01. Why Christians are so dark-spirited
Why Christians are so dark-spirited
It is the reason why Christians are so dead and so dull and so dark in their spirits; they do not first consider themselves, and then go to Christ. We should all, in all exigents* whatsoever, make use of this our great high treasurer, the great high steward of heaven and earth, of this our Joseph, the second person in heaven. He is at the right hand of God, and all to fill his church with his Spirit. Our comfort is now that our strength and comfort lies hid in Christ, that is near to us as man, and near to God as God. He is between the Father and us; he is near the Father as being of the same nature with him; he is near us as being of the same nature with us. So being a mediator in office, and being so fit for a mediator in nature, what a comfort is this.
Indeed, there is no coming to God, no intercourse between God and us immediately, but between God-man and God and us, who is the mediator between God and us. He comes between. In Christ we go to God, in our flesh, in our nature; and in Christ, and from Christ, and by Christ, we have all grace and comfort. From Christ we have all as God, together with the Holy Ghost and the Father; and we have all in Christ as a head and husband; and we have all through Christ as mediator by his merit. Therefore we should go to Christ every way.
Use 5. Let us labour to be in Christ that we may get the Spirit. It is of great necessity that we should have it. Above all things next to redemption by Christ, labour for the Spirit of Christ.
Christ is our Saviour, not only by merit and satisfaction, but by efficacy and grace, that is, as he hath purchased us for his people by his blood; so he will subdue our corruptions, and rule us by his Spirit.
For, first, ’He that hath not the Spirit of Christ is none of his,’ Romans 8:13. Those that have not the efficacy of the Spirit in them to rule them, shall not have benefit by his death to reconcile them, for these go alway together, Christ as a king to rule, and as a priest to die. ’He came by blood and by water,’ 1 John 5:6, to satisfy and to sanctify.
Secondly, There is a necessity of the Spirit, that we be new creatures. It was the Spirit’s brooding upon the chaos that brought forth all, Genesis 1:2; so the Spirit must sit upon our souls before any change will be made. Now there is a necessity that we be changed, and that we be new, or else we can never be inhabitants of the new heavens and the new earth. We must have the Spirit of God. Therefore, Zechariah 4:6, as in the material temple ’it is not by might, or by power, but by the Spirit,’ so in raising up spiritual temples it is not by strength of wit or parts, but by the Spirit. Therefore the Spirit is necessary for us, even as our being in grace is necessary. The holy apostles, we know, till the Spirit came more abundantly upon them, what dark creatures they were! But when the Holy Ghost was come upon them, how full of life and light and courage they were! that the more they suffered, the more they might suffer! So it will be with Christians: the more spiritual they grow, the more lightsome and courageous; the more strong, the more lively and vigorous to all duties. The Holy Ghost is the substantial vigour of all creatures whatsoever. All the spiritual vigour of every thing comes from the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit from Christ. For nothing can work above itself. Nature cannot work above nature. That which elevates nature above itself, and sets a spiritual stamp, and puts divine qualities upon it, is the Spirit of God. That divine quality is called spirit. There is the flesh and the spirit. All in us is flesh by nature, and whatsoever is spiritual and divine cometh from the Spirit, and therefore it is called spirit. You see therefore a necessity of the working of the Spirit, even as there is a necessity to be new creatures, and to be spiritual. If we will be spiritual, we must have it from him that is first spiritual, the Spirit himself; that is the principal* and fountain of all that is spiritual.
Thirdly, We are called ofttimes to do and suffer such things as are above nature; and therefore we must have a spirit above nature. When we feel sin, to believe the forgiveness of sins; when we see death, to believe life everlasting; and when we are in extremity, to believe God present with us to deliver us, to believe contraries in contraries, is a strange almighty work of faith, by the work of the Spirit. It is above the work of nature to die, to end our days with comfort, and to resign up our souls, for nature sees nothing but darkness and desolation in the grave and destruction. Nothing can make a man comfortable in death, but that which raiseth him above nature, the Spirit of God.