our carnal Love 2. If Love be not acted and kept at work carnal Love will prevail The Soul of Man cannot lye idle especially our Affections cannot either they are carried out to God or they will leak out to Worldly things When our Love ceaseth yet concupiscence ceaseth not and the Love of the World will soon grow Superiour in the Soul for the neglected Principle languisheth whilst the other Principle gets strength and secures its Interest to God The 3d. Is The Benefit we have by keeping Love in Act. This makes us more sincere and to act purely for God 2 Cor. 5. 14. The love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg that they that live should no more live to themselves but to him that died for them and rose again The constraining Influence of Love is that that keeps us from living to our selves And this makes us more diligent Labour and Love are often coupled in the Scripture Knowing your labour of love the work of Faith and Patience of Hope And God is not unrightoeus to forget your labour of Love The Church of Ephesus lost her first Love she left her first work Rev. 2. 4 5. Use. Oh then let us seek this Benefit from God that our Hearts may be directed into his Love 1. The sanctifying Spirit is given us for this end to stir up love to God Joh. 41. 4. The Water I will give him shall be a Well of Water always springing up unto eternal Life 'T is not in the Heart a dead Pool but a living Spring And the same is intimated Joh. 7. 38. He that believes in me out of his Belly shall flow Rivers of living Water this he spake of the Spirit 2. The Ordinances were appointed for this End The Word to represent God amiable to us both for the goodness in him and the goodness proceeding from him especially in our Redemption by Christ and also for those rich preparations of Grace he hath made for us in another World to blow up this holy Fire And this is the end of the Sacrament All the Dainties that are set before us in the Lord's Supper do all taste and savour of Love Our Meat is seasoned with Love and our Drink flows into our Cup out of the Wine-press of Love Why do we eat of the Crucified Body of Christ but that we may remember Iesus who loved us and gave himself for us Gal. 2. 20. And also the Drink that is provided for us at this Feast is the Blood of Christ. Rev. 1. 5. Who loved us and washed us from our Sins in his own Blood 3. All the Providences of God tend to this End that we may love God All God's Mercies are as new Fewel to keep in this Fire I will love the Lord because he has heard the Voice of my Supplication Psal. 116. 1. And thou shalt love the Lord who is the strength of thy Life and the length of thy Days Deut. 30. 20. All the Mercy we have from God is to refresh and revive our Love that it may not languish and die nay all the sharp corrections God sends are to recover our Love to God Isa. 26. 9. My Soul hath desired thee in the Night saith the Prophet and early have I sought thee and when was that when thy Iudgments were abroad in the World when great and sharp afflictions were upon them SERMON VII 2 THESS 3. 5. And into the patient waiting for Christ. THe Words are a Prayer and the Apostle prays here for those things which are most necessary to Christians Love to God and patient waiting for Christ. I come now to handle the second Branch The Point is this Doct. That when the Heart is bent by love to God we need also the direction of his Grace to keep it intent upon the coming of Christ. Four things I must speak to I. What this patient waiting for Christ is II. The Connection between it and the Love of God III. That it hath a great influence upon the spiritual Life or keeps Religion alive in the Soul IV. The Necessity of God's concurrence hereto the Lord direct your Hearts into the patient waiting for Christ. I. What is this patient waiting for Christ I answer it is the Grace of Hope fortifying our resolutions for God and the World to come that we may continue in our Duty till our work be finished and our warfare ended The Act of Hope is three ways exprest Sometimes by Looking which notes a certain expectation Tit. 2. 13. Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Sometimes by Loving or Longing which notes a desirous and earnest expectation 2 Tim. 4. 8. Not to me only but to all that love his appearing Sometimes by Waiting which notes a patient Expectation 1 Thess. 10. He makes it there the Fruit of our Conversion He saith we are turned to God that we may wait for his Son from Heaven This last Notion is expresly mentioned in the Text the other are implied as looking there can be no waiting for that we do not look for and longing for delay is only troublesome to them that earnestly desire his coming and build their Hopes upon it Faith adds certainty and Love earnestness and both give strength to Patience Let us open all these things As 1. Looking for the coming of Christ. Phil. 3. 20. Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ. It is not a matter of conjecture but of Faith Reason saith he may come but Faith saith he will come Nature will teach us it is very likely for a guilty Conscience fears the Judg and the course of things is so disordered in the World that there needs a review But Scripture tells us it is very certain that he that shall come will come and will not tarry Heb. 10. 37. Therefore in the Eye of Faith it is sure and near As Rebecca spied Isaac at a distance so Faith looks upon Christ as if he had begun his Journey and were now upon the way and makes the Believer stand ready to meet him and welcome him Though it come not to pass presently the thing is promised and the time certainly determined in God's external purpose which is enough for Faith 2. There is a Longing or a desirous Expectation 2 Pet. 3. 12. Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God It is good to observe how differently this Coming of Christ is entertain'd in the World It is questioned by the Atheist it is dreaded by the Wicked and Impenitent but it is longingly expected by the Godly 1. For the first sort 2 Pet. 3. 3 4. There shall come in the last days Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the promise of his coming They would eternally enjoy the Pleasures of the present World and therefore labour to dash all thoughts of this great Day out of their Hearts and take up all obvious
the Law as a Rule of Obedience is impossible for a Creature To challenge such an Exemption in point of Right is to make our selves Gods To usurp it in point of Fact is to make our selves Devils It must be meant therefore either of the irritating or condemning Power of the Law If of the former as the Law by the rigid exacting of Obedience doth increase Sin rather than subdue it and maketh corrupt Nature spurn and rebel against it so it is the same with the former Motives but that is a more limited Sence Not under the Law may be expounded to be not under the condemning Power of it and so to be under the Law is opposed to be under Grace Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Iesus There is a great Priviledge but what is the Qualification Who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit That is obey the new Nature 2. A Periculo the Danger of not obeying the new Nature or walking after the Spirit 1. They lose their Advantage and receive one of God's Gifts in vain To receive objective Grace in vain aggravateth our Guilt Ioh. 3. 19. But to receive subjective Grace in vain doth more provoke God Objective Grace is that which is discovered in the Gospel subjective Grace is that which is found in the Heart of a Believer the internal Grace of the holy Spirit renewing the Heart Now to sin away this Advantage after we are made Partakers of it doth increase our Guilt surely therefore if we live in the Spirit we should walk in the Spirit Gal 5. 25. We should improve God's best Gifts or else the work of his Spirit is lost He loseth nothing but Corn Wine and Oil bestowed upon others but he hath bestowed the Sanctification of the Spirit upon you shall he lose the Glory of that also 2. The new Nature is exceedingly weakned and suffers loss if it be not cherished and obeyed The Church of Sardis is warned to prevent the dying of gracious Habits David speaketh as if the Work were to begin anew and his Restoring were a second Conversion Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart O Lord and renew a right Spirit within me The Principle of Grace being not adher'd to loseth much of Vigor and Power 3. When these Motions are not obeyed and this Power is not exercised God is provoked to withdraw the quickning Grace Though the Spirit here spoken of is the new Nature yet the Holy-Ghost is the Super-intendent of it and doth move guide direct and quicken by it The new Nature inclineth but he giveth Strength to its Motions Now the Spirit withdraweth when this Work is slighted and we wilfully run into Sin Psal. 51. 11. Take not thy holy Spirit from me 4. There is another Mischief his sanctifying Work is not only obstructed but his certifying and sealing Work is obscured and so our Day is turned into Night Eph. 4. 30. Grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed to the Day of Redemption Use 1. It sheweth what Necessity there is that we should look after Conversion to God or a Work of Grace wrought in us by the holy Spirit for the Apostle supposeth they had the Spirit There is no walking without living for otherwise our Motions are but the Motions of Puppets not proceeding from internal Life but acted from Springs and Engines no subduing the Flesh without setting up an opposite Principle Therefore we must give up our selves to the Holy Spirit first to be sanctified then governed by him first renewed then guided ordered and directed by him in all our Actions and the Flesh dieth away insensibly 2dly Being renewed by the Holy-Ghost that is having our Minds enlightned and Hearts inclined we must obey this Inclination for Life is not given us that we may have it but that we may act by it and do things sutable to that Life which we have Grace is not a sluggish idle Quality but is always working and warring on the opposite Principle 3dly Though at first we are pester'd and encountred with the Lusts of the Flesh which divert us from God and Heavenly Things yet we should not be discouraged by every difficulty For Difficulties do but inflame a resolved Spirit as Stirring doth the Fire And besides though we do not wholly subdue the Lusts of the Flesh yet we shall not accomplish them and live in subjection to them but by degrees get power against them 4thly The carnal Life is not of one Sort. Some wallow in sensual Pleasures others have Head and Heart altogether taken up with the World and worldly things Now if God hath put a new Biass upon our Wills and Affections we must shew it forth by an Heavenly Conversation For they that mind earthly Things are carnal and the great Inclination of the new Nature is to carry us unto God and the Things of another World 2 Cor. 5. 5. 5thly They are much to blame that complain of Sin and will not take the Course to get rid of it by obeying the Instincts of the Holy-Ghost or the Motions of the new Nature The Lord's Spirit is a free Spirit Psal. 51. 12. And his Truth maketh us free John 8. 32. And we are interessed in this Liberty when born of the Spirit Let us be true to our Duty and we shall bless God for our Liberty rather than complain of our Bondage It is Laziness and Cowardise not to improve Grace which was given us for this use 6thly How much we are concerned in all Conflicts especially in those which allow Deliberation to take part with the Spirit and obey his Motions rather than to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh otherwise by Consent and upon Deliberation you are unfaithful to Christ and your own Souls Your Business is not to gratify the Flesh but to crucify it to over-rule Sense and Appetite and cherish the Life of Grace Galat. 5. 24. And surely when Conscience hath help to deliberate it is a greater Evil to resist it than when hurried by our own Passions 7thly It is of great Use and Profit to us to observe which Principle decayeth the Flesh or the Spirit for thereby we judge of our Condition both in order to Mortification and Comfort The Increase of the Flesh may be known 1. By your Backwardness to God Grace is clogged when you cannot serve Him with Sweetness and Delight Rom. 7. 18. 2. When the Heart groweth careless of Heaven and your Life and Love is more taken up about things present than to come Phil. 3. 18 19. The contrary is found when Grace is in vigor 2 Cor. 4. 18. Col. 3. 1 2. Secondly The Prevalency and Increase of the Spirit is known 1. By an humble Contentedness and Indifferency to Plenty Pleasures and Honours Phil. 4. 12. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry both to
for the Glory of God and the Advancement of his own Kingdom I say the Glory of God Rom. 6. 10. In that he liveth he liveth unto God His own Kingdom Psal. 110. 1. Sit thou at my right Hand till I make thine Enemies thy Footstool He is at the right-hand of God and there shall abide till he return to judge the World In the mean time he hath the Inspection of all Affairs All Iudgment is put into his Hands Joh. 5. 22. Things are not left to the Will of Man nor to their own Contingency but are guided and ordered by him with good Advice However Matters go Christ is Governor who is not cannot be deposed from his Regal Office nor justled out of the Throne As Luther said upon some Loss that befel the Friends of the Gospel Etiamnum vivit regnat Christus When the Floods lifted up their Voice and all things seemed to threaten Ruin and to over-whelm then follows The Lord reigneth The Lord on high is mightier than the Noise of many Waters Psal. 93. 1 4. It is spoken of the Kingdom of Christ for the advancing and preserving of which he gives forth signal Testimonies of his Regal Power 2. In spiritual Distresses when we want Life and Quickning are opposed with troubled thoughts about our sinful Infirmities Your Redeemer hath Life in himself but not for himself alone he came into the World that we might have a fuller Communication of his Grace Ioh. 10. 10. Now he is gone back again to God and filled with the Spirit to communicate it to the Members of his Mystical Body Eph. 4. 10. He is ascended up to fill all things When we are dead our Redeemer liveth as a Fountain of Life to God's People 3. In outward Calamities He liveth when other Comforts fail or are taken away from us he will prove the nearest and best Friend when all others forsake us he will not only sympathize with us but help us and knoweth how to to give a comfortable Issue out of the sorest Troubles 2 Cor. 4. 14 16. Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Iesus shall raise up us also by Iesus and shall present us with you For which cause we faint not 4. It is a great Comfort in Calumnies and Slanders when our Names are taken up in the Lips of the Taunters and cast forth as evil Iob here when his Friends suspected him as fallen from the Grace of God puts his Cause into the Hands of the great Mediator who was now with God in Heaven making Intercession for him and will one Day stand on the Earth judging the World We need not fear any partial Judge here below nor be troubled at their Prejudices and Misconstructions Christ is the true Judge who will bring to light the hidden things of the Heart and then shall every Man have praise of God 1 Cor. 4. 15. That is every one that hath done well Though we have Failings yet those that flee to a Redeemer for Pardon and Reconciliation with God and Grace to walk uprightly shall then be acquitted 5. Chiefly it is a Comfort against the Fears of Death that you may yeeld up yourselves into Christ's Hands Thoughts of dwelling with God in Eternal Life are less comfortable because Death and the Grave interpose we must pass through them before we can enjoy him But though we die Christ liveth who is the Resurrection and those that believe in him shall live though they die Ioh. 11. 25. For our Souls he standeth ready to receive them Acts 7. 54. Lord Iesus receive my Spirit And our Bodies at the last day shall be raised again to immortal Life When Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. We need not fear Death for by his dying and rising again the Powers of the Grave are shaken and Death it self is become mortal The Grave is not a Prison but a Place of Repose Isa. 57. 2. And Death not a final Extinction but a Passage into Glory It is ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. All things are yours Life Death Things present Things to come all are yours And it is Gain Phil. 1. 21. For to me to live is Christ and to die is Gain Therefore we may go to the Grave with Comfort and Hope Christ died and yet is alive so shall we He is risen as the First-fruits of them that sleep 1 Cor. 15. 20. The whole Harvest was blessed and sanctified by an handful of the first-Fruits dedicated to God When Christ arose he virtually drew all the Elect out of the Grave with him being renewed and reconciled by his Grace they may be confident of a joyful Resurrection for Christ is their fore-fruits The First-fruits did not bless the Tares Darnel and Cockle that grew amongst the Corn no Man that ever offered the first-Fruits desired a Blessing upon the Weeds no Bind the Tares in Bundles and gather the Wheat into my Barn But if he indeed be your Redeemer and hath redeemed you from all Iniquity that is from the Guilt and Power of Sin it is a Comfort to you to know that he lives gloriously with God and will draw all his own after him that they may live gloriously with him He is our Fore-runner Heb. 6. 20. Who is gone to Heaven and hath taken Possession for himself and in our Behalf to make the Way more passable for us When we die we do but go thither whither he is gone before us he standeth upon the Shore ready to receive us into Glory Use of Exhortation I. Believe it and be perswaded of this Truth that you have a Redeemer living with God in the Heavens 1. This is a matter of meer Faith and therefore it must be soundly believed before it can have any efficacy upon us Some points of Faith are mixed partly evident by Natural Reason partly by Divine Revelation as that there is a God it is matter of sensible Experience Rom. 1. 20. and a matter of Faith also whosoever comes to God must believe that God is Nature helpeth forward the entertainment of these things but Redemption by Christ is a matter of pure and meer Faith and is received by believing Gods Testimony 2 Thess. 1. 10. there is no improving these points till we soundly believe them 2. Because we often think we believe these general Truths when indeed we do not believe them at all or not with such a degree of assent as we imagine Our Lord when he speaks of these Truths Joh. 11. 26. He that believeth in me shall live though he die Believest thou this Joh. 16. 31. Do ye now believe We conceit our Faith to be much stronger than indeed it is about the main Articles of Faith 3. Because among them that profess themselves Christians there are monstrous defects in their Faith Naturally we look upon the Gospel as a well devised Fable 2 Pet. 1. 16. and many that dare not speak it out yet do but speak of Christ
in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. The Author Tit. 3. 5 6. Not by Works of Righteousness which ye have done but according to his Mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Iesus Christ our Saviour Till we are in him and be one with him we have not this great Benefit 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature We are destitute of that Image of God wherein we were created and better we had never been born unless new-born 2. The Favour of God which is an immediate Consequent of his Image God delighted in Man as innocent but Man sinful is the Object of God's Wrath Loathing and Aversation Therefore Christ died to recover Man to the Love and Favour of God 2 Cor. 5. 14. To make peace between the offended Sovereign and Subject offending To interpose between God angry and Man guilty Now this Breach continueth till we are reconciled by Christ till we love God and are beloved by him And better we had been in a lower rank of Creatures than to continue under God's displeasure for the Misery of the Beasts dies with them Death puts an end to all their Pains at once but the Wrath of God not appeased by Christ continues on the Sinner for ever 3. Fellowship with God was lost by the Fall Man was driven out of Paradise and shut out of God's Presence by a flaming Sword Gen. 3. 24. the Emblem of his Wrath and all Entercourse was broken off But Christ came to open the Way by whom we have access unto God with boldness and confidence Eph. 3. 12. Heb. 4. 16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in a time of need We need daily access to God we cannot live without him How can we look him in the Face with any Comfort when we have no Mediator we cannot have any serious thoughts of him without trembling 2. There is no removal of that Misery which we have incurred which is the Death and Curse wherein we are involved by Sin As long as the Curses of the Law stand in full force against us we can have no firm confidence if we look to time past there is a huge heap of Sins the least of which is enough to sink us into Hell if we look to time present our nature being not yet healed our Hearts swarm with divers Lusts and we are ready to sin again if to time to come Death Hell and Judgment affright us Christ findeth us where Adam left us in the High-way to Hell and Damnation Joh. 3. 18. Condemned already and to hope for any release unless it be upon God's Terms is to make him untrue and unjust Certainly God will not break his Word and disturb the order of his Covenant for your sakes Therefore how will you escape the Curse and Condemnation of the Law if Christ be not given to you 3. There is no obtaining of what we should desire and pursue after as our proper Happiness but only by Christ. Man was made for God and cannot be happy without him and he is most compleatly happy in the full Enjoyment of him Now there is no coming to that blessed State but by Christ. Ioh. 14. 6. He is the Way to the Father The most eminent Sence is with respect to our final Blessedness when we come into his immediate Presence So Ioh. 5. 11. This is the Record that God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son It is Christ alone that can put us in the way and bring us home to Eternal Bliss USE 1. Is to confute the Worlds Opinion who measure God's Love by outward things or worldly Felicity Alas The Love or Hatred of God is not known by these things Eccles. 9. 1 2. Neither can the Heart of Man be satisfied with them These things can give us a Belly-full but not a Heart-full Psal. 17. 14 15. Those that take up with the Creature never felt the weight of Sin are not serious in matters of Eternal Concernments The only true Happiness is in having God for our God Christ for our Redeemer the Spirit for our Sanctifier and Comforter Use 2. Is to excite us to bless God for Jesus Christ. The Apostle doth frequently in all his Groans and Afflictions Rom. 7. 25. I thank God through Iesus Christ our Lord c. Blessed be God for the Grace of Iesus Christ whereby we have Pardon for what is past and Grace for the future to perform what God will accept So 1 Cor. 15. 57. Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Iesus Christ. God by Christ hath given us the Victory over Sin Death and Hell So should you especially in the Lord's Supper it is an Eucharist be thankful that God hath given Christ for us which is an unspeakable Gift And now he cometh to give him to you afford him an hearty welcome into your Souls as you take him and apply him by Faith and give up your selves to him as his Redeemed Ones You come to look upon Christ who made his Soul an Offering for Sin he is here represented as crucified before your Eyes and is by God specially offered to your acceptance and with him Pardon and Life You must be joyful and thankful for these great Gifts and Benefits so dearly bought so surely sealed so freely offered and in the sense of all this devote your selves to God Use 3. Make it your main Care to see if Christ be given to us Without him you cannot have any true Remedy against Evil nor any solid Hope of Good Certain it is that in our Natural Estate we were without him Is there a Change The two great Ends for which Christ came were to appease God and to be the Principle of a new Life Is Christ given for these Ends Have you received him Do not think Christ fell from Heaven into your Bosom whether you would or no. Did you ever feel your Misery without him and cry mightily to God Give me Christ or else I die and perish for ever I confess Conversion is not always evident in feeling but it is in the Effect and Fruit. What Fruits have you then abiding in you The great Fruit of Christ being given to you is the Spirit 's dwelling in you Rom. 8. 9. But ye are not in the Flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you The great Work of the Spirit is to sanctify the Soul to the Service of him that redeemed us Titus 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works Clear this and the Cause is decided III. I come now to the third part of
excelling in Holiness himself loveth the Vertue and Holiness of his Creature Prov. 11. 20. For how can he be imagined but to love his own Image And as Goodness and Holiness are loved by him so he hateth the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. and abhorreth those that despise that which is most glorious in Himself his Holiness And then if God loveth the Good and hateth the Evil he will express this in answerable Effects Good with Life and Evil with Death In short The Difference between Good and Evil is not more naturally known than it is naturally known that the one is to be punished the other rewarded Whether we consider the Wisdom of God which sorteth and joyns all things according to their natural Order and therefore Sin which is a Moral Evil is joyned with Sufferings a Natural Evil that is a feeling of something painful to Nature and afflictive to it Or the Justice of God which dealeth differently with Men that differ in themselves Or the Holiness of God who therefore will express his Love to the Good in making them happy and his Detestation of the Wicked in the Misery of their Punishment 2. The Greatness of both these Life and Death they are both Eternal Punishment in one Scale holdeth Conformity with the Reward in the other The full Reward is an Eternal and far more exceeding Weight of Glory called everlasting Life so is the full Punishment the Eternal Abode of Body and Soul under Torments expressed by everlasting Fire If we did only deal with you upon slight and cheap Motives you might refuse to hearken but when we tell you of Life and Death Eternal you ought most seriously to consider Whatever can be hoped or feared from Man is comparatively of little moment because his Power of doing Good or Evil is limited But on the one side it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the Living God Heb. 10. 31. On the other side Rom. 5. 2. We rejoyce in the Hope of the Glory of God God will act like himself infinitely gloriously especially when he is All in All when he doth not act by the mediation of the Creatures but immediately punishing the Wicked and rewarding the Good The Vessel can convey no more than it receiveth When the Creature is an Instrument of Vengeance God acteth according to the proportion and rate of that Creature as if a Giant should strike one with a Straw If God doth us good by an Ordinance the Water runneth but as the Pipe will contain he cannot manifest himself in that Latitude but then God is All himself immediatly Consider 1. The Greatness of the Death that accompanieth Evil. The Afflictions and Sorrows of this Life are a part of this Death When Moses here had insisted on many temporal Plagues which should befall his People he saith I have set Life and Death before you There are many Miseries in this Life which are the Fruit of Sin which would make your Hearts ake and your Ears tingle to hear of And then Death which consists in the separation of the Soul from the Body is the King of Terrors But we speak of the second Death which is far more terrible which consists in an Eternal Separation from the blessed and glorious Presence of the Lord no Death like this In all Creatures that have Sense Death is accompanied with Pain but this is a perpetual living to deadly Pain and Torment from whence there can be no Release In the first Death the Pain may lie in one place but in the second it extends all over The first Death the more it prevaileth the more we are past feeling but in this Death the Sufferer has a greater vivacity than ever the Capacity of every Sense is enlarged and made more receptive of Pain While we are in the Body Vehemens sensibile corrumpit Sensum the more vehemently and violently any thing strikes upon the Senses the more doth it dead the Sense as the Inhabitants about the Fall of Nilus are deaf with the continual noise Too much Light puts out the Eyes Taste is dulled by Custom But here the Capacity is improved by feeling The Power of God sustains the Sinner whilst his Wrath torments him As the Saints are prepared for the Blessedness of Heaven we cannot bear the least Glimpse of that Happiness which they enjoy above so the wicked are fitted to endure those inconceivable Pains When the first Death approaches there is strugling for Life Men would not dy but in the second Death they desire a final Destruction they would not live 2 The Greatness and Excellency of that Life that ensueth Good All manner of Blessings in this Life is the lowest step of it At Death when the Spirit returneth to God that gave it then it beginneth to be discovered but it is consummated when Body and Soul shall be translated to Heaven This is Life indeed Nescio an ista Vita mortalis Vita an vitalis Mors dicenda sit the present Life is a kind of Death always in fluxu like a Stream it runneth from us as fast as it cometh to us Iob 14. 1. He fleeth away as a Shadow and continueth not We die as fast as we live like the Shadow of a Star in a flowing Stream This Life is annoyed with a thousand Sorrows and Calamities but there is a freedom from all Sin and Misery and a full fruition of Pleasures for evermore Psal. 16. 11. And our Capacities are strong to bear them This Life is patched up with Supplies from the Creatures there is a full Fruition of God himself 1 Cor. 13. 12. And in this Life such Days may come wherein we have no pleasure Eccl. 12. 1. Life it self becomes a Burthen but that Life as it lasteth for ever so we are never weary of it The Enjoyment of God is new and fresh to us every moment As the Angels for thousands of years are beholding the Face of God but never weary of so doing so shall we always delight our selves in seeing God as he is 3. The Certainty of both these Life and Death Hell and Heaven as the Fruits of Good and Evil. 1. Reason sheweth it certainly that there is Eternal Life and Death or a State of Torment and Bliss after this Life All Men are perswaded that there is a God and very few have doubted but that he is a Rewarder of Vertue and and a Punisher of Vice Now neither the one nor the other is fully accomplished in this World even in the Judgment of those that have no great knowledg of the Nature of Sin nor what Punishment is competent thereto Therefore there must be after the sojourning in the Body a time in which retributive Justice shall be executed and Punishments and Rewards that here are dispensed so disproportionably even to what natural Reason would expect from the Hand of God shall most equally be dispens'd to Persons If any say Vertue is a Reward to it self as in some sence
the Death incurred by Sin And how by him by his being a Propitiation that he speaks of there vers 10. We were in a State of Death when the Doors of Mercy were first opened to us under the Guilt and Power of Sin for while the Guilt and Tyranny of Sin remaineth we are said to be dead and strangers to the Life of God and we begin to live when first regenerated by the Spirit of Christ. Now this we have not without Christ being a Propitiation for our Sins that is without doing something whereby God without any impeachment of his Honour might shew himself placable and propitious to Mankind his Justice Holiness and Hatred of Sin being sufficiently demonstrated in the Sufferings of Christ. Now the Honour of his governing Justice being kept up his pardoning Mercy is the more freely exercised God may be propitious to Mankind and yet still be acknowledged as a sin-hating God 2. In regard of Efficacy Christ is a quickening Head or a life-making Spirit 1 Cor. 15. 45. Whatever Grace we have comes from God through Christ as Mediator and from him we have it by virtue of our Union with him 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature As soon as joyned to him as our Head this Grace is applied to us by his Spirit It is first applied by converting Grace and then continually supplied by the confirming Grace of the Spirit and so we are fitted to every good Work Christ first applieth it in Conversion when he giveth us Repentance and a new Nature Acts 5. 31. And supplieth it by continual Influence Iohn 15. 5. We live on him as the Branch doth on the Root Now from hence we learn what a great Benefit renewing Grace is it is a Fruit of reconciling Grace 2 Cor. 5. 18. All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Christ. God giveth Grace only as the God of Peace that is as pacified by Christ's Death The holy Spirit is the Gift of his Love and the Fruit of this Peace and Reconciliation which Christ made for us First our Lord Jesus Christ merited this Grace by the value of his Sacrifice and bloody Sufferings and then doth apply it by the Almighty Power of his Spirit and Christ is first our Ransom and then the Fountain of Life unto our Souls and so the Honour of our whole and entire Recovery is to be ascribed to our Redeemer When he satisfied God's Justice for our Sins he purchased a Power to change the Heart of Man and he purchased this Power into his own Hands not into anothers and therefore doth accomplish it by his Spirit 2 Cor. 3. 18. We should often think what a Foundation God hath laid for the Dispensation of his Grace and how he would demonstrate his infinite Love in giving his Son to be a Propitiation for us When he would shew forth his infinite Power in determining and changing the Heart of Man all the Persons concurred the Father purposing the Son by way of Redemption and Purchase the Holy Ghost by effective Power and all to bring back our Souls to God and to make us capable of serving and pleasing him it is surely a Workmanship of much cost Two Reasons why they are as it were created anew 1. Because of the Badness of our former Estate Ruinous and decayed Buildings are only to be thrown down to make way for a new Structure and House to stand in the same place Man naturally is a Creature in a State of Apostacy and Defection under a loss of Original Righteousness averse from God yea an Enemy to him prone to all Evil weak yea dead to all Spiritual Good And what must be done with such a Creature to bring him out of his Misery but wholly to new-mould him and make him that he may have a new Being and Life The Scripture represents Man as blind in his Mind 2 Pet. 1. 9. Perverse in his Will Zech. 7. 12. Rebellious in his Affections Eph. 2. 3. fulfilling the Desires of the Flesh and of the Mind What sound Part is there left in us to mend the rest If we will be brought home to God we must of sinful and polluted become clean and holy and Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one Job 14. 4. We must of carnal become spiritual and therefore we must be new-born new-made Ioh. 3. 6. That instead of minding the things of the Flesh we may mind the things of the Spirit we must of Wordly become Heavenly Now he that formeth us for this very thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that frameth and createth us for this Heavenly State is God He that is the Framer and Maker of all things of infinite Wisdom Power and Love he createth us anew in Christ that we may look after Eternal Life The Heavenly Disposition wrought in us is a Pledge of it 2. From the Nature of God's Work which is not meerly by helping the Will but by giving us the Will it self or the Act of Volition of it not by curing the Weakness of it but by sanctifying it and taking away the Sinfulness of it and inclining it to himself If the Will were only in a Swoon and Languishment a little moral Perswasion and Excitation outward or inward by the Word and Spirit would serve the turn but we cannot say of it as Christ of the Damsel She is not dead but sleepeth No the Scripture saith We are dead in Trespasses and Sins Eph. 2. 1. God's Grace is not only necessary for facilitation that we may more easily pursue and chuse that which is good as a Horse is necessary that a Man may pass on his Journey more easily which otherwise he might perform on foot with Difficulties No 't is impossible as well as difficult to escape the Carnal Life without God Mat. 19. 26. He doth work such a Change on a carnal Man's Heart that he contemns the World and seeks after Heavenly Things Nay he doth not only give us a remote Power to will if we please or a remote Power to do if we please but he giveth to will and to do Phil. 2. 13. the Will it self and the Deed it self Thus is God's Operation set forth he reneweth the Faculties and exciteth the Act of willing and doing by his powerful and victorious Influence Ezek. 36. 26 27. Otherwise if Grace did only give us an Indifferency so that a Man may or may not then Man would be the principal Cause of his own Conversion and God lose the Glory of his Grace and the Honour of it be ascribed to the Liberty of Man 's own Will God doth not give a power to repent and believe and leave it to the Determination of Man's Will to make it effectual but he giveth Faith it self and Repentance it self Faith is his Gift Eph. 2. 8. To you it is given to believe Phil. 1. 29. The Redeemer was raised to give Repentance
Acts 5. 31. This is the Grace which the Saints pray for Faith it self Repentance it self Psal. 51. 10. Create in me a clean Heart Heb. 13. 21. The Lord make you perfect to do his Will working in you that which is pleasing in his Sight We pray not only for a Grace that gives the Possibility but the Effect not only for such as doth invite and sollicit us to Good but such as doth incline and determine us to Good And this is the Grace we give thanks for not a Power to repent and believe if we please but for Repentance and Faith wrought in us If God did only give a Power to will if we please to do if we please Man would difference himself 1 Cor. 4. 7. 3. With respect to Christ. We are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus who is the Head of the new World or renewed Estate All things are new in the Kingdom of Christ there is a Change of every thing from what it was before There is a new Adam which is Jesus Christ a new Covenant which is the Gospel a new Paradise not that where Adam enjoyed God among the Beasts but where the Blessed enjoy God among the Angels a new Ministry not the Posterity of Aaron or Tribe of Levi but a Ministry of Reconciliation put into their Hands whom God hath qualified and fitted to be Dispensers of these holy Mysteries New Ordinances We serve God not in the oldness of the Letter but the newness of the Spirit therefore if we be in Christ we must be new Creatures We are both obliged and fitted by this new Estate to be so Some are in Christ externally by Baptism and Profession they are visibly in Covenant with him and de jure of right are bound to be new Creatures Others are in Christ by real internal Union these not only ought to be but de facto are new Creatures they are made Partakers of his Spirit Rom. 8. 9. and by that Spirit they are renewed and sanctified Well then since there is a new Lord and a new Law all is new there must be a new Creation for as the general State of the Church is renewed by Christ so is every particular Believer 4. With respect to the Use for which this new Creation serveth One is mentioned in the Text Created unto good Works but other things must be taken in 1. In order to our present Communion with God Till we are created anew we are not sit to converse with an holy and invisible God earnestly frequently reverently and delightfully which is our daily Work and Business The Effects of the new Creature are Life and Likeness those that do not live the Life of God are estranged from him Eph. 4. 18. Trees cannot converse with Beasts because they do not live their Life nor Beasts with Men for they have Sense only but no Reason nor Men with God till they have somewhat of the same Nature and Life If one had Power to put the Spirit of Man into a brute Beast that Beast would discourse reasonably God hath Power to put a Divine Spirit into his People to sanctify their Souls that sits them for converse with God Look as in Innocency Adam was alone though compassed about with a Multitude of Creatures Beasts Birds and Plants yet there was none till Eve was made fit to converse with him because they did not live his Life therefore the Lord God said Gen. 2. 18. It is not good that Man should be alone I will make him an 〈◊〉 meet for him The Man was alone because he had none like himself that he might converse withal as a Man in the exercise of Speech and Reason the Beasts of the Field and Fowls of the Air were no fit Companions for him they wanted the means of Converse Reason and Speech So without Grace we are not meet for Communion with God till we have Faith and Love to admire reverence and delight in him So for likeness Conformity is the ground of Communion Amos 3. 3. How can two walk together except they be agreed Our state of Sin is a state of Enmity and our state of Holiness a state of Love Our old Course made the Breach between us and God Isa. 59. 2. but the new Life and Likeness qualifies us for Communion with him 1. Ioh. 1. 6 7. An holy Creature may sweetly come and converse with the Holy God 2. In order to our Service and Obedience to God Man is unfit for God's use till he be new moulded and framed again In the Text we must be created in Christ Iesus to good Works Every Creature hath Faculties suitable to the Operations that belong to that Creature so Man must be new created new formed that he may be prepared and made ready for the Lord. You cannot expect new Operations till there be a New Nature and Life When a Man is turned from Sin he is made meet for the Masters use and prepared unto every good Work 2 Tim. 2. 21. Our first care must be to get the Heart renewed Many are troubled about this or that Duty or particular Branches of the Spiritual Life first get Life it self There must be Principles before there can be Operations In vain do we expect strengthning Grace before we have received renewing Grace This is like little Children who attempt to run before they can go or stand Many complain of this or that Corruption but they do not groan under the burden of a corrupt Nature as suppose wandring Thoughts in Prayer when at the same time the Heart is habitually averse and estranged from God as if a Man should complain of an aking Tooth when a mortal Disease hath seized upon his Vitals or of a cut Finger when at the same time he is wounded at the Heart of deadness in Duty and want of quickning Grace when they want converting Grace This is like blowing to a dead Coal to complain of Infirmities and incident Weakness when our habitual aversion from and Enmity to God is not yet cured and unfitness for Service when we are not come out of the carnal State 3. In order to our future enjoyment of God and that Glory and Blessedness which we expect in his Heavenly Kingdom None but new Creatures can enter into the New Ierusalem It is said John 3. 3. Except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Seeing is put for enjoying Yet the expression is Emphatical as if he should not be suffered so much as to peep or look within the Vail therefore the meer carnal Man neither knoweth his true Happiness nor careth for it but followeth after his own Lusts till he be new moulded and framed By Nature Men are opposite to the Kingdom of God it being invisible future spiritual mostly for the Soul and by nature Men are for things seen present and bodily The Interest of the Flesh governeth all their choices and inclinations and how unmeet are these for Heaven In short our frail
SERMONS PREACHED BY The Late Reverend and Learned Divine THOMAS MANTON D. D. LONDON Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Sign of the three Pigeons over-against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1678. The PREFACE IT may seem a just discouragement from publishing more Sermons at this time when there are such numbers abroad in the hands of all for the abundance of things useful is fatal to their value and the rareness exceedingly inhances their price If Men were truly wise Spiritual Treasures should be excepted from this Common Law yet plenty even of them causeth satiety But the following Sermons have that peculiar Excellence that will make them very valuable to all that have discerning Minds and such a tincture of Religion as makes them capable of tasting the goodness of Divine things I shall say nothing particularly here of the intellectual Endowments of the Author in which he appeared Eminent among the first nor of his Graces to adorn his Memory for a Saint that is ascended into Heaven and crown'd with Eternal Glory by the righteous Iudge needs not the weak fading testimony of Praise from Men. Besides that universal esteem he had from those who knew his Ability Diligence and Fidelity in the Work of God makes it unnecessary for them who were his Admirers and Friends And for those who are unacquainted with his Worth if they take a view of his Works formerly printed or the present Sermons that deserve equal approbation they will have the same opinion with others I will give some account of the Sermons themselves The main design of them is to represent the inseparable connexion between Christian Duties and Priviledges wherein the Essence of our Religion consists The Gospel is not a naked unconditionate offer of Pardon and Eternal Life in favour of Sinners but upon most convenient terms for the Glory of God and the good of Men and enforc'd by the strongest obligations upon them to receive humbly and thankfully those Benefits The Promises are attended with Commands to Repent Believe and persevere in the uniform practice of Obedience The Son of God came into the World not to make God less holy but to make us holy that we might please and enjoy him not to vacate our Duty and free us from the Law as the Rule of Obedience for that is both impossible and would be most infamous and reproachful to our Saviour To challenge such an exemption in point of right is to make our selves Gods to usurp it in point of fact is to make our selves Devils But his end was to enable and induce us to return to God as our rightful Lord and proper Felicity from whom we rebelliously and miserably fell by our disobedience in seeking for Happiness out of him Accordingly the Gospel is called the Law of Faith as it commands those Duties upon the Motives of eternal Hopes and Fears and as it will justifie or condemn Men with respect to their Obedience or Disobedience which is the proper Character of a Law These things are managed in the following Sermons in that convincing perswasive manner as makes them very necessary for these times when some that aspired to an extraordinary height in Religion and esteemed themselves the Favourites of Heaven yet wofully neglected the duties of the lower Hemisphere as Righteousness Truth and Honesty and when carnal Christians are so numerous that despise serious Godliness as solemn Hypocrisy and live in an open violation of Christ's Precepts yet presume to be saved by him Though no Age has been more enlightned with the knowledge of holy Truths yet none was ever more averse from obeying them I shall only add further that they commend to our ardent Affections and Endeavours true Holiness as distinguish'd from the most refin'd unregenerate Morality The Doctor saw the absolute necessity of this and speaks with great jealousy of those who seem in their discourses to make it their highest aim to improve and cultivate some moral Vertues as Iustice Temperance Benignity c. by Philosophick helps representing them as becomming the dignity of the Humane Nature as agreeable to Reason as beneficial to Societies and but transiently speak of the Supernatural Operation of the Holy Spirit that is as requisite to free the Soul from the Chains of Sin as to release the Body at the last Day from the Bands of Death that seldom preach of Evangelical Graces Faith in the Redeemer Love to God for his admirable Mercy in our Salvation Zeal for his Glory Humility in ascribing all that we can return in grateful Obedience to the most free and powerful Grace of God in Christ which are the vital principles of good Works and derive the noblest forms to all Vertues Indeed Men may be compos'd and considerate in their Words and Actions may abstain from gross Enormities and do many praise-worthy Actions by the rules of moral Prudence yet without the infusion of divine Grace to cleanse their stained Natures to renew them according to the Image of God shining in the Gospel to act them from Motives superiour to all that Moral Wisdom propounds all their Vertues of what elevation soever though in an heroick degree cannot make them real Saints As the Plant Animal has a faint resemblance of the sensitive Life but remains in the lower rank of Vegitables so these have a shadow an appearance of the Life of God but continue in the corrupt state of Nature And the difference is greater between sanctifying saving Graces wrought by the special Power of the Spirit with the holy Operations flowing from them and the vertuous Habits and Actions that are the effects of Moral Counsel and Constancy then between true Pearls produced by the Celestial Beams of the Sun and counterfeit ones formed by the smoaky heat of the Fire In short the Lord Iesus our Saviour and Iudge who purchas'd the Heavenly Glory and has sole power to give the actual possession of it assures us that unless a Man be born of the Spirit he can never enter into the kingdom of God The Supernatural Birth entitles to the Supernatural Inheritance Without this how fair and specious soever the Conversation of Men appears they must expect no other priviledge at last but a cooler place in Hell and the coolest there is intolerable W. BATES The Contents Sermon 1 and 2d Pag. 1. ON Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose Transgression is forgiven whose Sin is covered Blessed is the Man unto whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose Spirit there is no Guile Sermon 3. Pag. 44. On Acts 3. 26. Unto you first God having raised up his Son Iesus sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his Iniquities Serm. 4th Pag. 66. On 2 Pet. 1. 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious Promises that by these you might be Partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. Serm. 5. pag. 81. On Mark 9. 49. For every one shall
of our Desires And partly through Slavish Fear We hate those whom we fear A condemning God can never be loved by a guilty Creature We look upon him as one that will call us to an account for our Sins Now all these Reasons concur to shew us that till Sin be taken away we cannot love nor delight in God neither can God love us and delight in us God will not have Communion with us while we are in our Sins Christ when he came to bring us to God he came not to make any Change in God to make God less holy but to make us holy and amiable in his sight The reasonable Nature cannot digest this Conceit that the holy God should take Sinners into his Bosom without any change Would it become the Governour of the World to be indifferent to good and bad the holy God to be a Friend to Sinners The new Nature in us sheweth the contrary for that causes an abomination and abhorrence both of Impurity and the Impure As Lot's righteous Soul was vexed with the Sodomites And we are told Prov. 29. 27. An unjust Man is an Abomination to the Iust and he that is upright in the Way is Abomination to the Wicked If a Man be sanctified but in part he cannot delight in the wicked freely to converse with them He hath a Hatred not of Enimity so as to seek their Destruction not a Hatred opposite to good Will that is contrary to the Nature of Grace which is made up of Love but an Hatred of Abomination which is contrary to the Love of Complacency he cannot take any delight in him Now then without a manifest reproach to the Holy God we cannot imagine he should admit Sinners into an intimate Communion with him Thou hatest all the Workers of Iniquity Psal. 5. 5. God said to the Prophet Ier. 15. 19. Let them return unto thee but return not thou to them God will not return to us in our Sins but we must come off from our Sins to him 2. We are freed from the great Blemish of our Natures Sin defaced the Image of God in us Rom. 3. 23. All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God We lost not only the Favour of God but the Image of God the great Excellency of our Nature was eclipsed and defaced Now the Plaister will not be as broad as the Sore nor our Reparation by Christ correspondent to our Loss by Adam if our Nature be not healed and the Image of God restored in us If Adam had only left us guilty the Pardon of Sin had been enough but he conveyed an evil Nature and therefore we must be turned from our Sins as well as pardoned otherwise Christ would not restore all that Adam took away Psal. 69. 4. Is he a good Physician that takes away the Pain and leaves the great Disease uncured But Christ has procured the Favour of God for us and repaired the Image of God in us and therefore certainly put us into a way of Blessedness again Holiness was our Primitive Excellency and Amiableness 3. We are freed from that that is the great Burden of the Creature as well as his Blemish Whatever it be to the common Sinner that is no matter he hath no right thoughts of things and is besotted with his carnal choice for Sin is an Evil whether it be felt or no but the awakened Sinner is sensible not only of the Guilt of Sin but it is his greatest Burden that he should have a Nature inclines him to grieve and dishonour God Pharaoh could say Take away this Plague But a penitent broken-hearted Sinner cries Take away all Iniquity They desire a Change of this State by Regeneration Therefore the Promises of the Gospel considering a penitent Soul under such a Distress are suted to the Case 1 Iohn 1. 9. If we confess our Sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our Sins and cleanse us from all Unrighteousness If you know what Sin is and penitently bemoan your selves to God you will be troubled with the Power and Pollution of it as well as the Guilt Mic. 7. 18 19. Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passeth by the Transgression of the Remnant of his Heritage He will turn again he will have compassion hewill subdue our Iniquities A Heart truly affected doth not only desire Pardon and Ease but Power against Sin A Man that hath his Leg broken would not only desire Ease of his pain but to have his Leg set right again A Leprous Condemned Malefactor desires not only to be freed from the Sentence of Condemnation but to be cured or his Pardon will do him no good Now surely it is a great Blessing to be turned from our Sins to be freed from that a penitent Soul finds to be so great a Burden and the Mediatour gives us a notable proof of his Love in it 4. Being turned from our Sins we are freed from the great bane of our Persons and all our happiness Sin is a Cursed Inmate it fires the Lodging where it is entertain'd and harboured unless speedily cast out of doors it involves us in the curse of the Law The wages of Sin is Death therefore Christ that he might free us from Misery doth first free us from Sin If pardon of Sin be a blessing certainly to be turned from Sin is a blessing for the one cannot be had without the other till you are turned from Sin you cannot be pardoned not justified till you are sanctified Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is the Man whose Sin is forgiven and whose Iniquity is covered and unto whom the Lord will not impute his Sin in whose spirit there is no guile When God hath given us an holy sincere heart and turned us from our Sins then we have the Blessedness of Pardon There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Rom. 8. 1. who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit We are freed from the condemning power of the Law when freed from Sin and all that Woe and Wrath that belongs to every Soul that doth evil By all these Considerations it appears how great a Blessing the turning us from Sin is in the privative notion that is the removal of so great an evil 2. Take Blessedness in the Positive Notion that is to enjoy a great Good and it will appear it is a blessed thing to be turned from our Sins 1. Because this is the matter of our Serenity Comfort and Peace here and the pledg and beginning of our eternal Felicity hereafter The Soul can never be setled in an holy Peace till it be turned from its Sins we can never find rest till we get out of Satan's yoke and get into Christ's blessed Liberty The fruit of Righteousness is Peace Isa. 32. 17. We are freed from those unquiet and troublesom thoughts wherewith others are haunted A wicked Man's Soul is in a mutiny one Affection wars against another and all against
the Conscience and the Conscience against all But where the Heart is framed to the obedience of God's Will there is Peace Pax est tranquillitas ordinis when all things keep their place as in an accurate orderly Life they do Gal. 6. As many as walk according to this Rule Peace and Mercy be upon them and the whole Israel of God There is Peace for there is an harmonious Accord between God and them and between them and themselves Psal. 119. 165. Great Peace have they that love thy Law not only Peace but great Peace a Peace that passeth all understanding Whilst we are in our Sins there is ever a fear of the War which is between God and us and there is a War in our selves Conscience disallowing our practices and our practices disliking the conduct of Conscience so that there is no peace to the Wicked But when the Lord Jesus hath taken us in hand and begun to cure us and frame us aright and shew us his wonderful Grace in turning us from our Sins here is matter provided for Serenity and Peace 2. It is the pledg of our eternal Felicity hereafter For Heaven is the perfection of Holiness or the full fruition of God in glory Now when the Mediator begins to take away Sin he blesses you for the Life is then begun which shall be perfected in Heaven Unless it be begun here it will never be perfected there For without Holiness no Man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. But if it be begun it will surely be perfected there for blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God The vision and fruition of God is begun here the Spirit of Holiness is the earnest of our Inheritance Eph. 1. 13 14. O what Blessedness is it then to have the new heart planted into us by Christ and to live the new Life It is the Beast about you that delights in the momentany base dreggy Pleasures of Sin But when Christ hath turned you from your Sins you are blessed indeed you are in the way to Blessedness and you shall be blessed for ever he gives Peace as a Pledge of Happiness and Eternal Glory III. I shall prove that this is the Mediator's Blessing 1. Let me lay down this that those Blessings that are most proper to the Mediator are spiritual Blessings We forfeited all by Sin but especially the Grace of the Spirit whereby we might be made serviceable to God Other Mercies run in the Channel of common Providence but spiritual Blessings are the discriminating Graces and Favours that are given us by the Mediator Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual Blessings in heavenly Places Christ came not to distribute Honours and Greatness and worldly Riches to his Followers but to turn away every one of us from our Sins to reduce us to God that we may love him and be beloved of him He came as a spiritual Saviour to give us Grace rather than temporal Happiness Most Men have a Carnal Iewish Notion of Christ they would have a temporal Safety and Happiness they would have Deliverance from Affliction rather than Deliverance from Sin To be delivered from every evil Work is more than to be delivered from the Mouth of the Lion This is most proper to the Mediator 2 Tim. 4. 18. A sanctified Use of Troubles is more than an Exemption from them a carnal Man may have Exemption from them but not a sanctified Use of them Poverty Lameness Blindness are not as bad as Ignorance unruly Lusts and Want of Grace Moral Evils are worse than Natural Daniel was cast into a Lion's Den you would think that was a Misery but it was a greater Misery when Nebuchadnezzar was thrust out among the Beasts being given up to a brutish Heart Exemption from Trouble may be hurtful to us but Deliverance from Sin is never hurtful to us Among the spiritual Blessings we have by the Mediator Conversion from Sin to God is the chiefest we have on this side Heaven That it was the main Part of Christ's Undertaking I shall prove by Scripture and Reason For Scripture the Text is clear for it for thus the Apostle interprets the Covenant-Blessing In thy Seed shall all Nations of the Earth be blessed viz. God hath sent him to bless you wherein in turning every one of you from your Sins He shall be called Iesus Mat. 1. 21. for he shall save his People from their sins not only from the Guilt but the Power of Sin not only from the Evil after Sin but the Evil of Sin it self Denominatio est à majori the Name is taken from what is chiefest And so when he is promised to the Iews The Redcemer shall come out of Sion and he shall turn away Ungodliness from Iacob There is his principal Work 1 John 3. 5. Christ came to take away Sin and in him is no Sin He means not only the condemning Power but the Power of it in the Heart for he is pleading Arguments for Holiness why Believers should not run into Sin which is a Transgression of the Law One is from the Undertaking of Christ he came to take away Sin and from the Example of Christ In him is no Sin he plainly means the Power of Sin 2. Now to give you some Reasons why this is the chief Benefit most eyed by Christ and should be most regarded by us 1. Christ's Undertaking was principally for the Glory of God All the Promises are in him Yea and Amen to the Glory of God And it should not be a Question which should have the precedence the Glory of God or our Good Christ came to promote God's Glory and that must have the precedence of our Benefit Now then the abolishing the Guilt of Sin doth more directly respect our Interest and Good but the abolishing the Power of Sin or the turning and cleansing the Heart from it doth more immediately respect the Glory of God and our Subjection to God Therefore Christ would not only pacify the Wrath of God but his chief Work that doth mostly concern the Glory of God was to heal our evil Natures and prevent Sin for the time to come 2. To be turned from Sin is to be freed from the greatest Evil. For Pardon gives us an Exemption from Punishment which is a natural Evil but Conversion gives us freedom from our naughty Hearts which is a moral Evil and certainly Vice is worse than Pain and Sin than Misery Besides Sin is the Cause of all Evil and the taking away the Cause is more than ceasing the Effect 3. This hath nearer Connection with the Life of Glory Pardon only removes the Impediment but the sanctifying and healing of our Natures is the beginning of the Life of Glory and Introduction into it Pardon removes our Guilt which hinders our Happiness therefore Divines say Justification is Gratia removens prohibens that that removes the Impediment but the sanctifying
be not conformed to this World but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God Col. 1. 10. That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing being fruitful in every good work And also to glorify him is their end and use Phil. 1. 21. 1 Cor. 10. 31. This is the Dedication by which a Christian becomes a spiritual and an holy Sacrifice unto God Now we must be sincere and real in this partly 1. Because the Truth of our dedication will be known by our use many give up themselves to God but in the use of themselves there is no such matter they carry it as though their Tongues were their own and had no Lord over them Psal. 12. 4. They speak what they please they use their Hearts as their own to think and covet what they please their Hands as their own to do what they please their Bodies as their own to prostitute them to all excess and filthiness and their Wealth and Strength and Time as their own either to spare it or lavish it according as their lusts guide and incline them No no a sincere Christian makes Conscience of his dedication to God the reality and sincerity of it is seen in the use of themselves and if he be tempted to do any thing contrary to this vow and dedication his Heart riseth against the Temptation 1 Cor. 6. 15. Shall I take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of an Harlot God forbid In point of fidelity to God as we are in Covenant with him we must be careful that we employ and use what is God's for the Glory of God we must make conscience of alienating that that is sacred that that is the Lord's your thoughts your affections your time your strength do all belong to him 2. Because God will one day call us to an account Luk. 19. 23. He will demand his own with Usury We shall be called to a reckoning what we have done for God what part and portion he hath had in our time our strength our parts our interest therefore every prudent and wise Christian should himself keep a faithful and constant reckoning how he lays out himself for God for he must have a share in all things that we have or do 3. We must be very sincere in this because we are under the Eye and inspection of God who considers whose business we do his or our own Luk. 1. 75. That we should serve him in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our Life We are ever before him and though he doth not presently call us to an account yet many times now he punisheth us for our neglect and mindlessness of his Interest Ezek. 16. 8. Ye entred into a Covenant with me and became mine That was the reason of his Judgments against them When those that are his do not carry themselves as his when that that is Sacred is profaned by a common use then a Judgment is coming upon a Nation if dedicated to God and it warps from him or upon a Person if his ways be not upright with him II. The next thing I am to do is to prove that the grace of Mortification is the true Salt wherewith this Offering and Sacrifice should be seasoned There is some dispute what is meant by the Salt which Christ recommends to his Disciples and what was figured by the Salt in the Sacrifice whether Wisdom or Zeal in general it is the grace of the Holy Spirit by which Sin is subdued and prevented and the meaning suits exactly with the Emblem and representation For 1. Salt preserves Flesh from putrefaction by consuming that superfluous and excrementitious moisture which otherwise would soon corrupt and so the Salt of the Covenant doth prevent and subdue those Lusts which would cause us to deal unfaithfully with God Alas Meat is not so apt to be tainted as we are to be corrupted and weakned in our resolutions to God without the mortifying grace of the Spirit That which is lame is soon turned out of the way unless it be healed Heb. 10. 13. And nothing is so unstable and mutable as an unmortified Soul therefore we can never behave our selves as a Sacrifice and an offering to God unless we mortify our Members which are upon Earth inordinate Affections Covetousness and the like Col. 3. 5. In short the Flesh is that which is apt to be corrupted and therefore the grace that doth preserve us must be something that doth wean us from the interests of the Flesh and what is that but the mortifying Grace of the Holy Spirit The Apostle saith Eph. 6. 24. Grace be with all them that love the Lord Iesus in Sincerity or in Incorruption There are many crooked Lusts which are apt to corrupt us and withdraw our love to other things but when these are mortified and subdued that we may have a greater amplitude of affection towards God and Christ then we are said to love him in sincerity and in incorruption 2. Salt hath an acrimony and doth macerate things and pierce into them and so the grace of Mortification is painful and troublefome to the carnal nature how healthful and useful soever it be to the Soul no Question it is distasteful to curbe our Affections and govern our Hearts in the fear of God and to row against the stream of Flesh and Blood but yet it is wholesome it is a crucifying of the Flesh to handle it as Christ suffered on the Cross to give it Vinegar and Gall but yet this is necessary this is the thing which our Lord intends here in the Context that the Sacrifice must be consumed or macerated we either must suffer the pains of Hell or the pains of Mortification we must be salted with Fire or salted with Salt 'T is better to pass to Heaven with difficulty and austerity than to avoid these difficulties and run into Sin and so be in danger of eternal Fire The strictness of Christianity is nothing so grievous as the punishment of Sin The Philosophers when they speak of the nature of Man observe that in the concupiscible part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like moisture inclines to pleasure in the irrascible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 something like Cold inclines to fear this Salt is to fetch out both by checking our sensual inclination and also our worldly fears We must crucify the Flesh with the Fassions and Lusts thereof they that are Christ's have done so We should rather displease our selves and displease all the World than displease God or be unfaithful in our duty to Christ. No profit no pleasure or secular concernment is so necessary so comfortable so useful to us as Salvation 3. Salt makes things savoury so Grace makes us Savoury which may be interpreted with respect either to God or Man 1. Acceptable to God when seasoned with this Salt for God would accept of
Defects of Love in the best To give some Instances First Love signifies a strong Inclination or an earnest Bent of Heart towards God as our chief Good and last End Well then our End is our Measure by which we judge of all Means of the Aptness and Fitness of what is to be avoided and imbraced The Seasonableness of all Means must be determined by the End that all Means that are inconsistent with and impertinent to our great End may be cut off Now all Sins are inconsistent with making God our great End and all vain and foolish Actions are impertinent thereunto Judge you by this if we have such a perfect Love to God if this be love as questionless it is But now with how many impertinent and extravagant Actions do we fill up our Lives How many Purposes Desires Words and Actions have we that have no respect to our great End at all How much do we live to our selves and how little to God How great a Passion have we for earthly things so that they can occupy and intercept the far greatest part of our Lives and then judg whether we had not need have the bent kept up and the tendency towards God as our End and Happiness Psal. 86. 11. Unite my Heart to the fear of thy Name It is the natural disease of Man's Heart to be loosed from God and to be distracted in variety of worldly Objects which obtrude themselves upon our Sences offer themselves to us daily therefore it is not enough for a Man once to resign over his Heart to God as we do in Conversion when this Love was first wrought in us but we need often to beg that God would reclaim us from this ranging after carnal Vanities that he would direct and keep us streight and true to our end that we may love him more and at a better rate So if you consider the nature of Love the thing is obvious and plain unless the Lord maintain this Love in us and keep it up what will become of us The 2d Evidence is those slavish fears which do oppress us and hinder our delight in God and comfortable Communion with him in the means of Grace Certainly the more we are under slavish fear the less love we have to God and thankfulness for his Grace The Apostle tells you 1 Joh. 4. 18. There is no fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out fear because fear hath Torment he that feareth is not made perfect in Love Surely we should seek after such a Spirit of Love that all we do for God may be done with great delight that we may not serve him by compulsion but by inclination not as injoined only but as inclined not as putting a force upon our selves but as delighting in our work And then 3dly Another Instance is our frequent preferring the Profits and Pleasures of the World before the Service of God and if it doth not go so far as to forfeit our right yet how often do we expose and put our spiritual Comforts to hazard for every trifle As Esau that sold his Birthright for a Morsel of Meat Heb. 12. 15 16. The best of us shew too much lothness to cut off the right Hand and to pluck out the right Eye or to do that which is signified by it This shews a weakness of Love for where Love is strong there is a thorow inclination to God we dare Love nothing above him or against him or without him 4thly Our backwardness to Obedience and the tediousness we find in it shews a great Imperfection in our Love All goes on easily sweetly acceptably where Love is at the bottom Gen. 29. 20. Seven years to Iacob seemed as a few days for the Love that he had to Rachel and so Love sweetens our Obedience His Commandments are not grievous But when we are wedded to worldly things and will not be reclaimed from them then every heavenly business is an interruption to what we would be at what we delight in 5thly The many conflicts we have with Carnal Self-Love or our own foolish and hurtful Lusts shew our Love is not perfect as the weakness of Faith is seen and felt by the remainders of unbelief and our frequent conflicts with doubts and fears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Mark 9. 24. So the weakness of our Love is known by the opposition of carnal and inordinate Self-love The Flesh will say sometimes Favour thy self or what a weariness is it Mal. 1. 13. and grudg every thing that is done for God It doth excuse us in our straglings and deviations from our great End and applaud us in our negligent course of living as the sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven Men that can render a reason Prov. 26. 16. Nay sometimes it will urge us to please our selves to the grief of the Spirit and to take our fill of carnal delights All this belongs to the first Reason 2. There needs much to be done about our Love after it is planted in the Soul we need to get it rooted to get it increased to get it continually excited and kept in act and exercise 1. We need to get it rooted Our first Affection to God and Heavenly things may hastily put forth it self as the early Blossoms of the Spring do but they are soon nipt and those high Tides of Affections which we find in our first acquaintance with Religion afterwards sink low enough Love is more passionately exprest at first partly by reason of the novelty of the things represented to us and partly because of our great necessity as Men that are in a violent thirst take large draughts with pleasure and because our Love is not as yet dispersed into the several Channels of Obedience but wholly taken up with admirations of Grace but yet this may vanish and decay Our business is to be rooted and grounded in Love as the Apostle saith Eph. 3. 7. to get a more solid durable affection to God 2. After it is Planted it needs to be more Increased Phil. 1. 9. I pray God your Love may abound yet more and more At first Love is but weak there is Fire but it is not blown up into a Flame afterwards God gets a greater interest in our Hearts and then the constitutions of our Souls become more Holy and Heavenly Love being the Heart of the new Creature he that hath most Love hath most Grace and is the best and strongest Christian. 3. After it is planted in the Soul it needs to be excited and kept in Act and Exercise This is mainly intended here For 1. All Religion is in Effect but Love Faith is a thankful acceptance of Christ and thankfulness is an expression of Love Repentance is but Mourning Love as she wept much to whom much was forgiven Luke 7. 47. Diligence in the Holy Life is but seeking Love Obedience is pleasing Love Self-denial is the Mortification of inordinate Self-Love Sobriety is a retrenching of
bless themselves and the carnal World applauds them in a sensual Course and Way of Living They measure all Happiness by their outward Condition in the World and please themselves with golden Dreams of Contentment and this being seconded with the flattery and applauses of the deceived World they are fast asleep in the midst of the greatest Soul-Dangers and so go down into Hell before they think of it 2. Come we now to the Regenerate Such the Apostle looks upon the Thessalonians to be They need to have their Hearts directed to the patient waiting for Christ for these Reasons 1. Because we have too dim and doubtful a foresight of these things How dark a Prospect have even the best of God's Children of the World to come We may speak of others as Unbelievers but God knows how doubtful our own Thoughts are about Eternity and Christ's Coming how little we can shut the Eye of Sense and open that of Faith and say truly with the Apostle 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at the Things that are seen that are temporal but to the Things unseen that are Eternal Alas we have no through Sight into another World The best Christians have need to have their Eyes anointed with spiritual Eye-salve that their Sight may be more sharp and piercing to beg the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation to open the Eyes of their Mind that they may see what is the Hope of Christ's calling Eph. 1. 17 18. There are too many intervening Clouds between us and Eternity that darken our Sight and obscure our Faith 2. Our Thoughts of these things are strange and dull and too rare and unfrequent How seldom have we any serious thoughts of his Coming and how unwelcom are they to our Hearts It was a Complaint against Israel that they did put far away the evil Day but the Complaint against us may be taken up thus that we put far away the good Day when all our Desires and Hopes shall be accomplished and satisfied The Atheistical World deny it and we forget it Solomon saith to the sensual young Man Remember that for all these things God shall bring thee to Iudgment Young Men forget or put off these Thoughts lest like cold Water cast into a boiling Pot they should check the Fervor of their Lusts. But alas grave Men good Men forget these things When Christ had spoken of his Coming to Judgment he saith Mark 13. last v. What I say unto you I say unto all Watch. Watching is keeping up this Attentiveness to his second Coming with all Christian Vigilance and Endeavour But few regard the Charge therefore the Lord direct your Hearts c. 3. Because our Affections are so cold and we are no more affected with it but as if we were senseless of the weight of these things Some dead and drousy Desires we have but not that lively Motion which will become Hope and Love If Nature say Come not to torment us before the time Grace should say Come Lord Jesus O come quickly We are not only to look for his Appearing but to love his Appearing Where are these Desires that Christ would either come down to us or take us up to himself that we may live with him for ever 4. This Prayer need to be made for the Renewed too because Christians think of it with too much perplexity and fear Is the Sight of a Saviour unwelcom to you Or should the drawing nigh of your Redemption be a Comfort or a Terror Why do you then believe in Christ and choose his Favour for your Happiness We thought that this had been all your Hope and your Desire and your great Comfort and shall your Hope be your Torment and beget Horror rather than Joy O beg the Lord to direct your Hearts that you may hope to the end for the Grace that shall be brought unto you at the Revelation of the Lord Iesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 13. We do not only wait for Glory but for Grace and shall not this be a Comfort to you 5. We need to pray this Prayer because our Preparations are too slender for so great a Day Serious Preparation is necessary 'T is described 1 Pet. 3. 14. Wherefore Beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless that is In a State of Reconciliation with God But we live too securely and quietly in an unprepared State If we have the habitual Preparation we do not keep up the actual Preparation by clarifying and refining our Souls from the Dregs of Sense by honouring God in the World with greater earnestness that when our Lord comes he may find us so doing We do not stand with our Loins girt and our Lamps burning that when the Lord knocks we may open to him immediately We do not keep up the Heavenly Desire the actual Readiness The Return of a Husband after long Absence is more welcom to the Wife than to a Harlot but she would have all things ready for his Reception and Entertainment 6. Because our Motions are too inconstant We interrupt the Course of our Obedience frequently faint in our Afflictions do not keep up the Fervor of our Affections and follow after Salvation with that industrious diligence We need often the Christian Watchword The Lord is at hand We lose much of our first Love intermit of our first Works Therefore the Lord direct your Hearts to the patient waiting for Christ. The Exhortation is To quicken you to take care of this Grace that you may be constantly exercised in it While we are upon Earth we should continually be expecting Christ's Coming from Heaven The Motives may be these 1. Before Christ's Coming in the Flesh the Saints waited for him I have waited for thy Salvation O Lord saith Iacob Gen. 49. 18. And Simeon for Christ the Saviour of the World for so it is explained Mine Eyes have seen thy Salvation And our Lord tells us Abraham rejoyced to see my Day Joh. 8. 56. And it is said of Anna and others That they waited for the Consolation of Israel Luk. 2. 25 38. And after Christ was come the Disciples were commanded to wait for the Promise of the Spirit Acts 1. 4. So by parity of Reason we must wait for the Coming of Christ for that is the next great Promife to be accomplish'd and the great Thing to put Life into our Religion 2. The People of God are described by this 1 Thess. 1. 10. Who wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the Dead even Iesus which delivered us from the Wrath to come A Man would have thought in those early Days they should have heen described by their respect to what was past rather than to what was to come which was at so great a distance they should have been described by believing Christ was already come in the Flesh rather than waiting for his Coming in Glory No this is proposed as an
without Holiness Heb. 12. 14. And an holy Creature can never be utterly and finally miserable He may sometimes give Holiness without Happiness as when for a while he leaveth the Sanctified whom he will try and exercise under the Cross or in a state of Sorrow and Affliction therefore Holiness is the more necessary In his internal Government God doth all by his Spirit now the Spirit is more necessarily a Sanctifier than a Comforter It was by the Spirit that Christ was with God and God with Christ therefore his Desertion of Christ or any Creature must be mainly understood with respect to the Spirit working in any either as to Holiness or Comfort When God withdraweth either Holiness or Happiness one of them or both or any degree of them from any Creature he is said to desert them Now apply this to Christ. It is Blasphemy to say that Christ lost any degree of his Holiness for he was always pure and holy and that most exactly and perfectly Therefore he was deserted only as to his Felicity and that but for a short time 2. The Felicity of Christ may be considered either as to his outward and bodily Estate or else to his inward Man or the Estate of his Soul 1. Some say his Desertion was nothing else but his being left to the Will and Power of his Enemies to crucify him and that he was then deserted when his Divine Nature suspended the exercise of its Omnipotency so far as to deliver up his Body to a reproachful Death so to make way for this Oblation and Sacrifice for the Redemption of Mankind God could many ways have protected Christ and hinder'd his Passion Mat. 26. 52 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father and he shall give me more than twelve Legions of Angels But how then could the Scriptures be fulfilled that thus it must be If the Lord had seen it fit to glorify Himself by the Deliverance rather than the Sufferings of Christ he could have found ways and means enough to save him but how then could our Redemption be accomplished Christ himself by his Divine Power could have protected his bodily Life for he telleth us Ioh. 10. 18. No Man taketh my Life from me but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up again But it pleased God to appoint and Christ to submit to another Course and therefore was he so far deserted and left in the hand of his Enemies He telleth them Luk. 22. 53. This is your Hour and the Power of Darkness This some say was all Christ's Desertion and that he cried out with a loud voice in the hearing of all My God my God why hast thou forsaken me to give notice of the Price that was to be paid for our Ransom He complained not of the Iews that had accused him nor of Pilate that condemned him nor of Iudas that betrayed him but of God that had forsaken him and left him in the hands of his Enemies as if this were the most grievous thing to the Son of God But certainly this was not all the Desertion was not only in his outward Estate and with respect to bodily Death for these Reasons 1. Why should Christ complain of that so bitterly which he did so readily and willingly undergo and might so easily have prevented and which was most obvious and so clearly foreseen in his Sufferings He foretold it again and again to his Disciples and spake it to his Enemies and should he now represent it as a strange thing Surely these strong Cries were not extorted from him by the meer Fear and Horror of bodily Death I confess he died not insensibly but shewed the reality of all human Passions yet there was no reason why he should so bitterly and lamentably complain if nothing else but bodily Death had been in the Case and that brought upon him by his Enemies 2. If we look meerly to bodily Pains and Sufferings certainly others have endured as much if not more as the Thieves that were crucified with him lived longer in their Torments and the good Thief did not complain that he was forsaken of God Peter was crucified and that with his Head downwards as Ecclesiastical History tells us which as it was greater Cruelty in the Adversaries so also greater Pain to him and yet he trusted that God would sustain him and support him under it Therefore certainly there was something greater and more grievous to the Soul of Christ than these bodily Pains which drew this lamentable and loud Cry from him 3. It would follow that every holy Man that is persecuted and left to the will of his Enemies might be said to be forsaken of God which is contrary to Paul's holy Boasting 2 Cor. 4. 9. Persecuted but not forsaken Therefore there was something more than to be left to the will of his Enemies 4. This Desertion was a Punishment one part or degree of the Abasement of the Son of God and so belongeth to the whole Nature that was to be abased not only to his Body but his Soul We read often of his Soul-sufferings Isa. 53. 10. He was to make his Soul an Offering for Sin And to see the Travail of his Soul v. 11. His Soul was deprived of Consolation and some Effects of the Spirit as to Joy and Comfort 2. As to the Felicity of his inward Estate the State of his Soul Christ carried about his Heaven with him and never wanted sensible Consolation spiritual Suavity the comfortable Effects of the Divine Presence till now they were withdrawn that he might be capable of suffering the whole Punishment of Sins and fell not only Pains and Torments of Body but Troubles of Soul such as we have when God hideth his Face from us but without Sin The Divinity kept back those Irradiations of heavenly Light and Comfort or for a while suspended that Joy and Comfort which otherwise he felt in himself though it gave out that Virtue and Strength which was necessary to support and sustain him under so great Sufferings As when the Sun is eclipsed the Light of it ceaseth not but is only hidden from the Earth by the Interposition of a dark Body So here Christ had not the participation of that heavenly Joy which before his Soul felt by dwelling with God in a personal Union though there were no Separation of the Human Nature from the Divine the Ground of it was not taken away but only the Sense suspended no dissolution of the Union but a ceasing of the Comfort of it In short I will shew how this Sort of Desertion is 1. Possible 2. Grievous 1. Possible the Union between the two Natures remaining For as the Divine Nature gave up the Body to Death so the Soul to Desertion Christ as God is the Fountain of Life Psal. 36. 9. And yet Christ could die So the God-head is the Fountain of all Joy and Comfort for he is called
nor from the failings of a single Person conclude the whole Party 3. By imposing false Crimes Prov. 10. 18. He that uttereth a Slander is a Fool that is a wicked Person As Mephibosheth saith of Ziba 2 Sam. 19. 27. He hath slandered thy Servant unto my Lord the King The most godly and innocent Persons cannot escape the Scourge of the Tongue and unjust Calumnies II. The Hainousness of the Sin 1. In General that is evident from what is said already I shall urge two Arguments more 1. That Men shall be called to an account for these Sins as well as others they are not passed by in the Judgment Jud. 15. God will execute Iudgment upon all ungodly Sinners not only for their ungodly Deeds but for all their hard Speeches Now if injurious and contumelious Language come into the Judgment how should all beware of the least accession to this Guilt So 1 Pet. 4. 4 5. They speak evil of you who shall give an account to him that is ready to judg the Quick and the Dead The Mockers as well as Persecutors were to give a strict and sad Account It is no slight and light Sin to divulge and spread false Calumnies to hurt the Credit of our Brethren God takes notice of a Thought in our Heart against them a Word in our Mouths and will exact a strict Account thereof 2. It is the Property of a Citizen of Zion one that shall be not only accepted with God now but dwell with God for ever not to be given to Backbiting Psal. 15. 3. He that backbiteth not with his Tongue nor doth evil to his Neighbour That is that makes strict Conscience of Backbiting or Calumniating and abstaineth from doing any kind of Wrong or Reproach to his Neighbour 2. More particularly It is the more hainous 1. Partly from the Person against whom it is committed As suppose the Godly and Irreprovable for the main who by their Life and Conversation have the best right to Honour and Esteem to do it against them is most unjust Psal. 64. 3. They whet their Tongues as a Sword they shoot their Arrows even bitter Words that they may shoot in secret at the perfect suddenly do they shoot at him and fear not That is their Slanders and Calumnies are shot like poysoned Darts and Arrows secretly or clancularly without any desert or notice of the Party against whom they are intended Or else against Persons publickly employed and in the special Service of God as Magistrates Numb 12. 8. Were ye not afraid to speak against my Servant against Moses So in the Ministry 1 Tim. 3. 1. He must have a good Report from them without lest he fall into Reproach and the Snare of the Devil Against these it is not only unjust but noxious and hurtful to God's Service 2. From the Persons before whom the Slander is brought as suppose Kings and Princes so that they are deprived not only of private Friendships but the Favour and Countenance of these under whose Protection they have their Life and Service Thus Haman whispered against the Iews Esth. 3. 8. It is not for the King's profit to suffer them to live Doeg against the Priests Psal. 52. 1. Why boastest thou in Mischief O mighty Man The Goodness of God continueth for ever It is a strange matter of Pleasure and Joy to some Persons in Power to be able to mischief those that deserve it least God is eminently great and good This Sort of Pride is diametrically opposite to his Nature Alas To trouble a few Persons how irrational is it But such are our depraved Natures Some are never pleased with those things that alone veeld durable Pleasure but to be able with their Counsel as with one poysonous Vapour to blast a Multitude of innocent Persons 3. From the End of it If it be done with a direct Intention of hurting anothers Fame it is worse than if out of a rash Levity and Loquacity Some Men have no direct Intention of Mischief but are given to Tatling It is a great Sin in them and an unprofitable Mispence of Time but it is a greater in those that make it their Business to disgrace others or sow Discord These are the Bane of Human Society 4. From the Effect or great Hurt that followeth be it it Loss of Estate as in the Case of Mephibosheth or a general Trouble and Persecution on the People of God When their good Names are buried their Persons cannot long subsist afterward with any degree of Service And all this may be the Fruit of a deceitful Tongue The Use is To shew how good-natured Christianity is and befriendeth human Societies it condemneth not only Sins against God but Sins against our Neighbour It bindeth its Professors to the Practice of the Apostle Acts 24. 16. Herein do I exercise my self to have always a Conscience void of Offence towards God and towards Men. Phil. 4. 8. Whatsoever things are honest just good and true if there be any Vertue or any Praise think of these things The World hath taken up this Prejudice that Religion makes us ill-natur'd Of it self there is nothing more benign it only condemneth those that are good-natur'd to others but not to God Use 2d Let us not speak Evil of others behind their Backs but tell them their Faults plainly in Love and Wisdom nor encourage others in this Sin Prov. 25. 23. As the North Wind drives away the Rain so doth an angry Countenance a backbiting Tongue They that receive Tales and delight to hear other Mens faults encourage others in their Sin and are accessary to or Partakers of the Guilt It brings an evil Habit and Custom in our own Souls In short Let us keep up an humble Sense of our own Faults and looking at home it will not only divert us from slandering of others but make us compassionate towards them and breed Comfort in our own Souls SERMON XI GAL. 5. 16. This I say then Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. IN these Words Observe 1. A Duty enforced 2. The Consequent and Fruit of it 1. The Duty is to walk in the Spirit which is the sum of all Christian Piety 2. The Motive is taken from the consequent and fruit of it and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. Let us fix the Sense 1. For the Duty to walk in the Spirit Walking implyeth the tenour and course of our Actions in all which we should follow the direction and inclination of the Spirit But what is meant by the Spirit That it may be known both the contrary Principles must be explained together 1. Flesh is sometimes taken for the Body as Eph. 4. 29. For no Man yet ever hated his own Flesh it is brought as a reason why Husbands ought to love their Wives as their own Bodies ver 28. and Spirit is taken for the Soul Eccl. 12. 7. But this is not the Sense here for every Man hath Soul
and Body not the regenerate only and a Man is not only to look after the welfare of the Soul But his Body also it being the Instrument which it useth in its operations 2. The Spirit is sometimes put for Reason and the Flesh for sensual Appetite as Eph. 4. 23. And be renewed in the Spirit of your Mind And 1 Joh. 2. 16. The Lusts of the Flesh But this will not take in the whole Sense of this place for other faculties are corrupted besides the sensual Appetite and other Faculties must be renewed as well as the Understanding 3. There is another acceptation of Flesh and Spirit that is that Spirit signifieth the uncreated Spirit who is the Author of Grace As Joh. 3. 5. Except a Man be born again of Water and the Spirit Where Spirit is put for the Holy Ghost who immediately worketh Grace in us called therefore the Spirit of Sanctification as that Saving Grace which is the effect of his work is called the Sanctification of the Spirit And the opposite Principle Flesh signifieth the corrupt Nature of Man as Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh Corrupt Sinful inclined to earthly things Now though this would bear a good sense to interpret Flesh and Spirit of the Holy Ghost and Concupisence or natural Corruption for no question he concurreth to the mortifying of the old Man till Sin be wholly expelled Rom. 8. 23. and still doth quicken and excite the new Man to Action Gal. 4. 25. yet here the Apostle speaks of two inherent Principles 4. Therefore by Flesh and Spirit is meant the old Man and the new and so by Spirit is meant the renewed part or the new Man of Grace in the Heart Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit That is there is a work of Saving Grace wrought in our Hearts by the Spirit of God which new Nature hath its Motions and Inclinations which must be obeyed and followed by us And by Flesh is meant inbred Corruption or the old Man which is corrupt with his deceivable Lusts Eph. 4. 22. Now then you see what it is to walk after the Spirit to direct and order our Actions according to the Inclinations of the new Nature 2. For the consequent and fruit of it and ye shall not fulfil the Lust of the Flesh. Here two things must be explained 1. The Lust of the Flesh. 2. Fulfil 1. For the Lust of the Flesh. By it is meant the inordinate Motions of corrupt Nature The Flesh doth not consider what is right and good but what is pleasing to the Senses and craveth their satisfaction with much importunity and earnestness to the wrong of God and our own Souls especially in Youth when the Senses are in Vigour and Lust and Appetite in their Strength and Fury And generally all carnal Men are govern'd by the Lusts of the Flesh called by the Apostle The Wills of the Flesh and the Mind Eph. 2. 3. By which the Heart is drawn from God to things Earthly and Carnal Well then by the Lusts of the Flesh are meant the Motions of inbred Corruptions 2. Ye shall not fulfil that is accomplish and bring into compleat act especially with deliberation and consent Mark he doth not say that the lusting of corrupt Nature shall be totally suppressed but it shall not be fulfilled The best of God's Children feel the Motions of the Flesh but they do not cherish and obey them The Lusts of the Flesh may be said to be fulfilled two ways 1. When the outward act is accomplished or when Lust hath conceiued and brought forth actual Sin Iam. 1. 15. Which may sometimes come to pass in the Children of God when they walk not in the Spirit or obey not the Motions and Directions of the renewed part This again may be done two ways either upon Surprize or Deliberation By way of Surprize Gal. 6. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon deliberation when Men plot and make provision to fulfil their Lusts contrary to the Apostles advice Rom. 13. 14. Make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts thereof Thus it was with David in his great Sin and this doth mightily aggravate the offence and provoke the Lord against us 2. When for a continuance we obey the Flesh usually accomplish its Motions without Let and Restraint and with Love Pleasure and full consent of Will this is proper to the Unregenerate The Flesh doth reign over them as its Slaves this is spoken of Rom. 6. 12. Let not Sin reign in your mortal Body that ye should obey it in the Lusts thereof Let is not have a Power over you as Slaves Well then the meaning is you will not abuse your Christian Liberty as an occasion to the Flesh or give up your selves to do that or seek that which the Flesh lusteth after Doct. The more Christians set themselves to obey the new Nature the more is the power of inbred Corruption mortified and kept under To understand this Point let me lay down these Propositions I. That there is a diversity of Principles in a Christian Flesh and Spirit 1. There is a good Principle called Spirit because the Spirit is the Author of it Ezek. 36. 26. A new Heart and a new Spirit will I put into you It is called also the Divine Nature 2. Pet. 1. 4. because it is made up of those gracious Qualities wherein we resemble God The Seed remaining 1 Joh. 3. 9. because it is not a transient operation but a permanent habit disposing and inclining the Soul to God and Heaven The new Man Eph. 4. 24. because we have it not by Nature but by Grace we are new formed to the Image of God Now the use of this Principle may be known partly by the manner how it is wrought in us and partly by the uses and ends for which it serveth 1. For the manner how it is wrought in us by the Spirit that is set forth Heb. 8. 10. I will put my Laws in their Mind and write them in their Hearts The directive and imperial Power of the Soul is sanctified and seasoned by Grace the Mind enlightned the Heart inclined The Mind is enlightned by the Knowledg of God's Will and the Heart inclined that we may delight to do his Will it is suited thereunto Therefore the New Creature doth both serve to direct us and so performeth the Office of a Guide and Leader to the Godly in all their Actions so far in Religion as God's Glory is concerned and also to move and excite us to that which is Good For the Spirit is willing though the Flesh is Weak Mat. 26. 41. 2. By its Uses and Ends. None of God's Gifts are given in vain The new Nature is the choicest Talent that the Sons of Men are intrusted withal Therefore it hath its Use and End which is to fit us for God and Heaven 1. It disposeth the Soul to a sincere Obedience to God as an inherent
the Offers of Pardon and Life by him The main Foundation of Comfort lies in the general Truths your Hopes are not built chiefly upon the Sense of your own Interest but the Ransom which Christ hath paid for you Is it nothing to you that God should become Man and your Judge your Kinsman Ioh. 1. 14. Surely Goodness and Mercy is nearer to us in our own Nature than it was in the Divine Nature We have an apparent Demonstration of it to us that Christ would come among us to bring home Souls to God Heb. 16. 17. 18. Again Is it nothing that in this Nature of ours he would pay our Ransom that none should perish for want of a sufficient Satisfaction to God's Justice but for want of a willing Heart to accept and own his Redeemer Ioh. 3. 16 17. Rev. 3. 24 25 26. We are so far onward in our way Again Is it nothing to us that our Redeemer will rescue us out of the hand of the Destroyer 1 Ioh. 3. 8. It is his Office This should prevail with us not to tie the Cord the faster but to wait upon him with the more Hope if you desire his Aid to this end and purpose for it is his Office Again Is it nothing to you that this Redeemer liveth that Christ in your Nature rose again and is now at God's right-hand to manage the Causes of poor Sinners Rom. 8. 34. St. Paul's Triumph hence ariseth Lastly Is it nothing to you to know this that God hath sent the Gospel to you and given you Faith of these things 1 Ioh. 5. 20. We know the Son of God is come and hath given us an Understanding that we may know him that is true Is this Favour nothing These are the Truths you must live upon 2dly To those that question whether Christ be our Redeeemer whether they may look upon themselves as having an actual Interest in the Benefits of his Death and Intercession I answer This is evident 1. By their own Act. 2. By God's Act. 1. Their own Act. General Grace must some way be made particular else it cannot profit us All are not justified nor adopted nor saved There is the same merciful God the same all-sufficient Saviour the same gracious Covenant Some apply this Grace others do not Christ doth not save us at a distance but as received into our Hearts as a Plaister doth not heal at a distance but applied to the Sore Ioh. 1. 13. To as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God If you heartily consent and accept of the Redeemer's Grace to heal your wounded Souls you shall partake of Salvation 2. There is an Act on God's part What have you to shew that God is reconciled to you This is not evident till we have the Pledg of our Reconciliation with God the Gift of the holy Spirit This affords infallible Assurance of God's Favour Other things may be given in Wrath but the Spirit is the Earnest of his Eternal Love God loved Christ and gave him the Spirit without measure Joh. 3. 34. By the Spirit his Love is applied to us Rom. 5. 5. This is the Evidence from whence we may conclude our actual Communion with God It holdeth good Exclusively Rom. 8. 9. Inclusively 1 Ioh. 4. 13. The Spirit first works and then witnesses he is first a Guide and Sanctifier then a Comforter As a Guide he leadeth us to all Truth Ioh. 16. 13. When the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth Rom. 8. 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God As a Sanctifier he breaketh the power of fleshly Lusts Rom. 8. 13. conformeth us to the Image of Christ 2 Cor. 5. 10. Then as a Comforter he witnesseth our present Interest and our future Hopes Rom. 8. 16. The Spirit beareth witness to our Spirits that we are the Children of God 2 Cor. 1. 22. Who hath also sealed us and given us the Earnest of the Spirit in our Hearts Eph. 1. 13. In whom also after ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise SERMON XIII 1 TIM 6. 8. And having Food and Rayment let us be therewith content THe Apostle hath mentioned some in the 5th verse that counted Gain was Godliness that is suited their Godliness with their wordly Ends or made a trade of it to live by Their Religion must bear all their charges they would be at no cost about it at all The Apostle takes occasion to shew that their notion may be right if well interpreted though extream wrong in the Sense they mean it It was impious in them to make Christianity a means to Secular advantages but interpret it aright Godliness with Contentment is great Gain much better than all the Wealth in the World By Godliness he means the Christian Religion because it prescribeth and delivereth the true way of worshipping and serving God and they gain fairly that gain Christ. A Man that is acquainted with God in Christ is the true rich Man this with Contentment is great Gain Our worldly desires make us poor You have enough if you be contented with the Condition wherein God places you Paul retorts their own Notion upon them He is a rich Man that doth not possess much and hath need of little Any thing above a competency is needless to us who must shortly pass out of this Life into another Nature is contented with a little and Grace with less because it is manifest that as we brought nothing into this World so we can carry nothing out and all that we have above what we spend or use is lost to us In the Text he inferreth his Inference Having Food and Rayment let us be therewith content The words are plain and afford this Observation Doct. That one great Point of Godliness is to be content with what we have though it be but Food and Rayment In handling this Point I shall enquire I. What Contentment is II. What Considerations are most apt to breed it III. That it is a high Point of Christianity I. What Contentment is It is a quiet temper of Mind about outward things and so it is opposite to three things Murmurings distracting Cares and covetous Desires 1. Murmurings Iude ver 16. Murmurers Complainers the word signifies Blamers of their Portion they are always picking quarrels at God's Dispensation and entertain Crosses with anger and Blessings with disdain But now when our Minds are satisfied with the fitness and sufficiency of our present Condition there is no repining against God no fretting and tearing our selves the Mind is framed to the estate be it never so mean 2. Distrustful and distracting Cares Men are full of troubles especially when they are in a hazardous strait and low Condition therefore God forbids this Mat. 6. 25. Take no thought for your Life what you shall eat or what you shall drink or yet for the Body what you shall put
the Text which is the end of this Love That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have Life everlasting Where I observe 1. The connection of our Duty and Priviledg Christ dyed to procure a Covenant wherein Pardon and Life is offered to us upon gracious Terms In the Gospel we must observe what God hath promised and what we must do both must be alike acceptable us the Duty as well as the Benefit or else we consent not to the whole Tenour of the Covenant 2. The Universality of the Proposal That whosoever believeth on him no sorts of Men are excluded from the Remedy but those that exclude themselves by their Impenitency and Unbelief 3. The Nature of this Act and Duty which giveth a Right and Title to the Benefits offered and that is believing no more is mentioned here But none truly believe but those that carry themselves accordingly or perform the Duties which that Belief calleth for If it be such a lively operative Faith it will secure our Title to these Benefits 4. The Benefits are Negatively and Positively expressed Negatively they shall not perish Positively but have everlasting Life 1. The Negative Expression is mentioned partly because of our former Deserts we incurred the Sentence of Eternal Death which is taken off from penitent Believers they shall not be condemned with the unbelieving World partly because of our present Fears Guilt presents Destruction before our Eyes but the cause of that is taken away as Sin is remitted and weakned And partly to support us in our troubles they may be Afflicted but not perish for ever Chastned but not destroyed not for Perdition but amendment 2. The Positive part is expressed partly to shew our Heavenly Fathers Love who cannot be satisfi'd til he hath brought us into his immediate Presence And partly to answer the desire of the Faithful who long for everlasting Communion with him we cannot be satisfied till we befor ever with the Lord in a perfect state of Subjection to him and Fruition of him Doct. That Faith is the Way which God hath appointed whereby to receive Benefits by Christ. I. What Faith is II. How this is to be understood III. Why the Gospel Covenant layeth so much weight on it What is Faith surely it concerns us to know it since the Scriptures speak so much of it every-where There are in it three things 1. Assent 2. Consent 3. Trust. 1. A firm and cordial Assent to this Truth that Jesus is the Son of God and Saviour of Mankind who came down from heaven and suffered for our Sins and became the Foundation of that new Covenant which offereth Pardon and Hopes of Bliss to all those who feeling the Burden of their Sins will trust their Souls upon Christ's Redemption and Ransom and forsake the World the Flesh and the Devil and take him for their only Lord and Saviour that by him they may return to God This Assent is a part of Faith but this is not all The reasonable Soul in Man hath Life Sense Appetite and Motion as the Souls of the Beasts have but this is not the difference between us and them besides Sense Life and Appetite we have Reason and Discourse So here Knowledg and Assent are implied in Faith but more is required to make it justifying and saying Assent is good as it is inductive of other things or leadeth on other things to wit Choice and Trust and it is not only good but necessary lest we build without a Foundation It was of great weight heretofore when Christ's Person and Doctrine was more questioned and contradicted Ioh. 8. 24. Unless ye believe that I am he ye shall die in your Sins lose all the Benefit of his Coming 'T is said 1 Ioh. 5. 1. Whosoever believeth that Iesus is the Christ is born of God It was a mighty thing then to believe and profess Christ to be the Messiah and to cleave to that Profession whatever Temptations they had to the contrary But I dare not leave the Decision of Mens Spiritual Estate upon that Trial only The bleak Winds that blew then in their Faces blow now on our backs and it as dangerous now to deny Christ to be the Messiah as it was for them to profess it However Assent is still necessary to put the greater Life and Power into our Faith for if the Fire were well kindled it would of it self break out into a Flame The stronger our Assent is the more powerful to beget Love and Dependance on God's Promises Obedience to his Commands and Perseverance notwithstanding Temptations This Assent to do its Work must be firm and cordial 1. Firm. You must believe unfeignedly that Christ is the Messiah and Redeemer of the World Acts 2. 36. Let the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this Iesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ. The word signifies safely they may venture their All upon it Ioh. 17. 8. They have known There is a common customary superficial Belief that Men take up upon the Credit of their Forefathers and the Consent of the Country where they live And there is a sound Perswasion of the Truth of the Gospel wrought in us by the Spirit of God And though Human Credulity doth little yet this last serveth to renew the Soul Mat. 16. 17. Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it to thee but my Father which is in Heaven when Peter had said Thou art the Christ the Son of the Living God This makes us victorious over the Devil the World and the Flesh. 1 Ioh. 5. 5. Who is he that overcometh the World but he that believeth that Iesus is the Son of God If this important supreme Truth were well believed it would doubtless prevail against the Allurements of the World and the Flesh and make Men see that they have something else than this deceitful World to look after Truths go to the quick when soundly believed 2. Cordial Many seem verily to be perswaded that Jesus is the Son of God but are no way affected with this Mystery of Grace nor changed The Devils may give a bare Assent to this great Gospel Truth Compare Mark 5. 7. with Matth. 16. 16. The Confession of the Devil with the Profession of Peter The Devil owned Jesus to be the Son of the most High God as well as Peter the Son of the Living God Austms Observation is very good Hoc dicebat Petrus hoc dicebant Daemones Petrus ut Christum amplecteretur Daemones ut Christus ab iis recederet Peter said the same thing and the Devil the same thing Peter said it that he might embrace Christ the Devils that he might depart from them It is one thing to be of this Opinion that Christ is the Saviour of the World another to accept and receive him into our Hearts 2. The next thing which I shall observe in Faith is a Consent to receive Christ as God offereth him to us in the Gospel Joh. 1. 12. To as
which we could neither imagine nor hope for partly because the chief of our Blessings lie in another World and Nature cannot see so far off 2 Pet. 1. 9. Partly because Christ's most sincere People are afflicted with so many Difficulties and so seemingly forsaken and Temptations to Unbelief are many and pressing that it is hard to maintain any Life in our selves unless we have Faith that is a strong Assent and invincible Trust. Well now consider for what good reason God requireth Faith Sense only looks to things seeen and felt Reason seeth Effects in their Causes and yet but probably but Faith is a believing such things as God hath revealed because he hath revealed them and surely this only can sustain us in the expectation of God's Grace and Mercy unto Eternal Life Whilst we are employed in Duties so opposite to the bent of the carnal Heart and have so many Temptations to the contrary what can support us but a strong and lively Faith 2. Till we believe in Christ we can have no Comfort or Use of all his Offices How can we learn of him the Way of Salvation till we believe him to be the Prophet sent of God to teach the World the Way to true Happiness Mat. 17. 5. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him How can we obey him unless we believe in him that he is our Lord who hath power over all Flesh at whose Judgment we must stand or fall Acts 17. 30 31. Now commandeth all Men every where to repent because he hath appointed a Day in which he will judge the World in Righteousness by that Man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all Men in that he hath raised him from the dead How can we depend upon the Merit of his Obedience and Sacrifice and be comforted with his gracious Promises and Covenant and come to God with boldness and Hope of Mercy in his Name and be confident that he will justify sanctify and save us unless we believe that he is a Priest who once made an Atonement and continually makes Intercession for us Heb. 9. 25. In the days of his Flesh when any came for any Benefit to him he put him upon his Trial Believest thou that I am able to do this Mark 9 23. Iesus said unto him If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth Believest thou that I am able to Martha Joh. 11. 26. Thus they were not capable of any Benefit till they believed 3. With respect to that Holiness and Obedience which God expected from the Creature Christ came to restore us to God which he doth both as a Saviour and Law-giver to his Church and till we believe in him both these Qualities and Functions miss of their Effect 1. As a Saviour he came to take away the Curse of the Law and to put us into a capacity to serve and please God by giving us his Spirit to renew our Natures and heal our Souls Isa. 53. 5. The Chastisement of our Peace was upon him and with his Stripes we are healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed We shall never mind our Duty nor be capable to perform it unless we believe that he is such a Saviour 2. As a Law-giver obliging us by his Authority to live in obedience unto God The Kingdom of the Mediator is clearly subordinate to the Kingdom of God for he came not to vacate our Duty but to establish it he came to restore the lost Groat to the Owner the lost Sheep to the Possessor the lost Son to the Father As the Grace of Christ doth not vacate the Mercy of God so the Authority of Christ that novum Ius Imperii doth not free us from the Authority of God Now who will submit to an Authority that is not convinced of it or doth not believe it But when once we believe then we bow Heart and Knee 4. With respect to our Comfort Often in Scripture Faith is represented as a quieting Grace The Comfort Quietness and Peace of the Soul dependeth much upon Faith in Christ as an all-sufficient Saviour which banishes our Fears and makes us in our greatest hardships to trust Christ with all our Happiness and to feast the Soul with a constant Peace and everlasting Joy Whether this World be turned upside down and be dissolved whether we be in Poverty and Sickness or in Health or Wealth whether we be under evil Repute or good whether Persecution or Prosperity befall us how little are we concern'd in all these if we know in whom we have believed 2. Tim. 1. 12. Heaven is where it was before and Christ is at the right hand of God how little then should all these things disturb the Peace and Comfort of that Soul that shall live with God for ever Psal. 112. 7. But Sin is our greatest trouble If Sin be your Trouble I answer Is it your Infirmity or Iniquity If Infirmity There is no Condemnation to them who are in Christ Iesus c. Rom. 8. 1. If Iniquity break off your Sin by Repentance and then there may be Comfort for you for Christ came to save us from our Sins USE 1. Is to confute Mens Presumptions of their Eternal good Estate whereby many damnably delude their own Souls 1. Some when they hear that whosoever believeth shall be saved have a carnal Notion of Christ that if he were alive they would own him and receive him into their Houses and use him more friendly than the Iews did This is but a knowing Christ after the Flesh 2 Cor. 5. 16. He is not to be received into your Houses but into your Hearts Besides we do not know our own Hearts or what we should have done if we had lived then a Person of such contemptible appearance as Christ was and so free in his Reproofs of the Sins of the Times would not have been for our turn no more than theirs The Iews said Mat. 23. 30. If we had lived in the days of our Fathers we would not have been guilty of the Blood of the Prophets The Memory of Corah Dathan and Abiram was as detestable to the carnal Iews as that of Iudas and Pontius Pilate to Christians but they were not a whit the better Men no more are we 2. They do great reverence to his Name and Memory profess themselves Christians and abhor Turks and Infidels No this will not do neither Many prize Christ's Name that neglect his Office honouring the Physician without taking his Remedies never brought Health They have learned to speak well of Christ by rote after others but they do not savingly and sincerely believe in him to cure and heal their Souls and suffer him to do the work of a Mediator there The other Respect is to be ascribed to the Chance of their
think they deserve it would as much exalt them and advance them beyond the Line of their due Worth and Value The Apostle steereth a middle Course between both Extreams they are necessary not meritorious they go before Eternal Life not as a Cause but a Way for they are wrought in us by God and are Effects of the begun Salvation so that the good that we do is a part of the Grace that we have received a fruit of Regeneration For we are his Workmanship c. In the Words are two things I. The state of Believers For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Iesus II. The End why we are brought into this Estate Unto good Works which c. I begin with the former and there note 1. God's efficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Workmanship 2. The Manner of his Efficiency 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Created all proceedeth from the infinite creating Power of God 3. The meritorious Cause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Created in Christ Iesus From the whole Observe Doct. That those that are renewed and recovered out of the Apostacy of Mankind are as it were created a-new through the Power of God and Grace of the Redeemer I. Let us explain the Words of the Text. II. Prove it I. For Explication of what is here asserted three things must be explained 1. Our Relation to God 2. His way of Concurrence to establish this Relation 3. How far the Meditation of Christ is concerned in this Effect First Our Relation to God We are his Workmanship We are so two ways 1. By Natural Creation 2. By Supernatural Renovation 1. By Natural Creation Which giveth us some kind of Interest in him and hope of Grace from him As Psal. 119. 73. Thy Hands have made me and fashioned me give me Understanding that I may learn thy Commandments God is our Creator and the end of our Creation is to serve God therefore he gives some kind of encouragement to ask the Grace whereby we may serve him But the Apostle speaketh here not of the first Creation But 2. Of Regeneration or Renovation which is called a second or new Creation as 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any Man be in Christ he is a new Creature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creation hath passed upon him By the first Creation we are made Men by the second Holy Men. Holiness is a thing of God's making we are regenerated and sanctified by his Grace and made capable of doing good by his Spirit Now this new Workmanship bestowed on us implieth 1. A Change wrought in us so that we are other Persons than we were before as if another kind of Soul came to dwell in our Bodies This Change is represented in Scripture in such terms as do imply a broad and sensible difference between the two States that wherein we were before and that into which we are translated such a difference as is between Light and Darkness Eph. 5. 8. Life and Death 1 Joh. 3. 14. The new Man and the old Eph. 4. 22 24. We seem to be as it were Creatures transformed out of Beasts into Men instead of being governed by Sense and Appetite we are led by Reason and Reason is not only put into Dominion but Grace which is Reason sanctified directing and enclining us to live unto God 2. This Change is such as must amount to a new Creation There are some Changes which go not so far As 1. A Moral Change from Prophaneness and gross Sins to a more sober course of Life for there are some Sins which Nature discovereth and may be prevented by such Reasons and Arguments as Nature suggesteth Rom. 2. 14. This may be done by ordinary discretion and advisement But the new Creature signifies such a change whereby not only of Vitious we become Vertuous but of Carnal we become Spiritual Ioh. 3. 6. Man naturally enclineth to things pleasing to the Flesh and only seeketh savoureth and affecteth these things but in this Change the Spirit interposeth and maketh him Spirit Before Man only lived as a nobler and better natur'd Animal or living Creature and pleased himself that is his Flesh either in a grosser or more cleanly manner being ignorant mindless of God and another World But new Creatures become Spirit have a Spiritual Inclination cannot content themselves with an Happiness on this side God and Heaven Meer Humane Nature can never bring Men to this but only the Power of God 2. A Temporary Change as to fall into a sudden religious frame which is soon worn off as Ahab's Humiliation 1 Kings 21. 27. Or those That howled on their Beds c. Hos. 7. 14. Frighted into a little Religiousness in their Straits and deep Necessities like Ice in thawing Weather soft at top and hard at bottom Or those the Prophet speaketh of Jer. 34. 15. Ye were turned to Day and had done right but ye returned again and polluted my Name They seem to be changed a while from Evil to Good and then they change again from good to evil this will not amount to the new Creature for that is a durable thing 1 Iohn 3. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Seed remains 3. A Change of outward Form without a Change of Heart as when a Man changeth Parties in Religion and from an Oppressor becomes a Professor of a stricter Way No the Scripture opposeth this to the new Creature Gal. 6. 15. The new Creature lieth more in a new Mind new Will and Affection than in a new Form of Religion Lead is Lead still whatever stamp it beareth 4. A partial Change Men are altered in some things but the old Nature still remaineth their Religion is but like a new Piece in an old Garment the Heart is not new moulded so as to leave an Impression upon all our Actions The renewed are holy in all manner of Conversation 1 Pet. 1. 15. 2 Pet. 3. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 5. 17. They drive a new Trade for another World and set upon another Work to which they were Strangers before must have new Solaces new Comforts new Motives The new Creature is entire not half new half old but with many the Heart is like a Cake not turned 3. When thus new framed and fashioned it belongeth to God it hath special relation to him Iam. 1. 18. It must needs be so they have God's Nature and Life 1. Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. They are made like God bear his Image and Superscription it is a curious piece of workmanship in which God hath shewed his Wisdom Goodness and Power and so they are sealed and marked out for his peculiar Ones 2dly The Life of God that came from him and tendeth to him Others are alienated from the Life of God Eph. 4. 18. They recover it 1 Pet. 4. 6. His Spirit is a Principle of Life in them so that they are really alive to God and dead to Sin and the World 4. This Workmanship on us as new Creatures far surpasseth that
Mind and Judgment so the Heart is new moulded The great Blessing of the new Covenant is a new Heart Now the Heart is new when we are inclined to the ways of God and enabled to walk in them 1. There is a new Inclination poise and weight upon the Soul bending it to Holy and Heavenly things The inclination to Holiness David prayeth for Psal. 119. 36. Encline my Heart unto thy Testimonies and not to Covetousness To Heavenly things Paul asserteth 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not to the things which are seen but to the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal When we always live in delightful foresight and expectation of Blessedness to come 2. The Heart is enabled also Ezek. 36. 27. I will put a new Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my Ways Where there is a new Heart there is new Strength or Grace given To serve God acceptably and with Reverence and Godly Fear Heb. 12. 28. Indeed God assists this Power or else we fail and wax faint but a Power there is in some measure to will and do For the Kingdom of God stands not in Word but in Power There is a Power to overcome Fleshly Lusts the Heavenly Mind is not given us in vain 1 Pet. 2. 11. Dearly Beloved I beseech you as Strangers and Pilgrims abstain from fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul A Power to overcome Worldly Lusts Phil. 4. 13. When we seek no great things for our selves here in this World we can the better bear all Conditions I do confess as I said before God must assist this Power both in willing and doing purposing and performing We may have assistance in one kind and not in another Paul saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Rom. 7. 18. To will is present with me but how to perform that which I would I have no Power To will is more than to think to exert our Will into Action is more than both In all we need God's help Some may have the Power to Will when no Power to Do so Peter se posse putabat quòd se velle sentiebat But yet I describe a Christian or a new Creature by his Power because God's Children are never so deserted but that there is some help from God There are Auxilia necessaria helps of Grace simply and absolutely necessary which are not denied when liberal and plentiful aids of Grace are suspended and therefore a Christian is to be described by his Power though still in a dependance upon God 3. A new Life or a new Conversation called walking in newness of Life Rom. 6. 4. Surely he that hath a new Principle the Spirit and not the Flesh a new Rule the Law of God and not the course of this World a new scope the pleasing glorifying and enjoying of God and not the pleasing of Men and his own fleshly Mind must needs walk in a different course both from other carnal Men and from what he himself carried on before but all these are true of the new Creature he is influenced by another Principle Rom. 8. 12. Gal. 5. 16. looketh upon himself as having another Rule Gal. 6. 16. Psal. 1. 2. and propoundeth to himself another design and scope Phil. 3. 20. 2 Cor. 5. 9. and therefore must needs live another Life Well then by these things you may judg of your Estate III. Use. To exhort you to look after this that you be the Workmanship of God created in Christ Jesus You will say what can we do This is God's Work in which we are meerly Passive I Answer It is certainly an abuse of this Doctrine if it lull us asleep in the Lap of Idleness and we think that because God doth all in framing us for the new Life we must do nothing The Spirit of God reasoneth otherwise Phil. 2. 12 13. Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure This Principle can neither be a ground of loosness or laziness You are under an Obligation both to return to God and to use the means whereby you may return Your Impotency doth not dissolve your Obligation A drunken Servant is a Servant and bound to do his Work his Master loseth not his Right by his Default An insolvent Debtor is a Debtor and if he cannot pay all he is bound to pay as much as he can Besides you are Creatures in Misery if you be sensible of it your Interest will teach you to do what you can to come out of it and God's doing all is an Engagement to wait upon him in the use of Means that we may meet with God in his Way and he may meet with us in our Way I say in his Way for God hath appointed certain Duties to convey and apply this Grace Now we are to lie at the Pool till the Waters be stirred to continue our Attendance till God giveth Grace Mark 4. 24. And I say that God may meet with us in our Way for God influencenth all things according to their Natural Inclination God that enlightneth the World by and with the Sun burneth with Fire reasoneth with Man acteth necessarily with necessary Causes and freely with free causes he doth not oppress the liberty of the new Creature but preserveth the Nature and Interest of his own Workmanship draweth Men with the Cords of a Man Hos. 11. 4. He propoundeth Reasons and Motives which we must consider and so betake our selves to a Godly Course The Object of Regeneration is a reasonable Creature upon whom God worketh not as on a Stock or Stone but maketh use of the faculties which they have shewing us our lost Estate and the possibility of Salvation by Christ sweetly inviting us to accept of this Grace that he may pardon our Sins sanctify and heal our Natures and lead us in a way of Holiness unto Eternal Life Now these means we are to attend upon and it is some advantage when you own your Duty and are sensible of a necessity of changing your Estate who would otherwise be altogether careless and mindless of such a thing But when you look on it as a Duty that must be speedily and earnestly gone about if you mean to be saved you are in a fair way of cure By Exhortation we demand God's right and make the Creatures sensible of his own Obligation that he may go about this work as well as he can at least that he may acknowledg the Debt confess his Impotency and beg Grace Besides there are some things to be done before this Renovation in order thereunto as Wood is dried before it is kindled There are some preparations before Conversion and we are to be active about them As for instance that we should rouse up our selves and consider our case Psal. 22. 27. All the ends of the Earth shall remember and