thing amiss, then ye blot it out, and when ye have done, ye take your sand-box and throw dust upon it; or ye go to the chimney, and take ashes and throw upon the paper. Will ye do thus for your letters that you write, and will ye not do thus for your duties and performances? When you have prayed, and performed duty, go, go and look it over, and there you will find many defects; many things to be blotted out, and many things to be put in; and when you have found the defects in your duty, throw dust upon it, and humble yourselves before the Lord. If you would deny yourselves in spiritual things, observe much the in-comes of the Spirit of the Lord upon your soul; the way and manner of it, how suddenly, how unexpectedly, how freely the Lord by his Spirit breathes upon your soul. When your heart is dead, when your heart is hard, when you say, God is now gone, and will never return again; oh, what freedom once I had in prayer! but now my heart is hard, and I shall never be able to pray again: then comes the Spirit of God, and breathes upon your soul, and gives you prayer again. Now, if I would but observe the breathings of the Spirit of the Lord, how it comes upon me thus, when I am dead, when my heart is hard, when I say I shall never have prayer again; if I could but observe the freeness of the Spirit's breathing over my soul, and raising up my heart to duty again, should I be proud of duty, think you? Should I not rather say, Shall I be proud? I was dead, my heart hard, and had not the Spirit come and breathed upon my soul, I had never been able to pray again, but had been locked up for ever: and shall I be proud? Observe the incomes of the Spirit; the way and manner of it: be much in this, and you will be able to deny yourselves in spiritual things. Look much into the gospel; study much the gospel and the way of the gospel. The more you see an humble Christ, the more you will learn humility. Where shall you see an humble Christ but in the gospel? The more you see a selfdenying Christ, the more you will learn self-denial. And where shall you read of a self-denying Christ but in the gospel? The more ye see the free and rich grace of God, the more you will deny yourselves in spiritual things. And where shall ye see the free-grace of God but in the gospel? more faith ye have, the more ye will deny yourselves in spiritual things. And where shall ye get faith but in the preaching of the gospel, and in studying of the gospel? This grace of humility and self-denial in spiritual things, grows only in the garden of the gospel, in the bed of the gospel. There is a field humility, and there is a common, or a field self-denial, as I may so speak. As ye see it is with your flowers and herbs there is a garden thyme, and there is a field thyme; there is a garden rose, and there is a field rose; there is a garden honey-suckle, and there is a field honey-suckle: so there is a field self-denial, that grows among heathen and among moral people, that can deny themselves of this or that particular thing; their appetite, clothing, or now and then their company. And there is a gospel self-denial, a mysterious self-denial. But this self-denial in spiritual things, grows nowhere but in the garden of the gospel; there thou shalt see an humble Christ, and become humble; there thou shalt see a self-denying Christ, and become self-denying. Therefore study the gospel, and study the way of the gospel. You that have walked in a legal way, study the gospel, and the way of the gospel. I tell you, in the words of the apostle, "If the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that perish," 2 Cor. iv. 3. If the gospel, and the way of the gospel be hid, it is hid to them that perish. And therefore go unto the Lord, and beseech him to open to you the way of the gospel; and in this gospel you shall be able to learn this self-denial, and be able to say, as here the apostle, "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." SERMON IV. "Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." In these words ye have another property of our spiritual life; it is a Christ advancing life: "I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." The former words, "Yet not I," hold forth a depression and annihilation of a man's self in spiritual things. These words, " But Christ liveth in me," hold forth the advancings of Jesus Christ. He gives the power, strength and honour of all unto Jesus Christ, "But CHRIST liveth in me." In the words there are these three things especially obserable: I. The presence of Christ with a believer: "Christ in me." II. The efficacy of his presence: "He liveth in me." III. The constancy of his effectual presence: he does not stay for a day or a night in me, but, "he LIVETH in me.” And accordingly there are three doctrines that these words afford. I. Christ is in all believers. For he does personate a believer all along, when he says, I, as ye have heard; Christ is in each believer. II. Christ liveth in all believers. III. That Christ does live more in a believer than a believer doth himself: "Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." I shall speak only to the former. Christ is in all believers. Christ is in each believer. Every saint and child of God hath Christ within him. This truth was so commonly known in the apostle's time, that he says unto the Corinthians, "Know ye not, how that Christ is in ye, unless ye be reprobates?" 2 Cor. xiii. 5. That is, unless ye be reprobates, ye may know that Christ is in you. So our Saviour Christ himself, in that book of John, vi. 56., "He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth (or abideth) in me, and I in him." And so often in the xivth, xvth and xvith chapters of John, Christ speaks to this purpose: "I in you, and you in me." So that the Scripture is full of this, Christ is in all believers, Christ is in each believer. For the clearing of this great truth. We must first inquire, How Christ may be said to be in a believer. And for that, ye must know, that as God is in the world, and the things of the world, several ways, so Christ is in believers. 1. God is in the world, and the things of the world, in regard of his power. He is in all the world, as we say a king is in all his kingdom, because his power extendeth to all his kingdom. And so God is in all the world because his power extendeth to all the world. And thus Jesus Christ is in a believer. But this is not all. 2. God is in the world, and in the things of the world, by way of presence. "Whither shall I go from thy presence?" says the Psalmist. "If I go up into heaven, thou art there," &c. Psalm cxxxix. 7, 8. And thus also is Jesus Christ in the heart of a believer. But yet this is not all. 3. God is said to be in the world, and in the things of the world, in regard of his essence: essentially present unto all the world. For every attribute of God is like unto God; his attributes are all infinite; he is infinite in wisdom, justice, power and mercy: and so he is infinite in his essence, and therefore essentially present unto all the world. And thus, also, Christ is in the heart of a believer, as God. But yet this is not all. 4. God is said to be in the world, and the things of the world, by way of special manifestation. And so God was in the temple, not because his essence was more in the temple than in another place, but he was in the temple by way of manifestation of himself unto his people there. And thus, also, Jesus Christ is in the hearts of those that are believers, specially manifesting and revealing himself there unto them. But yet this is not all neither. 5. God is said to be in a creature by way of personal union, being personally united to him. As when the Deity, by the second Person, was united unto our nature, unto flesh: God was in Christ, "in whom the fulness of the Deity dwells bodily," says the apostle, Col. ii. 9. And thus, in a spiritual and mystical way and manner, Christ is in all believers by his Spirit, the third Person: not only the graces of Christ, but Christ himself, in and by his Spirit, is in the heart of a believer; I say, Christ by his Spirit. And therefore Chrysostom observes, Whereas it is said, in the viiith of the Romans, and the 9th verse, that "if the Spirit of God dwell in ye;" at the 10th verse following, it is said, "If Christ be in you;" those two being made one, one being put for the other. Now I say, that Christ that is in a believer, is not the habit of grace only, which the saints have in their souls, but Christ himself by his Spirit. And therefore if ye look into that v.h chapter to the Romans, ye shall find, that besides the grace of the Spirit, the Spirit itself is said to be unto us. given unto us: verse 5, "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Not only the grace of the Holy Ghost given unto us, and shed abroad in our hearts, but the Spirit itself which is given And so in that xvith chapter of John, where the Lord promises to send the Comforter. "He shall teach thee (says Christ); and he shall teach thee all things; and he will shew unto ye things to come," verse 13. But the habits of grace cannot teach a man, and shew him things to come. And what shall he teach? "Whatsoever he shall hear, that he shall speak," verse 13. This is the Comforter, this is the Spirit. Now the habits of grace do not thus speak and hear, and therefore, certainly, the Spirit of Christ is in the hearts of God's people, and in the hearts of believers; it is more than the bare habit of grace, the gifts and the graces of the Spirit. And to this purpose it is clearly spoken by the apostle, in the viiith chapter of the epistle to the Romans, and the 11th verse, "But 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." This Spirit cannot be meant habitual grace. For it is the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead, dwelleth in you. So that plainly, then, in a spiritual and mystical way, Christ is in each believer by his Spirit; and this Christ in a believer, is not the gifts and the graces of the Spirit, but Christ himself by his Spirit. This I confess rises high; but herein I am not alone: divers school-men and fathers, and of our own divines, concurring with me. The Reverend Mr. Perkins, it was his speech, That the person of a believer, is united to the person of Christ. But I shall give you the words of an eminent preacher, that is now in heaven, as we have them in the works that he hath left. Says he, 'It hath been a great dispute among the school-men, whether a believer does receive the Holy Ghost itself, or only the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost: but, says he, it is a question, where there needs be no question; and dispute, where there needs no dispute: for the Scripture is clear, that we do not only receive the gifts and the graces of the Holy Ghost, but the Holy Ghost itself, for are we not said to be, "The temple of the Holy Ghost?" 1 Cor. vi. 19. |