1[0o S ERMONSupon Seim. XV we owe it Food,and Phyfick, and Raiment : As 'tis taken for corrupt nature, which in- clineth us to feek the happinefs of the body and bodily life, without God, and apart from God, fo we owe nothing to the flefb, fo as to obey its lofts, or frame our lives ac- cording to the delires of it ; we owe it hatred, but not obedience; the motions of cor- rupt nature tend to feed the habits of fin, fenfuality, pride, worldtinefs thence come ignorance, unbelief 2. Poftively, we are debtors to the fpirit; to be led byt the fpirit, V. 14. The fpirit mindeth us of our duty, externally, by the word; internally, by his fa- cred motions and infpirations, reftraining us from fin, Rom. 8. 13. If ye. tbrcugh the fpi- rit do mortfe the deeds of the body, ye¡hall live : quickning us to holinefs, Gal. 5, 25. If we live in the fpirit, let us alfa wall in the fpirit. Dolì'. That believers are debtors, not to the fiefh,but to the fpirit. I £hall prove it by confidering them in a danble capacity. I. With refpeli to the order of nature. 2. Or thecondition of their fpiritual being: Take them as Men or Chriftians ; if you look upon them as Men, they are debtors to God for all they have, if you look upon them as Chriftiansthat have received the Faith of Chrift, they are much more debtors not to the flefh, but to the fpirit. I. With refpett' to the order of nature; man is a debtor, for he is a dependant creature; not an Owner, or a Lord,but a ['reward : I prove it by Two Arguments; We depend up- on God for being and prefervation, and therefore we are debtors to God for all that we have. Secondly, And depending upon God, we are accountable to him ; or thus,God that is aCreator and Preferver,is therefore an Owners and being an Owner, is therefore a Governor and Ruler, and by confequence a Judg ; his being a Creator goeth before his being an Owner, and his being an Owner goeth before his being a Ruler, and is the foundation of it ;for his abfolute propriety in us giveth him a power and dominion over us; and there are two parts of his governing power, Legißation, and Execution or Judgment. 1. His being a Creator maketh him an Owner : We have nothing but what we have from God ; nothing that we our felves cati keep one moment without God; and there. fore we have nothing but what is for God; for we hold it at his will and pleafure, Ezek. 18. 4. Allfouls are mine; and Prov. 16.4. God bath made allthings for himfei, and Rom. 11. 36. For of him, and to him, and through him are all things. Among men,whoCoever maketh any thing by his oxen proper art and labour, and that of his own fluff, mutt needs have a full right to it, and a full power to difpofe of it: No man ever made any thing but of matter preexifting; but God made all things out of nothing; and therefore if he that planteth a vineyard hash' right to eat of the fruit thereof, certainly he that gave us life and being, and made us after his own image to ferve and worlbip him, bath a full right in man, to difpofe of man, and all the reft of his creatures, as being the work of his hands: He that gave them their being when they werenot, and (tillfupport- eth them now they are, bath an undoubted juft right to order them according to his own will and pleafure. 2. His being an Owner,qualiffeth him for being a Ruler: For the dominion of Jurifdiítion is founded inthe dominion of Property ; we are his own, therefore we are his fubjels, Matth. 2o. 15. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own ? Surely he that poffeffeth all things,hath full right to govern all things; as Parents have an authority over their children, who are a means under God to give them life and education ; the molt barbarous nations have acknowledged theAuthority of Parents;how much greater then is the Authority.of God, who bath given us life and breath, being and wellbeirg, and all things ? He created us out of nothing, and being created, he preferveth us, and giveth us all the good things which we enjoy, and therefore we are obliged to him to be Cub. jell to him, and to obey all his holy laws, and to be accountable to him for the breach thereof: The fupereminent excellency of his nature giveth him a fufliciency for the go- vernment of mankind; and Creation and Prefervation gave him a full right to make what laws he pleafeth,and to call man to an account whether he bath kept them,yeáor no;Tbe right of God is greater than the right of Parents; for in natbral generation they are but inftruments of his Providence, along only the power which God giveth them, and the Parents propagate to the children nothing but the matter of the body, and fuch things as belong to the body, called therefore the fathers of our ffefh, Neb. Ia. 9. yea, in
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=