may make an Idol of it and dote beyond the bounds of moderation upon it but there is no danger of excess in the love of Christ the soul is then in the healthiest frame and temper when it is most sick of love to Christ Cant. 5. 8. Fifthly The loveliness of every creature is of a cloying and glutting nature our estimation of it abates and links by our nearer approach to it or longer enjoyment of it creatures like Pictures are fairest at a due distance but it is not so with Christ the nearer the soul approacheth him and the longer it lives in the enjoyment of him still the more sweet and desireable he is Sixthly Lastly All other loveliness is unsatisfying and straitning to the soul of man there is not room enough in any one or in all the creatures for the soul of man to dilate and expatiate it self but it still feels it self pinch't in Aestuat infelix angusto â—…mite mundi and narrowed within those strait limits and this comes to pass from the inadequateness and unsuitableness of the creature to the nobler and more excellent soul of man which like a Ship in a narrow River hath not room to turn and besides is ever and anon striking ground and foundring in those shallows but Jesus Christ is every way adequate to the vast desires of the soul in him it hath Sea-room enough there it may spread all its fails no fear of touching the bottom And thus you see what is the importance of this phrase altogether lovely Secondly Next I promised to shew you in what respects Jesus Christ is altogether lovely And 2. First He is altogether lovely in his person a deity dwelling in flesh Joh. 1. 14. The wonderful union and perfection of the divine and humane nature in Christ renders him an object of admiration and adoration to Angels and men 1 Tim. 3. 16. God never presented to the world such a vision of glory before and then considering how the humane nature of our Lord Jesus Christ is replenished with all the graces of the Spirit so as never any of all the Saints was filled O how lovely doth this render him Joh. 3. 34. God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him this makes him fairer than the children of men grace being poured into his lips Psal. 45. 2. If a small measure of grace in the Saints makes them such sweet and desireable companions what must the riches and fulness of the Spirit of grace filling Jesus Christ without measure make him in the eyes of believers O what a glory and a luster must it stamp upon him Secondly He is altogether lovely in his Offices for let us but consider the suitableness fulness and comfortableness of them First The suitableness of the Offices of Christ to the miseries and wants of men and we cannot but adore the infinite wisdom of God in his investiture with them we are by nature blind and ignorant at best but groping in the dim light of nature after God Acts 17. 27. Jesus Christ is a light to lighten the Gentiles Isai. 49. 6. When this great Prophet came into the world then did the day-spring from on high visit us Luk. 1. 78. The state of nature is a state of alienation and enmity to God Christ comes into the world an attoning sacrifice making peace by the blood of his Cross Col. 1. 20. All the world by nature are in bondage and captivity to Satan a lamentable thraldom Christs comes with a kingly power to rescue sinners as a prey from the mouth of the terrible one Secondly Let the fulness of his Offices be also considered by reason whereof he is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. The three Offices comprising in them all that our souls do need become an universal relief to all our wants and therefore Thirdly Unspeakably comfortable must the Offices of Christ be to the souls of sinners if light be pleasant to our eyes how pleasant is that light of life springing from the Sun of righteousness Mal. 4. 2. If a pardon be sweet to a condemned malefactor how sweet must the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus be to the trembling Conscience of a lawcondemned-sinner If a rescue from a cruel Tyrant be sweet to a poor Captive how sweet must it be to the ears of inslaved sinners to hear the voice of liberty and deliverance proclaimed by Jesus Christ Out of the several Offices of Christ as out of so many fountains all the promises of the new Covenant flow as so many soul refreshing streams of peace and joy all the promises of illumination counsel and direction flow out of the Prophetical Office all the promises of reconciliation peace pardon and acceptation flow out of the Priestly Office with the sweet streams of Joy and Spiritual comfort depending thereupon all the promises of converting increasing defending directing and supplying grace flow out of the Kingly Office of Christ indeed all promises may be reduced to the three Offices so that Jesus Christ must needs be altogether lovely in his Offices Thirdly Jesus Christ is altogether lovely in his relations First He is a lovely Redeemer Isai. 61. 1. he came to open the Prison-dores to them that are bound Needs must this Redeemer be a lovely one if we consider the depth of misery from which he redeemed us even from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1. 10. How lovely was Titus in the eyes of the poor enthralled Greeks whom he delivered from their bondage This endeared him to them unto that degree that when their liberty was proclaimed they even trode one another to death to see the Herauld that proclaimed it and all the night following with instruments of musick danced about his Tent crying with united voyces A Saviour a Saviour Or whether we consider the numbers redeemed and the means of their redemption Rev. 5. 9. And they sang a new Song saying Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation He redeemed us not with Silver and Gold but with his own precious Blood by way of price 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. with his out-stretched and glorious arm by way of power Col. 1. 13. he redeemed us freely Eph. 1. 7. fully Rom. 8. 1. seasonably Gal. 4. 4. and out of special and peculiar love Joh. 17. 9. In a word he hath redeemed us for ever never more to come into bondage 1 Pet. 1. 5. Joh. 10. 28. Oh how lovely is Jesus Christ in the relation of a Redeemer to Gods elect Secondly He is a lovely Bridegroom to all that he espouses to himself how doth the Church glory in him in the words following my Text This is my Beloved and this is my Friend O ye Daughters of Jerusalem q. d. Heaven and earth cannot show such another which needs no fuller
the world a wondring at them 1 Pet. 4. 4. Wherein they think it strange that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obstupescent ut ad rei inusitatae spectaculum Beza Ils se trouvent tous nouveaux comme en 〈◊〉 autre monde you run not with them to the same excess of riot speaking evil of you they think it strange the word signifies to stand at gaze as the hen doth which hath brooded and hatched Partridge Eggs when she seeth the Chickens which she hath brought forth take the wing and fly away from her thus do the men of the world stand amazed to see their old companions in sin whose language once was vain and earthly it may be prophane and filthy now to be praying speaking of God Heaven and things spiritual having no more to do with them as to sin except by way of reprehension and admonition this amazes the world and makes them look with a strange admiring eye upon the people of God Thirdly In the next place let us enquire into the properties 3. and qualities of this new creature and shew you as we are able what they are yet Reader expect not here an exact and accurate account of that which is so great a mystery for if questions may be moved about a silly fly which may puzzle the greatest Philosopher to resolve them how much more may we conceive this great and marvellous work of God the most mysterious and admirable of all his works to surmount the understandings of the most illuminated Christians O how little do we know of the nature properties and operations of this new Creature so far as God hath revealed it to our weak understandings we may speak of it And First The Scripture speaks of it as a thing of great difficulty to be conceived by man Joh. 3. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the spirit The original of winds is a question of great difficulty in Philosophy we hear the voice of the wind feel its mighty force and behold its strange effects but neither know whence it comes or whither it goes ask a man Do you hear the wind blow yes do you feel it blow yes very sensibly do you see the effects of it rending and overturning the trees yes very plainly but can you describe its nature or declare its original no that is a mystery which I do not understand why fo Just so it is with him that is born of the spirit the holy spirit of God whose nature and operations we understand but little of comes from heaven quickens and influences our souls beats down and mortifies our lusts by his almighty power these effects of the spirit in us we experimentally feel and sensibly discern but how the spirit of God first entred into and quickned our souls and produced this new creature in them we understand little more of it than how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with Child Eccles. 11. 5. Therefore is the life of the new creature called a hidden life Col. 3. 3. the nature of that life is not only hidden totally from all carnal men but in a very great measure it is an hidden and unknown life unto spiritual men though themselves be the subjects of it Secondly But though this life of the new Creature be a great mystery and secret in some respects yet so far as it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…ppears unto us the new creature is the most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lovely creature that ever God made for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself is upon it the new man is created 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 24. as the picture is drawn after the man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself delineated by the spirit that admirable Artist upon the soul of man holiness is the beauty and glory of God and in holiness the new creature is created after Gods own image Col. 3. 10. the regenerate soul hereby becomes holy 1 Joh. 3. 3. not essentially holy as God is nor yet efficiently holy for the regenerate soul can neither make it self nor others holy but the life of the new creature may be said to resemble the life of God in this that as God lives to himself so the new creature wholly lives to God as God loves holiness and hates the contrary so doth the new creature 't is in these things formed after the image of him that created it when God creates this creature in the soul of man we are said then to be partakers of the divine nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. so that there can be nothing communicated unto men which beautifies and adorns their souls as this new creation doth men do not resemble God as they are noble and as they are rich but as they are holy no gift no endowment of nature imbelishes the soul as this new creature doth an awful Majesty sits upon the brow of the new creature commanding the greatest and worst of men to do homage to it Mark 6. 20. yea such is the beauty of the new creature that Christ its Author is also its admirer Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished mine heart with one of thine eyes Thirdly This New Creature is created in man upon the highest design that ever any work of God was wrought the end of its creation and infusion is high and noble Salvation to the soul in which it is wrought this is both the finis operis and the finis operantis it is the design both of the work and of the workman that wrought it when we receive the end of our faith we receive the salvation of our souls Salvation is the end faith as death is the end of sin so life eternal is the end of grace The new creature doth by the instinct and steady direction of its own nature take its course as directly to God and to heaven the place of his full enjoyment as the Rivers do to the Ocean it declares it self to be made for God by its restless workings after him and as salvation is the end of the new creature so it is the express design and end of him that created it 2 Cor. 5. 5. Now he that hath wrought us for the self same thing is God by this workmanship of his upon our souls he is now polishing preparing and making them meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. Fourthly The new Creation is the most necessary work that ever God wrought upon the soul of man the eternal well-being of his soul depends upon it and without it no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. and Joh. 1. 3 5. Except ye be regenerate and born again ye cannot see the Kingdom of God can you be saved without Christ you know you cannot can you have interest in Christ without the new creature my Text expressly tells you it can never be for if any man
name denoting the pleasant results and fruits of Justification and adoption no man knows but he that receives it Revel 2. 7. there are all those things wanting in the unsanctified though Elect soul that should capacitate and enable it to relish the sweetness of Christ and Religion namely propriety evidence and suitableness of Spirit Propriety is the sweetest part of any excellency therefore Luther was wont to say that the sweetness of the Gospel lay mostly in pronouns as me my thy c. who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3. 18. so Matth. 9. 2. Son be of good cheâ—… thy sins are forgiven take away propriety and you deâ—…ower the very Gospel of its beauty and deliciousness and as propriety so Evidence is requisite to joy and comfort yea so necessary that even interest and propriety afford no sensible sweetness without it For as to comfort it 's all one not to appear and not to be If I am registred in the book of life and know it not what comfort can my name there afford me besides to capacitate a soul for the sweetness and comfort of Christ there is also an agreeable temper of Spirit required for how can Christ be sweet to that mans soul whose thoughts reluctate decline or nauseate so holy and pure an object Now all these requisites being the proper effects and fruits of the Spirits sanctifying operations upon us it is beyond controversie that the consolations of Christ cannot be tasted until the application of Christ be first made Propos. 7. The Application of Christ to the soul effectually though it be so far wrought in the first saving work of the Spirit as truly to entitle Propos. 7. the soul to Christ and save it from the danger of perishing yet is it a work gradually advancing in the believers soul whilst it abides on this side heaven and glory It 's true indeed that Christ is perfectly and compleatly apply'd Nullos propriè dictâ—…s gradus admittit sed unico actu simul ac semel existit perfecta quamvis quoad manifestationem sensum effecta varios habet gradus Ames to the soul in the first act for righteousness Justification being a relative change properly admits no degrees but is perfected together and at once in one only act though as to its manifestation and sense it hath various degrees but the application of Christ to us for wisdome and sanctification is not perfected in one single act but rises by many and slow degrees to its just perfection And though we are truly said to be come to Christ when we first believe Joh. 6. 35. yet the soul after that is still coming to him by farther acts of faith 1 Pâ—…t 2. 4. to whom coming as unto a living stone the participle notes a continued motion by which the soul gains ground and still gets nearer and nearer to Christ growing still more inwardly acquainted with him the knowledge of Christ grows upon the soul as the morning light from its first spring to the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. every grace of the Spirit grows if not sensibly yet really for it is in discerning the growth of Sanctification as it is in discerning the growth of plants which we perceive rather crevisse quam crescere to have grown than to grow And as it thrives in the soul by deeper radications of the habits and more promptitude and spirituality in the actings so Christ and the Soul proportionably close more and more inwardly and efficaciously till at last it be wholly swallow'd up in Christs full and perfect enjoyment Propos. 8. Lastly Although the several priviledges and benefits forementioned be all truly and really bestowed with Christ upon believers yet Propos. 8. they are not communicated to them in one and the same way and manner but differently and diversly as their particular and respective natures do require These four illustrious benefits are convey'd from Christ to us in three different ways and methods his righteousness is made ours by imputation his wisdome and sanctification by renovation his redemption by our glorification I know the Communication of Christs righteousness to us by imputation is not only denyed but * scoffed at by Papists who own no righteousness but what is at least confounded Spectrum â—…crebri Lutherani Stapleton with that which is inherent in us and for imputative blasphemously stiled by them putative righteousness they flatly deny it and look upon it as a most absurd doctrine every where endeavouring to load it with these and such like absurdities That if God impute Christs righteousness to the believer and accepts what Christ hath performed for him as if he had performed it himself then we may be accounted as righteous as Christ. Then we may be the Redeemers of the world False and groundless consequences as if a man should say my debt is paid by my surety therefore I am as rich as he when we say the righteousness of Christ is made ours by imputation we think not it's made ours according to its universal value but according to our particular necessity not to make others righteous but to make us so not that we have the formal intrinsecal righteousness of Christin us as it is in him but a relative righteousness which makes us righteous even as he is righteous not as to the quantity but as to the truth of it 1 Joh. 3. 7. nor is it imputed to us as though Christ designed to make us the causes of Salvation to others but the Subjects of Salvation Non formali intrinseca justitiâ sed relativâ non quoad quantitatem sed veritatem fit enim finita applicatio infinitae justitiae si aliter equè justi essemus ut Christus at non justitia Christi sit nostra non quoad universalem valorem sed particularem necessitatem imputatur nobis non â—…t causis salvationis sed ut subjectis salvandis Bradsh de Justificat our selves it is inhesively in him communicatively it becomes ours by imputation the sin of the first Adam became ours and the same way the righteousness of the second Adam becomes ours Rom. 5. 17. This way the Redeemer became sin for us and this way we are made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. This way Abraham the Father of believers was justified therefore this way all believers the children of Abraham must be justified also Rom. 4. 22 23. And thus is Christs righteousness made ours But in conveying and communicating his wisdome and Sanctification he takes another method for this is not imputed but really imparted to us by the illuminating and regenerating work of the Spirit these are graces really inherent in us our righteousness comes from Christ as a Surety but our holiness comes from him as a quickening head sending vital influences into all his members Now these gracious habits being subjected and seated in the souls of poor imperfect creatures whose
is Nature set off in its sumptuous attire and rich embellishments and now to renounce it disclaim and contemn it as dross and dung in comparison of Christ as believers do Phil. 3. 8. this I say is against the grain of nature We reckon it the strange effect of self denyal in Mahomet the Great who being so enamoured with his beautiful Irene would be perswaded upon reasons of Knowles History of the Turks State with his own hand to strike off her head and that when she appeared in all her rich ornaments before him rather like such a Goddess as the Poets in their ecstasies use to feign than a mortal creature and yet certainly this nothing is to that self denyal which is exercised in our coming to Christ. Secondly And if we look to the other Term to which the soul moves we shall find it acting as much above the Sphere and ability of improved Nature as here it acts and moves against the stream and current of corrupted nature for how wonderful and supernatural an adventure is that which the soul makes in the day that it comes to Jesus Christ Surely for any poor soul to venture it self for ever upon Jesus Christ whom it never saw nay upon Christ whose very existence it s own unbelief calls into question whether he be or no and that when it 's even weighed down to the dust with the burdensome sense of its own vileness and total unworthiness feeling nothing in it self but sin and misery the workings of death and fears of wrath to go to Christ of whose pardoning grace and mercy it never had any the least experience nor can find any ground of hope in it self that it shall be accepted this is as much above the power of nature as it is for a stone to rise from the earth and fix it self among the Stars well might the Apostle ascribe it to that almighty power which raised up Christ from the dead Eph. 1. 19 20. if the Lord draw not the Soul and that with an omnipotent pull it can never come from it self to Christ. And yet farther Thirdly The Natural impossibility of coming to Christ will more clearly appear if we consider the enemies to faith or what blocks are roll'd by Satan and his instruments into the way to Christ to mention in this place no more but our own carnal reason as it 's armed and managed by the subtilty of Satan what a wonder is it that any soul should come to Christ These are the strong holds mentioned 2 Cor. 10. 4. out of which those objections fears and discouragements sally by which the soul is fiercely assaulted in the way to Christ. Wilt thou forsake all thy pleasures merry company and sensible comforts to live a sad retired pensive life wilt thou begger and undo thy self let go thy comforts in hand for an hope of that which thine eyes never saw nor hast thou any certainty that it 's any more than a fancy wilt thou that hast lived in reputation and credit all thy life now become the scorn and contempt of the world thinkest thou thy self able to live such a strict severe mortified and self-denying a life as the word of God requires and what if persecution should arise as thou must expect it will canst thou forsake father and mother wife and children yea and give up thine own life too to a cruel and bloody death be advised better before thou resolve in so important a matter what thinkest thou of thy fore-fathers that lived and dyed in that way thou art now leaving art thou wiser than they do not the generality of men walk in the same paths thou hast hitherto walked in if this way lead to hell as thou fearest it may think then how many millions of men must perish as well as thy self and is such a supposition consistent with the gracious and merciful nature of God Besides think what sort of people those are unto whom thou art about to joyn thy self in this new way are there not to be found among them many things to discourage thee and cool thy zeal they are generally of the lower and baser sort of men poor and despicable seest thou not though their profession be holy how earthly carnal proud factious and hypocritical many of them are found to be and doubtless the rest are like them though their hypocrisie be not yet discovered O what stands and demurrs what hesitations and doubts is the soul clog'd with in its way to Christ but yet none of these can with-hold and detain the soul when the Father draws greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and thus you see the nature manner and efficacy of divine drawings and how impossible it is for any Soul to come to Christ without them The Inferences and Improvements of the point follow Infer 1. How deeply and throughly is the nature of man corrupted and Infer 1. what an enemy is every man to his own happiness that he must be drawn to it Joh. 5. 40. you will not come unto me that ye might have life Life is desirable in every mans eyes and eternal is the most excellent life yet in this the world is agreed rather to dye and perish for ever than come to Christ for life Had Christ told us of Fields and Vineyards Sheep and Oxen Gold and Silver honours and sensual pleasures who would not have come to him for these but to tell them of mortification self-denyal strictness of life and sufferings for his sake and all this for an happiness to be enjoyed in the world to come nature will never like such a proposition as this You see where it sticks not in a simple inability to believe but in an inability complicated with enmity they neither can come nor will come to Christ 't is true all that do come to Christ come willingly but thanks to the grace of God that hath freed and perswaded the will else they had never been willing to come who ever found his own heart first stir and move towards Christ how long may we wait and expect before we shall feel our hearts naturally burn with desires after and love to Jesus Christ This aversation of the will and affections from God is one of the master roots of original sin No argument can prevail to bring the soul to Christ till this be master'd and overpowred by the Fathers drawings In our motions to sin we need trigging but in all our motions to Christ we as much need drawing He that comes to heaven may say Lord if I had had my own way and will I had never come here if thou hadst not drawn me I should never have come to thee O the riches of the grace of God! oh unparallel'd mercy and goodness not only to prepare such a glory as this for an unworthy soul but to put forth the exceeding greatness of thy power afterwards to draw an unwilling soul to the enjoyment of it
is in the several parts of a Christians life is the effect of this infused principle of spiritual life Thirdly Another aim and design of God in the infusion of this principle of life is thereby to prepare and qualifie the soul for the enjoyment of himself in heaven except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. all that shall possess that inheritance must be begotten again to it as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. this principle of grace is the very seed of that glory it 's eternal life in the root and principle Joh. 17. 3. by this the soul is attempered and qualified for that state and imployment what is the life of glory but the vision of God and the souls assimilation to God by that vision from both which results that unspeakable joy and delight which passeth understanding but what vision of God assimilation to God or delight in God can that soul have which was never quickened with the supernatural principle of grace The temper of such souls is expressed in that sad Character Zech. 11. 8. my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me for want of this vital principle it is that the very same duties and ordinances which are the delights and highest pleasures of the Saints are no better than a meer drudgery and bondage to others Maâ—… 1. 13. heaven would be no heaven to a dead soul this principle of life in its daily growth and improvement is our meetness as well as our evidence for heaven these are the main ends of its infusion Fourthly In the next place according to the method proposed I am obliged to shew you that this quickening work is 4. wholly supernatural it is the sole and proper work of the Spirit of God So Christ himself expressly asserts it in Joh. 3. 6 8. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Believers are the birth or off-spring of the Spirit who produceth the new creature in them in an unintelligible manner even to themselves So far it is above their own ability to produce that it is above their capacity to understand the way of its production as if you should ask do you know from whence the wind comes no do you know whither it goes no but you hear and feel it when it blows yes why so is every one that is born of the Spirit he feels the efficacy and discerns the effects of the Spirit on his own soul but cannot understand or describe the manner of its production this is not only above the carnal but above the renewed mind to comprehend we can contribute nothing I mean actively to the production of this principle of life we may indeed be said to concur passively with the Spirit in it that is there is found in us a capacity aptness or receptiveness of this principle of life our nature is endowed with such faculties and powers as are meet subjects to receive and instruments to act this spiritual life God only quickens the rational nature with spiritual life It is true also that in the progress of Sanctification a man doth actively concurr with the Spirit but in the first production of this spiritual principle he can do nothing he can indeed perform those external duties that have a remote tendency to it but he cannot by the power of nature perform any saving act or contribute any thing more than a passive capacity to the implantation of a new principle as will appear by the following Arguments Argument 1. He that actively concurrs to his own regeneration makes himself to differ but this is denyed to all regenerate men 1 Cor. 4. 7. who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Arg. 2. That to which the Scripture ascribes both impotency and enmity with respect to grace cannot actively and of it self concurr to the production of it But the Scripture ascribes both impotency and enmity to Nature with respect to grace It denyes to it a power to do anything of it self Joh. 15. 5. and which is less it denies to it power to speak a good word Matth. 12. 34. and which is least of all it denies it power to think a good thought 2 Cor. 3. 5. This impotency if there were no more cuts off all pretence of our active concurrence but then if we consider that it ascribes enmity to our natures as well as impotency how clear is the case see Rom. 8. 7. the carnal mind is enmity against God and Col. 1. 21. and you that were enemies in your minds by wicked works So then Nature is so far productive of this principle as impotency and enmity can enable it to be so Arg. 3. That which is of natural production must needs be subject to natural dissolution that which is born of the flesh is flesh a perishing thing sor everything is as its principle is and there can be no more in the effect than there is in the cause but this principle of spiritual life is not subject to dissolution it is the water that springs up into everlasting life Joh. 4. 14. the seed of God which remaineth in the regenerate soul 1 Joh. 3. 9. and all this because it 's born not of corruptible but of incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. Arg. 4. If our new birth be our resurrection a new creation yea a victory over nature then we cannot actively contribute to its production but under all these notions it is represented to us in the Scriptures It 's our resurrection from the dead Eph. 5. 14. and you know the body is wholly passive in its resurrection but though it concurrs not yet it gives pre-existent matter therefore the metaphor is designedly varied Eph. 4. 24. where it 's call'd a creation in which there is neither active concurrence nor pre-existent matter but though Creation excludes pre-existent matter yet in proâ—…cing something out of nothing there is no reluctancy nor opposition therefore to shew how purely supernatural this principle of life is it is cloathed and presented to us in the notion of a victory 2 Cor. 10. 4. and so leaves all to grace Arg. 5. If nature could produce or but actively concurr to the production of this spiritual life then the best natures would be soonest quickened with it and the worst natures not at all or last and least of all but contrarily we find the worst natures often regenerated and the best left in the state of spiritual death with how many sweet homilitical vertues was the young man adorned Mark 10. 21. yet graceless and what a sink of sin was Mary Magdalen Luke 7. 37. yet sanctified thus beautiful Rachel is barren whilst blear-ey'd Leah bears children And there is
the world can do Second Counsel Beware of a false peace which is more dangerous than your trouble for sin can be Many men are afraid of their troubles 2. Counsel but I think they have more cause to fear their peace a great deal There is a twofold peace that ruines most men Peace in sin and peace with sin O how glad are some persons when their troubles are gone but I dare not rejoyce with them It 's like him that rejoyces his Ague is gone though it hath left him in a deep Consumption You are got rid of your troubles but God knows how you have left them your wounds are skinn'd over better they were kept open There 's no wise woman would desire to have her pains and throes cease till the Child be born And surely they have much to answer that help on these delusions healing the hurt of souls slightly by crying peace peace when there is no peace The false peace you beget in them will be a real trouble to your selves in the issue Jer. 6. 14. Third Counsel Let all that are under inward troubles for sin take heed of 3. Counsel drawing desperate conclusions against themselves and the final state of their own souls Though your case be sad 't is not desperate though the night be troublesome and tedious keep on in the way to Christ and light will spring up To mourn for sin is your duty to conclude there is no hope for you in Christ is your sin You have wronged God enough already do'nt add a farther and greater abuse to all the rest by an absolute despair of mercy 'T was your sin formerly to presume beyond any promise 't is your sin now to despair against many commands I would say as the Apostle in another case I would not have you mourn as men that have no hope your condition is sad as it is but yet it 's much better than once it was you were once full of sin and void of sense now you have the sense of sin which is no small mercy you were once quite out of the way and method of mercy now you are in that very path wherein mercy meets the elect of God Keep hope therefore at the bottom of all your troubles Fourth Counsel Observe whether your troubles for sin produce such fruits and effects in your souls as theirs do which end at last in Christ and 4. Counsel everlasting peace First One that is truly burdened with sin will not allow himself to live in the secret practice of sin either your trouble will put an end to your course of sinning or your sinning will put an end to your troubles Consult 2 Cor. 7. 11. Secondly True sorrow for sin will give you very low and vile thoughts of your selves as you were covered with pride before so you will be covered with shame after God hath convinced and humbled you Rom. 6. 21. Thirdly A soul really burdened with sin will never stand in his own justification before God nor extenuate and mince it in his confessions to him Psal. 51. 3 4. Fourthly The burdens of sin will make a man set light by all other burdens of affliction Lam. 3. 22. Mic. 7. 9. The more you feel sin the less you feel affliction Fifthly A soul truly burdened for sin will take no hearty joy or comfort in any outward enjoyment of this world till Christ come and speak peace to the soul Lam. 3. 28. Just so the soul sits alone and keepeth silence merry company is a burden and musick is but howling to him Fifth Counsel Beware of those things that make your troubles longer than they 5. Counsel ought to be There be several errors and mistakes that hold poor souls much longer in their fears and terrors than else they might be And such are First Ignorance of the nature of saving faith and the necessity of it till you come to believe you cannot have peace and while you mistake the nature or apprehend not the necessity of faith you are not like to fall into that path of peace Secondly Labouring to heal the wounds that the Law hath made upon your consciences by a more strict obedience to it for the future in the neglect of Christ and his righteousness Thirdly Inobservance of what God hath already done for you in these preparatory works of the Law in order to your salvation by Jesus Christ. O if you would but compare what you now are with what you lately were it would give some relief but the last and principal thing is this Sixth Counsel Hasten to Christ in the way of faith and you shall find rest and till then all the world cannot give you true rest The sooner 6. Counsel you transact with Christ in the way of faith the sooner you shall be at peace and enter into his rest for those that believe do now enter into rest You may tugg and strive look this way and that but all in vain Christ and peace come together No sooner do you come to him and roll your burden on him receive him as he offers himself but the soul feels it self eased on a suddain being justified by faith we have peace with God Rom. 5. 1. And thus in finishing the first we are brought home to the second Observation Doct. 2. Doct. 2. That Sin-burdened souls are solemnly invited to come to Christ. THIS Point sounds sweetly in the ear of a distressed sinner it is the most joyful voice that ever the soul heard the voice of blessing from Mount Gerezim the ravishing voice from Mount Sion Ye are come to Jesus the Mediator In opening of it I will shew 1. What it is to come to Christ. 2. How Christ invites men to come to him 3. Why his invitation is directed to burdened souls First We will enquire what it is to come to Christ and 1. how many things are involved in it In general To come to Christ is a phrase aequipollent or of the same amount with believing in Christ. It is an expression that carries the nature and necessity of faith in it and is reciprocated with believing John 6. 35. He that cometh to me shall never hunger and he that believeth in me shall never thirst Coming to Christ is believing in Christ and believing in Christ is coming to Christ they are Synonyma's and import the self same thing only in this notion of faith there are many rich and excellent things hinted to us which no other word can so aptly convey to our minds as First It hints this to us That the souls of convinced and burdened sinners do not only discern the reality of Christ or that he is but also the necessity of applying Christ and that their eternal life is in their union with him for this is most certain that the object of faith must be determinate and fixed the soul must believe that Christ is or else there can be no emotions of the soul after him all coming
true God is merciful plenteous in mercy his mercy is great above the heavens mercy pleaseth him and all this they that are in Christ shall find experimentally to their comfort and salvation but what is all this to thee if thou beest Christless There is not one drop of saving mercy that comes in any other Chanel than Christ to the soul of any man But must I then expect no mercy out of Christ This is a hard case very uncomfortable doctrine Yes thou maist be a Christless and Covenantless soul and yet have variety of temporal mercies as Ishmael had Gen. 17. 20 21. God may give thee the fatness of the Earth Riches Honours Pleasures a numerous and prosperous Posterity will that content thee Yes if I may have Heaven too no no neither Heaven nor Pardon nor any other Spiritual or Eternal mercy may be expected out of Christ Jude vers 21. O deceive not your selves in this point There are two bars betwixt you and all Spiritual mercies viz. the guilt of sin and the filth of sin and nothing but your own union with Christ can remove these and so open the passage for Spiritual mercies to your souls Why but I will repent of sin strive to obey the Commands of God make restitutions for the wrongs I have done cry to God for mercy bind my soul with vows and strong resolutions against sin for time to come will not all this lay a ground work for hope of mercy to my soul No no this will not this cannot do it First All your sorrows tears and mournings for sin cannot obtain mercy could you shed as many tears for any one sin that ever you committed as all the children of Adam have shed upon any account whatsoever since the creation of the World they will not purchase the pardon of that one sin for the Law accepts no short payment it requires plenary satisfaction and will not discharge any soul without it nor can it acknowledge or own your sorrows to be such the repentance of a soul in Christ finds through him acceptance with God but out of him it 's nothing Secondly All your strivings to obey the Commands of God and live more strictly for time to come will not obtain mercy Mat. 5. 20. Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Thirdly Your restitution and reparation of wrongs you have done cannot obtain mercy Judas restored and yet was damned man is repaired but God is not remission is the act of God 't is he must loose your Consciences from the bond of guilt or they can never be loosed Fourthly All your cryes to God for mercy will not prevail for mercy if you be out of Christ Mat. 7. 22. Job 27. 9. A righteous Judge will not reverse the just sentence of the Law though the Prisoner at the Bar fall upon his knees and cry mercy mercy Fifthly Your vows and engagements to God for time to come cannot obtain mercy for they being made in your own strength 't is impossible you should keep them and if you could yet it is impossible they should obtain remission and mercy should you never sin more for time to come yet how shall God be satisfied for sins past Justice must have satisfaction or you can never have remission Rom. 3. 25 26. and no work wrought by man can satisfie Divine Justice nor is the satisfaction of Christ made over to any for their discharge but to such only as are in him therefore never expect mercy out of Christ. Inference 2. Is Christ the mercy of mercies greater better and more necessary Inference 2. than all other mercies then let no inferiour mercy satisfie you for your portion God hath mercies of all sorts to give but Christ is the chief the prime mercy of all mercies O be not satisfied without that mercy When Luther had a rich present sent him Valde protestatus sum me nolle sie ab eo satiari Luth. he protested God should not put him off so and David was of the same mind Psal. 17. 14. If the Lord should give any of you the desires of your hearts in the good things of this life let not that satisfie you whilst you are Christless For First What is there in these earthly enjoyments whereof the vilest of men have not a greater fulness than you Job 21. 7 8 9 10 11. Psal. 17. 10. Psal. 73. 3 12. Secondly What comfort can all these things give to a soul already condemned as thou art Joh. 3. 18. Thirdly What sweetness can be in them whilst they are all unsanctified things to you Enjoyments and their sanctification are two distinct things Psal. 37. 16. Prov. 10. 22. Thousands of unsanctified enjoyments will not yield your souls one drop of solid spiritual comfort Fourthly What pleasure can you take in these things out of which death must shortly strip you naked You must die you must dye and whose then shall all those things be for which you have laboured Be not so fond to think of Tunc edax flamma combâ—…ret quos nunc carnalis delectatio polluit leaving a great name behind you 't is but a poor felicity as Chrysostom well observes to be tormented where thou art and praised where thou art not the sweeter your portion hath been on earth the more intolerable will your condition be in Hell yea these earthly delights do not only encrease the torments of the damned but also prepare as they are instruments of sin the souls of men for damnation Prov. 1. 32. Surely the prosperity of fools shall destroy them be restless therefore till Christ the mercy of mercies be the root and fountain yielding and sanctifying all other mercies to you Inference 3. Is Jesus Christ the mercy of mercies infinitely better than all other mercies then let all that be in Christ be content and well Inference 3. satisfied whatever other inferiour mercies the wisdom of God seems fit to deny them you have a Benjamins portion a plentiful inheritance in Christ will you yet grumble Others have Houses splendid and magnificent upon earth but you have an house made without hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5. 1. Others are cloathed with rich and costly apparel your souls are cloathed with the white pure robes of Christs righteousness Isai. 61. 10. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyfull in my God for he hath cloathed me with the garment of salvation he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with Jewels Let those that have full Tables heavy Purses rich Lands but no Christ be rather objects of your pity than envy 't is better like store-cattle to be kept lean and hungry than with the fatted Ox to tumble in flowry Meadows thence to be led away to the shambles God hath not a better
mercy to give than Christ thy portion in him all necessary mercies are secured to thee and thy wants and straits sanctified to thy good O therefore never open thy mouth to complain against thy bountiful God Inference 4. Is Christ the mercy i. e he in whom all the tender mercies Inference 4. of God towards poor sinners are then let none be discouraged in going to Christ by reason of the sin and unworthiness that is in them his very name is mercy and as his name is so is he Poor drooping sinner incourage thy self in the way of faith the Christ to whom thou art going is mercy it self to broken-hearted sinners moving towards him in the way of faith Doubt not that mercy will repulse thee 't is against both its name and nature so to do Jesus Christ is so merciful to poor souls that come to him that he hath received and pardoned the chiefest of sinners men that stood as remote from mercy as any in the world 1 Tim. 1. 15. 1 Cor. 6. 11. Those that shed the blood of Christ have yet been washed in that blood from their sin Act. 2. 36 37. Mercy receives sinners without exception of great and heinous ones Joh. 7. 37. If any man thirst let him come to me and drink Gospel invitations run in general terms to all sinners that are heavy laden Mat. 11. 28. When Mr. Billney the Martyr heard a Minister preaching at this rate O thou old Sinner who hast been serving the Devil these fifty or sixty years dost thou think that Christ will receive thee now O said he what a preaching of Christ is here Had Christ been thus preached to me in the day of my trouble for sin what had become of me But blessed be God there is a sufficiency both of merit and mercy in Jesus Christ for all sinners for the vilest among sinners whose hearts shall be made willing to come unto him So merciful is the Lord Jesus Christ that he moves first Isai. 65. 1 2. So merciful that he upbraids none Ezec. 18. 22. So merciful that he will not despise the weakest if sincere desires of souls Isai. 42. 3. So merciful that nothing more grieves him than our unwillingness to come unto him for mercy Joh. 5. 40. So merciful that he waiteth to the last upon sinners to shew them mercy Rom. 10. 21. Mat. 23. 37. In a word so merciful that it is his greatest joy when sinners come unto him that he may shew them mercy Luk. 15. 5. 22. But yet it cannot enter into my thoughts that I should obtain Object mercy First You measure God by your selves 1 Sam. 24. 19. If Sol. a man find his enemy will he let him go well away Man will not but the merciful God will upon the submission of his enemies to him Secondly You are discouraged because you have not tryed Go to Jesus Christ poor distressed sinner try him and then report what a Christ thou findest him to be But I have neglected the time of mercy and now it is too late Object How know you that Have you seen the Book of Life or turned over the Records of Eternity Or do you not unwarrantably Sol. intrude into the secrets of God which belong not to you Besides if the treaty were at an end how is it that thy heart is now distressed for sin and solicitous after deliverance from it But I have waited long and yet see no mercy for me May not mercy be coming and you not see it or have you Object not waited at the wrong dore If you wait for the mercy of Sol. God through Christ in the way of humiliation and faith and continue waiting assuredly mercy shall come at last Inference 5. Hath God performed the mercy promised to the Fathers the great mercy the capital mercy Jesus Christ then let no Inference 5. man distrust God for the performance of lesser mercies contained in any other promises of the Scripture the performance of this mercy secures the performance of all other mercies to us For First Christ is a greater mercy than any other which yet remains to be performed Rom. 8. 32. Secondly This mercy virtually comprehends all other mercies 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Thirdly The promises that contain all other mercies are ratified and confirmed to Believers in Christ 2 Cor. 1. 20. Fourthly It was much more improbable that God would bestow his own Son upon the world than that he should bestow any other mercy upon it Wait therefore in a comfortable expectation of the fulfilling of all the rest of the promises in their seasons hath he given thee Christ he will give thee bread to eat rayment to put on support in troubles and whatsoever else thy soul or body stands in need of the blessings contained in all other promises are fully secured by the performance of this great promise thy pardon peace acceptance with God now and enjoyment of him for ever shall be fulfilled the great mercy Christ makes way for all other mercies to the souls of Believers Inference 6. Lastly How mad are they that part with Christ the best of Inference 6. mercies to secure and preserve any temporal lesser mercies to themselves Thus Demas and Judas gave up Christ to gain a little of the world O soul-undoing bargain How dear do they pay for the world that purchase it with the loss of Christ and their own peace for ever Blessed be God for Jesus Christ the mercy of mercies The Twelfth SERMON Sermon 12. CANT 5. part of verse 16. Text. Containing a third motive to enliven the general exhortation from a third title of Christ. yea he is altogether lovely AT the ninth verse of this Chapter you have a query propounded to the Spouse by the Daughters of Jerusalem What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved To this question the Spouse returns her answer in the following verses wherein she asserts his excellency in general vers 10. He is the chiefest among ten thousands confirms that general assertion by an enumeration of his particular excellencies to vers 16. where she closes up her Character and Encomium of her Beloved with an elegant Epiphonema in the words that I have read Yea he is altogether lovely The words you see are an affirmative proposition setting forth the transcendent loveliness of the Lord Jesus Christ and naturally resolve themselves into three parts viz. 1. The Subject 2. The Predicate 3. The manner of Predication First The subject He viz. the Lord Jesus Christ after 1. whom she had been seeking for whom she was sick of love concerning whom these Daughters of Jerusalem had enquired whom she had endeavoured so graphically to describe in his particular excellencies This is the great and excellent Subject of whom she here speaks Secondly The predicate or what she affirmeth or saith of 2. him viz. that he is a lovely one machamaddim desires according to the import of
proof than the following particulars First That he espouseth to himself in mercy and in loving kindness such deformed defiled and altogether unworthy souls as we are who have no beauty no excellency to make us desirable in his eyes all the springs of his love to us are in his own breast Deut. 7. 7. He chooseth us not because we were but that he might make us lovely Ephes. 5. 27. He passed by us when we lay in our blood and said unto us live and that was the time of love Ezec. 16. 5. Secondly He expects nothing with us and yet bestows himself and all he hath upon us our poverty cannot enrich him but he made himself poor to enrich us 2 Cor. 8 9. 1 Cor. 3. 22. Thirdly No Husband loves the Wife of his bosome at the rate Christ loved his people Eph. 5. 25. He loved the Church and gave himself for it Fourthly None bears with weaknesses and provocations as Christ doth the Church is stiled the Lambs Wife Rev. 21. 9. Fifthly No Husband is so immortal and everlasting a Husband as Christ is Death separates all other relations but the souls union with Christ is not dissolved in the Grave yea the day of a Believers death is his marriage-day the day of his fullest enjoyment of Christ no Husband can say to his Wife what Christ saith to the Believer I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Heb. 13. 5. Sixthly No Bridegroom advanceth his Bride to such honours by Marriage as Christ doth he relates them to God as their Father and from that day the mighty and glorious Angels think it no dishonour to be their servants Heb. 1. 14. They are brought in admiring the beauty and glory of the Spouse of Christ Rev. 21. 9. Seventhly and Lastly No marriage was ever consummated with that triumphal solemnity as the marriage of Christ and Believers shall be in Heaven Psal. 45. 14 15. She shall be brought to the King in rayment of needle work the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee with gladness and rejoycing shall they be brought they shall enter into the Kings Palace Among the Jews the marriage house was called Bethillula the house of praise there was joy upon all hands but not like the joy that will be in Heaven when Believers the Spouse of Christ shall be brought thither God the Father will rejoyce to behold the blessed accomplishment and consummation of that glorious design and project of his love Jesus Christ the Bridegroom will rejoyce to see the travail of his soul the blessed birth and issue of all his bitter pangs and agonies Isai. 53. 11. The holy Spirit will rejoyce to see the complement and perfection of that sanctifying design which was committed to his hand 2 Cor. 5. 5. To see those souls whom he once found as rough stones now to shine as the bright polished stones of the Spiritual Temple Angels will rejoyce great was the joy when the foundation of this design was laid in the incarnation of Christ Luk. 2. 13. Great therefore must their joy be when the top-stone is set up with shouting crying Grace grace The Saints themselves shall rejoyce unspeakably when they shall enter into the Kings Palace and be for ever with the Lord 1 Thess. 4. 17. Indeed there will be joy on all hands except among the Devils and damned who shall gnash their teeth with envy at the everlasting advancement and glory of Believers Thus Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of a Bridegroom Thirdly Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of an Advocate 1 Joh. 2. 1. If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation 't is he that pleads the cause of Believers in Heaven appears for them in the presence of God to prevent all new breaches and continue the state of friendship and peace betwixt God and us In this relation Christ is altogether lovely For First He makes our cause his own and acts for us in Heaven as for himself Heb. 4. 15. He is touched with the tender sense of our troubles and dangers and is not only one with us by way of representation but also one with us in respect of sympathy and affection Secondly Christ our Advocate follows our suit and business in Heaven as his great and main design and business therefore in Heb. 7. 25. he is said to live for ever to make intercession for us as if our concernments were so minded by him there as to give up himself wholly to that work as if all the glory and honour which is paid him in Heaven would not satisfie him or divert him one moment from our business Thirdly He pleads the cause of Believers by his blood it satisfies him not as other Advocates to be at the expence of words and oratory which is a cheaper way of pleading but he pleads for us by the voice of his own blood Heb. 12. 24. where we are said to be come to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel every wound he received for us on earth is a mouth opened to plead with God on our behalf in Heaven quot vulnera tot ora and hence it is that in Rev. 5. 6. he is represented standing before God as a Lamb that had been slain as it were exhibiting and opening in Heaven those deadly wounds received on earth from the justice of God upon our account other Advocates spend their breath Christ his blood Fourthly He pleads the cause of Believers freely other Advocates plead for reward and exhaust the Purses while they plead the causes of their Clients Fifthly In a word he obtaineth for us all the mercies for which he pleads no cause miscarries in his hand which he undertakes Rom. 8. 33 34. O what a lovely Advocate is Christ for Believers Fourthly Christ is altogether lovely in the relation of a Friend for in this relation he is pleased to own his people Luk. 12. 4 5. There are certain things in which one friend manifests his affection and friendship to another but none like Christ. For First No Friend is so open-hearted to his friend as Christ is to his people he reveals the very counsels and secrets of his heart to them Joh. 15. 15. Henceforth I call you not servants for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doth but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Secondly No Friend in the world is so expensive and bountiful to his friend as Jesus Christ is to Believers Joh. 15. 13. He parts with his very blood for them greater love saith he hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends he hath exhausted the precious treasures of this invaluable blood to pay our debts O what a lovely friend is Jesus Christ to Believers Thirdly No Friend sympathises so tenderly with his Friend in
but it will be hard for you to do so whose souls burn with desire after Christ. Seventhly Blessed in this that your desires after Christ will make death much the sweeter and easier to you Phil. 1. 23. I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better When a Christian was once asked whether he were willing to dye He returned this answer let him be unwilling to dye who is unwilling to go to Christ and Illius est nolle mori qui nolitire ad Christum much like it was that of another vivere renuo ut Christo vivam I refuse this life to live with Christ. 4th Use for Exhortation In the fourth place let me exhort and perswade all to Use 4. make Jesus Christ the desire and choice of their souls And here I fall in with the main scope and design of the Gospel and Oh that I could effectually press home this Exhortation upon your hearts Let me offer some moving Considerations to you and the Lord accompany them to your hearts First Every Creature naturally desires its own preservation do not you desire the preservation of your precious and immortal souls If you do then make Christ your desire and choice without whom they can never be preserved Jude vers 1. Secondly don 't your souls earnestly desire the bodies they live in how tender are they over them how careful to provide for them though they pay a dear rent for those Tenements they live in and is not union with Christ infinitely more desirable than the union of soul and body Oh covet union with him then shall your souls be happy when your bodies drop off from them at death 2 Cor. 5. 1 3. yea soul and body shall be happy in him and with him for evermore Thirdly How do the men of this world desire the enjoyments of it They pant after the dust of the earth they rise early sit up late eat the bread of carefulness and all this for very vanity Shall a worldling do more for earth than you for Heaven Shall the Creature be so earnestly desired and Christ neglected Fourthly What do all your desires in this world benefit you if you go Christless Suppose you had the desire of your hearts in these things how long shall you have comfort in them if you miss Christ Fifthly Doth Christ desire you who have nothing lovely or desirable in you And have you no desires after Christ the most lovely and desirable one in both worlds His desires are towards you Prov. 8. 31. O make him the desire and choice of your souls Sixthly How absolutely necessary is Jesus Christ to your souls Bread and water breath and life is not so necessary as Christ is One thing is necessary Luk. 10. 42. and that one thing is Christ if you miss your desires in other things you may yet be happy but if you miss Christ you are undone for ever Seventhly How suitable a good is Christ to your souls Comprizing whatsoever they want 1 Cor. 1. 30. Set your hearts where you will none will be found to match and suit them as Christ doth Eighthly How great are the benefits that will redound to you by Jesus Christ In him you shall have a rich inheritance setled upon you all things shall be yours when you are Christs 1 Cor. 3. 22. and is not such a Christ worth desiring Ninthly All your well-grounded hopes of glory are built upon your union with Christ 1 Cor. 1. 21. If you miss Christ you must dye without hope will not this draw your desires to him Tenthly Suppose you were at the Judgement Seat of God where you must shortly stand and saw the terrors of the Lord in that day the Sheep divided from the Goats the sentences of absolution and condemnation past by the great and awful Judge upon the righteous and the wicked would not Christ be then desirable in your eyes As ever you expect to stand with Comfort at that Bar let Christ be the desire and choice of your souls now 5th Use for Direction Do these or any other Considerations put thee upon this Use 5. enquiry how shall I get my desires kindled and inflamed towards Christ Alas my heart is cold and dead not a serious desire stirring in it after Christ to such I shall offer the following Directions Direction 1. Redeem some time every day for meditation get out of the noise and clamour of the world Psal. 4. 4. and seriously bethink your selves how the present state of your soul stands and how it is like to go with you for ever here all sound Conversion begins Psal. 119. 59. Direction 2. Consider seriously of that lamentable state in which you came into the world children of wrath by nature under the curse and condemnation of the Law So that either your state must be changed or you inevitably damned Joh. 3. 3. Direction 3. Consider the way and course you have taken since you came into the world proceeding from iniquity to iniquity What Command of God have you not violated a thousand times over What sin is committed in the world that you are not one way or other guilty of before God How many secret sins are upon your score unknown to the most intimate Friend you have in the world Either this guilt must be separated from your souls or your souls from God to all eternity Direction 4. Think upon the severe wrath of God due to every sin The wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult and how intolerable the fulness of that wrath must be when a few drops sprinkled upon the Conscience in this world is so insupportable that it hath made some to choose strangling rather than life and yet this wrath must abide for ever upon you if you get not interest in Jesus Christ Joh. 3. 63. Direction 5. Ponder well the happy state and condition they are in who have obtained pardon and peace by Jesus Christ Psal. 32. 12. And seeing the grace of God is free and you are yet under the means thereof why may not you be as capable thereof as others Direction 6. Seriously consider the great uncertainty of your time and preciousness of the opportunities of salvation never to be recovered when they are once past Joh. 9. 4. Let this provoke you to lay hold upon those golden seasons whilst they are yet with you that you may not bewail your folly and madness when they are out of your reach Direction 7. Associate your selves with serious Christians get into their acquaintance and beg their assistance beseech them to pray for you and see that you rest not here but be frequently upon your knees begging of the Lord a new heart and a new state In Conclusion of the whole let me beseech and beg all the people of God as upon my knees to take heed and beware lest by the carelesness and scandals of their lives they quench the weak desires beginning to kindle in the hearts of
he only 2. is matter of Consolation to Believers which will demonstratively appear by this Argument He that brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable must Argu. needs be the only consolation of Believers But Jesus Christ brings to their souls all that is comfortable and removes from their souls all that is uncomfortable Therefore Christ only is the Consolation of Believers First Jesus Christ brings whatsoever is comfortable to the souls of Believers Is pardon comfortable to a person condemned Nothing can be matter of greater comfort in this world Why this Christ brings to all Believers Jer. 23. 6. And this is the name whereby he shall be called The Lord our righteousness this cannot but give strong consolation righteousness is the foundation of peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. The work of righteousness shall be peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isai. 32. 17. Come to a dejected soul labouring under the burthen of guilt and say Cheer up I bring you good tidings there is such an Estate befallen you or such a troublesom business comfortably ended for you alas this will not reach the heart If you can bring me saith he good news from Heaven that my sins are forgiven and God reconciled how soon should I be comforted And therefore as one well observes this was the usual receipt with which Christ cured the souls of men and women when he was here on earth Son or Daughter be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee and indeed it is as easie to separate light and warmth from the beams of the Sun as cheeriness and comfort from the voice of pardon Are the hopes and expectation of Heaven and glory comfortable Yes sure nothing is comfortable if this be not Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Now Christ brings to the souls of men all the solid grounds and foundations upon which they build their expectations of glory Col. 1. 27. Which is Christ in you the hope of glory Name any thing else that is solid matter of comfort to the souls of men and the grounds thereof will be found in Christ and in none but Christ as might easily be demonstrated by the enumeration of multitudes of particular instances which I cannot now insist upon Secondly Jesus Christ removes fom Believers whatever is uncomfortable therein relieving them against all the matters of their affliction and sorrow As namely First Is sin a burthen and matter of trouble to Believers Christ and none but Christ removes that burthen Rom. 7. 24 25. O wretched man that I am saith sin burthened Paul who shall deliver me from the body of this death I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The satisfaction of his blood Eph. 5. 2. The sanctification of his Spirit John 1. 5 6. His perfect deliverance of his people from the very being of sin at last Eph. 5. 26 27. This relieves at present and removes at last the matter and ground of all their troubles and sorrows for sin Secondly Do the temptations of Satan burthen Believers O yes by reason of temptations they go in trouble and heaviness of spirit Temptation is an enemy under the walls temptation greatly endangers and therefore cannot but greatly afflict the souls of Believers but Christ brings the only matter of relief against temptations The intercession of Christ is a singular relief at present Luke 22. 32. But I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not and the promises of Christ are a full relief for the future The God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under your feet Rom. 16. 20. Thirdly Is spiritual desertion and the hiding of Gods face matter of affliction and casting down to Believers Yes yes it quails their hearts nothing can comfort them Thou hidest thy face and I was troubled Psal. 30. 7. Outward afflictions do but break the skin this touches the quick they like rain fall only upon the Tiles this soaks into the House but Christ brings to Believers substantial matter of Consolation against the troubles of desertion he himself was deserted of God for a time that they might not be deserted for ever in him also the relieving promises are made to Believers that notwithstanding God may desert them for a time yet the union betwixt him and them shall never be dissolved Heb. 13. 5. Jer. 32. 40. Though he forsake them for a moment in respect of evidenced favour yet he will return again and comfort them Isai. 54. 7. Though Satan tug hard yet he shall never be able to pluck them out of his Fathers hand John 10. 20. Oh what relief is this What consolation is Christ to a deserted Believer Fourthly Are outward afflictions matter of dejection and trouble Alas who finds them not to be so How do our hearts fail and our spirits sink under the many smarting rods of God upon us but our relief and consolation under them all is in Christ Jesus for the rod that afflicts us is in the hand of Christ that loveth us Rev. 3. 19. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten his design in affliction is our profit Heb. 12. 10. That design of his for our good shall certainly be accomplished Rom. 8. 28. and after that no more afflictions for ever Rev. 21. 3 4. God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes So that upon the whole two things are most evident First Nothing can comfort the soul without Christ he is the soul that animates all Comforts they would be but dead things without him Temporal enjoyments riches honours health relations yield not a drop of true Comfort without Christ. Spiritual enjoyments Minister ordinances promises are fountains sealed and springs shut up till Christ open them a man may go comfortless in the midst of them all Secondly No troubles sorrows or afflictions can deject or sink the soul that Christ comforteth 2 Cor. 6. 10. As sorrowful yet always rejoycing A Believer may walk with a heart brim full of comfort amidst all the troubles of this world Christ makes the darkness of trouble to be light round about his people So that the conclusion stands firm and never to be shaken that Christ and Christ only is the Consolation of Believers which was the thing to be proved In the Third place I am to shew you that Believers and 3. none but Believers can have consolation in Christ which will convincingly appear from the consideration of those things which we laid down before as the requisites to all true Spiritual Coonsolation For First No unbeliever hath the materials out of which Spiritual Comfort is made which as I there told you must be some solid spiritual and eternal good as Christ and the Covenant are What do unregenerate men rejoyce in but trifles and meer vanities in a thing of nought Amos 6. 13. See how their mirth is described in Job 21. 12. They
from God Hab. 1. 13. Heb. 12. 14. The enmity of our nature perfectly stopped up our way to God Col. 1. 21. Rom. 8. 7. by reason hereof fallen man hath no desire to come unto God Job 21. 14. The Justice of God like a flaming Sword turning every way kept all men from access to God and lastly Satan that malicious and armed adversary lay as a Lyon in the way to God 2 Pet. 5. 8. Oh with what strong bars were the gates of Heaven shut against our souls The way to God was chained up with such difficulties as none but Christ was able to remove and he by death hath effectually removed them all the way is now open even the new and the living way consecrated for us by his blood The death of Christ effectually removes the guilt of sin 1 Pet. 2. 24. washes off the filth of sin 1 John 5. 6. takes away the enmity of nature Col. 1. 20 21. satisfied all the demands of justice Rom. 3. 25 26. hath broken all the power of Satan Col. 2. 15. Heb. 2. 14. and consequently the way to God is effectually and fully opened to Believers by the blood of Jesus Heb. 10. 20. Secondly The blood of Christ purchaseth for Believers their right and title to this priviledge Gal. 4. 4 5. But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of Sons i. e. both the relation and inheritance of sons There was value and worth enough in the precious blood of Christ not only to pay all our debts to justice but over and above the payment of our debts to purchase for us this invaluable priviledge We must put this unspeakable mercy of being brought to God as my Text puts it upon the account and score of the death of Christ. No Believer had ever tasted the sweetness of such a mercy if Christ had not tasted the bitterness of death for him The use of all you will have in the following Deductions of truth Deduction 1. Great is the preciousness and worth of souls that the life of Christ should be given to redeem and recover them to God As God laid out his thoughts and counsel from eternity upon them to project the way and method of their salvation so the Lord Jesus in pursuance of that blessed design came from the bosom of the Father and spilt his invaluable blood to bring them to God No wise man expends vast sums to bring home trifling commodities How cheap soever our souls are in our estimation 't is evident by this they are of precious esteem in the eyes of Christ. Deduction 2. Redeemed souls must expect no rest or satisfaction on this side Heaven and the full enjoyment of God the life of a Believer in this world is a life of motion and expectation they are now coming to God 1 Pet. 2. 4. God you see is the centre and rest of their souls Heb. 4. 9. As the Rivers cannot rest Feâ—…ti nos ad te inquietum est cor nostrum doâ—…ec requiescat in te Aug. Confess lib. 1. cap. 1. till they pour themselves into the bosom of the Sea so neither can renewed souls find rest till they come into the bosom of God There be four things which do and will break the rest and disturb the souls of Believers in this world afflictions temptations corruptions and absence from God if the three former causes of disquietness were totally removed so that a Believer were placed in such a condition upon earth where no affliction should disturb him no temptation trouble him no corruption defile or grieve him yet his very absence from God must still keep him restless and unsatisfied 2 Cor. 5. 6. Whilst we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. Deduction 3. What sweet and pleasant thoughts should all Believers have of death When they dye and never till they dye shall they be fully brought home to God Death to the Saints is the dore by which they enter into the enjoyment of God the dying Christian is almost at home yet a few pangs and agonies more and then he is come to God in whose presence is the fulness of joy I desire saith Paul to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1. 23. It should not scare us to be brought to death the King of terrors so long as it is the office of death to bring us to God That dreaming opinion of the soul sleeping after death is as ungrounded as it is uncomfortable the same day we loose from this shore we shall be landed upon the blessed shore where we shall see and enjoy God for ever O if the friends of dead Believers did but understand where and with whom their souls are whilst they are mourning over their bodies certainly a few believing thoughts of this would quickly dry up their tears and fill the house of mourning with voices of praise and thanksgiving Deduction 4. How comfortable and sweet should the converses and communication of Christians be with one another in this world Christ is bringing them all to God through this vale of tears they are now in the way to him all bound for Heaven going home to God to their everlasting rest in glory every day every hour every duty brings them nearer and nearer to their journeys end Rom. 13. 11. Now saith the Apostle is our salvation nearer than when we believed O what manner of heavenly communications and ravishing discourses should Believers have with each other as they walk by the way O what pleasant and delightful stories should they tell one another about the place and state whither Christ is bringing them and where they shall shortly be What ravishing transporting transforming visions they shall have that day they are brought home to God how surprizingly glorious the sight of Jesus Christ will be to them who died for them to bring them unto God How should such discourses as these shorten and sweeten their passage through this world strengthen and encourage the dejected and feeble minded and exceedingly honour and adorn their profession Thus lived the Believers of old Heb. 11. 9 10. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange Country dwelling in Tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob the heirs with him of the same promise for he looked for a City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God But alas most Christians are either entangled in the cares and troubles or so ensnared by the delights and plasures which almost continually divert and take up their thoughts by the way that there is but little room for any discourses of Christ and Heaven among many of them but certainly this would be as much your interest as your duty When the Apostle had entertained the Thessalonians with a lovely discourse of their meeting the Lord in the air and
life be prolonged for a season it lives in believers still but not upon the provision they willingly make to fulfil the Lust of it Rom. 13. ult The design of every true believer is co incident with the design of the spirit to destroy and mortifie corruption they long for the extirpation of it and are daily in the use of all sanctified means and instruments to subdue and destroy it the workings of their corruptions are the afflictions of their souls Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death and there is no one thing that sweetens the thoughts of death to believers except the sight and full enjoyment of God more than their expected deliverance from sin doth Evidence 5. Where ever the spirit of God dwelleth in the way of sanctification in all such he is the spirit of prayer and supplication Rom. 8. 26. Likewise the spirit also helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered where ever he is poured out as the spirit of grace he is also poured out as the spirit of supplication Zech. 12. 10. his praying and his sanctifying influences are undivided There is a threefold assistance that the spirit gives unto sanctified persons in prayer he helps them before they pray by setting an edge upon their defires and affections he helps them in prayer by supplying matters of request to them teaching them what they should ask of God he assisteth them in the manner of prayer supplying to them suitable affections and helping them to be sincere in all their desires to God 't is he that humbles the pride of their hearts dissolves and breaks the hardness of their hearts out of dcadness makes them lively out of weakness makes them strong he assisteth the spirits of believers after prayer helping them to faith and patience to believe and wait for the returns and answers of their prayers O Reader reflect upon thy duties consider what spirituality sincerity humility broken-heartedness and melting affections after God are to be found in thy duties is it so with thee or dost thou shuffle over thy duties as an interruption to thy business and pleasures are they an ungrateful task imposed upon thee by God and thy own conscience are there no hungerings and thirstings after God in thy soul or if there be any pleasure arising to thee out of prayer is it not from the ostentation of thy gifts if it be so reflect sadly upon the carnal state of thy heart these things do not speak the spirit of grace and supplication to be given thee Evidence 6. Where ever the spirit of Grace inhabits there is an heavenly spiritual frame of mind accompanying and evidencing the indwelling of the spirit Rom. 8. 5 6. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh but they that are after the spirit the things of the spirit for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace by the mind understand the musings reasonings yea and the cares fears delights and pleasures of the soul which follow the workings and meditations of the mind as these are so are we if these be ordinarily and habitually taken up and exercised about earthly things then is the frame and state of the man carnal and earthly the workings of every creature follow the being and nature of it if God Christ Heaven and the world to come engage the thoughts and affections of the soul the temper of such a soul is spiritual and the spirit of God dwelleth there this is the life of the regenerate Phil. 3. 20. our conversation is in Heaven and such a frame of heart is life and peace a serene placid and most comfortable life no pleasure upon earth no gratifications of the senses do relish and savour as spiritual things do Consider therefore which way thy heart ordinarily works especially in thy Solitudes and hours of retirement these things will be a great evidence for or against thy soul. David could say how precious are thy thoughts unto me O God! how great is the summ of them if I should count them they are more in number than the sand when I awake I am still with thee Psal. 139. 17 18. Yet it must be acknowledged for the relief of weaker Christians that there is great odds and variety found in this matter among the people of God for the strength steadiness and constancy of a spiritual mind results from the depth and improvement of sanctification the more grace still the more evenness spirituality and constancy there is in the motions of the heart after God The minds of weak Christians are more easily entangled in earthly vanities and more frequently diverted by inward corruptions yet still there is a spiritual pondus inclination and bent of their hearts towards God and the vanity and corruption which hinders their communion with him is their greatest grief and burthen under which they groan in this world Evidence 7. Those to whom the spirit of grace is given they are led by the spirit Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the spirit of God they are the Sons of God sanctified souls give themselves up to the government and conduct of the spirit they obey his voice beg his direction follow his motions deny the solicitations of the flesh and blood in obedience to him Gal. 1. 16. and they that do so they are the sons of God 't is the office of the spirit to guide us into all truth and 't is our great duty to follow his guidance Hence it is that in all enterprizes and undertakements the people of God so earnestly beg direction and counsel from him Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness saith David make thy way straight before my face Psal. 8. 5. they dare not in doubtful cases lean to their own understandings yea in points of duty and in points of sin they dare not neglect the one or commit the other against the convictions and perswasions of their own consciences though troubles and sufferings be unavoidable in that path of duty when they have ballanced duties with sufferings in their most serious thoughts the conclusion and result will still be it is better to obey God than man the dictates of the spirit rather than the counsels of flesh and blood But before I leave this point I reckon my self a debtor unto weak Christians and shall endeavour to give satisfaction to some special doubts and fears with which their minds are ordinarily entangled in this matter for it is a very plain case that many souls have the presence and sanctification of the spirit without the evidence and comfort thereof Divers things are found in believers which are as so many fountains of fears and doubts to them And First I greatly doubt the spirit of God is not in me Obj. 1. saith
be in Christ he is a new creature O Reader what ever slight thoughts of this matter and with what a careless and unconcerned eye soever thou readest these lines yet know thou must either be a new creature or a miserable and damned creature for ever If civility without the new creature could save thee why are not the moral Heathens saved also if strictness of life without the new creature could save thee why did it not save the Scribes and Pharisees also if an high profession of Religion without the new creature can save thee why did it not save Judas Hymeneus and Philetus also Nothing is more evident than this that no repentance obedience self-denyal prayers tears reformations or ordinances without the new creation avail any thing to the salvation of thy soul the very blood of Christ himself without the new creature never did and never will save any man Oh how necessary a work is the new creation circumcision avails nothing and uncircumcision nothing but a new creature Fifthly The new Creature is a marvellous and wonderful creature there are many wonders in the first creation the works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal. 111. 2. but there are no wonders in nature like those in grace is it not the greatest wonder that ever was seen in the world except the incarnation of the Son of God to see the nature and temper of man so altered and changed as it is by grace to see Lascivious Corinthians and Idolatrous Ephesians become mortified and Heavenly Christians to see a fierce and cruel persecutor become a glorious confessor and sufferer for Christ Gal. 1. 23. to see the carnal-mind of man which was lately fully set in a strong bent to the world to be wholly taken off from its lusts and set upon things that are spiritual and heavenly certainly it was not a greater miracle to see dead Lazarus come out of his Sepulchre than it is to see the dead and carnal mind coming out of its Lusts to embrace Jesus Christ. It was not a greater wonder to see the dead dry bones in the vally to move and come together than it is to see a dead soul moving after God and moving to Christ in the way of faith Sixthly The new creature is an immortal creature a creature that shall never see death Joh. 4. 14. it is in the soul of man a well of water springing up into eternal life I will not adventure to say it is immortal in its own nature for it is but a creature as my Text calls it and we know that essential interminability is the incommunicable property of God the new creature hath both a beginning and succession and therefore might also have an end as to any thing in it self or its own nature experience also shews us that it is capable both of increasing and decreasing and may be brought nigh unto death Rev. 3. 2. the works of the spirit in believers may be ready to dye but though its perpetuity flow not out of its own nature it flows out of Gods Covenant and promises which make it an immortal Creature when all other excellencies in man go away as at death they will Job 4. 21. this excellency only remains our gifts may leave us our friends leave us our estates leave us but our graces will never leave us they ascend with the soul in which they inhere into glory when the stroke of death separates it from the body Seventhly The new Creature is an heavenly creature 't is not born of flesh nor of blood or of the will of man but of God Joh. 1. 13. its descent and original is heavenly it is spirit born of spirit Joh. 3. 6. its center is heaven and thither are all its tendencies Psal. 63. 8. its proper food on which it lives are heavenly things Psal. 4. 6 7. it cannot feed as other creatures do upon earthly things the object of all its delights and loves is in heaven Psal. 73. 26. Whom have I in heaven but thee the hopes and expectations of the new creature are all from heaven it looks for little in this world but waits for the coming of the Lord the life of the new creature upon earth is a life of patient waiting for Christ his desires and longings are after Heaven Phil. 1. 23. The flesh indeed lingers and would delay but the new creature hastens and would fain be gone 2 Cor. 5. 2. it is not at home while it is here it came from Heaven and cannot be quiet nor suffer the soul in which it dwells to be so until it comes thither again Eighthly The new creature is an active and laborious creature no sooner it is born but it is acting in the soul Acts 9. 6. behold he prayeth activity is its very nature Gal. 5. 25. If we live in the spirit let us walk in the spirit Nor is it to be admired that it should be always active and stirring in the soul seeing activity in obedience was the very end for which it was created for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works Eph. 2. 10. and he that is acted in the duties of Religion by this principle of the new creature or nature will so far as that principle acts him delight to do the will of God rejoice in the way of his Commandments and find the sweetest pleasure in the paths of duty Ninthly The new creature is a thriving creature growing from strength to strength 1 Pet. 2. 2. and changing the soul in which it is subjected from glory unto glory 2 Cor. 3. 18. The vigorous tendencies and constant strivings of this new creature is to attain its just perfection and maturity Phil. 3. 11. it can endure no stints and limits to its desires short of perfection every degree of strength it attains doth but whet and sharpen his desires after higher degrees upon this account it greatly delights in the Ordinances of God Duties of Religion and Society of the Saints as they are helps and improvements to it in order to its great design Tenthly The new creature is a creature of wonderful preservations there are many wonders of divine providences in Gratia nec totaliter intermittitur nec finaliter amittitur actus omittitur habitus non amittitur actio pervertitur fides noâ—… sâ—…bvertitur concutitur non excutitur deflâ—…it fructus latâ—… succus effectus justificationis suspenditur at â—…tus justificati non dissolvitur Suffrag Brit. the preservation of our natural lives but none like those whereby the life of the new creature is preserved in our souls there are critical times of temptation and desertion in which it is ready to dye Rev. 3. 2. the degrees of its strength and liveliness are sometimes sadly abated and 〈◊〉 sweet and comfortable workings intermitted Rev. 2. 4. the evidences by which its being in us was wont to be discovered may be and often are darkned 2 Pet. 1. 9.
and the soul in which it is may draw very sad conclusions about the issue and event concluding its life not only to be hazarded but quite extinguished Psal. 51. 10 11 12. but though it be ready to dye God wonderfully preserves it from death it hath as well its reviving as its fainting seasons and thus you see what are the lovely and eximious properties of the new creature In the next place Fourthly We will demonstrate the necessity of this new creation to all that are in Christ and by him expect to attain 4. salvation and the necessity of the new creature will appear divers ways First From the positive and express will of God revealed in Scripture touching this matter search the Scriptures and you shall find God hath laid the whole stress and weight of your eternal happiness by Jesus Christ upon this work of the spirit in your souls So our Saviour tells Nicodemus John 3. 5. Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God agreeable whereunto are those words of the Apostle Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And whereas some may think that their birth right priviledges injoyment of Ordinances and profession of Religion may commend them to Gods acceptance without this new creation he shews them how fond and ungrounded all such hopes are Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Christ and Heaven are the gifts of God and he is at liberty to bestow them upon what terms and conditions he pleaseth and this is the way the only way and stated method in which he will bring men by Christ unto glory men may raze out the impressions of these things from their own hearts but they can never alter the setled course and method of Salvation either we must be new creatures as the precepts of the word command us or lost and damned creatures as the threatnings of the word plainly tell us Secondly This new Creation is the inchoative part of that great Salvation which we expect through Christ and therefore without this all hopes and expectations of Salvation must vanish Salvation and renovation are inseparably connected Our glory in Heaven if we rightly understand its nature consisteth in two things namely our assimilation to God and our fruition of God and both these take their beginning and rise from our renovation in this world here we begin to be changed into his Image in some degree 2 Cor. 3. 18. for the new man is created after God as was opened above In the work of grace God is said to begin that good work which is to be finished or consummated in the day of Christ Phil. 1. 6. Now nothing can be more irrational than to imagine that ever that design or work should be finished and perfected which never had a beginning Thirdly So necessary is the new creation to all that expect salvation by Christ that without this Heaven would be no Heaven and the glory thereof no glory to us by reason of the unsuitableness and aversation of our carnal minds thereunto the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. and enmity is exclusive of all complacency and delight there is a necessity of a suitable and agreeable frame of heart to God in order to that complacential rest of our souls in him and this agreeable temper is wrought by our new creation 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God renovation you see is the working or moulding of a mans spirit into an agreeable temper or as it is in Col. 1. 12. the making of us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light From all which it follows that seeing there can be no complacence or delight in God without suitableness and conformity to him as is plain from 1 Joh. 3. 2. as well as from the reason and nature of the thing it self either God must become like us suitable to our sinful corrupt and vain hearts which were but a rude blasphemy once to imagine or else we must be made agreeable and suitable to God which is the very thing I am now proving the necessity of Fourthly There is an absolute necessity of the new creature to all that expect interest in Christ and the glory to come since all the characters marks and signs of such an interest are constantly taken from the new creature wrought in us Look over all the marks and signs of interest in Christ or salvation by him which are dispersed through the Scriptures and you shall still find purity of heart Matth. 5. 8. holiness both in principle and practice Heb. 12. 14. mortification of sin Rom. 8. 13. longing for Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4. 8. with multitudes more of the same nature to be constantly made the marks and signs of our salvation by Christ. So that either we must have a new Bible or a new Heart for if these Scriptures be the true and faithful words of God no unrenewed creature can see his face which was the fourth thing to be opened Fifthly The last thing to be opened is how the new creation is an infallible proof and evidence of the souls interest 5. in Christ and this will appear divers ways First Where all the saving graces of the spirit are there interest in Christ must needs be certain and where the new creature is there all the saving graces of the spirit are for what is the new creature but the frame or Systeme of all special saving graces it is not this or that particular grace as faith or hope or love to God which constitutes the new creature for these are but as so many particular limbs or branches of it but the new creature is comprehensive of all the graces of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. The fruit of the Spirit is love peace joy long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance c. any one of the saving special graces of the Spirit gives proof of our interest in Christ how much more then the new creature which is the complex frame or Systeme of all the graces together Secondly To conclude where all the causes of an interest in Christ are found and all the effects and fruits of an interest in Christ do appear there undoubtedly a real interest in Christ is found but where-ever you find a new creature you find all the causes and all the effects of an interest in Christ for there you shall find First The impulsive cause viz. the electing love of God from which the new creature is inseparable 1 Pet. 1. 2. with the new creature also the meritorious efficient and final causes of interest in Christ and union with him are ever found Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 1. 4 5 6. Secondly All the effects and fruits of interest in Christ are found with the new creature there are all the fruits