this grace is the very life and vital and conforming principle of the soul And hence this formative principle is called the life of the soul the quickning spirit and the conformation of the soul unto the will of God thereby is called the forming of Christ in them the life of Christ the indwelling of Christ in the heart by faith And this new principle exerciseth in the soul all the acts analogical to that natural vital principle in the body giving to it as it were the image lineaments proportion increase conformable to the image of God in Christ as true Wisdom Righteousness Justice Holiness Integrity Love of God Submission to his will Dependance upon him and translates them into all the communicable relations that Christ himself had and invests them in his communicable priviledges If he be a Son of God by nature so are they by interpretation is he an heir of heaven so are they coheirs with him is he accepted of God so are they is he an heir of glory so are they And as this conformation of the body by this vital principle is performed by a seminal principle at least as the instrument of its activity derived from the parent so the analogy holds here we find a double seminal principle in this conformation and both derived from Christ our head viz. one External another Internal 1. The External seminal principle is the word and message of the Divine doctrine exemplary and holy life singular love of Christ and of God through him to mankind whereby we understand what he would have us do the danger if we do otherwise the blessed reward of obedience the great engagements of the love of God in sending his Son to dye for us the plain familiar easie way of attaining of happiness and because we often learn better by example than by precept the same word exhibits to us a lively picture of his holy conversation his humility meekness obedience love patience goodness And this external means is in it self a great moral means to conform our wills and lives thereunto and therefore it is called the incorruptible seed of the word of God whereby we are born again 1 Pet. 1.23.2 The Internal seed is that Spirit of grace sent out from Christ which doth derive a quickning lively power to the word and to the soul whereby it makes it effectual to its end and therefore called a Spirit of Life and Power a Quickning Spirit and this not by transfusing a new substance or substantial nature which before it had not but by its lively yet secret operations changing and moulding it suitable to the image of him whose Spirit it is and adding energy and efficacy to that other seed of the word as the Sun doth to the seminal principles of vegetables and animals III. Touching the Thing upon which this victory is obtained and conquest made it is the world which comprehends in its latitude a double world the world within us and the world without us The world within us which may therefore be so called principally in this respect that a great part of its relation and tendency is toward the world which is for the most part the object upon which it fixeth the subject after which it reacheth and the business upon which it fasteneth and exerciseth and hence it is that the Apostle S t John divides the world without us with relation to the world within us viz. The lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life 1 Joh. 2.16 The world that is within us taketh in the two great faculties or powers viz. 1. the Passions of the soul and 2. the Sensual Appetite both these are in their own nature good placed in us by the wise God of Nature for most excellent ends and uses Our business is therefore to keep in order and subjection not to extirpate and root them out for they are radicated in our nature by the God of Nature But of this more particularly 1. Our Passions such as are Love Hatred Anger Hope Fear Joy Sorrow these and the like passions of the humane Soul are not simply in themselves evil nay being rightly placed and duly ordered and regulated they become serviceable to excellent ends and uses and therefore simply in themselves they are not the subject of a Christian's victory But then they become such when they become the world in the Text and that is principally in these Cases 1. When they are misplaced as when we love the things we should hate hope for the things we should fear rejoyce in that we should grieve c. or è converso 2. When they are immoderate or excessive about their proper objects which comes to pass when in those things about which we may exercise our passions lawfully we exceed that measure or proportion that is due to them For instance I may lawfully love a competency of worldly subsistence but I exceed in this that I love it too much and beyond the worth that is truly in it I may lawfully be angry with him that injures me but I exceed in the measure or degree or time or duration and become implacable 3. When my affections or passions are not acted to that height they ought to be All finite objects of our passions require a proportionate degree of our passions but where the object is infinite my affections may erre in being too remiss but not in the excess I cannot love God too much for I am to love him with all my might but I may love him too little and then my affection errs I cannot hate sin too much because I cannot love God too much but I may hate it too little 4. When my affections or passions are acted unseasonably either in respect of the time or in respect of the competition between objects of several values I may nay I must love my Father but if I love my Father more than my Saviour my Saviour hath pronounced me unworthy of him 5. When my passions degenerate into vices and corruptions and so become not so much powers or faculties as diseases and sicknesses of the soul as when anger degenerates into malice revenge when self-love degenerate into envy when desire of or delight in the profits or honours of the world degenerates into covetousness or ambition and the like 6. When my passions are not under the management guidance or conduct of my superior faculties my reason and judgment but either go before they are sent or go beyond what they are sent or return not and subside when recalled and then they breed infinite perturbation in the soul invert the order of nature and become furies and tempests and imprison and captivate the mind and understanding and become a worse part of the world than that which is without us Under these conditions our passions and affections are part of that world which is the object of a Christian's warfare and victory 2. The other part of this world within us are the
this latter he is now under God is pleased to inflict upon him all the manifestations of his wrath and to fling into his soul the sharpest and severest representations of his displeasure that might possibly befall him under that bare imputed guilt considering the dignity of his Person And surely this was more terrible to our Saviour than all his corporal sufferings were under all those not one word no perturbation at all but as a Sheep before his shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth but the sense of the displeasure of his Father and the impressions that he makes upon his soul those he cannot bear without sorrow even unto death without most importunate addresses to be delivered from them and a most strange concussion and agony upon his soul and body under the sense of them And the actual manifestation of the wrath of God upon his Son consisted in these two things principally 1. Filling his soul with strange and violent fears and terrors insomuch that he was in an amazement and consternation of spirit the Passion-Psalm renders it Psal 22.14 My heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels the God of the spirits of all flesh that knows how to grind and bruise the spirit did bruise and melt his soul within him with terrors fears and sad pre-apprehensions of worse to follow 2. A sensible withdrawing by hasty and swift degrees the light of the presence and favour of God He is sorrowful and troubled and he goes to his Father to desire it may pass from him but no answer he goes again but yet no answer and yet under the pressure and extremity he goes again the third time with more earnestness agony a sweat of blood yet no it cannot be and this was a terrible condition that the light of the countenance of the Father is removed from his Son his only Son in whom he was well pleased his Son whom he heard always And when he comes to the Father under the greatest obligation that can be with the greatest reverence with the greatest importunity once and again and a third time and that filled within with fears and covered without with blood and yet no answer but all light and access and favour intercepted with nothing but blackness and silence Certainly this was a terrible Cup yet thus it was with our Saviour Christ The light of the favour of God like the Sun in an Eclipse from the very institution of the Sacrament began to be covered one degree after another and in the third address to the Father in the Garden it was even quite gone But at that great hour when our Saviour cryed My God my God why hast thou forsaken me then both lights that greater light of the favour of God to his only Son together with the light of the Sun seemed to be under a total recess or Eclipse and this was that which bruised the soul of our Saviour and made it an Offering for Sin and this was that which wrung drops of blood from our Saviour's body before the Thorns or the Whips or the Nails or the Spear had torn his veins And now after this third application for a deliverance from this terrible Cup of the wrath of God and yet no dispensation obtained he returns to his miserable comforters the three Disciples and he finds them the third time asleep These very three Disciples were once the witnesses of a glorious Transfiguration of our Saviour in the Mount and in an extasie of joy and fear they fell on their faces Matth. 17.6 and now they are to be witnesses of a sad Transfiguration of their Lord under an agony and sweat of blood and now under an extasie of sorrow they are not able to watch with their Lord one hour Our Saviour calls them but whiles they were scarce awakened they are rouzed by a louder alarm Matth. 26.47 whiles he yet spake Judas one of the twelve came and with him a great multitude with swords and staves from the high Priests Joh. 18.3 with lanthorns and torches And though this was little in comparison of the storm that was in our Saviour's soul yet such an appearance at such a time of the night and to a person under such a sad condition could not but be terrible to flesh and blood especially if we consider the circumstances that attended it 1. An Apostle one of the twelve he it is that conducts this black Guard Matth. 25.47 Whomsoever I shall kiss that same is he hold him fast one that had been witness of all his Miracles heard all his divine Sermons acquainted with all his retirements he whose feet his Master with love tenderness had washed who within a few hours before had supped with him at that Supper of of solemnity and love the Passover this is he that is in the head of this crew certainly this had in it an aggravation of sorrow to our Blessed Saviour to be betrayed by a Disciple 2. The manner of it he betrays him by a kiss an emblem of homage and love is made use of to be the signal of scorn and contempt as well as treachery and villany 3. Again the carriage of his Disciples full of rashness and yet of cowardize they strike a Servant of the high Priest and cut off his Ear Matth. 26.57 which had not the meekness and mercy of our Saviour prevented by a miraculous cure might have added a blemish to the sweetness and innocence of his suffering He rebukes the Rashness of his Disciple and cures the wound of his Enemy again of Cowardize Matth. 26.56 Then all the disciples forsook him and sled and Peter himself that but now had professed the resolution of his love to his Master follows but a far off Matth. 26.58 in the posture and profession of a stranger and a spectator So soon was the love and honour of a Master deserved by so much love and purity and miracles lost in the Souls of the very Disciples After this he is brought to the high Priests the solemn assembly of the then visible Church of the Jews in the persons of the greatest reverence and esteem among them the high Priests Scribes and Elders and before them accused and convicted of those crimes that might render him odious to the Jews Romans and all good men Blasphemy and by them pronounced worthy of death Matth. 26.66 and after this exposed to the basest usage of the basest of their retinue the Servants spit on him buffet him expose him to scorn saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who is he that smote thee Matth. 26.67 injuries less tollerable than death to an ingenuous nature and to add to all the rest Peter instead of reproving the insolence of the abjects and bearing a part with his Master in his injuries thrice denying his Master and that with an oath and cursing So far was he from owning his Master in his adversity that he denied he knew him and this in the very presence of
of his death might have a farther accession of scorn and reproach he is placed between two Thieves that were crucified with him with an Inscription of derision upon his Cross in all the most universal Languages of the World Hebrew Greek and Latin and the people and Priests standing by with gestures and words of derision Matth. 27.39 43. and even to a letter assuming those very gestures and words which were so many hundreds of years predicted in the Passion-Psalm 22.78 He trusted in God let him deliver him if he will have him and one of those very Thieves that was even dying as a malefactor yet was filled with such a devilish spirit that he upbraids and derides him And now our Saviour is under the torments and shame of this cursed execution but though these his sufferings of his body and outward man were very grievous in so much that it could not but extremely afflict him yet it is strange to see how little he was transported under them in all his contumelies reproaches and accusations scarce a word answered He answered them nothing in all his abusings strokes ridiculous garments crown of thorns tearing of his body with scourging yet not a word but As a sheep before the shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth Isa 53.7 in all his rackings upon the Cross and nailing of his limbs to it and all the anguish that for the space of six hours from the third hour wherein he was crucified Mar. 15.25 until the ninth hour wherein he gave up the ghost Matth. 27.46 not a word of complaint but he refused those very supplies which were usually given to suppress the violence of the pain vinegar and gall Matth. 27.34 But when we come to the Afflictions of his Soul they were of a higher dimension in the Garden when no other storm was upon him but what was within him He falls down upon his face and prayes and again and a third time and is amazed and sorrowful to death and sweats drops of blood and doubtless whiles he was under the reproaches and buffetings and whippings and thorns he was not without a terrible and confused sadness and heaviness within which though they did not mitigate the torments of his body yet they did infinitely exceed them The spirit and the soul is most exquisitely sensible and it is that which feels the pains inflicted upon the body Certainly therefore the wound of the spirit it self the fountain of sense must needs be exceedingly grievous And hence it was that though all the injuries and torments of our Saviour could scarce wring a complaint from him yet the weight of that wrath that lay upon his soul now made an offering for sin did wring from him those bitter and terrible cryes that one would wonder should proceed from him that was One with the Father Matth. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me From the sixth hour to the ninth darkness was over all the land Matth. 27.45 such a darkness as bred an astonishment even in strangers and other Counties The darkness of the World though a suitable dress for such a time wherein the Son of God must dye and the Sun of Righteousness be eclipsed yet it was nothing in comparison of that dismal shadow that covered our Saviour's soul all this time About the ninth hour our Saviour cryed that bitter cry My God my God why hast thou forsaken me manifesting the depth of his sorrow and the perfect sense he had of it why hast thou forsaken me more could not have been suffered or been said every word carries in it an accent of horror Thou that art the great God from whom and in whom every thing hath its being and comfort surely if in thy presence is fulness of joy in thy withdrawings must be fulness of horror and confusion and yet it is thou that hast forsaken me Forsaken Hadst thou never been with me as I had not known the blessedness of thy fruition so I could not have measured the extremity of my loss the excess of the happiness that I had in thy presence adds to the excess of my misery in the suffering of thy absence Forsaken me not withdrawn thy self to a distance but forsaken me and forsaken me at such a time as this when I stand more in need of thy presence than ever when I am forsaken of my countrey-men of my kindred of my Disciples then to be forsaken of thee when I am under the shame and pains of a cruel and a cursed death under the scorns and derisions of those that hate me under the weight and pressure of all the sins of the world under the struglings with terrors in my soul sent from thy mighty hand under the visible approach of death the king of terrors under a vail of darkness without and the seeming triumph of the power of darkness within then to be forsaken and forsaken of thee whom I had only left to be my support Forsaken Me It is not a stranger that thou forsakest it is thy Son thy only Son in whom thou didst heretofore proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom though thou now forsakest yet forgets not his duty unto thee nor dependance upon thee but still layes hold on thee and though thou shakest me off yet I must still call upon thee with the humble confidence of My God My God still why hast thou forsaken me To be forsaken and to be forsaken of God of my God of him that is not only my God but my Father and that at such a time and yet not to know why Oh blessed Saviour the Prophets that spake by thy own Spirit did tell thee why and that very Psalm out of which thou takest this bitter cry doth tell thee why and thou thy self within some few days or hours before didst tell us why and dost thou now ask why Didst thou not choose even that which thou now groanest under and wert willing to put thy soul in our souls stead and bear the sin of those which are now thy burden Certainly we may with all humility and reverence conceive that at the time of this bitter cry our Saviour's soul was for the present over-shadowed with so much astonishment and sorrow that it did for the present over-power and cover the actual and distinct sense of the reason of it at least in that measure and degree in which he suffered This cry of our Saviour was about the ninth hour a little before his death and having fulfilled one Prophecy in this terrible cry contained in the very words of Psal 22. he fulfills another he saith I thirst Joh. 19.28 and presently they give him vinegar to drink And between this and his death there intervene these passages 1. His proclaiming to the world that the work of our Redemption was finished Joh. 19.30 When he received the vinegar he said It is finished 2. A second cry with a loud voice Matth. 27.50 the words are not expressed of his second cry
for this could neither consist with the purity of his Nature nor innocence nor dignity of his Person nor the hypostatical union of both Natures in him But he suffered as much as was consistent with these considerations and as considering the dignity of his person was equivalent to the sin and demerits of all Mankind 2. That his righteousness imputed to us doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteousness inherent in us this were to disappoint the end of his suffering which was to redeem us from our vain conversation and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That this purchase of Salvation by Christ for Believers is not to render them idle or secure or presumptuous where there is such a disposition of Soul it is an evident Indication that it is not yet truly united unto Christ by true Faith and Love his Grace is sufficient to preserve us and alwayes ready to do it if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it THE VICTORY OF FAITH Over the WORLD I. JOH V. 4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith THese things are herein considerable 1. The Act which is here declared Victory or Overcoming 2. The Person that exerciseth this act or concerning whom this act is affirmed described by this description a person that is born of God 3. The Thing upon which this act of victory is exercised viz. the world 4. The Instrument or Means by which this act is exercised viz. Faith 5. The Method or Order or Formal Reason whereby faith overcometh this world Some few Observations I shall deliver touching all these in the order proposed I. Victory or Overcoming is a subjugation or bringing under an opposing party to the power and will of another and this victory is of two kinds complete and perfect or incomplete and imperfect 1. The notion of a complete victory is when either the opposing party is totally destroyed or at least when despoiled of any possibility of future resistance Thus the Son of God the Captain of our Salvation overcame the World Joh. 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thus when we are delivered from this body of death we shall overcome the world this complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Christian triumphant Again 2. There is a victory but incomplete such as the victory of the children of Israel was over the Canaanites which though they were subdued as to any possibility of a total reacquiring of a superiority or equality of power yet they were not subdued from a possibility of annoying disquieting and rebelling they remained still thorns to vex and disturb though not to subdue their conquerors there was still an over-ballance of power in the victors though not wholly to extirpate them And this is the condition of the Christian militant in this world he keeps the world in subjection and every day gets ground upon it but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect complete and universal conquest of it till he can truly say with our Blessed Lord Joh. 14.30 The prince of this world hath nothing in me Which cannot be till our change comes for till then we carry about with us lusts and passions and corruptions which though with all vigilancy and severity kept under and daily impaired in their power and malignity will hold a correspondence with the world and the prince thereof and be ready to deceive and betray us though never to regain their empire and sovereignty and the reason is significantly given by the same Apostle 1 Joh. 3.9 For his feed abideth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have sin as long as he hath flesh about him 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us But although we have sin still abiding in us and like the the byass in a Bowl warping us to the world yet that vital seminal principle of the grace of God in Christ always keeps its ground its life and tendency toward heaven and wears out wasts and gradually subdues the contrary tendency of sin and corruption II. The Person exercising this act of victory and conquest he that is Born of God All men by nature may be said in some sense to be born of God the Apostle tells the Athenians Act. 17.28 We are all his off-spring But in this place this heavenly birth is a second a supervenient birth from God and hence it is called Regeneration the New birth birth of the water and the Spirit birth of the Spirit the formation of Christ in the soul and the creature so new born stiled the New creature the New man a partaker of the divine nature born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of the will of God And all these and the like expressions are figurative and seem to carry in them a double analogy first to the first creation of mankind and secondly to the ordinary generation of mankind since their first creation 1. As to the former analogy we know by the Holy Word that the first man was the root of all mankind stamped with the signature of the image of Almighty God principally consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and stood or fell as the common representative of all mankind This image of God was in a great measure lost and defaced by the fall of man and more every day spoiled by the actual sins and acquired corruptions of his descendants Christ the second Adam had instamped upon him a new inscription of the glorious God came to be a common head root and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith love and imitation and to instamp anew upon them that lost and decayed image of God who thereby put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 and so becoming a New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Galat. 5.6 renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Coloss 1.10 they receive a new stamp and impression from this great exemplar Christ Jesus the true image of the invisible God 2. The second analogy is to the ordinary generation of mankind wherein as a little but powerful vital principle which we call the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical nature of man in all his lineaments and proportions and never gives over its operation till it hath completed that bodily mass into its full complement of parts and afterwards gradually augments and perfects it in his organs and faculties So by a vital principle derived from God through Christ into the soul the same is moulded fashioned formed increased and perfected according to this new principle of life which is usually called Grace Whereby it comes to pass that as the soul is the vital and conforming principle of the body so
their own weapon to be as proud and consequently as violent as the rest of mankind for it is part of the Game of the world and Humility makes his case worse Veterem ferendo injuâ—â—m invit is novam Where the Countrey is full of Wolves and Tigers it is better be a Wolf or a Tiger as well as they than be a Sheep and expoted to their Violence I Answer to this Objection 1. As to the former part that though it be true that it can never be expected that all the world should be perswaded to be Humble no more than it can be expected that all should be perswaded to be Virtuous Just or Honest but yet if there were some though the lesser part of mankind truly Humble and Lowly it would make very much to the abating of those Evils that arise by the Pride and Haughtiness of men 1. Because the more Humble men there are in the world it necessarily follows there are the fewer Proud men and consequently fewer common Disturbers of the peace and welfare of mankind and humane society 2. When the contest comes by the proud man against the proud man indeed there is the same tumult between them as if there were none humble but when the contest is by the proud man against the humble man the strife is quickly at an end it is a true Proverb It is the second blow makes the sray the humble man gives way to the wrath and insolence of the proud man and thereby ends the quarrel for Yielding pacifieth wrath saith the Wise man and I have very often observed that the Quietness of spirit and Humility of a man attaqued by a Proud man hath subdued and conquered his Pride and Animosity to a wonder and made him tame that by opposition would have been furious and implacable Soft words breaks the bones and a Sword is sooner broken by a blow upon a Cushion or Pillow that yieldeth than upon a bar of Iron that resists But if it should fall out that the Proud man's Violence is not broken by the Gentleness and Facility of the Humble man whereby he suffers in his own particular yet there be two advantages that hereby happen to the publick viz. 1. That the contention is soon at an end the proud man hath got the day and the parties are quiet 2. It gains a secret compassion from the beholders to the injured humble man and a general resentment and detestation of the injury committed to the humble man that receives the injury with so much Humility and bears it with so much Patience and thereby Pride and Oppression become the common objects of the general detestation of insolence pride and oppression and the generality of mankind thereupon look on them as beasts of prey with hatred and abhorrence and endeavour means to secure themselves against it 3. A third advantage is this That though oftentimes humble and good men are exposed to the injuries of the proud violent and insolent yet they are a kind of ferment or leaven in the places where they live and by the secret influences of their virtues the commendableness of their conversation and the secret interest that virtue hath in the Soul not only of good but even of the worst men it doth work upon mankind assimulates in some measure to it self and makes others good and humble by a kind of secret Magnetism that that virtue hath upon the minds of men and the more such are in number in the world the more effectual and operative their example and influence will be upon those with whom they converse 2. As to the second namely the Damage and Detriment that the humble man receives in the world upon the very account of his humility I answer First that Detriment is abundantly recompensed with the quiet and tranquility and evenness and composedness of his own mind As a man possesseth his own Soul by patience so he doth by humility namely the composedness right temper and due estate of his own mind which no proud or violent or impatient man doth or can But secondly it is most certain that though an humble man may upon the very score of his humility and meekness receive a brush in the world yet at the long run he gains advantage thereby even in this present life When I first read the saying of our Saviour Matth. 5. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth I looked upon it as a meer Paradox if applied to the comforts of this life and therefore thought it must be meerly and only intended of that new Heaven and new Earth wherein dwelleth the righteous but upon deeper consideration I found it in a great measure true also of the former for 1. It is most certain that no proud man is truly loved by any but himself but so far as relates to his pride every man hates him One proud man perfectly hates another and looks upon him as his enemy and those very actions of pride that his own self love makes him approve or at least allow in himself he scorns derides abhorrs in another and though an humble man hath a common love to every man though proud or otherwise vicious as being one of mankind yet in relation to his pride he loves him not nor approves That very Consideration therefore that renders a proud man hated or not loved renders an humble man loved and approved yea and by the very proud man himself for he looks upon him as no obstacle or impediment to the attaining of his ends as one that is injurious to none benificent to all gentle and one that stands not in his way giving all due respect honour and difference suitable to his place and dignity he wisheth all the world were such as he except himself and therefore he respects and tenders him yea and we shall by daily experience see in the world that if a proud man injure or oppress an humble man 't is a thousand to one he undertakes his patronage defence and vindication and very oftentimes is a means of his protection and deliverance 3. But farther it is a certain and experienced truth that Virtue and Goodness especially that of Humility hath a secret party and interest love or at least approve it in another though they practise it not themselves for Virtue and Goodness and Humility hath a secret congruity to the true and genuine frame of the humane nature and though mens lusts and passions in a great measure obscure the consonancy to it they can never extinguish it but the mind and conscience will give a secret suffrage wherever it finds it 4. It is a thing observable that though the generality of mankind abound with pride intemperance injustice and almost all kind of vicious dispositions yea though the best of men are not without the irruptions of some of those distempers and though it must needs be that where there is the greatest number there is the greatest external force either to make