10. A comfortable and fanctified ufe of all conditions in profperity, moderation; in adverfity, contentedness; in all, fobriety. For as our Lord hath purchased for us grace, to ufe all things aright, fo he hath obtained for us an inheritance that renders the beft the world can give us, unworthy to be valued, and the worst it can give us, unworthy to be feared. in respect of the bleffedness which he hath fettled upon us.

11. Confequently contempt of the world, because higher matters are in my eye, fuch as the beft the world can yield, cannot equal; nor the worst it can inflict, cannot take away. All this All this upon,

12. A lively hope: a hope that maketh not afhamed; even of that glory which my Saviour came down from heaven to purchafe by his blood; and the affurance whereof he hath fealed with his blood. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive 'you unto myself, that where I am, ye may be also 1.' A hope of a bleffed refurrection after death; a hope of that bleffed appearance of our Lord and Saviour Jefus Chift; a hope of that glorious fntence, in the prefence of men and angels, Come, ye blessed;' and . an hope of an everlasting eftate of bleffednefs and glory in the presence of the Great God, and glorified faints and angels, unto all eternity. And the efficacy of this hope, dipped in the blood of Chrift, brings us victory:

1. Victory over fin. Sin fhall not have dominion ' over you, for ye are not under the law, but under grace 2,' He that hath this hope purifieth himself 'even as he is pure 3.'

2. Victory over the world, in the best it can afford us; its flatteries and favours: thefe are too finall and inconfiderable, when compared with this hope; they fhine like a candle in the fun, and are ineffectual to win over a foul that is fixed upon this hope, and vic

tory over the worft the world can inflict. Our Lord hath conquered the world in this refpect for us: Be not afraid, I have overcome the world ',' and conquered it in us; This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith 2.'

3. Victory over death; which now, by means of this bleffed hope is ftripped, as well of her terror as her power; Thus thanks be unto God, who giveth 'us the victory through our Lod Je us Chrift 5.

And now though the nature of this argument hath carried my meditation to a great height, yet, to avoid miftakes, fome things I muft fubjoin.

1. That when I thus aggravate the fufferings of our Lord under the imputed guilt of the fins of mankind; yet we must not think that his fufferings were the fame with the damned in duration, fo neither in kind nor in degree; for this could neither confift with the purity of his nature, nor innocence, nor dignity of his perfon, nor the hypoftatical union of both natures in him but he fuffered as much as was confiftent with these confiderations; and, as confidering the dignity of his perfon, was equivalent to the fin and demerits of all mankind.

2. That his righteoufnefs imputed to us, doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteoufnefs inherent in

Us.

This were to difappoint the end of his fuffering, which was to redeem us from our vain converfation, and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works.

3. That this purchafe of falvation by Chrift for believers, is not to render them idle, or fecure, or prefumptuous; where there is fuch a difpofition of foul, it is an evident indication, that it is not yet truly united unto Chrift by true faith and love; his grace is sufficient to preferve us, and always ready to do it, if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it.

1 John xvi. 93. 1 John v. 4.1 Cor. xv. 57.

THE

THE VICTORY OF FAITH

OVER THE WORLD.

1 JOHN, V. 4.

FOR WHOSOEVER IS BORN OF GOD, OVERCOMETH THE WORLD; AND THIS IS THE VICTORY THAT OVERCOMETH THE WORLD, EVEN YOUR FAITH.

THESE things are herein confiderable :

1. The act which is here declared, Victory or Overcoming.

2. The perfon that exerciseth this act, or concerning whom this is affirmed, defcribed by this defcription, a person that is born of God.

3. The thing upon which this act of victory is exercifed, viz. the World.

4. The inftrument or means by which this act is exercifed, viz. Faith.

5. The method or order, or former reafon whereby faith overcometh this world.

Some few observations I fhall deliver touching all thefe in the order proposed.

I. Victory or overcoming is a fubjugation of bringing under an oppofing party to the power and will of another. And this victory is of two kinds, complete and perfect, or incomplete or imperfect. 1. The notion of a complete victory is, when either the oppofing party is totally destroyed, or at least when defpoiled of any poffibility of future refiitance. Thus the Son of God, the Captain of our falvation, over

VOL. I.

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came

came the word. Be of good cheer, I have over'come the world 1.' And thus when we are delivered from this body of death, we shall overcome the world. This complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Chriftian triumphant. Again, 2. There is a victory, but incomplete, fuch as the victory of the children of Ifrael was over the Canaanites, which though they were fubdued, as to any poffibility of a total re-acquiring of a fuperiority or equality of power, yet they were not fubdued from a poffibility of annoying, difquieting and rebelling; they remained fiill thorns to vex and difturb, though not to fubdue their conquerors; there was ftill an over-balance of power in the victors, though not wholly to extirpate them and this is the condition of the Chriftian militant in this world: he keeps the world in fubjection, and every day gets ground upon it; but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect, complete and univerfal conqueft of it, till he can truly fay with our bleffed Lord, The Prince of this world hath nothing in me 2. Which cannot be till our change comes; for till then we carry about with us our lufts, and paffions, and corruptions: which, though with all vigilancy and feverity, kept under, and daily impaired in their power and malignity, will hold a correfpondence with the world and prince thereof, and be ready to deceive and betray us, though never to regain their empire and fovereignty; and the reafon is fignificantly given by the fame apofile, For his feed abideth in him, and he cannot fin, because ' he is born of God 3. Indeed he may, and shall have fin as long as he hath flesh about him. If we fay ' we have no fin, we deceive ourfelves, and the truth is 'not in us 4.' But although we have fin ftill abiding in us, and like the bias in a bowl, warping us to the world, yet that vital feminal principle of the grace of God, in Chrift, always keeps its ground, its life, and ten

2

'John xvi. 83. John xiv. 30. 1 John iii. 9. 1 John i. 8.

dency

dency towards heaven, and wears out, wastes, and gra. dually fubdues the contrary tendency of fin and corruption.

II. The perfon exercifing this act of victory and conquest, he that is born of God. All men, by na. ture, may be faid, in fome fenfe, to be born of God; the apolle tells the Athenians, We are all his off*fpring1.' But in this place, this heavenly birth is a fecond, a fupervenient birth from God; and hence it is called regeneration, the new birth, birth of the water and the fpirit, birth of the fpirit, the formation of Chrift in the foul, and the creature fo new born ftiled the new creature, the new man, a partaker of the divine nature, born not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but born of the will of God. And all thefe, and the like expreffions, are figurative, and feem to carry in them a double analogy: firft, to the first creation of mankind; and 'fecondly, to' the ordinary generation of mankind fince their firft creation. 1. As to the former analogy, we know by the holy word that the first man was the root of all mankind, ftamped with the fignature of the image of Almighty God, principally confifting in knowledge, righteoufnefs and holiness, and ftood or fell as the common reprefentative of all mankind. This image of God was in great measure loft and defaced by the fall of man, and more every day fpoiled by the actual fins and acquired corruptions of his defcendants: Chrift the fecond Adam, hath inftamped upon him a new infcription of the glorious God, came to be a common head, root, and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith, love, and imitation, and to inftamp anew upon them that loft and decayed image of God: who thereby put on the new man, Which after God is created in righteoufnefs and 'true holiness,' and fo becoming a new creature 3, renewed in knowledge after the image of him that Ephes. iv. 24. 2 Cor. v. 17. Galat. v. 6.

1 Acts xvii. 28.

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3

created