this doe without wind Is not the Spirit the wind What are Organs without breath there is no musike made And what is all our preaching when the Spirit is absent That is all in all indeed it is the sword of the Spirit but what is it without the Almighty hand of God It is said of one who hearing that Scanderbegs sword had done such and such strange workes would needs see it and sent for the sword when he saw the sword he said he saw no such matter in it Is this the sword that hath done all this Scanderbeg sent him word again I have sent the sword but not the Arme that handled it So the Word we preach to you is but the Sword of God God lends you the Sword many times when he keepes the Arme to himselfe It may be you have not seene so great things done by it as we tell you of That it is the Power of God to salvation that it is that Word of Truth that begets men againe the reason is because God reserves the Arme to himselfe Therefore when you come to heare as you have the Sword pray earnestly that the Arme may goe together with the Sword that God will make it lively and mighty in operation to cut downe your lusts to pierce as a two-edged sword dividing betweene the bones and the marrow the joynts and the spirit that is that you may know your selves better than you did before And all this use you may make of this that you are Creatures and no man can make you New Creatures It is God must doe it The end of the Sixth Sermon THE SEVENTH SERMON VPON THE NEW CREATVRE 2 Cor. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature BVt you will object GOD workes in us the deed even every deed so that a man hath not Free-will after he is Regenerate To this we answer that so farre as his grace and the strength he hath goes so far he is able to keepe the Commandements of God by vertue of a generall concourse It is not denied that a man cannot move his hand nor doe any action without the generall concourse of God but that God never denyes but as he gives the Creature ability so he vouchsafes a generall concourse to it As it is true in that so in all actions of grace a man cannot doe any thing without a concourse But when a man hath grace there be two things wherein a man hath need of speciall supervenient helpe from God First when he is called to doe a worke which is above the strength he hath received here must be more strength there must be a new addition for the worke goes beyond the strength As a childe may goe on plaine ground but if you will have him goe up a paire of staires you must lend him your helpe So a Christian may doe actions proportionable to the grace he hath received yet being called to somewhat above that pitch he must have a new helpe from God Secondly when a man is assaulted by a temptation beyond the strength he hath received here needs strength beyond his owne to hold him up A childe may stand alone but if one thrusts him you must hold him up else he fals so the Lord must put under his hand and we must have helpe above that we have received but otherwise the position is true so farre as we are regenerate so farre we have Free-will which followes grace So much life as we have so farre we may move and stirre our selves And in these cases it is true that we need more helpe from God beyond the grace wee have received The fifth thing to be observed is the order first in Christ and then a New Creature out of which we are briefly to observe this Let no man looke for Sanctification before he is justified that is Let no man be discouraged from comming to Christ because he finds not in himselfe that godly sorrow for sinne that ability to repent that disposition of heart which he desires to have for a New Creature followes it we must first be in Christ before we can be New Creatures And this is a common fault among us we will faine have something before we come we thinke Gods pardons are not free but we must bring something in our hand You know the Proclamation runs thus Buy without money that is come without any excellencie at all because we are commanded to come and take the water of life freely Therefore doe not say I have a sinfull disposition and an hard heart and cannot mourne for sinne as I should therefore I will stay till that be done it is all one as if thou should'st say I must go to the Physitian but I will have my wounds well and my disease healed first and when that is done I will goe to the Physitian What is thy end of going to him but to have thy disâ—â—se healed Doest thou thinke to have thy disease healed before I say it is the same folly The end of going to Christ is that this very hardnesse of thy heart may be taken away that this very deadnesse of spirit may be removed that thou mayest be enlivened and quickned and healed that thou mayest hate sinne for he is thy Physitian looke not for it before-hand thou must first be in Christ before thou canst be a New Creature Againe if we must first be in Christ before we can be New Creatures if that be the order if that be the motive and the thing that carries us on then let us be content to use the motive that God useth The Papists propound other motives to good workes they tell them they shall have heaven and escape damnation for them Is this a good reason to move men to good workes But the course of Scripture is otherwise Thou art in Christ he is thine therefore be a New Creature consider what he hath done for thee therefore labour to turne to him againe Consider what thou hadst beene without him what thou hast by him and by that stirre up thy selfe to doe for him what he requires Therefore the Apostle comming to answer that question If grace abound why doth not sinne abound why doth not a man sinne more He doth not say you shall have these and these motives to draw you from sin but he tels them whosoever is in Christ is dead to sinne and if you be dead to it how shall you live therein If you be in Christ you will be New Creatures there needs no other motive to make you so And so much for this because we will hasten to the point we intend to handle at this time If any man be in Christ let him be a New Creature The last point wee are to observe in this Text is That to be in Christ is the ground of all Salvaâ—tion That is of all the priviledges we have and of all the graces we have for
condition he is in so when the Law comes it humbles a man making him to draw in his Thoughts and to see his misery and when he is wounded with the sense of his sins and with the wrath of God then and not till then the feet of them that bring glad Tidings of salvation are beautifull Likewise Humiliation is necessary for this cause because except men be throughly humbled they will never take the Kingdome of heaven by violence and they must take it so else they shall never have it now by the Kingdom of heaven is meant the Gospell you know it is called the Gospell of the Kingdome that is righteousnesse and grace therein revealed and offered In Matth. 11. and Luke 16.16 you shall find that from the time of Iohn the Baptist The kingdome of heaven suffered violence and the violence take it by force The meaning is this saith Christ to them we preach the Gospell so did Iohn with him it began to be preached but deceive not your selves many thinke they take the kingdome of heaven but you must know there be two kinds of taking some are content to be saved and to doe many things as Herod did and as the second and third ground did but this is a false taking and deceive not your selves thereby There is another kinde of taking when a man takes this kingdome violently and indeed none shall have it but after this manner Now what is it to take it violently When a man takes a thing violently he doth it with all his might he puts all his strength to it he doth it not coldly and slightly and overly but with all his might So the meaning is this The kingdom of heaven is as if one were to come within a narrow doore which cannot be without difficulty when hee puts to all his violence and strength to doe it According to the phrase in Luke Since the time of Iohn the Baptist they presse into the kingdome of heaven that is with violence as if God seemes to hold the kingdome of heaven in his hand that unlesse you pull it and extort it from him as it were you shall never have it Now will any man doe thus till he be humbled It is impossible he should When a man is brought into feare of his life and is like to die the feare of losse of naturall life wil make him worke any thing with violence much more then when a man sees eternall death that he shal die for ever will he take the kingdome of heaven with violence that is he will not performe duties in a slight manner as if God were beholden to him not with that laxity in his judgement of the truth as he conceives nor with that coldnesse in the duty Those that will be saved must take Salvation by force which a man will never doe till he be humbled There is much profession and many kinds of taking Christ in the world but the right taking is when a man wil be at this cost to part with all to deny himselfe perfectly and every way and take up his crosse and every crosse when his lusts are throughly mortified and this cannot be till hee be humbled For marke nothing mortifies but joy and love that doth properly and immediately mortifie for no man will part with his lusts till he finde Christ sweeter than they till then he will never part with them in good earnest now Christ will never be sweet till we have found the bitternesse of sin till God hath so prest it on their consciences that they feele the weight and burden of it And so much for the reasons of it Now the vse of this is double First is this so necessary Then labour to see your selfe humbled if ever you looke to be saved and justified for though God offers Salvation to all as it is true none is excepted yet he lookes to none with a gracious eye to save him indeed but him that is poore and contrite in heart and trembles at his Word And good reason for none else will looke after him the poore receive the Gospell and none else When we preach the Gospell it is like Cyrus his Proclamation it was a generall proclamation that all that would might go out of captivity and build the Temple but saith the Text onely they went whose heart the Lord stirred up to goe other would noâ— goe So when we preach we offer Salvation to all men that is our Commission Marke 16. Goe and preach to all Nations that is offer Grace and Salvation to all men but when it comes to the point that men must goe out of their captivitie and build a Temple to God they will not doe it they will rather live in captivity still because they be not humble To goe out of their sins wherein they have been captivated a great while and to build a Temple to Christ that is to make their hearts fit Temples for Christ to purge themselves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit to labour to walke in his feare to leave all even the beloved sinnes and to delight in the Lord in the Inner man they will not what is the reason they are not yet humbled and therefore they cannot be saved The Iubile among the Iewes may be a very fit resemblance hereof and for ought I know may be so intended to resemble the glorious Liberty in the times of the Gospell Now the Iubile was this All servants should then goe free but if any would not as of them there were many then he was to be bored in the eare and to be a perpetuall servant So when we preach the Gospell this is the great Iubile every man may be free the Son comes to that end and it is the end of the Truth to make men free The Son comes to deliver every man out of the Gaole if he will but men will not be at liberty they will be servants still because they were never humbled they never felt the heavinesse of Satans yoke they were never wearied with sinne for if they were so this would be acceptable newes but it is not so Now marke this by the way if a servant would not go free he should not afterwards be at libertie to goe and stay when hee list but his eare shall be bored and he should be a perpetual servant So if you deferre this when you heare the Gospell preached and thinke I will not alway live in this condition I will repent and come out of it know that is not enough God will not wait thy leasure if thou wilt not come out take heed lest God bore thee in the eare that is never give thee an heart to come out Doe not say If it be so necessary I will doe it hereafter take heed that thy opportunities be not wholly taken from thee and know that Christ came into the world not only to take away sinne for that was but a part of it But what was his businesse he came like
false grounds may be as secure as another that hath peace on the best grounds and this imitates true faith So a man that is naturally meeke may carry it better than one that hath true meeknesse therefore it is hard to finde the difference But if you looke to the principles whence they come the masters whom they serve you shall finde they may be good all the way but not at the journeyes end they have an ill scope they ayme at a wrong marke Let them have what they will Circumcision nor Vncircumcision availes nothing unlesse they be New Creatures else God regards them not And so much shall serve for Excuses Now adde this to the rest labour to aggravate your sin by removing the Excuses which the nature of man is witty to invent use the ordinance of God which hee hath appointed to humble you and to worke these things on your hearts and that is his Word Ier. 23.29 Is not my Word as fire and as the hammer that breaketh the stones The scope of the place is to shew the power of preaching the Word purely what is the chaffe to the Wheat you shall know my Word and distinguish it from the word of men my Word when it is right is as a fire which melts and thawes the hearts of men and as an hammer to break their strong and stony hearts Come to the Word powerfully preached as it is in its owne nature delivered in the Evidence of the Spirit as it should bee and it will bee a meanes to soften the heart and breake thy stubborne spirit as an hammer and fire not suffering thee to be at rest untill thou commest under the power of it And if with this thou art not satisfied goe one step further to the Spirit of God thou must have a spirit of Bondage else thou canst expect no power All that we have said in drawing this mappe of sin in adding these aggravations and removing these excuses is nothing if God give not a spirit of Bondage to cause you to feare for it is that that makes the Law effectuall as the Spirit of Adoption makes the Gospel no man without it can see sin with a saving and feeling sight But how doth it worke this effect in a mans heart Not by making him feare God as a slave for that the Holy Ghost will not doe therefore that is not an Act we can attribute to him but my meaning is The Holy Ghost by the spirit of bondage enlightens a man to see his sin and the sentence of the Law against it and to judge of his estate with a righteous Iudgement and when he sees things as they are hee knowes and feeles the bondage he was in before though before he felt it not I say the Holy Ghost enlightens us which enlightning discovers to us and convinceth us of sin and then we looke on the Law and there finde Cursed is hee that continues not in all these Commandements to doe them Then observing our hearts and seeing how farre wee are from that rectitude the Law requires our spirits begin to feare like a man in bondage that is shut up in prison and in danger of his life therefore as for the Word so labour for this Spirit the Word is a sharp sword but how can it wound us without an Arme to handle it And when you have done that you will easily doe the thing I have exhorted you to do that is you will then come to Christ you will not stand to cheapen the Kingdome of God but you will buy it though you give all you have for it and yet will thinke you have a good bargaine you will not seeke the Kingdome of God in such a lazie and laxe and remisse manner as you were wont to doe but will take it violently And if you come to God after this manner if you be driven out of your selves and see what your owne righteousnesse is that it will not serve your turne and therefore seeke for a righteousnesse at his hands you may be sure he will not deny you You may see what Paul saith Galat. 3.8 That you may be assured that seeking you shall obtaine saith he If an Angell from heaven preach another Gospell or if I my selfe should doe it beleeve not the Angell and let me accurst As if he had said I have made this Truth knowne that you shall be justified by meere Grace without workes that you are to come to Christ with an empty hand bringing nothing with you If any man now should question this Gospell and thinke to bring something of his owne and will not sticke to this cleare promise nay if an Angell come from heaven and contradict it let him be accursed This is the true Gospell and you may beleeve it If you can therefore doe as Paul did Philip. 3.9 That reckoned all as drosse and dung that he might be found in Christ not having his own righteousnesse of the Law but that which is through faith in Christ. That when you came to see your condition you desire the righteousnesse of Christ with that earnestnesse that he did when he reckoned all as drosse and dung even his own righteousnesse which he knew would not serve the turne If I say thou canst thus goe to Christ knowing that no antecedent condition is required but onely thirsting for him being fully perswaded that thine owne righteousnesse is unsufficient and having a saving and firme knowledge That mans nature is full of all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse Christ cannot deny thee he will receive the to mercy We will now briefly come to the next point and that is this There is a revelation of wrath against all unrighteousnesse of men And that is another thing that will humble us for there must be two things to doe it one is to see our sins to know that there is no worth no excellencie no worthinesse at all in us And the second is to have an apprehension of wrath due for sin and so his misery under the same Though a man be never so miserable yet if he have a bottome to stand on he will not goe to Christ but when hee sees his owne nothingnesse and withall that the wrath of God hangs over him so that he must sinke utterly and that there is no way to helpe him when both these concurre a man is humbled Men may have one without the other As the Scribes and Pharisees O yee Generation of vipers who hath warned you to flie from the wrath to come they were sensible of wrath and had so much to humble them but they did not see that viperous serpentine evill disposition that was in themselves Againe many men may see their sins and acknowledge the insufficiencie of all they have but they are not sensible of wrath God hath not charged sin upon their consciences nor revealed his wrath and therefore they goe on in a senselesse manner and are no more moved with the other
therefore since the wrath of God shall in such a manner be revealed against such as with-hold the Truth in unrighteousnesse You need no other Argument to shew that the sin is great Againe One Evidence more is in this very Chapter that is from the kinde of punishment for punishments you know where the Iudge is just are according to the measure of the sinne Now marke God punishes this with giving them up to a reprobate sense For this cause saith the Apostle Rom. 1.26 God gave them up unto vile affections And afterwards in the eight and twentieth verse As they regarded not to know God even so or therefore God delivered them up to a reprobate minde that is a minde without knowledge an injudicious minde that cannot judge of things And looke in all the booke of God among all the Armies of sorrow there is not any like this to be given up to vile affections to lusts to an injudicious mind in matters of God and things belonging to their Salvation This punishment shewes the greatnesse of the sin but men slight this as it is the greatest judgement so it is the least felt men lye at rest they are cast into a dead sleepe but it is like the sleepe of them that have crazie braines they wake in a frenzie so these shall wake in an horrible astonishment their sleepe is such a calme as will end in a tempest and such a tempest as shall never be blowne over Therefore let no man blesse himselfe in this I feele none of these things for thou hast the greatest judgement on thee when thou feelest it least And so much for the three things I propounded to you what this Truth is how it is with-holden and the greatnesse of the sin now wee will come to make use of it And the first use we are to make of it is that which is the maine scope of the Apostle here and that for which we pitched on these words and that is to humble us to learne to know our selves to know in what Condition we are for the Truth is revealed to us but we with-hold it in unrighteousnesse This Truth that should rule in the hearts of men that should be as the supreme governour in the soule of which it may be said as it is said of the Peace of God let it rule in your soules that where by men should be acted is by men imprisoned Therefore Rom. 2.9 the Apostle denounceth Tribulation and anguish upon every one that disobeyes the Truth Intimating that Truth is our King that should governe and rule in our hearts now when men disobey it nay goe further imprison this Truth it is as when men imprison their lawfull King or servants their Master and they run riot and at liberty in the meane time And this is our case we doe with it as children doe with their Masters we desire to be rid of it because it watches over us and so we grow enemies to it And this is no small sinne for if we consider whence this comes who puts it into our hearts it will appeare hainous by the Law of man it is death to kill children that are begot by man but this Truth is begot by the Holy Ghost it is put in by the Spirit of God and to extinguish this Truth not to suffer it to live not to nourish it not to bring it forth is the great sin of all Even the Heathen shall rise in judgement against Christians for this who maintained the Vestall fire because they conceived it to come from heaven they for that cause never suffered it to go out But this Truth is a fire which came from heaven a sparke put into the brests of men to guide their feet into the way of Peace when men shall extinguish this Truth let it goe out and not maintaine it the Heathen shall rise against them in judgement as the men of Niniveh should rise up against the men of that Generation among whom Christ lived We were wont to take care of precious things consider the preciousnesse of this Truth what is precious we wil not be willing to destroy as the Prophet said of the bunch of Grapes Destroy it not for there is a blessing in it And what doe you thinke of this Truth is it not a precious thing Yea it is the chiefe thing in a man In a ship a wise man will have an eye to the rudder for that turnes all the rest of the body of the ship Of all things in our selves wee looke to our eye the guide of the body so we should learne to watch and be tender over this Truth as over our eye for the one is the light but of this life the other is the light of the soule to eternall life In Micah 3.5 It is threatned as a great Iudgement when God shal turne their Visions into night and their Divinations into darknesse when the Sunne shall goe downe on their Prophets and the day shall be darke on them and will you bring this Iudgement on your selves They that are guilty of this that have not used this Truth but imprisoned it and laboured as much as they can to cause the Sun to goe downe and rise no more to turne the day into night let them consider what the sin is when you reade the story of the Kings and heare them saying to the Prophets prophesie not imprisoning them as Ahab did Micaiah and slaying them as Ioash did Zecharial you will little thinke you are guilty of the same sinne but when this Truth comes as a Prophet from God and tels you such and such things ought to be done and such and such evils ought to be abstained from and you shall desire it to be silent and shall say Prophesie not when you shall not suffer it to speake freely I say your sins shall be as great as theirs therefore learne to consider of it and be humbled for it men are wont to thinke their Condition better because they know more than others but it is quite contrary for nothing aggravates sin more than that It is an extreme folly in men when they cannot deny the fact they slight the fault and will not acknowledge it It was Adams fault when God came towards him he fled and hides his sinne and it is the fault of all Adams posterity But let men know that the quite contrary way is the way to Salvation It is not with God as it is with men among whom confession makes way for condemnation for with God confession is the way to salvation Therefore be not unwilling to examine your selves consider how much you have knowne what truths have been revealed to you Do this with one eye with another eye looke on your lives and see how short your practise hath beene of your knowledge come willingly and if you confesse you shal be forgiven This wil drive you out of your selves it will be your Schoole-master to bring you to Christ. They that carry this
sinne As David in the one and fiftieth Psalme saith Against thee against thee onely have I sinned repeating it twice in that place he composed that Psalme to set forth his sin but that which wounded his conscience that made him see the hainousnesse of his sinne was this Against thee I have sinned So the Prodigall sonne this is the circumstance by which he aggravates his sin Against heaven and against thee I have offended So learne to know that your sinnes are against god and therefore to presse this Truth a little more Consider well with your selves what is the reason that God hath required such a vast punishment against sinne that is eternall death thinke what eternity is it is that which swallowes up your thoughts it is a punishment the length and depth and breadth whereof you cannto comprehend Thinke why God hath appointed such a vast punishment and you shall find it is because you sinne against an Immense a great and Almighty God the length and breadth and depth of whose greatnesse you cannot comprehend Againe what is the reason God should appoint such a Mediatour to take away the sins of the world that the Son of God must needs take flesh which the Angels themselves wonder at it is such a wonderfull action that they cannot but admire and in heaven we shall stand amazed at it which evidences the greatnesse of sinne Learne to know this put al these foure together and see how these doe hold correspondencie one with another and you shall finde out the nature of your sinne First consider the greatnesse of God his infinitenesse the greatnesse of his Authority the wonderfull vast Soveraignty he hath over all creatures from this greatnesse of God comes the second the greatnesse of sinne I have made knowne this Truth but thou hast with-holden it thence it comes that sinne is so great that the least sinne which thou makest nothing of is a thing of so great moment That is the second which followes on the greatnesse of God Thirdly upon the greatnesse of sinne you see the greatnesse of the punishment if such an one as Aristotle or a stranger from the Truth should heare of this punishment the greatnesse whereof appeares herein that the worme dieth not and the fire is not quenched how would he wonder at it but knitting these together it will not seeme strange Last of all the greatnesse of the punishment causeth the greatnesse of such a Mediatour to take away this punishment and sin So there is a correspondencie in them come from God to sin from sinne to the punishment from punishment to the Mediation or redemption by which this sinne is taken away Learne therefore to know what sin is I know not a truth of greater moment And to all adde that 1 Cor. 15.56 The sting of death is sinne If you look on death it is the most terrible thing in the world You know what the Philosopher said of it of all terrible things it is the most terrible the most fearfull but sin is the sting of death As if he had said Death is a small thing in comparison of sin let a man want sin and death is nothing it is but sleepe it is nothing to have the body and soule separated Againe suppose there were no death but let body and soule remaine together yet sin is a terrible thing it is above all the Terrours in the world as in Iudas see his Terrours though there was no death on him see Adam when he was not in Hell but in Paradise yet how was he Tormented with his sin Therefore weigh not sin in a wrong ballance looke not on it with a wrong light take heed of being deceived for in this of all other things men are most apt to be deceived That is the corruption of Nature that strange darknesse is brought on men by Adam that in the thing that most concerneth him which is sin in that he is most ignorant most apt to be deceived Therefore when the Apostle speaks of sin he comes in still with this caution Be not deceived 1 Cor. 6.9 Be not deceived neither Fornicatour nor Idolaters nor adulterers c. shall inherit the kingdome of God as if men in that were most apt to be deceived So Ephes. 5.6 Be not deceived for for such things the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience And observe when Christ goeth about to show to any man or to any Church what their sins are or what their danger is he addes this Let him that hath an eare heare what the Spirit saith to the Churches his end being to tell them of their sin still that comes in He that hath an eare to heare let him heare As if he had said when I come to speake of matter of sin there be many here that can tell what I say that can understand me well but few have eares to understand indeed As when the Prophet came to Ieroboam he heard the Prophet so as it anger'd him he knew what his sin was but he heard it not to purpose So when Christ pronounceth a woe to the Scribes and Pharisees they heard it well enough but they had not an eare to heare it to purpose Men may heare what flesh and common reason and common men say of sin but not what the Spirit saith of it there is another kinde of sinfulnesse in sin which is the spirituall evill of sin and what the Spirit saith of this they doe not heare Therefore you must even be brought to Christ as the deafe man was who being both deafe and dumbe was brought to Christ that he might lay his hands on him now Christ put his finger into his eares and saith Ephata be thou opened and then the man heard and spake so of all men that heare this Word there is not a man but he is deafe according to this inward kinde of hearing therefore you must be brought to Christ and beseech him to give you eares to heare for few hath eares to heare what the Spirit saith unto the Churches when it discovers their sin and misery Therefore let not this Doctrine be in vain to you but learne from hence to humble your selves to come to God and say to him Lord I am now amazed and confounded I thought before losses and crosses were great matters but now I see they are but flea-bitings to sin I was heretofore troubled at a small crosse but little or nothing at sin Lord I confesse this was my case but I see now sinne is another thing Thus we should learne to humble our selves before God But if any object This is the way to discourage men to make them desperate to make them fly from Religion by telling them sin is so terrible I answer it is not the way to discourage men from comming to Christ but to encourage them and drive them to him This is the way to Salvation Indeed if there were no remedy for sin it were a desperate case but
abound The Apostle saith It is impossible that those that are dead to sinne should live any longer therein as if he should say Set aside all your carnall reasonings it is impossible for him that is dead to sinne to live yet therein how can he as if he should say Whosoever is in Christ the Spirit of Christ is sent into his heart that mortifies sin so that he cannot live any more in it there is such a change wrought in him hee is a new Creature if hee be once in Christ that is the first rise as soone as we are justified the Spirit of Christ is sent into our hearts But is not the Spirit sent into our hearts before when he workes faith It is true but the meaning is when wee are once in Christ the Spirit of Sanctification is shed more plentifully and in a greater degree than before for there is a certaine work of the Spirit that begetteth faith and the same worke of the Spirit in its time begetteth the degrees of Sanctification But now that this may not be in notion only we will shew you how the Spirit workes this that you may not think these to be things carried in clouds and to have place only in our understandings but that you may know it in the experience that every man finds in himselfe that after hee hath taken Christ there is indeed such a Spirit shed into his heart that changeth him For the understanding of this know that when wee come to invite men to come into Christ as it is all our businesse to invite men to the marriage all the world stands out and every man gives that answer that they did in the Gospell they have bought farmes and married wives every man is so set on these outward things that his carnall heart carrieth him to that they will not hearken to us so that we may preach in vaine you see to how many Christ himselfe preached in vaine and the Apostles had preached in vaine if there had been no more than their owne preaching So likewise now the Spirit is sent into the hearts of men that when wee come and invite men to come into Christ the Spirit also secretly compels them to come in Wee are indeed bidden to compell men to come in but unlesse there bee another compeller that is except there be the Spirit within to doe it the worke is not done unlesse there be two compellers at the same time the Holy Ghost within preaching to your hearts when we preach to your eares except there be two callers that when wee call men the Lord send his Spirit to call you too it is in vaine And that you may understand this you must know that it is as hard a thing to move a man to leave his pleasures and divers lusts and his vaine conversation as to turne the whole course of nature which I call the instinct that God hath put into every creature to move that way that it goeth as the water to move downward and the fire to goe upward Thinke with your selves now whether there must not be an Almighty Power to turne the course of nature because the heart of man naturally goes downward to sinne it descends downward with the same propensity it hath the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we call it the same forwardnesse and pronenesse to evill that any naturall thing hath to goe the course that is naturall to it Now unlesse there be an Almighty Power to turne this course of Nature no man will ever come to Christ. As for example That rectitude of Gods Image that is expressed in the Word come to experience and looke upon every mans heart living and see whether it be not quite contrary to it in all things even as contrary as the motion of the stone is from ascending towards the heavens but when the Spirit commeth he turneth this course of Nature Now when wee come to doe this doe you thinke that any man in the world is able to worke it in the hearts of men It is true a man may goe thus farre It is possible for a King or for a man in authority to set preferments on the one side and punishments on the other to make a man to doe much or to suffer much but all this while here is but a turning of the actions of men but to turne the inclinations of mans heart it is proper only to God man is not able to doe it in any particular If a mans heart be set upon covetousnesse Christ saith it is impossible all the men in the world can change his heart But put the case a man could doe it as no man can if he could turne a mans heart it would be but in a particular or two but to turne the whole frame of the heart to make a generall change to make him another man another Creature It is impossible for any man in the world to doe it Or put the case he could doe so it must be after long reasoning but to do it upon the sudden and at one Sermon as the Spirit sometimes doth to take one word and by it to change the heart of man it must needs be the worke of an Almighty Power Therefore in the 2 Cor. 3. Chap. and the last verse when the Apostle speakes of this great change he saith when we reade or heare the Word we see there the Image of God as one seeth his face in a glasse and are changed into it from glory to glory that is from one glorious degree to another But how is this done It is done saith he by the Spirit of the Lord. As if he should say It is impossible for a man to be turned into the glorious Image of God and not by the Spirit of God A man may as well say I will make a clod of earth a shining Starre as to say he can make the carnall and dead heart of man to be like the Image of God It must be the Spirit of God himselfe that must doe it it is a work above Nature It is therefore done by the Spirit which doth so enlighten the understanding and so bow the will that whereas before there was in man such a strong appetite such a strong propensity to ill such a strong inclination that would over-weigh all the reasons that could be brought to the contrary when the Spirit hath wrought this work there is such a contrary inclination such a propensnesse to God and to that which is good that it over-ballanceth all the temptations that the world the flesh and the Devill can lay against it Is not this a mighty Power that must doe this that whereas there was in a man before such a strong inclination to sin there is a disposition so contrary now such a desire wrought in him such a strong impression that carries him to God to Christ and to holinesse that let all the reasons in the world be brought to the contrary they cannot keepe
your Sanctification And if there were no other reason but Gods will that those that be justified shall be sanctified it is enough God hath called you to holinesse he hath appointed it hee wills it and his will is sufficient to enforce it Againe consider when we are ingrafted into Christ it it not simply an ingrafting but wee are ingrafted into the similitude of his death and resurrection Rom. 8. that is no man is ingrafted into Christ but sinne is crucified in him hee is dead thereto that is he is a dead man in regard of the life of sin and is alive to God as Christ rose from the dead so he is raised to newnesse of life If it had beene simple ingrafting into Christ there had needed no further Relation but we are ingrafted into the similitude of his Death and Resurrection Again it was the end of the Lords comming If hee had come only to save men there had beene no need of being New Creatures but he came also to purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes and to destroy out of man the workes of the Devill and to purchase to himselfe an holy Generation and Royall Priest hood Now whatsoever the Lords end is he never failes of Againe you must consider that to whomsoever Christ is a Priest hee is also to them a Prophet and a King he is annointed to all these Offices And therefore if you will be saved by him by the vertue of his Priest-hood you must take him as a Prophet that is you must take his counsell in all things and not only so but he must also be your King you must not only learne his way but you must also be perfectly subject and obedient to him to walke therein Indeed as a Priest he reconciles God unto us but not us to God except hee come with his other two Offices for man stands out and will not know the way and therefore as a Prophet Hee is to guide our feet into the way of peace and that is not all therefore because our hearts are stubborne and will not come in he exercises his Kingly Office And brings into subjection every thought to the obedience of his will Againe looke to all the meanes as first to Faith the same Faith that justifieth doth also purifie the heart Having their hearts purified by faith Act. 15. And as many as are sanctified by faith that is in me Act. 26.28 And likewise the bloud of Christ not only covers but also heales Hebr. 9.14 How much more shall the bloud of Christ who through his eternall Spirit offered himselfe to purge your Consciences from dead workes c. It hath not onely vertue to take away the guilt of Sin but it is effectuall also to purge the conscience from the power of sinne Againe the Gospell wee preach doth not only offer Christ but likewise cleanseth You are cleane through my Word Ioh. 15. And in the hundred and nineteenth Psalme and the ninth verse Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word The Spirit as it is a Spirit of Adoption so is it of Sanctification making clean the roome where it dwelleth and making it a fit Temple for the Lord. Consider the Sacraments Baptisme doth not only wash from the guilt of sin but from the filth of sin also from the blot and deformity of sinne And so I have done with these two points how Sanctification rises from Iustification and that they cannot be separated Before we proceed to other Observations we will by way of Vse from the inseparability of Iustification and Sanctification draw this consequent that if they be inseparable we should goe to God and beseech him that having given us the first that he would grant us the second also If you have any assurance that your sins are forgiven you let him not deny you this to make you new Creatures they be inseparable and therefore you have just cause to pray him not to separate them therefore you may claime them both as your due seeing you have his promise for both and you must urge him on his promise we desire Iustificatioâ—â—or our owne sake but Sanctification that we may glorifie God and therefore when you come to God with this request Lord make mee a new Creature that I may bring glory to thy Name that I may serve thee and do good in the place wherein I live he will not deny thee Consider but this very Sacrament which we are now going to receive you must know that the Sacrament seales the whole Covenant of God as 1 Cor. 11. This is the New Testament in my bloud that is this Cup is a signe and seale of the new Covenant which I have made with man and which is confirmed with my bloud Now what is that Covenant You shall see it it Ezek 36.26 and it containes three parts all which are sealed by this Sacrament First hee promiseth to wash them from their filthinesse that is from the guilt of their sins which is the first part Secondly A new heart will I give you and a new Spirit I will put into you that is I will make you new Creatures which is the second part of the Covenant Thirdly I will call for the Corne and will encrease it and will lay no famine upon you c. that is hee will give all outward comforts you shall inherit he Earth and be heires of the world and of â—ll in the world for the world is yours 1 Cor. 3. All and all in it is yours This is the whole Covenant of God and this hee seales to every one of you when you come to receive the Sacrament If you receive it worthily for it is the New Testament in his bloud And therefore seeing hee seales it to you that he will give you a new heart and a new Spirit and make you new Creatures you should go to him and claime it of him for you may sue him of his own bond written and sealed and he cannot deny it therefore begge it and you cannot misse of it This is a very comfortable doctrine if it be well considered For what is that that keepes a man from comming to Christ but his discouragements He thinkes it so hard a thing to be a new Creature that he cannot attaine it that he cannot leave such a course of life and therefore he stands off and though he will come in yet he will not as yet because it is a bondage intollerable But you do not consider what it is to have a new Nature If it were to have a new life and an old heart it were otherwise but the Lord will give a new heart and if he will not deny you but make you new Creatures you may be encouraged to goe to him If there be any Rebellion in your heart any untowardnesse in your nature if you goe to him for the removall of it it is
but think with your selves doe you thinke he lesse pities the diseases of the Soule than he did the diseases of the Body Doe you thinke that he hath lesse compassion now he is in Heaven than hee had when he was on Earth Or doe you think that His Arme is shortned that he cannot doe as much now to heale the running sores that are on thy soule as he did on earth to heale bodily diseases My Brethren if you doe but seeke to him if you can get but a word from him if he say but to you Be whole if hee doe but rebuke thy sinfull lusts as he rebuked the Feaver it shall presently obey him Hee that was able to calme the sea and that hath the strong winds in his power is he not able to dissolve a strong inordinate apprehension a strong lust a strong unruly affection and so set them at liberty certainly he is able You know the woman that had spent so many yeares and all that she had upon Physitians and could doe her selfe no good by all yet when shee comes to Christ once you see it was done in an instant So I say a strong lust an old lust which is contrary to this New Creature which it may be thou hast been contending with many yeares and cannot get the victory over it yet if thou canst come in this manner to him and contend with him and knocke at the doore and never give over till thou hast awaked him certainly hee will give thee the holy Ghost he will change and renue thy heart he will set thee at full libertie This he hath confirmed with an oath and whatsoever God hath sworn he will performe it without all reservation where hee is said to doe a thing without an oath there may be a reservation left therefore we never finde an oath to the old Covenant but he hath sworne to performe the new Covenant and you know this is a great part of the new Covenant to give a new heart to make a man a new Creature therefore where the new Covenant is made there this is repeated in Ier. 31. and Heb. 8. I will make a covenant with my people and what is that I will put my Law into their minds and in their hearts will I write them that is I will make them New Creatures Therefore I say this is a matter of much use to you If you goe to Christ and labour to have this done My Brethren there is nothing left for us to be assured nor any other experiment that wee need have that there is another life that Iesus Christ hath done these great things for us and that the Gospel is true I say there is nothing else left for us no other experiment in comparison of this that we see wee are made New Creatures This is all the miracles that we have nay I dare be bold to say more It was the greatest miracle that they had in that time when all the miracles were wrought And therefore you shall find that Paul gives this as the maine argument among the rest That they shall be raised againe at the last day that they were in Christ that the Gospel is real and true For saith he We have received the Spirit we have had the Spirit which is the earnest the pledge the annointing you shall finde it every where scattered in his Epistles the receiving of the Spirit is the maine ground that hee builds on as in the 2 Cor. 1.23 Hee hath established us together with you and hath annointed us and sealed us by giving the Spirit as an earnest into our hearts As if he should say this is the Argument we have that we shall be saved not for all the miracles so much as this that we have received the Spirit for that is the true annointing wee feele it in our selves that sealeth and confirmeth us wee cannot doubt having had experience of such a mighty worke in us that is the earnest and the pledge we have and therefore Ephes. 1.19 He prayes that they might see the exceeding greatnesse of his power working in those that beleeve as if that would bee a great confirmation to them if once they should finde an experiment of the greatnesse of his power And so Phil. 3.10 I care not for all the world on this condition that I might know him and the vertue of his resurrection that is that I might know him by the power of his Spirit changing my heart killing my sinnes raising me againe and in a word making me a New Creature that I might know this experiment I looke upon all the world as drosse and dung as things not to be named So I say seeing there is nothing else left in comparison of this and when miracles were wrought there was nothing like this that wee might have this experiment in our selves we should goe to God and not give him over till the worke be wrought in us that we might be made New Creatures That which keepes men off from religious courses for the most part is discouragement they think they shall not be able to go thorow it when they heare they must bee made new men in all things that there must be nothing that is old left but all the old leaven must bee purged out it discourageth men because they thinke they shall never bee able to reach it whereas this is an assurance to thee that if you go about it you shall not faile of your purpose but you shall certainly bring it to passe because if you seeke it at Gods hands he cannot deny you only I told you you must pray It may be for this purpose God will not heale thee altogether but suffer many lusts to grapple and to contend with thee that thou mayest be taught to doe this duty and therefore wee should learne to goe to Christ wee should feed on him every day and by that meanes we shall be renewed we shall get new strength otherwise what is the meaning of that In this mount hee will make a feast of fined wines and of fatlings of fat things full of marrow of wines fined and purified Esay 25.6 The meaning is this when you come to Christ to renue your Communion and your Covenant with him which is done through faith and prayer you draw neerer to him and that strengthneth the soule as Mannah strengthned them in the wildernesse that you live by it for every day there growes new distances betweene Christ and us we let goe our hold as it were in some measure and begin to fall off from him a little therefore every day we should renue this Covenant especially when we come to the Sacrament As Ionathan and David they renued the Covenant of God againe that was between them as if there were a new Solemnity of marriage if it were often to be renued to make the parties joyned more united make no question of it we should renue our match with Christ we should come neerer to him
condition But you will say these are but Notions imaginary Assertions we feele not such things give me that man that hath the sense of this that feeles more sweetnesse in this than Adam did in all his outward Paradise which he had To this we answer First that there is a sense of it though spirituall Grace be a thing that is not exposed to the senses yet there is as true and as quicke a sense as there is of outward and corporall delights because when you are made New Creatures you have a new life and that hath new senses in it It hath a taste hunger and thirst it hath as quicke a sight it hath every thing that the other hath you know the apprehension of all the comforts wee have is not that which stands in the outward senses that is not worthy the name but the apprehension that the will and understanding hath of things it is every mans minde that makes a man to live happie or miserable that is his apprehension of things when thou livest a new life and thy apprehension is altered and changed thou hast as quicke a sense of those spirituall priviledges in Christ of peace of Conscience of joy in the Holy Ghost of all the benefits that rise from his Passion thou wilt have as quicke a sense as ever thou hadst of outward delights Againe if thou wouldest have such a sense let me say this to thee the time is not yet come thou shalt have it and have it in abundance but as yet as it is said We are the sonnes of God but it appeares not what wee shall bee It is true on both sides those worldly men that bragge so much of their present sense that they have and that others want it appeares not yet what either shall be but you are mingled together and there is one common condition to all because this is the time of trial Mark the wise General he doth not like of a Souldier at the first but when he hath tried him and hath suffered both to runne out their course the valiant man and those that are cowards when their course is finished and when the battell is done that is the time of conferring of honours The wise Master doth not reward his servants at the first but hee lets them alone the good servant and the bad till their time be out till the time of their wages come that is the time when hee makes the difference So doth the Lord for this time the Battell is not to the strong that is men have not their reward here for the present time Even as it is upon a Stage both are let alone till they have acted their part there is no alteration but when they come off from the Stage that is the time when the one is commended and the other is discommended So it is with the Sonnes of God and the Sonnes of men God lets you both alone for the time till you be gone off the Stage that is the time that you must looke for the difference therefore be not preposterous in your expectation be not discouraged because you have not such outward contentments because you are not above but below for the present life the time is not yet come for God doth not yet rule the world as he will do he hath as it were left the world to be ruled by others he hath left men to rule now errour comes from the face of the Ruler as the Wise-man saith that is there is that obliquity in the hearts of men those that are in place of government generally That Servants ride on Horse-backe and Princes and Wise-men goe as Servants on foot The Reason is because men rule the world For errour saith Salomon is from the face of the Ruler But now when God shall take all the government into his owne hands when he shall be absolute King in the exercise of his dominion then he will set all straight and not before then Servants shall goe on foot and Princes and Wise-men shall ride on Horse-backe therefore expect not thou it yet the time is not yet come that thou shouldest be on Horse-backe thou must be content to goe on foot yet And therefore though you have not the present sense goe on notwithstanding hold out thy expectation a while though it appeare not yet what thou shalt be yet it will come when thou shalt have the sense of it in abundance Thirdly and lastly though thou have it not fully though the time be deferred till the day of the declaration of the wrath of God on the one hand and of his favour to the Saints on the other yet by being New Creatures you shall have outward comforts in great abundance you shall not fare the worse but much the better for it for the Promise is sure to those that feare the Lord To humility and the feare of God to them is promised Riches and Honour and Life And God performes it in this life though the full harvest bee kept for afterwards though you have but the first fruits of the reward as well as you have but the first fruits of the Spirit yet in this life as you walke more perfectly with him so he will with you and the lesse you walke with him the lesse hee will walke with you that is such an evennesse you shall finde in the wayes of God to you such a measure of Iudgement and mercy as there is evennesse or unevennesse of your hearts as there is so much new or so much old Let us labour to make our wayes more perfect and we shall be more perfect in our outward estate we shall be better in our wealth we shall be blessed better in our name thou shalt bee more cheerefull in thy Spirit thou shalt be blessed in thy wife and in thy children at thy going out and at thy comming in in every thing so that the present wages that you shall have set aside that which is deferred for the future it is exceeding large to the New Creature there is comfort enough in the thing holinesse is reward enough to it selfe if you should have no more If a man be in strength and in health what if you put him into a Cottage what if he be put into prison he can beare it well enough If there were no more but to be made a New Creature it were enough to make your hearts to desire that condition but besides that it brings outward comforts in abundance or if you have not abundance it will make a little instead to you of a great deale So much for this because I have other things to deliver Thirdly are they inseparable Then take heed of challenging the one without the other doe not thinke that you are in Christ if you finde not that New Creature And this Doctrine is of much moment for this is that that we shall all be tried by at the last day and it is that peremptory Sentence
mee so that you shall be my people and I will be your God For you shall turne to mee with all your heart In a word they are never disjoyned take it for a sure rule as Ezek. 26. I will wash thee from thy Idols that is from thy lusts and idolatry and will give thee a new heart and a new Spirit he never doth one without the other therefore apply it It may be there be many particular sins which thou thinkest are forgiven Sabbath-breaking Swearing Vncleannesse goe thorow any particular sin if they be not healed they be not forgiven and so thou art in a miserable condition Therefore doe not say though I sinne againe and againe yet God is mercifull and I hope ready to forgive It is very true but thou must know that he is never merciful to forgive but he is as ready to heale and cure thy sins likewise therefore deceive not yourselves in that Only before I passe from this point mistake me not my meaning is not that it is so healed that there is not the least vigour left in it that it is so dead and buried that thou shalt never heare of it againe that the Spring of originall corruption is dried up that none of it is left but the meaning is it is healed that is Sinne is pulled downe from his Regency it may assault thee as a Rebell but it comes no more as a Lord as a King it is put out of possession it may creepe in as a Theefe but it comes no more as the owner of the house for that is resigned up to grace and the New Creature Sin creepes in as it were but there is another Master of the house so that now thou mayest say I doe it not but sinne that dwelleth in me that is that creepes in thy denomination is from that that beares rule in thy heart for that is all that is done in Regeneration Sin is put out of possession and Grace is now the Ruler the Lord of the heart therefore we may say it is healed that is it is so shut out that thou hast dominion over it it may assault thee now and then it may overcome thee now and then but it dwels not in thee thou never entertainest as a guest thou never biddest it welcome thou never makest peace with it thou hast perpetuall warre with it as there was with the Amalekites Againe corrupt nature must bee lessened weakned and mortified so there must be more than nature in thee that is thou must be able to doe more than any natural man in the world can doe or then thou wast ever able to doe before this change was wrought in thee for you must know Grace doth not onely mortifie and heale Sin but it goes beyond the power of Nature as we say Physicke helpes where Nature failes and Art helpes where Nature fals short Such a thing is Grace where Nature failes there is use of Grace indeed else what were the efficacie of the Word and the vertue of the Spirit and the power of Christ If they did not enable a man to do more than Nature doth Grace comes from an higher Well-head than Nature therefore it raiseth a man to an higher pitch than Nature can ascend to Therefore consider if thou hast that which goes beyond Nature Sampson had a strength beyond Nature he could doe what a common man could not doe but God being with him he had more than the strength of Nature How do we know that He was able to carry away the gates of the Citie c. which none else could do therefore there was in him strength above Nature Now examine canst thou doe that which no man else can doe that is a meere naturall man Thou must have a strength put into thee which none can reach to that hath nothing but Nature in him that is canst thou love the Lord Iesus and the Saints An Hypocrite can counterfeit many things but not love Againe canst thou delight in the Law of God in the Inner man I aske not if thou canst approve of it but canst thou delight in it counting it as meat and drinke to doe the will of thy Father This is a thing which cannot be counterfeit So canst thou deny thy selfe I aske not if thou canst deny this or that particular sinne but the whole body of sin if thou favourest the things of the Spirit if thou canst mortifie the deeds of the Body and walke according to that Spirit In a word whatsoever it is if thou art a New Creature thou must find thy selfe able to doe that which no naturall man can doe and which thy selfe could'st never doe before for otherwise what wilt thou have to answer for thy selfe when the Destroying Angell shall come if hee finde not in thee more than Nature the Destruction shall passe on thee as it was in the Passeover except there was found bloud on the door-posts they died for it Now the bloud that this Destroying Angell must see when hee shall passe over the world is that which is more than Nature You must know the bloud of Christ leaves an impression Their garments were made white in the bloud of the Lambe that is not onely the guilt of sin is taken away but a new vertue is put on them a new efficacie is put into them and if thou hast not the vertue of the bloud of Christ as well to purge thy conscience from dead workes as to take away the guilt of sin all is nothing you must know all the old world shall be destroyed and the workes of it and whatsoever is in it whatsoever is old shall be destroyed the Lord will spare nothing but what is new he makes a new Heaven and a new Earth and what is new shall be spared when he comes to take an examination of men and findes nothing but old in thee thou art sure to be destroyed if thou be new he will spare thee there is a blessing there this is the marke in the forhead this is that new Name this is that certain watch-word which if a man know not hee is counted as an enemie you have a fashion sometimes to give markes if they have that marke that token in their hand they are knowne to be of them that are allowed So there is a certaine sealing of men to life God gives a new name a white stâ—ne with a new name written on it which none can reade but God and thy selfe I say except thou art a New Creature for that is the new name the Destroying Angell shall not spare thee but thy sinnes shall be cast on thy conscience as usually hee doth when thou are on thy death-bed he never binds the burthen till then you have it before but you never feele it till then but when God shall charge it on thy conscience what wilt thou say if thou findest not these two things a weakning of this old nature an healing of sin and something morethan
we should draw nearer to him Therefore labour to strengthen your faith So did Moses it was the strengh of his faith that made him cleave so fast to GOD as he did Fourthly get experience of him for it was Pauls experience that united him nearer to Christ the experience that he had of Christ in the mortification of his lusts in all the courses of his ministery in all the distresses and troubles that he passed thorow he still had experience of him and the more experience you have of the Lord Iesus the nearer you come to converse with him and the more you will love him and joyne to him Strangenesse disjoynes affections we say there is strangenesse when men salute not when there is not a neare conversing Strangenesse doth dis-joyne the heart Againe nearenesse of conversing and walking with him from day to day drawes us nearer to him and intends the will of desiring him to be our Husband Last of all there is a certain impression made in the spirit of man by the Holy Ghost which causeth him to draw neare to Christ that makes him prize him more As there is in the Iron a certaine naturall quality to follow the Load-stone so there is in the Saints towards Christ And if we seeke a reason why Paul and the rest of the Saints that excelled so were able to prize Christ above all things and to count all things losse in respect of him the true reason is it was the impression made upon their spirits by the Holy Ghost there is a certaine attractive vertue put into them enabling them to prize Christ above all and to draw neare to him therefore you must know it is the gift of the Holy Ghost to inable us to prize him Therefore to all the rest adde that seeke to the Lord that he would worke it in your hearts that you may learne to magnifie him Thus you must seeke to encrease the union to adde degrees to the will by which you are content and resolve to match with Christ and to be made one with him And this is the thing that you are to be exhorted to not only to know this but to exercise it when Paul had once tasted the sweetnesse in Christ he could relish nothing else he counts all other things as drosse So should we if we had once experience of it Therefore we should learne to renue this union from day to day and as I said before Wee should eat his flesh and drinke his bloud every day that is every time we renue the covenant with God we renue the match as it were betweene us we eat Christs flesh and drinke his bloud He is that Bread that came downe from heaven they ate Mannah in the wildernesse and died but hee that feedeth on me shall have life everlasting Therefore eat my flesh and drinke my bloud that is take me come to me for eating of his flesh is nothing but to come to him to take him to receive him Now saith he the very act of taking me is your duty as you renue that every day so you take me anew as it were and so there will come new strength to you as from bread or Manna when you eat it or from flesh and wine when you eat and drinke it so doth there from from me when you renue your eating of my flesh and drinking of my bloud that is when you renue your act of taking and receiving me there comes new strength to you that is you shall have new comforts and consolations you shall be encouraged the more herein you draw nearer to me than before For as your union with Christ at the first doth make way for the Spirit and causeth it to be shed in your hearts so the more this union is encreased the more you are filled with the Holy Ghost So you get new strength from day to day as this union is more confirmed It is like a new eating and drinking your Peace is more abundant and your strength is more enlarged you are more full of joy in the Holy Ghost every grace is more encreased and strengthned in you therefore exercise this union eat his flesh and drinke his bloud every day But you will say what needs that when we have once done is it not enough No it is not enough for there growes a distance betweene Christ and you from day to day a little neglect the very omission of duties yea though it were no sinfull omission may cause it As the body is subject to waste and needs eating and drinking that it may be repaired So doth the soule and inner man there is a continuall wasting of strength and you must eat his flesh and drinke his bloud every day to repaire it that is you must renue the union that grace may be strengthned and renued in your hearts that those spirits may be repaired that you spend every day that your very strength may be renued you shall find this true by experience the more you doe this more neare you get to Christ the more you renue that match and make a new marriage with him you shall and new strength comming to you you shall find your hearts draw nearer to him and further from sinne you shall finde your selves made more spirituall more heavenly minded you shal find your selves more strengthned you wil be ashamed to sinne when you stand in such neare termes with him there will be a secret influence of the Spirit in your hearts Therefore exercise this union and as you must exercise it from day to day so know the comfort of it and improve and husband it well If I have Christ for my husband shall he be my husband in vaine Shall I have him and not make use of him No you must learne to make use of him learne to use him as he is a Prophet a Priest and a King If you would be more enlightned goe to him as a Prophet beseech him to enlighten thee to give thee wisdome to give thee the Spirit of Revelation and he cannot deny thee If thou hast committed a sinne use him as a Mediatour as a Priest for he is thy Husband thou hast him for that purpose forget not that Christ is a Mediatour We fall into sinne from day to day but if we knew really what it is to have Christ an Intercessour to have him our Priest to make an attonement for our sinnes every day we should learne to prize him more we should be full of comfort we should doe in another manner than we doe If there be any strong lust which thou canst not subdue know that it must be done by him as a King he must bring it into subjection he must circumcise thy heart Therefore know what is in Christ for all that is in him is thine and he is full of treasure When thou hast the field what shouldest thou doe but digge the treasure to know what is there when thou knowest thou hast such a
remission of sinnes or you shall have adoption but he saith Take this is my body By body is meant whole Christ by a Synecdoche we have Christ and all things else What use are we to make of this Surely it is of great use many wayes First we must make this use of it which is the maine end of the Sacrament to confirme our faith in the assurance of the forgivenesse of our sinnes as likewise to renew our Covenant and the Condition required on our part when God hath said he is willing to pardon our sinnes if he had but barely said it it had beene enough God cannot lye But lest it should not be enough he hath not only said it but he hath sworne it Hebr. 6. He hath sworne by himselfe that by two immutable things we might have strong consolation Being willing saith the Apostle to shew to the heires of Promise the stablenesse of his Councell he bound himselfe with an oath but yet lest that should not be enough he hath added seales to it he hath given the inward seale of the Spirit and the outward seale of the Sacrament as if he should say I have promised to forgive you your sinnes let the Sacrament witnesse against me if I performe it not Here by the way observe how difficult a thing it is for us to beleeve you may thinke it an easie thing when you are in health when you are well but when death comes when temptation comes when trouble of conscience comes I say you shall finde it a difficult thing you shall finde a need of all these helpes for certainly God sweares not in vaine he would not have bound himselfe with an oath to be ready to forgive sinnes if there were not exceeding need of such helpes to confirme us and therefore you have need to set your selves more diligently about it make this use of the Sacrament labour to confirme your selves in this assurance So that as the Apostle saith You may have strong consolation that is when the temptations of Satan shall assault you with objections to the contrary you may be strong and not shaken And why should you be doubtfull if we should a little reason with you that you may receive the fruit of this for why should you feare it For first the Lord professeth I would not the death of a sinner as I live And why will you die oh you house of Israel What is the meaning of this but to shew that the Lord hath an exceeding great desire earnestly longs to save the soules of men Indeed he saith not that he will give every one grace to come in but if he doe As I live saith the Lord I will not his death that is I am ready to forgive him Besides this consider what a man is ready to doe consider how tender-hearted fathers and mothers are to their children if we finde so much mercy there consider how much there is in God that mercy that is in us is but a drop to the Ocean it is but a beame to the fulnesse that is in him If you that are evill can give good things to your children how much more shall your heavenly Father doe it Againe consider if the Lord were not ready to shew mercy to you that Christ should not be of none effect that is the bloud of Christ should be shed in vaine And doe you thinke the Lord would send his Sonne to suffer death and to suffer it in vaine and that should be in vaine if he should not be ready to receive men to mercie when they come to seeke it at his hands besides if the Lord should not doe this no flesh should be saved Psal. 130.1 saith the Psalmist there If thou Lord shouldest marke all that is done amisse who could stand The meaning is this if the Lord should not be ready to doe this which he hath given to the Sacrament to confirme namely to forgive sinnes if he should not be ready to doe it if he should mark straitly what is done amisse who could stand that is who should be saved Now certainly the Lord hath made man for that purpose many shall be saved none were made for damnation Besides there is another argument There is mercy with thee that thou mightest be feared Feare is taken for the worship of God that is if the Lord should not receive men none would worship him none would serve him when there is no hope take away all hope take away all endeavour If this will not perswade you consider what the Lord hath done for others how many thousands of others have had their sinnes forgiven and then thinke had he mercy for such and such and hath he not mercy enough for me Hath not Christ taken thy nature as well as theirs If all this will not perswade you consider how mercifull Christ was in the dayes of his flesh he was exceeding gentle easie to be entreated you shall never finde that there was any that asked at his hands but he granted it And thinke you that he is lesse pitifull now to mens soules than he was to their bodies Doe you thinke that now he is in heaven he hath laid aside his mercifull disposition No Hebr. 4. We have a mercifull high Priest that is touched with our infirmities that is ready to forgive Oh but my sinnes are exceeding great what though they be is not the Lords mercy exceeding is it not like the mighty Sea that drownes mountaines aswell as mole-hils My sins are of divers sorts what if they be in the Lord there is multitudes of mercies as many as thou hast sinnes I but they have oft beene repeated I have oft fallen into them againe and againe What if thou hast Is not his mercies renewed every morning And Zachary 15.1 There is a fountaine opened for the house of Iudah and Ierusalem to wash in Not a cisterne but a fountaine that is as there is a spring of sinne in us so there is a spring of mercy in God there is no end of his mercy therefore doubt not in regard of that But againe I am unfit if I were fit and ready for this I might receive fruit from the Sacrament but I am unfit Why If thou thought's thy selfe fit thou shouldest not have it even therefore because thou feelest thy selfe unfit the rather thou shalt be received to mercy the Lord lookes for this aâ— thy hands that we find and feele such â—â—fiâ—resse in our selves the more we are humbled the lesse we find in our selves the more ready the Lord is to receive us to mercy Besides this very unfitnesse I would aske thee but what iâ— is Is it not sinne If all sinnes be forgiven if the pardon be generall then it is contained among the rest and shall not be any impediment And therefore make this use when you come to the Sacrament thinke not that God is backward to forgive that he will not be as good as his word certainly he will and know this
is wisdome to remember our latter end The wisest among the Heathen were wont to say There should bee nothing but a meditation of death that is a wise man though the course of his life should be still fitting and preparing himselfe for death and shall Christians â—me behinde them It was a wise speech of Peter to our Saviour Lord whether shall we goe thou hast the words of eternall life as if hee should say there is no motive to that surely we will not leave thee therefore I say consider here we are but Tennants at will wee may be turned out of doores to morrow therefore let this be a motive to win to Christ you shall have life But you will say I hope death is farre off yet I have time enough well take heed thou be not deceived in that for ther is a collusion there as the Painter by collusion of colours makes a thing seeme farre off when it is neere at hand so wee by our folly and vanity our fansie mis-apprehending of things we looke on death as farre off when it may be it is at our heeles at the next doore thou knowest not how soone thou maist meet with it therefore say not it is farre off but thinke with thy selfe goe sit alone but a little time together and then think with thy selfe I must die it is appointed to mee as to all men once to dye Consider if a man might dye twice or thrice perhaps he would be ready he would be prepared but consider thou must dye but once if thou be not prepared there is not a second oportunity and then consider thy soule is immortall in another place it must live for ever And then remember Christ saith thou shalt have life if thou take him thou shalt live for ever then thou wilt finde it an exceeding blessing worth the having it is that that may wooe you and win you to come in and take Christ to love him and to serve him and to obey him certainly if you will not now be moved with it yet when death shall come then you shall finde that beyond all the treasure to have that white-stone with a new name in it that stone was a signe of absolution that a man was quitted that his sins are forgiven that he hath interest in Christ and eternity that eternall life is for him in heaven this is the first motive to win you to Christ. Secondly if you will come into him you shall have all your debts payd you shall bee under cover that is you shall have all your sins forgiven that when the creditors come with an arrest with a judgement and execution you may be able to say no they are none of my debts goe to my husband hee must pay them and not I I say when you have Christ when Satan shall come and when sin shall come you may put them over to Christ for now you are his and he is yours he hath taken our debts on him is this a small thing Psal. 32.1 saith David Blessed is the man whose sinnes are forgiven and whose iniquities are covered marke Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven Perhaps if one of us should seeke a happy man we would say that he is a happy man that lives in health and in wealth in credit and abundance of all things he that hath the favour of Princes hee that hath some notable excellencie to make him famous among men some such thing wee take for happinesse But when David comes to looke through the world and all the felicity in it oh saith David Hee is a happy man that his sinnes are forgiven And there is good reason for it because when our sin is forgiven wee are reconciled to God and God onely can make man happy For wherein doth happinesse consist but in a freedome from all evill and in enjoying of all good you know this is happinesse Now sin is it not the first linke in the chaine of ills As the under-wheeles in a Clocke or Watch depends upon the first so all miseries depend upon sin as the Master-ill of all take away that and all the wheeles stand still they move not a jot to doe us the least hurt take away sin take away all this ill in sin is a bar and stops from us all good things take away sin and you shall enjoy all that in abundance that your hearts can desire If you have not your sinnes forgiven what will it availe If you come to a Prisoner and tell him you shall have the best Lodging you shall have a Pallace you shall have Orchards and Gardens to walke in you shall have Gold and Silver as much as you will desire you shall have honour put upon you would not he answer Alas what would all this availe without a pardon So I say to men that magnifie the things of this world so much and remission of sins they thinke not of I say what is all this will it availe without a pardon No therefore this is a great motive to bring us into Christ that our sins may be forgiven Therefore that great promise went of the Messiah that when he should come into the world he should save his people from their sins and this is a mercy which though you may slight now in health and strength yet when the times come that God shall charge sinne upon your consciences that they feele the weight and burthen of it you shall finde no mercy like to this that you may come to have your sinnes forgiven then he that bringeth the glad tydings of peace his feet will be beautifull the thing is the same if wee had hearts to consider of it if we were poore in spirit if we knew what sinne were if wee had ever felt the bitternesse of Satans yoke that wee were weary of it wee would come in and reckon it a great matter to have our sins forgiven this is the second I shall prosecute the rest at some other time The end of the Second Sermon THE CUPPE OF BLESSING DELIVERED IN THREE Sermons upon 1 Cor. 10.6 The Third SERMON 1 CORINTH 10.16 The Cup of blessing that we blesse is it not the Communion of the bloud of Christ The bread that we breake is it not the Communion of the body of Christ THE point you know we have delivered out of these words is this That in the Sacrament there is a true reall Communication or giving or offering of Iesus Chriâ—t of his body and of his bloud to all worthy receivers Wee have shewed you the difference betweene the Papists and us in this point They will have here a reall corporall presence of Christ. We say it is true but it is Spirituall but it is Mysticall but it is Sacramentall We have shewed you the reasons by which wee refelde that opinion of theirs That there is no necessity neither in regard of the thing nor in regard of the words and if there be no necessity we may not grant it other
EFFIGIES IOHANNIS PRESTONI VIRI CLARISSIMI SS THEOLOGIAE DOCTORIS How can this shaddow please thee when thou know'st The substance was but Dust at best at most Goe rather view his Volume and there finde A picture farre more curious more refinde Pervse thou This and yet neglect not That That tells thee Who he was the to ther What. What here thou see'st salute and passe it o're THE SAINTS QVALIFICATION Or A TREATISE I. Of HUMILIATION in Tenne Sermons II. Of SANCTIFICATION in nine Sermons WHEREVNTO IS ADDED A Treatise of Communion with Christ in the Sacrament in three Sermons PREACHED By the late faithfull and worthy Minister of IESVS CHRIST IOHN PRESTON Doctor in Divinitie Chaplaine in Ordinary to his Majestie Master of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge and sometime Preacher of Lincolns INNE When men are cast downe then thou shalt say There is lifting up and be shall save the humble person Iob. 22.29 Cast away from you all your transgressions whereby yee have transgressed and make you a new heart and a new spirit c. Ezek. 18.13 He that eats my flesh and drinkes my bloud dwelleth in me and I in him Ioh. 6.56 LONDON Printed by R. B. for NICOLAS BOURNE and are to be sold at his shop at the Royall Exchange 1633. ILLVSTRISSIMO NOBILISSIMO VIRO PHILIPPO PEMBROCHIAE ET MONTIS GOMERICI COMITI BARONI HERBERT DE CARDIFFE ET SHERLAND ORDINIS GARTERII EQVITI REGIAE DOMVS CAMERARIO REGIAE MAIESTATI A SECRETIORIBVS CONSILIIS c. TRIPLICEM HVNC IOHANNES PRAESTONI S.S. THEOLOGIAE D ri COLLEGII IMMANNUELIS NVPER MAGIST ET REGIAE MAIEST A SACRIS TRACTATVM DE HUMILIATIONE DE NOVA CREATURA DE PRAEPARATIONE AD SACRAM DE SYNAXIN INDEVOTISSIMAE TAM AVTHORIS QVAM IPSORVM OBSERVANTIAE TESTIMONIVM L.M.D.D.D. RICHARDUS SIBS IOHANNES DAVENPORT TO THE CHRISTIAN READER THE good acceptance the Sermons of this worthy man have found amongst well disposed Christians hath made us the willinger to give way to the publishing of these as comming from the same Author The good they may thus doe prevailes more for the sending of them forth than some imperfections that usually accompany the taking of other mens speeches may doe to suppresse them Something may well be yeelded to publike good in things not altogether so as we wish They are inforced upon none that shall except against them they may either reade or refuse them at their pleasure The argument of them is such as may draw the more regard being of matters of necesarie and perpetuall use For Humiliation wee never so deeply see into the grounds of it sinfulnesse of nature and life or so farre as we see looke upon it with that eye of detestation we should and therefore a holy heart desireth still further light to be brought in to discover whatsoever may hinder communion with God and is glad when sin is made loathsome unto it as being its greatest enemy that doth more hurt than all the world besides and the only thing that divides betweene our chiefest good and us As this humiliation increaseth so in the like proportion all other graces increase for the more we are emptied of our selves the more wee are filled with the fulnesse of God The defects of this appeare in the whole frame of a Christian life which is so far unsound as wee retaine any thing of corrupted selfe unhumbled for The foundation of Christianitie is layd verie low and therefore the treatise of Humiliation is well premised before that of the New Creature God will build upon nothing in us We must be nothing in our selves before we be raised up for a fit Temple for God to dwell in whose course is to pull downe before hee build Old things must be out of request before all become new and without this newnesse of the whole man from Vnion with Christ no interest in the new heavens can be hoped for whereinto no defiled thing shall enter as altogether unsutable to that condition and place Nothing is in request with God but this New Creature all things else are adjudged to the fire and without this it had beene better be no Creature at all By this we may judge of the usefulnesse of discourses tending this way One thing more thou art to be advertised of Courteous Reader and that is of the injurious dealing of such as for private gaine have published what they can get howsoever taken without any acquainting either of those friends of the Authors that resided in Cambridge to whose care hee left the publishing of those things that were delivered there or of us to whom he committed the publishing of what should be thought fit for publike view of that which was preached in London Hereby not onely wrong is done to others but to the deceased likewise by mangling and misshaping the birth of his braine and therefore once againe we desire men to forbeare publishing of any thing untill those that were intrusted have the review And so we commit the treatise and thee to Gods blessing RICHARD SIBS IOHN DAVEN-PORT A BRIEFE COLLECTION OF THE principall Heads in the ensuing Treatises Part 1. Doct. 1. HVmiliation must goe before Iustification Page 6 Two things in Humiliation 8 Reas. 1. In reference to Iustification 13 Reas. 2. In reference to Sanctification 14 Vse 1. To labour for Humiliation 18 Five helpes to Humiliation 26 Vse 2. The best men should labour to be Humbled 30 Doct. 2. The nature of man is full of all Vnrighteousnesse and Vngodlinesse 33 Mans nature evidenced to bee so by the Law 34 Originall Sinne 40 The corruption of the Vnderstanding in five things 43 The corruption of the Will in foure things 48 The corruption of the Memory in two things 53 The corruption of the Conscience in three acts of it 54 The corruption of the Sensitive appetite 58 The corruption of the Affections 63 Actuall Sinnes 68 Mans Nature shewed to be corrupt by the rule of the Gospell 76 Vse 1. The ignorance of those that know not the corruption of Nature 78 Vse 2. To Labour to prize CHRIST the more 81 Vse 3. Our Sinfulnesse should drive us to Christ 82 Circumstances agravating Sinne 89 Excuses of Sin 101 Helpes against those Excuses 108 Doct. 3. There is a revelation of wrath against all Vnrighteousnesse of men 111 Vse 1. To teach us what Sin is 118 Vse 2. To labour for a Sense of GODS wrath 119 Vse 3. To make us goe to Christ 121 Doct. 4. All men before regeneration with hold the Truth in unrighteousnesse 126 The greatnesse of this Sin in three things 136 Vse 1. To Humble us 931 Vse 2. The miserie of men that are neare and not in the Kingdome of God in three things 143 How farre men Vnconverted may goe shewed in five things 151 How far they come short in five things 153 Vse 3. Most sin out of love to Sin 163 Vse 4. The danger of disobeying the Truth 167 Vse 5. To give the Truth leave to rule 169
take the right course they goe not the right way to worke This is the cause many continue in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity they know not the right way to come out I say you shall finde this in other places Observe Deut. 8.2 3. you shall find there how God deales with his people hee carries them thorow the wildernesse and to what end to humble them And how doth he humble them Two wayes First by shewing them the sinfulnesse of their hearts letting them know their rebellions and startings aside when he led them along saith he I have carried thee these forty yeares in the wildernesse to humble thee and prove thee All thy sinne and corruption was there before but thou knowest it not But that is not enough for if men saw never so much sinne in themselves yet if they have a bottome to stand on if they have health and strength they regard it not therefore he addes further I humbled thee I made thee hungry and then I fed thee with Mannah that thou mightest see thou had'st nothing without me And this I did that when I bring thee into the good Land ye may know it was not for your owne righteousnesse but for the Covenant I made with your Fathers Abraham Isaac and Iacob This is nothing but a resemblance of the same God doth now Carrying men thorow this world he first humbles them he lets them fall into sin that they may know themselves and withall afflicts them suffering them to fall into other necessities that they may know what they are that they may see their miserable condition and that God brings them not to heaven for their righteousnesse but for his Covenants sake with Abraham and Isaac that is for his mercy sake in Christ. So Zechar. 12. and 13. Chap. You shall find first God powres on them the Spirit of compunction that they shall mourne for their sinnes as a man mourneth for his only sonne and when they are humbled then and not before I will open a fountaine to Iudah and Ierusalem for sinne and for uncleannesse that is it is shut before they be humbled but when that is done the fountaine is opened So you shall see Paul when he had to doe with Felix a place worth your marking Act. 24.26 you shall finde that when Felix and his wife Drusilla a Iewesse called Paul before them it is said They heard him of the faith of Christ But how began he Hee began saith the Text with preaching of Temperance Righteousnesse and the Iudgement to come He told Felix what Righteousnesse and what Temperance the Law of God required and likewise the Iudgement to come for those two things must bee in Humiliation An Endictment to shew how farre short we be of the Righteousnesse and Temperance that the Law of God requires and withall a pronouncing of the Sentence a declaration of the Iudgement to come And this course made Felix to tremble So Iohn the Baptist that came to prepare the way of the Lord to make way for Christ How did he make way He came as with the Spirit and power of Elias so with much Terrour calling them a Generation of Vipers told them of their miserable condition as much as he could to humble them And that was the way to prepare them So when Christ went about to convert any this was his Method as in Ioh. 4. when he had that discourse with the woman of Samaria meeting her by Accident first hee tels her of her sinne The man whom thou hast is not thy husband thou hast committed adultery whereby hee amazed her and made her looke into her selfe and then he tells her he was the Messiah and that in him there was hope So he deales with Nichodemus he tells him he was flesh that all that was in him was nought and not any thing good and then he preaches the Gospell telling him he must be borne againe But of all places you shall find the clearest to be that in Ioh. 16. where Christ promises that he would send His Spirit into the world and three great workes the Spirit should doe which were wrought by the ministery of the Apostles he should Convince the world of Sinne and of Righteousnesse and of Iudgement First he saith of Sinne Because they have not beleeved in mee marke that there were many other sinnes that the Holy Ghost convinced them of but the contempt of the Gospell the not taking of Christ offered that is the maine sinne And the Holy Ghost shall convince men of this sinne All the men of the world cannot doe it Wee may tell you long enough of particular sinnes you have done these and these sinnes sworne such oaths defiled your selves with such abominations and yet all will come to nothing but when the Spirit sets in and makes a man sensible of sin that workes to purpose Then it followes in the Method He shall convince the world of righteousnesse because I am risen againe and gone to the Father he should teach that there is another Righteousnesse in me by which you must be justified when you see no righteousnesse in your selves then the Holy Ghost shall shew you the righteousnesse that I have wrought But how will this appeare In that I am dead and risen again and gone to my Father whereby it is declared that i am righteous that I have overcome death satisfied my Fathers justice And then when that is done he shal convince the world of Iudgement that is of holinesse for so the word is there used that is then the Prince of this world shall be judged Satan reignes in the hearts of men in the children of disobedience till they bee justified and engrafted into Christ but when they be once justified then Christ shall cast him out you shall see him fall like lightning out of the hearts of men and this is that which was before prophesied Hee shall bring forth Iudgement unto victory that is hee shall overcome the Prince of the world take away sinne and enable men to serve him in holinesse And this is the method you must observe in turning to God labour to be convinced of Sinne then of Righteousnesse and then of Iudgement And to shew the necessitie of this take that one place Gal. 3.24 a place you all know The Law must be a Schoole-master to bring us to Christ. No man living can come to Christ till the Law be his Schoole-master Now how is the Law a Schoole-master It gives lessons that we cannot goe through with thereby is such a Rectitude required as we are not able to reach like the Schoole-masters taske to the scholler which he is not able to performe and is therefore faine to goe to another to doe his exercise for him So the Lord tells men you must be exactly holy perfect righteousnesse must runne through the whole course of your life when we see we cannot doe it it makes us runne to Christ to have his righteousnesse
wise to purifie to himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes If men might runne out their age in sinne and Christ forgive them in the end when they please to give over sinning then he might have one of his ends made good which is to take away thy sinnes but thou couldst not be a people zealous of good workes neither could he have any service of thee But thou must know Christ hath hired thee for the whole day that is all the Time of thy life When he went out in the morning to call in labourers into his Vineyard they did not make answer Well we will come at noone but when his pleasure is to call whether at one or two a clocke that is his call but if he call thee in the morning that is if thou have the Word preached if he knocke at the doore of thy heart and by his Spirit suggest many good motions in thee to come home if his will be revealed to thee it may bee thou mayest not have such an opportunity againe that is his call take heed that thou defer it not lest so his wrath should be kindled against thee and woe unto thee if his wrath be kindled but a little this is a thing not considered In Ezek. 24.13 Thou remainest in thy wickednesse And why is that He gives this reason for it I would have purged thee and thou wouldst not be purged therefore thou shalt never be purged till my wrath light on thee That is when God makes an offer when the powerfull Word sounds in our eares when he cals and wee cannot deny his knocking at our doores and yet wee will not come in because then and there at that time thou wouldest not be purged therefore thou shalt never be purged till Gods wrath light on thee therefore deferre it not But you will say and that is a thing that keepes men off I have done it already and what need you to presse this I hope I am not now to practise these principles and rudiments I hope I have done this dutie of Humiliation long agoe It is well if thou hast but take heed thou deceive not thy selfe in this case than which there is not a greater evill in the world even to thinke thou hast done it when thou hast not I will give thee one note of it Is it such an humiliation as hath brought thee to Christ To count him the chiefest good to over-goe any thing rather than him to stand out against all persecutions rather than to forsake him canst thou forsake all Syrens all lusts and pleasures which allure thee Art thou thus brought home to Christ to esteeme him above all things that come what will come hadst thou an hundred lives to part with for him all were nothing Art thou thus brought home with Humiliation that thou wilt not let Christ goe for any thing neither losses nor pleasures for Temptations on the right and left hand then thou art come home indeed otherwise thou hast not taken him truely neither art humble for thou must know there is much counterfeit Humiliation there be many light wounds that may trouble thee but not bring thee to the Physitian God awakens sinners but what kinde of awakening is it With such awakning that they fall asleepe againe God may send many messengers of wrath to knocke at the doore of their hearts which perhaps disquiets and troubles them a little but they returne to their rest againe And this God may not only doe outwardly but he may cast many sparkes of his displeasure into their hearts which may there lye glowing for a time but they last not they goe out in the end And this is the condition of most men therefore they make many profers as if they would be saved and come to Christ and this they take for Humiliation But this is not the Humiliation that is required When God means to save a man hee will goe thorow with the worke and never give over till he hath brought him home causing sorrow to abide on his heart As it is Christs office to give repentance to men and remission of sinnes so it is his office Luke 1.79 To guide mens feet into the way of Peace Now when he will save a man he will set it on so that his heart shall never bee quiet till his feet be guided into the way of peace Others may have much Humiliation at time of a Sacrament or under some great sicknesse or crosse or in a good mood or for apprehension of some Iudgement and wrath to come but it is like a flash of lightning that quickly vanishes but when Christ will humble a man he sets a Pillar of fire before him that leads him along from time to time till he be brought home to Christ. A small thing when God hath the setting of it on shall worke and never give over working till our hearts be qualified aright till we beleeve in Christ and embrace the Gospell And such an Humiliation you must have else it is nothing If it be a right Humiliation I say it will bring you home for you must know this is the condition of every man they cannot abide the net no man will come in if he can chuse Now the Gospell is a Net that catches men and as in the taking of fishes if they will take the Fish they beat the sides of the River and will not suffer them to rest in any corner for if they can finde any place to rest in they will not come into the Net So man hath many starting holes and faine would be quiet God humbles him a little but hee gets in a nooke and there hides himselfe that if God beat not the River thorow-out that is if God doe not pursue a man he will not be brought in As it was with them that fled to the Citie of refuge you know if one man killed another at unawares if he could get into the City of Refuge he were safe but were not he pursued by the Avenger of bloud he would not fly thither if God ever give over pursuing a man till he be just at the City he wil step aside and not regard it but when God shal charge sin upon the conscience and pursue him never giving him rest this brings him to the City of Refuge This is exemplified in the Prodigall sonne so long as he had any thing to restraine him while his goods lasted hee never thought of going home to his Father When he had spent his goods so long as he could get worke or had any thing to doe though he hired himselfe in a very meane condition to keepe the Swine yet he was well content but in the end when he came to have Huskes his utmost shift and yet if he could have had huskes he would not have come home when he had no sustenance but must needs perish then he goes home And indeed a man will never goe home till he have no bottome
to stand on nothing to hold by to sustaine him when a man is nothing is cut off the Tree he grew on before and sees that he must now perish eternally this is true Humiliation You that are to receive the Sacrament what doe we therein but offer Christ to you we preach Christ in the Sacrament he is therein indeed offered more sensibly Now what have you to doe with Christ if you are not humble Consider if this be not wrought in you and remember this that whosoever comes to the Sacrament without this Humiliation that wants this brokennesse of heart receives it unworthily and provokes God to wrath The Passe-over was to be eaten with sowre herbes and the maine businesse therein was to remember the condition they were set at liberty from to remember their bondage in Aegypt and their miseries endured there for by that they saw the greatnesse of Gods mercies So one of the maine businesses you have to doe is to consider your sinnes and be humbled to consider your miserable condition and to think it not a light matter that you may omit it Consider but that one place Levit. 23.29 you shall finde there that in the day of Expiation in the day of Atonement when they came to offer sacrifice he that on that day did not afflict his soule he was to be cut off from his people You have it two or three times repeated It is an ordinance and this is still put in Hee that comes to make an Atonement to be reconciled and offer a Sacrifice remember this ordinance for ever He shall afflict his soule and hee that doth it not shall be cut off from his people Therefore you have occasion to make use of it that are to receive and not you only for the Doctrine is generall Whosoever doth not afflict his soule he shall never bee reconciled but shall bee cut off from his people But you will say I should be willing to doe this but how shall I be able to doe it If God would humble me and set it on and convince me by his Spirit it might be done but how shal I doe it my selfe I answer Thou art to goe about it thy selfe It is not for nothing that those words are used in Ioel 2.13 Rend your hearts and not your garments He sayes rend your hearts And Ier. 6.4 Plow up the fallow grounds of your hearts that is you shall afflict your soules And Iames 4.9 Be afflicted that is suffer your selves to be affâ—icted for your selves sorrow and weepe that is the way to cleanse you Therefore a man should goe about the worke himselfe that is take this resolution Well I see I must be humbled else I cannot on good grounds take Christ for I shal not prise him therefore I will not give over labouring of my heart till it be humbled Suffer thy selfe to be afflicted as if he should say Men are not willing to suffer it if they doe hang their heads for a day they are quickly weary outward businesse comes or pleasure commands and the worke growes tedious Therefore is that in Ioel 2. Sanctifie a Fast that yee may rend your hearts that is sequester your selves from all other businesses from all other occasions sanctifie a Fast that ye may have leasure to doe it if one Fast will not doe it take another Let a man goe alone and resolve never to give over till it be done till he hath brought his heart to doe it When I have done this what shal I then do Consider your sinnes looke backe and consider how many oathes you have sworne how oft you have broken the Sabbath whether you have defiled your selves with sinnes of uncleannesse how often you have broken the Commandements looke on your idlenesse your omissions your sinfull silence your neglect of prayer and other duties Goe over all particular sinnes and their multitude will amaze you Remember the sinnes you have committed twenty yeares agoe and take this rule withall that these sinnes are the same now that they were though not in thy apprehension that is the weaknesse of our nature as it is the weaknesse of our eye we cannot discerne a thing that is a great distance from it it is its weaknesse that it cannot see things as they are but that will seeme little or nothing which in it selfe is big So it is with the sinnes that we have committed many yeares agoe we thinke them little and past but know that they are the same in themselves and in Gods esteem as they were before for he sees them as they are Therefore I say consider them lay them together and see the multitude and that will helpe to amaze thee And not that onely but consider them with their circumstances some it may be have been committed against light of conscience and that aggravates sinne it makes a small sinne out of measure sinfull When it is committed against knowledge it is not the same with the sinne against the Holy Ghost but it is neare to it Againe consider the hardnesse of thy heart in sinning the very sinne doth not hurt so much as that when a man slights it hee knowes hee hath sinned yet goes about his businesse and neglects it and this God lookes at When a man is injured the injury is not so much to him as it is to see the other to neglect it he cares not for angering me So you looke backe on your sins in a cold regardlesse and negligent manner Againe consider your relapses and fals into the same sins againe and againe though you have beene often admonished of it yea and have made a covenant and vow to God never to fall into it And know this that relapses and fallings into sin often stand for so many sins as in numbers the second figure is in proportion to the first which is ten times as much as the first and the third an hundred times as much So the addition of sins by falling into them again and againe and that carelesly too that makes the sin a great deale more consider this And if you goe about to excuse our selves It is true if God should marke all that is done amisse who can stand but I hope I shall be pardoned my nature is violently carried I am flesh and bloud and I hope God will pity mee But this should humble you the more that you are readie to fall into sin againe and again if it be thus in your actions it is much more abundant in the heart For put case there be a necessity hast not thou caused it thy selfe Againe you must know actuall sins intend originall corruption and there is no man that is guilty of any prevalent lust but he was the cause of it for if he had not by committing it often carelessely and negligently given so much strength to it it had not so prevailed Addition of sin in every act of sin varnishes over originall sin it makes it more active
true they might doe more if they would they might keepe the Law of Nature better than they doe and for that they are condemned Againe as we are condemned for Adams sin though we did not commit it so we are saved by the righteousnesse of Christ though we did not performe it and therefore there is an equity in that regard Wee can see an equity for our Salvation and is there not as much equity in the other that we should stand guilty of it though we never acted it For as we are condemned by Adams sin though not done by us so are we saved by Christs righteousnesse though only imputed to us So that in equity the severe righteousnesse of the Law should be required of us though we have not power to fulfill it Now that we may not stay in Generals only telling you that the Law of God is holy and pure and you carnall and contrary to it we will come to particulars And that we may helpe your memories observe the breaches of this Law in the severall faculties of the minde And we will begin first with the Generall the generall sore over-spreading all our nature and that is it which the Divines call Originall sinne first consider that and see how your nature is full of all unrighteousnesse and ungodlinesse First I say consider your originall sin and the generall corruption of your nature thereby Iohn 3.6 Whatsoever is borne of Flesh is flesh And Rom. 7.18 I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing Marke that he sayes no good thing Wee thinke wee have something that is good for all our generall corruption but there is nothing good at all As Gal. 3.22 The Scripture hath concluded all under sinne Not onely all men but for the word is in the neuter Gender all things Therefore in Gen. 6.5 he doth not only say The frame of a mans heart is evill but it is only evill and alway evill In all actions at all Times This is a common Truth but men consider not of it they thinke there is some goodnesse in them they will not be perswaded of this Truth in good earnest And therefore when a man comes into the state of Grace it is not mending two or three things that are amisse it is not repairing of an old house but all must be taken downe and be built anew you must be New Creatures And therefore God promises I will give you a new heart and a new spirit For all is out of order and nothing good And there is an equity in this for as in Psal. 49.12 Man being in honour abideth not but is like the beasts that perish That is as God raised man above himselfe giving him supernaturall glory in which he was created for he was created in holinesse and perfect righteousnesse so man not keeping this condition he was cast beneath himselfe And in this there is equity that being raised above himselfe having an holinesse given him transcending common nature he should now be made worse than himselfe even as the beast that perisheth Consider this corruption and know it is a thing that makes you loathsome in Gods sight For this Tit. 1. ult Men are called Abominable that is men that God abhors as you abhorre the snuffe of a candle or name any filthy thing your nature abhors such is the nature of men to God You know how we hate Toads and Serpents for their loathsome poisonfull nature though they doe us no hurt Now God lookes on the corruption of our nature as we looke on Toads that are contrary to us against which we have an Antipathie It is disputed by the Schoole-men whether this be unum peccatum one sin or moe we may easily answer it It is one in act one in essence but many in vertue and power and efficacie As a seed is one individuall but it is many as many branches may arise from it As Drunkennesse which will better expresse it is but one fault but it disorders the whole man neither the head nor the feet nor the reason is excluded So originall sin though it be but one sin yet it distempers the whole man it sets the wholâ— soule out of order And when the Instrument the heart is out of tune every sound every action is unsavoury and sinfull and thus should you looke upon your selves It is further disputed whether this be privative or positive likewise I answer It is only privative it is nothing but a meere want of righteousnesse But seeing it fals upon an active subject as the soule of man is which is never idle but ever stirring thence it comes that the habites and fruits thereof are active and positive It is true the want of sight to guide is enough to cause errour but the vigour of nature is enough to make it positive Therefore Divines say well It is not only compared to Darknesse which is a meere privation of light but to sicknesse where is not only want of health but corrupt humours which are contrary to health That is the first thing to be considered even the corruption of Nature which is in you which will exceedingly aggravate sin as I have shewed heretofore and shall more largely hereafter have occasion to speake of it Therefore I will say no more of it now but so much shall serve for the generall Originall corruption that is in us And now we will come to the particular faculties and will shew how they are corrupted that we may know our selves and the truth of this point which I am to prove that the nature of man is full of all impiety and wickednesse And first we will begin with the Vnderstanding or minde of a man In this marke first the Vanity of it How ready it is to attend to trifles which was the disposition that the Apostle found fault with in his Epistle to Timothy and others That they gave themselves to Fables and Genealogies and this is in every man by nature How full of questions were the Schoole-men and so every man is ready to turne Religion into questions of curiosities which shewes a sicknesse in the understanding it sets a man on worke to finde out what is propounded to it that hee may not lose his labour And thence come so many errors this is the vanity of the mind The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men sayth the Psalmist that they are vanitie And this should humble us that our minds are no more ready to attend the meanes of salvation As the Schoole-men spent themselves in idle speculations so are we ready to attend to idle questions but that which is wholesome and sound we neglect Secondly consider the blindnesse of the minde we are unwilling to learne and so long must needs be in an Errour and not come to the knowledge of the Lord. To other things we are forward enough but to doe well we have no understanding Therefore it is that men continue ignorant notwithstanding
againe and so kindle the fire of Gods wrath which shall smoake to our destruction Thus by your words learne to know the sinfulnesse of your natures Lastly see it by your Actions Now sinnes in actions are of two sorts either sinnes of Commission and here you are to goe backe and consider what sinnes you have committed whether drunkennesse uncleannesse inordinate affections or injuries to men what provocations or rebellions against God and when you see them look on the number of them and on the greatnesse of them Consider their circumstances and among the rest the frequencie of them your relapses into them and that will make you with David Psal. 19. to cry out Lord who can understand his faults But we will not stand on this because iâ— is obvious every one knowes that actions are sinnes we will come to the second sort And that is sins of Omission which we are ready to slight and forget as no great matters but they are other things than wee take them to bee nothing hath more cause to humble us than they I say the sinnes of Omission the barrennesse and unfruitfulnesse of our lives may humble us as well as the rebellions and sinfulnesse of them We will run thorow them As first to be idle on the Sabbath-day is a sin of Omission and provokes God to anger as well as polluting it and breaking it with positive Acts. So the restraining of Prayer to neglect it to omit it or to performe it slightly for God takes prayers by weight and not by number this is not a small thing Againe to neglect the hearing of the Word to neglect the Sacraments a fault we have much cause to be blamed for in this place and thing you have often beene admonished to I beseech you learne by our Admonitions for they are the Admonitions of God let them I say learne that are guilty of it So Communion of Saints is a thing we thinke not of But Heb. 10.25 You shall see what a matter it was to neglect that Ordinance So Fasting and Prayer we thinke are not required at our hands and if nothing but the neglect of that were laid to our charge it were nothing But see what that is when the time is that God cals for it I say the very omission of that when God cals for it is a sin saith the Prophet which shall never be purged away by sacrifice but shall remaine to death Besides these omissions of Acts come to the omission of Graces I meane the want of them as the want of Love to Iesus Christ. Yet who confesses this want of love although 1 Cor. 16.22 Hee is pronounced accursed that loves not the Lord Iesus let him be had in execration to the death So the want of Delight in God who thinkes of it Come to our Callings and see our negligence and idlenesse in them shall we give account for every idle word we speake and not for every idle houre wee spend Let young Gentlemen looke to this that passe from vanity to vanity spending their time idly and unprofitably trifling out their Seed-time Consider what this sin of Omission is And so for growing in spirituall graces and knowledge that we gather not more knowledge it being the key of heaven that wee grow not in good workes but are poore in them omitting our times and opportunities Againe our sinfull silence not speaking when we should either out of sluggishnesse or feare of men or by-respects this is no small thing God will call thee to an account for it Consider whether you have let goe occasions of doing good denying of meat and drinke kils a man as well as poison so the neglecting of duties the omission of what tends to salvation shall be death as well as actuall sinnes by which you provoke the eyes of Gods glory to vengeance Therefore in that sentence of Christ he doth not tell them what they have done but what they have not done You have not clothed me you have not visited me Learne therefore to judge aright of these sinnes of omission that they may helpe to amaze us and so much for actuall sins And so much for the Law the first part of our rule wherein we have runne thorow the corruption of the Faculties and so have discovered our habituall sins and now thorow the three kinds of actuall sinnes in Thought in Word and in Action The second rule which I told you we are to observe is the Gospell And here you thinke you shall scape well enough for the Gospell brings damnation to no body But if you consider of it right you shall finde that the Gospell is much more terrible in this case than the Law that it will humble us more and that the sins against the Gospell are much greater than those against the Law Marke this in briefe The refusing of Iesus Christ when God offers him and remission of sins by him that you may have him when you will if you will have him on such consequent conditions as are required which is to deny your selves to take up your crosse and follow him this wee preach continually I say this contempt of the Gospell your unwillingnesse to take Christ is a great sin and that that should humble you above all the rest And that you may know that I have reason to say so consider Christs speech It shall be more easie for Sodome and Gomorrah than for such a people for such a City as when the Gospell of the Kingdome was preached to them neglected it so that the sin of Sodome is not so great a sin as the refusing of Christ. You know the greatnesse of that sin the punishment shewes it yet it is not so great as this Againe it is said of Moses and Christ being compared together That if they that sin against Moses Law are condemned how much sorer punishment shall they be worthy of that breake the Law of Christ that beleeve not the Gospell It exceeds the sinne against the other Againe consider is it a small thing to cause the bloud of Iesus Christ to be shed in vaine to trample it under foot and to count it a common thing But so doth every man that neglects it that hearkens not to it that is not ready to receive it that is not poore in spirit and so doth not hunger and thirst after Christ. Againe consider It is the chiefe Command and the breach of the chiefe Command must needs be the greatest sinne When the Disciples asked Christ what was the great Commandement he said This is the greatest of all To beleeve on him whom the Father had sent So 1 Ioh. 3.23 This is his Commandement that we should beleeve in the name of Iesus Christ. Againe the Gospell is the uttermost the Law makes way for the Gospell therefore the sentence and condemnation of the Gospell is peremptory and terrible and nothing beyond it Againe consider God was angry for the contempt
is one and a principall One even to know the greatnesse of your sins The third and chiefe use of all the rest is this This Corruption of Nature this abundance of Corruption which hath beene shewed to you should drive us to Christ. And that is our end wee doe not preach damnation our end is Salvation Therefore wee would have men to know their condition to know that they bee in state of death For that that keepes men from comming to CHRIST and the reason that so few are saved that so few take the Gospell is they are not poore in spirit And why are they not so Because they see not their sins And for this cause wee have beene thus long in opening this point that you may know your selves And this I dare say If you did know your selves if GOD had kindled a light within whereby to see your Corruptions you would not stand cheapning the Kingdome of Heaven as you doe you come now in a lame and remisse manner but you would then come and give all that you have for it and goe away rejoycing and thinke you have a good bargaine God should not then deny you you would wrestle with him as Iacob did and give him no rest till you have obtained a blessing This would awaken men out of their dead sleepe of security as that is the condition of every man by nature as he is sinfull so he is secure he considers not his sins Therefore to all that I have said you must adde something of your owne what I have said is no more able to shew you the sinnes you are subject to than a little Mappe is to shew you the whole world it doth but point to the sinnes you are subject to as a point in the margent The way to make it profitable is to goe home to your owne hearts to consider these things particularly to see how your minde your Conscience Will and Memorie is out of order to consider how you have offended in thoughts in words and in actions by sinnes of Omission and of Commission and by that meanes you shall reade your Natures in your hearts and make what I have said profitable to you And doe not thinke you may goe too farre Doe not thinke we wrong your nature in saying it is more guiltie than it is for wee doe not so I may boldly say this Take that man that thinkes worst of himselfe hee is worse than he thinkes himselfe to bee and that I may not speake without Ground looke upon the first Epistle of Saint Iohn the third Chapter and the twentieth verse If our Conscience condemne us God is greater than our Conscience and knowes all things That is the Conscience of man hath some light but what is it to the eye of GOD to the light that is in him And so much as his light is greater than ours so much more hee sees what is amisse in us The heart saith Ieremie is deceitfull aboue all things who can know it There is a depth of evill in the heart which no man can search it is deceitfull and puts false glosses on things to hide them from our eyes Therefore doe not thinke thou canst exceed but labour for thy Humiliation to see all these things in a greater measure in thy selfe than as they bee here described and that not nakedly but with all Circumstances The end of the Third Sermon CERTAINE SERMONS VPON HVMILIATION The Fourth SERMON ROMANS 1.18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse of men which with-hold the Truth in unrighteousnesse AND this is a thing wee are very unwilling to do for the Medicine shews the Disease The Apostles taking of so much pains to perswade men that they shall not be saved by their own righteousnesse is an argument that it is an hard matter to perswade them It is the hardest thing in the Word to perswade a civill man that he must not sticke to his owne righteousnesse till God himselfe puts his hand to the worke for it is not in any mans power to convince him of his sinne or of the deficiencie of his righteousnesse Therefore that use wee should make of all that hath beene said to see the necessity that lyes on us to goe to Christ and that there is no salvation without him Now to make this Doctrine more effectuall to awaken you the more to rouze men out of that sleepe wherein they are by nature we will handle these two points First that the aggravations of sin are more than the sins themselves Secondly we will take away all excuses that so every mouth may bee stopped and when these two are done you will have much adoe to finde any starting-hole to keepe you from comming to Christ. For that is our End And these are very necessary For though you doe consider in your selves all the sins formerly named if it be done negligently without the Circumstances sin is a sword without an edge the Circumstance is that that gives it an edge that sharpens sin that makes it fit to wound us And secondly if the sword be never so keene and sharpe and yet we be forced to keepe it off it will not wound us Therefore we will I say in the second place take away the excuses by which men fence themselves and decline the stroke of truth decline this wound of the Law And so we will conclude this point and hasten to the rest For the first to make all you have heard before effectuall we will adde the Circumstances which is a thing necessary for it is a true rule the Schoole-men have that in moral things the circumstance is more than the thing it selfe Many times in natural things accidents are nothing in comparison of the forme but In moralibus as they say Circumstantia plus valet quà m forma For it is the Circumstance by which an action lookes if you looke round about it and see all that borders on it it will aggravate and make sin out of measure sinfull To run thorow them briefly First Consider this Circumstance in sinnes committed I speake of the corrupt nature of man that every sin committed against God is not only an offence committed against so great a Majesty for I will not stand to enlarge that Circumstance that the sin is greater as the person is greater against whom it is committed but consider the affection with which you commit it and you shall finde all this in a sin committed by a naturall man First an hatred of God in the sin They thinke they love God but if it be so what is the reason that word is put in Rom. 1.30 where the Apostle speaking of the rebellion of mankinde he reckons up particularly that which here he puts up in the grosse in the generall Haters of God You will say you doe not hate God but let me aske you this question Wouldest thou not live at liberty
Wouldest thou not have that removed which restraines thee Couldest thou not wish that there were no such strict law as Gods Law is Couldest thou not wish that there were not any Iudge to call thee to account Every naturall man had rather be at liberty hee wishes with all his heart that there were no such God no such Iudge Now if thou wishest God were not certainely thou hatest God when we wish a man not to be to be taken out of the nature of things out of the subsistence of being this man we properly hate and thus every man hates God Therefore Rom. 5.10 the Apostle speaking generally of mankind sayes When you were Enemies It is the condition of every man hee is an Enemie to God and sins out of Enmity and what obedience he performes is out of a false servile feare that is the first Secondly that is not all but he denies God dethrones him and sets up another god naturall men little thinke they doe so when they follow their Covetousnesse Lusts Honours Ambitions they little thinke they doe it But they doe Tit. 1. ult They professe that they know God but in their workes they deny him When they are charged with this that they thinke there is no God and told of the greatnesse of the fault as it is the greatest Treason to deny the King to be the King this Atheisme every man is ready to disclaime he thinkes it is not so with him But I beseech you consider there be two kindes of Thoughts in a mans heart some we call reflex thoughts when a man thinkes a thing and knowes that he thinkes it other we call direct thoughts which are in the heart but a man knowes it not and these must be found out by the Actions for they are discovered by the fruits But God that knowes the meaning of the spirit knowes likewise the meaning of the flesh Now saith the Text they professe they know him but in deeds they deny him that is in truth they deny God there bee certaine direct thoughts which have not such reflection in the heart of every naturall man by which he denies God for he honours not God as he ought hee denies the Power the Omni-presence the Iustice and Omni-science of God and if you can see this in his workes you may say there be such thoughts in him because he lives as if there were no God But you will object every man thinks there is a God It is true there is naturally some light in them but where there be two different Principles there be two different conclusions there is some light planted in them that teaches that there is a God but take the darknesse that is in their heart set aside from this light there is nothing but Atheisme he sets God aside and puts up something else in stead of him some make pleasures their god some make their riches their god some make their belly their god c. But we cannot stand on this Thirdly they despise God in the Commission of sin see it in the sin of lying wherein a man respects man more than God and so despises God he cares not though God knowes it and is a witnesse to it and so it is an injury to God a contending with God We little thinke it is so but see that place 1 Cor. 10.22 the Apostle speaking there of one particular sin that is of eating meat offered to Idols saith Will you continue to doe it Will you provoke God to jealousie Are you stronger than he It is as if you set your selves against him of purpose to doe him an Injury And these affections are in the sin of every naturall man And that is the first Circumstance A second Circumstance to aggravate sin is when it is committed against Knowledge and indeed no Circumstance does it more than this that a man sins against the light he hath when he knowes it to be a sin and it may be bethinks himselfe of it and yet commits it You know how it is with men An offence committed an Injury offered to a King after Proclamation comes to be a rebellion because his will was made knowne And so it is with God when he hath revealed a Truth to mee that I know this to be a sin and am convinced of it and yet goe on in it this alters the nature of a sin it is not now a bare Transgression of the Law but a Rebellion and so God is provoked in an high degree for in a sinne against Knowledge there is more harme more disobedience more presumption If a Prince be in a place where he is not knowne and findes not respect sutable to his worth hee matters it not hee wiâ—l not take it amisse for he is not knowne but if hâ— be known and taken notice of and yet neglected it is great dis-respect and taken for a great offence So when men sin against light given it aggravates sin exceedingly As in the one and twentieth verse of this Chapter this that the Apostle laid to the charge of the Romans aggravated their sin they knew God but they glorified him not as God as if he had said If you had not knowne him it were another case but to know God and not to practise according to knowledge to know God and not to glorifie him as God this God will not take in good part it shewes you are sinners and in a condition of death Therefore in Acts 17. saith dthe Apostle The times of Ignorance God regarded not but now he admonishes every one to repent that is when the Gentiles walked in their owne wayes before the Gospell came before God published and made knowne his will he wincked at it but now regards it not a yeare nor a day shall now passe without an account for it the axe is now laid to the root of the Tree he will deferre no longer he will take it no more as he did heretofore Therefore the Apostle Paul 1 Tim. 1. 13. saith I was a persecutour and blasphemer but am received to mercy because I did it ignorantly Why doth he adde that Because if he had had knowledge and so had done it wittingly and willingly his sin had beene out of measure sinfull and exceedingly aggravated it Therefore Daniel tels Balthazar as an addition to his sins Thou knowest all this and yet hast not humbled thy selfe if thou hadst not knowne it if thou hadst not had an example if it had not bin revealed to thee thy sin had beene so much the lesse and perhaps God would have suffred thee to live but thou knowest all this and yet didst not humble thy selfe But of all places take that in Rom. 7.13 Was that then which was good made death unto me God forbid But sin that it might appeare sinne working death in me by that which is good that sinne by the Commandement might become exceeding sinfull The meaning is this When a man knowes that the Law of God
discovers this and that to be a sin if he commits it his knowledge makes it out of measure sinfull The same Irregularity may be in others the same sinne may in it selfe be as great in another that knowes not the Commandement but the knowledge of it makes it to exceed in greatnesse for when a man knowes the will of God and yet sinnes against it it is a resisting of the Holy Ghost and such sinnes offend God more than the sinnes against the Father and the Son for the HOLY GHOST enlightens and when one is once enlightned there is a great contempt against the whole Trinity and therefore when a sin is fully against the Holy Ghost it is never forgiven Take heed of this resisting of the Spirit of this tempting of the Holy Ghost for so it is called Act. 5.9 As any man hath more knowledge hath beene more instructed so it addes the more to his sinne Rom. 2.9 Tribulation and anguish to the Iew first and then to the Greeke for the knowledge of the Iew was greater than the knowledge of the Greeke So that as any man hath more light he hath so much more condemnation his sinne is so much the more out of measure sinfull they that sin only against light of nature their sin is so much the lesse because they had but that one Law and so not so much light The Iewes that had another light above the light of Nature are sunke deeper into sin than the meere Naturalist and so are in a more miserable condition but we that live under the Gospell sin against both the former Lawes and against the Gospel too which makes our sins the greater And this is a Circumstance that should much humble us as for generall sins so for particular sins when they are committed against knowledge A third Circumstance is when sinnes are committed without Temptation or with lesse Temptation but when they proceed meerely out of the perversnesse of the will for when the Temptation is lesse the sin is greater Quantò major facilitas non peccandi tantò majus peccatum When the fault is only in the wils being amisse it is a sinne that exceeds and that is the case of many naturall men As for example suppose the will be right and the affections be well ordered and the understanding onely be ignorant this we call a sinne of Ignorance and that is a Circumstance which rather lessens a sin simply considered Secondly suppose the understanding be right and the will well disposed but passion transports a man this is a sin of Infirmity But when the understanding shall informe such a sin is a sin and no violent passion be stirred up to transport the soule but the will neverthelesse chuses it this I call a sin without Temptation and this Circumstance aggravates sin because there is more will in it and it is much to have the will stirring in a sin Therefore Hebr. 10.26 you shall finde this expression If we sinne wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth there remaines no more Sacrifice for sinne It is true he speakes there of the sin of Apostacie but marke that word If we sinne wilfully that is if the will have much to doe in it when the other faculties are rightly informed and wel set when there is no Temptation no resistance it is an ill signe that the sin is out of choice It is true a man may have his minde set the right way and yet a gust of wind may come and carry him out of the way but when the wind is still and the Sea calme and there is nothing to trouble him and yet he turnes the Rudder the wrong way and aims at a wrong haven he now sins out of will and perversenesse There are many sins of this nature as swearing when there is no Temptation when the Vnderstanding knowes it to be a sin and no great affection is stirred up but men will doe it because they will doe it So ordinary neglect of the Sabbath which can have no violent Temptation to carry a man to it So neglect of hearing the Word and Prayer I speake not of fals through infirmity So the favouring of sin in others as also scornefull and corrupt speeches tending to the disgrace of holinesse and purity of Conversation These be sins out of choice which a man is not transported to not carried to through any violence of passion It is one thing for a man to sell himselfe to sin as Ahab did and another thing to be sold under sin as Paul it is one thing to goe into Captivity another thing to be led thither with a kinde of over-ruling violence for in such a case the most upright-hearted man may be miscarried when sin shall get on the hill of passion when it shall have the wind of him and stand on the higher ground he may be foiled but when a man shall be on even termes with sin when it shall have no such advantage but a man is every way himselfe and yet then sin against God this aggravates it exâ—eedingly for he doth it not out of passion but â—n cold bloud and out of choice and when he â—hooses to sin it is a fearefull thing When it â—s with him as Augustine speakes of himselfe â—ho when he had Apples enough yet out of â—elight in the action he would goe to another Orchard and rob that without Temptation beâ—ause he would doe it So that there is difference betweene a man that is over-ruled and over-come out of violence and passion and a man that seekes Company and occasions and incentives to whet and quicken his lusts that so he may have more pleasure and delight in it Let those that are guilty consider this Circumstance Fourthly sinning against Vowes and Covenants made with God aggravates sin for God hath said he will require our Vowes if a man have covenanted God wil either have the thing done or else he will surely punish the party for breaking it it is a thing he will not omit Now besides particular Vowes and Covenants consider the generall Vowes we entred into at Baptisme besides those which we have renewed at the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Gal. 5.3 When a man is once Circumcised he is bound to keepe the whole Law So he that receives this Sacrament binds himselfe in a solemne bond to keep the whole Law now it is usuall that after men have received the Sacrament we see no alteration in their carriage if they were given to swearing before they sweare still if they were given to ill company to vaine and idle courses they continue the same still and thinke the sin the same but they are deceived in that for sin after Covenant is greater than it was before Ezek. 16.32 Sin is there aggravated from this reason saith the Prophet Thou hast beene an harlot as a wife that commits adultery that taketh strangers in stead of her husband As if hee had said Thou art married
in the world what outward imployment soever wee exercise our selves in yet our maine businesse is in heaven we be ready on all occasions to look to the face of the Ruler of the Physition of men and creatures but we forget that the swaying of the ballance this way or that way is from the Lord When Iacob had prayed earnestly to be delivered from Esau God answers him thou hast prevailed with God and thou shalt prevaile with men so whatsoever businesse you have on earth if you will bring your enterprize to passe prevaile with God and you shall be sure to prevaile with men turne him and all is turned with him for all depends upon him Whatsoever is done on earth is first done in heaven and concluded there and then we feele and taste the fruit of it here From this generall we may descend to particulars and from hence you may learne That it is not our Army by Land nor our Navy at Sea that shall secure us at home or prevaile abroad though it bee well that these things bee done and therefore you doe well in contributing cheerefully to his Majesty for the maintenance thereof for the common good yet still remember that all your businesse is in heaven and that you must trust more to your faithfull prayers then to your preparations for successe in all enterprises It is not our woodden wals that will guard us it is not the Sea wherewith you are invironed nor our policy counsell and strength that will secure us and defend us but it is turning to the Lord and cleansing the Land from the sinnes wherewith he is provoked that will doe the deed Turne to him and then he will turne to you that shall bee a blessing on us and all our enterprises This is to see God in all things this is to sanctifie and exalt him for God in our hearts and without this all is nothing I will end this point with this briefe direction you know there is in every man I speake now of every man that is holy and not of others who are strangers from God the flesh and the spirit there is faith and sense and one of these two every man sets on worke to take a view of the things that are before them If you set faith and the spirit on worke to looke on things they will tell you it matters not what outward things are what the Creature is for it is God that doth all set the flesh on worke set sense and carnall reason on worke and they will bring quite contrary newes like the wicked Spies that were sent into the Land of Canaan who when they did but cast their eye on the state of things there they were first discouraged themselves and then discouraged the hearts of the people Oh there bee Gyants and wals reaching up to heaven Whereas the good Spies that looked on things with another eye brought another kinde of message Iust thus it is with us in sending out our Spies to looke upon the state of things before us if we send forth the Flesh Sense and Reason they bring report of terrible Wals and cruel Giants their power is so great their forces so strong that there is no medling with them but send Faith and the Spirit and the Will like good Spies looke on things with a right Iudgement and indeed that is all the difference betweene an holy man and another the one lookes on things with another eye hee sees a vanity in the Creature which the other doth not he sees an All-sufficiencie in God which the other cannot And therefore he hath onely an eye to the Lord all his care is to serve him and please him in all things So he hath no ill newes from heaven he cares for nothing on earth The other cares not how matters stand betwixt God and him so all things bee well below so his Mountaine stands strong and therefore that we may judge of things with a righteous judgement we must be carefull to see them in their true nature which onely Faith and the Spirit will present And so much shall serve for that point You see then that it is the wrath of God that doth all hurt and the favour of the Lord that doth all the good We come now to the second point which will come in well upon the former That it is sinne that causes wrath sin and wrath are knit together they are inseparable So that as Elisha said when Iehoram sent a messenger unto him to take away his life when he was sitting in the house with the rest of the Elders Shut the doore upon him and hold him fast for is not the sound of his Masters feet behind him So I say to every man If sinne and wrath come together then first shut the doore of sin which is the Messenger suffer it not to come in give it no entertainment for is not the sound of his Masters feet behinde him Doth not the wrath of God follow And shall not that wrath take away our head as Elisha said Therefore if you will keepe out GODS anger keepe out sinne But you will say I feele no such thing I have committed sinne and yet have no experience of his wrath following so close upon it I answer you must know this that as diseases must have a time of ripening so must sinne You know the poison of a disease enters not into the heart at first Sin hath certaine Vestigia which are set downe Iames 1.14 When Lust is conceived it brings forth sinne and when sinne is ripened and perfected it brings forth death The reason why it brings not death presently is because it is not perfect because it is not ripe The sinnes of the Amorites saith God are not yet full Ahab had committed a sinne he had got the Vineyard and slaine Naboth and yet heard nothing of it but when he had killed and taken possession too then came the Messenger of wrath and execution followed God let Iudas goe on till he had made the match taken recompence and betrayed his Master but than wrath came in upon him God stayed a great while till the sinne of Pharaoh was perfected till his hardnesse of heart was come to a ripenesse and then he was drown'd in the Red-sea Therefore in the second to the Romans it is said There is a Treasure of wrath Now in a Treasure there are three things First when a man is once able to treasure up any thing he is still adding to it and by degrees it growes and in that sense the Lord hath a Treasure of wrath as we adde sinnes he addes drops to the viall of his wrath till it be full Secondly it is a Treasure for a Time it lies still a while for else it were not Treasure And thirdly when the time of expence comes then it is opened And so it is with the wrath of the Lord it is gathered by
of chaffe preserv'd from burning Is it not because there is some Corne some Wheate mixed therewith If the Corne be once out will not the Lord as men use to doe after winnowing set the chaffe on fire As women with childe are grieved to be delivered so the Lord stayes till the world be delivered as it were of all his Elect ones of all the Saints of all his holy and zealous ones and then shall be brought forth the Iudgement of the great day The World may cast out these men as the Sea doth Pearles among mire and dirt but they are Pearles notwithstanding God knowes them to be so and wise-men know them to be so yea Pearles excelling other men as much as Iewels doe common stones as much as Lilies and Roses doe Thornes and Bryers among which they grow What 's the reason that Elijah is called the Chariot of Israel and the Horsemen thereof but because hee was an holy man that did much for Gods glory that did more advantage the State at home and did more prevaile abroad than all the Chariots and Horsemen And may not we apply this to the zealous among us Therefore when we injury any of them doe not wee cut off the haire from Sampsons head wherein the strength of every Countrey and Nation and every Citie and Towne consists Yea the cutting off of them is like the cutting off of his lockes which the more the grow the more strength a Kingdome hath I say no more but commend it to every man in his place wishing that you would let it be your generall care to encourage true Religion and Zeale the omitting whereof I am perswaded is one of those things which causeth the Lords hand to be stretched forth against us Secondly if it be Zeale that turnes away the LORDS wrath then where is the Zeale that should be among us Are wee not rather fallen into those later times the Apostle speakes of which should have a forme of Religion without the Zeale and Power and Life of it And if Zeale turnes away Gods wrath certainly then this formalitie this overlinesse of Religion this coldnesse without Zeale and Power is it that brings on his wrath It is true and we cannot deny but knowledge abounds amongst us as the waters in the Sea But where is the Salt That is where is that Zeale and holinesse that should season all our knowledge Where is the Fire that should adde practice to our knowledge and make it an acceptable sacrifice to GOD Wee have the light of former Times but not their heat As he complaines Ignis qui in Parentibus fuit calidus in nobis lucidus The Fire which in ancient Times was hot is now onely light We thinke it enough to goe to Church to receive the Sacrament and so to keepe a round as it were to doe as most doe being carried about with the generall course of the World as the Planets are with the rest of the Spheres contrary to that which should bee their proper motion But I beseech you consider it Is this Religion Is this the Power of Godlinesse is this to be Baptized with the Holy Ghost which is as Fire Surely Religion stands not in these outward formalities but in changing the heart in making us New Creatures in mortifying our Lusts and thorowly purging out the love of every corruption Therefore if you will turne away Gods wrath turne your formality into Zeale that is content not your selves with the performance of the duties of Religion externally but get that wherein the power of godlinesse consists else the outside of Duties will not divert Wrath. Againe did Zeale turne away the wrath of the Lord then where are our zealous affections Why are we not zealous for the Lord and zealous against sinne You know Christ died for this end that hee might purifie unto himselfe a peculiar people zealous of good workes Titus 2.14 Men doe good actions as a Taske they are glad when they be over but doe you them with much intention much fâ—rvencie much desire be you a people zealous of good workes Therefore in Rom. 12.11 They are put together be fervent in spirit and serving the Lord implying that the Lord respects no service but as it is joyned with fervencie Therefore know that it is not enough to serve the Lord in an ordinary Tract you must mend your pace to heaven it is not enough to goe but you must runne the way of Gods Commandements And as you must be zealous for him so you must be zealous against evill For you must know this and marke it well it is not enough to abstaine from sinne it is not that alone that God will accept but he lookes that you should hate sinne As it is said of Lot his righteous soule was vexed with the uncleane conversation of the Sodomites that is his heart rose against them there was an inward distaste against them the like you shall see in David and Moses You will say I hope I detest sinne and am angry with it It may be so perhaps you are angry with sinne but Zeale you know is an intention of the affection of hatred and it is required that you hate sinne Revel 2.6 This thou hast that thou hatest the worke of the Nicolaitans which I also hate You will say How doe they differ You shall know hatred by this First it is a constant affection it abides with us Anger goes away as all passions doe it is but for a fit for a flash on some occasion Againe hatred is alwayes of generals the sheepe hates all Wolves we hate all Toads all Serpents I say wheresoever there is hatred it turnes to the whole Species Now doe you hate all sinne all kindes of sinne one as well as another Doe you not only abstaine from them but also hate them of what sort soever they bee Lastly Hatred seekes the utter destruction of the thing hated Anger would have but a proportion of Iustice as Aristotle sayes Now is it so with you Doe you seeke the utter destruction of sinne abstaining not onely from grosse sinnes but from all dalliances from the least touch of sinne cleansing your selves from all pollusions of the flesh and spirit If you will be zealous for the Lord then know that this is required that you not onely doe things but that you doe them zealously that you not onely abstaine from sinne but that you hate it Againe if it be Zeale that turnes away the wrath of the Lord then where is our boldnesse our courage our forwardnesse for the Truth Why are we so fearefull and shie of doing the thing that otherwise we thinke meet to bee done For Zeale hath that prâ—pertie among the rest it makes men bold the Zeale of the Apostles was knowne by their boldnesse But you will say A man may be too bold It is very true when the horse runnes up and downe and is at libertie
Christ Iesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature LONDON Printed by R. B. for NICOLAS BOURNE and are to be sold at his shop at the Royall Exchange 1633. CERTAINE SERMONS VPON THE NEW CREATVRE 2 COR. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature WE have propounded to our selves this method First to shew what we are out of Christ and there our worke was to humble men Secondly to shew what we have by Christ and how we are made partakers of him and that is done by faith The third is to shew what we should doe for Christ and here begins the worke of Sanctification for as I told you these were the three parts of the Apostles Ambassage To preach the Law first that it might be a Schoole-master to bring us to Christ And then to preach Iustification by Christ Thirdly to preach Sanctification Now we have chosen this Text as a ground for the last having finished the two former We will shew you in a word how it depends upon what goes before that you may see the scope of the Apostle in these words In the thirteenth and fourteenth verses of this Chapter the Apostle tells them that hee was ill used by them Some of you saith hee thinke we are no better than out of our wits It is no matter whether we are in our wits or out of our wits yet we must goe through the worke of the Ministery of the Gospell committed to us for Christs sake that is wee looke not to you It is the love of Christ that constraineth us we can doe no otherwise When he had said this hee gives the reason why the love of Christ carried him along to doe his duty whether he had wages or not whether he had good report or not yet for the love of Christ he did it For saith he we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead that they that live should not henceforth live to themselves but to him that died for them As if hee had said Is there not reason that wee should thus neglect our selves for Christ seeing hee died for this end that wee should no longer live to our selves but to him that is he hath bought us at a deare rate therefore we should no longer make our selves our end but we must live to him wee must thinke what Christ would have us doe what worke he will set us about Now when he had said this hee insisteth in one particular wherein he shewed that he did not live to himselfe but to Christ Wherefore henceforth we know no man after the flesh no not Christ himselfe that is we doe not regard any man for any outward respects we do not magnifie any man for any outward honour and excellencie that he hath Againe we doe not vilifie any man for the want of any outward excellencies but we magnifie every man as hee excels in grace yea Christ himselfe though hee had outward excellencies as other men yet we love him now only in spirituall respects as he is our Mediatour we behold now every thing according to the Spirit Now when he had gone thus farre he drawes this conclusion Therefore if any man be in Christ let him bee a new Creature As if he should say this is a consequence that must needs follow If this bee true that Christ died that every man that lives should live to him then if any man will have part in Christ if any man thinke he have any interest in him to be justified by him he must be another man than he was before he must be a new Creature hee must know no man nor thing after the flesh he must live to the Lord and not to himselfe in all things So that now hee drawes it from himselfe and raiseth it to a more high and generall conclusion It is required saith he of every man living that if he be in Christ hee must be a new Creature that is hee must put off himselfe altogether he must be no more the same man he was hee must lay aside himselfe and put on Christ Iesus he must be made like him We will not stand longer to open the words because wee shall doe that in the handling of the severall points that shall be delivered to you out of them And first wee will take this plaine point that the words afford us That Sanctification must needs follow Iustification Or if you will take it in the words that are laid downe in the Text Whosoever is in Christ that is whosoever will be justified by Christ must have a new Nature created in him by God for that is the meaning of it whosoever is in Christ must be made a new man he must have another Nature which is created in him by GOD that is intimated by this word Creature Now in the handling of this point we will doe these two things First we will shew how Sanctification ariseth from Iustification because that is the main scope for which we chose this Text. Secondly wee will shew you the reasons why they are inseparable why the one must needs follow the other and then further open this doctrine to you that whosoever is in Christ must have a new Nature created in him by God The first thing that we have to do is to shew you how Sanctification ariseth from Iustification and it hath a double rise The one is from the Spirit that is infused into us presently after we are justified or at the same time only there is a difference in the order of Nature Secondly it ariseth from some actions wrought in the minde whereby a man comes to this conclusion If Christ have accepted me for his if he be mine and will justifie me and free me from my sinnes then I will serve him in all things For the first as soone as any man hath taken Christ and received that Righteousnesse of his by faith there is an union betweene Christ and him and upon this union the Spirit of Christ is shed into him Gal. 4.6 Because you are sonnes God hath set the Spirit of his Sonne into you that is as soone as you receive him you have the same Spirit sent into your hearts that dwells in Christ and so Gal. 5.2 Received you the Spirit by the workes of the Law or by the hearing of faith preached that is by hearing the doctrine of faith I say as soone as a man is justified he receives the Spirit So likewise Rom. 8.9 You are not in the flesh but in the Spirit c. and he that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his that is as soone as we are justified God sends the Spirit of his Sonne into us and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is not yet justified And the like you have Rom. 6.2 when some had made this objection If grace abound why doe we not sinne the more that grace may more
him off But you will say these things that you speak are wonderfull things how shall we have this wrought in us By being in Christ this wonder is wrought in us when a man is once ingrafted into Christ when hee hath once received him this great worke is wrought in him in his heart hee is made a new Creature But if you adde to this the second way of raising this Sanctification from our Iustification then you will understand it yet more fully and distinctly There are certaine actions wrought in our soules by which this Sanctification followes Iustification and those are these First when a man seeth great reason for it for when a man is once convinced of a thing that it is best for him to doe it and takes a resolution to him to performe it Now when a man hath beene humbled and knoweth what sinne is when he hath had his heart prepared when he comes in once to take Christ that is when he seeth his owne basenesse and Christs excellencie what he was without Christ and what he hath by Christ that when he expected nothing but death then the Gospell came and said Thou shalt live when he seeth that Christ deales with him after this manner then hee thinkes surely It is good reason that I should serve him before indeed we thinke his service to be an hard service and we doe with him as people that are under a tyrannous King they refuse to obey such an one so doth all the world with Iesus Christ they thinke his Law to be an hard Law written with bloud and they thinke him to be an hard Governour such a King as they know not how to be subject unto But when a man is once convinced by the Spirit when he sees reason for it when he is perswaded that Christ will governe him for his wealth that Christ hath suffered for him and freed him from the wrath of God then hee thinkes thus There is reason that I should suffer him to rule over me and when a man seeth reason for it he comes then willingly to submit himselfe to Christ. This is the worke of the Spirit whereby he perswades a man that there is reason for it and it is attributed to the Spirit Iohn 16 The Spirit convinceth of Sinne of Righteousnesse and of Iudgement that is it shewes us that we are sinfull and that there is a Righteousnesse in Christ to heale that And thirdly it convinceth us that there is reason for it why we should serve God in Sanctification and Iudgement The meaning of the word He shall convince is that the Spirit shewes us reason why we should embrace Sanctification and serve the Lord in all things Now when the heart of man is brought to this to see reason and equity in this then a man takes resolution to cleave to Christ to serve him Secondly as he deales with the reason so he doth likewise with the affections for he begets love in us which love sanctifieth us it sets us on worke and turnes the whole heart as the Rudder turnes the Ship for it sits in the sterne of a mans Soule and the reason that when we are justified we love Christ is because when as before a man magnified himselfe setting himselfe at an high rate like a virgin that is coy and curious thinking no man good enough for her now the Law comming and convincing him of the need he stands in of CHRIST and shewing him what he is in himselfe he is hereupon content to marry with the Lord Christ Nay further the Spirit of God not only shews him the need that hee stands in of an husband he being not under covert and deepely in debt the whole weight of his debt lying on himselfe but it goes further and shewes him the beautie of Christ as Ioh. 14.21 To him that loves me I will manifest my selfe that is I will declare my beauty and when the Spirit shewes Christ to the Soule it makes it in love with him We may shew him to you an hundred times over and yet beget not this affection in you but the Spirits shewing is effectuall to that end and when you love him you must needs please him in all things it being the care of the married wife to please the husband So that when the heart is prepared by humiliation and takes Christ love is wrought in the Soule and love sanctifies for Sanctification is nothing else but a setting our selves apart from common uses and keeping of the heart close to God making it peculiar to him and this love makes us to doe when the wife loves the husband shee will be his altogether she will be only to him she will be divorced from all Adulterers and have nothing to doe with them and thus the Lord deales with the affections Thirdly there is wrought not only a love to the Lord but a perswasion that it is good for our selves to serve him in holinesse Indeed many times to satisfie our affections we love a thing too much though wee doe not thinke our selves gainers thereby but in this matter the Lord perswades us that it is best for our selves to sanctifie him in all things to draw neere unto him to sanctifie his Name in our hearts so that now not only love to Christ but even selfe-love also is set on worke to the making us New Creatures for the wayes of God are propounded as good and profitable and pleasing things and when the heart lookes on them it sees them as good for it selfe so that the heart turnes towards them as it cannot but doe to every thing that it apprehends to be good and profitable to it So that when the Holy Ghost shall perswade a man that it is best for himselfe that he shall best provide for himselfe every way by taking Christ hee cannot choose but come in when hee shall see it is best for him to goe to the Citie of refuge that he cannot live else and that if he comes there he shall have life and not only life but a kingdome too and that the way that leads thereto is grace and holinesse hee will goe and goe fast enough When a man is perswaded Christ is the Citie of Refuge to whom I must go else I cannot be safe and that the way to him is to be a new Creature this makes him to goe on and willingly too for it is out of selfe-love Againe when a man is justified and hath taken Christ there is bred in him an holy Ingenuitie which makes him so thankfull to Christ that hee is ashamed to joyne Christ with any sinne As Rom. 6.21 What profit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed you are now ashamed to commit them any more A man will thinke it now an unreasonable thing that Christ should doe so much for him be crucified for him and so give him life being before dead men that he should take flesh for the remission
that we may strengthen our soules because we recover our Communion with him For what is Sanctification but a drawing neere to the Lord And then we draw neere when we renue our Communion and our Covenant with him when the match is renewed between us and if we doe so we shall goe from him every day as men refreshed at a banquet like men that have fed on fat things full of marrow as men full of wine Be you filled not with wine wherein is excesse but with the Spirit What is the meaning of that Antithesis but to shew that the Spirit is like wine it strengthens and how receive we the Spirit Is there not the same meanes of renuing of it from day to day Is not the same meanes of renuing it as there is of receiving of it at the first Didst not thou get it first by going to Christ and shall not thou still regaine and repaire thy strength by that meanes I cannot stand to presse this farther Secondly in that they are put together thus Iustification and Sanctification hence wee should be stirred up to prise it to set it at the same rate as wee doe Remission of sinnes because we see the Holy Ghost doth so For seeing this thing is promised seeing it is chosen out among the great benefits wee have by CHRIST that we shall be renued we should learne so to judge of it to set it at an high rate in our conceits to conforme our Iudgement to the Iudgement of the Scriptures Every man would bee content to be saved but to be made a New Creature men are so farre from reckoning it a priviledge that they reckon it a bondage you would fain be free from Hell you would faine goe to Heaven without such a necessity put upon you this is the common fashion of men but marke the Holy Ghost puts this among the great benefits wee have by Christ. You know the comming of the Messias how it was magnified by the Iewes what great things they should have when Christ should come What were those great things One of the chiefe was to make them New Creatures to set them at libertie from their spirituall enemies That they should be taught of God that they should have his law written in their hearts and have their hearts circumcised to love him that they should have new hearts and new Spirits given them this is that great benefit that hath beene so much magnified so many yeares before the comming of Christ. It is that which the Apostles when they came to preach the Gospell set out as so great a Priviledge learne we to prise it for certainly there is nothing in the world so precious a grace whereby we are made New Creatures It is a true saying because indeed there is no excellencie that is like it if you would rectifie your judgments and teach them to apprehend things as they are therefore let us reason with you a little for that old man those lusts that you prise so much that you will not part with that you cherish and nourish in your selves and you are Enemies to those that are Enemies to them I say consider what you doe this old man is it not the sicknesse of the soule is it not the filth and the foulenesse of the soule is it not the slavery and bondage of the soule And the new man is it not the contrary doth it not excell it Therefore as much as health exceeds sicknesse as much as cleanenesse exceeds impuritie foulenesse and filthinesse as much as liliberty exceeds slavery and bondage so much and more doth the New man excell the Old man Besides if you looke to other things take all other things which the world hath all the profits all the pleasures all the learning and knowledge whatsoever it is that in the world is precious yet to be made a New Creature goes beyond all because indeed it puts you into the same condition that Adam had in innocencie you will say to be made like Adam againe to be restored to that happinesse it is beyond all that the world can afford Now to be made a New Creature it puts you into that estate But you will say that is not so Adam was in Paradice he had outward contentments in abundance but to be made a New Creature is not so It is true there were two Conditions that Adam had one was his outward Condition being placed in Paradice the other was his happinesse to be a New Creature this was incomparably beyond the other as wee shall easily make that plaine to you Put case there were a man that had faire Pallaces and Gardens and Orchards and all things that his heart could desire to have but all this while he hath not health would he regard all this On the other side suppose he had health put him into a Cottage if he have strength would hee not beare it well enough That is our case When Adam had all that yet when he had lost Gods Image when hee had lost being a New Creature he was like a man that was fallen into a great sicknesse he was fallen into terrour and horrour of conscience what good could all that doe A man that is out of Paradise that lives as wee doe among men that hath Gods Image renued on him which hee lost that is made a New Creature he is happie when Adam was miserable Let us consider a little What was it thinke you that made Adam happy in Paradise Was it the being in a Garden full of pleasant things No it was not that but his Communion with God that made him happy Therefore you see wherein his misery consisted it consisted not in the losse of Paradise for there he was still he had all that he had before for outward things but he felt shame and horrour of conscience he felt inward trouble and anguish of spirit when he heard the voice of God walking in the Garden therefore it stands not in that but to be made a New Creature is to be put into the inward condition that Adam was in and therefore you have reason to seeke it If any thing in the world be worth the seeking it is this to be made a New Creature All other things are not the proper excellencie of a man you know the Angels and the Saints want them and the Beasts enjoy them but the excellencie of man is to be made according to the first Rule to be squared according to the Image of God after which he was first created and hee is never well till he come to that As no Creature is well till it have that excellencie belonging to the kinde of it this is an excellencie peculiar to man therefore seeke happinesse as long as you will in other things you shall never finde it but in being made New Creatures in having Gods Image repaired in being sanctified in Body and Soule and Spirit this puts you into an happy
wherein consists the new man The new man consists in holinesse wrought in the will which proceeds from truth revealed unto the understanding so when the understanding and the judgement is rectified thou art made a New Creature Againe when the will is corrupt by lusts proceeding from errour in the understanding thou art in state of an old Creature The old man stands properly in lusts therefore saith Peter 2 Pet. 1.4 Fly the corruption which is in the world through lust All the corruption of mankind stands in these inordinate lusts Others wee may looke on as the fruit but this as the Root What are those lusts Iohn shewes them by three heads 1 Ioh. 2.16 The lusts of the flesh the lusts of the eye and the pride of life The old man stands in these three Take the first Lust even the lust of the Eye A man lookes upon wealth to make him happie in this life I meane no otherwise and looking upon this he lusts after it Doe but rectifie his judgement and let wealth be presented to him as it is in it selfe and hee will come to be affected with it as Paul was who accounted all but drosse and dung hee will say then why should I set my heart upon that which is nothing but vanity I say when the understanding is rectified you will looke upon wealth aright and as you shall see it at the day of death for then wee are as a man awakened out of a dreame we will looke on it then as it is Iam. 1.10 Let the Rich-man rejoyce that hee is made low for as a flower of the grasse so shall he vanish The meaning of this is when a man is made a New Creature he is brought downe in his conceit whereas before hee thought himselfe a great man because of his wealth Now Religion comes and that makes him low and let him be glad of it Why What reason hath a man to be glad of it Indeed if wealth were a thing of moment it were another matter but he was deceived Riches are but as the flower of grasse A wise man lookes on Riches as flowers of the Garden with children and the weakest doe much magnifie Indeed if they were of great moment he lost by it but as Iames saith They are but as flowers of the grasse worth little For the Lust of the flesh that is another thing whereby this old man is seene A man lookes on outward pleasures or delights as able to give satisfaction and as the greatest delights in the world let his Iudgement be rectified he looks upon them as Enemies that fight against the Soule as the workes of darknesse which he abhorres and so he comes to Lots disposition Whose righteous Soule was vexed to see the filthinesse of the Sodomites When his Iudgement is right hee lookes on them as base and vile things as Enemies unto his Soule that will be his destructioâ— For the Pride of life Man lookes on outward things as the onely excellencies which makes him admire them so but when his Iudgement is once rectified hee lookes upon them as the Apostle doth who accounted them but empty things as bubbles blowne up by Boyes To conclude when the Iudgement is rectified in stead of Errour and Deceit which is the Root of the old man whence comes these three great Lusts which are the maine and from which all the rest will follow then the lusts are dissolved and the new man comes from truth as the other is corrupted and comes from deceit So you see what it is to have this new quality to have the Iudgement rectified and the lust dissolved And not so onely but there must be new desires wrought in thee A carnall man over-values carnall things and in spirituall things hee comes farre too short like a man that lookes upon a banquet when his belly is full he hath no appetite unto it So a carnall man lookes upon Sinne and forgivenesse But when a man hath his Iudgement rectified he comes to have many holy desires and in this stands the New Creature Againe it comes from knowledge of the Spirit But you will say we have knowledge and if that would doe it then they that know most are best men But you must know what kinde of knowledge this is The new man must be renued in knowledge This is such a knowledge of holinesse as the Holy Ghost reveales unto us and except this knowledge be revealed unto you our revealing is nothing We preach Wisdome which the Princes of the world know not neither can know Take Aristotle or others which are the Princes of the world for wisdome they know not these things nay if they were taught them they could not learne them for they are revealed by the Spirit and if wee preach unto you never so oft if the Spirit doe not reveale them unto you it is nothing We see that by experiience that a man that can reason against these and these sinnes can speake of the vanity of these things can give twenty better reasons against them than another man yet hee seekes after them as much as any The wise-men and strongest wits which can say most against them yet have not their lusts dissolved when a poore man that is truly sanctified although he cannot say the hundreth part against sinne as another man yet he doth hunger after Iesus Christ. Therefore it must be the worke of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3. ult But we all behold as in a mirrour the glory of the Lord with open face and are changed into the same Image from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord that is when wee looke into the Word wee see the Image of God so may another man too but he doth not see the glory of it he doth not looke on it as a desirable thing as a thing he is in love withall God shewes Moses his glory hee never shewed his glory but to the Saints The greatest request that Moses desired was to see the glory of the Lord I will shew thee my glory saith God that is thou shalt see as much as shall be needfull for thee to see in this life God shewes himselfe unto us in his Word and when hee will shew a man his glory he makes him to have a love to it and then hee is transformed into his Image Another sees it but he is not transformed into such a knowledge as convinceth the minde of sinne when wee teach knowledge it is as the Sparkes in a darke roome or as the Starres in a darke night the roome is darke still so it is with all knowledge till the Holy Ghost doth teach it wee may beget a thousand sparkes in you but they will not turne the darknesse into light But when the Holy Ghost comes it doth not onely appeare there but it changeth us from darknesse into light You must know that when we preach only it is as when the light shines the windowes being shut against it there
is none shines into the house so when men thinke they understand most yet they want this light to shine into the house Luke 24.45 Then opened he their understandings that they might understand the Scriptures They had heard Christ before but they understood not his Word like those which sowed seed on ill ground and therefore received not the fruit of it but when the Holy Ghost comes into thy heart that will convince thee of evill it will expell darknesse and set right thy Iudgement otherwise though you heard Paul preach yea Christ himselfe were your Iudgements never so good yet it would not be done till the Holy Ghost teacheth you you will never know him never see him aright in his glory never see him so as to delight and long after him so as to desire nothing in the world so much as communion with him Thus it is when his Image is renewed in Knowledge and Truth and where this Knowledge and Truth is Holinesse instantly followes There are many that know and practice not and there are many which neither know nor practice but where this Image is what ever they know they practice Well let us apply this unto our selves briefly If to bee a New Creature there is required of us this Faith and Love Truth and Holinesse Knowledge and Righteousnesse then let us learne not to bee deceived to regard nothing else in comparison of this Doe as the Apostle Gal. 6.15 For in CHRIST IESVS neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a New Creature that is it is no matter for any thing in a man Circumcision is no better than Vncircumcision Goe thorow all the duties of Religion you shall finde them nothing till you bee made a New Creature I know many doe many things they come to Church and give almes well saith the Apostle Circumcision and Vncircumcision is all one so say I Prayer and no Prayer is all one doing justly and unjustly it is all one untill a man bee a New Creature Therefore saith Paul 1 Cor. 13.3 Though I give all my goods to the poore which is a glorious action nay though I could be content to bee a Martyr though I give my body to bee burned and have not love it profiteth nothing So except you be New Creatures your labour is lost for Nature may doe much with the knowledge of the Gospel As the Earth brings forth grasse of it selfe and some flowers of the lowest sort but to bring forth a crop and flowers of the finest sort it must be tilled and there must bee seed put in Nature I say may doe much but this New Creature must come from an Immortall seed sowen in the heart by God himselfe Therefore looke whether thou hast that wrought in thee or no. For this is all the comfort we have when the body is decayed and waxen old yet let us not be discouraged though this outward man decay and perish there is a new youth springing up This is all the comfort we have that when the old house is going downe we have a new house setting up in stead of it Every man is glad to see an old house pulled downe and a new set up in stead of it but to see an old house going downe and no new one to bee set up the ruine of it is a most miserable Spectacle Take an Husband-man who hath taken great pains in plowing and sowing his ground when he sees his corne is rotten he is glad of it because he knowes new will come up in stead of it so when we see the body decaying and our day drawing towards evening when the Sunne of life is ready to bee set upon us when we shall grow no more this presents nothing but confusion yet here is hope for us There is light Sowen unto the righteous All the consolation and all the comfort wee have in these dayes of our vanity is that we have a New Creature that is not subject to vanitie The end of the Third Sermon THE FOVRTH SERMON VPON THE NEW CREATVRE 2 COR. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature NOw we come to the last thing to be observed in the New Creature which is that there is not only an infusion of a new Quality but a weakning of the old Therefore we put that into the description A man is a New Creature when his heart is cast into another mould by the infusion of a new quality of grace and by a destroying of the old And this is specially to be observed because there bee two parts of the New Creature a mortification of sinne as well as a vivification For Common Nature is like a Bowle between two byasses Corruption is the wrong byas carrying us out of the way and Grace the good byas carrying us into the way So you must knocke off the old byas as well as put on a new one that is Common Nature lyes as an indifferent thing betweene Grace and Sin the Flesh and the Spirit Corruption and Holinesse so that as the body is betweene health and sicknesse so is Common Nature between originall sinne which is as the sicknesse or death of the Soule and Holinesse which is the health of it Now it is not only required that there be an infusion of the new Quality but likewise a weakning of this old both cannot stand together so farre as you strengthen one the other is weakned it is alwayes so where is contrariety where there is no contrariety two may stand together but when things be opposite the comming in of the one is the weakning of the other the comming of heat is a weakning of cold this is of speciall use And this use we are to make of it that hence then you see this will follow that if you finde much newnesse in your selves according to your owne opinion you finde you can doe many things you could never doe before you are able to doe these and these duties of new obedience well suppose it yet except there be a mortification of the old lusts if thou find that there be any lusts continue in thee in strength that in that regard thou art the same man still whatsoever addition there be it is no matter it is certaine thou art not yet a New Creature for a New Creature consists not in superinduction of the new Quality the old remaining but in a weakning of the old too It is not only a superaddition of the new but the death of the old also Therefore if thou findest any corruptions continuing in the fulnesse of their first strength not weakned at all though thou hast all signes of grace all parts of a New Creature to thy seeming yet thou art deceived because if thou wert new there would be a mortification of the old lusts So againe it is true on the other side Put case thou finde a great change in thy selfe such lusts as have been vigorous and lively thou findest to be
off but if it be the changing of a Black-moores skin how wilt thou doe that Can the Black-moore change his skinne Therefore seeing it is a change of Nature bee not too secure Thinke not thus for it is the onely thing that keepes men from comming to God I will come in but it shall be hereafter I will goe yet a little further this is a very dangerous case because it is a changing of Nature that is required and no Creature in Heaven and Earth is able to doe this Therefore when thou commest to die or when any crosse comes thou mayest be willing to change and thou mayest take purposes to thy selfe but doe we not see by experience in such cases the Nature is not altered doe not all returne to their byas there is not one of a thousand but doth it because it is a forced action Now a stone forced upward returnes againe so there be many forced actions in times of Temptation and the houre of death but still the nature is the same therefore men returne againe Therefore know this very heart of thine the very nature of it must bee altered it must bee changed into a light ayrie vapour that may ascend else it will not hold out and thou shalt have no comfort from it and when it is turned into an ayrie vapour it must be done by a light and heat that comes from heaven So must thy heart it is the Holy Ghost that must doe it it is onely the Author of Nature that can change Nature hee that made it can renue it And as only fire begets fire so onely the Spirit begets the qualities called the Spirit the Holy Ghost must breathe this breath of life in thee This is a thing not considered therefore you are bold to put it off if the Holy Ghost were at thy command if hee would breathe when thou listest it were another case but hee breathes when and where he listeth nothing is so free as the wil of the Spirit he breathes where he lists That it is no more in thee to alter him than the winds when they blow to the East canst thou cause it to blow to the West no more canst thou alter the will of the Spirit Therefore take heed of refusing the offer when the Lord will offer it is a dangerous thing to refuse What the Lord bade them in the Gospell to doe he is ready to doe himselfe When you come into a Citie offer peace if they will receive it so it 〈◊〉 let it come on them but if they will not stay not there let them goe shake off the dust off your feet against them such a people shall perish Consider that and see if the Lord be not ready to doe it himselfe If hee make an offer as hee did when hee gave his Disciples this command take heed that he goe not away in anger he knocks at thy heart againe and againe take heed that hee goe not away in wrath It is the Lords manner no man knowes the time of his offer sometimes at the third sometimes at the fifth and sometimes at the last houre the time is not in thy hand but whensoever he offers take heed off refusing for if he growes angry he returnes no more When he shall sweare in his wrath c. Psal. 95. ult that is a place worth considering The Apostle perswades them not to deferre Repentance but to come while it is to day put it not off and he gives them two reasons Lest you be hardned through the deceitfulnesse of sinne that is you will not be able to come in sin will harden you againe lest the Lord sweare in his wrath as he did to the Israelites Now you must marke they offended him once twice and thrice still the Lord bore with them they were rebellious at the Red-sea and presently after yet this the Lord bore with but there was a time when the Lord will beare with them no longer yet they lived many yeares after then he sware in his wrath and then they were destroyed It is true the Lord is not so angry for every refusing and sin which thou committest but when he comes to sweare there is no retracting of it then wheresoever you finde an oath in the Scripture there is no reservation when he sware he never returned againe Therefore take heed of angring the Lord Iesus though he be the Saviour of the world yet kisse the Son lest hee bee angry Take heed of deferring for a change of Nature is required which is a thing that thou canst not doe but the LORD must doe it Againe if it be a change of Nature I will but urge this a little Then we may learne hence to know that all the desires that come from Nature are nothing for that is not to have another Nature they are Flowers that have a beautie in them but they are the Flowers of the grasse subject to corruption as well as the stalke on which they grow therefore GOD accepts them not Againe it is not Morall Vertues for that is not changing of Nature for they may bee got and lost againe Againe it is not the Transient acts of Holinesse which the Holy Ghost workes in the heart when hee comes as a Passenger for a night or as a Sojourner for a moneth or two but he must come to be an Inhabitant and so as the Soule is in the body to make the Nature another Nature Last of all it is not any good Intentions any good Desires any good Purposes but another Nature Therefore take heed that you doe not deceive your selves and that is a thing we are exceeding apt to be deceived in because we have other purposes wee thinke all is well this wee must looke to for there be many times when men are very prodigall of good purposes as when they come to receive the Sacrament or in time of apprehension of death or it may bee you will purpose to leave sinne when you have smarted for some sinne you have committed you then meane to alter all and you thinke you are well because you have other desires and purposes in you but it is not so there must bee another Nature that is these purposes God regards as nothing for indeed they are worth nothing when there are new purposes and the old Nature continues still they come to the birth and when they have done so There is no strength to bring forth that is when the purposes are new and the nature old they are not able to dwell there but it is like a new peece in an old garment that is old nature is not able to sute with new purposes but the peece breaks forth and the rent is greater than it was So usually it is when we have the old nature and take new purposes there is not a sutablenesse and the rent is made greater than it was A man returnes againe to sin and is worse than hee was but when there
is another Nature as well as other purposes then the purposes live there as Creatures live in their owne Element and as branches live and grow on their owne roots but when purposes are holy and good and the nature bad they are as Plants planted in a soile not proper to them where they will not grow nor prosper because the soile is not sutable to them therefore let us not content our selves with these good Purposes and Transient Acts there must bee another Nature For these good purposes what are they but as blossomes nipt with untimely frosts they may make a faire shew and come to nothing as a tree that promiseth largely hath blossomes very faire but you shall finde no fruit on it so it is when Nature is not good There is so much in Nature that is in a man not sanctified that hee hath thefe two things First hee may approve of the Law of GOD. And secondly have a desire to be saved Put these two together Approbation of the Law of GOD and Desire to bee saved they will bring forth a purpose of change of life they are able to doe that but now the heart is not changed As in Deutronomie the fifth chapter and the nine and twentieth verse you shall finde an expression of it there when Moses told the people that GOD would speake to them by a man like themselves they made a faire promise that they would doe all that the LORD commanded them Moses answered them You have said well But O that there were an heart in this people to keepe GODS Commandements and to doe them that it may goe well with them and their children As if he had said I know you speake no more than you thinke I know that you are resolved to doe what the LORD will appoint but you have your old hearts still O that there were an heart there So they that take new Purposes to themselves it is well but wee may say Oh that there were in them an heart For it fares with men in this case as with them spoken of in Scripture One said hee would goe into the Vineyard and did not It is a frequent case when men say they will goe into GODS Vineyard they doe not because they are not able till they have another Nature It is an intent above their strength therefore content not your selves with Purposes The end of the Fourth Sermon THE FIFTH SERMON VPON THE NEW CREATVRE 2 COR. 5.17 Therefore if any man be in Christ let him be a new Creature THirdly if this be required of every man that he have another Nature then we must lead you a step further than we did before you must not only not content your selves with good purposes and desires buâ— more than that with good and holy actâ—ons It is not enough that you doe the actions that are holy and good that your lives bee holy and good in great measure or for a fit but the Nature must bee altered that is it is not enough that thou exercisest meeknesse and temperance gentlenesse and humility but thou must be an humble man and a meeke man a man lowly in spirit of a sober and temperate disposition thy very nature must be turned into this that is these Graces must be so incorporated into thee as if they were con-naturall to thee therefore it is said of David not onely that hee did what was good and Gods will but he had an heart after Gods heart so it must be true of all the Saints for God delights not but in the heart Therefore in Psal. 51.6 Thou lovest truth in the inner parts therefore hast thou taught me wisdome in the secret of my heart that is though the outward performances be good in themselves yet thou delightest not in them that which thou delightest in is to have another Nature to have truth in the inward parts that is when the inward frame of the heart is altered when that is set right therefore thou hast taught me wisdome in my hidden parts in my heart thou hast not only given me wisdome to behave my selfe well abroad in my actions and carriage but thou hast made mee wise in the secret of my heart It is said of Ioshua he had another Spirit else he had not come into that Land therefore see if thou hast such a change in thy heart that thou doest not only doe good things but that thou doest them in that manner that thou doest naturall actions that is in such a manner that thou canst not but doe them as 1 Iohn 3.9 They cannot sinne for they are borne of God They have another Nature what followes on that therefore they cannot sin as a man cannot do against Nature they cannot doe any thing against the truth Againe on the other side they cannot chuse but doe good as a man cannot chuse but doe that which is naturall to him Doe not say This Rule is strict who can heare it Do we make it straiter than the Holy Ghost doth What else is the meaning of it Whosoever is in Christ is a New Creature that is hath another Nature all wee doe must come from another Principle which is the same to thee now which Nature was before all must be altered as wee say of Creatures that which is dogs-meat is a sheepes poyson so it is true of men when the Nature is changed there is not onely an alteration of acts but what was his meat before is now his poyson and what was poyson to him before is now his delight it is that he feeds on But you will say How shall I know when my Nature is altered It is a matter of great moment no man can be saved without it and it is nothing to have holy purposes desires and actions but the Nature must be altered therefore it stands us in hand to know it You shall know it briefly by this First what you doe naturally you doe it constantly you do it ordinarily for Nature is a constant thing In things not naturall there may bee much inequality they may continue for a time and be laid aside againe as a peece gilded over long wearing will weare off the gilt but what if the lead or silver be turned into gold then it will be still the same so it is with the man whose nature is changed he will be constant the same nature will hold out and continue A Wolfe that puts on a Sheepes cloathing may be like a Sheepe but is not turned into a Sheepe wee are turned into Sheepe as Christ turned Lions into Lambes Serpents into doves that is hee alters the very Nature when that is done then a man is alway like himselfe indeed he doth it by degrees as you shall heare hereafter but he is still the same Therefore consider what constancy what evennesse what equality is in your Nature for if there be another Nature given you if you be other men you doe not act another person for then you
in those two things doth the Kingdome of God consist it is the ground of all the priviledges we have we have them therefore because we be in Christ It is the ground of all the graces we have because we are in Christ therefore wee are New Creatures therefore wee have the Image of God repaired in us which is nothing but the bundle of all graces as the old man is the bundle and heape of all corruption and sinne Now we will shew what it is to be in Christ and of what moment it is then we will make use of it The two first are so neere conjoyned that we will handle them together what it is to be in Christ and of what moment it is to be in Christ that is to be united to Christ. A man then is said to be united to him when he may truly say that which is in the Canticles My Beloved is mine and I am his When a man can say Christ is mine and I am Christs then we are in Christ for then we are his Now that this may be done there must be a mutuall act of giving and receiving that is it is God that gives his Sonne and Christ that gives himselfe as the Apostle speakes He loved me and gave himselfe for me When this is done on Gods part and we have taken him that makes Christ ours So there must be a giving and taking to unite us unto Christ there must be a giving that is the Father must give Christ now giving is nothing else but Quod meum est efficere tuum nullo jure cogente This definition the Civill Lawyers give of it and it is a true one So the Lord gives Christ to us he makes him ours nothing compels him to it for if it were by law it were not by gift but by debt I say he gives Christ and freely and to give him is nothing else but to make him ours But to give him is nothing it is not enough except we take him likewise for giving and taking are Relatives remove one and the other is taken away Though God give his Sonne freely yet except we take him that gift is no gift therefore there must be a taking on our part and when these two are done when God hath given Christ and we have taken him then we are united to Christ and we are in Christ and he in us as in marriage the husband gives himselfe to the wife and she takes him againe the wife gives her selfe to the husband and he takes her and when this is once done and done really they are united together And such a match is made betweene Christ and us there is a mutuall giving and taking on both sides and when this match is made Christ is said properly to be in us and we in him Yea to goe a little further Marriage is a neere union yet but a Relative union but there is something more in this Christ hath taken our Nature He is bone of our bone and flesh of our fâ—esh And againe he hath given us his Spirit that the very same Spirit dwels in us as doth in him that we may be said to be spirit of his Spirit This is more than is in marriage this is a neerer union therefore the Scripture useth a neerer expression we are as members of the same Body he the Head we the members we have the same Spirit that he hath we are flesh of the same flesh and bone of the same bone so neere an union there is betweene us So then there is more than a Relation in our being in Christ he indeed comes in to us as the Sun is said to come into the house You know the Sunne is in the heaven but when the light comes in we say the Sun comes into the house for there comes a reall light which is an effect of the Sunne So the Sonne of God IESUS CHRIST though he be in heaven yet he comes into the heart by his Spirit as the Sunne doth by the light which revives us and quickens us and workes a change in us Againe we grow into Christ as the branches grow into the Vine into the Root into the Stocke so that we are one in another and we grow one in another as the branches grow in the Vine and the Vine groweth in the branches Such a mutual union there is between us And thence comes all the benefits which is the second thing I will shew you that is of what moment it is I say hence come all the benefits we have by him in that we are united to him after this manner that we are in him as the branches in the Vine thence it is that we are made New Creatures that is there is a new Sap shed into the branches which weares out the old Sap the old man originall sinne which was there before and changeth it by the ingredience of the new Sap. So doth Christ Therefore we are said to be ingrafted into the similitude of his Death and Resurrection that is the old nature in us is worne out by the comming in of the new now as Christ did die but revived againe so we put on another nature so we have this benefit by this union we are made New Creatures Besides this we have an hundred others when we are in Christ we are under covert he hath interest in all our debts and we have interest in all his riches as the husband is bound to pay all the debts of the wife when he hath married her she is under covert she hath interest in all her husbands riches So we have interest in all the wealth of Christ and that is a very large wealth as you have it expressed in 1 Cor. the last Chapter Paul and Apollo c. and the world is yours it is a wealth beyond all that men can give you The world is yours no man in the world can goe so farre Princes may reach thorow their owne Kingdomes but the World is yours that is Christ who hath the command of it causeth every thing there to serve your turne even every Creature that man cannot command the wind and the seas obey him for your good for you have interest in all his riches there is nothing in the world but is yours Things present and things to come are ours If men can helpe you to things present yet things to come are beyond their reach If the things of this life be theirs yet death is not theirs but herein Christ likewise furnisheth you In a word you have interest in all his wealth looke how farre he can goe beyond a man so farre are you advantaged by him and have interest in all his riches he hath interest in all your debts you are under covert and nothing can hurt you the gates of Hell Men Devils Sinne and all the Creatures in heaven and earth are not able to hurt you because you are in him you are as Coneyes in their Burrowes he covers you
will come What will their condition be then when there is no sprinkling of the bloud on the doore-posts of thy soule It is the case of every man out of Christ What are we out of him when the avengers of bloud when the pursuers shall set on us and pursue us from whom we cannot flie And when we shall be shut out from the hornes of the Altar when we cannot come to Christ the Citie of Refuge it is a terrible thing if we consider it seriously It is said that Aaron when he caused the people to commit that sinne or was an instrument rather it is said that he left the people naked why because he deprived them of the presence of the Lord Now when Christ shall be taken from us when we are without him when we are deprived of him are we not naked is not the hedge broken downe there is nothing left to shelter us what are we without him but as the Conneyes out of the rockes that have nothing to shelter us from the devouring Lion Now Moses was but a type it is Christ that holds the hands of God that he cannot destroy us it is he that stands in the breach and keepes out the inundation of evils that we be not over-whelmed with them he is the Arke of God that causeth the house of Obed-Edom to be blessed and we have more cause to take to heart the want of him a thousand times than they had to lament the losse of the Arke when it was among the Philistims for the Arke was but a type of Christ This is the case of every man living out of Christ. I but you will say Christ is mercifull he is very ready to forgive I hope I am not out of him but he is ready to receive me It is very true he is mercifull but to whom surely not to the wicked he holds not the wicked innocent so speake plainly to you Whosoever continues in any knowne sinne be it never so small to such a man Christ will not be mercifull No sinne shall have dominion over you Rom. 6. for you are not under the Law but under Grace As if he should say there are none whom Christ takes to himselfe and puts into the condition of Grace but he frees them from the dominion of every sinne there is not one ruling lust there You know there are many paths that lead to hell the way that leads the right way is but one errour is manifold there are a thousand paths that lead the wrong way and will not one path lead to hell as well as a thousand He that is in Christ hath crucified the flesh and all the affections there is not one raigning lust there so that as Antichrist had his marke and they received the marke of the Beast So Christ hath his marke too as you have it Ezek. 9. The Writer marked all that mourned God set a marke upon them and he sets a marke upon all those that he is mercifull to You will say what is this mark of the Lord You shall finde 2 Cor. 5.17 Whosoever is in Christ he is a New Creature that is the marke of the LORD IESUS And therefore if thou wouldest know whether Christ will be mercifull to thee consider if thou finde that marke there Art thou a New Creature that is art thou made all New as if thou haddest another soule dwelling in thy body for thou must not be new by halfes thy whole spirit must be New Againe if you will come more properly to this marke you shall finde Ephes. 1. 2 Cor. 1. what it is The Seale and marke that Christ sets is his Spirit Whosoever hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his You know Merchants set seales upon their goods to know them that when they meet with their seale they may say This is my parcell of goods So it is in the multitudes of men All that Christ will be mercifull unto he sets his seale on them and where he finds his seale and his mark those he knowes to be his That Seale is his sanctifying Spirit that he hath given us it is as a Seale or earnest 2 Cor. 1. and Ephes. 1. He hath sealed us with the Spirit of Promise that is with the Spirit that he hath promised to us So consider if thou have that Spirit then to sanctifie and to change thy heart to make thee another man than thou art by nature to enable thee to do more than thou canst doe by nature If thou have not this seale of God thou art yet none of his But you will say I have the Seale I hope I have the Spirit Well it is well if thou hast but know this that Christ never gives that privie Seale and Signet of his that inward Seale that none knowes save those that have it but there is a Broad-seale likewise that followes that Seale spoken of 2 Tim. 2. This foundation of the Lord remaineth sure and hath this Seale The Lord knoweth who are his and let them depart from iniquity that call upon the name of the Lord hee addes to that other a parting from iniquitie from all kinde of iniquity there must be none exempt place in thine heart nor in thy life wherein thou wilt have a priviledge thou continuest not in the least sinne but departest from all iniquity then thou hast this Seale aswell as the other If thou want these two Seales if thou be not a New Creature if any sinne have dominion over thee if there be one living lust in thee that is not mortified that is not healed I assure thee thou never haddest yet any part in Christ and if thou be out of Christ thou seest what thou art subject to to the wrath of God and you see the particulars you are subject to death you are subject to the feare of death and to hell and this is the case of every man out of Christ and me thinkes this should somewhat move us to come in and to take him But this is not all that which we have by Christ may invite us a great deale more forcibly If we could but open the Casket and shew you the Iewels or if we could but unlocke the treasures that are hid in Christ it would bring a man in love with him it would make men doe as Paul Account all drosse and dung that they might have him Well though we cannot doe it fully yet we will endevour to doe it a little You will say What shall we have by Christ First you shall have life by him Iohn 6. the place spoken of in the beginning He that beleeves in me shall have eternall life and I will raise him up at the last day When he comes to speake of water to the woman of Samaria Iohn 4. when hee would commend to us a motive to stir us up to come and take him and to drinke c. he saith Hee that drinkes this water shall thirst no more That is he
but besides this as there is a wearinesse in the service of sinne and a wearinesse in the guilt of sinne and in the fruit of sinne So yet there is more wearinesse There is a wearinesse in the habite of sin for sin is to the soule as sicknesse is to the body Now a man that is sicke is weary of every thing he is weary of sitting he is weary of lyving so the soule while sinne abounds in it is weary of every thing a man is weary of himselfe he is weary of his owne company Now when Christ comes he takes away this wearinesse and gives grace which is to the soule as health is to the body that cures all the distempers and give â—â—st unto it but yet there is more than this There is a wearinesse in all that sinne toucheth in all the conditions of this life there is a wearinesse A man is weary of solitarinesse and he is weary of company he is weary of businesse he is weary of idlenesse he is weary of high condition for that is subject to Envie as the wind is most boisterous upon the top of hils And he is weary againe of low condition for the valleyes are over-low there a man is still subject to injuries and to be trampled on that place us where you will by reason of sinne it makes every condition weary to us But Christ comes to take away this wearinesse likewise by teaching us how to accommodate our selves to all conditions by teaching us how to want how to abound how to bee well how to be sicke how to live how to dye and this he doth by giving wisdome for folly will quarrell at the best condition wisdome makes the worst condition comfortable This the Lord doth thus hee delivers you from the wearinesse of sinne this rest you shall have if you will take him because when he comes into the soule he casts out sinne the cause of all these Tempests As Ionas when hee was cast out you know then there was a calme I say such rest you shall have in Christ out of him there is nothing but trouble and disquiet and restlessenesse and this is the third benefit that 〈◊〉 invite you to come in and take him Come unto me you that are weary and you shall finde ease and rest to your soules And now what would you have besides There is nothing that your hearts can desire but you shall have it in him And because we are so much moved with sensible things the Scriptures sets forth the good things we have by Christ under notions of such things as are sensible as we feele the sweetnesse of them as wee can taste in this world that is a kingdome riches peace godly apparell c. First therefore if you will come into Christ you shall have a Kingdome the Kingdome that is the Epitome of our happinesse and the journeyes end to all our desires You know when the Messias was to come what expectation the Iewes had of a kingdome that should bee restored to them how frequent are the Prophets in setting forth the glorious lustre of that kingdome When the Messias came it was fulfilled for saith he Matth. 3. Repent for the kingdome of God is at hand and Feare not little flocke it is your Fathers will to give you a Kingdome and Rev. 1. Hee hath made us Kings and Priests You will say wherein is this Kingdome wherein doth this kingdome consist Looke to all the properties of a Kingdome and you shall finde all in this First one thing wherein the freenesse of Kings consists is that they have their liberty others are Subjects Now what is liberty Liberty is nothing else but a power to live as you will This you have by Christ because he gives his spirit as soone as you take him hee sends his Spirit into your hearts that rectifies your will that sets all right and strait within us Now when your will is rectified you will that which you ought when you have this you live as you list because you list not to doe but that which is good and so you have liberty in Iohn 8. The Sonne shall make you free that is you shall be subject to nothing as Paul saith wee will bee brought into subjection to nothing we will not be subject to lust wee will not be subject to any thing you shall serve nothing as he saith Wee are bought with a price wee are not the servants of men we need feare nothing Luke 1.74 That being delivered from the hands of all our enemies we might serve him without feare because when you feare him you need feare nothing besides As the true Serpent ate up the false so the true feare eates up the false When you are in him you are at liberty you are delivered from all your enemies Take any other man still he feares something hee feares death hee feares sicknesse hee feares losse of friends hee feares losse of the favour of the Prince hee feares the losse of something or other But when a man is in Christ he is delivered out of the hands of all his enemies hee need feare nothing for what should hurt him It must be some of the creatures but all they are like Mastives rated by the masters command as it is onely the master that can doe it and he doth rate them that they shall not flie in the face of his friend though they may assault his enemies and doe but thinke with your selves what a happy condition it is what safety you have in Christ that nothing can hurt you and therefore we are bidden be in nothing carefull If any thing could hurt you we might bee carefull in something No saith he Be carefull in nothing Christ takes care for you nothing shall hurt you and so All things shall worke for your good And if so be then nothing can hurt you this is that you shall have by Christ one thing you shall have liberty But another thing wherein a Kingdome consists is Plenty that is you shall have abundance of all things What was Salomons Kingdome And what were other kingdomes of the world but plenty of all things What shall we have then you will say Shall we have Meate and Drinke Houses and Vines No those are too base things for the Kingdome of God to consist in Rom. 14.17 The Kingdome of God consists in righteousnesse holynesse peace and joy in the Holy Ghost that is there shall bee a rectitude in all your soules that it shall be free from disorder from distemper from obliquity Besides you shall have peace that is a companion of a Kingdome you shall have peace that is your soules shall be quiet there shall be a serenity there as the Sea is when it is without wind or storme Againe you shall have joy your hearts shall be filled with the consolations of the Spirit these things you shall have if you will come in to
with us for the present yet we know not what may befall us Things present therefore and things to come saith he all this is yours and if all this will not content you I will adde one thing more the Lord himselfe is yours so that take God and looke on him in his greatnesse in his mighty power God that is Lord of Heaven and Earth I say he is yours all that he hath is yours all that hee can doe is yours And therefore when hee speakes to Abraham Abraham saith he I will bee thine if thou wilt be mine I will be to thee an exceeding great reward you shall have God himselfe for your portion You will say how can God be your portion Yes he himselfe is yours for you must know that finding Mee are the best riches Loving favour Prov. 22. is better than life he that is rich in friends is better than he that is rich in money and among friends who is like to God It was the speech of the heathen when he was asked where his treasure was saith hee Where Cyrus my friend is that is I reckon my friend my chiefe treasure I say God is your friend as hee was the friend of Abraham so hee is the friend of all the Saints you have him and all that he can doe for that we may truly say there is no end of a Christians riches Paul when hee considered this Eph. 3. saith This is a glorious priviledge that I should preach among the Gentiles The unsercheable riches of Christ the unsercheable riches of Christ hee could finde no bottome hee knew not the measure the length the breadth the height of these riches and unsercheable riches of Christ. Wee give you but a little glimpse if God open a crevise of light to you to see these riches you will be content to doe as the Merchant to fell all for the pearle for it is worth all that you can sell for it I say if you could see what it were if you could discerne and judge of it with righteous judgement you would regard nothing in thâ— world besides but you would then say I will goe and take Christ for there is riches indeed and hee is a happy man of whom God saith as he saith of that Church I know thy poverty but thou art rich So you see you shall have a kingdome by Christ and you shall have riches But is this all No for I tell you the Scriptures present them to us under sensible things things that wee can feele because that we are lead with senses in this life he saith if you will come into Christ he will make you a feast Esay saith 25.16 In the Mount of the Lord he will provide a Feast of fined Wines of fat Wines fined and purified of fatlings full of marrow and frequently it is repeated in Scripture that Christ wil make you a feast They were sent to come unto the feast of the King Mat. 22 His Wine was drawne his Fatlings was prepared that is any thing you shall have by Christ you shall have a Feast What is this Looke what meat doth meat is called a feast because it maintaines life and so doth this it breeds and maintaines life yea immortall life as the food is of an immortall nature it is the bread of life Againe meat breeds strength so this strengthens you in the inward man to doe holy and spirituall duties as the corporal meat strengthens the outward man to labour and exercise Againe a Feast breeds joy and cheerefulnesse So doth this As the corporall feast cheeres the heart and refreshes the spirit so if you would know what this feast is it is that which breeds and maintaines spirituall life and strength and cheerfulnesse You will say what is that By induction of particulars what it is not you shall finde what it is First it is not that which continues you in a being for that stones have and yet are farre from having this life Againe it is not that which gives you vegetation and motion and sense for that Beasts have and that have not this life Againe it is not the exercise of reason and understanding for that reprobates and divels may have yet dye the second death What is it then It is that which breeds and maintaines that holy and regenerate men live heare and with the Angels live in Heaven for all eternity that which breeds that life for you must know that the soule that is within us hath its food to feed on as well as the body The soule hath its food that is whersoever there is the hidden man where there is the new man the hidden man of the heart as Peter cals it it must be fed as well as the outward man it must have dinners and suppers and break-fasts if there be life there it must have all this otherwise what is Christs saying when he said Ioh. 4. I have other meat that you know not of and what is Davids meaning when he saith Thy word is sweeter to mee than the honey or the honey combe If it bee not that the soule the regenerate man within is fed with a kinde of foode And what is Iobs meaning when he said Hee found it better than his appointed meales that is he would let his body starve it should want at least rather than his soule should be deprived of the ordinary meat it should have In this sense Manna is said to bee the food of Angels why could Manna bee the food of Angels If these materiall and substantiall soules and the Angels had not somewhat else to feed on Manna was Angels foode Angels have not mouthes to eate Manna therefore it is not the corporall Manna that is said to be Angels foode What then It was Christ that was typified by Manna as he saith Iohn 6. I am the true Manna the true bread that came downe from heaven The Fatheâ—s eate the same spirituall meate so it was then the spirituatll Manna that was Angels foode and if Angels foode then the foode of our soules for our soules and Angels feede alike You will say yet cleare unto us further what this is If wee come to eate Angels foode you shall finde in Iohn 6. Seek not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endures for ever saith Christ which the sonne of man shall give you for him hath God the Father sealed Marke Seeke the meat that endures for ever so then there is another feast another meate and if you would know what it is this is one property it is meat that endures for ever That is other men when they eate the sweetnesse is gone as soone as they have eaten but the sweetnesse of this continues that is what profit you have had from hearinâ— the word what comfort you have had from praying to God from serving God with a perfect heart these comforts continue for ever As twenty yeares after a man may feele the
Master you must take him for your husband so as to bee divorced from all other lovers for this know that Christ and good fellowship that Christ and fornication Christ and swearing Christ and ambition Christ and serving your selves and the times will not stand together you must be divorced from all these If you will have Christ you must take him as a husband to be to him a love to love him to have your wils subject to his will you must take him for better for worse you must take him with all variety of conditions denying your selves and taking up your crosse and following him if you take him thus you shall have him and when you shall have him you shall have all things with him As Christ saith to his father We are one thou in mee and I in thee and then all mine are thine and thine are mine So wee may say every one that takes Christ is made one with him all Christs is yours and yours is his that is hee takes your names hee takes your debts and you beare his name and have interest in all that is his what he hath by nature you have by grace and when you have him once then you may bee bold to come and take these Elements of Bread and Wine but if you have not him then know that you are but intruders upon the Lords Table for his Table is provided for his friends and if his enemies and strangers come in and intrude on it hee will not take it at your hands but command you to be bound hand and foote and to bee cast out I say consider therefore the offers of Christ are large you that are to receive the Sacrament at this time or at any other time I say consider it if you have Christ himselfe then you may boldly come if you have not the Lord you have nothing to doe with these And know if it was such a fearefull thing to touch the Arke which was but a type of Christ and had but a legall holinesse in it that God struck Vzziah with death because he was so bold as to doe it If it were so dangerous a thing to meddle with common fire as we see in Nabab and Abihu that was but a type of this what will it be when wee shall dare to take the body of the Lord Iesus not being worthily prepared Hee is the substance there is the holynesse of which that was but a type therefore take heed of medling with them except you have taken him indeed except you have changed your hearts except you be new Creatures except you have the Lord himselfe you may not meddle with the Bread and Wine the Sacrament of his body and bloud and so I end FINIS THE TABLE A Abilitie MEN excuse their sin from want of Ability Part 1 Page 223 Ability of Christ to sanctifie us 2 31 Accusing Conscience corrupt in the office of Accusing 1 56 Actions Corruption in our Actions 1 73 Actions of carnall men 1 153 Actions of naturall men defective in two things 1 159 Intention of Action in zeale 1 285 Activenesse Activenesse of conscience corrupted 1 56 Adam God just in requiring of us according to that he gave to Adam 1 38 Adams sinne charged on us ibid. Two conditions of Adam 2 38 Our condition in Christ better than it was in Adam 2 154 See Borne Affections Affections corrupted 1 63 Affections must be wrought upon in the performance of duties 1 251 God esteemes us according to our Affections 1 67 What should draw our Affections to God 1 265 Zeale a stirring up of the Affections 1 285 Want of Affections to God argues want of zeale 1 289 Worke of the Spirit upon the Affections 2 12 Afflictions Forgivenesse of sinnes takes the sting out of Afflictions 2 188 Altered Nature cannot be Altered 2 97 Custome hardly Altered 2 123 Alike All sinnes not Alike 1 275 All. Carnall men doe many duties but not All 1 159 Anger Difference betweene hatred and Anger 1 290 Zeale for the Church acceptable to God when hee is Angrie with it 1 293 Apparell Apparell one benefit by Christ 3 93 What that Apparell is 3 94 How to make use of this Apparell 3 97 Apprehesion The Apprehension makes happie or miserable 1 241 Assurance Assurance encreased by humiliation 1 31 Authoritie To preach with Authoritie what 2 163 B Baptisme BAptisme tends to sanctification 2 21 Beleever Beleeving Difference betweene temporarie and true Beleevers 2 47 Beleeving difficult 3 19 Blindnesse Blindnesse of mans understanding 1 44 Why mans understanding is Blinde ibid. Boldnesse Excesse of Boldnesse how prevedted 1 291 Forgivenesse of sin causeth Boldnesse 2 188 Bondage Spirit of Bondage an help against sinfull excuses 1 108 Spirit of Bondage how it works 1 109 Borne Those that are saved by the second Adam are Borne of him 2 18 Burthen Sinne in what respect a Burthen 2 190 Businesse Too much Businesse a great impediment 1 207 C Causes GOd workes by second Causes 1 263 Change How to know we are Changed 2 109 To give God the praise of our Change 2 144 Christ. What keepes men from Christ 1 11.2 23 What makes us prize Christ 1 81 End of our ingraffing into Christ 2 19 Sanctification by the bloud of Christ 2 21 How to take Christ 2 73 What should move us to love Christ 2 156 Before we are new Creatures we are in Christ 2 169 To be in Christ what 2 171 Priviledges of being in Christ 2 174 See Righteous Church Pillars of the Church 1 286 Want of zeale for the Church 1 292 Danger of wronging the Church 1 293 Directions what we must doe for the Church 1 294 Circumstance Consideration of Circumstances helpe Humiliation 1 28 Circumstances aggravating sinne 1 89 Civill Difference betweene prophane and Civill men 1 127 Clearenesse Clearenesse of conscience corrupted 1 55 Cloud Sin like a stormie Cloud 1 174 Coldnesse Coldnesse provokes God as much as sinne 1 284 Combate Combate to be expected of Christians 2 137 Difference of the Combate in Christians and others 2 138 Comfort Comfort the end of the Scriptures 1 2 Sanctification for our Comfort 2 89 Comfort from the change of Nature 2 121 Comming The end of Christs Comming 1.20.2 20 Compell The Spirit Compels men to come in 2 7 Communion Communion of Saints sets the truth at liberty 1 174 Communication Communication of the body and bloud of Christ in the Sacrament 3 2 See Truth Condemnation Imprisoning Truth brings great Condemnation 1 136 God just in the Condemnation of men 1 234 Conflict Conflict in carnall men 1 153 Conflict in wicked men failing in foure things 1 60 Content He that trusts in God is Content with him only 1 258 Conscience Conscience corrupted by nature 1 45 Wherein Conscience is corrupted 1 55.56 Signe of a good Conscience 1 57 Conscience in naturall men may doe many things 1 152 Conscience good in two respects 1 156 Contrary Contrariety Contrariety of
the will to God 1 49 Nature workes out what is Contrary to it 2 111 Conversation Conversation the change in it 2 66 Constant. Hatred Constant. 1 290 What is naturall is Constant 2 110 Constant feast by Christ 3 91 Conviction Convictions of unbeliefe 1 255 Conviction wrought by the Spirit 1 10 Corrupt Wee must have lesse in us than nature Corrupt 2 87 See Nature Covenant Covenant sealed in the Sacrament 2 22 Covenant on Gods part 3 16 Covenant on our part 3 24 Creature Creature cannot doe good or evill 1 261 Creature how to be used 2 268 See God Custome Custome in sinne suppresseth the Truth 1 205 Custome the advantages it hath against us 2 123 D Damned HE that beleeveth not shall be Damned 2 197 Day Sabbath Gods Day 1 256 Debt Our Debt paid by Christ 3 61 Defect Not to bee discouraged for Defects 2 169 Delay Delay when God cals dangerous 1 20 Comming to God not to be Delayed 2 98 Not to Delay when Christ calls 2 156 Delight Delight corrupted 1 66 Deniall Deniall of God in sinne 1 90 Deniall one excuse of sin 1 229 Death Why God punisheth sinne with eternall Death 1 187 Christs Death shewed forth in the Sacrament 3 4 Death of Christ how made void 3 20 Out of Christ wee are subject to Death 3 47 Death how it is ours 3 84 Despised God Despised in the commission of sinne 1 92 Destruction Hatred seekes the Destruction of a thing 1 192 Iealousie of God brings Destruction 1 301 Desires Desires from corrupt nature nothing 2 102 Disgrace Disgrace of good men from the world 2 125 Disease Sinne the Disease of the soule 2 190 Difference Difference betweene men made by God 2 149 Difficultie Difficultie in duties should not discourage us 1 120 Discouragements Discouragements hinder from Religion 2 34 Disobedience Disobedience of mans will 1 51 Disobedience in small things great ibid. Disobedience against God in the least sinne 1 280 Disposition Disposition in man double 1 79 Divinitie See Perswade Dogges Dogges to be kept out of Christs flocke 1 299 Doubting Reasons against Doubting of forgivenesse 3 20 Dutie Performance of Dutie double 1 251 E Earth THe mercy of Christ when he was on Earth 3 22 Effect To see sinne in the Effects of it 1 275 Election See Reprobation Enemie Enemies of the faith what to learne of them 1 296 Enmitie Enmitie of the understanding 1 46 Envie Most men Envie the new Creatture 2 147 End End of God by whom it is crossed 1 146 Evill See Good Ever Salvation and damnation continue for Ever 2 201 Spirituall food endureth for Ever 3 88 Experience Experience shewes God to be the Author of grace 2 151 Experience of Christ helpes to unite us to him 2 180 Excellencie Grace preferred before all other Excellencies 2 38 Grace the proper Excellencie of a man 2 40 Knowledge of Christs Excellencie unites us to him 2 178 Exigent Triall of trust in God is in an Exigent 1 258 Expend Gods wrath in time is Expended 1 273 Excuse Conscience corrupt in the office of Excusing 1 56 Excuses of sinne 1 101.221 Meanes to arme us against these Excuses 1 108 Eye The New Creature lookes on things with a new Eye 2 54 Eye double and single 2 133 F Faculties FAculties in man corrupted 1 43 Faith Faith to be contended for 1 296 Faith sanctified 2 21 Faith workes on the promises 2 26 Faith encreased by the Sacrament 3 5 Transubstantiation against faith 3 12 Fast. Fast no arbitrary dutie 1 248 Fast defined ibid. Falling away Falling away why not to be feared 2 117 Fault Men excuse sinne by slighting the Fault 1 230 Feare Feare corrupted 1 66 Feare to be placed on God onely 1 258 Gods jealousie should make us Feare 1 302 Feare double 1 303 The Word to bee heard with Feare 2 159 Gods children freed from Feare 2 194 Feare put for the worshippe of God 3 21 Feare of a flitting nature 3 28 Out of Christ wee are subject to the Feare of death 3 48 Feast Spirituall things resembled to a Feast why 2 217 Feast promised by Christ 3 86 Feeding Necessitie of daily Feeding on Christ 2 181 Fit What Fits us for mercy 3 22 First-fruits Two things in First-fruits 2 136 Spirituall things wee have in the First-fruits 2 217 Fire Fire from heaven to bee cherished 2 160 Flesh. To eat Christs Flesh what 2 181 Food Properties of spirituall Food 3 87 Forget Memory corrupt in that we ought to Forget 1 53 Men choke the Truth when they labour to Forget it 1 204 Forgivenesse Forgivenesse of sins how it makes blessed 2 187 Confirmation in the assurance of Forgivenesse 3 19 Formality Formalitie argues want of zeale 1 288 Free The worke of the Spirit Free 2 100 Fruit. Hipocrites bring not forth Fruit 2 126 Wearinesse in the Fruit of sinne 3 69 Fulnesse Fulnesse reserved for heaven 2 218 Future Helpes to minde Future things 2 219 G Gifts COmmon Gifts in naturall men 1 152 Giving Giving what 2 172 Glory Transubstantiation against Gods Glory 3 9 Glory appeared in Christs humiliation ibid. Glory one benefit by Christ 3 76 God The law of mans judgement mamanifested by God 1 180.183 None can doe good and evill but God 1 261 If the Creature could doe it it were God 1 262 In all things to looke to God 1 269 Every sinne sets up another God 1 281 Conversion of the heart proper to God 2 9 New Creature the worke of God 2 149 The praise of all good to be given to God 2 161 God how hee is made ours 2 189 Sinne drives the Saints nearer to God 2 206 See Portion Good Men excuse the ill in them by the Good 1 105 Good things in ill men doe them no Good 1 144 God onely doth evill and Good 1 253 Those that are Christs all workes for their Good 2 205 Gospell Gospell shewes mans nature to be corrupted 1 76 Sinnes against the Gospell the greatnesse of them 1 77 Sinne excused by living under the Gospell 1 104 Gospell tends to sanctification 2 21 Iudgement of the Gospell 2 45 Gospell what 3 16 Gospell two parts of it 3 18 Grace Grace desired by carnall men 2 30 Christians rich in Grace 3 78 Greatnesse Wee should labour to see God in his Greatnesse 1 265 Guilt Sinne a burthen as it brings under Guilt 2 190 Wearinesse in the Guilt of sinne 3 69 H Habite WEarinesse in the Habite of sinne 3 71 Happinesse Happinesse a motive to come to Christ 2 193 Mans Happinesse by Christ 2 196 Happinesse what 2 224 Hardnesse Hardnesse of heart in sinning 1 28 Hatred Hatred the properties of it 1 65 Hatred of God 1 89 Hatred of the Truth 1 133 Hatred and anger differenced 1 290 Healeth Where God forgiveth he Healeth 2 88 Health Grace the Health of the soule 2 39 Helpe Supervenient Helpe needfull in two things 2 160 Heart The Heart must be new framed
2 62 Our Hearts should melt at Christs love 3 41 See God Hell Out of Christ wee are subject to Helâ— 3 49 Aggravations of the misery of Hell 3 50 Hid. The state of Gods children Hid 2 41 Honour Sanctification stands with Gods Honour 2 89 House What kinde of House God is 2 195 Humbled Humiliation Humiliation must goe before Iustification 1 6 Israelites how God Humbled them 1 7 Humiliation two things in it 1 8 Humiliation to bee laboured for 1 18 Triall of true Humiliation 1 22 Helpes to Humiliation 1 26 Good men shoud desire Humiliation 1 30 Humiliation a remedie against Gods wrath 1 278 Hundred-fold Hundred-fold with persecution 2 223 Hunger Hunger out of Christ 2 215 I Iealousie IEalousie of God provoked by want of zeale 1 299 Idolatrie Idolatrie to attribute that to the Creature that belongs to God 1 265 Idolatrie a sinne of Israel 1 295 Impediment Impediments not removed suppresse the Truth 1 206 Impediments of two sorts 2 152 Impossible That which GOD requires of Christians not Impossible 2 255 Transubstantiation a doctrine Impossible 3 8 Imprison See Truth Inclination Inclination wrought by the Spirit 2 16 Inclination changed 2 63 Inclination changed how to bee Knowne 2 64 Independent Independent riches make men independent 2 212 Inconsideration Inconsideration keeps men in their old state 1 240 Infirmitie Men excuse sinne from their Infirmitie 1 232 Incredulity Incredulity of mans understanding 1 45 Instigate Conscience corrupted cannot Instigate to good 1 55 Inlightned Carnall men may be Inlightned 1 152 Inconstancie Inconstancie of mans will 1 50 Instrument Ministers and ordinances Instruments 2 158 Insensible Ill signe to be Insensible of Gods wrath 1 272 Inexcusable So much revealed as makes man Inexcusable 1 219 Ioy. Ioy mortifieth Lusts 1 18 Israelites See Humbled Iubile Iubile a resemblance of libertie in the Gospell 1 19 Iustifie Iustification Why we are Iustified by anothers righteousnesse 1 3 Iustification and sanctification inseparable 2 4 Iustification how it admits degrees 2 177 The clothing of the soule in Iustification 3 95 See Humiliation and Sanctification Iudge How to Iudge of things 1 270 Iudgement Sinne in time brings forth Iudgement 1 272 Execution of Iudgement commended 1 295 Iustice. What makes men acknowledge Gods Iustice 1 13 Iustice of God on whom it appeares most 1 147 Want of Iustice a cause of Iudgement 1 295 K Kinde NAture common to the whole Kinde 2 96 Kingdome Kingdome we have by Christ 3 72 Knowledge Knowledge an aggravation of sin 1 92 Knowledge in naturall men without rellish 1 155 Knowledge sinned against imprisoneth Truth 1 195 A sin of Knowledge what 1 197 Sinne excused for want of Knowledge 1 221 It is a sinne not to encrease Knowledge 1 198 Men might have more Knowledge 1 222 Knowledge of our estate at the first conversion 2 51 What kinde of Knowledge makes new Creatures 2 76 L Law THe Law shewes mans nature to be corrupted 1 34 Law how to be understood 1 35 Law the least breach of it punished 1 36 Law compared to Aegyptian Tasks-masters 1 37 Law against which men sin is exact 1 282 Law of God approved by natural men 2 104 See Schoole-master Leaven Sinne likened to Leaven 2 128 Liberty Benefits of setting the Truth at Libertie 1 171 Meanes to set Truth at Libertie 1 172 Libertie by Christ 3 73 Libertie what ibid. See Iubile Life Life promised to the taking of Christ 3 55 Life spirituall the excellencie of it 3 56 Exhortation to partake of this Life 3 57 Life how it is a Christians 3 83 Light Light imprisoned foure wayes 1 134 Aggravations of sinnes against Light 1 146 Naturall men defective in Light 1 154 The burden of Christ in bearing growes Light 2 141 Long-suffering Wee should give God the glory of his Long-suffering 1 237 Lord. Zeale for the Lord 1 285 Sacrifice offred to the Lord 2 86 Love Love mortifieth Lusts 1 13 Men sinne out of Love to evill 1 163 Love of Christ the greatnesse of it 2 39 Love cannot be counterfeit 2 92.3 29 Perwasion of Christs Love unites to him 2 179 To serve Christ in Love a part of the Covenant 3 26 Love constant 3 28 Lusts. Lusts detained keep men in their old state 1 241 Lusts why God suffers them in his children 2 35 Excellencie of the new Creature above Lusts 2 37 Old Lusts must be mortified 2 84 M Mannah MAnnah how it is Angels food 2 215 Manifest The Law of Mans judgement Manifest foure wayes 1 181 Marke Marke of Christ what 3 53 Meanes Meanes enjoyed aggravate sin 1 99 Sin excused from want of Means 1 228 Difference of feare in respect of Meanes 1 303 Meanes of Grace tend to Sanctification 2 21 Meaning Sin excused from good meaning 1 101 Mediator Why God hath appointed us such a Mediator as Christ 1 187 Memory Memory the corruption of it in two things 1 53 Mercy Mercy of God the greatnesse of it 3 22 Mercy to whom it is shewed 3 52 Metaphor Metaphors used in the Sacraments of the old Law 3 7 Ministery Ministery to be advanced 1 298 Misery Our Misery out of Christ 2 178 Forgivenesse of sinnes takes away the cause of Misery 2 18 See Apprehension Morall vertues Morall vertues nothing without change of nature 2 102 N Naked OVt of Christ we are Naked 2 209 To be Naked what 2 213 Nature Mans Nature full of ungodlinesse 1 4 33 All in mans Nature corrupt 1 41 Badnesse of Nature aggravates sinne 1 101 Men by Nature how far they may goe 1 151 How farre men by Nature fall short 1 153 God made manifest by the light of Nature 1 181 Sinne excused from corruption of Nature 1 226 What keepes men in the state of Nature 1 240 Conversion of men are turning the course of Nature 2 8 More than Nature required in the New Creature 2 91 Those that are in Christ have another Nature 2 95 Not to be content without a new Nature 2 101 Two things in a new Nature 2 112 Naturall When a thing is said to be Naturall 2 95 Good duties must bee Naturall to us 2 107 Necessitie No Necessitie of Transubstantiation 3 3 Need. Riches helpe in time of Need 2 211 Neglect Neglect keepes men from Christ 1 12 Neglect in serving of God 1 257 Net Gospell a Net 1 23 New Creature New Creature the excellencie of it 2 37 New Creature signes of it 2 49 New Creature what 2 61 New Creature the parts of it 2 84 New Creature required 2 122 Noblenesse The Spirit workes Noblenesse of spirit 2 15 Number Consideration of the Number of former sins helps humiliation 1 27 O Oath THE Covenant confirmed with an Oath 2 24 Object Faculties knowne by their Object 2 56 Objection Objection of Papists out of Iohn 6. concerning eating Christs flesh answered 3 33 Offices Offices of Christ goe together 2 20 Offices of Christ to be improved 2 183 Old Old
man what 2 73 Old man must be mortified 2 83 Old nature to be abhorred 2 114 Old custome wee are redeemed from 2 122 All that is Old must bee pulled downe 2 127 Grace takes not away Nature but the Oldnesse of it 2 129 Omission Sinnes of Omission 1 73 Omission of acts ibid. Omission of graces 1 75 Omission of occasions ibid. Opinion Opinion advanceth the Creature in our thoughts 1 266 Originall sinne Originall sinne 1 40 Originall sinne how it is one sinne and many 1 42. How it is privative and positive ibid. Actuall sinne leads us to Originall 1 103 Others Sinne excused from the badnesse of Others 1 106 Successe of Others with God should encourage us 2 29.3 21 Outward Men fare not the worse in Outward things for holinesse 2 43 Overcome To Overcome what 3 76 P Parents NAture received from Parents 2 96 Passeover Passeover why eaten with sowre herbes 1 25 Peace Peace one benefit by Christ 3 75 Pearle Zealous men Pearles 1 287 Personall Men condemned for their Personall sinnes 1 39 Perswade Hard to Perswade men in Divinitie 1 45 Perfect Of Perfect walking with God 1 260 Pleasant That which is natural is pleasant 2 110 Plentie Plentie one priviledge by Christ 3 74 Portion God is a Christians Portion 3 85 Poore Out of Christ we are Poore 2 209 To be Poore What 2 210 Power Power of Gods wrath 1 115 Practise Practise sets the Truth at liberty 1 173 Want of Practise of known truths a great sinne 1 200 Prayer prayer sets the Truth at libertie 1 172 Prayer stops Gods wrath 1 301 Prayer unites us more to Christ 2 180 Preaching The Ministers businesse in preaching 2 156 To see how the Word workes in the Preaching of it 2 164 Pride Pride of the will of man 1 50 Prize New Creature how to be Prized 2 79 See Christ. Priviledges Priviledges of a Christian reall 2 219 Prophane Difference betweene civill men and Prophane 1 127 Professe Truth not Professed is unrighteously detained 1 211 Pronenesse Pronenesse to sinne no excuse of it 1 29 Promise Promise of God should incourage us to pray 2 22 Punishment Punishment of with-holding the Truth in unrighteousnesse 1 138 Purpose Good Purposes in extremitie seldome true 2 99 Good Purposes nothing without change of nature 2 102 Q Qualitie NEw Qualitie infused in sanctification 2 71 New Qualitie what ibid. R Reason TRansubstantiation against Reason 3 11 Record Sins committed remaine on Record 1 277 Recreation Recreation too much used is an impediment 1 208 Reformation Reformation must be joyned with fasting 1 250 Reformation a remedie against Gods wrath 1 280 Relapse Relapse into sinne 1 28 Relish See Knowledge Religion Religion impaired by the neglect of the Sabbath 1 256 Reluctancie Reluctancie in the Saints when they sinne 2 134 Remaine Sinnes Remaine in Gods people 2 90 Remember Remembrance Memory corrupt in that wee ought to Remember 1 53 Conscience corrupt as it is a Remembrancer 1 55 End of the Sacrament to bring Christ to Remembrance 3 4 Renewed How to get our natures Renewed 2 116 Reprobation Election and Reprobation how frustrate 2 150 Rest. Men prone to Rest in duties 1 249 Rest a motive to take Christ 2.186.3 68 Restraine Conscience corrupted in its Restraining power 1 56 Riches Riches for what end they serve 2 210 Riches of a Christian is Christ 3 77 Riches by Christ what 3 78 Riches the property of them 3 80 Righteousnesse Righteousnesse of Christ imputed 1 39 See Iustifie S Sabbath SAbbath ought to be sanctified 1 255 Antiquitie of keeping the Sabbath 1 256 Vsefulnesse of keeping the Sabbath ibid. Sacrament Sacrament a seale of the Covenant 2 22.3 15 Sacrament the end of it 2 25.3 4 Sacrifice Two things in Sacrifice 2 86 Salvation Being in Christ the ground of all Salvation 2 171 He that beleeveth hath Salvation 2 197 Damnation and Salvation of great moment 2 199 God desires mans Salvation 3 20 Sanctification Iustification and Sanctification inseparable 2 4.17 Sanctification how it riseth from Iustification 2 5 Sanctification what 2 13 Incouragements to pray for Sanctification 2 22 Sanctification the necessity of it 2 33 Sanctification how to prise it 2 36 Not to challenge Iustification without Sanctification 2 44 Cloathing of the soule in Sanctification 3 95 Satisfie Spirituall food Satisfieth 3 89 Seales Two Seales 3 19.54 Schoole-master The Law a Schoole-master how 1 11 Scripture Gods truth manifested in the Scripture 1 182 Transubstantiation against Scripture 3 13 Secrets Secrets of God not knowne by carnall men 1 154 Selfe-love Selâ—e-love sanctified 2 13 Sense The new life hath new Senses 2 40 Present Sense a signe of the New Creature 2 49 Transubstantiation against Sense 3 10 Sensible Sensiblenesse of conscience lost 1 56 Spirituall things Sensible 2 220 Sensitive appetite Sensitive appetite corrupted 1 58 Selves Men must be humbled to know them Selves 1 14 Serve One part of the covenant to Serve Christ 3 25 Wearinesse in Serving sin 3 69 Short See Naturall Sinne. Sinnes thought to bee lesse than they be 1 27 Sinne aggravated by circumstances 1 89 Difference in Sinnes 1 96 Sinne wee should labour to see what it is 1 118 Frequencie of Sinne argues want of faith 1 255 Difference of men in regard of Sinnes 1 281 Zeale against Sinne 1 290 Striving against Sinne 2 53 Turning from Sinne a part of the Covenant 3 25 See Personall and Wrath. Sincerity Sincerity wanting in carnall mens actions 1 159 Sincerity little at the first 2 113 Sicknesse Sin the Sicknesse of the soule 3 71 Sleepe Sinne seemes dead when it is a Sleepe 2 85 Small Men excuse sinnes by thinking Them Small 1 230 No sinne Small and why 1 282 Species Hatred sets against the whole Species 1 290 Spirit Good things in evill men wrought by the Spirit 1 144 Morall vertues the gifts of the Spirit 1 158 Worke of the Spirit in sanctification 2 5 Spirit workes holinesse 2 21 Sorrow Sorrow corrupted 1 67 Sinne excused by pretended Sorrow 1 233 Soule Matters of the Soule of great moment 2 199 Soule to bee regarded especially 2 200 T Taking TAking of Christ what 2 185.3 24 No losse by Taking of Christ 2 222 Two things should invite us to Take Christ 3 45 Taught Nature cannot be Taught 2 97 Temptation The lesse Temptation the greater the sinne 1 95 Sinne excused from Temptation 1 227 Evill men doe good for want of Temptation 2 135 Thanke See Truth Thoughts Thoughts corrupted 1 68 Thoughts the importance of them 1 69 Thoughts of two sorts 1 91 Thirst. Thirst satisfied in Christ 2 202 What Thirst heal'd in the Saints 2 204 Transubstantiation Arguments against Transubstantiation 3 3 Fathers not distinct against Transubstantiation 3 66 Transubstantiation set abroach by Damascene 3 67 Transubstantiation brought into England 3 68 Treasure Gods wrath a Treasure 1 273 Trust. Trust in God the nature of it 1 258 Truth Truth with-held in
unrighteousnesse 1 126.179 Truth what 1 127.180 Truth the subject of it 1 128 Truth the Author of it 1 130 Truth the extent of it ibid. Truth how it is with-held 1 131 Truth why men imprison it 1 133 Truth imprisoned a great sinne 1 136 Truth how with-held 1 165 Truth should rule 1 169 Truth the danger of restraining it 1 170 Truth the benefit of giving it libertie 1 171 Truth manifested foure wayes 1 181 Truth the hainousnesse of sinnes against it 1 184 Truth to be thankfull for it 1 192 Truth to doe nothing against it 1 193 Seven cases of detaining the Truth 1 195 Truth should bee communicated to other 1 209 Happinesse and misery attend neglect or observing the Truth 1 215 Want of courage for the Truth shewes want of zeale 1 291 V Vaine GOds Name taken in Vaine how 1 186 Vanity Vanity of mans understanding 1 43 Violence Humbled men take Heaven by Violence 1 16 To take heaven by Violence what 1 17 Vnevennesse Vnevennesse in the best men 2 131 Vnevennesse in Saints and others different 2 132 Vnbeleefe Vnbeleefe keepes from Christ 1 11 Vngodlinesse See Nature Vniversality Vniversality of the new Creature 2 51 Vnion Vnion with Christ the nearenesse of it 2 172 Vnion with Christ of what moment 2 173 Vnion with Christ to be encreased 2 176 Vnion with Christ how encreased 2 177 Vnion with Christ to be sought after 2 185 Vnion with Christ the end of the Sacrament 3 5 Vnwearied That which is naturall is Vnwearied 2 111 Vnderstanding Vnderstanding in man corrupted 1 43 Vnderstanding the vanity of it ibid. Vnderstanding blinde 1 44 Vnderstanding unteachable 1 45 Vnderstanding the incredulitie of it ibid. Vnderstanding the enmitie of it 1 46 Vnderstanding wrought on by the Spirit 2 11 Vâ—teachable Vnderstanding of man Vnteachable 1 45 Vnrighteousnesse Wrath revealed against mens Vnrighteousnesse 1 111 See Truth Vowes Vowes broken aggravate sin 1 98 W Want RIches supply what we Want 2 210 Wearinesse Wearinesse in sinne what 3 69 Whoredome Whoredome to be punished 1 295 Will. Will the depravednesse of it 1 48 Will the contrarietie of it to God 1 49 Will the pride of it 1 50 Will the inconstancie of it ibid. Will the disobedience of it 1 51 Will of God our sanctification 2 19 Will free in men regenerate 2 154 Will of regenerate men how free 2 167 Willing Willingnesse to bee humbled for sinne 1 26 Christ willing to sanctifie us 2 31 Wisdome Wisdome of words not to be expected from Ministers 2 162 Transubstantiation against Gods Wisdome 3 10 Wonder The world Wonders at the Saints 2 124 Word Words corrupted 1 70 Importance of Words 1 71 Word of God a helpe against excuses of sinne 1 108 Workes Gods truth manifests his Workes 1 182 New workes discover a new Creature 2 57 Motives to good Workes 2 170 A Christian rich in good Workes 3 79 World World is a Christians how 3 83 See Disgrace Wrath. Wrath of God how revealed 1 5 Wrath revealed against unrighteousnesse 1 111 Two things in Gods Wrath 1 112 Wrath of God what 1 114 Wrath of God the certaintie of it 1 112 Wrath of God the power of it 1 115 Wrath the suddennesse of it 1 116 Wrath wee should be sensible of it 1 119 Wrath provoked by imprisoning the Truth 1 137 Wrath caused by sinne 1 271 Wrath encreased by our sinnes 1 273 Wrath why it is not felt 1 277 Wrath remedies against it 1 278.283.300 Z Zeale ZEale turnes away wrath 1 283 Zeale what 1 285 Zealous men not to be discouraged 1 286 Convictions of want of Zeale 1 288. FINIS Errata Part 1. PAge 12. line 14. Reade one p. 34. l. 18. r. aside from that p. 66. l. 17. r. not p. 74. l. 18. r. and a thing p. 98. in the margine r. what p. 110. l. 20. r. me be curst p. 113. l. 29. r. contemne p. 120. l. 17. r. Saul p. 131. l. 31. r. Iohn 1.5 p. 231. l. 15. r. condemned p. 296. l. 23. r. Iude. Part 2. PAge 5. l. 24. r. sent p. 19. l. 23. r but it is p. 21. l. 13. blot out to p. 24. l. 10. r. another p. 26. l. 8. r. forget p. 37. l. 24. r. as a grace p. 68. l. 30. r. hard p. 75. l. 5. r. which p. 91. l. 18. r. it as p. 95. l. 3. r. creature p. 121. l. 25. r. this new nature p. 124. l. 20. r. wait p. 136. l. 20. r. third ground p. 139. l. ult r. moats p. 143. l. 17. r. Sun p. 155. in the margine r not p. 163. l. 14. r. to set the word p 174. l. 22. r. 1 Cor. 3. ult p. 195. l. 21. r. such an house p. 197. l. 27. r. and Lord. p. 205. l. 24. r. slayes p. 211. l. 10. r. God Part 3. PAge 41. l. 20. r. may say p. 44. l. 12. r. your case p. 72. l. 25. r. goodly p. 87. l. 15. r. which Treatise 2 Treatise Iohn 3. ult Doct. 1. Mans nature is full of ungodlinesse and unrighteousnesse Doct. Doct. 2. Two things keepe men from comming to Christ. 1 Vnbeleefe 2 Negligence which is two-fold 1 Totall 2 Partiall Two Reasons of it Reason 1. In reference to Iustification Reason 2. In reference to Sanctification Vse 1. Titus 2.14 Object Answ. Object Answ. Helps to humble and afflict the soule for sinne Object 2. Answ. Object Answ. Vse 2. Doctr. Object Answ. The corruption of the Faculties 1 The Vnderstanding 1 The Vanitie of it 2 The blindnesse of it 3 The Vâ—teâ—chablenesse of it 4 The Incredulity of it 5 The Enmitie of it 2 The Depravednesse of the Will 1 Of the Contrariety of the will to God 2 The Pride of the will 3 The Inconstancie of it 4 The Disobedience of it 3 The corruption of the Memory 1 In the things we are commanded to Remember 2 In things we are commanded to Forget 4 The corruption of the Conscience In three Acts. 1 As it is a Râ—membrancer 2 As it is an Instigatour to good or a Restrainer from evill Wherein three Vertues are required 1 Clearenesse 2 Sensiblenesse 3 Activenesse 3 As it is an Accuser or Excuser Object Answ. 5 The corruption of the sensitive Appetite Object Answ. 6 The corruption of the Affections 2 Actuall Sinnes 1 In Thoughts The importance of thoughts 2 In our Words The importance of our words 3 In our Actions 2 Siâ—â—es of Omission 1. Of 〈◊〉 2 Of Graces 3 Of time 4 Of Occasions 2 Rule the Gospell Sinnes against the Gospell Vnwillingnesse to take Christ. The greatnesse of this Sinne. Vse 1. Vse 2. Vse 3. Object Answ. To quicken our desires after Christ. Consider 1 The Circumstances that doe aggravate sinne 1 The Majesty offended 2 The affection wherewith it is committed 1 Hatred of God 2 Deniall of God Object Answ. 3 Despising of God 3 That it is against Knowledge 4
When it is done without Temptation or with small Temptation 5 What it is done against Vowes and Covenants 6 When it is done against much meanes 2 To quicken our desires after Christ take away the Excuses of sinne 1 Excuse Good meanings Quest. 2 Excuse Badnesse of nature Answ. 5 The times are times of the Gospell not of the law Object Answ. Object 4 Excuse The good things we doe will ballance the evill Answ. Object 5 Excuse Others are worse Answ. Means to arme us against these Excuses 1 The Word 2 The Spirit of bondage How it worketh this in a man Doct. 2. There is a Revelation of wrath against all unrighteousnesse of men 2 Things to be observed 1 The certaintie of this wrath Proofes of it 2 What this Wrath is Three things observable 1 It is a Treasure 2 The power of it 3 The suddennesse of it Vse 1. See what Sinne is Vse 2. Labour for a Sense of the wrath of God Vse 3. Goe to Christ. Of with-holding the Truth in unrighteousnesse Three things considerable Doctr. Object Answ. 1 What this Truth is A three-fold Truth 1 The subject of this Truth 2 The Author of it 3 The extent of it 2 How this Truth is withholden Quest. Answ. Foure wayes of imprisoning the Light How great a sinne it is to with-hold the Truth in unrighteousnesse Vse 1. Vse 2. Sheweth the misery of thâ—se men that are neare the kingdome of God but not in it Their misery is in three things 1 The good things that they have doe them no good 2 They doâ— them much hurt 3 How farre they goe and yet how farre they fall short of that which is proper to the godly 1 In inlightning 2 In their Conscience 3 In common gifts 4 In their actions 5 In their Conflicts 2 How farre they fall short 1 In light and understanding In two things 2 In their Conscience Note 3 Morall Vertues 4 In Actions In two respects Object Answ. 5 In their Conflict in foure things Vse 3. Men sinne not out of want of information but out of love of unrighteousnesse How the Truth is with-held in unrighteousnesse Vse 4. Consider the danger of disobeying the Truth Object May not a man be too scrupulous Answ. Vse 5. Give the Truth leave to rule 1 The danger of restraining it 2 The benefit of setting it at liberty Object Answ. Means how to set the Truth at liberty Prayer 2 Practice the Truth 3 Communion Saints Act. 21.13 1 That there is such a Truth proved foure wayes Object Answ. 2 That they with-hold the Truth in unrighteousnesse Object Doct. 1. That Truth or Law or knowledge by which every man shall be judged is made manifest by God himselfe 1 What this Truth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 How it is made knowne Foure wayes 1 By the light of Nature 2 By Gods workes 3 By the Scriptures 4 By the Saints 3 It is God that maketh this Truth evident Hence these Consectaries may be deduced Vse 1. To shew the hainousnesse of mens sinnes against this Truth Object Answ. Vse 2. Be thankfull for the Truth Vse 3. Doe nothing contrary to the Truth Object Answ. Seven Cases wherein men detaine this Truth in unrighteousnesse 1 In the Commission of knowne sins Case 2. In unwillingnesse to increase a mans Knowledge Two sorts of those Case 3. In not acting and practising the Truth by the use of meanes Object Answ. Case 4. In suffocating and suppressing it Two wayes Case 5. In removing impediments Case 6. Case 7. Object Answ. Vse 4. Object Answ. Object Answ. Point 3. There is so much revealed to every man as will make him inexcusable The Excuses whereby men endevour to purge themselves Excuse 1. Thaâ— they know not God Answ. Excuse 2. God requires more knowledge than men have of him Answ. The inexcusablenesse of ignorant Countrey people Pretence 3. We hâ—ve no ability to performe the things we know Quest. Answ. Object Answ. Pretence 4. From the corruption of nature which they cannot resist Answ. 1. Answ. 2. Answ. 3. Pretence 5. From Temptations of company businesse c. Answ. 1. Answ. 2. Pretence 6. From the want of meanes Answ. Other particular Excuses First by denying the Fact Secondly By sleighting the Fault Ob. It is a smal sinne Answ. Ob. I fell into by infirmity Answ. 1. Ob. But I am sorry that I so sinned Answ. 1. Answ. 2. Vse 1. Object Answ. Object Answ. Vse 2. Means whereby men are kept in their old condition First Inconsideration 2 Some Lust. Fastiug is no Arbitrary dutie Which is proved by â—exâ—s of Scripture The definition of a Fast. The defects which we are subject to in performing that duty 1 To rest in the work done 2 To doe it for a fit 3 Not to reforme upon the doing of it There is a double performance of duties 1 When they be performed as Fasts 2 When its affections are wrought upon in the duty Ver. 1.2 The Analysis of the Text. The Israelites disease Sin The consequent of sin is wrath Ver. 3. The effect of Gods wrath the Plague The remedy was the turning away of Gods wrath Which was done by zeale And that for two reasons Five generall points raised out of the text 1 Generall point God only doth good and evill Certaine convictions for demonstrations of the point 1 Conviction The frequency of our sinning A digression touching the Sabbath proving that it ought to be sanctified 1 Because it is a Holy Day 2 It is Gods day It is further convinced 1 From the hazard of Religion by leaving man at liberty 2 From the Antiquity of its celebration 3 From the usefulnesse of a Sabbath 2 Conviction is our neglecting of dutie 3 Conviction is our not fearing and trusting him alone Quest. Answ. Discovering the Nature of trusting in God which is to be content with God alone 2 To rely upon him in Exigents Which is instanced in Hester And Daniel 4 Conviction or not walking perfectly with the Lord. Reason 2. To prove the point Reason 1. If the creatures could do good or evill God were not God Reason 2. The Creature should be God Dan. 5.23 Object 1. From the operation of second causes Answ. 1. 1 The Lord workes by them Reason 1. Which is illustrate by some comparisons By their different effects By places of Scripture Vse 1. To labour to see God in his greatnesse Which would draw our affections to God The want of it carries us to the Creature and brings us upon the danger of Idolatry By advancing the creatures in our opinions Question concerning the use of the Creatures Answ. They are to be used with a subordinate affection To looke to God in all our businesse He doth instance in particulars Vse 3. Set Faith and the Spirit on work to judge of these things Two generall points Sinne câ—uses Wrath. Which he illustrates by a Compaâ—â—â—â—n Object From the
insensiblenesse of wrath Answ. Containing in it the proofes of the Doctrine Gods wrath is a Treasure 1 Because our sinnes adde to his wrath 2 Because it lies still for a time 3 Because in time it is expended Sinne is like a stormie cloud Simile Object 2. From the generality of sin Answ. Yet all sin not alike And therefore are differently punished Vse 1. Of the Point To see sinne in its effects Which is urged from the Terrour of Gods wrath Object From the not present feeling of Wrath. Answ. It is not felt because it is not apprehended 2 Sinne remains on Record 3 And at length God will strike once for all Object The remedy prescribed is to meet the Lord. Answ. Which consists first in Humiliation In Reformation Object The smalnesse of sinne Answ. The least sinne is disobedience against God Instance of the example of Saul The example of Adam Every sinne is the setting up of another God A difference betwixt a godly and a wicked man in regard of sinnes No sinne is small for it is committed against an exact Law Mat. 5.18 The third generall point Zeale turnes away wrath 1 Proved by Scripture and instances 1 Elijah The truth of it appeares from the danger of luke-warmenesse Coldnesse provokes as much sinne Which is a stirring up of affection 2 For the Lord. 3 There must be with it intention of action Vse 1. Not to discourage those that be zealous The frequency of such discouragements The ill effects Zeale and Religion the pillars of Church and Common-wealth They are Gods Pearls though cast out in the world Vse 1. Containing many Convictions of our want of Zeale 1. From the formality of the Times 2 Conviction From our want of affection for the Lord. 2 Against sin Differences betwixt Hatred and Anger 1 Hatred is constant 2 It sets against the whole Species 3 It â—ests not but in uttâ—r deâ—tâ—uction Iudge of our Anger by these â—arkes 3 Conviction From our want of courage for the truth Object From the danger of too much boldnesse Answ. Danger of Excesse must be prevented by a well regularâ—â—g our boldnesse The Objection is prosecuted And more fully answered 4 Conviction From our want of Zeale for the Church Zeâ—le for the Church is acceptable to God even when he is angry with her It is dangerous to wrong the Church Direction what wee must doe for the Church Abroad At home Concerning the Church at home three things are â—â—mmended to â—onsideration Execution of Iudgement Specially against three things 1 Whoredome 2 Idolatry 3 Injustice 2 Contention for the Faith To which we should be provoked by the practise of her enemies Advancement of the Ministery By setting a Candle in every candlesticke By keeping out dogs that will devoure 4 Generall point If we be not zealous Gods jealousie grows hotter And his messenger must have an answer Meanes to stop his wrath is to stand in the gap Which consists in faithfull prayer 5 Generall point Iealousie for the most part shall proceed to utter destruction Two great deliverances we have had Beware the third time The story of Ahab is considerable to this purpose There is a double feare 1 A feare that puts us upon indirect means 2 A feare that sets us to work on good meanes 2 Chro. 15.2 Doct. Iustification and Sanctification are inseparable 1 How Sanctification ariseth from Iustification 1 By the worke of the Spirit Objects Answ. Quest. Answ. 2 By certaine actions in the minde and heart which are the effects of the Spirit in him 1 Vpon the understanding 2 Vpon the affections 3 Selfe-love is sanctified 4 Ingenuitie is wrought 5 Noblenesse of Spirit 6 A strong inclination 2 Sanctification and Iustification are inseâ—â— Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason 4. Reason 5. Vse 1. Pray that seeing God hath justified us he would also sanctifie us Encouragements to pray for Sanctification 1 Gods promise in the Covenant 2 The Covenant sealed in the Sacrament 1 Cor. 11.25 opened 3 The Covenant confirmed with an oath 4 The end whereunto the Sâ—crament is appointed 5 The successe that others have had by Prayer 6 The great importance of it to us Esay 25.6 opened Ephes. 5.18 opened Vse 2. Set Sanctification as high in our esteeme as Iustifiâ—aâ—â—on The excellencie of the New Creature 1 Above old Lusts. 2 Above all worldly excellencies Object Answ. Two conditions of Adam Object Answ. 1 Iohn 3.2 Eccles. 10.5 Prov. 22.4 Vse 3. Take heed of challenging Iustification without Sanctification Iohn 3.18 Matth. 3.8 Object Answ. Signos of a new Creature 1 A Sense of it â—â—ct 26.18 2 The Vniversalitie of it 1 Cor. 5.7 Object Answ. 3 Looking upon every thing with a new eye 2 Cor. 5.16 4 New workes 2 Cor. 4.20 A New Creature what Three things in it 1 The heart must be new moulded or cast into a new frame 1 Principally his inclination is changed Quest. Answ. How this alteration of the inclination may bee knowne 2 This change is in his whole Conversation Vse Answ. 〈…〉 new 〈◊〉 itie of â—odlinesse The new quaâ—â—tie what 2 It must be done by infusion of a new qualitie of godlinesse The new qualitie what Object Answ. Vse 3 There must be a mortification of the old man Vse 2 Vse or Consectary 1 There must be something lesâ—e than corrupt nature Where â—â—od forgiveth hee healeth where he pardoneth he purifieth Reason 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Caution Note 2 As there must be lesse than corrupt Nature so there must be more than meere Nature Observ. 2. Observ. 3. Observ. 4. Observ. 5. Observ. 1. Those that are in Christ have another Nature When a thing is said to be Naturall Caution Vse 1. Not to deferre comming to God Vse 2. Content not your selves with any thing if this be wanting All the desires that come from Nature are nothing 2 Morall Vertues 3 Transient acts of Holinesse 4 Good Intentions and Purposes Vse 3. Looke that good performances be naturall to you Quest. Answ. Simile Object Answ. Simile Vse 4. To abhor the old nature and to â—â—â—ke to have it chanâ—ed Rom. â— Quest. Answ. Vse 5. Feare not falling away Object Answ. Vse 6. Be not discouraged with the difficultie of any duty Vse 7. A change of nature is a ground of comfort Quest. Answ. Observ. 3. It must be a new Creature Consectaries thence 1 That we are redeemed from old Customes Custome hath many advantages against us 1 It gaines upon our judgements 2 It is troublesome to alter it 3 We plead for it 4 It breeds Senselesnesse Consect 2. Wonder not that the world wonders at thee Consect 3. Pull downe all that is old Object Answ. Quest. Answ. Consect 4. Wonder not at the unevennâ—sse which is found in the lives of the bâ—st men Object Answ. Difference between unevennesse in the Saints and in the wicked Object Answ. Object Answ. Object Answ. Consect 5. Expect a