IT is usual and worthy of the holy Prophets, in speaking of temporal mercies and de­liveries of the people of God from their enemies, to in­sert something, by way of Prophesie, like a bright co­lour, to give lustre to tem­poral benefits, by speaking something anent our spiritual and eternal redemption by the promised Messias: Thus the same Prophet, ha­ving [Page 2] prophesied of the temporal deliverance of the Jews, from the combination of the Kings of Assyria and Israel, subjoyns an Evangelical Prophesie concerning the coming of the Messias, Isa. 7.14. The Prophet Jeremiah having spo­ken, ( Chap. 23.) of the return of the Jews from the captivity of Babylon, subjoyns, ( vers. 6) a Prophesie of the kingdom and benefits of the Messias; as also, the like is done, Jer. 33.15.

In like manner, the Prophet here having fore­told their deliverance from Sennacherib, King of Assyria, subjoyns a gracious and comfortable Prophesie of the Messias his birth, government, and the deliverance and redemption both of Jews and Gentiles from their spiritual enemies, by their happy conversion to the faith of the promised Messias.

In this Chapter, from the beginning to vers. 10. we have these particulars; 1. The low be­ginning and original of the Messias, set forth in borrowed expressions. 2. His singular endow­ments and qualifications for executing the of­fice of Mediator, and for governing his Church, vers. 2. 3. The manner of his government, vers. 3, 4, 5. 4. The effects of his government, vers. 6, 7, 8, 9. 5. The cause of these effects, in the end of vers. 9. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Vers. 1. By rod, or twigg, we understand the Lord Jesus Christ as a small twigg, sprouting [Page 3] up from Jesse the father of David: He is so cal­led, in respect of his outward, low and humble condition in the world; as it is also said, Isai. 53.2. He shall grow up as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comliness, &c. Which is not to be understood, in relation to the out­ward form or feature of his body, which, with­out all question, was most comely, having its constitution and complexion framed in a singu­lar manner by the Holy Ghost; but it is spoken in respect of his outward condition and estate in the world; because he was born in a poor Cortage, without all outward Pomp and State, Luk. 2.7. This prophesie of Christs descending from the loyns of David and Jesse, was accor­dingly fulfilled, Act. 13.23.

By Branch, is meant our blessed Lord, who is so called, Jer. 23.5. Zechar. 3.8. and 6.12. In which places the 70. Interpreters render it [...], Oriens; and in this Text they render it [...], Flos; because he was in dignity the first-born and flower of all the creatures. To these places of holy Scripture, wherein our blessed Lord is called the Branch, many learn­ed Interpreters do think, that place, Matth. 2.23. he shall be called a Nazaren, doth re­late; he was called a Nazaren, that is, the Branch, from the City Nazareth, where he had his education, it being a City compassed about with bushy trees; as even at this day, the Jews call a Christian, Natzar.

It is said, out of his roots; because at the time of Christs birth, tbe family of David, the son of Jesse, was like a root hid under the ground in time of Winter; because after the captivity of Babylon, none of the Tribe of Ju­dah had the government; but at that time the Maccabees, of the Tribe of Levi, were the supreme Rulers: at the birth of our Lord, Herod the Great, the son of Antipater, slew all of the Sanedrim, who were for the most part of the royal Tribe of Judah: then was ful­filled that Prophesie of the Patriarch Jacob, concerning the departure of the Scepter from Judah, and of a Law-giver from between his feet, when Shiloh was born into the world, Gen. 49.10. At our Lords birth, the family of David, in respect of any outward splendor, was like a root hid under the ground in Winter­time: but the Lord who quickens the dead, made this root to sprout, and bring forth this Plant of Renown, even the Lord Jesus Christ.

Observ. 1. It is the duty of the people of God to raise up their thoughts, from any tem­poral deliverance promised or received, unto the meditation, and consideration of that spiri­tual and eternal redemption, wrought be Je­sus Christ: This is clear from the coherence of this Chapter with the preceeding; 1. Because all our temporal mercies and deliverances, are nothing in comparison of that precious, full and eternal redemption, purchased by Jesus [Page 5] Christ: if we consider the price of our Re­demption, even the precious blood of the Lamb of God, of infinite worth and value above all things corruptible, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. we are re­deemed and delivered from all our enemies, Luk. 1.74. and it is an eternal redemption, that in the effects of it endureth for ever, Heb. 9.12. 2. Temporal deliverances are common to the wicked, as well as to the godly; in which re­spect, Christ is called the Saviour of all men, 1 Tim. 4.10. 3. Wicked men may receive a great temporal deliverance, who are yet reserv­ed for wrath to come, 2 Pet. 2.4. Jud. v. 13. Cursed Cham was delivered from the deluge, and many damned Sodomites were delivered by Abraham from captivity, at the rescue of Lot from his enemies.

Obser. 2. Our blessed Lord humbled himself to a low condition here on earth; he was as a rod or small twigg, out of the family of Jesse, one of the smallest in the Tribe of Judah. Con­sider well his Humiliation, 1. It was voluntar and free, Philip. 2.7, 8. he emptied himself; as he laid aside his upper garment to wash the feet of his Disciples, so he laid aside outward state and glory, that he might suffer for us, and wash us in his precious blood. 2. It was a gracious and bountiful Humiliation and Exinanition on our behalf, that by the merit thereof, he might en­rich us with his unsearchable and durable riches, even with the graces of the holy Spirit, ob­tained [Page 6] to us by the merit of his death, 2 Cor. 8, 9. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be made rich, and thereby also to exalt us unto glory, and set us in heavenly places together with himself, Heb. 2.10. For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bring­ing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. The merit of his Humiliation was as a Ladder fixed on the earth, for us to ascend thereby unto glo­ry. 3. He came in a low condition, for the comfort of many of the godly, who are born and live in a poor and low condition here on earth; their low and despicable condition in the world, shall not be any prejudice to the sal­vation of their souls, for Christ shall be all to them, and all in them, Colos. 3.11. Lazarus a poor man, and Onesimus a servant, are accepted of God in him. 4. He became low, and sub­jected himself to infirmities, that thereby we might have confidence of pity and help to us in the day of our infirmities, Heb. 4.15, 16. He knoweth from experience, what it is to have an heart overwhelmed with grief, or astonished with fear; for his soul was in an agony, Luk. 22.44 and he was sore amazed through fear, and very heavy in heart through grief, Mark 14.33.

5. He came in a low condition, to teach us to be content in our lowest estate; in thy low Cottage be content, and look to the Heir of [Page 7] heaven, born in a poor out-house: though thou have course fair, be content, and look to him, who in his ordinar entertainment, had but a few barley Loaves and some small Fishes: at the evening of the day, though thou get a hard bed, look up to him and be content, for he had not whereon to lay his head, Mat. 8.20.

Ʋse 1. Be not offended at Christs low estate, Blessed is the man, saith our Lord, that is not offended in me: remember, 1. he was brought low for our cause, he was bruised for our ini­quities; our lifting up of our selves in the pride and rebellion of our hearts against God, brought him low to suffer and satisfie the Di­vine Justice in our nature for us. Should a Debter be ashamed of, or despise his Cautio­ner, brought low only by his suretyship for his debts, and not for any of his own person? 2. That thou may not be offended at his out­ward low condition, look by the piercing eye of Faith, into the inside of Jesus Christ, in him the God-head dwels bodily, Col. 2.9. His Hu­mane Nature was like the vail, that hid what was within the most holy place; but draw aside the vail, and by Faith behold in him, the most holy One, that Mercy-seat and Propitiatory, in whom and by whom we get a gracious answer of peace from the Father, Joh. 16.23. Verily, verily, I say unto you, whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you. He is our propitiation, 1 Joh. 2.2. By Faith, look through [Page 8] the vail of the Humane Nature, and behold in him the pot of heavenly Manna, which descen­ded, not only from the clouds, as that Manna in the wildernesse, but from the third heaven, to give life unto the world: By Faith, behold in him the rod of Aaron the high Priest, ever blossoming; for he is our great high Priest, living for ever in the most holy place, Heb. 7.24. and by the special assistance of the holy Ghost, according to his promise, Mat. 28.20. he mak­eth the preaching of the Gospel by his Mini­sters, not only to blossom in a fair outward pro­fession, but also to be fruitful in the conversati­on of his people. 3. Consider, although our blessed Lord was born, and lived in a low condi­tion, yet some glimpses of the glory of his Di­vine Nature, did now and then at his own plea­sure, break through the vail of his Humane Na­ture: although he was low in the place of his birth, yet at the same time he was attended by an heavenly host of Angels, and was worshipped both by the wise men that came from the east, and by the shepherds: after he was tempted as a man in the wilderness, yet the Angels mini­stered unto him as the Son of God: after his sleeping as a man in the ship, he rebuked the Sea and the Winds as the Son of God: yea, in his lowest condition upon the Cross, he by the power of his God-head, did shake the earth and raise the dead.

Ʋse 2. Meditate oft-times for thy comfort, upon his lowing and humbling himself in his birth, life and death, look upon it as the great­est token of his love: Jacobs service in so low a condition, was a great token of his love to Rachel; but the Prince of Glory, even Jacobs Lord, was in the form of a servant, near-by thir­ty four years, to espouse us who were by nature enemies to God. Look upon his low condi­tion and humiliation, as a special mean to en­gage thy heart and affection to himself, who took upon him thy nature, to make thee par­taker of the Divine Nature, by a conformity to God in holiness in this life, and in glory and happiness for ever in the other life. Look up­on his humiliation, as thy pattern in thy beha­viour to thy inferiours; he condescended to us in our low estate, therefore be not high-minded, neither in a supercilious arrogancy stand upon your punctilio's; but let the like mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who hum­bled himself to do us good: So should we, after his example, condescend to do good one to ano­ther, Phil. 2.3, 4, 5.

IN these words, is contained our Lords answer to his Disciple Thomas his question, How can we know the way to the Father? In which answer we have an ex­cellent and comfortable descri­ption of our blessed Lord. I am the way, saith he, wherein men walk to the Father for recon­ciliation and peace in this life, and for glory in the other life: I am so the way, that I am the truth, and also the guide of all them who walk in me: and I am life to them in all their faint­ings in their way to heaven, to sustain and up­hold them till they come to the end of their faith, even the salvation of their souls.

Three things are here attributed to our Lord, 1. That he is the Way, 2. That he is the Truth, 3. And that he is the Life.

1. Our blessed Lord is called the Way, 1. Be­cause as a way leadeth men unto a place of rest; so the Lord Jesus Christ, by the merit of his death, hath prepared, and leadeth believers on him to a place of eternal rest in Heaven, and giv­eth us access to the Father by faith in him, while we are in the world, and after death, everlasting rest in, and with him, in the Kingdom of Hea­ven, Col. 1.20. Joh. 14.2. I go to prepare ae place for you. 2. As men must walk in the way, and set their feet therein, that so they may in end come to the place of their rest; so we must fasten our hearts on Jesus Christ, that walking in him by faith, and after him as our great pat­tern by imitation, we may in end come to the possession of eternal life. 3. He is called the Way, because he is our forerunner in the way to Heaven, Heb. 6.20. Not only he hath made the way clear and passable for us to Heaven, in removing the wrath of God, which was like the flaming sword that kept man out of Paradise; this he hath done by the satisfaction made by his death to Divine Justice for our sins: but also by his example, he hath shewed us the way of sanctification, wherein we should walk; and now by his intercession in Heaven, he apply­eth to us that promise made in the Covenant of free Grace, Ezek. 36.26, 27. I will cause them to walk in my statutes.

Christ is called the new and living way, Heb. 10.20. He is called the new way, not that be­lievers before the Law, or under the Law, went by any other way, than by faith in the Mes­siah to come, unto the Kingdom of Heaven; because all of them were saved by vertue of the Covenant of Grace made in him, in whom believers of all Nations at all times are saved, Acts 15.11. We believe, that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Heb. 13.8. Jesus Christ, the same ye­sterday, and to day, and for ever. Rev. 13.8. he is called, The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world: But he is called the new way, in op­position to the way of the Covenant of Works, made with the first Adam; which Covenant, man through his fall made himself unable to keep, and so to be justified thereby and get eternal life, Rom. 8.3. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, con­demned sin in the flesh. It is called the living way, because believers in Christ are quickened by his Spirit to walk in him, and by him to at­tain eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ is cal­led the Way, because by him only we come to eternal life, Acts 4.12. Neither is there salva­tion in any other: for there is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. And there is no coming to the Fa­ther for reconciliation, but by him, as the one [Page 218] and alone Mediator, Joh. 14.6. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Object. Is not Sanctification and good works called also the way to Heaven, Ephes. 2.10. God hath before ordained, that we should walk in good works? And afflictions are also called the strait and thorny way, through which we must en­ter into the Kingdom of God, Act. 14.22. Ans. The Lord Jesus Christ is properly the liv­ing way, that quickens us, and leads us to eter­nal life: Sanctification and good works are com­fortable mithes and evidences, that we are in Christ the way, 2 Cor. 5.17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new Creature. Joh. 15.5. I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. Sanctified afflictions, are as hedges to keep us close with Christ the way, that we do not debord nor depart from him and the way of his Commandments, Psal. 119.71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy statutes.

Object. But I have wandred long and far in the broad way, will I be welcome to him, who is the only way to get me accesse to the Father, and being reconcilled, to bring me to glory? Ans. If thou forsake thy former evil ways, he will receive thee, and by his Spirit lead thee in the way to eternal Life, 2 Cor. 6.17. Where­fore come out from among them, and be ye sepa­rate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean [Page 219] thing; and I will receive you. Thou has his own gracious promise, if thou wilt turn from thy former evil wayes, and by faith come to him, he will accept thee, Joh. 6.37. Him that com­eth unto me, I will in no wayes cast out. He accepted of many who had walked in the way of curious and unlawful arts, Act. 19.19. He accepted of some vile and abominable unclean Persons among the Corinthians, when they by repentance turned from their former unclean wayes, 1 Cor. 6.11. And such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Doth not our blessed Lord invite all sinners, pressed and wearied un­der the burden of their sins, Mat. 11.28? And albeit at thy first coming to him, thou has not so much ease and rest in thy conscience as thou wouldest, yet thou may have some case and be­gining of satisfaction from his promise of rest to the weary soul: bless him for the promise, rest upon it by faith, and in his own good time he will give the some sense of inward peace, from the sense of his love shed abroad in thine heart by the Holy Ghost; for this seal of the Spirit is given after believing, Ephes. 1.13. In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise.

The second thing affirmed by our Lord of himself, is, I am the truth. This is the glo­rious title of the Supreme God, Deut. 32.4. [Page 220] A God of truth, and without iniquity, just and right is he. And the Son of God, who thought it no robbery to be equal with God, is cal­led here the Truth. 1. He is essentially truth; as the justice and mercy of God, is no other thing but the just and merciful God, So the truth of Christ is no other thing but the true and faithful Lord: as it is said, 1 Joh. 1.5. God is light, and in him is no darkness at all; So Christ is truth, and in him is no possi­bility of errour: In him is infinite wisdom, and he cannot be deceived; he is infinitely ho­ly and true, and cannot deceive any who trust­eth into his word. 2. He is the prime and su­prem Truth; the cause of the truth of beeing and essence in all things, Col. 1.18. For by him all things consist. And he is the cause and au­thor of all morall truth in the thoughts, speeches and actions of men. 3. He is the truth, because by the word of truth revealed, out of the Fathers bosom, by him who is cal­led ( Joh. 1.1.) [...] because he is the essential Word, and the express Image of the Father; and also he is the great Interpreter and Revealer of the will of the Father, Joh. 1.18. and by this revealed will, he guideth his own Children in the way to everlasting glory, Psal. 73.24. Thou shalt guide me with thy coun­sel, and afterward receive me to glory. 4. He is (to speak so) morally true, even as he was man, 1 Pet. 2.22. Guile was not found in his [Page 221] lips. 5. He is the truth, answerable to all the Prophesies and Promises made concerning him, 2 Cor. 1.20. In him all the promises are yea, and amen. He is the truth answerable to all the legal types, as the body to the shadow, Joh. 1.17. The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. In the Temple, during the Levitical service, the lights and lamps were shadows of Christ, who was called by John the Baptist, the true light, Joh. 1.9. And is called by himself, the light of the world, Joh. 8.12. Thou that art ignorant, and mourns under the sense of thine ignorance, come to him, who is the true light, and he will give unto thee that eye-salve, even the illu­mination and unction of the Holy Spirit, Rev. 3.17, 18. He is the beam and resplendor of the Fathers glory: although a man, through the weakness of his eyes, cannot behold the Sun in his brightness without dazling and con­founding his sight; yet with much content­ment and delight, he looketh upon the beams of the Sun: So it confounds and astonisheth the Spirit of a Believer, to look on God, and to think upon his greatness and justice, provok­ed to wrath by his many sins: this fight af­frights him and maketh him say with Manoah, Judg. 13.22. I shall surely die, because I have have seen God. Therefore look thou on God manifested in his Son Jesus Christ, who is the brightness of his Fathers glory, Heb. 1.3. Look [Page 222] upon his mercy and love, manifested in giving his Son to satisfie divine justice for our sins: this fight of God in Christ, is a comfortable and reviving fight; then may a Believer say, as the wife of Manoah said, Judg. 13.23. If the Lord were pleased to kill us, he would not have accepted of Christs offering and satisfacti­on for us. The Lord Jesus Christ, is the truth of all the sacrifices under the Law; they were a shadow of good things to come, to wit, of the sacrifice of Christ, who offered up himself by death a sacrifice of sweet smel to the Father; he is the true Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world, Joh. 1 29 Heb. 10.12. We are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all. August. lib. 20. against Faust. cap. 21. ‘The flesh and blood of Christ before his coming, was promised by the similitude of Sacrifices; in the passion and suffering of Christ, it was exhibi [...]t by the Truth its self; after the ascension of Christ, it is solemnly celebrat by the Sa­crament of Commemoration▪ upon the Cross he offered up himself to the Father, to take away our sins;’ and now in the Word and Sacra­ments, we call to mind his sacrifice and death till he come again, 1 Cor. 11.26. As in the Word, Christ is not offered to God by the Minister, but to us; so in the Sacrament, he is not offer­ed to God but to us, and with him a commu­nion and share in the fruits of his death, [...] Cor. [Page 223] 10.16. As the blood of the Paschal-lamb was sprinkled upon the posts of the doors, and the destroying Angel came not near the house; so the application of the Sacrifice of Christ for Propitiation and Salvation, is made by Faith, Rom. 5.1. Therefore being justified by Faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ: He is the Truth of all the legal wash­ings and purifications; he is that true Foun­tain opened to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness, Zach. 13.1. Therefore confess thine uncleanness with the Lepers; believe in him, who is the truth of all these purifications, 1 Joh. 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faith­ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He is the true Manna, that true bread of life, Joh. 6.32. My Father giveth you the true bread from Heaven. Our Lord is the true Manna. 1. The Manna was given to the people of Israel in the wilderness, where bread could not be had from any creature: so when no cre­ature was able to save man, God gave his Son to the death, that by faith, poor hungry souls might feed on him and be refreshed. Isai. 59.16. And he saw that there was no man, and wondred that there was no intercessor: there­fore his arme brought salvation unto him, and his Righteousness, it sustained him. As the people of Israel cryed out in admiration, when they saw the Manna, Man-h [...], what is this? So [Page 224] let us admire and cry out, what a love is this in God, to give his only Son to be the bread of life to feed and preserve those, who by nature were enenemies and children of wrath? The Manna was white and pleasant to the eye, and also sweet and pleasant to the taste, like waffers made of hony; so Christ in himself, the true Manna, is most pleasant, without spot, and without blame, as also he is a most pleasant fight to them that repent and believe the Promise: as the sight of a Corner-stone, is very comfor­table to a weary person sinking under an heavy burden, as the sight of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, was most comfortable to those who were stung with the fire serpents. In like manner, the Lord Jesus Christ, the true Man­na, is sweet and precious to Believers, 1 Pet. 2.7. He is sweet in the Promises, sweet in the first-fruits of eternal life, when by the holy Spirit he sheds abroad his love, like precious oyntment in our hearts, when he gives peace to our Consciences, and joy to our hearts in the hope of Salvation: but the heart cannot conceive how sweet and comfortable this true Manna will be in Heaven, when we shall be fil­led with the full and everlasting Fruits of his glory: then shall we say as the Queen of She­ba said of Solomons glory, It was true that was told me on Earth by the Ministers of the Gospel; but the half was not told me of that I do now see and enjoy in Heaven. 3. They gathered the [Page 225] Manna in the morning; so by Faith, bring in Christ the true Manna, early to feed and refresh thy soul: acquaint your selves in time with him, for he will not make new acquaintance at his second coming with any, who neglected to come to him in this their day. He will say to the foolish and sloathful Virgins, Depart from me, I know you not, Mat. 25. Bring Spiritual hunger with you, it is a sauce to provoke appetite after Christ the true and hid Manna, Joh. 6.27. Labour not for the meat which pe­risheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. Bring Faith with you, for by it we seed on Christ, and draw vertue from him for our spiritual nourishment, and preservation unto eternal life, Joh. 6.35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: He that cometh to me, shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me, shall never thrist. 4. God ordained a Pot full of Manna to be kept in remembrance of his special providence toward them in the wilderness, that from the remembrance of it, they should praise him, and by Faith depend on him and his care, in time-coming: so lay thou up in thy memory any experience of re­freshment at any time by the Word or Sacra­ment, and depend on him for time-coming in all thy wants spiritual or bodily: when thou findest any faintness or failing of Spirit, and no [Page 226] liveliness in thy soul for the time, then re­member thou bygone experience of former re­freshment: Our Lord saith to you, as to his Disciples, Mat. 16.8, 9. O ye of little faith, why reason ye among your selves? do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five Loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up, &c. Remember ye not the former ex­perience ye have had of spiritual refreshment by the holy ordinances of God? Then say thou to thy disquieted Soul, as Psal. 42.6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember thee from the land of Jordan, and of the Hermonites from the hill Mizar. And resolve thou and conclude, as the Prophet doth, vers. 11. Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.

Seeing our blessed Lord is the Truth; in his lips was never found guile; truth and faith­fulness cleaveth to his reins as a girdle, Isa. 11.5. In all thy doubts of acceptance into his favour, or perseverance in his favour (I speak to thee who art humbled under thy sins, and in thy fear and unbelief standest aloof from him) consider he is the Truth, and hath promised acceptance to all, who wearied of their sins, come unto him, Joh. 6.37. All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me; and him [Page 227] that cometh to me, I will in no wayes cast out. And as he hath promised acceptance, so he hath promised the grace of perseverance, Joh. 10.27.28. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish; nei­ther shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Object. I cannot deny my own sense, for I am weary of sin, and yet I find no sensible rest and quietness to my soul, notwithstanding the promise of rest. Ans. 1. Consider well the ground of thy weariness; that thou be not wearied only of sin, as it carrieth along with it a burden of wrath and punishment; thus Cain was wearied, when he said, my punishment is heavier then I can bear: but also that thou be wearied of it as an unclean and vile thing; as it is an offence against thy gracious God; then if thou be thus wearied, come to Christ the precious corner-stone laid in Sion, and al­though thou get not rest to thy sense as thou wouldest, yet make not haste to depart from waiting on him; he that believeth, shall not make haste, Isa. 28.16. wait on, and adhere to the promise, made to all who cast their bur­den upon Christ the precious corner-stone laid in Sion; because those who rest on his promise, and on him, in whom all the promises are, yea and amen, shall not be ashamed of their hope, 1 Pet. 2.6. Wherefore it is contained in the Scripture, behold, I lay in Sion, a chief corner-stone [Page 228] Elect, Precious; and he that believeth on him, shall not be confounded. 2. Consider there is a fourfold rest. 1. The rest or acquiescence of faith to the faithful promise of God; as a debtor hath some rest in his mind, when the Creditor promiseth to forgive him the debt, although he hath not yet gotten his acquit­tance and discharge. 2. There is a rest in hope of the thing promised, though there be some commotion in the Spirit through weakness of Faith, untill the promise be performed to their sense: this rest is like unto some rest the ship that was formerly tossed with the waves, has now at Anchor, although not without some agitation and commotion. 3. There is a rest and peace in the soul, from the full assu­rance of Faith, when the heart is perswaded by the holy Spirit, and a lively faith resting on Jesus Christ, that their sins are forgiven them, and that they are reconciled in the blood of Jesus Christ: such an assurance had Paul, Rom. 8.38, 39. For I am perswaded, that neither death, nor life, &c. shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This rest, is like the quietness a great debtor has in his spirit, af­ter he hath received his discharge out of the hand of his creditor. 4. There is the rest of vision and fruition in Heaven, when we shall ee and enjoy God, and be satisfied to the ull, with that fulness of joy, and with those [Page 229] pleasures for evermore at his right hand, Psa. 16.11. But thou who has not yet attained to that rest and quietness from full assurance of faith, rest thou by the faith of adherence and hope; be not so unwise, as to refuse to rest o [...] the promise, because thou cannot reach to that full assurance; consider thy adhering to the promise, is a step appointed of God for thy ascending unto the assurance. Were it not a childish folly for one to say, I will not go up to an high room, because at first I cannot step up to the upmost degree and step that leadeth into it? Bless thou God for his gracious and faithfull promises made to the weary sin­ner: Consider well that the life of faith is before spiritual sense and full assurance; I say to thee, as Philip said unto his brother Na­thanael, Joh. 6. Come and see. Come by saith to the promise, and thou shalt see; thou shalt get some assurance less or more of thy remission and reconciliation with God in Je­sus Christ, before thou depart out of this life.

3. The third thing affirmed by our blessed Lord of himsef, is, I am the life. 1. He is life in himself, Joh. 5.26. As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. The Son hath it communicate from the Father as the fountain of the Deity; but he hath it not from the Father as the cause; for the cause in order of nature is before the effect; [Page 230] but the blessed Son is coeternal with the Fa­ther in nature and essence: He hath life in him­self from all eternity, Psal. 102.24. Thy years, O my God, are from generation to generation. Which words are applied to our blessed Lord, Heb. 1.10, 11, 12. and Rev. 1.8. He is call [...]d Alpha and Omega, the beginning of all things, and the end to which all things are referred and ordained equally as to the Father: the primi­tive Christians for testifying their Faith con­cerning the Deity of the Son of God, as also for testifying their detestation of the Arian Heresie, denying his Deity, did at their dying, direct their friends to cause these two letters Α. Ω. to be ingraven upon their Tombs. 2▪ He is the Life, in relation to all creatures living a natural life; he is called, (1 Joh. 1.1, 2.) The word of life, because he giveth life to all, and not only giveth it, but also conserveth their being and kind of being, Heb. 1.3. He uphold­eth all things by the word of his power, that is, by his active power in the course of providence, manifesting his will and purpose for the preser­vation of their being; as a Kings word of com­mand signifieth what is his will. This giving of life, and conserving of life in the Creatures; (for all things consist by him, Col. 1.17.) prov­eth clearly our blessed Lord, to be truely God, for he that giveth life, is truely God; and therefore God is called frequently the living God, because he liveth in himself, and of him­self; [Page 231] and also giveth life to all things living; which even the very Heathens from the light of nature acknowledged, as the Apostle ( Act. 17.18.) proveth out of their own Poet Aratus, to convince them of their Idolatry in worshiping Idols that had no life: It is God alone who pre­serveth and continueth the Creature in its be­ing and operations, Psal. 36.6. Thou preserveth man and beast. Job 7.20. O thou preserver of men! and from the conservation of all things in the course of providence, our blessed Lord proveth the truth of his Deity, and equality in essence and power with the Father, Joh. 5.17. Hitherto the Father worketh, and I work. There­fore we should acknowledge, by the homage of honour and obedience our blessed Lord, who is the author and preserver of our natural life: as the Sun giveth light to the Air, and by his shining continueth the same, so our blessed Lord giveth life, and by a continued influence of his active power, doth continue our life; when the Sun withdraws his influence of light, there is no­thing but darkness in the Air: so when the Lord of life withdraws his hand of power, the Crea­ture liveth no longer, Psal. 104.28, 29. Thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good: thou hidest thy face, they are troubled, they decay and perish. Mans life is but a vapour, it is in his nostrils; thou cannot tell when thou breathest out the air, if thou shalt take it in again: how soon is our life gone, if the God of our life [Page 232] should stop and obstruct the common conduits of life in the body; or if for any long time he should obstruct the common Cyres, that serve for purging the body, think not thou that meat or drink only holds in thy life, it is the Lord of life that doth it by blessing and impowering these means: when he taketh away his powerful bles­sing, thou may eat, and yet not be satisfied, Mic. 6.14. Hag. 1.6. Ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink: ye cloath, but there is none warm. 3. He is the Life, because he is the Author and Preser­ver of our spiritual life: our life of justificati­on and absolution from eternal death and dam­nation, is from him, Rom. 3.24. We are justi­fied freely by his grace, through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Our life of Sanctificati­on, whereby we are recovered in part from that deadly sickness of sin, that we pine not away in our iniquities, is by Christ, 1 Pet. 2.24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness. And he is the Perfecter of the life of grace, by the life of glory, Joh. 14.19. Because I live, ye shall live with me. We live in him by faith, we live to him by new obedience, and we shall live with him in glory, Col. 3.3, 4. Our life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ, who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also ap­pear with him in glory.

Seing spiritual and eternal life, is only to be [Page 233] gotten in Christ, it is our duty and happiness to seek our life in him, 1. Because except we be in him by faith, we are dead and damned creatures. 2. If thou come to him for life, thou may be confident to obtain it; for, it is his great regrate, that the Jews would not come to him by faith, that they might have life, Joh. 5.40. 3. His willingness to give life unto penitent and believing sinners, is evi­dent from his solemn protestation, Ezek. 33.11. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil wayes; for why will ye die, O house of Israel? It is evident from the Sons errand in coming into the world, Joh. 12 47. I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. It is evident from his faithful promise, Isa. 55.3. Incline your ear and come unto me: hear and your soul shall live. Joh. 6 51 I am the living bread, which came down from Heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.

When thou has be [...]n made partaker of the life of grace from Christ, labour to preserve that life; for he that is born of God keepeth himself, 1 Joh. 5.18. Preserve the life of grace, 1. By frequenting the Ordinances of Word and Sacraments; for as by these means the Lord begets this new life in us, so by the same means he preserves it in us, 1 Pet. 2.1, 2. As new born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, [Page 234] that ye may grow thereby. As children, who for­sake their meat, do decay daily; so Christians who loath or neglect the Sacred Ordinances, do decay in respect of the vigour of grace. 2. Fre­quent good company: as a good and wholsome air, is very profitable for preserving life and health natural; so good and gracious compa­ny, is very profitable by their wholsome con­ference and admonitions, to preserve the spiri­tual life of grace, Prov. 27.17. Iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend. But evil and ungodly company, is like evil weeds, that hinder the growth of good herbs: they by their evil example, and their mocking the work of Gods grace in others, do discourage them, and sometimes abate the vi­gour of the life of grace in them. 3. Daily ex­ercise is a mean to preserve natural life and health in some vigour, because, through want of exercise, the body becometh lazy, and the life less active: so daily exercising of our selves to keep a good conscience void of offence to­ward God and men, is a notable mean to pre­serve the life of grace in some vigour; as Paul did, Acts 24.16. 4. When at any time thou perceivest a beginning of fainting in the life of grace, then at the first, go by prayer to Christ, who is the life, and wrought life in thee by his Spirit; pray to him, that according to the pro­mise, ( Isai. 40.29.) he would give power to thee who faintest, and that he would increase [Page 235] strength. It was the wisdom of the Shunamite, to come unto Elisha, that he might restore life to her child, who had gotten life at first by the help of his prayers: so it is the wisdom of believers, when in their sense, they seem to be dead and de­prived of the life of grace, that sometime they had; at such a time to go to Christ, and by prayer and faith to wrestle with him, that he may come by his Spirit, and revive their fainting soul: It is their wisdom to do as Peter did, Mat. 14.30, 31. who beginning to sink, immediatly he cried, say­ing, Lord save me, and immediatly Jesus stretch­ed forth his hand and saved him: so although the Lord may suffer thee to sink and fail in spi­rit, that thou may see and be humbled with the sight of thine own weakness: yet if thou run to him by prayer, he will not suffer thee to drown; but will stretch forth his hand of po­wer, and revive thee and renew the vigour of thy faith, that thou may praise him who is the Author, the Preserver, and the Perfecter of the life of grace in his Saints. To him, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be immortal praise, honour and glory, for now and ever. Amen.

OUr blessed Lord, in the vers. preceed­ing; has spoken of his victory over Satan, of casting him out of his spiri­tual possession of the elect, and of their delive­ry from his power and bondage: In this vers. he speaketh of the procuring cause of their de­livery, to wit, his own death on the Cross; and also of the powerful and efficacious applica­tion of the vertue of his death, by giving faith to the elect, to believe in him and draw their hearts toward him.

Divis. In the words we have these two things, 1. The manner of our Lord his death, And I, if I be lifted up from the earth. 2. The vertue and efficacy of his death, I will draw all men unto me.

Whereas it is said, If I be lifted up; the mean­ing is, when I shall be lifted up; for the par­ticle [...] here, is taken for [...] when, as it is ta­ken also, 1 Joh. 3.2. But we know, that when he shall appear, [...] for [...]. As for the manner of his death, If I be lifted up from the earth; There was a twofold lift­ing up of Christ: one from the earth unto the Cross, whereto his body was nailed at his death, whereof here, and Joh. 3.14. There was ano­ther lifting up after his death, unto the Throne of glory in Heaven, Acts 5.31. Him hath God exalted with his right hand, to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and for­givenness of sins. By his lifting up upon the Cross, and the merit of his death, he procu­red the remission of our sins; and by his lift­ing up, after his death, to the Fathers right hand, he doth apply the remission of sins by his intercession. Our blessed Lord gave himself willingly for his sheep, Tit. 2.14. Joh. 10.17, 18. for if he had been pleased to make use of his own Almighty power, all the power of the world could not have taken his life from him; he that with one word did cast his enemies to the ground; who by his power, even upon the Cross, did rent the rocks, he could easily have rent in pieces the tree whereto his body was nailed: yet in his wisdom, he was pleased to suffer death at the hands of his enemies: though his death was simply voluntar, yet in some re­spects [Page 238] it was necessar. 1. There was a necessity of it, in respect of the punishment threatned against man upon his disobedience, The day thou eatest, thou shalt die: therefore there was a ne­cessity of satisfaction to divine truth and justice by the death of Christ, the Mediator and sure­ty of the Covenant of Grace, which was made in him, Gal. 3.16. and ratified by him, Heb. 7.22. 2. There was a necessity in respect of Gods de­cree to send his Son, that he might make satis­faction to Divine Justice in our nature; there­fore it is said by our Lord, Joh. 17.6. Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me. They were the Fathers by election; and given to the Son, that he might satisfie for them, reconcile them, and in end bring them to the salvation appoin­ted for them: As a King resolving to release and give liberty to so many Rebels, Prisoners, giveth them over to his Son, that he may pay their ransome, and so obtain their liberty, ac­cording to the Fathers decree. For this cause, our blessed Lord, in respect of the decree of the Father to send him into the world, that he might die and save his elect, is called the Lamb fore-ordained or predestinated, 1 Pet. 1.20.

This manner of death of our blessed Lord upon the Cross, was necessary, 1. That he might be answerable to that type of the brazen Serpent lifted up in the wilderness, Job. 3.14. And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilder­ness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. [Page 239] 2. That by this manner of death, he might de­liver us from the curse of the Law, Gal. 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is writ­ten, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. He underwent a temporary curse, to deliver us from the eternal curse and wrath due to the transgressours of the Moral Law: Although there be no proportion between the suffering of a temporary curse, and the suffering of an eternal curse, due to us; yet, the dignity of the person suffering, did give infinit value to the merit of his suffering, Heb. 9.14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And the person suffering, being the Son of God, made the vertue and ef­ficacy of his death, to be of infinit power to purge away our sins, and reconcile God to us, 1 Joh. 1.7. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. 3. Our blessed Lord died upon the Cross, that by this shameful death he might merit our exaltation unto favour with God in this life; for, he made our peace with God through the blood of his Cross, Col. 1.20. and that he might merit our exaltation unto everlasting glory in the life to come, Heb. 12.2. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the [Page 240] Cross: this joy and glory set before him, as Mediator, was that glory and triumph he should obtain over all his and his Churches enemies.

It should be our great desire and endeavour, with the Apostle, to know Christ and him cru­cified, 1 Cor. 2.2. To this knowledge all hu­mane learning should be subservient. It is of special use, 1. It will inflame thine heart with love to the Father, whō gave him to the death of the Cross for thee, that thou shouldest not perish, but, believing in him, thou might be reconciled with God, and get eternal life; It will inflame thy heart with love to the Prince of glory, when thou considerest for whom he suffered this ignominious death of the Cross: It was even for thee, who by nature was an ene­my to God at first by a wicked inclination, and after thou camest to the years of discretion, thou wast a rebel by thy wicked actings and works: Men sometimes have died for their friends, as Codrus and Curius for the good of their countrey; but God commendeth his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Rom. 5.8. when thou con­siderest the painfulness of his death; hands and feet were pierced and nailed to the tree of the Cross: In the hands and feet, which are the ex­tremities of the body, the sinewes meet toge­ther and convey the pain to all the parts of the body: And the purer and finer the complexion be, the sense of feeling is the more quick, as a [Page 241] sound and cleanly body is more sensible of the cold piercing Air, than a gross humorous body. Look in narrowly to the inside of his sufferings, even the greatness of his soul-sufferings; they cannot be conceived, how extreme they were: therefore the Greek Church, in their publick prayers, said, For the sake of Christs unknown sufferings, have mercy upon us, O Lord. We may know something of them from his expressi­ons, my soul is exceeding sorrowful; Thou may see something of them in his bloody sweat; our raging fever in our sinning, brought on him this bloody sweat, that thereby he might cure us of the burning fever of sin: we hear something of his soul-sufferings from his most sad complaint to the Father, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? we had forsaken God days with­out number, and he was deserted of comfort for a time, to satisfie for our sinful desertions; and bring us into a communion of favour and glory with God. Consider the shamefulness of his death; He was exposed to the publick shame and reproach of his enemies, and of all the beholders; and shame to an ingenious spi­rit, is worse than death; it racks and breaks their heart, Psal. 69.20. Reproach hath broken my heart. Consider his willingness to die, Isa. 50.6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. Phil. 2.8. He humbled himself, and became obedient unto [Page 242] death, even the death of the Cross. Consider for what end our blessed Lord suffered all this pain and shame: his back was furrowed with stripes and scourges, that by his stripes we might be healed; his head was crowned with thorns, to get us a crown of immortal glory, he suffered all this pain and shame, to save thee from ex­treme and endless pain and shame: How should a sick patient love his Physician, that preveens a dangerous fever? And how should a male­factor love the man, who kept him from the shame of the pillory? How much more should we love our blessed Lord, who by the death of the Cross, hath saved us from that unquench­able fire, and hath preserved us from eternal shame and confusion?

2. The frequent and serious meditation on the Cross of Christ, will keep thine heart humble with godly sorrow for thy bygone sins, that crucified the Lord of glory. Zach. 12.10. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one that mourneth for his only son, &c. It will mor­tifie the love of sin in thee for time coming: sorrow and shame are two mortifying passions; as a debtor is sorry and ashamed of the distress his surety was put to for his debt; and he is very sparing to take on new debt, 2 Cor. 5.14. The love of Christ constraineth us; [...] hem­meth us in, and makes us strait-laced, not to dispense with our selves, to debord toward any [Page 243] thing may offend him, who died such a death, to satisfie divine justice for our debts and sins. It will mortifie thee to the World; to the de­ceitful pleasures thereof, and to such things as take up the thoughts and affections of too ma­ny, Gal. 6.14. But God forbid that I should glo­ry, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Joy in the Cross of Christ, suppres­seth, and in end quencheth, all sinful joy; as sweet odours bear down the stench of noisom and corrupt vapours; so the sweet smell of Christ crucified, doth bear down our vile lusts. This joy in the Cross of Christ, surpasseth even all lawful worldly joy; as the wine of Christs own making in Cana, (Joh. 2.) did far surpass the wine at the feast, that grew by the industry of men.

3. The meditation of the Cross of Christ, will encourage and strengthen thee against all pain and shame of this present world in thy suf­fering for the name of Jesus; when thou re­membrest how thy Lord endured the Cross, and despised the shame, to satisfie for thy sins, and to purchase unto thee eternal rest from all pain; to preserve thee from everlasting confusion, to bring thee unto everlasting glory, 1 Pet. 4.14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. Therefore whensoever God calleth thee to suffering, go not to shift it, as a duty [Page 244] wherein others are more concerned than thy self; When Octavius Augustus, was desired by an old Souldier to speak unto the Roman Senat in his favours; Octavius answered, he should cause one speak to them in his behalf; then did the Souldier open his breast, and shewed the skars of the wounds, he had received at the battel of Actium for his cause; and that he had not interposed any other between his body and the enemy: So Christ in his own body did suffer for thee, 1 Pet. 2.24. and when he calleth thee to suffer for his name, put not off that du­ty to others, seing he himself suffered for thee, as well as for others.

4. The meditation on the Cross of Christ, yeeldeth great comfort to us in all our fears, from our spiritual enemies, Col. 2.15. Having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them, openly triumphing over them in his cross. In which words, the Apostle alludeth to the cu­stom of triumph after great victories over ene­mies; when the Captives were openly dragged in chains after the Chariot of the Conquerour: so our blessed Lord, by his death on the Cross, as his triumphing chariot, hath led captivity captive. And, 1. spoiled Satan our Arch-ene­my, of all the Elect, who through the corrup­tion of nature, are for a time, led captive at his will: Although now and then after their effe­ctual calling and conversion, he infest and molest the children of God by his temptations and in­falls; [Page 245] yet the Captain of their Salvation, by the merit and power of his cross, in end will give them the victory; as he prayed for Peter, Luke 22 30. And as he has promised, Rom. 16.20. Augustine Tractat. 52. in Ioan. saith well, ‘Ali­ud est regnare intrinsecus, aliud forinsecus oppugnare:’ It is a diverse thing to reign with­in in the heart, and to beseige from without. Satan reigneth not in the children of God, though he beset and beseige them with temptations from the World. 2. The Captain of our Salvation triumphed over the World in his own person, when for all the glory of the World he would not once stoop to the Tempter, Matth. 4. When ever he pleased, he restrained the mali­cious designes of men, Joh. 7.46. Act. 16.10. Therefore be of good comfort in all thy fears from malicious and wicked men, Joh. 16.33. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good chear, I have overcome the world. 3. He triumphed over death, 1 Cor. 15.56. O Death! I will be thy death. He hath taken the sting from death: to the godly it is as the brazen Serpent in this wilderness, it has not a sting; but will cure us fully of all the stings we got here; of the sting of temptation; of the sting of a guil­ty conscience; and of the sting of venemous tongues. Thy death through Christ his victo­ry on the Crosse, shall be unto the as the valley of Achor, an entrance to thy promised rest. 4. He by the merit of his Cross, overcame the [Page 246] the power of the grave, and manifested his victo­ry by his rising on the third day, Hos. 13.14. O grave! I will be thy destruction. 1 Cor. 15.21, 22 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead: for as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Though thy body be turned into dust, yet shall it not be annihilat, nor turned into no­thing; but shall be kept in a chamber of re­pose, Isa. 57.2. They shall rest in their beds, and shall be raised as a Bride adorned with Or­naments of glory, conform to our blessed Lord his glorious body, Phil 3.20.

The vertue and efficacy of our blessed Lord, his sufferings on the Cross, is contain­ed in these words, I will draw all men unto me: for understanding of this, we would know, 1. How Christ is said to draw; seing the will cannot be forced; and none are wel­come to Christ, but such as are willing. 2. How is he said to draw all men, for all men do not believe? 3. What manner of drawing this is, seing it is not only a drawing in some measure toward him, but even unto him, for an union with him, for it is said [...], unto me? Ans. to the first: by drawing here, is meant Christ, his effectual calling of the Elect, unto grace by the Gospel, holding forth Christ crucified, and by his Spirit working faith in the heart to go to Christ, and embrace him willingly for the salvation [Page 247] of their souls: In [...]espect of this drawing, the believing Romans are said to be the called of Jesus Christ, Rom. 1.6. 1. As in drawing, the power attractive is from without us, and is in him that draweth us; so the power of believing, by which we come to Christ, is from God, Joh. 6.44. No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me, draw him. Ephes. 2.8. for by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of your selves: It is the gift of God. 2. Drawing presupponeth life in him that is drawn; for dead men are carried, and not drawn on their own feet, so actual faith and drawing near to Christ, presupponeth the principle of grace and faith put first into the soul; therefore Christ is cal­led the author and finisher of our faith, Heb. 12.2. 3. There is a drawing, not only in the first beginning of our motion and conversion un­to Christ; but also after we are entred into the course of grace, we are drawn and pro­moved therein by subsequent and assisting grace; of which drawing, the Spouse of Christ speak­eth, after her saving knowledge of Christ, from the sweet smell of his graces, Can. 1.3, 4. draw me, and we shall run after thee. This drawing is as the continuance of a prosperous gale of wind, for promoving the ship in her course.

To the second, I answer, by all men, is meant sometimes all individuals, 1 Tim. 4.10. [Page 248] He is the Saviour of all men, that is, all men who get any temporal salvation or de­livery, they have it from the living God. In this sense, all things are said to have been made by him, Joh. 1.3. In this sense it can­not be taken here, for all men are not out­wardly called by the Gospel, which is yet hid from many Nations; and many outwardly cal­led, are not drawn and called effectually, Matth. 22.14. Matth. 23.37. 2. It is taken by way of restriction, to the subject-matter spoken of in the same place, as 1 Cor. 9.22. I am made all things to all men, to wit, in the use of my Christian liberty, in matters in­different: 3. It is taken for very many, though not simply for all individuals of men, Joh. 11.48. If we let him thus alone, all men will be­lieve on him, that is, very many will believe on him. 4. It is taken for all kinds, as Act. 10.12. Peter saw in a vision a great sheet, where­in were all manner of four-footed beasts on the earth, [...]. Rev. 5.9. Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. So it is taken here for all kinds of men; rich and poor, male and famale, Jews and Gentiles; as it is taken, Joh. 11.51, 52. He prophesied, that Jesus should die for that Nation: and not for that Nation only, but that also he should gather together in one, the chil­dren of God that were scattered abroad. Joh. 10.16. [Page 249] And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also I must bring and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold: and one shepherd. Gal. 3.28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Col. 3.11. Where there is nei­ther Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircum­cision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all. Augustine understands this place of these who are predestinat to sal­vation, or of all kinds of men.

To the third I answer, there is an outward drawing and calling by the preaching of the Word, Matth. 23.37. Our Lord saith, O Jeru­salem! how often would I have gathered thy children together, &c. and ye would not? There is an inward drawing by the cord of Faith and Love, wrought and fastned in the heart by the Holy Ghost, Act. 11.21. The hand of the Lord was with these Preachers, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. The out­ward drawing by the word, without this in­ward drawing by the Spirit, is not effectual for mans conversion, Act. 13.45. The unbe­lieving and envious Jews were not drawn by the Word preached by Paul, but they contra­dicted and blasphemed his Doctrine, Heb. 4.2. But the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Although the word preached be a mean [Page 250] sufficient in its own kind, that is, a suffici­ent outward mean; yet is it not simply suffici­ent for conversion: As Plowing and Sowing, are sufficient outward means for fruitfulness; but are not effectual without the first and lat­ter rain.

This effectual drawing, is a drawing upward of the soul by faith unto an union and commu­nion with Jesus Christ in his merits, Joh. 6.65. No man, said our Lord, can come unto me, ex­cept it were given unto him of my Father. The grace of faith is given to us from above; it is like a cord cast down from the Rock of our Sal­vation, to save man from drowning and destru­ction in his sins; it is a drawing of the heart upward unto Christ by faith in this life, and a bringing of the soul to the enjoyment of glory in the life to come, Joh. 17.24. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. The sense of Christs love in dying for us, is like the heat descending from the Sun, and drawing up the purified vapours: It is like the Load-stone drawing up the hard and heavy Iron: The sense of Christs love in dying for us, softens our hard hearts, and turn­eth them toward himself. 2. As it is a drawing of the heart up to himself by faith and love, so it is an obediential drawing by love and obedi­ence to the wayes of his holy Commandments: It is not a drawing only toward an outward [Page 251] profession of the truth from the custom of o­thers, or hope of worldly applause or benefit; as Simon Magus was baptized, that he might retain the respect and following of many Sama­ritans his old followers, who had now been bap­tized: neither is it a drawing to the profession of the truth, only for fear of worldly loss; as many of the Persians became Jews in their out­ward dissembled profession, for fear of the Jews: But this inward drawing and believing, is from love to God in the will, Psal. 110.3. Thy peo­ple shall be willing in the day of thy power, that is, when thou, together with thy Word, exerts the power of thy invincible g [...]ace, thou wilt make thy people willing and obedient to fol­low thee in the wayes of thy Commandments. 3. It is an equal and uniform drawing both of the inner and outer man; all the powers of the soul, like so many wheels, anointed and moved by the Spirit of God, are drawn after the Spi­rit, according to the outward drawing of the Word, as it is said of that extraordinary draw­ing by the Spirit, Ezek. 1.20. Whithersoever the Spirit was to go, they went. The understanding is enlightned by heavenly knowledge, and light within, by the Spirit of God, according to the outward light of the Word, 2 Cor. 4.6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of dark­ness, hath shined in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ. The will is strongly in­clined [Page 252] to embrace Christ, and is sick of love to enjoy him, Cant. 3.8. The affections, like the inferiour wheels, are moved and carried toward Christ by an inlightned understanding, and by a vehement inclination of the will, Cant. 5.4 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. Although the drawing and motion toward Christ begin­neth from within, yet it stayeth not there, but draweth also the outward man unto Christ; the members of the body become weapons of righteousness, Rom 6.13. As the motion of the Clock, is first within, and thereafter perceived in the regular motion of the Hand of the Ho­rologe, and in the sound of the Bell; so the in­ward drawing and motion of the soul, is per­ceived in our outward regular actions, and gra­cious communications. 4. It is a most sweet and delightful drawing; the God of all grace by his preveening grace maketh us first willing, and then by his subsequent and assisting grace draweth us most sweetly, with delectation in our hearts after him: It is, as when one is drawn forward to a place from the sent of precious odours, Cant. 1.3, 4. It is as the speedy mount­ing of an Eagle upon wing from the smell and fight of the dead carcase; so the sight and sent, through faith, of Christ crucified, doth most sweetly and willingly draw an hungry soul unto Christ to be fed and refreshed out of the ful­ness of the merit of his death, Mat. 24.28. For [Page 253] wheresoever the carcase is, there will the Eagles be gathered together. Augustine in his Tractat. on this place, [...]aith, ‘It is a drawing, as the shepherd going before, draweth the sheep af­ter him, by holding forth a green branch in his hand: so our blessed Lord worketh in the hearts of the elect that gracious disposition of his own sheep, to hear and follow his voice; and thereafter by the sweetness of the object propounded to them, to wit, Christ the Branch of Righteousness, and by the inward opera­tion and strong impulse of the Spirit, he maketh them follow the outward call of the Word.’ Joh. 10.4. When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep fol­low him, for they know his voice. 5. It is an invincible, and irresistable drawing; it is not only by moral swasion of motives taken from benefit, or prejudice to their souls; but it is by a powerful perswading, and efficacious in­clining of the heart, Gen. 9.27. God shall per­swade Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Hos. 2.14. Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her, or, to her heart. Al­though there is in all men a corrupt principle of resistance to the will of God, yet when God is pleased to exert that exceeding greatness of his power toward them that believe, Eph. 1.19. Actual resistance is overcome by the insupe­rable grace of God, Jer. 17.14. Heal me, O [Page 254] Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved. Jer. 31.18. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the Lord my God. Au­gustine calleth the operation of grace in our conversion to the wayes of God, victrix dele­ctatio, an overcoming delight, like a sweet and strong smell overcoming and bearing down cor­rupt vapours and exhalations: this grace of God in conversion, is rejected by no hard heart, because willingness to resist, is taken away, as Augustine speaketh well to this purpose.

Therefore humble penitents should look up by faith to Christ on the Cross, as he is held forth to them in the Gospel: The persons stung in the wilderness, looked to the brazen serpent, and were healed; so whatever thy sins hath been, and whatsoever be the sting of thy guilty conscience, confess thy sins, with purpose and active endeavours for amending thy wayes; draw near by faith to Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be healed, Joh. 3.14, 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believ­eth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life. Although thy faith be weak, yet if con­vinced of thy sins, and mourning for them, thou look to Christ alone for salvation, thou shalt be saved, Isai. 45.22. Look unto me and be ye sa­ved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else: which place speaketh expresly of Christ, if we compare vers. 23. with Phil. 2.11. [Page 255] All that looked to the brazen serpent in the wilderness, were not alike quick-sighted; yet all who looked, were healed: So all stung with sorrow in their hearts for their sins, if they fix their eye and heart upon Christ crucified, they shall be saved, though faith be weak in the mea­sure: for our salvation doth not depend up­on the strength of our faith, but upon the strength and power of Christ, in whom we be­lieve. And if thou be truly drawn by faith to Christ, then Christ and his Cross will be great in thine eyes and estimation, far above all things here below: As a man lifted up to an high mountain, esteems things below in the val­ley to be but small; so a soul elevated by saith to Christ, and to things that are above, esteems little of all things on earth, in compa­rison of Christ and his unsearchable and durable riches, Phil. 3.8. I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung that I may win Christ. And the true believer glori­eth most in the Cross of Christ, who endured the Cross, and despised the shame, to save us poor souls from extreme and everlasting pain and shame, Gal. 6.14. As we believe the merit of the Cross of Christ, so let us labour to feel more and more of the power of his Cross crucifying sin in us, and drawing our hearts from the vanities of this present world, [Page 256] and quickening us to serve and honour him, who spared not his life, but gave it to the death of the Cross for us. To him; with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all praise, &c. Amen.

THe holy Prophet stirreth up his own heart, and the hearts of others from the consideration of the glorious at­tributes and works of the Lord, to praise his great Name: and amongst these works for the manifestation of his compassion and mercy to­ward poor mourning sinners; because he heal­eth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds: This our blessed Lord applyeth to himself as a work of mercy, common to him with the Father, Luk. 4.18. He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted.

As in healing the diseases and wounds of the body, there be these three considerable, 1. The Physician. 2. The Patient. 3. The Cure it self: So it is in healing the diseases of the soul, [Page 258] and wounds of the spirit of man. We have all these three, in these words, 1. The Physician is the Lord himself, Jehovah, He. 2. The Pati­ent, The broken in heart, and wounded in spirit. 3. The Cure, He healeth.

The Lord God, is the soveraign Physician, who according to his good pleasure healeth all distempers: He healeth a distempered ci­vil State, by restoring civil Peace, Psal. 46.9. Psal. 147.14. A distempered Church, by restoring Unity, Peace and Love, Isa. 30.26. Jer. 30.17. Jer. 32.39. He healeth breaches in families, by restoring domestick Peace and Amity; He healeth distempers through bodi­ly diseases, Ezod. 15.25. 2 Kings 20.5. He healeth Souls distempered, through the guilt and sting of an evil conscience, Psal. 103.3. Who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Jer. 3.22. Return ye back­sliding Children, and I will heal your back­slidings. In all our distempers, it is our wis­dom and duty to go to God, and to his Son Jesus Christ, the Soveraign Physician for heal­ing sick Souls. Psal. 61.2. From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is high­er then I. Psa. 60.2. Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal all the breach­es thereof, for it shaketh: especially when the soul is in an high fever and distemper of grief and fear, through bypast sins, Psal. 41.4. I [Page 259] said, Lord be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. We should use the outward means ordained by God, for heal­ing our souls; such as are the hearing of the Gospel, receiving the holy Sacrament of the holy Supper, and daily Prayer: these are, through Gods blessing, strengthning and healing Ordi­nances: but we must not rest on the outward performances, or on the abilities of the Mi­nister thereof; as if there were any Intrinse­cal vertue in them, for healing a sick and faint­ing Soul: The Word was preached by Christ himself, and yet no healing followed, Matth. 23.37. Luke 19.42. The Sacrament of Bap­tism was ministred by Philip the Evangelist to Simon Magus, and yet there was no healing of that gall of iniquity in his heart: when a people look too much to the instruments, who preach the Word, or minister the Sacraments, it provokes our jealousie, God many times to withhold assistance from the Ministers, and a blessing from the outward means to the people: for all these outward Ordinances are but emp­ty cisterns, till they be filled by an influence of power and life from himself, Joh. 6.63. It is the spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The outward Ordinance, without the Lords special presence and blessing, is like the staff of Elisha, in the hand of Gehazi, they do not quicken a dead soul, nor awake the sleepy and secure soul, 2, Kings 4.31. Therefore inusing [Page 260] the outward means for healing our souls, we should go by Prayer to the great Physician him­self, that by his Spirit he would go along with the outward Ordinances.

If thou go to him, thou needest not despare of healing, for in his own due time he will heal all that come to him, Jer. 17.14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. There is no soul-disease incureable to him, though in it there were a complication of infirmities and di­stempers, Isai. 1.16, 18. Wash ye, make you clean, put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes, cease to do evil: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow, &c. Though thy sins were inveterat through cu­stom from thy child-hood, like the Luna­tick child, Mark 9.21. Though incurable through all the counsel of friends, like the dis­ease of that sick woman, Luke 8.43. There­fore come your selves to him, and let parents bring their stubborn children in their prayers to Him the great Physician, who can heal per­verse spirits, and make crooked things straight, even when parents and friends has despared of their recovery from their soul-distempers and evil wayes: In all distempers and wounds of spi­rit from outward grievous afflictions, come to this Soveraign Physician; though creatures neither can, nor will heal thee; yet he will come near to the afflicted, who under affliction bodily, are most afflicted in their spirit for [Page 261] their sins, Psal. 27.10. Jer. 30.17. Hos. 2.14. I will allure her, and bring her into the wil­derness, and speak comfortably unto her. When the godly are in a desolat, and wildernesse-like condition, and few or none to comfort: then the Lord, in an acceptable time, comes in to the soul with comfort: all the moral Instru­ments of our comfort and healing, are but as an Apprentice who can do nothing without their masters secret information and direction: therefore the broken-hearted would come to Jesus Christ, who had a calling from the Fa­ther, ( Luke 4.18.) to bind up and heal the broken in heart: he healed Inveterat bodily diseases, as one of twelve years, one of eigh­teen, and one of thirty eight years, for the comfort of all poor humbled sinners, who for­merly have accustomed themselves to do evil. He is a skilful Physician to apply several Medi­cines for healing several diseases: He has Cor­rosives to awake these who are in a spiritual Le­thargy; even the spirit of burning and judge­ment, Isai. 4.4 He has sharp afflictions as a scourge to tame and daunt proud and vain men, who are in a spiritual Phrency, and distemper­ed with an heady conceit of their own righte­ousness, Job 36.8, 9. If they be bound in fet­ters, and be holden in cords of affliction; then he sheweth them their work, and their transgressions; that they have exceeded. He has Lenatives and Restauratives to poor fainting Souls; even the [Page 262] sweet promises of the Gospel, Isa. 57.11. Matth. 5.3, 4. Matth. 11.28. Though this great Physician, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the Humane Nature, be locally in Heaven, yet he can heal broken hearts on earth, by the ver­tue and presence of his Spirit, through the pow­er of hi [...] Intercession at the Fathers right hand, 1 Joh. 2.1, 2. If any man sin, we have an Aduocat with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righ [...]eous; and he is the Propitiation for our sins. He healed the Centurions sick servant at a distance, Matth. 8. And the Son of that Noble man, ( Joh. 4.51.) at a distance also: As the Sun in the Firmament, though at a distance from the Earth, doth quicken and re­vive the Creatures by the influence of light and heat; so the Sun of Righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, doth by the influences of his Spirit and Vertue, quicken and revive a soul fainting under the burden of sin.

2. The Patient under Gods Cure, is the broken in heart, or, wounded in spirit, The broken heart, is called also in Scripture a contrite spirit, Ps. 51.13. Is 57.15. When the heart that was sometime whole and hard like a stone, is broken into piec­es, like a grain bruised between the upper and nether milstone: so the heart of a truly humbled sinner, is crushed between the sense of divine ju­stice, displeased with its sins; and the sense of divine love manifested in the Gospel: it is cal­led a bruised spirit, Isa. 42.3. When the heart is bruised and bowed down so with the burden [Page 263] of many and manifold sins; that from the deep sense of greif and shame for them, they have not the confidence to look up to God, Psal. 40.12. Mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up, &c. It is called a wounded spirit, Prov. 18.14. because the Lord of hosts, provoked by our sins, doth justly wound the guilty conscience with pain, that the wound­ed spirit can get no rest. Psal. 38.3. There is no soundness in my flesh, because of thine anger: neither is there any rest in my bones, because of my sin. It is called a soft and tender heart, sensi­ble of the danger and vileness of sin; Josiah his heart, was tender and humbled at the hearing of the Law, 2 Chron. 34.27. A rent heart, Joel 2.12. When the love of sin is emptied out of the heart by repentance; as water out of a rent vessel: and it is called an heart of flesh, plyable and yeelding to walk in the com­mandments of God, Ezek. 36.26, 27.

The necessity of a broken heart, is evident from the text, because it is the broken heart only that God healeth. 1. God taketh speci-notice of the broken in heart, Psal. 56.8. Ezek. 9.4. 2. He preserveth the broken in heart in the midst of common calamities, Psal. 34.18. Ezek. 9.4. For if they be taken away with the common calamity, yet they get their souls for a prey. Good Josiah, is said to have been gathered to his grave in peace, 2 Chron. 34.28. Although he was slain by the bloody sword of [Page 264] an enemy. 3. It is evident from the contrary evil of an hard heart; because man's wilful hardning of himself in his evil wayes against warnings from the Word of God, from the rod of God upon himself or others, and from the sharp checks of a guilty conscience, doth pro­voke God judicially to harden him, by giving him up to a Conscience past feeling, to com­mit sin with greediness, and so to obstruct their own healing, because not the hardned, but the broken in heart, are healed, Mat. 13.15. For this peoples heart is waxed gross, &c. Lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. For when wicked men do wilfully harden them­selves in their evil wayes, it is just with God to withdraw his former common restraints, such as were the checks of a [...]emording Conscience, and a panick fear of wrath to come; thereafter he casts the bridle on their neck: then do they run wild in their own imaginations, when they are given up in the just judgement of God to walk in the counsels of their own hearts; Psal. 81.11, 12.

The means and helps for breaking of the heart, that in all men is naturally hard, are, 1. A laying to heart the severe threatnings of God against sin, Jer. 23.29. Is not my word like an hammer? Many men hear the word of threatning, but are still hardned, their heart is not broken; because [Page 265] the threatning is not said to heart by Faith. The old world, ( Mat. 24.39.) though they knew the threatning of the deludge by the preaching of Noah, yet they knew not, that is, they laid it not to heart, till the flood came: The hammer breaks not the hard stone, until it be laid to it with some pith; but when it is laid to heart, it doth in some measure be­gin the work of heart-breaking, Jonah 3.5. They believed God in his threatning, and pro­claimed a fast, which was a proclamation of their sorrow for their sins: Faith to the threatning, worketh fear in the heart, and fear breaks the heart with present sorrow, from a present appre­hension of the wrath to come; this was the cause of Ahab his sorrow and legal humiliation, 1 Kings. 21.27. but in the children of God, this fear and brokenness of heart, is so ordered in the wisdom and mercy of God, that it pre­pareth them for the comforts of the Gospel in Jesus Christ; as Noah moved with fear and ap­prehension of the threatned deludge, prepared an ark to the saving of himself and his house, Heb. 11.7. In like manner the children of God, warned and wakened by the threatning of the Law, flee in to Christ, the only Ark and propiti­ation, that covereth believers from the curse of the Law and eternal wrath, 1 Joh. 2.1, 2. If any man sin, we have an Advocat with the Fa­ther, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins. 2. Sad afflictions, laid [Page 266] home with conviction to the Conscience, is a mean oft-times ordered by God to break an hard heart, as is seen in Manasseh, who was humbled by his fetters, and in the Prodigal, who was humbled by great famine and want: the unjust reproaches of enemies, contrary to their intention (like that man, who opened the Apostem in the body of his enemy, by a dart thrown at him) are ordered by God to break the heart of his children with sorrow for by-past sins: the reproaches of vile Shimei, calling Da­vid a bloody man in the matter of Saul, where­in he was most innocent; yet it did break his heart with sorrow in remembrance of the mat­ter of Ʋriah. 3. A particular confession of our sins, is a mean blest of God to the breaking of the heart: when we consider the circumstances of their number and greatness against infinit Ma­jesty, infinitly just, who will not clear the guil­ty, when we consider the Omniscience and Om­ni-presence of God, that we have done this and the other evil in his sight, and so have been shamless in our sinning; as the vile adulteress, is shameless by intertaining the adulterer in the presence of her husband: when we consider our wilfulness and obstinacy in sinning against the light of our own conscience, as these men did, Act. 7.51. When we consider our relapses, like the Sow to the puddle, & the Dog to the vomit, after many promises and resolutions in the day of affliction to the contrair: when we consider [Page 267] our base ungratitude, not only neglecting to ren­der to the Lord according to his benefits be­stowed upon us; but also our rendring to him e­vil for good, and so deserving, that evil of punish­ment should never depart from us, Prov. 17.15. 4. A particular register & remembrance of Gods former mercies in doing us good all our dayes, by providing for us, and preserving us from many visible and invisible dangers; when we call to remembrance his patience and long-suffering in bearing with us in our sins: this brake the hard heart of the Prodigal, when he remembred the former bounty of his gracious father. Luk. 15.17, 18. 5. A serious and frequent meditation of death and judgement, will be a mean to break an hard heart, a [...] a man drowned in debt, not aquainted with any that will be surety for him; and knoweth assuredly, the rude Messen­ger will take him personally at the Term, ar­rest him, and present him to the Judge; then the irrevockable sentence will come forth, Take him, bind him hand and foot, &c. It broke the heart of Pauls companions, that he said, they should see his face no more, Act. 20.38. So the fear of the day of death and of judgement, should break the hard heart, when they consi­der if they go on and die in their sins, they shall be separate from God for ever, and never shall see his face. Therefore break thine heart with sorrow for bygone sins, break off thy course of iniquity by righteousness; make [Page 268] thine aquaintance in time with Jesus Christ the Surety and Mediator of the New Covenant, and pray with Hezekiah, Lord, I am oppressed, under­take thou for me. If now he be thine Advocat, thou needest not be afraid of that day of judgement, because thy Advocat will be thy Judge: repent of thy sins, and by faith make application to him as thy Advocat and interces­sour at the Fathers right hand: be of good cou­rage, he that speaketh for thee now, will not speak against thee in that day. 6. Look oft by Faith and frequent meditation upon Christ cru­cified: this is a special Medicine and Lenitive to soften the hard heart, Zach. 12.10. This look to him by faith, is like the blood of the goat, which breaketh the hard Adamant; look on him wounded for thy transgressions, both in his body and spirit: shall the innocent Cau­tioner be wounded, and sore distressed? and shall not the Principal debtor be wounded with sor­row for the debt he himself contracted? shall our spotless Cautioner suffer shame and re­proach? and shall not our hearts be broken with grief and shame for our sins, which put the innocent Lamb of God to open reproach? Psal. 22.6, 7. Psal. 69.20. 7. Pray to God for a soft and broken heart, it is promised in the New Covenant, Ezek. 36.26, 27. Pray for the influence and insuperable operation of the grace of God upon thy hard heart, that thou may know in thy self what is the exceeding [Page 269] greatness of his power to them who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, &c. Ephes. 1.19. The influence of his overpowering and overcoming grace, will be as Aqua-fortis, to cut and divide an heart of iron: we are like little children within the house, that can shut the door of the heart upon our selves, but cannot open it: Therefore we must cry to him, who both opens the dark understanding ( Luk. 24.45.) and also the heart and affections, Act. 16.14. that he would open our hard hearts by his preveening grace, and by his subsequent grace, he would keep them open, and enlarge them by love toward himself, and his holy Com­mandments.

3. The cure of the broken in heart, he heal­eth them, and bindeth up their wounds. God healeth these that are of a broken heart with sorrow under great afflictions, upon their per­sons or outward estate, Hos. 6.1. Come and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. The Lord healeth these that are thus wounded, by giving them patience and strength in the inner-man to bear the visitation of the Lord in the day of their trouble, Psal. 138.3. In the day when I cryed, thou answeredst me, and strengthendst me with strength in my soul. Sometimes he comforts them with inward peace and joy; that exceeds the pain they have from outward tribulation, 2 Cor. 1.4, 5. Who [Page 270] comforteth us in all our tribulation, &c: For, as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ: and some­times by delivering them in their greatest ex­tremity, 2 Cor. 1.9, 10. But we had the sen­tence of death in our selves, that we should not trust in our selves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us.

The Lord healeth also, in a more special manner, those whose hearts are broken with sorrow for their sins: This is the healing we should desire most, as David did in the time of his great sickness, Psal. 41.4. I said, Lord be merciful unto me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee. Our greatest care should be of soul-health, 1. Because our care should be greater to have the soul healed, than the body or outward estate: This was David's first and greatest desire in the time of sore sickness, Ps. 39.8, 13. he first prayes for deliverance from his sins, and then, with submission, for delive­rance from his bodily disease, Deliver me from all my transgressions: O spare me, that I may re­cover strength before I go hence, and be no more. The soul is more precious than the body; as men are more careful to have an Apostem in the inward and noble parts healed, than a scratch in the skin of the body; so our first and greatest care should be, to have the diseases of our [Page 271] souls healed. 2. If the spirit be healed, and if a man have peace with God and his own con­science, he will be able patiently to bear the infirmities of the body; But, a wounded spirit who can bear? Prov. 18.14. As a man having an Ulcer in his back, is much disquieted, even with a little burden: but if the back be sound and whole, he can walk quietly under a great burden: So when there is no health nor peace in the conscience, a very small affliction doth disquiet and perplex our hearts: but when we have inward health and peace in the conscience, we are able through the Lord, who strengthen­eth us, to walk patiently and quietly under a great affliction, Psal. 23.4. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me, thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Psal. 138.7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me. 3. Unlese ye have a care of your souls-healing in this life, there is no coming to per­fect soul-health and salvation in Heaven: as the Lepers, under the Law, were not admitted in­to publick meetings, till first they were cleans­ed and healed; so no unclean thing shall enter into the New Jerusalem, Rev. 21.27.

That we may the better understand what this soul-healing is, and how the cure is per­formed, we would consider, that sin in Scrip­ture is compared oftentimes to sickness, Isai. 1.5. and in many places to leprosie. 1. In [Page 272] bodily sickness, there is a privation and want of health, so in sin, there is want of Original Righteousness, which was the sound constituti­on of man in the state of innocency. 2. In bo­dily sickness, there is a collision of humours, like contrary waves, making a commotion in the body; so in our corrupt hearts, there is a contrariety of unruly lusts, one desiring this visible and sensual good, and another lust, car­ried after another sinful object. 3. In sickness there is consumption, and a tendency unto death, unless it be preveened; so in sin, there is a tendency unto eternal death, unless it be preveened by the pardon of our sins in the blood of Christ. 4. In sickness bodily, men oftentimes become weaker and weaker; so unless they be restored by sanctification, sinners grow worse and worse, 2 Tim 3.13 Evil men and se­ducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Therefore, by healing, is meant specially these two, 1. The forgiving of sin to these who are broken in heart with sorrow for it, Isa. 33.24. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick, to wit, unto the second death: the people that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity. 2. The sanctifying of a broken-hearted man, and healing him by degrees, from in-dwelling corruption, which many times over-mastered him: these two acts of soul-healing, are set down, Psal. 103.3. Bless the [Page 273] Lord, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who heal­eth all thy diseases. By the remission of sin, the soul is healed, and recovered from a state of guiltiness and obligation to punishment eter­nal; and by sanctification, it is recovered from pineing away in iniquity.

The impediments of soul-healing, are, 1. Way­wardness and frowardness of men, who cannot endure to have their wounds touched and ript up by the word of reproof, Prov. 1.30, 31. They would none of my counsel; they despised all my reproof: therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own de­vices. They cannot endure amputation and mortification of their sinful lusts, which are as a gangren'd hand or foot, therefore they are not healed; but choose rather to pine away in their beloved lusts, than to have them cut off, and so to have their souls saved. 2. Hardness of heart, and stupid security, without appre­hension of the danger, and vileness of their sins, makes them carlesse to seek to the Lord for healing their souls, Mat. 13.15. For this peoples heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 3. Willfull rejecting of the coun­sel and direction of the great Physician of our souls, given to us by his faithfull Ministers, [Page 274] Jer. 51.9. We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Mat. 23.37, 38. O Jerusa­lem, Jerusalem, &c. how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen ga­thereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not? Behold your house is left unto you de­solat, &c. 4. A false conceit and imagination of our own righteousness and soul-health, is a great impediment to the healing of the soul, as the Phrenetick man, who thinks himself whole, seeketh not the Physician for healing, Matth. 9.12. They that be whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick; that is, they that are sen­sible of their souls distemper through the mala­dy of sin, are sensible also of a necessity to be healed.

The outward means of Soul-healing, are the Word, specially the Gospel-promises, Psal. 107 20 He sent his Word and healed them. Isai. 57.15 Thus saith the high and lofty One, &c. I dwell in the high and holy place; with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humhle, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Isai. 61.1 The Lord God hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted. Psal. 51.17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper, is an outward mean for healing a broken heart; because it is a visible sign and seal of our Communion of Christs Bo­dy [Page 275] broken for us, and of his blood shed for us; and his offering of his Body, and our receiving of it by Faith, is the special mean to heal the broken heart by the vertue of his Body broken for us: Prayer is a mean blessed of God for healing a broken heart: Moses (Num. 12.13.) cryed unto the Lord in behalf of his leprouse sister Miriam, saying, heal her now, O God, I be­seech thee. And (2. Chron. 30.18, 19, 20.) Heze­kiah prayed to the Lord for healing and forgiv­ness to the People, who had prepared their hearts to eat the Passeover, but had not been punctually cleansed according to the purificati­on of the Sanctuary conform to the Law ceri­monial: And it is said, the Lord hearkned to Hezekiah, and healed the people.

The inward means of healing the Soul, are specially two. 1. Repentance, Jer. 3.20. Re­turn ye backsliding Children, and I will heal your backslidings. Jer. 4.14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be sav­ed. Repentance cleanseth the wound, and let­eth out the malignant humor. 2. Faith is a spe­cial mean for Soul-healing; it is as the hand that applieth the healing-plaister; it applies the blood of Christ, wherewith the Soul is cleans­ed, Act. 16.31. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. As the Haemo­roise Woman, when she touched Christ, was healed by the healing vertue that came out of him; so when a humble broken-hearted sinner [Page 276] doth lay hold on Christ, and the promise made in him, healing vertue comes from him, where­by guilt and obligation to eternal punishment, is taken away in our Justification, and the fever of corruption is much abaited, by the work and power of Sanctification.

The manner of Gods healing the broken-heart, is, 1. Freely without any merit in man procuring the same; for, Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? Rom. 11.35. To this purpose saith the prophet, Isai. 43.25. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, &c. 2. He healeth powerfully; so that when he puts to the hand of his invincible grace for healing, no distemper of the will can resist him; for he takes away willingness to re­sist, and so he begins his healing in cureing the malignancy of the will, Jer. 17.14. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Jer. 31.18. Turn thou me, and I shall be turned. This effi­cacy of Gods grace in healing Souls, is called the exceeding greatness of his power to us­ward, who believe, according to the working of his mighty power. It is a power, exceeding and overcomming the power of our corrupti­on, at the time when God is pleased [...] exert it. 3. God heals the Soul gradually in [...]espect of indwelling corruption: although (as is most probable) God justifies a sinner at once from the guilt of all his sins, actually forgiv­ing [Page 277] him all his bypast sins, and giving him a right and claim through Christ unto the re­mission of sins to come: Yet the healing of the soul, from the vilness of indweling cor­ruption in the course of Sanctification, is by degrees; for so long as the children of God are on Earth, there is in them grace and corruption, and each of them lusteth one against another, Gal. 5.17. 4. He healeth perfectly and fully all his Patients, at the end of their life, from all stain of Sin, and di [...]temper of Conscience, through the stirring of inward corruption: as the Jewish Women were fully purified after Child-birth, before they were presented in the Temple; so our blessed Lord and Physician, af­ter our new Birth and Regeneration, doth purifie us in the course of Sanctification; and at death, having closed the course of our pu­rification, doth after death, present us faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, Jud. Epist. 24.

Obj. One possibly may say, my heart is bro­ken with sorrow for my sins, and yet their is no healing of my soul, nor peace and quietness in my Conscience; I may say, as Jer. 4.14, 19. I look­ed for the time of healing, and behold trouble. Ans. God is debtor to none for healing; he healeth the broken in heart, but not because their heart is broken: The distemper is meer­ly from our selves, but our healing is from his free Grace; with some sinners he deals more [Page 278] roughly than with others, according to his Wisdom and good Pleasure, Isai. 28.27. Paul is cast down to the ground, but the heart of Lydia is gently opened; some are sooner cur­ed and comforted, to preveen despair; others are keept long under cure and exercise of Conscience, to preveen pride and presum­ption

Therefore wait upon the Lord thy Physician, with all patience and submission. 1. Because he hath promised to heal the broken in heart, and in zeal to the glory of his Truth, he will per­form his promise, Heb. 10.36. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. Our pati­ence is the thing he willeth, and after the proof of our patience, we shall receive the good promised, he doth not heal us to our sense, at the first; David had not health and peace in his Conscience at the first, upon the breaking of his heart for these two heinous sins, Psal. 51.8, 12. The Lord in his wisdom, su­spendeth healing and comfort, after the heart is broken, to the end in time coming we may be more careful to keep a good Conscience, which is the box wherein the precious Jewel of Peace and inward Joy, is preserved from rubbs and defilments. 2. Consider, the more pati­ent thou art, thy inward pain will be the less: a sick man from his Impatience, that he is not healed so soon as he expected, doth both in­crease [Page 279] his pain and offend his Physician; and af­terward when God gives to his impatient Children, any case from trouble, they are ashamed of their former Impatience; whereas patience and submission to God about the time, manner, and measure of our healing and de­livering, will preveen the shame that ariseth from our impatience in times of trouble, and delayed relief, Rom. 5.4, 5. Patience worketh experience, and experience hope, and hope mak­eth not ashamed. 3. Consider that our wise God, to manifest his Soveraign Dominion and free Grace, doth sometimes heal at the fi [...]st, even gross offenders, as the Publican Luke 18. And the notorious Thief, Luke 22. Some­times he doth keep lesser offenders, for a long time under pain and terrour of Conscience: In rich mercy he pitieth some of his Elect, that are in an high rageing Fever of sin, and like to perish in it: As also in his Wisdom he keepeth lesser offenders, for a long time under exercise and disease of Conscience, lest they should think little of lesser sins, which oft-times prove an inlet to greater sins. 4. Consider his Wis­dom, who knoweth well, when and how, to de­liver his own Children out of tryals and troubles, 2 Pet. 2.9. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the Godly out of temptations. 5. Con­sider his Faithfulness, 1 Cor. 10.13. God is faith­ful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able: but will with the temptation [Page 280] also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Limit not the holy One of Israel to means or times: The Physicians of our bodies will not take it well, to be limited by their patients to this or that time of healing: but wait thou on him at all times in the use of the lawful means, and wait for him in hope; who can tel, but he will heal and comfort thee, in thy greatest extremity, with unexpected and abounding consolations? Isai. 41.17, 18. When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thrist, I the Lord will hear them, I the God of Israel will not forsake them; I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pooll of water, and the dry land springs of water.

Quest. How shall I know, if I be in the way of recovery, from the fever of my corruption, and in the way to perfect Soul-health, and Sal­vation? Ans. 1. As the recovery of some health in the body, is known by the beating of the puls, when it is more equal and regular than it was formerly; so if thou be in the way of Soul-health; whereas thy former motions and wayes, were unequal, thou was once much for the lesser duties of the first Table, as the Pharisies were in their precise payment of Tithes, but they neglected the substantial du­ties of the second Table, as Mercy, Faith and Judgement: At other times, thou seemed [Page 281] very zealous of the duties of the second Table, as the deputy Gallio was of the Emperours ho­nour and service; but as for the matters of God and true Religion, he accounted them but trifles, and cared not for them: but if thou be in the right way to per [...]ect Soul-healing, the respect of thine heart, will be equal and uniform toward all the Commandments of God, Psal. 119 6. Then shall I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all thy Commandments, Act. 24.16. And herein do I exercise my self, to have alwayes a conscience, void of offence toward God and toward men. Though thou may fail sometimes out of Infirmity, and Inadvertence; yet the disposition and inclination of thy will, is found in all thy wayes to honour God, Heb. 13.18. Pray for us; for we trust we have a good con­science, in all things willing to live honestly. 2. As in a begun recovery of b [...]dily health, the former fever and thirst is in some measure abaited; so it will be with thee, if thou be in the way to Soul-health: whereas sometime thou didst drink-in Iniquity with greediness, as the Ox doth water, thou was insatiable in thy sinful desires; even when thy body was wearied in thine Iniquity, thy will was not wea [...]ied of it: but now if thou be in the way of recovery and ammendement, thy former desire after sin, will be much abaited, and thou wilt hate even wandring and stragling motions, Psal. 119.113. I hate vain thoughts, but thy Law do I love. [Page 282] 3. As natural appetit groweth in these that are in the way of recovery to bodily health, and their right tast begins to be restored: so whereas formerly the good Ordinances of God, were loathsome to thee in the time of thy rage­ing Fever in sin, as Manna was to the people of Israel, in their feverish sits of Impatience and Discontentment: Now, if thou be in the way to Soul-health, the Word of God will be sweet to thy Soul, Psal. 119.103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast! Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Thy former sins will be bitter to thee as wormwood; as a man scun­ners much afterward at the Dish, which did overset and distemper his stomach, so thou wilt abhore thy former evil wayes, which did distemper thee, and bring pain to thy Consci­ence, Ezek. 36.31. Then shall ye remember your own evil wayes, and your doings, that were not good, and shall loath your selves in your own sight, for your iniquities, and for your abominations. Rom. 6.20, 21. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness: what fruit had ye then in those things, whereof ye are now ashamed? 4. The man in the way of recovery from bodily sickness, begins to have a stomach to digest grosser meats; whereas in the time of sickness, he tarrowed at every thing: So if thou be in the right way to Soul-health, begun peace in thy Conscience, will make thee digest even great afflictions and wants, 2 Sam. 23.5. [Page 283] Although my house be not so with God; yet he hath made an everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things, and sure: for this is all my salva­tion, and all my desire; although he make it not to grow. Heb. 3.17, 18 Although the Fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the Vins, &c. yet I will rejoyce in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. 5 The sick man in the way to recovery, gets [...]me ability to walk; our blessed Lord said, J [...]h 5.8. to the man that was healed, Take up thy bed and walk. So, whereas formerly thou was wallowing in the m [...]re of vile sins, or lying in the bed of sluggishness, and carnal security: Now if thou be in the right way to perfect Soul-health, thou wilt endeavour to walk in the wayes of God, as Manasseh did. 2 Chron. 33.16. and as Zacheus did, Luke 19.8.

Quest. Ye will ask, what direction give ye us, after we are in the way of soul-recovery, that we may not relapse into our former fits and soul-distempers? Answ. 1. Be thankful to the great Physician, who hath begun in thee the course of Sanctification to heal thy soul: Hezekiah was thankful to God, after his reco­very from his bodily disease, and went up into the house of the Lord, to worship and praise him: If thou be unthankful to thy Physician, thou cannot with any confidence in new trou­bles and distempers, go to him for help and re­lief. 2. Keep a good dyet; be thou of a so­ber [Page 284] and humble spirit, both under the sense of former mercy recovering thee, and also under the sense of the dregs and reliques of corrupti­on dwelling in thee; which will not be perfect­ly cured till the hour of our death; a man in the way of recovery, abstains from such meat, as would provoke his old disease, and distem­per him again; so abstain thou from evil com­pany and all occasions, that would cast thee into a new fever of trouble in thy Conscience; as the holy Patriarch Judah did abstain from go­ing to Thamar any more, Gen. 38.26. And as the holy Apostle Peter went out of the high Priests hall, where he had been tempted to de­ny his Lord, Luk. 22.62. 3. Be thou watch­ful and circumspect after thy begun recovery, as Hezekiah was, Isa. 38.15. What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bit­terness of my soul. As a man who is recovering of a broken leg, walks at leasure and circum­spectly, especially in rough wayes, wherein are many stumbling-blocks: Remember often what our Lord said to the sick man that was healed, Joh. 5.14 Behold thou art made whole; sin no more, least a worse thing befal thee. Be not secure, but follow the advice given by the Prophet to the King of Israel, after his victo­ry against his enemies, 1 Kings 20.22. Go strengthen thy self, and mark and see what thou doest; for at the return of the year, the King [Page 285] of Syria will come up against thee. Much more shouldest thou watch against thy spiritual ene­my, for thou knowest not how soon he may return with a violent temptation and assault upon thee. 4. Be careful to keep acquaintance and daily correspondence with God in thy de­votion and spiritual duties; as a man healed of bodily sickness, is careful to keep good cor­respondence with the Physician that healed him, and when at any time he is afraid of a new fit of his old disease, he doth acquaint him; so do thou by prayer, make daily application to God who hath begun to heal thy soul, Mat. 26.42. and at thy first apprehension of the ri­sing of any lust or noisom humour in thy soul, cry to him, as Paul did, 2 Cor. 12.8, 9. and thou shalt get a gracious answer as he did, My grace is sufficient for thee. To God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, be immortal praise, &c. Amen.

IT is said, Joh. 1.17. The Law was given by Mose [...]; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The Moral and Ceremonial Law was by Gods appointment proclaimed by Mo­ses; but the grace of Justification and absolution from the curse of the Moral Law, as also Truth in fulfilling the Ceremonial Law, and answering to all the types under the Old Testament, came by Jesus Christ, who is the Truth, the body, and substance of all the legal Sacrifices and Offerings, Joh. 1.29. Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the World. He is the truth of all the legal washings and purifications, [Page 287] 1 Joh. 1.7. The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. He is the truth of all the lights and lamps in the Levitical service, Joh. 8.12. I am the light of the world: he that followeth me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He is the truth of all the Levitical Altars, as he was of their sa­crifices, Heb. 13.10. We have an altar, where­of they have no right to eat, which serve the taber­nacle. He is the alone Altar that sanctifieth all our spiritual offerings, 1 Pet. 2.5. His death was the true antitype of the lifting up of the brazen Serpent in the wilderness; as is clear from the words in the text: in which we have a vive resemblance between Christ crucified, and the brazen Serpent; as is clearly insinuat in the particle of similitude as, and in the par­ticle of reddition and application, even so.

The resemblance is, 1. In that which was lifted up, to wit, the brazen Serpent, and the Son of man. 2. In the place, to wit, in the wilderness. 3. In the lifting up of the Ser­pent upon a pole; and the lifting up of Christ upon the tree of the Cross. 4. In the necessity of the lifting up of both; there was a necessity of lifting up the brazen Serpent to heal those who were stung; so there was a necessity of the death of Christ, for healing and saving sinners, even so must the Son of man, &c. 5. There is a resemblance in the consequent and benefit fol­lowing, their looking: all those, who being [Page 288] stung, did look on the brazen Serpent, were healed: So all sinners wounded with sorrow for their sins, and looking by faith, receiving him in all his offices, and resting on Christ crucified, as he is offered in the Gospel, shall not perish but have eternal li [...]e.

2. There was some resemblance between that brazen Serpent and Jesus Christ, who by way of excellency, is called, The Son of man, 1. That Serpent was in outward form, like unto Serpents that have stings; but really it had no sting: So our blessed Lord, though he was in form like unto sinful men, yet was he without all sin, Rom. 8.3. He was in the similitude of sinful flesh, it is not said, In the similitude of flesh, for he was truly and really partaker of flesh and blood; but without sin: for he behoved to be clean him­self, who was to cleanse us; and to be whole and perfect, who was to heal us. 2. That Ser­pent was not made of Gold, but of Brass: Je­roboams Calves were made of Gold: Our Lords outward Garb and fashion before the world, was without all show and pomp, Isai. 53.2. When we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him, Luk. 17.20. The kingdom of God cometh not with observation. The ordinances of men are oftentimes very specious in their out-side, as were the Calves of Jeroboam; but the Ordinances of God are simple, without outward splendor: as the holy Word preached in simplicity, and the holy [Page 289] Sacraments administred in simple elements, yet with them is great vertue, and a blessing to believers. The Word, accompanied by the Spirit of God, is the power of God to salvati­on, Rom. 1.16. and worketh eff [...]ctually in those that believe, 1 Thes. 2.13 The Sacrament of Baptism, through the Spi [...]it, is the Laver of Re­generation, Acts 22.16. Tit 3 5. and the Sacra­ment of the holy Supper, is through the blessing of God, the real and spiritual communion of the body and Blood of Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 10.16. Jeroboam his Calves, though of Gold, did not heal any who worshipped them: but there is much comfort and benefit to be had in the [...]ple Ordinances of God, much more than in all the specious and glistering inventions of men. One old zealous Father, at the Council of Nice, prevailed more with that young Hea­then Philosoph, for his conversion to the Chri­stian Faith, even by speaking to him in the simplicity of the Gospel, than all the learned Fathers could do by dispute and arguing. 3. The occasion of making and lifting up the brazen Serpent, was their great pain and dan­ger in being deadly wounded by the fiery flee­ing Serpents, Numb 21. So the occasion, both of the Incarnation of Christ, and of his death upon the Cross, was our sins, wherewith we were wounded by the old Serpent, and had been in pain for ever, if Christ had not been [Page 290] Incarnat and died also for us; he was wounded for our transgressions, Isa. 53.5.

The consideration of this, that our sins were the cause of the lifting up of Christ upon the Tree of the Cross, should work in us these three penal affections, 1. Grief and great sorrow for our bypast sins, Zech. 12.10. David when he saw the innocent people destroyed by the Pesti­lence, he was grieved at the heart, and said, 2 Sam. 24.17. Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? So we may and should say in the grief of our hearts, What hath the innocent Lamb of God done, who was without spot, and blameless? But we have sinned, and we have eaten the so [...] Grape; and his teeth was set on edge: we stretched out our hearts and hands to iniquity; and his back was scourged for our offences. 2. It should work in our consciences, shame and self-indignation; and we should afflict our spirits for our sins, as Ephraim did, Jer. 31.19. I was ashamed, yea even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. 3. An active detesta­tion of all sin [...]ul wayes for time coming, as it is said, Job 34.32. That which I see not, teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more, Hos. 14.8. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do any more with idols?

2. The place wherein the Serpent was lifted up, was the wilderness: even there did God provide a remedy, where no means of humane [Page 291] help was to be had: there was no antidotes to be found in the wilderness against the venom, for preserving from that infl [...]mmation, and extreme burning with pain: So fallen man, was in a wilderness-estate after he had sinned against God: for in holy Scripture, wilderness i [...] taken for, a desolat condition, Isai. 35 6. In the wilder­ness shall waters break out; that is, plentiful re­freshment by the Messias. Isai. 41.18. I will make the wilderness a pool of water. When no remeed for healing man could be had from creatures, the righteous Angels could not sa­tisfie infinit Justice, they being finit creatures: no more than the payment of ten pounds can exhaust the debt of an hundred thousand pounds: holy and righteous men cannot satis­fie for themselves, Psal. 143.2. And enter not in­to judgement with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. Yet in such an extre­mity, like a wilderness, wherein no out-gate is seen, the Lords own arm brought salvation to his people, Isai. 63.5. I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore mine own arm brought sal­vation unto me, and my fury, it upheld me. In this wilderness, our blessed Lord was lifted up; let us look by faith to him, when at any time we are stung with the tongues of a viperous ge­neration, and back-biters, who are like Dan, an adder by the way; in such a case look thou to Jesus Christ lifted up on the Cross, mocked [Page 292] and reviled, Heb. 12.3. Consider him, that endured such contradictions of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. In this world, that is a wilderness of many Labyrinths and difficulties, wherein ma­ny times we see no probable outgate: Let us lean by faith and dependance on Christ cru­cified, the Captain of our Salvation; and he will at death lead us out of this wilderness, in­to that Paradise that is above. as it is said of the spouse in Cant. 8.5. Who is this that com­eth up from the wilderness, leaning upon her be­loved? Rom. 8.39. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separat us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

3. As the Serpent was lifted up upon the Pole; even so was Christ upon the Cross, 1 Pet. 2 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree; the word there ( [...]) signifieth both to bear a burden, as Matth. 4.6. The Angels will bear thee in their hands, [...] and also to take away, Joh. 1.29. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world, [...]. So our blessed Lord took away our sins, by bearing the burden of the punishment due to us; and thereby making satisfaction to Divine Justice, Isai. 53.6. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the Iniquity of us all; and vers. 12 He was [Page 293] numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the sins of many. He was lifted up upon the Cross, and died that kind of death, to take away the curse of the moral Law, threatned against us for our sins, Gal. 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree. Although there be no proportion between a temporal curse or punishment, and that eternal curse and punishment due to us for our sins; yet the infinite worth of the Person, being the Son of God, gave infinite worth and value to his sufferings for a short time, for taking away the eternal punishment, and for procuring to us an eternal and exceeding weight of glory, ac­cording to that of Heb. 9 14. How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, Purge our Conscience from dead works, to serve the living God?

As our blessed Lord was lifted upon the Cross; so let us lift up our minds and hearts to him, and as Paul had the Philippians alwayes in his heart, Philip. 1.7. So let us carry Christ crucified alwayes in our hearts. 1. This should be our great care and study, with the Apostle Paul, who studied nothing so much as the knowledge of Christ and him crucified, 1 Cor. 2.2. And Philip. 3.10. That I may know the fellowship of his sufferings. For this end, the [Page 294] holy Sacrament of the Supper was institute, to bring often to our remembrance the death of the Lord Jesus, 1 Cor. 11.26. 2. Serious and frequent thoughts of his Cross, will mor­tifie sin in us, Gal. 2.20. I am crucified with Christ. Thoughts of the great grief and shame, brought upon the Innocent Lamb of God by our sins, should pierce our hearts: should we rejoyce in that, which made him cry out, My Soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death? God forbid we should glory in that which procur­ed the shame of the Cross to him. The thoughts of his Cross will mortifie our impa­tience in all our afflictions; when we look to him, who with so great patience endured the Cross, and with insuperable courage despised the shame of the World. This will mortifie our love to the perishing vanities of this pre­sent world, Gal. 6.14. God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. As a dead man is not affected with the pleasures of the world; and the world is crucified to him, as a man has no pleasure to look upon the limbs of a malefactor hanged up in the high way. 3. Thoughts of the cross of Christ, have an active and attractive Vertue: they will quicken our Faith, and draw us near­er to Christ; where the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered, Matth. 24.28. The sweet smell of the cross of Christ, draweth Be­lievers [Page 295] to him: It will quicken our love to Christ, and our obedience, Can. 1.3, 4. Thy name is as oyntment poured forth, therefore do the Virgins love thee: draw me, and we shall run after thee. A thankful man cannot but love his servant, that has suffered much for him; how much more should we love our blessed Lord, who suffered so much for us, who by an evil Nature, are born enemies to God? The consideration of his death, will quicken our hope and dependance upon God, for all things needful in time coming, Rom. 8.32. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all; how shall he not with him al­so, freely give us all things? It will quicken our love to all who belong to Christ, especi­ally in the time of their distress; as the love of David to Jonathan, in the remembrance of his great kindness, did make him enquire after these that belonged to Jonathan, that he might shew kindness to them, 2 Sam. 9.1. The consideration of this great love of Christ, in dying such a death for us, by the power of his Love, will subdue our sinful lusts, and make us by patience to overcome difficulties and afflictions in suffering for his Name, Rom. 8.37. Nay, in all tbese things we are more than Conquerours, through him that loved us. This Heavenly fire of his Love in our hearts, like lightnings, will quench that earthly fire and exhalations of unclean lusts. 4. Serious and [Page 296] deep thoughts of the cross of Christ, will comfort and encourage us against all our ene­mies, whether devils or wicked men, because Christ, upon th [...] c [...]oss, hath spoiled principali­ties and powers. Col. 2 15. Satan our arch-enemy, is both bound and spoiled by the Cap­tain of our Salvation. He may and will molest us, like an enemy besieging a City, and making frequent assaults; but he shall not prevail to get possession, John 10.28. They shall never pe­rish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. The true Believers, may and will be molested, by wicked men tempting them to sin; and persecuting them with tongue or hands, because they will not run with them in the excess of riot, 1 Pet. 4.4. But be of good comfort; for even all the wicked in the world, are subiected to him by the merit and power of his Cross, Phil. 2.8, 9, 10. Joh. 16.33. These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace; in the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good chear, I have overcome the world. The thoughts of the death of Christ, will comfort us against the severe charge, and sharp challenges of a guilty and accusing Conscience, Rom. 8.34. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather th [...]t is risen again; who is even at the right hand of G [...]d, who also maketh Intercession for us. It will comfort and encourage against the fear of death; seing our blessed Lord by [Page 297] his death on the Cross, hath taken away the sting and curse from our death, 1 Cor. 15.57. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victo­ry, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The necessity of the death of Christ upon the Cross, even so must the Son of man be lifted up; It was necessary our Lord should die. 1. There was a necessity of immutability in respect of Gods decree to save lost man by the sufferings and death of Jesus Ch [...]ist, Heb 2.10. For it be­came him, for whom are all things; and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 1 Pet. 1.20. Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you. 2. There was a necessity in respect of infallibili­ty to fulfil the Prophesies concerning his death for our sins. Isa. 53.12. He hath poured out his soul unto death. Dan. 9.26. The Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself. 3. To fulfil and to be answerable by his death and bloody sa­crifice to the typical sacrifices, Heb. 10.4, 5, 6, 7. For it is not possible, that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sins, &c. And, Rev. 13 8. he is called, The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; to wit, in these mystical and ty­pical sacrifices, before, and under, the Law. 4. There was a necessity for him to die this kind of death on the Cross; whereof see more in Serm. Joh. 12.32.

Though there was a necessity for our blessed Lord to die, yet he submitted to it most wil­lingly; he poured out his soul unto death, and frequently it is said in the New Testament, he emptied himself, and gave himself to the death, Gal. 1.4. Eph. 5.2. Tit. 2.14. This kind of necessity agreeth well with a spontaneous wil­lingness, though not with a liberty of indiffe­rency toward the opposit act. And seing our blessed Lord submitted himself willingly to this necessity, in order to our salvation; let us also, when-ever in a necessity of divine pro­vidence we are called to undergo this or that cross, willingly and chearfully submit our selves to the necessity of his wise providence: Let us say as our Lord did, Not my will, but thine be done. Let us say as David did, 2 Sam. 15.26. Behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him. And with these loving Profes­sors, Acts 21.14. When Paul would not be per­swaded, we ceased, saying, the will of the Lord be done.

5. There is a resemblance in the consequent and effect of their looking to the brazen Ser­pent, and of believers their looking to Christ on the Cross. 1. These Serpents in the wil­derness were deadly: the Septuagint Inter­preters calls them [...]: so in sin there is the bite of the old Serpent, when a temptation to sin is fastned on our hearts, and we give consent to it, Jam. 1.15. When lust [Page 299] hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin when it is finished, bringeth forth death. The bite of the Serpents, was painful before they looked up to the brazen Serpent; there was a burning inflammation and pain from the sting: so it is in sinne [...]s, after they have sinned, the sting of an evil conscience remains burning and tormenting them from the sense of guiltiness, and the fear of wrath to come, and fear hath torment, 1 Joh. 4.18. 2. They were pained at the heart, before they looked to the brazen Serpent: so before a sinner can look by faith to Jesus Christ, and so be healed, there must be pain and grief at his heart in some measure of sincerity, for offending the just and gracious God, Mat. 9.11, 12. Jesus said unto them, they that be whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick. Two sorts of persons are not healed at the first, to wit, those that are le­thargick, or phrenetick; sensless of sin, or con­ceitful of their own righteousness: The Church of Laodicea is convinced first of her security and vain imaginations, before she be invited to be healed, Rev. 3.19. And the Pharisee, conceited of his own righteousness, returned to his house not justified, Luke 18. As the lethargick is or­dinarily cured by casting him into a fever, and then he being sensible of his distemper, is heal­ed by the Physician; so our great Physician puts secure and sensless sinners oftentimes to a sharp fever and exercise of conscience, by dis­covering [Page 300] covering sin and wrath to them, and thereaf­ter heals them, as he did the Jaylor, Act. 16.30, 31. The Phrenetick and conceity soul, the Lord heals, by beating them with the sharp rods of affliction, Job 36.8, 9, 10. If they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction; then he sheweth them their work and their trans­gressions that they have exceeded: he openeth al­so their ear to discipline, and commandeth that they return from iniquity.

They were healed by looking up to the braz­en Serpent; so by faith in Christ Jesus, we are healed from our sins, Act. 16.30. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be sav­ed. He is the only Physician, that is both able and willing to heal the broken in heart: As the People stung, were healed by their looking up, as a condition appointed and required by God: But they were not healed for their looking up, as a cause meritorious of heal­ing; so Faith is appointed, and required as an instrument or condition, without which there is no Justification and Salvation; but it is not the cause meritorious, but looks to Christ alone, as the procurer of our Justification and Salvation in his blood: The sick Woman was healed of her bloody flux, through her touching of Christ, but not by any vertue in her touching; for the healing vertue came from Christ himself alone, Mark 5.30. Luke 6.19. He healeth us of all the stings, that dis­quiet [Page 301] and torment our spirits; of which there be four. 1. The sting of a guilty and torment­ing Conscience, spoken of, Job 20.12. 2. The sting of outward great afflictions, not on­ly in the Wicked, but also in the Godly; to wit, a fear and apprehension of wrath in the affliction, Job 6.4. The arrowes of the Al­mighty are within me, the poyson whereof drink­eth up my spirit; the terrours of God do set themselves in array against me. 3. The sting of temptation, 2 Cor. 12.7. There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. 4. The sting of death, 1. Cor. 15.56. At that time, our sins that were quiet from tormenting us, as the viper was for a time, Act. 28. at death they leap on our Consciences, to torment them with fear of the second Death. Therefore let us look to Christ crucified, that we may be heal­ed of all these stings, Isai. 45.22. Look unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth: Look to him, who shed his blood for the re­mission of sins; who has reconciled us in the blood of his Cross; and this look, will calm the Conscience, from the sting of guiltiness, Rom. 5.1. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2. When thou art disquieted with the sting of afflictions, look to Christ, who by the me­rit of his sufferings, hath taken away the curse and wrath from thy sufferings, and maketh them medicinal and profitable for thy soul, [Page 302] Heb. 12 10. He chastiseth us for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness. 3. Against the sting of temptations and sharp tryals, look to his rich and free Love, Rom. 8.37. He will give strength to resist, 2 Cor. 12.9. He will give outgate, 1 Cor. 10.13. 4. Against the sting of death, look by Faith to Jesus Christ, who is the Saviour of his body, Rom. 8 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Look by Faith to him, inter­ceeding at the right hand of God, for preserv­ing us Believers unto eternal Life, Rom 8.34. Joh. 10.28. As by his death he purchased our peace with God, so by his Intercession he per­petuats that peace, Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the outermost, that come unto God by him, seing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them.

4. All that looked to the brazen Serpent, were healed; although in such a great number of men, all were not alike quick-sighted; so all Believers, though not alike strong in Faith, by looking to Christ crucified, are saved from their sins. There is no exception of infants in the life of Faith, although in the estate of Grace, and for the time they be not able, by a reflex act, to discern their own estate: as in­fants are refreshed with bodily food, although their hand be not so large, as the hand of men grown up to ripe age: the promise of salvati­on is universal to all true Believers, whether [Page 303] stronger or weaker, Joh. 3.16. Joh. 3.36. He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life: The Church of Christ, is compared to a flock of sheep, Act. 20.28. And all the sheep are not alike strong; yet the great Shepherd of our souls, doth gather the Lambs with his arm, and carrieth them in his bosom, and doth gently lead those that are with young, Isai. 40.11. It is compared to a family, Heb. 5.14. And all in the family are not alike strong; so it is in the Church: and yet our heavenly Father feed­eth all by Jesus Christ, the bread of life. There­fore look unto him, with the eye of Faith, though weak, and be ye saved, Isai. 45.22. It is not so with the eye of a believing soul, as it is with the eye of the body, in beholding this created Sun; the more it looketh upon it, the eye is the more dazled and weakned; but the more a Believer looketh on Christ the Sun of righteousness, he groweth the stronger in the grace of Faith: because he seeth more and more of the power of Christ, to save all who come to God by him; who is the Son of God, in whom the Father is alwayes well pleas­ed; he seeth the more of his willingness to accept of sinners; he seeth him on the cross, give­ing pardon, and promising Paradise to a noto­rious malefactor; he heareth him praying for forgiveness to his enemies: Therefore he concludes, that he will not reject his soul that cometh unto him sincerely, though weakly.

It is not said, that the Son of man must be lifted up, that all men may believe; or that all men may have eternal li [...]e: For if the Lord had intended, that all men should believe, or that all men should be saved, then all men should believe and should be saved; for who hath resisted his will, and purpose? Rom. 9.19. It is also repugnant to his wisdom, to in­tend what he knows cannot come to pass, to wit, that all men should have Faith; for Faith comes by hearing the Gospel, and God intends not to send the Gospel to all men.

The bite of the Serpent in the wilderness, was in it self deadly; yet all who looked to the brazen Serpent were healed: So all sin in it self is deadly; for the wages of sin is death, Rom. 6.23. But if we confess our sins with sorrow for them, and a purpose to forsake them; and if by faith, we look to Christ cru­cified, and rest on him, we shall be saved, 1 Joh. 1.9. If we confess our sins, he is faith­ful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We would consi­der well the covenant of Grace, made in Christ to Believers: It is a covenant well or­dered, sure and everlasting, 2 Sam. 23.4. It is well ordered, and adorned with rich and free promises of all things requisit for our eternal happiness; as promises of mercy, (I will forgive them their sins) of grace and san­ctification, [Page 305] I will put my Law in their inward parts, and writ it in their hearts, &c. Jer. 31.33, 34. It is a sure Covenant, because grounded on two things immutable, to wit, Gods eter­nal Counsel and Decree manifested in the Gos­pel, for blessing and saving all Believers in Je­sus Christ, Gal. 3.16. All the promises, are Yea and Amen in him; because, made in a re­spect to his satisfaction, and performed by him in the fulness of time: The other ground of the sureness of the Covenant, is the Oath of God, Heb. 6.17, 18. Gen. 22.16. It is made sure by the blood of our Surety and Mediator Jesus Christ, who shed his blood both to purchase, and to assure us of the remission of our sins: It is ensured to us by the Seals of the holy Sa­craments, and although the Seals under the Old and New Testament, be diverse: yet the Covenant sealed, is one and the same; as the face is one and the same, when vailed and un­vailed. It is an everlasting Covenant, Jer. 32.40. I will make an everlasting Covenant with them, &c. It is put in the hand of our Surety, to be kept for us, and he by the power of his invincible Grace, keepeth us for the possession of the heavenly Inheritance. 1 Pet. 1.5. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. For farther clear­ing the Doctrine of believing in Jesus Christ for Justification, or Remission of sins, and [Page 306] for eternal Life, we would answer some Questions.

Quest. What is the Object of justifying and saving Faith? Answ. The Object of divine Faith, is all the divine truths revealed in the holy Scripture; but the Object of justifying and saving Faith, is the Lord Jesus Christ; he is the only Object, whereunto we must look for justification and salvation, Isa. 45.22. Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Act. 10.43. To him gave all the Prophets wit­ness, that through his Name, whosoever believ­eth in him, shall receive remission of sins. Act. 13.39. By him, all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the Law of Moses. As these who were wound­ed by the firy serpents in the wilderness, look­ed also to the pole whereupon it was set; but they were healed only by looking to the brazen Serpent its self; so though the whole Scrip­ture, is as a ring of gold, precious and much to be esteemed, yet the Lord Jesus Christ, is as the precious stone in the midst of it; and for obtaining justification and salvation, is to be looked unto allanerly: The Lord Jesus Christ, and Gods rich and free love in sending him into the world, is mostly, among all divine Truths, to be looked unto, Joh. 5.39. Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eter­nal life, and they are they which testifie of me. Joh. 20.31. But these are written, that ye might [Page 307] believe, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, ye might have life through his Name. So as he is the alone Object, to which we should look, as the meritorious cause of our justification and salvation; so, of all revealed divine Truths, he is the principal Object of our Faith; he is the end of the Law Cerimonial, Gal. 3.24. He is the entire supplement of the Moral Law, by his perfect righteousness and sa­tisfaction to divine justice, Rom. 8.3. For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likness of sinfull flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh. And he is the Mediator and substance of all Gospel-promises, 2 Cor. 1.20. All the promises of God in him, are Yea, and in him Amen. There­fore it is our duty to be conversant in all di­vine Truths revealed in holy Scripture; but we should meditate most frequently upon this divine Truth of our justification and salvation by Jesus Christ, wherein most eminently is ma­nifested the Father's love in sending him, the love of the Son in coming into the world, that by the merit of his death, we may be justified and saved; and the love of the Holy Ghost, in anointing and qualifying him for these great effects: as the Bee passeth thorow many flowrs in the Garden, but stayeth longest on these, where it getteth most hony; so we should of­ten meditate upon the mystery of Gods free love in Jesus Christ: All the Scriptures are [Page 308] faithful sayings, and worthy of all acceptation; yet this saying is eminent above all, 1 Tim. 1.15. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. We should turn away our eyes from looking to any thing as meritorius of justifica­tion and salvation: but we should look unto Christ alone and his righteousness for the salva­tion of our souls; because life eternal, is the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, Rom. 6.23. And we are saved by grace, through Faith in him, Eph. 2.8. This doctrine, from the force of truth upon the Conscience, and for quieting the heart in the remembrance of our own unrighteousness, the learned and worthy reformed Divines, have maintained according to the holy Scriptures; and the learned Bishop Andrews, (in his Serm. on Jer. 23.6.) saith pi­ously and soundly, That if men would set God before them in his justice, and their own souls in their guiltiness, they would interpose no­thing between the revenging justice of God, and their guilty souls, but the alone righteous­ness of Jesus Christ: yea, some of the Roman Church, have acknowledged, that justification and salvation, is to be sought only in the Lord Jesus Christ; as was evident from that directo­ry for visitation of the sick, reprinted at Venice, one thousand five hundred seventy six; the priest is directed to propone this question to the sick person, Believest thou that none can be [Page 309] saved by their own merits, or any other way, than by the merit of our Lord Jesus Christ? And the Priest is directed to instruct the sick person, that there is no other way of salvation, but by Faith on Jesus Christ alone. Bellarmin. (lib. 3. of Justif.) after a long debate, he concludes, ‘It is safer for the uncertainty of our own righ­teousness, and for shunning the danger of vain glory, to put our confidence only in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ Fe­rus, a learned and moderat Divine, comment­ing upon the parable of the Labourers in the Vine-yard, Mat. 20. speaketh to this purpose, ‘God promised freely, and he rewardeth free­ly; therefore if thou wouldest keep Gods fa­vour toward thee, make no mention of thy own merits; for he will give all things out of his own mercy; nevertheless thou must not be the slower to do good works; yea rather thou shouldest be the more zealous of them, seing we have so bountiful a Lord.’

Quest. Is there no more required for justifica­tion, but only Faith in Jesus Christ? Is there no more required for inheriting eternal life, but to receive him, and to rely on him? Answ. Some of late, even Divines of the reformed Church, have spoken very rashly (to say no worse) of some eminent and Orthodox learned men of the Reformed Churches, as if they did not require in the believer new obedience and sanctificati­on: It is true, they require according to the [Page 310] Scriptures, that by Faith alone in Christ and his righteousness, they should look for justifica­tion; but they require new obedience and sanctification in the believer, as a necessary an­tecedent unto eternal life. The Harmony of lear­ned Divines of the reformed Church, in the Doctrine of justification, See in learned Horn­beck his Institut. Theolog. Cap. 11. and they affi [...]m that as our sins were imputed to Christ the Surety and Mediator of the New Covenant, so his Righteousness is imputed to believers for justification: therefore it is not, as some in their expressions, complying with the Papists, have spoken, a fancy, or Justitia Putativa, a sup­posed righteousness, but it is real of God the Father, accompting his Sons Righteousness un­to the sinner, and by that accompting, making it his to all effects, as if the sinner himself had performed it: as speaketh the learned and famous Arch. B. Ʋsher, in his Sum of Christian Religion up [...]n this Subject: ‘Because (saith he) this Righteousness is in Christ, not as in a person severed from us; but as in the head of the Church, the second Adam, from whom therefore it is communicated unto all, who being united as members unto him, do lay claim thereunto, and apply it unto themsel­ves, Rom. 5.19. Rom. 10.4. And though (saith he) it be not fit to measure heavenly things by the yard of reason, yet it is not un­reasonable, [Page 311] that a man owing a thousand pound, and not being able to pay it, his Cre­ditor may be satisfied by one of his [...]riends:’ And answering to that question, how then doth the soul reach after Christ in the act of justify­ing? ‘Even as a man (saith he) fallen into a river and like to be drowned, as he is carried down with the flood, espyeth the bough of a tree, hanging over the river, which he catch­eth at, and clingeth unto, with all his might to save him; and seeing no other way of succour but that, ventureth his life upon it:’ This man so soon as he had fastned upon this bough, is in a safe condition; though all trou­bles, fears and terrours are not presently out of his minde; until he come to himself, and seeth himself quit out of danger; then he is sure he is safe; but he was safe, before he was sure: Even so it is with a believer, Faith is the espying of Christ, as the only means to save, and the reaching out of the heart to lay hold upon him: God hath spoke the word and made the promise in his Son; I believe him to be the only Saviour, and remit my soul to him to be saved by his Mediation: So soon as the soul can do this, God imputeth the righteousness of his Son unto it, and it is actually justified in the Court of heaven; though it is not presently quieted and pacified in the court of conscience; that is done afterwards, in some sooner, in some later, by the fruits and effects of justification.

Quest. Is there an infallible and inviolable connexion between true faith on Jesus Christ, and salvation by him? Ans. Yea, for it is said here, That whosoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal life. And it was said [...]y the Apostle Paul unto the Jaylor, Acts 16. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt he saved. Christ is said to dwell in the heart by faith, Eph. 3.17. As there is a local union between a man and the house wherein he dwells and resides, so there is a spiritual and real uni­on between Christ and a believer; and there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ: and to assure believers on Christ, of the cer­tainty of their salvation, it is said in the present tense, Joh. 3.36. He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life. Believers are as sure of it by their claim of faith on Christ, as if they were already in present possession of it: yea, it is said in the preterit tense, Rom. 8.30. Whom he justified, them he also glorified.

Quest. May not one have true justifying and saving faith in his heart, and yet not know that he is justified? Ans. Yea, he may have the direct act of faith, whereby he is justified; and yet not have the reflex act of faith, where­by he knows, and is assured of the gift of Faith, freely given to him of God, by which act he is Assured of his justification; as an Infant has the truth of life natural in him, though for want of ripeness in judgement, he [Page 313] doth, not by a reflex act of understanding, know the same: Yea, a true and justified per­son, may be so overwhelmed in spirit with the fears of his former great and many sins, though he embrace Christ, and rely on him wholly and only for salvation, that yet he may so faint in his fears, that at the time he doth not discern the truth of the life of grace and faith in his Soul; as a person in the time of his bodily swouning and fainting, doth not di­scern the truth of a natural life in his body: Notwithstanding the true Believer, in such times and cases, cannot discern the truth of the life of faith in himself; yet other godly discerning Christians, perceiving his sincere desire after the means of Salvation, and his appetite toward the Gospel, which is the im­mortal seed of the new life, do very rational­ly conclude, that he has the truth, though not the vigor of the life of grace and faith in his soul; as these who look on, and see an Infant greedily sucking the breast, though the Infant it self has no knowledge to discern its own life, yet they truely conclude from its natural appe­tit to the means of life, that it has life; be­cause as new born babes, they desire the sincere milk of the Word, 1 Pet. 2.2.

Quest. What are the effects and signs where­by I may discern the truth of faith, when we have not the vigor of it? Ans. We discern it by the effects. 1. The true Believer has an high [Page 314] estimation of Christ, and a low estimation of himself: He is precious to Believers, 1 Pet. 2.7. Paul had an high estimation of Christ, that he came into the world to save sinners; and a low estimation of himself, as being the least of Saints, and chief of sinners: The true be­liever esteems highly of the Gospel, whereby life and immortality is brought to light through Christ. He accounteth all things but loss; yea, but dung and unsavory, in campari­son of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, Phil. 3.8. 2. The true believer, as he rejoices most in the cross of Christ; so he mourns for his sins, whereby he crucified the Lord of glory; he looks upon him whom he pierced with his grievous sins, and he mourneth as one mourneth for his only Son, Zach. 12.10. 3. True faith, is a Magisterial grace, and labours to quiet our unruly affections and passions, as an awful Master, by his presence, quiets the unruly Scholars; for, faith receiving Christ in the heart to dwell there, commandeth all the af­fections to be still, and to do nothing that may disturb and grieve the Spirit of Christ; the Spouse, after shee has found her Beloved, saith to her heart and affections, I charge you, O yee daughters of Jerusalem, &c. that ye stir not up, nor awake my love till he please: That ye neither interrupt his delight in me, nor my delights in him, Cant. 3.5. 4. True faith [Page 315] purifieth the heart, and labours daily to keep it clean by the bessom of repentance, Act. 15.9. God put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. The Lord is said to dwell in the heart by faith, Ephes. 3.17. And after the believer has received him, he endeavours daily to keep the house clean where he dwells: by faith, the heart is espoused unto Christ as a chast virgin, 2 Cor. 11.2. And when the believer is tempted to any vile lust, he saith with Joseph, how can I do this and sin against my Lord, to whom I am espoused for ever in holiness and righteousness? 5: True faith on Jesus Christ, worketh by love, Gal. 5.6. It commands us, and in an holy violence con­straineth us to love the Father, who has for­given us much; to love the Son, who shed his blood for the remission of sins; an [...] to love the Holy Ghost, who is the sealer and con­firmer of our justification and remission: Faith on Christ, commands us, and by a command­ed act, requires us to love one another, 1 Joh. 3.23. This is his commandment, that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. As lines drawn from the circumference, the nearer they come to the Centre, they are the nearer one unto another; so believers the nearer they come by faith to Jesus Christ, the Centre of our souls rest and happiness, they are the more united one to another in love; yea, when by faith we look [Page 316] upon Christ, as our great example, faith doth command us to love even our enemies, with the love of benevolence and beneficence; when we perceive our blessed Lord, both prayed for his enemies, and also healed Malchus ear; and in a special manner to love all saints with a love of complacency and delight, as fellow-mem­bers of the mystical body of the Lord Jesus Christ; and to walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an of­fering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smel­ling savour.

It is therefore the wisdom, duty, and com­fort of believers, to examine themselves, that they be not only sound in the doctrine of faith, but also sincere in the grace and work of faith, that they may have rejoycing in them­selves from the testimony of a good conscience, Gal. 6.4. True and sincere justifying and saving faith, receiveth Christ entirely to dwell in their hearts: the sincere believer receiveth him in all his Offices; as a Priest, to bless the soul where he dwells, with all spiritual blessings; as a Prophet, to teach him by the Word; and as a King, to rule him by his Law and holy Commandments. As he receiveth him by faith, so he intertains him by love; as he re­ceiveth Christ by faith, so he gives up himself by love unto him; as Christ dwells in him by faith, so he dwells in Christ by love and de­light; he intertains him by obedience in the [Page 317] course of Sanctification; as an honest Subject, who sometime was a rebel to his Prince, the more he rests upon the word of the Prince for his remission, he is the more ready and active to obey him in all time coming: for though faith rest on Christ alone, and on no other for Justification and Salvation, yet it rests not from the duties of obedience in the course of San­ctification; the true believer in the preparati­on of his heart, is ready to every good work and commanded duty, with the Apostle Paul, Acts 9.6. saying, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? For the Doctrine of Justification by Faith, obligeth believers the more strictly to the duties of Sanctification: for, knowing they are justified in the blood of Christ, which is the price of our redemption, therefore should they glorify God in their body and in their spirit, which are God's, not only by the right of crea­tion, and temporal preservation; but also by the right of redemption and everlasting salvati­on, 1 Cor. 6.20. Seing they have the promises of free grace, ratified in the blood of Christ, they should cleanse themselves from all filthi­ness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God, 2 Cor. 7.1. See more, 2 Cor. 5.15. Tit. 2.11, 12, 14. So that the Do­ctrine of Justification by faith in Jesus Christ, doth not make void the Law, but establisheth the Law, Rom. 3.31. Though it make the [Page 318] Law void as to Justification by it, Rom, 8.3. yet it doth not make it void, or cancell it from being a fixt rule for our direction. Now to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Author and Fi­nisher of our faith, with the Father and Holy Ghost, be all praise, &c. Amen.

THe Apostle, having spoken in vers. 22, 23, 24. of the seve [...]al fruits of the Spi­rit in the soul, wherein he hath plant­ed the life of grace; he inferreth this conclu­sion, If we live in the Spirit, &c. that is, if we be quickened by the Spirit of God, and raised to a new life of grace, let it be seen in the course and actions of our life, Let us walk by the Spirit: that is, by the guidance and di­rection of the Spirit, according to the Word of God, which was inspired into the Prophets and Apostles by the Holy Spirit.

In the words, we have, 1. A benefit suppos­ed, If we live in the Spirit. 2. A duty propos­ed, Let us walk in the Spirit.

For clearing the benefit supposed, we would [Page 320] know, 1. The nature and condition of this life, which we are said here to have by the Spirit; what it is. 2. We would know the necessity of this life. 3. The excellent quali­ty of it, in excelling all other kinds of life.

1. As for the nature of this life, it hath three effects or operations, 1. Our Justification, whereby our sins are forgiven, and we are ab­solved from the sentence of damnation, through the perfect obedience and satisfaction of our Mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ: as a man sen­tenced to death for some hainous crime, is cal­led a dead man, even before the execution of the sentence; and when he is absolved, he is said to be a living man; so by nature, through sin and guiltiness, we are children of wrath, and dead in sins and trespasses, obnoxious to eter­nal death and damnation; but being justified by faith in Jesus Christ, we are said to live in Christ, and have the hope to live with him for ever. This life is purchased to us by the me­rit of the death of Christ, and is applyed by the Holy Spirit, working faith in us, whereby we are united to Christ, and receive, in and through him, remission of sins, offered to us in the preaching of the Gospel, and s [...]aled in the ho­ly Sacraments, 1 Cor. 6.11. But ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 2. The act also and operation of the life of grace, is our Sanctification, wrought in [Page 321] us by the Holy Spirit, mortifying in us the deeds of the body, Rom. 8.13 If ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body, ye shall live, to wit, the life of glory in Heaven; and it is a quickening of us to live here unto righte­ousness, as a man pincing away in sickness, is said to be a dead man in respect of his fast ap­proaching unto death; and when he is in the way of recovery, he is said to be a living man; because there are pregnant hopes of his better health and life. This life of Sanctification, pur­chased also by Christ, is applyed and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Tit. 3.5. 3. There is the life of com­fort and spiritual chearfulness; it's said of old Jacob, Gen. 44.30. His life is bound up in the lad's life: because he was much comforted in his son Joseph. When sin and judgement is set before us, our heart is dead and comfortless, like the heart of Nabal, whose heart, at the report of David's wrath against him, died with­in him through fear, 1 Sam. 25.37. But when the Spirit of the Lord in our fears and faint­ings, doth revive us by the sweet and piercing smell of the cross of Christ, received by faith into the soul, then we live a comfortable life, and our soul rejoyceth in God our Saviour, 2 Cor. 4.11. For we which live, are alwayes de­livered unto death for Jesus sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mor­tal [Page 322] flesh, that is, that the life of comfort and inward strength from Christ might be manifest­ed in our sufferings, 1 Pet. 1.8. Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy un­speakable and full of glory. This life of inward comfort and strength, purchased also by the me­rit of the death of Christ, is applyed and wrought in us by the Holy Spirit, Eph. 3.14, 15, 16. I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. that he would grant you ac­cording to the riches of his glory, to be strengthen­ed with might, by his Spirit, in the inner-man. This life, is called our life in Christ, Col. 3.3, 4. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. It is purchased by him, hid and pre­served in him and with him, as the life of the branches is preserved in the root, Joh. 14.19▪ Because I live, ye shall live also. It is called the life of the Spirit, or by the Spirit, in this place, because by the Holy Spirit, we are uni­ted and joyned unto the Lord our Head and Sa­viour, 1 Cor 6.17. He that is joyned unto the Lord, is one spirit: and because we are renew­ed to a new life by the Holy Spirit, Joh. 3.5. Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It is called the life of faith, Gal. 2.20. because, by faith we receive the life of Justification, Sancti­fication, and of inward comfort from Jesus Christ.

[Page 323]2. This life of grace, is absolutely necessar as a midst and necessar antecedent unto eternal life. 1. As the natural life is a necessar foun­dation of natural actings and operations; dead Trees grow not, dead Animals walk not, dead men discourse not; so the life of the Spirit in us, is the foundation of all our spiritual and su­pernatural actings: without this life, men are dead in sin, and cannot grow in grace; without it, men are dead, and cannot walk in the wayes of Gods commandments; without it, men are dead, and cannot understand nor perceive the things of God in a saving way for the salvation of their souls, 1 Cor. 2.14. 2. The necessity of the life of grace wrought in us by the Spirit, appeareth in this, because without it, there is no coming to the life of glory, Joh▪ 3.5. This life of grace, is the infancy of the life of glory; and as one cannot grow up to the per­fect stature of a man, unless he hath been first an infant, so a man cannot be a perfect man in glory, except first he be an infant in the state of grace: as one cannot be put into actual pos­session of an inheritance, till he first be born in­to the world; so no man can be put into the possession of the heavenly inheritance, until first he be born over-again by the holy Spirit, the author of the life of grace, and the pre­parer and preserver of us for the life of glory. This life, in, or through, the Spirit, is abso­lute necessar, even for all men who would [Page 324] come to the life of glory: for it is said inde­finitly, Joh. 3.5. Except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God: Though he were never so nobly descended of earthly progenitors, yet if he live not in the Spirit, it may be said of him, as of Judas, It had been good for him he had ne­ver been born. 3. It is necessar for our com­fort, to assure us we are united to Christ, and that neither life nor death shall separat us from him: as life in the branch, is an evi­dence of its ingrafture and union with the Tree, So our partaking of the life of the Spi­rit, is a comfortable evidence, that Christ is in us by the indwelling of his Spirit, and we are in him by faith and love, 1 Joh. 4.13. Here­by know we, that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

3. This life in the Spirit, is an excellent life, if simply considered in it self, 1. In respect of that true and pure pleasure that at­tends it; the deceitful pleasures of a sinful life, are like the sting of an asp, casting a man into a deep sleep, but when the conscience is awaked, the heart, through fear, is as Pa­shur, Magor-missabib, fear round about; the conscience of a sinful liver, is like a chiding wife in the bosome, casting up to the man all the former evil wayes he has walked in, in the dayes of his former life. But the godly and spi­ritual liver, has much inward pleasure and soul-satisfaction, [Page 325] Pro. 14.14. The back-slider in heart, shall be filled with his own wayes: and a good man shall be satisfied from himself. His good conscience, from the sense of the life of the Spirit within him, is like Abishag to Da­vid in his old age; it doth cherish the inner-man, and warm it with a sense of Gods love, shed abroad in the heart by the holy Spirit; it sweetens common mercies to the man who lives in the Spirit. The primitive believers, from the sense and comfort of the life in the Spirit, did eat their meat with gladeness and singlness of heart, Acts 2.46. Oh, that profane and worldly-minded men, who speak of a holy and spiritual life, as a condition sad and comfort­less, would become spiritual livers in the Spi­rit, and take a proof of that estate of life: I say to these men, as Philip said to Nathanael, Come and see; and after sight and proof, ye will say as the Queen of Sheba did, it was true that was told me; but not the half of that contentment and joy I find by experience, to be in a godly and spiritual life, was told me. The life in the Spirit has great and certain gain accompanying it, together with much unspeak­abl contentment, 1 Tim. 6.6. Godliness with contentment (that is, which has contentment alwayes attending it) is great gain. 1 Tim. 4.8. Godliness is profitable unto all things, hav­ing the promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. It has the promise of [Page 326] temporal blessings, Psal. 34.6, 7. Rom. 8.28. and of eternal blessings, 1 Cor. 2.9. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it enter­ed into the heart of man to conceive the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. These who live in the Spirit, do live in great honour and reputation with God; and the greater and wiser the person is, who doth be­stow the honour, it is the greater: but so it is, that the great and wise God doth esteem much of men of an holy and spiritual life; he calleth them his Treasure, Psal. 135.4. his in­heritance and portion, Psal. 35.12. his jewels, Mal. 3.17. The friends of God, 2 Chron. 20.7. The sons of God, 1 Joh. 3.1.

This life in the Spirit, is excellent, if com­pared with the natural life: the life of the sense is common to us with the brute beasts, whereof some do excel men in some outward senses: the life of reason, is common to us with Pagans and Infidels; and many of them in their philosophy hath excelled us: yea, our living under the outward means of Word and Sacraments, is common to us with many hypocrits and castawayes; but this life in the Spirit, is far more excellent than that of sense and reason: as a man by reason, doth far excel the most sagacious beast; so doth a man, living in the spirit, excel the greatest Mo­ralists, who were, or are, void of the life of grace by the Spirit: natural men partake of [Page 327] the divine gifts, but spiritual and godly men are made partakers of the divine nature, by way of assimilation, 2· Pet. 1▪ 4. And as for men, living, or rather dieing, and stinking above the earth in their vile lusts; a godly and spiritual life doth excel that vile and mise­rable life, as far as light doth darkness, and Heaven doth Hell.

Seing we live the life of grace by the Spi­rit, we should be very watchful, that we grieve not the Spirit. 1. It is the worst sort of unthankfulness, to render evil for good; and it is also unnatural for children to grieve their parents, that under God are the author of their natural life, How great a sin then is it, to grieve the holy Spirit the author of thy spiritual life? 2. Thou art sealed by the Spi­rit, who sealeth thy eternal redemption to thy faith▪ by the promises of the Gospel, and more clearly by the administration of the holy Sacra­ments, as the outward common seal, and effectually by the graces of the holy Spirit of sanctification, as the inward and privy seal of thine heavenly inheritance, Ephes. 1.13. In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were seal­ed with that holy spirit of promise. And, how loath are men, and in reason should be so, to grieve the Kings Secretary, that has past their gift gratis through the Seals? 3. The Spirit of God is the comforter; And shouldest thou grieve him, who many a time has comforted [Page 328] and supported thee in the day of thy trouble and grief? If thou grieve the Comforter, to whom wilt thou go in the day of new troubles on thy spirit, for comfort and strength?

Ʋse 1. Therefore grieve not the holy Spi­rit in whom ye live, 1. By your unruly passi­ons; he is the Spirit of love and peace, grieve him not by your envy, and malice one against another; it was a grief to Moses his spirit, who was a man, living in the Spirit, to see the He­brews at strife one with another: the holy Spi­rit, is a Spirit of purity; and vile thoughts and motions in the heart, entertained with delight, grieveth him, as the daughters of Heth did grieve Rebekah; he is a liberal Spirit, as he is called, Psal. 51.12. and our base nigardness and unmercifulness toward the poor, doth much grieve him. 2. Grieve not the Spirit by speak­ing or doing against the light of your consci­ence, which being inspired by the Word of God, is the counsel of the Spirit; thus did Ana­nias grieve the Spirit, Act. 5.3, 4. and the Ru­lers, Act 7.51. 3. We grieve him by our un­belief in new exigents of trouble, notwithstand­ing our former experiences of his power and bounty, as the Disciples grieved our Lord, Mat. 16.8, 9. It is no small grief to thy friend if thou distrust him in a small matter, when thou hast had experience of his kindness in great matters. 4. We would by all means beware of mocking the work of the Spirit in others; it [Page 329] was a great grief to Sarah, that Ishmael mocked her son Isaac: so this mocking of the work of mortification and holiness, doth greatly grieve the Spirit of God: any Artificer is grieved, to hear the work of his hands to be undervalued and despised by others; so the Spirit of God, is greatly grieved and displeased to see holiness, which is his own proper work in all who live in the Spirit, to be undervalued and despised by the men of this present world, who mind not the things of the Spirit but of the flesh. La­bour to be spiritual, and like to the Spirit by whom we live: we are said to be sealed by the Spirit, Ephes. 1.13. and there is an impression of the seal upon the wax; so if we live by the Spirit, and be sealed by him, there will be an impression of holine [...]s and purity in some mea­sure answering to the Spirit, by which we are sealed: Let us be spiritual in our intentions to­ward the honour of God, with any gift of the Spirit bestowed upon us; for our Lord saith of the Spirit, Joh. 16.14. He shall glorifie me, for he shall receive of mine, and shew it unto you. Let us labour to be spiritual and heavenly-mind­ed, often conversing in our hearts with God, Phil. 3.20. Our conversation is in Heaven: like Pilgrims, who being abroad do often mind their own native country; let us be spiritual in our delights, for they that are after the Spirit, mind the things of the Spirit, Rom. 8.5. Let our delight be most in God and things heaven­ly, [Page 330] as in spiritual benefits, spiritual ordinances and spiritual duties: let us labour to be spiri­tual and sincere in the worship of God; for the Father seeketh such to worship him, Joh. 4.23.

Ʋse 2. The duty propo [...]ed, walk in the Spi­rit, that is, walk by the power and grace of the Spirit, according to the light of the Word in­spired and dictated by the Spirit: this Word, in the original, signifieth to walk foot for foot after the leading and teaching of the Spirit, by the word [...], as young children walk af­ter the footsteps of their father in the same path, though not with steps equal to the fa­ther; or as School-boyes learn the A, B, C, and first elements (which are called [...]) one letter after another: In like manner we learn precept upon precept, and thereafter do construct and set the actions of our life and con­versation together aright, according to the rule of the Word of God, so that by walking in the Spirit, is meant the course of sanctification, and of new obedience, required by God of us in the covenant of grace, as it was said by God to A­braham, the father of the faithful, Gen. 17.1. Walk before me and be thou upright. God promiseth in the new covenant of rich and free grace, that he will both give unto his people power to walk in his commandments, and also actual assistance in walking, Ezek. 36.26, 27. A new heart also will I give you; and a new spirit will I put with­in you, &c. And I will put my spirit within you [Page 331] and cause you to walk in my statutes: To this duty we engage our selves in the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper, to walk in new­ness of life, Rom. 6.4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we also should walk in newness of life. And in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper, we renew our engagement made in Baptism.

The duty of new obedience, is called a walking, 1. Because in wa [...]king, there is a place, from which we walk and turn f [...]om; so in the course of new obedience we must forsake our former evil wayes, Isa. 55.7. Let the wick­ed forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. 2. There is the way, wherein men do walk; so the man, renewed by the Spirit, doth walk in the way of Gods commandments, Ezek. 20.19. I am the Lord your God; walk in my statutes. 3. A light, according to the which men walk; so in ou [...] Christian walking, the light is the Word of God, Psal. 119.105▪ Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 4. In walking through a wilderness and dange­rous places, men have need of a skilful guide, as Hobab was to the people of Israel in the wil­derness: So men renewed, hath need of the holy Spirit to guide and lead them by his strength from one duty to another: Therefore David prayeth so often for quickning in the [Page 332] wayes of Gods commandments; for it is not enough, that once we be quickned to a new life, but we have need also to be quickned thereaf­ter and stirred up to the duties of a new life. Psal. 119.37. Turn away mine eyes from behold­ing vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. 5. As in bodily walking, there is an end and place toward which we walk; so in our spiritual walking, we walk from strength to strength, aiming at perfection and the seeing and enjoying of God in mount Sion that is above; 2 Cor. 7.1. Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Phil. 3.13.14. I count not my self to have ap­prehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

This duty of walking in the wayes of Gods commandments, is required of all, who have the spiritual life of grace, If we live in the spi­rit, let us walk in the spirit. Although the estate of grace, doth free us from the Law, as it was a covenant of works to man in the estate of innocency, Rom. 6.14. Ye are not un­der the law, but under grace; yet we are not fred from it as the fixed and perpetual rule of the duty of thankfulness to God, both upon the accompt of our creation and redemption, [Page 333] Rom. 3.31. Do we then make void the law through faith? yea, we establish it. The Gospel addeth a new obligation from the glade tidings of our redemption through the blood of Christ, 1 Cor. 6.20. For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorifie God in your body, and in your spirit, which are Gods. To this we are called by the Gospel of grace, Tit. 2.11, 12. 1 Pet. 2.24. Christ bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness. To this walking in newness of life, we are engaged by solemn profession in Baptism, wherein we are said to put on Christ, Gal. 3.27. and these who put on Christ, should walk in newness of life, Rom. 13.14. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof. And Christ giveth salvation only to them who labour to obey him, by walking in newness of life, Heb. 5.9. And being made perfect, he became the au­thor of eternal salvation, unto all them that obey him.

There be three evident symptoms of natural life, to wit, 1. Appetite toward the means of life, 2. Growth and increase of stature, And 3. Motion and walking. In like-manner, there are three signs of spiritual life, 1. Appetite and desire after the word and means of Salvati­on, 1 Pet. 2.2. As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word. Although the renew­ed children of God, do not know sometimes [Page 334] by the reflex act of knowledge and faith, that they live by the Spirit; yet others experien­ced Christians, do know they live by perceiv­ing their spiritual appetite after the means of the life of grace. 2. Growth in Grace and Sanctification, is a sign of the life spiritual, in­fused into them by the Spirit; for the Ministry of the Word, is given for the perfecting of the Saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ; till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the me [...]sure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, Eph. 4.11, 12, 13. 3. Moving and walking in newness of life, with all respect to all the holy Commandments, is a sign undoubted, that we live in the Spirit; because these two are joyned together, Ezek. 36.27. I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. As Lazarus, raised from death to life, did come forth from the sepulchre, wherein he was laid, and walked in the sight of others; so a soul quickened by the Spirit, doth rise from his sins, wherein he was dead and buried, and walketh before God and men in newness of life.

There is a walking after the flesh, directly opposit to walking in the Spirit, Rom. 8.1. There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. We must beware of such walk­ing, because the end of it, is eternal destruction; [Page 335] for, he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: but he that soweth to the spirit, or walketh after the spirit, shall of the spirit reap life everlasting, Gal. 6.8. Such walkers after the flesh, are profane men, walking presumptuously in the imaginations of their own evil hearts, and yet thinking to get Heaven in end, as if a man walking toward the west, should think in end to come to the east: Of this profane and presumptuous walking, and the severe punish­ment of it, we read, Deut. 29.19. This is not to walk in the power of the Spirit of God, but in the strong delusion of their own deceived spirit: such walkers are these spoken of, 2 Pet. 3.3. There shall come in the last dayes, scoffers, walking after their own lusts. And all such al­so, who walk in a course of life, fulfilling the sinful desires and lusts of their own hearts. It is true, the godly, though renewed by the Spi­rit of God, have flesh and corruption in them, but they walk not aftr the flesh, as their ordi­nary guide and counsellour.

The holy Scripture holds forth the manner of our walking in the Spirit, in these following qualifications, 1. In walking humbly with God, Micah 6.8. What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? By keeping upon thy spi­rit the impressions of his greatness and holiness, this will make thee to walk humbly: this made Isaiah humble, after he had seen a visible repre­sentation [Page 336] of the Majesty and Holiness of God, Isai. 6.5. Then said I, Wo is me, for I am un­done, because I am a man of unclean lips, &c. This impression, will make the soul obedient to the will of the Lord, as Isaiah also was, Isa. 6.8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord▪ saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? then said I, Here am I, send me. This imp [...]ession of the greatness and holiness of God, will make the renewed man to shine in his conversation before the world, as Moses his face did shine be­fore the people, after he had conversed with God in the mount. 2. It is a spiritual and heavenly-minded walking, having the way and haunt of the heart far above the things of the world, Prov. 15.24. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath. Such walking keepeth the heart free from the bondage of many temptati­ons and snares, wherein the earthly-minded man is taken and detained: as the Eagles, who soar in a high way, are not so easily shot and fell'd by the Fowler, as the greedy Cormo­rants that flutter upon the surface of the earth, or the vain Stanchel that hovers in the air and embraceth the wind: In like manner, heaven­ly-minded men, are not so easily taken with the baits of the world, as greedy and ambitious men, who mind earthly things. 3. It is a cir­cumspect walking, Eph. 5.15. Whereof here­after in Serm. on that place. 4. It is a sincere [Page 337] and upright walking, Psal. 84 11. No good thing will the Lord God withhold from them that walk uprightly. It is a walking with a respect unto all the Commandments of God, as David walked, Psal. 119.6. with active endeavours to keep a good conscience toward God and man, as Paul walked, Act. 24.16. To have a good conscience, and to be alwayes willing in all things to live honestly, as the Apostle did, Heb. 13.18. It is a constant walking, at least in respect of a fixed purpose and resolution, Psal. 84 7. They go from strength to strength. Phil. 3.12. Not as though I had already attained, either were already per­fect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

The impediments of walking, are, 1. Want of light: for if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him, Joh. 11.10. Therefore said our blessed Lord to the Pharisees, Ye erre, not knowing the Scri­ptures, Mat. 22.29. Therefore, as we would walk in a right way toward the Kingdom of Hea­ven, we would labour to understand the holy Scriptures, which shew us the way of truth and righteousness, and we should daily pray with the holy Prophet, Psal. 43.3. O send out thy light and thy truth, let them lead me, let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy Tabernacles. And we should pray with holy David, Ps. 143.10. Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God: thy [Page 338] spirit is good, lead me into the land of upright­ness. 2. Fetters are a great impediment to walking; so our unruly and excessive passions, as the excessive fear of creatures, excessive desires of worldly good things, excessive joy and delight in worldly pleasures, are a great impe­diment to spiritual and heavenly walking; as servants gazing and fixing their eyes upon some Pictures in their way, are stayed in their walking and in going about their business: Against this impediment we would pray to God for liberty and enlargement of spirit from that bondage to our masterful affections; and we would turn David's resolution, ( Psal. 119.32.) into a supplication, O Lord, enlarge thou my heart, and then shall I run the way of thy Command­ments. It should be our daily prayer to the Lord with holy David, Psal. 119.37. Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity, and quicken thou me in thy way. 3. A heavy burden is a great im­pediment to walking▪ so when men over-bur­den their spirits with the care of worldly things, they walk not in the way of righteousness; but many times step aside after the wages of unrigh­teousness: the love of the world hindered the rich young man to walk after Christ, Luk. 18.23. Therefore that we may walk readily and chear­fully in the wayes of Gods Commandments, we should cast all our care upon him, for he careth for us, 1 Pet. 5.7. And we should pray daily, as Psal. 119.36. Encline my heart unto [Page 339] thy Testimonies, and not to covetousness. 4. Faint­ing is a great impediment to walking. Jonathan fainted in his way, till he tasted of the honey. Great difficulties and discouragments in the way of Holiness and uprightness, are like the Sons of Anak, that discouraged greatly the people of Israel from walking up the hill, that thereafter they might enter into the promised Land. Against this impediment of fainting in the good and perfect way, from the many troubles and discouragements thou meetest with therein, recollect thy self, and be encouraged from the Lords faithful promise, Isai. 40.29. He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increaseth strength. In all the bitter mockings thou meetest with from profane men, who not only mock thee, but speak evil of thee, because thou wilt not run with them to the same excess of riot, yet be thou resolute and stedfast in thy spiritual and Christian walking, as David did, Psal. 119.51. The proud have had me greatly in derision; yet have I not declined from thy Law. Yea, walk the more sincerely and spiritually in conversing with God by prayer, Psal. 69.12, 13. I was the song of the drunkards; but as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time. When the child of God has least acceptance or communion with pro­fane men, then is he most acceptable to God, and hath most of his countenance, which pre­serves his soul from fainting at their bitter [Page 340] scoffings: look often unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, who endured such contradiction of sinners, lest we, looking too much to men who wrong us, should faint in our minds, Heb. 12.2, 3. Be encouraged in all thy faintings from the hope of that Crown of Righteousness laid up for all these who walk with God, as Enoch did. Walk with God in heavenly meditations; and walk thou before God as Abraham did in faith and obedience: the hope o [...] that Crown strengthened the heart of Paul against fainting, 2 Cor. 4.16, 17. For which cause we faint not, but though our out­ward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceed­ing and eternal weight of glory. Therefore se­ing there is an infallible connexion between spi­ritual life by the Spirit, and spiritual walking in the strength, and by the direction of the Spi­rit, according to the Word, as there is a con­junction of the stream with the fountain, if we live in the Spirit, let it be manifested by our walking in the Spirit; and if the Spirit dwell in us, the Spirit will quicken our mortal bodies, and raise them up to follow the Lamb where­ever he goeth: To him, with the Father and Holy Spirit, be all praise honour and glory, for now and ever. Amen.

AS Salvation is the end of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Pet. 1.9. Receiv­ing the end of your faith, even the salva­tion of your souls; So our walking in the way of holiness and good works, is the way to salvati­on; the Lord Jesus Christ, is properly the li­ving way, that leadeth and guideth believers to salvation; and good works are the meeths and evidences that we are in Christ the Cap­tain of Salvation, Eph. 2.10. For we are the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus un­to [Page 342] good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.

The Christian walking, is discribed here, 1. Positively, See that ye walk circumspectly. 2. Negatively, not as fools. 3. By way of op­position to the walking of fools, in two quali­fications required in circumspect walking, But as wise, redeeming the time. 4. The motive to a Christian and circumspect walking, is taken from the evil of the times, Because the dayes are evil.

To walk circumspectly, signifieth (as the original word [...] importeth) an accurat and exact walking, like a man walking upon the ridge of a mountain, without declining to the one hand or to the other, Deut. 5.32. Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord your God hath commanded you: you shall not turn aside to the right hand nor to the left. 1. In our zeal, we would walk circumspectly, not overstretch­ing our selves to do more, than we have a calling from God to do, as Peter did in smit­ing with the sword, without a warrand from Christ; and we must circumspectly shun the other extremity, in omitting the duty of confessing the truth, when we are called thereto by God; it was the sin of these fair professors ( Joh. 12.42.) they did not con­fess Christ, for fear to be put out of the Sy­nagogue. 2. We would shun circumspectly all negligence and carelesness to do good works, [Page 343] Gal. 6.10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith, Tit. 3.8. This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have be­lieved in God, might be careful to maintain good works: because every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit, is hewn down and cast into the fire, Mat. 3.10. and we would walk cir­cumspectly, shunning the other extreme, in confiding into our own good works for justifi­cation and salvation, because, if God enter into judgement with man, none living shall be justified in his fight by their own works, which are very far short of that exact righteous­ness required in the law, Psal. 143.2. Yea, Abraham, Father of the faithful, was not justi­fied by his good works: for if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God, Rom. 4.2. 3. We should walk circumspectly in using the things of this present world; not refusing the good things offered to us by the good providence of God, whether riches, liberty or preferment to a more free and plentiful condition of life, 1 Cor. 7.21. But if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. And we should walk circum­spectly in shunning the other extreme, by abusing the good things of this present world, to pride, riot, or vain confidence, 1 Tim. 6.17. Charge them that are rich in this [Page 344] world, that they be not high minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. 4. We should walk circumspectly with holy men in this world, not following them absolutly in all things; for even the best of meer men, has their own failings: they are compared to the cloud in the wilderness, that had a light side and a dark side: we must not put darkness for light, nor light for darkness: but should follow holy men with this limitation, in so far as they are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. 11.1. We should follow Peter in his free confession before the Council, Acts 4. but not in his de­nial, in the high Priests hall. 5. We should walk circumspectly with wicked men, that we be not enticed to sin by their evil counsel or example, Prov. 1.10. When sinners entise thee; consent thou not. We would walk circumspect­ly in forbearing to speak any thing in their pre­sence, that may strengthen them in their sin­ful courses; or may be a snare to our selves, in giving occasion to them to procure our hurt from these, who will make a man an offender for an inconsiderat word, Psal. 39.1. I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. 6. We should walk circumspect­ly, shunning all appearance of evil, 1 Thess. 5.22. Neither doing evil, nor evil like: for, by the appearance of evil-doing, we grieve the stronger Christians, and stumble the weaker, [Page 345] we do wrong and prejudice to our own good name, which being preserved entire, is bet­ter then precious Oyntment, Eccles. 7.1. but being spoiled by the scandalous appearance of evil doing, it becomes unsavory to others, as Oyntment, corrupted by a dead flee: Jo­seph walked circumspectly; not onely he heark­ned not to that shameless woman, but also would not abide in the same secret room with her, Gen. 39.10. Paul was very circumspect in shunning all appearance of mal-versation and unfaithful dealing in the matter of publick collections, 2 Cor. 8.20. Avoiding this, that no man should blame us in this abundance, which is administred by us. 7. There should be a cir­cumspect walking, in shunning all occasions and provocations to sin, especially familiarity with profane and riotous men, Prov. 4.14, 15. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men, Prov. 20.25. With a furious man thou shalt not go, lest thou learn his wayes, and get a snare to thy soul. For, evil company corrupteth good manners: can a man touch pitch and not be defiled therewith? can a man take fire in his bosom, and not be burnt? Prov. 23.20. Several sins have their own several occasions and provocations: but evil company is a magazine of evil occasions and provocations for all sins. 8. We should walk circumspectly, in abstaining from lesser sins; because such being neglected and not noticed, [Page 346] are oft-times inlets to greater sins: what is said of one sin, is true of all, Prov. 17.14. The beginning of strife, is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention, be­fore it be medled with. Peter went rashly into the place of temptation, without a call; and thereafter denied first, and in end cursed if he knew the Lord Jesus Christ: it is not a super­stitious and unnecessar, but commendable preciseness, to abstain from lesser sins. 9. This circumspect walking, is in an abstaining from every thing that would provoke our predomi­nant sin: old sores are soon and easily rankled; therefore we would carefully keep aloof from it, as David did, Psal. 18.23. I was also upright before him, and I kept my self from mine iniquity. And we would shun also all occasi­ons, that are apt to induce us into sin, as the occasions of superstition and idolatry in the mat­ter of Gods worship. The Lord God forbad the people of Israel to plant a grove nigh un­to the Altar of God, Deut. 16.21. lest pos­sibly, in respect of the nearness, people should step aside from the Altar, and true worship of God, into a place or mannor of false worship.

The causes of uncircumspectness in our wal­king, are, 1. Want of knowledge, and igno­rance, as men for want of light, to discover dangers in the way, cannot walk circumspect­ly, Joh. 12.35. He that walketh in darkness, [Page 347] knoweth not whether he goeth. Through want of knowledge, the Jews walked in a way of cruelty against our blessed Lord; and the Ephesians through the ignorance that was in them, gave themselves over unto lacivious­ness, to work all uncleanness with greediness, Ephes. 4.19. 2. The impetuous and vehe­ment desires, even in the godly and orthodox, hath made them in their eagerness of opposi­tion to one errour, through an immoderate desire of counterpoising, (which Basil calls [...]) to walk uncircumspectly toward another extremity of errour: some ancient Fathers, in their great zeal to oppose Manicheism, in asserting a fatal necessity of all humane actions, did incline too much to Pe­lagianism, and the extolling of the liberty of mans free will, above the sphere of its activi­ty, as gardeners do bend a crooked branch too much sometimes to the other side. 3. Pride and self-confidence, maketh even the godly some­times rash and uncircumspect in their walking: Peter from self-confidence in his own strength, was rash and uncircumspect in his going into the High Priests hall. 4. Forgetfulness of death and judgement, and the accompt we must make to God of our walking in the time of our sojourning here, doth make men walk at ran­dom in their evil wayes, as Jerusalem some­time did, Lament. 1.9. Her filthiness is in her skirts; she remembereth not her last end, [Page 348] Amos 6.3. Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near.

Means and Helps for a circumspect walking, are, 1. Sound knowledge of the good and ac­ceptable will of God from the word of light and salvation; because the word of God, is the rule and measure, according to which we walk circumspectly in obedience to the holy commandments, like children walking in one step after another, according to their grounds and elements in learning, Gal. 6.16. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them. When we walk according to this rule, we walk circumspectly; for we need not be asham­ed, when we have respect unto all his com­m [...]ndments, Psal 119.6. This rule keeps us from wandering rashly into the paths of wicked and profane men, Psal. 17.4. Concerning the works of men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the pathes of the destroyer. 2. As ye would walk circumspectly, look to God in all your wayes; he is now a witness, and one day will be thy judge, Gen. 17.1. Walk before me, saith the Lord, and be thou upright. He seeth in secret, therefore walk circumspectly in secret; although no man did see thee, yet the Lord ponders and considers all thy wayes, Prov. 5.21. The wayes of man, are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponder­eth all his goings. The all-seeing wise God, [Page 349] pondereth all the steps of humane actions in their desires, intentions and courses: though thy profession be never so fair before the world, yet he ponders the intention of thine heart; he saw the hypocrisie and crooked walking of Jehu, notwithstanding his fair and large profes­sion of zeal for the Lord: He ponders the time of thy sinning and unrighteous walking, if it be after mercies received, Deut. 32 13, 15. Jer. 5.7. When I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery. The Lord ponders if thy unrighteous walking be in a time of affli­ction, when thou should walk humbly and cir­cumspectly; he observed wicked Achaz in his trespassing more and more in the day of his distress, 2 Chron. 28.22. he ponders the place where thou walks in thy ungodly way, Isai. 26.10. In the land of uprightness, will he deall unjustly: that is, in a place of uprightness, where he might have seen the good example of some men, walking uprightly and circumspectly be­fore God and the world, yet he will walk in the way of injustice. 3. Walk circumspectly in re­spect of the holy Angels, 1 Cor. 11.10. The Apostle will have women in the Church-assem­blies, to carry themselves decently in respect of the Angels, who are frequently there to be­hold and admire the wisdom and mercy of God, revealed to his Saints in the holy Word: they [...]re ministring Spirits to the heirs of salvation; [...]nd our uncircumspect conversation and walk­ing, [Page 350] is very displeasing unto them; as the rash speeches and actions of an inconsiderat pu­pil, doth much grieve his Governour and Tu­tor. 4. Walk circumspectly in respect of the godly, because by thy rashness and failings, thou wilt make the hearts of the righteous sad: Paul was much grieved with Peters dissi­mulation at Antioch: by thy rashness and fail­ings, through uncircumspect walking, thou stumbles the weak, who by thy evil example are drawen from the way of righteousness: Many were drawn away by the example of Pe­ters dissimulation, Gal. 2. and how fearful and dangerous a sin it is, to give offence to the weak, we may clearly see, Matth. 18.6. Paul would rather never eat flesh, than he should stumble his weak brother by eating thereof, 1 Cor. 8.13. Walk circumspectly in respect of wicked men, who watch for thy halting, who will magnifie themselves, when thy foot slip­peth, and speak evil not only of thee alone, but also of thine holy profession, and of all the Saints, as if they were all hypocrites: David, by his uncircumspect walking, opened the mouths of adversaries, 2 Sam. 12.14. There­fore pray thou daily, as David did, Psal. 27.11▪ Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me i [...] a plain path, because of mine enemies, or observers. 5. As ye would walk circumspectly▪ remember frequently the Lords former mercies, toward you, that so ye may not depar [...] [Page 351] from his wayes, and so sin against the God of your mercies: This consideration Ezra holds forth to the people of God, that in time coming they may walk more circumspect­ly, Ezra 9.13, 14. Seing thou our God, hast given us such deliverance as this; should we again break thy commandments, and joyn in affinity with the people of these abominations? The re­membrance of former mercies, made Heze­kiah, after his recovery from a dangerous sick­ness, to walk softly and circumspectly all his years, in the bitterness of his soul, Isai. 38.15. And our blessed Lord, holdeth forth this con­sideration to the man that was healed of a longsome disease, Joh. 5.14. Behold thou art made whole, sin no more, &c. 6. Fear of thine own weakness, and fears from the many temp­tations and snares in this present evil world, is a special mean to make thee walk circum­spectly: fear to slip and fall, maketh men walk circumspectly in slippery places, Rom. 11.20. Be not high-minded, but fear: there­fore walk circumspectly and humbly with thy God in the remembrance of his former mer­cies, in the remembrance of thy former sins; in the conscience and sense of thy present weak­ness, and in the fear of many and manifold temptations in this evil world; as a man walk­eth circumspectly, looking well to every step in the midst of snares. 7. As ye would walk cir­cumspectly, be not rash to venture upon temp­tations: [Page 352] Cyprian saith truly, Nemo periculo proximus, est diu tutus, no man near to the temp­tation and danger is long safe: his advice is good, that men would be circumspect, like mariners at Sea, who in time of a calm, do not cast anchor beside a rock, because they know not how soon a storm may arise, and dash the Vessel against the rock: so a Christian would be circumspect, though his affections be quiet and still for the present time, yet if he venture upon the place of temptations and snares, he cannot tell how soon the wind of temptation may arise, and bring the shipwrack of peace and a good conscience. 8. As ye would walk circumspectly at all times and in all places, remember often the necessity of our compearance after death before the tribunal of Jesus Christ; this consideration made Paul cir­cumspect, both in his personal and ministerial conversation, 2 Cor. 5.9, 10. Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him: for we must all appear be­fore the judgement seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, accor­ding to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.

Not as fools: The Apostle speaketh more par­ticularly of our Christian walk, and that nega­tively, that we walk not as fools. 1. Not as the atheistical and profane fool, who walketh without any serious thoughts of God in his [Page 353] heart, Ps. 14▪ 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God: they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doth good. Ezek. 8.12. They say, the Lord seeth us not. Psal. 94 8, 9. Ʋnderstand ye brutish among the peo­ple, and ye fools, when will ye be wise? He that planted the ear, &c. Therefore be not profane and godless fools, but fear God and depart from evil, Prov. 3.7. 2. Be not vain and arrogant fools, walking in the imaginations of your own evil hearts, Prov. 12.15. The way of a fool, is right in his own eyes. 3. Walk not in the way of the licentious fool, a [...]ter the lusts of unclean­ness or drunkenness, Prov. 7.7. The young man that followed the strange woman, is said to be simple and void of understanding: he is a mad fool, running in the way of riot and uncleanness to his own destruction. Walk not in the way of drunkenness and excess: for the Scripture saith, that drunkards are benummed and besot­ted fools, Hos. 4.11. Whoredome and wine take away the heart. 4. Walk not in the way of worldly-minded and covetous men, who set up their rest upon the things of this world, and make no conscience of their purchase, for the Scripture calleth such men, fools, Jer. 17.11. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not: so he that getteth riches and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his dayes, and at his end, shall be a fool. Luk. 12.20. But God said unto him, Thou fool, &c. 5. Walk not in the way of strise and contention, for such men [Page 354] are, in the Scripture-phrase, fools, Prov. 20.3. Every fool will be medling. Prov. 26.17. He that passeth by and medleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears: he doth at first rashly engage himself into the quarrel, and is afraid how he shall come off fair­ly without prejudice to his credit or estate. 6. Walk not in the way of malice; for the Scri­pture calleth malicious and wrathful men, fools, Eccles. 7.9. Be not hasty in thy spirit to be angry: for anger resteth in the bosome of fools. 7. Walk not wilfully and obstinatly in any evil custom or way, for such men the Scripture calleth fools, who will not be reclaimed by the rods of God upon their backs, Prov. 27.22. Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a morter among wheat with a pestel, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. Jer. 5.3, 4. But they have refused to receive correction; they have made their faces harder than a rock, they have refused to return; therefore I said, surely these are poor, they are foolish. 8. Walk not in the way of malicious dissimulation; though such dissemblers may be esteemed witts, and active men in this pre­sent world; yet in Gods account they are fools, Prov. 10.18. He that hideth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth slander, is a fool. 9. Walk not in the way of slothful men, who delay from time to time to go about the great business and work of their own salvation; such persons in holy Scripture, are compared to the foolish [Page 355] Virgins, Mat. 25. 10. Walk not in the way of bare formality, resting upon the performance of some outward duties only; because such men are compared to the foolish builder, who built upon the sand: such fools are these who rest on the hearing of the Word, but prepare not themselves to do it, Mat. 7.26. 11. Walk not here and there, departing from a known and received truth in the matter of Religion; for such wavering and unconstant men, are cal­led fools, Gal. 3.1. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

But as wise: The Apostle (1 Cor. 3.18.) speaketh of a twofold wisdom; an heavenly wisdom, when a man preferreth his duty to God unto all things worldly; such was the wis­dom of Paul, Act. 20.23, 24. The Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying, that bonds and afflictions abide me: but none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto my self; so that I might finish my course with joy, and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testifie the Gospel of the grace of God. This wisdom is thought foolishness to the worldly man, whose mind and heart is fixed on things earthly. And there is a worldly wis­dom, when men in their practice and endea­vours, do prefer the good things of this life unto the best things of the life to come, as [Page 356] Demas did: this wisdom is foolishness in Gods account; for, what avails it a man to gain all the world, and lose his own soul?

This Christian Heavenly wisdom, standeth, 1. In mens proposing to themselves a good and happy end of their actions: when they propone to themselves, as the great and supreme end of all their actions, the glory of God, of whom, through whom, and for whom are all things, 1 Cor. 10.31. Whether ye eat or drink, do all to the glory of God: when in the next place, they propose to themselves that subordinat end, to wit, the salvation of their own souls, Phil. 3.14. I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus: and when they propose to themselves the good of others, by following their own example in well-doing, Mat. 5.16. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven. 2. True Chri­stian-wisdom, stands in a serious deliberation and search out of Gods Word, what are the fit­est means for attaining these ends; as by well-doing, and suffering for well-doing, to glorifie God, 1 Pet. 4.14. If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of Glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glori­fied. When we search and consider from the Word of God, that true repentance, lively faith, and sincere obedience, are the means, [Page 357] whereby we attain salvation, Acts 3.19. Acts 16.31. Rom. 2.6, 7. 3. It stands in a careful and timous applying of the means necessary for these great ends: So if ye be truly wise Chri­stians, ye will be diligent and active in using the means, whereby God may be glorified, and your souls saved; Jam. 3.13. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge amongst you? let him shew, out of a good conversation, his works with meekness of wisdom: for God will have men to repent and turn, that they may live in his sight, Ezek. 33.11. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Ye must believe on the Lord Je­sus Christ, for there is no salvation in any other, neither is there any other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved, Act. 4.12. And ye must walk in obedience to his will, because he became the Author of eter­nal Salvation unto all them that obey him, Heb. 5.9. 4. True Christian wisdom standeth in foreseeing impediments, stumbling-blocks, and snares in the way wherein [...]e are to walk toward eternal life, Prov. 22.3. A prudent man foreseeth evil. 5. As the truly wise Christian foreseeth the danger, so he wisely preveeneth or removeth every impediment out of the way, that would hinder him to walk or run his race with patience, 1 Cor. 9.27. But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by [Page 358] any means when I have preached to others, I my self should be a cast-away. Heb. 12.1. Let us lay aside every weight, &c. 6. The wise Chri­stian walketh according to right reason in his worldly desires, and not according to passion and sensual appetite, which would be at the outmost point of his carnal desires; for passi­ons, not guided and moderated by prudence and right reason, do run into extremity of sin­ning, as is spoken of Israel, Jer. 3.5. Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things, as thou couldest. In so doing, men become foolish to the destruction of their own souls; like the Nightingale, delighting so much sometimes in her own singing, that she bursts. 7. The truly wise Christian walketh wisely towards them that are without the Church, and adversaries to the sacred truth, Col. 4.5. Walk wisely to­ward them that are without. 1 Cor. 10.32. Giving none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the Church of God: because in so doing, thou hinders (so far as lyeth in thee) the great end, to wit, Gods glory in their conversion to the faith and truth professed by thy self: to this end, the Apostle giveth sound advice to all who live in an outward ci­vil society with others, of a different perswasi­on in the matter of Religion, 1 Tim. 6.1. Let as many servants, as are under the yoke, to wit, of unbelieving masters, count their own masters worthy of all honour; that the Name of God, and [Page 359] his doctrine be not blasphemed. 1 Pet. 3.1, 2. Likewise ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands, that if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conver­sation of the wives: while they behold your chast conversation coupled with fear.

Worldly and contentious wisdom, is directly opposite to true Christian wisdom, as is evident from Jam. 3.15. This wisdom that hath with it bitter envying and strife, descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual and devilish. It is called earthly from the object of it, because it is imployed chiefly about things earthly: of such wisdom speaketh Jer. 4.22. They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge: wise to oppress others, as Pharaoh, Exod. 1.10. Let us deal wisely, &c. wise by wicked counsels to destroy the innocent; such was the wisdom of Achithophel in his counsel against David. It is a sensual wisdom, to fulfill their own sinful lusts, in taking the opportunities to do evil; as the young man, taking the opportunity of the twilight to go about the work of darkness and uncleanness, Job 24.15. and the vile adulte­resse, taking the opportunity of her husbands absence for her shameful and sensual ends, Pro. 7.19. It is the earthly wisdom of a covetous man, by his speeches to deceive and defraud the simple, Pro. 20.14. It is nought, it is nought, saith the buyer, &c. It is called a devilish wis­dom, from the Author of it, the subtile old ser­pent; [Page 360] and it is rather craftiness and subtile de­ceit, than true wisdom.

The true signs and vive characters of the true Christian wisdom, are, 1. These given by the Apostle Jam. 3.17. It is pure without mix­ture of deceit; peaceable, without envy and ma­lice; gentle, without desire of revenge; full of mercy and charity, without grudging to give unto them that are in distress; and full of good fruits, to wit, of piety, sobriety and righteousness. 2. Where true heavenly wisdom is, there will be teachableness, and willingness to hear a word of reproof when we do amiss, Pro. 1.5. A wise man will hear, &c. Pro. 9.8. Rebuke a wise man and he will love thee. David loved Nathan and Gud, the faithful Prophets, who reproved him in the Name of the Lord. 3. A truly wise Christian will endeavour by his good example, instruction and admonition, to win others to God, Prov 11.30. He that winneth souls, is wise; as a wise and faithful servant, by his good example of diligence, maketh other servants diligent and faithful in his Masters service. 4. True Christian wisdom, hath honest and harmless simplicity joyned with it, Mat. 10 16. Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves. 5. The truly wise Christian, like the wise Merchant, preferreth Christ to all things; and like the wise builder, Mat. 7.24. he builds his comfort and confidence on Jesus Christ the rock of his salvation, as Paul did, Rom. 8.33, [Page 361] 34, 35. Gal. 6.14. God forbid that I should glo­ry, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 6. The truly wise Christian, is an heavenly-minded man, having his affections set upon things above, Prov. 15.24. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.

The means and helps for attaining this hea­venly wisdom, are, 1. Thou must be humble and denyed to thine own wisdom, 1 Cor. 3.18. Let him become a fool, that he may be wise. Thou must captivat all thy thoughts and imaginations to the wisdom and will of God, revealed in the holy Word, 2 Cor. 10.4, 5. 2. To this end, thou must be well acquainted with the holy Scripture, which only is able to make thee wise unto salvation, 2 Tim. 3.15. 3. Thou wouldst carefully observe the experiences thou has had of Gods mercies in time by-past; this will make thee wise and resolute in times of new difficulties, to depend on God and his help, Ps. 71.17, 18. O God, thou hast taught me from my youth, &c. Now also when I am old and gray-headed, O God, forsake me not: for, experience is the school-master of fools, to make them wise: thou wilt also observe the Lords chastisements upon thy self in the former time of thy de­boarding, and thou wilt be more wise in time coming, Ps. 119.71. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn thy Statutes. Thou wilt observe the uncertainty and vicis­situde [Page 362] of all things worldly, and there-from learn to be humble and wise, not trusting, or insolently glorying in things uncertain: but thou shouldst be wise, and learn to glory in the Lord alone, with whom there is not a shadow of change: thou shouldst observe the judge­ments of God on wicked men, and learn to be wise in forsaking their evil wayes, Act. 19.16, 17, 18, 19. When many that believed, saw the judgement of God upon the conjurers, they burnt their magical Books, and forsook their unlawful arts. So the unclean person, observ­ing the judgement of God upon the harlot, brought to a morsel of bread, and upon the prodigal waster, cloathed with rags, and upon the proud man, as Haman, brought to open disgrace, this should make others wise to salva­tion, in being chast, sober and humble. Cato said truly in alledging, wise men profited more by fools, than fools did by wise men; because wise men see the faults of fools, and avoid them; but fools will neither see their own faults, nor follow the example of wise men. 4. If thou would be truly wise, frequent the company of these who are wise, Pro. 13.20. He that walk­eth with wise men, shall be wise: but a compa­nion of fools, shall be destroyed. 5. As thou wouldst be wise, pray to God for wisdom, Jam. 1.5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. Pro. 2.3, 5. If thou [Page 363] liftest up thy voice for understanding, then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord.

Redeeming the time: To redeem the time, doth sometimes signifie to gain time by delay­ing and shifting of hard and difficult questions, which might bring the answerer into great dan­ger; So, Dan. 2.8. the King said to the Chal­deans, who could not tell him the interpreta­tion of his dream, but desired that he would shew them first the dream, he said, I know of certainty, that ye will gain the time. To gain the time, is rendered by the seventy Interpre­ters, in the same word that is used here: But we take the expression here to be borrowed from Travellers or Sojourners, who sleeping too long in the short winter day, do hastily rise and walk the faster, redeeming the time that was lost by sleep, and amend their pase all the rest of the day: or it may be borrowed from Mer­chants, preferring the opportunity of a good Mercat, and of buying precious wares, even to the time of their ordinary refreshment, by eat­ing and drinking, Prov. 23.23. Buy the truth, but sell it not; that is, with the hazard of any loss worldly, lay thou hold upon the occasions and opportunities of learning the sacred Truths of God, but upon no terms sell thou, or alienat the truth: or, the expression is borrowed from frugal men, who retrench their Retinue, Dyet and all Superfluities, that by so doing they may [Page 364] redeem Houses or Lands, morgaged formerly through misgovernment or prodigality.

It is a chief point of Christian wisdom, to im­prove the time well; for it is said here, Be wise, redeeming the time, as were, the wise Merchant, the wise Builder, and the wise Virgins, spoken of in holy Scripture, because time is precious, Pro. 25.11. A word fitly or timously spoken, is like apples of gold in pictures of silver. Esther spoke in time, in behalf of the Jews, and Jacob sought the blessing in time; and the wise Vir­gins provided oyl in time: time past cannot be brought back again, like the running of water, that doth not return; and it is wisdom for tra­vellers to take the opportunity of the tide be­fore it be spent: as our time is spent here, so will it be with us in eternity: it will be evil with them for ever, who spent the time of their life in following their lusts and sinful pleasures, and did not redeem lost time, by repenting in time, Luk. 16.25. But Abraham said, Son, re­member that thou in thy life-time receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Gal. 6.7, 8. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap: for he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

There be three differences of time, as it is commonly taken; to wit, the time past, pre­sent, [Page 365] and to come: we should walk wisely in reference to all these differences of times.

1. When we look back to the time past, that hath been mis-spent in the vanities and follies of sin, we should be humbled as holy Job was, Job 13.26. Thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth: as holy David was, Psal. 25.7. Remem­ber not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressi­ons. Cato, though an Heathen, repented (as he said) that he had mis-spent one day in idle­ness: but all of us may say as Psal. 90.9. Our years are spent as a tale that is told: we are like some careless hearers, who scarce know the subject and purpose of a tale, before it be near an end; so we know not the main end and pur­pose of our life, which is to know God, and to glorifie him, when we have known him; and the life of many is near to an end, before they consider the great intendment of God in giving them life. We may say (as Eccles. 11.10.) Childhood and youth are vanity: mis-spent idle­ly in doing little or no good, and oft-times in doing evil; and we may say (as 1 Pet. 4.3.) The time past may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, &c. When we remember this mis-spent time, we should mourn, and resolve by the grace of God, by amendment, to redeem lost time, and say and do as Job 34.32. That which I see not, teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more. How [Page 366] many opportunities of well-doing have we sloathed and neglected? As of thanksgiving to God for benefits received, like unthankful Is­rael, Hos. 2.8. She did not know that I gave her corn, &c. Of prayer and calling upon the Name of God, as Israel in the time of oppressing one another, Psal. 53.4. Have the workers of iniqui­ty no knowledge? who eat up my people as they eat bread; they have not called upon God. How have we neglected the opportunities of hum­bling our selves by fasting and prayer in a time of imminent or incumbent judgements? Yea, we have walked in revelling and riot, contrary to the Lords sad dispensations, Isai. 22.12, 14. We have neglected the opportunities of hear­ing the good Word of God, Prov. 1.24, 25. We have refused the gracious invitations of the Gospel, like these men, who made light of the Kings invitation to the Marriage-feast, Mat. 22.5. We have abused the time of Gods pa­tience, that should have led us to repentance, as it is said, Rev. 2.21. Not only have we been negligent, to lay hold upon the opportunities of well-doing; but also we have been forward and hasty to take the occasions of evil-doing: How many have been so malicious, that like the cruel old Priest Annas, they could not sleep till they had done evil? How many have taken op­portunity, from the weakness of others, of their cruel revenge, as Simeon and Levi did? How many have taken occasion from the sim­plicity [Page 367] of some, or from the desolat condition of others, as of Widows and Orphans, to op­press them, and by their ruines build up an estate to themselves? Such men should redeem the time by repentance and restitution in time, Prov. 23.10, 11. Remove not the old land-mark, &c. for their Redeemer is mighty. Job 20.19, 20. Because he hath oppressed, and hath forsaken the poor; because he hath violently taken away an house which he builded not: surely he shall not feel quietness in his belly, he shall not save of that which he desired.

As for the present time, we should improve it to well-doing without delay; God, in holy Scriptures, urgeth the opportunity of the pre­sent time, Joel 2.12. Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart. Psal. 95.7. To day if ye will hear his voice, &c. 2 Cor. 6.2. Now is the accepted time, &c. The husband-man takes opportunity of the season, for plowing and sowing; so should we of plow­ing up and renting our hearts by repentance, and of sowing in righteousness: the sea-faring­man, taketh the opportunity of a fair wind; so should we take the opportunity, when the Spirit of God breatheth upon us by the Word, without delay to depart from our sins, and to advance toward the Port of eternal Salvation: Because, 1. The neglect of the opportunity given us for well-doing, doth provoke God to withhold the like opportunity in time coming, [Page 368] Joh. 7.34. Ye shall seek me, and shall not find me. Esau came not in time to get the blessing; and he never got another opportunity for it. Jerusalem would not in time know those things that belonged to her peace, and therefore in time coming they were hid from her eyes, Luk. 19.42. Felix made not good use of the oppor­tunity he had for hearing Paul preach; and he never got another convenient season, Act. 24.25. 2. Though thou may have afterward an oppor­tunity of the outward Ordinances, yet through thy former neglect of them, thou provokes God to reject thy offerings, and outward duties; the Lord would not accept of the people of Israel their offer to come up the hill afterward, because they had neglected the former oppor­tunity of Obedience, when he had commanded them to come up, Numb. 14.40, 41, 42. 3. The time is uncertain, in respect of the opportunity of the means of grace; for thou cannot tell how short a time the mercat and offer of free grace may endure: the Lord may send a famine of hearing the Word of the Lord, Amos 8.11, 12. The time of thy life is uncertain; how many have been well and in health the one Sabbath, but removed by death before the other? 4. Consider seriously, though the Lord may be found of thee on thy sick and death-bed, after the many slightings of opportunities in the dayes of thy health and prosperity; yet shall it be to thee with much pain and wrestling; as [Page 369] the people of Israel, were put to the pains of fourty years abiding in the wilderness, which might have been saved by the timous pains of fourty days, Num. 14. As a man that neglects the opportunity of a fair and favourable wind for sailing, may possibly wait on a long time, before he have the like opportunity: Yea, though a man may repent truly and sincerely upon his death-bed; yet it is not without much fear and jealousie, that he hath not so much forsaken sin through any true spiritual aversness from it, as from a meer want of power to act sin in the bo­dy, as he was wont formerly to do.

A wise Christian, should redeem and improve the time in order to time coming: he should make timous provision for the time to come, as Joseph in the time of plenty, laid up pro­vision for the time coming of famine. There be four things especially we would make provi­sion of, 1. Of the word of the holy command­ment, and threatning against the time and hour of future temptations, Psal. 119.11. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. And when we are tempted to this or that sin, we would make use of the commandment forbidding it, and of the threat­ning against it: we would lay up provision of the Word, of gracious promises, against a time of temptation to doubts and fears of accep­tance, as these promises, Is. 55.1. Mat. 11.28. Joh. 6.37. and against the fears of final Apostasie; [Page 370] we would lay up provision from the word of promise, Joh. 4.14. Joh. 10.28. We would lay up provision of gracious promises against temptations in an hour of da [...]kness and deser­tion, as that, Heb. 13.5. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Isa. 49.15. Can a wo­man forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet I will not forget thee. Psal. 89 31, 32.33. If they break my statutes, &c. Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes: nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. And lay up the word of admonition against a time of sense­less security, 1 Cor. 10.12. Let him that think­eth he standeth, take heed lest he fall. Lay up that word, Phil. 2.12. Work out your own sal­vation in fear and trembling, and that of, 1 Joh. 5 18. He that is born of God, keepeth himself. 2. Make provision of good works, though not as a ground of confidence, yet as a matter of comfort for time coming, Luk. 12.35. Provide for your selves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. 1 Tim. 6.18, 19. Charge them that are rich, that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distri­bute willing to communicate: laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life. For, although good works do not make way, [Page 371] and usher us into glory, (for Christ the Forerun­ner, only doth that by the merit of his death, Heb. 6.20.) Yet they are attendants, accompa­nying persons justified, even unto eternal life, Rev. 14.13. Blest are the dead, which die in the Lord, from henceforth; yea, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works follow them. 3. Lay up provision of thy observations of Gods sad dispensations upon men going on obstinatly in their sins, Job 9 4. Who hath hardned himself against him, and pro­spered? as on Pharaoh, Senacherib, Antiochus Epiphanes, Herod the great, and Julian the Apostat. Lay up this observation as provision against temptations to walk on in any course of rebellion against the known will of God: Hezekiah advised the people of Israel well, from the sad experience of great desolation, brought upon their Ancestors by their great sins, 2 Chron. 30.8. Now, be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were; but yeeld your selves unto the Lord, and serve the Lord your God, &c. Lay up provision of thy own personal experience of sad afflictions upon thy self in a time of thy former strayings from God; and of the good such afflictions did to thee, in stopping thy course of defection, Psal. 119.67. Before I was afflicted I went astray; but now have I kept thy word. And in a time of renewed afflictions, be patient, and submit to God, who chastiseth his own children, to this end especially, that [Page 372] he may make them partakers of his holiness, Heb. 12.10. In time of great affliction, lay up provision from thy experience of his strength supporting thee, and of his wisdom and power in delivering thee, that in time coming thy heart may be established by confidence and de­pendence on him in new troubles, Psal. 42.6. O my God, my soul is cast down within me; there­fore will I remember thee from the land of Jor­dan, and of the Hermonites, from the hill Mizar. 2 Cor. 1.9, 10. But we had the sentence of death in our selves, that we should not trust in our sel­ves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who de­livered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust, that he will yet deliver us. 4. Lay up provision of self-denial and resoluti­on for evil times of persecution to come, Mat. 16.24. If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, &c. And he must be reso­lute as Paul, Act. 21.13. I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus.

From this Doctrine of Redeeming the time, three sorts of persons are justly to be reproved, 1. Slothful Idlers, who redeem not the time, but from day to day, delay to put heart and hand to the work of their own salvation, like the sluggard, Prov. 6.10. Yet a little sleep, a little slumber. Such men are like to spend-thrifts, who neglect the appointed time for redeem­ing their morgaged lands; and afterward when they would, they have not the opportu­nity, [Page 373] Luk. 13.24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to en­ter in, and shall not be able. 2. Such as trifle away their time as the Athenians did, Act. 17.21. As these tatling widows did, 1 Tim. 5.17. and as these busie bodies, 2 Thess. 3.11. Such also who spend more time in their exces­sive recreations and gamings, than in their ne­cessary and lawful employments: especially such, who spend much of their time in dycing and carding. Such, of old, were severely fin­ed by the laws, both of Heathen and Christian Emperours; and by the Canons of the Coun­cil of Eliberis, were suspended from the holy Sacrament, as witnesseth the learned Ductor dubitantium: such prodigal triflers of precious time, are like to some foolish persons, who spend upon conceits and fancies the moneys that should have been imployed to redeem their morgages: so these men play away their time, which should be employed to redeem their former time, that was ingaged to their former foolish courses. 3. The debauched wasters of time in the works of darkness, as uncleanness, drunkenness, oppression, covetousness, pride, malice, &c. Such men redeem not the time, but prodigally cast it away: they are like unto profuse wasters, who do not redeem the wod­sett, but take on more debt, and in end bring themselves to sinful, shameful and desperat poverty: So these prodigal wasters and de­bauchers of their time, bring themselves in [Page 374] end to an everlasting want of all comfort, as the rich glutton did, Luk. 16.23, 24.

Therefore, let all sorts and conditions of men, take with the warning to improve their time to the glory of God, and to the advan­tage of their own salvation. 1. Such as are in their adolescency and growing age, they would improve their young years to the glorifying of their Creator, Eccles. 12.1. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Offer the first fruits of your age unto God, that your after­age may be sanctified and blessed of the Lord: if the first-fruits be holy, the whole lump of your time and age will be holy, Rom. 11.16. Plato to this purpose speaketh indeed like a divine Philosoph, in his first book of his Repub. ‘Young age, saith he, p [...]st over in vertue, and in honest imployments, is a comfortable nurse to entertain and cherish their old age: but he that wasteth and debaucheth his young years, when he comes to old age, the remembrance of his former miscarriages in the time of his youth, doth greatly afright him: as infants awaked out of their sleep, by loud noises, are greatly terrified and afrighted.’ In like manner, those men that sleeped sometimes securely in the sins of their youth, shall be awaked in their old age with the terrours of an accusing con­science, and afrighted with the dreadful found of death and judgement, and shall not have rest to their souls, until they repent of the sins of [Page 375] their youth, and by [...]aith rest on the Lord Je­sus Christ, whose blood cleanseth from all un­righteousness. 2. Such as are in their prime, and meridian of their time, who are now in their full strength of body and mind, Improve your time well; honour God, with the strength of thy body: give not thy strength and the flower of thy time to uncleanness and drunken­ness, like these cursed men, Isa. 5.22. Wo unto them that are mighty to drink wine: by so doing they weaken the spirit, and consume the body: they turn the good gifts of God unto rebelli­on against himself, as if a souldier should employ his levy-mony to buy armes, wherewith he might fight against his King who gave it. Reu­ben, the beginning of Jacobs strength, abused his own time and strength; therefore his dignity and excellency was taken from him: but Joseph improved well his youth and strength of body; therefore God blessed him, and his bow abode in strength, in despight of all that shot at him. Now is the time wherein your senses and judge­ment are ripe and quick; use your time and judgement well, that ye may have comfort in old age, when senses and judgement will fail, as they did in old Barzillay: but if your quick­ness be set on edge upon vain inventions, ye will be forced in your old age to say, as Rom. 6.21. What pleasure have we, or fruits, in those things, whereof we are now ashamed. 3. And such who are in their decrept old age, stouping [Page 376] toward the earth and the grave, let them not imploy their short time and their affections wholly upon the things of the earth, when by the course of nature, they are near to be re­moved from it: Let them not be busie in the things of the world, and careless of the work of their own salvation; I say to them, as the Lord of the Vineyard said to those, Matth. 20. Why stand ye all day idle? ye are come to your ele­venth hour, your time is near run, the night of death is near hand, wherein no man can work: therefore, before that night surprize you, delay not to enter unto the work of sancti­fication, which is begun salvation, and work it out in fear and trembling, that at death ye may rejoyce, and say with Paul, (2 Tim. 4.7, 8.) I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, &c. Let them with old Simeon, frequent the temple, and make conscience of the holy ordinances both publick and privat, in them waiting for the Lord Jesus Christ, who will come to old expectants, as he did to old Simeon; and will put himself into the armes of their faith, that they may say at death, Mine eyes have seen thy salvation; now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace.

The reason brought by the Apostle, to press the whole complex duty, is, walking circum­spectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the [Page 377] time, is set down in these words, because the dayes are evil: no day or time is intrinsecally evil, but good, being created of God together with the creatures, as the measure of the en­durance of things created by God, which were all good in the beginning: but as man, by the abuse of his own free-will, made himself evil, Eccles. 7.29. So he himself maketh his time and dayes evil, which are the measure of his evil actions.

The holy Scripture speaks of good dayes and happy times, such as was the day of the birth of our blessed Lord, Luk. 2.10, 11. such as is the time of the preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles, 2 Cor. 6.2. such as will be to the godly, the day of our Lords second coming, which is called the day of refreshment, of re­storing all things, Act. 3.19.21. and the day of full redemption, Eph. 4.30. The Scripture speaketh also of evil dayes, wherein sin and ini­quity doth abound; such were the dayes where­in Noah and Lot lived; such were the dayes wherein Isaiah lived, when he complains of the decay of truth, of common honesty, and of the abounding of violence, Is. 59.15. Yea, truth faileth, and he that departeth from evil, maketh himself a prey. Such were the times wherein Jeremiah lived, who complained heavily of them, Jer. 9.2. O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of way-faring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them; for they be [Page 378] all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men, full of falshood and dissimulation, &c. Such were the times whereof Peter foretold, 2 Pet. 3. There shall come in the last dayes, scoffers walking after their own lusts: Men blasphemous and pro­fane, mocking at the promises of God, and at the saith of the godly for trusting to these pro­mises. Evil dayes also are the dayes of sad and grievous calamities, Gen. 47.9. Jacob said unto Pharaoh, few and evil have the dayes of the years of my life been. Such were the dayes of Jerusalem in their first destruction by the Babylonians, and in their second destruction by the Romans.

In such evil dayes, we should walk circum­spectly; for, the Apostle urgeth this duty from this reason, because the dayes are evil. Con­sider, 1. God observeth the godly in their walking at such a time especially, wherein sin and iniquity doth abound; he observed the uprightness of Noah, in the midst of a crooked generation; and the righteousness of Lot, whose soul was vexed with the unclean conversation of that evil time; he observed these few in the Church of Sardis, who had not defiled their garments with the pollutions of that evil time wherein they lived, Rev. 3.4. 2 Evil dayes are critick dayes, wherein we may discern and judge of the good or bad dispositions of men living in such times; evil times are searching and trying times of the saith of the godly, not­withstanding [Page 379] the prosperity of the wicked; thus the Prophets saith was tryed, Ps. 73.28. But it is good for me to draw near to God. Such times are trying times of the patience of the godly, Heb. 10.36. Ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. In such evil times, the stedfastness of the godly is tryed, when many that were fair professors in a time of prosperi­ty, do make defection from the way of truth and righteousness, as Joh. 6.68. when many that were sometimes disciples by profession, went back and walked no more with Christ, then the stedfastness of Peter and of such as were dis­ciples indeed, was tryed and manifested: Peter said, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. 3. Evil times, wherein sin and iniquity abounds, are perilous times, 2 Tim. 3.1. This know also, that in the last dayes, perilous times shall come. They are called [...], times full of difficulty for the godly, to pre­serve themselves from the contagion, or from the violence of such times, if they will not run to the same excess of riot with the wicked.

Preservatives against evil times are, 1. Sound information from the Word of God, that by the light thereof, we may discover and shun the wayes of an evil time, Ps. 17.4. Concern­ing the works of men, by the word of thy lips, I have kept me from the paths of the destroyer. Ps. 119.104. By thy precepts I get understand­ing: [Page 380] therefore I hate every false way. 2. Give not consent to the beginnings of any evil course, Prov. 1.10. My son, if sinners entice thee, con­sent thou not. Because consent at first, may just­ly provoke God in his justice to leave thee to thy own counsel, and then thou mayest prove an active promoter, and violent driver on of the course of iniquity: Paul at first gave con­sent to the stoning of Stephen, and afterward made cruel havock of the Christian Church. The course of iniquity is called a backsliding, Hos. 4.16. Israel slideth back as a back-sliding hiefer. And if once thou begin to slide, thou cannot tell how far thine own corruption, and the evil counsel and example of wicked men may carry thee, as it did sometimes the people of Jerusalem, Jer. 8.5. Why then is this peo­ple of Jerusalem slidden back, by a perpetual back-sliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. At first men are deceived by their own hearts, and thereafter to excuse and strengthen themselves in their own sinful wayes, they de­ceive and corrupt others by evil counsel and example: for no man at first comes to the hight of iniquity, according to the saying, nemo re­pente fit pessimus: but they grow worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived, 2 Tim. 3.13 3. In a time wherein piety and righteousness is mocked by profane and licentious men, speak­ing all manner of evil against the godly and upright, who will not run with them to the [Page 381] same excesse of riot, 1 Pet. 4.4. labour thou the more to preserve thy self from pusilani­mity, and base fear of their revilings against any complying with their sinful wayes, Ps. 119.51. The proud have had me greatly in de­rision, yet have I not declined from thy Law. 4. In evil times, when a man is made an offend­er for a rash and inconsiderat word, Isa. 29.21. then preserve thy self by silence, except thou have a call from God to speak, Psal. 39 1. I said I will take heed to my wayes, that I sin not with my tongue: I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me. Amos 5.13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time, for it is an evil time. And pray of­ten to God to set a watch before thy mouth, not to suffer thy heart to comply with the workers of iniquity; and that the Lord would preserve thee from being taken with their worldly baits and allurements, Psal. 141.3, 4. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips; encline not my heart to any evil thing, to practise wicked works with men that work iniquity; and let me not eat of their dain­ties. 5. In evil times of wrath and imminent judgement, by reason of impiety and iniquity abounding in the land, draw near to God by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, Zeph. 2.1, 2. Gather your selves together; yea, gather together, O nation not desired: before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, be­fore [Page 382] the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lords anger come upon you. Be humble, and tremble in time at the threat­ning of wrath, that ye may have rest in your souls in the day when the cup is poured forth, Hab. 3.16. When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entred into my bones, and I trembled in my self, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. They who tremble not in the time of a threatned judgement, yet when the judge­ment is poured forth, even these who were stout-hearted sinners, in the day of wrath pour­ed forth, they become like Pashur, Magor-mis­sabib, fear round about: When thou hast re­pented of thy sins, which together with the sins of others, have provoked the Lord to great wrath, then flee by faith in to the mercy of God manifested in Jesus Christ, who is the only Ark of Propitiation, Heb. 11.7. Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his soul. When the evil day of wrath is come, and the judgement is incumbent, then humble your selves under the mighty hand of God, 2 Chron. 7.14. If my people which are called by my Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked wayes; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 2 Chron. 30.8. [Page 383] Now be ye not stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yeeld your selves unto the Lord, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanct [...]fied for ever; and serve the Lord your God, that the fierce­ness of his wrath may turn away from you. Thus Rehoboam and the Princes, did humble them­selves; and the Lord gave them some delive­rance, 2 Chron. 12.6, 7. 6. That thou may not faint in evil times, wherein sin, persecuti­on and misery do abound, guard thy heart with the hope of that eternal rest, when thou shalt rest from all thy labours, 2 Cor. 4.16, 17, 18. For which cause, we faint not, &c. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. Heb. 10.34. Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in your selves, that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Which is purchased to us by the merits of the sufferings of Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be everlasting praise, honour and glory, for now and ever. Amen.

THe Particle For, points at the connexi­on of these words with the last verse of the preceeding Chapter; wherein the Apostle gave the reason of his not fainting under all the pressures and afflictions he suffered in the body; because he looked not so much by present sense to the things he suffered here, as by faith and hope he looked to things eternal [Page 385] in heaven, to wit, unto an eternal rest, and an immortal Crown of Glory, which not seen by sense, yet he believed was reserved for him in heaven: Now faith is the substance of things hop­ed for, the evidence of things not seen, Heb. 11.1. And the light afflictions in this present life, are not to be compared with these eternal things not seen nor perceived by sense, Rom. 8.18. What these eternal things are, the Apostle de­scribes in part, in the two first verses of this Chapter; even an immortal and glorified bo­dy in the day of the resurrection: therefore he faints not, but hath Christian courage in all the pain and shame he suffereth at the hand of men, now in his frail and mortal body; for we know (saith he) although our earthly house of the tabernacle of the body shall be dissolved; when all the pins and joynts will be dissolved, yet we have a building of God, and we look for an house, even a glorified body, not of mans making and giving; though our frail body be framed in the womb by the Lord, yet the glo­rified body is of the Lords making and giving, in a more special manner; because in the day of our resurrection, he shall change our vile bo­dy, that it may be fashioned like unto his glo­rious body, Phil. 3.21. It is an house eternal, and well situat in the heavens, where it will not be subject to storms and tempests, as it is in this life: my assured knowledge (saith he) of that future happy condition, stirreth up in my [Page 386] soul an earnest desire and longing to remove out of the body, that I may be clothed upon with glory in my soul after death, and with immor­tal glory both in soul and body at the day of resurrection.

By earthly house here, is meant our body, cal­led an house of clay, Job 4.19. because the bo­dy of the first Adam, of whom by propagation we have our bodies, was formed out of the red earth, from which man was called Adam: it is underpropped for a time by meat, drink, sleep, and sometimes by medicine, to fill up the breaches, and to repair the decayes of this house of clay, which in end will fall down to the dust of the earth.

It is called a tabernacle; because the soul dwells in the body for a time, as the Ark did reside in the Tabernacle, built for divine wor­ship for a time in the wilderness; until it got a settled residence in the Temple of Jerusalem: in like-manner, our souls in this time of our sojourning on the earth, are lodged in frail bo­dies, subject to many changes, and to a conti­nual flux.

By building, or an house not made with hands, is meant the immortal glorious body in Hea­ven: here in this life, the parents do minister the materials of our frail and natural bodies; but the immortality and glory of the heavenly body, will be only from God himself, as is evi­dent, Phil. 3.20, 21. It is said we groan, [Page 387] ( [...]) as men straitned and pressed with a burden, that hinders them to go so fast in their journey as they would: therefore the ho­ly Apostle groans and longs to be eased of that burden of the body, which retards him in his motions toward his countrey that is above; and he desires to be clothed upon with that heavenly house of incorruption; and to be in­vested in that full glory, when the soul will be re-united unto a glorious body for ever with­out separation; as likewise the body will be ever with the soul, and where-ever it desires to be; for the desire of the soul will be satis­fied in Heaven, as August. de Civit. Dei, saith truly, Protinus ubi volet spiritus, ihi erit cor­pus, where-ever the spirit will desire to be, there incontinent shall the body be.

In the words we have, 1. The Apostle his as­sured knowledge of that far better estate after this life, vers. 1. For we know that if our earth­ly house, &c. 2. The effect this knowledge wrought in the holy Apostle, to wit, an earnest desire after that eternal house, vers. 2. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring, &c.

From the words we draw clearly these four Conclusions, 1. The dissolution of the body is certain, Our earthly house will be dissolved. 2. The glory of the bodies of believers in this life, is certain in the life to come, We have a building of God, &c. 3. There is a great difference and opposition between our present and future con­dition [Page 388] in the body: now the body of belie­vers is in this life, earthly, and hath need of earthly supports and propps: but hereafter in Heaven it will be heavenly, in respect of its qualities: it will not be gross and heavy, but subtile and agile; it is now corruptible, but then it will be eternal; now it is on the earth, as a poor cottage of clay in the wilderness; then will it be in Heaven, as a Pallace, beautiful, strong and unmoveable upon Mount Zion that is above. 4. The assured knowledge of our interest and title through Christ unto that hap­py condition of glory both in soul and body, will stir up in believers a vehement desire of that compleat happiness in Heaven, for in this we groan, &c.

Conclus. 1. There will be a dissolution of the body by death, For we know, that if our earth­ly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, that is, although it were dissolved, as the particle which is also here ( [...]) is well rendered, 1 Cor. 4.15. Though you have ten thousand in­structers in Christ: and the same particle is sometimes taken for ( [...]) when, 1 Joh. 3.2. We know that when he shall appear, &c. and so it may be well rendered here also; when our earthly house of this tabernacle shall be dissolved. Certain it is, it shall be dissolved, Heb. 9.27. It is appointed for all, to die. Rom. 5.12, 17. Sin came over all, and by sin also death. 1 Cor. 15.22. In Adam all die. Rom. 6.23. The wages [Page 389] of sin is death. If man had not sinned, he had never died: and of this immortality of the body upon the condition of his continuance in the estate of innocency, the tree of life was a visible Sacrament and seal of assurance: so as man was created with a possibility (I do not say, a power or inclination) to sin or not to sin, according as he should use the power of his own free will: even so accordingly he was created with a body capable of mortality or immortality. It is a gross errour of some, who have it from the Pelagians, denying Original sin; That man would have died, although he had continued in the estate of innocency; by reason (say they) of the materials of the bo­dy, made up of contrary qualities, that by wear­ing one upon another, would have made an al­teration in the body, and in end brought cor­ruption. But although mans body was com­posed of contrary qualities, apt to war and wear one against another; yet if man had continued in harmony and correspondence with his Crea­tors will, he would have kept these qualities in a just harmony one with another; as he re­strained the Lion and Wolf from devouring the Lamb and Kid in the Ark of Noah; the Lion from doing any harm to the Prophets Ass, 1 King. 13.24. and the fire from finzing the hair of the head of the three Children, Dan. 3.27. Is it not very probable, the glorified Bodies in Heaven will have these same primi­tive [Page 390] natural qualities, and yet they will be with­out any alteration or corruption? is it not evi­dent, that the sentence of death was threatned only upon the condition of sinning against God, The day thou eatest, thou shalt die? That this is not to be understood only of the spiritual death of the soul, in being deprived of the fa­vour of God, is clear, Gen. 3.19. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it was thou taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. So that the sentence formerly threatned, is exe­cute upon man after his failie, and for his failie.

Seing this earthly house will be certainly dis­solved, our care of it should be moderat, and not immoderat: let us not torment our selves with vexatious care, what we shall eat, or what we shall put on; if we have food and raiment in any competent measure, let us be content therewith, as sojourners are content with a small portion in the time of their sojourning: Let your greatest care be of your immortal souls, which are as a precious jewel inclosed in the body for a time: Is it not a shame for ma­ny persons to have so much care, and take such pains for adorning a mortal body, and in the mean time to neglect their immortal soul? Were it not a sensless folly in a man, to put forth all his care upon the repairing of the outside of his house, and yet to have no care of the precious stuff and plenishing within it? Fre­quent [Page 391] meditations of the certainty of the dis­solution of our bodies, would keep our spirits more humble and sober in the dayes of prospe­rity and health: to this end, the very Heathens did often think upon their mortality; a Lictor or Serjeant was put into the triumphal chariot beside the Conquerour, to put him in mind of his mortality, by crying to him, Memento te esse mortalem, remember thou art a mortal man. Philip of Macedon commanded his Page to knock every morning at his chamber door before he rose, and to cry, Memento mori, re­member thou must die. The great Emperour of the Schythians, Tamberlan, in his military march, caused carry before him his winding-sheet, as well as the royal standart; and many of the people of God amongst the Jews had their tombs in their gardens (as we read Joseph of Arimathea had) to keep their spirits sober in the midst of their worldly pleasures and de­lights: but mens forgetfulness of their ap­proaching dissolution, makes many so impudent and obstinat in their sinful courses, Lam. 1.9. Her filthiness is in her skirts, she remembreth not her last end; therefore she came down won­derfully; she had no comforter. We have dayly warnings of the approaching dissolution of this house of clay, 1. From the propps we make use of dayly to support it, as our meat and our drink, they are for repairing this ruinous house for a time; and yet do what we can, it [Page 392] will fall down to the dust: take warning from thy going to sleep, and [...]emember, as thou puts off thy cloaths, so thou must put off this garment of mortality: If at any time thou take medicine, remember it is but as a plaiste­ring for a time of a decaying mud-house. 2. Let sickness in the body at any time, put thee in mind of thy dissolution by death; be­cause alteration doth tend in end to corruption; as a drop from the roof doth in end wear the side-walls. 3. Take warning from the death and burial of others; when thou seest their scull, or bones, or dust: this is a pious Necro­mancy thereby to divine of thine own dissolu­tion by death. 4. Take warning from the win­ter season; when thou lookest on the earth, thou seest neither grass nor flower, then remem­ber thou that, of 1 Pet. 1.24. All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man, as the flower of grass: the grass withereth and the flower there­of falleth away. But thou who sowest in tears, rejoyce in the hope of that harvest of compleat glory at the Resurrection, which is the spring­time of the immortality of the body; when the bodies of the Saints shall spring up in glory, like the lillies, that were hid under the ground in time of winter, Isa. 26.19. Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise: awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew, is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead:

There is great reason, wherefore we should be preparing dayly for the dissolution of the body by death, 1. This dissolution is inevi­table, and there is not exemption from it by any humane power. It is true, God himself did exempt Enoch and Elias from dissolution of the body; because he is the supreme Law­giver, and may dispence with his own penal sta­tutes: but no person can exempt himself from the necessity of a dissolution of the body: riches cannot bribe death; the rich glutton died: honour and majesty in the great ones of the world, cannot dash death out of countenance, nor chase it away; Kings are laid in their graves: might and power of Armies cannot affright death; it has taken away Kings and great Commanders upon the head of their Ar­mies, wisdom and eloquence cannot disswade it from approaching; the wise and eloquent die, as well as fools and ignorant men. The Piety of the godly, will not turn it away; Abraham the fathe [...] of the faithful, and all the Patriarchs died. 2. This dissolution is uncer­tain in respect of the time, manner, and place: We come into the world one way, but go out of it a thousand divers wayes: that rich world­ling, ( Luk. 12.18.) was taken away on a sud­den; the Shunamit's son goeth forth well in the morning, but dies before the evening: though our dayes are numbred of God, yet they are uncertain to us: our breath is in our [Page 394] nostrils; if either the air we draw in, or the air we breath out, be stopped, we are gone in an instant: if but the small passages from the reins be obstructed, our heart is suffocat. There­fore let us not in our vain presumption number years unto our selves; but let us pray daily to God, that he would teach us so to number our dayes, that we may apply our hearts unto wis­dom, Psal. 90 12.

Quest. How shall I be prepared for my disso­lution and death? Ans. That thou mayest be prepared, 1. Repent of thy sins, and be recon­ciled unto God through faith in Jesus Christ the Mediator, without delaying, even while thou art in the way, and cannot tell how soon thou mayest be removed, that thou may appear before thy Judge, Mat. 5.25. Delay not till the very term of thy dissolution be come; for then it will be with thee as with a careless debt or, who takes no course with his debts in time; at the term-day he is confounded with fear, lest death as a rude Messenger, sent from the great Judge, shall hale him to the bottomless prison, from which there is no redemption. 2. Em­brace Christ the Saviour of sinners into the arms of thy faith, that so with old Simeon thou mayest depart in peace, Luk. 2.29, 30. Holy Ambrose at his death, beholding his friends weeping sore, said, ‘Why weep ye? I have not so lived, that I am ashamed to live long­er, if it shall so seem good in the eyes of God; [Page 395] neither am I afraid to die, because I have a gracious Lord.’ 3. Be thou diligent in thy Christian, and also in thy particular lawful Cal­ling; the fore-sight of death, and appearance after death before the Tribunal of the Lord Je­sus Christ, made Paul careful to approve him­self to God in his Apostolical Calling, 2 Cor. 5.9, 10. Wherefore we labour, that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him; for we must all appear before the Judgement seat of Christ, &c. Upon this account Peter was also careful to do his duty faithfully, 2 Pet. 1.13, 14, 15. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up, by putting you in remembrance, knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, &c. 4. In all the wayes of thy Christian conversation, study to persevere in keeping a good conscience, that at death thou mayest die with some comfortable evidence in thy self of thy future happiness, 2. Tim. 4.7, 8. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness, &c. 5. Labour thou to be prepared, as were the wise Virgins, ( Mat. 25.) with the light of sound knowledge in thy mind, that thou mayest say with the Apostle, 2 Tim 1.12. I know whom I have believ­ed. And also having the oyl of sincere love in your heart toward God; for the heart cannot conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him, 1 Cor. 2.9. As also having sincere [Page 396] love in your hearts toward all the Saints, 1 Joh. 3.14. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. 6. Be thou prepared as these faith [...]ul servants, ( Luk. 12.36.) who trussed up their garments, that they might be the more expedit and rea­dy to open the door to their Lord at his re­turn: In like manner do thou retire thy heart in time from the excessive love of the things of this present world, that it be not entangled thereby: but set thy heart upon God and things above; for as Plenishing or Houshold-stuff fixed fast in the wall, is ordinarily broken before it can be removed; so a worldly-minded man, his heart is broken with grief and worldly sor­row, when he is removed from his present en­joyments: his spirit is rather taken from him against his will, then by him freely commended, and chearfully put over into the hands of his Heavenly Father, Luk. 12.20.

Conclus. 2. The future glory of the bodies of the Saints in Heaven, is not only sure and certain, in it self, in respect of the object pro­mised by God; but also in respect of the sub­ject, to wit, believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, who may and should be assured of it; for it is said here by the Apostle, not only in his own name, but also in the name of all believers on Jesus Christ, We know we have an house, &c. It is expressed in the present tense, ( [...], we have) to signifie the certainty of it in a be­liever; [Page 397] so, Joh. 3 36. He that believeth in me, hath everlasting life. This assurance Job had, Job 19 27. Whom I shall see for my self, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, &c. And David, Psal. 17.15 As for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake, with thy likeness.

The reasons are, 1. Because not only the soul, but also the body of a believer, is a part of the mystical Body of Christ, who is the Sa­viour of his whole body, Eph. 5.23. 2. As the body of believers, is an instrument and ves­sel of honour to God in this life; so these same bodies shall be vessels of glory in the other life, that they may receive there according to their service done unto God here in the body, 2 Cor. 5.10. 3. The bodies of the Patriarchs, do now rest in their graves; and as we may be assured, they shall be raised unto glory, Matth. 22.32. Joh. 5 28, 29. So all true believers on Jesus Christ, may be assured, that their own bodies also shall be raised in glory unto eternal life.

As we would be assured of glory to our bo­dies in heaven, let us use our bodies here as temples to the Holy Ghost, Rom. 8.11. If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead, shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spi­rit that dwelleth in you. Now the body is used as a temple to the Holy Ghost, 1. by separat­ing [Page 398] it from the service of sin and iniquity, as the temple of Jerusalem, which sometime was a threshing-floor before it became a Temple to God, it was separate from that common use; So our bodies must be separat from the service of iniquity, before it can be consecrat to the service of God, 2 Cor. 6.16, 17. And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God, &c. wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separat, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. 2. As the temple of Jerusalem was not only separat from a pro­fane or common use, but was also dedicat and consecrat unto the service of God, and spiri­tual employments; in like manner, our bodies should be presented and dedicat to the service of God, according to the duty of our Chri­stian calling, Rom. 12.1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. As all the vessels in the Temple, whether great or small, were holy; so should all the members of our body be employed unto righteousness, Rom. 6.13. Neither yield ye your members as instru­ments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield your selves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righ­teousness unto God. Our eyes should be turn­ed away from beholding vanity, and imployed [Page 399] to behold the power and wisdom of God in the works of Creation and Providence; our ears should be circumcised and tu [...]ned away from hearing profane or obscene speeches, and turned to hear what may be profitable for our edification; our tongues should be turned away from all unsavoury communication, and should minister grace to the hearer. 3. The Temple was guarded and kept by the Porters, lest any thing should enter or creep into the Temple, which might defile it, 2 Chron. 23.19. In like-manner should we watch over the Ports of our eyes and ears, that nothing enter in by them, which may defile the soul, which is the very sanctuary within the temple of our body. No stranger was admitted unto the temple of Je­rusalem, Act. 21.28. so we should not admit willingly, any strange thought or stragling mo­tion, which would turn the heart away from God, Ps. 119.113. I hate vain thoughts, but thy law do I love. If through our inadvertence such motions creep in, or through violence rush into the soul and molest the body, then as our blessed Lord in his zeal, did scourge out the buyers and the sellers out of the Temple, we should in a holy indignation, and commendable self-revenge, cast out these thoughts that would sell our bodies and the members thereof unto iniquity: If thus ye be careful to use your bodies as a temple to the Holy Ghost, then may ye be assured, the Holy G [...]ost who dwelled [Page 400] in the soul, and over-ruled the body in the day of resurrection, will fill his temple with glory; even as the temple of Jerusalem was first built by Gods command, and thereafter filled with the cloud, and sensible presence of God him­self. But these who dishonour God in the body and members thereof, as by blaspheming the Name of God, by uncleanness, by drun­kenness or other sins acted by the subserviency of the body; can such persons, or dare they say, We know we have an eternal house in heaven? Yea, do they not know, and are convinced from the threatnings of God, and from their own conscience bearing witness to the truth and justness of the same, that if they live and dye in their sins without repentance and amend­ment of life, there is a bottomless dark prison with torments everlasting, prepared both for their soul and for their body? Gal. 6.8. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption.

Conclus. 3. There is a great difference and opposition between the bodies of believers in this life; and the condition of their glorified bodies in the life to come: here the body is an earthly house, mouldering down dayly; but in heaven, it will be fixt, eternal and incorrup­tible. This opposition is clearly set forth, 1 Cor. 15.41, 42, 43. 1. Now the body of the Saints is subject to alteration and corrupti­on, It is sow [...] saith the Apostle, in corrup­tion, [Page 401] but raised in incorruption. The body now, is in a continual flux and decay; some pickles of our dust are running dayly: our life is like a lamp within this pitcher of clay, having need dayly to be recruited by fresh oyl: but in heaven our bodies will be of a fixed condition, without any need of reparation; then the vital and animat spirits of the body, will be pure and free from all superfluous humors, and from all conflict of one bodily quality against another; which, like contrary tydes, do make a great commotion within the body: but in heaven there will be a perfect harmony amongst all the elementary qualities in the body; and there­fore no possiblity of alteration, or declining to old age. 2. There is an opposition in respect of the feature and beauty of the body; The bo­dy is sown in dishonour, but raised in honour. Our body in this life, is called a vile body, Phil. 3.20. Saccus stercorum; and the greatest on earth must carry about with them these monitories of hu­mility: A little time before death, the face be­comes pale and earth-like; as wine near-run, doth smell of the dreg: after the soul is gone, like an heavenly spark of fire out of a mud-house, then the body becomes nasty and loathsome through stench. Abraham desired to bury his some-time beautiful Sarah out of his sight. But in the day of resurrection the bodies of the god­ly will be raised in honour, like unto the glori­ous body of Christ. As the tabernacle in the wilderness, was made according to the pattern [Page 402] shown unto Moses in the Mount; so the ta­bernacle of our body will be raised according to the pattern of Christs b [...]y, shown in mount Tabor, when he was transfigured, Mat. 17. They will be raised in great comeliness both for splen­dor and proportion: these bodies that had any defect or deformity in this life, through want of any member, shall have all made up in that day of restoring all things: he that bringeth forth the lillie from under the ground in beautiful co­lours, exceeding the glory of king Solomon, and he that restored Malchus his ear, will adorn the body with beauty, and with integrity of mem­bers: all doubts, how such a thing can be, are resolved by the Apostle, Phil. 3.21 He will do it according to the working, whereby he is able, even to subdue all things unto himself. 3. There is an opposition in respect of the healthful disposition and constitution of the body; It is sown in weak­ness, but will be raised in power. The best consti­tution of the body now, in comparison of that it had in the estate of innocency, is at the best but weakness: although all bodies now be not alike weak; yet a sharp fit of an ague, or of the stone will lay the strongest man on his back; even the strongest bodies through much labour do be­come weak and feeble, as a strong bow, through much shooting, becomes flug and remiss: Samp­son, notwithstanding his great strength, became weary and thirsty after his fight with the Phili­stines; and on death-bed the strongest man is not able to carry a drink to his own head, or to turn [Page 403] himself in his bed: but in the day of resurrecti­on, the body will be raised in power and strength, and so continue without all weariness: for weak­ness in the body, and weariness after labour, is a consequent of mans fall, and of original cor­ruption; if man had not fallen, his labour in the garden would have been only a pleasant recreati­on without toil and sweat: but in heaven there will be no remaines of corruption in the soul; and therefore no weariness in the body. 4. There is a great opposition between our body now, and the glorified body in the resurrection, in respect of exercise and operations; It is sown a natural body, but will be raised a spiritual body: not of a spiritual, Aerial, or Etherial substance, for the same individual body will be raised, and it was not in this life Aerial or Etherial: there will be a raising up of that same body which is fallen, [...], and that was a terrestrial body; it is said demonstratively, 1 Cor. 15.54. This corrup­tible, and this mortal. But the body will be rais­ed up with spiritual qualities; now it is a na­tural body, and has need of natural means for preserving and continuing the spece and kind by Generation, as also of meat, drink and sleep for preserving the Individual by nutrition: but after the resurrection, the body will be abstract and retired from the use of these natural means and operations; the glorified Saints will be like unto Angels, neither giving in marriage, nor taking in marriage, Mat. 22.30. The number of the Elect, and of the Church [Page 404] Triumphant, will be compleat at the resur­rection; there will be no more enlargeing of the Church by posterity: the whole desire and de­light of the Sa [...]nts glorified, will be so [...]ully taken up with the vision and fruition of the all-suffi­cient and unchangeable God, that the beati­fick vision will drown and swallow up any remem­brance of natural desire or delight on the crea­ture: if Peter (Matth. 17.) was so deeply affect­ed with a sight of that created glory he saw on mount Tabor, that he forgot all his former con­tentments and enjoyments worldly below the mount, when he said, It is good for us to be here: How much more will the Saints in heaven be ravished with the sight and knowledge of that increated glory of God himself in their souls, when he shall be marvellous in his Saints, 2 Thes. 1.10. and when they shall also behold the glory of Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness in his humane glorified body? The glorified body will not have any use or need of meat, drink or sleep, because the body then will be of a fixed and durable constitution and consistence, with­out all possibility of alteration or decay, Rev. 7.16 In heaven the body will be spiritual, in respect of lucidity and agility in motion; like unto the celestial Spirits and Angels, who in a very short time make their motions through a vast space and interval, as the Angel Gabriel did, Dan. 9.23. In like manner, our bodies then will be carryed quickly in an imperceptible moment of time, wheresoever our souls shall desire to be, 1 Thes. [Page 405] 4.17. We shallbe caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. As for these members of the body, which in this life serve for necessar and natural use, they will serve in heaven for ornament and integrity of the body: as the breasts of the woman come to old age, who sometimes gave suck; although in old age they will not serve for that use, yet they do still serve for the ornament and integrity of the body.

Herefrom is matter of great comfort to the godly, who suffer hard things in the body here: be of good courage ye are not to dwell for ever in that silly frail house; at the term of removal by death, ye know of a durable house; now it is mouldering down daily, like an house of clay after a great shower; but in heaven ye will have a mansion and fixed station in your fathers house, Joh. 14.2. Although possibly there be sensible weakness, or visible deformity now in thy body; yet be thou patient in the hope thy body will be raised in strength and beauty, as the body of Lazarus, without any sores: It is true, after the Resurrection of our blessed Lord, the print of the nails remained in his hands and feet, as also the hole of the wound in his side; but that was for a short time out of his merciful condescension to cure Thomas his doubting; as also his eating ( Joh. 21.) was not to satisfie necessity, for then his body was glorious and immortal; but it was to feed and confirm their faith of the Resurrection of his body. 3. Though now thou be weary in the body after much labour, so was our blessed Lord in this, like unto us, as in all things, except sin, Joh. 4.6. But be of good comfort, thou who exercisest thy self in well-doing, shalt rise [Page 406] in the body, as one refreshed in the morning after a sound and quiet sleep▪ then shalt thou be like unto Angels, in doing the will of thy Lord with all chear­fulness, without all possibility of weariness. 4. Now in the body thou art sometimes troubled about a livelyhood and things necessar; but after the Resur­rection thou shalt be satisfied to the full both in soul and body with the fruition of our all-sufficient and unchangable God; even with that hid Manna of the sweet▪ full, and unspeakable variety of delight, both in the sense of the love of God toward thee, and in the sense of thy love reflected on God, Rev. 2.17. To him that overcometh, will I give to eat of the hidden man­na. 5. Now thou art molested and fashed with the stir­rings of inordinat concupiscence dwelling in the body, as Sarah was grieved with Hagar, dwelling in the same house with her: but it is thy comfort, after the Re­surrection of the body, as there will be perfect calm­ness in the affections, without the least unruly motion; so in all the members of the glorified body, there will be perfect quietness; as when the sea is calm, there is no agitation in the Ship. 6. Though now at the dissolution of the body, and at the departure of its noble guest the immortal soul, there may be, and oft­times is, much pain and agony, like unto the grief Jacob had at parting with his dear Benjamin: yet re­joyce thou in the hope of that joyful meeting again of thy soul and body, as the joy was great when Jacob and Joseph met again together: the glorified soul will bring glad tydings from heaven to the body, like the faithful spyes, Num. 14. for the encourage­ment of the body to go along with it to the third hea­ven: this joy will be increased at their meeting with Christ, accompanyed with millions of Angels; and it will be perpetuated with him in the paradise of [Page 407] God, for we shall be ever with the Lord, 1 Thes. 4..71

Conclus. 4. The assured knowledge believers have of that happy estate of soul and body in Heaven, stir­reth up in them an earnest desire after the fruition of it; for it is said, vers. 1. We know, &c. and, vers. 2. In this we groan earnestly, &c. for the knowledge and perswasion of the truth of the good set before us, doth stir up the heart to desire, quickens us to diligence in using all lawful means for attaining the good desired; and encourageth us against difficulties in the way: The pleasantness and fertility of the land of Canaan, seen and known to the faithful spyes, ( Numb. 14.) stirred up in them an earnest desire of possessing the promised land; it quickened them to diligence in the way, and gave them courage against the sons of Anak. who were to oppose them in their way to it, Numb. 14.9. The Apostle Paul, knowing it was best to be with Christ, did desire to be dissolved, Phil. 1.23. This desire made him diligent and faithful in all the parts, both of his Christian and Apostolick Calling; it made him also couragious and resolute against all difficulties and discouragements, Acts 21.13. 2 Cor. 4.16, 18. 1 Tim. 6.12. But gross ignorants, who know or believe nothing concerning the compleat happiness of soul and body in Heaven, have no true or well-grounded desire to remove out of the body: and wicked obstinat sinners, though they have some literal knowledge of it; yet they have not that lively hope, which purifieth the heart; and therefore at death they are driven out of the body, sore against their will, as a Malefactor condemned, is forced from his house to the prison, Job 18.18. He shall be driven from light into darkness, and chased out of the world. As in his lifetime, the wicked man rushed into sin, like an horse into the battel, without all fear of God: so he shall be driven as a beast into that dark and bot­tomless [Page 408] prison; he shall be chased and pursued with the fears and terrours of an evil conscience, Psal. 140.11. Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

Object. But sometimes even the godly are unwilling to die, as was Hezekiah, Isai. 38.10. and David, Ps. 39.13. What is the cause of this unwillingness in them who walked uprightly before the Lord? Ans. The causes are, 1. An immoderat love sometimes in the godly toward some of their nearest and dearest re­lations: it maketh them to linger in their desires and resolutions to die; as Lot did linger in his departing out of Sodom Gen. 19.16. his great affection to his sons-in-law, made him ling [...]r longer than he should: but when death takes the godly by the heart, as the Angel did Lot by the hand, then they are willing to submit to the will of God; and they say, as our bles­sed Lord did at his death, Father, into thy hands I re­commend my spirit. 2. Their desire to do good in their station in the world, is a cause of their unwillingness to remove for a time from that station: and this I think made David and Hezekiah somewhat unwilling, out of their great respect to the people of God over whom they were set: this made Paul to hover, and to be in a strait, whether to depart or abide in the flesh; even his great desire to benefit the Church of Christ, by preaching the Gospel, Phil. 1.23. These are truly pious desires and commendable purposes; yet when the children of God perceive it is Gods peremptory will to remove them by death, they commend their spirits to God, and the care of all their concernments unto their wise Lord, who can raise up a Joshua in the place of Moses, and an Elisha in the place of Elijah, and also enable them with the spirit of their Calling. It is also a natural and pious desire of godly Parents, to live that they may bring up their young children in the knowledge and the fear of the Lord, and under [Page 409] God provide for them: nevertheless when they per­ceive it is Gods will to remove them by death from their children, they willingly submit themselves to the will of God; and as they cast themselves and the care of their soul upon the God of their salvation; so with confidence they commit their children to God, who taketh this title unto himself, to be the father of the fatherless. And I know well, the God of truth doth not assume empty titles; but is fully answerable unto them in the work of his gracious and fatherly providence. 3. A cause of their unwillingness to die, is sometimes their want of full assurance of the remis­sion of their sins, and of the salvation of their souls: but if they had this, they profess they would be most willing to die. For answer to this scruple, I confess it is no wonder the child of God desire this full assu­rance; because the more they have of a well-ground­ed assurance, they have the more of inward peace and comfort: yet though thou have not that full assu­rance, which is called [...], the full assurance of faith; yet if by thy true repentance thou hast forsaken thy former evil wayes, and hast brought forth fruits meet for repentance in the amendment of thy life, and by faith cleavest to Christ, and to the merit of his perfect righteousness, I say unto thee, as our bl [...]ssed Lord said unto the Ruler of the Syna­gogue, Mark 5.36. Be not afraid, only believe: Re­member that of John 3.18. He that believeth on him, is not condemned. And ( Joh. 3.36.) He that believeth on the Son, hath everlasting life. That full assurance, called in a borrowed phrase, [...], is like that of a Ship coming in to the Harbour with full Sails before the wind: yet some Ships in time of a storm will come in safe also with a piece of a Cross-sail: Bless thou God for thy faith of adherence to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to the promises of salvation in him: [Page 410] if with Job thou can say with an upright heart, Job 13.15. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. Con­sider I beseech thee, for thy comfort, that God is more zealous of his own honour in performing his faithful promise made unto believers, who depend upon him by faith and obedience, than thou canst be of thine own salvation: as he takes no pleasure in the destru­ction of a sinner; so he takes much pleasure in thy turning and trusting in him: if thou die leaning by faith on him and his promise of salvation, then shalt thou be saved and carried by him out of this wilder­ness unto that Paradise which is above; as it is said, Cant. 8.5. Who is this that cometh up from the wilder­ness, leaning upon her beloved? If the Son of God, the beloved of the Father, be also thy beloved; and if thou die, leaning on him, then shalt thou come out of the wilderness of this world; and shalt be filled with his everlasting love, and fulness of the purest joy and delight in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Quest. What are the means and helps to make the children of God willing to remove out of the body? Ans. 1. A special mean is that, set down here in the Text, to wit, the assured knowledge of a far better estate after this life: Moses, a little time before his death, went up to the top of Pisgah, Deut. 34. and there the Lord shewed unto him the pleasant and plentiful land of Canaan, that was on the other side of Jordan; after which sight, he willingly died there: in like-manner the Lord our God, for their further encouragement, elevats the minds of his children, by the eye of faith, toward their eternal rest in Heaven; then their hearts are so affected with love and desire to be there with Christ, that they say as Paul did, Phil. 1.23. I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is best of all. Old Simeon, a long expectant of glory, waited for Christ, the consolation of Israel; and [Page 411] when he got him in his arms, he said, Lord, now let­test thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Luk. 2.29, 30. In like-manner, faith embracing Christ the Saviour, and the hope of salvation in him and with him, doth depart in peace. 2. The seal of the Holy Spirit, in the work and course of our sanctification, doth encourage and make us willing to die▪ as the Seal of earthly Kings, make sure to men their earthly possessions; so the King of kings, by the Seal of the Holy Spirit, as our Sancti­fication is called, ( Eph. 1.13) maketh sure unto be­lievers their heavenly inheritance, which is said to be among them which are sanctified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Acts 26. [...]8. Therefore as ye would die willingly in the hope of that heavenly inheritance, be very careful, that your gift thereof pass not only through the Common Seal of the outward Ordinan­ces of hearing the Word, and receiving the holy Sa­craments; but also through the Privy Seal of purify­ing and sanctifying the heart; for, Blessed are they that are pure in heart, they shall see God, Mat. 5.8. and without holiness none shall see God, Heb. 12.14. There is no coming unto the heavenly inheritance without regeneration as a child yet unborn cannot actually have the possession of an inheritance. 3. The earnest of the Spirit, which is also called, The first fruits of the Spirit, (Rom. 8.23.) maketh a man willing to die: as a man receiving, though a small earnest-peny out of the hand of one that is faithful and able to perform the whole bargain at the term, doth trust to his faith­ful promise; and withal having received some ear­nest of the promised sum; the nearer the term of per­formance is▪ he is the more joyful: In like-manner, the child of God, having sometime received an ear­nest or first-fruits of his salvation, in the sense of Gods love, shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost; [Page 412] some peace in his conscience by faith in Jesus Christ the Saviour of sinners; and some joy of the promised salvation, from a lively hope to be with Christ; the nearer he is to the term of his removal, he is or may be the more joyful: so it was with the Apostle Paul, 2 Cor. 5 8. He also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit; therefore we are confident and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. These first fruits of the Spirit in the soul, are like unto these few clusters Joshua and Caleb brought from the valley of Eshcol; they give some refreshment to the soul, and withall encourage it to go forward to Hea­ven, where they shall get no worse, but much more of such fruits. Although thou hast not such a mea­sure of the sense of Gods love towards thee, as thou desirest: yet if there be in thine heart a true and sincere hatred of all sin; and a true and deep sense of thine own love toward God, that thou mayest say in hu­mility and sincerity, as Peter did, Joh. 21. Lord, thou that knowest all things, knoweth I love thee: then mayest thou die willingly, because (1 Cor. 2.9.) Eye hath not seen, &c. what God hath prepared for them that love him. 1 Cor. 8.3. If any man love God, the same is known and approven of him. Peace in thy conscience, from faith resting on Jesus Christ and his perfect righ­teousness, is the earnest of thy full and everlasting peace in Heaven, when thou shalt see God as he is. Although thy peace of Sanctification may be inter­rupted now and then by thy sinning sometimes against thy light, as it was in David, Psal. 51. yet in Heaven there will be perfect righteousness inherent for ever, and the fruit thereof will be perfect and ever­lasting peace in the soul. Spiritual joy, which is called the joy of the Holy Ghost, because he is the Author of it; and is also called the joy of salvation, because eternal salvation in Heaven is the object of it▪ [Page 413] if at any time God hath given joy to thy heart after thy mourning in secret for thy sins; and after thy be­lieving in Jesus Christ, who came into the world to save even the chief of sinners; then look thou upon that joy, as a love-token sent down to thee from Hea­ven; and as an earnest of that full and everlasting joy in Heaven that shall never be taken from thee. This consideration and joyful expectation maketh the children of God willing to be dissolved, and to be with Christ at whose right hand is fulness of joy, and plea­sures for ever: For if there be such joy from the ear­nest and first fruits, that it is called, (1 Pet. 1.8.) Joy unspeakable and full of glory, What will the joy be after this life, when we shall receive the full sum of glory, and shall reap the full harvest of joy in the kingdom of Heaven? It is true, some of the dear chil­dren of God, who sometimes in their lifetime have had peace in their conscience, and joy in their heart from the hope of salvation, have been a little before their death under a cloud and great wrestlings against tem­ptations to unbelief and despondency, which were fierce as the sons of Anak at their coming out of this wilderness: but before their dissolution, that cloud eva­nished, and they exprest their joy, like the joy of the wise men, when they saw the Star that led them to Christ appearing again, Mat. 2.10. and they cried out, Venit venit, He is come, he is come; And then they say, (as Isa. 25.9.) This is the Lord▪ we have waited for him, we will be glad, and rejoyce in his salvation.

Use. For exhortation unto willingness at death to remove out of the body: to this end we would seri­ously and frequently consider, 1. This is the place and the time of our sojourning; our rest is not here: there­fore let us pass the time of our sojourning here, in fear, 1 Pet. 1.17. Like unto loving and dutiful children in the time of their travels abroad, who are afraid to do any thing [Page 414] in a strange countrey, that may dishonour their loving father, who sent them to their travels for a time, and bare all their charges in the time of their absence: this fear to dishonour our heavenly Father, and our active care to honour him in this present world, will make us willing and confident to return unto him at death, who will make us welcome at our return, and give us rest in these eternal mansions in our Fathers house: this fear to offend God, and care to please him in all things, made the Apostle Paul willing and confident in the thoughts of his departure from this world, 2 Tim. 4.7, 8 I have fought a good fight, &c. henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righ­teous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also, that love his appearing. 2. Con­sider often the place thou leavest at death, and the place thou goest to after death; and the vast difference be­tween these two, as the Heaven is distant from the Earth: thou leavest a world of iniquity and misery; but goest to that other world, wherein dwelleth righ­teousness & all happiness: there is a vast difference be­tween the earthly house thou flitts from at death, and that eternal house and mansion to which thy soul flitts immediatly after death, and shall rest from all thy la­bours, Rev. 14.13. Thy soul dwelleth now in a dark house; there is much ignorance even in the best of Saints here: and any light or knowledge we have now in the body, is but like the light unto a prisoner in the dungeon, through crevices and slitts, by the mi­nistry of our outward senses, our hearing and seeing: but in that heavenly mansion, whereto the believer goeth at death, there is full light, Ps. 36.9. In thy light shall we see light. 1 Joh. 3.2. We shall see him as he is. There will be an identity in the object, God himself, seen by all the glorified Saints: yet there is an infi­nit variety of all things desireable for our happiness, to [Page 415] be seen and known in God himself, infinit in excellency an goodness: even as a man beholdeth diverse re [...]ractions fr [...]m one and the self same sparkling precious Diamond: his light and knowledge in the souls of glorified Saints wil [...] endure for ever, Rev. 21.23. The city had no need of the Sun, neither of the Moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. This ea [...]thly house doth oft-times smoak, and maketh our eyes to gush ou [...] with tears, as smoak doth from a soaking fite not y [...]t put out: so the many sinful motions and fumes, arising from in-dwelling concupiscence in the body, maketh the children of God here many times to mourn in secret before the Lord, and in the bitterness of their spirit to cry out with the Apostle. Rom. 7.24. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? But at death the fire of concup [...]scence will be wholly quenched; as at flitting, the fire of the house, wherein they formerly dwelt, is wholly put out: but after death we shall follow the Lamb in white robes, not only without blame, but also without all stain. Now we dwell in a strait and narrow house; here are [...] great p [...]essures and oppressions of spirit, with one affliction after another; but after death, we shall be en­larged from all trouble and pain; then God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes, Rev. 21.4. Now we dwell in a drop­ping house; one defluction after another, from our weak and distempered head, do trouble this earthly body: but after death, in our eternal house, there will be a perpetual influence of life, health, peace and joy, from our strong and everlasting Head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we dwell among many evil and troublesome neighbours, who make us oft-times cry out with David, Wo is me that I dwell in the tents of Mesecb. But in hea­ven there will be perfect peace, a sweet harmony in minds and affections amongst all the fellow-citizens: there we shall be in a perpetual communion with the blessed Angels, and with the glorified Saints. Yea that which crowneth all, we shall be in an immediat, full, and perpetual communion with God himself, infinit in glory, Rev. 21.3. God himself shall be with them. And at the resurrection of the body, we shall live in a communion of the visible glory of Christ the Lord, whom we shall see with our bodily eyes, 1 Thes. 4.17 [Page 416] 3. Lastly, consider what joy thou hast had at any time here from faith in Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoyce with joy unspe [...]kable and full of glory, 1 Pet. 1.8. O what shall our joy be after death, when we shall see him face to face! If now thy joy be so great in seeing him only through the lattesse of his Ordinances, and if some of the Saints have such joy in suffering for him here, how great shall their joy be in reigning with him there? If we have some peace and calmness in our conscience, when we are in the sea of this world, what shall be the peace and calmness, when we shall be brought within that haven of [...]he third heaven, where the sal­vation of God shall be our perpetual bulwark? Old Jacob, when he considered the misery and famine of the Land from which he parted, when he looked to the waggons and provision sent to him by his beloved Joseph, and when he considered he was going to be with his own Joseph in honour and great plen­ty, he departed willingly from the place of his former abode: So let us consider this present world from which we part; it is a place of sin and misery; let us consider, any provision of in­ward comfort God hath sent us at any time, it should be as a waggon and fiery chariot to carry our hearts upwards toward God, the fountain of all comfort and happiness: Consider our dear Joseph the Lord Jesus Christ, that was sold for our iniquities, is now at the fathers right hand, the great Ste­ward and Dispenser of grace and glory; by death we are go­ing to him, in whom and with whom we shall enjoy all hap­piness for ever. If there be comfort sometimes from a drop of joy here, how full, ever-flowing and over-flowing will our joy be, that shall proceed from the vision and fruition of God for ever? These everlasting pleasures and purest joyes, are that pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb, Rev. 22.1. I close with that of the Apostle Jude, ver. 24.25. Now unto him that is able to keep you [...]rom falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and ever. Amen.