men though they cannot be immortall on the earth themselves yet they affect an immortality in their names and dwelling places Psal. 49. 11. and therefore they desire to transmit their substance unto such successors as may haue wisedome and noblenesse of minde to continue it Now then if a man either have no heire or one that is so active as to alter or so carelesse and supine as to ruine all either base to dishonor the house or profuse to overthrow it these and many other the like doubts must needs infinitely perplex the mindes of men greedy to perpetuate their names and places Eccles. 2. 18. 19. The second thing which we proposed to consider in this argument was the Grounds of this Vexation I shall name but Three Gods Curse Mans Corruption and the Creatures Deceitfulnesse I have at large before insisted on the Curse considered alone now I am to shew in one word the issuing of Vexation therefrom The curse of the Creature is as it were the poison and contagion of it and let a man mixe poison in the most delicate wine it will but so much the easier by the nimblenesse of the spirits there invade the parts of the body and torment the bowels Gold of it selfe is a pretious thing but to be shackled with fetters of gold to have it turn'd into a use of bondage addes mockery to the affliction and farre more pretious to a particular man is a chaine of iron which drawes him out of a pit then a chaine of gold which clogs him in a prison a key of iron which lets him out of a dungeon then a barre of gold that shuts him in If a man should have a great Diamond curiously cut into sharpe angles worth many thousand pounds in his bladder no man would count him a rich but a miserable and a dead man this is just the case betweene a man and the Creatures of themselves without Christ to sanctifie them unto us though the things be excellent in their owne being yet mingled with our corruptions and lusts they are turned into poison into the Gall of Aspes within a man they will not suffer him to feele any quietnesse in his belly in the fulnesse of his sufficiencie he shall be in straights and while hee is eating the furie of wrath shall raine downe upon him Let a mans meate be never so sweet in it selfe yet if hee should temper the sawce with dirt out of a sinke it would make it altogether loathsome and a wicked man eates all his meate like swine wrapp'd up and over-dawb'd with dirt and curses A little saith Salomon which the righteous hath is better then great riches of the ungodly In se it is not but Quoad hominem in regard of the man it is for that little which a righteous man hath is to him an experience of Gods Promise a branch of his love a meanes of thankefull affections in him a viaticum unto heaven whereas the wicked mans abundance turnes into his greater curse their table becomes their snare and those things which should have been for their good prove unto them an occasion of falling God makes his Sunne to shine on the Iust and on the unjust on a garden of spices and on a dunghill but in the one it begetteth a sweete favour of praise and obedience in the other it raiseth up noisome lusts which prove a savour unto death And who had not rather be free in a cottage then condemn'd in a palace Saint Paul distinguisheth of a Reward and a Dispensation If I preach the Gospell willingly I have a Reward if against my will a Dispensation is committed unto me We may apply it to our purpose Those good things which the faithfull enjoy though but small are yet Rewards and Accessions unto the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and so long they bring joy and peace with them but unto the wicked they are meerely a Dispensation they have onely the burden and businesse not the Reward nor benediction of the Creature The second Ground is the Corruption of nature which maketh bitter and uncleane every thing that toucheth it It polluteth holy flesh much more will it pollute ordinary things We reade of a Roule which was sweete in the mouth but bitternesse in the belly Such are the Creatures In the bowels of men their hearts and consciences which are the Seminaries of Corruption they turne into gall however in the mouth they have some smatch of honie in them For this is a Constant Rule Then only doth the Creature satisfie a man when it is suteable to his occasions and necessâ—…ies The reason why the same proportion is unsufficient for a prince which is abundant for a private man is because the occasions of the prince are more vast massie and numerous then the occasions of a private man Now the desires and occasions of a man in Christ that doth not ransacke the Creature for Happinesse are limited and shortned whereas another mans are still at large for he is in a way his eye is upon an end he useth the world but as an Inne and no man that travels home-ward will multiply businesses unnecessarily upon himselfe in the way In his house he can finde sundry employments to busie himselfe about the education of his children the governement of his family the managing of his estate are able to fill up all his thoughts whereas in the Inne he cares for nothing but his refreshment and rest So here The faithfull make their home their businesse how to have their conversation in Heaven how to have a free and comfortable use of the fooâ—…e of life how to relish the mercies of God how to governe their evill hearts how to please God their father and Christ their husband how to secure their interest in their expected inheritance how to thrive in grace to bee rich in good workes to purchase to themselves a further degree of glory how to entaile their spirituall riches to their posterity in a pious education of their children these are their employments the things of this life are not matters of their Home but onely comfortable refreshments in the way which therefore they use not as their grand occasions to create businesses to them but only as interims and necessary respites So that hereby their occasions being few and narrow those things which they here enjoy are unto those occasions largely suteable and by consequent very satisfactory unto their desires But worldly men are here at Home they have their portion in this life hereupon their desires are vast and their occasions springing out of those desires infinite A man in the right way findes at last an end to his journey but hee that is out of the way wanders infinitely without any successe Rest is that which the desires and wings of the soule doe still carry men upon Now the faithfull being alwayes in the way doe with comfort goe on though it be peradventure deepe and heavie
tasting no sense that is the instrument of so neere a union as that So then as the motion of the mouth in eating is not in the nature of a motion any whit more excellent then the motion of the eye or foote or of it selfe in speaking yet in the instrumentall office of life and nourishment it is farre more necessarie So though Faith in the substance of it as it is an inherent qualitie hath no singular excellencie above other graces yet as it is an instrument of conveying Christ our spirituall Bread unto our soules and so of assimilating and incorporating us into Him which no other Grace can doe no more then the motion of the eye or foote can nourish the body so it is the most pretious and usefull of all others It may be objected doe not other graces joyne a man unto Christ as well as Faith Vnion is the proper effect of Love therefore wee are one with Christ as well by loving Him as by beleeving in Him To this I answere that Love makes onely a morall union in affections but Faith makes a mysticall union a more close and intimate fellowship in nature betweene us and Christ. Besides Faith is the immediate tie betweene Christ and a Christian but love a secondary union following upon and grounded on the former By nature we are all enemies to Christ and His Kingdome of the Iewes minde wee will not have this man to raigne over us therefore till by Faith wee are throughly perswaded of Christs Love to us we can never repay Love to Him againe Herein is Love saith the Apostle not that wee loved God but that Hee loved us and sent His Sonne 1. Ioh. 4 10. Now betweene Gods Love and ours comes Faith to make us One with Christ we have knowne and beleeved the Love that God hath to us ver 16. And hence it followes that because by Faith as Hee is so are wee in this world therefore Our love to Him is made perfect and so wee love Him because Hee first loved us vers 19. So that we see the union we have with Christ by Love presupposeth the Vnitie wee have in Him by Faith so Faith still hath the preeminence The second office wherein consists the excellencie of Faith is a consequent of the former namely to justifie a man for there is no man righteous in the sight of God any further then he is taken into the unitie of Christ and into the fellowship of His Merits God is alone well pleased in Christ and till a man be a member of His Bodie a part of His fulnesse hee cannot appeare in Gods presence This was the reason why Christ would have none of His bones broken or taken of from the Communion of His naturall body Ioh. 19. 36. to note the indissoluble union which was to bee betweene Him and His mysticall Members So that now as in a naturall bodie the member is certainely fast to the whole so long as the bones are firme and sound so in the mysticall where the body is there must every member be too because the bones must not be broken asunder If then Christ goe to Heaven if Hee stand unblameable before Gods justice we al shal in him appeare so too because his bones cannot be broken That which thus puts us into the Vnitie of Christ must needs Iustifie our persons and set us right in the presence of God and this is our Faith The Apostle gives two excellent reasons why our Iustification should be of Faith rather then of any other grace The first on Gods part that it might bee of Grace The second on the part of the promise that the promise might be sure to all the seede Rom. 4. 16. First Iustification that is by Faith is of meere Grace and favour no way of worke or merit For the Act whereby Faith Iustifies is an act of humility and selfe-dereliction a holy despaire of any thing in our selves and a going to Christ a receiving a looking towards Him and His Al-sufficiencie so that as Marie said of her selfe so we may say of Faith The Lord hath respect unto the lowlynes of his grace which is so farre from looking inward for matter of Iustification that it selfe as it is a worke of the heart 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 credere doth not justifie but onely as it is an apprehension or taking hold of Christ. For as the hand in the very receiving of a thing must needs first make it selfe emptie If it bee full before it must let all that goe ere it can take hold on any other thing So Faith being a receiving of Christ Ioh. 1. 12. must needes suppose an emptinesse in the soule before Faith hath two properties as a Hand To worke and to receive when Faith purifies the heart supports the droaping spirits worketh by love carries a man through afflictions and the like these are the workes of Faith when Faith Accepts of righteousnesse in Christ and receives Him as the gift of His Fathers Love when it embraceth the promises a farre of Heb. 11. 13. and layes hold on Eternall Life 1. Tim. 6. 12. This is the receiving act of Faith Now Faith justifies not by working lest the effect should not bee wholly of Grace but partly of Grace and partly of worke Ephesians 2. 8 9. but by bare receiving and accepting or yeelding consent to that righteousnesse which in regard of working was the righteousnesse of Christ Rom. 5. 18. and in regard of disposing imputing appropriating unto us was the righteousnesse of God Rom. 3. 21. 1. Cor. 1 30. Phil 3. 9. To make the point of Iustification by the receiving and not the working of Faith plaine let us consider it by a familiar similitude Suppose a Chirurgian should perfectly cure the hand of a poore man from some desperate wound which utterly disabled him for any worke when he hath so done should at one time freely bestow some good almes upon the man to the receiving whereof he was enabled by the former cure and at another time should set the man about some worke unto the which likewise the former cure had enabled him and the worke being done should give him a reward proportionable to his labour I demaund which of these two gifts are arguments of greater grace in the man either the recompensing of that labour which was wrought by the strength hee restored or the free bestowing of an equall gift unto the receiving whereof likewise he himselfe gave abilitie Any man will easily answere that the gift was a worke of more free grace then the reward though unto both way was made by His owne mercifull cure for all the mercy which was shewed in the cure was not able to nullifie the intrinsecall proportion which afterwards did arise betweene the worke and the reward Now this is the plaine difference betweene our doctrine and the doctrine of our adversaries in the point of Iustification They say we are justified by Grace and yet by workes because
loved the World that He gave His Son Herein is Love not that we loved Him but that Hee loved us and sent His Son The love must needs go before the gift because the gift is an effect a token a testimonie of the Love Christ first loved the Church before He gave Himselfe for it Now then if the first Love of God to man was not procured merited or excited by Christ Himselfe as Mediator but was altogether absolute much lesse doth the Love of God ground it selfe upon any thing in us The whole series of our Salvation is made up without respect to any thing of ours or from us He Loved us without cause or ground in our selves For we Love Him because He first loved us He elected us of meere grace without cause or ground from our selves There is a remnant saith the Apostle according to the Election of grace and if of grace then is it no more of workes otherwise grace is no more grace Hee called us without Intuition of any thing in our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle not according to our owne workes but according to His purpose and grace He called us with an Holy calling He Iustified us without any ground in or from our selves frely by his grace when we were enemies and ungodly persons He saveth us without any ground in and from our selv's By grace ye are sav'd through faith that not of your selvs ' There is nothing in us of which wee may boast in the matter of Salvation and therefore there is nothing in us which should make us despaire or flie from God for all the gradations and progresses of our Salvation are alone from His Grace Secondly because there is an All-sufficiencie in the righteousnesse and merits of Christ To cleanse all sin To consummate all our saluation to subdue all our enemies To answere all our objections to silence all challenges and charges that are laid against us Thirdly because of the manifold experiences which many other grievous sinners have found of the same love and All-sufficiencie When Faith lookes upon a converted Manasse upon a thiefe translated into paradise upon a persecutor turned into an Apostle and when it considers that God hath a residue of spirit still that the blood of Christ is an inexhausted fountaine and that these spectacles of Gods compassion are in the Scriptures exhibited that wee through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope and that God in them did shew forth all long suffering for a patterne to those who should after beleeue in Him It then makes a man reflect inward upon himselfe and resolve to trie that gate at which they have entered before Fourthly because there is a generalitie and unlimitednesse in the Invitation unto Christ. Come unto mee all that are wearie Let every one that will come There is in Christ erected an Office of Salvation a Heavenly Chancerie of equitie and mercie not onely to moderate the rigor but to reverse and revoke the very acts of the Law Christ is set foorth or proposed openly as a Sanctuarie and ensigne for the natious to flie unto and He hath sent His Ambassadors abroad to warne and to invite every man As a Fountaine is open for any man to drinke and a schoole for any man to learne and the Gate of a Citie for any man to enter and a Court of Equitie for any man to relieve himselfe so Christ is publikely and universally set forth as a generall refuge from the wrath to come upon no other condition then such a will as is nor onely desirous to enjoy His mercie but to submit to His Kingdome and glorifie the power of His Spirit and Grace in new obedience Fifthly because God Himselfe workes the worke and the will in us For in the new Covenant God workes first In the first Covenant man was able by his created and naturall strength to worke his owne condition and so to expect Gods performance But in the New as there is difference in the things covenanted then only righteousnesse and Salvation now remission of sinnes and adoption in the meanes or intermediate causes which are now Christ and His righteousnesse and Spirit in the stability that a perishable this an eternall and finall Covenant that can never be changed in the conditions there legall obedience heere only faith and the certaine consequent thereof repentance So likewise is there difference in the manner of performing these conditions for now God Himselfe beginnes first to worke upon us and in us before we move or stirre towards Him Hee doth not onely commaund us and leave us to our created strength to obey the Command but He furnisheth us with His owne Grace and Spirit to fulfill the Commaund and when He bids us come unto Him He doth likewise draw us unto Him In this Covenant the first Treatie is betweene God and Christ. For though the Covenant be betweene God and us yet the negotiation and transaction of it is betweene God and Christ who was a suretie of the Covenant for us For first God in His decree of Love bestowed us upon Christ. Thine they were and thou gavest them unto me we were chosen in Him wee to be members in Him and He to be a Head and Fountaine unto us of all grace and glorie For God had committed unto Him an Office of power to redeeme His Church and He received a Commandement from His Father to finish the worke of mediation Secondly being thus made Christs partly by the gift of Gods eternall Love partly by Christs owne voluntarie susception of that Office whereby He was to be a Head and Captaine of Salvation to His Members God in due time reveales Himselfe His Name Power and Covenant unto us I have manifested thy Name unto the men which thou gavest mee and this is the tender of the Covenant and beginning of a Treaty with us And here God beginnes to worke in us for though the Covenant be proposed under a condition yet God gives us as well the condition as the Covenant Our Faith is the operation of God and the work of his Power that which he requires of us He doth bestow upon us and here the first worke of God is spiritual and heavenly teaching The second is the terminus or product of that teaching our learning which I call Gods worke not as if we did nothing when we are said to learne and to come unto Christ but because all that we doe is by the strength and grace which from Him we receive wee come unto Christ as a childe may be said to come unto his mother or nurse who holds him at a distance from her selfe and drawes him neerer and neerer when she cals him Thus as we were made Christs by donation Thou gavest them me so after likewise by incorporation
his favour reconciled unto us nor reunited by his Blessing unto the Creature but onely in and through Christ. So then the minde of a man is fully and onely satisfied with the Creature when it findes God and Christ together in it God making the Creature suteable to our inferior desires and Christ making both God and the Creature Ours God giving Proportion and Christ giving Propriety These things thus explained let us now consider the Insufficiencie of the Creature to conferre and the Vnsatisfiablenesse of the flesh to receive any solid or reall satisfaction from any of the workes which are done under the Sunne Man is naturally a proud Creature of high projects of unbounded desires ever framing to himselfe I know not what imaginarie and phantasticall felicities which have no more proportion unto reall and true contentment then a king on a stage to a king on a throne then the houses which children make of cards unto a princes palace Ever since the fall of Adam he hath an itch in him to be a god within himselfe the fountaine of his owne goodnesse the contriver of his owne sufficiencie loth hee is to goe beyond himselfe or what hee thinkes properly his owne for that in which hee resolveth to place his rest But alas after hee hath toil'd out his heart and wasted his spirits in the most exact inuentions that the Creature could minister unto him Salomon here the most experienc'd for enquirie the most wise for contrivance the most wealthy for compassing such earthly delights hath after many yeeres sitting out the finest flowre and torturing nature to extract the most exquisite spirits and purest quintessence which the varieties of the Creatures could afford at last pronounced of them all That they are Vanitie and vexation of spirit Like Thornes in their gathering they pricke that is their Uexation and in their burning they suddenly blaze and waste away that is their Uanitie Vanitie in their duration fraile and perishable things and Vexation in their enjoyment they nothing but molest and disquiet the heart The eye saith Salomon is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare with hearing Notwithstanding they be the widest of all the senses can take in more abundance with lesse satiety and serue more immediately for the supplies of the reasonable Soule yet a mans eye-strings may even cracke with vehemencie of poring his eares may be filled with all the varietie of the most exquisite sounds and harmonies and lectures in the world and yet still his Soule within him be as greedy to see and heare more as it was at first Who would have thought that the favour of a prince the adoration of the people the most conspicuous honours of the court the liberty of utterly destroying his most bitter adversaries the sway of the sterne and universall negotiations of state the concurrency of all the happinesse that wealth or honour or intimatenesse with the prince or Deity with the people or extremitie of luxurie could afford would possibly have left any roome or nooke in the heart of Haman for discontent and yet doe but observe how the want of one Iewes knee who dares not give divine worship to any but his Lord blasts all his other glories brings a damp upon all his other delights makes his head hang downe and his mirth wither so little leaven was able to sowre all the Queenes banquet and the Kings favour Ahab was a king in whom therefore wee may justly expect a confluence of all the happinesse which his dominions could afford a man that built whole cities and dwelt in Ivorie palaces and yet the want of one poore Vineyard of Naboth brings such a heavinesse of heart such a deadnesse of countenance on so great a person as seemed in the judgement of Iezabel farre unbeseeming the honour and distance of a prince Nay Salomon a man every way more a king both in the minde and in the state of a king then Ahab a man that did not use the Creature with a sensuall but with a criticall fruition To finde out that good which God had given men under the sunne and that in such abundance of all things learning honour pleasure peace plenty magnificence fortaine supplies roiall visits noble confederacies as that in him was the patterne of a compleat prince beyond all the plat-formes and Ideas of Plato and Zenophon and yet even he was never able to repose his heart upon any or all these things together till he brings in the feare of the Lord for the close of all Lastly looke on the people of Israel God had delivered them from a bitter thraldome had divided the sea before them and destroied their enemies behind them had given them bread from heaven and fed them with angels foode had commanded the rocke to satisfie their thirst and made the Cananites to melt before them his mercies were magnified with the power of his miracles and his miracles crowned with the sweetenesse of his mercies besides the assurance of great promises to bee performed in the holy land and yet in the midst of all this wee finde nothing but murmuring and repining God had given them meat for their faith but they must have meate for their lust too it was not enough that God shewed them mercies unlesse his mercies were dressed up and fitted to their palate They tempted God and limited the holy one of Israel saith the Prophet So infinitely unsatisfiable is the fleshly heart of man either with mercies or miracles that bring nothing but the Creatures to it The ground whereof is the Vast disproportion which is betweene the Creature and the soule of man whereby it comes to passe that it is absolutely impossible for one to fill up the other The soule of man is a substance of unbounded desires and that will easily appeare if wee consider him in any estate either Created or Corrupted In his Created estate he was made with a Soule capable of more glory then the whole earth or all the frame of nature though changed into one Paradise could haue afforded him for he was fitted unto so much honour as an infinite and everlasting Communion with God could bring along with it And now God never in the Creation gave unto any Creature a propercapacitie of a thing unto which hee did not withall implant such motions and desires in that Creature as should be some what suteable to that capacitie and which might if they had beene preserved intire haue brought man to the fruition of that Good which he desired For notwithstanding it be true That the glory of God cannot be attain'd unto by the vertue of any action which man either can or ever could haue performed yet God was pleased out of Mercie for the magnifying of his name for the Communicating of his glory for the advancement of his Creature to enter into Covenant with man and for his naturall obedience to promise him a supernaturall reward And this I say was even then out of Mercie in
as much as Adams legall obedience of workes could no more in any vertue of its owne but onely in Gods mercifull contract and acceptance merit everlasting life then our Evangelicall Obedience of faith can now Only the difference betweene the mercie of the first and second Covenant and it is a great difference is this God did out of mercie propose Salvation unto Adam as an Infinite Reward of such a finite Obedience as Adam was able by his owne created abilities to have performed As if a man should give a Day-laborer a hundred pound for his daies worke which performe indeed hee did by his owne strength but yet did not merit the thousandth part of that wages which he receives But Gods mercy untous is this That he is pleased to bestow upon us not onely the reward but the worke and merit which procured the reward that he is pleased in vs to reward another mans worke even the worke of Christ our head as if when one onely Captaine had by his wisedome discomfited and defeated an enemie the prince notwithstanding should reward his alone seruice with the advancement of the whole armie which he led But this by the way Certaine in the meane time it is that God created man with such capacities and desires as could not be limited with any or all the excellencies of his fellow and finite Creatures Nay looke even upon Corruptednature and yet there we shall still discover this restlesnesse of the minde of man though in an evill way to promote it selfe whence arise distractions of heart thoughts for to morrow rovings and inquisitions of the soule after infinite varieties of earthly things swarmes of lusts sparkles of endlesse thoughts those secret flowings and ebbes and tempests and Estuations of that sea of corruption in the heart of man but because it can never finde any thing on which to rest or that hath roome enough to entertaine so ample and so endlesse a guest Let us then looke a little into the particulars of that great disproportion and Insufficiencie of any or all the Creatures under the sun to make up an adequate and suteable Happinesse for the soule of man Salomon here expresseth it in Two words Vanitie and Uexation From the first of these wee may observe a threefold disproportion betweene the Soule and the Creatures First in regard of their nature and worth they are base in comparison of the Soule of man When David would shew the infinite distance betweene God and man in power and strength he expresseth the basenesse of man by his vanitie To be laid in the ballance they are altogether lighter then vanitie Psal. 62. 9. And surely if we waigh the Soule of man and all the Creatures under the Sunne together we shall finde them lighter then Vanitie it selfe All the Goodnesse and honour of the Creature ariseth from one of these Two grounds Either from mans coining or from Gods either from Opinion imposed upon them by men or from some Reall qualities which they have in their nature Many things there are which have all that worth and estimation which they carry amongst men not from their owne qualities but from humane institution or from some difficulties that attend them or from some other outward Imposition When a man gives monie for meate we must not thinke there is any naturall proportion of worth betweene a piece of silver and a piece of flesh for that worth which is in the meate is its owne whereas that which is in the monie is by humane appointment The like we may say for great titles of honour and secular degrees though they bring authoritie distance reverence with them from other men yet notwithstanding they doe not of themselves by any proper vertue of their owne put any solid and fundamentall merit into the man himselfe Honour is but the raising of the rate and value of a man it carrie nothing of substance necessarily along with it as in raising the valuations of gold from twenty shillings to twenty two the matter is the same only the estimation different It is in the Power of the king to raise a man out of the prison like Ioseph and give him the â—â—xt place unto himselfe Now this then is a plaine argument of the great basenesse of any of these things incomparison of the Soule of man and by consequence of their great disability to satisfie the same for can a man make any thing equall to himselfe can a man advance a piece of gold or silver into a reasonable a spirituall an eternall substance A man may make himselfe like these things he may debase himselfe into the vilenesse of an Idoll They that make them are like unto them hee may under-value and uncoyne himselfe blot out Gods Image and Inscription and write in the image and inscription of earth and Satan he may turne himselfe into brasse and iron and reprobate silver as the Prophet speakes but never can any man raise the Creatures by all his estimations to the worth of a man we cannot so much as change the color of a haire or adde a cubite to our stature much lesse can we make any thing of equall worth with our whole selves We read indeed of some which have sold the righteous and that at no great rate neither for a paire of shooes Ioel 3. 6. Amos 2. 6. but we see there how much the Lord abhorr'd that detestable fact and recompenc'd it upon the necke of the oppressors How many men are there still that set greater rates upon their owne profits or libertie or preferments or secular accommodations then on the Soules of men whose perdition is oftentimes the price of their advancements but yet still Saint Pauls rule must hold For meatâ— destroy not the worke of God for money betray not the bloud of Christ destroy not him with thy meate with thy dignities with thy preferments for whom Christ died We were not redeemed with silver and gold from our vaine Conversation saith the Apostle 1. Pet. 1. 18. and therefore these things are of too base a nature to be put into the ballance with the soules of men and that man infinitely undervalues the worke of God the Image of God the bloud of God who for so base a purchase as monie or preferment any earthly and vaine-glorious respect doth either hazard his owne or betray the Soules of others commended to him And therefore this should reach all those upon whom the Lord hath bestow'd a greater portion of this Opinionative felicitie I meane of money honour reputation or the like First not to Trust in uncertaine Riches not to relie upon a foundation of their owne laying for matter of Satisfaction to their Soule nor to boast in the multitude of their riches as the Prophet speakes Psal. 49. 6. for that is certainely one great effect of the Deceitfulnesse of Riches spoken of Matth. 13. 22. to perswade the Soule that there is more in them then indeed there is and the Psalmist
meeke and peaceable In the same will a delight in the Law of God and yet a bias and counter-motion to the law of sinne In the same understanding a light of the Gospell and yet many relikes of humane principles and fleshly reasonings much ignorance of the purity excellency and beauty of the wayes of God In the same heart singlenesse and sensiblenesse of sinne and yet much secret fraud and prevarication hardnesse and dis-apprehension of sin and wrath In the same affections love of God and love of the World feare of God and feare of men trust in God and doubting of his favour Lord I beleeve helpe thou mine unbeliefe was the cry of the poore man in the Gospell and such must bee the complaints of the best of us Lord I will helpe thou mine unwillingnesse Lord I heare thee helpe thou my deafenesse Lord I remember thee helpe thou my forgetfulnesse Lord I presse towards thee helpe thou my wearinesse Lord I rejoyce in thee helpe thou my heavinesse Lord I desire to have more fellowship with thee helpe thou my strangenesse Lord I love and delight in thy Law helpe thou my failings Such tugging is there of either nature to preserve and improve it selfe Iacob was a man of contention and wrestling from the beginning Contention with his brother in the birth contention for the birth-right contention with an Angell for the blessing contention for his wife and for his wages with Laban He was a Typicall man his name was Israel and he was a patterne to the Israel of God We must be all men of contention wrestlers not onely with God in strong and importunate prayers for his blessings but with our elder brother Esau with the lusts and frowardnesse of our owne hearts The Thiefe on the Crosse was a perfect embleme of the sinne of our nature he was naild hand and foot destin'd unto death utterly disabled from any of his wonted outrages and yet that only part which was a little loose flies out in reviling and reproaching Christ Our old man by the mercy of God is upon a Crosse destin'd to death disabled from the exercise of that wonted violence and dominion which it used and yet so long as there is any life or strength left in him hee sets it all on worke to revile that blessed spirit which is come so neere him The more David prevailes the more Saul rageth and persecuteth him As in the wombe of Tamar there was a strife for precedencie Zarah thrust out his hand first and yet Pharez goâ—… foâ—…th before him so in a Christian many times the 〈◊〉 thruâ—… out the hand and begins to worke and presently the flesh growes sturdie and boisterous and gets first into the action A man sets himselfe to call upon God lifts up his hand with the skarlet thred the blood of Christ upon it is in a sweete preparation to powre out his complaints his requests his praises to his father and ere he is aware pride ln the excellencie of Gods gifts or deadnesse or worldly thoughts intrude themselves and justle-by Gods spirit and cast a blemish upon his offring A man is setting himself to heare Gods word begins to attend and rellish the things that are spoken as matters which doe in good earnest concerne his peace begins to see a beauty more then ordinary in Gods service an excellencie with David in Gods Law which hee considered not before resolves hereafter to love frequent submit beleeve prize it more then he had ever done presently the flesh sets up her mounds her reasonings her perverse disputes her owne principles her shame her worldlinesse her want of leisure her secular contentments and so resists the spirit of God and rejects his counsell I have enough already what needs this zeale this pressing this accuratenesse this violence for heaven strive wee what wee can our infirmities will encompasse us our corruptions will bee about us But yet Beloved as in a pyramide the higher you goe the lesse compasse still you finde the body to bee of and yet not without the curiositie and diligence of him that fram'd it so in a Christian mans resurrection and conversation with Christ in heaven the neerer he comes to Christ the smaller still his corruptions will bee and yet not without much spirituall industry and christian art A Christian is like a flame the higher it ascends the more thinne purified and azurie it is but yet it is a flame in greene wood that wants perpetuall blowing and encouragement A man sets himselfe with some good resolution of spirit to set forward the honor in questioning in discovering in shaming in punishing within the compasse of his owne calling and warrant the abuses of the times in countenancing in rewarding in abetting and supporting truth righteousnes his flesh presently interposeth his quiet his security his relations his interests his hopes his feares his dependencies his plausibility his credit his profit his secular provisoes these blunt his edge upbraid him with impoliticknes with malecontentednes with a sullen cynicall disposition against men and manners and thus put I know not what ill favor'd colours upon a good face to make a man out of love with an honest busines In a word good is before me the glory the service the waies of God I see it but I cannot love it I love it but I cannot doe it I doe it but I cannot finish it I will but yet I rebell I follow and yet I fall I presse forward and yet I faint and flagge I wrestle and yet I halt I pray and yet I sinne I fight and yet I am Captive I crucifie my lusts and yet they revile me I watch my heart and yet it runnes away from me God was at first the Author of nothing but peace within me what envious man hath sowed this warre in my bowels Let the Apostle answer this question saith Saint Austen By one man sinne entred into the world That which I would be I am not and that which I hate I am O wretched man in whom the Crosse of Christ hath not yet worne out the poysonous and bitter tast of that first tree It is the patheticall complaint of Bonifacius in the same Father How doth the Apostle even breake with complaining of this rebellious and captivating power of originall concupiscence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me though hee were delivered from the damnation yet hee was not delivered from the miserie of this sinne which must necessarily arise from the stirrings and conflicts of it Though lust in the regenerate bee not damnable because albeit it bring forth sinne yet it doth not finish and consummate it for it is broken off by repentance and disabled by the power of Christs spirit yet it is still miserable because it disquieteth the spirituall peace and tranquillity of the soule But there is no great danger in the warre if the enemie bee either foolish or
the things which himselfe hateth in them doth not that worke please him which he is pleased to reward and we finde the workes of wicked men in the Scripture rewarded Ahab humbled himselfe before God and therefore God brought not the evill denounced upon him in his owne dayes Iehu executed the command of God upon the house of Ahab and God established the throne of Israel upon him for foure generations Nebuchadnezzar caused his armie to serve a great service against Tyrus and the land of Egypt was given him for wages and for the labour wherewith hee served against it To this I answere that this God doth not to iustifie or allow wicked mens actions when they are in shew conformable to his Will but first to shew that his mercie is over all his workes when he is pleased to recompence the actions which hee might iustly punish Secondly to shew that God will never be upbraided for being any way behinde with men Wicked men are apt to twit God with the unprofitablenesse of his service and the unequalnesse of his wayes to boast that their worke hath beene more then their wages and therefore utterly to stop their mouthes when he shall proceede in iudgement with them he gives them such rewards as are most sutable to their owne desires the hypocrites pray and give almes to bee seene of men and that reward which they desired they have and such as are most sutable to their services As they bring him uncleane services so he rendereth unto them unsanctified rewards as the give him services full of hypocrisie which doe not please him so he gives them benefits full of bitternesse which shall not profit them Thirdly to preserve humane societie from violence and outrage for when wicked courses are from Heaven plagued and moderate prospered this keepes order and calmenesse upon the face of mankinde which might otherwise bee likely to degenerate into brutishnesse Fourthly to intice and incourage wicked men unto sincere obedience for thus may they recount with themselves If God thus reward my uncleane how aboundantly would he recompence my spirituall services If he let fall such crums unto dogges how aboundantly would hee provide for me if I were his Childe If the blessings of his left hand riches and glorie bee so excellent even to the Goates how pretious would the blessings of his right hand length of dayes and eternall happinesse be if I were one of his sheepe So then it is not Ex pretio operis but only Ex largitate donantis The reward is not out of the value or price of the worke but out of the bountie of God who will not leave himselfe without a witnesse but as a master for incouragement and allurements sake will reward the industrie of an ignorant scholler though hee blot and deface all that he puts his hand unto so God to overcome men by his goodnesse and bounty and to draw them to repentance is pleased to reward the workes which he might iustly punish But have not the wicked some measures and proportions of the Spirit given them by which they are enabled to do those workes they doe Heb. 6. 4. 1. Cor. 12 6. 7. And is not that a good worke which proceedeth from the supplies of the Spirit of God To this wee answere First as it is the influence of the same Sunne which ripeneth both the Grape and the Crabbe and yet though the Grape have sweetenesse from the Sunne the Crabbe still retaines the sowrenesse which it hath from its selfe so it is the same spirit which helpeth the faithfull in their holy and the wicked in their morall workes which yet still retaine the qualitie and sowrnesse of the stocke from whence they come Secondly we deny them not to bee good in Suo genere that is morally and in the sight of men but yet they are not good in Gods sight so as to procure acceptance with him for which purpose wee must note That God gives severall proportions of his Spirit and for severall purposes To some the Spirit to sanctifie and renew Rom. 1. 4. Tit. 3. 5. To others the spirit to edifie and profit withall 1. Cor. 12. 7. To some charitie and to others gifts 1. Cor. 14. 1. To some as Instruments that they may walke profitably before men as Cirus was annointed for Iacobs sake Esai 45. 1 4. To others as Sonnes and Members that they may walke acceptablie before him 1. Pet. 2. 5. But then comes the second Case proposed if a wicked man can doe nothing but evill then it seemes hee ought to leave undone all his Almes Prayers Fastings and Religions services because we are to abstaine from every thing which is polluted with sinne and that which God will not see man must not doe To this I answere No by no meanes The poore man at the poole of Bethesda though utterly impotent and unable to crawle in when the Angell came to stirre the waters did not yet neglect what lay in his power to waite at the place and to endeavour his owne cure Naturall impotency can give no excuse to wilfull neglect When Simon Magus was in the gall of bitternesse yet Saint Peter directed him then to pray Here then these two Rules must regulate this Case First a wicked mans necessity of sinning must not nullifie the Law of God which requires the doing of those things though not with such an uncleane heart as he doth them The impotency of man must not either prejudice Gods Authoritie or diminish his owne dutie As though where sinne abounds Grace doth more abound yet a man must not sinne that grace may abound so though when a wicked man doth the things of the Law he finneth yet he must not omit the duty upon pretence to escape the sinne Secondly when a thing is evill Propter fieri because it is done the doing of that thing is unlawfull and inti insecally sinfull and therefore to be avoided but when a thing done is evill not because it is done but because something which should make the doing of it good and acceptable is omitted and so it is evill not in the substance of thing but by reason of the defects which cleave unto it here this ought stiil to be done but the other ought not to bee left undone Iehu was commanded to destroy the house of Ahab he did so and thus farre he did well but his ends and Gods divide the same Action God out of Iustice he out of policie and therefore though he esteemed it zeale yet God accompted it murther and shedding of bloud and though as it was in substance the thing which God commanded he did reward it yet as the execution thereof was otherwise then he required so he threatneth to revenge it I will avenge the bloud of Iezreel upon the house of Iehu What then is Iehu to commit murther God forbid and yet is he to doe that in doing whereof he did commit murther
after all death it selfe For though these things may be where there is no guilt imputed and so properly no punishment inflicted neither the blinde man nor his parents had sinned that he was borne blinde as in the same ship there may bee a malefactor and a Merchant and to the one the voyage is a trafficke to the other a banishment yet to the wicked where they are not sanctified they are truely punishments and fruites of Gods vindicative justice because they have their sting still in them For the sting of death is sinne Secondly Spirituall and those threefold First Purishment of losse separation from the favour and fellowship with God expulsion from Paradise the seat of Gods presence and love Aliens forreiners farre from God Secondly Of sense the immediate strokes of Gods wrath on the soule wounds of Conscience scourges of heart taste of vengeance implanting in the soule tremblings feares amazements distracted thoughts on a cleare view of the demerit of sinne evidences of immortality and presumptions of irreconciliation with God This made Cain a runnagate and Iudas a murtherer of himselfe yea some touches of it made David cry out that his bones were broken and marrow dryed up and his flesh scortched like a potsheard It is able to shake the strongest Cedars and make the mountaines tremble like a leafe The sonne of God himselfe did sweate and shrinke and pray against it and with strong cries decline it though the suffering of so much of it as could consist with the holinesse of his person were the worke of his office and voluntary mercy Thirdly of sinne when God in anger doth forsake the soule and give it over to the frenzie and fury of lust to the rage and revenge of Satan letting men alone to joyne themselves unto idoles and to beleeve lies Now as the operation of the sunne is strongest there where it is not at all seene in the bowels of the earth or as lightning doth often blast and consume the inward parts when there is no sensible operation without so the Iudgements of God doe often lie heaviest there where they are least perceiv'd Hardnesse of heart a spirit of slumber blindnesse of minde a reprobate sense tradition unto Satan giving over unto vile affections recompencing the errors of men with following sinnes are most fearefull and desperate judgements But doe we then make God the Author of sinne God for bid In sinne we may consider the execution and committing of it as it is sinne and this is onely from man for every man is drawne away and enticed by his owne lust and the Ordination of it as it is a Punishment and this may be from God whose hand in the just punishment of sinne by sinne in obstinate contemptuous impenitent sinners may thus farre be observed First Deserendo by forsaking them that is taking away his abused gifts subtracting his despised Graces calling in and making to retire his quenched and grieved spirit removing his candlesticke and silencing his Prophets and giving a bill of divorce that either they may not see nor heare at all or hearing they may not understand and seeing they may not perceive because they did not see nor heare when they might Secondly Permittendo when he hath taken away his own Grace which was abused unto wantonnesse he suffers wicked men to walke in their owne wayes and because they like not to retaine him in their knowledge nor to live by his prescript therefore he leaves them to themselves and their owne will Thirdly Media disponendo ordering objects and proposing meanes not onely to Try but to punish the wickednesse of men and to bring about whatever other fixed purposes of his hee hath resolved for the declaration of his wonderfull wisedome to execute and as it were to fetch out of the sinnes of men as the conspiracie of Pilat Herod and the Iewes which their former wickednesse had justly deserved to have them given over unto was by God order'd to accomplish his determined and unchangeable counsell touching the death of Christ. Excellent is the speech of Holy Austin to this purpose The Lord enclineth the wils of men whither soever pleaseth himselfe whether unto Good out of his mercie or unto evill out of their merit sometimes by his manifest sometimes secret but alwayes by his righteous judgement and this not by his patience onely but by his power Fourthly Perversas voluntates non invitas flectendo sed spontaneas suo impetu faciles ulterius Satanae praecipitandas tradendo By giving over perverse wilfull rebellious sinners to the rage and will of Satan to hurry and enrage them at his pleasure unto further sinfulnesse When Iudas had listued to the Temptation of Satan to betray Christ had set himselfe to watch the most private opportunitie had been warned of it by Christ and that upon a question of the most bold and impudent hypocrisie that was ever made Master Is it I though it is not an improbable conjecture that Iudas at that very time upon the curse that was pronounced might secretly and for that time seriously resolve to give over his plot and upon that resolution to aske the question then at last Christ by a sop did give Satan as it were a further seisin of him and the purpose of Christ was that that which he was to doe hee might doe quickely He was now wholly given up to the will of Satan whose temptation haply before though very welcome in regard of the purchase and project of gaine which was in it had not fully silenc'd nor broken through all those reluctancies of Conscience which were very likely to arise upon the first presentment of so hideous a suggestion but now I say whether out of a sinister Construction of our Saviours words That thou doest doe quickly as if they had been not as indeed they were a giving him over to the greedinesse of his owne lust and to the rage of Satan but rather an allowance of his intention as knowing that hee was able to deliver himselfe out of their hands unto whom he should bee betraide and so his treason should onely make way to Christs miracle and not to his crosse or whether it were out of a secret presumption that notwithstanding Christ had made him know how his conspiracie was not hid from him yet since he was of all the company singled out whom Christ would Carve unto therefore his conspiracie was not so vile but that Christ would redâ—…re in gratiam countenance and respect him after all that and that as by the plot hee had not so lost him but that hee had gain'd him againe so also hee might doe after the execution too Now I say after that soppe and those words without further respect to the strugglings and staggerings of his Conscience hee goes resolvedly about that damned businesse for he was now delivered unto the will of Sathan The like libertie and commission was that which God gaue to
in these regards First it is very wilfull it is as it were all will Therefore it is called in the Scripture The will of the flesh and the will of the Gentiles and the will of men And the will is the seate of strength especially seeing the will of man and the will of sinne or the flesh are in the Scripture phrase all one If a man had one will and sinne another mans will drew one way and sinnes another peradventure his power to resist might be stronger then sinnes power to command but when the will of sinne is in the will of man as a bias in a bowle as a flame in smoke as a weight or spring to an engine as spirits in the body to actuate and determine it to its owne way how can a man resist the will of sinne who hath no other then a sinfull will to resist by Secondly as sinne is wilfull so it is very passionate and lustfull which addes wings as it were to the commands of sinne The Apostle cals them passions and those working passions when we were in the flesh The motions of sinne did worke in our members There is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and there are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lust and passions of lust which the Apostle cals vile lusts and burning lusts and affections and lusts that is very lustfull lusts Lust is in the best but these violent passions and ardencies of lust are shrewd symptomes of the raigne of sinne To be fierce implacable head-strong like the horse in the battaile and that not upon extraordinary distemper or surprizall as Ionah and Asa were but habitually so as on any occasion to discover it is by the Apostle put in amongst the Characters of those that denie the Power of Godlinesse For sinne must not hold its power where Godlinesse hath any Thirdly it hath Lawes and Edicts full of wisedome and cunning edg'd and temper'd with many encouragements and provocations to those that obey which as I said before the Scripture cals the Wages of sinne and pleasures of sinne by which Balaam was enticed to curse Gods people A Law is nothing else but a Rule or Principle of working which orders and moderates the course of a mans life And so sinne hath a way to carry men in and Principles to governe men by which Saint Paul cals Seculum the course of the world Such as are Rules of Example Custome good intentions Gods mercy taken by halses without respect to any conditions which it brings with it the common frailâ—…e of our nature that we are All men and that the best have their infirmities distinctions evasions justifications extenuations partiall strictnesse in some particulars the opus operatum or meere doing of dueties requit'd and many like most of which things I have spoken of more largely heretofore upon another Scripture Fourthly it is full of flattery to entice and woe a man cunning to observe all the best seasons to surprize the soule And though enticements be base yet they are very strong like a gentle showre or a soft fire they sinke and get in closer then if they should be more violent That which is as soft as oyle in the touch may be as sharpe as swords in the operation And therefore as a man is said in one place to be enticed by lust so elsewhere he is said to be driven and thrust on by lust Take heede to your selves lest you corrupt your selves lest thou lift up thine eyes to heaven and when thou seest the sunne and the moone and the starres shouldst be driven to worship them and serve them The Objects themselves have no coactive or compulsory power in them for they worke but as Objects which is the weakest way of working that is for Objects aâ—…e never totall Agents but onely partiall they doe never any more then cooperate with some facultie and power unto which they are suteable yet such is the strength of those lusts which are apt to kindle by those Objects that a man is said to be driven to idolatry by them All which false prophets can doe is but morall and by way of cunning and seducement yet such is the strength of those lusts which they flatter and worke upon by their impostures that they are said to Thrust a man out of the way which the Lord commanded him to walke in For as we use to say of the requests of a King so we may of the flatteries and allurements of sinne That they doe amount unto commands In one word sinne is throughly furnish'd with all sorts of Armour both for defence and opposition all strong holds all reasonings and imaginations and thoughts which can be contriv'd to secure it selfe and therefore no marvell if it have much strength from itselfe Secondly it hath much strength from Satan and the world which are the counsellers and aides of sinne which bring in constant supplies and provisions unto it Therefore lusts are said to be of the World and to bee earthly and divellish because the world and the divell supply them with constant fuell But lastly and principally lust hath much strength in and from us First because they are naturall unto us A mans sinne is himselfe it is call'd by the name of our Old man And therefore to be carnall and to walke as man to live after the lusts of the flesh and after the lusts of men are all one To live to sinne in one place is to live to our selves in another To crucifie fleshly affections in one place is to mortifie our earthly members in another To deny ungodlinesse and worldly lusts in one place is to deny our selves in another To lay aside the sinne that doth so easily beset us in one place is to cast away our right eye and our right hand in another And therefore the wayes of sinne are call'd our owne waies and the lusts of the flesh our owne lusts and being our owne we love and cherish them No man ever hated his owne flesh neither can any man by nature hate his owne lusts unto which he is as truly said to be married as the Church is to Christ. And this serves much to set forth the power of sin For the love of the subject is the strength of the Soveraigne a king shall then certainely be obeyed when he coÌ„mands such things as it were difficult for him to prohibite Secondly lust hath from us weapons to set forward its strength The heart a forge to contrive and members instruments to execute the heart a wombe to conceive and the members midwives to bring forth lusts into act Lastly sinne must be very strong in us because we are by nature full of it So the Apostle saies of naturall men that they were filled with all unrighteousuesse and full of envie debate deceite c. and S. Peter that they have Eyes full of Adultery that
them by the mixture of our corruptions by passing through our hands as when sweete water passeth through a sinke as that God might justly turne away his eyes from his owne Graces in us not as his Graces but as in us It is true the Spirituall offâ—…rings and sacrifices of the Saints as they come from Gods Grace are cleane and pure a sweet savour acceptable well pleasing and delightfull unto God But yet as they come from us they have iniquitie in them as not being done with that through and most exact conformitie to Gods Will as his Iustice requires and therefore if hee should enter into judgement and marke what is done amisse he might reject our Prayers and throw backe the dung of our sacrifices into our faces for abusing and defiling his Grace For cursedis every one that continueth not in everything written in the Law to doe it Cleane then and acceptable they are First comparatively in regard of wicked mens offerings which are altogether uncleane Secondly by favor and acceptance because God spareth us as a father his sonne that desires to please him Thirdly which is the ground of all by participation with Christ being perfum'd with his incense being strained through his blood being sanctified upon his Altar When he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of gold to purifie the sonnes of Levi and purge them as gold and silver then shall they offâ—…r unto the Lord an offâ—…ring in righteousnesse then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem bee pleasant unto the Lord. But in it selfe ouâ—… best righteousnesse is as a mâ—…nstruous ragge If God should lay righteousnesse to the line and judgement to the plummet should take such exceptions as he justly might at the most holy action that any Saint can offer to him If hee should shew the conscience how short it falls of that totall perfection which his pure eye requires how many loose thoughts how much deadnesse wearinesse irreverence diffidence vitiatâ—…th oâ—…r purest prayers how many by ends corrupt respects ignorances oversights forgetfulnesse worldly intermixtures deface and blemish our brightest actions how much unbeliefe consists with the strongest faith how many thornes stones birds doe haunt and cover the best ground the most honest and good heart to stifle and steale away the word from it how many weedes doe mingle with the purest corne how much ignorance in the sublimest judgements how much vanitie in the severest and exactest mindes how much loosenesse and digressions in the most sadde and composed thoughts how many impertinencies and irregularities in the most bridled and restrained tongue how much mispence of the seasons and opportunities of Grace in the most thrifty redemption of our time how much want of Compassion and melting affections in our greatest almes of love to the truth and right acceptation of the beautifull 〈◊〉 of peace in our largest contributions how much selfeallowance and dispensâ—…tion to iterate and reâ—…erate ouâ—… smaller errors if in these and a world of the like advantages God should be exact to marke what is done 〈◊〉 who were able to stand in his presence or abide his comming Say the papists what they will of merit of conâ—…ignitie commensurate to eternall life and proportionable to the Iustice and â—…everest scrutinie of the most pure and jealous God yet let the Conscience of the Holiesâ—… of them all bee summon'd to single out the most pure and meritoâ—…ious worke which he ever did and with that to ioyne issue with Gods Iustice to perish or be saved according as that most perfect of all his workes shall appeare â—…ighteous or impure and I dare presume none of them would let their salvation runne a hazard upon that triall So then there is pollution by way of adherencie and contact in the hâ—…st workes of the best men How much more then in the best workes of unregenerate men Their sacrifices uncleane and abominable before God being offered upon the Altar of a defiled conscience Prov. 15. 8. Tit. 1. 15. Their prayers and solemne meeting â—…hatefull loathsome impious Esai 1 13 14 15. For either they are but the howlings of â—…flicted men that crie out for paine but not out of love Hos. 7. 14. or the babling of carelesse â—…nd secure men that cry Lord Lord and mumble a few words without further notice like Balaams Asâ—…e Math. 7 21. or the wishings and wouldings of inordinate men that pray for their lusts and not for their soules Iam 4. 3. Or lastly the bold and unwarranted intrusions of presumptuous men who without respect to the Word Promises or Conditions of God would haue mercie from him without grace and forgivenesse of sinne without for saking of sinne Their mercies are cruell mercies their profession of religion but a forme of godlinesse 2. Tim. 3. 5. All as I said before but the embalming of a carcasse which abates nothing of the hideousnesse of it in the sight of God And now if the best workes of wicked men are so uncleane and full of filthinesse in Gods eyes where then shall appeare their confessed sinnes If their prayers and devotions stinke how much more their oathes and execrations If their sacrifices and that which they offer to God is vnclean how uncleane is their sacriledge and that which they steale from him If their mercies be cruell how cruel their malice murthers brâ—…beries oppressions If there be so much filthinesse in their profession how much more in their persecution in their reviling and scorning of the wayes of God If their fastings and maceration be sinfull and not unto the Lord Zach. 7. 5. What is their drunkennesse their spuing and staggering their clamors and uncleannesse all their cursed complements and ceremonies of damnation O consider this all yee that have hitherto forgotten God! Remember that his eyes are purer then alwayes to behold iniquitie Remember that his spirit will not alwaies strive with flesh Admire his bottomlesse patience which hath thus long suffered thee an uncleane vessel to pollute thy selfe and others and forborne thee with more patience then thou could'st have done a Toade or Serpent then which notwithstanding in his sight thou art farre more uncleane And Remember that his Patience is Salvation and should lead thee to repentance Consider that the Law of the Lord is pure and his feare cleane and his holynesse beautifull the garments with which he clotheth his Priests garments of comelynesse and prayse made for glory and beauty he comes with fire and sope with water and blood to heale our sores to purge our uncleannesse But now if there be lewdnesse in our filthinesse obstinacie in our evill wayes if it suffice us not to have thus long wrought the will of the Gentiles let us with feare consider those wofull denunciations Let him that is filthy be filthy still Ephraim is ioyned to Idols let him alone Because I have purged thee and thou wast not purged thou shalt not bee purged from thy sinnes any more till I have caused
our selves I will take away saith the Lord the stoâ—…ie heart out of their flesh and I will give them an heart of flesh that they may walke in my statutes c. So then God commands us to cleanse our selves when yet it is his owne worke First to teach us that what he doth is not out of dutie or debt but of Grace and Favour for when he doth that which he commands it is manifest that ours was the duty and therefore his the greatâ—…r mercy to give us mony wherewith to pay him the debt we owed Thou workest allour workes for us saith the Prophet The worke as it is a dutie is ours but as it is a performance it is thine Secondly He doth it to shew that though hee be the Author and finisher of our Faith though he who beginneth our good workes doth also performe them untill the day of Christ yet he will not have us abide alwayes under his hand as dead stones but being quickned and healed by his Spirit and having our impotencies remooved we likewise must cooperate and move to the same end with him for he doth not so worke for us but hee withall gives us a will and a deede to concurre with him to the same actions As wee have received Christ so wee must walke in him Thirdly to shew us where wee must fetch our cure to teach us that hee will bee sought unto by us and that wee must rely upon his Power and Promises Therefore Hee commandeth us the things which we cannot doe that we might know of whom to begge them for it is Faith alone which obtaineth by Prayer that which the Law requireth onely but cannot effect by reason of the weaknesse of it In one place the Lord commandeth cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart and a new spirit In another place he promiseth I will sprinkle cleane water upon you and you shall be cleane from all your filthinesse and from all your idols will I cleanse you A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stonie heart out of your flesh and will give you an heart of flesh How can these things consist together He commands us to doe that which hee promiseth to doe himselfe but onely to shew that God gives what he requires The things which he bids us doe as if they were to bee the workes of our owne will and being indeede the duties which we owe yet he promiseth to doe in us to shew that they are the workes of his grace and that his promises are the foundation of all our performances For wee by working doe not cause him to fulfill his promises but hee by promising doth enable us to performe our workes So then wee cleanse our selves by the strength of his promises they are the principles of our Purification This the Apostle expresseth in the text Having therefore these promises dearely beloved Let us cleanse our selves This then is the next thing wee must inquire into wherein the strength of this argument lies and how a man ought to make use of the promises to inferre and presse upon his conscience this dutie of clansing himselfe Here then first we must note that promises doe containe the matter of rewards and are for the most part so proposed unto us Abating onely the first promise of caâ—…ing unto the obedience of Faith which I conceive is rather made unto Christ in our behalfe Aske of me and I will give thee the heathâ—…n for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession then unto us formally because the seede of Abraham are the subject of the promises I say excepting onely that I conceive all other promises to beare in them the nature of a reward and so to carry relation to presupposed Services For benefits have usually burdens and engagements with them so that promises being the representation of rewards and rewards the consequents of service and all services being generally comprehended in this of cleansing our selves from all â—…ilthinesse and of finishing holinesse in Gods feare manifest it is that the promises are in this regard fit arguments to induce our dutie The Gospell which is the Word of Promise hath an obedience annexed unto it which the Apostle cals the Obedience of the Gospell And Faith being the hand to receive the promises hath an obedience annexed vnto it likewise which the same Apostle cals the obedience of Faith for it is not only a hand to receive but a hand to worke To live to our selves and yet lay claime to the promisâ—…s is to make God a lyer not to beleeve the record which hee gives of himselfe that he will not cast away pretious things upon swine His promises are free in fierâ—… made onely out of Grace but conditionall in facto esse performed and accomplished with dependance upon duties in us God is Faithfull saith the Apostle who shall stablish you and keep you from evill there is the promise and we are confident that you will doe the things which we command you there is the duty which that promise cales for When we pray Give us our dayly bread by saying Give us we acknowledge that it is from God but when wee call iâ—… ours wee shew how God gives it namely in the use of meanes For Bread is Ours not onely in the right of the promise I will not faile thee nor forsake thee but by service and quiet working in an orderly calling Secondly Promises are apt to purifie not onely as arguments to induce it but likewise as efficiens causes and principles being by Faith apprehended of our Holynesse And so the force of the reason is the fame as if a rich man having given a great estate unto his sonne should adde this exhortation having received such gifts as these and having now where withall to live in qualitie and worth keepe your selfe in fashion like the Sonne of such a father Efficients they are First as tokens and expressions of Gods Love for all Gods promises are grounded in his Love His Iustice Truth ahd Fidelity are the reasons of fulfilling promises because in them hee maketh himselfe our debtor Therefore saith the Apostle There is laid up for mee a Crowne of righteousnesse which God the righteous Iudge shall give unto meâ—… and againe God is faithfull who will not suffer you to bee tempted and faithfull is hee that hath promised who also will doe it and Saint Iohn If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and lust to forgive us our sinnes and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse One would thinke a man should rather feare the revenge then expect the forgivenesse of sinnes by Gods â—…ustice but God is as Iust in performing the mercy which Hee promiseth as in executing the vengeance which he threatneth So then Iustice and Fidelity are the reasons of fulfilling promises
enough to prevent the making and therefore by consequence have no force to alter or disanull it then it is certaine that this latter law must be understood in some other sense and admitte of some other subordinate use which may well consist with the being and force of the former covenant and not in that which primâ facie seemes to contradict and by consequence to abrogate it Now in the next words verse 18. For if the Inheritance bee of the Law it is no more of Promise but God gave it to Abraham by Promise The Apostle shewes what the purpose of the Covenant to Abraham was namely to give life and salvation by Grace and Promise and therefore what the purpose of the latter covenant by Moses was not neither could bee namely to give the same life by working since in those respects there would be contradiction and inconsistencie in the Covenants and so by consequence instability and unfaithfulnesse in him that made them The maine conclusion then which hitherto the Apostle hath driven at is this that the comming of the Law hath not voyded the promise and that the Law is not of force towards the seede to whom the promise is made in any such sense as carries contradiction unto and by consequence implyes abrogation of the Promise before made Therefore if it be not to stand in a contradiction it followes that it must in subordination to the Gospell and so to tend to Evangelicall purposes This this Apostle proceedes to shew verse 19. Wherefore 〈◊〉 serveth the Law It was added because of transgressions till the seede should come to whom the Promise was made and it was ordained by Angels in the hand of a Mediator To what enâ—… saith the Apostle should there be a publication of a Law so expresly contrary to the Covenant formerly made In his Answere to this doubt there are many things worthy of especiall observation First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was added or put to It was not set up alone as a thing ingrâ—…sse by it selfe as any adequate complete solid rule of righteousnesse as it was given to Adam in Paradise much lesse was it published as a thing to voyde and disa ull any precedent covenant but so farre was it from abrogating that it was added to the Promise Now when one thing is made an Appendant or Addâ—…ament to another it doth necessarily put the being of that to which it is Appendant and presuppose a strength and vigor in it still But how then was it added not by way of Ingrediencie as a Part of the Covenant as if the Promise had been incomplete without the Law for then the same Covenant should consist of contradictory materials and so should overthrow it selfe For if it bee of workes it is no more of grace else grace is no more grace but it was added by way of Subserviencie and Attendance the better to advance and make effectuall the Covenant it selfe In Adams heart the Law was set up solitary and as a whole rule of righteousnesse and salvation in it selfe but though the sâ—…me Law were by Moses revived yet not at all to the same purpose but onely to helpe forward and introduce another and a better Covenant Secondly It was Added because of Transgressions To make them appeare to awaken the Consciences of men who without a Law would not impute nor charge their sinnes upon themselves and make them acknowledge the guilt of them and owne the condemnation which was due unto them to discover and disclose the venome of our sinfull nature to open the mouth of the sepulcher and make the heart smell the stinch of its owne foulnesse Thirdly Till the seede should come unto whom the Promise was made There were two great promises made to Abraham and his seed The one In thy-seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed and this Promise respects the Person of Christ which yet seemes to bee a Promise not so much made to Christ as in him to Abraham and all nations who were Abrahams seed by Promise though not after the flesh as Saint Paul distinguisheth Rom. 9 The other I will be a God unto thee and to thy seede after thee which respecteth all nations who should beleeve Now whâ—…ch way soever we understand these words they confirme the point which wee are upon that the Law hath Evangelicall purposes If we understand by seede the Person of Christ theâ—… this shewes that the Law was put to the Promise the better to raise and stirre up in men the expectations of Christ the promised seede who should deliver them from that unavoidable bondage and curse which the Law did sâ—…ale and conclude them under If we vnderstand by seed the faithfull which I rather approve then the Apostles meaning is this that as long as any are either to come into the unity of Christs body and to have the Covenant of Grace unto them applyed or to be kept in the Body of Christ when they are comâ—… 〈◊〉 so long there will bee use of the Law to discover Transgressions both iâ—… the unregenerate that they may sâ—…e â—…o Christ for Sanctuary and 〈◊〉 those that are already called that they may learne to cast all their faith and hope and expectations of righteousnesse upon him â—…ull For the same reason which compels men to come in is requisite also to keepe them in else why doth not God utterly destroy sinne in the Faithfull Certainely hee hath no delight to see Christ have leprous members or to see sin in his owne people Only because he will still have them see the necessity of righteousnesse by faith and of grace in Christ he therfore suffers concupiscence to stirre in them and the Law to conclude them under the curse This then manifestly shewes that there was no other intention in publishing the Law but with reference to the seede that is with Evangelicall purposes to shew mercie not with reference to those that perish who would have had condemnation enough without the Law Fourthly It was ordained by Angels who are Ministring Spirits sent forth for the good of those that shall be saved in the Hand or by the Ministery of a Mediator Namely of Moses with relation unto whom Christ is call'd Mediator of a better Covenant for as Christ was the substantiall and universall Mediator betweene God and Man So Moses was to that people a representative typicall or national Mediator Hee stood betweene the Lord and the people when they were afraide at the sight of the fire in the Mount and this evidently declares that the Law was published in mercy and pacification not in furie or revengâ— For the worke of a Mediator is to negotiate peace and treate for reconcilement betweene partiâ—s offended where as if the Lord had intended death in the publishing of the Law hee would not have proclaimed it in the hand of a Mediator but of an Executioner Verse 20. Now a Mediator is not a Mediator of one but God is one
but their sins that though our words bring fire and fury with them yet they are still in the hand of a Mediator that the Law is not to breake them unto desperation but vnto humiliation not to drive them unto furie but unto Faith to shew them Hell indeede but withall to keepe them from it if we doe not by these meaneâ—… save their Soules yet we shall stop their mouths that they shall be ashamed to blaspheme the commission by which we speake Secondly The people likewise should learne to rejoyce when the Law is preached as it was published that is when the Conscience is thereby affrighted and made to tremble at the presence of God and to cry unto the Mediator as the people did unto Moses Lâ—…t not God speake any more to us lâ—…st we die Speake thou with us and we will heare For when sinne is onely by the Law discovered and death laid open to cry out against such preaching is a shrewd argument of a minde not willing to bee disquieted in sinne or to be tormented before the time of a soule which would have Christ and yet not leave her former husband which would haue him no other king then the stump of wood was to the frogges in the fable or the moulten Calfe unto Israel in the Wildernesse a quiet idol whom every lust might securely provoke and dance about As the Law may be preached too much when it is preached without the principall which is the Gospell so the Gospell and the mercie therein may bee preached too much or rather indeede too little because it is with lesse successe If wee may call it preaching and not rather perverting of the Gospell when it is preached without the appendant which is the Law This therefore should in the next place teach all of us to studie and delight in the Law of God as that which setteth forth and maketh more glorious and conspicuous the mercy of Christ. Acquaintance with our selves in the Law wâ—…ll First keepe us more loâ—…ly and vile in our owne eyes make us feele our owne pollution and poverty and that will againe make us the more delight in the Law which is so faithfull to render the face of the Conscience and so make a man the more willing and earnest to be cleansed Their heart saith David is as fat as grease but I delight in thy Law The more the Law doth discover our owne leannesse scraggednesse and penurie the more doth the Soule of a Holy man delight in it because Gods mercie is magnified the more who filleth the hungrie and refrâ—…sheth the weary and with whom the fatherlâ—…sse findeth mercie Secondly It will make us more carefull to live by Faith more bold to approach the throne of Grace for mercie to cover and for Grace to cure our sores and nakednesse In matters of life and death impudence and boldnesse is not unseasonable A man will never die for modesty when the Soule is convinc'd by the Law that it is accursed and eternally lost if it doe not speedily pleade Christs satisfaction at the Throne of Grace it is emboldned to runne unto him when it findes an issue of uncleanenesse upon it it will set a price upon the meanest thing about Christ and be glad to touch the hemme of his garment When a Childe hath any strength beautie or lovelynesse in himselfe he will haply depend upon his owne parts and expectations to raise a fortune and preferment for himselfe but when a Childe is full of indigence impotencie crookednesse and deformity if he were not then supported with this hope I have a father aâ—d Parents doe not cast out their Children for their deformities he could not live with comfort or assurance so the sense of our owne pollutions and uncleanenesse taking off all conceits of any lovelynesse in our selves or of any goodnesse in us to attract the affections of God makes us râ—ly onely on his fatherly compassion When our Saviour cald the poore woman of Syrophenicia Dogge a beastly and uncleane Creature yet shee takes not this for a deny all but turnes it into argument The lesse I have by right the more I hope for by mercy even men afford their Dogges enough to keepe them alive and I aske no more When the Angell put the hollow of Iacobs thigh out of joynt yet hee would not let him go the more lame hee was the more reason hee had to hold The Prodigall was not kept away or driven of from his resolution by the feare shame or misery of his present estate for he had one word which was able to make way for him through all this the name of Father He considered I can but be rejected at the last and I am already as low as a rejection can cast me so I shall loose nothing by returning for I therefore returne because I have nothing and though I have done enough to bee for ever shut out of dores yet it may bee the word Father may have rhetoricke enough in it to beg a reconcilement and to procure an admittance amongst my fathers servants Thirdly It will make us give God the Glory of his mercy the more when wee have the deeper acquaintance with our owne miserie And God most of all delighteth in that worke of Faith which when the Soule walketh in darknesse and hath no light yet trusteth in his Name and stayeth upon him Fourthly It will make our comforts and refreshments the sweeter when they come The greater the humiliation the deeper the tranquillitie As fire is hottest in the coldest weather so comfort is sweetest in the greatest extremities shaking settles the peace of the heart the more The spirit is a Comforter as well when he convinceth of sinne as of righteousnesse and judgement because he doth it to make righteousnesse the more acceptable and Iudgement the more beautifull Lastly acquaintance with our owne foulnesse and diseases by the Law will make us more carefull to keepe in Christs company and to walke according unto his Will because he is a Physitian to cure a refiner to purge a Father and a Husband to compassionate our estate The lesse beautie or worth there is in us the more carefully should we studie to please him who loved us for himselfe and married us out of pittie to our deformities not out of delight in our beautie Humilitie keepes the heart tractable and pliant As melted waxe is easily fashioned so an humble spirit is easily fashioned unto Christs Image whereas a stone a bard and stubborne heart must bee hewed and hammered before it will take any shape Pride selfe-confidence and conceitednesse are the pâ—…nciples of disobedience men will hold their wonted courses till they be humbled by the Law They are not humbled saith the Lord unto this day and the consequent hereof is neither have they feared nor walked in my Law If you will not heare that is if you will still disobey the Lords messages my Soule shall weepe in
Loved us when wee were his enemies and enemies we were not but by wicked workes Now then if wicked workes could not prevent the Love of God why should wee thinke that they can nullyfie or destroy it If His Grace did prevent sinners before their repentance that they might returne shall it not much more preserve repenting sinners that they may not perish If the masse guilt and greatnesse of Adams sinne in which all men were equally sharers and in which equalitie God looked upon us with Love and Grace then which sinne a greater I thinke cannot be committed against the Law of God If the bloody and crimsin sinnes of the unconverted part of our life wherein we drew iniquitie with cordes of vanitie and sinne as it were with cart-ropes If neither iniquitie transgression nor sinne neither sin of nature nor sinne of course and custome nor sinne of rebellion and contumacie could pose the goodnesse and favour of God to us then nor intercept or frustrate his Counsell of loving us when wee were his enemies why should any other sinnes overturne the stability of the same love and counsell when we are once his Sonnes and have a spirit given us to bewaile and lament our falls I cannot here omit the excellent words of P Fulgentius to this purpose The same Grace saith he of Gods Immutable Counsell doth both beginne our merit unto righteousnesse and consummate it unto Glorie doth here make the will not to yeelde to the infirmitie of the flesh and doth hereafter free it from all infirmitie doth here renew it Continuo Iuvamine and elsewhere Iugi auxilio with an uninterrupted supportance and at last bring it to a full Glory Secondly Gods Promise flowing from this Love and Grace An everlasting Covenant will I make saith God and observe how it comes to be everlasting and not frustrated or made temporary by us I will not turne away from them saith the Lord to doe them good True Lord wee know thou dost not repent thee of thy Love but though thou turne not from us O how fraile how apt are wee to turne away from thee and so to nullifie this thy Covenant of mercie unto our selves Nay saith the Lord I will put my feare into their hearts and they shall not depart from me So elsewhere the Lord tels us that his Covenant should be as the water of Noah the sinnes of men can no more utterly cancell or reverse Gods Covenant of mercie towards them then they can bring backe Noahs flood into the World againe though for a moment he may bee angry and hide His face yet His mercie in the maine is great and everlasting The Promises of God as they have Truth so they have Power in them they doe not depend upon our resolutions whether they shall bee executed or no but by Faith apprehending them and by Hope waiting upon God in them they frame and accommodate the heart to those conditions which introduce then Execution God maketh us to doe the things which He commandeth we do not make Him to doe the things which He promiseth Tee are kept saith the Apostle by the Power of God through Faith unto Salvation Faith is first by Gods Power wrought and preserved It is the Faith of the operation of God namely that powerfull operation which raised Christ from the dead and your Faith standeth not in the wisedome of men but in the Power of God And then it becomes an effectuall instrument of the same power to preserve us unto Salvation They shall be all taught of God and every man that hath heard and learned of the Father commeth unto mee There is a voluntarie attendance of the heart of man upon the ineffable sweetnesse of the Fathers teaching to conclude this point with that excellent and comfortable speech of the Lord in the prophet I the Lord change not therefore ye Sonnes of Iacob are not consumed It is nothing in or from your selves but onely the immutabilitie of my Grace and Promises which preserveth you from being consumed Thirdly the Obsignation of the Spirit ratifying and securing these promises to the hearts of the faithfull for the spirit is the hansell earnest and seale of our Redemption and it is not onely an obsignation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unto redemption arguing the certainty of the end upon condition of the meanes but it is an establishing of us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too into Christ as a meanes unto that end so that from the first fruites of the Spirit a man may conclude his interest in the whole at last as Saint Paul from the resurrection of Christ the first fruites argueth to the finall accomplishment of the resurrection Fourthly the nature and effects of Faith whose propertie it is to make future things present to the beleever and to give them a Being and by consequence a necessitie and certaintie to the apprehensions of the Soule even when they have not a Being in themselves Saint Paul call's it the subsistencie of things to come and the evidence and demonstration of things not seene which our Saviours words doe more fully explaine He that drinketh my blood hath eternall Life and shall never thirst Though Eternall Life bee to come in regard of the full fruition yet it is present already in regard of the first fruites of it And therefore wee finde our Saviour take a future medium to prove a present Blessednesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yee are blessed when men shall hate you c for great is your reward in Heaven Which inference could not be sound unlesse that future medium were certaine by the Power of Faith giving unto the promises of God as it were a presubsistencie For it is the priviledge of Faith to looke upon things to come as if they were alreadie conferr'd upon us And the Apostle useth the like argument Sinne shall not have dominion over you for you are not under the Law but under Grace This were a strange inference in naturall or civill things to say you shall not die because you are in health or you shall not be rejected because you are in favour But the Covenant of Grace being seall'd by an Oath makes all the grants which therein are made irreversible and constant So that now as when a man is dead to the Being of sinne as the Saints departed this life are the Being of sinne doth no more trouble them nor returne upon them so when a man is dead to the dominion of sinne that dominion shall never any more returne upon him Consider further the formall effect of Faith which is to unite a man unto Christ. By meanes of which vnion Christ and we are made one Bodie for He that is joyned to Christ is one and the Apostle saith that He is the Saviour of his Bodie and then surely of every member of his Bodie too for the members have all care one
and Christians That which makes us to be in Christ after any kinde of way is Faith And according to the differences of Faith are these differences of being in Christ to bee discerned Saint Iames makes mention of a dead Faith when men are in Christ by some generall acknowledgement by externall profession by a partiall dependence comming to Him only as to a Iesus for roome and shelter to keepe them from the fire not as to a Christ for grace and government in His service not by any particular and willing attraction of those vitall influences those working principles of grace and obedience which are from him shed abroad upon true beleevers And this is the semi-conversion and imperfect renovation of many men whereby they receive from Him onely generall light of truth and common vertues which make them visibly and externally branches in Him But Saint Paul makes mention of a lively operative unfained faith which in true beleevers draweth in the power of Christs death and the vertue of His resurrection unto the mortification of sinne and quickning of Spirit and bringing forth fâ—…uite unto God and this onely is that which is the ground of our life from Him The Life that I live I live by the Faith of the Sonne of God Lastly this Vnion unto Christ is compared unto Marriage Psal. 45. Eph. 5. 32 whereby the Church hath a right and proprietie created to the body name goods table possessions purchases of Christ and doth reciprocally become all His resigning its will wayes desires unto His governement Now for the discovery of this we may consider either the essentials or the consequents of marriage The former hath for the genuâ—… the most generall requisite consent and that must have these differencies and restrictions First it must bee a mutuall consent for though Christ declare His good will when He knocketh at our doores and beseecheth us in the ministry of His Word yet if we keepe our distance reject His tokens of Love and Favour and stop our eares to His invitations there is then no covenant made this is but a wooing and no marriage Secondly it must bee a present consent and in words de prâ—…senti or else it is onely a Promise but no Contract Many men like Balaam would faine die the death of the righteous but live their owne lives would faine belong to Christ at the last and have nothing to doe with Him ever before would have Him out of neede but not at all out of love and therefoâ—… for the present they put Him off Many other suiters they have whom they cannot deferre or denie till at last peradventure Hee grow jealous and wearie departs from them and turnes unto those who will esteeme Him worthy of more acceptation Seeing you put the Word from you faith the Apostle and judge your selves unworthy of Eternall Life Lo wee turne unto the Gentiles Thirdly it must be free and unconstrained for compulsion makes it a ravishment and not a marriage They who must be but one Bodie ought first to agree in the same free and willing resolution Many men when God slayes them will enquire earely after Him when Hee puts them upon a racke will give a forced consent to serve Him when Hee sends His Lions amongst them will send for His Priests to instruct them how to worship Him but this is onely to flatter with their lippes that they may escape the present paine like the howling devotion of some desperate Mariner in a storme not at all out of cordiall and sinceere affection wicked men deale no better with God then the froggs in the fable with the blocke which was throwne in to be their king When He makes a noyse and disturbes their peace when He falls heavie upon them they are sore affrighted and seeme to reverence His Power but if He suffer their streame to bee calme about them and stir not up His wrath they securely dance about Him and re-assume their wonted loosenesse Fourthly it must be without errour for hee that erres cannot consent If a woman take her selfe upon some absence of her husband to be now free from him and conceive him dead and thereupon marry againe if it appeare that the former husband is yet living there was a mistake and error in the person and so a nullity in the contract So if a man mistake himselfe judge himselfe free from his former tie unto sinne and the Law and yet live in obedience to his lusts still and is not cleansed from â—…is filthinesse he cannot give any full consent to Christ who â—…ill have a chaste spouse without adulterers or corrivals Lastly It must be an universall and perpetuall consent for all time and in all states and conditions This is a great difference betweene a wife and a strumpet A wife takes her husband upon all tearmes his burdens as well as his goods his troubles as well as his pleasures whereas a strumpet is onely for hire and lust when the purse is emptied or the body wasted the love is at an end So here He that will have Christ must have Him All for Christ is not divided must entertaine Him to all purposes must follow the Lambe wheresoever He goeth must leave Father Mother Wife Children his owne life for Christ must take as well His Yoake as His Crowne as well His Sufferings as His Salvation as well His Grace as His Mercie as well His Spirit to leade as His Blood to redeeme He that will be his owne Master to doe the workes of his owne will must if hee can bee his owne Saviour too to deliver his soule from the wrath to come The consequents and intendments of marriage are two Convictus Proles First mutuall societie Christ and a Christian must live together have intimate and deare acquaintance with each other the spirit of a Christian must solace it selfe in the armes and embracements in the riches and lovelinesse of Christ in his absence and removes long after Him in His presence and returnes delight in Him and entertaine Him with such pure affections and Heavenly desires as may make him take pleasure in His Beautie Secondly there must be a fruitfulnesse in us we must bring forth unto God Christ will not have a barren Spouse every one that loveth Him keepeth His Commandements Now then in one word to unfold the more distinct qualitie of this our union to Christ wee may consider a threefold unitie Of Persons in one nature of natures in one Person of natures and Persons in one qualitie In the first is one God In the second is one Christ. In the third is one Church Our union unto Christ is the last of these whereby Hee and we are all spiritually united to the making up of one mysticall Body The formall reason or bond of this union is the Spirit of Christ by which as by immortall and abiding seede we are begotten a new unto Christ. For He being the
and unitie of natures with him in his spirit and having this Spirit of Christ He thereby worketh in us the will and the deed and thus our sealâ—… is put unto Gods covenant and wee have a constat of it in our selves in some measure whereas jnfidelitie makes God a lyer by saying either I looke for life some other way or I have nothing to doe to depend on Christ for it though God have proposed Him as an all-sufficient Saviour Now then when man hath experience of Gods working this will in him when he findes his heart opened to attend and his will ready to obey the call when hee is made desirous to feare Gods Name and prepared to seeke His face ready to subscribe and beare witnesse to all Gods wayes and methodes of saving That Hee is righteous in His Iudgements if He should condemne wonderfull in His patience when He doth forbeare mighty in His power wisedome and mercie when Hee doth convert unsearchable in the riches and treasures of Christ when he doth Iustifie most holy pure and good in all His commands the soveraigne Lord of our persons and lives to order and dispose them at His will on the sense and experience of these workes doth grow that conclusion and resolution to cleave to Christ. Lastly because this act of Faith is our dutie to God As we may come to Christ because we are called so wee must come because wee are commanded For as Christ was commanded to save us so we are commanded to beleeve in Him From these and the like considerations ariseth a purpose to rely on Christ. But yet still this purpose at first by the mixture of sinne the pragmaticalnesse and importunitie of Satan in tempting the unexperience of the heart in trials the tendernesse of the spirit and fresh sight and reflexion on the state of sinne is very weake and consisteth with much feare doubts trepidation shrinking mistrust of it selfe And therefore though all other effects flow in great measure from it yet that of comfort and calmenesse of spirit more weakly because the heart being most busied in sprituall debatements prayers groanes conflicts struglings of heart languishing and sighing importunities of spirit is not at leisure to reflect on its own translated condition or in the seeds time of teares to reape a harvest of Ioy. As a tree new planted is apt to be bended at every touch or blast of winde or children new borne to crie at every turne and noyse so men in their first conversion are usually more retentive of fearefull then of more comfortable impressions The last act then of Faith is that reflexive act whereby a man knoweth his owne Faith and Knowledge of Christ which is the assurance of faith upon which the joy and peace of a Christian doth principally depend and hath its severall differences and degrees according to the evidence and cleerenesse of that reflection As beautie is more distinctly rendered in a cleere then in a dimme and disturbed glasse so is comfort more distinct and evident according to the proportions of evidence and assurance in faith So then to conclude with this generall rule according as the habits of faith are more firme and radicated the acts more strong constant and evident the conquests and experiences more frequent and successefull so are the properties more evident and conspicuous For the measure and magnitude of a proper passion and effect doth ever follow the perfection of the nature and cause whence it proceedes And therefore every man as he tenders either the love and obedience he owes to God or the comfort he desires in himselfe to enjoy must labour to attaine the highest pitch of Faith and still with Saint Paul to grow in the knowledge of him and his resurrection and sufferings So then upon these premises the heart is to examine it selfe touching the truth of faith in it Doe I love all divine truth not because it is proportionable to my desires but conformable unto God who is the Author of it Can I in all estates without murmuring impatiencie or rebellion cast my selfe upon Gods mercie and trust in Him though He should kill me Doe I wholly renounce all selfe confidence and dependance all worthinesse or concurrence of my selfe to righteousnesse Can I willingly and in the truth and sinceritie of my heart owne all shame and condemnation and acquit God as most righteous and holy if He should reject me Doe I not build either my hopes or feares upon the faces of men nor make either them or my selfe the rule or end of my desires Doe I yeeld and seriously endeavour an universall obedience unto all Gods law and that in the whole extent and latitude thereof without any allowance exception or reservation Is not my obedience mercenarie but sincere Do I not dispense with my selfe for the least sprigges of sinne for irregular thoughts for occasions of offence for appearances of evill for motions of concupiscence for idle words and vaine conversation for any thing that carries with it the face of sinne And when in any of these I am overtaken doe I bewaile my weaknesse and renew my resolutions against it In a word when I have impartially and uprightly measured mine owne heart by the rule doth it not condemne mee of selfe-deceite of hypocrisie of halting and dissembling of halfing and prevaricating in Gods service I may then comfortably conclude that my Faith is in some measure operative and effectuall in mee Which yet I may further trie by the nature of it as it is further expressed by the Apostle in the Text That I may know him Here we see the nature of faith is expressed by an act of knowledge and that act respectively to justification limited to Christ This is eternall Life to know thee and him whom thou hast sent where by knowledge I understand a certaine and evident assent Now such assents are of two sorts some grounded upon the evidence of the object and that light which the thing assented unto doth carrie and present to the understanding as I assent to this truth that the Sunne is light by the evidence of the thing it selfe and this kinde of assent the Apostle contradistinguisheth from faith by the name of sight Others are grounded upon the authoritie or authenticalnesse of a narrator upon whose report while wee rely without any evidence of the thing it selfe the assent which we produce is an assent of faith or credence Now that Faith is a certaine assâ—…nt and that even above the certaintie of meere naturall conclusions is on all hands I thinke confessed because how ever in regard of our weaknesse and distrust wee are often subject to stagger yet in the thing it selfe it dependeth upon the infallibilitie of Gods owne Word who hath said it and is by consequence neerer unto him who is the fountaine oâ—… all truth and therefore must needes more share in the properties of truth which are certainty and evidâ—…nce then any proved
had no holdfast at all of Him When Lazarus was raised It is said that Hee came forth bound hand and foote with Grave cloathes to note that Hee came not out as a victor over Death unto which He was to returne againe but when Christ rose Hee left them behinde because death was to have no more power over Him Thus by His resurrection He was declared to have gone through the whole punishment which Hee was to suffer for sinne and being thus justified himselfe that hee was able also to justifie others that beleeved in him This is the reason why the Apostle useth these words to prove the resurrection of Christ I will give you the sure mercies of David for none of Gods mercies had been sure to us if Christ had been held under by death Our faith had been vaine we had been yet in our sinnes But his worke being fully finished the mercy which thereupon depended was made certaine and as the Apostle speakes sure unto all the 〈◊〉 Thus as the Day wherein Redemption is victorious and consummate is cald the day of Redemption so the worke wherein the merits of Christ were declar'd victorious is said to have been for our justification because they were thereby made appliable unto that purpose The second worke of the Power of Christs Resurrection is to overcome all death in vs and restore vs to life againe Therfore he is cald the Lord of the living and the Prince of life to note that his life is operative unto others wee are by his Resurrection secur'd first against the death and Law which wee were held under for euery sinneâ—… is condemn'd already Now when Christ was condemned for sinne hee thereby deliver'd us from the death of the Law which is the curse so that though some of the grave cloathes may not be quite shaken off but that wee may be subject to the workings feares of the Law upon some occasions yet the malediction thereof is for ever removed Secondly we are secured against the death in sinne regenerated quickned renued fashioned by the power of godlinesse which tameth our rebellions subdueth our corruptions and turneth all our affections another way Thirdly against the hold-fast and conquest of death in the grave from whence wee shall bee translated unto glory a specimen and resemblance of this was shewed at the resurrection of Christ when the graves were opened and many dead bodies of the Saints arose and entred into the Citie As a Prince in his inauguration or sosemne state openeth prisons and unlooseth many which there were bound to honour his solemnitie so did Christ do to those Saints at his resurrection and in them gave assurance to all his of their conquest over the last Enemy What a fearefull condition then are all men out of Christ in who shall have no interest in His resurrection Rise indeed they shall but barely by his power as their Iudge not by fellowship with him as the first fruites and first borne of the dead and therefore theirs shall not be properly or at least comfortably a Resurrection no more than a condemn'd persons going from the prison to his execution may be cald an enlargement Pharaohâ—… Butler and Baker went both out of prison but they were not both delivered so the righteous and the wicked shall all appeare before Christ and bee gathered out of their graves but they shall not all bee Children of the Resurrection for that belongs onely to the just The wicked shall be dead everlastingly to all the pleasures and wayes of sin which here they wallowed in As there remaines nothing to a drunkard or adulterer after all his youthfull excesses but crudities rottennesse diseases and the worme of Conscience so the wicked shall carry no worlds nor satisfactions of lust to hell with them their glorie shall not descend after them These things are truths written with a sunne beame in the booke of God First That none out of Christ shall rise unto Glorie Secondly That all who are in him are purged from the Love and power of sinne are made a people willingly obedient unto his scepter and the government of his grace and spirit and have eyes given them to see no beauty but in his kingdome Thirdly Hereupon it is manifest that no uncleane thing shall rise unto glory A prince in the day of his state or any roiall solemnitie wil not admit beggers or base companions into his presence Hee is of purer eyes then to behold much lesse to communicate with uncleane persons None but the pure in heart shal see God Fourthly that every wicked man waxeth worse and worse that hee who is filthy growes more filthy that sinne hardneth the heart and infidelitie hasteneth perdition Whence the conclusion is evident That every impenitent sinner who without any inward hatred purposes of revenge against sinne without godly sorrow forepast and spirituall renovation for after-times allowes himselfe to continue in any course of uncleannesse spends all his time and strength to no other purpose then onely to heape up coales of Iuniper against his owne soule and to gather together a treasure of sins and wrath like an infinite pile of wood to burne himselfe in Again this power of Christs resurrection is a ground of solid and invincible comfort to the faithfull in any pressures or calamities though never so desperate because God hath power and promises to raise them up againe This is a sufficient supportance first Against any either publike or privat afflictions However the Church may seeme to be reduc'd to as low and uncureable an estate as dried bones in a grave or the brands of wood in a fire yet it shall be but like the darknesse of a night after two daies he will revive againe His goings forth in the defence of his Church are prepared as the morning When Iob was upon a dunghill and his reines were consumed within him When Ionah was at the bottome of the Mountaines and the weedes wrapped about his head and the great billowes and waves went over him so that he seemed as cast out of Gods sight When David was in the midst of troubles and Ezekiah in great bitternesse this power of God to raise unto life againe was the onely refuge and comfort they had Secondly against all temptations and discomforts Satans traines and policies come too late after once Christ is risen from the dead for in his resurrection the Church is discharged and set at large Thirdly against Death it selfe because wee shall come out of our graves as gold out of the fire or miners out of their pits laden with gold and glory at the last Lastly wee must from hence learne to seeke those things that are above whither Christ is gone Christs Kingdome is not here and therefore our hearts should not be here Hee is ascended