know not how often in this one Chapter eating drinking is interpreted by Beleeving and Beleeving in a Metaphor is nothing but Eating Drinking therefore my work shal be God willing to explain this know then in general that this great Grace of Faith whereby Souls partake of Christ it is in the true nature of it nothing but an accepting or receiving of Jesus Christ to be that unto us which God sent him to be for poor sinners the Scripture is most cleer in 1 John 12. As many as received him he gave them power to become the Sons God even they that beleeved in him So that to receive Christ is to believe in him now the receiving of Christ being a spiritual act of the soul wherin the understanding and the wil must both have a share it hath pleased the Lord I beseech you mark it it hath pleased the Lord to set out this one act of Beleeving by abundance of Metaphors in the Scripture similitudes taken from the Body and every one of them being rightly interpreted wil cleerly set out the nature of Faith and what the Soul doth when it beleeveth in Christ as I wil give you but a tast because it is but one only that I mean to open and that is in my Text Somtimes 1. Beleeving it is very often set forth by Coming Come unto me He that cometh unto me I will not cast him out that is to Beleeveâ— Now Coming therein is a figure an expression taken from an act of our Body of our Feet wherein there are alwaies these three things 1. There is the place from which we go 2. There is the place to which we go 3. There is the way and means in which and by which we go Now these interpreted would cleerly shew you what the Soul doth in Beleeving So likewise 2. To look up to Christ that as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness that whosoever looked upon it was cured so Christ is lifted up that we may look upon him Now that very act of the eye to look to an Object for such an end being rightly interpreted would cleerly shew you what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ. And so 3. To stay upon him or to lean upon him which is a Metaphor taken from the Body that reposeth it self upon somewhat to uphold it when it wants strength of its own now this being discovered would cleerly shew you what the Soul of man doth when it believeth in Christ. 4. Now among many of these Metaphors this Text of John's pitcheth upon this especially of eating Christ and drinking which is the action of our mouth and stomach wherby our life comes to be maintained by our Food and there is in this of eating and drinking so cleer a demonstration what the Soul of man doth when it beleeveth in Christ and how it may discover whether men do beleeve or no that you cannot desire a cleerer than this is if God do but vouchsafe the ful understanding of it That then which I have laid out for a part of this afternoon's work is to shew you wherin the eating drinking of our food doth shadow out Beleeving in Jesus Christ to eternal life though I have but now brought you to that which I would endeavor a little more fully to discover to you Would you know then wherein the Holy Ghost maketh the comparison to stand for I dare not go to ad the study of our own brains but wherein the Scripture makes these to answer one another eating and drinking food for bodily life and Beleeving in Christ for spiritual life wherein do they answer I answer in these six things some of them I shall not need to stay upon for if I should stay upon all I should not have time to cleer the rest but in six things do the eating and drinking of our food answer our laying hold upon Jesus Christ by Faith and I wil desire you to mark them because it is the foundation of a great tryal of your spiritual estate The first 1. That the Lord when he first created man with a living Soul with a life this life of man is not able to nourish it self to preserve it self in being nor to strengthen it self when it is any waies impaired but God hath appointed that which is food such creatures as have suitable spirits in them to the life of man that mans life under God lies in these and cannot be preserved without them but it is the meat and drink as the ordinary expression is it is the food and the nourishment the means wherby the life of man is preserved in a man and give him all other things in the world let Angels attend him Princes wait upon him let all that God hath given to the whole Creation be bestowed upon him keep food from him and the man dies he doth not live though it is true we live not by Bread only but God can preserve it otherwise but in the ordinary proceedings of God take away food and you take away life you need no other weapon mans life the nourishment of mans life is food that is one Now answerable to this for our spiritual life it is laid up and to be found wholly in the Lord Jesus Christ in his flesh and his blood but you must know it is his flesh and blood prepared that look as other meat Bread must be broken and ground and baked and so made fit for mans use before he partakes of it so the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ was ground was broken by the passion and sufferings he underwent for our sins and by vertue of his dying communicated it to us his flesh and blood hath merited life satisfied wrath and in Christ and Christ alone lies all the spiritual life of his people and can be had no where else Give him all the obedience that ever mortal man had give him the righteousness of the Holy Angels in Heaven give him all that a mans Tongue can speak of or his Pen write down he is a dead man if he have not the Lord Jesus Christ to be his life it self Our life is hid in Christ as the Apostle saith there is the treasury of it There is the first that as our humane life lies in Gods disposing I mean by his so ordering it in our food so our spiritual life lies only in Jesus Christ. That is one Secondly these three first I wil be very brief in The second branch is this 2. That look as God in nature hath planted in every man because his life is the most excellent thing skin for skin and all that a man hath he wil give for his life therfore God hath planted in man a more vehement appetite and desire after food then after any thing else in the world and if he be put to it that the choyce must be made it may be he would not part with any thing that he thinkes is sutable to him but if
should we take that we might be as it were Masters of Art in it that we might Commence to a good degree I shall cleerly out of the Word give you some four or five Directions which if you will study you may much enlarge and I hope it is the right way The first is this The grace of faith is the principle of our holy life while we are in this world you must labor to be well rooted and grounded in the grace of faith mark what I say to be rooted and grounded look to that that is your livelihood when I say rooted and grounded in that I mean these two things First You must labor that your faith be a right faith a sound faith for beloved it is not every faith that wil afford a man a livelihood painted fire is fire in the Summer time but it wil never warm a mans hands in the Winter time painted bread will never fill a mans stomach it must be real bread and real drink that wil maintain your life So Brethren that common faith that goes about in the world fancies and conceits people have ungrounded without any work passing upon their hearts to make them new Creatures it may serve for a dead profession it may serve it may be to set you off so far by talking of Religion that if time serve that way you may get an Office a Place and some accommodation for this life but never wil a formal faith enable you to live the life of Christ that must be sound faith faith of the right stamp I and secondly I mean when I say to be rooted and grounded in the faith You must labor for strong faith for Brethren give me leave to say the least degree of saving faith will certainly keep thee from Hell and carry thee to Heaven but the least degree of it will not enable thee to live the life of Christ to his glory and thy comfort If a storm comes little faith shakes Why are you troubled O ye of little faith but never why are you troubled you that have fulness of faith A little childs hand wil serve to receive a penny I but a little hand wil do but a little work there is a great deal of work lies upon faith drawing comfort lies upon faith and quickning to duty lies upon faith and as is the man so is his strength Gideons Son while he is a child he wil not venture to cut off the heads of the Princes of Midian no he dares not fall upon them no a little faith will get but a little comfort but you must endeavor and remember this is taught you as the first Direction to be strong in the faith of our Lord Jesus Oh! if my heart deceive me not I had rather have a strong faith than any thing that may be called strong in the world A strong purse a strong head a strong courage a strong estate will never do that that a strong faith wil therefore I intreat you al if you find your want I am a poor creature I cannot bear afflictions if God come with a heavy affliction it is hard for me to bear strengthen thy faith and thou wilt carry any cross in the world fly to the Lord. The Lord hath given us in our daies many preachers that preach faith many excellent Books that treat of Faith and living by faith and how faith may be strengthened and all that is good about it No Nation in the World since the Apostles daies I think have the like helps that England hath and therefore study it in the first place labor to be rooted and grounded in faith get a good faith a strong faith Secondly If you will ever live the life of Faith labor to be wel acquainted with God especially with God in Christ pray mark that and carry it home labor to know God I know whom I have beleeved saith Paul a man may beleeve confidently but if he have not a ful knowledg of the party he doth beleeve it may be his comfort wil be less To know how all sufficient he is that he can perform Promises easier than any man can to know how gracious how good he is how unchangeable he is there is no knowledg of God but wil do thy soul good but I mean to know God in Christ that is as he stands related to Beleevers in a Covenant of grace and that I rather fix upon because my Text hath it and carries it here as the great Basis of Pauls living by faith saith he The Life I live in this Flesh I live it by the Faith of this Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me he knew the dear regard that Jesus Christ bears to all his people he loves them like the apple of his eye Never Mother tendered her Children as Christ tenders all his Lambs though never so weak though never so feeble though never so dead he and his Father in him is wel pleased when we look upon him in Jesus Christ that not only I beleeve in him but I beleeve in that God who in Christ Jesus loved me so that he gave his Son to shed his blood that I might not perish Now to know God in Christ is the way not to perish Thirdly another great Direction to live by faith is that that I opened at large and now to speak a little more about it Study to be acquainted with the Word If ever you would live by faith you must study to be wel acquainted with the Word for though God be the ultimate object and Christ be the all-sufficient means yet beleeve it it is the Word that faith immediately looks upon and though I dare promise my self great things from my great God in my Christ yet it must all be still as he hath revealed it in his Word therefore if you would ever learn to live by faith soundly comfortably you must be acquainted with the Word And when I say acquainted with the Word I mean these two things The Promises of the Word for the comfort of your lives To get a good understanding of all those excellent Priviledges which are scattered up and down in all those glorious Promises which are as the Apostle saith exceeding great and precious Promises Brethren the Word hath not only the great Promise of the pardon of sin which is an invaluable thing and will carry us safe when we die but you shall find in the Word Promises for every condition it is possible for you to fal into if God should take away al thy children from thee and thy wife from thee and visit thee with sickness and let men loose upon thee and enemies to persecute thee there are Promises in the Word for every one of these Oh! to know the Promises it is an infinite help especially if you ad this which I will make a second Branch of the same Direction When I say acquainted with the Promises I mean We should know not only where the Promises are
are of the Lords own teaching ever study that Lesson for as for others they love and like their hearts wel that when they are convinced of every thing else in the world they will boast of their heart that that is right but when a man can say as Hezekiah said to God Oh Lord remember I pray thee that I have with an upright heart sought thee as if he should have said If I could have done thee more service I would I would have prayed better and beleeved better and been more active but thou hast had my heart the Soul that can say so the Lord would answer it even as David said to the Lord in 1 Chron. 29. Oh! Lord saith he I know that thou lovest the heart when he had offered up an Oblation he and his People Oh Lord saith he I know thou regardest the heart and hast pleasuere in uprightness as for me in the uprightness of my heart I have sought thee So when thou shalt say Father my memory is weak my utterance bad my temptations strong and my corruptions great I can deny none of these but the Lord knows he hath my heart could I get it in a better frame I had rather see it in a better frame than have the estate of an Emperor Where there is a willing mind it is an excellent Speech of the Apostle in 2 Cor. 8. in the point of Alms and I wil give you an instance in that that you may make of it in a hundred other things when he would stir them up to contribute he saith where there is a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not as if he should have said The Lord hath given me a heart I like this cause so wel I would willingly give twenty shillings to this cause but I am not able to give above a penny Hast thou a willing mind to give more thou art accepted according to what thou hast The liberal gift is but the work of Gods Providence the willing mind is the work of Gods Grace The same wil run throughout all duties go to prayer one man hath such an utterance conception working fancy can speak admirably to the affecting of all but these are but gifts and parts and if he hath an humble broken heart goes with it there is Spirit too but it may be another poor Soul that joyneth in the Duty that can hardly speak a few words of sense together but God knows if they could pray if they could pour out their souls if they could wrastle with God they had rather do it than any thing else in the world that is the work of prayer the other is but the work of common gifts that is for the edification of others therefore know this all of you we poor creatures deal with men and it is almost impossible but we value men according to their parts a man whom God enableth with parts and gifts to edifie others especially if there be Grace in his Heart too he is measured by the value of his parts by all men God goes not by that value No that Soul that takes most care about his Heart give me a Woman a handmaid that wrestles more in secret that she may bring her wil to Gods wil and may love and hate nothing but what God loves and hates find such an one out they are Gods choice ones and his Jewels therfore be not discouraged for the want of any thing while you can say The great God that knows al knows my great study is about my Heart I will conclude this use with a speech I have often heard of one Mr. Banes a man that was indeed an excellent emminent Man for any thing that was good and not long before he died some friends were with him in his Library it was an excellent one and they fel a commending of it I saith he There they stand but the Lord knows that for many years last past I have studied my Heart more then my Books Oh! There was a study give me a Scholler that can say I study my Heart more then my Book I study my Heart more then my Shop-book I study my Heart more then my Counting-House I study my Heart more then a Bargain that it may be pure and Holy this Man is a blessed Man and Woman that hath but attained this and then Lastly the last Use that I would make and I wil but even name it is this USE 3. I beseech you therefore for the time to come will you all make this your study You have heard it is a dangerous Heart you bear about you whatsoever you are that think you may be most secure of your heart you are but Fools to trust it and your Conversation wil be as your heart is remember all the Arguments I gave you and let it prevail with you for the time to come to enter into this serious study how you may keep it in a good frame continually and this now would have been an Introduction to the second Question for this is sufficient to prove that it ought to be so But now the next is Quest. Wherein stands the keeping of the heart in a good frame It is true I confess it is comfortable to hear of the general endeavor of it but what are the rules and directions the Servants of God should attend to when they would keep their hearts in so good a frame that it may be such a Temple of the Holy Ghost for the Lord to delight in Answ. That is too great a Question in truth to handle in a little time only these two or three things I would say in general before I dismiss you As First 1. There is no talking it is not for any man living ever to talk of keeping his heart in a good frame until first the Lord have broken it to pieces and new molded it that is for certain while the heart is as we come into the world as we are in a state of nature the wildest Beast under Heaven will be easilier tamed than the heart of a man wil ever be ordered It is just as a Bel that hath a crack throughout al the Bel-founders in the Town Country they may hew it and chip it and scurfe it and I know not what they wil never make it sound right til it be choped a pieces and new cast So I say the heart of man is by nature so forlorn so ful of wickedness so utterly destitute of all good that if all the Teachers and Tutors under Heaven had it to work to bring a man up and make him right til God take away the heart of stone and regenerate him and give him a new heart there is no talking of ever keeping it in a good frame Therefore if you be not throughly grounded in it get your heart knocked in pieces the first thing you do pray God Almighty to break it through break it down break it up
yet this I must say That while these lower conditions are and as long as each form carries people to the Word holds out Christ in his Word Christ in preaching Christ in the Sacrament there is food for souls and if we could look aright it may be we would not be so angry with one another about it as we are for there is but one Truth and we pray the Lord to reveal it but stil here is carrying on the life of Comfort Duty Direction and all that faith meddles with that the Lords people may enjoy but for Gods sake and as you love the life of your souls watch against temptations that would take you off from the Word that the Scripture should be nothing this takes you off from that that your faith wholly meddles with for if you can say I beleeve God for such a thing and Christ for such a thing unless you find it promised in the Word it is presumption Therefore Pity such poor souls your own experience may tel you do but mark them generally they that live above Ordinances see whether the Spirit of God do not withdraw see whether the Lord hath any other way to convey himself to them than what he hath held out in his Word their loosness folly pride and joyning in any thing else that is naught almost plainly shews that the Lord hath withdrawn from them And secondly You wil find that such of them as have grace in them for I am far from thinking any that have grace cannot be under such a temptation but I fear not but the Lord will awaken them again though they be asleep because faith must be the navel and the string that must maintain them here But this I did not intend to be large in The great Use that I intend is To all the Lords people whose Life is Christ and in whom Christ doth live I would endeavor in the rest of this hour to give them some help out of the Word that this living by faith might be better known to the Lords People and more exactly practised than it hath been hitherto and if the Lord help me to divide it and you to receive it I will not fear but your life will be more honorable to the Lord and sweeter to your selves than it hath been and there are but two things that I intend to treat upon The one is Some serious Considerations or Motives to provoke all who have any thing of Christ in them that they would study this art of living by faith more than in time past And secondly and principally To lay out of the Word the true Directoins the easiest and the readiest way that a willing soul may take to be built up in it For encouragement to provoke you to it I pray think of these things First If you will be Christians it is our Trade and the way of our livelihood we have no other mystery for the maintainance of our lives but faith that is cleer Schollers may live by their Wits Trades-men upon their Mysteries and Gentlemen upon their Wealth But as a Christian we have no other living or way of living to God but only our faith Now because it is our Life and our Trade and our Profession it would be a horrible shame to be found Bunglers in that that is properly our own Mystery If a man should come and examine me a Minister of the Gospel and put into my hands a Merchants Book and bid me cast up such an Account and I could not this were no shame to me but if he should come and give me a Bible and bid me open a Text if I could not do it it were a shame to me So friend have you the right skil of living by faith No It is thy Trade As thou art a Member of the Common-wealth or one of the Army thou mayest have a Calling but as thou art a Christian which is thy best Life thou hast no Trade but to live by faith no other way to honor the Lord nor to manifest the Life of Christ nor to turn all things for thy good and the Lords glory it is thy living by faith must do it what a horrible disgrace will it be for thee to be found ignorant of it Secondly I tell you there is no other way of Life that any man pitches upon but it will very shortly appear to be but a poor thing If you should think that the living upon God this holy life it is a thing that is a mystery that you do not study but for the present life that you mind and you mean to follow the things that will help you to live in the world I tell you all those after a little while will prove meer delusions If any of you have the way as some of you have found it to raise up your selves to great estates of a poor servant in few yeers to become a great man in the place where you live and now you are wealthy Before our eyes God hath overturned all these things hath not God let us see how he hath pulled down great Princes and Kings hath he not let us see a thousand ten thousand a yeer a man may have and yet live to see them al buried and himself come to beggery doth not God tell us they are not al worth our study The Lord my meaning is dayly before our eyes stains the glory of all other waies of living never to the worlds end did he or wil he stain the glory of living by faith because you can no where else close with him Thirdly that which I most aim at in my Considerations is to acquaint you with this That this same Art this excellent Christian Mystery of living our life by faith it is absolutely the best life the most desirable life that any man or woman can live til they come to enjoy God immediately This I wil demonstrate and I hope I shal make it plain that if a man had the comfort of al other waies of living in any kind never would the learning or wit of man find out any life to be compared with the life of faith for the excellency of it and the excellency of the life of faith I would open to you in four or five Particulars the Lord perswade you but to study them when you are alone One is more general It is the Life which the Lord hath chosen out to be the life of those that he loved from all eternity The Lord you grant him al of you to be infinite in wisdom and therefore before his eyes al waies of living happy were apparent and out of them all he chose this same life of faith to be the life of those he loved from al eternity It is the Prophet Malachi's argument it is the best Conjugal condition for a man to have one wife and a woman to have one husband because else God could have made ten women if he would but he made but one that is Gods choyce
Christianity there is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ. 2 Aboundance of things go for this Life which are not this Life Quest. How shall we know this Life Answ. By these two Characters 1 Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a Natural way the life is the Preciousest thing in the world to that Creature and so among al that live the life of Christ there is nothing in this world so dear to them as their Spiritual Life is Which valuation of the said Life appears in these three things Page 22 1 In a Natural propensity and inclination and appetite towards those things that are the nourishment of this Life 2 In a most vehement declining of what they know to be destructive to this life 3 In a willingness to part with any thing to save this spiritual Life Page 24 The second Character of this Spiritual Life 2 Consists in some things that are the proper beatings of the pulse as it were of the Soul Arguments of this spiritual Life Aâ— 1 The Natural motion of this spiritual Life is to enjoy God in Jesus Christ as their chiefest good this is the great thing wherin the souls pulse beates 2 There is a Natural making out of the Heart towards holiness righteousness love kindness mercy pitty Page 27 3 The Soul that is alive unto Christ is guided by the word it is his Card his compass his Square his Meet-wand his Eye Looking to the word as his only Guide Who are strangers to the Life of Christ 1 All that know not Christ 2 All that live to their Lusts. 3 All that live to the World 4 All that live to their Pleasures Use 2. This serves to comfort those that live this life considering that 1 This is the highest noblest most excellent Life that ever any Creature did partake of 2 This is the sweetest of all Lives for in all other lives men tast but the sweetness of the Creature but in this the sweetness of God and Christ. 3 It is the greatest pledge of Gods love he gives to any 4 Christ being the fountain of this life you may be bold to rely upon him for the preservation of it Page 32 Use 3. To perswade all men to study and seek after this life SERMON II. DOCT. 2. That life of Christ which all Gods people live in this world they live it by Faith The DOCTRIN is 1 Demonstrated from scripture that it is so that the whol Life of a Christian is led by Faith 2 It is opened by shewing what the Holy Ghost means by this and what it is for a Soul to live the life of Christ by Faith Page 35 Use 1. Hence we may safely and sadly conclude that amongst the great multitudes of those that challenge the Name of Chrstians there are very few that are really Christians For 1 Many are Ignorent of Christ. 2 Many never trouble themselves at the very Doctrine of Faith 3 Many live to their lusts 4 Multitudes live to the world 5 Many live to their own wills Use 2. Real Christians ought to lament nothing so much as their unbelife Quest. Do you think that the people of God are so much guilty of it Judge by these Signs 1 Our not studying of the Word 2 Our little Valueing of the Word 3 Our unevenness in our whol course 4 Our deviations and use of unlawful means SERMON III. Use 3. This shewes what kind of Christians they must needs be who can live in the Flesh above Word and Ordinances having no use of them and as they think nothing to do with them but live in an immediate communion with God and enjoyment of him Use 4. To make this living by Faith better known to the Lords people and more exactly practised then it hath been hitherto For encouragement to study this art of living by Faith consider 1 If you wil be Christians you have no other Mistery to maintaine your lives but Faith 2 All other waies of life that any man pitches upon wil shortly appear to be but a poor thing 3 This Mystery of living by Faith is the best Life the most desirable Life that any Man or Woman can live til they come to enjoy God immediately The Excellency of this Life opened in Particulars 1 It is the life which the Lord hath chosen out to be the life of those that he loved from all Eternity 2 It is most honorable to us 3 In this world it is the easiest Life To live by Faith is the easiest Life under Heaven 4 It is the best Life because it is the surest Life Page 64 Question How shall we do to live this Life Answer 1 The Grace of Faith is the principal of his Life 2 If you would live the Life of Faith labor to be well acqainted with God especially with God in Christ. 68 3 Study to be acquainted with the word 4 Faithfully and Conscientiously serve the Lord in the use of means Page 73 Two Cautions to be taken in with these directions When it is said we must use means and thus live by Faith the meaning is 1 That when we have done we must not limit God God limits you and limits me but Faith must not limit him as to the way how or time when be shall makeâ— good Page 74 2 When you are directed thus to live the life of Faith you must take heed of some other Principles viz. your own Reason and your own sense The Premises considered it is sad to think 1 How the common People of the world live amongst us being wholly Ignorant of these things and setting their Hearts upon wealth and Pleasure and Honor and such perishing things Page 76 2 It is sad to think how many Souls that are Godly and study the Scriptures and attend upon the word yet had rather study nice controversies and things that engender strife then this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ and living by Faith Page 77 FINIS CHRIST'S INTERCESSION OR Sins of Infirmity Opened in a Sermon at Pauls Novemb. 19. 1654 1 John 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not now follows my Text And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whol world THe whol scope of the blessed Apostle in this Letter of his is as himself teacheth us to confirm the people of God to build them up in that great Article of their Faith and their great priviledge which is the Communion of Saints He tels you in the beginning he writes to them that they might have Communion with himself and the rest of the Apostles whose Communion is with God the Father and is Son Jesus Christ presently he proceeds to shew wherein this Communion stands which he doth express First More generally It is to walk in the light when all the world walks in darkness
thing is known it is known that such a thing is contrary to God and I ought not to do it but yet by a sudden hurry of temptation when the violence of temptation surpriseth the Soul many times before ever it can recollect it self it is carried down with the temptation even against a cleer light yea carried against it as if a Cock-boat should be carried down a strong stream they have not so much time to cal themselves to an account to think whether these things become them or no And thus it was with Aaron that Saint of the Lord he could not but know that to make a Calf it was destructive to the Covenant of Grace that God had made with them it was a kind of implicite renouncing of God but a sudden temptation came all the people came saying make us a resemblance of God Moses is gone we wil have it he was surprised before ever he could recollect himself And so Moses that holy meek man when a sudden temptation came that the madness of the people had vexed him that he could not recollect himself he speaks so unadvisedly with his lips to Gods dishonor and this no man is free from but some in one part some in one kind and some in another all Gods people before they are aware are many times carried away and surprised before they can recollect themselves to know what their duty is But yet there is a third sort and that seems to go deeper and that is 3. When they do not only know it to be a sin but deliberatly commit it I mean that the heart is tempted to such a thing saith the soul it is abominable it is against God I will not do it but betakes it self to prayer prayes the Lord to assist and strengthen him the temptation comes again and gathers upon him that though he do resist it yet he hath not strength enough to overcome it the ground of it was because the holy Spirit who is a free agent communicates so much strength to him as to stir up his graces and to draw them out into the Field in Gods Cause and to oppose the Enemy and gives him some strength to resist it but not strength enough to overcome it but leaves him unfit and without sufficient strength against that temptation and of this I think the Apostle Paul mainly means in all his discourse in Rom. 7. where in the Person of a Regenerate man he saith The thing I would not do I do and when I would do good Evil overcomes me I would not do the Evil yet it is too strong for me then complains Wretched man that I am I am even sold under it Now I think under one of these three fal al the common infirmities of all that love Jesus Christ in sincerity they are either meer Ignorances that they know not Gods mind or they are else sudden surprises hurried away before they can cal their hearts and graces to act and have strength to assist them or else the Lord lets out a greater measure of the power of the Enemy to assault than he is pleased to communicate to the soul to resist and under one of these I say do all the infirmities of Gods people fal in their ordinary course Now the third thing which when I have briefly dispatched then I wil go to the next which is the great question is Thirdly How this may be known and I wil speak to it the rather because I find there is no man in the world that lives within the compasse of the Church I mean but is wonderous desirous to have all his lusts and corruptions to be adopted into the name of an infirmity and when they have brought them under that Burrow then they are wonderful safe in their own eyes the man that Keeps a harlot and nourisheth his wanton vain glory or whatsoever it be convince him of it I saith he God helpe me it is my infirmity no man lives without his infirmities and when they have once got them under that name of an infirmity then all that you say concerning Jesus Christ's relief against their daily sins it is all their own though God knows they are as far from it as the East is from the West And on the other side I find many a real Servant of God that if their corruption have any thing in it that carries horridness to the Conscience any strange distemper that is more than ordinary and assaults them and buffets them and treads them under foot Then they are ready to think that all the world cannot satisfie them that these are but infirmities these cannot be the spots of Gods people And so that neither the Lords own Servants may be discouraged nor wicked men get a Cloak I would a little discover how you may cleerly know what are the infirmities of the Saints and wherein they differ from the rebellions of those that are the Lords Enemies and for that I wil give you 1. One Rule that is Negative and 2. Another that is Positive 1. Negative You must take this That an infirmity must not be judged of by the matter of the sin not one whit judged of by the matter but only from the disposition and qualification of the Person that commits it my meaning plainly is this We are ready to think that those sins that are but petty and trivial they must all have the names of infirmities and those sins the matter whereof are odious those must not go for infirmities Now this is a most false Rule for a sin that is a very trifle if it be but an idle word vain thought petty oath any such thing as it may be committed may be a reigning sin and a path of the way that leads to eternal damnation according as the Person is that commits it and on the other side even a great sin for the matter of it should it be Murder and Adultery I instance in them because they both met in David possible it is that the things may so fal out that these may be but infirmities therefore remember that is a corrupt Rule and all you that please your selves with this that God keeps you from the great abhominations you are no Whoremasters you keep not a Harlot and you are no Cozeners nor Cheaters in your Trade though it may be your Oaths are Faith and Troth and prittle prattle and slighting of holy Duties you wil have these things pass for infirmities No you wil see this is no Rule That is one remember you must not judge of infirmities from the matter but only from another Rule which I wil give you and that is this 2. Whosoever can but rightly judge of an infirmity of the body hath a cleer Rule to direct him to an infirmity of the Soul Now all infirmities of the body they have all of them these three things constantly go with them The first is 1. They never are our choyce That that is our infirmity never
is our Choyce that I think I shal not need much to discourse of I have such an infirmity I want strength in me I strength in my Limbs in so much as if any body say Come pra'y will you walk If I walk I must halt every step I go But would you have it so Do you make choyce of it to be so Now there is a mans infirmity he never makes any choyce of it Though it is possible in spiritual things there may be something of the wil in temptations yet no man ever saith Lord give me leave to be a Deceiver or a proud man and the like No if it be an infirmity we never make choyce of it Secondly 2. If it be an Infirmity it is perpetually a burden and according to the nature of it so the burden is greater or lesser And so a man that hath an infirmity in his body if it be in a noble part his Eye Oh! it is a great burden to him if his infirmity be in a very useful part in his Foot every step he takes goes to the heart of him if it be an infirmity in his breast where the Lungs lie Oh! that is a wonderful burden According as the part or faculty is useful so a weakness there is accordingly a proportionable burden So now wheresoever any Child of God hath any passions any corruptions stirring in him to hinder him in his enjoyment of God or walking with him they are his greatest burdens in the world no affliction goes so neer to a man that hath given up himself to walk in the way to Heaven as that that keeps him from walking in the way to Heaven that interrupts his peace and disturbs him in that way So if it be thy infirmity the Soul chuseth it not Secondly It is a burden unto it And then the third is 3. That in an infirmity alwaies there is a desire of curing it that though beforehand I may know I can never cure it totally yet if I can but cure it so as to be less burdensome if I could cure it wholly whatsoever it cost I would yet if not cure it wholly yet to keep it under So here every Child of God whose end is God whose way is Gods word he finds his flesh that that hinders him he cannot walk in it doth he make nothing of it No it is his dayly practice to crucifie it to put off the Old man with all the lusts of it No Chyrurgion more desirous to mortifie a member that must needs be cut off than a Saint is to draw out the life blood of every corruption he bears about him And truly because I see the time hath so prevented me that I shal be hindred I would else have stopped here and made some Application of this but I wil only beg of you because I am in the next question to open a great deal of comfort to every Child of God I beg of you for the Lords sake deceive not your selves about it think not that all that shal be spoken of Christs being a relief against the corruptions of his people wil reach you you that sel your selves to unrighteousness you that would not be made clean and have no mind that the Lord should rend your Harlot from you but your credit and reputation you must have whether it wil stand with Gods or no Flatter not your selves to think that the Blood of Christ wil be your Propitiation and that he appears for you No you have nothing to do with him you choose your waies of sin and the Text hath told you a little before That if any man talk of Communion with God and with Christ and walk in darkness that man is a Lyar and hath no truth in him But if any of you your Consciences bear witness to what I have delivered that your heart is in Gods way Gods word is your way your aim is at it every day in every thing only you are surprised you want light and strength and ability to stand it out when you are put to it Now for that come we to the second Question and that is Secondly To shew you how the Lord Christs Intercession in Heaven is a sufficient relief to al his Children against all their corruptions they bear about them And I know before I enter about it I may say in so great an Assembly all those that are the Lords they wil much more desire to have a relief about their corruptions than about the greatest afflictions that betide them in all the world For I know no such evil that the people of God lie under as their sins in their own apprehensions Now then the Question is How doth the Lord Jesus Christ's being in Heaven serve as a relief to Gods people under their many infirmities And to that I shal bring my Answer to two Heads according as I laid down two sorts of infirmities I told you there is one sort of infirmities that is not common to all nor to any of Gods people unless when wofully deserted Now the Question to that is Quest. 1. What is the Intercession of Jesus Christ unto the Saints under such abhominable fals What Relief is the Intercession of Christ to David when he lies in Adultery To Peter when he denies his Master and to others when they fal into the like sins What is the interecession of Christ to them Answ. That I shal dispatch very briefly and I will lay you down what I have found to be the Lords mind in these two Conclusions First 1. That during the time that any of the Lords people do rant after that maner against him fal in that way against him the intercession of Christ is so far from affording comfort to them that it is the greatest aggravation of their sins and Christs being related to them and so their being related to him doth make their sin beyond al measure sinful that is the first Now a child of God turning rebell against his Father while he lies under this rebellion the intercession of Jesus Christ indeed our selves know upholds him and grace wil bring him home as I shal speak by and by but during that time he is interdicted al communion with God through Jesus Christ. Many are the evidences I could give you of it in the Scripture what was Ephraim God saith he is his dear Child but if he joyn himself to Idols let him alone saith he let him alone he is joyned to Idols let him alone I wil meet him as a Bear robbed of her whelps I will meet him as a Lion or as a Leopard I wil tear the very Caul of his heart And the Prodigal all the while he had run away from his Father and wasted his goods amongst his harlots his Father lets him alone let him starue and giue up the Ghost he never inquires at al after him and had I time I could shew you abundance of particulars to make this good that the Lords People when they fal
Sense what is Adoption I describe it thus It is a gracious Sentence of God the Father who cals sinners if Beleevers his Sons for Christ's sake I give you this short description That it is a gracious Sentence of God the Father whereby he doth call Beleevers though sinners yet he cals them his Sons for Christs sake the very Scripture language We are called Sons but yet I think a little plainer take this It is a gracious work of God whereby he doth take poor sinners who beleeve in Christ into that Glorious Condition of being his own Children All this will by and by be more plain when I come to shew you what it comprehends in it but the Lord of his free Grace when he hath brought home a Soul to make it accept of Christ to be its Savior then doth he how unworthy soever that Wretch be he takes him into the condition of his own Children That is the first and I am the shorter in it because the next wil explain it more The second Question is this 2. What is this work of Adopting or how is it done and therein I humbly crave your best attention because I know to you that are the Lords I am opening the most glorious Priviledg that Christ Jesus hath bought with his blood for you and it wil be wel worth your understanding how we that are Children of Wrath come to be made the Children of God I Answer you then First 1. In general The Adopting of a Soul to be a Child of God is so high a work that the whol Trinity the Father the Son the Holy Ghost every one of the three Persons have their distinct work in Adopting a poor Sinner to be the Child of God nor is any man upon Earth ever made the Child of God til al those three works of the Trinity have passed upon him so great a matter is it to be made Gods Child And this wil I open to you in the second place 2. What the several works of the blessed Trinity are in making a poor unworthy sinner to become the Child of God First 1. The work of the Father God the Father what is his work in our Adoption It stands in two things you will find them cleerly if you do but study the Scriptures The first is 1. From all Eternity the Lord did choose them to be his Children that when he did first pitch upon them if I may speak of any thing that is first which is eternal but when the Lord pitched upon poor Creatures and chose them to life he chose them to be his Children as you have it in Ephes. 1. verse 5. He hath predestinated us to the Adoption of Children that although he himself had a naturally and only begotten Son every way pleasing and delightful to him yet besides this only begotten Son would he have other Children who with that Son should enjoy him and serve him and under that notion he chose to make them his Children Not only so but 2. When he gave them to Christ which was likewise a work from all Eternity When the Lord gave these to Jesus Christ whom he chose to be Sons he gave them to him under the notion of Brethren These are to be thy Brethren I give them to thee to compleat the work which I have chosen them to which is to be my Sons and therefore it is said in that place of the Hebrews That because the Children were partakers of Flesh and Blood that is those that the Lord had chosen and looked upon as Children he that was their Surety must partake of Flesh and Blood So there is the Fathers work that from all Eternity he taketh a poor Creature and saith This shal be my Son and he gives him to his Son Christ These I give as thy Brethren to thee to bring them to the enjoyment of me There is the work of the Father this I hope is plain Then Secondly 2. There is a work of Jesus Christ What is that The work and Office of Jesus Christ in the point of Adoption that likewise stands in two things The First is 1. He was to purchase their Sonship for them for though the Father would give it them freely it should cost them nothing yet Christ being made their Surety he must purchase it for them so that the Lord although he was the Heir of all things yet he condescends by his own Blood by his own Sufferings by himself being made a Curse He condescends to purchase adoption for those that were given him to bring to life This is plain in Gal. 4. where iâ— is said When the fulness of time was come God sent his own Son born of a Woman made under the Law that we might receive the adoption of Sons that our Adoption as it flows from Christ is the price of his Blood that is one of the works that Christ doth The second is this 2. That when the acceptable hour is come that the Lord is pleased to bring a Sinner home to Christ Christ is applied to him as a Brother that when they are brought to Christ by Faith Christ cometh to be applied to them as their elder Brother not only as a Redeemer that hath satisfied God and purchased for them but when he is made over to them he is made over to them in his Sonship as wel as in the rest of his works so that as our justification ariseth from Christs righteousness being applied to us so our Sonship arising from Christ as the Son being the only begotten Son of God and our elder Brother is applied to us Yea I tel you this application of Christ in his Sonship to the Saints is so neer and so close that although he be the only begotten Son of God the first born the Heir of all things yet by vertue of his application unto Beleevers they likewise come to be called by God himself his first born These are high things but the Scripture is cleer in them for so you read it in the latter end of Heb. 12.23 where it is said that we are come to the new Jerusalem to an innumerable company of Angels to the general Assembly and to the Congregation of the first born whose names are written in Heaven that all they that are called home to Christ by reason of their conjunction to their elder Brother they are the first born of God and the Lord speaks thus of all his Saints in that place of Exod. in that sense I am speaking Go saith he to Pharoah tel him Israel is my Son What Son My first born he is my first born because Israel was comprehended in Christ and Christ looked upon as his Brother Israel is Gods first born So here are two of the works of the Trinity in our Adoption the work of the Father in chusing us to it and giving us to Jesus Christ as his Brethren the work of the Son is in purchasing this great priviledg by his Blood and when the time
but commend it now to you in a few words be not you deceived about it I pray do not all of you take this for granted now I have opened so glorious a Priviledg that every one of you because you are called Christians are all made the Sons and Daughters of God take heed you be not deceived you see it is a mighty work of the whol Trinity to make it and therefore your own fancy and conceit will not give you a share in it No it is here as it is in Saintship many a man is owned as a Saint yea and ought so to be owned by them that converse visibly with him and yet God wil not own him but look upon him as a Devil as he did upon Judas So it is with Adoption there is a visible kind of Adoption that men partake of when they visibly own the Covenant and I think this is the sense the Apostle speaks of when they demand what Priviledges the Jews had above others very much to them belongs the Adoption that is visibly they were owned as Gods people in the face of the world and yet I tell you when many of them came and pleaded their adoption and said God is our Father saith Christ to them The Devil is your Father and you do the works of your Father the Devil So you may say when you come home after the Sermon here is a great priviledge indeed are wee Gods Children I you may say so but God wil say to you you are of your Father the Devil look to your hearts then and examine very much whether this be wrought in you and you shall need no other direction if you will be faithful for this I tel you is not the use I intend to insist upon therefore do but ask whether these works of the Trinity be passed upon you or no and chiefly that of the Holy Ghost Is the Holy Ghost come to dwel in you to unite you to Christ Doth the Holy Ghost work a Childs heart in you Can you honor God and reverence him and turn to him And can you walk before God as obedient Children at least in the constant bent and tenure of your Souls You had best examin that if you wil conclude all is wel Now many force themselves How came you a Child of God By my Baptism as it is in the Catechism because you were once washed Oh! beware of these things it is a hard thing to know that you are the Children of God therefore be not deceived in it but this I say I purposely wave the entring into this because I cannot speak of it in so little a time but that which I wil open to you shal be but two Instructions that flow from this but are likewise very ful of consolation to all Gods People USE 2. Is this the Lot of al the Lords People all beleevers in Christ are they all made the Sons and Daughters of God Then I pra'y be informed of these two things First 1. The infinite love of God to poor sinners Brethren were I able to speak of it though I should borrow half an hour to speak it you could not grudge the time if I could speak of it as it deserveth it would astonish you Behold what love the Father hath shewed to us that we should be called the Sons of God saith the Apostle in 1 John 3. and the beginning Oh! here is love indeed God hath shewed a kind of Phylanthropia a love to man in many things but could we consider what love the Lord shews to a poor Soul when he doth but cal Child in the Covenant of Grace I am assured it would make you all be swallowed up in admiration I wil open it in three things 1. What is the love that God the Father shews 2. The love that God the Son shews 3. The love that God the Holy Ghost shews to thee a poor sinner who beleevest when each of them have this work upon thee as to make thee his Son 1. As for God the Father Was it not a strange love that made him from al Eternity choose thee to be his Child especially this love wil swallow thee if thou wouldest but take in these three Considerations First 1. His Majesty How great and Glorious a Majesty he is that He should condescend This Glorious Majesty could condescend after this manner And Secondly 2. To whom To thee a Worm if he looked upon thee at the best as a thing made of a piece of Clay that hast a heart ful of enmity against him And Thirdly 3. If we could but take in upon what motives or considerations the Lord hath done it for if we mark it Amongst men when any mortal man hath at any time Adopted one to be his Child it was because either they had no Child or no Child that pleased them or because they would perpetuate their Name that their name might continue after them or because there was some worth or excellency in the person that might be an honor to them some such things as these have led all mortal men when they Adopted any to be theirs but why did God chuse thee Did he want a Child Had not he a Son from everlasting Is his comfort increased by it I remember the Romans said It was an imitating of Nature found out for the Solace of the Father But didst thou Solace God Did he need any No but meerly out of his good will to thee and as for the perpetuating his Name thou addest not to it so that it is meer mercy and meer Grace to thee and me and whomsoever he hath set his Heart upon that the Father would condescend after this manner And 2. Is it any less in Christ Jesus the Son of God That he would die to purchase Coheirs with him Amongst men this is not usual an Heir is seldom troubled that he hath no more Brethren and Sisters to share in his Inheritance he is rather afraid that there should be too many to get some of it away from him but that the Son of God when this was his Inheritance from all Eternity should be come in the form of a Servant die undergo the wrath of God to this end that he might purchase poor worms to be Coheirs and a Brother with himself and that he would likewise give himself to thee as a Brother that thou shouldest be one mistically with him And in the Third place 3. The Holy Ghost That he would condescend to come and dwel in thee to unite us to Christ to alter frame our cursed natures and as need shal require to be a constant supplication of comfort and refreshing to us Oh Brethren these things surpass the thoughts of man utterly surpass them but could we ponder them seriously we would say Oh Lord Who am I that thou shouldest remember me it would make us so settled upon the love of God and I the rather press it because when a Servant of God is but perswaded
had a little Oyl in the bottom of a Cruse and a handful of meal in the bottom of a Barrel and she and her Son did live upon it for as many years as the Famine lasted I warrant you that poor Woman would not have taken a hundred pound for it So that poor soul that can say I bless God he hath raised me up from my low condition and I have abundance of the world about me but I know Christ is more dear to me than all the world I know my prayers are to him for life and I hang upon him as wel as I can for life and look for it no where else and I dayly apply my heart to him in that poor measure his Spirit enables me I tel thee poor soul he hath given thee Jehoiakims portion and the richest food for manna was Angels meat this the Angels nay pardon me God never created any creature in the world to tast of this but every poor soul how wretched soever that lives upon Christ feeds upon â—t I pray meditate upon this at home and the Lord help you to ruminate upon this in secret Is it so Lord that the poor soul that casts himself upon Christ is thus made one with him Surely I wil never take care how it is in the world with me God hath provided wel for me my Lot is fallen in a very good place And Lastly USE 3. For Exhortation I shal make but one Use and that shal be in the very words of our blessed Savior when he begins this Doctrine in this John 6. ver 27. when they came and flocked after him for the Loaves saith Christ to them Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endures to eternal life This Counsel of Christ I would a little press to you though I borrow half a quarter of an hour forgive me for it is for your good First saith Christ 1. You seek me for the loaves labor not for that Friends we are all cumbred as our Saviour said to Martha in Luke 10. the latter end Martha Martha thou art carefull and cumbred about many things So we are cumbred all of us about many things some of us are cumbred how to get more wealth some of us cumbred how to dispose of the wealth we have got we are cumbred about our places offices and these worldly things hurry us up and down we can hardly come into any place but all the peoples talk is no body is at leisure but full of business and what is it for the meat that perisheth all that thou laborest for is perishing perishing money pershing wealth perishing honor perishing profit alas Freind in a very few daies all that thou laborest for wil not be worth one penny at least to thee and but over a little time to no body else perishing things not worth your seeking the Lord knows they are not they that the world comes in most upon and all that their hearts can wish comes in with ease it is not one hours content it is but meat that perisheth but now labour saith he for the meat that endures to eternall life here is meat worth your labouring for I appeal to all your consciences that have heard the Sermon whether this meat be not worth the labouring for whether to get an interest in Christ to hunger after him to long for him to rely upon him Is not this worth the seeking Oh! seek it and to encourage you 2. I wil tel you what our Savior adds in verse 27. Labor for that meat that endures to everlasting life saith he the Son of man he gives it you that is you have no promise if you labor for the things of this world How many are those that toyl and moyl and cark and care most for the world and it wil not come upon them many a man sits up late and riseth early and manages his business discreetly and yet it wil not come but God hath engaged himself by a Promise that he that seeks the bread of life shal have it that if thou canst but pour out thy soul Lord leave me not destitute of Christ he wil not deny the Son of man to thee But lest some-body should further add Give it me Why should he give it me What is there in me that the Son of man should be given me Why should I think the Lord Christ would give me this food If I ask that he ads For him hath God the Father Sealed that is I came into the world under a sealed Office to do the wil of my Father and the work that my Father hath sealed to me made my work to do is To give eternal life to those that seek it He can as wel deny himself and deny that he is sent from God and his Office as to deny the bread of life to a soul that unfainedly labors for it Wil not this do it The Lord bless it and give you to consider what I have said and win all our hearts to study that Jesus Christ may be more in our thoughts FINIS SELF-DENIAL Opened in a SERMON At St. Mary Spittal March 26. 1649. Matth. 16 14 and so forward Then said Jesus unto his Disciples if any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his Life shal lose it And whosever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul THe occasion of this speech of our Savior was this he had a little before told his Disciples what great things he was shortly to suffer at Jerusalem whereupon Simon Peter begins to rebuke his Master for admitting of such a Melancholly thought Far be it from thee to imagine that God will ever suffer thee to undergo such sad things as these are Master pitty thy self if there be any danger take a course to avoid it Our Savior therefore replies to Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me this is nothing but the savor of the things of the world that makes thee give me this wicked counsel having rebuked Peter he turns to al his Disciples and utters this speech that I have read wherein our Lord strikes at the Root of that which made Peter give him that carnal counsel for the Lord knew it was nothing but unmortified self in Peter and he wel saw that it would bring the like bitter fruits in all in whom it was not Crucified and therupon gives them that counsel that is contained in those three verses that I have read to you wherein there are these two things First 1. Here is a Lesson necessarily to be practised by all Christs Disciples in these words If any man wil be my Disciple Let him deny himself Take up his Cross And follow me that is the Lesson Secondly 2. Here is
enough to go through with the building and then when he hath gone as far as he can and spent all that he hath the building is unfinished and himself is laughed at Or a King that goes to war-fare and doth not cast up what the War wil cost him and whether he have strength enough to go through with it when he is ingaged in it then he is fain to make shameful conditions and come off dishonorably and basely because he thrust himself into a War that he was not able to go through with So saith Christ wil it prove with you if any man undertake the work of being my Disciple and hath not brought his heart to this resolution to deny himself in whatsoever may be called himself that man wil never hold out if a storm come or if it he be ever put to it Then the next Parable tels you that he wil live but an unsavory profession he may be Salt without any savor that is good for nothing not so much as good to be cast to a dunghil and that wil be the upshot of all the Christians in the world that list themselves under Christ Jesus and have not learned this lesson of self-denial That one Text is proof enough of it but the main thing that I aim at in the Doctrinal part is to try if by the Lords assistance I may make you understand what this same self denial is and wherein it stands and so there are two things that I shal bestow the best part of an hour upon First 1. In shewing you what is meant by self what is that self that must be denied Secondly 2. What is this denial of a mans self or when doth a man do that which Christ Jesus cals denying of himself First 1. We wil enquire what is meant by self and the rather you must enquire into it because there is a self that a man must not deny there is a self that we must bring with us to Christ we must not leave that behind us we must give our selves to the Lord The Apostle saith in Rom. 6. We must save our selves in Acts 2. Peter exhorted his hearers Save your selves there is a self that we must watch over and attend to Attend to your selves So that if there be a self that must be saved and brought to Christ and preserved it is necessary to enquire what the Lord means by that same self that must be denyed Now that I may make this plain to you I must carry you a little further back Then the present condition that we are all now in in our sinful state and I beseech you bend your best attention for a while while I endeavor to cleer this to you Know therefore thus That when the Lord did at first make man he gave unto man a Soul and a Body and excellent endowments and accomplishments to both of them he gave man likewise the Creatures all the works of his hands but though man had all these things to use yet man had no portion but God God alone was the Portion of mans Soul he might use his Understanding use his Wil his Wit his Reason his Parts his Wife his Estate use them all but enjoyed nothing at all but God God was the whol portion of man as man stood in the state of integrity But now assoon as man fel off from God by sin when I say he sinned against God man did immediately leave God for his portion cease to make God his portion and having forsaken God as his portion now he made himself his own portion and the greatest good that he hoped for or looked for was himself for the time to come and therein indeed fulfilled the Devil's speech that if you eat of such a Tree you shal be as Gods so we became Gods to our selves immediately upon our fal and ever since that man did come to fal into himself to settle as it were upon his own bottom and to rest upon his own Center and now since that time all other things good or bad that might be any waies conducible to man to nourish that self-sufficiency that he had conceived in himself and expected in himself presently man maketh use of all these but though he useth them all as means he rests in none of them as his end but himself is the end of all This is the true state of man so that by self is meant that self-sufficiency that portion that lost man did find after he had departed from God But to make you understand this a little more fully be pleased to know that every man in the world though he have but one comprehensive self yet this self hath four branches and if you wil you may cal them so many selves though indeed they are but one yet there is a quaternity in it First 1. There is a sinful self 2. There is a natural self 3. There is a worldly self 4. There is a religious self Give me leave to explain all these to you I say First 1. There is that that we cal a sinful self not that the other selves are not sinful but we call this sinful because it is materially sinful this is not only sinful the others are sinful in the use but this that I mean by the first it is materially sinful and that is the body of corruption the body of lusts and corruption which every man in the world hath in him from his Mothers womb You shal find that to be called our Self in many places of Scripture in Collos. 2.5 saith the Apostle there Mortifie your earthly members mark you they are our members And what are they Fornication Uncleanness evil Concupiscence Covetousness Anger Wrath Malice Lying all these Cursed lusts doth he call our members and in the next verse cals it the old man and our Savior Christ cals our beloved lusts our right Eye or our right Hand or our right Foot There is one branch of Self the body of corruption Secondly 2. There is another Self that is called natural Self and by it I understand the Soul and the Body and all the endowments and Ornaments of them our wisdom our Learning our Will our Love our Joy our Fear our Strength our Beauty all these that make up the Person that you or I do bear with all the natural endowments or accomplishments that you al know to be Self and that the world commonly understands by Self Thirdly 3. Every man hath in him likewise that that is called a worldly Self by that I mean al the relations that man stands in to the Creature and all the interest that he hath in the Creature as for example our Wife our Children our Estates our Trades our Lands our Revenues our Offices Now that this is called a mans self the Text is plain for it in this Text where Christ speaks of denying a mans self he makes the world a piece of a mans self and in Luke 14. where he would have a man forsake
and apostacy that is sound amongst Christians I observe and it is an observation that many have made that in the primitive times of the Church when death and ruine was visibly to be expected by any one that would imbrace Christ then it would be hard for any man to enter upon Christianity until he had resolved upon this lesson because they took it for granted I go to poverty I go to hanging I go to stoning I go to beggery if I go to Christ and therefore they had need see so much in Christ that they might be willing to part with all for him and yet even then our Savior Christ noted that a great many came in upon false grounds but now after the name of Christian Religion hath obtained in the world and men are made Christians from their mothers womb I mean in an outward form that assoon as we have a Child born we say it is born a Christian and then we go and Baptize it as a Christian and then when it cometh to Church it hears Sermons as a Christian and then as it grows up and gets a little more knowledg it comes to the Lords Table as a Christian and so men are made Christians by piece-meals and they know not how but the Lord knows mavelous few amongst them ever understood any thing at all of this Point of self-denial that if amongst such a great Assembly as here is if a man in Gods name should come but to enquire and say Are you a Christian Yes Do you follow Christ I And are you his Disciples in truth I hope so Pray have you denied your self Have you learned the Lesson of self-denial God he knows they know nothing of the meaning of it as they say it is heathen Greek to them they are unacquainted with it Wel Friends know you for certain that you may be bred Christians bear the name of Christ make a profession of Christ hear Sermons of Christ partake of the Sacraments of Christ and do a thousand things that may outwardly speak you to be the Servants of Christ and in the mid'st of all these you may be as far from being his Disciples in truth as they were that crucified him and if ever the Lord come but to dispose of you and come to cal for that same beloved Self of thine whatsoever it be that thou must turn it out of door the world shal quickly know that thou never didst receive Jesus Christ in sincerity I am perswaded that so many of you as have but ordinary understandings in the Book of God wil be able to Judg if you compare my Doctrine with the lives of most men You wil say Either this that you have preached is not Gospel or we are not Christians there are very few of us that ever learned this Lesson therefore I desire you before I go any further every one a little to try his own soul what evidence he hath of this Lesson wrought in him you cal your selves the servants of Christ I beseech you examin Have you ever denied your selves I do not ask now whether you have learned a particular Lesson to deny your Credit or your Wil at this time or the other time but this same putting off this old Self this renouncing of thy self hast thou ever learned that and among a great many trials I wil pray you at the present but to weigh these two Considerations First 1. In the presence of God tel me what doest thou weigh in the Ballance This is somwhat a blunt question but it is that that wil mightily determine the case Tel me in the sight of God what doest thou weigh in the ballance my meaning is this I know thou knowest what thou art and what thou hast thou knowest thy self it may be to be a Scholler a wel bred man it may be a great Magistrate it may be of a great estate it may be a great name it may be an honest man it may be an unblameable conversation it may be cried up as one of the eminentest men in the City where thou livest looked upon by all the City and neighborhood as a rare man and it may be al this is true But tel me what doest thou weigh in Gods sight That God that knows how thou esteemest thy self can determine this question Wel thus plainly Art thou one that carriest such thoughts as these there is such and such and such they are great Professors I thank God I am as good a man as any of them all I am sure I have a better estate than they I am sure I have more honesty and as good a wit as they and I can set out my foot by any man let any man detect me I thank God I am not as a great many others are and thus thou judgest of thy self Alas poor soul thou art very far from Christ Jesus But now if God wil bear witness with thy soul that in the mid'st of al these thou sayest I am indeed I am it may be a learned man or a great man or a rich man or a Schollar and the like and I have lived honestly and God hath kept me from many notorious wicked waies that others have walked in but alas what am I for al this a poor undone Creature a worthless Craature not only my lusts but my Prayers my Sermons that I preach or hear my duties that I perform God help me I am a base Creature if God look not upon me in Christ Jesus I have no one thing to commend me to God nothing that ever I had nothing that ever I did is of any worth I loath it all Oh! if God would give me Christ I am wel but for other things I have nothing there is the man the soul that weighs nothing in the ballance is nothing hath denied himself he hath sold himself he saith indeed I am worth nothing Why Is not this house yours It was but I have sold it and spent the mony too God help me so I had these things but alas they are not worth a Groat they are wotrh nothing my worth is this if I have hope in Christ I am wel if not I am lost Ask but thy soul that Secondly 2. Tel me for that fourth branch that I named because I know if thou hast but any face of Christianity thou darest not own those that are known Lusts known Corruptions thou endeavorest to mortifie them but I wil insist only upon that fourth branch Dost thou with all that thou hast look upon thy self as one that is Christs Baylif and Steward he hath laid up thy portion for thee he measures out thy wealth for thee and for him thou livest and for him thou givest that that thou hast and that that thou art and that that thou doest thy honor thy estate thy life thy wealth if Christ may have any service from them by them through them here they are thou tenderest them to him with all thy soul if the Lord have
goes down to tread upon the Devils shoulders to exalt it self to tread upon the world to exalt it self to tread upon Gods shoulders to exalt it self any thing that may exalt it self they are so opposite that it is impossible they should both close Thus far indeed a man that hath made Self and self-interest his portion that man may keep a marveilous fair quarter with Religion as a learned man handling this very Doctrine I am preaching of useth this comparison saith he Those men whose interest is to maintain their own greatness they will entertain those that are cal'd the wits of the time the pleasant Companions the Drols they wil entertain them bid them welcom be glad of them though it be some cost to them it is a part of their grandour it maintains their greatness to have such and they are as welcome to them as any body in the world but if any of these wits or pleasant Companions shal come to engage this man and say pray Sir be you bound with me for ten thousand pound Sir you are welcome to my house and your Horse is welcom but Sir you must pardon me he wil throw him off rather than do so So a man may entertain Christ while hearing of Sermons and discoursing of Religion is only an Ornament to a man a man that is of a selvish spirit may cordially entertain him so far but so as to hazzard their own undoing for Religions sake for Christ's sake to bring me to beggary it may be to hang me upon a Gallows to throw me out of my Office to overthrow my Trade wholly to throw these away no man living can entertain Christ so far It was a notable speech of the King of Navarre that afterwards was Henry the fourth of France The King of Navarre was a Protestant and owned the Protestant cause but his eye was upon the Crown of France to which he knew he was Heir and hoped to come to it and when Beza and the other Protestants did press the King of Navarre to appear cordially in the cause of God saith he I am yours I wil go with you but I promise you I will go no further to Sea than I may come to Land if a storm rises his meaning was he would never hazzard the loss of the Crown of France for the Protestant Religion and so he fared accordingly and truly so may it be now Thou maiest tel Christ after a complemental manner Lord thou art mine it is my honor to be thy servant I delight to hear thy word preached and worship thee in my Family I rejoyce in it all this fair quarter maiest thou keep but beleeve it if the Lord have not taught thee to renounce thy self when Christ shal come to try thee throughly thou wilt honor him just as you shal find in the Story and it is worth your observation in 1 Kings 20. you have such a Story as this is Benhadad the King of Syria sendeth to Ahab King of Israel such a Letter as this saith he Thus saith Benhadad All that thou hast is mine thy Wives and thy Children are mine thy Gold and thy Silver is mine and al is mine Ahab very loth to quarrel with him returns him a very fine complement My Lord saith he all that I have is at your service all is thine Well Benhadad sendeth next day Wel saith he whereas I sent to thee that all is mine that thou hast I wil send my Servant for to seize upon it while he only talked of it Ahab would own it my Lord all is thine But when to morrow I wil send my servants and they shal seize upon it then he cals his Counsellors See you how this man picks a quarrel with me what a fair answer I sent to him and now he would seize upon all So if Christ come to thee til thou hast learned self-denial and say here I wil lay thee down here thou shalt lose thy credit or thy Conscience peace with me or peace with men thou canst never close with Christ cordially till thou hast learned this lesson And then Thirdly and Lastly for my Motives 3. Know for certain If the Lord have but once taught thee this Lesson there is nothing in all Christianity wil be difficult to thee all the waies of Christ will be as plain as a Bowling-Alley whatsoever thou art called too I know I speak a great word but I bless God I speak not unpreparedly in it all the waies of Christ wil be as plain as a Bowling-Alley to thee if the Lord have but once taught thee to turn Self out of doors thy work wil be brought only to these two Heads 1. One part of it to learn to know what Gods wil is concerning thee what he would have thee do or what he would have thee suffer And 2. The other wil be but to seek strength of him that thou maiest not in thy own power go about it but be supported by him but otherwise all objections and difficulties are removed if Self be but once turned out of doors Why Because all the difficulties in the waies of Christ ariseth from Arguments taken from Self only either this will be against my honor or here I must part with such a pleasure or here my estate may hap to be crack't or here this may hazzard my life or this may deprive me of my Children or this may cut me off from my Friends or this may expose me to scorn some such thing or other comes in but otherwise when a man hath no such thing to take care for I have no honor nor credit nor wife nor Children nor friends I regard the Lord is my portion I live upon him I drink water out of that Cisterne and I care for no other when the soul hath but once learned that it is but with him as it was with Paul saith he I go bound in the spirit to Jerusalem and I profess I know not what I shal meet withal saith one then I will tel you what you shal meet withal the Holy Ghost saith the Jews shall bind you and Scourge you and Whip you and send you to Rome and what then they all fal a Weeping for and about him saith he why break you my Heart What care I to die at Jerusalem when it is the work of the Lord he had no self to regard he had turned self out of doors and all the waies of Christ were easie to him and God knows this passage was one of the motives that made me choose this Theam before this grave Auditory Truly our times are extream Ticklish and dangerous and the wisest man under Heaven knows not what wil betide him whether it fals back or edge no man can tel what will become of him nor what to meet withal and a great many wise men are perplexed to know what to do now I tel you if the Lord do but teach you to deny your selves to lay aside all that may be called self
you will have no great difficulty not in these difficult times but only to know what God would have you do that you may not go out of the right way for want of light that you may not ingage in sinful actions for want of councel you wil pray to God to make your way plain but as for other difficulties whether you shal stand or fal Live or Die it would be no great trouble to you if God had but once taught you to deny your selves Nay you will not only be prepared for the worst times to come but for all services you shal be called to It is a good observation of a learned man That all the men that ever have been eminently serviceable either in matters of the Gospel I mean in Duties of Religion or eminent if it have been in a Christian way in matters of Charity or Justice or in being faithful Patriots they have been men that have little regarded themselves that have not greatly regarded what they were talked of how they were valued or esteemed or what was like to betide them but only men that were willing to be publick sacrifices if need were and those men have done the best service if any other So in the greatest Services you may be possibly called to suffer turn but Sarah aside now when Abraham must go to Sacrifice his Son Sarah shal not know of it and then Abraham can do it well enough for he had learned to follow Gods will but Sarah would have Rung him another Peal So turn but self out of the way and you will be fit for any thing God shal cal you to But you will say Quest. How shall a man attain this Lesson What Arguments or what Rethorick can you use that you can expect ever to prevail with men to turn them off thus from themselves I wil tell you Answ. Not by any Humane Oratory in the world is this to be effected but it is the Lord it is the spirit of the Lord that doth it no man can come to me saith Christ except my Father draw him now in every coming there is a Terminus a quo and a Terminus ad quem the term that you must go from that is Self the term that you must come to that is Christ Now no man cometh from himself or cometh unto Christ til God Almighty draw him But what think you is Gods drawing It is nothing but the spirits perswading Gods spirit perswades them And what do you think the Spirit of God perswades them too that I now come to and afford me but one quarter of an hour for that and then God willing I shal have done The Spirit of God when it doth enable a soul thus to deny it self it doth perswade them of these two things which two things I would commend to you as your study The one is 1. The Spirit of God maketh him see what Self is and no man under Heaven longer cleaves to himself than he is deceived in himself for let him but once have but a true information of himself and he abominates himself presently That is one And then the second is 2. To make him see the excellency that is to be found in Christ the All-sufficiency that the soul may find in Christ and when they see their present portion worth nothing and that that is offered to them to be every way satisfrctory then doth the soul readily renounce the one and close with the other so that then if you would get out of your self and renounce your self 1. Study to know thy self study but to know who thou art in any of all these things that I have spoke of know but thy self I confess it wil not be a short study but I commend it to you and the Lord help you that you may study it I say know who thou art First 1. What thy Lusts are for I tel you while a man is in his natural estate his Lusts are very excellent Ornaments to him it is a brave thing to many a man to think what a proud spirit he hath how he can rant it and tread all his Neighbors under foot and that he can go from one filthy pleasure to another that pleases him Study to know what thy sins are and who thou art that art a sinner 2. Study to know what the World is thy Wife Honor Estate Friends Liberties Study to know them 3. Study to know thy Righteousness thy Honesty thy Prayers thy Duties that thou art so prone to magnifie thy self for and to make a bottom to stand upon labor to know them and thou wilt have enough of them as I beseech you conceive me thus Suppose a deluded young man were in love with some beautiful Woman as he takes her to be he takes her to be the paragon of beauty of all the Country and of good behavior and therefore he sacrificeth his State his Life his Parts his Wit and all to be her Servant imagine now that this Woman were some ugly deformed abominable strumpet that hath only painted her self and take her paint off she hath the horridest visage that a man can look upon and is all eaten up with loathsom Diseases shew this Man but this Woman in her own colors let him see her deformity he hath quickly enough then he loatheth himself for loving her Would the Lord therefore teach you but to take any of al these things and but to weigh them and study them and see what shadows what baubles what dreans what fancies the best of them all are I speak not now of your Swearing and Drunkenness and Whoring but I speak of your Pomp your Honor your Wealth your great Estates your Revenues your good Cloaths Nay I wil go higher your Prayers your Mercies your hearing of Sermons your Righteousness your Honesty if God would shew you what guilt what filth cleaves to them what venom is in them how little they wil stand your soul in stead in the day of tryal if God would teach you but to study these things aright certainly you would say Lord draw me from my self deliver me from my self that am the veriest monster that lives But especially 4. Study to know Christ Christ saith Let him forsake himself and follow me said his Disciples to him Lord we wil follow thee but what shal we have I wil tel you saith he you shal have a hundred fold more in this world besides in the world to come you shal have life everlasting that is in a word Thou shalt find in Christ all that that wil abundantly satisfie thy soul there is righteousness enough there is wisdom enough there is mercy enough there is goodness enough there is counsel enough there is honor enough thou canst not need so much as thou shalt find in Christ Rivers Seas Oceans of happiness in Christ study to know Christ and thou wilt follow him These things I thought good to press and purposed indeed to have pressed them larger but I know not
a Soul I have given thee a Soul and if thou beest mine Graces that one of them are more worth than all the Kingdomes of the world and what paines dost thou bestow upon the keeping them The Lord help you to ask your Souls the question whether this will not rise up sadly against you one day 2. Go to others and rise higher because the Body is higher than all these things Oh! what curiosity shal you find in many about keeping their bodies Alas I must keep my body saith one I am subject to colds and distempers and if once they be but bitten a little you shal hardly make them drink a Cup it wil hurt their Bodies yea they wil have their Cordials by them that shal cheer up their hearts O! how shal I live if I look not to it and this care I condemn not simply because it is an Utensil we should use for Gods Glory but I fear the bodies of most of you wil be a sad condemnation to the souls of most of you You shal never meet any of you in a Congregation but the body of you shal be tricked up as fine as you can which it ought to be But what have you done for your hearts Have you not left them at home Nay to go a little higher 3. How many are there that keep their very lives not only their bodies but their moral Conversations that look that they may be Sine crimine that nothing may turn as a reproach to them God forbid that my language should be otherwise than becomes a Servant of God God forbid that my Recreations should be such but what may be honorable to God and come to them and ask them seriously Are you the Servants of God Pray tel me Why can any body detect me No there is your care the issues of it shal be kept as far as thou canst keep it but what doth thy heart do Thy Tongue talketh righteouly thy Ears hear good discourse thy Eyes are in a comly deportment and so thy actions with men Justice Honesty Sobriety and other things shal not be found against thee and perhaps in the mean time thy very heart left to be a Cage for unclean Beasts and Birds The good Lord pitty us these things are very sad where did you ever read that the Lord said Keep your Shops above all keepings or your Bodies a-above all keepings or your Conversations above all keepings though I told you how far it is comely but for you to keep all these things and never look to your hearts is sad Nay there is one more that goes beyond all these 4. It is true you say true We were Wretches if we should look to our Goods and Bodies and not look to our Hearts I look to that every day I but Friend Do you look to it above all keepings And bestow more pains about it than about all things in the World besides pray deal faithfully in it for you must give an account to one that knows all things in the world but have you more studies desires and endeavors about that than about all things in the world No no Alas most of the people I converse with they do as some poor Tradesmen do wretched men that think that they have got a servant that they leave all to and now and then because they wil not let all run at randome look into the Shop and ask him Come What Do you keep your Cash right and is all right and so rest in him when all this while he is a Wretch and runs out of all and so is my heart wel is all wel there I I saith the heart and we beleeve it and put our trust in it and it is the arrantest Lyar in all the world I remember Solomon hath a notable Speech in the latter end of the Prov. Chap. 30. where he saith There are three things that are wonderful that I could never find out the way of them yea there are four of them the one is The way of the Ship in the Sea and that is hard to find for it leaves nothing that you may say here a Ship hath gone And another is The way of an Eagle in the Air and that hath many windings and turnings And another is The way of a Serpent upon a Stone and that leaves neither slime nor excrement that you cannot find which way it goes And the fourth is The way of a man with a maid which he interprets afterwards to be a lascivious maid who hath a wanton heart within that would deceive a hundred People you may add the heart of a man too for that wil tel you I have been at Prayer when it never prayed a word and I heard the word very wel and his heart was dead and asleep all the while Oh! Brethren it is hard for you to think with a few words thus to charm this deceitful wild Beast and you to have no care about it but God knows and man knows that you are real in your other keepings and slight in this I fear there is little in your heart that your self judg worth the keeping that you are so extream slight and loose about it Wel that is one I dare not stay longer upon it let it be a matter of rebuke and to help you to try and judg how things stand between God and you for if your hearts be as they ought to be you wil bestow more pains about them than about any thing in this world Secondly Another Use that I wil make of it which is a Use that Gods Children wil rejoyce in and that is USE 2. It is a Doctrine that affords abundance of Comfort I this very Doctrine though it may seem and doth carry just rebuke I beleeve to the best of all Gods Children in some degree to be humbled but withall it is a Doctrine of wonderful Consolation to all those whom God witnesseth with that their greatest care and study is to purge their hearts to have their hearts mended to have their hearts guarded and are most humbled and afflicted when it is not wel with the inward man though all other things go smooth with them yet it is not comfortable with them except they find the heart set right Godward this Doctrine speaks a world of Consolation to such poor Souls I am confident it is the Lot of the generation of Gods People that hear me at this time though it may be under a temptation they may lay all aside yet otherwise God knows their dayly work their greatest work their work of prayer and mourning is most about their hearts If you ask them How doth your Body better than my heart How do you perform your Duties wel outwardly but my heart is wretched I have a vile heart and there they make their study there they make their search there they make the matter of their mourning Now I would say to such Souls and dare affirm it with much boldness none but the Schollars that
of men when therefore the Lord saith that al are dead til Christ cometh certainly there is another Life besides that life that natural men enjoy Fourthly and lastly Abundantly in the Scripture wil you find this proved that upon the souls accepting of Christ they are said to be quickned They who were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned Read but the ten first verses of the 2d of the Ephesians and I know not how many other places there are Ye were dead ye were such but he hath quickned you and he that beleeveth in me saith Christ to Martha in John 11.25 though he were dead he shall live and living once he shal never die Doest thou beleeve this Then Christ being the Root of a Life it being the end of his undertaking that his people might have life and all men being dead before they come to him and quickned to life upon the receiving of him certainly then there is a life that they who have any interest in Christ do live which others are strangers from And let this suffice for the first And beloved though I shal not apply this alone yet I would count it a great fruit of this daies meeting if the very notion of it might but stick upon your hearts it would be of admirable consequence that if al of you would go home and say Certainly whatsoever I may think of my self if I be in Christ there is another life than that which I live yet and as you will hear if it please God a better life another manner of life than this is But that for the first The Second which it may be you wil more long for for I suspect not that you wil doubt the truth of the first is What is this Life what is it Now remember I taught you in one of my Preparatory Conclusions That it is not to be understood of this world and therefore pray expect not any cleer opening of it what it is but only so far as the Lord hath taught me out of his Word I shal communicate to you I wil give you this Description of it and then I will open it more expresly as I go along The Life that al Beleevers have from Christ it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon their union with him Pray mark it I shall make this plainer by and by I say That the Life of Christ that al the Saints partake of it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon the souls union with him Where there are these two things a little to be cleered First That all who do receive Christ are united to him and that is the foundation of their Life The Second is That upon their union they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of this righteousness is their life That is that I mainly intend to cleer That they are al united to him the Scripture is abundant in the proof of it It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory and we are one with him and he with us and he dwells in us by his spirit c. therefore it is cleer that we are united to him made one and this union it is nothing but the Lord Jesus sending his spirit into the soul as a band to knit him and them together that he be made their Root and Stock Now that I will not treat of because the very handling of it it is not only a great Mystery but it would take up more time than is to be allowed for the Sermon But Secondly Upon their Union with Christ they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of his Righteousness is our Life Mark I pray this because I hope it will give you some Light into this great Work for if you be Gods People I am only making you to see what your spirits are what your blood is what your pulse is and I shal speak of nothing but the things that are in you if you be the Lords I say The participation of Christs Righteousness that is our Life To this purpose be pleased to observe this one rule and mark it in your reading of the Scriptures of the new Testament especially How that Righteousness and Death are the two things that are opposed one to another Death and Righteousness That look as soon as ever man was a sinner he was a dead man presently he was dead under the sentence of Death In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and not dead only under the Sentence but dead as his sin deprived him of Gods Image Now as it is sin that is our Death so it is Righteousness that is our Life not our own which the Scripture disclaims but the Righteousness of Christ and you shal find several times in Rom. 5. where the Apostle compares the Death by Adam and the Life by Christ ordinarily he useth this expression That As sin reigned unto Death so righteousness by Christ unto Life stil opposing them our Death is sin our Life is righteousness I know the time will prevent me if I should stay upon that But therefore I wil proceed to that that I aim at the Righteousness of Christ the participation of Christs Righteousness You wil say What mean you by that I mean plainly this That our spiritual Death it hath two Branches that Tree of Death that deadly Stock hath two Branches and we are said to be spiritually dead in a two-fold respect The one is We are dead as we are under the sentence of Condemnation and that is our death of guilt being bound over by the righteous Judgment of God to make him amends for the injury we have done him and that sentence of condemnation is our death that is one branch in regard of our guilt The other branch of our spiritual death is Our state of death we are in as being deprived of the image of God wherein we were made and not only deprived of it but have contrary principles in al the faculties of the soul carrying us constantly to the things that are opposite to him In these two respects are all men and women in the world dead til Christ finds them Now Jesus Christ answerable to this hath a two-fold righteousness the participation whereof is our life First He hath a Righteousness of his Obedience which is inherent only in himself but is bestowed upon us imputed to us reckoned to us and by that righteousness performed by Christ and inherent in him and reckoned to us by the righteous sentence of God he delivereth us from the death that we are under the death of our condemnation under the sentence of death and so the Apostle expresseth it cleerly in Col. 2.12 13. Ye saith he who were dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened How forgiving you your trespasses In that place the pardoning and removing of our trespasses is the chief thing that is the quickning there intended So there is one a righteousness of Christ performed in our name accepted by God
in our stead and made over to us in the Covenant of Grace That is one Righteousness Secondly There is another Righteousness of Christ which is not only inherent in himself but is communicated to us so that it is wrought in us which is the righteousness of our Sanctification and it is that branch of our spiritual Life that this Text aims at for he did assert the other our quickning from the guilt of sin in al the former part of his discourse Now that no wretch may abuse it and say that then we may continue vassals to sin he proves it that Christs righteousness is communicated to us that is Christs Grace is infused into our souls and that is made up of these three things and I conceive there is nothing else in it but these three things The one is The Spirit of Jesus Christ that holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is communicated to Beleevers to dwel in them to be in them a principle of a new Life Secondly This holy spirit poured into the soul works in them in al the faculties of the soul those gracious dispositions wherein the Image of God stands which is light in the understanding freedom in the will love and fear and joy that is the turning of al these affections or passions to their right object habitually disposing them turning the bent of the heart from sin to God And then the third is This self same spirit that plants in them these Graces abides in them to excite them and stir them up and draw them out in their whol course to think and speak and do the things which in a kind of natural way flow from these inward principles and are a conformity to the Will of God and thereupon al the love of the Saints to God and one to another all their mourning for sin their striving against it all their endeavors after God they are motions of this new life that is wrought in us and this is the life now that all the Lords people do live while they are in this world The Spirit of Jesus Christ bestowed upon them working in them a new frame of heart turning the bent of their hearts to God and remaining as an exciting principle to draw out their graces and strengthening them in their working whereby their endeavor is in al things to live unto God according to his Will and this is that Life which my Text and other Scriptures call the Life of Christ and the Life of God which although it be perfect in none in this world but there are reliques of our old death in us and of our sinful distempers in us yet really and truly these things are found in every soul that is brought home to Jesus Christ. And let this I pray suffice for the Doctrinal part that without being burdensom to you I may make some application of it Thus then you see though I have not turned you to many particular Scriptures yet I know that if you do but read the Scriptures you wil find that this Doctrine it lies written upon the foreheads of abundance of Texts that thus it is with al Gods people Now then for the use of it I intend but three Uses it may be I shal but even name the last First You see by all this how necessary it is that you should al try and examine your souls Whether you be partakers of this Life or no And good friends be serious about it and to make you the more serious give me leave to stir you up by these few Considerations to be willing to have your hearts tried about it The one is That in truth this alone is Christianity mark my words and if you understand them not now study them There is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ nothing else that is truly Christianity Opinions they may be Christian Opinions they may be Christian Truths but there is no life As we say not of any dead Carkass of any Picture though it be drawn to the life we say not in proper language this is a man though it be as like him as one thing can be like another if it have not a mans soul we say not of a dead man though it be the body of your Father or Mother you cannot properly say this is my Father or Mother it is but the Carkass of them So I say be baptized be in any Church Form or Order wait upon never so many external Duties hear Sermons never so constantly give as good words as you will to those that preach the Truth and hold it out to you this is not Christianity Christianity is to live Christs Life and at that day you shall find the Lord will never own a soul to be a Christian that had not the Life of Christ communicated to him And Secondly I tel you to provoke you to it Abundance of things go for this Life which are not this life because it is the thing that discriminates Gods people from others Satan hath shewed infinite stratagems and discovered all his abilities laid them out that he might make counterfeits of these things that might go currant with people that he could delude Civil Righteousness in some it is not Christianity a form of Godliness in others it is not Christianity and abundance of things that I have not time so much as to reckon up but these are not Christianity though they look like it and therefore I beseech you but think how you could answer this great Question Doth Christ live in you have you the life of God in you The Life you live in this life is it the Life of the Son of God Think what you could answer to it Now if you wil say How shall we know it I wil briefly discover it to you for I will give you but two Characters of it many others might be had but two I would bestow a little time to cleer to you The one is Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a natural way the life is the preciousest thing in the world to that Creature howsoever it may mind other things delight in them be taken with them there is nothing so precious to it as life Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life and if you would suppose as the life of a man it is made up of several lives that that continues the being of his life it is prized above al the others if he wil be impaired in any of them it shal not be in that as neer as he can that concerns the being of his life Now accordingly say I you shal find it cleer that among al those that live the life of Christ there is nothing in this world so dear to them as their spiritual Life is it may be they are dayly mourning for the weaknesses of it but that that they have of it is dearer to them than any thing they have in this world besides and the high
found in any but those that have the Life of Christ there is no man else in this world but if Christ be Twelve to him there is somthing else that is Thirteen therefore ask your souls that find you that by some operations it may be you know not whence they come nor how they come in you but there is this fixed upon you there is no good to your souls but Christ let you enjoy God in Christ for your portion and that is that good your souls aims after you may tel others and I tel you that I do this and my heart may deceive me but if I examine my soul I can never say I do this truly unless the Life of Christ be in me Secondly Another Pulse wherein this Life constantly puts out is this That the things of Holiness they are connatural to him Holiness Righteousness to be gracious to be freed from sin to be filled with love and kindness and mercy and pity and these things there is a kind of natural making out of the heart towards these because look as it is in our outward man you know that the actions of eating and drinking and of a man no man shall need to learn them he may have arts that shall make him do them mannerly but to do the things they are natural they were born with him So now to be holy with God to be righteous in our conversation with men freed from sin to walk as the Lords redeemed ones to practice these things this is your life and therefore the Apostle Peter useth this very expression That we were redeemed by Christ that we should live to righteousness live to righteousness Now as a worldly man lives to his money another man to his wrath another man to his lusts these are the things his heart runs its circle in A gracious man the things of holiness and righteousness are the things that suit his spirit And then thirdly and lastly I wil name no more but bring it a little closer to you a third thing is That the Lord having made his Will to be the Rule of our Life and revealed this Will in his Word thereupon the soul that is alive unto Christ eyes the Word looks at the Word is guided by the Word the Will of God revealed in his Word that is his Card that is his Compass that is his Square that is his Meet-wand his eye looking to the Word as his only guide No man I dare affirm it though other things may come neer it but I dare affirm it that whosoever will study it shall find in this world doth any of these three things but he that hath the Life of Christ upon a serious debate to make Christ the good of his life to make the acts of holiness the things that his soul naturally makes after and for the directing of him in all to live as the Apostle saith not to the will of man or the will of the flesh but to the will of God that is to the Word of God to make Gods Word the Rule of all our actions in our bent and purpose here is the discovery of the Life of Christ and this is now to have Christ in you Now I beseech you Brethren tell me for I shall by and by dismiss you when I have made but one Use more I will leave the third what say your souls to these things Really leave al self conceitedness and apprehensions that you may have out of the Pride of your hearts of your own conditions what say your souls to these things I have opened have you now the Life of Christ I wil tel you Brethren if I had time to press it I had here a large Field to enter in and to shew you what worlds of people that go for Christians are yet utter strangers to the Life of Christ. I will name you a few that you may enlarge your thoughts of them when you are alone All they that know not Christ it is impossible that there should be a making of Christ their chief good where there is no knowledg of him There is no valuing of an unknown thing All ignorant persons are strangers to this life as the Apostle saith the Gentiles were strangers to the Life of God because of the ignorance that was in them If you know not Christ and his Excellencies you can never live in him Then al those that live to their lusts whose life is to be wanton unclean drunken prophane these live to the Devil the Devil lives in them they may say I live not I but the Devil lives in me And so thirdly All they that live to the world whose work that the genious of their heart carries them to from morning to night his wealth purchases buying trading c. there their soul fixes on them there they rest to the world they live And again All that live to their pleasures whose vivâ—re is bibere and the rest they eat and drink and sport and play and give them these and these are the things that make a happy life to them All these and abundance of others which I fear I should presume upon your patience if I should stand to innumerate but al these are cleerly proved to be destitute of this Life of Christ think of it Brethren think of it It is an easie thing let me tel you to be Christians as we cal it they are cheap things to hear Sermons cheap things to profess Religion in our daies wherein I think a long time there have not been fewer that mind it heartily yet abundance now pretend to it but to be alive to Christ to be able to say in this Life I have other business than what I have here below I have a Trade a Wife a Husband and Children but the Lord knows my Conversation is in Heaven my life is in Heaven it is Christ that lives in me they are few can say it and the Lord help you that you are not deceived about it And then the other Use that I will make of it is That this Lesson is a most comfortable Lesson for I do not doubt but the clearer any man speaks about these things of Gods Kingdom the more will the hearts of Gods people be able to joyn with him I fear not but many of you can say it is thus with you the Lord witnesseth that with you doth he not That there is nothing you have such an appetite after as the means of Grace and Salvation that you might live and that your hearts dread at the waies of sin and that if God put you to it you beg of God to be stripped of all rather than God should not be set up and that al your prayer is let God give me Christ God in Christ for my portion and that reverently not in a ranting way as if a lewd life could honor God as some rude people pretend to now but that I might be holy in this perverse generation especially in my
make all good to him according to his wisdom and faithfulness Thus you have heard a Christian ought to live by faith and I hope now you see what it is Now one Question more I must needs briefly speak to and that is this But may some say Do all that live the life of Christ live thus that this is excellent I will not dispute and that this is held out in the Word I doubt it not but will you make true Christianity fall within the compass of this and no further dare you affirm it that none live the life of Christ in this world but those that you have spoken of Now the Answer to this you shall have cleerly in these three things First It is true that even the Lords own people do somtimes too much live to the flesh there is flesh in the best somtimes they are under great temptations somtimes it may be under the sweetness of the Creature and flesh prevails and they walk by other rules so far as they are unregenerate so far as the true Genius of Christianity works not in them for we all know that as we live but in part so we live by faith but in part and too much Gods people fail in this But Secondly I answer That so far as we are Christians so far every man in the world be he strong or be he weak he lives according to these things I fear not to speak it positively that not one man living upon the Earth ought to own himself or any other to own him to live the life of Christ further than he lives according to this that I have set you down though they talk of them preach of them write of them if they practice them not and actually live according to these Rules they live not as Christians But thirdly I answer That many souls do live thus really live thus in their course who cannot speak thus who do not know that they live thus As take my meaning thus It is certain that our life in nature it is lived thus Food is taken into the mouth when it is taken into the stomach it digests it and by a concoction it is so and so separated and al Schollers and those that know the course of Nature know not only that they live by food but can tel you the Methods of it but many thousands that live the natural life cannot tel how they live it And as there is in Logick an Art of Logick which is nothing else but Reason digested into the right Methods to shew you what is the cause and subject and adjunct c. that we cal the Art of Logick doth but cast al these things into their 〈◊〉 place but many thousands do argue and speak from causes and effects and subjects and adjuncts and comparisons and things that are opposite use arguments from them who know not that they play the Logicians in al these So in the great acts of Faith there is no man it is certain partakes of Christ but beleeves in him but doubtless there are many thousands that beleeve in Christ that know not what that act of faith is that gives them an interest in Christ but the Spirit of God carries them on to it So the Saints of God though they cannot speak of these Rules I have shewed you til they be opened to them and then they can close with them so that I am far from saying that no man lives the life of faith but he that understands that he acts al these things but he may understand them really Well this laid as the foundation you will pardon me though I take a little time to give you a tast of the Application before I dismiss you But thus I have endeavored to cleer this Doctrine That all the Lords people while they are in this world while they do partake of the Righteousness of Christ one part of it for their Justification the other for Sanctification the acting of this while they are in this world it is the life of faith Now the use of it is very large and sweet I will give you but a tast of two things before I dismiss you The one is for Instruction Hence therefore you may safely and sadly conclude That among the great multitudes of those that challenge the name of Christians there are God knows and we may know a very few that are really Christians if this that I have opened to you be the Lords truth which I hope through his mercy I have demonstrated but if this be true you shal see that amongst those great multitudes of them that are called Christians there are but a very smal number who really are Christians Oh! Beloved should I as justly I might if the time would give leave but come to separate the chaff from the wheat and to cul out the several sorts of men in this world who live by clean different Rules from this I have spoken to you in what a smal number might the names of real Christians be comprehended what a little Book would hold them all As for Example Do all the Saints of Christ live the life of Christ by faith Then certainly they that are ignorant of Christ and know him not are destitute of all real knowledg of him it is not to be thought that they should live this life of faith They that never troubled themselves at the very Doctrine of faith it is to them but a meer whimsie they are the most ignorant of him surely no man can be careless about that which is the principle of his Life now a careless man about his faith you may be confident that man never lived the life of faith Again All they who live to their lusts as God knows multitudes do what is their life and comfort but to drink to whore to swear to cozen to cheat Multitudes of others live to the world Mammon is the God of their life the end of their life that that takes them up from the beginning of the morning til the evening comes when they are awake the world is in their hearts And They that live to their own wills as look whatsoever their own fancies and wills suggest to them to be advantagious this is that that satisfies them and serves their turn to attain such a corrupt end or such a way as they are in Oh friends there are a smal number that live the life of Christ the Lord help you that you may not be deceived about this I can but name this And then Secondly The other thing I wil name is this and pray carry this home Those that are Christians it hath plainly appeared that of al things in the world Gods people have most cause to lament and bewail their unbelief You hear that faith is your life and livelyhood therefore there is nothing to be so much lamented by real Christians concerning themselves as their unbelief I speak not but there should be somthing more lamented than our own
but what they signifie what doth a Promise signifie that God in his Gospel maketh to souls for a man may have Promises and truly from a great many able and great men good Promises signifie very little from many great men and mighty men but to know what Gods Promises are and what they signifie it would be a great comfort and I wil tel you briefly what they signifie and it may be a key to unlock all the Locks in the House that is al the Promises in the Bible First of all The Promises of God they do for the present at the instant of their making signifie That God loves us for all the Promises come from his heart his Providences come from his hands the Promises come from his heart and when the Lord makes a Gospel Promise to a soul he doth as if he should say to that soul I love thee dearly at the present before the thing be accomplished thou mayest say it signifies thus to me If the Lord make such a Promise to me he loves me And Secondly A Promise signifies thus much at present That God wil never hurt me God gives in a way of Providence those things to many men whom he wil hurt and destroy nay he will destroy them even by the things that he gives them but to the souls to whom his Promises belong they signifie not only Gods good will but nothing in the world that can betide them shal ever hurt them because they are all Branches of that Covenant of grace in which Covenant of grace there is no evil shal light upon the soul that is under it therefore God wil one day make thee to know that he intendeth thy good in it this is signified for the present And For the future A Promise is a certain infallible pledg of a seasonable performance His Covenant he wil never break he will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth All the Promises of the new Covenant are all backed with an Oath of him that is unchangeable Here is a Promise for my poverty for my temptation it comes from the God that first loves me and will do me no hurt and wil accomplish it Brethren Do you beleeve this As Jesus Christ said to Martha He that beleeveth in me though he were dead he shall live and if he live he shall never die Doest thou beleeve this I Lord I beleeve it So say I Do you beleeve this Do you not think you shall live comfortably And Secondly when I said in this third Direction about being acquainted with the Word I mean Be acquainted with the Duties held out in the Word as wel as the Promises for it cals to holiness as well as to comfortableness therefore in the Word learn your Duty and I the rather tell it you because many a poor soul takes a great deal of care and pains in some things that God never required and they afflict themselves and make their lives uncomfortable in things that God hath not appointed as not to tel you of many poor creatures in Popery that would thrust themselves into Monasteries God never required it but my meaning is study the Word you can never study any thing that so much concerns you therefore there learn your Duties the Duties that belong to your relations and particular places where God hath set you for to know the will of God concerning me argues an honest heart more than to know the will of God concerning others but study to know the Word in the Promises and in the Duties That is the Third Fourthly which must not be neglected When you have done all this faithfully and conscienciously serve the Lord in the use of means serve the Promises and Commandements serve them faithfully in the use of the means without distraction but out of conscience resigning up your selves For for me to go to labor for an enlarged faith and to know the all sufficiency of God and to have the Promises as familiarly as my Pater noster as they use to say for me when I have done this to neglect the means the Lord hath appointed this is not good But look as an Husband-man What rational Husband-man is there especially if he know God but he knows that the Corn upon the ground cannot yield him a Crop unless rain from Heaven water it and it cannot fall from Heaven unless God send it and notwithstanding all this unless God give the Corn a new body but because he hath likewise learned that ploughing sowing and harrowing and dungcarting c. are all duties belonging to Husbandry he serveth the Providence of God and God blesseth him accordingly Do thus with your souls God hath given you Promises for some things Commandements for other things serve him diligently in the use of the means but remember what I taught you before that by the use of the means I mean means only of his own appointment for faith dare not go out of his own line Lawful means that are agreeable to a particular calling to reason c. I have often thought and I speak it to you from the Lord that when a people walk with a Word in one hand and the use of the means in the other hand we fairly leave the business at Gods feet whatsoever the success shall be we will be his Servants when such a thing hath betided me I find this is my duty by the best Counsel I can get and so we leave it at his door and whatsoever will come fall back fall edg we may have peace and comfort These are the great Directions only with these I must put in two Cautions and when I have done them I think I may have said that which may be helpful to them that would walk by Faith The one is When I say we must use means and thus live by faith my meaning is First That when you have done you must never limit God God limits you and limits me but for himself Faith must not limit him My meaning is Do not limit him to the way how he shal make it good for he often works by contraries do not limit him for time when he shal make it good for it is good to wait patiently the Lords leisure though it be al the daies of our appointed season and we injure God and our faith doth not work up to its true height when we will come and say do it to day Lord or else I will question it to morrow no limit him not chalk him not out his way I may Lawfully expect from God that such a thing shall do me good but I may not Lawfully tell God which way it shall do me good I may Lawfully say from such a temptation God wil deliver me but I may not Lawfully say he wil deliver me from it within this week or fortnight but quietly wait upon the Lord as one that infallibly wil do what he hath spoken and is not here enough It may be some will add now
by way of Objection But what if my difficulty be such an one that I can find nothing in the Word about it What can my Faith do then Where is your circumscribing Faith within the compass of the Word It may be my difficulty is such as I find no Promise for it in all the Word I dare confidently then say it is a matter of no great consequence it may be in thy fancy some great thing as the fancy of man can blow up a Molehil to a Mountain but beleeve it if it be such a trouble as hath not a Promise it is not worth the taking notice of for all things that concern the Lords Glory and good of his People there are Promises in abundance That is my first Caution And the other Caution is When I direct you in all this to endeavor thus to live the life of Faith you must take heed of some other principles which will put the wisest of you all to the utmost of your graces and that is your own reason and your sence I mean not sanctified reason nor your holy experience but I mean carnal reason and carnal sence which in spight of our teethes will have an Oar in every Boat it will be putting in in all things that concern our whol Conversation If a Duty be propounded of a sudden I am called out to it it may be my Reason puts in twenty things against it You wil lose your Credit in it and your Labor and it will come to nothing it may be our Sence will oppose it You do but water a dead Plant a dead Stock nothing will come of it and I will tell you all the experiences that the People of God hitherto have found of our carnal Sence and Reason in all things that belong to the Waies of God they are but like a Sophister in the Schools a Sophister that hath a wrangling head will blur and blind and slur the clearest Positions in any Art in Logick Grammer Rhetorick Phylosophy or what you will when a Conclusion is made and proved a Sophister riseth up and he shal slur it all especially with weak people So it is with carnal men whereas a Promise and a Direction of the Word looked upon by Faith appears like the Sun in its strength look upon the very same with carnal Reason and carnal Sence and it looks like the Moon in Ecclipse a dark Body it hath no light at all in it Oh therefore watch against it and the rather because we are men and from our Mothers Womb we are corrupt men and therefore these things are bred in the bone and will not easily out but while we carry flesh about us they will never be subdued And therefore one handsomly expresseth it as Abraham did when God called him to that Duty it was cleer that God made it his Duty when he had called to it he never goes to call his Wife for she would have said Husband it is impossible this is but a delusion it is not possible the Child that must be the Heir of all Nations and in him they must all be blessed What! for you to kill him it is not from God never talk of it Friends I the rather desire to open these things because in truth to a great many the Life of Christ is not known and many holy souls do want plain Directions how they should order their Conversation as becometh Christians and in our uncertain daies wherein we are every day looking what new Confusions shall break out Oh! it were a sweet thing for a man to be stablished that he might possess his soul in quietness in the midst of all the Changes in the World and really it many times grieves my heart to think First How the common People of the World live amongst us they are totally ignorant of these things but they set their hearts upon Wealth and Honor and Pleasure and these perishing things these men are carried after when God knows these things are not worth the while I wil briefly shew you one instance in Dan. 8. you shal reade of a Goat that came with one Horn and he ran and killed all other Beasts that were in his way and that Goat was Alexander and this same Alexander in ten years space did conquer one of the greatest Empires I mean he brought into his own hands one of the greatest Empires that ever were in the World in all the four Quarters of the World except America had he a great part within ten years there was an end of him and not one of his posterity had one foot of it and yet he left a Son and Heir but al was carried away to others And so will al Earthly things we may struggle and strive and weary our selves in a vain shadow and when we have done no man knows for whom he have labored it may be we expose our Posterity to the greater malice envy and hatred and they wil be the sooner ruined What a pity is it that such beggerly things as these should be so looked after and Faith so little thought of I in the Second place It grieves me to think how many souls that are Godly and study the Scripture and attend upon the Word yet they rather study nice controversies and things that gender strife and help it may be to maintain a Party on this side or the other side and this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ and living by Faith preached by many studied by few little regarded these are common Dunstable Truths that the old Puritans did preach a long time ago but we have a more Seraphick vein and Spirit and so God suffers us to be gulled of our Religion which is the sweetest Portion that can be enjoyed in the world we make it a matter of brangling and little comes of it either to the Honor of God or Comfort of our souls And upon such thoughts as these while the Lord shews me that mercy that I may preach any thing unto you I would fain acquaint Gods People with these things that they may know wherein their life lies and how they may lead it to the glory of God and comfort of their own souls I presumed upon your Patience if God please to lay these things to your hearts it wil not offend I hope FINIS Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 2. Vse 3. At Mary Magdalens Milkstreet Octob. 30. 1653. Doct. 2. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Vse 2. Quest. Answ. At Mary le Bow Octob. 30. 1653. afternoon Vse 3. Object Answ. Vse 4. Object Answ.