while thou livest and to let Christ be wisedome in thee that thou wouldest be a poore infirme fraile creature and let Christ Jesus be thy righteousnesse that thou art content to walke in raggs and let Christ be thy riches This is one thing In that place Rom. 10. 3. It was the pride of the Jews that kept them from salvation by the righteousnesse of the Gospell they would not submit to the righteousnesse of God they were a proud people So that is it that keeps many a soule that hears the word it is that that keepes you weake What it is that keepes men in inward trouble and full of woe and sorrow all your dayes You thinke it is the want of this grace and the want of that grace and other things but it is nothing but your owne stubborne heart that you will not submit to the righteousnesse of Christ You would have this grace and that grace that is you would fill up every corner of your owne shop and you would amend your owne trading but you would not shut up shop and be journey-men as I may speake with reverence to Jesus Christ That is one thing Then againe the second particular I have to demonstrate 2. To take the righteousnes of Christ on his bare word that whether you be humbled or no is this whether the Lord have brought you to be content to take the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ upon his owne bare and naked word Whether now you can say there is Jesus Christ full of righteousnesse for me and my own righteousnesse is full of raggs What evidence have you for it Here is a word Jesus Christ is come to dye for sinners I find nothing in me but here is a bare word and hereupon I am content to take his righteousnesse and throw away mine owne I doe not say but that a good Christian may Christians may make use of signes make good use of signes and marks even in earthly things Christians see the love of God by temporall outward things for God useth what Pipes he pleaseth to convey his love But the question is in matter of believing whether I should not throw away my owne righteousnesse and wholly believe in Jesus Christs righteousnesse before I see any grace or any signe A humble heart can doe it and is content that marks should come after he believes after I believe God will sanctifie me and worke grace and then I shall see his love more But the first bargain betweene God and me is his bare word therefore that Rom. 10. is glorious and cleare and comfortable The Apostle lays downe the difference betweene salvation by the Law and by faith saith he the Righteousnesse of the Law speaketh on this wise The man that doth these things shall live by them but the righteousnesse which is of Faith speaketh on this wise say not in thy heart who shall ascend into Heaven or who shall descend into the Deepe but he that believeth shall be saved Marke it this is the straine and streame and language of the Gospell that is salvation by Jesus Christ and whosoever believeth on that salvation shall not be ashamed he shall be sure of it But how shall we come to believe and to be sure of this salvation Say not in thy heart who shall goe up to heaven or who shall descend into the deep but what saith it the word is nigh thee that is God hath given a word and he will give a spirit of faith with it and there are but two words to the bargaine there is the spirit in thee and the word without thee and this is the righteousnesse of God the righteousnesse of faith saith so Say not who shall goe up to heaven or downe to the earth For the eyes of a fool are scattered about the world And when men come to believe in Christ they aske who shall ascend into Heaven how shall I come to know that I am a Saint and that I am predestinated The Lord would have us believe the word that Christ Jesus came to save sinners of whom I am chiefe Here is a word if the heart now could apply this by the spirit of faith That is another thing I would have you thinke on Your ordinary Professors most of them they Why ordinary professors want assurance have not assurance of salvation why They cannot believe Why so because they finde so many corruptions in them and they finde so many graces wanting and they have ill memories and hard hearts and if it were not for these things they could believe What is the meaning of it It is as if they should say I will never trust God in the righteousnesse of the Gospell upon his bare word God will have us trust him ere he will trust us we must take God upon his word God wil bring every child of his to this to take his salvation upon a bare word and he will blesse his name for it I have but one soule and if I had a thousand I would venture them all upon his word and say there my soule lyes sinck or swim or goe to heaven or hell here is the word that Christ came to save sinners of whom I am chiefe Now if there be pride in the heart it will not come and rest on a bare word The Lord make you understand these things that they may not be lost Thirdly a humble heart will be content not only 3. With a generall word with a bare word but with the least word and the most generall word A proud heart will not be content unlesse he hath a perticular word For my part I may mistake but I will tell you my opinion that those men how Christ dyed not for all ever otherwise they be godly some of them that doe hold that Christ did dye for all men and that he came to save Judas as well as Peter If Christ came to save all and yet many shall goe to Hell how come they to be saved It is a proud thought in the heart that would teach God how to speake and how to make promises and we poore wretched damnable creatures must shew him what language he shall speake in whereas now a humble heart will take the least and most generall word and thanke God as we see in the woman of Canaan Christ gives her never a word a great while but frownes and then he gives her a terrible word and bids her goe he calls her Dogg why that was something a Dogg hath some priviledge he hath the crums that fall from the Table he looks for outward mercies and therefore in that he calls me Dogg I have so much of that word that I will follow him for the crums Saith Christ to her O Woman great is thy faith be it unto thee as thou wilt So Benhadads servants when they came with Halters about their necks saith the King Is my brother Benhadad alive that was a comfortable word they harpt upon
are perpetuall and constant in a sense Therefore it is said Joh. 14. 21. If you keep my Commandements saith Christ I will manifest my self to you Saith Judas not Iscariot Lord how is it that thou wilt manifest thy self unto us and not unto the VVorld Saith he I and my Father will come and wil dwell with you and abide with you As for the world God passeth by as a wayfairing man that tarries but for a night but I and my Father will come and dwel with you Therefore in 1. Joh. 4. Seeing of God dwelling in God are Sinonomies one and the same thing God dwelling in us or we in God or seeing of God they are the same Because wheresoever God is seen rightly and truly it brings God by his Spirit to dwell in the Soule That is one thing you may know it by by your apprehensions Secondly you may know it by the impressions 2 By the impressions these apprehensions worke that those apprehensions have upon your hearts there will be a twofold impression upon thy soule when thou dost see God aright First as I told you before when a Saint seeth 1 Suitable to that they see in God God you are to understand that he seeth al in God with redundance he sees his love his goodnesse his power his faithfulnesse his mercy his justice Now the same apprehension of these things have such impressions upon thy heart that thou mayest clearely discerne if thy sight be right that is if every one of these doe worke upon thy heart a proportionable fitnesse or suitablenesse to that that is in God As for instance when thou lookest on God and thou seest his goodnes there is a sweet impression of love Thou seest the Justice and Righteousnesse of God it works an impression not a blaze that goes out but an habituall impression of pleasing God and of fearing God And so when thou seest his faithfulnesse it works an impression of trust that thou wilt trust him though he kill thee and so all that is in God will sinck into thy heart and worke suitable to that that is in God As to give you one instance for as it will doe by one so it will doe by all In Heb. 11. 27. It is said By faith Moses forsook Aegypt not fearing the wrath of the King For he endured as seeing him who is invisible Moses had a sight of him who is invisible Therefore he forsook Aegypt and feared not the wrath of the King What is the meaning of that The meaning of it is this he saw the King of Aegypt to be a great King a powerfull King But because he had seene God who is invisible that is he had seene the Power of God and the Greatnesse of God and that put such an impression on him that he did not feare Pharaoh And God had promised to doe him good and having seene the faithfulnesse of God he forsooke Aegypt So it will be with thee if thou see the Grace of God in Christ there will be an impression of love upon thy Soule If thou see the Greatnesse of God there will be Reverence imprinted upon thy heart or if thou see the Faithfulnesse of God there will be an impression of Trust upon thy heart But now if thou see God in Christ and see his goodnesse and mercy and grace and there be no such impression no love to God no delight in God no care to please him or to attend upon him thou hast not seene God aright Beloved these impressions you shall know them by these things in three words from any thing that is like the impressions of God upon you First they are reall Secondly they are through Impressions of seeing God upon Saints are Thirdly they are universall First they are reall By reall I meane this they 1. Reall are not idle speculations of God as a bare seeing of God and no more but only a meere contemplation but they are such reall impressions upon the heart as that they can bare up the Soule in any outward reall miserie As for instance you know the miseries of the world are reall When a man comes to Prison there is reall trouble and reall losse and Miseries of this life reall reall hunger and he is a Reall man that is the Keeper of the Prison Now an Hypocrite with all his speculations when he comes to a reall night of miserie for God all his knowledge of God proves a meere speculation and vanisheth into Ayre and there is no reality in it Now the other which is a true Saint let him be put into the worst condition let it be Reall put Bolts on his heeles let there be VVounds and Sores and Hunger and Thirst that he feeles beholds with his eyes yet he hath a thing in his Soule that is as real as the things that he feeles Therefore it is said in 1. John 1. where he speaks of Fellowship with God and walking in the light and seeing of God saith he Those things that wee have seene and heard and felt He makes the apprehension of God in Christ as reall as things that are subject to sense as the things that we see and heare and smell and feele Therefore see whether these impressions of God on thy soule be reall or no Doest thou finde when thou commest to reall miserie that there is reall comfort to hold thee up and not only imagination and vaine Speculations As you may observe many brave glorious Professors in the time of Peace that out strip all their Brethren and their expressions Why many Professors shrinke in Trouble are better then others they carry it gloriously and yet you shall have some poor creatures that can hardly speake to God in Prayer and can hardly remember any thing of the VVord and yet when they come to suffer there is a reall thing that holds them up though it may be it be but a poore little Boy or a VVench when you shall see those Brave glorious Professors that because they have no Reality they flee away and turne to the World Therefore pray to the Lord that these impressions may be reall That as the miseries wee meet withall are reall so the impressions of his blessed Majesty may be be reall Saith God to the Hypocrites Mal. 1. If I be a Father where is my Honour If I be a Master where is my feare You talke that I am your Father and your Master but there is no deepe impression of it upon your Soules Secondly as they are reall So they are thorow 2 They are thorow they fall not upon the heart of a Saint as they doe upon an Hypocrite The apprehensions of God fall upon an Hypocrite just like a little shower of raine upon the sandy ground there is some little impression but in two or three houres all is gone it never soaks to the root of the grasse An Hypocrite hath a root of bitternesse in his heart and all the
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
7. Youâ— know how by the comparison of a man and his wife we are said to be dead to the law of God The meaning is not as though the substance and matter of the law were not eternall and a rule for all Saints doubtlesse it is in the New Testament as well as in the Old but the law as it is a contract a bond a bargaine as it is a Covenant of works betweene God and us it is perfectly fullfilled by Christ and we are dead to it we are free from it or delivered from it And that is the reason that in Heb. 12. It is sayd in Mount Sion we are come to the spirits of just men made perfect That is not of just men personally just in their dealings though that follow in a sort but the meaning is that every Saint that is in Jesus Christ is perfectly a just man or a just woman by reason of their morrtage with Jesus Christ who hath obtained a perfect righteousnesse or justice for them So in Rom. 3. You have there also a blessed place where the Apostle sayth we are saved not only by the mercie of God but by his righteousnesse Therfore it is three times repeated we are saved by the righteousnesse of God and againe by the righteousnesse and againe in Vers 2 c. the third time to declare I say at this time his righteousnesse What is the righteousnesse of God That is sayth he that he is just and a justifier of them that beleive in Jesus Christ It is just and righteous with God to save people that beleive in Jesus Christ VVhy so Because Jesus Christ hath fulfilled to a tittle all the law of God for them I shall give you but one word of Use and leave Vse 1. Upon what our Justification is built the reasons and the further inlarging of it till the afternoone And the word that I desire to make knowne to you from the Lord is this to instruct and helpe you a little to understand where your righteousnesse doth lie or upon what your Justification is buylt For this is the misery the generall misery of most Christians that they mislay their justification they doe lay it partly upon faith and partly upon their sanctification and holynesse And that is the reason that when a poore soul it may be is tempted to some sin and hath some strong lust he looseth his faith and his assurance and his peace of conscience because he grounds his Saint-ship and his justification upon his holinesse Now Beloved this is it that I would desire the Lord to bring you and me to to know that I am a just man only by the righteousnesse that is in Christ that the law is perfectly fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ and not partly by him and partly by me but only and perfectly by him and I am called just but only as or because I am unyted to him that hath gotten a perfect righteousnesse for me Then let me buyld my Justification upon that only and not upon what I am not upon my temper or upon my graces or my gifts or the like Take heed of that but let it be buylt wholly upon Jesus Christ his death and resurrection He was delivered for our offences and raysed againe for our Justification Let us buyld upon that that we may come to this temper once to have our justification We are not more or lesse justified by the good or evill we doe in a stock clearely in Jesus Christs hands that when we doe good we may not imagine that we are a jot the more justified or when we fall or faile in good we may not conceive that we are a jot more justified then before that though one day we have our hearts inlarged to doe good and to do more good in one day then it may be we did in a moneth before yet this goes not to the stock of my justification I am not one jot the more justified and sometimes God leaves the flesh and the remnants of sin that foile us I will mourne for it and be humbled for it as a transgression against my father but I am not a jot more unjustified then I was before in the sight of God in regard of the Covenant of works that Christ hath fulfilled So thus I would have you doe as your Merchants and Trades-men in your Cittie you have a certaine stock that you lock it may be in an iron chest and that stock is the quick as you call it and you have besides so many pounds or so many hundreds that you turne and wind about through all the year as you have occasion but from the stock the quick you will not lay any thing out of that you will not touch that but lay out in expences and wind and turne the rest Just so I would have it with you that seeing justification is only buylded on Christ and I have the word of faith to certifie me of it and the spirit of faith to shew it me within I would not have my good or evill to be an ingredient into that but leave that as a stock clearly in the hands of Jesus Christ Or as we see a maid or woman that spins shee holds one hand steddie and turnes about the wheele with the other so our justification we should hold it steddie for it is not buylt at all upon any thing that is in us but let us turne and wind the rest that is sanctification we must strive against sin and mourne for it but leave justification wholly to Christ for it is not buylt on me but is only by the death and resurrection of Christ Therfore as Christ sayth Luke 17. When we have done all the good we can say we are unprofitable servants I have not gotten one farthing to day nor in all my life to helpe to fulfill the law of God or to helpe to my justification that is only in the hands of Christ that is my quick my cash my stock and when thou failest and seest lusts and pride and wantonnesse arise in thee say this hath no influence to hinder my justification it is no ingredient into that that is buylt upon another thing it is wholly in Christ and his righteousnesse he hath fulfilled the law and I am just by marriage and by unyon with him Therefore I will goe and take my sins and mourne for them and desire God to cleanse me from them but I must hold the quick still hold justification untouched and unshaken and unmovable in the hands of Jesus Christ I shall leave the inlargment of this and other things till the afternoone SERMON II. Rom. 8. 4. That the righteousnesse of the law might be fullfilled in us who walke not after the flesh but after the spirit THere are three Lessons that wee should learne from these words The first is implied that The righteousnesse of the Law must be fulfilled Or Every man is bound to fulfill the Law of God That we have already