fulness we have all received Thirdly That we have all received even Grace for Grace There is a great Controversy upon the latter Clause what should be meant by those Words Even grace for grace But because the Determination thereof fals properly within the compass of the Third Proposition and will have little influence upon the first which I intend God willing to speak unto at this time therefore I pass by that Controversy and come presently unto the First Proposition which is this Doct. That there is a fulness of Grace in Jesus Christ Fulness is here attributed you see unto Jesus Christ The word in the Original sometimes is taken for Abundance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psa 24.1 The Earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof So here it is not taken here it is too narrow for there is not only Plenitudo abundantiae but Plenitudo redundantiae not only a fulness of Abundance but a fulnesse of Redundancy an over flowing of fulness in Jesus Christ Sometimes the word is used for Fulfilling and Perfecting of a thing So Love is said to be the Fulfilling of the Law So it is not taken here for though Christ be the end of the Law yet notwithstanding the Fulness spoken here is that which we do receive and that is the Fulness of grace The word Firstly and Properly is given unto Vessels that are brim-ful of liquor and so Metaphorically appli'd here unto our Lord Jesus Christ who is brim-ful of grace in whom there is no emptyness there is no evacuity While I speak of Jesus Christ I mean Christ as Mediator as God-man There is a Fulness in Christ as God That is not the fulness so Christ is not taken here by what is said in the verse before the Text the 14 verse And the Word was made flesh And of His Fulness we have all received So that it is the Fulness of Christ as Mediator there is a Fulness of grace in Christ as Mediator I shal keep me close unto the words The Fulness is here spoken of which we are said to receive of which we receive we receive grace for grace 't is the Fulness therefore of grace that is in Christ that I am now speaking of Now the word Grace sometimes it is taken for the Love and Favour of God We are saved by Grace That is Eph. 2.5 we are saved through the Love and Mercy of God Sometimes this word in the Original is used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coll. 3.16 or put for Holiness Singing with grace in your hearts that is with Holiness in your hearts And sometimes 't is used for Excellency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Donum quodquis gratificatur for Gifts or Ability as in Ephes 4.7 and in al these respects there is a fulness of grace in Christ First of all Take grace for Love and Bounty and Mercy and so there is Plenitudo bonitatis there is a Fulness of Love in Christ The heart and love of Christ now in Heaven is the same toward poor sinners toward His Children toward Beleevers toward Men as it was when He was upon the earth when Christ was upon the earth First There was a fulness of Pardoning Love in Him Then He would pardon men before they did come for pardon Father Luk. 23.24 saies Christ Father forgive them they know not what they do Ye count it a great act of love where the fault is great to forgive a man upon his acknowledgment of the fault Our Lord Christ did not stay for their acknowledgment but whilst they were reeking in their sins He forgives Father forgive them forgive them they know not what they do Yea if you look into the Gospel ye shall find that when men were putting forth the highest acts of fin He was putting forth the highest acts of His love When Christ was suffering for Peter Peter was denying Christ Peter denying Christ and Christ suffering for Peter When He was upon the earth He did not only pardon once but He would pardon again and again if men sinned again He would pardon again The Disciples slept and Christ Pardon'd They slept again and Christ pardon'd again they slept again and Christ pardon'd again Yea and when He had pardon'd He would not upbraid them with their former sins or with His own mercy After His Resurrection not a word to Peter of all his denial or of Christ mercy Beloved Christ is the same in Heaven He is the same in Heaven now Again when Christ was upon the Earth His first and His great care was Matt. 5.3 4. for those that were weak in grace The first Sermon that He Preached Blessed are the poor in spirit and blessed are those that mourn He doth not say blessed are those that have assurance of the love of God and blessed are those that have the sence of His Love in their hearts but blessed are the Poor and blessed are they that mourn And when any poor doubting trembling soul came unto Him He would not cast away their service because it was accompanied with infirmity but He would rather passe by their infirmity because it was accompanied with some sincerity So the Woman that came behind Him So Nicodemus And when any poor soul could not come to Christ could not come to Christ in Christs way Christ would come down to him in his way Thomas saith He Thou sayest thou wilt not beleeve unless thou thrust thy hands into My side Thomas Thou wilt not honour Me by beleeving unless thou seest Thomas Thou wilt not come up to Me in My way Well I will come down to thee in thy way Come reach hither thy fingers and thrust thy hands into My side and be not faithless but beleeving Oh! the admirable condescention of the love of Jesus Christ Beloved He is the same now in Heaven Again When He was upon the Earth He professed that His heart and His love and affections was as much if I say not more unto one Saint Rev. 22.14 Matt. 12 47.50 as unto all His kindred that are such Blessed are those that keep Thy Commandements Bebold say they Thy Mother and Thy Brother and Sister are without to speak with Thee Saies He Whosoever shall do the Will of My Father which is in Heaven the same is My Brother Sister and Mother As if He should say You count My kindred happy because they are neer unto Me but do you see one poor beleeving trembling gracious soul I tel you the soul that keeps My Commandements is as much unto Me as all My kindred that are such Here is love And I say the Lord Jesus His heart is the same still in Heaven And therefore you shall observe that when He was risen and came amongst His Disciples the dore being shut He comes into the room and He saies unto them Luke 24.36 Peace be unto you Why Peace be unto you the ordinary way and manner of Salutation As if He would say thus much
unto them That they should find Him every way as courtious and as loving towards them now being risen as He was before He died And my beloved if Jesus Christ should not be as gracious and as kind after death as before then His Disciples should be losers by His death But He profest to them before He died that they should not be losers but gainers rather When our Lord Christ was upon the earth out of His love He died for us He loved us and died for us His love then cost Him much Now that He is in Heaven He dies no more He can love us at a cheaper rate And shall we think that when He was upon the earth He would lay down His life for us and now He is in Heaven He won't speak a good word for us Certainly beloved the Lord Jesus is as full of love and tender affection toward His now He is in Heaven as He was upon the earth Take grace for Love and so there is a fulness of grace in Jesus Christ That is the first Secondly Take grace for Holiness and so there is Plenitudo sanctitatis a fulness of Holiness in Jesus Christ There are Three things in the old Testament that were very Holy The Law The high Priest And the Temple As for the Ceremonial Law though it was very holy yet in regard of the Spiritual command of the Gospel and Christ the Ceremonials of the Law in the book of the Hebrews Heb. 7.16 is called the Carnal Command And as for the high Priest though he had holiness written upon his fore-head yet therein he was but a type of Christ And saith the Apostle in the book of the Hebrews The high Priest then when he offered for others sins Heb. 7.27 he offered first for his own sins But our high Priest not so And as for the Temple it was indeed very holy the Jews rested much thereupon And therefore they cryed thrice Jer. 7.4 The Temple the Temple the Temple of the Lord But now if you look into the 6. Chap. of Esay you shal find that our Lord Christ is there upon the Temple and whereas they cryed Three times for the Temple The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Three times this is ecchoed concerning Christ Holy holy holy At the first verse I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up and His Train filled the Temple His Train filled the Temple Above it stood the Seraphims each had six wings with twain he covered his face with twain he covered his feet and with twain he did fly and one cryed unto another and said Holy holy holy As if he should say you that are the Jewes you cry out of the Temple The Temple the Temple the Temple But here 's holiness here 's one that is holy Holy holy holy That this is to be understood of Christ you may see plainly by comparing it with the 4. Chapter of the Revelations at the 2. verse Immediately I was in the Spirit and behold a Throne was set in Heaven and one sate on the Throne as it is said in Esay one sate on the Throne And he that sate was to look upon as a Jasper and a Sardine stone And there was a rain-bow round about the Throne And round about the Throne were four and twenty Seats and there were four and twenty Elders and four living creatures The discription of the Gospel-Church And saith he at the 8. verse The four beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Mark the very same expression that you have there in Esay he doth not say thus Righteous righteous righteous Just just just But Holy holy holy Is there not then a fulness of Holiness in Jesus Christ I 'le give you but Two Demonstrations of it If there were not a fulness of Holiness in Jesus Christ how is it possible that God and man could be brought so neer together that were so far asunder Every man naturally is full of sin You say of the Begger He is full of vermine why because he goes to this door to that door and to another door and he scatters his vermine where ever he comes and the man knows it not Surely therefore the man is full of vermine And so a man naturally dropping and scattering his sins and not knowing of it it argues he is ful of sin God he is full of Holiness whose eyes cannot endure to behold iniquity yet when men are converted and drawn to God they are brought neer unto him they are the apple of His eye their names are written in the palme of his hand That is saies Luther the hand is an instrument of work and when the names of the Saints are said to be written in the palme of Gods hand it notes thus much saies he That God in all his works hath an eye to his Children God in all the works of his hands hath an eye to his Children They are the friends of God and God is their friend When a man is my friend not only his Purse is my friend or his Estate is my friend or his Tongue is my friend or his Hand is my friend but his Sword is my friend So when God is a friend to any not only his Mercy is his friend but the Sword of God is his friend the very Wrath of God is a friend to his Children Such a great friendship there is between God and his people so neer they are brought to one another Well but how are they brought thus neer They are brought neer by Jesus Christ in whom we have a Manuduction a leading by the hand saies the Apostle as the word carries it unto God the Father But now could men so full of sin and God so full of Grace and Holiness be brought so neer together by Jesus Christ if there were not an infinit fulnesse of Holiness in Jesus Christ Again If there were not this fulnesse of Holinesse in Christ how should he be anointed with the oyl of gladnesse above his fellowes The Saints themselves are said to be full of grace Ephes 1.23 The Church called The fulnesse of Christ that filleth all in all Stephen Mary others full of the holy Ghost Surely therefore if so much of the oyntment run down upon Christs Members there must be a great anointing upon Christ himself Surely there must be an infinit holinesse in Christ that must serve us all And of his fulnesse we have All received we have All received You will say Object But if the Saints be full of grace and holinesse how is this the property of Christ Yes For though the Saints be full of grace Answ and holinesse yet their fulnesse is but a fulnesse of Sufficiency Mark whereby they are made able to this or that work whereunto they are appointed But the fulnesse of Christ is a fulnesse
the fire it self So when the Lord Jesus Christ is united to a soul look what Excellencies there are in Christ what Graces in Christ the same are Communicated to it the soul shines with Christs shining and warms with His warming there is Grace Answerable for His Grace You know there was a blessed union between the second Person and our Nature our flesh the second Person takes our Nature upon him and being united to our flesh by vertue of the hypostatical union the idioms and properties of the one are given to the other God hath no flesh God hath no blood and yet we reade in the Acts of the Apostles of the blood of God because of the union the properties of the flesh and of mans nature are given to God Eph. 4.10 So saies the Apostle He that descended is the same also that ascended God does not descend for He is every where but by reason of the union what is proper to the flesh is given to God And so now in this mistical Vnion there being such a glorious and blessed union between Christ and a Christian whatsoever Grace or Excellency or property is in Christ Himself there is an Answerableness of Grace an excellency wrought in the heart of every Christian he hath Grace for Grace he hath stamp for stamp And again Secondly Rea. 2 The Lord Jesus Christ is our second Adam a Common person between God and us Now look as it was concerning our fore-father Adam being a Common person look what nature he had we have He was made up of soul and body and so are we His body had legs and arms and other members and we have member for member we have head for head and arms for arms and legs for legs And so he sinning we have sin for his sin pride for his pride and unbelief for his unbelief because he was a Common person So I say Jesus Christ being our Second Adam look what Grace he had the Saints have they have Grace for His Grace they have Holiness for His Holiness The Apostle saies in the 5. of the Romans That as by one mans offence death came So through the gift of Grace Grace hath abounded But not as the offence saies he at the 15. verse So also is the Free-gift For if through the offence of one man many be dead much more the Grace of God and the gift by Grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many Now if we should not have Grace for Grace from Christ as we had sin for sin from the first Adam how should Grace superabound Our Lord and Savior Christ saies himself I have life in my Self The Son hath life in Himself Joh. 5.26 which laid to that expression which you have in the 1. of Genesis speaks to our purpose the 11. and 12. verses God said Let the Earth bring forth grass the herb yeelding seed and the fruit-tree yeelding fruit after his kind whose seed is in it self And so again at the 12. verse Whose seed was in it self That is these Creatures had a power in themselves to bring forth their like And so saies Jesus Christ as other Creatures had seed in themselves to bring forth their like So have I life in my Self and am able to bring forth my like and so He does for He is our Second Adam and therefore as we had sin for sin from the First Adam we must have Grace for Grace from the Second Adam also Thirdly There is an incomparable and glorious Rea. 3 blessed love between Christ and a Christian Love loves to make a thing loved to be like it self Love in an Inferiour is of an Imitating Nature and love in a Superiour is of a Similitating Nature Now therefore if there be love between Christ and a Christian they must needs be very like and love there is Christ loves the Saints above all the world and the Saints love Christ above all the world Only Christs love exceeds for when the Spouse speaks of Christ in the Canticles she cals Him My beloved in the Concrete but when He speaks of her He cals her my love my dove in the Abstract Jesus Christ had loving thoughts towards the Saints before the world was as ye reade in the 8. of the Proverbs and the 29. verse Saies wisdom and so Christ there When He gave to the Sea His Decree that the waters should not pass His Commandement when He appointed the foundations of the earth Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him I was daily His delight verse the 31. Rejoycing in the habitable part of His earth and my delights were with the sons of men Jesus Christ was then in the bosom of His Father He had enough to take up His heart with full delight and yet notwithstanding before the Saints were His love was towards them and His delight was in them Surely if He loved them so much before they had a being when they have a being He will exercise and put forth that old and ancient love of His in more abundance towards them When a man loves a Maid or a Virgin while she is in her fathers house she is set a part for him but now afterward when she leaves her fathers house and all her kindred that she may only cleave unto him then his heart is drawn out more How am I ingaged saies he to love this woman that hath left all the world to come unto me So there was love in Christ towards the Saints while they were but set a part for Him in Gods Decree but now when they shall leave their fathers house for Him will He not then delight in them See what is said in the 45. Psalm Hearken O daughter at the 10. verse and consider and incline thine ear forget also thine own people and thy fathers house So shall the King greatly desire or delight in thy beauty But delight in them and love them he cannot unless they be like unto him for the lover loves to make a thing loved to be like himself or himself to be like to it The lover would if he could melt himself into a One-ness with the thing loved Indeed our love is scant and we cannot do it Moses of whom the Law is signified might chip and pare his wives nailes but he could not change her countenance A man may love his wife and bestow much upon her but he is not able to change her countenance to make her to be like himself But Jesus Christ hath this happiness above all the world His love hath this happiness above all other love that He is able to melt the person loved the soul loved into His own likeness and therefore wherever Jesus Christ sets His heart upon any soul to delight in any He draws His Image upon them makes the soul to be like unto Him what Grace He hath Himself He does communicate it unto that soul that there is an Answerableness of Grace Even Grace for
sins But I pray what works the heart over to this acknowledgment When David had Saul at a great advantage and spar'd him Saul breaks forth into this expression O my son David thou art more righteous than I O David thou art a righteous man but I am an unrighteous man So when the soul sees what infinite advantage the Lord hath it at and how the Lord spareth then the soul breaks forth and saies The Lord is righteous I am unrighteous I am unrighteous this works an acknowledgment Sixtly A Repenting person does not only acknowledge his sin as occasion serves but he labours to un-sin his sin and truely else it is no Repentance He does walk contrary unto himself and his former self he does labour to undo what he had done before sinfully he does labour to unsay what he had said before wickedly Before the Jaylor was converted he clap't up the Apostle into close prison and either he whipt him there or else being whipt he did not relieve him and wash his wounds But the Jaylor Repenting mark how he walks contrary to himself Repenting he opens the prison door he washes the Apostles wounds brings him into his own house sets meat before him Those Sorcerers Acts 19. repenting burnt their books which before they prized and studies much How did Manasses walk contrary to himself when he once Repented Well But what is that that will bring the soul to this disposition to walk contrary to ones former self If you look into the 116. Psalm ye shall find there how the Psalmist eats up his former words I said in my hast all men are lyers It was amiss in me I eat my words I am sorry for it what made him do it Saies he at the 3. verse The sorrows of death compassed me about and the pains of hell gate hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow Then called I upon the Name of the Lord O Lord I beseech thee deliver me at the 5. verse Gracious is the Lord and righteous yea our God is mercisul Now having had a tast of Gods grace and God mercy now he eats his former words And so the good man Hezekiab I said saies he I am cut off from the land of the living Isa 38.11 He did eat his words I repent it was suddenly done How was he wrought off to this He had tasted of the love and grace and goodness of God and this made him do it So that now look into the bowels of Repentance and the several workings thereof and ye shall find there is no such way or means or motive to bring a soul unto Repentance as the approaching of the Kingdom of Heaven the word and work of Gods grace and love of God in Jesus Christ Would you know the Reason Briefly thus Repentance is a fruit of faith Ye have a notable expression of godly sorrow to the height in the 12. of Zachary the latter end of the 10 11 and 12. verses speaking of the Call and Conversion of the Jews They shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him the latter end of the 10. verse as one that is in bitterness for his first-born Bitterness upon bitterness and mourning And in that day at the 11. verse there shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon And the land shall mourn every family apart the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart Here is great mourning and sorrow What caused this saies he at the 10. verse They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn They shall look upon me whom they have piercit This is the eye of faith and all true mourning and sorrow does come from thence All tears of Repentance flow from the eye of faith the more a man by faith is able to see a pierced Christ the more his heart is pierced for sin committed the more by faith a man is able to see a wounded Christ the more will his heart be wounded for sin committed Faith works Repentance but what worketh faith Surely the Gospel the preaching of the Gospel Received ye the Spirit by the works of the Law or by the preaching of faith He does not say by the preaching of the Gospel but by the preaching of faith The Gospel is called faith not only because 't is the Cbject of faith but that by which faith is wrought Again As Repentance is a fruit of faith So also it does flow from love Amor doloris causa Love is the cause of grief The more a man loves another or apprehends that he is loved of him the more he grieves if he hath any way injured him If you at un-awares do strike another and one tell you that he is your enemy ye grieve not ye are not troubled unless it be in regard of some mischief that may come to your self But if one tell you that he is a friend a specialfriend that grieves you So now if by my sins I have striken at God if I look upon God as an enemy I am not grieved much I am not troubled much But when I consider him as my father the best friend I have in the world and consider how by my sins I have stricken at him this makes me grieve Oh! that ever I should wound the name of him whom my soul loves She loved much saies our Saviour concerning the weeping woman she loved much for much was forgiven her He does not say she wept much for much was forgiven her there was no mention before of her love but only of her weeping and yet saies our Saviour she loved much because he would shew what it was that drew up the sluce of these tears it was her love And what causeth love Love causeth love The more a man sees and apprehends the love of Christ towards him the more his heart is drawn out in love towards Christ again And what greater act of love than this That the Kingdom of Heaven approaches that the Kingdom of Heaven should come and make it's approach to such a poor sinner as I am Surely therefore the approaching or drawing neer of the Kingdom of Heaven is the highest and greatest motive in the world unto true Repentance You will say Experience seems for to speak the contrary for arguments drawn from Hell and the wrath of God seem to be more powerful and efficacious in the working of Repentance I have will some say sometimes considered the wrath of God and let out my heart upon arguments drawn from thence and then I have bin much humbled broken been much affected yea the truth is I have been more humbled and more broken and more affected and more troubled for sin than when the Gospel the word of the Kingdom hath been preach'd and opened unto me How therefore is this true Experience seems to speak the contrary I answer Quicquid recipitur c.
God much ones own heart may be much affected or the heart of God may be much affected Beloved we are apt to love our first-borne and though Legal repentance does not alwaies go before the work of the Gospel for what legal work was there in Matthew before he did come to Christ or what Legal work was there in Zacheus before he came to Christ yet often times it does I say yet often times it does and this being the first-born of our soul we go to God with both our Repentances Legal and Evangelical and we say Lord lay the hand Oh! lay the right-hand of thy blessing upon my first born oh let that inherite But the Lord deals here as old Jacob did when Joseph brought his two Children before him to be blest Jacob crost his hands and for Joseph's sake he laid the blessing upon the younger So now does God do you would have me to lay my blessing saies God upon your first-born upon your Elder upon your Legal Repentance No saies God I have said The Elder shal serve the Younger I wil cross my hands and for Joseph's sake because there is more of Christ in this younger therfore here will I lay the hand of my blessing Beloved the heart of a Christian a gracious man is never more drawn out in greif than upon the apprension of love in jured The greater love and the greater injury is presented the greater is the greif When the Kingdom of Heaven comes unto a poor soul there is the greatest love presented sin against that is the greatest injury when therefore a man is senfible of his sin under that notion then is his heart most affected and drawn forth in godly sorrow Surely therefore The approaching and the drawing neer of the Kingdom of Heaven is the greatest motive argument under Heaven unto true Repentance By way of Application If these things be so Vse 1 What a sad condition are those in whom the kingdom of Heaven the word of the kingdom the Doctrine of free-remission hath come unto and yet they are not stir'd nor moved for to turn to God or to repent It may be here is some Drunkard some Swearer some notorious Sabbath-breaker some wanton that is gotten into the Congregation I will not say to thee Friend how camest thou in hither Ah poor soul thou maiest hear that voice and those words too soon another day But this I say Friend the greatest motive under Heaven hath been used to move and turn thee and yet thou art nothing moved and stirred therewith O! whereby shall thy soul be brought unto Repentance Go saies our Saviour Christ unto his Disciples preach Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand if they receive ye your peace be upon them if not it shall be more easie for Sodom and Gomorah than for that City than for that people at that great day Oh for the Lords sake take heed when ye hear the Word of the Kingdom take heed that ye don't lose it Repent and then turn to God But if these things be so in the Second place Then here we see the reason Vse 2 why our hearts are no more broken are no more humbled no more Repentance no more melting heart no more softened because ye don't labour to bring the Kingdom of Heaven neer unto your souls I mean the Gospel and the Word of the Gospel free-remission of poor sinners When the Kingdom of Heaven comes neer unto a person he runs away from it from the Promise Oh! it belongs not to me I am not so and so qualified I am not so and so broken I am not so and so weary and heavy laden and therefore the promise belongs not to me But the approaching of the Kingdom of Heaven is the only means and motive to break thy heart and wilt not thou therefore come to it because thy heart is not broken Oh! but the Promise don't belong to me the Promise is made unto those that are weary and heavy laden and I am not so Mistake not good people The invitation is made to the weary and heavy laden but the promise is made to Coming There are Two things in that speech Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden Here 's an Invitation and here 's a Promise The Invitation is made indeed to those that are weary and heavy laden Oh! but the Promise is made to Coming the Promise is made to Comming But that is all one you will say for then it seems I am not invited if the invitation be made to such God does not speak every thing in every Scripture But man or woman art thou not invited by some other Scripture Pray what think ye of that in the 9. of the Proverbs Wisdom hath built her an house that is Christ compar'd with the former Chapter she hath kild her beasts she hath mingled her wine she hath furnisht her table She cries upon the high places of the City What does she cry reade the 4. verse Who so is simple let him come in hither as for him that wanteth understanding ye reade it 't is As for him that wanteth heart Come eat of my bread and drink of the wine which I have mingled The Invitation is made to simple ones who so is simple let him turn in hither Oh! But I have such an heart as never any had I want a heart unto all that is good Mark As for him that wanteth heart she saith to him Come eat of my bread How think ye is the Invitation here made only to those that are weary and heavy laden And if ye consider that place in the Gospel which ye know The Invitation to the great supper The servants are sent forth to call in those that were bidden and they excuse themselves But they were bidden they were invited were they weary and heavey laden think ye Well he sends out again and invites others Look upon the text were they weary and heavy laden too Go saies he Go Go to the high-waies and go to the hedges and compel them to come in were they weary and heavy laden too And if ye look into the 3. of the Revelations ye find there that our Saviour saies at the 20. verse Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the door I will come in and sup with him and he with me Our Saviour Christ here stands knocking and offers the greatest mercies that can be fellowship and communion with a poor soul I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me What greater blessing or mercy can you desire than fellowship with Jesus Christ Saies Jesus Christ If any man will open I will come in and sup with him and he with me Here 's mutual fellowship Christ stands and offers this he stands knocking But I pray what door does he knock at whose door does he knock at Oh! my beloved 't is a Laodicean door Laodiceans what are
persevere in the way that I am in notwithstanding sall thy discouragements Firm against all Afflictions if you want this creature-comfort or the other creature-comfort you will answer I true I want Friends I want Money I want Credit Oh! but yet there 's a Fulness in Jesus Christ and there 's enough in Him and of this Fulness through the Lords mercy I have received Oh! what a drawing what a drawing argument is here me thinks the stoutest sinner in all the Congregation should now come in and close with the Lord Jesus Christ You will say unto me Here are incouragements indeed Quest to Beleevers for the Doctrine runs thus There is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Oh! but what incouragement is here for others that are not Beleevers And truly I am afraid I am even afraid that I am not one of those what incouragement is there for others that are not Beleevers also I pray look into the 68. Psalm Answ and consider it wel at the 18. verse See what is spoken concerning Christ to this purpose that now I am upon Thou hast ascended on high Thou hast led captivity captive Thou hast received gifts for men 't is spoken of Christ yea for the Rebellious Also Mark that word Thou hast received gifts for men yea For the Rebellious Also Well then is there ever a Rebellious Childe in this Congregation Is there ever a Rebellious Drunkard that hath taken up arms against the Lord Jesus Christ Is there ever a rebellious Swearer or an unclean heart here that hath taken up arms against the Lord Jesus Christ Saies the Text He hath received gifts for men yea for the Rebellious Also The Reason why you have not these gifts is because you do not come to Christ Oh! But if you would come to Christ Mark If you would come to Christ you that are Rebellious if you would come to Jesus Christ He hath these gifts or Grace by Him if you would come to Him you should have these gifts from Him Who would not throw down his weapons now Is there ever a Rebel in all this Congregation that hath taken up arms against the Lord Jesus Christ heretofore Me thinks he should be incouraged hence to come unto Jesus Christ Bodin hath a story concerning a great Rebel that had made a great and strong party against a Roman Emperour the Emperour makes Proclamation that who ever could bring in the Rebel either alive or dead should have such a great sum of money The Rebel hearing of this he comes in himself presents himself unto the Emperour and demands the sum of money Saies the Emperour if now I should put him to death the world would think that I did it to save my money notwithstanding all his former rebellion the Emperour pardons him and gave him the sum of money Oh! would a Heathen Emperour do thus by a poor Rebel And if thou man or woman wilt throw down thy weapons and come in unto the Lord Jesus Christ do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ will not give to you those gifts that He hath received for you Certainly He will Oh! me thinks therefore every poor sinner should now hang upon this last word yea For the rebellious Also Hath the Lord Jesus Christ receiued gifts for men and for the rebellious Also I wil for ever hang upon that word Also Oh! I have bin a Rebel I have bin an unclean Rebel I have bin a swearing Rebel I have bin a drunken Rebel Oh! Lord I will throw down my weapon and hang upon this word Also Hath He received gifts for men and for the rebellious Also Oh! I will come in unto Him Oh! what a mighty incouragement is here for all good and bad to come in unto Jesus Christ Come Drunkard Come Swearer Come Unclean heart Come Sabbath-breaker Come lying-Children Come stealing-Servants Oh! Come unto the Lord Jesus Christ that you may be fil'd for ever Oh! Come unto Christ that you may leave your sins Here is incouragement to all good and bad to come unto Jesus Christ One word more of Use unto Beleevers Appli 3. and so I have done Is there a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Then Beleevers Own your own own your own labor to strengthen your Assurance of your Union with Jesus Christ and maintain your confidence in Him If you have Assurance of Union with Jesus Christ you may have the comfort of all this truth you may and you will say thus or to the like purpose Hath the Lord given me Christ and will He not with Him give me all things else True indeed I want Grace to do such a work with to pray with to hear with to examine my own heart withal I want Grace to do such a work for God Oh! but there is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers and through the Lords Grace I am one There is a communication of the Fulness of the Lord Jesus Christ unto all the Saints and through the Lords Grace I am one and therefore in due time I know I shall have this Grace communicated to me But if you want the Assurance of your Union with Jesus Christ Oh! then you will want the comfort of this Truth then you will break out and say True indeed there is the communication of the Fulness of Christ unto Beleevers but the Lord knows I am none 'T is true indeed there 's a communication of the Fulness of Christ unto al the Saints but the Lord knows I am none I have an unclean heart of mine own the Lord knows I am none Oh! therefore you that have gone doubting up and down and had no assurance of your condition all this while assurance of your Union with Jesus Christ for the love of God get it now as you desire to have the comfort of this truth that now I have bin upon get it now You see Beloved these times we are fallen upon are dying times and truly I may say Dying times and Doubting hearts cannot stand together Oh! Cock up cock up you that have had your evidence for Heaven lying abroad all this while get it in Labor to get assurance of your Union with Jesus Christ and maintain your confidence and assurance and so shall you have the comfort of all this Truth made good unto you And the Lord give it in unto you SERMON III. JOHN 1.16 And of His Fulness have all we received even Grace for Grace Preached at Magnus Aug. 24. 1645. I Have made entrance into these Words in other Congregations And desire to proceed here where I left there The Words are spoken of our Lord and Savior Christ They hold forth Three great grand Propositions First That there is a Fulness of Grace in Jesus Christ Secondly That of His Fulness all we have received Thirdly That of His Fulness all we have received Even Grace for Grace I have done with the
beg all Grace from God it argues all is in a way of Receiving all all good is in a way of Receiving what ever Grace or Holinesse a man hath on this side Heaven 't is all in a way of Receiving But you will say Object That this Cuts off all endeavour if all be in a way of Receiving then nothing to be done This Doctrine is an Enemy to all Obedience to all laboring to al good Works and to all performance to al Endeavour Not so Ans The Apostle expresly does speak the contrary as you may reade and I pray mark in that 2d Chapter of his Epistle to the Philippians Wherefore at the 12 verse saies he my beloved as ye have alwaies obeyed not as in my presence only but now much more in my absence work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling Why at the 13 verse For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure Work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling why for all is in a way of Receiving 't is God 't is God that worketh all in all 't is God 't is God that does it therefore work Mark how the Apostle argues He does not argue as many do And I pray tell me if there be any here that think this Doctrin is against Endeavour pray tell me What Work or Endeavour Either you would endeavour for to leave your fins or you would endeavour to do what is good to perform some good If you would endeavour for to leave your sins there is no such way as to be truly fully perswaded in your heart of this truth That all is in a way of Receiving Mark therefore I pray how the Apostle argues for that purpose in the 1 Cor. Chap. 3. at the 3d verse For saies He Ye are carnal ye are carnal for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men For while one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollo are ye not carnal Well but what course does the Apostle take to cure this carnallity See what he saies at the 6th verse at the 5th Who then is Paul who is Paul and who is Apollo but Ministers by whom ye beleeved even as the Lord Gave to every man I have planted Apollo watered but God gave the increase So then neither is he that planteth any thing neither is he that watereth but God that gives the Increase As if he should say thus Here 's divisions among you and one saies I am for Paul and I am for Apollo Oh! but get your heart settled in this Truth That all is of God and all is of Christ and all is in a way of Receiving and then divisions will be no more there will be no more such sayings as these I am for Paul and I am for Apollo And again Would your endeavours be for the performance of what is good The consideration of this Truth that is now before you is of great avail this way too Saies Paul I have labored more abundantly than they al yet not I 1 Cor. 15.10 but the Grace of Christ in me Mark yet not I but the Grace of Christ in me Labored more than they al more abundantly than all yet al from Christ and yet all from Grace and yet all in a way of Receiving Surely there is no such way to gracious and blessed endeavors as the serious consideration of this Truth that is now before you I 'le give you Two Reasons for it All Actions are carried upon two wheels Fear and Love As a Cart moves upon two wheels so every Action is carried upon these two Fear and Love The more ye love the more ye move towards a thing The more ye fear the more ye move to avoid it Fear and Love the two great wheels of every motion Now as for Love what greater Love than this That Jesus Christ hath died for us and worketh all our works for us and in us and Love causeth Love As for Fear Ye know there are some children so long as they are kept in dependance upon the father the father having not given them portions they are obedient to him but if once the children have gotten their portions and are come to live by themselves then no more obedience If you have a man by the wrist and he knows that if you let him go he fals down into some great river and there he is lost for ever will not this man that you have by the wrist will not he be afraid now to offend you knowing you have him thus by the wrist Beloved this Doctrin tels us that the Lord hath us all by the wrist we live in a continual dependance upon Him and all is in a way of Receiving will not this make us to fear the Lord then The Prophet Jeremiah in the 5th of Jer. 24. He wonders that the people should not fear the Lord upon this ground That the Lord gave them the former and the latter rain And saies he they have not feared the Lord that hath given them rain the former the latter rain As if he should say thus These poor people they depend upon God for rain and is it not a strange thing that they should not fear Him Why beloved There is not one drop of Spiritual rain or dew of Grace that fals upon the heart but we live in dependance upon God for it shall not this make us fear Again besides Whatsoever service you tender unto God on this side Heaven it is all a waiting upon God And therefore the Saints that serve God in Scripture they are said to wait on God Mark I pray you Our service is a waiting upon God Isa 40.31 But those that wait on the Lord shal renew their strength saies Isaiah Now if a man hear that if he have no oyl in in his I amp he is lost for ever and there is no way to get oyl but by setting his vessel under Gods Spout and Gods Ordinance will not this make a man to wait upon Him Some there are that defer their Repentance and they think to repent afterward they think they shall be able to repent afterward But now when a soul shal hear that all is in a way of Receiving he must take it therfore when God does offer it then he concludes thus Is it so indeed That al is in a way of Receiving strength to repent 't is by receiving then wil I take while the Lord offers me strength Oh! I wil never defer my Repentance again I wil now wait upon God and now while the Lord offers now I wil take it Thus you see this Doctrine is afriend unto all endeavour All is in a way of Receiving no such friend unto good endeavour as this Doctrine But you wil say unto me Quest Why hath the Lord cast things into this mould That al should be in a way of Receiving Besides the Reason
over now ye say how will the Child do now Why surely the Child will do as well and better now if the father takes the child up in his arms the dirty lane wil be the pleasantest place to the child when 't is taken up into the fathers armes Thus 't is with the Saints great works they do and hard things they go thorow Oh! but they are taken up into Christs Armes and they have all in a way of Receiving When you look upon a man that does keep a great Table hath many servants attending on him his Purse alwaies full of money you will say surely this man leads a fine and a sweet life if it do not cost him much for to receive it or get this money but if you hear that he hath all his Estate only for telling his money his great pains is all in receiving his money Oh! here 's a blessed man indeed and here 's a happy man you think presently Thus 't is the great pains of a Christian is to Receive from Christ and to spend for Christ Oh! what a sweet life does the Saints live that live by Faith in Jesus Christ Thirdly Appli 3. Is this Doctrine true Then what abundance are there in the world many that live under the Gospel that from hence are argued to have no saving interest in Jesus Christ Good people mark it that I say are not savingly united to Jesus Christ There is a Two-fold Vnion with Christ as Christ is considered Two waies He is either considered with His Church the Church and He making one body and so all together are called Christ In 1 Cor. 12. Or else He is considered as the great Mediator and Savior of Beleevers by Himself Accordingly men may be said to be Vnited to Him Either Outwardly in the Church tied and related to Him by outward Ordinances Or else Inwardly united to Him by saving faith When a man is Inwardly united to Jesus Christ by saving faith he hath all from Christ Strength unto every duty from Jesus Christ Praying strength and Hearing strength and Repenting strength and Confirming strength he hath from Christ in a way of Receiving But the other hath little or nothing from Christ Pray mark it I will express it thus A man takes a peice of bread or a loaf of bread he tyes it to his arm his arm hath no strength from that 't is but an outward tye to his arm it hath no strength from that and it argues that 't is but an outward tye it causes no strength by it But if a man take bread and eat it that there be an inward union then there is strength there is bread goes to all the parts you know my meaning Or thus I will expresse it thus Take a graft and tye it unto a Tree tye it unto a stock and it brings forth no fruit at all why Because 't is but outwardly tyed unto the root unto the stock of the Tree But take the branch and graft it into the Tree into the stock then it brings forth all that it brings forth by vertue of the stock that 't is grafted into So my beloved there are a company there are a generation of people that live here under the Gospel that are Outwardly tyed unto Christ they are Baptized they have the Name of Christ by profession and by the tye of the Ordinances they are outwardly tyed unto Christ but Oh! they receive nothing from Him nothing from Him pray what do they receive Suppose Christ had not come into the world suppose they had never heard Christ preacht they might have lived Civilly they might have lived Justly amongst their neighbors they might have abstained from Lying and Drunkenness why they do not thus much poor creatures nothing from Christ they receive nothing from Christ Oh! these are but outwardly tyed as a loaf of bread is tyed unto a mans arm so is the Lord Jesus in the Ordinances tyed unto them I but then There are another people that are Savingly united to Jesus Christ and these they have strength from Him they cannot Pray but as they have strength from Christ they cannot Confer and speak of good things but as they have strength from Christ they cannot go and hear a Sermon with any affection but as they have strength from Christ All all in a way of Receiving Oh! they stand in a way of dependance upon God in Him and they have all from Christ these are Savingly united to Christ But Oh! many that live among us that have not all from Christ Certainly therefore there are many that are not savingly united to Jesus Christ This is a Third I 'le adde but one more and so I have done Is this Doctrine true Appli 4. All in a way of Receiving Then surely Beloved All is from Grace from first to last Heaven Heaven is a Donative Salvation is a Donative every step in the Iadder to Heaven is Grace every link of the chain is Grace Oh! every beam of our day is Grace every stone of our building Grace Is all in a way of Receiving What Praying strength What Hearing strength What Suffering strength What is all al in a way of Receiving Oh then what glorious Grace is here Oh! rich Grace Oh! free Grace Oh! incomparable Riches of the freeness of Gods Grace in Christ Is the Lord Jesus the Alpha and the Omega Is He the Beginning the Middle the End of all our actions Oh! what Grace is here If there be ever a drooping soul If there be ever a poor hard heart a cold heart a frozen heart in all this Congregation Come O poor soul come and warm thine heart at this fire of Love Were our Heaven and our Salvation put to sale upon our Doing I say were Mercy set to sale at our doing then we were in a sad condition we were in a lamentable condition Well now Is al in a way of Receiving What then though I cannot Pray for the present What then though my heart be dead for the present yet notwithstanding I will wait upon the Lord in the way of His Ordinances it may be this day and this time I shall receive something that may put life into my poor dead soul Oh! you that never waited upon the Lord and upon free Grace wait now upon the Lord you that have waited waite still you that never waited wait now Beloved the more Dependant our condition is the more Depending should our spirits be What more Dependant condition can you think of All all in way of Receiving Oh! therefore now let us all labor to live by faith Go away with this in your bosomes I see a necessity of living in a continual Dependance on God in Christ Which that you may do think of all these things and the Lord bless them to you SERMON IV. JOHN 1.16 Preached at Margrets new fish-street Decem. 8 1645. And of His Fulness have all we received even Grace for Grace I Have made entrance
Now though the Lord does give a Christian less grace in his hand for the present yet He hath laid it up in so safe a hand that though Satan a stronger than he does come down upon him he is not able to wrest it from him or beguile him of it because 't is in the hand of Christ that is a stronger than he And Jesus Christ by a Compact with the Father from all Eternity hath engaged Himselfe to do it to give forth Grace and Assistance to all the Elect according to all their needs So that I say now all Grace is from Jesus Christ in regard of fresh assistance Therfore the Psalmist prayes thus Lord open thou my lips Psal 51.15 and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Lord though thou hast given me habitual Grace yet if I have not fresh assistance from thee for to open my lips my mouth will not shew forth thy praise Psa 119.18 And so again Lord open mine eyes that I may see the wonders of thy Law And to this purpose 't is in the 17. Psalm and the 5. verse saies David Hold up my goings in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Mark I pray David ye know was a godly man hee had a habit of grace Now Lord saies David as for the business that is between Saul and me thou knowest I am in thy way yet Lord saies he though I be in thy way and have a habit of Grace yet if thou dost not hold up my steps if thou dost not give me fresh assistance I shall fall I shall slip Hold up my going in thy paths that my foot-steps slip not Does not the Apostle say Phil. 2 13 The Will and the Deed is from God You may observe that the Graces of Gods People they are called in the new Testament Gal. 5.22 The fruits of the Spirit They are not called the fruits of a former habit but they are called The fruits of the Spirit And indeed if all grace were not from Jesus Christ in regard of fresh assistance truly then might a man have wherein to boast as Bradwardin reasons the case For saies he though a child have his being from his father his Education from his father Learning Military skill yet notwithstanding the valour of an action being his own he hath in opposition to his father wherin to boast True I confess indeed I had my being from my father I had my Nature from my father I had my Education from my father I had this Skill from my father But the prowess and the valour and the spirit of the action is all mine own and he hath wherein to boast So if he hath the Habit only from Christ he hath wherewith to boast True I had the Habit the Grace from God I but the spirit of the action that is mine own he had wherein to boast But there is no room for boasting and therefore all Grace is from Christ in regard of fresh assistance It will be yet said Obj. But if all Grace be from Christ in regard of fresh assistance too Why is it said that we Repent and we Beleeve and we Obey for if all Grace in regard of the very work be from Christ if Jesus Christ do work al our works Why is it not rather said That Christ does Repent and Christ does Beleeve and Christ does Obey I answer No. You know the Persons that are Responsal Ans If I owe a man a Thousand pounds and have never a penny to pay it and another man he comes and lends me the money and goes along with me to the Creditor the bond is taken up and acquittance made discharge made He is not said to have paid the money but I am said to pay the money that am Responsal So now you are Responsal and therefore though ye have all strength from Christ to do it yet you are said to Repent and Beleeve and Obey The Devil is not said to commit Adultery and commit Murder yet by his instigation 't is done The Sun does work with the Tree when the Tree does bring forth fruit and yet 't is not said that the Sun brings forth an apple or brings forth fruit because the Sun does work as a universal Cause and the Tree as a particular Cause So now though Jesus Christ does work in all your workings yet He is not said to Repent or Beleeve or to Obey because He works as a universal Cause and you work as a particular Cause Only behold here the mirrour of Grace All is of Christ and yet all is Ours all is ours in Denomination and al is Christs in Operation all is ours in regard of Incouragement and all is Christs in regard of Glory al is ours in regard of Reward and all is Christs in regard of Honor. Here 's Grace here 's the mystery of Grace but still all whatsoever Grace a man hath he hath it from Jesus Christ I but Quest will you say To what end is this Doctrine opened thus largely opened and prest What good is there that does come thereby What good Answ What good would you have What good would you do Would you have the Lord Jesus Christ to become your strength The way to have Him to become your strength is to count Him so Look I pray upon the 31. Psalm the 2. and 3. verse Be thou my strong Rock for an house of defence to save me for thou art my Rock and my Fortress Be thou my Rock for thou art my Rock What kinde of Argument is this Yes 't is a good argument The way to have Christ our Rock is to account Him our Rock My very resting upon the Promise does make it mine and your very resting upon Jesus Christ doth make Him yours and what will make you rest more upon Him then to see that all is from Him Again Would you have your hearts warmed with love unto Jesus Christ indeed our whol life should be nothing else but an expression of love to Christ as Christs life and death was nothing else but an expression of love to us Now saies a gracious soul Is this true indeed that all Grace is from Christ that whatsoever Grace the Saints have they have it from Jesus Christ that there is not a good thought in my heart but runs through the heart of Jesus Christ before it does come at mine what infinit cause then have I to love Jesus Christ Again Would you live in Dependance upon Christ for Grace for Truth the serious consideration of this truth will help you to it I confesse indeed will some say when I look upon my self I am a man or woman of such poor gifts or parts that I have no hope I am afraid I shall never attain to the Truth of the time but is it so that all is from Jesus Christ whatever Grace the Saints have they have it from Jesus Christ Why may not I know the Truth of the time as well as another I will
yet wait on Jesus Christ Again Would you walk Humbly Be very humble and get a ferious and deep humiliation for sin committed the study of this truth will help you do it You know what the Prophet Isaiah saies Oh! Lord saies hee wo is me Isa 6.5 I am undone I am undone Why what 's the matter Oh! saies he mine eyes have seen the King If you look into the 3. Chapter of Matthew you will find there in John the Baptist such a self-humbling speech Christ-advancing speech as you shal not meet with many of the like again Sales he at the 11 verse Whose shoes I am not worthy to bear or as other Gospels hath it Whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose Beloved I pray confider it a little John then which there was not a greater the great Preacher that al the Countrey followed John cryes out saies Whose shoes latchet I am not worthy to unloose What made him think thus what wrought his heart into this humble this self-denying frame The very Doctrine we are now upon saies he I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but He that cometh after me is mightier then I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear he shal baptize you with the holy Ghost with fire As if he should say thus I may baptize you outwardly but the efficacy of al these ordinances it is from Jesus Christ therefore because the efficacy of every ordinance is from Jesus Christ saies he as for me I am not worthy to bear His shoes to undo His latchet Yet further in the general Would you be Fruitful would you be fruitful in your life and conversation People they complain of Barrenness Would you be Fruitful Observe what course the Gardiner takes with the Apricock This is a fruit saies he that will not grow every where but surely if it will grow any where it will grow upon the back of this Chimney the warm heat the heat of the Chimney wil nurse it up Or else it wil grow against that Wall I 'le set it in the face of the Sun that it may have the smiles of the Sun-beames and then it will grow he sets it there and then it grows and brings forth a pleasant fruit Doest thou complain thou art not fruitful what 's the reason may be thou grow'st in the shade may be thou grow'st in the shade but come and bring forth thine heart set it in the Sun under the warm beames of the love of Jesus Christ see if thy heart be not fruitful then And beloved what greater love then this That Jesus Christ hath dyed for sinners that He hath dyed for sinners that He hath purchased all Grace for sinners and He keeps their stock in His own hand to give it out unto them according to all their wants Here is love Here is grace This is the way to be fruitful I come to the Application Is it so Applic. That all Grace is from Christ that whatfoever Grace the Saints have they have it from Jesus Christ Christ Meriting and Christ Working That all our Efficiency and Sufficiency and Al-sufficiency if from Christ That He is the great Joseph the worlds Joseph the Lord-Keeper of all our Graces the Lord-Treasurer of all our comforts Then Oh! what infinite cause have we all to advance and lift up the Name of Jesus Christ to hallow Jesus Christ not verbally but really Cōmanded ye are to honor your parents they give you a Being and yet by that Being you are brought forth under the wrath of God but yet honor them because you have your being from them I and by your birth and by your nature exposed unto the wrath of God for ever Yet honor them because you have your being from them And shall wee honor our parents because we have our outward being from them and shall not we honor Jesus Christ from whom we have the being of all our Graces the being of our souls unto all Eternity What infinite ingagements are upon us all to honor Jesus Christ You will say unto me Quest This indeed does naturally follow but how shall we honor Jesus Christ according to the heighth of this Doctrine how shall we honor Jesus Christ according to the heighth of this Truth that is now before us Give me leave to spend some time in this this is that I have bin driving at all this while Some particulars herein First Ye cannot honor Jesus Christ Ans Vnless that you do offer up your own Christ unto him I say unless you offer up yor own Christ to him I mean your natural Christ to him Some there are that make a Christ of their goad meaning and think to be saved thereby rest upon that think to be saved thereby Some rest upon an honest and sober Conversation think to be saved thereby Some rest upon their Duties inlargments in Duties and think to be saved thereby Some rest upon their very resting trusting is not to be trusted to but some rest upon their very resting and think to be saved thereby Some rest upo those Injoyments and Sweetnesses that they meet withall in duty and think to be saved thereby Beloved you may observe That when the Lord commanded His People in the old Testament to honor Him He commands them to sacrifice such things to Him which other Nations did make their Gods they should sacrifice sheep and oxen and birds such things they should offer up unto God that others did worship as God Plainly teaching this That he that will honor God must give that unto God which the world makes it's God So say I if you would honor Christ you mst give that up unto Jesus Christ which other men do make their Christ Many false Christs there are that are made by men you cannot honor Jesus Christ if you don't give up those to Him Again You cannot honor Jess Christ If you count it a small matter to belong to him A servant that honours his master does count it a great matter to belong to Him And therefore David he does title some of his Psalms so A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord He does not say A Psalm of David the King of Israel but A Psalm of David the Servant of the Lord Counting it more honor to be the Lords Servant then to be King of Israel he counted it a great matter to be the Lords Servant because he honored the Lord. Those that honor Christ they look upon the things of Christ as great matters the words of Christ as great works and the Ordinances of Christ as great matters and a great matter to belong to Christ and if they lose any thing or lose any friend they will relieve themselves here Oh! but yet I belong to Jesus Christ yet I belong to Jesus Christ Thirdly Ye cannot honor Jesus Christ and give the worst to Him Abel honored God and he offered the best and because he offtered the best therefore he
twenty third verse The time is come that the Sonne of man should be glorified Well but how Verely verely I say unto you except a corne of wheat fall to the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit Thus he comes to his glory he must die first and so he must come to glory If any man serve me sayes he at the twenty sixth verse Let him follow me and where I am there shall also my servant be This is the way that Christ went and this way God took with Christ Love loves to be like unto Jesus Christ and Faith loves to go in the garment of Jesus Christ as with him so with the Saints And then againe fourthly Reas 4 God is pleased thus to order things in the dispensations of his grace and mercy That the comforts of his people may be the more sure and stedfast If our comforts hang at the girdle of the creature they are most uncertaine but if they be laid up in God in his promise upon his power then they are certaine He that is engag'd in the crowd must be carried too and fro in the crowd And he that is in a ship must be carryed as the ship is If a man stand upon a banke of Ice he is apt to slide but if he stand upon dry ground he stands more sure All the second causes they make but a banke of Ice and when a man stnads on them and his comforts on them he is apt to slide the only dry ground is Gods power and Gods faithfulnesse and his promise That a mans comforts therefore may not slide but may be more sure and stedfast God takes this course with his people putting a sentence of death upon the mercy and upon all the meanes that do lead unto it before he gives it out unto the soule I but you will say Object This shakes the very foundation of all my comfort for it this be true That when God intends any speciall mercy to the children of Abraham he does first put the sentence of death upon it and upon all the meanes that do lead unto it then surely I am none of the children of Abraham I never had any skpeciall mercy yet given unto me I do not find that it hath been so with me No what then Because your experience don't speake it Answ is it not therefore true Some would have the Sunne set by their watch and not their watch set by the Sunne some measure the truth of all the doctrines that they heare by their owne experience and if their owne experience speake them true then they are true otherwise not But I say what then It may be thou art a man or woman that the Lord never gave out a promise to thee not a promise to thy soule some there are in prayer that by the strength of their memory can reach in a promise and when Art and memory reaches in a promise into prayer the sentence of death does not then passe indeed but when the Lord gives out a promise to the soule then the sentence of death passes upon the businesse upon the mercy and upon the meanes that do lead unto it I appeal unto all the Saints here Whether ever had ye any great mercy in all your life but first of all there was a sentence of death past upon it and upon all the meanes that did lead unto it And therefore thought thou saiest this shakes the foundation of thy comfort truely better a rotten foundation should be shaken then stand But you will say Quest Is it so with the Saints in regard of all their Spirirtuall blessings too Yes Answ When ever did the Lord give an Ordiance to his people in the way of a speciall mercy but first of all the sentence of death came upon the businesse and upon all the means that did lead unto it When did the Lord ever give any grace to his people but first of all the sentence of death past when ever did the Lord give any incouragement in duty to any of his children but first a sentence of death past When ever did the Lord give any great injoyment of himselfe to any of his children but first a sentence of death past When ever was a poore soule made fruitfull but first a sentence of death past Oh! never any more barren then I never any more dead then I Our Lord and Saviour Christ he promises his Disciples that he would send them the Holy-Ghost the Comforter but before the Comforter came he goes away himselfe from them and they were left and never in such a sad condition as immediately before the Comforter came And if you mind it here though Abraham had many acts of Faith yet this act of faith is singled out from all the rest of the actings of Abrahams faith wherein Abraham is held forth as a patterne for all beleevers The grace of a godly man is his soules Resurrection We are risen being risen with Christ by grace we rise Now sayes the Apostle 't is in regard of the Resurrection is with seed that is sown it first dies and then it rises The Saints and people of God they have all their graces and all their comforts in a way of Resurrection This is the way therefore God takes with his people Onely take along with you these three or foure cautionall considerations First this is to be understood concerning the great and the speciall belssings and mercies which beleevers have There are some blessings and mercies that are more common and ordinary some that are more speciall and greater I do not say that this is true concerning every common and ordinary blessing that a beleever hath that he hath no blessing no mercy but first of all a sentence of death is put upon it and upon all the meanes that do lead unto it but I say its true concerning the great and the speciall blessings and mercies We reade of Abraham that he had other children it was not so in regard of them but Isaac was the great blessing it was so in regard of Isaac The children of Israel they had their daily bread and their water their daily provisions we do not find it in regard of them but they had Manna from heaven and they had water out of the Rock they had speciall water speciall bread so in regard of these And therefore if you look into Exod. 15. you shall find there at the last verse They came to Elim where were twelve Wels of water according to the twelve Tribes every Tribe had twelve and threescore and ten palm trees according to the number of those that went down to Egypt But now before they had these twelve Wels of water yea reade at the 22. verse that they went three dayes in the wildernesse and found no water at the 25. verse you reade of waters they had that were very sweet but before that the water was bitter it was called Marah And when they came
go so far And with them sayes he the blind and the lame Answ Oh! Object but I am a woman with child surely I shall never be able to returne to my own Country Yes Answ sayes he the woman with child I Object but I am a woman like to be in travaile about that time surely I shall be left behind I shall never return to my own Country Marke Answ the woman with child and her that traivaileth with child and a company shall return God does not only promise help but he promises to help the children of Abraham when all meanes faile And if you look into the New Testament you will find that severall promises which are given out in the Old-Testament upon speciall and extraordinary occasions assuring helpe beyond meanes are brought down into the New-Testament for us to apply there When the Devil came to tempt our Lord and Saviour to turne stones into bread sayes our Saviour Man lives not by bread alone but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Math. 4.4 Now if you look into the eighth of Deuteronomy and the third verse you will find that those words were spoken upon an extraordinary occasion help beyond meanes He humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with Manna which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that hee might make thee know that man doth not live by bread onely but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord. And so here in this fourth of the Romans Abraham beleeved when all meanes failed he beleeved the promise and he is brought down for our example that we should beleeve the promise also when meanes faile And if you look into and consider the eleventh of the Hebrewes where you have a catalogue of many beleevers ye shall find that many of them beleeved when the means failed beyond meanes and yet they are all brought downe and made mention of for our example Surely therefore t is the duty of the children of Abraham to beleeve when all meanes faile and seeme to be dead before us Meanes for the Soule Meanes for the Body Means for the Family Meanes for the Churches Take this for the reason Reas Such a Faith is to be exercised unto God as is sutable unto that God in whom we do beleeve If the God in whom we do beleeve were a God that did helpe onely by meanes then we were to trust so unto him but being he is such a God as workes beyond meanes we are to exercise a faith towards him sutable to this God in whom we do beleeve So in regard of our Love We must love God with a love worthy of God Now if a man should onely love God for benefits and blessings that he receives from him and not for the holinesse and excellency that is in God himselfe this love were not worthy of God So in regard of our faith if we should onely beleeve God in regard of the reason and experiences and means this faith were no way worthy of God I will beleeve a man I will beleeve the worst of men the vilest man so farre as I can see him and shall I beleeve God no further We must beleeve with a faith worthy of God faith is not worthy of God unlesse we beleeve beyond meanes this is the faith that is worthy of God this is the faith required and commended Take but one Scripture for it more In the seventeenth of Luke there were ten Lepers came unto Christ desiring cure saying Jesus Master have mercy on us at the thirteenth verse When he saw them he said to them go shew your selves unto the Priests And it came to passe as they went they were cleansed It seems they were not cleansed then as he spake they were not cleansed when Christ sayes Go and shew your selves to the Priests for it is said as they went they were cleansed Why then should they shew themselves to the Priests They were to shew themselves to the Priests to bring an offering for their cleansing yet sayes our Saviour go shew your selves to the Priests They were to beleeve that they should be cleansed although they saw themselves full of Leprosie So although a soule sees himselfe to be full of Leprosy yet notwithstanding it is to rely upon Jesus Christ and to beleeve as if he were fully cleansed This is the second Proposition The third will make out this the more full Thus to beleeve when all meanes faile is exceeding pleasing to God and most acceptable This kind of faith Christ commends in Thomas Joh. 20.29 Thomas sayes Christ thou hast beleeved because thou hast seene but blessed are those that do beleeve and have not seen Blessed is any man that does beleeve though his hands may be full of sence but of all beleevers blessed is that beleever that beleeves beyond sence that beleeves and hath not seene There are two especially that Jesus Christ does commend for beleeving Mat 15.28 Mat. 8 10 the Canaanitish woman and the Centurion To the one sayes he O woman great is thy faith Concerning the other I have not seene such faith no not in Jsrael And both of these beleeved above hope and under hope when the meanes in view seemed to chide them off from beleeving In that eleventh of the Hebrewes many of the Saints are commended for their Faith They had other graces wherein they did excell Moses was a Meeke man he is not recorded there and commended for his meeknesse but for his Faith Sampson was a stout and a resolute man he is not commended there for that but for his Faith They had other excellent graces but this grace of Faith is singled out to weare the Crown Heb. 11.39 They all obtain'd a good report through Faith That weares the Crowne of all other graces And you shall find that that Faith was mingled with many weaknesses Rahab one of those beleevers what a deale of weaknesse passed from her in her beleeving Yet notwithstanding though their Faith was clogged with many weaknesses yet their Faith is commended and most of them beleeving beyond means and when all meanes failed plainly speaking out this truth to us The great acceptation that such a Faith hath with God Beloved this faith beleeving when all meanes faile and lye dead before us turnes God about as we may speak with reverence and make God of an enemy a seeming enemy to become our friend If you trust unto your friend for a kindnesse he will do it because you rest on him if you rest upon an enemy he failes you but if you rest on God he will therefore do it because you rest on him and he will become your friend by your resting on him Oh! I have been a great and a wretched sinner Yet notwithstanding I know there is infinite riches of grace in Christ and therefore sayes the soule I will rest on him yea Lord though thou kill me yet will I rest upon thee I
saies the Lord wilt thou now rest upon mee now I frown now I chide now I have a rod in my hand now I have a sword in my hand to kill thee as it were wilt thou now rest upon mee Well be of good comfort thou art mine for ever Man or woman go in peace good is thy faith This resting thus upon God when all meanes faile it melts Gods anger into love And besides it is that faith that is most successefull the most speeding in prayer You may look into the second of Chronicles the thirteenth Chapter and you shall find there that Abijah going to warre with Jeroboam had not more then halfe so many as Jeroboam had Abijah set the battaile in array with an Army of valiant men of warre even foure hundred thousand chosen men A great Army But Jeroboam had as many againe And Jeroboam also set the battale in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men being mighty men of valour I pray now let us consider how went the day Reade the seventeenth verse Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter so there fell down of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men Five hundred thousand chosen men slaine How came this about Reade the eighteenth verse Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time and the children of Judah prevailed because they relyed upon the Lord God of their Fathers Or as some books have it because they stayed upon the Lord God of their father The meanes was too scanty it was short they rested upon God beyond the meanes and see what great successe they had upon this they were but foure hundred thousand against either hundred thousand and they slew five hundred thousand men So successefull is this worke and this way of beleeving It is this faith that now I am speaking of beleeving when all means faile and lye dead before us that does honour God especially which doth justify the soule It is the soule-saving faith of all Pray looke into the seventh of Luke and consider it well It is said at the last verse Jesus said to the woman they Faith hath saved thee go in peace but here 's no mention at all before of her Faith There 's mention of her love in the fourty seventh verse I say unto thee her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much There 's mention before of her teares at the eight and thirty verse A woman in the City which was a sinner brought an Alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feete behind him weeping and began to wash his feete with teares and did wipe them with the haires of her head and kissed his feete and annointed them with the ointment Here 's mention of her teares here 's mention of her Liberality and Bounty and Love to Jesus Christ and yet our Lord and Saviour Christ does not say thus woman thy teares hath saved thee go in peace Woman thy Repentance and thy Humiliation hath saved thee go in peace he doth not say thy Love to me and thy Bounty to me hath saved thee go in peace woman No but our Lord and Saviour he saw a secret worke of reliance upon himselfe in this woman for she was a great sinner and he sayes unto her woman Thy Faith hath saved thee goe in Peace This is the soule-saving faith thus to beleeve when all meanes faile and seeme to lye dead before you Surely therefore to do thus must needs be exceeding pleasing to God and most acceptable And so I have done with those three Propositions Applic. and now come to the Application If these things be so Oh! what manner of Faith should we have Will ye only beleeve when meanes are strong and have life in them Ye have read of the unbeliefe of the people of Israel when they were in the wildernesse being in the wildernesse they wanted much outward provision ordinary provision and by occasion thereof they murmured full of unbelief in so much as the Lord was angry with them and slew them so that they never came into the Land of promise But I pray what was their unbelief for which God did slay them Was it this that they did not beleeve when they had meanes No but that they did not beleeve when all means failed when all outward meanes failed that is their unbeliefe Beloved we have their promises we have their Example we have more meanes of faith then they and shall not our Faith rise higher then theirs Shall not we beleeve an inch beyond the meanes You have heard the Doctrine T is the duty of all the children of Abraham to beleeve when meanes faile 't is exceeding pleasing to God and 't is most acceptable Oh! What an incouragement is here to beleeve above hope and under hope and when death sits upon the lips of the second cause and speakes nothing but terror Some there are that say they can beleeve for their bodies but they cannot trust God for their Soules when meanes faile Some say they can trust God for their Soules when meanes faile but they cannot trust God for their Bodies some say they can trust God for Themselves but they cannot trust God for their Families what shall become of my wife and children Some say they can trust God for their Families but they cannot trust God for the Church when a strome rises they cry out and say Lord carest thou not that we perish though Jesus Christ be in the ship with them We are very ready and apt to hunt after the meanes when we want them and to rest upon them when we have them And there is a great propensnesse in us to doing rather then unto beleeving before conversion and in the point of conversion Before conversion sayes the young man Mat. 1916. What shall I do that I may inherite eternall life And in the point of Conversion in the second of the Acts What shall we do to be saved And Paul himselfe Act. 9.6 Act. 6.30 Lord what wilt thou have me to do The Jaylor too What shall I do to be saved What shall I do But I pray marke the Apostles answer to the Jaylor when he cryed out and said Oh! What shall I do The Apostle does not say go fast and pray though he had need to do that but the first worke that the Apostle does put him upon is Beleeve and thou shalt be saved This is the worke And therefore Iohn 6.28 29. when some came to Christ and ask't him this question Master what shall we do that we may work the works of God sayes Christ This is the work of God that ye beleeve in him whom he hath sent And of all workings of Faith this same beleeving when all means do faile and seeme to lie dead before us is that which is most pleasing to God Oh! that we could learne Oh! that we could learne this point to beleeve when the sentence of death is past upon a
fallen upon his neck and forgiven him and showed mercy to him then he said so and not before And saies the text when his father saw him a far off Notwithstanding he had resolved to go home yet he was far off from mercy his father saw him a far off and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kis't him preventing of him by his grace this makes it more prevalent But yet you will say Object How can this be can God love sinners can God set his love upon poor sinners that are so What saies the Apostle in Rom. 4.5 Answ He justifies the ungodly not in their sins but from their sins through Christ 'T is not in Gods love as in our love you love because the thing loved is lovely but Gods love does make lovely your love finds lovely and Gods love makes lovely You love a person because of some beauty but Gods love does make beautiful You love a person because of some good you do find before you love but Gods love brings the goodness with it Gods love makes the person good that he does love His love is the original root of all our obedience and sanctification Though the Root lies under ground all the branches are beholding to it and the fruit have their sap and life from it So though Gods reconciling love lies under ground and ye see it not yet 't is the Root of all your obedience of all your sanctification Ye may observe therefore that in the Epistle to the Romans to the Galatians to the Hebrews when the Apostle would stir up the Romans Galatians Hebrews to holiness of life that he laies his Exhortation upon the Doctrine of free-grace love justification by faith alone and the sulness of Christs satisfaction for poor unworthy sinners In the book of the Romans he begins to state the Doctrine of free justification of sinners and remission by Christ alone In the book of the Galatians he begins with free-remission of sins and justification by faith alone So in the book of the Hebrews But the end and conclusion of all these Epistles to the Romans Galatians Hebrewes is Obedience Repentance and holiness of life As if this were the great Root that all our obedience did grow upon even free remission of sins and Justification by faith alone And if justificiation do go before our sanctification then of Necessity there must be an approaching of the Kingdom of Heaven to us before we do come to it Give me leave to give you Two or Three Reasons of it and so I will come to the Application First of all Reas 1 God doth so order things in the dispensations on s of his grace and administration thereof as that he may be known to be God Jehovah that all flesh may see his glory What is the glory of God His free-grace is his glory And therefore ye shall observe that when Moses begs to see Gods glory Lord saies he show me thy glory Exo. 33.18 19. The Lord made him this answer Moses would'st thou see my glory What otherwise than thou hast seen it in the Mount Moses here is my glory I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy The Lord read him a lecture of his free-grace Moses here 's my glory my free-grace is my glory And how can Gods freegrace be more seen and manifest than in such a way Causing the Kingdom of Heaven of grace and free remission to draw neer to us even before we do stir towards it Secondly Reas 2 God does so order things in the dispensations of his grace as that men may be made the most gracious The sight of Gods grace wil make a man gractions the more ye see the grace of God in Christ the more gractious ye wil be And pray mark that instance which ye have in the 7. of Luke the same that Inamed before consider it well at the 37. verse Behold a woman in the City which was a sinner it seems she was a very wicked woman a sinner when she knew that Jesus Christ sate at meat in the Pharisees house brought an Alabaster box of ointment and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash his seet with teares and did wipe them with the haires of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment What 's the reason of this Saies our Saviour Christ I say unto thee at the 47. verse Her sins which are many are forgiven her for she loved much She wept much because she loved much and she loved much because much was forgiven her The Papists and those that do follow them say indeed That her forgiveness was a fruit of her love because 't is said here Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much But good people makr it and you-will find that first of all there is forgivenss and thereupon the woman loved and her loving much was but a sign of her being much forgiven For this is sutable with the latter end of the 47. verse Her sins which are many are forgiven for she loved much Much forgivenss is the ground of loving much and loving much is a fign of much forgiveness for it follows But to whom little is forgiven the same loveth little And this sutes also with the Parable that ye have before at the 41. and the 42. and the 43. verses Which is brought in upon occasion of this womans loving thus much A certain Creditor had two debtors the one ought five hundred pence and the other fifty and when they had nothing to pay he frankly forgave them both Tell me therefore which of them will love him most Simon answered and said I suppose that he to whom he forgave most Marke the scope of the parable and you will find it is to show That love flows from forgiveness The Papists and others that cleave to them therefore go against the scope of this Parable And now my beloved if all our love be upon forgiveness and forgiveness goes first Oh! what free-grace is here We Repent and we Weep because we love and we love because we are forgiven but forgiveness goes first Oh! what grace and love is here Paul was so taken with this that to me he seems to be more taken with it than with the vision that he had in the third Heaven saies he I knew a man whether in the body 2. Cor. 12.2 or out of the body a man saies he wrapt up into the third Heaven and heard unspeakable words which is not lawful to be uttered And this Paul speaks of but once But saies Paul I was a blasphenter 1. Tim. 1.13 I was a persecutor but I obtained mercy This story he tels three times he tels the other story but one time but this story this story of free grace how he was a blasphemer and a persecutor and how he obtain'd mercy this was never out of his mind As if he were more refresh't with the thought of
when as the Lord does thus prevent us with his grace and is at our bed-side with his grace when we lie sleeping and never think of mercy and grace an ingenious soul should say thus What is all this but a plain rebuke to the slothfulness of my duty Come up prayer up duty oh my soul be up sooner Yea through the Lords grace I will be up sooner at Heaven gate in duty than ever I was before His preventing grace teaches me thus much that I am not soon enough at Heaven gate with my duty Again 2. Duty Hath the Lord prevented any of you with grace and caused the Kingdom of Heaven to draw neer to you before you drew neer to it Do you do the like labour in your love to be like to Christ to be like to God We stand upon our terms when we have to deal with men upon our terms of State had Jesus Christ stood upon terms of State when he came to save sinners what had become of us We say we will forgive such a man for wrong done to us upon his acknowledgement Oh! but did Christ do so Did not Christ prevent us Beloved ye see how 't is with the water it moves downward but if the fire get into it if there be water in a pot upon the fire and fire get into the water the fire makes it move upward it moves according to the nature of the fire then So now if the love of Jesus Christ get into our hearts it will make us move like unto Christ How does the love of Jesus Christ move Oh saies Christ Father forgive them they know not what they do Luke 23.34 Christ did not stay for acknowledgement a poor and a low thing for a Christian Enough for a Heathen to say so I will forgive such a man for wrong done to me upon his acknowledgment Let our love be like unto Christs and labour to prevent others with our love as Jesus Christ hath prevented us Thirdly Then let all men waith upon others 3 Duty with all longsufforing and patience for their Conversion and the revelation of truth unto them Thou art a Parent and desirest thy Child may be Converted and hast taken a great deal of pains with him for his Conversion and yet it will not be Thou art a governour of a family and would'st fain have such a servant converted to Christ and hast taken a great deal of pains and yet it won't be A friend you have and you would fain that he knew such a Truth and much pains you have taken to beat such a Truth into him and he don't take it and you are ready to be angry but remember this The Kingdom of Heaven draws neer to us before we draw neer to it Grace must come to thy Childs soul first before it does come to Christ Mercy must come to the soul and the Lord must come and bring truths unto the soul What is then to be done Then be not angry with him wait with all long suffering and all patience and go to God go to God for thy Child go to God for thy friend go to God for thy servant upon this ground Because the Kingdom of Heaven must come to us first before we can come to it But Especially 4. Duty and Fourthly Trust in the Lord for ever Oh! all you that are the servants of the Lord upon this ground Trust in the Lord for ever Does the kingdom of Heaven approach and draw neer to us before we draw neer unto it Then say within your souls Doubting shall be no more Some there are that doubt of their salvation because of the lgnorance that is in them darkness causes fear they don't know the mercifull disposition of Jesus Christ and so they doubt of his love The Devil as he labours to change himself into an angel of light so he labours to change Christ into an angel of darkness But beloved ye have heard of the merciful sweet disposition of Jesus Christ he is willing to save sinners and the greatest sinners brings neer the Kingdom of Heaven to us before we draw neer to it Oh! wilt thou doubt again poor Christian wilt thou doubt again Some there are that doubt of their salvation because they are afraid their duties shall not be accepted prayers shall not be accepted Oh! if I could but be perswaded saies one that the Lord would hear my prayer and accept of my duty then I should know indeed I should be saved but I am afraid the Lord doth not hear my prayers and accept of my duties and therefore I fear I shall not be saved Man or woman where ever thou standst or art hear the Word of the Lord. Does the Lord cause the Kingdom of Heaven to approach and draw neer to us before we draw neer to it will the Lord be found of those that seek him not and will he not be found of you that do seek him Will the Lord come with his grace and make an offer of grace and mercy to a sinner and a great sinner and will not the Lord receive you when you do come unto him Think of this and surely then you will say Doubting shall be no more Some there are that doubt of their salveation because they cannot pray their hearts are dead pray I cannot and hear I cannot and reade I cannot performe duty I cannot and therefore I have cause to fear I shall never come to Heaven Well but though you cannot Man or Woman Christian pray as thou art able and hear as thou art able and reade as thou art able the Lord Christ is of this sweet disposition That he does canse the Kingdom of Heaven to draw neer to us before we draw neer to it Oh! therefore you that are the servants of the Lord Trust in the Lord for ever for ever trust in the Lord and let doubting be no more I conclude all with one word of Exhortation Applic. 2 and it is unto those that have not yet submitted unto this Kingdom of Heaven this Kingdom of Grace Is there a truth in this Doctrine That the Kingdom of Heaven grace mercy and free remission does approach unto us before we draw neer unto it and that because indeed we are not able to draw neer to it before it draws neer unto us Then all you that have not yet submitted unto this Kingdom of grace and the offer of grace and mercy in the Gospel when ever any offer shall be made unto ye take heed that ye neglect not so great salvation You see how 't is with the sea-man because the sea-man is not able to raise a wind or turn the wind when 't is raised he lies upon the sea-coast ready waiting upon the wind and when the wind turns then he hoists up his sailes for saies he now the wind is come about and if I lose this gale I am likely to lose my voyage I cannot turn the wind I cannot make the wind So
I say to you man or woman young man or old hath the Lord brought a gale upon thine heart at any time a gale of mercy made a tender of mercy and free remission to thee Oh! for the love of God and of thy own soul take heed how you lose this opportunity is the wind come about the Spirit blows where it listeth is the wind come about Up with thy sailes up with thy sailes take heed how you lose this opportunity that now you have Little do you think that the Kingdom of Heaven may be in such a motion as you despise the Kingdom of Heaven may be knocking at your door the door of your heart by such a hand as you little think of The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of musterd-seed Mat. 13 31 32. which indeed is the least of all seeds but it grows to that bigness that the fowles of the aire come and make there their nests When you see a little musterd-seed you will say 't is impossible can ever this musterd-seed grow to that bigness that the fowles of the aire should there make their nests The Kingdom of Heaven is like Christ himself Can this be the Messiah 't is the Carpenters son can this Carpenters son be the Messiah So the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of musterd-seed comes with a small motion May be a Child makes a motion to his father Oh! father let there be prayer in our family Oh! let there be reading the Word in our family May be the servant comes and makes a motion to the Mistrisse Oh! Mistrisse let 's go to such a Sermon let us go to such a meeting let 's go to prayer The Kingdom of Heaven may come in such a motion by the hand of a Child by the hand of a servant take heed therefore if you have not submitted to this offer Oh! take heed take heed how you neglect so great salvation I say the Kingdom of heaven may come in such a small motion as you despise And therefore if ever the Lord breath upon any of your hearts if the wind come about man and woman up with thy sailes now for thy life now for thy Eternity if this gale be lost may be thou shalt never have such a gale again The Kingdom of heaven does approach and draw neer unto us before we draw neer unto it well therefore when it comes see that you accept of it SERMON II. MATTHEW 3.2 Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand Preached at Margrets New-fishstreet March 16. 1645 Or hath approached THESE Words are part of that Sermon which John the Baptist preached when he first began for to preach the Gospel They contain ye see at the first view An Exhortation to Repentance with a motive or encouragment thereunto For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand I take it for granted that ye understand what is the notion of Repentance And my design is not to fall into the common place of Repentance but only to speak to it so far as it hath relation to this motive Some there are that think these words are to be understood of a Legal Repentance as if John the Baptist's Ministry were a legal Ministry and in that sense he himself a fore-runner to Jesus Christ This me thinks is to lowen the Ministry of John the Baptist And if you look into the 1. Chap. of Luke you will find that John's Ministry was not a Legal Ministry but a Gospel-Ministry the 76 and the 77. verses Thou Child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his wayes To give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins And if ye look into the following verse to the Text ye shall finde the interpretation of this Repentance Repent ye for this is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Esaias saying The voice of one crying in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight So that preparing the way of the Lord and making his paths straight is all one with that which is going befoe Now is any one able to make his paths straight before he do come to Christ why then do we come to Christ if we be able to make our paths straight before we do come unto him And besides As the Motive is such is the Repentance that is founded on it The motive here is Evangelical Repent ye for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand The motive is Evangelical surely therefore the Repentance here required is not a Legal but an Evangelical Repentance But what is it then what is here meant by the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Heaven being at hand or approaching In the language of the new Testament the Kingdom of Heaven is sometimes put for the Kingdom of Glory Sometimes it is put for the Church of Christ under the new Testament Sometimes it is put for the Gospel and the preaching of the Gospel Sometimes for the whole Kingdom of Grace I take it here for the whole state of the Messiah the Kingdom of grace the preaching of the Gospel and the dispensations thereof And he saies here That the Kingdom of Heaven hath approach't therefore do you turn therefore do ye repent There are these Two Notes that lie before ye First The Kingdom of Heaven does approach unto us before we do come unto it Repent ye or turn ye because the Kingdom of Heaven hath approach't unto you So in the beginning Secondly That the appropinquation approaching or drawing neer of the Kingdom of Heaven is the highest and the greatest motive in the world unto true Repentance I have spoken to the former in a Congregation not far distant and my desire is to speak unto the Second The appropinquation approaching Doct. or drawing neer of the Kingdom of Heaven is the highest and the greatest motive in the world unto true Repentance This is the Motive that John uses here thus John begins when he began for to preach the Gospel And if you look into the 4. the next Chapter ye shall find that our Saviour Christ begins to preach Repentance upon the same Motive verse the 17. from that time Jesus began to preach and say Repent for the Kingdome of Heaven is at hand The same words And if ye look into the 10. Chapter of Matthew ye shall find that when he sent out his Apostles for to preach he put the like words into their mouthes also at the 7. verse And as ye go preach saying The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand There the word Repent is not you will say But if you look into the 6. of Mark and the 12. verse ye shall find that 't is said there Then they went out and preach't that men should repent It was part of their Commission and thus they were to preach Repentance upon this motive That the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand or the Kingdom
of heaven is approaching Surely therefore this is the great Motive the motive of motives In the invitation to the great Supper spoken of in the Gospel what is the motive used for to bring men unto the supper but this Come for all things are now ready Mercy is ready the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is ready Come for all things are now ready this is the motive that is used there And if ye look into the 12. Chapter of Paul to the Romans ye shall find at the 1. verse That when the Apostle doth exhort them to present themselves a living sacrifice holy acceptable unto God he perswades by this motive of mercy I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice I beseech ye therefore That Therefore sends us unto the former Chapter to enquire what these mercies were At the 30. verse of the former Chapter he saies unto them For as ye in times past have not beleeved God yet now have obtained mercy through their unbeliefe The Jewes were cast off and the Gentiles these Romans received to mercy the Kingdom of Heaven did come to them the Gospel effectually preach't to them the Doctrine of free-remission of poor sinners Now saies he I beseech you by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice The Scripture is full of this But for our better opening and clearing of this Truth Let us I pray descend into the particulars of Repentance and consider how the grace and mercy and love of God in Christ which is the substance of this Kingdom of Heaven hath an influence upon them all and how all of them are caused thereby First A man that does Repent must see and know his sins true-sight of sin is requisite to true Repentance Indeed a man may in some measure attain unto the knowledge and discovery of his sin by some Affliction when Adoni-bezek had his fingers and toes cut off you know what he said Thus have I done Afflictions do un-leave a man take off his leaves when the leaves are off the hedges ye see those birds-nests that ye could not see before when the leaves were on And so when affliction hath made one naked and taken ones leaves off a man is able to see those nests of corruption in his own heart that he never did see before The Apostle saies By the Law is the knowledge of sin but now though by the Law as by a rule we come to the knowledge of our sin and by Affliction we are help't to see the nests of our own hearts yet notwithstanding a man cannot see his sins fully but by Gospel-light it is a work of the Spirit to convince of sin I will send the Spirit the Comforter and he shall convince the world of sin And where does the Spirit breath but in the Gospel the Kingdom of Heaven the preaching of the Gospel Received ye the Spirit saies the Apostle by the works of the Law or by the preaching of faith When once Esay the Prophet had had a fight of Christ he cries out Vae mihi I am undone We is me I am undone I am unclean Again for I will but touch upon these As a man must know his sin So if he will repent truly he must be grieved and humbled for it If you look into the 7. of Luke ye may see what work it had A woman a great sinner comes to Christ and she washes his feet with her teares what made her do so She loved much for much was forgiven her So that the more the love and mercy of God in Chrst is opened in the Gospel or does make it's approach unto a soul the more the soul is set a weeping and mourning for sin committed Again As a man Repenting must be grieved for sin committed So he must and he will loath himself self-loa-thing is requisite to Repentance If a man have taken a surfet by cating or drinking he does not only loath the meat which caused the surfet but he loaths the very Vessel that hath the smell of the meat or the liquor in it So now when a man comes to Repent he does not only loath his sin but he loaths himselfe the vessel where the sinne was Oh! these filthy eyes of mine Oh! these vile hands Oh! this vile heart of mine hee loaths himself But what causes this self-loathing Th Prophet Ezekiel will tell ye in the 20. of Ezekiel the 41 42 and 43. verses Then shall ye loath your selves when I am pacified or when God had shown them mercy caused his love to approach unto them Then should they loath themselves 'T is not all your Afflictions nor all my Threatnings saies God that will make ye to loath your selves but when ye see my love my grace my pardoning mercy then shall ye loath your selves not your sins only but your selves also Again A Repenting person does not only loath himself for his sin but he is ashamed of it he is ashamed of his former evil waies What fruit have ye of those things whereof ye are now ashamed not before but wereof ye are now ashamed So long as a man walks in the dark he does not blush he is not ashamed though his Cloaths be ragged and torne and his naked flesh appears because he is in the dark But if he come to the light then he blushes that his nakedness appears And so long as men are in their sins and are in darkness they are not ashamed of their sins because they are in darkness But when once they come to the light then they blush and then they are ashamed What light is that that will ashame one of sin there is light enough in hel-fire for the damned there to reade their sins by but that don't make them ashamed where the light of the Gospel the opening of the Kingdom of Heaven is and pardoning love is there is shame Ye shall see therefore how Ezra bulshes when he considered the love of God and their sins together in the 9. of Ezra and the 6. verse And he said O my God I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face unto thee my God Why for our iniquities are increased Is that all No saies he at the 8. verse for a little space grace hath been shewed us from the Lord our God to give us a remnant to eseape and to give us a nail in his Holy place we were bond-men yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage And now O our God what shall we say after this after this The sight of their own sins and the remembrance of Gods love together made him blush Ye know the place in Ezekiel Then shall ye be confounded and ashamed when I am pacified towards ye The more a man knows that God is pacified towards him the more he is ashamed Again A Repenting person is not only ashamed of his former evil waies but as occasion serves he will acknowledge his
those Luke-warm I would thou wert hot or cold but seeing thou art Luke-warm I will vomit thee out of my mouth Luke-warm person worse than prophane and yet behold Jesus Christ stands at a luke-warm persons door knocking and tendering mercy to a luke-warme Laodicean person I but stay May be they were weary and heavy laden first before they were invited Reade the 17. verse Because thou saiest I am rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wrethed and miserable and poor and blind and naked Were these weary and heavy laden think ye And yet at this door behold at this door the Lord Christ stands knocking Oh! grace Oh glorious rich grace Oh! you that have stood at a distance from the promise and dared not draw neer to the promise said it did not belong to you you were not invited to mercy Consider do you consider what great enemies ye are unto your own breakings and humblings that ye do so much desire The approaching of the Kingdom of Heaven and the Doctrine of grace and of free-remission unto a poor sinner is the greatest means and motive in the world to break ones heart Oh! therefore as ever you desire to have your hearts broken and to be humbled look much to the Kingdom of Heaven and the Doctrines thereof and never say it does not belong unto you But Thirdly Vse 3 If these things be so if there be a truth in this Doctrine what infinite cause have we all for to Repent to mend our lives and to turn to God The Kingdom of Heaven hath approach't Beloved hath not the Kingdom of Heaven approach't unto our Nation Take the Kingdom of Heaven for the Kingdom of Glory and in these dying times how hath the Kingdom of Heaven approach't in that sense Take the Kingdom of Heaven for the State of the Church and how many Church-truths hath broken out in these daies that were not known before Take the Kingdom of Heaven for the Gospel and the preaching of the Gospel how hath God gone up and down in these latter times even in these times of trouble preaching free-grace to poor England Witness all these Victories ye have had notwithstanding all your sins Oh! England England now Repent and turn unto the Lord Surely if ever the Kingdom of Heaven is come to you yea hath not the Kingdom of Heaven approach't unto many of your souls in particular are there not some here great sinners that have been invited to mercy are there not some here great sinners that have received mercy hath the Kingdom of Heaven approach't unto you and will not you Repent and will not you turn to God and will not you amend your lives You will say This work is not now to do we have Repented already But pray give me leave Have ye have ye Repented upon Gospel-Motives have ye Repented upon this ground because the Kingdom of Heaven hath approach't Oh! how many legal Professors are there among Professors As there are Two sorts of men in the world Some that live in dark places and prisons And others that walk up and down in the light So some there are among Professors some legal that woak up and down in the dark and see no light Others again that walk up and down in the light of the Gospel many many legal Professors Beloved The more Evangelical your Repentance is the more it will cure your souls and not hurt your body Legal Repentance soakes into the body and frets out the very strength of ones body Pray look a little into the 33. Chapter of Job See what the holy Ghost saies there God speaks once yea twice yet man percieves it not here is man in his natural pure natural state In a dream at the 15. verse in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in stumbrings upon the bed that is before a man is aware Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man What then He is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat Verse the 21. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were not seen stick out His soul draweth neer to the grave and his life to the destroyers Here 's Legal work Then comes the Gospel If there be a messenger with him an Interpreter one of a thousand to show unto man his uprightness Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransome Then at the 25. verse His flesh shall be fresher than a childs he shall return to the daies of his youth His flesh shall be fresher than a childs Thus Evangelical Repentance is a friend both to soul and body Meer Legal Repentance eats out the strength of ones spirit even of ones very body Again The more Evangelical your Repentance is the more you will be humbled and grieved for sins against the Gospel I will send saies Christ the Comforter and he shall convince the world of sin what sin of sin and of unbeliefe Oh! saies the soul that Repents Evangelically who more guilty of unbelief than I Oh! never any one more Ignorant of Christ than I Oh! the unkindness of my soul towards Christ Legal Repentance it pitches upon some breach of the Law and there it rests Again Enangelical Repentance complies with spirituall joy and is a friend unto it You grieve for sin and you rejoyce in God and when you rejoyce in God you grieve for sin I will send the Comforter saies our Saviour He does not say I will send the Spirit No but I will send the Comforter and he shall convince the world of sin and of unbelief The Comforter because it shall be a work of Comfort unto the soul that is convinced of sin Gospel-wise and the more a man rejoyces in Christ the more he grieves for sin and the more he grieves for sin the more he rejoyceth in Christ again Again When your Repentance is Evangelical The more you apprehend or hope that your sin is pardoned the more you wil grieve for it Ye reade in the Psalms of one special Penitential Psalme of David the 51. Psalme But when was that made A Psalme of David when Nathan the Prophet came to him that is after the Prophet Nathan had been with him And what did Nathan the Prophet say to him Saies Nathan Thy sin is forgiven thee Upon that message David fals into a Penitential Psalme a Psalme of Humiliation and of Repentance The more a man hath assurance that his sin is pardoned the more he doth grieve for it And the more Evangelical your Repentance is the more your heart will be inlarged to and for Christ The sight of Gods free-free-love in Christ will make your heart free in love unto Christ and
Oh! therefore you servants and People of God that have gon fearing and trembling up and down drooping under many fears without assurance of Gods love in Christ if there be such a fulnesse in Christ then trust unto Him yea trust and trust perfectly to Him If Satan come and tempt you and saies thus unto you Thou art a poor unworthy creatrue and dost thou think to have mercy Answer True Satan I am so indeed most unworthy but there is a fulnesse in Jesus Christ and I will trust in Him Does Satan tempt thee and say unto thee Thou art a poor guilty creature and dost thou think to find mercy Answer True Satan I confesse I am I have committed such and such sins but there is a fulnesse in Jesus Christ and I will trust in him Say say Satan what thou wilt against me I subscribe unto it I am poor I am empty I am unworthy I am guilty but Christ is Full Christ is Full there is Fulnesse in Jesus Christ I will trust unto Him Oh! you Servants of the Lord Live much by Faith there is a Fulnesse in Christ trust unto it And that 's the second Thirdly If there be such a fulness in Christ 3. Duty Then 't is our duty to draw forth this fulness Let all men draw forth this fulness That is done these Three waies First by a serious frequent solemn consideration and eyeing of Christs fulness 2 Cor. 3.18 For beholding as in a glass saies the Apostle we are changed from glory to glory The beholding of Christs glory changes us into glory 'T is drawn forth also by our resting upon it in a time of Temptation 'T is here in regard of Christs fulness as in regard of Gods mercy or promise pray mark it My very resting upon Gods promise in the time of a Temptation does make it mine my very resting upon His mercy in a time of Temptation does make His mercy mine and my resting also or your resting upon the fulness of Christ in the time of a Temptation does make it yours 'T is drawn forth also by giving forth As now the Conduit or Cistern receives more water into it by letting out the water which it hath Possibly there may be much water in the Conduit or much water in the Cistern and the fountain may be willing to furnish it with more but 't is full already therefore now turn the cock and let that run out which it hath received already and it draws more into the Cistern So here beloved our very spending for Christ receives from Christ the way to draw out His fulness is to lay out His fulness as you do receive from Him so to comunicate to other folk this draws it out Well then A fulness ye have heard there is in Christ This fulness is to be drawn out ye hear also how it is or may be drawn out Enter therefore into your Chamber and when you are all alone seriously frequently think much of this Fulness of Jesus Christ and in the time of your Temptation then rest upon it And as it pleaseth Jesus Christ to give out any of His Fulness unto you so let it run out again upon other folk And this is the third thing Fourthly 4 Duty If there be such a fulness of grace in Christ Then let us all labour to be like unto Him full of grace as Christ full of meekness full of humility full of Love especially for there is a fulness of love in Christ And yet alas when ever was there lesse love and more strife then now when ever lesse love among Professors when ever more strife then now Give me leave a little Beloved in the Lord you see and know what great divisions there are among us great strifes All strife and envy arises from an apprehension of scantiness and narrowness in the thing desired Now then that which we do strive for either it is more of the World Or more of Christ If it be more of the World that we sirive for who shall be most Rich who shall have most Honor if it be more of the world that we strive for Why Oh! why should we strive for that which may make us worser but cannot make us better why should we strive for that when as the very striving for it will deprive us of it If it be more of Christ that we strive for mark if it be more of Jesus Christ and more of Him that we strive for There is enough in Him there is enough in Jesus Christ for to serve us al. If two or three or six or twenty men be a thirst and they go to drink out of a Bottle while one is drinking the other envies because he thinks there will not be enough for him too But if now five six twenty a hundred be a thirst and go to the River while one is drinking the other envies not Why because there is enough to serve them all Beloved if it be more of Christ that we strive for if it be more of Jesus Christ that we strive for there is a fulness in Him there is enough in Christ there is enough in Jesus Christ ye have heard to serve all our turns Oh! therefore that there may be no more striving no more enuy no more contention no more division labor let us all labor to be more and more like unto Jesus Christ He was full of grace especially He was full of love let us labor to to be like unto Him In the fift and last place The fift Duty 5 Duty If there be such a fulness in Jesus Christ Then take heed how we do any thing that may rob Christ of the glory of His fulness Let all men take heed how they do any thing that may rob Jesus Christ of the glory of His fulness As now Suppose that I think and am perswaded that Jesus Christ hath not given a sufficient rule hath not laid down a perfect a sufficient rule in the Word for the Ordering and for the Governing of the Churches and therefore I will eek out what He hath done with my own prudence This robs Him of the glory of His Prophetical fulness Or suppose I think my sins are so great they can never be pardoned so great there is no hope for mercy This robs Him of the glory of His Priestly fulness Or suppose that I stint and limit Christ unto this or that particular means of delivering of the Church I know that God is able to deliver England and to deliver the Church but if He do not take this way if He do not take this course if this means fail then we are all undone then all all is lost if this means take not This is to rob Christ of the glory of His Kingly fulness to stint Him to one means to tie Him and limit Him to one means Or suppose that I set my heart upon any Creature fulness and say as the whore said in the 7 of the Proverbs
Come and let us take our fill of love Come friends come company let us go unto such a Tavern or such a place where we may be fully merry Come O my soul take thy contentment in creature fulness there is enough there This robs Christ of the glory of all His fulness To carry away the custom of my thoughts unto another Shop from Christ argues that there is not enough in Christ alone Then beloved to conclude all Are there any here as I fear there may be too many that have thus robbed Jesus Christ of the glory of His fulness I beseech you in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ whose fulness I have bin now preaching to you I beseech you in the fear of God go into your Chamber and be alone awhile and fall down before the Lord and say thus unto Him or to this purpose Oh! Lord I confess it hath bin so w th me I have thought that there hath not bin a sufficient rule for the Government of the Churches and herein I have wronged Christ in His Prophetical fulness and the Lord pardon this unto me Lord I confess also I haue said many times that my fins are so great that there is no hope for mercy that there is no hope for pardon herein I have wronged the Priestly fulness of Jesus Christ now the Lord pardon this unto me I confess Lord I have stinted thee and I have limitted thee and I have said many times in my hast if this means fail then England is undone the Church undone thus I have limitted thee Lord Oh! herein I have wrong'd thee and robbed Christ in His Kingly fulness Yea Lord I do acknowledge and I do confess I have gone to creature-comforts and my heart hath taken a content and complacency as if there were enough there but now I see there is a fulness in Jesus Christ the Lord pardon me that ever I let out my heart upon any creature-comfort upon any thing but Jesus Christ You that have bin guilty fall down and humble your selves before the Lord and consider that there is a fulness in Jesus Christ and labor to draw out this fulness from Him Which that you may so do think on all these things and the Lord blesse them to you SERMON II. JOHN 1.16 Preached at Wapping Aug. 17. 1646. And of His Fulness have all we received even Grace for Grace I Have made entrance into these Words in a neighbouring Congregation and shal now desire to go on where I left there The Words hold forth Three Great Grand Propositions First That there is a Fulness of Grace in Jesus Christ Secondly That of His Fulness all we do receive Thirdly That we do receive of His Fulness even Grace for Grace The former Proposition I have dispatched and desire at this time to speak unto the second All we do receive of His Fulness Of His Fulness have all we received The difficulty that lies upon the Proposition is this Who are meant here by this All Wee Some there are that conceive that by those words we are to understand all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth because 't is said before in the beginning of the Chapter That He is the light that lighteth every one that cometh into the world But though the thing be true that there is no Creature either in Heaven or Earth but more or lesse is beholding to Jesus Christ for if Christ had not stept in upon the fall Gods displeasure was so great against man that he would presently have broke up house and the sin of the fall was so heavie that it would have broken the very Axel-tree of the World if Jesus Christ had not put to His shoulder according to that of the Apostle Heb. 1.3 He bears up all with the Word of His Power yet notwithstanding all the Creatures in Heaven or Earth cannot be meant here by this All Wee for all the creatures in Heaven and Earth do not receive Grace they may be said to receive of the Fulnesse of Christ but not Grace for Grace But at the 12. verse 't is said as many as received Him to them gave He power to become the Sons of God euen to them that beleeve in his Name Now in Scripture phrase those are said to receive Christ Himself that do receive His Grace and those that receive His Grace receive Christ Himself Understand therefore by this All Wee those that receive Him as ye have it in the 12. verse which is explained to be Them that beleeve in His Name And then the Observation or Doctrine lies plain before us which is this That all the Saints and People of God Doct. do pertake of the Fulness of Christ in a way of receiving It falls a sunder into Two parts Thus First That there is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Secondly That whatsoever Grace or Holiness the Saints have from Christ they have it in a way of receiving I shall only speak unto the former at this time There is a communication of the Fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers Of His Fulness all we receive mark There is a communication of the Fulnesse of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers He is the second Adam which the Apostle Paul speaks of in the 1 Cor. 15. Chapter and the 45. verse The first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit The whole world is divided into Two great Houses As once in this Kingdom There was the House of York And the House of Lancaster So now the whole world is divided into Two great Houses The House of the First Adam And the House of the Second Adam The first man Adam was made a living soul and the last Adam was made a quickning Spirit that is look as the first Adam did communicate life unto all his seed So the second Adam does communicate Spiritual life and grace unto all his people As by the first Adam sin and sorrow and death came into the world and so upon all man-kind So by the second Adam grace and life and eternal life unto all Beleevers There is a dealing out a giving out of the fulness of Jesus Christ unto all Beleevers This will appear First of all by the Union that there is between Christ 1 Reason and a Beleever there is a glorious a blessed an incomparable union between Christ and every Beleever though he be never so weak though he be never so poor There is a union between the Root and the Branches and by vertue of that union the Root sends forth life and strength into all the Branches but yet notwithstanding the Root is not in the Branches nor the Branches in the Root mutually There is a union between the Head and the Members and by vertue of that union the Head hath an influence upon all the Members but yet the Head is not in the Members nor the Members in the Head But