stands for little with such men who resolve to believe themselves leaning in all things to their own understandings And under that Spiritual slumber I must leave them till it pleases God to awaken them As for those who make previous Conditions performed by themselves the ground of their Faith in Christ for Pardon not daring to trust in Christ for Salvation 'till they have first prepared themselves by such doings of their own as may give them a right and title to it and encourage them to trust in Christ for that Salvation whereas I conceive the bare offer and tender of Grace made to sinners in the Gospel is sufficient to give them a right and title to it who thankfully accept the offer though they come without Money have no Righteousness of their own to make way for them coming as they are in their nakedness and Poverty casting themselves upon Christ for all looking for acceptance only in the Beloved Besides to require such preparatory works before believing I mean before we close in with Christ by an act of justifying-justifying-Faith is to put natural men upon supernatural acts which they have no strength to perform and doth suppose that in their natural state they may be brought to true holiness may reform their lives and attain to some degree of Sanctification before their hearts are changed and purified by Faith There must be a change of state before there can be a change of life in a real turning to God by a sincere obedience In Preaching the Gospel we exhort and press our Hearers to holiness not as if we thought to bring them to it while in their natural state but because there is a converting Power in the Gospel to make them new Creatures that must be first done before any acceptable obedience can be performed 'T is Faith that unites us to Christ and being so united all principles and habits of holiness are infused which the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us draws into act upon all occasions Some carry it as if all holy dispositions and inclinations were acquired by our own endeavours But as original Corruption was propagated by our descent from the first Adam so the first seeds and principles of true holiness are propagated by our descent from the second Adam in our new birth Let us not think to become holy any other way than by Faith in Christ in whom we are sanctified and by whose Spirit the Saints are stirred up and quickned to all those duties that tend to the perfecting of holiness in them Christ is the root that bears us our fruit is found in him all our springs are in him without me says Christ you can do nothing we shall be sorry doers of Righteousness if we set about it in our own strength therefore I conclude we must begin our Religion with Faith in Christ and Pray that we may be led by his Spicit in all ways of holiness to our lives end I see no ground in all the new Testament to press and exhort Sinners to humiliation repentance and reformation of life from any other motive than that of Gospel Grace which must be received and taken in in some degree of Saving-faith before we can heartily set about the foresaid duties and this is all I contend for This reception of or faith in Christ must go before all things that are afterwards to be received from Christ That which leads many into a mistake in this matter it their putting too great a difference between saving Evangelical Conviction of sin and true saving-Faith as if such a Conviction of our lost undone state by nature were but a preparative to saving-Faith whereas it is an essential part of justifying-Faith to convince us of sin from which we are justified by Christ they are always concomitant and cannot be separated in any act of saving-Faith we put forth upon Christ What is Faith but a Conviction of sin and righteousness shewing us our sins that we may seek after righteousness in Christ As for legal Conviction and repentance that is but a common work As God pleases to awaken natural Conscience by setting home the threats and terrors of the Law this may or may not be previous to Conversion and is wrought in whom and in what degree God pleases Some lie in a spiritual slumber all their days without any legal touch upon their Consciences are fast asleep 'till they awake in Hell which is full of legal Convictions Sometimes God reserves the whole of Conviction for saving-Faith he lets in a sense of sin and of the remedy at once and this Faith may first shew it self in some more in an humbling Conviction of sin than in the comfortable application of Christ's righteousness that may come afterwards when Faith has done its humbling work under which there is a secret looking unto Christ tho not with that comfortable sense of our interest in him as we are made afterwards to understand What I urge is this We must begin our Religion with Faith in Christ which never fails to produce repentance and new obedience but how to attain to any degree of either before we are in Christ is to me unconceiveable They who so much contend for these Preparatives do run upon Rocks and will be forced to deny such fundamental Points of the Protestant Religion which I am persuaded they will be ashamed to disown when closely put to it many things are required of those who are in Covenant that are not required as Conditions of our first entring into Covenant We must not think to bring any Grace to the Covenant but must fetch all Grace from the Covenant even Faith it self a power to believe being the first thing promised in the Covenant and by our passive reception of this first Grace a spiritual Principle of life is let into the Soul from whence flow all holy and spiritual actions Qua facultates Animae in calescunt vivificantur potentes fiunt in ordine Spirituali Tho. Parker Thes. 43. as the fruits and effects of that habitual Faith infused at first by God This reception of Christ by Faith is our life 1 John 5. 12. John 6. 53. by which the faculties of our Souls are warmed and quickned and enabled unto all acts of spiritual life being now throughly furnished unto every good word and work Were Pride and Prejudice laid aside and did every one study his own Justification and mind that more some would find those very Arguments which they take up against their Antagonists whilst they are acting the part of Opponents contending more for Victory than Truth to make against the inward Judgment of their own Consciences when once it comes to be their own case I am persuaded many plead for those opinions and notions upon which they would be loth to venture their own Souls in a dying hour I value more the Judgment of a dying Saint about Justification than all the wrangling Disputes of Learned men who are under a great
God towards us Here lyes the Converting point the effectual working of the Word when together with the outward proposal Christ lets forth some Virtue from himself to draw in the Heart unto him When God owns us for his Children who were not his Children before yet his Adoption makes us Children that is the time of our effectual Calling When under the outward Preaching of the Gospel Christ doth so powerfully impress his own first act of Love upon us in dying for us that we cannot but be sensible of it His Love is shed abroad in our hearts we are overcome by it we cannot but call him Father who by calling us Children hath made us so letting in at the same time the Spirit of the Son into our hearts God's owning us for his Children is a sufficient proof that he is our Father we cannot but call him so ever after Zec. 13. 9. Thus Christ makes himself inwardly known to us by giving us Faith in himself for there is no other way of knowing Christ but by believing Sense and Reason cannot bring Christ into the Soul but Faith can giving that account of him from the Word that is fully satisfactory How Glorious is Christ in the Eye of Faith How is a believing Soul taken with him as the Fairest of Ten thousand And this is the first step according to the Method of the Holy Ghost that God takes in bringing Christ into the Soul Secondly Christ is let into the Soul by an appropriating act of Faith by which we do take him into our hearts as our Jesus Every Believer saith for himself the Lord Jesus my Righteousness and my Life and my Salvation my God and my Lord The Soul knows this by that sense that Faith gives of that act by which we do receive him I say by that sense that Faith gives of that appropriating act by which we do receive Christ as our Jesus Those who understand themselves in an act of believing know it to be so Saving Faith so far as it reaches is all evidence it carries conviction along with it of those Truths which we believe Heb. 11. 1. I told you the last time How Faith doth Spiritually draw in the object upon which it acts into every believing Soul Faith is in us Christ is in our Faith as the object of it always in the view and eye of Faith Faith hath nothing else to act upon for Justification but Christ held forth in the Word Now Faith takes Christ out of the Word into the Heart And this I would a little open to you for here lyes the Mystery of your Faith this is the critical Act of Faith I say thus Faith takes in the Promise and in and with the Promise Christ himself who is wrapt up in it Faith takes in the Promise and in and with the Promise the Mercy it self that is Promised Our Title to and Interest in the Lord Jesus Christ it doth arise out of this Act of Faith By this Act of Faith all is compleated both on God's part and our part that may confirm our Title to Christ. God hath past his word in the Promise Faith lays hold upon that Promise receives Christ from the hand of the Father as his Gift hath it from God's own Mouth that Christ is ours and Faith doth so interpret the Promise of God to the Soul by a particular application of it unto us by Name which gives us that security of mind about our real Interest in Christ that we do no longer doubt of it We are under a sense of the greatness of the Gift of the free Grace of the Donor of our Propriety and Interest in so great a Gift and all this by our actual receiving the Promise and in and with the Promise Christ himself promised Faith draws both into the heart together Christ and the Promise and Faith keeps them together it is impossible to have and to hold one without the other A Promise of Christ is Christ to a Believer Faith takes hold of Christ in and by the Promise Faith carries in the Promise as well as Christ into the Soul To prevent all after challenges The Devil is ready to question our Interest in Christ How came you by Christ By Peace And Pardon What have you to shew that Christ is yours Then the Soul holds up a Promise Here is the offer that God hath made of Christ to me saith a Believer and what should hinder my acceptance of it I have accepted it and I will keep my hold on this Promise It is the Word of God to me who cannot lye and what have you Satan to say against this Thus by resisting the Devil we make him fly from us And this Armour of Light doth so dazzle the Eyes of the Prince of darkness that he is not able to stand before it Many complain that Christ is not theirs but they do not consider that it is long of themselves because they don't receive him To as many as received him to them he gives power to become the Childreu of Cod. You will never be able to apprehend your self to be a Child of God till you receive Christ do that and you will quickly find the Spirit witnessing with your spirit that you are a true Child of God Thirdly We always have in this appropriating act of Faith by which we take Christ into our Souls a respect and reference to Christ without us to him as actually Incarnate according to the Word and personally Glorified now in Heaven yet Spiritually present in us I speak this against a late Generation of Men who speak so much of the Light within them and would seem to understand the same that we do by Christ in us though it is evident they put a mere natural Principle for Christ it is not the Person of Christ as God-Man who dyed at Jerusalem and is now Glorified in Heaven and in our Nature in Heaven it is not this Christ whom they rely upon but a Principle of Light in themselves which they call Christ a mere imaginary Christ. If our Faith doth not terminate upon the Person of Christ without us and fix distinctly upon him observing what was done in by and upon his Person as Dying for us Rising Ascending up to Heaven continually making Intercession there for us I say if our Faith doth not begin with the Person of Christ and end in the Person of Christ we may be mistaken in all our seeming Spiritual apprehensions of Christ. The Spirit of Christ is the Spirit of a real Person of the second Person in the Trinity who is very God and very Man To talk of the Spirit of Christ without any relation and reference to the Divine Person of Christ is mere Enthusiasm and overthrows the foundation of Christian Religion When the Scriptures speak of Christ as dwelling in us it still refers to the Person of Christ to what was really done and acted by and upon that Person Rom. 8. 11. His Spirit dwells
put no other sense upon any Scripture that is not consistent with and agreeable to this great fundamental Principle keeping close to the just analogy of Faith in all your tenents and opinions I know there are other things to be considered besides Remission of Sin but be sure you begin here don't suppose that some previous qualifications in your selves are required to incline God to pardon your sins for this will carry you unavoidably into a self-righteousness and then Christ will profit you nothing We are not pardon'd because we repent and lead holy lives but we repent and lead holy lives because we are fully Pardoned for Christ's sake Shut all self-righteousness out of your justification and take all that is Christ's into it both his active and passive Obedience though I had rather joyn them together as the Scriptures do and say That by the obedience of one man many are made righteous i. e. by the Obedience of Christ in Suffering and doing all that the Law required And in the Application of this Grace to us 't is clear to me that upon the Remission of all our Sins Righteousness is imputed to us and this is that which the Apostle calls Righteousness without works Rom. 4. 6 7 8. The Righteousness of works so far as it can be attained in this life is but an effect of the Righteousness of Faith You know not the right way of Salvation till you know how to obtain the Pardon of all your Sins then you will see how Christ is become your Righteousness Let us not be too curious in placing one part of our Justification upon his Passive and another part upon his Active Obedience Let us be sure to place all upon Christ and then we are right the Spirit does not reveal the whole Mystery of Christ at once to Believers there is a great deal of Christ to be learned by those who are Justified and Pardoned even after they are in a state of Grace Let us believe Christ to be our Righteousness and leave it to him to make out the way and manner of his being so Our terms and distinctions applied to the fundamental Points of Religion have occasioned many mistakes about them Let us therefore attend more strictly to the simplicity of our own Faith and not call in our Reason to prompt our Faith but rather submit our Reason to the instructions of Faith I would have all Christians study their own Faith more and dwell more in the light of it then they will be more familiarly acquainted with it and better understand themselves in every act of Faith they put forth Let us give our Faith time to act to open it self further to us and our selves time to take in the full sense of our Faith Generally our acts of Faith are too short sudden and transient We make a formal profession of Faith and say We believe in Christ for the Pardon of Sin but don't so well weigh and consider what we say or what we belâ—eve we turn off presently to something else as if we had done with our Faith when the Mystery of it is not half apprehended by us We should attend to it ponder it well in our minds look round it this is the way to keep up a presence of mind in us about what we Believe One act of Faith attended to will fill us with such thoughts and apprehensions of the Love of Christ that will furnish us with matter of discourse for many days But I don't find Professors so much concerned in their own Faith so much affected with it as they should they pass it over as a plain ordinary piece of Religion and having once declared they believe in Christ for the Pardon of Sin they have no more to do with him Whereas the Mystery of Faith should be studied all our lives long we should pray as Paul did Eph â— â—7 c. vide That we may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints Faith has more in it than most People are aware of 't is not so easy a matter to know comprehend and remember what is contained in an act of saving-Saving-Faith we should discourse more with our own Faith look into all particulars search to the bottom by gathering up more and more of the unsearcheable riches of Christ. He that would judge of a curious piece of Workmanship brings it to the light views it round in every part till he has gathered up all the excellencies of it into his mind then he can speak knowingly in the praise and commendation of such a thing having made observations before of all that was admirable in it So you should sit down and consider the consequence of an act of Faith upon Christ for Justification and Pardon what depends upon it what you gain by it what you expect from it all is yours if Christ be yours therefore be persuaded to enter into your Chambers and Closets sit down with a Bible in your hands stir up your Faith consider the state of a Believer and then gather up what makes for your comfort out of the Word of God O how would your Faces shine you would be filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory by Believing there is not that Joy among Believers because they don't think enough of what they Believe Do you Believe in Christ for the Remission of Sin Then there is a great deal in Christ a great deal in Sin a great deal in the actings of thy own Soul under this Faith to be considered of The knowledge experience and evidence of Faith are things that should be particularly examined and seriously thought of There is a full business in Faith enough to imploy a gracious Soul all his days Faith fills the mind with deep apprehensions of our own great concernments in Christ Jesus Were we wise indeed unto Salvation we should think of nothing oftner than of what we believe there may be Faith and there may be Truth in the heart and yet these Two may not be sufficiently mingled together therefore we should often apply our Faith to the Word that what it does not see at one time it may see at another what it does not reach by one act it may take in by the next The oftner Faith looks into the Word the more distinctly does it gather up the full sense of the Word it dwells in us in more Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding Did we take this course we should quickly find the benefit of it out of our Bellies would flow Rivers of living water we should be more skilful in the word of Righteousness more expert Believers ready to give a reason of the hope that is in us Believers have much to say in defence of Christ the Gospel and their own Profession and the more they study the point the more ready are they to give an answer to them who ask them any questions about their Religion they keep
his Law in the inward man these are so far from being conditions of the Covenant giving us an interest in it that they are rather the Covenant it self fulfilled in us which is an undeniable proof of our being in Covenant 9. The New Covenant does not so much imply an outward Law or Rule of government set before us as an inward Law or rather a spirit and principle of Love and Obedience inclining us to a willing performance of all those Duties that either Law or Gospel call for The Covenant of Grace brings forth a new creature created in Christ Jesus unto good works that he should walk in them you put a force upon the new creature if you turn him out of his walk By the Covenant of Grace our Justification hangs not upon doing but upon believing That which much perplexes the point of Justification is the separating of Faith and Justification too far asunder which hath many ill consequences in it 1. If you suppose Faith as a quality pre-existing in the Soul before Justification and standing a while alone by it self in order to our Justification this lets in previous qualifications in us as necessary to Justification And if Faith as a quality in us have any causal influence into our justification so must Repentance and all good Works which are linked to it This lets us into a justification by Works of our own doing and by qualities inherent in our selves which is downright Popery 2. If we place our personal Justification before Faith this runs us up to an actual Justification of our persons from eternity which is of as ill consequence as the former Therefore the safest way is to put them both togethet What God hath joined let no man put asunder He that believes is justified and he that is justified Believes there can be no justification without Faith nor no true Faith without justification God's act in justifying doth symphonize and correspond to our act in Believing There cannot be actual giving without actual receiving one is naturally necessary to the other I know Faith and Justification are different notions and may in our way of speaking and expression be put one before the other but the things themselves are always together God justifies us by working Faith in us The Covenant of Grace requires nothing to be done by us as an antecedent moral condition or procuring cause of our Justification it supposes Faith in all who actually partake of the Grace of this Covenant Nay the Covenant of Grace I mean the outward proposal of the terms of the New Covenant is an outward means appointed by God for the working or begetting of Faith in us Faith comes by hearing i. e. by hearing the Doctrine of our Redemption by Christ and this Faith so wrought by hearing the Word disposes the Soul ever after to Repentance and new obedience which are the inseparable effects of Faith in all who are justified He who doth not shew his Faith by his Works is no sound Believer Though it be commonly said by many That Repentance is in order to justification the sense cannot be that Repentance is instrumentally necessary to justification as Faith is Do but keep up the different relation that Faith hath to justification from all other Graces and good Works and we shall quickly understand one another and not confound Faith and Works together in our justification We may differ in our expressions but that should make no real difference if the same thing be meant and intended This account of Faith or to this effect for I will tie none to my words does answer all the ends of true Religion it exalts Christ ascribes our free Justification and Pardon to him and his Righteousness only it secures our own Souls it suppresses and discountenances all Vice all licentious loose living it establishes the Law as a Rule of life it promotes all practical Holiness by the most forcible motives that can be We can never keep up Religion in the power of it if we do not keep up the plain notion of it in the sense that is commonly received by all sober sincere Christians Arguings pro and con may have their use among the Learned but still let us be sure to sail by the Pole-Star to keep that in our Eye as a fixed point that governs all our motions My meaning is this let us ultimately resolve Religion in the main fundamentals of it into such naked simple truths as may fall under the capacity of all plain meaning Christians that they may know what we Believe and what we Profess That we all aim at the same thing in our Preaching and that the same Spirit may still appear in all the diversity of gifts that is among us The reason why the Apostle Gal. 3. 17. calls the Mount Sinai-Covenant a Law is because the Mount Sinai-Covenant is a mixt Covenant made up partly of the Law and partly of the Gospel and the Apostle in that place opposes the Legalities of the Sinai-Covenant to the promise made to Abraham There was no reason why he should oppose the Gospel part of the Sinai-Covennat to the Covenant with Abraham for they were both the same they were coincident there was no opposition between them therefore he calls the Mount Sinai-Covenant a Law in opposition to the Covenant of pure Grace made with Abraham The Covenant of Works made with Adam as to any benefit from it ceased at the entrance of sin which laid all mankind under a curse This curse cannot be taken away but by a New Covenant you see how sin disordered the whole world put all things out of frame God's Government of the world as to the outward administration of it must be altered or else the whole world must be destroyed there must be a new Constitution a new Covenant What havock did sin make in one day that put God upon a second Creation making all things new casting all into a new mould to prevent the utter destruction of all mankind that otherwise must have ensued This Covenant of Grace may be considered Four ways 1. In the promise of the seed of the Woman made to Adam at least in his hearing couched in the threatning denounced against the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. 2. In the Promise made to Abraham Gen. 17. 7. 3. In the Mount Sinai-Covenant with all Israel Exod. 19. 8. this Covenant had the nature of a Testament therefore confirmed by Death hence beasts slain in Sacrifice Heb. 9. 16 18. 4. In the New Covenant with Jews and Gentiles now under the Gospel CHAP. II. SEcondly See Mr. Petto â—n this Subject The comparison of the New Covenant made with Jews and Gentiles now under the Gospel with the Mount Sinai-Covenant made with the Jews only under the Law When Abraham's Posterity grew numerous even into a Nation then commenced the Mount Sinai-Covenant containing the moral judicial and ceremonial Laws given not with an intent to disannul the Promise made Four hundred and thirty
17. The Law was given 430 Years after the promise made to Abraham threatning the sinner not with an intent that the Curse should be executed or the hand-writing against us fulfilled but rather blotted out Col. 2. 14. Is the law then against the promises Gal. 3. 21. 'T is certain the Law as threatning is against the Promises against us and contrary to us as Col. 2. 14. But not so against the Promises as to vacate and abolish them but is rather subservient to them stirring up the sinner to fly to the Promise for a Pardon When the people just after the giving of the Law had grievously sinned in making the Calf and God threatned to consume them Exod. 32. 9 10. Moses does not plead the Mount Sinai Covenant but the Covenant made with Abraham vers 13. So Deut. 9. 27. 2 Kings 13. 23. The condition of the Sinai-Covenant being performed by Christ the New Covenant becomes absolute to us nothing more can be demanded of us in a way of satisfaction for sin Heb. 10. 14. Christ as our Advocate pleads this and that we ought to be discharged from the Curse of the Law All doing for life is over in the New Covenant our Surety has done that and therefore is become the Mediator of a better Covenant Heb. 8. 6. Having made way for our receiving the Promise Heb. 9. 15. This full satisfaction is the main thing we are to believe in order to our Salvation this is the sense of every act of justifying-Justifying-Faith to which Salvation is annexed we must mean this in believing or we mean nothing neither do we understand those Scriptures Mark 6. 16. Joh. 3. 16 36. The Obedience of Christ comes instead of our doing for life he is the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. Christ being made of God our Righteousness for Justification it is the will of God that he should by his Spirit sanctifie us and make us inherently holy Our Mediator does not only take away the guilt of sin which legal Sacrifices could not do they only purified the Flesh Heb. 9. 13. but not the Conscience the Blood of Christ only does this v. 14. So the Spirit of Christ by Faith purifies the Heart sanctifies the whole person 1 Thes. 5. 23. since we are come to the Mediator of the New Covenant let us see we don't abuse the free Grace of God Heb. 12. 25. In the New Covenant great Grace is revealed to Believers and great wrath against all Unbelievers Mat. 3. 7 10 12. Isa. 61. 2. vide 3. The necessity of a Mediator between God and Fallen man If one man sin against another the judge shall judge him but if a man sin against the Lord who shall intreat for him 1 Sam. 2. 25. This necessity appears 1. From God's just anger against us 2. From our inability to appease his wrath I put them both together Adam was the Son of God by Creation Luk. 1. ult but soon alienated himself and all his Posterity from God his Father and Creator neither could we ever become the Children of God again but by Christ John 1. 12. Heb. 2. 10 c. Angels though they need no Redeemer yet they need a Mediator a Head in and through whom they have access to God and communion with him much more does fallen man need a Mediator by whom he may come unto the Father Joh. 14. 6. 'T is impossible to see God any otherwise than through Christ John 1. 18. if any man sin as every man does let him not despair for we have an Advocate with the Father 1 Joh. 2. 1 2. in whom God is well pleased Mat. 3. 17. We cannot have immediate access to God himself but through a Mediator we may 3. By those terrors of Conscience which we are under when our hearts smite us for any sin accusing us Rom. 2. 15. telling us that God knows all this evil and much more by us 1 John 3. 20. Then whither shall I go from thy spirit whither shall I flee from thy presence Psalm 139. 7. How terrible is God out of Christ to a convinced sinner 4. The dreadful Punishments that are inflicted upon sinners upon the fallen Angels upon the old word many particular instances in former and latter times do render it a very fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God Heb. 10. 31. When a guilty sinner has none to speak for him what trembling must needs seize upon him lest God tear him in peices and there be none to deliver him Psal. 50. 22. 5. By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament and also of the Heathens which were designed to pacifie God some means was to be used all the Sacrifices of old appointed by God himself could never expiate sin nor pacifie God but as they pointed to the great Sacrifice in the New Testament Christ is the great Reconciler Col. 1. 20. We come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant to be freed from the curse of the Old and invested in the priviledges of the New The Covenant of Works made at the Creation with Adam in Innocency being broken and the legal Administration of the Mount Sinai-Covenant being faulty and unprofitable Heb. 8. 7 13. Our Father 's not continuing in it God regarded them not Heb. 8. 9. And being thus alienated and enemies in their minds by wicked Works God thus provoked gave up man a child of wrath to be a slave to sin Satan and Death Rom. 1. 28. Heb. 2. 14 15. Yet God so loved the world John 3. 16. Whilst we were yet without strength Rom. 5. 6. when we were sinners v. 8. and enemies v. 10. Then did God reconcile us to himself by the death of his Son entring into a New Covenant with us by appointing Christ to be the Mediator 1 Tim. 2. 5. and Surety of a better Covenant Heb. 7. 22. Heb. 8. 6. so reconciling us to himself 2 Cor. 5. 18. God the Father provided this Mediator John 3. 16. Rom. 3. 25. Isa. 49. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 30. You may see the greatness of the sin and of the Punishment too in the greatness of the Mediator God himself in the person of his Son became our Mediator and Redeemer 6. The Law was ordained in the hand of a Mediator to shew that 't is not in the power of any man since the Fall to satisfie the Law Gal. 3. 19. By the hand of a Mediator we must understand not only Moses but the virtue and power of the great Mediator Christ of whom Moses was a Type Thus you see the necessity of a Mediator Fallen man himself could not deal with God because of sin Angels could not being not of Humane nature and since there is but one God then either the Majesty of Heaven must descend down to us immediately which could not be or else this one God must become our Mediator our Immanuel his Godhead and our humane Nature being joyned together in the Divine Person of the Son The low estate
strain we move it a little though ordinarily we cannot stir it So there are some certain strains of Faith that give us that discerning of Spiritual Things that we never had before lifting up our heads within the Vail Let us then wait upon God for such further manifestations of his Spirit and pray That he would shine in our hearts the Light of the Knowledge of his Glory What shall I say more Now we live upon Creatures and have but a remote View of God in them and through them and this is our Grace But when we come to Heaven God will be all in all We shall stand in no need of Creature-Comforts to Eternity but shall derive all our support satisfaction and joy immediately from God himself His Spirit will be instead of Meat Drink and Cloaths to our bodies and will to Eternity fill up the Capacity of our Souls with Ravishing Joys and Delights And this is our Glory The sum of all is That Christ received into the heart by Faith as our Jesus our Redeemer and Saviour doth beget in the Soul thus relying upon him an earnest Expectation and lively Hope of all that Good that may consummate and perfect mans Happiness to Eternity And this in the Text is called Glory Christ in us the Hope of Glory So much for that part of the Text. I come now to the First Part of the Text. What are we to understand by Christ in us And this is Mystery upon Mystery It is evident that in Scripture Christ is said to be in us and we in him he to abide in us and we to abide in him I shall now only give you a more general Exposition of these Words in the general sense of the Text. I say Christ is said to be in us and we in him To abide in us and we in him John 15. 4. And all this must be spiritually understood all this is by Believing by Faith we receive him and by continued Acts of Faith we do keep him dwelling in our hearts Eph. 3. 17. We abide in Christ and Christ in us we are in him and he in us when we do persevere in the Faith when we have in our hearts an inward belief and persuasion of all the Gospel saith concerning Christ as our Redeemer and Saviour He is in the thoughts and imaginations of our hearts continually and we do act towards him according to what we believe of him this is believing indeed And here comes in hope as most suitable to the apprehensions of our Faith concerning Christ as our Jesus Christ in you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some render the Greek thus Christ among you outwardly Preached to you is the hope of Glory This is Doctrinally true but this is not enough to beget Hope Many hear and don't believe they have much of Christ without them but nothing of Christ within them Hope arises from something within impressed upon the mind the Soul doth not stir till then doth not put forth any act of Hope till Faith comes That sets all the wheels in motion draws our affections after him such is the power of Faith that we cannot but love and desire what we believe to be so good and desirable Hope naturally springs out of Faith and in this Hope you have the comfort of your Faith you see the benefits of Faith rejoycing in what you believe Gospel truths are very advantageous to a believer when he sees the advantage that accrues to him by them and therefore is filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory by believing We should be little concerned in our Faith were it not for the Hope it begets It is life Eternal to know Christ in the light of that knowledge you perceive how you live in him and by him As Faith carries up our Souls to Heaven so it brings down all the good things of Heaven to our Souls Faith is a very enriching Grace rich in Faith saith the Apostle when the Soul takes notice of this it cannot but Hope What Faith hath obtained of God through Christ Hope goes out after longs for and patiently waits for things unseen Faith hath ensured them and therefore Hope will expect them So that Christ outwardly Preached is the Hope of Glory that is Doctrinally so It is Doctrinally true but it is not experimentally true to you and me that Christ is our Hope of Glory till we do believe in him Christ must be ours before this Hope in the Text can be ours Christ is not ours till we receive him by Faith from an inward Revelation of him Gal. 1. 16. Till then he is a Christ without us not in us With the heart man believes It is an inward act of the mind to believe in Christ. The Soul doth converse with Christ about its own Salvation our Thoughts are much taken up in considering him applying to our selves the benefits of his Death If Christ be thus in you you cannot but have Hope I am upon the general Exposition and shall shew you more at large how Christ is in us by believing I say Faith lets Christ into the Understanding Will and Affections Naturally when the Vnderstanding acts upon any Object it draws the species and image of that Object into its self Hence they say Intellectus intelligendo fit omnia the Understanding is every thing it understands That is it takes in the Idea Shape Image of that thing which it knows under all its distinguishing Properties else there would be confusion in the Understanding we should not know one thing from another which is not to know at all So Faith brings in Christ into the Soul under a peculiar Character as the fairest of Ten thousand proposes him as the greatest truth to the Understanding as the greatest good to the Will and frames conceptions of him accordingly thus is Christ formed in us Faith doth not take in Christ notionally only to lye by as other notions do in which we are little concerned but it takes him in in reference to our selves as a new Mould into which the Soul is to be cast as a Spirit and Principle of new life He comes to rule and reign and to reduce man to a conformity to himself And here lies the difference between historical and saving Knowledg one is purely Speculative the other is Experimentally Practical that is there is always something done upon it in and by the Soul 2 Cor. 3. 18. We do behold as in a glass the glory of God and are changed Pray observe that Text There is a Beholding and there is a Transformation upon that beholding a being changed into the same Glory We do not know Christ savingly if every thing we know of him doth not help to change us more and more into his Image I say we do not know Christ savingly till then You must judge of your saving knowledge of Gospel Truths by the lively impressions they make upon your hearts Are you brought to act do think that which you never did
before Do you find Christ hath had a quickning influence upon your Hearts is indeed become your life He savingly knows Jesus Christ who doth act towards him according to what he believes of him Let men talk of this or that concerning Christ and pretend to understand all Mysteries to have all knowledge yet unless they can shew the work of the Gospel written in their hearts as the Apostle speaks of the work of the Law Rom. 2. 15. I say unless they can shew the work of the Gospel written in their hearts I am sure they are nothing For it is impossible to receive Christ by the saving knowledge of Faith and not to have his Image impressed upon all the faculties of the Soul by that Faith which first brought it in The very conceptions of Faith concerning Christ are the very thoughts of a mans own heart so he is so he thinks so he acts even as he believes Gospel truths cannot enter into our rational Nature at any other door than that of Faith When Faith comes there needs nothing else to turn that Soul unto God Every man is an his Faith is Faith contains the true inward sense of the Soul about Jesus Christ And God is the Author and Finisher of this Faith and understood to be so by all true Believers Pray let us close up all with this for I am only now labouring as well as I can to shew you in general how Faith lets Christ into the Soul The main thing in Conversion is Faith and the main thing in Faith is the Power of God in working it These two things are principally taken notice of by all Believers They observe them in others much more in themselves Acts 11. 17 18. compared with Acts 14. 23. What notice did they take there of the Faith God had wrought in those They perceived they had received the same Faith with themselves that God had granted unto the Gentiles Repentance unto life Faith is the main thing in Conversion Christ is the same in himself both before and after Conversion So are all Gospel-truths the same in themselves only then we did not believe them and now we do It is Faith makes all the difference and the principal thing in Faith is the power of God in working it How doth Paul admire the goodness of God to him that he should obtain Mercy and believe in Jesus Lord saith he What wilt thou have me to do He never called him Lord before The High Priest was his Lord and Master before from whom he received his orders what to do against the Saints Now he is Sick of that imployment he lays down his Commission at the feet of Christ and desires he would give him instructions what to do None should be his Lord None should now command him but Christ Lord what wilt thou have me to do The beginning of Faith and Conversion lyes in looking unto Christ for Power to believe And our first Faith usually breaks out in an Outcry to God to help our unbebelief All true Converts are sensible of this they in Acts 7. 47. How did they Praise God for their Conversion They ascribe it all to him I say our first Faith in the Lord Jesus comes in with a sense of God's Power in working it and Faith is known to be the gift of God by those who have it They who begin their Faith in the strength of their own Reason thinking to take in such considerations of God and Christ and to draw such arguments from Scripture as can induce them to believe will find themselves mistaken I am persuaded the doubts and fears of many Believers have their rise from hence That they did not begin their Faith in such an humble dependance upon God for strength to believe they did not I say do this as they should And it appears that that is the cause of their fears because nothing but such a dependance upon Christ for Grace does cure them When once they have learned the right way of believing and trusting in Christ they enter into rest there is an end of all their fears There are Promises in Scripture made unto Faith and there are Promises made of Faith These so far as we may be concerned in them seem to be made to Believers quite void of Faith Though to Unbelievers remaining in unbelief nothing is promised yet all things are promised to Unbelievers going out by Faith unto Jesus Christ Or if you will I had rather express it thus These promises of our first faith of the first Grace of giving the Spirit and the like they are made to Christ in the behalf of Unbelievers such who were from Eternity ordained unto Life so many of them whose Names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life The Covenant of Grace made between God and us doth respect the Covenant of Redemption between the Father and the Son This first Faith is wrought in us in such a manner that we are sensible of the Divine Power and Efficacy of God's Grace in working it Though God doth lead out our Souls into rational considerations of Himself and his Son yet we find that these considerations do flow into our Minds from an inward Revelation made of Christ. We do know that such thoughts of God and Christ could never have come into our minds if the Holy Ghost had not suggested them In his Light we see Light and our coming to Christ is always by the Father's drawing CHAP. II. More Particularly How Christ is in us by Faith How Faith brings Christ into the Soul Or how Christ conveys himself into our hearts through Faith And also How we may discern this in our selves THis is the Point and a Point of greatest concernment it is unto us all And therefore I beseech you follow me with your strictest Attention First That Christ may be in us it is necessary that he should be first outwardly proposed unto us There is an outward Light of the letter proposing Christ to us and there is an inward Light of the Spirit revealing Christ in us It is one thing to speak Notionally from the outward Light of the Letter another thing to speak Experimentally from an inward Light of the thing it self in our own Souls Besides the outward Light of the Word there is in every true Believer an inward Light flowing through the Word from the Object or thing spoken of The Spirit reveals Christ the Object and so making us Light in the Lord in his Light we see Light As we cannot see the Sun but by its own Light so neither can we see Christ but in his own Light By Faith we go unto Christ by Faith we go into Christ and we sit down in his Light entertaining our selves with Spiritual Contemplations of his Glory I say that Christ presents himself to us in a Gospel Promise as our God and Saviour He offers himself to us as such and by offering himself or under that proposal he doth act as a Gracious
him no seeing of him but as the Soul moves towards him in the Light of Faith God shines in our hearts saith the Scripture the Light of the knowledge of his Glory in the face of Jesus Christ and this Light of knowledge is Faith When we Believe we know Christ we See him we Come to him we Rely upon him Rejoyce in him we Love and Obey him all the actings of the Soul towards Christ they are from Faith representing him to us out of the Word And when we believe the Report of the Gospel concerning him we are persuaded and must be persuaded of the Truth of that which by a present Act of Faith we do Believe There goes no more to your knowledge persuasion and satisfaction than real Believing Faith in its own Nature is all Evidence though Flesh and Blood do contradict this Evidence seek to cast clouds over it yet those doubts that arise they come not from Faith but Unbelief that accompanies it more or less in every act we perform The more Faith the more Hope the more Unbelief the less Hope Hope will be in a proportion to the degree of our Faith The Spirit works Faith in us and then shews us Christ in the Light of it Christ is let into the Soul by Faith there he is and there he dwells transforming us into his own Image by our Faith in him As Faith works by Love so the Spirit works by Faith I mean by our Faith in him The Spirit knows how to improve our Faith in Christ to draw arguments from thence to bring us to any thing which the Gospel calls for I am persuaded I speak to many who have Christ within them who would not quit their Interest in him for Ten thousand Worlds if so you must fetch the reason of this from your Hope in Christ What! Not part with Christ upon any terms and yet Hope for nothing from him not part with Christ upon any terms and yet get nothing by him He doth not offer himself to you upon these terms but that ye may be enriched by him in all things You dishonour Christ and forget your Faith when you don 't Hope for great things from him I Beseech you Sirs Bethink your selves a little of your standing in Christ what hold you have taken of Eternal life in him and don't after all say I have no Hope Neither would I have you content your selves in bare saying you have Hope But stir it up act it shew it rejoyce in it daily Hope to the end that others may see how happy you count your selves in Jesus Christ tell every one you meet That Christ in you is your hope of Glory We often Preach and Hear of Faith and Hope but we practice those Graces at leasure Sermons of Faith and Hope don't beget these Graces in us nor draw them out into act Pray consider of this were our hearts changed under the Preaching of the Word into a frame suitable to it this would be a token for good unto us that the Lord is indeed among us If Sermons of Hope did end in lively actings of Hope we should all go home Rejoycing Blessing and Praising of God for his abundant Mercy towards us Great Hopes can't easily be forgotten we naturally run into our Hopes we are fond of them they present themselves to our Thoughts continually have easy access to us they take up our Minds daily making pleasing representations to us of the Good that is coming towards us I would leave you under the Contemplation of these things Did we converse more with our Hopes of Heaven and Glory this would keep sorrow from our hearts and cause us always to rejoyce in the Lord. Here is a present Cordial for the Poorest the most Afflicted and Disconsolate Soul How uncomfortable soever your present circumstances may be if you would get up into this Hope what happy Men and Women would you be you would count your selves happy and be filled with joy unspeakable and full of Glory None of your wants would pinch you you would be lifted up above the afflicting sense and smart of any outward Cross that may now lye heavy upon you All your Afflictions would be light if compared to this Eternal weight of Glory which weighs down all troubles and doth wonderfully alleviate and moderate all your Griefs You may be AS sorrowful in the Judgment of others and yet always rejoycing in your own Spirits from the Power of Hope It may be some will say How can this be Were we never so high in these Hopes yet we should grow weary and restless under them because all is put off to the Resurrection till the Coming of Christ and who can tell when that will be Hope deferred makes the heart sick we may faint under our desires before they come to pass Prov. 13. 10. I Answer In worldly hope it is so worldly hope is not so strengthned is not so established hath not that overcoming Power and Virtue in it as this Christian Hope hath for these Two Reasons 1. Because of the firm Assurance we have of the certain Accomplishment of our Hopes which cannot be said of any outward humane worldly hope As Christians we know our hope will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. comp with Rom. 8. 38 39. A Christian knows his Hope is founded upon immutable Promises and this doth strangely animate the Power of a Christian Hope 2. We cannot flag in our Christian Hope because of the present satisfaction it gives us Wordly Hope is but a lank thing promises fair but hath little present influence upon the minds of men to give them any real satisfaction but a Christian Hope doth give present satisfaction There is always something in hand some pledges some earnest of all that is to follow and this is sufficient for our present occasions to serve the turn till we have finished our Pilgrimage here below They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up as with eagles wings they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint Isa. 40. 31. There is a strange Strength and Virtue in a Christian Hope The Hope of a Christian is a feeding Hope a Soul-satisfying Hope there is no languishing under it it feeds upon the present overflowings of the Promise Tho the thing it self is not yet brought forth out of the Promises yet the Actings of Faith and Hope do cause a strange present overflowing from the Promise that drops into the heart like Oil to refresh it I say the Promises are continually dropping in fresh Comforts giving us fresh Tastes of the Love and Goodness of God Now under this satisfaction our expectation is raised and this again heightens our present satisfaction we have enough now are full are rich have all our hearts can now hold and yet we do see more a coming with a further Capacity Skill and Wisdom to improve it I shall see him but not now Numb 24. 17.
The Soul cannot bear more of God in this world than what comes in by Faith and Hope and tho we are satisfied in our present state yet we wait for a change The Husbandman is satisfied to see the Seed sown coming up in the green tender blade but the joy of Harvest is another thing Nothing but the full Fruition of all that good you are capable of to Eternity can swallow up our Faith and Hope which will be continually reaching out after those things which are before till we have attained them In Heaven there will be no need of Hope but prize it while you live upon the earth at a distance from your Heavenly Countrey If you would know Whether indeed you are under the Power of Christian Hope then try the Strength of it in your selves What it doth in you How it supports and comforts you 1. Under all delays of Providence in fulfilling the Promises can you wait the Lord's leisure and not make haste but patiently wait for what you yet see not this is a sign of Hope in Power Rom. 8. 25. 2. Doth your Hope support you not only under delays but when God seems to act contrary to his Promises to let out his Anger against you It is no easie matter for us to turn towards God by Faith and Hope when God turns away in Anger from us hiding his face It was well said of the Prophet I will wait for the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and I will look for him 3. When things seem desperate as to all second causes in the judgment of man can you then count upon the Truth and Certainty of the Promise And 4. When you are actually surprized with Fears what doth Hope do then Doth it check your fears Doth it raise you above them Psal. 56. 3. What time I am afraid I will trust in thee In the 4 th verse it is read thus What time I am afraid I will not fear A brave Resolution I will not fear what man what flesh can do unto me What is man What is flesh to the great God of Heaven and Earth What time I am afraid I will not fear If God be for me it matters not who is against me When you can thus reason your selves out of all your carnal fears it is a sign you are under the Power of Christian Hope When Grace doth master that sinful Passion that is contrary to it that is Grace in Power reigning Grace it keeps Sin under it shall not have dominion over us CHAP. VI. How Hope rises from Christ in us higher and higher till we abound in Hope and come more fully under the Power of it FIrst viz. By a frequent serious Consideration of Christ in his Divine Person and Offices what his end was in coming into the World in taking our Nature upon him and in dying for us in that Nature We should ponder these things in our minds and be intent upon them We are exhorted to this in order to hope Heb. 3. 1. and 6. verses comp Therefore holy brethren partakers of the heavenly calling consider the Apostle and High-Priest of our Profession Jesus Christ To what end That you may hold fast your confidence and the rejoicing of your hope firm unto the end v. 6. There are Two Effects of this serious and frequent Consideration of Christ. 1. We shall know him better what he is in himself 2. We shall better understand our own Interest in him what he is to us which will mightily raise our Hope 1. We shall know what he is in himself I say we shall know this better the more frequently and seriously we consider of him This was that which raised Paul's Hope 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and am persuaded he is able to keep that which I have committed to him They that know thy name saith the Psalmist Psal. 9. 10. will trust in thee By reflecting often upon Christ in us and conversing much with him we see further and further into the Mystery of the Gospel Christ opens himself more to us shines in more clearly upon us gives us a fuller discerning of the deep things of God which lye at the bottom of the Covenant we must dig deep to find them out When we set our selves to it in good earnest praying the Father to reveal his Son in us Christ will further manifest himself unto us Joh. 14. 21. That is not spoken of the first saving discovery of Christ in Conversion but of a further Revelation of Christ to a Soul after Conversion He that keeps my commandments and loves me to him will I further manifest my self So v. 23. If a man love me and keep my words we will come unto him and make our abode with him It is not meant of his first coming to a Soul in Conversion but of an after-Visit that God will give every Converted Soul who waits for him His Spirit shall teach us all things and bring all things to our remembrance The Spirit seldom makes any Repetition of a Sermon in our Consciences but it is with further light clearing up matters to us that which we did not so well understand before When we act our Faith afresh upon any Gospel-Truth which we have formerly heard and believed we grow more expert in the knowledge of that Truth we discern that by an after-after-Act of Faith which we could not discern by all former Actings of our Faith And thus it pleases God to supply what is wanting in our Faith and raise it up by degrees to an higher pitch making us to grow and encrease in our knowledge of Christ which makes Hope to grow and encrease in us We abound more and more in Hope the more we know of Christ. 2. Secondly We shall better understand our own Interest in him get a greater Assurance of that which strengthens our Hope exceedingly Whilst we are under doubts about our Interest in Christ questioning our state our Hope is small it runs very low Our fears being greater than our Hopes we are much dejected there is not that holy boasting and glorying in God as heretofore the Soul is now under a Cloud sits in darkness sees little or no light And it is a great Work of the Spirit of God as a Comforter to revive our Hopes Faith may hold out in some Spiritual Reasonings and Arguings from a bare Promise when Hope may fail as to any present comfortable Influence upon the Soul Faith may keep some hold of the Promise when Hope is ready to let go the things promised or at least to put them afar off from us Tho it is not impossible yet saith a drooping Soul it seems to me very improbable that such an one as I should be saved Here is Hope at a very low ebb labouring under those Difficulties and seeming Improbabilities that shake us exceedingly But God orders the matter so that a weak Hope puts us upon labouring after a stronger Faith When
choice of his God 6. Many of the more civilized sober Professors even of Christianity are apt to rest in general Notions of a Deity when they don't know God himself they don't know him who is God My Text leads me to speak of The Knowledge of God in Christ if what I shall say be not so plain and easie as you would have it Pray remember that I am speaking of that great mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh which no tongue neither of men or angels is able fully to set forth and to express Yet I hope through the guidance of the Spirit of God what I shall deliver upon this high Subject will fall in with the Conceptions of your Faith and with the Spiritual Apprehensions of an Enlightned Mind Now I proceed A True Saving Knowledge of God implies these Three Things 1. A Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ Incarnate That God manifest in the Flesh of Christ is the only True God 3. That this only True God manifest in the Flesh is our God CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ. WHat this Personal Knowledge of God in Christ is I shall explain We conceive God to be a distinct Being from all created Beings above all beyond all and before all the only Jehovah the Great Essentiator who is an Eternal Being himself and gives Being to all other things this God we cannot see with our bodily eyes but with the eyes of a mind spiritually enlightned we may i. e. we may see him by an eye of Faith conceiving him to be all that which he hath revealed himself to be in Christ. Till we see God in the Person of Christ the Mediator we have no certain Object for our Faith to fix upon our natural Notions of God will never carry us to any Person who is God the Scriptures only lead us to Christ as the Son of God The Person of the Father and of the Holy-Ghost are invisible but the Second Person hath made himself visible by taking our Nature upon him and is the only True Visible Image of the Invisible God He is God-Man which signifies not Two Personalities but Two Natures united in One Divine Person The Person of Christ Incarnate is Divine tho many in the days of his flesh here saw his Person who did not own his Divinity they saw him who was God but did not own him to be God 't is Saving Knowledge only that gives us a true sight of God in Christ we never see him till then God in Christ is God indeed all other representations of God do change his Glory into a lye they are all idols and vanities The Heathens became vain in their imaginations multiplying gods to themselves but never agreed who was the only true God Christ said to the Jews vers 19. Ye neither know me nor my Father if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also because the Will of the Father concerning the Salvation of Sinners is revealed by Christ. To believe the Being of a God That there is a God and to believe in God are two things The light of Nature leads to the former but not to the latter because we must have a particular distinct Knowledge of God i. e. of him in particular who is God the only True Living Eternal God we must know his Name his Attributes his Power Wisdom Infinite Love and Mercy We must be able to prove all this from Divine Revelation before we can have sufficient ground for our Faith and Hope in him to believe we know not why in we know not whom is not Faith but fond Credulity this way we render Faith a very irrational thing a mere fancy We cannot prove the Attributes of God but by the Almighty Acts and Works of God we believe him to be God for his Works sake which the Word gives us so full an account of 'T is strange to see what a slight Knowledg of God men do rest in reposing so great a trust as they pretend to do in one whom they know not whether he be able to answer that trust they worship they know not whom they trust they know not whom Tho they own God whoever he be to be Almighty Infinite in Wisdom Love c. yet they chuse a God for themselves who is none of all this and so deceive themselves General Notions of Infinite Power Wisdom c. unless we see where to place them and to whom they do belong are but empty speculations no sufficient ground for our Faith Christ has outdone all that ever were called gods and therefore he only deserves that Name who has in himself revealed the true God to us all the Idols of the world are vanities The Son of God hath made himself visible by taking our flesh upon him and through that veil we look in upon the whole Trinity and know all that is called God in Christ Jesus He that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14. 9. hath seen the Infinite Power of that Holy Spirit put forth by me No mere Creature holds forth two Natures but the Person of Christ does and therefore is the only Image of the Invisible God holding forth all that is contained in the Infinite Essence of the Divine Nature truly representing God in all his Essential Properties as God and his Father Christ is properly the Image of the Father not of the God-head for that is really in him he is very God The thing it self cannot be said to be the Image of it self Christ and the Father are one in the Essence of the God-head I and my father are one John 10. 30. But Christ is not the same Person with him whose Image he is When Christ is said to be the Image of God God is taken personally for the Father not essentially for the Divine Nature I am not now speaking of the Characteristical Differences of the Three Persons but of the Unity of Essence in which they all agree These three are one If you would know what manner of God the Father is you must look upon Christ his Image and conceive of him according to that manifestation of himself in the Flesh of Christ who has in that very flesh expressed and acted over all the Divine Attributes of God in the Miracles he wrought upon earth letting out a Divine Power through our humane Nature acting as God in our flesh Something of God's Glory appears in the Works of Creation but the Brightness of his Glory shines out only in the Face of Christ as men are known by their faces so God is known by Christ God having in an ineffable manner communicated his Essence to Christ he is therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the express image of his person As he holds forth the Glory of God to us he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his glory This is that Divine Person upon whom the eye of our Faith must be fixed I say
Promise so he becomes our God he makes a Covenant with us in Christ to be our God that for his sake he will freely pardon our sins and receive us into a state of Grace and Favour again thus God offers himself in the Covenant to be our God But an outward tender of grace if not closed in with and accepted is but a bare offer not a gift till we receive it when God intends to give grace he secretly joyns with the outward call speaks himself to the heart and inclines us to receive it herein lyes the difference between an outward and an inward effectual Call An effectual Call is that which hath its effect upon the Soul makes us answer to the call and obey it we are called to come to Christ and when we actually come then is the Call effectual and not before when God offered himself to Abraham it was with a purpose not to be refused and therefore he inclined the heart of Abraham to believe You may live long under an outward Call and not be effectually called i. e. not called with such a Call as God gives his Elect at thir Conversion many are called but few chosen i. e. few called with such a Call as God gives his Elect. We cannot be sure of our Election till we are thus effectually called To be frequent Hearers of the word calling us to Christ and yet find no inclinations in our hearts to come to him is a sign that God hath not yet spoken to us himself Ministers have but God hath not yet by his Spirit set home his word upon our hearts The inclinations of the Soul towards Christ that arise from an effectually Call are very strong they put the Soul upon coming to Christ urge us to it every day there is something writ upon the heart whch he that runs may read Conscience is reading over that inward Writing every day to the Soul calls for a speedy answer why is not this done that God requires that God has left upon record in thy heart Why so backward why so slow of heart to believe Arise arise away to Christ as fast as you can run for your life to the City of refuge that God has appointed They who know what an inward Call is cannot resist it an awakened Conscience is in hast will have the business dispatched out of hand nothing can stop that man who is effectually called O that every one here present were under such a Call this day God is able to give it and I am sure none of you are able to resist it Christ is offered to us in the New Covenant as our Peace-maker and Mediator therefore called the covenant of the people Isa. 42. 6. the sure foundation of it Isa. 26. 16. The Covenant made with Abraham is said to be confirmed of God in Christ before his Incarnation Gal. 3. 17. This Covenant was made between the Father and the Son from Eternity Isa. 42. 6. Tit. 1. 2. 2 Tim. 1. 9. The first outward declaration or revelation of it was in time Gen. 3. 15. The actual application of this Grace to our selves is when we first Believe We enter into Covenant by Faith we set our seal to the truth of the Promise and receive that right that Christ Believed on gives to Eternal life Faith it self gives no right to Salvation unto us but what it first receives from Christ we have nothing to do with the promise till we are in Christ by Faith Eph. 2. 12. Rom. 8. 32. Faith discerns the Grace and Love of God to us in Christ and accepts of the offer of life upon Gospel terms which the Soul could never be brought to till Faith came Who has believed the report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been reveal'd i. e. to beget Faith which wins over a Sinner to Christ We should be much in the first direct acts of Faith coming to Christ casting our selves on Christ relying on Christ these direct acts of Faith often repeated will sooner clear up our Interest in Christ than our judging by marks signs effects and fruits which can give no clearer Evidence of their truth than Faith does of its truth in a real closing with Christ in an absolute Promise this is the first act of Saving Grace antecedent to all qualifications in us or conditions performed by us this alters our State They understand not the Gospel who keep off from Christ for want of such and such qualifications which Christ expects not we should bring to him but derive from him an humble sense of our vileness and unworthiness is qualification enough for a Sinner to come to Christ and cast himself upon him When God has once said he will be our God he is ever after minding us of that speaking it over again and again upon all occasions Isa. 43. 1 2 3. c. Isa. 41. 10. Heb. 8. 11 12. I will and they shall God undertakes both parts of the Covenant The Covenant in the first initial Grace of it must be first executed on God's part towards us before it can be executed on our part towards God God begins with us doth his part first and that enables us to do our part i. e. we cannot give up our selves to him to be his people till he has writ his Laws in our Hearts and put his Spirit within us thereby declaring himself to be our God and strongly inclining us to give up our selves to him as his People God first enters into Covenant with us brings us under the bond of it and then governs us ever after by the Grace of that Covenant freely conferred upon us There may be conditions in the Covenant that speak out the order of it what is first and what follows upon it according to the method of the All-wise God in bringing hom-Sinners to Christ But I do not conceive there are any conditions previously required in us in order to our first entring into Covenant God takes whom he will into Covenant and leaves out whom he will 't is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that shews Mercy 't is a Covenant of Free Grace consisting of absolute Promises what God will do our doing comes afterwards as a fruit and effect of God's work in us That which is done by us in the virtue and power of that which is first done in us by God must be ascribed to him and not to our selves Turn thou me and I shall be turned God gives the first turn before we can perceive any such thing as Conversion in our selves God lays in the principle and then draws us in the Power of it after himself The Terms of the Covenant may be outwardly propounded to many who never enter into Covenant with God nor God with them the Covenant is never executed in them and towards them though it be often preacht to them How often would I have gathered you and you would not Mat. 23. 37. When the word of
favour of God for us and a right to all the blessings promised in the Gospel and his Spirit effectually applies all this to us and works all this in us 3. Remission of sin as it is held forth and offered in the Gospel presupposes nothing in man as the cause and condition of it moving God to pardon him but only denotes God's gracious Indulgence towards him not reckoning his sin to him upon his believing in Christ see how pardoning Grace finds us Col. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all trespasses So Heb. 8. 10 11 12. God does not eye any Qualifications in us but promises to do all himself I will and they shall c. 'T is objected That Faith is the beginning of Sanctification and if Faith be required unto Justification then some part at least of our Sanctification is required unto justification Answ. No part at all for though Faith be a supernatural Principle infused by God in order to our Sanctification as well as our Justification yet it first Justifies before it Sanctifies I speak of Faith now not in its first Principle but in its first actings I say it first acts upon Christ by receiving him before it begins actually to sanctify us there is a great difference between the Instrumentality of Faith in receiving Christ for our Justification and the efficacy of Faith applying Christ received for our Sanctification to speak properly 't is not God's working Faith but Faith working in us and upon us that Sanctifies God always gives Christ in and with our first Faith for Justification and Pardon this must be first finished and compleated before Faith will or can begin to sanctifie us because Faith fetches all its sanctifying Virtue from Christ received but our first act of receiving Christ is that that justifies Sanctification always follows upon it and is gradually carried on by a justifying Faith to our lives end in is not pardoned because it is mortified but because it is pardoned therefore it 's mortified Remission of sin presupposes no real change in the man himself as moving God thereunto Neither does remission of sin alter the nature of sin but only the state of the Sinner his sin is not imputed to him To forgive sin is not to remember it Jer. 31. 34. There 't is but God won't look towards it his thoughts are so taken up with the blood of Christ and the Interest that Believers have in that blood that he willingly forgets their sins he will not deal with them after their sins nor reward them according to their iniquities Psal 103. 10. And that they may be sure of this he casts their sins into the depths of the sea Mich. 7. 19. As far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgression from us Psal. 103. 12. Not only from himself but from us he sees no iniquity in Jacob. If pardoning Grace does not presuppose but make a real change in a man for the better yet forasmuch as we are imperfectly Sanctified the Pardon of sin and the being and presence of sin may and do consist together in every true Believer here below provided they do not allow themselves in the practise of it 4. Remission of sin is an act of Mercy not Justice yet not contrary to Justice because the sins that are pardoned to us are punished in Christ 't is from God's Justice that he will not pardon sin without satisfaction 't is from his Mercy that he will accept of satisfaction from the hand of another This answers that plausible Objection that is commonly made against our Salvation by Grace viz. Wicked men are condemned for their evil works therefore Saints are justified for their good works Answ. This does not follow because one is an act of Justice and the other of Mercy Rom. 6. 23. The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Death is wages due by Law eternal Life is a free gift through Jesus Christ. 5. Remission of sin as 't is an act of Mercy so 't is act of Power too God has Power to forgive sin none but the Creditor can forgive the Debtor God is the greater Creditor and we are all his Debtors against thee only have I sinned therefore God only has Power to forgive sin but yet it is not an act of mere absolute Power neither but an act of Divine Jurisdiction that carries in it a due respect unto the Law which God as the righteous Judge and most wise Governour of the world will not violate Therefore Remission of Sin under this provision that God has made in Christ for the satisfaction of his Law and Justice is called Justification Rom. 4. 5 6. God is Just as well as Merciful in Pardoning Sin Rom 3. 25 26. So that Pardon flows from the Love of God acting towards us for Christ's sake i. e. upon the account of his Merit and Satisfaction which respect the Justice of God The truth is the satisfaction of Christ is the foundation of Pardon this satisfaction lyes in the expiatory Sacrifice offered by Christ upon the Cross hence expiation or atonement is joyned with pardon in Scripture Numb 15. 25. Levit. 4. 20. The priest was to make an atonement that the sin should be forgiven An expiatory Sacrifice led the way to forgiveness under the Law and so it does now under the Gospel without shedding of Blood there is no remission of sin If you have not the Blood of Christ is your eye when you go to God for Pardon never think to speed CHAP. IV. The APPLICATION I Shall shut up all with a word of Exhortation urging every one of you to a frequent deep serious consideration of this grand fundamental truth concerning the only way of Salvation by the remission of sin through Faith in Christ Jesus I know the time will shortly come when all our Notions and Disputes must be resolved into our believing or not believing in Christ for Pardon of sin therefore be perswaded to begin your Religion in pure Faith trusting in Christ only for the remission of all your sins through the merit of his Blood begin here lay this as the Foundation of all your Religion make this sure and then you will more clearly see upon what account you stand righteous before God if you joyn any thing with Christ here and miss your way in the first setting out you 'll go wider and wider from the Gospel every stop you take and be forced to wrest the Scriptures all along to make good your first grand mistake therefore I say beg of God to bring your hearts to a true reliance upon the free-Grace and Mercy of God in Christ Jesus for the pardon of all your sins Take this as a clue in your hands to guide you into such an understanding of all other truths as is consonant to this
away of sin is the remission of sin by which a sinner is freed from the guilt of sin from the curse of the Law and from the wrath of God hence it appears that Salvation lies chiefly in remission of sin Psal. 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgressions is forgiven blessed is he whose sin is covered blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity Neither does the consideration of any good works done by man come in as a motive for God to pardon our sins because to pardon sin is to impute Righteousness without works i. e. God looks upon pardoned sinners as righteous through Faith in Christ though their works be not answerable to the Law of Righteousness laid down in the Covenant of works Christ comes in in the room and place of our Good Works and Free Grace confers that upon us for Christ's sake which our own Good Works were to procure for us under the Law For by grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast Eph. 2. 8 9. Thus Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. The end of the Law under the Mosaical Dispensation whether Moral or Ceremonial was to lead a sinner to Christ for Righteousness this Righteousness lies in the full satisfaction that Christ made to the Law for the sin of man we must bring to the Law either a perfect Righteousness of our own or a full satisfaction for all our sins which is equivalent to man's perfect Righteousness and not only equivalent but much beyond it for our own perfect Righteousness had we continued in it would have kept us in a happy Paradisical state here on earth I know Divines speak of our Translation afterwards into Heaven but of that the Scripture is silent 't is evident that had we kept the Law we had not died but upon the satisfaction Christ has made to the Law we obtain Eternal Life have a more abundant entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven and this satisfaction accepted for us is in the infinite merit of it our Righteousness Thus the Law obtains its end in that full satisfaction that Christ gave it for the sin of man and can demand no more of any believing sinner for his Justification it becomes the Law to bring things to a righteous Conclusion between the Justice of God and a sinner The Law cannot do unjustly but is righteous in condemning the Unbeliever and righteous in passing by the Believing sinner If any ask How comes a Believing sinner to escape the Vengeance of the Law to get out of the hands of a sin-revenging Law Answ. Because the Law hath obtained its end in Christ and done full execution upon him for the sin of man to its own satisfaction and this secures a man from the curse of the Law as much as his own perfect righteousness would have done The Papists deny the imputation of Christ's Righteousness and derive Remission of Sin from inherent Righteousness whereas inherent Righteousness never frees us from all Sin in this World he is a liar who says he hath no Sin But imputed Righteousness is opposed to all Sin in us and covers it all We are holy and unblameable and unreproveable in the sight of God Col. 1. 22. New Obedience and the practice of Holiness is the consequent of Pardon which must not be taken for a permission or licence to Sin Pardoning-Grace lays a strict injunction upon us to Sin no more as Christ did upon the man whom he healed at the Pool of Bethesda Behold thou art made whole sin no more lest a worse thing come upon thee John 5. 14. Christ Died primarily for our Justification from all Sins committed by us and also for our Sanctification to prevent the Commission of further sin To that end he purchased for us his holy spirit that we might live to God 2 Cor. 5. 15. That being dead to sin we should live to righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. The blood of Christ purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 14. There are two special parts of the covenant of grace Heb. 8. 10 11 12. viz. Remission of sin and a change of Heart and Nature they always go together to fancy a change of State without a change of Nature is but a fancy Though Justification be a continued act yet that it may be continued to us in a comfortable sense of it Believers must sue out their Pardon for every new sin and by renewed acts of Faith apply the Blood of Christ in particular for the Pardon of this or that sin In Justification all sin is Pardoned past present and future that no place may be left for Condemnation John 5. 24. Sins to come are virtually Remitted to a Believer i. e. we are by Faith put into a state of Pardon Faith knows whither to go for Pardon upon all occasions Tho the Commission of new sins does not cast a Believer out of a state of Grace does not null and make void his former Justification in the sight of God yet he may lose the comfortable sense of it in his own Conscience and lye under though not judiciary Punishments yet under such castigatory Chastisements from an Angry Father that may be a great bitterness of Soul unto him till by a renewed act of Faith he does apply himself to Christ for Pardon and make his peace with God Faith it self can't speak peace to an impenitent Believer who as to this or that sin may be called impenitent though as to his state he be a Believer Till Faith do bring down the Blood of Christ by a particular application of it to the Conscience of a man for the Pardon of this or that particular sin he may and will be very uneasy under it and the longer Repentance is deferred the more angry reflections will Conscience make against that man he may be brought to question his own state by deferring his Repentance so long Care must be taken to set upon this work of Repentance out of hand and when we go about it we must still keep Christ in our eye and not sorrow as without hope that sorrow for sin that in the beginning may be Godly sorrow may by the cunning of the Devil rise so high as to become ungodly sorrow sinking the Soul into despair Many do begin in the Spirit and end in the Flesh therefore care must be taken to keep our selves in a due temper of mind that we be not overwhelmed with sorrow that sorrow for sin that hinders us from coming to Christ is sinful and not to be allowed in a Christian. So that Repentance is required not as a previous condition of our Justification but as that without which no man can or will ever come to Christ for Justification Faith first works Repentance under a secret hope of Pardon and then applies Christ not
under continual influences from Christ. In the next place I shall speak of power and wisdom not as they relate to the Person of Christ but to his Doctrine or to Christ Preached we Preach Christ Crucified The Doctrine of Christ Crucifi'd is a powerful Doctrine able to save those who believe it Rom. 1. 16. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Heb. 4. 12. This Doctrine is called the Wisdom of God in a Mystery 1 Cor. 2. 7. 't is the revelation of a Mystery Rom. 16. 25. There are many Mysteries in this Doctrine The manifold wisdom of God Ephes. 3. 10. This way of saving sinners by Christ Crucified is called The wisdom of God because he doth thereby manifest his deep and unsearchable wisdom they who are spiritually enlightened do count it so they desire to know nothing else 1 Cor. 2. 2. The Gospel contains the Glorious method of a Sinner's Salvation by Christ who is therefore called the Wisdom of God Prov. 8. 12. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. 2. 3. The Doctrine of the Gospel appears to be a powerful Doctrine because it is so effectually a means for the Conversion of sinners who are so much against Conversion certainly there is Wisdom and Power in it else it could never bring such a strange thing as that to pass Obj. The learned men of the world see not any Wisdom in the Gospel the Greeks seek after Wisdom but cannot find it there and therefore they count it foolishness They seek after Wisdom And why not Must we not speak reason in the Pulpit Answ. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect 1 Cor. 2. 6. i. e. That have a true solid judgment of Spiritual things But if you mean by reason that which falls under our understanding and is comprehensible by us as men I say we speak Mysteries above reason which we propound only to your Faith the Doctrine of the Gospel is worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. Let not man oppose his wit to the Wisdom of God We speak Wisdom but not the Wisdom of this world but the Wisdom of God in a Mystery hidden Wisdom When our frail reason can do nothing in discerning this wisdom the Spirit comes and demonstrates the Truth to us with power by an invincible internal perswasion 1 Cor. 2. 5. Men may think by their Wit Learning and prompt Parts to run down the Doctrine of the Gospel But let them remember that Christ is the Power and Wisdom of God They who do not rely only upon Christ Crucisied for Justification unto life do despise the Gospel and count it foolishness they are ashamed of the Gospel Rom. 1. 16. Paul was not let us follow his Example and labour to promote it praying daily for the propagation of the Doctrine of the Gospel That the way of God may be known upon earth and his saving health among all nations Psalm 67. 2. Because the foolishness of God is wiser then men c. V. 25. The Power and Wisdom of God by anironical concession are here called weakness and foolishness i. e. admit this according to the opinion of the unconverted Jews and Gentiles Let them say what they will what they call foolishness is wiser then men i. e. then the wisdom of men and what they call weakness is stronger than men i. e. then the strength of men Any thing that belongs to God is to be preferred before that which is but Humane the least things of God do infinitely exceed the greatest of mens When we consider that the Name of God is upon such a thing it should create a reverence in us towards it whatever is in God is God The way that God has made choice of and the means he hath pitched upon must needs be the best for all things are great or little weak or strong as God makes them to be by putting more or less of his fulness into them Obj. They who count the Gospel foolishness are the wise men of the world therefore sure they are in the right Answ. Not many wife are called and when they are called they see the folly of their carnal wisdom by which they judged amiss of Christ before The APPLICATION LET us now consider seriously how we stand affected towards Christ and the Gospel whether we do receive the truth in the love of it viz. Whether we do indeed believe in the Lord Jesus and are persuaded that nothing is required as a Meritorious procuring cause of our Justification in the sight of God but Christ and his Righteousness received and applied by Faith And that all our Evangelical righteousness so much contended for is only to prove the truth and sincerity of our Faith from whence it springs though I think there will not be any formal proving of such matters then Yet if this be all I would not contend about it but leave others to their own methods schemes and expressions heartily wishing all may understand them as clearly and Orthodoxly as they profess to understand themselves Though I must tell you those words will prove the most wholesome and grow most in use among serious Professors which they best understand and which do most easily and plainly convey the Spiritual sense of the Gospel into their minds If any should say our own Evangelical Righteousness hath some causal influence into our Justification though I count it a very Unorthodox expression yet I would in Charity think that the reason why they say so is out of a zeal to promote practical Holiness by the strongest motive imaginable And if they who say Holiness of life is only an effect of Justification making it as indispensably necessary in all who are justified as the former Is not Holiness secured and promoted this way as well as the other way and without any suspicion of derogating from Christ Pray then Why should we contend so much for the former way laying stumbling-blocks before others who cannot get over them when all our ends are better answered the other way Let none say we are Solifidians who hold this We know very well that good works are required in the New Covenant as well as Faith but all that is required in the New Covenant is not required unto Justification Besides Justifying-Faith doth many things by its influence which must not be put into the justifying act of Faith for then we shall confound Justification and Sanctification and make them as the Papists do all one As the Apostle hath stated the point of Justification we are not only to consider how we are justified in God's sight but in the first place to consider how God himself is Just in his Justifying-act Rom. 3. 26. If God be just in that act and can Pardon sin without any impeachment of his Justice then sure there is sufficient ground and reason for it God can do no unjust thing and if God in justifying Believers be just i. e. if there be merit enough in the Blood of Christ to
13. that believe in the Name of the Son of God that you may know that ye have eternal life John wrote this Epistle purposely to satisfie weak Believers that whatsoever they thought of themselves they had Eternal Life and he would have them know as much Put then the Trial of your state upon this very point Whether you have Christ and in him Eternal Life Do you make good the former and we who are Ministers of the Gospel may by the Blessing of God undertake to prove the latter to your great Comfort and Satisfaction These things have I written to you that believe that you may know you have eternal life Then Believers themselves stand in need of such Writings and Sermons as may help to open the Mysteries of Christ to them and to this end is a Gospel-Ministry appointed to make manifest a savour of his knowledg in every place 2 Cor. 2. 14 15. We are a sweet savour of Christ unto God in them that perish under our ministry saith he We must seek to please God in our Preaching and not men whatever the issue be Men have no savour don't savour such Sermons and Gospel-Discourses that do lead them into the Mysteries of the Gospel they are for a more Rational way of Preaching they love Moral Preaching but this Mystical Mysterious Preaching of Christ and Faith in him and Union to him this they count foolishness they don't savour it but saith he we are a sweet savour of Christ to God even in them that perish 2. The Spirit doth not only teach us to know Christ in us but confirms us in that knowledge by an after-Testimony bearing witness with our spirits that so it is This fixes and settles our minds in a firm persuasion of the Truth Had we no other witness but our own Spirits we should vary and fluctuate in our minds about these great Points of the Gospel we should be of one mind to day and of another to morrow Reason is not always consistent with it self varies in its apprehensions of things argues pro and con according to the different appearance of things the different Impressions that contrary Reasonings make upon our unstable minds I say all these things make Reason very uncertain Fancy and Imagination are very uncertain and variable and do strongly influence mens understandings It is hard to know whether Sense or Reason do lead us but the Testimony of the Spirit of God is a more uniform Testimony doth never vary from it self always passes the same Judgment about the same point It is not yea and nay it doth not say and unsay but stands to the first judgment it is purposely given to testifie of Christ and of the infallible consequents of our Faith in him which must needs beget Hope The oftner we appeal to this witness and hear the Testimony of the Spirit in our hearts concerning Christ the more are we confirmed in our Faith and Hope They who are full of the Holy Ghost they are full of Faith and Hope When we have found out Christ within us we should appeal to the Spirit of God Whether it be not so indeed Whether Christ be not in us of a Truth None knows the Son but the Father and it is by his Spirit he reveals him in us Ask the Spirit then Whether this be the Christ of God which your Faith hath taken hold of and brought into your Soul to Live Rule and Reign there Did we live in more Communion with the Holy Ghost we could not be so much estranged from the Life of Christ we should not be so unacquainted with Christ. No man can say That Jesus is the Lord but by the Spirit Say what you will of Christ you understand not what you say till the Spirit reveal him in you There is no thinking talking no meditating on Christ in our own Light and Strength if the Holy Ghost doth not help us Believers have a sense of this that God hath taught them and shined into their hearts it is in his Light they see Light and have a true Spiritual Discerning of the Mystery of God in Christ. You know in the first days of the Gospel the Spirit bore witness unto the Divine Person of Christ That he came from God and was God for the world could believe neither John 15. 26 27. comp with Acts 5. 32. It was the great business of the Spirit I say to testifie to the world That Christ was sent of God and that he was very God This the Holy Ghost did by many signs and wonderful effects of the Divine Power of Christ wrought through Faith in his Name And so ever since the same Spirit breathing in the Consciences of Believers doth testifie of Christ in them with that Evidence and Power that they cannot withstand they are convinced and satisfied That Salvation is only by him and that relying upon him their Souls are secured to all Eternity This begets Peace in their before affrightned Consciences If you ask how doth the Holy Ghost bring over the Mind of a man to be so fully persuaded of the truth of that which Flesh and Blood cannot reveal unto him I Answer The Holy Ghost doth this as a Spirit of Power Luk. 24. 49. Christ is said to Teach us as one having Authority There is Power and Authority as well as Teaching Reasoning and Objective light I say the Spirit acts as a Spirit of Power impressing a sense of God's Love so upon our Hearts that we cannot but count upon it rejoyce in it feeling it shed abroad into our Hearts The Testimony of the Spirit is a convincing undeniable Evidence able to persuade of the truth of that he bears witness to against all surmises of Flesh and Blood Were not the Spirit of Christ a Spirit of Power it would be impossible he should ever establish such a a Doctrine so contrary to all the sentiments of Nature and to all rational Inferences men can make from any principles of Reason The Spirit comes as a Spirit of Power will have the Heart open will bring over Man to assent though it be to what his Understanding cannot reach and this the Spirit of God doth by particular Application of the Blood of Christ to us by Name so revealing Christ in us that we cannot but feel the Virtue of his Blood in our Conscience cannot but know him and own him as our Jesus In all Hope there is a peculiar Application of Promises to our selves He that believes hath eternal Life John 3. 36. Is not only persuaded there is such a thing but that he hath it already begun in him and shall be further let into it ere long We shall be like him 1 John 3. 2. We shall be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life Tit. 3. 7. For the hope which is laid up for you Col. 1. 5. There is a particular Application to our selves of those things we Hope for It is impossible for a man to Hope and be no
to thrive under Ordinances In the Description of John Baptist's Office we may see the nature use and end of a Gospel Ministry all must be called to that Office who are imployed in it they must prepare the way and seek to lead their Hearers to Christ Preaching remission of sin through faith in him shewing how all flows from the tender Mercy of God setting forth Christ as the true light of them who sit in darkness c. Before Christ's time the Patriarchs Priests Levites and Prophets carried on this Ministry After Christ's Incarnation John the Baptist was the first Gospel-Minister after him the Apostles and Evangelists by an extraordinary Call then Pastors and Teachers as the ordinary Ministers of the Gospel who continue still in the Church and whose duty still it is to seek the Salvation of their Hearers and Hearers should come to learn the way of Salvation by Christ. To give knowledge of Salvation c. Not that Preachers can infuse knowledge into their Hearers none but God can do this as Dan. 1. 17. There the words have a greater Emphasis than here when applied to men who only prepare the way by Instruction afford some outward help to bring us to the knowledge of Salvation they do aditum patefacere they prepare the way make it plain lay it open setting before you the credenda what you are to believe and do they tell you what way and method what manner and means God has made choice of to bring about Salvation for they give us notice of all this speaking in a plain familiar manner that men may know what is contained in the Bible what the main drift and scope of the Gospel is which we cannot be ignorant of when it 's told us in such plain and intelligible terms which if we do not stop our ears will inform us whether we will or no of the History of the Bible we cannot but conceive something of the matter they are willingly ignorant who being so taught yet slight all they hear and won't regard it where there has been such an outward manifestation of the Truth we may say as 2 Cor. 4. 2 3. If our Gospel be hid it is hid to them that are lost Ministers should do what in them lies to help the understanding of their Hearers bringing down things to their Capacities giving the sense and causing the people to understand the reading Neh. 8. 8. This is the way for a Minister to save himself and them that hear him 1 Tim. 4. 16. Many common Hearers can't understand what they read and hear unless some man guide them as the Eunuch said of himself Act. 8. 30 31. When we have in handling the word commended our selves to every man's Conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 2. we must leave the success of our Ministry to him whether the word be a savour of life or death to him Paul may Plant and Apollo may Water but it 's God who giveth all the encrease You see how Ministers give the Knowledge of Salvation by Publishing the Gospel i. e. by Preaching Christ Rom. 16. 25. They say to the People what the Angel did to the Shepherds Luk. 2. 10 11. Behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people For unto you is born a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. A great multtitude of the Heavenly Host join with the Angel in praising God for his good will towards men v. 14. This is the Ministers work now to declare these glad Tidings this faithful saying so worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. Christ commanded his Apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature Mark 16. 15. To tell them plainly there is no other name under Heaven by which we can be saved but the name of Christ. One would think this were enough to set all the world upon enquiring after Christ. But who hath believed our report and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed Men will not receive this Testimony that God hath given of his Son We who are Ministers cannot finish our course with joy and the ministry which we have received of the Lord Jesus if we do not testifie of the gospel of the grace of God Act. 20. 24. And as for me I would say with Samuel 1 Sam. 12. 23. God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you and to shew you the good and the right way He that hath ears to hear let him hear Having shewed what this knowledge or notice is which Ministers give to the People of the way of Salvation by Christ I shall now speak something of the notice the People take of this how they resent it how they receive it what impression it makes upon the generality of Professors They assent to it seem to be convinced of it and do profess to believe it but in such a cold careless manner that they are not at all concerned in the matter Putting the greatest cheat upon themselves that can be 't is below the reason of a man in all it 's other actings to counterfeit knowledge in things so nearly relating to himself and of so dreadful a consequence if neglected and not strictly attended to to profess to believe in Christ for Salvation and yet never come to him for that Salvation never deal with him about it is such a gross piece of Hypocrisy and self-deceit that one would wonder men should be guilty of Such a formal profession comes not from any true conviction or real belief of what they profess but from custom education and a desire to be like other men they walk in the shadow of other mens Religion who have none of their own they take up the name of Believers and say they have Faith when they know or may know they have none such a feigned Faith undoes Thousands Since they say they have Faith and profess it how does it appear they have it not Appear Ans. As plain as the Sun at Noon If a man say he is convinced there is but one remedy in the whole World that can cure that disease he is sick of and yet refuse it when it 's offered to him I am sure if he be in his right Wits he lyes in saying he is so convinc'd what convinced that his House is on fire and yet not call out for help and seek to quench it or that this is a Cup of Poyson in his hand and yet drink it off This is to take away the force and power of reason over man to make him unconcerned in and for himself even when he is under the greatest sense of imminent danger that such a through conviction must needs bring him to nothing brings things nearer to a man's reason then conviction does 't is an Act of the understanding by which he owns and acknowledges that for truth which he
Sin but the Scripture seems to make them the same Rom. 4. 5 6 7. I think they are so inseparably joined together that no man who has obtained the Pardon of all his Sins ever was or can be at a loss for a Righteousness to compleat his Justification and entitle him to the reward of Eternal Life promised in the Law I conceive the Pardon of all our Sins is a Righteousness we may boldly appear before God in because it lays before God that full satisfaction that Christ made for Sin by his active and passive Obedience which is not only satisfactory for Sin but also meritorious of Eternal Life so that all the ends of Justification are accomplished in the Remission of Sin What precise conceptions we may have of Remission of Sin and imputation of Righteousness as differing in the notion will not argue any real difference in the things themselves We must have a care we do not separate what God has so intimately joined together This hath occasioned all those unhappy Controversies about Justification as I shall shew anon They who want a sufficient Justifying Righteousness after the full Remission of all their Sins do not rightly resolve Remission of Sin into the proper procuring causes of it viz. the satisfaction that Christ made for Sin by what he did and suffered for us from his Birth to his Death so it became him to fulfil all Righteousness that he might be the end of the Law for Righteousness to them who Believe So that Christ himself is our Righteousness the Lord Jehovah our Righteousness the Law is as well satisfied with what Christ hath Done and Suffered for us as if we our selves and perfectly kept the Law or Died by it for our Sins 'T is dangerous separating Christ and his Righteousness as if we were to derive a justifying-Righteousness from Christ distinct from the Person of Christ This notion has insensibly led men to seek a Righteousness in themselves not wrought out for them but wrought in them by Christ this indeed is the right way of Sanctification but not of our Justification The Scripture directs us to seek our Justification in the Person of Christ only by Receiving him Believing in him to them is Remission of Sin Promised and everlasting life John 1. 12. John 3. 15 16. John 6. 40 47. Rom. 4. 5. Rom. 3. 26. Acts 10. 43. Acts 26. 18. Some do too nicely distinguish between freedom from Punishment and a right to eternal Life as if one could be obtained without the other which is impossible Certainly not to Die is to Live not to Die eternally is to Live eternally the expulsion of Darkness is the bringing in of Light He who is counted worthy to escape the Punishment threatned by Law is worthy to receive the Reward promised by Law I see not what should hinder it since no fault of Omission or Commission can be charged upon him whose Sins are Pardoned If after the full Remission of all our Sins we were to receive eternal Life from the Law then some Righteousness distinct from Pardon a Righteousness wrought by our selves after Pardon would be antecedently necessary to our justification unto life But that is not so for every Pardoned Sinner receives eternal Life from the hand of Free-Grace as the Gift of God freely given without any consideration of any works of Righteousness done by us Gal. 2. 6. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified If there had been law which could have given life verily righteousness should have been by the law Gal. 3. 21. But since the Law does not give Life therefore that Righteousness that lets us into eternal Life is not of the Law but that of Faith Phil. 3. 9. The Law admits of no Pardon allows of none is not at all concerned about that matter but seeks its own satisfaction in a way of strict justice the Law is all for Justice Mercy comes in by another Covenant 'T was never in the nature and constitution of the Law to give life to a Sinner the Law can't do that Rom. 8. 3. It can give life to a Righteous man but not to a Sinner The Law will prosecute him to death 't would act contrary to it self to its own eternal Sanction and declared judgment if it should do otherwise and therefore the Law as a Covenant of Life and Death is fully determined in the Death of Christ towards all Believers who are no longer under the Law but under Grace Yet I say the rigour of the Law in it self is not relaxed by the Pardon of Sin only it does not exert its condemning power upon the persons of Believers because Christ has already Suffered for their Sins but still the Law remains and ever will remain a Sin-condemning and Sin-avenging Law it has as much power as ever to stay the Sinner but it can slay him but once and the stroke of the Law is so heavy in that case that it need not smite him a second time Christ indeed being God as well as Man recovered from that deadly blow the Law gave him for our Sins and so saved himself and us Here is no relaxation of the Law but a full execution of it full satisfaction given to it the whole debt is paid to the utmost farthing by Christ our surety Now all the Life Glory and Happiness that follows upon this comes in by Grace Christ having Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law and the Law being fully satisfied cannot be against any thing that Christ shall do for his Redeemed ones he may freely bestow what he will upon them having brought them under a Covenant of Grace he may and he will pursue that Covenant to the utmost towards them for their good till he has made them as happy as infinite Love and Grace can make them Sin being taken away and expiated by the Death of Christ Believers do pass over of course into his Life they Rise with him he who has called us into a Communion with him in his Death will not deny us Communion with him in his Life and Resurrection otherwise the benefits accruing to us by his Death in a freedom from Punishment would never have made us happy had we been quite shut out from his Life 't was for that end he Died for us that we might Live for ever in him by him and with him The Law and the works of the Law contribute nothing to this Life and for our Evangelical Holiness that is but the fruit and effect of this eternal Life derived from Christ already begun in us and exerting it self gradually according to the measure of our imperfect Sanctification here All our Evangelical works are but so many expressions of that new Life
bear him out in this act then certainly we may safely rely upon this precious Blood for our Justification That which Justifies God in his act of Justifying a Believing sinner must needs be a sufficient cause of our Justification else it could not justifie God in his Justifying act there would be no equitable reason for it besides to say that the Blood of Christ is the only procuring Meritorious cause of our Justification i. e. of the acceptance of out Persons and Performances This is truth but not all the truth belonging to Justification For my next Query is What is it that gives us an interest in the Blood of Christ in the satisfaction he hath made for sin Here nothing must come in as instrumentally necessary to our receiving and applying Christ but Faith only Repentance and new Obedience are the effects of the Faith either they are the effects of Faith or of Unbelief None will say the latter then they must necessarily flow from the real interest that Faith gives us in Christ if not I don't see how we can attain to them At this rate they must be done in our own strength not in Christ's for being conditions as some say of our interest in Christ they must be performed before we can have an interest in him It is an excellent Note of Calvin in his Commentaries upon Rom. 8. 30. Whom he did predestinate them he called and whom he called them he justified c. Scimus enim ubi de salute agitur libenter homines à seipsis incipere fingeréque sibi praeparationes quibus Dei gratiam antevertant i. e. 'T is natural for men in the business of Salvation to begin at themselves fancying some preparatory Works by which they may prevent the Grace of God and do something for themselves in their own strength that may fit and qualifie them for an interest in Christ. In this rotten Principle do many begin their Religion which corrupts their minds ever after from the simplicity that is in Christ and puts them upon seeking Justification Not by Faith but as it were by the works of the law Rom. 9. 32. Supposing something in themselves to be the first cause of their acceptance with God I wish all who call themselves Calvinists would read that place and seriously consider the sense of that Holy man in this main point of our Religion Some through mistake have counted Luther an Antinomian but none call Calvin so 'T is good to be zealous in promoting practical Holiness and Gospel-Obedience but let us be sure it be Gospel-Obedience flowing from a principle of Faith in Christ Jesus For to Preach up Holiness from any other Principle then that of Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ is not to Preach like Ministers of the New Testament Faith only is required in Justification rather than to it I so phrase it because they are simultaneus Repentance and New Obedience do follow Faith let them be kept in their due place and be allowed no causal concurrence unto our Justification and we shall avoid all confusion else there will be a fundamental difference between us while some hold that Faith only gives us an interest in Christ others that Repentance and New Obedience do equally with Faith give us an interest in Christ. Some carry it as if the end of Christ's coming into the world was only to set up a New Covenant of Works upon milder and easier terms of sincere imperfect Obedience which all men are to be exhorted to and urged to the performance of upon a supposed general sufficient Grace purchased by Christ enabling all men who do not wilfully refuse to come up to the terms of this New Covenant This Opinion hath many ill consequences in it viz. Of a General Redemption taking away Original sin restoring man to a freedom of will in doing good setting him upon his own legs again to stand or fall as he comes up to or falls short of the terms of this New conditional Covenant So that all is resolved into mans own power and will all being now put into an equal capacity of Salvation by Christ and having said this they have done with Christ have all in their own hands may set up for themselves and love to be put upon duty as persons sufficiently furnished for it already But notwithstanding this specious new scheme of rational Divinity as some call it I must in faithfulness to God to my own Conscience and the Souls of them that hear me tell you plainly That they who trust in a general Redemption will fall short of their particular Salvation upon the Principles that those Universalists go upon We are all by nature dead in trespasses and sins reprobate to every good Word and Work and shall so remain till we do by a particular personal act of our own Faith come to Christ for life that we may be quickned by his Spirit and made alive unto Righteousness We must have life before we can live or put forth any vital operations we must be first quickned by Christ the great quickning Spirit before we can live to God or do any thing that is Spiritually good 'T is Faith that unites us to Christ which is the gift of God to some for all men have not Faith and till this Faith comes by hearing the Gospel we are dead in sin Christ came not only as a Lawgiver to prescribe rules of living to dead sinners but to create in us a principle of life to give us strength to perform what he requires of us as new Creatures created in Christ Jesus unto good Works All our own endeavours after Holiness while we are out of Christ will prove ineffectual we must be first engrafted into the true Olive-Tree deriving all our fruitfulness from the root that bears us else we shall quickly wither away and come to nothing No acceptable service ever was or can be done by man till Faith brings us to Christ without whom we can do nothing when Faith comes life comes strength comes a Spiritual ability to do the will of God in some measure And as this Faith increases by the daily exercise of it so we increase in Spiritual strength perfecting Holiness more and more in the fear of God Let no man think to be made perfect in the flesh Christ came not to reform corrupt Nature but to destroy it and utterly to extirpate it the old man will never learn to lead a new life die he must and be Crucified he must be put off that we may put on the New man which after God is created in Righteousness and true Holiness Eph. 4. 24. This is the only way to true Holiness here and to Eternal Happiness hereafter To as many as the Lord our God shall effectually call to this Faith to them and to them only doth the promise of Salvation by Christ belong 'T is the command of Christ that all should Believe on him they that do and they only shall be saved by him
all discouraging thoughts that may arise in thee Deut. 7. 17 18 19. If thou shalt say in thine heart these Nations are more than I how shall I dispossess them Thou shalt not be afraid of them but shall well remember what the Lord thy God did to Pharaoh and unto all Egypt Thou shalt not be afrighted at them for the Lord thy God is among you and he will put out these Nations by little and little v. 21 22 We complain things go on but slowly there is little done God chuses to do things by little and little consider what hath been done and don 't make it less than it is it may seem little in comparison of what shall be yet in it self as it is 't is very great And therefore let us argue as David did 1 Sam 17 37. Psal. 3. 7 8. Psal. 9. 10 11. Psal 143 5 6 7 8. so Jehosaphat 2 Chron. 20. 7 9 12. so Paul 2 Cor. 1. 10. God that hath delivered and doth deliver and we trust will yet deliver The remembrance of what God hath done and doth do will strengthen our Hope in him for the future 3. Converse much with the Scriptures especially with the Promises that through Patience and comfort of the Scriptures you may have hope Rom 15. 4. How did David raise his Hope from the Word of God Psal. 119. in many places v 42 72. and elsewhere in that Psalm When a man gives his word to us again and again we believe him and reckon our selves sure of what we ask having so many repeated promises that it shall be done The Word of God is a living Word in this respect because as often as we mingle it with Faith it represents God speaking afresh to us in particular Faith hearing this again and again is more confirmed Faith at first came by hearing and the oftner it hears God speaking in his Word the more it is strengthned in a lively Hope of all that God hath promised 4. Look upon it as your Duty to Hope in God He hath commanded us because he knows we are apt to doubt and question his Promises It is not presumption but Duty to Hope in God relying upon his free Grace and not upon our own deserts which never begets a true humble Christian Hope but a proud arrogant Confidence in a mans self Whereas the fiducial Confidence of Hope is always derived from Faith Eph. 3. 12. 5 thly and Lastly Look unto the God of Hope Live in a constant dependance upon his Spirit to work it in you It is through the Power of the Holy Ghost we abound in hope Rom. 15. 13. That we are brought under the Power of a Christian Hope which arises from such hidden causes such deep grounds not known to flesh and blood that none but God can demonstrate the reasonableness and certainty of our Hope He knows how to beget us again to a lively Hope by the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead which is more than a Promise It is the actual accomplishing of that in another that makes it credible to us that God can raise the Dead and that as he hath raised up Christ so he will also raise up us at the last Day To the former directions add these Two things following If you would ground your Hope aright upon Christ within you so as to come under the Power of it Then 1. Consider well whether Christ be indeed in you whether you have felt the quickning influences of his Spirit in your own Souls Christ is your life Col. 3. 4. comp with John 11. 25. Consider then whether he be indeed your Life use all your Spiritual senses about this it is no easy matter to understand this Mystery There are many who lead a Natural Rational Moral Life under a Christian Profession and may be estranged from the Life of God all their Days You see how Paul distinguishes in the case lest he should mistake himself or be mistaken by others Gal. 2. 20. I live saith he yet not I but Christ liveth in me And so may a Saint now say I understand Gospel Mysteries yet not I as a man by the Light of my own Reason but as a Man in Christ in the Light of Faith by which I know not only that such things are revealed in the Word but also that they shall be accomplished unto all those who rely upon Christ Neither can I give any other reason for their accomplishment but so it is Written and thus saith the Lord. This is to speak like a Christian when we resolve all into Christ becoming fools in our selves that we may be wise in him The Life I now live in the Flesh saith he I live by the Faith of the Son of God take away that Faith and all my Hope as a Christian vanishes away You had need have a true Spiritual Light rightly discerning of Spiritual things to know that Christ is in you as your Life It cannot be known but by Faith Though Faith be very rational in all its arguings from Gospel Principles yet Faith it self is not properly an act of Reason but rather an act above Reason it carries the Understanding above its Reason to act my Understanding so as to assent to that which I have no Natural Reason for This is the knowledge of Faith a strange way of knowing which the world counts Foolishness Supernatural truths don't rise up into our Minds as the product and consequent of our Reason this is humane knowledge according to our Logick But all supernatural truths are let down through the Word by the Spirit of God into our Understandings they are too deep too mysterious and profound to be conveyed to our Understandings by the ordinary course of Reason And therefore God opens another door and lets them into the Soul by Faith Thus he writes his Law in our Hearts puts his Truth into our inward parts Where is the Scribe Where is the Wise Where is the Disputer of this World How doth God confound the Wisdom of the Wise from whom he hides these things which he reveals to Babes and Sucklings Poor humble Souls they have the knowledge of the Heavenly Mysteries and the World knows not how they came by it Whence hath this man this wisdom and this knowledge having never learned say they of Christ Matth. 13. 54. comp with John 7. 15. They wonder'd that any not brought up in their Schools should be more knowing than themselves It is an astonishment to the World to consider what knowledge poor humble Saints have of things which they do in no wise understand 2. Have a care of too gross conceptions of Christ within you You must understand the Text Spiritually As Reason brings Natural things into your Minds and gives you an Intellectual Vision of them So Faith brings Heavenly things into your Minds and gives you a Spiritual Vision of them Christ is first known to us by Faith There is no knowing him but by Believing in him no coming to