carry it and when they come abroad and are cross'd in this this puts them all out of frame But the humble man as he is more conform to this Divine Rule so he hath more Peace by it for he sets so low a rate upon himself in his own thoughts that 't is scarce possible for any to go lower in judging of him and therefore as he payes due respect to others to the full and so gives no ground of quarrel that way so he challenges no such debt to himself and thus avoids the usual contests that arise in this Only by Pride comes contention sayes Solomon a Man that will walk abroad in a crowded Street cannot chuse but be often justled but he that contracts himself passes through more easily Study therefore this excellent Grace of Humility not the Personated acting of it in appearance which may be a chief agent for Pride but true lowliness of mind to be nothing in your own Eyes and content to be so in the Eyes of others Then will you obey this Word you will esteem as is meet of all Men and not to be troubled though all Men disesteem you As this Humility is a precious Grace it is the preserver of all other graces and without it if they could be with out it they were but as a Box of precious Powder carried in the wind without a cover in danger to be scatter'd and blown away If you would have Honour there 's an ambition both allow'd you and worthy of you whosoever you are Rom. 2.7 2 Cor. 4. other honour though it have the Hebrew Name from weight is all too Light and weighs onely with cares and troubles Love the Brotherhood There is a love as we said due to all included under that word of honouring all but a peculiar love to our Christian Brethen which the Apostle Paul calls by a like word the Houshold of Faith Christian Brethren are united by a threefold cord two of them common to other Men but the third the strongest and theirs peculiarly their Bodies descended of the same Man and their souls of the same God but their new life by which they are most entirely Brethren is deriv'd from the same God-Man Jesus Christ yea in him they are all one body receiving life from him their glorious head who is called the first born among many Brethren and as his unspeakable love was the source of this New being and Fraternity so out of question it cannot but produce indissolluble love amongst them that are partakers of it The Spirit of Love and concord is that Precious Oyntment that runs down from the Head our great High Priest to the skirts of his Garment The life of Christ and this Law of Love is combin'd and cannot be sever'd Can there be enmity betwixt those hearts that meet in him Why do you pretend your selves Christians and yet remain not only Strangers to this Love but most contrary to it Biters and Devourers one of another and will not be convinced of the great guiltiness and uncomliness of Strifes and Envyings amongst you is this the badge that Christ hath left his Brethren to wrangle and maligne one another Doe you not know on the contrary that they are to be known by mutual Love By this shall all Men know that you are my Disciples if you love one another How often doth that Beloved Disciple press this he drank deep of that wellspring of Love that was in the Breast on which he leaned and if they relate right he died exhorting this Love one another Oh that there were more of this Love of Christ in our hearts arising from the sense of his Love to us and that would teach this Mutual Love more effectually which the Preaching of it may set before us but without that the other cannot work it within us Why do we still hear these things in vain Do we believe what the Love of Christ did to us and suffer'd for us And will we do nothing for him not forgive a shadow a fancy of Injurie much less a real one for his sake And love him that
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may
Nay but O man who art thou that replyest against God Who can conceive whence this should be that any man should believe unless it be given him of God and if given him then it was his purpose to give it him and if so then is it evident that he had a purpose to save him and for that end he gives faith not therefore purposes to Save because Man shall believe 4. This seems cross to these Scriptures where they speak of the subordination or rather Coordination of those two as here Foreknown and Elect not because of Obedience or sprinkling or any such thing but to Obedience and sprinkling which is by faith So he predestinated not because he foresaw Men would be conform to Christ but that they might be so as Rom. 8.29 For whom he did foreknow he also did predestinate and the same order Act. 2.47 And the Lord added to the Church dayly such as should be saved and 13.48 And as many as were ordained to Eternal life believed This Foreknowledge then is his Eternal and Unchangable Love and that thus he Chuseth some and rejecteth others is for that great End to manifest and magnifie his Mercy and Justice but why he appointed this Man for the one and the other for the other made Peter a vessel of this mercy and Iudas of wrath this is even so because it seemed good to him This if it be harsh yet is Apostolick Doctrine Hath not the Potter saith St. Paul power over the same Lump to make one Vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour This deep we must admire and alwayes in considering it close with this O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God Now the Connexion of these we are for our profit to take notice of that effectual Calling is inseparably tyed to this Eternal Foreknowledge or Election on the one side and Salvation on the other These two links of the chain are up in Heaven in Gods own hand but this middle one is let down to earth into the hearts of his Children and they laying hold on it hath sure hold on the other two for no power can sever them and therefore the reading the characters of Gods Image in their own souls those are the counterpain of the golden characters of his Love in which their names are written in the Book of Life Their believing writes their names under the promises of the revealed Book of Life the Scriptures and so ascertains them that the same names are in the secret Book of Life that God hath by himself from Eternity So finding the stream of grace in their hearts tho they see not the Fountain whence it flowes nor the Ocean into which it returns yet they know that it hath its source and shall return to that Ocean which ariseth from their Eternal Election and Salvation and shall empty it selfe into Eternity of happiness Hence much joy ariseth to the Believer this tye indissolvable as the Agents are the Father the Son and the Spirit So Election and Vocation and Sanctification and Iustification and Glory and therefore in all conditions they may from the sence of the working of the Spirit in them look back to that Election and forward to that Salvation but they that remain unholy and dissobedient have as yet no evidence of this Love and therefore cannot without vain presumptions and self delusion Judge thus of themselves that they are within the peculiaâ— Love of God but in this Let the Righteous be glad and let them shout for joy all that are upright in heart 'T is one main point of happiness that he that is happy doth know and judge himselfe to be so this being the peculiar good of a reasonable creature 't is to be enjoyed in a Reasonable way 't is not as the dull resting of a Stone or any other natural body in its natural place but the knowledge and consideration of it is the fruition of it the very relishing and tasting its sweetness The perfect blessedness of the Saints is abiding them above but even their present condition is truly happy tho incompleatly and but a small beginning of that which they expect and this their present happiness is so much the more the more clear knowledge and firm perswasion they have of it 't is one of the pleasant fruits of the Godly to know the things that are freely given them of God 1 Cor. 2.12 Therefore the Apostle to comfort his dispersed Brethren sets before them a description of that excellent Spiritual Condition to which they are called If they be inseparably linkt together then by any one of them a man may lay hold upon all the rest and may know that his hold is sure and this is that way wherein we may attain and ought to seek that comfortable assurance of the Love of God Therefore Make your Calling sure and by that your Election for that being done this follows of it self We are not to pry immediately into the Decree but to read it in the performance though the Mariner sees not the Pole-star yet the Needle of the Compass that points to it tells him which way he sails thus the heart that is touched with the Loadstone of Divine Love trembling with godly fear and yet still looking towards God by fixed believing it points at the Love of Election and tells the soul that its courss is heavenward towards the Haven of Eternal rest He that Loves may be sure he was loved first and he that chuses God for his delight and Portion may conclude confidently that God hath chosen him to be one of those that shall enjoy him and be happy in him for ever for that our Love and Electing of him is but the return and repercussion of the beams of his Love shining upon us Find thou but within thee Sanctification by the Spirit and this argues necessarily both Justification by the Son and the Election of God the Father 1 Ioh. 4.13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his Spirit 'T is a most strange demonstration ab Effectu reciproco He Called those he hath Elected he Elected those he Called where this sanctifying Spirit is not there can be no perswasion of this Eternal Love of God they that are Children of disobedience can conclude no otherwise of themselves but that they are the Children of wrath Although from present unsanctification a Man cannot inferre that he is not Elected for the Decree may for part of a Mans life run as it were under-ground Yet this is sure that that estate leads to death and unless it be broken will prove the black line of reprobation A man hath no Portion amongst the Children of God nor can read one word of Comfort in all the Promises that belongs to them while he remains unholy Men may please themselves in prophane Scoffing at the Holy Spirit of Grace but let them withal know this that that Holy Spirit
through Iesus Christ our Lord. and St. Paul expresses it in his Salutations that are the same with this Grace and Peace from God the Father and our Lord Iesus Christ. As the free Love and Grace of God appointed this means and way of our Peace and Offered it So the same Grace applies it and makes it Ours and gives us faith to apprehend it And from our sense of this Peace or Reconcilement with God arises that which is our inward Peace a calm and quiet temper of Mind This Peace that we have with God in Christ Is Inviolable but because the sense and perswasion of it may be interrupted the soul that is truly at Peace with God may for a time be disquieted in it self through weakness of Faith or the strength of Temptation or the Darkness of desertion losing sight of that Grace that Love and Light of Gods Countenance on which its Tranquillity and Joy depends Thou hid'st thy face saith David and I was troubled but when these Eclipses are over the Soul is revived with new Consolation as the face of the Earth is renewed and made to smile with the return of the Sun in the Spring and this ought alwayes to uphold Christians in the saddest times viz that the Grace and Love of God towards them depends not on their sense nor upon any thing in them but is still in it selfe incapable of the smallest alteration 'T is Natural to Men to desire their own Peace the Quietness and Contentment of their Minds but most Men miss the way to it and therefore find it not for there is no way to 't indeed but this One wherein few seek it viz. Reconcilement and Peace with God The perswasion of that alone makes the Mind clear and serene like your fairest Summer Dayes My peace I give you saith Christ not as the world Let not your hearts be troubled All the Peace and Favour of the World cannot calm a troubled heart but where this Peace is that Christ gives all the trouble and disquiet of the world cannot disturb it When he giveth quietness who then can make trouble and when he hideth his face who then can behold him whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only See also for this Psal. 46.123 All outward distress to a mind thus at Peace is but as the ratling of the Hail upon the Tiles to him that sits within the House at a sumptuous Feast A good Conscience is called so and with an advantage that no other Feast can have nor could men endure it A few hours of feasting will weary the most profest Epicure but a Conscience thus at Peace is a continual Feast with continual unwearied delight What makes the World take up such a prejudice against Religion as a sour unpleasant thing they see the Afflictions and griefs of Christians but they do not see their Joyes the inward pleasure of mind that they can possess in a very hard Estate Have you not tryed other wayes enough hath not He tried them that had more ablility and skill for 't then you and found them not only vanity but vexation of Spirit If you have any belief of holy Truth pâ—t but this once upon the tryal seek Peace in the way of Grace This inward Peace is too precious a Liquor to be poured into a filthy Vessel a holy Heart that gladly entertains grace shall find that it and Peace cannot dwell assunder An ungodly Man may sleep to Death in the Lethargy of Carnal Presumption and Impenitency but a true lively solid Peace he cannot have There is no Peace to the wicked saith my God Isa 57.21 And if He say there is none speak Peace who will if all the World with one voice would speak it it shall prove none 2 ly Consider the Measure of the Apostles desire for his Scattered Brethren that this Grace and Peace may be Multiplyed This the Apostle wisheâ— for them knowing the Imperfection of the Graces and Peace of the Saints while they are here below and this they themselves in sense of that Imperfection daily do desire They that have tasted the sweetness of this Grace and Peace call uncessantly for more This is a disease in Earthly Desires and a disease incurable by all these things desired there is no satisfaction attainable by them but this Avarice of Spiritual things is a Vertue and by our Saviour is called Blessedness because it tends to Fullness and Satisfaction Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 Verse 3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ from the dead To an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away 'T Is a cold lifeless thing to speak of spiritual things upon meer Report but they that speak of them as their own as having share and interest in them and some experience of their sweetness their discourse of them is enlivened with firm belief and ardent affection They cannot mention them but their hearts are straight taken with such gladness as they are forc'd to vent in praises Thus our Apostle here and St. Paul Eph. 1. and often elsewhere when they consider'd these things wherewith they were about to comfort the Godly to whom they wrote They were suddenly Elevated with the Joy of them and broke forth into Thanksgiving So teaching us by their Example what real Joy there is in the Consolations of the Gospel and what praise is due from all the Saints to the God of those Consolations This is such an Inheritance as the very thoughts and hopes of it are able to sweeten the greatest Griefs and Afflictions What then shall the Possession of it be wherein there shall be no Rupture nor the least drop of any grief at all The main Subject of these veâ—ses is that which is the main Comfort that supports the Spirits of the Godly in all Conditions I. Their after Inheritance in the 4 verse 2. Their present Title to it and assured hope of it v. 3. 3dly The immediate cause of both assigned viz. Iesus Christ. 4ly All this derived from the free Mercy of God as the first and highest Cause and return'd to his Praise and Glory as the last and highest End of it For the First The Inheritance But because the 4th verse which describes it is link't with the subsequent we will not go so far off to return back again but first speak to this 3 verse and in it Consider 1. Their Title to this Inheritance Begotten again 2. Their assurance of it viz. A holy or lively Hope The Title that the Saints have to their rich Inheritance is of the validest and most unquestionable kind viz. by Birth Not by their first natural birth By it we are all born to an Inheritance indeed but we find what it is Eph. 2.3 Children of Wrath Heirs
it shall appear in its full brightnesâ— at the Revelation of Jesus Christ. The peculiar treasure of a Christian being the Grace that he receives from Heaven and particularly that Soveraign Grace of Faith whatsoever he can be assur'd will better him any way in this he will not only bear it patiently but gladly imbrace it Rom. 5.3 Therefore the Apostle sets this before his Brethren in those words of this verse where is 1. The Worth and Excellency of Faith 2. The usefulness of Temptations in relation to it The trial of Faith is call'd more precious a work of more worth then the tryal of Gold because Faith it selfe is of more value then Gold the Apostle chuses this comparison as fitting his purpose for both for the Illustration of the worth of Faith and likewise the use of Temptations representing the one by Gold and the other by the trying of Gold in the Fire The worth of Gold is 1. Real the purest and preciousest of all mettals having many excellent properties beyond them as they that write of the nature of Gold observe 2. Far greater in the Esteem and Opinion of Men. See how Men hurry up and down over Sea and Land unwearied in their pursuit with hazard of life and often with the loss of Uprightness and a good Conscience and not only thus Esteem it in it self but make it the Rule of their Esteem one of another valuing Men less or more as they are more or less furnish't with it and we see at what a height that is for things we would commend much we borrow its name to them viz. Golden Mediocrity and that Age which they would call the best of all they name it the Golden Age and as Seneca observes describing heavenly things as Ovid the Suns Pallace and Chariot still Gold is the word for all And the Holy Scriptures descending to our reach do set forth the Riches of the new Ierusalem by it Rev. 21. And the Excellency of Christ. Cant. 5.11.14 And here the preciousness of Faith whereof Christ is the Object is said to be more precious then Gold I will not insist in the parallel of Faith with Gold in the other Qualities of it as that it is pure and sollid as Gold And that ' it s most ductile and malleable as gold beyond all other mettals it plies any way with the Will of God But then Faith truly Enriches the soul And as Gold Answers all things so Faith gives the Soul propriety to all the rich Consolations of the Gospel to all the promises of Life and salvation to all needful Blessings it draws vertue from Christ to strengthen it self and all other Graces And thus 't is not onely precious as Gold but goes far above the Comparison 't is more precious yea much more precious 1. in its Originall the other is dig'd out of the bowels of the Earth but the Mine of this Gold is above it comes from Heaven 2. In its Nature answerable to its Originall it is Immateriall Spirituall and pure we refine Gold and make it purer but when we receive Faith pure of it self we mix dross with it and make it Impure by the allay of Unbelief 3. in its Endurance flowing from the former it perisheth not Gold is a thing in it selfe Corruptible and perishing and to particular owners it perisheth in their loss of it being depriv'd of it any way Other Graces are likewise tryed in the same Furnace but Faith is named as the Root of all the rest Sharp afflictions give a Christian a tryal of his Love to God whether it be single and for himself or not for then it will be the same when he strikes as when he Embraces and in the fire of affliction will rather grow the hotter and be more taken off from the world and set upon him Again the Grace of Paâ—ience is put particularly upon triall in distresses but both these spring from Faith for Love rises from a right and strong belief of the Goodness of God and patience from a persuasion of the Wisdom and Love of God and the truth of his promises He hath said I will not fail thee And that we shall not be tempted above our strength and he will give the Issue Now the belief of those Causes patience The triall of faith worketh Patience Iam. â— 3 For therefore doth the Christian resigne up himselfe and all that concerns him his triall the measure and length of them all unto Gods dispose because he knowes that he is in the hands of a wise and loving Father Thus the trial of those and other particular Graces doe still resolve into this and are compris'd under it the triall of Faith This tryal as 〈◊〉 of Gold may be for a 〈◊〉 â—old end 1 for Experiment of the truth and pâ—reness of a Christians faith 2. for râ—fining it yeâ— more and to raise it to a higher pitch or degree of pâ—reness 1. The furnace of Affliction shows upright â—eal Faith to be such indeed remaining stâ—ll the same even in the fire the same thaâ— it was undiminished as good Gold 〈◊〉 none of its quantity in the fire Doubtless many are deceiv'd in time of ease and prosperity with imaginary Faith and Fortitude so that there may be still some doubt while a Man is under set with outward helps as Riches Friends Esteem c. whether he leanes upon those or upon God who is an Invisible support though stronger then all that are visible and is the peculiar and alone stay of Faith in all Conditions But when all these outward props are pluckt away from a Man then it will manifest whether something else upholds him or not for if there be nothing else then â—e falls but if his mind stand firm and unremoved as before then 't is evident he laid not his weight upon these things he had them about him but was built upon a foundation though not seen which is able alone to stay him although he be not only frustrated of all other supports but beatâ—n upon with stormes and tempests as our Saviour sayes the house fell not because it was founded upon a rock Mat. 7.25 This testified the truth of Davids Faith who found it staying him upon God when there was nothing else near that could do 't I had fainted unless I had believ'd Psa. 27.13 So in his strait 1. Sam. 30.6 Where it s said that David was greatly distressed but he encouraged himself in the Lord his God Thus Psa. 73.26 My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and portion for ever The Hearts naturall strength of spirit and Resolution may beaâ— up under outward weakness or the failing of the flesh but when the Heart it self fails that is the strength of the flesh what shall strengthen it nothing but God who is the strength of the heart and its portion for ever Thus Faith worketh alone when the Case suites that of the Prophets Haback â— 17 Although the fig
lodging it in our hearts and from thence diffusing it into all our actions A child is then truly like his father when not only his visage resembles him but more his mind and inward disposition Thus are the true children of God like their heavenly father in their words and in their actions but most of all in heart 'T is no matter though the profane world that so hate God that it cannot indure his Image do mock and revile 't is thy honour as David said to be thus more vile in growing still more like unto him in holiness and though the civil Man count thy fashion a little odd and too precise 't is because he knows nothing above that model of goodness he hath set himself and therefore approves of nothing beyond it he knowes not God and therefore doth not discern and esteem what is likest him When Courtiers come down into the Country the common homebred People possibly think their habit strange but they care not for that 't is the fashion at Court What need then the Godly be so tender foreheaded as to be out of countenance because the world lookes on holiness as a singularity 't is the only fashion in the highest Court yea of the King of Kings himself For I am holy As it will raise our endeavour high to look on the highest pattern so it will lay our thoughts low concerning our selves Men compare themselves with Men and readily with the worst and flatter themselves with that comparative betterness this is not the way to see our spots to look into the muddy streams of profane Mens lives but look into the clear fountain of the Word and there we may both discern and wash them and consider the infinite holiness of God and this will humble us to the dust when Isaiah saw the glory of the Lord and heard the Seraphims cry holy holy holy he cried out of his own and the Peoples unholiness Woe is me for I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a People of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts Verse 17. And if ye call on the Father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojurning here in Fear THe tentations that meet a Christian in the world to turn him aside from the straight way of obedience and holiness are either such as present the hope of some apparent good to draw him from that way or the fear of some evil to drive and affright him from it And therefore the word of God is much in strengthning the Christian mind against these two and it doth it mainly by possessing it both with hopes and fears of a higher nature that do by far weigh down the other The frequentest assaults of tentation are upon these two passions of the mind therefore they are mainly to be fortified and defended by a hope and fear opposit to those that do assault us and sufficiently strong to resist and repel them These two therefore our Apostle here exhorts 1. The hope of that glory that the Gospel propounds and so outbids all the proffers of the World both in the greatness and the certainty of its promises 2. The fear of God the greatest and justest judge only worthy to be fear'd and reverenc'd the highest anger and enmity of all the world being less then nothing in comparison of his smallest displeasure There is here 1. This fear 2. The reason enforcing it 3. The The term or continuance of it In fear But how suites this with the high discourse that went before of perfect assured hope of faith and Love and Joy yea Joy unspeakable and glorious arising out of these How are all those excellencies fallen as it were into a dungeon when fear is mention'd after them doth not the Apostle St. Iohn say that true love casteth out fear and is it not more clearly opposiâ—e to perfect or assured hope and to faith and joy If ye understand it aright this is such a fear as doth not prejudge but preserve those other graces and the comfort and joy that arises from them And they all agree so well with it that they are naturally helps each to other It were superfluous to insist on the defining this passion of fear and the manifold distinctions of it either with Philosophers or Divines The fear here recommended is out of question a holy self suspicion and fear of offending God which may not only consist with assured hope of salvation and with faith and love and spiritual joy but is their inseparable companion as all Divine Graces are linkt together as they said of their three graces and as they dwell together they grow or decrease together The more a Christian believes and loves and rejoyces in the love of God the more unwilling sure to displease him and if in danger the more afraid of it and on the other side this fear being the true principle of a wary and holy Conversation flying sin and the occasions and tentations of sin and resisting them when they set on is as a watch or guard that keeps out the Enemies and disturbers of the soul and so preserves its inward peace keeps the assurance of faith and hope unmolested and that joy which they cause and the intercourse and societies of love betwixt the soul and her beloved uninterrupted all which are then most in danger when this fear abates and falls to slumbring for then readily some notable sin or other breaks in puts all into disorder and for a time makes those graces and the comfort of them to present feeling as much to seek as if they were not there at all No wonder then if the Apostle having stirr'd up his Christian Brethren whatsoever be their estate in the World to seek to be rich in those Jewels of faith and hope and love and spiritual joy and then considering that they travel amongst a world of Thieves and Robbers no wonder I say that he addes this advises them to give those their jewels in custody under God to this trusty and watchful grace of godly fear and having earnestly exhorted them to holiness he is very fitly particular in this fear which makes up so great a part of that holiness that it s often in Scripture nam'd for it all Solomon calls it the beginning or the top of wisdom the word signifies both and it is both The beginning of it is the beginning of wisdom and the progress and increase of it is the increase of wisdom That hardy rashness that many account valour is the companion of ignorance and of all rashness boldness to sin is the most witless and foolish There is in 〈◊〉 as in all fear an apprehension of an evil whereof we are in danger The evil is sin and the displeasure of God and punishing following upon sin The Godly Man judgeth wisely as the truth is that sin is the greatest of
this Fear is twofold 1. Their Relation to God 2. Their Relation to the world First To God as their Father as their Judge because you do call him father and profess your selves his Children begotten again by him for this looks back to that it becomes you as obedient Children to stand in awe and fear to offend him your father and a father so full of Goodness and tender love but as he is the best father so consider that he is withall the greatest and justest judge Iudges according to every mans work God allwayes sees and discerns Men and all their work and judgeth that is accounteth of them as they are and sometimes in this life declares this his judgement of them to their own Consciences and in some to the view of others in visible punshments and rewards but the most solemn judgement of all is reserv'd to that Great day which he hath appointed Wherein he will judge the world in righteousness by his son Iesus Act. 17 32. There is here The Soveraignty of this judge the universality of his Judgement and the Equity of it all must answer at his great Court he is supreme Judge of the world he made it and hath therefore unquestionable right to Judge it he judgeth everyman and 't is a most righteous Judgement which hath these two in it First an exact and perfect knowledge of all Mens works 2. impartiall judgement of them so known This Second is express'd negatively by removing the crooked Rule which mans judgement often follows ' its without Consideration of those personall differences that men eye so much And the first is according to the work it self Iob. 34.19 He accepteh not the person of princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor and the reason is added therefore they are all the work of his hands He made all the persons and he makes all those differences himself as it pleaseth him therefore he doth not admire them as we do no nor at all regard them we find very great odds betwixt stately palaces and poor Cottages betwixt a Princes Robes and a Beggars Cloak but to God they are all one all these petty differences vanish in Comparison of his own greatness Men are great and small compar'd one with another but they all together amount to just nothing in respect of him We find high mountains and low valleys on this Earth but compar'd with the vast compass of the heavens 't is all but as a point and hath no sensible greatness at all Nor regards he any other differences to byasse his Judgement from the works of men to their persons You profess the true Religion and call him Father but if you live devoid of his fear and be disobedient Children he will not spare you because of that Relation but rather punish you the more severely because you pretended to be his Children and yet obeyed him not therefore you shall find him your Judge and an impartiall Judge of your works Remember therefore that your father is this Judge and fear to offend him But then indeed a Believer may look back to the other for comfort that abuses it not to a sinfull security He resolves thus willingly I will not sin because my father is this just Judge but for my frailties I will hope for mercy because the Judge is my father Their works comprehends all actions and words yea thoughts and each work intirely taken outside and inside together for he sees all alike and judgeth according to all together he looks on the wheels and paces within as well as on the handle without and therefore ought we to fear the least crookedness of our intentions in the best works for if we entertain any such and study not singleness of heart this will cast all though we pray and hear the word and preach it and live outwardly unblameably And in that great Judgement all secret things shall be manifest as they are alwayes open to the eye of this Judge so he shall then open them before Men and Angels therefore let the Remembrance and frequent Consideration of this all-seeing Judge and of that great Judgement wean our hearts and beget in us this fear 2 Cor. 5.10.11 If you would have confidence in that day and not fear it when it comes fear it now so as to avoid sin for they that now tremble at it shall then when it comes lift up their faces with joy and they that will not fear it now shall then be overwhelm'd with fears and terrour they shall have such a burden of fear then as that they shall account the hills and mountains lighter than it Pass the time of your Sojourning here in Fear In this I conceive is Implied another persuasive of this fear You are Sojurners and Strangers as here the word signifies and a warry circumspect carriage becomes strangers because they are most expos'd to wrongs and hard accidents You are encompassed with enemies and snares how can you be secure in the midst of them this is not your rest watchfull fear becomes this your sojurning Perfect peace and security is reserved for you at home and that 's the last term of this fear it continues all the time of this sojurning life dyes not before us we and it shall expire together Blessed is he that feareth alwayes says Salomon in secret and in society in his own house and in Gods we must hear the word with fear and preach it with fear affraid to miscarry in our Intentions and Manners Serve the Lord with fear yea in times of inward comfort and joy yet rejoyce with trembling Psa. 2.11 Not onely when he feels most his own weakness but when he finds himself strongest None so high advanc'd in Grace here below as to be out of need of this Grace but when their sojourning shall be done and they are come home to their fathers house above then no more fearing No entry for dangers there and therefore no fear A holy Reverence of the Majesty of God they shall indeed have then most of all as the Angels still have because they shall see him most clearly and the more he is known the more Revernc'd but this Fear that relates to danger shall then vanish For there there is neither sin nor sorrow for sin nor tentation to sin no more Conflicts but after a full and finall victory an Eternall peace an Everlasting Triumph Not onely fear but faith and hope do imply some Imperfection not consistent with that blessed Estate and therefore all of them having obtained their End shall end Faith in sight and Hope in possession and fear in perfect safety and Everlasting Love and delight shall fill the whole soul in the vision of God Verse 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not Redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain Conversation received by tradition from your fathers IT is Impossible for a Christian to give himself to conforme with the world's ungodliness unless first
as to be scorn'd out of it being so honourable and happy and the day is at hand wherein those that scoffe you would give much more than all that the best of them ever possess'd in the world to be admitted into your number Seeing you have purifi'd your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit Here is 1. The chief seat or subject of the work of sanctification the Soul 2. The subordinate means Truth 3. The Nature of it obeying of truth 4. The chief worker of it The Holy Spirit For the first 'T is no doubt a work that goes through the whole man renews and purifies all Heb. 10.22 2 Cor. 7.1 But because it purifies the soul therefore 't is that does purifie all There begins impurity Mat. 15. not onely evil thoughts but all evill actions come forth from the heart which is there all one with the soul and therefore this purifying begins there makes the tree good that the fruit may be good 't is not so much externall performances that are the difference of Men as their inward temper we meet here in the same place and all partake of the same word and prayer But how wide a difference is there in Gods eye betwixt an unwash'd profane heart in the same exercise and a soul purified in some measure in obeying the truth and desirous to be further purified by further obeying it 2. That which is the subordinate means of this purity is the Truth or the word of God it is truth and pure in it self and begets truth and purity in the heart by teaching it concerning the holy and pure nature of God shewing it and his holy will which is to us the rule of purity And by representing Jesus Christ unto us as the fountain of our purity and Renovation from whose fulness we may receive grace for grace 3. The nature of this work that wherein the very being of this purifying consists is the Receiving or Obeying of this Truth So Gal. 3.1 Where 't is put for right believing The chief point of obedience is believing the proper obedience to Truth is to give credit to it and this divine belief doth necessarily bring the whole soul into obedience and conformity to that pure Truth which is in the word and so the very purifying and renewing of the soul is this obedience of faith as unbelief is its cheif impurity and disobedience therefore Act. 15.9 faith is said to purifie the heart 4. The chief worker of this sanctification is the Holy spirit of God they are said here to purifie themselves For 't is certain and undeniable that the soul it self doth act in believing or obeying the truth but not of it self it is not the first principle of motion They purifie their souls but 't is by the spirit They doe it by his enlivening power and a purifying vertue recevied from him Faith or obeying the truth works this purity But the Holy Ghost works that faith as in the forecited place God is said to purifie their hearts by faith Verse 8. He doth that by giving them the Holy Ghost The truth is pure and purifying yet can it not of it self purifie the soul but by the obeying or believing it and the soul cannot obey or believe but by the spirit which works in it that faith and by that faith purifies it and works Love in it ' it s the Impurity and Earthliness of Mens minds that is the great cause of disuâ—ion and disaffection amongst them and of all their striâ—es Iam. 4.1 This spirit is that fire that refines and purifies the soul from the dross of earthly desires that possess it and sublimates it to the love of God and of his Saints because they are his and are purified by the same spirit T is the property of fire to draw together things of the same kind the outward fire of Enmities and persecution that are kindled against the godly by the world doth some-what and if it were more considered by them would do more in this knitting their hearts closer one to another but it is this inward pure and purifying fire of the Holy Ghost that doth most powerfully unite them The true reason why there is so little truth of this Christian mutuall Love amongst those that are called Christians is because there is so little of this purifying Obedience to the truth whence it flowes Faith unfeigned would beget this Love unfeigned men may exhort to them both but they require the hand of God to work them in the heart Verse 23. Being borne again not of Corruptible seed But of Incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever THE two things that make up the Apostles Exhortation are the very summe of a Christians duty to walk as obedient children towards God and loving brethen one towards another And that it may yet have the deeper impression he here represents to them anew that new birth he mentioned before by which they are the children of God and so brethren We shall first speak of this Regeneration And then of the Seed This is the great dignity of believers that they are the sons of God Io. 1.12 and the great Evidence of the love of God that he hath bestow'd this dignity on them 1 Io. 3.1 For they are no way needfull to him he had from Eternity a Son perfâ—ctly like himself the character of his person and one Spirit proceeding from both and there is no Creation neither the first nor the second can add any thing to those and their happiness 't is most true of that blessed Trinity Satis amplum alter alterj Theatrum sumus But the gracious purpose of God to impart his goodness appears in this that he hath made himself such a multitude of sons not onely Angels that are so called but man a little lower than they in nature yet dignified with this name in his Creation St. Luke 3.38 Which was the Son of Adam which was the son of God He had not onely the Impression of Gods footsteps as they speak which all the Creatures have but of his Image and most of all in this is his rich Grace magnified that sin having defac'd that Image and so degraded Man from his honour and devested him of that title of sonship and stampt our polluted nature with the marks of vileness and bondage yea with the very Image of Satan Rebellion and Enmity against God that out of Mankind thus ruin'd and degenerated God should raise to himself a new Race and Generation of sons For this designe was the word made flesh Io. 1. The son made Man to make men the sons of God and 't is by him alone we are restor'd to this they that receive him receive with him and in him this priviledge Verse 12. And therefore 't is a sonship by Adoption and is so called in scripture in difference from his Eternall and Ineffable Generation who is and that was the onely begotten son of God yet that we may
without it 't is true that the substantial Eternal word is to us as we said the spring of this New birth and life the head from whom the spirits of this supernatural life flow but that by the Word here is meant the Gospel the Apostle puts ouâ— of doubt Verse last and this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you Therefore it is indeed that this Word is thus the seed of this New birth because it contains and declares that other word the Son of God as our life The word is spoken in common and so is the same to all hearers but then all being naturally shut against it God doth by his own hand open some hearts to receive it and mixes it with faith and those it renews and restoreth in them the Image of God drawes the traits of it anew and makes them the Sons of God My Doctrine shall drop as the dew sayes Moses the word as a heavenly dew not falling beside but dropt in to the heart by the hand of Gods own spirit makes it all become spiriâ—ual and heavenly and turns it into one of those drops of dew that the Children of God are compared to Psal. 110. Thou hast the dew of thy youth The natural estate of the soul is darkness and the word as a divine light shining into it transforms the soul into its own nature that as the word is called Light so is the soul renew'd by it ye were darkness but now are ye not only enlightn'd but light in the Lord. All the evils of the natural mind are often compriz'd under the name of darkness and Errour and therefore the whole work of conversion likewise signified by light and truth he begat us by the word of truth So 2 Cor. 4 6. alluding to the first fiat Lux or Let there â—e Light in the Creation The word brought within the soul by the spirit lets it see its own necessity and Christs sufficiency convinceth it throughly and causeth it to cast over it self upon him for life and this is the very begetting of it again to Eternal life So that this Efficacy of the word to prove successful seed doth not hang upon the different abilities of Preachers their more or less Rhetorick or Learning 'T is true Eloquence hath a great advantage in civil and moral things to perswade and and to draw the hearers by the Ears almost which way it will but in this spiritual work to revive a soul to beget it anew the Influence of heaven is the main there is no way so common and plain being warranted by God in the delivery of saving truth but the spirit of God can revive the soul by it and all the skilful and most autoritative way yea being withal very spiritual yet may effect nothing because left alone to it self One word of holy Scripture or of truth conform to it may be the principle of Regeneration to him that hath heard multitudes of excellent Sermons and hath often read the whole Bible and still unchang'd if the spirit of God preach that one or any such word to the Soul God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have everlasting life It will be cast down with the fear of perishing and driven out of it self by that and rais'd up and drawn to Jesus Christ by the hope of everlasting life it will believe on him that it may have life and be inflamed with the Love of God and give it self to him that so loved the World as to give his only begotten Son to purchase us that everlasting life Thus may that word prove this Immortal Seed which tho very often read and heard before was but a dead letter A drop of those liquors that are called Spirits operates more than large draughts of other waters one word spoke by the Lord to the heart is all Spirit and doth that which whole streams of Mans eloquence could never effect In hearing of the Word Men look usually too much upon Men and forget from what spring the Word hath its power they observe too narrowly the different hand of the Sowers and too little depend on his hand that is great Lord both of Seed-time and Harvest Be it sowen by a weak hand or a stronger the Immortal seed is still the same yea suppose the worst that it be a foul hand that sowes it that the Preacher himself be not so sanctified and of so edifying a life as you would wish yet the seed it self being good contracts no defilement and may be effectual to Regeneration in some and strengthening of others Although he that is not renew'd by it himself cannot have much hope of such success nor reap much comfort by it and usually doth not seek nor regard it much but all Instruments are alike in an Almighty hand Hence learn 1. That true conversion is not so slight a work as we commonly account it 'T is not an outward change of some bad customes which gains the name of a reform'd Man in the ordinary dialect 't is a New birth and Being and elsewhere called a new Creation though it be but a change in qualities as 't is such a one and the qualities so far distant that it bears the name of the most substantial productions from Children of disobedience and that which is link't with it heirs of wrath to be sons of God and heirs of glory They have a new spirit given a free princely noble spirit as the word is Psal. 51. and this spirit acts in their life and action 2. Consider this dignity and be kindled with the ambition of it how doth a Christian pity that poor vanity that men make so much noise about of of their kindred and extraction this is worth glorying in indeed to be of the highest blood royal and in the nearest Relation Sons of the King of Kings by this new birth and addes Matchless honour to that birth which is honourable But we all pretend to be of this number Would we not study to cozen our selves the discovery would not be so hard to know whither we are or not In many their false confidence is too evident No appearance of the spirit of God not a foot-step like his leading and that character Rom. 8.14 not a lineament of God's visage as their father if ye know that he is righteous sayes St. Iohn 2.29 ye know then that every one that doth righteousness is born of him And so on the contrary how contrary to the most holy God the lover and fountain of holiness are they that Swinishly love to wallow in the mire of unholiness Is Swearing and Cursing the accent of the Regenerate the Children of God No 't is the language of Hell Do children delight to indignifie and dishonour their Fathers Name No Earthly mindedness is a countersign Shall the King's Children they that were brought up in scarlet as Ieremy laments embrace the dunghil
life is and wherein the nature of it consists we may easily know what is the growth of it when holiness increases the sanctifying graces of the Spirit grow stronger in the soul and consequently act more strongly in the life of a Christian then he growes Spiritually And as the word is the means of begetting this Spiritual life so likewise of its increase 1. If we consider the nature of the Word in general that it is Spiritual and Divine treats of the highest things and therefore hath in it a fitness to elevate Mens minds from the Earth being often conversant with it to assimilate them to it self as all kind of Doctrine readily doth to these that are much in it and apply their minds to study it Doubtless such kind of things as are frequent with Men have an influence into the disposition of their souls The Gospel is called Light and the Children of God are likewise called Light as being transform'd into its nature and thus they are still the more by more hearing of it and so they grow If we look more particularly unto the strain and tenour of the Word it is most fit for increasing the graces of the Spirit in a Christian for there be in it particular truths relative to them that are apt to excite them and set them on work and so to make them grow as all habits do by acting it doth as the Apostles word may be translated stir up the sparks and blow them into a greater flame makes them burn clearer and hotter That it doth both by particular Exhortation to the study and Exercise of those graces sometimes pressing one and sometimes another and by right representing to them their objects The Word feeds faith by setting before it the free grace of God his Rich Promises and his Power and truth to perform them all shews it the strength of the New Covenants not depending upon it but holding in Christ in whom all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen and drawing faith still to rest more intirely upon his Righteousness It feeds Repentance by making the vileness and deformity of sin daily more clear and visible still as more of the Word hath admission into the Soul the more it hates sin being the more discovered and the better known in its own native colour As the more light is in a House the more any thing in it that is uncleanly or deformed is seen and dislik'd Likewise it increaseth love to God by opening up still more and more of his infinite Excellency and lovelyness and as it borrowes the resemblance of the vilest things in nature to express the foulness and hatefulness of sin so all the beauties and dignities that are in all the creatures are call'd together in the Word to give us some small scantling of that uncreated beauty that alone deserves to be loved Thus might it be instanc'd in all other graces But above all other Considerations this is in the Word observable as the increaser of grace in that it holds forth Jesus Christ to our vieu to look upon not only as the perfect pattern but as the full fountain of all grace from whose fulness we all receive the contemplating of him as the perfect Image of God and then drawing from him as having in himself a treasure for us these give the soul more of that Image which is truly Spiritual growth This the Apostle expresseth excellently 2 Cor. 3. ult speaking of the Ministry of the Gospel revealing Christ that beholding in him as 't is Chap. 4. Vers. 6. In his face the glory of the Lord we are changed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord. Not only that we may take the Copy of his Graces but have a share of them There be many things might be said of this spirituall growth but I will add only a few 1. In the judging of this growth some conluding too rigidly against themselves that they grow not by the word because it is not sensible to them as they desire But 1. this is known in all things that grow that 't is not discerned in motu sed in termino not in the growing but when they are grown 2. Besides other things are to be considered in this although other graces seem not to advance yet if thou growest more self-denying and humble in the sense of thy slowness all is not lost although the branches shut not up so fast as thou wishest yet if the root grow deeper and fasten more it s an usefull growth he that is still learning to be more in Jesus Christ and less in himself to have all his dependance and comfort in him is doubtless a growing believer On the other side a far greater number conclude wrong in their own favour imagining that they do grow if they gain in some of those things we mention'd above namely if more knowledge and more faculty of discoursing if they find often some present stirrings of joy or sorrow in hearing of the word if they reform their life grow more civil and blameless c. Yet all these and many such things may be in a naturall Man who notwithstanding grows not for that 's impossible he is not in that estate a subject capable of this growth for he is dead he hath none of this new life to which this growth relates Herod heard gladly and obey'd many things Consider then what true delight we might have in this You find a pleasure when you see your Children grow when they begin to stand and walk c. You love well to perceive your estate or your honour grow but the soul to be growing liker God and nearer heaven if we know it is a pleasure far beyond them all to find pride and Earthliness and vanity abating and faith and love and spirituall mindedness increasing especially if we think whither this growth be not as our naturall life that is often cutt off before it attain full age as we call it and if it attain that falls again to move downwards and decays as the Sun being at its Meridian begins to decline again But this life shall grow on-in whomsoever it is and come certainly to its fullness after which there is no more need of this word either for growth or nourishment no death no decay no old age but perpetuall youth and a perpetuall spring ver aeternum fulness of joy in the presence of God and everlasting pleasures at his right hand Verse 3. If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is Gracious OUR Naturall desire of food arises principally from its necessity for that end which nature seeks the growth or at least the nourishment of our bodies but besides there is a present sweetness and pleasingness in the use of it that serves to sharpen our desire and is plac'd in nature for that purpose thus the Children of God in their spiritual life are naturally carried to desire the means of their nourishment and of their growth
being alwayes here in a growing estate but withall there is a spiritual delight and sweetness in that word in that which it reveals concerning God and that addes to their desire stirres their appetite towards it the former is in the foregoing verse the latter in this Nature addresses the infant to the breast but when it hath once tasted of it that is a new superadded attractive and makes it desire after that the more earnestly So here The word is fully recommended to us by these two usefulness and pleasantness so like milk as 't is compar'd here which is a nourishing food and withall sweet and delightfull to the taste by it we grow and in it we taste the graciousness of God David in that Psalm that he dedicates wholly to this subject gives both these as the reason of his appetite his love to it he expresses patheticaly Psa. 119. Ver. 97. O how love I thy law and then he addes that by it he was made wiser than his enemies than his teachers And than the ancients taught to refraine from every evil way taught by the Author of that word the Lord himself thou hast taught me to grow wiser and wâ—â—ier and holier in thy wayes and then Ver. 103. He addes this other reason How sweet are thy words unto my taste yea sweeter than the hony and the hony Comb. We shall speak 1. Of the goodness or graciousness of the Lord. 2. Of this taste And 3. Of the Inference from both 1. Gracious Or of a bountifull kind disposition the word Psa. 34. Whence this is taken is Tob. And which signifieth good The Sept there render it by the word used here by our Apostle both the words signifie a benignity and kindness of nature it is one of loves attributes 1 Cor. 13. It is kind ever compassionate and as it can be helpfull in straits and distresses still ready to forget and pass by evil and to do good and in the largest most comprehensive sense must we take it here and yet still speak and think infinitely below what his goodness is He is naturally good yea goodness in his nature he is goodness and love it self he that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love 1 Io. 4.8 Primitively good all goodness is deriv'd from him and all that is in the Creature comes forth from no other but that Ocean and this graciousness is still larger then them all There is a common bounty of God wherein he doth good to all and so the whole earth is full of of his goodness But the goodness that the Gospel is full of the particular stream that runs in that channel is his peculiar graciousness and love to his own Children that by which they are first enliven'd and then refresh'd and sustain'd in their spiritual being This that is here spoken of gracious to them in freely forgiving their sins and giving no less than himself unto them frees them from all evils and fills them with all good Psa. 103.3.4.5 satisfies thy mouth and so it followes with good reason Ver. 8. that he is mercifull and gracious and his graciousness there further express'd in his gentleness and slowness to anger bearing with the frailties of his own and pitying them as a father pityeth his Children No friend so kind and friendly as this word signifies and none so powerfull a present help in trouble ready to be found whereas others may be far off he is alwayes at hand and his presence is alwayes comfortable They that know God still find him a real usefull good Some things and persons are usefull at one time and others at another but God at all times A well furnish'd table may please a Man while he hath health and appetite but offer it to him in the hight of a fever how unpleasant would it be then Though never so richly deck'd 't is not only then useless but hateful to him But the kindness and love of God is then as seasonable and refreshing to him as in health and possibly more he can find sweetness in that even on his sick bed The bitter Choler abounding in the mouth in a fever doth not disrelish his sweetness it transcends and goes above it Thus all Earthly enjoyments have but some time as meats when they are in season but the graciousness of God is always sweet the tast of that is never out of season See how old age spoyles the relish of outward delights in the example of Barzillai 2. Sam. 19.35 But it makes not this distastful therefore the Psalmist prayes that when other comforts forsake him and wear out ebb from him and leave him on the sand this may not That still he may feed on the goodness of God Psa. 71.9 Cast me not off in old age forsake me not when my strength faileth 'T is the continual influence of his graciousness makes them still grow like Cedars in Lebanon Psa. 92. To bring forth fruit in old age to be still fat and flourishing to shew that the Lord is upright as is there added that he is even as the word is still like himself and his goodness ever the same Full chests or large possessions may seem sweet to a Man till death present it self but then as the Prophet speaks of throwing away their idols of silver and gold to the Battes and Moles in the day of calamity then he is forc'd to throw all he possesses away with disdain of it and his former folly in doting on it then the kindness of friends and Wife and Children can do nothing but increase his grief and their own But then is the love of God the good indeed and abiding sweetness And it best relisheth when all other things are most unsavoury and uncomfortable God is gracious but ' its God in Christ otherwise we cannot find him so therefore here this is spoken particular of Jesus Christ as it appears by that which followeth through whom all the peculiar kindness and love of God is convey'd to the soul and can come no other way and the word here mention'd is the Gospel Chap. 1. Ver. ult whereof Christ is the subject Though God is Mercy and Goodness in himself yet we cannot find nor apprehend him so to us but only looking through that medium the Mediator That main point of the goodness of God in the Gospel that is so sweet to a humbled sinner the forgiveness of sins we know we cannot taste of but in Christ Ehp. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption And all the favour that shines on us all the grace we receive is of his fullness all our acceptance with God taking into grace and kindness again is in him Ver. 6. He made us accepted in the beloved His grace appears in both as t is there express'd but it is all in Christ. Let us therefore never leave him out in our desires of tasting the graciousness and love of God For otherwise we shall but dishonour him and disappoint our selves The free grace of
God was given to be tasted in the promises before the coming of Christ in the flesh But being accomplish'd in his coming then was the sweetness of grace made more sensible Then was it more fully broacht and let out to the Elect world when he was pierc'd on the Cross and his blood poured out for our redemption Through those holes of his wounds way we draw and taste that the Lord is gracious sayes S. August 2. Taste There is a tasting of temporary believers spoke of Heb. 6.4 Their highest sense of spirituall things and it will be in some far higher than we easily think yet is but a taste and is call'd so in comparison of the truer fuller sense that true believers have of the grace and goodness of God which compar'd with temporary taste is more than tasting the former is tasting rather an imaginary tast then real but this is a true feeding on the graciousness of God yet call'd but a tast in respect of the fulness to come though it is more than a tast as you difference it from the hypocrites sense yet 't is no more but a tast compar'd with the great marriage feast we look for Jesus Christ being all in all unto the soul faith apprehending him is all the spirituall senses it is the eye that beholds his matchless beauty and so enkindles love in the soul and can speak of him as having seen him and taken particuliar notice of him Cant. 5.9 'T is the eare that discernes his voyce Cant. 2.8 'T is faith that smells his name poured forth as an ointment faith it touches him and draws vertue from him and faith that tastes him Cant. 2.3 And here If ye have tasted c. There must be 1. a firme believing the truth of the promises wherein the free Grace of God is exprest and exhibited to us 2. A particular application or attraction of that grace to our selves which is as the drawing those breasts of consolation namely the promises contain'd in the old and new Testament 3. There is a sense of the sweetness of that grace being applied or drawn in to the soul and that is properly this tast No unrenewed Man hath any of these in truth not the highest kind of temporary believer he cannot have so much as a real lively assent to the generall truth of the promises for had he that the rest would follow but as he cannot have the least of these in truth he may have the counterfit of them all not only of assent but application yea and a false spiritual joy arising on it and all these so drawn to the life that they may resemble much the truth of them and to give clear characters of difference is not so easie as most imagine but doubtless the true living faith of a Chiristian hath in it self such a particular stamp as brings with it it s own evidence when the soul is clear and the light of Gods face shines upon it Indeed in the dark we cannot read nor distinguish one mark from another but when a Christian hath light to look upon the work of God in his own soul although he cannot make another sensible of that by which he knows it yet he himself is ascertain'd and can say confidently in himself this I know that this faith and â—ast of God I have is true the seal of the spirit of God is upon it and this is the reading of that new name in the white stone that no Man knowes but he that hath it There is in a true Believer such a constant love to God for himself and continual desire after him simply for his own excellency and goodness that no other can have On the other side would an Hypocrite deal truly and impartialy by himself he would readily find out something that would discover him more or less to himself but the truth is Men are willing to deceive themselves and thence arises the difficulty One Man cannot make another sensible of the sweetness of Divine Grace he may speak to him of it very excellently but all he sayes in that kind is an unknown language to a natural Man he hath many good words but he cannot tell what they mean The natural Man tastes not the things of God for they are spiritually discern'd A Spiritual Man himself doth not fully conceive this swetness that he tastes of 't is an infinite Goodness and he hath but a taste of it the Peace of God is a main fruit of this his goodness it passeth all understanding sayes the Apostle not only all natural understanding as some modifie it but all understanding even the supernatural understanding of those that enjoy it and as the Godly Man cannot conceive it all so that which he conceives he cannot express it all and that which he doth express the carnal mind cannot conceive of it by his expression But he that hath indeed tasted of this goodness O how tastless are those things to him that the World call's sweet as when you have tasted somewhat that is very sweet it disrelisheth other things after it Therefore can a Christian so easily either want or use with disregard the delights of this earth His heart is not upon them for the delight that he finds in it God carryeth it unspeakably away from all the the rest makes them in comparison seem sapless to his tast Salomon tasted of all the delicacies the choisest dishes that are in such esteem amongst Men and not only tasted but eat largly of them and yet see how he goes over them to let us know what they are and passes from one dish to another this also is vanity and of the next this also is vanity and so through all and of all in general All is vanity and vexation of Spirit or feeding on the Wind as the word may be rendred 3. We come in the third place to the Inference If ye have tasted c. Then lay aside all Malice and guile and Hipocrisies and Envies and all evil speakings Verse 1. For it looks back to the whole Exhortation sure if you have tasted of that kindness and sweetness of God in Christ it will compose your spirits and conform them to him it will diffuse such a sweetness through your soul that there will be no place for malice and guile There will be nothing but love and meekness and singleness of heart therefore they that have bitter malitious Spirits evidence they have not tasted of the love of God as the Lord is good so they that taste it are made like him Eph. 4.32 Be ye kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another even as God for Christ sake hath forgiven you Again if ye have tasted then desire more and this is the truest sign of it he that is in a continual hunger and thirst after this graciousness of God sure he hath tasted of it My soul thirsteth for God saith David he had tasted before Verse 4. he remembers that he went to the
to receive that life from him Now these stones come unto their foundation which imports the moving of the soul to Christ being moved by his spirit and that the will acts and willingly for it cannot act otherwise But as being acted and drawn by the father Ioh. 6. No man can come to me Except the father draw him And the outward means of drawing is by the word 't is the sound of that harp that brings the stones of this spiritual building together and then being united to Christ they are built up That is as S. Paul expresses it Eph. 2.21 They grow up unto a holy temple in the Lord. In times of peace the Church may dilate more and build as it were into bredth But in trouble it arises more in hight is built upwards as in cities where men are straitned they build usually higher than in the country Notwithstanding of the Churches afflictions yet still the building is going forward 't is built as Daniel speaks of Ierusalem in troubleous times And 't is this which the Apostle intends as suiting with his forgoing Exhortation this may be read exhortatively too but taking it rather as asserting their condition 't is for this end that they may remember to be like it and grow up For this end he expresly calls them living stones an adjunct not usual for stones but here inseperable And therefore though the Apostle changes the similitude from Infants to stones yet he will not let go this quality of living as making chiefly for his purpose To teach us the necessity of growth in Believers they are therefore much compar'd to things that grow to Trees planted in fruitful growing places as by the River of waters to Cedars in Lebanon where they are tallest To the morning light to Infants on the brest and here where the word seems to refuse it to stones yet it must and well doth admit this unwonted Epithete they are called living and growing stones If then you would have the comfortable perswasion of that union with Christ see whether you find your souls establish'd upon Jesus Christ finding him as your strong foundation not resting on your selves nor on any other thing either within you or without you but supported by him alone drawing life from him by vertue of that union as from a living foundation so as to say with the Apostle I live by faith in the son of God who both loved me and given himself for me As these stones are built on Christ by faith so they are cemented one to another by love and therefore where that is not 't is but a delusion to think themselves parts of this building As it is knit to him 't is knit together in it self through him and if dead stones in a building support and strengthen mutually one another how much more ought living stones in an acttive lively way to do so the stones of this building keep their place the lower rise not up to be in the place of the higher as the Apostle speaks of the parts of the body so the stones of this building in humility and love keep their station and grow up in it edifying in love Eph. 4.16 The Apostle importing that the want of this much prejudges edification These stones because living therefore they grow in the life of grace and spiritualness being a Spirittual building so that if we find not this but our hearts are still carnal and glued to the earth minding earthly things wiser in those than in Spirituals this evidences strongly against us that we are not of this building How few of us have that spiritualness that becomes the Temples of the holy Ghost or the stones of it base lusts and those still lodging and ruling within us and so hearts as Cages of unclean Birds and filthy spirits Consider this as our happiness and the unsolidness of other comforts and priviledges if some have called those stones happy that were taken for the building of Temples or altars beyond those in common houses how true is it here happy indeed the stones that God chuses to be living stones in this Spiritual Temple though they be hammer'd and hewed to be polish'd for it by afflictions and the inward work of mortification and repentance 't is worth the enduring all to be fitted for this building happy they beyond all the rest of men though they be set in never so great honours as prime parts of politick buildings states and Kingdomes in the Courts of Kings yea or Kings themselves For all other buildings and all the parts of them shall be demolish'd and come to nothing from the foundation to the cope stone all your houses both cottages and palaces the elements shall melt away and the earth with all the works in it shall be consum'd as our Apostle hath it but this Spiritual building shall grow up to Heaven and being come to perfection shall abide for ever in perfection of beauty and glory in it shall be found no unclean thing nor unclean person But only they that are written in the Lambs book of Life An holy priesthood As the worship and Ceremonies of the Jewish Church were all shadowes of Jesus Christ and have their accomplishment in him not only after a singular manner in his owne Person but in a deriv'd way in his mystical body his Church The Priesthood of the Law represented him as the great high priest that offered up himself for our sins and that is altogether incommunicable neither is there any peculiar Office of Priesthood for offering Sacrifice in the Christian Church but his alone who is head of it but this Dignity that is here mention'd of a Spiritual Priesthood offering Spiritual Sacrifice is common to all those that are in Christ as they are living stones built on him into a Spiritual Temple so they are Priests of that same Temple made by him Reve. 1.6 As he was after a transcendent manner Temple and Priest and Sacrifice so in their kind are Christians all these three through him and by his Spirit that is in them their Offerings through him are made acceptable We have here 1. The Office 2. The service of that Office 3. The success of that Service The death of Jesus Christ as being every way powerful for reconcilement and union did not only break the partition wall of guiltiness that stood betwixt God and Man but the wall of ceremonies that stood betwixt the Jews and Gentiles made all that believe one with God and made of both one as the Apostle speaks united them one to another the way of salvation made known not to one Nation only but to all people that whereas the knowledge of God was confin'd to one little corner ' it s now diffus'd through the Nations and whereas the dignity of their Priesthood stayed in a few Persons all they that believe are now thus dignified to be Priests unto God the father and this was signified by the rending the vail of the Temple at his
put upon him and by giving him up to be crucified and then cast into the grave and a stone to be roll'd upon this Stone which they had so rejected that it might appear no more and so thought themselves sure But even from thence did he arise and became the head of the corner The disciples themselves spake you know very doubtfully of their former hopes We believ'd this had been he that would have delivered Israel but he corrected their mistake first by his word shewing them the true method of that great work Ought not Christ to suffer first these things And so enter into glory and then really by making himself known to them risen from the dead When he was from these rejected and lay lowest then was he nearest his exaltation as Ioseph in the prison was nearest his preferment And thus is it with the Church of Christ when 't is brought to the lowest desperatest condition then is deliverance at hand it prospers and gains in the event by all the practices of Men against it And as this corner stone was fitted to be so by the very rejection even so is it with the whole bulidâ—ng it rises the higher the more Men seek to demolish it 3. Their unhappiness that believe not is express'd in the other word He is to them a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence because they will not be saved by him they shall stumble and fall and be broken to pieces on him as it is in Esay and in the Evangelists But how is this is he that came to save become a destroyer of Men he whose name is salvation proves he destruction to any Not he in himself his primary and proper use is the former to be a foundation for souls to build and rest upon but they that in stead of building upon him will stumble and fall on him what wonder being so firm a stone though they be broken by their fall thus we see the mischief of unbelief that as other sins disable the Law it disables the very Gospel to save us and turns life it self into death to us And this is the misery not of a few but of many in Israel many that hear of Christ by the preaching of the Gospel shall lament that ever they heard that sound and shall wish to have liv'd and dyed without it finding so great an accession to their misery by the neglect of so great salvation They are said to stumble at the word because the things that are therein testified concerning Christ they labour not to understand and prize aright but either altogether slight them and account them foolishness or misconceive them and prevert them The Jews stumbled at the meaness of Christ's birth and life and the ignominy of his death not judging of him according to the Scriptures and we in another way think we have some kind of belief that he is the Savior of the world yet not making the Scripture the rule of our thoughts concerning him many of us undo our selves and stumble and break our necks upon this Rock mistaking Christ and the way of believing looking on him as a Saviour at large and judging that enough not endeavouring to make him ours and to embrace him upon the termes of that New-Covenant whereof he is Mediator Whereunto also they were appointed This the Apostle addes for the further satisfaction of Believers in this point how 't is that so many reject Christ and stumble at him Telling them plainly that the secret purpose of God is accomplish'd in this having determin'd to glorify his justice on impenitent sinners as he shews his rich mercy in them that believe Here it were easier to lead you into a deep than to lead you forth again I will rather stand on the shoar and silently admire it than enter into it This is certain that the thoughts of God are all no less just in themselves than deep and unsoundable by us His justice appears clear in that Mans destruction is alwayes the fruit of his own sin But to give causes of Gods decrees without himself is neither agreeable with the primitive being of the nature of God nor with the doctrine of the Scriptures this is sure that God is not bound to give us further account of these things and we are bound not to ask it Let these two words as S. Austin sayes answer all What art thou O man And O the depth Our only sure way to know that our names are not in that black line and to be perswaded that he hath chosen us to be saved by his Son is this to find that we have chosen him and are built on him by faith which is the fruit of his love that first chuseth us And that we may read in our esteem of him He is precious or your honour The difference is small you account him your glory and your gain he is not only precious to you but preciousness it self He is the thing that you make acount of your Jewel that if you keep though you be robb'd of all besides you know your selves rich enough To you that Believe Faith is absolutely necessary to make this due Estimat of Christ. 1. The most excellent things while their worth is undiscern'd and unkown affect us not Now faith is the proper seeing faculty of the soul in relation to Christ that inward light must be infus'd from above to make Christ visible to us without it though he is beautiful yet we are blind and therefore cannot love him for that beauty but by faith we are inabled to see him that is fairer than the Children of Men yea to see in him the glory of the only begotten Son of God and then it is not possible but to account him precious to bestow the entire affection of our hearts upon him And if any say to the Soul what is thy beloved more than another it willingly layes hold on the question and is glad of an opportunity to extoll him 2. Faith as it is that which discernes Christ so it alone appropriates him makes him our own And these are the two reasons of esteeming and affecting any thing it s own worth and our interest in it and faith begets this esteem of Christ by both 1. It discovers to us his excellencies that we could not see before 2. It makes him ours gives us possession of whole Christ all that he hath and is As it is faith that commends Christ so much and describes his comeliness in that song and withal that word is the voyce of faith that expresses propriety My Wellbeloved is mine and I am his and these together make him most precious to the soul having once possession of him then it looks upon all his sufferings as endur'd particularly for it and the benefit of them all as belonging to it self sure it will say can it chuse but account him precious that suffer'd shame that he might not be ashamed and suffered death that he might not die that
took that bitter cup of the father's wrath and drunk it out that he might be free from it Think not that you believe if your hearts be not taken up with Christ if his love do not possesse your soul so that nothing is precious to you in respect of him if you cannot despise and trample upon all advantages that either you have or would have for Christ and count them with the great Apostle loss and dung in comparison of him And if you do esteem him labour for increase of Faith that you may esteem him more for as Faith growes so will he still be more precious to you And if you would have it grow turn that Spiritual Eye frequently to him that 's the proper object of it for even they that are Believers may possibly abate of their love and esteem of Christ by suffering Faith to ly dead within them and not using it in beholding and applying of Christ And the World or some particular vanities may insensibly creep in and get into the heart and cost them much paines ere they can be thrust out again but when they are daily reviewing those excellencies that are in Christ which first perswaded their hearts to love him and discovering still more and more of them his Love will certainly grow and will chase away those follies that the World dotes upon as unworthy to be taken notice of Verse 9. But ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an holy Nation a peculiar People that ye should shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light IT is matter of very much both consolation and instruction to Christians to know their own Estate what they are as they are Christians This Epistle is much and often upon this point for both those ends both that the reflecting on their dignities in Christ may uphold them with comfort under suffering for him and may lead them in doing and walking as becomes such a condition Here it hath been represented to us by a building a Spiritual Temple and by a Priesthood conform to it The former is confirm'd and illustrated by testimonies of Scripture in the preceeding Verses In this the latter in these words tho 't is not expressly cited yet 't is clear that the Apostle here hath reference to Exod. 19.5 6. where this dignity of Priesthood together with the other titles here express'd is ascrib'd to all the chosen People of God 'T is there a promise made to the Nation of the Jewes but under the condition of obedience and therefore is most fitly here apply'd by the Apostle to the believing Jews to whom particularly he writes 'T is true that the external Priesthood of the Law is abolish'd by the coming of this great high Priest Jesus Christ being the body of all those shaddowes But this promis'd Dignity of Spiritual Priesthood is so far from being nulled by Christ that it is altogether dependant on him and therefore fails in those that reject Christ although they be of that Nation to which this Promise was made But it holds good in all of all Nations that believe and particularly sayes the Apostle 't is verified in you You that are believing Jewes by receiving Christ you receive withal this dignity As the Legal Priesthood was remov'd by Christs fulfilling all that it prefigur'd so he was rejected by them that were at his coming in possession of that Office as the standing of that their Priesthood was inconsistent with the revealing of Jesus Christ so they that were then in it being ungodly Men their carnal minds had a kind of antipathy against him though they pretended themselves builders of the Church and by their calling ought to have been so yet they threw away the foundation stone that God had chosen and design'd and in rejecting it manifest that they themselves are rejected of God but on the contrary You that have laid your soules on Christ by believing have this your chusing him as a certain evidence that God hath chosen you to be his peculiar People yea to be so dignified as to be a Kingly Priesthood through Christ. We have here 1. To Consider the estate of Christians in the words that here describe it 2. The opposition of it to the state of Unbelievers 3. The end of it A chosen Generation Psal. 24. The Psalmist there speaks first of Gods universal Soveraignty then of his peculiar choyce The earth is the Lords But there is a select company appointed for this holy Mountain describ'd and then clos'd thus This is the generation of them that seek him Thus Deut. 10.14 15. So Exod. 19.5 Whence this is taken for all the Earth is mine and that Nation which is a figure of the Elect of all Nations Gods peculiar beyond all others in the World As Men that have great variety of Possessions yet have usually their special delight in some one beyond all the rest and chuse to recide most in it and bestow most expence on it to make it pleasant Thus doth the Lord of the whole earth chuse out to himself from the rest of the World a number that are a chosen generation Chusing here is the work of effectual calling or severing of Believers from the rest for it signifies a difference in their present estate as the other words joyned with it But this election is altogether conform to that of Gods Eternal Decree and is no other but the execution or performance of it Gods framing of this his building just according to the Idea of it which was in his mind and purpose before all time The drawing forth and investing of such into this Christian this Kingly Priesthood whose names were expresly written up for it in the Book of life Generation This imports them to be of one race or stock as the Israelites who were by outward calling the chosen of God were all the seed of Abraham according to the flesh So they that believe in the Lord Jesus are Children of the Promise and all of them by their new birth one People or Generation they are of one Nation belonging to the same blessed Land of Promise all Citizens of the new Ierusalem yea all Children of the same family whereof Jesus Christ the root of Iesse is the stock who is the great King and the great high Priest and thus they are a Royal Priesthood there is no devolving of his Royalty or Priesthood on any other as it is in himself for his proper dignity is Supreme and incommunicable and there is no succession in his Order he lives for ever and is Priest for ever Psal. 110.4 and King for ever too Psal. 45.6 but they that are descended from him do derive from him by that new original this double dignity in that way that they are capable of it to be likewise Kings and Priests as he is both They are of the Seed-Royal and of the holy seed of the Priesthood in as much as they partake of a new
devouring fire as 't is in his Parable Iud. 9.20 Fire going forth from Abimelech to devour the Men of Sechem and fire from Sechem to devour Abimelech Verse 15. For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish Men. Verse 16. As free and not using your Liberty for a Cloak of Maliciousness but as the servants of God THis continues the same reason of the same Christian Duty if they will obey the Lord then they must obey Civil Powers for that is his will and they will not deny that their Obligation to him for they are his servants Verse 16. The words indeed are more general than the former but they relate chiefly in this place to the particular in hand so that neither in that kind nor in any other they dishonour their profession and abuse their Liberty mistaking it as an exemption from those Duties to which it doth more straitly tye them so then here the point of civil Obedience and all other good conversation amongst Men is recommended to Christians as conform to the will of God and the effectuallest clearing of their profession and very agreeable to their Christian Liberty The will of God This is the strongest and most binding reason that can be us'd to a Christian mind that hath resign'd it self to be Govern'd by that rule to have the will of God for its Law Whatsoever is requir'd of it upon that Warrant it cannot refuse although it cross a Man 's own humour or the interest of his private advantage yet if his heart be subjected to the will of God he will not stand with him in any thing one word from God I will have it so silences all and carries it against all opposition It were a great point if we could be perswaded to esteem duly of this it were indeed all it would make light and easy work in those things that go so hardly on with us though we are daily exhorted to them Is it the will of God that I should live soberly Then though my own corrupt will and my companions be against it yet it must be so wills he that I forbear Cursing and Oaths though my custom is for it Yet I must offer violence to my Custom and set against the stream of all their customes that are round about me to obey his will who wills all things justly and holily will he have my Charity not only Liberal in giving but in forgiving and real and hearty in both Will he have me Bless them that Curse me and do good to them that hate me and love mine Enemies Though the World count it a hard task and my own corrupt heart possibly find it so yet it shall be done and not as upon unpleasant necessity but willingly and chearfully and with the more delight because 't is difficult For so it proves my Obedience the more and my love to him whose will it is Though mine Enemies deserve not my love yet he that bids me love them does and if he will have this the touchstone to try the uprightness of my love to him shall it fail there No his will Commands me so absolutely and he himself is so lovely that there can be no body so unlovely in themselves or to me but I can love them upon his Command and for his sake But that it may be thus there must be a renewed frame of mind by which a Man may renounce the World and the Formes of it and himself and his own sinful heart and its way to study and follow the only good and acceptable and perfect will of God Rom. 12.2 To move most under that line not willingly declining to any hand to have our whole minds taken up in searching it and our whole heart in embracing it Be ye not unwise but understanding what the will of the Lord is sayes the Apostle Eph. 5 17· Being about to exhort to particular Duties as our Apostle here is doing This is the task of a Christian to understand his Lords will and with a practical understanding that he may walk in all well pleasing unto God thus the Apostle likewise exhorts the Thessalonians pathetically 1 Ep. Chap. 4.1 and addes Verse 3. This is the will of God even our Sactification And then proceeds particularly against uncleanness and deceit c. Let this then be your endeavour to have your wills Crucified to whatsoever is sinful yea to will outward indifferent things with a kind of indifferency the most things that men are so stiff in are not worth an earnest willing In a word it were the only happy and truly Spiritual temper to have our will quite rooted out and the will of God placed in its stead to have no other will but his that it might constantly yea so to speak identically follow it in all things This is the will of God therefore it is mine That with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men The Duties of the second Table or well doing towards Men are more sensible to Men void of Religion than these things that have immediate relation to God therefore and so in other Epistles the Apostle is here particular in these for the vindicating of Religion to them that are without Ignorance usually is loud and pratling making a mighty noyse and so hath need of a muzle to silence it They that were ready to speak evil of it are called wittlessor foolish Men there was perversness in their ignorance as the Word imports And generally all kind of Evil speakings uncharitable censurings doe argue a foolish worthless Mind whence they proceed and yet they are the usual divertisement of the greatest part and takes up very much of Mens converse and discourse which is an evidence of the baseness and perversness of their minds for whereas these that have most real goodness delight most to observe what is good and commedadable in others and to pass by their blemishes 't is the true Character of vile unworthy Persons as scurvy Flies sit upon Sores to skip over all the good that is in Men and fasten upon their infirmities But especially doth it discover ignorance and folly to turn the failings of Men to the disadvantage of Religion none can be such Enemies to it but they that know it not and see not the beauty that is in it However the way to silence them we see is by welldoing that silences them more than whole Volumes of Apologies When a Christian walks unreproveably his Enemies have no where to fasten their teeth on him but are forc'd to gnaw their own malignant tongues as it secures the Godly thus to stop the lying mouths of foolish Men so it is as painful to them to be so stopt as muzling is to Beasts and punishes their Malice And this is a wise Christians way instead of impatient fretting at the mistakes or willfull miscensures of Men to keep still on in their calm temper of mind and
these now in our hands that are given us to live and walke by and in the search of things that are more obscure and less useful Men evidence that they had rather be Learned then holy and have still more mind to the tree of knowledge then the tree of life And in bearing of the word they that are any whit more knowing then ordinary are they not still gaping after new notions Something to add to the stock of their speculative and discoursing knowledge loathing this daily manna these profitable exhortations and requiring meat for their lust There is an Intemperance of the mind as well as of the mouth you would think it and may be not spare to call it a poor cold Sermon that were made up of such plain precepts as these Honour all men Love the brother-hood fear God honour the King And yet this is the Language of God 't is his way this foolish despiseable way by which he guides and brings to Heaven them that believe Again we have others that are still complaining of the difficulty and darkness of the word of God and Divine truths to say nothing of Romes doctrine that talk thus to excuse their Sacriledge of stealing away the word from the people of God a senseless pretext though it were true because the word is darke of it self that therefore they should make it darker looking it up under an unknowne Tongue But we speak of the common vulgar excuse that the gross Ignorance and Profaness of many seeks to shroud under that they are not Learned and cannot reach the Doctrine of the Scriptures There be deep mysteries there indeed but what say you to these things such rules as these Honour all men c. Are such as these ridles that you cannot know their meaning for doe not all understand them and all neglect them Why set you not on to doe these And then you should understand more A good understanding have all they that doe his commandments sayes the Psalmist and as one said well the best way to understand the mysterious and high discourse in the beginning of St. Pauls Epistles is to begin at the practice of these rules and precepts that are in the latter end of them the way to atâ—ian to know more were to receive the truth in the love of it and obey that you know The truth is such truths as these will leave you inexcusable even the most ignorant of you you could not but know you heard often that you ought to love one another and to fear God c. And yet never apply your selves in earnest to the practice of these things as will appear to your own consciences if they deal honestly with you in the particulars Honour all men Honour in a narrower sense is not an universal due to all but peculiar to some kind of persons Of this the Apostle Honour to whom honour and that in different degrees to Parents and Masters and other Superiours there is an honour that hath as it were Caesar's image and Superscription on it is particularly due to him And as here it followes Honour the King but there is something that goes not unfitly under the name of honour generally due from every Man without exception and it consists as all honour doth partly in inward esteem of them partly in outward behaviour toward them And the former must be the ground and cause of the latter We owe not the same measure of esteem to all we may yea we ought to take notice of the different outward quality or inward Graces and gifts of Men nor is it a fault to perceive the shallowness and weakness of Men with whom we converse and to esteem more of those on whom God hath conferr'd more of such things as are truely worthy of esteem But unto the meanest we doe owe some measure of esteem 1. Negatively we are not to entertain despising disdainful thoughts of any how worthless and mean soever as the admiring of Men the very best is a foolish excess that way so the total contemning of any the very poorest is against this rule for that contemning of vile persons the Psalmist speaks of and commends is the dislike and hatred of their sin which is their vileness and not to account them for outward respects worthy of such esteem as their wickedness denudes them of 2. We are to observe and respect the smallest good that is in any although a Christian be never so base in his outward Condition in Body or Mind of very mean Intellectuals and natural endowments yet they that know the worth of Spiritual things will esteem the grace of God that is in him in the midst of all those disadvantages as of a Pearl in a rough shell Grace carries still its own worth though under a deformed body and ragged garments yea though they have but a small measure of that neither the very lowest degree of Grace as a Pearl of the least size or a small piece of Gold yet Men will not throw 't away But as they say the least shavings of Gold are worth the keeping The Jews would not willingly tread upon the smallest piece of paper in their way but took it up for possibly said they the name of God may be on it though there was a litle Superstion in that yet truely there is nothing but good Religion in it if we apply it to Men trample not on any There may be some work of grace there that thou knowest not of The name of God may be written upon that Soul thou treadest on it may be a Soul that Christ thought so much of as to give his precious blood for it therefore dispise it not much more I say if thou canst perceive any appearance that it is such a one oughtest thou to esteem wheresoever thou findest the least trait of Christ's image If thou lovest him thou wilt honour it or if there be nothing of this to be found in him thou look'st on yet observe what common gift of any kind God hath bestowed on him judgement or memory or faculty in his calling or any such thing and these in their degree are to be esteem'd and the person for them And as there is no Man so compleat as to have the advantage in every thing so there is no Man so low and unworthy but he hath some thing wherein he is preferable even to these that in other respects are much more excellent or imagine thou canst find nothing else in some Men yet honour thy own nature esteem humanity in them especialy since humanity is exalted in Christ to be one with the deity account of him as a Man and with this esteem 3dly goes that generall good will and affection due to Men. Whereas there be that doe not only outwardly express but inwardly bear more regard to some Dog or Horse that they love then to poor distressed Men and in so doing doe reflect dishonour upon themselves and upon Mankind The outward behaviour wherein
wrong'd us who ever it is but especially being one of our Brethren in this Spiritual sense Many are the Duties of this peculiar fraternal love that mutual Converse and admonition and reproof and comforting and other Duties which are in neglect not only amongst formal but even amongst real Christians Let us intreat more of his Spirit who is Love and that will mend this Fear God All the Rules of equity and Charity amongst Men flow from a higher Principle and depend upon it and there is no right observing of them without due regard to that therefore this word that expresses that Principle of Obedience is fitly inserted amongst these The first obligemenâ— of Man being to the Soveraign Majesty of God that made him and all their mutual Duties one to another deriv'd from that A Man may indeed from Moral Principles be of a mild inoffensive Carriage and do Civil right to all Men But this answers not the Divine Rule even in these same things after the way that it requires them The Spiritual and Religious observance of these Duties towards Men springs from a respect to God and terminates there too begins and ends in him and generally all obedience to his Commands both such as regulate our behaviour towards himselfe immediately and such as relate to Men doth arise from a holy fear of his Name Therefore this fear of God upon which followes necessarily the keeping of his Commandements is given us by Solomon as the total Sum of Mans business and Duty and so this way to solid happiness 't is totum hominis after he had made his discoveries of all things besides under the Sun gone the whole circuit and made an exact valuation and found all to amount to nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit The account he gives of it it was all for this purpose to illustrate and establish this truth the more and to make it the more acceptable to be a repose after so much weariness and such a tedious Journey and so as he speaks there Verse 10. A word of delight as well as a word of truth that the mind might sit down and quiet it self in this from the turmoyl and pursuit of vanity that keeps it busy to no purpose in all other things but whereas there was emptiness and vanity that 's just nothing in all other things there was not only something to be found but all in this one this fear of God and that 's keeping of his Commandments which is the proper fruit of that fear All the repeated declaring of Vanity in other things both severally and altogether in that Book are but so many stroakes to drive and fasten this nail as 't is there Verse 11. This word of Wisdom which is the Summe of all and contains all the rest So Iob after a large inquest for Wisdom searching for its Vein as Men do for Mines of Silver and Gold hath the return of a Non inventium est from all the Creatures The Sea sayes it is not in me c. But in the close finds it in this The fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil that is understanding Under this fear is comprehended all Religion the inward and outward of it all his worship and Service and all the observance of His Commandements which is there Eccles. 12. and elsewhere expresly joyned with it and therefore is included in it when 't is not express'd so Iob. 28. to depart from evil that is understanding repeating the former words by that So Psal. 111. Verse 10. It hath in it all holiness and Obedience they grow all out of it It is the beginning and it is the top or consummation of wisdom for the word signifies both Think it not then a trivial common matter to speak or hear of this Subject but take it as our great lesson and business here on earth that the best proficients in it have yet need to learn it better and that it requires our uncessant dilligence and study all our dayes This fear hath chiefly these things 1. A reverent esteem of the Majesty of God which is a main fundamental thing in Religion and that moulds the heart most powerfully to the obedience of his will 2. A firm belief of the Purity of God and of his power and justice that he loves holiness and hates all sin and can and will punish it 3. A right apprehension of the bitterness of his wrath and the sweet of his Love that His incensed Anger is the most terrible and intollerable thing in the World absolutely the fearfullest of all evils and on the other side His Love of all good things the best the most blessed and delightful yea only blessedness Life is the Name of the sweetest good we know and yet this loving kindness is better then life sayes David 4. It supposes likewise Soveraign love to God for his own infinite Excellency and goodness 5. From all these things springs a most earnest desire to please him and in all things and unwillingness to offend Him in the least and because of our danger through the multitude and strength of tentations and our own weakness a continual selfe-suspition a holy fear least we should sin and a care and watchfulness that we sin not and deep sorrow and speedy returning and humbling before him when we have sinned There is indeed a base kind of fear that in the usual distinction they call servile fear But to account all fear of the Judgements and Wrath of God a Servile fear or not to stand upon words to account such a fear improper to the Children of God I conceive is a wide mistake Indeed to fear the punishment of sin without regard ro God and his Justice as the inflicter of them or to forbear to sin only because of those punishments so as if a Man can be secur'd from those he hath no other respect to God that would make him fear to offend this is the character of a slavish and base mind Again for a Man so to apprehend wrath in relation to himself as to be still under the horrour of it in that notion and not to apprehend Redemption and deliverance by Jesus Christ is to be under that Spirit of bondage which the Apostle speaks of Rom. 8. And such fear though a Child of God may for a time be under it yet the lively actings of faith and persuasion of Gods love and the feeling of reflexe love to him in the Soul doth cast it out according to that of the Apostle 1 Ioh. 4.18 true love casteth out fear But to apprehend the punishments the Lord threatens against sin as certain and true and to consider the greatness and fearfulness of them but especially the terrour of the Lords anger and hot displeasure above all punishments and though not only no nor chiefly for these yet in contemplation of those as very great and weighty to be affraid to offend that God who hath threatned such things as the just
what he is and what we are he the Son of his love and we Enemies Therefore it is emphatically express'd in the words he himself bare our sins God so loved the World but love amounts to this much that it was so great as to give his Son But how great that is cannot be utter'd In this sayes the Apostle God commendeth his love to us sets it up to the highest gives us the richest and strongest evidence of it The foundation of this frame this appearing of Christ for us and undergoing and Answering all in our stead lyes in the Decree of God where it was plotted and contriv'd in the whole way of it from Eternity and the Father and the Son being one and their thoughts and will one they were perfectly agreed on 't and those likewise for whom it should hold were agreed upon and their Names written up according to which they are said to be given unto Christ to redeem And just according to that Model did all the work proceed and was accomplished in all points perfectly answering to the pattern of it in the Mind of God As it was preconcluded there that the Son should undertake the business this matchless piece of Service for his Father and that by his interposing Men should be reconciled and saved so that he might be altogether a fit Person for the Work it was resolv'd that as he was already fit for it by the Almightiness of his Deity and Godhead and the acceptableness of his Person to the Father as the Son of God so he should be further fitted by uniting wonderfully weakness to Almightiness the frailty of Man to the Power of God because that suffering for Man was a main point of the work so as his being the Son of God made him acceptable to God his being the son of Man made him suitable to Man in whose business he had engaged himself and to the business it self to be perform'd and not only was there in him by his humane nature a conformity with Man for that might have been by a new created Body but a consanguinity with Man by a Body framed of the same piece a Redeemer a Kinsman as the Hebrew word is only purified for his use as was needful and fram'd after a peculiar manner in the womb of a Virgin as 't is Heb 10. Thou hast fitted a body for me having no sin it self because ordained to have so much of our sins as 't is here he bare them on his own body And this looks back to the Primitive transaction and purpose Lo I come to do thy will sayes the Son and behold my servant whom I have chosen sayes the Father this Master-piece of my works none in Heaven or Earth fit to serve me in it but mine own Son and as he came into the World according to that decree and will so he goes out of it again in that way the Son of Man goeth as is determined it was wickedly and malitiously done by Men against him but determined which is that he there speaks of wisely and graciously by his Father with his own consent As in those two faced pictures Look upon the Crucifying of Christ one way as complotted by a treacherous Disciple and Malicious Priests and Rulers and nothing more deform'd and hateful than the Authors of it but view it again as determin'd in Gods Counsel for the restoring of lost Mankind and so 't is full of unspeakable beauty and sweetness infinite wisdom and Love in every tract of it Thus to the persons for whom as their coming unto him reflects upon that first donation as flowing from that all that the Father hath given me shall come unto me Ioh. 6. Now this being Gods great design that he would have Men eye and consider more than all the rest of his works and yet is least of all considered by the most the other Covenant made with the first Adam was but to make way and so to speak to make work for this for he knew that it would not hold therefore as this New Covenâ—nt became needful by the breach of the other so the failing of that other sets off and commends the firmness of this the former was with a Man in his best condition and yet he kept it not even then he prov'd vanity as 't is Psal. â—9 So that the second to be stronger is made with a Man indeed to supply the former but he is God-man to be surer than the former and therefore it holds and this is the difference as the Apostle expresses it that the first Adam in that first Covenant was laid as a foundation and though we say not that the Church in its true notion was built on him yet the estate of the whole race of Mankind the Materials that the Church is built of lay on him for that time and it failed But upon this Rock the second Adam is the Church so firmly built that the gates of Hell cannâ—t preâ—ail against 〈◊〉 The first Adam was made a quickening or life giving Spirit The first had light but he transfer'd it not yea he kept it not for himself drew in and transfer'd Death but the second by Death convey life to all that are reckon'd his seed he bare their 〈◊〉 He bare them on the tree in that outside of his suffering the visible kind of death inflicted on him that it was hanging on the tree of the Cross there was an Analogy with the end and main work and was order'd by the Lord with regard unto that being a Death declar'd accursed by the Law as the Apostle St. Paul observes and so declaring him that was God blessed for ever to have been made a curse that is accounted as accursed for us that we might be blessed in him in whom according to the Promise all the Nations of the Earth are blessed But that wherein lay the strength and main stress of his sufferings was this invisible weight that none could see that gaz'd on him but he felt more then all In this there are three things 1. The weight of sin 2. The transferring of it upon Christ. 3. His bearing of it 1. He bare as a heavy burden so the word of bearing in general and those two words particularly us'd by the Prophet whither these allude are the bearing of some great mass or load and thus sin is for it hath the wrath of an offended God hanging at it indissollubly tyed to it which who can bear the least of it and therefore the least sin being the procuring cause of it will press a man down for ever that he shall not be able to rise Who can stand before thee when once thou art angry sayes the Psalmist and the Prophet Ier. 3. Return backsliding Israel and I will not cause my wrath to fall upon thee fall as a great weight or as a Milstone crushes the soul. But sensless we go light under the burden of sin and feel it not complain not of it therefore truly
good to them in that but the great evil of deeper condemnation if they hear of him and believe not but he was made Man to be like yea to be one with the Elect and he is not ashamed to call them Brethren as the Apostle there sayes 2. Then in the actual intention of the Son so made Man he presenting himself to the Father in all he did and suffer'd as for them having them and thâ—m only in his eye and thoughts in all For their sakes do I sanctify my selfe Io. 17.1.9.3 The union is applyed and perform'd in them when they are converted and ingrafted into Jesus Christ by faith and this doth actually discharge them of their own sins and Entitle them to his Righteousness and so justifies them in the sight of God 4. The consummation of this union is in glory which is the result and fruit of all the former as it began in Heaven 't is compleated there but betwixt these Two in Heaven the intervention of those other two degrees of it on earth were necessary being intended in the first as tending to the attainment of the last these steps we have distinctly in his own prayer Ioh. 17. First Ver. 2. Gods purpose that the Son should give eternal life to those he hath given him 2. Ver. 4. I have finish'd the work 3. Ver. 6 8. And often after their faith their believing and keeping the word and then the last Ver. 24. I will that they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am There meets the first donation and the last Now to obtain this life for them he dyed in their stead appeared as the high Priest being perfectly and truely what the name was on their plate of gold holiness to the Lord. Exod. 28 36. And so bearing their iniquity as it is added there of the Priest Ver. 38. But because he was not the Redeemer but a perfect figure of him he did not himself suffer for the peoples sin but turn'd it over upon the beasts that â—he sacrificâ—d signifying that translation of sin by laying his hand upon the head of the Beast But Jesus Christ is both the great High Priest and the great Sacrifice in one and this seem's to be here imply'd in these words himself c. On his own body he bare c. Which the Legal Priests did not so Heb. 9.12 He made his soul an offering for sin Isa. 53. and Heb. 9. He offered up himself his whole self and in the History of the Gospel his soul was heavy and chiefly suffered but the bearing on his body and offering it that is oftenest mention'd as the visible part of the Sacrifice and in his way of offering it not excluding the other Thus Rom. 12.1 We are exhorted to give our bodies in opposition to the bodies of beasts and called a living Sacrifice which they are not without the Soul so his bearing on his body imports the bearing it on his Soul too 3. His bearing that hintes that he was active and willing in his suffering for us not a constrain'd Offering He layed down his Life as he tells us and this here He bare is he took willingly off lifted from us that burden to bear it himself It was counted an ill sign amongst the Heathens when the Beasts went unwillingly to be Sacrific'd and drew back and gooâ— when they went willingly But never Sacrifice so willing as our great Sacrifice was and we may be assured he hath appeased his Fathers wrath and wrought Atonement for Us. Isaac in this his Type we heare of no Reluctance but quietly bound when he was to be Offered up There be two words in Esay the one bearing the other tâ—kiâ—g away this is also that takeing away the Sins of the World in St. Iohn 1.29 Which Answers to both and so he to both the Goats Levit. 16 He did bear our Sins on his Crosse and from thenâ—â— to his Grave and there they are Buried and they whose Sins he did so bear and take away and Bury they shall hear no more of them as theirs to bear Is he not then worthy to behold in that notion that Iohn took him and design'd him by Behold the Lamb of God that beareth and takes away the sins of the World You then that are Gazing on vanity be perswaded to turne your Eyes this way and behold this lasting wonder this Lord of Life dying but the most alas Want a due Eye for this Object 't is the eye of Faith alone that looks aright on him and is daily discovering new worlds of excellency and delight in this crucified Saviour that can view him daily as hanging on the Crosse without the Childish gaudy help of a Crucifix and grow in the knowledge of that Love that passeth knowledge and rejoyce it self in frequent thinking and speaking of him in stead of these idle and vain thoughts at the best and empty discourses wherein the most delight and wear out the day What is all knowledge but painted folly in comparison of this though thou hadst Solomon's faculty to discourse of all plants and have not the right knowledge of this root of Iâ—sse If thou wert singular in the knowledge of the Stars and course of the Heavens and could'st walk through the Spheres with a Iacob's Staff but ignorant of this Star of Iacob If thou knewest the Historyeâ— of all Time and the Life and Death of all the famousest Princes and could rehearse them all but dost not Spiritually know and apply to thy self the death of Iesus as thy Life thou art still a wretched Fool for them and all thy knowledge with thee shall quickly perish On the other side if thy capacity or breeding hath denyed thee the knowledge of all these things wherein Men glory so much Yet do but learn Christ Crucified and what wouldest thou have more That shall make thee happy for ever for this is life eternal to know thee c. Here St. Paul sets up his rest I determined to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him Crucified Whatsoever I knew besides I resolv'd to be as if I knew nothing besides this the only knowledge wherein I will rejoyce my self and which I will labour to impart to others I have try'd and compar'd the rest and find them all unworthy of their Room beside this and my whole Soul too little for this and have past this judgement and sentence on all I have adjudg'd my self to deny all other knowledge and confin'd my self within this Circle and I am not straitn'd so there 's room enough in 't 't is larger than Heaven and Earth and him crucified the most despis'd and ignominious part yet the sweetest and most comfortable part of all the Root whence all our hopes of life and Spiritual joyes do spring But the most part hear this Subject as a Story some a little mov'd with the present found of it but draw it not home into their hearts to make it theirs and find salvation in it but
still cleave to sin and love sin better than him that suffered for it But you whose hearts the Lord hath deeply humbled in the sense of sin come to this depth of consolation and try it that you may have experience of the sweetness and â—iches of it study this point throughly and you will find it answer all and quiet your consciences Apply this bearing of sin by the Lord Jesus for you for it is publish'd and made known to you for this purpose this is the genuine and true use of it as of the Brazen Serpent not â—emptily to gaze on the Fabrick of it but to cure those that look'd on it when all that can be said is said against you ' its true may you say but it is satisfied for he on whom I rest made it his and did bear it for me The person of Christ of more worth than all Men yea than all the creatures and therefore his life a full ransome for the greatest offender And for outward troubles and sufferings which were the occasion of this Doctrine in this place they are all made exceeding light by the removal of this great pressure Let the Lord lay on me what he will seeing he hath taken off my sin and laid that on his own Son in my stead I may suffer many things but he hath bâ—rn that for me which alone was able to make me miserable And you that have this perswasion how will your hearts be taken up with his love Who thus lov'd you as to give himself for you and by interposing himself to bear off from you the stroke of everlasting death and that encountered all the wrath due to us and went through with that great work by reason of his unspeakable love Let him never go forth from my heart who for my sake refus'd to go down from the cross That we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousnesse The Lord doth nothing in vain hath not made the least of his work to no purpose in wisdom hath he made them all sayes the Psalmist and that is not only in regard of their excellent frame and Order but of their end which is a chief Point of Wisdom so then to the right knowledge of this great work put into the hands of Jesus Christ it is of special concern to understand what is this end This is the thing thâ—t his wisdom and love aim'd at in that great undertaking and therefore will be our truest wisdom and the truest evidence of our reflex Love to intend the same thing that in this the same mind may be in us that was in Christ Iesus in his suffering for us and for this very end is it express'd In this there are 3. Things 1st What this death and life is 2. The intendment of it in the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ. 3. The effecting of it by them Whatsoever this is sure 't is no small change that bears the Name of the great and last natural change that we are subject to a death and then another kind of life succeeding to it and in this the greatest part are mistaken that they take any light alteration in themselves for true conversion There be a World deluded with superficial Moral changes in their Life some rectifying of their outward actions and course of Life and somewhat too in the temper and habitude of their mind far from reaching the bottom of Natures wickedness and laying the axe to the root of the Tree 't is such a work as Men can make a shift withal by themselves but the Renovation that the Spirit of God worketh is like himself so deep and through a work that it is justly called by the Name of the most substantial works and productions a new birth and more than that a new Creation and here a Death and a kind of life following it This death to sin supposes a former living in it and to it and while a Man is so he is said indeed to be dead in sin and yet withal this is true that he lives in sin as the Apostle joynes the expressions speaking of Widowes she that lives in pleasures is dead while she liveth So Eph. 2. dead in trespasses and sins and he addes wherein ye walked which imports a life such an one as it is and more expresly Verse 3. We had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh Now thus to live in sin is call'd to be dead in it because in that condition Man is indeed dead in respect of that Divine Life of the Soul that happy being which it should have in Union with God for which it was made and without which it had better not be at all For that Life as it is different from its natural being and a kind of Life above it so it is contrary to that corrupt being and life it hath in sin and therefore to live in sin is to be dead in it being a deprivement of that Divine being that Life of the Soul in God in comparison whereof not only the base life it hath in sin but the very natural life it hath in the Body and the Body by it is not worthy the Name of Life You see the Body when the threed of its union with the Soul is cut becomes not only straightway a motionless lump but within a little time a putrified noysome Carcase and thus the Soul by sin is cut off from God who is its life as is the Soul of the Body it hath not only no moving faculty in good but fills full of rotteness and vileness as the word is Psal. 14. they are gone aside and become filthy The Soul by turning away from God turns filthy yet as a Man thus Spiritually dead lives naturally so because he acts and spends that Natural life in the wayes of sin he is said to live in sin yea there is somewhat more in that expression than the mere passing of his life in that way for in stead of that happy life his Soul should have in God he pleases himself in the miserable life of sin that which is his death as if it were the proper life of his Soul that natural propension he hath to sin and the continual delight he takes in it as in his Element and living to it as if that were the very end of his being In that estate his Body nor his mind stirreth not without sin setting aside his manifest breaches of the Law those actions that are evidently and totally sinful his natural actions his eating and drinking his religious actions his Praying and hearing and Preaching are sin at the bottom and generally his heart is no other but a forge of sin every imagination every fiction of things framed there is only evil continually or every day and all the day long 't is his very trade and Life Now in opposition to this life of Sin living in it and to it a Christian is said to dy to sin to be cut off or separated from it In
hath no other purpose in his being and living but only to honour his Lord that 's to live to righteousness he doth not make a by-work of it a study for his spare houres no 't is his main busines his all In this law doth he meditate day and night This life as the other is in the heart and from thence diffuses to the whole Man he loves righteousness and receiveth the truth as the Apostle speaks in the love of it A natural Man may do many things that for their shell and outside are righteous But he lives not to righteousness because his heart is not possess'd and rul'd with the love of it but this life makes the godly Man delight to walk uprightly and to speak of righteousness his Language and wayes carry the resemblance of his heart Psa. 37. Ver. 30.31 I know 't is easiest to act that part of Religion that is in the Tongue but the Christian ought not for that to be Spiritually dumb Because some Birds are taught to speak Men do not for that give it over and leave off to speak the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his Tongue talketh of judgement and his feet strive to keep pace with his Tongue which gives evidence of its unfainedness None of his steps shall slide or he shall not stagger in his steps but that which is betwixt these is the common Spring the Law of God is in his heart of both and from thence as Salomon sayes are the issues of his life that Law in his heart is the principle of this living to righteousness 2 The Second thing here is the design or Intendment of this death and life in the sufferings and death of Christ he bare sin and died for it that we might dye to it Out of some conviction of the consequence of Sin many have a confus'd desire to be justified to have sin pardon'd and look no further think not on the importance and necessity of sanctification the nature whereof is express'd by this dying to sin and living to righteousness But here we see that sanctification is necessary as inseparably connexed with justification not only as its companion but as its end which in some kind raises it above the other that it was the thing which God ey'd and intended in taking away the guiltiness of sin that we might be renew'd and sanctified If we compare them in point of time either backward holiness was alwayes necessary unto happiness But satisfying for sin and the pardon of it was made necessary by sin or if we look forward the estate we are appointed to and for which we are delivered from wrath is an estate of perfect holiness When we reflect upon that great work of Redemption we see it aim'd at there Redeem'd to be holy Eph. 5.25 26. Tit. 2.14 And go yet higher to the very Spring the decree of Election And then it s said Chosen before that we should be Holy and in end it shall Suit the designe Nothing shall enter into the new Ierusalem that is defiled or unholy Nothing but all purity there not a spot of sinfull pollution not a wrinkle of the Old Man for this end was that great work undertaken by the Son of God that he might frame out of polluted Mankind a new holy generation to his Father that might compasse his throne in the Life of glory and give him pure praises and behold his face in that eternity Now for this end it was needfull according to the all-wise purpose of the Father that the guiltiness of sin and sentence of Death should be once removed and thus the burden of that lay upon Christs shoulders on the Crosse and that done it is further necessary that Souls so deliver'd be likewise purg'd and renew'd for they are design'd to perfection of holiness in end and it must begin here Yet is it not possible to perswade Men of this that Christ had this in his eye and purpose when he was lift up upon the crosse and look'd upon the whole company of those his Father had given him to save that he would redeem them to be a number of holy Persons We would be redeem'd who is there would not but he would have his redeemed ones holy and they that are not true to this his end but crosse and oppose him in it may hear of redemption long and often But litle to their comfort Are you resolv'd still to abuse and delude your selves Well whither you will believe it or no this is once more told you there is unspeakable comfort in the death of Chirst but it belongs only to those that are dead to sin and alive to righteousness This Circle shuâ—s out the impenitent world there it closes and cannot be broke through but all that are penitent are by their effectual caling lifted in to it translated from that accurs'd condition wherein they were So then if you will live in your sins you may but then resolve withal to bear them your selves for Christ in his bearing of sin meant of none but such as in due time are thus dead and thus alive with him 3. But then in the Third place Christs Sufferings and death effects all this 1. As the exemplary cause the lively contemplation of Christ crucified is the most powerful of all thoughts to separate the heart and sin But 2. besides this working as a Moral cause as that example Christ is the effective natural cause of this death and life For he is one with the Believer and there is a real influence of his death and life into their Souls This Mysterious Union of Christ and the believer is that whereon both their Justification and Sanctification and the whole frame of their Salvation and Happiness depends and in this particular the Apostle still insists on it speaking of Christ and Believers as one in his Death and Resurrection crucified with him dead with him buried with him and risen with him Rom. 6. Being arisen he applies his death to those he dyed for and by it kills the life of sin in them and so is aveng'd on it for its being the cause of his death according to that of the Psalm raise me up that I may requite them He infuses and then actuates and stirres up that faith and love in them by which they are united to him and these work powerfuly in this 3. Faith look's so stedfastly on its suffering Saviour that as they say intellectus fit illud quod intelligit it makes the Soul like him assimilates and conformes it to his Death as the Apostle speaks That which some fable of some of their Saints of receiving the impression of the wounds of Christ in their body is true in a Spiritual sense of the Soul of every one that is indeed a Saint and a believer it takes the very print of his Death by beholding him and dyes to sin and then takes that of his rising again and lives to righteousness as it applies it to justify so
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
is first impressed on the mind hence flowes out pleasant obedience and full of love hence all the affections and the whol body with its members learn to give a willing obedience and submit unto God whereas before they resisted him being under the standerd of Satan This Obedience tho imperfect yet hath a certain if I may so say imperfect perfection It s universal three manner of wayes 1. in the subject 2. In the Object 3. In the duration the whole man subjected to the whole Law and that constantly and perseveringly The first universality is the cause of the other because it s not in the tongue alone or in the hand c. but has its root in the heart therefore doth not wither as the grasse or flower lying on the superfice of the earth but it flourishes because rooted and therefore it embraces the whole Law because it arises from a reverence it has for the Lawgiver himself Reverence I say but tempered with Love hence it accounts no Law nor command little or of small value which is from God because he is great and highly esteemed by the pious heart No command hard tho contrary to the flesh because all things are easie to Love there is the same authority in all as St. Iames divinely argues And this Authority is the golden chain of all the commandments which if broke in any link all falls a pieces That this three fold perfection of obedience is not a picture drawn by fancy is evident in David Psal. 119. where he subjects himself to the whole Law His feet v. 105. his mouth v. 13. his heart v. 11. the whole tenor of his life v. 24. He subjects himself to the whole law v. 6. and he professes his constancy therein in v. 16. and 33. teach me the way of thy Statutes and I shall keep it unto the end According to the foreknowledge of God the Father The exactest knowledge of things is to know them in their causes it is then an excellent thing and worthy of their endeavours that are most desirous of knowledge to know the best things in their highest Causes and the happiest way of this knowledge is to possess those things and to know them in Experience to such the Apostle here speaks and sets before them the excellency of their spiritual condition and leads them to the causes of it Their Estate is that they are sanctified and justified the nearest cause of both these is Iesus Christ he is made unto them both Righteousness and Sanctification the sprinkling of his blood purifies them from guiltines and quickens them to obedience Now followes to consider the appropriateing or applying Cause the Holy and holy making or sanctifying Spirit the Author of their selecting from the world and effectual calling unto grace The source of all the appointing or decreeing Cause is God the Father for though they all work Equally in all yet in order of working we are taught thus to distinguish and particularly to ascribe the first work of Eternal Election to the first Person of the blessed Trinity In or through Sanctification for to render it Elect to the sanctification is strained so then I conceive this Election is their Effectual Calling which is by the working of the holy Spirit 1 Cor. 26.27.28 where Vocation and Election are used in the same sense Ye see your Calling Brethren how that not many wise after the flesh c. but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to condemn the wise 't is the first act of the decree of Election the beginning of its performance in these that are Elected and 't is in it self a real seperating of men from the profane and miserable Condition of the world and an appropriating and consecrating of a man unto God and therefore both in regard of its relation to Election and in regard of its own nature it well bears that name Rom. 8.28.30 Act. 2.47 13.48 Ioh. 15.19 Sanctification in a narrower sense as distinguished fâ—om Iustification signifieth the inherent holiness of a Christian or his Inclinement and Innablement to obedience mentioned in this verse but 't is here more large and so extends with the whole work of Renovation and is the severing and seperating of men to God by his holy Spirit drawing them unto him and so it comprehends Justification as here and the first working of faith by which the soul is justified through its apprehending and applying the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Of the spirit The Word calls men externally and by that Eternal calling prevails with many to an External receiving and professing of Religion but if it be left alone it goes no further it is indeed the means of sanctification and effectual calling Joh. 17.17 Sanctifie them through thy truth But this is doth when the spirit that speaks in the Word works in the heart and causes it to hear and obey The Spirit or Soul of a man is the chief and first subject of this work and 't is but slight false work that begins not there but the Spirit here is rather to be taken for the Spirit of God the Efficient then the Spirit of man the Subject of this sanctification And therefore our Saviour in that place prayes to the Father that he would sanctifie his own by that truth and this he doth by the concurrence of his Spirit with that word of truth which is the life and vigour of it and makes it prove the power of God unto salvation to them that believe 't is a fit means in it self but 't is then a prevailing meanes when the Spirit of God brings it in to the heart 't is a Sword and sharper then a two edged Sword fit to divide yea even to the dividing of Soul and Spirit But this it doth not without it be in the Spirits hand and he applyes it to this cutting and dividing The word calls but the Spirit Drawes not sever'd from that word but working in it and by it 'T is a very difficult work to draw a Soul out of the hands and strong chains of Satan and out of the pleasing Entanglements of the world and out of its own natural perversness to yield up it self unto God to deny it self and live to him and in so doing to run against the main stream and the current of the ungodly world without and Corruption within The strongest Rhetorick the most moving and persuasive way of discourse is all too weak the tongue of Men and Angels cannot prevail with the soul to free it self and shake off all that deteins it although it be convinced of the truth of those things that are represented to it yet still it can and will hold out against it and say non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris The hand of Man is too weak to pluck any soul out of the croud of the world and set it in amongst the select number of Believers Only the Father of Spirits hath absolute command of Spirits viz. the Souls of Men