design thus far And this actual application is the work of the Spirit by a singular appropriation Fourthly and Lastly This expression imports the suitableness of Christ to the necessities of Sinners What they want he is made to them and indeed as money answers all things and is convertible into meat drink rayment physick or what else our bodily necessities do require so Christ is virtually and eminently all that the necessities of our souls require bread to the hungry soul and cloathing to the naked soul. In a word God prepared and furnished him on purpose to answer all our wants which fully hits the Apostles sense when he saith Who of God is made unto us wisdome and righteousness sanctification and redemption The sum of all is Doct. Doct. That the Lord Jesus Christ with all his precious benefits becomes ours by Gods special and effectual Application There is a twofold Application of our redemption one Primary the other Secondary the former is the Act of God the Father applying it to Christ our Surety and virtually to us in him the later is the Act of the holy Spirit personally and actually applying it to us in the work of conversion the former hath the respect and relation of an example model or pattern to this and this is produced and wrought by the vertue of that What was done upon the person of Christ was not only virtually done upon us considered in him as a common publick representative person in which sense we are said to dye with him and live with him to be crucified with him and buryed with him but it was also intended for a platform or Idea of what is to be done by the Spirit actually upon our souls and bodies in our single persons As he dyed for sin so the Spirit applying his death to us in the work of mortification causes us to dye to sin by the vertue of his death and as he was quickned by the Spirit and raised unto life so the Spirit applying unto us the life of Christ causeth us to live by spiritual vivification Now this personal secondary and actual application of redemption to us by the Spirit in his sanctifying work is that which I am engaged here to discuss and open Which I shall do in these following Propositions Propos. 1. The Application of Christ to us is not only Comprehensive of our Justification but of all those works of the Spirit which are known Propos. 1. to us in Scripture by the names of regeneration vocation sanctification and conversion Though all these terms have some small respective differences among themselves yet they are all included in this general the applying and putting on of Christ Rom. 13. 14. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ. Regeneration expresses those supernatural divine new qualities infused by the Spirit into the Soul which are the principles of all holy actions Vocation expresseth the terms from which and to which the soul moves when the Spirit works savingly upon it under the Gospel call Sanctification notes that holy dedication of heart and life to God our becoming the Temples of the living God separate from all prophane sinful practices to the Lords only use and service Conversion denotes the great change it self which the Spirit causeth upon the soul turning it by a sweet irresistible efficacy from the power of Sin and Satan to God in Christ. Now all these are imported in and done by the Application of Christ to our souls for when once the efficacy of Christs death and the vertue of his resurrection come to take place upon the heart of any man he cannot but turn from Sin to God and become a new creature living and acting by new principles and rules So the Apostle observes 1 Thes. 1. 5 6. speaking of the effect of this work of the Spirit upon that people Our Gospel saith he came not to you in word only but in power and in the Holy Ghost there was the effectual application of Christ to them And you became followers of us and of the Lord ver 6. there was their effectual call And ye turned from dumb Idols to serve the living and true God ver 9. there was their conversion So that ye were ensamples to all that believe ver 7. there was their life of Sanctification or dedication to God So that all these are comprehended in effectual application Propos. 2. The Application of Christ to the souls of men is that great project Propos. 2. and design of God in this world for the accomplishment whereof all the Ordinances and all the officers of the Gospel are appointed and continued in the world This the Gospel expressly declared to be its direct and great end and the great business of all its officers Eph. 4. 11 12. And he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some pastors and teachers till we all come in the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ i. e. the great aim and scope of all Christs Ordinances and officers is to bring men into Union with Christ and so build them up to perfection in him or to unite them to and confirm them in Christ and when it shall have finished this design then shall the whole frame of Gospel Ordinances be taken down and all its officers disbanded The Kingdom i. e. this present oeconomy manner and form of Government shall be delivered up 1 Cor. 15. 24. what are Ministers but the Bridegrooms friends Ambassadors for God to beseech men to be reconciled when therefore all the elect are brought home in a reconciled state to Christ when the marriage of the Lamb is come our work and office expire together Propos. 3. Such is the Importance and great concernment of the personal application of Christ to us by the Spirit that whatsoever the father hath Propos. 3. done in the contrivement or the Son hath done in the accomplishment of our Redemption is all inavailable and ineffectual to our Salvation without this It is confessedly true that Gods good pleasure appointing us from eternity to Salvation is in its kind a most full and sufficient Impulsive cause of our Salvation and every way able for so much as it is concerned to produce its effect And Christs humiliation and sufferings are a most compleat and sufficient meritorious cause of our Salvation to which nothing can be added to make it more apt and able to procure our Salvation than it already is yet neither the one or other can actually save any Soul without the Spirits application of Christ to it for where there are divers social causes or concauses necessary to produce one effect there the effect cannot be produced until the last cause have wrought thus it is here The Father hath elected and the Son hath redeemed but until the Spirit who is the last cause have wrought his part also we cannot be
our righteousness Jer. 23. we dare not set the servant above the master we acknowledge no righteousness but what the obedience and satisfaction of Christ yields us his blood not our faith his satisfaction not our believing it is the matter of our justification before God Secondly We dare not yield this point lest we undermine all the comfort of Christians by bottoming their pardon and peace upon a weak imperfect work of their own Oh how tottering and unstable must their station be that stand upon such a bottom as this what ups and downs are there in our faith what mixtures of unbelief at all times and prevalency of unbelief at some times and is this a foundation to build our justification and hope upon debile fundamentum fallit opus if we lay the stress here we build upon very loose ground and must be at a continual loss both as to safety and comfort Thirdly We dare not wrong the justice and truth of God at that rate as to affirm that he esteems and imputes our poor weak faith for perfect legal righteousness we know that the judgement of God is always according to truth if Ergo quia fides Christum justitiam nostram recipit gratiae dei in Christo omnia tribuit ideo fidei tribuitur justificatio maxime propter Christum non ideo quia nostrum opus est Confess Helv. 〈◊〉 the justice of God requires full payment sure it will not say it 's fully satisfied by any act of ours when all that we can do amounts not to one mite of the vast summ we owe to God So that we deservedly reject this opinion also Thirdly And for the third opinion that it justifies as the Condition of the new Covenant though some of great name and worth among our Protestant Divines seem to go that way yet I cannot see according to this opinion any reason why repentance may not as properly be said to justifie us as faith for it is a condition of the new Covenant as much as faith and if faith justifie as a condition then every other grace that is a condition must justifie as well as faith I acknowledge faith to be a condition of the Covenant but cannot allow that it justifies as a condition And therefore must profess my self best satisfied in the last opinion which speaks it an instrument in our justification it is the hand which receives the righteousness of Christ that justifies us and that gives it its value above all other graces as when we say a Diamond Ring is worth one hundred pounds we mean not the Gold that receives but the stone that is set in it is worth so much faith consider'd as an habit is no more precious than other gracious habits are but consider'd as an instrument to receive Christ and his righteousness so it excels them all and this instrumentality of faith is noted in those phrases 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. 28. and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 3. 22. by faith and through faith And thus much of the nature and excellency of saving faith The Seventh SERMON Serm. 7. JOH 1. 12. Text. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name THe Nature and Excellency of saving faith together with its relation to justification as an Instrument in receiving Christ and his righteousness having been discoursed doctrinally already I now come to make application of it according to the nature of this weighty and fruitful point And the Uses I shall make of it will be for our 1. Information 2. Examination 3. Exhortation And. 4. Direction First Use of Information And in the first place this point yields us many and great 1. Use. and useful truths for our Information as Infer 1. Is the receiving of Christ the vital and saving act of faith Infer 1. which gives the soul right to the person and priviledges of Christ Then it follows That the rejecting of Christ by unbelief must needs be the damning and soul-destroying sin which cuts a man off from Christ and all the benefits purchased by his blood If there be life in receiving there must needs be death in rejecting Christ. There is no grace more excellent than faith no sin more execrable and abominable than unbelief faith is the saving grace and unbelief is the damning sin Mark 16. 16. He that believeth not shall be damned See Joh. 3. 18 36. and Joh. 8. 24. And the reason why this sin of unbelief is the damning sin is this because in the justification of a sinner there must be a cooperation of all the Concauses that have a joint influence into that blessed effect As there must be free grace for an impulsive cause The blood of Christ as the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the Instrumental cause to receive and apply what the free grace of God designed and the blood of Christ purchased for us For where there are many social causes or concauses to produce one effect there the effect is not produced till the last cause be in Act. To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remissions of sins Acts 10. 43. Faith in its place is as necessary as the blood of Christ in its place 't is Christ in you the hope of glory Col. 1. 27. not Christ in the womb nor Christ in the grave nor Christ in heaven except he be also Christ in you Though Christ be come in the flesh though he dyed and rose again from the dead yet if you believe not you must for all that dye in your sins Joh. 8. 24. and what a dreadful thing is this better dye the death of a dog better dye in a ditch than dye in your sins if you dye in your sins you will also rise in your sins and stand at the bar of Christ in your sins you can never receive remission till first you have received Christ. O cursed unbelief which damns the soul dishonours God 1 Joh. 5. 10. sleights Jesus Christ the wisdome of God as if that glorious design of redemption by his blood the triumph and master-piece of divine wisdome were meer foolishness 1 Cor. 1. 23 24. frustrates the great design of the Gospel Gal. 4. 11. and consequently it must be the sin of sins the worst and most dangerous of all sins leaving a man under the guilt of all his other sins Infer 2. If such a receiving of Christ as hath been described be saving and justifying faith Then faith is a work of greater difficulty Infer 2. than most men understand it to be and there are but few sound believers in the world Before Christ can be received the heart must be emptied and opened but most mens hearts are full of self righteousness and vain confidence this was the case of the Jews Rom. 10. 3. being ignorant of Gods righteousness and
yet refuses Christ who comes to him with heavenly light and wisdome he is condemned by the terrible sentence of the Law to eternal wrath and yet rejects Christ who tenders to him compleat and perfect righteousness he is wholly polluted and plunged into original and actual pollutions of nature and practice yet will have none of Christ who would become sanctification to him he is oppressed in soul and body with the deplorable effects and miseries sin hath brought upon him and yet is so in love with his bondage that he will neither accept Christ nor the redemption he brings with him to sinners Oh what monsters what beasts hath sin turned its subjects into you will not come unto me that you may have life Joh. 5. 40. sin hath stabb'd the sinner to the heart the wounds are all mortal eternal death is in his face Christ hath prepared the only plaister that can cure his wounds but he will not suffer him to apply it he acts like one in love with death and that judges it sweet to perish So Christ tells us Prov. 8. 36. all they that hate me love death Not in it self but in Non quod quisque ita insaâ—…iat ut sciens volens diligat mortem quam omnes natura exhorrescimus sed quia ista est fructus spretae sapientiae Dei ut mortem tandem afferat Lavat in loc its causes with which it is inseparably connected they are loth to burn yet willing to sin though sin kindle those everlasting flames So that in two things the unbeliever shews himself worse than bruitish he can't think of damnation the effect of sin without horror and yet cannot think of sin the cause of damnation without pleasure he is loth to perish to all eternity without remedy and yet refuses and declines Christ as if he were an enemy who only can and would deliver him from that eternal perdition How do men act therefore as if they were in love with their own ruin many poor wretches now in the way to Hell what an hard shift do they make to cast themselves away Christ meets them many times in the Ordinances where they studiously shun him many times checks them in their way by convictions which they make an hard shift to overcome and conquer oh how willing are they to accept a cure a benefit aremedy for any thing but their Souls You see then that Sinners cannot should they study all their days to do themselves a mischief take a readier course to undo themselves than by rejecting Christ in his gracious offers Surely the sin of Sodom and Gomorrha is less than this sin mercy it self is exasperated by it and the damnation of such as reject Christ so prepared for them with whatever they need and so seriously and frequently offer'd to them upon the Knee of Gospel intreaty is just inevitable and more intolerable than any in the world beside them It is just for the sinner hath but his own option or choice he is but come to the end which he was often told his way would bring him to It is inevitable for there is no other way to Salvation but that which is rejected and it will be more intolerable than the Damnation of others because neither Heathens nor Devils ever aggravated their sins by such an horrid circumstance as the wilful refusing of such an apt offered and only remedy Infer 4. What a tremendous Symptome of wrath and sad Character of Death appears upon that mans Soul to which no effectual application Infer 4. of Christ can be made by the Gospel Christ with his benefits is frequently tendered to them in the Gospel they have been beseeched once and again upon the Knee of importunity to accept him those entreaties and perswasions have been urged by the greatest arguments The Command of God the love of Christ the inconceiveable happiness or misery which unavoidably follows the accepting or rejecting of those offers and yet nothing will stick all their pleas for infidelity have been over and over confuted their reasons and consciences have stood convinced they have been Speechless as well as Christless not one sound argument is found with them to defend their infidelity they confess in general that such courses as theirs is lead to destruction they will yield them to be happy souls that are in Christ and yet when it comes to the point their own closing with him nothing will stick all arguments all entreaties return to us without success Lord what is the reason of this unaccountable obstinacy in other things it is not so if they be sick they are so far from rejecting a physician that offers himself that they will send and pray and pay him too if they be arrested for debt and any one will be a surety and pay their debts for them words can hardly express the sense they have of such a kindness but though Christ would be both physician and surety and what ever else their needs require they will rather perish to eternity than accept him what may we fear to be the reason of this but because they are not of Christs sheep Joh. 10. 26. the Lord open the eyes of poor sinners to apprehend not only how great a sin but how dreadful a sign this is Infer 5. If Christ with all his benefits be made ours by Gods special application Infer 5. what a day of mercies then is the day of conversion What multitudes of choice blessings visit the converted soul in that day This day saith Christ to Zacheus Luke 19. 9. is Salvation come to this house in this day Christ cometh into the soul and he comes not empty but brings with him all his treasures of wisdom and righteousness sanctification and redemption Troops of mercies yea of the best of mercies come with him It is a day of singular gladness and joy to the heart of Christ when he is Espoused to and received by the believing soul it is as a Coronation day to a King So you read Cant. 3. 11. Go forth O ye daughters of Zion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his Espousals and in the day of the gladness of his heart Where under the Type of Solomon in his greatest magnificence and glory when the royal Diadem was set upon his head and the people shouted for joy so that the earth did ring again is shadowed out the joy of Christs heart when poor souls by their high estimation of him and consent to his government do as it were Crown him with glory and honour and make his heart glad Now if the day of our Espousals to Christ be the day of the gladness of his heart and he reckons himself thus honoured and glorified by us what a day of joy and gladness should it be to our hearts and how should we be transported with joy to see a King from heaven with all his treasures of grace and glory bestowing himself
is in the several parts of a Christians life is the effect of this infused principle of spiritual life Thirdly Another aim and design of God in the infusion of this principle of life is thereby to prepare and qualifie the soul for the enjoyment of himself in heaven except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God Joh. 3. 3. all that shall possess that inheritance must be begotten again to it as the Apostle speaks 1 Pet. 1. 3 4. this principle of grace is the very seed of that glory it 's eternal life in the root and principle Joh. 17. 3. by this the soul is attempered and qualified for that state and imployment what is the life of glory but the vision of God and the souls assimilation to God by that vision from both which results that unspeakable joy and delight which passeth understanding but what vision of God assimilation to God or delight in God can that soul have which was never quickened with the supernatural principle of grace The temper of such souls is expressed in that sad Character Zech. 11. 8. my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me for want of this vital principle it is that the very same duties and ordinances which are the delights and highest pleasures of the Saints are no better than a meer drudgery and bondage to others Maâ—… 1. 13. heaven would be no heaven to a dead soul this principle of life in its daily growth and improvement is our meetness as well as our evidence for heaven these are the main ends of its infusion Fourthly In the next place according to the method proposed I am obliged to shew you that this quickening work is 4. wholly supernatural it is the sole and proper work of the Spirit of God So Christ himself expressly asserts it in Joh. 3. 6 8. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit the wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Believers are the birth or off-spring of the Spirit who produceth the new creature in them in an unintelligible manner even to themselves So far it is above their own ability to produce that it is above their capacity to understand the way of its production as if you should ask do you know from whence the wind comes no do you know whither it goes no but you hear and feel it when it blows yes why so is every one that is born of the Spirit he feels the efficacy and discerns the effects of the Spirit on his own soul but cannot understand or describe the manner of its production this is not only above the carnal but above the renewed mind to comprehend we can contribute nothing I mean actively to the production of this principle of life we may indeed be said to concur passively with the Spirit in it that is there is found in us a capacity aptness or receptiveness of this principle of life our nature is endowed with such faculties and powers as are meet subjects to receive and instruments to act this spiritual life God only quickens the rational nature with spiritual life It is true also that in the progress of Sanctification a man doth actively concurr with the Spirit but in the first production of this spiritual principle he can do nothing he can indeed perform those external duties that have a remote tendency to it but he cannot by the power of nature perform any saving act or contribute any thing more than a passive capacity to the implantation of a new principle as will appear by the following Arguments Argument 1. He that actively concurrs to his own regeneration makes himself to differ but this is denyed to all regenerate men 1 Cor. 4. 7. who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou didst not receive Arg. 2. That to which the Scripture ascribes both impotency and enmity with respect to grace cannot actively and of it self concurr to the production of it But the Scripture ascribes both impotency and enmity to Nature with respect to grace It denyes to it a power to do anything of it self Joh. 15. 5. and which is less it denies to it power to speak a good word Matth. 12. 34. and which is least of all it denies it power to think a good thought 2 Cor. 3. 5. This impotency if there were no more cuts off all pretence of our active concurrence but then if we consider that it ascribes enmity to our natures as well as impotency how clear is the case see Rom. 8. 7. the carnal mind is enmity against God and Col. 1. 21. and you that were enemies in your minds by wicked works So then Nature is so far productive of this principle as impotency and enmity can enable it to be so Arg. 3. That which is of natural production must needs be subject to natural dissolution that which is born of the flesh is flesh a perishing thing sor everything is as its principle is and there can be no more in the effect than there is in the cause but this principle of spiritual life is not subject to dissolution it is the water that springs up into everlasting life Joh. 4. 14. the seed of God which remaineth in the regenerate soul 1 Joh. 3. 9. and all this because it 's born not of corruptible but of incorruptible seed 1 Pet. 1. 23. Arg. 4. If our new birth be our resurrection a new creation yea a victory over nature then we cannot actively contribute to its production but under all these notions it is represented to us in the Scriptures It 's our resurrection from the dead Eph. 5. 14. and you know the body is wholly passive in its resurrection but though it concurrs not yet it gives pre-existent matter therefore the metaphor is designedly varied Eph. 4. 24. where it 's call'd a creation in which there is neither active concurrence nor pre-existent matter but though Creation excludes pre-existent matter yet in proâ—…cing something out of nothing there is no reluctancy nor opposition therefore to shew how purely supernatural this principle of life is it is cloathed and presented to us in the notion of a victory 2 Cor. 10. 4. and so leaves all to grace Arg. 5. If nature could produce or but actively concurr to the production of this spiritual life then the best natures would be soonest quickened with it and the worst natures not at all or last and least of all but contrarily we find the worst natures often regenerated and the best left in the state of spiritual death with how many sweet homilitical vertues was the young man adorned Mark 10. 21. yet graceless and what a sink of sin was Mary Magdalen Luke 7. 37. yet sanctified thus beautiful Rachel is barren whilst blear-ey'd Leah bears children And there is
we stand in Christ as dead branches in a living stock which are only bound to it by external ligatures or bonds that hold them for a while together or whether our souls have a vital union and coalition with Christ by the participation of the living sap of that blessed root Secondly The trial of this union which is by the giving of the Spirit to us the Spirit of Christ is the very bond of Union betwixt him and our souls I mean not that the very person of the Spirit dwelleth in us imparting his essential properties to us it were a rude blasphemy so to speak but his saving influences are communicated to us in the way of sanctifying operations as the Sun is said to come into the House when his beams and comforting influences come there Nor yet must we think that the graces or influences of the Spirit abide in us in the self same measure and manner as they do in Christ for God giveth not the spirit to him by measure in him all fullness dwells he is anointed with the Spirit above his fellows but there are measures and proportions of grace differently communicated to Believers by the same Spirit and these communicated graces and real operations of the Spirit of grace in our hearts do undoubtedly prove the reality of our union with Christ as the communication of the self-same vital juice or sap of the stock to the branch whereby it lives and brings forth fruit of the same kind certainly proves it to be a real part or member of the same tree Thirdly Which brings us to the third thing namely the certainty of the trial this way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this or by this we know we so know that we cannot be deceived To clear this let us consider two things in grace viz. 1. Somewhat Constitutive of its being 2. Somewhat Manifestative There is something in grace which is essential and constitutive of its being and somewhat that flows from grace and is manifestative of such a being we cannot immediately and intuitively discern the essence of grace as it is in its simple nature So God only discerns it who is the author of it but we may discern it mediately and secondarily by the effects and operations of it Could we see the simple essence of grace or intuitively discern our union with Christ our knowledge would be demonstrative à priori ad posterius by seeing the effects as they are lodged in their cause but we come to know the being of grace and the reality of our union with Christ à posteriori by ascending in our knowledge from the effects and operations to their true cause and being And accordingly God hath furnished us with a power of self-intuition and reflection whereby we are able to turn in upon our own hearts and make a judgement upon our selves and upon our own acts The soul hath not only a power to project but a power also to reflect upon its own actions not only to put forth a direct act of faith upon Jesus Christ but to judge and discern that act also 2 Tim. 1. 12. I know whom I have believed and this is the way in which believers attain their certainty and knowledge of their Union with Christ from hence the Observation will be DOCT. Doct. That interest in Christ may be certainly gathered and concluded from the gift of the spirit to us no man saith the Apostle hath seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 Joh. 4. 12 13. The being of God is invisible but the operations of his Spirit in believers are sensible and discernable The souls union with Christ is a supernatural mystery yet is it discoverable by the effects thereof which are very perceptible in and by believers Two things require Explication and Confirmation in the Doctrinal part of this point 1. What the giving of the Spirit imports and signifies 2. How it evidences the souls interest in Jesus Christ. First As to the importance of this phrase we are to enquire 1. what is meant by the Spirit and what by the giving of the Spirit Now the Spirit is taken in Scripture two wayes viz. Essentially or Personally In the first sence it is put for the God-head 1 Tim. 3. 16. Justified in the Spirit i. e. by the power of his Divine Nature which raised him from the dead In the second sense it denotes the third person or subsistence in the glorious and blessed Trinity and to him this word Spirit is attributed sometimes properly in the sence before mentioned as denoting his personality at other times metonymically and then it is put for the effects fruits graces and gifts of the Spirit communicated by him unto men Eph. 5. 11. be ye filled with the Spirit Now the fruits or gifts of the Spirit are either 1. Common and assisting gifts or 2. Special and sanctifying gifts In the last sence and signification it must be taken in this place for as to the common assisting and ministring gifts of the Spirit they are bestowed promiscuously upon one as well as another Such gifts in an excellent degree and large measure are found in the unregenerate and therefore can never amount to a solid evidence of the souls union with Christ but his special sanctifying gifts being the proper effect and consequenâ—… of that Union must needs strongly prove and confirm it In this sense therefore we are to understand the Spirit in this place and by giving the spirit to us we are to understand more than the coming of the spirit upon us the spirit of God is said to come upon men in a transient way for their present assistance in some particular service though in themselves they be unsanctified persons thus the spirit of God came upon Balaam Numb 24. 2. enabling him to prophesie of things to come and although those extraordinary gifts of the spirit be now ceased yet the spirit ceaseth not to give his ordinary assistances unto men both regenerate and unregenerate 1 Cor. 12. 8 9 10 31. compared but whatever gifts he gives to others he is said to be given to dwell and to abide only in believers 1 Cor. 3. 16. know ye not that ye are the Temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you an expression denoting both his special propriety in them and gracious familiarity with them there is a great difference betwixt the assisting and the indwelling of the spirit the one is transient the other permanent That is a good rule the Schoolmen give us illa tantum dicuntur inesse quae insunt per modum quietis those things are only said to be in a man which are in him by way of rest and permanency and so the spirit is in believers therefore they are said to live in the spirit Gal. 5. 25.
and the soul in which it is may draw very sad conclusions about the issue and event concluding its life not only to be hazarded but quite extinguished Psal. 51. 10 11 12. but though it be ready to dye God wonderfully preserves it from death it hath as well its reviving as its fainting seasons and thus you see what are the lovely and eximious properties of the new creature In the next place Fourthly We will demonstrate the necessity of this new creation to all that are in Christ and by him expect to attain 4. salvation and the necessity of the new creature will appear divers ways First From the positive and express will of God revealed in Scripture touching this matter search the Scriptures and you shall find God hath laid the whole stress and weight of your eternal happiness by Jesus Christ upon this work of the spirit in your souls So our Saviour tells Nicodemus John 3. 5. Verily verily I say unto thee except a man be born of water and of the spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God agreeable whereunto are those words of the Apostle Heb. 12. 14. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord. And whereas some may think that their birth right priviledges injoyment of Ordinances and profession of Religion may commend them to Gods acceptance without this new creation he shews them how fond and ungrounded all such hopes are Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new creature Christ and Heaven are the gifts of God and he is at liberty to bestow them upon what terms and conditions he pleaseth and this is the way the only way and stated method in which he will bring men by Christ unto glory men may raze out the impressions of these things from their own hearts but they can never alter the setled course and method of Salvation either we must be new creatures as the precepts of the word command us or lost and damned creatures as the threatnings of the word plainly tell us Secondly This new Creation is the inchoative part of that great Salvation which we expect through Christ and therefore without this all hopes and expectations of Salvation must vanish Salvation and renovation are inseparably connected Our glory in Heaven if we rightly understand its nature consisteth in two things namely our assimilation to God and our fruition of God and both these take their beginning and rise from our renovation in this world here we begin to be changed into his Image in some degree 2 Cor. 3. 18. for the new man is created after God as was opened above In the work of grace God is said to begin that good work which is to be finished or consummated in the day of Christ Phil. 1. 6. Now nothing can be more irrational than to imagine that ever that design or work should be finished and perfected which never had a beginning Thirdly So necessary is the new creation to all that expect salvation by Christ that without this Heaven would be no Heaven and the glory thereof no glory to us by reason of the unsuitableness and aversation of our carnal minds thereunto the carnal mind is enmity against God Rom. 8. 7. and enmity is exclusive of all complacency and delight there is a necessity of a suitable and agreeable frame of heart to God in order to that complacential rest of our souls in him and this agreeable temper is wrought by our new creation 2 Cor. 5. 5. He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God renovation you see is the working or moulding of a mans spirit into an agreeable temper or as it is in Col. 1. 12. the making of us meet for the inheritance of the Saints in light From all which it follows that seeing there can be no complacence or delight in God without suitableness and conformity to him as is plain from 1 Joh. 3. 2. as well as from the reason and nature of the thing it self either God must become like us suitable to our sinful corrupt and vain hearts which were but a rude blasphemy once to imagine or else we must be made agreeable and suitable to God which is the very thing I am now proving the necessity of Fourthly There is an absolute necessity of the new creature to all that expect interest in Christ and the glory to come since all the characters marks and signs of such an interest are constantly taken from the new creature wrought in us Look over all the marks and signs of interest in Christ or salvation by him which are dispersed through the Scriptures and you shall still find purity of heart Matth. 5. 8. holiness both in principle and practice Heb. 12. 14. mortification of sin Rom. 8. 13. longing for Christs appearance 2 Tim. 4. 8. with multitudes more of the same nature to be constantly made the marks and signs of our salvation by Christ. So that either we must have a new Bible or a new Heart for if these Scriptures be the true and faithful words of God no unrenewed creature can see his face which was the fourth thing to be opened Fifthly The last thing to be opened is how the new creation is an infallible proof and evidence of the souls interest 5. in Christ and this will appear divers ways First Where all the saving graces of the spirit are there interest in Christ must needs be certain and where the new creature is there all the saving graces of the spirit are for what is the new creature but the frame or Systeme of all special saving graces it is not this or that particular grace as faith or hope or love to God which constitutes the new creature for these are but as so many particular limbs or branches of it but the new creature is comprehensive of all the graces of the Spirit Gal. 5. 22 23. The fruit of the Spirit is love peace joy long-suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance c. any one of the saving special graces of the Spirit gives proof of our interest in Christ how much more then the new creature which is the complex frame or Systeme of all the graces together Secondly To conclude where all the causes of an interest in Christ are found and all the effects and fruits of an interest in Christ do appear there undoubtedly a real interest in Christ is found but where-ever you find a new creature you find all the causes and all the effects of an interest in Christ for there you shall find First The impulsive cause viz. the electing love of God from which the new creature is inseparable 1 Pet. 1. 2. with the new creature also the meritorious efficient and final causes of interest in Christ and union with him are ever found Eph. 2. 10. Eph. 1. 4 5 6. Secondly All the effects and fruits of interest in Christ are found with the new creature there are all the fruits
advantage for the mortification of sin in as much as sin being contrary to the new nature and the object of grief and hatred cannot possibly be committed without reluctancy and very sensible regret of mind and actions done with regret are neither done frequently nor easily The case of a regenerate soul under the surprizals and particular victories of temptation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cùm ita quis capitur ut nequeat luctari nec se capienti obsistere Sclat being like that of a captive in war who marches not with delight but by constraint among his enemies So the Apostle expresseth himself Rom. 7. 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the Law of my mind and bringing me into captivity unto the law of sin which is in my members thus the spirit of God promotes the design of mortification by the implantation of contrary habits Secondly By assisting those gracious habits in all the times 2. of need which he doth many ways sometimes notably awakening and rouzing grace out of the dull and sleepy habit and drawing forth the activity and power of it into actual and successful resistances of temptations as Gen. 39. 9. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Holy fear awakens first and raises all the powers of grace in the soul to make a vigorous resistance of temptation the spirit also strengthens weak grace in the soul 2 Cor. 12. 9. My grace is sufficient for thee for my strength is made perfect in weakness and by reason of grace thus implanted and thus assisted he that is born of God keepeth himself and the wicked one toucheth him not Fifthly The last query to be satisfied is how mortification of sin solidly evinceth the souls interest in Christ and this it 5. doth divers ways affording the mortified soul many sound evidences thereof As Evidence 1. Whatsoever evidences the indwelling of the holy spirit of God in us must needs be evidential of a saving interest in Christ as hath been fully proved before but the mortification of sin doth plainly evidence the indwelling of the spirit of God for as we proved but now it can proceed from no other principle there is as strong and inseparable a connection betwixt mortification and the spirit as betwixt the effect and its proper cause and the self-same connection betwixt the inbeing of the spirit and union with Christ. So that to reason from mortification to the inhabitation of the spirit and from the inhabitation of the spirit to our union with Christ is a strong scriptural way of reasoning Evidence 2. That which proves a soul to be under the Covenant of Grace evidently proves its interest in Christ for Christ is the head of that Covenant and none but sound Believers are under the blessings and promises of it but mortification of sin is a sound evidence of the souls being under the Covenant of Grace as is plain from those words of the Apostle Rom. 6. 12 13 14. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body that ye should obey it in the lust thereof neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God sor sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the Law but under Grace where the Apostle presseth Believers unto mortification by this incouragement that it will be a good evidence unto them of a new Covenant interest for all legal duties and endeavours can never mortifie sin 't is the spirit in the new Covenant which produces this whoever therefore hath his corruptions mortified hath his interest in the Covenant and consequently in Christ so far cleared unto him Evidence 3. That which is the fruit and evidence of saving faith must needs be a good evidence of our interest in Christ but mortifiâ—… 〈◊〉 sin is the fruit and evidence of saving faith Acts 15. 9. Purifying their hearts by faith 1 John 5. 4. This is the victory whereby we overcome the world even our faith faith overcomes both the allurements of the world upon one hand and the terrors of the world upon the other hand by mortifying the heart and affections to all earthly things a mortified heart is not easily taken with the ensnaring pleasures of the world or much moved with the disgraces losses and sufferings it meets with from the world and so the strength and force of its temptations is broken and the mortified soul becomes victorious over it and all this by the instrumentality of faith Evidence 4. In a word there is an intimate and indissoluble connection betwixt the mortification of sin and the life of grace Rom. 6. 11. Reckon your selves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ and the life of Christ must needs involve a saving interest in Christ by all which is fully proved what was asserted in the observation from this Text. The Application follows in the next Sermon The Twenty eighth SERMON Sermon 28. GAL. 5. 24. And they that are Christs have crucified the flesh Text. with the affections and lusts From hence our Observation was DOCT. THat a saving interest in Christ may be regularly and Doct. strongly inferred and concluded from the mortification of the flesh with its affections and lusts Having opened the nature and necessity of mortification in the former Sermon and shewn how regularly a 〈◊〉 â—…interest in Christ may be concluded from it we now proceed to apply the whole By way of 1. Information 2. Exhortation 3. Direction 4. Examination 5. Consolation 1st Use for Information Use 1. Inference 1. If they that be Christs have crucified the flesh then the life Inference 1. of Christians is no idle or easie life the corruptions of his heart continually fill his hands with work with work of the most difficult nature sin-crucifying work which the Scripture calls the cutting off the right hand and plucking out of the right eye sin-crucifying work is hard work and it is constant work throughout the life of a Christian there is no time or place freed from this conflict every occasion stirs corruption and every stirring of corruption calls for mortification corruptions work in our very best duties Rom. 7. 23. and put the Christian upon mortifying labours The world and the Devil are great enemies and fountains of many temptations to Believers but not like the corruptions of our own hearts they only tempt objectively and externally but this tempts internally and therefore much more dangerous they only tempt at times and seasons this continually at all times and seasons beside what ever Satan or the world attempts upon us would be altogether ineffectual were it not for our own corruptions John 14. 30. So that the corruptions of our own hearts as they give us most danger so they must give us more labour our life
thy delight as once they were but thy shame and sorrow This is a comfort that thy case is not singular but more or less the same complaints and sorrows are found in all gracious souls through the world and to say all in one word This is the comfort above all comforts that the time is at hand in which all thâ—…se defects infirmities and failings shall be done away 1 Cor. 13. 10. When that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away For ever blessed be God for Jesus Christ. And thus I have finished the third general Use of Examination whereby every man is to try his interest in Christ and discern whether ever Christ hath been effectually applied to his soul. That which remains is a Use of Lamentation Wherein the miserable and most wretched state of all those to whom Jesus Christ is not effectually applied will be yet more particularly discovered and bewailed The Thirty first SERMON Sernâ—… EPHES. 5. 14. Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest and rise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Text. Of the state of Spiritual Death and the misery thereof THis Scripture represents unto us the miserable and lamentable state of the unregenerate as being under the power of spiritual death which is the cause and in-let of all other miseries From hence therefore I shall make the first discovery of the woful and wretched state of them that apply not Jesus Christ to their own souls The scope of the Apostle in this Context is to press believers to a circumspect and holy life to walk as children of light This exhortation is laid down in ver 8. and pressed by diverse arguments in the following verses First from the tendency of holy principles unto holy fruits and practices ver 9 10. Secondly from the convincing efficacy of practical godliness upon the consciences of the wicked ver 11 12 13. It awes and convinces their consciences Thirdly from the co incidence of such a conversation with the great design and drift of the scriptures which is to awaken men by regeneration out of that spiritual sleep or rather death which sin hath cast them into And this is the Argument of the Text Wherefore he saith Awake thou that sleepest c. There is some difficulty in the reference of these words Some think it refers to Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust Others to Isa. 60. 1. Arise shine for thy light is come c. But most probably the words neither refer to this or that particularly but to the drift and scope of the whole Scriptures which were inspired and written upon this great design to awaken and quicken souls out of the state of spiritual death And in them we are to consider these three things more distinctly and particularly 1. The miserable state of the unregenerate they are asleep and dead 2. Their duty which is to awake and stand up from the dead 3. The power enabling them thereunto Christ shall give thee light First The miserable state of the unregenerate represented under the Notions of sleep and death both expressions intending 1. one and the same thing though with some variety of Notion The Christless and unregenerate world is in a deep sleep a spirit of slumber senselesness and security is fallen upon them though they lie exposed immediately to eternal wrath and misery ready to drop into hell every moment Just as a man that is fast asleep in a house on fire and whilst the consuming flames are round about him his fancy is sporting it self in some pleasant dream this is a very lively resemblance of the unregenerate soul. But yet he that sleeps hath the principle of life entire in him though his senses be bound and the actions of life suspended by sleep Lest therefore we should think it is only so with the unregenerate the expression is designedly varied and those that were said to be asleep are positively affirmed to be dead on purpose to inform us that it is not a simple suspension of the acts and exercise but a total privation of the principle of spiritual life which is the misery of the unregenerate Secondly We have here the duty of the unregenerate which is to awake out of sleep and arise from the dead This is their great 2. concernment no duty in the world is of greater necessity and importance to them Strive saith Christ to enter in at the strait gate Luke 13. 24. And the order of these duties is very natural First awake then arise Startling and rousing convictions make way for spiritual life till God awake us by convictions of our misery we will never be perswaded to arise and move towards Christ for remedy and safety Thirdly But you will say if unregenerate men be dead men to what purpose is it to perswade them to arise and stand up 3. The very exhortation supposes some power or ability in the Quamvis verba videntur velle primum excitari surgere deinde illuminari tamen intelligendum est vi lucis Christi excitari eum surgere Roll. in Loc. unregenerate else in vain are they commanded to arise This difficulty is solved in this very Text though the duty be ours yet the power is Gods God commands that in his word which only his grace can perform Christ shall give thee light Popish Commentators would build the power of free will upon this Scripture by a very weak argument drawn from the order wherein these things are here expressed which is but a weak foundation to build upon for it is very usual in Scripture to put the effect before and the cause after as it is here so in Isa. 26. 19. Awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust But I will not here intangle my discourse with that controversie that which I aim at is plain in the words viz. DOCT. That all Christless souls are under the power of Spiritual death Doct. they are in the state of the dead Multitudes of testimonies are given in Scripture to this truth Eph. 2. 1 5. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins Col. 2. 13. And you being dead in your sint and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him with many other places of the same importance But the method in which I shall discourse this point will be this First I will shew you in what sence Christless and unregenerate men are said to be dead Secondly what the state of spiritual death is Thirdly how it appears that all unregenerate men are in this sad state And then apply it First In what sense are Christless and unregenerate men 1. said to be dead men To open this we must know there is a threefold death viz. Death 1. Natural 2. Spiritual 3. Eternal Natural death is nothing else but the privation of the principle of natural life or the separation of
the soul from the body James 2. 26. The body without the spirit is dead Spiritual death is the privation of the principle of spiritual life or the want and absence of the quickening spirit of God in the foul the soul is the life of the body and Christ is the life of the soul the absence of the foul is death to the body and the absence or want of Christ is death to the soul. Eternal death is the separation both of body and soul from God which is the misery of the damned Now Christless and unregenerate men are not dead in the first sense they are naturally alive though they are dead while they live Nor are they yet dead in the last sense eternally separated from God by an irrevocable sentence as the damned are but they are dead in the second sense they are spiritually dead whilst they are naturally alive and this spiritual death is the fore-runner of eternal death Now spiritual death is put in scripture in opposition to a two-fold spiritual life Viz. 1. The life of Justification 2. The life of Sanctification Spiritual death in opposition to the life of Justification is nothing else but the guilt of sin bringing us under the sentence of death Spiritual death in opposition to the life of sanctification is the pollution or dominion of sin In both these fen ses unregenerate men are dead men but it is the last which I am properly concerned to speak to in this place and therefore Secondly Let us briefly consider what this spiritual death is which as before was hinted is the absence of the quickening 2. spirit of Christ from the soul of any man That soul is a dead soul into which the spirit of Christ is not infused in the work of regeneration and all its works are dead works as they are called Heb. 9. 14. For look how it is with the damned they live they have sense and motion and an immortality in all these yet because they are eternally separated from God the life which they live deserves not the name of life but is every where in scripture stiled death So the unregenerate they are naturally alive they eat and drink they buy and sell they talk and laugh they rejoyce in the creatures and many of them spend their days in pleasures and then go down to the grave This is the life they live but yet the scripture rather calls it death than life because though they live yet it is without God in the world Eph. 2. 12. Though they live yet it is a life alienated from the life of God Eph. 4. 18. And therefore while they remain naturally alive they are in scripture said to remain in death 1 John 3. 14. and to be dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. And there is great reason why a Christless and unregenerate state should be represented in scripture under the notion of death for there is nothing in nature which more aptly represents that miserable state of the soul than natural death doth The dead see and discern nothing and the natural man perceiveth not the things that are of God The dead have no beauty or desirableness in them Bury my dead said Abraham out of my sight neither is there any spiritual loveliness in the unregenerate True it is some of them have sweet natural qualities and moral excellencies which are taking things but these are as so many flowers decking and adorning a dead corpse The dead are Objects of pity and great lamentation men use to mourn for the dead Eccles. 12. 5. Man goeth to his long home and the mourners go about the streets But unregenerate and Christless souls are much more the Objects of pity and lamentation How are all the people of God especially those that are naturally related to them concerned to mourn over them and for them as Abraham did for Ishmael Gen. 17. 18. O that Ishmael might live before thee Upon these and many other accounts the state of unregeneracy is represented to us in the notion of death Thirdly And that this is the state of all Christless and unsanctified persons will undeniably appear two ways 3. 1. The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them 2. The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them and therefore they are in the state and under the power of spiritual death First The causes of spiritual life have not wrought upon them There are two causes of spiritual life 1. Principal and internal 2. Subordinate and external The principal internal cause of spiritual life is the regenerating spirit of Christ Rom. 8. 2. The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death 'T is the spirit as a regenerating spirit that unites us with Christ in whom all spiritual life originally is John 5. 25 26. Verily I say unto you that the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live for as the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself As all the members of the natural body receive animation sense and motion by their Union with their natural head so all believers the members of Christ receive spiritual life and animation by their Union with Christ their mystical head Eph. 4. 15 16. Except we come to him and be united with him in the way of faith we can have no life in us John 5. 40. Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Now the spirit of God hath yet exerted no regenerating quickening influences nor begotten any special saving faith in natural unsanctified men whatever he hath done for them in the way of natural or spiritual common gifts yet he hath not quickened them with the life of Christ. And as for the subordinate external means of life viz. the preaching of the Gospel which is the instrument of the spirit in this glorious work and is therefore called the word of life Phil. 2. 16. this word hath not yet been made a regenerating quickening word to their souls Possibly it hath enlightned them and convinced them it hath wrought upon their minds in the way of common illumination and upon their consciences in the way of conviction but not upon their hearts and wills by way of effectual conversion To this day the Lord hath not given them an heart opening it self in the way of faith to receive Jesus Christ. Secondly The effects and signs of spiritual life do not appear in them for First They have no feeling or sense of misery and danger I mean no such sense as throwly awakens them to apply Christ their remedy That spiritual judgment lies upon them Isa. 6. 9 10. And he said go and tell this people Hear ye indeed but understand not and see ye indeed but perceive not make the heart of this people fat and their ears heavy and