We learn likewise, that men of an ill governed life have no true judg- ment : no wicked man can be a wise man. And that without Cluist's Spirit the soul is in confusion, without beauty and form, as all things were in the chaos before the creation. The whole soul is out of joint till it be set in again by him whose office is to ' restore all things.' The baser part of the soul which should be subject, ruleth all, and keepeth under that Httle truth that is in the understanding, holding it captive to base affections ; and Satan by corruption getteth all the holds of the soul, till Christ, stronger than he, cometh, and driveth him out, and taketh possession of all the powers and parts of soul and body, to be weapons of righteousness, to sei-ve him, and then new lords new laws. Christ as a new conqueror change th the fundamental laws of old Adam, and estabhsheth a government of his own.
84 THE BRUISED KEED
[Chapter XXII. — Chnst's governmeyit is victorious.]
The third conclusion is, that this government is victorious. The reasons are: —
1. Because Christ hath conquered, all in his own person first, and he is God over all, blessed for evermore ; and therefore over ' sin, death, hell, Satan, the world,' &c., Rom. ix. 5. And as he hath overcome them in himself, so he overcomes them in our hearts and consciences. We use to say, conscience maketh a man a king or a caitifi", because it is planted in us to judge for God, either with us or against us. Now if natural conscience be so forcible, what wiU it be when besides its own hght it hath the light of divine truth put into it ? It will undoubtedly prevail, either to make us hold up our heads with boldness, or abase us beneath ourselves. If it subject itself by grace to Christ's truth, then it boldly overlooks death, heU, judgment, and all spiritual enemies, because then Christ sets up his kingdom in the conscience, and makes it a kind of paradise.
The sharpest conflict which the soul hath is between the conscience and God's justice : now if the conscience, sprinkled with the blood of Christ, hath prevailed over assaults fetched from the justice of God as now satisfied by Christ, it will prevail over all other opposition whatsoever.
2. We are to encounter with accursed and damned enemies ; therefore, if they begin to fall before the Spirit in us, they shall fall : if they rise up again, it is to have the greater fall.
3. The Spirit of truth, to whose tuition Christ hath committed his church, and the truth of the Spirit, which is the sceptre of Christ, abide for ever ; therefore the soul begotten by the immortal seed of the Spirit, 1 Pet. i. 23, and this truth, must not only live for ever, but likewise prevail over aU that oppose it, for both the word and Spirit are mighty in operation, Heb. iv. 12 ; and if the ill spirit be never idle in those whom God delivereth up to him, we cannot think that the Holy Spirit will be idle in those whose leading and government is committed to him. No ; as he dwelleth in them, so he will drive out all that rise up against him, until he be all in all.
What is spiritual is eternal. Truth is a beam of Christ's Spirit, both in itself and as it is ingrafted into the soul, therefore it, and the gi'ace, though little, wrought by it, will prevail. A little thing in the hand of a giant wiU do great matters. A little faith strengthened by Christ wiU work wonders.
4. ' To him that hath shall be given,' Matt. xxv. 29 ; the victory over any corruption or temptation is a pledge of final victory. As Joshua said when he set his foot upon the five kings which he conquered, * Thus God shall do with all our enemies,' Josh. x. 25 ; heaven is ours aheady, only we strive till we have full possession.
5. Christ as king brings in a commanding light into the soul, and bows the neck, and softens the iron sinew of the inner man ; and where he begins to rule, he rules for ever, ' his kingdom hath no end,' Luke i. 33.
6. The cud of Christ's coming was to destroy the works of the devil, both for us and in us ; and the end of the resurrection was, as to seal unto us the assurance of his victory ; so, 1, To quicken our souls from death in sin ; 2, To free our souls from such snares and sorrows of spiritual death as accompany the guilt of sin ; 3, To raise them up more comfortable, as the sun breaks forth more gloriously out of a thick cloud ; 4, To raise us out of particular slips and failings, stronger ; 5, To raise us out of all troublesome and dark conditions of this life ; and, 6, At length to raise our
AND SMOKING FLAX. 85
bodies out of the dust. For the same power that the Spirit shewed in raising Christ, oui- head, from the sorrows of death, and the lowest degree of his abasement ; the same power obtained by the death of Christ from God, now appeased by that sacrifice, will the Spirit shew in the church, which is his body, and in every particular member thereof.