Dew of Heaven never sinks so deep as to come to that root Therefore as it is said in 1. Joh. 3. A man that is borne of God cannot sinne Why Because the Seed of God abides in him he hath a root in him So on the other side an Hypocrite he can doe nothing to purpose because there is a seed of sin in him there is a root there is a Coare at the heart that the Dew of Heaven never toucheth Therefore it is a signe that thou seest God aright when the impressions of it in thy Soule goe through and through that they soak into thy very soule as I may say and fetch out thy inward lusts Thirdly and lastly and there I shall leave at 3 They are universall this time these impressions are universall An Hypocrite or a wicked man in time may have some impressions upon his soule of some one thing of God or some few things As for instance Judas had an impression upon his heart and a sad one too of the Justice of God it made him goe and hang himselfe And so Saul and Pharaoh and others but that was but of one thing But now a Saint he hath impressions of all that is in God that is there is nothing in God but he hath a heart to answer it he hath as it were to speak with reverence a Coppy of God written on his soule he hath an impression of the love of God as well as of the feare of God of delight and trust in God and the like This is the difference betweene a Saint of God and an Hypocrite Therefore in Exod. 34. When Moses was so desirous to see God O Lord saith he let me see thy glory God revealed his glory and told him his name The Lord God the Lord mercifull gracious long suffering abundant in mercy keeping mercy for thousands Forgiving iniquity transgression and sin and that wil not cleare the guilty visiting the sins of the Fathers upon the Children God tells him of visiting of wicked People What was this to Moses God would not tell him halfe his name but all Therefore he tells him what he was to the Saints The Lord gracious and mercifull long suffering abundant in goodnesse and truth keeping mercy for thousands And then he tels him what he would be to the wicked he would have the impression of the whole name of God upon Moses It is a signe thy apprehensions of God are true though they be weake and small when they be reall and thorow and universall The third thing is The Expressions or Effects of it but that I must leave till another time SERMON 3. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seene the King the Lord of Hosts YOu remember the Lesson I doubt not that we are upon that The Saints have a peculiar priviledge above all others that they can even in this world see God They can see God in Jesus Christ I did open this and proved it and shewed you the last time how by the Word of God you might know whether ye have ever seene God in this manner whether God have ever bestowed this glorious priviledge upon any of you Three waye I tooke to shew it to you The first was by your apprehensions of God The second was by the impressions that those apprehensions of God have upon you The third thing which I am now to come to is by the Expressions of them or by their Effects If you would know whether you have seene God aright 3 By the expressions of them which are or no I say you may know it by the expressions of it How doth it set it selfe forth in thee It works something upon thee and that vents and shewes it selfe some way in thy heart and life Therefore I finde in Scripture especially in the Epistles of John where much is said of seeing God he brings the Saints usually to know the sight of God by outward expressions Because though it be cleare as I said yet it is so small that a St. cannot alway see it unlesse he consider the workings of it also upon his heart and life as well as his single apprehension Therefore saith he in one place by this you shall know that you have seene God if ye confesse Christ And in another place If yee love the Brethren c. Now there are these foure or five cleare things in Scripture that demonstrate a man to be one that hath seene God The first is this If thou hast seene God certainly the Lord hath purified thy heart the Lord hath given thee a pure 1 Purity of heart heart For saith Christ in his first Sermon Blessed are the pure in heart For they shall see God And in Heb. 12. Without holinesse it is impossible to see God Matthew 5. that is a cleare generall rule And therefore I say thou mayest then read if thou or I be a Man or a Woman to whom God hath not given a pure heart if God have not purified thy heart certainly as yet thou hast not seene God For if any man saith he hath seene God or that he walke in the light and yet live in sin he is a Lyar and there is no truth in him at all you are to give no credit to him at all al his apprehensions are but fancies Now the question will be what is the purifying of the heart Or how may I know that BELOVED according to the language of the What meant by a pure heart Scripture I find that by a pure heart is meant two things First by a pure heart is not ordinarily meant as 1 The conscience purified from guilt of sinne you take it for the killing of sinne in the soule I say not ordinarily But the chiefe meaning of the purifying of the heart is to have the conscience for the heart is taken for the conscience to have the conscience purified and washed from the guilt of sinne Therefore in Act. 15. say the Apostles and Elders Why should we doe thus and thus with them Seeing their hearts are purified by faith as well as ours That is seeing they believe in Jesus Christ and thereby have peace of conscience setled in their hearts To cleare and open this a little to you There Conscience purified What are three expressions that the holy Ghost useth in Heb. 10. that open this Heb. 10. 2. A pure heart in this sence is a man that hath no conscience of sinne that is the Scripture language one that hath no conscience of sinne Not as it is commonly in your sence one that makes no conscience of sinning one that continues in sinne But one that hath no conscience of sinne That is one whose conscience is not stained with the guilt of sinne but by the bloud of Christ there is a perfect peace setled within him Peace and joy in believing For that it is to have conscience of sinne when alway upon the least infirmitie there is guilt heaped upon the conscience of
is the cheife principle that the creature should desire its owne preservation It is so in all creatures Grace screws up and makes nature spirituall but grace goes not contrary to the mayne and solid principles of pure nature Now therefore I say that a man by grace should be brought to wish his owne destruction it is very harsh For besides that it is contrary to the principle of nature Ground of true submission to God it is contrary to the spirit of adoption for what is it that makes me submit to God It is because I have loving thoughts of him and I conceive of his love to me and the like if I should looke upon God as an enemie I should love him no more then the Devill himselfe doth it is ordinarily so But what may be in one soul or two or a few I know not But that which I meane is in ordinarie mercies especially in temporall mercies it is the frame of a humble heart to sit still and be quyet if God denie the mercie That is one thing Another thing is this that as a humble heart 2. He is content that God should take away any mercy will be content that God should denie him any mercie So Secondly he is contented if it please God to take away any mercie that he hath God shall pick and choose and if he will take away all yet he is contented and quiet It is just with a humble heart towards God as you read of an honest hearted man in the Book of God that was humble towards David you shall read of him in 2 Sam. 19. 24. It was one Mephibosheth David had given Mephibosheth him a great deale of land for his father Jonathans sake and being a lame man for his Nurse let him fall when he was a child he had a wicked servant one Ziba and when David came home he sadled asses and brought presents and told David Mephibosheth would not come to 2 Sam. 16. 1. meet the King which was a grosse lie saith David if he be so sturdie take thou the land At the last Mephibosheth finds a way to come to David and David asked him why he did not come to 2 Sam. 19. 24. him sayth he My Lord O King my servant deceived me for he sadled an asse and went away and hath slandered thy servant unto my Lord the King c. Sayth the King Vers 29. Thou and Ziba divide the land honest hearted Mephibosheth once I gave him all but now the more was the pitty he shall have one halfe and thou the other saith Mephibosheth yea let him take all for as much as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his owne house I care little for the land though I be a lame man and cannot get any thing for my selfe and Ziba though he were a wicked man and deserved it not yet sayth he I am so taken with the Kings person that he is come home that let him take all So a humble heart carries himselfe thus towards God that when the Lord seems to be as it were in a holy chafe and anger that he takes away his mercies he takes away a child or a husband or a mans estate or the like if thou have a humble heart thou wilt not be in a rage and say let him take all in a desperate humour but he sayth meekly let him take this or that or all if he will so I may injoy him and his love I will blesse God I say when thou canst blesse God notwithstanding all be gone This was Jobs condition God tooke all from Job one after another in a little while as we see in Job 1. Sayth Job notwithstanding God hath taken all from me Naked came I out of my Mothers wombe and the Lord gives and the Lord takes blessed be the name of the Lord. Or as it is in some old Greek coppies As it pleaseth the Lord so commeth things to passe blessed be the name of the Lord. He blessed the Lord that had taken away his children and thrown downe his house yet he could blesse him Now looke a little upon your hearts how you finde your spirits when God hath denied you mercies when God hath taken away mercies As I could give you many instances but to name one or two it may be when thou wert a carnall man that thou wert a very honourable man in thy Countrie thou wert the onely States-man the man that did doe all the businesses but now since thou art Religious thou art despised and there are none that make use of thee thy honour is gone Thou wert accounted a wise man but now thou art accounted a mope and a sot Thou wert once accounted a fine young man or woman and now thy esteeme is gone canst thou be content that God hath rubbed off these mercies that one while he takes away thine honour another while thy wealth another while thy friends and yet thou canst blesse the name of God this a humble heart can doe Another thing in respect of the mercies of 3. A humble heart will wait for mercies God is this that a humble heart can be content to wait upon the Lord though he stay never so long for the least mercie Proud hearts unlesse you feed them in hast they will be gone A proud heart will not waite on God but a humble heart will stay Gods leasure till he give him what he pleaseth and how he pleaseth Hab. 2 3. The vision is for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith The proud heart and the just man living by faith are put opposite one to the other the just shall live by faith that is though he desire mercies yet he shall be content to waite on God but he that hath his soul lifted up he will be gone he will not stay for God just like that wicked King that you read of in the Book of God This evill sayth he comes of the Lord what should I stay for him any longer a wretched man So an unhumbled heart sayth what should I stay for God any longer in this and so he takes base courses to helpe himselfe and will not waite upon God and goe in Gods wayes It is a thing highly commended in the Saints throughout all the Scriptures when they had a frame of heart to waite on God As Abraham the father of the faithfull we read of him in Acts 7. VVhen God brought him from his fathers house and from his whole estate and led him abroad from one place to another and had brought him at the last to the Land of Canaan where he had not one foot of land and his posterity was not to possesse it of foure hundred yeares after yet he blesseth God and rayseth Altars
notwithstanding God did all this Examine your hearts by this Againe as a humble heart can be content that 4. A humble heart content with the least mercies God should denie him any mercy and secondly be content that God should take away any mercy and thirdly be content to waite upon God for mercies So in the fourth place after all his waiting he can be content with the least pittance of mercie A proud heart will not doe so take a proud beggar and make him waite an houre or two and then after give him but a farthing and he will grumble that he should stay so long and loose other customers others that might have releeved and helped him but a humble heart is content to waite long and after all is content with a little I will give you but one instance Mat. 15. 26. There was a blessed woman that followed Christ for a mercie Christ was silent a while and said nothing and though shee cried out yet he sayth nothing At last he calls her dog sayth shee am I a dog I take it well but the dogs sayth shee eat the crums that fall from their Masters table What is the meaning of that You know the dog stayes till his Master have dined and when his Master hath dined he is content with a bone or with the least crust that falls The dog is not served presently as soone as his Master sits downe but he stayes till all have dined and if a bone or a bit fall he is content with that A humble heart is like a dog in that he will stay his masters time as that woman shee could stay Jesus Christs leasure and see him carve mercies upon other mens trenchers and she have but a bone or a crust or a bit of bread when all was done and yet be well content The Fifth thing is this that a humble heart in 5. He is thankfor a heart to receive mercies respect of Gods mercies he will be content and thankfull to God to give him a hand and a heart to receive mercies That is a great measure of this grace of Gospell humiliation when God gives a man a little mercie after all his waiting he sees his owne weaknesse though the Lord be rich in mercie yet he cannot take it though it be layd downe upon the naile yet he cannot take it up without God give him a heart It is not so with the poore beggers of the World if you give them money they have a purse to lay it up in if you give them meat they have a budget to put it in but the soul is not able to receive any mercie I mean not any spirituall mercie temporall mercies it may but not spirituall unlesse God give a hand and a heart to receive it I have seen poore women in the Mountaines of VVales and I have oft thought of it they have been so poor that when they have come to a house to beg a little whey or butter-milke they have been fain to beg the loane of a pot or a dish to put it in So we when we come to beg mercie of God we must desire the Lord when we have done our best to give us eyes to see it and a heart to lay it up and a hand to receive it for the naturall man receives not the things of God And beleiving is called receiving and it is the gift of God to beleive We cannot believe that is we cannot receive the least mercie of God unlesse he give us hands and hearts This is the disposition of a humble heart when I pray for mercie of God I see God is full of mercie and Christ is a Fountaine full of grace but I have not eyes to behold it I have not a hand to receive it We cannot carrie one graine of grace home unlesse God give us spirituall buckets As that woman said John 4. Here is water but where is the bucket to draw So God may say thou wantest grace but where is thy bucket sayth the humble soul Lord I have none thou must both give the water and lend the bucket to carry it home And then Sixtly a humble heart is discovered by this that when the Lord shall give him any 6. He is content that God give lawes how to use his mercies mercie he will be content that God shall give him as many laws as he will to use these mercies a humble heart will doe so A proud begger if you give him a couple of shillings and say be sure you buy you some cloaths with this or get some good thing for your wife and children he will be ready to say you need not tell me how I shall use it I know what to doe with it Now give a humble begger foure or five shillings and say carrie one to your wife and with two shillings buy you a paire of shooes and doe this and this he will be content to doe all you tell him make as many lawes as you will if you give him any thing It is just so with the soul of a humbled Christian when the Lord gives a mercy to a proud heart he is ready to say I know what to doe with it well enough but when he gives any thing to a humble Saint he is content that the Lord should teach him And thence it is that when the Lord offers mercie and Salvation and offers Christ to a proud heart he is content to take the mercie but he would goe on in his sins still but hold sayth Christ now thou receivest Salvation and grace thou must not live in thy old wayes thou must shake off thy old companie and be a new man No the proud heart will have none of all those he would take the mercie but he will goe on in his owne way But a humble man is as Abraham we see he stayed long for a child and then God gave him a son and when he had his son Isaac God gave him a law for Isaac Abraham sayth he there is a son and a great mercie and all Nations shall be blessed in him but thou must take thy son and carry him to such a place and with thine owne hands upon such a hill thou must cut his throat and some of the old Rabbins say that he was to take a pole and to stir his bowells in the fire and according as the Lord so Abraham handled his mercie Thus it is with an humble heart But lastly and so I shall conclude a humble heart towards God in the way of his mercie is New mercies added add to his thankfulnesse discovered by this that every addition of mercie that God bestowes upon him obligeth his heart more and more to a holy thankfullnesse and obedience And truely as I have sayd we oft break our communion with God by our unthankfullnesse and our unthankfulnesse ariseth from the pride of our hearts A proud heart thinks that Proud hearts unthankfull he hath alwayes too little
Gospel-Holinesse OR The saving Sight of GOD. Laid open from Isa 6. 5. Together with The glorious Priviledge of the Saints From Rom. 8.4 5. Both worthily opened and applied By that Faithful Dispenser of the Mysteries of Christ WALTER CRADOCK late Preacher at Alhallowes the Great in London 2 Cor. 3.18 But we all with open face beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Rom. 10.3 For they being ignorant of Gods righteousnesse and going about to establish their own righteousnesse have not submitted themselves unto the righteousnesse of God Published and allowed by the Author's consent LONDON Printed by M. Simmons and are to be sold by Joseph Blaik-lock at his House in Ivie-lane 1651. To the Reader THESE Sermons being exactly penned from the Authors own mouth are now brought to publique view though when he preached them had not the least thought to suffer them to be Printed but since they were thus prepared to come abroad into the world the Pious Author finding so much of the sweetnesse of Christ in viewing of them could not turn his backe upon them As for this godly Author his worth and excellency is so eminently known it would be vanity in me to speake any thing in relation to his praise let this and other of his owne works praise him Yet thus much I shall say that I doe verily believe that he preached these Choise Lectures from the bosome of Jesus Christ that these things were the very experiments of his owne soule and the lively actings of the spirit of God within him What he hath seene and heard hee hath declared that we might have fellowship with him whose fellowship is with the Father and the 1 Iohn 1. 3. Sonne and therein shall our joy be full These Sermons are not cloathed with humane Art quaint expressions eloquent speculations but choose rather to come forth in the nakednesse of truth not with the enticing words of mans wisdome but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power here is nothing to fill thy head with barren notions fruitlesse opinions or meer speculations but here is that to fill thy heart with the glory of God the life of Christ and light of his spirit I shall in a few words hint out what thou shalt find in these ensuing discourses First a glorious discovery of a saving sight of God in Christ When Moses desired to see Gods face the Lord himselfe tels him that no man can see his face and live Yet the Lord proclaimed his mercie his patience his goodnesse his truth and his justice before him Now where was Moses all this while he was in the clift of the rock Now verily that Rock was Christ we see the glory of God in Christ per speculum as it were in a glasse Christ is that glasse in which wee see the image of the Fathers glory and that as with open face Christ is called the 2 Cor. 3. 18. Heb. 1. 3. brightnesse of his Father's glory so that the brightnesse of Gods glory is manifested by Christ as the Sunne is manifested by it's boames wee cannot see the Sunne in Rotà in his Charret or circumvolution but by it's beames so the Fathers glory is revealed Tanquam per radios ac splendorem as it were by beames and brightnesse shining most excellently in Christ The Apostle saith God who hath commanded light to shine out of darknesse hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ God is known by Christ as a man is known by his face it is only hee that came from the bosome of the Father that can open the secrets of his bosome and reveale the glory and brightnesse of Gods face unto us Secondly this glorious sight of God is that that humbles the soule Because mine eye hath seen thee saith Job I abhor my selfe in dust and ashes The greatest piece of self-denyall is to discard our own righteousnesse and formality 1. Mans fleshly righteousnesse is the great idoll of the world every one is ready to fall downe unto it and call it blessed This is Anti-Christ comming forth in the habit of Christ being arrayed and decked with gold precious stones and pearls whereby the Nations are deceived but when wee know the righteousnesse of the Lord wee shall cast away our owne righteousnesse and as the Prophet speakes say unto it get yee Isa 30. 22. hence 2. Formality is in no lesse esteeme among us then the former what is the Religion of most people but a meere forme without any life or power at all Astronomers tell us that the upper Planets have their Stations and Retrogradations as well as their direct Motions So 't is with most in their Religion sometimes they move forwards sometimes backward sometimes stand at a stay and thus they tread always in one circle or round turning like a doore upon the hinges but never from off the place where they were As for most mens hearing praying fasting what is it but as a taske performed so coldly that there is no principle of divine life in it and thus they goe on but are never at their journeys end Men commonly use what they should enjoy and enjoy that they should use they will use the Lord whom they should enjoy and they will enjoy their duties and performances that they should only use and thus they starve their soules by formality in religion The third thing we may take notice of is the righteousnesse of Christ commended to us before the righteousnesse of Adam Most of the worlds righteousnesse proceedes from the principles of the old Adam which is corrupt and fleshly what is this but to be born of Ishmael the son of the bond-woman to come unto Mount Sinai in Arabia viz. the Covenant of works but Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of all the first-born of God viz. the Covenant of grace Vain man thinks to climb to Heaven by his own righteousnesse when alas it is but of the first Adam naturall weake and fleshly All the wisdome knowledg invention of man as Tongues Arts and Sciences as Philosophy Logicke Rhetoricke c. All these are but to repaire those reliques of the first Adam's corrupted principles of reason and understanding therefore if wee goe to patch up a righteousnesse of these we doe but build what the Lord will have destroyed But that which is able to restore us is an establishment of the righteousnesse of Christ upon our hearts by the participation of the divine nature Christ performs all righteousnesse for his Saints and then works all righteousnesse in them The divine will of God is righteousnesse now Christ is that divine will brought forth in a Saint working after the Lords owne pleasure The Civill law doth account Elephants and Camels to have the nature of wild beasts though they
in this manner and yet this was not the saving grace that the Saints have and that the Saints only have Nay farther he may have many acts of humiliation 3 He may doe acts of humiliation or as it were that that is like it he may expresse humiliation he may hang downe his head as a bulrush for a day he may keepe monethly Fasts as constantly as any and be sorrowfull and heavy and yet he hath not true humiliation But as the Prophet saith of the Hypocrites they hang downe their heads for a day as a bulrush but the Lord abhors them and their Service But the likest thing that I know to true humiliation is that that wicked men shall have at the day judgement Then I finde that there will be somwhat like it I find then that the wicked man his mouth shall be stopped he shall be so farre humbled that he shall have no argument to plead for himselfe he shall have no cloake for his sinne then the pride of wicked men will be pulled downe in a great measure in a sort notwithstanding it is not true humiliation for even then and for ever in Hell the wicked will be grumbling against God and a man is not said to be humbled truly till he submit to God in any thing Therefore it is said in Mat. 22. in hell there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth There is gnashing of teeth for vexation and anguish There is no true humiliation or shall be in Hell world without end Nor there is no carnall man upon earth that is truly humbled Therfore to conclude do not wonder I say cease Not to wonder that the wicked grow worse wondring for indeed a man cannot choose but wonder but endeavour to cease wondring when you see carnall men and Hypocrites notwithstanding all those meanes wherein you see God comes clearly in the eyes of them yet notwithstanding they grow worse and worse prowder prowder and more hardened and more coveteous and more carnall wonder not at it because in all these though you see God and are bettered and more humbled as now in the carriage of things in these times every honest heart makes a holy use of it and God will discover himself to many of his people through that they shal be better for it But wonder not at worldly people that they are worse they never had a sight of God wonder not that sinners and wicked men under the meanes of grace are nothing better as I feare there are many in this and in other congregations that notwithstanding all the meanes of grace notwithstanding all the teaching and preaching and beseeching and exhorting yet they sometimes in secret can laugh and jeere at religion and persecute those that embrace it A man would wonder at this how men should be so sottish as to learne nothing how men should be so prophane under such meanes and ministerie and amend nothing I say a man would wonder but only that it comes from this God hath not shewed himselfe to them if they had but one sight of God as thou that art a Saint hast it were a wonderfull Carnall men see not God in Ordinances thing indeed but it is because the Lord never revealed himselfe to them they only see a poore weake creature weaker then themselves and they heare the Word read in the Bible or they read a Chapter but there is not one jot of the sight of God in it So the other Nor in mercies day we had abundance of Victories and strangely God came into the hearts of his Saints by it how gloriously did the Lord appeare in them and ravish their soules that their hearts are yet nearer to God and they walke more humbly and closely and thankfully But we see the gang of the world Magistrates and Ministers and all carnal people are more proud and wicked and carnall and ready to beat their Fellow Servants they are worse and worse and no wonder because God hath not discovered himself in these mercies they will not learne And then for corrections a man would think that Nor in corrections God did deale with us more palpably then he did with Aegypt they had ten plagues we had twenty or thirty God hath punished us and then God stops his hand and then we break out into mischeif and cruelty and oppression And then God turnes the scale another way and then we begin to amend a little The other day the Lord did begin very fairly the Lord turned the Scales divers wayes you know how it was with Scotland and with the King One would thinke that there were no Magistrate nor Minister nor no man that hath the name of a Professor but he would learne somewhat by all this yet how many are bettered nothing in the World Wonder not because God hath never shewed himselfe in mercy in any ordinance in any correction or affliction or judgement to any carnall man I conclude with this word carnall wicked men wicked men shall one day be humbled are never humbled in this world that is certaine unlesse the Lord change them and reveale himself to them but there is no wicked man in the world but he shall have a Humiliation such as it will be There will be a day when the worst man in the world shall in some part be humbled you shall read in Luke 2â— how men shall be at their wits ends for feare of what shall come upon them And in Revel 6 when the Lord Jesus shall come to judgement they shall runne to the Rocks and to the Caves and to the Mountains to hide them from the presence of God their pride shall be pulled downe there shall be a kinde of Humiliation but no true humiliation but even in hell they shall be there grumbling against God for evermore Be pleased to learn from these few broken words that it is the will and way of God that you get your soules humbled which is the thing that I and you principally it may be want you see it is by seeing of God in Jesus Christ therfore labour to see him and study this blessed skill of seeing him and though we know not how it is yet you shall finde that that grace and every other grace will come more and more into your Soules SERMON 5. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts THe last lesson or doctrine that we were upon from these words was this that A saving sight of God in Christ is the right and ready way to true Gospell humiliation Woe is me for I am undone because I have seene the King the Lord of Hosts First I shewed you that Every true Saint hath a peculiar sight of God That was necessary to make way for this that every such peculiar sight is the meanes or way to true Gospell humiliation I proved it and gave you the Reasons and made some short Use of it The next Use that
him First he sees the justice of God the equallnesse Of his justice of Gods dealing with his soule or with his body let the Lord doe with him what he will he will not say as the people of Israel proverbially said Ezek. 18. The wayes of the Lord are not equall A proud heart will say so it will think so at least for the Scripture speaks the language of mens hearts The heart of a proud man thinks that God deales unjustly and unequally that he layes so great an affliction on him and then another affliction upon that that first takes away one mercy and then another first one Child and then another and then a third the heart out of pride thinkes God deales unjustly but if the heart were rightly humbled it would see that all that God doth is very just and equall I not onely observe it just according to Law for so a man may doe by legall humiliation that Ahab and Judas had Judas saw that it was just with God to destroy him and so did Ahab and Saul and Pharoah it is not onely According to the Gospel so but according to the Gospell there he sees that the wayes of God are very equall and that it is a righteous thing with God to afflict him I meane thus a man I say under the Gospell that sees himselfe the son of God and that God is his Father and that he is united to Christ and that his soule is justifyed perfectly by the bloud of Jesus Christ yet when God shall lay some sore affliction upon him A man would thinke now how can God justly doe this As some proud or inconsiderate people say Will God be paid twice hath he not beene paid in his son Now a humble heart will say though God be satisfyed and the Law be fullfilled and he is my Father yet I am such a graceles wretched son such a provoking son I doe so often vex and slight and neglect my Father that even according to the law of love and according to the blessed Gospell it is equall that God should deale so with me Nay he can say at all times that God layes on me according to the Gospell it selfe lesse then I deserve as they said Lament 3. 22. It is the Lords mercie that we are not consumed Indeed it is an affliction that I am whipped but it is a great deale of mercy that I am not utterly destroyed Looke to thy heart in this thing when afflictions come upon thee canst thou justifie God and say his wayes are equall and just and right as they say in Nehem. 9. 33. Howbeit thou art just and right in all this In all what you shall see in the Verse before Lord let it not seeme little before thee the trouble that hath come upon us c. And it was not little for they suffered sore and long and yet notwithstanding all that thou art righteous and just in all this that we have suffered That is one thing Another thing that he hath reverend thoughts 2. Of his Love of God for it is his love a humble heart wil be able to see a sun through a cloud he will be able to see the heart of a Father and the love of a Father when he frownes most or shakes his rod most over him God cannot shake his rod so much over a Saint that is a humbled Saint but he will be able to espie some Smiles of love Therefore I say he hath honourable thoughts of God Why Because he thinks though this be so yet it is just and equall It is true sayth he I am a son but of my conscience God hath not such another son on the face of the Earth I vex him more in one week then all the other doe in a yeare therefore for all this I see him move his eies and yearne his heart for my good so that still he hath honourable thoughts of God Now a proud heart such a one as Judas may say it is just but here he comes short he cannot say it is love Thirdly and lastly he hath honourable and pretious 3. Of his wisedome and reverend thoughts of God because in his affliction he discerns the infinite wisdome of God Truly Beloved there are but two great wisedomes that are great indeed that are before the eye of a Christian in this World that is the wisedome Two wisedomes great in the eyes of Saints that is hid in the Gospell that the Angells desire to prie into and the wisedome of God in his carriage to his Saints in affliction Now when things seem crosse and thwart when a proud heart sayth I am undone I am broken and spoyled I shall never set up again I shall never eat my bread chearfully againe a humble heart can say though I know not what God will doe yet he hath a wise designe in it it is love whatsoever it is and it is wisedome too Therefore the Lord doth with us in afflictions as he did with Peter when he washed his feet saith Peter what doest thou meane What I meane thou shalt know hereafter So a poore Saint when God strikes him he takes away it may be two or three of his Children thinks he Lord what doest thou meane Sayth God thou shalt know hereafter I have a wise designe thou shalt see it but now I must keepe it from thee thou shalt not know it And truly ordinarily when the affliction is over God comes and takes his childe a side and opens the designe to him and tells him thou didst wonder at me many times and hadst hard thoughts of me for a great while when it was under ground come now I will read thee a lesson I will tell thee the story and so takes him by the hand and sayth doest not thou remember before I tooke thee in hand what a froward creature thou wert what a proud creature thou wert thou mightest have been damned if I had not taken thee in hand and I gave thee first such a gentle affliction and then added another God shews him the whole plot and then he sayth Lord pardon all my hard thoughts of thee glorious God I see now that all was love and wisedome And God so inures his people to shew them the designe when the affliction is over that most Saints though they understand and see nothing of God in their affliction yet they know it is a glorious designe of wisdome that God hath upon them therefore they will not censure God because they see it not it is but their owne ignorance that they doe not comprehend it As if you should see a Plow-man or a countrie man come to a Mathematician that were at his Globe and his compasses and were drawing lines from one to another the Countrie man knowes nothing of this but he would not therefore say the other is a foole and doth he knoweth not what He would rather say I warrant you he is a Scholler and hath had good breeding
call upon God ordinarily in afflictions and troubles Secondly it implies thankfullnesse In Phil. 4. 2. To give thankes Make your requests known with thankfullnesse A humble heart will alwayes pray and it will in the greatest affliction be praysing God why so Because a humble heart in the greatest affliction can spie somthing to prayse God for as well as to 〈◊〉 for that he wants Therefore sayth James If any be afflicted let him pray Sometimes a Saint is so afflicted that he can doe nothing else but pray and he is never better fitted to pray then when he is most afflicted Then lastly you shall discerne it by this that 11. Hee is not weary of waiting on God in his afflictions he will never be wearie of waiting upon the Lord till he have remooved it It is the pride of our hearts that makes us that we doe not wait on the Lord as the Prophet Habakkuk sayth His heart that is lifted up is not right in him but the just shall live by his faith In 2 Kings 6. 33. This evill is from the Lord sayth that wicked man VVhat should I wait on the Lord any longer A proud heart God must come in at his time and when he calls or else he will stay no longer but will be wearie As a godly man sayth what art thou that thou wilt not wait for God VVhy doest thou take such state upon thee Who shall waite God or thou Should the King waite upon the Subject or the Subject upon the King should the Master waite upon the Servant or the Servant upon the Master should the Judg wait on the Traytor or the Traytor on the Judg Such a one a humble heart sees himselfe to be he is a Servant and a Traytor if God should take him at the worst Therefore he blesseth God that he may waite for mercie O sayth he there are many thousands in Hell that shall waite for ever expecting more wrath and more flames of fire World without end and may not I blesse God that I have a little mercy though I have many sorrowes and that I may waite on the God of mercy for more mercies I will waite upon the Lord. Thus breifly I have poynted out the carriage of a soule that God hath humbled by a saving sight of himselfe in Jesus Christ I say his carriage in afflictions There is another word to shew you his carriage under the mercies of God but I cannot speake of it now without passing my owne strength and yours SERMON 7. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts YOU remember the last doctrine that we had from these words that A true and saving sight of God in Jesus Christ is a principall meanes to humble a soule This I did open and proove fully to you out of the Scriptures And so as God led us we went along And came in the last place to examine our selves for that we were upon whether the Lord had truely humbled us by discovering himselfe to us For there is no soul that is truly humbled but he that hath seen God in Christ I speak not as I told you of a day of humiliation or of the dutie of humiliation or of a preparatory humiliation but of the Gospel grace of humiliation of that frame of heart that is or ought to be in a Saint at all times For the discovery of it I told you we should find much of it First by our carriage towards God Secondly by our carriage towards man Towards God I told you first in respect of his righteousnesse And indeed therein cheifly is discovered the pride of our hearts or the humility of our hearts by our receiving or not receiving the righteousnesse of God by faith Secondly by our carriage to the truths of God therein we may see how much of this grace God hath bestowed upon us Thirdly by the commands of God Fourthly and lastly by the corrections of God And therein I shewed you what the posture of the heart of a Christian is that is truly and savingly humbled by his carriage in afflictions For if there be pride in the soule usually affliction will bring it out I shall not repeat any thing but goe on a little further to that which remaines There is one thing more and but one thing 5. A humble hearts carriage towards God for mercies that I shall speake of in respect of our carriage towards God wherein you shall discover how much God hath given you of this grace and that is by your carriage towards God in the way of his mercies Truly mercies and afflictions are much like Summer and winter and sometimes our sicknesse will breake out in Winter that is concealed in Summer and sometimes it is discovered in Summer that is hid in Winter So in some soules the evills of the heart will breake out in afflictions more then in mercies and in some it is more discovered in a state of prosperitie in a way of mercie then in the way of afflictions As on the other side in some soules grace is more cleare and shining in afflictions then in prosperitie and truely I think that in some soules grace will shine more in the way of mercy And if God will come and have mercie upon poore England my hope is and it is my prayer and request to God that we may discover more godlinesse and more grace then in all this time We have discovered a great deale of pettishnesse and frowardnesse and pride and ambition and covetousnesse and cruelty and rashnesse but I hope there being diverse Saints among us that God will give us another frame of heart if he have mercy on us and turne away his wrath But that by the by But I was saying that the pride of the heart and other corruptions also are Corruptions discovered by Gods mercies sometimes discovered in a way of mercie that are not discovered in a way of affliction I will give you but one Scripture for it in Hosea 7. 1. VVhen I would have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered and the wickednesse of Samaria for they commit falshood c. Ephraim and Israel are two names almost of the same thing though Ephraim were but one tribe yet because it was a great tribe as York is a great Countie in England all Israell is often called by the name of Ephraim Now when God would heale Ephraim or Israell then their iniquity appeared So it is to be feared that if God come to heal England as he seemeth to smile on us sometimes and according to that word in Acts 7. Where he sayth I have seen I have seen the afflictions of my people in Aegypt So I hope God hath seen how the bread is done and the provision is gone and the people are ready to goe away themselves by reason of their miseries I hope God hath seen and will put an end to our miseries and I much feare that when mercie comes
and when peace comes there will then be a discovery of rotten hearts then much more then in these times yet in these times there are abundance of rotten hearts discovered that were not knowne before The Lord comes near the quick of our profession in these times there are abundance that have been professors that now jeere the Saints and dishonour God and imbrace the VVorld but in times of mercie there will be more the sun makes the Traveller put off his cloake when the wind cannot But to open it to you as I did the former that which I shall doe shall be to discover to you what the carriage of a humble heart is and what our carriage should be when God shewes mercie to us when the Lord deales kindly with us in the way of his mercy What is the posture of a humble heart then I answer First of all a humble heart he can be 1. A humble heart content to be denyed any mercy content that the Lord should denie him any mercie let it be never so deare or pretious to him though he prize it high and pray earnestly for it and wayt long for it yet if God come at last and say thou shalt not have it he can be content patiently and meekly to take a denyall from God and goe away contented if it must be so Indeed there is a kind of earnestnesse that should be in us and in a sence we should take no deniall from God we should not be easily put off As we see in Mat. 15. That Woman of Canaan when Christ put her off shee comes again and again and again But if God say say no more it shall not be so rhen a man should quietly submit himselfe to God though like Hannah he desire Children and pray earnestly and seek God againe and againe and seeme to be near towards it sometimes but at last if God come and say thou shalt never have a child then sayth a proud heart Give me children or I die I will give you an instance or two of this in 2 Sam 15. 25. David there was in a poore condition he was pursued by his enemy by Absalom his owne son and David David had the Arke and Zadock the Preist But sayth the King to Zadock carry back the Arke of God into the City if I shall finde favour in the eyes of the Lord he will bring me again and shew me both it and his habitation But if he thus say I have no delight in thee behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good unto him As if he had said I am in a miserable condition but I will not trouble thee or indanger the Arke if I have found favour in the eyes of God he will bring me again to my house and to his but sayth he if he thus say I have no delight in him Behold here I am let him doe to me as seemeth good in his eyes God will bring me back to Jerusalem if I have found favour with him but if God say David I have no delight in thee thou shalt never see my house more Loe here I am let him doe as seemeth best to him This is the posture of a humble soule that desireth this and that and the other mercy yet if God say I have no delight in thee I will doe none of these things he can say here I am doe as it seemeth good in thine eyes I will give you one instance more in Deut. 3. 24. You have Moses there praying and he desires a great request and that earnestly of God Moses O Lord thou hast begun to shew thy seruant thy greatnesse and thy mighty hand for what God is there in Heaven or in Earth that can doe according to thy might I pray thee I pray thee Lord see how familiar he is with him Let me goe over and see that good land that is beyond Jordan and that goodly Mountaine and Lebanon Moses was going towards Canaan that was a type of the Kingdome of grace under the Gospell and a type of Heaven and they had travelled forty yeares in the VVildernesse I pray thee sayth he let me goe over and see that good land and see Lebanon that goodly forrest But sayth he the Lord was wroth with me for your sakes and would not heare me and the Lord said unto me let it suffice thee speak no more unto me of this matter Let it suffice I will heare no more concerning this thing Get thee up into the top of Pisgah I will give thee leave to looke on it but thou shalt not goe over Now in the Chapter following Deut. 4. 21. Sayth he The Lord was angrie with me for your sakes It was for their sakes that God denyed him And he sware that I should not goe over Jordan and that I should not goe in unto that good land which the Lord thy God hath given thee for an inheritance but I must die in this Land It is a broken speech I must die he doth not say it in passion must I die must I lead this people forty yeares and when there is any good to be had I must be cut off he spake it not on that fashion but sayth he I must not goe over but you shall goe over and possesse it He submits to Gods will and rejoyceth that they should goe over though it was for their sakes that he was crossed And he shewes them how they should carry themselves there A proud heart would have sayd you may get you over if you will and if it had not been for you I might have gone too but I may thanke you that I must stay and die here But sayth he God hath sayd I shall speake no more of that matter it is my lot I submit So in all the mercies of God to thee if thou canst quietly as Moses and David submit in silence when he denies thee any mercy though it be never so deare it is a signe thou hast a humble heart Truely some godly men are of opinion that a Saint can come to this to be content that God should deny him everlasting Salvation for his soul I have read of one and I have spoken with another I have knowne two godly men in that posture the one was so and the other seemed to be so by his writing that if after all the meanes used he cannot come to beleive as others doe that he can have no assurance or hope of life from God but that God almost in every Ordinance doth as much as tell him thou shalt be damned yet he can be content to goe to Hell it selfe I have seen a glorious Saint that hath said that if God should tell him he should be damned yet he could submit without murmuring Such a thing may be but I think it is not ordinary neyther Grace crosseth not principles of nature doth God expect it because grace never crosseth the ground principles of nature and of all this
therefore he is praying for more but he forgets to pray with thanksgiving to make his requests known with thanksgiving Now let a humble heart be in never so much distresse and misery the man can see abundance of cause to prayse God if he have but water that the beasts drink and if he have but strength to dig he can say Lord I owne this as a mercie and whatsoever is on this side Hell is mercie So in Rom. 12. 1. I beseech you by the mercies of God that you give up your selves a living and holy and acceptable sacrifice to God He would have the mercies of God to bring them to obedience to give up themselves to obey God So in Rom. 2. Sayth he Doest thou despise his riches and goodnesse and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodnesse of God should lead thee to repentance The goodnesse of God and the patience of God and the mercie of God should lead all humble hearts to a holy thankfullnesse and obedience and so it doth And the more the Lord doth multiplie mercies upon him the more obedient and thankfull he is Now in all this that I have said I would desire you to examine your soules and if you find that in any of these or in any of the rest that I am yet to speake of you are faultie and come short yet I would not have you conclude therefore I am not the humbled soul that the Minister spake off there is none of this grace in me for though it be not so with thee in every poynt though thou come short of perfect humiliation that should be in thee it followes not that therefore there is none at all The end why I put these things before you is not so much to trie your selves as that you might labour with the Lord to bring up your hearts to these things And I have the rather chosen to speake of this at this time because me thinks the Lord is preparing to come towards us in a way of mercie and that I would have you to think of and pray for that the Lord may still come in a way of mercie that he may turne from the evill he hath intended or else he may easily bring us againe to the red sea if we provoke him as we have done But so much for this time SERMON 8. Isaiah 6. 5. For mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts I Hope you are not wearie of this subject though I have been somthing long upon it you may remember the last doctrine was that A saving sight of God in Christ is the principall means of true humiliation It is the principall meanes to humble the heart of any man whether he be a Saint or a sinner I have spoken much to you concerning that sight At the last we came to this to examyne whether we have seen God or no. John puts much stresse upon that word If any man love not his brother he hath not seen God I say if you have seen God in Christ as Moses had seen him and as all the Saints see him with open face it will appeare by this it will make your hearts humble it will worke a holy frame of humiliation No proud man hath ever seen God no man hath ever seen God but his heart was thorowly humbled But that begat another question How shall I know whether I have an humble heart or no I told you you might know it First by the carriage of your souls towards God In poynt of justification In regard of his commands In regard of his truths In regard of his corrections In regard of his mercies And this last was the thing I did endeavour to open to you the last day Secondly you may know whether your hearts 2. True humiliation known by our carriage towards men be truly humbled by your carriage towards men When ever men are converted to God there the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers Now among men there are two sorts in generall They are eyther Sinners or Saints I shall leave to speake of our carriage towards Saints for the last because it will require a little more time and because I shall speake but a few words of this of the carriage of a humble heart towards sinners and that I shall endeavour to shew you at this time Therefore breifly whosoever hath this humble frame of heart his carriage towards sinners is according to the rule that we 1. To sinners with meeknesse read of Titus 3. 2. To speake evill of no man to be gentle shewing all meeknesse unto all men His carriage I say is meek and affable and courteous and gentle towards all men Indeed there is no heart in the World so proud you shall observe it but it hath in it some meeknesse and especially to some men The proudest Tyrants in the World have had some favourites that they did fawne on and in some sort might be termed meek men but the Apostle sayth that we must shew all meeknesse and that unto all men to all sorts of men to whoremongers to drunkards to those that deprive us of our goods and of our good name which is hard to doe but I will give you a Scripture that will open it Collos 1. 9. I pray for you sayth Paul that you may be filled with the knowledg of his will in all wisdome and spirituall understanding c. If the Lord hath revealed himselfe that thou hast had a saving sight of him then the Lord humbleth thy heart How will that appeare By thy carriage to all men there will be all meeknesse to all men It will appeare by thy affabilitie for meeknesse and humblenesse have the same name in the Originall Moses was a humble man and Moses was a very meeke man VVhere ever there is a humble heart it is a meeke heart there will be meeknesse shewed even to sinners That you may see this I will give you but one solid instance instead of many You know that of all proud men there were none that had the name so much as the Pharisees therefore they are called the proud Pharisees And of all that have Christs meeknesse to sinners been humbled there was not such a patterne of humilitie as our Lord Jesus Christ Now you shall see how the pride of the Pharisees was expressed and how the humilitie of our Saviour is set forth by his carriage to sinners As he sayth Mat. 11. 28. Come and learne of me for I am meeke and lowly of heart It is because of the pride of our hearts that we are not meeke you shall see this meeknesse of Christ by paralell places in Luke 7. 34. You shall finde there that our Lord Christ was at a feast when he sat at meat in a Pharises house there comes in a woman and shee was washing his feet and wyping them with the haire of her head as he sate at the table The Pharisees fall a reasoning with themselves
with those that are in the light and not in darknesse I may and ought to love sinners so as to doe them all the good I can but not so as to make him my husband or her my wife And so there ought to be a care in the choyce of servants Not that it is utterly unlawfull there are but a Few things unlawfull few things that are unlawfull under the Gospell though some there are But I meane for servants though it may be lawfull yet it is very unnecessarie to have too near union with carnall men especially in spirituall things besides the unfaithfulnesse that may be found But especially take heed of having any thing to 4. Not to comply with sinners in sin doe with them in any of the works of darknesse If a sinner be excercised in a dutie that is naturall I may goe a long with him and joyne with him or if it be as I said in a winning Ordinance but I must take heed of joyning with him in any thing that is sinful as you have it set downe by the Apostle 2 Cor. 6. 17. 18. VVherefore come out from among them and be yee seperate sayth the Lord and touch not the uncleane thing and I will receive you And I will be a father unto you and yee shall be my sons and daughters sayth the Lord Almightie That place is mistaken by some who take it as if the Apostle meant that we should so come out from sinners as to have no manner of communion or fellowship with them We know the Apostle elsewhere teacheth us to shew all meeknesse to all men as I told you before And why doth he doe so I shall speake a few words of that and so have done for this time How is it possible that a Saint that is a New-testament Quest Saint that hath so much holinesse required of him that he should in any kind be a companion of sinners as the Scripture sayth our Saviour Christ was whence is it that he should carrie himselfe thus withall meeknesse towards them Truly there are these foure reasons for it there Answ Why Saints should bee meek to sinners are foure lessons written in the heart of an humble Saint that teach him to doe this First when he looks upon another that is a sinner he considereth that he hath been worse then 1. A Saint considers what he once was he whosoever he is Thinks he whosoever he is that is yonder that is a wretched man that even the boyes in the streets are ready to shout at and throw stones at yet I have been worse then he Beloved it is a strange thing that Paul should say that he was blamelesse for holinesse such as it was and yet that he should say after I am the worst of sinners the cheife of sinners Truly one cannot say I have been in every particular act as bad or worse then any other but yet in some sence or other in some respect or other any man may say he is the cheife of sinners Paul sayd so in regard of his persecution of the Church and though otherwise he was honest and better then most other men yet there he accounted himselfe the worst of sinners That is one thing that makes a Saint to be mild and affable in his carriage to sinners because he hath been as bad or worse then they And Secondly in some respect a humble heart 2. He thinks himselfe as bad still he thinks himselfe to be worse still Truly I will tell you a lesson that it may be is a mysterie to some of you Take the most glorious Saints that are and they will tell you that all the good that is in them it is rather passive then active that is he will say I am carried on by God meerly and by his spirit it is God that doth it I know not how nor why So that though God doth work much good in them yet they see themselves passive and not active and they can say it is God that doth it and not they And therefore when they look upon themselves in some respects they can put themselves below even the worst of sinners the vilest of sinners And so we see Paul in that place 1 Tim. 1. I am the cheife of sinners sayth he and yet to me was more mercie shewed then to all men that I might be a patterne of Gods mercie to all men therefore I have received more mercie and more riches of grace then any man And so a Saint may say I have had more mercies then that man but I was passive in it and if God did worke upon that man but halfe that which he hath done on me he would have been far better then I am Thirdly he thinks though there be a difference 3. He knowes God makes him to differ yet it is god that hath made it and not any thing in himselfe 4. The worst sinner may come to be as good as he Fourthly and lastly he considereth that the vilest sinner may be in Gods good time better then he Remember these foure rules that a humble heart hath to bring himselfe to be affable and meeke in his carriage to poore sinners And therefore you shall see in Mat. 19. Compared with Mark 10. VVhen the young man came to Christ that was rich and Christ bids him goe sell all and give to the poore he would not doe it but went away sorrowfull the Disciples came to Christ crying out as it were and insulting over him and say they Master we have left all and followed thee what shall we have As if they had sayd we see that yonder man is not so good as we he would not part with his riches but we have left all we have left our fathers and our mothers and our boates and our fishing and our nets and all and therefore we hope we shall have a good reward What sayth our Lord to them Many that are last shall be first and those that are first shall be last What is the meaning of that It is as if he had sayd you should rather have reasoned thus yonder is a man that is gone away for the present yet he may be in the Kingdome of God before me for ought I know he is now last but he may be first And indeed Beloved I doubt not but that there is many a poore sinner that now follows the ale-house and drinking and swearing and whoreing that yet may be in Heaven before thee and me The Apostle Peter wisheth Christians to walke honestly before all men to Let their light shine before sinners that they may glorifie God in the day of their visitation Remember that word what is the meaning of that That they may glorifie God in the day of their visitation Why thus we should conceive of every sinner that there is a day of visitation appoynted by the Lord for him not only Day of visitation what the generall day of Gods mercies towards
thirdly there is another glorious way 3. By Jesus Christ that is in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ he hath kept the law and perfectly fulfilled it now a man by beleiving in Jesus Christ and by being unyted to him and married to him that in his owne person hath fulfilled the law being married to him whatsoever he hath is yours and whatsoever he hath done it is as if it had been done by you all shall be imputed to you and so the law of God may be fullfilled in you perfectly and you shall never goe to Hell and have nothing to doe or to suffer in that kind This being premised breifly the use of this may be twofold First to shew you what a vaine and foolish Vse The vanity of those that goe about to keepe the law thing it is for a man to goe about to keepe the law of God in his owne strength or in his owne person for you to think to save your soules or to fulfill the righteousnesse of the law by your owne doings Beloved it is a great matter to bring poore sinners to be awakened to see their sins or to break off their course in sin For there are many drunkards and swearers and jearers of Religion and prophaners of the Lords day that sit as sots all the yeare and are never awakned but generally when men are awakened Sinners awakened labour to fullfill the law out of their sins this is the resolution of all man kind of every man none excepted unlesse God have mercy on him he is ready to say I see I am in a damnable way and this course will bring me to hell by the grace of God I will turne over a new leafe and now I will heare Sermons I was wont to jeare at them and I will get me a practice of piety or some other good Book and I will have prayers in my house and I will be drunke no more and sweare no more I will be a new man I will avoyd that which is evill and doe that which is good And marke it this is more naturall to man then sin it is more naturall to man to be righteous then to be sinfull because he was righteous before he was sinfull The liquor that is put first into a vessell the vessell keeps the tast of that longer then of any that is put into it afterwards Now God at first made man righteous and man is more apt to fall to that kind of righteousnesse then to any sin And this is the great misery of people every one in some fashion or other this is his businesse he goes about to fulfill the law of God in his owne person and there you shall have one praying and another crying and another keeping so many fasts and dayes of humiliation upon humiliation and the end of all is if men had eyes to see it his endeavour is to fulfill the law of God he endeavours to scrape and to get up a righteousnesse to pay the law of God You cannot conceive and comprehend how subject you and I are to this misery and how this is in your very bones as it were and I feare truly it is the greatest part of your Religion and the most of your profession is nothing but to endeavour to get a righteousnesse to fulfill the law of God though some doe it in a closer siner way then others Now I beseech you consider this word lay No man can fulfill the law by doing downe this throughly in your hearts that it is a vaine thing so to doe and who would goe about a vaine thing a thing that he shall never bring to perfection For it is not every paltrie righteousnesse that can fulfill the law of God It is not ten thousand fastings that can fullfill the law of God it is not praying in your familie three times a day that can fullfill the law I speake not against these things in their right way and course but all will not doe in this respect for if you faile but once if you miss but one farthing you are gone if you have but one bad thought in all your life you are lost Therefore I would have you despaire of getting by your owne doing and suffering any righteousnesse to fulfill the law of God never goe about it No wise man will goe and buyld a Castle in the ayre It is reason and argument enough in any naturall busnesse to make a man desist to tell him it is a vayne thing it is a worke that will never come to perfection therefore desist and give over and thinke of some other course VVhy should we not prevaile in spirituall things as well as in naturall Let every man lay downe this for a certaine truth for a certaine conclusion in his soul that I were as good be a sinner as a righteous man in my owne person in respect of fulfilling the law I am sure I shall never doe it but as a snow-ball the more it is roled the bigger it growes so the more you goe on and indeavour to get a righteousnesse to fulfill the law the further off you will be for as I said if you faile but once you are guiltie of all And as you cannot reach it by doeing Nor by suffering so not by suffering for what men have mist in doing they shall be suffering to all eternity in hell but the law is so holy and God is so glorious whose law you have broken that when you have suffered millions yet the debt will be still unpaid Therefore who would be so mad as Paul calls the Gallathians mad Gallathians VVho hath bewitched you It is a kind of madnesse for any man to attempt in his owne person by doing or suffering to fulfill the righteousnesse of the law or to justifie and save his soul You will say we grant it is true and therefore Many seek to be justified by works besides Papists the Papists are much to blame that labour to be justified by their works They are so and so are many others much to blame besides them and blessed is that man or woman among you whosoever it be that doth not in some measure in his owne person endeavour to make up his owne righteousnesse It is a thing that sticks nearer to you then you are aware of though it may be at sometimes you see Christ and justification by him clearly yet at other times you know how many pangs and how may secret glances we have at our justication by our owne works take notice of the vanity of this That is one word Secondly me thinks this should move you above Vse 2. It should move us to come to Christ all things in the World if it were considered and O that the Lord would be pleased yet to open your eyes while it is called to day I say this should be one of the greatest motives in the World to come to Jesus Christ to get into Christ to receive Jesus Christ and in
done with Secondly that The Law of God is perfectly fulfilled in all true believers Thirdly that True believers are they who walke not after the flesh but after the Spirit We made some entrance upon the second that The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in all true believers I spake a little of this and shall adde something farther to what I said if God will The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in every The righteousness of the Law fulfilled in every true believer not personally true believer Not personally as I told you for there is no Saint no not Abraham himselfe that can say the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in me that is personally that I have walked so the Law is satisfied by my walking But the righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us not personally but in us by reason but by our union with Christ that Christ and we are one and he is made righteousnesse to us 1 Cor. 1. 30. He is made of God to in wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption Then whatsoever Christ is or hath it is ours Therefore saith the Apostle The righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled in us He doth not say it is fulfilled in Christ though that be true but he takes the boldness to say it is fulfilled in us by vertue of our union with Jesus Christ So in every true Saint or believer the righteousnesse of the law through Christ The weakest Saint in Christ hath satisfied the Law is perfectly fulfilled The weakest Saint if he be a true Saint he hath perfectly fulfilled the law of God he hath perfectly satisfied every demand that the law can make he hath perfectly paid every penny worth of debt that he oweth to the law the weakest Saint it may be a poore Saint that men can see nothing but corruption in all the day and all the weeke and all the yeare long almost yet that man if he be a true Saint though he be weak hath perfectly in Christ kept the law of God and is a just man and the law of God cannot come upon him nor the Sergeant the Devill to arrest him for one penny or farthing because he can say as Paul saith here The righteousnesse of the law is fulfilled in us Therefore that is the reason as I told you that Paul saith I am dead to the law that is I am as free from the law as a man that is dead when a man is dead the law goes no further on him So it is said we are delivered from the law and freed from the law And that is the reason also that the Apostle In Christ we are saved by Gods righteousnesse as well as mercy three times in one Chapter puts our salvation upon the righteousnesse of God he saith not by the mercie of God though that be true there is infinite mercie but saith he that God might declare his righteousnesse in Christ to save us It is a mercifull thing for God to give us Christ and to give us hearts to know that Christ and to believe in that Christ it is infinite unspeakable mercie But now that wee are in Christ and united to him as there was mercie so it is righteous and just with God to save us because we are righteous persons Mistake me not I say every poore Saint through Christ is a righteous person a just man I say in and through Christ he hath taken away all our sins and forgiven all our iniquities Coll. 2. So that when God saves believers he doth not only save them out of mercie but out of righteousness he can doe no otherwise therefore it is three times over his righteousness his righteousness his righteousness Rom. 3. And that is a blessed word in Heb. 12. Yee are come to the spirits of just men made perfect I doe not conceive that it is spoken of the spirits of men in heaven as many doe and no wonder they mistake for I did so for many yeares That place it looks so like heaven that I tooke it for heaven it self Yee are come unto mount Sion to the generall assembly and Church of the first borne and to the spirits of just men made perfect A man would think it were heaven it self it is called heaven but it is nothing in the world but the glorious estate of the Saints in Jesus Christ under the new Testament as you may see afterwards Therefore as Christ saith let this word sink into your hearts that if thou be a right believer thou art as perfectly just and righteous through Jesus Christ as if thou hadst never sinned against the law of God not by thy own righteousnesse but by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ For what can be said more saith the Apostle The righteousness of the law is fulfilled He doth not say we have a peice of it but it is fulfilled that is to a jote or tittle the law cannot say black is thine eye because Christ hath paid and done all that it can demand Now to give you a word or two of the grounds or reasons to help you to believe this truth to shew you how it comes about It comes about three wayes I meane it will be cleare to you three wayes if you consider three things First You must consider that Jesus Christ Reas 1. Christ a publike person which is our suretie he was sent of the Father out of his love as a publike person to fulfill the law of God by doing and suffering as a publike person There is much comfort in that Beloved you can never throughly understand your justification unlesse you study the first Adam what kind of person Adam was as you may see in Rom. 5. Now the Lord Jesus he came as a publike person and he was delivered for our offences as it is said Rom. 3. ult he did die for our sinnes That is one thing Now the second thing that demonstrates this to 2. From the union between Christ and believers us is besides his dying and that as a publike person there is a union made between every poore believer and Christ as really as between Christ and his Father Indeed it is called in Scripture a marriage because as in a marriage all the wealth of the husband is the wives it becomes hers and shee hath a right to it after marriage So all that is in Christ becomes ours by this union But it is a more reall union a closer union by far then that of marriage it is compared to the union between the members and the head Now by this union that you may read of in Joh. 17. all that is ours becomes Christs and all that is Christs becomes ours There are two things Then thirdly we finde that God the father to 3. God the Father is satisfied which appeares whom the debt was owing and whose law this was that we must satisfie he acknowledgeth satisfaction And what can we have more God the father acknowledgeth