manifest signs and tokens of a person in slavery what 's the meaning that thou art so in love with sin and under the power and dominion of these and these Lusts that thou art so given to such and such wicked Ways and so contrary to all that is good That thou hast such an unclean Heart and such a disobedient Life such a dark Mind such vile Affections such a rebellious Will Why doth not this speak that thou art an Enemy to God and a Child of Wrath Would or could any Man or Woman live such a carnal vain Conversation as thine is if they were not in an unregenerate condition Therefore you read Joh. 16. 9. that it is the Spirit that reproves the world of sin Again It is the Spirit that humbles the soul that is to be saved that abases and laves it low in the sight of its own sin and misery that makes sin grievous and odious to it and that brings the Soul under a sense of that wrath that belongs to the workers of iniquity So that it shall cry out Oh what have I done Oh what have I deserved what a dangerous case am I in Here 's this and that sin forbidden by God and yet committed by me and thereupon the Law threatens thus and thus Oh how shall I escape Here 's this and that Duty commanded by God and yet neglected by me and thereupon the Law threatens thus and thus again Oh what shall become of me Hence that sorrow and heaviness that is in such a Soul now is called the spirit of heaviness Isa 61. 3. to note that this heaviness comes from the Spirit 't is he that sets the Soul a mourning thus Again It is the Spirit that discovers to the Soul that is to be saved where its remedy is for all this that acquaints it with the Gospel and Salvation by Christ and what things God hath freely given to his People in and by his Son 1 Cor. 2. 12. That shews it Tho thou art such a great sinner yet there is a great Saviour one that is a Physician appointed to cure such Diseases as thine are one that 's a Surety appointed to pay such Debts as thine are 'T is said here that the Spirit makes those who shall be saved to know such things as these are what God hath done for the raising and recovering of poor sinners in a way of free Grace what a glorious Contrivance he hath found out by Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel to shew mercy to them and indeed that 's a knowing that is worth the having to know these things so as the Spirit makes them known to the People of God There be many that have a kind of Knowledge of these things by bare reading of them and hearing of them and by common Illumination of the Spirit but this knowing here is another manner of thing Again It is the Spirit that doth help and inable the Soul to look out for this Christ to use all the means and to go all the ways that may be to come to this Christ and to get an interest in him that works in it faith to lay hold upon him and that makes the Soul able to take him Eph. 3. 16 17. That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthned with might by his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith Mark 't is the Spirit that by his might doth strengthen the inner man that Christ may dwell in the heart by faith Take notice by the way what a deal of Power there must go out from this Spirit to make a Soul believe with the true saving Faith They that have the false Faith they can believe with ease there needs not an Almighty Arm to be stretched out to work their Faith they give it themselves and have had it all their days they find no difficulty either in the getting of it or in the keeping of it But the true Faith comes into the hearts of Saints by no less a strength than that which God by his Spirit puts forth See Eph. 1. 19 20. Again It is the Spirit that seals and witnesses to the Soul the Assurance that this Freedom doth belong to it and that proves to the Soul that it is so by such Evidences as it gives out of the Word Eph. 1. 13. This is he that carries as I may say God's Privy Seal and when and to whom he pleases he gives it but he gives it to none but them that are sanctified The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show them his covenant And this is an unspeakable mercy to have the Spirits Seal set to our Graces to have ones repentance sealed for a true Repentance and ones faith sealed for a true Faith and ones comfort sealed for true Comfort and ones interest in Christ sealed up We must make our state of Grace sure by Signs but the Spirit can make it sure by Seal Again It is the Spirit that ingages and stirs up the Soul to such a walking as is sit for one that is brought into a state of Freedom therefore 1 Pet. 1. 2. the People of God are said to have the sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience And Oh! how much are they beholding unto this Spirit for many heavenly Notions that he gives in to them and for fresh quicknings when they find abundance of deadness and formality in their Duties hath seised upon them This Spirit is often calling upon the Saints to pray more fervently to hear more profitably to walk more closely to bring forth more fruit to God who hath done so much for them It often minds them of their Mercies that they may be more stirred up to Duties and of the hope of their Calling that so they may walk more worthy of it Again It is the Spirit that preserves and keeps them in the state of Freedom that they shall not lose it again and that makes them to persevere to the end in a holy life that so they may come at last to the full injoyment of all that their dear Redeemer hath purchased and prepared for them This Spirit is that Power of God by which they are said through Faith to be kept unto Salvation See Ezek. 36. 27. Thus you see that both the Father and the Holy Ghost have a hand in this Freedom But yet according to the second thing that was said in answer to the Question our Freedom in other respects comes from Christ personally and peculiarly so as that in some sense he is and must be look'd upon as more immediatly our Redeemer for he did that in his Person which the other Persons did not They did not take our nature and come in the likeness of sinful flesh but the Son did Rom. 8. 3. and therefore 't was not they but he that was made under the Law and that yielded perfect obedience to it neither did they but he died
his conscience and great zeal for the purity of Gospel-worship kept him from conformity Hereupon with some thousands of his brethren he was slain by that fatal Axe the Act of Bartholomew-day O! when will the living God give them resurrection Lord revive thy work in the midst of our days in the midst of judgment remember mercy These Abels tho dead are yet speaking The Bush burns and is not consumed Certainly God hath some great work for them who tho sentenced unto death are yet alive We hope in the living God who quickneth the dead who hath delivered them from many and great deaths we hope I say that he will yet deliver them from this death also For sometime after his silencing Mr. Ball lived in the same Parish where he had been formerly Minister and when the Oxford Act came forth he removed five Miles farther Where he peaceably behaved himself and won upon many of a different perswasion by his moderation sweetness of deportment and holy and unblameable conversation He bore a singular love to all that lookt heavenward tho of a different perswasion from himself therefore kept up a brotherly and Christian correspondence with that worthy Conformist in whose Parish he lived He judged it his duty to preach and that necessity was laid upon him a wo unto him if he did not preach the Gospel Hereupon be neither could nor would be idle but preached frequently and studied to preach in such times and places as were least offensive to authority It grieved him to hear his spiritual children complain they wanted Bread when he had it for them Very many reaped the fruit and benefit of his labours since he was outed his publick Ministry as Cambridg Epping Bayford and other places to which he was related He spent himself in doing good to Souls for maintenance he relied upon that providence which feeds the fowls and cloathes the Lillies and was of blessed Mr. Hierons mind That God who feeds the Ravens would not starve his young Hierons And indeed his numerous family were maintained to a miracle He sought not the world but his God He did his masters work trusting to his bounty for wages and would often say he never lived better than when he knew not how to live He liv'd by faith upon Gods promises committed his ways unto God and had a firm perswasion that the Lord would provide for him and his which was verified He kept a Diary of Gods providences to himself and family of mercies and afflictions of supports and deliverances This quickned him unto thankfulness these experiences strengthned his faith and made him abound in hope in the Lord his God When his goods were seized on for preaching contrary to Law this holy man took that spoil patiently and joyfully knowing that he had a better and more enduring substance reserved in the Heavens and that those losses sustained for Christ and a good conscience would prove gains at last and work out for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory If he was concerned it was for his enemies whom he pitied from his Soul and for whom he prayed as his Lord and Master that they might be forgiven because they knew not that they did the Devils work His great labours in his Masters Vineyard shortned his days but drew him the nearer and sooner to his rest In his sickness his patience was most exemplary bearing his pains with a Christian fortitude resigning himself for life and death unto his Lords disposal For him to live was to glorifie Christ to die gain So he might be farther useful and serviceable in his Ministry he was well contented with life but to be dissolved and to be at home with Christ being better for him in case of unserviceableness this was earnestly desired by him To such as visited him in his languishing he gave serious counsels of providing in health for sickness in life for death in time for eternity He was much in prayer for the afflicted Church of God bitterly lamenting the case of England mourning for those great sins committed in the midst of us and trembling at the thoughts of those heavy Judgments hanging over our heads He sadly and sorrowfully laid to heart the unnatural breaches among Protestants the divisions of Reuben the quarrels and enmities among Joseph's Brethren especially now the Canaanite was in the Land He was grieved at the heart for the unbecoming lives of many Ministers and of multitudes of professors of so pure a Religion whose lives indeed are a flat contradiction to it and for whose abominations God would certainly visit unless there were speedy sincere and extraordinary humbling and reforming with seven worse plagues than ever But the Lord took him from the evil to come after he had languished for some time in a Consumption and breathed ardently after Heaven and Glory He was called upon as the Witnesses to come up hither He had long waited for his blessed charge and that salvation he had believed prayed and expected the Lord his Master whom he had faithfully served put him into the possession of at last He left this life for a better this vale of tears for a Paradise of joys for rivers of evelasting pleasures the eight day of September and in the year of our Lord 1681. and the 58th year of his age Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Spiritual Bondage AND FREEDOM John 8. 36. If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed CHAP. I. The Text opened The Doctrine inferred thence The first Branch of it handled FOR the making of our passage clear to this Text we must look back a little upon the foregoing Verses where we shall see that Christ is a preaching to the people and what the success of his preaching was In his preaching amongst other things I would desire you specially to take notice of Two things that he delivers concerning himself which I mention because I would by no means have you to let them pass because they are of great moment to your Souls One is that in ver 12. a very precious place Christ was sent to give light to the World i. e. to bring them out of that darkness which they are in by nature 'T is just as if a man stood in some dismal dark place where he can see nothing knows not where he is nor whither to go and one comes to him with a light and if he does but follow it it brings him into the open view of things So Christ those that follow him he leads them into the light of life into the light of spiritual life that he shall see spiritual things which no man doth or can that does not follow Christ and into the light of Eternal life where at last he shall see and be with God for ever So that all that live without Christ they
There 's nothing doth more harden the heart than despair doth the more this is is increased the more sin is strengthned A despairing sinner will grow a desperate sinner he will not care how much he sins They that think they have sinned themselves past mercy will fill up their sins apace 'T is the hope of finding mercy that must bring us back to the fear of God without that a man will cast off all at once and think that he cannot sin too much And no doubt this is that which makes some in the world to be so exceedingly prophane as they are and to be the wonders of the Age they live in for monstrous iniquity that they carry themselves as if they were turned into devils and would even dare God to damn them Why 't is like if one could see how 't is within them that they have through God's just Judgment upon them a secret mis-giving of heart that they shall never be saved they have taken up that desperate Conclusion and thereupon they harden themselves to excessive ungodliness and live as tho they had bid defiance to all sober Conversation That person blocks up his own way to repentance for sin that casts off the hope of being forgiven See Psal 130. 4. There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared That which brings us to the fear of God is the hope of finding forgiveness with him And therefore 't is a very sad thing and much to be prayed against to be delivered up to a hopeless heart and they that have provoked God by sinning much already do provoke him more by despairing of mercy 3. 'T is all one to Free Grace whether thou art a great sinner or a little one God can pardon abundantly tho thou hast sined abundantly do but forsake thy sins and then need as much pardon as thou wilt thou shalt have it Isa 55. 7. The infinite mercy of God knows well enough what to do with a great sinner that 's a notable place Rom. 5. 20. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound Mark what words are here he doth not say barely where there was sin committed but where sin abounded nor only there grace was manifested but there it abounded yea and abounded more than sin abounded yea and much more 'T is much that a sinner can sin but 't is more that God can pardon Isa 1. 18. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool He makes but a though of scarlet and crimson sins he brings it in twice with that word though and though as if he should say My mercy is not posed for all this Whatever Mercy will do it doth it without difficulty You know there be some things that you can do with ease small matters you make nothing of them but then there be some other things that though you can do them yet 't is difficulty you must put out all that is in you all your skill and all your strength but so needs not God to pardon the greatest sinner that is he can do it with ease In some sense it is harder to God to punish than it is to pardon When he comes to punish he speaks as if 't were hard to him Hos 11. 8. How shall I give thee up O Ephraim c. But when he comes to pardon 't is spoken of him as if that were easie Mic. 7. 18. who delighteth in mercy and what we delight in we do with ease 4. Tho thou art a great sinner yet thou art not a sinner in hell thou art a sinner upon earth still And there is this difference betwixt sinners upon earth and sinners in hell that the first are yet under hope while the others are past it It is thy great misery that thou art yet among the unconverted but 't is great mercy that thou art not among the damned The place in which thou yet art is the place of repentance and not of punishment We must look upon no sinners as past hope that are not past this life Why thou livest yet Christ hath not denounced the final sentence against thee thou hast not yet stood before his Judgment-seat and heard him say to thee Depart thou cursed into everlasting fire What is the patience and long-suffering of God towards thee for but to shew thee that thy condition is yet recoverable 2 Pet. 3. 9. It is enough to answer thy despairing thoughts to tell thee that yet the Lord waits to be gracious Dost thou not see how God doth lengthen out the thread of thy life day after day He could snatch thee away in an instant but yet he continues thee where thou hast Calls and Means and Opportunities for the good of thy Soul Why 't is not thus with those that are in Hell they are beyond all help and beyond all hope but thou art not through the riches of the goodness of God The great thing that thou wantest is but a heart to know the things of thy Peace in the day of thy Visitation 5. The closing with this Freedom which Christ offers thee may make thee as great a Saint as now thou art a great Sinner As it did Paul what a Sinner was he before he closed with Christ and what a Saint did he become afterwards This Freedom will make a strange alteration in thee if thou gettest but a share in that Such is the power and excellency of God's Grace that where that comes in truth it turns things upside down it makes an enemy to God a friend of God a hater of Goodness to be a lover of Goodness 2 Cor. 5. 17. Art thou a great Sinner now ay but don't be out of hope for all that for if thou once come in to Jesus Christ thou wilt be a new man If now thou hast an hard heart this Freedom will break it if now thou hast a stubborn will against God this Freedom will make thee obedient there is help in Christ against all this It is very observable that many times those who have been the most forward for sin when the Lord hath wrought savingly in them they have proved to be the most forward and the most famous for Goodness and God hath had no greater Instruments of his Glory in all the World than some who before they were converted brought him most Dishonour Well all this now is spoken to take away your hopelessness that I may not have this stumbling-block in my way while I would be calling upon you to look out for a share in this Freedom that any of you should be under despairing thoughts about the getting of it and so lye still and let all be as ' t is You know that man will hardly be brought to do much in a thing concerning which he despairs that it will never come to pass I would have you think that the business of your Salvation as great Sinners as any of you are is
heart of Boaz inclined to her first he highly commends her for her pitching upon him that she would be satisfied with none but him v. 10. and then he promises her that he would grant her all her request v. 11. and then in the next chap. he doth solemnly Marry her So the Lord Jesus is inclinable and willing to Marry you Go and try if he be not Lye you at his feet beg earnestly that he would spread his Skirt over you see if he do not can you think that he is not willing when instead of your coming to woo Christ as Ruth here did Boaz Christ comes to woo you he would fain be your Saviour be your Husband he tells you so and all that when you have him you may have Rest and that it may be well with you which it never will till you have him Again Another Name by which this Freedom by Christ is set forth to shew the excellency of it is Health or Healing Isa 53. 5. With his stripes we are healed we get Health by them 't is all one with this Freedom here And Psal 67. 2. where this is prayed for that it might be manifested to the World and that the knowledg of Salvation by Christ might be spread all over the Earth as it was to be in the days of the Gospel 't is called Saving Health That thy way may be known upon earth thy saving health among all nations Now you all know what an excellent thing Health is some by the enjoying of it and some by the want of it this is such a mercy that whatever one hath besides yet if there be no Health with it all is imbittered it makes life it self burdensom and uncomfortable and tho ones condition in the World be but poor in other respects yet sometimes you shall hear people say but thanks be to God they have their Health tho and as long as they have that they may make the better shift Health beloved is more then a single mercy 't is a double treble yea a tenfold yea a hundredfold mercy because it helps us to take the comfort and taste the sweetness of all else what is all the World to a man that is very Sick or near to Death Health is such an excellent thing that no body can tell what to do without it 'T is an usual expression or cry with persons that have it not and are Sick and are in pain oh what shall I do and you know how they will be enquiring of this Neighbour and that which comes to visit them whether they can tell what they should take and they 'l send to the Physician and he must come and see them and tho he prescribes sharp or loathsom things yet they 'l take them they 'l Purge they 'l Vomit they 'l Bleed they 'l Sweat and all to have their Health again Well now this is the nature of this Freedom by Christ 't is Health if a man be Sick at his very heart 't will recover him if he be never so like to dye I mean by it if he be never so like to be damned which is the Second and the worst Death If he never so much faint away in his Spirits through the Anguish and Terror of a wounded Conscience yet this Freedom by Christ if he believes in it will fetch him again if he hath never so many sores this will bind him up There are some very observable things about Christs manner of healing while he was here upon Earth I would desire you to take much notice of them because the thing that we are to gather from it is what this same bealing Freedom by Christ will do 1. Observe That Christs manner of healing persons that were diseased was by touching he touched them and they touched him See Matth. 8. 3 15. There Christ touched them and in Mark 6. 56. There you find that they touched Christ now there is much to be learnt by this If you would have healing by Christ he must touch you by the finger of his Spirit for 't is spiritual healing that we are now speaking of and therefore the touch must be spiritual now both in him and you and you must touch him by the finger of Faith for you must have Faith to be healed See what a Question Christ put to the Blind men Matth. 9. vers 27. Two blind men followed him crying and saying Thou Son of David have mercy on us then v. 28. you have his Question Believe ye that I am able to do this And their Answer They said unto him Yea Lord. And what followed upon it you read afterwards vers 29 30. Then touched he their eyes saying According to your faith be it unto you And their eyes were opened So you have such and such spiritual diseases you have inward blindness and inward deafness and inward hardness but do you believe that Christ can heal you Doth not unbelief keep off the cure in you Do you touch him by Faith Christ and you as I said but now must touch one another that you may be healed He by his Spirit and you by your Faith Beloved this finger of the Spirit is such a thing that by it Christ can touch you tho you be upon Earth and on the other side this finger of Fath is such a thing that by it you can touch Christ tho he be in Heaven If Christ doth but send his Spirit to you it will tell you where you are it will find you out and it will give you such a touch as you 'l never forget and when Christ hath thus touched you he will help you to touch him he will work Faith in you by his Spirit Oh! look after these touches and don't think you are healed if Christ hath not touched you and you have not touched him 2. Observe that as they must touch him that would be healed so they were healed if they did but touch him Matth. 9. 20 21. Here is a great deal of comfort for weak believers Many a poor Soul is ready to think that because they have not Faith in that strength and growth and full assurance that some have therefore alas they shall get nothing from Christ do no good at all with that poor sorry staggering Faith of theirs Truly poor Soul I wish thy Faith were stronger but I tell thee if thou hast but a grain of true Faith tho it be never so weak if it be but true 't will bring thee a cure for 't will touch Christ if it be true tho never so small 3. Observe that as many as touched him were healed Mark 6. last words of the chapt He did not turn away one that did it he accepted of the weakest Faith there is not one that comes to Christ shall be refused 4. Observe that they who touched him were not almost healed by him but they were healed perfectly Matth. 14. 36. You that are the people of God you have yet a great many weaknesses and
that one that hath this Freedom were to walk in the flames of Hell they would not hurt him they would all part and give way as who should say this is one that we must not fasten upon as the Children of Israel past through the Red-Sea that dreadful gulf and all the waters fell back as if they were frighted at them why they were the people who were under Gods redeeming love therefore they were not drowned no not so much as wetted So if those who have obtained through faith a part in this Freedom were to pass to Heaven through Hell it would be with them as it were with the three Children when they were cast into the burning fiery furnance Dan. 3. 28 29. 3. That the highest mercy should be reconciled to the strictest justice It would have posed any but a God to tell what to say to this which way to shew the greatest severity against sin and yet to shew the greatest mercy to the sinner but by this Freedom this is done Mercy doth not fall out with Justice for being so terrible and Justice doth not fall out with Mercy for being so favourable but both are well pleased in what is done and so well pleased with one another that as Davids expression is they can kiss each other as most intimate loving Friends Gods Attributes as I may speak with reverence did never seem to be so near a falling out as when the Covenant of Works was broken by our first Parents Mercy lookt as if it would fain have pittied us but Justice looked as if it would by no means let it these two they were only by way of allusion to it like the Twins in Rebekahs Womb that strugled together Gen. 25. 22. And one did not prevail over the other like two Armies when they fight and one puts the other to the worst and so gets the Victory but a sweet peace and harmony was kept between them by the intended Freedom that should be by Christ Take notice by the way what a dreadful breach sin made in our first Apostacy in that it did not only make us to fall out with God but also as much as lay in us to give an occasion if it had been possible for God to fall out with himself to set Attribute against Attribute Mercy against Justice and Justice against Mercy but now by this Freedom all is quiet and well enough on both sides as the Apostle saith when he is speaking of it in Gal. 3. 21. Is the law then against the promise God forbid 4. That one that hath but a little grace should be looked upon as one that hath no sin What a Wonder is this you have not one Child of God but is very ready to confess that he hath but a little grace yea you 'l say that 's their holy modesty and humilty it may be 't is not so indeed I grant it is so in some that they have much more of God and Christ in them then they desire to speak of and the more grace any one hath the more apt I think they are to bewail their own vileness and in this case we must not take every Child of God just at their word but we may tell some of them Come blessed be God you are better than you will acknowledg But really beloved there be some in Christ that have but a very little Grace some I know they have and they must have It is inconsistent with being truly in Christ to have no grace at all but there are some of them that are but new-born Babes their Grace is but like the bruised reed and the smoaking flax they be for their Souls as Zacheus was for his Body of whom 't is said that he was little of stature Luk. 19. 3. Now you may think that certainly they who have so little Grace must needs be counted by God to be persons that have a great deal of sin but in respect of their justification by Christ who hath made them free it is not so Observe 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God As if he should say Oh Friends you have a deal of filthiness yet to be got out of you both as to your outward conversation and as to your inward frame and you are very imperfect and short in point of holiness and grace and yet he had told them before cap. 5. 21. that being in Christ they were made or reckoned and counted such as had no less a righteousness than the righteousness of God 5. That the eyes of one should be opened that was born blind this is such a Wonder that you read in Joh. 9. 32. that since the World began 't was not heard that ever any man did it but this is done in this Freedom they who have it were born blind as blind as Moles and so continued in respect of spiritual sight till Christ had made them free and then as it is said of Saul immediately there fell from their eyes as it had been scales and they received sight forthwith This same Freedom by Christ is that eye salve which you read of Rev. 3. 18. If any hath but the eyes of his understanding anointed with it it will make him see that he never saw 't will make him behold wondrous things out of Gods law things that he past by and took no more notice of than a blind man doth of the beautifullest sight that ever was seen 6. That a man that is possessed by the Devil should have the Devil cast out of him Would you not count it a wonderful thing to see a man that had been possessed with the Devil and he his now cast out If any should tell you when you are in the streets There goes a man that a little while ago the Devil spoke in him and dwelt in him as a man doth in his own house where he counts himself at home how would you look upon and marvel to see such a man Well this Freedom is such a thing that it casts out Devils Mary Magdalen that was brought into it had seven Devils cast out of her what is the heart of men by nature but an habition of Devils 't is not an expression that at all deserves to be thought much on to say concerning wicked men That the Devil is in them the Scripture it self saies so Eph. 2. 2. and the Devil was in Judas Satan entred into him and where the Devil is there he will be he will keep his hold till this Freedom comes and then let him look to himself he shall be cast out tho he hath legions with him 'T is observable there in Luk. 10. how the seventy Disciples whom Christ had sent out to Preach this Freedom returned with joy to see what work the Gospel made with the powers of darkness Lord say they even the Devils are subject to us through thy name vers 17. And mark what Christ