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
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
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
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-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
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
Riolanus Anatomy 6 Veslinguâ— Anatomy of the Body of Man 7 A Translation of the New Dispensatory made by the Colledg of Physitians of London Wherein is added The Key to Galens Method of Physick 8 The English Physitian Enlarged 9 A Directory for Midwives or a Guide for Women 10 Galens Art of Physick 11 New Method both of studying and practising Physick 12 A Treatise of the Rickets 13 Medicaments for the Poor Or Physick for the Common People 14 Health for the Rich and Poor by Diet without Physick The London Dispensatory in Folio of a large Character in Latin The London Dispensatory in twelves a smal Pocket Book in Latin To the Physical Reader THe greatest Reason that I could ever observe why the Medicines prescribed in these Books above mentioned and in many other Physick Books do not perform the Cures promised is the unskilfulness of those that make up the Medicines I therefore advise all those that have occasion to use any Medicines to go or send to Mr. Ralph Clarke Apothecary at the sign of the three Crowns on Ludgate-Hill in London where they shall be sure to have such as are skilfully and honestly made The Printer to the Reader I Have in my hands divers other works of Mr. Stephen Marshals which for their excellency and variety of matter are highly esteemed by all that heard them preach'd Or have read them in writing I intend to print them in several smal Books that they may not be above the reach of a poor man's purse The Subjects on which they treat are Chiefly these that follow VIZ. 1. Of the Covenant of Grace And the great priviledges the Saints have therby 2. Formal Professors seldom become sincere 3. Reformation and turning to God the only means to prevent Ruine 4. Christ the Prince of Peace 5. The Excellency of Christ's Kingdom 6. How Freedom come by Christ. 7. The Vnion between Christ and Beleevers 8. The Riches of the Saints through the Poverty of Christ 9. How Christ is the Head of the Church 10. Christ and his Seed have sufficient strength to destroy their Enemies 11. Christ the Bridegroom Beleevers are his Bride 12. No Participation of Christ but by Faith 13. Faith so precious a Grace that Christ is glad of any thing that may further it 14. An Humble Spirit Infinitly acceptable to God 15. Great Joy to all that Mourn in Zion 16. The double Recompence the Godly shall have after their affliction 17. The Happiness of the Saints under the Cross 18. The untimely Death of good men a Ground of Great Lamentation 19. The Magistrates Dignity Duty and Vsefulness 20. The Churches Danger Deliverance and Duty 21. The Churches praise unto God for their Deliverance 22. A great Mercy in God to prevent his Peoples ingageing one against another in Blood 23. Gods Chosen Ones are the Preventors of destruction 24. Mens Misery is only from themselves Their Deliverance is only from the Lord. 25. The Pearl of the Gospel 26. How the Gospel is the Power of God to Salvation 27. It 's impossible for true Beleevers totally and finally to fall away 28. Parents Duty to their Children 29. Provision for the Poor 30. The Great Judgment of Famine 31. Of the Sacrament The CONTENTS of the first Book of Mr. Stephen Marshals Works VIZ. Of Christs Intercession or Sins of Infirmity SERMON I. On 1 John 2.1 And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous THe scope of the Epistle Opened Page 1 2 3. The words of the Text explained Page 3 4. Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christs Intercession in Heaven is the great dayly Relief that all the Saints diligentest their watchfulest work in the world to keep their hearts in a good frame when once the Lord in mercy hath put them into a good frame Page 132 133 Reasons of the Point Reas. 1. Because the Heart is beyond all comparisons the best part of Man it is the Head Quarter Page 142 Reas. 2. Because the Heart is not only the best part of Man but it is the Treasury wherein better things are laid up than it self Quest. What are the Treasures laid up in the heart of a gracious Man Answer 1. The great God chooses the Heart of every Godly man for his Privy and Presence Chamber 2. Christ Jesus dwels there Emmanuel dwels there in whom are bid all the Treasures of God 3. The Holy Ghost dwels there too the Heart of every Godly man is his Temple 4. All the Graces of the Spirit of God are laid up there 5. The Word that is the the rule of our life is laid up there Reas. 3. Because the Lord whom we profess to serve looks only at the Heart in al the Sacrifices we perform to him Reas. 4. The Devil makes all his Assaults and Batteries against the Heart and counts all his labor lost if he get not into the Heart Reas. 5. Because the Heart is not to be trusted but is deceitfull false cosening even the Heart of the best man in the world 139 Reas. 6. Because out of it are the Issues of Life thy whol Conversation wil be as thy Heart is kept Use 1. Serves to reprove thousands with a bitter reproof who would fain go for Children of God and yet 1 They are exact in keeping their Houses c but neglect their Hearts Page 143 144 2. Others are curious about their Bodies to Feed Physick Adorn them but neglect their Hearts Others are careful also of their manners and Conversation to avoid scandal and yet neglect their Hearts 4 Others keep indeed their Hearts but sleightly they do not keep them above all keepings Page 146 Use 2. This is a Doctrine of wonderful consolation though it carry just rebuke with it to al whose Consciences witness that their greatest care is to purge and keep their Hearts Page 147 Use 3. To exhort all men for the time to come to make this their study to keep their Hearts Before this can be done I. The Lord must break the Heart to pieces and new mold it And then you must 1. Keep it pure from Sin 2. Keep it fit for Duty The Life of Christ or the great Mystery of Spiritual Life SERMON I. THe Text Opened Page 1 2 3 Doctrine 1. Every Soul that hath Interest in Christ while he is in this world it is in Christ that lives in him Doctrine 2. The manner of their living this Life in this world it is by Faith For Explication consider that There is a twofold life 1. A Natural life which we have from Adam 2. A Spiritual Life which flows from the second Adam Quest. What is this spiritual life Answ. It is a Participation of Christs Righteousness upon the Souls union with him Use 1. Shews how necessary it is that we should all try and examin our Souls whether we are partakers of this Life or No. Page 20 Considerations to stir up to this examination 1. That in Truth this alone is
Christianity there is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ. 2 Aboundance of things go for this Life which are not this Life Quest. How shall we know this Life Answ. By these two Characters 1 Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a Natural way the life is the Preciousest thing in the world to that Creature and so among al that live the life of Christ there is nothing in this world so dear to them as their Spiritual Life is Which valuation of the said Life appears in these three things Page 22 1 In a Natural propensity and inclination and appetite towards those things that are the nourishment of this Life 2 In a most vehement declining of what they know to be destructive to this life 3 In a willingness to part with any thing to save this spiritual Life Page 24 The second Character of this Spiritual Life 2 Consists in some things that are the proper beatings of the pulse as it were of the Soul Arguments of this spiritual Life Aâ— 1 The Natural motion of this spiritual Life is to enjoy God in Jesus Christ as their chiefest good this is the great thing wherin the souls pulse beates 2 There is a Natural making out of the Heart towards holiness righteousness love kindness mercy pitty Page 27 3 The Soul that is alive unto Christ is guided by the word it is his Card his compass his Square his Meet-wand his Eye Looking to the word as his only Guide Who are strangers to the Life of Christ 1 All that know not Christ 2 All that live to their Lusts. 3 All that live to the World 4 All that live to their Pleasures Use 2. This serves to comfort those that live this life considering that 1 This is the highest noblest most excellent Life that ever any Creature did partake of 2 This is the sweetest of all Lives for in all other lives men tast but the sweetness of the Creature but in this the sweetness of God and Christ. 3 It is the greatest pledge of Gods love he gives to any 4 Christ being the fountain of this life you may be bold to rely upon him for the preservation of it Page 32 Use 3. To perswade all men to study and seek after this life SERMON II. DOCT. 2. That life of Christ which all Gods people live in this world they live it by Faith The DOCTRIN is 1 Demonstrated from scripture that it is so that the whol Life of a Christian is led by Faith 2 It is opened by shewing what the Holy Ghost means by this and what it is for a Soul to live the life of Christ by Faith Page 35 Use 1. Hence we may safely and sadly conclude that amongst the great multitudes of those that challenge the Name of Chrstians there are very few that are really Christians For 1 Many are Ignorent of Christ. 2 Many never trouble themselves at the very Doctrine of Faith 3 Many live to their lusts 4 Multitudes live to the world 5 Many live to their own wills Use 2. Real Christians ought to lament nothing so much as their unbelife Quest. Do you think that the people of God are so much guilty of it Judge by these Signs 1 Our not studying of the Word 2 Our little Valueing of the Word 3 Our unevenness in our whol course 4 Our deviations and use of unlawful means SERMON III. Use 3. This shewes what kind of Christians they must needs be who can live in the Flesh above Word and Ordinances having no use of them and as they think nothing to do with them but live in an immediate communion with God and enjoyment of him Use 4. To make this living by Faith better known to the Lords people and more exactly practised then it hath been hitherto For encouragement to study this art of living by Faith consider 1 If you wil be Christians you have no other Mistery to maintaine your lives but Faith 2 All other waies of life that any man pitches upon wil shortly appear to be but a poor thing 3 This Mystery of living by Faith is the best Life the most desirable Life that any Man or Woman can live til they come to enjoy God immediately The Excellency of this Life opened in Particulars 1 It is the life which the Lord hath chosen out to be the life of those that he loved from all Eternity 2 It is most honorable to us 3 In this world it is the easiest Life To live by Faith is the easiest Life under Heaven 4 It is the best Life because it is the surest Life Page 64 Question How shall we do to live this Life Answer 1 The Grace of Faith is the principal of his Life 2 If you would live the Life of Faith labor to be well acqainted with God especially with God in Christ. 68 3 Study to be acquainted with the word 4 Faithfully and Conscientiously serve the Lord in the use of means Page 73 Two Cautions to be taken in with these directions When it is said we must use means and thus live by Faith the meaning is 1 That when we have done we must not limit God God limits you and limits me but Faith must not limit him as to the way how or time when be shall makeâ— good Page 74 2 When you are directed thus to live the life of Faith you must take heed of some other Principles viz. your own Reason and your own sense The Premises considered it is sad to think 1 How the common People of the world live amongst us being wholly Ignorant of these things and setting their Hearts upon wealth and Pleasure and Honor and such perishing things Page 76 2 It is sad to think how many Souls that are Godly and study the Scriptures and attend upon the word yet had rather study nice controversies and things that engender strife then this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ and living by Faith Page 77 FINIS CHRIST'S INTERCESSION OR Sins of Infirmity Opened in a Sermon at Pauls Novemb. 19. 1654 1 John 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that you sin not now follows my Text And if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whol world THe whol scope of the blessed Apostle in this Letter of his is as himself teacheth us to confirm the people of God to build them up in that great Article of their Faith and their great priviledge which is the Communion of Saints He tels you in the beginning he writes to them that they might have Communion with himself and the rest of the Apostles whose Communion is with God the Father and is Son Jesus Christ presently he proceeds to shew wherein this Communion stands which he doth express First More generally It is to walk in the light when all the world walks in darkness
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
choyce be made all shal goe so he may have food the strongest appetite after any thing in the world is after food insomuch as therefore the Lord uses ordinarily to expresse the highest desires of the soule that man can put out in any kind he uses to expresse them by hungering and thirsting which is nothing but the appetite that men have after food so that living men out of a desire of that which is sutable to their life have a vehementer desire after that then they have after any thing else in the world So the Lord plants in any soul to whom Christ is life for I speak not of those who are meerly dead though I shall have occasion afterwards to shew you that Christ gives life to the dead but I say to those to whom Christ is life there is nothing in the world found in them after which their desires are so mighty so vehement so constant so unsatisfied with any thing else in the world no such appetite is in the soul of a man as the party that partakes of spiritual life hath after Jesus Christ as the heart after the rivers of waters as the hungry man after his food all kind of such things are expressed in the longing desires that the soul of a man that hath an interest in Christ hath after Jesus Christ lay up these by you till I come to apply them but yet I am not come to the main things wherein the comparison holds thirdly There is a third thing which is between eating and drinking and beleeving and that is this 3. That look as it is in our bodily life our natural life that as there is no such vehement appetite after any thing as after food when we want it so there is no such satisfaction in any thing as there is to be had in sutable things that when a hungry man is satisfied with food there is the quiet of his outward life then all vehemency all pains all angers all longings till he hath more need doth cease for you know such is our life that one meales meat will not serve it but for a little while but when hunger is raised and food administred then is the desire quieted So now when the Lord Christ hath life prepared in him and raised up in the soul a desire after him when that soul findeth him when he can find that Christ owneth him or intimates to it that he accepts it it is satisfied as with marrow and fatness no joy no delight no content in the world pleaseth the Soul so as to say this one thing I have found Christ Jesus and have an interest in him All these are main but the three last are most ful to my purpose and therefore I hasten to them Fourthly then and that which I think is one of the greatest of all the rest thus it is 4. That look as it is in our food pray mark it look as it is in our food for the body let the food be never so excellent never so wel Cooked never so freely conferred we never so freely invited let al be set out that is imaginable that food never nourisheth me or any other until it come to be incorporated within me that when a man his food come to be made one one mass I wil not say transubstantiated but translated and changed into the same substance with himself never doth it become food to him til then Take a man set him before all the dainties let him smel to them put them in his mouth nay if you can imagine it he may swallow them down and they pass through him if they be not incorporated into him that the flesh of the beast he eateth turns to his flesh or to be made fit for his blood it is no food to him though all the delicates of the world be set upon a Table and say here is enough to satisfie a thousand men not one bit of them is fit for me except it be so changed that it becometh one mass with me this we all know in our natural food Now herein lies the answerableness so it is with Christ it is Jesus Christ that is prepared the Lord hath prepared and put the vertue into him that it is enough to serve all the world if the Lord be pleased to bestow it upon the world but no man ever comes to have spiritual life from Christ till Christ become one with him and he become one with Christ It is Christ in you that is the hope of Glory and this our Savior expresseth in the very Text saith he He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood I dwel in him and he dwels in me that they are made one really only with this difference it remember it indeed our food for our body we and our food are made of one substance but there the food is turned into our substance that if it were not the flesh of a Beast turned into my flesh if it were not the blood of a Bird that is turned into my blood and so it leaves its own nature and is changed into my nature but this is different in our spiritual eating for here instead of Jesus Christ being changed into our nature we by feeding upon him are changed into his nature made partakers of the divine nature and there is a mystica I spiritual union betwixt the Lord Jesus Christ and us whereby we cease to be what we were in regard of our corrupt being and now come to be changed into his spiritual being but notwithstanding a union and conjunction there must be or else the Lord Christ never profits This is so plain that I hope I need say no more about it that is the fourth Lay up these for these wil be for tryal before I dismiss you Then fifthly the fifth thing wherein the comparison lies is this 5. That look as the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath in nature given such a Power to our stomach our appetite to receive it and our stomach to digest it that all the art in the world hath not the power or skil to come and make the food that is an extraneous thing another thing from it to fit it so and prepare it so that it shal be fit to become one with me no art in the world can do it like that of the stomach the power that God hath given to nature we know if we should take our meat and boyl it upon the hottest fire it can never prepare it so as the heat of a mans stomach can do it God hath given this peculiar faculty and power to the stomach thus to make our meat sutable for us so it is with the grace of God beyond all other graces and works of all the creatures yea of the Angels he hath given that power to the souls acepting of Christ and consenting to Christ that power to unite Christ and the soul together that is not elsewhere found in all the world for all Gods creatures if they
should all joyne together to put out their utmost skil they could not make such a conjunction between Christ and the soul as beleeving doth but yet I wil tell you thus far not by any virtue that God hath put in faith but as it is the hand whereby we receive the holy Spirit for by the Spirit we receive faith and this holy Spirit that takes Christ and gives him to us and takes us and gives us to Christ this holy Spirit in a way utterly unknown to us and no waies to be understood in this world makes us one with Christ. There is the fifth And then the sixth and last is this 6. That look as in our food when the food is prepared and we have an appetite to it and the stomach receives it and works upon it and it becomes one with us then by vertue of that by the strength of that food are we enabled to live as men if we have wasted our spirits if our healths are decayed here is strength to be added if we have work to do we are thereby enabled to do it to go through what belongs to us by the power that comes in Gods way of ordering it by the power that comes and is added to us So it is here in our spiritual life that when once the Lord brings the Soul to value Christ as that wherein his life lies to have a desire after him above all goods in the world to come to have Christ incorporated into us by the power of the Spirit then do we come from hence by the Covenant of Grace the operation of â—he Holy Ghost according to Gods dispensation to his People to receive such a supply of his Spirit as we are enabled to walk as those that are alive unto God through Jesus Christ only add this difference for I wil shew you how the preheminence lies in our spiritual eating with this difference that whereas our outward food never gives life to those that want it but by the blessing of God only repairs it in those that have it now this spiritual eating of Christ doth not only maintain life in those that are alive but it raiseth them up from the very dead it gives life and that moment that the Lord enables the soul to hunger after him and rest upon him in that moment is the life of Jesus Christ conveyed to him And this is the first part to let you see that eating and drinking it is nothing but beleeving in Christ and the resemblance of them stands in these things as I have opened to you and now the second which I wil be but brief in because I would not stay you long nor be hindred from the Application of it the second thing I promised is 2. A little to discover what the benefit is that we partake of by eating and drinking the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ What do we get by it For answer We can easily say when men are extolling the good cheer they have been at at any Feast or Banquet where luxury is set out What get you by it a feeding of our Bodies that wil return to clay is al that a man gets by it Now what is gotten by this eating and drinking of Jesus Christ Oh! could I but in a few words open to you what our Lord hath said of it saith he 1. He that eateth and drinketh my flesh and blood he shal have everlasting life There is the first benefit What means he by that life That is not this poor frail momentary life that we live though this be the purchase of Christ to Beleevers but he shall have First 1. The life of pardon that whereas all of us are dead under the guilt of sin dead in Law liable to wrath they are pardoned men if once they beleeve in Christ. 2. Whereas they were dead likewise under the dominion of sin and were strangers to the life of God the Lord Jesus infuseth a principle of a new spirituall life into them and such inward qualities and holiness that enables them to live the life of God that life that is of the same kind that Christ himself lives his life a holy spiritual life that alas if I could open it to you and you understand it it would make you conclude that there is no such life in any creature to be found as the life that every soul lives that laies hold upon Christ I and then he adds 3. This life is an everlasting life that is as our Savior expresses it saith he Your Fathers did eat Manna that is as the Scripture saith Angels Food not that Angels eat any meat but if they did eat any food it would be Manna Your Fathers did eat Manna and are dead but he that eateth upon me lives for ever It is not such a poor momentary life as this is but a life that wil last to all eternity this is the Benefit Nay mark some other expressions that come in here together 2. He shal never hunger nor thirst more That wil explain wel what the Lord means by saying an everlasting life they shal never hunger nor thirst What is that He means not that they shal never desire more of Christ No there is a two fold hunger and thirst 1. There is such a hunger and thirst as riseth out of sweetness that because the honey is good they would have more of it because the Wine is good therefore the Drunkard saith I wil sip again where the content of it makes them desire more of it This hunger all the People of God have because they find contentment in Christ therefore they desire more of him But then 2. There is another hunger and thirst which is deadly which will kill a man unless it be supplied which our Savior explains in his discourse with the Woman of Samaria He that drinketh of that Water shall thirst again that is if he have not a supply he will be in as dead a condition as he was in before if he be not supplied But now he that eateth and drinketh of the meat and drink that he prepares though there wil be a sweet hunger to make him desire more yet there wil be such a life and stock of life within that til eternity have end they shal never be destitute of meat So here is a benefit a life everlasting that they shal never hunger nor thirst Nay he explains it yet a little higher in the words I have read the one is saith he 3. Whosoever doth thus eat and drink and thus cometh to me I wil in no wise cast off What is that though it may be he may think himself the most unworthy and say Lord here is meat indeed Lord ever more give us of this meat But who am I that I should come I am the unworthiest wretchedest vilest of all Nay let him be never so unworthy in himself never so vile I wil in no wise cast him out if he come to me for God my Fathers
wil is and he gave it me in commission when I came from him not to deny food to any one that cometh after me Nay saith he last of all 4. This is the Command I have from the Father That I should raise them up all at the last day Though it is true the bodily life ends and fails and they shal turn to dust as others do yet when I come to make good the life that my People must have in abundance when I come in the last day to make it good to them I must raise al up that ever did partake of me to life you see here is the benefit which is laid down in the Text I have only a little paraphrased upon it thus I have opened the Doctrinal part That whosoever would live happy Eating and Drinking of Jesus Christ is the Duty required of him and they that do it are happy abundantly Let me now a little apply this to you but three Uses I wil briefly make of it or rather the Lord makes them for it is out of mans power to do it three things I would observe First USE 1. If you be but willing you may cleerly discern whether you are partakers of Jesus Christ yea or no Oh! that the Lord that is the Father of spirits would work upon your spirits while I am speaking Friends Shall I speak a little freely and examin this great Assembly where doth your eternal happiness lie tel me in your own hearts what you would answer to it if God did examin it where doth your hope of happiness lie Would not this be your Answer Only in Jesus Christ the Son of God that became a Savior for poor sinners I disclaim all other things and I look for my happiness only in Christ Would not this be the Answer of you all It may be some Pharisaical self justifiers they can pitch presently upon their own honest and innocent life but I pitch upon that which I think every one of you would answer It is Christ you say but what Christ is it that you make account is your life What Christ is it Is it Christ the Son of Mary and the Son of God Christ that died upon the Cross that rose again and ascended into Heaven and sits at Gods right hand in the Glory of his Father and that shal come again in the end of the world to judg the quick and the dead Jesus Christ is preached to you in the several meetings in the ministry of the word Is it this Christ you look for I let me add this If there be no more for thee or me than this this Christ that sits at the right hand of God if thou canst not ad this Christ fed upon by me It is Christ in you the hope of Glory it is not Christ in Heaven the hope of Glory therefore I must needs beg of you that you would be true to your own souls for through mercy I have a little converse amongst men and a little experience of them but the want of the knowledg of this point undoeth many men they have heard so much of Christ that unless they be the arrantest sots and debauched persons they can tell you all the story of Christ but if you come to examin how I pra'y came this Christ into your hearts I know how he was prepared for Bread how the Father hath ground him and baked him pardon the expression I know how the Father hath prepared his flesh and blood to be meat and drink But how came he to be your food and how got you your interest in him if you did eat his flesh and drink his blood in a carnal way it would do you no good for though you go for Church members yet if the Lord have not done these things in thee which I have spoke of thou wilt be utterly lost when thou comest to seek for salvation Doth it not trouble thee to think how thou canst answer these four or five Questions I will but name them First 1. Hath the Lord convinced thy Soul really and cleerly that there is no salvation to such a wretch as thou art further than Christ Jesus wil vouchsafe it unto thee art thou set down under that that is wel for believe it til this work of Christ come upon our hearts we never see the necessity of that work Secondly 2. Hath he raised up in thee that amongst all the contents thou findest in other things though God maketh thy Wife comfortable or thy Husband comfortable and al things sutable yet stil thy heart is unsatisfied if I have not Christ I am undone What will my riches do me good if I have not Christ What wil all the talk of others do me good if I have not Christ Hath he raised up in thee such a desire after him What sayest thou Thirdly 3. If at any time the Lord smile upon thee though no body be by but he smiles upon thee in secret thou hast gotten some cleer Evidence that Christ is thine and he wil own thee before the Father Canst thou turn back and even laugh before the Lord and say Oh Lord is it so Is Christ mine Is this to thee 〈◊〉 the honey and the hony combe 4. Dost thou find likewise in a way that thou know'st not how it is brought about but thou findest somwhat settled upon thy heart that hath changed the frame of thy heart thou that art by nature proud lascivious and naught there is somwhat that is wrought in thee and there comes some strength that though thou canst not walk as thou should'st do yet the Lord is dear and his Children are dear and his waies are dear some strength God affords that thou art not pleased in the world but thy soul finds that God hath enabled thee to make him the end of thy life and his word the rule of thy life Hath he done this for thee then there is eating and drinking of Christs flesh and blood then in the name of God thou doest partake of Christ But good Friends be not deceived I tel you in many places not one of a hundred that hears such a Doctrine as this have any part in Christ or their feeding upon him or relying upon him therefore I pray try your selves That is the first Use I wil make of it Then in the second place USE 2. Oh! what a comfort may this be if the Lord would enable me to speak of it I could pour down even showers of Consolation upon those souls that have gone along with me in the tryal All you that the Lord hath shewed this mercy to you that you feed thus upon Christ I tel thee this Carry it home thou hast eat a meal's meat that will keep thee as a man while God lives he hath given thee one bit Oh! one mouthful of Christ to get into Christ I read of the Widows Oyl truly it was a delicate portion that God laid out for her that for a great while together shee
had a little Oyl in the bottom of a Cruse and a handful of meal in the bottom of a Barrel and she and her Son did live upon it for as many years as the Famine lasted I warrant you that poor Woman would not have taken a hundred pound for it So that poor soul that can say I bless God he hath raised me up from my low condition and I have abundance of the world about me but I know Christ is more dear to me than all the world I know my prayers are to him for life and I hang upon him as wel as I can for life and look for it no where else and I dayly apply my heart to him in that poor measure his Spirit enables me I tel thee poor soul he hath given thee Jehoiakims portion and the richest food for manna was Angels meat this the Angels nay pardon me God never created any creature in the world to tast of this but every poor soul how wretched soever that lives upon Christ feeds upon â—t I pray meditate upon this at home and the Lord help you to ruminate upon this in secret Is it so Lord that the poor soul that casts himself upon Christ is thus made one with him Surely I wil never take care how it is in the world with me God hath provided wel for me my Lot is fallen in a very good place And Lastly USE 3. For Exhortation I shal make but one Use and that shal be in the very words of our blessed Savior when he begins this Doctrine in this John 6. ver 27. when they came and flocked after him for the Loaves saith Christ to them Labor not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endures to eternal life This Counsel of Christ I would a little press to you though I borrow half a quarter of an hour forgive me for it is for your good First saith Christ 1. You seek me for the loaves labor not for that Friends we are all cumbred as our Saviour said to Martha in Luke 10. the latter end Martha Martha thou art carefull and cumbred about many things So we are cumbred all of us about many things some of us are cumbred how to get more wealth some of us cumbred how to dispose of the wealth we have got we are cumbred about our places offices and these worldly things hurry us up and down we can hardly come into any place but all the peoples talk is no body is at leisure but full of business and what is it for the meat that perisheth all that thou laborest for is perishing perishing money pershing wealth perishing honor perishing profit alas Freind in a very few daies all that thou laborest for wil not be worth one penny at least to thee and but over a little time to no body else perishing things not worth your seeking the Lord knows they are not they that the world comes in most upon and all that their hearts can wish comes in with ease it is not one hours content it is but meat that perisheth but now labour saith he for the meat that endures to eternall life here is meat worth your labouring for I appeal to all your consciences that have heard the Sermon whether this meat be not worth the labouring for whether to get an interest in Christ to hunger after him to long for him to rely upon him Is not this worth the seeking Oh! seek it and to encourage you 2. I wil tel you what our Savior adds in verse 27. Labor for that meat that endures to everlasting life saith he the Son of man he gives it you that is you have no promise if you labor for the things of this world How many are those that toyl and moyl and cark and care most for the world and it wil not come upon them many a man sits up late and riseth early and manages his business discreetly and yet it wil not come but God hath engaged himself by a Promise that he that seeks the bread of life shal have it that if thou canst but pour out thy soul Lord leave me not destitute of Christ he wil not deny the Son of man to thee But lest some-body should further add Give it me Why should he give it me What is there in me that the Son of man should be given me Why should I think the Lord Christ would give me this food If I ask that he ads For him hath God the Father Sealed that is I came into the world under a sealed Office to do the wil of my Father and the work that my Father hath sealed to me made my work to do is To give eternal life to those that seek it He can as wel deny himself and deny that he is sent from God and his Office as to deny the bread of life to a soul that unfainedly labors for it Wil not this do it The Lord bless it and give you to consider what I have said and win all our hearts to study that Jesus Christ may be more in our thoughts FINIS SELF-DENIAL Opened in a SERMON At St. Mary Spittal March 26. 1649. Matth. 16 14 and so forward Then said Jesus unto his Disciples if any Man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his Life shal lose it And whosever will lose his Life for my sake shall find it For what is a Man profited if he shall gain the whole World and lose his own Soul Or what shall a Man give in Exchange for his Soul THe occasion of this speech of our Savior was this he had a little before told his Disciples what great things he was shortly to suffer at Jerusalem whereupon Simon Peter begins to rebuke his Master for admitting of such a Melancholly thought Far be it from thee to imagine that God will ever suffer thee to undergo such sad things as these are Master pitty thy self if there be any danger take a course to avoid it Our Savior therefore replies to Peter get thee behind me Satan thou art an offence to me this is nothing but the savor of the things of the world that makes thee give me this wicked counsel having rebuked Peter he turns to al his Disciples and utters this speech that I have read wherein our Lord strikes at the Root of that which made Peter give him that carnal counsel for the Lord knew it was nothing but unmortified self in Peter and he wel saw that it would bring the like bitter fruits in all in whom it was not Crucified and therupon gives them that counsel that is contained in those three verses that I have read to you wherein there are these two things First 1. Here is a Lesson necessarily to be practised by all Christs Disciples in these words If any man wil be my Disciple Let him deny himself Take up his Cross And follow me that is the Lesson Secondly 2. Here is
enough to go through with the building and then when he hath gone as far as he can and spent all that he hath the building is unfinished and himself is laughed at Or a King that goes to war-fare and doth not cast up what the War wil cost him and whether he have strength enough to go through with it when he is ingaged in it then he is fain to make shameful conditions and come off dishonorably and basely because he thrust himself into a War that he was not able to go through with So saith Christ wil it prove with you if any man undertake the work of being my Disciple and hath not brought his heart to this resolution to deny himself in whatsoever may be called himself that man wil never hold out if a storm come or if it he be ever put to it Then the next Parable tels you that he wil live but an unsavory profession he may be Salt without any savor that is good for nothing not so much as good to be cast to a dunghil and that wil be the upshot of all the Christians in the world that list themselves under Christ Jesus and have not learned this lesson of self-denial That one Text is proof enough of it but the main thing that I aim at in the Doctrinal part is to try if by the Lords assistance I may make you understand what this same self denial is and wherein it stands and so there are two things that I shal bestow the best part of an hour upon First 1. In shewing you what is meant by self what is that self that must be denied Secondly 2. What is this denial of a mans self or when doth a man do that which Christ Jesus cals denying of himself First 1. We wil enquire what is meant by self and the rather you must enquire into it because there is a self that a man must not deny there is a self that we must bring with us to Christ we must not leave that behind us we must give our selves to the Lord The Apostle saith in Rom. 6. We must save our selves in Acts 2. Peter exhorted his hearers Save your selves there is a self that we must watch over and attend to Attend to your selves So that if there be a self that must be saved and brought to Christ and preserved it is necessary to enquire what the Lord means by that same self that must be denyed Now that I may make this plain to you I must carry you a little further back Then the present condition that we are all now in in our sinful state and I beseech you bend your best attention for a while while I endeavor to cleer this to you Know therefore thus That when the Lord did at first make man he gave unto man a Soul and a Body and excellent endowments and accomplishments to both of them he gave man likewise the Creatures all the works of his hands but though man had all these things to use yet man had no portion but God God alone was the Portion of mans Soul he might use his Understanding use his Wil his Wit his Reason his Parts his Wife his Estate use them all but enjoyed nothing at all but God God was the whol portion of man as man stood in the state of integrity But now assoon as man fel off from God by sin when I say he sinned against God man did immediately leave God for his portion cease to make God his portion and having forsaken God as his portion now he made himself his own portion and the greatest good that he hoped for or looked for was himself for the time to come and therein indeed fulfilled the Devil's speech that if you eat of such a Tree you shal be as Gods so we became Gods to our selves immediately upon our fal and ever since that man did come to fal into himself to settle as it were upon his own bottom and to rest upon his own Center and now since that time all other things good or bad that might be any waies conducible to man to nourish that self-sufficiency that he had conceived in himself and expected in himself presently man maketh use of all these but though he useth them all as means he rests in none of them as his end but himself is the end of all This is the true state of man so that by self is meant that self-sufficiency that portion that lost man did find after he had departed from God But to make you understand this a little more fully be pleased to know that every man in the world though he have but one comprehensive self yet this self hath four branches and if you wil you may cal them so many selves though indeed they are but one yet there is a quaternity in it First 1. There is a sinful self 2. There is a natural self 3. There is a worldly self 4. There is a religious self Give me leave to explain all these to you I say First 1. There is that that we cal a sinful self not that the other selves are not sinful but we call this sinful because it is materially sinful this is not only sinful the others are sinful in the use but this that I mean by the first it is materially sinful and that is the body of corruption the body of lusts and corruption which every man in the world hath in him from his Mothers womb You shal find that to be called our Self in many places of Scripture in Collos. 2.5 saith the Apostle there Mortifie your earthly members mark you they are our members And what are they Fornication Uncleanness evil Concupiscence Covetousness Anger Wrath Malice Lying all these Cursed lusts doth he call our members and in the next verse cals it the old man and our Savior Christ cals our beloved lusts our right Eye or our right Hand or our right Foot There is one branch of Self the body of corruption Secondly 2. There is another Self that is called natural Self and by it I understand the Soul and the Body and all the endowments and Ornaments of them our wisdom our Learning our Will our Love our Joy our Fear our Strength our Beauty all these that make up the Person that you or I do bear with all the natural endowments or accomplishments that you al know to be Self and that the world commonly understands by Self Thirdly 3. Every man hath in him likewise that that is called a worldly Self by that I mean al the relations that man stands in to the Creature and all the interest that he hath in the Creature as for example our Wife our Children our Estates our Trades our Lands our Revenues our Offices Now that this is called a mans self the Text is plain for it in this Text where Christ speaks of denying a mans self he makes the world a piece of a mans self and in Luke 14. where he would have a man forsake
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
I note to prevent a discouragement if any soul should not be able to go along with a man in every thing nor understand every thing it may be an argument to humble thee but not to discourage thee only I shal ad this in the last place They that live this Life the poorest weakest simplest of al that are numbred amongst the Lords people though others may be able to dispute of it better than they and to speak of it to the edification of others better than they yet they that live this life know more of it than al the world besides I only give you these little things beforehand Now I come to the Two things that I promised to treat of The one is I will first prove it cleerly to you out of the Scripture that there is such a Life a spiritual Life a Life of Christ which al who receive Christ live while they are in this world demonstrate the truth of it that there is such a Life Secondly I wil then a little more fully endeavor to discover to you what this Life is and wherein it stands and I do not doubt but if the Lord help me in it the things I shal deliver wil be not only useful in some kind but very comfortable to the Lords people First then The thing that I promised to endeavor the demonstration of it is That there is such a Life besides the Life of eating and drinking and putting on of Apparel and buying and selling and enjoyment of these corporal things there is a Life that is a higher degree of living wherein men are taken up above the life that other people live that there is such a Life and I wil tel you why I undertake to prove this Because as natural men do not understand it so out of the pride of their hearts disdaining that there should be any happiness that the poor creatures enjoy which they themselves cannot understand thereupon they beleeve that there is no such thing and I am confident that most people that live when they hear men talk of the Life of God and the Life of Christ and a new Life a supernatural Life a spiritual Life they look upon it as a meer juggle partly in the Ministers to make the world beleeve that they know more than others do and the simple people that follow them that they may have somwhat to cloke their fantasticalness they give it out but for the thing there is no such matter this men beleeve and the rather because it is a hidden life and hidden both under the poverty and weakness of those that have it and many times hidden under their Infirmities and corruptions that break out which maketh them look like other men and so men force upon themselves and nourish in themselves a conceit that though some it may be may be honester men than others and stricter and devouter and the like yet this is but a little chipping and he wing of the life that other men live and can live as they do if they had a mind to it but as for a life by another principle and Rule and to have other manner of operations than the Life of the rest of the world they abominate the admitting of it into their understandings and I am perswaded this is that that hardens abundance of people that they never look after nor suspect their own condition therefore I say I would now prove to you that there is such a life which the Saints do live and instead of turning you to many particular Scriptures to prove it I wil give you these Four Arguments out of the Scripture which you shal in reading the Scripture find frequently proved to your observation Four Arguments to prove that there is such a Life that is a higher degree of living and another kind of Life than the rest of the world live The one is The comparison between the two Adams Jesus Christ is to al those to whom he is a Root as Adam was to al to whom he was a Root For it is worth your observing that the Scripture speaks but of two Adams from the beginning of the world to the end of it two Men the First Man and the Second Man because they two only were Roots that others do partake of either which they spring from or are grafted into Now the first Man Adam God made him a living soul and of a living soul is he the Root of all us that is that natural rational life that all men in the world have the first Adam he was the Root of it which communicates it Now Jesus Christ is to al us the Second Adam and the Lord made him not only the Lord from Heaven to rule all that should be under him but to be a quickning spirit that as the natural men follow their stock so al that partake of Jesus Christ must follow their Stock and consequently must partake of his Life as the branches of the first Adam do of his Life That is one Argument and pray weigh it for if it please God anon I shal come to examine whether you have that Life or no. Secondly The second Argument I give is this The Scripture holds it out as the proper end of Jesus Christs undertaking his work to give life to al that come to him that upon their coming to him he should give them life I am come that my sheep might have life that they might have it in abundance and herein appeared the love of God that he gave his only begotten Son that we might live by him He that hath the Son hath life he that hath not the Son hath not life Now were there no other life than what all natural men live this were an absurd argument and a poor I may speak it with reverence undertaking Suppose I should go visit and ride a Journey of many hundred miles and lay down my life and part with my estate For what end That the party for whom I do it might have have a house that hath a house already why should I do this if there were not another house than that which he dwels in Or why should I go that he might have health that is well without my undertaking if there were not another health besides that So were there not another life to what end should Jesus Christ make that the undertaking of his life and death and burial and communicate life if there were not another Life than the rest of the world live Thirdly Cleerly you wil find this and very frequent in the Scripture that all the world are said to be dead til they come to Jesus Christ all the world are said to be dead rich or poor sickly or healthful yong or old they are al dead Now it is apparent that they are not dead as to their natural life that needeth no confutation to say of this Assembly that they are dead men when they live and move and breath and talk and do all the actions
of men when therefore the Lord saith that al are dead til Christ cometh certainly there is another Life besides that life that natural men enjoy Fourthly and lastly Abundantly in the Scripture wil you find this proved that upon the souls accepting of Christ they are said to be quickned They who were dead in sins and trespasses he hath quickned Read but the ten first verses of the 2d of the Ephesians and I know not how many other places there are Ye were dead ye were such but he hath quickned you and he that beleeveth in me saith Christ to Martha in John 11.25 though he were dead he shall live and living once he shal never die Doest thou beleeve this Then Christ being the Root of a Life it being the end of his undertaking that his people might have life and all men being dead before they come to him and quickned to life upon the receiving of him certainly then there is a life that they who have any interest in Christ do live which others are strangers from And let this suffice for the first And beloved though I shal not apply this alone yet I would count it a great fruit of this daies meeting if the very notion of it might but stick upon your hearts it would be of admirable consequence that if al of you would go home and say Certainly whatsoever I may think of my self if I be in Christ there is another life than that which I live yet and as you will hear if it please God a better life another manner of life than this is But that for the first The Second which it may be you wil more long for for I suspect not that you wil doubt the truth of the first is What is this Life what is it Now remember I taught you in one of my Preparatory Conclusions That it is not to be understood of this world and therefore pray expect not any cleer opening of it what it is but only so far as the Lord hath taught me out of his Word I shal communicate to you I wil give you this Description of it and then I will open it more expresly as I go along The Life that al Beleevers have from Christ it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon their union with him Pray mark it I shall make this plainer by and by I say That the Life of Christ that al the Saints partake of it is a participation of Christs righteousness upon the souls union with him Where there are these two things a little to be cleered First That all who do receive Christ are united to him and that is the foundation of their Life The Second is That upon their union they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of this righteousness is their life That is that I mainly intend to cleer That they are al united to him the Scripture is abundant in the proof of it It is Christ in us that is the hope of glory and we are one with him and he with us and he dwells in us by his spirit c. therefore it is cleer that we are united to him made one and this union it is nothing but the Lord Jesus sending his spirit into the soul as a band to knit him and them together that he be made their Root and Stock Now that I will not treat of because the very handling of it it is not only a great Mystery but it would take up more time than is to be allowed for the Sermon But Secondly Upon their Union with Christ they partake of his Righteousness and the participation of his Righteousness is our Life Mark I pray this because I hope it will give you some Light into this great Work for if you be Gods People I am only making you to see what your spirits are what your blood is what your pulse is and I shal speak of nothing but the things that are in you if you be the Lords I say The participation of Christs Righteousness that is our Life To this purpose be pleased to observe this one rule and mark it in your reading of the Scriptures of the new Testament especially How that Righteousness and Death are the two things that are opposed one to another Death and Righteousness That look as soon as ever man was a sinner he was a dead man presently he was dead under the sentence of Death In the day thou eatest thou shalt die and not dead only under the Sentence but dead as his sin deprived him of Gods Image Now as it is sin that is our Death so it is Righteousness that is our Life not our own which the Scripture disclaims but the Righteousness of Christ and you shal find several times in Rom. 5. where the Apostle compares the Death by Adam and the Life by Christ ordinarily he useth this expression That As sin reigned unto Death so righteousness by Christ unto Life stil opposing them our Death is sin our Life is righteousness I know the time will prevent me if I should stay upon that But therefore I wil proceed to that that I aim at the Righteousness of Christ the participation of Christs Righteousness You wil say What mean you by that I mean plainly this That our spiritual Death it hath two Branches that Tree of Death that deadly Stock hath two Branches and we are said to be spiritually dead in a two-fold respect The one is We are dead as we are under the sentence of Condemnation and that is our death of guilt being bound over by the righteous Judgment of God to make him amends for the injury we have done him and that sentence of condemnation is our death that is one branch in regard of our guilt The other branch of our spiritual death is Our state of death we are in as being deprived of the image of God wherein we were made and not only deprived of it but have contrary principles in al the faculties of the soul carrying us constantly to the things that are opposite to him In these two respects are all men and women in the world dead til Christ finds them Now Jesus Christ answerable to this hath a two-fold righteousness the participation whereof is our life First He hath a Righteousness of his Obedience which is inherent only in himself but is bestowed upon us imputed to us reckoned to us and by that righteousness performed by Christ and inherent in him and reckoned to us by the righteous sentence of God he delivereth us from the death that we are under the death of our condemnation under the sentence of death and so the Apostle expresseth it cleerly in Col. 2.12 13. Ye saith he who were dead in sins and trespasses hath he quickened How forgiving you your trespasses In that place the pardoning and removing of our trespasses is the chief thing that is the quickning there intended So there is one a righteousness of Christ performed in our name accepted by God
in our stead and made over to us in the Covenant of Grace That is one Righteousness Secondly There is another Righteousness of Christ which is not only inherent in himself but is communicated to us so that it is wrought in us which is the righteousness of our Sanctification and it is that branch of our spiritual Life that this Text aims at for he did assert the other our quickning from the guilt of sin in al the former part of his discourse Now that no wretch may abuse it and say that then we may continue vassals to sin he proves it that Christs righteousness is communicated to us that is Christs Grace is infused into our souls and that is made up of these three things and I conceive there is nothing else in it but these three things The one is The Spirit of Jesus Christ that holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is communicated to Beleevers to dwel in them to be in them a principle of a new Life Secondly This holy spirit poured into the soul works in them in al the faculties of the soul those gracious dispositions wherein the Image of God stands which is light in the understanding freedom in the will love and fear and joy that is the turning of al these affections or passions to their right object habitually disposing them turning the bent of the heart from sin to God And then the third is This self same spirit that plants in them these Graces abides in them to excite them and stir them up and draw them out in their whol course to think and speak and do the things which in a kind of natural way flow from these inward principles and are a conformity to the Will of God and thereupon al the love of the Saints to God and one to another all their mourning for sin their striving against it all their endeavors after God they are motions of this new life that is wrought in us and this is the life now that all the Lords people do live while they are in this world The Spirit of Jesus Christ bestowed upon them working in them a new frame of heart turning the bent of their hearts to God and remaining as an exciting principle to draw out their graces and strengthening them in their working whereby their endeavor is in al things to live unto God according to his Will and this is that Life which my Text and other Scriptures call the Life of Christ and the Life of God which although it be perfect in none in this world but there are reliques of our old death in us and of our sinful distempers in us yet really and truly these things are found in every soul that is brought home to Jesus Christ. And let this I pray suffice for the Doctrinal part that without being burdensom to you I may make some application of it Thus then you see though I have not turned you to many particular Scriptures yet I know that if you do but read the Scriptures you wil find that this Doctrine it lies written upon the foreheads of abundance of Texts that thus it is with al Gods people Now then for the use of it I intend but three Uses it may be I shal but even name the last First You see by all this how necessary it is that you should al try and examine your souls Whether you be partakers of this Life or no And good friends be serious about it and to make you the more serious give me leave to stir you up by these few Considerations to be willing to have your hearts tried about it The one is That in truth this alone is Christianity mark my words and if you understand them not now study them There is nothing Christianity but the Life of Christ nothing else that is truly Christianity Opinions they may be Christian Opinions they may be Christian Truths but there is no life As we say not of any dead Carkass of any Picture though it be drawn to the life we say not in proper language this is a man though it be as like him as one thing can be like another if it have not a mans soul we say not of a dead man though it be the body of your Father or Mother you cannot properly say this is my Father or Mother it is but the Carkass of them So I say be baptized be in any Church Form or Order wait upon never so many external Duties hear Sermons never so constantly give as good words as you will to those that preach the Truth and hold it out to you this is not Christianity Christianity is to live Christs Life and at that day you shall find the Lord will never own a soul to be a Christian that had not the Life of Christ communicated to him And Secondly I tel you to provoke you to it Abundance of things go for this Life which are not this life because it is the thing that discriminates Gods people from others Satan hath shewed infinite stratagems and discovered all his abilities laid them out that he might make counterfeits of these things that might go currant with people that he could delude Civil Righteousness in some it is not Christianity a form of Godliness in others it is not Christianity and abundance of things that I have not time so much as to reckon up but these are not Christianity though they look like it and therefore I beseech you but think how you could answer this great Question Doth Christ live in you have you the life of God in you The Life you live in this life is it the Life of the Son of God Think what you could answer to it Now if you wil say How shall we know it I wil briefly discover it to you for I will give you but two Characters of it many others might be had but two I would bestow a little time to cleer to you The one is Wheresoever the Lord gives Life to any Creature in a natural way the life is the preciousest thing in the world to that Creature howsoever it may mind other things delight in them be taken with them there is nothing so precious to it as life Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life and if you would suppose as the life of a man it is made up of several lives that that continues the being of his life it is prized above al the others if he wil be impaired in any of them it shal not be in that as neer as he can that concerns the being of his life Now accordingly say I you shal find it cleer that among al those that live the life of Christ there is nothing in this world so dear to them as their spiritual Life is it may be they are dayly mourning for the weaknesses of it but that that they have of it is dearer to them than any thing they have in this world besides and the high
valuing of this spiritual Life wil appear in these three things just as it is in the other life The one is A natural propensity and inclination and appetite towards those things that are the nourishment of their Life Look what God in Nature hath made the means to preserve life those things living man so far as he is living hath the greatest inclination and disposition to and therefore of al desires that man is subject to none so vehement as those of hunger and thirst a man may love Gold or Silver or Lands but there is nothing so vehemently carries him out of himself as the satisfying hunger and thirst So it is with all those that have this spiritual Life Look whatsoever God hath placed their life in as David had learned God had placed it in his Word O Lord saith he give me thy Word my life lies in it and new born Christians if ever you tast how sweet the Lord is desire the sincere Milk of the Word that you may grow by it be longing after a high and reverent esteem and an appetite after those things wherein the Lord hath placed thy nourishment though they be but the channels the vessels whereby his spirit is administred to you the supplies of the spirit comes in them to you of al things in the world these are the most desired Others that are painted Christians may for their reputation and that others may think well of them and to get knowledg c. and for such carnal ends but with an inward savor no man is mightily and eagerly carried out after the means of spiritual Life but he that lives it That is one A Second thing that manifests the high value of that spiritual Life is A most vehement declining of what they know to be destructive to life Let a man that is thirsty come in and give you all his money in his purse for a cup of Beer but let one come and tel him Sir that Beer in that cup is poyson that man wil drink his own Piss rather than that shal go down Oh! it wil destroy Life God hath put it into the bruit beasts as put a Sheep into a pasture he carries that discerning tast he wil not eat the poysonous Weeds that are there the Tree it will shoot no Root that way it will decline it So those that are the Lords People that live the life of Christ what their souls are convinced of to be destructive to their spiritual life that they decline shun and hate and turn from and of all things under Heaven nothing so hateful to them as the waies of sin And thirdly it wil appear in this That look as it is in the natural life every Creature as it longs after that which would nourish it and declines that which would destroy it so if they must come to the parting they wil part with al other good things in this world actually part with them to save their lives It was a speech of Esau and had his Birthright been nothing but a Civil Priviledg it would have been justified If I die for hunger what good would my Birthright do me he sels his Birthright for to preserve his life Skin for skin and al that a man hath he wil part with rather than his life Take me a man that is alive to Christ if he must part with his Christ or with his wealth with his Christ or with his outward life though it be the best thing that is to be enjoyed under the name of all worldly things yet to a man that lives the life of Christ that is a poor thing to him in comparison of his spiritual life you shal rather strip him of al. I know when we come to practice our weaknesses ignorances temptations reliques of corruption often over power us which may cause matter of self abhorrence but no man that hath this life of Christ but in the bent of his soul doth these things nothing so lovely as that that preserves his life nothing so abominable as that that wil destroy it and if he must part with any they must go before Christ. Pray lay up these things The Second and other Note whereby this Spiritual Life of Christ may be judged of is this That look as it is in al other Lives there are some vital operations some kind of motions or operations that are properly vital that where they are found you may say and swear it too that there is life and where these are not found there is no life or that life is in a swound As now take the Life of a Tree we know the natural operations of it are al those of vegetation to draw nourishment to expel superfluous moisture to put out their seed in the sap and bark and seed and the fruit according to its kind where you see these things if the sap run if the buds be if there be vegetation the Tree is alive if it appear there be none of these in their season though they may be dead in Winter it is a dead Tree So likewise in the life of man the sensual life of a Beast if there want the pulse that there be not those beatings that there are not such motions of the heart we conclude there is no life there if there be a beating of the pulse though never so weak life is there Now in this Spiritual Life there are some things that you shal find in the Scripture that are the proper beatings of the pulse some operations that though the things the acting of them abroad may be counterfeit as to others yet to a mans own soul that studies his own heart and the motions and operations of his own inward man he cannot be cozened in it and therefore you may by them be able to discern whether the pulse of this spiritual life beateth Now they are many but I thought but of these three and I think most of the rest wil fall under them The one is The proper genuine and as I may so say the natural motion of this Spiritual Life is to enjoy God in Jesus Christ as their chiefest good that I say is the great thing wherein their pulse beats because Jesus Christ is not only the fountain of it and so it must flow back to him but he is the supream good of the soul God in Christ is the supream good and to be carried to that that we fancy to be our supream good it is not in our choyce we do it necessarily Nature compels every man to follow that that he looks upon as his chief good therefore we use to say that of the chief end there is no deliberation a man is not of choyce but is carried to it Now God in Christ being the chief good of the soul the aiming after him the braying breathing after him the mourning for the want of him the joying in the presence of him and all those things that would argue Christ to be the souls chief good are never
found in any but those that have the Life of Christ there is no man else in this world but if Christ be Twelve to him there is somthing else that is Thirteen therefore ask your souls that find you that by some operations it may be you know not whence they come nor how they come in you but there is this fixed upon you there is no good to your souls but Christ let you enjoy God in Christ for your portion and that is that good your souls aims after you may tel others and I tel you that I do this and my heart may deceive me but if I examine my soul I can never say I do this truly unless the Life of Christ be in me Secondly Another Pulse wherein this Life constantly puts out is this That the things of Holiness they are connatural to him Holiness Righteousness to be gracious to be freed from sin to be filled with love and kindness and mercy and pity and these things there is a kind of natural making out of the heart towards these because look as it is in our outward man you know that the actions of eating and drinking and of a man no man shall need to learn them he may have arts that shall make him do them mannerly but to do the things they are natural they were born with him So now to be holy with God to be righteous in our conversation with men freed from sin to walk as the Lords redeemed ones to practice these things this is your life and therefore the Apostle Peter useth this very expression That we were redeemed by Christ that we should live to righteousness live to righteousness Now as a worldly man lives to his money another man to his wrath another man to his lusts these are the things his heart runs its circle in A gracious man the things of holiness and righteousness are the things that suit his spirit And then thirdly and lastly I wil name no more but bring it a little closer to you a third thing is That the Lord having made his Will to be the Rule of our Life and revealed this Will in his Word thereupon the soul that is alive unto Christ eyes the Word looks at the Word is guided by the Word the Will of God revealed in his Word that is his Card that is his Compass that is his Square that is his Meet-wand his eye looking to the Word as his only guide No man I dare affirm it though other things may come neer it but I dare affirm it that whosoever will study it shall find in this world doth any of these three things but he that hath the Life of Christ upon a serious debate to make Christ the good of his life to make the acts of holiness the things that his soul naturally makes after and for the directing of him in all to live as the Apostle saith not to the will of man or the will of the flesh but to the will of God that is to the Word of God to make Gods Word the Rule of all our actions in our bent and purpose here is the discovery of the Life of Christ and this is now to have Christ in you Now I beseech you Brethren tell me for I shall by and by dismiss you when I have made but one Use more I will leave the third what say your souls to these things Really leave al self conceitedness and apprehensions that you may have out of the Pride of your hearts of your own conditions what say your souls to these things I have opened have you now the Life of Christ I wil tel you Brethren if I had time to press it I had here a large Field to enter in and to shew you what worlds of people that go for Christians are yet utter strangers to the Life of Christ. I will name you a few that you may enlarge your thoughts of them when you are alone All they that know not Christ it is impossible that there should be a making of Christ their chief good where there is no knowledg of him There is no valuing of an unknown thing All ignorant persons are strangers to this life as the Apostle saith the Gentiles were strangers to the Life of God because of the ignorance that was in them If you know not Christ and his Excellencies you can never live in him Then al those that live to their lusts whose life is to be wanton unclean drunken prophane these live to the Devil the Devil lives in them they may say I live not I but the Devil lives in me And so thirdly All they that live to the world whose work that the genious of their heart carries them to from morning to night his wealth purchases buying trading c. there their soul fixes on them there they rest to the world they live And again All that live to their pleasures whose vivâ—re is bibere and the rest they eat and drink and sport and play and give them these and these are the things that make a happy life to them All these and abundance of others which I fear I should presume upon your patience if I should stand to innumerate but al these are cleerly proved to be destitute of this Life of Christ think of it Brethren think of it It is an easie thing let me tel you to be Christians as we cal it they are cheap things to hear Sermons cheap things to profess Religion in our daies wherein I think a long time there have not been fewer that mind it heartily yet abundance now pretend to it but to be alive to Christ to be able to say in this Life I have other business than what I have here below I have a Trade a Wife a Husband and Children but the Lord knows my Conversation is in Heaven my life is in Heaven it is Christ that lives in me they are few can say it and the Lord help you that you are not deceived about it And then the other Use that I will make of it is That this Lesson is a most comfortable Lesson for I do not doubt but the clearer any man speaks about these things of Gods Kingdom the more will the hearts of Gods people be able to joyn with him I fear not but many of you can say it is thus with you the Lord witnesseth that with you doth he not That there is nothing you have such an appetite after as the means of Grace and Salvation that you might live and that your hearts dread at the waies of sin and that if God put you to it you beg of God to be stripped of all rather than God should not be set up and that al your prayer is let God give me Christ God in Christ for my portion and that reverently not in a ranting way as if a lewd life could honor God as some rude people pretend to now but that I might be holy in this perverse generation especially in my
inward man where Christ dwels and the things you look at in buying selling and purchasing and sporting and in al the things you may do that are Lawful to you observing Gods Rules you take Gods Word to be your Rule then I tel you for your comfort these two things First The Lord hath communicated to thy soul the excellentest life that ever he gave to any creature Three things I wil speak briefly that you account of First To be thus minded to be thus molded thus framed it is absolutely the highest the noblest the excellentest life that any creature ever partaked of I might shew it you in a world of Particulars out of the Word that there is no life like it We use to say in Phylosophy That the life of a Pismire it is a more noble life than the life of a Cedar though one Cedar be worth many thousand Pismires yet the life of the Pismire is better because it cometh from a nobler spirit Now the Life God hath given thee comes from the spirit of Jesus Christ. It is the noblest the operations of this Life are above what poor creatures can do as we say the Life of Reason it is such a brave flying thing to be a top above the poor sensual things of bruit Beasts and to deal with God And It is the sweetest too that is another for in al other lives men tast but the sweetness of the Creature but here the sweetness of thy Life is God and Jesus Christ himself there is no life so excellent as this is Secondly I say for thy comfort The Life God hath given thee is the greatest pledg of his love he ever giveth to any he hath given thee life it was the end of Christs undertaking to give life to his beloved ones he never giveth this to any man he means hurt to He can give a Kingdom to a man he means to destroy he gave it to Saul and cast him away in his wrath he can give an Apostleship to one that shall be damned he gave Judas an Apostleship and yet he perished but to have this Life to close with Christ to live to him according to his Word had you this Church ful of Diamonds given you to do what you would with and to raise your posterity to be the greatest men in this part of the world it were not such an expression of his love as to give Christ to you And thirdly I tel you This Life that the Lord hath given thee of which Jesus Christ is the Fountain thou mayest be bold to rely upon him for the preservation of it because it flows from him he is the Well-head of it he is the Well spring of it and therefore when thou thinkest how many evils thy Life may be incident unto what temptations thou mayest meet withal how weak thou art to resist them remember man or woman whose Life this is it is not thy life but Christs Life and he ever lives to make us live and therefore thou in an humble walking and dependance upon him in the use of Gospel Ordinances mayest comfortably expect that God wil nourish this Life and cherish it till thou come to be a perfect man till thou come to be transplanted into another Life where Faith and al these things shal cease and God be All in All this the comfort of it Then I thought to have spoken a little to the third Use. That because all the people of Christ live this Life to perswade you all to study it and to seek after it and often compare it with that other life that we so often weary our selves about with a vain shadow hazarding every thing for it to have our accommodation with as much refreshing as can be SERMON II. 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 Second Lesson which is the manner how all the Saints of God live this Life of Christ while they are in this world The Life which I now live in the flesh By Flesh there he means not his fleshly part as they are said to live to the flesh who live sensually and wickedly but by the Flesh there is meant our mortal condition while we are here upon Earth while we live our natural life the Life of Christ in us it is lived by the faith of the Son of God that is the faith wrought in us by the Son of God which we place upon the Son of God but that grace of faith it is the manner or the instrument or the means of our holy Life while we are in this world And this Doctrine which beloved is the mystery of Christianity is the very life and soul and kernel of true Christianity I shal endeavor according as the Lord shal enable me this day to open to you This is the Doctrine That that Life of Christ which all Gods people live in this world they live it by faith Understand but the scope aright and I hope the discourse may prove useful to those that have this Life My meaning therefore is That the grace of faith it is not only the instrument or condition required to make us partakers of Christ and his Life it is not only one chief grace or one branch of this Life but while the Saints are in this world the mannagement of their whol Spiritual Life is the work of faith Christ indeed is the fountain of it and the Spirit of God is the great administration of it but that which we do while we live in this world our whol spiritual Life is through the assistance of God acted by the grace of faith and I intend the Lord willing to handle it in this Method First I will cleerly demonstrate to you from the Scripture that it is so that the whol Life of a Christian it is led by faith Secondly which I more aim at I shall endeavor to clear to you what the holy Ghost means by this and what it is for a soul to live the Life of Christ by faith that shall be my chiefest work in the Doctrinal part and then I wil come to the application of it For the proof of it that it is so First Mark how cleerly the Scripture holds it out that while we are in this world the life of the Saints it is led by faith There is one place in Habbakkuk 2.4 I wil mention that you shall see the reason by and by the Spirit of God there speaks of the several waies that men had to live in troublesom times for Habakkuk lived in very difficult times of the Church and there in his discourse he shews how proud men lived by maintaining a good opinion of themselves and lifting up their hearts and how worldly men
lived by loading themselves with thick clay good store of Gold and Silver and Houses and Lands but saith he the just live by faith every godly man lives by faith Now this Text of the Prophet Habakkuk it is three or four times in the new Testament alledged by the holy Ghost to prove the very self same Doctrine as for example Rom. 1 17. I wil rather name that first because it proves both these Doctrines I have propounded saith he in verse 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that beleeveth the Gospel for saith he in verse 17. therein is the righteousness of Christ manifested from faith to faith There now is my former Doctrine that our Life to Salvation it is nothing but the righteousness of God manifested to us and communicated to us yea from one degree of faith to another according as we get more faith so we have more life and as Righteousness is further revealed so we have more faith and consequently more life as it is written the just shal live by faith mark it The manifestation and communication of the Righteousness of Christ it is held out in the Gospel but received by Faith and every Beleever lives by Faith The just shall live by faith So in the Epist. Gal. 3.11 the holy Ghost repeats the very same expression again speaking of the Life of the Saints as it is written The just shall live by faith Again the very same phrase in Heb. 10.38 where the Apostle there is pressing of Beleevers to a holy Life in difficult and troublesom times that are coming upon them and shews what wil become of Apostates and Back-sliders but saith he The just shall live by faith The whol life of al holy men while they are going through the world and get into Heaven all their life is transacted by faith this is clear And I wil ad but another Text that which you find in 2 Cor. 5.7 the Apostle saith expresly We live by faith we live not by sence if you wil take sence there for carnal sence things that are sensible to our outward man we live not to sence or if you wil take it in the more elevated interpretation spiritual sence that is the immediate enjoyment of the light of Gods countenance to ravish us though it is a Treasury to be desired rather than ten thousand worlds yet we live not by it but by faith the Life of Gods people it lies al in the grace of Faith But I wil add two Proofs more that are not particular Scriptures but conclusions that are fit for you to study and wil give a wonderful conviction to your hearts of the truth of this Doctrine That the Life of al Gods people while they are in this world is lived by Faith You shall have this demonstration First That the holy Ghost when he compares spiritual life and natural life together he useth to compare the grace of faith to al those faculties or members which are the whol livelihood of our natural lives those members or faculties which contribute the most to the livelihood of our natural life the holy Ghost makes faith to be al these in our spiritual life pray remember my meaning is thus You know while we are in this world while we live we must be fed take away food appetite eating digesting drinking concocting of it and you destroy a mans life presently Faith is our mouth by which we feed al the food that the soul hath it is by a spiritual mouth and it is faith whereby we feed ordinarily it is compared to our mouth appetite and stomach but then before the food cometh to our mouth the hand receives it and conveys it to the mouth Faith is our hand compared to the hand whereby we do our work and receive our food and carry it Faith is our eye whereby we behold the things we are to act and work upon for the maintaining of our life Faith is the foot whereby the soul is carried both to its business and food hands eyes mouth tast the Spirit of God sets it out by them all thereby signifying to us that what the eye mouth hand and tast contribute to our natural life that doth the grace of faith to our spiritual life while we are in this world That is one Conclusion that I think is a cleered demonstration that while Gods People live in this world it is faith that is their Life The Second which is yet more ful is this That you shal find cleerly in the Scriptures that not only our life in general is attributed to Faith but every thing concerning our life is in Scripture made the work of faith Oh! that we could understand this but you that are spiritual must needs be versed in the truth of this Doctrine I say that not only the bulk of our life in general is said to be the work of Faith but every thing that concerns our spiritual life the holy Ghost doth impute it to the grace of Faith as now I will instance in some things that wil comprehend al the rest All the Life of a Christian is reducible either 1. To the beginning of it Or 2. To the preservation of it and carrying of it on First The Beginning of it We have our spiritual Life begun in us by Faith it is on our part the principle whereby the very spiritual life is received or if you will have it more plainly All those things that are the real principles of our Spiritual Life they are all received by Faith As Jesus Christ who is our Life and is the fountain of our life we recive Christ by faith As many as received him that is as many as beleeved And in Ephes. 3.17 whether Jesus Christ dwels in our hearts by faith That Lord Jesus that remains in us constantly we have him by faith Then The Spirit of Jesus Christ who doth take from Christ and communicate to the Saints for so Christ said when he promised him to his Apostles and Church that shall be his Office to take of mine and give to you saith he How received you the Spirit was it not by faith So that by faith we receive the Spirit as it is the very principle of our life I confess this is a great mystery for Faith it self is the work of the Spirit and yet the Spirit is received by faith but the holy Ghost saith it is so Somwhat I would say to witness that but the time wil not allow it me So that our very beginning of our spiritual life is by faith while we are meerly passive the Spirit of God works alone without us but when we come to be active the very first and al the acts of our lives they are by Faith Well when this life is begun Then Secondly The Preservation the Maintainance of it the acting of it wholly the Spirit of God acts by the grace of Faith as thus All
our nourishment comes from Ordinances for though the Lord be the Fountain of it yet the Ordinances are the canales the channels wherein the Lord gives out a greater supply of himself we must receive all these by Faith The Word profits no man unless it be mingled with Faith your Prayers they must be Prayers of Faith the Sacraments they are received by Eaith All Ordinances are so far effectual to the soul as the grace of Faith puts them upon you Faith is not only the means of our Food but for Physick the overcoming of our evil al the Spiritual enemies of our spiritual life all that would destroy it it is Faith alone must do it You shall find Satan the great Enemy how do we overcome him By resisting him in Faith The World another Enemy every one that is born of God overcometh that the world cannot prevail upon them and this is that that overcometh the world even your Faith So All our Lusts it is by Faith that we put off the old man the Scripture is cleer in it nay the actings of our lives all the actions of our spiritual life all the excitings and callings out of all our graces in every relation publick and private the Spirit of God laies it al upon Faith until we come to be consumated and put into Heaven the Lord doth leave the mannagement and carrying on of our spiritual life to the grace of Faith himself is the Sum the fountain but so far as the Creature hath a hand in it that is the sanctified creature it is this faith whereby the whol life is acted Thus you see the first thing I hope sufficiently cleered That the Life of al Gods People while they live in this world it is the life of faith But now comes the greatest Question for there are so many cleer Scriptures about that you cannot doubt of it you had as good doubt of your Christianity as to doubt of this Whether a Christians life is the life of faith But now What the holy Ghost signifies by this what is it to live by faith That is a thing that may be more difficult to be understood and if it please God that I can but cleer it to you out of the Word that you may see wherein the true living by faith doth consist when I have opened this I wil not doubt but so many as are Gods People wil say this is my very condition but as for others they wil say every body talks of living by faith one man makes living by faith only to be a fancy in his own head that God wil do this and that for him without any warrant from the Word another it may be fancies that live how he lists if he hope but to go to Heaven when he goes out of the world then he lives by faith But living by faith is substantial I shal now set my self by the Lords help to clear to you what the holy Ghost signifies when he saith that the life of Gods people in this world they live it by faith and to this end I must premise these two things but to make way The first is That our Lord Jesus who is our Head our spiritual mystical Head he hath not only an Al-sufficiency for al his people for every one that beleeveth til they come to glory but he hath a full purpose in his heart never to be wanting of supply unto his called ones a full unchangeable purpose to supply them with whatsoever is needful to bring them to glory That is the first thing I lay down as a foundation to lead you to know what it is to live by faith there is an all sufficiency in Christ our Head yea a ful purpose and resolution unchangeable to supply to all his people whatsoever they can need in any condition til he hath brought them to glory That is the first thing no body wil doubt this the Scripture is so ful to it The Second thing is more immediate and closer to my purpose and it is this That Jesus Christ hath not only this determinate purpose in his heart but he hath in his Word declared and manifested al that he will do for his people and expect from his people til they come into Heaven mark that is In his Word hath he declared Promises which hold out al the good that Christ means to do for his people not only general promises for pardon of sin to bring them to Heaven but promises for every condition that can be he hath declared what he means to do and which way he wil do it He hath there likewise declared what his will is for al the duties that his people are to perform iâ— the way of obedience he wil never expect from them in al their life time any thing but what in his Word he hath set down And thirdly In the same Word he hath not only laid down Promises what he wil do and precepts what they must do but Directions that hold out both arguments to stir them up and waies that they should take al these hath he laid down in his Word al the means either to attain strength to do duties or to accomplish the benefit of any Promise in his Word he hath laid down al his mind and that is called his will concerning us that is the will of God concerning us Now these three things premised the purpose of Christ to do all that he will do and expect the declaration of all this in his Word These two taken for granted now in the third place which is my Doctrine and which wil make you understand what the living by faith is The Grace of Faith wrought in us by the Spirit of God and acted in us by the Spirit of God it immediately hath its whol application to the Word Good Friends hearken I say the grace of faith is the work of the Spirit in us and is excited and stirred up to work by the Spirit the Spirits proper and immediate work is to deal with the will of Christ revealed in his Word it looks not at Heaven immediately it looks not to Christ immediately but it looks at God and Christ and Heaven mediately through the Word In the Word there saith sees all the good things promised that in its life time it shal stand in need of in the Word it seeth the injunction of al those duties that the renewed soul should be conversant about or be exercised in in the Word and in the Word only he seeth the Methods the Counsels the arguments the Directions that are to be attended upon for the enjoyment of all that which is in Christs purpose to do for us Now mark The grace of faith stirred up by the Spirit of God to look to the Word in every thing in the right way and the Lord by his invisible and secret work making the things held out in the Word effectual to the soul by this act of faith in the whol course of our life applying
it self unto the Word the Word of Promise for matters of Comfort the Word of Precept for matters of Duty the Word of Direction in matters of means and Ordinances the applying of the soul to the Word in all these things the Lord according to his goodness making these things good to the soul that thus applies it self to the Word this is to live by faith So that now to come a little neerer to the business for I have not yet explained it so far as I hope by and by I shall but I say now to live by faith First It is not only for a soul to beleeve in Jesus Christ for salvation or to beleeve all our life time that we shal be saved by Jesus Christ when we go out of the world it is not only that that is but a piece of it But To live by Faith it is in our course to enjoy the whol revealed will of Christ to us as our life thereby fetching all our consolations that are fit for our life from promises thereby fetching all our practices from the declaration of what he makes our duty and applying our selves in the use of those means which the Lord hath appointed us to attend upon for the accomplishment of these this conversation of the soul is the living by faith To live by faith it is this I am not only made partaker of the Righteousness of Christ which is imputed for my justification and is inherent for my new quickening I have not only these principles in me but by the grace of faith al the comfort of my life is fetched from a promise al the rule of my conversation is from the Precepts and all the means I use for the accomplishment of one or other they are those that are prescribed there so that be it to undergo affliction to conflict with a temptation to go through my Calling be it to comfort my heart against temptations when the soul looks to the Word of Christ and there takes the Word for its guide both for comfort and duty until the Lord of his meer grace have accomplished in us all the good that he intendeth to us which wil never be til he takes us out of this world when faith ceaseth but in the mean time this and this only is that which the Scripture cals living by faith But now because I would yet make it a little plainer to you be pleased to know That although there are acts of faith applicable to every particular condition we are in which would require a Volumn to mention yet for the present purpose you must know that there are five things faith doth in this general living by faith that every one that is said to live by faith his faith doth five things in his ordinary course which are applicable to every thing that you can think upon which I shall not need to stand to prove though I will give a touch as I go along because I would spare a little time for the Application before I break off But there are five things applicable First The grace of faith looks at the Word as that which is most sure that is it yields a firm assent to the truth of all that Jesus Christ hath revealed concerning him in his Word The Promises that are made faith assures the soul they are al true they are not whimsies nor fancies The Duties and Directions there prescribed faith assures the soul they are things the Lord looks for so that the Apostle saith in Acts 20. when he lived as a Christian he did exercise himself to beleeve al that was spoken by the Lord in his Law and David saith Thy Word Lord is from everlasting It makes not any scruple or doubt but gives a firm assent to what the Lord hath set down in his Word That is one and that indeed is the Basis and Foundation of the rest The Second It not only assents that all these are true but faith acquiesses that these are the magazine the store house the comprehension of al excellencies that the soul shall ever be made partaker of he desires to be satisfied in the goodness of them he desires no other course of Life to order him but what is set down in the Word he thinks not there are any Councels nor Directions to be regarded nor compared to those set down in the Word he rests in them there his Treasure lies in that great iron Chest and the Word is not only true but his livelihood he knows God hath declared this in his Word and there his soul is satisfied That is the Second And then the third is this The Lord laies al our happiness up in his Word the happiness of our comfort the happiness of our holy conversation therefore faith directs the soul to attend to the Word as to its only guide and comfort that look as a man that is satisfied I am to travel in a dark night and to go through a dangerous place but I am sure I have a mighty guide not a Will of the Wisp as they cal it and an Ignis fatuus to miss-lead me and therefore as I love my life and happiness I will look to the Word by the Word I am guided by the Word I am directed as the Apostle expresseth it It is a thing you do wel to take heed to as to a light that shines in a dark place until the day dawn until the day of Heaven come and you be brought to glory The soul looks to the Word as its only card and compass as the Marriner at Sea looks at his Card and Compass they are his guide so the Beleever he only looks at the Word as his guide There is the third And then the fourth thing that faith doth in al that live the life of faith is this That they make the things revealed in the Word the matters of their prayers they dare not beg a thing of God until they know it is Gods wil that they find a warrant to beg it either absolutely or conditionally they make the Word the matter of their prayers and endeavors and if they go about any thing or be under distress and affliction they labor to get rid of it by making the word their direction in that And Fiftly and lastly Doing al these things as well as it can it staies it self upon the truth and faithfulness and power and wisdom and goodness of God and the Lord Jesus who hath revealed these things to him he staies himself upon him for the accomplishment of these things in his own time and in his own way And he now that doth these five things he truly lives by faith The Lord hath turned the bent of his heart to it and he is assured his Word is true and that there lies his happiness he looks at it as his only guide he makes this the matter of his prayer and endeavors and when he hath done knows all his poor endeavors are nothing but waits upon the Lord to
make all good to him according to his wisdom and faithfulness Thus you have heard a Christian ought to live by faith and I hope now you see what it is Now one Question more I must needs briefly speak to and that is this But may some say Do all that live the life of Christ live thus that this is excellent I will not dispute and that this is held out in the Word I doubt it not but will you make true Christianity fall within the compass of this and no further dare you affirm it that none live the life of Christ in this world but those that you have spoken of Now the Answer to this you shall have cleerly in these three things First It is true that even the Lords own people do somtimes too much live to the flesh there is flesh in the best somtimes they are under great temptations somtimes it may be under the sweetness of the Creature and flesh prevails and they walk by other rules so far as they are unregenerate so far as the true Genius of Christianity works not in them for we all know that as we live but in part so we live by faith but in part and too much Gods people fail in this But Secondly I answer That so far as we are Christians so far every man in the world be he strong or be he weak he lives according to these things I fear not to speak it positively that not one man living upon the Earth ought to own himself or any other to own him to live the life of Christ further than he lives according to this that I have set you down though they talk of them preach of them write of them if they practice them not and actually live according to these Rules they live not as Christians But thirdly I answer That many souls do live thus really live thus in their course who cannot speak thus who do not know that they live thus As take my meaning thus It is certain that our life in nature it is lived thus Food is taken into the mouth when it is taken into the stomach it digests it and by a concoction it is so and so separated and al Schollers and those that know the course of Nature know not only that they live by food but can tel you the Methods of it but many thousands that live the natural life cannot tel how they live it And as there is in Logick an Art of Logick which is nothing else but Reason digested into the right Methods to shew you what is the cause and subject and adjunct c. that we cal the Art of Logick doth but cast al these things into their 〈◊〉 place but many thousands do argue and speak from causes and effects and subjects and adjuncts and comparisons and things that are opposite use arguments from them who know not that they play the Logicians in al these So in the great acts of Faith there is no man it is certain partakes of Christ but beleeves in him but doubtless there are many thousands that beleeve in Christ that know not what that act of faith is that gives them an interest in Christ but the Spirit of God carries them on to it So the Saints of God though they cannot speak of these Rules I have shewed you til they be opened to them and then they can close with them so that I am far from saying that no man lives the life of faith but he that understands that he acts al these things but he may understand them really Well this laid as the foundation you will pardon me though I take a little time to give you a tast of the Application before I dismiss you But thus I have endeavored to cleer this Doctrine That all the Lords people while they are in this world while they do partake of the Righteousness of Christ one part of it for their Justification the other for Sanctification the acting of this while they are in this world it is the life of faith Now the use of it is very large and sweet I will give you but a tast of two things before I dismiss you The one is for Instruction Hence therefore you may safely and sadly conclude That among the great multitudes of those that challenge the name of Christians there are God knows and we may know a very few that are really Christians if this that I have opened to you be the Lords truth which I hope through his mercy I have demonstrated but if this be true you shal see that amongst those great multitudes of them that are called Christians there are but a very smal number who really are Christians Oh! Beloved should I as justly I might if the time would give leave but come to separate the chaff from the wheat and to cul out the several sorts of men in this world who live by clean different Rules from this I have spoken to you in what a smal number might the names of real Christians be comprehended what a little Book would hold them all As for Example Do all the Saints of Christ live the life of Christ by faith Then certainly they that are ignorant of Christ and know him not are destitute of all real knowledg of him it is not to be thought that they should live this life of faith They that never troubled themselves at the very Doctrine of faith it is to them but a meer whimsie they are the most ignorant of him surely no man can be careless about that which is the principle of his Life now a careless man about his faith you may be confident that man never lived the life of faith Again All they who live to their lusts as God knows multitudes do what is their life and comfort but to drink to whore to swear to cozen to cheat Multitudes of others live to the world Mammon is the God of their life the end of their life that that takes them up from the beginning of the morning til the evening comes when they are awake the world is in their hearts And They that live to their own wills as look whatsoever their own fancies and wills suggest to them to be advantagious this is that that satisfies them and serves their turn to attain such a corrupt end or such a way as they are in Oh friends there are a smal number that live the life of Christ the Lord help you that you may not be deceived about this I can but name this And then Secondly The other thing I wil name is this and pray carry this home Those that are Christians it hath plainly appeared that of al things in the world Gods people have most cause to lament and bewail their unbelief You hear that faith is your life and livelyhood therefore there is nothing to be so much lamented by real Christians concerning themselves as their unbelief I speak not but there should be somthing more lamented than our own
yet this I must say That while these lower conditions are and as long as each form carries people to the Word holds out Christ in his Word Christ in preaching Christ in the Sacrament there is food for souls and if we could look aright it may be we would not be so angry with one another about it as we are for there is but one Truth and we pray the Lord to reveal it but stil here is carrying on the life of Comfort Duty Direction and all that faith meddles with that the Lords people may enjoy but for Gods sake and as you love the life of your souls watch against temptations that would take you off from the Word that the Scripture should be nothing this takes you off from that that your faith wholly meddles with for if you can say I beleeve God for such a thing and Christ for such a thing unless you find it promised in the Word it is presumption Therefore Pity such poor souls your own experience may tel you do but mark them generally they that live above Ordinances see whether the Spirit of God do not withdraw see whether the Lord hath any other way to convey himself to them than what he hath held out in his Word their loosness folly pride and joyning in any thing else that is naught almost plainly shews that the Lord hath withdrawn from them And secondly You wil find that such of them as have grace in them for I am far from thinking any that have grace cannot be under such a temptation but I fear not but the Lord will awaken them again though they be asleep because faith must be the navel and the string that must maintain them here But this I did not intend to be large in The great Use that I intend is To all the Lords people whose Life is Christ and in whom Christ doth live I would endeavor in the rest of this hour to give them some help out of the Word that this living by faith might be better known to the Lords People and more exactly practised than it hath been hitherto and if the Lord help me to divide it and you to receive it I will not fear but your life will be more honorable to the Lord and sweeter to your selves than it hath been and there are but two things that I intend to treat upon The one is Some serious Considerations or Motives to provoke all who have any thing of Christ in them that they would study this art of living by faith more than in time past And secondly and principally To lay out of the Word the true Directoins the easiest and the readiest way that a willing soul may take to be built up in it For encouragement to provoke you to it I pray think of these things First If you will be Christians it is our Trade and the way of our livelihood we have no other mystery for the maintainance of our lives but faith that is cleer Schollers may live by their Wits Trades-men upon their Mysteries and Gentlemen upon their Wealth But as a Christian we have no other living or way of living to God but only our faith Now because it is our Life and our Trade and our Profession it would be a horrible shame to be found Bunglers in that that is properly our own Mystery If a man should come and examine me a Minister of the Gospel and put into my hands a Merchants Book and bid me cast up such an Account and I could not this were no shame to me but if he should come and give me a Bible and bid me open a Text if I could not do it it were a shame to me So friend have you the right skil of living by faith No It is thy Trade As thou art a Member of the Common-wealth or one of the Army thou mayest have a Calling but as thou art a Christian which is thy best Life thou hast no Trade but to live by faith no other way to honor the Lord nor to manifest the Life of Christ nor to turn all things for thy good and the Lords glory it is thy living by faith must do it what a horrible disgrace will it be for thee to be found ignorant of it Secondly I tell you there is no other way of Life that any man pitches upon but it will very shortly appear to be but a poor thing If you should think that the living upon God this holy life it is a thing that is a mystery that you do not study but for the present life that you mind and you mean to follow the things that will help you to live in the world I tell you all those after a little while will prove meer delusions If any of you have the way as some of you have found it to raise up your selves to great estates of a poor servant in few yeers to become a great man in the place where you live and now you are wealthy Before our eyes God hath overturned all these things hath not God let us see how he hath pulled down great Princes and Kings hath he not let us see a thousand ten thousand a yeer a man may have and yet live to see them al buried and himself come to beggery doth not God tell us they are not al worth our study The Lord my meaning is dayly before our eyes stains the glory of all other waies of living never to the worlds end did he or wil he stain the glory of living by faith because you can no where else close with him Thirdly that which I most aim at in my Considerations is to acquaint you with this That this same Art this excellent Christian Mystery of living our life by faith it is absolutely the best life the most desirable life that any man or woman can live til they come to enjoy God immediately This I wil demonstrate and I hope I shal make it plain that if a man had the comfort of al other waies of living in any kind never would the learning or wit of man find out any life to be compared with the life of faith for the excellency of it and the excellency of the life of faith I would open to you in four or five Particulars the Lord perswade you but to study them when you are alone One is more general It is the Life which the Lord hath chosen out to be the life of those that he loved from all eternity The Lord you grant him al of you to be infinite in wisdom and therefore before his eyes al waies of living happy were apparent and out of them all he chose this same life of faith to be the life of those he loved from al eternity It is the Prophet Malachi's argument it is the best Conjugal condition for a man to have one wife and a woman to have one husband because else God could have made ten women if he would but he made but one that is Gods choyce
should we take that we might be as it were Masters of Art in it that we might Commence to a good degree I shall cleerly out of the Word give you some four or five Directions which if you will study you may much enlarge and I hope it is the right way The first is this The grace of faith is the principle of our holy life while we are in this world you must labor to be well rooted and grounded in the grace of faith mark what I say to be rooted and grounded look to that that is your livelihood when I say rooted and grounded in that I mean these two things First You must labor that your faith be a right faith a sound faith for beloved it is not every faith that wil afford a man a livelihood painted fire is fire in the Summer time but it wil never warm a mans hands in the Winter time painted bread will never fill a mans stomach it must be real bread and real drink that wil maintain your life So Brethren that common faith that goes about in the world fancies and conceits people have ungrounded without any work passing upon their hearts to make them new Creatures it may serve for a dead profession it may serve it may be to set you off so far by talking of Religion that if time serve that way you may get an Office a Place and some accommodation for this life but never wil a formal faith enable you to live the life of Christ that must be sound faith faith of the right stamp I and secondly I mean when I say to be rooted and grounded in the faith You must labor for strong faith for Brethren give me leave to say the least degree of saving faith will certainly keep thee from Hell and carry thee to Heaven but the least degree of it will not enable thee to live the life of Christ to his glory and thy comfort If a storm comes little faith shakes Why are you troubled O ye of little faith but never why are you troubled you that have fulness of faith A little childs hand wil serve to receive a penny I but a little hand wil do but a little work there is a great deal of work lies upon faith drawing comfort lies upon faith and quickning to duty lies upon faith and as is the man so is his strength Gideons Son while he is a child he wil not venture to cut off the heads of the Princes of Midian no he dares not fall upon them no a little faith will get but a little comfort but you must endeavor and remember this is taught you as the first Direction to be strong in the faith of our Lord Jesus Oh! if my heart deceive me not I had rather have a strong faith than any thing that may be called strong in the world A strong purse a strong head a strong courage a strong estate will never do that that a strong faith wil therefore I intreat you al if you find your want I am a poor creature I cannot bear afflictions if God come with a heavy affliction it is hard for me to bear strengthen thy faith and thou wilt carry any cross in the world fly to the Lord. The Lord hath given us in our daies many preachers that preach faith many excellent Books that treat of Faith and living by faith and how faith may be strengthened and all that is good about it No Nation in the World since the Apostles daies I think have the like helps that England hath and therefore study it in the first place labor to be rooted and grounded in faith get a good faith a strong faith Secondly If you will ever live the life of Faith labor to be wel acquainted with God especially with God in Christ pray mark that and carry it home labor to know God I know whom I have beleeved saith Paul a man may beleeve confidently but if he have not a ful knowledg of the party he doth beleeve it may be his comfort wil be less To know how all sufficient he is that he can perform Promises easier than any man can to know how gracious how good he is how unchangeable he is there is no knowledg of God but wil do thy soul good but I mean to know God in Christ that is as he stands related to Beleevers in a Covenant of grace and that I rather fix upon because my Text hath it and carries it here as the great Basis of Pauls living by faith saith he The Life I live in this Flesh I live it by the Faith of this Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me he knew the dear regard that Jesus Christ bears to all his people he loves them like the apple of his eye Never Mother tendered her Children as Christ tenders all his Lambs though never so weak though never so feeble though never so dead he and his Father in him is wel pleased when we look upon him in Jesus Christ that not only I beleeve in him but I beleeve in that God who in Christ Jesus loved me so that he gave his Son to shed his blood that I might not perish Now to know God in Christ is the way not to perish Thirdly another great Direction to live by faith is that that I opened at large and now to speak a little more about it Study to be acquainted with the Word If ever you would live by faith you must study to be wel acquainted with the Word for though God be the ultimate object and Christ be the all-sufficient means yet beleeve it it is the Word that faith immediately looks upon and though I dare promise my self great things from my great God in my Christ yet it must all be still as he hath revealed it in his Word therefore if you would ever learn to live by faith soundly comfortably you must be acquainted with the Word And when I say acquainted with the Word I mean these two things The Promises of the Word for the comfort of your lives To get a good understanding of all those excellent Priviledges which are scattered up and down in all those glorious Promises which are as the Apostle saith exceeding great and precious Promises Brethren the Word hath not only the great Promise of the pardon of sin which is an invaluable thing and will carry us safe when we die but you shall find in the Word Promises for every condition it is possible for you to fal into if God should take away al thy children from thee and thy wife from thee and visit thee with sickness and let men loose upon thee and enemies to persecute thee there are Promises in the Word for every one of these Oh! to know the Promises it is an infinite help especially if you ad this which I will make a second Branch of the same Direction When I say acquainted with the Promises I mean We should know not only where the Promises are
by way of Objection But what if my difficulty be such an one that I can find nothing in the Word about it What can my Faith do then Where is your circumscribing Faith within the compass of the Word It may be my difficulty is such as I find no Promise for it in all the Word I dare confidently then say it is a matter of no great consequence it may be in thy fancy some great thing as the fancy of man can blow up a Molehil to a Mountain but beleeve it if it be such a trouble as hath not a Promise it is not worth the taking notice of for all things that concern the Lords Glory and good of his People there are Promises in abundance That is my first Caution And the other Caution is When I direct you in all this to endeavor thus to live the life of Faith you must take heed of some other principles which will put the wisest of you all to the utmost of your graces and that is your own reason and your sence I mean not sanctified reason nor your holy experience but I mean carnal reason and carnal sence which in spight of our teethes will have an Oar in every Boat it will be putting in in all things that concern our whol Conversation If a Duty be propounded of a sudden I am called out to it it may be my Reason puts in twenty things against it You wil lose your Credit in it and your Labor and it will come to nothing it may be our Sence will oppose it You do but water a dead Plant a dead Stock nothing will come of it and I will tell you all the experiences that the People of God hitherto have found of our carnal Sence and Reason in all things that belong to the Waies of God they are but like a Sophister in the Schools a Sophister that hath a wrangling head will blur and blind and slur the clearest Positions in any Art in Logick Grammer Rhetorick Phylosophy or what you will when a Conclusion is made and proved a Sophister riseth up and he shal slur it all especially with weak people So it is with carnal men whereas a Promise and a Direction of the Word looked upon by Faith appears like the Sun in its strength look upon the very same with carnal Reason and carnal Sence and it looks like the Moon in Ecclipse a dark Body it hath no light at all in it Oh therefore watch against it and the rather because we are men and from our Mothers Womb we are corrupt men and therefore these things are bred in the bone and will not easily out but while we carry flesh about us they will never be subdued And therefore one handsomly expresseth it as Abraham did when God called him to that Duty it was cleer that God made it his Duty when he had called to it he never goes to call his Wife for she would have said Husband it is impossible this is but a delusion it is not possible the Child that must be the Heir of all Nations and in him they must all be blessed What! for you to kill him it is not from God never talk of it Friends I the rather desire to open these things because in truth to a great many the Life of Christ is not known and many holy souls do want plain Directions how they should order their Conversation as becometh Christians and in our uncertain daies wherein we are every day looking what new Confusions shall break out Oh! it were a sweet thing for a man to be stablished that he might possess his soul in quietness in the midst of all the Changes in the World and really it many times grieves my heart to think First How the common People of the World live amongst us they are totally ignorant of these things but they set their hearts upon Wealth and Honor and Pleasure and these perishing things these men are carried after when God knows these things are not worth the while I wil briefly shew you one instance in Dan. 8. you shal reade of a Goat that came with one Horn and he ran and killed all other Beasts that were in his way and that Goat was Alexander and this same Alexander in ten years space did conquer one of the greatest Empires I mean he brought into his own hands one of the greatest Empires that ever were in the World in all the four Quarters of the World except America had he a great part within ten years there was an end of him and not one of his posterity had one foot of it and yet he left a Son and Heir but al was carried away to others And so will al Earthly things we may struggle and strive and weary our selves in a vain shadow and when we have done no man knows for whom he have labored it may be we expose our Posterity to the greater malice envy and hatred and they wil be the sooner ruined What a pity is it that such beggerly things as these should be so looked after and Faith so little thought of I in the Second place It grieves me to think how many souls that are Godly and study the Scripture and attend upon the Word yet they rather study nice controversies and things that gender strife and help it may be to maintain a Party on this side or the other side and this great comprehensive Duty of living to Christ and living by Faith preached by many studied by few little regarded these are common Dunstable Truths that the old Puritans did preach a long time ago but we have a more Seraphick vein and Spirit and so God suffers us to be gulled of our Religion which is the sweetest Portion that can be enjoyed in the world we make it a matter of brangling and little comes of it either to the Honor of God or Comfort of our souls And upon such thoughts as these while the Lord shews me that mercy that I may preach any thing unto you I would fain acquaint Gods People with these things that they may know wherein their life lies and how they may lead it to the glory of God and comfort of their own souls I presumed upon your Patience if God please to lay these things to your hearts it wil not offend I hope FINIS Doct. 1. Doct. 2. Doct. 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Quest. Answ. Vse 2. Vse 3. At Mary Magdalens Milkstreet Octob. 30. 1653. Doct. 2. Quest. Answ. Vse 1. Vse 2. Quest. Answ. At Mary le Bow Octob. 30. 1653. afternoon Vse 3. Object Answ. Vse 4. Object Answ.