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
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
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
not but there may be matter of doubt among the Saints in heaven it self whether they be real Saints or no. 'T is the weakness and imperfection of things that casts them under a suspicion but when they shine out in their full beauty and glory there is no room for any objection Does any man question whether the Sun be risen at Noon-day If perfect Day will not pass for Day then there is no difference between Day and Night Light and Darkness must be all one 'T is not a right way to a setled peace of Conscience that some take who instead of an humble application to free Grace for the Pardon of sin do apply themselves to their own goods works considering how holy they have been how holy they are how holy they intend to be and all this in order to their Justification at last 't is a hard matter to keep men humble under such thoughts they will be glorying in the flesh and think themselves something when they are nothing To look for Justification by our own Holiness will prove an ineffectual motive unto Holiness either they are discouraged from the visible imperfection of their Holiness or else they grow remiss in it thinking that any thing will serve to justifie them since perfect Righteousness is not required such as they have must serve the turn rather then fail of eternal life any thing will do under the umbrage of it may be but a pretended sincerity a good meaning must answer for a bad life and on they go in their wonted evil course all is but imperfection and weakness and the Covenant of Grace not requiring perfection will bear with that and pass it by I confess there is Grace enough in the Gospel to Pardon all your sins but whether the best of you have good works enough to justifie your Persons you had best see to that I dare appeal to all your Consciences in point of experience whether you do not find your selves growing more holy and conscientiously strict in your walking with God under an humble dependance upon the Free Grace of God in Christ Jesus for the Pardon of all your sins than ever you did under your greatest endeavours to save your selves by your own works The Grace of God teaches to deny all ungodliness and nothing will effectually do it but that The great question among us this day about Justification is Whether our Good Works and Evangelical Righteousness have not some place in our Justification as con-causes or social causes having some partial influence at least that way I would propound two Expedients for Peace 1. Since the main point of difference is about the use of our Good Works at the day of Judgment when we shall be sententially justified or pronounced just by God I would have the decision of this left to that day for I fear we are not likely to agree sooner Then 't will appear that evidences of Faith are no cause of the Justification of our persons in the sight of God That will be resolved into pure Faith resting upon Christ for Righteousness and life 2. Since we cannot agree in the nature use and proper ends of Evangelical Righteousness let us more strictly intend the thing it self and labour every one of us to be more Evangelically holy and righteous in our lives and conversations Did we live more by Faith in Christ Jesus we should quickly see how all good works rise out of that Faith by which all true Believers are already justified All that An inomianism that the Orthodox Preachers of Free Grace are falsly charged with lies here Because they maintain and I hope ever will maintain that the first thing a convinced sinner is to eye in his turning to God is the Free Grace and Mercy of God in Christ for the Pardon of Sin Evangelical Conviction leads him to a reliance upon Christ in some degree of Saving Faith for the pardon of all his Sins and this Faith begets in him a secret hope of Pardon and is the spring of all after Sanctification viz. of Mortification of Sin of Repentance of all new Obedience Let this be remembred as the main thing we contend about that we begin our Religion at the Grace of God and not think to ground our Faith in Christ upon any legal preparations or works of our own We ought not to hold a convinced sinner one moment under Legal Terrors without making an offer of Grace in Christ to him I see not what should hinder a sinner under the height of Legal Conviction from hanging himself as Judas did I am sure a thorough Legal Conviction of Sin will sink any man into utter despair if Faith in Christ come not in immediately to his relief Indeed those who are but half convinced by the Law and know not the strict Spiritual sense of it may betake themselves to their works and duties and think to save themselves that way but this is so vain a thought I will not spend time to confute it you who have lived so long under the Light of the Gospel can answer that your selves Besides Pure Legal Convictions have a greater tendency to Despair than to Faith they naturally work despair but 't is the work of God a supernatural work of his Spirit that any under such Convictions are made to believe in Christ. The Conviction becomes Evangelical in all who believe and it is Faith makes it so Evangelical Conviction includes Legal Faith indeed pointing to Christ abates something of the Terror of the Law and by a clearer Gospel-light expounds the law into its true sense and meaning which no natural man can gather from the bare Letter of the Law and thus Faith by the Law lets us further into the knowledge of sin than the Law alone without the Gospel could ever do And this is that Faith we preach as the beginning of all true Conversion and the only spring of all true Holiness We cannot begin to lead a holy life till we first look unto Christ by Faith for the pardon of sin CHRIST THE Great Redeemer of Body and Soul 1 COR. VI. 20. For ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's CHAP. I. FOR ye are bought with a price c. i. e. with the Price of the Blood of Christ who has redeemed us to himself and purchased an everlasting Right in and Dominion over our bodies and souls therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are God's Or thus Obs. The absolute Dominion that God has over us and the special right that he hath in us and to us not only as our Creator but as our Redeemer lays a strong Obligation upon us to glorifie God in our body and in our Spirit which are his 'T is fit that man should have the use of his own things what he has bought and paid for we stand much upon our Property would not have that invaded meum tuum
God's grace comes to us we either receive it or put it from us and 't will be no joy of heart to us in a dying Hour to think how often we have refused our own Mercies offered to us which nothing but our final unbelief can hinder us of you who do not now believe know assuredly that you will never believe 'till God turn your hearts and he then begins to turn them when he puts you upon seeking earnestly to him for it as that which none can do besides I wish this sign of Conversion were more apparent in us all how diligently should we wait upon God for converting Grace in the use of means the reason why many receive so little benefit from the word is because they expect so little from it they do not come with raised expectations of a powerful Revelation of the Arm of God upon their hearts you that do have I doubt not seen and felt the mighty works of God upon your Souls Faith begins at the promises is raised from thence and ever after waits for the performance of them it shall be done according to your Faith Some think they must bring Faith to the Covenant as a preparatory Qualification for all the Grace that is there promised whereas we must come to the Covenant for our first Faith and fetch it thence the Spirit by the outward proposal of the Covenant kindles Faith in us by which we cast our selves upon the free Grace of God in Christ We have nothing to believe till then Do this and then look for the Law written in your hearts for the Spirit of God and all the fruits of the Spirit in your repentance Love Obedience and holy walking with God all Graces flow from the Covenant of Grace Pray that God will give you a heart to assent to and close with Christ upon the terms of the Covenant and then see if all be not made good to you God will do much for the Glory of his Grace but he will do nothing to nourish your Pride and Conceitedness of your selves and your own righteousness seek all from Grace and you have all but if you go about to establish your own righteousness you will never attain unto righteousness if you seek it not by Faith Rom. 9. 32. 3. How come we to discern God to be our God in Christ or what is there in Christ that makes out this unto us 1. Christ as Man does own God to be his God and the God of all who are in him My Father and your Father my God and your God John 20. 17. God is not only the God of Christ Personal but of Christ Mystical his Head both ways 1 Cor. 11. 3. When we are one in Christ then the God of Christ is our God we cannot since the fall have an Interest in God but through a Mediator he is the great Peace maker 't is Christ makes God to be ours who otherwise would be against us not for us God is in Christ reconciling the World unto himself As Christ owns God to be his God so God the Father owns Christ incarnate as his wellbelovedSon and the same love he beareth to him he beareth to all his Members John 17. 23 26. We can have no immediate Knowledg of God in his own Divine Essence So he is perfectly known only to himself all that concerns us to know of him he has revealed in Christ Without a personal knowledge of God in Christ we cannot act our Faith upon him nor have any real Communion with him Notions are not Persons or Subsistencies but Mental Conceptions neither can we apply our selves to those Speculations if we know not the Person to whom they belong all Divine Attributes relate to their proper Subject nay more all Divine Attributes are of the essence of God they are God himself neither do our thoughts of Omnipotency Allsufficiency c. signify any thing to our relief unless we know him who is all this we cannot know Omnipotency to be God himself unless we see it acted and expressed by him who is God 't is a hard matter to prove the reality of that which was never acted and 't is impossible to know that such Attributes have been exerted unless we know by whom None of the idol gods were ever able to act over any one of the essential Attributes of God by the help of the Devil they pretended something that way but it was a mere pretence easily disproved by any considering man strictly examining either their Predictions of future Events or their feigned Miracles which were all mere Delusions false and groundless Christ out-did them all he did the works of God indeed and for his work-sake ought to be believed to be God indeed 2. In Christ we see God's Wrath appeased his Justice satisfied for all our Offences all causes of Enmity between God and us are taken away by Christ Eph. 2. 13 14. The body of sin destroyed Rom. 6. 6. We Crucified to the World Gal. 6. 14. The Image of God restored his Law writ in our hearts 3. The Spirit of Christ dwelling in us tells us so teaches us to cry Abba Father As no man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. So none can say that God is their God but by the Holy Ghost By the Spirit of Christ which is the Spirit of God Rom. 8. 9. When God himself tells you by his own Spirit that he is your God he makes you to understand what he says and to see how happy you are in having God for your God Till we come to some sense of this we lose the comfort of our Religion it has little Influence upon us whence does the power of godliness arise but from the power of God who is the Author of true Religion and puts that power into it that belongs to true godliness take away the relation that is between Godliness and God and you quite destroy the power of godliness Religion is a weak thing if it be not maintained and supported by the authority and power of God himself 4. We see that of God in Jesus Christ that makes us fall down and Worship him as our God crying out with Thomas John 20. 28. My Lord and my God When we look upon Christ with an eye of Faith we do with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord 2 Cor. 3. 18. God causes his glory to pass before us le ts out some beams of his Divine Majesty that we may know him to be the Lord such Manifestations of God to the Soul through Christ have I hope fallen under your own experience many a time and that you are not now without such a sight of God in Christ as does create in you a holy Reverence towards him a holy trembling at his word if you receive it as the word of God of your God it must have this effect upon you any thing from our God that bears his
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