with you no more when a gulph shall be fixed betwixt him and you for ever Luk. 13. 25. O what will you do when the season of mercy and all hopes of mercy shall end together When God shall become inaccessible inexorable and unreconcilable to you for evermore O what wilt thou do when thou shalt find thy self shut up under eternal wrath when thou shalt feel that misery thou art now warned of is this the place where I must be are these the torments I must endure what for ever Yea for ever will not God be satisfied with the sufferings of a thousand years No nor of Millions of years Ah sinners did you but clearly see the present and future misery of unreconciled ones and what that wrath of the great and terrible God is which is coming as fast as the wings of time can bring it upon you it would certainly drive you to Christ or drive you out of your wits O 't is a dreadful thing to have God for your eternal enemy to have the great and terrible God setting on work his infinite power to avenge the abuse of his grace and mercy Believe it friends it 's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God knowing the terrors of the Lord we perswade men an eternal weight hangs upon an inch of time O that you did know the time of your visitation That you would not dare to adventure and run the hazard of one day more in an unreconciled state Thirdly and Lastly This point speaks to those who 3. have believed our report who have taken hold of Gods strength and made peace with him who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy who once were afar off but now are made nigh by the blood of Christ with you I would leave a few words of exhortation and I have done First Admire and stand amaz'd at this mercy I will praise thee O Lord saith the Church Isai. 12. 1. though thou wast angry with me thine anger is turned away and thou comfortest me O how overwhelming a mercy is here before you God is at peace at peace with you that were enemies in your minds by wicked works Colos. 1. 21. at peace with you and at enmity with Millions as good by nature as you at peace with you that sought it not at peace for ever no dissolving this friendship for evermore O let this Consideration thaw your hearts before the Lord and make you cry What am I Lord that mercy should take in me and shut out fallen Angels and millions of men and women as capable of mercy as my self O the riches O the depths of the mercy and goodness of God! Secondly Beware of New breaches with God God will speak peace to his people and to his Saints but let not them return any more to folly Psal. 85. 8. What if this state of friendship can never be dissolved yet it is a dreadful thing to have it clouded you may lose the sense of peace and with it all the joy of your hearts and comforts of your lives in this world Thirdly Labour to reconcile others to God Especially those that are endeared to you by the bonds of Natural relation When Paul was reconciled to God himself his heart was full of heaviness for others that were not reconciled for his brethren and kinsinen according to the flesh Rom. 9. 2 3. When Abraham was become Gods friend himself then O that Ishmael might live before thee Gen. 17. 18. Fourthly and Lastly let your reconciliation with God relieve you under all burdens of affliction you shall meet with in your way to heaven let them that are at enmity with God droop under Crosses and afflictions but don't you do so Tranquillus deus tranquillat omnia Rom. 5. 1 2 3. Let the peace of God keep your hearts and minds As nothing can comfort a man that must to Hell at last so nothing should deject a man that shall through many troubles win heaven at last The Fourth SERMON Serm. 4. Joh. 6. 44. Explaining the work of the Spirit as the internal most effectual means of the Application of Christ. No man can come unto me except the Father which hath sent me draw him OUR last discourse informed you of the usefulness influence of the preaching of the Gospel in order to the Application of Christ to the souls of men there must be in Gods Ordinary way the external ministerial offer of Christ before men can have Union with him But yet all the preaching in the world can never effect this Union with Christ in it self and in its own vertue except a supernatural and mighty power go forth with it for that end and purpose Let Boanerges and Barnabas try their strength let the Angels of heaven be the preachers till God draw the soul cannot come to Christ. No saving benefit is to be had by Christ without Union with his person no Union with his person without faith no faith ordinarily wrought without the preaching of the Gospel by Christs Ambassadors their preaching hath no saving efficacy without Gods drawings as will evidently appear by considering these words and the occasion of them The occasion of these words is found as Learned Cameron well observes in the 42. verse And they said Is not this Jesus Cameronis Myrothes p. 139. the son of Joseph whose Father and Mother we know Christ had been pressing upon them in his ministry the great and necessary duty of faith but notwithstanding the Authority of the preacher the holiness of his life the miracles by which he confirmed his doctrine they still objected against him is not this the Carpenters Son from whence Christ takes the occasion of these words No man can come unto me except my Father which hath sent me draw him q. d. In vain is the Authority of my person urged in vain are all the miracles wrought in your sight to confirm the doctrine preached to you till that secret almighty power of the Spirit be put forth upon your hearts you will not you cannot come unto me The words are a Negative proposition In which the Author and powerful manner of divine operation in working faith are contained there must be drawing before believing and that drawing must be the drawing of God every word hath its weight we will consider them in the order they lye in the Text. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man not one let his Natural qualifications be what they will let his external advantages in respect of means and helps be never so great it is not in the power of any man all persons in all ages need the same power of God one as well as another every man is alike dead impotent and averse to faith in his Natural Capacity No man or not one among all the sons of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Can or is able he speaks of impotency to special and saving actions such as believing in Christ is no act
nature begins to recover ease and vigour again and shall we not much more rejoyce when our souls begin to mend and recover sensibly and all comfortable signs of life and health appear upon them particularly when the understanding which was ignorant and dark hath the light of life beginning to dawn into it such is that in 1 John 2. 27. When the will which was rebellious and inflexible to the will of God is brought to comply with that holy will saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do Acts 9. 6. When the heart which was harder than an Adamant is now brought to contrition for sin and can mourn as heartily over it as ever a tender Father did for a dead Son a beloved and only Son When its aversations from God are gone at least have no such power as once they had but the thoughts are now fixed much upon God and spiritual things begin to grow pleasant to the soul when times of duty come to be longed for and the soul never better pleased than in such seasons When the Hypocrisie of the heart is purged out so that we begin to do all that we do heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men Coll. 3. 23. 1 Thess. 2. 4. when we begin to make Conscience of secret sins Psal. 119. 113. and of secret duties Mat. 6. 5 6. when we have an equal respect to all Gods Commandments Psal. 119. 6. and our hearts are under the holy and awful Eye of God which doth indeed over-awe our souls Gen. 17. 1. O what sweet signs of a recovering soul are these Surely such are in the skilful hand of the great Physician who will perfect what yet remains to be done Second Use for Direction In the last place this point yields us matter of advice and direction to poor souls that are under the disease of sin Use 2. and they are of two sorts which I will distinctly speak to viz. First Such as are under their first sickness or spiritual sorrow for sin and know not what course to take or Secondly such as have been longer in the hands of Christ the Physician but are troubled to see the cure advance so slowly upon them and fear the issue First As to those that are in their first troubles for sin 1. and know not what course to take for ease and safety I would address to them these following Counsels First Shut your Ears against the dangerous counsels of carnal persons or relations for as they themselves are unacquainted with these troubles so also are they with all proper memedies and it is very usual with the Devil to convey his temptations to distressed souls by such hands because by them he can do it with least suspicion It was Augustins complaint that his own Father took little care for his soul and many Parents act in this case as if they were imployed by Satan Secondly Be not too eager to get out of trouble but be content to take Gods way and wait his time no woman that is wise would desire to have her travail hastned one day before the due time nor will it be your interest to hasten too soon out of trouble 'T is true times of trouble are apt to seem tedious but a false peace will endanger you more than a long trouble a man may lengthen his own troubles to the loss of his own peace and he may shorten them to the hazard of his own soul. Thirdly Open your case to wise judicious and experienced Christians and especially the Ministers of Christ whose office it is to counsel and direct you in these difficulties and let not your troubles lye like a secret smothering fire always in your own breasts I know men are more ashamed to open their sins under convictions than they were to commit them before conviction but this is your interest and the true way to your rest and peace If there be with or near you an Interpreter one of a thousand to shew you your righteousness and remedy as it lies in Christ neglect not your own souls in a sinful concealment of your case it will be the joy of their hearts to be imployed in such work as this is Fourthly Be much with God in secret open your hearts to him and pour out your complaints into his Bosome The 102. Psalm bears a title very suitable to your case and duty yea you will find if your troubles work kindly and God intend a cure upon your souls that nothing will be able to keep God and your souls asunder whatever your incumbrances in the world be some time will be daily redeemed to be so spent betwixt you and God Fifthly Plead hard with God in prayer for help and healing Heal my soul saith David for I have sinned against thee Psal. 41. 4. tell him Christ hath his Commission sealed for such as you are he was sent to bind up the broken hearted Isai. 61. 1. tell him he came into the world to seek and save that which was lost and so are you now in your own account and apprehension Lord what profit is there in my bood Wilt thou pursue a dried leaf And why is my heart wounded with the sense of sin and mine eyes opened to see my danger and misery are not these the first dawnings of mercy upon sinners O let it appear that the time of mercy even the set time is now come Sixthly Understand your peace to be in Christ only and faith to be the only way to Christ and rest let the great enquiry of your souls be after Christ and faith study the nature and necessity of these and cry to God day and night for strength to carry you to Christ in the way of faith Secondly As to those that have been longer under the hands of Christ and yet are in troubles still and cannot 2. attain peace but their wounds bleed still and all they hear in Sermons or do in way of duty will not bring them to rest to such I only add two or three words for a close First Consider whether you ever rightly closed with Christ since your first awakening and whether there be not some way of sin in which you still live if so no wonder your wounds are kept open and your souls are strangers to peace Secondly If you be conscious of no such flaw in the foundation consider how much of this trouble may arise from your constitution and natural temper which being melancholy will be doubtful and suspicious you may find it so in other cases of less moment and be sure Satan will not be wanting to improve it Thirdly Acquaint your selves more with the nature of true justifying faith a mistake in that hath prolonged the troubles of many if you look for it in no other act but assurance you may easily overlook it as it lies in the mean time in your affiance or acceptance A true and proper conception of saving faith would go far in the cure of many
seasonably A sound of judgement is in our ears the Lords voice crieth unto the City and the man of wisdom shall see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it Mica 6. 9. All things round about us seem to posture themselves for trouble and distress Where is the man of wisdom that doth not foresee a shower of wrath and indignation coming We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace Ask ye now and see whether a man doth travel with child Wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces are turned into paleness Alas for that day is great so that none is like it it is even the day of Jacobs trouble but he shall be delivered out of it Jer. 30. 5 6 7. Many eyes are now opened to see the common danger but some foresaw it long ago when they saw the general decay of godliness every where the notorious Prophanity and Atheism that overspread the Nations the spirit of enmity and bitterness against the power of godliness whereever it appeared and though there seemed to be a present calm and general quietness yet those that were wise in heart could not but discern distress of nations with great perplexity in these seeds of judgement and calamity but as the Epha fills more and more so the determined wrath grows more and more visible to every eye and 't is a fond thing to dream of tranquillity in the midâ—… of so much iniquity Indeed if these Nations were once swept with the besom of reformation we might hope God would not sweep them with the besome of destruction but what peace can be expected whilst the highest provocations are continued It is therefore the great and present concernment of all to provide themselves of a refuge before the storm overtake them for as Augustin well observes non facile inveniuntur praesidia in adversitate quae non fuerint in pace quaesita O take up your lodgings in the Attributes and Promises of God before the night overtake you view them often by faith and clear up your interest in them that you may be able to go to them in the dark when the Ministers and Ordinances of Christ have taken their leave of you and bid you good night Whilst many are hasting on the wrath of God by prophaneness and many by smiting their fellow Servants and multitudes resolve if trouble come to fish in the troubled waters for safety and preferment not doubting whensoever the overflowing flood comes but they shall stand dry O that you would be mourning for their sins and providing better for your own safety Reader it is thy one thing necessary to get a cleared interest in Jesus Christ which being once obtained thou maist face the storm with boldness and say Come troubles and distresses losses and tryals prisons and death I am provided for you do your worst you can do me no harm let the winds roar the lightnings flesh the rains and hail fall never so furiously I have a good roof over my head a comfortable lodging provided for me my place of defence is the munition of rocks where bread shall be given me and my waters shall be sure Isa. 33. 16. The design of the ensuing Treatise is to assist thee in this great work and though it was promised to the world many years past yet providence hath reserved it for the fittest season and brought it to thy hand in a time of need It contains the method of grace in the application of the great redemption to the souls of men as the former part contains the method of grace in the impetration thereof by Jesus Christ. The acceptation God hath given the former part signified by the desires of many for the publication of this hath at last prevailed with me notwithstanding the secret consciousness of my inequality to so great an undertakement to adventure this second part also upon the ingenuity and candour of the Reader And I consent the more willingly to the publication of this because the design I first aimed at could not be intire and compleat without it but especially the quality of the subject matter which through the blessing and concurrence of the spirit may be useful both to rouze the drousie Consciences of this sleepy generation and to assist the upright in clearing the work of the spirit upon their own souls These considerations have prevailed with me against all discouragements And now Reader it is impossible for me to speak particularly and distinctly to the case of thy soul which I am ignorant of except the Lord shall direct my discourse to it in some of the following suppositions If thou be one that hast sincerely applied and received Jesus Christ by faith this discourse through the blessing of the Spirit may be useful to thee to clear and confirm thy evidences to melt thy heart in the sense of thy mercies and to ingage and quicken thee in the way of thy duties Here thou wilt see what great things the Lord hath done for thy soul and how these dignities as thou art his Son or Daughter by the double title of regeneration and adoption do oblige thee to yield up thy self to God intirely and to say from thy heart Lord whatever I am I am for thee whatever I can do I will do for thee and whatever I can suffer I will suffer for thee and all that I am or have all that I can do or suffer is nothing to what thou hast done for my soul. If thou be a stranger to regeneration and faith a person that makest a powerless profession of Christ that hast a name to live but art dead here it 's possible thou maist meet something that will convince thee how dangerous a thing it is to be an old creature in the new creatures dress and habit and what it is that blinds thy judgement and is likeliest to prove thyruine a seasonable and full conviction whereof will be the greatest mercy that can befall thee in this world if thereby at last God may help thee-to put on Christ as well as the name-of Christ. If thow be in darkness about the state of thy own soul and willing to have it faithfully and impartially tried by the rule of the word which will not warp to any mans humour or interest here thou wilt find some weak assistance offered thee to clear and disintangle thy doubting thoughts which through thy prayer and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ may lead thee to a comfortable settlement and inward peace If thou be a proud conceited presumptuous â—…oul who hast too little knowledge and too much pride and self-love to admit any doubts or scruples of thy state towards God there are many things in this Treatise proper for thy conviction and better information for woe to thee if thou shouldest not fear till thou begin to feel thy misery if thy troubles do not come on till
have their thoughts sinking deeper into these things than others these thoughts lye with different degrees of weight upon men but all are most solemnly and awfully concerned about their condition all frothiness and frolicks are gone and the heart settles it self in deepest earnest about its eternal state Secondly The heart that receives Jesus Christ is in a frame of deep humiliation and self-abasement O when a man begins to apprehend the first approaches of grace pardon and mercy â—…y Jesus Christ to his soul a soul convinced of its utter unworthiness and desert of hell and can scarce expect any thing else from the just and holy God but damnation how do the first dawnings of mercy melt and humble it O Lord what am I that thou shouldest feed me and preserve me that thou shouldest but for a few years spare me and forbear me but that ever Jesus Christ should love me and give himself for me that such a wretched sinner as I should obtain Union with his person pardon peace and salvation by his blood Lord whence is this to such a worm as I and will Christ indeed bestow himself upon me shall so great a blessing as Christ ever come within the arms of such a soul as mine will God in very deed be reconciled to me in his son what to me to such an enemy as I have been shall my sins which are so many so horrid so much aggravated beyond the sins of most men be forgiven me O what am I vile dust base wretch that ever God should do this for me And now is that Scripture indeed fulfill'd and made good Ezech. 16. 63. That thou maist remember and be confounded and never open thy mouth any more because of thy shame when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done saith the Lord God Thus that poor broken-hearted believer stood behind Christ weeping and washing his feet with tears as one quite melted down and overcome with the sense of mercy to such a vile sinner Luke 7. 38. Thirdly The soul that receives Jesus Christ is in a weary Condition restless and full of disquietness neither able to bear the burden of sin nor knowing how to be discharged from it except Christ will give it ease Matth. 11. 28. Come unto me that is believe in me you that are weary and heavy laden if they do not look into their own souls they know there 's no safety and if they do there 's no comfort O the burdensome sense of sin overweighs them they are ready to fail to sink under it Fourthly The soul that rightly receives Christ is not only in a weary but in a longing condition never did the hart pant more earnestly for the water-brooks never did the hireling desire the shadow never did a condemned person long for a pardon more than the soul longs after Jesus Christ. O said David that one would give me of the waters of the well of Bethlehem to drink O saith the poor humbled sinner that one would give me of the open'd fountain of the blood of Christ to drink O for one drop of that precious blood O for one encouraging smile from Christ O now were ten thousand worlds at my command and Christ to be bought how freely would I lay them all down to purchase him but he is the gift of God O that God would give me Christ if I should go in raggs and hunger and thirst all my days in this world Fifthly The soul in the time of its closing with or receiving Christ is in a state of conflict it hangs betwixt hopes and fears encouragements and discouragements which occasion many a sad stand and pause in the way to Christ sometimes the number and nature of its sins discourage it then the riches and freeness of the grace of Christ erects his hopes again there 's little hope saith unbelief nay it 's utterly impossible saith Satan that ever such a wretch as thou shouldst find mercy now the hands hang down O but then there 's a necessity an absolute necessity I have not the choice of two but am shut-up to one way of deliverance others have found mercy and the invitation is to all that are weary and to all that are athirst he saith he that cometh to him he will in no wise cast-out now new hopes inspire the soul and the hands that did hang down are again strengthned These are the Concomitant frames that accompany faith Lastly Examine the Consequents and effects of Faith if you 3. Mark would be satisfied of the truth and sincerity of it and such are First Evangelical meltings and ingenuous thawings of the heart under the apprehensions of grace and mercy Zech. 12. 10. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and shall mourn Secondly Love to Christ his ways and people Gal. 5. 6. Faith worketh by love i. e. it represents the love of God and then makes use of the sweetness of it by way of argument to constrain the soul to all acts of obedience wherein it may testifie the reality of its love to God and Christ. Thirdly Heart purity Acts 15. 9. purifying their hearts by faith it doth not only cleanse the hands but the heart no principle in man besides faith can do this morality may hide corruption but faith only purifies the heart from it Fourthly Obedience to the commands of Christ Rom. 16. 26. the very name of faith is call'd upon obedience for it accepts Christ as Lord and urges upon the soul the most powerful arguments in the world to draw it to obedience In a word let the poor doubting believer that questions his faith reflect upon those things that are unquestionable in his own experience which being well considered will greatly tend to his satisfaction in this point It 's very doubtful to you whether you believe but yet in the mean while it may be past doubt being a matter of clear experience that you have been deeply convinced of sin struck off from all carnal props and refuges made willing to accept Jesus Christ upon what terms soever you might enjoy him you doubt whether Christ be yours but it 's past doubt that you have a most high and precious esteem of Christ that you heartily long for him that you prize and love all whether persons or things that bears his image that nothing in the world would please your hearts like a transformation into his likeness that you had rather your souls should be fill'd with his Spirit than your houses with Gold and Silver 'T is doubtful whether Christ be yours but it 's past doubt that one smile from Christ one token of his love would do you more good than all the honours and smiles of the world and nothing so grieves you as your grieving him by sin doth you dare not say that you have received him nor can you deny but that you have had many sick days and nights for him that you have gone into many secret places with
the Saints would fall a weeping even in Heaven it self and say Lord Heaven will be no more Heaven to us except thou be there thou art the better half of Heaven Eleventhly Christ is an unsearchable mercy who can spell his wonderful name Prov. 30. 4. who can tell over his unsearchable riches Eph. 3. 8. Hence it is that souls never tire in the study or love of Christ because new wonders are eternally rising out of him he is a deep which no line of any created understanding angelical or humane can fathom Twelfthly and Lastly Christ is an everlasting mercy the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. All other enjoyments are perishable time eaten things time like a Moth will fret them out but the riches of Christ are durable riches Prov. 8. 18. the graces of Christ are durable graces Joh. 4. 14. all the creatures are flowers that appear and fade in their month but this Rose of Sharon this Lilly of the Valley never withers Thus you see the mercy performed with his desirable properties Thirdly The last thing to be opened is the manner of 3. Gods performing this mercy to his people which the Lord did 1. Really and truly as he had promised him 2. Exactly agreeable to the promises and predictions of him First Really and truly as he had promised so he made good the promise Act. 2. 36. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made the same Jesus whom ye crucified both Lord and Christ. The manifestation of Christ in the flesh was no phantasm or delusion but a most evident and palpable truth 1 Joh. 1. 1. That which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled A truth so certain that the assertors of it appealed to the very enemies of Christ for the certainty thereof Act. 2. 22. yea not only the sacred but prophane writers witness to it not only the Evangelists and Apostles but even the Heathen writers of those times both Roman and Jewish as Suetonius Tacitus Plinius the younger and Josephus the Jewish Antiquary do all acknowledge it Secondly As God did really and truly perform Christ the promised mercy so he performed this promised mercy exactly agreeable to the promises types and predictions made of him to the Fathers even to the most minute circumstances thereof This is a great truth for our faith to be established in let us therefore cast our eyes both upon the promises and performances of God with respect to Christ the mercy of mercies See how he was represented to the Fathers long before his manifestation in the flesh and what an one he appeared to be when he was really exhibited in the flesh First As to his person and qualifications as it was foretold so it was fulfilled His original was said to be unsearchable and eternal Mica 5. 2. and so he affirmed himself to be Rev. 1. 11. I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last Joh. 6. 31 32. Before Abraham was I am his two natures united in one person was plainly foretold Zech. 13. 7. the man my fellow and such a one God performed Rom. 9. 5. His immaculate purity and holiness was foretold Dan. 9. 24. to anoint the most Holy some render it the great Saint the Prince of Saints and such an one he was indeed when he lived in this world Joh. 8. 46. Which of you convinceth me of sin His Offices were foretold the prophetical Office predicted Deut. 18. 15. and fulfilled in him Joh. 1. 18. his Priestly Office foretold Psal. 110. 4. fulfilled Heb. 9. 14. his Kingly Office foretold Mica 5. 2. and in him fulfilled his very enemies being Judges Mat. 27. 37. Secondly As to his birth the time place and manner thereof was foretold to the Fathers and exactly performed to a tittle First The time prefixed more generally in Jacobs Phophecie Gen. 44. 10. when the Scepter should depart from Judah as indeed it did in Herod the Idumean more particularly in Daniel seventy weeks from the decree of Darius Dan. 9. 24. answering exactly to the time of his birth so cogent and full a proof that Porphyry the great enemy of Christians had no other evasion but that this Prophecie was devised after the event which yet the Jews as bitter enemies to Christ as himself will by no means allow to be true and Lastly The time of his birth was exactly pointed at in Haggai's Prophecie Hag. 2. 7 9. compared with Mal. 3. 1. he must come whilst the second Temple stood at that time was a general expectation of him Joh. 1. 19. and at that very time he came Luke 2. 38. Secondly The place of his birth was foretold to be Bethlehem Ephrata Mica 5. 2. and so it was Mat. 2. 5 6. to be brought up in Nazareth Zech. 6. 12. Behold the man whose name is the branch the word is Netzer whence is the word Nazarite and there indeed was our Lord brought up Mat. 2. 23. Thirdly His Parent was to be a Virgin Isai. 7. 14. punctually fufilled Mat. 1. 20 21 22 23. Fourthly His Stock or Tribe was foretold to be Judah Gen. 49. 10. and it is evident saith the Apostle that our Lord sprang out of Judah Heb. 7. 14. Fifthly His Harbinger or forerunner was foretold Mal. 4. 5 6. fulfilled in John the Baptist Luk. 1. 16 17. Sixthly The obscurity and meanness of his birth was predicted Isai. 53. 2. Zech. 9. 9. to which the event answered Luk. 2. 12. Thirdly His Doctrine and Miracles were foretold Isai. 61. 1 2. and Isai. 35. 4 5. the accomplishment whereof in Christ is evident in the History of all the Evangelists Fourthly His death for us was foretold by the Prophets Dan. 9. 26. The Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself Isai. 53. 5. He was wounded for our transgression and so he was Joh. 11. 50. The very kind and manner of his death was prefigured in the brazen Serpent his Type and answered in his death upon the Cross Joh. 3. 14. Fifthly His burial in the Tomb of a rich man was foretold Isai. 53. 9. and accomplished most exactly Mat. 27. 59 60. Sixthly His resurrection from the dead was Typed out in Jona and fulfilled in Christs abode three days and nights in the Grave Mat. 12. 39. Seventhly The wonderful spreading of the Gospel in the world even to the Isles of the Gentiles was fore-prophesied Isai. 49. 6. To the truth whereof we are not only the witnesses but the happy instances and examples of it Thus the promised mercy was performed Inference 1. If Christ be the mercy of mercies the medium of conveying all other mercies from God to men Then in vain do men expect Inference 1. and hope for the mercy of God out of Jesus Christ. I know many poor sinners comfort themselves with this when they come upon a bed of sickness I am sinful but God is merciful and it is very
mercy to give than Christ thy portion in him all necessary mercies are secured to thee and thy wants and straits sanctified to thy good O therefore never open thy mouth to complain against thy bountiful God Inference 4. Is Christ the mercy i. e he in whom all the tender mercies Inference 4. of God towards poor sinners are then let none be discouraged in going to Christ by reason of the sin and unworthiness that is in them his very name is mercy and as his name is so is he Poor drooping sinner incourage thy self in the way of faith the Christ to whom thou art going is mercy it self to broken-hearted sinners moving towards him in the way of faith Doubt not that mercy will repulse thee 't is against both its name and nature so to do Jesus Christ is so merciful to poor souls that come to him that he hath received and pardoned the chiefest of sinners men that stood as remote from mercy as any in the world 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Those that shed the blood of Christ have yet been washed in that blood from their sin Act. 2. 36 37. Mercy receives sinners without exception of great and heinous ones Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Gospel invitations run in general terms to all sinners that are heavy laden Mat. 11. 28. When Mr. Billney the Martyr heard a Minister preaching at this rate O thou old Sinner who hast been serving the Devil these fifty or sixty years dost thou think that Christ will receive thee now O said he what a preaching of Christ is here Had Christ been thus preached to me in the day of my trouble for sin what had become of me But blessed be God there is a sufficiency both of merit and mercy in Jesus Christ for all sinners for the vilest among sinners whose hearts shall be made willing to come unto him So merciful is the Lord Jesus Christ that he moves first Isai. 65. 1 2. So merciful that he upbraids none Ezec. 18. 22. So merciful that he will not despise the weakest if sincere desires of souls Isai. 42. 3. So merciful that nothing more grieves him than our unwillingness to come unto him for mercy Joh. 5. 40. So merciful that he waiteth to the last upon sinners to shew them mercy Rom. 10. 21. Mat. 23. 37. In a word so merciful that it is his greatest joy when sinners come unto him that he may shew them mercy Luk. 15. 5. 22. But yet it cannot enter into my thoughts that I should obtain Object mercy First You measure God by your selves 1 Sam. 24. 19. If Sol. a man find his enemy will he let him go well away Man will not but the merciful God will upon the submission of his enemies to him Secondly You are discouraged because you have not tryed Go to Jesus Christ poor distressed sinner try him and then report what a Christ thou findest him to be But I have neglected the time of mercy and now it is too late Object How know you that Have you seen the Book of Life or turned over the Records of Eternity Or do you not unwarrantably Sol. intrude into the secrets of God which belong not to you Besides if the treaty were at an end how is it that thy heart is now distressed for sin and solicitous after deliverance from it But I have waited long and yet see no mercy for me May not mercy be coming and you not see it or have you Object not waited at the wrong dore If you wait for the mercy of Sol. God through Christ in the way of humiliation and faith and continue waiting assuredly mercy shall come at last Inference 5. Hath God performed the mercy promised to the Fathers the great mercy the capital mercy Jesus Christ then let no Inference 5. man distrust God for the performance of lesser mercies contained in any other promises of the Scripture the performance of this mercy secures the performance of all other mercies to us For First Christ is a greater mercy than any other which yet remains to be performed Rom. 8. 32. Secondly This mercy virtually comprehends all other mercies 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Thirdly The promises that contain all other mercies are ratified and confirmed to Believers in Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. Fourthly It was much more improbable that God would bestow his own Son upon the world than that he should bestow any other mercy upon it Wait therefore in a comfortable expectation of the fulfilling of all the rest of the promises in their seasons hath he given thee Christ he will give thee bread to eat rayment to put on support in troubles and whatsoever else thy soul or body stands in need of the blessings contained in all other promises are fully secured by the performance of this great promise thy pardon peace acceptance with God now and enjoyment of him for ever shall be fulfilled the great mercy Christ makes way for all other mercies to the souls of Believers Inference 6. Lastly How mad are they that part with Christ the best of Inference 6. mercies to secure and preserve any temporal lesser mercies to themselves Thus Demas and Judas gave up Christ to gain a little of the world O soul-undoing bargain How dear do they pay for the world that purchase it with the loss of Christ and their own peace for ever Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the mercy of mercies The Twelfth SERMON Sermon 12. CANT 5. part of verse 16. Text. Containing a third motive to enliven the general exhortation from a third title of Christ. yea he is altogether lovely AT the ninth verse of this Chapter you have a query propounded to the Spouse by the Daughters of Jerusalem What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved To this question the Spouse returns her answer in the following verses wherein she asserts his excellency in general vers 10. He is the chiefest among ten thousands confirms that general assertion by an enumeration of his particular excellencies to vers 16. where she closes up her Character and Encomium of her Beloved with an elegant Epiphonema in the words that I have read Yea he is altogether lovely The words you see are an affirmative proposition setting forth the transcendent loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ and naturally resolve themselves into three parts viz. 1. The Subject 2. The Predicate 3. The manner of Predication First The subject He viz. the Lord Jesus Christ after 1. whom she had been seeking for whom she was sick of love concerning whom these Daughters of Jerusalem had enquired whom she had endeavoured so graphically to describe in his particular excellencies This is the great and excellent Subject of whom she here speaks Secondly The predicate or what she affirmeth or saith of 2. him viz. that he is a lovely one machamaddim desires according to the import of
The freedom of Believers is a comfortable freedom the Apostle comforts Christians of the lowest rank poor servants with this consideration 1 Cor. 7. 22. He that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lords freeman q. d. Let not the meanness of your outward condition which is a state of subjection and dependance a state of poverty and contempt at all trouble you you are the Lords freemen of precious account in his eyes O 't is a comfortable liberty Sixthly and Lastly 'T is a perpetual and final freedom they that are once freed by Christ have their manumissions and final discharge from that state of bondage they were in before Sin shall never have dominion over them any more it may tempt them and trouble them but shall never more rule and govern them Acts 26. 18. And thus you see what a glorious liberty the liberty of Believers is The improvement whereof will be in the following Inferences Inference 1. How rational is the joy of Christians above the joy of all Inference 1. others in the world shall not the captive rejoycé in his recovered liberty The very Birds of the air as one observes had rather be at liberty in the woods though lean and hungry than in a golden Cage with the richest fare every creature naturally prises it none more than Believers who have felt the burthen and bondage of corruption who in the days of their first illumination and conviction have poured out many groans and tears for this mercy What was said of the captive people of God in Babylon excellently shadows forth the state of Gods people under spiritual bondage with the way and manner of their deliverance from it Zech. 9. 11. By the blood of thy Covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water Believers are delivered by the blood of Christ out of a worse pit than that of Babylon and look as the Tribes in their return from thence were overwhelmed with joy and astonishment Psal. 126. 1 2. When the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion we were like them that dream then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing they were overwhelmed with the sense of the mercy so should it be with the people of God 'T is said Luke 15. 24. when the Prodigal Son there made the embleme of a returning converting sinner was returned again to his Fathers house that there was heard musick and dancing mirth and feasting in that house The Angels in Heaven rejoice when a soul is recovered out of the power of Satan and shall not the recovered soul immediately concerned in the mercy greatly rejoyce Yea let them rejoyce in the Lord and let no earthly trouble or affliction ever have power to interrupt their joy for a moment after such a deliverance as this Inference 2. How unreasonable and wholly inexcusable is the sin of Apostasie from Jesus Christ What is it but for a delivered captive Inference 2. to put his feet again into the shackles his hands into the manacles his neck into the iron yoke from which he hath been delivered 'T is said Mat. 12. 44 45. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through dry places seeking rest and findeth none then he saith I will return into mine house from whence I came out and when he is come he findeth it empty swept and garnished then goeth he and taketh with him seven other Spirits more wicked than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last state of that man is worse than the first Even as a Prisoner that hath escaped and is again recovered is loaded with double irons Let the people of God be content to run any hazzard endure any difficulties in the way of Religion rather than return again into their former bondage to sin and Satan O Christian if ever God gave thee a sight and a sense of the misery and danger of thy natural state if ever thou hast felt the pangs and throes of a labouring and distressed Conscience and after all this tasted the unspeakable sweetness of the peace and rest that is in Christ thou wilt rather choose to dye ten thousand deaths than to forsake Christ and go back again into that sad condition Inference 3. How suitable and well-becoming is a free spirit in Believers to Inference 3. their state of liberty and freedom Christ hath made your condition free O let the temper and frame of your hearts be free also do all that you do for God with a spirit of freedom not by constraint but willingly Methinks Christians the new nature that is in you should stand for a command and be instead of all arguments that use to work upon the hopes and fears of other men See how all creatures work according to the principle of their natures you need not command a Mother to draw forth her breasts to a sucking Child nature it self teaches and prompts to that you need not bid the Sea ebb or flow at the stated hours O Christian why should thy heart need any other argument than its own spiritual inclination to keep it s stated times and seasons of communion with God Let none of Gods commandments be grievous to you let not thine heart need dragging and forcing to its own benefit and advantage Whatever you do for God do it cheerfully and whatever you suffer for God suffer it cheerfully it was a brave spirit which acted holy Paul I am ready saith he not only to be bound but also to dye at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus Acts 21. 13. Inference 4. Let no man wonder at the enmity and opposition of Satan to the Inference 4. preaching of the Gospel For by the Gospel it is that souls are recovered out of his power Acts 26. 18. 't is the express work of Ministers to turn men from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God Satan as one faith is a great and jealous Prince he will never endure to have liberty proclaimed by the Ministers of Christ within his dominions and indeed what is it less when the Gospel is preached in power but as it were by beat of Drum and sound of Trumpet to proclaim liberty liberty spiritual sweet and everlasting liberty to every soul that is made sensible of the bondage of corruption and cruel servitude of Satan and will now come over to Jesus Christ and oh what numbers and multitudes of prisoners have broken loose from Satan at one proclamation of Christs Acts 2. 41. but Satan owes the servants of Christ a spite for this and will be sure to pay them if ever they come within his reach persecution is the Genius of the Gospel and follows it as the shadow doth the body Inference 5. How careful should Christians be to maintain their spiritual liberty Inference 5. in all and every point thereof Stand fast saith Paul in the liberty wherewith
and what an account have those men to give to God for the blood of those souls by them betrayed to the everlasting burnings Such flattery is the greatest cruelty those whom you bless upon earth will curse you in Hell and the day in which they trusted their souls to your conduct Inference 3. How great a mercy is it to be awakened out of that general sleep and security which is fallen upon the world You cannot estimate Inference 3. the value of that mercy for it is a peculiar mercy O that ever the Spirit of the Lord should give thy soul a jog under the Ministry of the word startle and rouse thy Conscience whilst others are left snoring in the deep sleep of security round about thee when the Lord shall deal with thy soul much after that rate he did with Paul in the way to Damascus who not only saw a light shining from Heaven which those that travelled with him saw as well as he but heard that voice from Heaven which did the work upon his heart though his Companions heard it not Besides it is not only a peculiar mercy but it is a leading introductive mercy to all other spiritual mercies that follow it to all eternity if God had not done this for thee thou hadst never been brought to faith to Christ or Heaven for from this act of the Spirit all other saving acts take their rise so that you have cause for ever to admire the goodness of God in such a favour as this is Inference 4. Lastly Hence it follows that the generality of the world are in the direct way to eternal ruine and whatever their vain confidences Inference 4. are they cannot be saved Narrow is the way and strait is the gate that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it Hear me all you that live this dangerous life of carnal security and vain hope whatever your perswasions and confidences are except you give them up and get better grounds for your hope you cannot be saved For First Such hopes and confidences as yours are directly contradictory to the established order of the Gospel which requires repentance Acts 5. 31. faith Acts 13. 39. and regeneration John 3. 3. in all that shall be saved and this order shall never be altered for any mans sake Secondly If such as you be saved all the threatnings in Scripture must be reversed which lie in full opposition to your vain hopes Mark 16. 16. John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 8 9. either the truth of God in these threatnings must fail or your vain hopes must fail Thirdly If ever such as you be saved new conditions must be set to all the promises for there is no condition of any special promise found in any unregenerate person Compare your hearts with these Scriptures Mat. 5. 3 4 5 6. Psal. 24. 4. Psal. 84. 11. Gen. 17. 1 2. Fourthly If ever such a hope as yours bring you to Heaven then the saving hope of Gods elect is not rightly described to us in the Scriptures Scripture hope is the effect of regeneration 1 Pet. 1. 3. and purity of heart is the effect of that hope 1 John 3. 3. Nay Fifthly The very nature of Heaven is mistaken in Scripture if such as you be Subjects qualified for its enjoyment for assimilation or the conformity of the soul to God in holiness is in the Scripture account a principal ingredient of that blessedness by all which it manifestly appears that the hopes of most men are vain and will never bring them to Heaven The Twenty first SERMON Sermon 21. Doct. 2. That there is a mighty efficacy in the Word or Law Doct. 2. of God to kill vain Confidence and quench carnal Mirth in the hearts of men when God sets it home upon their Consciences THe weapons of the word are not carnal but mighty 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. through God to the pulling down of strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. In the opening of this point I shall 1. Demonstrate the efficacy of the word or Law of God 2. Shew wherein the efficacy thereof lies 3. From whence it hath all this mighty power and efficacy First I shall give you some demonstrations of the mighty power and efficacy that there is in the word or Law of God 1. which will appear with fullest evidence First From the various subjects upon whom it works the hearts and Consciences of men of all orders and qualities 1. have been reached and wounded to the quick by the two-edged sword of Gods Law Some among the great and honourable of the earth though indeed the fewest of that rank have been made to stoop and tremble under the word Act. 24. 16. Mark 6. 20. 1 Sam. 15. 24. the wise and learned of the world have felt its power and been brought over to imbrace the humbling and self-denying ways of Christ Acts 17. 34. Thus Origen Hierom Tertullian Bradwardine and many more came into Canaan laden with Egyptian Gold as one speaks i. e. they came into the Church of God abundantly enriched and furnished with the learned arts and sciences devoting them all to the service of Christ Yea and which is as strange the most simple weak and illiterate have been wonderfully changed and wrought upon by the power of the word the testimonies of the Lord make wise the simple Men of weak understandings in all other matters have been made wise to salvation by the power of the word Mat. 11. 25. 1 Cor. 1. 27. Nay the most malicious and obstinate enemies of Christ have been wounded and converted by the word 1 Tim. 1. 13. Act. 16. 24. Those that have been under the prejudice of the worst and most idolatrous education have been the subjects of its mighty power Act. 19. 26. To conclude men of the most profligate and debauched lives have been wonderfully changed and altered by the power of the word 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. Secondly The mighty efficacy of the Law of God appears in the manner of its operation which works suddenly strikes like a Dart through the hearts and Consciences of men Act. 2. 37. a wonderful change is made in a short time and as it works quickly and suddenly so it works irresistibly with an uncontrouled power upon the spirits of men 1 Thes. 1. 5. Rom. 1. 16. Let the soul be armed against conviction with the thickest ignorance strongest prejudice or most obstinate resolution the word of God will wound the breast even of such a man when God sends it forth in his authority and power Thirdly The wonderful power of the Law or word of God is evidently seen in the strange effects which are produced by it in the hearts and lives of men For First It changes and alters the frame and temper of the mind it moulds a man into a quite contrary
incorporate with sin than oyle with water contraries cannot consist in the same subject longer than they are fighting with each other if there be no conflict with sin in thy soul or if that conflict be only betwixt the conscience and affections light in the one strugling with lust in the other thou wantest that fruit which should evidence thee to be a new creature Thirdly The mind and affections of the new Creature are set upon heavenly and spiritual things Col. 3. 1 2. Ephes. 4. 23. Rom. 8. 5. if therefore thy heart and affections be habitually earthly and wholly intent upon things below driving eagerly after the world as the great business and end of thy life deceive not thy self this is not the fruit of the New Creature nor consistent with it Fourthly The new Creature is a praying Creature living by its daily Communion with God which is its livelyhood and subsistence Zech. 12. 10. Acts 9. 11. If therefore thou be a prayerless soul or if in all thy prayers thou art a stranger to Communion with God if there be no brokenness of heart for sin in thy confessions no melting affections for Christ and holiness in thy supplications surely Satan doth but baffle and delude thy over-credulous soul in perswading thee that thou art a new Creature Fifthly The new Creature is restless after falls into sin until it have recovered peace and pardon it cannot endure it self in a state of defilement and pollution Psal. 51. 8 9 10 11 12. It is with the conscience of a new Creature under sin as it is with the eye when any thing offends it it cannot leave twinkling and watering till it have wept it out and in the very same restless state it is under the hiding of Gods face and divine withdrawments Cant. 5. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. If therefore thou canst sin and sin again without such a burthensome sense of sin or restlesness or solicitude how to recover purity and peace with the light of Gods countenance shining as in dayes past upon thy soul delude not thy self thou hast not the signs of a new Creature in thee 4th Use for Exhortation If the new Creation be a sound evidence of our interest in Christ then hence let me perswade all that are in Christ to Use 4. evidence themselves to be so by walking as it becomes new Creatures The new Creature is born from above all its tendencies are Heaven-ward accordingly â—…et your affections on things that are above and let your conversation be in Heaven if you live earthly and sensual lives as others do you must cross your new Creature therein and can those acts be pleasant unto you which are done with so much regret wherein you must put a force upon your own spirits and offer a kind of violence to your own hearts Earthly delights and sorrows are suitable enough to the unregenerate and sensual men of the world but exceedingly contrary unto that spirit by which you are renovated If ever you will act becoming the principles and nature of new Creatures then seek earthly things with submission enjoy them with fear and caution resign them with cheerfulness and readiness and thus let your moderation be known unto all men Phil. 4. 5. Let your hearts daily meditate and your tongues discourse about heavenly things be exceeding tender of sin strict and punctual in every duty and hereby convince the world that you are men and women of another spirit 5th Use for Consolation Let every new creature be chearful and thankful if God have renewed your natures and thus altered the frame and Use 5. temper of your hearts he hath bestowed the richest mercy upon you that Heaven or Earth affords this is a work of greatest rarity a new creature may be called one among a thousand 't is also an everlasting work never to be destroyed as all other natural works of God how excellent soever must be 't is a work carried on by almighty power through unspeakable difficulties and mighty oppositions Eph. 1. 12. the exceeding greatness of Gods power goes forth to produce it and indeed no less is required to enlighten the blind mind break the rocky heart and bow the stubborn will of man and the same almighty power which at first created it is necessary to be continued every moment to preserve and continue it 1 Pet. 1. 5. the new creature is a mercy which draws a train of innumerable and invaluable mercies after it Eph. 2. 13 14. 1 Cor. 3. 22. when God hath given us a new nature then he dignifies us with a new name Rev. 2. 17. brings us into a new Covenant Jer. 31. 33. begets us again to a new hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. intitles us to a new inheritance Joh. 1. 12 13. 't is the new creature which through Christ makes our persons and duties acceptable with God Gal. 6. 15. In a word it is the wonderful work of God of which we may say this is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes there are unsearchable wonders in its generation in its operation and in its preservation Let all therefore whom the Lord hath thus renewed fall down at the feet of God in an humble admiration of the unsearchable riches of free grace and never open their mouths to complain under any adverse or bitter providences of God The Twenty seventh SERMON Sermon 27. GAL. 5. 24. Text. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh Of the nature principle and necessity of Mortification with the affections and lusts TWo great Tryals of our interest in Christ are finished we now proceed to a third namely the mortification of sin they that are Christs have crucified the flesh The scope of the Apostle in this context is to heal the unchristian breaches among the Galatians prevailing by the instigation of Satan to the breach of brotherly love to cure this he urges four weighty arguments First From the great Commandment to love one another upon which the whole Law i. e. all the duties of the second Table do depend vers 14. Secondly He powerfully disswades them from the consideration of the sad events of their bitter contests calumnies and detractions viz. mutual ruine and destruction vers 15. Thirdly He disswades them from the consideration of the contrariety of these practices unto the Spirit of God by whom they all profess themselves to be governed from vers 17 to the 23. Fourthly He powerfully disswades them from these animosities from the inconsistency of these or any other lusts of the flesh with an interest in Christ they that be Christs have crucified the flesh c. q. d. you all profess your selves to be members of Christ to be followers of him but how incongruous are these practices to such a profession Is this the fruit of the Dove-like-spirit of Christ Are these the fruits of your faith and professed mortification Shall the sheep of Christ â—…narl and fight like rabid and
corruptions abide and work in the very same faculties where grace hath its residence it cannot be that our Sanctification should be so perfect and compleat as our Justification is which inheres only in Christ. See Gal. 5. 17. thus are righteousness and sanctification communicated and made ours but then For Redemption that is to say absolute and plenary deliverance from all the sad remains effects and consequents of Sin both upon soul and body this is made ours or to keep to the terms Christ is made redemption to us by glorification then and not before are these miserable effects removed we put off these together with the body So that look as Justification cures the guilt of Sin and Sanctification the dominion and power of Sin so glorification removes together with its existence and being all those miseries which it let in as at a floodgate upon our whole man Eph. 5. 26 27. And thus of God Christ is made unto us wisdome and righteousness sauctification and redemption namely by imputation regeneration and glorification I shall next improve the point in some useful Inferences Inference 1. Learn from hence what a naked destitute and empty thing a poor sinner is in his natural and unregenerate state Infer 1. He is one that naturally and inherently hath neither wisdome nor righteousness sanctification nor redemption all Quin dicitur eum factum esse nobis sapieâ—…tiam justitiam sanctitatem redemptionem rursus nostra dignitas meritum excluduntur ex hoc etiam consequitur ante perceptionem ejus nos fuisse slultos injustos profanos diaboli maâ—…cipia Muscul. inloc these must come from without himself even from Christ who is made all this to a sinner or else he must eternally perish As no creature in respect of external abilities comes under more natural weakness into the world than man naked and empty and more shiftless and helpless than any other creature so it is with his soul yea much more than so all our excellencies are borrowed excellencies no reason therefore to be proud of any of them 1 Cor. 4. 7. What hast thou that thou hast not received now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it q. d. what intolerable insolence and vanity would it be for a man that wears the rich and costly robe of Christ's righteousness in which there is not one thred of his own spinning but all made by free grace and not by free will to jett proudly up and down the world in it as if himself had made it and he were beholding to none for it O man thine excellencies whatever they are are borrowed from Christ they oblige thee to him but he can be no more obliged to thee who wearest them than the Sun is obliged to him that borrows its light or the fountain to him that draws its water for his use and benefit And it hath ever been the care of holy men when they have viewed their own gracious principles or best performances still to disclaim themselves and own free grace as the sole author of all Thus holy Paul viewing the principles of divine life in himself the richest gift bestowed upon man in this world by Jesus Christ how doth he renounce himself and deny the least part of the praise and glory as belonging to him Gal. 2. 20. Now I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and so for the best duties that ever he performed for God and what meer man ever did more for God yet when in a just and necessary defence he was constrain'd to mention them 1 Cor. 15. 10. how carefully is the like Yet not I presently added I laboured more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me Well then let the sense of your own emptiness by nature humble and oblige you the more to Christ from whom you receive all you have Inference 2. Hence again we are informed that none can claim benefit by impilted Infer 2. righteousness but those only that live in the power of inherent holiness to whomsoever Christ is made righteousness to him he is also made sanctification The Gospel hath not the least favour for licentiousness it is every way as careful to press men to their duties as to instruct them in their priviledges Titus 3. 8. This is a faithful saying and these things I will that thou affirm constantly That they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works It is a loose principle divulged by Libertines to the reproach of Christ and his Gospel that sanctification is not the evidence of our justification and Christ is as much wronged by them who separate holiness from righteousness as if a sensual vile life were consistent with a justified state as he is in the contrary extream by those who confound Christs righteousness with mans holiness in the point of Justification or that own no other righteousness but what is inherent in themselves the former opinion makes him a cloak for sin the later a needless sacrifice for sin It 's true our Sanctification can't justifie us before God but what then can't it evidence our Justification before men is there no necessity or use for holiness because it hath no hand in our Justification is the preparation of the soul for heaven by altering its frame and temper nothing is the glorifying of our Redeemer by the exercises of grace in this world nothing doth the work of Christ render the work of the Spirit needless God forbid he came not by blood only but by water also 1 Joh. 5. 6. And when the Apostle saith in Rom. 4. 5. but unto him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness the scope of it is neither to characterize and describe the justified person as one that is lazy and slothful and hath no mind to work or rebellious and refractory refusing obedience to the commands of God but to represent him as an humbled sinner who is convinced of his inability to work out his own righteousness by the Law and sees all his endeavours to obey the Law fall short of righteousness and therefore is said in a Law sense not to work because he doth not work so as to answer the purpose and end of the Law which accepts of nothing beneath perfect obedience And when in the same Text the ungodly are said to be Deus justâ—… impium antecedenter non consequenter Pareus justified that character describes not the temper and frame of their hearts and lives after their justification but what it was before not as it leaves but as it found them Infer 3. How unreasonable and worse than bruitish is the sin of infidelity by which the Sinner rejects Christ and with him all those mercies Infer 3. and benefits which alone can relieve and cure his misery He is by nature blind and ignorant and
freely and everlastingly upon us as our portion No wonder Zacheus came down joyfully Luke 19. 6. That the Eunuch went home rejoicing Act. 8. 39. That the Jaylor rejoyced believing in God with all his houshold Act. 16. 34. That they that were converted did eat their meat with gladness praising God Act. 2. 41. 46. That there was great joy among them of Samaria when Christ came among them in the preaching of the Gospel Acts 8. 5. 8. I say it 's no wonder we read of such Joy accompanying Christ into the soul when we consider that in one day so many blessings meet together in it the least of which is not to be exchanged for all the Kingdoms of this world and the glory of them Eternity it self will but suffice to bless God for the mercies of this one day Infer 6. If Christ be made all this to every Soul unto whom he is effectually applyed what cause then have those souls that are under the Infer 6. preparatory work of the spirit and are come nigh to Christ and all his benefits to stretch out their hands with vehement desire to Christ and give him the most importunate invitation into their Souls The whole world is distinguishable into three classes or sorts of persons such as are far from Christ such as are not far from Christ and such as are in Christ they that are in Christ have heartily received him such as are far from Christ will not open to him their hearts are fast barred by ignorance prejudice and unbelief against him but those that arecome under the preparatory workings of the spirit nigh to Christ who see their own indispensable necessity of him and his suitableness to their necessities in whom also encouraging hopes begin to dawn and their souls are waiting at the foot of God for power to receive him for an heart to close sincerely and universally with him oh what vehement desires what strong pleas what moving arguments should such persons urge and plead to win Christ and get possession of him they are in sight of their only remedy Christ and Salvation are come to their very doors there wants but a few things to make them blessed for ever this is the day in which their souls are exercised greatly betwixt hopes and fears now they are much alone and deep in thoughtfulness they weep andmake supplication for an heart to believe and that against the great discouragements with which they encounter Reader if this be the case of thy soul it will not be the least piece of service I can do for thee to suggest such pleas as in this case are proper to be urged for the attainment of thy desires and the closing of the match betwixt Christ and thee First Plead the absolute necessity which now drives thee to Christ tell him thy hope is utterly perished in all other refuges thou art come like a starving beggar to the last door of hope tell him thou now beginnest to see the absolute necessity of Christ thy body hath not so much need of bread water or air as thy soul hath of Christ and that wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption that are in him Secondly Plead the Fathers gracious design in furnishing and sending him into the world and his own design in accepting the Fathers call Lord Jesus wast thou not anointed to preach good tydings to the meek to bind up the broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the Isai. 16. 1 2. prison to them that are bound behold an Object suitable to thine Office whilest I was ignorant of my condition I had a proud rebellious heart but conviction and self-acquaintance have now meekned it my heart was harder than the nether milstone and it was as easie to dissolve the obdurate rocks into syrrup as to thaw and melt my heart for sin but now God hath made my heart soft I sensibly feel the misery of my condition I once thought my self at perfect liberty but now I see what I conceited to be perfect liberty is perfect bondage and never did a poor prisoner sigh for deliverance more than I. Since then thou hast given me a soul thus qualified though still unworthy for the exercise of thine office and execution of thy commission Lord Jesus be according to thy name a Jesus unto me Thirdly Plead the unlimited and general invitations made to such souls as you are to come to Christ freely Lord thou hast made open Proclamation Ho every one that thirsteth come ye to the waters Isai. 55. 1. and Revel 22. 17. him that is athirst come in obedience to thy call Lo I come had I not been invited my coming to thee dear Lord Jesus had been an act of presumption but this makes it an act of duty and obedience Fourthly Plead the unprofitableness of thy blood to God Lord there is no profit in my blood it will turn to no more advantage to thee to destroy than it will to save me if thou send me to hell as the merit of my sin calls upon thy Justice to do I shall be there dishonouring thee to all eternity and the debt I owe thee never pay'd but if thou apply thy Christ to me for righteousness satisfaction for all that I have done will be laid down in one full round sum indeed if the honour of thy Justice lay as a bar to my pardon it would stop my mouth but when thy Justice as well as mercy shall both rejoyce together and be glorified and pleased in the same act what hinders but that Christ be apply'd to my soul since in so doing God can be no loser by it Fifthly Lastly Plead thy complyance with the terms of the Gospel tell him Lord my will complys fully and heartily to all thy gracious terms I can now subscribe a blank let God offer his Christ on what terms he will my heart is ready to comply I have no exception against any Article of the Gospel and now Lord I wholly refer my self to thy pleasure do with me what seemeth good in thine eyes only give me an interest in Jesus Christ as to all other concerns I lye at thy feet in full resignation of all to thy pleasure Never yet did any perish in that posture and frame and I hope I shall not be made the first instance and example Inference 7. Infer 7. Lastly If Christ with all his benefits be made ours by special application how contented thankful comfortable and hopeful should believers be in every condition which God casts them into in this world After such a mercy as this let them never open their mouths any more to repine and grudge at the outward inconveniencies of their condition in this world what are the things you want compared with the things you enjoy what is a little money health or liberty to wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption all the Crowns and Scepters in the world sold to their full value are no price for the
least of these mercies but I will not insist here your duty lyes much higher than contentment Be thankful as well as content in every state blessed be God saith the Apostle the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ O think what are men to Angels that Christ should pass by them to become a Saviour to men and what art thou among men that thou shouldst be taken and others left and among all the mercies of God what mercies are comparable to these confer'd upon thee O bless God in the lowest ebb of outward comforts for such priviledges as these And yet you will not come up to your Duty in all this except you be joyful in the Lord and rejoyce evermore after the receipt of such mercies as these Philip. 4. 4. Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous and again I say rejoyce for hath not the poor Captive reason to rejoyce when he hath recovered his liberty the Debtor to rejoyce when all scores are cleared and he owes nothing the weary traveller to rejoyce though he be not owner of a shilling when he is come almost home where all his wants shall be supplied Why this is your case when Christ once becomes yours you are the Lords freemen your debts to Justice are all satisfied by Christ and you are within a little of compleat redemption from all the troubles and inconveniencies of your present state Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. The Second SERMON Serm. 2. JOHN 17. 23. Wherein the believers Union with Christ is stated and opened as a principal part of Gospel Application I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one THE design and end of the Application of Christ to Sinners is the Communication of his benefits to them but seeing all Communications of benefits necessarily imply Communion and all Communion as necessarily presupposes Union with his person I shall therefore in this place and from this Scripture treat of the Mystical Union betwixt Christ and believers this Union being the principal act wherein the Spirits application of Christ consists of which I spake as to its general nature in the former Sermon In this Verse omitting the Contexture we find a threefold Union One betwixt the Father and Christ a second betwixt Christ and believers a third betwixt believers themselves First Thou in me this is a glorious ineffable Union and is fundamental to the other two the Father is not only in Christ in respect of dear affection as one friend is in another who is as his own soul nor only essentially in respect of the identity and sameness of nature and attributes in which respect Christ is the express Image of his person Heb. 1. 3. but he is in Christ also as Mediator by communicating the fulness of the godhead which dwells in him as God-man in a transcendant and singular manner so as it never dwelt nor can dwell in any other Col. 2. 9. Secondly I in them here is the Mystical Union betwixt Christ and the Saints q. d. thou and I are one essentially they and I are one mystically thou and I are one by the communication of the Godhead and singular fulness of the Spirit to me as Mediator and they and I are one by my communication of the Spirit to them in measure Thirdly From hence results a third Union betwixt believers themselves that they may be made perfect in one the same Spirit dwelling in them all and equally uniting them all to me as living members to their head of influence there must needs be a dear and intimate Union betwixt themselves as fellow members of the same body Now my business at this time lying in the second branch namely the Union betwixt Christ and believers I shall gather up the substance of it into this Doctrinal proposition to which I shall apply this discourse Doct. That there is a strict and dear Union betwixt Christ and all true believers The Scriptures have borrowed from the book of Nature four elegant and lively Metaphors to help the Nature of this Mystical Union with Christ into our understandings Namely that of two pieces of timber united by glew that of a graff taking hold of its stock and making one tree that of the husband and wife by the marriage Covenant becoming one flesh and that of the members and head animated by one soul and so becoming one Natural body Every one of these is more lively and full than the other and what is defective â—…in one is supplied in the other but yet neither any of these singly or all of them jointly can give us a full and compleat account of this Mystery Not that of two pieces united by glew 1 Cor. 6. 17. he that 1 Cor. 6. 17. is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 glewed to the Lord. For though this cementeth and strongly joyns them in one yet this is but a faint and imperfect shadow of our Union with Christ for though this Union by glew be intimate yet it is not vital but so is that of the soul with Christ. Nor that of the graff and stock mentioned Rom. 6. 5. for Rom. 6. 5. thought it be there said that believers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implanted or ingraffed by way of incision and this Union betwixt it and the stock be vital for it partakes of the vital sap and juice of it yet here also is a remarkable defect for the graff is of a more excellent kind and nature than the stock and upon that account the tree receives its denomination from it as from the more noble and excellent part but Christ into whom believers are ingraffed is infinitely more excellent than they and they are denominated from him Nor yet that Conjugal Union by marriage Covenant betwixt Eph. 6. 32. a man and his wife for though this be exceeding dear and intimate so that a man leaves father and mother and cleaves to his wife and they two become one flesh yet this Union is not indissolvable but may and must be broken by death and then the relict lives alone without any Communion with or relation to the person that was once so dear but this betwixt Christ and the soul can never be dissolved by death it abides to eternity Nor Lastly That of the head and members united by one Eph. 4. 15 16. vital Spirit and so making one Physical body mentioned Eph. 4. 15 16. for though one soul actuates every member yet it doth not knit every member alike near to the head but some are nearer and others removed farther from it but here every member is alike nearly united with Christ the head the weak are as near to him as the strong Two things are necessary to be opened in the doctrinal part of this point 1. The reality of this Union 2. The quality First For the reality of it I shall make
hearts which have a strong aversation from God naturally in them to close with him according to the Articles of peace contained in the Gospel that thereby they may be capable to receive the mercies and benefits purchased by the death of Christ which they cannot receive in the state of enmity and alienation Secondly Their Capacity described they act in Christs stead as his Vicegerents He is no more in this world to treat personally with sinners as once he did in the dayes of nâ—…s flesh but yet he still continues the treaty with this lower world by his officers requiring men to look upon them and obey them as they would himself if he were Corporally present Luke 10. 16. He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Thirdly The manner of their acting in that Capacity prescribed and that is by humble sweet and condescending intreaties and beseechings this best suits that meek and Lamb-like Saviour whom they represent Thus he dealt with poor sinners himself when he conversed among them he would not break a bruised reed nor quench smoaking flax Isa. 42. 3. This is the way to allure and win the souls of sinners to Christ. From hence the Note is Doct. That the preaching of the Gospel by Christs Ambassadors is the Doct. means appointed for the reconciling and bringing home of sinners to Christ. This is clear from Rom. 10. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 21. and many other Scriptures Here we shall take into Consideration these three things First what is implyed in Christs treating with sinners by his Ambassadors or Ministers Secondly What the great Concernment they are to treat with sinners about is Thirdly What and when is the Efficacy of preaching to bring sinners to Christ. First We will open what is implyed and imported in Christs treaty with sinners by his Ambassadors or Ministers And here we find these six things implied First it necessarily implies the defection and fall of man from his estate of favour and friendship with God if no war with heaven what need of Ambassadors of peace the very office of the Ministry is an argument of the fall Gospel Ordinances and Officers came in upon the fall and expire with the Mediators dispensatory Kingdom 1 Cor. 15. 24 25. Then shall he deliver up the Kingdom to God even the Father thenceforth no more Ordinances no more Ministers what use can there be of them when the treaty is ended They have done and accomplished all they were ever intended and designed for when they shall have reconciled to God all the number of his Elect that lay dispersed among the lost and miserable posterity of Adam and have brought them home to Christ in a perfect state Eph. 4. 12. c. Secondly It implies the singular grace and admirable condescension of God to sinful man That God will admit any treaty with him at all is wonderful mercy it 's more than he would do for the Angles that fell Jude 6. they are reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day Christ took not on him their nature but suffered Myriads of them to perish and fills up their vacant places in glory with a number of sinful men and women to whom the Law a warded the same punishment But that God will not only treat but entreat and beseech sinful men to be reconciled is yet more wonderful Barely to propound the terms of peace had been an astonishing mercy but to wooe and beseech stubborn enemies to be at peace and accept their pardon Oh how unparallell'd as this condescension Thirdly It implyes the great dignity and honour of the Inter illos qui regi regum inserviunt â—…egatisumus Dei Christique personam gerimus â—…ullus unquam nos impuâ—…e despicatâ—… habuit quin in Deum Chriâ—…umque idem injurius Bowles prâ—…fat ad past Evang. Gospel ministry We are Ambassadors for Christ Ambassadors represent and personate the Prince that sends them and the honours or contempts done to them reflect upon and are reckon'd to the person of their Master Luke 10. 16. he that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me Neither their persons nor parts are the proper ground and reason of our respects to them but their office and Commission from Jesus Christ. We are fallen into the dreggs of time wherein a vile contempt is poured not only upon the persons but the very Office of the Ministry and I could heartily wish that Scripture Mal. 2. 7 8 9. were throughly considered by us possibly it might inform us of the true cause and reason of this sore judgement but surely Christs faithful Ministers deserve a better entertainment than they ordinarily find in the world and if we did but seriously bethink our selves in whose name they come and in whose stead they stand we should receive them as the Galatians did Paul Gal. 4. 14. as Angels of God even as Christ Jesus Fourthly Christs treating with sinners by his Ministers who are his Ambassadors implies the strict obligation they are under to be faithful in their Ministerial imployment Christ counts upon their faithfulness whom he puts into the Ministry 1 Tim. 1. 12. They are accountable to him for all acts of their office Heb. 13. 17. If they be silent they cannot be innocent necessity is laid upon them and wo to them if they preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9. 16. Yea necessity is not only laid upon them to preach but to keep close to their Commission in preaching the Gospel 1 Thes. 2. 3 4 5. Our Exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor in guile but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel even so we speak not as pleasing men but God which trieth our hearts the word is not to be corrupted to please men 2 Cor. 2. 17. their business is not to make them their disciples but Christs not to seek theirs but them 2 Cor. 12. 14. to keep close to their instructions both in the matter manner end of their Ministry So did Christ himself the treasure of wisdom and knowledge yet being sent by God he saith Job 7. 16. my doctrine is not mine but his that sent me And so he expects and requires that his Ambassadors keep close to the Commission he hath given them and be according to their measure faithful to their trust as he was to his Paul is to deliver to the people that which he also received from the Lord 1 Cor. 11. And Timothy must keep that which was committed to him 2 Tim. 1. 14. Fifthly It implies the removal of the Gospel ministry to be a very great judgment to the people The remanding of Ambassadors presages an ensuing War If the reconciling of souls to God be the greatest work then the removal of the means and instruments thereof must be the forest Judgement Some account the falling of the Salt upon the Table ominous but surely the falling of them whom
Gal. 6. 1. You that are spiritually minded restore or set him in joint again in the spirit of meekness considering thy self Israel was commanded to be kind to strangers for saith God you know the heart of a stranger and surely if any case in the world require help pity and all compassionate tenderness this doth and yet how do some slight spiritual troubles upon others Parents slight them in their own children Masters in their servants the more bruitish and wicked they O had you but felt your selves what they feel you would never handle them as you do But let this comfort such poor creatures Christ hath felt them and will pity and help them yea he therefore would feel them himself that he might have compassion upon you If men will not God will pity you if men be so cruel to persecute him whom God hath smitten God will be so kind to pour balm into the wounds that sin hath made if they pull away the shoulder from you and will not be concerned about your troubles except it be to aggravate them God will not serve you so but certainly you that have past through the same difficulties you cannot be without compassion to them that are now grapling with them Inference 4. How unexpressibly dreadful is the state of the damned who must bear the burden of all their sins upon themselves without relief or Inference 4. hope of deliverance Mark 9. 44. where their worm dyeth not and the fire is not quenched O if sin upon the soul that 's coming to Christ for deliverance be so burdensome what is it upon the soul that is shut out from Christ and all hopes of deliverance for ever For do but ponder these differences betwixt these two burdens First No soul is so capacious now to take in the fulness of the evil and misery of sin as they are who are gone down to the place of torments Even as the joyes of Gods face above are much unknown to them that have the foretastes and first-fruits of them here by faith so the misery of the damned is much unknown even to them that have in their consciences now the bitterest taste and sense of sin in this world as we have the visions of heaven so we have the visions of hell also but darkly through a glass Secondly No burden of sin presseth so continually upon the soul here as it doth there afflicted souls on earth have intermissions and breathing times but in hell there are no Lucid intervals the wrath of God there is still flowing it is in fluxu continuâ—… Isa. 30. 33. a stream of brimstone Thirdly No burden of sin lyes upon any of Gods elect so long as the damned do and must bear it our troubles about sin are but short though they should run parallel with the line of life but the troubles of the damned are parallel with the endless line of eternity Fourthly Under these troubles the soul hath hope but there all hope is cut off all the Gospel is full of hope it breathes nothing but hope to sinners that are moving Christ-ward under their troubles but in hell the pangs of desperation rend their consciences for ever So that upon all accounts the state of the damned is inexpressibly dreadful Inference 5. If the burden os sin be so heavy how sweet then must the Inference 5. pardon of sin be to a sin-burdened soul Is it a refreshment to a prisoner to have his chains knockt off a comfort to a debtor to have his debts paid and obligations cancelled What joy must it then be to a sin-burthened soul to hear the voice of pardon and peace in his trembling conscience Is the light of the morning pleasant to a man after a weary tiresome night the Spring of the year pleasant after a hard and tedious Winter they are so indeed but nothing so sweet as the favour peace and pardon of God to a soul that hath been long restless and anxious under the terrors and fears of conscience for though after pardon and peace a man remembers sin still yet it is as one that remembers the dangerous pits and deep waters from which he hath been wonderfully delivered and had a narrow escape O the unconceivable sweetness of a pardon Who can read it and not wet it with tears of joy Are we glad when the grinding pain of the Stone or racking fits of the Colick are over and shall we not be transported when the accusations and condemnations of conscience are over Tongue cannot express what these things are this joy is something that no words can convey to the understanding of another that never felt the anguish of sin Inference 6. Lastly In how sad a case are those that never felt any burden in Inference 6. sin that never were kept waking and restless one night for sin There is a burthened conscience and there is a benummed conscience The first is more painful but the last more dangerous O 't is a fearful blow of God upon a mans soul to strike it senseless and stupid so that though mountains of guilt lye upon it it feels no pain or pressure and this is so much the more sad because it incapacitates the soul for Christ and is a presage and fore-runner of hell It would grieve the heart of a man to see a delirious person in the rage and height of a fevor to laugh at those that are weeping for him call them fools and telling them he is as well as any of them much so is the case of many thousand souls the God of mercy pity them Second Use for Counsel The only further Use I shall make of this Point here shall Use 2. be to direct and counsel souls that are weary and heavy laden with the burden of sin in order to their obtaining true rest and peace And first First Counsel Satisfie not your selves in fruitless complaints to men Many 1. Counsel do so but it 's never the near I grant it 's lawful in spiritual distresses to complain to men yea and it is a great mercy if we have any near us in times of trouble that are judicious tender and faithful into whose bosomes we may pour out our troubles but to rest in this short of Christ is no better than a snare of the Devil to destroy us Is there not a God to go to in trouble The best of men in the neglect of Christ are but Physicians of no value Be wise and wary in your choice of Christian friends to whom you open your complaints some are not clear themselves in the doctrine of Christ and faith others are of a dark and troubled spirit as you are and will but entangle you more As for me saith Job is my complaint to man and if it were so why should not my spirit be troubled Job 21. 4. One hour betwixt Christ and thy soul in secret will do more to thy true relief than all other counsellors and comforters in
presupposes a fixed term to which we come Heb. 11. 6. He that cometh to God must believe that God is Take away this and all motion after Christ presently stops No wonder then that souls in their first motions to Christ find themselves clogg'd with so many atheistical temptations shaking their assent to the truth of the Gospel at the very root and foundation of it but they that come to Christ do see that he is and that their life and happiness lyes in their union with him else they would never come to him upon such terms as they do Secondly Coming to Christ implyes the souls despair of salvation any other way the way of faith is a supernatural way and souls will not attempt it until they have tryed all natural wayes to help and save themselves and find it all in vain therefore the Text describes these Comers to Christ as weary persons that have been tugging and striving all other wayes for rest but can find none and so are forced to relinquish all their fond expectations of salvation in any other way and come to Christ as their last and only remedy Thirdly Coming to Christ notes a supernatural and almighty power acting the soul quite above its own natural abilities in this motion John 6. 44. No man can come to me except my father which hath sent me draw him It is as possible for the ponderous mountains to start from their Bases and Centres mount themselves aloft into the air and there flye like wandring Atoms hither and thither as it is for any man of himself i. e. by a pure natural power of his own to come to Christ it was not a stranger thing for Peter to come to Christ walking upon the Waves of the Sea than for his or any mans soul to come to Christ in the way of faith Fourthly Coming to Christ notes the voluntariness of the soul in its motion to Christ. 'T is true there 's no coming without the Fathers drawing but that drawing hath nothing of co-action in it it doth not destroy but powerfully and with an overcoming sweetness perswade the will 'T is not forced or driven but it comes being made willing in the day of Gods power Psal. 110. 3. Ask a poor distressed sinner in that season Are you willing to come to Christ O rather than live Life is not so necessary as Christ is O with all my heart ten thousand worlds for Jesus Christ if he could be purchased were nothing answerable to his value in mine eyes The souls motion to Christ is free and voluntary 't is coming Fifthly It implyes this in it That no duties or Ordinances which are but the wayes or means by which we come to Christ are or ought to be Central and terminative to the soul i. e. the soul of a believer is not to sit down and rest in them but to come by them or through them to Jesus Christ and take up his rest in him only No duties no reformations no Ordinances of God how excellent soever these things are in themselves and how necessary soever they are in their proper place and use can give rest to the weary and heavy laden soul it cannot centre in any of them and you may see it cannot because it still gravitates and inclines to another thing even Christ and cannot terminate its motion till it be come to him Christ is the term to which a believer moves and therefore cannot sit down by the way as well satisfied as if he were at his journeys end Ordinances and duties have the nature and use of means to bring us to Christ but not to be to any man instead of Christ. Sixthly Coming to Christ implies an hope or expectation Venite ad me i. e. affectibus fidei spei religiosae desiderii Burgensis in loc from Christ in the coming soul. If it have no hope why doth it move forward as good sit still and resolve to perish where it is as come to Christ if there be no ground to expect salvation by him Hope is the spring of motion and industry if you cut off hope you hamstring faith it cannot move to Christ except it be satisfied at least of the possibility of mercy and salvation by him Hence it is that when comers to Christ are strugling with the doubts and fears of the issue the Lord is pleased to enliven their faint hopes by setting on such Scriptures as that John 6. 37. He that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out and Heb. 7. 25. He is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him This puts life into hope and hope puts life into industry and motion Seventhly Coming to Christ for rest implies that believers have and lawfully may have an eye to their own happiness in closing with the Lord Jesus Christ. The poor soul comes for rest it comes for salvation its eye and aim is upon it and this aim of the soul at its own good is legitimated and allowed by that expression of Christ John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life If Christ blame them for not coming to him that they might have life sure he would not blame them had they come to him for life Eighthly But Lastly and which is the principal thing carried in this expression Coming to Christ notes the all-sufficiency of Christ to answer all the needs and wants of distressed souls and their betaking themselves accordingly to him only for relief being content to come to Christ for whatever they need and live upon that fulness that is in him If there were not an all-sufficiency in Christ no soul would come to him for this is the very ground upon which men come Heb. 7. 25. he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the uttermost in the greatest plunges difficulties and dangers he hath a fulness of saving power in him and this encourages souls to come unto him One beggar uses not to wait at the door of another but all at the doors of them they conceive able to relieve them And as this notes the fulness of Christ as a Saviour so it must needs note the emptiness and humility of the soul as a comer to him This is call'd submission in Rom. 10. 3. Proud nature must be deeply distressed humbled and moulded into another temper before it will be perswaded to live upon those terms to come to Christ for every thing it wants to live upon Christ's fulness in the way of grace and favour and have no stock of its own to live upon O this is hard but it 's the way of faith Secondly In the next place let us see how Christ invites 2. men to come unto him and you shall find the means employ'd in this work are either internal and principal namely the Spirit of God who is Christ's Vice-gerent and comes to us in his name and room
need not a Physician but those that are sick Bid a man that thinks himself sound and whole go to the Physician and he will but laugh at the motion If you offer him the richest composition he will refuse it slight it and it may be spill it upon the ground ay but if the same man did once feel an acute disease and were made to sweat and groan under strong pains if ever he come to know what sick dayes and restless nights are and to apprehend his life to be in eminent hazard then messengers are sent one after another in post-haste to the Physician then he begs him with tears to do what in him lyes for his relief he thankfully takes the bitterest potions and praises the care and skill of his Physician with tears of joy and so the Patients safety and the Physicians honour are both secured So is it in this method of grace The Uses follow Inference 1. Use. If sin-burthened souls are solemnly invited to come to Inference 1. Christ Then it follows that whatever guilt lye upon the Conscience of a poor humbled sinner 't is no presumption but his duty to come to Christ notwithstanding his own apprehended vileness and great unworthiness Let it be carefully observed how happily that universal particle all is inserted in Christs invitation for the encouragement of sinners Come unto me All ye that labour q. d. let no broken-hearted sinner exclude himself whenas he is not by me excluded from mercy my grace is my own I may bestow it where I will and upon whom I will 'T is not I but Satan that impales and incloses my mercy from humbled souls that are made willing to come unto me he calls that your presumption which my invitation makes your Duty But I doubt my case is excepted by Christ himself in Matth. Object 1. 12. 31. where blasphemy against the Holy Ghost is exempted from pardon and I have had many horrid blasphemous thoughts injected into my soul. Art thou a burdened and heavy laden soul If so thy case is not in that or any other Scripture exempted from mercy Sol. for the unpardonable sin is alwayes found in an impenitent heart as that sin finds no pardon with God so neither is it followed with contrition and sorrow in the soul that commits it But if I am not guilty of that sin I am certainly guilty of many Object 2. great and heinous abominations of another kind too great for me to expect mercy for and therefore I dare not go to Christ. The greater your sins have been the more need you have to go to Jesus Christ. Let not a Motive to Christ be made Sol. an Obstacle in your way to him Great sinners are expresly called Isa. 1. 18. great sinners have come to Christ and found mercy 1 Cor. 6. 7. And to conclude it 's an high reproach and dishonour to the blood of Christ and mercy of God which flowes so freely through him to object the greatness of sin to either of them Certainly you have not sinned beyond the extent of mercy or beyond the efficacy of the blood of of Christ but pardon and peace may be had if you will thus come to Christ for it Oh but it 's now too late I have had many thousand calls by the Gospel and refused them many purposes in my heart 3. Obj. to go to Christ and quenched them my time therefore is past and now 't is to no purpose If the time of grace be past and God intends no mercy for thee how comes it to pass thy soul is now filled with trouble Sol. and distress for sin Is this the frame of a mans heart that is past hope Do such signs as these appear in men that are hopeless Beside the time of grace is a secret hid in the breast of God but coming to Christ is a duty plainly revealed in the Text and why will you object a thing that is secret and uncertain against a duty that is so plain and evident Nor do you your selves believe what you object for at the same time that you say your seasons are over it is too late you are notwithstanding found repenting mourning praying and striving to come to Christ. Certainly if you knew it were too late you would not be found labouring in the use of means Go on therefore and the Lord be with you 'T is not presumption but obedience to come when Christ calls as here he doth Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden Inference 2. Hence it follows That none have cause to be troubled when God makes the souls of their friends or relations sick with the Inference 2. sense of sin It was the saying as I remember of Hierom to Sabinian Nothing said he makes my heart sadder than that nothing can make thy heart sad 'T is matter of joy to all that rightly understand the matter when God smites the heart of any man with the painful sense of sin of such sickness it may be said This sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God Yet how do many carnal relations lament and bewail this as a misery as an undoing to their friends and acquaintance as if then they must be reckon'd lost and never till then that Christ is finding and saving them O if your hearts were spiritual and wise their groans for sin would be as musick in your ears When they go alone to bewail their sin you would go alone also to bless God for such a mercy that ever you should live to such a happy day you would say now is my friend in the blessed pangs of the new birth now is he in the very way of mercy never in so hopeful a condition as now I had rather he should groan now at the feet of Christ than groan hereafter under the wrath of God for ever O Parents beware as you love the souls of your Children that you don't damp and discourage them tempt or threaten them divert or hinder them in such cases as this lest you bring the blood of their souls upon your own heads Inference 3. It also follows from hence That those to whom sin was never Inference 3. any burthen are not yet come to Christ nor have they any interest in him We may as well suppose a Child to be born without any pangs or throes as a soul to be born again and united to Christ without any sense or sorrow for sin I know many have great frights of conscience that never were made duly sensible of the evil of sin many are afraid of burning that never were afraid of sinning Slight and transient troubles some have had but it 's vanisht like an early cloud lickt up like a morning dew Few men are without checks and throbs of conscience at one time or other but instead of going to the Closet they run to the Ale house or Tavern for a cure If their sorrow for sin
had been right nothing but the sprinkling of the blood of Christ could have appeased their consciences Heb. 10. 22. How cold should the consideration of this thing strike to the hearts of such persons Methinks Reader if this be thy case it should send thee away with an aking heart Thou hast not yet tasted the bitterness of sin and if thou do not then shalt thou never taste the sweetness of Christ his pardons and peace Inference 4. How great a mercy is it for sin-burthened souls to be within the Inference 4. sound and call of Christ in the Gospel There be many thousands in the Pagan and Popish parts of the world that labour under distresses of conscience as well as we but have no such reliefs or means of peace and comfort as we have that live within the joyful sound of the Gospel If the conscience of a Papist be burdened with guilt all the relief he hath is to afflict his body to quiet his soul a penance or pilgrimage is all the relief they have If a Pagan be in trouble for sin he hath no knowledge of Christ nor notion of a satisfaction made by him The voice of nature is Shall I give my first-born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul The damned endure the terrible blows and wounds of conscience for sin they roar under that terrible lash but no voice of peace or pardon is heard among them It is not come unto me ye that labour and are heavy laden but depart from me ye cursed Blessed are your ears for you hear the voice of peace you are come to Jesus the Mediator and to the blood of sprinkling O you can never set a due value upon this priviledge Inference 5. How sweet and unspeakably relieving is the closing of a burdened Inference 5. soul with Jesus Christ by faith 'T is rest to the weary soul. Soul troubles are spending and wasting troubles The pains of a distressed conscience are the most acute pains A poor soul would fain be at rest but knows not where he tryes this duty and that but finds none at last he falls into the way of believing he casts himself with his burden of guilt and fear upon Christ and there is the rest his soul desired Christ and rest come together till faith bring you to the bosome of Jesus you can find no true rest the soul is rolling and tossing sick and weary upon the billows of its own guilt and fears Now the soul is come like a Ship tossed with storms and tempests out of a raging Ocean into the quiet harbour or like a lost Sheep that hath been wandring in weariness hunger and danger into the fold Is a soft bed in a quiet chamber sweet to one that is spent and tired with travel Is the sight of a shoar sweet to the shipwrackt Mariner that looks for nothing but death much more sweet is Christ to a soul that comes to him pressed in conscience and broken in spirit under the sinking weight of sin How did the Italians rejoyce after a long dangerous voyage to see Italy again Crying with loud and united voices which made the very heavens ring again Italy Italy But no shoar is so sweet to the weather-beaten passenger as Christ is to a Italiam Italiam lâ—…to clamore salutant Virg. broken-hearted sinner this brings the soul to a sweet repose Heb. 4. 3. We which have believed do enter into rest and this endears the way of faith to their souls ever after Inference 6. Learn hence the usefulness of the Law to bring souls to Jesus Inference 6. Christ. It 's utterly useless as a Covenant to justifie us but exceeding useful to convince and humble us It cannot relieve or ease us but it can and doth awaken and rouze us it 's a fair glass to shew us the face of sin and till we have seen that we cannot see the face of Jesus Christ. The Law like the Fiery Serpents smites stings and torments the conscience this drives us to the Lord Jesus lifted up in the Gospel like the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness to heal us The use of the Law is to make us feel our sickness this makes us look out for a Physician I was alive once without the Law saith Paul but when the Commandment came sin revived and I dyed Rom. 7. 9. The hard vain proud hearts of men require such an hammer to break them to pieces Inference 7. It 's the immediate duty of weary and heavy laden sinners to Inference 7. come to Christ by faith and not stand off from Christ or delay to accept him upon any pretence whatsoever Christ invites and commands such to come unto him 't is therefore your sin to neglect draw back or deferr whatever seeming reasons and pretences there may be to the contrary When the Jaylor was brought where I suppose thee now to be to a pinching distress that made him cry Sirs what must I do to be saved the very next counsel the Apostles gave him was Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved Acts 16. 30 31. And for your encouragement know he that calleth you to come knows your burden what your sins have been and troubles are yet he calls you if your sin hinder not Christ from calling neither should it hinder you from coming He that calls you is able to ease you to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. Whatever fulness of sin be in you there is a greater fulness of saving power in Christ. Moreover he that calls you to come never yet rejected any poor burdened soul that came to him and hath said he never will Joh. 6. 37. He that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out Fear not therefore he will not begin with thee or make thee the first instance and example of the feared rejection And Lastly Bethink thy self what wilt thou do and whither wilt thou go in this case if not to Jesus Christ Nothing shall ease or relieve thee till thou dost come to him Thou art under an happy necessity to go to him With him only is found rest for the weary soul. Which brings us to the third and last Observation Doct. 3. Doct. 3. That there is rest in Christ for all that come unto him under the heavy burden of Sin REST is a sweet word to a weary soul all seek it none but believers find it We which have believed Non dicit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingressi sumus sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingredimur significans initia quietis fideles nunc habere plenam quietem suo temporâ—… consecuturos Pareus in loc saith the Apostle do enter into rest Heb. 4. 3. he doth not say they shall but they do enter into rest noting their spiritual rest to be already begun by faith on earth in the tranquillity of conscience and shall be consummated
a member now of his own mystical body to purifie and cleanse it that at last he may present it perfect to the Father without spot or wrinkle or any such thing Eph. 5. 26. The reigning power of it is gone immediately upon believing and the very existence and being of it shall at last be destroyed O what rest must this give under those troubles for sin Thirdly It was an intolerable burthen to the soul to be under the continual fears aiarms and frights of death and 3. damnation It s life hath been a life of bondage upon this account ever since the Lord opened his eyes to see his condition Poor souls lye down with tremblings for fear what a night may bring forth 'T is a sad life indeed to live in continual bondage to such fears But faith sweetly relieves the trembling Conscience by removing the guilt which breeds it fears The sting of death is sin when guilt is removed fears vanish Smite Lord smite said Luther for my sins are forgiven Now if sickness come 't is another thing than it was Feri Domine feri nam à peccatis meis absolutus sum Luth. wont to be Isai. 33. 21. The Inhabitant shall not say I am sick the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquities a man scarce feels his sickness in comparison to what he did whilst he was without Christ and hope of pardon Fourthly A convinced sinner out of Christ sees every thing 4. against him nothing yields any comfort yea every thing increases and aggravates his burthen whether he look to things past present or to come If he reflect upon things past his soul is filled with anguish to remember the sins committed and the seasons neglected and the precious mercies that have been abused if he look upon things present the case is doleful and miserable nothing but trouble and danger Christless and comfortless and if he look forward to things to come that gives him a deeper cut to the heart than any thing else for though it be sad and miserable for the present yet he fears it will be much worse hereafter all these are but the beginning of sorrows and thus the poor awakened sinner becomes a Magor missabib fear round about But upon his coming to Christ all things are marvellously altered a quite contrary face of things appears to him every thing gives him hope and comfort which way soever he looks so speaks the Apostle 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. All things are yours saith he whether life or death or things present or things to come all is yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods they are ours i. e. for our advantage benefit and comfort more particularly upon our coming to Christ First Things past are ours they conduce to our advantage and comfort Now the soul can begin to read the gracious end and design of God in all its preservations and deliverances whereby it hath been reserved for such a day as this O! it melts his heart to consider his Companions in sin and Vanity are cut off and he spared and that for a day of such mercy as the day of his espousals with Christ is Now all his past sorrows and deep troubles of spirit which God hath exercised him with begin to appear the greatest mercies that ever he received being all necessary and introductive to this blessed union with Christ. Secondly Things present are ours though it be not yet with us as we would have it Christ is not sure enough the heart is not pure enough sin is too strong and grace is too weak many things are yet out of order yet can the soul bless God for this with tears of joy and praise him for this brimful of admiration and holy astonishment that it is as it is that he is where he is though he be not yet where he would be O 't is a blessed life to live as a poor recumbent by acts of trust and affiance though as yet it have but little evidence that it is resolved to trust all with Christ though it be not yet certain of the issue O this is a comfortable station a sweet condition to what it was either when it wallowed in sin in the days before conviction or was swallowed up in fears and troubles for sin after conviction now it hath hope though it want assurance and hope is sweet to a soul coming out of such deep distresses now it sees the remedy and is applying it whereas before the wound seemed desperate now all hesitations and debates are at an end in the Soul 't is no longer bivious and unresolved what to do all things have been deeply considered and after consideration issued into this resolve or decree of the will I will go to Christ I will venture all upon his Command and Call I will imbarque my eternal interests in that Bottom here I fix and upon this ground I resolve to live and dye O how much better is this than that floating life it lived before rolling upon the billows of inward fears and troubles not able to drop Anchor any where nor knowing where to find an Harbour Thirdly Things to come are ours and this is the best and sweetest of all man is a prospecting creature his eye is much upon things to come and it will not satisfie him that it is well at present except he have a prospect that it shall be so hereafter but now the soul hath committed it self and all its concernments to Christ for eternity and this being done it 's greatly relieved against evils to come I cannot saith the Believer think all my troubles over and that I shall never meet any more afflictions it were a fond vanity to dream of that but I leave all these things where I have left my soul he that hath supported me under inward will carry me through outward troubles also I cannot think all my temptations to sin past O I may yet meet with sore assaults from Satan yet it is infinitely better to be watching praying and striving against sin than it was when I was obeying it in the lusts of it God that hath delivered me from the love of sin will I trust preserve me from ruine by sin I know also death is to come I must feel the pangs and agonies of it but yet the aspect of death is much more pleasant than it was I come Lord Jesus to thee who art the death of death whose death hath disarmed death of its sting I fear not its dart if I feel not its sting And thus you see briefly how by faith Believers enter into rest How Christ gives rest even at present to them that come to him and all this but as a beginning of their everlasting rest Inference 1. Is there rest in Christ for weary souls that come unto him Then certainly it 's a design of Satan against the peace and welfare Inference 1. of mens souls to discourage them from coming to Christ in
the wounds of Christ Isa. 53. 5. By his stripes we are healed his blood only is innocent and precious blood 1 Pet. 1. 19. blood of infinite worth and value the blood of God Act. 20. 28. blood prepared for this very purpose Heb. 10. 5. this is the blood that performs the cure and how great a cure is it for this cure the souls of Believers shall be praising and magnifying their great Physician in Heaven to all eternity Rev. 1. 5 6. To him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood c. to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever Secondly The next evil in sin cured by Christ is the dominion 2. of it over the souls of poor sinners Where sin is in dominion the soul is in a very sad condition for it darkens the Understanding depraves the Conscience stiffens the Will hardens the Heart misplaces and disorders all the Affections and thus every faculty is wounded by the power and dominion of sin over the soul. How difficult is the cure of this disease it passes the skill of Angels or men to heal it but Christ undertakes it and makes a perfect cure of it at last and this he doth by his Spirit As he cures the guilt of sin by pouring out his blood for us so he cures the dominion of sin by pouring out his Spirit upon us Justification is the cure of guilt Sanctification the cure of the dominion of sin For First As the Dominion of sin darkens the understanding 1 Cor. 2. 14. so the spirit of holiness which Christ sheds upon his people cures the darkness and blindness of that noble faculty and restores it again Eph. 5. 8. they that were darkness are hereby light in the Lord the anointing of this Spirit teacheth them all things 1 John 2. 27. Secondly As the dominion of sin depraved and defiled the Conscience Tit. 1. 15. wounded it to that degree as to disable it to the performances of all its Offices and Functions so that it was neither able to apply convince or tremble at the word So when the Spirit of holiness is shed forth O what a tender sense fills the renewed Conscience for what small things will it check smite and rebuke how strongly will it bind to duty and bar against sin Thirdly As the dominion of sin stiffned the Will and made it stubborn and rebellious so Christ by sanctifying it brings it to be pliant and obedient to the will of God Lord saith the sinner what wilt thou have me to do Act. 9. 6. Fourthly As the power of sin hardneth the Heart so that nothing could affect it or make any impression upon it when sanctification comes upon the soul it thaws and breaks it as hard as it was and makes it dissolve in the breast of a sinner in godly sorrow Ezec. 36. 26. I will take away the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh It will now melt ingenuously under the threatnings of the word 2 Kings 22. 19. or the strokes of the Rod Jer. 31. 18. or the manifestations of grace and mercy Luke 7. 38. Fifthly As the power of sin misplaced and disordered all the affections so sanctification reduces them again and sets them right Psal. 4. 6 7. And thus you see how sanctification becomes the rectitude health and due temper of the soul so far as it prevails curing the diseases that sin in its dominion filled the soul with True it is this cure is not perfected in this life there are still some grudgings of the old diseases in the holiest souls notwithstanding sin be dethroned from its dominion over them but the cure is begun and daily advances towards perfection and at last will be compleat as will appear in the cure of the next evil of sin namely Thirdly The Inherence of sin in the soul this is a sore disease the very core and root of all our other complaints 3. and ayles This made the holy Apostle bemoan himself and waile so bitterly Rom. 7. 17. because of sin that dwelt in him and the same misery is bewailed by all sanctified persons all the world over 'T is a wonderful mercy to have the guilt and the dominion of sin cured but we shall never be perfectly sound and well till the existence or indwelling of sin in our natures be cured too When once that is done then we shall feel no more pain nor sorrows for sin and this our great Physician will at last perform for us and upon us but as the cure of guilt was by our Justification the cure of the dominion of sin by our Sanctification so the third and last which perfects the whole cure will be by our Glorification and till then it is not to be expected For it 's a clear case that sin like Ivy in the old Walls will never be gotten out till the Wall be pulled down and then it 's pulled up by the roots This cure Christ will perform in a moment upon our dissolution For 't is plain First That none but perfected souls freed from all sin are admitted into Heaven Eph. 5. 27. Heb. 12. 23. Rev. 21. 27. Secondly 'T is as plain that no such personal perfection and freedom is found in any man on this side death and the grave 1 Joh. 1. 8. 1 Kings 8. 46. Philip. 3. 12. a truth sealed by the sad experience of all the Saints on earth Thirdly If such freedom and perfection must be before we can be perfectly happy and no such thing be done in this life it remains that it must be done immediately upon their dissolution and at the very time of their glorification as sin came in at the time of the union of their souls and bodies in the womb so it will go out at the time of their separation by death then will Christ put the last hand to this glorious work and perfect that cure which hath been so long under his hand in this world and thenceforth sin shall have no power upon them it shall never tempt them more it shall never defile them more it shall never grieve and sadden their hearts any more henceforth it shall never cloud their evidences darken their understandings or give the least interruption to their communion with God when sin is gone all these its mischievous effects are gone with it So that I may speak it to the comfort of all gracious hearts according to what the Lord told the Israelites in Deut. 12. 8 9. to which I allude for illustration of this most comfortable truth Ye shall not do after all the things that ye do here this day every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes for ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you Whilst you are under Christs cure upon earth but not perfectly healed your understandings mistake your thoughts wander your affections are dead your communion
before his face but the merciful God casts them all behind his back never to behold them more so as to charge them upon his pardoned people And thus you see what the pardon of sin is what the price that purchaseth pardon is and what riches of grace God manifesteth in the remission of Believers sins which were the things to be explained and opened in the Doctrinal part The improvement of the whole you will have in the following Uses Inference 1. If this be so that all Believers and none but Believers receive Inference 1. the remission of their sins through the riches of grace by the blood of Christ What a happy condition then are Believers in Those that never felt the load of sin may make light of a pardon but so cannot you that have been in the deeps of trouble and fear about it those that have been upon the rack of an accusing and condemning Conscience as David Heman and many of the Saints have been can never sufficiently value a pardon Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Psal. 32. 1 2. or O the blessednesses and felicities of the pardoned man as the Hebrew sounds Remission cannot but appear the wonder of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mercies if we consider through what difficulties the grace of God makes way for it to our souls what strong bars the love of God breaks asunder to open our way to this priviledge for there can be no pardon without a Mediator no other Mediator but the Son of God the Son of God cannot discharge our debts but by taking them upon himself as our surety and making full payment by bearing the wrath of God for us and when all this is done there can be no actual pardon except the spirit of grace open our blind eyes break our hard hearts and draw them to Christ in the way of believing And as the mercy of remission comes to us through wonderful difficulties so it is in it self a compleat and perfect mercy God would not be at such vast expence of the riches of his grace Christ would not lay out the invaluable treasures of his precious blood to procure a cheap and common blessing for us Rejoyce then ye pardoned souls God hath done great things for you for which you have cause to be glad Inference 2. Hence it follows That interest in Christ by faith brings the Inference 2. Conscience of a Believer into a state of rest and peace Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God I say not that every Believer is presently brought into actual peace and tranquillity of Conscience there may be many fears and much trouble even in a pardoned soul but this is an undoubted truth that faith brings the pardoned soul into that condition and state where he may find perfect rest in his Conscience with respect to the guilt and danger of sin The blood of Christ sprinkles us from an evil that is an accusing condemning Conscience We are apt to fear that this or that special sin which hath most terrified and affrighted our Consciences is not forgiven but if there be riches enough in the grace of God and efficacy enough in the blood of Christ then the sins of Believers all their sins great as well as small one as well as another without limitation or exception are pardoned For let us but consider if God remits no sin to any man but with respect to the blood of Christ then all sins are pardoned as well as any one sin because the dignity and desert of that blood is infinite and as much deserves an universal pardon for all sins as the particular pardon of any even the least sin Moreover remission is an act of Gods Fatherly love in Christ and if it be so then certainly no sin of any Believer can be retained or excluded from pardon for then the same soul should be in the favour of God so far as it is pardoned and out of the favour of God so far as it is unpardoned and all this at one and the same instant of time which is a thing both repugnant to it self and to the whole stream of the Gospel To Conclude what is the design and end of remission but the saving of the pardoned soul But if any sin be retained or excluded from pardon the retaining of that sin must needs irritate and void the pardon of all other sins and so the acts of God must cross and contradict each other and the design and end of God miscarry and be lost which can never be So then we conclude faith brings the believing soul into a state of rest and peace Inference 3. Hence it also follows That no remission is to be expected by any Inference 3. soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ no Christ no pardon no faith no Christ. Yet how apt are many poor deluded souls to expect pardon in that way where never any soul yet did or ever can meet it Some look for pardon from the absolute mercy of God without any regard to the blood of Christ or their interest therein we have sinned but God is merciful Some expect remission of sin by vertue of their own duties not Christs merits I have sinned but I will repent restore reform and God will pardon but little do such men know how they therein diminish the evil of sin undervalue the justice of God slight the blood of Christ and put an undoing cheat upon their own souls for-ever to expect pardon from absolute mercy or our own duties is to knock at the wrong dore which God hath shut up to all the world Rom. 3. 20. Whilst these two principles abide firm that the price of pardon is only in the blood of Christ and the benefit of pardon only by the application of his blood to us this must remain a sure conclusion that no remission is to be expected by any soul without interest by faith in Jesus Christ. Repentance restitution and reformation are excellent duties in their kind and in their proper places but they were never meant for saviours or satisfactions to God for sin Inference 4. If the riches of grace be thus manifested in the pardon of sin Inference 4. how vile an abuse is it of the grace of God to take the more liberty to sin because grace abounds in the pardon of it Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound God forbid Rom. 6. 1 2. Will no cheaper stuff than the grace of God serve to make a cloak for sin O vile abuse of the most excellent thing in the whole world did Christ shed his blood to expiate our guilt and dare we make that a plea to extenuate our guilt God forbid If it be intolerable ingratitude among men to requite good with evil sure that sin must want a name bad enough to express it which puts the greatest
the way be never so great or many As he said necesse est ut eam non ut vivam 't is necessary that I go on 't is not necessary that I live so saith the soul that is taught of God 't is easier with me to dispense with ease honour relations yea with life it self than to part with Christ and the hopes of eternal life Lesson 12. Twelfthly They that come to Christ are taught of God that whatever guilt and unworthiness they discover in themselves and whatever fears and doubts hang upon their hearts as to pardon and acceptance yet as the case stands it is their wisdom and great interest to venture themselves in the way of faith upon Jesus Christ whatever the issue thereof be Three great discouragements are usually found upon the hearts of those that come to Christ in the way of faith First The sensible greatness of guilt and sin how can I go to Christ that am in such a case that have been so vile a wretch and here measuring the grace and mercy of Chris by what it finds in it self or in other creatures 1 Sam. 24. 19. the soul is ready to sink under the weight of its own discouraging and misgiving thoughts Secondly The sense they have of their own weakness and inability to do what God requires and must of necessity be done if ever they be saved my heart is harder than an Adamant how can I break it My will is stubborn and exceeding obstinate I am no way able to bow it the frame and temper of my spirit is altogether carnal and earthly and it is not in the power of my hand to alter and change it alas I cannot subdue any one corruption nor perform one spiritual duty nor bear one of those sufferings and burthens which religion lays upon all that follow Christ this also proves a great discouragement in the way of faith Thirdly And which is more than all the soul that is coming to Jesus Christ hath no assurance of acceptance with him if it should adventure himself upon him 't is a great hazard a great adventure 't is much more probable if I look to my self that Christ will shut the door of mercy against me But under all these discouragements the soul learns this Lesson from God that as ungodly as it is as weak and impotent as it is as full of fears and doubts as it is nevertheless it is every way its great duty and concernment to go on in the way of faith and make that great adventure of it self upon Jesus Christ and of this the Lord convinceth the soul by two things viz. 1. From the absolute necessity of coming 2. From the incouraging probabilities of speeding First The soul seeth an absolute necessity of coming necessity is laid upon it there is no other way Acts. 4. 12. God hath shut it up by a blessed necessity to this only dore of escape Gal. 3. 23. damnation lies in the neglect of Christ Heb. 2. 3. The soul hath no choice in this case Angels Ministers duties repentance reformation cannot save me Christ and none but Christ can deliver me from present guilt and the wrath to come why do I dispute demur delay when certain ruine must inevitably follow the neglect or refusal of Gospel offers Secondly The Lord sheweth those that are under his teaching the probabilities of mercy for their encouragement in the way of believing and these probabilities the soul is enabled to gather from the general and free invitations of the Gospel Isai. 55. 1 7. Rev. 22. 17. from the conditional promises of the Gospel Joh. 6. 37. Mat. 11. 28. Isai. 1. 18. from the vast extent of grace beyond all the thoughts and hopes of creatures Isai. 55. 8 9. Heb. 7. 25. from the incouraging examples of other sinners who have found mercy in as bad condition as they 1 Tim. 1. 13. 2 Chron. 33. 3. 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. from the Command of God which warrants the action and answers all the objections of unworthiness and presumption in them that come to Christ 1 John 3. 23. and lastly from the sensible changes already made upon the temper and frame of the heart Time was when I had no sense of sin nor sorrow for sin no desires after Christ nor heart to duties but it is not so with me now I now see the evil of sin so as I never saw it before my heart is now broken in the sense of that evil my desires begin to be enflamed after Jesus Christ. I am not at rest nor where I would be till I am in secret mourning after the Lord Jesus Surely these are the dawnings of the day of mercy let me go on in this way it saith as the Lepers at the siege of Samaria 2 King 7. 3 4. If I stay here I perish if I go to Christ I can but perish Hence Believers bear up against all objected discouragements certum exitium commutemus incerto 't is the dictate of wisdom the vote of reason to exchange a certain for an uncertain ruine And thus you have heard what those excellent Lessons are which all that come to Christ are taught by the Father The Twenty third SERMON Sermon 23. JOHN 6. 45. Text. It is written in the prophets And they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me IN the former Sermon you have been taught this great truth Doct. That the teachings of God are absolutely necessary to every soul that cometh unto Christ in the way of faith What the teachings of God import hath been formerly opened and what those special Lessons are which all believers hear and learn of the Father was the last thing discoursed that which remains to be further cleared about this subject before I come to the Application of the whole will be to shew you 1. What are the Properties of divine teachings 2. What influence they have in bringing souls to Christ. 3. Why it is impossible for any man to come to Christ without these teachings of the Father First what are the properties of divine teachings Concerning the teachings of God we affirm in general that though 1. they exclude not yet they vastly differ from all humane teachings as the power of God in effecting transcends all humane power so the wisdom of God in teaching transcends all humane wisdom For First God teacheth powerfully he speaketh to the soul with a strong hand when the word comes accompanied with the Spirit 't is mighty through God to cast down all imaginations 2 Cor. 10. 4. Now the Gospel comes not in word only as it was wont to do but in power 1 Thess. 1. 4 5. a power that makes the soul fall flat before it and acknowledge that God is in that word 1 Cor. 14. 25. Secondly the teachings of God are sweet teachings Men never relish the sweetness of a truth till they learn it from God Cant. 1. 3. His
a poor Christian because of the great darkness and ignorance which clouds my soul for I read 1 Joh. 2. 27. that he enlightneth the soul which he inhabiteth the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things c. but alas my understanding is weak and cloudy I have need to learn of the meanest of Gods people this only I know that I know nothing as I ought to know Two things are to be respected in spiritual knowledge Sol. viz. the quantity and the efficacy thereof your condition doth not so much depend upon the measures of knowledge for haply you are under many natural disadvantages and want those helps and means of increasing knowledge which others plentifully enjoy it may be you have wanted the helps of education or have been incumbred by the necessities and cares of the world which have allowed you but little leasure for the improvement of your minds but if that which you do know be turned into practice and obedience Col. 1. 9 10. if it have influence upon your hearts and transform your affections into a spiritual frame and temper 2 Cor. 3. 17 18. if your ignorance humble you and drive you to God daily for the increase of knowledge one drop of such knowledge of Christ and your selves as this is more worth than a Sea of humane moral unsanctified and speculative knowledge though you know but little yet that little being sanctified is of great value though you know but little time was when ye knew nothing of Jesus Christ or the state of your own souls In a word though you know but little that little you do know will be still encreasing like the morning light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. If thou knowest so much as brings thee to Christ thou shalt shortly be where thy knowledge shall be as the light at noon day I sometime find my heart raised and my affections melted Obj. 2. in duties but I doubt it is but in a natural way and not from the spirit of God could I be assured those motions of my heart were from the spirit of grace and not meerly a natural thing it would be singular comfort and satisfaction to me First Consider whether this be not the ground of your Sol. fear and doubting because you are fain to take pains in the way of meditation prayer and other duties to bring your hearts to sense and savour the things of God whereas it may be you expect your spiritual enlargements and comforts should flow in upon you spontaneously and drop from heaven immediately of their own accord without any pains or industry of yours here may be and probably is a great mistake in this matter for the spirit of God works in the natural method wherein affections use to be raised and makes use of such duties as meditation and prayer as instruments to do that work by Ezech. 36. 37. So David was forced to reason with and chide his own heart Psal. 42. 5. thy comfort and enlargement may nevertheless be the fruit of the spirit because God makes it spring up and grow upon thy duties Secondly Take this as a sure rule whatsoever rises from self alwayes aimes at and terminates in self this stream cannot be carryed higher than the fountain if therefore thy aim and end in striving for affections and enlargements in duty be only to win applause from men and appear to be what in reality thou art not this indeed is the fruit of nature and a very corrupt and hypocritical nature too but if thy heart be not melted or desire to be melted in the sense of the evil of sin in order to the farther mortification of it and under the apprehensions of the free grace and mercy of God in the pardon of sin in order to the engaging of thy soul more firmly to him if these or such like be thy ends and designs or be promoted and furthered by thine enlargements and spiritual comforts never reject them as the meer fruits of nature a carnal root cannot bring forth such fruits as these Upon the Contrary Spiritual deadness and indisposedness Obj. 3. to duties and to those especially which are more secret spiritual and self-denying than others is the ground upon which many thousand souls who are yet truly gracious do doubt the indwelling of the spirit in them O saith such a soul if the spirit of God be in me Why is it thus Could my heart be so dead so backward and averse to spiritual duties no no these things would be my meat and my drink the delights and pleasures of my life First These things indeed are very sad and argue thy Sol. heart to be out of frame as the body is when it cannot relish the most desireable meats or drinks but the question will be how thy soul behaves it self in such a condition Qui bonâ—…m vult malum non vult is studium retinet plaâ—…di deo quamvis illectus concupiscentiâ malâ nonnunquam ex infirmitate illud committat quod deo displicet Davenant as this is whether this be easie or burthensome to be born by thee and if thou complain under it as a burthen then what pains thou takest to ease thy self and get rid of it Secondly Know also that there is a great difference betwixt spiritual death and spiritual deadness the former is the state of the unregenerate the latter is the disease and complaint of many thousand regenerate souls If David had not felt it as well as thee he would never have cryed out nine times in the compass of one Psalm Quicken me quicken me Besides Thirdly Though it be often it is not alwayes so with thee there are seasons wherein the Lord breaks in upon thy heart enlarges thy affections and sets thy soul at liberty to which times thou wilt do well to have an eye in these dark and cloudy dayes But the Spirit of God is a comforter as well as a sanctifier Obj. 4. he doth not only enable men to believe but after they believe he also seals them Eph. 1. 13. but I walk in darkness and am a stranger to the sealing and comforting work of the spirit how therefore can I imagine the spirit of God should dwell in me who go from day to day in the bitterness of my soul mourning as without the Sun There is a twofold sealing and a twofold comfort the Sol. spirit sealeth both objectively in the work of sanctification and formally in giving clear evidence of that work thou mayest be sealed in the first whilest thou art not yet sealed in the second sense if so thy condition is safe although it be at present uncomfortable And as to comfort that also is of two sorts viz. seminal or actual in the root or in the fruit light is sown for the righteous Psal.
that God would follow it with his blessing God kills thy comforts out of no other design but to kill thy corruptions with them Wants are ordained to kill wantonness poverty is appointed to kill pride reproaches are permitted to pull down ambition Happy is the man who understands approves and heartily sets in with the design of God in such afflicting providences 8. Rule Bend the strength of your duties and endeavours against Rule 8. your proper and special sin 'T is in vain to lop off branches whilst this root of bitterness remains untouched This was Davids practice Psal. 18. 23. I was also upright before him and I kept my self from mine iniquity We observe in natural men that one faculty is more vigorous than another We find in nature that our soil suits with this seed rather than another and every believer may find his nature and constitution inclining him to one sin rather than another As graces so corruptions excel one another even in the regenerate The power of special corruptions arises from our constitutions education company custom callings and such like occasions But from whencesoever it comes this is the sin that most endangers us most easily besets us and according to the progress of mortification in that fin we may safely estimate the degrees of mortification in other sins strike therefore at the life and root of your own iniquity 9. Rule Study the nature and great importance of those things Rule 9. which are to be won or lost according to the success and issue of this conflict your life is as a race eternal glory is the prize grace and corruption are the antagonists and according as either finally prevails eternal life is won or lost 1 Cor. 9. 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize So run that ye may obtain This consideration will make mortification appear the most rational and necessary thing to you in the whole world Shall I lose heaven for indulging the flesh and humouring a wanton appetite God forbid I keep under my body saith Paul and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-away 1 Cor. 9. 28. 10. Rule Accustom your thoughts to such meditations as are proper Rule 10. to mortifie sin in your affections else all endeavours to mortifie it will be but faint and languid To this purpose I shall recommend the following Meditations as proper means to destroy the interest of sin 1. Meditation Consider the evil that is in sin and how terrible the appearances Meditat. 1. of God will one day be against those that obey it in the lust thereof Rom. 1. 18. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men 1 Thes. 1. 7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power Let your thoughts dwell much upon the consideration of the fruits and consequences of sin It showes its fairest side to you in the hour of temptation O but consider how it will look upon you in the day of affliction Numb 22. 23. In that day your sin will find you out think what its aspect will be in a dying hour 1 Cor. 15. 56. The sting of death is sin Think what the frightful remembrances of it will be at the bar of Judgment when Satan shall accuse conscience shall upbraid God shall condemn and everlasting burnings shall avenge the evil of it such thoughts as these are mortifying thoughts 2. Meditation Think what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ to expiate the guilt Meditat. 2. of sin by suffering the wrath of the great and terrible God for it in our room the meditations of a crucified Christ are very crucifying meditations unto sin Gal. 6. 14. He suffered unspeakable things for sin it was Divine wrath which lay upon his soul for it that wrath of which the prophet saith Nah. 1. 5 6. The mountains quake at him and the hills melt who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him It was the unmixed and unallayed wrath poured out in the fulness of it even to the last drop and shall we be so easily drawn to the Commission of those sins which put Christ under such sufferings O do but read such scriptures as these Luke 22. 44. Mat. 26. 36 37. Mark 14. 33. And see what a plight sin put the Lord of glory into how the wrath of God put him into a sore amazement a bloody sweat and made his soul heavy even unto death 3. Med. Consider what a grief and wound the sins of believers are Med. 3. to the spirit of God Eph. 4. 30. Ezek. 16. 43. Isa. 63. 10. Oh how it vexes frets and grieves the holy Spirit of God! Nothing is more contrary to his nature Oh do not that abominable thing which I hate saith the Lord Jer. 44. 4. Nothing obstructs and crosses the sanctifying design of the Spirit as sin doth defacing and spoiling the most rare and admirable workmanship that ever God wrought in this world violating all the engagements laid upon us by the love of the Father by the death of his Son by the operations of his Spirit in all his illuminations convictions compunctions renovation preservation obsignation and manifold consolations Lay this meditation upon thy heart believer and say sicne rependis Dost thou thus requite the Lord O my ungrateful heart for all his goodness is this the fruit of his temporal spiritual common and peculiar mercies which are without number 4. Med. Consider with your selves that no real good either of profit Med. 4. or pleasure can result from sin you can have no pleasure in it whatever others may have it being against your new nature and as for that brutish pleasure and evanid joy which others have in sin it can be but for a moment for either they must repent or not repent if they do repent the pleasure of sin will be turned into the gall of Asps here if they do not repent it will terminate in everlasting howlings hereafter that 's a smart question Rom. 6. 21. What fruit had ye in those things whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of those things is death You that are believers must never expect any pleasure in sin for you can neither commit it without regret nor reflect upon it without shame and confusion Expect no better consequents of sin than the woundings of conscience and dismal cloudings of the face of God that is all the profit of sin O let these things sink into your heart 5.
great must that darkness be for now the blind lead the blind and both fall into the ditch The blind judgement misguides the blind affections and both fall into hell O what a sad thing is it that the Devil should lead that that leads thee That he should sit at the helm and steer thy course to damnation The blinding of this noble faculty precipitates the soul into the most dangerous courses persecution by this means seems to be true zeal for God John 16. 2. They that persecute you shall think that they do God service Paul once thought verily with himself that he ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth Acts 26. 9. i. e. He thought he had pleased God when he was imprisoning and persecuting his people as many do at this day it will make a man to sin conscientiously which is a very dangerous way of sinning and difficult to be reclaimed Secondly it is a dreadful Judgement if we consider the Object about which the understanding is blinded which is Jesus Christ and Union with him Regeneration and the nature and necessity thereof For this blindness is not universal but respective and particular A man may have abundance of light and knowledge in things natural and moral but spiritual things are hiâ—…den from his eyes Yea a man may know spiritual things in a natural way which increaseth his blindness but he cannot discern them spiritually this is a sore judgement and greatly to be bewailed Thou hast hid these things said Christ from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes Mat. 11. 25. Learned and knowing men are ignorant of those things which very babes in Christ understand They are prudent in the management of earthly affairs but to save their own souls they have no knowledge They are able with Berengarius to dispute De omni scibili of every thing investigable by the light of nature yea to open the scripture solidly and defend the doctrines and truths of Christ against his adversaries successfully and yet blinded in the greatmystery of regeneration Blindness in part saith the Apostle is happened unto Israel and that indeed was the principal part of knowledg viz. the knowledge of Jesus Christ and him crucified we see farther than they The literal knowledge of Christ shines clearly in our understandings We are only blinded about those things which should give us saving interest in him about the effectual application of Christ to our own souls Thirdly The dreadful nature of this spiritual blindness farther appears from the consideration of the season in which it befalls men which is the very time of Gods patience and the only opportunity they have for salvation after these opportunities are over their eyes will be opened to see their misery but alas too late too late Upon this account Christ shed those tears over Jerusalem Luke 19. 42. O that thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes Now the season of grace is past and gone opportunities are the golden spots of time and there is much time in a short opportunity as there are many pieces of silver in one piece of gold Time signifies nothing when opportunities are gone to be blinded in the very season of salvation is the Judgement of all Judgements the greatest misery incident to man to have our eyes opened when the seasons of salvation are past is but an aggravation of misery There is a twofold opening of mens eyes to see their danger Viz. 1. Graciously to prevent danger 2. Judicially to aggravate misery They whose eyes are not opened graciously in this world to see their disease and remedy in Christ shall have their eyes opened judicially in the world to come to see their disease without any remedy If God open them now it is by way of prevention if they be not opened until then it will produce desperation Fourthly The horrible nature of this Judgement farther appears from the exceeding difficulty of curing it especially in men of excellent natural indowments and accomplishments Joh. 9. 40 41. And some of the Pharisees which were with him heard these words and said unto him Are we blind also Jesus said unto them If ye were blind ye should have no sin but now ye say we see therefore your sin remaineth q. d. The pride and conceitedness of your hearts adds obstinacy and incurableness to your blindness these are the blind people that have eyes Isa. 43. 8. in seeing they see not The conviction of such men is next to an impossibility Fifthly The design and end of this blindness under the Gospel is most dreadful so saith my Text the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Answerable whereunto are those words Isa. 6. 10. Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and Ira est Dei non intelligere delicta ne sequatur poenitentia Cyp. Ep. 3. Percussi sunt animi caecitane ut nec intelligant delicta nec plangant indignantis Dei major haec est ira Cypr. de lapsis shut their eyes lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and convert and be healed So that it is plain this blinding is a praeludium to damnation as the covering of Hamans face was to his destruction When the Lord hath no purpose of grace and mercy to a mans soul then to bring about the damnation of that man by a righteous permission many occasions of blindness befal him which Satan improves effectually unto his eternal ruine among which fatal occasions blind guides and scandalous professors are none of the least they shall be fitted with Ministers suitable to their humours who shall speak smooth things if a man walk in the Spirit and falshood i. e. by an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirit of falshood do lie saying I will prophesie to thee of wine and strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people and the slips and falls of professors shall do the Devil not a little service in this his fatal design Mat. 18. 7. Wo to the world because of offences This shall blind them and harden them to purpose Thus you see what a dreadful Judgement this is a stroak of God upon the soul which cuts off all the present comforts of Christ and Religion from it takes away the bridle of restraint from sin and makes way for the final ruine of the soul. A far greater Judgement it is than the greatest calamity or affliction which can befal us in this world If our names suffer by the greatest reproaches our bodies by the most painful diseases our estates by the greatest losses if God strike every comfort we have in this world dead by affliction all this is nothing compared with
troubled souls Fourthly Be more careful to shun sin than to get your selves clear of trouble 'T is sad to walk in darkness but worse to lye under guilt Say Lord I would rather be grieved my self than be a grief to thy Spirit O keep me from sin how long soever thou keep me under sorrow Wait on God in the way of faith and in a tender spirit towards sin and thy wounds shall be healed at last by thy great Physician Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. The Eleventh SERMON Sermon 11. LUKE 1. 72. Text. Containing the second motive to enforce the general exhortation from a second Title of Christ. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers and to remember his holy Covenant THis Scripture is part of Zechariahs Prophecy at the rising of that bright Star John the Harbinger and forerunner of Christ they are some of the first words he spake after God had loosed his tongue which for a time was struck dumb for his unbelief His tongue is now unbound and at liberty to proclaim to all the world the riches of mercy through Jesus Christ in a song of praise Wherein note The Mercy celebrated viz. Redemption by Christ vers 68. The description of Christ by place and property vers 69. The faithfulness of God in our Redemption this way vers 70. The benefit of being so Redeemed by Christ vers 71. The exact accomplishment of all the promises made to the Fathers in sending Christ the mercy promised into the world vers 72. To perform the mercy promised to our Fathers c. In these words we find two parts viz. 1. A mercy freely promised 2. The promised mercy faithfully performed First You have here a mercy freely promised viz. by God the Father from the beginning of the world and often repeated 1. and confirmed in several succeeding ages to the Fathers in his Covenant transactions This Mercy is Jesus Christ of whom he speaks in this Prophecie the same which he stiles an horn of salvation in the house of David vers 69. The mercy of God in Scripture is put either for 1. His free favour to the Creature or 2. The effects and fruits of that favour 'T is put for the free and undeserved favour of God to the creature and this favour of God may respect the creature two wayes either as undeserving or as ill deserving It respected innocent man as undeserving for Adam could put no obligation upon his Benefactor it respecteth fallen man as ill deserving Innocent man could not merit favour and fallen man did merit wrath the favour or mercy of God to both is every way free and that is the first acceptation of the word mercy but then it is also taken for the effects and fruits of Gods favour and they are Either 1. Principal and primary or 2. Subordinate and Secundary Of Secundary and Subordinate Mercies there are multitudes both Temporal respecting the body and Spiritual respecting the soul but the Principal and Primary Mercy is but one and that is Christ the first-born of mercy the capital mercy the comprehensive-root-mercy from whom are all other mercies and therefore called by a singular emphasis in my Text The Mercy i. e. the mercy of all mercies without whom no drop of saving mercy can flow to any of the sons of men and in whom are all the tender bowels of Divine mercy yearning upon poor sinners The Mercy and the mercy promised The first promise of Christ was made to Adam Gen. 3. 15. and was frequently renewed afterwards to Abraham to David and as the Text speaks unto the Fathers in their respective generations Secondly We find here also the promised mercy faithfully performed To perform the mercy promised What mercy 2. soever the love of God engageth him to promise the faithfulness of God stands engaged for the performance thereof Christ the promised mercy is not only performed truly but he is also performed according to the promise in all the circumstances thereof exactly So he was promised to the Fathers and just so performed to us their Children hence the Note is DOCT. That Jesus Christ the Mercy of mercies was graciously promised and faithfully performed by God to his people Doct. Three things are here to be opened First Why Christ is stiled the Mercy Secondly What kind of Mercy Christ is to his people Thirdly How this promised Mercy was performed First Christ is the mercy emphatically so called the peerless invaluable and matchless mercy because he is the 1. prime fruit of the mercy of God to Sinners The mercies of God are infinite mercy gave the world and us our beings all our protections provisions and comforts in this world are the fruits of mercy the after-births of Divine Favour but Christ is the first-born from the womb of mercy all other mercies compared with him are but fruits from that root and streams from that fountain of mercy the very bowels of Divine mercy are in Christ as in vers 78. according to the tender mercies or as the Greek the yearning bowels of the mercy of God Secondly Christ is the mercy because all the mercy of 2. God to sinners is dispensed and conveyed through Christ to them Joh. 1. 16. Col. 2. 3. Eph. 4. 7. Christ is the medium of all Divine communications the Channel of Grace through him is both the decursus recursus gratiarum the flows of mercy from God to us and the returns of praise from us to God fond and vain therefore are all the expectations of mercy out of Christ no drop of saving mercy runs beside this Channel Thirdly Christ is the mercy because all inferiour mercies derive both their nature value sweetness and duration from 3. Christ the fountain mercy of all other mercies First they derive their nature from Christ for out of him those things which men call mercies are rather traps and snares than mercies to them Prov. 1. 32. The time will come when the rich that are Christless will wish O that we had been poor and Nobles that are not ennobled by the new birth O that we had been among the lower rank of men All these things that pass for valuable mercies like Ciphers signifie much when such a speaking Figure as Christ stands before them else they signifie nothing to any mans comfort or benefit Secondly They derive their value as well as nature from Christ for how little I pray you doth it signifie to any man to be rich honourable politick and successfull in all his designs in the world if after all he must lye down in Hell Thirdly All other mercies derive their sweetness from Christ and are but insipid things without him There is a twofold sweetness in things one natural another spiritual those that are out of Christ can relish the first Believers only relish both they have the natural sweetness that is in the mercy it self and a sweetness supernatural from Christ and the Covenant the way in
which they receive them Hence it is that some men taste more spiritual sweetness in their daily bread than others do in the Lords Supper one and the same mercy by this means becomes a feast to soul and body at once Fourthly All mercies have their duration and perpetuity from Christ all Christless persons hold their mercies upon the greatest contingencies and terms of uncertainty if they be continued during this life that 's all there is not a drop of mercy after death but the mercies of the Saints are continued to eternity the end of their mercies on earth is the beginning of their better mercies in Heaven There is a twofold end of mercies one perfective another destructive the death of the Saints perfects and compleats their mercies the death of the wicked destroys and cuts off their mercies for these reasons Christ is called the mercy Secondly In the next place let us enquire what manner of mercy Christ is and we shall find many lovely and transcendent 2. properties to commend him to our souls First He is a free and undeserved mercy called upon that account the gift of God John 4. 10. And to shew how free this gift was God gave him to us when we were enemies Rom. 5. 8. needs must that mercy be free which is given not only to the undeserving but to the ill deserving the benevolence of God was the sole impulsive cause of this gift John 3. 16. Secondly Christ is a full mercy replenished with all that answers to the wishes or wants of sinners in him alone is found whatever the justice of an angry God requires for satisfaction or the necessities of souls require for their supply Christ is full of mercy both extensively and intensively in him are all kinds and sorts of mercies and in him are the highest and most perfect degrees of mercy for it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell Col. 1. 19. Thirdly Christ is the seasonable mercy given by the Father to us in due time Rom. 5. 6. in the fulness of time Gal. 4. 4. a seasonable mercy in his exhibition to the world in general and a seasonable mercy in his application to the soul in particular the wisdom of God pitched upon the best time for his incarnation and it hits the very nick of time for his application When a poor soul is distressed lost at its wits end ready to perish then comes Christ all Gods works are done in season but none more seasonable than this great work of Salvation by Christ. Fourthly Christ is the necessary mercy there is an absolute necessity of Jesus Christ hence in Scripture he is called the bread of life Joh. 6. 48. he is bread to the hungry he is the water of life Joh. 7. 37. as cold water to the thirsty soul he is a ransome for captives Mat. 20. 28. a garment to the naked Rom. 13. ult only bread is not so necessary to the hungry nor water to the thirsty nor a ransom to the Captive nor a garment to the naked as Christ is to the soul of a sinner the breath of our nostrills the life of our souls is in Jesus Christ. Fifthly Christ is a fountain mercy and all other mercies flow from him a believer may say of Christ all my fresh springs are in thee from his merit and from his Spirit flow our Redemption Justification Sanctification Peace Joy in the Holy Ghost and blessedness in the world to come In that day shall there be a fountain opened Zech. 13. 1. Sixthly Christ is a satisfying mercy he that is full of Christ can feel the want of nothing I desire to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2. 2. Christ bounds and terminates the vast desires of the soul he is the very Sabbath of the soul how hungry empty straitned and pinched in upon every side is the soul of man in the abundance and fulness of all outward things till it come to Christ The weary motions of a restless soul like those of a River cannot be at rest till they pour themselves into Christ the Ocean of blessedness Seventhly Christ is a peculiar mercy intended for and applied to a remnant among men some would extend redemption as large as the world but the Gospel limits it to those only that believe and these Believers are upon that account called a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 9. The offers of Christ indeed are large and general but the application of Christ is but to few Isai. 53. 1. the greater cause have they to whom Christ comes to lye with their mouths in the dust astonished and overwhelmed with the sense of so peculiar and distinguishiug mercy Eighthly Jesus Christ is a suitable mercy fitted in all respects to our needs and wants 1 Cor. 1. 20. wherein the admirable wisdom of God is illustriously displaied ye are complete in him saith the Apostle Col. 2. 20. Are we enemies He is reconciliation are we sold to sin and Satan He is redemption are we condemned by Law He is the Lord our righteousness hath sin polluted us He is a fountain opened for sin and for uncleaness are we lost by departing from God He is the way to the Father Rest is not so suitable to the weary nor bread to the hungry as Christ is to the sensible sinner Ninthly Christ is an astonishing and wonderful mercy his name is called Wonderful Isai. 9. 6. and as his name is so is he a wonderful Christ his person is a wonder 1 Tim. 3. 16. Great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh his abasement wonderful Phil. 2. 6. his love is a wonderful love his redemption full of wonders Angels desire to look into it he is and will be admired by Angels and Saints to all eternity Tenthly Jesus Christ is an incomparable and matchless mercy as the Apple-tree among the Trees of the Wood so is my Beloved among the Sons saith the enamoured Spouse Cant. 2. 3. Draw the comparison how you will betwixt Christ and all other enjoyments you will find none in Heaven or earth to match him he is more than all externals as the light of the Sun is more than that of a Candle nay the worst of Christ is better than the best of the world his reproaches are better than the worlds pleasures Heb. 11. 25. he is more than all Spirituals as the Fountain is more than the Streams he is more than justification as the cause is more than the effect more than sanctification as the person himself is more than his image or picture he is more than all peace all comfort all joys as the Tree is more than the Fruit. Nay draw the comparison betwixt Christ and things eternal and you will find him better than they for what is Heaven without Christ Psal. 73. 25. Whom have I in Heaven but thee If Christ should say to the Saints Take Heaven among you but as for me I will withdraw my self from you
fortior one Believer can do much many can do more when Daniel designed to get the knowledge of that secret hinted in the obscure dream of the King which none but the God of Heaven could make known it 's said Dan. 2. 17. Then Daniel went to his House and made the thing known to Hanania Mishael and Azaria his Companions that they would desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret The benefit of such assistance in prayer by the help of other favourites with God is plainly intimated by Jesus Christ unto us Mat. 18. 19. If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father which is in Heaven God sometimes stands upon a number of voices for the carrying of some publick mercy because he delighteth in the harmony of many praying souls and also loves to oblige and gratifie many in the answer and return of the same prayer I know this usage is grown too formal and complemental among Professors but certainly it is a great advantage to be inward with them who are so with God St. Bernard prescribing rules for effectual prayer closes them up with this wish cum talis fueris memento mei when thy heart is in this frame then remember me Inference 2. If Believers be such favourites in Heaven in what a desperate Inference 2. condition is that Cause and those Persons against whom the generality of Believers are daily engaged in prayers and cries to Heaven Certainly Rome shall feel the dint and force of the many millions of prayers that are gone up to Heaven from the Saints for many generations the cries of the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus joyned with the cries of thousands of Believers will bring down vengeance at last upon the Man of sin 'T is said Rev. 8. 4 5 6. That the smoak of the incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended up before God out of the Angels hand and immediately it is added vers 5. And the Angel took the Censer and filled it with fire of the Altar and cast it into the earth and there were voices and thunderings and lightnings and earth-quakes and the seven Angels which had the seven Trumpets prepared themselves to sound The prayer of a single Saint is sometimes followed with wonderful effects Psal. 18. 6 7. In my distress I called upon the Lord and cryed unto my God he heard my voice out of his Temple and my cry came before him even into his ears then the earth shook and trembled the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken because he was wroth what then can a thundring legion of such praying souls do It was said of Luther iste vir potuit cum Deo quicquid voluit that man could have of God what he would his enemies felt the weight of his prayers and the Church of God reaped the benefits thereof The Queen of Scots professed she was more afraid of the Prayers of Mr. Knox than of an army of ten thousand men these were mighty wrestlers with God howsoever contemned and vilified among their enemies There Jacobus Lanigius the Sorbone Doctor who wrote the lives of Luther Knox and Calvin speaks as if the Devil had hired his pen to abuse those precious servants of Christ. will a time come when God will hear the prayers of his people who are continually crying in his ears How long Lord how long Inference 3. Let no Believer be dejected at the contempts and slightings of Inference 3. men so long as they stand in the grace and favour of God it is the lot of the best men to have the worst usage in this world those of whom the world was not worthy are not thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e the sweepings of the house the filth wiped off any thing Erasmus the dirt that sticks to the Shoos Valla the dung of the Belly as the Syriack translates The condemned man that was tumbled from a steep Rock into the Sea as a sacrifice to Neptune was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Budeus Sit pro nobis 〈◊〉 worthy to live in the world Heb. 11. 38. Paul and his Companions were men of choice and excellent spirits yet saith he 1 Cor 4. 13. Being defamed we intreat we are made as the filth of the world and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day they are words signifying the basest contemptiblest and most abhorred things among men How is Heaven and Earth divided in their Judgements and estimations of the Saints those whom men call filth and dirt God calls a peculiar Treasure a Crown of Glory a Royal Diadem But trouble not thy self Believer for the unjust censures of the blind world they speak evil of the things they know not he that is spiritual judgeth all things yet he himself is judged of no man 1 Cor. 2. 14. You can discern the earthliness and baseness of their spirits they want a faculty to discern the excellency and choiceness of your spirits He that carries a dark Lanthorn in the night can discern him that comes against him and yet is not discerned by him a Courtier regards not a slight in the Country so long as he hath the ear and favour of his Prince Inference 4. Never let Believers fear the want of any good thing necessary Inference 4. for them in this world the favour of God is the fountain of all blessings provisions protections even of all that you need He hath promised that he will withhold no good thing from them that walk uprightly Psal. 84. 11. He that is bountiful to his enemies will not withhold what is good from his friends The favour of God will not only supply your needs but protect your persons Psal. 5. 12. Thou wilt bless the righteous with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield Inference 5. Hence also it follows that the sins of Believers are very piercing Inference 5. things to the heart of God The unkindness of those whom he hath received into his very bosom upon whom he hath set his special favour and delight who are more obliged to him than all the people of the earth beside O this wounds the very heart of God What a melting expostulation was that which the Lord used with David 2 Sam. 12. 7 8. I anointed thee King over all Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy masters house and thy masters wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and Juda and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things wherefore hast thou despised the Commandment of the Lord But Reader if thou be a reconciled person a favourite with God and hast grieved him by any eminent transgression how should it melt thy heart to hear the Lord thus expostulating with thee I delivered thee out of
the hand of Satan I gave thee into the bosom of Christ I have pardoned unto thee millions of sins I have bestowed upon thee the riches of mercy my favour hath made thee great and as if all this were too little I have prepared Heaven for thee for which of all these favours dost thou thus requite me Inference 6. How precious should Jesus Christ be to Believers by whose Inference 6. blood they are ingratiated with God and by whose intercession they are and shall for ever be continued in his favour When the Apostle mentions the Believers translation from the sad state of nature to the blessed priviledged state of grace see what a Title he bestows upon Jesus Christ the purchaser of that priviledge calling him the dear Son Col. 1. 13. not only dear to God but exceeding dear to Believers also Christ is the favourite in Heaven to him you owe all your preferment there take away Christ and you have no ground to stand one minute in the favour of God O then let Jesus Christ the fountain of your honour be also the object of your love and praise Inference 7. Estimate by this the state and condition of a deserted Saint Inference 7. upon whom the favour of God is eclipsed If the favour of God be better than life the hiding of it from a gracious soul must be more bitter than death deserted Saints have reason to take the first place among all the mourners in the world the darkness before conversion had indeed more of danger but this hath more of trouble Darkness after light is dismal darkness Since therefore the case is so sad let your preventing care be the more grieve not the good Spirit of God you prepare but for your own grief in so doing Inference 8. Lastly Let this perswade all men to accept Jesus Christ as Inference 8. ever they expect to be accepted with the Lord themselves It is a fearful case for a mans person and duties to be rejected of God to cry and not be heard and much more terrible to be denied audience in the great and terrible day Yet as sure as the Scriptures are the sealed and faithful sayings Si voluntatem Dei nosse quisquam desiderat fit amicus Deo August of God this is no more than what every Christless person must expect in that day Mat. 7. 22. Luke 13. 26. Trace the history of all times even as high as Abel and you shall find that none but Believers did ever find acceptance with God all experience confirms this great truth that they that are in the flesh cannot please God Reader if this be thy condition let me beg thee to ponder the misery of it in a few sad thoughts Consider how sad it is to be rejected of God and forsaken by all creatures at once what a day of streights thy dying day is like to be when Heaven and Earth shall cast thee out together Be assured whatever thy vain hopes for the present quiet thee withal this must be thy case the dore of mercy will be shut against thee no man cometh to the Father but by Christ. Sad was the case of Saul when he told Samuel the Philistins make war against me and God is departed from me 1 Sam. 28. 15. The Saints will have boldness in the day of Judgment 1 John 4. 17. but thou wilt be a confounded man there is yet blessed be the God of mercy a capacity and opportunity of reconciliation 2 Cor. 5. 19. Isai. 27. 5. But this can be of no long continuance O therefore by all the regard and love you have for the everlasting welfare of your own souls come to Christ embrace Christ in the offers of the Gospel that you may be made accepted in the beloved The Eighteenth SERMON Sermon 18. JOHN 8. 36. Text. The liberty of Believers opened and stated If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed FRom the 30th verse of this Chapter unto my Text you have an account of the different effects which the words of Christ had upon the hearts of his hearers some believed verse 30. these he encourageth to continue in his word verse 31. giving them this encouragement vers 32. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Hereat the unbelieving Jews take offence and commence a quarrel with him vers 33. We be Abrahams seed and were never in bondage to any man We are of no slavish extraction the blood of Abraham runs in our veins this scornful boast of the proud Jews Christ confutes vers 34. where he distinguisheth of a twofold bondage one to men another to sin one civil another spiritual whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin then tells them vers 36. The servant abideth not in the house for ever but the Son abideth for ever Wherein he intimateth two great truths viz. that the servants and slaves of sin may for a time enjoy the external priviledges of the house or Church of God but it would not be long before the master of the house will turn them out of dore but if they were once the adopted Children of God then they should abide in the house for ever And this priviledge is only to be had by their believing in and union with the natural Son of God Jesus Christ which brings us fairly to the Text If the Son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed In which words we have two parts viz. 1. A Supposition 2. A Concession First A Supposition if the Son therefore shall make you free 1. q. d. The womb of nature cast you forth into the world in a state of bondage in that state you have lived all your days servants to sin slaves to your lusts yet freedom is to be obtained and this freedom is the prerogative belonging to the Son of God to bestow if the Son shall make you free Secondly Christs Concession upon this supposition then 2. shall ye be free indeed i. e. you shall have a real freedom an excellent and everlasting fredom no conceit only as that which you now boast of is if ever therefore you will be free men indeed believe in me Hence note DOCT. That interest in Christ sets the soul at liberty from all that Doct. bondage whereunto it was subjected in its natural state Believers are the Children of the New Covenant the denizons of Jerusalem which are above which is free and the mother of them all Gal. 4. 26. the glorious liberty viz. that which is spiritual and eternal is the liberty of the Children of God Rom. 8. 21. Christ and none but Christ delivers his people out of the hands of their enemies Luk. 1. 74. In the Doctrinal part of this point I must shew you First What Believers are not freed from by Jesus Christ in this world Secondly What that bondage is from which every Believer is freed by Christ. Thirdly What kind of