The Saints Sufferings and Sinners Sorrows, Part 21 – Part 23
The true cauſe.
For the cauſe of this end we are taught by our Text to be ſinne, and in ſpeciall the ſinne of the Goſpell. Irreligious honeſt men, and civill inſidels know not this ſinne, they have no light and leading unto it: Conſcience applies no ſuch fact to the Law, as to diſobey the Goſpell, neither does the Law trouble any man with accuſation of this ſin. It is ſolely and ſolitarily the Goſpels office to convince of this fault. To want faith in God is reproved by the Law; but in a Mediator, by the Goſpell: To want perſonall righteouſneſſe, is the crime the Law will charge us with; but to want the righteouſneſſe of another, muſt come to bee evinced by the Goſpell. Holineſſe of nature is what the Law requireth, and condemneth the contrary; but holineſſe of Grace infuſed by the Spirit, is the light of the Goſpell, and to bee deſtitute thereof is the greateſt condemnation, Iohn 3.19.
This muſt teach us firſt to diſtinguiſh the ſinnes of the Law and the Goſpell, & how to aggravate them. Secondly, ſeeing faith and the Goſpell are free gifts, wee muſt neither bee cloſſe freinds unto nature, nor open friends unto grace. We have no power to reach ſo high as the Goſpell, or call for faith at our pleaſure: wee are more ready to reject both, and reaſon againſt them with the ſtubborne Iewes, than convinced and yeeld them our obedience. Thirdly, wee muſt looke to our danger. Turkes and Tartars that never heard of the Goſpell, ſhall eſcape better than Chriſtians: They ſhall be beaten with few ſtripes for that little they have received, we with many for our great and graceleſſe neglects: In ſtead of rods God will laſh us with Scorpions, who have neither anſwered the utmoſt of our power, or greatneſſe of our meanes, Math. 11.15. and 13.12.
Civil & moral men under the Goſpell are in greateſt danger, becauſe they oppoſe their owne righteouſneſſe to Chriſts righteouſneſſe, and will not be moved to maſter themſelves, in a meane conceite of their beſt proficiencies: Theſe are in danger to want faith, becauſe it is needleſſe for thoſe that have thoughts of fulneſſe in themſelves. Their vertues and good actions are all they boaſt of, and therefore theſe men prove barren under the Goſpell. With theſe full Phariſees wee have another ſort of people in as great danger upon a contrary ground; faith is their glory, and they ſeare not to …ee found with the beſt in Gods favour: Aske th…ſe … in good earneſt, … they were convinced of ſinne, and they will bee briefe with you, that they ſcorne but to bee leſſe holy than the beſt, and to reprove them is audacious ſlander: Why, but are you not ſinners? yes, for faſhion ſake they will not deny that, Are we not all ſinners?
But what ſay you to want of faith in Chriſt; to this they have a vulgar and groſſe anſwer; marry, God forbid I ſhould be ſo bad as not to beleeve in Chriſt; I thanke God I love him with my very heart, and ſo have done ever ſince I was borne. But were you never ſoundly convinced by the Goſpell and Gods Spirit, of this great want? What? would you make us infidels? wee abhorre to thinke of ſuch queſtions: goe and aske them the Turkes, for we by the grace of God will never turne Turkes, and take part againſt Chriſt. But when came this perſwaſion into your hearts, and by what meanes was it wrought? I finde, Iohn 16.8, 9. a Spirit of conviction; what ſay you? Have you heard of this Spirit ſince you were baptized? how and in what manner hath this Spirit wrought in you? Truly we beleeve there is ſuch a perſon in the Trinity, for ſo we were baptized; but for ſuch a gift, it is all one to us, as if there were no Spirit at all. Now (poore ſoules) you have put them beſides all their divinity, and convinced them of that for which they give God thankes, bleſſing God they never wanted faith, which aſſures them they never had it; for to want it, is the way to have it, and to beleeve the contrary, an undoubted teſtimony of their dangerous preſumption. God open their eyes, and bring them to a better triall by the truth of his word.
I will therefore deſcend into a more ſtrickt examination of the ſinne and the judgement in my text, and deale right downe in the whole worke of the conviction, Iohn 16.8. and then againe repeate the judgements, and ſummon up as many particulars as my memory and Gods mercy ſhall ſuggeſt unto mee. I will reade this text alleadged, and deale by faire and capitall titles, for the more firme and faithfull remembrance of my Reader, in all that followeth.
A glorious Kingdome.
Iohn 16.8, And when he is come, &c.
There bee two great Doctors come from the Father into the world, by whom he will convince the world before he judge it, and theſe two ſucceed the one the other; the firſt abſents himſelfe, and the other comes in his roome. To finde Chriſt a ſucceſſor in man, is the crime of the Church of Rome, of which they are now aſhamed, and by correction mend their Authors and bid them ſay, the Pope is the Vicar of Chriſt, and Succeſſor of S. Peter. But by their leave, they yet want an Index expurgatorius, to expunge and wipe out the Pope, and put in a more equall for Chriſt, left by himſelfe, when he left this earth, fitter to bee both Chriſts Vicar and Succeſſous. Theſe two excellent Teachers undertake the conviction of the world before the condemnation of it. So dealt Ieſus Chriſt with the Iewes. We will enlarge our ſelves in the worke of the Trinity, and bee ample in the view of their Kingdome.
The excellent and admirable adminiſtration of Gods Kingdome.
There bee three perſons in the Divine nature that worketh all things, yet are all things wrought in a wonderfull and moſt diſtinct and unconfuſed manner. The Father of himſelfe and to himſelfe worketh all things, and ſo is the beginning and end of every action, 1 Cor. 8.6. The progreſſion from this beginning, and regreſsion to this end, is the rareſt and ſweeteſt myſteries in the Bible. In the progreſſion the Father goes on by the Sonne, and both Father and Sonne by the bleſſed Spirit; and here beginnes the immediate adminiſtration of the Kingdome within, the Spirit alwayes taking the poſſeſſion of it. I will open clearely this Divine and raviſhing ſecret, and ſet men on work with no new notion, but an old truth; for I abhorre to deflect from the wayes of Antiquity.