-~-~------------- --- ~-~-~~-~----~~~ to theE PH E S1 AN S. Well you live under both Law and Gofpel; I alfure-you this, that all of you~~ by natu~e though you have never fo muc1 outward light by the preaching of &rmon tb.e WorJ. thoug)l you think your felves living men,and you frame to your felves XXIX. v.:bat is f~ith and what is R.epenrance,•and what will fave you; that you will~ Jive, and thi~k your felves to be living men, yet if you have not an inward Spiritual light flruck upon your hearrs, you are but dead fltll. Now, my Brethren, in the Second place, Whenfoever God comet_h to wot k Faith in any man's heort, what doth he ? He k1lleth !u rn, flnkes h1m dead ; v.<]Jerea~ naturally, t.hrough Sell: flattery, a man apprehendeth ( whatfoeverthe Word faith)thatheJs a hvmg man. 1 WM altvt ( fauh he) Wttboutthe L aw, that is, without the true Spirirual knowledge of the Law, God cometh and killeth him, llayeth him. In Gat. 2. 19, 20. faith he, I thro11gh the L ,•w , <~m dead tiJ the L a'IZ!. This was when Paut came to underfland it aright, he was {\ruck flarkdead with it; he that thought that if any man living lhould have gone to Heaven, he fhould, he received the Sentence of death in himftlf, an~ now you may know where to have him; B rhotd he prrlJeth, faith he. He was firuck off his Horfe, and there he lay !lark dead; tl1at is, all the finews and prin– ciples of life, the heart root of it was flruck; he faw that interpretation of the Law of God, that made him to fee that he was a dead man, and that if any man in,the world went to Hell, he fho~ld, This was Paul's cafe, my Brethren; you may find this in Rom. 7· (it followeth there in the fame place) how he was flruck dead; I waJ alive (faith he) without the L aw once, bt~t when rhe Commande– mm t camt and arrefled rrle, fin ( faith he) revived, and I dud: Atut the Com– mmidement that WM ordamed to '/Jj e, I f otmd to 6t unto death. I went upon a mifiake(faith he,) I thought I fhould have been faved by my works, by do· iog, 'Do thi< and live. I was miflaken, I faw. the Law d1d nothing but con– demn me, and that all my works were all dead-works; the Commandemem came, came in the Spiritual knowledge of it; he faw the Spiritual holinefs the Law required, when this C0mmandemeot came into his heart, (as you fee the Suncomethaodlhines into ahoufe) then it flruckhim flarkdead. Now, my Brethren, to work this, to kill a Natural man thus, rhat is alive through Self· flattery, and-to lay him for dead, it is a mighty work ; Why? Becaute every man having Self-love in him. Self-flattery will never give up the Ghofl of it felf, all the R.eafon a man hath will fight for Arguments to prove llimfelf a living man; this fame Self-flattery ( which you are all born with) will flruggle for life, it mufl be killed, it will never yield of it felf,- and to kill it is a mighty power. What, to kill the Benjami11 of Original fin; what is a man's Be~>jizmitd To think well of himfelf, that he lhall be happy. Now to make him think, that the fiate he is in is a !late of Damnation, if he go on in it, and to flrike all Self· flattery at the ~oot, to lay the Ax at the R~ot of ~he Tree, and k ill it. My Be– threA, what fatth the Soul ? Nay then, faah he, 1f th1~ Ben;mnm be once killed I lhall go with forrow to my Grave; I lhall never recover that, I lhall neve~ have good day more, if I entertain fucb a conceit, that I am in a!late of death. To keep up this opinion in a man's heart, that he is a living man, all in a man ·will fight for it : So that firfi, to kill the man is a mighty work. And the truth is, my Brethren, it is never throughly done, till there cometlt in .a Spiritual light created in a man's heart. For my part, I think that which £\nkes a man dead, and dead to purpofe, and prepareth ultimately for Grace, ic is a Spiritual ligllt,_the fame light wherewith I fee Chrifl afterward ; there is nothmg elfe WJilkJ!I a man. God indeed may come with terrour upon a man's Con(cience, knock him into a fw'Oon; but Self-tlanery will revive again when the terrours are off, and be U:ill have_a good opinion of himfelf again. Bur to k11l a man w!<olly from ever nfing agam, that a man !hall fay as Ptml, I am dead to the Law for ever, I can never recover this wound, I can never have a good op1nwn of my former efiate more, or of my felf more, Nothing cando this but a -~ptrituallife ; the Commmrdement mull come, there muft be a Spirimallight to dJicOI'er a man's fin, <~nd his !late of death, or he will never die. Wdl,
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