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
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
Christ into the Soul begets Hope And also How Christ received doth feed nourish and maintain this Hope keep it up I begin with the First To consider the Nature of Faith as it is a Cause of Hope When the Apostle saith Christ in us is the Hope of Glory he means Christ received by us or Christ believed on For nothing but Faith can raise up Hope no not from Christ himself Faith is before all other Graces is the Mother of them all Hope Love Fear Joy Zeal and the like are but the several Motions of the Heart towards Christ as he is represented to us by Faith Faith raises and sanctifies our Affections lets them out upon Christ so leading out our Souls towards him by all those holy Passions that may be any way expressive of the high Veneration we have for him Our Affections do express the sense of our Souls whether we like or dislike how we stand affected towards any thing proposed to us My business is To shew how Faith begets Hope how naturally Hope rises out of Faith and is founded upon it And I shall argue from the Nature of Faith as it stands in relation to Hope so it is spoken of Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen It is the Substance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quasi fulcrum rerum sperendarum It is Calvin's Notation upon the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Institut lib. 3. c. 2. Sect. 41. Faith is that which under-props Hope and therefore rendred the substance of things hoped for à substando denoting not only the subsistance of the things hoped for in the Understanding of a Believer but also the help that Faith gives our Minds to conceive of things to come as if they were now before our eyes and in our hands Faith is Hypostasis that which under-props our Hope that which Hope stands upon Faith bears up Hope Hope stands upon the shoulders of Faith and looks over into Eternity upon things to come which are lifted up as it were by Faith out of their Futurity and rendred as present to us in their very substance that is The Objects of a lively Hope do affect the Mind of a Believer as much as present Objects do our Senses Hence Faith is also called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Index Ostension Probation or Conviction of things hoped for that is it is the evidence of things not appearing the sight or intellectual Vision of things not seen it is the Perspicuity or plain Appearance of things obscure it is the presence of things absent the demonstration of things occult and hidden and all this because Faith doth secure to us what is hoped for from the Promise of God Evidence is a rational intellectual thing the demonstration of something to our Understandings But the Substance of a Thing is the Thing it self it is as if it were so to a Lively Hope thus raised and influenced by Faith Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Besides Faith sees that in Christ that answers all Objections against our Hope His Power and Ability to save is unquestionable to every true Believer whether he will save such vile sinners as we are many doubts may come in at this door but it is of the Essence of Saving Faith to believe the Power and Ability of Christ to save to the uttermost there can be no Faith till then neither weak nor strong Where there is nothing to relye upon there can be no reliance That which we rely upon must be sure and certain in it self Hence Christ is compared to a Rock to a Foundation to a Corner-Stone that bears up the Weight of the whole Building He is one mighty to save and must be looked upon as such before a poor trembling Sinner will venture to trust in him I grant they who don't question his Power may doubt of his Will as that Leper Matth. 18. 2. If thou wilt thou canst make me whole Yet when things come to extremity between God and a Sinner Faith in the Power and Ability in Christ to save us will carry it against all surmizes of any unwillingness in him to save us When we are put to it indeed Faith will make the venture the Consideration whether he will or will not save thee is out of doors then you 'll cast your selves upon him at all adventure if I perish I perish tho thou killest me I will trust in thee To whom should we go with thee only are the words of eternal life There is no other name under heaven salvation is in no other Acts 4. 12. There is many a soul goes o Christ for Salvation who at the same time may fear and think and it may be say That Christ will not save them will not own them nor look upon them but having none else to flye unto to him they must and to him they will go at last if they belong to God Lord save us we perish say they They come to Christ under fears of perishing as appears by their Outcries and yet not without some hope of Deliverance as appears by their Coming I am persuaded many a dear Child of God goes out of the world under such a trembling Act of Faith and blessed are they that do so for certainly that is dying in the Lord. It may not be so comfortable yet it is a safe state And this may be not only the concluding Act of Faith in a dying hour but Faith may and doth so act in weak Christians at other seasons it brings them to the feet of Christ full of Fears and Doubts and there they lye and there they will lye till help comes from the Lord. They are long a coming to Christ but come they will first or last It shews they have some hope more it may be than they themselves take notice of They express it rather by their Actions than by their Words They act like those who have hope tho they speak like those who have none Master save us we perish I must allow something for these doubts and fears of our Acceptance with God upon the account of our own unworthiness as consistent with the Nature of Saving Faith in the main Yet whatever shew of Humility they have they are but a proud piece of Unbelief And I will further say That these distrustful Thoughts of Christ's Willingness to save us are most directly opposite to the Hope in the Text and do arise I am persuaded from a secret Distrust of his All-sufficiency and Power tho we may not discern this in our selves That act of Unbelief that is uppermost and most palpable goes for all the Unbelief that is in our heart when it is quite otherwise if they were searched to the bottom Unbelief hath many Strings and Fibres it is a complicated thing all evil is in it even Atheism it self let us carry it how we will it is a denial of God
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.
to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. And that he may effect this he shews us God in himself They who have not seen God in Christ they know not what God is they have never yet seen him who is invisible This is the Excellency of the Christian Religion That it brings us to the knowledge of that very Person who is God which cannot be said of any other Religion whatever CHRIST THE Foundation of our Adoption GAL. IV. 5. That we might receive the Adoption of sons CHAP. I. Of Adoption in general THE Apostle here shews the difference between the Jewish and the Gentile Church That was as an Heir in his Minority This as an Heir come to full age All Old Testament Saints were God's Heirs But living under a darker Dispensation of Gospel Grace before the coming of Christ in the flesh in that respect they were under age and in bondage under the Elements of the World but when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law v. 4 5. i. e. To free them from the servile Discipline of the Law pouring our a more ample measure of his Spirit upon Believers now That we might receive the Adoption of Sons Old Testament Sains were Children as well as we they are so called Deut. 14. 1. Jer. 31. 20. Isa. 63. 16. Doubtless thou art our Father they had God for their Portion Lam. 3. 24. were Heirs as well as we Gal. 4. 1. But their time and ours was not the same they lived in the beginning of Gospel time when Grace first broke out the Glass was then first set a running and is now run to a fulness v. 4. i. e. to the time appointed of the father v. 2. For the fuller manifestation of Gospel-Grace Adoption is not to be restrained altogether to the times of the New Testament the Saints of Old had their share of it sucked some comfort from those more obscure Promises of Gospel-Grace they were acted by some love as well as fear truly Saints now are not altogether without their fears under this abundance of Grace that is revealed to them so that their Adoption and ours differ not in substance but in the manner of Revelation 't is clearer to us than it was to them Adoption in Scripture is taken more largely as including those who are Sons of God by Name only as all common Professors who are but externally in Covenant such are called the Sons of God and of the Kingdom Gen. 6. 2. Mat. 8. 12. But such Children may prove Bastards not true sons of God So God chuseth the Nation of the Jews to be his peculiar People this is called Adoption Rom. 9. 4. Exod. 4. 22. Jer. 31. 1. This was a type or resemblance of our spiritual Adoption in Christ and in this strict sense I now take it as it is applicable only to those who are the Children of God from special Saving Grace who have the Nature Affection and Disposition of Children Christ is the Son of God by eternal Generation Angels by Creation Believers by a voluntary Adoption and of this I am now to speak First What this Adoption is 1. As to the thing it self Adoption is a high expression of Godâ—s love to us a clear evidence of that great intimacy and nearness that is between God and Believers who are admitted into fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. How our Adoption rises from the Son-ship of Christ by vertue of our Union to and Communion with him I shall shew in its proper place For the present take this general description of it viz. 'T is a gracious act of God giving all Believers power to become the Children of God John 1. 12. looking upon them ever after as such taking them into his Family and under his eternal Care Eph. 2. 19. Eph 3. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi filii constituti constituted ordained and appointed by God to be his Children to be in the state and condition of Children unto him Power to become i. e. jus or right to Adoption the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a lawful Liberty or License given by God 1 Cor. 8. 9. So here Believers do not usurp a Name or Title that does not belong to them God has called them his Children and made them his Children therefore they may lawfully and rightfully be called by that Name The word also implies a special Prerogative Dignity and Honour conferred upon them which is primarily intended in this place As Justification so Adoption makes only a relative change of state in the Judgment of God reckoning or reputing us to be his Children whom he will love and own as such 2. As to its order and place in Divinity how comes it in and where after what 'T is an Article of Faith I am now enquiring What joint in the whole body of Divinity is the proper Seat of this Article that we may know what immediately goes before it and what immediately follows after it We have not a right Method or Scheme of Divinity in our Heads till we see the coherence dependance and reference that one Gospel-truth hath with upon and to another that stands next it There is some variation here among Divines tho no material difference some referring it to Predestination some to Vocation some to Justification some to Sanctification and some to Glorification indeed it has some reference to all those as will appear by and by I conceive Adoption comes orderly to be considered after Justification as an Appendix or consequent of it it presupposes Faith John 1. 12. And therefore is no part of Justification but a Spiritual priviledge flowing from it Believers have a double right to Heaven one from Redemption the other from Filiation this is an accumulative right ex abundanti given purposely to confirm them in their hope of Glory Rom. 8. 17. Adoption tends to Glorification and gives a right to it I mean it is not the Meritorious cause but only causa dispositiva it doth naturally tend both to Sanctification and Glorification God draws Arguments from one act of his Grace towards us to proceed further and further in a way of Grace with us having made us his Children it pleases him to give us a Kingdom Secondly How it is brought about as to the cause manner and time of it 1. The cause of it 1. The free Grace of God the Father not any Merit of ours John 3. 1. Eph. 1. 5. Therefore we should be thankful to him for it Col. 1. 12. To the father who hath made us meet c. He hath wrought us for the self-same thing 2 Cor. 5. 5. Who hath not only conferred a right of inheriting Glory but also hath suited and qualified our hearts and nature by his Grace to enjoy this glory and delight in it 2. As God the Father is the prime Author of Adoption so Christ
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
witness whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son and with a pure conscience 2 Tim. 1. 3. void of offence towards God Acts 24. 16. In simplicity and godly sincerity 2 Cor. 1. 12. When with our minds we serve the law of God Rom. 7. 25. God is a Spirit and will be Worshipped in spirit and truth You have reason to enure your selves to this Spiritual worship because ere long you will be all Spirit when you have laid down these earthly tabernacles I mean it is the will of God that the Souls of men should after death live a while out of the body in a separate state till the Resurrection conversing with an innumerable company of Angels and Spirits of just men made perfect Though Believers now are Spiritually joined to the general Assembly of the First-born and in the apprehensions of their Faith do rejoyce in that relation they stand in to the Church-triumphant yet after death they will have actual communion with those blessed Spirits above though we cannot so clearly apprehend what this happy Paradisical state is after death yet those who are spiritually minded conceive so much of it by Faith as makes them long to be dissolved and to be with Christ they grow weary of all earthly converses waiting till their change comes that they may enter into rest from all their Labours and from that hard travel of Soul which they cannot be freed from till their warfare be fully accomplish'd then they put off their Armour as more than Conquerors and sit down in an everlasting Peace with palms in their hands and crowns upon their heads triumphing in the Grace of Christ to all Eternity Could we look through the dark Entry of the Grace into Eternity lifting up our heads within the Vail we should see a Glorious Light that would dazzle our eyes we should have a stronger taste of the powers of the world to come The wiser sort of Heathens were not without some thoughts of a future happy estate they did praesentire in posterum They had some bodings in their minds of some great good or evil that should befal them after death What a shame is it for Christians to be so little affected with the future eternal state of their Immortal Souls Believers while they are in this world are joyned to the Lord in one Spirit i. e. in one spiritual body or in the same spiritual nature with Christ Heb. 2. 11. We live the life of Christ the Head and the Members being acted by the same Spirit Christians have not every one a diverse spirit as every man hath a divers Soul numerically distinct from the Soul of another man but as all Members of the Body have the same Soul though each of them divers operations Rom. 12. 4. so we have all of us one and the same Spirit though the operations of it be divers 1 Cor. 12. 4 13. Therefore if there be any fellowship of the Spirit let us glorifie God in our bodies and in our spirits which are God's CHRIST The ONLY MEDIATOR OF THE NEW COVENANT HEB. XII 24. And to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant BEfore I speak to the Words of the Text I shall premise Two Things 1. Compare the Covenant of Grace with the Covenant of Works shewing in what they agree and in what they differ 2. Compare the New Covenant with the Mount Sinai-Covenant CHAP. I. Christ the ONLY Mediator c. FIRST I shall Compare the Covenant of Works with the Covenant of Grace in sundry particulars 1. The Covenant of Grace frees a Sinner from two things which by the Covenant of Works are in force against him 1. From the Curse 2. From perfect Obedience as a Condition of life to be performed by man himself My meaning is That the Covenant of Grace does not take away the Condition of perfect obedience but only the Performance of it by us It is enough that Christ hath performed it for us by whose Obedience we are made Righteous 2. The Covenant of Grace is so far a friend to the Covenant of Works or rather to the Good Works commanded by that Covenant that it takes in all the moral Duties of that Covenant they are as much our Duty now under the Gospel as they were under the Law and our coming short in any of them is as much our sin now as then we ought as much to strive against it nay which is more than could be expected under the Law we are called to repent of it The Law neither gave Grace to repent neither did it admit of any Repentance You see how little countenance the Covenant of Grace rightly understood gives to Licentiousness how much it promotes Holiness even the perfection of Holiness For when all the Grace of that Covenant is given forth it will issue in Perfection then the Saints will be perfect The reason why under the Gospel imperfect Obedience is accepted is not because the Imperfections of it are approved but because they are pardoned and covered 3. The Covenant of Works shews what man must do to be justified The Covenant of Grace what a justified man ought to do how he should carry himself ever after towards God Holiness of life by the Covenant of Works went before Justification as the procuring meritorious cause of it but according to the Covenant of Grace it is the consequent or effect of Justification 4. The Covenant of Grace in the application of it to us begins in the pardon of sin No Grace reaches us till pardoning Grace begins with us we are under a curse till then concluded or shut up under wrath but pardoning Mercy opens the door for all manner of Mercies to enter in turns the whole stream and course of God's Grace towards us Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven c. Psalm 32. 1. This leads the way to all other blessings 5. In the Covenant of Grace God declares what he will be to us and do for us and also what he will enable us to be to him and to do for his Glory his free Grace undertakes both Parts of the Covenant 6. The Covenant of Grace presupposes full satisfaction made by Christ for all our sins against the Covenant of Works else God would not be just in justifying a Believer Rom. 3. 25 26. 7. The Covenant of Grace finds nothing in man to commed him to God but what it brings along with it To suppose any preparatory qualifications conditions causes or motives to make way for us into the favour of God does quite overthrow the nature of free Grace and take off greatly from the glory of it 1. None can have an interest in the Covenant of Grace or be said in a Gospel sence to be in Covenant in whom the essential parts of the Covenant are not already in some measure fulfilled viz. To have the Law written in their heart to have a right Spirit put into us to own God for our God to delight in
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