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
it draws and receives al from him when we are transplanted into another world that way of living ceaseth and we enjoy God in Christ immediatly These two Doctrines lie in the Text the first of them with the Lords assistance I shal spend one hour in endeavoring to cleer it to you and to make some use of it That all that do receive Jesus Christ even in this world they live his life I live but it is Christ that lives in me and the life that I live in this flesh I live it by the faith of the Son of God Now to make a little way to it That al the Saints live Christs life the life of Christ I would not have you expect that I would spend any part of my hour in a Phylosophical Discourse about the Nature of Life in general No let this suffice That you shal find in the Scripture a two fold Life of man spoke of The one is This present natural life which we al live which we receive from Adam I speak not of the corruption of our Nature but the first man was a living soul that is he was an animal man a man endewed with a reasonable soul and al that come from him have that life which is nothing but the union of the body and soul together and those motions and operations that are in us are acted in us by vertue of that union and this the Scripture somtimes cals the natural man the natural life the animal man as who should say the man endewed with a soul the happiness of whom is to enjoy a soul-life and this life it is somtimes called the present life somtimes called the bodily life the life of man and this life al that proceed from Adam do live in al Ages and parts of the world and to the upholding and beautifying and accommodating of this life are al mens labors and their studies and the good things of this world they are naturally al subservient to it every thing parted with rather than part with it Skin for skin and all that a man hath wil he give for this life Now that there is such a life no man doubts of it But then Secondly The Scripture speaks of another Life and so you shal see my Text leads to it he speaks of another life which is a spiritual life which flows from the second Adam that as the first Adam was a living soul and communicates a living soul to al that come from him the second Adam is a quickning spirit and communicates a quickning spirit to al that come from him that is the Life that my Text leads me to speak of and this Life before I come to speak further of it the Scripture somtimes cals the new Creature somtimes cals it the Life of Christ as in my Text somtimes cals it the Life of God not only because God is the Author of it for so he is of the other Life but because in a sound sense it is the life that he himself lives their Life being but an Image of his Life this is called Eternal Life this is that that is the end and fruit of al Christs undertakings Now this Life this Spiritual Life this Life of Christ this new Life this Eternal Life it is that that I now come to endeavor to demonstrate to you that al the Lords people live this Life while they are in this world Now there are Two things that my purpose is to treat upon in the Doctrinal part of it before I come to the Application but before I come to either of them both I wil crave your leave to set down three or four Propositions that are but preparatory to it I wil not handle them for they would take up too much of the time but to name them is requisite it shal be a kind of inlet or preparation to it The one is That this spiritual Life that the Saints do live no natural men have any understanding of it not any real understanding of it he doth not know the things of God nor can he they are spiritually discerned and therefore if it should prove a Riddle to many of you you may have cause to suspect your condition but not to suspect the truth of the Doctrine Yea Secondly I premise that men may be in the Church live in the Church and have admirable learning and admirable abilities to judg of al other things that fal under humane Capaâ—â—ty yet not be able to look upon this any otherwise than as a meer whimsie or a dark riddle Nicodemus who was a Doctor a Pharisee a Ruler an honest man according to his principles he had been trained up under yet when he comes to Christ to know the way to Heaven he tels him al his other righteousness was nothing if he be not born again and have a new life he could never come into the Kingdom of God What is this saith he this was as dark to him as if he should enter into his Mothers womb and be born again when he is an old man Therefore stil think not that if you be Scholars or wise men or learned men you must needs have the capacity of it though the vulgar cannot No if the Lord give you not a share in it you wil never understand it Thirdly I premise this That there is a double knowledg of this Life The One is Only a notional knowledg the Theory to be able to conceive that there is such a thing and to be able to talk of it and to reason about it And There is another knowledg of it that is experimental and practical and real and convincing Now the notional knowledg I confess by the common Light that accompanies the Ministry of the Word may break in upon some men but for the experimental real inward knowledg of it they wil stil be strangers to it Yea I would premise this also That while we are in this world none living understand this Life none not only natural men unconverted men but the wisest holiest graciousest men that live in this world never come to have any other than some gatherings they have some real knowledg I hope I shal make good to you but for a ful clear understanding of it it is not attainable in this world no more than as our Lord speaks of the wind that we hear the noise of it but understand not where it rises nor when it wil end and no marvel that it be not thus intelligible Because Partly from the depth of the things themselves they are the operations of the spirit of God And Partly from the weakness and corruption of our faculties and understandings which in truth know nothing perfectly No man doth understand how his own bones were framed in his mothers womb and the things that are before our eyes not a man living is able to decipher the life of a Pismire or a Butterfly therefore much less must you think to be able to comprehend this for this
have dominion over you you are not under it you are under Grace This is a clear proposition A Child of God cannot sin 2. Yet on the other side it is as clear that if any man that calls himself the Child of God say he hath no sin he is a Liar it is rather an Argument he hath no grace In many things we sin all Nothing clearer then that the people of God his dearest Children do sin Paul in the name of them all talketh of being sold under sin carrying a body of sin about him now these two must of necessity have such an interpretation as to justifie the truth of God in it Be pleased then to know thus much that when the Scripture speakes so positivly and clearly of the Children of God not sinning that they cannot commit sin the meaning is this That whereas the way of sin mark it the way of sin is the only way that al men walk in before they come to Christ as conceive it thus when men first fel from God while he stood in his integrity God was his end God was his portion God was his rule but when man fel from God the whol corruption of mans nature stood in these two things That now he was turned away from God and fallen into the Creature and there he continues til a new life be communicated let him do what he will let him pray let him read let him hear let him walk in workes of justice and righteousness and stil he is but within the compass of injoying the creature and living to the creature making himself and the good that he can find in the creature his portion which is a turning off from God and this is one way of sin and thus all the men in the world walk that although it be true yet some of their sins are greater then others and aggrauated by some circumstances yet look as it is with a man that is in prison though the prison may be very large and he may somtimes walk East West North and South and do some things more clean and some things more gross yet they are al done within that compass of the prison So take a man not in the state of Grace the end he aimes at is himself the rule he walks by is somwhat that may yeild contentment to him from the creature and beyond al this no living man goes til God give him a new life Now when the Lord vouchsafeth to cal a man home to Jesus Christ and planteth in him a new principle of a new life then the Soul returns home to God now for time to come God is his portion and the way that may lead him to the injoyment and knowledg of God is his only way to which he resignes up himself and makes it his daylie study and trade to walk in it now here is his way that as to an unconverted man the creature is his way and al things that may make him injoy the creature or setled in the creature is his way but the new man he hath no way but approaching to God aspiring up to him drawing nigher to him being made more like to him this is his way but now while he intendeth this way mark it he being converted but in part he knows his way but in part and therefore somtimes misseth it for want of light he somtimes likewise stumbles in the right way for want of strength somtimes a violent temptation takes him and turnes him a little out of the way for want of good take-heed these kind of sins Gods Children are liable to while they live in this world So that the sume of it is this no reigning sin a sin that shal have dominion over him to carry him from God and settle him upon the creature can be compatible with the state of a converted man but yet frailties and weaknesses for want of strength those are his sins and they and no other are the sins that Gods Children are liable unto So that the thing I have brought you to is to shew you that the Saints while they live in this world are compassed with infirmities and only with infirmities concerning which because it is a great Doctrine I intend the Lord assisting me to open these three things and that wil be the sume of this first Question What the sins are Three things I will open to you about the sins of infirmities wherewith Gods people are compassed while they live The first is First I wil shew you the nature of them the nature of a sin of infirmity Secondly I wil shew you the kinds of them what kinds of sins of infirmities Gods people may be overtaken with And Thirdly Thirdly I wil shew you how these may be known to be such that no man may deceive his heart about them and these must needs be opened because the latter part of our Question of Christs being a relief to them is so ful of Consolation that I would have no body have it that have not right to it and therefore I would not have them flatter themselves about it For the first First To open to you the nature of an Infirmity Take it thus To enable a Soul to walk in the waies of God as all Gods people do in measure but to enable a Soul to do it there is required a twofold strength the one is I. An habitual strength The other is II. An actual strength 1. The habitual strength that all Gods Saints have it is nothing but the inclination and disposition of their hearts to the waies of God and against the waies of sin which is wrought in them by 〈◊〉 Holy Ghost in the time of their first conversion 〈◊〉 which hour the quickning Grace communicateâ—â—o the Soul doth once for ever make the bent of the heart stand to the waies of God that now there is a complacency a delight a suitableness to them in the waies of God and a displacency and aversion in reference to the waies of sin This now is habitual strength once given to Gods people never taken away from them But now though this habitual strength do give them a good wil as the Apostle cals it a good mind to the waies of God yet 2. To enable them either to forbear any sin or to perform any duty there must be communicated an actual strength and that actual strength is nothing but the immediate assistance of the Holy Ghost who dwels in them drawing out their Graces to work and strengthening them in their working and when this actual strength is communicated to them by the Holy Ghost then if a temptation to a sin be propounded the Saint is too strong for it he overcomes the temptation if a holy Duty be propounded to be done by the help of this God if need be he can leap over a wall Give a Child of God the inward inclination of his heart wrought by Grace and the actual assistance of the Spirit of God when he is called out to
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
after him and would but accept of him and tels them more particularly that they must eat and drink his flesh and his blood as the only Food that would do good to their Souls hereupon these carnal People were extreamly offended at him and at his Doctrine for they interpret all this in a carnal manner as if Christ did mean that they must eat his very flesh and drink his very blood as they did eat and drink other food and truly it was ever thus and it wil be ever thus that nothing can act above its own Sphere and they who have carnall minds can never judg right of spiritual things thereupon our blessed Savior in the words that I have read and in many other in this latter end of the Chapter inculcates this Doctrine further Assuredly no man could ever live that did not eat and drink his flesh and blood and he that did eat him and drink him eat his flesh and drink his blood would receive such invaluable nourishment as he would think it the best meal that ever he was at And that is the scope of these words which before I come to handle give me leave very briefly to vindicate them from the gross erronious interpretation that the Papists put upon them for you all know that there is a monster in their Doctrine that is called transubstantiation which in their conceit is the turning of the Bread and the Wine in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper into the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ and whosoever doth not beleeve it in their conceit is certainly damned And this Doctrine of theirs hath been the occasion of the murdering and martyrdome of many thousands of Saints and among all the Arguments that they alledg to prove it this Scripture is the prime of all the rest except only that of This is my Body But in the next place to that comes this discourse wherein Christ speaks so Positively and punctually of eating his flesh and drinking his Blood and the necessity of it to salvation that they think every man out of his wits that is not convinced by these Texts to grant their transubstantiation yea one of them and one of the learnedst of them hath left it in Print that if ever the Lord Christ should say to him at the day of judgment Why didst thou beleeve that the Bread and Wine was my very Body and Blood he would make no other Answer than this Thou spakest it so plain in such a place that it could not be denied my sense and reason could not deny it Now I wil a little cleer this Text from them and I hope to such an understanding Auditory as I think I preach to a very few words wil serve the turn There are three things which whosoever doth but weigh will be easily convinced that the eating and drinking that is here spoke of hath no relation in the world to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper The first is 1. This Sermon was preached a whole year before there was any word of the institution of the Sacrament the Sacrament of the Lords Supper was at the Passover immediately before his Death this was a whole year before it Now how can it be imaginable that Christs speech here should be meant of a Sacramental eating when no Sacrament was instituted Who can imagine such a thing Secondly 2. This Text and all this discourse in John 6. if it should be interpreted literally for that is the thing they stand for the literal sense I say interpret it literally and it is quite against their transubstantiation for they say that the Bread and Wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ but if here be any transubstantiation at all it is that the Body and blood of Christ are transubstantiated into bread and drink for he doth not say the bread is my body the drink is my blood but my body my flesh is meat and my blood is drink so that if you will have any transsubstantiation it is quite contrary And Thirdly 3. The eating and drinking of Christ that my Text speaks of it is very plain by our Lords words that whosoever eats him and drinks him as this Text holds out shal certainly live another life for ever and they themselves grant that you may eat that very Body and Blood of Christ as it is in the Sacrament and never partake of his Grace but go to Hell with the Sacrament in their bellies I hope that this is enough to shew you that this Text proves it not I tel you in a word that the eating and drinking that my Text speaks of is the same thing that the people of God enjoy in the Sacrament and out of the Sacrament for there do we partake of the Body and Blood of Christ spiritually by faith whosoever receives it preparedly but the discourse here is nothing at all to that But now I come to the matter and in the words there are two things which the Lord assisting me I wil open to you the first is 1. The duty required of every one that would partake of Jesus Christ and that is to eat his flesh and drink his blood that is the duty pressed over and over and so heavily that the Lord saith expressly that whosoever doth not do it can never live The duty required to eate and drink the body and blood of Jesus Christ the second is 2 The benefits which every soul doth receive who doth eate Christs flesh and drink Christs blood and that is set down in many various expressions but all tending to the same thing that is they shall live for ever they shall never hunger nor thirst they shall in no wise be cast out they shall be raised up at the last day they shall live to eternity these are the benefits or rather the benefit for all is one that every soul partakes of who eates the flesh of Christ and who drinks his blood wel now for the meaning of it that I may make it plain for my intent is to preach but a short Sermon I will God willing open both the parts that is the duty required and the benefit received I will open them distinctly and give you the application of them both together for the first 1. What is meant by our Lord when he doth thus positively say that we must eat his flesh and drink his blood his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed this we must eat this we must drink What doth he mean I answer plainly that his meaning is we must beleeve Beleeving is eating and drinking and eating and drinking in this sense is beleeving that is the general meaning and that it is so any of you may prove it your selves if you wil but read the Scriptures over for where he saith My flesh is meat indeed in one place He that beleeveth in me shall never hunger nor thirst by and by He that eateth of this Bread shal live for ever So that I
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
rid of al these things that that man that denies himself must wholly part with all his corruptions and part with the powers and faculties of his soul or the accomplishments of them or part with all his Estate his Wife and Children or part with his morral Duties and Religion that is not the meaning neither and that that is not the meaning I prove thus to you First 1. Some of these things are things we must not part with the Lord forbids us to part with them If God have bestowed upon any man a good Wife or Children or Memory Understanding Learning Wealth Honor or Abilities or Honesty and Righteousness the Lord commands them not to part with these these are things that God may be served with and must be served with therefore that cannot be the meaning Nay 2. The worst of them none of them can be parted with while we live in this world though we would never so fain part with them totally no man upon earth can part with all his corruptions If there be any man can say he hath no sin in him that man rather hath no Grace in him St. John saith that man that saith he hath no sin in him lyeth and the truth of God is not in him therefore that cannot be the meaning What is it then I answer and I humbly crave your attendance and weighing of these things because your everlasting welfare must be measured out by this you wil know your spiritual interest in Christ by it I answer then 2. That this same denial of our selves this total renunciation of our selves it comprehends these four things in it and these four things do constantly meet in every soul that doth deny it self First of all 1. All these things that I have spoken of we do totally and absolutly renounce them all from being any part of our portion that whereas before all our good lay in some of these things that if you would ask any man what he is worth What are you and what are you worth he must tel you I am worth a thousand pound a year or I am worth as much as my Wife and Children my Wit my Parts my Learning my Education my good name my honest Conversation Look what worth there is in all these so much I am worth and this was all his portion but now when the soul cometh to Christ it totally renounceth all these to be nothing at all to him in the point of a portion if he be the Lords and I shal shew you good reason for it by and by God willing I wil shew you a notable instance of it in the Apostle Paul in that forenamed Phillip 3. where he saith I think if any man might Glory in the flesh I might Glory as much as any and there he reckons up his Religion his Birth his Education his Learning his Righteousness and the like and saith he these things were gain to me they were my portion that if you had asked Paul Paul what are you What am I as good a man as you I hope Wherein lies your goodness I am a Jew an Hebrew a Benjamite a Pharisee a Scholler an honest man one that is unblameable in my whol conversation This was my gain saith Paul but after that Paul was called to Christ he did profess al that was his gain before it was now Dogs meat to him shipwracked his Learning abided with him stil and his wealth and his wit or any thing he had it stil but it was all rubbish now he did lay no worth in the world upon it he had no portion now but the favor of God in Christ Jesus that was his wealth but now for all these things what use soever he might make of them they were nothing not one penny to him in the point of a portion This is the first thing that is an ingredient into this same self-denial that when the soul cometh to Christ it is unloosed and set loose from all these things as they gave any support to the soul to breed a good esteem in it of its own happiness That is the first The Second thing that maketh up this self-denial is 2 That as the Soul doth renounce all these from being a portion so as in any of these there is any thing found that stands in opposition to Christ or hath any enmity against Christ so far the soul totally doth not only throw it aside as a worthless thing but opposeth it as a deadly thing it casteth it aside as an enemy Before in the other it throws it aside as a useless thing but here it throws it aside as an enemy when it hath any opposition or enmity against Christ Jesus or the waies that Christ would have his people walk in that is plain both by many Scriptures that you shal see the Servants of God when they come to deny themselves they say to their Lusts get you hence to their Idolatry to their wicked waies they throw them out to the Moles and the Bats they mortifie them they crucifie them they put off the old man with all the Lusts that are contrary to Christ their carnal reason that stands in enmity against Christ According I say as there is any thing in them that bears opposition to Christ Jesus and the waies of holiness so far the soul renounceth them as an enemy if ever they deny themselves because as you shal hear in the Reason Christ Jesus alone is the great good of that soul that denies it self A Third thing that maketh up this self-denial is 3. That all these four or any thing that may fal under any one of them so far as they ever stand in competition with Christ and the things of Christ so far the soul totally abandons them likewise totally abandons them all according as they stand in competition with Christ Jesus and that our Lord means when he saith That a man must hate his Father and Mother and Wife and Children Certainly the Lord doth not mean that we should hate them simply No but when they come to stand in competition with Christ's excellence or providence or things fall out so that I must either renounce these or I must withdraw from Christ I cannot serve Christ and enjoy them too therein I totally renounce them all and this you shall understand thus Our Savior Christ saith a man then denies Christ though he have never so good an opinion of Christ if yet when he comes to that exigent that either he must leave Christ or leave the world or leave his wealth if he leave Christ for his wealth sake then he denies Christ so Christ saith by the same reason when I leave my life leave my wealth leave my Wife my Children my Name my Credit my wil my Duties when these stand in competition with Christ then I deny them all then that soul may truly be said to deny them as I pray take an instance or two of it that you may see what I mean
Take that that is reported of a famous Lady in the primitive Church I think her name was called Julida or Juletta that having a Suit before a Heathen Magistrate in somewhat that concerned her estate her cause was good and it was like to go of her side but some body whispers the Judge in the Ear and tels the Judg that she was a Christian the Judg tels her Lady your cause is good saith he and it is like to go with you but here is an information come that you are a Christian and if so you will not only lose this cause and this part of your estate but al your estate and your honor and your life all is gone Is it come to that saith she farewel my lands farewel my honor farewel my life Nay I am a Christian when these come to stand in competition with Christ once Or as Gallatius Carixialdus a famous Italian Marquess that had a Lady and delicate Children and a fair Estate but when he could not enjoy Christ and these together he left them all and went to Geneva to live with Mr. Calvin And there is a speech of Chrysostome that he said when he thought he should go to banishment or martyrdome for Christs sake he said If my Father should stand in my way I would throw him down if my Mother should meet me I would tread upon her belly meaning plainly that if any of these should be hinderances to him in Christ's cause and stand in competition he would trample them under his feet And this the Lord plainly means by a mans denying himself my Life is dear my Learning is dear my Children are dear my Credit is dear al are good I value them I love them I would keep them but if either my peace with Christ must go or these if my Conscience must go or these if the Glory of Christ must go or these all pack away they are all renounced as they stand in competition with Christ. This is the third thing in self-denial Fourthly there is another and I pray lay up these things in your hearts against I come to apply them by and by and that is 4. That the soul that doth deny it self doth totally forsake all these so far as from claiming his interest or propriety in them they do not only not make them their wealth but now they resign them all up unto Christ give them up to Christ and themselves turn Baylifs or Stewards to Christ to use them all according to the will and pleasure of Christ Jesus alone Pray understand this because though you be never called to some of the other yet for this last this is that vein of self denial that must run through the whol course of a mans life and he hath use of it every day he lives if he be a servant of Christ Pray understand my meaning thus Suppose a man had a smal Farm upon which he totally lived it was the inheritance he received from his Father and it is al that he and his Wife Children have to subsist on and he useth it according to his own will for his best advantage builds plucks down plows laies down his plowed ground turns it into pastures sels it keeps it changeth it doth what he wil it is all the wealth he hath suppose this man had a fair estate that is ten thousand times better settled upon him by some great man that gives it him freely only ties him to this condition that this Farm that was his own before he shal now surrender it up to the hands of the Lord to him that is his Lord and for time to come though he shal dwel upon it stil yet now he shal occupie it only as his Baylif shal not cut down a Tree but what he appoints not pluck down a house nor alter a room but as he orders him and all the fruits he shal lay them where he would have them and dispose of them as he commands him be but his Baylif and Steward as to that the other now is his own portion that he shal live upon Just now here is the case while we are in our natural estate all we have to live upon is our self I have so many corruptions that it may be are very pleasurable and honorable some of them I have such parts such strength of Body I have such a wit or such an estate or such a good name it is al I have to live upon and I wil improve it to the best I can and as it may best serve my turn I use it but now when I take Christ Jesus to be my portion when I come to take the Lord Christ to be my portion I surrender all these up into Christ's hands and while he is pleased to put them back again into mine I am only his Baylif his Steward my wit is his my Honour is his my Wealth is his my Lands are his and a man that hath denied himself doth occupy all these things just as the Jews were to occupy the Land of Canaan of whom you may read in Levit. 25. that the Lord told them This Land saith he is all mine and you are but sojourners with me you shal plow it thus many years and then you shal plow it no longer than such a time and of the fruits of it you shal bring the first fruits to such a place and pay the Tithes to such a place and to the poor give such a thing and gives this Reason For the land is mine and you are but sojourners with me so that all that a man hath in this world al that is comprehended under the name self when once the Soul closeth with Christ it is but a sojourner with him to use these things and to use them according to the Lords pleasure and these four do make up self-denial when a Soul in a word is come thus far that he doth abhominate all that is in it so as for making it a portion when he hates and labors to crucifie whatsoever in it is an enemy to Christ and the waies of Christ when he parts with all with any thing as they stand in competition with Christ when they labor to use all according to the rules of Christ so as to make Christ the Proprietor and themselves to be but Stewards or Tennants at wil to him This is the self-denial that the Lord saith must be in every Soul that wil be his Disciple Now before I come to the Application of this I have but one thing more and that is to shew you 3. Why it must be thus what reason there is that so the thing may be demonstrated to you that so when I come to the Application your hearts may have nothing to oppose against it and understand me the question is not why it is comely to do thus why it is requisite it should be so but why there is such an absolute necessity of it that a man cannot so much as pretend to be a
Disciple of Christ that will not submit to it What Reason for it I answer first 1. Because wheresoever the Lord Christ is received by any soul he wil be received as the All of that Soul mark my words Christ wil be all or he wil be nothing what the Father hath sent him to do he wil be all to do it he wil never undertake a piece of it and the Lord hath sent him to be all that a poor lost sinner can need Now I pray conceive my meaning thus Take a Maid that a Man wil be a Husband to her when she marries to this man he wil be all in the place of a Husband and she must renounce all the men in the world in matters that belong to conjugal Relations the marriage state wil admit no rivalty I but for al that though the Husband must be all in the relation of a Husband yet he is not al that the Wife needs and she may lawfully have application to other Creatures and to other men for some things wherein her Husband cannot be all to her if she be sick she must have a Physitian if she be wounded she must have a Chyrurgeon if she be sad it may be she must have another to comfort her neither can her Husband be her Bread and her Cloaths she must have another must make them and prepare them But now Christ Jesus is All that the soul needs he is their Father their Husband their Brother their Friend their Companion their Bread their Drink their Cloth their Gold their Silver their Honor he is All in All Christ Jesus is so and he wil be so or he wil be nothing and there is this natural reason for it Because every mans heart shares out both its prayers and its confidence and its love and its praises I say it shares it out according as it needs or findeth supply any where If one man be my Patron and give me a great deal of my maintenance I share out my expectations my prayers my love my service most to that man but another helps me with some of these and he hath part of my good wishes and part of my prayers and part of my praises according to the proportion of good I receive from him so is my heart shared out to him in dependance or thankfulness or love But Christ Jesus wil have no sharing he wil have all thy heart all thy prayers all thy love all thy affections all thy obedience Christ Jesus expects all which he cannot have until he be all and he never can be all til al other be renounced til I have no God but Christ til I have no Father but Christ til I have no Wisdom but Christ til I have no Righteousness but Christ I shal never share out al my prayers and confidence and love and the like to Christ for al and therefore wil Christ have al renounced that he may be all That is one Ground and the great Ground There is another which I wil briefly touch and that is this 2. Because al these things that we are to renounce even the best of them al in those notions wherein we are to renounce them they are al of them and wil be adversaries and hindrances to us in the way that Christ Jesus expects we should walk before him and therefore until our souls do totally renounce them we are in perpetual danger of being undone by them as I pray conceive my meaning thus in a familiar comparison Suppose in a Civil War wherein a Nation is divided and one Faction engaged against the other if a man that hath been engaged on the one Party do leave that Party and come over to serve that side against which he did oppose before this man must renounce all the other Party though his Brethren were there though his Estate lay in those Quarters he must renounce them all or otherwise he wil never be trusted by them to whom now he pretends to joyn or be sure which is the thing I alledg it for if he hold correspondence with them they wil ever be dropping destructive principles into him against the way that he now engageth for So al these things not only our Drunkenness and Whoredom and Lust and Lying and stealing and slandering but our Reason our Wills our Affections our Wealth our Honor our Children our Friends our Duties our Performances wil lie as blocks in the way to hinder us from some of the things that the religion of Christ wil put upon us there is nothing cleerer Saint John hath an excellent speech in 1 John 2.16 saith he All that is in the world mark his words All that is in the world the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye and the Pride of life it is not of the Father It is not of the Father al that is in the world What means he by all that is in the world that that he had said before Little Children love not the world nor any thing in the world his meaning is love not Life love not Wife love not Children Estate Honor Wealth love them not Why They all serve but to nourish the Lusts of the Flesh the Lust of the Eye or the pride of Life and that is not of the Father they wil draw you away from God therefore take heed of them and look what John saith of the things of the world the same may be carried to al the other Love not your Duties love not your Righteousness love not your Performances love not your Honesty love none of these as you in your natural estate cleave to them they al of them tend but only to advance your self and to pul down Christ and wil be hinderances to you in the way wherein Christ wil have you walk And thus I have endeavored Beloved to make plain unto you this great Doctrine of Christianity that is the very first door that we pass through when we come into Christs School to deny our selves Now it remains that I make some Application of it and that I shal do as briefly and as cleerly as the Lord shal please to enable me and among many other things there are but two or three that I intend to insist upon The one is USE 1. Hence from all this discourse it cleerly follows that among the great multitude of those that are called Christians there are but very few who are Christians indeed for Gods sake marke this that I say to you I say If this discourse of mine be true as I hope I have made it cleer out of Gods word to you that a man cannot be Christs Disciple that hath not learned this lesson of self-denial certainly there are very few Christians to be found in Christendome and truly I have often thought and am perswaded it is true that the not understanding of this lesson or the not coming to Christ upon the tearms of this Lesson is the great cause of all the formalities and hypocrisies and the unbelief
how the time is gone nor how burdensom I may be to you and although this was all the use I intended when I prepared this Sermon for this place yet since I finished it there is brought somwhat to my hands that doth enable me to make another use of it at least of one branch of it and I beseech you give attention to it and I have done I am informed that it is one of the ends of this grave honorable and solemn meeting of the Magistracy of the City and of this holy service to promote a work of Mercy and Charity towards the poor of the several Hospitals to let the wel affected be acquainted how things are and what may be expected or desired from them and that I may do it in a few words have patience but while I read this short paper to you and then I shal spend a little more of my Theam about it and then I have done Here is a true report c Thus Beloved I have read over this paper and I think I shal not need to tell you how it fals within my Theam I told you that one special branch of Self denial is to resign up all that we have of Wealth Lands Mony Trades Parts Abilities to resign them up to Christ to serve him with them to lay them out in the way that he wil appoint Now your hearts could not wish for a way more cleer and evident for the testifying your being good Stewards for Christ than in owning the present business that hath been read to you and to make it good I wil say but these two things in a few words First 1. That of al the Services of al kind of Services that ever we can do for Christ next to the saving our souls the work of Mercy and Compassion to People is most accepted with him that that himself wil most own in the great day when there shal not a cup of cold water go unrewarded that ever hath been given for his sake I am confident you so frequently hear of the excellency of the work of mercy and bounty to the poor that I shal not need to spend any more time to commend it to you only I pray you to think of it 2. But the other thing that I would commend to you is this and I beseech you beleeve I would not willingly flatter but according to the best information that ever I could obtain There is no such Treasury in the Christian world no such Banck where a man might promise what he doth to be faithfully and wisely and most advantagiously laid out as in this Treasury of the honorable City of London and the Governors of these Hospitals I have often heard for I am but an ignorant man my self in the affairs of this City Godly men and wise men often say that had they any Hospitals to erect any sums of mony were it a hundred thousand pounds that they would promise themselves to be laid out so that it should not go into private mens purses or be given to Vagrants and Knaves but to the halt and the lame that have need of it they have professed they would put it into the hands of those that are the Governors of the Hospitals about London where things are done in such a way that setting aside such frailties as al humane affairs are suhject to in the generality they are above making personal gains but desire only to be faithful Stewards and therefore if God do put it in any of your hearts that you would shew your self-denial and would indeed make Christ beholding to you as he will be pleased to cal himself your Debtor know that such things as these are very fit objects for your thoughts And the Lord of Heaven direct you about it I dare stay you no longer FINIS THE SAINTS DUTY To keep their HEARTS In a GOOD FRAME Opened in a Sermon at Olaves Silverstreet November 9. 1654. PROVERBS 4.23 Keep thy Heart with all Dilligence or as it is chiefly read Keep thy Heart with all keepings for out of it are the Issues of Life IN most of the Chapters of this Book of the Proverbs there is no connection of one verse with another that one should give light or help to clear the other but they are as a multitude of excellent Pearls put into a large Box whereof every one singly is of a very great price and it is thought by many that they were but so many sentences that King Solomon did utter usually when he sate in judicature according as the cause or condition was that was heard before him so there was a divine sentence in the Lips of the King and the Lord in his good providence and love to his Church hath recorded them to be for instruction for his People to the end of the world and amongst them al if you go from one end of the book to the other if it be lawful to make comparisons I may freely say there is not one Pearl of greater price one sentence of more divine use than this that I have read to you and shal endeavor God willing to open as far as I can within the compass of an hour and in it there are these two things plainly laid down Here is first 1. A Duty enjoyned to all the Lords Children in these words Keep thy heart above al keeings Secondly 2. Here is an Argument to enforce to this Duty in these words for out of it are the issues of life 1. And in the Duty there are likewise two things First 1. Here is the subject matter the thing that is to be done and that is Keep thy heart Secondly 2. Here is the manner how it must be done and that is as we translate it with al diligence Keep thy heart with all diligence or above all keepings keep thy heart Now give me leave briefly to interpret the meaning of the words and then I will put it all into one instruction which I will endeavor to handle in this hour First 1. What is meant by the heart And 2. Keeping the heart And 3. Keeping it above all Keepings And so 4. Of the issues of life that flow from it Let me give you a brief interpretation of each of them 1. What doth Solomon mean by the heart here that must be kept No doubt it is not meant of the heart made of flesh that is in the midst of our bodies it is spiritually meant that no man doubts of Now take the heart spiritually and somtimes in the holy Scripture the heart is put for the whol soul somtimes it is put for the understanding faculty somtimes it is put for the memory somtimes it is put for the Conscience sometimes it is put for the Wil sometimes for one or two Affections it were endless to give you the instances of all these but here is a Key in the Text which will tel you what is meant here for without question that is meant by the Heart here that is
set you down any one of them may be sufficient to convince but al of them together may and I hope wil abundantly satisfie you that we have no such Duty lies upon us as to our selves in this world as the looking to our hearts The first is 1. Because the heart that heart which I have interpreted it is beyond all comparisons the best part of man it is the head quarter You know in an Army they have their Sentinel in every corner they would be loth to have the out quarters beat up but the head quarter where the General or chief Officers lie there is the strongest and watchfullest guard of all Now the heart of man the wil and the affections and the intellectual faculty that is beyond all degrees of comparison better than every thing else that is in man so much better than all the rest that our Lord saith that the man makes a very ill bargain of it that gaines all the world if he lose his soul Loose thy Heart and thy Soul is lost Now then if our Souls if the heart be ten times more worth than all things else that we have surely it should be kept more diligently than any things else we have This I think no man can question the strength of the reason of it it is the best Remember our Saviors word in a lower case when he did chide men that did take care of meat and drink and clothing and the like saith he Is not your life more than your food Is not your body more worth than your raiment I do but allude to that comparison Now I may say then Is not thy Heart better than thy Head Is not thy heart thy inward man better than thy outward man What is the body but meerly the shel It is the Heart that is the Jewel That is one I hope to have a little more time afterwards to shew what this includes in it this keeping at least to point at it but that is one ground Because the heart it is the best part of man it is the Queen it is the Prince it is the head quarter and al others are nothing when compared with it Secondly A second ground that is for the demonstration of it is this 2. Because the heart it is not only the best part of the man but it is the treasury wherein better things are laid up than it self The heart is a very rich Cabinet yea but it is a Treasury or Cabinet of the rarest the invaluablest wealth that is in Heaven or Earth Understand me aright I speak not of the heart of a wicked man of an unconverted man for Solomon tels us expresly the heart of a wicked man is nothing worth it self is a base thing and there is nothing in it but that that is worse than it self nothing in the world but the rubhish and the filth of the Devil and the World and Hell lies in the heart of a wicked man but a man that is a Child of wisdom that is Gods Child Oh! there is a rich treasury laid up in his heart You shal read our Savior speaks of a good man who out of the good treasury of his heart bringeth forth good things he hath a good treasury Now would you know what are the treasures that are laid up by God not of our own getting but of the Lords depositing Quest. What are the treasures that are in the heart of a Gratious man Answ. I Answer the Tongues of men and Angels cannot tel you what I wil name you a few The one is 1. The great God himself hath chosen to make the heart of every Godly man his own privy and Presence-Chamber himself saith it that though the Heaven be his Throne and the Earth his foot-stool yet he dwels in in an humble broken heart in the heart of one that trembleth at his word and fears his name there doth he himself dwel And then 2. Christ Jesus dwels there Emmanuel the Son of God the Savior of poor sinners the Scripture is plain That Christ may dwel in your hearts by Faith Christ dwels in our hearts Is not there a Jewel I tel you the Apostle saith of Christ In him there are hid all the treasures of God The God of Heaven is worth no more than is laid up in Christ and Christ al he is worth comes to dwel in the heart and in him saith the Apostle they are both of them in Collos. 2. the one in verse 13. and the other in verse 9. where he tels you that the fulness of the Godhead dwels in Jesus Christ essentially or bodily Now Jesus Christ dwels in the hearts of Gods people And then 3. The Holy Ghost dwels there too For the Heart of every Godly man is a Temple of the Holy Ghost and if you wil I might go on to Multiply more 4. That all the graces of Gods spirit are laid up in our Heart It is Faith in the Heart and love unfained in the Heart and all those excellent things And 5. The word that is the Rule of Life saith David I have laid up thy word in my Heart I have hid thy word in my Heart Now Brethren where there is such a treasury that God is laid up in it and Jesus Christ is laid up in it and the Holy Spirit pardon the expression is pleased to dwell in it and all Gods Graces all they that are Gods ordinances are there laid up his word and the like do not you think this should be wel watched and well barred and wel kept and wel looked to There is a second ground that thy Heart it is not only the best piece that is but it is the treasury of that that is a great deal better than it self the richest treasury and therefore Heaven hath not a richer treasury in it than the Heart of every Saint hath and therefore it should be kept above al keepings Thirdly A third ground of demonstration is 3. Because that the Lord whom we serve or pretend to serve and profess to serve and do serve if we be his The Lord looks only at the Heart in all the services that we perform to him All things that we are to do to the Lord as an homage and tribute and honor to him he regardeth nothing but the heart in them all nothing else is of any esteem with the Lord but the Heart My meaning is this plainly that in any services God liketh a thing never a whit the better for the brave accomplishment or adornment of it with any of our parts or faculties Wits Fancies Memory expression Decorum fair carriage and deportment of the Body the Lord values not this one button in any service whatsoever but so much as the heart is in it so much as the wil affections are in it so much doth the Lord value it insomuch that this one thing wil satisfie you about the truth of it read all the Scriptures over that speak of the servants of God
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
and then when the Lord hath broke it and new shot it that he hath given you an interest in Christ and the Spirit of Christ is become a new life to you then you are fitted to this Duty but til the Lord hath wrought that in you all other talk is to no purpose therefore your first work must be to get such a heart as is capable of this for every one is not Then Secondly 2. When the Lord hath done so then for the keeping of it in a good frame all the directions though there be very many of them yet I think they may be all brought to these two heads The one is 1. Keep the heart pure keep it pure from sin from the defilement that wil daily grow upon it if it be not wel kept from the stirrings of corruption either to keep them down that they do not stir or when they do stir to get them dayly washed off by the blood of Christ. And then the other is 2. As to keep it pure from sin so to keep it fit for Duty tuned and prepared for the several Duties the word is large and through Gods mercy your instructions are many and whosoever is willing may have constant directions to guide him in all these FINIS THE LIFE OF CHRIST OR THE Great Mystery OF SPIRITUAL LIFE Opened and applied in several Sermons at Olaves Silverstreet Octob. 27. 1653. Gal. 2. part of verse 20. I am crucified with Christ nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me now follows that which I shal more insist upon and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me THE Dependance of these words with the former briefly stands thus The Holy Ghost having decried the Law as that which is utterly unable to give life and set up the justification of a sinner only from Gods Free Grace in making over unto him the Righteousness of Christ having I say asserted this great fundamental Doctrine of our Christian Religion wherein the Galatians were begun to be tainted he then comes to answer the common Cavil which not only the Papists but too many among our selves do charge this Doctrine withal namely That it is but a door to al licenciousness and doth take off the rains from any man and give him an occasion to be bold in wickedness for if our righteousness cannot justifie us nor our unrighteousness condemn us but the righteousness of Christ is accepted for us and in him we are compleat without any thing of our own who would not take liberty to indulge himself in such fleshly courses as are agreeable to his nature Now against this the Apostle opposeth several things as arguments to prove that this cannot be a consequence of this Doctrine to a man that rightly understands it Justification by free Grace wil never be a temptation to a man to a sinful life and one Argument is All Pauls Ministry tended to beat down a wicked life and do they think he would come to build up that which he had pulled down that were an absurd thing Secondly The very end of our Justification by Christ is quite contrary to it for saith he through the Law I am dead indeed to the Law but it is that I might live to God as if he should have said It is true that the right understanding of the impossibility of a sinners keeping the Law wil beat down in him al thoughts of ever obtaining any life by the Law he wil be dead as to look for justification or acceptance that way but it is that he might live to God that is the very end of it that he might live to God that is another argument and that being the very end that God aims at it is impossible that the quite contrary of it should flow from the Lords own appointment Then Thirdly Every man that doth but partake of Jesus Christ he is crucified with him and he instances in himself I am crucified with Christ when Jesus Christ hung upon the Cross and there by vertue of his death did kil sin and by vertue of his resurrection hath opened a way to a new life when I partake of Christ I have an interest in this I die with him and am buried with him therefore it is impossible that looking for life by Christ should make a man live a wicked life And Fourthly Which he brings in by way of Answer to a tacite Objection Are you crucified do we not see you are alive Yes I live indeed but in truth more properly I may say it is not I that live but it is Christ Jesus that lives in me by vertue of my interest in him my whol life flows from him and that life that I live in this life that is in this fleshly Tabernacle it is the life of Christ and the way how I live it is by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And so I have brought you to my Text and in the words without any further interpretation save what you shal have in handling the Doctrine there are these Two Doctrines cleerly laid down The first is That every soul that hath an Interest in Christ while he is in this world it is Christ that lives in him While we live in this flesh in this world the life that we live it is Christs life Christ lives it we do not only when we accept of Christ beleeve in him to be saved by him when we go out of this world and trust al the daies of our life that when this life endeth he hath a better life for us in store that is not al but when we accept of Jesus Christ we so accept him that his life is communicated to us and while we are in this world we live that life That is the first Doctrine That all the Lords people while they live in this world they live Christs life The Second is That the modus vivendi the manner of their living this life in this world it is by faith We shal live the life of Christ to Eternity but when that moment of Eternity cometh faith shal have no hand in it but the life we now live while we are in the flesh it is the grace of faith by which we live it Just as I may express my meaning for I shal not handle that Doctrine as take it of an Infant As soon as ever the body and soul are but joyned together that it is made a living soul it is the life of a man that it lives but while it is in the mothers womb the manner of living is by the navel the navel-string conveyeth al to it when it comes into the world that is cut there is no more use of it and then it lives another way So while we are in this world though we live the life of Christ yet Faith is as it were our navel-string
therfore that is the best matrimonial life Therefore the Lord say I who knew what learning what wisdom what friends what Phylosophy what Policy what any thing might advance men to he out of them al shews the living by faith to be the way how they should live in this world who are as dear to him as the apple of his own eye and to a sober heart more needs not be said to make him think it an excellent thing Secondly as it is excellent because of Gods choyce so It is the honorablest life that can be there is no life in this world so honorable as the life of faith First It is wonderfully honorable to God when his redeemed ones have their whol livelihood from him without hanging upon every hedg but to acknowledg the Lord I to tel every body where they come I have not one comfort in a child nor in a wife nor in a penny nor in a garment nor in a dish of meat but I receive it from the hand of God by vertue of my faith here God is lifted up in al his administrations And as it is honorable to God so It is most honorable to us for in truth if we were independent that is if we needed no dependance upon any we must be Gods our selves and no man would put his foot under another mans table as we use to say that hath one of his own To live dependantly upon another man that can live independantly of himself takes off from his nobleness but if we must live dependantly then surely it is more honorable and noble to depend upon the head than the foot He that hath not learned to live by faith upon God he lives in part upon skins of beasts upon the world upon the excrements of the world he lives I mean upon poor ragged beggerly creatures one man saith to Gold thou art my hope another man loads himself with thick clay wel this is a poor low thing in comparison of depending upon him more immediately that hath incomprehensible glory it is ignoble Thirdly In this world it is the easiest life I will speak it I humbly bless the Lord that I have any experience of it in my own soul but I dare speak it as Divine Truth to live by faith is the easiest life under Heaven Do not mistake me I mean not it is easiest learned that a man may learn it with a wet finger Oh! it is a hard trade to learn and this may be one motive it is not easily gotten but my meaning is that when once the soul hath learned it that it be but a Master of this Trade that it can say I have learned to live by faith no man under Heaven lives or can live so easie a life as a Beleever may Why Because the life of faith wil never leave any thing upon my care but to walk humbly and thankfully with my God it leaves the providing for my body and soul and posterity and for the disposing of them al and for al my affairs it leaves it at Gods doors laies it to him and to me leaves nothing but to take the Book find my duty bend the knee and for all the successes faith leaves it quietly to the Lord and is not this a sweet life We that are Parents know by reason of our carnality what a hard thing it is when we have a company of poor children to provide for in a confused World when all we have may be swept away and others to have great trading and yet our Ships miscarry how we shal pay all our engagements we know not but if once the soul have faith it directs him to leave al to the wise and gracious God and my self to acquiess in his will I repeat it again and I pray if you be not satisfied in it now study it and I wil be bound to recant it as the saying is at Pauls Cross whensoever you wil if ever man can come out and say the life of faith is an uncomfortable life no it is the sweetest life of all Oh! that God would perswade you to study it it is the easiest life Come into a family and tell me who lives the easiest life the Father or the Child the Child hath food the Father provides it the Maid cooks it he hath cloaths his Father buys him them the Taylor makes them and the child goes to school and never thinks what will become of him when his cloaths are worn out and his linnen spent he leaves all to his Father And then again I tel you It is the best life because in truth it is the surest life for that man or woman that will trust God and wil study to live according to the rule of faith I speak it with reverence they have a statute upon al that God is worth that they shal be provided for they have a statute upon his All-sufficiency I am a God all-sufficient walk before me I will be a horn of strength I will never leave thee nor forsake thee a statute upon his Wisdom Power Goodness Faithfulness what God is and hath he hath engaged to the soul that wil trust in him It is an old saying of a Poet That it is an uncertain Estate though it may be great if it cannot be built upon It is an uncertain estate to depend upon Cables and Anchors if it come home it is well but it cannot be built upon and somtimes they stand in need of an Insuring Office but how justly I dispute not But lastly This Art when once the soul hath learned it it will deliver a man from all base and unworthy means it wil deliver the soul from all base and unworthy means in any kind whatsoever because if he have God in his Word what need he shirk and shift or do any thing that is base when he hath such a rock such a livelihood for his soul as faith As now I wil give you but an instance The Apostle Paul when he was in prison at Rome he conceived he might have gone out by giving the Captain of the Guard some money but Paul scorned to give a penny when he was at Philippi put in prison in the stocks the Magistrates came and bid him come out he scorned to go out some might have said you may provoke them I care not he had God on his side Never did any one so much study to get an Office or Lordship or an encrease of his Estate that they may say there is that boy or girl provided for let them go where they wil their portion lies by me this is not so comfortable as to study this Doctrine That that life that you live in the flesh you live by the Son of God that this life of faith may be on your part your principal delight Now then the Last part of my Sermon which I come to is But how should we do this Attainable it is and in some degree all Gods people have it but what course
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