Birth they have the happiness to be born there where Christ is the God of the Country that which makes others Turks and Infidels makes them Christians but though they stand upon the higher Ground they are not the taller Men. 3. They are very willing to be forgiven by Christ and to obtain Eternal Life but this is what meer Necessity requires them They will not suffer him to do his whole Work to sanctify them and fit them to live to God nor part with their nearest and dearest Lusts and come into the obedience of the Gospel or at least if Christ will do it for them without their improving this Grace or using his holy Means they are contented But having such precious Promises and such a blessed Redeemer we are to cleanse our selves 2 Cor. 7. 11. The Work is ours though the Grace be from him So Gal. 5. 14. They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts. 4. Some have a strong Conceit that they shall be saved and have Benefit by Christ. This which they call their Faith may be the greatest Unbelief in the World that Men living in their Sins shall yet do well enough is to believe the flat contrary of what God hath spoken in his Word 1 Cor. 6. 9. Know ye not that the Unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Drunkards nor effeminate Persons c. shall inherit the Kingdom of God It is not Strength of Conceit but the sure Foundation of our Hope that will support us nor are they the most happy who have the least Trouble but who have the least Cause Use 2. Do we believe in the Son of God Here will be the great Case of Conscience for setling our Eternal Interest 1. If we believe Christ will be precious to us 1 Pet. 2. 7. Unto them which believe he is precious Christ cannot be accepted where he is not valued when other Things come in competition with him and God will not be prodigal of his Grace 2. Where there is true Faith the Heart will be purified Acts 15. 9. Purifying their Hearts by Faith 3. If you do believe in Christ the Heart will be weaned from the World 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 4. If you have the true Faith it works by Love Gal. 5. 6. For in Iesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Uncircumcision but Faith which worketh by Love By these things will the Case be determined Then the Comfort and Sweetness of this Truth falls upon your Hearts that God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life SERMON XVII DEUT. 30. 15. See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. MOses the Man of God having acquainted the People with the Tenour of God's Commandments both concerning Worship and civil Conversation doth inforce all by a pregnant Exhortation laying before their Eyes the Blessings of Obedience and the Plagues and Curses that should overtake them in case they should decline from the Ways of the Lord thus recommended to them In all which he sheweth himself not only as an ordinary Preacher speaking by way of Exhortation and Doctrinal Threatning but as a special Prophet speaking by way of Prediction and that with such clearness and certainty that these few Chapters may be looked upon as an exact Kalender and Prognostication wherein the good or bad days of this People are expresly calculated and foretold yea comparing Events with the Prediction you would rather conceive Moses his Speech to be an Authentick Register and Chronicle of what is past than an infallible Prophecy of what was to come nothing good or bad hath befallen this People from the beginning to this Day but what is here foretold What is more largely declared upon in this Exhortation is contracted into a narrow room and summary here in the Text See I have set before thee this day Life and Good Death and Evil. In the Words observe 1. The Matter propounded in two Pairs that have a mutual Connection one with another Life and Good Death and Evil. 2. The Manner of Proposal I have set before thee 3. A Duty inferred or Attention excited See 1. The Matter propounded a double Pair or Conjugation Life and Good Death and Evil. Life as the End Good as the Means leading to Life Or else Life that is the enjoyment of God and Good the Felicity following it The Septuagint changeth the Order 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The Manner of Proposing I have set before thee The Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in a lively manner laid forth and offered for choice We have a saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that contraries put together do mutually illustrate each other Here is Good and Evil Life and Death put together that we may embrace the one and eschew the other As the Poets feign of Hercules when he was young Vertue and Vice came to woo and make court to him Vertue like a sober chast Virgin offering him Labours with Praise and Renown Vice like a painted Harlot wooing him with the Blandishment of Pleasures So in the 5th of Proverbs Wisdom and Folly are represented both pleading to draw in the Hearts of Men to them ver 4. compared with the 16th Whoso is simple let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth Understanding she saith Come eat of my Bread and drink of the Wine that I have mingled The one hath her Pleasures and the other hath her Pleasures only the Pleasures of Folly are stolen Waters and Bread eaten in secret Comforts we get by Stealth Jollity and Mirth when Conscience is asleep So here Moses layeth before them the fruit of Obedience and Disobedience Life and Death 3. The Word exciting Attention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See I have done this in order to Choice for so it is ver 19. Choose Life that both Thou and thy Seed may live Doct. It is the Duty of the Faithful Servants of the Lord in a lively manner to set before the People Life and Death as the fruit of Good and Evil. Moses was God's Minister to instruct this People and what doth he propose and confirm in his Doctrine but Life and Death Good and Evil and this was a part of his Faithfulness Witness that vehement Obtestation used ver 19. He calls Heaven and Earth to record that he had faithfully discharged his Duty herein This was the course that God himself took with Adam in Innocency he set before him Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledg Gen. 2. 9. That he might live by the one and not perish by the other God had respect to the Mutability of his Nature and therefore restrained him by the threatning of
Jesus Christ required and so much spoken of in Scripture I will content my self but with two Reasons at this time 1. Faith in Christ is most fitted for the acceptance of God's free Gift Faith and Grace do always go together and are put as opposite to Law and Works Rom. 4. 16. It is of Faith that it may be of Grace Eph. 2. 8. For by Grace ye are saved through Faith and not of your selves it is the Gift of God not of Works left any Man should boast Faith establishes and keeps up the Interest and Honour of Grace for it is the free Grace and Favour of God to condescend to the Rebel World so far as he hath done in the new Covenant We present our selves before him as those that stand wholly to his Mercy have nothing to plead for our selves but the Righteousness and Merit of our Redeemer by virtue of which we humbly beg Pardon and Life to be begun in us by his Spirit and perfected in Glory 2. Why Faith in Christ Because the way of our Recovery is so strange and wonderful It can only be received by Faith Sense cannot convey it to us Reason will not and nothing is reserved for the entertainment of this glorious Mystery Pardon and Salvation by our Redeemer but Faith alone If I should deduce this Argument at large I would shew you nothing but Faith or the Belief of God's Testimony concerning his Son can support us in these Transactions with God The Comfort of the Promise is so rich and glorious Sense and Reason cannot inform us of it Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor can it enter into the Heart of Man to conceive 1 Cor. 2. 9. the things God hath prepared for them that love him It is not meant only of Heaven but of the whole Preparations and rich Provisions God hath made for us in the Gospel It is not a thing can come to us by Eye or Ear or the conceiving of Man's heart we only believe and entertain it by Faith And then the Persons upon whom it is bestowed are so unworthy that certainly it cannot enter into the Heart of Man that God will be so good and do so much good to such Adam when he had sinned grew shy of God and ran away from him Besides the way God hath taken for our deliverance is so supernatural God so loved the World that he sent his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting Life That God should become Man that he should submit to such an accursed Death for our Sakes is so high and glorious it can only be entertain'd by Faith Besides our chief Blessedness lies in another World He that lacketh Faith is blind and cannot see afar off Here in this lower World where our God is unseen and our great Hopes are to come where the Flesh is so importunate to be pleased where our Temptations and Trials are so many and Difficulties so great we are apt to question all and we can never keep waiting upon God were it not for Faith and a steady Belief in the Lord Jesus Christ. For these Reasons if you look into the Scriptures it is why Faith is so much insisted upon that we may keep up the honour of God's Grace and because this Grace of the Redeemer is so mysterious and wonderful 4. The Use of these two Graces discover their Nature What is Faith and Repeatance Repentance towards God is a Turning from Sin to God The Terminus à quo of Repentance is our begun Recovery from Sin and therefore called Repentance from dead Works Heb. 6. 1. The Terminus ad quem to which we return is God and our being devoted to God in Obedience and Love God never hath our Hearts till he hath our Love and Delight till we return to a Love of his blessed Majesty and delight in his Ways This is called in Scripture sometimes a turning to God in many other places a seeking after God a giving up our selves to God 2 Cor. 8. 5. They gave up themselves to the Lord. This is the Repentance by which we enter into the Gospel-State Now what is Faith Besides an Assent to the Gospel which is at the bottom of it It is a serious thankful broken-hearted Acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ that he may be to every one of us what God hath appointed him to be and do forevery one of us what God hath appointed him to do for poor Sinners It is serious and broken-hearted done by a Creature in misery and thankful for such a wonderful Benefit a trusting to this Redeemer that he may do the Work of a Redeemer in our Hearts to save us from the evil of and after Sin And thus I have briefly opened this necessary Doctrine as clearly laid down in the Scripture And this is your Entrance in the Evangelick State II. For our Continuance therein For we must not only mind our Entrance but our Continuance Our Lord Jesus tells us of a Gate and a Way the Gate signifies the Entrance and the Way our Continuance And we read of making and keeping Covenant with God we read of Union with Christ that is our first Entrance for this Faith is the closing Act and exprest sometimes by a being married to Christ. But there is not only an Union with Christ but an Abiding in him Abide in me and I will abide in you Now as for our Continuance I would shew you that the first Works are gone over and over again Faith and Repentance are still necessary For the Righteousness of God is revealed frm Faith to Faith And Repentance is still necessary But I shall only press two things First New Obedience Secondly Daily Prayer 1. New Obedience is required 1 Ioh. 1. 7. If we walk in the Light as he is in the Light we have fellowship one with another and the Blood of Iesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Holy Walking is necessary to the continuance of our being cleansed from Sin and therefore Mercy is promised to the forsaking of our Sins Prov. 18. 13. He that confesseth and forsaketh his Sins shall find Mercy Isa. 55. 7. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous Man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have Mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Our Hearts were not sound with God in the first Covenanting if we undo what was done If we build again the things we have destroyed then we are found Transgressours Gal. 1. 18. Well then a Man that seeks after Pardon seeks after it with the ruine and destruction of Sin Sin was the greatest Burden that lay upon his Conscience the Greivance from whence he sought ease the Wound pain'd him at Heart the Disease his Soul was sick of And was all this Anguish real and shall a Man come to delight in his Sores again and take up the Burden he groaned under and tear open
saved 4. Necessitate Signi as Evidences of our Right to Salvation both to others and our selves Works or external Acts are more sensible and visible and also liable to the notice of our own Consciences and it is more hard to judg of the internal Grace than the external Fruits 1. As to others God seeth what is in our Hearts but Men see it not till the Effects manifest it When Iohn suspected the Pharisees he said to them Mat. 3. 8. Bring ye forth therefore Fruits meet for Repentance The Fear of God is more known by the external Act than by the internal Habit therefore that Description is given Prov. 8. 13. The Fear of the Lord is to hate Evil Pride and Arrogancy and the evil Way and the froward Mouth do I hate And Iob 28. 28. The Fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from Evil is Understanding The Current of a Mans Life and Actions doth best expound and interpret his Heart Thus the Psalmist discovered the wicked Psal. 36. 1. The Transgression of the Wicked saith within my Heart that there is no Fear of God before his Eyes 2. To our selves holy Conversation and Godliness is the surest note of our Regeneration We judg others by external Works alone For the Tree is known by its Fruit Mat. 7. 16. Charity forbids us to pry any further but we judg our selves by internal and external Works together If within we have Faith in Christ a love to God and hatred of Evil a delight in Holiness a deep sense of the World to come all which Graces make up the new Nature then these things issue out into an holy Conversation this breedeth Joy and Peace of Conscience 2 Cor. 1. 12. This is our rejoycing the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly Wisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the World 1 John 3. 18 19. Let us not love in Word neither in Tongue but in Deed and in Truth and hereby we know that we are of the Truth and shall assure our Hearts before him 3. That good Works must not be opposed to God's Mercy and free Grace or Christ's Satisfaction Merit and Righteousness either in the matter of Justification or Salvation but kept in a due subordination to God's Grace and Christ's Merits This is the business of this Context to reconcile the Grace of God with the necessity of good Works è contrà and very well it may be for they are part of the Grace obtained He is most beholden to God and indebted to Grace who is enabled to do most good for all is from him Phil. 2. 13. He worketh in us both to will and to do of his own good Pleasure So that our very doing is receiving But because there are a sort of Men that may be called Justiciaries who trust and teach others to trust to their own Vertues and Works without a Saviour or ascribe the part of a Saviour to them and on the other side the Libertines who teach Men not to look at any thing in themselves at all not as an Evidence Condition or Means but to trust to Christ's Blood to be instead of Faith Repentance and Obedience which is their Duty to be performed by them therefore it will be necessary to be well acquainted with what is truly the Part and Office of Christ what is truly the Office of Faith and Repentance what of Works that you may be sure to give every thing its due and may wholly trust Christ for his part and not joyn Faith or any of your Works and Duties in the least degree of that Trust and Honour which belongeth to our Saviour but regard them according to that use for which they are commanded in the Gospel 1. Our Works whatever they are either Duties to God or Man are not the first moving cause or inducement to incline God to shew us Favour or to bring about our Salvation No this Honour must be reserved for the Grace of God which moveth and stirreth all in the business of our Salvation It was his Grace to provide us a Saviour John 3. 16. God so loveth the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting Life And the giving of Faith or converting Grace to some before others is the meer Effect of his Mercy and good Pleasure Eph. 2. 4 5. God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he hath loved us when we were dead in Trespasses and Sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved Then the Benefits consequent upon Conversion are from God's Love and Mercy As Justification Rom. 3. 24. Iustified freely by his Grace Not only by his Grace but freely that is not excited by our Works but acting freely of its own accord Then for Eternal Life we have it from the Grace of God and the Mercy of our Redeemer Jude 21. Looking for the Mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto Eternal Life So that Grace is the first Mover and Principle in the whole Business of our Salvation it is originally from Grace and all along by Grace 2. Our Works before or after Conversion are not that Righteousness not any part of that meritorious Righteousness by virtue of which Sins are expiated the Wrath of God appeased all Blessings of Heaven purchased and we reconciled to God For this is only to be ascribed to the Merit and Satisfaction of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we were Enemies we were reconciled by his Death and are saved by his Life Rom. 5. 10. He is our Propitiation we live by him 1 John 4. 9 10. In this was manifested the Love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the World that we might live through him Herein is Love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the Propitiation for our Sins It is Christ's Office and Honour to be a Sacrifice for Sin and a Propitiation for us and a perfect Saviour and Intercessor to obtain the Spirit to fit us for our present Duty and future Happiness We are his Workmanship in Christ. 3. Our Works or Duties which we perform in Obedience to God are not the first means to apply the Grace of the Redeemer or the Condition of our first entrance into the Evangelical Estate No that is proper to Repentance and Faith Rom. 3. 22. The Righteousness of God is by Faith unto all and upon all them that believe And Repentance is frequently required also to receive Pardon and the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Iesus Christ for the remission of Sins and ye shall receive the Gift of the Holy Ghost Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be Converted that your Sins may be blotted out It is the penitent believing Sinner that is